450 The Decemvirate was appointed at Rome. They were ten magistrates empowered to produce a more perfect code. It was called the "Laws of the Twelve Tables." The plebeians about this time succeeded in wresting important privileges from the patricians, which more equally balanced the different powers of the state.

2. Athens was the centre of civilization, and Greek culture and ideas were penetrating all the nations in her vicinity. Rome was rapidly developing and Carthage was at the summit of her glory. She had control of much of the Spanish or Iberian peninsula. Persia, after absorbing all the old monarchies of the east, was declining. The "march of empire was distinctly defining its "westward course."

It was about the middle of this century that Herodotus, the "Father of History," was rising to fame, and a few years later Xenophon, the Greek general and historian, was born. Thucydides, another historian, dates from this period. The great career of history now fairly commenced.

443- Herodotus emigrated from Halicarnassus, in Asia, to Greece.

431

The Peloponnesian war, a bitter contest between Athens and Sparta, commenced. It lasted twenty-three years, and was again revived, ending in the conquest of Athens by Sparta. This war was followed, after some time, by the rise of the power of Thebes, under their famous general, Epaminondas, who broke the power of Sparta. Thebes sunk into insignificance after his death, and Philip of Macedon commenced the subjugation of all Greece. He was followed by Alexander the Great, who, in return for the loss of republican liberty, rendered Greece illustrious by conquering the Persian empire, and imbuing all the Eastern World with its philosophy and arts. For all these great events one hundred years were required.

429-The death of the illustrious Pericles occurred in this

year.

406

-

Plato, the disciple of Socrates, and, in some points,
superior to him in mental discipline, was born.
About this time Alcibiades, the nephew of Pericles,
became prominent in Athenian affairs. He had bril-
liant powers, but little principle.

The battle of Egospotamos, gained by Lysander the
Spartan, broke the power of Athens.

404 Athens was taken by Lysander, its walls demolished,
and the government of the "Thirty Tyrants" estab-
lished by the Spartans. Alcibiades, banished from
Athens, was assassinated by the Persians, at the insti-
gation of the Spartans.
401-Occurred the battle of Cunaxa, in Babylonia, between
Cyrus, the brother of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, and
that king. Cyrus, who had been governor, or satrap, in
Asia Minor, gathered a large army including more
than 10,000 Greeks. Cyrus was killed and his own
army defeated, but the Greeks repelled all assaults.
Their generals having been decoyed into the power of
the Persians, on the plea of making terms with them,
were treacherously slain. The army appointed other
commanders, chief among whom was Xenophon, after-
wrd the celebrated historian, and they made good their
return to Greece. It was finely described by Xeno-
phon, and known as the "Retreat of the Ten Thou-
sand."

400-Socrates taught doctrines too pure and high-toned for his countrymen to understand, and was condemned to drink poison, as a dangerous man and despiser of the gods, in the 70th year of his age. The Athenians soon repented it.

396The capital of Veii, taken by the Romans, ended the contest with the Etruscans.

389 Rome was conquered and, except the capitol, destroyed, by the Gauls under Brennus. The barbarians soon retired and the city was rebuilt.

384 — Aristotle, the most learned of the Grecian philosophers, was born at Stagira, in Macedon. He laid the foundation of scientific study, and was the tutor of Alexander the Great.

371 362 360

Epaminondas defeated the Spartans at Leuctra, and
Again at Mantinea, where he was killed.

Philip became king of Macedon, and soon began to undermine the liberties of Greece in a very artful way. 357 The "Sacred War" against the Phocians, who had plundered the temple of Apollo, at Delphi, commenced.

256 Birth of Alexander the Great. Rutilius, the first plebeian dictator at Rome.

349 Death of Plato, the brightest light of Grecian philosophy. He systematized and enlarged the doctrines of Socrates.

338 Occurred the battle of Chaeronea between Philip and the allied Athenians and Thebans. The Greeks were totally defeated and their liberty lost. Demosthenes, the most celebrated orator of the Greeks, spent his whole life and his magnificent eloquence in the effort to rouse the Greeks against Philip; but Philip was too crafty and the Greeks too little accustomed to act in concert. For nearly a hundred years the states of Greece had been exhausted by wars among themselves, and they were too weary of fighting to make the necessary effort against so powerful and skillful an adversary. 836 Philip was assassinated on the eve of an expedition against Persia, as chief of the Grecian states. This

popular idea consoled them for the loss of liberty. Alexander succeeded his father.

335-Thebes rebelled against Alexander, and he took and destroyed that ancient city.

334- Alexander carried out the project of his father and invaded the Persian empire. The battle of the

Granicus, his first great victory, took place this year.

333- Darius, the Persian king, was again thoroughly defeated in the battle of Issus. Damascus, in Syria, was taken and Tyre besieged by Alexander.

332

-

Tyre was taken and finally destroyed, and Alexandria, at the mouth of the Nile, founded.

331 A final battle at Arbela, in Assyria, overthrew the Persian Empire. Darius escaped, but was murdered by Bessus, one of his officers. Four years were spent by the Greeks in subduing the wild tribes on the eastern border of the Empire, and settling the government of these vast conquests.

327 - Alexander invaded India and was constantly triumphant till his soldiers refused to go farther from home. They had grown tired of conquering, and Alexander reluctantly returned to Babylon to consolidate his gov

ernment.

323- Alexander died of a fever, the result of excessive drinking. He left no heir, and his generals divided his empire. 322-The Samnites obtained a temporary success by surprising a Roman army in a narrow defile of the mountains called the Caudine Forks, and subjected it to a humiliating capitulation. The Romans never bowed before misfortune or defeat. They prosecuted the war with invincible resolution until the Samnite power was wholly broken, a contest, in all, of about 50 years, which was soon followed by the complete subjugation of the whole peninsula.

3. In this year died the two greatest Grecians, Demosthenes, the orator, by suicide; and Aristotle, by old age. On the death of Alexander, Demosthenes aroused the Athenians to make a stand for their liberties. Few of the Grecian states joined them and they were totally defeated by Antipater, the governor appointed by Alexander. Demosthenes avoided punishment by taking poison. The Achaian League, about forty years after, maintained the liberties of Greece for fifty

years or more, which then fell before the invincible Romans. For many years all the eastern world was in confusion from the struggles of competitors for the Empire of Alexander. Ptolemy established himself soon and firmly in Egypt, and Seleucus, after various

312 - Reverses, obtained full possession of the eastern parts of the empire, Babylonia, Assyria and Persia. This year is called the era of the Seleucidae. Asia Minor and Greece were a scene of the greatest confusion for seventy years, so far as rulers were concerned. But nearly all these were Greeks, and Greek culture and philosophy exerted a wide spread influence. In the end it became fully evident that the want of genius in the Greek mind to organize, and steadiness in Greek character to sustain, settled institutions was absolute. They had, at different times, men of the greatest ability, but when they passed away their plans and institutions perished with them. The acute and accomplished Greeks were ever children in the science of government, and the advent of Rome alone, whose special skill was in government, saved the world from irretrievable anarchy or fatal despotism.

300-The Roman plebeians completed their struggle for constitutional liberty by acquiring a share in the priestly office, which was essential to the full value of their other victories over the patricians, and the Roman constitution was complete. It was maintained very fairly for more that one hundred and fifty years, when the spoils of their conquests corrupted the virtue of the citizens and produced the internal disorder that, about a century later still brought about the establishment of the Roman Empire. Yet the forms of government, municipal and other regulations, and the administration of justice, though often interfered with in particular cases, were so well settled on sound principles, and secured so uniformly the welfare of society, that they