'THE GLORY THAT WAS GREECE" 



010 



^M^ftr . 



THE TRAIIv OF THE) TURK IN ATHENS 



A hundred years ago Athens was in the hands of the Turk, and the modern city contains many 



quarters of oriental appearance. 



The railway leads toward the northwest, 

 traversing the Attic plain and the Plain 

 of Bceotia and boldly scaling the rocky 

 fastnesses of Phocis and Doris. Since 

 the completion of this line to Lamia, the 

 wise traveler goes to that point and from 

 there rides to the battlefield. 



Thermopylae, as its name indicates, was 

 so called because of certain hot springs 

 which rise at the foot of the mountain 

 and flow across the plain to the sea. The 

 water in the springs is quite clear, but in 

 its passage through the plain it appears an 

 exquisite bluish green color, with at times 

 a tint not unlike lapis lazuli when the sun 

 is at a certain angle. 



The plain to-day is in some places 

 nearly three miles broad and covered with 

 a heavy underbrush. Many changes must 

 have taken place in the topography of the 

 country, for the pass held by Leonidas 

 and his band was less than 200 feet 

 wide — a wall of rock on one side, the sea 

 on the other. 



In looking on this scene it is hard in- 

 deed not to philosophize a little, recalling 

 that the dauntless courage in the face of 

 certain death displayed at the time gave to 



the Greeks a moral ascendancy over these 

 adversaries which was never lost. Herod- 

 otus tells us that at one time "the very 

 name of the Medes deepened the terror 

 of the Greeks." 



It is with a pang of regret that one 

 searches almost in vain in Greek annals 

 for other examples of fortitude and jus- 

 tice and austere virtue which frequently 

 characterized the Romans — a Regulus 

 pleading for a continuance of war, al- 

 though it involved his own shameful 

 death ; a Brutus delivering his own son to 

 the executioner ; a Lucrece preferring 

 death to dishonor ; a Virginius slaying his 

 own child that she might remain un- 

 sullied. 



Yet a Spartan mother — she who bore 

 Pausanias — and Leonidas of Thermop- 

 ylae occupy places of "high collateral 

 glory" with those Romans. Who can 

 doubt that the real victor at Thermopylae 

 was Leonidas and not Xerxes ? 



It is related of these Spartans that cer- 

 tain games wherein the loser would be 

 obliged to declare himself beaten were 

 forbidden by the rulers, for it was found 

 that many youths preferred to give up 



