EUCLASSIC. 207 



Hercules, who became sovereigns of the Peloponnesian states, 1104 

 B. C.; and the self-sacrifice of Codrus, the last king of Athens, to 

 secure his country the victory, 1070 B. C., we can only thus briefly 

 mention. The Laws of Lycurgus, were promulgated in Sparta, 

 884 B. C.; and those of Solon, in Athens, 594 B. C.; the era of 

 the Olympic games intervening. The Wars with Persia, com- 

 menced with the burning of Sardis, a Greek city, by Darius Hys- 

 taspes ; whose forces were defeated by Miltiades, at Marathon, 490 

 B. C. The renewal of the war by Xerxes, and his invasion of 

 Greece, led to the self-immolation of Leonidas, at Thermopylae, 480 

 B. C.; the naval victory of Aristides and Themistocles, at Salamis, 

 the same year; and the battles of Platsca, gained by Aristides and 

 Pausanias, and Mycale, gained by Cimon, in the year following. 

 The Peloponnesian Pf r ar, between Athens and Sparta, began 431 

 B. C., and continued 27 years, when, after the death of Pericles, by 

 the great Plague, Athens was completely humbled, and subjected to 

 the thirty tyrants, appointed over it by Ly sunder of Sparta. The 

 retreat of Xenophon, and the 10,000 Greeks, who were subsidized by 

 Cyrus of Persia, took place 401 B. C. 



The kingdom of Macedonia, was founded by Caranus, 814 B. C. 

 Under Philip, it aspired to universal empire ; and his designs were 

 completed by Alexander the Great, his son and successor. Alexan- 

 der became master of all Greece, 336 B. C. ; gained his first victory 

 over the Persians, at the river Granicus, two years after ; and having 

 extended his conquests from Egypt to India, died in Babylon, 323 

 B. C. He was succeeded in Macedonia by Antipater, and soon 

 after by Cassander ; but the Peloponnesian states resumed their 

 independence, and formed the Achaean League, 284 B. C. Greece 

 first became obnoxious to Rome, when Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, 

 led an army to aid the Tarentines against the Romans, 280 B. C. 

 Greece was invaded in its turn; Philip of Macedon was defeated by 

 the Romans, at Cynocephalx, 197 B. C., and subjugated by them at 

 the battle of Pydna, 168 B. C. The .Achaean League, was next 

 defeated by Metellus, 147 B. C. ; and in the following year, Mum- 

 mius destroyed Corinth; when Greece became entirely subject to 

 the Romans, 146 B. C. 



6. The History of Rome, naturally succeeds the more ancient 

 history of Italy. The earliest settlers in Italy appear to have been 

 the Pelasgi, probably from Asia, 1700 B. C. ; and the Sabines and 

 Etrusci, or Etrurians, next in antiquity, were perhaps of the same 

 race. Evander is said to have led a colony from Arcadia to Italy, 

 1243 B. C. ; and the Ausones, and (Enotri, probably migrated thither 

 from Greece, after the escape of ^Eneas from Troy, and his arrival 

 in Latium, 1182 B. C., as immortalized in the ^Eneid of Virgil. 

 Rome is said to have been founded by Romulus, a reputed descend- 

 ant of ^Eneas, 754 B. C. ; it being at first a small castle on mount 

 Palatine. The seizure of the Sabine women, involved Romulus in 

 a war; which ended in a temporary alliance of most of the Sabines 

 with the Romans, 750 B. C. Numa Pompilius, the second king, 

 founded the religious system of the Romans ; and Tullus Hostilius 

 conquered the Albans, by the victory of the Horatii over the Curiatii, 



