130 HISTORICAL TALES,

mountains which rise to bind it in. A brook flows ©
across it to the sea, and marshes occupy its ends.
Such was the field on which one of the decisive bat-
tles of the world was about to be fought.

The coming of the Persians had naturally filled the
Athenians and all the neighboring nations of Greece
with alarm. Yet if any Athenian had a thought of
submission without fighting, he was wise enough to
keep it to himself. The Athenians of that day were
a very different people from what they had been fifty
years before, when they tamely submitted to the
tyranny of Pisistratus. They had gained new laws,
and with them a new spirit. They were the freest
people upon the earth,—a democracy in which every
man was the equal of every other, and in which each
had a full voice in the government of the state.
They had their political leaders, it is true, but these
were their fellow-citizens, who ruled through intel-
lect, not through despotism.

There were now three such men in Athens,—men
who have won an enduring fame. One of these was
that Miltiades who had counselled the destruction
of Darius’s bridge of boats. The others were named
Themistocles and Aristides, concerning whom we
shall have more to say. These three were among the
ten generals who commanded the army of Athens,
and each of whom, according to the new laws, was
to have command foraday. It was fortunate for the
Athenians that they had the wit to set aside this law
on this important occasion, since such a divided gen-
eralship must surely have led to defeat and disaster.

But before telling what action was taken there is