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in some confusion. Some were tending their horses, some unbuckling their breastplates, when they were surprised by the charge of the deep and heavy column of Boeotian troops, which Epaminondas had swiftly put in order for attack. The Spartans fought bravely, but under the disadvantage which disorder always occasions, they were unable to recover themselves at once. Epaminondas seized the moment to lead a band of chosen troops directly upon the enemy's center. The Mantineans and Spartans turned and fled; but at this moment the Theban general fell, pierced with a mortal wound. His followers stood paralyzed with dismay, unable to pursue and reap the advantage he had prepared for them. The Spartans acknowledged themselves defeated, by requesting permission to bury their dead, but both armies erected trophies of victory.

246. Epaminondas, with the spear-head in his breast, was carried off the field. He first assured himself that the battle was won, then tried to make a disposition of his command; but the two generals whom he would have chosen were already slain. "Then make peace," was his last public command. The spear-head was now removed, and with the rush of blood which followed it, his life passed away. No Greek ever more truly merited, by character and talent, the title "Great." Many of the worthiest who succeeded him took him for their model; and even the Christian ages have seen none who better fulfilled the description of a brave knight, "without fear and without reproach." The greatness of Thebes began and ended with his public career. After the fatal result of the battle of Mantinea, she fell to her former position.

247. Peace was made, leaving all parties in the same position as before the war. Agesilaus, untamed by his eighty years, sought a field of glory beyond the sea. Tachos, king of Egypt, had asked the aid of Sparta in his revolt against Persia. Agesilaus went to his assistance, at the head of a thousand heavy-armed troops. The appearance of the little, lame old man, utterly destitute of the retinue or splendor of a king, excited the ridicule of the Egyptians; but when he transferred his aid from Tachos to Nectanʼabis, who had risen against him, the importance of the little Spartan was felt, for Nectanabis obtained the throne. Agesilaus did not live to bear back to Sparta his honors and rewards. He died on the road to Cyrene, and his body, embalmed in wax, was conveyed with great pomp to his native city. An ancient oracle had foretold that Sparta would lose her power under a lame sovereign. It was now fulfilled, but through no fault of the king. Agesilaus had all the virtues of his countrymen, without their common faults of avarice and deceit; and he added a warmth and tenderness in friendship which Spartans rarely possessed. He has been called "Sparta's most perfect citizen and most consummate general, in many ways, perhaps, her greatest man."

B. C. 361.

248. THE SOCIAL WAR. Athens still maintained her wars in the north;

by sea against Alexander of Pheræ, and by land against Macedonia and the Thracian princes. The second period of Athenian greatness reached its height in the year 358, when Euboea, the Chersonesus, and Amphipolis. were again subdued. In that year a serious revolt, called the Social War, was begun by Rhodes, Cos, Chios, and Byzantium. Sestus and other towns on the Hellespont joined in the quarrel, and Mauso'lus, king of Caria, sent aid to the insurgents. The war was inglorious and exhaustive to Athens. To obtain means of paying their sailors, the commanders aided Artabazus in his revolt against Persia, and thereby incurred the vengeance of the great king. Athens had to consent to the independence of the four rebel states, in order to avoid still greater losses and calamities. During the four years that her attention had been thus absorbed, Philip of Macedon had been able to grasp all her dependencies on the Thermaic Gulf, and thus to extend his power as far as the Peneus.

B. C. 357.

249. THE SACRED WAR. During the progress of the Social War, another fatal quarrel began in central Greece, through the enmity of Thebes and Phocis. Driven to fight for their existence, the Phocians seized the sacred treasures at Delphi, which enabled them to raise and maintain a large army of mercenaries, and even to bribe some of the neighboring states either to aid them or remain neutral. Their first general, Philome lus, was defeated and slain at Titho ́His brother, Onomar'chus, who succeeded to his command, used the Delphian treasures with still less scruple, beside confiscating the property of all who opposed him. By these means he conquered Locris and Doris, invaded Bœotia, and captured Orchomenus.

rea.

250. Lyc ́ophron, tyrant of Pheræ, now sought his aid against Philip of Macedon, whose increasing power pressed heavily upon Thessaly. Phaÿl'lus, who first led a force to the aid of Lycophron, was defeated; but Onomarchus himself marched into Thessaly, worsted the king in two pitched battles, and drove him from the country. He then returned into Boeotia, where he captured Coronæa, but was recalled into Thessaly by another invasion of Philip. This time his fortune changed; he was defeated, and, with many other fugitives, plunged into the sea, hoping to reach the Athenian ships which were lying off shore to watch the battle. He perished, and his body, falling into the hands of Philip, was crucified as a punishment of his sacrilege.

B. C. 352.

251. This battle secured the ascendency of Philip in Thessaly. He established a more popular government in Phere, took and garrisoned Magnesia, and then advanced upon Thermopylæ. The Athenians anticipated the danger, and guarded the pass with a strong force. But the liberty of Greece was destined to be sacrificed to her internal dissensions. The Sacred War had continued eleven years, when the Thebans called in the aid of Philip to complete the destruction of Phocis. The Athenians

now remained neutral, and Philip passed Thermopyla without opposition. In a short campaign he crushed Phocis, and was admitted as a member of the Amphictyonic Council, in the place of the conquered state.

B. C. 349.

252. Athens was now the only power in Greece capable of opposing the Macedonian king, and Athens was no longer possessed of a Miltiades, a Conon, or a Themistocles. A great orator, however, had arisen, and when Olynthus sent envoys to implore aid against the invader, who was now attacking the Chalcidian cities, the eloquence of Demosthenes aroused some faint show of their former spirit. The attempted rescue was defeated, however, by treachery within the walls; and, in 347, Olynthus fell. The threefold peninsula was now in the power of Philip, and he was able to push his interests throughout Greece rather by intrigue than force. Even in Athens a powerful party, sustained by his bribes, labored to undermine the efforts of the true patriots, of whom Demosthenes was chief. Æs'chines was the mouth-piece of the Macedonian party, an orator second only to Demosthenes himself, and won to Philip's side, probably, more by flatteries than gifts. He constantly urged peace with the king, while Demosthenes, as soon as he perceived the extent of Philip's designs, opposed them with all the unsparing vehemence of his nature. His Philippics are the most forcible examples in any language of bold and eloquent opposition to an unjust usurpation of power.

B. C. 339.

253. In 340, war was declared on account of the aggressions of Philip on the Bosphorus; and the Second Sacred War, which broke out in the following year, gave him a reason for again passing Thermopyla. He was now appointed general-in-chief of the Amphictyonic forces, and thus gained a position in the very heart of Greece, which he did not fail to use for his own advantage.

254. The Thebans, in alarm, applied to Athens for aid, which was not refused. The armies met in battle at Chæronea, and the Aug. 7, B. C. 338. victory of Philip gave the death-blow to Grecian independence. All the states except Sparta acknowledged his sovereignty, and he was made generalissimo of the Hellenic forces in the war now projected against Persia. To overawe the hostility of Sparta, he marched through the Peloponnesus to the southern extremity, and returned by the western coast, meeting no serious opposition.

Philip's death by assassination interrupted the movement against the Persians, and for a moment revived the hopes of the patriots; but the Macedonian party prevailed under the youthful Alexander, who surpassed his father both as general and as king.

RECAPITULATION.

Sparta destroyed the Olynthian confederacy, and seized upon Thebes, which was rescued after three years by Pelopidas and his fellow exiles. Athens regained her dominion both in the eastern and western seas, while Thebes became

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the head of the new Boeotian League. The treaty of Callias secured peace among all the states, except Thebes and Sparta. The victory of Epaminondas over the Spartans at Leuctra established the Theban supremacy, which was recognized and supported by the Persians during the remaining years of his life. He four times invaded Peloponnesus; organized an Arcadian confederacy, with the new city, Megalopolis, at its head; restored the exiled Messenians to the lands of their ancestors; twice attacked Sparta itself; and, finally, triumphed and fell at Mantinea. Agesilaus died on his return from Egypt, where his aid had secured the throne to Nectanabis. Athens declined from her second period of greatness in consequence of the Social War, B. C. 357-355. The Phocians, with the Delphic treasures which they confiscated, gained ascendency in central Greece, but lost it in war with Philip of Macedon. This king ended the Sacred War (B. C. 357–316) by the destruction of Phocis, assumed her place in the Amphictyonic Council, conquered the Chalcidian peninsulas, led the allied forces in the Second Sacred War, and by his victory at Charonea established his supremacy over Greece. His son Alexander inherited his civil and military command.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW.

Book III.

1. By what names has Greece been known?

2. What tribes were included among the Hellenes?

3. What foreigners aided to civilize Greece?

4. Describe three of the Greek heroes.

5. What can be said of the siege of Troy?

6. What was the state of the country and people in the Heroic Age? 7. Describe the kings.

8. What connections between Greek and Asiatic religions?

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10. What bearing had Greek belief upon human conduct? 11. What foreign ceremonies were borrowed by the Greeks? 12. What is known of the Mysteries?

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16. What political changes at the close of the Heroic Age?
17. What were the bonds of union among the Greeks?
18. Describe the games and the rewards of victors.
19. Recount the history of Argos.

28.

9.

10.

11-13.

14.

11, 17-20.

15, 16.

21.

23.

25.

26, 27, 29. 28. 30-32.

33, 34.

35-37, 85, 86. 38.

39, 42. 40, 41.

20. What were the condition and government of Sparta, B. C. 900 ? 21. Describe the discipline of Lycurgus.

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23. What was the character of Spartan influence in Greece?
24. What difference of character between Athenians and Spartans?
25. What changes in Athenian government within 400 years?
26. Describe the laws of Draco and their results.
27. What political parties in Attica?

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43.

44-46.

47-53.

55-61.

62.

63.

64, 65.

66, 67. 68.

69, 70, 74. 71-73. 75.

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37. What dangers threatened Athens at this time?

38. What ceremonies attended the founding of Greek colonies?
39. Describe the colonies in Italy.
10.

In Gaul, Sicily, Africa, Thrace.

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3 76.

77.

78.

79, 80.

81.

82.

83.

81.

87-89.

91-94.

95-97.

98, 99.

101, 102.

103, 104, 116, 117, 130, 132. 104-109, 113-117, 130, 136, 138.

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The condition of Athens.

51. Describe the campaign in Bœotia.

52.

53. What changes in the rank and politics of Athens? 54. Tell the story of Pausanias.

55. Describe the rise of the Delian Confederacy.

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61. Describe the battle of Coronæa, and its consequences to Athens.

The Samian revolt.

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The war between Corinth and Corcyra.

The Theban attack upon Platæa.

65. How was Greece divided in the Peloponnesian War?

66. What was the condition of Athens during the first two years? 67. Describe the siege of Platea.

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80. What part was taken by Persia in the Peloponnesian War? 192-194, 198, 201, 204. 81. What occurred at Egos-Potami?

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