- the Dorian spear laid low, she
mer enemies. If the Peloponne-
th wasted every spring her corn-
ive groves with fire and sword,
th her fleets; which, if resisted,
e pre-eminent skill and bravery
bject allies revolted, but the re-
promptly quelled. The genius
d blows on her power in Thrace
dy;
but he fell in battle in the
the loss of Brasidas the Lace-
all energy and judgment. Both
the war, and in 421 a truce for
h, though ill kept, and though
arta refused to recognize it, and
y parts of Greece, protected the
vages of enemies, and enabled
is out of the proceeds of her an-
few years passed by, the havoc
ord had made in her population
Athens was full of bold and rest-
field of distant enterprise where-
es and aggrandize the state, and
partan hostility as a mere old
d wasted their territory she had
its always being in her power
or seeking to increase the trans-

ter toward which the thoughts i., sec. 144.

whelm her Pelopon in hopeless imbecili world contain the growing might of The national his great work, a disqui followed if Alexand has generally regar otism more strongly right or wrong, the rected to the consider ever age Alexander' would have furnishe as well as for those rial amalgamation of of his mind loved to d memberment of his as the dismembermen would certainly have of his power. Rome were in Sicily than time. There can be blotted out from the been attacked at the nian army, largely with triumphs over S tween her and Greec sunk into decrepitude vigor.

e

a

The armament w

hopeless imbecility, inviting Greek invasion; nor did th world contain the power that seemed capable of chec rowing might of Athens. if Syracuse once could be her The national historian of Rome has left us an episo reat work, a disquisition on the probable effects that wo llowed if Alexander the Great had invaded Italy. 1 as generally regarded that disquisition as proving Livy ism more strongly than his impartiality or acutenes ght or wrong, the speculations of the Roman writer cted to the consideration of a very remote possibility. T er age Alexander's life might have been prolonged, t ould have furnished full occupation for his martial a well as for those schemes of commercial grandeur ar al amalgamation of nations in which the truly great his mind loved to display themselves. With his death emberment of his empire among his generals was certa the dismemberment of Napoleon's empire among his r ould certainly have ensued if he had been cut off in th his power. Rome, also, was far weaker when the A ere in Sicily than she was a century afterward in Ale ne. There can be little doubt but that Rome would ha otted out from the independent powers of the West, en attacked at the end of the fifth century B.C. by a in army, largely aided by Spanish mercenaries, and th triumphs over Sicily and Africa, instead of the coll een her and Greece having been deferred until the la k into decrepitude, and the Roman Mars had grown

for.

The armament which the Athenians equipped again

ieve that they would even be able to effect a disemb Let us, therefore, set at naught these reports as alto ome manufacture; and be sure that if any enemy d he state will know how to defend itself in a manne f the national honor."

Such assertions pleased the Syracusan assembly, ounterparts find favor now among some portion of the ublic. But the invaders of Syracuse came; made g anding in Sicily; and, if they had promptly attacked self, instead of wasting nearly a year in desultory o 1 other parts of Sicily, the Syracusans must have paid uty of their self-sufficient carelessness in submission to ian yoke. But, of the three generals who led the xpedition, two only were men of ability, and one was m nd incompetent. Fortunately for Syracuse, Alcibiades, killful of the three, was soon deposed from his comm actious and fanatic vote of his fellow-countrymen, and ompetent one, Lamachus, fell early in a skirmish; wh ortunately still for her, the feeble and vacillating Nicial d unrecalled and unhurt, to assume the undivided l f the Athenian army and fleet, and to mar, by altern aution and over-carelessness, every chance of success w arly part of the operations offered. Still, even under thenians nearly won the town. They defeated the r f the Syracusans, cooped them within the walls, and, mentioned, almost effected a continuous fortification fro ay over Epipolæ, the completion of which would certa een followed by a capitulation.

Alcibiades, the most complete example of genius with