Mosaics of Grecian History by Marcius Willson and Robert Pierpont Willson

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"The principal cause of the progress of sculpture was the
enlargement which it experienced in the range of its subjects,
and the consequent multiplicity of its productions. As long as
statues were confined to the interior of the temples, and no
more were seen in each sanctuary than the idol of its worship,
there was little room and motive for innovation; and, on the
other hand, there were strong inducements for adhering to the
practice of antiquity. But, insensibly, piety or ostentation
began to fill the temples with groups of gods and heroes, strangers
to the place, and guests of the power who was properly invoked
there. The deep recesses of their pediments were peopled with
colossal forms, exhibiting some legendary scene appropriate to
the place or the occasion of the building. The custom of honoring
the victors at the public games with a statue--an honor afterward
extended to other distinguished persons--contributed, perhaps,
still more to the same effect; for, whatever restraints may have
been imposed on the artists in the representation of sacred subjects,
either by usage or by a religious scruple, these were removed when
the artists were employed in exhibiting the images of mere mortals.
As the field of the art was widened to embrace new objects, the
number of masters increased; they were no longer limited, where
this had before been the case, to families or guilds; their
industry was sharpened by a more active competition and by richer
rewards. As the study of nature became more earnest, the sense
of beauty grew quicker and steadier; and so rapid was the march
of the art, that the last vestiges of the arbitrary forms which
had been hallowed by time or religion had not yet everywhere
disappeared when the final union of truth and beauty, which we
sometimes endeavor to express by the term ideal, was accomplished
in the school of Phid'ias." [Footnote: Thirlwall's "History of
Greece," vol. i., p. 206.]

We cannot attempt to give here the names of the masters of
sculpture who flourished prior to 500 B.C., or trace the still
extant remains of their genius; but their works were numerous,
and the beauty and grandeur of many of them caused them to be
highly valued in all succeeding ages. In fact, before the Persian
wars had commenced, the branch of sculpture termed statuary had
attained nearly the summit of its perfection.

CHAPTER IX.

THE PERSIAN WARS.

Returning now to the political and military history of Greece,
we find that, about the year 550 B.C., the independence of the
Grecian colonies on the coast of Asia Minor was crushed by
Croe'sus, King of Lydia, who conquered their territories. Thus
the Asiatic Greeks became subject to a barbarian power; but
Croesus ruled them with great mildness, leaving their political
institutions undisturbed, and requiring of them little more than
the payment of a moderate tribute. A few years later they
experienced a change of masters, and, together with Lydia, fell
by conquest under the dominion of Persia, of which Cyrus the
elder was then king. Under Darius Hystas'pes, the second king
after Cyrus, the Persian empire attained its greatest extent--
embracing, in Asia, all that at a later period was contained
in Persia proper and Turkey; in Africa taking in Egypt as far
as Nubia, and the coast of the Mediterranean as far as Barca;
thus stretching from the AEgean Sea to the Indus, and from the
plains of Tartary to the cataracts of the Nile. Such was the
empire against whose united strength a few Grecian communities
were soon to contend for the preservation of their very name
and existence.

* * * * *

I. THE IONIC REVOLT.

Like the Lydians, the Persians ruled the Greek colonies with a
degree of moderation, and permitted them to retain their own
form of government by paying tribute; yet the Greeks seized
every opportunity to deliver themselves from this species of
thraldom, and in 502 B.C. an insurrection broke out in one of
the Ionian states, which soon assumed a formidable character.
Before the Persians could collect sufficient forces to quell
the revolt, the Ionians sought the aid of their Grecian countrymen,
making application first to Sparta, but in vain, and then to
Athens and the islands of the AEgean Sea. The Athenians, regarding
Darius as an avowed enemy, gladly took part with the Ionians,
and, in connection with Euboe'a, furnished them a fleet of
twenty-five vessels. The allied Grecians, though at first
successful, were defeated near Ephesus with great loss. Their
commanders then quarreled, and the Athenians sailed for home,
leaving the Asiatic Greeks (divided among themselves) to contend
alone against the whole power of Persia. Still, the revolt
attained to considerable proportions, and was protracted during
a period of six years. It was terminated by the capture of Miletus,
the capital of the Ionian Confederacy, in 495 B.C. The inhabitants
of this city who escaped the sword were carried into captivity
by the conquerors, and the subjugation of Ionia was complete.

The principal achievement of the allied Grecians during this
war was the burning of Sardis, the capital of the old Lydian
monarchy. When Darius was informed of it he burst into a paroxysm
of rage, directing his wrath chiefly against the Athenians and
Euboeans who had dared to invade his dominions. "The Athenians!"
he exclaimed, "who are they?" Upon being told, he took his bow
and shot an arrow high into the air, saying, "Grant me, Jove,
to take vengeance upon the Athenians." He also charged one of
his attendants to call aloud to him thrice every day at dinner,
"Sire, remember the Athenians!" As soon, therefore, as Darius
had satisfied his vengeance against the Greek cities and islands
of Asia, he turned his attention to the Athenians and Euboeans,
in pursuance of his vow. He meditated, however, nothing less
than the conquest of all Greece; but the Persian fleet that was
to aid in carrying out his plans was checked in its progress,
off Mount Athos, by a storm so violent that it is said to have
destroyed three hundred vessels and over twenty thousand lives;
and his son-in-law, Mardo'nius, who had entered Thrace and Macedon
at the head of a large army, abruptly terminated his campaign and
recrossed the Hellespont to Asia.

* * * * *

II. THE FIRST PERSIAN WAR.

Darius, having renewed his preparations for the conquest of Greece,
sent heralds through the Grecian cities, demanding earth and
water as tokens of submission. Some of the smaller states,
intimidated by his power, submitted; but Athens and Sparta
haughtily rejected the demands of the Eastern monarch, and put
his heralds to death with cruel mockery, throwing one into a
pit and another into a well, and bidding them take thence their
earth and water.

In the spring of 490 B.C. a Persian fleet of six hundred ships,
conveying an army of 120,000 men, and guided by the aged tyrant
Hippias, directed its course toward the shores of Greece. Several
islands of the AEgean submitted without a struggle. Euboea was
severely punished; and with but little opposition the Persian
host landed and advanced to the plains of Marathon, within twenty
miles of Athens. The Athenians called on the Plataeans and the
Spartans for aid, and the former sent their entire force of one
thousand men; but the Spartans refused to give the much-needed
help, because it lacked a few days of the full moon, and it was
contrary to their religious customs to begin a march during this
interval. Meantime the Athenians had marched to Marathon, and
were encamped on the hills that surrounded the plain. Their army
numbered ten thousand men, and was commanded by Callim'achus, the
Pol'emarch or third Archon, and ten generals, among whom were
Milti'ades, Themis'tocles, and Aristi'des, who subsequently
acquired immortal fame. Five of the ten generals were afraid to
hazard a battle without the aid of the Spartans; but the arguments
of Miltiades finally prevailed upon Callimachus to give his casting
vote in favor of immediate action. Although the ten generals were
to command the whole army successively, each for one day, it was
agreed to invest Miltiades with the command at once, and intrust
to his military skill the fortunes of Athens. He immediately drew
up the little army in order of battle.

THE BATTLE OF MARATHON.

The Persians were extended in a line across the middle of the
plain, having their best troops in the center, while their fleet
was ranged behind them along the beach. The Athenians were drawn
up in a line opposite, but having their main strength in the
extreme wings of their army. Miltiades quickly advanced his
force across the mile of plain that separated it from the foe,
and fell upon the immense army of the Persians. As he had foreseen,
the center of his line was soon broken, while the extremities of
the enemy's line, made up of motley and undisciplined bands of
all nations, were routed and driven toward the shore, and into
the adjoining morasses. Miltiades now hastily concentrated his
two wings and directed their united force against the Persian
center, which, deeming itself victorious, was taken completely
by surprise. The Persians, defeated, fled in disorder to their
ships, but many perished in the marshes; the shore was strewn
with their dead, and seven of their ships were destroyed. Their
loss was six thousand four hundred; that of the Athenians, not
including the Plataeans, only one hundred and ninety two. Such,
in brief, was the famous battle of Marathon. The Persians were
strong in the terror of their name, and in the renown of their
conquests; and it required a most heroic resolution in the Athenians
to face a danger that they had not yet learned to despise.

LEGENDS OF THE BATTLE.

The victory at Marathon was viewed by the people as a deliverance
by the gods themselves. It is fabled that before the battle the
voice of the god Pan was heard in the mountains, uttering warnings
and threatenings to the Persians, and inspiring the Greeks with
courage. Hence the wonderful legends of the battle, in which
Theseus, Hercules, and other local heroes are represented as
engaging in the combat, and dealing death among the flying
barbarians. In the following lines MRS. HEMANS has embraced the
description which the Greeks gave of the appearance and deeds of
Theseus on that occasion:

There was one, a leader crowned,
And armed for Greece that day;
But the falchions made no sound
On his gleaming war array.
In the battle's front he stood,
With his tall and shadowy crest;
But the arrows drew no blood,
Though their path was through his vest.

His sword was seen to flash
Where the boldest deeds were done;
But it smote without a clash;
The stroke was heard by none!
His voice was not of those
Who swelled the rolling blast,
And his steps fell hushed like snows--
'Twas the shade of Theseus passed!

Far sweeping through the foe
With a fiery charge he bore;
And the Mede left many a bow
On the sounding ocean-shore.
And the foaming waves grew red,
And the sails were crowded fast,
When the sons of Asia fled,
As the shade of Theseus passed!
When banners caught the breeze,
When helms in sunlight shone,
When masts were on the seas,
And spears on Marathon.

It is said that to this day the peasant believes the field of
Marathon to be haunted with spectral warriors, whose shouts are
heard at midnight, borne on the wind, and rising above the din
of battle. Viewed in the light of such legends, the following
poem on Marathon, by PROFESSOR BLACKIE, is full of interest and
poetic beauty:

From Pentel'icus' pine-clad height
[Footnote: Pentelicus overhangs the south side of the plain of
Marathon.]
A voice of warning came,
That shook the silent autumn night
With fear to Media's name.
[Footnote: After the absorption of the Median kingdom into that
of Persia, the terms Mede and Persian were interchangeably used,
with little distinction.]
Pan, from his Marathonian cave,
[Footnote: Pan was said to have a famous cave near Marathon. For
the somewhat prominent part which Pan played in the great Persian
war, see Herodotus, vi. p.105.]
Sent screams of midnight terror.

And darkling horror curled the wave
On the broad sea's moonlit mirror.
Woe, Persia, woe! thou liest low--low!
Let the golden palaces groan!
Ye mothers weep for sons that shall sleep
In gore on Marathon.

Where Indus and Hydaspes roll,
Where treeless deserts glow,
Where Scythians roam beneath the pole,
O'er hills of hardened snow,
The great Darius rules: and now,
Thou little Greece, to thee
He comes: thou thin-soiled Athens, how
Shalt thou dare to be free?
There is a God that wields the rod
Above: by him alone
The Greek shall be free, when the Mede shall flee
In shame from Marathon.

He comes; and o'er the bright AEgean,
Where his masted army came,
The subject isles uplift the paean
Of glory to his name.
Strong Naxos, strong Ere'tria yield;
His captains near the shore
Of Marathon's fair and fateful field,
Where a tyrant marched before.
And a traitor guide, the sea beside,
Now marks the land for his own,
Where the marshes red shall soon be the bed
Of the Mede in Marathon.

Who shall number the host of the Mede?
Their high-tiered galleys ride,
Like locust-bands with darkening speed,
Across the groaning tide.
Who shall tell the many hoofed tramp
That shakes the dusty plain?
Where the pride of his horse is the strength of his camp,
Shall the Mede forget to gain?
O fair is the pride of the cohorts that ride,
To the eye of the morning shown!
But a god in the sky hath doomed them to lie
In dust on Marathon.

Dauntless, beside the sounding sea,
The Athenian men reveal
Their steady strength. That they are free
They know; and inly feel
Their high election, on that day,
In foremost fight to stand,
And dash the enslaving yoke away
From all the Grecian land.
Their praise shall sound the world around,
Who shook the Persian throne,
When the shout of the free travelled over the sea
From famous Marathon.

From dark Cithae'ron's sacred slope
The small Plataean band
Bring hearts that swell with patriot hope,
To wield a common brand
With Theseus' sons, at danger's gates,
While spellbound Sparta stands,
And for the pale moon's changes waits
With stiff and stolid hands;
And hath no share in the glory rare,
That Athens shall make her own,
When the long-haired Mede with fearful speed
Falls back from Marathon.

"On, sons of the Greeks!" the war-cry rolls;
"The land that gave you birth,
Your wives, and all the dearest souls
That circle round each hearth;
The shrines upon a thousand hills,
The memory of your sires,
Nerve now with brass your resolute wills,
And fan your valorous fires!"
And on like a wave came the rush of the brave--
"Ye sons of the Greeks, on, on!"
And the Mede stepped back from the eager attack
Of the Greek in Marathon.

Hear'st thou the rattling of spears on the right?
Seest thou the gleam in the sky?
The gods come to aid the Greeks in the fight,
And the favoring heroes are nigh.
The lion's hide I see in the sky,
And the knotted club so fell,
And kingly Theseus's conquering eye,
And Maca'ria, nymph of the well.
[Footnote: The nymph Macaria, daughter of Hercules, was said
to have a fountain on the field of Marathon. There is a well
near the north end of the plain, where the fountain is supposed
to have been.]
Purely, purely, the fount did flow,
When the morn's first radiance shone;
But eve shall know the crimson flow
Of its wave, by Marathon.

On, son of Cimon, bravely on!
[Footnote: Milti'ades, the general in command, whose father's
name was Cimon.]
And Aristides the just!
Your names have made the field your own,
Your foes are in the dust!
The Lydian satrap spurs his steed,
The Persian's bow is broken:
His purple pales; the vanquished Mede
Beholds the angry token
Of thundering Jove, who rules above;
And the bubbling marshes moan
[Footnote: There are two extensive marshes on the plain of
Marathon, one at each extremity. The Persians were driven back
into the marsh at the north end.]
With the trampled dead that have found their bed
In gore, at Marathon.

The ships have sailed from Marathon
On swift disaster's wings;
And an evil dream hath fetched a groan
From the heart of the king of kings.
An eagle he saw, in the shades of night,
With a dove that bloodily strove;
And the weak hath vanquished the strong in fight,
The eagle hath fled from the dove.
[Footnote: Reference is here made to A-tos'sa's dream, as
given by AEschylus in his tragedy of The Persians.]
Great Jove, that reigns in the starry plains,
To the heart of the king hath shown
That the boastful parade of his pride was laid
In dust at Marathon.

But through Pentelicus' winding vales
The hymn triumphal runs,
And high-shrined Athens proudly hails
Her free-returning sons.
And Pallas, from her ancient rock,
[Footnote: Pallas, or Minerva.]
With her shield's refulgent round,
Blazes; her frequent worshippers flock,
And high the paeans sound,
How in deathless glory the famous story
Shall on the winds be blown,
That the long-haired Mede was driven with speed
By the Greeks, from Marathon.

And Greece shall be a hallowed name,
While the sun shall climb the pole,
And Marathon fan strong freedom's flame
In many a pilgrim soul.
And o'er that mound where heroes sleep,
[Footnote: This famous mound is still to be seen on the
battle-field.]
By the waste and reedy shore,
Full many a patriot eye shall weep,
Till Time shall be no more.
And the bard shall brim with a holier hymn,
When he stands by that mound alone,
And feel no shrine on earth more divine
Than the dust of Marathon.

THE DEATH OF MILTIADES.

Soon after the Persian defeat, Miltiades, who at first received
all the honors that a grateful people could bestow, met a fate
that casts a melancholy gloom over his history, and that has
often been cited in proof of the assertion that "republics are
fickle and ungrateful." History shows, however, that the Athenians
were not greatly in the wrong in their treatment of Miltiades. He
obtained of them the command of an expedition whose destination
was known to himself alone; assuring them of the honorableness
and the success of the enterprise. But much treasure was spent,
many lives were lost, and through the seeming treachery of
Miltiades the expedition terminated in disaster and disgrace.
It was found, upon investigation, that the motive of the expedition
was private resentment against a prominent citizen of Paros.
Miltiades was therefore condemned to death; but gratitude for
his previous valuable services mitigated the penalty to a fine
of fifty talents. His death occurred soon after, from a wound
that he received in a fall while at Paros, and the fine was paid
by his son Cimon.

As GROTE well observes, "The fate of Miltiades, so far from
illustrating either the fickleness or the ingratitude of his
countrymen, attests their just appreciation of deserts. It also
illustrates another moral of no small importance to the right
comprehension of Grecian affairs; it teaches us the painful lesson
how perfectly maddening were the effects of a copious draught of
glory on the temperament of an enterprising and ambitious Greek.
There can be no doubt that the rapid transition, in the course
of about one week, from Athenian terror before the battle to
Athenian exultation after it, must have produced demonstrations
toward Miltiades such as were never paid to any other man in the
whole history of the commonwealth. Such unmeasured admiration
unseated his rational judgment, so that his mind became abandoned
to the reckless impulses of insolence, antipathy, and rapacity--
that distempered state for which (according to Grecian morality)
the retributive Nemesis was ever on the watch, and which, in his
case, she visited with a judgment startling in its rapidity, as
well as terrible in its amount." [Footnote: "History of Greece,"
Chap. xxxvi.]

But, as GILLIES remarks, "The glory of Miltiades survived him.
At the distance of half a century, when the battle of Marathon
was painted by order of the state, it was ordered that the figure
of Miltiades be placed in the foreground, animating the troops
to victory--a reward which, during the virtuous simplicity of
the ancient commonwealth, conferred more real honor than all
that magnificent profusion of crowns and statues which, in the
later times of the republic, were rather extorted by general
fees than bestowed by public admiration." [See Oration of
AEsehines, pp. 424-426.]

ARISTI'DES AND THEMIS'TOCLES.

After the death of Miltiades, Themistocles and Aristides became
the most prominent men among the Athenians. The former, a most
able statesman, but influenced by ambitious motives, aimed to
make Athens great and powerful that he himself might rise to
greater eminence; while the later was a pure patriot, wholly
destitute of selfish ambition, and knew no cause but that of
justice and the public welfare. The poet THOMSON thus
characterizes him:

Then Aristides lifts his honest front;
Spotless of heart, to whom the unflattering voice
Of Freedom gave the name of Just.
In pure majestic poverty revered;
Who, e'en his glory to his country's weal
Submitting, swelled a haughty rival's fame.

But the very integrity of Aristides made for him secret enemies,
who, although they charged him with no crimes, were yet able to
procure his banishment by the process of ostracism, in which his
great rival, Themistocles, took a leading part. This kind of
condemnation was not inflicted as a punishment, but as a
precautionary measure against a degree of personal popularity
that might be deemed dangerous to the public welfare. The process
was as follows: In an assembly of the people each man was at
liberty to write on a shell the name of the person whom he wished
to have banished, and if six thousand votes or more were recorded,
that person against whom the greatest number of votes had been
given was banished for ten years, but with leave to enjoy his
estate, and return after that period. PLUTARCH relates the
following incident connected with the banishment of Aristides:
"An illiterate burgher coming to Aristides, whom he took for
some ordinary person, and giving him his shell, desired him to
write 'Aristides' upon it. The good man, surprised at the
adventure, asked him 'Whether Aristides had ever injured him?'
'No,' said he, 'nor do I even know him; but it vexes me to hear
him everywhere called the Just.' Aristides made no answer, but
took the shell, and, having written his own name upon it,
returned it to the man. When he quitted Athens, he lifted up
his hands toward heaven, and, agreeably to his character, made
a prayer, very different from that of Achilles; namely, 'that
the people of Athens might never see the day which should force
them to remember Aristides.'"

But it was, perhaps, fortunate for the liberties of Greece that
Themistocles, instead of Aristides, was left in full power at
Athens. "The peculiar faculty of his mind," says THIRLWALL, "which
Thucydides contemplated with admiration, was the quickness with
which it seized every object that came in its way, perceived the
course of action required by new situations and sudden junctures,
and penetrated into remote consequences. Such were the abilities
which were most needed at this period for the service of Athens."
Soon after the battle of Marathon a war had broken out between
Athens and AEgina, which still continued, and which gave
Themistocles an opportunity to exercise his powers of ready
invention and prompt execution. AEgina was one of the wealthiest
of the Grecian islands, and possessed the most powerful navy in
all Greece. Themistocles soon saw that to successfully cope with
this formidable rival, as well as rise to a higher rank among the
Grecian states, Athens must become a great maritime power. He
therefore obtained the consent of the Athenians to devote a large
surplus then in the public treasury, but which belonged to
individual citizens, to the building of a hundred galleys; and,
by this sacrifice of individual emolument to the general good,
the Athenian navy was increased to two hundred ships. But the
foresight of Themistocles extended still farther, and it was no
less his design, in making Athens a first-class maritime power,
to protect her against Persia, which, as he well knew, was preparing
for another and still more formidable attack on Greece.

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