Xerxes. he goes on to the fact in question, of which he says: P Themistocles projected something STILLGREATER, for the augmentation of their maritime power.

The Lacedæmonians having proposed in the coun. cil of the Amphictyons, that all the cities, which had not taken arms against Xerxes, should be excluded from that assembly, Themistocles, who apprehended, that if the Thessalians, the Argives, and the Thebans, were excluded that council, the Spartans would by that means become masters of the suffrages, and consequently determine all affairs according to their pleasure; Themistocles, I say, made a speech in behalf of the cities they were for excluding, and brought the deputics, that composed the assembly, over to his sentiments. He represented to them, that the greatest part of the cities, that had entered into the confederacy, which were but one-and-thirty in the whole, were very small and inconsiderable; that it would therefore be a very strange, as well as a very dangerous proceeding, to deprive all the other cities of Greece of their votes and places in the grand assembly of the nation, and by that means suffer the august council of the Amphictyons to fall under the direction and influence of two or three of the most powerful cities, which for the future would give law to all the rest, and would subvert and abolish that equality of power, which was justly regarded as the basis and soul of all republicks. Themistocles, by this plain and open declaration of his opinion, drew upon himself the hatred of the Lacedæmonians, who from that time became his professed enemies. He had also incurred the displeasure of the rest of the allies, by his having exacted contributions from them in too rigorous and rapacious a manner.

When the city of Athens was entirely rebuilt, the people finding themselves in a state of peace and tranquillity, endeavoured by all sorts of methods to

P Menon. in Arist p. 382.

4 Plut. in Themist. P. 122.

• Plut.

get the government into their hands, and to make Xeries. the Athenian state entirely popular. This design of theirs, though kept as secret as possible, did not es cape the vigilance and penetration of Aristides, who saw all the consequences with which such an innovation would be attended. But, as he considered on one hand, that the people were entitled to some regard, on account of the valour they had shewn in all the late battles they had gained; and on the other, that it would be no easy matter to curb and restrain a people who still in a manner had their arms in their hands, and who were grown more insolent than ever from their victories; on these considerations, I say, he thought it proper to observe measures with them, and to find out some medium to satisfy and appease them. He therefore passed a decree, by which it was ordained that the government should be common to all the citizens, and that the Archons, who were the chief magistrates of the commonwealth, and who used to be chosen only out of the richest of its members, (viz.) from among those only, who received at least five hundred medimni's of grain out of the product of their lands, should for the future be elected indifferently out of all the Athenians without distinction. By thus giving up something to the people, he prevented all dissensions and commotions, which might have proved fatal, not only to the Athenian state, but to all Greece.

SECT. XIV. The Lacedæmonians lose the chief command through the pride and arrogance of Pausanias.

S

THE Grecians, encouraged by the happy success which had every where attended their victorious arms, determined to send a fleet to sea, in order to deliver such of their allies, as were still under the yoke of the Persians, out of their hands. Pausanias was the commander of the fleet for the Lacedæmo

A. M.

3525.

Ant. J.C

476

Xerxes, nians; and Aristides, and Cimon the son of Miltiades, commanded for the Athenians. They first directed their course to the isle of Cyprus, where they restored all the cities to their liberty: Then steering towards the Hellespont, they attacked the city of Byzantium, of which they made themselves masters, and took a vast number of prisoners, a great part of whom were of the richest and most considerable families of Persia.

Pausanias, who from this time conceived thoughts of betraying his country, judged it proper to make use of this opportunity to gain the favour of Xerxes. To this end he caused a report to be spread among his troops, that the Persian noblemen, whom he had committed to the guard and care of one of his officers, had made their escape by night, and were fled: Whereas he had set them at liberty himself, and sent a letter by them to Xerxes, wherein he offered to deliver the city of Sparta and all Greece into his hands, on condition he would give him his daughter in marriage. The king did not fail to give him a favourable answer, and to send him very large sums of money also, in order to win over as many of the Grecians as he should find disposed to enter into his designs. The person he appointed to manage this intrigue with him was Artabazus; and to the end that he might have it in his power to transact the matter with the greater ease and security, he made him governor of all the sea-coasts of Asia minor.

Pausanias, who was already dazzled with the prospect of his future greatness, began from this moment to change his whole conduct and behaviour. The poor, modest, and frugal way of living at Sparta; their subjection to rigid and austere laws, which neither spared nor respected any man's person, but were altogether as inexorable and inflexible to the greatest as to those of the meanest condition; all this, I say, became insupportable to Pausanias. He

t Plut. in Arist. p. 332, 333.

could not bear the thoughts of going back to Sparta, Xerxes. after his having been possessed of such high commands and employments, to return to a state of equality, that confounded him with the meanest of the citizens; and this was the cause of his entering into a treaty with the Barbarians. Having done this, he entirely laid aside the manners and behaviour of his country; assumed both the dress and state of the Persians, and imitated them in all their expensive luxury and magnificence. He treated the allics with an insufferable rudeness and insolence; never spoke to the officers but with menaces and arrogance; required extraordinary and unusual honours to be paid to him, and by his whole behaviour rendered the Spartan dominion odious to all the confederates. On the other hand, the courteous, affable, and obliging deportment of Aristides and Cimon; an infinite remoteness from all imperious and haughty airs, which only tend to alienate people and multiply enemies; a gentle, kind, and beneficent disposition, which shewed itself in all their actions, and which served to temper the authority of their commands, and to render it both easy and amiable; the justice and humanity, conspicuous in every thing they did; the great care they took to offend no person whatsoever, and to do kind offices and services to all about them: All this, I say, hurt Pausanias exceedingly, by the contrast of their opposite characters, and exceedingly increased the general discontent. At last this dissatisfaction publickly broke out; and all the allies deserted him, and put themselves under the command and protection of the Athenians. Thus did Aristides, says Plutarch, by the prevalence of that humanity and gentleness, which he opposed to the arrogance and roughness of Pausanias, and by inspiring Cimon his colleague with the same sentiments, insensibly draw off the minds of the allies from the Lacedæmonians without their perceiving it, and at length deprived them of the command; not by open force, or by sending out armies and fleets against

Xerxes. them, and still less by making use of any arts or per fidious practices; but by the wisdom and moderation of his conduct, and by rendering the government of the Athenians amiable.

3529.

It must be confessed at the same time, that the Spartan people on this occasion shewed a greatness of soul and a spirit of moderation, that can never be sufficiently admired. For when they were convinced, that their commanders grew haughty and insolent from their too great authority, they willingly renounced the superiority, which they had hitherto exercised over the rest of the Grecians, and forbore sending any more of their generals to command the Grecian armies; chusing rather, adds the historian, to have their citizens wise, modest, and submissive to the discipline and laws of the commonwealth, than to maintain their pre-eminence and superiority over all the Grecian states.

SECT. XV. Pausanias's secret conspiracy with the Persians. His death.

A. M. UPON the repeated complaints the Spartan Ant. J.C.Commonwealth received on all hands against Pausa475. nias, they recalled him home to give an account of

his conduct. But not having sufficient evidence to convict him of his having carried on a correspondence with Xerxes, they were obliged to acquit him on this first trial; after which he returned of his own private authority, and without the consent and approbation of the republick, to the city of Byzantium, from whence he continued to carry on his secret practices with Artabazus. But, as he was still guilty of many violent and unjust proceedings, whilst he resided there, the Athenians obliged him to leave the place; from whence he retired to Colone, a small city of Troas. There he received an order from the Diod. 1. xi. p. 31-36. Cor.

Thucyd. 1. i. p. 86, & 89.

Nep. in Pausan.