If the Spartans fell in battle on the frontiers, it was the law and custom that their bodies should be carried back and interred in their family sepulchres, unless it should appear that they had received their death in flight; in that case they were left unburied.

CHAPTER XXXII.

Other States of Greece.

THE other states of Greece, like Athens and Sparta, had a republican form of government. In some of them the chief power was in the rich, and the constitution was oligarchical or aristocratical. In others, the people had the supreme power, and the constitution was democratical. În almost all the states, the two parties were ever struggling for the ascendency. A similar jealousy was entertained in Sparta and Athens; the former favoring the aristocracy, and the latter supporting the cause of the people.

In none of them were the same rigorous institutions as at Sparta, and nowhere were the arts and sciences, learning and philosophy, so much cultivated as at Athens.

The council of the Amphictyons resembled the diet of the Germanic empire in modern times, or the general diet of the deputies of the cantons of Switzerland. In this confederation, twelve nations of the Greeks associated together, each of which might give two votes or suffrages, and send what number of deputies they thought fit.

The object was to settle matters connected with the general interest; but chiefly to decide questions between any two states, so as to obviate the necessity of an appeal to arms.

This council was held in the spring at the city of Delphi, and in winter at Anthela, near the Straits of Thermopylæ. At their meetings, a numerous concourse of spectators attended, and they opened their proceedings by sacrifices and religious observances.

This league was ratified by the following oath: "We swear never to destroy any Amphictyonic town, nor divert, either in peace or war, the springs or streams necessary to supply its wants. If any power shall attempt it, we will march against that power, and destroy its cities. Should impious men seize upon the offerings in the temple of Apollo, at Delphi, we swear to employ our feet, our voices, our arms, and all our powers, against them and their accomplices."

The Amphictyonic council could levy fines on offending cities; and, if not promptly paid, the fines were doubled. If the party against which the fine was awarded, still continued refractory, the league called upon all the confederate states to arm and support its decrees. They also expelled from their council the deputies of the of fending state.

The feebler states were obliged to submit, but the more powerful, when they had a considerable interest at stake, were not so complying. Thus, the Lacedæmonians, after they had been fined 500 talents for seizing on the citadel of Thebes in time of peace, refused to pay; and when the fine was doubled, they still held out, alleging that the

decree was unjust; and by force of arms persisted in disobedience.

For robbing the temple of Delphi, the most severe vengeance was denounced; and in case of resistance, death and deprivation of sepulture was inflicted.

The vast treasures accumulated in this temple, tempted the Phoceans to violate the precincts, and they took from it immense sums. They successfully resisted for some time the Baotians and other states; but at last they were miserably destroyed by Philip, king of Macedon. That subtle politician availed himself of the popularity of the act to appear as an avenger of the gods. Philip was, after this, admitted into the council, which extended his influence over Greece till he had reduced it to a state bordering on subjection.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

The City of Rome.

THE city of Rome derived its name from Romulus, who, with a colony from Alba Longa, founded it 753 years before Christ. It was built on the banks of the river Tiber, and stood on the seven hills, Palatinus, Capitolinus, Aventinus, Quirinalis, Coelius, Viminalis, and Esquilinus, and in its most flourishing state, its walls surrounded a space of fifty miles. This territory was divided into three unequal parts, one of which was allotted for the service of religion, and for building temples; another for the king's revenue and the

uses of the state; and the third and most consid. erable part was divided into thirty portions, to answer to the thirty curiæ, or divisions of the people.

Rome, in its day of glory, abounded in magnificent temples, amphitheatres, and places for exercise and amusement; buildings for the assemblies of the people, public places, piazzas or porticoes, columns, triumphal arches, and trophies, aqueducts, public sewers, and highroads.

The forum was the most ancient public building in Rome; it was composed of a vast assemblage of sumptuous but irregular edifices, forming a spacious oblong square, entirely surrounded by a piazza terminated at each end by a triumphal arch. It was here that the assemblies of the people were held, and harangues delivered to the plebeians, or common people.

Here also justice was administered in vast halls appropriated to the different tribunals; it was, moreover, the residence of the chief bankers, and contained a variety of shops stored with a profusion of the most costly merchandise, and, consequently, was the mart for all important and commercial transactions. This being the emporium of law, politics, and trade, it became equally the resort of the man of business and the lawyer, and was the scene of the chief bustle of the city.

Of its present state we have the following authentic description: "Its temples are fallen; its sanctuaries have crumbled into dust; its colonnades encumber the pavements, now buried under their remains. The walls of the rostra, stripped of their ornaments and doomed to eternal silence; a few shattered porticoes, and here and there an insulated column standing in the midst of broken shafts; vast fragments of marble capitals, and

The aqueducts were by far the noblest proof of the grandeur of Rome. Some of these wonderful channels brought water from upwards of sixty miles, through rocks and mountains and over valleys, supported on arches in some places more than one hundred feet high, one row being placed above another.

The city was cleansed by means of sewers of stupendous magnitude, and of such solid workmanship that, after a lapse of more than two thou-. sand years, though earthquakes have shaken the very foundations of the city, the principal drain is still entire.