THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. 49 



This small people, who inhabited a country, of 

 small extent, were not only able by their courage 

 and military skill to check this powerful invader, 

 but they had made such a proficiency in knowledge, 

 and in the arts, that we may now say every attain- 

 ment modern Europe has made has been facilita- 

 ted by knowledge drawn from them. The origin of 

 this singular people is uncertain, the first time ihey 

 made any conspicuous figure in the annals of his- 

 tory, was in the Trojan war, which has been render- 

 ed immortal by the poems of Homer. 



At that time they were divided into small king- 

 doms, under limited monarchs, all of which before 

 the Persian invasion were formed into republics. 



The Persian King Darius, despised such feeble 

 antagonists, but hoth he and his son Xerxes soon 

 learned by fatal experience, the advantage of val- 

 our and discipline, overturned multitudes. After 

 the loss of immense armies, the Kings of Persia 

 contented themselves with fomenting the differen- 

 ces which began to arise among the Grecian repub- 

 lics, in which Athens and Sparta took the lead ; and 

 remaining anxious spectators of the bloody wars, 

 which they made with each other, when freed from 

 the apprehensions of a foreign enemy. 



While Greece was thus wasting her strength in 

 wars at home, great jealousy was still entertained, 

 lest the common enemy the King of Persia, 

 should take the advantage of her weakness, to ac- 

 complish his ambitious designs, when a storm un- 

 expectedly burst on them from another quarter. 



There was a country to the north of Greece. 

 G 



