Greece might have become what Turkey in Europe is now, and the history of the world would have been changed. The student will find Grote's and Curtius's "History of Greece" full of interest and instruction.

Ar length the day began to dawn which was to de-1 cide the fate of Greece. As the veil of night rolled gradually away, the Persian fleet was discovered stretching, as far as the eye could reach, along the coast of Attica. Its right wing, consisting of Phoenician and Cyprian vessels, was drawn up toward the Bay of Eleusis, while the Ionians occupied the left, toward Peiræus, and the southern entrance of the straits. On the low and barren Island of Psyttaleia, adjacent to that point, a detachment of choice Persian troops had been landed. As the Grecian fleet was concentrated in the harbor of the town of Salamis, it was thus surrounded, as it were, in a net, by the Persians. Xerxes, who attributed the disasters at Artemisium to his own absence, had caused a lofty throne to be erected upon one of the projecting declivities of Mount Ægaleos, opposite the harbor of Salamis, whence he could survey the combat, and stimulate by his presence the courage of his men; while by his side stood scribes, prepared to record the names both of the daring and the backward.

"A king sat on the rocky brow

Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis;
And ships, by thousands, lay below,

And men, in nations-all were his!
He counted them at break of day-

And, when the sun set, where were they?"

The Grecian commanders lost no time in preparing 2 to meet their multitudinous opponents. The Athenians were posted on the left wing, and consequently opposed

to the Phoenicians on the Persian right. The Lacedæmonians and the other Peloponnesians took their station on the right, and the Æginetans and Euboeans in the center. Animated by the harangues of Themistocles and the other leaders, the Greek seamen embarked with alacrity, encouraging one another to deliver their country, their wives, and children, and the temples of their gods from the grasp of the barbarians. Just at this juncture a favorable omen seemed to promise them success. When Eurybiades gave the order for the fleet to remain and fight at Salamis, a trireme had been dispatched to Ægina to invoke the assistance of Eacus, and the acid heroes, Palamon and Aias (Ajax). As the Greeks were on the point of embarking, the trireme returned from the mission just in time to take her place in the line of battle.

3 As the trumpets sounded, the Greeks rowed forward to the attack, hurling into the still morning air the loud war-pæan, reverberated shrilly from the cliffs of Salamis, and not unanswered by the Persians. But suddenly a panic appeared to seize the Grecian oarsmen. They paused, backed astern, and some of the rearward vessels even struck the ground at Salamis. At this critical juncture a supernatural portent is said to have reanimated the drooping courage of the Greeks. A female figure was seen to hover over the fleet, uttering loud reproaches at their flight. Reanimated by the vision, the Greeks again rowed forward to the attack. History has preserved to us but few details of the engagement, which, indeed, soon became a scene of confusion too intricate to be accurately observed; but the names of those who first grappled with the enemy have not been left unrecorded. The Athenian captains, Ameinias and Lycomedes, the former a brother of the poet Eschylus,

were the first to bring their ships into action; Democritus, a Naxian, was the third. The Persian fleet, with 4 the exception of some of the Ionic contingents, appears to have fought with alacrity and courage. But the very numbers on which they so confidently relied proved one of the chief causes of their defeat. They had neither concert in action nor space to manœuvre; and the confusion was augmented by the mistrust with which the motley nations composing the Persian armament regarded one another. Too crowded either to advance or to retreat, their oars broken or impeded by collision with one another, their fleet lay like an inert and lifeless mass upon the water, and fell an easy prey to the Greeks. A single incident will illustrate the terror and confusion which reigned among the Persians. Artemisia, although, as 5 we have related, averse to giving battle, distinguished herself in it by deeds of daring bravery. At length she turned and fled, pursued by the Athenian trierarch, Ameinias. Full in her course lay the vessel of the Carian prince, Damosithymus of Calyndus. Instead of avoiding, she struck and sunk it, sending her countryman and all his crew to the bottom. Ameinias, believing from this act that she was a deserter from the Persian cause, suffered her to escape. Xerxes, who from his lofty throne beheld the feat of the Halicarnassian queen, but who imagined that the sunken ship belonged to the Greeks, was filled with admiration at her courage, and is said to have exclaimed, "My men are become women, my women men!"

The number of ships destroyed and sunk is stated at 6 forty on the side of the Greeks, and two hundred on that of the Persians, exclusive of those which were captured with all their crews. Besides this loss at sea, Aristeides succeeded in inflicting on the Persians another on land.

It has been already stated that some chosen Persian troops had been landed at Psyttaleia, in order to assist such Persian ships, or destroy such Grecian ships, as might be forced upon the island. When the rout of the Persian fleet was completed, Aristeides landed on the island with a body of Hoplites, defeated the Persians, and cut them to pieces to a man.

1

ALEXANDER THE GREAT.-INFLUENCE OF HIS CONQUESTS.

SMITH'S " HISTORY OF GREECE."

The conquests of Alexander the Great were instrumental in preparing the way for the spreading of the Gospel, by extending the Greek culture and the Greek language throughout the Eastern world. Greek became the language of learning and literature in the East; the Old Testament was translated into Greek at Alexandria, one of the great centers of commerce and philosophy, founded by Alexander, and the New Testament was written in Greek. Upon his death, Alexander's conquests were divided among his successors, and were finally absorbed into the empire of Rome. (See Freeman's "Historical Essays," and Grote's "History of Greece.")

ALEXANDER entered Babylon in the spring of 324, notwithstanding the warnings of the priests of Belus, who predicted some serious evil to him if he entered the city at that time. Babylon was now to witness the consummation of his triumphs and of his life. As in the last scene of some well-ordered drama, all the results and tokens of his great achievements seemed to be collected there to do honor to his final exit. Ambassadors from all parts of

Greece, from Libya, Italy, and probably from still more distant regions, were waiting to salute him, and to do homage to him as the conqueror of Asia; the fleet under Nearchus had arrived, after its long and enterprising voyage, and had been augmented by other vessels constructed in Phoenicia, and thence brought overland to Thapsacus, and down the river to Babylon; while for the reception of this navy, which seemed to turn the inland capital of his empire into a port, a magnificent harbor was in process of construction. A more melancholy, and, it may be 2 added, a more useless monument of his greatness, was the funeral pile now rising for Hephaestion, which was constructed with such unparalleled splendor that it is said to have cost ten thousand talents. The mind of Alexander was still occupied with plans of conquest and ambition; his next design was the subjugation of Arabia; which, however, was to be only the stepping-stone to the conquest of the whole known world. He dispatched three expeditions to survey the coast of Arabia; ordered a fleet to be built to explore the Caspian Sea; and engaged himself in surveying the course of the Euphrates, and in devising improvements of its navigation. The period for commencing the Arabian campaign had already arrived; solemn sacrifices were offered up for its success, and grand banquets were given previous to departure. At these 3 carousals Alexander drank deep; and at the termination of the one given by his favorite, Medius, he was seized with unequivocal symptoms of fever. For some days, however, he neglected the disorder, and continued to occupy himself with the necessary preparations for the march. But in eleven days the malady had gained a fatal strength and terminated his life on June 28th, B. c. 323, at the early age of thirty-two. While he lay speechless on his death-bed his favorite troops were admitted to