the two rallying points; and both those powers had endeavored, by every artifice of open and secret negociation, to strengthen their cause by leagues, alliances and auxiliaries.

This memorable war was begun by the Corinthians and Corcyreans, a colony from Corinth, about 439 years before the Christian era.

Corcyra is an island near the entrance of the Adriatic sea. East of it, lies the kingdom of Epirus; and west, the bay of Tarentum. This island has been famous even from the times of Homer, who calls it Phœacia. Its present name is Corfu. From remote antiquity, this island has been celebrated for its wealth, beauty, and at times, for its naval and military character. The republic of Corinth had early sent a colony to Corcyra, which soon grew into a wealthy and powerful state, and was able to resist the haughty and imperious requisitions of the mother country. Nor shall we find a more convenient place than this, to notice an essential blemish in the moral and political character of the ancient Greeks.

The spirit of emigration and colonizing prevailed more with the Greeks, than with any other nation, ancient or modern. It was, indeed, the natural result of their national character, form of government and local situation. Enlightened, free, independent and enterprising, the defenceless state of many of their more barbarous neighbors, invited their aggressions; and the numerous islands of the surrounding seas, gave ample room and full scope to the indulgence of their roving and restless propensities. They emigrated, invaded, conquered and colonized. And, before the commencement of the Peloponnesian war, could their powers have been brought to a common focus, by a plan of policy sufficiently strong and combining, they would have formed the most powerful and warlike nation ever known. But, in this respect, they were far behind the Romans. Divided into small independent governments, they were distracted and torn by mutual jealousies; and their caprice, tyranny and vengeance, were often wreaked upon their refractory colonies, towards whom they made it a point to preserve an attitude the most commanding and supercilious. A predominance of this unhappy temper, occasioned perpetual broils, and at last, brought on an eventful struggle, from the deplorable consequences of which, Greece never recovered.

After some battles and various success, the Corcyreans, finding themselves in danger of being overcome, applied

to Athens for aid, which was granted. In the mean time, the war is prosecuted with vigor; the Athenians send aid to Corcyra. Corinth is over-matched, and applies to Sparta and the Peloponnesian states; and they, at length, fall in on the part of Corinth. Thus, instead of Corinth and Corcyra, were seen Athens and Lacedemon in the field of action, the states of Greece divided, and the devastations of war spreading over their fairest provinces.

The Spartans, if in any degree less warlike than in former times, were certainly more enlightened, more politic, and directed by maturer counsels. Their bravery and fortitude were still terrible to the haughty Athenians; and Pericles himself might have seen reasons for wishing, that he had been satisfied with a more tacit acknowledgment of Athenian greatness; especially, when he now often saw that proud capital tottering on the brink of destruction, exposed to the fortune of a most eventful war, and severely distressed by pestilence.

While the confederate armies were ravaging the country of Attica, even almost to the gates of Athens, a dreadful plague broke out in that city. As its first appearance was at the Piræus, it was generally believed to have been imported from abroad, in the Athenian vessels. This was about the year before Christ, 430.

[Some particulars of the Peloponnesian War.-When it was perceived, that the first object of the Spartan league would be, to invade Attica with an overwhelming force, Pericles prevailed upon the Athenians to retire into the city, which had been strongly fortified, and leave their villas and fields exposed to the ravages of the invading army. While they thus stood on the defensive at home, he proposed, that the Athenian fleet, which was mistress of the seas, should make reprisals upon the territories of Sparta and her allies, by committing similar ravages on their coasts, and oblige them ultimately to withdraw their forces from Attica.

A temporary clamor was excited against Pericles, when, from the walls of their city, the Athenians saw their mansions consumed by the flames, and the fruits of their fields reaped by hostile hands-when the melancholy tidings reached them of the total devastation of their late fertile borders. But that statesman, ralying on the success of his plan of defence, made no reply either to their menaces or entreaties. The result, he had anticipated, quickly followed.

The confederate army under Archidamus, king of

Lacedemon, straitened for supplies and unequal to the siege of Athens, was recalled, to defend their own coasts from the aggressions of the Athenian fleet. In consequence of the naval superiority of the Athenians, and the inexperience of their adversaries in conducting sieges, the balance of success, during several years of the war, was greatly in favor of the former. But an enemy of a far different description awaited them, whose fearful ravages, it was impossible to resist. In the second year of the Poloponnesian war, just at the time, in which the whole population of Attica had taken refuge from a second invading army, within the walls of Athens, a plague broke out in that city, than which a more terrible is scarcely recorded in the annals of history. It is related, that it began in Ethiopia; whence it descended into Egypt; thence into Lybia and Persia; and at last, broke like a flood upon Athens. This pestilence baffled the utmost efforts of art. The most robust constitutions were unable to withstand its attacks. No skill could obviate, nor remedy dispel, the terrible infection. The instant a person was seized, he was struck with despair, which quite disabled him from attempting a cure. The humanity of friends was fatal to themselves, as it was ineffectual to the unhappy sufferers. The prodigious quantity of baggage, which had been removed out of the country into the city, increased the calamity. Most of the inhabitants, for want of lodging, living in little cottages, in which they could scarcely breathe, while the burning heat of the summer increased the pestilential malignity. They were confusedly huddled together, the dead as well as the dying; some crawling through the streets; some lying along by the sides of fountains, whither they had endeavored to repair, to quench the raging thirst, which consumed them. Their very temples were filled with dead bodies; and every part of the city exhibited a dreadful image of death, without the least remedy for the present, or the least hopes with regard to futurity. It seized all with such violence, that they fell one upon another as they passed along the streets. It was also attended with such uncommon pestilential vapours, that the very beasts and birds of prey, though famishing round the walls of the city, would not touch the bodies of those who died of it. Even those who recovered, it left such a tincture of its malignity, that it struck upon their senses. It sometimes effaced the notices and memory of all the passages of their lives; and they knew neither

themselves, nor their 'nearest relations. Its moral influence has been represented as still more deplorable. The unhappy citizens became hardened and licentious, dreaming only of present pleasure, while dropping hourly into their graves.

Amid these complicated miseries, arising from the malignant influence of pestilence and war, the firmness of Pericles remained unshaken. He was even able, by his eloquence and courage, to revive the drooping hopes of the Athenians. They were preparing to renew, with vigor, the plans of conquest, which had been interrupted by this dire calamity, when their admired leader was himself cut off by the plague, which broke out afresh, and committed new ravages. When he was on his death-bed, his friends expatiated, in his hearing, on the success of his army, and the many trophies he had, erected in commemoration of splendid victories obtained over the enemies of his country; " Ah !" exclaimed the expiring chief, "dwell not on these actions, which are rather to be ascribed to fortune than skill. You have forgotten the most valuable part of my character, and that alone, on which I can now reflect with pleasure-that none of my fellow-citizens have been compelled, through any action of mine, to assume a mourning robe." It is no doubtful proof of the distinguished talents of this illustrious Athenian, that he administered public affairs, either conjointly with Cimon or alone, during upwards of forty years, and those too the most critical and perilous in the annals of the republic.

The third year of the war was chiefly occupied with the sieges of Potidea, by the Athenians, and of Platea, by the Peloponnesians. The former of these places was soon taken; but the latter made a most vigorous defence. Though a small city, and containing but comparatively a few soldiers, the garrison, consisting of 500 Plateans and Athenians, withstood the whole strength of the Spartan confederacy nearly five years. When at length they were compelled to capitulate, the conditions granted them were most honorable; but no sooner had the allied army obtained possession of the citadel, than they disgracefully violated the treaty, and put to death all the garrison, that had surrendered themselves, in reliance upon the faith of Sparta. What would Lycurgus have said to these degenerate children?

During the siege of Platea, Lesbos revolted from Athens. This island was the most flourishing and valuable of all her

provinces. Spartan emissaries had seduced the Lesbians to this dangerous revolt. These deluded islanders were soon reduced with shame and degradation.

This insurrection was followed by new disturbances at Corcyra, attended with the most dreadful carnage. To the disgrace both of the Athenians and Spartans, they interfered in this civil discord, not to conciliate, but to inflame the passions, and strengthen the animosities of the two conflicting parties. For a considerable time, the principal city was one continued scene of atrocious murders. The temples, the altars of their gods, as well as the habitations of their citizens, streamed with blood. Eurymedon, the Athenian commander, not only was the spectator of this lamentable tragedy, but continually urged the enraged populace to greater enormities. Such cruelties were practised, that, in future times, all sanguinary scenes were compared to "a Corcyrean Sedition."

About this time, the public opinion at Athens, was divided between two individuals of widely different character, but whose influence in the republic, was nearly balanced. One of these was Nicias, who was a most able and successful commander, yet a strenuous advocate for peace. Though he had frequently led to victory, both the fleets and armies of the Athenian confederacy, he used every advantage, as an additional argument for an immediate negociation; and still urged his countrymen to lose no time in terminating those hostilities, which he deplored, as the heaviest calamity, that could have befallen them. But in all his benevolent efforts to procure a cordial reconciliation, he was constantly opposed by Cleon, a turbulent demagogue, who, by the most daring effrontery, and infamous vices, inflamed the passions of the multitude, and elevated himself from the lowest condition, to the highest rank in the republic. This bold and arrogant declaimer lost no opportunity of censuring the tardy measures and timid policy of Nicias, and even charged him with cowardice and corruption.

An incident occurred, which tendered greatly to increase the self-importance and popularity of this pretended patriot. The Spartans had committed an oversight in transporting a considerable number of their most distinguished citizens to Sphacteria, a small and barren island, opposite to Pylus, which had recently been taken by the Athenians. Here they were blockaded, and reduced to the utmost extremities, by an Athenian squadron. In the first moment of conster