Even the disastrous Peloponnesian War, which lasted twenty-seven years, did not destroy the impulse given to the Greek intellect during the preceding age, and literature, oratory, and philosophy flourished.
SOCRATES AND THE SHAME
OF ATHENS
Socrates, the great and good Athenian philosopher, lived (469-399 B. C.) during a period covering much of the age of Pericles, and the whole time of the Peloponnesian war. Though opposed to the oligarchical tyranny of the Four Hundred and the Thirty, Socrates was even more adverse to the unmixed democracy, with its election by lot and its payment for political services. Accordingly, on the triumph of the demagogues, he was in 399 B. C. accused of denying the gods and corrupting the young, and being convicted by an overwhelming majority of the jury, was sentenced to death. He passed thirty days before execution in the noble discourses on the immortality of the soul, which are recorded in Plato’s Phædo, drank the cup of hemlock, and died.
SUPREMACY OF SPARTA AND THEBES
Sparta was now at the head of Greece, and for thirty-four years (405-371 B. C.) wielded power over the Greek states. Her sway was harsh and despotic.
RETREAT OF THE TEN
THOUSAND
After the Peloponnesian War, some of the Greeks were hired by Cyrus, the Persian prince, to help him in an attempt to wrest the Persian throne from his brother Artaxerxes. The attempt failed, and the memorable retreat (400 B. C.) homeward of the Greeks is famous as the “Retreat of the Ten Thousand.”
THE RISE OF MACEDONIA
Macedonia, north of Thessaly, was not considered by the Hellenes as a part of Hellas, and had no political importance till now. Yet the peoples had elements in common, being Thracians and Illyrians, with a large mixture of Dorian settlers among them.
KING PHILIP OF
MACEDON