goj. ATT 
Alcmteonidae ; and of the other; Ifagoras, a man of great 
quality, and highly in favour with the Athenian nobility. 
Clyfthenes applied himfelf to the people, and endeavour¬ 
ed to gain their affection by increafing their power as much 
as poffible. Ifagoras, perceiving that by this means his ri¬ 
val would get the better, applied to the Lacedemonians for 
ailiftance, reviving at the fame time the old (lory of Me- 
gacles’s facrilege, and infifting that Clyfthenes ought to be 
banifhed as being of the family of Megacles. Cleomenes 
king of Sparta readily came into his meafures, and dif- 
patched a herald to Athens with a declaration of war, in 
cafe all the Alcmaeonidte were not immediately banilhed. 
The Athenians did not hefitate to banifli their benefatflor 
Clyfthenes, and all his relations; but this ingratitude did 
not anfwer their purpole. Cleomenes entered Attica at 
the head of a Spartan army ; and, arriving at Athens, con¬ 
demned to banifhment 700 families more than what had 
been fent into exile before. Not content with this, he 
would have dilfolved the fenate, and veiled the govern¬ 
ment in 300 of the chief of Ifagoras’s faction. This the 
Athenians would by no means fubmit to; and therefore 
took up arms, and drove Cleomenes and his troops into 
the citadel, where they were befieged for two days. On 
the third day Cleomenes furrendered, on condition that all 
thofe w ho were in the citadel fliould retire unmolefted. 
This, though agreed to, was not performed by the Athe¬ 
nians. They fell upon fuch as were feparated from the 
army, and put them to death without mercy. Among 
the number of thofe who fell on this was Timefitheus the 
brother of Cleomenes. 
The Spartan king was no fooner withdrawn from Athens, 
-than he formed a ftpongCombination in favour of Ifagoras. 
He engaged the Boeotians to attack Attica on the one fide, 
and the Chalcidians on the other, while he at the head of 
a powerful army entered the territories of Eleufina. In 
this diftrefs, the Athenians, not being able to cope with fo 
many enemies at once, refolved to fuif'er their territories 
to be ravaged by the Chalcidians and Boeotians, content¬ 
ing themfelves with oppofing the army commanded by 
Cleomenes in perfon. But this powerful confederacy was 
quickly dilfolved : the Corinthians, who were allied with 
Cleomenes, doubting the juftice of their cuufe, returned 
home; his other allies likevvife beginning to waver, and 
his colleague Arifton, the other king of Sparta, differing 
in fentiment, Cleomenes was obliged to abandon the en- 
terprife. The Spartans and their allies being withdrawn, 
the Athenians look a fevere revenge of the Boeotians and 
Chalcidians, totally routing their forces, and carrying off 
a great number of prifoners. The prifoners taken in this 
war were put in irons, but afterwards fet at liberty on pay¬ 
ing a ranfom of two minae per head. Their fetters were, 
however, hung up in the citadel; and the Athenians, con- 
fecrating the tenth of what they had received for ranfom, 
purclialed a ftatue, reprefenting a chariot and four horfes, 
which they fet up in the portico of the citadel, with a tri¬ 
umphant infeription in token of their victory. Thefe in¬ 
dignities roufing the Boeotians, they meditated revenge, 
and engaged on their fide the people of .Tigina, who had 
an hereditary hatred to the Athenians; and, while the lat¬ 
ter bent all their attention to the Boeotian war, the Mgi- 
netans landed a confiderable army, and ravaged the coafts 
oi Attica. 
But, while the Athenians were thus employed againft 
the Boeotians and .Tiginetans, a jealoufy fprung upon the 
part of Lacedemon, which was never afterwards era¬ 
dicated. Cleomenes, after his unfuccefsful expedition 
againft Attica, produced at Sparta certain oracles which 
he faid he had found in the citadel of Athens; the pur¬ 
port of them was, that Athens would in time become a 
rival to Sparta. At the fame time it was difeovered, that 
Clyfthenes had bribed the prieftefs of Apollo to caufe the 
Lacedemonians to expel the Piftftratidae from Athens; 
which was facrificing their beft friends to thofe whom in- 
tereft obliged to be their enemies. This had fuch an ef¬ 
fect, that the Spanaps, repenting their folly in expelling 
2 
I C A. 
Hippos, fent for him from Sigeum, to reftore him to his 
principality: but, this not being agreed to by the reft of 
the (fates, they were forced to abandon their enterprife. 
About this time too, Ariftagoras the Milefian having fet 
on foot a revolt in Ionia againft the Perfian king, applied 
to the Spartans for aftiftance; but, they declining to have 
any hand in the matter, he next applied to the Athenians, 
and was by them furnifhed with twenty fnips under the 
command of Melanthus, a nobleman univerfally efteemed. 
This rafh action coft the Greeks very dear, as it brought 
upon them the whole power of the Perfian empire; for, 
no fooner did the king of Perlia hear of the aftiftance fent 
from Athens to his rebellious fubjects, than he declared 
himfelf the fworn enemy of that city, and folenmly be- 
fought God that he might one day have it in his power to 
be revenged on them. 
Athens, however, enjoyed internally the fweets of the 
liberty procured her by the introduction of Solon’s laws ; 
and produced many citizens of extraordinary wifdom and 
valour; among whom Miltiades, Ariftides, and Themifto- 
cles, chiefly diftinguifhed themfelves. Miltiades was a 
proficient in the art of war, and' no perfon could boaft of 
equal fkill in conducting an army. He had a particular 
caufe of hatred againft the Perfians; by whom, on their 
entering Thrace, he had been deprived of a government 
he then held in that country. Ariftides and Themiftocles, 
though much younger than Miltiades, gave proofs of the 
greateft abilities. But their different dilpofitions generally 
occalioned a contrariety in their opinions. Themiftocles 
was a plebeian by birth, was naturally ambitious, and be¬ 
ing attached by prejudice and education to the party of 
the people, he made it his chief ftudy to gain the good 
will of the multitude. For that purpofe, he behaved on 
all occafions with extreme complaifance to the citizens, 
whom he Ihewed himfelf ever ready to oblige ; and he ap¬ 
peared very little fcrupulous about the means he employ¬ 
ed to accomplilh his enterprifes. Ariftides, on the other 
hand, being noble by birth, and an admirer by principle 
of the Spartan conftitution, entertained a ftrong attach¬ 
ment to ariftocracy. He was perfectly indifferent about 
popularity, and made juftice the governing rule of his 
whole conduct as well in public as in private life. The 
public welfare was the chief objeCt of iris attention ; and 
his love for his country, Iris’ fingular fkill in public bttfi- 
nefs, and his difinterefted and upright behaviour, procu¬ 
red him the admiration, the confidence, and the efteem, 
of his fellow-citizens. 
It was at the time the Athenian liberty nourifhed fuch 
citizens as thefe, that Darius refolved to fall upon them 
with all his forces. But, defirous previoufly to found the 
inclinations of tire people with refpect to the fuperiority 
he intended to claim over them, he difpatched heralds 
through all the cities of Greece, to demand earth and wa¬ 
ter ; a lymbol which denoted the fubmiliion and depend¬ 
ence of thofe from whom it was required on hinr who re¬ 
quired it. The Eginetae, and a few other cities, dreading 
the power of the Perfians, admitted the fuperiority claim¬ 
ed. But the Athenians and Spartans, far from agreeing 
to the demand of the heralds, were fo provoked at the ar¬ 
rogance of their commiflion, that they tranfgreffed the 
law of nations in the perfons of the heralds ; one of whom 
they threw into a well, and another into a deep ditch, tell¬ 
ing them, with a fpirit of raillery, that they might take 
from thence as much earth and water as they pleafed. 
Darius, perceiving that he fhould meet with the rnoft 
obftinate reliftance in his undertaking, made more formi¬ 
dable preparations for war than before, and increafed his 
armament to 500,000 men aujl 500 (hips ; the whole com¬ 
manded by Datis and Artapherncs. Hippias, happy in fo 
favourable an opportunity of revenging himfelf on the 
Athenians, afted as guide and conductor of the expedi¬ 
tion under Artaphernes, by whom he had been treated 
in the kindeft and mod hofpitable manner. The Perfians 
quickly reduced all the iflands in the /Egean fea ; and, 
having taken Eretria. a city in Eubcea, burnt it to the 
t ground. 
