ness that even exceeded her former splendour. The state had, however, undergone some changes prior to this resumption of its glory; for first, Aristides, who, according to Plutarch, was of mean extraction, favoured the lower orders, and repealed that part of the laws of Solon, by which they were rendered incapable of bearing any office in the government: in the next place, Pericles, having lessened the power of the Areopagites, introduced a confused state of things, in which the lowest and basest of the people obtained as great a share in the government, as persons of the highest birth and quality. Notwithstanding these unfavourable circumstances at home, every thing was completely successful abroad. The Athenians, by means of their fleet, to the strengthening of which they had turned all their attention, after Xerxes had driven them out of their city, were now become sole lords of the sea, and had made themselves masters of the greatest part of the Ægean islands; and having reduced the rest of the Grecians to subjection, or awed them into a confederacy, they carried their conquests to the borders of Egypt; and had, as Aristophanes reports, a thousand cities under their dominion.

At length, in consequence of some reverses of fortune in Sicily, and some troubles which arose in the commonwealth, the principal men of Athens, wearied with the people's insolence, took this opportunity to change the form of government, and place the sovereignty in the hands of a few. To this purpose, they engaged the captains that were abroad, to establish aristocracy in the towns of their confederates; at the same time, some, that were most likely to oppose this innovation, being slain at Athens, the common people were so intimidated, that no one durst open his mouth against the conspirators, not knowing their numbers, nor their names, so that every man was afraid of opening his mind to his neighbour lest he should be one of them.

In this general consternation, the government of Athens was usurped by four hundred persons, who pre

serving, in appearance, the ancient form of proceeding, caused all matters to be proposed to the people, and concluded upon by a majority of voices; but the subjects proposed, were only such as they had previously agreed upon among themselves, and the people had only the liberty of giving their assent; for if any one presumed to go beyond this, he was soon dispatched by persons engaged for the purpose, and no enquiry made about the murderers. The usurpers were thus enabled to pass many decrees, tending to establish their new authority, which was however but of short duration; for the fleet and army, which were then at the isle of Samos, detesting these tyrannical proceedings, recalled Alcibiades, who had been banished; and partly through fear of him, and partly because they found the citizens exasperated against them, the tyrants voluntarily laid down their authority, and went into banish

ment.

The people were not however fully restored to their former share of the government by this revolution, but only five thousand were admitted, who had before held merely a nominal part, under the four hundred, being associated with them only to render their enactments more palatable to the people, by this appearance of giving them a voice in their deliberations.

Under the conduct of Alcibiades, Athens was quiet at home and successful abroad; for, by his aid, the Athenians obtained several important victories. But the fickle multitude, being soon after incensed against him, procured his banishment a second time. This step

proved very fatal to the Athenians; for through the carelessness of the commanders, their navy at Egos Potamos, was betrayed into the hands of Lysander, the Lacedamonian admiral, who took and sunk almost the whole fleet, so that of two or three hundred sail of ships, not more than eight escaped.

After this victory, Lysander, joining his own forces with those of Agis and Pausanias, kings of Sparta,

marched directly to Athens, which surrendered to them upon terms, by which the Athenians obliged themselves to pull down the long walls, by which the city was joined to the Piræus, or haven, and to deliver up all their naval forces, ten or twelve ships excepted: there was even a consultation held, whether the city should not be utterly destroyed, and the lands about it laid waste; and Agis had carried it against the city had not Lysander opposed, urging that one of the eyes of Greece ought to be preserved. He, however, compelled the Athenians to change the form of their government, from a democracy to an oligarchy; a state to which the Lacedamonians were partial.

In compliance, therefore, with the command of their conquerors, the people of Athens chose thirty governors, known by the name of the thirty tyrants. These were chosen for the purpose of compiling a code of laws, and for collecting such ancient statutes as were best adapted to the present exigencies of the state. This collection was denominated the new laws. And to this deputation was annexed the supreme authority; and the whole government of the city was entrusted to their hands.

At first this body of men seemed to act with an eye to justice and the good of the state, apprehending such fellows as were odious to the state, yet had not rendered themselves liable to the penalty of any established law, these they put to death. But this show of equity was soon seen through, and the real object of these apparently upright statesmen was developed; for having obtained a guard from the Spartans, for the protection of the city, as they pretended; they ceased to hunt after obnoxious characters, and singling out individuals, among the principal men of the city, sent armed men from house to house, to seize and murder such as they thought likely to oppose them in the government. To add strength to their party, and to give a colour to their proceedings, they made a selection of three thousand of such citizens as they deemed fittest

for their purpose, and admitting them to a share in the public authority, they disarmed all the rest.

Being confirmed by this addition of strength, they proceeded in their bloody designs with more activity than ever, putting to death all that were possessed of estates, without any form of justice, or the plea of enmity, but solely with the view of obtaining their riches; and so far did they carry this system of robbery and murder, that they agreed, that each should name his man, whose goods he should seize, after murdering the owner; and when Theramanes, one of their number, expressed his detestation of such cruelty and injustice, they condemned him to death, and compelled him to drink poison: though he was at first a great stickler for the authority of these tyrants, till they thus abused the power with which they were invested; he then be came as firm an opponent.

At length the Athenians, to the number of seventy, fled to Thebes, to secure themselves from the tyrants, entered into a conspiracy against them, and under the conduct of Thrasybulus, seized upon Phyle, a strong castle in the territory of Athens; and gradually adding to their strength by an increase of numbers, so far prevailed as to compel them to retire to Sparta, and then repealed its laws, and dissolved this upstart government. And thus the Athenians regained their liberty, and were re-established in the peaceable possession of their lands and property, in the fourth year of the ninety-fourth olympiad.

To prevent all future jealousies and quarrels, an act of oblivion was proclaimed, whereby all, who had been concerned in the atrocities and barbarities committed during the sovereignty of the tyrants, were admitted to pardon.

Thrasybulus having thus freed his country from the heavy yoke of the Lacedamonians, Conon established it in all its ancient privileges and immunities, by another

signal victory at Cnidus, wherein he totally defeated the Lacedamonian fleet: and having by this means regained the sovereignty of the seas, the Athenians once more took courage, and aimed at nothing less than the restoration of Athens to her ancient glory; and fortune in some measure, seemed to favor their great design; for they not only reduced Lesbos, Byzantium, Chalcedon, and other places thereabouts, to their former obedience, but raised Athens to be once more the most powerful, and chief city in all Greece.

In this state Athens continued for some years, till the Thebans, who had been raised from one of the most inconsiderable states in Greece to great power, by the wisdom and courage of Epaminondas, put a stop to her grandeur, and disputed pre-eminence with her. This contest however was soon terminated by the death of the Theban general, at the famous battle of Man-, tinea, which put an end to the Theban greatness; which as it was raised and supported, so it likewise perished with that great man. Such great alterations are the wisdom and courage of one man able to effect.

The death of Epaminondas proved no less fatal to the Athenians than the Thebans; for now there being none whose virtues they could emulate, or whose power they could fear, they lorded it without a rival; and being glutted with too much prosperity, gave themselves up to idleness and luxury. They slighted the virtue of their ancestors; their hard and thrifty way of living they laughed at: the public revenues, which used to be applied to paying the fleets and armies, they expended in games and sports, and profusely squandered them on sumptuous preparations for festivals: they took greater pleasure in going to the theatre, and hearing the insipid jests of a comedian, than in manly exercises and feats of war; and preferred a mimick stage player, to the most valiant and experienced commander; nay, so besotted were they with their pleasures, that they made it a capital crime for any man to propose the re-establishing of the army, or the applying of the public revenues to the maintenance of it.