there was that strength and majestic energy about him, which must have made him do acts worthy of such distinction. And to be distinguished at Marathon was something worth living for. Civilisation, art, and culture, against barbarism, wealth, and numbers; freedom against despotism; Europe against Asia,—no less a strife than this was decided that day. The Greeks came to the encounter with the anxiety of men who were trying a new weapon against an enemy of new powers. They were unused to the vast numbers and imposing equipment of the Persians, and the power of freedom and culture had hardly yet been tried. It would have been impious to distrust such weapons and such a cause, but still it was an anxious crisis. And when it ended in the utter rout of Darius and his innumerable hosts, the triumph was proportionate to that anxiety. Greece was greater that day than any country has ever been since, and on that day Æschylus was among the greatest of Greece. And ten years afterward there came a day, less critical, indeed, but even more splendid, when "ships by thousands lay" off Salamis, and the Athenians led the Greeks to the fullest victory. The Athenians then had sacrificed their homes and the temples of their gods to fight for fellow-countrymen who were ungrateful and remiss; the virtue of one Athenian and the genius of another had made the victory possible; and on this proudest day that Athens ever saw the brother of Æschylus was named as having borne himself the best, and the poet himself was doubtless not far behind.
