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Croesus, himself, was, not long after, overcome by Cyrus, the Persian conqueror, to whom the Ionians and the Eolians, as they were still called, sent embassies to obtain the same terms of submission as those which the Lydian had allowed. Cyrus, however, vexed that they, or rather the Ionians, had just before refused his invitation to throw off their allegiance to Cræsus, gave a threatening answer 172 to their present proposals, and made a league with the Milesians alone. The others sent to Sparta for assistance, but the Spartans only returned a message to Cyrus, which obtained no favor with the conqueror,' who, departing, himself, soon after, to his more important conquests, left the reduction of the Ionians to the Median noble Harpagus,174 in whom he reposed especial confidence.

173

Harpagus first advanced against Phocæa, a city inhabited by a commercial and a comparatively laborious people, from whom, as if he knew their bravery to be above the indolence of their countrymen, he demanded the mere recognition of their subjection to his master. They asked a day for deliberation, and Harpagus, though suspecting their designs, withdrew his forces, for that length of time, from before the walls. He was no sooner gone, than the Phocæans, embarking wives and children, sacred treasures, and as many things as they were able to move on board

172 A. C. 546 The answer was couched in a fable, which Herodotus repeats, I. 141.

173 The king said he had no fear of men who met to deceive one

another in their market-places, — referring to their assemblies. Herod., I. 153.

174 Herod., I. 162.

their ships, set sail for Chios. There they determined to make for Corsica; but before departing for ever from the homes in which they could be no longer free, they sailed back to Phocæa, in order, probably, to begin their voyage with the usual rites that were to be celebrated only before their own altars. Landing there, they slew the Persian garrison in possession of the empty city, and then started anew, with solemn oaths that they would none of them return. More than half their number were faithless, and stayed behind; the rest, however, kept on unflinching to their distant haven. The example of the Phocæans was followed by their neighbours of Teos, who all departed to Thrace, where they settled at Abdera, on the shore of their own Ægean. But these were the only Ionians who, as Herodotus says, could not bear with servitude; 175 and though the rest resisted yet a little while, on the continent and in the islands, their fall beneath the Persian dominion was scarcely delayed. Many then joined Harpagus in his march against the states of the South; where the Lycians, after being overcome, near Xanthus, by the much superior numbers of the enemy, retreated into the town, and then into its citadel, to light, with their own hands, the flames which consumed their treasures and their families, while they themselves perished in battle with their conquerors.' 176 In such agonies as these, the love of liberty breathed its last amongst the Greeks of Asia Minor.

175 Herod., I. 169.

176 These events happened be

tween A. C. 544 and 539, They are described by Herod., I. 162-177.

Another instance of the same free spirit may be related as having occurred under different circumstances. After a brilliant but perfidious tyranny at Samos, Polycrates died a miserable death at Magnesia; 177 on proceeding to which city, he had left his authority over Samos in charge of his officer, Mæandrius, a native, like the tyrant himself, of the island. As soon as the tidings of his master's fate arrived, Mæandrius erected an altar to Jupiter the Liberator, and called the citizens together, to inform them of the event, and to offer the resignation of his authority into their hands, provided they would allow him a certain sum from the treasures of Polycrates, and secure to him and to his heirs the office of priest to the god whose shrine he had just dedicated. The proposal was not, therefore, entirely disinterested; but it was more than could have been expected from a man whose character bore some previous stains. It was refused, however, by the Samians, of whom there was one man rash enough to inveigh against Mæandrius with great violence; at which, provoked, he changed his mind, and determined to maintain his power. Imprisonments and massacres followed fast; and Mæandrius himself was finally obliged to fly before the Persians, who established another tyrant in the island.178 But the story, whether perfectly credible or not, is characteristic of the instinct with which the

177 He was crucified by order of his enemy, Orœtes, the satrap of Sardis, A. C. 522. Herod., III. 125.

178 The harangue of Mæandrius

in full and the subsequent events are related with perfect confidence by Herodotus, III. 142 et seq.

Greeks, even the most unfit for liberty, desired to be free.

Not long after the expulsion of Hippias from Athens, the Spartans, repenting 179 of the part they had taken in liberating the neighbours of whom they were already jealous, invited Hippias to Sparta, and called a council of the Peloponnesians to bring before them the question of his restoration. The deputies present were mostly averse to interference in behalf of the exiled tyrant; but as it was not usual for them to oppose the pleasure of their superiors, they held their peace, until one Sosicles, from Corinth, rose up with bolder heart. "The sky," he said, "must surely be below the earth, and the earth be lifted above the sky, -men must have their habitation in the sea, and fishes live where men have lived before, if ye, O Lacedæmonians! are to destroy all equal rights and bring back tyrants into our cities; for there can be nothing more unjust, nothing more blood-guilty amongst men!..... We of Corinth were amazed to hear ye had sent for Hippias; but we are much more amazed to hear what ye now propose: and we implore you, in the name of the gods of Greece, to establish no tyrannies in our cities. Will ye not abstain from such doings, but will ye try to restore Hippias against all justice? Know, then, that the Corinthians cannot agree with you." These earnest

179 "Thinking," says the old historian," that the Attic race, if it were free, would get to be equal in

strength with them, but that, if it

were kept under by a tyranny, it would be feeble and submissive." Herod., V. 91.

words of Sosicles roused the other deputies to join their remonstrances with his, and, as the historian adds, "the affair thus came to an end." 180 It is an episode to which there are few counterparts in the history of freedom anywhere.

It was, perhaps, in the same year, that the difficulties following the overthrow of the tyranny in Athens resulted in a change of the political constitution that had already, as we have seen, been sorely tried. Solon himself is said to have provided a legal means of repealing old and enacting new laws, 18 as might be desired by his impulsive countrymen, in a commission of Revisers,182 as their title may be freely translated; but at the same time, an abundance of restraint seemed to have been placed upon the passion for innovation, the peculiar characteristic of the Athenians. 183 The inefficacy of all securities against tumultuous faction was evinced almost as soon as the failure of the others in the laws against aggressive ambition like that of Pisistratus. Clisthenes was at the head of the nobles who triumphed over the son of Pisistratus; but so high ran the disputes amongst the upper classes, 184 that he was speedily obliged to defend himself and his party against his adversaries by unexpected means. Uniting with the popular faction, he gave free rein to the

180 Herod., V. 91–94.

181 Schömann, Assemb. Ath., p. 254. But see Plut., Sol., 25. 182 Noμobéral, lawgivers. See Schömann, Assemblies, etc., p. 241, Eng. transl.

183

3 Any citizen might propose a new law; but it was then necessary 24

VOL. I.

that five advocates should defend the old law against repeal; and if the new one prevailed, its author was held accountable for its operation during the succeeding year.

184 Εστασίασαν περὶ δυνάμιος, "They quarrelled about supremacy," says the historian. Herod., V. 66.

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