THE AGE OF PERICLES. 57 



Athens absorbed and difl'uscd the glory of all Greece. Now she medita- 

 ted not so much upon her personal security as her foreign conquests. 

 She became arrogant and sought to give laws to others. 



As the laws of Solon, by consolidating the government, and making 

 it efficient, prepared the way for the conquests of the Age of Themisto- 

 cles and Aristides, so the latter gave occasion to the introduction of the 

 luxuries of foreign countries and furnished the most abundant leisure 

 and means for their enjoyment. 



The condition of Athens during the age of Pericles, which includes 

 about a half century from the battle of Platea to the memorable Pelo- 

 ponnesian war, is biiefly given in the language of a distinguished histo- 

 rian, (Gillies) : '••A single republic, one of Sixteen States, whose united 

 possessions hardly equalled the extent of Scotland, and whose particu- 

 lar territory is scarcely visible in a map of the world, carried on an of- 

 fensive war against the Persian empire, and, though surrounded by jeal- 

 ous allies and open enemies, prosecuted this extraordinary enterprise 

 with unexampled success : at length, granting such conditions of peace 

 as the pride of victory may dictate and the weight of accumulated dis- 

 asters condescended to solicit or accept. In that narrow space of time 

 the same republic erected on the feeble basis of her scanty population 

 and diminutive territory a migiity mass of empire; established and con- 

 firmed her authority over the extent of a thousand miles of the Asiatic 

 coast, from Cyprus to the Thraciun Bosphorus; took possession of the 

 forty intermediate islands, together with the important straits which join 

 the Euxine and ^gean seas; conquered and colonized the winding 

 shores of Macedon and Thrace ; commanded! the coast of the Euxine 

 power Pontus to the Chersonesus Taurica, or Crim Tartary ; and over- 

 awing the barbarous natives by the experienced terrors of her fleet, 

 protected against their injustice and violence, but at the same time con- 

 verted to the purposes of her own ambition and interest, the numerous 

 but scattered colonies which Miletus and other Greek cities of Asia had 

 at various times established in those remote regions. Our wonder will 

 be justly increased, when we consider that Athens obtained those im- 

 mortal trophies, not over ignorant savages, or effeminate slaves, but over 

 men who had the same language and laws, the same blood and lineage, 

 the same arts and arms, in short every thing common with the victors 

 but their audacity and fortune. " 



But the glory o^f Athens did not consist merely nor chiefly in her 

 conquests and extensive possession. The arts of peace were no less in- 

 dustriously cultivated than those of war. Whilst her fleets rode in tri- 

 umph throughout the length and breadth of the Mediterranean, they as- 



