model to all posterity, had given the same spirit to the nation, and traced them out the plan they were to follow. The disgrace and infamy annexed to the violation of this law, and to such as quitted their arms in battle, confirmed the observance of it, and rendered it in a manner inviolable. The mothers recommended to their sons, when they set out for the field, to return either with or upon their bucklers. They did not weep for those who died with their arms in their hands, but for those who preserved themselves by flight. Can we be surprised, after this, that a small body of such soldiers, with such principles, should put to a stand an innumerable army of barbarians?

The Athenians were not bred up so roughly as the people of Sparta, but had no less valour. The taste of the two nations was quite different in regard to education and employment; but they attained the same end, though by different means. The Spartans knew only how to use their arms, and were soldiers alone; but amongst the Athenians, (and we must say as much of the other people of Greece,) arts, trades, husbandry, commerce, and navigation, were held in honour, and thought no disgrace to any one. These occupations were no obstacles to military skill and valour; they disqualified none for rising to the greatest commands, and the first dignities of the republic. Plutarch observes, that Solon, seeing the territory of Attica was barren, applied himself to direct the industry of his citizens towards arts, trades, and commerce, in order to supply his country thereby with what it wanted on the side of fertility. This taste became one of the maxims of the government and fundamental laws of the state, and perpetuated itself amongst the people, but without lessening in the least their ardour for war.

The ancient glory of the nation, which had always distinguished itself by military bravery, was a powerful motive for not degenerating from the reputation of their ancestors. The famous battle of Marathon,

wherein they had sustained alone the shock of the barbarians, and gained a signal victory over them, infinitely heightened their courage; and the battle of Salamis, in the success of which they had the greatest share, raised them to the highest pitch of glory, and rendered them capable of the greatest enterprises.

A noble emulation not to give place in merit to Sparta, the rival of Athens, and keen jealousy of their glory, which during the war with the Persians contained itself within due bounds, were another strong incentive to the Athenians, who every day made new efforts to excel themselves, and sustain their reputation.

The rewards and honours granted to those who had distinguished themselves in battle; the monuments erected in memory of the citizens who had died in the defence of their country; the funeral orations publicly pronounced in the midst of the most august religious ceremonies, to render their names immortal-all conspired, in the highest degree, to eternize the valour of the Athenians particularly, and to make fortitude a kind of law and indispensable cessity to them.

"Athens had a law, by which it was ordained, that those who had been maimed in war should be maintained at the expence of the public. The same fayour was granted to the fathers and mothers, as well as to the children, of such as had fallen in battle, and left their families poor, and not in a condition to support themselves. The republic, like a good mother, generously took them into her care, and fulfilled towards them all the duties, and procured them all the relief, that they could have expected from those whose loss they deplored.

This exalted the courage of the Athenians, and rendered their troops invincible, though not very numerous. In the battle of Platææ, where the army of the barbarians, commanded by Mardonius, con

Plut in Solon. p. 96. Plat. in Mencx. p. 248, 249. Diog. Laert. in Solon. p. 37.

sisted at the least of three hundred thousand men, and the united forces of the Greeks of only one hundred and eight thousand two hundred men, there were in the latter only ten thousand Lacedæmonians, of which one half were Spartans, that is to say, inhabitants of Sparta, and eight thousand Athenians. It is true, each Spartan brought with him seven Helots, which made in all thirty-five thousand men; but they were scarce ever reckoned as soldiers.

This shining merit in point of martial valour, generally acknowledged by the other states, did not sup press in their minds all sentiments of envy and jealousy; as appeared once in relation to the Lacedæmonians. The allies, who were very much superior to them in number, could with difficulty endure to see themselves subjected to their order, and murmured against it in secret. Agesilaus, king of Sparta, without seeming to have any knowledge of their disgust, assembled the whole army; and after having made all the allies sit down on one side, and the Lacedæmonians by themselves on the other, he cansed proclamation to be made by a herald, that all smiths, masons, carpenters, (and so on, through the other trades,) should rise up. Almost all the allies did so, and not one of the Lacedæmonians, to whom all trades were prohibited. Agesilaus then smiling, "You see," said he," how many more soldiers Sparta " alone furnishes than all the rest of the allies toge"ther;" thereby intimating, that to be a good soldier, it was necessary to be only a soldier; that trades diverted the artizan from applying himself wholly to the profession of arms and the science of war, and prevented his succeeding so well in it as those who made it their sole business and exercise. But Agesilaus spoke and acted in that manner from his prejudice in favour of the Lacedæmonian education; for indeed those whom he wished to consider only as simple artisans, demonstrated, by the glorious victories they obtained over the Persians, and even Sparta itself, that they were by no means inferior to

the Lacedæmonians, entirely soldiers as they were, either in valour or military knowledge.

SECT. III. Different kind of troops of which the armies of the Lacedæmonians and Athenians were composed.

THE armies both of Sparta and Athens were composed of four sorts of troops: citizens, allies, mercenaries, and slaves. The soldiers were sometimes marked in the hand, to distinguish them from the slaves, who had that character impressed upon their forehead. Interpreters believe, that it is in allusion to this double manner of marking, that it is said in the Revelation, that all were obliged"" to receive "the mark of the beast in the right hand, or in their "foreheads:" and that St. Paul says of himself; “ I "bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus."

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The citizens of Lacedæmonia were of two sorts; either those who inhabited Sparta itself, and who for that reason were called Spartans, or those who lived in the country. In Lycurgus's time the Spartans amounted to nine thousand, and the others to thirty thousand. This number seems to have been somewhat diminished in the time of Xerxes, as Demaratus, speaking to him of the Lacedæmonian troops, computes only eight thousand Spartans. The latter were the flower of the nation; and we may judge of the value they set upon them, by the anxiety the republic expressed for the three or four hundred besieged by the Athenians in the small island of Sphacteria, where they were taken prisoners. The Lacedæmonians generally spared the troops of their country very much, and sent only a few of them into the armies; but even these few constituted their chief strength. When a Lacedæmonian general was asked, how many Spartans there were in the army? he answered, as many as are necessary to repulse the enemy." They served the state at their own expence,

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and it was not till after a length of time that they received pay from the public.

The greatest number of the troops in the two republics were composed of the Allies, who were paid by the cities which sent them.

The foreign troops, who were paid by the republic to whose aid they were called in, were styled Mercenaries.

The Spartans never marched without Helots, and we have seen, that in the battle of Platææ, every citizen had seven. I do not believe that this number was fixed, nor do I well comprehend for what service they were designed. It would have been very bad policy to have put arms into the hands of so great a number of slaves, generally much discontented with their masters' harsh treatment of them, and who consequently would have had every thing to fear from them in a battle. Herodotus, however, in the passage I have cited from him, represents them carrying arms in the field as light-armed soldiers.

The infantry consisted of two kinds of soldiers. The one were heavy-armed, and carried great bucklers, lances, half-pikes, and scimitars; and of these the main strength of the army consisted. The other were light-armed, that is to say, with bows and slings. They were commonly placed in the front of the battle, or upon the wings as a first line, to shoot arrows, and fling javelins and stones at the enemy; and when they had discharged, they retired through the intervals behind the battalions as a second line, and continued their volleys.

Thucydides, in describing the battle of Mantinæa, divides the Lacedæmonian troops in this manner. There were seven regiments of four companies each, without including the Sciritæ, to the number of six hundred; these were horsemen, of whom I shall soon speak further. The company consisted, according to the Greek interpreter, of a hundred and twenty-eight men, and was subdivided into four squadrons, each Thucyd. 1. v. p. 390.

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