G R E 
Why would you have enflaved your fellow-citizens? 
On what (uperiority of merit could you 'found your 
claim of dominion ? Is it tliat you are mod iioneft and 
virtuous ? Yet the people whom you infulted never 
relieved their poverty by unjull gaiti ; whereas the ty¬ 
rants, whom you i'erved, increafed their wealth by the 
luod opprellive rapacity. Is it that you are more brave 
and warlike ? Yet this injured people, alone and un- 
alTided, and almoft unarmed, have overcome your iupe- 
rior numbers, reinforced by the Lacedaemonian garri- 
fon, the powerful fuccours of Paufanias, and tb.e expe¬ 
rienced mercenaries of Lyfander. As you mud yield 
the prize both of probity and of prowefs, fo neither 
can you claim the lionour of fuperior prudence and fa- 
gacity. You have been not only conquered in w'ar, but 
overcome in negociation, by the people whom you de- 
I'pifed ; to whom your Lacedaemonian maders have de¬ 
livered you, like biting curs, bound and muzzled, to be 
judly punilhed for your unprovoked iufolence and au¬ 
dacity. But as to you, my fellow.fuft'erers and fellow- 
exiles ! you, who lhared the hardthips of my banilh- 
ment, and who now diare the triumph of my vidtorious 
return, I exhort you to forgive and forget our common 
injuries. Let the dignity of your fentiments adorn the 
fplendour of your actions. Prove yourfelves fuperior 
to your enemies, not only in valour but in clemency, 
that moderation may produce concord, and concord 
ftrength.” 
' The ededt of this generous enthudafm, excited and 
diftufqd by Thrafybuliis, appeared in a'very extraordi¬ 
nary refolution of tiie adembly. During the ufurpa- 
tion of the Thirty, an hundred talents had been bor¬ 
rowed from the Lacedaemonians, to fupport the rigo¬ 
rous cruelty of a government which had baniflied five 
thoufand, and put to death, untried, fifteen hundred 
citizens. Tlje repayment of this fum was not to be ex- 
pedted from the people at large, againft whofe interefi 
and fafety it had been fo notorioufly employed. Yet 
the Athenians unanimoufly refolved, on this occafion, 
that the money fiiould be charged indifcriminately on 
them all. This unexampled generofity might have en¬ 
couraged even the enfeebled party of the tyrants to re¬ 
turn from Eleulis. But they were too fenfible of their 
guilt to expedf forgivenefs or impunity. Having forti¬ 
fied their infecure refidence, in the beft manner that 
their circumftances could permit, they began to prepare 
arms ; to colledt mercenaries ; and to try, anew, the 
fortune of war. But their unequal holtility, the efieCb 
ol rage and defpair, was ealily defeated by the vigour 
of the new republic. The moft obnoxious leaders ieal- 
ed, with their blood, the fafety of their adherents, who 
fubmitted to the clemency of Thrafybulus. That for¬ 
tunate and magnanimous commander generoufly under, 
took their caufe, and obtained a decree of the people 
for refioring them to the city, for reinftating them in 
their fortunes and privileges, and for burying in obli¬ 
vion the memory of their pall offences. The allembly 
even ratified, by oath, this godlike amnefty, of which 
both the idea and the name have been adopted by moft 
civililed nations, and extolled by all hiftorians, ancient 
and modern. 
It were well for the honour of Athens, if none but 
the cruel abettors of an arifiocratical fabtion had expe¬ 
rienced the unjull rigour of itss tribunals. But among 
th'e firft memorable tranfabfions, after the re-eftablifli- 
ment of democracy, happened the trial and condemna¬ 
tion of Socrates; a man guiltlefs of every ofience but 
that of difgracing, by his illuftrious merit, the vices 
and follies of his contemporaries. His death fealed the 
inimitable virtues of his ufeful life ; it feemed to be 
beftovved as a favour, not inflicted as a punifliment; 
fince, had Socrates, who had already pafled his feven- 
tieth year, yielded to the decays of nature, his fame 
would have dcfcended lei's fplendid, certainly more 
doubtful, to pofierity. In tl»c phrenzy of their perfe- 
VOL. VIII. No. 553. 
E C E. 8.97 
cution, they condemned him to die by the bitter cup of 
hemlock. But tliis perfecution of philofonhy was acci¬ 
dental and tranfient. Mingled fentiments of pi!y> 
lhame, and refentment, tbong.tvea new diredlion to the 
popular hiry, which iaged wiih more deftruftive, yet 
tar juller, cruelty, againft tiie accufers and judges of So¬ 
crates. Many were driven into exile; many were put 
to death ; I'everai perilhed by their own hands. The 
illuftrious tage was honoured by fignal monuments of 
public admiration ; his fame, like the hardy oak, de¬ 
rived vigour from years ; and increal’ed from age to age, 
till the tuperftition of the Athenians at length worfiiip- 
ped, as a god, him whom their ijijufti.ee had condemned 
as a criminal.—See the article Socrates. 
The operations of war now again conlpired with the 
revolutions of government, to conne6l the iranfa^Hoiis 
of Greece with the annals of the Perfian empire. The 
fame memorable year which terminated the Peloponne- 
(ian war, brought to a conclufion the aftive reign of 
Darius Nothus. He named as his fucceftbr Artaxerxes, 
fiyled Mnepion, from the ftrength of his memory ; and 
perfifted in this choice, notwithftanding the oppofition 
of the artful Paryfatis, who employed all her influence 
to obtain the kingdom for Cyrus, the younger brother 
of Artaxerxes, and the peculiar favourite of his mo¬ 
ther. The rivalftiip cf the young princes, both of 
whom were at court during the laft illnefs of Darius, 
unhappily degenerated into enmity ; and a circumftance, 
which would be thought immaterial in the prefent age, 
increafed the indignation of Cyrus. The birth of Ar¬ 
taxerxes had happened before the accellion of his father 
to the throne, but Cyrus was born the fon of a king ; a 
diftinftion which, however frivolous it may appear in 
modern times, had engaged Darius Hyftafpes to prefer 
Xerxes, tlie younger of his Ions, to his elder brother 
Artabazanes. 
The magnanimity of Cyrus naturally impelled him 
into the road of danger and glory ; he immediately pre¬ 
pared to ufurp the throne of Artaxerxes though de¬ 
fended by a million of Perfian foldiers. But the gene¬ 
rous ardour and liberal fentiments of Cyrus acquired 
him the firm attachment and willing obedience of all his 
barbarian fubjedts, in the populous provinces which he 
'commanded in his own right, and whofe united ftrength 
exceeded an hundred thoufand fighting men. This ar¬ 
mament, allifted by the Greeks, encouraged Cyrus to 
undertake a grand expedition for ticquiring the empire 
of the Eaft. By a variety of important I'ervices he had 
delerved the gratitude of the Lacedaemonian republic ; 
which had been railed, chiefly by his alliftancc, to the 
firft ftate in Greece, atid to the fovereignty of the fea. 
In return for that favour, the Spartans readily com¬ 
plied with his requeft, by fending into Alia eight hun¬ 
dred heavy-armed men, under the command of the in¬ 
trepid Cheirilophus ; and they charged their admiral, 
Samius, who had liicceeded Lyfander in the govern¬ 
ment of the Ionian coaft, faithfully to co-operate with 
Cyrus, by employing his powerful fleet in whatever 
fervice the Perfian prince might think proper to recom¬ 
mend. Had they done nothing more than this, Cyrus 
might well have praifed their generous gratitude; but 
the friendihip of the Spartans carried them ftill farther. 
They allowed him to recruit his forces in every part of 
their dominions ; and the liberal munificence of Cyrus 
had acquired numerous partifan.s well qualified to raife 
and to command thole valuable levies. Clearcus the 
Spartan, Menoji the Theilalian, Pi'oxenus the Boeotian, 
Agias the Arcadian, and Socrates the Actcan, all alike 
devoted to the interefi and glory of the Perfian piince, 
collected, chiefly from their refpedtive republics, above 
ten thouland heavy-armed men, and near three thoufand 
archers and targetqers. 
In the beginning of the year 400 before Chrift, Cyrus 
marched from the Ionian coaft into Upper Alia, at the 
head of an hundred thoufand barbarians, and about 
JO X thirteen 
