Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/202

 190 GREECE ments to resist this mighty invasion, a congress of deputies from the Greek states was summon- ed to meet at the isthmus of Corinth. The Athenians and Spartans attempted to unite them for the common defence ; but the terror inspired by the Persian hosts was so great that many submitted at once, and others refused to take part in the congress. The only people K. and E. of the isthmus who dared to defend the country were the Athenians, Phocians, Platoeans, and Thespians. The Athenians gave the command of the forces by sea and land to the Spartans, although they furnished two thirds of the fleet. It was at first decided to make stand against the invaders at Tempe, the celebrated and beautiful valley between Mts. Olympus and Ossa, through which the Peneus flows ; but this was found impractica- ble. The pass of Thermopylae, a narrow defile between the mountains of (Eta and the Maliac gulf, was finally occupied by Leonidas, the Spar- tan king, with a detachment of 300 Spartan citizens and several thousand other Peloponne- sians. These, with the troops of the Thespians, Thebans, and Phocians, in all about 5,000 men, prepared to hold the pass against the innumer- able host of the Persians. The heroic strug- gle which followed is one of the best known incidents of Grecian history (see THERMOPY- LJS) ; but it was unsuccessful, and nothing now intervened to prevent the march of the Per- sians upon Athens. The naval battle of Ar- temisiura, at the N. extremity of Euboea, took place about the same time as that of Thermo- pylae. The Greek fleet on the following day received a reenforcement of 53 Athenian ships. Another battle was fought, in which the Per- sians lost the greater number of ships and men; but the Greeks, unable to renew the combat, and learning that Xerxes was in pos- session of Thermopylae, sailed down the Eu- boean straits, rounded the headland of Sunium, and anchored in the straits of Salamis. The Athenians, dismayed at the prospect of the march of Xerxes upon the city, decided to re- move with the help of the fleet to the neighbor- ing island of Salamis. A few only remained in possession of the Acropolis, awaiting the Persians. On their arrival the Persians took post on the hill of Mars, and with some dif- ficulty succeeded in taking the Acropolis and dislodging its defenders. The city was given a prey to the flames. The fleet at the same time made its appearance in the bay of Pha- lerum. The dissensions among the Grecian commanders came near producing fatal re- sults, but Themistocles, partly by his personal influence, and partly by stratagem, prevent- ed the separation of the fleet. The ban- ished Aristides joined the fleet and communi- cated the information that the Persians were in possession of the N. W. entrance into the bay of Eleusis, thus completely surrounding the fleet of the Greeks, still lying in the bay of Salamis. Nothing was left but to fight. Early in the morning the Greeks advanced from the shore of Salamis to attack the Per- sian line, stretching along the opposite coast of Attica as far as the eye could reach. The result of the battle was a great victory. The Greeks lost 40 ships, and the Persians 200, be- sides those which were taken with their crews. Xerxes, who surveyed the battle from a throne erected on the W. slope of Mt. ^Egaleus, imme- diately consulted his personal safety by flight, through Bceotia and Thessaly, to the Hellespont, and crossing over to Asia by the aid of his fleet (his bridge of boats had been washed away), he returned to his capital. Mardonius was left in command of the army, but thought it prudent to postpone further operations until spring. On the same day with the battle of Salamis (according to Herodotus), the Sicilian Greeks, commanded by Gelon, gained a great victory over the Carthaginians, under the command of Hamilcar, at Himera. Before opening a fresh campaign in the spring, Mardonius made an attempt to detach the Athenians from the cause of Greece. Failing in this, he marched upon Athens, and occupied it a second time (479), compelling the citizens to move again to Salamis. Ambassadors were sent to Sparta, and after some delay a considerable force was sent into the field by the Lacedaemonians and the Peloponnesian states. Upon learning these measures Mardonius withdrew into Boeotia, and took up a position on the left bank of the Aso- pus near the town of Plataea. The Greek army, now amounting to 110,000 men, moved from Eleusis, and after several days of manoeuvring, with skirmishes of cavalry bet ween the outposts, fought the battle of Platsea, defeated the Per- sians, stormed their camp, and took an immense amount of booty. Mardonius was slain. At the same time the Persian fleet was utterly de- feated at Mycale, a promontory near Miletus, by the Spartan Leotychides and the Athenian Xanthippus, who had crossed the ^Egean sea in pursuit. These decisive events put an end to the Persian invasions of Greece. In the following year a fleet was sent, under the command of the Spartan regent Pausanias, to expel the Persians from Cyprus and the ports in Thrace, including Byzantium, which they still held. The expedition was successful, thaugh it gave rise to the treacherous ac- tion of Pausanias, which, if it had not been promptly discovered and punished, might have cost the Greeks much that they had gained. The noble conduct of Athens during the Per- sian wars gave her at their close a command- ing position in the aifairs of Greece. A league was formed, entitled the confederacy of De- los, because the deputies were to meet in synod there, at the temple of Apollo and Ar- temis, the general object being to secure the common defence against Persian aggression by the maritime power of Athens. The members of the league were to pay an annual amount, the assessment of which was intrusted to Aris- tides, whose integrity of character had given him the surname of the Just. The officers