Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/138

 120 HISTORY OF GREECE. The same ciicumstances which alarmed Hippias, and rendered his dominion in Attica at once more oppressive and more odious, tended of course to raise the hopes of his enemies, the Athenian exiles, with the powerful Alkmaeonids at their head. Believing the favorable moment to be come, they even ventured upon an invasion of Attica, and occupied a post called Leipsydrion in the mountain range of Parnes, which separates Attica from Bcsotia. 1 But their schemes altogether failed : Hippias defeated and drove them out of the country. His dominion now seemed confirmed, for the Lacedaemonians were on terms of intimate friendship with him ; and Amyntas king of Macedon, as well as the Thessalians were his allies. Yet the exiles whom he had beaten in the open field succeeded in an unexpected manoeuvre, which, favored by circumstances, proved his ruin. By an accident which had occurred in the year 548 B.C., 2 the Delphian temple was set on fire and burnt. To repair this grave loss was an object of solicitude to all Greece ; but the outlay re- quired was exceedingly heavy, and it appears to have been long before the money could be collected. The Amphiktyons decreed that one-fourth of the cost should be borne by the Delphians them- selves, who found themselves so heavily taxed by this assessment, that they sent envoys throughout all Greece to collect subscriptions in aid, and received, among other donations, from the Greek set- tlers in Egypt twenty mina?, besides a large present of alum from the Egyptian king Amasis: their munificent benefactor Croesus fell a victim to the Persians in 546 B.C., so that his treasure was no longer open to them. The total sum required was three hundred talents (equal probably to about one hundred and fifteen thousand pounds sterling), 3 a prodigious amount to be collected from the 1 Hcrodot. v, 62. The unfortunate struggle at Leipsydrion became after wards the theme of a popular song (Athenceus, xv, p. 695) : see Hesychius, r, Aeripiidpiov, and Aristotle, Fragm. 'A#/,i>at<jv IIoAtraa, 37, ed. Neumann If it be true that Alkibiades, grandfather of the celebrated Alkibiades took part with Kleisthenes and the Alkmaeonid exiles in this straggle (see hokrates, De Bigis, Or. xvi, p. 351), he must have been a mere youth. 9 Pansan. x, 5, 5. IBS as being ^ginocan talents, which are to Attic talents in the ratio of 5 : 3
 * Herodot. i, 50, ii, 180. I have taken the three hundred talents of Herodo