486 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



is the Soros or funeral mound, raised by the Athenians, at Marathon, 

 as a tomb for their fellow countrymen who fell on the spot in battle. 

 The marble lion, which originally stood guard upon its summit, long 

 ago disappeared but the tumulus itself, thirty feet high and two hun- 

 dred paces in circumference, was excavated by the Greek government 

 in 1890. Nine feet below the present surface of the surrounding plain 

 was found an artificial floor, 85 feet long and 20 feet wide, upon which 

 rested a layer of ashes, charcoal and human bones. A trench was sub- 

 sequently discovered which contained the remains of the victims sacri- 

 ficed to the dead heroes. The black figured vases, found with the 

 bones and ashes of the dead, belong to the period of the Persian Wars, 

 and there is no doubt but that the human remains are those of the one 

 hundred and ninety- two Athenians that Herodotus says (Book 6, Sec. 

 117) fell at Marathon on the glorious day. 



And more than this, the Greek showed his devotion to his citizen- 

 soldier not only in the flush of victory but also when defeat turned the 

 splendid anticipations of the patriot into a " Lost Cause," in which the 

 commonwealth went down to its doom in the train of Philip, King of 

 Macedon. The Sacred Band, at Chseronea (338 B.C.), fell fighting 

 to a man, and they made " Chaeronea," forever, the symbol of a struggle 

 for liberty. Here, too, the Athenians raised a tomb to their heroes, 

 glorious in their defeat, and the mound and fragments of the Marble 

 Lion of Chasronea are still to be seen on the road to Thebes. The 

 Greek raised his monument to the glorious deeds performed by the 

 volunteer in arms, and in it did not seem to be aware of death or defeat 

 which are apt to characterize the modern testimonial, but looked beyond 

 and above all those inevitable incidents and reared a memorial of in- 

 comparable value to the national cause and a miraculous inspiration 

 to brilliant patriotic endeavor — a symbol not of gloom, but of glory, 

 fame and triumph. 



Nor did the spirit of democratic Athens content itself with cheers 

 for the dying and offer but a crust for the living; for at a very early 

 period — at least twenty-five centuries ago — a systematic provision for 

 the disabled veteran soldier of the people was entered upon by Solon 

 and continued in apparently unbroken observance down to the day of 

 Chgeronea, when the nation lost her sovereignty, soon to be merged in 

 the world-projects of Alexander the Great. In the sixth century before 

 Christ, Solon had a law passed in the case of the wounded soldier, Ther- 

 sippus — the first name on a pension-roll in history — by which it was 

 decreed that he and all others thereafter "who were maimed in war 

 should be supported at the pubilc expense." 7 



Even Peisistratus, constitutional tyrant at Athens that he was, sub- 

 sequently endorsed and followed the precedent set by Solon, in this re- 



7 Plutarch, "Lives," Solon, Chap. 31. 



