Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1874-12-18

| 1.eis of whose sons fer niuety-u ne
wears it has been The fash on to ignoI e,
nv svmpatl,ies are with the little city
| in whose def nee l write below.
Thesoi@.
| VIII n on fl G first invasion OF Greco
by tie Persiuns, AID all the States
that had net submitted were tremb-
| lipp!v i l:rt NJ whethertnev should do
so Ur Ii sEt-W IL .ciI latt.r they thea. sup
posed li,tart most certain defeat-AtE-
ems rai-csi Ter Voice for resistance and
called upon Sparta and other States to
ioin then forces - her ana make one
manly etf5lr tor Independence. Spar
"a aud all the others with the noble
Cx,ertion & E.ate.-inHuenct d by
jealousy. SUP erstItion or baser mo-
tjye-refuIt L. Plata sent her tkOus
and and these. with the ten thousand
Athen;aas met the Persians, who mum
bered ten 90 their one, ct Marathon
defeated ard routed them.
Ten wears afterwards Nerxes, then
King of Persia, brought into Greece a
much larger army. The men OF the
little town Of Thespie. after their
State had submitted, abandoned their
homes to the enemy and they and
their wives and children started
southwark for the Peloponesus.-
It was there they met Leonidas
with three hundred Spartans and
several thousand of their allies
and slaves, fastening to the Pass OF
Thermopy}n, and once in this pass SO
confident were they Of repelling the
Persians that they would not wait for
the contingent of their rivals, the Athe-
mans, lest they should have to divide
with them the glory of the anticipated
victory. Selecting nearly all of their
able-bodied men, viz: sereia hundred,
the Thespians joined them to the
army of Leonidas, while they and
their families continued their journey.
Leonidas and his Spartans before leav-
ing home, with that fondness for the
atrical display that reminds us of HUI
COS Frenchmen, Especially those in
'93) celebrated their anticipated death
by funeral combat" and are re-
ported to have originated several pithy
expressions, that have since become
places and babe farewell to
their families. Before We judge King
Leonidas and his three hundred harsh
", let us look into the matter. Did
they suppose the Persians were irwin
chile? They might have had cause to
think so ten years before; but certain
ly not after Marathon. Perhaps they
believed, that. even if one hundred
and twenty thousand hal been de-
feated by eleven thousand, Greece
could not repel one million. Still they
knew or should have known that in ar
mics over certain size unless splen-
di6ly disciplined and commanded by a
brave and very able man, their very num-
bers are cause of weakness. They also
knew that this army was not discip-
lined and was led by King, who was
neither brave nor able. While cele-
brating their own funerals, they knew
that those same Persians, when-not
now-they had believed themselves
invincible, had been beaten in
square, stand-up fight. They knew
that they were going to occupy gap
where only fifty or a hundred could
attack them in front at time. They
did not know of the path over the
mountain leading to their rear: or
knowing, and not guarding it, they
acted the part of idiots, and as such
should have remained at home. And
so the path was discov cred and they
were about to be surrounded, when
Leonidas called his army around him,
then numbering about eight hundred,
and told them that, as now they could
only uselessly sacrifice their lives, they
had his permissi ion to depart except the
four hundred ThebaDs, whom he said
were traitors. and ought to die; and
as for him and his Spartans, that their
funerals had been preached, and that
they had no more business on top of