CHAPTER I.

_DEFENSE OF FREEDOM BY GREEK VALOR._


1. The great events in history are those where, upon special
occasions, a man or a people have made a stand against tyranny, and
have preserved or advanced freedom for the people. Sometimes tyranny
has taken the form of the oppression of the many by the few in the
same nation, and sometimes it has been the oppression of a weak nation
by a stronger one. The successful revolt against tyranny, the terrible
conflict resulting in the emancipation of a people, has always been
the favorite theme of the historian, marking as it does a step in the
progress of mankind from a savage to a civilized state.

2. One of the earliest as well as most notable of these conflicts of
which we have an authentic account took place in Greece twenty-four
hundred years ago, or five hundred years before the Christian era. At
that time nearly all of Europe was inhabited by rude barbarous tribes.
In all that broad land the arts and sciences which denote civilization
had made their appearance only in the small and apparently
insignificant peninsula of Greece, lying on the extreme southeast
border adjoining Asia.

3. At a period before authentic history begins, it is probable that
roving tribes of shepherds from the north took possession of the hills
and valleys of Greece. Shut off on the north by mountain ranges, and
on all other sides surrounded by the sea, these tribes were able to