against Mardonius the Persian general. The united Greeks (some one
hundred thousand men from a dozen different cities) attacked the three
hundred thou-sand men of the enemy near Plataea. Once more the heavy
Greek infantry broke through the Persian barrage of arrows. The Persians
were defeated, as they had been at Marathon, and this time they left for
good. By a strange coincidence, the same day that the Greek armies won
their victory near Plataea, the Athenian ships destroyed the enemy's
fleet near Cape Mycale in Asia Minor.

Thus did the first encounter between Asia and Europe end. Athens had
covered herself with glory and Sparta had fought bravely and well. If
these two cities had been able to come to an agreement, if they had been
willing to forget their little jealousies, they might have become the
leaders of a strong and united Hellas.

But alas, they allowed the hour of victory and enthusiasm to slip by,
and the same opportunity never returned.

ATHENS vs. SPARTA

HOW ATHENS AND SPARTA FOUGHT A LONG AND DISASTROUS WAR FOR THE
LEADERSHIP OF GREECE

ATHENS and Sparta were both Greek cities and their people spoke a common
language. In every other respect they were different. Athens rose high
from the plain. It was a city exposed to the fresh breezes from the sea,
willing to look at the world with the eyes of a happy child. Sparta, on
the other hand, was built at the bottom of a deep valley, and used the
surrounding mountains as a barrier against foreign thought. Athens was a
city of busy trade. Sparta was an armed camp where people were soldiers
for the sake of being soldiers. The people of Athens loved to sit in the
sun and discuss poetry or listen to the wise words of a philosopher.
The Spartans, on the other hand, never wrote a single line that was
considered literature, but they knew how to fight, they liked to fight,
and they sacrificed all human emotions to their ideal of military
preparedness.

No wonder that these sombre Spartans viewed the success of Athens with
malicious hate. The energy which the defence of the common home had
developed in Athens was now used for purposes of a more peaceful nature.
The Acropolis was rebuilt and was made into a marble shrine to the
Goddess Athena. Pericles, the leader of the Athenian democracy, sent far
and wide to find famous sculptors and painters and scientists to make
the city more beautiful and the young Athenians more worthy of their
home. At the same