stated on both sides with logical and juridical precision.

Alcibiades, after performing many other exploits, sailed into the Hellespont, and took Selymbria, a city of Thrace, on the coast of the Propontis. In the action, with characteristic rashness, he exposed himself to unnecessary danger. After the treaty with Pharnabazus, he went against Byzantium. Cydon, Ariston, and Anaxicrates secretly engaged to deliver up the place, on condition that it should be protected from plunder; and Alcibiades honourably fulfilled his engagement.

Duris the Samian, who lived in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, boasted of his descent from Alcibiades. He is commended for his accuracy by Cicero, Epist. ad Att. lib. vi. He is arguing, that no historian can stand his ground, if occasional error is to be too severely imputed. This Duris is placed in very respectable company: -"Num idcirco Duris Samius, homo in historia diligens, quod cum multis erravit, irridetur? Quis Zaleucum leges Locris scripsisse non dixit? Num igitur jacet Theophrastus, si id a Timæo, tuo familiari, reprehensum est? Sed nescire, proavum suum censorem non fuisse, turpe est; præsertim cum post eum consulem, nemo Cornelius, illo vivo, censor fuerit." This Duris describes in glowing colours the triumphal return of Alcibiades ; the oars keeping time to the flute of Chrysogonus, who had gained a victory in the Pythian games: while Callipedes, the tragedian, gave direction to the rowers, in all the splendour of his theatrical paraphernalia. The admiral's vessel he described as entering the port with a purple sail, in token of Bacchanalian revelry. All this is in perfect keep

ing with the character of Alcibiades: but neither Xenophon, Justin, nor Athenæus, mention any such particulars; and as Plutarch tells us, that Theopompus and Ephorus are equally silent, the probability is that Duris had exaggerated. He might have thought it an honour to be descended from the Rochester or Buckingham of ancient days, and have given these gay anecdotes with pious unction.

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With respect to the decree for his recall, Plutarch says :- Τὸ μὲν οὖν ψήφισμα τῆς καθόδου πρότερον ἐκεκύρωτο Κριλίου τοῦ Καλλαίσχρου γράψαντος, ὡς αὐτὸς ἐν ταῖς ἐλεγείαις πεποίηκεν, ὑπομιμνήσκων τὸν ̓Αλκιβιάδην τῆς χάριτος ἐν τούτοις,

Γνώμη δ' ἤ σε καλήγαγ', ἐγὼ ταύτην ἐν ἅπασιν

Εἶπον, καὶ γράψας τοὖργον ἔδρασα τόδε.

• Σφραγὶς δ ̓ ἡμετέροις γλώτης ἐπὶ τοῖσδεσι κεῖται.

Critias was uncle to Plato's mother, and at this time the friend of Alcibiades. But the friendship of the ambitious is of short duration. When one of the Thirty Tyrants, the remembrance of former ties did not prevent him from conceiving the bitterest enmity against Alcibiades, and impressing it on the mind of Lysander, that his destruction was necessary to the tranquillity of Athens and the safety of Sparta. Critias was afterwards put to death by Thrasybulus, when he delivered Athens from the usurpation of the Thirty.

Plutarch, in the above passage, quotes the elegies of Critias. Some fragments of them are also preserved in Athenæus. His father's name, Callaschrus, is compounded of κάλλος and αίσχρος, like Onslow, with the etymological and antithetic motto, Festina lentè.

During Alcibiades's stay at Athens, a proposal was made on the part of the mob to invest him with absolute power. The principal citizens were alarmed at this, and promoted his early embarkation on military service. The more to expedite his departure, they gave him the choice of his colleagues. His election fell on Aristocrates and Adimantus; but their commission extended no further than the joint command of the land forces, After a successful battle, the difficulty of raising money to put the pay of his own seamen on a level with that of the Lacedemonian mariners, gave rise to a new accusation. He found it necessary to go into Caria for this purpose, and left the care of the fleet to Antiochus, a skilful pilot, but with all the temerity of one inexperienced in command. This Antiochus was the man, who recovered the quail for him, which had escaped from under his robe while he was in a crowd, giving money towards a donative to the people. This slight circumstance had made so lasting an impression of kindness misplaced, that Alcibiades now entrusted him with the command of the fleet in his absence. Antiochus was left with positive orders not to fight; but he could not resist the apparent opportunity of distinguishing himself, and was completely beaten with the loss of life. Lysander took fifteen ships, and retired with his fleet after the action to Lesbos. The Athenians, in disgust at this miscarriage, lent a willing ear to the charges brought against Alcibiades by his enemies, and made a new distribution of military offices. Ten commanders were appointed, in which list his name was omitted. The commission by which he was superseded, was composed of Conon, Diome

don, Leontes, Pericles, Erasinides, Aristocrates, Archestratus, Protomachus, Thrasyllus, and Aristogenes.

For the three succeeding years, the twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth, and twenty-seventh of the Peloponnesian war, having quitted Athens, Alcibiades was hovering about, and making war on his own account. In the first of these years, Conon, after making incursions into the enemy's country, was defeated by Callicratides. In the second, the Athenians fought a battle, and obtained a victory at Arginusæ; on which occasion they gave a memorable instance of ingratitude and injustice. Theramenes brought a charge against the victorious generals, that they had left the bodies of the dead unburied. This would have been thought inde corous, as a matter of feeling, in modern times: but so entirely were this sensitive and superstitious people scandalised at the neglect, that they sen tenced six of the ten commanders to death. Tydeus, Menander, and Adimantus, were ap pointed successors. Towards the latter end of the following year, the Athenians under them sailed to Egos-Potamos, on the borders of the Hellespont, opposite to Lampsacus, where Lysander was stationed, and offered him battle every morning. The remainder of the day was passed in disorder, and careless contempt of their opponent, of which Alcibiades, though out of office, was sufficiently patriotic to warn them, but without effect. The result was, a defeat. In the twenty-eighth year, Lysander took Athens, burnt the shipping, and destroyed the Long Walls.

Alcibiades had retired into Bithynia. There he lost the principal part of his property, by

as Adonis, which is the name of the river near which he lost his life. In short, there is reason to think that this Syrian idol was the Dionysius of the Indians, the Osiris of the Egyptians, the Liber of the Romans, the Aióvuσos and Bgóμios of the Greeks, as well as their Adonis: and that Bacchus, or BarChus, means the son of Chus, who was in fact Nimrod.

The female lamentation, reprobated by the prophet, took so great a lead on account of the sorrow felt by Venus, under whatever name she might pass. The Greeks, besides changing the name, made a dramatic addition to the plot. We know that Adonis had a powerful rival in Mars; who, it seems, in a fit of jealousy, transformed himself into a wild boar, and took his revenge in that shape. The river was discoloured with the blood; but a few drops were diverted to a purpose for which florists may be thankful to this day: those "gouts of blood" performed the elegant and delicate office of tinging the anemone! Nor have we done with the beneficial effects of this dye, as far as regards flowers. Venus, among other outward marks of desolation, went slip-shod: roses in those days were all white; but they had thorns, as now; thorns scratch; and feet bleed, unless protected by neat's leather: so that to the skin-deep wounds of the goddess we owe that endless variety and delicate gradation of ruddy hues, by which our modern gardens are embellished.

Ovid alludes to the alternate death and life:

Luctus monumenta manebunt

Semper, Adoni, mei: repetitaque mortis imago

Annua plangoris peraget simulamina nostri.

Met.lib.x.