40 INTRODUCTION. 



was every where defeated, by sea and land, and escaped to Asia in 

 a fishing-boat. Such was the spirit of the Greeks, and so well did 

 they know, that, " wanting virtue, life is pain and woe ; that want- 

 ing liberty, even virtue mourns, and looks around for happiness in 

 vain." But, though the Persian war concluded gloriously for the 

 Greeks, it is in a great measure to this war that the subsequent 

 misfortunes of that nation are to be attributed. It was not the 

 battles in which they suffered the loss of so many brave men, but. 

 those in which they acquired the spoils of Persia ; it was not their 

 enduring so many hardships in the course of the war, but their 

 connexions with the Persians after the conclusion of it ; which sub- 

 verted the Grecian establishments, and ruined the most virtuous 

 confederacy that ever existed upon earth. The Greeks became 

 haughty after their victories. Delivered from the common enemy, 

 they began to quarrel among themselves ; and their quarrels were 

 increased by Persian gold, of which they had acquired enough to 

 •p p make them desirous of more. Hence proceeded the famous 



' ' Peloponnesian war, in which the Athenians and Laceclae- 

 ' monians acted as principals, and cbrew after them the other 

 states of Greece. They continued to weaken themselves by these 

 intestine divisions, till Philip, king of Macedon (a country till this 

 time little known, but which, by the active and crafty genius of that 

 prince, became important and powerful) rendered himself the abso- 

 rb p lute master of Greece, by the battle of Chaeronea. But this 



' q ' conquest is one of the first we meet with in history, which 

 did not depend on the event of a battle. Philup had laid his 

 scheme so deeply, and by bribery, premises, and intrigues, gained 

 over such a number of considerable persons in the several states of 

 Greece to his interest, that another day would have put in his pos- 

 session what Chaeronea had denied him. The Greeks had lost 

 that virtue which was the basis of their confederacy. Their 

 popular governments served only to give a sanction to their licen- 

 tiousness and corruption. The principal orators in most of their 

 states were bribed in the service of Philip, and all the eloquence 

 of a Demosthenes, assisted by truth and virtue, was unequal to the 

 mean but more seductive arts of his opponents, who, by flattering 

 the people, used the surest method of gaining their affections. 



Philip had proposed to extend the boundaries of his empire beyond 

 the narrow limits of Greece. But he did not long survive the 

 battle of Chaeronea. Upon his decease his son Alexander was 

 chosen general against the Persians, by all the Grecian states, 

 ■d r except the Athenians and Thebans. These made a feeble 

 • ' ' effort for expiring liberty ; but they were obliged to yield to 

 ' superior force. Secure on the side of Greece, Alexander set 

 out on his Persian expedition, at the head of thirty thousand foot, 

 and five thousand horse. The success of this army in conquering 

 the whole force of Darius in three great battles, in overrunning and 

 subduing, not only the countries then known to the Greeks, but 

 many parts of India, whose very names had never before reached 

 an Em-opean ear, has been described by many authors, both ancient 

 •j, p and modern, and constitutes a singular part of the history of 



„' ' the world. Soon after this rapid career of victory and suc- 

 cess, Alexander died at Babylon. His captains, after sacrific- 

 ing all his family to their ambition, divided among them his do- 

 minions. 



