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THE PERSIAN WARS AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES. 93attribute this in some measure to the Amphictyonic assembly ? They had it not in their power to preserve peace ;butthey contributed to prevent the Grecians from forgetting,even in war, that they still were Grecians.CHAPTER VIII.THE PERSIAN WARS AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES.SINCE the Trojan war, no opportunity had been presentedto the Greek nation, of acting as one people in any equalThe institutions which we haveand common undertaking,just described, preserved, in a certain degree, the nationalspirit; but they were by no means sufficient to producepolitical union ; any tendency to which was counteracted bythe whole condition and internal relations of the nation.Even the colonies were unfavourable to it ;not only by theirdistance, but still more by the independence which theyenjoyed. In our days, how soon do colonies which becomeindependent, grow estranged from the mother countries,after having long stood in the closest connexion with her.In the century which preceded the Persian war, 1 theGrecian states, excepting the Asiatic cities, which languishedmade advancesunder the Persian yoke, had inmany respectsin culture. Freedom had been triumphantly establishedin almost 2 every part of the mother country. The tyrantswho had usurped power in the cities, had been overthrownin part by the Spartans, in part by the citizens themselves ;and popular governments had been introduced in their stead.Above all, Athens had shaken off the Pisistratidse ;and itcame off victorious from the contest which it had beenobliged to sustain for its liberty. It. enjoyed the full consciousness of its youthful energies; "Athens," Herodotussays,3 " which before was great,when freed from its usurpers1Between the years 600 and 500 before the Christian era.2Thessaly was an exception, where the government of the Aleuadse still continued, although it was tottering for which reasonjthey, Hke the Pisistratidae,invited the Persians into Greece. Herod,svii. 6.Herod, v. 66.