therefore, close this brief survey, by glancing an eye at the state of the Persian territories, subsequent to Alexander's conquest.

It has been already noticed, that Alexander, king of Macedon, above three centuries before the Christian era, in the reign of Darius Codomanus, subdued Persia, and became master of all Western Asia. At the death of Alexander, his extensive dominions were divided among the chief generals of his army. Babylon, together with Media and Persia, fell to Seleucus.

The

The Seleucidæ, or kings of Syria, held, for a few years, the empire of Persia. Some of them even marched armies across the river Indus, with a view to maintain and extend their authority. But they could not govern what Alexander could subdue; they could not even stand, where he could advance unmolested. Persia soon began to be governed by independent princes. Though under the name of Parthia, it was substantially the same. A dynasty of kings commenced with Arsaces, about 70 years after the conquest of Persia by Alexander, 256 years before Christ. Arsacidæ held the seat of their government nearer to Media, than to Persia. They were powerful and warlike --were generally more than a match for the kings of Syria, and even set bounds to the Roman arms. Mithridates, called the Great, was one of the most warlike monarchs of Asia. He flourished about 120 years before the Christian era; and, what is remarkable of him, he maintained a war with the Romans 40 years, and, according to Cicero's own declaration, among the enemies of Rome, was second to none but Hannibal. He was defeated by Pompey, on the plains of Pharsalia; where it is remarkable, that the fate of Europe and Asia has been decided three times, by three great and memorable battles; by Pompey and Mithridates, Pompey and Cesar, Tamerlane and Bajazet. Although Pompey triumphed over Mithridates, yet the Parthians survived, and were powerful even in the reign of Augustus. The Parthian kings of the dynasty of Arsaces were still powerful, when the Romans began to decline. While the wretched and effeminate Heliogabalus reigned in Rome, about 223 years after Christ, Artabanes, the thirty-second king of the Arsacidæ, was deposed by Artaxerxes, in whom, it is said,

* This Mithridates was king of Pontus, and not of Parthia.-Ed. Tamerlane defeated Bajazet near Ancona, in Asia Minor, at a considerable distance from Pharsalia.-Ed.

ANCIENT GREECE.

the ancient Persian monarchy was restored. The Persians, properly speaking, then flourished; having, like a phoenix, risen from the ashes of the ancient empire; and the names of Sapor, Hormisdas, and Chosroes, make a figure in history, and were famous in their times, while the Roman empire was in its decline, and after its overthrow by the Goths and Vandals. The dynasty of Artaxerxes flourished about 400 years, under twenty-five kings, until Jesdegirdes, in the year of Christ 632, was deposed and slain by the followers of Mahomet. They held the government of that country till conquered by Tamerlane, the great cham of Tartary, in 1396. Since that time the Persians have had various masters, and some very bad ones, and have undergone numerous revolutions. We have seen little of the Persian history during the middle ages. From all we can learn, they must have fared better than the Roman empire; and, if we except China, no nation has stood its ground, through all ages, better than Persia.

The Persians probably experienced their ultimate point of depression before the Christian era; they certainly were powerful when Rome fell; and, though conquered by Mahomet's followers, and by Tamerlane, they have been able to resist some of the most powerful and warlike nations of modern times, the Turks and Russians

CHAPTER VII.

ANCIENT GREECE, FROM THE

EARLIEST TIMES, TO THE LEGISLATION OF LYCURGUS.

To unite perspicuity with brevity, in drawing the great line of Grecian history, will be difficult; especially, if we regard separately the states and colonies, the traditional history of each, their high antiquity, and their various alliances, wars, and revolutions. The history of this wonderful people is better known than that of those who went before them, and is surely of much greater importance. To their surprising genius, the world is indebted, in a measure, for the knowledge of the arts and sciences. tecture, sculpture, poetry, and oratory, and in the arts and In archisciences necessary to the perfection of those branches,

they stand unrivalled. We may say of them, they invented. improved, and perfected. They so far perfected, that they have never been excelled.

The territories of ancient Greece seem to have possessed every advantage which situation, soil, and climate can give a nation. Comprehending a great part of what is now called Turkey in Europe, they were skirted northwardly by German and Scythian nations; eastwardly lay the Black Sea, the strait of Bosphorus, the Hellespont, and the Ar chipelago; southwardly their country was washed by the Mediterranean, and west by the Adriatic or Gulf of Venice. A narrow sea separated them eastwardly from the shores of Lesser Asia, where Troy once flourished; which, togethe with many rich provinces, became Grecian colonies. Their climate, which was anciently somewhat more cool than it is now, was salubrious; their sky, generally serene; their air, pure; and their soil, fruitful. Their lofty mountains and rugged hills, the variety in the face of their country, the abundance and purity of their springs and rivulets, and all in a climate and soil so fine and genial, formed an immense variety of wild and charming prospects, in which sublimity and beauty were united.

No country was ever better calculated to promote and reward industry, to foster genius, to fire imagination, or to rouse the mind to exertion. The proximity of seas, and a variety of excellent harbors, early prompted the Greeks to a spirit of naval enterprise, and enabled them to realize the benefits of extensive commerce, wealth, knowledge, and politeness.

The country of ancient Greece was inhabited more than eighteen centuries before the Christian era; but for a thousand years of that period, its history is not only traditional, but fabulous, and, for the most part, utterly incredible. The Grecian fables and traditions, brought down from the heroic age, far excel every thing else of the kind. Nothing, indeed, can be more absurd, false, and ridiculous, than most of them are; yet the glowing imagination of the Greeks has rendered them an interesting part of Grecian literature to the classical scholar. But, as the relation of them would not consist with the brevity of this work, so neither would it increase its utility. Indeed, as this historical sketch is designed to follow the course of empire, our work would hardly strike into the history of Greece, till near the conquest of Persia by

Alexander.

The commonwealth of Athens, so renowned for military achievements, and so illustrious for improvement in the liberal arts and sciences, was founded by Cecrops, about 1450 years before Christ. Near the same time, Cadmus, the Phoenician, introduced alphabetic writing into Greece, and founded Thebes in Bootia. Danaus also founded Argos; and Pelops, a Phrygian, whose descendants, intermarrying with those of Tyndarus, king of Lacedemon or Sparta, acquired to that family the ascendency, for many centuries, in the peninsula of Greece. Cecrops and Danaus were emigrants from Egypt; Cadmus was from Phoenicia, and Pelops from Phrygia; so that the four most ancient and powerful cities of Greece, viz. Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and Argos, were founded and for a long time governed by dynasties of foreign princes. Their names, exploits, and misfortunes, are immortalized by the sublime genius of Homer. Not far from this period, Deucalion reigned in Thessaly. From the name of his son Hellen, a considerable portion of the ancient Greeks were called Hellenes; and from Dorus, Eolus, and lon, some of his more remote descendants, they were distinguished into Dorians, Eolians, and Ionians.

Before the arrival of Cecrops, Danaus, Cadmus, and other adventurers in Greece, its inhabitants were savage, barbarous and unconnected; living entirely in a state of nature,* without laws, civilization, or any forms of social order. But those enterprising chiefs, coming from more enlightened regions, and bringing with them the rudiments of science, were able, by policy or by arms, to establish their authority among those rude tribes and savage clans. They collected them together, built cities, and founded many useful institutions, tending to ameliorate their barbarous state. But if these adventurers found it difficult to reduce those tribes into a well regulated state of society, under the mild influence of laws, it was still more difficult to defend them from the incursions of the more wild and ferocious tribes bordering upon them. They were fierce and warlike; knew little of agriculture; roved from place to place, and subsisted by rapine and plunder.

*

Two circumstances in those times greatly quickened the

If by a state of nature is meant a state agreeable to the light of rais, or natural reason, it is by no means a savage state; which reason abhors. If means a state, in which children receive no edu. cation from those around them, there is certainly no such state.-Ed.

progress of the Greeks in various useful arts; the discovery of the use of iron, and the extension of the knowledge of alphabetic writing. The former enabled them to construct instruments of agriculture and commerce; and the latter, to diffuse and improve the general means of knowledge. Yet the advantages arising from alphabetic writing, were far less rapid in those times than one would imagine, since, according to Herodotus, a system of written laws was not promulgated in Greece, till about the sixth century before the Christian era-a circumstance truly surprising, considering the progress of the Greeks in the science of government, at a much earlier period, and the strength and quickness of their inventive powers.

The ancient Greeks have the honor of exhibiting to the world the first example of a political confederation, founded in reason, and matured upon principles, whose strength and excellence gave permanency to the institution, as well as to the several states and governments existing under its influence. The country of Thessaly had been governed by Deucalion; and his descendants, as already noticed, founded the Dorians, Eolians and Ionians. This country lay far north of the Hellenic tribes, and was continually exposed to the incursions of the warlike savages on their borders. To provide more effectual means of defence against these dangerous irruptions, the leaders of several tribes or states entered into a confederacy for mutual defence. Their place of meeting, which was semi-annual, was Thermopyla, a place rendered ever famous by the unparalleled bravery of Leonidas. The king of Thermopyla, at that time, was Amphictyon. Hence they were called the Amphictyonic council. This combination, while it did not interfere essentially with the independence of the several states, served as a grand political centre, combining the energies, uniting the policy, and harmonizing the movements of the whole. By means of this, the Greeks were, at length, formed into one grand confederate republic; for, although it originated without the peninsula, by modern geographers called the Morea, its advantages were soon perceived; and the central states of Peloponnesus, the Spartans and Argives, became members of it; and by the middle of the fourteenth century before Christ, most of the states of Greece followed their example.

The members of the Amphictyonic league, for a considerable time, were fully employed in regulating their own.