Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/23

 HISTORY OF GREECE. PART II. CHAPTER LXIX. CYRUS THE YOUNGER AND THE TEN THOUSAND GREEKS. IN my last volume, I brought down the History of Grecian affairs to the close of the Peloponnesian war, including a descrip- tion of the permanent loss of imperial power, the severe temporary oppression, the enfranchisement and renewed democracy, which marked the lot of defeated Athens. The defeat of that once powerful city, accomplished by the Spartan confederacy, with large pecuniary aid from the young Persian prince Cyrus, satrap of most of the Ionian seaboard, left Sparta mistress, for the time, of the Grecian world. Lysander, her victorious admiral, employed his vast temporary power for the purpose of setting up, in most of the cities, Dekarchies or ruling Councils of Ten, com- posed of his own partisans ; with a Lacedaemonian Harmost and garrison to enforce their oligarchical rule. Before I proceed, however, to recount, as well as it can be made out, the unexpected calamities thus brought upon the Grecian world, with their event- ual consequences, it will be convenient to introduce here the narrative of the Ten Thousand Greeks, with their march into the heart of the Persian empire and their still more celebrated Retreat. This incident, lying apart from the main stream of Grecian affairs, would form an item, strictly speaking, in Persian history rather than in Grecian. But its effects on the Greek mind, and upon the future course of Grecian affairs, were numerous and important ; VOL. ix 1 loc.