'This was led by Aristides and Themistocles, who supported the at tack a long time with an intrepid courage and bravery, but were at length obliged to give ground. At that very instant came up their two victorious wings, which had defeated those of the enemy, and put them to flight. Nothing could be more seasonable for the main body of the Grecian army, which began to be broken, being quite borne down by the number of the Persians. The scale was quickly turned, and the Barbarians were entirely routed. They all betook themselves to flight, not towards their camp, but to their ships, that they might make their escape. The Athenians pursued them thither, and set many of their vessels on fire. It was on this occasion that Cynægirus, the brother of the poet Eschylus, who had laid hold of one of the ships, in order to get into it with those that fled, had his right hand cut off,* and fell into the sea and was drowned. The Athenians took seven ships. They had not above 200 men killed on their side in this engagement; whereas on the side of the Persians about 6000 were slain, without reckoning those who fell into the sea as they endeavoured to escape, or those that were consumed with the ships set on fire.

Hippias was killed in the battle. That ungrateful and perfidious citizen, in order to recover the unjust dominion usurped by his father Pisistratus over the Athenians, had the baseness to become a servile courtier to a Barbarian prince, and to implore his aid against his native country. Urged on by hatred and revenge, he sug gested all the means he could invent to load his country with chains; and even put himself at the head of its enemies, to reduce that city to ashes to which he owed his birth, and against which he had no other ground of complaint, than that she would not acknowledge him for her tyrant. An ignominious death, together with everlasting infamy entailed upon his name, was the just reward of so black a treachery.

Immediately after the battle,† an Athenian soldier, still reeking with the blood of the enemy, quitted the army, and ran to Athens to carry his fellow-citizens the happy news of the victory. When he arrived at the magistrates' house, he only uttered two words, Rejoice the victory, is ours, and fell down dead at their feet.

The Persians had thought themselves so sure of victory, that they had brought marble to Marathon, in order to erect a trophy there. The Grecians took this marble, and caused a statue to be made of it by Phidias, in honour of the goddess Nemesis, who had a temple near the place where the battle was fought.

* Justin adds, that Cynægirus, having first had his right and then his left hand cut off with an axe, laid hold of the vessel with his teeth, and would not let go, so violent was his rage against the enemy. This account is utterly fabulous, and has not the least appearance of truth.

† Plut. de glor. Athen. p. 347.

† Χαίρετε, Χαίρομεν. I could not render the liveliness of the Greek expression in our Paus. I. i. p. 62.

language.

This was the goddess whose business it was to punish injustice and oppression.

The Persian fleet, instead of sailing by the islands, in order to reenter Asia, doubled the cape of Sunium, with the design of surprising Athens before the Athenian forces should arrive there to defend the city. But the latter had the precaution to march thither with nine tribes to secure their country, and performed their march with so much expedition, that they arrived there the same day. The distance from Marathon to Athens is about forty miles, or fifteen French leagues. This was a great exertion for an army that had just undergone a long and severe battle. By this means the design of the Persians miscarried.

Aristides, the only general that staid at Marathon with his tribe, to take care of the spoil and prisoners, acted suitably to the good opinion that was entertained of him. For, though gold and silver were scattered about in abundance in the enemy's camp, and though all the tents as well as galleys that were taken, were full of rich clothes and costly furniture, and treasure of all kinds, to an immense value, he not only was not tempted to touch any of it himself, but hindered every body else from touching it.

As soon as the day of the full moon was over, the Lacedæmonians began their march with 2000 men; and, having travelled with all imaginable expedition, arrived in Attica after three days' forced march; the distance from Sparta to Attica being no less than 1200 stadia, or 150 English miles. The battle was fought the day before they arrived: however, they proceeded to Marathon, where they found the fields covered with dead bodies and riches. After having congratulated the Athenians on the happy success of the battle, they returned to their own country.

They were hindered by a foolish and ridiculous superstition from having a share in the most glorious action recorded in history. For it is almost without example, that such a handful of men, as the Athenians were, should not only make head against so numerous an army as that of the Persians, but should entirely route and defeat them. One is astonished to see so formidable a power attack so small a city and miscarry; and we are almost tempted to question the truth of an event that appears so improbable, which nevertheless is very certain. This battle alone shows what wonder ful things may be performed by an able general, who knows how to take his advantages; by the intrepidity of soldiers that are not afraid of death: by a zeal for one's country; the love of liberty; a hatred and detestation of slavery and tyranny; which were sentiments natural to the Athenians, but undoubtedly very much augmented and inflamed by the very presence of Hippias, whom they dreaded to have again for their master, after all that had passed between them.

Plato, in more places than one, makes it his business to extol the battle of Marathon, and is desirous that action should be considered

* Isocr in Panegyr. p. 113.

In Menex. p. 239, 240 Et lib. iii. de Leg. p. 698, 699

as the source and original cause of all the victories that were gained afterwards. It was undoubtedly this victory that deprived the Persian power of that terror which had rendered them so formidaole, and had made every thing stoop before them: it was this vicLory that taught the Grecians to know their own strength, and not to tremble before an enemy terrible only in name; that made them find by experience, that victory does not depend so much upon the number as the courage of troops; that set before their eyes, in a most conspicuous light, the glory there is in sacrificing one's life in defence of our country, and for the preservation of liberty; and lastly, that inspired them, through the whole course of succeeding ages, with a noble emulation and warm desire to imitate their ancestors, and not to degenerate from their virtue. For, on all important occasions, it was customary among them to put the people in mind of Miltiades and his invincible troop, that is, of that little army of heroes, whose intrepidity and bravery had done so much honour to Athens.

Those that were slain in the battle,* had all the honour immediately paid to them that was due to their merit. Illustrious monuments were erected to them all, in the very place where the battle was fought; upon which their own names and that of their tribes were recorded. There were three distinct sets of monuments separately erected, one for the Athenians, another for the Platæans, and a third for the slaves whom they had admitted among their soldiers on that occasion. Miltiades's tomb was erected afterwards in the same place.

The reflection Cornelius Nepost makes upon what the Athenians did to honour the memory of their general, deserves to be taken notice of. Formerly, says he, speaking of the Romans, our ancestors rewarded virtue by marks of distinction, neither pompous nor magnificent, which however was rarely granted, and for that very reason were highly esteemed; whereas now they are so profusely bestowed, that little or no value is set upon them. The same thing happened, adds he, among the Athenians. All the honour that was paid to Miltiades, the deliverer of Athens and of all Greece, was, that, in a picture of the battle of Marathon, drawn by order of the Athenians, he was represented at the head of the ten commanders, exhorting the soldiers, and setting them an example of their duty. But this same people in later ages, being grown more powerful, and corrupted by the flatteries of their orators, decreed 300 statues to Demetrius Phalereus.

Plutarch makes the same reflection, and wisely observes, that the honour which is paid to great men ought not to be looked upon as the reward of their illustrious actions, but only as a mark *Paus. in Attic. p. 60, 61. † Cor. Nep. in Milt. c. vi. In præc. de rep § Οὐ γὰρ μισθὸν εἶναι δεῖ τῆς πράξεως, ἀλλὰ σύμβολον, τὴν τιμὴν, ἵνα καὶ διαμένη πολύν χρόνον,

ger. p. 820.

of esteem in which they are held, the remembrance whereof such monuments are intended to perpetuate. It is not then the stateliness or magnificence of public monuments which gives them their value, or makes them durable, but the sincere gratitude of those that erect them. The 300 statues of Demetrius Phalereus were all thrown down even in his own life-time, but the picture in which Miltiades's courage was represented was preserved many ages after him.

This picture was kept at Athens in a gallery adorned and enriched with different paintings,* all excellent in their kind, and done by the greatest masters; which, for that reason, was called Poecile, from the Greek word wonían, signifying varied and diversified. The celebrated Polygnotus, a native of the isle of Thasos, and one of the finest painters of his time, painted this picture, or at least the greatest part of it; and, as he valued himself upon his reputation, and was more attached to glory than interest, he did it gratuitously, and would not receive any recompense for it. The city of Athens therefore rewarded him with a sort of coin that was more acceptable to his taste, by procuring an order from the Amphyctions which assigned him a public lodging in the city, where he might live du ring his own pleasure.

The gratitude of the Athenians towards Miltiades was of no very long duration. After the battle of Marathon, he had desired and obtained the command of a fleet of seventy ships, in order to punish and subdue the islands that had favoured the Barbarians. Accordingly he reduced several of them; but having had ill success in the isle of Paros, and, upon a false report of the arrival of the enemy's fleet, having raised the siege which he had laid to the capital, wherein he had received a very dangerous wound, he returned to Athens with his fleet; and was there impeached by a citizen, called Xanthippus, who accused him of having raised the siege through treachery, and in consideration of a great sum of money given him by the king of Persia. Little probability as there was in this accusation, it nevertheless prevailed over the merit and innocence of Miltiades. He was condemned to lose his life, and to be thrown into the Barathrum; a sentence passed only upon the greatest criminals and malefactors. The magistrate opposed the execution of so unjust a condemnation. All the favour shown to this preserver of his country, was to have the sentence of death commuted into a penalty of fifty talents, or 50,000 crowns French money, being the sum to which the expenses of the fleet, that had been equipped upon his solicitation and advice, amounted. Not being rich enough to pay this sum, he was put into prison, where he died of the wound he had received at Paros. Cimon, his son, who was at this time very young, signalized his piety on this occasion, as we shall find hereafter he signalized his courage. He purchased † Herod. 1. vi. c 132. 136. Co Nep. in Milt. c. vii viii

Plin. l. xxxv. c. 9. Plat. in Gorg. p. 516.

the permission of burying his father's body, by paying the fine of 50,000 crowns, in which he had been condemned; which sum the young man raised, as well as he could, by the assistance of his friends and relations.

Cornelius Nepos observes, that what chiefly induced the Athenians to act in this manner with regard to Miltiades, was his very great merit and reputation, which made the people, who were but lately delivered from the yoke of slavery under Pisistratus, apprehend that Miltiades, who had formerly been tyrant of the Chersonesus, might affect the same at Athens. They therefore chose rather to punish an innocent person,* than to be under perpetual apprehensions of him. To this same principle was the institution of the ostracism at Athens owing. I have elsewheref given an account of the most plausible reasons upon which the ostracism could be founded: but I do not see how we can fully justify so strange a policy, to which all merit becomes suspected, and virtue itself appears criminal.

This appears plainly in the banishment of Aristides.‡ His inviolable attachment to justice obliged him on many occasions to oppose Themistocles, who did not pique himself upon his delicacy in that respect, and who spared no intrigues and cabals to engage the suffrages of the people, for removing a rival who always opposed his ambitious designs. In this instance it was evident, that a person may be superior in merit and virtue, without being so in influence. The impetuous eloquence of Themistocles prevailed over the justice of Aristides, and occasioned his banishment. In this kind of trial the citizens gave their suffrages by writing the name of the accused person upon a shell, called in Greek orpanov, from whence came the term Ostracism. On this occasion a peasant, who could not write, and did not know Aristides, applied to him, and desired him to put the name of Aristides upon his shell. Has he done you any wrong, says Aristides, that you are for condemning him in this manner? No, replied the other, I do not so much as know him; but I am quite tired and angry with hearing every body call him the Just. Aristides, without saying a word more, calmly took the shell, wrote his name in it, and returned it. He set out for his banishment, imploring the gods that no accident might befall his country, to make it regret him. The great Camillus,|| in a like case, did not imitate his generosity, and prayed to a quite different effect, desiring the gods to force his ungrateful country, by some misfortune, to have occasion for his aid, and to recall him as soon as possible.

O fortunate republic, exclaims Valerius Maximus,¶ speaking of

* Hæc populus respicien smaluit eum innocentem plecti, quàm se diutiùs esse in timoe. Method of teaching, &c. vol. iii. p. 407. Plut. in Arist. p. 322, 323.

In his cognitum est, quanto antistaret eloquentia innocentiæ. Quanquam enim adeò excellebat Aristides abstinentiâ, et unus post hominum memoriam, quod quidem nos audierimus, cognomine Justus sit appellatus; tamen à Themistocle collabefactus testulà illâ exilio decem annorum multatus est. Cor. Nep. in Arist.

In exilium abiit, precatus ab diis immortalibus, si innoxio sibi ea injuria fieret, primo quoque tempore desiderium sui civitati ingratæ facerent. Liv. 1. v. n. 32.

Val. Max l. v. c. 3.