Story of the Greek and the Roman People

MARKET-PLACE OF SPARTA.

Sparta suddenly forgot that Athens was "one of the two eyes of Greece," and treated her far more severely than any other city. Ten magistrates were not enough for the Athenians,— they must have thirty, besides the Spartan governor and a large body Spartan soldiers. The Thirty Tyrants, as they came to be called, chose three thousand men who they were sure would stand by them, and took away all arms from the rest of the citizens. Then they had no fear of gods or men. They put to death all who had worked against them during the war, all those against whom they had any grudge, and enough of the wealthier men to supply the themselves liberally with money. The wretched Athenians said to one another even then, "Alcibiades will not bear this; he will surely find some way to help us"; but it was not long before they heard that Alcibiades had been assassinated. Then, indeed, they were hopeless, and hundreds fled from the city. The other states were angry at the selfishness of Sparta, and were ready to give the fugitives a home. Even the Thebans, who had been such bitter enemies of the Athenians, welcomed them. Just as soon as the little company of exiles had grown large enough to make the venture, they crossed the border of Attica and made a stand against the Thirty. Xenophon, a disciple of Socrates, wrote, "The Thirty, quite dejected and solitary, sat together in council." They might well be "quite dejected," for this was the beginning of the overthrow of their rule.

SOCRATES.

No nation is quite the same at the end of a long war as at the beginning. During the Peloponnesian War the members of each party in Athens had been so sure that they were in the right that they hated the other political parties most bitterly, and had come to feel that whatever act brought them their own way was the proper course to follow. The philosopher Socrates had fought fearlessly for Athens, and he loved his city: but he saw that it was more important to do right than for any party to get what it wanted; and that to be honest and good was better than to pay sacrifices to the gods. Such teachings as these did not please the people, who meant to have their own way no matter what happened. At length he was brought into court and accused of not worshiping the gods and of giving false teaching to young men. He was condemned to die, or, as he said, "to depart to some happy state of the blessed." Several of his followers were with him during the last days of his life, and one of them, named Plato, wrote an account of the teacher's words and acts. When the cup of poison was brought him, he drank it as quietly as if it had been wine. His disciples burst into tears. Plato says, "I did not weep for him, but for my own fortune in being deprived of such a friend." At the last, when all supposed that the poison had taken effect, Socrates called to one of the young men, "Crito, we owe a cock to Æsculapius; pay it, therefore, and do not neglect it." Æsculapius was the god to whom a man who was grateful for his recovery from illness made a sacrifice; and Socrates was so sure of a nobler, happier life to come that he felt as if giving up his life on earth was only passing from sickness to health.

DEATH OF SOCRATES.

The following is a bit of the wisdom of Socrates. One Antipho wished to draw away the followers of the philosopher. Therefore he came to Socrates one day when they were present, and said, "I thought that those who studied philosophy were to become happier than other men; but you seem to have reaped from philosophy fruits of an opposite kind; at least you live in a way in which no slave would continue to live with his master: you eat food, and drink drink, of the worst kind; you wear a dress, not only bad, but the same both summer and winter, and you continue shoeless and coatless. Money, which cheers men when they receive it, and enables those who possess it to live more generously and pleasantly, you do not take; and if, therefore, as teachers in other professions make their pupils imitate themselves, you also shall produce a similar effect on your followers, you must consider yourself but a teacher of wretchedness." Socrates replied quietly, "You, Antipho, resemble one of who thinks that happiness consists in luxury and extravagance; but I think that to want nothing is to resemble the gods, and that to want as little as possible is to make the nearest approach to the gods; that the divine nature is perfection, and that to be nearest to the divine nature is to be nearest to perfection."

ÆSCULAPIUS

The enemies of Socrates did not forget to remind the judges that Alcibiades and Critias, the chief of the Thirty Tyrants, had been among his pupils; but there was more than one of his devoted followers who became an honor to Socrates and to his country. Plato lived half a century after the death of his beloved teacher, and became even more famous as a philosopher. He wrote on the deepest subjects, but with so much humor and fancy and sweetness, that people began to claim that he was a descendant of Apollo, the god of eloquence. Disciples flocked around him as around Socrates, and he used to talk with them and lecture in his garden close by the Academe. The story has come down to us that some strangers who met him at the Olympian games were so pleased with him that they accepted gladly his invitation to visit him in Athens. When it was nearly time for their visit to come to an end, they said, "But will you introduce us to your famous namesake, the philosopher Plato?" They were surprised indeed when their host replied simply, "I am the person whom you wish to see."

SCHOOL OF ATHENS.

Another follower of Socrates was Xenophon, who was a philosopher, a military commander, and a historian. When Socrates was in prison, Xenophon was just returning from a remarkable expedition that was planned by Cyrus of Persia. After the Peloponnesian War was over, Cyrus sent envoys to Sparta to ask the Spartans that they behave toward him as he had behaved toward them. By this he meant that he wanted to borrow some Grecian soldiers. His brother, Artaxerxes II, was on the throne of Persia, but many thought it belonged to Cyrus, and he had raised and army of 100,000 men to help him get possession of it. He knew how well the Greeks fought, and it is no wonder that he was eager to hire them. There were thousands of men in Greece who knew little of any other life than that of the soldier, and they were ready to fight for any one who would pay their wages. They would not, however, have agreed to go to the heart of Asia; so they were tricked into making the march by being told that Cyrus wanted them to help subdue some rebels in Pisidia, on the southern coast of Asia Minor. They crossed the Ægean Sea, landed near Samos, and set out cheerfully toward Pisidia. But Pisidia seemed to be a long way off, and at length, they began to suspect some trickery. By and by Cyrus and his troops met them, and he finally admitted that they were on their way to Babylonia and were to fight, not a few rebels, but the king of the mighty Persian empire. They were already well into Persia, and it was almost as dangerous to try to retreat as to go forward. Cyrus promised them generous wages as they agreed to go on.

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