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the jealous dread, which the court of Susa at this time entertained 

 of the rising power and ambitious views of Athens, than the conduct 

 of Xerxes, in renewing, with that power, after so public and 

 disastrous a defeat, in the ensuing spring, those hostilities, which 

 the re-assembling of his dispersed forces, still numerous and formi- 

 dable, enabled him to carry on with energy. Grown wise, however, 

 from sad experience, Xerxes advanced not in person beyond the 

 walls of Sardis. Mardonius was once more appointed commander- 

 in-chief; but, before he struck the important blow which was 

 intended to annihilate Greece, he was directed to hold out the 

 olive-branch of peace to the Athenians at least, at that time the 

 inspiring soul of the vast confederated body. Little as Xerxes 

 could reasonably flatter himself that the Athenians would be duped 

 by so shallow an artifice, intended, under the mask of friendship, 

 to detach them from their allies and weaken the confederacy, the 

 attempt was resolved upon ; and, by the singular caprice of for- 

 tune, it was decided that an Alexander, then king of Macedonia, 

 should be the herald of the auspicious tidings ; an Alexander 

 should plead the cause of an Asiatic despot ; an Alexander propose 

 to rivet the chain of Persia on the prostrate neck of Athens. The 

 embassy was received at Athens with merited contempt, and the 

 remembrance alone of the alliance and friendship that had sub- 

 sisted, for many generations, between the two kingdoms of Athens 

 and Macedon, preserved the royal messenger from obloquy and 

 insult. Alexander, however, we shall find, not long afterwards 

 effaced the guilt of this liberticidal conduct by an undertaking 

 essential to the salvation of Greece; an undertaking fraught 

 with uncommon hazard, and executed with the most undaunted 

 courage. 



The proffered friendship of Persia, and her proposals of ample 

 indemnification for expences incurred and damages suffered during 



