Page:The Tragedies of Aeschylus - tr. Potter - 1812.pdf/366

Rh countrymen in the brightest view, by putting their praises into the mouths of their enemies. Not satisfied with a spirited narration of their defeat, and a recital of the many royal chiefs that perished in that battle; not satisfied with spreading the terror through all the realms of Persia, and placing them in a manner before our eyes in all the distress of desolation and despair; he hath interested even the dead, and, with the awful solemnity of a religious incantation, evoked the ghost of Darius to testify to his Persians, that no safety, no hope remained to them, if they continued their hostile attempts against Greece; so that his sublime conception hath engaged Earth and Sea, Heaven and Hell, to bear honourable testimony to the glory of his countrymen, and the superiority of their arms.

This tragedy was exhibited eight years after the defeat at Salamis, whilst the memory of each circumstance was yet recent; so that we may consider the narration as a faithful history of this great event The war was not yet ended, though the Persian monarch had offered to make, the most humiliating concessions, and the Athenians were inclined to accept them; but Themistocles opposed the peace. So that we are further to consider this play in a political light; the poet, by so animated a description of the pernicious effects of an obstinate pride, and by filling the spectators with a malignant compassion for the vanquished Xerxes,