BOOKS.

_GROTE'S GREECE—VOLUMES IX. AND X.

Leuctra. The highest excellences of both states are exemplified, an historian, of realizing the situation—the same boldness in but few will doubt that Mr. Grote is justified in citing these in- stating views opposed to the authority of his predecessors—which stances to b. ar out the boast of Pericles, that " his countrymen, have won for his earlier volumes so wide a popularity and so die- stances the rigorous drill of Spartans, were yet found no wiry in- tinguisbed a place in English historical literature. • If these vo- ferior to Spartans when the hour of actual trial arrived." The testi- mony thus borne, supported as it is by tie continuous history of because the action no longer concentrates itself so decidedly round the two states, to the superior influence of those institutions whieh the two great states, Athens and Sparta ; because the operations are consequently more desultory, more unsettled both in origin develop the whole humanity—to the nobler effect of a genial over an ascetic training—is one of the most valuable lessons of history, and aim ; because a vigilant caution has to.be maintained against

and is as applicable to the ease of an individual as of a-community. the known and palpable LicOnian prejudicen of Xenophon, the

only important contemporary authority and above all, because Mr. Grote is equally urgent in showing that those same democratic ; seems to lose its heroic institutions

Pericles, Alcibiades, and Socrates, have vanished from the which have been so often abused as leading to gross in- scene, and the drama itself

_ gratitude on the part of the Athenian people towards their great deur as the human actors diminish in lofty character and men, and to gross cruelty towards their opponents, are at least no more chargeable with that blame than the opposite institutions at brilliant talents. Something, too of sadness must inevitably Sparta. The perpetual banishment of King Pausanias for retiring mingle with and temper the re'ader's enjoyment of this pe-

from Bceotia without fighti.ng, under circumstances when fighting riod of Grecian history, as he feels the near approach of the hu-

would have been madness, is adduced as a parallel instance of un- miliation of a race which had for ages displayed so many noble,

just misjudgment to those paraded against the Athenian democracy. useful, and shining qualities —a humiliation which he knows not J..- Mr. Grote might have urged the universal treatment of unsuccessful only to be certain because the event has passed for more than two

, warriors by Sparta as a sufficient answer to the charge against thousand years, but to be the necessary result of that obstinate tendency to disunion which was the grand political defect of the 1 Athens. The truth is, that what was a rare exception at Athens, human proba- Hellenic nature ; and more than that, to be in all , and there springing from an uncontrollable popular impulse, was a bility a better alternative than the state of perpetual intestine pride which must ultimately have reduced Greece to a desert and her people aggerated and misinterpreted these rare exceptions,—as in the to a horde of savages. Great conquerors, like Philip Macedon and his more celebrated son, are the remedies which Pro- throws light by the results of different conduct on the part of the -vidence, by the operation of unerring laws, provides for such ea - lamitous issues of the follies and vices of free communities. The Italian republics of the middle ages present us in this as in many 'other respects with a repetition of the phaenomena of Hellenic so- eiety. Nor has Europe in the nineteenth century solved the prob- lem of reconciling the claims of distinct nationalities with a super- intending federal authority ; only the problem is rendered less pressing in proportion as European communities are larger, more

_ prisoner in 407 m.o., while commanding a naval squadron fitted definitely marked, and more self-sufficing, and therefore not es

speaking the same language. The failure in both cases we hold to be the same—that public morality is not now, any more than it

was two thousand years ago, so pure and elevated as that any na-

tion will consent to throw away the sword, and abide in the set- tlement of its external relations by the decision of a body of radii- trators, whose motives are not any more than their judgments ne practical speculation, whether two thousand years hence the his- torian of Europe will have, like Mr. Grote, to attribute the subver- marks which Mr. Grote makes, in reference to this case, upon the sion of European independence to that excessive grasp after "auto- sentiment of a popular assembly compared with that of a secret .nomy," ultimately traceable to a low condition of political morality, tribunal, are among the most valuable contributions to political which prevented Greece from turning an united front to her philosophy that have for a long time come under our notice.

• tattoo of genius, wisdom, valour, and renown, fresh significance given, as in the instances mentioned above from

• The readers of Mr. Grote's previous volumes will expect to find a crowd of such, to old and well-established facts, but also in the him losing no fair opportunity of illustrating and enforcing his new facts made to appear from a more rigid examination of the philosophy of politics, by pointing the contrast between Athenian old evidence, and the application of a larger and more living ac- -and Lacedremoman conduct under similar circumstances, and re_ cluaintance with modern history and practical politics. We have ferring the difference to the influence of the most democratic and indeed nothing in these volumes of equal importance to the famous developing of Greek constitutions in comparison with that which rescue of Cleon and the Sophists from the stale calumnies and was most hierarchic and repressive. Thus, while he limits the misrepresentations of Tory politicians and religious mystics ; but grievances of the subordinate allies of Athens to the loss of their there are in the narrative, and oftener in the notes, elaborately- autonomy, and shows even that to have been rather the gradual argued corrections of previous misconceptions, which will have and inevitable effect of circumstances than deliberate oppression, great value for the scholar, and for the historical student who is he draws a lamentable picture of the state of Greece and the ad- eager for minute accuracy in the least detail. Thus, while ThirI- jacent islands when Sparta was no longer controlled in her su- wall repeats the story that Xenophon was banished by the Athenians simply in resentment for the share he took in the cape- remacy by any rival, nor checked in her ambitions and oppressive Ma. GROTE'S ninth and tenth volumes carry on the general history of Grecian affairs from the foundation of the Spartan empire at the close of the Peloponnesian war to the peace that followed the battle of Mantinea. The first half of the ninth volume narrates at length the expedition of the younger Cyrus and the retreat of the

Ten Thousand Greeks under Xenophon ; and the latter portion of .

tory renders this view unassailable. It is impossible on any other ground to account for the universal odium which sprang up so rapidly against Sparta even amongst her own most .devoted allies, and Which reduced her first to descend so far from the lofty pride of Hellenic sentiment as to procure a missive from the King of Persia imposing " the convention of _Antalcidas" on the Greeks as on his dependents, and not many years after exposed to in- vasion and outrage even the " inviolate " land itself,—an invasion which overthrew once and for ever the prestige of military strength which was Sparta's only claim to lead the Greeks. Nor is it a less iroportant moral which Mr. Grote points when he draws the tenth' carries the history of the Sicilian Greeks to that point in es- pecial attention to the heroic self-command with which the Spartan the career of the elder Dionysins when he succeeded in crushing could endure pain and suppress emotion, as compared with the un- the power of Carthage in Sicily, and was preparing to turn his checked utterance of sorrow and disappointment which the Athe- arms against the Greeks of South Italy. We have in noticing . nian brought down from the simple ages of the Homeric epos, and Mr. Grote's previous volumes as they successively appeared, ex- at the same time is careful to note that the passive Stoicism of the pressed our opinion of his qualities as an historian so fully, that former resulted in no such active energy of self-preservation as we need only repeat now, that he continues to exhibit the same followed the momentary prostration of the latter. As eminent in- unflinching industry in the examination of the records--the same stances of the contrast, Mr. Grote selects the proceedings at A theni ingenuity in winding his way to a result through conflicting or

after the Syracusan defeat, and those at Sparta after the battle cif imperfect testimonies—the same power, so rare and so valuable in

Leuctra. The highest excellences of both states are exemplified, an historian, of realizing the situation—the same boldness in but few will doubt that Mr. Grote is justified in citing these in- stating views opposed to the authority of his predecessors—which stances to b. ar out the boast of Pericles, that " his countrymen, have won for his earlier volumes so wide a popularity and so die- stances the rigorous drill of Spartans, were yet found no wiry in- tinguisbed a place in English historical literature. • If these vo- ferior to Spartans when the hour of actual trial arrived." The testi- mony thus borne, supported as it is by tie continuous history of because the action no longer concentrates itself so decidedly round d are consequently more desultory, more unsettled both in origin develop the whole humanity—to the nobler effect of a genial over an ascetic training—is one of the most valuable lessons of history, and aim ; because a vigilant caution has to.be maintained against Sparta. The perpetual banishment of King Pausanias for retiring mingle with and temper the re'ader's enjoyment of this pe-

Mr. Grote might have urged the universal treatment of unsuccessful only to be certain because the event has passed for more than two

!

Hellenic nature ; and more than that, to be in all , and there springing from an uncontrollable popular impulse, was a ' positive law at Sparta, and sprung from monstrous systematic ride and inhumanity. It may be added, that historians have en- famous case of the generals at Arginusee, upon which Mr. Grote victorious generals in another naval battle nearer home. The difference of Athenian Aid. Spartan conduct in the second class of instances, that of the treatment of political opponents, is deve- loped and enlarged upon in the example of the Rhodian ,Derieus. This man, one of the great Rhodian family of the Diagoridee, had distinguished himself by his hostility to Athens had been banished from Rhodes in consequence, and had been taken

_ prisoner in 407 m.o., while commanding a naval squadron fitted definitely marked, and more self-sufficing, and therefore not es

out at his own cost. "Under these circumstances, by the usual laws m small posed to such incessant causes of quarrel as were incident to corn- out Greek warfare, his life was forfeited. But the cause was brought unities packed close -together, within a sma compass, and all before the Athenian people, and they, moved by his valour and re- nown, (for he was famous as a victor at the Olympian, Nemean, and Pythian games,) liberated him by public vote, and dismissed

him unconditionally.- Many years after this, when the Spartans

_ galling supremacy; and in revenge for this the LacedremOnians cessarily above suspicion. It is a curious but at the same time a savagely put to death Dorieus, who was out of the island, and could have had nothing to do directly with the revolt,. The re- Northern assailant, and rendered of no avail her priceless inheri- But the value of Mr. Grote's History does not lie only in the

designs by the necessity of conciliatory behaviour and fair. pro- dition of Cyrus and the services he rendered to Sparta on his r6- raises. Taking the (*nation of Athens under the Thirty as some- turn, all the while acknowledging that Xenophon's own language is opposed to this view, Grote convincingly shows that he was in• thing above the normal condition of those cities, in which Sparta

introduced a Harmost with a garrison, and set up an oligarchy — fact banished many years after his return for the sufficiently by the language of Xenophon aneby

and supporting his analogy. definite and specific offence of serving in arms against his own what is known of the condition of other places under silkier go- country under the Spartan King Agesilaus. So again, the Com- vernment, and of the temper of Spartan officers,—he leaves no doubt mon story of the punishment inflicted by the Athenian people Oil .that the exchange from Athens to Sparta was a serious calamity to their two generals for helping the Theban exiles to repossess then" those who experienced it. And the subsequent course of the his- selves of the Kadmeia is generally urged as an instance of demo- • History of Greece. By George Grote, Esq. Volumes IX and X. Published °ratio instability and meanness ; because it is connected with generals to act in the manner they did. Mr. Grote appears to have successfully exploded this latter statement, as a misconcep- tion arising partly from the bragging of orators, partly from the fact that shortly after the Athenians were heartily in alliance with Thebes. It is curious to compare Thirlwall's "judicious scepti- cism" in reference to this matter, with Grote's hearty working through a complicated body of contradictory evidence to a clear and self-commending result. It is by such differences as these even from his most scholarlike and conscientious predecessor that Mr. Grote lends unflagging interest to every portion of his voluminous work, and renders an acquaintance with its pages essential to the ripest scholar and student of Greek history.

We have spoken of these volumes as less interesting than some of those which preceded them, from the nature of the materials. It is needless to say that to this remark the expedition of the Ten Thousand is an exception. We know no modern description of military movements in ancient times that can match this in breathless and sustained interest, but that famous account in the third volume of Arnold's Rome of the march of Nero from Apulia to oppose Hasdrubal, which terminated in the battle of the Netaurus. The best praise of both is that we realize the difficul- ties to be overcome, and the surpassing skill and courage of both soldiers and commanders in overcoming them, with as much vivid- ness as we follow Wellington's marches from one end of the Penin- sula to the other, and with the same intense interest in the fortunes of the army. Even here, Mr. Grote makes the Philo- Laconian Xenophon an involuntary if not an unwilling witness to the excellence of that democratic training 'which enabled him, without connexion, money, or followers, to rise at once to the height of the situation, and lead a body of Greeks over whom he had no control but what his genius and his eloquence gave him, from the heart of Asia, through hostile tribes, and more hostile weather, safe to their homes with an incredibly small loss of life. Not that Mr. Grote in this ease, or in any of the others that we have mentioned, strains a fact to enforce a moral; he simply draws from the facts the truth that others had failed to see so clearly, or had in many cases turned into direct and injurious falsehood.