they dealt upon the barbarians. Every ship that went to the bottom brought a revival of hope, a promise of freedom. As the sun sank low, victory declared for the Greeks. Two hundred of the Persian ships had been destroyed. Many more were captured. The whole bay was covered with the wreck of Asia. As the issue declared itself Xerxes, in the extremity of terror and despair, rose and fled. The residue of the fleet was scattered to the winds.

The episode of the battle of Salamis oc

landed on the island were attacked by a body of heavy-armed soldiers led by Aristides, and were destroyed to a man. The victory was complete, and the sun set on one of the most glorious days in Grecian history.'

Xerxes, becoming concerned for his personal safety, quitted the country with all haste. There was no need for such a flight; for his army was but little reduced in numbers, and of his fleet there still remained a squadron much larger than that of the Greeks; but the king had enough of that peculiar

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cured when Artemesia, queen of Caria, who had tried to dissuade the king from risking all in the straits of Salamis, performed prodigies of valor in the fight. 'My men are women to-day, and my women men," said Xerxes, as he beheld her bravery. Finally, turning to fly, she struck a galley commanded by one of her own countrymen, and sent both it and the crew to the bottom. The Greek commanders, seeing the deed and believing it to have been purposely done, allowed the In the queen to escape without pursuit. meantime the Persian troops that had been N.-Vol. 1-34

glory which came of battles with the Greeks, and was eager to leave the land which his father had been so anxious to remember. Pressing forward as rapidly as he could through Boeotia and Thessaly, he came, after a march of forty-five days, to the Hellespont.

'Lord Byron's graphic verse on the battle of Salamis should not be omitted:

"A king sate on the rocky brow

Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis;
And ships by thousands lay below,
And men in nations; all were his!
He counted them at break of day-
And when the sun set where were they?

The guard which had accompanied him were reduced by famine and disease. Here the fleet had been ordered to congregate after the defeat at Salamis. The king found his ships, but the great bridge had been destroyed by the storms. He and his forces were carried to the opposite side, and were safe in Asia. And in the company there were no Athenians wearing fetters!

As soon as the Greek commanders at Salamis saw themselves victorious they began a pursuit of the Persian fleet. This they kept up as far as the island of Andros. The people of many of the Cyclades had sided with the Persians in the recent struggle, and were now made to feel severely the folly of such a course; for Themistocles punished them with little mercy for their defection from the national cause. From Andros onward the Persian armament pursued its course without molestation to the Hellespont, where it received the king and a remnant of his forces, and carried them across to Asia.

Xerxes did not regard his flight from Greece as an abandonment of the purposes for which the expedition was undertaken. Before determining his own course after the battle of Salamis, he held a conference with Mardonius, to whom he intrusted the completion of the conquest of Greece. For this purpose three hundred thousand men were left under his command. Mardonius flattered his master with the assurance that the reverses which he had suffered were but temporary checks to the general progress of subjugation, that one great object of the invasion-the destruction of Athens-had been accomplished, that in the following spring he himself would complete the work, and that Xerxes might now retire from the country without dishonor. This specious theory of the results of the invasion had a soothing effect on the king, who gladly left his son-in-law behind to finish or be finished, and himself speedily returned to the ease of his own capital. His throne in the palace of Susa was an easier seat than that which he had filled for a day on the cliff above Salamis!

While the battle of Salamis was fighting, another conflict was raging between the

Greeks of Sicily and the Carthaginians, who had invaded the island. The people of Sicily were like the Greeks of Hellas, divided into two parties. One of these favored the predominance of Carthaginian influence in the island, while the other upheld the national spirit, favoring independence. A certain Terillus, governor of Himera, had been expelled by Theron, the despot of Agrigentum. The deposed ruler and his adherents invited in the Carthaginians, who, in B. C. 480, came three hundred thousand strong under the lead of Hamilcar, and proceeded to besiege Himera. But Gelon, the governor of Syracuse, came to the rescue of the city with an army of fifty-five thousand troops, and with this force-comparatively small as it was-attacked and routed the Carthaginians with a loss, if we may trust Diodorus, of onehalf of their army, Hamilcar being among the slain. The Carthaginian fleet was then set on fire and consumed. The victory of the Sicilian Greeks was, if possible, more complete than that which their countrymen were at that hour winning in the bay of Salamis.

With the opening of spring the remnant of the Persian fleet in the Ægean, numbering four hundred vessels, gathered at the island of Samos. At this time the Grecian squadron of one hundred and ten ships lay at Ægina; but, notwithstanding the great disparity in the numerical strength of the two armaments, the Persians made no sign of a disposition to venture a battle. It was their business rather to keep a watch on the Ionian cities, which were again showing signs of insurrection.

Meanwhile, Mardonius began his campaign for the completion of the conquest of the Greek states. His first measures were diplomatic. He consulted the oracles of Boeotia and Phocis, and promulgated the idea of a Perso-Athenian alliance against the Spartans. Alexander, the then king of Macedonia, was sent to the authorities of Athens with flattering overtures. Their city should be restored. Their territory should be extended. The king of Persia would become their friend. Sparta should be humiliated. The first place should be given to Athens. But the seductions of the foe were all in vain. Alexander was dis

missed with words to the effect that his personal safety would better be consulted before he became the bearer of another such a message to the Athenians. Sparta, however, was anxious, and sent envoys to counteract the dangerous temptations held out by the Persians. To these messengers Athens replied that all that was expected of Sparta was that she should send an army into Attica to help protect the northern frontier against the coming attack of Mardonius. The envoys promised, then went home, and then, with their usual perfidy, pleaded adverse omens as a reason for non-fulfillment.

In May of B. C. 479 Mardonius again advanced into Attica and occupied Athens. The people of the city retired as before to Salamis. From hence they sent a hurried embassy to Sparta, imploring aid against the common foe and intimating (what they never intended) that circumstances might compel them to accept the overtures of the Persians. No answer was returned for the space of ten days, and the Athenians were on the edge of despair, when the aged Chileos in the Spartan council reminded them that if an alliance should be effected between the Athenians and the Persians, the ships of the former might easily bring the whole army of the latter into the heart of Peloponnesus. Spartans were thrown into the utmost alarm by the suggestion, and a force of ten thousand men, besides a still larger body of Pericci and Helots, was at once dispatched into Central Greece. The command of this army was given to PAUSANIAS, the Spartan regent for the son of Leonidas.

The

thousand eight hundred Thespiansamounting to about one hundred and ten thousand men.

Crossing the range of Citharon, the Greeks came in sight of their foe drawn up in order of battle. Having no cavalry, Pausanias occupied the rougher grounds and aimed to draw the Persian from the position which gave freedom to his horse. Mardonius or dered a charge against his antagonist, and the same was bravely made. The Greeks suffered not a little from the onset, but were successful in killing Masistius, the commander of the cavalry. They threw his body into a cart and exhibited it along the lines. When the Persians fell back from the onset, Pausanias descended from the heights for a general battle on the grounds chosen by the Persians. The right wing, being the post of honor, was held by the Spartans, and the left by the Athenians. The little river Asopus lay between the two armies. Mardonius, with the best of the Medes and Persians, took his position in the left wing, so as to face Pausanias and his Lacedæmonians, the Persian right, numbering fifty thousand men, being allotted to the Greek allies of the enemy. Then there was a pause. Destiny from one side of the river glared in the face of Fate on the other.

Both armies were reluctant to begin the contest. For eight days each maintained its position, fearing the awful hazard of the onset. Finally, Mardonius succeeded in cutting off the supply train of the Greeks, and captured five hundred of their beasts of burden in defiles of the Citharon. He was then advised to follow up this policy, and at the same time to try the effect of bribes upon the leaders of the Greeks. But Mardonius rejected the advice and gave the orders for a general attack.

On the following night an incident occurred highly illustrative of the spirit and disposition of the age and people. Alexander of Macedon stole out of the Persian camp in the darkness, rode to the Greek outposts, called for Aristides, and informed him of the As an impending attack. excuse for his treachery, he added: "I am myself a Greek by descent, and with sorrow would 1 see Hellas enslaved by these Persians."

Aristides at once informed the generals of the Greeks of what might be expected on the morrow, and preparations were made accordingly for the coming battle. Still, with the morning dawn, each army hesitated to make the onset. Finally the Persian cavalry began the fight, and succeeded in cutting off the Greeks from the fountain of Gargaphia, which supplied the camp with water. This was the only important movement of the day.

With the coming of night Pausanias gave orders for the Greeks to fall back a mile and a

soon as the front line of the Persians had recoiled from the shock, Pausanias gave the order to charge. The fighting became at once general and desperate. The Persians exhibited unusual valor. They flung themselves with reckless courage upon the spears of the Spartans, only to be transfixed by the thousand. The invincible Lacedæmonian phalanx moved forward like an avalanche in its work of destruction. It seemed a huge beast fortified on every side with bristling quills, urging its way now to the right and now to the left,

half to a position which he considered more favorable for the battle. This change of position, however, was not accomplished without considerable confusion and dispute among the officers of the allied army. On seeing the Spartans in full retreat-a sight not often. witnessed by a Persian general-Mardonius at once gave orders for pursuit. The Persians dashed across the Asopus, ascended the hill recently occupied by the Greeks, and fell upon the Lacedæmonians, hastily but steadily deployed into line of battle. The onset made but little impression on the Greeks, and as

trampling in the bloody dust the mangled bodies of the barbarians. Mardonius attempted in vain to stay the battle. At the head of his body-guard of a thousand men, he fought with conspicuous bravery until he was pierced with a Grecian dart and fell dead from his charger. It was the signal of the rout.

The Persians, immemorially accustomed to attribute victory and defeat to their leader, broke and fled beyond the Asopus. So rapidly had the work of destruction been accomplished by the allied army that a divi

sion of forty thousand Persians, commanded by Artabazus, did not reach the field until after the rout. More panic struck, however, than his fellow-generals who had participated in the battle, he broke away without delivering a blow, and fled in the direction of the Hellespont. The allied Greeks, flushed with victory, pursued the main body of the Persians to their fortified camp beyond the Asopus, stormed the barricades, and slaughtered the disorganized barbarian host till the whole area ran with blood. Rarely in the annals of war had such a scene of carnage been witnessed as the infuriated Greeks enacted in this final arena of the great invasion. Such was the fearful destruction that of the three hundred thousand soldiers in the army of Mardonius, only three thousand or four thousand escaped with their lives. The sword of Hellas had pierced the heart of Asiatic pomp and the huge carcass of despotism was stretched upon the plain of Platæa, never to rise again.

Ten days were consumed in dividing the spoils of the battle. The body of Mardonius was decently buried by Pausanias. The sword and silver-footed throne of the Persian commander and the breast-plate of Masistius were carried in triumph by the Athenians to Athens and deposited among the trophies of the Acropolis. Immense was the booty gathered from the field and camp. Every thing with which oriental luxury and magnificence could decorate an army was strewn for miles in the dust. Of this one portion was set aside for the Delphic oracle; another share went to the temple of the Olympian Zeus; and still another to the Isthmian Poseidon. Pausanias himself was largely rewarded from the wreck of Asia, and the remaining enormous aggregate of booty was divided among the allied forces in proportion to their numbers.

Of all the Greek cities that had espoused the cause of the Persians, the most conspicuous in her treason to the national cause was Thebes. In the recent battle the Theban contingent had been posted by Mardonius opposite the Athenians, and had fought with desperate valor. To punish them and their city seemed to the allies to be the first duty

incumbent after the destruction of the Persian army. Accordingly the Spartans proceeded to ravage the Theban territory and besiege the city. A demand was made upon the

authorities that those leaders who had led the people into the unnatural alliance with the Persians should be given up for punishment. When this was refused on the part of the city, the leaders made a voluntary surrender of themselves, expecting that a large ransom would procure their relief. It was a fatal mistake. For no sooner were they in the power of Pausanias than they were sent to Corinth and executed without trial.

On the same day of the battle of Platæa, which completed the wreck of the Persian army, the final destruction of the great fleet was accomplished on the coast of Asia Minor. After transferring across the Hellespont that remnant of the Persian army which accompanied Xerxes on his homeward flight, what remained of the Persian squadron from the havoc of Artemesium and Salamis dropped down the coast and anchored at the headland of Mycalé, near the city of Miletus. Thither they were pursued by the Spartan leader Leotychides; but before his arrival, the Persians, rather than hazard another sea-fight with the victorious Greeks, drew their remaining ships ashore, surrounded them with a rampart, and placed for their defense an army of sixty thousand Persians under command of Tigranes.

The Greeks followed, came to anchor, made a landing, and immediately joined battle. No sooner were the first defenses of the Persians carried by the impetuosity of the attack than they turned and fled. They were hotly pursued into the principal fortification, which was soon carried by the assailants, though not without some desperate fighting. As soon, however, as the Spartan reserve came up and the Ionian Greeks in the army of Tigranes mutinied in the ranks, the victory was completed. Tigranes and Mardontes, the other Persian general, were both killed; the fleet was burned to ashes, and as the coast wind scattered them along the shore and bay, the last fragments of the greatest expedition known in the annals of the ancient world