WORKS BY EVELYN ABBOTT, M.A., LL.D.
FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD.
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A History of Greece.
Part I.—From the Earliest Times to the Ionian Revolt.
Part II.—From the Beginning of the Ionian Revolt to the Thirty Years' Peace, 500-445 B.C.
Part III.—From the Thirty Years' Peace to the Fall of the Thirty at Athens, 445-403 B.C.
The  volumes  are  handsomely  printed  in  8°,  with
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HISTORY OF GREECE
ABBOTT
HISTORY OF GREECE
BY
EVELYN ABBOTT, M.A., LL.D.
JOWETT LECTURER IN  GREEK HISTORY AT BALLIOL COLLEGE
PART I. From the Earliest Times to the Ionian Revolt
New York : G. P. PUTNAM'S   SONS
London : LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.
1901
IloXXd fiiv otiv koX fi$) 6vra \4yov<riv ol ipxcum ffvyypafets, awreOpafifiivoL t<J5 xpeijdei did. rbs fivdoypa<f>las' 5tct $£ tovto ko.1 ovx 6fMiKoyov<ri wpbs &X\-/j\ovs irepl t&v axrrwv.
Strabo, p. 341.
PREFACE.
Though we can add nothing to the existing records of Greek History, the estimate placed upon their value, and the conclusions drawn from them are constantly changing,. and for this reason the story which has been told so often will be told anew from time to time, so long as it continues to have an interest for mankind—that is, let us hope, so long as mankind continue to exist.
The present work is intended for readers who are acquainted with the outlines of the subject, and have some knowledge of the Greek language. It has been written in the belief that an intelligible sketch of Greek civilisation may be given within a brief compass—not with the hope of throwing new light on old obscurities, or quoting fresh evidence where all the evidence has been long ago collected.
It was my intention to prefix to my work an estimate of the various sources from which our knowledge of Greek History is derived. We have indeed but scanty materials from which to construct a critical account of the histories
VI
PREFACE.
written by Ephorus, Androtion, Philochorus, and others, from the fourth century B.C., but the attempt is worth making. For it is on the accuracy and diligence of these writers—on the more or less of their own times and their own ideas which they introduced into past ages, that our views of early Greek History must depend. And if we compare the narrative of the Samian war as it is given by Thucydides and by Plutarch (in his Life of Pericles), or of the battle of Plataea as described in Herodotus and in Plutarch's Life of Aristides, we shall find reason to think that the later writers, from whom Plutarch derived many of his statements, are by no means guides whom we can always follow without hesitation. But I have already run to such a length that prolegomena are out of the question, and it is impossible to treat so wide and difficult a question within the limits of a Preface. For the same reason a chapter on Greek Eeligion is reserved for the next volume.
In a Second Part the History will be brought down to the end of the Peloponnesian War.
Balliol College, April 1888.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Hellas,...........             1
CHAPTER II.
The Earliest Inhabitants,.......           24
Traditions,         ........           26
Evidence of Language,......           36
Evidence of Religious Rites,.....           39
Evidence of Monuments,    ......           40
Greece and Phoenicia,......           49
Greece and Egypt,.....•       •           55
CHAPTER III.
Migrations and Legendary History,.....           58
Northern Greece,........71-90
Thessaly,.........           71
Boeotia,.......•       •           74
Euboea,.........           82
Attica,.......•       •           83
Aetolia and Acarnania,......           87
viii                                   CONTENTS.
Migrations and Legendary History—continued.
PAGE
Peloponnesus,........•    90-109
Elis,..........          90
Messenia,  •••......          94
Sparta..........          96
Argos,       ..•••••••          97
Corinth,.........        100
Sicyon,      ..•••••••        102
Phlius,.........        104
Troezen and Epidauras,    ••••••        144
Achaea,     .........        105
Arcadia,    .....«•••        107
The Labours of Heracles, .       .       .       .       #       •       •        109
The Trojan War,......•               111
CHAPTER IV.
The Asiatic Coast and the Islands of the Aegean,        «        114
CHAPTER V.
The Homeric Poems,........        138
Nature and Historical value of the Poems,       •       •        138
Homeric Society,       .....»•        162
Homeric Deities,       ...••••        174
CHAPTER VL
The Spartan State,     ....••••        194
The Kings,        ......••        203
The Gerousia,   .               •       •••••        207
The Assembly,........        209
CoNTeNtS.                                          ix
The Spartan State—continued.
PAGE
TheEphors,........         209
Education of the Spattansr,        .       •       .       *       •         211
Divisions 6i the People,    ......         217
CHAPTER VII.
Argos*—Elis—Arcadia—Achaea,......         225
Argos,.........         225
Mis,.........                 239
Arcadia,.........         249
Achaea,     .........         256
CHAPTER VIII.
The Messenian Wars,.......         259
CHAPTER IX.
Early Attica,.........         279
App. I., Hlustrations from English History,    .       ,         304
App. II., The Council in Early Athens,    .       .       .         306
CHAPTER X.
Northern Greece,.........         309
Epirus and Macedonia,      ......         309
Thessaly,.........         314
Districts south of Thessaly,       .....         317
Boeotia,.........         319
x                                           CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XL
PAGE
The Greek Colonies,........         333
Northern Colonies,    .......         334
Colonies of Western Greece,      .       •       •       •       •         342
Colonies in Africa,    .......         349
Table of Colonies,.......         363
CHAPTER XII.
The Tyrants,.......*      .         367
Sicyon,       .........         369
Corinth,.........         378
Megara,........       .         393
CHAPTER XIIT.
Solon,...........         398
The Struggle for Salamis,......         398
The War with Crisa,.......         400
The Visit of Epimenides,......         402
The Archonship of Solon, ......         405
The Constitution of Solon,         .       .       .       .       .         409
The Laws of Solon,.......         418
The Legends of Solon,       ..••••         424
CHAPTER XIV.
Spart* in the Sixth Century,     ......         430
CHAPTER XV.
Pisistratus and Clisthenes,......      .         450
The Constitution of Clisthenes,         .       .       .       .         476
CONTENTS.                                         xi
CHAPTER XVL
PAGE
The Greeks in the East,.......         487
The Greek Cities in Asia Minor,         •       •       •       .         490
The Islands of the Aegean,         .       •       .       •       .   506-520
Lesbos,       •••»••••         506
Paros,         ••••••••         511
Samos,        ........         513
Delos,         ....       ....         519
Crete,.........         520
Gyrene,.........         528
Egypt,.........         534
Note on the Laws of Solon (p. 418),      ,      .      •      •      •        540
INDEX I., Subjects,........541
INDEX II., Authors quoted or consulted,  ....        550
CHAPTER   I.
HELLAS.
I. Though the Hellenes delighted to distinguish themselves from the " barbarians " who were their neighbours on the north, they never fixed with precision the limits nmits of Hellas of the country which they called Hellas. Until variable. a late period that name was used as an ethnological rather than a geographical term, and included any country in which the Hellenes were settled. In this sense the islands of the Aegean were a part of Hellas, but Macedonia was not, in spite of the claim which the Macedonian kings put forward to Hellenic descent.1 Nor was Epirus included in the true Hellas, nor by some authorities Thessaly, in which lay the district originally called Hellas. These distinctions did not, however, rest on any solid ground ; Aristotle was aware that in early times the Greeks dwelt near Dodona in Epirus, and Thessaly was known to be the home of many tribes, which afterwards migrated to the south.2 We may therefore place the northern limit of Hellas at the fortieth degree of latitude, and, keeping clear of the wider use of the word, which would carry us wherever Greek colonists went—to Italy, Sicily, and Africa, as well as to Crete and Asia Minor—restrict the name to the peninsula and the adjacent islands.8
1  And which was allowed, Herod, v. 22.
2  Meteor, i. 14, 22 ; Bursian, Geographie von Griechenland, i. 3.
8 This limitation is, of course, purely geographical. The history of Hellas is spread over a far wider area. If we knew that the Homeric poems were composed in Asia Minor, we might even say that the first traces of the spirit of Hellenism are found in Asia. But the Asiatic Greeks always looked to the peninsula as their home.
VOL. I.                                                                                A
2                         LAND AND SEA IN GREECE.               [I. 2, 3*
Hellas, then, or Greece, to use the more familiar name, may be roughly described as an inverted triangle, of which the base extends from the Acroceraunian promontory to Mount Olympus, and the apex is formed by the promontory of Taenarum. The extreme length is about 250 miles; the extreme breadth 180 miles.
2.  The characteristic features of the country have often been described. Greece is pre-eminently a land of mountain and coast. Within the area described no point can be fixed which is more than ten miles from the hills, or more than forty miles from the sea. These features become more strongly marked as we proceed to the south, the proportion of land to seaboard being less in the Peloponnesus than in Northern
Greece.   The formation of the coast on the
Characteristic Features     east is also widely different from that on the of Greece.         west    When the long ridge of   Pelion and
Ossa is passed, the eastern shore offers a succession of bays from Pagasae to Nauplia; for, though Euboea presents an inhospitable front to the sea, the island is merely a barrier which protects the harbour of the Euripus. On the west, with the exception of the bays of Corinth and Ambracia, there are few places where a ship can find shelter. Hence Hellas turns naturally to the east; the islands, which were within sight of the land and of each other, tempted the mariner to the coast of Asia Minor, where he found a shore abounding in harbours. On the other hand, the eastern coast of Italy is as inhospitable as the western coast of Greece. The two peninsulas lie, as it were, back to back ; and this position had the greatest influence on their history and development.
3.  Greece is divided by the Gulf of Corinth into two halves, of which the northern was known as "continental Hellas," or " the parts beyond Peloponnesus," the southern as Pelopon-
, .   0       nesus.     These are  connected  by a low flat
Mountain Sys-     .                                  #                                   J
tems of North, isthmus, something less than four miles in em Greece. breadth. The mountain systems in the two halves are quite distinct in their configuration. In the northern a " spine" runs from north to south and terminates in the
1.4-]                       MOUNTAIN SYSTEMS.                             3
conical height of Typhrestus. The southern part of this spine, from Mount Lacmon onwards, is known as Pindus; this is the central range of Greece, from which chains run out on either side. On the east, beginning from the north, we have the Cambunian range, which terminates in Olympus, and forms the northern boundary of Hellas in that direction. Next is the range of Othrys, the " brow," which overlooks the Maliac Bay. Yet further to the south the range of Oeta runs nearly parallel to Othrys. On the west, the most northern offshoot from the spine is the chain of mountains which runs from Mount Lacmon to the Acro-ceraunian headland, and bounds Epirus on the north. A second range, proceeding from the same centre, but further to the south and parallel to Pindus, separates the Arachthus from the Achelous. From Typhrestus the mountain ranges take a south-easterly direction. Under the names of Parnassus, Helicon, Cithaeron, Parnes and Brilessus, they pass down to the sea at Sunium, whence they are continued in the islands of the Cyclades (Ceos, Cythnus, Seriphus, Siphnus). On the extreme east, Pelion and Ossa run along the sea-coast from Olympus to the south; after a slight interruption the range passes through Euboea, and, like the loftier range to the west, ends in a succession of islands (Andros, Tenos, Myconus). Finally, at the western end of the range of Oeta rises Mount Corax, the lofty centre from which a number of spurs branch off to the south-west, and form the mountains of Aetolia.
4. The arrangement of the mountains in Peloponnesus is entirely different. Here the base-line is not drawn from north to south, but from west to east. The mighty range which divides Achaea from Arcadia presents Th M three commanding summits: Cyllene on the systems of east, Aroanius in the centre, Erymanthus on Pel°p°nnesus. the west. From these summits ranges runout to the south and south-east. Beginning from the east, we have the mountains of Argolis (Euboea, Araehnaeum), ending in the promontory of Scyllaeum. Next in order is the range which divides  Argolis   from  Arcadia (Artemisium,  Parthenium)*
4                             MOUNTAINS OF GREECE.                   [I. & 6.
and is continued in the long chain of Parnon to Malea. From Aroanius proceeds the range of Maenalus, which, like its eastern neighbours, advances in a long line tc the south (Mount Taygetus), and touches the sea at Taenarum. On the west, the mountains are broken by the rivers Alpheus and Ladon, but we can follow the heights from Erymanthus to Cotylium above Phigalea, and from thence to Ithome and Mathia.
5.  To the modern traveller the mountains are one of the chief attractions of Greece. Consisting chiefly of hard limestone, and being bare of trees, they present sharp and varied outlines, which are clearly seen through the fine atmosphere. This beauty of form is enhanced by the exquisite hues which the almost naked stone assumes.1    Though wild and difficult
to cross, the mountains of Greece are not, like
Character-                                   .                                                                '
istics of the the Alps in Switzerland, so vast that they Mountains. dominate the whole country and excite a sense of overpowering awe. Olympus indeed attains an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet; but no other mountain, with the possible exception of Parnassus, rises above 8,000 feet. On the other hand, no less than seven summits exceed the level of 7,000 feet, so that even in its mountains Hellas presents the Hellenic characteristics of " measure " and equality. No single peak is the "monarch of mountains/' no range has a claim to be called the central and dominant chain of the country.2
6.  Descending to the valleys, we find that though none of the rivers in Greece are of great length or volume, they present
remarkable characteristics, which did not fail ' to impress the inhabitants. In a dry and sunny country a perennial supply of water is the most precious of commodities, and in Greece this is peculiarly the case, owing to the bare and rocky nature of the mountains, and the lightness  of the soil,  which offers no storage for the
1 Neumann and Partsch, PhysiJcalische Geographie, p. 37. 8 Tozer, Geography of Greece, p. 42.
I. 6.]
RIVERS OF GREECE.
5
rain or melting snow. Many streams, which in autumn or spring are impassable torrents, become in summer a mere succession of pools, if they are not dried up altogether. Such is the Ilissus at Athens, which draws its waters from the limited area of Hymettus. The Cephisus, on the other hand, which carries the rainfall of Mount Parnes, is never entirely without water, though it fails to reach the sea, the whole volume being consumed in irrigating the olive gardens in the neighbourhood of Colonus.1 These variations in the amount of water naturally gave rise to the floods, which are such a common source of similes in Greek poetry; and they were the more frequent owing to the " Swallows " or Katavo-thras, which, though found in other countries where limestone abounds,2 are a characteristic of Greece. In many of the upland valleys there is no external outlet for the water; the streams which flow down from the neighbouring mountains pass into chasms and are carried underground, to reappear in neighbouring valleys or rivers. This is the case in the Arcadian valleys of Pheneus and Stymphalus; in the first the katavothras, which are frequently choked, seem to be connected with the rivers Alpheus and
1  Nothing illustrates the varying quantity of the water in the upland districts of Greece better than an incident which gave rise to a lawsuit at Athens in the time of Demosthenes {Against Callicles, Orat. 55). In this case the water had overflowed from one property into the next, and the plaintiff, whose property was injured, sought to prove that the proper course for the water was over his neighbour'3 land. But the neighbour will not allow this ; no man in his senses, he pleads, would suffer the water to flow over his land, when it could be diverted into the road. What served for a road in summer, was useful as a watercourse in winter. In the movements which preceded the battle of Mantinea (Thuc. v. 65), Agis, the Spartan king, successfully attempted to draw the Argives from their strong position by turning the course of the river from Tegea into the territory of the Mantineans, the water being a constant source of strife between the two cities, owing to the damage which it did to one or other according to the course which it took.
2  See the account of the country in the neighbourhood of Trieste, in Hamilton's Asia Minor, Vol. i. c. 1. ; Strabo, p. 214; also Herod, vii. 30.
6
KATAVOTHRAS.
[1.6.
Ladon;  in the second they pass under Mount Apelaurum, and the water reappears in the Argolid as the river Erasmus.1
In the upper course of the Alpheus there are two of these "swallows." The river rises in Tegeatis, and flows under Mount Boreum to Asea ;2 after a short course it again passes out of sight to reappear once more at Pegae, whence, without further interruption, it flows to the sea. In Northern Greece the most famous katavothras are in Boeotia. Lake Copais has been formed by the stoppage or insufficiency of the underground channels, which connect the depression in which it lies with the sea or the lower river. In very early times the water was removed by the construction of two gigantic tunnels; "the larger of the two, which runs towards the sea, is cut through the rock for the distance of nearly four miles, with fifteen vertical shafts let down to it, at intervals, from above; some of these reach to a depth of more than 100 feet." When these channels became filled up, the water col lected as before, to the detriment of the country and climate.3
The streams of Greece are also remarkable for the amount of the deposit which they carry down with them. The lower Alluvial            valley of a Greek river is generally an alluvial
Deposits.          plain.    The line of the shore at the mouth of
the Eurotas has been carried out to a considerable extent.
1  Herod, vi. 76. In 1806 Colonel Leake found the valley of the Pheneus, in Arcadia, planted with wheat and barley ; before both katavothras, more especially the western, lay stagnant pools of water. Fifteen years later the passages were stopped up. Water covered the whole plain, and the " dam of Heracles " disappeared. In 1828, the surface of the lake was 2315 feet above the level of the sea, and five miles in breadth. Continually rising, the waters at last passed over the ridge into the plain of Orchomenus. Subsequently the passages were again opened (owing to an earthquake); the Ladon and Alpheus rose, the plains of Olympia were flooded, and in Pheneus some square miles were restored to agriculture. At present the passages have once more become choked, and the lake is sufficiently large to be compared with Derwent Water. Curtius, Pelop. i. 189; Tozer, I.e. p. 108.    See Strabo, pp. 275, 389.
2  Strabo, U.cc. ; Paus. viii. 44, 4 ; 54, 2.
3  The area of the lake is now eighty or ninety square miles. See Sergeant's Greece, p. 20; Tozer, I.e. p. 114.
I. 6.]
ALLUVIAL DEPOSITS.
7
In the days of Pausanias, Helos was a seaport, but the ruins of the city are now situated on a lagune.1 Even in antiquity it was known that the Achelous had united the islands lying off the shore with the mainland.2 When the Acheron leaves its deep and gloomy gorge, it passes over an alluvial plain, and forms the Acherusian lake. The Peneus, in Thessaly, wanders through a similar expanse. The areas thus formed are naturally fertile, and, when properly protected from the water, richly repay cultivation.8
In other districts, owing to the difference in geological formation, the rivers die, as it were, of inanition, in the soil which they have created. This is especially the case in the Argolid. The bed of the Inachus is dry, rouff the water, when there is any, filtering out of sight through the gravel, and before it reaches the sea the stream is entirely lost in the marshes of the coast. The rivers of Eastern Argolis are swallowed up almost as soon as they reach the foot of the mountains from which they descend. On the other hand, in the south, where the hills are nearer the coast, water is more abundant; it gushes from the foot of the mountains in copious springs, which are supposed to be the outlet of the waters of Arcadian valleys, and hurries in streams to the shore, or spreads out in the marshes of Lerna. In one instance the stream is carried under the shore for about 1000 feet from the land, when it reappears, a bubbling spring of fresh water in the sea (Dine).*
The largest river in Greece is the Achelous.    The sources of the stream are to be sought on the southern declivities of Mount Lacmon, from whence it flows almost due south through a long and narrow valley bounded on the east by Pindus, and on the west by the range of hills which separates the valleys of the Arachthus and
1  Curt. Z.c. ii. 289; Paus. iii. 2, 7.
2  See the remarks on Herodotus of the formation of the Delta, ii. 10. 8 Neumann and Partsch, I.e. p. 348.
* A similar spring is found in the Gulf of La Spezzia, and in the great harbour of Syracuse.    Of. Lucret. vi. 890.
8        RIVERS ACHELOUS, PENEUS, & SPERCHEUS.    [I. 6.
Achelous. This upper reach of the stream was sometimes known as the Inachus.1 Entering Aetolia, it turns a little to the east and south, and, forming the boundary between Acarnania and Aetolia, empties into the sea between the Ambracian and Corinthian Gulfs. From Mount Lacmon to the mouth of the river is a distance of 120 miles, without allowing for the windings of the stream. The country round the mouth is a flat alluvial plain, covered to a considerable extent with marshes, out of which rise rocky hills, which once formed a part of the Echinades.2 The Peneus (Thessalian) is remarkable among the rivers of Greece for being the outlet of the drainage of a large plain. The river rises on the eastern slopes of Lacmon, which is, indeed, the head of all the larger rivers of Northern Greece. Flowing at first to the south-east, round the hills of Hestiseotis, it then passes away directly to the east. The chief tributaries are the Pamisus, the Phoenix, the Apidanus, and the Euripus. The famous Vale of Tempe, through which the Peneus flows into the sea, is a gorge about four miles and a half in length, " flanked by lofty rocks of grey limestone, finely tinted with red; these are highest towards the middle of the pass, where the precipices in the direction of Olympus descend so steeply as completely to bar the passage in that direction, while those which descend from Ossa, though less steep, are loftier, and rise in many places not less than 1500 feet from the valley." 3 One of the most rapid of Greek rivers is the Sper-perc eus.        cneuS) which carries the waters of Mount Oeta
to the sea, in the neighbourhood of Thermopylae. In one sense that famous " pass " exists no longer, for the alluvial deposit has spread out into a plain of such an extent as to furnish room for an entire army; but even now, in winter, the path immediately under the hills is alone sufficiently firm to bear a horse.4
1  For the recurrence of the same names in Greece, see infra, pp. 29,38,
2  Herod, ii. 10; Thuc. ii. 102.
8 Tozer, I.e. p. 122 ; Cp. Aelian, Var. Hist iii. 1. 4 Leake, Northern Greece, ii. 40.   In antiquity there was barely room for a cart track between the sea and the mountains (Herod, vii. 176).
I.7J
LEGENDS OF RIVERS.
&
7. The peculiar nature of Greek rivers gave rise to many beautiful legends about them. We have seen that the Alpheus twice disappears in the mountains of Legends of Arcadia, and that a river in Southern Argolis Rivers, has its outlet in the sea 1000 feet from the shore. Hence, to the imagination of the Greeks it was not impossible that the Alpheus should pass under the sea from Elis to Sicily, and there rise up again in the fountain of Arethusa.1 The rapid Achelous, spreading devastation over the cultivated land at its mouth, is transformed by fancy into a monster, half-bull and half-man, with which Heracles contended. The river which waters a plain is often changed into the earliest king of the country. Inachus is king of Argos, Cephisus of Boeotia, and Peneus of Thessaly. In some legends rivers even gained the love of women. Tyro was enamoured of the river Enipeus, and " was wont to linger beside his lovely stream." So deeply was their personal nature felt that rivers were not crossed without invocations,2 and at the building of bridges propitiatory sacrifices were offered, that the deity of the stream might not resent the constraint imposed upon him.
In many districts it was necessary to control the course of the streams by artificial means, for the protection of the fields and crops. These works, which seem The works to have been carried out at a very early period, of Heracles, are associated with the name of Heracles. When Heracles slays the Hydra of Lerna, we may perhaps connect the legend with some attempt to drain the marsh of Lerna in Argolis, and remove the pestilential miasma. The story of the slaying of the birds of Stymphalus has possibly grown up out of an attempt to control the sudden rush of waters, which flooded the deep, land-locked Arcadian valley.    There
1  See Strabo, pp. 270, 271, where supposed parallels are given.
2  Even Cleomenes of Sparta had not the hardihood to cross the Erasmus when the sacrifices were unpropitious (Herod, vi. 76): amKopcpos Z>v 6 KKcofxevrjs iirl top 7roTap.6v tovtov iac^ayid^ero aira, kcl\ ov yap €KaWlp€€ ov bap. cos diafiaiveiv piv, ayaaBai piv ecprj tov 'Epao-iVou ov 7rpobib6pTos tovs TroXirjTas, 'Apyclovs pevroi ov6° oas x^P^^*1**
10
LEGENDS OF RIVERS.
[1.8.
was a dam of Heracles at Pheneus in Arcadia, and similar works at the mouth of the Achelous, in Boeotia, and elsewhere, are ascribed to him.1
8. The rivers Achelous, Acheron, Cocytus and Styx occupy a position in Greek mythology which deserves more parti-cular notice.    The Achelous is the type of all Account of        rivers, the source of sweet water and cause of Rivers.            increase, the oldest and most honoured of all
the three thousand sons of Oceanus.2 In religious and poetical language, Achelous was a name for rivers and river water; the cultus of the Achelous existed in Italy and Sicily, and in various forms the name occurs in Asia Minor and Greece. The horn of Amalthea, the symbol of abundance, was said in Aetolian legend to have passed from Achelous to Heracles. This legendary position of the Achelous has been explained by the identification of the river with the heavenly stream of Oriental mythology.3 More evidence than we possess is needed to support so fanciful an explanation. It was natural for the early inhabitants of Greece, while deifying all the rivers which fertilised their fields, to ascribe a peculiar sanctity to a stream in the neighbourhood of their earliest shrine. The greater size of the Achelous probably attracted attention to it in preference to the Arachthus, which lies nearer Dodona. The Acheron and Cocytus are rivers of Thesprotia, which fall into the sea a little to the south of Chimerium. The former passes through a gorge, which is described as the darkest and deepest ravine in Greece, and between its precipitous rocks, for the distance of two or three miles, "the white waters of the stream roar along through chasms and cliffs which they have worn away in the course of ages, leaving no room even for the path, which has to be carried along the sides of the cliffs far
1  Curtius, I.e. ii. 519, i. 186, etc. See the paper of the same author, Zur Geschichte des Oriechischen Wegebaues, in the "Transactions of the Berlin Academy," 1855.    Tozer, I.e. pp. 96, 311.
2  Preller, Griechische Mythologie, i. 30.
3  Duncker, History of Greece, i. 167.
I. 8.]                    ACHERON, COCYTUS, STYX,                         11
above, in some places as much as 500 feet above the water." At the mouth of the gorge was the marsh, the "Palus Aeherusia," on the shore of which was an ancient oracle of the dead.1 This gorge seems to have impressed the Greeks so deeply that they regarded it as an entrance to the lower world, and Pausanias is of opinion that the description of the entrance to Hades in the Odyssey was borrowed from the Thesprotian coast. On the north the Acheron is joined, three miles above the sea, by the Cocytus,2 the "moaning river," a name which is possibly similar to        °cy the "Greta " of northern England. Both the names naturally lent themselves to a description of the infernal regions. The water also of the Cocytus is called by Pausanias " most distasteful,"3 and Colonel Leake remarks that the water of the Vuvo (Cocytus) is reported to be bad; the villagers on the slopes of the hills near it either make use of wells, or fetch water from the Suliotiko.4 But of all the streams of Greece the most noted was the Styx, the only waterfall of any importance in the country, which seems         yx* from the earliest times to have exercised a strong fascination over the minds of the* Greeks. " Beneath one of the highest summits of the snowy Aroanius, near a place where two ranges of rocks meet and form a chasm, there is a perpendicular cliff of great height, the face of which is deeply tinged with an iron hue. From the top of this there drops a thin stream of water, which in one or two places is slightly broken by the rock, against the side of which it falls, and half way it is joined by another still narrower stream, which descends parallel to it from above. Its full height is calculated at 500 feet."5 The Greeks, of whom doubtless very few had seen the Styx,
1 Tozer, I.e. 121; Herod, v. 92 ; Bursian, he I 27.
*  Leake, Northern Greece, iv. 52.
*  Paus. i. 17, 5.
4 Leake, I.e. iv. 53. Whatever be the etymology of Cocytus, it is certain that Acheron has nothing to do with &xos (w°e«) The syllable &xt which occurs again in Achelous, Inachus, reminds us of aqua.
6 Tozer, I.e. p. 118.
12
RIVER STYX—LAKES.
[I.*
spoke of this wild lonely waterfall as a river descending from earth to Hades. Homer mentions " the rapids of the Styx," which Heracles could not have escaped without the aid of Athena. The stream was used as a sanction in adjurations. In a famous passage in the Iliad,1 Here is challenged by Sleep to swear by the " baneful water of Styx." In Hesiod Styx is the eldest daughter of Oceanus. She joined Zeus against the Titans, and received as her reward the privilege of being the oath of the gods. She dwells near the place where night and day approach each other, far from the gods, in a palace "roofed with lofty rocks, and stablished with silver pillars up to heaven." Whenever one of the dwellers in Olympus has uttered a lie, Zeus sends Iris to bring the great oath of the gods from afar in a golden pitcher, the famous water, which falls from the steep lofty rock.2 The water was regarded as deadly to animal and vegetable life, a superstition which clings to it still. " The inhabitants of the neighbouring villages warn the travellers against it, and regard everyone as lost who drinks." 3
9. The lakes of Greece are land-locked basins, into which the waters from the neighbouring hills collect, nearly always
without   any  visible   outlet  for  the  supply.
Hence the level of the lake is constantly changing according to the amount of water flowing into it. Sometimes the underground channel is blocked, and the water can not escape ; the lake then rises and spreads far and wide ovei the adjacent fields and pastures (supra, p. 6). The largest lake in Greece is the lake of Joannina (Lacus Pambotis), in the neighbourhood of which lay Dodona. The lake—or lakes, for there are two basins, separated by a marshy tract of ground —is about eighteen miles in length and four in breadth.4
1II. viii. 369, xv. 37.
2  Hesiod, Theog. 389 ff., 775 ff. His account is not very intelligible. The author of the Catalogue (II. ii. 755), by some strange hallucination, connects the Styx with the Titaresius in Thessaly.
3  Curtius, Pelop. i. 196.
4  Bursian, I.e. i. 20.
I. 10.]        LAKES AND FOUNTAINS—PRODUCTS.             13
Other lakes are the Copais in Boeotia, which is formed by the blocking of the Cephisus; the lakes of Nessonis and Boebeis in Thessaly, into which the Peneus overflows; and the lakes of Stymphalus and Pheneus in Arcadia.
Every reader of Greek history or legend has heard of Castalia, Aganippe, and Hippocrene, Pirene and Callirrhoe, and other fountains. These perennial streams springs and sometimes break out from under the roots of Fountains, large plane-trees,1 or from clefts in the rocks, or they even pour their waters from the mountains. Pirene rises on the summit of Acrocorinthus; Aganippe on the heights of Helicon. The frequent failure of water in the rivers made these fountains unusually precious. As the home of nymphs, they were sacred, and became the centre of a number of legends. They were adorned with flowers and garlands; their waters were used in lustrations. The spring of Callirrhoe falls into the Ilissus a little to the south-east of the Acropolis of Athens; the water, we are told by Thucydides, "was used by the ancient Athenians on great occasions; and at marriage rites and other ceremonies the custom is still retained."2
10. Greece was not a very productive country. Except in the alluvial plains, the soil was thin, and the acreage under cultivation was comparatively small. products of Corn, wine, and oil were the chief products; but Greece, the amount of corn was quite insufficient for the needs of the population, and even as early as the time of Xerxes, corn was imported from the Euxine.3 It is said that oil was the only product which Solon permitted to be exported from Attica. Figs and honey were produced in considerable quantities ; in Elis flax was grown, and a small quantity of cotton. Wine was abundant. The pastures on the mountains supported a large number of cattle, and from their milk cheese was made, a pastoral life being at all times the occupation of a
1 Mure, Tour in Greece, ii. 258. 8 Thuc. ii. 15. 3 Herod, vii. 147.
14                PRODUCTS OF GREECE—MINERALS.           [I. 10*
large part of the inhabitants.    The minerals most abundant were silver and iron.    Gold was found only in Siphnus, and it is probable that the accounts of the mines there, which we have in Herodotus and Pausanias (Herod, iii. 57 ; Paus. xi. 2), are exaggerated.    At present no gold is found on the island, and though there are traces of the eagerness with which the ancient inhabitants sought for it, their search does not appear to have been very successful.1 In the range of Pangaeum, in Thrace, gold was of course abundant; when these mines passed into the hands of Philip a gold coinage appeared for the first time in Greece.    Silver was more plentiful.    The most important mines were those at Laurium, in Attica, which appear to have become a considerable source of revenue to the Athenians in the time of Themistocles.    For about a century they were really productive; in the time of Xenophon the returns were greatly diminished, and, by the beginning of the third century B.C., mines were an extremely hazardous opper*         speculation.     Copper was found in Euboea, but in
Strabo's time the mines had been abandoned for other sources. Iron ore is abundant in Greece, though the ancients made comparatively little use of their stores.    They ron*            had, doubtless, many difficulties in  regard to
fuel; at the present time it is impossible to work the rich ore of Seriphus, owing to the want of coal or wood. The chief seats of the iron manufacture were the Perioecic towns of Laconia. The helmets, swords, axes, files, knives, and awls of Laconia were the best in Greece.
If the precious metals were somewhat scarce, the Greeks were
compensated by the abundance of excellent stone.    Marble
was found everywhere on the eastern side  of
Greece.    The Pentelic marble obtained in the
quarries of Brilessus in Attica was among the best. It was not,
1 Neumann and Partsch, I.e. p. 224; but see Bent, Cyclades, p. 38. It is certain that the Lacedaemonians, when they required gold for the statue of Apollo, sought it at Sardis, and not at Siphnus. (Herod, i. 69).
I. XI.]             MARBLE—TREES AND FRUITS.                    15
indeed, used for statues so much as the Parian, partly owing to the yellow tinge of the stone, partly to the difficulty of finding large blocks, but it was admirable for building, and was employed in all the works on the Acropolis at Athens. Hymettus supplied a coloured marble, which the Eomans esteemed more than the Greeks. From Euboea came the famous Carystian marble. Taygetus supplied marble of a beautiful red colour. Porphyry, basalt, and granite are also found. The abundance of marble is characteristic of Greece, and gave a direction to her art, which would have been impossible without such a supply of material.
II. The flora of Greece is more varied than that of any other country. In the south of Messenia the oriental palm g^ows. At Patras, on the coast of Achaea, are groves of oranges, and Attica is the land of olives and figs, which are not found in the plains of Thessaly. In ancient times the country was rich in wood, and even now, in spite of neglect and destruction, there are fine forests in Thessaly and Epirus, Acarnania and Arcadia. Beeches in Northern Greece, oaks of various kinds—one of which, the Quercus aegilops, or valonea oak, furnishes in its acorns a valuable article for exportation—chestnuts and planes, are the most common trees. The planes often grow to a large size, measuring as much as thirty feet in the circumference of the trunk. "Pelion," we are told, " is still distinguished by the abundance and beauty of its forests, in which the beech predominates in the higher parts, and further down the chestnut and plane, while the pines, which were numerous here in antiquity, have now entirely disappeared. In the gardens of the villages, which are thickly scattered over the slopes of the range, the orchards present a rich selection of excellent fruits."1 Some of the trees now common in Greece are known to be importations. The chestnut was introduced late in the classical period from Asia Minor. Th^ beech is rarely mentioned in ancient authors.    The
1 Bursian, I.e. i. 43.
16                     TREES AND FRUITS—ANIMALS.               [I. 12.
palm certainly, and probably the vine, was imported by the Phoenicians. The fig, also, was not indigenous, nor even the cypress.1 Oranges and lemons, peaches and apricots, were either unknown in Greece, or very rare until post-classical times. Quinces and pomegranates, though known, were little used as articles of food; pears and apples did not thrive, and were not cultivated with care.2
Trees which add to the beauty of the landscape of Greece are the myrtle and tamarisk on the shore, the cytisus and the judas tree, and, above all, the oleanders, which fringe the rivers. Flowers are still abundant: anemones, violets and crocuses, roses, balsams, geraniums, heliotropes, jasmine, and many more. But Athens is no longer u violet crowned." " They call it Anthena (flowery), but it has no flowers," was the answer given to Ulrichs when he inquired from a peasant the name of the city. The Greeks appear to have had a great admiration for flowers. They loved to connect them with their deities, and assigned to some, such as the narcissus and hyacinth, a remarkable place in their myths.
12. The larger wild animals of Greece were wolves, bears, boars, and stags. The two former were confined to the districts of Arcadia, the "bear-land," and Taygetus in Laconia, an excellent hunting ground, on which the Spartan youths were trained to endurance. The Nemean lion is purely mythological; in all probability it is borrowed from the Oriental legend in which the sun-god contends with a lion; and the lions of the Acropolis of Mycenae are an imitation of Phrygian art. But Herodotus tells us that lions infested the region between the Nestus and Achelous, though none were ever found to the east of the first river or to the west of the second.3
1  Tozer, Ic p. 160.
2  Neumann and Partsch, I.e. p. 410.
8 Herod, vii. 125. The statement of Herodotus is confirmed by Aristotle and Pausanias. The latter represents Polydamas as slaying a lion on Olympus without any weapon'! (vi. 5, 5). There is also the legend of Cyrene and the lion (Pindar, Pyth. ix. 28 ff.).
1.13.]
CLIMATE.
17
13. The climate necessarily varies with the nature of the country, the hills differing from the plains, the interior from the sea-coast. Even in adjacent territories, like Attica and Boeotia, we find most striking contrasts. Attica is sheltered from the north by the ridge of Parnes; it is for the most part hilly, with a dry soil, incapable of retaining moisture. On the south and east it lies open to the sea, the breezes from which temper the heat of the summer sun. Hence the climate is generally mild without being enervating; the atmosphere is exceedingly clear and light.1 Boeotia, on the other hand, is shut in on three sides by lofty mountains, and on the fourth is only divided from Euboea by the narrow channel of the Euripus. The water from the hills, checked in its natural passage to the sea, falls into Lake Copais and the adjacent marshes, which give rise to damp exhalations. In Boeotia, therefore, the climate is thick and heavy; the heat in summer is not softened by marine breezes, while the winter .cold is increased by the proximity of the mountains. Hesiod speaks of it as " bad in winter, oppressive in summer, and never good."2 The great seclusion of some mountain valleys, such as Pheneus and Stymphalus, causes excessive heat in summer, and the atmosphere is rendered even more intolerable by the exhalations from the land left uncovered
1 At Athens, where accurate observations have been taken, the following characteristics of the climate are recorded :—
(1.) The variation in the temperature is very great, hardly less than at Leipzig or Berlin. The heat is not only great but continuous; there are times when the thermometer never falls below 68° F. for a month.
(2.) The amount of the rainfall is very slight, and is almost entirely confined to the winter months. Seventy-eight per cent, of the rain falls between October and March ; and only seven per cent, in June, July, and August. This combination of drought and heat withers and destroys vegetation, and makes Athens somewhat unhealthy for the time.
(3.) The atmosphere is extremely free from fogs and clouds. This is largely due to the warmth of the soil. The moisture brought by N.E. or S.W. winds is not condensed but dissipated, and it is only on the cool heights of Parnes that clouds are formed.—Neumann and Partsch, I.e. p. 16 ff.                                    2  Works and Days, 640.
VOL.  I.                                                                                B
18                   CLIMATE AND EARTHQUAKES.             [I. 13.
by the receding water. For the same reason the cold in winter is intense, the damp stagnant air hanging heavily over the marshy soil. Another source of discomfort for those who journey from one place to another is the great variety of the climate. Summer has commenced at the mouth of the Pamisus while the snow is still lying in Arcadia. The traveller within a short distance passes from summer to winter, as in climbing Mount Athos he may see almost the whole flora of the country.1 In certain parts of Greece thunderstorms were peculiarly frequent; at Delphi, for instance, where more than once they contributed to the safety of the sacred place, and at Dodona, which appears to have been an appropriate home for the " Cloud-gatherer." On the other hand, the rainfall in some districts is extremely small. In 1859 there were only twenty-five days in the year on which sufficient rain fell at Athens to be measured by the gauge. Earthquakes of greater or less severity are frequent in Greece. Delos was said to have been " shaken " before the outbreak of the Persian war, and again before the Peloponnesian war, an occurrence which only the curious seem to have observed; for the first earthquake is unknown to Thucydides and the second to Herodotus. A great earthquake which occurred before the siege of Ithome led to the revolt of the Helots. We hear of them in the history of Thucydides as "unparalleled in their extent and fury " during the Peloponnesian war. The fifth year of the war was the time "when the frequent earthquakes occurred at Athens, in Euboea, and in Boeotia, especially at Orchomenos," and put a stop to the invasion of Attica.2 But the greatest disaster which occurred in Greece from this cause was the destruction of Helice and Bura, on the coast of Achaea, in 373 B.C.3 In modern times earthquakes are frequent and disastrous; to them in a great measure is due the ruined condition of the temples in the country.   Lemnos in prehistoric times and Thera (Santorin)
1  Tozer, I.e. p. 139.
2  Thuc. i, 101, i. 23, iii. 87,          3 Paus. vii. 24, 12 ; 25, 8.
I. 14.]         INFLUENCE ON THE INHABITANTS.                19
were the centres of volcanic  agency.    The  latter is still active, " a crater in the midst of the sea.''1
14. The influence which a country exercises over the inhabitants varies with the civilisation of the people, but even in a highly civilised nation, climate and scenery have a subtle influence, more important in the early years of Influence of th life than in the later. We know that the country on the Hellenes felt this influence deeply. Every Inhabit*n**-Athenian thanked the gods that he was not heavy and stupid, like his northern neighbour, the " Hog of Boeotia," and in Arcadia music was universally cultivated as an antidote to the harsh influence of the climate of the hills. The effect was the greater because the Hellenes never overcame, or even attempted to overcome, the natural difficulties of their home, which indeed are still unconquered. Their houses were not adapted to reduce the variation in the temperature to a minimum; there were no careful appliances for storing water when needed, and for preventing the overflow when superabundant. The inhabitants accepted the circumstances and conditions around them, regarding the natural arrangement as divine, and therefore excellent.*
In Greece one of two features of scenery, if not both, is always present to the eye, the mountains and the sea. With the first we identify the love of home, with the second the love of change, both qualities eminently characteristic of the Greeks in the best period of their history. The inhabitants of the hilly districts which were not in contact The inhabitants with the sea remained for the most part peasants of the Hills-and tillers of the soil. Neither in politics nor in manners did they advance beyond a somewhat primitive stage. The account which  Polybius  gives of  the inhabitants of  the
1 See Bent, Cycladea, p. 104 ff.
* Of. Tac. Ann. I 79. A proposal to alter the course of the Tiber is met by the following objection: " Optime rebus mortalium consuluisse naturam, quae sua ora fluminibus, suos cursus, utque originem ita fines dederit; spectandas etiam religiones majorum, qui sacra et lucos et aras patriis amnibus dicaverint."
20
HILL AND SEA.
[I. 14.
Arcadian district of Cynaethia in his day describes them as little better than savages. The Dorians of Sparta, though greatly superior to their northern neighbours, were intellectually slow and unenterprising. On the other hand, the Ionians of the coast were volatile and fond of adventure, ever eager for some new thing. How much of this contrast is due to the influence of the sea is best shown by comparing the Spartans with their kinsmen at Corinth and Corcyra. The former distrusted everything that was new or strange; The Dorians but the Corinthians and Corcyraeans, at an on the Sea. early period, were the ablest and most adventurous seamen of antiquity, though unequal to the Athenians in intellectual capacity and force.
The Greeks enjoyed their climate and their country. They loved an out-door life ; every man on his own farm, watching the growth of his vines or fig-trees, or "resting on the Climate and violets by the spring." It was with much Country Life. vexation of spirit that the Athenians in the country broke up their homes and transferred themselves to the city to escape the invasion of the Peloponnesians, nor did the city ever recover from the ruin of a vigorous peasantry. The peculiarities of the climate left traces on the religion and character of the inhabitants. In Attica, Athena was worshipped as Aglaurus, the bright, and as Erse, the dew. She was the goddess of the air whose power withered the vegetation, and who also gave the dew which refreshed the parched and exhausted earth. Moreover, the warm climate, which made comparatively little demands on physical endurance, joined with the poorness of the soil, tended to create among the Greeks a degree of frugality such as we can hardly realise. A few olives, bread and wine, were enough for the sujDport of life. Luxury was not indeed unknown among them, but it rarely took the grosser shapes which were common at Rome. And in most parts of the country the bright air and perpetual change of scenery saved the inhabitants from the depression which seeks relief in excess.
Living in a beautiful country, the appreciation of beauty
I. 14.]     INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE—GODS ON EARTH.     21
became to the Greeks a second nature. In their temples and statues they quickly passed beyond the first rude stages of architecture and sculpture; they adopted the style of building peculiarly suited to their land, and carried it out with exquisite finish. Though they were not all equally gifted, it is a significant fact that the Arcadians of the remote village of Phigalea commemorated their deliverance from the plague by the erection of a beautiful temple. This was the highest form their devotion could take; it was the gift, in their judgment, most pleasing to the god.1 The same feeling for beauty shows itself in the Greek rendering of the human or animal form. Disregarding conventionality, they recognise the truth that life is the source of beauty. Every object represented in art must be full of life and power, and the grace which arises from the perfect use of power. Without attempting to connect too closely the Greek sense of artistic beauty with the scenery amid which the Greeks lived, it is not unsafe to draw the conclusion that, in a country where all delight in out-door life was entirely repressed, such a sense, even if present, would have quickly perished. Nor would it have been possible in a moister climate to expose statuary to the open air, and make the noblest works of the sculptor a possession of the whole people.
In the imagination of the Greeks, the land in which they lived had once been the dwelling-place of the gods, or had been visited by them in the likeness of men. On every hand they found traces of these divine inhabi- sacredness of tants. From one end to the other the land was the Earth, filled with temples, shrines, and sacred groves (cUcr^), where the deities might dwell in undisturbed possession and receive the offerings of their worshippers. Even the lonely hills, the forests, and the springs had their deities; the very trees and flowers were sacred. Over the olive watched the eye of Athena and Zeus Morios; the bay was sacred to Apollo, the white poplar to Heracles.     When carried away by Hades,
1 Paus. viii. 41, 8.
22                      ISOLATION OF GREEK CITIES,                [I. 15.
Persephone was gathering a narcissus, a flower which was henceforth consecrated to her and Demeter; the lily was the flower of Aphrodite; the rose of Dionysus. The earth was no mere inanimate thing, but a joyful mother of children, a just and liberal housewife, who restored manifold the riches intrusted to her. Through these ideas the human and external worlds were brought into close relation, and upon the actions of men depended the increase of flock and field. " To those who pronounce just judgments famine never comes, nor calamity, but joy and abundance wait on the fields which are theirs. The earth brings forth food in plenty; on the hills the oaks bear acorns at the summit, and honey in the trunk; their sheep are heavy with fleeces; their wives are true mothers; blessing and prosperity are theirs for ever, and they go not in ships on the sea, for the bounteous earth gives them her fruit in season."1
15. The nature of the country had also a powerful effect on the development of Greek politics. The whole land was broken up by mountains into a number of valleys more or Divided condi- *ess iso^ate(^ i there was no central point from tion of the        which a powerful monarch could control it.
Country.           Hence Greece was, above all other countries,
the home of independence and. freedom. Each valley, and even the various hamlets of a valley, felt themselves possessed of a separate life, which they were jealous to preserve. No doubt these communities were small, and the desire to maintain _.      .            their independence was from one point of view a
Disadvantages
and advantages source of national weakness. Hellas was never iHvis^nfr0m a united &ation> tne healthy spirit of independence degenerated into jealousy and selfishness. War might break out at any moment between neighbouring cities, and almost within the lifetime of one man every leading State had been the friend and enemy of every other. On the other hand, it was only by this minute subdivision that the Greeks became conscious of the true meaning of civic life.
1 Hesiod, Works and Days, 230 ff.
I. iSl
GREEK POLITICS.
23
Every man was of some importance in so small a number; he was needed for defence or counsel; it was his duty to leave behind him a citizen to take his place; he was not lost in a crowd, or the mere instrument of another's will. In Greece, therefore, for the first time in antiquity, we find liberty and self-restraint forming the conditions of political life. This is the great gift of Hellas to the world. Previously there had been nothing but monarchs, armies, subjects, slaves. Even in Greece, the attempt was often made to substitute the rule of one for the rule of many; but with the progress of political life, " tyranny," as it was called, became more and more repugnant to the Greek mind.
If we compare Greek and Eoman history, we cannot fail to be struck with the limited size of the cities of Greece, and the comparative pettiness of the interests at stake, but the advantage is not wholly on the side of Rome. Rome presents us with the spectacle of one great city endeavouring to rule the world. The study of Greek history Lessons of brings before us the difficulties which attend Greek Politics, the early stages of civic government; and, if we cannot apply the lessons which it offers directly to modern politics, we can learn much from the spirit in which the Greeks attempted to meet the problems presented to them—from their efforts to combine steadiness with progress, authority with liberty, subjection to the State with personal freedom.
CHAPTER  II.
THE  EARLIEST INHABITANTS.
I. We may gather information about the earliest inhabitants of a country from three sources: the traditions of the people, their language and religious rites, and the monuments The sources of or relics of the past. Of these, it is obvious Early History, that tradition, while promising most, gives us the least. Even if we could eliminate the mythical element in legends, we should find them to be full of inconsistencies and contradictions. In Greece, at any rate, epic and local traditions are constantly at variance, and the history of the earliest times will differ widely, according to the legends upon which it is constructed. It is common to Homeric and speak of Homeric tradition as the oldest and Local Tradition, most trustworthy tradition of Greece. For this assertion there is, however, no convincing evidence. The date at which a legend first appears in literature proves little in regard to its antiquity, and the poets had as much interest in altering or inventing stories as the local cicerone or priest. On the other hand, if we follow local legends, we cannot determine the extent to which they have been altered under the influence of epic poetry. When the two were at variance there was a natural tendency to bring them into agreement, and the weight of authority lay with the poets.
The evidence of language is open to the obvious objection
that nations have often changed their speech.     If it were
true that Greek is a homogeneous language, it
anguage. woui(i not f 0H0W that all the tribes which spoke it were of the same origin, still less that they were the earliest inhabitants of Greece.     What should we know of
24
II. I.]                SOURCES OF EARL Y HISTOR Y.
25
the presence of the Etruscans in Italy if we were without the evidence of written inscriptions and Eoman historians? Languages have their history no less than nations, and nothing is so delusive as facts founded upon etymologies. In regard to religious rites and customs, it is
j.       v           •           •   j    xi       x         -1         £      Religion.
necessary to bear in mmd the tenacity of traditional modes of worship. If we find barbarous rites among the humane and civilised Greeks, we need not assume that they are importations from the East; they may be survivals from a pre-Hellenic population, or they may carry us back to that remote age when the Greeks were still savages, with beliefs and rites such as savages entertain and practise. At the best, they are of little value as evidence of the civilisation of the people among whom they are found.1
The evidence of monuments, unless illustrated or confirmed by written documents, is of small service to the historian. It comes to us from a past of which we know nothing. The excavations at Hissarlik, Mycenae and Tiryns prove that opulent and powerful tribes once inhabited those sites, but they tell us nothing of the time at which the cities were built, or of the men who built them. In conjunction with the epic poetry of Greece, they carry us back to a period when a high degree of civilisation existed in the Aegean. Whether that civilisation was Oriental or Hellenic they do not enable us to decide, nor do they explain how it passed away before the dawn of Greek history. They teach us how recent and imperfect our historical knowledge is, and how little we know of the long period which preceded it. We may even go a step further. They make it probable that the civilisation of " the Homeric age " is an idealised picture, not of the Greeks whom we know, but of a nation which
1 Arist. Pol. 1336 b. : "Let the rulers take care that there be no image or picture representing unseemly actions except in the temples of those gods at whose festivals the law permits even ribaldry, and whom the law also permits to be worshipped by persons of mature age on behalf of themselves, their children, and their wives."
26                      BARBARIANS IN GREECE.                [II. 2.
preceded them in the Aegean and lived in the memory of minstrels. However this may be, the evidence derived from unwritten monuments, as it cannot fail to be imperfect, must often be misleading.
I.—TRADITIONS OF THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS.
2. The Greeks looked back to a time when the Continent was in the hands of barbarian tribes. Herodotus speaks of Greek views of tne Hellenes as separating from the barbarian Early History, nation which preceded them.1 Thucydides illustrates the condition of Greece in the past by comparison with contemporary barbarous nations;2 and tribes, which were barbarous in the modern sense, did not scruple to derive their origin from the host which went to Troy.8 Of these aborigines the most important tribe, and
The most impor-                      °.                              r                     '.
tant Barbarian that of which the name was most widely Tribes.             spread,  was  the Pelasgians.4   Next to them
came the Leleges, the Carians, who were closely connected with the Leleges, and the Thracians. Less important were the Abantes, the Dryopians, the Temmices, Hyantes, and others.
1   Herod, i. 60 : dircKplOrj ck iraXaiTcpov tov /SapjSapov eQveos to 'EWtjvikovSk.t.'X. Cf. Strabo, p. 321: 'Ekcltcuos pev oiv 6 MiX^<rios irepl ttjs TLcXoirovvfio-ov <j)r)<r\p Siori *rp6 roav *EXX^i>a>i> <aKT}<rav avrfiv /3dp-(3apoi. 2xc$ov dc ti ical f) (rvpnaa'a 'EXXas KaToucla fiapfidpcov V7r?jp£e to Trakaiov, air ovtSjv \oyi£op,€VOis to>v pvypovevopevav. Among such "barbarians," Strabo mentions Pelops, Danaus, the Dryopians, Cauconians, Pelasgi, Leleges, Thracians (in Attica and Daulis), Phoenicians, Aonians, Temmices and Hyantes (in Boeotia). He also appeals to the evidence of names, quoting Cecrops, Codrus, Aeclus, Cothus, and others as barbarians. The Thesprotians, Cassopaeans, Amphiloehians, Molossians, and Athamanes are also barbarians.
2  Thuo. i. 6: ^vvrjdrj rrfv diairav peff oiik&v iiroir](ravTo Sxrirep oi fidpfiapoi' arjpe2ov 8' iar\ ravra rrjs cEXXd8os en ovtg> vep.6p.cva t&p
7TOT€ KOL CS TTCLVTaS OflOlGiV Siamj/mdTfi>i>.
3  The Maxyes in Libya, who shaved half their heads and painted their bodies with vermilion, (f>aar\ clvai t&v Ik Tpoirjs avbp&v (Herod, iv. 191). The inhabitants of Argos Amphilochicum learnt the Greek language from the neighbouring Ambraciots ; the rest of the Amphiloehians were barbarians. Yet they were Argives, who returned with Amphilochus from Troy (Thuc. ii. 68).
4  Thuc. i. 3.
II. 3-1                                THE PELASGI.                                       27
3. In  Homer the Pelasgians1 are of little importance. They are inhabitants of Asia Minor, where they possess a Larissa, and fight in the ranks of the Trojan      Homeric army.    We also hear of Pelasgi among the in-     Account, habitants of Crete.   Traces of them appear in Greece proper, for the Zeus of Dodona is called Pelasgic, and the same epithet is applied to the Thessalian Argos.2    Strabo quotes a passage from Hesiod, in which Dodona is said to have been established by the Pelasgians.8   In Herodotus we find a very different account.    With him Pelasgia is the ancient name of the land now called Hellas.    The Athenians, the Ionians, the Aeolians, and the Arcadians were all originally Pelasgians.    Even the Hellenes "break off from the Pelasgians."4   In his own day the Pelasgians still remained in some small towns in Thrace and on the Propontis, where a language was spoken which was not Greek.   From this Herodotus assumes that the old Pelasgi also were barbarians, and that their language differed from Greek.    How the Hellenic language prevailed over the Pelasgic, he is unable to explain.5
1  The statements of ancient authors are collected in Busolt, Griech. Gesch. i. p. 28 f.
2  Horn. 11. ii. 840, xvii. 288. Pelasgic Zeus, II. xvi. 233 ; Pelasgic Argos, II. ii. 681.    Pelasgians (dtoi) in Crete, Od. xix. 177.
8 Strabo, p. 327 : &<a>ba>vr)v (frrjyov T€, ILekatry&p cbpavov, far.
*  9A7ro<rxi<r$€P dirb tov UcXaayiKov (Herod, i. 58).
*  For Pelasgia, cf, Herod, ii. 56 ; Pelasgians=Athenians, viii. 44 ; e= Arcadians, i. 146 ; = Aeolians, vii. 95; = Ionians, vii. 94; Pelasgians in Attica, ii. 51. For the contemporary Pelasgians, cf. Herod, i. 57 ; vii. 42. The only account which he gives of the change from Pelasgic to Greek in Attica is : to 'Attikov edvos iov TLikaoyiKov apa Ttj fi€Ta(3ok{} rrj es "EWrjuas kcu ttjv ykSaaaav /tieTc/iade, i. 57. In ii. 51 we have a somewhat different account; a distinction is there made between Athenians and Pelasgians: *AOfjvaiot(n yap rjbri rr\vi-Kavra is "EWrjvas reXeovai HeXacryoi ctvvoikoi iyevovro ip t?} X**PTly ofiev ircp Ka\ "E\\rjv€s rjp£avTo vofjuadrjvai. They came from Boeotia (Strab. p. 401). These Pelasgi were driven out from Attica (Herod, vi. 137), and went to Lemnos, where they remained till the time of Miltiades {cf. v. 26). The Pelasgi therefore are at once Athenians and not Athenians ! In viii. 44, we have another account, which informs us that in the time of the Pelasgians the Athenians were Pelasgians, but called Cranai.
28
THE PELASGZ.
[II. 3-
Thucydides identifies the Pelasgians and Tyrrhenians, a view which was set forth by Hellanicus,1 but which Hero-Thucydides— dotus does not share.2 In the epic poet Asius Asius.             (c. 700 B.C.), Pelasgus is the first of mortal
men; Arcadian legend claimed him as the first king of that people, from whom they had learned the rudiments of civilisation.3 Aeschylus speaks of Pelasgus as a king esc y us. ^ Argos, whose dominion extended to the Stry-mon; Sophocles calls the Argives Tyrrhenian Pelasgians, and Ephorus asserts that Arcadia was the original home of the tribe, from whence, being a warlike race, they spread to other parts of Greece.4 Finally, the Tyrrhenians were identified with the Lydian Torrhebians, and when these were in turn identified with the Etruscans, it was natural that Pelasgi should be found in Italy.5
We see, then, that the tradition of the Pelasgi, as the earliest inhabitants of Greece, was being constantly enlarged a Criticism of ^y poets and historians. All that we really the tradition of know about the nation is that Pelasgians— the Pelasgi. whom Herodotus and Thucydides regarded as barbarians, and speaking a barbarian tongue—existed in historical times in the neighbourhood of the Hellespont, and in the islands of Lemnos and Scyros. The fictions of an original man, or an early king of Arcadia or Argos, named Pelasgus, are obviously intended to account for the extension of the name Pelasgi, and may be compared with the fiction of Hellen
1  Hellanic. Frag. 1, M.
2  Time. iv. 109. There is a Pelasgic (barbarian) element in the cities of Chalcidice derived rSav kcl\ Afjpvov wore k<x\ *A.6f}vas Tvparju&v olicrjadvToov.    Herod, i. 57 : neAacrycoi/ to>v vnep Tvp<rr)va>p Kpqo-T&va
TToklV oIk€OVTO)V.
3  Paus. viii. 1, 4.
4  Aesch. Suppl 250; Soph. Inach. Frag. 249 N. with the scholiast on Ap. Rhod. i. 580. The account of Ephorus {Frag. 34, M.) will be found in Strabo, p. 221. It is merely a repetition of the explanation which Thucydides gives (i. 3) of the manner in which the name of the Hellenes spread through Greece.
6 Hellanic. Frag. 1, M.
II. 3-]
THE PELASGI.
29
and his sons, which is a similar invention, intended for a similar purpose. The name Larissa, which is thought to be a characteristic mark of the Pelasgi, is found in Aeolis and in Thessaly, at Argos, on the borders of Eiis and Achaea, at Mytileue, at Ephesus, and in Crete.1 The existence of these fortresses proves the presence of the people, from whom the name was derived, in many different places. If, then, the theory (for it is no more than a theory) which connects Larissae with Pelasgi is correct, we must assume that the Pelasgi did once inhabit various parts of Hellas, the islands of the Aegean, and the coast of Asia Minor.
It is inevitable that modern historians should take widely divergent views of a nation concerning which tradition is so uncertain. Some writers, among whom is Kiepert, * think that the Pelasgi were a Semitic tribe, who immigrated into Greece. This theory, though it explains their presence on the coast, fails to account for their position at Dodona and in Thessaly. Yet these are places to which, even in the Homeric form of the legend, the title Pelasgic clings. That the Pelasgi are said by Herodotus and Thucy-dides to have spoken a barbarous language is, of course, no proof that their language was not Indo-Germanic. In another view, which has received the assent of Thirl wall and Duncker, Pelasgian is nothing more than the name of the ancient inhabitants of the country, which subsequently gave way to the title Achaean, as this in its turn was supplanted by the term Hellenes. In support of this view the evidence of Herodotus and Thucydides may be cited. Both authors regarded the Pelasgi as the ancient inhabitants of the country, and Herodotus combines them with the Ionians. The connection of the Pelasgi with the worship of Zeus at Dodona,2
1  Strabo, pp. 440, 620.
2  This cannot be an invention of the priests, however much Herodotus may have taken from these authorities. Holm, Griech. Gesc7dch. i. 70.
30                     PELASGIC AGE—THE LELEGES.               [II. 4.
with the Thesmophoria,1 and with certain religious ceremonies celebrated at Athens and Samothrace,2 is in favour of this view. It is not impossible that the Hellenes connected the ancient fortresses found in Greece, the Islands, and Asia Minor with the Pelasgi, and presupposed their existence wherever such fortresses or their ruins were- found. When in this manner the Pelasgi had become established as an ancient tribe, those nations which laid claim to great antiquity, as the Athenians and Arcadians, became Pelasgians. __ The Peiasgic But we nave no evidence to support the idea of Aec-                a Peiasgic Age as a period of simple habits and
agricultural occupations, which slowly gave way before the more martial age of the Achaeans.3 The civilisation of the "Achaean Age" exists only in the epic poems, and the "Peiasgic Age" is but another name for the prehistoric Greeks,4 of whose agriculture we know nothing.
4. The traditions which we have of the Lelegians, like those of the Pelasgians, differ greatly in different authors. Th L le ians ^n ^ne eP*c Poems the Lelegians are an Asiatic -Traditional tribe, which supports the Trojans.8 Herodotus Account.          closely connects them with the Carians, who,
while they dwelt in the Islands and were subject to Minos, were called Leleges.6 In these accounts we hear nothing of the Leleges in Greece. Strabo, on the other hand, supported by the authority of Aristotle, not only finds Leleges in Asia, where they are united with Carians, but places them in Acarnania, Locris, Boeotia, Megaris and Leucas; and Pausanias, who also combines the Carians and Leleges, places them in Pylus and Laconia. We hear of an aboriginal Lelex, who, like Pelasgus, is either the first man
1 Herod, ii. 171.                                      2 Ibid, ii. 51.
» See Duncker, Hist. Greece, Bk. i. chap. viii.; Hehn, Wanderings of Plants, p. 65.
4 See Holm, le. c. vi.
6 II. xx. 96 ; x. 429. They are omitted in the Catalogue. Pedasua was a Lelegian city, Strabo, pp. 584, 611. See also Maspero, HisL Ancienue, p. 245.                                        6 Herod, i. 171.
II. 4-]
THE LELEGES.
31
or the first king of a country.1 A passage is quoted by Strabo from Hesiod, in which the Leleges are apparently identified with the Locrians, on the strength of a doubtful etymology which combines Locrus, Lelex, and Ae/cros.2
Thus the parallel between the Pelasgians and the Lelegians is pretty close. In " Homer " both appear as Asiatic nations. Both are carried by later writers into Greece, which is indeed divided between them. There is one important difference. While the Pelasgi were supposed to have remained in Greece, and to have become by some unexplained change a part of the Greek people, the Lelegians disappeared entirely. Even in Asia the only traces of them are deserted forts which bear their name, and Strabo speaks of them as entirely extinct.
The Leleges are merely a name in history. The Greeks could not point to any invention or religious rite which they had received from this numerous tribe. They Criticism of the may have been a seafaring nation, perhaps Accounts of the Carians, who, because they touched at many Lele*es-places, were supposed to be the inhabitants of many districts. It is, however, more probable that their presence in such various parts of Greece is due to the misdirected research and untrained imagination of the Logographers. We can hardly over-estimate the irreparable confusion which these writers introduced into Greek legends by their attempts to formulate and arrange them. A resemblance in names, however distant—an etymology, however false, was quite sufficient foundation to support a historical connection. From these sources, doubtless, Aristotle drew his information when placing the Leleges in the west and the centre of Greece.   At
1  Strabo, p. 321. There were " establishments" (KcrroiKiai) of Leleges in the Milesian territory, and sepulchres and deserted fortresses called Lelegia in many parts of Caria (Strabo, pp. 321, 611). Lelex is the first king of Laconia, and avroxQw (Paus. iii. 1, i); yet in i. 39, 6, he is brought from Egypt to Megara, and is the son of Poseidon and Libya (ib. i. 44, 3).
2  They were the chosen people given to Deucalion by Zeus (Strabo, p. 322).
32
THE CAR1ANS.
[II. S
least we know of no better evidence which can be adduced in support of his statement.1
5. As we have seen, the Carians are closely connected with the Leleges. The Carian historian Philippus asserted that the Leleges were the slaves of the Carians.2 In opposition to the Cretan story that the Carians were Leleges driven from the islands to the mainland of Asia Minor, the Carians maintained that Asia was their original home. They considered themselves to be nearly akin to the Mysians and Lydians, who shared with them in the worship of Carian Zeus at Mylasa.8 In the Homeric Catalogue the Carians are said to be /3apf3ap64>(avoi, an epithet applied to the Carians only, and in Strabo's opinion very remarkable, owing to the large number of Greek words existing in the Carian language.4 In Greece Proper the Carians were supposed to have settled at Megara, where one of the two citadels was known as Caria, at Epidaurus and Hermione. That the islands of the Aegean were inhabited by them, was proved to Thucydides by an examination of the tombs. Whether they settled in Attica or not was more doubtful, but the family of Isagoras, the opponent of Clisthenes, worshipped the Carian Zeus.5 In historical times the Carians existed as a nation in Asia Minor, where they were distinguished from all their neighbours by the worship of Zeus Strati us.6
1  For the Leleges, see Busolt, I.e. p. 32 ff.; and Holm, I.e. ch. vii.
2  Athenaeus, p. 271. Plutarch {Quaest. Graec. 46) informs us that the tine for killing a Lelegian was a bushel of barley.         3 Herod, i. 171.
4  II. ii. 867 ; Strabo, p. 662, on the authority of Philippus. He adopts the Cretan version of the Carian history.
5  From the Carians the Greeks borrowed the custom of wearing plumes in their helmets, of fixing handles in their shields, and placing devices upon them (Herod, i. 171). For Carians in Megara, cf. Paus. i. 40, 6 ; in Epidaurus and Hermione, Strabo, p. 374. For Isagoras, cf. Herod, v. 66. Thucydides' statement concerning the islands is given in i. 8. Kohler is of opinion that the graves at Mycenae exhibit the Carian mode of burial.
6  Herod, v. 119. His temple was at Labranda, in a large and sacred grove of plane-trees; see Strabo, p. 659, who describes the place; Duncker, Hist. Ant. i. p. 573 ; infra, ch. iv. Carian names exhibit very distinct forms—e.g., Aridolis, Ibanolis, Osogo, and the numerous words in -nda.
II. 6.]
THE THRACIANS.
33
6. In the Homeric poems  the Thracians are represented as a highly civilised people.   They fight from chariots, and are clad in armour of bronze; their king Bhesus is distinguished by the splendour of his equipment.     "His   Thracians_ horses  are whiter than  snow and  swift as   the Homeric the wind; his chariot is inlaid with gold and   Account-silver; his armour is of gold, huge in size, a delight of the eye."1    So great is the excellence of the Thracian weapons, that the corselet and sword of Asteropaeus, the Paeonian, form one of the prizes at the games held in honour of Patro-clus.    The culture of the vine and the worship of Dionysus are also known in the land of the Thracian Lycurgus.2    In legends which are not Homeric, Thrace is the   The Thracian birthplace of Orpheus,  the earliest minstrel.    Minstrels. Strabo quotes Boeotian legends which speak of Thracians as settling on Helicon, and establishing there a shrine of the Muses, for those deities were worshipped in Pieria before they advanced into Hellas.   In Attica the Thracians are found at Eleusis under their king Eumolpus, the "sweet singer," from whom was descended the race of the Eumolpidae, the guardians of the sacred rites of Eleusis.3
The position of the Thracians in history was widely different. They were a barbarian race, numerous but disunited, and without the elements of civilised life. They did indeed possess certain warlike virtues, but their want The Thracians of civilisation rendered these useless to them- in historic selves, while their bloodthirsty ferocity made it times-dangerous for others to employ them as mercenaries. If we regard the legendary picture as a true one, we have here an
1  IL x. 436 f.
2  II. xxiii. 580, 807 ; vi. 132 f.
3  Strabo, p. 471 : dno be tov jieXovs kol tov pvdfiov Kai tg>v opydvav teat f) fxovu-iKn iracra Opaic'ia Kai 'Avians vepopiarai. ArfKov be e< re t<ov Towav, ev ois al Movcrai TeTip,Y)VTat. Uicpia yap Ka\ vOXv/A7ros Ka\ IltuTrXa na\ Aeifirjdpov to naKaiov rjv QpaKia ^topia Kai oprj. . . . tov tc 'EXiKcava Ka6i€p(oo"av rals Movcrais Qpqiccs ol ttjv Boicoriap ijroiKrjcravTes . . . ot T* iirifiiKrjdevTes ttjs dp\aias povo-iKrfs Opa.K€S Xeyovrai, 'Opc^cvs r« Ka\ MovfraTo? fcai Qdfxvpis, kol rw Evp.oKir<p be Tovvopa evBevbe,
VOL. I.                                                                                             O
34                                    THE PHRYGIANS.                            [II. 7.
instance of a lost or decayed civilisation.1 If, on the other hand, we treat it as a fiction, we have to explain the origin of a legend so strikingly at variance with the facts of history. We have seen reason to believe that the Pelasgians, Leleges and Carians inhabited both shores of the Aegean.     The
Thracians found same *s ^ne case w^n tne Thracians. The on both sides of Brygi of Thrace were identified by Herodotus the Aegean Sea.  with the phrygians 0f Asia Minor.     " So long
as they lived in Europe, such is the Macedonian account, the Phrygians were Briges, but when they crossed over into Asia they changed their name and became Phrygians."2 When The Thracians the Phrygians and Thracians were thus identi-and Phrygians, fj^ ft was natUral to ascribe to the European parent stem the musical genius and skill which existed in historical times among the Phrygians. Phrygia was the home of Marsyas and Olympus, the region whence musical modes were brought to Greece. The Phrygians were addicted to orgiastic forms of worship, which were also attributed to the Thracians.3 In this manner the fiction (if it is a fiction) of the civilised Thracian may have come mto existence. Strabo, in the passage referred to, completely identifies the Thracian and Phrygian forms of civilisation. He accepts the former as a historical fact, and implicitly believes in the presence of the Thracians in Boeotia and Attica.4
7. Of the remaining barbarian tribes the Dryopians, Tem-
mices, Hyantes, Abantes, Caucones, Curetes, and others, it
is not necessary to speak at length.    They are
opians, e c   ^ little or no importance.    The Dryopians are
found in historical times at Carystus and Styra in Euboea, at
Hermione and Asine in Argolis, whither they came by sea
1 Helbig, Das Horn. Epos, p. 4 ff., assumes this, supposing that the civilisation of the Thracians was due to their contact with the Phoenicians.           *                                                   2 Herod, vii. 73.
3  Strabo, p. 470, 471. The Thracian women appear to have been liable to that extraordinary fanaticism which the Greeks ascribed to the influence of Dionysus.
4  We may observe that the Greeks spoke with the utmost contempt of the Phrygians in spite of the debt which they owed them.
II. 8.] DRYOPIANSy &C.—DEDUC7IONS FROM LEGENDS. 35
from an earlier settlement in the north. The Cauconians were inhabitants of Elis, the Curetes of Acarnania. The Temmices, Abantes and Hyantes appear in Euboea and Boeotia.1
8. The conclusion to be drawn from the legendary account of the early population of Greece is negative rather than positive. We cannot distinguish between Result of the the tribes which inhabited both sides of the examination of Aegean. Pelasgi, Leleges, Carians, Thracians Greek Lc*ends-are found on either shore. It is only when we come to the Achaeans and Hellenes that we have names which are restricted to the peninsula ;2 and it is not difficult to show that even these names are too closely connected with the Pelasgians for us to suppose that they denote an entirely different population. The three nations are neighbours in the south of Thessaly. The Achaeans no less than the Hellenes follow Achilles from Phthiotis to Troy, Heitenw!' and with Achilles also came those " who dwell Pelasgians, not in Pelasgic Argos." On the occasion of a solemn really dlstinct* oath the Hellenic Achilles appeals to the Pelasgic Zeus. There is an Achaean Argos and a Pelasgic Argos, and we have no reason for separating the Larissa in Argos from the Larissa in Thessaly. Strabo tells us that the Achaeans of Phthiotis invaded Peloponnesus, and became so distinguished there that they gave their name to the Achaean Argos.8 It is at the Pelasgic sanctuary of Dodona that we first hear of the Helli or Selli, men who slept on the ground and never washed their feet. The district called Hellopia lay in the neighbourhood of Dodona. Against this evidence of connection, the distinction of Greek and barbarian is of very little weight, for the Greeks themselves were conscious that their ancestors were barbarians. The evidence of legend therefore tends to show that in the: earliest times a number of tribes, more or less homogeneous,
1 From the Hyantes was derived the term vs, hog, for a Boeotian. * With the exception of the Achaeans in Crete*    Od, zix. 175. 3 Strabo, p. 365.
36                EARLIEST LANGUAGES: PELASGIC.            [II. 9.
occupied both sides of the Aegean and the islands. The tribes were known by different names, and sometimes one, sometimes another, gained the predominance; but there is no reason to suppose that the change from Pelasgians to Hellenes was brought about by the introduction of any new or alien element into the population. What were the causes which led to the adoption of the name Hellenes, as the general title of the nation, cannot be determined with certainty.
II.—(A.) EVIDENCE OF LANGUAGE,
9. This conclusion would, of course, be entirely overthrown if it could be proved that any of these primitive tribes spoke a Semitic language. For there is no doubt that the Greeks were an Indo-Germanic race, whatever may be the position which they occupy in the circle of Indo-Germanic nations.1 The Peiasgian It is true that Herodotus and Thucydides, as Language.         we nave seeDj gpeak of the Peiasgian language
as a "barbarous" tongue, but we may reasonably doubt whether this view was correct. If the Peiasgian language was radically different from Greek, and the Pelasgians were the ancient inhabitants of the greater part of the country, the spread of the Hellenic language would be inexplicable. When two nations of unequal numbers come into contact, the language of the majority will, as a rule, prevail, unless the minority are more highly civilised.2 Since, therefore, the Hellenes were neither a majority nor more highly civilised, in comparison with the Pelasgi, we should expect that the Pelasgic language would have prevailed over the Hellenic, if the two had been distinct. And if we consider how little we know of the value of the word " barbarous " when applied by
1 The theory of a Graeco-Italic period, in which the Greeks and Italians lived together, separate from the rest of the Indo-Germanic stock, is untenable. If there is a large number of words found only in Greek and Latin, there are many words found only in Greek and Indo-Persian, and the grammar of Greek and Latin differs more than the grammar of Greek and Old Persian. See also Delbriick, Study of Language, p. 135 ff.
a Schrader, Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte, p. 161.
II. 90         EVIDENCE OF LANGUAGE: GREEK.               37
the Greeks to language or nationality, we may venture to believe that a speech which Greek historians called barbarous may have certainly been Indo-Germanic, and perhaps even a dialect of Greek.
In the vocabulary of the Greek language there is a considerable residuum which cannot be recognised as Indo-Germanic in origin.1 These words may be solitary sur- Evidence of the vivors from lost Indo-Germanic roots, but it is Greek Language, also possible that they have been borrowed by the Greeks from some earlier inhabitants of the country. Unfortunately, we know little of the Greek dialects, which, for ethnographical purposes, are of far greater value than the written or literary language, and that little is of uncertain antiquity. Of the Thracian and Illyrian languages, the links between the Greeks and their neighbours on the north, nothing remains upon which we can found a judgment. If they were connected with the Phrygians, the Thracians were of Indo-Germanic race.2 On the other hand, the Illyrians may have been the ancestors of the modern Albanians, whose language is certainly very unlike anything that can be called Greek, In the names of places also, it is obvious that, while many can be explained at once from the Greek language, others can only be derived by tortuous processes from Greek originals. Many names in this second class are, perhaps, not Greek words at all. They may be in part Semitic, especially ames ° those of places on the sea-coast, but the greater number will always remain inexplicable. Though local names are singularly tenacious of life, they often become changed, in pronunciation or form, by those who preserve them orally, owing partly to convenience in pronouncing them, and partly to false etymologies.3    Another striking fact is the constant repetition in
1  Wharton, Etyma Graeca, p. 165.    Cf. Schrader, l.c. p. 168 S.
2  The evidence of names supports this view.    Pauli, Mne vorgrie-shische Inschrift, etc., pp. 20-29.
3  See Tozer, Lectures on Greek Geograjyhy, Lect. x.
38           EVIDENCE OF LANGUAGE: ASIA MINOR.     [II. 9.
Greece of the same name in different places. Euboea is the name of the island, and of the mountain in Argolis. We find a Pamisus in Thessaly and in Messenia; a Peneus in Thessaly and Elis; an Inachus in Thesprotia and Argolis; an Asopus in Boeotia and Sicyon. Some of these names, such as Pamisus, Peneus and Asopus are not readily explained as Greek. They appear to indicate the presence, in various parts of Greece, of a nation which did not speak the Greek language.
The more that we learn of the languages of Asia Minor, the more probable does the conclusion become that the Anatolian t Languages 01 shore was inhabited by tribes of Indo-Germanic Asia Minor. speech. The Phrygian language was certainly Indo-Germanic, and so, perhaps, was that of the Carians, with" whom the Leleges, and, in a less degree, the Mysians and Lydians, were connected.1 Strabo calls attention to the similarity of names on the opposite shores of the Propontis. In Thrace there was a river Arisbus, in Lesbos and the Troad there were towns called Arisba, At Troy there was a Scaean gate, in Thrace there was a Scaean fort, and a river Scaeus.2 Of the route by which these tribes came into Asia Minor— whether it was by the Bosphorus, as Herodotus relates in regard to the Phrygians, or through Armenia, we cannot tell. Nor is it worth while to speculate on the subject until the original home of the Indo-Germanic race is more definitely fixed.
The evidence of language, then, however imperfect, confirms the evidence of tradition in so far as it testifies to the presence of Indo-Germanic nations on both sides of the Aegean. It also carries us further, and points to a remote past, when Greece may have been inhabited or visited by nations which did not speak the Greek language.8
1 E. Meyer, Geschichte des Atterthums, i. § 250 ff. ; Maspero, Hist. ancienne, p. 240 ff., 749 ; infra, ch. iv.                   2 Strabo, p. 590.
3 Benloew, La Grdce avant les Grecs, explains Greek names from Albanian, but with little success. On the names containing ow (cr) vb [b) see Pauli, I.e. p. 44 ff. He connects the Pelasgians and Etruscans.
ILxo.] EARLIEST INHABITANTS: RELIGIOUS RITES.   39
(B.) EVIDENCE  OF RELIGIOUS RITES. 10. A great deal has been written about the connection of Greek and Indian mythology, and, within somewhat narrow limits,  the  connection  may be regarded as  ,_   „
t             i          •       i        .                    The Connection
€stablished and certain. There is no doubt of Greek and in-that the Greek Zeus corresponds to the dian Mythology. Indian Dyaus, the deity of the sky. Eos and Ushas are names for the same spirit—the goddess of the dawn. Varnna and Uranus are doubtless the same word, though the beings which they denominate became widely different. And it may be true that in the myths of Geryones and Heracles, Hermes and Apollo, we have a repetition of the ideas which gave birth to the stories of Indian mythology.1 But the importance of these coincidences must not be overrated. Even if we could go as far as some modern mycologists would take us, we should still fail to establish any great resemblance between the religion of Greece and India.
• The religion of the Greeks, when it becomes Hellenic, is distinguished by its anthropomorphic and ethical character; Imt there seems to have been a time when it was neither one nor the other. Many survivals ree e lglon* of primitive and barbarous forms of faith and worship continued to exist till the latest times. Proofs of this will be found in abundance,.in the writings of early Christian authors, who naturally found a peculiar pleasure in taunting the oivilised and intellectual Greeks with the stupidity and indecency of their religious doctrines and rites. Without Appealing to the evidence of professed opponents, it is quite clear, from the statements of the Greeks themselves, that stones, and trees and shapeless wooden idols were worshipped even in the best period of Greek civilisation. Deities were conceived in degrading shapes, and actions of the grossest immorality and indecency were ascribed to them. Human sacrifices were by no means uncommon, and in those parts
1 The cows are the clouds for which the deities of light and darkness contended.
40      EARLIEST RELIGIOUS RITES—MONUMENTS.  [II. n.
of Greece where the Hellenes came into contact with Semitic nations, we find frantic excesses of asceticism and sensuality forming a part of religious worship.1 Whether the Indo-Germanic immigrants of Hellas brought these crude ideas with them, or whether they borrowed them from earlier inhabitants, we have no means of ascertaining. The mere comparison of a few deities which happen to bear similar names in the Indo-Germanic nations can give us no idea of the Indo-Germanic religion. The Vedas are probably as misleading in regard to the religion of the ancient Indians as the Homeric poems are in regard to the religion of the ancient Greeks. They tell us nothing of the beliefs of the people, unchanged by poet or priest. On the other hand, indecency and cruelty are such universal characteristics of primitive religion, that we are not justified in ascribing every human sacrifice in Greece, every Corinthian or Cyprian orgy, to the influence of Semitic immigrants. The evidence of religion confirms the evidence of tradition in pointing to an age of barbarism, from which the Hellenes emerged as the Israelites emerged from the sensuality of Canaanitish worship. As an ethnological test of the early population of Greece, it has little or no value.2
III.—EVIDENCE OF MONUMENTS.
II. The excavations carried on in various parts of Greece,
of the Troad and the islands  of the Aegean,  during the
last twenty years, have greatly increased our
knowledge of the material civilisation of those
regions at a time previous to any historical record.    And for
years to come it is probable that fresh evidence will continually
1  Plutarch, Themist. c. 13, speaks of a human sacrifice offered to Dionysus Omestes at the time of the battle of Salamis. The sacrifice of a daughter is peculiarly frequent in Greek myths.
2  This subject is treated at greater length in a subsequent chapter. A moderate estimate of the common elements in Greek and Indian religion will be found in Holm, I.e. i. 23 ff.; Schrader, I.e. p. 430 ff. Mr. Lang's essay, prefixed to the translation of Grimm's Stories, is marked by a reasonable scepticism.
II. II.] NEOLITHIC PERIOD—LACUSTRINE DWELLINGS. 41
be pouring in from this source. At present these discoveries, valuable as they are, suggest questions rather than answer them. They present us with the relics of a civilisation, but do not tell us who or what the nations were which created and enjoyed it. Were they Greeks, or Phoenicians, or Carians % In what relation did the powerful chiefs of Mycenae stand to the inhabitants of Argolis, Laconia and Arcadia"? Even the earliest of the legendary cities is far from primitive, and leaves ample room for previous inhabitants in Greece.
Of such inhabitants we have some traces, however scanty, in relics of the Stone Age, and lacustrine habitations. A few axes and hammers of the Neolithic period have been found, chiefly in the south of Euboea, and e °ne ge* arrow-heads of flint are said to be not uncommon in the neighbourhood of Cephisia in Attica. There is no reason to doubt the genuineness of these relics, and the rarity of them may perhaps be explained by the superstitious reverence with which the larger stones are regarded by the peasants who find them.1 In the time of Herodotus Ancient Lacus-lacustrine dwellings existed on the shores of trine Dwellings. Lake Prasias in Paeonia.2 In other parts of Europe this mode of habitation has been found in connection with relics of primitive life. But no examination has yet been made of Lake Prasias, and the mere existence of a tribe dwelling on a lake is a matter of small importance, unless their primitive character is made clear on other grounds.
We have seen that the evidence of tradition and language renders it probable that both sides of   the
.                      tV.      .   .                .    . ,      -.                   .         Monuments the
Aegean, and the interjacent islands were at a same on both very early period in the possession of tribes sides of the of similar origin.     This  conclusion is borne out, in the main,  by the  evidence of monuments.     The relics discovered at Hissarlik, Santorin, Ehodes, Mycenae
1 On the subject see Lenormant, Revue, Arch. xv. 16 ff.; Dumont, ib. xvi. 141 ff.                                                 2 Herod, v. 16. _
42                  PRIMITIVE RELICS: HISSARLIK.              [II. 12.
and other sites on the eastern coast of the peninsula, are unmistakably connected, though belonging to different stages in the progress of civilisation.
12. The ruins excavated at Hissarlik (Troy) are those of a city comparatively small in extent. The walls of the citadel The Ruins of were built of stone, but neither in the art Hissarlik.         0f construction nor in the size of the stones
will they bear comparison with the ruins of Mycenae. The houses, with one exception, which may have been the residence of the chief, were built of unburned bricks or of wood, and seem to have perished by fire. In their construction they may be compared with the prehistoric houses discovered on Santorin1 (infra, p. 44). From the relics found in the city, it appears that metal and stone implements were both in use, though stone implements are the more numerous. In shape, the armour is not different from that found in Greece. Silver and gold were also discovered, though not in such abundance or in such beautiful forms as at Mycenae. Ivory was found, and an immense number of objects in terra-cotta. The art displayed in these is of the same kind, but more primitive than the art of Santorin and Mycenae, and leads us to the conclusion that we have at Hissarlik the earliest specimens of those vases which seem to have been manufactured in Greece before the appearance of the Phoenicians.2
The remains discovered at Hissarlik are, in fact, the most primitive which have yet been found in the Mediterranean. The nmitive *n ^ pottery we see the first attempts at denature of the corative art. Beginning with the rudest strokes Hissarlik relics. aD(j p0ints, we progress by degrees to circles and waving lines, drawn with a firm and skilful hand. The artist is unable to delineate trees or figures. A symbolic meaning has been attributed to some of the subjects represented on the vases, such as the zigzag lines, the swastika,
1  Compare also the account of Sardis in Herod, v. 101, and the description of the Mosynoeci in Pauly, Recd-IUncycL, s.v.
2  Duinont, Ctramiques, p. 5 ; Schliemann, Ilium, Troja, eta
II. 12.]          PRIMITIVE RELICS: HISSARLIK.                      43
and the rude outlines of trees; but as these designs are found elsewhere in localities widely remote from each other, we may doubt whether they have any special meaning in this case. Of the vases, many are made in the shape of animals, such as bears and pigs. Others, even more numerous, present a rude imitation of the upper parts of a woman's body. There is no reason to suppose that these grotesque imitations are due to any religious feeling; they pleased the taste of those who used them, and were the works of art of the time. They are probably of native manufacture, for there does not appear to be anything in the pottery which can certainly be distinguished as Oriental in origin. The ornaments of gold, Are the relics on the other hand, display considerable skill, Oriental? and for this reason are probably works of Phoenician artists or manufactured under Phoenician influence. The Phoenicians were certainly in possession of Thasos at a very early period, and it is possible that this island was the source of much of the gold which was so common in the Aegean in prehistorical times. From this point they could very easily carry on a trade with the tribe which possessed the citadel in the Troad.1 Lesbos may have been the intermediate station. The first king of that island is known in Greek tradition as Makar, a name which clearly betrays its Phoenician origin.
1 The extent to which the vases, ornaments, etc., discovered at Hissarlik can be called Phoenician is still an unsettled question, and is likely to remain so till the distinctive features of Phoenician or Oriental art can be more precisely fixed. At present it seems best to put the question thus : Is there anything at Hissarlik which distinctly recalls the types of Babylonian or Egyptian art ? On the whole, we are justified in saying " No." It is true that we find Phoenicians on the walls of Rekhmara's tomb, in the reign of Thothnres in., "bringing, as tribute, vases with animals' heads, similar to those found at Rhodes and Hissarlik" (Sayce, Ancient Empires, p. 186). But such vases are not peculiar to Hissarlik and Rhodes, nor can it be proved that they were manufactured under Phoenician influence. On the other hand, the gold work at Hissarlik is so delicate that we can hardly believe it to be of native manufacture. Of. Helbig, Das Horn. Epos, p. 36; E. Meyer, I.e. i. § 204, Maspero, Lr.f p. 244.
44           PREHISTORIC DWELLINGS: SANTOR1N.        [II. 12.
Next in point of antiquity to the remains at Hissarlik come the prehistoric dwellings which have been discovered in San-isiands of Thera torin. As is well known, Thera and Th erasia, ijie and Therasia. larger islands of the Santorin group, are portions of the extinct rim of a volcano, the centre of which has fallen into the sea. Beneath the crust of " puzzolan," which eruptions have thrown over the surface of the islands, the remains of a number of houses have been found, consisting of several chambers, which vary in size, and present considerable differences in structure. Some are rudely built, and plastered with earth on the inner surface of the walls; others are more carefully finished, and even decorated with painting. The foundations of all rest upon the lava, which formed the soil of the island before the puzzolan was deposited. The chambers in the houses are provided with windows in which are traces of wood work ; layers of wood are worked into the masonry of the walls, and the roofs were formed of wood covered with earth. On Therasia the remains of a skeleton were found, but it was too Relics found in mutilated to be of value. Metal of any kind these islands. appears to have been almost unknown. With the single exception of a copper saw, all the implements yet discovered are of stone. In the production of pottery considerable skill had been attained. Not only did the inhabitants manufacture small vases for use or sale, but they also stored their cereals in jars of immense size. These vases are among the oldest known to us, and present distinct peculiarities both in material and design. From the remains found in the larger jars, we see that pease and barley were already in cultivation. Flocks and herds were also kept, and cheese was made. The dog was known as a domestic animal. The inhabitants of these dwellings were destroyed by a calamity even more appalling than that which overtook Pompeii. The crater, which had been thrown up in the centre of the island, increased in weight with every successive eruption, and at the same time the subterranean cavity was constantly being enlarged. At length a great eruption not only covered the island with a layer of puzzolan sufficient to overwhelm and
II. 12.]            PREHISTORIC RELICS: IALYSUS.                    45
destroy all the inhabitants and their houses, but at the same time caused the entire centre of the volcano to disappear in the sea. Nothing remained above the waters but those inconsiderable fragments of the edge which form the present group of islands.
Who this primitive people were we cannot even conjecture. The pottery which they manufactured presents resemblances to that found at Hissarlik on the one hand, and on the other to that found in Ehodes, Cyprus and various parts of Greece. But it is unlike that of Egypt and Phoenicia. It is probable, then, that it was manufactured at a time when Oriental types did not yet prevail in the Aegean. M. Fouqu6, whose monograph on Santorin gives the fullest account of everything connected with the island, is of opinion that the catastrophe in which the central cone disappeared may be placed about 2000 B.C. Bufc there appear to be no adequate grounds for this assumption.1
At Ialysus, in Ehodes, a number of vases have been found which exhibit the Santorin type carried to a state of greater perfection, and largely influenced by Oriental
ji        tl                     * i.-        •                a v    i.    Ialysus, Rhodes.
models.    Ine ornamentation is more delicate and more certain, but it has not yet become fantastic.    This pottery  appears   to  occupy a position  between  the vases discovered at Santorin  and those which are distinctive of Mycenae.    Dumont ascribes it to the 16th century B.C.2
Far more important are the monuments and relics which have been found on the continent of Greece. At Phar-salus in Thessaly, at Orchomenus in Boeotia, at Spata and
1  Fouque, Santorin et ses Eruptions. See also Bent's Cyclades, pp. 149, 150. Mr. Bent speaks of iron as found at Akroteri (in Santorin), but this is unknown to Fouque* and Dumont. Helbig, I.e. p. 37, mentions the saw and two small rings of gold. Mr. Bent assigns the remains on Therasia, which he considers to be older than those on Thera, to an age anterior to Hissarlik. Other indications of the ancient population of the Aegean are noted in Mr. Bent's work, p. 410, where he speaks of the "vast population which inhabited the islands of the Aegean Sea in remote antiquity."   Torr, Rhodes, p. 108.
2  C&ramiqaes, p. 71 ; Helbig, I.e. p. 37.
46                PREHISTORIC REMAINS: MYCENAE.         [II. 12*
Menidi (Acharnae) in Attica, and, above all, at Tiryns and Mycenae in Argolis, we find remains of ancient structures. « .. ,  .         Huge walls built of enormous stones, which
Prehistoric                  °                                                                          '
Remains in are fitted together with greater or less care ; Greece.            underground " treasuries," somewhat resembling
a beehive in shape, approached by passages, and partly hewn out of the natural rock, partly constructed by layers of stone, each of which as it rises projects inwardly above the layer beneath; slabs of sculpture, exhibiting war chariots and hunting scenes; and, above all, the memorable gateway of Mycenae surmounted by two lions leaning their fore-paws on a pillar placed between them;—of these remarkable monuments of the past, the Greeks themselves could give no clear account. Recent excavations at Mycenae have shown that the gateway opened upon a place of sepulture, where, if we may judge from the costly ornaments which have been discovered in the tombs, a royal race was buried. Though Greek legends spoke of Mycenae «as the burial-place of the Atridae, no Greek can possibly have been aware of the existence of real sepulchres, containing bodies and treasure. Nothing more clearly proves the chasm between the historical Greeks and their past than the fact that so large an amount of treasure should have been left untouched in the citadel of Mycenae. The tombs must have been opened repeatedly for the interment of fresh corpses; the funerals must have been celebrated with great pomp and ceremony; but every trace or hint of the sepulchres opened by Dr. Schliemann had disappeared in historical times. The natural inference is, that a wide interval separated the age when the sepulchres were made, and the princes who were buried in them, from the Mycenae of later times—an interval in which, owing perhaps to some great change of population, the memory of the past entirely perished. Shrines may become desolate and ruined through a change of faith, as has been the case at Stonehenge, but the treasure buried at Mycenae would have been valuable at any time. Had its existence been knowiL to the Dorians, when they took Mycenae from the Achaeans>
II. 12.]      TIRYNS, MYCENAE, AND ASIA MINOR.            47
or to the Argives at the time when the city was destroyed after the Persian war, nothing would have remained for modern excavation to discover.
It is remarkable that these remains are found only on the eastern side of the peninsula, and that Greek legends connect them with  Asia.     The walls of  Tiryns were supposed to be the work of Cyclopes, artists           egen s*
from Lycia, who built them for king Proetus. The underground chambers at Mycenae were the tombs and treasuries of the Pelopids who derived their origin and wealth Connection of from Lydia. To some extent these legends are Mycenae with confirmed by modern discoveries. Though it Asia Minor-is true that we can find nothing in Asia Minor quite similar to the conical chambers of Mycenae or Orchomenus, sculptures have been found which, in spite of some differences, exhibit striking resemblances to the figures over the Lions' Gate. " At least eight tombs exist in the two Phrygian necropoleis, in which recurs the same device of lions as guardians over the doorway."1 Whether these structures were the work of native princes who hired or copied the skill of Oriental artists; or whether they were raised by Oriental dynasties, which in prehistorical times established powerful monarchies in the more fertile districts of eastern Greece, we cannot yet determine. Further researches in Asia Minor will doubtless throw much light on the relations of the opposite shores of the Aegean in the earliest times. Within the tombs which have been opened immediately The Tomb8 behind the Lions' Gate a large number of orna- at Mycenae, ments, etc., was discovered, quite unlike anything which we hear of in early historical Greece. Plates of gold lay on the breasts of the corpses, the faces of six were covered with golden masks, on which the features were rudely marked. Vases of clay, alabaster and gold, swords and helmets, ornaments of gold, silver, copper, ivory, amber beads in large quantities, engraved gems, idols of clay, lay round and upon the bodies
1 Ramsay, Journal of Hellenic Studies, iii. 19.
48                      THE REMAINS AT MYCENAE.                [II. 12.
No trace of iron occurs in these tombs. The swords and helmets are of bronze, the arrow-heads of obsidian. Yet the work upon the swords, which are intended for the thrust rather than the stroke, shows great skill. The gold ornaments exhibit various devices; they are partly moulded, and partly in the style known as repousse". The decoration of the vases consists of spirals, geometric figures, plants and animals. Ornaments similar in kind have been found at Nauplia, and at Spata on the eastern slope of Hymettus.
Scholars do not yet appear to be agreed upon the precise nature of these objects. No traces of distinctly Hellenic art occur among them. The idols are of a Phoenician type, and the Nature of the abundance of gold points to trade with the East. Remains at Some of the plants exhibited in the decoration Mycenae.          are Oriental, such as the palm and the lotus.
The amber beads, the ostrich egg} and the ivory are Phoenician importations. On the other hand, the ornamentation of the swords is Egyptian, both in pattern and mode of execution. The spiral, which occurs so frequently, is by some authorities referred to Phrygia. The vases are similar to those which have been found in Crete and Ehodes (lalysus). The gems fall into two classes, " island stones," as they are called—i.e. those which belong to the class of stones found in the islands of the Archipelago, and in certain localities on the mainland of Greece, but not, as yet, on the mainland of Asia Minor—and others of a more Oriental design.1
Though these relics leave no doubt that Mycenae must have been inhabited by princes who could draw to themselves all the wares of the Aegean known in their time, they do not enable us to ascertain who these princes were, whether they were of Hellenic or Oriental race, and how their power was overthrown. The only safe conclusion to be drawn is, that in early times the Aegean and the eastern coast of Greece were the seat of a lively and
1 The authorities are: Schliemann, Mykenae,  Tiryns ; Milchoefer, Anfange der Kunstj Helbig, Das Homerische Epos.
II. 13.]                           JA VAN: IONIANS.                                   49
lucrative traffic, which had almost entirely passed away at the period when the history of the Greece that we know begins. It is extremely improbable that the Dorians were the builders of the fortresses of Mycenae and Tiryns, or that they possessed the riches which were found in the tombs. The conquest of an ancient but decaying civilisation by a ruder people is an almost unavoidable hypothesis for the explanation of these monuments.
IK—GREECE AND PHOENICIA.
13. In the genealogical table which we find in Genesis, Javan is said to be the father of Eodanim, Chittim, Elishah and Tarshish, a statement which is supposed to mean      _   „
1        -r          •      1               •                  •        .     ii     •           The Ionians.
that Javan is the generic name given to the inhabitants of Rhodes, Cyprus, the islands of the Aegean, and Tartessus at the mouth of the Guadalquivir—the inhabitants of the West with whom the Hebrews were acquainted at the time when the genealogy was written down.1 Whatever the value of this explanation, Javan is very probably the same word as Ion, which thus appears to be a name known to the Phoenician traders from the East at a tolerably early date. The use of the word in the early Jiistory of Greece cannot be precisely fixed. The Ionians are barely mentioned in Homer, but at an early time the name was given to the inhabitants of the north-east of Peloponnesus (Troezen, etc.) and the district on the north coast, subsequently known as Achaea. The inhabitants of Attica and Euboea were also claimed as Ionians, and in any case the Ionians must have been inhabitants of the coasts and acquainted with the sea. Poseidon was a deity zealously worshipped by them. At a later time, owing to the development of Athens and the Ionian colonies in Asia Minor, they became the most adventurous and the most civilised oart of the Hellenic nation. Yet the name was regarded with dislike.    Great families at Athens like the Alcmaeonidae
1 See Duncker, Hist. Greece, i. 35.    The name Javanu is found in Assyrian inscriptions (Sarcron) ; cf. 'laovav in Aristoph. Achar. 104. VOL. I.                                                                               r>
50                     EARL Y FOREIGN SETTLERS.              [II. 14.
claimed to be Athenian rather than Ionian, and many Ionians. wished to be rid of the title altogether.1 The faults of the Ionian nature were apparent, and at all times the possessors and cultivators of the soil are inclined to disparage those who are engaged in maritime adventure.
14. Greek legends speak of foreigners who settled in their land.    Of these the chief were the Phoenician Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, and Danaus of Egypt, whose settled in          posterity became kings of Argos.   That the
Greece.             Phoenicians established themselves in various
parts of Greece, and continued there for a considerable period, seems beyond a doubt. Traces of their settlements remained in names, deities, religious rites, legends, monuments and arts; if they exercised no influence on the political development of the Greeks, the reason is that they were pirates and traders in search of gain rather than colonists. The islands, more especially Cyprus, Crete, Ehodes and Thasos, and the shore extending from Cythera to Boeotia were the scene of Phoenician activity. In Cyprus, Thasos and Euboea, they found the ores of gold and copper, which they knew how to manufacture into armour or works of art; the mussels, from which they extracted the dye needed for the famous Tyrian purple, abounded off the coast of Cythera and Argolis, and in the straits of the Euripus. To protect their factories they built forts; altars and shrines were raised for the performance of their national rites and the worship of their national deities. At Thasos,, for instance, where Herodotus saw "a whole mountain overturned " by their mining operations, they built a temple to Baal Moloch, the sun-god of the Phoenicians^ who, perhaps through the epithet Archal, became the Heracles of the Greeks. In Cythera there wa& a temple of the " armed Aphrodite," the most ancient shrine of the goddess in Greece. As this deity i& said to have been brought from Syria, we may with reason
* Herod, v. 69.
II. 14.]            PHOENICIAN RITES IN GREECE.                   51
identify her with the Syrian goddess of love and war, of birth and destruction. From the worship of this or a similar goddess by maidens in armour may have been derived the legends of the Amazons, which occupy so The Amazons, large a place in Greek mythology.1 The rites Meikart. which made the temple of Aphrodite at Corinth notorious in Greece—rites wholly opposed to Hellenic feeling about the sanctity of temples2—find a parallel in the worship of Mylitta at Babylon. In the Melicertes, whom legend connects with the isthmus of Corinth, we can hardly mistake the Greek form of Meikart. In Attica the deme of Melite reminds us of Miletus and Mylitta, a coincidence proved to be something more than fortuitous, not only by the worship of Heracles, which was prevalent in the deme, but also by the remains of sepulchres, either of Phoenician construction, or made after Phoenician models, in the rocky ground.3 The mention of a cannibal bull at Marathon (where also Heracles was worshipped) reminds us that the Syrians represented their god Moloch in the form of a bull, and offered human sacrifices to him. With this clue to guide us, we can hardly refuse to connect the fountain of Macaria at Marathon with Makar, a second form of Meikart. The cannibal bull was slain by Theseus, who also expelled the Amazons. These legendary contests are perhaps an echo of the struggle which was necessary before the Greeks could expel the foreign settlers and their inhuman rites from the land. In Euboea, it is true, the traces of the Phoenicians are less distinct; but the ores of copper and iron which abounded in the island, and the purple fish which swarmed in the adjacent sea, were not likely to escape the keen eye of the trader.
1  It is, however, doubtful whether that mode of worship came direct from Syria.
2  Herod, ii. 64, i. 199. The Corinthian deity on the Acropolis was clad in armour, like the Cytheraean (Paus. ii. 4, 7). For the Hierodules, see Strabo, 378 ff., 559 ; Athenaeus, p. 573 ff.; Pind. Frag. 99, Bergk, iii.
3  For an account of these sepulchres, see Curtius and Kaupert, Atlas von Athen, vi., vii.
52            PHOENICIAN SETTLEMENTS: THEBES.       [II. 14.
From the Phoenicians the Euboeans at an early age learned the working of metal; they are said to have been the first in Greece to manufacture bronze armour, and the name of the city Ohalcis is a proof of the importance of copper in early Euboean history. If the island was once called Porphyra, that name, like the Porphyrion of Attic legend, must be connected with the production of purple dye.1
Thebes in Boeotia was probably the most important and the most lasting settlement of the Phoenicians on the mainland Thebes a Phoeni- °f Greece. Here they left the sea-coast, and cian settlement, built, not a fortress only, but a city. In Greek legend Thebes is founded by Cadmus, and through historical times the Acropolis was known as the Cadmea. Here Cadmus had celebrated his marriage with Harmonia, a legend which has been explained by comparison with Semitic mythology. Here, it was said, Heracles was born, who, as we have seen, often represents the Baal of Syria. The gates of Thebes were seven—a number sacred among Semitic nations. The ruins or remains of Thebes yield but few results to exploration, for the subsequent fortunes of the city tended to obliterate the traces of the founders and the earliest inhabitants. But the Greeks believed that Cadmus brought the use of letters to Thebes, and in the days of Herodotus there were ancient inscriptions in that city, which, in his opinion, represented the original form of the letters. Whether the existence of writing in Greece can be carried back to the Phoenician immigrants is yet unproved. The earliest forms of the Greek letters with which we are acquainted are not found in Boeotia. There is, however, no reason to doubt that in this instance the feeling which gave rise to the legend is founded on a fact. The names Cadmus, Cadmea, Cadmeans cling to Thebes from the earliest times; and we seem to be justified in connecting the words with the Phoenician Cadmon, " the aged one," or "the Oriental."2
1  For Chalcis, see Strabo, p. 445 ff.; Duncker, Hist. Greece, i. p. 69.
2  Duncker, I.e. i. 70; JBusolt, Oriech. Geschich. i. p. 51, takes another view.    Cf. E. Meyer, Geschichte des AUerthum8, i. § 193.
II. I4-] PHOENICIAN SETTLEMENTS: THE ISLANDS.     53
On the islands which lie nearer the Syrian coast, the traces of Phoenician occupation become more marked and decisive. In Cyprus and Crete the oriental names of the Phoenicians in cities are but slightly disguised in their Creek the islands, dress. Thus in Cyprus we find Cittium (Chittim), Amathus (Hamath), Paphos (Paphia), Salamis (Sillumi), and the antiquity of the settlements is shown by the Isles of cyprus peculiar alphabet in use on the island. In and Crete. Crete we find Caeratus (Karatli), Itanus (Ethanath), Libena (Leben). The highest mountain summit in Rhodes was Atabyris, in which we recognise the Syrian word Tabor. This evidence is confirmed by what we know of the religious rites practised in the islands, and the deities worshipped in them. Cyprus, even in Homer, is a favourite abode of Aphrodite ; at Paphos she had" a precinct and an altar of incense." The women of Cyprus worshipped the goddess by sensual practices such as prevailed at Corinth and Babylon. Crete is the home of the Minotaur, the fire-breathing bull, which devours children (in Hebrew history children are made to pass through the fire to Moloch); the same island is also the home of Daedalus, in whom we seem to have a personification of the artistic skill of the Phoenicians. Minos, in the eyes of Greek historians and philosophers, was a great conqueror and lawgiver ; he drove out the Carians from the islands of the Aegean, and gave the Cretans their political institutions. But the name cannot be separated from the similar word Minoa, which occurs on the peninsula of Greece and in Sicily, and appears to be of Semitic origin. From Ehodes and Crete the Phoenicians spread to Thera and Melos, where we find indubitable evidence of their existence, in tombs and in pottery. In Thera they doubtless found the native population which has already been mentioned. Other islands of the Cyclades in which we have traces of the Phoenicians are Oliarus, Cimolus and Ceos.1
1 For the islands, see Duncker, Hist Ant. ii. 60; Busolt, l.c; Bent Cyclades ; Maspero, Hist. Anc. p. 250.
54         PHOENICIANS IN THE WEST OF GREECE.    [II. 14.
Even in the west of Greece, and Peloponnesus, there are
traces of an Oriental population which was probably Phoenician.
. .      .On the Acarnanian coast we meet with the name
Phoenicians in                  .
the west of Phoenice, and with the worship of Heracles.1 Greece, and j^ Aegira, in Achaea, we find the worship of Aphrodite Urania. At Patrae, which was the chief seat of the manufacture of byssus or cotton, a rare and valuable article among the Greeks, the women, as we are told by Pausanias, were more than double the number of the men, and were " devoted to the worship of Aphrodite."2 At Patrae also burnt sacrifices were offered each year to Artemis Laphria, and in the neighbourhood there was a temple of Artemis Triclaria, at which, according to the legend, human sacrifices had once been the custom. The whipping of boys before the altar of Artemis Orthia at Sparta may be the last relic of human sacrifices such as the Phoenicians offered. The youthful Hyacinthus, in whose honour the Hyacinthia were celebrated at Amyclae, was the Greek counterpart of the Syrian Adonis. At Olympia we find a Zeus Apomyius—a lord of flies;3 and Macariae, in the neighbourhood of Megalopolis, reminds us of Makar. As the worship of Aphrodite and the offering of human sacrifices are known to have been practised by the Semitic nations, it is possible, though by no means certain, that these customs have been brought into Greece, at least in some instances, by a nation of Semitic race. The conclusion becomes more probable when we find such rites connected with places or names which can be explained as Phoenician. On the other hand, every student of anthropology is aware that human sacrifices and sensual rites are not confined to the Semitic races, and that we may have in them a relic of some yet older races once domiciled in Greece, or of a barbaric age in the life of the Greek nation.
1 Eugen Oberhummer, Die Phoenizien in Acamania ; Miinchen, 1882.
8 Paus. vii. 21, 14.
* Ibid. vii. 18, 8; vii. 19, I ; v. 14, 1.
II. I5-]      ANCIENT CONNECTION WITH EGYPT.             55
Whatever may have been the extent of their settlements on the mainland of Greece, the Phoenicians did not succeed in obtaining a permanent hold of the country. How the Greeks were enabled to resist amalgamation with these aliens, who in material civilisation were far their superiors, we do not know; but what evidence we have seems to warrant the conclusion that, in a period before the dawn of Western history, the Phoenicians were expelled from the peninsula of Greece and the northern islands of the Aegean, by the nation to whom we owe the gift of Hellenic civilisation, poetry and thought
V.—GREECE AND EGYPT.
IS. In the legends of Argos we find traces of an ancient connection between Greece and Egypt.    Io, the daughter of Inachus, the Argive river and king, is driven from her home to seek shelter in Egypt,  where she brings    Egypt and forth her son Epaphus.    From Epaphus were    Argos. descended two brothers—Danaus, the father of fifty daughters, and Aegyptus, the father of fifty sons.    When the sons of Aegyptus desire their cousins in marriage, Danaus, with his daughters, crosses the sea and takes refuge  in Argos,  his ancestral home.    In one version of the legend, the sons overtake the daughters and marry      ** them, but all, save one, perish on the marriage night by the hands of their brides; in another version, Pelasgus, the king of Argos, takes the Danaids under his protection, and saves them from their pursuers.    This legendary contact is sometimes thought to be confirmed by certain names which occur in Egyptian monuments: Uinim=Ionians, in the lists of Thothmes in. (1450 B.O.) and Sethos 1.; Akaiwasha=Achaeans, in the lists of Menephtah (1320 B.C.); Danau=Danai, Pulishta=PelasgiansJLin the list of Eameses ill. (1265 B.C.); and by the style of the ornaments discovered at Mycenae and Orchomenus.     It is also true that when the Greeks did become acquainted with Egyptian
56
GREECE AND EGYPT.
[II. IS
civilisation, they seemed to find in it much that resembled their own. Herodotus is never weary of identifying Greek and Egyptian deities. Even Plaio finds a similarity between the earliest forms of society in Greece and the Egyptian castes, and, while preserving the " autochthony " of the Athenians, identifies Athena with the Saitic Neith.1
The question is one of chronology. That the Greeks settled in Egypt after the time of Psammetichus is a historical fact beyond all dispute. What earlier connection there may have been between the two countries, it is difficult to say. Uncertaint of ^e kave no means °* testing the antiquity of the Tradition the legend of the Danaids. It does not occur and Evidence. in the Homeric poems, and, though Egypt is mentioned in the Odyssey, the description of the country is extremely vague. The legend may have been invented after the time of Psammetichus to account for the supposed similarity between the Argive Io and Isis, the Egyptian deity. Epaphus, the son of Io, is probably the Egyptian Apis. With regard to the evidence which the monuments are supposed to furnish in the names previously quoted, it is urged, on the other side, that " Uinim " means " islands," not " Ionians," and that the nations which are identified with Achaeans, Danaans and Pelasgians are included among the circumcised nations in the Egyptian lists, so that it is no longer possible to think of them as Hellenic.2
Greek ships may have been driven to the shore of the Delta, and Ionian mercenaries may have taken service in the Egyptian army in very early times, but it is highly improbable that any Egyptian colonists settled in Greece. The Egyptians distinguished themselves from strangers as the "clean" from the " unclean," and so far from settling among
1  Plato, Timaeus, 21 ff.
2  Brugsch, Hist. Egypt, ii. 116 ff. See also Wiedemann, Die aeltesten Beziehungen zwischen Aegypten und Griechenland, who gives other reasons against the identitication. He does not mention the circumcision.
II. i5.]
GREECE AND EGYPT.
5?
foreigners, they only allowed foreigners to settle in Egypt under fixed conditions, and at certain places. In the earliest times all the foreign trade was in the hands of the Phoenicians, by whom, no doubt, some knowledge of Egyptian art and some Egyptian symbols may have been The connection carried to Greece. Until we can add something improbable, more definite to the stock of our knowledge, there does not appear to be sufficient reason for assuming that the legend of Danaus points to any direct colonisation of Greece by Egyptians in prehistoric times.1
1 See Busolt, I.e. p. 181 ff. He assumes that the Danauna were the Danai, so that the Greeks and Egyptians must have met then (Rameses in. 1180 B.C.), or even under Thothmes in. (145Q B.C.), who conquered the Tenau " of the islands; " yet he allows that Egypt did not directly " influence " Greece till the time of Psam-metichus (pp. 84, 57 note 8). Herodotus speaks of the kings of Argos down to Perseus as Egyptians (vi. 53). The tradition that Danaus was an Egyptian is as old as Hesiod (Frag. 48, Kinkel). Meyer regards the legend of Danaus as a " faded reminiscence of the supremacy which in the fifteenth century Egypt exercised over the Greek islands, and the campaigns which the Danai in the twelfth century undertook against Syria and Egypt " (l.c. § 264).
CHAPTER   III.
MIGRATIONS AND LEGENDARY HISTORY.
I. Thucydides, whose brief preface contains the best account which we possess of the early history of his country, Movements in tells us that for a long time Hellas was in Early Greece. a gtate of disturbance, the population of the various districts paying little attention to the tillage of the soil, and preferring to live by plunder, or to migrate, when opportunity offered, into a territory more fruitful than their own. The best parts of the country were overrun by successive waves of invaders, and it was only in the more inaccessible or the less productive regions that the inhabitants remained in secure possession of their lands. In Attica, at least, owing to the poverty of the soil, the population remained unchanged from all antiquity—a state of security and peace which attracted thither a large number of those who had been driven out of other parts of Hellas. In this manner the number of the inhabitants of Attica rapidly increased until an outlet was found in the colonisation of Asia.1
About the details of these migrations we have little information which can be called historical. The general direction in which they moved was from north to south, and it is possible that the first impulse may have proceeded from the pressure of hordes beyond the northern limits of Greece. Herodotus speaks of a great incursion of Mysians and Teucrians into Europe in times anterior to the Trojan war. These tribes crossed the Bosphorus, reduced all the Thracians to subjection, and penetrated to the south as far as the Peneus.
1 Time. i. 2.
58
III. I.]    EARLY MIGRATIONS: THESPROTIANS, &>c.        59
But the movement which led to the greatest changes of the population in the peninsula, was the irruption of the Thespro-tians over Mount Pindus into Thessaly.1 At this i^p^n of the time, we are told, Thessaly was known as Aeolis, Thesprotians and the country was inhabited by a number into Thessaly* of different tribes. Arnaeans dwelt on the Curalius, Hes-tiaeans on the upper Peneus; Pelasgians and Lapithae on the lower river. Perrhaebians were settled under Mount Olympus; Magnetes on Mount Pelion; Achaeans and Aenians on Mount Othrys; Dorians and Dolopians dwelt on Mount Pindus.
A large proportion of these tribes was expelled by the invaders. The Arnaeans, passing to the south, succeeded in conquering Boeotia.2 The Hestiaeans found a refuge in the north of Euboea. The Pelasgi and Lapithae retired to Attica, where at a later time some of the leading families claimed to be of Lapithan descent. The Minyae, who had long been established in the south of Thessaly at Iolcus, and at Orchomenus in Boeotia, were compelled to give way before the invaders. Their power had already suffered from the growth of Thebes, and they had lost their position as the leading race in Boeotia. Now they were entirely expelled. Some colonised Lemnos and Imbros; others migrated to the lower Eurotas, where they aided the*Achaeans in their resistance to the Spartans. The inhabitants of the more mountainous districts (Perrhaebians, Magnetes, and Achaeans), whatever their loss of territory may have been, were not entirely expelled from their homes, with one exception. The Dorians, who dwelt in Hestiaeotis, on the slopes The Return of of Pindus, were driven to the south, and thus ^ Heraciids. entered on the series of migrations, which the Greeks embodied in the story of " The Eeturn of the Heraciids."
1  Herod, vii. 176. This is equivalent to an invasion from Dodona, fcr in the time of Herodotus the Thesprotians dwelt round Dodona. Strabo, p. 328; Busolt, Ix. p. 46, n. 5.
2  This at least is the account which Thucydides (i. 12) has preserved, though it is at variance with epic legends, and unconfirmed by the local tradition of the country.
60                    "RETURN OF THE HERACLIDS."            [III. 2.
2. Heracles, there is reason to believe (see p. 50), is a Grecian counterpart of a Phoenician deity. He was born at Thebes, where the Phoenicians established themselves in the north of Greece. When mythology had transformed him into a beneficent hero, by whose labours Hellas was rescued from monsters and tyrants, the chiefs of the Dorian conquerors of Peloponnesus attempted to give him a place in their genealogy. Thus Heracles, though born at Thebes, is of Argive parentage; though the legitimate heir of the throne of Argos, he is kept from his inheritance, and his descendants also, until, after the lapse of generations, they are enabled by the assistance of the Dorians, to regain it. The whole legend of the " Return," which is not mentioned in Homeric poetry, is an invention designed to justify the conquest of Peloponnesus and confirm the Dorians in the possessions which they had won by the sword. Even Laconia and Messenia, regions of Peloponnesus which do not form a part of the inheritance of Heracles, are spoken of in the legend as conquests which the hero had " deposited " with Tyndareus and Nestor.1
Amphitryon, the son of Alcaeus,king of Tiryns,slew his uncle and father-in-law Electryon, in a quarrel about oxen, and, having thus fallen under the pollution of blood, he was compelled to leave the country. The vacant throne passed to Sthenelus, king of Argos, who by the death of Electryon also received the throne of Mycenae.2 At Thebes, whither Amphitryon retired, Heracles and his w^e Alcmena brought forth Heracles. On Eurystheus. the same day a son, Eurystheus, was born to Sthenelus; and as Zeus had promised sovereignty to the child which should first see the light on that day, Hera in subtlety hastened the birth of Eurystheus. Thus Heracles was, from the beginning, destined to be the servant of Eurystheus.
1  Paus. ii. 18, 7; Apollodorus ii. 7, 3.
2  This is a device to account for the position of Agamemnon in the Homeric poems, and of Argos in the Dorian tradition. What the real relation between Argos, Mycenae, and Tiryns was, it seems impossible to ascertain.
III. 3-]            "RETURN OF THE HERACLIDS."                    61
When he was dead, Eurystheus, not content with imposing ceaseless labours upon the father, sought to persecute and slay the children. They fled for refuge to Attica, where Eurystheus was killed in the effort to take them. He was succeeded on the throne of Mycenae (Argos) by Atreus, of the race of Pelops. Hyllus, the eldest of the sons of Heracles, who had been adopted by Aegimius, the Dorian chief, attempted to regain his dominions by force, but he was slain in single combat by Echemus of Tegea. His descendants were Cleodaeus and Aristomachus, both of whom made unsuccessful endeavours to return to Peloponnesus. But in the fourth generation Temenus, Cresphontes and Aristodemus, the three sons of Aristomachus, with the aid of the Aetolian Oxylus, succeeded in crossing the Corinthian Gulf at _u   _   .
°      ¦                                                  The Dorian
Ehium. Leaving Elis to Oxylus, the Dorians invasion of pressed on through the interior to Messenia, Peloponnesus. Sparta and Argos. Argos was ceded to Temenus, as the eldest son; for Messenia lots were cast, and by an act of treachery the country was secured for Cresphontes. Sparta fell to Aristodemus, who almost immediately died, leaving twin sons, from whom were descended the two lines of the Spartan kings.
3. The nucleus of this legend, down to the time when the Dorians entered Peloponnesus, is given in a sentence of Herodotus, who tells us that the Hellenic race had undergone many wanderings; in the time of Deucalion The Account it dwelt in Phthiotis; in the time of Dorus, the of Herodotus, son of Hellen, in the region called Hestiaeotis, under Ossa and Olympus. When driven out of Hestiaeotis by the Cadmeans, it dwelt in Pindus, and was called Macednian; from thence it removed into Dryopis, and finally into Peloponnesus, where it received the name Dorian.1 What we can accept as historical is the fact that the Dorians removed from Hestiaeotis into the territory lying between Oeta and Parnassus, to which, after expelling the Dryopian inhabitants, they gave their own name.    Here they founded four cities or
1 Herod, i. 56 ; viii. 43, with Stents notes.
62                    THE ACCOUNT OF HERODOTUS.              [III. 3.
communities—Pindus, Erineus, Boeum and Cytinium, from which they issued forth to join the Aetolians in an invasion of Peloponnesus. The identification of the Dorians with the Hellenes made it necessary to carry them back to Phthiotis, the home of Deucalion. In placing Hestiaeotis under Ossa and Olympus, Herodotus appears to have confounded Hestiaeotis with Pelasgiotis. Hestiaeotis is not in the north-east, but in the north-west of Thessaly, on the eastern slopes of Mount Pindus. The Cadmeans, of whom the historian speaks, are merely the Illyrian tribe of the Encheleis, who claimed descent from Cadmus, and had offered a refuge to the Cadmeans (Phoenicians) when expelled from Thebes by the Epigoni. The settlement of the Dorians in Pindus is difficult to explain. We must suppose that this, as the most important city of the four Dorian communities, is alone mentioned. In another passage, when speaking of the same migration, Herodotus unites Pindus and Erineus. Of the name Macednian no explanation can be given.
The legend of the Eeturn of the Heraclids attempts to disguise the fact that the conquest of Peloponnesus by the _       ,_ ,_,      Dorians was due in a large measure to the
The probable                          .                                     °
course of these co-operation of the Aetolians. Oxylus, the events.             Aetolian, is indeed the guide who conducts
the Dorians into their new home, but the possession of the most fertile portion of the peninsula by the Aetolians is explained as the result of fraud, the invading army being led through Elis in the night to prevent them from perceiving the excellence of the soil. We can hardly doubt that the Aetolians formed the main body of the immigrants, who by their superior numbers were able to secure for themselves the fertile plain of the Peneus. It was by their assistance that the Dorians were able to enter Peloponnesus at the outlet of the Corinthian Gulf, after failing in their attempts to penetrate it by way of the isthmus. The Dorians, on the other hand, so far as we can follow their movements, seem to have established themselves at Stenyclarus, among tha mountains which command the upper plain of the Pamisus.
III. 3.]       DORIAN CONQUEST OF SPARTA <5r» ARGOS.        63
The old inhabitants were not driven out, but compelled to submit to the authority of Cresphontes, and to divide the land with the Dorians. From Steny- The Dorians clarus, the Dorians spread in a south-westerly !n Messenia. direction to Pylus, which, under Nestor and his descendants, had become the capital of Messenia. Passing from Messenia to the east, the Dorians next descended into the valley of the Eurotas, and settled at Sparta. Their success here is said to have been due to the treachery of Philonomus, who received Amyclae in return for his services. Here, also, we are told, the inhabitants of the country were for a time admitted to equal rights with the Dorian conquerors. Unable to force their way further down the river, the Dorians passed over the range of Parnon to the east, and attacked Argos, the oldest and most important city in Peloponnesus. The ancient home of the Pelopids did not succumb without a struggle. n ue rg°8" The Dorians are said to have established themselves in the so-called Temenium, a fortress on the coast, which enabled them to cut off all communication between Argos and the sea. Legend relates that the wives and children of the Achaeans fell into the hands of the Dorians, who were thus in a position to dictate their own terms. From the existence of a fourth tribe at Argos (the Hyrnethians), and the difficulties with, which legend surrounds the reign of Temenus, it is highly probable that at Argos, as in Messenia, the original inhabitants were able to secure some recognition. Argos was assigned in the legend to Temenus, the eldest of the three brothers who led the invaders, partly owing to the ancient renown of the city, and partly because it was the first to rise to distinction after it had passed into the hands of the Dorians. From Argos, the invaders in the next generation extended their conquests among the Ionian and Achaean cities in the north-east of Peloponnesus. Corinth, which North-eastem was even at this time an important seat of Peloponnesus. commerce, was captured, as Argos had been captured, by means of a fortress established on the sea-coast     Mount
64                  DORIANS CONQUER CORINTH, &>c.           [III. 3.
Solygeus, on the bay of Cenchreae, about nine miles distant from the city, offered a commanding position. The leader of the conquering army was Aletes, a descendant of Heracles. The kings of Corinth, Doridas and Hyanthidas, are said to have made favourable terms for themselves, while the common people were expelled from the country. As there were eight tribes at Corinth, of which only three were Dorian, we may assume that the ancient inhabitants of the city formed the larger, if the less influential part of the community, even Epidaurus, after the conquest. In like manner Epidaurus, Troezen,etc. Troezen, Aegina, Sicyon and Phlius fell into the hands of the Dorians. In most cases legend covers the conquests of the cities by some supposed compact between the old rulers and the new. In Sicyon the old inhabitants continued to form a fourth tribe, the Aegialeis. The city of Epidaurus is said to have been ceded to Deiphontes, the husband of Hyrnetho and son-in-law of Temenus, by Pity-reus, a descendant of Ion. It was in consequence of the cruel treatment of Deiphontes by his brothers-in-law, the sons of Temenus, who suspected him of aiming at the throne of Argos, that Epidaurus separated from the rest of Argolis 2 (infra, p 90 ff.).
The Achaeans who had been driven out of Argolis retired, under the guidance of Tisamenus, the son of Orestes, to the
1 Such is the legend in its most common, perhaps its Laconian, form. It is highly improbable that the invasion was carried on in an uniform manner with a steady progress to the east. We hear (see infra, ch. vi.) of the Spartans under Sous at Cleitor, under Eurypon .at Mantinea, under Charilaus at Tegea; if not mere fictions, these legends would prove the presence of the Dorians in the north of Arcadia before they spread to the south. In any case it is highly probable that they came to Argos from their original home by sea, in the same manner as the Dryopians came to Asine and Hermione. There is nothing to prove that they came over the ridge of Parnon to the shore, and from thence to the Temenium. On the other hand, it is difficult to see that the roads which have been discovered between Mycenae and Corinth prove anything for the advance of the Dorians from Corinth to the south. Mycenae is a city of the past, even at the time of the Dorian migration. We cannot suppose that the Dorians built it to break the connection of Argos and Corinth.    See Busolt, I.e. p. 61 ff.
III. 4.]           GREEK MYTHS AND LEGENDS.
65
northern coast of the peninsula, in which, when they had expelled the lonians of the shore (Aegialeis), they established a dodecapolis. The lonians, in their turn, sought refuge in Attica, which had already become the home of various fugitives from the north and the west.
4. The early history of the nations over which this stream of conquest passed, was related in a number of legends, of which many have been preserved by Apollo-dorus, Pausanias and other writers. We cannot affirm of any of these that they are certainly true, and of many it is evident that they are fictions, invented to explain the events of later history. Others again became the theme of epic story, and the incidents in them have been doubtless "exaggerated after the manner of poets." On the stories, as I relate them, I shall make some criticisms, to which I will prefix a few remarks on the nature of Greek myths and legends.
In a people of lively imagination, and fettered by no canons of historical criticism, it is inevitable that a,number of legends should spring up, and take the place of any historical account of the early history of the nation. Among the Greeks, every city and every village possessed legends of the past which were accepted with unhesitating confidence; every family of distinction was connected with a heroic ancestor, whose existence was satisfactorily proved by the descendants whom he had left behind. In the beginning the gods had visited the earth in the likeness of men, and by mortal mothers had become the progenitors of sons whose achievements were more than human. The places which had been rendered sacred by these divine visitors were recorded in local legends; the deeds of their descendants were extolled by minstrels and cherished by posterity. Later ages turned with delight to the memorials and patterns of a nobler life; and, though the difficulties and contradictions presented by the legends became more apparent with the growth of historical criticism, it was long before the Greeks lost their belief in the reality of a past so flattering to their pride, and so congenial to their habits of thought.
vol. 1.                                                                 e
66                      LEGENDS AND HISTORY,               [III. 4.
To the modern historian these legends are a source of great perplexity. If he rejects them entirely, he must renounce Legends and the attempt to give a picture of the early Greek History, history and civilisation of Hellas. If he accepts them, he is compelled to relate numbers of stories, which have no historical value as a record of incidents. If he attempts to sift them, and distinguish the true from the false, he is in danger of being misled by some theory about the origin of myths, or by want of sufficient information about each story. Or he may confuse the real meaning of a myth with the use which the Greeks made of it. Even if it be true that Achilles is a form of the " solar deity," it is not less true that the Greeks thought of him as a hero who fell in their cause, in a place with which they were acquainted, and at a time which they endeavoured to fix. Amid the uncertainty which prevails about the origin of myths and legends, it seems true that no one mode of explaining them can be safely adopted to the exclusion of others. Greek myths at any rate are compounded of many elements, inextricably blended together. If we cannot succeed in distinguishing them, we must be content to indicate the sources from which these elements are derived.
Many myths arise out of the personification of natural phenomena, the alternations of storm and sunshine, of day Origin of Myths and night, of growth and decay being repre-and Legends. sented as the struggles of contending powers. In an early stage of mental development force and life are always regarded as personal qualities; the dawn, the Partly Solar sun, the night are persons, male or female, or Atmospheric. g00(j or j^ friendly or hostile. Out of the actions of these persons arise stories, which in the first instance expressed natural phenomena, but in the course of time became stories only, the names being separated from the phenomena out of which they arose. They are sometimes shocking in their obscenity, because they are engendered in minds which were without ideas of decency and morality. They are often unintelligible, until we discover a similar story current among a people where it is, as it were,
III. 40
ORIGIN OF MYTHS.
67
at home, and easily explained. An instance of such a story is the myth of Uranus and Cronus, related by Hesiod. As a product of Hellenic civilisation it is unintelligible ; but, when we compare it with other stories of a similar nature current among savage nations, we find that it carries us back to a time when the sky and the earth were regarded as pressing upon each other in close contact, so that the creatures living upon the earth were repressed by the incumbent weight. When Uranus (Heaven) came with Night desiring to embrace Gaea (Earth), Cronus put forth his hand and made the union impossible. Thus Heaven and Earth were sundered, and there was room for their offspring to flourish. The legend of Cronus and the deception practised upon him by Rhea belongs to a similar stage of civilisation.1 When the origin of these stories was forgotten, they were developed in various ways, and often received additions which sprang from quite another source; or they were localised in particular districts (as the story of the birth of Zeus was localised in Crete), and made to agree with their surroundings.
Another  source from which myths have  arisen is the belief that men were descended from animals, or could be changed by magic into the shape of animals.   The B u f in One   of   the   earliest   kings   of Arcadia was   the connection Lycaon, whom Pausanias ventures to regard as   °f ^enf and
J          '                        _   _,                    _              &        _        Animals.
a contemporary of Cecrops.    Lycaon taught
men to live in cities and to celebrate festivals ; but he was
also the first to introduce human sacrifices into Arcadia.    On
1 Sir John Lubbock {Origin of Civilisation, p. 329) thinks that we~ get rid of the unpleasant grossness of myths by referring them to an atmospheric origin. '• As the sun destroys the darkness from which it springs, and at evening disappears in the twilight, so Oedipus waa fabled to have killed his father and then married his mother. In this way the whole of that terrible story may be explained as arising not from the depravity of the human heart, but from a mistaken application of the statements—that the sun destroys the darkness and ultimately marries, as it were, the twilight from which it springs." But how did men come to make so shocking a story out of such innocent matters as the sunrise and the sunset ? See Lang, Custom and Myth, p. 45 ff.
68                EARL Y BELIEFS: METAMORPHOSIS.         \\\\. 4.
the altar of Zeus he sacrificed a child, and poured a libation with the blood. For this cruel act he was changed into a wolf, and ever afterwards, at this feast of Zeus, men might be changed into wolves. If they ate no human flesh when in that form, they were restored at the end of ten years to their human shape. Callisto, the daughter of Lycaon, was changed into a bear, and was placed in the heavens after her death. By a similar metamorphosis, Cadmus and Harmonia became serpents. A legend related that, when the Arcadians and Eleans were about to engage in battle, a woman presented herself to the Elean commanders with a child at her breast, which she offered to them as an ally. The child was laid naked between the contending armies. Suddenly he became a serpent, which so terrified the Arcadians that they fell back. The Eleans seized the opportunity, and won a complete victory.1
Other myths have arisen out of purely local circumstances. The story of the Danaids, who were compelled for their
Myths: Local misdeeds to pour water through a Sieve, is ex-circumstances. plaine(i, so far as the punishment is concerned, by the nature of the soil in " thirsty Argos." The streams no sooner reach the porous soil at the foot of the mountains than they disappear in the sand (p. 7). Others, again, owe their existence to mistakes in etymology.   The
Myths arise                                                                             *           o«j
from mistaken story of the death of Argos at the hands of Etymology. Hermes has probably arisen out of the epithet 'Apyeicj>6vTr)s applied to Hermes. The similarity between the words Xvkos (wolf), Avklos (Lycian), and the root luc (to shine), seen in lux (light), has caused confusion among deities which were originally distinct. The similarity between the first half of the word Aphrodite and dcfrpos (foam), has given rise to the birth of the goddess of love from the sea—a myth as old as Hesiod. Prometheus, the fire-giver, is probably a personification of the fire-stick used by the ancient Aryans (Pramanthas) ;2   but   Prometheus  the   " fore-thinker,"  the
1 Paus. vi. 20, 4.         2 Kelly, Indo-European Tradition, p. 41 ff.
III. 4.]                 MYTHS AND ETYMOLOGY.                       69
" inventor of memory," the friend of men, who taught them arts and sciences, is a Greek Titan, a great part of whose story is derived from his name. The tendency of the Greeks to represent the deities in human shape co-operated with the worship of ancestors, and possibly with the derivation of descent through females, to provide the famous families of Greece with a divine origin. This was another fertile source of legends. The mortal women who claimed to have been beloved by the gods were a numerous company. That such a parentage should be permitted in epic poetry is not unnatural. Even in historical times we find Greeks who were eager to connect themselves with a divine ancestor, after the lapse of a sufficient interval, and Alexander the Great did not scruple to claim an immediate descent from Zeus.
We must also bear in mind that many distinct tribes existed side by side in early Greece. That there were inhabitants in the land before it was occupied by Aryan The influence immigrants is, as we have seen, not improbable, °f the union and even if the Aryans were the first to enter it, they would not all arrive at the same time. One horde succeeded another, and passed into new valleys separated by high mountains from their neighbours*. The Aryan power of inventing stories did not come to an end with the occupation of a new country, however willing the immigrants may have been to identify the new with the old, and localise the deities, which they brought with them, in the conquered territory Lastly, every new conquest brought with it the desire to range the deities of the conquered people with the gods of the conquerors. And at some early time which we cannot fix definitely, the Greeks came into contact with Semitic races who Semitic inhabited the islands of the Aegean, and Asia Elements. Minor. From these they could borrow and adapt a new stock of myths, working them into their own as suited their purpose, till the whole formed a complicated web which it is now vain to attempt to disentangle. Asiatic deities were identified with Hellenic, or the gods of one tribe became the
70                          MYTHS AND LEGENDS.                   [III. 4.
heroes of another. In this manner Greek mythology grew into a tangled mass of stories, which represented the ideas and conceptions of the early Greeks, but which are beyond our powers to explain and analyse.
Even now the limits of confusion are not reached. Beside the myths which may be of purely fictitious origin, and Historical facts indissolubly connected with them, are legends in Legends. which probably arose out of historical facts. Some of the stories of which a brief account is here given will be found to contain historical incidents. The Greeks sailed to Colchis, Corcyra and Libya, whatever be the meaning of the myth of the Argonautic expedition. The works of Heracles were in existence, whether Heracles be a god, or a personification of a forgotten tribe. The inhabitants of Attica were gathered round Athens as a central city, whether Theseus be a god or a man. This historic element was often enlarged as time went on. The more various the voyages of the Greeks, the greater their knowledge of distant lands, the more complicated became the story of the ancient mariners of the Argo.
To lay down general rules for the "interpretation" of myths is useless. Each story must be considered separately. We may, however, point out that: (1) Stories which are found with little or no alteration of their essential features in widely distant nations can hardly have had a local origin. Some incidents in the story of Jason and Medea are repeated not only in that of Theseus and Ariadne, but also in the mythology of nations which have had no connection with Greece. It is improbable therefore that the legend first arose out of circumstances which occurred at Iolcus. (2) Stories which are merely a reflected image of later historical facts were probably invented to explain those facts. We shall find an instance of this in the early history of Elis. (3) Stories which are supported by later customs and rites probably contain some element of historical truth. It is reasonable to allow that human sacrifices were offered at Halus in ancient times, though we refuse to accept the story of Athamas and Phrixus.
III. 5-]        LEGENDARY HISTORY: THESSALY.               71
But even in the cases where these rules apply, it is often impossible to draw a clear line between what is local and what is universal—what is historical and what is fictitious.
LEGENDARY HISTORY OF NORTHERN GREECE.
Thessaly.
5. Thessaly was inhabited by a number of various tribes, which gave their names to different parts of the The Im ortance country, and it was, no doubt, due to the variety of Thessaly in and changes of the population that it became Lesend* the home of many legends. Here was Pelion, where Apollo had sojourned ; here was the home of Peleus, the scene of his marriage with Thetis, and the birthplace of Achilles; here were the plains upon which Zeus had overthrown the giants; here also was lolcus, whence the Argo had set forth on her adventurous voyage.
Among the remarkable legends of Thessaly are those of the Centaurs and Lapithae, whose fierce conflict at the marriage of Pirithous supplied a theme of never-ending interest for artist and poet. The Centaurs are represented as wild creatures—half man, half horse, monsters of furious and unbridled lusts. When bidden to the marriage feast, they threw down the bowls of milk provided for them, and drank deeply of wine. Their passions thus The Centaurs inflamed, they proceeded to unseemly acts which and Lapithae. provoked the resentment of the Lapithae, who at length, after a severe struggle, cleared the banquet-hall of their rude guests. These half-human creatures are sometimes explained as personifications of the mountain torrents, which, bursting down from the hills of Thessaly, spread destruction over the rich plains beneath. The horse is regarded as a symbol of the swift course of running water, and the weapons which the Centaurs use, stones and branches, denote the devastation caused by swollen streams. However this may be, to the Greeks of later times the conflict of the Lapithae
72           THESSAUAN LEGENDS: THE CENTAURS,   [III. 5.
and Centaurs, like that of Theseus and the Amazons, was symbolical of the opposition between civilisation and barbarism. The Lapithae were regarded as historical persons. Not only was their chief Pirithous the friend of the great Attic hero Theseus, but at a later time, when expelled from Thessaly, many Lapithae found a refuge at Athens, and became the ancestors of Athenian families. By what appears to be a strange inconsistency, the legend does not regard all the Centaurs as barbarous.    Chiron, the eldest
Centaur Chiron.      -   ,,                                       ,,             t       .   ,               ,
of the race, was a pattern of wisdom and temperance, skilled in music and the art of medicine, the teacher of Achilles. To us such a figure recalls the fiction of the "noble savage," but in the Greek legend it maybe some echo of a forgotten civilisation. Or, if the explanation of the Centaurs as personifications of the mountain torrents be accepted, the good Centaur may represent the rivers regarded as beneficent fertilising forces. It is remarkable that the Centaur Chiron claimed a different parentage from the rest. They were descended from Ixion and Nephele, but he is the child of Zeus and Philyra. Expelled from Thessaly for their violence, the Centaurs finally perished at the hands of Heracles.1
In the south of Thessaly was the town of Iolcus, whence the Argo sailed to recover the  Golden Fleece which had
been carried away to Colchis.    There is, per-rgonau s. j^^  no storv  wnicn  illustrates in a more
striking manner the way in which the Greeks enlarged their legends as time went on. In their earliest form some incidents in the voyage of the Argo may perhaps have arisen out of solar phenomena; it is, at any rate, the Island of the Sun to which the voyage is directed. To the Greeks the myth becomes an event of history, which is localised at a definite place. The island is placed at Colchis, in the furthest east.   Jason, the
1 II. i. 263 ff.; Od. xx. 295 ff. The Centaurs reappear in Arcadia, where Pholus is the counterpart of Chiron. On the subject, see Col-vin, " The Centaurs," etc., in the Journal of the Hellenic Society, i. 177 ff
III. 5.] THESSAL1AN LEGENDS: THE ARGONAUTS.        73
son of Aeson, appears at Iolcus to claim his rightful possessions from the usurper Pelias. He is bidden to recover the Golden Fleece from Aeetes, king of Colchis. For this enterprise he summons heroes from all parts of Hellas, but more especially the Minyae, the princely race who were dominant in southern Thessaly and at Orchomenus in Boeotia. After many adventures, the Argonauts return with the prize, which Jason has won with the aid of Medea, the king's daughter. On the way they have colonised Lemnos, which was ever afterwards regarded as a home of the Minyae. But Jason has brought back more than the fleece. He has wedded Medea, a woman skilled in sorcery beyond any other in Greek legend. Pursued by her father, they escaped by a cruel expedient; when Jason found that the king was near at hand, at Medea's suggestion he cut in pieces her brother, the boy Apsvrtus, and strewed the fragments on the waves, that Aeetes might be delayed in collecting them. Jason does not remain in Iolcus ; he visits Corinth, where he abandons Medea for the king's daughter. Medea, in revenge, slays not only her own children, but also the new bride and her father, after which she escapes in the chariot of the Sun to her own land. Another form of the legend carries Jason and Medea to Corcyra, and in yet another form, they travel to the Tritonian lake in Libya. It is obvious that some of the details of the story could only have been added when the Greeks were acquainted with the Euxine, and could identify the eastern end of it with the island of Aeetes. The connection of the story with Corinth is perhaps due, in the first instance, to the worship of Helius on Acrocorinthus; but it was not till Corcyra and Sicily were known to Hellenic mariners that Trinacria could become the Island of the Sun, or Jason and Medea be transplanted to Corcyra. Though the Argo is mentioned in the Homeric poems as the theme of song, and epics were composed on the subject by Eumelus of Corinth and others, the incidents connected with the voyage were not fixed like those of the Trojan war. Hence they could   develop more freely, until  at  length,  in  the
74    THESSALIAN LEGENDS: HUMAN SACRIFICES. [III. 6.
Alexandrian period, Apollonius gave a definite shape to the whole in his Argomutica.1
The Golden Fleece, which reminds us of the Golden Lamb of Atreus in the Argive legend, connects the story of Jason Remarkable with a peculiar form of worship which prevailed Rites of Haius. afj Halus, in southern Thessaly, in early times, and had not wholly died out even at the invasion of Xerxes. It was the custom there to offer human sacrifices to Zeus Laphystius, and Athamas, king of Halus, was induced by Ino to sacrifice Phrixus, his son by a former wife. Before the rite was completed a golden ram appeared, which carried Phrixus away to Colchis, where he sacrificed the ram, and hung up the fleece as a Palladium. Subsequently Athamas was on the point of being sacrificed to Zeus in the place of Phrixus, when he, in turn, was rescued by the son of Phrixus. Thus the sacrifice still remained incomplete, and it became a custom that no one of the race of the Atha-mantidae should enter the council-chamber at Halus on pain of being sacrificed to the god.2
Boeotia.
6. Two centres are distinguished in the ancient legends of Boeotia—Orchomenus and Thebes. Orchomenus stood in Two ancient close connection with the south of Thessaly, and orchomenujT Athamas, whom we have already mentioned, and Thebes. is said to have been one of the earliest kings of the city. Eteocles, his successor, founded two tribes at Orchomenus, the Cephisiad and the Eteoclid. He was followed by Phlegyas, the eponym of the warlike Phlegyae, and Minyas, the son of Chryses, from whom the Minyae derived their name and their wealth. Pausanias tells us that Minyas was the first of men to build a treasure-house for the reception of his
1  Cf. A. Lang, Introduction to Grimm's Household Tales, p. 55 ff., and Custom and Myth, p. 94. Other views will be found in the article in Pauly's Encyclojxiedia.
2  Herod, vii. 197.
III. 6.]           LEGENDAR Y HISTOR Y: BOEOTIA.                   75
possessions.1 To the Minyae also is ascribed the construction of the great tunnels which drain (or would drain if open) the low land round lake Copais (see supra, p. 6). Minyas was succeeded by Orchomenus, from whom the city took its name. A later king was Clymenus, who was slain ^y the Thebans at the festival of Poseidon. Erginus, his son, compelled the Thebans to pay a tribute as atonement for the death of his father. But Heracles liberated the Thebans, and greatly curtailed the power of Orchomenus. The sons of Erginus were Trophonius and Agamedes, of whom the second lost his life, when stealing the treasures of Hyrieus, in precisely the same manner as the thief who stole the treasures of Rhampsinitus in Egypt, while Trophonius was swallowed up in the earth on the site of his oracular cave. They were followed by Ascalaphus and Ialmenus, who led the Minyae to Troy. In the Homeric poems the Minyae are mentioned separately from the rest of the Boeotians; and Orchomenus is elsewhere mentioned as one of the cities which belonged to the Ionian Amphictyony of Calauria, a proof that it must have been the seat of an extensive maritime trade.2 It is very noticeable that the succession is constantly broken in the list of kings given by Pausanias; it is the exception for the son to follow the father on the throne. This would seem to indicate constant strife and change of dynasty, unless, indeed, it be merely the result of piecing together families of different stocks which claimed to be ancestors of the Minyae.
Thebes was founded by Cadmus, the Phoenician. Arriving in Greece in search of his sister Europa, he consulted the oracle of Delphi, by which he Was bidden to Legends about abandon the quest, and follow a cow. On the Thebes. spot where the cow lay down he was to found a city. In this manner he was directed to the site of Thebes.   The cow
1 For a description of this treasury, see Schliemann, "Orchomenus," in Journal of Hellen. Soc. ii. 122 ff.     Ornamentation of a distinctly Egyptian kind is said to be found in it. "a Paus. ix. chaps. 36, 37 ; U ii. 511 ff; Strabo, p. 374.
76   BOEOTIAN LEGENDS: FOUNDING OF THEBES, [III. 7.
he sacrificed to Athena Onca. When he desired to draw water from the neighbouring spring, in order to pour a libation, he found himself opposed by a serpent,who guarded the fountain. This monster, with the aid of Pallas, he slew, and sowed the teeth in the earth. Hence sprang the Sparti, a furious race of armed warriors, who fell to slaying each other until only five remained, the founders of the five most famous families in Thebes. After eight years of purification for the slaughter which he caused, Cadmus became king of Thebes, receiving to wife Harmonia, the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite. The wedding, like that of Peleus and Thetis, was honoured with the presence of the gods. From the union were born four daughters, famous in Greek legend for the sorrows and disasters which attended themselves and their offspring—Autonoe, the mother of Actaeon; Agave, the mother of Pentheus; Ino, the wife of Athamas; and Semele, the mother of Dionysus. There was also a son, Polydorus, from whom were descended Laius and Oedipus.
The close of the reign of Cadmus was disturbed by troubles arising from the presence of Dionysus at Thebes. Pentheus, who, for some reason, ascended the throne in the lifetime of Cadmus, strongly opposed the rites which were introduced at Thebes by Dionysus, who, in Theban story, was the son of Zeus and Semele. Suspecting the nature of the sacred orgies which led his mother with other women to the wilds of Cithaeron, he followed the troop and watched them from a pine-tree. He was detected and torn to pieces by the infatuated women, his mother Agave being the first to rend off a limb. In distress at these disasters, Cadmus and Harmonia left Thebes for Illyria, where they were changed into serpents.
7. The citadel of Thebes was known as the Cadmea from its supposed founder. The lower city was traced to a different Zethus and        origin. Zethus and Amphion were twin brothers,
Amphion.          sons 0f Zeus by Antiope, the daughter of Nye-
teus, a Theban.    When they became kings of Thebes, they
III. 7.]           BOEOTIAN LEGENDS: CADMUS.                   77
fortified the city with a wall, in order to protect themselves from the attacks of the neighbours, " for strong though they were, they could not without a wall dwell in Thebes."x Zethus, who is represented as a man of vast strength, gathered huge stones and ranged them in order, while the minstrel Amphion was able to move the stones by the sound of his lyre, without the need of physical touch. The gates of the city were seven, a number which is thought to indicate the Phoenician origin of the city. However this may be, it is not improbable that the name Neitae, which was given to one of the gates, has been the source of the story of Amphion and his music. Neitae was confused with neth, the lowest in order of the three strings composing the oldest form of the lyre/ to which Amphion is said to have added the other four.
This pair of twin brothers does not stand alone in Greek mythology; we must place beside them the more famous twins of Sparta, Castor and Pollux, and the Messenian pair, Idas and Lynceus. Counterparts have been found by comparative mythologists in the Acrins of India, the spirits of the morning light, which pierce the darkness and bring back the cheerful day. It is remarkable that the Spartan twins are in close connection with Helen; the Theban Myths of Helen with Antiope. Both Helen and Antiope have and Antiope. been thought to be forms of the goddess of the moon. Antiope is also the daughter of Nycteus, whose brother is Lycus, names obviously connected with night and day. Even the search of Cadmus for Europa and his union with Harmonia in the west is by some explained as the Greek repetition of a Semitic myth, in which Baal, the sun-god, seeks the moon goddess in the far west, and is there united with her in marriage.2
Here then we seem to have two myths, not altogether distinct in origin, but arriving in Boeotia by different routes.
1 Odyssey, xi. 264, 265.                   * Duncker, Hist Ant. ii. 58.
78       BOEOTIAN LEGENDS: LAIUS AND OEDIPUS. [III. 8.
The Greeks connected them in the following manner. Poly-dorus, the son of Cadmus, left an infant son Labdacus, whom, Connection of toget,ner witn his throne, he committed at his the Theban death to the care of Nycteus. When Nycteus was Legends.          mortally wounded in an attempt to recover his
daughter Antiope from Epopeus of Sicyon, he transferred his double charge to his brother Lycus, who in due time gave up the throne to Labdacus. Labdacus died young, leaving an infant heir, Laius, of whom Lycus became guardian. At this time Zethus and Amphion appeared at Thebes with an armed force. Laius was removed to a place of safety, but Lycus was slain. Zethus and Amphion became kings of Thebes, and added the lower city to the Cadmea. When they died—Amphion in a pestilence, and Zethus through grief for his son—Laius returned to be king over Thebes.1
8. The narrative now takes a new shape, in which myth and legend are blended with ideas of destiny and an inherited curse.    It was announced to Laius that if he mg   ams.        begot a son he would fall by the hand of his child, who would also become the husband of his own mother. Heedless of the warning, he begot Oedipus, whom shortly after his birth he caused to be exposed, with his feet pierced and bound together, in the wilds of Cithaeron.    The attempt to escape the ordinance of heaven was fruitless.    Oedipus was saved by a shepherd, and conveyed to the court of Corinth. From thence he returned to Thebes, and, meeting Laius on the way, he slew him.   On arriving at the city he found it suffering from the visitation of the Sphinx, a winged monster, wha proposed a riddle to all comers, and ate those
mg e ipu8# who failed to guess it. When Oedipus was successful in solving the riddle, the Sphinx destroyed herself, and the city was delivered. As a reward, he received the hand of the queen Jocasta, who was his own mother. By her, according to one version of the story, he had four children, Polynices and Eteocles, Antigone and Ismene.  Then the terrible secret
1 Paus. ix. 5.
III. 8.] BOEOTIAN LEGENDS: CONQUEST BY AENAEANS.19*
came out. Oedipus blinded himself. Jocasta took her own life. When the sons grew up, Oedipus, enraged at some slight, pronounced his curse upon them. They The Sons of quarrelled, and Polynices, the elder brother, was Oedipus, driven out of Thebes. He repaired to Argos, whence, with the help of Adrastus, he returned with six chieftains to recover the throne.
At each of the seven gates the battle raged, Eteocles meeting Polynices in person. The assault failed; all the chieftains, with the exception of Adrastus, were slain, and the two brothers fell each by the hand of the other. In the next generation the attack was renewed by the Epigoni, or sons of the heroes, who succeeded in restoring Thersander, the son of Polynices, to the throne of Thebes. -. Thersander was succeeded by his son Tisamenus. and his Owing to his youth, Tisamenus was unable to descendants, take the command of the Boeotian forces before Troy, which were therefore intrusted to Peneleos.1 Autesion, the son and successor of Tisamenus, was warned by an oracle to join the Dorians, in order to escape the divine wrath, which still pursued the race of Labdacus. In his place Damasichthon, the son of Opheltas and grandson of Peneleos, was chosen king. In the time of Xanthus, the grandson of Damasichthon, the Boeotians invaded Attica; but their chieftain fell in single combat by the hand of Melanthus, or, in another version, of Andropompus, and the invasion proved fruitless.2
Thucydides states quite definitely that Boeotia was invaded by the Arnaeans from the north, in the sixtieth year after the fall of Troy.   But the Homeric Catalogue speaks      Con uest of Arnaeans as dwelling in the land at the time      Boeotia by when the expedition sailed to Troy.3   This      A™aeans. contradiction caused the utmost difficulty to later writers.   In
1 Peneleos was an Argonaut, and one of the suitors of Helen, quite anconnected with the royal family of Thebes. He and his race probably represent the Arnaean immigrants from Thessaly.
8 Paus. ix. 5.
3 Thuc. i. 12 : II. ii. 494 ff.
80              BOEOTIAN LEGENDS: THE CONQUEST     [III. 8.
the account just quoted from Pausanias,Peneleos is represented as leading the Boeotians to Troy because Tisamenus was still The account of too young to undertake the command. His Pausanias. grandson, Damasichthon, acquires the throne of Thebes, which is voluntarily resigned by Autesion at the divine command. In this manner the conquest of the country by invaders is veiled, and the presence of the Boeotians at Troy under a prince who was not the reigning monarch is explained.    Strabo unites the conquerors and
Strabo's account. ,. x                    .    .             _                   u        _        _
the conquered in another manner. In the earliest times Boeotia was inhabited by a number of barbarian tribes, Aones, Temmices who came from Sunium, Leleges and Hyantes. Subsequently it was acquired by the Phoenicians under Cadmus, who built the citadel and founded the kingdom. His descendants added Thebes to the Cadmea, and maintained their power, most of the Boeotians being their subjects, till the war of the Epigoni. Then they were driven out for a time, but afterwards they returned. On a second occasion they were expelled by the Thracians and Pelasgians ; and for a considerable time they lived in Thessaly, where they formed one power with the Arnaeans. About the time when the Aeolian host was gathering at Aulis, under the sons of Orestes, in order to sail to Asia, they returned, united the district of Orchomenus to Boeotia, and, with their combined forces, drove out the Pelasgians to Athens and the Thracians to Parnassus. When these conquests were ended many of the Boeotians took part in the Aeolian colonisation of Asia.1
In this account also, the fact of the conquest of Boeotia by a nation issuing from the north is concealed. The Cadmeans and Arnaeans are a united people who move southwards about the time of the Aeolian migration, the Cadmeans having previously joined the Arnaeans in Thessaly.2 Another passage in Strabo enables us to trace more precisely the southward
1 Strabo, 401, who, no doubt, follows Ephorus.    Of. Pans. l.c
3 This account supposes Thebes to be deserted at the time of the
Trojan war, and so explains the silence of the Catalogue.    Cf. Strabo,
p. 412.
III. 8.]       LEGENDARY HISTORY: LOCR/S, ETC.               81
movement of the invading hosts.1 Coronea was the first town taken. There the invaders established a shrine of Athena Itonia, which always remained the central point of meeting for the Boeotians, the seat of the great festival of the Pam-boeotia. Then Orchomenus fell, and in the next generation Thebes was conquered.2 Whatever may be the historical truth concealed in these legends, there is no doubt that it was asserted, on authority which satisfied Thucydides, that Boeotia passed into the hands of the Arnaeans two generations after the Trojan war. Previous to this event the country may have been divided between two powers— the Minyae at Orchomenus, and the Cadmeans at Thebes, between which there were constant feuds. After the conquest Orchomenus ceased to be a great power. Thebes became the leading city, though she never attained to universal dominion. A further attempt to invade Attica was defeated. With the failure of common enterprises, the Boeotians ceased to act in common, and the leader of the host could no longer -claim the authority of a king.
Of the territories which separated Boeotia from Thessaly there is little to relate. Four generations before the Trojan war,  so ran the  legend, the Locrians, who  had          .
hitherto been a united nation, were separated into Doris, two parts, an eastern and a western. No reason is Phocis-given for the separation, and perhaps we may doubt whether the union is not a fiction. Throughout historical times the Locrians existed in two distinct communities, one of which bordered on the Euripus, the other on the Corinthian gulf. Between the two lay Doris, the country in which the Dorians paused in their way to Peloponnesus from Thessaly and Phocis.     Phocis  was rendered famous by the worship of
1  Strabo, p. 411.
2  This legendary history is to some extent confirmed by the evidence of names; there was a river Ouralius in Thessaly and in Boeotia, and in the neighbourhood of each a shrine of Athena Itonia (Aleaeus, Frag. 3). The presence of the Thracians is an attempt to explain the worship of the Muses on Helicon and Parnassus (see infra, ch. vii.; Strabo, p. 410).
VOL. I.                                                                                P
82                 LEGEND AR Y HISTOR Y: E UBOEA.           [111. 9.
Apollo at Delphi, on the southern slopes of Parnassus, of which we shall have to speak in a subsequent chapter. It was on Parnassus also that Deucalion and Pyrrha alighted after the flood by which Zeus destroyed the Grecian world; and from the stones which they cast behind them sprang the new race of the Hellenes.
Euboea.
9. In the Homeric Catalogue the inhabitants of Euboea are called Abantes, and they are spoken of as possessing Abantes in        the cities of Eretria and  Chalcis,   Styra and
Euboea.            Carystus,   of which  the two first were  cer-
tainly Ionian, and the two last Dryopian, in historical times. These Abantes wore the hair only on the back of the head, and were armed with spears which they used for the thrust.1 Aristotle speaks of the Abantes as Thracians who immigrated into Euboea from Abae in Phocis;2 and Herodotus distinguishes them from the Ionians.3 The Athenian account of the colonisation of Euboea is at variance with the Catalogue. Eretria and Chalcis were claimed as Athenian colonies, founded before the Trojan war, and subsequently renewed by Aeclus and Cothus. This legend may have arisen after the conquest of the island by Pericles, when it was convenient to establish some sort of hereditary claim, and the double colonisation was necessary to smooth over the contradiction with the Catalogue* There seems no reason to Ionian in         doubt that the Ionians were in possession of
Euboea.           Euboea at a very early time.    If, then, the
Abantes are to be regarded as " barbarians," we must assume a conquest, or amalgamation of the two elements of population. Traces of primitive inhabitants (stone axes, etc.) have been found in the south of the island; and Pausanias tells us that in his time the Euboean peasants were still clad in skins. Whether the early inhabitants were Greeks or not, we cannot
1 II. ii. 536 ff.                               2 Strabo, p. 445.
3 Herod, i. 146.                            4 Strabo, p. 447.
III. 10.]     ATTICA: LEGENDARY CHR0X0L0GY.               83
determine.    Of the conquest and change of population, if it ever happened, we have no trustworthy record.1
Attica.
10. In the earlier accounts of the ancient history of Attica we meet with four names of native kings—Cecrops, Erechtheus, Pandion and Aegeus. The Cata- Ancient Kings logue in the Homeric poems entitles Athens of Attica, the deme of Erechtheus. But in the time of Herodotus, Cecrops had taken the place of Erechtheus as the earliest king of the country; and Ion was also included in the royal dynasty, though he never occupied the throne. Later logo-graphers amplified the list of kings, partly with the intention of combining as many legends as possible, and partly in order to make arrangements which harmonised with their views of chronology. Thus we obtain the following list of early Attic kings:—Cecrops I., Erysichthon, Cranaus, Amphic-tyon, Erichthonius, Pandion I., Erechtheus, Cecrops II., Pandion II. To Pandion n. were born four sons—Aegeus, Pallas, Nisus and Lycus.
With the n#jmes many legends were connected. Cecrops is said- to have divided the whole tract of Attica into twelve districts: Cecropia, Tetrapolis, Epacria, Decelea, cecrops divides Eleusis, Aphidnae, Thoricus, Brauron, Cythera, the country. Sphettus, Cephisias and Phalerum. His daughters were Aglaurus (bright), Erse (dew) and Pandrosus (dewy)—names of importance in Athenian religious customs (supra, p. 20). He was also said to have introduced the institution of marriage. The kings who immediately follow Cecrops are The Successors mere inventions. Erysichthon and Erichthonius of Cecrops. are repetitions of Erechtheus; Cranaus is an eponym derived from the old title of the Athenians, who were originally
1 Strabo gives Maoris and Abantis as old names of the island, and also Oche and Hellopia (p. 445). He even regards Aeclus and Cothus as barbarian names (p. 321). For early Euboean history see Bury, Historical Review, 1886, p. 626 ff.
84
A T7ICA : FABULOUS HISTOR V.            [III. 10.
called Cranai,1 and Amphictyon is obviously a fictitious name. It is, however, remarkable that legend represents the succession as constantly broken : Cranaus is not the son of Erysich-thon, who died without issue; Amphictyon expelled Cranaus, and was in turn expelled by Erichthonius. The daughters of Pandion I. were Procne and Philomela, the former of whom became the wife of Tereus of Thrace. The tragic story of Philomela, Procne and Tereus is well known; it is remarkable partly for the credit given to it by Thucydides, and partly for the connection which it presupposes between Thrace and Athens. In the time of Erechtheus, the son of Pandion, a war broke out between Eleusis and Athens, in which Eumolpus of Eleusis, himself a Thracian, was greatly aided by allies from Thrace. The contest was severe. Though Athens remained victorious, Erechtheus fell in the battle. It was only by the devotion of his three daughters that success was rendered possible.
In resisting the attack of the Thracians,Ion,the son of Creusa and grandson of Erechtheus, rendered such service to the Athenians that he became general-in-chief of egen ° ' the Athenian forces. Under his command they were enabled to pass beyond the limits of Attica, and give their name to the people on the northern shore of Peloponnesus.2 The festival of the Boedromia was said to have been founded in commemoration of the aid which he rendered to the Athenians. From the four sons of Ion, legend derived the names of the four Attic tribes.
Pandion the Second divided his territory between his four sons, Aegeus, Nisus, Lycus and Pallas. Aegeus received Athens and the throne, Lycus " the garden-land opposite Euboea," Nisus the shore of Sciron (the Megarid), and Pallas the land in the south of Attica.3 This division, like the earlier one into twelve townships, assumes that Attica was from the first united under the sway of
1 Herod, viii. 44.
* Herod, vii. 94.                               3 Soph. ap. Strab. p. 392.
III. II.]              ADVENTURES OF THESEUS.                     85
Athens. Such an union is extremely improbable in itself, and is contradicted by other legends, which represent Theseus as the author of the union of Attica, inasmuch as he first persuaded or compelled the various townships in Attica to give up their independence and accept Athens as their head. On the other hand, it is highly probable that in the earliest times the Megarid, which is included in the territory of Pandion, was in close connection with Athens, and inhabited by a people of Ionian, or at any rate non-Dorian, race.
II. The son of Aegeus was Theseus. He was born at Troezen, the home of his mother Aethra. At sixteen years of age he was able to remove the huge stone under which his father had placed his sword, mg and, with the sword as his credentials, he set out on his way to Attica.1 As he wished to make his name famous, he determined to destroy the robbers who infested the country between Troezen and Athens—Sinnis, who slew his victims by attaching them to two pine-trees which he bent together, and allowed to fly asunder \ Sciron, who hurled them from the rocks of the isthmus into the sea; Cercyon, who compelled them to wrestle with him, and then strangled them; Procrustes, who stretched them on a bed of iron, cutting off the limbs of those who were too tall and stretching the limbs of those who were too short. All these he slew, and then presented himself at Athens before his father.
Here also he had enemies to contend with.    He overcame the Pallantidae, the race of giants who sought to deprive Aegeus of a part of his kingdom, and cap-   siays the Bun tured the bull which laid waste the fields of   of Marathon. Marathon.   At this time Athens paid to Crete a periodical tribute of seven boys and seven maidens, to be devoured by the Minotaur.    Theseus offered himself as one   Theseus' jour-of the victims.    Ariadne, the daughter of the   ney to Crete. Cretan king, gave him a clue by which he was able to pene-
1 Cf. History of King Arthur (ed. Wright), voL i.
86               A TTICA : LEGENDS ABO UT THESEUS.      [111, n.
trate the labyrinth of Daedalus, in which the Minotaur was concealed. Theseus slewhim, and returned with Ariadne, whom, however, he abandoned on the island of Naxos. It had been agreed that, if successful, he should furl the black sails with which he set out on his mournful errand, and hoist white sails in their place. This he forgot to do, and Aegeus, who was watching on the shore for the return of the ship, on seeing the black sails, concluded that his son was lost, and plunged into the sea.
Other adventures carried Theseus far beyond the limits of Attica. He took part in the hunt of the Calydonian boar, and in the recovery of the Golden Fleece. He also fought Theseus and against the Amazons, whom he expelled from the Amazons,     the soil of Attica, and pursued to the banks
Helen, etc.           q£ ^ Thermodon.     When  Helen wag a child>
dancing at Therapne in honour of Artemis Orthia, Theseus, with the help of Pirithous, carried her away and placed her in the keeping of his mother Aethra at Aphidnae, from whence she was recovered by her brothers before Theseus could make her his wife. Then he attempted to carry off Persephone from the under-world, in concert with Pirithous. Pirithous was slain by Cerberus, and Theseus owed his escape to the aid of Heracles. On his return to Athens, he was involved in new troubles by the disastrous passion of his wife Phaedra for her step-son Hippolytus. Finally he was driven out of Attica, and retired to Scyros, where he was treacherously slain. Theseus always remained the great Attic hero, but two distinct views prevailed in legend about him. On the one hand, he is the founder of Athenian greatness—the noble and chivalrous hero in whem the Athenian type of character reaches its culmination; on the other, he is little more than a marauding chief, of exceptional strength and power. Both legends agree in his final expulsion from Attica. As we shall see, the race of the Thesidae continued but a short time on the throne of Athens.1
1 On the union of Attica ascribed to Theseus, see i?*/ra, c. ix.
III. 12.]        LEGENDARY HISTORY: AETOLIA.                87
Aetolia and Acarnania.
12. Aetolus, the eponymous hero of Aetolia, was said to be a son of Endymion, king of Elis,1 who, being stained with blood by the slaughter of Apis, was compelled to leave his native country. From him were descended two famous women, Leda and Althaea. The children of Althaea were Meleager and Deianira, with whom are connected two remarkable Aetolian legends.
Oeneus, the king of Calydon, and husband of Althaea, neglected to offer sacrifice to Artemis at the vintage festival. In revenge, the goddess sent a huge boar to ravage the lands of Calydon. But Meleager, the son of Oeneus, with the help of a number of the Curetes of Pleuron—the country is said to have been called Curetis before it was called Aetolia — succeeded in slaying the monster. A dispute followed concerning the spoils, in which Meleager slew his "mother's brother, the king of Pleuron. The Curetes immediately attacked the Aetolians, to revenge the death of their king. So long as Meleager led his people, the attacks of the enemy were beaten off. But his mother Althaea imprecated bitter curses upon him for the slaughter of her brother, and Meleager, enraged at her want of affection, refused to leave his chamber and e eagen his wife Cleopatra. Only when the city was in danger of being stormed, could Cleopatra prevail on him to go out and repel the invaders. This is a brief summary of the account given in the Iliad, of the famous Calydonian boar-hunt.2 It is related there for a special purpose. Agamemnon has sent envoys to Achilles beseeching him to forego his resentment, and listen to the entreaties of the Achaeans. The aged Phoenix relates the story of Meleager. Though deaf to the entreaties of father and mother, and unmoved by the prospect of ruin impending on his city and people, Meleager allowed himself to be prevailed upon by Cleopatra. Whether the poet has omitted the details which did not serve his purpose, we cannot
i Infra, § 14, p. 91.                2 II ix. 536 ff.
88 AET0L1ANLEGENDS: MELEAGER—ATALANTA. [III. 12.
say; but in other poems the legend was far more vjomplicated. Before the birth of Meleager the Moerae announced to Althaea that her son would perish when the brand then upon the fire was reduced to ashes. Althaea preserved the brand until, in her anger at the death of her brother, she allowed it to be consumed, and Meleager perished. The hunt of the boar The Caiydonian is also extended into a national enterprise. Boar-hunt.         The conspicuous figure in it is Atalanta, the
Arcadian huntress, who was the first to wound the boar, which was finally slain by Meleager. Meleager assigned the spoils to her, but they were carried off by his uncles, who, as next of-kin, claimed what Meleager renounced. Meleager slew them, and Althaea in revenge brought about the death of her son.
The Greeks believed in this hunt as a historical fact. The hide and tusks of the boar were suspended in the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea, where they remained till Augustus took the tusks to Rome. The skin was shown to Pausanias in the second century A.D. Near the town of Methydrium the same traveller saw the racecourse on which Atalanta had contended with her suitors. She would yield herself only to the man who surpassed her in swiftness; if defeated, the suitor must pay for his presumption with his life. With the help of Aphrodite, Milanion was enabled to succeed. She gave him three of the golden apples of the Hesperides, which he allowed to fall one by one near the maiden in the race; Atalanta stooped to gather them, and meanwhile Milanion was victorious.
The sister of Meleager was Deianira. She wag sought in marriage by Achelous, the river god, who paid his court to her in various monstrous shapes. At length Heracles appeared as a rival; he defeated Achelous and carried away Deianira. When crossing the Enipeus on his way to Trachis, he allowed Deianira to be conveyed over the river by the centaur Nessus. In mid-stream Nessus offered her some rudeness, and was at once pierced by an arrow from the bank by Heracles.   The dying centaur gave
III. I3-]     ACARNANIAN LEGENDS: ALCMAEON               89
Deianira some of the poison which flowed from his wound, assuring her that it was a charm which would enable her to retain the affections of Heracles against any rival. After the capture of Oechalia, Heracles sent home Iole, the daughter of Eurytus, under circumstances which aroused the jealousy of Deianira. She sent her husband a robe anointed with the philtre, to wear when offering sacrifice to Zeus on the Cenaean headland. Warmed by the flames, the poison ate into his flesh with intolerable pains, which death alone could end. Deianira, on hearing the result, took her own life.1
13. The hero of Acarnania is Alcmaeon. When pursued by the Furies, after the death of his mother Eriphyle, whom he had slain for her treachery to his father Amphiaraus, Alcmaeon was informed by the oracle that all the earth was closed against him except the portion which had come into existence since the murder was committed. This portion consisted of the islands at the mouth of the river Achelous, formed by the alluvial soil deposited by the river.2 Thither Alcmaeon went and found repose. His son was Acarnan, from whom the nation previously called Curetes obtained their name. Acarnania was also said to have been originally in the possession of the Taphians and Tele-boae, but afterwards Laertes of Ithaca and the inhabitants of the island of Cephallenia became masters of the country.3 The historian Ephorus asserted that the town of Argos Amphilochicum was founded by Alcmaeon, but Thucydides considered that it was founded by Amphilochus, the son of Amphiaraus, who, on his return from Troy, being dissatisfied with the position of affairs in Argos, retired with his companions to Acarnania. Thucydides adds the remarkable statement, that the inhabitants of Argos obtained their knowledge of Greek from the Ambraciots, while the rest of the Amphilochians were barbarians.4
» See infra, p. 110.               2 Thuc. ii. 102.               3 Strabo, p. 461.
4 Thuc. ii. 68. The necessary inference is that Amphilochus and his comrades who took part in the Trojan war were themselves barbarians {supra, p. 26; Strabo, p. 462).
90                 LEGENDARY HISTORY: AETOLIA.          [III. 14.
From these legends little can be won for history. Till the foundation of the Corinthian colonies this part of Greece remained a terra incognita; and even afterwards it was Historical value comparatively of little importance, except for of the Legends, purposes of trade. But the cultivation of the vine by Oeneus, and the appearance of Heracles as a suitor for the hand of Deianira, combined with other mythological and geographical evidence, tend to show, as we have already said, that the western coast of Greece was not unknown to the Phoenician mariners. The worship of Aphrodite Aeneas on the island of Leucas and the promontory of Actium is probably due to Phoenician settlers, and it was doubtless in consequence of the existence of the worship of the goddess -in these localities, that Aeneas is brought into connection with Epirus on his journey to Rome.1 Another point of importance is the connection which the legend presupposes between Aetolia and Elis. The eponymous hero of Aetolia is the son of Endymion, king of Elis. This legendary connection is supported by other evidence. On both sides of the Gulf of Patrae we find the same local names {e.g., Olenus), and the Calydonian Artemis was worshipped at Patrae.2
//.--LEGENDARY HISTORY OF PELOPONNESUS.
Elis.
14. In the widest sense of the name, Elis included three districts. The northern part of the country was Elis proper. The Divisions The central portion, extending to the south as of Elis.            far as the Alpheus, was Pisatis.    South of the
Alpheus, as far as the borders of Messenia, lay the territory known as Triphylia; the abode of three tribes or nations, Epeans, Eleans and Minyae (or Arcadians). Besides these tribes, the Cauconians also dwelt in Elis ; some placed them
1 The whole subject is treated at length by Eugen Oberhummer, Phoenizien in Acarncmia, Munchen, 1882. a Curtius, Pelopon. i. 411 ; infra, p. 106.
III. 14.]      LEGENDS OF PELOPONNESUS: EL/S.                9*
in the north near Dyme and Buprasium; others in the south, towards Messenia; while others considered that the whole land was once known as Cauconia.1 Whether the Cauconians were expelled or absorbed by the victorious invaders, we cannot tell; they were of no historical importance ; their territory, which was first taken from them by the Minyae, afterwards became a part of Elis.
With the help of Pausanias, we are able to give the following account of the legendary history of Elis down to the time of the Aetolian invasion. The first king of the country was Aethlius, a son of Zeus and Protogenea. The son of Aethlius was Endymion. In one form of the legend, Endymion became by the Moon the father of fifty daughters; but in the version which Pausanias considers more credible, he married Asterodea, by whom he had three sons, Paeon, Aetolus and Epeus, and a daughter Eurycyde. Endymion decided the succession to the throne by a foot-race between his sons, in which Epeus was successful. Paeon retired in chagrin to the distant land known as Paeonia. * peus' Epeus took to wife Anaxirrhoe, by whom he had one daughter, Hyrmina, but no sons. In his reign Oenomaus, the prince of Pisa, was deposed by Pelops, the Lydian, who not only possessed himself of Pisa and Olympia, but acquired a part of the territory of Epeus. On the death of Epeus, the throne of Elis passed to his brother Aetolus. By an involuntary act, Aetolus slew Apis, an Arcadian. It became necessary for him to leave Elis, and, as we have seen, he retired to the region which was subsequently called after him.2 He was succeeded on the throne by Eleus, the son of his sister Eurycyde, from whom the inhabitants, who were previously called Epeans, received the name of Eleans.    The son of Eleus was Augeas, whose stables
1  Strabo, p. 345.   He points out that in the "poet," the Cauconians are allies of the Trojans.
2  Strabo, p. 357, quotes Ephorus to the effect that Aetolus was driven out by Salmoneus, king of the Epeans and Pisatans.
92         ELEAN LEGENDS: AUGEAS &> ITEXACZES. [III. 14.
Heracles was bidden to cleanse. Heracles accomplished the task by directing into them the stream of the river Menius, but Augeas refused the stipulated reward, and banished his son Phyleus, who desired to deal more honestly with Heracles. A quarrel now arose between Heracles and Augeas. Both sides prepared for a conflict. Augeas entered into alliance with Amarynceus, a Thessalian settled in Elis, to whom he gave a share of the kingdom, and with the sons of Actor, the grandsons of Epeus, who also had a share in the monarchy, and dwelt in the city of Hyrmina. Against this combination Heracles fought with little success. He then took advantage of the truce of the Isthmian games to lie in wait for the sons of Actor on their way to Corinth, and slay them.1 When the deed was discovered, the Eleans demanded satisfaction from the Argives, Heracles being then resident at Tiryns; and, on the refusal of the Argives, they pressed the Corinthians to exclude the Argives from the Isthmian games. This request being also refused, the Eleans bound themselves by a solemn oath not to compete in the Isthmian games.
Heracles then collected a force from Thebes, Argos and Arcadia, with which he took Augeas captive and laid Elis waste. The Eleans had been assisted by the Pisatans and The Resettle- the Pylians, and Heracles was about to continue ment of Elis. hjs conquests against Pisa, when he was checked by an oracle from Delphi. He gave back Elis to Phyleus, to whom also he restored his father Augeas. Not long afterwards, Phyleus retired to Dulichium, leaving the throne of Elis to Augeas. Augeas was succeeded by Agasthenes, his own son, and by Amphimachus and Thalpius, the sons of the Actoridae.    Diores also, the son of Amarynceus, continued to
1 The Actoridae are the Siamese twins of antiquity, Eurytus and Cteatus. Apollodorus represents Actor as the brother of Augeas (ii. 7, 2); but in Pansanias (v. 1, 11) Actor is the son of Phorbas, the son of Lapithes and of Hyrmina, the daughter of Epeus. They were usually known as the Molionidae, from the name of their mother Molione.
III. I4-]                  THE ELEAN LEGENDS.                          93
hold a share in the government. At this time, therefore, there were four princes in Elis. In the Homeric Catalogue forty ships are assigned to Elis ; twenty under the command of Amphimachus and Thalpius ; ten under Diores ; and ten under Polyxenus, the son of Agasthenes. Polyxenus was succeeded by his son Amphimachus, who was in turn succeeded by Eleus II. In the reign of Eleus il, the Aetolian Oxylus and the Dorians invaded Peloponnesus.1
It is of course obvious that much of this history is fictitious. It has arisen out of the later history of Elis, and is in part an attempt to explain it. Endymion is The Fictitious merely the man of the west. Aethlius, the ath- nature of these lete, is named after the contests which made Le£ends* Elis famous. Epeus and Aetolus are eponymous heroes invented by the nations which bore their name. The real condition of Elis appears when we come to Augeas and the Actoridae. If three or four princes ruled side by side, we may assume that Elis was divided into three or four principalities, each governed by a separate monarch. These were to some extent combined at the time of the Dorian invasion, though the old opposition between Elis and Pisatis continued to exist, and Triphylia remained independent. The town of Elis may have been built at the time of the Dorian migration, but the various adjacent villages were not incorporated with it till after the Persian wars.
It is true that the Eleans were excluded from the Isthmian games, but for this the jealousy of the Corinthians is a sufficient reason. The elaborate explanations given in antiquity for the exclusion are mere fictions,2 which are proved by their diversity to have no foundation. Moreover, the Isthmian games did not become a national festival till the time of Periander, many centuries after the supposed slaughter of the Actoridae.
1 Paus. v. chaps. 1-3.
* Ibid. v. 2, 3 ; Duncker, Hist. Greece, ii. 293.
94                   LEGENDARY HISTORY: MESSENIA.      [III. 15.
Messenia.
15. Messenia was not a united kingdom at the time of the Dorian invasion. If we may trust the evidence of tradition, there were three cities in the country which had been the seats of regal government—Andania, Arene and Pylus. Pausanias1 tells us that in the earliest times the land was uninhabited. But Polycaon, the younger son of Lelex, king of Laconia, was impelled by the ambition of his wife Messene, the daughter of Triopas of Argos, to gather settlers from Argos and Lacedaemon, and establish himself as king of the country. He fixed his capital at Andania. It was to Messene at Andania that Caucon brought the mysteries of the Great Goddesses from Eleusis in Attica,
Of the posterity of Polycaon, Pausanias could find no trace in any of the authorities which he consulted. About five Neieus settles generations later, Perieres, the son of Aeolus in Pyius.           was invited to be  king  over Messenia.    He
was succeeded by Aphareus, who built the city of Arene, and invited Neieus to settle in his kingdom, at Pylus. In his reign Lycus brought the knowledge of the rites of the Great Goddesses to Aphareus, conducting him for the purpose of initiation to Andania, where Caucon had previously initiated Messene. The sons of Aphareus were Idas and Lynceus, who left no male children behind them. The house of Aphareus being thus without male descendants, the throne passed to Nestor, the son of Neieus, the king of Pylus. In the third generation after Nestor, the Dorians expelled the Nelidae from Pylus. The dislike which the Messenians cherished towards the Nelidae, who were Minyae from Iolcus, and not native princes, caused them to enter willingly into negotiations with the Dorians, whom they received into their country, and allowed to settle at Stenyclarus. Cresphontes also took to wife Merope, the daughter of Cypselus, the king of the Arcadians, by whom he had a
Paus. iv. chaps. 1-3.
III. IS.]     MESSENIAN LEGENDS—DEDUCTIONS.              95
number of children, Aepytus being the youngest. His government being conducted in the interest of the people, a rebellion broke out among the aristocracy. Cresphontes was slain, and all his children, except Aepytus, who was in the care of Cypselus. When Aepytus grew up, he was restored to his throne by the help of the Arcadians and the other Dorians of Peloponnesus. Aepytus took vengeance on the murderers of his father, and established himself so firmly on the throne that the royal race of Messenia were henceforth known as Aepytidae.
From Stenyclarus, the Dorians extended their power over the whole of Messenia. The Nelidae were compelled to quit their citadel at Pylus. They sought refuge at Athens, where for many generations they were the ruling family. Among the most eminent of the exiles, Pausanias mentions Alcmaeon, Melanthus, the sons of Paeon, and Pisistratus.1
It is perhaps uncritical to select one part of this legendary history as more worthy of credit than another. But if we are justified in drawing any conclusions at all a criticism of from statements of which the historical truth t{le Le&ends-can never be ascertained, it would seem that the Dorians when passing up the Alpheus made terms with the Arcadians. It was with their assistance that they established themselves in the region of Stenyclarus. The Messenians themselves at the time were either divided into two or more principalities, or under the dominion of an immigrant power which had settled at Pylus, on the coast; and it is not improbable that the Dorians found it possible to take advantage of some divisions among the Messenian people. In the first instance the Dorians received but slight support, and in no long time the opposition was strong enough to drive them out into Arcadia; but, with the help of the other Dorians in Peloponnesus and their Arcadian allies, the next generation succeeded in firmly establishing themselves, and they became masters of the whole of Messenia.
1 Paus. ii. 18, 8, 9. Whether Pisistratus went to Athens is uncertain-
96                 LEGENDARY HISTORY OF SPARTA.       [III. id.
Sparta.
l6. Sparta was the second settlement of the invaders in the Peloponnesus, and in time it became the most important city of the Dorians in Greece. Just below its confluence with the Oenus, the mountain walls which line the banks of The valley of the Eurotas fall back on either side, and leave the Eurotas. a p]am 0f moderate extent. On the left bank the land is low and marshy; on the right, spurs run down from Taygetus and form a number of low hills. Upon this higher ground lay the city of Sparta, or rather the group of villages which bore the name of Sparta in antiquity. Below the city the mountains again approach the river, which passes through rocky chasms to the sea. The extent of the plain is about eighteen miles by four.1 Near the middle a spur of Mount Taygetus strikes across it. It was the upper portion which formed the original settlement of Sparta. Secluded from the sea, and easily defended on every side, Sparta was the natural stronghold of Peloponnesus. From the " Return " till the time of Epaminondas (370 B.C.), no invader ever set foot in the valley of the Eurotas.
In the legendary account preserved by Pausanias, the names of the territory are derived from the ancient Early History sovereigns.2 Eurotas is the son of Myles, the of Sparta.          son 0f Lelex.   Sparta is the daughter of Eurotas,
who is given in marriage to Lacedaemon, the son of Taygete. Amyclas, the son of Lacedaemon, founded Amyclae. It is through Amyclas that the line of kings is continued to Oebalus, the father of Tyndareus. Tyndareus was expelled from the throne by his brother Hippocoon, and some time elapsed before he was restored, by the aid of Heracles, to his rightful heritage. From Tyndareus, the throne passed through Menelaus to Orestes, whose son Tisamenus was reigning at the time of the Dorian invasion, when apparently Sparta and Argos were regarded as forming one dominion.
1 Tozer, Led. on Geogr. p. 283.
? Pans, iii 1.
III. 17.] LEGENDARY HISTORY: AMYCLAE-ARGOS.       97
It is perhaps reasonable to conclude from these legends that Amyclae was in early times a more powerful city than Sparta. Ephorus, indeed, represents the invaders as masters from the first of the whole of the valley of the Eurotas and of some towns in Arcadia. He adds that the entire territory was divided into six portions, Amyclae being ceded to the traitor who had placed Laconia in the hands of the Dorians. Sparta was the capital, from which kings were sent to the other five districts, and all who submitted enjoyed squal rights with the Dorian conquerors.1 But this account is incredible. The union of Amyclae with Sparta is a mere fiction, invented to cover the failure of the Amyclae and Dorians to capture the town, for it is certain Sparta, that the Amyclaeans retained their independence till the time of Teleclus. For a considerable period after the invasion the Dorians were unable to penetrate up or down the valley of the Eurotas beyond the limits more immediately commanded by Sparta.
Argos.
17. As we have already seen, the ancient legends of Argos carry us beyond the limits of Hellas. Io, the daughter of Inachus, the king of the country, was beloved by Zeus, by whom she was visited in the fruitful meadow of Lerna. The jealous rage of Hera egen changed her into a cow-headed monster, and drove her out to wander over the earth. At length she arrived in Egypt, where she brought forth her son Epaphus. From Epaphus were descended Aegyptus and Danaus. The sons of Aegyptus sought their cousins in marriage, but Danaus fled with his daughters to Argos, to escape the connection. There, according to one account, they were hospitably received, and the maidens were protected from their pursuers. According to another version, the sons of Aegyptus succeeded in their object.
1 Quoted in Strabo, p. 364.
vol. i.                                                           a
98    ARG0L1C LEGENDS: DANAIDS—PELOPIDS.     [III. 17.
But on the marriage-night all the brides, save one, slew their
husbands.     From Lynceus, the sole survivor, and Hyper-
mnestra, sprang Danae, who became, by Zeus, the mother of
d    'd       Perseus.    Perseus built Mycenae, and, at his
death, established his three sons, Alcaeus, Elec-tryon and Sthenelus, at Tiryns, Mycenae and Argos. By the death of Electryon, who was slain in a quarrel by Amphitryon, the son of Alcaeus, and the banishment of Amphitryon as one guilty of bloodshed, Sthenelus became lord of the three cities of the Argolid. His kingdom descended to Eurystheus, who was finally slain in Attica (p. 60).   The throne now passed
to Atreus, the son of Pelops, whose sister was
the mother of Eurystheus. In this manner the legend brings the Pelopids, who are heroes of the Pisatid, where Pelops contended with Oenomaus for the hand of Hippodamea, to Argos. To Atreus were born Agamemnon and Menelaus, under whom the great expedition went forth to Troy for the rescue of Helen.
Between Atreus and his brother Thyestes there had been a terrible feud, which descended to their sons.    In the absence
of Agamemnon, Aegis thus, the son of Thyestes, e opi s. se<iuce<i fog wife Clytemnestra, with whose aid he slew the king on his return from Troy. But Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, lived to return to Argos and take vengeance on his mother and Aegisthus. For this deed he was tried on the hill of Ares at Athens, and acquitted, as the votes were equal. His posterity did not long remain in the land, being expelled by the descendants of Heracles, whom Eurystheus had unjustly kept from his rights. At the time of the Dorian invasion Tisamenus, the son of Orestes, was on the throne (p. 96).
Here, again, we see traces of history. Io is undoubtedly some form of a cow-headed goddess, whether we identify her Cow-headed with the deity of the Phoenicians, or, as the deity of Argos. legend implies, with the Isis of the Egyptians. Perhaps she is to be identified with both, for, in another legend, she is carried away from Argos by Phoenician mariners.   The establishment at Argos of the Pelopids, whose
III. 17.] LEGENDARY ARGOS, MYCENAE, & T/RYNS.      99
home, before they visit Peloponnesus, is Mount Sipylus, near the river Hermus, points to a connection between Argolis and Asia Minor, which is confirmed by archaeological researches (p. 47). The story of the flight of the fifty daughters of Danaus from their cousins may have arisen from some rule of " exogamy," which made it unlawful for women to marry men of their own family. Guesses such as these may be made in regard to portions of the myth; but more than guesses they cannot be, till we know precisely the stages in the growth of the legend. What are the earliest traits ? "What have been added later I Was there in reality any connection between Egypt and Argos in ancient times, or has the legend which connects them grown up after Egypt was opened to Hellenic commerce ? These are questions which we have very imperfect means of answering.
Argos is the natural capital of the peninsula which runs out to the north-east of Peloponnesus; and at an early time she became the most important city in the district, to which she gave her name. But here, as everywhere in Greece, the larger unit is formed by a combination of smaller units. Even in the part of Argolis which forms the plain of Argos there were, at least, three cities existing as the capitals of independent principalities— Argos, Mycenae Tiryns, on an elevated plateau near the sea; and Tiryns. Mycenae, in the recesses of Mount Euboea; and Argos, at the foot of the outlying spurs of Lycone, an offshoot from the range of Parthenium. The early history and relations of these cities are told at length in mythological accounts, but we have no clue to the real condition of affairs. We may reasonably suppose that the temple of Hera, near Mycenae, was common to all the inhabitants of the district. But even this is no more than a conjecture. In historical times the temple is under the control of Argos.1
1 In addition to the three ancient cities in the Argolid, we hear of three kings at Argos (Paus. ii. IS, 4). The desire to reconcile the Accounts of Argos in the Theban and Trojan epics, and the confusion of Argos with Mycenae, led no doubt to numerous difficulties.
100                 LEGENDARY EPOCH: CORINTH.            [III. 18.
At Argos there was a fourth tribe, in addition to the three Dorian tribes—the Hyrnethians (supra, p. 63). Without further evidence, this would lead us to suspect that the old inhabitants of the city had a share in the new settlement. Legend also describes the reign of Temenus as one of great disturbance, owing to the favour which he showed to his son-in-law Deiphontes. At length the sons of Temenus, fearing that they would be deprived of the succession to the throne, slew their father. Deiphontes fled to Epidaurus, where he was able to maintain himself in an independent position. It appears therefore that at Argos, as in Messenia, the position of the Dorians was at the first very precarious.1
Corinth.
18. The early history of Corinth was made the subject oi an epic poem by Eumelus, the son of Amphilytus, a member of the great family of the Bacchiadae. Pausanias speaks of him as the reputed author of poems (zirrf) and also of a history of Corinth {a-vyypa^ Kopiv&'a), but he doubts whether the history is a genuine work of Eumelus.2 It appears that the poems of Eumelus were lost before the time of Pausanias, but that an epitome of them, written in prose, was still in existence. This was certainly not the work of Eumelus, for at the date when he flourished (760 B.C.) prose was not yet written. We do not know where, or by whom, it was compiled, or whether it was a faithful representation of the poems upon which it was founded. It is the source from which Pausanias drew his account of the mythical history of Corinth before the Dorian invasion.
1  Pans. ii. 28, 3 ff.
2  Pa as. ii.   1, I.    See, by all  means, Kinkel, Graec. Epic. Frag^ p. 185 ff.
III. 18.] MYTHICAL CORINTH: PAUSANIAS' ACCOUNT. 101
Ephyre, the daughter of Helius, was the first inhabitant of the territory of Corinth,  which then included Sicyon. Afterwards  Helius  gave Asopia (Sicyon) to Aloeus,  and   Ephyraea (Corinth) to Aeetes.                '
Aeetes left his portion in charge of Bunus, and retired to Colchis; and when Bunus died, Epopeus, the son of Aloeus, became king of the whole territory. From Epopeus the throne descended to Marathon. During the lifetime of his father, Marathon, in alarm at his fierce and lawless actions, had retired to Attica, but at his death he returned to CorintL After dividing the kingdom between his sons Sicyon and Corin-thus, he returned once more to Attica, where he died. As Corinthus left no children, Medea, the daughter of Aeetes, was brought from Iolcus to Corinth. By Medea the throne was handed over to Sisyphus.1 The following table gives the succession to the time of the Dorian invasion:—
Sisyphus.
Glaucus.            Ornytion.        Thersander.           Alnius.
Phocus,                               Thoas.
Deraophon.
I Propodas.
Doridas.                                        Hyanthidas.
The two last kings ceded the throne to Aletes.2 This mythical history is only valuable because it proves that, from a very early time, the worship of the sun Worship of the was established at Corinth. If we combine Sun at Corinth, with it the story of the children of Medea, which seems to represent some ancient custom of human sacrifice, and the
Pans. ii. 3, 10.
Paus. ii. 4, 3 (supra, p. 64).
102         LEGENDARY CORINTH: SUN-WORSHIP.       [III. 19,
worship of Aphrodite, which is known to have prevailed at Corinth, it is not rash to assume* that the sun-god thus worshipped was the Semitic sun-god, to whom children were made to pass through the fire. This conjecture is rendered more probable by the introduction of Marathon into Corinthian legend. Marathon in Attica was the home of a fire-breathing bull in which we may recognise the symbol of Baal-Moloch.
From early times Corinth was a wealthy and important city. By crossing the isthmus, the mariner escaped the wealth of the dangers of Malea and shortened the voyage to city of Corinth. Sicily an<i the west. With a harbour on either side of the isthmus, and at the same time holding the key of communication between Peloponnesus and Northern Greece, the city became a centre of traffic, where strangers from all parts met and traded. There were eight tribes in the city, of which three only could be Dorian. Hence it is probable that in the so-called conquest the Dorians allowed a great portion of the original inhabitants to remain, but retained the monarchy in their own hands.1
Sicyon.
19. The Sicyonian account of the early history of their city is at variance with the Corinthian version. Aegialeus, they said, was their first king, the founder of a city Aegalea. He was succeeded by Europs, Telchis, and Apis—a powerful king who gave his name to the whole of Peloponnesus. After Apis came Thelxion, Aegyrus, Thurimachus, and Leucippus, who died without male issue. Calchinia, the daughter of Leucippus, became, by Poseidon, the mother of Peratus, who was succeeded by his son Plemnaeus. After some generations we arrive at Corax, at whose death Epopeus came to
1 Pausanias says, indeed, rSu tie Kopivdtav 6 drjfios i^enco-tv xmb AcopUcov KparrjOels p-axn ("• *» 3)' though he allows that the deposed kiugs, Doridas and Hyanthidas, remained in the city. The large number of tribes indicates a mixed population (supra, p. 64).
III. 19.]                  S1CY0NIAN LEGENDS.                         103
Sicyon from Thessaly, and obtained the throne. Epopeus was eager to take to wife Antiope, the daughter of Nycteus of Thebes, or, as some said, of the Boeotian Legends about Asopus, and succeeded in carrying her off by Anti°Pe»etc-force, but afterwards died of his wounds. Then Laomedon, the grandson of Corax, gave Antiope back to her people. Laomedon found himself at war with his neighbours, the Achaeans, and summoned Sicyon from Attica to aid him. Sicyon received the hand of Zeuxippe, the daughter of Laomedon, and in due time became king of the city, which was now called Sicyon instead of Aegalea. From Sicyon was descended Polybus, in whose reign Adrastus came to Sicyon from Argos. After a few more reigns, in which the succession was broken, Agamemnon appeared with e.
'      °                     rr,                      Sicyon becomes
an army, and Sicyon, under her king, Hippo- subject to lytus, consented to be the vassal of Mycenae.  A&amemnon-The descendant of Hippolytus was Lacestades, in whose reign Phalces, the son of Temenus, conquered Sicyon, and added it to the kingdom of Argos.    The native king was allowed to retain his throne.1
In this account the union of Sicyon and Corinth, if it is a historical fact, is carefully concealed. The Sicyonian territory forms a part of the Achaean district of Aegalea, and it is only when it ceases to be Achaean, under Attic influence, that the city receives the name of Sicyon. But while maintaining their independence in the west, the Sicyonians lost it in the east; the Argives under Agamemnon, and the Dorians under Phalces, reduced them to submission. It is worth observing that Phaestus, who held the throne of Sicyon in the second generation after Adrastus, is spoken of in the legends as a Heraclid, and the resistance which the city may have offered to the Dorians—a resistance so vigorous that the native prince retains his throne in spite of the so-called con-quest—can thus be changed into a friendly compact between the descendants of a Heraclid king and a Heraclid invader.
1 Paus. ii. 5, 6.
104    MYTHICAL HISTORY: PHLIUS—TROEZEN.      [III. 20.
Phlius.
20.  Of the origin of Phlius various accounts were given. Pausanias, who heard them all, came to the conclusion that the Phliasians were first Argives, and then Dorians. Tho first king was Aras, a child of the soil, who built his city near the hill Arantinus, at a short distance from the later town. He had a son Aoris, and a daughter Araethyrea; and in honour of his sister, who died before him, Aoris called the
country Araethyrea. Of Phlias, who gave to the city the name by which it was afterwards known, there were various stories; some regarded him as the son of Cisus, the son of Temenus, others as a son of Dionysus. In the third generation after the Dorians invaded Peloponnesus, Bhegnidas, the son of Phalces, advanced upon Phlius The Dorian from Argos. A party in the city were inclined Conquest.          ^0 listen to his proposals, and receive him, with
his Dorians, giving up to them a portion of the land; but Hippasus and others were for resistance. The matter was referred to the people, who decided to receive the Dorians, and Hippasus retired to Samos.1
Troezen and Epidaurus.
21.  Of Troezen and Epidaurus there is little to relate beyond the forms of worship which prevailed there. Troezen was sacred to Poseidon. It was by Aethra, the daughter of the king of Troezen, that Aegeus, who is thought to be Poseidon, became the father of Theseus. Off the city lay the island of The Caiaurian Calauria, the meeting-place of an Amphictyony, Amphictyony. or association for the worship of Poseidon. The cities which joined in it were Hermione, Epidaurus, Prasiae, Aegina, Athens, Nauplia, and the Minyan Orchomenus; but after the Dorian conquest Argos took the place of Nauplia, and Sparta of Prasiae.    Epidaurus was thought to be a
1 Paus. ii. 12.    Hippasus was the reputed ancestor of Pythagoras.
III. 22.]         LEGENDARY HISTORY OF ACHAEA.          105
settlement of Carians. It was famous for the worship of Asclepius (infra, pp. 125 and 238). About the early inhabitants of the country, Pausanias could obtain no information. Epidaurus, the eponymous hero of the land, was variously said to be a son of Pelops, Argus, or Apollo. Of the conquest of the city by the Dorians we have already         .
spoken (p. 64).  The Epidaurians always claimed to be independent of Argos, and at some early period they established their authority over the island of Aegina, which, in legend, is the home of Aeacus and the Myrmidons.1
Achaea.
22. The northern coast of Peloponnesus, from the territory of Sicyon to the river Larissus, near the mouth of the gulf of Corinth, was known in historical times as Achaea. But this was not the original name of the country.    In the earliest times it was known as Aegialea, or " the shore," and the inhabitants were Aegialeis, or       e   egia eis* shore-men.    When Attica became very populous, after the victory of Ion over Eumolpus and the Thracians, a colony was sent across the Corinthian Gulf, and the shore fell into the possession of the lonians. The country was now divided between twelve communities. After the  Dorian migration, the Achaeans, who dwelt in Laconia, were led by Tisamenus against the lonians.    In a succession of battles the lonians were driven into Helice, and finally forced back into Attica, whence they had come.    The Achaeans established themselves in the country, which was henceforth known as Achaea, and maintained their ground against all attacks.2
After the conquest the Achaeans, following the example of the previous inhabitants, arranged themselves in twelve cities. The Ionian population was absorbed—where it was not ex-
1 Paus. ii. 26, 2.
* Strabo, pp. 383, 384.
103            ACHAEAN CONSTITUTION AND RITES.    [III. 22.
pelled, and what had perhaps in earlier times been little more than villages became walled towns, each of which was farther increased by the combination of a number of hamlets. The names of the twelve cities were—Pellene, Aegira, Aegae, Bura, Helice, Aegium, Rhypes, Patrae, Pharis, Olenus, Dyme and Tritaea. In the period immediately following the conquest, the government of the Achaeans is said to have been monarchical. Tisamenus was the first, and Ogyges the last king of Achaea. In historical times we hear no more of these kings. The Achaeans formed themselves into a league, public affairs being managed by representatives from the twelve cities, who met at Aegium (infra, p. 257).
The unbroken repose which Achaea enjoyed for centuries was favourable to the preservation of old customs and religious rites. We have already observed that the manufacture of byssus at Patrae, and the worship of Aphrodite in that city, may have been a legacy from Phoenician colonists. Other remarkable Achaean rites are the sacrifices offered to Artemis Laphyria (p. 90) and Artemis Triclaria. Before the temple of Artemis Laphyria at Patrae there stood a great altar of burnt sacrifice. At the festival of the Laphria, a large wooden palisade was erected round the altar, into which were driven a number of animals both wild and tame. The wood was then fired, and the animals were burnt alive in honour of the goddess. About a mile and a half from Patrae, on the banks of the river " Meilichos," was the temple of Artemis Triclaria—i.e. the Artemis worshiped by three (adjoining) districts. Here it had been the custom to offer a yearly sacrifice of a boy and a girl to the goddess, and an oracle had declared that the cruel rite would only cease when a foreign deity was brought to the temple. It chanced that when a boy and girl were about to be sacrificed, Eurypylus appeared on the shore, on his way from Troy, bringing witli him the image of Dionysus. The oracle was supposed to be fulfilled; the stream, which was hitherto known as Ameilichos (cruel) was now called Meilichos (gentle), and the inhuman rites were discontinued. But  the  memory of them lingered in certain  expiations
III. 23.]    ARCADIA : ITS LEGENDAR V RECORDS.           107
performed by the children of Patrae even down to the time of Pausanias.1
Arcadia.
23. Secure in their mountains, the Arcadians were able to resist the Dorian conquerors. Even if we allow some transitory and partial conquests, it is clear from the long strife which was necessary .to gain Tegea at a later time, that the original invaders were unable to establish themselves either in the west or the north of Arcadia.    Hence in   «.   „ .  .,.
The Primitive
Arcadia, more than elsewhere, the old legends character must have remained undisturbed; there, more ofArcadia* clearly than in the rest of Greece, they reflected some characteristic features of early Greek civilisation. Unfortunately, our chief authority on the legends of Arcadia is Pausanias, in whose time many of the ancient villages of the country had become desolate, and with their extinction many an ancient rite and custom had passed out of existence.
Pelasgus 2 was the first king of Arcadia; he taught men to build huts, and to wear the skins of swine as clothing. He pointed out the acorn as the food of men, who had hitherto fed on herbs which were un- mff ea8ffu* wholesome, and even poisonous. He was succeeded by Lycaon, who built the city of Lycosura, the oldest of Arcadian cities, and founded the Lycaea in honour of Zeus Lycaeus. This festival continued to be mg ycaon-the great national feast of the Arcadians. The sons of Lycaon founded cities throughout Arcadia, Pallas settling at Pallan-tium, Orestheus at Oresthasium, and Phigalus at Phigalea, while Nyctimus, the eldest, remained at Lycosura. In fact all the cities of Arcadia are assigned to tne sons of Lycaon. His daughter was Callisto, who was beloved by Zeus. The son of Callisto was Areas, from whom the land was called Arcadia—hitherto the name had been Pelasgia.  Areas taught
1 Paus. ii. 19, vii. 18. * Ibid. viii. 1 ff.
108           PRIMITIVE ARCADIAN SUPERSTITIONS.   [III. 23.
his people to grow corn, to make bread, and to weave garments. He divided the land among his three sons, Azan, Apheidas and Elalas, who in their turn became founders of cities (see infra, ch. vii.).
Here, as always, a territory which was originally divided into numerous cantons, is given to a single king. The tradition which places Pelasgus at the head of the Arcadian line of kings is probably late. In tfre earliest legends, so far as we can tell, the Pelasgians were confined to a comparatively small area far removed from Arcadia.1 Even the account of Lycaon would seem to be a pure invention, unless, indeed, it indicates a previous population, whom the later Arcadians expelled. At any rate, his whole male issue— numerous as it is—makes room for the son of his daughter, with whom begins a new era and a new name for Arcadia.
More interesting than any attempt to make history out of legend, are the stories of Lycaon changing into a wolf, and Callisto, whose son is Areas, becoming the Great upers 1 ions. ]~jear Here we seem to have a definite trace of early beliefs—we are at the point of development when the animal and human world are not yet divided, and a change may take place between them. Elsewhere in Arcadia we hear of a precinct in which a man lost his shadow, another well-known incident in the belief of savages. Unfortunately such superstitions had no attraction for Polybius or Strabo, and but little for Pausanias. In their place we have the fictitious eponyms of Arcadian cities, and genealogies invented to connect what was never connected.
The Arcadians maintained that they were the children of the soil. They were the most ancient nation in Greece, and mt_  „    .         "lived before the moon."2 They were doubtless
The Foreign re-                  #                      ,           , .       ,   .            ^T      •         1
lations of primi- right in preferring this claim. No invader tive Arcadia. ^ad set,tled in their country; they had never been dispossessed since the remote period when they may have driven  some  earlier savages out of  the  land.
1  Supra, p. 27 ff.
2  "Prosefeni."    Before the Syllani or Hellenes (p. 199, note).
III. 24.]              THE MYTH OF HERACLES.                      109
Yet there is reason to suppose that even in early times bands issued from their mountains and settled in Cyprus. Legend tells us that Agapenor, who was carried out of his course on his return from Troy, went to Cyprus, and this connection is confirmed by the similarity of the Cyprian delect to the Arcadian (infra, p. 150). We also hear of Arcadians who emigrated to the west (Evander, etc.).
THE LABOURS OF HERACLES.
24. Two groups of legends still remain, which, without Toeing specially connected with any city, mark historical facts of importance in the early civilisation of Hellas—the labours of Heracles, and the Trojan war. Of these a short outline may be given. In them we shall find, as before, a mixture of myths in the stricter sense, and legend; phenomena of the natural world, which have been thrown into a personal form, being combined with incidents of a historical character.
In Grecian legend, Heracles was the son of Zeus and Alcmena, the wife of Amphitryon, king of Tiryns. Born in Thebes, where his father had taken refuge after the murder of his uncle and father-in-law Elec-tryon, king of Mycenae, by the jealousy of Hera, Heracles became subject to the commands of Eurystheus, king of Argos, by whom he was compelled to undertake a number of toils. He slew the Nemean lion, and the hydra of Lerna, the Eryman-thian boar, the birds of Stymphalus, and the bull of Crete. He caught, after a year's pursuit, the hind with the brazen feet; cleansed the stables of Augeas by diverting the course of the Menius through them; caused Diomed, the Thracian king, who fed his horses on human flesh, to be himself eaten by them; carried off the golden apples of the Hesperides, the girdle of Hippolyte, the oxen of Geryones; and enchained Cerberus in order to deliver Theseus. These were his Twelve Labours, but they formed only a small part of his works. He slew the Centaurs, delivered Thebes from Orchomenus, and turned the territory of the Orchomenians into a marsh by blocking the channels through which Lake Copais was
110 HERACLES' LABOURS: ORIGIN OF THE MYTH. [III. 25
drained; he delivered Alcestis from death, and Prometheus from the eagle which devoured him ; he assisted Atlas in sustaining heaven, and formed the outlet of the sea at the pillars which bear his name. After the murder of Iphitus, whom he .slew by treachery, he was sold into slavery to Omphale the queen of Lydia. In her service he wore woman's garments and plied the distaff, while Omphale put on the lion's skin and carried the club. On his return he sacked Oechalia, the city of Eurytus, whom he slew, with all his race, except Iole, whom he brought home as a bride. He had previously wedded Deianira, of Aetolia, whom he won from the Achelous (supra^ p. 88). In order to retain her place in his affections against her younger rival, Deianira sent him the robe which she anointed with the blood of the centaur Nessus, believing it to be a love-charm. Heracles put on the robe as he was offering sacrifice on the Cenaean headland, in thanksgiving for his victory. The supposed love-potion proved to be a consuming poison, by which Heracles perished in agony. His body was burned on Mount Oeta, and from the pyre it was thought that Heracles himself ascended to heaven a glorified hero, to dwell with Hebe and become the type of one who, by endurance and toil, had established his claim to immortality.
25. We have already seen (p. 50) that Heracles is the Greek form of a Babylonian or Phoenician sun-god. In the " Baby-The Semitic Ionian Epic " he passes through twelve labours, the^reeV m th as ^ie sun Passes trough the twelve signs of the of Heracles. zodiac.1 In changing him into a national hero, the Greeks have changed his labours into a series of achievements, which are exaggerated accounts of what was really done in Hellas by some ancient tribe. We have also seen how Heracles, the Theban god, became the heir to the ancient kingdom of Argos. When it was afterwards discovered that Heracles was the progenitor of the Lydian kings, no less than the Spartan, it became necessary for the Grecian hero to be
Sayce, Ancient Empires of the East, p. 190,
III. 26.)    EPIC LEGENDS: THE TALE OF TROY.           Ill
sold into slavery to the Lydian Omphale. The combination of sex which some of the Semitic races regarded as necessary to make up the full completion of the divine nature, led to the interchange of garments and occupations between Heracles and Omphale. The clearing of the ground from trees, the damming up of water-courses, the slaughter of wild beasts, by which Greece was rendered habitable, were attributed to the hero who represented Phoenician skill and energy. When this tendency had once begun, it went on with increased vivacity. Of the particular acts of Heracles, it would be absurd to attempt any explanation; but we can hardly doubt that the widespread activity of this hero points to that occupation of Greece by prehistoric nations, mainly of Semitic origin, which is becoming more and more probable on other evidence.
THE TROJAN WAR.
26. The great story of the expedition to Troy, the long siege and the capture of the city, and the disasters which overtook some of the Greeks on their return home, were the theme of many epic poems, of     e             roy*
which two, the Iliad and the Odyssey, have come down to us. The story which they relate is well known. Paris, the eon of Priam, king of Troy, stole away Helen, the lovely wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. Then all the chieftains who had ever been suitors for the hand of Helen, fulfilling the oath which bound them to punish any injury done to her, set sail to revenge upon Troy the dishonour of Menelaus. Nine years they laboured with varying success. In the tenth, Achilles, the greatest hero of the Greeks, slays Hector, the " Bulwark of Troy." Even then the city remains uncaptured. Achilles is himself slain by Paris. It is not till the famous wooden horse has been built by the Greeks, and received into Troy as a pretended gift at their departure, that the town is taken. The horse was filled with chosen warriors, who, in the dead of night, slew the Trojans when resting in the belief that at length their enemies were
112                LEGEND OF THE TROJAN WAR.         [III. 26
gone, and opened the gates to their companions. Then the armament returned home, but many heroes met with disaster. Agamemnon was slain by his wife and Aegisthus; Menelaus wandered seven years before he was able to regain Sparta; and Odysseus—the last to return—reached Ithaca twenty years after his departure, to find his wife surrounded by suitors who were eating up house and home.
The Greeks themselves had no doubts about the reality of these events, though they might allow that Homer had Historical truth treated them in a poetical manner. On more in the Legend, than one occasion, in historical times, public reference was made to the Iliad as an authority for the past. The incidents of the war before Troy are related in the Homeric poems with all the minuteness of an eye-witness. We know what hero slew another; when and how wounds were given or received. And there have been modern writers who have treated the story of the Trojan war as an incident of early Grecian history for which we have satisfactory evidence. But minuteness does not constitute truth. The epic poets knew their business, and were able to give a most accurate and circumstantial account of conflicts, whether they took place or not. The same minuteness is found in other legends, as, for instance, in early Irish history, which are demonstrably false. The myth of Troy is not made more historical than any other myth of Greece because we happen to have two great epics upon it. On the other hand, there is no reason to have recourse to solar phenomena in order to explain what is quite intelligible without them. That there were conflicts on the shores of the Troad, between the old inhabitants of the country and immigrant Greeks, that there was an ancient city there, which the Greeks succeeded in capturing and destroying, is not at all improbable. Nothing more than this was needed to give the foundation of the epics. The Iliad belongs to the class of poems of which the French Chansons de Geste are more recent examples. In one of these, the Chanson de Roland, we have an instance to show how a great poem,  with abundant variety of detail, can arise out
III. 26.]       TROJAN WAR: FACT AND FICTION.             113
of an insignificant event. That "vast epic," of which "the roots are indeed French, but the branches reach to Ireland and to the East," arose out of a defeat suffered in „
'                                                                            Comparison
778 A.D. by Charlemagne, when re-crossing the with the Chan-Pyrenees. The Gascons fell upon the rear of son de Roland-his army, and not only brought the whole into confusion, but also slew the greater part of the officers of the palace; among them Eoland, the warden (praefectus)oi the marches of Brittany. In the poem the combatants are the French and the Saracens. Eoland is now the hero of the story; he perishes by treachery, but his death is severely avenged. The stages through which the epic poem arose out of the historical event appear to be unknown. The development took place with wonderful rapidity. In a hundred years after Charlemagne's disaster the historian of Louis le Debonnaire thought it unnecessary to mention the names of the heroes who fell at Eoncevaux (where tradition places the scene of the battle), because they were so universally known.1 Yet there are no ballads or shorter poems in existence on the subject; nothing bridges the chasm between the historical event and the epic. The parallel in this respect to the Homeric poems is excellent. We may imagine the songs of the bards, out of which the epic poems of Greece have arisen; and we have reference to such songs in the Homeric poems. But none exist, and there is no external proof that any ever did exist in Greece: we begin with the great epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey.
The tale of Troy, then, is a myth, no less than the tales of Heracles or Theseus. But underneath it may lie a fact, which, if not historical, is yet sufficiently probable to throw doubt on the resolution of the legend into "Solar Phenomena;" "the immemorial story of the storming of the sky by the bright powers of the day, which had been localised in Thebes, where Greeks and Phoenicians had contended for possession, being again localised by Achaean poets in the land of their adoption."2
1  Chanson de Roland, Ed. L. Petit de Julleville, Introduction j Eginhard, Annates, 777-778 a,d. ; Id. Vita Caroli Magni, cap. ix.
2 Sayce, Ancient Empires, p. 229.
VOL. I.                                                                            H
CHAPTER   IV.
THE ASIATIC COAST AND  THE  ISLANDS  OF THE AEGEAN.
I. The tumult which had been caused by the irruption of the Thesprotians into Thessaly and the displacement of the Colonisation population of Greece did not subside within of Asia.            the limits of the peninsula.     From the north
and the south those inhabitants who were unable to maintain their ground against the incursions of the Thessalians, Arnaeans, or Dorians, and preferred exile to submission, sought new homes in the islands of the Aegean and on the western coast of Asia Minor. The migrations continued for several generations. When at length they came to an end, and the Anatolian coast from Mount Ida to the Triopian headland, with the adjacent islands, was in the possession of The Three        the Greeks, three great divisions or tribes were
Tribes.             distinguished in the new settlements: Dorians,
Ionians and Aeolians. In spite of the presence of some alien elements, the Dorians and Ionians of Asia Minor were the same tribes as the Dorians and Ionians of Greece. The Aeolians, on the other hand, were a composite tribe, as their name implies. Though they claimed the descendants of Agamemnon as their leaders, they were a mixed multitude, in which Locrians, Magnetes and Boeotians were united with the ancient Achaeans of Peloponnesus. It is possible that they did not receive their distinctive name till gathered together in the common enterprise of colonisation. An eponymous hero was subsequently found for them in Aeolus, the father of Sisyphus and Cretheus.1    For the Aeolians the
1 Of Holm» Griech. Geschichte, i. 85; Duncker, Hist, of Greece, ii. 285. We may conjecture that the Ionians began to feel their unity aboat the time of the centralisation of Attica; the Dorians at the 4'Return1'
IV. 2.]      COLONISATION OF ASIA : BY AEOLIANS.          115
chief point of embarkation was Aulis, on the Euripus; the Ionians came from Athens; the Dorians from various towns in Peloponnesus.
2. Of these three divisions the Aeolians lay farthest to the north. The precise limits of their territory were differently fixed by different authorities. Strabo describes the Aeolian cities as scattered over the whole region between the territory of Cyzicus on the north and the Hermus on the south;1 Phocaea marked the boundary of Ionia. Ephorus fixed the limits at Abydus and Cyme respectively.2 But in the stricter sense Aeolis did not extend farther to the north than the promontory of Lectum, the western point of the Troad. Tradition distinguished two streams of migration. The first was led by Orestes, the son of Traditional Agamemnon, and after his death in Arcadia, by account of his son Penthilus, who advanced as far as Thrace. e lgratlon# " Then Archelaus, the son of Penthilus, brought the expedition to the territory of the Cyzicenes in the neighbourhood of Dascyleum, and finally Gras, after advancing as far as the Granicus, returned with the larger part of the immigrants to Lesbos, and secured the island." The second body of emigrants was led by Cleuas and Malaus, who also claimed to be descendants of Agamemnon. Though they left Greece at the same time as the expedition under Penthilus, these heroes " lost time in Locris and the neighbourhood of Mount Phricius, but afterwards they crossed the sea and founded the city of Cyme, to which they gave the name of Phricionis," after Mount Phricius, in remembrance of their home.
It is highly improbable that an expedition which had penetrated through the Troad as far as the Granicus should abandon the mainland and retire to Lesbos, and criticism of there is evidence to show that this part of Asia the Tradition. Minor did not come into the possession of the Greeks till a date much later than that of the Aeolic migration. Cyzicus was first colonised by the Milesians in 756 B.O., and Abydus is
1 Strabo, p. 582.                       2 Id, p. 583.
116          COLON ISA TION OF ASIA : B Y AEOLIANS.      [IV. 3.
said to have remained in the possession of the Thracians till it also received a Milesian colony in 715 B.C. Hence we may leave the Troad out of sight, and assume that Lesbos was the point to which the Penthilids guided their ships from Aulis. This island was the prize which fell to the first emigrants; the second band passed on to the mainland and founded the city of Cyme. From Lesbos and Cyme proceeded the great majority of the Aeolian cities, which amounted in all to about thirty.1
Of the course of the conquest and the resistance made by the inhabitants we know almost nothing. The Aeolic migration is said to have continued for a longer time than that of the Ionians.2 A tradition preserved by Strabo asserts that the invaders captured Larissa, the stronghold of the Pelasgic natives, Larissa and by erecting against it the fortress of Neon Cyme.             Teichos, after which they proceeded to establish
themselves at Cyme. In the Vita Homeri ascribed to Herodotus the order of events is reversed. Cyme is here represented as the original settlement, from which the invaders spread over the coast. On the south they found their way blocked by the Pelasgic citadel (Larissa), which they reduced by building a new fortress in a still more commanding situation. The position of the two cities Cyme and Larissa is in favour of this form of the tradition.3
3. The Aeolic cities fell into two groups: a northern, of
which Lesbos was the centre, and a southern, composed of the
cities in the immediate neighbourhood of the
Hermus,  and founded  from  Cyme.    Of the
second group, twelve cities formed themselves into a dod'e-
capolis—doubtless for some religious purpose.    The names of
1  In the Schol. to Lycophron, Alex. 1374, we have another version of the legend : Orestes went to Lesbos, and there died before he could found a city.    This is derived from Hellanicus.
2 Strabo, p. 582 ; rerpaai yap 8r) ytpedis irpeafivrepav (facial ttjp AlokiKrjp airoiKtav ttjs 'Ioviktjs, biarpiftas $€ Xaftelv Ka\ XP°P0VS paKporepovs.    Cf. Pherecydes ap. Strab. 632.
3  Strabo, p. 621; Professor Ramsay, "History of Southern Aeolis,*1 Journal of Hellen. Soc. ii. 282.
IV. 3-1             ASIATIC AEOLIAN COLONIES.                    117
the members of this association are given by Herodotus as follows: Cyme, Larissae,NeonTeichos, Temnus, Cilia, Notium, Aegiroessa, Pitane, Aegaeae, Myrina, Grynea and Smyrna. Aegiroessa (Poplar-town) is not mentioned elsewhere, and may be the same city as Elaea (Marsh-town), which subsequently became of importance as the port of Pergamum. Smyrna was, at an early date, conquered by exiles from Colophon, when it ceased to be a member of the Aeolian league.
The northern group included the islands of Tenedos and Lesbos. In the latter there were originally six cities: Methymna, Mytilene, Pyrrha, Eresus, Arisba and Antissa, but Arisba was subsequently conquered and enslaved by% Methymna. To this group also belonged the Hecaton-nesi, a number of small islands lying in the immediate neighbourhood of Lesbos, and the settlements on the coast of the Troad, towns or villages chiefly of Lesbian origin, and in possession of the Lesbians. But " the cities on Ida" are placed by Herodotus in a separate class.1
In two instances the Aeolians penetrated farther into the interior. The city of Magnesia on the Maeander, though lying far to the south of Aeolis, is distinctly Magnesians stated to have been an Aeolian city, founded in Asia Minor» by emigrants from Thessaly and Crete. We can hardly doubt that the town of the same name under Mount Sipylus, though not included among the Aeolian cities, derived its population from the same source. The irruption of the Thesprotians into Thessaly confined the Magnesians to the mountainous tract which bore their name. From hence, owing possibly to the increase of population, a number of emigrants crossed the sea and established themselves in Asia. The subsequent arrival of the Aeolians and Ir nians, in numbers which they could not resist, drove them farther into the interior. With a singular tenacity they retained in both their settlements the name of
1 Herod, i. 149-151; Strabo, p. 599 ff. E. Meyer, Geschichte der Troas, p. 80 ff., is of opinion that all the colonies in the Troad were later than 700 B.C.
118             COLONISA TION OF ASIA: B Y IONIANS.      [IV. 4.
the country from which they came, for the Ionians and Aeolians, generally though not universally, adopted local names for their new cities.1
4. The second great stream of migration proceeded from Athens. Among the refugees, who, as we have seen, flocked The Ionian to Attica from all parts of Hellas, some rose to colonisation. eminence in the new country. The Nelidae of Pylus, more especially, became the dominant family, owing to. the services which they rendered in delivering Attica from her enemies. Xanthus, the Boeotian chief, when invading Attica from the north, challenged Thymoetas the Athenian king to single combat. Thymoetas declined, and his throne was, story of Meian- in consequence, given to the Pylian Melanthus, thus and Codrus. wh0 accepted the challenge and slew his enemy. Codrus, the son of Melanthus, performed an act of still greater devotion. The Dorians, when attacking Attica from the south, were assured by the oracle of Delphi that they would never succeed in taking the city if they slew the Athenian king. On hearing of this response, Codrus left the city in the dress of a peasant, armed with a reaping-hook. He fell in with two of the enemy, of whom he slew one, but was at once slain by the other. The Athenians sent a herald to ask for the body of their king, and when the Lacedaemonians were informed of his death they immediately withdrew from a contest in which they had no longer any hope of success.
Between the  children  of Codrus  a quarrel sprang up.
Medon, the heir to the throne, was lame, and,
owing to  this defect,  his younger brothers
refused to accept him as king.    When the Delphian oracle
1 Prof. Ramsay, Journal of Hellen. 80c. iii. 52, considers Magnesia to be later than the Aeolic cities. In the Catalogue (II. ii. 756) we are told that the Magnetes were present at Troy with forty ships, under the command of Prothous, but in the Iliad we hear nothing of them. These, of course, are Europeans. The monuments in the neighbourhood and the legends of Tantalus point to Magnesia as an older seat of the Lydian (or Hittite?) power, of which Sardis was the later capital When, why, or how the change was made we do not know.
IV. 4. ]      COLONISA TION OF ASIA : B V IONIANS.           119
decided in favour of Medon, they determined to leave Attica. They directed their course, at the head of a body of emigrants, across the Aegean, to the Carian city of Miletus, which they captured. In like manner Androclus, another son of Codrus, obtained possession of They lead the Ephesus and the island of Samos; the colonies Emigrants, spread until a dodecapolis was established, similar to the union which the Ionians had founded in their old settlements on the northern shore of Peloponnesus. In some cities the Ionian population formed a minority; Phocaea, for instance, though considered an Ionian city, was colonised by Phocians, and Clazomenae was mainly inhabited by exiles from Cleonae and Phlius. But in all the sons or descendants of Codrus became the ruling families.
It seems to be characteristic of Greek legend to ascribe to a single person or generation a series of acts which must have been achieved by the combined efforts of large numbers of men during many generations. The colonisation of Ionia was undoubtedly, in the main, an achievement The Emigrants of emigrants from Attica, but it was not of mixed race* accomplished by a single family or in the space of one lifetime. " Not all who took part in the so-called colonisation of Ionia were Ionians; some were Thebans, led by Philotas the grandson of Peneleos, others Minyae from Orchomenus, others Phocians, others Abantes from Euboea."1 Before the Asiatic coast could be reached the Cyclades must have been wrested from the Carians; and though the Lydians of Sardis appear to have been indifferent to the fate of the coast, the Carians were not dislodged from the mouths of the Maeander and Cayster without a severe struggle. In some of the cities we hear of more than one colonisation, and even among' the emigrants there were constant feuds and conflicts.
1 Paus. vii. 2, 3, after Herod, i. 146 rwv *AftavT€s ukv i£ "Elpoirfs cieri ovk IXagtorty polpa, toToti 'Icovirjs uera oi8e rov ovvofiaros obbev, Mivvai $€ *Op\ofi€Viol (r(f)L avap^€p,ixarai kcu Kabpeloi kcu Apvones kcu &<dk€€S aTTobdo-fiioL kcu MoXoo-(roi kcu 'ApKabcs IIeXa<ryoi kcu AcopUts 'T&iribavpioi aKXa re WpeanoXka avapcfiixaTat.
120                       ASIATIC IONIAN COLONIES.                 [IV. 5*
5. The two most famous of the Ionian cities were (1) Miletus, and (2) Ephesus. The first was a Carian city previously known as Anactoria.1 The Ionians were conducted to it by Neleus, the son of Codrus. After slaying the Carian inhabitants, they took their wives and daughters in marriage. In revenge the women pledged themselves by an oath not to eat with their husbands or call them by their names.2 Ephesus was originally in the hands of the Leleges and the Lydians, who were driven out by the Ionians under Androclus. The ancient sanctuary of the tutelary goddess of the place was transformed by the Greeks into a temple of Artemis, who was here worshipped as the goddess of birth and productivity in accordance with Oriental rather than Hellenic ideas.3 At both these cities the Thesmophoria were celebrated; but the Apaturia, which Herodotus regards as a peculiar mark of Ionic descent, were not celebrated at Ephesus.4 Nor do the five tribes of Ephesus agree with the old Ionic division into four. Of the remaining cities, (3) Myus, and (4) Priene were established on Carian soil. The founder of Myus was Cyaretus or Cydrelus. The name of the city was derived from the mosquitoes which infested it, and which at length became so intolerable a plague that the inhabitants abandoned their city and retired to Miletus. At the founding of Priene, Androclus of Ephesus lost his life in battle against the Carians. But Aepytus, a son of Neleus, and Philotas, who brought a number of Thebans to share in the colony, were regarded as the founders.    (5) Erythrae was originally inhabited by Cretans,
1 The name Miletus was thought to have been derived from Miletus a Cretan, who directly or indirectly colonised the place, before the Ionians (Paus. vii. 2, 5 ; Strabo, p. 632 ff.).
2  Herod, i. 146. This may be a Greek explanation of a piece of savage " etiquette'' which survived among the Carians.
3 According to Strabo, p. 633, the city was originally called Smyrna, after an Amazon of that name. The Amazons worshipped at the old temple.
4  As the Thesmophoria were celebrated by women, apart from men, the statement implies that the Carian wives of the Milesian settlers adopted Greek rites.    At Colophon also there were no Apaturia.
IV. 6.]                 ASIATIC IONIAN COLONIES.                       121
with whom were associated Lycians and Pamphylians. The Ionian colonists were a band collected by Cnopus (or Cleopus) from the various cities of Ionia, who united with the old inhabitants. (6) Clazomenae was chiefly a colony of Phlius and Cleonae, founded by Parphorus, or Paralus of Colophon. (7) At Teos the settlers were a mixed population, consisting of a remnant of the Minyae under AthamaSj Ionians under Nauclus, a son of Codrus, and Boeotians under Geres. (8) Phocaea was established by Phocians from the foot of Parnassus ; their leaders were Damon and Philogenes of Athens: (9) Colophon, by Ionians, under Damasichthon and Promethus, sons of Codrus: (10) Lebedus, by Ionians under Andraemon. Of the more important islands, Naxos was not included in the Ionian dodecapolis, though it is said to have been colonised by Neleus on his way to Miletus, and subsequently by Arche-timus and Teuclus. (11) Samos was occupied by Epidaurians under Procles, and, for a time, by Androclus of Ephesus. (12) Chios was first inhabited by Cretans under Oenopion, and subsequently by Carians, and Abantes from Euboea. These were driven out by the great chief Hector, but of the manner in which Chios became connected with the Ionians the Chians could give no clear account.1
6. Herodotus informs us that four different dialects were spoken among the Ionian cities of Asia, of which one was peculiar to Miletus, Myus and Priene, cities founded Dialects of the on Carian soil; the second to the Lydian cities i°nian Cities. Ephesus, Colophon, Teos, Lebedus, Clazomenae and fchocaea; the third was in use at Chios and Erythrae, the fourth was confined to Samos.2 This distinction, whatever it may signify, did not prevent all the twelve cities from being Ionian sacrifice united in a religious sacrifice offered each year t0 Poseidon, on the headland of Mycale to Poseidon, the deity of the Ionians.    The festival was administered by the "king" of
1  Paus. vii. 2 ff.; Strabo, p. 633. The accounts differ. The colonisation of Chios by Oenopion, a name which also appears in the legends of Naxos and Cyzicus, is due to the abundance of the Chian wine.
2  Herod, i. 142.
122            COLONISATION OF ASIA: BY DORIANS.      [IV. 7.
Priene; it was a condition of membership that the city should be governed by descendants of Codrus. When the Phocaeans applied for admission, they were disqualified till they had placed at the head of their city descendants of Codrus, summoned from Erythrae and Teos.1 This worship of Poseidon the colonists brought with them, perhaps from Achaea. At Calauria also an Amphictyony of cities had combined to offer sacrifice to this deity, who was established beside Athena on the Acropolis of Athens and at Troezen (p. 104).
7. The southern part of the Anatolian coast, and the southernmost islands in the Aegean were colonised by the The Dorian Dorians, who wrested them from the Phoeni-Coionisation. cian or Carian occupants. Of the islands, Crete is the most important. In legends this island was known as the abode of Minos, who first established a maritime empire in the Aegean, and instituted a system of laws, from which, it was thought, Lycurgus borrowed the institutions of Sparta. The Cretan empire is by some supposed to have been Hellenic, and this was the opinion of Thucydides; by others Carian, a view with which the evidence of Herodotus is not incompatible; others consider that the story of Minos is but the Grecised account of the occupation of Crete by Phoenicians. Here, as elsewhere, it is probable that one name became the centre round which many legends gathered. There were, we cannot doubt, Phoenician colonies in Crete, from which the name of Minos may have been derived. But it was not the custom of the Phoenicians to found naval empires, such as that which legend ascribes to Minos. Nor is there any reason for attributing to the Phoenicians or Carians the peculiar institutions found among the Greeks in Crete. They are due, like those of Sparta, to the Dorian immigrants, and arose out of the necessity of holding in check a subject population. The Dorians claimed to have colonised Crete with a band of emigrants from Argos under the command of
1 Paus. vii. 3, 10 ; Strabo, p. 384.
IV. 7-]      COLONISATION OF ASIA: B V DORIAXS.            123
Althaemenes, but as Idomeneus, the Cretan, was mentioned in the Homeric poems, and Dorians were there included in the population of Crete, it became necessary to Dorian Coio-ussume a still earlier settlement. While yet in nists in Crete Hestiaeotis in Thessaly, the Dorians had sent colonists to Orete.1 Even these were not the first inhabitants of the island. Homer speaks of Eteocretes and Cydonians "who dwell by the stream of Jardanus," in addition to Dorians, Achaeans and Pelasgians. The Cydonians were probably Phoenicians, for the name Jardanus is of Phoenician origin; the Eteocretes are possibly related to the Carians of Asia Minor, though the Cretans themselves regarded the Carians as subjects, and claimed alliance with the Lycians.2
Crete was one of the oldest centres of civilisation in the Aegean. The most important cities of the island were Cnossus, Oortyn and Cydonia. The first was the city of Minos, and therefore, we may presume, a Phoenician settlement before it passed into the hands of the Greeks.3 The name Gortyn is found in Arcadia, where it was given to a city or village, and to the river which flowed through it. It is remarkable that the Arcadian Gortyn was adjacent to a place known as Maratha, a name which some trace
1  For Minos see Thuc. i. 4, Herod, i. 171. For Althaemenes, and the still earlier migration, see Andron and Ephorus in Strabo, pp. 476, 479, 481. We cannot ascribe any real value to Andron's statement, yet.it agrees with the view which represents the Dorians as invading Argolis by sea. To Thucydides, Minos is merely a Greek tyrant, like Cypselus or Polycrates. Hoeck's Kreta is still the best book about the island.
2 The epithet rpixaiKcs applied to the Dorians of Crete in Homer {Od. xix. 177) was supposed by Andron to refer to the three cities founded by the Dorians in Doris: Erineum, Boeum and Cytinium, but Strabo (p. 476) points out that there were four cities in Doris, and that rpixaiKcs was derived by some from the rpt\o<£>t'a, by others cwr6 rov Tpi%ivovs ehai rovs \6<f>ovs. It is difficult to believe that Kdp and Kprjs are not variations of the same name, in spite of the additional r in the latter stem. The name Eteocretes, "genuine Cretans," points to some mixture of population.
3 The older name of the city was Caeratug. It was the centre of ihe legends connected with the Minotaur.
124                      ASIATIC DORIAN COLONIES.             [IV. 8, 9.
to a Phoenician origin.1 Cydonia was, of course, the city of the Cydonians. The oldest Laconian colony in Crete was Lyctus.2
8.  The Dorian colony in Rhodes, like that in Crete, was ascribed to the band which left Argos under the command of
Althaemenes, and here also, probably to meet the statements in the Homeric poems (the Catalogue), it was assumed that a still earlier colony had been sent out. After the slaughter of Licymnius, Tlepolemus, the son of Heracles, fled to Ehodes, whether from Boeotia or Tiryns was not clear.3 These earlier colonists might indeed claim to be Heraclids, but as they left Greece before the Return of the Heraclids, they could not have been The Earliest Dorians. Legends spoke of still earlier in-inhabitants. habitants: the Telchines who were skilled in all manner of metal work, and the Heliadae or children of the sun. These stories, like the legends of Minos, may have been derived from the Phoenician occupants of the island, onan 1 le . ^^ Dorians founded three cities—Lindus, Ialysus and Camirus. In Ialysus the Phoenicians appear to have formed a part of the population beside the Greeks.
9.  The large and fertile island of Cyprus, which was known
to the authors of the Homeric poems, was never thoroughly
Hellenic.   It is true that Greek princes reigned yprus.            .^ some 0£ j.ne cftjeSj ]3U^ the islaxi<i was only
for short periods independent of one or other of the great eastern monarchies —Assyria, Egypt, Persia. Herodotus states that the Greek colonists were emigrants from Athens and Salamis—Arcadians and Cythnians. He also informs us that Curium was said to be a colony from Argolis. Legends related that Agapenor, the son of Aneaeus, who was king of Arcadia after Echemus, was carried away to Cyprus on his return from Troy, and founded there the city of Paphus, and the temple of Aphrodite.    His daughter subsequently
1 Paus. viii. 28, I.                                  2 Strabo, p. 481.
3 Strabo, p. 653. The later city of Rhodes was built about the time of the Peloponnesian war from the plans of Hippodamus, the architect who designed the Piraeus.
IV. 10.]               ASIATIC DORIAN COLONIES,                       125
sent a robe from Cyprus to Athena Alea, the tutelary deity of the Tegeans.    This connection between Arcadia and Cyprus, however it may have arisen, is supported by the     Arcadia and dialect of the Cyprian inscriptions, which, in some     Cyprus, respects, presents a striking resemblance to that of Arcadia.1
Other islands colonised by the Dorians were : Thera, which was  a colony  from Lacedaemon, and named after Theras, the uncle and guardian of the sons of Aristo. demus (see p.  221);   Melos, which was  also founded from Lacedaemon;  Carpathus, Calydnae, Nisyrus and Cos.    Cos was founded from Epidaurus. The colony, like the mother city, was distinguished by the worship of Asclepius, a hero-deity, who appears to be of distinctly Greek origin, and derived in the first instance from the Phlegyae in Thessaly.    In Thera and Melos, and no doubt in many other islands, the Dorians found Phoenician settlements (supra, p. 53).
10. From the islands, the Dorians spread to the mainland. The peninsula of Cnidus was perhaps the first settlement; and as the Cnidians were devoted to the worship of Aphrodite, we may assume that here also there Dorians on the was a previous colony of Phoenicians. Halicar- Mainland, nassus was founded from Troezen, and the Ionian element in the city must have been considerable. Not only is Troezen connected in legend with Theseus the Ionian hero, but Poseidon—as among the Ionians—was worshipped with peculiar zeal at Halicarnassus.8
1 Herod, vii. 90; v. 113. Meyer, I.c., § 279, and for the dialect: Collitz, Sammlung, etc., vol. i. For Cyprus consult Engel, Kypros, 2 Bde., 1841 ; Cesnola, Cyprus ; Perrot et Chipiez, Histoire de I'Art, vol. iii.
2  For Melos, c/. Herod, viii. 48 ; Thuc. v. 84, 112. Thera, Herod, iv. 147 ff. Calydnae and Nisyrus, Herod, vii. 99 ; they also were from Epidaurus. Other islands belonging to the Dorians were Anaphe, Therasia, a portion of the Santorin group, and Astypalea. Busolt, Grlecli. Gesch. i. 199 notes.
3  Other Dorian cities were Myndus and Phaselis. For Cnidus, Herod, i. 174. Halicarnassus, Herod, i. 144 ; ii. 178. The " oekist " was Anthes (Strabo, p. 374). His descendants continued to be priests of Poseidon, C. I. G. 2655.    Dittenberger, Sylloge, No. 372.
126          COLONISATION OF ASIA: INHABITANTS. [IV. xk
Of the Dorian cities, six united in the common worship of Apollo on the headland of Triopium. These were Lindus, Ialysus and Camirus in Ehodes, Cos, and, on exapo s. ^e mainian(ij Halicarnassus and Cnidus. The rites were accompanied with games, at which prizes were given. All other Dorians were rigidly excluded. But in time the " Hexapolis became a Pentapolis:" Agasicles of Halicarnassus, when victorious in the contest, refused to The Worship place his tripod in the temple of the Triopian of Apollo.          Apollo, and took it home to his own house.
His city appears to have supported him in the act, and in consequence Halicarnassus was excluded by the remaining five cities from the sacrifice.1
II. The territory which the Aeolians acquired is described by Herodotus as more fertile than that occupied by the Ionians, inhabitants of Du^ of a less excellent climate. It was in-Aeoiis.             habited by a number of tribes, among which
the Troes or Teucri were the chief.2 Callinus, the earliest of the Greek elegiac poets, whom many later writers followed, regarded the Teucrians as immigrants into the Troad from Crete. Other authors, with even less probability, derived Teucer from Attica, where the deme of the Xypeteans was said to have been the " deme of the Trojans." In Homer the inhabitants of the city of the Troad are Dardani or Troes, and the name Teucri does not occur. In historical times the Gergithes, who dwelt in the town of the same name (a6 TipytOes) near Lampsacus, and also formed the subject population of Miletus, were the only remnants of this once famous nation.3 But their former greatness was attested by the Homeric poems, and the occurrence of the name Gergithians at various places in the Troad.    To this tribe
i Herod, i. 104.
2  Homer speaks of Leleges and Pelasgi as dwelling in the country colonised by the Aeolians. The Bebrycians, who inhabited the extreme north of the Troad, were Phrygians; see E. Meyer, G. der Tr. p. 2 if. The Trojan language was distinct from the Phrygiau : Hymn. Ven. 113.
3  Strabo, p. 605. Herod, v. 122: TipyiBas rovs \mo\€«p06VTas twv apxai&v Tcvicp&v.
IV. 12.]   INHABITANTS OF ASIA MINOR: LYCIANS.       127
belonged the Troy of the Grecian Epic, the site of which, so far as it represents any historical city, is fixed at Hissarlik. In the Iliad the Trojan empire extends from the Aesepus to the Caicus; it was divided—or, at least, later historians speak of it as divided—into nine principalities which recognised Priam as their chief.1 But the Homeric descriptions of the. city and its eminence are not to be taken as historically true. Whatever the power and civilisation of the ancient stronghold exhumed by Dr. Schliemann may have been, it was necessary for the epic poet to represent Priam and his nation as a dangerous rival in wealth and arms to the great kings of Mycenae and Sparta.
12. Of the Carians and Leleges, from whom the Ionians wrested their possessions on the mainland, we have already spoken (p. 30 ff.). South of these nations the inhabitants of coast was inhabited by Pamphylians and Lycians. Asia Minor-In the first, who, as their name implies, were a union of various nations, the Greeks formed a considerable element. Some had wandered thither after the capture of Troy, others belonged to the later bands of emigrants.2             y ia*
The Lycians who dwelt on the slopes of Mount Milyas, and by the banks of the Xanthus, appear to have been one of the most highly civilised, as they were the bravest, of the numerous tribes who inhabited Asia vcians-Minor. Their native name was Tramilae, but their origin was* unknown. The Cretans claimed them as kinsmen. They were doubtless an immigrant race who drove the native Solymi back to the mountains from the shore. The Greeks gave the name of Lycia—" land of light"-—to the beautiful country which the Tramilae inhabited; and the Athenians claimed connection with them through Lycus, the son of Pandion! The Lycians dwelt in cities, but the most remarkable monuments in the country are the tombs which are cut in the rocks on each side of the valley of the Xanthus.    Not without reason
1 Strabo, p. 584.     The oldest city was very small:  E. Meyer, Z.c, p. 52.                            2 Strabo, p. 668 ; Herod, vii. 91.
128   INHABITANTS OF ASIA MINOR: PHRYGIANS. [IV. 12.
is the body of Sarpedon conveyed from the battle-field of Troy to be entombed in his beloved Lycia! The whole Tombs in          of the valley is spoken of as one long necro-
Lycia-              polis.    Herodotus asserts that the Lycians had
a curious custom of deriving descent through the mother, but whether the custom was ancient or not he does not tell us. It may have come into existence at the time when the nation was almost entirely extirpated by the Persians.1
Among the nations of the interior, the Phrygians were the most important.   We have seen that Herodotus identifies them with the Thracians (supra, p. 34).    He also connects them with the Armenians, and they were undoubtedly of Indo-germanic race.    Their civilisation impressed the Greeks deeply, for not only did their legends of Midas and Silenus, of Marsyas and Lityerses, become a part of Greek mythology, but the Greeks borrowed much from them in the cultivation of the art of music, especially the music of the flute.    They were a rural people, devoted to agriculture, from which they derived great wealth; it is said that one of their ancient laws punished with y e e#            death any man who killed an ox or destroyed
an implement.2 Their chief deities were Bagaeus, whom the Greeks identified with their Zeus, and Cybele, the Great Mother by whose bounty the earth gave her fruits; their wine-god was Sabazius, with whom at a later time were associated Attys and the abominations of Syro-Phoenician worship. The invasion of the Cimmerians inflicted a severe blow upon the country. Midas, who was king at the time, is said to have put an end to his life, and the monarchy ceased at his death (693 B.C.). Subsequently Phrygia became a part of the empire of Croesus, from whom it passed to the Persians. The ancient wealth of the country is attested by the remains
1  Herod, i. 173 ; vii. 92. There is no reason to develop a theory of " mother-right" here. Such a system prevailed among the Aethiopians whom Nicolaus of Damascus describes {Frag, 142 M.), but ihey were on an entirely different level of civilisation from the Lycians.
2  Nicol. Damasc. Frag. 128 M.
IV. I3-]   INHABITANTS OF ASIA MINOR: LYDIANS.      129
of cities; some of considerable extent.    The rock-dwellings and tombs are also very striking, most of all the tomb of Midas, discovered by Colonel Leake, which pre-    The tomb of sents a surface covered with ornamentation of    Midas. a peculiar pattern, surmounted by a gable, and bearing an inscription in Greek letters.1
13. In the valley of the Hermus, where the heights of Mount Tmolus sink towards the river, lay the citadel of Sardis, the capital of the Lydian empire. Even at the time when the Greeks colonised the coast, this city must have been of considerable importance. It was probably the western out-post of that oriental empire, now supposed to be Hittite, which extended through Asia Minor to Carchemish on the Euphrates, and from thence to Syria. By communication with Sardis and the Lydians the Greeks were able to The Hittite receive the products and manufactures, the EmPire-arts and sciences, of the Mesopotamian kingdoms. One of the Greek standards of coinage—the lighter or Euboean—is thought to have been introduced by this route,2 and it is not improbable that the resemblances which have been observed between the art of Assyria and the descriptions of Homer are due to influences conveyed through this channel.3 For a long time the monarchs of Sardis allowed the Hellenic cities to develop unmolested, but with the accession of Gyges at the beginning of the seventh century B.C., the Lydians entered on a career of aggression, which, after a century and a half of warfare, compelled the Asiatic Greeks to recognise the power of the throne of Sardis.4
1  See Leake, Travels in Asia Minor, p. 21 ff. Milchhoefer, Anfaenge tier Kunst, p. 24, gives a good illustration of the tomb. See also Ramsay, Journal of Hellenic Society, iii. I ff. Phrygia was remarkable for a tradition of a flood, in which Ararat figures. Cf. Steph. Byz. Iconium, and the article in Pauly's Real- Encyclopaedic.
2  Head, Historia Numorum, p. xxxix.
3  Brunn, Die Kunst bei Homer.    But see Ramsay, I.e. p. 50.
* For the Hittites  (Kheta) in Asia Minor, see Perrot et Chipiez, Hi8toirede VArt, iv. 484 ff.; E. Meyer, Oesch. d. Alt. § 255 ; Sayce, VOL. L                                                                                I
130 INHABITANTS OF ASIA MINOR: MYTHOLOGY. [IV. 14.
14. Among the nations with whom they were now brought into contact, the Greeks found a number of rites and forms
Influence of         °*   worsnip>   which   they   adopted   and    main-
Asiatic deities tained. In spite of obvious differences, the on the Greeks. new deities were identified with their own, and received Greek names, Apollo, Athena, Artemis, Hera The native legends were revised from Greek points of view and extended, and in their new form became a part of Greek mythology.
The god of the Teucrians was Apollo Smintheus, whose symbol was the mouse. For this curious attribute legend Apoiio Smin- invented a sufficient reason. When the Teu-theus-              crians from Crete landed in the Troad, they
were bidden to settle wherever they were attacked " by the earth-born." The oracle was fulfilled at Hamaxitus, when the mice of the field came up in the night and devoured all the leather of their arms and implements. At Chryse there was a statue of the god, the work of Scopas of Paros, Apoiio at          with  the  foot resting   on  a mouse.     Other
Branchidae. native shrines of Apollo were Branchidae, near Miletus, the most important of the Asiatic oracles, and Claras, near Clazomenae.—At Delphi the responses were given through the lips of an inspired woman, but the inspiration was only felt while the priestess was seated on the tripod.    In Aeolis we meet with the Sibyl, or prophetess,
Anc. Emp. p. 213 ff. To them are ascribed the reliefs at Nymphaeum, mentioned by Herod, ii. 106, and the so-called Niobe of Sipylus. More important are the ruins and sculptures to the east of the Halys at Uyuk, and Boghaz Kioi (Pteria ? Herod, i. 76), which are said to be surpassed in extent by Babylon and Nineveh alone. Hamilton, Travels in Asia, i. 393 ; Texier's Asie Mineure, p. 607; Duncker, Hist. Ant. i. 550. In the next section Professor Meyer collects the traditions of this empire preserved by the Greeks {Krjreioi, Od. xi. 521; Memnon, Herod, ii. 106: the Hittites are naturally confused with the Assyrians). Of. Strabo, p. 671. The names Sadyattes, Alyattes are Semitic in formation, which is an additional reason for supposing that these princes were of Hittite race, and we may hold the same of the Heraclid dynasty which they succeeded. See also Maspero, Hist, Ancienne, pp. 246, 519 ff., 4th ed.
IV. I4-] INHABITANTS OF ASIA MINOR: MYTHOLOGY. 131
who was not attached to any temple, though the Greeks ascribed her power to the love or inspiration  of  Apollo. Such a sibyl is  Cassandra, the  daughter of Priam, in the epic poetry of Greece;   such       * y s* was the famous sibyl of Erythrae, and Herophile of Cyme, and many others.1—At Lampsacus the Greeks found and appropriated the worship of Priapus, whom they connected in   legend with Dionysus.      His rites were of the same rude and obscene character as the rustic festivals   in  honour of   the   god  of wine, for        apus* Priapus was one  of the many forms into which the male procreative force of nature was deified.     He is said by Strabo   to   have been   "brought   into  notice  by  recent authority," and has no place in the theogony of Hesiod. The name might be new, but the  deity had long been known in Attica.2—The Carians were zealous worshippers of Zeus.    At Mylasa there was a temple of the deity, who was known to the natives by the name of Osogo ; Labranda, distant about seven miles from the   city,  was   the   site   of   the   ancient  temple of Zeus Stratius,  whom the Carians  " alone  of men    The Temple worship."3    A third temple (at Mylasa) was    «t Labranda. that of the Carian Zeus, common  to  all the Carians, in which the   Mysians  and Lydians  also   had a share  "as brethren."     At   a  fourth   temple,   near   Stratonicea,  the
1  Strabo, p. 613, regarding Apollo Smintheus as the destroyer of mice, quotes other instances of epithets applied to deities for a similar reason :—Heracles Conopion, whom the Oeteans worshipped as. expelling locusts ; Heracles Ipoctonus, who destroyed the ipes which ruined the vines of the Erythraeans at Mimas; Apollo Erythibius at Rhodes. Mr. Lang takes quite another view of the mouse, Custom, and Myth, pp. 103-120.    For the Sibyls, see Pans. x. 12.
2 Strabo, p. 588, dircbeixGri viro tw vevrepiov. It is remarkable that Herodotus argues in a similar manner in regard to Dionysus (ii. 49).
3 In Strabo's time the temple still contained a wooden image of the deity. Labranda was connected with Mylasa by a sacred road, along which the processions were led. The priests of the temple, who held office for life, were taken from the leading families in Mylasa.
132 INHABITANTS OF ASIA MINOR: MYTHOLOGY. [IV. 14.
Chrysaoreon or Carian league held its meetings and offered sacrifices to Zeus Chrysaoreus.1
The most distinctive and the most characteristic of the native deities of Asia Minor was that great goddess, whom the Greeks called by various names : Adrastea in Aeolis, Athena at Ilium, Artemis at Ephesus, Hera in Samos, Ehea in Crete. She is the Great Mother, the mother of the gods, whose Asiatic name was Ma, or Amma, or Cybele. She dwells on the summits of the mountains, Dindymus, Sipylus, or Ida, and is known by their names ; or she is represented by a rude stone, as at Pessinus. She is the mistress of the world and the ruler of its forces. The wild creatures are subject to her, and lions are yoked to her chariot; for her the Dactyli of Ida ply their craft. She is the mistress of birth and productivity; the deity of many breasts, the guardian of marriage. She is also the queen of cities, on whose head rests the mural crown. Her worship was a wild mixture of exultation and despair, of asceticism and sensuality. Kound her were gathered the stories of Attys and Sabazius, of Cronus and the Corybantes. At Ephesus she was worshipped by maidens, whom the Greeks called Amazons. As similar rites prevailed on the banks of the Thermodon, the story of the Amazons was transferred to that site also, and by degrees the Greek logographers were able to give an account of the nation of Amazons—women who lived apart from men and trained themselves in warlike exercises. From those parts of Asia Minor which came into the possession of the Greeks the Amazons naturally disappeared, yet many of the Greek cities—Myrina, Smyrna, etc., were said to have been named after them.2
1 Strabo, p. 659, 660. Of Zeus Stratius he says—Tifxarai 8e xmo t<Sp kvkK<o ko\ two tSv MvXutcW .... ravra pev ovv tbia rrjs ttoXcgw. Gf. Herod, v. 119, povpoi be r&v rjiiels Idpev Kaph elai oi Ail (TTparico dvarias avayovari.    Id. i. 171, for Carian Zeus.
2 For Cybele see Meyer, Geschichte des Alterthums, § 253 ; Dunaker, Hist. Ant. i. 531. For the Amazons, Duncker, Hist. Ant. i. 554. In Homer they appear in Asia Minor {II. hi. 189, vi. 186; cf. ii. 813).
IV. IS, 16.]     ARTS IN THE GREEK COLONIES.                  133
15.  In their colonies the Greeks seem to have "become acquainted for the first time with the working of metals. The Dactyli of Mount Ida in the Troad are spoken Arts in the of as the first who practised the working of Colonies, iron, and it is a fact that iron is found in Mount Ida. There were also Dactyli in Crete, whence they spread to Cyprus and to "Rhodes, where they were known as Telchines. These legendary metallurgists are represented as mischievous imps, ever ready to injure mankind. We may suppose that such legends reflect the impression made on the Greek colonists by the superior work of Phoenician artists. The     „    ,
.  .                                                                      .                 Metal work.
Phoenicians would probably represent their art as a mystery; and it was not less natural for the Greeks to disparage those who possessed the secret of a skill superior to their own. Even in Hesiod's time potter was ready to decry potter !1 Other arts also, such as the embroidery of garments, for which Thera was famous, and the manufacture of byssus, probably passed from the East to Greece.
16.  It is among the Dorian colonies in the Aegean that we find the earliest traces now in existence of the Greek alphabet. The oldest inscriptions are those of Thera and The A1 h b t Melos, which  Kirch hoff would  place  in  the
second half of the seventh century B.C. It is usual to fix 800 B.C. as the earliest date to which the knowledge of writing in Greece can be carried back. But the arguments for this are by no means conclusive. We know that Phoenician traders visited the coasts of Greece in much earlier times, and their trade could not be carried on without some know-
The worship of the Syrian Astarte was confused with that of the Great Mother, and to this the wilder excesses (Attys, etc.) were due (Meyer, I. c. § 257). For some peculiar rites in Cyprus see Herod, i. 199, with which must be compared his accounts of Lydia and Babylon.
1 See the explanation in Strabo, p. 654— 01 be ((bao-i) renvois $ia<f>€povras rovvavriov vtto tg>v dvTirej(va>v j3a<TKavorjv<u kcu rrjs dvo-cfrrfiiias rvx^iv ravrrjs. The Telchines were accused of putting sulphur in the water of Styx ! The Chalybes and Tibarenes on the north coast of Asia Minor supplied metals to the traders of tht Aegean.    Is the Temesa of Od. i. 1S4 Tamassus in Cyprus ?
134              ORIGIN OF THE GREEK ALPHABET.        [IV. 17.
ledge of Phoenician among the Greeks, and of Greek among the Phoenicians. With this may have come the Antiquity of alphabet, and with the alphabet the materials writing in         for writing.    The fact that the earliest forms
rcece.             o£ ^e letters are found in the islands, is not,
I conceive, a proof that the alphabet was first received there, but rather that the forms of the letters remained unchanged.1 Among the inscriptions of Cyprus there are some which present us with a peculiar mode of writing, quite distinct from c i w v the ordinary Phoenician type. The existence of this " script" proves that the inhabitants of Cyprus were in possession of a mode of writing before they acquired the Phoenician letters. That it was not discarded, but preserved into historical times and adopted by the Greeks, is a striking instance of the degree to which development can be arrested by the influence of local feeling or habit.2 17. In all these colonies the form of government was, in the first instance, monarchical. The chief who led out the victorious band remained at the head of the new city, and was succeeded on the throne by his descendants. There may have been factions and feuds 3 among the leading families, but for some time the nobility were content to be governed, with a light hand, no doubt, in the hereditary manner. We have seen that only those cities could be admitted to the worship of
1  The absence of early stone monuments is of little importance in this question; for (1) the earliest Phoenician monuments are apparently far later than the introduction of writing into Phoenicia; (2) we have nothing to prove that writing on stone was the earliest form in which the art was practised. See also Taylor, Alphabet, ii. 28 ff.
2  The Cyprian writing—which is a syllabarium rather than an alphabet, and cannot, therefore, be of later origin than the alphabet of the Phoenicians—is, by Sayce, supposed to be derived from the same source as the Hamathene (Taylor I.e. ii. 112 ff). On the Greek letters, see Kirchhoff, Studien zur Gesch., etc., Berlin, 1877; Taylor, I.e. vol. ii.
3  We are told that at Erythrae Cnopus was slain by Ortyges, who, with the help of Amphiclus of Chios, succeeded in establishing a cruel and licentious oligarchy, which quickly perished through its own vices (Athenaeus, p. 259, quoting Hippias of Erythrae).
IV. i8.]    GOVERNMENT IN THE GREEK COLONIES.      135
Poseidon at Mycale which were governed by descendants of Codrus. Even in the time of Strabo we hear that the posterity of Androclus, the founder of Ephesus, were Form of Govern-called kings, wore the purple robe, and occupied ment |n the the chief place at the games. They carried a staff in remembrance of their ancient sceptre.1 But, in the course of a few centuries, the monarchy entirely disappeared, except in name, and oligarchy—broken by the Disappearance rise of a tyrant—was the universal form of of Monarchy, government. Of the factions which disturbed the cities at a later period, when the Persians supported tyrants for their own purposes against the oligarchs, there is, of course, no trace in the earliest times. A feeling of unity was kept up among the various groups—Aeolians, Ionians, Dorians—by the worship of common deities, but this feeling never went so far, except in the minds of one or two great men like Thales, as the establishment of a real confederation. Even in the presence of their enemy at Sardis the Greek cities remained isolated, and therefore helpless. In Crete peculiar institutions arose, of a character unknown in any other Dorian state but Sparta. Of these we shall speak in a later chapter. The date of their origin is unknown.
18. The traditional dates fix these colonies in the generations which followed the Trojan war. Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, was the leader of the Aeolian The date of the colonies, which preceded by four generations Migrations, the colonies to Ionia.2 The Dorian colonies were led out by Althaemenes, the grandson of Temenus, and thus fall two generations after the return of the Heraclids. These dates would give us roughly 1150-1050 B.C. for the period of colonisation. In themselves they are of no value. We may suppose that the colonisation of the Aegean and of Asia Minor by the Greeks was coincident with the expulsion of the Phoenicians. The greatest extension of the Phoenician power in the Aegean seems to fall in the fifteenth century B.O.
1 Strabo, p. 663.
2 Id. p. 582.
136                   DATE OF THE MIGRATIONS.                  [IV. 19.
From the thirteenth it was gradually on the decline, and the Greeks were enabled to secure the trade for themselves—partly, no doubt, by the skill which they had learned from the foreign seamen. By 1100 B.C. Asia Minor may have been in the hands of the Greeks, though the Phoenicians still maintained themselves in Khodes and Cyprus. But all attempts at chronology are illusory. It is remarkable that even Greek tradition places Crete, Cyprus and Ehodes, where the Phoenicians remained longest, among the oldest colonies, and that the Cyprian Greeks were acquainted with a peculiar mode of writing, which, as we have seen, must be a survival from a very remote period.1
19. Though the Greeks secured a great part of the trade of the Aegean by their colonies, and, in some instances, only Relations of the established themselves after severe conflicts Greeks and with the natives, their relations to the inhabi-e a lves. tants of Asia Minor do not seem to have been hostile. We have observed that the Lydians for a long time made no attempt to molest the Greek cities. They probably derived advantages from the Greek traders which they were unable to obtain in any other way; for the " sons of the Lydians " had no ships of their own.2 The Carians carried on a trade, in rivalry with the Greeks, from their own native ports. The Greeks despised them, but there is no trace of a hatred of races. The Phrygian prince Midas sent gifts to Delphi, and the Greeks borrowed the music of Phrygia. The Lydian Gyges is even said to have gained the throne of Sardis by the help of the Delphic oracle. The alphabets also of the Lycians and Phrygians were mainly derived from the Greek.
1  Of. Meyer, Geschkhte des Alterthums, §§ 259, 279. Duncker follows a different calculation, and would bring the Asiatic colonies down to 950-850 B.C. The Greek legends of Cretan colonies on the Asiatic coast, and even in Greece (Curetes), are difficult to reconcile with the supposition that Crete first became known to the Hellenes after 1000 B.c. They point to that island as a centre of activity in a very early period. But it is impossible to distinguish the elements—Hellenic and non-Hellenic—which are here combined.
2  Herod, i. 27.    For the Lydian love of trade, ib. i. 94.
IV. I9-]     RELATION OF GREEKS AND NATIVES.           137
For the Greek settlers the contact with new forms of civilisation was attended with the happiest results. Whether the epic poetry of Greece arose in Asia is still a matter of discussion. It is, however, certain that elegiac and lyric song, music and philosophy, history and science, passed from the east of Hellas to the west. But we are not to suppose that these magnificent achievements of the Hellenic genius were borrowed from the half-barbarous tribes of Phrygia, Caria, or Lydia. Even ancient Babylon could furnish nothing but the elements of mathematics and astronomy. It is the glory of the Hellenes that they were able to fashion the rough material thus supplied into a literature and science far in advance of the conceptions and powers of the Asiatic nations.
CHAPTER V.
THE   HOMERIC   POEMS. I—NATURE AND HISTORICAL VALUE OF THE POEMS.
1.  The earliest monuments of Hellenic literature which we possess are the poems known as the works of Homer and Epic Poetry Hesiod. The Iliad and Odyssey, of which of Greece.         Homer was the reputed author, are epics in the more elevated style, relating episodes of the Trojan war. The poems of Hesiod (in addition to some minor works) consist of a Theogony and the Works and Days. The Theogony is an attempt to give an account of the origin of the world, of the gods, and of the heroes; in the Works and Bays we have a poem of humble life, which dwells on the hardships of the Boeotian peasantry, and lays down a number of rules for the arts of agriculture and navigation. It is obvious that we cannot determine the historical value of the pictures which these poems present of social and political life, before we have arrived at some conclusion about the nature and date of the poems themselves. Reserving Hesiod for another chapter, we will speak first of the date of the Homeric poems, and next of their nature and characteristic features, though it is true that the two subjects cannot be entirely separated.
2.  The most satisfactory manner of deciding the date of any literary composition is to connect it with some historical Date of the fact or institution of which the date is known. Homeric Poems. With the Homeric poems this simple plan is impossible. On the one hand there is no contemporary history, on the other we do not know that it was not the poet's design to  carry his  audience  back to  a time  long
138
V. 3-1            HOMERIC POEMS: THEIR DATE.                 139
anterior to that in which he was living, and present before their eyes a picture which was ideal rather than real It is obvious that if the Homeric poems are compositions similar in character to the Idylls of the King> it will be a waste of time to examine them in the hope of finding evidence by which we can ascertain the date of their composition. We may indeed obtain evidence of the kind of civilisation which formed the poet's ideal, but until we have ascertained whether that civilisation existed in the poet's time, we can draw no conclusions whatever from it which will enable us to fix the date of the composition of the poem.
We are not left entirely without external evidence enabling us to fix the downward limit before which the Homeric poems must have been composed. The Iliad and Odyssey are the two survivors of a large number of epic poems which related the legend of the Trojan war. At some date, which it is impossible to fix, but which e yc e* appears to have been later than the period of the great Alexandrian scholars Zenodotus, Aristophanes and Aris-tarchus, these poems were combined with others into an "epic cycle." The "cycle" formed a history of events from the creation of the world down to the death of Odysseus at the hands of his son Telegonus, and it appears that the poems which were introduced into it were curtailed, or otherwise altered, in order to make the narrative continuous and consistent.1
3. Though the other poems which treated of the Trojan legend are lost, abstracts of their contents, as they existed in this "cycle," have been preserved, and from Poemsot these, together with the references to the poems the cycl«-which occur in writers of antiquity, we are able to form a tolerably clear conception of the contents of the poems, and their relations to each other. The whole series of the Trojan poems, including the Iliad and Odyssey y is as follows:—
1 For the Cycle see Welcker, Der Epische Cyclus; Monro, Journal of Hellenic Soc> vols. iv. v. ; Bergk, Oriechische Litteratur-Geschichte, ii. 27 ff.
140                       POEMS OF THE • CYCLE:                    [V. 4.
1.  The Cypria, of which the authorship is doubtful.   Some
considered it the work of Stasinus of Cyprus; others attributed it to Hegesias, or Hegesinus, of Salamis in Cyprus; others, again to Homer.
2.  The Iliad.
3.  The AethiqpiSy by Arctinus of Miletus.
4.  The Little Iliad, by Lesches of Mitylene.
5.  The Capture of Ilium, by Arctinus of Miletus,
6.  The Nosti, by Agias of Troezen.
7.  The Odyssey.
8.  The Telegonia, by Eugammon of Cyrene.
In this series each poem takes up the story where the preceding poem ends. The same incidents are not repeated in any two of them, with some slight exceptions. If, then, it is possible to prove that the Cyclic1 poems, as they are called, appear to have been composed with reference to the Iliad and Odyssey, in order to complete or continue the story of the taking of Troy, we have evidence to show that the Iliad and Odyssey were in existence before the composition of the other poems. And if we can go further and fix some probable date for the composition of the Cyclic poems, we have at least a period below which the composition of the Homeric poems cannot be brought.
4. It is a remarkable fact that, while the Iliad and Odyssey amount to forty-eight "books," the Cyclic poems are com-Comparison of prised in twenty-nine. We do not know the «iiiad' ^ whether the books in the different poems were ^ith th/cyclic at all equal in length; the books of Apollonius Poems.            Rhodius are much longer than those of the
Iliad, and the books of the Iliad are longer than those of the Odyssey; but unless there was some great disproportion in the division, these two poems surpassed in length all the rest put together. On the other hand, the space of time occupied by the action of the Iliad and Odyssey is very short, extend-
11 use this term for the poems in the cycle (of Troy) exclusive of the Iliad and Odyssey.
V. 5-1     THE 'CYCLE' COMPARED WITH 'HOMER:        141
ing over a few days, or weeks at the most.1 For these reasons it is highly improbable that the Homeric poems are a supplement to the Cyclic poems. When the leading events of the Trojan war had been related by various authors in comparatively short poems, it is unlikely that two epics, longer than any of the rest, should be composed on the incidents of a very brief period in order to complete the story.
The same result follows when we compare the plan and construction of the Cyclic poems, so far as they can be ascertained, with the Iliad and Odyssey. Aristotle remarks that many tragedies had been constructed out of the Cypria, and "more than eight" out of the Little Iliad, though the Iliad and Odyssey supplied material for one or two plays at the most.2 This observation is fully justified by the analyses of the poems which we possess. They contain a number of incidents which may be gathered "round a single person, or into a definite space of time, or round one action of many parts," as Aristotle tells us, but we cannot trace in them the unity of subject or excellence of plan, which, in spite of all criticism, mark the Iliad and Odyssey, It is reasonable to suppose that poems so loose in structure, and deficient in unity, were composed with reference to epics already in existence, and generally received. It is not reasonable to imagine that they were the first, and that the more perfect and independent compositions were a later addition or supplement. For it is obvious that the Cyclic poems could, without injury to their structure, have been enlarged to include the incidents of the Iliad and Odyssey, but the Iliad and Odyssey could not be extended to include the whole Trojan story. It is the peculiar merit of Homer, in the eyes of Aristotle, that he did not choose the entire war for the subject of his poem, but a portion only.
5# The importance of these general arguments  will be rendered clearer if we take one of the Cyclic poems and point
1 Iliad, fifty days ; Odyssey, forty days.          2 Poetics, c. 23, ead.
142             • CYPRIA • AND «ILIAD' COMPARED.          [V. 5.
out in greater detail the relation in which it stands to the Iliad and Odyssey. The abstract of the Cyprial shows not only that the poem ended where the Iliad begins, 79 *" but that it presupposed and explained many incidents in the Iliad. The " purpose of Zeus," which we find mentioned in a vague and indefinite sense at the beginning of the Iliad, is twice defined in the Cypria; at the beginning Presupposes of the poem, it is the purpose of Zeus ta the * iiiad.*        relieve the earth from the excessive weight of
mankind; at the end of it Zeus determines to aid the Trojans by withdrawing Achilles from the battle-field. The explanation of the presence of Chryseis in Thebe (at a distance from her home), which we find in the Cypria, must also have been inserted in order to explain the situation in the first book of the Iliad. The embassy of the Greeks to Troy to demand Helen and her goods is mentioned in II. iii. 203 ff.; the'sack of Lyrnessus, and the capture of Briseis in ii. 690; the sack of Pedasus in xx. 92. In 77. xx. 89 ff., ^Eneas alludes to the capture of his oxen (cf. II. xx. 188 ff.). Troilus is mentioned as dead in II. xxiv. 257. Eeference is made to the presence of the gods at the marriage of Peleus and Thetis in II. xxiv. 59 ff., and to the judgment of Paris in II. xxiv. 28 ff. All these events were related at greater length in the Cypria.
The relation of the Odyssey and the Cypria is not so clear, but it is worth observing that the alternate life and death of the Spartan twin brothers is known to the Odyssey (xi. 301) The 'Cypria* an(* ^e Qypwa/ while in the Iliad they are both and the            spoken  of as dead  and  buried, though their
dyssey.         death takes place after Helen's departure for
Troy (II. iii. 243-4). The legends of Oedipus and of Theseus and Ariadne are mentioned in the Odyssey, xi. 271 ff., 321, and formed part of Nestor's narrative in the Cypria. The first is not mentioned in the Iliad, but there is an allusion to the second in II. xviii. 592.
But the Cypria also contained incidents unrecorded in
1 See Monro, Journal of Hellenic Society, v. 1 ff.
V. 6. ]        «C YPRIA» AND * HOMER* COMPARED.             143
either the Iliad or Odyssey. The circumstances of Helen's abduction are quite differently described in the Cypria and the Iliad. In the former the first union with Paris takes place in Lacedaemon, but in the Iliad betw^thV" (iii. 443) on the island of Cranae; nor do we 'CypHa'andthe hear anything of the absence of Menelaus at omencP°ems-the time in the Iliad or Odyssey. A number of heroes who are mentioned in the Cypia are not found in the Iliad and Odyssey, such as Palamedes, Telephus, Protesilaus, Lycomedes. Nothing is said in the Homeric poems of the sack of Teu-thrania by mistake for Troy, or of the sacrifice of Iphigenia at Aulis as a propitiation of Artemis. Nothing again is known of the quarrel of Agamemnon and Achilles in Tenedos, or of Cycnus, or of the meeting of Helen and Achilles. All these incidents were related in the Oypria.
6* The abstracts of the other Cyclic poems merely confirm the conclusion for which we are prepared.    On the one hand, the Cyclic poems do not enter on the ground covered by the Iliad and Odyssey; on between the the other, they fill up the interstices in the Homeric and legend.     They describe incidents  which  are    ycicP°ems-mentioned in the Iliad or Odyssey in a manner which seems intended to explain or develop the story, and they also contain many incidents which are not mentioned in either of these poems.   From the nature and construction of the Cyclic poems we were inclined to draw the inference that they were composed after the Iliad and Odyssey, and our conclusion is confirmed by what we know of the incidents recorded in them.
Once more. The Cyclic poems allude to ideas and customs which seem to be later than the Homeric poems. It is unlike the Homeric poet to make Helen the daughter of Nemesis. The personification of abstract nouns is indeed found in Homer, as we may see from the examples of Ate, Eris and the Litai, but the combination of Helen and Nemesis belongs to a later development of ideas. In other Cyclic poems we find instances of purification from murder, and of the worship
144                  DATE OF THE CYCLIC POEMS.                  [V. 7.
of ancestors, customs which are never mentioned in the Homeric poems. The weird magical strain which so widely separates the Odyssey from the Iliad becomes more strongly marked in the Cyclic poems, and at the same time the high epic tone is lowered till some of the characters (Odysseus, Menelaus) approach the level at which we find them in Greek tragedy.
Whether the interval which separated the Homeric from the Cyclic poems was long or short depends on the difficult question * Non-Homeric' wne^ner legends and customs which are "non-and'Post-         Homeric" are "post-Homeric."    A long time
Homeric* ^ would elapse before such customs as purification from murder and the worship of ancestors could become current in a nation to which they were previously unknown. If, therefore, we could assume that these customs are post-Homeric because they are not mentioned in the Homeric poems, the interval which separates the Cyclic poems, in which they occur, from the Homeric, in which they do not, would be a wide one. But it is impossible to assume this without further inquiry.
7. Unfortunately we have little trustworthy information about the date of the Cyclic poems. We know, of course, Date of the that they were in existence at an early period Cyclic poems. -m Greece, but the first traces of them—the pictures on the chest of Cypselus at Olympia—cannot be placed before 600 B.C. Tradition, however, carries some of the poems much higher. Arctinus of Miletus is placed in the first Olympiad (776 B.C.); Lesches in the thirtieth Olympiad (660 B.C.) For the Cypria it does not seem possible to fix any definite date1 Our downward limit therefore for the Homeric poems is not very high, but it is high enough to prove that at least they were in existence in their present form long before Pisistratus (560 B.C.). If we wish to state the result favourably for the antiquity
1 See Bergk, I.e. p. 44.   He places the Cypria between 01. 15 and 20,
but on very slender grounds.
V. 8, 9-]                 ANTIQUITY OF < HOMER:
145
of the Homeric poems, it may be said that the Iliad is presupposed by the Aethiopis of Arctinus, a poet whom tradition places in the first Olympiad.
In a similar manner it may be shown that the Capture of Ilium by Arctinus, in which we find the story of the wooden horse, of the sacrilege of Ajax, and the disasters of the return to Greece, forms as it were an introduction to the Odyssey, in which these events are incidentally mentioned. And in the Nosti of Agias " a large proportion " of the incidents " appears to be taken directly from Homer."1 The Odyssey therefore seems to be older than either of these two poems, and if Arctinus is rightly placed about the first Olympiad, it is probable that the Odyssey} no less than the Iliad, is anterior to that date.
8. We may assume then, so far as we can proceed on this line of evidence, that the Iliad and Odyssey were in existence before the Olympic era. This justifies us in speaking of- Homeric poems them as the oldest existing poems in the Greek before the First language. But when we attempt to estimate 01ymPlad-their value as pictures of early Hellenic life and civilisation we are met by difficulties at every step. Are the statements which we find in the Homeric poems facts or fictions ? Are they copied from contemporary life, or from a supposed past which was never present 1 Are the omissions which we find in these poems due to ignorance and negligence, or may we legitimately infer that customs and legends which are not mentioned in the Homeric poems were unknown at the time when those poems were composed 1
g. The argumentum ex silentio is at all times of little value, and it is highly probable that in the Homeric poems it is of no value whatever.    There are two events in early omissions in Greek history which admit of no reasonable the Homeric doubt:  the invasion of Peloponnesus by the poems-Dorians, commonly known as the " Eeturn of the Heraclids," and the migration of the Ionians from the mainland of Greece
1 Monro, Journal of the Hellenic Society, v. 39.
VOL.  I.                                                                                           K
146                         ANTIQUITY OF 'HOMER.'                      [V. 9.
into Asia Minor. These changes are not merely recorded in legends, but they are presupposed by subsequent history; the arrangement of the population of Greece in historical times arises out of them. In the Homeric poems there is no No reference to re^erence to either of these events ; not a single the Dorian in- line can be f ound which betrays any knowledge vasion, etc. Q£ ^hem. When confronted with such evidence, our first impulse urges us to assume that the poems were composed before the Return of the Heraclids and the Ionian migration. The events are not mentioned because they had not yet occurred. Such a hypothesis would at once carry back the composition of the Iliad and Odyssey to the tenth century B.c. or even earlier. But it is quite needless. The Argumentumex Cyclic poems, which we know to have been siientio of no composed centuries after the state of Greece value'              had been changed by these great movements,
appear to have been no less silent about them than Homer.1 We need no second instance to warn us that in the epic compositions of Greece silence cannot be accepted as a proof of ignorance. And this is a fact of the highest importance in regard to the historical value of the Homeric poems. If we cannot infer that the return of the Heraclids was unknown to the epic poets, though they never allude to it, what sort of Worship of right have we to maintain, on the ground of ancestors;         similar silence, that there was a period in the
pun cation. history of Hellas in which purification from bloodshed and the worship of ancestors were not prevalent customs 1 These are institutions of the greatest antiquity, and widely spread among the Aryan nations.2   It is remark-
1 It is true that we have not these poems before us, but so far as the analyses given by Proclus enable us to judge, this statement ia correct.    Even in Greek tragedy the epic illusion is maintained.
2 For the worship of ancestors, cf. De Coulange, La CM Antique,, bk. i. ch. 2 : "On trouve ceculte des morts chezles Hellenes, chez les Latins, chez les Sabins, chez les Etrusques ; on le trouve aussi chezles Aryas de l'Inde. Les hymnes de Rig V^da en font mention. Le livre des lois de Manou parle de ce culte comme du plus ancien que lea homines aient eu."
V. 10.]                  'HOMER' VNHISTORICAL.                           147
able that they are not mentioned or alluded to in the Homeric poems, and it is not easy to give a reason for the omission. We may perhaps conjecture that in the Homeric poems, which are so greatly occupied  with warfare  and bloodshed, the customs which are connected with domestic life are disregarded.    However this may be, considerations such as these compel us to admit that the Homeric poems     unhistoncai are at  any rate  imperfect, if  not fictitious,     nature of the pictures  of  civilisation.1    This must be ad-    P°ems# mitted, and we can also add that we have no means  of ascertaining the extent to which omission was carried.    The desire to distinguish the past from the present would at least incline a poet to give altered accounts of contemporary events or manners if he introduced them into  the picture of an earlier generation.
10. On similar grounds we may assume that the geographical knowledge or ignorance displayed in the Homeric poems is not a test for determining the date of their Geographical composition, or fixing the geographical limits of knowledge no the "Homeric" world. If little or nothing is testofdate-said about the Black Sea, that is no reason for supposing that the poems were composed before the Euxine had been penetrated by Greek mariners. The supposition implies that the Greeks were not only unacquainted with the Euxine themselves, but also that they were unable to obtain information from other sources. Nor can the account of Thrinacria, even if we assume that island to be Sicily, furnish proof that the Odyssey is subsequent to the Greek voyages to the west. Phoenician traders could easily have conveyed such a knowledge of Sicily as the Odyssey implies to the ports of Asia Minor or Argos. Arguments such as these rest on two hypotheses. They assume that the poet states all that he knew in his poems, and also that what he knows is knowledge at first hand, and not gathered from the accounts of others. Neither of these two hypotheses can be seriously maintained.
These customs are mentioned in the Cyclic poems (supra, p. 143).
148
1 HOMER' UNHISTORICAL.
[V. n.
II. The hesitation which we feel in accepting the silence of the Homeric poems as evidence in determining the histori-Vagueness of ca* condition of early Greece is confirmed by the statements    the vagueness and inaccuracy of the statements
in the poems.       which we find jn them      FrQm  ft  study of the
Iliad, and more especially of the part known as the Catalogue, „^ trs    f        which is  generally supposed to be  of much
The ' Catalogue.'                    .   .        i           i                                 •          .    ^
later  origin  than the rest, we arrive at the following facts :—
(1)  That   in   Homer  there   is   little   or   no   notice   of
the distinction between the Ionian and Dorian tribes;
(2)  That the Anatolian coast is in the possession of the
allies of the Trojans. Miletus is still a Carian city, as Herodotus says that it was before the Greeks conquered it;
(3)  That the islands of Chios, Samos, Paros, Naxos, Ios,
are not mentioned in the Iliad, though Rhodes and Crete are mentioned (Rhodes in the Catalogue only);
(4)  That a number of common names in Greek geography
never occur in Homer. Such are Megara, Eleusis, Pisa, Delphi, Peloponnesus. On the other hand, prominence is given in the Catalogue to a number of Boeotian towns of which we hardly hear elsewhere.
(5)  A number of heroes are mentioned in the Catalogue
as leading contingents to Troy of whom we hear nothing in the action of the Iliad.
A glance at the map will show that it is almost incredible that the Greeks could have been unacquainted with the islands of Samos and Chios, at a time when they sailed as far as Rhodes and Crete.1   At any rate, after the examples
1 Chios is in the track of the Greeks when sailing from Argos to the Troad, as is shown in Odyssey, iii. 170.
V. II.]                  'HOMER' UNHISTORICAL.                           149
of omission which have been quoted,  it  is far less incredible that the authors of the Homeric poems and the Catalogue 1   mentioned  those islands, and those only,  which it was necessary to  mention in connection with the heroes who went to Troy.    Any place which in the    An untrust. epic or local tradition did not send a contingent    worthy to Troy was " out of the story," however well-    sketch* known its existence might be.    This is the reason why we hear nothing of Eleusis or Megara in the poems.    In like manner the poetic situation required the presence of a barbarian element in Asia Minor, and therefore the poets represented the country as still in the hands of the barbarians, quite regardless of any contemporary state of affairs.    In this respect even the Catalogue goes back to a period anterior to the colonisation of Asia.
Again, if the account of early Greece presented in the Homeric poems were at all accurate we should expect it to be consistent. This is by no means the case, inconsistency The Catalogue cannot be made to agree with of Homeric the Homeric poems, not even with the Iliad, of poems-which it is intended to form a part. The Arcadians do not join in the Trojan war, yet in the Catalogue Agapenor, the son of Ancaeus, brings a contingent of Arcadians large enough to fill sixty ships ! As the Arcadians had no seaport, and therefore could not have vessels of their own, the Catalogue tells us that Agamemnon supplied them with ships. In like manner Nireus, the most beautiful hero who went to Troy, except Achilles, is represented as bringing a contingent to the aid of Agamemnon from a small island contiguous to
1 Cf. II. ii. 494 ff. with Monro's notes; Id. English Hist. Review, i. 47. Throughout, the Catalogue exhibits glaring contradictions to other (probably local) legends. Unless it did so, it could not be in harmony with Homeric poetry. The natural inference is that the empire of Agamemnon never existed in early Greece, but when, by the creation of the Iliad, the idea of this empire was formed, contra* dictions arose between the epic and local legends. The Catalogue even goes beyond the poems, and introduces a number of cities and heroes who have no place in the Iliad.
150                        *HOMER* UNHISTORICAL.                     [V. xi.
Rhodes. Neither Ehodes nor Nireus are mentioned in the rest of the Iliad.1
It is clear from this that the Catalogue cannot be accepted as any authority on Homeric geography or history. It is in Nature of         fact no more than a fanciful enumeration, in
the < Catalogue.' ^e ^jIq 0f Boeotian poetry, of the contingents which, according to various legends, went to Troy. Those who assert that it is a picture of some early condition of Greece must explain how it can be at one and the same time a trustworthy account of an age preceding the Doric invasion and a late addition to the Homeric poems; or, if they refuse to regard it as a late addition to the poems, they must account for the discrepancies between it and the Iliad. They must explain how in the very infancy of Greek navigation, when a three days' voyage precluded all communication between Greece and Troy for ten years, Agamemnon was able to assemble a fleet only surpassed by that of Xerxes.2
1  The reason of these insertions is perhaps the following. In lists of the suitors of Helen, of which we have copies in A poll odor us and Hyginus (Fab. 81), names occur which are not found in Homer. The legend asserted that these suitors were bound by their oath to Tyndareus to revenge the wrong to Helen (Thuc. i. 19). Hence the author of the Catalogue represented those heroes as joining the host with a contingent. This seems to be the reason why Antiphus, Agapenor, Nireus, Gouneus, Prothous, Thalpius, Polyxenus, Phidippus, names unknown to the Iliad and Odyssey, are found in the Catalogue. In the action of the Iliad they bear no part whatever. Later legend used the story of Agapenor's appearance at Troy as the foundation for the colonisation of Cyprus by Arcadians under his command (Paus. viii. 5, 2 ; viii. 53, 7). The story of the colonisation is connected with the temples of Athena Alea, and Aphrodite Paphia at Tegea. The Cyprian dialect and the Arcadian present resemblances, and the legend of the colonisation is as old as Herodotus. The similarity of the dialects proves an early connection between the Arcadians and Cyprus ; but it does not of course prove the presence of the Arcadians at Troy. The legend was probably invented to explain the connection.
2  It is, I think, impossible to prove that cities omitted by the Catalogue are later than the Catalogue, or that cities mentioned in it were necessarily places of prominent importance at any period of history.
V. 12, I3-]                   HOMERIC GEOGRAPHY.                         151
12.  Once more.     Where the poems afford us the means of forming an opinion, as at Ilium or in Ithaca, it does not appear that   the   descriptions   given   in An obvious them are accurate.   Scholars have made battle- ™^^Jyof fields of both places without coming to any in Homer, decisive result.     And it requires very little reflection to convince us that a decisive result is not to be expected.   In describing the journey of Telemachus and Pisistratus from Pylus to Sparta, the poet omits all mention of the mountain ridge of Taygetus, which it could not be an easy matter to cross.   Yet he  is aware of the existence of the mountain, for he mentions it elsewhere, and he also describes Sparta, quite accurately, as lying in a hollow.   He omits the difficulty from indifference; and his audience, equally indifferent, were not at all likely to point out the omission.1
13.  Whatever line of investigation we pursue, we cannot fail to recognise the , same want of historical truth in the poems. Among the arms employed in Homeric other instances warfare,  the most  important is the chariot ?{. wa?t ?f
1                 ,       ¦           n     i                    i                    historical
drawn by two horses.    Such a war-chariot is accuracy, unknown in historical Greece with one exception (Cyprus).2 On the other hand, we know that the war-chariot was commonly used in the great armies of the Assyrians. Is it, then, more credible to suppose that the poets have glorified their heroes by ascribing to them an arm which they did not possess, or that the " Homeric Greeks" appeared with horses and chariots before Troy?    If we choose the  second alternative we have to show how the
1  It might be added, that the notion of two young men driving about in a chariot and pair would be ridiculous in historical Greece; and the chariot would be an encumbrance in crossing the mountains, as every Greek would know. The remark of Eratosthenes is still worth quoting: "When we have found the cobbler who stitched the bag of Aeolus we may hope to find the places which Odysseus visited."
2  It is said that Eretria (Strabo, p. 448) in Euboea, could put sixty chariots in a procession (Bergk, I.e. p. 8) ; but we never hear of these chariots being used in war.
152           HOMERIC DESCRIPTIONS IMPROBABLE.     [V. 13.
horses and chariots were carried across the sea in the small ships of the timid Grecian mariner.1
The shield of the Homeric warrior is described in some passages of the Iliad as round, in others as extending from the head to the foot. A round shield of a diameter 'e c" large enough to cover a man's height would be an encumbrance rather than a protection, and cannot have existed at any period. The explanation of the contradiction seems to be that epithets are a part of the epic poet's stock In the first instance the proper epithets were applied to shields according to their shape. One was small and round, the other, whether oval or oblong, was tall and narrow. But afterwards the epithets were applied indifferently to either form of shield without any thought of the inaccuracy involved in the promiscuous use.2
The constant mention of gold in the Homeric poems marks another contrast between Homeric and historical Greece. It is true that gold has been found in the prehistoric tombs at Mycenae in quantities which would previously have been thought incredible for such an early date, and the monarchs of Lydia possessed it in abundance. But in historical times gold was almost unknown to the Greeks of the continent till the time of  Croesus.3    To an
1  On the use of the chariot in Egypt and Asia Minor, see Helbig, Das Horn. Epos, 1884, p. 88 ff. He assumes that the practice spread from Asia Minor to the Peloponnesus: "And as war-chariots are depicted on the reliefs of Mycenae, this must have happened before the Dorian migration." It certainly did not happen after ! But is it safe to conclude from the picture of a war-chariot on a stone slab that the chariot was in use at Mycenae ? The Samians are said to have been the first to build ships for the conveyance of horses (Hullmann, Handelsgeschichte, p. 11).
2  For the shield in Homer see Helbig, I.e. p. 218 ff. He assumes, but merely to avoid the difficulty stated above, that two shields were in use in Homeric times, one round, the other oval (p. 222). See Leaf, Journal of Hellenic Soc. iv. 281 ff. At Mycenae we find pictures of an oval shield, an oval shield with indentations, and an oblong shield.
3  It is, however, possible that gold was plentiful in the Aegean when the Phoenicians worked the mines of Thasos.
V. I4-]            'HOMER': POSITION OF WOMEN.                   153
epic poet this is a matter of indifference. His chieftains, like his gods, have everything handsome about them; and why should they not, when it is but the expense of words which is needed to provide it 1 In works of art, also, the poet draws upon his imagination. If Hephaestus, the divine craftsman, can fashion statues endowed with life, and depict lifelike scenes on a shield, this proves no more than that statues of some kind, and embossed work, were known to the poet. His imagination is not to be restricted within the limits of what is possible or impossible in art.1
Another difficulty is presented by the position of women in Homer.    If we look on the picture as a copy of historical facts, we have to explain the long widow-    position of hood  of Penelope, so contrary to the habits     women in of the later Greeks, the custom of the bath    necessarily given by women to men, the visit of Nausicaa    historical, and her maidens to a solitary part of the sea-coast (she remarks that the island is far from other•«?), in an age when, if we are to believe Thucydides, the sea swarmed with pirates.   We are not justified in regarding these descriptions as historical, because they are not impossible.   We have no better evidence for them than we have for the home of Calypso, or the life in the island of Aeolus.
14. If there is a place where we might expect the Homeric descriptions of customs and arts to apply, it is Mycenae, the centre of the Achaean dominion, Homeric and the home of the Atridae. The epithet description of "golden" which is assigned to the city, has ycenae-been more than justified by the discoveries of Dr. Schlie-mann. But in other respects, the art and civilisation of Mycenae, so far as we can trace them, are by no means the
' x Processes of metal-work are pre-supposed in Homer, which were unknown in Greece till a later period: Rhoecus and Theodoras discovered the casting of bronze (Paus. viii. 14, 8); Glaucus of Chios, the welding of iron (Herod, i. 25). Of course arts may be lost and rediscovered, and the Oriental craftsmen may have concealed their knowledge from the Greeks.
154
HOMERIC CIVILISATION.
[V. 15.
art and civilisation which we find described in Homer. There is no trace of iron in any of the tombs; the heads of the arrows are of obsidian, and the other arms of bronze. In Homer, iron and bronze are both in use. There is in Homer no allusion to the custom of covering the face with a mask of gold, which prevailed at Mycenae, or of burying the body without cremation.1 Nor is any mention made in the Homeric poems of such artistic work in relief as we find upon the slabs of stone at Mycenae. Whatever be the truth concerning the princes who were buried at Mycenae, they cannot be identified with the heroes of Homer.
15. On these considerations the internal evidence which has been collected on the age of the poems appears to be The pictures of little value. We cannot, for instance, say of civilisation fo^ tne poems were composed when the power not to be          of the monarchs in the cities of Asia Minor
trusted.            began to decrease in favour of the nobility,
because we find the nobles asserting themselves against their king in the Homeric poems. Even if this is true, it is obvious that an epic poet must assign power and importance to the heroes whom he celebrates, without any regard to the historical relation of nobles and chief. There is no reason to suppose that his imagination was limited by the facts around him. If we hear of a king, a council and an assembly, we may assume that such institutions were known to the minstrels, without asserting that in every city there was a king, a council and an assembly. If in Ithaca there is neither king nor council, and the assembly has not met for twenty years, this is not evidence that in any period of Greek history a throne might be vacant, or the assembly unsummoned for twenty years. It is equally incredible that the Greeks were ten years at Troy without returning home—a voyage of three
1 On the mode of burial at MyeeDae, see Helbig, loc. cit. p. 39 ff. We may allow that one body, at least, at Mycenae, underwent some process of embalming, and that the word rapxveiv is used (three times) in Homer of burial But the common practice in epic poetry was to bum the body and bury the ashes.
V. i6.]   ' HOMER' NOT A COLLECTION OF BALLADS.    155
<lays. And in regard to the much-discussed question of writing, the silence of Homer is not a decisive proof against the existence of the art. The poet, singing under the inspiration of the muse, was not unlikely to disregard a mechanical contrivance which seemed to rob him of half of his pre-eminence over less favoured men.
"Homer," then, is of little or no value as evidence of the «arly civilisation of Hellas, because we have no means of ascertaining that his statements are historically true. We do not know that his silence implies ignorance, or that his assertions are not largely coloured by his imagination.1
16. The case would not be altered if it could be shown that the Homeric poems were a collection of ballads.   Though ballads are popular, and must be in harmony with  popular feeling,  they need not  be in national poetry harmony with facts.     But this  view of the or a collection origin of the poems is untenable.     For not only are ballads short and the Homeric poems long, but the length is attained by inserting episodes into a definite plan, not by stringing one incident on the other.    "Ballads," says Mr. Lang, 2 " are  not artistic, while the form of the epic, whether we take the hexameter, or the rougher laisse of the French chansons de geste, is full of conscious and admirable art."   Nor are the Iliad and Odyssey national poems in the sense in which the Kalevala may be called the national poem of  Finland.3     Little  or nothing is   said   in   them of  the   common   people,  their   lives   and   their   supersti
1  It is still convenient to speak of " Homer," but to avoid misconception I may remark that I do not believe that the Iliad and Odyssey are the work of one author. Nor is it certain that either of the poems is the work of one age. We have, in fact, no certain means of ascertaining from what different periods or different sources iihe various elements in "Homeric civilisation" may have arisen.
2  Custom and Myth, p. 158.
3  See especially, Niese, Die Entwickelung der Horn. Poesie, 1882, j>. 21 ff. : " Bei Homer selbst singt nicht das Volk, sondern ein gelernter Sanger." "Der Sanger bei Homer singt auch nicht fur 4as ganze Volk, sondern flir eine auserlesene Gesellschaft der Vornehmsten " (p. 23).
156                    ARTIFICIALITY OF 'HOMER!                  [V. 16.
tions.1 In this respect, the works of Hesiod have a far greater right to the title of national poems. The more they are studied, the more, will the Homeric poems be found to be what they truly are, epic in the strictest sense, or poems elevated in style, ideal in matter, elaborate and artistic in construction and language.2
Before such poems could be composed, poetry must have been cultivated as an art for many generations. Of this the Artistic nature language and metre are ample proof. We of the poems. cannot suppose that a metre at once so grand and so plastic as the hexameter was the form in which the early Greeks composed their popular songs. Many stages of growth must have been traversed before the length of six feet was fixed as the proper limit of dactylic metre, and the rules of caesura and prosody which prevail in the Homeric poems were settled. When we perceive that the rhythm of the hexameter disregards the accent with which Greek words were ordinarily pronounced, we cannot regard it as a simple or spontaneous expression of poetic feeling. Yet this metre, in spite of the opposition of accent and ictus, has moulded the Homeric language. Phrases abound in the poems which were created by the dactylic metre and have been preserved by it.
17. To present in any detail the use of language in the
1  The Kalevala "is emphatically an epic of the people, of that class whose life contains no element of progress, no break in continuity; which from age to age preserves, in solitude and close communion with nature, the earliest beliefs of grey antiquity."—Lang, he. tit. p. 161.
2  Even the Niebelungen Lied, though the story has been altered to suit chivalric manners and the Christian faith, repeats many old superstitions and popular ideas. The world of pagan gods has vanished, but we have not quite got rid of the dwarfs, the cloak of darkness, or the ill luck attending the hoard of the Niebelungen. In language, in clear grasp of the heroic character, and in the embellishment of the poem by similes or epithets, the Niebelungen Lied, though composed in an age of Minnesingers, and after the subject had been repeatedly treated in a poetic manner, will bear no comparison with the Iliad.
V. I7-]             SHEWN IN THE LANGUAGE.                     157
Homeric poems, would require a separate treatise. Only a few particulars can be noticed here. A very little observation will show that the position of words Language of in the Homeric hexameter is determined to the poems. , a great extent by their quantity. Such words as i/<€cr0ai, ISeo-Oai are generally found at the end of the line. When they are not placed at the end of a line they form a part of the third foot, as Xva-o^vos re dvyarpa.1 Other words which seem allotted to certain places in the line receive this position because they are part of an established phrase : thus Bv^ is generally at the end of a line, owing, doubtless, to its use with verbs and participles. For Kovprj, though of the same metrical value, is not limited in the same way. Again, different forms of the same word vary in their position: Sibs, in the Odyssey, is always last but one in the line, except ii. 27, but this rule is less strictly observed with oTa. Atav is invariably placed after its noun; oios, with the single exception given, is always placed before it, and so also Sta, with one exception; while otov is placed before or after its noun. The common construction Sta ywaiKwv, in which Sta is followed by a genitive, is not allowed with any other part of the word: no hero is Stos avfyxSv, no woman is Stav ywaLK&v. The use of adjectives with nouns is not less remarkable, and, in some respects, though not entirely, it is determined by metre. Thus vrja ^eAatvav is common, but we never find vrjas fieXatvas or vrjes /xeXatvat.2 We find vrjl fieXaivr), but vqvcrl ficAcuVr/cri never.3 On the other hand, vrjvcrlv Uo-ys occurs once (Od.), vrjas eia-as is common, but vrjes eto-cu is found twice only (Od.). The forms in which words are used are very remark-
1  We may perhaps hazard a conjecture that the hexameter has been made up of two parts, of which the first comprised three beats, and the second an anacrusis and three beats, thus:—
\v(TOfi€v6s re Bvyarpa \ (f>€pmv t' airspeio-C anoiva. Such a metre would soon be found inadequate for long poems, and would be discarded for something more massive and more varied.
2  The phrase /xeXaiycu vrtes cttovto occurs twelve times in the Catalogue, but nowhere else in the Iliad, nor in the Odyssey.
3  In the Od.; in the II. five times, always with h—irtvUo-Bai.
158         ARTIFICIALITY OF THE CHARACTERS.       [V. 18.
able: TroAvrAas occurs in the nominative only; raXao-i^povo^ with one exception, in the genitive only; *roA.v/A^xavo5> ^th one exception, in the vocative only. These instances, which might be increased to any extent, are enough to prove that the language of Homer is neither a natural nor an inartistic mode of speech. It does not represent a spoken dialect but a metrical language, created under the influence of the dactylic metre, and adapted for use in poems composed in that metre.
18. If the early Greek poets had attained to such excellence
of art in the language, we may reasonably suppose that they
had technical and artistic rules about the epic
less artificial      life and character.    They wished to put before
than the lan-      their audience something ennobling and in-
guage.
spiriting; and, doubtless, they had clear conceptions of what would serve their purpose. There is nothing more characteristic of the Iliad than the firm, unhesitating touch with which the characters are drawn. Such certainty implies a clear and definite ideal in the mind of the poet. If they ascribed to their heroes a number of traits which puzzled the historians and shocked the moralists of later times, the reason is that the epic poets were neither historians nor moralists; they sought to give the pleasure which epic poetry can give, and were artists enough to know that the impression produced by incidents in works of art is, and must be (if art is to exist), wholly different from the impression produced by incidents in a history of real life.1 The pictures, then, which have been drawn of the Homeric state or family, of Homeric art and civilisation, are not to be accepted as descriptions of what really existed at any definite period.    They prove little or nothing for the
1 It is a confirmation of this view that, in the Odyssey, the more weird and magical incidents are removed into distant countries and introduced in episodes. Such " fairy stories" have no place in the epic poem. Of the Chanson de Roland we are told, " Elle ne connaib ni les f£es, ni les enchanteurs, ni les magiciens, ni les palais de diamant" (Julleville, I.e. p. 75).
V. I9-] ARGUMENTS FOR HOMER'S HISTORIC TRUTH 159
historical condition of ancient Greece. The minstrels treated facts as they chose, and for their own purposes, and the whole story of the Trojan war fades at the least touch of criticism. There is as little reason to suppose that the picture of Nau-sicaa, with her maidens, is drawn from the life of Ionian princesses, as that Circe's power of changing men into swine represents a historical fact in ancient Hellas. There were magic arts in those days, which men dreaded, and there were princesses attended by maidens, but the details of the pictures are due to the poet. Nor need we suppose that women came out on the walls of besieged cities, or that old men thought it worth while to ruin their country for the sake of a lovely princess. We may, indeed, delight ourselves with tracing the outlines of the pictures, political, social, or religious,, which these poems place before us. For understanding later Greek history such a study is of the first importance, because Homer became the great authority in every department of life. He was the great statesman, general and artist of Hellas. No nation ever owed more to a book than the Greeks owed to Homer. But the influence which these poems exercised on Hellenism is quite a distinct question from the inquiry into the amount of historical truth which they contain.
19. Against this sceptical view it is urged that the epic poets must have been restricted by what was credible or known to their audience.    "A picture which did not correspond to a state of things familiar fav^uTof the" to them, they would have found unintelligible historical truth and uninteresting.    We cannot ascribe either to          mer*
them the power of comprehending, or to the poet the ambition of affecting a learned propriety in his descriptions, and still less can it be supposed that he drew from any ideal model. It seems clear that the generation which he saw was not parted from that of which he sang by any wide break in thought, feeling, or social relations."1    It is true that in the Niebe-
Thirlwall, Hist, of Greece, i. 158.
i60
IDEALISM OF HOMERIC LIFE.              [V. 20.
lungen Lied the pagan myths have been changed to suit the Christian audience, for which the poem was composed in its final form, in the twelfth century. That is a clear instance of a poet altering his materials in order to be in harmony with his own time and generation. Nevertheless the argument quoted proves too much. The Athenians of the Periclean age Prove too          were widely removed in government, society
much.              an(j manners from the heroic age depicted in
the Homeric poems. They never used war chariots in their battles; they despised the bow and arrow; they had neither kings nor a governing class of nobles. Yet they delighted in the descriptions of Homer, without ever observing the improbabilities of the poems, or the wide gulf which separated their age from that of the Achaeans. It was the conception of human life and character, it was not any learned propriety, which attracted them. They could appreciate the irresistible force of Achilles, or the wisdom and resources of Odysseus, or the devotion of Penelope, or the charm of Helen's beauty, without asking whether it was possible for a monarch to build his own raft and his own bed, or decorous for a princess to go out with her maidens on the city walls. There is no reason to suppose -that the audience, to which these poems were first recited, was less able to appreciate them, or to distinguish between the ideal truth of the characters and the setting oftheiiferde-ter °^tne Poet's picture. They also desired to see scribed in the patterns of heroic life, without in the least poems.             caring whether the scenes which the poet de-
picted were true or even whether they were possible. On the contrary, they resigned themselves to the pleasing belief that such noble deeds were no longer possible in their own degenerate days, and the sons were content to remain inferior to the fathers.
20. This constitutes in truth the real value of the Homeric poems in the history of Greece. They present to us the ideals of character and life which delighted the audience to which they were addressed, and continued to delight gene-
V. 20.]   HOMER'S POEMS; THEIR USE IN HISTORY.     161
ration after generation till Hellenism became extinct. From this point of view, it is of the first importance to ascertain what conceptions   of   human life  are   found     _.
i                            .i                        t          The use of
m these early poems, the ideals of morality Poetry in prevailing in them, the form in which the history» noblest characters are presented to us. And this is the true use of poetry in history. To select doubtful and disconnected facts, and treat them as real incidents in the past, can never be a satisfactory method of writing history. Such a process confuses two entirely different modes of composition: the imaginative and the historical; and the result is what may naturally be expected from such a confusion. Nevertheless the poetry of every age is to a certain extent the expression of the imagination of the age. It gives us a glimpse into the inward life of the time, its aspirations and ideals, and in this respect it is more valuable than any record of facts. But we must always bear in mind that the Homeric poetry is epic poetry, and that the epic conception of life was not that which prevailed in the home of the peasant, or the fold of the shepherd.1 What the early civilisation of Hellas was we can hardly guess; there were doubtless shepherds and herdmen in the mountains, and tillers of the soil in the plains. It is not improbable that there were feuds between the two, and the peasant may have had to defend the "labour of his hands " against his roving neighbour. There were cities ruled by wealthy princes, who purchased pottery, or metals, or slaves from the isles of the Aegean and the coasts of Asia Minor. Beyond these vague assertions we cannot go, without assuming a knowledge which does not rest upon historical evidence.2
1  " Le peuple ne paralt pas dans les anciennes e*pop£es, ou s'il y paralt, c'est, comme le chceur des tragedies antiques, en une troupe indistincte et anonyrae. . . C'est l'^pop^e d'une societe" tres sp^ciale et m§me d'une seule classe dans cette society" (Julleville, I.e. pp. 74, 77).
2 This is not the place to enter upon the artistic merit of these great poems. Nor have I ventured to deal with the complicated question of their origin. The chief difficulty is to account for the extraordinary excellence of the Iliad and Odyssey. In this respect, neither the "ballad-theory " nor the "development-theory" is satisfactory.
VOL. I.                                                                               L
162                 HOMERIC SOCIETY IDEALISTIC.     [V. 21, 22.
II.—HOMERIC SOCIETY.
21.  Even if we knew that the Homeric poems were the work of a single author, if we could fix the date of his birth, a poet not a and the place where he lived, we could not historian.          expect to find in the poems a complete and accurate account of contemporary political or social institutions. A poet is not a historian. It is not his duty to record what he knows with precision, and carefully to exclude every fact which is not established on satisfactory evidence. On the contrary, he may invert, combine, omit, or alter as he chooses. He may borrow something from the past and blend it with the present, or enrich the description of his country with details gathered from other sources. It is also obvious that a great artist will always shape his materials to suit the object which he has in view. Whatever may have been the early historical condition of Greece— and what we know of it is often at variance with the testimony of Homer—it was necessary for the author of the Iliad to assume the existence of a great armament under a supreme chief, to whom the leaders of the various contingents were more or less subordinate. Not less necessary for the composition of the Odyssey was it that the throne of Ithaca should remain vacant for twenty years. Only on that condition was the return of Odysseus possible. The insuperable difficulties which underlie the story of the Trojan war—when treated as history—are nothing to the epic poet, and criticism which treats his work as history is of necessity abortive. The brief sketch, then, which is here given of the arrangements, political and social, portrayed in the Homeric poems, is not to be received as the description of an early age in Greek history. It is merely an outline of the picture which the epic poets of Greece present to us.
22.  The Homeric State is monarchical. Agamemnon is the king of Argos, and by reason of his preeminent power, he is
V. 22.]                HOMERIC STATE: THE KING.                     163
chief-king of the armament at Troy.    Among the leaders of the various contingents, some are the kings of the people whom they have brought to the war, as Ido-    The Homeric meneus is king of the Cretans.    But the title    state* of king is not distinctive of the monarch.    In the island of Scheria there are thirteen kings, of whom Alcinous is the chief.   Nor is the tenure of the office secure. If hereditary, it is so only in the sense that the son can succeed the father if found worthy of   the throne.    But if a king lived to an  extreme old age, the sceptre might pass to a vigorous son even in the father's lifetime.    Laertes cedes the throne to Odysseus, in whose absence he is entirely disregarded.   Achilles fears thatPeleus may be driven from his possessions and office when his son is not there to defend him.   The king has a domain set apart for him, apparently from the public land.   This    The King's goes with the office; so also do the palace and    domain, various gifts from the people.    After a successful raid or battle, a special portion of the spoil is set apart for the king as the leader of the forces.    But the wealth which the king has acquired by his own arm, and the help of his retainers, or which he has received by inheritance from his father, is his own, and cannot be taken from him, even though he is no longer king.    Such at least is the account we receive of the rights of the monarch of Ithaca.
The king is the leader of his people in war, and the source of justice. He does not act alone in either capacity. Kound him, as immediate councillors, are the chiefs or nobles of the nation, whom he invites to his palace, or meets at some customary place. They form the Council.1 When the king and his councillors wish to make their decisions known, or to ascertain the will of the people over whom they preside, an Assembly is summoned. In Ithaca Telemachus summons an assembly in order to
1 At Ithaca, in the absence of the king, we hear nothing of the Council. In II. ii. 53, the Council is summoned by Agamemnon at the ship of Nestor.
164                HOMERIC STATE: THE ASSEMBLY.          [V. 22.
make a public complaint against the suitors, and enlist sympathy on his side. In this he acts on the advice of Athena, but no result follows.1 In the camp before ssem y. rpr0y an assembiy is summoned to hear the wishes of Agamemnon. In order to test the temper of the Achaeans, he proposes that they shall return home, though his real object is to make an assault on Troy, which he has been told in a dream that he will capture. The assembly, on hearing his proposal, at once breaks up, and the people flock to their ships in haste to depart. By the earnestness of Odysseus, who tells the leaders2 the real wishes of Agamemnon, and drives the common sort back to the place of meeting with the sceptre which he has borrowed from Agamemnon, the assembly meets a second time. Odysseus now urges them to remain and carry on the war, and his speech is greeted with such applause that Agamemnon pretends to give way, and exhorts the Greeks to prepare for battle.
As a judge, the king gave his sentence in public, with the advice of the gerontes or elders. He is the source of justice The King          in his nation;  the repository that is of the
as judge.          customary law; and on his decisions rests the
law of the future. Hence just judgment is of all virtues the greatest, and receives the peculiar blessing of the gods. There is no greater glory than that of " a blameless king, whose sentences are just, and given in the fear of God; for him the earth is fertile, the flocks teem, the trees bring forth fruit abundantly, and the sea is full of fish.'7 3 The capacity for pronouncing just judgment seems to be regarded as innate and hereditary. Even the youthful Telemachus, who shrinks from addressing his elders, is spoken of as sldlled in justice, and invited to settle the disputes of others.
1 Previous to this convocation, the assembly had not met since the departure of Odysseus.
- Agamemnon is represented as having some power to "harass the sons of the Achaeans," II. ii. 195, and the j3a<riAiJ€s are half frightened into submission.
3 Od. xix. 109.
V. 22. ] HOMERIC ST A TE: ADMINISTRA TION OF LA W.   165
On the shield of Achilles we have a poetical description of a trial at law. A man has been slain: two opponents are contending about the price of blood, one assert- The trfal scene ing that all has been paid, the other that he on the shield has received nothing. The king and elders of Achilles-are seated in the sacred circle—such as we might suppose the circle within the Lion's Gate at Mycenae to have been—and the litigants appear before them. Around are gathered the spectators, who give eager attention to the case, and express approval or dissent. Each litigant produces witnesses. When the pleading is ended the judges rise, staff in hand, in due order, to give sentence. A remarkable feature in the picture is the sum of two talents of gold to be given to him " who pronounces sentence best." If this does not refer to a reward for the best decision, we must strain the text and assume that it represents the sum which in later times litigants deposited before a trial, as a proof that the case was genuine. For such a purpose the amount on the later reckoning of the value of a talent of gold is enormous, but the talent may not be the same, and Homer is always lavish of the precious metals.1
It is more difficult to decide in what sense the Homeric king is also a priest. The monarchy is not a priesthood; and though monarchs are Zeus-born, and their The King as office enjoys a divine sanction, they are not priest, priests. We have instances of offerings made by kings, as that of Oeneus, King of Calydon, in which he forgot to sacrifice to Athena. Agamemnon also sacrifices on behalf of the host before going to battle.2 In these instances the king represents the community, as the head of the house represents the household, and it is in this capacity—not because he stands in any closer relation to the divinity—that he offers the public sacrifice.
1  The same sum is given as a fourth prize in the horse race, Ik xxiii. 269. Ten talents are also mentioned, II. ix. 122, 264; Od. iv. 129 ; seven in Od. ix. 202 ; xxiv. 274.
2  //. ix. 535; ii. 402.
166              HOMERIC SOCIETY: THE PRIESTS.      [V. 23, 24.
The only outward symbol of royalty is the sceptre. The king is the bearer of the sceptre. The sceptre of Agamemnon Outward sym- was hereditary in the family of Pelops. Yet boi 6f royalty. even this distinction is not confined to kings. Priests, seers, heralds carry sceptres, and every one while speaking in the assembly bears the sceptre in his hand.
23.  Beside the kings and counsellors may be placed the priests as men who enjoyed peculiar honour.    The Homeric
priests do not form a special caste, nor have
The Priests
they any peculiar power with the king or the army. For the most part they are sacristans, placed in charge of a shrine, and protected by the deity whom they serve. The presence of a priest is not necessary at a sacrifice unless it be offered at the shrine of which he is the custodian, Hymns and incantations, and the power of securing the favour of a deity by special rites known only to a privileged class, are entirely alien to the Homeric world. Nor is the priest a minstrel or singer. Song is sacred, in so far as it is a gift of the Muses, but it is not religious. There is no trace in " Homer" of the existence of a body of religious poetry similar to the Veda of India. It is the "glories of men,"— what they have done or suffered in martial enterprises,— or stories about the personal acts of gods, which supply the bard with a theme, and the newer his song, the greater is the pleasure which he gives.
24.  Of divisions of the people in Homer there is little to be said. There were, of course, rich and poor, nobles and corn-Divisions of mons, the Syjfxos and the /WiA^es. We hear also the people.        0f tribes (<f>vka) and brotherhoods (^parpiat), words which apparently signify larger or smaller aggregates, without any more special meaning. It is obvious that in the field or the camp names of this kind might have a different signification from that which they bore in the community.
Among the poorest of the poor is the Thes, a
hired labourer, who is only superior to a slave
because he retains his freedom.   He cannot be injured in his
person at the will of a master, but he can be cast aside and left
V. 25-]   HOMERIC SOCIETY: THE PEOPLE—SLAVES.     167
to starve when there is no longer any need of his services. His lot is selected in a famous passage of the Odyssey as an illustration of extreme misery. " I had rather," saj^s Achilles, ,'be the thes of a poor man whose substance is small, than reign supreme over those that are dead."
Slaves are numerous in Homer. They were bought, or captured in war, or bred in the house of their masters. Many touching instances may be found of the faith- „    .  .
P  ,        ,°             «.      •                i    •                   .t        Greek slaves.
ful and even affectionate relations prevailing between master and slave. When Telemachus returned from Sparta to Ithaca, the handmaids of the house gathered round him in joy; the handmaids of Achilles shared in the grief of their master for the death of Patroclus. Euryclea, the aged nurse, occupied an honourable position in the household of Odysseus, and Eumaeus, the swineherd, who was by birth a king's son, was the trusted friend and counsellor of Odysseus and Penelope. Nevertheless the master has absolute power of life and death over the slave. Penelope, in a moment of just resentment, utters savage threats against Melantho; and Odysseus, without hesitation, hangs all the handmaids who have been faithless to their mistress, and have brought disgrace upon her palace.
25. This sympathy of classes was due, in some measure, to association in common labours. In the epic there is no trace of that contempt for manual work which ideas about work marks the Greek of later times. Chieftains and labour, leave the management of their herds and farms to others, but they supervise the operations, and can, when necessary, take a part in them. In the picture of the harvest on the shield of Achilles, the king is present in the reaping field. Odysseus is skilled in the labour of the farm, and even the suitors seem to engage in tasks of this kind. Handicraft is held in especial honour. It is a proof of the versatile genius of Odysseus that he made his own bed, and built himself a raft. Paris assisted in building his own house, which was remarkable for its beauty. Those arts which demanded a skill beyond the reach of men not specially devoted to them—arts which were,
168     HOMERIC SOCIETY: ALIENS—WIDOWS, 6*c.    [V. 2&
in fact, professional even at that time—such as the art of th& physician, the seer, the minstrel, were practised by trained persons, who were called Demiurgi, or artisans. If they were not slaves, they generally went from place to place as their assistance was needed, but the greater families had a bard attached to them, who sang for the amusement of the company after the meal. In some cases such arts were hereditary, as that of healing in the race of Asclepius.1 That mistresses and maids should pursue their tasks of spinning or weaving in common is a practice too widely spread to need any special notice. It is more remarkable to find Nausicaa, a princess, taking a share in the washing of the household linen. This picture of ideal simplicity is reserved for the marvellous island of Scheria.
26. If slaves are merely dependent on the humanity of their
masters, aliens and beggars are under the special protection
of Zeus.    They cannot be ill-treated or slighted without
fear of the vengeance of heaven.     In what
Aliens.                                               °            .                     1 e       1
way the peculiar regard expressed for beggars and aliens is to be reconciled with the misery of the Thetes and the existence of slaves, many of whom owe their position to-piracy and kidnapping, it is useless to inquire. The sympathy with misfortune, though real and genuine, is very imperfect. The same inconsistency is seen elsewhere. We turn from the tender and respectful affection which encompasses Arete .            and Nausicaa to the description of the widow
who is torn away from her husband's corpse on the battle-field by the blows of her brutal captors, to endure the lot of a slave in a distant country. We hear of the gentle kindness shown by Odysseus to Eurymachus, and by Phoenix
to Achilles, in their childhood, but the orphan
boy passes from one chief to another, begging for morsels from the table where his father ate. Everywhere he meets with rejection and rebuke.     "Away from  us,
1 The Egyptians,  who were remarkable  for  their knowledge of medicine, were spoken of as the race of Paeon.
V. 27-3          HOMERIC SOCIETY: SOCIAL ORDER.              169
thy father is no longer here to share the wine-cup as of old."1
27. The Homeric age is not, however, an age of utter lawlessness, in which every one is at the mercy of a strange neighbour. The Cyclopes, who live as isolated Political and savages, differ from those who are united by social order, customs and laws. There are pirates, it is true, in Homer, and men of alien race, like the Phoenicians, have no hesitation in committing the most horrible crimes. But it is difficult to prove the practice of universal and indiscriminate piracy, such as Thucydides implies; and we have, at least, one instance in which an unprovoked attack on a neighbouring people is deeply resented by the nation of the chief who made it.2 And if blood is shed freely, as is inevitable in a martial epic, human life has its value. A man who takes the life of another in a time of peace has to fly the country, even though there are few who can avenge the murder. This expatriation is not due to any religious feeling about the pollution which murder brings upon      T,    . ..
iTii           ...             ., ,              ,           .          Homicide.
the land—at least it is impossible, on the evidence supplied by the Iliad and Odyssey, to attribute it to this feeling. No exiled murderer ever seeks for purification as Adrastus sought for it from Croesus. The custom is due to the feeling that the murderer has broken the law of his land; and, though there is no public administration of justice, the sympathy of the people and customary law are on the side of vengeance. The payment of a sum of money is received in atonement for the murder; and when this has been duly paid, the homicide is again permitted to return home. Under what circumstances the kindred of the dead had a right to refuse the sum offered, we do not know, though instances of refusal are not uncommon.3
1  Od. viii. 523 ; II. xxii. 490.
2  Od. xvi. i27.
8 Schom&nn, Greek Ant. i. 47 E. T. He suggests that the blood-price was not accepted when the murderer was a kinsman of the slain person,
170                 HOMERIC SOCIETY: THE FAMILY.          [V. 28.
There is, of course, no such thing as written law in Homer. The word vofxos does not occur in the poems. Custom and ordinances are the foundation of justice. Nor is there any evidence of written contracts or agreements. In such a state of society everything depends on the truth of spoken evidence. For this reason, perjury is in Homer one of the worst of crimes. Like wrongs done to parents, it awakes the peculiar vengeance of the Erinys, and is punished by Persephone in the depths of Tartarus. "Hateful to me as the gates of Hades," cries Achilles, " is the man who hides one thing in his heart, and speaks another with his lips."
28. The family is already established on a strong and firm basis. This is a point in which we find a real and vital distinction between the Greek and alien nations. The polygamy of Priam, and the host of his sons and daughters, form a striking contrast to the monogamous relations which prevail among the Greeks. With them it is a rule not to introduce concubines into the houses of their wedded wives. Menelaus is an exception, for Megapenthes, his son by a slave, was brought up in his house at Sparta with Hermione, his daughter by Helen; but this deviation from the respect due to a wife is excused by the fact that Helen had no son.1 The same strictness is not observed in the camp or on the voyage. Victorious chiefs make concubines of the women whom they capture, and even Odysseus, in spite of his determination to rejoin Penelope, enters into relations with Circe and Calypso. From women, on the other hand, the strictest propriety was demanded.2 The Homeric virgin and matron always command respectful reverence.    They are conscious of their
1  This was not the case with Theano. Yet Antenor had a son by another woman, and Theano tended him (II. v. 70). Laertes, on the other hand, would not approach Euryclea, for he would not vex his wife.
2  I do not agree with Prof. Mahaffy that the union of women with gods points to a low state of morality. " I doubt the fact" of such unions; they were mere inventions to connect the divine and human.
V. 29.] SOCIETY: THE FAMILY—PENELOPE—HELEN. 171
position, and preserve it with a natural pride.1 In spite of her defenceless condition, and her long widowhood, no attempt is made to force the wishes of Penelope. It is true that we must not ascribe too much importance to the Homeric poems in this respect. Other legends were not equally respectful towards Penelope. But the author of the Odyssey perceived that the noblest form of the legend was the only form suitable for a great epic. Whether others were more in accordance with the habits and facts of the earliest times in Greece, was a matter of little importance. It is obvious, also, that the picture of Helen presented in the Homeric epic is the only account which could be given without a disintegration of the poems. Helen must be beautiful and attractive; she must be a prize worth the winning for Paris, the Trojans and Menelaus. At the cynical touch of Euripides the whole vision is scattered, and moral questions intrude, which have no place in epic poetry. To inquire into the morality of Helen's character, to excuse or justify the description of her on the walls of Troy and in the palace of Menelaus, to point to it as an instance of the low tone which prevailed in antiquity in regard to sexual relations, is a mistaken application of criticism from which we can expect no result. The poet allows no reproaches to fall upon his heroine save those which come from her own lips; but he does not hide or palliate the woe which she has brought upon his heroes.
29. In the harmony of wedded life the poet sees the crowning height of human happiness. Such a union is the delight of friends, the envy of enemies. It forms the social hap-centre of a prosperous home where neighbours Pin«ss. and kinsfolk are ever welcome to the feast. The Homeric heroes are no strangers to the pleasures of eating and drinking. There is no lack among them of chines of pork and beef, of baskets laden with bread, and goblets brimming with
1 Very different are the pictures of women in the Teutonic epics, anl even in the Morte d'Arthur.
172              HOMERIC SOCIETY: AMUSEMENTS.        [V. 30.
wine. But excess is unknown. Drunkenness is rarely alluded to in the epics, and always with contempt. The " crowns " of the feast are the lays of the minstrel, which he accompanies with the tones of his harp. To sit by the hospitable table and listen to the newest song is the goodliest of all the customs of men. Even the unknown stranger is freely admitted to the chieftain's hall, and allowed to take his fill of food before inquiry is made into his name and lineage, or the errand which has brought him from his home.
30.  In the epic poetry of Greece we see the beginning of that delight in trials of strength and agility which became so
remarkable and distinctive a feature of the Greek nation. The funeral of Patroclus is celebrated by games. Odysseus is entertained in Scheria by an exhibition of the skill of the Phaeacians, " for there is no greater glory than that which a man gains with his hands and his feet." In answer to the taunt of the Phaeacian that he is unskilled in feats of strength Odysseus sends the quoit whizzing far beyond the utmost limit reached by those famous mariners. In days when a strong arm was needed for the protection of house and goods, great value was naturally ascribed to success in such contests. But other games also—even games of mere recreation—were not unknown in Homer. The suitors pass their idle hours in the courtyard of Odysseus's palace in throwing at a mark with spears and javelins, or they play at irecra-oi within the house. Dancing also is a favourite amusement, especially at the festivals of the gods.
31.  This life of hospitality and enjoyment has of course its darker side. In the Trojan epic the shadow of the great war The sorrows hangs over all. The toils and sufferings of the of life.              Achaeans on the windy plains of Troy, the long voyages in dangerous and unknown seas, are a never-failing source of sorrow. Sons or brothers, husbands or fathers, have fallen and left sad memories to those who remain. The uncertainty of life, the delusiveness of hope are deeply felt. There are two jars, the poet tells us, standing at the threshold of Zeus; one filled with good things, the other with evil.   To
V. 3*.]      HOMERIC SOCIETY: SORROWS OF LIFE.         175
some men Zeus gives unmixed evil, to others mixed good and evil, but unalloyed blessings are the lot of none.1 Achilles, the greatest of the Homeric Greeks, the son of a goddess, is dishonoured by Agamemnon, and pierced with anguish by the death of Patroclus, whom he cannot avenge without slaying Hector, on whose death his own must closely follow. In the bitterness of their sufferings the Homeric heroes do not hesitate to reproach the deities for the miseries of human life, and the gods echo the lamentations of men f "Father Zeus, thou hast no fellow in doing mischief; from thee above all gods cometh evil.,, "Of all creatures that live and breathe upon earth there is none more sorrow-stricken than man." Man's life is fleeting as that of the leaves of spring; for a little time he flourishes in prosperity, and then fades away. Over all his joys there is spread the gloom of death, which comes upon him he knows not when. His best hope is the despair of fatalism. He will not die before his time; and when the day has come he cannot outlive it. Death, if not annihilation, is at least the extinction of the sensible warm motion of life, and the imprisonment of the delighted spirit in a region where strength and pleasure are no more. " Speak not comfortably of death, 0 noble Odysseus," are the words of Achilles when in the under-world, " I had rather be a serf on the land of the poorest than reign as king over all the dead." But amid these sombre reflections, the Homeric hero is not lost in vain regret or weak complaining. He goes out to do his duty let the cost be what it will. Birds may ily to east or west, but a brave man will fight for home and country, for that is the best of all omens. There is no Stoic attempt to repress natural feeling or underrate the sacrifice which a noble life entails; the price must be paid, and duty must be done. There is no delegation of dangerous enterprises; every man takes his allotted share. With sorrow and lamentation the hero goes forth to achieve the glory which men 4i shall hear of in days to come."
1 11. xxiv. 527.
174       HOMER'S INFLUENCE ON L11ERATURE.  [V. 32, 33.
32.  It is thus that the Homeric poems gave the keynote to Hellenic literature, and to Hellenism in the highest influence of sense. The dignity and grandeur of human the Homeric nature have never been more finely conceived poems.             or get ^^ more effectively. The learning which is gathered up in later epics by Virgil or Dante or Milton confuses while it illumines them. Analysis takes the place of sympathy, and criticism dispels the illusion of art. In Homer*all is simple, natural, undisguised. In this the Greek epic may be compared to Greek sculpture of the best period. A certain singleness of heart is needed if we would enter into the full meaning of those noble conceptions. We must look on human nature with an eye which can behold it without disguises. We must learn to connect nobility of mind with beauty and strength of body, and see in perfect loveliness and heroic courage, in Helen and Achilles, the ideals which have entranced the imagination of mankind.
It has been finely said that Greek history begins with Achilles and ends with Alexander. The Greek epics were recited at festivals and taught in schools; they influenced the poetic and pictorial art of Greece. They fixed the myths in forms which later thought was always interpreting anew, but never changed. They shaped the characters of great men. Few nations have received a more splendid legacy from the past, and fewer still have shown a deeper sense of their obligation.
IIL—THE HOMERIC DEITIES.
33.  In a remarkable passage which has been often quoted Herodotus states his opinion that Homer and Hesiod con-The«Theogony* structed the "theogony" of the Greeks.    It
of the Greeks.       was   ^hey  wh0   gaye   ^Q   ^ne   gQ(Js  their titles,
who distinguished their characteristics and attributes, and established the forms under which they were known. Those poets whom some thought to be earlier than Homer were in the opinion of the historian more recent.1   It is interesting
1 Herod, ii. 53.
V.34-3
HOMERIC THEOGONY.
175
to know that even in the time of Herodotus there were no more ancient literary sources in existence from which he could derive information about the deities of Greece than the poems of Homer or Hesiod. And though we cannot follow him in attributing so great a change in the national religion as the creation of a theogony to two poets, however influential, or in joining Hesiod with Homer, there is no reason to doubt that the description of the gods which appears in the Homeric poems is to a very large extent the work of epic poets.
Previous to Homer, Herodotus distinguishes two periods in Greek religion.    In the first, which we must suppose to have been quite primeval, the gods were with- Gods without out names, attributes, or forms, though sacri- names-fices   were constantly offered   to them.     The   Pelasgians worshipped them merely as  deoi or  " arrangers," in the belief that those powers which had arranged the scheme of the world, had in their power the distribution of worldly blessings.   After the lapse of a long period Names brought the names of   the gods were brought from from Egypt. Egypt to Greece, and the Pelasgians, on consulting their oracle at Dodona, were bidden to adopt them.    This account of   the early Greek  religion which   Herodotus   heard at Dodona need not detain us.    It is not only a This account is fiction invented in order to connect the deities a fiction-of Greece with the more ancient deities  of Egypt, but a fiction at variance with the view which Herodotus takes of the Pelasgians.    If these were a barbarous nation, as he asserts, how can they have given the* name "deot" to their gods 1   Theos, in the sense here given to the word, is connected with the Greek word tithemi, " to arrange."x
34. We may postpone to another chapter the sources from
1 Herodotus derived his information from Dodona, and what authority had the priests or priestesses of Dodona ? Milchhoefer, on the evidence of the curious figures found on the "island-gems/' thinks that a period of Polydaemonism preceded Pantheism. Qf. Avjaenge der Kunst, p. 114.
176                     THE SOCIETY OF THE GODS.             [V. 35.
which Hellenic deities and forms of worship have, at least in part, been derived. In the earliest period, when the Combination of country was inhabited by a number of tribes, Local Deities, dwelling apart in their.cantons, there would be many local deities, more or less distinct from each other. Pausanias calls attention to the number of the regions in Greece which claimed to be the scene of the infancy of Zeus.1 Every tribe, we cannot doubt, was anxious to identify the tutelary god of the land with the supreme deity of Hellenic mythology. When these tribes became united into larger aggregates, either by conquest or by common expeditions, Rendered neces- tne &0(*s wh°m tnev worshipped were brought sary by the into contact with each other. It was necessary umonoftnbes. to establish some mutual relations; they must appear as equal or subordinate, friendly or hostile. This task naturally devolved on those who celebrated the martial enterprises of the time, and sang the "glories of men." Chieftains were not victorious without the aid of the gods, and defeat was more conveniently explained as due to the wrath of an offended deity, than as the result of a want of strength or valour in the hero. Thus from an early age it must have been the task of epic poetry to arrange in some kind of order the assemblage of deities worshipped by various tribes in different localities.
35. If, on the one hand, the task was rendered difficult by the exuberant imagination of the Greeks, which filled' the world with deities, it was on the other hand greatly assisted by the Hellenic tendency to represent the gods in human Family relations fonn> ^h buman passions and desires. The attributed to the relations of the family, the only form under gods*                 which in early times a close union could be
conceived, were transferred to the gods. The supreme deity became the father or the eldest brother of the divine family, pre-eminent in strength and claiming by right of his position the homage of the rest.    But this relationship could not be
1 Paus. iv. 33, I.
V. 36.]                THE HOMERIC DEITIES.                      177
extended easily to all the divine beings which the Greeks supposed to inhabit earth and sea and sky. There were deities which, owing to their close connection More or less with natural phenomena,, were not readily com- completely, prehended in human form or brought into the family life of the gods; and others, again, upon whose overthrow the present potentates of heaven had established their dominion. For this reason poets may have found it necessary to speak of more than one class or description of deities. We shall find this to be the case in Homer. Hesiod, on the other hand, as a professed theogonist, ventures on a resolute attempt to bring all deities, whatever their nature and origin, into connection with each other in a comprehensive system.
36. The Olympic deities, as they are presented to us in the Homeric poems, assembled in the hall of Zeus on the summit of snowy Olympus, are creatures at    The Homeric once divine and human.    In endowing them     Deities, with  a divine nature,  the poet   has not succeeded,  and often has not attempted to succeed, in raising them wholly above the limitations of  their mortal counterparts,  or in adhering consistently to his divine ideal.    In bodily form they are of.more than human  stature.1    They have also the power to assume what shape they choose,     Superhuman or to be at once visible and invisible.    But     and Human-their bodies are not insensible to wounds and pain.    They require sleep and food; and though their food is described as  different from that of mortals, and their blood  is  not such as runs in the veins of men, yet they take part in sacrifices, and delight in the flesh offered to them.    They are able to render aid from afar to their favourites when in distress; yet in their absence their help cannot be obtained. Their powers of sight and hearing are almost without limit, yet Helios, the "keen of -sight," cannot see what is done to
1 Ares when felled to earth extends over seven plethra, and Hera is Able to lay one hand upon the sea and the other upon the earth, on the occasion of a solemn oath.
VOL. I.
178       HOMERIC DEITIES: THEIR ATTRIBUTES.     [V. 37.
his oxen, nor can Ares or Aphrodite perceive the net in which they are enfolded.1
The same inconsistency prevails in regard to attributes not so closely connected with the body. The divine nature is omniscient and omnipotent. There is nothing hid from the Limited in their S0(^s> wno know the past and the future, and knowledge and all the things which are done upon earth, power.             yet the poets represent the gods as hesitating
what course to take. Zeus himself holds up a balance to enable him to determine the decree of destiny. He is deceived by Hera, who on her part is unable to penetrate the secret counsels of her consort. Ares is ignorant of the death of his son Ascalaphus,2 and even Proteus is unable to detect the guile which is practised upon him by Odysseus. In their power also, though omnipotent, the gods differ greatly. Zeus declares that with his single strength he is more than a match for all the other deities of Olympus. Even the happiness of the gods is far from perfect. Not only are there disputes in Olympus which trouble the serenity of the divine life,3 but their connections with mortal women cause the deities to have sorrows for the death of their children; and their sympathy with human actions brings pain and distress upon them.
37. More remarkable than these inconsistencies, which are indeed inseparable from any attempt to represent the divine nature in human form, is the want of sanctity, and morality in it may be added of morality, in the Homeric the Homeric gods. It is natural that in the conception of Aphrodite as the goddess of sexual love there should be no distinction of what is moral or immoral, and that male deities should be altogether free from the restrictions which society had only lightly imposed upon men. In the Greek mind sexual relations were an inseparable part of human nature, and as such they could be attributed without offence to the gods.   But the gods of Homer are not sensual only; they
_ l Od. iii. 231 ; xii. 375 ; viii. 280. 8 II. xiii, 521. * See the scene in 11. xxi. 489 ff. between Hera and Artemis.
V. 3», 39-3        IMMORTALITY OF THE GODS.                      179
are treacherous, envious, and even cowardly. Athena is sent from Olympus to bring about a breach in the truce which has been solemnly concluded between the Trojans and the Greeks ; the cowardly act of Pandarus is directly due to her instigation. Odysseus is honoured and beloved by the same goddess for his cunning and falsehood ; and Hermes " gladly abetted " Autolycus in all manner of perjury and guile. In their dealings with each other, and with men, the gods made no scruple of employing whatever trick or falsehood was likely to assist them in their object. It is well known that these features of the Homeric mythology were the first to attract attention when the poems fell under criticism. From Xenophanes downwards they met with the severe reprobation of the philosophers of Greece. Happily we* have no evidence to prove that mortal men attempted to shape their conduct after the pattern of the Olympian life.1
38.  The only quality which is consistently attributed to gods and denied to men, and which therefore may be called the true mark of the divine nature, is immortality, immortality The gods are dOdvaroi /ecu dyrjpaoi, "without of the gods, death and age." By the gift of immortality Calypso offers to make Odysseus a god. By their immortality the divine beings are freed from the misery of the human lot. For them there is no death in store; that black shadow does not lie across their paths to darken the enjoyment of the present. Hence the gods are happy, " and live at ease," while men are subject to weakness and misery. Nor is the languor of disease, or the helplessness of age, which leaves men exposed to the rapacity of their neighbours, felt in Olympus,
39. The deities which make up the Olympic circle are these : —Zeus, Apollo, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, Hera, Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite, and perhaps Themis and   Deities of the Dione.   Poseidon is sometimes an inhabitant of   01y«npic circle. Olympus, but he has also a home in the sea.   Like the suitors
1 Sir John Lubbock observes that primitive deities are almost alwaya evil beings.    Of. Hume, Nat. Ret. § 13.
180                        OLYMPIC DEITIES: ZEUS.                    [V. 39.
in the hall of Odysseus, or the chieftains who meet in the house of Alcinous, these deities assemble in the hall of Zeus during The life in         tne day-time ; there they feast and converse, or
oiympus a copy listen to the music of Apollo and the songs of of human u e. ^e Muses. When evening comes on they retire to the palaces which Hephaestus has fashioned for them.1 The gods also meet in session, and Zeus brings subjects of discussion before them, in the same way as an earthly king gathers the elders together for consultation.2 Besides this session, or council, we hear of a divine assembly3 to which the gods are summoned, as men were summoned to the agora to hear the conclusion at which their superiors had arrived. For Zeus a             Zeus is sovereign among the gods, and though
monarch.          ne mav from time to time consider it prudent
to avoid quarrels, his will is supreme in Olympus. Before Zeus also, as before an earthly king or BiKacnroXos dvrjp, causes are tried and complaints are made,4 and like an earthly king he retains his position in virtue of his superior power. On the other hand, in the Olympic form of government family relations are represented as underlying the tio^combined political arrangements. Zeus, Hera, Poseidon with civic in and Hades are related collaterally ; the rest of ympus.          ^e g0(js are the children of Zeus.    Hence Hera
is a Trpkvfia 0ca, a goddess queen, and Poseidon can claim rights against his brother. For when the kingdom of Cronus was divided, the heaven fell to Zeus, the sea to Poseidon, and the under-world to Hades, while Olympus and the earth were common to all. Nevertheless Poseidon owes a duty to Zeus as to an elder brother. The Olympic monarchy is more patriarchal than the governments upon earth; it combines the authority of a parent with the respect due to greater strength and wisdom.5
1  Cf. II. i. end, of Zeus, with Od. i. 421 ff. of the suitors;   Zeus and Hera remain in the hall as Menelaus and Helen, Od. iv. 304, 305.
2  Cf. Od. v. init, with the conduct of Alcinous, and Od. vii. 187 ff.
3  //. viii. init.                                     4 Ibid. v. 872 ; vii. 446. * Ibid. xv. 187.
V. 40, 41.]    OLYMPIC DEITIES: APOLLO-ATHENA.        181
Among the children of Zeus, the most prominc :it are Apollo and Athena. These are his ministers upon earth, for Zeus never allows himself to be visible to the eye of      A   „
Apollo.
man. They are joined with him in the solemn form of oath : " Father Zeus, Athene, and Apollo." It is remarkable that in the Homeric mythology Apollo by no means occupies the position which was assigned to him at a later period. He is the god of prophecy, but with the exception of the plague, which is caused by his resentment, his part in the action in the Iliad is subordinate. In the Odyssey he, like Hera, tends to disappear altogether. There is no trace in Homer of his function as a god of purification or of healing ; Paeon being quite distinct from Apollo even as late as the time of Solon.1 Athena, as a goddess favourable to the Hellenes, comes forward prominently in the Iliad, and may be called the guiding spirit of the Odyssey. In spite of her opposition she is the favourite child of her father, who finds a quarrel with her "more hateful" even than a quarrel with Hera. Of her parentage we are told nothing in Homer; the well-known myth, that she sprang from the head of Zeus, appears for the first time in Hesiod's Theogony, and the Homeric hymn to Apollo.
40.  Though the gods who inhabit Olympus are the prominent figures of the Homeric mythology, a crowd of divine beings is gathered round them, which may be subordinate arranged in the following groups :—(a.) The deities. Titans; (&.) the subordinate or attendant deities in Olympus; (e.) the deities which are obviously personifications of natural phenomena; (d.) the deities of the sea; (e.) the deities of the earth, and the Chthonian deities, whose home is under the earth. The relation of these subordinate deities to the Olympian family is not always clearly defined; but in their various f-pheres they are able to influence both the processes of the physical world and the prosperity of man.
41.   (a.) The Titans in the Homeric poems are a dynasty of
1 Buchholtz, Homerische Eealien, part iii. 1, p. 198.
182        SUBORDINATE DEITIES: TITANS—IRIS.      [V. 42.
gods, Cronus, lapetus, and others, who have been dethroned and plunged into Tartarus, a deep abyss lying as far below Hades as heaven is above the surface of the earth.1 It is difficult to suppose that the Titans are the gods of an older religion, or of a conquered population, for neither in Homer nor in Hesiod is there an allusion to any worship of the Titans. They appear to be a link connecting the mere personification of natural objects, with which Greek mythology begins (Oceanus and Gaea) and the human figures in the Olympic world. In this manner the somewhat shadowy forms of Cronus and Khea form an antecedent stage to the fair humanities of the Olympic family.
42. (b.) Among the deities which occupy a subordinate place in Olympus, one of the most interesting is Iris, who in the Iliad is the messenger of the gods. The name, which is also the Greek word for "rainbow," is a feminine form of Irus, a title given by the suitors in the Odyssey to the beggar at their doors, owing to his willingness to carry messages. That the rainbow should be considered as a connecting link between heaven and earth is not surprising; in the Eddas the rainbow is the bridge which connects earth and heaven. But as no satisfactory etymology of the name has been discovered, it is impossible for us to say whether Iris signified in the first instance a rainbow, and was afterwards used for " messenger," owing to the conception formed of the rainbow, or whether, signifying messenger from the first, it was subsequently applied to the rainbow. It is a remarkable fact that Iris as a goddess is never mentioned in the Odyssey, though, as we have seen, the name Irus is there given to a messenger, ermes. jjern)es js ^ djvine messenger of the Odyssey. Of this strange discrepancy no satisfactory account can be given. It forms a considerable weapon in the armoury of those who contend that the Biad and Odyssey are the work x>i different authors.
*Il viii. 13, 479.
V. 43]      DEITIES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA.           183
At the divine banquets the wine is served by Hebe, who also assists to harness the chariot of Hera, and tends Ares when wounded.    The poet even represents her as aiding Ares in his bath, as the daughters of chieftains aid the guests in their father's halls.1   Among the chief delights of the Olympic palace are the responsive songs of the Muses.   These deities are the daughters of Zeus, but it is doubtful whether their number was yet fixed.    In the Iliad, at least, no distinct number is given; at one time the "Muse," at another the "Muses" are mentioned.    They are also the teachers of song, from whom poets receive their gifts of memory and speech.    The Hours have in their keeping the gates of heaven, and are thus at hand to unyoke the chariot of Hera and Athena when returning from Troy.    In a more literal sense they are the goddesses of the seasons, by whose blessing the fruits of the earth flourish.    The Graces, or Charites,  are the   constant attendants of Aphrodite, for whom they prepare the bath, and weave an "ambrosial" robe.    It is from them that beauty comes to women.    Of the three Graces whom we meet with in later mythology and art, Homer knows nothing.
43. (c.) In regard to the deities which more immediately represent the phenomena of nature, Eos, the goddess of morning, Helios, the sun-god, and the gods of Eos, Helios, the winds, we may observe that there is no the winds-complete division between the deities and the phenomena which are supposed to be the result of their operation. In one passage the words "dawn," "sun," "west wind," are used in the same manner in which we use them; in another, epithets or actions are ascribed to the Dawn or the Sun which compel us to regard them as persons. Thus "Eos" is "rosy-fingered," or "clad in saffron robe." Helios is the " unwearied son of Hyperion." When Achilles was burning the body of Patroclus he offered prayers and vows to Boreas
1 II v. 9G5.
184
DEITIES OF THE SEA.
[V.44.
and Zephyr, that they might blow up the flame of the pyre. Iris is straightway despatched to the palace of Zephyr, where the winds are holding a feast. The two winds hastily gather together a mass of clouds, hurry across the waters and blow upon the pyre till the body is consumed, when they retire to their home beyond the Thracian sea.1 To what extent the deity and the phenomena were separated in the poet's mind, it would be useless to inquire. The custom of later poets, who speak of fire as Hephaestus, or wine as Bacchus, must not mislead us into supposing that the Homeric personification is merely a poetical mode of speech. Among savages the changes of the natural world are always regarded as the work of persons, and it is the echo of this primitive mode of speech which causes Eos to be spoken of as a goddess,. rising up each morning from the couch of Tithonus, and returning at night to rest by his side.
44. (d.) The sea, as might be expected, furnished the Homeric poet with a crowd of deities, Poseidon and Deities of the Amphitrite are the foremost. Though Posei-sea-                 don is introduced into the Olympic circle as
the brother of Zeus, his true home is in the waters.    At the bidding of Zeus, Poseidon and Apollo had built walls for Laomedon of Troy, but when the time came for payment, Laomedon refused it.  Hence in the Iliad Poseidon is the bitter enemy of the Trojans    In the Odyssey, on the other hand, owing to the slaying of his son Polyphemus, he is the relentless enemy of Odysseus, to whom the destruction of Troy was due.  Amphi-mp 1 le'        trite may be regarded as the female counterpart of Poseidon.2     In Homer she is never spoken of as his consort, or in any way connected with him, but later
1II. xxiii. 192 ff,
2 It is common in Semitic mythology to find each deity at once male and female, the double nature being necessary to the completeness of the divine being. In Greece we find Zeus and Dione, Ares and Enyo, Poseidon and Amphitrite. No satisfactory derivation of the word Poseidon has been proposed.
V. 44-1          MINOR DEITIES: NEREIDS, dr»c,                   185
mythologists told how Poseidon saw her when dancing at Naxos, and, overcome by her beauty, carried her away to be his wife. She is the queen of the stormy ocean, to whom the monsters of the deep are subject.
Minor deities are Nereus and his daughters, the Nereids, among whom Thetis is chief; Proteus and Eidothea, Ino Leucothea. Phorcys, the Sirens and Scylla, with
i                               \ •       xi          i      ra       •             Minor deities.
whom we may combine the gods of the rivers. The more fantastic of these deities, Proteus and his daughter, Ino, the Sirens and Scylla, belong to that "outer circle1' of the Odyssey, to which the poet, with consummate art, has relegated all that is magical and weird in his story. They are creatures such as naturally live in the tales of mariners, and thus belong to another sphere of mythology than the loftier creations of epic poetry. There is no reason to suppose that they were of later origin than the deities of the Olympic circle. On the contrary, they seem to carry us back to the primitive forms of belief which existed in the minds of the common people.
It is remarkable that the deities of the sea are regarded as possessed of superhuman knowledge.    Nereus is spoken of as the   "truthful," the   "unerring;" from   omniscience or Proteus Menelaus receives information about   sea deities-his voyage home, and what he will find there.    The Sirens know all that has happened at Troy, and all that is done upon the earth.    In these weird creatures may be symbolised the feeling which lures the sailor onward in the hope of discovery, till he meets his death amid the rocks of an unknown sea.1   The vastness and mystery of the ocean were also reflected in the deities which inhabited it. They cannot so easily be brought within the   anUiropomor-SS limits of human life as the gods which dwell   f^c than on earth or in heaven.    There is no common link to combine the deities of the sea in Homer.   An exception must, however, be made in favour of the Nereids.   Though
Dante, Inferno, Canto xxvi., end.
186            MINOR DEITIES: NEREIDS—NYMPHS.       [V. 45.
dwelling in the sea, they are humanised in form and feeling. Thetis has the cares of a wife and mother. "Is there a goddess who suffers as I suffer ? Me only of the sea-maids Zeus subdued to a mortal husband, and, sore e 1S* against my will, I came to Peleus' bed." She knows the doom of her son and laments over it; she is filled with sorrow at his humiliation; with her sympathising sisters, she comes to comfort him in his grief for the death of Patro-clus; and when he is buried she joins in the death-wail.
45. There is no trace in Homer of the well-known myth of the rape of Proserpine. Demeter indeed never appears as an actor or speaker in any Homeric scene. In the Iliad she is the goddess of corn, whose gift is the bread of men; and in the Odyssey we are told how she lay with Iasion in the thrice-ploughed field, thereby bringing upon him the wrath of Zeus. Dionysus was worshipped in Northern Greece. We read in the Iliad1 that "Lycurgus, the wild son of Dryas, drove the nurses of the maddened ^.                  Dionysus down divine Nyseion : they scattered
Dionysus.                Al    .                t            ,            ,                    ,                      ,
their wands and torches on the ground, struck by the ox-goad of Lycurgus, while Dionysus in terror plunged into the sea, and sought shelter in the bosom of Thetis "— a passage of great value, for the evidence which it furnishes that the ecstatic worship of Dionysus was known at that early time. The opposition which Lycurgus here offers to the Dionysiac worship meets us again in the attempt of Pentheus to resist the introduction of such rites at Thebes.2
The nymphs are among the most pleasing of the Homeric divinities. They are the spirits of the mountains (Orestiades), ^ M     t       of the woods, and of the springs  (Naiads).
The Nymphs.      m,                    11       i,               - r?               -.
JLney are also the daughters of Zeus, and receive worship from men.     In Ithaca there was a grotto
1IL vi. 130
2 Without attributing historical value to these legends, there is no good reason for doubting that the worship of Dionysus, like that of the Muses, and even of Apollo, was known in the north of Greece before it became established in the south.
V. 45-1        HOMERIC DEITIES AND NATURE.                 187
sacred to the Naid-nymphs, "where are bowls and jars of stone, and stately looms, whereat the nymphs weave their purple robes, the delight of the eye."1 The growth of trees, and sometimes the movements of animals, are due to their operation. It was they who planted elms (irrtXtai) round the grave of the father of Andromache, and sent to Odysseus and his companions the goats on which they fed in the island off the land of the Cyclopians. They follow Artemis when hunting; and even the four attendants of Circe "are born of the springs and the groves, and the holy rivers which flow down to the sea." By creations such as these the life of nature became an animated world; the trees, the hills, the waters, were the abode of divinities, whose dwellings were sacred. We admire them as beautiful creatures of the imagination, but in the mind of the Greek they awakened feelings of awe and reverence for the world around him.
Nothing is more striking in the Homeric conception of the deities than the close relation in which they stand towards external nature. There is no idea of any The relation of fixed, inevitable law in the world, such as we the deities to find, for instance, in the remarkable words of nature-Heraclitus, who tells us that if the " Sun departs from his appointed path the Avengers will mark it and put him back."2 In the Odyssey Helios declares that if he is left without recompence for the loss of his oxen, he will " go down to Hades and shine among the dead." And when Odysseus and Penelope are at length brought together, Athena holds back the night in her course for twice the usual space, that the hero may tell the tale of his wanderings to his wife. The gods are lords of nature, which is in deepest sympathy with them. The sea rejoices when Poseidon goes forth from his palace in the depths, and round him gambol the creatures of the deep, who know their lord. The delighted earth sends up soft fresh grass, dewy lotus, crocus and hyacinth, to form a
1 Od. xiii. 104 j cf. xiv. 435.          z See Hume, Nat. Bel § 2.
188     HOMERIC DEITIES: HADES—PERSEPHONE.    [V. 46.
couch beneath Zeus and Hera on Mount Ida. Nor are the divine beings insensible to the charms of scenery. Hermes, the messenger of the gods, is entranced with the beauty of Calypso's dwelling, and casts a lingering look on the fair scene before him ere he passes in to deliver the command of Zeus. This characteristic of the Homeric poems requires the greater attention, because in later times, when Greek poetry became lyric and dramatic, descriptions of natural scenery were out of place.
46. The   under-ground  (Chthonian) deities  are  by their nature gloomy and awful beings.    Hades is the lord of the
unseen world, " the god whom none can soften
or subdue; abhorred and hated above all gods by mortal men." Persephone is not the beautiful daughter of Demeter, whom Aidoneus snatched away from " that fair
field of Enna," but the female counterpart of ersep one. jjajeSj an(]j apparently (supra, p. 170), the more terrible deity of the two. In her keeping are the spirits of the dead. Nevertheless, gloomy as the under-world may be, it is not, except in the eleventh book of the Odyssey, the place of punishment which is described in later poems. But the elements of the later conception are already present.
In the Iliad the Erinyes dwell under the nnyes. Q^xbh., and exact penalties for perjury and ill-treatment of parents.1 From that dark abode they can be summoned to do their work upon earth. Perhaps there is no more tragic scene in ancient poetry than that in the ninth book of the Iliad, where Althaea is described as invoking the Erinys to punish her son for the murder of her brother. "Often did she pray to the gods in her anguish at her brother's death; often with her hands she beat the earth, and cried unto Hades and dread Persephone, falling on her knees, her bosom wet with tears, to send death upon her son. And the Erinys that walks in darkness, the lady of a pitiless heart, heard her in Erebus."2    Though the Erinyes are in
1 II xix. 258.                              a Ibid. ix. 565.
V. 47, 48.]       HOMERIC DEITIES: ERINYS, &c.                189
the first instance the ministers of the wrath of the infernal gods, their action is not restricted to the punishment of perjury or the ill-treatment of parents. They are the guardians of order in the world, and as such they check the voice of the horse of Achilles when he is prophesying his master's doom, which only the gods may reveal. The poor man who begs his bread, and the suppliant in need of help, are also under the protection of the Erinyes. Their vengeance is sometimes shown in the fatal blindness which misleads men into doing actions to their own hurt. It was through the act of the Erinyes that Agamemnon was deluded into his quarrel with Achilles. This doctrine, it will be seen, exercised a deep influence on the thoughts of later poets, especially of Aeschylus.
47.  This enumeration gives a very imperfect idea of the multitude of divine personages who appear in the Homeric poems. Sleep and Death, Strife and Fear, Personification are deities; Prayers, like the nymphs, are of abstractions, the daughters of Zeus; with weary feet they follow in the steps of Delusion (Ate), to heal the mischief which she works. On the other hand, there are some remarkable omissions. Eros is not yet a deity, nor is he the son of Aphrodite. Nor is the moon personified as a female counterpart of the sun. Nemesis is not yet a divine power. To us the personification of abstract words has become merely a poetical fancy; but among the Greeks such deified abstractions were often worshipped as beings whose anger could be averted by prayer or sacrifice, from which we may infer that they were regarded as having a real existence.
48.   Though the Homeric deities have certain spheres of action assigned to them, we are not to suppose
that their power is rigorously confined within   striCtiy limited the allotted limits.    The same result is attri-   t0 fixe,d spheres buted to the agency of widely different deities. A fair wind is sent by Zeus in one instance, by Calypso in
1 II xix. 418.
190              HOMERIC DEITIES: GODS AND MEN,       [V. 49.
another, by Circe, Athena, or Apollo. At one time it is Poseidon who summons the clouds, at another Zeus; and Athena stills the wind which Poseidon has raised. It is obvious that without this freedom of action the divine machinery would be a very serious difficulty to the poet. Yet the freedom is not without limits. The gods do not willingly interfere with each other. Athena shrinks from any open dissension with Poseidon, however great her desire to bring Odysseus home; and though all the gods are opposed to Poseidon in his bitter anger against Odysseus, they do not attempt to control his actions by force.
49. It was the universal belief of antiquity that, in very early ages, the gods had sojourned upon earth. But even the intercourse of epic poets regard this period as long past j it gods with men. js oniv among the Phaeacians that the gods deign to sit at the meal, or meet the lonely wayfarer without turning from the path.1 In the heroic world the gods no longer associate with mortal women. They do not reveal themselves to men except on rare occasions, and to especially favoured individuals. The greatest deity, Zeus, never reveals himself at all, Hera and Poseidon but rarely. It is their ministers, Athena, Apollo and Hermes, who form, as it were, the connecting links between the human and divine world. These appear to men sometimes in their own shape, which is recognised, or in the form of men or animals. They are described by Homer with characteristic features; the eyes of Athena and Hera, the hair of Poseidon, are marked by unchanging epithets. At other times the gods are said to be present, though they are invisible; and it is not till their departure that the traces of their presence are discovered. When they would avoid each other they find it necessary ta use some special means of concealment.2    Athena puts on
1  The PhaeaciaDS are " very near to the gods," like the Cyclopians and the wild tribes of the giants. This is an indication, among others, that, in the Odyssey, the anthropomorphism is less complete than in the Iliad.
2  Iliad, xiv. 287.
V. So, 51.]              OMENS, ORACLES, ETC.                         191
the cap of Hades, in order to avoid been seen by Ares; and Zeus, when embracing Hera, covers himself with a cloud of impenetrable thickness.
50.  More commonly the will of the gods is made manifest by the appearance of signs (rkpara) sent from heaven, such as thunder, or a rainbow, or the flight of birds,
their contests and cries. With these signs no special signification is connected; thunder may portend hail or snow or war; the rainbow is the forerunner of war or of a storm. The meaning becomes definite when the sign appears at a critical moment, to those at least who are skilled to discern it. For " all birds are not messengers of fate," so that it is necessary to have recourse to the " watcher of omens," who can decide what appearance is ominous and what is accidental, or make clear the meaning of the portent In dreams, also, divine intimations are conveyed       ^
,,,¦¦«.,                  ,                                                                     Dreams.
to men, though these, like other omens, are often obscure, and require interpretation from the dream-seer. Oracles, in the later sense of the word, are almost unknown in Homer; yet if every other source of ascertaining   the   divine   will  fails,   or   gives   a doubtful result, a man may repair to  Dodona or Pytho, and make   inquiry   there.     The   interpreters of   dreams and omens appear to form a separate class of men.    They do not secure the favour of the gods, or exercise in any way priestly functions.    They cannot command the appearance of an omen, good or bad; they can only interpret what is sent without their interference or agency.
51.  Sacrifices and prayers are the accepted means of winning and retaining the favour of the gods. The man who neglects either is in danger of bringing
upon himself the divine wrath.    Sacrifice is a debt due to the gods, which may not be withheld from them. When Oeneus was sacrificing to the gods of the firstfruits in his vineyard, he failed to sacrifice to Athena:  "either he forgot, or he never gave it a thought."    Then Athena, in
192                   SACRIFICES AND PRAYERS.            [V. 52, 53.
anger, sent the boar which ravaged his land. The wall which the Greeks built to defend their ships was raised without the sacrifice of hecatombs; "built against the will of the gods, it remained unbroken for but a little time/ Sacrifice, then, is a necessary portion of the Homeric religion, but all sacrifice is not offered by the same persons; we find that it is sometimes presented by priests, sometimes by kings in their political capacity, and sometimes by a father on behalf of his household. Private sacrifices are frequently mentioned; in fact, every action of life is accompanied with something which has more or less of the nature of a sacrifice.
52. The simplest form of sacrifice was the libation, which was poured at meals as a kind of grace, and before going to bed Libations and at night, as well as on more solemn occasions. Prayers.            On leaving Ithaca for their journey through the night, Telemachus and his companions poured " a libation to all the gods, and chiefly to the grey-eyed daughter of Zeus." Prayers were, of course, still more frequent than sacrifice. Feeling his dependence on the divine power at every step, the Homeric hero was constantly offering prayer to one or other of the inhabitants of Olympus. The Homeric language distinguishes, though not invariably, the vow (*vyr\) from the prayer; and the prayer for the accomplishment of a wish (apa) from the prayer for pardon (Xirrj.) In the last sense prayers are said to be the daughters of Zeus. Lame and wrinkled, with eyes askance, they walk painfully in the footsteps of Ate. " If a man honours the daughters of Zeus, when they draw nigh, they hear his petitions, and bestow great blessings upon him; but if he denies them, saying, * Depart from me/ they return to Zeus, and entreat that Ate may visit the sinner, so that he may stumble and suffer for his sin."
53.  Such is a brief outline of the religious conceptions contained in the Homeric poems. They are in part the creations of great poets, who sought to give expression to their ideas
V. 53-3 CHARACTERISTICS OF HOMERIC RELIGION.     193
about the divine nature, and in part the traditions handed down from very early times. They are obviously inconsistent and imperfect. Eeligion is not yet combined Characteristicl with morality, for the gods are not moral of Homeric beings, nor do men ask their favour always Reli«ion-for moral ends. It is rather a means of obtaining prosperity and success by the help of higher powers, and in the worship of the gods the outward act is more than the inward spirit There is no thought of any conflict between good and evil powers, for human nature is not yet divided against itself so far as to allow of the existence of a principle of evil. A few rules of social order are sufficiently fixed to be under the peculiar protection of the deities. Perjury, injuries done to parents, or suppliants, or beggars, are visited by divine wrath. But beyond these limitations, the right of the stronger prevails among gods and men,
CHAPTER VL
THE SPARTAN STATE.
The names of the traditional kings of Sparta down to the first Olympiad are as follows:—
Enrysthemds.	Proctitis*
Eurysthenea.	Procles.
Agis.	Sous.
Echestratus,	Eurypon.
Labotas.	Prytanis.
Doryssus.	Eunomus.
Agesilaus.	Polydectes.
Archelaus.	Obarilaus.
Teleclus.	Nicander.
Alcamenes.	Theopompus,
The first Olympiad fell in the tenth year of Alcamenes and Theopompus, 776 B.C.
I. Sparta was the city from which the Dorians slowly extended their dominion over a considerable portion of Early history Peloponnesus. Of the progress of her power of sparta.          we nave on\y ^e mos|j meagre information,
especially in the times which immediately followed the return of the Heraclids. We hear indeed that the Spartan king Sous acquired territory from the Clitorians, in the north of Arcadia, and that Eurypon, his son, conquered Mantinea. But these distant expeditions become extremely improbable when we subsequently find the Spartans defeated, and their king Charilaus captured, under the walls of Tegea, which lay between Sparta and Mantinea.1 There is probably more truth in the legend of the attack of King Echestratus on the Cynurians, which led to the first war between Sparta and Argos.2
The internal condition of Sparta at this early period is
1 Plut. Lye. 2; Polyaen. ii. 13 ; Pans. iii. 7. 2.       8 Paus. iii 2, 2.
194
VI. 2.]              EARL Y HISTOR Y OF SPARTA.                   195
uniformly described as one of strife and bad government, a condition of affairs which was certainly unfavourable to external development and conquest. Hero- Dissension and dotus attributes these dissensions, at least in strife-part, to the mutual animosity of the two royal families; the twin sons of Aristodemus quarrelled all their lives, and their descendants after them did the same. Plutarch, on the other hand, speaks of quarrels between the kings and the people. Eurypon was the first to relax the stringency of the monarchical power, and from his time forward anarcliy and confusion prevailed—the king and the people contending for the upper hand. This appears to have been the opinion of Aristotle, who mentions the " tyranny of Charilaus," as though that king had attempted to emancipate his prerogative from the restrictions placed upon it. Whatever the cause, it is more certain than any other fact in early Spartan history that the condition of the country was for a long time one of internal strife and dissension. It was the great merit of Lycurgus to have put an end to this disastrous state of affairs.1
2. Lycurgus is the foremost name in Spartan history. Tradition is nearly unanimous in describing this lawgiver as the author of the prosperity of Sparta, and the LycurgU8. un. founder of her peculiar institutions, but about certainty in re-the date and the events of his life the greatest e&rd to him* uncertainty prevailed.2 Herodotus, following the Lacedaemonian account, describes him as the guardian of Leobotas, Or Labotas, the fourth in the Eurysthenid line of kings.8 In the account usually accepted, he appears as the guardian of Charilaus, the seventh king in the Proclid line.4   Thucydides^
1 Herod, vi. 52; Plut. Lye. 2 ; Arist. Pol v. 12 = 1316 a.
* Hellanicus ascribed the foundation of the state to Eurysthenes and Procles, for which he was censured by Ephorus, who pointed out that only Lycurgus had a shrine and yearly offerings, whereas the two kings, though founders of the state, did not even bequeath, their names to their descendants.    Strabo, p. 366.
8 Herod, i. 65 ; Paus. iii. 2, 3.
4 Ephorus in Strabo, p. 481.
196                      EARLY SPARTA: LYCURGUS.                 [VI. 2.
though he does not mention Lycurgus, asserts that the form of the government had continued the same in Sparta for more than four hundred years before the end of the Peloponnesian war.1 In his opinion, therefore, the reforms of Lycurgus were introduced shortly before 804 B.C. This date is considerably later than that usually given to Lycurgus, on the authority of the ancient chronologers, but it agrees with the position of Charilaus in the list of kings. If Theopompus be^an to reign in 786 B.C., and we allow twenty-four years for his predecessor, we reach 810 B.C. for the death of Charilaus, in whose reign important changes in the constitution of Sparta, without doubt, took place.2
Herodotus tells us that Lycurgus, when visiting the Delphic shrine, was hailed by the priestess as a being more The account of th&n human, and some authorities asserted Herodotus.        ^hat the Spartan institutions were revealed to
him there.3 The Lacedaemonians, however, regarded Crete as the source of their peculiar arrangements. They were thus enabled to connect them with the great name of Minos, and derive their authority from Zeus himself. Later legends had much more to tell  on the subject.4   Polydectes, the
i Thuc. i. 18.
2 Plutarch, on the authority of Aristotle, supports the view that Iphitus, the reviver of the Olympian games, and Lycurgus were contemporaries. In the Politics, v. 12 = 1316 a, Aristotle indicates that the reforms of Lycurgus were introduced in the reign of Charilaus, which must be later than 884, the usual date of the Olympiad of Iphitus and birth of Charilaus. If, however, we accept the later date of the Olympiad of Iphitus, which Callimachus placed 52 years (13 Olympiads) before 776 B.c. (not 108 years = 27 Olympiads), we get 828 B.o. as a possible date for Iphitus and Lycurgus. This agrees with the statement of Thucydides, and allows us to follow Aristotle in connecting Lycurgus with Iphitus and Charilaus. There was a doubt whether the legislation of Lycurgus fell in the time when he was the guardian of Charilaus, or in the reign of Charilaus. In any case, as no Laconians appear in the list of victors for the first fourteen Olympiads, it is improbable that the Spartans had anything to do with the foundation of the festival, or even shared in it for some time after 776 B.C.    Busolt, Or. Gesch. i. 130.
3 Herod, i. 65.            4 Plut. Lye. 3; Ephorus, in Strabo, p. 482.
VI. 30                EARL Y SPARTA : L YCURGUS.                      197
elder brother of Lycurgus, died leaving a widow with child. The widow made overtures to Lycurgus with a view of securing the throne for him, which he The account rejected. As soon as the child was born—it of plutarch-was a son—Lycurgus placed him in the care of the elders of the city, and not long after left the country to avoid any suspicion of a desire to usurp the royal power. In a series of travels, including visits to Egypt and India—countries which at that time can hardly have been known to the Greeks—he arrived at Crete, where the native institutions had already been borrowed by the Laconian colonists at Lyctus.1 Meanwhile, Sparta had fallen into a miserable state of disorder, which at length became so intolerable that Lycurgus, on his return, ventured to come forward in the market-place, accompanied by twenty-eight of the leading citizens, with proposals of reform. He had obtained certain rhetrae (ordinances) from the Delphian oracle, on which he now proceeded to remodel the constitution. When political order had been restored, he introduced the social institutions and training which he had observed in Crete.2
3. Plutarch confesses that little was known about Lycurgus. The institutions which could be attributed to him, and the   sources  from  which  thev were  derived,     „f 4    .,
'    J                .               '       Plutarch's
the occasion and the manner in which they doubts about were introduced, the parentage and death of Lycurgus-. Lycurgus, were disputed then, and are disputed now. The name Eunomus, which is given to the father of the Lawgiver, is suspicious, when we remember that his son was the author of evvopi'a in Sparta, and a similar doubt hangs over Arthmiades (dpdfios, union), who is said to have
1 Arist. Pol ii. 10 = 1271 b.  These were " the original laws of Minos."
2 If there is much that is similar in the Cretan and Lacedaemonian institutions, there are also great differences. The real point of resemblance is the conservative character of the two nations ; the common meals, which are a necessity of military life, remain as a part of the political organisation. This character is due to the isolated position of Crete and Sparta.    Cf. Polyb. vi. 45 ff.
198                    EARLY SPARTAN HISTORIANS.              [VI. 3.
aided Lycurgus in introducing his conciliatory reforms.1 Yet we are not justified in doubting the existence of Lycurgus merely because fictitious names are connected with him.2
There is nothing more tantalising in Greek historians than their silence on matters with which they must have silence of Greek been familiar. What should we know of the Historians. Athenian constitution if we depended for our information upon Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon? But in the case of Sparta, it is doubtful whether much was known to contemporary historians,3 for even Thucydides remarks on the extreme difficulty of ascertaining the exact number of the Spartans who fought at Mantinea. Or a love of anecdote took the place of a more serious interest in history. Herodotus had been in Sparta, and could have told us about the training, the numbers of the Spartans, the ephors and the senate. He prefers to relate the stories of Ariston and his child, of the wives of Anaxandridas, of the death of Cleomenes, and the precocity of Gorgo. Such narratives were history in his day, when no one thought of describing institutions with which he was familiar. In the next century there was a change. But we are unable to make much use of the industry of the historians, who, from the time of Aristotle, collected a number of details about the Later writers history of Sparta or Athens. Their works have perished. have perished. The meagre extracts which remain are disconnected and unsupported. The points which they touch are often unimportant, and of the earlier history
1 Plut. Lye. 5.
2 Gelzer considers the Lycurgean constitution to be the work of a society of priests {supra, p. 195, n.2), of which the president was called Lycurgus (Avicoopyos, creator of light!) Gilbert regards Lycurgus as a form of Apollo Lyceus; see Busolt, l.c. p. 133, and cf. Cox, Statesmen, i.12. Such views can hardly be treated seriously. Aristotle speaks of Lycurgus as belonging to the "middle class," Pol. iv. 11 = 1296 a.
3 Xenophon's treatise De Republica Lacedaemoniorum is rather ideal than historical, and in any case a second-rate work.
VI. 40             EARL Y SPARTAN HISTORIANS.                    199
of Greece much had passed into legend centuries before they began to write.1
4. Plutarch has fortunately transcribed the text of the Ehetrae, or ordinances, which were given to Lycurgus at Delphi There does not seem to be any reason to doubt that these were the oldest ordinances known at Sparta, or that they formed the basis of their "¦good government." They were therefore the oldest political ordinances known in Hellas, and, indeed, in the world.
"Found a temple to Zeus Hellanius, and Athena Hel-lania, arrange the tribes, and the Obes, thirty in number, establish the Gerousia with the Archagetae. Summon the people for meeting from time to time between Babyca and the Cnacion, there bring forward and decide (reject). The people are to have the supreme power."2
Thus the first duty of the lawgiver was to found a public sanctuary which should be as it were the centre of the community.   Then the people were to be arranged in tribes and
1  Plutarch's most trustworthy authority on Lycurgus is Aristotle. From older writers he quotes nothing of importance. Simonides is said to have stated that Lycurgus was the son of Prytanis and brother of Eunomus, contrary to the usual account. Critias praised the excellence of the Lacedaemonian cup, of which the colour concealed the muddiness of water, and the shape prevented impurities from entering the mouth. Hippias, the Sophist, stated that Lycurgus was a great general. To the account given in Herodotus of Spartan customs and of Lycurgus, Plutarch does not refer. Among later authorities are Dieuchidas, who was able to assign different mothers to Polydectes and Lycurgus ; Aristocrates, who takes Lycurgus to India; Hermippus, who gives the names of twenty of the twenty-eight Spartans who appeared in the market-place in support of Lycurgus, and Dioscorides, who maintained that Lycurgus did not lose his eye in the fray with Alcander, but was wounded only! On Plutarch's conception of Lycurgus, see infra, § 23.
2 Plut. Lye. 6. Zeus Hellanius was worshipped in Aegina. Athena Hellania is mentioned in Eur. Hipp. 1121. The mss. are in favour of Syllanius, Syllania; see p. 110. There seems no trace of the worship At Sparta.
200                      THE SPARTAN COMMUNITY.                [VI. 4.
Obes.    The division into tribes was not a new one; from the first the Dorians at Sparta, as elsewhere, when free from the admixture of external elements, weredivided into three tribes, Hylleis, Dymanes, Pamphyli, but it is possible that some changes were now introduced, regulating the internal arrangement of the tribe.    In each tribe were ten Obes, of which we know nothing beyond the name.    They appear to have been local divisions.    As the Gerousia, including the kings, contained thirty members, we may conjecture that each Obe wa& represented in the Senate, and therefore that the two kings, were the representatives of two distinct Obes.1 mgs.        jj,]^ ^rcjlage^ae are the kings, or leaders of the
people. From time to time the community were to be summoned to a meeting which was held between certain fixed limits—tha Cnacion, i.e. the river Oenus, which falls into the Eurotas,to the north of Sparta, and Babyca, i.e. the bridge over The Apeiia or the Eurotas at Sparta. Before the assembled Assembly.        people measures were to be introduced that they
might decide upon them, for no measure was valid which had not received the sanction of the whole people.
The   elements with which   these   ordinances   deal—the Kings, the Council and the Assembly—appear in the Homeric
poems, and grew naturally out of the patri-arranged older archal government of the tribe. The work elements in the   0f Lycurgus did not consist in creating new
elements, but in consolidating those which already existed into a harmonious whole. It was impossible henceforth for the kings to increase their power ai the expense of the nobles, and both nobles and kings were in the last resort controlled by the will of the assembled people.
1 Busolt regards the Obes as subdivisions of the five local tribes of Sparta: Pitane, Mesoa, Limnae, Conura and Dyme. With regard to* apfj, Hesychius has a>£a/, ronoi peyakoiiept'is. Busolt, I.e. p. 110. Amyclae was an Obe with three ephors ; Dittenb. Syll. n. 306.
VI. 5-1       SPARTAN POLITICAL CONSTITUTION.             20!
5. Three other ordinances which are ascribed to Lycurgus forbade(1) the use of written laws; (2) the use of any tools but the axe and saw in  building a house:   _ .
/o\   x               j.                              ¦   j.<l                                 •           Other rhetrae.
(3) frequent wars upon the same enemies. He is also said to have forbidden the use of coined money in Sparta. Neither gold nor silver was to be used for purposes of exchange, but bars of iron, which by their small value and great bulk rendered money dealings on any large scale impossible. The iron of these bars was also made unusually brittle in order that it might be useless for ordinary purposes. Such precepts were doubtless observed at Sparta, though they may not have been derived from Lycurgus. The training which every Spartan underwent was intended to diminish the sphere of positive law as much as possible, and to encourage the utmost simplicity and even rudeness of life. But in the time of Lycurgus there were no written laws in existence.1   Nor was a coinage   «,_,_,,
0       Probably later
introduced into Greece till after the time of Phidon (infra, chap. vii.). If therefore Lycurgus forbade the use of written laws and coined money, the regulations could only have been framed in a prophetic spirit, to meet a future contingency! The violation of the third rule by Agesilaus in his frequent invasions of Boeotia was thought to have contributed largely to the victories of the Thebans over the Spartans ; when the king was wounded, Antalcidas remarked that his wounds were a just retribution for teaching the art of war to those who had neither the skill nor the wish to fight.2
1  The iron coins were either " spits " (ojSeXot) or "cakes " (irekavop). They weighed a mina (605 grammes), and were worth ijd. The rhetrae must have been preserved orally, as seems to have been the case with laws in other states ; but there is no trace of metre in them.
2  Plut. Lye. 13. Plutarch looks on Lycurgus as a reformer, who put an end to anarchy among the rich and destitution among the poor. It is possible that the contrast of rich and poor, which he describes, existed in early times at Sparta, but it is also possible that the circumstances of the third century B.C. have been transferred to the eighth or ninth.
202            SPARTAN POLITICAL CONSTITUTION.       [VI. 6.
6. About a century after Lycurgus, in the reign of Theo-pompus, two changes of great importance were made in the Changes under Spartan constitution. The veto which the Theopompus. earlier rhetra had allowed to the assembled people was cancelled, and a new law was introduced, which gave the ultimate control to the Gerontes and Kings. "If The people de- tne People decide crookedly, the elders and privedofthe chiefs shall put it back," i.e. shall reverse the veto*                 popular decision.    Under what circumstances
this ordinance, which is said to have been obtained from Delphi, was passed, we do not know, nor is it quite clear how it consists with what we find recorded of the constitutional history of Sparta in later times. It would seem to render the assembly altogether useless except for the confirmation of measures upon which the kings and the senate were agreed. Yet we find the assembly convened to decide upon the question of the Peloponnesian war, and Thucydides speaks of it on that occasion as the " customary assembly." Herodotus also, though he does not mention the assembly, speaks more than once of the " Community " of Sparta, as a body whose authority was decisive in matters of peace and war. Cleo-menes was repelled from Aegina by Crius with the taunt that he had come without the authority of the "Community," and the question of a treaty between Sparta and Argos, just before the invasion of Xerxes, was referred to them. In Xenophon the action of the assembly is frequently mentioned.1 The second innovation was even more important. Though Herodotus ascribes the institution of p ors. ^e Ephoralty to Lycurgus, it seems more correct to follow Aristotle and others in ascribing it to Theopompus.2 The Ephors, who were five in number, appear in the first instance to have been of no great importance.8 But as they were intimately connected with the commons, elected
1  Thuc. i. 87, tj}V €KK\rjaiav ; ib. 67, top tladora £v\\oyov. Herod, vi. 50, avtv rov koivov ; vii. 149, is tovs irXcvvas*
2  Herod, i. 65 ; Plut. Lye. 7 (Arist. Pol v. 11 = 1313a). 8 Arist. Pol. Hi. 1 = 1275 6.
VI. 7-1      SPARTAN CONSTITUTION: THE KINGS.         203
from and by them as their representatives, we must assume that the ephoralty was a concession to the people, and it may have been a compensation for the loss of the right of voting in the assembly. In time the ephors grew to be the most important officers in the state, both in war and in peace. They were associated with the council, they presided in the assembly, and even the kings were not exempt from their power. To this result the growing dread of "a tyrannis," like that at Corinth or Sicyon, and the increasing importance of the Spartan training, which the ephors superintended, in a great measure contributed.1
It is impossible for us to trace the various steps in the growth of the Spartan constitution.   The habitual reserve of the Spartans, and the want of any historical account of the period in which the constitution   SsToHcS ac* grew up, compels us in speaking of the Spartan   count of the state to treat it as a whole, and give an out-   ^0^°const£* line of the constitution as it existed at the time when it is best known to us.    We have reason to believe that great changes, besides those already recorded, were introduced at Sparta long after Lycurgus.    Chilon (590-560 B.C.), especially, may have introduced many reforms, and greatly developed the elements already in existence. Such at least is the natural inference to be drawn from the respect in which his name was held at Sparta.   In the account which follows chronology is disregarded, and the Spartan state is described without reference to the earlier or later origin of the various parts.
I.—THE KINGS.
7. The fullest account of the privileges and duties of the Spartan kings is given in Herodotus.2 Their functions may be divided into religious, judicial, and military.
1  Plut. Cleom. 10.    The aggression is ascribed to Asteropus.   The iirst ephor is said to have been Elatus, Plat. Lye. 7.
2  Herod, vi. 56-58.    Cf. Xen. Dt Rep. Lac. 15.
204           SPARTAN CONSTITUTION: THE KINGS.     [VI. 7.
The kings were the priests of Zeus Lacedaemon and Zeus Uranius. In time of peace they took the first seats at all The Kings as public sacrifices, and they received a double priests.            portion of food.    The libation also began with
them, and the skins of the victims were theirs. Every new month, and on the seventh day of each month, a full-grown victim was given to each king for sacrifice to Apollo, a bushel of barley, and a " Laconian quart" of wine. In time of war, when a sacrifice was needed for taking omens, they might use
any sheep which they found on the way.    Of
all that was sacrificed, the skins and chines belonged to them. They also, together with the two Pythii, whom they chose, had the keeping of all oracles and responses. At public games they sat in the first place; the Their privi- proxeni (i.e. Spartans who entertained foreign le£es-               ambassadors) were elected by them.    It seems
probable from the account of Herodotus that in his time the kings might be absent from the public meals, though they lost half their measure of food by absence, one-half only of the quantity allowed them at the table being sent to their houses. In later times, the heir to the throne was excused from the training, but the king was compelled to dine with his fellows.1
In their judicial capacity the kings decided about the marriage of heiresses who represented a family—i.e. when
an orphan heiress was claimed by one or j^d^sliTcases more relatives on the score of their kinship, relating to heir- the king decided which of the claimants was ^susbe^^;ons' to   be preferred.*    All adoptions took place
before them. They also decided on cases in which the public roads were concerned.
The kings were the leaders of the army. For a time they always took the field together, but owing to the dissensions
1 Pint. Lye. 12. A king's portion was four choenices of meal, and two cotylae of wine.
2 Decisions in the case of an entKkrjpos at Athens came before the Archon.
VI. %]     SPARTAN CONSTITUTION.  THE KINGS.          205
of Cleomenes and Demaratus, a law was passed that one king only should go out with the army, and it was henceforth the  custom for  one king  only to be The kings lead absent from Sparta, at a time.1    The kings the army, had the right of making war on whom they would, and no one could prevent them, on pain of being under a curse, but as they were liable to be brought to trial Can make war on their return for failure in an expedition,2 on whom they they usually obtained the consent of the ephors p ease* or the assembly before going.     They went out first and returned last, and were protected by a body of at least 100 knights.   Two ephors in later times, at any rate, accompanied the king into the field.3
The funeral of a king was the occasion of splendid ceremonies. The death was announced by horsemen throughout Laconia; and in the city by women who went Funerals of the round beating a kettle-drum. At the signal Spartan Kings, two persons in each household in Sparta, a man and a woman, were compelled under heavy penalties to mourn (i.e. to cut their hair, rend their garments, and throw dust on their hair and clothes). From the rest of Laconia" a certain fixed number of the Perioeci was required to attend at the city.; and when they, with the Helots and Spartans, had assembled in thousands, loud lamentations were raised in which the deceased king was extolled as the best of his race. The bodies of kings who fell in war were almost without exception brought home; if it happened that the body could not be found, an image was made and placed on the bier. For ten days all public business and trade was suspended.4 On the accession of the new king all debts owing to the royal or public treasury were cancelled.
1  Cf. the case of Agesipol^s and Agesilaus, Xen. Hell. v. 3, ia
2  Herod, vi. 56; v. 75; vi. 82; Thuc. v. 63. 8 Xen. Hell. ii. 4, 36.
4 Herod, vi. 58.   The kings enjoyed the income of a royal domain ; Xen. Rep. Lac. 15.
206              ORIGIN OF THE DUAL MONARCHY.           [VI. 8.
8. The king was succeeded by his eldest son (unless disqualified by some grave bodily defect), and this rule was observed even when the father had been deposed; but a son born before the accession of his father to the throne, was passed over in favour of the eldest son born after the accession. If an infant, the heir to the throne was placed in the guardianship of the nearest agnate, who also succeeded when the direct line failed. So far as we know, the two lines of kings never intermarried; and they had separate places of sepulture in difFerents parts of the city, the Agiads being buried in the " plot of Theomelidas," the Eurypontids near the temple of Dictynna.
The origin of the dual monarchy, which from the first was so distinctive a feature of the Spartan government, is very Origin of the obscure, and many attempts have been made dual monarchy, to explain it. It may have arisen by a fusion of the native and immigrant races, each of which was allowed to retain its own prince in the new community. In support of such a theory it may be said that the Dorians, according to the legend, were invited to Sparta by Philonomus (p. 63), who, however, we must add, persuaded the reigning sovereign to retire before the immigrants. It is also a fact that one at least of the Spartan kings claimed to be of Achaean descent. On the other hand, it may be urged that an Achaean prince would not come to terms with invaders when he could be received among his own people at Amyclae, an important Achaean city to the south of Sparta, which retained its independence till the reign of Teleclus.1 Another explanation assumes two colonies of Dorians, one planted on the Oenus, the other at Sparta. At first the two settlements were at variance, but after the defeat of Charilaus by the Tegeatae, they agreed to form one city in which each king should retain his authority.2   Such a double settlement, if it ever existed,
i Legend stated that Philonomus received the throne of Amyclae from the Dorians; Ephorus in Strabo, p. 364; Nic. Damasc. Frag* 36, Muller, who, however, brings the Minyae into the story.
2 Duncker, Hist Greece, i. 351 ff.
VI. 9-]     SPARTAN CONSTITUTION: THE SENATE.      207
has left no traces, and tradition, which is our only guide, speaks of both monarchs as reigning together from the first at Sparta. It is perhaps more reasonable to assume that the two kings represent two leading families, each of which had a claim to give a chief to the community. That two families holding equal rights should be regarded as descended from the twin sons of the Dorian founder of Sparta is merely one of the fictions which of necessity arose in the period when all political unions and arrangements were expressed in the terms of genealogical connection.1
II—THE GEROUSIA OR SENATE.
9. The Gerontes or Senators were twenty-eight in number, or thirty, with the addition of the two kings. Among other curious explanations of this number given in the Lywrgus of
1 Professor Duncker, loc. tit., regards tbe double settlement as a demonstrated fact. He appeals to legends which connect Procles closely with the Argives. But if one legend represents Procles (the assumed founder of the colony on the Oenus) as in close connection with Temenus the king of Argos, whose territory lay on his border, another legend represents Echestratus and Labotas, of the Eury-athenid line, as making war upon Cynuria and Argos (Paus. iii. 2, 2), and it is difficult to see how they could have done this if a community friendly to Argos existed on the Oenus. Nor is it credible that a period of disaster such as the capture of Charilaus by the Tegeatae would lead to a union of the two hostile communities, as Duncker assumes. On the contrary, the calamity which overtook the settlement on the Oenus would be the opportunity of Sparta, which could at once advance upon her prostrate rival, and put an end for ever to the dissension. With regard to the difficulties raised by Duncker against the theory that one of the Spartan kings was of Achaean race, the representative of a native dynasty, it may be observed that there is no evidence to show that the relations of Sparta and Amyclae were not in the first instance amicable, as they were between Cresphontes and the chiefs of the Messenians. If this is the case there is nothing improbable in the existence of an Achaean dynasty at Sparta, in spite of the close proximity of Amyclae. It was not till the Spartans found their territory too small for them, that they turned upon their former allies. The relation of the Perioeci to the Spartans is also an indication of the existence of friendly feelings between the previous inhabitants and the Dorian invaders.
203     SPARTAN CONSTITUTION; THE GEROUSIA.   [VI. 9.
Plutarch (c. 5), we are told on the authority of Aristotle that of the thirty adherents who at first supported Lycurgus two Number of failed to appear when summoned to the market-the senate. place. As the obes were thirty in number it is probable that each obe furnished a senator, the two kings being the hereditary representatives of two obes.1
The office was tenable for life, but no one could be elected who was less than sixty years of age. The election was by Election of acclamation. Whenever a vacancy occurred the senators.          people were assembled, and the candidates passed
through the assembly in an order determined by lot. The candidate who was received with the loudest applause was elected. The difference in the applause was decided by certain persons sitting in a building adjacent to the place of meeting, who could hear the noise but could not see the candidates.2
We have no precise information on the duties of the senators.    Under the arrangement of Lycurgus they must
.               have prepared matters for the decision of the
Apella or General Assembly; but after the time of Theopompus, they, in conjunction with the kings, could pass a final decision. They appear to have formed a supreme court of law, before which even the kings could be tried, and which was alone competent to decide on the more serious offences, and more especially on homicide.3 In some cases the ephors seem to have been associated with them.4 Demosthenes speaks of the Gerousia as " controlling the constitution" of Sparta, and election into it as the supreme reward of civic virtue.   Yet we do not find the
1 The senators were not elected by the obes, but by the whole people, but there is nothing to show that when a vacancy occurred the members of the obe whose representative had died, were not alone qualified to present themselves for election. Aristotle, however, says nothing of this. The constitution of the Gerousia is so far inconsistent that twenty-eight members are elective and two hereditary.
2 mut Lye. 26.
3 Arist Pol ii. 9 = 1270 6 ; iii. 1, 10= 1275 b\ Pint. l.c.
4 Cleomenes is brought; before the ephors, Herod, vi 82; Leoty-chides before the diKao-rrjpiop, Herod, vi. 72.
VI. io, II.] SPARTAN CONSTITUTION   THE APELLA.   209
Gerousia exercising much authority in the politics of Sparta, and Aristotle treats the institution with contempt.1
III.—THE ASSEMBLY OR APELLA.
10.  The Apella was an assembly of all the Spartan citizens who had reached the age of thirty years. It may have met in obedience to the rhetra, every month, between Meetings of Babycaand the Cnacion, but it could also be the Assembly, summoned on special occasions. In historical times it was presided over by the ephors.2 No speaking was allowed except by officers of State and persons duly in-;
vited, and perhaps the Senators. The votes were given by acclamation. The assembly decided on war and peace, treaties, and foreign politics generally; it elected the ephors and gerontes. Difficulties in the succession of the kings, and questions of the manumission of Helots, were within its competence.
IV.— THE EPHORS
11.  The ephors were five in number, and the office was open to every Spartan of the requisite age, without any further qualification. Aristotle describes the mode of Number, etc., election as " exceedingly childish ;" but we do of the Ephors. not know precisely how it took place. During the year of office, every ephor was^eleased from the training and the usual severity of the Spartan life, and they had a common hall where they dined together.
The power of the ephors was very great, amounting indeed to a sort of democratic tyranny. If they were responsible at all, they were responsible only to their sue- Their great lessors in the office, who were not likely to powers, criticise actions done in their interest, and which they might wish to imitate. They had the power to summon the Assembly, and apparently the complaints upon which the gerontes pronounced were laid in the first instance before  the ephors,
Dem. p. 489, Kvpios rrfs TroXiretas.                  8 Thac. L 87»
VOL. T.                                                                                       0
210       SPARTAN CONSTITUTION: THE EPHORS.    [VI. ir.
who could even order the summary arrest of the kings. They were the supreme executive power in the city, in which capacity they seem to have acted, at times, without consulting the Assembly.  Ambassadors from foreign states applied to them.1
The ephors were also the first police magistrates in the city. Under their control was the education and training of the youth, and the conduct of the men. They could fine whom they chose, and exact the fine at once. They were supreme over all other officers, from whom, at the close of the year of office, they received an account. They could interfere with the private life of the kings to such an extent as to order them to repudiate a wife who bore no children. Every month the kings swore before them to rule according to the constitution, and the ephors undertook on their part to maintain the kings in office.2 They could also order the expulsion of foreigners from Lacedaemon.3 Their direct judicial functions were not important, being concerned chiefly with civil suits.4 In these, as in all their functions, they were not limited by any written laws.5
The Lacedaemonian constitution continued without change longer than any other in Hellas. This was thought to be due stability of the to its mixed nature, the Kings forming an aristo-Constitution. cratical element, while the Gerontes were oligarchical, and the Ephors democratic. Polybius remarks that Lycurgus, by thus mixing the forms of constitution, secured for the Lacedaemonians a longer enjoyment of liberty than had fallen to the lot of any other city.    But the dissensions
1 In Thucydides the epliors are spoken of as taking an independent line—e.g., in v. 36, in regard to the peace of Nicias, but in Xenophon we are sometimes told that—(1) the ephors acted alone; sometimes (2) that they acted with the eKfeXqrot; and sometimes (3) with the €KK\r)(ria. (1) In the case of Cyrus, Hell iii. 1, I ; (2) in giving instructions to Pausanias, Hell. ii. 4. 38 ; (3) in regard to Elia, ib. iii. 2. 23.   But the €kk\t)toi and eVcicXtyo'ia are the same,
2 Xen. Rep. Lac. 15.
3 Maeandrius, Herod, iii. 148. (But Aristagoras is sent away with' out the ephors.)
4  Tas t&v o-viifioXifxaiav diKa&i tS>v €(j>6pa>v &XKos aKkas.—Arist* Pol iii. 1. io=1275 6.
6 AfooyvajjLovcs.—Arist. Pol ii. 9=1270 6.
VI. 12.]
SPARTAN EDUCATION.
211
of the kings, the senility of the gerontes, the incompetence and greed of the ephors were serious evils, and as a leading city Sparta was a failure.1
EDUCATION OF THE SPARTANS.
12. More important for the development of Sparta than lier political constitution was the education and training which her citizens received; the dyuyrj, as it The education was called. The Spartan did not exist for him- of the Spartans. self but for his city; for her service he was trained from birth, and the most intimate relations of his life were brought under her control. In the secluded valley of the Eurotas, where till the time of Epaminondas no invader ever set foot, amid profound peace, he nevertheless led the life of a warrior in the field. His strength and endurance were tested to the utmost; he was not permitted to surrender himself to the charm of family life and domestic affections. Even when allowed to marry, he spent but little time at home; his children, if thought worthy of life, were taken from him at an early age to go through the same training in which he himself had been brought up. Only when he had reached the age of sixty years, at which he could no longer serve his country in the field, was he permitted to enjoy the feeling of personal freedom. Trade and handicraft—in fact any occupation which could be either useful or productive—were absolutely forbidden to him.
At his birth, a male child was carried before the elders of the tribe, who decided whether the infant was sufficiently strong to be reared.    If not, he was at once disposed of on Mount Taygetus; if, on the      e °ys" other hand, the child was vigorous and healthy, he was carried back to the house of his parents, there to remain, in the care of the women, till he reached his seventh year. At this age the child was handed over to the   ° °   d °°d* state, and placed under the care of the Paedonomi.   The
1 Polyb. vi. 10. 4 ff.   Aristotle subjects the whole to a thorough criticism, Pol. ii. 9.
212   SPARTAN EDUCATION: BOYS AND YOUTHS. [VI. 13.
children were arranged in companies, each with a chief and leader, selected from the Iranes—i.e. from those who were more than twenty years of age. TJie whole number of boys and youths was divided into three classes: the 7raiSes, from the age of seven to eighteen; the fxeWtpaves, from eighteen to twenty; and the ipaves, from twenty to thirty. After the age of thirty, a Spartan became one of the Peers (o/aoioi).
From twelve years of age, or even earlier, the systematic
training began.    The hair was cut short, the feet were bare,
and often the whole body entirely naked.    One
The youths.                                                         n         j    •                                J
garment only was allowed m summer and winter; every otie made such a bed as he could out of reeds plucked from the banks of the Eurotas.1 Each year the boys of a certain age underwent a severe whipping before the altar of Artemis Orthia, in which he who endured the longest was adjudged the victor. Plutarch speaks of instances within his own knowledge, in which boys had died under the lash. The food supplied was intentionally stinted in order that the youths might add to it by theft, for which they were only punished when detected in the act The gymnastic exercises . .      were numerous and competitive, but the mental
culture did not go beyond reading and writing, learning the songs of Tyrtaeus, Terpander and others. Music and dancing, especially in chorus, were carefully taught. The youths were held responsible for the conduct and instruction of the younger boys assigned to their care.
13. The girls were trained as well as the boys, but with less
severity.   Like them they were divided into companies, which
.    .              were under the supervision of older women.
They also had their exercises, separate from the boys, in which they appeared with little or no clothing; and at stated times boys and girls appear to have contended openly in the presence of each other. The amount of freedom permitted in the meeting of the sexes is, at all times, a matter
1 Reeds, oleanders, and white poppies still fringe the banks of the Eurotas at Sparta.
VI. 14-]          SPARTAN EDUCATION: WOMEN.                  213
of habit, and if the public contests of Spartan girls were by some regarded as a fit subject of ridicule, they were approved by Plato and Plutarch. Aristotle tells us that Lycurgus attempted to bring the women of Sparta under control, but failed. For want of proper restrictions they became disorderly and licentious, and at the same time „
/   _             .   /•                       i                  n         Spartan women.
exercised great influence over the men. About the influence there is no doubt. In Herodotus, Spartan women are represented as the advisers of the men. When Demaratus sent word to Sparta of the intended invasion of Hellas by Xerxes, he wrote the message in a folding tablet on the wood, which he then covered with wax. The tablet was opened at Sparta, and presented a blank surface; the authorities were at a loss, till Gorgo, the daughter of Cleomenes, and wife of Leonidas, suggested that the writing would be found underneath the wax.1 In the time of Aristotle they had become possessed of two-fifths of the landed property of the country; and the picture which Plutarch has drawn of Sparta in the reigns of Agis and Cleomenes exhibits a condition of affairs so extraordinary as to be almost incredible.2 The number of Spartans who could afford to pay their contributions to the Phiditia had sunk to seven hundred, of whom a hundred only had any landed property; while the women interfered openly in the management of state affairs. The charge of licentiousness has less support. Aristophanes describes the women of Lacedaemon as coarse and indelicate, yet remarkable for their physical vigour and beauty. But it is a significant fact that Cinadon was bidden to bring from Aulon the woman who " was said to be most beautiful, and seemed to be active in corrupting the Lacedaemonians, young and old, who visited the place." 3
14. With the training was connected the festival of the
1  Herod, vii. 239 ; Aristotle {Pol ii. 9=1269 b) tells us that in the days of the Empire of Sparta many things were managed by their women.
2  Arist. Pol ii. 9 = 1270 a; Plut. Agis. 5.
* Aristoph. Lysistr. 80 ff.; Xen. Hell iii. 3. 8.
214       THE GYMNOPAEDIAE—THE PHIDITIA.   [VI. 15, 16.
Gymnopaediae. This was the third great festival of Sparta, the other two being the Carnea and the Hyacinthia. It was TheGymno- celebrated in the hottest season of the year. paediae.           j^ en an(j kovs came forward singing and danc-
ing in chorus, and joining in athletic contests. The state for the time put off the severity of Spartan manners. Strangers were allowed to be present. Those who had been successful in the training could now show themselves in their beauty, strength and skill. It was the festival at which Sparta " mewed her mighty youth," and in every Spartan it woke feelings of joy, enthusiasm and hope. For this reason the unmarried were not allowed to be spectators of the Gymnopaediae. Those who for their part left their country solitary and childless forfeited their right to enjoy the fair spectacle of the youthful bloom and promise of the city.1
15.  Every Spartan over twenty years of age was a member
of a Phidition or common meal, at which he was compelled to
attend, unless absent on a hunting expedition, The Phiditia.     or offering sacrifice at home.    Each Phidition
consisted as a rule of fifteen members; if a vacancy occurred it was filled up by the unanimous vote of the body. The expenses were paid by the members, each of whom furnished monthly a bushel (Aeginaean) of barley meal, eight choes of wine, five minae of cheese, two and a half of figs, and a small sum of money.2
16.  Marriage was regarded as the duty of every citizen, the neglect of which was punished in various ways.    Unmarried
men, as we have seen, were not allowed to be Mamage.          spectators at the Gymnopaediae, nor did they
receive from the younger members of the community the marks of respect which were usually given to older men. They were also compelled to go round the market-place in the severity of winter, clad in an under garment only, and singing
1  Athen. p. 550; Plato, Laws, p. 633.
2  Flut. Lye. 12. This v6fu<rpa was of iron. Dicaearchus, Frag. 23 M., puts the amount of money at about 10 Aeginaean obols=20 Laconian p3eXoi = 25lb. of iron!
VI. 17.]         SPARTAN MARRIAGE CUSTOMS.                 215
songs to their own discredit. The form of marriage was a simulated abduction, the bridegroom carrying off his bride by force. The hair of the bride was clipped, she was attired in a man's dress and shoes, and in this disguise she came into a darkened room, where she was visited in secret by her husband. This secrecy continued for some time, the husband spending the day with his fellows and returning from these stolen interviews to sleep among them. It sometimes happened that children were born before a man had seen his wife by day. When it came to an end, the husband removed his wife to his own house. In regard to the sanctity of the marriage tie, the Spartans were notoriously indifferent. Their ideas of married life and morality had less reference to domestic virtues than to the requirements of the state and the race. If intrigues were unknown, arrangements were openly made which were quite at variance with tender feeling, in order to secure progeny of a vigorous and healthy strain.1 17. How much of this system of training is due to Lycurgus it is impossible to say with certainty. The authorities from whom we receive our accounts ascribe it with- Wag the tr||in_ out hesitation in all its details to him. But as ing due to the rules which forbade the use of written laws Lycur£us ? and coined money can only be ascribed to Lycurgus by assuming that written codes and a coinage were known in the ninth century B.C., we perceive that these statements are not wholly to be trusted. It is obvious that the training of the boys and girls at the public expense could not take place till the state was in a position to provide the means for it; nor could the Spartans furnish their quota to the Phiditia unless they were in possession of land from which to receive it.    What the pre-
1 Polybius asserts that polyandry existed at Sparta, several brothers having one wife: irapa pep yap rots Acucfbaipoviois koi irdrpiov fy Ka\ avvrjdes rpels &vbpas t\€iv rty yvvaiica, kcu rcrrapas irori be kcu nXeiovs cfitkcfioits oVras, kcu T€Kva tovtcov thai Kotva* kcu ytpvrjaavra iraicjas Ikovovs *K&6<r0ai yvvcuKa rtvi twp (friX&v icakov kcu <rvvr\Bc^% xii. 6 b. Was this a * survival/ or an extreme instance of the extent to which political crushed domestic life at Sparta ?
216           SPARTAN TRAINING—LAND DIVISION      [VI. i&
cise amount of territory belonging to Sparta at the time of Lycurgus was, we cannot say, but if the Achaeans were still at Amyclae and the Messenians were independent, it cannot have been very large. Those arrangements, which required Much of it was a considerable amount of property on which probably later. tne Spartans could live in idleness, were probably introduced after the Messenian wars.1 After that time also the management and control of the newly acquired territory demanded the utmost vigour on the part of the conquerors, who were numerically a very small minority, and this vigour it was the object of the training to provide. The institution of the choric songs, which formed the lighter side of the Spartan training, was certainly later than Lycurgus; the accompanying music was due to Terpander, Thaletas, Sa-cadas, and others. Th&G-ymnopaediae, which were the crown of the system, were established after the First Olympiad.
18. It is stated by Polybius that the Spartan territory was originally divided into equal portions. Plutarch is more precise. He tells us that Lycurgus made nine thousand Division of lots in Sparta for the Spartans, and thirty the land.           thousand in Laconia for the Perioeci.    Of this
arrangement Herodotus in his account of Sparta, and Aristotle in his criticism of the Spartan constitution, say nothing. On the other hand, each of these authors presupposes that every Spartan had property enough to permit him to devote his whole energies to the state. It is natural to suppose that when the Spartans extended their borders by the conquest of Laconia and Messenia, most of the conquered territory was divided among the conquerors. This is not the same thing as a division of lands by Lycurgus; but as those who might have been contemporaries of Lycurgus possessed plots of land, the least of which was at any rate adequate to maintain a Spartan at the Phiditia, it is not impossible that in an age of great inequality of landed property, and diminution of eitizens, men should look back to the more prosperous con-
* Cf. Arist. Pol ii. 9=1270 a.
VI. 19]             DIVISIONS OF THE PEOPLE.                      217
dition of affairs, and connect it in a distorted manner with the name of Lycurgus. It was the boast of the Spartans that there had at no time been a redivision of property in their country.1
The contribution to the Phiditia was a condition of Spartan citizenship. Any one who failed to pay ceased to be a member of the table, and at the same time lost his right to attend the Apella. Instances of such inability were, no doubt, rare in the earlier times, when con- The Conditions quest had provided ample lands to be shared 6f chfcensWp. among the victors, but afterwards, when land tended to fall into the hands of an ever decreasing number of proprietors, the contribution was frequently unpaid. Any Spartan guilty of cowardice in the field of battle was treated with the greatest contumely. He might even be deprived of his civic rights.2
DIVISIONS OF THE PEOPLE.
19. Though the government rested wholly in their hands, and they alone were freemen in the true sense of the word, the Spartans were at all times        e   pa a small   minority in the population of Laconia.     They
1 Polyb. vi. 45 ff.; Plut. Lye. 8; Plato, Laws, p. 736; Isoc. xii. 259. This is perhaps as much truth as we can allow to the statements of Polybius and Plutarch. A redivision of property such as Plutarch expressly ascribes to Lycurgus, is highly improbable. Another account, preserved by Plutarch, puts the Spartan lots at 6000, and says nothing of the Perioeci. See Busolt, Gr. Gesch. i. 100 note 4. That differences in wealth existed in Sparta at an early time is proved by Grote ; and a Spartan can hardly have had any other wealth but land.
2 Of the Spartans who had been taken captive in Pylus, we are told (Thuc. v. 34): "Fearing (i.e. the Spartans) lest their own citizens who had been taken in the island, and had delivered up their arms, might expect to be slighted in consequence of their misfortune, and if they retained the privileges of citizens, would attempt revolution, they took away the right of citizenship from them, although some of them were holding office at the time. By this disqualification they were ineligible for offices, and lost the legal right to buy and sell.   In time, however, their privileges were restored to them."
218            SPARTANS, PERIOECI, AND HELOTS.       [VI. 19.
never rose above 10,000.l The population of the territory which they subjugated was divided into two classes—the Perioeci and the Helots. The reason of the division is not clear. The former are said to have numbered 30,000. They were the conquered Ionians or Achaeans,2 who, perhaps because they offered no great resistance, were able to obtain favourable terms from their conquerors. They lived in towns in the country managing their own affairs, under the superintendence of Spartan governors, renting landed property for which they paid tribute to Sparta, and engaged in trade. They served in the army as heavy-armed soldiers, of which force they constituted the greater part, under the command of Spartan officers.
The Helots are said to have derived their name from Helos, the last city subdued by the Spartans. They formed the lowest and most numerous class of subjects, especially after the conquest of Messenia, but we have no means of fixing their numbers. They were not so much slaves as serfs, the property of the state rather than of individuals, for their masters could not sell them, and a public act was required for their manumission. They lived on plots of land, paying a certain fixed amount of produce to the owners. In time of war they accompanied their masters to battle (at the battle of Plataea each Spartan was attended by seven Helots), and even served as light-armed soldiers in the army or as sailors in the fleet. On rare occasions they were allowed to serve as heavy-armed soldiers. Though the Helots do not appear to have been in abject poverty,3 their lot was regarded as a very hard one, and the
1  Herod, (vii. 234) puts the force of Sparta at about 8000, aud even this is not higher than that of Naxos. Arist. (Pol. ii. 9=1270a). reports 10,000 as the highest recorded number of citizens.
2  It is convenient to speak of the early inhabitants of Laconia and Argolis as Achaeans, but who they really were is doubtful For Ephorus' account of the Perioeci and Helots, see Strabo, p. 364.
3  Plutarch, GUom. 23. KAfo/xeVijs r&v clXwrcav rovs ffcWc nvas 'Attikcis KarafiaXovTas cXcvdepovs €7rot€i, na\ rakavra ircvTtjKPO-ia vvv €Xe£*, i.e. 30,000 minae, implying that no fewer than 6000 paid.
VI. 20.]                 PROSPERITY OF SPARTA.                         £19
greatest discontent prevailed among them. We are told that whenever mention was made of the Spartans among them they were ready to eat them raw.1 The Spartans were in constant terror of a rising, and took severe measures to prevent it. Among these was the Cryptea, a land of detective service, in which Spartan youths were sent round the country to watch the Helots and remove any who appeared to be plotting against the state. On entering office, the ephors declared war against them. On the other hand, Helots who had shown bravery in the Spartan cause were sometimes allowed their liberty,2 and the children of Helots were at times brought up as Spartans (Mothakes). Helots who had received their liberty were called Neodamodes.3
20, Whatever the origin of the arrangements of Lycurgus, they appear to have greatly contributed to the strength and prosperity of Sparta. From the beginning of the Growth and pro-eighth century she entered upon the career spentyofSparta. of conquest which made her mistress of two-fifths of the entire Peloponnesus. The first success was the capture of Aegys, in Arcadia, near the sources of the Eurotas.4   This is
1  Xen. Hell. iii. 3. 6: oirov yap iv tovtois (Helots, Neodamodes, Hypomeiones, Perioeci) tis Xoyos yfaoiro nep\ 2/rapricnw, ovbeva hvvaaBai upvirreiv to fJ.tj ov% qBeas b\v mat aypcbv iaBieiv avrav.
2  Two thousand who claimed it on this score in the Peloponnesian war disappeared, no one knew how (Thuc. iv. SO).
8 The Spartans who paid their contribution formed the "Ofioiot; those who failed to pay apparently fell into the class of Hypomeiones, who are mentioned by Xenophon, with the Helots, Neodamodes, and Perioeci, as hostile to the Spartans (Hell. iii. 3. 6). Youths who, though not of Spartan birth, were sent to Sparta for the training were -called Trophimi (Xen. Hell. v. 3. 9); among these were Xenophon's two sons. Famous among the Mothakes were Lysander, the son of Aristocritus, the Heraclid, and Gylippus, the son of Cleandridas (but see Busolt, loc. cit. p. 104, note 4). The Neodamodes are first mentioned in the Peloponnesian war: in connection with Helots they were sent, 421 B.C., to occupy Lepreum (Thuc. v. 34). In 413 B.c. Helots and Neodamodes were sent out to Sicily (Thuc. vii. 19; cj. -53, bvvarai be to Kcobap&bcs ekevOtpov rjbt) eluai). After the time of Xenophon we hear no more of them.
4 Paus. iii. 2. 5.
220                            PROGRESS OF SPARTA.                     [VI. 21.
said to have been the joint achievement of Archelaus and Charilaus. Nicander, the successor of Charilaus, invaded Argos, but without any lasting result (infra, ch. vii. § 3). He was assisted in his enterprise by the Dryopians of Asine, a town on the Argolic gulf. More important were the successes of Teleclus. With the aid of Timomachus, a member of the family of Aegidae, who are said to have immigrated from Thebes to Sparta, where they received an honourable position conquest of ^n the state, he conquered Amyclae, and thus Amyciae.          opened the way to the lower course of the
Eurotas (800 B.C.). With the fall of this important city, all serious resistance on the part of the Achaeans came to an end, Pharis and Geronthrae, towns lying lower down the valley, were captured; and, finally, Alcamenes, the son of Teleclus, conquest of reduced Helos, at the mouth of the Eurotas, to Heios.              dependence on Sparta.    The whole series of
these conquests probably fell in the interval between 800 and 765 B^c.1
21. The Achaeans of the lower valley of the Eurotas were aided in their resistance to Sparta by some fugitives of the TheMinyae Minyae, who, after their expulsion by the at Sparta.          Arnaeans  from  the  south  of   Thessaly  and
Boeotia, from Attica by the Athenians, and from Lemnos by the Pelasgi, had sought refuge in Peloponnesus. These immigrants refused to submit to the Dorian conquerors. Part sought new homes over sea in the islands of Melos and Thera, others retired to the west of Peloponnesus, and established themselves in Triphylia.2
The Spartans, however, gave a different account of these Minyae. They wished to associate closely with themselves a royal race which occupied so eminent a position in early Hellenic legend, and to claim the colonies of Melos and
1  Arist. Frag. 75 M. The good government did not begin, according to Thucydides, till 804 B.C., and by 765 B.c. Alcamenes had been twenty years on the throne.
2  Duncker, Hist. Greece, i. 339 ff.
VI. 21.]       SPARTAN CONQUESTS—THE MINYAE.            221
Thera for their own. They said that certain descendants of the Argonauts, who had been expelled from Lemnos by .the Pelasgi, came to Laconia, and lighted fires on Mount Tay-getus. The Lacedaemonians sent to inquire who the strangers were, and whence they came. When they heard that they were Minyae, they sent again and inquired what was their object in coming to the land and lighting a fire. They answered that they had been driven out from Lemnos by the Pelasgi, and had come to their fathers to ask for a home and territory. The Lacedaemonians agreed to receive them, as the Tyndarids had taken part in the voyage of the Argo. Land was allotted to them, and they were embodied in the tribes; they were also allowed to marry Spartan women.1 In time they assumed a less humble attitude, and made demands with which the Spartans could not comply. It was resolved to put them to death, and they were thrown into prison. Their wives, who were Spartan women, begged to be allowed to visit their husbands, and, when permission was granted, they availed themselves of the opportunity to exchange garments. The women remained in prison, the men escaped, and returned to Taygetus.
At this time Theras, the grandson of Tisamenus, and descendant of Polynices, was taking out a colony from Sparta. He was uncle to the sons of Aristodemus, and had been their guardian. Now that they were grown up, he was anxious to be out of the way, that he might not be subject to those whom he had previously governed. His destination was the island of Thera, then called Calliste ("most beautiful"), which was governed by the descendants of Membiiarus, a Phoenician. In order to avoid bloodshed, Theras offered a share in his enterprise to the Minyae. A few availed themselves of the offer, with the consent of the Lacedaemonians, but the greater part of them retired to Triphylia, where, after expelling the
1 Aristotle {Pol, ii. 9= 1270 a) speaks of the admission of strangers to the citizenship at Sparta in early times. Cf. Ephorus in Strabo, p. 364.
222                  FESTIVAL OF THE HYACINTHIA.         [VI. 22.
Caucones and Paroreatae, they divided the country into six districts, in each of which they built or occupied a town, Lepreum, Macistum, Phrixae, Pyrgus, Epium, and Nudium. Theras, on his departure, left his son Oeolycus at Sparta, " as a sheep among wolves." The son of Oeolycus was Aegeus, from whom was descended the tribe of the Aegidae.1
22. The conquest of Amyclae, the second great event in Spartan history, was commemorated by the Hyacinthia. The earlier inhabitants of the town had worshipped yacm 1a. ^pQjj0 an(j Hyacinthus, the beautiful youth whom Apollo had slain by a cast of his quoit, and from whose blood grew the purple flower which the Greeks called the hyacinth. This festival the Dorian conquerors took over from the Amyclaeans.2 It was celebrated at the end of the month Hecatombaeus (July), and lasted three days. On the first day the offering of the dead was brought to Hyacinthus. His urn was opened, and the ashes drenched with wine and milk.3 The funeral feast was then eaten in solemn silence. On the next day, which was sacred to Apollo, the rites were more cheerful. The day began with a great procession in which all the Amyclaeans, a large proportion of the Spartans, and many of the neighbouring population, took part. The procession was accompanied by a poem in anapaestic measures, and ended with the presentation to the god of the robe woven by the Spartan women.4 The remainder of the day was occupied with a sacrifice and feast and various kinds of amusements.   The third day was
1  Herod, iv. 145-149. This account of the Aegidae is at variance with that which derives the family directly from Thebes. Conon, Narr. 36 and 47, connects the fall of Amyclae with the colonisation, of Melos. But it is obvious that the Dorians in Peloponnesus would not send out colonies by sea till they had reached the coast. There were Aegidae in Thera (Pind. Pyth. v. 101).
2  Herod, ix. 7; Xen. Hell. iv. 5. 11 ; Thuc. v. 23. 8 Paus. iii. 19. 3.    See Athenaeus, iv. 139.
* Paus. iii. 16. 2.
VI. 23.]             LYCURGUS AND HIS J^.^.                    223
devoted to games, of which the throwing of qu^Mi formed a large part.1
23. However unhistorical the conception which Plutarch has formed of Lycurgus, it is clear and intelligible. In his mind Lycurgus was, firstly—
The Great Beforrner, who (a) put an end to the contests between the kings and the people by establishing the senate; and (b) reduced rich and poor to a level:
(1)  By a redivision of lamis.
(2)  By a common training.
(3)  By establishing common meals, at which all ate
the same fare.
(4)  By destroying luxury and making money useless.
And secondly—
The Great Lawgiver, from whom all the institutions of Sparta, so far as they concerned civic life, were derived. Lycurgus did not, as Aristotle thought, fail with the women; he included them in his education—and with success. Plutarch at any rate forms a very different opinion of the Spartan women from Aristotle. The guiding principle of Lycurgus was the rule that virtue is the same in the state and in the individual—legislation is education.
Lastly, Lycurgus was eminently a man of peace. Plutarch again differs from Aristotle in ascribing the Cryptea to a period far later than Lycurgus. Nor does he mention the peculiar arrangements of the Spartan army, except so far as
1 The worship of Hyacinthus by the Amyclaeans was probably of Oriental (not Aryan) origin. Hyacinthus is a form of the deity -which we find elsewhere as Linos, or Adonis (in Phoenicia), or Maneros (in Egypt). The withering of vegetation by a tropical sun is symbolised in the death of a beautiful youth by the discus of the sun-god.
224                    LYCURGUS AND HIS WORK.              [VI. 23.
they arise out of the training. Among the institutions of Lycurgus, on the other hand, he includes a large part of such mental training as existed at Sparta, and even states that the way for his reforms was smoothed by the influence of Thaletas, the Cretan poet.
Plutarch's beautiful narrative is written in the belief that a great man may form the character of a nation; and in his eyes there is no higher moral virtue than the sacrifice of the individual and the family to the state.
Not very different were the thoughts which passed through the mind of Plato when he drew the outlines of his ideal state. Among the Spartans "obedience was the bond of rule." Only the infusion of a nobler spirit, the proposal of a loftier aim, were needed to transform such a constitution into an ideal city. At Sparta also the philosopher saw, or thought that he saw, the foundation of a new order of society in which the evils arising from private property and the family were removed or at least mitigated. Was it possible to go a step further in this direction, and reach a height where avarice would be unknown, and sexual passion become a less absorbing motive in the actions and lives of men?
These visions have faded away. Sparta herself perished through the avarice and licentiousness of her citizens, and if we wish to find parallels to her institutions in modern times, we must seek for them not among the governments of civilised men, but in the brutal customs of savages. Yet it is not impossible that a time may come when, owing to the pressure of population or the severe necessities of war, the Spartan constitution may once more be exalted into the position of an ideal poMty.
CHAPTER VIL
ARGOS, ELIS, ARCADIA, ACHAEA.
ARGOS.
I. In the earliest times Argos was the greatest of " all the cities in the country which is now called Hellas," and even in the middle of the sixth century her domain extended along the coast as far as Malea, and         Tg0 8'
included Cythera.1 Of the manner in which she obtained this extent of territory, whether it was part of the kingdom of the old Achaean city or a subsequent conquest, there is no record. Nor can we say how it was governed. The Cynu-rians are called Perioeci; the Orneatae and Cleonaeans were, at any rate in later times, subject allies of Argos, and we hear of slaves or Gymnetes, who may have been in Argolis what the Helots were in Laconia.2 But of the relation in which Argos stood after the Dorian invasion to the ancient and famous strongholds of Mycenae and Tiryns, we know nothing.   These cities continued to exist, for we find them
1  Herod, i. 1. 82.
2  The Cynurians are mentioned in Herod, viii. 73 as Ionians who had become Dorized by the Argives, " and were Orneatae and the Perioeci." If correct, this passage means (1) that the inhabitants of Orneae were Cynurians no less than the inhabitants of Cynuria; (2) that the Cynurians were Perioeci (of Sparta ?). [It is often said, on the strength of this passage of Herodotus, that the Perioeci at Argos were called Orneatae, but perhaps without sufficient reason. The inhabitants of Orneae are never called Perioeci, but "subject allies;" and Paus&nias (iii. 2. 3) evidently thinks that the Cynurians (who are called Perioeci) were Perioeci of Sparta, before they were conquered by Argos, infra, p. 227.] For the slaves, see Herod, vi. 83. The name Gymnetes (or Gymnesii) appears first in Steph. Byz. sub voc. Xtos, and Eustathius on Dionysius, 1. 533.
VOL. I.                                                                              P
220    ANCIENT ARGOS: ARGIVE AMPHICTYONY.    [VII. 2.
sending contingents to the army of the Greeks at Thermopylae and Plataea,1 but they existed without a history. Neither poet nor logographer has recorded the decline and fall of the greatest city of legendary Greece, and though Mycenae was spoken of in epic poetry as the " golden city," the Dorians who occupied it were entirely ignorant of the treasures which lay buried in the citadel.
2. We are told by Pausanias that the Messenians, on the outbreak of the first Messenian war, were willing to refer The Argive their quarrel with the Lacedaemonians to the Amphictyony. "Argive Amphictyony."2 Of the nature and authority of this association the accounts are very meagre. It is asserted by C. 0. Miiller and subsequent writers that Argos was the head of a confederacy, the members of which met in the temple of Apollo Pythaeus, on the Larissa of that city ; Cleonae, Phlius, Sicyon, Epidaurus, Troezen and Aegina are mentioned as the confederates, all Dorian cities which derived their origin, directly or indirectly, from Argos, and formed portions of the "lot of Temenus." The basis of the union was the worship of the common deity, but with the religious duties certain political obligations were connected. It is even stated that the members of the confederacy were expected to supply forces at the request of Argos.3 The evidence for these details is very slender. It is probably true that the Dorian cities of north-eastern Peloponnesus were held together by a loose confederation, which, while allowing independence to the cities, operated as a check to prevent them from making war upon each other. But there is no reason to connect this political league—so far as it deserves the name—with the worship of Apollo
1  Herod, vii. 202 ; ix. 28. At Thermopylae there were 80 men from Mycenae, none from Tiryns. The two cities sent 400 men to Plataea. At the same date Phlius and Troezen could furnish 1000 men each; Aegina, 500 ; Epidaurus, 800. See Busolt, Lakedaemonier> 72 ff.
2  Paus. iv. 5. 2; infra, p. 261 n. 1. 8 Duncker, Hist Greece, ii. 16 ff.
VII. 3]
KINGS OF ARGOS.
227
Pythaeus, nor is it certain that the temple on the Larissa of Argos was the centre of the religious association.1
3. The successors of Temenus on the throne were Cisus, Medon, Thestius, Merops, Aristodamidas, Eratus, Phidon. So far as we know, these kings succeeded each other in an unbroken line, but the power of ings ° rg08, the monarchy was greatly curtailed under Medon. After his reign nothing but the title remained to the king.2 In this period (the ninth century B.c.) began the lasting quarrel between Argos and Sparta for the possession of Cynuria, which formed the border-land between the two states. In the reign of their king Echestratus the Spartans, on the pretext that the Cynurians were making raids upon their kinsmen the Argives, expelled a number of them from the
1  It is clear from Thuc. v. 53 that the Argives had control over a temple of Apollo Pythaeus, to which, as they asserted, the Epidaurians were bound to pay tribute for the use of certain lands. We also know that there was a temple of Apollo Pythaeus at the foot of the Larissa of Argos (Pans. ii. 24. 1). If this temple is meant, why, as Poppo observes, should Thucydides remark that the Argives were Kvpi&raToi of the shrine ? Such an expression would be more naturally applied to the temple of Apollo Pythaeus at A sine or Hermione. It is true, also, that Argos is said to have imposed a fine on Sicyon and Aegina for supplying ships to Cleomenes (Herod, vi. 92). If she regarded these cities as colonies she might claim to dp this, without any special authority as a leading state. Aegina, however, refused to pay ; she might reasonably urge that she was not a colony of Argos. Sicyon paid part of the fine; her connection with Argos was well established in legend. (For nearly a century before Cleomenes, Sicyon could not have been in any political or religious dependence on Argos; and at the time the fine was imposed, she was a member of the Lacedaemonian confederacy.) The claim advanced against Epidaurus by Argos is treated by Thucydides as a mere pretext. " Alcibiades and the Argives had determined to attach Epidaurus to their league," and therefore raised the question of the tribute. In the Persian war not one of the cities mentioned joined in the neutrality of Argos except Cleonae, which was a subject ally, like Orneae; cfi Thuc. v. 67. The passages quoted by Duncker in support of the view that the cities furnished contingents to Argos, are quite inadequate (Paus. ii. 30. 10; i. 29. 7; Thuc. v. 67 ; Diod. xi. 65; Strabo, p. 377). [The question is discussed at length by Busolt, l.c* p. 83 ff.]
2  Paus. ii 19. 2.
228 ARGIVE WARS WITHSPARTA—KING PHIDON.   [VII. 4.
country. In the next reign they accused the Argives of appropriating Cynuria, and alienating the inhabitants, who were now Perioeci of Sparta. It was decided to attack Argos, and the war, thus begun, was renewed under Chari-laus, who invaded Argolis.1 In the time of Aristodamidas of Argos, who was a contemporary of Nicander of Sparta (circa 800 B.C.), the Argives aided the Heleans in resisting the Lacedaemonians; in revenge Nicander invaded Argolis, and the Dryopians of Asine rose to assist him. Though the invasion was severe, it resulted in no lasting gain for Sparta. Not long afterwards the Argives, under their king Eratus, expelled the Asinaeans, who found refuge among the Spartans, and, in the next generation, aided them in the first Messenian war.2
4. In Phidon, though little is known of his history, we recognise a prince of great vigour and sagacity. He extended the power of Argos on every side, and " united mg Phidon. ^e iofc 0f Temenus which had become divided."3 To the later Greeks he was known for his attack on Elis, and celebration of the eighth Olympiad, an act which, in the eyes of Herodotus, marked him out as the most violent of all Hellenic tyrants, and for the weights, measures and coinage which sometimes bore his name, and were sometimes known as Aeginaean.
We can give no account of the way in which he attained his power. One of the earliest acts of his reign was an His relations attempt to make himself master of Corinth, with Corinth. jn the story told by Plutarch,4 which is incredible enough, he demanded and received one thousand youths from the Corinthians.    These he secretly intended
1  Paus. iii. 2. 2 ; 7. 2.
2  Paus. ii. 36. 4; ib. iii. 7. 4; iv. 8. 3. From this it appears that Eratus should be included among the kings who preceded Phidon. In Ephorus, Phidon is the tenth from Temenus ; in Theopompus he is the sixth, which proves that the list was very uncertain.
3  Strabo, p. 358 : rt\v \rj£iv oKrjv avekafie tt\v Tq/itVov bi€<rna<rp*pi)v *ls irkeioa ftepiy (Ephorus).
4  Plut. Am. Narr. 2.
VII. 4-]       PHIDON AT CORINTH AND OLYMPIA.           229
to put to death, and by this means to reduce Corinth to subjection. Phidon mentioned this scheme to his friend Abron. Abron revealed it to Dexander, who was in charge of the youths. Phidon's design was frustrated, and the Corinthians escaped home in safety. It is possible that Phidon may have observed with jealousy that the trade of Argos was diminishing, while that of Corinth was increasing, for it was about this time that the Corinthian mariners began to undertake voyages to the west. Yet if he was sufficiently powerful to compel the Corinthians to send 1000 picked men at his bidding to Argos, it is difficult to see what greater proof of submission he required; if, on the other hand, he was on such friendly terms with Corinth that 1000 men were sent to his assistance, his cruel treachery would only have alienated a valuable ally. Whatever Phidon's connection with Corinth may have been, we can hardly accept the story in the form in which Plutarch relates it.
Much more credible is the assertion that Phidon celebrated the Olympic festival in 748 B.C.1 The Pisatans, with his help, were able to drive the Eleans away from Phidon at the sanctuary, which had been wrested from oiympia. them, and to sacrifice once more at the shrine of Zeus, where their ancestors had long worshipped. The success was transient, for in the next Olympiad the Eleans were again masters of Oiympia.2 It is natural to suppose that Phidon died in the interval (748-744 B.C.). Tradition tells us that he lost his life when rendering aid to a party of the Corin-
1  To alter 01. 8 (Paus.) to 01. 28 in order to bring Phidon into the next century, and make it possible for his son to have been among the suitors of Agariste, as Herodotus says that he was (Herod, vi. 127), is a great mistake. This would make Cypselus and Phidon contemporaries, and Sicyon would break loose from Argos at the very time •when the Argive power was extending to Corinth and Aegina! Besides, even if we place Phidon in 668 B.C., his son would be no suitor for Agariste (570 b.c).
2  The act of Phidon was, according to Ephorus, an attempt to establish his claim to preside over the games founded by Heracles (Ephorus, Frag. 15 M.).
230                 ARGOS: PHIDONIAN 'MEASURES:         [VII. £
thians in a faction.1 This is by no means impossible, for at this time the monarchy had been recently overthrown at Corinth, and the supreme authority transferred to a yearly Prytanis chosen from the family of the Bacchiadae (745 B.C.). 5. Herodotus tells us that Phidon "made measures for the Peloponnesians." Aristotle also speaks of " Phidonian Phidon's Coinage measures." Neither of these authorities, of and Measures, which one is the earliest, the other the most trustworthy that we have, says anything of a coinage in connection with Phidon. Ephorus, however, states precisely that silver was first coined at Aegina by Phidon, who " also invented the measures called Phidonian, and weights." In the Parian Marble we are informed that Phidon " cancelled and re-issued the measures (?), and made silver money in Aegina." On the other hand, Herodotus distinctly ascribes the invention of coined money to the Lydians. The oldest known Aeginaean coins, the so-called "tortoises," are not older than 700 B.C., i.e. they are half a century later than Phidon. If it cannot be proved, it is at least extremely probable, that the Lydians coined money before the Greeks, and that the Greeks borrowed the idea of a coinage in the stricter sense of the word from the Asiatics.2
1  Nicol. Damasc. Frag. 41 M. : Kara <j)i\iav errao-tafovo-i KopivOlois @or)$a>v iiriOeaeas €K rS>v iralpayv yeuofjLevTjs anedavev. If he had previously attempted to destroy the Corinthian youths in the interests of the monarchy at Corinth, any one of them would now be ready to attack him on his appearance in the city. But see Ephorus, Frag. 15, who asserts that the Eleans and Lacedaemonians overthrew him.
2 Herod, vi. 127 ; Arist. Frag. 99, MUller; Ephorus in Strabo, p. 376, cf. 358; Marmor Par. Ep. 30; Herod, i. 94. Holm, Griech. Oesch. i. p. 256, remarks that a good deal depends on what is meant by a coin. The Lydians may have been the first to stamp a bar of metal, and thereby guarantee the weight, the Greeks may have been the first to print a device on the " coin." At Curium, in Cyprus, gold rings have been found stamped with the name of Eteander (beginning of seventh century B.C.). Similar rings may have been current as coins long before this date.—Two standards of coinage were current in Greece: the Aeginaean (stater =194 grns.) which is apparently Phoenician; and the Euboean (stater = 130 grns.) which is Babylonian. The Euboean standard was adopted by Athens in the time of Solon. See Head, Historia Numorum, p. xxxix.
VII. 6.]       ARGOS: WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.                231
The case is different in regard to weights and measures. As king of Argos, which in his day was probably the greatest emporium in Peloponnesus, Phidon may have weights and issued a new and improved standard of weights Measures, and measures. That some system had been in use before his time is obvious, and it is probable that his standard did not greatly differ from the old one. The Olympic stadium, which •was said to have been fixed by Heracles, was never changed, so far as we know, from the time that the victories were first recorded in the foot race in 776 B.C., a fact which seems to show that in this case the length of the foot was already determined. But as Phidon is distinctly said by the best authorities to have " made " measures, and as certain measures were called Phidonian, it is clear that he introduced some change. He may have regulated the subdivisions of the system so as to make them more convenient, or slightly altered the standard. The system became known as Aeginaean perhaps because the coins subsequently issued on Phidon's standard were first struck in the temple of Aphrodite in Aegina. It was current in Peloponnese, "in most of the island states, such as Ceos, Naxos, Siphnos and Crete;" in Thessaly, Phocis and Boeotia, but not at Corinth, Athens, or in Euboea. By the terms of the alliance concluded between Athens, Elis, Argos and Mantinea in the Peloponnesian war, the soldiers were to receive their pay in Aeginaean drachmas and obols.1
6. No satisfactory account can be given of the kings who
1 Time. v. 47.6. The Argives may have derived their acquaintance with the Phoenician standards of weight from their colonies in Crete, but we do not know that they did so. Tombs have been discovered At Melos, which can be measured precisely by the Phoenician cubit, i.e. they are constructed on that measure. It is very improbable that Phidon altered the length of the stadium at Olympia (Duncker). Why should the Eleans accept a new standard from him, when ttiey struck out the Olympiad at which he presided ? Hultsch is of opinion "that there were two Aeginaean standards of weight, an older and a later, of which the older was slightly the heavier (Metrol, p. 191; *f. p. 521 ff.).    Cf. Busolt, Gr. Gesch. i. p. 144, note.
232                             DECLINE OF ARGOS.                        [VII. 6.
succeeded Phidon on the throne of Argos.1 In the first Messenian war the Argives gave a languid and ineffectual sup-succcssors of Vor$ to tne Messenians. In the next century Phidon, Damo- the Argive king, Damocratidas, expelled the Nauplians, who were also received by the Spartans, and settled after the second Messenian war at Methone. King Lacedas, who is said by Plutarch to have been weak and unworthy of his position, may be the Leocedes whom Herodotus mentions among the suitors of Agariste of Sicyon. Upon this hypothesis Meltas, the son of Lacedas, whom Pausanias states to have been the last of the monarchs of Argos, would be the contemporary of Clisthenes of Athens.2 It is possible, though not very probable, that he survived till the Persian war of 480 B.C., at which date the monarchy was still in existence at Argos.3
It is certain that the power of Argos declined after the reign of Phidon. Towards the end of the eighth century, Decline of the while the Spartan king Theopompus was still power of Argos. aiive, she lost the border land of Thyreatis.* About fifty years later she retrieved her position by the severe defeat of the Spartans at Hysiae (669 B.C.). She was now able to aid the Messenians in their revolt, and, during this period, she may have regained to some extent her former possessions. But after 600 B.C. the power of her formidable neighbours Periander of Corinth and Clisthenes of Sicyon put an end to her claims of political hegemony in
1  Busolt, Laked. p. 98, puts Lacedas immediately after Phidon ; Duncker, Eratus, Hist. Greece, ii. 29.    See supra, § 3.
2  Damocratidas, Paus. iv. 35. 2; Lacedas, ib. ii. 19, 2 ; Herod, vi. 127; Meltas, Paus. ii. 19. 2. The story that a new dynasty was elevated to the throne after the removal of the Heraclids is not mentioned till Plutarch, De Alex. 8. virt. 8, fort. viii. pp. 416, 417, Didot.    Of. Busolt, Lc. p. 99.
3  Herod, vii. 149, Kal brj Aeyeiv (the Spartans) <r<t>l<ri fiev clvat. 8uo (3a<Ti\eas 'Aoyci'oio-i 8' ha.
4  Paus. iii. 7. 5. He seems to identify this conflict with that described in ii. 38. 5, which Herodotus, i. 82, puts more than a century later. The time at which Sparta gained the Thyreatid i& very uncertain.    Busolt, loc, cit. p. 99.
VII. 70                 ARGIVE CONSTITUTION.                           233
north-eastern Peloponnesus, and on the west Sparta rose to an overwhelming superiority. About the middle of the century, after the extinction of tyranny in Corinth and Sicyon, she seems to have made an attempt to recover the Thyreatis. . The attempt failed, and the power of Argcte steadily declined through the century until the final blow was given by the invasion of Cleomenes, who, though he did not succeed in taking the city, slew 6000 Argives, and reduced the state to a condition of helpless insignificance.1
Of the political constitution of Argos down to the Persian war, we know almost nothing. The monarchy continued in name, but the real power resided in the Senate.2 From the time of her defeat by Cleomenes the politics of the city were determined by the desire to recover her lost position. She assisted the Aeginetans against The policy the Athenians, who interfered with her trade \ of Ars°s-in the Persian war she stood aloof, even from the other cities of Argolis, nursing her broken strength in sullen selfishness; and, finally, she availed herself of the discredit which fell upon the Spartan power, in consequence of the conduct of Pausanias, to repeople her walls at the expense of the neighbouring cities, and, by a rigorous centralisation, to form a compact state which might resist the aggression of her neighbour.3
7. Was this political decline compensated by success in other fields 1 To a certain degree it was. It is true that the position of Argos in the Homeric epic precluded Musical skill the treatment of her past glories by later poets, at Ars°s-and plastic art, in which the city subsequently attained to great eminence, was little cultivated before the beginning of
1  See infra, ch. xiv.
2  Herod, vii. 148, 149.
3  This policy is well expressed in the oracle given to Argos at Delphi, Herod, vii. 148. The city is addressed as a serpent hiding in his hole:
*E\0p€ 7T€pLKTl6v€(T(n, <jf)lX' dOdVaTOKTl 6€ol(TlVt
ci<ra> tov TTpoftokaiov €\(iiv TTttf vkaypiva? rjcro kcli K€(j)a\r}V 7T€<pv\a£o' KCLprj Be to o&fxa aacucrci.
234                    ARGIVE MUSIC: SACADAS.                [VII. 8.
the sixth century. And no Argive is found in the lists of Olympian victors till 472 B.c. But in music the city soon acquired a world-wide fame, and by the middle of the sixth century the Argives were considered the best musicians in Hellas.1 The greatest master of the art was Sacadas. In the temple of the Muses on Helicon his statue stood beside those of Thamyris, Arion, Hesiod and Orpheus. Pindar composed a proem in his honour. When the contest in flute-music was added to the Pythian games in the 48th Olympiad, Sacadas was victorious— a position which he maintained in the next two Pythiads. More than two hundred years afterwards, at the building of the walls of Messene, the tunes of Sacadas and Pronomus (of Thebes) were played each against the other. " That was the day of the great match between them." His tomb could be seen at Argos in the time of Pausanias, more than seven hundred years after his death.
Sacadas was not a mere flute-player. He composed odes and elegies with musical accompaniments, which were sung and played at the Gymnopaediae at Sparta, in Arcadia, and at Argos. Like Polymnestus of Colophon, he divided musical modes into three types, and he illustrated the difference by composing the "triple nome," consisting of three strophes, the first sung in the Dorian measure, the second in the Phrygian, the third in the Lydian. He is also spoken of as the founder of a school of elegists at Argos, to which, in the second half of the sixth century, the famous Telesilla, the poetess and warrior, may have belonged.2
8. In the cities of Argolis, owing perhaps to changes in the population, there was a great variety of festivals and religious rites. At Nem&a, near Cleonae, games were held in honour of the Nemean Zeus;  at Argos the presiding deity was
1 Herod, iii. 131.
* Paus. ix. 30. 2} ib. x. 7. 4; iv. 27. 7 ; **• 22. 8.    Plutarch, D. musica, chaps. 8, 9,
VII. 8.]     ARGIVE RELIGIOUS RITES—THE NEMEA.     235
Apollo Lyceus. Between Argos and Mycenae lay the great temple of Hera. Epidaurus enjoyed the peculiar favour of Asclepius, whose shrine was the resort of the Variety of reli. invalids of Greece, and at Hermione the Dry- gious rites in opians paid especial honour to Chthonian Ar£°lls-Demeter. Though the accounts which we can give of these festivals are derived from later authors, the rites and ceremonies were ancient; and a brief description of them will convey some idea of divine worship and holiday life in Argolis in early times.
(a.) Between Phlius and Cleonae, on the upper waters of the stream which separated the territory of Corinth and Sicyon, lay the valley of Nemea, the scene of TheNemea: the conflict between Heracles and the lion. Mythological. Here, amid a grove of cypresses, the Nemean games were held in honour of Zeus Nemeus. Tradition ascribed the first establishment of the games to the Seven who left Argos with Adrastus for the attack on Thebes. When passing through the valley, the heroes were oppressed with thirst. A spring was pointed out to them by Hypsipyle, who placed the child she was tending on a grass-grown spot, while she led the way thither. On returning to the child, the heroes found that he had been bitten by a snake and was dead. In his honour funeral games were instituted by Adrastus, which were the first Nemea.1
The historical "renewal" of the games   is   placed by Eusebius in the last year of the 51st Olympiad (=573 B.C.); For a time the right to preside at these games     Historical, formed a subject of contention between the Argives and the Cleonaeans, but eventually Argos secured
1 The child was Opheltes, whom the Seven named Archem&rus {quasi, Tristram) as his doom portended their own. Oi this child left alone amid the flowers by his nurse, Euripides wrote the beautiful lines—
[ds tqv Xeipwva mdicras tbperrtv] crepov i(f> erepo) alpofievos aypevp.' dvdecov r]bop.iva tyvxQ to vrjiriov aTr\r)<rrov e^cov.
236         ARGOS: WORSHIP OF APOLLO LYCEUS.       [VII. &
the prize. The festival was celebrated every other year. The summer games took place soon after the beginning of the fourth Olympic year, on the 12th of the month Panemus, just before the full moon, and after the entrance of the sun into the constellation of the Lion; the winter festival was celebrated in the middle of the second year of the Olympiad. The contests at the Nemea were nearly the same as those at Olympia, with this exception, that at the Nemea (as at the Pythia and Isthmia) there were contests in musical skill in addition to those in athletics and horse-racing. It is highly improbable that so many "events" can have been crowded into a single day, but we have no precise information about the time occupied by the festival.1
(b.) It is perhaps reasonable to suppose that the worship of Zeus at Nemea at the time when the sun entered the sign a   n l          °^ "keo> s*anding as it did m cl°se connection
with the fabled conflict between Heracles and the lion, represented some ancient worship of the sun-god. From a similar origin may have been derived the worship of Apollo Lyceus at Argos, but here the animal which represented the god (or his opponent 1) was a wolf. The temple was said to have been founded by Danaus himself. At a later time, when the genius of sculptors and architects had embellished the city, it was the most splendid of all the buildings in Argos. Before the eastern front of it, in full view of all who came into the market-place from that direction, was depicted in stone the famous contest of the wolf and the bull, which conferred on Danaus the sovereignty of Argos.2
1  Eusebius, Schone, ii. p. 94; Krause, Die Pythieen, etc., 1841, pp. 127 ff.
2  Paua. ii. 19. 3 ; Curtius, Pelop. ii. 355. Compare the worship of Zeus Lycaeus in Arcadia. As in the case of Apollo Smintheus, so here ; we may have a relic of totemism in the wolf. Danaus may be the wolf-man (the alien, as Pausanias explains the story) who overcame Gelanor, the bull-man, who inhabited Argos. But we must allow that in mythology the wolf is usually the symbol of darkness (and in Argos Apollo is called the wolf-slayer, by Sophocles). Cf. Tylor, Primitive Culture, i. 341, and what is there quoted.    We shall never
vii. a]
ARGOS: THE HERAEA.
237
(c.) About two miles from Mycenae and five from Argos, at the foot of the south-western slope of Mount Euboea, lay the temple of Argive Hera, the national shrine of the Argives who dwelt in the plain of the Inachus. Hera, and A vague tradition connected the origin of the Heraea. the temple with Tiryns, whence, it was said, Piras brought the seated figure, fashioned from wood of the wild pear-tree, which represented the goddess of the older temple. The festival was called the Heraea or the Hecatombaea, a hundred oxen being slain on the great occasion. It was a time of universal rejoicing for the Argives. A sacred procession passed along the road from Argos to the temple; the priestess was drawn thither in a car by oxen; the young men marched out in full armour; the maidens, clad in holiday attire, and decked with ornaments of gold, with garlands of asterion (quasi, Star-wort) on their heads, were formed into choruses, which chanted the lays of their land. Athletic contests were also held, at which the victors received a bronze shield and a crown of myrtle. With these outward and visible forms of worship were connected others of a more mysterious nature. Part of the rites would seem to have resembled the Attic Plynteria. The statue of the goddess was disrobed and bathed in the waters of the neighbouring stream Eleutherius, even as Hera herself was supposed to have renewed her virginity year by year by bathing in the spring of Carathus, near Nauplia. It was then clad in bridal garments, crowned with asterion, which grew around the temple, and mystically wedded to Zeus. As a marriage-feast, we may suppose, the great sacrifice was offered, and the Argives made merry on the flesh of the slaughtered victims.1
clearly decide between symbolism and totemism in regard to these god-animals.—A wolf was stamped on the coins of Argos; the device on the Argive shield was an eagle ; legend connected Polynices with a lion, Tydeus with a boar, on their arrival at Argos.
1 Strabo, p. 372 ; Paus. ii. 17. 1-2 ; Herod, i. 31; Pind. Schol. on Olymp. vii. 83 (152); Eur. El. 173 ff.; Hesych. \eX€pva. 'Hpccndcs ; Plut. De mus. 9. The time at which the festival was held is unknown, but it was doubtless in the summer.
238         EPIDAURUS: TEMPLE OF AS CLE PIUS.       [VII. 8*
(d.) The temple of Asclepius lay in a beautiful and secluded valley about five miles from Epidaurus. In this in-The temple of stance it was not the festival of the deity— Asclepius.         celebrated with games every fourth year, nine
days after the Isthmia—which gave the place a special sanctity and reputation; it was rather the constant presence of the healing god. To what natural causes this supposed presence was due it is difficult to say. There was no medicinal spring in the Sacred Valley, such as the Anigrus in Elis; no warm baths, as at Methana, Pure air and water, rest and seclusion, some medicinal herbs, and a good deal of faith were the chief agents in the cure of those who visited the place. The popularity of the shrine was great, and it continued down to the time of the Antonines. From every side patients trooped to secure the advice of the priests and the blessing of the god. It is exceedingly probable that many secrets of herbal medicine (such as Dioscorides afterwards collected) were known to the Asclepiadae, who were also aware of the advantages to be derived from change and amusement. The theatre attached to the shrine became one of the largest and finest in Greece. Gardens and groves afforded shady and pleasant retreats. Cool baths were provided in abundance. Everything that could disturb or disgust was kept beyond the precincts of the sacred valley, while hope was flattered by the abundant testimony to the power of the god seen on every hand in the offerings of those who had here found relief from their sufferings.
(e.) The worship of Demeter Chthonia at Hermione was due to local peculiarities. Hard by the city was a cleft in The chthonia the earth—an opening of the infernal regions at Hermione. —which were, it was thought, reached more quickly by this route than by any other. Here, therefore, the goddess whose daughter was queen of the under-world might fitly take up her abode.
The festival of the Chthonia was held every year in the summer. Pausanias thus describes it:—The priests and the magistrates of the year walk in procession to the temple;
VII. 9-]   HERMIONE: FESTIVAL OF THE CHTHONIA.   239
after them come the men and women, and even the children, who take a part in the festival, clad in white garments, and wearing crowns woven from the flower which the Hermioneans call Cosmosandalon (quasi, Ladies' Slipper). The procession is followed by men leading a full-grown heifer, newly taken from the herd and still struggling, by ropes attached to either side of her head. When they come to the temple-doors the heifer is allowed to run loose into the temple, and as soon as she is in the doors are closed. Four aged priestesses who are left in the temple slay the heifer, the first who can cutting her throat with a hook. Then the doors are opened, and a second heifer is brought, and a third, and yet a fourth. All are slaughtered in the same manner, and, marvellous to relate, on whichever side the first heifer sinks when dying, the rest fall on the same.—As Hermione was the chief of the Dryopian cities in Argolis, the rites celebrated there became common to all the other Dryopians. Even when expelled from their home and settled in Messenia, the Asinaeans sent sacrifices to Demeter, and desired to renew in this manner the connection with their ancient home.1
For the coinage of Argolis, see Head, Historia Numorum, p. 366. In regard to dialect, the Argives resembled the Laconians in changiDg cr between vowels into h, and the Cretans in using an accusative plural in -vs, e.g. ravs — rds. In their alphabet they differed from the rest of the Peloponnesians thus:—
Ch         x              I                d           $
Argive,                  X         l-H         H                DM
Peloponnesian,       V         X            A A          A         $Z
But the inhabitants of Hermione used the ordinary Peloponnesian forms of the letters.
EL/S.
9. The ever-increasing importance of the Olympic festival naturally caused the possession of the shrine of Zeus at Olympia to become an object of contention.     The sanctuary
1 Paus. ii. 35. 3-8; Dittenberger, Sylloge, No. 389=C.I.G. 1193.
240                       ELIS: WARS WITH PISA.                      [VII. 9.
formed part of the district of Pisatis, which had been con quered at an early time by the Eleans. In order to retain The contest their prize the Eleans seem to have found for oiympia. ft necessary to strengthen their position by entering into close relations with the Spartans, while the Pisatans on their part appealed to Phidon of Argos to assist them in recovering their rights. Thus it came to pass that in the Eighth Olympiad (748 B.C.) the Argive monarch drove away the Eleans and celebrated the festival himself. At the next festival, the old order was re-established, and the celebration thus irregularly conducted was struck out of the list of Olympiads. At this time the Pisatid mgs o x . ^^ under the rule of princes, who acknowledged the control of Elis. Four names of these monarchsl have been preserved in the following order of succession:—
(1) Omphalion.
I (2) Pantaleon (01. 34=644 b.o.).
(3) Damophon (01. 48 = 588 b.c).                      (4) Pyrrhus (572 b.c).
In the 28th Olympiad (668 B.C.) the Eleans, being then engaged in a war with Dyme in Achaea, "allowed the Pisatans to celebrate the festival in their behalf"—a fact which, whether the permission was forced from them or not, is evidence of the weakness of the Eleans at the time. Eight years afterwards (01. 30=660 B.C.) the Pisatans were able to throw off the yoke of the Eleans and recover Oiympia. They remained in possession of the shrine for some time.2
1  A still earlier king of Pisa is Cleosthenes, tne son of Cleonicus (Phlegon, Frag. 1, Miiller). He is said to have aided Iphitus and Lycurgus in the rearrangement of the games. The name is suspicious, and the Pisatans might very well invent a hero to range with the Elean and Spartan founders of the games. But cf. Duncker, Hist. Greece, ii. 242; Busolt, Lak. p. 163.
2  For Pantaleon, cf. Paus. vi. 21. 1 : TLavrakiovri r<£ 'OficfyaXiavos TvpavvovPTi iv Tlla-rj kcu cm6ara<Tiv fiovkevovri and 'HXciW {ibid. 22. 3). The exact nature of the relations prevailing between the Eleans and
VII. 10.]                   ELIS: PISATAN WARS.                             241
10. In the second Messenian war the Pisatans, who had reason to resent and fear the growing power of Sparta, took the part of the rebels.    The fall of Eira had a    conquest of disastrous effect upon their fortunes, for Sparta    PJsatis and Elis, both hostile nations, were now free to unite their forces.    By 588 B.O. the Pisatans are again in a position of dependence.    Under the pretext of a suspected rebellion the Eleans then invaded the Pisatid, but Damophon, the son of Pantaleon, induced them to retire.    In 580 B.C. ( = 01. 50) they had lost all share in the management of the Olympic festival, and were reduced to the condition of Perioeci.1 The Eleans were now able to invade            *   y ia'
Triphylia, where they added Macistus to the list of dependent cities. But the spirit of the Pisatans was not broken. In 572 B.C. Pyrrhus, the brother of Damophon, assisted by the Dyspontians, Scilluntians and Macistians, rose against the Eleans. The Spartans were summoned to the rescue, and the rising was quelled.    The cities of the Pisatans were now
Pisatans during this period is uncertain. Pausanias (vi. 22) tells us that the 34th Olympiad, which Pantaleon celebrated, was not reckoned by the Eleans among the Olympiads (Anolympias). On the other hand, the list in Africanus tells us that the Pisatans, revolting from the Eleans, celebrated the 80th and 22 following Olympiads (Jul. Africanus, Rutgers, 01. 30), a statement which is again contradicted hy Paus. v. 9. 4, where the Eleans are said to be in possession in Ol. 50. Accuracy is not to be expected in such statements, which would naturally differ with the party which made them. The Pisatans and Eleans may have exercised a joint control for some time (the number of the Hellenodicae being doubled), and the attack of Pantaleon in Olympiad 34 may have been an act of aggression on the part of the Pisatans, Busolt, loc. cit. p. 168. The Pisatans numbered eight communities, of which Strabo mentions five: Salmone, Heraclea, Arpina, Cicysium, which was the largest, and Dyspontium, pp. 356, 357. From these and eight Elean cities were doubtless chosen the sixteen women who wove the robe for Hera, and superintended the contests of the maidens held in her honour.
1 Paus. v. 9.4; vi. 22. 4. In 01. 2 an " Elean of Dyspontium " was victor, a record which, unless it is a forgery, implies that ev^i then Dyspontium was subject to Elis ; but the Elean records are not to be trusted. The inhabitants of Lepreum were proclaimed as "Eleans" <Paus. v. 5. 3).
VOL. I.                                                                               Q
242              ELIS: POSITION OF WOMEN—HERA.      [VII. IX.
utterly destroyed; nothing remained but villages inhabited by serfs. The conquered territory was divided among the demes of Elis.1
II. Thus were the Eleans rendered secure in the possession of the coveted sanctuary. Though it is a mistake to speak of their territory as inviolate, except in the sacred month of the festival, they enjoyed for a long time an extraordinary immunity from invasion, owing no doubt to the firm friendship of the Lacedaemonians. The soil of Elis was fertile, and the festival attracted large numbers of merchants. Elis was the garden of Peloponnese, even in the time of Strabo; and so attached were the inhabitants to a country life of peace and prosperity that for generations some families never visited the city. They were probably the wealthiest community in Greece, but they remained without renown in arms or distinction in literature. Their claim to honour rested solely on the justice with which they administered the Olympic festival.2
In Elis, as at Sparta, women seem to have enjoyed a degree of freedom and influence which was unusual in Greece, worshi of ^e worsniP °* Hera at Olympia was superin-Hera at          tended by  a college  or  conclave  of   sixteen
Olympia.                          ,             J °_        .          .  ,
women, chosen at first from eight towns in Pisatis, and an equal number in Elis, but afterwards, of course, from towns in Elis only. Every fifth year the women wove a robe for the goddess in a house set apart for the purpose in the market-place of Elis. At the presentation of the robe, which took place in the Heraeum at Olympia, sacrifices were offered and games were held, at which the maidens of Elis contended in the foot-race. The course was the Olympic stadium, but the length was shortened by one-sixth (i.e. reduced from 630 to 525 feet). The girls were divided into three troops, according to age, and each troop
1  The Dyspontians emigrated to Apollonia and Epidamnus (Paua. vi. 22. 4; v. 6. 4 ; Strabo, 356, 357).
2  Strabo, p. 343 ; Polyb. iv. 73 (in the time of Polybius there were even local courts for the administration of justice); Herod, ii. 160.
VII. n.]         ELIS: TEMPLES AND SHRINES.                 243
raced separately. When running, the competitors were clad in a short chiton which did not reach to the knee; the right shoulder was bare to the breast; the hair fell loose upon the neck. The victorious maidens were crowned with olive, their portraits were painted, and they also received a portion of the heifer which had been sacrificed to the goddess. Legend ascribed the institution of the games to Hippodamea, who, when she wished to return thanks to Hera for her marriage with Pelops, called the sixteen women together, and with them founded the festival. Notwithstanding these athletic exercises, women were forbidden, on pain of death, to be spectators at the great Olympic games; they might not even cross the river Alpheus within certain interdicted days.1
Strabo tells us that in his time Elis was filled with temples of Artemis, Aphrodite and the nymphs. Shrines of Hermes were to be seen by the wayside, shrines of   „,    ..    rn.
,                -n         •                          Worship of Dio-
Poseidon on the sea-shore.2 Especial honour nysus, Hades, was paid to Dionysus, as seems to have been and heroes-almost universally the case in a rural population. His festival was known as the Thyia, and was remarkable for a miraculous creation of wine.3 Hades also was worshipped by the Eleans, who with the Triphylians seem to have been peculiar in paying honour to this deity. His temple at Elis was opened once a year only, and none but the priest might enter it.4 Another striking feature in the religious customs of the country was the worship of heroes. Augeas, of the old Epean dynasty, and Aetolus, the son of Oxylus, received offerings as heroes; and Pausanias remarks that the Eleans pour libations to heroes, "whether they are heroes of Elis, or
1 Faus. v. 16 ; ib. v. 6, 7. Pausanias gives an instance of a violation of the rule by Callipatira, who, in the disguise of a trainer, witnessed her son's triumph. Her life was spared, but henceforth the trainers, as well as the athletes, were compelled to appear naked.
3 Strabo, p. 343.
3 Paus. vi. 26.
4 Paus. vi. 25. 2. When he states that the Eleans were alone in worshipping Hades, it must be remembered that he includes Triphylia in Elis.
244                      ELIS: THE TRIPHYLIANS.               [VII. n.
those who are worshipped among the Aetolians." And not the heroes only, but their wives also were thus honoured.1
We have  seen that a remnant   of  the Minyae settled in Triphylia, where they established a number of towns: Lepreum, Macistus, Phrixae, Pyrgus, Epium, np y ia.         Nudium.2    With the exception of Lepreum,
these cities were entirely destroyed by the Lacedaemonians and Eleans, and their territory added to Elis. The Lepreatae appear to have owed their exemption from destruction to the assistance which they rendered to the Spartans in the second Messenian war. They maintained their independence— doubtless under the protection of Sparta—and in the Persian war were able to send 200 men to Plataea.3
In Triphylia also we meet with interesting and ancient forms of worship. On the shore was a temple of the The Deities Samian Poseidon, at a place where, as some worshipped        authorities wished to prove, Telemachus found
in Triphylia.        Negtor sacriflCmg to the god of the gea      Thig
appears to have been the national sanctuary of the Triphylians. In the neighbourhood of Macistus there was a precinct of Hades and a grove of Demeter, deities which received especial honour from the Triphylians because their country, though fertile, was afflicted with blight to such a degree of severity that the crops often failed.4
12. The glory of Elis was the Olympic games, which also became the glory of Greece. Of the origin of this famous festival, which went on without interruption every fifth year for more
1 Paus. v. 15. i2.
2  Herod, iv. 148.
3  Paus. iv. 15. 7 ; Herod, ix. 28. The Lepreatae are said to have taken the part of Sparta kqt €\0os t<dv 'HXeiW, i.e. to save themselves from the Eleans. For the destruction of Pisatis and Triphylia by the Lacedaemonians and Eleans, cf. Herodotus, iv. 148 ; Strabo, p. 356: Uia-arav #e kcl\ Tpi<f>v\ia>v Kal KavKovav fiyd' buofia XetcfrOrjuai. Herodotus says that the destruction of most of the towns in Triphylia took place in his day.
4  Strabo, p. ZU. Strabo, as is well known, identifies the Trv phylian and Homeric Pylus.
VII. 12.]           ELIS: THE OLYMPIC GAMES.                   245
than a thousand years (776 B.C. to 394 A.D.), Pausanias, who visited Olympia in the second century A.D., heard the following account, the result of the researches of the   The greatest archaeologists of the time!    In the   Games; mythi-reign of Cronos men of the golden race sacrificed   caI hlstory-to him at Olympia, but when Zeus was born Ehea intrusted the keeping of the child to the Idaean Dactyli, who came from Crete to Olympia.    These were five in number, Heracles  and his  four  brothers,  Paeonaeus,              '
Epimedes, Jasus and Idas. By way of amusement, Heracles, who was the eldest, set his brothers to race against each other, and crowned the winner with wild olive, which, though transplanted by Heracles from the Hyperboreans, grew luxuriantly at Olympia. These were the first Olympic games. They occurred every fifth year, because there were five brothers, of whom four only contended.
About fifty years after the flood which happened in the days of Deucalion, Clymenus, a descendant of the Idaean Heracles, came from Crete to Olympia, and celebrated games there. He was deposed by Endymion, who decided the succession among his sons by a foot-race (supra, p. 91). Then Pelops appeared upon the scene, and caused the games to become more famous than ever before. The Pelopids were soon dispersed over Pelopon- e °ps' nesus, and Amythaon, a cousin of Endymion, celebrated the Olympia. After him Pelias and Neleus joined in the celebration ; then followed Augeas, and Heracles, the son of Amphitryon, who held games in honour of his conquest of Elis. When Oxylus came into Elis he celebrated the games, but from his time down to Iphitus they were discontinued. In the days of Iphitus, who was a descendant of Oxylus, Greece was in a calamitous state of disturbance and strife. Tribe was at war with tribe, p ' us* and domestic sedition was frequent. With a view to the improvement of the country Iphitus consulted the oracle at Delphi. The answer was that the Olympic games must be renewed.    Iphitus proceeded to carry out the divine
246                    ELIS: THE OLYMPIC GAMES.              [VII. 12.
command; he celebrated the games, and arranged that henceforth the celebration should take place every fifth year. By degrees the remembrance of the past was recovered, and as the facts came back into the memory of men, additions were made to the contests at the games. Iphitus also bade the Eleans sacrifice to Heracles, whom they had hitherto regarded as an enemy. But his chief service was the establishment of the Ekecheiria, or sacred truce. The month of the festival was made a sacred month, during which all war was to cease throughout Hellas. It was the duty of the Eleans to proclaim the truce, and disobedience to its terms was sacrilege. In this good work Lycurgus of Sparta is said to have been associated with Iphitus.1
The Olympic lists, in which the victors were recorded, do not begin till 776 B.C. On this occasion Coroebus of Elis was victor in the stadium or foot-race. From that time onward till 221 A.D., we can read in the list compiled by Julius Africanus, and preserved to us by Eusebius, the names of the victors in the contests, and the various changes which were made in the games.
The games may have originated in the worship of Zeus and Hera by the Pisatans in a sacred place near the junction of g duaiexten- ^e ^^eus an(^ Alpheus, at the foot of the sionofthe         hill  of Cronos.     With  the  invasion  of the
games.             Aetolians the possession of the sanctuary passed
from the Pisatans to the Eleans; and when the Heraclids of Sparta became the allies of the Eleans, Heracles was associated with Zeus and Hera in the sacrifices. But it was long before the festival attracted attention. Down to 720 B.C. the competitors were drawn from a limited area in the Peloponnesus: in the next sixty years the fame of the festival spread throughout Greece; after 620 B.C. the coloniea
1 Pans. v. 7. 8. Pausamas saw the quoit of Iphitus, the original symbol of the cVcexcipta, in the Heraeum at Olympia (v. 20, i). The "truce" is probably the origin of the "war and sedition" to which Iphitus put an end.
VII. I3-]             ELIS: THE GOVERNMENT.                     247
began to take part in it. As its fame spread the festival was enlarged. At the time of Coroebus there was one contest only, the foot-race or stadium (630 feet), and from the victor in this race the Olympiad was always named. In the 14th Olympiad the double course was added; in the 18th, the Pentathlon and the wrestling; in the 23rd, the boxing; in the 25th, the chariot-race; in the 33rd, the Pancratium and horse-race; in the 37th, the running and wrestling for boys; in the 41st the boxing for boys; in the 65th, the foot-race in heavy armour. These were the contests which made up the games at the time of Pindar. So large a number could not, of course, be included in one day; but we do not know how many days the festival lasted, nor in what order the contests took place.
The history of the Olympia is without a parallel in the records of civilisation. That athletic games should have continued uninterrupted for a thousand years; Uni char-that a nation of petty states always at war acterofthe with each other should have agreed to suspend olvmPic games, their enmities in order to attend at a foot-race; that the winner on a course of about 200 yards should be the foremost man in Hellas, the proudest ornament of his home; that the name of such a victor should be handed down to posterity when poets who had delighted and statesmen who had benefited mankind were forgotten, would be incredible if it were not true. But it is true, and in attempting to conceive the nature of the Hellenic genius we must always bear the fact in mind. The Olympic games and the Spartan training are the characteristic creations of the Greeks. Science and art, plays and philosophy, have reappeared in later ages, but these unique achievements passed away with the nation which gave them birth.
13. At the time of the invasion the immigrants into Elis coalesced on friendly terms with the Epeans.   The reigning king Eleus (or Dius) did not, it is true, give The govern-up his dominions without a struggle; a single   mcnt in Elis* combat was arranged between  Pyraechmes,  the Aetolian
248                   ELIS: THE GOVERNMENT.            [VII. 13.
slinger, and Degmenus, the Epean archer, but on the victory of Pyraechmes the throne was ceded to Oxylus. The union was greatly facilitated by the connection of race which existed between the Aetolians and Epeans.1
Oxylus was succeeded by his son Laias, with whom the monarchy appears to have come to an end; at least Pausanias
could not discover the names of any later kings
onarc y.        ^ ^e ^^ ^ Oxylus.2    The monarchy was
followed by an aristocracy, under which we may suppose that
the leading families kept the control of the state, and the
possession of the best land, in their own hands.    Though
these aristocrats lived on their estates in the ns ocracy. country, some of their number must have acted as the executive of the state of the Eleans. In the oldest inscriptions the sovereign power seems to have been vested in the community as a whole (ol faAetoi, Sa/*os). We also hear of a fa/iicopyta, of an officer 6/> iikyivrov rk\o$ €^€t, of /Sao-iAaes, and wpogevoi. The fapiwpyia is apparently the title of the executive board which managed the affairs of the nation; it was composed of officers (f*?fuw/oyot) from the various demes, and was subject to a scrutiny (fxaa-Tpa). In what relation it stood to the /?a>Aa (senate), which is also mentioned, we cannot determine. The phrase op peyio-Tov tcAos cx«t is a description of the head of the deme, whatever his special title may have been. The /3ao-iAa€s and irpo^voi were perhaps officers connected with religious rites and ceremonies. To be eligible as a proxenus and demiurgus was equivalent to possessing full civic rights. The general name for the citizens was ferai and for the magistrates TeAco-Tcu.3 For a long time the inhabitants of Elis continued to dwell in villages,  but  after the  Persian war, a great central city,
1  Strabo, p. 354.
2  Paus. v» 4. 3.
3  Cf. Gilbert, Handbuch, ii. 100 ff. The inscriptions will be found in Roehl, A. G. I. No. 109 if. ; and in Collitz, Sammlung. No. 1149 ff. From No. 1153 we find that the Elean deme of Cheladra had power to grant a portion of land in Pisa.
VII. i4.J
ELIS—ARCADIA.
249
called Elis, was established by the union of a number of villages. Aristotle describes a senate at Elis consisting of ninety members, probably ten from each of nine tribes. These members held office for life, and all the power lay in their hands. The government was thus an oligarchy within an oligarchy, and exposed to danger for that reason. Even the choice of the senators was in the hands of the great families. At a later time we hear of a democracy, a form of government due no doubt to the opposition between the population of the city and the landed proprietors.1
The Elean dialect is marked by (1) the use of p for s at the end of words (as in Laconian and Latin), and of the soft breathing for the hard, e.g. op = os; (2) the use of the digamma, written with /3 in later inscriptions (as in Laconian); (3) the use of f for d; (4) the use of -aj?, -ois in the ace. plur. for -as, -ovs; (5) the change of cr into h between vowels (as in Laconian). See L'aniel, De Dialecto Eliaca. '* The beautiful silver coins of Elis, of the Aeginetic standard, form a series, which for the variety of treatment and the high artistic ability which it evinces, is excelled by no other class of coins in European Greece." The series extends from about 480 B.C. to 322 B.C. From 480 to 421 B.C. the symbols of Zeus, "the thunderbolt, the eagle with a serpent, a hare, or other animal in his claws," form the types of the coins.—Head, Bistoria Numorum, p. 353.
ARCADIA. 14, The legends of Arcadia tell us that in early times the country was united in the hands of a single monarch, Areas, from whom the name Arcadia was   derived.       Kings of Areas divided the country among his three sons       Arcadia. —Azan, the eponym of the Azanians ; Apheidas from whom the district of Tegea received the name of the Apheidantian plain; and Elatus, who received Cyllene.    The son of Azan
1 Arist. Pol. v. 6. 11 = 1306 a: Karakvovrai fa koi orav cv tj} 6\iyap\ia irepav 6\iyap\iav ipiroiuxn. Tovto 8' iarrlp, orav, rov navTos TroXiTciipaTos oXiyov ovtos, t&v ptyiaTtav apxw ph p.€T£)((D(riv ol 6\tyoi irdvT€s.v07r€p eV'HXifo gvvifir) 7rore. Tfjs 7roXir€i'as yap 6V okiycov ovarfs, rm> y^povrmv oXiyoi irapnap iyivovro, bta to ai&tovs €ivat iv€vr\Kovra oVras, ttjv d* alpcaiv dvvao-T(VTiicr)V circa teal opoiav rfj tS>v iv AaKeSalpovi yepovrtav. Under the democracy the Elean senate consisted of 600 members. For further details consult Gilbert, Handbuch, ii. 95 ff.
250                            ARCADIA • ITS ICINGS.                    [VII. 14.
was Clitor, who gave his name to the town in the north of Arcadia. He settled at Lycosura, and was the most powerful of the Arcadian kings. From Aleus, the son of Apheidas, was derived the name of Athena Alea, the tutelary goddess of Tegea, whose shrine formed a common place of meeting for the Arcadians. The sons of Elatus were Cyllen, from whom Mount Cyllene derived its name; Stymphalus, the eponym of the town of Stymphalus, and Aepytus. As Clitor died without sons, the throne of Lycosura descended to Aepytus, and on his death to Aleus. Thus Tegea becomes the seat of the monarchy. Here, at the time of Hyllus, we find Echemus on the throne. By him Hyllus was slain, and the tide of invasion thrown back for a hundred years. Echemus was succeeded by Agapenor, who led the Arcadians to Troy. On his return Agapenor was carried to Cyprus, where he founded Paphos and the temple of Aphrodite, from whence his daughter Laodice sent a robe to Athena Alea at Tegea. A subsequent king, Hippothous, is said to have transferred the seat of government from Tegea to Trapezus, where we find Cypselus reigning at the time of the Dorian migration. From the union of Cresphontes with the daughter of Cypselus the Messenian kings were descended. Some generations after Cypselus we hear of Pompus, in whose reign the Aeginetans brought their wares to Cyllene, the port of Elis, and carried them thence on mules to Arcadia. Then followed Polymestor, the contemporary of the Spartan king Charilaus; Aechmis, in whose reign the first Messenian war broke out; and Aristocrates I., who was stoned to death for violating a virgin in the temple of Artemis, near Orchomenus. His grandson was Aristocrates 11., who met with a like fate for his treachery to the Messenians. After this there were no more kings in Arcadia.1
1 Paus. viii. 4, 5. With the division of Arcadia among the sons of Areas compare the division of Attica among the sons of Pandion. Azanians go to Phrygia as Lycus in Athenian story migrates to Lycia (Paus. viii. 4. 3). Elatus leaves Arcadia for Phocis, where he founds Elatea.   Compare the migrations of Paeon and Aetolus in Elean story.
VII. IS]              ARCADIA* INHABITANTS.                      251
15. There is no reason for supposing that Arcadia was «ver united under the authority of a single king. The nature of the country prohibited centralisation. In Arcadia: its the north and east Arcadia is a mass of rugged inhabitants, mountains, traversed by few and difficult passes. Towards the south the only inlet is the valley of the Eurotas. On the west the mountains are less abrupt, and the valleys of the Ladon and Alpheus render communication comparatively easy. The political development of the inhabitants was determined by these external conditions. In the Eastern isolated valleys of the east and north we find Arcadia. a number of independent towns—Psophis, Clitor, Pheneus, Stymphalus, Orchomenus, Mantinea, Tegea-- of which Man-tinea was a combination of five villages, Tegea of nine. In the west the towns are few—Trapezus, Basilis and Lycosura being the chief. The inhabitants of these dis- western tricts dwelt in scattered hamlets along the Arcadia, rivers. Round the sources of the Alpheus lay the Maenalians and Eutresians. The Parrhasians and Cynurians dwelt a little lower down the river. Lower still were the Heraeans. The Azanes dwelt on the Ladon. But disunited as the Arcadians were, connecting links were not wanting among them. They had common temples, at which Links of they met to worship the national deities. Such Union, was the temple of Lycaean Zeus, on the summit of Mount Lycaeus, near Lycosura, where the Lycaea were celebrated, a festival which, though at first confined to the Parrhasians, became the common festival of all the Arcadian, tribes. Almost equally sacred and equally national was the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea, where was the "common hearth" of the Arcadians.1 A third deity, held in universal honour by all the Arcadians, was Artemis Hymnia,
1 Paus. viii. 2. 1 ; viii. 53. 9. The Lycaea were celebrated by Area-dians even when on service in foreign lands (Xen. Anab. i. 2. io). These shrines were still honoured even after the devastation which overtook Arcadia between the time of Polybius and Strabo (Strabo, p. 388).
252                 ARCADIA: WARS WITH SPARTA.    [VII. 16, 17.
whose chief shrine was situated in the territory of Orcho-menus.1
16.   We have seen reason to doubt the truth of the legends which speak of contests between the Spartans and Arcadia and Arcadians at Clitor and Mantinea in the years Sparta.             immediately following the Dorian immigration. But at a later time, when the Spartan power increased, it was inevitable that border conflicts should go on. Charilaus is said to have conquered the district of Aegys between the sources of the Eurotas and the Alpheus, and to have made an attempt, which failed, on Tegea. After the first Mes-senian war the Spartans made an attack on Phigalea, a distant Arcadian hamlet, on the borders of Messenia, which is now famous for the ruins of a beautiful temple. The Phigaleans were expelled from their territory, but recovered it by the devoted help of the Oresthasians (Olymp., 30.2 = 659 B.C.). At a later time the districts of Caryae and Sciritis, on the upper Oenus, were added to Sparta, but Tegea remained independent till the middle of the sixth century.2
17.  The Arcadians were a nation of peasants, chiefly occupied in breeding sheep, cattle and horses. If they character and preserved the simple virtues of a rural life, civilisation of they remained untouched by the civilisation the Arcadians. q{ the m0Te advanced and accessible districts of Greece. In the hope of counteracting the effects of the harsh climate of their country and their rustic occupations, music was almost universally cultivated among them. Their apologist Polybius tells us that the Arcadian boys were trained from infancy to sing hymns and paeans, in honour of their native heroes and gods; and the education was continued in after life. It was from neglect of this salutary institution that the Cynaethians fell below the standard of Arcadian morality, and disgraced themselves by acts of savage
1  Paus. viii. 5. 11.
2  For Aegys, c/. Paus. iii. 2. 5;  Tegea, ib. viii. 48. 4 j  Phigalea, viii. 39. 2.
VII. I7-]                ARCADIAN CIVILISATION.                        253
and treacherous cruelty.1 When the population of the country increased, large numbers of Arcadians readily entered service as mercenary soldiers. Trade was impossible for them, and as in Arcadia the isolation and intensity of civic life which made enemies of neighbouring cities were to a great degree wanting, the Arcadians were not needed for arms at home. They are often compared to the Swiss of modern times, but we have no means of judging whether the resemblance extends beyond a mountainous home and the love of a military life.2
The statements which have come down to us about the forms of political constitution existing among the Arcadians, scanty and imperfect though they are, present much that is full of interest.    They illustrate various stages in the change which transformed the tribe (or eOvos) into the city (or ttoXls). In the West t.he political unit was the tribe, and this continued to be the case till the foundation of Megalopolis in 369 b.c.    Of course the members of the tribes TheTribe8in resided in hamlets or villages, which differed the west of in extent and importance, and Thucydides even Arcadia* speaks of the "cities" of the Parrhasians, but the word is used vaguely, and does not mean a city in the ordinary sense of the word, le. an autonomous and local centre of political life. Some of these villages were the meeting-places of the tribe, or the residence of ancient kings, and consecrated by the worship of common deities.     Lycosura, Trapezus and no independent Basilis were towns within the territory of the towns-Parrhasians, which so late as 369 B.C. claimed a superior position on these grounds.     Yet even Lycosura, the most
1  Polyb. iv. 20 ff. Whether this account is applicable to ancient Arcadia is perhaps doubtful; but c/. Plut. De Mus. 9, who tells us that the music of Sacadas, Polymnestus, etc., was played at the a,irobci£us in Arcadia.
2  Strabo, p. 388, speaks of the excellent pastures which in his time existed on the site of Megalopolis : (3oo-KTjfia<ri & ctcri vofiai dayfnXels kcu /mXtora tnirois kcu 6V019 rots iiriro^drais, earn de neat ro ytvos rS*v Ittttcop apia-rop to 'ApicadtKov. The legend of the horse-headed Demeter shows that horse-breeding was an occupation of the Arcadians in very early times.
254               ARCADIAN CIVILISATION: CITIES.       [VII. 18.
ancient of all Arcadian towns, never claimed a political existence apart from the Parrhasian tribe to which it belonged. It was only when a tribe was broken up, or sank into decay, that the towns within it became independent. With the disappearance of the ancient tribe of the Azanians, Clitor, Psophis and Heraea became separate political centres. Oi these Heraea retained the old cantonal form of constitution, even down to the middle of the fourth century, when the nine demes, of which the community was composed, were united into a city under Lacedaemonian influence, in order to form a counterpoise to Megalopolis. Of the mode in which the affairs of the tribe were managed we have little information. In the more advanced forms of constitution, as at Constitution of Mantinea, we find each of the demes of which the tribes.         ^ cj£y was composed represented by a " demi-
urgus." This may have been the case with the tribe. Each of the villages may have sent a representative to the common assembly, by which the common affairs were managed.
l8. In the east of Arcadia the tribe gave way at an early time to the city. Mantinea, Orchomenus and Tegea were the cities in Eastern chief centres. The nature of the country, Arcadia.           mutual animosities, and external relations con-
duced to this result. Mantinea and Tegea were constantly at variance. The former was a democracy formed under the influence of Argos; the latter, after ineffectual struggles to maintain its independence, became an oligarchy under the influence of Sparta. Orchomenus, at the time of the second Messenian war, was the abode of Aristocrates II., the last king of Arcadia. After the fall of the monarchy and the dissolution of the tribal association upon which the monarchy rested, it was left the head of a few villages. Its power was quickly surpassed by that of its rivals Mantinea and Tegea.
Even in the middle of the sixth century Mantinea attracted attention by the excellence of her political arrangements. By Democracy of the advice of the Delphic oracle the Cyrenaeans Mantinea.         requested the Mantineans to send one of their
citizens to re-arrange the constitution at Cyrene.   Demonax
VII. 18.]         ARCADIA: MANTINEA—KINGS.                  255
was sent, and the arrangements which he introduced were thoroughly democratic. He reserved for the king the sacred domain and offices which belonged to him as the priest of the community, but the rest of his powers were divided among the people.1 The hatred of Sparta on the one hand, and on the other the friendly relations which united Mantinea with Argos and Athens, are a proof that the constitution of Mantinea continued to be democratic.—We hear of Demiurgi in all the Arcadian states; of Theori in Mantinea and Tegea; of Polemarchi or Strategi in Mantinea, Tegea, Public officers in Phigalea, and among the Cynaethians.2 But Arcadian towns. we cannot enter into details. We know the titles of the public officers in Arcadian towns, and we know no more about them.
From the earliest times down to the end of the second Messenian war there were kings in Arcadia. Lycosura was the abode of the ancient king Lycaon. When The Kings of the Heraclids first attempted the invasion of Arcadia-Peloponnesus, Echemus was king of Tegea, and leader of the Arcadians; at the time of the invasion, Cypselus of Trapezus was the king of the Arcadians. In the Messenian wars Orcho-menus was the seat of the monarchy. If we look at the list of ancient Arcadian kings preserved by Pausanias we shall find that the succession is sometimes broken by the substitution of the female line for the male. The sons of Lycaon perish, the line being continued through Callisto to Areas. Clitor, the son of Azan, dies without children, and his throne passes to Aepy tus. These interruptions, combined with the change of the seat of the monarchy, point to the prominence of successive tribes whose leaders or generals were the kings of Arcadia at the period. The Azanians were perhaps the most powerful tribe in the earliest times, but they were subsequently surpassed by the Trapezuntians, whose kings, the Cypseiidae, continued to occupy the throne till the treachery of Aristo-crates n. brought the king into direct collision with the
1 Herod, iv. 161,
2 Busolt, Lak. p. 144.
•256             ARCADIA: 'CLASSES' AND 'MASSES.9    [VII. x8.
people, and caused the final overthrow of the monarchy. It is quite clear from the accounts of the Messenian war that the kings were the leaders of the Arcadians on their warlike expeditions. The office was hereditary, but with the privileges of the kings in times of peace we are not acquainted.
If in one sense the Arcadians were a disunited people, in another they present an instance of a union which was rare No distinction *n Greece. There was little or no distinction of classes in of classes among them. No order rose above Arcadia,           ^q rest, as the conqueror over the conquered,
the rich over the poor. Town life and country life were not dissociated, for there was no manufacturing population, or of town         Every one drew his wealth from the same
and country. sources, and was occupied in the same pursuits —agricultural and pastoral. Unfortunately we know nothing of the tenure of land in Arcadia. The absence of slaves shows that here, as in Phocis, the owner of the soil worked on his land, but what differences of wealth prevailed in the country, and how the difficulties which elsewhere led to the oppression of the poorer by their richer citizens were avoided, we have no evidence to show.1
The resemblance between the Arcadian inscriptions and the Cyprian, to which allusion has already been made (p. 125), is shown in the common use of Iv for iv, of a genitive in -av from nominatives in -as, in drru for airo, etc. In spite of the occurrence of Arcadian names in Crete, and legends of colonisation, there is no resemblance between the dialects of Arcadia and Crete. The coins of Arcadia imply a kind of federal union of the country notwithstanding the enmities of the various tribes and cities. It is supposed that coins were struck at the periodic meetings at the festival of Zeus Lycaeus which were current through the whole of Arcadia.    See Head, 1.& p. 372.
ACHAEA.
19. The history of Achaea, from the time that it became a place of refuge for the exiles, whom the Dorians expelled
1 Busolt, Lakedaemonier, pp. 111-145, from whom what is stated in the text is mainly taken.
VII. ip.]   ACHAEA: POLITICAL CONSTITUTION.             257
from their homes in Laconia and Argolis, is almost unknown.   Polybius informs us that the nation was ruled by kings, of whom Tisamenus was the first, and    The Kings Ogyges the last.   As we know nothing more    of Achaea-of Ogyges, and Tisamenus is said in another form of the legend to have perished before reaching Achaea, this statement is of little value.   It is more important to know that the Achaeans, following as we are told the example of the Ionians, who preceded them in the country, formed themselves into a Dodecapolis, of which the common meeting-    The cities place was the temple of Zeus Amarius at Aegium    of Achae»-(supra, p. 106).    At a later time the Achaeans were famous for the excellence of their political constitution, which Strabo calls a democracy.    The cities of Magna Graecia, some of which were colonies from Achaea, at least in part, are said to have applied to them for aid in the management of their affairs after the troubles arising from the expulsion of the Pythagorean societies.    At Crotona, Sybaris and Caulon the Achaean constitution was adopted.    These cities combined and selected a site for the altar of Zeus Amarius, at which they met for the discussion of political matters.     Excellence of They even adopted the customs and laws of the    the Achaean Achaeans, till Crotona and Caulon were com-    Constltutlon-pelled by Dionysius of Syracuse to abandon them.1   In the history of Greece Proper, Achaea is of little importance. The secluded nature of  the country, which lay between almost impassable mountains and a harbourless coast, and was far removed from the  great roads which connected Peloponnesus and Northern Greece, enabled the inhabitants to preserve a neutrality amid the conflicts which harassed
1 Polyb. ii. 38-41. For the twelve cities, see Herod, i. 145—he calls them pepea; Strabo, p. 385. For Patrae, Paus. vii. 6. I substitutes Cerynea. The name Ogyges is as uncertain in form as it ia suspicious ; see Strabo, p. 384. Pausanias speaks of the sons of Tisamenus as "dynasts " (I.e.) The Achaean towns are called Tro'Aeir, in opposition to the K&fiai of the Ionians, and each had seven or eight demes (Strabo, 386). For the common council at Aegium, cf. ib. 387. For the Colonies, see infra, ch. xi.
VOL. I.                                                                              R
258                          ACHAEAN PROSPERITY.                  [VII. 19.
their neighbours on the east. In some of the towns we hear of flourishing manufactures; Patrae was famous for byssus, Pellene for cloaks, which were even given as prizes in the athletic games held in the city. But the bulk of the Achaeans were shepherds, who fed their flocks and cattle on the slopes of the mountains, or husbandmen, who tilled the rich lands between the mountains and the sea. The ancient name of Patrae was Aroa (ploughland); and the names of Aegae, Aegira, Aegium have, at any rate, a fanciful resemblance to a?£, a goat.1
The alphabet in use among the Achaean colonies exhibits peculiar forms, which were probably brought from the parent state. Of dialectical peculiarities we may notice the shortening of o before p— e.g., Sayuopyos—and the use of h for eY—Cauer, Del. No. 277.
The coins of Achaea belong to a later date, with the exception of some silver triobols of Aegae. These bear the fore-parts of a goat, and a head of Dionysus (Head, I.e., p. 347). Like all the coins of Peloponnesus, they are of the Aeginetan standard.
1 Such was the view taken by the Achaeans, but the words may also be connected with Aegeus, Aegaeon. Aegae is the home of Poseidon.
CHAPTER   VIII.
THE MESSENIAN WARS :  743-631 B.G» CONTEMPORARY KINGS OF SPARTA,
	B.C.		B.C.
Teleclus,     •	.    825.	Nicander,   .	.   824.
Alcamenes, ?	.   785.	Theopompus,	.   785.
Polydorus,  .	.    758.		
Eurycrates, .	,c.700(?)	Zeuxidamus,1	c. 700(1)
Anaxander, .	.c.650.	Anaxidamus,	c. 650.
I. The legislation of Lycurgus removed the internal difficulties of the Spartan state, and the fifty years which followed were a period of vigorous expansion. Never- Limits of the theless, the position of Sparta still remained one Spartan terri. of comparative insignificance. On the east her tory* territory was bounded by Argos, which, after the accession of Phidon, appeared not unlikely to be again the leading state of the peninsula. On the north Tegea was still independent, and on the west lay the extensive kingdom of Messenia, spreading over a far larger and more fertile area than the valley of the Eurotas.
We have already seen that three distinct seats of government were distinguished in the legendary history of Messenia. The first was • established at Andania, where Kingdom of Polycaon is said to have settled with his bride Messenia. Messene. To this place Caucon brought the knowledge of the mysteries of Demeter from Eleusis in Attica. Six generations afterwards Aphareus built a city which he called Arene,
1 Archidamus, the son of Theopompus and father of Zeuxidamus^ died before his father.
259
230
MESSENIA .  THE AEPYTIDS.          [VIII. 2, 3.
after his wife. This prince gave shelter to Neleus, a descendant from Aeolus, like himself, when flying from Pelias, and allowed him to establish a city at Pylus. Finally, when Idas and Lynceus, the sons of Aphareus, were slain, Nestor, the son of Neleus, became king of Messenia, and removed the throne to Pylus (supra, p. 94).
2.  At the Dorian immigration the Pylians were expelled, and their kingdom became the spoil of the invaders. Legends Messenia at the to^ now Cresphontes and the sons of Aristo-time of the Dorian demus cast lots for the possession of Messenia, migration.         an(j ^ow Cresphontes gained the kingdom by fraudulent collusion with Temenus. The centre of government was now removed from the sea-coast to Stenyclarus. The ancient inhabitants were not driven out, but half their land was taken from them and distributed among the conquerors. Ephorus, indeed, tells us that the country was divided by Cresphontes into five cities: Stenyclarus, Ehium, Pylus, Mesola and Hyamea, of which Stenyclarus was the capital. For a time the Messenians and Dorians were on an equal footing in all the five cities, but afterwards the Dorians were collected into Stenyclarus, and the other cities were degraded into an inferior position. This account,1 whatever the authority on which it rests, is merely a variation of the arrangements which the same historian describes as following upon the Dorian conquest of Laconia (p. 97). It seems to be certain that the Messenians did not submit to the rule of the Dorians without a struggle. The Messenian kings are named after Aepy tus, not after Cresphontes,2 and it was with the help of the Arcadians that Aepytus regained his land.
3.  His successors on the throne, of whom little is recorded beyond the establishment of certain religious rites, were Glaucus, who revived the old Messenian sacrifice to Zeus on
1  Strabo, p. 312.
2  Compare the names, Agiads, Eurypontids at Sparta. Ephorus, Frag. 20; Nie. Damasc., Frag. 39 m. ; Paus. iv. 3. 8; viii. 5. 6; supra, p. 95.
VIII. 4-1   MESSENIAN WARS: THEIR BEGINNING.        261
Mount Ithome, Isthmius, Dotadas, Sybotas and Phintas. In the reign of Phintas the Messenians for the first time sent a sacred embassy to the Ionian festival at Delos. successors of The hymn which was sung on this occasion cresphontes. was composed for them by Eumelus of Corinth, and remained in existence in the days of Pausanias, being, in fact, the only genuine relic of Eumelus then extant.1 It was in this reign, which falls about the beginning of the eighth century B.C., that the first quarrel broke out between the Messenians and the Lacedaemonians. Various accounts were given of the matter. Near the sources of the Nedon, on the borders of Messenia, was a temple of Artemis Limnatis, at which Lacedaemonians and Messenians worshipped in Teieciusand common.2 The Lacedaemonians alleged that the Messenians, some maidens who were'attending a festival at this temple, had been seized and outraged by Messenians, and, in the attempt to rescue them, their king Teleclus had been slain. The Messenians, on the other hand, declared that Teleclus had attacked their envoys when coming to the temple, with the help of young men disguised as women. The Messenians, on discovering the treachery, slew both the men and their king. In support of the truth of their story they appealed to the fact that the Lacedaemonians never demanded reparation for the death of their king (death of Teleclus, 785 B.c.).8 4. For the present the quarrel went no further, probably because the Spartans were occupied with Phidon. In the next generation, when Antiochus had succeeded Fresh hos-his father Phintas, and Alcamenes and Theo- ******«*• pompus were kings of Sparta, hostilities broke out afresh. The cause was a dispute between Polychares, a Messenian, who was victor in the fourth Olympiad, and a Spartan called Euaeph-nus.     Not content with stealing the cattle of Polychares,
1  Paus. iv. 4. 1.
2  Strabo, p. 362.
3  Strabo, p. 257; Paus. iv. 4. 3. Strabo tells us, p. 360, that Teleclus founded certain places in the neighbourhood of the Nedon, He may have fallen in a border raid.
262
FIRST MESSENIAN WAR.                 [VIII. 5.
Euaephnus, when pressed for payment, slew his son. Poly-chares appealed to Sparta for redress, but in vain. Driven Poiychares and to desperation, he took the matter into his Euaephnus. own hands, and wildly slew every Spartan whom he could get into his power. The Lacedaemonians sent to Stenyclarus to demand that Poiychares should be surrendered. The matter was hotly debated in the ecclesia; Antiochus, the king, opposed the request, but Androcles, his younger brother, who appears to have been of almost equal authority, supported it. The dispute grew into a quarrel, not without bloodshed, in which the party of Androcles as the smaller were defeated. The Messenians were willing to put the case for decision into the hands of the Amphictyony of Argos or the Athenian Council on the Areopagus; but the Spartans made no answer to this proposal.1
A casus belli was now established, though war had not been openly declared. The Lacedaemonians resolved upon full vengeance; no length of time, no severity of suffering, was to prevent them from achieving the conquest of Messenia. outbreak of "Without any previous announcement they sent the war.           a band of men by night under Alcamenes to
seize Amphea, a Messenian fortress on the borders of Laconia, strongly placed and abundantly supplied with water, intending to make it the base of their operations during the war. Being undefended, the place was easily taken; and the Messenians, who occupied it, were either slain in their beds or dragged from the shrine at which they had taken refuge. Only a few escaped.2
5. Such was the outbreak of the first Messenian war. Our information of this struggle is derived mainly from Pausanias, who tells us that he obtained it from two sources
1  Diod. viii. 5; Paus. iv. 5. 2. According to Strabo (p. 257), the party which supported Sparta retired to Macistus in Triphylia, and thence to Rhegiuin. Cf. infra, § 9. Pausanias* words are, 'EdeXciy fievToi irapa 'ApyetW avyyevevw ovviv dfi(f>OT€pwv iv 9Afi(f)iKTVovia didovat dUas,
2  Paus. iv. 5. 9; Diod. viii, 6.
VIII. 6.]                   CAPTURE OF AMPHEA.
263
—the epic poem of Ehianus of Bene, and the prose work of Myron of Priene. Neither of these compositions could lay any claim to historical accuracy. Not only did Authorities for the authors live centuries after the events the war-which they recorded, but the accounts which they gave were in part contradictory and in part manifestly false. It is obvious that the Spartans with their habits of secrecy would not have permitted any records to survive of their own defeats and difficulties in these wars. What information existed about them, would be gathered from the mouths of the Messenian people, or from popular songs, which celebrated the achievements of Aristodemus and Aristomenes. After the restoration of Messenia by Epaminondas and the building of Messene (369 B.C.), these stories or songs may have been collected and formed into some kind of legendary history.1
6. When the Messenians heard of the seizure of Amphea, they came together from all their cities to Stenyclarus. They were kept under arms to resist the incursions of the Lacedaemonians, who began by attacking the cities, but, finding their efforts vain, desisted from this mode of war-
1 Ehianus of Bene, in Crete, who was a contemporary of Eratosthenes (third century B.C.), was a voluminous author. He is said to have written five epics, besides other poems, and to have been a commentator on Homer. Of the date of Myron nothing certain seems to be known. His work (Messe7iiaca) is quoted by Athenaeus, p. 271 and p. 657. It appears from the first passage that Theopompus, the pupil of Isocrates, had given some account of the Messenian wars.
Neither Ehianus nor Myron wrote an account of the whole conflict. Myron narrated the capture of Amphea and what followed, down to the death of Aristodemus. Ehianus, on the other hand, passed over the earlier war in silence, and in his account of the second began with the Battle of the Trench. Aristomenes, the great Messenian hero, was mentioned by Myron in his history, but not much importance was attached to him. In the poem of Ehianus he was what Achilles is in the Iliad. Moreover, Myron was guilty of the gross error of saying that Aristomenes slew Theopompus, the Spartan king, shortly before the death of Aristodemus, whereas it is clear from the verses of Tyrtaeus that Theopompus outlived the war. In the opinion of Pans-anias, Aristomenes was the hero of the second war, when Aristodemus was already dead; and Ehianus was a better authority than Myron (Paus. iv. 6. 1-5).
264                    BATTLE OF THE RAVINE, &Ct            [VIII. &
fare, and plundered the country. The Messenians retorted by laying waste the sea-coast of Laconia and the farms on Tay-Progress of getus. This went on for three years (743-740 the war.           R0#j Pausanias);1 in the fourth year (739),
Euphaes, who had succeeded Antiochus on the throne of Mes-senia, resolved to fight a pitched battle with the enemy. The result was indecisive (the Battle of the Ravine). In the next year (738 B.C.) the Lacedaemonians, roused by the taunts of those whom they had left behind as too old for service, took the field under both their kings, Theopompus and Polydorus who had succeeded Alcamenes. A long and obstinate battle was fought, but again without decisive result. From this time the fortunes of the Messenians declined. Their slaves deserted, and they felt the pressure of the expense of keeping up the garrisons in the towns. Disease also broke out among them. They resolved to abandon the fortresses mi_ M       .      in the country and retire to Ithome, where
The Messeni-                                     J              #                                    '         .
ans retire to       they enlarged the ancient stronghold to receive
ithome.            them.     At  the  same  time  an  embassy  was
despatched to Delphi, which brought back the answer that a
maiden of the race of Aepytus must be sacrificed.    Lots were
cast, and in the first instance the lot fell on the daughter of
Lyciscus.    When she was rejected by the seer Epebolus as a
supposititious child, Lyciscus took advantage of
the delay to carry her away with him to Sparta.
Aristodemus then offered his own daughter for the sacrifice.
But a Messenian to whom she was betrothed attempted to
save her, first by urging that her father's right
and his             in her had been given over to him, and when
daughter.          ^s contention failed of success, by declaring
that the girl was no longer a maid.    Aristodemus in a frenzy
1 That the war lasted twenty years is clear from Tyrtaeus, Fr. 5. Theopompus outlived it (Paus. iv. 6. 4). The last Messenian victor at Olympia falls in 736 B.C. See the elaborate notes of Busolt, Gr. Gesch. i. p. 151; Duncker, Greek History, ii. 69. Deimling, Chronologische Studien, puts the war, with Duncker, in 730-710. I see no reason for altering the traditional date.
VIII, 7-]     ARISTODEMUS, KING OF MESSENE.              265
of indignation slew his daughter, and laid open her bosom to prove the falsehood of the accusation. Epebolus demanded yet another victim, but Euphaes the king declared that this sacrifice would suffice.1
7. For a time we hear no more of hostilities between the two nations. But five years after the retirement to Ithome another great battle was fought, and again Aristodemus without any decisive result. In this Euphaes elected king, was slain, after a reign of thirteen years. As he left no children, the choice of a successor was left to the people. Besides Aristodemus, the two commanders, Damis and Cleonis, had won popular favour. The soothsayers strongly opposed Aristodemus, as guilty of his daughter's blood, but he was nevertheless elected king. He pursued a popular policy, and at the same time paid the utmost respect to the leading citizens, more especially to Damis and Cleonis. He also attempted to strengthen the Messenian cause by alliances with Arcadia, Argos and Sicyon. Under Aristodemus the war went on for four years' (730-726 B.C.) in the same desultory fashion as before. Each nation ravaged the territory of the other. In the fifth year (725 B.c.) a great battle was fought, the Corinthians aiding the Lacedaemonians; the Arcadians in full force, together with some Sicyonians and Argives, joining the Messenians. The battle was fought near Ithome, and after a long and violent contest the Messenians won the day.
The next two years passed away without any decisive action. Each side consulted the Delphic oracle, but with little success. At length, in the twentieth year The wooden •f the war, it was announced from Delphi to tripods. Aristodemus that those would win who first placed one hundred tripods round the altar of Zeus on Ithome. This filled the Messenians with hope; they never expected that any Spartan would be able to bring tripods into their strong-
1 The retirement to Ithome took place five years before the accession of Aristodemus, t.e. twelve years before the end of the war —ie. in 735 B.C.
266   MESSENIAN WAR: THE DELPHIC ORACLES.   [VIII. 8.
hold. A hundred wooden tripods were immediately prepared. In the meantime the oracle had been announced at Sparta, and Oebalus, a man of the middle class, determined to fulfil the condition demanded by the oracle. He prepared a hundred tripods of clay, put them in a wallet, and succeeded in entering Ithome, where he placed them in the night round the altar. In the morning the Messenians, to their great dismay, found the altar surrounded by tripods.
The end quickly came. Portents of various kinds distressed the Messenians. The bronze statue of Artemis dropped her shield; and when Aristodemus was about to sacrifice to Zeus, the rams leapt on the altar and butted each other to death. Dogs gathered in packs, and, after howling through the night, ran away to the Lacedaemonians. The unfortunate Aristodemus was visited by a dream of evil omen. He was armed for battle, and the sacrificial meat lay before him on the table, when suddenly his daughter appeared clad in black, her bosom open and wounded. She threw down all that was on the table and carried away his arms, leaving in their place a garland and a shroud—the emblems of death. Aristodemus slew himself in despair at his daughter's tomb.1
On the death of Aristodemus the Messenians lost heart. They chose no king to succeed him, but Damis was elected general. He associated Cleonis and Phyleus with him in the command. Another battle was fought, for famine was beginning to be felt in Ithome. In spite of their bravery the Messenians were defeated: the three commanders fell in the contest.    Ithome was evacuated and razed to the ground.
8. Such is the account which Pausanias gives of the first Messenian war. That it lasted twenty years is clear from Criticism of the tne *mes °^ Tyrtaeus, in which he tells us that account of the the Messenians left Ithome in the twentieth war'                year.   Such a statement proves that the struggle
was severe and exhausting, but the events of the war, even
1 Paus. iv. 12 ff.
VIII. 9.]        END OF FIRST MESSENIAN WAR.                 267
if we put aside all the more mythical details, the oracles, omens, and sacrifices, are vague and unintelligible, and many of the details which Pausanias gives are more than doubtful. Though the Messenians are never worsted in any battle but the last, their cause is always growing more hopeless. The movements in the battles are given with precision and the commanders are named, but, with the exception of the last two, which take place near Ithome, no locality is assigned to them. It is clear that we have here a Messenian account, which, while admitting what it was impossible to deny, that the Messenians were conquered in the war, will not admit their defeat in open battle.
The proceedings of the Messenian ecclesia resemble the arrangements of the fourth century B.C. more than those of the seventh. The choice of a king is left to the populace, who assemble in the ecclesia from the neighbouring cities, as they doubtless did after the restoration of Messenia by Epaminon-das. They have it in their power to leave the throne vacant, and elect a "general," an officer of a distinctly democratic type. We know nothing of the condition of Messenia in early times, and it is possible that the Dorian rulers were anxious to conciliate the old population of the country in every way. But the circumstances in which the history of the Messenian war may have been written down make it necessary to draw attention to these apparently later traits in the account of an ancient struggle. The inability of the Lacedaemonians to capture walled cities is a commonplace; the "desertion of the slaves," the "pressure of the expense," and "the plague," which distressed the Messenians, bear a great resemblance to incidents of the Peloponnesian war.
9. Of the defeated Messenians, those who had friendly relations with Sicyon, Argos or Arcadia retired to those countries, and subsequently took part in the    The defeated
Colonisation    of    Ehegium    (B.C.     715).       The       Messenians.
priests of the mysteries of Demeter at Andania found a home at Eleusis, in Attica. The great bulk of the population was spread over the country which was once their own.
268                  THE SPARTAN * PARTHENIAE:        [VIII. 10.
They were compelled to swear an oath that they would never revolt from the Lacedaemonians, or form any plans against them, and, though their lands were not taken away from them, they had to pay half the produce to their Spartan masters. " Like asses bowed down with heavy burdens, giving to their masters of necessity half of everything that the earth produces," are the words in which Tyrtaeus describes their condition.1 They had also to appear with their wives at Sparta to take part in the funeral obsequies when a king died.2 To the Messenian family of the Androclidae, who had joined the Spartans in the war, Hyamea, a district in the lower plain of Messenia, was allotted. A home was also assigned on the sea-coast to the Dryopians, who had been recently expelled from Asine by the Argives.
10. Soon after the close of the first Messenian war the safety of the Spartan State was imperilled by a domestic Sparta after sedition—the rebellion of the so-called Par-the war.           theniae.      Even    in   antiquity   nothing , was
certainly known about this rising beyond the fact that it led to the founding of the colony of Tarentum. According to Revolt of the the account of Antiochus3 the Lacedaemonians Partheniae. who took no part in the Messenian war were regarded as slaves, and insulted by the name of Helots. Those whose wives bore sons during the war called the children Partheniae, and excluded them from the rights of citizens. Such degradation was intolerable to those affected by it. They determined to revolt. The festival of the Hyacinthia at Amyclae was fixed upon as the occasion of the outbreak; the concerted signal was the raising of his cap by Phalan-thus, who was the leader of the conspiracy. The plot was discovered, and when the assembly was gathered together at the festival an order was issued that Phalanthus was not to raise his cap.    The opposing parties came to terms, and
1  Tyrtaeus, Frag. 6 and 7.
2  Paus. iv. 14. 4.
8 Strabo, p. 278. Antiochus of Syracuse was a younger contemporary of Herodotus.
VIII. io.]   CONSPIRACY OF THE PARTHENIAE.             269
Phalanthus was despatched to Delphi to consult the deity. He was commanded to colonise Tarentum.1
Ephorus dwells more on the name Partheniae. The Spartans, he tells us, had bound themselves by an oath not to return home till the war with Messenia was ended. But in the tenth year the women sent to their husbands, pointing out that while the Messenians were raising tip children during the war, a generation was passing away at Sparta without a new one to take its place. The husbands, being bound by their oaths, could not return to Sparta. They therefore sent the younger men, who being children when they left home were not included in the vow, and bade them unite with the maidens. The offspring of these unions were known as Partheniae. After the war the Partheniae, as born out of wedlock, were disfranchised. Hence arose the revolt. Ephorus does not fix the time or place of the outbreak, nor mention the appeal to Delphi. According to his account the young men were persuaded by their fathers to go out to a colony on the condition that if the colony were a failure they should receive a fifth part of the land of Messenia.2
Neither of these accounts deserves credit. There is no reason given in Ephorus why the young men returning from the army should not have married the maidens. Nor is it at all probable that the Spartans, who remained at home during the war, were reduced to the condition of slaves by those who had taken the field, as Antiochus asserts. Both accounts assume that the Spartans were absent from home for twenty years, when carrying on a war upon the borders of their own country!
Lastly, Aristotle tells us that the Partheniae belonged to the Spartan peers or Homoei, that they revolted because they did not share in certain privileges, and that they were sent to Tarentum.3
1  Strabo, I.e.: 2arvpi6v rot bG>Ka Tdpavrd re iriova drjfjiov Olicrjcrai *al nrjfia 'Icwrvyecro-t y€V€<r6ai.
2  Strabo, I.e.
3  Arist. Pol. v. 7. 2 = 1306 6.
270                      DEVELOPMENT OF SPARTA.            [VIII. II.
The result which we can deduce from these accounts is: (1) That after the end of the first Messenian war some constitutional changes took place at Sparta to the detriment of the so-called Partheniae; (2) that these Partheniae belonged to the Spartan peers; (3) that they entered into a conspiracy which was discovered; (4) that they founded the colony of Tarentum. It is not impossible that in the division of the conquered territory of Messenia severer regulations were introduced in regard to citizenship, which excluded many of those who were previously considered to be Spartans; but we have no historical grounds for this assumption.1
II. In spite of the exhaustion of the war and the danger of internal insurrection, the Spartans were able towards the end Development °* *ne eighth century to wrest from the Argives of Sparta.          the district of Thyreatis, which formed the
border land between the two kingdoms.2 Thus they were secure on the east and west, and at the same time a large amount of territory had been won for division yrea s. among ^e cjtizens. The good-will of the Eleans had also been gained by the assistance rendered in resisting the aggression of Phidon.
The first half of the seventh century appears to have been a period of rapid internal development at Sparta.    We hear
sic at sparta °* three gr^at lyric poets who visited the city in the eighth during this period, and by their skill in poetry century.           an(j musjc contributed largely to the education
of the youth, and the splendour of the festivals; Terpander, Thaletas and Alcman.—Terpander of Lesbos was the first victor in the musical contest which in 676 B.C. was added to the Carnea, the great national festival of Apollo, held at Sparta in the month of August.    Hymns (vo/aoi) had been in
1  Duncker, Hist. Greece, ii. 79.
2  Busolt, Griech. Gesch. i. 157 ; Euseb. Arm. 01. 15. 3 = 718 B.c. t " In Thyrea Argivorum Lacedaemoniorumque pugna." Paus. iii. 7. 5, puts the contest in the lifetime of Theopompus. At the time alluded to in Herod, i. 82 (middle of sixth century) the Thyreatis is in the possession of the Lacedaemonians.    See in/rat ch. xiv.
VIII. 12.]      WAR PERIOD: LITERATURE <5r* MUSIC.       271
existence in Greece from the earliest times, as a part of religious worship; but Terpander developed the old tunes to a pitch of excellence beyond anything previously known, and for a long time the musicians of      erpan er# this school had precedence of all others at Sparta.   Thaletas or Thales was a  native of Gortyn in  Crete.     He is said to have been brought to Sparta at the command of the Delphic oracle, to purify the city after the visitation of a pestilence.1    He introduced at Sparta (perhaps from Crete) the martial dances and orchestral music which formed part of the entertainment at the festival of  the  Gymnopaediae   (665 B.C.).2     Alcman was a native   of Sardis in Lydia, who had become domiciled at Sparta.    He composed paeans and choric songs, but his fame chiefly rested on his Parthenia, or songs sung by the maidens of Sparta to the accompaniment of the flute and cithara—poems remarkable for the combination of religious and secular elements and for the variety of the metres in which they were composed.   These Parthenia became among the most popular poems in Greece.3
12.  In 669  B.o. the Lacedaemonians suffered a severe defeat at the hands of the Argives at Hysiae, on the road from Tegea to Argos.    From the situation of     Defe     f the the battle-field we may infer that the Spartans     Spartans at had in some way obtained possession of Tegea,     Hysiae« though the town was certainly independent nearly a century later.4     However   this   may  be,  the defeat was so
1  Paus. i. 14. 4. Terpander was also summoned to Sparta at the command of Delphi (Heracl. Frag, 2, m). There is a resemblance between Thaletas at Sparta and Epimenides at Athens. (Plutarch makes Thales, as he calls him, a contemporary of Lycurgus.)
2  Euseb. Arm. 01. 20. 4.    Of. Strabo, pp. 480, 482 ; Plut. Lye, 4.
3  An imitation will be found at the end of the Lysi&trata of Aristophanes. The date of Alcman is uncertain 5 the statements vary between 671 (Suidas) and 611 (Jerome).
4  An obscure story speaks of Tegea as recovered from the Spartans by the Tegeatae, by the advice of Acues (Polyaen. i 11). We know nothing certain of Acues; Duncker, Hist. Greece, ii. 88, 89, calls him a king of Argos.
272
SECOND MESSENIAN WAR.             [VIII. it
severe that the nations which had suffered during the last fifty years from the aggression of the Spartans—the Arcadians, Argives, Pisatans, and even the Messenians—took heart once more and resolved to attack their oppressor. In 668 B.C. we find the Pisatans again celebrating the Olympic festival (supra, p. 240), and in 659 B.C. the Spartans were compelled to relinquish Phigalea, an outlying village in the south-west of Arcadia. These successes were followed by the rebellion of the Messenians. So long as those survived who Rebellion of the had felt the weight of the Spartan arm, the Messenians. conditions imposed upon the Messenians were observed, but with the growth of a new generation a different feeling arose. The spirit of rebellion became strong in them, for there seemed no hope of milder treatment from their conquerors. At this crisis a leader arose who became the hero of Messenia for all time to come—Aristo-menes, the son of Nicomedes and Mcotelea. He is the Achilles of the poem of Ehianus, the life and soul of the rebellion, whose memory and exploits were no doubt revived when Messenia was once more freed from the yoke of her conqueror.
After some secret preparations (thirty-eight years after the capture of Ithome, i.e. 688 B.C., according to Pausanias,1 but in all probability more than a generation later, about 645 B.C.), the Messenians revolted, with the aid of the Argives,
1 This date cannot be correct. (1) It does not agree with the archonship at Athens, which Pausanias mentions as an equivalent date, Lydias or Tlesias being archon in 681 B.C. (2) It does not agree with the line in Tyrtaeus, quoted by Pausanias : Mxi^raX narepov 7]n€T€poov nappes, which allows two generations between the wars. Pausanias himself follows the lead of Tyrtaeus in fixing the kings who reigned at Lacedaemon in the second Messenian war, about whom the lists were discreetly silent. He regards Anaxander, the grandson of Polydorus, and Anaxidamus, the great grandson of Theo-pompus (Archidamus, the son of Theopompus, had died before his father), as the reigning kings when the second war was fought. It should therefore be placed seventy years or more after the first—i.e. it began between 650 and 640 B.C. (Paus. iv. 15 ; iii. 6. 6). Rhianus put the war in the reign of Leotychides (480 B.c !)
VIIL 13.]           SECOND MBSSMNIAN WAR.                     m
Arcadians and Pisatans.   The Arcadians were led by Aris-tocrates of Orchomenus; the Pisatans by Pantaleon.1
13. In the first year a battle was fought at Derae.  Though the result was indecisive, Aristomenes distinguished himself so greatly in the conflict that he was at once   Progress of the chosen to be king, an honour which he declined   rebellion, in favour of the more popular title of general with full powers. After the battle, resolving to achieve some act which would impress the Spartans yet more with the terror of his name, he proceeded by night to Sparta, and suspended his shield in the temple of Athena of the Brazen     ns omenes# House, as an offering " by Aristomenes from the Spartans/' The Spartans, at the bidding of the oracle, now applied to Athens for some one to lead them in the contest.    The Athenians, who neither wished to see  Sparta mistress of Messenia, nor to incur the blame of disobe-
.                     Tyrtaeus.
dience to Delphi, sent Tyrtaeus thither, a schoolmaster whom they held in very little estimation, and who was moreover lame in one foot. Tyrtaeus, on his first arrival, encouraged the Spartans by his poems, and he continued throughout the war to be their support and stay. Another great battle was now fought at the " Boar's Monument," in the neighbourhood of Stenyclarus, in which the allies on either side took part (643 B.C.). The Messenians were aided by the Eleans, Arcadians, Argives and Sieyonians, and by the descendants of Androcles, who had been settled at Hyamea after the first war; the Spartans by the Corinthians. The Lepreatae also joined the Spartans from hatred of the Eleans.2 The Lacedaemonians were severely beaten, and were only restrained by the entreaties of Tyrtaeus from offering terms to the Messenians. This success allowed Aristomenes to roam freely through the country. At Pharis he carried off a quantity of spoil; at Caryae he seized a number
1 Strabo, p. 362.
8 Paus. iy. 15 ; who adds that the Asinaeans remained neutral It is difficult to derive any definite result from the statement of Herodotus (iii. 47), that the Samiahs aided the Lacedaemonians by sea. VOL. I.                                                                                        S
274   ARISTOMENES-BATTLE OF THE TRENCH. [VIII. 13.
of maidens during the festival of Artemis, for whom he obtained a large ransom. A similar attempt on the priestesses of Demeter at Aegila was defeated, the women defending themselves with the spits and sacrificial knives. Aristomenes was even taken prisoner, but he was released on the same night by the priestess Archedamea, who had long cherished an affection for him. In the following year a third battle was fought, in which, owing to the treachery of the Arcadians who had received money from the Lacedaemonians, the Messenians were defeated.1 This was the battle of the Ditch or Trench. Aristomenes after this disaster determined to abandon Andania, together with all the fortresses in the plain, and retire to Eira, in the extreme north of Messenia, on the borders of Arcadia.2 Here he was able to maintain himself for eleven years longer, making constant raids upon the nearest parts of the Spartan territory, until the Spartans passed a decree not to cultivate Messenia or the part of Laconiaadjacent to Messenia.a
1  Pausanias (iv. 16) comments on this as the first instance of bribery. In this battle also (he says) fell Phanas, who had obtained a victory in the long course at Olympia.
2  Paus. iv. 17. According to Paus. viii. 5. 13, the family of Aristo-crates were deposed in consequence of his treachery. In Plutarch (De Sera Num. Vind. 2) the treachery is said to have remained undiscovered for twenty years. Pausanias gives the following account of the death of Aristocrates (iv. 22). When the Arcadians heard of the fall of Eira, they were eager to march to the aid of the Messenians, but Aristocrates refused to lead them. The Arcadians then prepared to receive the survivors on Mount Lycaeus, and proposed to divide them among their cities. Aristomenes, however, organised a band of 500 Messenians and 300 Arcadians to attack Sparta in the absence of the Spartans. This plan was betrayed by Aristocrates to the Spartans, but his treachery was discovered owing to the arrest of his envoys by some Arcadians, who suspected him. Aristocrates was stoned to death, his body cast out without burial, and the record of his treachery engraved upon a pillar of stone.
3  The Spartans suffered so much from their incursions that those who possessed land in Messenia demanded reparation from those whose territory did not suffer equally. A new division of land, or a faction, which might have ended in the destruction of Sparta, seemed the only alternatives. But Tyrtaeus healed the breach by his elegiac poem Eummia (Arist. Pol. v. 7. 4 = 1307 a; Paus. iv. 18. 1, 2), of which a few fragments remain.
VIII. I4-]        ARISTOMENES AND THE FOX.                  275
On one of these occasions Aristomenes was captured by the Spartansv tog ether with fifty others. The prisoners were thrown into the abyss known as Caiadas, a Aristomenes in punishment inflicted on the worst malefactors. the caiadas. All the rest were killed by the fall, but Aristomenes reached the bottom unhurt. He crawled to the end of the pit and there drew his robe round him, in expectation of certain death. On the third day, being disturbed by a sound which caused him to remove his garment from his face, he saw a fox gnawing one of the dead bodies. He at once perceived that the fox must have some means of entrance into the pit. Waiting therefore till it approached him, he seized the animal's tail with one hand, and with the other held out his robe to defend himself from its teeth. In this way he followed it for a considerable distance until the light appeared through a small aperture, large enough to admit the fox. Leaving it to escape, Aristomenes proceeded to enlarge the hole till he could himself pass through it. In this way he escaped, and returned to Eira.
14. The desultory warfare still went on.   Aristomenes slew many of the enemy; indeed he is said to have offered the Hecatomphonia, or thanksgiving for the slaugh-~ Distress of the ter of one hundred men, three times in the war,    Messenians. and the Lacedaemonians were at one time driven to make a truce for forty days.   During this cessation of arms Aristomenes was taken captive by some Cretan archers in the service of the Spartans.    When he was about to be conveyed to Sparta, he was released by a maiden, to whom he afterwards gave his son Gorgus in marriage.    But neither valour nor fortune could avert the impending doom; portents foretold the destruction of the Messenians; and Aristomenes proceeded to bury on Ithome some sacred relics with which the future prosperity of Messenia was connected,   The fail of Eira that they might not fall into the hands of the   due to Spartans.   The final capture of Eira was due   treachery-to the treachery of a Spartan deserter, who, having formed an intrigue with the wife of a Messenian soldier, was sur*
276
FALL OF EIRA.
[VIII. IS
prised one stormy night by the sudden return of the husband to his home from the fortifications. From his concealment he heard the Messenian tell his wife that owing to the violence of the storm, which made it improbable that the Spartans would attempt an attack, the garrison had left the walls. The deserter slipped out undetected, and carried the information to the Spartans, who at once gave orders for an attack. After an obstinate struggle Aristomenes, finding that resistance was useless, requested permission for the remaining Messenians to leave Eira, a request to which the Spartans, who did not wish to waste lives in contending with desperate men, thought it right to accede. The war was now at an end (c. 630 B.C.); for though, against the commands of their king, the Arcadians received some of the Messenians on Mount Lycaeus, Aristomenes was no longer able to organise any resistance to Sparta.
15. Part of the Messenians were conveyed from Eira to Cyllene in Elis, where they were joined after a time by Messenians those who had taken refuge in Arcadia. In at zancie.         the spring following the end of the war, these
homeless exiles resolved to found a colony in the west; some suggested an establishment at Zacynthus, from which they could damage the Laconian sea-board, others wished to sail to Sardinia, which was at that time the largest of all known islands.1
Meanwhile Anaxilaus, the tyrant of Ehegium, the great-grandson of Alcidamas, who had led the Messenians to Ehegium after the first war, requested them to join him in an attack on Zancie, on condition that they should receive the rich territory of the city. To this they assented. They sailed to Sicily, and defeated the Zanclaeans on land, while Anaxilaus defeated them by sea. Anaxilaus urged the Messenians to cut down the Zanclaeans even at the altars, to
1 The attraction which Sardinia had for the Greeks is remarkable. Bias urges the lonians to sail to the island (Herod, i. 170) ; Histiaeus promises to win it for Darius (ib. v. 106) ; Aristagoras contemplates taking the Milesians there (ib. v. 124).
VIII. 16.]          SUBJUGATION OF MESSENIA.                 277
which they had fled for refuge,1 hut they refused to listen to this cruel advice. They received the suppliants into their protection, and came to terms with them, the name of the city being changed from Zancle to Messene. Those Messenians who remained at home were reduced to the condition of Helots. Aristomenes retired to Rhodes, where he became, through his daughter, the ancestor of the Diagoridae.
l6. In addition to the difficulties which attend the account of the first Messenian war, we have in the second the mythical   traits   in the history of the hero              .
Aristomenes. He indulges in the most daring the account of exploits; is captured again and again by the the Messenian enemy, but released; is miraculously saved when thrown into Caiadas, and finally, when resistance is no longer possible, he retires unscathed to Ehodes to end his. days in peace. The details of the battles are given as before with minute accuracy; but the intrigue between the Spartan and the wife of the Messenian, and the story of the fox in Caiadas, are related with equal precision, and we cannot determine the truth of events by their intrinsic probability. The outline of the facts remains true. After a contest extending over some fourteen or fifteen years, the Messenians, who had been driven into Eira, as they had previously been driven into Ithome, were compelled to submit. A number of them settled at Zancle, with the assistance of Anaxilaus. Others who remained at home were compelled to accept the position of Helots. The district of Methone was given to the Naup-lians, who had been recently expelled by Damocratidas, king of Argos.
The most remarkable feature in the second war, next to the mythical figure of Aristomenes, is the part assigned to the poet Tyrtaeus. There is no doubt that his songs were sung by the Spartans, and  they may have helped in bringing
1 There is a striking resemblance between this story and that told of the Samians in Herod, vi. 23. The Samians attacked Zancle at the instigation of a later Anaxilaus, and were urged by Hippocrates to put three hundred leading citizens to death, which they refused to do.
278                            THE POET TYRTAEUS.                 [VIII. 16.
about a peaceful feeling among the dissentients at Sparta, or rousing the whole nation to a sense of their danger. A Remarkable similar effect is ascribed to the elegies of Solon pan assigned to at Athens. The attempt to explain this influ-Tyrtaeus.          ence ^y supposing that Tyrtaeus, as a native
of Aphidnae in Attica, where Helen and the Dioscuri were worshipped, was sent to Sparta to propitiate those deities by his skill as a minstrel is without historical foundation.1 So far as the influence ascribed to Tyrtaeus is not a fiction, it was due to the extraordinary hold which music and song had now obtained over the Spartans, and the military genius of the poet.2
1  Duncker, Hist. Greece, ii. 439 ff. The Messenians, not the Spartans, were under the ban of the Dioscuri. Pausanias (iv. 27. I) relates a legend to account for this. Two young Messenians, Gonippus and Panormus, personated the Dioscuri at a festival held in their honour, and in this disguise slew many of the Spartans.
2  Whether Tyrtaeus was an Athenian is doubtful. In a fragment of his Eunomia he appears to speak of himself as a Lacedaemonian. Had Herodotus been aware that an Athenian had been adopted at Sparta he would not have spoken of Tisamenus and Hegias as the only foreigners who ever received the Spartan franchise (Herod, ix. 35).
CHAPTER   IX.
EARLY   ATTICA.
I. There is little doubt that the tradition which represents Attica as originally divided into a number of independent communities, each governed by its own chief,  4.....
,            1         ,          ,           , . ,            i       -j.    i       Attica originally
is to be preferred to that which speaks of the divided into whole country as united under one ruler.1 a number of Even in historical times traces of the old separation remained. Between the demes of Pallene and Agnus there was no Epigamia, or right of intermarriage,2 a restriction which implies the existence of two independent communities, each jealous of the intrusion of the other. But from the first these communities were probably united into larger or smallergroups,either for purposes of common worship, or owing to some supposed descent from a common ancestor. In the north of Attica a tetrapolis was formed by the combination of the four towns, Marathon, Oenoe, Trikorythus and Pro-balinthus, where Apollo Pythius, Heracles and Dionysus were worshipped in common. The four demes of Piraeus, Phalerum, Xypete and Thymoetidae were known as the Tetrakomi; they combined for the worship of Heracles. Similar associations existed in other parts of the country; they were, in fact, common throughout Hellas—an almost inseparable stage in the history of the growth of the city-state; and, therefore, when Philochorus asserts that Cecrops arranged Attica in twelve communities, it may be true that even in
1 Thuc. ii. 15. The statement of Thucydides is supported by the remains of fortifications found in the neighbourhood of the ridge of Aegialos, which were intended to protect the Eleusinian plain from the incursions of the Athenians.
2 Plut. Then. 13.
280              EARL Y A TT1CA : • A UTOCHTHONY:         [IX. 2>
very early times there were at least twelve townships which formed centres of union such as those described.
The plain of the Cephisus is the largest and most fertile in Attica. It is also protected by the strongest natural Names of the fortress—the Acropolis of Athens—and where communities. ft touches the sea possesses the best and most convenient harbour. Hence Athens, or Cecropia, as it is called in the list of Philochorus, was the abode of the most important and powerful community in Attica. Next in importance was Eleusis, the capital of the Thriasian plain, the seat of the worship of Demeter, and after Eleusis came the Tetrapolis of the north. The remaining settlements enumerated by Philochorus are Epacria, Decelea, Aphidnaea, Thoricus, Brauron, Cytherus, Sphettus, Cephisia and perhaps Phalerum. The statement that there were precisely twelve towns is of course of no value, but the names probably denote the places which were of most importance in the earliest Attic legends.1
2. The Athenians were proud of the autochthony of their race, though, as we have seen, they also maintained that 'Autochthony* Attica was the common refuge of all who had of the              been expelled by conquest from other parts of
Athenians.        Greece.    That the country had never been
conquered as Laconia, Argos and The§saly were conquered, is tolerably certain. We have no trace in Athenian history or legend of a subordinate class like the Helots, or Penestae. Nor were the inhabitants ever driven from their homes to seek refuge elsewhere. On the other hand, the immigrants, whatever their nationality, seem to have readily coalesced with the native population. The settlement at Tetrapolis is said to have been of Dorian origin, and Eumolpus, the king of Eleusis, is represented as a Thracian; but this did not prevent the inhabitants of Marathon from uniting with their Ionian neighbours, or the Eumolpidae from ranking as a distinguished Athenian family. By what means the inhabitants of Attica succeeded in solving a problem which else-
1 Philochorus, ap. Strab. p. 397.    The last name is lost.
iX.3.]
UNION OF ATTICA.
281
where presented insuperable difficulties, and combining in a union which extended over the whole country, we do not know. Before history begins, Athens had achieved a result which Thebes under Epaminondas was unable to attain. That the change did not take place without long and severe contests, is highly probable. The legendary conflicts of Erechtheus and Eumolpus, of Theseus and the Pallantidae, are echoes of these struggles.
3. Theseus, to whom the union of Attica is ascribed, is said to have induced the chiefs of the rural townships, partly by force and partly by persuasion, to abandon
i.L •                x               -l     1.      l.              j             *.   Union of Attica
their separate council chambers, and accept perhaps due Athens as the political centre for the whole of to Ionian the country. The home of Theseus is Troezen, im lgra 10n* on the eastern coast of Argolis, which appears to have been inhabited by the Ionian race, and he is the son of Aegeus, who may be regarded as identical with Poseidon, the deity worshipped by the Ionians. There is, therefore, reason to think that the union of Attica was due to an incursion of Ionians from the south. These immigrants, who were rather mariners than husbandmen, joined with the old population of the plain of the Cephisus, who worshipped Athena as a goddess of fertility on the Acropolis in connection with Erechtheus or Hephaestus. The combined forces achieved the union of Attica, and when thus united the Athenians were able to expel the foreign settlers who had established themselves at Marathon or in the neighbourhood of Athens. The union of the country was commemorated by the institution of the festival of the Synoecia.1
1 It is a confirmation of this view of early Attic history, that Poseidon and Athena continued to be worshipped side by side on the citadel of Athens. Poseidon is also represented as contending with Athena for Troezen, where both deities were worshipped as at Athens (Paus. ii. 30. 6); with Helius for Corinth {ib. ii. 1. 6) ; with Hera for Mycenae {ib. ii. 15. 5). For the union of villages to form towns, see Strabo, p. 337, who gives instances from Arcadia and Acbaea. Busolt {Oriech. Geseh. i 386) observes that Thucydides' view of the union of Attica may have been influenced by the union of Elis in 472 B.C.
282            EUPATRIDAE, GEO MORI, DEMIURGI.    [IX. 4, 5.
4.  To Theseus is also ascribed the division of the people into Eupatridae, or nobles; Geomori, or husbandmen; and Division           Demiurgi, or artisans. The precise meaning into classes. 0f this division is very obscure. The concentration of the nobles at Athens, who must have left their estates in the hands of tenants or retainers, would bring out more strongly the distinction between the owner and the tiller of the soil. The necessities of a town life and the growth of trade would largely increase the numbers of artisans, who, while flocking to the city, naturally collected in a particular place distinct from the quarter occupied by the nobles. In this sense the union of Attica may be said to have given prominence to distinctions which in a greater or less degree are present in any form of society which has emerged from nomadism. But whether the Eupatridae included all the wealthy nobility; whether the classes were rigidly separated from each other, or the poorer members of the noble families fell into the ranks of the Geomori; whether those who tilled land which they did not own were classed as Geomori or Demiurgi are questions which it is impossible to answer. Another distinction which arose at this time, from similar causes, was that between the inhabitants of the city and those of the country—the oxttol and aypotKoi.1
5,  More important is the arrangement of the Athenians in four tribes: Geleontes, Hopletes, Argadeis and Aegicoreis. Division           The origin and nature of these tribes, which into tribes.        continued to exist till the time of Clisthenes, when they were replaced by the new ten tribes, are very imperfectly understood. At first sight the names appear to denote occupations: Aegicoreis, at any rate, may mean goatherds, Hopletes, armed warriors. On this ground it was imagined in antiquity that Ion, who was the traditional author of this division into tribes, had arranged the Athenians in four /Hoi, or modes of life,2 and that in fact a system of caste
1 See Busolt, I.e. pp. 387-389. How these distinctions are compatible with the local divisions mentioned on p. 290 we have not the means of ascertaining.    They are little more than names to us.
2 Strabo, p. 383.
IX. s]
TRIBAL DIVISIONS.
283
prevailed in ancient Attica, not unlike that of Egypt.1 Yet even in antiquity the interpretation of the names was doubtful. Strabo tells us that the four " lives " instituted by Ion were the husbandmen, the artisans, the priests and the guardians. These answered to the Aegicoreis, the Argadeis, the Geleontes and the Hopletes. Plutarch gives a different explanation. In his view the Hopletes are the soldiers, the Argadeis are the artisans, the Aegicoreis the shepherds, and the Geleontes the field labourers. It is clear from this that the true signification of the name Geleontes was quite unknown to Strabo and Plutarch.
Whatever the meaning of the names may have been, it is improbable that the tribes denoted local divisions of Attica, or distinct occupations in life.    In the first place they are not peculiar to Attica.    Tradition is so far right in ascribing them to Ion, that they are   iocai,nordo Ionian rather than Attic, the fourfold division   ^y denot« being as characteristic of the Ionian race as   proe8Slon8, the threefold is of the Dorian.2   Moreover, such a division is inconsistent with the existence of a number of independent communities in various parts of Attica.    In the combinations which grew up among the villages, before the country was united round Athens, we hear nothing whatever of any fourfold division of the whole.     In legendary history Pandion divided the country (excluding Megara) into three, not into four sections; the factions of the time of Pisistratus, which represent distinct sections of the country, are three, not four
1 Plato (Tim. 24) compares the arrangements in ancient Athens with those in Egypt. "There is the caste of priests, which is separated from all others; there are the artificers, who exercise their usual crafts by themselves, and without admixture of any others ; and also there is the clan of shepherds, and that of hunters, as well as that of husbaudmen, etc."
2 Clisthenes removes the tribes because they are Ionian (Herod. v. 69). We find evidence of the existence of the tribes in Teos, Ephesus, Cyzicus, Tomi and Perinthus (Busolt, Griech. Gesch. p. 393, note 6). The variant Teleontes (which might mean priests) for Geleontes appears to be a mistake.
2S4           EARLY A TT1CA: TRIBA L Dl VISIONS.           [IX. 5.
in number; and there is no hint in them of any opposition between the tribes. The distinction of occupations is even more improbable. In the Solonian senate one hundred members are taken equally from each tribe, which presumes equality among them. In what sense could they be equal, if one were the tribe of the soldiers, another the tribe of the herdmen 1 Would not the whole country be at the mercy of the Hopletes if they formed an order distinct from the rest 1
It is, of course, true that many of the families which composed the tribes gave their names to the villages in which Tribes are         they dwelt.     We  may   compare these with
not races.          similar settlements in England—Semachidae,
Titacadae, Cropidae, with Notting-ham, Bucking-ham, Wal-ling-ford, etc.; and we may infer that Attica was at some time invaded by tribes, which included a variety of gentes or families. When the country was conquered, each family settled on the plot which it had secured. But we have no evidence to show what was the real connection between the members of the family. Was it one of blood only, or was the tie of blood already extended by some fiction or another, so that men not connected by race with a family were nevertheless included in it, just as whole families, though of alien blood, were admitted to the community? We have no means whatever of answering this question \ but two reflections are obvious: (1) The invaders of Attica had settled elsewhere before they settled in Attica, and when thus settled they had undergone whatever relaxing influence a fixed abode exercises on a tribe (by the substitution of local connection for blood-relationship— the parish for the family); (2) Emigrants, unless they are purely nomadic tribes, are usually adventurers, who have broken with the institutions of their kindred, or are for some reason excluded from them. If this were the case with the smaller aggregates, much more so with the larger. The relationship of the members of a tribe was a mere fiction. In practice the families never went higher than the phratry
IX. 6.] EARL Y A TTICA : PYLIAN KINGS—LAPITHAE.     285
(of which there were three in each tribe) in assuming consanguinity. Even as a union of gentes, the tribe is without historical value. We must not suppose that there were four tribes of different descent or race in early Attica (infra, § 18).1
Upon this evidence it is most reasonable to suppose that the tribes were simply names for the largest political aggregates. They had nothing to do with the residence, nothing to do with the occupations, nothing to do with the descent of the men included in them. They are not restricted to Attica, but represent some ancient division of the Ionians. In the first instance the name may have arisen from the occupation of the members, and they may have been guilds rather than tribes; but the meaning of the names was lost or disregarded when the division was applied to the Athenians.
6. After the expulsion of Theseus, Menestheus, a descendant of Pandion, became king of the country.    When he fell before Troy, the throne reverted to Demophon,     Refugees the son of Theseus.    Then followed, of the     in Attica, same family,  Apheidas, Oxyntas, Thymoetas, the two last being brothers.  In the reign of Thymoetas, the Pylians came to Attica, flying before the Dorians, with Mel-anthus at their head. At this time the Boeotians       y ians* attacked Attica from the north, and Xanthus, their chief, challenged Thymoetas to single combat.   Thymoetas declined, being old, but Melanthus engaged with the Boeotian chief, and slew him.    After his victory he became king, and the devotion of his son Codrus, who succeeded him, secured the throne to the Pylian family (supra, p. 118).
There is no reason to doubt that attacks were made upon Attica from the north and south in the times which followed the Dorian movement; and it is certainly true that by some means or another a family tracing descent from Neleus, the king of Pylus, came to the throne at       apit ae* Athens.   We also find families claiming to be descendants from
1 See Appendix i., at the end of the chapter, for some interesting illustrations of Greek history in early English institutions.
286   THE MEDONTIDAE—MONARCHICAL CHANGES. [IX. 7.
the Lapithae and Cadmeans among the Attic tribes, which were possibly enlarged about this time to admit the strangers who flocked to Attica. But the same generosity was not extended to all immigrants. The Pelasgi of Boeotia were never admitted to the tribes. A portion of land was, gl* it is said, assigned to them at the foot of Hymettus, in return for their services in building the so-called " Pelasgic wall" on the Acropolis; but they did not long remain in the country. Different legends were told about their expulsion—some more, some less creditable to the Athenians; but expelled they were. They took refuge partly in Lemnos and Imbros, and partly in the peninsula of Athos, where they continued to live in the time of Thucydides.1
7. Legend tells us that the Athenians, out of gratitude to Codrus, would not allow the title of king to be borne by any changes in the of the rulers who succeeded him. Though his monarchy.         posterity, known as the Medontidae from his
son Medon, remained on the throne for many generations after his death, they were not /iWtAets or kings, but archons; and though they held office for life, they were in some way responsible to the community.2 Such evidence as we have contradicts the statement that the title was changed. Long after Medon's time the archons were known as kings, and one of them retained the name even in democratic Athens. But there is no reason to doubt that the powers of the monarchs were greatly diminished—that aristocracy, or the government of the nobles, took the place of the government of the chief or king. This change went on universally in Greece. The nobles, who even under a warlike monarchy were the councillors of the king, became his rivals in the government, when it was engaged with civil rather than with military matters. In Corinth the monarchy was removed about the middle of the eighth century (745 B.C.), though the royal family continued to supply the prytanis, who was chosen annually to
1   Vide supra, pp. 28 (n.2), 59.
2  Pausanias speaks of the office as ap^V vnevdvpos, iv. 5. 10; yet from ib. i. 3. 3, it would seem that the archons were called paaiXtls.
IX. 8.]
THE ARCHONSHIPS.
287
preside over the State.    In Athens the life archonships of the family of the Medontidae were about the same    Decennial time (752 B.o.) reduced to a duration of ten    archons. years.    Forty years later the office was no longer reserved for the family of Codrus, but became accessible to all the Eupatridae.     Finally, in 683 B.C., the single     Nine annual decennial archon was abolished, and his powers    archons. were divided among nine archons, who held office for a year only.1
How these changes were brought about we do not know. Later legends explained them by the weakness or cruelty of the archons in whose time they occurred. They were inevitable under any circumstances. The union of Attica brought a number of nobles from every part causes which of the country to Athens. Great families led to these which had exercised an almost regal authority chanees-over their dependants on their country estates—which had been the judges of their townships, or possessed the ritual of important forms of worship—would not be content with a subordinate place in the new city. Many had given their names to the townships from which they had come to Athens. When the pressure which had induced them to migrate was removed or lightened, it was inevitable that every noble should attempt to win authority in the new council chamber, even if he were not attracted thither by the promise of a position at least equal to that which he had previously enjoyed.
8. By the change from a decennial to an annual tenure, and the division of the duties of the office among nine members, the last vestige of monarchical Ruieofthe government was removed. The nobles were nobility. now the governing class. From them and by them only the executive officers of the year were chosen. Any noble who during office pursued a policy of which his order dis-
1 The date given in the different authorities for the establishment of the decennial archons varies a little. Party quarrels may have rendered it doubtful.
238    OLIGARCHICAL RULE—COMMONS* DISTRESS.    [IX. 9.
approved would doubtless feel the weight of their displeasure at the end of the year; at the least he would be a " marked " man, and excluded from all hope of again taking a share in the government. The nobles alone were in possession of the law, and the administration of it. They were the priests who possessed the secret of obtaining the blessing of the gods or appeasing their wrath, and though they did not compose the bulk of the army, they formed the officers of it.
Under these circumstances the position of the commons grew more and more dependent and hopeless. In the time Growin dis- °^ t^ie mouarcny there were two elements tress of the        in the government, the king and the nobles,
Commons.         eack 0f ^{q^   might   be used  against   the
other; even the decennial archons, in their long term of office, occupied a more or less independent position. Now the nobles were united, and the duties of office were shared among them in such a manner that a large number had either been archons or hoped to become archons; it was the direct interest of each and all to support the members of their order in their administration. Little hope was there under such a rule for the poor man who had a complaint against the rich, or for the humble peasant who demanded satisfaction from his noble oppressor.
9, A government founded on such principles was of necessity selfish and cruel. Circumstances seem to have made it Poverty and peculiarly severe in Attica. The soil of the debt in Attica, country was thin and unproductive, unable to support more than a moderate population, and any increase in the number of inhabitants led inevitably to an increase of poverty. The evil might have been met by emigration, but at this date the Athenians do not appear to have possessed many ships, or to have sought out new homes beyond the sea. The early Greek colonies, after the migrations, were not planted by Athens, but by Corinth, or Megara, or Chalcis. The Athenians remained in Attica, attempting to make the best of small farms and petty trades. The tract of land which was enough for one generation did not suffice for the
IX. io ]                   THE LA WS OF USURY.                            289
next; the development of trade required capital, which could only be borrowed at a high rate of interest and under severe conditions. In all early forms of civilisation the laws of debt are very cruel. They are made by the rich for Laws of debt in the poor, without any insight into mercantile early society, transactions, or knowledge of the causes of the growth of wealth. So far from aiming at the development or convenience of trade, they seek to make the lender secure and assure him a rich return for his loan. The laws of Attica provided that those who borrowed money without the security of land should become liable in themselves or their families. If the claim could not be met, the father was compelled to sell his children into slavery, or even to become a slave himself, the property of his creditor, to use or sell in or out of the country as he might please. If, on the other hand, a peasant borrowed money on his farm, a stone (6/>os) ^as set up on it, stating the amount of the loan granted. The interest, which was more than the land could provide the means of paying except under the most favourable conditions, was added to the principal, not year by year, but month by month, till in a short time it became necessary for the debtor to sell or come to terms with his creditors. If he sold, the purchaser was the creditor, or others of his class, whose interest lay in keeping down the price of land; if he made an arrangement, he found himself a serf on his own property, bound to hand over five-sixths of the produce of his labour to his creditor, and degraded to a position in comparison to which the Helot of Sparta was a happy man.1
10. Similar conditions had  existed beyond  Attica,  but remedies had been found.    In  Corinth  and Megara,  the cities nearest to Athens, the people had made   The Common8 their power felt.    A  member of the great   at Corinth oligarchical family at Corinth, Cypselus, had   andMegaw' thrown in his lot with the commons, and by their help had
1 Hectemorii. For the causes of the distress, see Lang's Introduction to AristotUs Politics, p. 84 ff. ; Maine's Early Institutions, p. 167. VOL. I.                                                                              T
290                  RISE OF ATHENIAN PARTIES.            [IX. iu
risen to supreme power. By his energy and insight Corinth had attained a position second to no city in Greece. Thea-genes of Megara had secured for himself the goodwill of the people by an attack on some cattle belonging to the richer classes; they rose to support him, and by their assistance he was enabled to break the authority of the nobles and establish himself on the throne, Both Cypselus and Thea-genes had connections in Athens: Miltiades, of the great family of the Philaidae, had married the daughter of Cypselus ; Cylon, who in 640 B.C. gained a victory in the double course at Olympia, was the son-in-law of Theagenes. Might not one of these powerful nobles be tempted to follow in the path which had led to such brilliant results at Corinth and Megara? The elements of success were not wanting; for the commons, in their poverty and desperation, were ready te support and foster any signs of discord among the nobles. In that, and that only, lay their hope. Under no form of government could they be worse off than they were. It wa& indeed far better to have one master than many; above all, a master who would lay on the nobles a large part of the burdens which had hitherto been imposed, directly or indirectly, on the shoulders of the poor.
II. The nobles seem to have taken alarm. Whether they had reason to suspect the intentions of Miltiades or Cylon Rise of parties we do not know, but it is certain that by some in Attica.          means the people made their grievances felt.
There were probably divisions in the oligarchic circle. About this time we may place the rise of the parties which, for the next half-century or more, continued to divide Attica: the Pedieis, or men of the plain; the Parali, or men of the shore; the Diacrieis, or men of the mountains. The inhabitants of The men of tne plains of Athens and Eleusis were wealthy the plain.          landowners, who, in their contempt for the
classes beneath them, were anxious to maintain the position which they occupied; the men of the shore were traders and merchants, a mixed class, varying in wealth but experienced in business, with minds opened by intercourse with other
IX. 12.]   EARLY ATTICA: POSITION OF PARTIES.         291
cities.    They had a stake in the welfare of the country, and well knew that their interests would not prosper in the hands of thqse who desired to keep up an exclusive    The men of right to the administration of law and govern-    the shore-ment.   In wealth the merchant might surpass the landholder, but his position was still inferior, if he were denied access to the political rights of the nobility.    At the same time the Parali had much to lose, and as revolution and domestic anarchy would damage them in their business, they wished above all things to effect a change peaceably; they were the moderate party, and, like all moderate parties, were probably regarded with suspicion by both extremes.   The The men of the men of the mountain were the rough herdmen mountain, and shepherds who pastured their flocks on the high lands between Parnes and Brilessus.    To these any change was an advance; whether they looked to the shore or the plain they saw a wealth far beyond anything which it was in their power to win, while they were probably conscious of possessing a sturdy strength which was denied to their more prosperous neighbours.1
12. The most pressing need was a reform of the laws which bore so hardly on the poor. In their double position as repositories and administrators of the law,  ..   . r
v         , .,                                    ii.           i            Need for reform
the nobles were open to the obvious charge of the system not only of administering the law in their own of law* favour, but of making laws or altering hereditary customs for the benefit of their order. How could the trader or the peasant be persuaded that laws, which seemed so harsh, 'were the genuine laws of the city, as they existed in the days of his forefathers, or, if they were, that they were not in some way unfairly enforced ? " Let me know what the law is," he might reasonably say, " before I am brought under it; let us all see what the penalties are, that we may know that justice according to law, and nothing more, is executed upon us.   Above all, let us be satisfied that there is one law for
1 See Plutarch, Sol. c 13.
292                          THE DRACONIAN CODE.                   [IX. 13.
rich and poor alike." Such demands must be met, if political society is to exist at all, and the simplest way of meeting them is the publication of a written code of law. To this Draco ordered ^e no^es found it necessary to consent; to write down Draco was elected archon, and empowered to a code.             write down the laws of the State in order that
all might know them (621 B.C.).1 This had already been done for the Locrians by Zaleucus, and for Catana by Charondas.
13. Of Draco himself we know nothing. Of his laws, those only which related to murder continued in use after Draco's code tne time °f Solon; the rest were cancelled or of laws.           superseded.     The   prevailing   opinion   about
them was that they were excessively severe.    Demades, the Athenian orator, is said to have remarked that the " laws of Draco would seem to have been written, not s seven y.       .^  .^  ^. jn y00(j »—an opinion not too
strong for a code under which petty theft was punished by death, and any debtor who was unable to meet the demands of his creditor might be sold into slavery. But it is doubtful whether the harshness of his laws can be attributed to Draco. The oligarchs, in order to make this new concession as worthless as possible, may indeed have induced him to express the existing law in the severest terms, and extend, by analogy, penalties' out of proportion to the offences. A theft is a theft, whether it be of a talent or a drachma; the smaller offence comes under the same category as the larger, and may by a perverse logic have received the same penalty. But in any case, the practice under the written law can hardly have been more severe than what it was before the law was written down, or the difference would have been at once noticed, and the oligarchs would have lost all advantage which the concession might have won them.    An occasion on
1 The date of Draco is placed by Jerome in ann. Abr. 1395=01. 39-4=621 b.c. It is uncertain whether the attempt of Cylon comes hefore or after Draco.    Bnsolt puts it in 624 B.o.
IX. I3-]                   THE DRACONIAN CODE.                           293
which the people had wrung from the oligarchy a codification of the law, was not a time when the oligarchs could make the law more stringent than it had hitherto been.
However this may be, in regard to homicide Draco's code iras a modification of older forms of law. As the rules laid down in it were retained by Solon, and became Early Laws of part of the later code of Athens, we can speak h°micide. with some certainty about them. When the democracy was restored in 411 B.C., after the revolution of the Four Hundred, it was resolved to revise the statute-book, and the king-archon with the clerk of the Council was authorised to give out a true copy of Draco's law, " that it might be inscribed and set up before the porch of the king." A part of this inscription has been discovered, which, though mutilated, can be restored with some approach to certainty, by the help of passages in Demosthenes.1 The law is taken from the first "axon of Solon:" " If any one slay a man, not with intent, he must go into banishment. The kings shall be judges in charges for murder or intent, and the Ephetae shall give a verdict." 2 The rest is less certain; it seems to enact that, in the case of involuntary homicide, if the relations of the dead refused to accept satisfaction, the Ephetae should choose Modifications of ten men out of the phratry to which he belonged, earlier rules, and arrange the penalty with them; and further, that any one who slew a murderer, so long as the murderer observed the restrictions laid upon him, and avoided the market on the borders of the land, the games and Amphictyonic sacrifices, should be held guilty of murder as in the case of any other Athenian.3
The kings (/WiActs) mentioned in the inscription are the king-archon and the four kings of the tribes (1): these were to
1C. I. A. i. 61=Dittenberger, Syll 45=Hicks, Manual of In-$criptions, pp. 112, 113; Demosthenes, In Macart. p. 1069; id. In Aristocr. p. 631.
2  Kai tap fie ck npovotas kt€V€l tis riva, (fxvyev, ducd&v 6*c rot fiaaikeas alnov (povo . . . tos fie ctptras biayvovai.
3  airixofxevov ayopas i(f>opias Ka\ a6\ov kql Upov 'AptyiKTvoviKov.
294          PROCEDURE IN TRIALS FOR HOMICIDE.   [IX. 14.
decide (Si/cafctv) on the charge brought before them, whether the murder was premeditated, or accidental, or justifiable, Places for         *^at ^ might be referred to the proper place
pronouncing for trial. If even a deliberate intention to sentence.          murder were established, whether the inten-
tion had taken effect or not, the case went to the Areopagus, the most solemn place of judgment in Athens. There, from all antiquity, great criminals had been brought to justice—Ares for the murder of Halirrothius, and Cephalus
for the murder of Procris. There Orestes had reopagus. ^^ \x\^ for the death of his mother, on the great day when Athena presided, and Apollo pleaded the cause of his servant against the "Avengers of Blood." On that occasion the votes were equal, and Orestes was acquitted, a precedent, ever afterwards observed in Athenian trials for homicide. Below the hill was the abode of the Eumenides, who had consented to remain for ever near the holy place
where their ordinances were   enforced.     If,
mm.        however,  the homicide were  accidental,  the
trial was referred to the Palladium, the temple of Athena by
the Ilissus, where it was said the sacred image brought from
Troy was preserved. If, again, the homicide ep lnmm. weTe justifiable, it was tried at the Delphinium, the temple of Apollo, the god who had pleaded justification for Orestes. Even if an inanimate object was the cause of death, a trial was held over it; in this case at the Prytaneum.
14. The kings   were not competent  to give a verdict. (Siayvwvai).   That was the duty of the Ephetae, a board of
fifty-one men of more than fifty years of age.
The Ephetae.       „,, J        .       £    ,              .  ./ ;p  ,   ,       J
The meaning of the name of the Ephetae, the time at which the board was created, and the number, are all questions which have been much discussed. Ephetae may possibly mean, "the referees," or "those who add," i.e. the Second Court, which finally pronounced a verdict, and either sense would be applicable to the functions of the Ephetae.    That they were established by Draco seems to
IX. X4-]           HUMANITY IN DRA GO'S LA WS.                  295
be pretty clearly made out; he appears to have thought that a crime so serious as homicide, which involved the pollution of the land, could not be judged by so small ** body as the " Kings." Why he fixed upon the number fifty-one we cannot say with certainty; the number might stand in some relation to the nine archons, if we knew that the archons and the Ephetae were in any way closely connected. Most probably the number is fifty+one, i.e. the first odd number after fifty.1 A court composed of iifty might be evenly divided, but this was impossible with an odd number (assuming that the full number must be present, as in a jury). However this may be, it seems certain that Draco ordained that the Ephetae should sit at all the places where cases of homicide were tried, and that the final verdict of guilt or acquittal should be pronounced by them.
This was not the only change which Draco introduced. The regulation that Ephetae might choose ten members from the phratry of   a deceased person to accept the satisfaction which his family refused      thechanges to accept was humane and equitable.   A limit      introduced was now fixed to personal animosity.   A man was not to be persecuted and remain an outlaw when it had been clearly proved that his act was accidental or justifiable, merely to satisfy the revengeful spirit of the dead man's relatives.   Draco also introduced into the law of homicide the merciful provision that no man who carefully observed the -conditions imposed upon him by the sentence of law, could be put to death at the will of another.  To slay a murderer (i.e. an involuntary homicide) who kept away from all the prohibited places was itself a murder, and to be treated as such.   Both these rules were excellently calculated to check the spirit of family vengeance; they emphatically declared that murder
1 Demosthenes, p. 702, mentions a jury of 1001. The Nomothetae in the Decree (ap. Dem. p. 708) are also 1001 in number, though the Senate was associated with them. See Schomann, Ant. Jur. Publ. p. 265.
298                             CYLON'S CONSPIRACY.                     [IX 15.
was a matter for the State to judge and punish. At the same time the penal court was increased to a number which represented the majesty of the State, and was far above the suspicion of prejudice in favour of a person or a family.
15. Little was gained by the publication of the laws. Within a few years—nine at the most—an attempt was made The attempt at Athens to establish a tyranny, after the of cyion.          pattern of Corinth and Megara.    " In the days
of old," such is the story, "there was an Athenian named Cylon, who had been an Olympic victor; he was powerful and of noble birth, and he had married the daughter of Theagenes, a Megarian, who was at that time tyrant of Megara. In answer to an inquiry which Cylon made at Delphi, the god told him to seize the Acropolis at Athens at the greatest festival of Zeus. Thereupon he obtained forces from Theagenes, and, persuading his friends to join him, when the time of the Olympic festival came round he took possession of the Acropolis, intending to make himself tyrant. He thought that this was the greatest festival of Zeus, and, having been an Olympic victor, he seemed to have an interest in it. Whether the greatest festival spoken of was in Attica, or in some other part of Hellas, was a question which never entered into his mind, and the oracle .said nothing about it. He^thought that his interpretation was right, and made the attempt at the Olympic festival. The Athenians, when they saw what had happened, came in a body from the fields and invested the Acropolis. After a time they grew tired of the siege, and most of them went away, committing the guard to the nine archons, and giving them full powers to do what they thought best in the whole matter; for in those days public affairs were chiefly administered by the nine archons. Cylon and his companions were in great distress from want of food and water: so he and his brother made their escape y the rest being hard pressed, and some oi them ready to die of hunger, sat as suppliants at the altar which is in the Acropolis.     When   the   Athenians,  to   whose  charge the
IX. 15-]                   CYLONS CONSPIRACY.                         297
guard had been committed, saw them dying in the temple, they bade them rise, promising to do them no harm, and then led them away and put them to death.   They Failure of the even slew some of them in the very presence of  attempt, the awful goddesses at whose altars, in passing by, they had sought refuge.    The murderers and their descendants are held to be accursed, and offenders against the goddess.  These accursed persons were banished by the Athenians; and Cleomenes, the Lacedaemonian king, again banished them from Athens in a time of civil strife by the help of the opposite faction, expelling the living, and disinterring and casting forth the bones of the dead.   Nevertheless they afterwards returned, and to this day their race survives in the city." *
This is the account given by Thucydides of the first attempt to establish a tyranny in Athens. It was not a rising of the people against the nobles, but the attempt of an ambitious man, supported by a few friends and a body of Megarian soldiers, to grasp the supreme power. To the mass of the Athenians the movement seemed likely to bring Athens into subjection to Megara, and the people flocked from the country not to support the rising, as Cylon hoped, but to crush it.
The account which Herodotus gives is brief, and in some details   inconsistent with  the   statements   of  Thucydides. " There was once an Athenian by name Cylon, who had won a victory at Olympia.    He came the accounts fcrward as a man who aspired to regal power, of Cyionfa and having got together a following he attempted  a emp to seize the Acropolis.    Unable to maintain his position, he took his seat with others as a suppliant at the Statue.    The prytanes of the naucrari, who at that time managed the affairs of Athens, raised up the suppliants on condition that they should not be put to death; but the Alcmaeonidae are accused of slaying them."2   From Plutarch we learn that
1 Thuc. i. 126, Jowett's translation.                2 Herod, v. 71.
298              POLITICAL CONDITION OF ATHENS.       [IX. x&
Megacles was archon at the time. He persuaded the suppliants to leave the Statue, and submit themselves to justice. In order to secure the protection of the goddess when leaving the shrine, they attached a cord to the base of the Statue, and hold it in their hands while descending the hill. When they were near the altar of the Eumenides the cord broke. Megacles and his fellow-archons assumed that the goddess had abandoned her suppliants to their fate, and made an onslaught on their defenceless victims. All outside the precinct were stoned, all within were cut down, those only being allowed to escape who had made supplication to the wives of their conquerors.1
The attempt had been crushed, but a deed of violence and treachery had been done, which, when the danger of the moment passed away, could not but appear in its true enormity. .The land was stained with blood; the most holy sanctuaries of the city had been violated; the first officers of the State had trampled under foot the solemn pledges of faith and religion. In time these feelings bore fruit. For the present the attention of the people was called in another direction.
16. At this time the Archons were the chief executive power at Athens. The functions, which had originally been Political condi- exercised by the king, and after the overthrow tion of Athens. 0f the monarchy, by the elective archons, were divided among the nine as follows. The First Archon, after whom the year was named, was in a manner the father or patriarch of his people. Before him were brought cases which affected the rights of a family: adoptions, marriages of heiresses, and the like. It was his duty to protect the rich orphan from the greed, and the poor one from the neglect, of her kindred. For at Athens the singular law prevailed that the next of kin not only might, but must, marry an orphan girl who was left the
i Plut. Sol. c. 12.
IX. 16.]             POSITION OF THE ARCHONS.                   299
«ole representative of a house, or at least provide her with a suitable dowry to ensure her marriage, that the house might not become extinct. The Second Archon retained the title of "King." Before him were brought complaints of outrage and murder, which he referred to their proper tribunals for decision, and all offences against religion. He wore the old royal dress, and his wife as the Queen of Athens for the year (/Jao-iAtwa) was solemnly wedded to Dionysus at the Lenaeum, on the third day of the festival of the Anthes-teria (spring). The Third Archon, or Polemarch, was the general-in-chief. He was the judge of the conduct of the citizens when serving as soldiers in the field (if accused of cowardice or desertion), and before him were brought all cases which concerned foreigners or aliens resident in Athens. The remaining six archons were called Thesmothetae. They were the ordinary magistrates of Athens, who sat as judges in cases respecting property (theft, embezzlement, breach of contracts, etc.) As there were no law-courts in existence at Athens at this time, the archons must have been both judge and jury in all cases but those of homicide. In later times, the first three archons were allowed to have assessors to aid them in the discharge of their duties, but these would not be required so long as the archons were chosen exclusively from the privileged classes.
Besides  the archons, the Kings of  the tribes had some kind of judicial power.    They were four in number, one for each tribe, and may have been elected annually. They seem to have been associated with the archons in general in their judicial functions, as well as with the King-Archon and the Ephetae.1    Other officers were the Pry tanes of the Naucrari.    These belong to a different organisation of the country from that which rested on the families and phratries.   Each of the four tribes was divided into three trittyes (triads); and each trittys into four naucraries.     There were thus twelve naucraries
Duncker, Hist Greece, ii. 141 note.
300                            ATHENIAN NAUCRARIES.              [IX. 16,
in each tribe, and forty-eight in all. The prytanes of the naucrari must have been the heads of these divisions. So far as we can ascertain, the naucraries were territorial divisions,, made for the purpose of taxation or its equivalent. Each naucrary was called on to supply one ship and two horsemen to the state, and doubtless the prytanes were responsible for the performance of these duties. The prytanes of the naucrari were thus the counterparts of the demarchs of later times, with whom they are compared by ancient writers. Herodotus-indeed tells us that " they managed Athens " at the time of the Cylonian conspiracy, and were responsible for the acts of treachery and sacrilege which brought it to a close. But in this he is probably mistaken, or his account may be that which the Alcmseonidae chose to give of the matter. For the guilt of Cylonian pollution was definitely fixed on Megacles, the archon of the year, and his family were the " accursed." The prytanes of the naucrari may have been very active in the management of local affairs, but they could not have been officers of great executive authority in the city. It is remarkable that a division into twelve trittyes should have existed in Attica side by side with a division into twelve phratries (p. 302), and if the two were not identical, as some authorities assert, the divisions crossed. The arrangement into gentes and phratries was inclusive of all those who could in any way be enrolled as Athenian citizens; but the arrangement into naucraries may have included those who though resident in Attica were not Athenians in the strict sense. Hence the naucraries could not be grouped into the phratries, and the trittys was invented as a link to connect them with the tribe (p. 284). In the tribe all idea of family relationship was lost, and it served equally well as the highest aggregate for gentile and territorial groups.1
1 Naucraries, c/. Aristot. Frag. 18 M.; Pollux viii. 108. Duncker {Hist. Greece, ii. 144 note) collects the passages. Trittys, Hermann, Staatsalt, § 97. In Herod, v. 71, Duncker would read npvrdvtfs tS>v vavKpapmv for t£>v vavKpdpoav, contending that the naucrari are the prytanes. But (1) Herodotus may use the word in a wider sense than later writers ; or (2) the prytanes may be the acting members of the naucrari (in this case the text must be modified).
IX. 17, i8.]   ATTIC COUNCIL AND ECCLESIA.                 301
17.  In the constitution of a Greek city, even when it is monarchical, we hear of a Council or Senate (fiovk-q). Such a Senate existed at Lacedaemon, in the Gerousia;
at Argos and at Corinth. But it is extremely difficult to say what constituted the Council at Athens before the time of Solon. The Areopagus does not seem to have been concerned with other than judicial matters. It apparently met at intervals only, and was by no means a standing council for the transaction of business. It may be that the large body of archons rendered a standing council unnecessary, especially if the tribal kings were associated with them, and the prytanes of the naucraries managed the local business of the land. When the murderers of the Cylonian conspirators were brought to justice they were tried before a council of 300 of their own order, but it cannot be proved that this council was not an extraordinary assembly, convened for the occasion (but see infra, Appendix ii.).
Nor can we speak with any certainty of the nature or duties of the General Assembly (*kk \rjo-ia) in the century before Solon. The people must have had some power, or the Draconian laws would not have been published, and Solon would not have been chosen to reform the constitution. We do not know that the officers were elected by, or responsible to, the assembly, and of legislative and judicial authority the people had none. Perhaps we may assume that war could not easily be proclaimed without their consent, as they formed the bulk of the soldiers. If that were the case, the safety and power of the State depended, in the last resort, upon the General Assembly.
18.  Greek historians speak of the "families" in Attica (ykvq) as aggregates into which the Athenians were classified. In other words they regard them as artificial The social condi-rather than natural.    " The titles ' Gennetae' tion of Athens: and * belonging to the same gens' (ycvos) were Famihes-
not given (we are told) to those who were akin in the stricter sense, but to those who were at the first distributed into the
302             EARLY ATTICA: SOCIAL CONDITION.       [IX. xfc
so-called gentes." Philochorus, the historian of the third century B.C., remarks that those who had previously been called Homogalactes ("partakers of the same milk") were afterwards called Gennetae. The same author states that " the Phratries were compelled to receive both the Orgeonea (sacrificers) and the Homogalactes, whom we call Gennetae." We may therefore suppose that the phratry included two classes: (1) Those who were called " partakers of the same milk " because they were supposed to be akin by blood; and (2) " sacrificers," i.e. men who, though they could not claim even the fiction of blood-relationship, were associated in common sacrifices with members of the yen?.
The number of families allotted to a gens was thirty; and again there were thirty gentes in a phratry. This would give 900 houses in each phratry, and as there were twelve phratries in all (three in each of the four tribes), there would be 10,800 houses for the whole population. If we allow three males in each family we get a population of 32,400 male citizens for the whole of Attica.1
Each phratry had a place of meeting (^pdrpiov) where the members assembled under the presidency of the phratriarch. At these meetings were decided all questions ra ncs. touching the legitimacy of those who claimed a place in the gentes belonging to the association. When a man married he introduced his wife to his phratry at a banquet ; when his children were born they were admitted into the phratry, and, if challenged, the father swore solemnly that they were his offspring, born in lawful wedlock.   The
1 Of. Philoch. Frag. 91-94 M. Harpocration, Tiwrjrtu. Suidas, Tevvrjrai. 'Opyc&ves. Pollux iii. 52; viii. 107, 111. Hesychius, 8.v. Aristotle, Pol. i. 2= 1252 b, /mdXtcrra 6*€ Kara (frvcriv eoiKeP ?; Kaprj airoi-jcia oifctas elvai, ovs KaKovai rives opoyaikaKTas Tralbds re kcu 7rai§a)v> scubas, on which see Mr. Newman's commentary. Attica is said to be about as large as Worcestershire, of which the present population is about 380,000. Counting in the women, "metics," and slaves,. Attica would probably reach this total. Yet the cultivated area in Worcestershire is far greater than that in Attica, where only one-eighth of the 700 square miles is now under cultivation.
IX. 18.]      SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS IN ATTICA.               SOS
occasion on which the entry took place was the Apaturia. It was celebrated in Pyanepsion (Oct.-Nov.). As the Greek day began in the evening (at sunset) the Apa-turia opened with an evening banquet. On the next day sacrifices were offered to Zeus Phratrius and Athena Phratria, and hymns were sung to Hephaestus. On the third day followed the reception of new members into the phratriae and the registration of the children born since the last festival.1 The difference between the poorer and richer members of the gentes was doubtless very great The peasant living on a small farm in a remote part of Attica might Distinguished indeed rank as a mcaiber of a gens, and his Families, children might be duly registered at the Apaturia, but his position would be widely different from that of the rich and powerful families who formed the governing class. In every gens also there would be broken and landless men, and artisans who, though without land, were valued for their skill and retained under the protection of the gens. With the growth of the city of Athens these elements, at first so unimportant, rose to power; but in the seventh century the nobles who were the great landowners monopolized the state. Many families could also claim a great position as the repositories of ancient rites. Such, for instance, were the Butadae, who had the charge of the Erechtheum and furnished the priestess of Athena Polias; the Byzygae, who ploughed the sacred field at Athens ; the Hesychidae, who superintended the worship of the Erinyes; the Eumolpidae, who were the guardians of the mysteries of Eleusis, and others whose family rites had become a part of the public religion of the city.
1 It is not clear whether cfrparpla is the same as irarpa. According to Dicaearchus (Frag. 9 M.) the irarpa is lineal—a father with his sons; the (frpaTpla is collateral—an association of brothers, etc.—Dimcker,. I.e. ii. 120, speaks of the peasants as only uniting in the sacrifices of the yevr), not as belonging to them. But how did a peasantry outside the yevrj come into existence ? As a rule the peasants must have been the poorer members of the yew;, unless we allow for a very large proportion of poor men who joined themselves to any yeyos where they could find subsistence.
504                 SLAVERY-HISTORIC PARALLELS.               [IX.
Herodotus tells us that there were no slaves at Athens in early times; * the daughters of the family did the household work and fetched water from the wells. By avery' the time of Solon this simplicity of life had passed away. Slaves were then sufficiently numerous to attract the attention of the lawgiver. In the country they were perhaps less common than in the town, for the poorest class of peasants, even if not reduced to slavery, performed all the duties which could be required of slaves.
APPENDIX.
No. I.
The following passages, from Mr. York Powell's History of England, are interesting as illustrations of the history of sarly Attica:—
The English were a nation of franklins or freeholders, living by their land and cattle, every man in his own homestead. A knot of neighbouring homesteads owned by men of the same kindred formed a village called by the family name (Wallingford=the ford of the Wallings, Buckingham=the home of the Bookings, Billing=the Billings). House and yard and cattle were the property of the household, but the tilth meadow and pasture of the village were held in common by all, being divided afresh every year so that each household should have its fair share.
A number of villages were grouped into a hundred, so called because at first it was made up of one hundred and twenty households, each sending one armed man to court, council, or war.
1 Herod, vi. 137. This was at the time when the Pelasgians were settled under Hymettus. In Homer slaves are common, both in the house and in charge of the flocks, etc.
App.L]    ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ENGLISH HISTORY.   305
There were three classes among the old English; two free, gentle (eorl) and simple (ceorl), and one unfree, slave (theow), each with its were-gild [man-price] payable to the kindred or master of any one who killed a man. If a gentleman was a knight of the king's (thegen) or his henchman (gesith), his were-gild was higher. Most freemen lived on their own homesteads, but some would take service as henchmen with the king or aldermen or rich gentlemen, whose pride it was to have a body of retainers about them, to guard them in peace, follow them in war, and be standing proof of their riches and bounty; for they fed, clothed, and armed them, paying them by gifts of weapons, gold rings, cattle, and sometimes farms (for no man's wages were paid in money in those days). Hence the old English poets call kings and princes Lord (loaf-giver) and Ring-bestower, and love to sing of the faithfulness of the henchman and the generosity of his patron. Some landless freemen took up trades and crafts, and were smiths, carpenters, fishermen, huntsmen, or merchants; others worked on or farmed richer folk's land. For though at first in the villages every household had its ethel or share, yet in time the arable land got divided for ever among them nearly everywhere once for all, instead of being shared out year by year; and so some became better off than others. Moreover, in each kingdom were large spaces of unenclosed land, folk-land, belonging to the tribe and not yet parcelled out; pieces of this the king and wise men from time to time granted to different people, usually king's henchmen, to hold as their own, so that, as nowadays, some men had large estates. In Christian times the monks were great landowners, and many people were employed, free and bond, on their estates.
Slaves worked on their master's land or in his houses, like our servants, the men as swineherds, neatherds, or labourers ; the women grinding the corn in stone querns, and looking after the milking, cooking, and household drudgery. In the east of England slaves were few, but there were many in the west, chiefly captive Welsh. A man might fail into slavery for some crime that he had done, or he might sell himself for bread in' time of famine or distress. There was a regular slave-trade carried on between Bristol and Ireland and London and Gaul, some men being so wicked as even to «ell their own children into bondage.—'History of England, by F. Yobk Powell, pp. 13-15.
VOL. I.
V
306                            THE ATTIC COUNCIL.                             [IX.
No. II.
THE COUNCIL IN EARLY ATHENS.
[The evidence bearing on the subject is collected in a convenient form by Busolt, Oriech. Gesch. i. 409-419.]
In Sparta we find a Gerousia of twenty-eight members, which is at least as old as the time of Lycurgus (i.e. as the settled form of the constitution, cir. 800 B.C.); at Corinth there is a Council of eighty members, which cannot be later than the establishment of the annual prytanis in 745 B.C.; in Argos we also hear of a Council, which is no doubt connected with the early decline of the monarchy. But at Athens the existence of the Council under the monarchy, and even down to Solon, is involved in the greatest obscurity. In the changes which took place in the constitution we do not hear of any permanent Council. On the other hand the universal occurrence of these Councils in the Greek cities, and the difficulty of constructing an oligarchical constitution without one, make it necessary to assume that there was a Council of some kind in early Athens. The question is, How was it composed ?    Various answers have been given:—
1.   It is assumed that the Council of 300, of which we hear at the trial of the Cylonian murderers and the expulsion of Clisthenes (Plut. Sol 12, and Herod, v. 72), was the ancient Council of Athens.
To this it is objected that such a Council is (a) far larger than the similar Councils in Sparta or Corinth ; and (b) that we only hear of it on the two occasions mentioned.
2.  It is assumed that the ephetae formed the ancient Council. The ephetae and the nine archons made up a Council of sixty members (fifteen from each tribe, or five from each phratry). This assumption implies, that the ephetae were in existence before Draco. But this is contradicted by Pollux, viii. 125 : ec^erai top pep dpiBpbp eh Kai 7TCVTT)KQPTa, ApctKoup 6° civtovs Ka.Te<TTY)<T€P apiaTipbr)p alpedepras* ebiKa£op be Tois €<£' alfiari buoKopepois iv tols irepre biKaaTrjpiois' 2oAa>i/ o° avTois irpo<rKaT€<rTT)(r€ rrjp e£ 'Apei'ov ndyov ]8ovA^i>, a passage which is not invalidated by the statement in Aristotle, Pol ii. 12 (1274 6), that Draco did not in any way alter the constitution (iroXirelq, 8' t/7rapxouo# rovs Popovs eOrjice), for the ephetae were all chosen from the nobles.
The assumption is confirmed by the statement that the Areopagus did not exist before Solon. But this statement, though current in antiquity (Plut. Sol  19:   oi pep oZp ifkelaroi. rr)V cf 'Apelov nayou
App. II.]                   THE ATTIC COUNCIL.                              307
fiovXrjv, axrnep €*pr]Tai, SoXoDva avcrrr\(rau6ai obao~i,' kcu napTvpciv avrois 8oK€i ixakiara to /MjSa/xov tov ApaicovTa \£y*iv /X1760 dvojia£civ 'Ap€07rayLtcis, dWa toIs e<£eVats del biaXeycadai irepl t£>v <J>ovikS>v) is contradicted by Plutarch. His view is confirmed by Fausaoias (iv. 5. 2) who tells us that the Messenians in 743 B.c. (?) were willing to refer their quarrel with the Lacedaemonians (which concerned the shedding of blood) to the Athenian Areopagus by Aristotle (?) Pol. ii„ 12. 4=1274 a; and by the passage which Plutarch quotes from Solon's law of amnesty (Sol. l.c.) : imTlpovs thai 7rkr)v ocrot i£ 'Apeiov irdyov fj o<rot e* tS>v eqbeT&p rj 4k npVTaveLov KaradiKaaOevTcs \m6 t£>v (3aai\€Q)v eVi <f)6v<a, K.r.X.
3.  That the " Areopagus" was the ancient Council. But how was the " Areopagus " composed ?
4.  Busolt's opinion (l.c. p. 419) is that—
A.   The archons and ephetae sat on the Areopagus (I) as a
ftovKrj ycpovrew ; (2) as a court of justice.
B.  The   ephetae  sat   under the presidency of   the archon
Basileus at the other courts. 0. The archons judged civil cases in the Prytaneum, and could award sentence of death in the case of treason, etc.
This explains the existence of the three courts mentioned in the passage of Plutarch, I.e., but, like No. 2, it assumes the existence of the ephetae before Draco.
There must be some reason why we do not hear of a (3ov\fi at Athens as we do at Sparta, Corinth, etc. We may observe that Pausanias speaks of the rulers of Athens as vntvOvvoi (iv. 5. 10 : rovs dno Me\dv6ov9 KaXovpevovs be Mebovribas, icar' dpxas \iev dqbeikovro 6 brjfjios ttjs i^ovcrias to 7roXv kox dvri fiacrtXeias fieTecrTrjaav is dpxfjv vncvBvvoVy vo-repov be ical irpoOeo'p.lav er&p beica iiroirjo-av avrois rfjs dpx*js); and it is obvious that when the archons held office for ten years, and still more when the nine annual archons came into existence, some machinery for election must have existed. For these reasons it is not impossible that a considerable number of the nobles from time to time met together, and I venture to think that there was a Council of 300 in early Athens, though it only met when required.
As to the Areopagus, our best authorities are Aristotle (?) and Plutarch.
Aristotle (?) Pol. ii. 12, says that Solon was thought a good lawgiver because he mixed the constitution ; the Areopagus was an oligarchical element, the elected magistracy aristocratical, the law-courts democratical. But against this it is urged that " Solon found the elected magistracy and the council already in existence."    If this
308
THE ATTIC COUNCIL.           [IX,— App. II.
were all, there would be no difficulty about Aristotle's view ; but just below, and again in Pol. iii. 11, he states that Solon gave the people the right to choose the magistrates and scrutinize their administration. I can only remove the contradiction by assuming that the magistrates, though elected before Solon, were not elected by the people. But if Solon made this change in the elected magistracy while taking it over, he may have made some change in the constitution of the Areopagus which Aristotle does not think it necessary to mention.
Plutarch (see supra, p. 307) states that « Solon put together the Areopagus out of the archons." He adds that the majority were of opinion that Solon was the creator of the Areopagus, an opinion supported by the fact that Draco never mentioned it. But he points out that Solon himself, in his law of amnesty, spoke of the sentences of the Areopagus, which must therefore have been in existence when the law was made. The contradiction is, however, apparent only. Plutarch was aware that Solon was not the first to assign judicial powers (to Kpiveiv) to the Areopagus; but he adopts the view that he was the first to put the archons in it, and give the board censorial powers (see infra, p. 414.)
We must bear in mind that in one respect Athens differed from Corinth or Sparta. Though the chiefs of Attica were content to give up their separate council chambers and judgment halls, so that the council chamber and judgment hall of Athens served for the whole country, we cannot suppose that all the nobles lived constantly at Athens. They visited their estates, and were careful not to lose their local influence. A permanent Council at Athens might thus appear an undesirable arrangement, as it would certainly be governed by the nobles resident in the city. But a strong executive controlled by the whole body of nobles would suit the situation, and this appears in fact to have been the arrangement. It is worth observing in regard to this matter, that under the later arrangement of the symmories, 300 was the number fixed upon for the first class of richest men*
CHAPTER   X.
NORTHERN   GREECE.
L—EPIRUS AND MACEDONIA.
I. As we have seen (pp. 27, 35), Dodona in Epirus was the seat of an ancient shrine where the Pelasgi and Hellenes worshipped, and from the adjacent district, so    Epirus not far as we can tell, the Hellenes moved towards    included the south of the  peninsula.    In  Epirus also    m Hcllas* dwelt the Graii, or Graeci, from whom the Latins borrowed the name for the continent and its inhabitants.     Yet the Epirotae were not included among the Hellenes.    In their civilisation they do not seem to have been more barbarous than some of the tribes in Arcadia, but they continued to be barbarians in the Greek sense of the word—a proof, if the proof were needed, of the capricious use of the term.1
The most important tribes in this district were the Chaonians, once the lords of the whole of Epirus, the Molossians and the Thesprotians. The Chaonians lay near chaonians the coast on the north; the Thesprotians occu- Thesprotians, pied the country to the south of the Chaonians, Molossi*°»-and were therefore in closer proximity to the Greeks of Ambracia than their neighbours on the north. From Thes-protia, as we have seen, proceeded the tribe which crossed the range of Pindus into Thessaly, and thus brought about the great movement which created such a remarkable change in the population of Hellas. The Molossians were in possession of the centre of Epirus.
1 Thuc ii 80; Strabo, p. 321.
310      EARLY EPIRUS: RULERS AND OCCUPATIONS. [X. I.
In Homer we hear of a king of the Thesprotians,1 but in the time of Thucydides the monarchy had come to an end. Monarchy         At finy rate, both the Thesprotians and the
in Epirus.         Chaonians are then spoken of as being "without
a king," and the Chaonians are commanded by two chiefs annually elected " from the ruling family." The Molossian kings claimed to be members of the race of Aeacus, Molossus being the son of Pyrrhus and Andromache. At a later period they became the sovereigns of the whole country, until they were absorbed into the Macedonian power, and passed with it into the Roman Empire.2
Epirus was divided into a number of long and narrow valleys by the Aous, Arachthus, Achelous, and other rivers. Description On the slopes of the hills were pastures, and by of Epirus.         the streams rich meadow land.    On these the
Epirotes fed the flocks and herds in which their wealth consisted. On the shore, Panormus and Onchesmus offered good harbours, which apparently were not overlooked by the Phoenicians, for a town in the territory of the Chaonians bore the name of Phoenice. About the beginning of the sixth century, Ambracia was founded by Cypselus, Ambracia.         tne tyrant of corinth, near the mouth of the
Arachthus. It formed a convenient station for Corinth in her trade to the west, and could enter into rivalry with Corcyra in acquiring such products as the pastoral inhabitants of the interior had to offer. From this city some knowledge of the Greek language and civilisation spread over the south of Epirus.3 At one time the country was very thickly populated; but if we set aside the part which it played at a much later time in the military events of Western Greece, Epirus is of little importance to the Greek historian.
i Od. xiv. 316.
2 Thuc. I.e. Xdov€S dftao-ikcvroi, hv fjyovvro Itt' cTT)(rl(p irpoora<rlq, *k rov dp\iKov yevovg &a>rvos icai Nucdvcop. On the same occasion the Molossians were led by Sabylinthus, the guardian of the infant king Tharypus.
3 Epirus is described by Strabo p. 323, ff.
X i.]                   THE ORACLE OF DODONA.                      311
Originally a possession of the Thesprotians, Dodona afterwards passed into the hands of the Molossi. The shrine lay at the foot of Mount Tomarus, at some distance The Oracle to the west of Lake Pambotis (Joannina). In of Dodona. the Iliad we hear of the Selli or interpreters (wro^rcu) at Dodona, who communicated to those who inquired of the oracle the responses given by the rustling of the leaves of the sacred oak. The epic poet describes these Selli as persons who slept on the ground (xa/Acu€vi/qs, an epithet elsewhere given to pigs), and never washed their feet (Jl. xvi. 235). At a later time, perhaps owing to the association of Dione with Zeus, the responses at Dodona were communicated by priestesses, three in number and called Peleiades—-a name which gave rise to many controversies. Some understood the word to mean " doves," and supported their view by the story that the first Dodonaean priestess was an Egyptian woman, brought by Phoenicians from Thebes to Dodona, who, as she spoke a language unintelligible to the Pelasgi, was said to "speak like a bird." Others considered that the so-called "doves" (fl-cA^aSes) were merely "old women " (WAiai). Though eclipsed at a later time by Delphi, which was much more central and easy of access, Dodona remained to the last one of the most important oracles in Greece. In the time of Demosthenes responses were still sought there by the Athenian State, especially on matters connected with religion, and for the tribes in the immediate neighbourhood it was a place of constant resort, even on the most trivial occasions.1
1 The Homeric Catalogue compels us to assume a second Dodona in "Thessaly {II. ii. 748 ff.). With the epithet dviirroirobes compare the *' Dusty-feet," who were the rural population of Epidaurus. For the 41 doves," see Herod, ii. 55, 57 ; Strabo, book vii., Frag. 1, 2; Athenian consultation of Dodona, Dem. in Mid. p. 530; for the site and ruins of Dodona, and the questions put to the deity, Carapanos, Dodone. In the inscriptions we find a irpotrraT^s and a naiarch at Dodona (Cauer, Del. Im. No. 249). On the Acheron, in the south of Thes-protia, was the oracle of the dead, at which Periander consulted Melissa (Herod, v. 92 17).
312               EARL Y MA CED0N1A: PERDICCAS.           [X. 2.
2. Like the Epirotes, the Macedonians were excluded from the Hellenes, but here the exclusion did not extend to the royal race. These claimed to be Heraclids of not Hellenes the stock of Temenus, and the claim was allowed except             by the judges at the Olympian festival.   The
story of the emigration of Perdiccas and his brothers from Argos to Macedonia is told by Herodotus as follows.
The three Temenids, Gouanes, Aeropus and Perdiccas, fled from Argos to Illyria, whence they passed into Upper story of           Macedonia,  and   so came to Lebaea,  where
Perdiccas.         ^hey took service with the king.    The eldest
fed the horses, the second the oxen, and Perdiccas, the youngest, who was still a boy, kept the sheep. In those days kings, like their subjects, had but a slender store of wealth, and so it befell that the queen of Lebaea was wont to bake bread for the hirelings of the king; and wheal she baked she found that the loaf of Perdiccas waxed to twice the size of the rest—not once only, nor twice, but always. So she told her husband, and he, perceiving that it was a sign which boded ill, bade the hirelings begone out of his land. They made reply that they were willing to go when they had received their wages. At the mention of wages the king, as though bewitched, cried out: " There are your wages, and enough too," at the same time pointing to the sunlight which fell into the house through the smoke-hole. At this speech the two elder brothers stood awe-struck and silent, but Perdiccas, drawing a circle round the light on the floor with his knife, replied : " We accept the gift," and gathered the light thrice into his bosom.   The brothers then left the house.
Soon after, one of those who sat by explained to the king the meaning of that which the boy had done. The king fell into a furious rage, and sent horsemen after the brothers to destroy them. But it happened that, before the pursuers overtook them, they had already crossed a river, which was henceforth worshipped as the River of Safety. The river rose and swelled till the horsemen could not cross it,    So
X. 2.]                 MACEDONIA: CONQUESTS.                          313
the Argives escaped. They retired into another pisrt of Macedonia, and dwelt near the garden of Midas, where roses grow wild, each with sixty leaves, and in odour surpassing all others. There also is Mount Bermius—a mountain impassable by reason of the cold and snow. From this land they went forth and conquered all Macedonia.1
Thucydides enables us to trace the progress of these conquests. "To the Macedonians belong the Lyncestae and Elimiotes, and other tribes of the interior; these are their subjects and allies, though governed by monarchs of their own. The maritime Macedonia of our day Was first Macedonian acquired by Alexander the father of Perdiccas, tribes, and his ancestors, who were originally Temenids from Argos. Here they established themselves as kings, expelling the Pierians from Pieria, and the Bottiaeans from what is called Bottia. They also acquired a narrow strip of Paeonia, by the Axius, running down from the interior to Pella and the sea, and what is called Mygdonia, beyond the Axius as far as the Strymon, from which they expelled the Edonians. They also drove out the Eordi from what is now Eordia, slaying the great majority of them, and the Almopes from Almopia. Other nations also were conquered by these Macedonians, whose territory they still possess, Anthemus, Crestonia, Bisaltia, and a large part of the land of the original Macedonians. The whole is called Macedonia " (ii. 99). From this it appears that a hill tribe issuing from the upper valley of the Haliac-mon, passed into Eordia, where were situated the " gardens of Midas," and Aegae, the old Macedonian capital, and from thence to the sea-coast. The kingdom thus established included a number of tribes, Ulyrian, and Thracian (?), but the Macedonians themselves spoke a dialect of Greek.
The Macedonians were governed from a very early time by monarchs who united the functions of kings, priests, and judges.   It does not appear that the king's power was
1 Herod, viii. 137 ff. Another legend ascribes the foundation to Caranus, who was also a Heraclid of Argos (Paus. ix. 40. 8), the brother of Pliidon.
314                 MA CED ON IAN KINGS— THESSAL Y.             [X. 3.
absolute, even among those tribes which were more immediately subject to him, and the wilder mountaineers of the Kings of           interior certainly preserved their independence
Macedon.          down to the time of the Persian war.   For the
earlier period of the monarchy we have a list of names, and nothing more. When the Pisistratids were expelled from Amyntasand Athens, Amyntas, the sovereign then on the Alexander.        throne, offered Anthemus as a refuge to Hippias.
Amyntas was still reigning, though advanced in years, at the time of the Persian invasion, when his daring son Alexander succeeded both in ridding the country of the presence of the Persians and conciliating their power. This prince is represented by Herodotus as a friend of the Hellenes, though his position rendered it inevitable that he should appear to favour the Persians.1
IL—THESSALY.
3. We have reason to believe that Thessaly was conquered at an early time by Thesprotian immigrants from the west,
Thessaiians w^° &ave ^e new name to ^e country.2 After unknown          the conquest, the land appears to have been
to Homer.         divided into four districts; Hestiaeotis, which
was the district lying round the upper course of the Peneus; Thessaliotis, which included the district of the Enipeus, and the streams flowing into the Peneus from the
TheTetrarchies.  gouth . phthiotis> in which ky Mount Qthrys,
and the coast south of Thessaliotis; and finally Pelasgiotis, the name given to the lower plain of the Peneus. On the range of Ossa and Pelion dwelt the Magnetes. The largest cities of Thessaly, Larissa, Crannon and Pherae lay in Pelas-
1  The Macedonian coinage, which was derived through Abdera and Miletus from Phoenicia, is too complicated to be treated in a note. Cf. Head, Ic. pp. xlvi. and 169 ff.
2  In Homer nothing is known of this conquest; though a large numher of places are mentioned in the Catalogue which lie within the district subsequently called Thessaly, we hear nothing of Thessaiians. The district is divided into independent kingdoms. See Monro; note on Iliad, ii. 486.
X3-]                   THESSALY: ABORIGINES.                     315
giotis.   The most important port was Pagasae, which eclipsed the fame of the older Iolcus.
Like many other districts of Greece, Thessaly is said to have been originally under the rule of one king, and the division into four districts is ascribed to Aleuas, the son of The Aleuadae Pyrrhus. The statement is not more probable and Scopadae. here than elsewhere. So far as our information reaches, we find aristocratical families ruling independently in the Thes-salian cities, chief among whom are the Aleuadae and Scopadae of Larissa and Crannon. Whenever the need was felt, a general was elected to be the leader of the forces of the whole country. He bore the title of Tagus, and till 500 B.C. he was always elected from the family of the Aleuadae.
At the conquest, the original population of the country was for the most part degraded to the condition of Penestae. These were serfs attached to the soil, which they The conquered tilled for the benefit of their masters, to whom Population: they rendered a fixed portion of the produce of Penestae-the plots assigned to them.   Their condition was therefore like that of the Helots of Sparta, and, like the Helots, they were a source of trouble and alarm to their masters.   The great territorial families seem to have had the right of arming their dependants;   we  hear that  Menon,  the  Pharsalian, assisted the Athenians in the war against Eion, with three hundred mounted Penestae of his own.1    The Phthiotes, Perrhaebians and Magnetes, and other tribes which could not be reduced to slavery, were allowed to retain their independence on certain conditions. Por this reason they continued to appear as members of the Amphictyonic League.    But the best land was in the hands of the Thessalians, who have been compared to the feudal lords of the Middle  Ages,  living in   castles, and surrounded by a crowd of somewhat turbulent retainers. The Thessalians were the greatest horse-breeders of Greece;
1 Dem. in Arist. p. C87.    Meno of Larissa was able to join Cyrus with 1000 Hoplites and 500 Peltasts ; Xen. Anab. i. 2. 6.
316       THESSALIAN CHARACTER—BULL-FIGHTS.       [X. 3.
it is in Thessaly and Arcadia that the legends of the centaurs are localised; and there were probably men of larger possessions, character of the owners of a wider breadth of land, in Thessaly Thessalians. ^an elsewhere in Greece.1 It was fortunate for the rest of Greece, to whom an united Thessaly would have been a serious danger, that the intestine disputes and feuds of the families rendered a combination of forces impossible. Border conflicts raged between the Thessalians and the Phocians on the south, but we do not hear of any serious attempt to pass beyond Thermopylae; and in spite of the opportunities offered by the Gulf of Pagasae, and the traditions of the Argo and the Minyae of Iolcus, the Thessalians never became a maritime nation.
Among the national amusements of the Thessalians were the Taureia or Tauro-cathapsia, which may be compared to Buii-fights in the bull-fights of Spain. Mounted riders pur-Thessaiy.          sue(j kuus round a circus or hippodrome till the
animals were exhausted, when they leaped upon them and dragged them down to the ground by their horns. The famous Pulydamas of Scotussa is even said to have gone into a herd of oxen, and seized the strongest and fiercest bull by the hinder hoofs; in vain the bull struggled to be free, and when at last, by a great effort, he escaped, he left his hoofs in the hands of Pulydamas. It was the belief of the Thessalians that they owed their country to the action of Poseidon in opening a cleft through Tempe, and allowing the waters which worship of previously covered the land to escape. Poseidon Poseidon.          was a}g0 t^e giVer of the horses for which the
Thessalians were famous,—the creator of the springs of water which flowed from the rocks. For these reasons Poseidon was the national deity of Thessaly. On the coins—which are, however, later than 500 B.C.—"we see a youth pulling down a raging bull, while on the reverse is usually the horse of Poseidon (accompanied sometimes by the trident), now quietly
1 In Plato's Meno the Thessalians are said to be remarkable for their wealth and territorial possessions.
X. 4-]    THESSAL Y AND POSEIDON—PHOCIANS, &c.       317
grazing, now bounding rapidly along with rein flying loose, or issuing from a rock, and so symbolising the springs of clear water called forth by the stroke of the trident of Poseidon, the cleaver of rocks."1
III.—DISTRICTS SOUTH OF THESSALY.
4. To the south of Thessaly we find a number of tribes which are little more than names in Greek history: Dolopians, Aenianes, Malians, Locrians of Cnemis and Opus. More important are the Phocians, whose territory extended from sea to sea, and included within its earlier limits the famous shrine of Delphi. The Phocians dwelt in a number of small republics, for which the centre of meeting was the Phocicum. Their constitution appears to have been similar to that of the Achaeans in Peloponnesus. The chief cities lay in the valley of the Cephisus. Elatea, the most important, commanded the main road which led from northern Greece into Boeotia.2 Still higher up the course of the Cephisus lay the four communities of the Dorians:    Boeum,   Erineum,   Citinium,   and              .
Doreis.    From   this district the   Dorians of Peloponnesus claimed to derive their origin.    It was originally inhabited by the tribe of the Dryopians, who on their
1  Paus. vi. 5. 6; Head, l.c. p. 246. From an inscription recently -discovered at Larissa, it appears to be certain that the Thessalian and the Lesbian dialects were closely connected (Cauer, l.c. p. 247.)
2  Border conflicts between the Thessalians and Phocians were common. Of. Herod, viii. 27, 28. For security, the Phocians built, in Tery early times, a wall across the pass of Thermopylae. Herodotus <vii. 176) puts the building as far back as the invasion of Aeolis by the Thessalians ; in 480 B.C., the wall was in ruins. For the Phocicum, Bee Paus. x. 5. 1. In his day it was a large hall; within, pillars ran along each side, and between the pillars and the wall were steps, on which the envoys sat during discussions. At the end of the hall were statues of Zeus, Athena and Hera. The coinage of Phocis, which goes back to the middle of the sixth century, is federal, like the old coinage of Arcadia. It was struck on the Aegi-netic standard, probably at the periodical meetings at the Phocicum* The coins are marked with a bull's head (Head, p. 287).
318        DORIANS—LOCRIANS—THE AMPHICTYONY.   [X. 5.
expulsion by the Dorians, passed onwards over the Maliac Gulf to the coasts of Euboea and Argolis, where they founded the cities of Styra and Carystus, Hermione, Eion and Asine, and to the island of Cythnus. To the south of the Dorians lay the Western or Ozolian Locrians, whose territory bounded the Corinthian Gulf on the north. Their colonies in the west redeem them from oblivion, for of the Locrians in Greece we know almost nothing beyond their bad reputation as pirates and kidnappers. The chief cities of the country were Naupactus, the point at which the Dorians were said to have embarked when crossing into Peloponnesus, and Amphissa. Beyond the Locrians, to the west, lay the Aetolians and the Acarnanians. The legends of these nations have been related; in history they take no part till a later period* Even at the time of the Peloponnesian war, the Aetolians seemed to Thucydides to afford a fitting illustration of the old barbaric condition of Greece.1
5. From very early times the tribes which inhabited the centre of Greece gathered together at Thermopylae to offer sacrifice to Demeter. The Amphictyony thus mp ic yony. forme(j consisted of twelve members : Ionians, Dolopians, Thessalians, Aenianes (or Oetaeans), Magnetes, Malians, Phthiotes (or Achaeans), Dorians, Phocians, Locrians, Boeotians, and Perrhaebians. Each member had one vote, and every vote was of equal value, whether the tribe which gave it was great or small. All were pledged to mutual protection and assistance; no Amphictyonic city was to lay waste another, or cut it off from running water in war or peace; and, df any attempt of the kind were made, the tribes swore to come forward and resist it. The oracle at Delphi and the worship of Apollo were also placed under the protection of this league; the members undertook to aid the god " with hand and foot and voice and all their might, should any one pillage the temple or plot against the sacred rites."   When, owing to the
1 Thuc. i. 5, iii. 94.
X. 6.]         DELPHIC AMPHICTYONY—BOEOTIA.            3W
increasing importance of the oracle, a town sprang up round the shrine, the Delphians claimed to be independent of the Phocians, in whose territory the temple lay. The claim was, of course, resisted, and hence arose a series of First Sacred " sacred wars," each more disastrous than the Wan other for the unity of Greece. The first, which occurred about the beginning of the sixth century, led to the destruction of Cirrha, the harbour-city of Delphi, and the eternal desolation of the fruitful plain around it, which was henceforth sacred to Apollo. In this crusade the Athenians took a leading part, and the triumph of the god was marked by a renewal of the Pythian games on a grander scale (infra, c. xiii.).1
IV.—BOEOTIA.
6. Though the legends of Boeotia are full of contradictions, we may assume, with some certainty, that the country was at an early time divided into two great principalities, of which one was subject  to Orchomenus, and    orchomenus included the lower valley of the Cephisus, and    and Thebes, the other was the domain of Thebes (p.  74 ff.).    Orchomenus was the older city, but in the course of time it became, dependent to some extent on Thebes, and inferior in power. Then both cities were conquered by a band of    invasion from, invaders from the north, who introduced into    the north-the  country, from the  south of Thessaly, the worship of Athena Itonia, the name of the river Curalius and the town Coronea.     These immigrants were the Arnaeans.     They were governed by kings.    Opheltas is said to have led them into Boeotia, and his son Damasichthon con-    xanthus.the quered Thebes.    Finally Xanthus, the second    last king, successor of Damasichthon,  attempted   to   invade Attica* The enterprise failed, and Xanthus lost his life in single
1 For the oath of the Amphictyons see Aeschines, F. L.t § 115 (121). The possession of the oracle at Abae, which the Phocians retained to the last, was a poor compensation for the loss of Delphi.
320                       THE BOEOTIAN LEAGUE.                   [X. d.
combat with Melanthus, the Pylian (cf. p. 118). After Xanthus there were no longer any kings in Boeotia, though the Opheltiadae continued to hold a high position at Thebes.
When the invaders were secure in the possession of the country, they settled down in a number of independent cities, The Boeotian which were united in a federal union. There League.           seems some reason to suppose that the league
consisted originally of fourteen members, and perhaps it included the following cities: Thebes, Orchomenus, Lebadea, Coronea, Copae, Haliartus, Thespiae, Tanagra, Anthedon, Chalia, Plataea, Eleutherae, Chaeronea, Oropus. The confederates were represented by councils presided over by an archon, but the management of the military affairs of the country and the executive power in general were in the hands of boeot-archs, officers elected annually by the cities of the federation, each of which elected its own officer. In the Peloponnesian war we hear of eleven boeotarchs only, of which two came from Thebes. This reduces the cities of the federation to ten. Plataea was then under the protection of Athens. Eleutherae and Oropus formed part of Athenian territory, and Chaeronea had passed into the control of Orchomenus.1
In the several cities the constitution was mostly aristocratic. The rich lands were in the possession of the descendants of the conquerors, and were tilled for their benefit by slaves or Constitution hired labourers (Thetes). All political and of the cities, judicial power was in the hands of the great families. About 725 B.C., Philolaus, a Bacchiad, who retired from Corinth to Thebes, is said to have given a con-Phiioiaus         stitution to the Thebans.    The little that we
at Thebes. know of him is derived from Aristotle. He is said to have arranged the laws of adoption, and his arrangements were, no doubt, intended to prevent the possessions of
1 Time. iv. 91. In iv. 93 he gives the names of seven confederate cities: Thebes, Haliartus, Coronea, Copae, Thespiae, Tanagra and Orchomenus. The four councils mentioned in Thuc. v. 38 still remain a puzzle. It is, however, clear that they could be united into one council, under the management of the archon at Thebes.
X 7-1      BOEOTIA: MUSES ON MOUNT HELICON           321
the rich from passing out of their hands, and the consequent diminution of the number of hereditary lots. There was also a law at Thebes—whether introduced by Philolaus or not is unknown—that no one who had not retired from trade for at least ten years should have any share in the government. The rule of families, or "dynasty," as the Greeks termed it, "a form of government closely resembling a tyranny," existed in Thebes at the time of the Persian war. Afterwards it was exchanged for an "oligarchy with equal laws," wealth making itself felt as well as birth.1 In a few cities, as Plataea and Thespiae, democratic tendencies were strong, a division of political principles which led to feuds and disunion in the country.
7. At an early period Boeotia was famous for the worship of the Muses. The shrine of the deities lay on Mount Helicon, not far from the city of Thespiae. Strabo Wor8hipofthe ascribed the foundation of the temple and the Muses on Hea-consecration of the mountain to the Thracians,2 con* who, as we have seen, were celebrated in mythical times for their skill in music, and, whatever may be the truth of the story, the existence of the temple is a historical fact. It became famous in Greece. From the Muses of Helicon, Hesiod, the second name in Greek epic poetry, received the inspiration of song.
We cannot fix a date for Hesiod. Antiquity made him the contemporary of Homer, and represented   ^    „   . .
?l.*                       *     A'      *     ±1.           •          4?          4.            Poet Hesiod.
the two as contending for the prize of poetry.
Such a contest was a natural invention at the time when
Hesiod and Homer stood opposite to each other as the chiefs
1 Arist. Pol ii. 12 = 1274 b; iii. 5 = 1278 a ; Herod, ix. 86; &vva<rtcia9 lo-ovopos oktyapxia, Thuc. iii. 62. The coins of Boeotia afford useful evidence on (1) the ancient independence of Orchomenus, and (2) the federal union of the country. The oldest coins of Orchomenus are stamped with an "incuse square" identical with that on coins of Aegina. (We know that Orchomenus, like Aegina, belonged to the Calaurian Amphictyony. It was doubtless the great trading city of Boeotia.) The other Boeotian coins exhibit as a common device the Boeotian shield (the shield of Athena Itonia ?), with letters designating the city from which they originate (Head, I.e., pp. 291, 293).
2  Strabo, p. 410.
VOL. I.                                                                              X
322                    HESIOD: PERSONAL HISTORY.                 [X. 7.
of the Ionian and Boeotian schools of poetry, but we cannot allow it to have any historical value. We are also toJd that Hesiod won a tripod at the musical contests held at the funeral of Amphidamas, king of Chalcis, but we do not know when Amphidamas died.
Dius, the father of Hesiod, was a native of Cyme, in Aeolis,
who made a precarious living on the sea.    Towards the close
..   .„       of his life he settled at Ascra,1 a hamlet lyin£
Hesiod's life                           .                   __                .    '                                %
on the slopes of Helicon, m the territory of Thespiae, where Hesiod in his boyhood tended his father's flocks. On the death of Dius, his two sons, Hesiod and Perses, had a dispute about the inheritance. The case was-tried before the chiefs of Thespiae, who decided in favour of Perses. Hesiod intimates very plainly that this sentence was not gained without the influence of bribes, and it is likely enough that Perses, who led a life of idle and extravagant independence, was better known to the higher class than the laborious and thrifty Hesiod. The ill-gotten gain did not thrive. After the lapse of a few years Perses found himself a beggar. He threatened his brother with a new law-suit. Hesiod replied with reproaches and warnings—with what result we do not know. In his later life the poet appears to have left Ascra. It has been supposed, on very slender evidence, that he retired to Naupactus in Locris.2 After his death, wherever that took place, his bones were removed to Orchomenus, and a monument erected in the market-place to his memory. At Thespiae also, and in the shrine of the Muses on Helicon, statues were set up in his honour.3
1  For the legendary history of Helicon and Ascra, see Paus. ix. 29, 30.
2  Bergk, Lit. Oesch. i. 921 f.
3  In the time of Thucydides it was a common belief that Hesiod was put to death in the grove of Nemean Zeus near Oeneon, in Locris, "by men of the district," i.e. by Ctimenus and Antiphus, the sons of Ganyctor, whose sister he had outraged (Thuc. iii. 96). Of. Vita Hes. p. 72, Schoinann's edition; Paus. ix. 31. 6; Plut. Conviv. Sept. Sap. 19.
X.8.]
HESIOD>S POETRY.
32a
8. Hesiod is the earliest Greek poet of whom we have a distinct picture. We can see him on the slopes of Helicon, tending his father's flock; listening even then to the legends which gathered round the Muses' shrine, and Hesiod a distinct cultivating the gift of song. Then follow the historical person, disputes with Perses, and the unjust decision of the " gift-eating " princes. We contrast Hesiod with his brother: the sturdy, honest, laborious, shrewd husbandman, with the idle, reckless, spendthrift lord of a few acres.1 We have the details of his hard life in an age into which he wishes that he had never been born. Only by unremitting industry and vigilant thrift can a livelihood be obtained in the unkindly climate of Ascra, " which is cold in winter, sultry in summer, and always bad." What a contrast is this to the shadowy figure of Homer, of whom we do not even know whether he lived in Asia or Europe, or, indeed, whether he ever lived at all!
There is a contrast equally great between the Homeric and Hesiodic epic. The "glories of men," the labours of the Achaeans on the plains of Troy, the wander- The Homeric and ings of Odysseus in far-off seas, are the themes H*siodic Epic, of Homer. We move among exalted persons, in a scene where there is no room for the interests of humble life. The poet's songs are the "crown of the feast." Hesiod treats of other subjects. His Muse is serious—nay, she is sad; she seeks no longer to amuse a delighted audience, but to beguile the unhappy and rebuke the foolish. The days of martial enterprise are over; the relations of gods and men are changed; it is the poet's task now to arrange the knowledge of the past, and record the wisdom of the sages—a wisdom which is often the fruit of bitter experience.
1 Perses seems in these qualifications to have been a boon companion *>f the lords of Thespiae. These aristocratic persons despised agriculture and industry. Hence, at a later time, we find the owners of land in Thespiae deeply in debt to the Thebans (Heraclides* Frag.&M).
324          HESIOD'S POETRY: « WORKS AND DA YS:      [X. 9.
9. The Alexandrian scholars recognised as the genuine works
of Hesiod the Works and Days, The Theogony, and the Catalogue
of Women.    Of these the two first remain to
* us, though it is highly improbable that their
present form is that in which they were left by Hesiod.1
The Works and Days (828 vv.) fall into two parts, both of which are addressed to Perses. In the first, written after 1 Works and *»ne unjust decision of the judges, and when a Days.'              second law-suit was threatened, Hesiod urges
his brother to reform his conduct, and seek for the means of which he is in need by industry rather than injustice. In the second, we have a number of rules for agriculture and navigation.
Characteristic features of the first part are the ascribing of all the evils of human life to Pandora, whom Zeus created for characteristic ^8 punishment of men when Prometheus had features of the obtained for them the gift of fire, and the poem.              description of the five ages, which meets us
here for the first time. Hesiod's view of women is widely different from that of Homer. The good and careful housewife is a valuable help;   in this capacity she is
ome *           superior to the ox which draws the plough, but
she is included in the same category. Not a word is said to remind us of the queenly dignity and virgin grace, of the love and constancy, which throw an undying charm over Homeric story. The woman who seeks to attract notice among men is described in language of savage coarseness, not surpassed by Aristophanes.2    Of the five ages, four are named
1  Schomann, Commentatio Critica, prefixed to his edition of Hesiod, 1869; Bergk, Lit. Gesch. i. p. 938. The Eoeae was, perhaps, only a part of the Catalogue of Women (see infra). For the different views current in Pausanias' time about Hesiod's genuine poems, see Paus. ix. 31. 4 f. He was shown an ancient leaden tablet with part of the Works and Days engraved on it.
2   Works and Days, 1. 405: oIkov pep nprnria-ra yvvalKa T6, fiovv r' aporrjpa. On the choice of a wife, see 1. 695 ff. Here he admits that no " spoil" that a man can carry off is better than a good wife, but a bad one is a curse to her husband :   " She burns him without a
X. 9-]         HESIOD'S POETRY: THE FIVE AGES.            325
after metals—gold, silver, bronze, iron. Between the ages of bronze and iron Hesiod inserts the age of heroes, which preceded his own. The growth of epic poetry, which had glorified the heroes of Thebes and e lve ges" Troy, compelled him to make this insertion, and as the heroes of Homer are always described as nobler and better than the men of his own day, it was necessary to depict the heroic age as better and nobler than its place in the declining series would strictly warrant. In the Golden Age men lived like gods; they were never feeble or old; death came upon them like a sleep. After death, we are told, the men of that age became holy spirits, who wandered over the earth in the service of the gods, watching the deeds of men, and bringing blessings to the pious. The account of the Silver Age is very unintelligible.1 In that time men were dandled in their mothers' arms for the space of a hundred years—giant babies they were !—but when grown up to man's estate their lives were brief. They made war on each other, and would not render service to the gods, and so they passed beneath the earth. Of the men of Bronze we learn that they were a strong and warlike race, who ate not the bread of men. Their arms, their houses, their tools were of bronze, for iron was unknown. Slain by each other's hands, they entered the home of Hades. The Heroes were those who fought at Thebes for the flocks of (Edipus, and at Troy for Helen. After death Zeus removed them to the limits of the earth, where in peace they dwell by the eddies of Oceanus, in the islands of the blest, happy heroes; thrice a year the earth brings forth her increase for their use. The Fifth Age is the worst of all—an age of oppression and treachery. Aidos and Nemesis have left the earth; there is no longer any
torch, and brings him to a bitter old age." For the " strange woman,'' yvvrf nvyooTokos, see 1. 373 fF. If Pandora be, as some think, an allegory of luxury, it is still woman who is the chief cause of luxury in human life. But the point of view in this passage ( Works and Days, 57 ff) and in Theogony, 561 ff., is slightly different. 1 See Schomanu, Opuse. ii. p. 308.
326               HESIOD'S POETRY: BEAST FABLES.           [X. 9.
thought of others, or regard for their rights. These men also in due time Zeus will bring to destruction.1
From the account of the Five Ages Hesiod passes on to the story of the Hawk and the Nightingale,—the first instance * The Hawk and of that use of the beast fable in Greek litera-Nigntingaie.' ^^ wnicn afterwards became famous in the hands of Aesop. After this apologue the poet earnestly exhorts his brother to do his duty as a man, and save himself from ruin. Then follow a number of sayings and apophthegms of which the Hesiodic origin is doubtful. Being pop egms. wj|.j10ut any connection, they could, of course, be enlarged by subsequent additions. Whether genuine or not, they mark the growth of that practical wisdom which also received expression in Greek elegiac poetry.
The second part of the poem (v. 383 ff.) is apparently separated by a considerable lapse of time from the first. Perses and Hesiod is visited by Perses, who applies to him Hesiod.            for nelp.    Direct assistance is refused.    " You
must work, silly Perses; work is ordained by the gods for men ; by work alone can you escape beggary." A number of rules for husbandry follow, and from husbandry Hesiod passes to navigation. We have seen that Dius, the father of the brothers, gained his living on the sea, and the Thespians, in whose territory Ascra lay, possessed a harbour on the Corinthian gulf. Hence the Boeotian farmer, when his labour was not required on the land, might make money on the sea.
The poem is here broken by a curious piece of personal history (vv. 646-662). Though he proposes by the grace of the Muses to instruct Perses in the art of navigation, Hesiod is not himself a seaman. Once only did he take ship, at the Hesiod at         tune when he crossed to Chalcis, and won a
chaicis.            tripod at the funeral of King Amphidamas.
We learn from Plutarch 2 that Amphidamas fell in a contest between Eretria and Chalcis for the Lelantian plain.   These
1   Works and Days, 11. 109 ff.
2  Con. Sep. Sap. 10.  He speaks of Amphidamas as avffp TroXtrtxo?.
X 9.] HESIOD'S POETRY: POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.  327
-contests, so far as we know, were later than any date which we can assign to Hesiod. For this reason, and from its general tone, the passage has been thought to be an interpolation. We are, unfortunately, so ignorant of the early history of Eubbea that we cannot decide whether Plutarch is correct in connecting Amphidamas with the wars which became so famous in Greece. And if on the one hand no reason can be given why Hesiod, when he had won fame by his poems, should not have crossed over to Euboea to take part in a contest of musical skill at Chalcis; on the other it may be urged that such a contest could be as easily invented as the more famous one between Homer and Hesiod.
This interruption is followed by the rules for navigation. There are two seasons for going to sea: an autumn season, which begins fifty days after the summer sol- Ruies anr* stice, and a spring season, when the " leaves at Superstitions, 4he tips of the trees are as large as the print of a crow's foot." But this second season is only to be "snatched;" it is dangerous, and those who venture to sea in it stake their lives. 14Do not," the poet wisely concludes, "put all your goods on Aboard; stow a little, and leave more at home." The poem now suddenly reverts to the conduct of life. A number of regulations are laid down similar to those which close the first part. Some exhibit the shrewd wisdom of practical life; in others we have traces of old and unintelligible superstitions. Marry when about thirty years of age, neither much before nor after, and let your wife be sixteen or seventeen. Marry a maid, that you may have the teaching of her; and, above all things, seek a wife among your neighbours. Form jio foolish friendships, nor yet cast off a friend lightly. Be careful of your speech; a sparing tongue is a great treasure; there is ever a charm in winning words. He that speaks evil will hear worse. Be neither over hospitable nor niggardly. Eivers and streams are holy—they are not to be defiled, nor crossed without a prayer. The ladle is not to be placed above the bowl—that is unlucky. Do not sit down, or put a *hild down, on what cannot be moved—harm will come of it.
328 HESIOD'S "WORKS & DAYS' <5r* 'THE0G0N1A: [X. 10.
Do not use a pot that has not been duly dedicated. Do not, when building a house, leave it unfinished, lest a daw settle on it and utter cries of evil omen. Such monitions prove the ancient date from which they have come down. They are the wisdom of the fathers, handed down from generation to generation in the remote valleys of Greece.
The close of the poem is the Calendar, in which the poet distinguishes the days of the month as favourable or unfavourable. As in later times, the month is divided into three decades. The last, or thirtieth day, is to be occupied in reviewing the work of the whole, and providing food for the next. The seventh day is sacred—on that day was Apollo born; the eighth and ninth are favourable for labour in the field; the eleventh and twelfth for shearing sheep, and for harvest, but the twelfth is far the better of the two. The sixteenth day is bad for a girl to be born or to marry on. The twentieth is favourable for the birth of men of great powers of mind. The fourth of the month is the best day for marriage, if the omens are favourable. "Few are aware that the twenty-seventh day is the best for opening a cask, for breaking-in an ox, mule, or horse, and for launching a ship—one commends this day, another that, but few know the truth. A day is a mother, and, again, a day is a step-mother. Happy who can make his choice with knowledge." Herodotus (ii 82) does not scruple to attribute the astrological knowledge of propitious or unpropitious days displayed by Greek poets to an Egyptian source, an assertion which is probably due to the Egyptian prejudices of that author. We have no reason to suppose that the rules laid down by Hesiod were not current in Greece in the earliest times, or that the Calendar is a later addition to the poem.
10. The Theogonia of Hesiod is an attempt to give an account
of the origin of the world and of the gods, for the two are in
. f      fact inseparable.    We cannot doubt that there
e°s°           were many such theogonies in early Greece.
The poets were at liberty to treat the material as they chose,
X. 20.]                    HESIOD'S ' THE0G0NIA.                            329
and in every nation the attempt has been made to explain the origin of the world. Framed by men who were entirely without any idea of natural law, these attempts often took a form which was fantastic and unintelligible. Later ages discarded them as unworthy of credit, and many were lost. The theogony of Hesiod must have been generally received at an early time, and, owing to the reputation of the poet, it was saved from destruction.
We begin with the origin of the earth, heaven, and sea. The poet assumes without scruple the existence of any material or force which is needed for his object. Hence Chaos, Earth and Tartarus are primeval, and with them is associated Eros, or Desire, a force of which Hesiod makes no further use, but which appears in similar cosmogonies as the impulse to union and creation. Then Night and Day are distinguished. The Earth brings forth the Heaven and the Sea.
From the union of Heaven and Earth sprang the Titans. Thus  the   cosmogony  passes into a theogony.   From the Titans are born the later race of Cronidae, who finally overthrow their predecessors and attain the supremacy in Heaven.   With these are associated the crowds of subordinate deities which the active imagination of the Greeks created.    Finally we have a list of the goddesses who associated with mortals, and became the ancestresses of heroic races.    The poem was thus brought into connection, doubtless by some later hand, with the Catalogue of Women, which, as we have seen, was ascribed to Hesiod.
We can no longer separate the materials from which the poet drew in composing this theogony. They were old and new; native and alien; the invention of priests Nature of and the tradition of the fathers. The meaning the Poem-of some myths was perhaps already lost when the poet attempted to combine them with others with which they had no real connection. Hence there are parts of the Theogony which are very obscure, and which were so perhaps to the
330         HESTOD'S ' THEOGONIA ' <5r* « CATALOGUE:   [X. IX.
author himself. Yet the poem has a great historical value. We see in it more plainly than elsewhere how the gross its historical an(l rude conceptions, either inherited from value.              barbarous    times    or   borrowed   from   alien
sources, were transfigured by the anthromorphic genius of the Greeks. The actions of the deities are often not human, but the deities are conceived in human form, and connected by human relations. The gods of Hesiod are not stocks and stones, nor demons of fantastic shapes. From the multitude of various traditions and divinities a system was now created which became authoritative in so far as it was generally received, and exercised a very considerable influence over the later Greeks. In this sense, Hesiod holds a place beside Homer as the creator of the theogony of the Greeks.
II. The third poem of Hesiod, which we know only in
fragments, is a catalogue of the women who were beloved by
t the gods, and became by them the mothers of
heroes.    Such catalogues were common in the
Boeotian school of epic poetry, which attempted, as we can
see from the Theogony, to systematise existing legends and
myths.    In antiquity we hear of two poems, the Catalogue of
mt „      ,      Women, and the Eoeae, but it is not certain that
4 The Eoeae.'         .            7                                          _     _
the two were not parts of the same work.1 From this source were taken the genealogies which appear in the later forms of legends. The lines in the eleventh book of the Odyssey, which describe the women who come to Odysseus, are perhaps the best illustration of the nature of this lost poem. The singular name Eoeae is said to have been derived from the words fj ofy, with which the descriptions of the various heroines began.
1 For the Catalogue and Eoeae, cf. Kinkel, Epic. Frag. p. 90 ff. In any case, the two were combined into one poem, of which three books formed the Catalogue and a fourth the Eoeae (see Kinkel, p. 92). So in Pausanias, i. 43. I {Catalogue), ii. 16. 4, etc. {Eoeae)) but he is doubtful whether the Eoeae is the work of Hesiod. His usual phrases are, " the poem which is called the Eoeae," "the author of the Eoeae."
X 12, I3J     HESIOD AND HOMER COMPARED.               331
12.  Aristotle remarks that Homer knew better than any mother author " what a poet ought to do." After a short prelude he introduces his characters, and allows them    Contrastof to speak for themselves, but in his own person    Homer
the poet rarely comes before us. Very different and Hes,od-is the case with Hesiod. We see with the poet's eyes; we feel that we are in his company. The man is no longer lost in the minstrel. It is Hesiod of Ascra who is Personality imparting to us this homely wisdom, these of Hesiod. strange stories of gods, in a poetic form. Even the system of the Theogony is an attempt to impress the stamp of a single mind upon materials gathered from far and near. Another ^aspect of this change is brought before us in the resentful attitude which Hesiod takes up towards the lords of Ascra —an attitude quite impossible to the courtly bards of the Homeric age. The strife of high and low has change in the begun; the economical view of life is con- tone of Poetry, trasted with the chivalrous. More important still is the fact that the events of common life are found worthy of a place in poetry. This is the first step to that combination of realism and art which is so characteristic of the Greek elegiac and lyric poetry.
13.  However great the hardships of the Boeotian peasant may have been, however severe the climate of the country, opportunities for recreation and enjoyment were not wanting. Every city had its festivals, at which there were generally sports or musical contests, or pastimes of some kind. The national festival of the Boeotian confederacy, the Pamboeotia, was held at Coronea in honour of Athena Itonia. Here a perpetual fire burned before the image of the goddess, who had once appeared in all her Gorgon terrors and turned her priestess Iodama to stone. The festival was the occasion of a great gathering, to which men flocked from all parts of Boeotia. At the shrine of the Muses on Helicon a quinquennial festival was held, at which there were musical contests and dances of boys. Thespiae, at the foot of the mountain, regarded Eros with especial honour.    His statue
332
BOEOTIAN FESTIVALS.
PL 13.
was a rude stone of immemorial antiquity; lovers sacrificed to him at the Erotidia, which were also the occasion of contests both musical and athletic. At Orchomenus there were Charitesia in honour of the Graces; Agrionia in honour of Dionysus; and at Thebes great festivals were held in honour of Apollo and Dionysus.
Nor was the Boeotian left without help in the doubts and difficulties of life; there were many national oracles to which he could repair. He might offer burnt sacrifice to Ismenian Apollo at Thebes; or consult Ptoan Apollo near Acraephia, a " most veracious oracle, which answered Mys the Carian in his own tongue;" or, if he were not a Theban, he might dream in the temple of Amphiaraus; or he might seek light and leading in the cave of Trophonius at Lebedea, unless he were deterred by the outlay in victims and the unpleasant ceremonial of consultation.1
In the Boeotian dialect we can observe the beginning of that change in the pronunciation of the Greek vowels which in the course of time reduced them all to a single sound or nearly so {Ita^ism),
e.g.    v appears for a> and 01,
i for £1,----KlflfVaS = K€lfJL€VaS$
1 for €,—xPl0s=sXPc0J» €i for rj.
On the other hand, the Boeotians used ov for the ordinary v, but the sound must have been a u, not an 00, for otherwise we should hardly find such a development as nov^a = tu^t/. In blov = ftvo, the final o seems to have been lost after the u sound, biov being for biovo.
1 Athena Itonia, Paus. ix. 34. 1 ; Strabo, p. 411. For the rest of the festivals, see the enumerations in Hermann, Gott. Alt, § 63; Kinck, Religion, ii. § 76. For Ptoan Apollo, Paus. ix. 23. 6; Herod, viii. 135. Trophonius, Paus. ix. 397 The inquirer at the oracle descended into an underground cave, from which he returned feet foremost I
CHAPTER  XL
THE   GREEK   COLONIES.
I. From the prosperity of the maritime cities Eretria* Chalcis, Megara, Corinth, etc., and of the Asiatic colonies, at the beginning of the eighth century B.O., we    Growth of may conclude that the Phoenician and Carian    commerce, traders had by that date been altogether outstripped in the Aegean by Hellenic mariners, who were now awake to the advantages which might be derived from commerce.    The cities on the coasts provided themselves with ships; the increase of wealth enabled them to build walls and equip their citizens with efficient arms.    The population increased, and as the nobles had risen to a power which counterbalanced that of the monarchs, so the development of trade and commerce created a wealthy class, which, in turn, demanded a share in the government.    Money, not birth,     influence on now made the man.     The change produced a     Politics, desire to embark in any venture which promised to bring the coveted prize of wealth.    In new settlements the impoverished and ruined aristocrat, or the discontented and excluded citizen, might hope for a more satisfactory position than he could gain at home.    At the same time the increased security of navigation, which arose partly from    Extension of the suppression of piracy, and partly from the    maritime ad-greater perfection of shipbuilding, allowed the    venture-mariners to become acquainted with distant shores, and pro ductive regions, whose wealth was but imperfectly known to the ignorant and barbarous natives.     Such were the general causes from which the new impulse to colonisation arose—
SS3
334        GREEK COLONIES: CHALCIS & ERETRIA. [XI. 2, $>
an impulse which spread the Hellenes over the greater part of the Mediterranean, and even carried them into the remote waters of the Black Sea.
2.  The cities which took part in this movement were not those which occupy our attention at a later period of Greek cities which history. That Sparta should not be engaged took part in in maritime enterprise in the eighth century colonisation.      B c  admits of easy explanation.    Her inland
position forbade it; and her strength was taxed to the utmost in the struggles in which she was engaged with her neighbours. But it is remarkable that not a single colony was sent out from Athens, though she already stood at the head of a. united Attica. At the time of which we are speaking, it was the Ionians of Euboea and Asia Minor, the Dorians of Corinth and Megara, who took the lead; and the success which attended the adventurers tempted the islanders of the Aegean, the Achaeans and Messenians of Peloponnesus, to follow in their steps.
The colonies were sent out in every direction; north wards, to Thrace and the Black Sea; westwards, to Sicily and classification Italy; southwards, to Egypt and Libya. In of the Colonies, speaking of them, it is convenient to disregard the chronological order of foundation, and arrange the settlements according to the locality in which they were planted, and the tribe which planted them.
I.—NORTHERN COLONIES.
3.  At an early period Chalcis and Eretria became the most important maritime cities of Euboea. The first was. Chaicis and situated on the Euripus, at the point where the Eretria.            island most nearly approaches the mainland; the second lay at some distance to the south-east, on the same shore. Between the two extended the Lelantian plain, a strip of fertile land, separating the shore and the mountains of the interior, and watered by the river Lelantus. In very early times (1046 B.C. is the traditional date) Chalcis, in connection
XI. 4.J                 THE NORTHERN COLONIES.                       335
with Cyme, a small town on the eastern coast of Euboea, is said to have founded Cyme in Campania (Cumae). The early date is probably a mistake, arising cymeinCam* from the confusion of Cyme in the Aeolid with pania* Cyme in Italy. For it is far more reasonable to suppose that the Chalcidians, when established in Sicily, passed through the Straits of Messina and along the Italian shore till they found a suitable site in the islands of Oenaria and Prochyta, and the headland of Cyme, than that they should have penetrated to such distant regions without founding a single settlement on the way.1 Even if it existed, the so-called colony can have been nothing more than an isolated band of pirates. It was not till the eighth century B.C. that Chalcis and Eretria began to send out colonies in the later sense— i.e. settlements intended to form cities, and generally confirmed by divine sanction—and the first expeditions were apparently directed to the north.
4. In the Works and Days of Hesiod we hear of a King Amphidamas of Chalcis, at whose funeral games and musical contests were held, in which Hesiod carried off Constitution the prize (p. 326). Before the eighth century of chalcis. the monarchy had been replaced by an oligarchy of the richer citizens, who called themselves Hippobotae. Under this constitution public offices were open only to those citizens who were above fifty years of age, and possessed of a certain amount of property.2   Of the government of Eretria nothing
1  So Duncker, Hist. Greece, ii. 157 note. Holm, Gr. Gesch. i. 359, thinks that Cyme may have existed as a pirates' nest before the founding of Naxos. Other writers agree with Duncker in putting it later. The Greeks certainly regarded it as the oldest Greek settlement in the West (Strabo, p. 243), and it is possible that the Teleboae or some western mariners may have visited the place at a very early time, as Holm suggests.
2  Strabo, p. 447 : *orakr)<rap o*€ at anoiKiai aurai, KaBairep clprjKfp 'AptororeXi;?, rjvUa f) tcop 'linroftoTav Kakovfievq €7T€Kpa.T€i irdkirfia* irpocorrjo-av yap avrrfs dno Ti^pAnov apdpes apia-roKpariKm apxovr€s. For the age, Heracl. Frag. 31 M. Aristotle (Pol. iv. 3. 3=12896) includes both the Chalcidians and the Eretrians among the oligarchies
336                      PALLENE-SITHONIA—ACTB.                {.XI. 5.
is recorded beyond the fact that it also was an oligarchy of knights. At the time of her greatest prosperity the city Constitution could send a procession of sixty chariots, 600 ofEretria.         horsemen, and 3000 hoplites to the adjacent
temple of Artemis Amarynthia.1 Both cities seem to have established some kind of supremacy over the neighbouring islands; Chalcis over those lying to the north, Sciathos, Icos, and Peparethos; Eretria over those to the south, Andros; Tenos and Ceos.2
5. The coast of Macedonia between the Axius and Strymon projects into the sea in a solid peninsula, which finally sepa-Coionies of rates into three long promontories. Here the Chaicidice. Euboeans planted their colonies amid a population of Thracians and Pelasgians;3 and so numerous were they that the district was known as Chaicidice, from Chalcis, the greatEuboean city. On Pallene, the western-Peiiene.            mogt ^ ^ ^ree promontories, were founded
Mende, an Eretrian colony, famous for its wine; Scione, a colony of Pellene in Achaea; and Potidaea, a colony of Corinthians.    On Sithonia, which was the name given to the middle promontory, lsy Torone, a Ohalcidian town, and one of the earliest settlements.    At the head of the bay, which separated the two promontories—the bay of Torone—wasOlynthus, a town which, originally occupied by Bottiaeans, became, afc a later date, a colony of Chalcidians, and the most famous of the cities of Chaicidice. On the third promontory, the Acte, which terminated in Mount Athos, were situated Sane and Acanthus, colonies founded about the middle of the seventh century
whose strength lay in their cavalry. In Pol v. 12, 12 = 1316 a, we are told that the tyranny of Antileon changed the government into an oligarchy; and in v. 4. 9 = 1304 a, we hear of a tyrant Phoxus, who was put down by a combination of the notables and the people, who then seized the government.
1 Strabo, p. 448.
» Scymn. Ch. 580, 586.    Strabo, Ic.
8 Thuc. iv. 109; Herod, vii. 122, 123.
XI. 6,7-1        ABDERA-MARONEA—MEGARA.                 337
from Andros.    Of the Greek cities which lay farther to the north than Chalcidice, Abdera was founded first by  the Clazomenians and afterwards by the Teians,     Abdera and when flying from the victorious Persians soon    Maronea. after the middle of the sixth century.    Maronea was a colony of Chios, and, like the mother city, it was famous for its wine.
6.  The prosperity of the Euboean cities was ruined by an unfortunate quarrel for the possession of the Lelantian plain. After a long and exhausting war Chalcis re-    war between mained victorious, but the strength of the city    chalcis and was broken.    Thucydides speaks of the war     Eretna-
as one which divided Hellas into two opposing camps. The Thessalians, the colonists in Thrace, and the Samians, joined Chalcis; the Milesians aided Eretria.1 It is interesting to observe that the combatants allowed themselves to be governed hy fixed rules of warfare, each side undertaking not to make use of missile weapons. The final battle is said to have been decided by the valour of Cleomachus at the head of his Thessalian cavalry.2 We have no definite date to assign to this war, but as the Euboeans were active in the colonisation of Sicily in the middle of the eighth century, we may, perhaps, put the Lelantian war at its close. The islands which had been subject to Eretria were now able to assert their independence, and Andros began to send out colonies of her own (p. 364).
7.  In early legends the Megarid was regarded as a part of Attica, and the limits of Ionian territory extended to the isthmus.3   In historical times the country was
occupied by Dorians, a change which was attri-       eeara» buted to the Dorian invasion which took place in the time of Codrus.4    For a considerable period after this date the Megarians appear to have been subject to the Corinthians. But at the time when Phorbas was life-archon at Athens, the
1  Thuc. i. 15 ; Herod, v. 99.
2  Strabo, p. 448, who quotes an inscription in the temple of Artemis Amarynthia; Plut. Am. I7f 3 ff.
9 Strabo, p. 393.                              4 Herod, v, 76.
VOL. I.                                                                              Y
333              MEGARIAN COLONIES: CHALCEDON.        [XI. 7.
Megarians, with the assistance of the Argives, defeated the Corinthians.1 After the liberation, the country went through the usual Greek process of synacismus; the five communities, which had hitherto existed as separate villages, Heraea, Megarian          Megara,   Piraea,   Tripodiscus   and   Cynosura
Colonies.          were centralised at Megara.2   By 728 B.C. the
Megarians had become a maritime nation, and were able to found their first colony in Sicily (see p. 345). After this date their energies were, for a time, engaged at home. In 720 B.c. Orsippus of Megara was victor in the foot-race at Olympia, and his victory was the more remarkable as he was the first athlete who was crowned naked. But he was more than an athlete. In the inscription which the Megarians engraved upon his statue in their marketplace, we are told that he "won back much territory for his-country, and extended her limits far and wide."3 These acquisitions were, without doubt, made in border wars with the Corinthians. Yet, even with these additions, Megara was neither a large nor a fertile district The available land was quite insufficient for the needs of the energetic race which possessed it. In the generation which succeeded Megarian coio- OrsipPus we &n& the Dorians pursuing the route niesonthe which the Ionians of Euboea had opened to Bosporus.         t^e noT^  an(j passing  beyond the regions
already colonised. In 675 B.C., under the leadership of Archias, they founded Chalcedon on the Asiatic shore of the Bosporus. The choice of the site may have been determined by the numerous Greek settlements on the Anatolian coast, which would thus seem less inhospitable than the opposite shore.    But, fifteen years later,
1 Paus. vi. 19. 13, 14. There are no early coins of Megara from which we can gather information about the standard on which they were struck. It is easy to conjecture that Argos supported Megara against Corinth in order that she might share in the western trade of Megara. This would lead us to assume an Aeginetic standard at Megara, at any rate in the earliest times.
*  Plut. Quaest. Graec. 17.
*  See Hicks, Historical Inscriptions, p. 3.
XL 8.]     MEGARIAN COLONIES: BYZANTIUM, &c.         339
a second band of emigrants ventured to found Selymbria in the land of the Thracians, on the northern shore of the Propontis (660 B.C.). Two years later still (658 Dorians found B.C.) an excellent harbour was discovered on Selymbria the European shore of the Bosporus, where the coast is broken by an inlet of the sea (the Golden Horn).    Here the Megarians founded Byzantium.    The name of the city was taken from the  "fortress of Byzas," a an    yzantlum* stronghold of the native Thracians.    For a long time the colonists had to defend their new acquisition against the Thracians in a series of severe struggles, but when these were over, the city rapidly attained prosperity.   The entrance to the Black Sea was now entirely in the hands of the Megarians, and, at the same time, their colonies reached farther to the west than those of any other Greek city.   The extraordinary development of this little state, the daring energy and foresight of its citizens, are without a parallel in the history of Greek colonisation.    No small part of their Enterprise of prosperity was due  to the  situation of the the Megarians. country, which, except in the convenience of transferring ships from one sea to another, was a rival of Corinth.    They had ports on both seas (Pegae and Nisaea), and the traffic from north to south passed through their country.    At a later time the Samians attempted to share in the advantages of the trade of Byzantium by founding Per- Perinthus founded inthus in the neighbourhood of the city (B.C. by the Samians. 600).     Quarrels between the two colonies were frequent, but neither succeeded in destroying the other; and, owing to her superior site, Byzantium retained her precedence.1
8. The monarchical form of government, founded by Neleus, continued to exist at Miletus for some generations. Among his descendants we hear of Phobius and Phrygius, but there is nothing important to relate of them.2   In truth, the
1  Strabo, p. 320, describes the advantages which Byzantium derived from the tunny fishery.
2  Phobius ceded the throne to Phrygius owing to the stain brought upon him by the conduct of his wife (Aristot. Frag. 199 M.).
340                 MILES/AN COLONIES: SINOPE.             [XL 8.
only historical event recorded of the monarchy at Miletus is its fall, which was due, as so often, to a quarrel in the royal Miletus: fall of house. Laodamas and Amphitres contested the monarchy. tne succession, and an arrangement was made that the throne should pass to him who deserved best of the Milesians. At this time Miletus was at war with Melos and Carystus. Amphitres was unsuccessful against Melos, but Laodamas defeated the Carystians. To him, therefore, the throne was given. Amphitres, in revenge, fell upon him and slew him as he was sacrificing to Apollo. Soon afterwards he was himself slain by the sons of Laodamas. But the sons were not allowed to succeed their father on the throne. The constitution was rearranged and became an oligarchy, undera prytanis or president, " who had supreme authority in many matters."1 The abolition of the monarchy did not secure domestic peace for the city. We hear of the rise and fall of a tyrannis, and of factions between the notables and commons, in which either side proceeded to acts of the most atrocious cruelty.2 And from the beginning of the seventh century, Miletus, as the chief of the Ionian cities, began to feel the weight of the Lydian power. These disastrous events do not, however, appear to have seriously affected the prosperity of the city. Prosperity of Trade flourished ; the colonies of the Milesians Miletus.           spread far and wide into regions hitherto un-
known to the Greek mariner. From their position and intercourse with the native tribes the Milesians were able to gather information about the advantages to be obtained by trading in the Euxine. On the southern shore the land was rich Trade in the in metals: copper, iron, and silver; timber Euxine.            abounded in the magnificent forests.    On the
north the supply of grain and skins was inexhaustible; the sea swarmed with fish.   About 770 B.C. a Milesian colony was planted at Sinope,  under the leadership of mope.             Abron.    The town was built on a peninsula,
across the neck of which—a distance of a quarter of a mile
1 Conon, Narr. 44;  Nicol. Damasc. Frag. 54; Arist. Pol. v. 5, 8 = 1305 a.                               2 Plut. Quaest. Or. 32 ; Athen. p. 524.
XI. 9-1     MILESIAN COLONIES IN THE EUXINE.          341
—a wall was carried for protection against attack from the mainland. On either side of the peninsula, which faced the north, lay an excellent harbour. From Sinope in 756 B.C. a new colony was founded farther to the east. This was Trapezus—the modern Trebizond. Between these colonies and the mother city the Milesians established Trapezus, and Cyzicus in the Propontis, which became the Cyzicus. emporium of their trade with the Black Sea (675 B.c.) Finally, in 708 B.C., the Milesians, in concert with the Parians and Erythraeans, founded Parium in the Hellespont, and very soon afterwards the Parians made an attempt to secure the island of Thasos, and wrest from the natives of the opposite coast a share of the profits in the gold mines of the region. The colony underwent severe struggles, but was at length successful.
Fifty years later the Milesians extended their colonies to the northern shore of the Euxine.    Istros, a city on the coast, south of the Danube, was founded abou165 0 B. c.   Colonies on Not many years later Olbia was planted at  the north of the mouth of the river Borysthenea (Dnieper)   theEuxine-from which the town was subsequently re-named.    These were followed by numerous other settlements:  Theodosia, Panticapaeum,  Phanagoria,  Phasis,  and others, until  the shores of the Black Sea were covered on every hand with Grecian colonies.1   It is said that Miletus, directly or indirectly, planted no fewer than eighty colonies in the Euxine. At a later time these towns became the chief source of the corn supply of Greece; even in the time of Xerxes vessels laden with corn could be seen sailing through the Hellespont.2
9. The Black Sea was at first known to the Greeks as the Pontos Axeinos, or "inhospitable" ocean, but afterwards* owing no doubt to the numerous colonies planted on its shores, the name was changed to Euxeinos,                 ea*
or " hospitable." The great sea, of which even Herodotus has
1  Strabo, p. 635; Scymn. Ch. 734.
2  Herod, vii. 147, "to Aegiua and the Peloponnesus"
342                        THE EUXINE COLONIES.                 [XI. 10.
such an exaggerated estimate,1 could not but appear a vast and desolate expanse to the adventurous mariners who first penetrated its waters. Accustomed to move from bay to bay, or island to island, without ever losing sight of land, in a sea whose winds and currents they knew, the Greek* were now launched into an immense basin, without island* or easily distinguished landmarks. In its mysterious vastnes? the Euxine seemed a fitting home for all that was most strange and weird in Hellenic legend. At its mouth, beyond the Fabulous stories Bosporus, fable placed the wandering or closing connected with rocks, which brought destruction on every ship the Sea.            which attempted to pass through them, until
at length they were fixed for ever by the will of Zeus. The voyage of the Argo was transferred to the Euxine; the land of Aeetes was Colchis, the eastern shore of the newly-explored sea. The Amazons dwelt on the southern coast; and Iphi-geneia had been wafted from Aulis to the Tauric Chersonese. Yet, in the space of a century, this sea was crowded with Greek settlements. The barbarians on its shores became friendly allies; Scythians copied Hellenic manners, and Greeks married Scythian women. So great was the power which the Greeks possessed of assimilating alien elements, and carrying their civilisation with them wherever they went.2
II—COLONIES OF WESTERN GREECE.
10. In the west also the Chalcidians led the way. In 735 B.C. the first Greek settlement in Sicily was founded by Colonies in a combined body of emigrants from Chalcis in siciiy.             Euboea, and the island of Naxos.     They were
led by Theocles.    The new town, which was called Naxos from the name of the island, was situated under the steep declivity of Mount Taurus, at the mouth of a small river.    Behind it rose the heights of Etna.    Six years later Theocles was able to establish a second
1 Herod iv. 86.                  2 See Holm, Griech. Gesch. i. 330.
XL IX.]         WESTERN COLONIES: SICILY, &c.               343
colony, Leontini, to the south of the volcano, about five miles distant from the coast, and so tempting was the richness of the soil, that, in spite of the danger arising Leontini and from the proximity of the mountain, a third Catana» °n E*n». colony, Catana, was planted, soon after Leontini, at the point where the roots of Etna sink into the sea.
At this time the extreme west of Sicily was in the possession of the Phoenicians, who had established themselves at various points on the coast. Of the inhabitants of the interior, the most western were the Elymi, whose stronghold was Eryx, and their tutelary deity a goddess whom the Greeks called Aphrodite; next to these were the Sicani, who also worshipped at Eryx ; and further to the east, in the immediate proximity of the Greeks, lay the Sicels. These and the Sicani were of the same race as the early inhabitants of Italy.
II. The new-comers were not content with Sicily.   We have seen that tradition places the foundation of "Euboie Cyme" in 1050 B.C., and, even if we diminish colonies in this date by three hundred years, Cyme will Italy-still remain the first colony of the Greeks on the Italian peninsula.   From this point, according to the legend, pirates returned   to   Sicily   and   established   themselves   on   the Straits of Messina.     They were  soon  joined by a band of Chalcidians, and. the   new  settlement  (728  B.C.) was called Zancle,  from the shape  of the  site, The chalcidians which was a promontory in the form of a found zancle sickle.    The colonists quickly saw what advantages they would gain from a complete command of the strait, and in order to establish a city on the Italian shore they sent to Chalcis to ask for assistance.    The Chalcidians responded to the appeal, and, in union with a number of exiled Messenians, founded Ehegium (715 B.C., or earlier).    Finally, about 648 B.C. the Zanclaeans established a new outpost in the west of Sicily, on the Himera, a river flow- an      egium-ing into the sea on the northern shore, in close proximity to the ancient Phoenician towns of Panormus and Soloeis.
344             CORINTHIAN COLONIES: SYRACUSE.       [XL 12.
12. From the time that Aletes had secured Corinth for the Dorians, the city was governed by kings who succeeded each Corinth under other in the following order: Aletes, Ixion, the monarchs. Agelas, Prymnis, Bacchis [Agelas II.], Eudemus. The only important name in the list is Bacchis, who appears to mark a break in the series, and the accession of a new family, or of a new branch, to the throne. From him the ruling family at Corinth were henceforth known as the Bacchiads.—Eudemus had two sons, Aristomedes and Agemon. When the first died, leaving an infant son, Teles tes, Agemon usurped the throne, and at his death he left it to his son Alexander. Alexander was slain by Telestes, who was slain in his turn by Ariaeus and Perentas, kinsmen of Alexander. After the death of Telestes, the monarchy was abolished, and a yearly prytanis, taken from the royal family, go-Estabiishment verned Corinth with the aid of a senate of of an oligarchy, eighty members. This change seems to have taken place in 745 B.C. Eleven years afterwards, Archias, one of the most powerful members of the ruling family at Corinth, endeavoured to gain possession by force of a youth named Actaeon. Resistance was made, and Actaeon perished in the struggle. Then Archias left Corinth and Archias founds retired to Sicily in the year following the Syracuse.          foundation of Naxos (734 B.c).    He settled on
Ortygia, which was at that time a small island off the Sicilian coast, near the mouth of the Anapus. This was the nucleus of the city of Syracuse, the most famous of all the Greek settlements in Sicily. The space between the island and the mainland, which were subsequently united by a mole, afforded excellent harbourage for ships; the soil of the adjacent country was exceedingly fertile. From Syracuse were founded Casmenae and Camarina.1
Thirty years after the foundation of Syracuse, the Cor-
1 Holm is of opinion that Euboeans and even Eleans had visited Syracuse before Archias, but his was the settlement sanctioned by Delphi.
XI. 13.]       CORINTHIAN COLONIES: CORCYRA.              345
inthians seized the island of Corcyra, which formed a convenient station on the voyage to the new colonies in Sicily. It is said that the Eretrians had already perceived the importance of the place, and had orcyra selze * attempted to colonise it. But they were unable to maintain themselves against the attack of the Corinthian Chersicrates, who, like Archias, was an exiled or dishonoured member of the Bacchiad family.1 The island was supposed to be the abode of the Phaeacians of Homeric story, and the colonists— for of the original inhabitants we know nothing—were eager to rival the nautical skill of their mythical predecessors. There was wood in abundance for shipbuilding; the soil was productive of wine and oil; and a remunerative trade could be carried on with the inhabitants of the neighbouring coast. The colonisation of Corcyra falls in the year 705 B.C.,2 and it is remarkable that this is the date within a year which Thucy-dides mentions in connection with the new war-ship of the Corinthians (infra, ch. xii.). It was in 704 B.C. that Aminocles the Corinthian built triremes for the Samians. Triremes built by Forty years after this date the colony of Cor- the Corinthians, cyra had attained such strength that it resolved to break loose from the mother city. In 664 B.c. the first naval battle was fought between Greeks, and, though Thucydides does not explicitly mention the fact, it is certain that Corcyra established her independence.
13. The Megarians also took part in the colonisation of the west. A few years after the Corinthians had planted their colony at Syracuse, a band of Megarians sailed Megarian coio-to Thapsus, a promontory to the north of the nies in the west. Corinthian town, and settled there, on land given to them by Hyblon, a chief of the Sicels.     The colony
t                       tt   1 i             -mr               /^r»rt           \        a    Megara, Sicily.
was known as Hyblaean Megara (728 B.C.).    A
hundred years afterwards, a new colony was founded by the
Megarians far to the west, on the southern shore of the island,
1  The pressure of the Lelantine war may have made Eretria unable to carry out her views in Corcyra.
2  Others place it earlier, in the next year to Syracuse.
346    DORIAN COLONIES: GELA—AGRIGENTUM.     [XI. 14.
which received the name of Selinus, from the parsley abounding in the neighbourhood.   Like Himera on the northern coast, this city formed an advanced post of   Hellenic  commerce   and   civilisation  among  the Phoenicians.
Another Dorian colony in Sicily was Gela, founded in 690 B.C. by a combined body of emigrants from Rhodes and Crete.    The city lay on the south coast of the island, at the north of the river of the same name. From Gela, after the lapse of a century, was founded Acragas or Agrigentum (c. 580 B.C.), which became, cragas.           un(jer her tyrants, the second city of Sicily.
14. Nearer home, on the western coast of Greece, a number x)f colonies were founded by the Corinthians in the second colonies in half of the seventh century (650-600 B.C.) In Western Greece. (555 B c# the oligarchical government of Corinth was overthrown by Cypselus, under whose vigorous administration the city rose to yet greater eminence. The Corinthians were still envious of the position of Corcyra, and though, for a time, no direct attempt was made to subdue the rebellious •city, Cypselus at once proceeded to establish settlements which confined her power and embarrassed her trade. Am-bracia was founded on the Arachthus, at a
Anactonum,             .                                                       ,      *   ,       .
Ambracia,         point some miles above the mouth of the river;
and Leucas. Leucas on the promontory of that name, which was, however, made into an island by cutting a passage through the narrow isthmus) and Anactorium on the southern shore of the Ambracian Gulf.1 The Corcy-Epi amnus. raeans were unable to prevent the foundation of these cities; but they sought to repair the damage done to their commerce by founding Epidamnus in 625 B.C., as a convenient station from which to develop a trade with the barbarous tribes of the continent.    The emigrants were con-
1 Strabo, p. 452 : koi ttjs xeppovfoov 8i.opv£avT€s top l<T$p,bv iiroiria-av vrfo-ov ttjv A€VKa8a, jcat ncTcveymvres rfjv Nrjpirov im rov tottov, 6s rjv itot€ fih IcOfxoS) vvv be 7ropdi*6s yec^vpa (cvktos, fi€T<ov6fAa(rap Acvjed$a *7ra>w/xoi>, boK& fioi, tov AfVKara.
XL 15.]     CORCYRA AND CORINTH—TARENTUM.          347
ducted to the new city under the auspices of Phalius, the son of Eratoclides, a Heraclid of Corinth.1
Periander, the son of Cypselus (625 B.C.) succeeded where his father failed. He reduced Corcyra to sub- Pcriander of mission, and placed his son Nicolaus in com- Corinth subju-mand. A new colony was founded at Apollonia, gates Corcyra-to the south of Epidamnus, and additions were made to the colonies which Cypselus had founded. In this manner the Corinthians were firmly established on the But the island western shores of Greece. The greater was recovers its the vexation when, on the death of Periander, impendence. Corcyra threw off her allegiance to Corinth, and once more divided the spoils of the West with the mother city.2
15. In Italy the Dorians were less active. One colony only, of first-rate rank, was founded on the peninsula, and this was not the work of a seafaring city anxious to extend her commerce, but the refuge of a defeated faction. When the rebellion of the Partheniae had been suppressed at Sparta, the defeated insurgents were bidden            um*
by the Delphian oracle to "seek the clear waters of the Taras." Thither, therefore, they went in the year 708 B.C., and founded Taras, or Tarentum, in the lapygian Bay, at the mouth of the river of that name. The city rose to importance by its trade and manufactures, and, though it had to undergo severe conflicts with the Messapians of Brentesium, it remained the chief centre of Greek civilisation in this part of Italy (supra, p. 269).
The Tarentines were not the first Greeks who had penetrated this region. Thirteen years previously (721 B.C.) Achaeans from Peloponnesus had founded Achaeans in Sybaris on the Crathis,3and in 710 B.c. a second Italy-Achaean city had been established at Croton, near the Lacinian headland. The success of these colonies was so remarkable that, in time, Achaean cities covered the southern
1 Thuc. i. 24.                               2 See infra, c. xii,
•« Arist. Pol v. 3. 11 = 1303 a.    Cf. Strabo, p. 263.
348         MAGNA GRAECIA—SPAIN—MARSEILLES.   [XI. id.
shore of Italy,  which became known as Magna Graecia. Owing to the great fertility of the soil the y ans,   ro o . gy*j>arj|;es obtained wealth without effort, and ere long they degenerated into a luxury which in time became proverbial.    Still farther to the south than Croton was Locri Epizephyrii, founded about 700 B.C. by emigrant Locrians from the Corinthian Gulf.1    Other colonies were Metapontum, which claimed to be as old as the times of the Trojan war, a city famous for its corn; Siris, a colony of the Colophonians, 680 B.C.; Scylletium, ' Caulonia; the colonies of Sybaris, Poseidonia (Paestum)andPyxus; and those of Croton, Temesa and Terena. l6. One settlement, lying far to the west, still remains. The Phocaeans of Asia Minor, though not the first to open the treasures of the mines of Spain, quickly availed themselves of the discovery.    They sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar to Tartessus, where they were hospitably received by the native prince, Arganthonius. The same spirit of adventure carried them to the Ligurian coast.    Here, about 600 B.C., they founded Massilia (Marseilles) near the mouth of the Ehone.    A later colony went out about 565 B.C. to Alalia, in Corsica, which was joined twenty years afterwards by the Phocaeans who refused to submit to Cyrus.     The colonists had to sustain severe conflicts, not only with the natives, whom they dispossessed, but with their rivals in navigation and commerce, the Tyrrhenians and Carthaginians.     These nations naturally resented the intrusion of new-comers into regions from which hitherto they had reaped an undivided harvest.2   About 540 B.C. a great battle took place at Alalia. The Greeks are said to have been victorious, but they lost forty out of their sixty ships.    Alalia was abandoned, and the Phocaeans founded a new colony in Lucania at Elea (Velia, c. 540 B.c.)
1  For Locri, see Polyb. xii. 5 ff.; Strabo, p. 259.
2  For Massilia, etc., cf. Arist. Frag. 239 M.; Justin, xliii. 3; Thuc. i 13; Herod, i 165.
XL 17.]                 THE GREEKS IN AFRICA.                      349
COLONIES IN AFRICA.
17. In the first half of the seventh century Psammetichus succeeded in establishing an independent monarchy in Northern Egypt. In this enterprise he was assisted by Ionian and Carian mercenaries (sent by rce 8in gypt Gyges, king of Sardis); and henceforth Greek mercenaries were retained in Egypt and stationed on the Pelusiac arm of the Nile. In the reign of Amasis (570-526), the Milesians were allowed to establish an emporium on the Naucratis, Canopic arm of the Nile, where they were joined on the Nile-by other Greeks from Asia and the islands. Temples were founded for the worship of Greek deities. Samos, Aegina, and Miletus possessed separate temples; but the Hellenium was a common shrine for the colonists from Teos, Clazo-menae, Phocaea, Chios, Cnidus, Halicarnassus, Phaselis, Rhodes, and Mitylene.1 Naucratis, as the settlement was now called, became a great and flourishing city; and a knowledge of Egypt, the land of immemorial antiquity and stupendous monuments, was diffused throughout Greece.
A second colony in Africa was Gyrene, a settlement of the Theraeans.   The island of Thera (Santorin) had been colonised at an early time by the Phoenicians, and sub- cyrene, on the sequently by Minyae and Achaeans, who had north coast, been expelled from the banks of the Eurotas by the growing power of Sparta (supra, p. 220).    The colony seems to have become prosperous; the abundant remains of pottery are evidence of the trade which was carried on in these articles; the inscriptions are the oldest which we possess, and go back to the second half of the seventh century.   The c renacan island also gave its name to a species of native account of the embroidery which was highly esteemed.    From foundation' Thera, about 630 B.C., a colony was sent out, which first settled on Platea, a small island off the coast of Libya, and
1 Herod, ii. 154, 178.   Excavations are now being carried on at Naucratis, under the direction of Mr. Flinders Petrie.
350           GREEK AFRICAN COLONIES: CYRENE.     [XI. 17.
eight years afterwards at Cyrene. Herodotus tells a romantic story of the founding of this city, which, he says, was the account given by the colonists at Cyrene, and differed from that of the Theraeans. Etearchus, king of Oaxus, in Crete, had & daughter Phronime, whom her stepmother, the second wife of Etearchus, accused of unchastity. Etearchus delivered the girl into the hands of Themison of Thera, a romme.         friend who had pledged himself to carry out any
command which Etearchus might impose upon him, bidding him throw her into the sea on his voyage home. Themison was indignant that such a charge should be laid upon him, but he would not break his oath. He threw Phronime into the sea, as he was pledged to do; drew her out again, and carried her to Thera, where she was taken by Polymnestus as his concubine. She became the mother of a son, Battus, who was so called because he stammered in his speech. When he became a man, Battus repaired to Delphi to be helped of his infirmity. Without vouchsafing any answer to his questions, the oracle bade him found a colony in Libya. Battus replied that he was unable to do so with the forces which he had at command, and when the oracle made no further communication he returned to Thera. After his return all went. ill with him and the Theraeans. In their distress they sent to Delphi, but the answer was still the same: A colony must be sent to Cyrene* At length Battus was despatched with two penticonters. He failed to establish the colony, and returned, as before, to Thera. But the Theraeans, in their fear of the displeasure of the deity, would not allow the emigrants to land. In despair they returned upon their way, and settled on the small island of Platea, off the Libyan coast. Still followed by misfortune, they sailed after two years to Delphi, in the hope of a more favourable response. But the answer was the same: They must colonise Libya. Battus then returned, and settled at Aziris, on the mainland, where he remained six years. In the seventh year the Libyans conducted the emigrants  to  a more fertile spot,  where
XI. I7-]    GREEK AFRICAN COLONIES: CYRENE.           351
the  "sky was  pierced."     Here was founded the city of Cyrene.1
The Theraeans knew nothing of Phronime or Themison. In their story the King of Thera was at Delphi offering sacrifice and consulting the oracle, which com- Theraean manded him to colonise Libya. He declared account that he was too old for such an undertaking, and pointed to Battus, the son of Polymnestus, who stood by his side, as better fitted for the task. They returned home, and, owing to their ignorance of the situation of Libya, the colony was not sent out. Thera was now afflicted with a blight, and on consulting Delphi the Theraeans were once more bidden to colonise Libya. They made inquiries in Crete for some one who was acquainted with the country, and at length found a certain Corobius, who had been driven out of his course to the island of Platea. Thither they went, and when the news of their arrival reached Thera, a strong detachment of the inhabitants of the island was sent to join them.2
Battus, the name given to the son of Phronime, is a Libyan word, the titular appellation of the kings of Cyrene. It could not have been in use till the city had been founded and recognised by the nations of the coast. The defect from which Battus suffered is.derived from his name; it has arisen from the similarity of the Libyan title to the Greek word which means to stammer.
From other sources we find that the real name of the founder of Cyrene was Aristoteles.3 The cause of his migration was not a defect of speech, but defeat in a The probable party quarrel. Compelled to leave the island facts-of Thera, and unable to force a return, he retired with his adherents to the African coast, and founded a new city. That he occupied the island of Platea before he settled on the mainland is probable. Thence he may have passed, as the story relates, to Aziris, and from Aziris to Cyrene. The Libyans were overpowered, and compelled to accept Aristoteles
i Herod, iv. 154 ff.    2 Herod, iv. 150 ff.     3 Schol. in Pind. Pyth. iv. lfc
352                  CAUSES CREATING COLONIES.           [XI. 18.
as their monarch; in this manner he received the title Battus, which was borne by the Libyan native kings. From Cyrene a second colony, Barca, was established1 by the younger brothers of the third descendant of the founder of Cyrene (Arcesilaus II.). Still farther to the west was the colony of Euesperides.
18. The rapid and simultaneous development of colonisation in the eighth century B.C. is one of the most remarkable features of Greek history. It is true that piracy was common in the earliest times of which we have any record. Even Colonics and then it was the scourge of the Mediterranean, •pirates*nests.' gj^ doubtless, the Greeks took an increasing part in it, as their knowledge of maritime affairs developed. But stations established by pirates, and immediately abandoned when some more suitable post offered, are not Greek colonies in the sense in which we find them spreading far and wide, from the middle of the eighth century, with the guidance and approval of Delphi. The nature and foundation of these settlements can only be explained by reference to the political conditions of the prominent cities of the time. The general causes already alluded to (p. 333), the growth of the population, the love of liberty, the desire of wealth, whatever force they may have had, are too permanent and universal to explain entirely so peculiar a phenomenon.
The middle of the eighth century marked the close of a change in the constitutional history of Greece. At the time of the Dorian migration monarchy was the form of govern-Deciineofmon- ment universally established in the cities. In archy in Greece. the battle-field a chief is needed to lead his people; monarchy is better adapted than any other form of government for the necessities of war. In more peaceful times the case is altered. The pre-eminence of a commander is no longer acknowledged when there is no opportunity for
1 Duncker, Gesch. des Alt, vi. 260 ff. Herodotus, iv. 155, tells us that Battus was the name of the Libyan king. For Barca, Herod. ib. 160.
XI. 19.]             CAUSES CREATING COLONIES.                     353
the display of his courage and sagacity. Others feel themselves his equals, and regard his superior position as an infringement of their rights; or his virtues degenerate into vices, and monarchy becomes a tyranny. In one way or another the monarchies of Greece came to an end, and their place was taken by elective officers chosen from certain families, or under certain restrictions of age or wealth. At Argos the monarchy was at an early age reduced to a mere name; and though it was revived in its fullest extent by Phidon, it declined after Phidon's death. In Corinth the monarchy ended, amid strife and bloodshed, in 745 B.C. In Athens the kings became life-archons; these were succeeded by decennial archons; theprivi- lgarc ies* leges of the ruling family were gradually set aside; and at length the duties of the office were parcelled out among nine annual officers. In Thebes the monarchy appears to have ceased at an early period, if it be true that Xanthus, the contemporary of Melanthus, was the last king. In Euboea the kings were succeeded at Chalcis by the oligarchy of the Hippobotae. It is only in the half barbarous states of Greece that we find monarchs continuing in power; in Macedon and Epirus. A similar change went on in the cities of Asia Minor. The Penthilidae of Lesbos, the descendants of Agamemnon of Cyme, the Neleid princes at Miletus and Ephesus, disappear, to make room for oligarchies.1
19. The oligarchies which succeeded the monarchies, whether founded on birth or wealth, regarded themselves as a privileged class, and sought by every means to maintain their position against the lower orders. When the navigation of the Aegean fell into the hands of the Greeks, Growth of dis-and excellent sites for the development of trade content-were discovered on every hand, it was natural that those who felt themselves shut out from privileges at home should seek
1 This political disturbance is not by itself sufficient to account for the colonies of the eighth century. We find no colonies sent out by Argos, or Elis, or Thebes, or Athens, in which these changes nevertheless went oii
VOL. I.                                                                               Z
354
ASSYRIA AND PHOENICIA.                  [XI. 19.
new abodes where no such invidious distinctions existed. There was generally some nobleman, who, either from love of adventure or because he was dissatisfied with affairs at home, was willing to lead the emigrants. In cities where the oligarchy was distinctly one of wealth, as at Chalcis or Miletus, any citizen who was in danger of losing his franchise would rather leave the city or send his sons from it, than sink into the lower ranks.
Of some of the cities which sent out colonies at this time we have sufficient knowledge to be able to point out the circumstances under which the emigrants left their home. Archias, as we have seen, went away from Corinth owing to a disgraceful outrage; Chersicrates, the founder of Corcyra, who was also a Bacchiad, is said to have been deprived of his citizenship.1 In Locri we see how discontent arose in Cause of the an °^garcnical city. In the parent town the foundation of older families who governed the state were Locn*              known as the Hundred  Houses;   they con-
sidered themselves the nobility, and jealously guarded their privileges. If women of these families married husbands of lower rank, the marriages were not recognised; the offspring was not admitted to the privileges of the nobles. It was a man of this disfranchised class, Evanthas by name, who founded the new colony.2 A similar cause led to the foundation of Tarentum by the Partheniae of Sparta. ' The Messenians at Ehegium were fugitives from the oppression of the Spartans; Cyrene, as we have seen, owed its origin to a faction at Thera.
External circumstances also contributed not a little to the success of Greek colonisation at this time. From the c* m t n ninth century onwards the monarchs of Assyria favourable to oppressed, with ever-increasing severity, the colonisation. citiesof the Syrian coast. Tribute was demanded from them, even from Tyre and Sidon, and at length Tiglath Pileser n. (about 745 B.o.) established his sovereignty over
1 Timaeus, Frag. 53 M.                2 Polyb. xii. 5 ; Strabo, p. 259.
XI. 20.]     FALL OF TYRE—RISE OF CARTHAGE.            355
the entire region. Then followed the contests of Egypt and Assyria for the control of Syria, contests which, however decided, inflicted great loss on the Phoenicians. Under such circumstances the Phoenician mariners looked more and more to the West; Carthage rose to power as Tyre and Sidon sank into subjection. At the same time the Phoenicians of the West seem to have left the rich and fertile lands of Eastern Sicily and Southern Italy unoccupied. Their trade drew them to the extreme west (Tartessus and the Atlantic) or to the north of the Tyrrhene Sea (the mouth of the Ehone), and the Greeks were thus at liberty to seize upon that part of the Mediterranean which was most suited to them. Lastly, the decline and fall of the Assyrian empire (from 650 B.C. onwards) left Egypt free from attack in that quarter. After the repeated invasions of Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal had broken the power of the Ethiopian kings of Napata, Psammetichus was able to establish himself as Pharaoh at Sais. Under his protection and that of his successors, the Greeks were at last permitted to enter the secluded valley of the Nile, and share in the trade of Ethiopia, Arabia, and the Eed Sea.1
20. The Greek colonies were not, like those of Rome, established to extend and secure Hellenic dominion, however great the part which they played in diffusing Hellenic civilisation. On the other hand, they were more than trading stations. They attained an independent life Nature of the and history, and often outstripped the cities Greek colony. ¦ from which they sprang in wealth and importance. For the Greek colonist did not look forward to returning home with the wealth which he had amassed, and closing his life in the haunts of his childhood. When he left his native city he ceased to be a member of it, his fortunes being henceforth bound up with the fate of the colony of which he had become, a member.   For this reason the prosperity of the mother
1 See the sketch in Busolt, Griech. Gesch. I 294.
356             INDEPENDENCE OF THE COLONIES.       [XI. 20.
cities was not always in proportion to the prosperity of the colonies which emanated from them. Byzantium outstripped Megara, and, under the reign of her tyrants, Syracuse became a far more powerful city than Corinth. But though independent, the colonies acknowledged a certain debt of reverence to the mother state. Fire was taken from the public hearth by the colonists to their new home; the deities of the mother city were the deities of the colony. We hear of instances in which distinguished men were brought from the mother city to settle disputes among the colonists, and if a war arose between mother and daughter, the younger city had to repel the charge of ingratitude, and prove that the war was inevitable. But it also happened that a colony could not be considered the offspring of a single city. Either the colonists had amalgamated with the original inhabitants.
Mixed colonies.                      CT. ,                      .      -    , °         .           .           '
or more than one city had combined m the foundation, or a later band had reinforced an earlier settlement. Such colonies, while they assumed a more independent position, were exposed to the evils which naturally arise in a heterogeneous population.1
21. In many cases the colonists did not establish themselves without severe conflicts with the previous inhabitants. Relations of the ^ Syracuse, we are told, Archias " drove the colonists and Sicels out of the island" (Ortygia),2 and at the natives. Byzantium the Megarians suffered severely from the attacks of the Thracians, whom they dispossessed of their ancient fortress. In Libya it was some years before the emigrants could pass from the island where they first landed to a desirable settlement on the mainland. The hostility was natural. The natives resented the occupation of their territory ; they became aware that the products of their country would pass into other hands, with little, or at any rate very inadequate, remuneration to themselves. They must expect either to be driven off the ground or reduced to the position
1 Thuc.  vi.   17 :   c^Xois o-vppiKTois  7rokvavbpoixriu  al  noktis icat pqbias €Xov(ri t&v iro\iT€iS>v ras pcrafidkas kcu eViSo^aj. 8 Thuc. vi. 3.
XI. 21.]    COLONIES CENTRES OF CIVILISATION             357
of slaves where they had been the masters. Nor was the conduct of the new-comers such as to inspire confidence. Any kind of treachery was considered lawful in dealing with the natives.    When the Locrians settled   „,
Treachery in
in Italy they agreed with the Sicels, who pos- dealing with sessed the country, to be on friendly terms thenatives-with them, and allow them a share of the land, as long as they trod upon the same earth and carried their heads on their shoulders. This oath they evaded by affixing earth to the soles of their shoes, and carrying heads of garlic on their shoulders; when they had shaken off the earth, and thrown the garlic away, they considered that the oath was no longer binding upon them. On the other hand, we hear of Greeks intermarrying with Thracians; both Themistocles and Thucydides were sprung from such a union. And in the open ports on the Black Sea, where the Greek was rather a trading merchant than a colonist in the stricter sense, the relations would tend to become more friendly than those which existed between a city of conquering emigrants and their immediate neighbours.1
But in spite of frequent conflicts, the native population in many districts was greatly influenced by the Greek colonists. The Etruscans and Oscans received their alpha- Effect of Greek bet from the Greeks.    Cyme and Tarentum   colonies ontthe
*                                             native popula-
were great centres of civilisation in Italy, tion. Greek heroes were thought to have settled in the country, as Diomed at Argyripi, and the eponyms of Italian tribes were traced to a Greek parentage. Daunus and Iapyx were said to be the sons of Lycaon the Arcadian. In religion, more especially, the Greeks were exceedingly tolerant. We have already seen how they adopted the deities of Asia Minor, respected their temples, and maintained their worship. The same principle was observed in the later colonies.    Yet, along
1 At Panticapaeum, which was founded by Milesians, the native princes, or half-breeds, finally established a monarchy which continued for some generations under Leueon, Satyrus, and Parisades (Strabo, p. 310).
358            GREEK COINAGE AND TRADE ROUTES.    [XI. 22.
with this toleration, they retained an independence of feeling which prevented them from becoming degraded by barbarous practices, whether social or religious. The colonists remained Greek colonies Greek in sentiment and habits, and many of them always Greek, hiicl a better claim to the name of Hellenes than the tribes which inhabited the west and north of Greece. In all the spheres in which the Greeks strove for distinction— in the games at Olympia, in art and literature—the colonists proved themselves not unworthy of the source from which they sprang.
22. The varieties of the coinage enable us to distinguish the lines of trade which were followed by the great com-Coinage, and mercial cities of Greece. The two principal trade routes. standards were the Aeginetic and the Euboean (supra, p. 230, n. 2). Both were originally derived from Babylon—the first through Phoenicia; the second, which is really a gold standard though applied by the Euboeans to the coining of silver, through Asia Minor, from which it passed by Samos to Euboea.
These two systems of coinage point to two great divisions of commerce. In early times the trade of the Aegean was in the hands of the Phoenicians. They carried wares from Tyre and Sidon to the islands, and from hence to Argos or Aegina, which in time became the centre of this Eastern commerce. This was the first era of trade in Greece. It was essentially a trade with the East; for even if the Phoenicians obtained some objects, such as amber, from the West, they were careful to conceal all knowledge of the West from the Greeks. The second begins with the discovery of the West and the spread of colonisation, which was closely followed by the movement which brought Sardis within reach of the sea. Euboea, Corinth, and Athens now became the great emporia of the Aegean. The Phoenicians gradually removed to the far west, where they divided the trade with the Tyrrhenians, and brought the products of Spain or the Cassiterides or the
XL 23-]   GREEK COINAGE AND TRADE ROUTES.            359
Baltic to the Greek mariner at Massilia or Syharis or Syracuse. At the same time, the mines in the north of Greece came within reach of the Euboean colonies in Chalcidice. This is the second era of trade ; it is chiefly a trade with the West.
From the first there was, no doubt, a bitter rivalry between the two. For a moment Aegina may have cherished hopes that a share of the trade with the West would fall to her. The earliest coins of the Chalcidic colonies in Sicily were struck on an Aeginetic standard, and Corcyra maintained this standard to the last. But the hopes were soon at an end. The colonies changed over to the standard of Chalcis. The rivalry was finally suppressed by the destruction of the Aeginetans hy Athens.
Besides the Aeginetic and Euboean standards there were two others less widely accepted. The first of these, with a stater of 173 grains, was current in Asia Minor (except Minor standards the west coast). Thence it passed into Thrace; of c°inas*-for Thrace, like Asia Minor, was rich in metals, and coined money at an early period. The second was a better-preserved Phoenician standard (220 grains) minted at Miletus, and current on the south coast of Asia Minor. The coinage of the neighbouring Greek cities was sometimes determined by these standards. Byzantium, for instance, adopted the standard current in Thrace and Asia Minor; Ialysus and Lindus, in Rhodes, the Phoenician standard. This standard also passed from Miletus to Abdera in Thrace, whence it penetrated into Macedon, and there gave rise to the Macedonian standard.1
23. In material civilisation the mother country must have greatly profited by her colonies. A merchant, visiting Corinth about the year 600 B.C., would have found a large collection of wares in the bazaars and depots of the <aty.   Wine was supplied from many sources: from Mende,
1 See Head, Hisioria Numorum, Introduction, pp. xlvi. ff„ 230. With the position of Argos-Aegina, between Sparta on the one hand And Euboea on the other, we may compare the position of Venice between Maximilian and Louis xi. and the Portuguese, at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
360                       A BAZAAR AT CORINTH.                  [XI. 2%*
or  Chios,  or   Lampsacus,   or  perhaps from Falernum in
the distant West.     Fish came from Sicyon or Copae, or,
if salted, from Byzantium and Cyzicus.    Corn was imported
from the Euxine  and from  Sicily.     Olive
Corinthian Bazaar.    .,           -       . i     i i      a,,,           n n               i
oil was furnished by Attica and Cyrene; honey came from Hymettus and Cyprus; figs from Attica and Ehodes; almonds and chestnuts from Cyprus and Naxos. Among the spices and medicinal herbs would be found marjoram from Tenedos, thyme from Hymettus, saffron from Ehodes, hellebore from Anticyra, silphium from Cyrene. The finest woollen goods were supplied by Miletus or Athens; the best flax and hemp by Elis and Tarentum; Cyrene and Epirua furnished hides, Arcadia oak for shipbuilding, Macedonia timber for houses; Cyprus and Chalcis sent copper, Attica, silver; iron utensils were supplied by the towns of Laconiar bronze pans by Delos or Aegina. The gold, if any could be found, even in Corinth, was an importation from the East -r the electrum from Sardis. Those who were in search of objects ornamental rather than useful would have the opportunity of purchasing bronze statuettes from Aegina, terra-cottas from Tanagra, pottery from Athens and Ehodes, or from the shopa of Corinthian makers. Fine metal work was imported from Sicyon, or fashioned by native artists. Among the rarer commodities were amber from the Hadriatic, richly embroidered garments from Italy and Thera, purples from Tyre, ivory and glass from Sidon. There would be slaves imported from Thrace and Asia Minor, and, perhaps, a few horses might find their way to Corinth from Thessaly or Arcadia, especially at the time of the Isthmian games. Sportsmen would know where to find a fighting cock which had been brought over from Tanagra or Ehodes. And who could tell what new or rare commodity, purchased from Phoenician or Tyrrhenian traders, might not be hidden in the ship which had newly come from Sybaris 1 For the far West was at this time as fabulous a region to the Greeks as India to the Venetians and Portuguese in the Middle Ages. 24, Nothing is more remarkable in the history of Greek
XI. 24.]              DELPHI AND THE COLONIES.                     361
colonisation than the influence exercised by Delphi in guiding the settlers to a new home. It was the duty of every band of adventurers, before leaving their native snores, to seek the advice and sanction of the god. So strongly Delphi and the was this felt by the Greeks themselves that any Colonies. colony which set forth without this ceremony was doomed to failure from the first. We find the practice noticed as early as the foundation of Naxos in 735 B.C., which was established under the protection of Apollo Archagetes, and it is illustrated in the most striking manner in the legends of the foundation of Cyrene, and the unfortunate attempt of Dorieus of Sparta to establish a colony on the Cinyps in Libya (see infra, chap, xiv.) In some instances the responses, or what were supposed to be the responses, given to the founders of the colonies were preserved. We know how Phalanthus, the founder of Tarentum, was guided to the mouth of the Taras (supra9 p. 269). The settlers in Byzantium were The Responses told to found their colony opposite "to the &ven-city of the blind" (Chalcedon). The colonists who mistook the island of Platea for the mainland of Libya, and claimed to have fulfilled the command of the oracle by settling there, received the indignant remonstrance—
At TV €fJL€V Al{$VT)V flT]\oTp6(f)QV OlbdS a fit LVOV,
fir) £\6ow i\66vTos, ayav aya/xat aocpirjv <rcv.
In other instances the responses were given in more ambiguous language, and it was left to the penetration of the settlers to divine the exact spot which was assigned to them.
To the colonist the responses, however obscure, served as a charter, which entitled him to take possession of the land of aliens.    For the priests of Delphi appear    vaiueofthe to have claimed a right of possession in the    sanction of whole world   beyond   the   limits of   Hellas.     DelPhl-In their eyes property did  not exist, except among  the Greeks.    This was an admirable arrangement for satisfying the conscience of the Greek, who was at all times distracted between two opposite desires: the wish to acquire what
362           DELPHIC ORACLE AND COLONISATION.   [XI. 24.
was not his own, and to maintain the appearance of honesty and justice, in acquiring it. The oracle was, at the same time, careful to appropriate no territory which belonged to a friendly power, even if barbarian.
The influence which the oracle exercised must have been due to a superior knowledge of the localities suitable for the Sources of the foundation of Greek colonies. How this was knowledge of obtained we do not know; we may conjecture Delphi.            t^at ^ prjestg 0f fae temple at Delphi made
inquiries from those who came to consult them, about the regions from which they came, their situation and fertility; and they would be in a better position to acquire information on these matters than any one else in Greece. We may also suppose that they were careful to conceal the sources of their knowledge, as by this means the possession of it became the more surprising. Great indeed must have been the astonishment of the wandering mariner when he discovered that his divine guide was acquainted with the local peculiarities of the place selected for the colony to a degree which required a personal knowledge of the country.1
To Delphi it was of the first importance that no colony should succeed which settled without her sanction, and that Effect of the sue- none wn*cn fulfilled all the obligations imposed cessofcoionisa- on it should fail.     This result was secured
tion on Delphi.     partly   hy   care   an(j   foresight   m   giving   ad-
vice, partly by a certain amount of ambiguity in the instructions given, or of subtlety in interpreting them. In the end, the success was far greater than could have been expected. The colonies became the pride of Hellas, and their glory was reflected on Delphi. They were not mere trading stations, but Greek cities, spreading Greek manners and civilisation on every hand, and bringing to the continent in return a ceaseless flow of prosperity and wealth.    To this
1 When the Theraeans were told to colonise Cyrene they had the greatest difficulty in finding any one who could guide them thither. Yet the Delphians insisted on the fulfilment of the command to the very letter.
XI. 24.]          LIST OF GREEIC COLONIES, <5r*c.                  363
success, perhaps, more than to any other single cause the unique position of Delphi among Greek sanctuaries is due. Although she was never a political power, even in the colonies, her advice was sought by all, and it was given to all without distinction of city or tribe. For her interests lay in the universal prosperity of Hellas, and in promoting harmonious relations with foreign potentates. Hence her sanction came to be regarded as the seal of a common Hellenism, and in this way, by the end of the eighth century B.C., the shrine of Apollo was a recognised centre of unity in Greece.
TABLE  OF  THE  CHIEF  GREEK  COLONIES.
WESTERN COLONIES.—I. SICILY.
Date.	Name.	Founder.	Oekist.	Reference.
735 B.a	Naxos	Chalcis and Naxos	Theories	Thuc. vi. 3.
l 734	Syracuse	Corinth	Archias	"
729	Leontini	Naxos	Theories	»>
729	Catana	»		>»       •
728	Megara Hyblaea	Megara	Lamis	j Thuc. vi. 4.
728, or earlier	Zancle	Cyme	Perieres	»»
690	Gela	Rhodes (Lin-dus) and ,   Crete	Antiphemus and Enti-mus	99
664	Acrae	Syracuse	...	| Thuc. vi. 5.
648	Himera	Zancle	Euclides, Simus, I   Sacon	99
644	Oasmenae	Syracuse	• ••	»»
628	Selinus	Megara	...	Thuc. vi. 4.
599	Camarina	Syracuse	Dascon   and Menecolus	Thuc. vi. 5.
580	Acragas	Gela	Aristouus and    Pys-tilus	Thuc. vi. 4.    j
364 GREEKCOLONIES : WESTERN COLONIES.—II. ITALY.
Date.	Name.	Founder.	Oekisfc	Reference.      1
1050 b.o. ?	Cyme	Chalcis and Cyme   in Euboea	Megasthenes Hippocles	Strabo,p. 243.
t	Parthenope, orNeapolis	Rhodes	.	Strabo,p. 654.
721	Sybaris	Achaea	Ibos	Strabo, p. 263.
715, or earlier	Rhegium	Chalcis and Messenia	Artimnestus, Aristoda-midas (?)	Strabo,p. 267.
|710	Croton	Achaea	Myscellus	Strabo, p. 262.
708	Tarentum	Sparta	Phalanthus	Strabo,p. 278.
\c. 700?	Metapontum	Sybaris	Leucippus	Strabo,p. 264.
?	Locri	Locris	•••	Strabo,p. 259.
600	Massalia	Phocaea	•••	Strabo,p. 179, 252.
508	Alalia	Massalia	...	Herod, i. 165.
543	Elea	Massalia	Creontiades	Herod, i. 167, Strabo,p.252.
III.—COLONIES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN.
Date.	Name.	Founder.	Oekist.	Reference.      1
800, and after	Chalcidian cities	Chalcis and Eretria	•••	Strabo, 447.   1
756 (675)	Cyzicus	Miletus	•••	Strabo, 635.
708?	Parium	ill	•••	Strabo, 588.
706?	Thasos	Paros	Telesicles	Strabo, 487.
689	Phaselis	Rhodes	Lacius	Steph. Byz.
LTemp. Gyges	Abydos	Miletus	•••	Strabo, 590.
654	Acanthus	Andros	•••	Thuc. iv. 84.
?	Stagirus	»	•••	Thuc. iv. 88.
?	Sane, Argi-lus	»»	•••	Thuc. iv. 109, 103.
650	Lampsacus	Miletus	•••	Strabo, 589.
654 (544)	Abdera	Clazomenae (Teos)	Timesius	Herod, i. 168.
t	Maronea	Chios	...	...
633	Cyrene	Thera	Aristoteles (Battus)	Herod, iv. 150.
1600	Perinthus	Samos	...	Strabo, 331.
| After 570 b.o.	Naucratis	Miletus, etc.	...	Herod, ii. 178.
XL]               LIST OF GREEK COLONIES, &c.                 365
IK—COLONIES IN THE EUXINE.
Date.	Name.	Founder.	Oekist.	Reference.
c. 770 (630)	Sinope	Miletus	Abron	Scymn. 947.
756	Trapezus		•••	Euseb. adann.
656	Istros		•••	Herod, ii. 33.
645	Olbia		•••	Strabo, 305.
?	Tomi		•••	Scymn. 765.
?	Odessus		•••	Strabo, 319.
600, and after	Theodosia		•••	...
•••'	Panticapaeum	***	•••	Strabo, 309.
566	Amisus	Phocaea	•••	Scymn. 917.
The dates given for the foundation of colonies cannot be considered certain. Either they rest on the testimony of ancient chronographers, or they are calculated on some basis, such as the capture of Sardis, ^which is by no means definitely fixed.
CHAPTER   XII.
THE   TYRANTS.1
I. It is not untrue to say that in Greece the age of colonisation was succeeded by the age of tyrannies. No doubt, Political changes ttie line of division was by no means clearly in the seventh drawn, and colonies were sent out in the century.           seventh century as well as in the eighth.    But
the characteristic feature of the period extending from the middle of the seventh to the middle of the sixth century is the internal change which then took place almost simultaneously in a number of cities. The oligarchies were overthrown ; many of the ruling families were executed or driven into exile; their property was confiscated, and the rule of one took the place of the rule of the few. The change was the inevitable result of the progress of events. The establishment of colonies had given a new impulse to commerce, especially to commerce with the West; and as the cities which engaged in it grew in wealth, power and extent, an ever-increasing population flocked to them. Hence arose new political conditions. In those states which were purely or mainly agricultural, the population was spread over the whole country. If on the one hand common interests combined the poor against the rich, there was, on the other, no concentra-
wn and         tion of forces which could give effect to feelings
country popu- of discontent. In the mercantile cities it was lation.             otherwise.     When  both parties were  within
the same walls, the bitterness of opposition became more intense, and at the same time the inhabitants of the citiea
1H. G. Plass, Die Tyrannis, etc., Leipzig, 1859. 866
XII. I.]          ARISTOCRACY AND TIMOCRACY.                367
were wealthier, more enterprising and far-sighted than the shepherds and peasants of the country. They had a clearer view of the evils which pressed upon them, and were able to combine for their removal. It was not a conflict between rich and poor only, but between a privileged and an unprivileged class; and in those cities where the descendants of an old population occupied a subordinate position towards a conquering race, the memories of the past gave a force and sanction to the growing discontents. For these reasons the oligarchies in the mercantile cities of Greece, and more especially in the cities on the isthmus, which lay in the track of the Western trade, found themselves, in the seventh century, in a very critical position.
In some instances, moderate counsels prevailed. The oligarchies of birth no longer insisted on their position; the aristocracy, or rule of the nobles, gave way to a Aristocracy and timocracyy or rule of the rich* Energetic men, timocracy. who had made their own way in the world, were no longer excluded from civic power and office. This revolution, for such it may be called, was sometimes carried out with the aid of an eminent citizen, who was appointed to reform the constitution and establish a code of laws, as Solon was at Athens, and Zaleucus at Locri. Or the constitution was for a time suspended, and plenary powers given to an umpire or Aesymnetes to adjudicate between the contending factions, and arrange the state upon a basis which would satisfy both. Such an umpire was Pittacus of Lesbos, who for ten years was absolute > ruler of Mitylene. But in the cities where the aristocracies refused to make concessions to the lower orders —whether they were aristocracies of birth or of wealth— the only remedy was force. If there happened to be in the privileged class a man unscrupulous enough to employ the spirit of discontent in his own interest, he could come forward as a demagogue, and rise to power on the ruins of his order. Or if in the unprivileged class there was any one of unusual force of character and intellect, the opportunity was now open to him of attaining the foremost position in the
368   ACCOUNTS OF TYRANTS UNTRUSTWORTHY.  [XII. 2,
state. In either case unlimited personal power was the prize. Democracy and democratical forms of government did not yet exist; if the traditional constitution was set aside, the government must fall into the hands of the man who took a leading part in removing it.
2. The accounts which have come down to us of the rise and administration of the tyrants in Greece are exceedingly Accounts of the untrustworthy. Even when they are not tyrants untrust- obvious fictions, they are founded on traditions worthy.            handed down by the oligarchs whose power
the tyrants broke, often by very violent means. At such hands the memory even of a great and patriotic man was not likely to meet with mercy or justice. Whatever his actions, they were done with a sinister object. Did he adorn his city with monuments, or execute useful public works,— his aim was to crush the citizens by laborious tasks. Did he send offerings to Delphi or Olympia,—they were furnished by exactions wrung from the people. The truth or falsehood of these statements was a matter of no importance. Fiction was always more entertaining to the Greeks than history, and those who could hardly have understood the measures by which Periander made Corinth the first city of Greece, found it easy to connect his name with actions of inhuman cruelty and lust. We must, therefore, receive these accounts with the greatest caution. In spite of the worst which has been said against them, the tyrants hold a legitimate place in the Place of the progress of Greek constitutional history. They tyrants in Greek were the means of breaking down the oligar-history.            ehies in the interests of the people.    That the
lower classes sometimes found themselves deceived, and had reason to hate a tyrant no less than they had hated the oligarchs whom he removed, is doubtless true, but even in that case it was better to have one master than many. And when the tyrant's work was done, and the oligarchs had been too severely weakened to maintain themselves against the growing power of the people, it was easier to remove a ruler whose safety depended entirely upon his own watchfulness, who
XII.3]           THE FIRST TYRANN1S: SICYON.                369
had forfeited every claim to the rights of a citizen, and was universally hated, than to exact justice and consideration from a close and unscrupulous order. To the Greek the very name of the "tyrant" was detestable, but at this distance of time it is impossible to deny that the tyrants, though their rule involved the suspension of civic life, were often men of great capacity, who played an important part in the history of Hellenism, and that the cities which they governed enjoyed great prosperity and power.
SICYON.
3. It was at Sicyon that the first tyrannis arose. After the Dorian conquest of the city the Ionian population had been allowed to remain as a fourth tribe, the Aegialeis, beside the three tribes, the Hylleis, Pamphyli and Dymanes, into which, here as elsewhere, the Dorians ranged themselves (sup. p. 64). The proportion of the Dorian tribes to the Ionic shows that the Dorians, whatever their numbers, were the preponderant and ruling power in the city; their attitude towards the subject population is perhaps indicated by the title "Skin-wearers," which was here given to " certain slaves, who resembled the Epeunacti," a class of the Helots at Sparta.1
The territory of Sicyon was of very limited extent, reaching only from the river Nemea on the east to the Sythas on the west, and bounded on the south by the territory of Phlius and Cleonae. The city lay in the valley of the Asopus, which, though confined at first between mountains, situation of the opens towards the sea into a plain of remark- city, able fertility (the Asopia). In this plain, on an elevated platform between the rivers Helisson and Asopus, about two miles from the shore, was built the older city or acropolis; at the foot of the hill lay the newer town, and in Sicyon's most flourishing days there was also a port on the sea-coast. Owing to the situation the city probably had some share in
1 Karo>vaKo<f)6poi, Athen., 271 d., from Theopompus. For the contempt -which the word expresses, cf. Theognis, v. 55.
VOL. I.                                                                           2a
370          SIC YON: RISE OF THE ORTHAGORIDAE.   [XII. 4.
the profits of the western trade, but the wealth of the Sio yonians was chiefly derived from their land. Oil and wine were produced in abundance in the Asopia; and in the upper valley of the river there were mines of copper, a fact of some importance in the history of the town, as it was owing to this supply of metal that Sicyon became at an early date a flourishing home of plastic art.1
4. We are too ignorant of the history of Sicyon in the period from the Dorian invasion to the rise of the Ortha-gorids, to be able to explain the conditions under which the establishment of the tyrannis became possible. In the first sicyon in the Messenian war Sicyon showed her antipathy eighth century, to Sparta by supporting the Messenians, from which we may conclude that the Ionian or non-Dorian population was even then of importance in the city. As the family which rose to the throne was of this Ionian stock, the Dorian influence must have still further declined in the next century. We may conjecture that the Ionians availed them-,   «_          ._    selves of the growth of trade, which the Dorians
In the seventh.      _       ._        °                   * 1         1  1      ,1 •
despised, to amass wealth, and by this means were enabled to resist more successfully the oppression of the ruling tribes.    Whatever the cause, about the year 670 B.C.8
a certain Orthagoras, who is said to have been Orthagoras. ft cooj^8 succeeded in establishing himself as tyrant in Sicyon.     Of his reign no incident is recorded.
1  Dipoenus and Scyllis, the old Cretan masters, came to Sicyon about 580 B.C.—at which date a community of artists seems to have been already existing in the city, perhaps supported by Clisthenes. Dipoenus and Scyllis, however, worked in marble. Murray, Hist. 0/ Sculpture, p. 88. For the topography of Sicyon, see Smith's Diet. Geogr., sub voce.
2  See note at the end of the section.
3  Libanius, in Sev. iii. 251; " the son of Copreus " (manure merchant), Plut. De Sera. num. vind. 7. In Diod. viii. 26, Andreas is the cook, a man whom Herodotus also mentions (vi. 126) as the founder of the race of Clisthenes. The relation of Orthagoras to Andreas i* very obscure. Can Orthagoras have been a nickname ? opBayoplcKos was the Laconian for a little pig ! The family were known as Ortha-goridae.
XII. $.)        CLISTHENES, TYRANT OF SJCYON.                jtfl
He was succeeded by his son Myron, who distinguished himself and his city by winning the Olympian prize with his four-horse chariot in 648 B.C.    In commemora-   m.
_    ,                 .      _    ..                       ,                   Myron I.
tion of the event he built a treasure-house at Olympia for the reception of dedicatory offerings.1   The son of Myron was Aristonymus, of whom we do not even know that he ascended the throne.   Aristonymus left three sons, Myron, Isodemus and Clisthenes.2    If we are to believe the story told by Nicolaus of Damascus, Clisthenes availed himself of the vices of Myron and the weakness of Isodemus to procure the assassination of the first and the expulsion of the second.3   Whatever the meanis by which he obtained his object may have been, he became sole ruler of Sicyon.
5, A few disconnected facts are all that we know about the long and prosperous reign of the greatest of the Orthagoridae. At the beginning of the sixth century we find cr h Clisthenes taking a leading part in the first engaged in the Sacred War (p. 400), at the close of which he Sacred Wan contended and was victorious in the newly established Pythian Games (582 B.C.).    By such successes he obtained a great
1  Pausanias vi. 19. 2. The excavations recently made entirely contradict the statements of Pausanias about the bronze thalami and the two styles (Ionian and Dorian).    See Botticher, Olympia, p. 215.
2  The names and succession of the Orthagorids are confused. All writers agree in the names of the three tyrants, Orthagoras, Myron, Clisthenes, but the complete stemma, according to Herodotus (vi. 126) and Nicolaus {Frag. 61, M), would be—
Orthagoras* Andreas. (?) Myron i. Aristonymus.
i_____________
Myron n.           Isodemus.           Gisttienefc
• Nicol. Damage. Frag. 61 Mtiller.
872               CLISTHENES AND THE DORIANS.        [XIL 5.
reputation in Hellas, but in his position as tyrant of Sicyon he was more closely interested in the measures which he took to liberate his city from the supremacy of Argos, and to destroy all that remained of Dorian prestige in Sicyon. In legendary history Argos and Sicyon were closely connected. When expelled from Argos by Amphiaraus, Adrastus had withdrawn to Sicyon, and on the death of Polybus, the Sicyo-nian king, without male issue, Adrastus, as the husband (or son) of his daughter, succeeded to the throne. At a later time he returned to Argos, of which city Sicyon became a vassal kingdom. The connection thus established was confirmed at a later date by the submission of Hippolytus to Agamemnon, and, once more, by the colonisation of the city by the Dorians of Argos under Phalces (supra, p. 103). Under liberate sicyon each of the great dynasties therefore which had from Dorian ruled in Argos—the Perseids, Pelopids and Heraclids—Sicyon had been in dependence on that city. The remembrance of the ancient vassalage was kept up by various religious rites and ceremonies at Sicyon, especially by the worship of Adrastus as a hero, and the Dorian conquest was sufficiently proved by the existence of the Dorian tribes in the city. Clisthenes resolved to eradicate every vestige of the connection.
He began with an attack on Adrastus. In order to suppress the choric songs and religious rites with which His attack on the hero was honoured at Sicyon, he sent to Adrastus.          Delphi,   requesting permission to expel him
from the city. His request was refused: "Adrastus," said the priestess, "is the lawful king of Sicyon, and thou art a man of blood." Finding that he could not openly remove Adrastus, Clisthenes determined to make it impossible for him to remain in the city, and with this object invited the hero Melanippus, who in the Theban epic was the deadly enemy of Adrastus and slew his son-in-law Tydeus, to take up his abode in Sicyon. A shrine was founded for Melanippus in the Prytaneum, and the honours hitherto paid to Adrastus were transferred to the Theban.     After
XII. 6.]        CLISTHENES LIBERATES SIC YON.               373
such an insult it was supposed that Adrastus would leave Sicyon of his own free-will.1
6. In his treatment of the Dorians, who had so long been the ruling order in Sicyon, Clisthenes was restrained by no scruples of religious feeling. He was at once He changes ^c able and eager to exhibit to the world the names of the old opponents of his race in a degraded and Donantribc8-helpless position. The names of the four tribes of the city were formally changed, the Aegialeis, to whom the tyrant belonged, being now called Archelai, or rulers of the people; while the three Dorian tribes received the most contumelious titles. The Hylleis became Hyatae or Piglings; the Dymanes, Choreatae or Porkers; the Pamphyli, Oneatae or Cuddies. Clisthenes must have felt himself in a strong position when he could thus openly trample on Dorian susceptibilities in spite of the proximity of two ancient Dorian communities at Sparta and Argos. As his political arrangements are said to have continued in use for sixty years after his death and the extinction of his power, it is clear that in this case the violence of the tyrant expressed the popular wish.2
In the same anti-Dorian spirit Clisthenes engaged in a "war with Argos, which indeed under the circumstances was almost inevitable.  Of the details of the struggle   Goes to war we know nothing,  but the tyrant's triumph  with Ars°s-over the Dorians in Sicyon is a proof that he cannot have been defeated by the Dorians of Argos.    The beginning of the sixth century, in which the reign of Clisthenes falls, marked a period of decline in the power of Argos; at this time she was quite unable to maintain her ancient claims of sovereignty.     Clisthenes also caused the re-   Puts an end to citations of the rhapsodes to be discontinued  the rhapsodes, at Sicyon.   The rhapsodes recited nothing but Homer, and Homer sang of nothing but the glories of Argos, which the tyrant did not wish his subjects to hear.    In the place of
1 Herod, v. 67.
2 Ibid. v. 68.
374             CLISTHENES* DAUGHTER AGARISTE.      [XII. 7.
this amusement he introduced and supported festivals in honour of Dionysus—a form of worship always popular with the lower classes.1
7. The genius of Herodotus has made an incident in the private life of Olisthenes the most striking event of his The marriage reign. As the tyrant was without male issue, of Aganste. ft was a matter of the greatest importance that a suitable match should be provided for his only daughter, Agariste. At the Olympic Games, at which he was victorious with a chariot and four, he caused a proclamation to be made that any Hellene who held himself worthy to marry the daughter of Clisthenes of Sicyon should repair to the city within sixty days at the latest; for in a year from the sixtieth day, Clisthenes would betroth his daughter. Then all the Greeks who were proud of themselves or their lineage came to the wooing. From Italy came Smindyrides of Sybaris, the most luxurious of men, and Damasus of Siris; from Epidamnus came Amphimnestus ; from Aetolia, Males, the brother of the misanthropic athlete Titormus. From the Peloponnesus came Leocedas, the son of Phidon, the great tyrant of Argos; Amiantus, an Arcadian of Trapezus; Laphanes, the Azanian from Paeum; Onomastus, the Elean. Athens furnished Megacles, the son of Alcmaeon, and Hippoclides, the son of Tisander, who surpassed all the Athenians in wealth and personal beauty. From Eretria came Lysanias; from Thessaly, Diactoridas of the Scopadae of Crannon; from the Molossians came Alcon. For a year Clisthenes entertained this troop of suitors, in order that he might test their accomplishments, manners, temper and disposition. Sometimes he visited them in person, sometimes he watched their exercises, but more especially he feasted them with profuse magnificence. The Athenians found favour in his eyes above all the rest; and of the two he preferred Hippoclides, partly owing to his personal qualities, and partly because he was connected with the Cypselidae of
1 Herod. I.e.
XII. 7-1                 AGARISTE'S WEDDING.                         375
Corinth. When the day arrived for decision, a great banquet was prepared, at which Clisthenes entertained not only all the suitors, but also the whole population of the city. After the meal the guests diverted themselves with pleasant tales, each man striving to outdo his neighbour in 'Hippoclides the wit and point of his story. At length does not care/ Hippoclides, weary of this amusement, in which he had greatly distinguished himself, called for a flute-player, bade him play a dance-tune, and danced to the music, more to his own satisfaction than to that of Clisthenes. Ere long he asked for a table, upon which, when he had executed some Laconian and Attic measures, in order to exhibit the more his unrivalled agility, he planted his head and gesticulated with his legs in the air. Clisthenes could contain himself no longer. Starting from his seat, he cried aloud, "Son of Tisander, you have danced your wife away." "Don't care," said Hippoclides—an expression which became proverbial at Athens. Clisthenes then pronounced in favour of Megacles, and dismissed the rest of the suitors with courteous words and presents.
We cannot support this account as historically accurate. It is, for instance, quite impossible that the son of Phidon of Argos should be a contemporary of Clisthenes criticism of —unless indeed we alter the date of Phidon's the 8tory* celebration of the Olympia (supra, p. 229). The subject was one which inevitably led to exaggeration. The marriage of the only child of the great monarch of Sicyon created a stir in Greece; and was probably the scene of such magnificence and rejoicing as had never before been witnessed. Here was a new Helen, whom the choicest flower of Hellas sought to win. Many suitors might be ascribed to her, and the inventive genius of the Greeks would quickly supply a list of distinguished names, without criticising them too severely. The principal fact was certainly true. Agariste became the wife of Megacles of Athens, and she bore him children; among others, Clisthenes, the Athenian reformer, and a daughter who was married to Pisistratus, after he
376                          CLISTHENES DEA TH.               [XII. 8,9.
became tyrant of Athens for the second time (infra, Chap. xv.).1
8.  As Megacles took a personal part in the factions which broke out in Attica after the legislation of Solon, there is End of the reign little doubt that he carried his wife with him of Clisthenes. to Athens. But from the day of the wedding we hear no more of Clisthenes. How or when he died— whether he remained on the throne to the last—we do not know. We may, however, confidently assert that the tyranny at Sicyon was not suppressed by the Spartans; for, if that had been the case, the changes introduced by the tyrant would have fallen with him, and the Dorians would have been at once restored to their old position in the city. Without fixing any year for his accession or his death, Nicolaus ascribes to Clisthenes a reign of thirty-one years. We may venture a little beyond this statement, and say that his reign fell in the first thirty years of the sixth century.2
After the death of Clisthenes, whenever it took place, we have nothing more to record of the political history of Sicyon till the city appears as a member of the Lacedaemonian confederacy towards the close of the century. By what means the changes of Clisthenes were supported and preserved after his death, as we are told that they were, we cannot even conjecture.
9.  Aristotle remarks of the Orthagoridae that " they treated their subjects with moderation, and to a great extent ob-The rule of the served the laws; and in various ways gained Orthagoridae. ^he favour of the people by the care which they took of them. Clisthenes, in particular, was respected for his military ability.     If report may be believed,  he
1  Herod, vi 126 ff. If the connection of Hippoclides with the Cypselidae of Corinth weighed with Clisthenes in his choice of a son-in-law, the marriage of Agariste must have taken place before the assassination of the last of the Corinthian tyrants in 582 B.C. Yet it cannot have taken place long before, for Clisthenes the son of Agariste was an active party leader at Athens in 509 B.C.
2  If his death is to be placed c. 570 B.C.    See p. 377, note 3.
XII. 9]               CLISTHENES* CHARACTER.                     377
crowned the judge who decided against him in the games, and, as some say, the sitting statue in the Agora of Sicyon is the likeness of this person."1 Nicolaus on the other hand, though he agrees with Aristotle about the military ability of Clisthenes, presents his character to us in a different light. Having gained his power by treachery, he exercised it "with greater cruelty and violence than any of his predecessors."2 That Clisthenes was a far stronger character than his brother Isodemus is obvious—if there be any truth in the narrative of Nicolaus; but no acts are recorded of him such as those which disgraced the life of Myron II. and clisthenes did not brought about his death. The charge of oppress the people, violence has probably arisen out of his treatment of Adrastus and the Dorians, as that of " insolence" against Phidon of Argos from his celebration of the Olympia. It is nowhere said that Clisthenes oppressed the people by laborious tasks, after the usual manner of tyrants; on the contrary, it is allowed that the cost of the portico which he built in the market-place of Sicyon was defrayed out of the spoils of the war with Cirrha. The " change from the tyranny of Myron to the tyranny of Clisthenes," of which Aristotle speaks, may have been a change from the rule of a selfish despot to that of a monarch who extended and developed the resources of his city. All that we really know of Clisthenes is in his favour. (1) He delivered Sicyon from dependence on a foreign city; (2) he was renowned throughout Greece for his military ability; (3) though he left no son to take his place, the changes which he introduced continued in force for two generations after his death; and (4) he made Sicyon a distinguished home of plastic art by inviting to the city the best masters of the time.8
1 Pol. v. 12, i = 1315 6.
9 Frag. 61 Miiller.
8 The total duration of the tyrannis was 100 years (Aristotle, Joe. rife, Diod. Frag. Vat. p. 11 (=viii. 26), circa 670-570 B.O.). The only certain date is the victory of Myron at Olympia in 648 B.C. But as Sicyon became a member of the Lacedaemonian confederacy
378                         THE TYRANTS: CORINTH.               [XII. 10.
CORINTH. 10. At its south-western extremity, the isthmus which connects northern Greece and the Peloponnesus sinks rapidly m „   .  t   down from the summit of Geranea (5000 feet)
Site of Corinth.                                                 .                    \                 '
to a narrow and flat strip of land, about three and a half miles wide, and at no point more than 240 feet above the sea. To the south of this depression, where the isthmus ends in the mainland of the Peloponnesus, the mountains rise once more. On the east is Oneum, which attains a height of 1900 feet, and to the west of this, but separated from it by a river flowing through a deep ravine, is Acrocorinthus (1850 ft.). Strictly speaking, Acrocorinthus is a spur of the still higher mountain which separated Corinth from Cleonae, but, owing to the ravine on the east and the depression in the south, it has the appearance of a detached hill, especially when seen from the north. This was the Acropolis of Corinth, a magnificent watch-tower guarding the entrance into Peloponnesus. The town lay on the northern slope of the mountain, close upon the stream which divided it from Oneum. On the west, the level space, about a mile and a half in breadth, between the city and Lechaeum, the port on the Corinthian Gulf, was crossed by long walls; and on the east Oneum ran out to the Saronic Gulf, where was Cenchreae, the eastern port of Corinth, at a distance of seventy stades from the city. Owing to this splendid situation, Corinth not only commanded the isthmus, as a bridge between two seas, but also held the key of the routes between northern and southern Greece. Of the two great roads which ran from Sicyon and Argos to the north—into which those from Elis and Sparta converged—one was commanded by the long walls of Lechaeum, and the other passed under
about 510 B.O., at which time the contumelious titles of the Dorian tribes must have been removed, we get 510 + 60=570 B.C. for the death of Clisthenes, and 670 b.c. for the rise of Orthagoras, if the hundred years ascribed to the tyrannis by Aristotle are to be calculated without any interruption.
XII. 10.]             THE CORINTHIAN TRIREME.                  379
the eastern wall of Corinth, while the third and less important route, by the Saronic Gulf, passed through Cenchreae. Corinth was thus the central emporium of Greece, and her importance was greatly increased by the growth of her colonies in the west. No Greek sailor would pass the dreaded Malea if he could profitably dispose of his goods at the isthmus, and the mariners of the west preferred the shorter and safer route up the Corinthian Gulf to the circuit of the Peloponnesus.
These natural advantages were improved by the mechanical genius of the Corinthians. For the convenience of those who wished to sail to the east or west, a path- Enterprise of way was constructed at Schoenus over the the Corinthians, lowest and narrowest part of the isthmus, by which ships could be transferred upon rollers from one sea to the other. For this purpose the cargo was generally taken out, and no doubt it was sometimes found advantageous to traffic in the ports of the city while the ship was drawn over the isthmus. The Corinthians were also fully alive to the necessity of maintaining a superior navy. They had not gained their position in the west without conflicts with the Chalcidians, by whom the trade was at first carried on, and the prize could not be retained without energy and enterprise. Towards the end of the eighth century the Corinthian shipbuilders constructed a new vessel far superior in swiftness and strength to anything which had yet been seen. The ordinary ships of the time were either sailing-vessels (7rAota) or fitted with a single bank of oars, twenty-five on each side (penteconters). The new Corinthian galley contained three banks of oars, each rising over the other, and carried a crew of 200 men. Unfortunately the Corinthians could not keep the invention to themselves. In 704 B.O. Aminocles built triremes for the Samians, and in 664 B.O. the Corcyraeans were able to defeat the Corinthians at sea.1
1 For Corinth, c/. Strabo, p. 378 ff.; Aminocles, Thuo. L 13; the defeat of the Corinthians, mpra, p. 345.
380                 CORINTH: STORY OF CYPSELUS.        [XII. u.
II. This defeat may have contributed to the internal changes at Corinth which followed it. Within the next ten Rise of the years (655 B.C.) the rule of the oligarchy Cypseiids.         (supra,   p.  344),  after a duration of ninety
years, was brought to an end. The immediate cause of the change is said to have been a dissension in the family of the Bacchiads. Amphion of Corinth had a daughter Labda, who was lame, or in some way def Qrmed, and as no one of her own rank would take her to wife, she was married to Aetion, of the deme of Petra, a descendant of a Lapithan family which had long been settled there. Oracles warned both Aetion and the Corinthians that the son of this marriage would "justify" Corinth, and the Bacchiadae resolved to kill the child as soon as it was born. Ten men were sent for this purpose to the house of Aetion at Petra; but when placed by his unsuspecting mother in the arms of the man who had asked for him, and who had undertaken to dash him immediately to the ground, the infant smiled. The man was touched with pity at the sight, and handed him to the next, by whom he was passed on to the next, until he reached the tenth, who gave him back to his mother. When they left the house, the men accused each other of cowardice, and after a time they returned intending to destroy the child by a common act. But Labda, who had overheard them, hid the child in a chest; and when he could not be found the men went away, and reported that they had done all that was required of them. This child was Cypselus, the first tyrant of Corinth.1—If there are any elements of truth in this story, it is useless to attempt to disentangle them. The incident of the chest ypse us.          seems to be due to the name Cypselus (a name
which occurs elsewhere, both of places and persons). In Greek TcypseU means a chest, and it appears to have gratified the pride of the tyrant's race to suppose that the founder had been saved in this wonderful manner.   Periander gave
i Herod, v. 92.
XII. 12.]      CORINTH: TYRANNY OF CYPSELUS.             381
confirmation to the legend by consecrating a magnificent <jhest in the Heraeum at Olympia. Less mythical accounts omit all mention of the chest, and tell us that the oligarchs bad made themselves hated by their oppression, greed and misrule.1 Then Cypselus, who was a favourite with the people—though he belonged to the Bacchiads by birth— availed himself of his position as polemarch to conciliate the people still more, until at length he came how he became forward as their champion, slew Patroclides, Tyrant the prytanis of the year, and established himself as tyrant with the consent of the people. The brief notice in Aristotle supports this view; and we may assume with certainty that Cypselus won the affections of the common people, and rose to power with their assistance and approval.2
12. Cypselus reigned for thirty years. By his wisdom and moderation he was able to retain the affections of his citizens to the last; he kept his throne with- The reign of out the assistance of that "commonplace of Cypselus. tyrants," a foreign body-guard. The city prospered under his rule. Though he was unable to bring Corcyra into subjection, he succeeded in restricting her trade by the foundation of the three colonies already mentioned (p. 346), Ambracia, Leucas and Anactorium, in which he placed his three natural sons, Gorgus, Pylades and Echiades. His wealth was doubtless enormous. He was able to build a treasure-house at Delphi, and therefore, we may presume, to consecrate offerings, which he intended it to receive, but whatever these may have been, they were far surpassed by the golden colossus of Zeus which he set up at Olympia—a statue not cast, but beaten with the hammer, and one of the wonders of the world. The Greeks told various stories of the methods employed by Cypselus to defray the cost of his magnificent piety; how he taxed the Corinthians at ten per cent, for ten years, thereby acquiring the whole of their property; how he robbed and
1  Nic. Dam. Frag. 58 M.
2  Arist. Pol v. 10. 6=1310&.
382                       CYPSELUS—PERIANDER.                [XII. 13.
oppressed them. There is no reason to suppose that he did anything of the kind. The trade of Corinth would provide ample resources for a ruler who had no standing army to maintain.1
In Herodotus Cypselus is described as a tyrant who banished a great number of Corinthians, deprived others of their character of possessions and many more of their lives. Cypselus.            This picture is drawn in the colours in which
Herodotus loves to paint a tyrant, and from other authors we receive a more favourable impression. Though the exiled Bacchiadae felt the tyrant's rule to be severe and unjust, the people whom he rescued from oppression regarded it in another light. He was their champion, and could rely on their protection, while the care with which he governed the city and promoted her interests won for him universal confidence. But in Greece, at any rate in early times, the people had not the power of expressing their thoughts in literature. That was the exclusive privilege of the oligarchs, to whose partial judgment is due the contradiction that the memory of the tyrants was hated at Corinth, though the period of their rule was the most flourishing era of the city.2
13. In 625 B.C. Cypselus was succeeded by Periander, whose long reign of forty years marked the highest point
ever reached by the military power of Corinth.
The son followed the lines laid down by the father, and succeeded where he failed. While Cypselus had contented himself with establishing rival colonies to check the development of Corcyra, Periander reduced the rebel-Subdues             Uous island to submission, and placed his son
Corcyra.             Nicolaus in command of it.3   This conquest,
which led to the acquisition of Epidamnus,  was followed
1 Strabo, pp. 325, 452; Nicol. Damasc. Frag, 58: treasure-house, Herod, i. 14: statue, Plato, Phaedr. p. 236; Strabo, p. 378: taxa-tion, Arist. Oecwi. ii. 2, 1 = 1346 a,
*  Even in Herodotus it is admitted that Cypselus " wound up his life successfully " {bunrkcgavros rbv fiiov cv).
*  Nicol. Damasc. Frag. 60 M.
XII. I3-]              PERIANDER'S SUCCESSES.
383
by the plantation of a new Corinthian colony at Apollonia, a little to the south of the Corcyraean settlement, and the rule of the Greeks in the Ionian Sea was thus completely secured. But for the long reign of Periander, Plutarch observes, the Hellenes would not have dwelt at Apollonia, or Anactorium, or Leucas. In the north of the Aegean, in order to secure a share in the profitable trade with Macedon and Thrace, Periander founded the colony of Potidaea, and this city also he placed under the command of one of his sons, Evagoras.1 In the Peloponnesus he extended the domain of Corinth by the conquest of Epidaurus. He had married Lyside, or, as he chose to call her, Melissa, (the Bee), the daughter of Procles, tyrant His wife of Epidaurus, and niece of Aristomenes, the Melissa, hero of the second Messenian war. After she had borne him two sons (or more), she fell a victim to his violence. A war with Procles was the result of this unhappy catastrophe. Periander was victorious; he carried his father-in-law captive to Corinth, where he apparently kept him, and Epidaurus became a dependency of that city.
Periander was now the most famous monarch in Hellas.  He was regarded as the type of the successful despot; his sayings became the received maxims of the tyrant's art.     Periander So great was the authority of his name that    the saee-he was allowed a place among the Seven Wise Men, though it is true that later criticism found it difficult to reconcile Periander the despot with Periander the sage.    But Herodotus was no sceptic; he places in the mouth of the daughter of the Corinthian tyrant a number of sententious maxims, such as might have fallen from the lips of any of the Seven.    " A stubborn spirit is the treasure of a fool;"  "Do not cure evil with evil;"  "Many men place gentleness before justice;" " Many a man while seeking his mother's inheritance has lost his father's;" "Tyranny
1 Nicol. Damasc. Frag. 60 M; Thuc. i. 56.   Classen, note on Thuc* I.e., regards the date of Potidaea as uncertain.
384        PERIANDER'S RULE: ISTHMIAN GAMES.   [XII. 14.
is a slippery thing, but many are in love with it." If we cannot vouch for the genuineness of such aphorisms, we may observe that the words of a despot who maintained himself in power for forty years were not likely to be forgotten.1
14. To Periander was due the revival and extension of the Isthmian Games. The Ionians had long offered a sacrifice of Revival of the ^ulls to Poseidon on the shore of the Saronic isthmian           Gulf,  and with the growth of Corinth the
Gamea.              attendance   at   this   festival   increased.     At
length, in 587 B.C., stimulated perhaps by the new importance which was being given to the festival of Apollo at Delphi, Periander added gymnastic contests to the sacrifices. These were the Isthmian Games, held in the pine woods at Schoenus, every two years, in the second and fourth years of the Olympiad.   The victor's crown was a wreath of wild parsley.2
Like his great contemporary at Sicyon, the tyrant of Corinth favoured the worship of Dionysus. In his city and The worship during his reign, the dithyramb or song in of Dionysus. honour of the wine-god became " choric," the wild unmeasured strains previously in vogue being balanced by strophe and antistrophe, as the chorus danced round the altar. This innovation was due to Arion of Methymna in Lesbos, who at the same time increased the gaiety of the performance by dressing the members of the chorus in attire suited to the occasion, and introducing them as Satyrs in the train of the god.3
When at the height of his fame, Arion resolved to visit Italy and Sicily. Everywhere he was received with welcome Periander and and applause, and wealth flowed in upon him. Arion.               On his return home the Corinthian sailors, in
whose vessel he embarked from Tarentum, conspired to put him to death, and possess themselves of his riches. Finding no means of escape from his murderers, Arion requested leave
1 Herod, iii. 53; Arist. Pol. v. 11. 4= 1313 a.
*  On the date of the Isthmia, see Duncker, Hist. Greece, ii. 370*
•  Herod, i. 23 j Suidas, sub voc.
XII. 15-1                ARION—THRASYBULUS.                        385
to play a last strain; after this respite he undertook to throw himself into the sea. The sailors readily agreed to this, for they could desire nothing better than to hear the greatest harp-player of his time. Arion clad himself in the robes which he wore at musical contests, and, standing on the deck at the end of the vessel, he played a solemn strain, after which, as he had promised, he plunged into the sea. He was not doomed to die. A dolphin came and carried him safely on his back to Taenarum, whence he returned to Corinth and told his story to Periander. Periander was incredulous, and kept him in charge till the Corinthian sailors should return. Gn their arrival at Corinth he sent for them, and made inquiries about Arion. They answered that they had left him safe and prosperous at Tarentum, when to their amazement Arion came forward, dressed in the robes in which he had thrown himself into the sea, and compelled them to confess the truth. The story was current in Corinth and Lesbos, and was confirmed by the existence of a bronze statue at Taenarum, representing a man seated on a dolphin. The statue was seen by Pausanias, and the inscription on it, together with an ode in which Arion celebrated his delivery, has come down to us.1
15. Another story brings Periander into close connection with Thrasybulus, the tyrant of Miletus. We are told that he sent an envoy to Thrasybulus to inquire pcriandcrand the best method of governing a city. Thrasy- Thrasybulus of bulus made no direct answer, but walked with Mlletus* the envoy through a field of corn, and, as he walked, he struck off all the finest and tallest ears till none were left. Periander asked the envoy on his return what Thrasybulus had said. He replied that he had said nothing; he seemed to be a man out of his mind, and bent upon doing mischief to.
1 Herod, i. 24 ; Paus. iii. 25. 7 ; cf. Aelian, Hist. An. xii. 45. The device of a man seated on a dolphin is found on various coins, e.g. those of Tarentum and Methymna. Of the ode Bergk says {Poet. Lyr. iii 79, 80); "Mihi novicium omnino videtur carmen, quod ante Euripidis aetatem vix notuit componi."
VOL. I.                                                                   2 B
386                  THE CHEST OF THE CYPSELWS.        [XII. 16.
himself. He then told Periander what he had seen in the corn-field. Periander understood the meaning which Thrasy-bulus intended to convey; if a tyrant wished to remain secure in his position, he must cut off and destroy all who were eminent in the city.1
16. Periander did not fall short of his father in the splendour of his offerings to the gods. The chest which the The chest of the " Cypselidae " dedicated at Olympia was one Cypseiids.         0f  the most famous achievements  of early
Grecian art. It was made of cedar wood, and covered with pictures in relief, in which gold, ivory and cedar were the materials employed. Pausanias, who describes the chest more minutely than intelligibly, speaks of five fields (xw/wu), each filled with subjects from the mythology of Greece. In four of the five inscriptions were added to explain the subjects, and Pausanias remarks that some of these were written in the old manner known as boustrophedon—i. e. continuously from right to left, and left to right. The " fields " were apparently horizontal bands running round the chest, and as Pausanias in describing them proceeds from right to left with the first, third and fifth, and from left to right with the second and fourth, we must suppose that the chest had three sides only covered with pictures, the fourth being for some reason vacant, as would be the case with a chest set against a wall.2
1  Herod, v. 92.; Arist. Pol iii. 13. 16= 1284 a (cf. v. 10. 13 = 1311a) reverses the relation of the two tyrants. For the assistance which Periander rendered to Thrasybulus in the siege of Miletus, see infra, chap. xvi.
2 It was thought to be the identical box in which Cypselus was hidden by his mother. No other Cypselid but Periander was in a position to dedicate such an offering. For the description see Pausanias, v. 17. 7-19. In ch. 18. I, we have rrjs x&P™ &* ^ TV Xdpvaici rrjs divrepas e£ dpio-repap p,€V ycvoiro hv r\ dpyr\ rrjs ircpiodov, and ch. 19. I, rirapra 8e eVt rjj XdpvaKi e{ dpurT€pas nepuopri, k.t.X. In 17. 6, he speaks of beginning at the foot in the first field, and in 19. 7, of fi ap&Tdra X^P^ See Overbeck, Oriechische Plastik, p. 62 f.
XII. i6.]        THE CHEST OF THE CYPSELIDS.                387
Pausanias begins his description with the lowest band. Here was Oenomaus in pursuit of Pelops, who was carrying away Hippodamia, and next in order the house   Descri tion of of Amphiaraus, before which stood Eriphyle,   the chest: with the necklace, her daughter beside her, and   first field-Alcmaeon, yet a child.    Amphiaraus is about to step into the chariot on his fatal journey, and turns with an angry gesture towards Eriphyle.    Next were depicted the funeral games of Pelias, a scene from the story of the Argonauts;   then Heracles slaying the Hydra on the banks of the Amymone; and Phineus, from whom the sons of Boreas were beating away the Harpies.    On the second band—Pausanias is now moving from left to right—was a female figure with two children, one on her right arm, fair and asleep; another on her left, which was like the sleeping child, but dark; both were lame in the feet.   These were Sleep and Death, in the arms of Night.    Two other women represented Justice and Injustice: the first, who was fair to see, was beating the other, who was hideous.    Another pair of women were represented pounding drugs, but who they were was unknown.    After these came Idas and Marpessa, Zeus in the form of Amphitryon, and Alcmena.    Menelaus was also to be seen, with his sword drawn as if about to slay Helen, after the capture of Troy; and Medea on a throne, with Jason standing by.   The Muses were there, singing, and Apollo to lead them. Atlas was depicted supporting the heavens on his shoulders, and holding the apples of the Hesperides; close at hand was Heracles.   Then were seen Ares and Aphrodite, Peleus and Thetis, and the sisters of Medusa in pursuit of Perseus.   The third band of the chest was filled with subjects of a warlike character of which the real meaning was doubtful even in the time of Pausanias, some referring them to the invasion of the Peloponnesus under Oxylus, others  to the  conquest  of  Corinth  by  the Dorians.    On the fourth band were Boreas carrying   away   Orithyia,   and   Heracles   struggling   with Geryon.      Next   came   Theseus,   and   Ariadne   crowned,
388    PAUSANIAS* DESCRIPTION' OF THE CHEST. [XII. 17.
Achilles and Memnon engaged in conflict, with Thetis and Eos watching the event. There also could be seen Milanion and Atalanta, Ajax in single combat with Hector, the Dioscuri, Helen and Aethra, and Coon fighting with Agamemnon over the dead body of Iphidamas. In another picture Hermes brought the three goddesses to Paris, and in another Cassandra was dragged away from the shrine by Ajax. Next Polynices was seen attacked by Eteocles and behind him a Doom (Krjp) with the tusks of a wild animal and crooked talons. Next came Dionysus, in a cave, clad in a long robe, a golden goblet in his hand; around him were vines and fig-trees and pomegranates.   In the
Fifth field.           ...               ®                   f        «*                           .
highest or fifth compartment was a grotto, in which were a man and a woman sleeping on a couch, surrounded by four handmaidens. These were Odysseus and Circe, for though there was no inscription, it was possible to identify the figures of the maidens by the tasks allotted to each, which corresponded with the description in Homer. There was also a Centaur in which the fore-legs were those of a man—perhaps Chiron ; winged horses yoked in chariots, in which rode the Nereids, and among them Thetis, receiving the arms from Hephaestus. Nausicaa too was there, driving with her women to the washing-pits, and Heracles shooting down the Centaurs. " Who was the artist I could not discover, but it is possible that the pictures are by one hand, the inscriptions by another. As to the last, my own suspicion is strongly in favour of Eumelus, the Corinthian."
Such were the pictures which Pausanias saw on this wondrous chest. The description is of the greatest interest and value, partly for the light which it throws on the history of Greek art, and partly for the evidence which it supplies of the existence of the Homeric and cyclic poems at an age preceding the reign of Pisistratus.
17. The close of the life of Periander was saddened by domestic troubles, of which Herodotus gives us the following account.    After the death of their mother, the two sons of
XII. 17.]             TROUBLES OF PERIANDER.                     380
Melissa, youths of seventeen and eighteen years of age, were invited to Epidaurus by their grandfather, Procles. When parting with them on their return, Procles Troubles at the asked the question, "Do you know who close of Peri-killed your mother 1" The younger son, whose andcr's rei*n* name was Lycophron, took the question much to heart, and when he reached Corinth, refused to have any communication with his father or to speak to him. Periander, in a rage, banished him from the house, and inquired from his elder son what Procles had said. After a time the youth, who was of much slower intelligence than his brother, remembered the question and repeated it. Periander now issued a proclamation that no one was to entertain or support Lycophron, or even to speak to him. For three days the unhappy boy had remained in the porticoes of the city, when Periander himself addressed him, and sought to soften his resentment. Lycophron was inexorable, and merely answered that Periander had transgressed his own proclamation. Finding all attempts at reconciliation useless, Periander sent his son to Corcyra, and proceeded to make war upon Epidaurus. Towards the close of his life, when he felt the need of a younger hand to support his power, he sent to Corcyra, desiring Lycophron to return and occupy the throne of Corinth. Lycophron made no reply. Then Periander sent his daughter, in the hope that she might persuade her brother to return. She urged the necessity of saving the tyranny from falling into other hands, and the evils of a stubborn spirit, but in vain. Lycophron steadily refused to return to Corinth while his father lived. Periander sent yet a third time, proposing that he should go to Corcyra, and his son succeed him at Corinth. To ^he murder of this proposal Lycophron agreed, but when the Lycophron. Corcyraeans heard that the dreaded tyrant was coming to rule over them, they seized Lycophron and put him to death.
Periander resolved on a terrible revenge.    Three hundred boys from the leading families in Corcyra, were carried away
390                    PERIANDER'S FA MIL Y FE UDS.            [XI I. 18.
to be sent to Alyattes, that they might be made eunuchs for the service of the Lydian court. Fortunately those who The revenge of were in charge of them put in at Samos on Periander.         their way to Sardis.    On hearing what a fate
was in store for the boys, the Samians directed them to attach themselves to the temple of Artemis. From this asylum they would not allow them to be removed, and when the Corinthians attempted to starve them out, they held a festival with dances of girls and boys who carried cakes and sweetmeats, which the Corcyraean boys were allowed to snatch from the bearers as they approached them in the dance, and by this means they were kept alive till the Corinthians, weary of the delay, returned home. We do not hear that Periander made any attempt to revenge himself upon the Samians.1
From another source—later it is true—a different account of the sons of Periander has come down to us. He had Another ac- *our» a^ °* wnom perished before their father, count; the Sons Evagoras was slain at Potidaea ; Lycophron of Periander.      fell in the attempt  «to establish a tyranny
among the Perioeci;" Gorgus was killed by a fall from his chariot; and Nicolaus, the gentlest, was slain by conspirators at Corcyra, when it was known that Periander, who was in fear of violence, had resolved to summon his son to Corinth, and reign himself at Corcyra. Periander revenged the murder of his son by putting to death fifty conspirators, and carrying away a number of boys as hostages, whom he placed at Samos. In the room of Nicolaus he established Psammetichus, the son Periander's 0* n*s half-brother Gorgus, at Corcyra.2 What-death.              ever the truth about these unhappy incidents,
they were quickly followed by the death of Periander.
18. The character of this tyrant appears in antiquity in
1  Herod, iii. 50 ff.
2  Nicol. Damasc. Frag. 60 M. The meaning of the words "establishing a tyranny," which are used of Lycophron, is obscure; perhaps he assisted Procles against Periander. It is highly probable that Nicolaus was slain in an insurrection at Corcyra, which, however,
XII. x8.]             PERIANDER1 S CHARACTER.
391
two different lights. Though early tradition seems to have enrolled him among the Seven Sages—his sayings were quoted beside those of Solon and Thales, for the shrewd character of practical wisdom which they contained—a later Periander. generation did not scruple to charge him with the worst crimes. He was not only a bloodthirsty tyrant, who removed every enemy from his path without pity or remorse, but his cruelty extended to women and children—even to those of his own kindred. In order to provide himself with gold for an offering, he is said to have stripped all the women in Corinth of their ornaments, and, in another version of the story, to have taken even their garments that he might burn them in honour of his dead wife, who, when he consulted her spirit after death, complained that she was cold. This wife he not only killed by an act of savage violence, but he insulted her body after death. Other stories darkened his memory by the stain of incest with his mother, and when it became difficult to reconcile such a character with the reputation of Periander the sage, it was in the course of time assumed that the two persons were distinct. The truth is now beyond our reach. It is clear that Periander was a firm and vigorous ruler, and a great soldier, who extended the power of Corinth to the utmost limits which it ever attained. That he took strict precautions for his own safety is no doubt true, but the accounts which we have of his bloodshed criticism of the and pillage come from a tainted source. "We tradition, may believe that his relations with his wife Melissa were unfortunate; she may have fallen a victim to his violence, for the death of a pregnant wife through a husband's brutality is almost a commonplace in the tyrant's career; and her death may have given rise to domestic strife. But in regard to some of the charges brought against Periander, we must remember that in the eyes of Herodotus every tyrant
Periander was able to quell. The hostages seem to have remained at Samos till Periander's death—at least we hear no more of them. The story of the intended mutilation is no doubt a later touch in the picture.
392            FALL OF THE CORINTHIAN TYRANNY.   [XII. 19.
was or ought to be a monster of iniquity; and in the period when Greek biographies were written, the life of sage or philosopher was thought insipid without an infusion of vice.1 19. Periander was succeeded by Psammetichus, the son of his half-brother Gorgus, who had followed Nicolaus in the government of Corcyra. Of his reign we know nothing. When he had sat on the throne three years and a half he fell by the hand of an assassin, and with his death the tyrannis at Corinth came to an end, after a duration of seventy-three years and a half (655-582 B.C.). With the fall of the tyrants Corinth reverted to an oligarchical form of government. The supreme authority was placed in the hands of a Council of eighty as before, of whom eight were prytanes. Each tribe therefore furnished one prytanis and nine councillors to the governing body. The immediate result of the change was not en-Faiiofthe         couraging.    Corcyra established her independ-
tyranny: the ence \ Epidamnus and Epidaurus were once resu ts.            more free.    From her position as a great naval
power, commanding the sea to the west, and respected as far as Miletus and Egypt in the east, Corinth became a city of merchants, renowned for her wealth, and notorious for her profligacy. The family of the Cypselids experienced the utmost severity of oligarchical resentment. Their houses were torn down, their goods confiscated, and the body of Psammetichus was cast out of the country without burial.2
1  Suidas has two notices of Periander, the son of Cypselus. In the first he is a sage who composed 2000 gnomic verses, and died of a broken heart (c/. Anth. Pal. vii. 620). In the second (=Nic. Damasc. Frag. 59 M.), he changed "the monarchy into a tyranny," kept a bodyguard of 300 men, prevented his citizens from possessing slaves, and put an end to their leisure by providing new tasks for them. He fined every one who sat idle in the market-place. From Hermippu* we hear that he drowned all the procuresses in the city (Athen. 443 a).
2  It is remarkable that the last of the Cypselids should bear the name of the Egyptian prince who about this time had done so much for the Greeks in Egypt. It is possible that Cypselus or Periander entered into relations with the Egyptian monarch, or at any rate wished to testify his friendship by this compliment.
XII. 20.]               THE TYRANTS: MEGARA.                      393
MEGARA.
20. In the seventh century Megara played an important part in the development of Hellenic commerce.    Her colonies were established in the distant west and in the north, at Selinus and at Byzantium.    And at        ea&ene*.
Megara, as elsewhere, the increase of prosperity led to dissensions between the poorer and the richer classes For though we are ignorant of the internal arrangements of the city, we know that it contained two conflicting elements —the oligarchs, who lived within the city walls and owned whatever rich meadow-land there was in the barren and mountainous country; and the peasants, who "were clad in the skins of goats," and lived on the hills "like deer." Nothing was needed but an opportunity and a man to give effect to the mutual hatred of these parties; and when Theagenes, who was himself of noble birth, seized the herds of some rich oligarchs, which were feeding by a river, he was at once supported by the lsnse' people, and enabled to put himself at their head.1 He became tyrant of Megara in the popular cause. The date of his accession to the throne is uncertain, but as Cylon of Athens was his son-in-law (supra, p. 296), his reign may be placed in the last three decades of the seventh century.
At this time Megara was at war with Athens for the possession of Salamis (infra, p. 398), and it is not improbable that Theagenes owed his position, at least in The conquest some degree, to his success in leading the ofSaiamis. Megarians in this struggle. For a time the Megarians were victorious. Salamis was even occupied by colonists from Megara, probably men of the poorer class, who looked up with gratitude to the Friend of the People by whom they had been placed in possession of their new farms. We are also told that Theagenes supported Cylon in his attempt to establish a tyranny at Athens.   Like other tyrants, he
1 Arist. Pol v. 5. 9 = 1305 a.
394               THEAGENES TYRANT OF MEGARA.       [XII. 20.
erected great public works. An aqueduct which he built to convey water into the city is described by Pausanias, 700 years or more after its erection, " as remarkable for its size, ornamentation, and the number of the pillars." This is all that we know of the events of the reign of Theagenes, and of its close we know nothing. There is reason to suppose that he did not retain the throne till his death. When the tide of fortune turned in the Salaminian war, and the Megarians were not only driven from the island Loss of saiamis Dut even ^rom their port of Nisaea, the popu-andfaiiof         lar   feeling may have   turned   with it,  and
Theagenes. Theagenes may have been expelled by the combined forces of nobles and commons. At any rate it is very unlikely that a tyrant was on the throne of Megara when the city allowed the dispute about Saiamis to be referred to the decision of the Spartans.1
After the restoration the government appears to have been conducted with moderation, at least for a time. The straits to which the city was reduced in the war with lg r y* Athens probably made the union of classes imperative. Then a change occurred; the race for wealth became all absorbing, and the more so as the external power of Megara began to decline. Money made the man; the old social distinctions were cast aside: birth was less and less regarded, aristocrats married daughters of the common citizens if they had a rich dowry, and high-born ladies did not disdain alliance with wealthy parvenus. Enormous rates of interest prevailed; on every hand were oppression and greed. At length the people retaliated, and a radical democracy took ^ ^              the place of the oligarchy.    Of the aristocrats
The Democracy.          r                          6        /
some went into exile, and their goods were confiscated ; others, who remained at home, were compelled to feast the poor in their houses under pain of pillage and violence.    A law was publicly passed that all sums which had
1 See Vogt, Dt rebus Megarensium, Marburgi Catt., 1857, p. 81, *where the scanty evidence is collected.
XII. 21.]               RE VOL UTION IN MEGARA.                        395
been paid as interest on borrowed money, should be repaid to the borrower. So great was the public contempt of established law and Hellenic custom, that on one occasion the Amphic-tyons had to interfere to secure compensation for injuries done to a sacred procession on its way through Megarian territory. When this change took place is uncertain, but it cannot have been much later than the middle of the sixth century.1
21. Of the condition of the city at this time the Megarian poet Theognis, whose life fell mainly in the second half of the century, has left us a lively picture. He saw the evils of misrule, and himself suffered by them. He warned his citizens that their conduct would end in their destruction; State of Megara in other words, that the oligarchs, of whom he as described by was one, were going to excess in their greed and e°enis-dishonesty. " A city, even in the profoundest peace, is on the way to ruin when the people are oppressed, and justice is perverted. Gain gotten to the people's hurt is the root of strife, and civil bloodshed, and ' monarchs.'" 2 " The desire for wealth is all-absorbing; the noble weds the base; women prefer wealth to rank; the old distinctions of birth are set aside."8 "Wealth is the only virtue in the . . eyes of the multitude; let a man be just as Rhadamanthus, wise as Sisyphus, eloquent as Nestor, and swifter of foot than the Harpies, yet wealth carries the palm." 4 Thus the city was in agitation, and it was not unlikely that a tyrant would once more arise. " Our city is in labour, and I fear she may bring forth a man to take the lead in cruel party-strife; for though our citizens are good, our rulers are
1  Plutarch, Quaest. Grate. 18 is the hcus classicus for the Megarian democracy.    He notes the restraint of the citizens (eera><£powj(rai>);
~ the extreme form of the democracy (aKparos cXcvflcpta, a Platonic term); the invasion of rich houses by the poor; and the ttoKlvtokicu The outrage of the Megarians on the Theori is recorded in Quaest. Graec. 59. From Aristotle [Poetics, c. 3) we learn that comedy arose at Megara during the time of the democracy. No doubt the populace were inclined to be merry under the circumstances !
2  Theogn. 43 ff.               3 lb. 183 ff.                * lb. 699 ff.
396              THEOGNI& ACCOUNT OF MEGARA.      [XII. ax-
on the way that leads to wickedness."x Then we hear of the rising of the people, of the poverty and banishment of the nobles: " Our city is the same, Cyrnus, but the people are The change of changed; those who in the old days knew parties.            nothing of law or justice, but went about with
goat-skins on their shoulders, and lived far from the city like deer, these are now the gentlemen, and the nobles of old are the commons. So every one cheats and robs his neighbour,, for they know not evil from good." 2 " Grant my prayer,, 0 Zeus in heaven; vouchsafe that I may taste good after evil. 0 that I might pay them back the evils which they have done me, as is right, but I have no power to avenge me on the The poet's own men who have robbed me of my goods; I am like distress.           a dog which in crossing a torrent has lost every-
thing in the stream. May I drink the heart's-blood of them ; this wish I pray some gracious deity to bring to pass."8 " I went to Sicily, and to the plain of Euboea rich in vines, and to Sparta, the fair city by the reeds of the Eurotas. eognis exi e. ^ kindly welcome I found with all; yet my heart was not glad within me; so true is the saying: '.There is no place like home.'"4 His complaints of poverty are bitter: " Ah cruel poverty, why dost thou weigh upon my shoulders to the shame of body and mind alike % Many an evil lesson thou teachest to me, against my will, for I know what is honest and right among men."5 The poems which seem to belong to the later part of his life breathe a happier spirit, and speak at any rate of material comfort. " Eemind me not of my misfortunes; I have suffered as Odysseus, who came back to earth after entering into Hades, and slew the suitors without mercy, remembering his wedded wife, Penelope."6 "May Zeus hold his right hand over this city to shield it from harm; and the other blessed gods immortal May Apollo guide our words and thoughts aright. Let us pour libations to the blessed gods, and drink about merrily* regardless of the Medes." 7
1 Theogn. 1081 ff. ; cf. 39 ff.              2 lb. 53 ff.            * lb. 341 ff.
4 lb. 783 ff.            5 lb. 649 ff.            • lb. 112.3 ff.        * lb. 757 ffl
XII. 21.]                 DECLINE OF MEGARA.
397
Throughout the whole of the poems, Cyrnus, to whom they are addressed, is warned to put no trust in the " base " (i.e. the people); they are false, feeble and treacherous. No "base" man is true in adversity; he seeks nothing but his own advantage, and he who associates with him becomes like him. Such a spirit of distrust and animosity The spirit between high and low was of evil omen for of distrust, the peace of the city. But the decline of Megara was inevitable. Her territory was too small for the city to maintain a great position when severed from her colonies. Before the end of the century she was eclipsed by Athens And by Aegina.
CHAPTER   XIIL
SOLON. I.—THE STRUGGLE FOR SALAMIS.
I. Across the bay of Eleusis and in the very eye of the citadel of Athens lies the island of Salamis, which at one extremity almost touches the coast of Megara, and at the other approaches the harbour of Athens. In the earliest times the island is said to have formed an inde-pendent^state, governed by kings of the stock of Aeacus, but afterwards it declined, owing to the growth of the neighbouring cities of Aegina and Megara, and passed into the hands of the Athenians. Towards the end of the seventh century Lost by the B.C., the Megarians, instigated perhaps by Athenians.        Theagenes, obtained possession of the island.
The Athenians attempted to dislodge them, but in vain. Every effort failed, and at length, in the course of a long and distressing war with Megara, Athens was reduced to such a state of despondency that a law was passed forbidding any one to propose to recover Salamis on pain of death.1
Then Solon, the son of Execestides, who traced his descent from the old royal family of Attica, " indignant at the disgrace which had fallen on his city, and seeing that many of the younger citizens were eager to recover the island but durst not speak of it," resolved to bring the matter once more into Solon rouses public notice. Elegiac verse had already been the people. used by Callinus and Tyrtaeus to rouse the spirit of despondent warriors : Solon now composed an elegy on the loss of Salamis.    In order to evade the law which made it
i Plut. Sol 8 ; Polyaen. i. 20. 398
XIII. 2.]                              SALAMIS.                                    399
death to speak of the island, he pretended to be mad, and no longer responsible for his actions. When the favourable moment came he rushed into the market-place in a herald's cap, poem in hand, and, mounting the stone from which the herald made proclamation to the people, he recited his verses : "I am a herald from lovely Salamis; my song is my message. 0 that I could change my country, and be no more an Athenian but a man of Pholegandros or Sicinos, for soon the words will be in the mouths of all men—'This is one of the Athenians who abandoned Salamis.' Let us away to Salamis; let us fight for the lovely island, and thrust from our shoulders the load of shame."1 The poem had the desired effect. Pisistratus, who was then quite a young man, took the lead in supporting the movement, and the law was repealed. An expedition was sent against Salamis under the command of Solon; the island was recovered, and for a time The island remained in the possession of the Athenians, reconquered. Even Nisaea, the port of Megara, was captured (about 600
B.O.).
2. The Megarians were not inclined to give up Salamis without a struggle, and the recovery of Nisaea was absolutely necessary for their marine.    Within five or six years from the date of Solon's success, the Athenians were dislodged from the island and the port.   The war thus renewed     Final   ^ went on for years with varying fortune, until at    ment of the length both sides agreed to leave the dispute to    dlsPute-the decision of five Spartans: Critolaidas, Amompharetus, Hypsechidas, Anaxilas, Cleomenes.    It was a current story in antiquity that Solon, or Pisistratus—for both names are mentioned—attempted to influence the award by inserting a   line in the  Iliad,  to the effect that Ajax of Salamis ranged his ships at Troy beside the Athenians.2    This was
1  Solon, Frag. 1, 2, 3 Bergk.   The poem extended to 100 lines (Plut. Sol. 8), but only eight lines have been preserved.
2  II, ii. 557, 558.    The genuineness of 1. 558  is  contested; see Monro's note ad loc.
400                                 WAR WITH CRISA.                      [XIII. 3.
brought forward a* a proof that Salamis belonged to Athens in the heroic age! Whatever the arguments advanced on either side may have been, the island was finally assigned to the Athenians.1
II.—THE WAR WITH CRISA.
3. About the same time the Athenians were engaged in a war with Crisa, a city adjacent to Delphi, which sought to maintain her claim to the possession of the nsaan ep 1-gjirjIie 0£ Apollo. The sanctuary lay in the territory of Crisa, and had originally been under her control, but the Delphians, as their prosperity increased, claimed to be an independent community; the oracle, they said, was the property of the Hellenic nation, and no longer in the jurisdiction of Crisa. They also charged the Crisaeans with exacting tolls from the pilgrims who landed at their port of Cirrha (at the mouth of the Plistus) on their way to the oracle. The matter was brought before the Amphictyonic Council, where Solon took a leading part in the discussion. He urged the Amphictyons to support the Delphians, and to put an end to the unjust extortion of the Crisaeans. " Let all come to the help of the god; and take part in the
1 The chief source of our knowledge of the Salaminian war is Plutarch, who quotes no authorities for his statements. He distinguishes four stages in the progress of the struggle ; (1) Salamis is taken by Megara; (2) it is recovered by Solon, with help from Pisistratus; (3) is lost again; (4) after a long contention is finally assigned to Athens. Herodotus mentions the capture of Nisaea by Pisistratus (i. 59), who, he says, was general (polemarch ?) when he took it. For the passage in Homer see Plutarch, Sol. c. 10, and Strabo p. 393. With regard to the chronology, it is difficult to believe that Pisistratus took a prominent part in a war before 600 B.C., as he lived till 527 B.C., and he cannot have been a polemarch till much later (the polemarch, as an archon, would be thirty years old or more). Yet if the war with Salamis was the beginning of Solon's influence in Athens, his success cannot be put later than 600 B.C. The loss of Nisaea is stated by Plutarch to have taken place before the visit of Epimenides (in 596 b.g. ?). Daimachus of Plataea (third century B.C.) denied that Solon took any part as a general in the war against Megara.
XIII. 3-1                DESTRUCTION OF CRISA.
401
holy cause."1 The conduct of the war was intrusted by the Amphictyons to Clisthenes, the tyrant of Sicyon; the Athenians took the field under Alcmaeon, and The first Sacred a body of Thessalians marched to their aid War* under the command of Eurylochus. In spite of this array of forces the enemy was able to hold out for ten years (595-586 B.C.) Crisa was the first to fall The oracle had declared that the city would not be taken till the sea washed the shrine of Apollo, and as Delphi lay at a distance of some miles from the coast, this response filled the Crisaeans with hope. But Solon, who was present with the Dcstructionox army, persuaded the three commanders to agree Crisa and in consecrating the Cirrhaean plain to Apollo, Cirrha-and by this means to bring the precincts of the god down to the sea-shore. Further resistance was in vain, and Crisa now fell into the hands of the allies. Cirrha still held out, and was only reduced by the ingenious strategy of Solon, who impregnated the water of the Plistus with hellebore* thus rendering the Cirrhaeans who drank it unable to remain at their posts. Both cities seem to have been destroyed —Crisa so completely that the name and site became doubtful. The harbour of Cirrha was blocked up; consecration of the walls pulled down; the inhabitants sold into the territory, slavery; the territory consecrated to Apollo, Leto, Artemis, and Athena Pronaea. Nothing was to be sowed or planted upon it, and any one who attempted to restore the fruitful plain to the service of man was under the curse of the god and the ban of the Amphictyons.2
1 Plut. Sol 11. In Hymn. ApoU. 262 ff. Crisa includes the whole district from the shore to the temple. An interpolation in Strabo tells us that Cirrha was destroyed hy Crisa, which was afterwards destroyed by the Amphictyons.
7 Strabo places Cirrha on the sea-shore opposite Sicyon, and distinguishes it from Crisa (p. 418); Pausanias regards Crisa as the ancient name of Cirrha (x. 37. 5). Cirrha was the larger and more important, though the more recent town; and probably the Crisaeans had little more than a nominal authority over it; but the .Delphian priests did not make any nice distinction in the guilt of their rivals. Aesch. in Ctes. § 107 ff.
VOL. T.                                                                            2 C
402
PYTHIAN GAMES FOUNDED.             [XIII. 4.
4.  The end of the war was marked by the institution of the Pythian Games. From ancient times there had been The Pythian musical contests at Delphi, in which poems Games.            were sung, to the music of the harp, in honour of the god. These contests were now enlarged. The flute was added to the harp, and used not only as a separate instrument, but in playing the accompaniment to elegies, though this combination (avXwSta) was immediately discarded as unpleasing. Gymnastic trials of strength were also held (586 B.C.), and, in the second celebration of the games, races with horses and chariots, the hippodrome being laid out in the territory of Cirrha. This part of the festival was quite at variance with the traditional feeling of the Delphians, if we may trust the author of the Homeric Hymn to Apollo. In his opinion the rattle of chariots and the watering of mules at the holy springs would be vexatious to the deity; while elaborate games would divert attention from the temple. Echembrotus of Arcadia, Melampus(?) of Cephallenia, and Sacadas of Argos were victorious in the first musical contests; the prize in the first chariot race fell to Clisthenes. The new games were celebrated once in four years, in the autumn of the third year of the Olympiad.1
Ill—THE VISIT OF EPIMENIDES.
5.  These wars, however national or sacred might be the cause, however satisfactory the result, did not long divert Distress at        the minds of the Athenians from their troubles Athens.            at home. In spite of the failure of Cylon's attempt, his party became powerful in the state, and the political differences which had separated them from the party
1 Paus. x. 7. For the date see Thuc. v. 1, with Arnold's note. Hymn. Apoll. 89-96. The position of Alcmaeon as general of the Athenian forces—for which Plutarch quotes the Delphian records—is remarkable. The date of the war seems to fall in 595-586 or 593-582. Yet only a few years previously the race of the Alcmaeonidae had been declared accursed and banished from Athens, and this Alcmaeon must have been the son of the Megacles on whom rested
XIII. 5-1    TROUBLES AT ATHENS—EPIMENIDES.           405
of Megacles were now aggravated by the memory of a terrible crime. The stain of blood was still on the city—so deeply felt that the murderers of Cylon were now known as the " Accursed/' and, thus embittered by religious hatred, the strife of parties ran to a height which seemed likely to endanger the state, when Solon once more came to the rescue. By the influence which he had gained with both sides, he was enabled to play the part of mediator. In order to satisfy the strong feeling which existed in the city he The * Accursed persuaded the "Accursed" to submit themselves expelled, to the decision of a jury composed of three hundred men taken from their own order, and when the decision of the court went against them, the living were sent into banishment ; the bones of the dead were dug up and thrown beyond the borders of Attica.
Severe as this sentence was, it seemed to come too late. The Megarians had meanwhile got the upper hand in the contest for Salamis, and the Athenians in their distress connected this disaster with the offence which had brought upon them the guilt of bloodshed. Superstitious fears took possession of the city; ghosts and apparitions were seen; the seers were warned by the sacrifices that further expiations were needed to appease the wrath of heaven. The visit of In this emergency the Athenians invited the Epimenides. assistance of Epimenides of Phaestus in Crete, a man of superior reputation for sanctity and sacerdotal power. On his arrival he found the city in a state of miserable distraction and excitement. Families were being ruined by extravagant rites and ceremonies; the wailing of mourners had become a disorderly and contagious frenzy. By introducing some  alterations into the ritual at funerals,   and
the guilt of the Cylonian massacre. In the first celebration of the Pythian games prizes of value were given to the victors, doubtless from the spoils of Cirrha; in the second (582 B.C.) crowns of laurel anly were given. Duncker puts the capture of Crisa in 590 B.C., and the end of the war in 583 b.c. {Hist, (freece, ii. 402 ff.). I have kept Panamas' date of the games (01. 48. 3).
404                    EPIMENIDES AT ATHENS.            [XIII. 5.
forbidding the wild lamentations, Epimenides was able to check extravagance, and to put an end to excessive indulgence in grief. More than all, by propitiations and purifications, and the establishment of new modes of worship, he soothed the prevailing excitement and induced the citizens to listen to reason, and return into harmony with one another. At his departure the Athenians, in gratitude for his services, offered him large sums of money and marks of high distinction, but of these he would accept nothing. He asked for a branch from the sacred olive of Athena on the Acropolis, and with this reward returned to Crete.1
There have been times in the history of many nations when superstitious fears have prevailed with remarkable Nature of the force, and in ancient Greece these seasons of distress.           excitement were by no means uncommon.    No
crisis but had its prophets who filled the people with alarm, nothing supernatural that was not readily believed. The beginning of the sixth century B.C. was in a peculiar degree a time of religious emotion. It was marked by the rise of that Orphic literature, by the spread of those mysteries, which, however contemptible in our eyes, were full of meaning to the Greeks. The sleep which rounded life was broken by dreams; the simple worship of ancestors was disturbed by puzzling thoughts of a hereafter; and with the deepening sense of moral guilt came the need of more efficacious means of expiation. Out of this labour of the spirit there was born for the nobler minds the poetry of Pindar and Aeschylus, the philosophy of Heraclitus and Parmenides; but the majority soothed their apprehensions with rites and ceremonies, No reason to by the offering of a pig (made of dough), and accounfof         ^y attendance at childish or obscene displays.
Plutarch.          For these reasons we may accept the picture
which Plutarch has given of the religious despair of Athens at this time, and of the healing effect of the ministrations of
1 Plut. Sol. 12. Myron of Phlya undertook the accusation of the "Accursed." The date of Epimenides1 visit may be placed in 596 b.c.
XIII. 6.]                 SOLON'S WARNINGS.                        405
Epimenides as in the main a true one, for it is drawn in colours which harmonise with the situation.
IV. —THE ARCHONSHIP OF SOLON.
6. The affair of Cylon had thrown into the background troubles of a more lasting nature, which, when the religious distress abated, again began to agitate the people. Nothing had yet been done to remove the burden of Povertyand debt and poverty which oppressed the poorer wealth at citizens; the old strife of parties had never Athens* been healed. Melancholy indeed is the picture which is drawn for us of the social state of Athens at this time. In the higher classes there prevailed a spirit of selfish greed, in the lower there was hopeless misery and degradation. The wives and daughters of the rich seem to have lived in luxury, marriages more especially being occasions of great and ostentatious extravagance; while the yeoman was obliged to sell his children into slavery in order to purchase release from the crushing claims of his creditor.1 Such a contrast of rich and poor was fraught with great dangers, which no one observed more clearly than Solon. He saw that internal strife, when a powerful neighbour like Theagenes was at hand to take advantage of it, was not unlikely to end in the ruin of the state, and he pointed out his view of the situation in an elegiac poem addressed to the people. "It is not the will of the gods that our city should perish, for over us The warning are spread the hands of our guardian goddess of Sol°n-Pallas Athena; it is the desire of gain which will bring us to ruin; the thoughts of our leaders are not honest, and their greed will bring great evils upon them. They cannot be satisfied and enjoy the feast soberly; they rob the people and the gods without fear of justice. Meanwhile many of the poor go into foreign lands, sold as slaves, and burdened with shameful bonds. My spirit bids me warn the Athenians of the evils of misrule.   Under a good government all is well
1 Plut. Sol. 13,20.
406                         SOLON'S ARCHONSH1P.                 [XIII. 7.
and fair. Order puts the wicked into chains; order makes the rough places plain, brings down the proud, withers mischief in the bud, makes the crooked sentence straight, softens acts of cruelty; order puts an end to faction and the rage of civil strife." 1
7. Solon enjoyed the confidence of all parties. Though by birth he belonged to the aristocracy, his fortunes had thrown Solon elected him among the merchants, that by trade he Archon.            might repair the damage done to his property
by the excessive liberality of his father. Twice he had come forward in a time of public distress and rescued the city from a most serious situation; it was resolved to ask his assistance once more, and in 594 B.C. he was elected archon, with power to mediate between the various factions in the city.2 To an ordinary Greek such a position would have been merely the stepping-stone to a tyranny. He would at once have enlisted the people on his side, and established himself in supreme power by the overthrow of the oligarchy. Many citizens, and especially his own kindred, urged Solon to take this step; many more despised him for refusing to take it, but neither taunts nor persuasion prevailed on him to go beyond his powers. He accepted office with misgiving, knowing well that the arrangements which might be best for all parties would probably be those which would satisfy none.
His first measure was the famous Seisachtheia. Every citizen who had been sold into slavery, at home or abroad, The seisach- was restored to liberty; all debts secured upon theia-               the person or landed property of the debtors
were cancelled; and for the future no one was allowed to lend money on the security of the debtor's person. " Some authorities, as,for instance Androtion (fourth century B.C.), are of opinion that the Seisachtheia was no more than a moderation of the rate of interest; but the majority assert that it was a cancelling of all contracts alike, and with this view
1 Sol. Frag. 4 B. 3 Hut Sol. 14.
XIII. 8.]                SOLON'S SEISACHTHEIA.
407
Solon's words agree." x Solon's words are: " In the day of vengeance, dark Earth, mightiest mother of the gods of Olympus, will be my surest witness of this, Solon's account from whom I removed pillars planted in many of it-places, and whom I freed from her bonds. Many citizens, who had been sold into slavery under the law or against it, I brought back to Athens their home; some of them spoke Attic no longer, their speech being changed in their many wanderings. Others who had learnt the habits of slaves at home, and trembled before a master, I made to be free men. All this I accomplished by authority, uniting force with justice, and I fulfilled my promise." 2 From this it is clear that by some means debtor-slaves were restored to liberty, and lands burdened with debt were relieved of thfe incumbrance.3
8. At the same time Solon made a change in the coinage, introducing into Attica the standard known as the Euboeic in place of the old Attic or Aeginetan (see supra,        .    . ch. xi. § 22).    The difference between j:he two   the standard standards was about 38 per cent.; at least this   of coinaffe-was the difference assumed by Solon, who recoined seventy-
1  Plut. Sol 15.
2  Sol. Frag. 36, 37 B.
8 It is true that we cannot establish the meaning of " mortgage pillar" for opos by reference to other passages in contemporary-literature (Cox, Hist. Greece, i. 201) but this, which is the common meaning in legal Greek, appears to be the only admissible meaning here. If we translate opot " boundaries " (as Cox suggests), we must accept one of three explanations:—(1) Either Solon introduced liberty of sale in land, so that properties burdened with debt could be sold and the debt paid ; or (2) he introduced a redivision of property (thus removing the boundaries); or (3) he put back into their old place the boundary stones which had been moved so as to encroach on the property of others. The first meaning is against the sense of the whole passage ; it would be little better than irony to speak of land as '* liberated " which had been sold to pay debts. The second is against the testimony of antiquity ; as a redivision of the land was precisely the measure which Solon did not propose. The third sense puts a forced meaning on the word aveTkov, which means " I took up," or even "I destroyed," without any reference to replacing in a previous position. See Mr. Lang's Introduction to Aristotle's Politic*) p. 88.
408                     CHANGE OF THE COINAGE.            [XIII. 9.
three of the old drachmas into a hundred of the new. This measure has often heen regarded as a part of the Seisachtheia; as though the change was intended to be a relief for those who had sums of money to pay. For, by availing himself of the new standard any one who owed a hundred drachmas in the old coinage could pay them in the new, and retain thirty-eight drachmas out of the debt. Those who take this view are compelled to maintain that Solon did not cancel the debts secured on land, but reduced the capital by the sums paid in interest, and provided that the rest should be paid in the new coinage. But as we have seen, this view of the Seisachtheia is not supported by the account of it which Solon himself gives. On the other hand, if all debts on land and person were cancelled, it is difficult to see what debtors benefited by the change in the coinage. It is true that any one who possessed a stock of money, and also owed consider-nota pan of able sums, might save largely by paying his the Seisach- debts in the new currency; but when the laws of debt were so severe, and the rate of interest so high, no one was likely to borrow if he had ready money. And if he had borrowed on the security of land, he was entirely freed from the debt by the terms of the Seisachtheia. The alteration of the coinage, therefore, was merely a regulation intended to facilitate business and trade, not a device for the relief of debtors. At the same time it appeared to increase the wealth of those who had money at the moment when they were called upon to make sacrifices by cancelling many debts that were due to them.1
9. As Solon had foreseen, the measure caused general dissatisfaction. The rich were annoyed at the loss of their money, the poor, who had looked forward to a complete redistribution of property, were discontented with the relief which had been given. In time the evil brought its own remedy. Each party found in the complaints of the other a reason for acquiescing in a measure which, while giving
1 Plut lc.; Head, Historic* Nwnofum, p. xtti
XIII. 10.]            CONSTITUTION OF SOLON.                     409
assistance to the poor, had not impoverished the rich.    In a short time Solon stood higher than ever in public estimation. He had averted the impending crisis by an arrangement at once firm and impartial, and he had resisted the temptation of a tyranny.    When he laid   reform the down his office at the end of the year (July   Constitution 593 B.C.), he was requested  to reform the entire political constitution of Athens.    The laws, the offices, the political and social arrangements of the city were committed to him for readjustment and correction.   It was a solemn charge, but it was placed in worthy hands.1
V.—THE CONSTITUTION OF SOLON.
10. We are not able to give a complete or accurate account of the constitution of Solon, partly owing to the want of materials, and partly because later writers attributed to Solon legal and political institutions of which he was not the author. But we know the objects which he had in view, and we can trace in outline the method object of by which he attempted to realise them. As the Solon's con-Seisachtheia had removed the bitter feeling stroVt^ power which separated rich and poor, so the new of the Gentes. form of constitution was intended to destroy the barrier which separated the privileged and unprivileged classes. Hitherto Athens had been an aristocracy; all the political and judicial power was vested in the noble families, against which all other classes in the state were powerless. This opposition it was necessary to remove. Solon felt that a state was not composed of a single class, but existed by the harmony of all classes ; that political power must be granted to all according to the measure in which they were able to receive it. On what basis could such a harmonious relation of classes be organised % Obviously not on the basis of birth, which was a source of dissension rather than union, a barrier which
1 Plut. Sol 16.
410     SOLON'S CONSTITUTION: FOUR CLASSES.   [XIII. n.
could only be removed in two or three generations. A property qualification was the only expedient, for riches were a prize Necessity of a wnicn> witn tne growth of commerce, seemed to property quaii- be within the reach of all. The increasing im-fication.            portance of money was being felt everywhere in
Greece at this time, and, however touch the old aristocracies might struggle against it in the spirit of Theognis, the possession of wealth was becoming the means of access to the higher functions of citizenship. Those who were richest had the greatest power. Solon carried out this system more thoroughly than had been done hitherto in any city of Greece, and what was elsewhere a principle of oligarchy he combined with democracy.
II. He divided the citizens into four classes, according to their annual income. The first class, or Pentacosio-The four classes medimni, consisted of those whose f annual of Solon.           income   amounted   to   500 medimni   (=750
bushels) or more; the second class, or Hippeis, of those whose income was between 500 and 300 medimni; the third class, or Zeugitae, of those whose income was between 300 and 150 medimni; the fourth class, or Thetes, of those whose income was less than 150 medimni. In this census that income alone was calculated which was derived from landed property, profits of trade or business being excluded, so that all merchants, shopkeepers, artisans, etc., who had no landed property, were included in the fourth class, whatever their wealth might be. It was of course open to any rich merchant, if an Athenian, to purchase an estate and thus raise himself into a higher class; aud, conversely, any landholder who was compelled by extravagance or misfortune to sell his property, value of the of necessity sank in the political scale. By this arrangements, means a scheme was provided which not only enabled those who had a share in the country's wealth to exercise a due influence in the government, but removed restrictions which had hitherto prevented the most enterprising part of the community from acquiring important civic rights.    But Solon also insisted that the wealth which con-
XIII. 12.] SOLON'S CONSTITUTION: THE ASSEMBLY.   411
ferred political rights should be invested in landed property. That was a pledge that the welfare of the citizen was closely united with the welfare of his city.1
To each of these classes certain duties were assigned. The three highest classes were expected to discharge without payment the expenses inseparable from the offices Duties imposed of state; and the members of the highest class on the Masses, may also have been required, even at this early period, to contribute as trierarchs to the maintenance of ships of war. From the Hippeis the horse soldiers of the community were selected, the equipment and maintenance of a horse being a matter of considerable expense at Athens. The Zeugitae were the heavy-armed soldiers of the state; it was their duty to provide themselves with the necessary armour, except a shield and lance, which were given to each citizen at the public expense on his attaining his majority. From the Thetes no military service was required, or nothing beyond their appearance in the field as light-armed soldiers. Nor were they eligible to any office of state. But as rowers in the triremes they formed the most important part of the Athenian navy.2
12. Having thus removed aristocratical privilege, Solon proceeded to arrange the constitution on the broad principle that every citizen should have a voice in it Before his time the Ecclesia or General Assembly of the _   .       .    .
. .                                  i-ii-                 *   t     . i-.         The Assembly.
citizens may have had the power of deciding on peace or war; such at least is the probable conclusion, and we have nothing but probability to guide us in forming an opinion. Solon assigned to it the right of electing the public magistrates, and passing sentence on their conduct at the end of their year of office—rights which obviously imply freedom of discussion.    By this addition the Assembly was at
1  Plut. Sol. 18; Boeckh, Staatshaushaltung, p. 645; Aristotle {?) Pol ii 12. 6= 1274a ; Pollux, viii. 130. The qualification for the third class is given at 200 drachmas in Pollux lc.f and Plut. Arist. Vat. 1 ; at 150, in Dem. Macart. § 54.
2  Harpocration, s.v. Orjres; Arist. Lc. The law of Antidosis, which implies liturgies, is ascribed to Solon in Dem. Pham. 1,
412        SOLON'S CONSTITUTION: CITIZENSHIP.   [XII1. is.
once raised to an independent position. The people became the sovereign power in the state, so far as the administration was concerned. They elected and controlled the executive. That they should take any part in civil or criminal legislation was hardly contemplated at the moment when Solon was drawing up a code which he hoped would suffice for the next hundred years.1
Two qualifications were necessary in every Athenian who attended the Assembly : he must be of full age, which in Athenian law was fixed at the twentieth birthday, and he must be a citizen. But what constituted citizenship 1 Were those only citizens who were born of citizen parents on both sides—of an Athenian father and an Athenian mother 1 Apparently not, for otherwise the sons of Miltiades by the daughter of Cypselua of Corinth, and of Cylon by the daughter of Theagenes (if there were any) would have been deprived of citizenship* These are instances from the time immediately preceding Solon; and it does not appear that Solon made any change. Megacles, his younger contemporary, married the daughter of Clisthenes of Sicyon; and Pisistratus married the daughter of this Megacles. As there is no suggestion that the issue of their marriages were, or would be, debarred from Athenian citizenship—on the contrary, the son of Megacles was Clisthenes of Athens—we must suppose that it was enough that the father was an Athenian citizen. On the other hand, the marriage must be solemnised according to Athenian rites, and the issue registered in an Athenian phratry. "I give my daughter to Megacles to be his wife according to the laws of the Athenians," are the words of Clisthenes of Sicyon in disposing of the hand of Agariste.8
1 Arist. Pol. iii. 11. 8=12816 ; ii. 12. 4= 1274a.    The power of deciding on peace and war is not specially mentioned in the Politics ; -but as the people composed the army they could hardly be made to serve against their will.
Herod, vi. 130 : T© de 'AXk/acgwos McyaieXct eyyvco ircuba rr)V €firjv 'Ayapicm/v vofiouri roicrt 'Adrjvaicov, For the treatment of Mot by Solon, see infra.
XIII. I3-]  SOLON'S CONSTITUTION: THE COUNCIL.     413
13. It is not probable that the meetings of the Assembly were frequent. The majority of the population of Attica was still agricultural, living at a distance from the The Council of city and much occupied with the labours of the Four Hundred, farm. Such men would have little time or inclination to make visits to Athens merely for political purposes. Nor were they likely to be efficient as speakers in the Assembly, or to have any special knowledge of current events. A more compact and permanent body was needed for the satisfactory discharge of public business. Solon met the need by the creation of a Council of 400 members, chosen equally from each of the four tribes—a remarkable institution, which was without a parallel at the time in Greece. Unfortunately we know nothing whatever of the qualifications of the members of this Council, the mode of election, or the arrangement of business. We may conjecture that only the first three classes were eligible as councillors; that the election was managed by the Phylobasileis and the heads of houses, and that the Council was divided into committees which attended daily at the Council Chamber for a fixed time. But these are merely conjectures. Plutarch dismisses the Council of Four Hundred in a single sentence : " Seeing that the people were greatly puffed up and emboldened by the remission of debts, he instituted a second council (in addition to the Areopagus) by choosing a hundred men from each of the four tribes; to these he assigned the duty^of preparing measures for the people, and they were to forbid anything to be brought before the people which had not been previously considered by them." This was, of course, the duty of the Council in later times; and may have been its duty in the time of Solon; but we cannot suppose that this was the sole or the chief reason for its creation. If, on the one hand, it was a check on the Assembly, it was, on the other, the re- it8 popular presentative of the Assembly in the transac- character, tion of current affairs and in controlling the public officers in the discharge of their duty. Not a single act of the Council has been recorded during the whole period—nearly a century
414      SOLON'S CONSTITUTION: THE ARCHONS.    [XIII. x*
—between Solon and Clisthenes. But when'Cleomenes and Isagoras wished to overturn the Solonian constitution in the interests of an oligarchy, the Council was th$ point of resistance, a fact which is alone sufficient to prove the popular and democratic nature of the institution.1
14.  The archons still continued to be the chief executive in the state, and  in this respect Solon did not add to
or diminish their functions, or interfere with
The archons.        ,,           . ,.         ,.   . .         -                              ,,
the existing division of power among them. Whether they were chosen from the first three classes in the Solonian census, or from the first only, has been doubted. In the Politics of Aristotle, the first three classes are separated from the fourth, " which had no share in any office," but no distinction is made in the privileges of the first three. Plutarch, however, finds a proof that Aristides belonged to n . .,    .        the first class in the fact that he was archon,
Probably chosen        ,,..«.                    .                     .
from the first and this inference, which is not inconsistent class only.         wjtn tne statement in the Politics, is probably
right.2 But the archonship was by no means left unchanged by the constitution of Solon. On the one hand, it was ennobled by the reform of the Areopagus, of which the archons formed a part in their year of office, and for the rest of their lives; on the other, it was limited not only by the action of the Assembly and the Council, but also by the institution of the Heliaea, to which there was an appeal from the judicial sentence of the archons.
15.  Solon did not aim merely at the creation of a political machine; he desired to regulate the moral and social, no less The reform of than the civic, life of the Athenians. It was the Areopagus. not} in fact, possible to separate the two. In the small communities of Greece public and private life were more closely connected than they are now; ethics and politics were necessarily combined, because it was impossible for any
1  Plut. Sol 19.
2  Ibid. Aristid. 1 ; Arist. Pol. ii. 12. 6= 1274a.    This chapter is of doubtful authenticity.
XIII. IS-]  SOLON'S CONSTITUTION: THE AREOPAGUS. 415
form of government to exist which was not supported by the good-will of the citizens. That constitution, and that alone, was firmly established which satisfied the aspirations of the people, and had its roots fixed in their affections. With this object in view, Solon established the Council of the Areopagus. We have seen that even before his time the hill of Ares was the most solemn place of judgment in Athens; it may also have been the place of meeting of the old aristo-cratical Senate. With this ancient and hallowed site Solcn identified the Board which he intended to be the supreme authority on all matters touching the social and moral welfare of the state, and by this means he secured for his new Council the force of tradition, and the associations of holy ground. The Council consisted of the archons and ex-archons—ie. of members selected from the aristocracy, but chosen by the people. As the archonship was open to the first class only, and those who offered themselves for it must be men over thirty years of age and of blameless life and character, Solon at one stroke created a Council composed of the best representatives of the highest class of citizens, who in the first instance received their position by the votes-of the whole people. The members were elected for life, which enabled them to exercise their power fearlessly, and with the growth of time their numbers became considerable. Allowing twenty years for the average life of the ex-archon, the whole body of the Areopagus would not be less than 200 in number. The Council represented the best practical wisdom, the most tried moral and political worth in the city. It also confirmed the rich in their position,, but only when they gained the votes of the community.
Before the Council all cases of intentional homicide, intent to murder, arson and treason were brought for trial. But it received other powers even more impor- Power of the tant, which enabled it to exercise a paternal Areopagus, control over the city. Even if no formal complaint was brought before it, the Areopagus had the right to make inquiries into the life of the citizens and their means of sub-
416      SOLON'S CONSTITUTION-: THE HELIAEA.   [XIII. 16.
sistence; its sentence fell on the idle and profligate no less than on the criminal. The members were irresponsible; their decisions could not be revoked, and they appear to have been rarely impugned. "It was the bulwark of the land and city, the like of which no man had seen either in Scythia or in the island of Pelops; a Council incorrupt, awful, and severe; a watchful guardian over those that slept" To the last it continued to retain the respect and admiration of the best citizens of Athens; and, though stripped of its prestige by Pericles, it seems to have been restored to a considerable degree of power after the overthrow of the Thirty Tyrants. The two councils, the Areopagus and the Four Hundred, Solon regarded as the two anchors of the state, and time confirmed his opinion.1 l6. As the archons were chosen from the first class only, and the Areopagus was composed of archons and ex-archons, the administration of the law was entirely in the hands of institution of the aristocracy. This could not fail to be a theHeiiaea. serious danger: it was of little use to have one law for the rich and poor, if the administration of it lay in the uncontrolled power of the rich. To remove this difficulty Solon created a Heliaea, or popular court of law. Prom the citizens of every class, who, being over thirty years of age and of good character, chose to offer themselves for the purpose, a certain number were annually selected and empanelled as a jury, after taking a solemn oath. Before this body those officers of state could be tried whose conduct was attacked at the scrutiny in the Assembly; it was also a court of appeal from the judicial sentences passed by the archons. Any citizen who felt himself unjustly treated could bring the matter before a jury of his fellow-citizens. As there was no distinction of classes in the Heliaea, and as the members were numerous, bribery and influence were rendered almost impossible, and by this means the people were secured against the aristocracy. Though this .court was the beginning of the later judicial system of
1 Plat. Sol. 19; Aesch. Eum. 703 ff j  supra, p; 308*
XIII. Vj.] SOLON'S CONSTITUTION: NATURES'WORTH. 417
Athens, it must not be confounded with it. In the first instance the Heliaea was not concerned with the immediate decision of law-suits, but with cases which came to it from the Ecclesia or the archons, and as the members were not paid, and therefore would not devote more time than necessary to their duties as jurors, the meetings were probably rare.1
17. Thus did Solon "mix the constitution," combining aristocratical with democratical elements. The people were supreme in the last resort over all questions Nature of Solon's of peace and war, over the conduct of the Constitution, executive, and the administration of law—powers without which they could not rise above the condition of slaves. On the other hand, the executive was in the hands of the aristocracy or the rich, to whom also the way to the Areopagus was reserved. Though the Assembly and the Heliaea were open to every Athenian above twenty and thirty years of age, the Senate of Four Hundred, with which rested the initiative in all matters brought before the Assembly, was probably composed of men whose means allowed them to be absent from their property; and the Archons were chosen from the first class only. But these oppositions were softened by the graduated scale of property qualification, which, while destroying the power of that most dangerous element in a small state—a needy aristocracy, made it possible for every citizen to rise into a higher political position. The constitution of Solon was an admirable Its worth and structure, at once firm and elastic. Even at impartiality, this distance of time we are astonished at the genius which formed so accurate an estimate of the strength and the weakness of the elements on which he had to work, and created a constitution such as had never existed in the world before, by uniting the past with the future, and the reverence for prescription with the love of freedom. Solon did not, like Lycurgus, crush every natural feeling in the interest of the state, nor place, like Pericles, the city rabble in a position
1 Aristot. Pol. ii. 12. 4= 1274 a ; Plut. U. 18.
VOL. I.                                                                   2D
418                          THE LA WS OF SOLON.                [XIII. x&
of supreme authority; he did not confound government with repression nor liberty with licence. Poet, soldier and statesman, he saw life from every side. By his wise impartiality he won the respect and confidence of his citizens, and what he gained he used for the noblest purposes. To the last his memory was cherished as that of the statesman " who loved the people."
VI.—THE  LAWS   OF SOLON.
18. A code of laws was a necessary part of Solon's reforms. The ordinances of Draco were not only in a great measure Necessity of a useless owing to the severity of the punish-new Code.         ments inflicted, but they were probably quite inadequate to satisfy Solon's views of the office of the legislator. In his judgment laws were not merely a means of punishing crime and checking injustice; they might interfere if necessary in the private life of the citizen, and direct his most intimate arrangements, as well as determine and guide his public conduct. His code was thus of a most comprehensive character, and though we cannot suppose that it included all the laws which were at a later time ascribed to Solon, it was no doubt a larger and more complete body of enactments than had previously been brought together. It is impossible and unnecessary here to pass the whole under review; those provisions only will be mentioned which throw a light on the social or political state of Athens at the time.
It is a curious feature of Attic law that many acts which we regard as the private affair of those who are injured by Personal and them were made public offences, while others public offences. 0f a far graver character were looked upon as private wrongs. Homicide, for instance, in regard to which Solon took over the laws of Draco without change, remained to the last at Athens a private wrong done to the kinsmen of the dead, and if they did not prosecute, the offender escaped. We must not infer from this that murderers were not punished at Athens. Eeligious feeling and family pride furnished motives for vengeance, and there was no want of men
XIII. ip.] SOLONSLAWS: THE POSITION OF WOMEN '419
willing to prosecute. But it is a proof that the unity of the civic body was imperfectly realised. In order to remedy this defect, and at the same time to defend the weak and helpless against those who might otherwise attack them with impunity, Solon made it legal for any one who chose to come forward as a prosecutor in cases of assault and injury. " That city was the best," he said, " in which those who are not injured come forward in defence of those who are, and punish the evil-doer."
19. From the Greek point of view Solon was more successful than Lycurgus in legislating for the women. We have, it is true, very slight evidence on which to estimate either the morality or the education of Athenian women, but of their political insignificance there is no doubt; and it was impossible that they could exercise any social influence, for they were not allowed to appear in society. Silence was their chief ornament, and their highest reputation to remain unknown. The rules which Solon laid down about them were at once more severe and more lax than we should tolerate. Marriage Laws about presents were forbidden: the bride could bring Women. three changes of clothing, and furniture of some slight value into her new home, but nothing more. Wealthy wives led to ill-assorted marriages, in which the old were paired with the young, a union neither beneficial to the state nor likely to bring happiness to the household. No woman was allowed to leave home with more than three changes of clothing, and a very small amount of food, or with a basket more than a cubit in length—a regulation which was no doubt intended to put an end to display at festivals in different parts of the country. Excessive wailing at funerals was illegal; three changes of raiment only could be burned at the funeral pyre; and visits to the tombs of those who were not members of the family were forbidden except for the purposes of burial.
It was an ancient rule at Athens and elsewhere in Greece, that the next of kin must either marry an orphan girl who was the last of her family, or provide her with a dowry to enable her to find a husband.
420              SOLON'S LA WS: PUBLIC MORALITY.    [XIII. 20.
In the case of rich heiresses this sometimes led to injustice. The next of kin might be old, or incurably diseased, but his legal right was indefeasible. To remedy the evils which might thus arise, Solon, while allowing the kinsman to retain his right, shielded the heiress by a number of regulations which made it difficult and unpleasant for any unsuitable person to insist on his claim. Another law relieved the children of a mistress from the duty of supporting their father. "They owed him nothing for the disgrace he had brought upon them by their birth."
In other respects Solon showed a certain inconsistency. If a husband surprised a paramour, he might indeed slay him on the spot; but for offences with violence the fine was a hundred drachmas, and for seduction it was no more than twenty.
A different class of crimes met with severe punishment. Death or loss of civic rights awaited those who had led Public             infamous lives, or attempted to corrupt others,
morality.          g0 SUSpici0us was Solon of this evil that the
gymnasia were placed under the most stringent rules in regard to the age of those who kept them, the time of opening and closing, and the admission of strangers.1
20. Other laws were intended to protect the State. Any citizen who remained neutral in a sedition, lost his civic rights. Law about        To Plutarch this appeared a strange and remark-
neutrality.         akie enactment, but it is easily explained by
reference to the condition of Athens at the time. In a period when party strife ran high, it was necessary for the peace of the community that each section should know the strength of the other. If there was a number of citizens who might suddenly declare themselves on this side or that, either party could hope at any moment to be superior to the other, and out of such a state of uncertainty serious evils would arise. It was also of the first importance that every man should take a part in political life. The Greeks had very little respect for the ididtis, the man of retiring disposition, whose interests did
1 Plut. Sol 20-23; Lysias, i. 32.
XIII. 21.]    SOLON'S LA WS: POLITICAL DUTIES.             421
not extend beyond himself or his family. Through the state the citizen received not only the means of making a living, but the opportunity of developing his social and political nature, and any one who neglected those opportunities neglected the nobler half of his duties. For somewhat similar reasons Solon laid down a rule that those persons only should be adopted as citizens at Athens who were either The adopted exiled for life from their own cities, or came to citizen. Athens to settle there, after breaking up their old home. A man was not allowed to be a citizen of two cities; he was not to remain at Athens just so long as suited his interests or convenience, and then return to his original home, perhaps to escape some public burden. He must cast in his lot with his adopted city, and share her weal and woe.1
21. Before the time of Solon, the property of a man who died without heirs went to his gens. He had no power to dispose of it by will or testament. This ar- powers given rangement was a survival of ancient rules to make wills, about property which prevailed at a time when individual ownership hardly existed at all, or at the utmost a man had a life interest in what was regarded as common property. His representatives, if he left any, succeeded to his rights, but it was not in his power to alienate these from his gens, if they could not remain in his own family. This disability Solon removed. A man who died without children was permitted to dispose of his property in whatever way he might think proper. But the disposition must be the aqt of his own free will; the testament was invalid if procured by compulsion or influence—the influence of women is specially mentioned. The testator must also be of sound mind unaffected by disease or drugs. The rule was a great step forwards in emancipating the individual from the ^control of the gens, and in this respect it is quite in harmony with the general aims of Solon's constitution. But it is doubtful whether the Athenians made use of the freedom to the full
1 Plut. Sol 20-24.
422      SOLON*S LAWS: INHERITANCE—TRADE.     [XIII. 22.
extent. Whenever it was possible, a childless man preferred to adopt the son of his relations as the heir of his race and property. Plutarch, influenced perhaps by Roman ideas, speaks of the law as putting friendship in the place of consanguinity, but the most common effect of it was that a man left to an adopted son the property which would otherwise have been divided among his relatives within the recognised degrees of inheritance.1
22.  Another law forbade the exportation from Attica of any article but olive oil. The regulation is of little im-Exportation portance, but it would be interesting to know of olive oil. with what view Solon established it. Was the exception made because olive oil was produced in quantities beyond the requirements of the inhabitants 1 Or shall we ascribe to Solon the far-sighted policy of fostering by a favourable enactment the growth of produce for which Attica was peculiarly suited 1 The Attic olive oil was the best in Greece; jars of it were given away as prizes to the victors at the Panathenaea, and an olive spray, or a jar, or both, are constantly found on the coins of Athens.2
Solon appears to have encouraged trade and handicraft by every means.    Among his laws was one which relieved a son
Laws for the *rom tne ^ut^ °* suPPor^mo nis father in old encouragement age, if the father had neglected to teach him a of trade.            trade.   With the same object he induced many
strangers to settle at Athens. It was the boast of the Athenians that they offered especially favourable terms to the aliens who came to their city. Whether this claim is true or not we are unable to decide; it is, however, certain that the trade of Athens was carried on to a very large extent by foreigners resident in the city, and the regulations which were laid down for the control of commerce at Athens were not more'burdensome than those in existence at Venice in the fifteenth century.
23.  A few more laws may be noticed for the light which
1 Plut. Lc. 21.
2 Ibid. U. 24.
XIII. 23.]       SOLON'S LAWS: THEIR DURATION.             423
they throw on the Attica of the time of Solon. An Olympian victor was rewarded with five hundred drachmas, a sum equivalent to the income of a citizen of the first Miscellaneous class (for a medimnus was counted as equal to a laws, drachma); an Isthmian with one hundred. Any one who slew a wolf received five drachmas from the state; and for a wolfs cub, one drachma; the first being the value of an ox, the second of a sheep. Those who lived within half a mile of a public well might use it, but beyond that distance a man must dig a well for himself; yet if no water could be found at sixty feet, he might take four gallons twice a day from his neighbour's well. Olives and figs were not to be planted within nine feet of a neighbour's border; swarms of bees must be settled three hundred feet at the least from an existing hive. No one was allowed to cut down more than two olive trees in the year on his estate under pain of a fine of a hundred drachmas.1
Solon also passed a law preventing any citizen from owning more than a fixed amount of land, and he compelled every one to show how he got his living.2
The laws were inscribed on wooden axdnes or tablets, fastened in square frames of wood, so that they could be turned round.   The name given to these frames The axones and and tablets was kyrbeis.    Some small fragments kyrt>eis-of the axones were in existence in the Prytaneum at Athens in Plutarch's time.   The language of the laws, judged by a later standard, was archaic, but it seems to have been preserved unaltered to the beginning of the fourth century B.o.   The Council, as a body, swore to observe and enforce them, and each of the archons pledged himself to set up a golden statue of the size of life at Delphi, if he transgressed   change in the them in any point. Solon fixed a hundred years  laws-as the time during which his enactments should remain in iorce.   In this he seems to have made a distinction between iiis legislation and his constitution, for he also spoke of his
1 Plut. lc. 23. Dem. p. 1074.    2 Ar. Pol ii. 7.6= 12666; Herod, ii. 177*
424                                SOLON'S TRAVELS.                      [XIII. 24*
laws, meaning his political arrangements, as the best the Athenians could receive, not the best which he could have devised, and fixed ten years as the period within which no change should be made. Chilon of Lacedaemon, with characteristic severity, considered it a blot on his legislation, that he contemplated any change whatever.1
VII.—LEGENDS OF SOLON
24. When at length his work as legislator was ended (585 B.O. V) Solon is said to have left Athens. His regulations Travels of         met with much criticism; in order to avoid
Solon.              making alterations in them,  he   bound   the
Athenians by an oath to observe them for ten years, and then departed. In his travels he reached Egypt, where he associated with Sonchis of Sais, and Psenophis of Heliopolis, priests from whom he acquired information about the life and doctrines of the Egyptians. He also visited Cyprus. The fall of the Assyrian empire at the end of the seventh century B.o. had left the princes of Cyprus more independent; but, on the other hand, the severity with which the second empire of Babylon pressed upon the Syrian coast, in the first years of the sixth century, must have exercised a very depressing effect on the trade of the Phoenicians. By the time of Solon's visit, the Greeks were masters of a great part of the island.
Solon was the guest of Philocyprus of Soli, a prince " whom in his poems he extols above all others." : According to Plutarch, Philocyprus dwelt in a city of no great
1 ocyprus.      g.^ foun(je(j -fry Demophon the son of Theseus,
on the bank of the river Clarius. Though the site was strong, it was inconvenient, and on Solon's advice the prince removed the city to the subjacent plain, where he rebuilt it on a larger 'and more commodious scale. Solon assisted him with his advice in making the city as pleasant and convenient as possible. Inhabitants flocked to it, to the envy of the neighbouring princes, and the name of the city was changed from Aepea (steep) to Soli, in honour of Solon.    Some lines of an elegiac
1 Plut. Sol. 25; Lysias, in Theomntst. i. 16 ff. ; Herod, i. 29.
XIII. 250                SOLON AND CROESUS.                          425
poem addressed by Solon to Philocyprus have been preserved. "May you long continue to reign at Soli, over your city and people; and may Cypris of the violet crown send me in a swift ship safely from your far-famed island. For the foundation of this city may she grant me her favour and fair renown, and a safe return to my country."x
25. More famous than the sojourn in Egypt or Cyprus is the visit which Solon paid to Croesus, the king of Sardis. Whether such a meeting can have occurred is soion and more than doubtful. At the earliest date, Croesus. Croesus cannot have ascended the throne of Lydia before 563 B.C., and even if Solon's visit fell at the very beginning of his reign, it is later by ten years than the date at which a ten years' period of travel after the work of legislation came to an end. But at the beginning of his reign Croesus had not yet attained that pre-eminent position which the story ascribes to him. It was not till he had extended the borders of his dominion to the sea, by the conquest of the Greek cities of the coast, that the king of Sardis could regard The meeting himself as the most prosperous of men. This improbable, difficulty in the chronology cannot be removed; but, as Plutarch remarks, it is not worth while, for the sake of a puzzle which no one can solve, to discard so good a story and one so characteristic of the men. Herodotus has rendered immortal the meeting of the wisest of the Greeks and the richest of the Asiatics; the scene forms a page of history which can never be erased. Croesus received the Athenian gladly, and when he had showed him all his wealth and power he asked Solon who, in his judgment, was the happiest of men. Solon replied, "Tellus of Athens." Born of an honourable race, endowed with sufficient means, when he had lived long enough to see his children in prosperity, and children born to them, Tellus fell nobly in battle for his country at Eleusis. Disappointed of the first place in the rank of the happy, Croesus inquired to whom
1 Plut. U. 26; Herod, v. 113.
426
SOLON AND ANACHARSIS.             [XIII. 26.
Solon ascribed the second prize : " Cleobis and Bito," was the answer. These were Argives who had drawn their mother in a car from Argos to the temple of Hera, a distance of more cieobis and than five miles. When the Argives were loud Bit0-                in their praises of the young men's strength,
and the Argive women rejoiced with the mother in the piety of her sons, she prayed to the goddess that her choicest blessings might descend upon them. Then followed the sacrifice and festival, after which the young men retired to rest in the temple.    They never rose again, but died in their sleep.
Croesus could restrain his indignation no longer: Was he not second in happiness 1 Were men of private station to be placed before the monarch of Lydia 1 Solon answered ^ t              that the days of man are three-score years and
The happy man.                    .  *     .                               .        /
ten, and in this long lapse of time there is no certainty that to-morrow will be as to-day. Life is a " chapter of accidents." "I see that your wealth is great," he continued, " and that you are lord over many subjects; but I cannot call you by the title you claim, till I know whether your life has ended happily. The wealthy man is not happier than he who has sufficient for the day, unless it be his fortune to end his life in prosperity. Wealth is not happiness. It enables us to satisfy desires, or support calamities; but a prosperous man has no need of it, for he is untouched by disease or disaster, and his children grow up round him. If such a man end his life as he began it, he may justly be accounted happy." The calamitous fall of Croesus was a signal proof of the wisdom of Solon's words.1
26. In a similar spirit the Greeks could tell of other famous men with whom the great Athenian was brought into contact. When occupied with the reform of the constitution, Solon and         ne was visited by Anacharsis of Scythia, who
Anacharsis. announced his desire to become Solon's friend and guest. Solon replied that " it was better to make friends at home."   " In that case," rejoined Anacharsis, " do you, who
1 Herod, i. 29 ff.
XIII. 26.]                 SOLON AND THALES.                           427
are at home, make me your friend." Solon was pleased with the retort, and for a time entertained him hospitably. Anacharsis, on inquiring into Solon's occupation, thought it absurd that laws, which he compared to spiders' webs, could restrain men from wrong and injustice if they had the power to break them. Solon, in answer, pointed to the respect for law which binds men to fulfil contracts even to their own disadvantage. The issue proved that Anacharsis formed a truer estimate of Athenian character than Solon.1
On another occasion Solon is said to have visited Thales, the philosopher of Miletus, to whom the tripod, which the Delphian oracle had assigned " to the wisest," soion and had been returned after passing through the Thales. circle of the Seven Sages. Thales was a bachelor, upon which Solon rallied him. Upon this Thales disguised a man as a messenger recently come from Athens, and when Solon inquired the latest news, the supposed stranger replied that there was no news of importance except the public funeral of a youth, the son of one of the leading men in the state, who had been absent from his country for a long time. His name he could not remember, but he was a man distinguished for his wisdom and probity. Solon, with growing anxiety, pressed question after question, until at length he asked whether the young man was the son of Solon. The stranger replied that Solon was the father's name. Then Solon began to wail and lament for his son's death, until Thales checked him, saying that the story was his own invention. " But now you know the reason," he added, "why I have chosen to remain without wife or child."2
27. It is doubtful whether anything was known of Solon a hundred years after his death, beyond his laws and constitution, and the incidents and traits of char-     Little known acter recorded in his poems.    Herodotus tells     ofSoion. us of the travels on which he went after his legislation,
1 Plut. 80L 5.                 2 Ibid. Ic. 6.
428                          SOLON'S CHARACTER.                [XIII. 27.
and his meeting with Philocyprus and Croesus. But the years of travel after the work of legislation is over are an incident common to Solon and Lycurgus, and the meeting; with Croesus is a manifest fiction. The diligence of Plutarch has added nothing that can be called historical to the account of Herodotus. The interviews with Anacharsis and Thales are of the same fabulous nature as that with Croesus. How Solon attained his power, what was his real position towards the rich and the poor, and what were the circumstances which made his reforms possible—these are facts which no-ancient author has made clear to us. His rise is explained by his success in the wars with Megara and Crisa, though it is obvious that neither of these was brought to a successful issue till the Seisachtheia was passed, and the reforms concluded; nor is there a word in Solon's poems which leads us to suppose that he was a great general.
Though we cannot recover the details of Solon's life, we have the means of tracing an outline of his character. Like His character Archilochus, Theognis, Alcaeus and Sappho, seen in his he still lives in his poems. In these he poured poems.             out ^e thoughts which guided and sustained
him in his arduous task, in these he sought recreation  in lighter moments.     But, whether grave or gay, the poems represent the man.    In the political verses we observe his fearless criticism of the richer classes, his de-
Political verse.               .   J.          -           M                        ,             t    , .
nunciation of covetousness and greed, his sympathy with the oppressed. Yet there is no attempt to rouse class against class. " I gave the people such a measure of power as was enough, neither defrauding them, nor offering them more than their share And for those who had influence and wealth I took care that they suffered no wrong. Over both I held a protecting shield, and allowed neither to* encroach on the other." Had he followed the wishes of either party he would have been "as a wolf among dogs." He rejected with scorn the suggestion that he should make himself tyrant of the city; the position which he attained by his self-control was far higher.    Later in life he urged his
XIII. 27-]              SOLON'S SEPTENNIADS.                        42d
citizens to be on their guard against Pisistratus, whose graciousness was only intended to lull them into a false security; " out of such a calm there must needs break a storm." For himself he desired prosperity and His thoughts a good name; he would be the favourite of about wealth« his friends and the dread of his enemies. Wealth is a blessing, but only when justly got, for justice is more abiding than riches. Zeus beholds all things, and sooner or later his sentence falls on the guilty. Men seek for wealth in their various professions and trades, but the end is hidden from all, and honesty remains the best policy.
In another poem Solon divides the seventy years of life into periods of seven. In the first period the child has got lis teeth; in the second boyhood is passing The ten away; in the third the hair is on the young Septenniads. man's lip; in the fourth he is in the fulness of his bodily strength; in the fifth it is time to marry and think of the generation to come; in the sixth the mind begins to be stronger than the body; in the seventh and eighth periods {between forty-two aud fifty-six) the intellect is at its best; at sixty-three age is coming on, and the powers of thought and speech are not what they were; and if a man lives to the full term of seventy years death will not come on him before the time. Such was human life in the eyes of the wisest of the Athenians. It is a harmonious picture, broad in conception and calm in tone; each period has its allotted joys and powers; let not youth forestall age, or age regret youth, or the closing scene be troubled with idle wishes to outlive the appointed span. Take the goods which are provided; rejoice in the strength of youth, be happy with wife and child, make merry with a friend or at a festival, listen to the teaching of years; if good changes to evil, evil changes to good; the honest man has the gods on his side, and will not lose his reward.1
1 Solon, Frag. 5, 9,13,15, 20, 27 Bergk. Even in the fourth century B.C., the nature of Solon's reforms was doubtful (Pint. Sol. 15; Arist. Pol. ii. 12. 2 ff.^12736).
CHAPTER  XIV.
SPARTA  IN  THE  SIXTH  CENTURY.
1.  The success which had crowned their arms in the struggle with Messenia seems to have inspired the Spartans with a hope of new conquests. After the beginning of the sixth century, when Leon and Agasicles were on the throne, they sent to Delphi requesting permission to acquire the The Spartans whole of Arcadia. The oracle refused to grant attack Tegea. so extravagant a request. " Arcadia I will not grant thee; many are the men of Arcadia, eaters of acorns, who will keep thee from their borders; I will grant thee Tegea for a dancing place, and her fair plain to measure with a cord." In the minds of men who had so recently appropriated Messenia, this response pointed to the conquest and division of the lands of the Tegeatae. Providing themselves with fetters for their prisoners, the Spartans at once set But without out for Arcadia. Their hopes were doomed to success.           disappointment. Far from conquering Tegea, they met with a severe defeat, many Spartans were captured, and the fetters, which they brought with them, were placed on the feet of the prisoners, whom the Tegeatae compelled to work on measured plots in their fields. Equally unsuccessful were all the subsequent attempts of the Spartans to conquer Tegea, though they were victorious in other wars.1
2.  Meanwhile constitutional changes were taking place at
1 Herod, i 66.    These fetters were seen in the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea, not only by Herodotus, but even by Pausanias, 500 years later (viii. 47. 2).    They were much damaged by rust in hia Mime I
430
XIV. 3-]           SPARTA: WAR WITH TEGEA.                   431
Sparta, of which we can perceive the results, though we know nothing of the course of events.    Chilon the son of Damagetus, who was numbered among the Seven Sages,   Constitutionai and esteemed the wisest of the  Spartans, is   changes at said to have raised the ephorate to a higher   sParta-degree of power than it previously enjoyed.    He was himself ephor in the Fifty-sixth Olympiad (556-553 B.O.).   Unfor-fortunately we have no historical record of this remarkable man.    Apocryphal stories are related of him, and a number of apophthegms are put into his mouth, as is the case with the rest of the Seven Sages, but whatever the part which he took in the changes which were now introduced at Sparta, it is certain that the ephorate was far more important at the end of the sixth century than it was at the beginning.    Henceforth we shall find the ephors constantly interfering with the royal power, claiming to control even the private life of the kings, and gradually assuming the supreme authority in external as well as in internal politics.1
3. Leon and Agasicles were succeeded on the throne by Anaxandridas and Ariston.    In the reign of these princes (about 550 B.C.), the stubborn resistance of   conquest 01 the Tegeatae was overcome.    When consulted   Tesea-about the disasters which had overtaken the Spartans in the war, the oracle declared that so long as the bones of Orestes remained with the Tegeatae all attempts to   The bones conquer them would fail.    The first step to-   of °restes« wards victory was the acquisition of these sacred relics.   But where were they hidden, and how were they to be found 1
1 Chilon had a heroum at Sparta; Lycurgus a temple (Upov)—Paus. iii. 16. 4, 6. To him are ascribed the maxims yv&Oi o-tavrov and firjbev ayav. He wished that Cythera were sunk in the sea, and quarrelled with Solon because Solon anticipated that changes would be made in his laws. See Plut. Sep. Sap. Conv. for an imaginary picture of the man. Almost equally imaginary is the long account given by Duncker (Oesch. des Alt., Bk. xiii. ch. 1) of his reforms at Sparta.
432           SPARTA PREMIER STATE OF HELLAS.    [XIV. 4.
The directions given by the oracle were extremely vague. " Where two winds are blowing with a fierce blast; where there is stroke and counter-stroke; and woe lies upon woe." After a long search the bones were accidently discovered by one of the so-called "Benefactors" of the Spartans. Standing in the smithy of a Tegeate, he watched with interest the work which was going on, when the smith, seeing his astonishment, called to him and said:—"Truly, friend, you would have been amazed if you had seen what I have seen in my court-yard." He then told him that in the yard of the smithy he had found a sepulchre containing bones of a superhuman size. When the report of this discovery was carried to Sparta, it was at once perceived that these were the bones of Orestes. The " winds " of the oracular response were the air forced from the bellows; the hammer and anvil were " the stroke and counter-stroke ;" the iron, of which deadly weapons are forged, was the "woe upon woe." The Spartans hired the smithy, and conveyed the bones from it to Sparta. Their armies were now victorious; the Tegeatae were quickly overcome, and compelled to join whafr we must begin to call the Spartan Confederacy.1
4. For Sparta was now the foremost state in Hellas. The Messenians had been utterly crushed, and their rich lands Leading           formed a part of her domain.    She was on
position of         terms of close friendship with Elis; the frontier
Sparta.             Qn ^ n0rth was secured by the recent conquest.
No state within or without the Peloponnesus was now a match for Sparta in the battle-field. Here only was there a standing army of drilled soldiers, who made warfare and military tactics the objects of their lives; here were warriors who might indeed fall, but were never known to fly. This position was becoming recognised throughout Greece, and Sparta was looked up to as the head and representative of the
1 Herod, i. 67, 68.   Plut. Quaest. Orate, 5, mentions a treaty between the Lacedaemonians and Tegeatae which was engraved on a pillar by
the Alpheus.
XIV. 50
WAR WITH ARGOS.
433
nation.   When Croesus, who ascended the throne of Lydia in 560 B.O., inquired at Delphi whom he should choose for an ally among the Greeks, he was directed to Sparta as the foremost city.    Thither his envoys went, and they received a favourable answer,  for Croesus had already won the good opinion of the Spartans by an act of great   Sparta and liberality.    At this time gold was extremely   Croesus rare in Greece, and when the Spartans required   Lyd,a-some for the statue of Apollo at Thornax, they sent to Lydia to purchase it.  Croesus, however, would accept no payment, and gave them as much as they wanted.  The alliance had not been long concluded when Croesus was besieged in Sardis by the Persians.      He sent to the Spartans for aid, which they prepared to furnish; but before the soldiers could be embarked the news came that Sardis had fallen, and help was useless.1
5. At this moment the Spartans were ill able to spare men for the assistance of a foreign ally. The old quarrel with Argos about the Thyreatis had broken out once more. The district was now, and had been for some time, in the hands of Sparta (supra,) p. 232) but Argos, perhaps because she had no longer anything to fear from Periander or    „.   ,
„,. °,                ,i      i          i«.it^                  t           Final contest
Chsthenes, thought herself able to press her between Sparta claims to the disputed territory. In order to ?£d *rgos f°r avoid a general engagement, it was agreed that the matter should be decided by a contest betweeen three hundred combatants chosen from each side. The battle raged fiercely until three only of the six hundred were left: Alcanor and Chromius of the Argives, Othryadas of the Spartans. Night came on, and the Argives returned home in triumph. Meanwhile Othryadas spoiled the dead Argives of their weapons, which he carried to his camp, and remained on the field under arms. When the morning broke, the armies of both sides came to ascertain the result. Each claimed the victory; the Argives maintaining that they had two survivors against one, the Spartans that their warrior was in possession
1 Herod, i. 69, 83. VOL. I.
434                 IONIANS AND SPARTANS—CYRUS.         [XIV. 6.
of the field and the arms of the dead. The result was & battle, in which the Spartans were victorious.1
& No sooner was this success attained than a fresh application for aid came from the East. Cyrus was now -.   T   .           master of Hither Asia: and the Greek cities
The Ionians                                                         , . i    *    i
apply for aid of the Anatolian coast, which had refused to to Sparta.         j0jn fcxn   against Lydia,  began to feel the
weight of his resentment. In their distress they sent envoys to solicit the aid of Sparta. Clad in a purple robe, in order to attract as large an audience as possible, Pythermus of Phocaea, who was elected to speak for the rest, appeared before the assembly, and pleaded his cause in a long and elaborate speech. His efforts were in vain: neither eloquence nor splendour could move the Spartans to send active assistance. They contented themselves with despatching Assistance         a number of men in a penteconter to watch the
is refused.         course of events in Asia.    On their arrival at
Phocaea, Lacrines, the most distinguished member of the commission, was sent to Sardis to forbid Cyrus, in the name of the Lacedaemonians, to do injury to any city in Hellas. Cyrus and         Cyrus treated   the  message with   contempts
the Spartans. " Who were the Lacedaemonians ?" he asked,, " and what were their numbers ?" He had no reason to fear a nation which made it a custom to meet in an appointed place in order to forswear themselves and cheat each other. Ere long he would give the Lacedaemonians cause to talk about their own troubles, not about those of the Ionians.2
Another proof of the estimation in which Sparta was held Samian exiles *n tne East *s afforded by an event which took at Sparta.         place about twenty-five years after the visit of
the Ionians.    When Cambyses was in Egypt, Polycrates, the
1 From this contest the Spartans dated their custom of wearing the hair long. The Argives, on the other hand, cut their locks, and bound themselves by an oath that until the Thyreatis was recovered no Argive-should allow his hair to grow, and no Argive woman should wear ornaments of gold (Herod, i. 82). Plut. Parall. 3, quotes Chrysocomus to the effect that the matter was finally decided by the Amphictyons,.
* Herod, i. 152, 153.
XIV. 7-1                     SPARTA AND SAMOS.                              435
tyrant of Samos, sent him a number of Samians as auxiliary troops. On the voyage, it occurred to the Samians that they were sent as exiles rather than as auxiliaries. They returned and landed on Samos. But as Polycrates had effectually prevented the Samians in the island from rendering the least assistance by threatening to burn their wives and children (whom he had already placed in the docks for this purpose), the exiles were defeated and driven back to their ships. They now sailed to Laconia, and appeared before the authorities at Sparta, asking for assistance, and setting foith their wrongs, like Pythermus, in an elaborate speech. Once more the Spartans showed their dislike of The Samians eloquence. They bade the Samians put their ask helP* request into a briefer form; they were unaccustomed to long speeches, and could not remember them. The next day the Samians appeared with an empty sack, and said, " The sack needs meal." Even this speech the Spartans considered unnecessarily long; for the mention of the spartanassis-sack might have been omitted. * Nevertheless tance useless» the request was granted, and a force was sent to Samos. Some successes were obtained, but they were fruitless. After forty days of siege, the enterprise was abandoned, and the Spartans returned home.1
7.  By the   end of   the  sixth century the   position of Sparta   as a leading state   was clearly recognised.     She became the   head of   a   confederacy which,     spartathe without being arranged on any formal basis,     head of a was henceforth an established fact.      On all     confederacy, hands the cities sought her alliance, either from fear or from policy.     This  was  especially the  case in the cities which had succeeded in  throwing off the yoke of the  tyrants, Corinth and Megara, inasmuch as the oligarchs, insecure in
1 A story was current at the expense of the Spartans, who had no gold and silver coinage, that Polycrates bought them off with coins of gilded lead. The expedition falls before the death of Polycrates, in 521 B.C. (Herod, iii. 44 ff., 54 f.).
436                        SPARTAN CONFEDERACY.                 [XIV. fc
their position towards the people, looked to Sparta for support and guidance. Corinth was now controlled by a senate of joined by          eighty members, chosen from the eight tribes
Corinth            (p.  392)J under which the laws   were well
administered, if we may trust the praises bestowed by Pindar on the order and justice which prevailed in the city. But her empire had fallen with the fall of the Cypselids; as a military power she felt herself unable to stand alone, and in spite of the great interests which she had at stake, and the strength of her navy, Corinth never took an independent line in politics. She was content to follow the lead of Sparta, Argos, or Athens, as the development and protection of her eommerce required. At Megara, in the party conflicts which followed egara. ^e ^ ^ Theognis, the aristocracy had been succeeded by a democracy which punished and impoverished its oppressors. This violence in time produced a reaction, which brought the oligarchs once more into power. By joining the city of Sparta, which now controlled the whole of the west and south of the Peloponnesus, the restored exiles were enabled to keep their opponents in check, and the alliance was the more necessary as democratic principles found support in the neighbouring city of Athens.1
8. Of the personal history of Anaxandridas and Ariston, whose reigns fall in the middle of the century, we know Anaxandridas nothing beyond the domestic complications of and his wives. which Herodotus has given such an amusing and graphic account. Anaxandridas had married his niece, the daughter of his sister.    Though the union was childless,
1 It is stated by Thucydides (i. 18) that "the most and the last of the tyrants in Greece (except those in Sicily) were deposed by the Lacedaemonians." Plutarch, De Her. Mai. 21, mentions the Cypselids at Corinth and Ainbracia, Lygdamis at Naxos, the Pisis-tratids at Athens, Aeschines at Sicyon, Symmachus at Thasos, Aulis at Phocis, Aristogenes at Miletus, and two kings, Aristomedes and Arigelus, in Thessaly, as tyrants who were suppressed by Sparta. The Spartans did not put down the Cypselids at Corinth, though they may have supported the oligarchs in doing so. The rest of the statement we are not in a position to criticise.    Pind. 01. 13. 4 ff.
XIV. 8.]        KING ANAXANDRIDAS—ARISTON.                437
he cherished a deep affection for his wife, and continued to live with her. The ephors, in alarm for the succession, bade him put her away and marry another woman, that the race of Eurysthenes might not perish, and when Anaxandridas refused to put away a wife against whom he had no cause of complaint, they bade him take a second in addition to the wife whom he already had. To this proposal he assented, and henceforth he kept two houses, an "arrangement anything but Spartan." Soon after her marriage his second wife bore him Cleomenes, who was her only child; and after the birth of Cleomenes, the first wife, who had hitherto been barren, conceived, and bore three sons in succession: Dorieus, Leonidas, Cleombrotus. On the death of Anaxandridas, Cleomenes, as his eldest son, succeeded to the throne.
Ariston, the contemporary monarch of the Eurypontid line, married a woman who, from being the ugliest child, became the greatest beauty of her time. She Ariston and had previously been the wife of Agetus, from the wife of whom Ariston gained her by an act of perfidious          getus*
treachery. He had long been on terms of intimate friendship with Agetus, and, in remembrance of their mutual affection, he proposed that each should allow the other to choose what he liked best from his possessions. Agetus agreed to this, and chose what he wished from the possessions of Ariston, but when Ariston's turn came he chose the wife of Agetus— a request which was quite unexpected, for Ariston was already married to a second wife. Ariston however insisted on the terms of the agreement, and Agetus gave way. Ariston put away the wife he had, and took to his house the wife of Agetus. Hitherto he had been childless, but by this wife a son was born to him somewhat before the usual time. He happened to be sitting in the council chamber with the ephors, when a servant announced the child's birth. At the moment he repudiated the paternity in the hearing of those who sat with him, but afterwards he repented the rash exclamation, and acknowledged the child as his own. The name given to the son was Demaratus.    The exclamation
438                   KING CLEOMENES—DORIEUS.            [XIV. 9.
of Ariston was not forgotten; in the next generation it became a source of contention and disaster at Sparta.1
9. Even from his youth Cleomenes appears to have given signs of -an ill-regulated mind and passionate disposition. Nevertheless the Spartans refused to depart from the custom cieomcnes         which required that the eldest son should suc-
succeeds.          ceefl his father; and he became king of Sparta.
This gave great offence to his half-brother Dorieus, the eldest son of the first wife of Anaxandridas, who was the most distinguished Spartan of his day, and confidently expected to succeed to the throne. Eefusing to be the subject of such a monarch, he requested permission to lead out a colony from Sparta. Leave was granted, but Dorieus neglected to consult the Delphic oracle about a site, and indeed " observed -   .     ,          none of the usual customs."   Guided by the
Dorieus leaves                                                                                            J
Sparta for the Theraeans, who had themselves colonised Cmyps.             Cyrene, he led his party to the banks of the
Cinyps in Libya, " the fairest site in all the country." After a lapse of two years, a combination of the native tribes and the Carthaginians made it impossible for him to maintain his position, and he returned to the Peloponnesus. On the suggestion of Antiehares, an Eleonean, who pointed out that the territory of Eryx in Sicily, which Heracles had conquered, was declared in the oracles of Laius to be the in-Dorieus is slain heritance of the sons of Heracles, Dorieus now at Eryx.            framed a  scheme  for colonising Heraclea in
Sicily. His failure in Libya was a sufficient reason for consulting the oracle about the new venture, and when it pronounced in his favour, he set sail with the same followers whom he had previously led- out to the Cinyps. On his way he aided the Crotoniates against Sybaris, and it was owing to his assistance that they destroyed the city; so at least the Sybarites maintained, though the Crotoniates denied that they had received any help from Dorieus. The colony in Sicily was a failure; Dorieus, and all who had gone with him to
1 Herod, v. 39 ff.; vi. 61 ff.
XIV. 10.]   MAEANDRIUS THE SAMIAN AT SPARTA.      439
join in founding the city, were slain, with one exception, by the Phoenicians and Segestaeans.1
10. Another incident which occurred not long after the accession of Cleomenes was the visit of Maeandrius the Samian to Sparta. At the time when Polycrates, the Maeandrius tyrant of Samos, left the island on his fatal at sPart«-journey to Magnesia, Maeandrius had been put in charge of Samos, and after the death of Polycrates he became ruler of the city. " It was his desire," Herodotus tells us, " to be the most righteous of men, but he failed in the attempt." On hearing of the tyrant's death, he established an altar and consecrated a precinct to Zeus Eleutherius in the suburbs of Samos. Then he gathered together the Samians, and expressed his willingness to lay down the power with which he had been intrusted, if he might take six talents of the money of Polycrates, and retain the priesthood of Zeus Eleutherius as an hereditary honour in his own family. This condescension met with a most ungracious response. " You rule over us, a base-born wretch, and worthless as base 1 Better give an account of the money in your hands !"—    Troubles at
such was the answer of Telesarchus.    Maean-    ?.an\os f/teJ
• •                           ii                    e death °*
drms, perceiving that if he ceased to be tyrant    Polycrates.
some other Samian would seize the prize, withdrew into the Acropolis; and, sending for his opponents one by one on the pretext of giving in his accounts, he put them in chains. Subsequently he fell sick. In the impression that he would not recover, his brother Lycaretus put all the prisoners to death in order to secure his own passage to the throne. Such was the position of affairs, when the Persians appeared on the island to restore Syloson, the brother of Polycrates, to the throne, by command of Darius. The Samians made no resistance whatever to the invaders. Maeandrius and his supporters agreed to leave Samos, and though his departure was not without danger, owing to the treachery of a halfwitted brother, which greatly incensed the  Persians, he
1 Herod, v. 42 ff.    On Heraclea, see Stein's note on 43. 3.
440   PISISTRATIDAE EXPELLED FROM ATHENS. [XIV. 11.
escaped in safety. He proceeded to Sparta, where he attempted to purchase the help of Cleomenes by the display of a large quantity of gold and silver plate, which he had brought with him for the purpose. Whenever procures the the king visited Maeandrius, this plate was expulsion of carefully cleaned and placed in the reception-room, and seeing that Cleomenes, who was unaccustomed to such magnificence, regarded it with admiration, Maeandrius begged him to take as much of it as he chose. But now Cleomenes became the "most righteous of men;" he refused to accept the cups or to allow Maeandrius to tempt the virtue of the Spartans, and requested the ephors to give orders that the Samian stranger should leave the Peloponnesus.    Maeandrius was expelled from Sparta.1
II. For some time past the Delphic oracle, with which Sparta always stood in the closest connection, had urged the necessity of expelling the Pisistratidae from Athens. Sparta was indeed the acknowledged head of Greece, and as such it was incumbent on her to deliver Grecian cities from the oppres-Expuision of s*on °f a tyrant, but the interest of the oracle the Pisistratidae in the welfare of Athens was due to the Alcmae-from a ens. onidae, who were not only very influential at Delphi, owing to the liberality with which they had rebuilt the shrine after the fire of 548 B.O., but even bribed the priestess to give such responses to the Spartans as they wished. The Spartans, who accepted the command of the oracle in good faith, at length sent an expedition against Athens under Anchimolius to carry it out, but the attempt entirely failed, owing to the efficient assistance rendered by the Thessalian horse to the Pisistratidae. A second army, which was despatched under the command of Cleomenes, was more successful. The Thessalians were defeated, Hippias and his party were shut up in the Acropolis, and after a few days* siege a happy accident put the children of the besieged in the power of the Spartans.    The Pisistratidae agreed to leava
1 Herod, iii. 142 (T.
XIV. 12.]         CLEOMENES INVADES ATTICA.                   441
Athens within five days, and Cleonienes returned in triumph to Sparta.
Not long afterwards, on finding that Clisthenes, the Alcmaeonid, was gaining the upper hand at Athens, he demanded his expulsion. Clisthenes retired, cieomencs but Cleomenes nevertheless visited Athens, and at Athens, expelled seven hundred Athenians in order to establish the power of Isagoras, the opponent of Clisthenes. When he proceeded yet farther, and attacked the Senate he met with great opposition. He was besieged by the people in the Acropolis, which he had seized, and being without provisions he came to terms after two days, and agreed to leave the city. On his return to the Peloponnesus he collected a force of Spartans and allies, to revenge the defeat which he had suf- Futile attempt fered. He had reached Eleusis without even to invade Attica, telling his army what object he had in view, when the Corinthians, discovering the purpose of the expedition, refused to advance, or to take any part in the invasion of Attica, and as Demaratus, the second King of Sparta, who was present, also abandoned the enterprise, the whole army melted away.1
12. It was not long before the part which the Alcmaeoni-dae had taken in influencing the responses sent from Delphi to the Lacedaemonians became known at Sparta.    It was now remembered that the Pisistratidae had always been the friends of Sparta, and that the Athenians since their liberation had exhibited no feelings of respect or gratitude.   There was no hope of attaching them to the Spartan Attemptto league as the Corinthians and Megarians had restore the been attached, and by this time perhaps the Pisistratidac* Sicyonians.    Certain oracles also, collected by the Pisistratidae, which Cleomenes had brought away from the Acropolis, informed them that Athens, when free, would be a far more dangerous neighbour than Athens under a tyranny.    They resolved to invade Attica, and this time with the avowed intention of restoring a tyrant   The allies were summoned
1 Herod, v. 62 ff., 69 ff.
442   SPARTA & PLATAEA—INVASION OF ARGOS.  [XIV. 13.
to Sparta, and the matter was laid before them. Once more the Corinthians refused to join in the expedition. In an Defeated by the impressive speech, their envoy put before the Corinthians. assembled allies the miseries which Corinth had suffered under the reigns of Cypselus and Periander, and adjured them not to consent to the restoration of that most bloodthirsty and cruel monster, a tyrant The rest of the allies supported the Corinthians in their refusal. The subject was dropped, and never afterwards renewed.1
13.  At some time when Cleomenes was in the neighbourhood of their city, the Plataeans, who suffered from the piataea and oppression of the Thebans, came to him, and Sparta.            expressed a wish to put themselves under the protection of Sparta. Cleomenes pointed out that they were at a great distance from Sparta, and that Plataea might be enslaved several times over before the news could reach the Eurotas; it would be better to apply to the Athenians, who were close at hand. This advice was, of course, intended The Plataeans *° em^ro^ ^ne Athenians with the Thebans, and become allies of it had the desired effect. The Plataeans put the Athenians, themselves under the protection of Athens— an act which the Thebans never forgave. From this time forwards Athens and Thebes were estranged, and, whenever an opportunity offered, the Thebans revenged themselves by invading Plataea and laying waste her territory (infra, p. 474).2
14.  Cleomenes also undertook an expedition to Argos, in which, though he failed to take the city, he inflicted an almost irreparable blow upon the power and prestige of the ancient Dorian town. As the oracle had announced that he would Cleomenes in- capture Argos, he marched with a body of vades Argos. Spartans to the Erasmus, which apparently was at this time the border of the Argive territory, but the sacrifices were so unpropitious that he did not venture to
1 Herod, v. 90 ff.
* Ibid. vi. 108 ; Thuc. iii. 68.     See note at the end of the Chapter.
XIV. 14.] ARGIVE DEFEAT—GROVE OF ARGUS BURNT. 443
cross the river. While admiring the loyalty of the Erasmus in refusing to betray his citizens, Cleomenes resolved that the Argives should not escape. He returned to Thyrea, and after propitiating the sea with the sacrifice of a bull, crossed with his troops in Sicyonian and Aeginetan vessels to Nauplia. The Argives came down to meet him, and the two armies lay opposite each other near Tiryns, at a place called Sepea. The Argives had been warned against a surprise, and, in order to guard themselves, they arranged their movements by those of the enemy; whatever com- severe defeat of mand the Spartan herald proclaimed to his theAreives-troops was equally obeyed by them. On perceiving this* Cleomenes bade his men seize their arms and attack the Argives when the herald gave the sign for the morning meal The attack was of course unexpected; many of the Argives were slain, and many were driven into the sacred grove of Argus, where they were surrounded by the Spartans. Having ascertained the names of the fugitives from some Argives who had deserted to him, Cleomenes sent a herald, and summoned them, one by one, giving the name, and announcing that the usual ransom of two minae had been paid. In this manner tibout fifty men were induced to leave the shelter of the grove, though each was immediately put to death, for the grove was so thick that those within it ^J^oS?e" could not see the fate of their comrades. At of Argus, but length, one of the fugitives climbed up a tree ^*ls0*0take and ascertained the truth. It was now useless •to summon any more; Cleomenes therefore bade his helots pile fagots round the grove and set it on fire. While it was burning he asked to whom the wood was sacred, and on hearing that it was the grove of Argus, he became aware that the oracle had deceived him. The Argus which he had captured was not the Argos which he had hoped to capture. He at once dismissed the greater part of his army, retaining only a thousand of the best soldiers, with whom he went to sacrifice at the great temple of Hera. The priest attempted to prevent him, but Cleomenes bade his helots drag him from
444               CLEOMENES AND THE SCYTHIANS.    [XIV. 15.
the altar and scourge him, after which he offered the sacrifice and returned home. No fewer than 6000 Argives are said to have fallen in this disastrous invasion. So serious was the loss of men that the slaves became the masters and Great distress managers of everything at Argos, till the at Argos.          younger generation grew up and were able to
recover their rights. The slaves then established themselves at Tiryns, where they remained for a time in peace till, on the advice of Oleander, an Arcadian from Phigalea, thejr resolved to attack the Argives; a battle took place, and after a severe conflict they were defeated and reduced to subjection.1
On his return Cleomenes was put on his trial for failing to take Argos. He defended himself by affirming that the oracle which had been vouchsafed to him had been fulfilled by the cieomenes tried capture of the grove, and proceeded to relate and acquitted. wjiat ^a(j occurred at the Heraeum. When he was sacrificing there a flame shot forth from the breast of the statue, which convinced him that he had gained all the success which the goddess was willing to grant, for if the utter destruction of the city had been intended, the flame would have appeared from the head. This explanation the Spartans considered to be satisfactory, and Cleomenes was acquitted.2
15. Another incident of the reign of Cleomenes was the arrival at Sparta of a number of Scythian envoys. Darius, cieomenes and the Persian king, had invaded Scythia; and the Scythians, the Scythians, eager to revenge themselves upon him, sent to Sparta with a view to an alliance and a concerted attack upon Persia. The Scythians were to advance by the Phasis into Media, while the Spartans marched up the country from Ephesus. This attack, if ever seriously contemplated, was not carried out, and the only result of the visit of the Scythians to Sparta was the ruin of
1  Herod, vi. 76 ff., and with some variations (Hebdome for Sepea, perioeci for slaves) Arist. Pol. v. 3. 7= 1303 a. See Jowett's not© ad he.    With the difficulty at the Erasmus, cf. Thuc. y. 54, 55.
2  Herod, vi. 82 ff.
XIV. i6.]           THE SPARTAN CONFEDERACY.               445
Cleomenes, who contracted a habit of intoxication by drinking unmixed wine with his barbarous guests, a habit so unusual among the Greeks that the subsequent madness of the king was by some attributed to this cause.1
16. We have now reached the period at which Arista-goras arrived at Sparta, in the hope of inducing the state to join in the Ionic revolt, and the history of Sparta, as of Greece generally, becomes a part of the Persian Great position Invasion. From the middle of, the sixth cen- ofsparta. tury Sparta had been steadily gaining in power, and at the end of it she was acknowledged on all hands to be the foremost state in Greece. Already enriched by the conquest of Messenia and the extension of her borders towards Arcadia, the humiliation of Argos and the extinction of the tyrants of Corinth and Sicyon left her without a rival in the Peloponnesus. At the same time her severe discipline and martial training probably gave rise to an exaggerated idea of her power. We do not know how large an army she could put into the field; but, even if other states could provide more men, Sparta could send better soldiers. At Plataea her contingent amounted to 5000 Spartan hoplites, an equal number of heavy armed Lacedaemonians, and not less than 40,000 light-armed; for, in addition to her own citizens, she could assemble the perioeci and the helots, though it must be said of the last that if armed they were a source of danger, and if unarmed of comparatively little efficiency.
Besides her own forces, Sparta was at the head of a great confederacy. Unfortunately we have not sufficient evidence to allow us to state precisely who the con- The Spartan federates were, or the relation in which Sparta Confederacy, stood to them. We have seen that the Corinthians and Megarians looked to her for support; Sicyon and Aegina furnished ships for the invasion of Argolis, and the Tegeatae served as a part of the Spartan army. We may also assume that Phlius and Epidaurus were " allies " of Sparta.   In some
1 Herod, vi. 84.
446                            THE DUAL MONARCHY.                [XIV. 16,
instances Sparta appears to have been able to demand the assistance of the allies in spite of older claims on their allegiance; and in his attempt to restore Isagoras, Cleomenes called out the confederate forces without so much as announcing the object of the expedition. Nevertheless Sparta was much at the mercy of the other states of the Peloponnesus, They had the power to reject her proposals, and annihilate schemes which she had greatly at heart. We do not indeed hear of any formal arrangements by which it became Confederacy a necessary to consult the states which furnished check on Sparta. soldiers to the Spartan kings, but the failure of the expedition against Athens was not likely to be forgotten. In the next century, when we are able to collect more evidence of the nature of the Spartan confederacy, we shall see that a new line of policy was never adopted without previous consultation of the allies, though the final decision seems to have rested with the Spartan Assembly.
Another source of weakness was the double monarchy. When Demaratus decided for the Corinthians against weakness of Cleomenes, the invasion of Attica was at once the double         rendered  impossible      Herodotus informs us
monarchy.        ^at m consequence of this quarrel it became
a law at Sparta that the two kings should never go out together on any expedition. This was certainly the rule at a later time, but it is doubtful when it came into force. For when Cleomenes went to Aegina, after his quarrel with Demaratus, to arrest those who were responsible for giving earth and water to Darius, the Aeginetans pointed out, on the suggestion of Demaratus, that as he had come alone, he had come without the public authority of Sparta. The personal quarrel was finally settled by the deposition of Demaratus, as we shall have occasion to relate. But the Consequent weakness of the arrangement was manifest, and decline of the it could only be removed by reducing the kings royal power. ^ ^ position of generals in chief of the Spartan forces, acting under the control of the state. And this is in fact what the Spartan kings became.    They were
XIV. 17.]     KINGS AND EPHORS—LITERATURE.            447
generals for life, or, speaking more strictly, so long as they satisfied the demands of the state. Even over so vigorous a commander and so headstrong a man as Cleomenes the state was supreme. Not only was he put on his trial for his failure at Argos, but he subsequently left Sparta to avoid a similar danger. Leotychidas, the. successor of Demaratus, ended his life in exile under a judicial sentence. Yet at the beginning of the reign of Cleomenes, so far as we can tell, the two kings, when unanimous, were supreme in foreign policy. They could march out whenever they chose, and no Spartan could prevent them, on pain of the public curse. In domestic matters they were under more restraint. Though released from the training, the king lived the common life, and was expected to consult the good of the community even in his private affairs.
As the power of the kings gradually declined, that of the ephors increased. In the administration of the state they held the foremost place : they could banish
i    n           ...                    i    r           .i    •         Growth of the
strangers,  and fine citizens,  and from their    authority of sentence   there was no  appeal.      The next    the Ephors. century will   supply instances   in which   their   authority became  as great in the  control of the   foreign policy  of Sparta as it already was over the internal government of the city and the domestic life of the citizens.
17. While attaining this high position in politics and the field, Sparta either remained stationary in other respects or fell behind. The sixth century was remarkable for the growth of literature in Hellas. It is true that no poet of this period was ever placed on a level with Homer, or perhaps with Archilochus; yet elegy flourished, and lyric song attained an unique excellence in the her position Aeolic poets, philosophical thought found ex-    in the worId
•       •    xi!    t     •        t»   *i                         i -™     .•         of letters.
pression in the Ionian, Pythagorean and Eleatic schools, the foundations of science and history were laid, and dramatic poetry was attracting attention.    In this intellectual stir and spring Sparta took no part.    In the seventh century* she had been the centre of literature, so far as there was a
448              LACONIAN WIT—SPARTAN VIRTUES.   [XIV. 17.
literature in Greece at the time—the chosen home of poets and musicians. Terpander, Tyrtaeus and Alcman had largely contributed to shape the education and form the temper of her citizens. Now all was changed. Her solitary representative in the realms of thought was Chilon, whom we may regard as a man of great practical wisdom, but of whom nothing remains or is recorded beyond a few aphorisms and a short poem. Sparta had acquired as much literature as she needed, and she left it to others to attract the minstrels and singers of the new generation. We may even venture to doubt whether the warriors whose obedience to law was the wonder of the world could read and write ! Brevity and ex-Brevity and pressiveness were the tradition of Sparta, where wit at Sparta, the eloquence of the Phocaean Pythermus was as ineffectual as his purple robe. Plutarch—if it be Plutarch —has preserved for us a collection of apophthegms ascribed to illustrious Spartans, which are read with greater interest than pleasure, as less remarkable for wit than plainness of speech. But, however low the estimate we have to place upon their intellectual, and in some respects upon their moral virtues, the Spartans were a tower of strength to Hellas. They lived for the state, and not for themselves. They set the example, for the first time in the history of the world, of military discipline which recognises the word of command as beyond dispute, and of courage which prefers death to flight. At the time when the conflict between tyrannies and oligarchies, oligarchies and democracies, was raging round her with terrible ferocity and most disastrous results, Sparta remained without change; her firm government, supported by the martial virtues of her citizens, rendered inestimable services to the cause of freedom.
The chronology of the reign of Cleomenes is very uncertain. Thucydides (iii. 68) tells us that the Plataeans had been allies of the Athenians 92 years at the destruction of the city in 427 B.c. This gives 519 b.c. for the commencement of the alliance, which took place in the reign of Cleomenes (Herod, vi. 108), who must therefore have been on the throne at this time.    (Grote contests this date on the
XIV, 18.]     CHRONOLOGY OF CLEOMENES* REIGN.         449
ground that Cleomenes was not in Northern Greece before 510 or
509 B.C., and with this I agree (see p. 474). The death of Oleomenes occurred at the time when Darius was making preparations for revenging himself on the Athenians, and apparently after the disaster of Mardonius in 492 B.C., but before the battle of Marathon in 490 B.c. (Herod, vi. 85, 94). This allows a reign of thirty years for Oleomenes {which seems to contradict the expression of Herodotus, v. 48: ov yap rtva ttoXXoj/ xpovov rjp£e 6 KXcofjLevrjs, but see Stein's note). As to the events which occurred in his reign, the colonies of Dorieus must be put at the beginning (yet if Dorieus took part in the destruction of Sybaris, his second attempt at colonisation cannot be earlier than
510  B.C.); the visit of Maeandrius took place not long after the death of Poly crates, i.e. not long after 521 B.C.; the restoration of the Alcmaeonidae and the expulsion of the Pisistratidae, about 510 b.c. ; the visit of the Scythians took place some time after the invasion of Scythia by Darius in 516—513 B.C. The date of the invasion of Argos is very doubtful. Pausanias (iii. 4, i) puts it immediately after the accession of Cleomenes. But in Herod, vii. 148, the Argives in 480 B.C. say that they have recently suffered a severe defeat. Hence Clinton ^brings the Argive war down to 510 B.C.; Grote and Stein to 495 B.C. The Tirynthians appear at Plataea in 479 B.C. : we may suppose that they were the bovXoi who had been driven out of Argos by the younger generation, which had grown up after the defeat by Cleomenes. If we allow twenty years for this, we get 479 + 20 for the defeat, i.e. about 500 B.C. With their expelled bov\oi still unsubdued, the Argives might plead that they could not spare men to fight the Persians. But how this plea is consistent with the fact that in 490 B.C., or soon after, a thousand volunteers went from Argos to aid the Aeginetans against Athens, it is difficult to say (Herod, vi. 92). The oracle (Herod, vi. 19, 77) given to Miletus and Argos in common would come more naturally after the outbreak of the Ionic revolt. [Prom the first line of this oracle, aXX* fcav tf Brjkcia rbv apaeva vucr}<racra, may have arisen the story of the successful defence of Argos by Telesilla and other women, which is given by Pausanias (ii. 20. 8) and Plutarch {Be MtU. Virt. 'Apyetdi)].
CHAPTER   XV.
PISISTRATUS   AND   CLISTHENES.
I. The name of Solon was cherished with affection, and his laws continued in force so long as Athens remained a free Renewal of c^v > ^ut tne constitution which he framed party strife was found to be insufficient even in his own at Athens.         lifetime.    Though he removed the worst evils
which arose from the inequality of property in Attica by forbidding the sale of debtors into slavery, the inequality still remained. The poor citizens were still poor, in spite of the Seisachtheia, and the reform of the constitution. At the same time the admission of the lowest class in the scale of property to the rights of Athenian citizenship, and the authority given to the General Assembly, had thrown a power into the hands of the masses, which filled the more conservative citizens with resentment and alarm. And so the old party quarrels, which had divided Attica before the reforms of Solon, reappeared after them with even greater violence. The men of the plain were led by Miltiades, a grandson of the tyrant of Corinth, and Lycurgus, the son of Aristolaidas; the men of the shore by Megacles, the Alcmaeonid, who had recently strengthened the position of his family by his marriage with Agariste, the daughter of Clisthenes of Sicyon. At the head of the mountaineers stood Pisistratus, a descendant of the royal stock of Nestor, who, as we have seen, had greatly distinguished himself in the Salaminian war. As he possessed property in the neighbourhood of Marathon,
450
XV. 2.]     RENEWED PARTY FEUDS AT ATHENS,           451
Pisistratus may have been intimately known to the inhabitants of the adjacent hills.1
2. It was a defect in Solon's constitution that it made personal attendance at Athens necessary for the effectual exercise of citizenship. In the Assembly the people were supreme; but it Was difficult for failure of the people to meet in the Assembly. For Solon's con-citizens of the poorer classes who worked on their own small plots of land, any regular attendance was impossible. Still less could they come forward as members of the council, or take an active part in the administration of politics. We do not know whether Solon divided the council into sections, each of which was to remain at Athens for a specified time as a standing committee; but on any system a councillor would be kept in the city for at least one month of the twelve, and if the management of affairs was not to fall into the hands of a clique, frequent attendance of all the members would be required. Under such conditions the country farmer, even if he possessed the necessary qualification, found political life impossible, and when it became clear to him that he was being governed by those who had more leisure than himself, he began to look with suspicion on the Solonian reforms.     What was the value of institu-
1 Plut. Sol. 29. 10. The Berlin Fragments of Aristotle inform us that Damasias, who had been elected archon, held office (?) two years,, and was then forcibly expelled. The archons were then elected as follows ; four from the Eupatridae, three from the Apoikoi, and two from the Demiurgi; and these were the archons in the year after Damasias. At this time the archonship was the chief bone of contention between the parties in the state. The fragment goes on to speak of the cancelling of debts and of quarrels arising out of poverty. The uncertainty of the readings in the Fragments and of the order of the pieces render their evidence of little value. We cannot decide whether Damasias is the archon of 639 B.C., or of 586 B.C. If the first be meant, Plutarch's account of the reforms of Solon is inexplicable ; if the second, the reforms were found to be insufficient within eight years from Solon's archonship (c/. Plut. l.c.i &<tt€ xPW^t P& crt rots vofiois rfjv irokw, rjhr) 8e irpaypara ve&Tfpa irpocrboKav koX iroOeiv airavras crepav KaTaaTaaiv).
452      SOLON'S WARNINGS AGAINST A TYRANNY. [XV. 3.
tions under which the most industrious citizens tended to become the least influential 1 However true it might be that every citizen, who rose in the scale of wealth, was eligible to the higher offices of state, the boon was of little service to the owner of a few acres of barren soil, upon which, at the utmost, he could hope to maintain himself and his family. The merchant had a career open to him; a fortunate venture would at once enable him to rise in the world, and enjoy the leisure necessary for the administration of the offices now placed within his reach, but such a prospect only increased the discontent of those to whom it was denied.
3. Solon watched the failure of his hopes with the deepest distress. He endeavoured to recall the leaders of the con-Soion'sop- tending parties to a sense of their duty to the position to         country, and to soothe the bitterness of their
Pisistratus. followers. With a true instinct he regarded Pisistratus as by far the most dangerous of the three. Pisistratus was an approved general, and the faction which he led was composed of poor men who had nothing to lose; Megacles and Lycurgus were at the head of parties with a great stake in the country. If they succeeded, the worst result would be a return to an oligarchy either of birth or of wealth, but the course of Greek politics had already shown what aims the aristocratical leader of a popular party set before him. By playing the part of the people's friend, Cypselus, the Bacchiade, had become tyrant of Corinth, and Theagenes tyrant of Megara.
Thirty years previously, in a time of a national distress, Solon had attracted public attention by an elegiac poem. He repeated the attempt now. A fragment of the verses has been preserved, in which he warns his countrymen against the flattery of a smooth tongue: "Fools, ye are treading in the footsteps of the fox; can ye not read the hidden meaning of these winning words ?"l The attempt was in vain. Pisistratus met the vehement expressions of Solon by driv-
1 Sol. Frag. 11 B.
XV. 4-]        PISISTRA TUS TYRANT OF A THENS.              453
ing wounded into the market-place.    The people's friend had suffered in the people's cause; his life was in danger.    The incident roused the Athenians to an unusual exercise of political power.    Without any previous discussion in the Council, a decree was passed by the people allowing Pisistratus to surround himself with allowed a body-a body-guard of fifty men, and to arm them *»*«*» he be-with clubs.    Thus protected, he threw off all comes yran • disguises, and established himself in the Acropolis as tyrant of Athens.1
4. Of the party-leaders who had opposed Pisistratus, Lycurgus and Megacles departed from Athens; Miltiades and Solon remained in the city. Though he Miltiades at continued to enjoy the influence which was Athens« due to his wealth and birth, Miltiades was, of course, without any power in the state; a member of one of the oldest and greatest Athenian families, he was compelled to look idly on, while Pisistratus administered affairs at his own absolute discretion. In his disgust at his position, he was the more inclined to accept an invitation which came to him about this time (560 B.C.) from an unexpected quarter. As he was sitting in the portico of his house, he caught sight of a number of men, whom their dress showed to be strangers, passing along the Sacred Way. He offered them the shelter and hospitality which in the heroic age it had been the first duty of a Greek chieftain to extend to an alien. They proved to be Doloncians from the Thracian Chersonese, who finding themselves unable to resist the incursions of their northern neighbours, the Apsinthians, had applied to Delphi for advice. The god bade them choose a Hellene to lead their forces, and when they inquired more precisely about the manner in which their choice should be determined, they were bidden to offer the post to the man who should first show them hospitality after they left the temple. They offered it to Miltiades, who consulted the oracle at Delphi,
1 Herod, i. 59; Plut Sol. 30.
454               MILTIADES—DEATH OF SOLON.             [XV. 5.
and, on receiving a favourable answer, joined the Dolon-cians with some adherents of his party. Such was the story told in the days of Herodotus about the beginning of the He retires         c^ose connection between Athens and Thrace,
to the              and, in spite of the mythical incidents intro-
er onese. duced mto it, the facts are true. A colony was sent out about the time from Athens under the command of Miltiades, which after some conflicts and disasters secured for the Athenians the possession of the Chersonese.1
Undeterred by the tyrant's mercenaries, Solon continued to oppose Pisistratus to the utmost of his power, but when at Solon's un- length he found that his appeals to the people availing oppo- were in vain, he laid down his weapons in the death and         street before his door, and called the gods to
witness that he had done his best in the cause of his country and her laws. Pisistratus not only allowed him to remain at Athens undisturbed, but attempted to win him over to the altered position of affairs. The aged lawgiver remained obdurate. He refused to be reconciled to the tyrant who had enslaved Athens, and withdrew into privacy till his death, which must have taken place not long after the usurpation of Pisistratus. The story was told, and believed by Aristotle, that after his death, his ashes were scattered over the island of Salamis, that no one might collect and remove them from the land which he had chosen to be the place of his burial.2
5. Herodotus tells us that Pisistratus was a just and moderate ruler. He did not alter the laws or remove the existing forms of government. The Council was still elected, Mild rule of the Assembly continued to meet, though it is Pisistratus. improbable that either the one or the other was allowed to extend its functions beyond domestic affairs. The archons still continued to be the executive magistrates of the city, and cases of murder were tried, as of old, at the Areopagus.   The tyrant contented himself with occupying
1 Herod, vi. 35, 36.                   2 Plut. Sol. 32.
XV. 6.]   PISISTRATUS EXPELLED—HIS RETURN.          455
the Acropolis with his troops, and securing important posts in the administration for his family or his adherents.1 Yet in spite of his caution he was unable to keep the position which he had gained or prevent the coalition of his opponents. When Lycurgus and Megacles once more united their forces, Pisistratus was unable to resist the combina- pisistratus tion, and found it necessary to leave the city, expelled. Whether he was driven out of the country, we are not in-• formed; he may have retired to his estates in the neighbourhood of Marathon, where he would be surrounded by his party and safe from attack.
6. The coalition formed against him did not last. After the lapse of about four years, Lycurgus and Megacles quarrelled. We may conjecture that the Alcmaeonids had not forgotten the sentence passed upon them by the aristocratic party in the matter of the Cylonian atrocity, and that the aristocrats were jealous of the power of the wealthy and ambitious family which owed so much to the tyrants of Sicyon and Sardis. Whatever the cause, Megacles now offered to support Pisistratus in returning to piSiStratusand Athens, and the interests of the two leaders Megacles were to be consolidated by the marriage of unite* Pisistratus with the daughter of Megacles. The offer was accepted. The combination of the two parties was strong enough to disarm all resistance, but it was necessary to veil the personal motives which had caused the opposing elements to unite. A plan was invented for giving a divine sanction to the return of the tyrant, which, though Herodotus regards it as an instance of barbarian simplicity discreditable to cultivated Greeks, and most of all to Athenians, was eminently successful. A tall and beautiful woman named Phya was clad in the armour of the goddess Athena, and placed in a chariot with Pisistratus at her side. The Return of chariot was drawn to Athens, where a pro- Pisistratus. clamation had been made that the goddess was in person
1 Herod, i. 59.
456               PISISTRATUS SECOND EXPULSION.         [XV. 7.
conducting her favourite to reign over the city which she-loved. Let all men receive him gladly. The proclamation was obeyed, and Pisistratus became a second time tyrant of Athens.1
When established on the throne, Pisistratus went so far in fulfilling his engagement with Megacles that he married his daughter. But his sons by an earlier union, Hippias and Hipparchus, were by this time grown up, and as he had no intention of disinheriting them in favour of any child which , might be born from this second marriage, he gave his young wife no hope of offspring. As soon as this came to the knowledge of Megacles, he was greatly enraged at the insult offered to his daughter, and at the failure of his hopes of securing Pisistratus is the tyranny for his family. He renounced all again expelled, connection with Pisistratus and returned once more to his old associates, the men of the plain. The combination of forces was again successful; Pisistratus waa driven out of Attica, and so low were his fortunes brought that, when his property was put up for sale, Callias the son of Phaenippus purchased the whole.2
7. On leaving Attica, Pisistratus established himself at Eretria, in Euboea, a convenient point for communication with «•     . t-i- u      his partisans at Marathon.    He is said to have
He establishes               i     1       . ,    1 .
himself at         consulted with his sons, and on the advice of
Eretna.            Hippias he determined not to abandon the hope
of regaining the throne of Athens. His influence with the poorer population of Attica was probably as great as ever^ and he was now in a position which enabled him to assume an independent attitude towards other powers. By some means which we cannot explain, he not only induced the Thebans to supply him with money, but also acquired possessions in Thrace on the Strymon, from which he derived a considerable revenue, and from these resources he was able to maintain a troop of mercenaries, which he engaged from Argos.   Meanwhile he was encouraged and supported in his
1 Herod, i. 60
2 Ibid. i. 61 ; vi. 121.
XV. 8.]          PISISTRATUS" THIRD TYRANNY.                457
design by Lygdamis of Naxos, who like himself had retired to Eretria with his adherents after a fruitless endeavour to found a tyranny in his own city. For ten years he remained in exile, silently preparing to return to Athens, and establish a power which the combined forces of the His prepara. oligarchical factions should be unable to de- tionsforre-stroy. The enterprise was far from hopeless. turn# His opponents in the city, over-confident in their strength, made no attempt to anticipate his plans. Neither hi& dangerous proximity to the part of Attica most devoted to him, nor his wealth, nor his proved ability as a soldier, excited alarm. Such extraordinary negligence is perhaps to be explained by the jealousy of the rival parties, which, while they combined against the common foe, retained so much of their old animosity, that each was not displeased to see a power at hand which could certainly prevent the other from becoming dominant.
8. When at length the long-delayed opportunity came, Pisistratus crossed over to Marathon, and there encamped with his adherents round him. The Athenians now took alarm, and at once marched out to oppose him. The two armies met at Pellene. Whatever the relative strength of the forces may have been, the commanders of the Athenians were no match for Pisistratus in strategy. He had himself led an Athenian army, and knew that it was the habit of the soldiers, when in camp, to rest or amuse themselves after the morning meal. Selecting this moment for his attack, he suddenly threw his mercenaries on the enemy. The scattered and disorganised forces of the Athenians fled at the first onset, but as an indiscriminate slaughter would have embittered the feelings of those over whom he wished to rule, Pisistratus bade his sons ride after the He returns for fugitives, calm their fears, and assure them the third time-that no harm would happen to them.1 No further resistance was offered.     The defeated Alcmaeonids retired from the
1 Herod, i. 61 if.
453                ADMINISTRA TION OF PISISTRA TUS.       [XV. 9.
<dty, and from the other leading families which chose to -remain at Athens, or were unable to escape, Pisistratus took four hundred hostages as security for their submission. He also retained a number of his Argive mercenaries in his service as a bodyguard. Thus for the third time he became tyrant of Athens, winning the throne on this occasion, not by fraud or collusion, but by open force.
9. In spite of the hatred which the name of Pisistratus excited in democratic Athens, it is clear from the evidence of Herodotus and Thucydides that the city prospered under his rule. At home and abroad there was peace, broken only by Pisistratus an unimportant war with Mitylene for the and sigeum. possession of Sigeum, if such a war took place. For though it is certain that Pisistratus established his natural son Hegesistratus at Sigeum, it is doubtful whether Herodotus is not mistaken in asserting that the son had to maintain his position by force of arms against Mitylene. The war which broke out between Mitylene and Athens was brought to a conclusion by the decision of Periander of Corinth, who assigned Sigeum to the Athenians. Periander died in 585 B.C., and therefore the statement of Herodotus cannot be true unless we suppose that the city had been subsequently lost to the Mitylenaeans, and had now to be reconquered by the Athenians. This is not very probable. After the subjugation of the Anatolian coast by Cyrus, Sigeum could not belong to Athens or to Mitylene, except in name. If not actually acquired by the Persian king, it was in his power, and the tyrant of Sigeum, equally with the other tyrants in the Asiatic cities, was a vassal of Persia. And in this fact we may find the key to the situation. Pisistratus sent his son to Sigeum—perhaps against the wishes of the Mitylenaeans, who perceived his intentions, and were jealous of them—not because he wished to establish him in an independent principality, but in order that he might be brought into contact with the Persians. Subsequent events proved the wisdom of the plan. When the Pisistratidae were expelled from Athens, they retired to
XV. 10.]       ADM1NISTRA TION OF PISISTRA TUS.               459
Sigeum, and thence entered into communication with Darius, in order to obtain his help in their restoration.1
10. The friendly ties which Pisistratus had contracted, when in exile, with Argos and Thebes were doubtless drawn still closer after his usurpation, and even the more distant countries of Thessaly and Macedonia were connection with invited to enter into alliance with the Argos, Thessaly monarch of Athens. When the Spartans *nd M*ced™i*-first attempted to expel Hippias, they were defeated by the Thessalian cavalry, which came to his aid, and after his final expulsion, a home was offered to him both in Macedonia (at Anlhemus) and in Thessaly (at Iolcus). These relations with the north of Greece probably stood in some kind of connection with the acquisition of those domains on the Strymon, from which Herodotus informs us that the tyrant derived a part of his revenue.2
One of the first acts of Pisistratus after his restoration was the establishment of Lygdamis on the throne of Naxos, and when Lygdamis in turn aided Polycrates in acquiring and maintaining his power in Samos, friends of the Aegean was controlled by men who were pisistratus-pledged to support a tyrant's rule. He was also on very friendly terms with Sparta, for though his obligations to Argos were great he did not go so far in requiting her services as to assist her against Sparta; and, if at Athens he had crushed the oligarchs whom Sparta favoured, he allowed the democracy, which Sparta hated, no opportunity of rising to power. By this policy and these alliances his position was firmly established from without, and at the same time he secured himself from domestic attack, partly by placing the four hundred children, whom he had taken as hostages from his opponents, with Lygdamis at Naxos, and partly by
1  Herod, v. 94, 95.
2  Ibid. i. 64. While agreeing in all that Mr. Grote urges against the possession of property on the Strymon by Pisistratus, I cannot think that his rendering of the words of Herodotus (vol. in. 92, n. 2) is tenable.
460              ADMINISTRA TION OF PISISTRA TUS.       [XV. xi.
surrounding himself with a body-guard of mercenary soldiers. In order to provide means for the payment of these, and for all other expenses of war and peace, he appropriated to his own use the ordinary revenues of Athens, no less than the rents of the silver mines at Laurium, and even imposed a tax of 5 per cent, on the produce of the land. This tax was afterwards regarded as an instance of tyrannical oppression, but taxation was certainly a more just and equitable method of raising money than the ordinary Athenian system, by which the expenses of the fleet fell almost exclusively on the rich. If the poorer citizens complained that they were taxed at all, the richer escaped a disproportionate burden, and Pisistratus was so far the gainer that the entire control of the fleet (if the trierarchies were for the time abolished) was now in his own hands.1
II. It was not the wish of the tyrant that the Athenians should concern themselves with politics. With this object in view he allowed the Solonian constitution to continue in force, Pisistratus        ^ut ^°°k care to  administer  it in his  own
encourages trade interest. The form of the government was a and agriculture. matter of no moment so long as the real power rested with him. And as he knew that such a fiction of popular government could only be tolerated while the people were prosperous, he was careful to encourage trade and industry. More especially did he aim at diminishing the population of the city and increasing that of the country; his own adherents were the shepherds and herdsmen of Attica, and he was aware that the dangerous democratic spirit which dethrones tyrants is nursed in cities, not in fields. He appears to have remitted the tax on small or poor farms, and to have made presents of seed to those who were unable to buy it for themselves.   Above all he maintained
1 Herod, i. 64; Thuc. vi. 54. Hume remarks of the Athenians, *' Whether a man was a citizen or a stranger among that people* it seems indeed requisite, either that he should impoverish himself, or that the people would impoverish him, and perhaps kill him into the bargain."—Populomness of Ancient Nations,
XV. 12.]          THE PROSPERITY OF ATTICA.
461
peace, and the Attic yeomen tilled their lands unmolested by the claims of foreign service.    There were times when the spirit of the Athenian people reached a nobler proSperity of height, but we may doubt whether there was Attica at this ever a period when Attica enjoyed greater prosperity than during the reign of Pisistratus.    Yet the historian is justified in speaking of the nation as held down and dispersed by the Pisistratids : the spirit of freedom was sternly repressed as intolerable to tyrants; the leaders who could have given effect to that spirit were exiles in distant lands.1
12. The   tyrants   in   the   earlier half   of   the century, Clisthenes of Sicyon and Periander of Corinth, had shown themselves very zealous in the worship of the gods.   Pisistratus followed in their steps.  A tyrant, Aris- Support -|ven totle   remarks,   "should appear   to  be par- to public festi-ticularly earnest in the service of the gods; vals»etc* for if men think that a ruler is religious and has a reverence for the gods, they are less afraid of suffering injustice at his hands, and they are less disposed to conspire against him, because they believe him to have the very gods fighting on his side."    As the monarch of the chief Ionian city, Pisistratus purified Delos, the sacred island of the Ionian Apollo, the centre of the Ionian worship of   Purification of the god of light.     All the sepulchres were   Delos. removed from the immediate neighbourhood of the temple, that they might be out of the sight of the deity who had no part in   sorrow and  death.2     In   honour of   Athena, the goddess to whom he had once owed his restoration in   a   special   sense,    the   Panathenaea   were   improved and extended.     Gymnastic games had been added to the festival   by   Hipponicus,   a   few   years  before  Pisistratus first acquired the tyranny.     Pisistratus went further, and arranged that every fourth year the festival should be celebrated with unusual splendour.    A long procession swept
1 Herod, i. 59.
2 Herod, i 64; Thuc. iii. 104.
462            PISISTRATUS: RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS.    [XV. 12.
from the Ceramicus t« the citadel, accompanying the scarlet robe or shawl (tt€7t\os), woven with figures of the monsters and The Pana-         giants which Athena had slain; after the pre-
thenaea.           sentation and the sacrifices there were dances
in chorus, games and horse races. It was the chief festival of Athens ; the Great Panathenaea.1 Though it never reached the eminence of the national games, it was a point of union for all the Athenians, a scene of splendour and magnificence which was worthy of the city of Pallas. Equal attention seems to have been paid to the worship of Dionysus. The god of the vine was the god of the rustic population, in whose honour they celebrated their harvest festivals, and in Attica he was specially worshipped in the deme of Icaria, not far from Marathon; he was thus in a particular manner the deity of the hill people, who had so long and faithfully supported* the tyrant. To the festivals at which the bounty of the god was celebrated at Athens, the Lenaea and An-thesteria, Pisistratus may have added a third lonysia. —^ city-Dionysia, which in time was destined to eclipse the rest. That he favoured the dramatic representations so inseparably connected with the worship of Dionysus may be inferred from the success which Thespis of Icaria achieved about this time, by coming forward as an actor, and personating character—thus laying the foundation of that drama, which equally on its serious and its comic side became in the next century the most splendid memorial of Athens. Plutarch tells us that Solon was induced by his love of learning to be present at a performance given by Thespis. When it was ended he sent for Thespis, and asked him whether he was not ashamed to tell such monstrous lies before so large an audience; Thespis answered that he saw no harm in what he had said or done; "it was mere amusement." "Amusement," cried the old man, smiting heavily with his staff on the ground—"if these are our amusements, we shall
i Schol Arist. p. 323 D.
XV. I3-]         INCREASE OF MYSTIC RELIGION.               46a
soon find the effect of them in our business." The story, whatever its truth, is some indication of the popularity and of the date of Thespis.1
13. Even in the days of Solon, as we have said, the need was felt of some form of doctrine which should carry men beyond the limits of their earthly existence, Mystic power or relieve them from the oppressive sense of of worship, guilt which was the necessary concomitant of the growing elevation of the moral sense. The demand was quickly met. Epimenides, with whose aid the public distress created by the Cylonian atrocity had been removed, was followed by a host of imitators, "Orphics and Bacchics, and Pythagoreans," whose labours were principally directed to three ends:—(1) the creation of a mystic religion, accompanied by a ritual more or less elaborate, by purification, abstinence, and other forms of asceticism, unknown to the earlier Greeks; (2) the composition of a number of poems, chiefly fathered on Orpheus, developing the myth of Dionysus Zagreus, who having been torn to pieces by the Titans was re-begbtten by Zeus, and perhaps identifying this Dionysus with the Iacchus of the Eleusinian mysteries; and (3) the collection or invention of " oracles," which enabled the possessor to foretell the future and shape his conduct in public or private by the knowledge thus acquired. The institution of an ascetic life is closely connected with the appearance of the Pythagoreans in the cities of Magna Graecia; it was there carried to the greatest extent, and forms the chief feature in the domestic history of Croton and other towns. In Greece proper, among a number of " mysteries," some The Eleusinian of which were perhaps relics of older forms of mysteries-faith, while others were introduced as the need of them was felt, the Eleusinian worship of Demeter and Persephone, the Madonna and Child of ancient Greece, began about this time to take the foremost place.   We cannot describe the
l Plut. Sol. 29.
464                     THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES,           [XV, 13.
ritual of the festival with accuracy; what was seen was probably of more importance than what was heard or said. If in the best account which has been given of them, the rites appear to have been childish and absurd, we may indulge the reflection that all religious ceremonies, when the spirit in which they are instituted is forgotten, are without force And meaning. To the Greeks at any rate, the mysteries were often the foundation of brighter hopes, if they did not mark the beginning of a better life.1 Among the composers of Orphic poems, a place must be assigned to Onomacntus. Onomacritus, whom we know to have been retained in the service of the Pisistratidae. It was he who threw into its most popular form the story of Dionysus Zagreus, and we may with confidence ascribe to him and his associates a large part of the so-called Orphic literature. He also arranged the oracles of Musaeus, and for some time he was in disgrace with his employers, who had detected him in interpolating a forged oracle into the collection. When the Prophecies and Pisistratidae retired to Persia, they took Ono-predictions: macritus with them, and availed themselves Musaeus.          Q£ njg gom^]^   equivocal talents in order
to persuade Darius to undertake the cause of their restoration. Those oracles which promised well for the Persians, he repeated; what boded ill he concealed.2 Nor was this the only instance in which Pisistratus and his sons turned the current belief in oracles (which they may have shared) to a good account. It was on the advice of Amphilytus, the Acarnanian seer, that Pisistratus joined battle with the Athenians at Pellene, and when Hippias abandoned the Acropolis of Athens to Cleomenes, he was careful to leave behind a collection of oracles which went far to diminish the elation of the victorious Spartan (supra, p. 441 ).8
1  In the year 480 B.C., as many as 30,000 persons took part in the Eleusinian mysteries ; such at least is the inference to be drawn from Herod, viii. 65.    On the subject see Lobeck's Aglaophamw,
2  Herod, vii. 6.
3  Ibid. i. 62; v. 90.    Of. ib. i. 64 : Arj\ov KaBrjpas U to>v AoyiW.
XV. 14.]              PISISTRATUS AND 'HOMER.'                      465
14. Of the public library which Pisistratus is said to have founded we have not, and never shall have, any trustworthy evidence. The story is, doubtless, a fiction of Library some Alexandrian grammarian, who ascribed Pisistratus. to the Athenian tyrant the love of books which distinguished the prince under whom he lived.1 A similar anachronism has given rise to the famous legend that Pisistratus caused the poems of Homer to be collected for the first time into the two ^pics in which we now read them, a task which was accomplished by a committee of four persons, Onomacritus (supra, p. 464), Zopyrus (of Heraclea), Orpheus (of Croton), and Epiconcylus (a name which edrtionPof°Se seems to be a corruption of Ittikuv kvk\os !) *he Homeric That a committee should succeed in combining poems* scattered ballads into epic poems, which are acknowledged masterpieces, would be a feat without a parallel in the history of literature; and when the committee is composed of men otherwise almost unknown—with the exception of Onomacritus, a detected forger—it is impossible to accept the story without the most cogent evidence. But the evidence is by no means cogent. The earliest authority for the statement, to whom we can assign a date, is Cicero, who tells us that " Pisistratus is said to have arranged the books of Homer, which were previously in disorder, in the sequence in which we now have them." This famous sentence, upon which the theory of the Pisistratean origin of the Iliad and Odyssey was first erected, is perhaps a translation, and not a very careful translation, of an epigram, which is almost certainly a forgery. In one of the "Lives of Homer" we are told that the following lines were written on the base of a statue set up in honour of Pisistratus at Athens :—
T/n's /x€ TVpavv€V<ravTa Too-avrdias e^eStco^K Srjfxos 'Aflqva&ov kcu t/ois €7rrjydy^TOf
1 Aul. Gell. JST. A. vii. (vi.) 17. VOL. I.
466
PISISTRATUS AND 'HOMER.*             [XV. 14*
tov /Jteyav Iv f3ov\ais Ueio-io-Tparov, 6s tov t,Ofxrjpov fjdpoio-a cnropdSrjv to irplv act5d/A€vov.
rjfjL€T€pos yap Keivos 6 \pv(r£o$ fy 7roXirJTr]s9 €L7T€p 'Adrjvatoi ^fivpvav eircpKia'afiev,
It is highly improbable that a statue in honour of Pisistratus ever existed at Athens, for even if one had been set up in the lifetime of the tyrants, it would not have remained after their fall. And if the statue had existed, this epigram could not have been written upon it. The lines are at once false in fact and improbable in sentiment. Pisistratus was not thrice expelled from Athens, and neither Pisistratus nor his friends could have thought it worth while to record on his statue as the crowning work of his tyranny the collection of the Homeric poems, an encomium which can only haye proceeded from a literary critic, or student of Homer. He re-arranged And lastly, even if the words represent a his-the recitation of torical fact, they do not support the theory
Homeric poems.  wMch  ^  been reared  upQn ^^     They ^
us that Pisistratus " collected Homer," which had previously been sung in disconnected pieces; and the statement merely means that Pisistratus caused the poems to be sung continuously, from end to end—not piecemeal, as the preference of the rhapsodist might suggest. Solon may have provided for the recitation of the Homeric poems at Athens; Pisistratus may have gone a step further in the same direction, making the recitation continuous, so that the whole of the poems were recited, not of course at one and the same performance, nor by the same person, but at the same festival, the Pan-athenaea. The continuity of the poems was thus established, interpolations became less easy, and there was less fear that any part would perish. This is as much as can be ascribed on this evidence to Pisistratus. There is no trace in antiquity of a Pisistratean text of Homer; and Aristotle, who repeatedly quotes the poems of Homer, and criticises them, never mentions Pisistratus in connection with the authorship. Had he been aware of the Pisistratean origin of the Iliad and
XV. i$]   PISISTRATUS' DEATH—HIPPIAS* TYRANNY.   467
Odyssey, he must have mentioned the fact, when calling attention to the superior unity of these poems in comparison with the Cyclic epics, which were the work of single and individual authors.1
15. Pisistratus remained in undisturbed possession of the throne till his death in 527 B.C. He was succeeded by his eldest son Hippias, with whom Hipparchus Death of and Thessalus, his younger sons, were associated Pisistratus. in the government. The brothers had stood beside their father in the years of exile; it was in fact due to the advice of Hippias that Pisistratus resolved upon a last attempt to recover the throne of Athens. They were now men of experience, in the prime of life. For a time they conducted affairs as Pisistratus had done before them; they were wise and moderate, careful of their money, and zealous in the worship of the gods. They also sought to make Athens the home of art and literature. Lasus of Hermione and Simonides of Ceos now resided in the city, and Hipparchus sent a ship to convey Anacreon from Samos to Athens.2 The political connections into which Pisistratus had entered were maintained : Hippias was on excellent terms with the Aleuadae of Thessaly and with Amyntas the king of Macedon. To all appearance the tyranny was as firmly established in the hands of Hippias as it had been in those of Pisistratus.
But the dynasties of Greek tyrants never lasted. The oppression of the ruler was more keenly felt by the people as the evils from which he bad delivered them Greek tyrannies faded from remembrance. The sons of a never perma-tyrant, born to the inheritance of a throne, forgot the arts by which their father had gained and secured the affections of the people. The oligarchs found more support in their desire to overthrow a tyrant than they could gain when attempting to establish the privileges of their own order.   For these and other similar reasons a tyrant's power
1 Nutzhorn, DieEnstehungsweise, etc., p. 15 ff.; Monro, Iliad, p. xxvi.f.
2 Herod, vii. 6 ; Plat. Hipparch. p. 228 ; Thuc. vi. 54-56.
468                       HIPP1AS AND HIPPARCHUS.               [XV. 16.
rarely lasted to the third generation. The Pisistratidae formed no exception to the rule. Jealousy and lust impelled The sons of them to actions which not only revived old Pisistratus. feelings of hostility among their political opponents, but added to these an intense passion of hatred in the hearts of some of their subjects.
Cimon, the half-brother of Miltiades, who had been banished from Athens by Pisistratus, was the own*r ot famous mares which were three times victorious in the chariot race at Olympia. On the second occasion, at the request of Pisistratus, he caused the tyrant to be proclaimed as the owner, and was in consequence allowed to return home. The third victory occurred after the death of Pisistratus. This proud distinction provoked the envy of Hippias and his brothers; to be a victor in the chariot race at Olympia was to be known throughout Hellas as a man of wealth and posi tion. A wise ruler would regard the success and prosperity Hippias and of a subject as the best evidence of the mildness cimon.             an(j justice of his rule.    Hippias, on the con-
trary, regarded Cimon as a rival in distinction, and perhaps suspected him of designs against his throne. He caused him to be secretly assassinated. The body was buried in the " Hollow," and over-against the tomb a grave was dug for the famous horses.1
16. The conduct of Hipparchus was even worse. Unable to induce Harmodius, a youth of the race of the Gephyreans, Hipparchus and to listen to his proposals, he revenged himself Harmodius. ^y a public insult to his sister. When arranging a procession, in which he had invited the maiden to take a part as a" Basket Bearer," he rejected her as unworthy of a place, and declared that she had never been invited at all. Harmodius and his friend Aristogiton determined on revenge, and a conspiracy was formed to destroy the tyrants. Though the "number of the conspirators was small, it was thought that the act would be well received, and command
1 Herod, vi. 103.
XV. 16.]            HIPPARCHUS ASSASSINATED.                  469
universal sympathy. The time selected for the attempt was the festival of the great Panathenaea. On this occasion it was the custom for the Athenians to appear with lance and shield, in order to take part in the procession, and the conspirators hoped that they might find support in the armed crowd against the soldiers of the tyrants. While Hippias, with his body-guard round him, was in the Ceramicus arranging the procession, Aristogiton and Harmodius, who, like the rest of the conspirators, had daggers concealed under their garments, watched him at a short distance, intending to attack him. To their alarm, they saw one of their fellow-conspirators enter into close conversation with the tyrant. They supposed that he was giving information of their plans. Eegarding themselves and the rest of the conspirators as doomed, they determined to strike a blow before the fatal moment Murder of came. If Hippias was beyond their power, Hipparchus. they could still be revenged on Hipparchus, the immediate author of their disgrace. As they returned into the city they met him near the Leocorium, and without a moment's delay stabbed him to death. Harmodius was at once cut down by the guards in attendance, but Aristogiton escaped for a time.1
When Hippias was informed of his brother's death, he gave no outward sign of grief or alarm. He merely requested those Athenians who were standing near to put down their arms and follow him to an adjacent place. Such an order was not remarkable, for it was the custom of the Athenians to lay aside their arms when summoned to a meeting. Hippias at once directed his guards to seize the weapons. The citizens were then searched, and all who were found with concealed daggers were arrested. Erelong Aristogiton was discovered, and put to the torture, but he refused to disclose the names of his associates.2 Not even from his mistress Leaena, whom Hippias did not hesitate to torture also, could any
1 Thuc. vi. 54 ff.    Compare the distorted account in Justin, ii. &
2 Thuc. vi. 58 ; Diod. Exc. de virt. p. 557=x. 16.
470             REBUILDING OF TEMPLE OF DELPHI.   [XV. 17.
evidence be wrung.1 Hippias felt himself to be the object of a conspiracy, of which he could not ascertain the extent or seventy of the cause. Hitherto he had courted popularity, Hippias.           an(j laid himself open to approach; now he
became suspicious, secluded, and morose. He proceeded to severe measures in order to rid himself of all whom he suspected of disaffection to his rule, and entrenched his power more firmly behind a host of mercenary soldiers.2 To provide himself with means for this object, he is said to have put up for sale the outer staircases and other projections of the houses at Athens, which the inhabitants were, of course, compelled to repurchase. He also depreciated the coinage, and allowed some of the richer men to purchase exemption from those state burdens which might fall upon them (514 B.C.).3
17. The oppressive measures of Hippias aroused new hopes in the breasts of those who longed for the expulsion of the The Aicmae- tyrants. Since the final accession of Pisistratus onidae in exile, to power, the Alcmaeonids had remained in exile, without any prospect of returning so long as his family Rebuilding of remained on the throne. The difficulties of the temple         their position  were  increased  by the  curse
0    e p u         which had been pronounced upon them owing
to the murder of the Cylonians—a curse which must be removed in one way or another if they were to command a strong party in Athens. With this object in view the Alcmaeonids connected themselves closely with Delphi. When the temple was burnt down in 548 B.C., the Amphictyons decreed that it should be rebuilt out of funds to be provided by all Hellas. Not less than 300 talents were to be spent (about £70,000), of which the Delphians pledged themselves to find 75 talents. Ten years elapsed ere such a sum could be collected, but when at last the contract could be let, the Alcmaeonids came forward and offered to undertake it. Their offer being accepted, they displayed the greatest liber-
1 This story is perhaps apocryphal (Paus. i. 23. 2). * Herod, v. 55, 62 ; vi. 123 ; Thuc. vi. 53, 59. 3Arist. Oecon. ii. 2. 5 = 1347 a.
XV. 18.]  CLISTHENES //., HEAD OF ALCMAEONIDAE.  471
ality in carrying it out. Instead of using ordinary limestone for the pronaos, as they were allowed to do by the terms of their contract, they built it of Parian marble. Such lavish expenditure in the decoration of the national sanctuary won for them a high reputation throughout Hellas. So far from being "the accursed," they became conspicuous for piety, and the whole influence of the Delphic priesthood was on their side. Even the God himself took their part, and insisted on their restoration to Athens {supra, p. 440).1
The Alcmaeonidae were now led by Clisthenes, the grandson of the tyrant of Sicyon, and the inheritor of his wealth. It was doubtless his foresight which brought about the connection of the exiled family with Delphi. His ancestors on either side had taken a leading part in the Sacred War to which Delphi owed her independence. / He was also aware that Sparta was hostile to the existence of tyrannies. She had recently expelled Lygdamis from Naxos, and restored the government of the island to the oligarchs. By the influence of Delphi—which was very great on the Eurotas—he might hope to induce Sparta to act in the removal of the Pisistratids. His means appear to have been placed beyond the reach of the Athenian tyrant. Whatever property his family held in Attica must have been confiscated at the return of Pisistratus; but it was possible to store up funds in various temples, which in ancient Greece were often used as banks; for no power, however great, could pillage a temple without incurring the guilt of sacrilege.
18. Thus Hippias found himself between an external danger, the magnitude of which he was too wise to underestimate, and a secret hatred of which he could Hippias and not ascertain the extent. He endeavoured to Aeantides. strengthen his position by marrying his daughter Archidice to Aeantides, the son of Hippoclus, the tyrant of Lampsacus, who at this time stood high in the favour of Darius,2 and his tyranny grew more and more oppressive.     At length
1 Herod, ii. 180 ; v. 62 ; Paus. x. 5. 13.                2 Time. vi. 59.
472              CLISTHENES' RETURN TO ATHENS.      [XV. i&
the Alcmaeonidae, believing that a favourable moment had arrived, ventured to enter Attica and take up a position at Affair of           Lipsydrium, on the southern slopes of Mount
Lipsydrium. Parnes (513 B.C. \) But however popular their cause might be, they found themselves unable to make head against the tyrant's forces, and they were driven out with considerable loss.1
The Spartans now took up their cause. Delphi had long urged them to assist the Alcmaeonids to return; but with their accustomed slowness, and also because they were on good The Spartans terms with the Pisistratidae, they disregarded expel Hippias. the divine command as long as they dared. When further delay became impossible they sent the force under Anchimolius to expel the tyrants from Attica (supra, 440). This was defeated, but a second expedition was more successful. Hippias was expelled, and after thirty years of exile the Alcmaeonids were once more in Athens (510 B.C.).
19. It is impossible to ascertain, and difficult even to conjecture, what were the projects entertained by Clisthenes ciisthenes         when he returned to his native city.    He may
at Athens.         for a moment have cherished the hope  of
establishing himself on the throne of Pisistratus. At a later time, when his position at Athens was seriously threatened, Clisthenes himself did not hesitate to invoke the aid of Persia; and after the battle of Marathon his family were generally accused of giving a signal to the Persians for an attack on the city. But the day of the tyrants was over; the last years of Hippias had cancelled the services rendered to the people by his father; and Sparta was the declared enemy of tyrannies. Or we may suppose that the aristo-He takes the cratical party were only superficially reconciled people into to him. They were content that he should aid partnership        in t]ie expuision 0f t^G tyrant, but they did not
wish him to become the leader of a united oligarchy. Whatever the reason, Clisthenes found his position untenable.   He
Herod, v. 62 5 Aristoph. Lys. 665, schol.; Aristot. Frag. 394 R.
XV. ip.]              REFORMS OF CLISTHENES.                     473
must either go forward in the direction of democracy or abandon the hope of remaining in Athens. The people, in the free exercise of their rights, were the only secure defence of Athens against the factions of the noble families. With their aid the power of the privileged class must be broken beyond repair; the city must be emancipated from those influences which had done so much to render the provisions of Solon ineffectual.1
Clisthenes endeavoured to realise these objects by reforming the constitution in three directions. (1) He separated the political arrangements from the social, by pianofhis instituting new tribes, and connecting them with reform, demes, or local centres, not with phratries, or family groups; (2) he excited in the country people a greater interest in politics by the institution of little councils and petty officers in the various demes; (3) he increased the power of the "demos"by enrolling a large number of new citizens, slaves and resident aliens, the majority of whom no doubt lived at Athens. But before his plans were matured, still less carried out, the aristocracy made an attempt to recover their isagoras and position. The party was at this time led by the aristocracy. Isagoras, a man of whose descent Herodotus could discover nothing beyond the fact that his ancestors sacrificed to Carian Zeus. Isagoras was on terms of intimacy with Cleomenes, king of Sparta, and he applied to him for assistance at this juncture. The Spartans were not unwilling to respond. They had no sympathy with democracy, and it was now clear to them that they had been made the tools of the Alcmaeonids. The old cry of the curse was revived—a Spartan herald appearing at Athens to demand the expulsion Clisthencs com. of the family. Clisthenes retired from the peiied to leave city; but Cleomenes nevertheless marched to Athens* Athens at the head of a small force, and in connection with Isagoras began to arrange the constitution as he pleased.    Isagoras was elected archon (508 B.O.); seven
1 Herod, v. 66.
474                       ARCHONSHIP OF ISAGORAS.               [XV. 19.
hundred families, who had shown their democratic sympathies, were expelled from the country; an attempt was made to dissolve the Council (of Four Hundred ?) and elect a Senate of 300 in its place. The Council, however, refused to submit, and when the citizens came to their aid the small force which Cleomenes had brought with him was quite insufficient to expel them. The Spartans and Isagoras were driven into the ciisthencs         Acropolis, and being unable to endure a siege,
soon returns. Cleomenes left the city on the third day, after securing a safe passage for himself and the Spartans. Isagoras also was able to escape; but the rest of the party were thrown into prison and condemned to death. Clisthenes and the •exiled families now returned to Athens (supra, p. 441 J.1
20. The attempt of Isagoras had been foiled, but the difficulties of the Athenians were by no means at an end with War with         tne suppression  of the nobles.     Enemies to
Thebes and the young democracy sprang up on every side, chaicis.            £Qr -t wag now c|ear ^at a power had been
established in the Hellenic world which must form a centre of opposition to the existing aristocratic and oligarchical constitutions. The Thebans, who were enraged at the recent secession of Plataea to Athens (p. 442), attempjied to recover their authority, and both sides took the field. ^Before coming to an engagement, it was agreed to leave the matter to the decision of the Corinthians; but when they pronounced in favour of the independence of Plataea; the Thebans, on finding the sentence against them, did not stand by the terms of the agreement. They fell suddenly on the Athenian army as it was returning home. Though quite unprepared, the Athenians not only defended themselves, but inflicted a severe defeat on their assailants, and, by fixing the southern boundary of Boeotia at the Asopus, acquired additional territory for Plataea and their own frontier at Hysiae. These successes were short-lived. When the Spartans appeared -with an army of their confederates at Eleusis, the Athenians
1 Herod, v. 72-74; Thuc. i. 126 ; Aristoph. Lysist. 273, schol.
XV. 20.] ATHENS: WAR WITH THEBES 6- CHALCIS.    475
were unable to direct their attention elsewhere. Hysiae and Oenoe fell into the hands of the Boeotians; and the Chalci-dians from Euboea effected a landing at Marathon (506 B.C. V) Meanwhile Hippias was in Asia, endeavouring to obtain aid from Persia. So serious was the danger that the Athenians sent an embassy to Sardis, to ask for alliance with the Persian king. Artaphernes, the brother of Darius, who was at the time satrap of Sardis, agreed to grant the prayer of the envoys on the condition that earth and water were sent from Athens to the Great King, as a sign of submission. The terms were accepted, but they were at once repudiated by the Athenian people, who were greatly displeased at the eonduct of their envoys.
Only when it became known that the allies of Sparta would not join her in the attempt to restore the tyrants, was Athens free to deal with her enemies in the north. She then attacked the Boeotians, and severely defeated cieruchi at them. Seven hundred were brought as cap- Chaicis. tives to Athens. On the same day the army crossed the strait and attacked the Chalcidians, and here also the Athenians were victorious. The city fell into their hands; the oligarchical Hippobotae were deposed, and the rich Lelantian plain, so long the source of contention between Chaicis and Eretria, was divided among 4000 Athenian citizens. The seven hundred Boeotian prisoners were soon afterwards ransomed at two minae (about £7) each. Thus on every hand prosperity attended the efforts of Athens to establish her independence.1 The Thebans, however, were resolved to avenge their defeat. On consulting the oracle, they were bidden to bring the matter before their public assembly, and to request the aid of their nearest of kin. Thebes and This response created no small astonishment, Aegina. for the Tanagraeans, Thespians and Coronaeans, who seemed to be their next of kin, had been their allies in the late
1 Herod,   v.   74, 77;   vi.   108;   Piod. Exc.  Vat. 36«x.  24,  3. Simonides celebrated this victory; Frag. 132 B.
476                   ATHENS: WAR WITH AEGINA.             [XV. 20.
disastrous conflict. But it occurred to some one present that Aegina and Thebe were the daughters of Asopus, and that the Aeginetans might be the next of kin. To Aegina, therefore, they applied for aid. At this time the island was in great prosperity, and, as she had a long-standing quarrel with Athens, neither the power nor the will were wanting, if by any means she could injure the city. Without any proclamation of war she began the attack by laying waste Phalerum and other districts on the sea-coast of Attica. When the Athenians were about to retaliate, they received an oracle, Aegina attacks informing them that if they waited for thirty Athens.            years and in the thirty-first consecrated a pre-
cinct to Aeacus, everything would go as they wished; if, on the other hand, they attacked at once, their fortunes would vary, though in the end they would be successful.1 The Athenians at once consecrated the precinct, but they could not defer their revenge for thirty years. For a moment they were checked by the news that the Spartans intended to restore Hippias, but when this danger passed away a desultory warfare seems to have raged between the two cities, in which, so far as we can see, the Athenians had not ships to injure the Aeginetans, nor the Aeginetans men to invade Attica with any hope of success.2 Meanwhile the Boeotians abandoned hostilities on the news of the decisive part taken by the allies of Sparta in refusing to restore Hippias. At any rate the Thebans were unable to extend their power beyond the Asopus into the territory of Plataea.
THE CONSTITUTION OF CLIS7HENES.
21. Solon had founded his arrangements of the Council on the ancient division into tribes; the four hundred members being furnished in equal shares by the four tribes.     We do not
i Herod, v. 79-81. It was in this war that the Athenians borrowed ships from the Corinthians (Herod, vi. 89 ; Thuc. i. 41).
XV. 21.]   CLISTHENES* POLICY: THE TEN TRIBES.       477
know how or where the election of the councillors took place, whether in the country or in the city, but it is reasonable to suppose, in the absence of any other informa- The tribes tion, that the existing divisions and organisa- under Solon, tion of the tribes were turned to account. The phratries were accustomed to meet, and could easily be adapted to the purpose of nomination or election. It is obvious that such an arrangement would throw a great deal of influence into the hands of wealthy families. Moreover, many of the Attic villages (demes) have names which are patronymics— which implies that they were at one time or another the home of some family of note; and we have already seen what a power Pisistratus could exercise over Family in-the mountaineers who dwelt in the neighbour- fluence. hood of his estates. Under these circumstances the elections to the Council could be easily controlled by the oligarchs; and at the same time the Assembly could only be reached, so far as the initiation of measures went, through the Council. Here, then, was a difficulty which a reformer must at once remove, if the people were to act independently of the families which had so long ruled them.
Clisthenes determined to separate the old tribe and phratry from politics.    In the opinion of Herodotus he removed the Ionic tribes owing to  his  contempt for the    ciisthenes Ionians, and in imitation of his grandfather    establishes Clisthenes, who had   destroyed   the   Dorian      en  n es* tribes at Sicyon.1   This is, of course absurd.    It was natural that Clisthenes of Sicyon, in his desire to break down the Dorian element in his city, should call the Dorian tribes by opprobrious names, but the situation of affairs at Athens was quite different.    Clisthenes of Athens could not intend to insult the Ionian population of Attica at the very moment when he was desirous to raise them to power.    He had other motives for the changes which he now introduced.   In the place of the four Ionic tribes he created ten new ones,
1 Herod, v. 66 ; supra, p. 373.
478                CL1STHENES* POLICY: THE DEME.       [XV. 22.
namsd after ten heroes, Cecrops, Erechtheus, Pandion and Aegeus, the four ancient kings of Athens; Oeneus, a son of Pandion; Acamas, a son of Theseus; Hippothoon, whom Theseus had established at Eleusis; Ajax of Salamis, who ranked as an Attic hero; Leon, who was said to have sacrificed his daughter to save Athens; and Antiochus, the son of Heracles. Statues of these heroes—the Eponymi as they were called, because they gave their names to the tribes—were set up in the market-place at Athens. Each tribe had an overseer or governor and a treasurer; a common shrine and a festival; from time to time, as occasion demanded, all the members of the tribe were convened at Athens for the despatch of business.1
22. In each tribe, according to the arrangement of Clis-thenes, there were ten "demes," or villages. These demes The Demes were no* a crea^on °f Clisthenes, for they were as arranged the existing villages and towns of Attica, but by chsthenes. ^ geems to kave been the first to apply the name deme universally to them, and to have arranged them in a manner which suited his political plan, for we cannot suppose that there were precisely a hundred villages in Attica at this time. Like the tribe, each deme had a hero, and a sanctuary, at which all the members worshipped. The inhabitants of the deme were enrolled in lists, which were kept by the demarch or governor. He also presided at the meetings, where affairs which affected the community, such as the management of common lands, or the amount to be raised in order to defray expenses, or any other important matter, were discussed. He was elected by his fellow-demesmen, and held office for a year. The position was one of importance in a limited sphere, for the demarch kept the register of citizens who were of age to bear arms; through his agency crews were chosen for ships of war, and money collected. At the end of his year of office Jie was doubtless compelled to give in an account of his
1 Herod, v. 67; Pollux, viii. 110.
XV. 23-]           LOCAL INFLUENCE REMOVED.                   479
management, and answer any attack which might be made upon it.1
23. This change transformed the political status of the Athenian citizen. The old family ceremonies and meetings continued to "exist, but only for private life; and a new religious influence arose out of the forms of worship which bound every one to his deme and his tribe. At the same time a new interest in politics had been created by the establishment of local centres in which every inhabitant could find a place and play his part. But if Clisthenes had stopped here he would not have emancipated the Athenians from territorial influence. Families which had been dominant in their districts under the old system would have been dominant still. Clisthenes saw what was required, and made arrangements to secure it. In the first place he enrolled a large body of citizens by extending the franchise to a number of emancipated slaves and resident aliens. Enfranchise-These new citizens would swell the population ment of slaves of the city, where no doubt they chiefly con- and aliens' gregated, and the "resident aliens," who were for the most part engaged in trade, would be quite independent of the Athenian families.2 Next he arranged the demes which formed a tribe in such a manner that they Arrangement were not contiguous—at any rate in every of the demes. case. Demes from the north of Attica were combined inta one tribe with demes from the south.3 By this means the strength of local influence was greatly impaired; and, as Athens itself was the meeting-place for the tribes on important occasions, no inconvenience arose from the dispersion of the demes of which they were composed. But another innovation which we may ascribe to Clisthenes—and it was the most important of all—must have rendered any immediate
1 Herod, v. 69 ; Harpocration, Af)napx<>s.
3 Arist. Pol. iii. 2. 3 = 1275 b, iroKkovs tyvktTevac £cvovs kol bovkovs fieroiKovs, where see the commentators.
8 Grote, Hist of Greece, iii. 114, w. 1. He mentions five demes within the city of Athens, all of which belonged to different tribes.
480               ELECTION BY LOT—THE COUNCIL,       [XV. 24.
check upon the free action of the people impossible. He introduced election by lot. Of those citizens who offered introduction themselves for the post of councillors, two were of the lot in elected for each vacant place. If the candidate elections.          wj1Q Stained the first place, died during his
year of office, or was found unworthy on examination, his place was taken by the second. No one could, however, be a councillor for two successive years. We are not told that any minimum of property was required as a qualification for a councillor, but it is improbable that the poorest (Solonian) class would be able to give the time which the duties of the office required.1
24. The new Council was reorganised in accordance with the basis upon which it was founded. Instead of four Arrangement hundred members, five hundred were now of the ouncii. choseDj fifty from each of the ten tribes. /As this was too large a body to be retained permanently at Athens, it was subdivided into ten tribal divisions of fifty each, and at the same time the year was divided into ten presidencies. During each of the ten presidencies the members of one of the ten tribes remained continuously at Athens, in the Council Hall, that they might be in readiness to transact the business of the hour, and while in office these were called the Presidents, and their tribe the presiding tribe. The Council met daily, and, as before, nothing could be brought before the General Assembly without previous discussion in the Council. It is also probable—and unfortunately we cannot get beyond probability in speaking of the proceedings of Clisthenes— that the Assembly was now more frequently convened than formerly. Such a change was necessary in order to assure the citizens of their power, and even more so for the transaction of public business.    Not only had the overthrow of
1 Whether Clisthenes introduced the lot in the election of archons is doubtful, though Herodotus (vi. 109) says that the polemarch at Marathon was elected by lot; but we never hear of any other arrangement in the election of the Council.
XV. 25, 26.]                  ARMY AND NA VY.                                481
the tyrants removed the medium through which foreign affairs had been transacted, but in the years which immediately followed the reforms of Clisthenes Athens was involved in numerous wars; she had to fight hard to preserve her new freedom; and in such anxious times the meetings of the Assembly would no doubt be frequent and animated.
25.  Among the institutions which are obviously connected with the creation of the Ten Tribes must be placed a number of boards consisting   of   ten members,  and
charged with the superintendence of various departments in the state.    Of these the most important were the Ten Strategi, or Generals, who, together with the Archon Polemarch, were the commanders-in-chief of the army and the fleet.1   That the naucraries were increased from forty-eight to fifty by Clisthenes seems certain, for the old number could not be brought into any relation with the    ships and new tribes.   As each naucrary supplied a ship,   cavaIry. the navy of the Athenians is now to be estimated at 50 triremes;  and if each naucrary continued to furnish two mounted soldiers, as before, the cavalry would amount to no more than 100 horse.2   The amount of heavy armed infantry at Marathon was 9000.
26.  Lastly, Clisthenes is said to have introduced the remarkable institution of ostracism.8   This was a device for removing any citizen whose presence in the city   0stracism seemed to threaten the unity or harmony of the
state. The presidents of the Council came before the Assembly (not later than the seventh Prytany) with the question, whether it was necessary that any citizen should be sent into exile.    If the question was answered in the affirmative, a day
1 Ten generals and polemarch at Marathon, Herod, vi. 109.
3 Photius, Lex. NavKpapi'a. Fifty ships in the war with Aegina, Herod, vi. 89. The paucity of the cavalry is remarkable, when we remember that Solon named one of his classes Hippeis, and that the Athenians worshipped Poseidon Hippius, Athena Hippia. But ovk imraa-ifirj fj x^PV Vv V 'Attik^ (Herod, ix. 13). See Westermann in Pauly's Encycl, sub voc. 'linreis.
8 Philoch. Frag. 79 6, M. ; Plut. Arist. 7.
VOL. I.
482
OSTRACISM.
[XV. 26.
was fixed to vote upon the subject. In the presence of the Archons and the Council, the people met not as usual in the Pnyx, but in the market-place, and gave their votes by placing in urns, arranged for the purpose, small tablets of earthenware, on which they wrote down the name of the person whom they wished to banish. If six thousand votes were given against any one person,1 he was compelled to leave the city for ten years. Neither his property nor his civic rights were touched; he was in no sense regarded as a criminal. Ostracism was merely the assertion of the people that a single citizen had acquired such power in the city that it was expedient for all to be rid of him for a time. Though much has been said in favour of the institution as a safeguard against civil strife or the rise of a tyrant, it has never been proved that it contributed to the welfare of Athens. However honourable it may have been to Aristides, Themistocles, and Cimon to go into banishment, it was not honourable nor expedient for the city to banish them. Ostracism made it possible for the rabble to rid themselves of the man who Calculated to controlled them, at the time when they most do more harm needed control, and to deprive a statesman of than good.         political power, who pursued a policy of which
they disapproved, no matter how wise and just the policy may have been. Under any circumstances Athens was weaker and less efficient when deprived of the services of her ablest men.2 Ostracism is said to have come to an end with the banishment of Hyperbolus in 418 B.C. Party spirit ran high between Alcibiades and Nicias; ostracism was demanded in order to expel one or other of the disturbing elements, but while   Nicies and   Alcibiades escaped, the
1  Such appears to be the meaning of the passage in Philochorus, and so Grote understood it. Others think that a majority in an assembly of 6000 citizens is meant. See Frankel, Die Attischen Geschworenenge^ richte, Esp. p. 92, note* But is not a large majority essential in this case?
2  Ostracism, or some equivalent, existed at Argos, Megara, Miletus, and Syracuse without producing any beneficial effects whatever, so far as we can see.
XV. 27, 28.]         POSITION OF CLISTHENES.
483
sentence fell on the unfortunate dealer in lamps.1 Such a result was thought to have proved the institution to be useless ; and though that is true, it is obvious that the people acted far more wisely in getting rid of a noisy demagogue, than they would have done in leaving either Nicias or Alcibiades without a rival in the state.2
27« It is impossible to give any clear account of the means by which Clisthenes was enabled to carry out such extensive reforms. Herodotus, who is our sole authority, How did ciis-merely informs us that Clisthenes, finding him- ^thisr*™7 self overpowered by the nobles, took the demos forms? into partnership, and by this means became far stronger than his opponents.3 Nor do we know in what capacity he brought forward his numerous proposals. Was he placed by the people in a position analogous to that of Solon in 593 B.c. % Or did he propose his measures in the Council and Assembly, and pass them by decree of the people? The changes were clearly the result of careful consideration: it was not any partial amendment; it was an entire reform of the constitution, which Clisthenes set before him. They were also carried out, so far as we know, without alteration. For these reasons we may assume that, after the failure of Isagoras, Clisthenes was allowed to take up an autocratic position in order to give a new constitution to the city.
28. After the collapse at Sparta (p. 441), no further attempt was made to restore the Pisistratidae. Hippias, however, exhibited something of his old tenacity, and Hippias in would by no means accept the change in his Asia-fortunes as final. On leaving Sparta he returned once more to Sigeum, whence he entered into communication with the satrap of Sardis, endeavouring by every means in his power
1  Thuc. viii. 73 5 Plut. Aristid. 7.
2  Grote writes at great length on the good which ostracism was intended to do; but when he comes to relate the good that it did, the account is meagre indeed.
3  Herod, v. 69. Pausanias indicates that the authority of Delphi was employed in establishing the tribes, x. 10. 1.
484       UNITY AND INDEPENDENCE OF A TTICA.   [XV. 29.
to traduce the Athenians, "and make Athens subject to himself and Darius." The Athenians sent envoys to counteract his influence; Artaphernes, however, bade them take Hippias back on pain of incurring the king's displeasure. Nothing daunted, the Athenians, when the proposal was laid before them, rejected it with contempt, though they understood that the rejection was equivalent to a declaration of war with Persia.1
29. Nothing is known of the later life of Clisthenes. He is said to have been ostracised; but whatever his fate he Criticism of the could point with a just pride to the results of reforms of         his labours.    Henceforth we hear no more of
enes. ^e 0id factions of the Hill, the Plain, and the Shore. The state was at length united, and penetrated with a single spirit. Every one felt himself a part of the whole; in fighting for his city, he was fighting for a society in which he had equal rights and privileges. He was impelled to take an active part in politics by the feeling that he could sensibly influence the welfare of the state, with which his own welfare was indissolubly connected. A spirit of independence was alive in the heart of every Athenian, prompting him to play his part beside his fellow-citizens. It might be He made the difficult or irksome to attend the frequent democracy a meetings of the Assembly; but the Assembly rea *y'             was now a real power.     To leave the labour
of the farm, or the occupations of trade for service in the field demanded as great a sacrifice from the Greek as it does from the Frenchman or German; but the Greek was fighting his own battles; he did not lay down his life at the bidding of a master. He felt that he must bear his part in the defence The democratic of his country, for, if he failed in that, he was spiritt              guilty of treachery to his fellow-citizens.   From
every one great efforts were expected, for freedom was a possession difficult to win, and more difficult to keep. Under such conditions political life became a moral influence of the
1 Herod, v. 96.
XV. 2p.]                       THE DEMOCRACY.                            485
highest kind. It generated and developed the highest virtues of which man is capable: the love of freedom, devotion to a common cause, self-respect, and self-control. In such a state a good citizen could be pronounced a good man, and nothing that was visionary or morbid, the life of the recluse, together with the qualities which serve for virtues in such a life, could find a place in it. Men were willing to sacrifice their lives, but they did not despise n e C1 y* them; on the contrary, they " cherished their bodies as the dearest thing they had," if only they could use them in the service of the state. Nor was the domestic life forgotten in the political. It was in his own home that the duty of the citizen was most clear. To preserve his property intact, to keep up family traditions of worth and honour, to breed sons and daughters who would carry on the race undeteriorated—this was as much a part of the Athenian's duty as attendance at the Assembly, or service in the field. In the same large spirit the Athenian learned to live for others while living for himself. If he amassed wealth, it was his desire to spend it, not in selfish indulgence, but in a manner which would bring him credit Public spirit with his country. That was hardly his own at Athens, which had been gained under the protection of the community and the gods. The increase of the field and the flock was a gift of the heavenly powers, not to be taken without recom-pence and thanksgiving. To add splendour to their festivals was at once a pious duty and the best means of securing their good-will and blessing. Temples rose and festivals were adorned with processions and contests, not to gratify the pride or ambition of a single man, but as an expression of the piety and thankfulness of the people.
In the time of Clisthenes the Athenians were free from many of the evils which appear in the democracy of the next century. They were a people, not a rabble, a state, not a city; they were animated by a noble public spirit, not by a selfish greed; they desired liberty, not aggrandisement. But the elements of decay were not wanting.    It was impossible
486
THE DEMOCRACY.
[XV. 29.
to prevent the political power from falling into the hands of the city. The best and soundest part of the population, the Seeds of decay owners and tillers of the soil in Attica, could already sown. n0£ ^e g0 regUiar in their- attendance at the Assembly as the inhabitants of Athens, who were always at hand. The introduction of the lot in elections was a security against influence, but it was no security against incompetence and dishonesty. For a time these evils were hidden. The enthusiasm which followed the triumphs of the Persian war carried the democracy successfully through another generation, but only to increase the mischief which it delayed. The men who " fought at Marathon " passed away; and what Aristides had begun with the noblest motives, Ephialtes and Pericles completed in the interests of a party. The meaning of the change was veiled at first by the splendour of the new city; an Athens arose which was the wonder of the world. The beauty of the Acropolis, the magnificence of the Dionysia seemed to be outward and visible signs of the prosperity and happiness of Athenian life. But national culture, even when attained, is a poor compensation for the loss of national honesty. Art and poetry can introduce a subtle charm into society, but they cannot supply that civic virtue on which alone democracy, the most exacting of all forms of political life, can safely rest.1
1 Isocr. Areopag. § 17-30. For the chronology of the Pisistratidae see Aristot. Pol. v. 12. 5 ^ 13156—Sis €<fivy€ Hcicriarparos rvpavv&vf &ot> eV €T€<rt rpiaKovra Kal rpuriv inTfiKaibeKa eny tovtodv tTvpavvtvatv,
OKTG>KaL8€Ka 6*€ 01 7Tai6*€S, &OT6 TO, TtCLVTa cy€V€TO €TT) TplCLKOVTCL KCU 7T€VT€.
Herodotus (v. 65) gives 36 instead of 35 yearsi They fall between 560 and 510 B.C
CHAPTER XVI.
THE   GREEKS   IN   THE  EAST.
I. The history of the Greek cities in Asia Minor is in many particulars a repetition of the history of the cities in Europe. There were the same minute subdivisions of TheAsiatic territory, the same conflicts of city with city, Greeks resemble the same forms and changes of government on the Eur°Pean both sides of the Aegean. In the east as in the west men sought for riches on distant shores, and though the colonies in the Euxine were not so famous as those in Sicily and Magna Graecia, they were hardly less numerous, and were planted in more barbarous and inaccessible regions.
But however great   the resemblance between east and west in isolation, in party strife and instability of government, in enterprise and navigation, the Asiatic yet differ from Greeks differed   widely from the  European. them-The climate which they enjoyed, the soil which they cultivated, were superior to the climate and soil of their European home. On the Anatolian coast the heat of summer and the cold of winter were tempered by the neighbourhood of the Aegean, and the force of the arid winds which swept the deserts of the interior was broken by a sheltering wall of mountains.    The soil was deep and fertile to an extraordinary The climate degree, while the slopes of the mountains pro- and soil-vided pasture for sheep or, if clothed with wood, furnished an inexhaustible store of timber for ship-building.   These natural advantages exercised a great influence oirthe character of the colonists who enjoyed them; especially on the Ionians, who became at once the most intellectual and the most
487
488             THE HOME OF THE ASIATIC GREEKS.    [XVI. I.
Oriental of the Greeks. The rich abundance of products and the softness of the climate inclined them to a degree of luxury unknown in the mother country; the leisure, which their wealth permitted, enabled the nobler minds to indulge in speculative curiosity, and pursue the pleasures of intellect.1 Along with the influence of climate and soil other forces were also at work of still greater potency and more important Oriental           in their effects.    On the continent of Asia, the
influences.         Greeks were brought into contact with nation*
whose civilisation was widely different from their own and in some points in advance of it. The mountains which fringe the Anatolian coast are pierced by four considerable rivers; the Caicus, the Hermus, the Cayster and the Maeander. At or near the mouths of these lay the most important of the <Greek cities, and though the position may have been chiefly recommended by the richness of the alluvial plains which these rivers form, there were other causes which helped to determine the site. It was through these river valleys that all communication between the coast and the interior was carried on; the great road which connected Mesopotamia and the west passed through Phrygia into the valley of the Hermus, and finally struck the sea at the mouth of the Cayster. A distance of seventy miles brought the Greek from Ephesus to the capital of the Lydian empire at Sardis, and a much shorter distance was needed to put him in contact with some of the most important features of Asiatic life and character. Often he lived face to face with them. It was on the ruins of Carian or Lelegian cities that his new home was built; he worshipped under e lffX   '          Greek names deities which were not Greek;
reared temples to them with the aid of Lydian or Egyptian treasures, and carved their statues under foreign influence
1 For the climate and soil of Asia Minor see Herod, i. 142-149 ; for the effect of climate, Hippocrates, De aere, etc., §§12 and esp. 16, Littre, on airoXeparepoi cl<ri rS>v JLvp&iraiav oi 'Ao-ir/voi kcu fjfi€pd>T€poi ra rj$ea at hpai atrial jiaXicrra, ov fxeydkas ras pcrajSoKas iroicvficvai, oure cVl to depfibv, ovt€ cm to yfrvxpovt dXka 7rapa7r\r}o-iios.
XVI. I.]                ORIENTAL INFLUENCES.                       489
—influence so deeply felt that it was quickly transmitted to the west. Before Solon's death the temple of the Great Mother may have been seen at Athens; in the Eleusinian myth of Demeter there are elements which seem to have been borrowed from the story of Cybele and Attys; and the poet Sophocles, a Hellene of the Hellenes, allows his Grecian mariners to appeal to the all-nurturing mountain goddess, whose shrine was washed by the golden stream of Pactolus. Greek logographers discovered that the old Lydian dynasty of Sardis was descended from Heracles no less than their own Spartan kings ; Assyria and Egypt were connected through Perseus with the royal line of Argos. And with religious rites and legends came knowledge of a more sober and lasting nature. The accumulated stores of the east were brought within the touch of western genius. By 585 B.C. Thales was able, no doubt with the help of Chaldaean tables, to foretell an eclipse of the sun, and the same interest in physical causes led to other speculations out of which arose the germs of natural philosophy. Men began to ask—and they have gone on asking ever since—What was the cause of life and growth % Was it water, from which all things proceeded, as the old poets seemed to hint when they spoke of Ocean and Tethys as the parents of the gods H Or was it fire, for which everything is changed, as goods for gold, and gold for goods ? Stimulated by Phrygian and Lydian modes music and poetry assumed new forms among the Asiatic Greeks, in which the fire of love and the fierceness of political strife or personal hatred found adequate expression. The records of past ages, the manners and habits of distant nations, began to attract intelligent attention, and the Muse of history took her place beside the deities of melody and song. It was the dayspring of western thought,
Nos ubi primus equis Oriens adflavit anhelis
—and gladly would we breathe the fresh morning air.    The conditions which made such great achievements possible, the
490                ASIA MINOR: THE CIMMERIANS.        [XVI. 2.
causes which prompted them, the state of manners and society in the cities of Ionia and Aeolis, the personality of the scanty records philosophers and poets, of Thales and Hera-of the Asiatic clitus, of Archilochus and Sappho, can never clties*              cease to excite our curiosity.   But the history
of eastern Hellas in the period between the First Olympiad and the Ionian Revolt, is, if possible, a record still more broken and obscure than that of the peninsula. Once or twice in the course of a century, the light falls on an island or a city, but ere we can fix the picture the gleam is gone. A fragment of a lyric or elegiac poet, a chapter in Herodotus, a story out of the Apocrypha of the Greek tyrants—these are the materials from which we have to construct an account of cities where, for two centuries, the Hellenic genius was most active and fruitful, of men whose words are an immortal possession.
THE GREEK CITIES IN ASIA MINOR.
2. About the beginning of the seventh century a movement took place among the barbarous tribes which roamed through _.   _.             the vast territory that extends to the north
TheCimmer-                                           J        m                                m
ians in Asia and east of the Caspian Sea. A nation whom Minor.             tne Q.reeks called Scythians, but who called
themselves Scoloti, pressed forward to the west, into the territory lying immediately above the Black Sea, and expelled the Cimmerians, who for some time had been settled there, and had given their name to what was called the Cimmerian Bosporus. In search of new homes the Cimmerians crossed the sea, and fell upon Asia Minor, where for the next hundred years they continued to be a source of trouble and danger. They conquered the Milesian colony of Sinope, and held it for two generations; they invaded and destroyed the flourishing kingdom of Phrygia (696 B.C.); they captured Sardis, " except the citadel," and under their chief Lygdamis they burned the temple of Artemis at Ephesus. Magnesia on the Maeander was utterly destroyed by them; and in spite of
XVI. 3, 4»]           SARDIS AND THE GREEKS.
491
defeats by Assurbanipal of Assyria and Gyges of Lydia, they were not expelled from Asia Minor till the reign of Alyattes, in the beginning of the sixth century.1
3.  Soon after the appearance of the Cimmerians in Asia Minor, a change occurred in the dynasty which reigned at Sardis, the capital of Lydia.   For many genera-    Chan   in tht tions (twenty-two according to Herodotus) the    royal dynasty throne had been in the possession of a family   at Sardls-whom the Greeks called Heraclidae, because they claimed descent from the sun-god of Lydia, who was identified with Heracles.    The last two or three sovereigns of this race appear to have exercised little authority in the kingdom, and to have been governed in turn by two powerful families, the Mermnadae and the Tylonidae.   At length Gyges, the head of the Mermnadae, entered into relations with the wife of the reigning Heraclid, whom Herodotus calls Candaules, and others Sadyattes, and with her assistance or connivance, he assassinated the king and usurped the throne.    Such
a step naturally excited the opposition of the * e yges' Lydians, and especially the Tylonids; and in order to secure the prize which he had won, Gyges was compelled to ask the assistance of the Carian king Arselis. The contention was finally settled by an appeal to the oracle at Delphi, which decided in favour of Gyges (c. 685 B.0.).2
4.  The accession of the Mermnadae was an event of the greatest importance to the Asiatic Greeks. Hitherto the kings of Sardis had left them unmolested, not caring to secure for themselves the obvious advantages which would
1  For Sinope see Herod, iv. 12. The new colony was founded in 630 B.C. (Euseb.) Midas, Euseb., Vers. Arm. ad 01. 21. 2. Africanus gives 676 B.C. as the date. Sardis, Herod, i. 15. For the connection of Assyria and Gyges, see Gelzer, Das ZeitcUter des Gyges, 256 ff.
2  For the last of the Heraclids, see Nicol. Damasc. Frag. 49 M. The names there given for the last five monarchs are Ardys, Adyattes, Melee, MyrsuB, Sadyattes. For the rise of Gyges, Nic. Dam. 1. c.; Herod, i, 8-13; Plato, Hep. ii. ch. 3. All the evidence for the history of the Lydian kings has been collected by R. Schubert, Die Konigt von Lydien, Breslau, 1884.    See also Duncker, Hist. Ant. vols. i. iii.
492                           GYGES, KING OF LYDIA.                  [XVI. 5,
follow from the possession of the towns of the sea-coast, but with the usurpation of Gyges a different policy was set on Effect of the *°°k Though he owed the undisputed pos-changeonthe session of the throne to the decision of the Greeks.             Delphian oracle, he was no sooner settled on it
than he began a series of attacks on the Greek cities Smyrna, Colophon, and Miletus. The Smyrnaeans defended themselves es attacks wir^ tne u^most vigour, and apparently with the cities of the success; of the attack on Miletus no account has coast*               been preserved;   at Colophon Gyges was vic-
torious. This success was, however, more than counterbalanced by the defeats which he suffered at the hands of the Cimmerians —defeats so serious that he was only able to save himself by Gyges and the consenting to become the vassal of Assurbanipal Cimmerians. 0f Assyria. Assurbanipal sent an army to his assistance, which inflicted severe chastisement on the invaders, but Gyges was no sooner extricated from his difficult position than he threw off his allegiance, and even sent mercenaries to Psammetichus of Egypt, who was openly at war with Assyria. But the Cimmerians, though defeated, were not crushed; another battle took place, in which Gyges was slain and the Lydians suffered so severely that Ardys, his son, who succeeded him on the throne, found it necessary to place Lydia once more under the protection of Assyria (0. 650 B.C.).1
5. Ardys renewed the attack upon Miletus, but met with no better success than his father. Yet he captured Priene, a city which at that time lay on the sea-coast, on mg r ys. ^e nortn shore of the Latmian Bay, and was charged with the superintendence of the Panionian festival at Mycale. Then the Cimmerians advanced once more, on this occasion penetrating even to the suburbs of Sardis, and
1 For Gyges, see Herod, i. 14; for the attack on Smyrna, Paus. iv. 21. 5. In the account given by Dositheus, the Smyrnaeans had little to be proud of (Hist. Gr. Frag, iv. p. 401 M.). For the death and defeat of Gyges, see Gelzer, I.e. Colophon no doubt recovered her independence at this time.
XVI. 6.]   MILETUS—THRASYBULUS* TYRANNY.              493
Ardys was compelled to relinquish his conquests in Ionia.
At his death he was succeeded by Sadyattes,
who in a brief reign of five years resumed the        ya
now traditional policy of making war upon Miletus, but
resumed it without result (c. 615—610 B.C.).1
6. At this time Miletus was under the control of a prince, Thrasybulus by name, who had made use of his position as prytanis of the city (p. 340) to establish a Miletus under tyranny. Of the manner in which he obtained Thrasybulus' his power, exercised it, and lost it, we are ignorant; we only know the advice which he gave to Periander (p. 385) about the management of a city by a tyrant, and the scheme by which he is said to have rescued Miletus from the attack of Alyattes the son of Sadyattes. That prince had no sooner ascended the throne than he engaged in a war with the Ionian city. At first the Milesians ventured to meet him in the open field, but after severe defeats at Limeneum, and on the Maeander, they remained within the city walls, and left their territory at the mercy of the Lydians, who being without a navy could not cut off the city from the sea. Year by year the harvests were carried off or destroyed, and Miletus was entirely deprived si the supplies which she drew from the fertile land round the mouth of the Maeander. A scarcity of food began to be felt in the city when a happy The war with accident gave a new turn to the situation. A1y*ttes-During an invasion of the territory of Miletus, the Lydian soldiers had set fire to the temple of Athena at Assessus, and when Alyattes subsequently sent to Delphi to ask advice about an illness from which he was suffering, he was informed that no answer would be given till this temple had been restored. On this he requested leave to send a herald to Miletus to negotiate a truce during which the temple could be rebuilt.
1 For Ardys and Sadyattes, Herod, i. 15. Herodotus allows a reign of twelve years to Sadyattes, and asserts that six of them were occupied with the MUesian war. But Eusebius gives only five years for the entire reign, and this seems to be the more correct account. See Gelzer, Z.c, p. 239.    Duncker, Hist. Ant. in. 415, note.
494
CONQUESTS OF AL YA TTES.            [XVI. 7, &
Thrasybulus, who had been informed by Periander of the oracle, resolved to entertain the herald in a manner which would convince Alyattes that the Milesians were quite indifferent to the desolation of their country. All the corn in the city was brought out into the market-place for the occasion, and the inhabitants were bidden to feast and keep holiday. When Alyattes heard of such abundance in a city which he imagined that he had reduced to famine, he at once abandoned the war and came to terms with Miletus.
7.  Thus the greatest of the Ionian cities was ranged on the side of the Lydians. Colophon also, though we do not know why, placed her famous cavalry at the disposal of the Lydian king, who, if we may trust the account given in Polyaenus (vii. 2. 2), did not hesitate to massacre them, and make a treacherous though unsuccessful attack on the city. In an Conquest of attempt on Clazomenae the Lydians suffered a Smyrna.            severe defeat, and Priene held them at bay; but the city of Smyrna, which had offered a successful resistance to G-yges, was captured, her walls destroyed, and the inhabitants dispersed into villages. This conquest placed Alyattes in posession of the lower valley of the Hermus, and brought the Lydian empire down toVthe sea-coast. As he had also succeeded in ridding Asia Minor of the Cimmerians, he was able to bequeath to his son Croesus a power far greater than any which had yet been swayed by the sceptre of a Mermnade.1
8.  These attacks on the Ionian cities seem to have caused
1 For the rise of Thrasybulus, see Arisfc. Pol v. 10. 6=13106 ("The Ionian tyrants acquired the tyranny by holding great offices "), and ib. v. 5. 8 = 1305 a. For the war with Alyattes, Herod, i. 16 ff. Smyrna is not mentioned in Athenian tribute lists, nor by Thucydides. Strabo, p. 646, says that the Smyrnaeans, after the destruction of their city by the Lydians, lived Kco^dov for 400 years till restored by Antigonus (see Schubert, I. c. pp. 48 f.). The war with Priene may be a fact in spite of the silly stories in Diog. Laert. i. 83. The chronology is exceedingly doubtful. The account of Herodotus places the war between Alyattes and Miletus at the very beginning of his reign, i.e. in the seventh century.
XVI. 9-1                  FACTIONS AT MILETUS.                          495
no change in the relations between Miletus and Sardis. At no time was there anything which could be called " solidarity " existing between the Asiatic Greeks; even the Want of co-members of the same tribe had no link to ^Asiatic*1* bind them together except the worship of a Greeks, common deity. And for half a century or more after the tyranny of Thrasybulus, the Milesians were distracted by the most cruel domestic factions; at one time the people got the upper hand, and trampled the children of their opponents to death on the threshing-floors; at another the oligarchy, who retaliated by covering their opponents, old and young, with pitch and burning them alive. The state of affairs became so intolerable, that wealthy men removed their Factions at property, so far as possible, out of the country, Miletus-and the power and reputation of the city were very seriously injured. At length, in order to put an end to conflicts from which both parties suffered, the Milesians called in the assistance of the Parians, and begged them to settle their quarrels. The Parians adopted a very sensible and simple plan of establishing a wise government; passing through the territory of Miletus, they noted every estate which seemed to be flourishing and well managed, inquired the name of the owner, and placed him on the governing body of the city. The constitution thus established was neither an oligarchy nor a democracy; merchants and traders were disregarded, and the possession of land became, as at Athens under Solon, the qualification for office. Under this government Miletus remained till the Persians for their own purposes established a tyrant in the city.1
9. At the death of Alyattes in 560 B.C. the Lydian empire extended from Smyrna to the Halys; the Cimmerians had been finally expelled from the country; the Lydian cavalry
1 For the factions and the Parians, see Herod, v. 28, 29; he is there speaking of the period just before the Ionian revolt. For the cruelties of the factions, of which, however, the date is not specified, Heraclides Ponticus, in Athenaeus, p. 524 ; and for the removal of property from Miletus, the story of Glaucus in Herod, vi. 86.
496                        CROESUS, KING OF LYDIA.                [XVI. 9.
were probably the best-mounted troops in existence; and the monarch of Sardis was absolute owner of a treasury with which nothing in the western world could enter into comparison.   He was succeeded by his son Croesus,
Croesus.                *.         ,, .  .     n                      .           J                      _            '
then thirty-five years of age, a prince of great ambition and capacity, who resolved to make the most of his splendid inheritance. This object he pursued with such success that in ten years he had not only reduced all the Greek cities to dependence, but had also conquered the " barbarian" tribes which had not hitherto acknowledged the Lydian supremacy. The Phrygians and is conq es s.   ¦^¦ySjanSj   tne  Mariandynians,  Chalybes   and
Paphlagonians, the Asiatic Thracians and the Carians, the Ionians, Dorians, Aeolians, Pamphylians were now subjects of Sardis; only the brave and civilised Lycians and the Cilicians in the south maintained their independence. This rapid elevation of the Lydian monarch to a position of supreme importance in Asia Minor, ending as it did in sudden, unexpected and irretrievable ruin, was an event which deeply impressed the ancient world.1 The rise and fall of Croesus was a signal instance of the instability of fortune; and in the minds of reflective Greeks, who were beginning to feel and uphold the sanctity of moral law, it was a proof that wealth was by no means the first of blessings; that unscru-
1 Herod, i. 26 ff. For the Lydian cavalry, ibid, 79 ; for the cause of Croesus' fall, ibid. 91. All that is known about Croesus is collected "by Schubert, l.e. Besides Herodotus, we have the account of Nicolaus of Damascus, who is thought to have used the Lydian history of Xanthus. No Lydian inscriptions are now in existence, though Herodotus speaks of such, i. 93. According to Herodotus the character of the Lydian nation entirely changed in the time of Cyrus; from being warlike it became effeminate. The Lydians were the first to coin money, and pursue retail trade; they invented most of the games known in Greece, dice, knuckle-bones, ball, etc.; their music was soft, their manners dissolute; and Herodotus could find nothing to admire in the country except the tomb of Alyattes (i. 93 hodie Bin Bir Tepeh). From this I infer that the old temple of Cybele was not of great size or splendour, and that the remains described by Cockerell {Leake, Asia Min. 342 ff.) belong to a later date.
XVI. ia]
EPHESUS.
497
pulous ambition and greed of conquest incurred the anger of the gods, and brought down their vengeance upon men.
10. On his accession to the throne Croesus turned his arms against Ephesus, which, after the fall of Smyrna and the alliance with Miletus, was the most important Greek city now independent of Sardis. Ephesus appears at this time to have consisted of two communities, which, though living amicably side by side, were separate from «ach other. On the slopes of Mt. Coressus and the adjacent hills, lay the Greeks, governed perhaps by a moderate oligarchy, but allowing the posterity of Androclus, the founder, to bear the title of king, to wear purple, carry a staff, and administer the rites at the temple of Eleusinian Demeter. In the low land at the mouth of the Cayster was the temple of Artemis, with its hierarchy, surrounded by the unwholesome rout of male and female acolytes which was generally to be e emp e* found in Phoenician and Asiatic temples. It was equally the interest of both communities to develop the trade of the city, and improve her position as the key of communication between the eastern and western world; but while the Greeks looked to the sea, the temple held to the land. The deity which was worshipped there was not an importation from Greece, but the Astarte of old Phoenician visitors combined with the Cybele of Hither Asia (supra^. 132). The name of Artemis, which Homer had associated with virgin purity and grace, was here given to a goddess whose functions as a nursing mother and patroness of birth were clearly indicated by the numerous breasts carved upon her monstrous statue. Her high priests were eunuchs, a form of asceticism which, however degraded and insane, commanded respect among Asiatic nations. The custom was also a safeguard against the growth of an independent priestly dynasty; it completely cut off the temple from the civic life which surrounded it, and .gave a pledge to the worshippers who came from Phrygia or Lydia or Syria that the old rites of their native goddess would not be sacrificed to Hellenic prejudices or ambition.    On these
vol. I
498               EPHESUS CAPTURED BY CROESUS.     [XVI. n.
grounds the temple might claim to be a mediator between the Asiatics and the Greeks, and this is in fact the position which it took up when Croesus attacked Ephesus. The hierarchy Croesus at         had nothing to fear from the invader.    The
Ephesus.          deity which they worshipped could be identified
with the goddess under whose blessing Croesus had set out from Sardis, and the priests probably came to terms with him at once. The Greeks, on the other hand, under their commander Pindarus, resisted for a time, but when they found themselves unable to continue the defence they placed the city under the protection of the temple, and the better to mark the connection they carried a cord from the walls to the shrine The city           —a distance of seven stades.    This concession,
submits.           though it saved the Greeks from destruction,
seems to have greatly injured the city. The settlers were compelled to leave their position on the heights and dwell round the templfe; the hierarchy became the guiding power in the politics of Ephesus; and from this time onward we find the city in sympathy with Asia rather than with Greece.1
II, Thus the Asiatic hierarchy triumphed over the Hellenic city, and Croesus became master of the route which the great emporium had so long commanded. With the fall of Ephesus all further resistance on the part of Ionia was at an end; the Aeolians and Dorians were now attacked and The empire conquered, under one pretext or another, by of Croesus.        the ambitious monarch, whom Herodotus re-
gards as the beginner of the quarrel between the Greeks and Asiatics.    The conquered cities had to acknowledge the
1 Herod, i. 26; Aelian, Var. Hist. iii. 26; Polyaen. vi. 50. E. Curtius, Beitrdge zur Oeschichte und Topographie Kleinasiens. Berl. Akad. 1873; id. Ephesos Bin Vortrag, reprinted in Alterthum und Gegenwart, vol. ii. Curtius thinks that Ephesus was treated as Smyrna had been treated by Alyattes, but less severely; the city was broken up into villages in accordance with the wishes of the priests, who* found stone walls and civic interests a great hindrance to their authority. Strabo, p. 640, says :—p^XP1 P*v T&v Ka™ Kpoio-oy ovras cajcelro, varepop by airb rrjs irapwpeiov Karafiavrts n€p\ t6 vvv Upbv q>KT}<rav pe\Pl 'AXe&wdpov.
XVI. 12, I3-]  LYD1AN WAR WITH THE MEDES.             499
authority of the king, to pay tribute, and perhaps to supply forces, but on these conditions they enjoyed his protection. Croesus was not a conqueror of the barbarous type whose instinct is only to destroy; he appears to have had a personal liking for Greeks and Greek civilisation; and his policy led him to form an alliance with the leading city of European Greece. That his rule was not oppressive is proved by the fact that the Ionian cities refused to listen to Cyrus when he invited them to revolt from Sardis.1
12.  Croesus was now without a rival in the territory which extends from the Halys to the Aegean, but he had scarcely reached the summit of his ambition, when he found himself confronted by a new and unexpected danger. The last seventy years had seen great changes in the Fail of Mesopotamian valley. About the time when Nineveh. Alyattes ascended the throne of Sardis—when Athens was distracted between the Megarian war and the "Cylonian pollution "—Media and Babylon combined in an attack upon Nineveh, whose power had been recently shaken by an invasion of the Scythians. The attack succeeded, and Nineveh fell; the mighty city, so long the terror of nations, was cut down at a single stroke, and perished from the face of the earth.2
13.  The empire was divided between the conquerors. The territory to the north and east of the Tigris fell to Media; the south, from Euphrates to the borders of Egypt, formed the new kingdom of Babylonia. By this partition the kingdoms of Lydia and Media became conterminous, and as the boundaries were unsettled, it was inevitable that a war should break out between Alyattes and Cyaxares the Median king (in 590 B.c).    After five years of indecisive warfare the conflict was
1 Herod, i. 76. The army which Croesus led to Pteria was composed of mercenaries.
2 E.* Meyer, Oesch. des Al. § 481. The story of the fall is also told by Duncker, Hist Ant. iii. eh. 12. The Medes were led by Cyaxares, the Babylonians by Nabopolassar. The date of the fall is uncertain: it is after 608 B.O., but not long after.
500                  CROESUS AT WAR WITH CYRUS.        [XVI. 14.
brought to a sudden close by an eclipse of the sun (May 28, 585 B.C.), and through the intervention of the kings of Cilicia and Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar) it was agreed that the Halys should be the boundary between the two nations. To confirm the arrangement the daughter of Alyattes was married to Astyages, the son of Cyaxares.
But within a few years of the fall of Nineveh a tribe of Persians issuing from Pasargadae, their home on the east of the Persian Gulf, acquired the ancient kingdom of Elam in Southern Mesopotamia, where they chose the city of Susa as their capital. This conquest appears to have been achieved by Teispes about the year 595 B.C. He was followed on the throne by Cyrus I., and Cambyses I., whose son was Cyrus 11., the founder of the great Persian Empire, a monarch who may claim to hold the foremost place among all the conquerors of The Rise of the East. He ascended the throne in 559 Persia.             B c^ an(j after eight or nine years he found
himself in a position to attack the Median king Astyages. We have no trustworthy account of the war, but there is reason to suppose that Cyrus was joined by the soldiers of Astyages. However gained, the victory was complete, and Media was added to the Persian Empire. By this success Cyrus became the neighbour of Croesus, who saw with alarm his brother-in-law Astyages replaced by an ambitious and successful conqueror.1
14. Croesus resolved to be first in the field in the conflict which he perceived to be inevitable, and his first step was to Croesus and arrange a combination of forces against Cyrus. Cyrus.              Nabonetus the king of Babylon was naturally
willing to enter into an alliance, having no less reason to fear the growing power of Persia then Croesus himself; even Amasis of Egypt promised assistance, and, as we have seen,
1 See E. Meyer, I.e. §§ 466, 486, 501 ; Herod, i. 122 ff. ; Duncker, Hist. Ant. v. 335 ff. The latest writer on the subject, Fr. Hommel, thinks that the Persians came from Parsua (in the north-east of Mesopotamia) and conquered Persis from Elam; Iwan-Muller, Hand-buck, iii. 89.
XVI. IS]        FALL OF THE LYDIAN EMPIRE.                   501
Sparta was pledged to send help to the king of Lydia (supra, p. 433). Unfortunately Croesus gave these auxiliaries no time to assemble. Confident in his own forces, which had hitherto been uniformly successful, eager that the glory and the profit of the conquest should be his own, and supported by the answers which he had received from the oracles of Delphian Apollo and Amphiaraus, he crossed the Halys in the spring of 546 B.O., and declared war upon Cyrus. He wras able to lay waste a considerable part of Cappadocia, and to acquire the strong city of Pteria, operations which seem to have consumed the whole of the summer, but with the appearance of the Persian army in the autumn his successes came Defeat and to an end. Defeated, or at least not victorious, fal1 of Croesus, in the battle which took place, he retired to Sardis with the intention of renewing the contest in the ensuing spring, against which he summoned his allies to meet him. But Cyrus made war in a manner which did not admit of such convenient delay. In spite of the advanced season he followed Croesus to Sardis, and after a brief siege of fourteen days, he took both the city and the king. Croesus was treated with the generosity which Cyrus extended to all his captives, and after appointing a viceroy to complete the subjugation of the newly acquired kingdom, the conqueror returned to the East.1 15. The fall of the Lydian empire did not affect Miletus, which had already come to terms with Cyrus, nor had the inhabitants of the islands much to fear, as the   „          .
mi        Cyrus ana
Persians were without any fleet whatever. The the Asiatic case was otherwise with the cities of the coast, Greeks» which, as they had previously refused the overtures of the conqueror, were now exposed to his resentment. They endeavoured to conciliate him by offering submission, and at the same time to secure for themselves the favourable terms which they had enjoyed under the supremacy of Croesus.
1 E. Meyer, Z.c, § 502, 503. The authorities are Herodotus, Ctesias, De rebus Perskis, 4, and Nicolaus of Damascus, in Frag. Hist. Qraec.f M., vol. iii.    The story of the pyre is a fiction.
502              CONQUEST OF THE GREEK CITIES.     [XVI. 16.
Cyrus, on receiving the request, reminded the envoys of a certain piper, who piped to the fish in the hope that they would come to him out of the water, but on finding that they did not, he took a net and caught them, and when he saw them struggling on the ground, exclaimed: "Have done with your dances; when I piped, you would not dance at all." The meaning of this apologue was not to be mistaken; on the return of the envoys the Ionians collected at the Panionium, where it was resolved that they should fortify their cities and send to Sparta for assistance (p. 434).1
16. The Lydians did not succumb to their new ruler without a final struggle. They found a leader in Pactyes, who Revolt of the with the aid of the forces which he could Lydians.           collect   on  the  coast was  enabled to drive
Tabalus, the viceroy left by Cyrus in charge of Sardis, into the acropolis of that city. But the movement was without any organised support, and on the approach of Mazares, the general whom Cyrus sent to quell the rising, Pactyes fled. After wandering from place to place in the hope of obtaining a refuge, he was finally surrendered by the Chians, in obedience to the peremptory command of the oracle of Apollo at Branchidae— an act of treachery which the divine sanction did not justify in the eyes of the Greeks. Mazares then reduced Priene to slavery, and desolated the plain of the Maeander, selectmg Conquest of perhaps this part of Ionia for his first attack, the Asiatic because it lay nearest to the Panionium. On Generais^of e his death Harpagus was sent to complete the Cyrus.             work 0f subjugation.    As the cities were sur-
rounded by walls it was necessary, in the infancy of engineering science, to raise mounds of earth against them till the besiegers were on the same level as the besieged, and by this laborious method of attack the whole of the Ionian cities were taken. Even the Ionian islands were frightened into submission. Though the sea was open to them the inhabitants chose to remain and become the subjects of Persia, with the
1 Herod, i. 141, 142.
XVI. 17.]        ADVICE OF BIAS AND THALES.                 503
single exception of the Phocaeans, the greater part of whom abandoned their city for new homes in the Tyrrhenian sea (supra, p. 348).1
17. In this crisis of their fortunes two remarkable men came forward with proposals to the lonians, which if they had been accepted would have given a new course to the history of Greece. Bias of Priene, one of the Seven Sages, advised his countrymen to abandon altogether the cities on the Asiatic coast, and seek new settlements in Sardinia. The Phocaeans had already founded a colony in Corsica, from which it is probable that the Greeks received exaggerated ideas of the wealth of the neighbouring island; and as an unknown country, in the hands of the Etruscans and Phoenicians, it was the prize on which every adventurous Greek cast longing eyes. Had the lonians followed the advice of Bias and established themselves in force on Sardinia, the dream of a western empire which fired the imagination of the Athenians in 416 B.C. might have been anticipated. Thales of Miletus, who was also one of the Seven, was less ambitious than Bias, yet his proposal marks a greater departure from the ordinary views of a Greek statesman. He advised the lonians to break up the separate existence of their cities, and unite in a common council-chamber at Teos, the centre of Ionia. This chamber, he proposed, should direct the affairs of the nation, and be supreme over the various members, which would stand in the same * relation to it as the demes of Attica stood to Athens. This plan, which is remarkable as the first appearance of the idea of a federation among the lonians, was greatly at variance with the Greek view of the city. For though it was a custom to worship common deities, and to unite in Amphic-tyonies for their protection, a strict division was isolation of the made between religious and political union. In Greek cities, the eyes of the citizen isolation and independence were inseparable, and no Greek community would acknowledge that any
1 Herod, i. 154.
504                TYRANTS IN THE GREEK CITIES.        [XVI. 18*
power without her walls could have the right to direct or control her action. On these principles the suggestion of Thales was disregarded, though the alternative was submissioa to Persia on such terms as she chose to dictate.1
18. When Cambyses, who succeeded Cyrus in 529 B.C., invaded Egypt, he compelled the Ionian and Aeolian Greeks to furnish contingents to his army, " for he regarded them as. slaves bequeathed to him by his father," and after his death (522 B.C.) they furnished both ships and men to Darius in his invasion of Scythia (about 515 B.C.). By this time we find that a change had been made in the internal constitution of Tyrants estab- tne C^GS > tyrants in the interests of Persia Hshedinthe being established in the place of the old Greek cities. oligarchies or democracies. In the fleet which Daiius took to the Danube we hear of Daphnis of Abydus, Hippoclus of Lampsacus, Herophantus of Parium, Metrodorus of Proconnesus, Aristagoras of Cyzicus, Ariston of Byzantium, Strattis of Chios, Aeaces of Samos, Laodamas of Phocaea, Histiaeus of Miletus, Aristagoras of Cyme. These tyrants were compelled to attend with their ships in order to make a bridge across the river. When Darius was absent in Scythia the question was raised among them by the Scythians, supported by Miltiades, the second tyrant of the name in the Chersonese (p. 453), whether they should not seize the opportunity to destroy the bridge, which they had been left behind to guard, and allow Darius to perish. But Histiaeus pointed out that they were far too insecure in their own position to adopt such a course. They were tyrants in the interest of Persia, and held their thrones by the terror*of the Persian name ; if this were removed, the cities would prefer a popular to a despotic government. This opinion, which gained the day, is a striking indication of the nature of the authority which the Persians had set up. Yet we may observe that the tyrants were in all cases Greeks, not Medes or Persians; it was through the Greek passion for independence that Cyrus
1 Herod, i. 169, 170.    Bernays, Phokion, p. 24.
XVI. 19, 20.]     GREEK REVOLT 6- SUBJUGATION.             505
had reduced the Asiatic cities; it was by the Greek love of absolute power that Darius kept them under control.1
19. The Scythian campaign of Darius was a signal failure, involving the loss of many thousand soldiers. The disaster revived the hope of freedom in many of the Asiatic cities, especially in those which lay in the north of the Aegean. Some failed to send soldiers to supply the place of the slain, some plundered the defeated army. It was necessary to reduce the rebellious cities to submission; even Revolt of the Lemnos and Imbros, in spite of their insular Greek cities, position, were now to be made subject to Persia. For this purpose a Persian army under Otanes, the son of Sisamnes, was left behind by Darius on his return to Asia. He lost no time in subduing the cities on the mainland, and then proceeded with the help of the fleet of Lesbos to attack the islands. The Lemnians fought bravely but unsuccessfully; they were conquered, and Lycaretus, the brother of Maeandrius of Samos, was made tyrant over them. After this final subjugation " there was for a time a respite from misfortunes " in Asia Minor—a peaceful condition of affairs which continued till the Ionian cities were induced to revolt by Histiaeus and Aristagoras.2
20- Of the Dorian cities on the mainland there is little to relate. On the approach of Harpagus the Cnidians attempted to save themselves by cutting off The Dorian their city from the mainland, but when they cities, were warned to desist by an oracle, they made no further resistance, and submitted without a blow. Halicarnassus seems to have done the same; at least Herodotus is discreetly silent on the conduct of his city on this occasion; and we hear nothing of it till it appears as a part of the domains of the Carian Artemisia, a vassal-queen of Persia.    Very
1  Herod, iv. 137, 138.   This Miltiades was the second son of Cimon, the half-brother of the first tyrant.
2  For the Ionians in the Scythian invasion, Herod, iv. 89, ff; for the final subjugation and the avcats kcikcov, v. 25, 28.
506                 THE GREEKS IN THE ISLANDS.   [XVI. 21, 22.
different was the conduct of the brave inhabitants of the valley of the Xanthus. Seeing the desolation of their terri-tory, which they were unable to prevent, they gathered their wives and children, their slaves and all that they possessed, into the acropolis of Xanthus, and burned them; after which, binding themselves by the strongest oaths, they met the Persians in battle, and perished to a man. Eighty families, which for some reason happened to be away from home at the time, were the sole survivors of the nation.1
THE ISLANDS OF THE AEGEAN.
21.  The fortunes of the Greek islands were to a great extent independent of the cities in Asia. Even those which lay near the Asiatic coast preserved their freedom till the time of Darius, either intact, or on the condition of supplying ships to the Persian fleet. And as stepping-stones from importance of eas^ *° west, as convenient centres for union, the islands. 0r lying in the trade routes which connected the north of the Aegean with Syria and Egypt, these islands acquired great celebrity and power. Some became distinguished as the homes of great men, others for their high civilisation; in others successful tyrants acquired a worldwide reputation; others were the seat of religious festivals, or remarkable for their laws and institutions.
Lesbos.
22.  The inhabitants of Lesbos, the most important of the Aeolian islands, present a striking contrast to their countrymen on the opposite shore, being as famous for their skill in music and song as the Cymaeans for their want of common
1 Herod, i. 174-178. The Dorians are not mentioned by Herodotus as joining in the Egyptian expedition of Cambyses, and in the Dorian cities there were no Greek tyrants, so far as we know.
XVI. 23-]    LESBOS: TRADE AND LITERATURE.             507
sense.   Among her citizens Lesbos could claim Lesches, the only epic poet who can with certainty be traced to an Aeolian city; Terpander, by whose genius the    Intellectual music of Asia was brought into the service of   eminence of Hellenic art; and Arion, from whom the dithy-   *" **¦"¦»•• ramb received new life and splendour.    By their position the Lesbians were free from the attacks of the Mermnadae of Sardis;   they carried   on   a   considerable trade,   the   soil produced   excellent   wine,   the   climate   was    Prosperity of healthy.    In the seventh century b.c. we may   theisland-assume the existence of a rich aristocracy in the island, in which the women enjoyed a free and influential position. Alcaeus and Sappho, whose names have become immortal among the lyric poets of Greece,  were members of this privileged class.
23. Alcaeus, like Archilochus of Paros, was at once a poet and a soldier, and like Archilochus he was a better servant of the Muses than of Mars.   He could describe in stirring verse the hall resplendent   with armour,  the sword, the shield, the horse-plumed helmet, the linen corslet in which the Lesbians went out to battle, but his courage failed him on the field.    He " hid his honour in his necessity,"  and was not ashamed to confess what he had done.    Wine was the favourite theme of Alcaeus, and perhaps  he  devoted  greater powers to    The Poet of this subject than  any poet before or since.    wine* By birth and temper an aristocrat, he could not endure to see Lesbos under the rule of a demagogue, and we must give him full credit for the tenacity with which he opposed the tyrants, and the sacrifices which he made in    His opposition the cause of his order.   That he despised the   t0 ty**1*8-low-born Pittacus, and found his authority unendurable, is no more than we should expect from one who cherished such prejudices in favour of birth; that he ridiculed any peculiarities which offended his aristocratic sense was in-evitable in a Greek.    His love of wine and good company removed him widely from the man who considered drunken-
508                    LESBOS: ALCAEUS—SAPPHO.           [XVI. 24.
ness to be an aggravation of crime, and was content to dine alone in the dim evening. Little did the cavalier poet imagine that his name would be for ever written side by side with that of the "shambling, shabby, swag-bellied braggadocio" whom he so heartily hated and despised.1
24. Among the poetesses of Greece—and they were numerous—Sappho holds the foremost place. To the Greeks she appeared a creature almost superhuman, a "world's wonder;" and modern readers, to whom nothing remains of her poems but two odes, one of which is imperfect, and a number of short fragments, have never failed to repeat the praises of antiquity. It is impossible by translations or criticism to convey any adequate sense of the charm of her language; what has been said of Shakespeare—that his words cannot be hidden—applies with equal force to Sappho. Her poetry bears the stamp of an imperishable genius, capable of giving complete expression to the thoughts and feelings which men are always and everywhere striving to utter. A vivid imagination carried her through all the regions of human passion; the fervour of the lover in the presence of his beloved is expressed as strongly as the despair of the forsaken maiden. Not less striking are her womanly dignity and intellectual pride, her maternal tenderness and solicitude. Unlike many literary women, she exercised a great influence over her own sex, and, so far as we can understand a connection which later Her com-          writers misinterpreted, she gathered round her
panions.           a society  of women whom she guided and
encouraged in the cultivation of song. These were her "companions," of whom she sometimes spoke with the extravagant affection natural to her highly wrought temperament. To us the existence of such a society, so far from indicating anything extraordinary or repellent, is a proof that a rational liberty was allowed to women in Aeolis
1 Diogenes Laertius,  Vita Pittaci, esp. § 9;  Alcaeus, Fragmented in Bergk's Poetae Lyrici Graeci, vol. iii.
XVI. 25.]     LESBOS: MELANCHRUS—PITTACUS.             509
at this time. But the different position of women is one of the most remarkable of the peculiarities which distinguish the tribes in Greece. Among the Ionians, in the peninsula and in Asia, at Athens and Miletus, we hear of no female poets, nor were women expected or allowed to take any part in society; but at Sparta and Elis, as we have seen, and still more among the Aeolians, women were both influential and cultivated. From this difference of manners arose many of the charges brought by Attic writers against the women of Dorian and Aeolian cities.1
25. Lesbos did not escape the curse of domestic strife, which afflicted the cities of Greece.   Towards the close of the seventh century, the rule of the aristocracy    Party strife became intolerable to the people, who organised   »n Lesbos, a rebellion under their leader Melanchrus.    The rising was successful, and for about ten years Melanchrus was tyrant of Mitylene.    His severity seems at length to have provoked even his own party, a number of whom, under the command of Pittacus, joined the nobles in attacking him.   Melanchrus was defeated and slain, but his death did not bring about a peaceful settlement of the factions in the city.   A new demagogue named Myscelus rose to power, but only to fall a victim to the nobles, who, however, were not secured in their old position by his fall.    New leaders of the rabble came forward, and defeated the aristocrats.    At length, weary of the strife, the people of Lesbos put the government in the hands of Pittacus; he was chosen aesymnete or umpire to arrange the constitution in a manner which would satisfy the claims of both parties.
Unfortunately we can give but a vague account of this remarkable man, the Solon of Lesbos.    Though his origin was humble, he showed himself a consummate statesman,  and   he   shares   with   Solon  the glory of refusing the temptation of a tyranny.    He left no constitution behind him, and of his laws nothing was
1 Sappho, Frag. 28, 52, 68, 85, B.
510
LESBOS: WAR WITH ATHENS.          [XVI. 2&
preserved worthy of notice but the remarkable statute that a man who committed a crime when intoxicated, so far from being excused on that account, should suffer double punishment. That he was a brave soldier is clear from his conduct in the Sigean war. The Greeks allowed him a place among the Seven Sages, and to him, as to the rest, a number of wise maxims are assigned. The character which Diodorus has preserved (perhaps from Ephorus), describes him as one whose like Lesbos never had seen, and never would see again, " let her wine be never so much better and more plentiful.,, Easy of access, yet not without reserve, devoted to the welfare of his citizens, and inclined to overlook their misdeeds, a prudent statesman and a wise lawgiver, he delivered his city from three great evils—tyranny, civil strife, and foreign war.1
26. This "foreign war" was a contest in which Athens and Lesbos were engaged for the possession of Sigeum in the Contest be- Troad. The Lesbians claimed the opposite 1 ndi! sbhsfor snore °* ^e mainland, which was in fact chiefly sigeum.            occupied by their colonies; but the Athenians
under their commander Phrynon, who had won the prize in the Pancratium at Olympia, succeeded in expelling them from Sigeum; the Lesbians retaliated by building Achilleum, a fortress at the mouth of the Scamander, to serve as a base of operations against the Athenians. The war went on for some years with varying fortune. On one occasion, Alcaeus, the aristocratic poet, only saved himself by leaving his helmet in the possession of the enemy. A signal success was gained for Lesbos in 606 B.C., when Pittacus, whom Phrynon had challenged to single combat, defeated and slew his enemy. At length both combatants agreed to refer the decision of
1 Arist. Pol ii. 12. 13=12746; iii. 14. 9=1284a. Diod. Ex. Virt 552 = ix. 11. Diog. Laert. Vita Pittaci. In the account of Diogenes, Pittacus is said (on the authority of Clearchus, c. 300 b.c.) to have taken exercise by grinding at a mill.    Hence, perhaps, the ditty:
aXei fxvXa aXci, Ka\ yap TIittclkos oXtc, pcyakas MirvXdvas ^aaiXfiJoav.
XVI. 27.]     PAROS: ARCH1L0CHUS THE POET.              511
the quarrel to Periander of Corinth, who pronounced that each of the claimants should keep what they had got. Thus the Athenians remained in possession of Sigeum, while the Mitylenaeans held Achilleum and so much of the coast of the Troad as was secured by their colonies.1
Paros.
27. The island of Paros, which may be described as a mountain of marble surrounded by a flat fringe of marshy but fertile soil, still retains the traces of the numerous population which was once spread over the Cyclades. In prehistoric times the Carians were in possession of the island, from which they were dislodged by the Ionians in the course of their migration to Asia. Colonies were afterwards sent out from Paros to Thasos and Parium—the second in conjunction with the Milesians, who also called in the friendly aid of the Parians to put an end to the quarrels of their citizens (p. 495); and at a later time we shall have to record the visits of Miltiades and Themistocles to the island. But Paros has a another and a far greater claim to the notice of the historian as the birth-place of Archilochus, whose name marks an epoch in the growth of Greek poetry. He was the son of Telesicles by a slave, and was born about the middle of the seventh century. In 709 B.C. he went with his father to the colony in Thasos, but the venture brought him neither wealth nor reputation. Whether the mines of the island were for the time exhausted, or whether they were appropriated by other colonists, we do not know, but Archilochus found it necessary to join in an attack on the Thracians of the coast, in the hope of obtaining a share of the rich gold mines in their possession. The attack failed entirely; Archilochus threw away his shield, and ran for his life.    He returned to Paros, where he
1 Euseb. Chron. 01. 43.3 = 606 B.C., for Phrynon's death. For the war and Periander, Herod, v. 94 f. The date of Pittacus' dictatorship is placed in 590-580 B.C.    See Fischer, Zeittafeln, 01. 47. 3.
512                            PAROS: ARCHILOCHUS.                 [XVI. 28.
found himself as unsuccessful in love as he had been in war. He wished to marry Neobule, the daughter of the aristocratic Lycambes, but for some reason Lycambes, after giving his consent to the match, withdrew it. Archilochus was not the man to overlook an insult, or to be scrupulous in his way of resenting it. He attacked both Lycambes and his daughters with libels so savage and scandalous, that according to the siain in             common   story father and   children   hanged
Euboea.             themselves   for   shame   and   vexation.     Dis-
appointed of the hope of this marriage, Archilochus became a mercenary soldier; he took service in Euboea, where he fell by the hand of Calondas, a Naxian.
28. While the lyric poets of other nations have thrown themselves into ideal attitudes and striven to express ideal passions, the Greeks were occupied with their own thoughts, Greek lyric         feelings,  and   circumstances.      There   is   no
P°etry               attempt to conceal love or hate by the use of
feigned names or any other illusion of poetic art; it is not Lalage, or Lesbia, or Cynthia who appears in the lyrics of Alcaeus and Archilochus, but the dark and bright-eyed Sappho, or Neobule (?) shaded by her hair, with a wand of myrtle in her hand. This expression of personal feelings in verse began, as we saw, in Hesiod, and it reaches its greatest height in Archilochus, to whose influence this characteristic of Greek lyric poetry is largely due. Every incident of his eventful life, every mood of his passionate nature, was reflected in verse, while his great gifts of language and music enabled him not only to clothe his thoughts in vigorous words, but also to greatly developed invent metres suitable to every theme. Before by Archilochus. njs ^me ^he hexameter and pentameter were the only forms of verse in use; but his restless genius refused to be confined within such narrow limits; he invented the iambic, the tetrameter or trochaic, and a number of more varied and elaborate lyric measures. Thus poetry became in his hands an instrument of the widest range; his song of victory was chanted at Olympia when the athlete went up to receive his crown; his abuse of Lycambes was the foundation
XVI. 2g.]
PAROS—SAMOS.
513
of satirical poetry. We have glimpses of the incidents of his soldier's Kfe: he kneads his bread with the spear, and drinks his wine spear in hand; he calls for wine on board ship to sustain him in the watch. But, though he bears himself as a soldier, his love of satire is deeper than his love of glory : " Some Saian is happy with that shield of mine. A right good shield it was, and I will get me another like it \n " We were a thousand warriors, and each of us had slain his man, yet the corpses were but seven!" We go with him to Thasos, the hateful island which rises " like an ass's back out of the sea;" or we listen to his description of the good leader— Reality of " no lanky, long-haired, straddling fop for me, his P°cms-but a tight little bandy-legged hero, firm on his feet." At one moment he bids his spirit be patient in the hope of better things; at another he reminds himself that sorrow will not cure his misfortunes, nor rejoicing aggravate them; at another he rolls out a dithyramb " with the thunder-stroke of wine upon his soul." In the judgment of the Greeks Archilochus ranked next to Homer; and though the fragments which we possess by no means support such an estimate, we can trace even in what remains the outline of a character more vehement than that of our own Landor, of a genius which imparted a new impulse to Greek literature, and furnished it with new forms of expression.1
Samos.
29. The first notice which we have of Samos after the colonisation of the island by the Ionians is the statement of Thucydides that Aminocles the Corinthian built four triremes for the Samians about the year 704 B.O.; and, though
1 For Paros, see Time. iv. 104 ; Strabo, p. 487. For the ancient population, Bent, Gyclades, p. 373. For the Parians at Miletus, Herod, v. 28, 29. The mines at Thasos were not exhausted at the time of Darius (Herod, vi. 46). For what remains of Archilochus, Bergk, Poetae Lyr. Oraeci, vol. iL The metrical inventions of Archi* loehus are enumerated in Plut. De Musica, c. 28.
VOL. I.
514             WAR WITH MEGARA—REVOLUTION.    CXVI. 30.
we do not know the particular causes which prompted the step, it is a proof of the enterprising spirit of the Samians at the time. A hundred years later we hear of the removal of a king, Demoteles, and the establishment of an oligarchy of Geomori or land-owners, under whose rule a colony was sent out to Perinthus on the Thracian coast, in the hope of obtaining a share of the commerce of the Black Sea. A collision with Megara was the inevitable result of this step, War between an<l *n the hostilities which followed we obtain Samos and        a glimpse of the domestic history of Samos.
egara.           Victorious in the battle, the Samians returned
home with no fewer than 600 prisoners, bound in the fetters which had been brought from Megara to enchain the Samians. But on the voyage, the captives and the crews, who were united by their common hatred of oligarchs, entered into a conspiracy to put an end to the government of the Geomori. Orders had been given that the prisoners should appear in their fetters before the governing body in the council-chamber Revolution at at Samos, and this opportunity was seized by Samos.             ^e conspirators for carrying out their plans.
The fetters were arranged to allow the prisoners to move freely; they were provided with daggers, and when brought before the notables, they at once massacred all who were present (c. 565 B.C.). The government of Samos now became a democracy, but how long the people remained in power we do not know; when we next hear of the island, the oligarchs are at the head of the state.1
30. But their rule was destined to be again suspended, and this time the disturbance was due to one of their own order, who, following the example of Pisistratus, Lygdamis, and Rise of Poly- others, came forward as a tyrant. Hero-crates,             dotus informs us that Polycrates was the son of Ae^ces, that he rose and got possession of Samos, and became " master over men who were his equals."   At first he
1 Thuc. i 13 ; Plutarch, Quaest. Qraec. 57. Herod, iii. 59 speaks of «n Amphierates, king of Samoa, but his date is unknown ; in his reign the Samians attacked Aegina.
XVI. 30.]       POLY CRATES TYRANT OF SAM OS.               515
divided the city into three portions between himself and his brothers Syloson and Pantagnotus, but afterwards he put Pantagnotus to death, and expelled Syloson from the island, which now fell into his uncontrolled power.
Thus seated on the throne of Samos, with the resources of the island at his disposal, Polycrates exhibited all the strength of his vigorous nature, and in a short time became the greatest power in the Aegean. " Wherever he turned his arms, success attended them. He robbed and plundered every one alike, saying that his friends were better pleased Empire of when he restored what he had taken than if P^ycr^tes. he never took it at all! He seized many of the islands, and a number of towns on the mainland, and when the Lesbians came out with all their forces to aid the Milesians he conquered and captured them." "No Hellenic tyrant, except the princes of Syracuse, can be compared with Polycrates in splendour." This sudden rise to eminence, which fell in the last years of the reign of Cyrus, was rendered easier by the absence of the great monarch in the eastern part of his dominions and the insignificance of the Persian fleet. With the defeat of the combined forces of the Milesians and Lesbians, Polycrates removed the only iiaval power which could be brought against him in the interests of Sardis.1
Lying close to the Asiatic shore, and almost commanding the approach to Miletus and Ephesus, the island of Samos possesses conspicuous advantages of position, which Polycrates did not fail to turn to account. He invented a new kind of vessel for the conveyance of merchandise; his Resources of swift penteconters, which were little better than ^ycates. pirates' junks, issuing from the sheltered creeks of the island, levied contributions on the vessels which sailed into the ports of Asia, and especially Miletus, the wealthiest of them all At the same time he improved the native products of the
1 Herod, iii. 39. 125.    With his account may be compared Polyaen.. i. 23. 2.    Lygdamis of Nazes is mid to have assisted Polycrates.
516                       POLYCRATES' CHARACTER,             [XVI. 31.
island, by importing sheep from Miletus and Attica, and goats from Scyros and Naxos. With him money made the man. By money he had gained his position; by money he kept it; and by the hope of money he was enticed to his ruin. His name was handed down to posterity as one of the tyrants who had impoverished and oppressed his subjects by erecting great buildings; but of the three monumental works which distinguished Samos, the conduit of Eupalinus seems to have been completed before Polycrates came to the throne, and the other two, the mole in the harbour and the temple of Hera, were at least begun. His care was mainly for himself. He spent money on his ships, erected docks and arsenals, and strengthened his city with fortifications; mgs. ke kuiit himself a magnificent palace, and maintained a splendid court. Everything that was rare and costly was purchased for Polycrates; every artist of superior ability was attracted to Samos by the highest pay. Democedes of Croton, the physician who afterwards became famous at the court of Darius, was induced to leave Athens by a yearly salary of two talents (£450); Anacreon of Teos and Ibycus of Ehegium took up their abode at the Samian court—poets who could impart elegance to a life of dissipation, and amuse a tyrant's leisure by throwing a veil of beautiful language over the most repulsive features of the Hellenic Eros.1
31. From the day that he had ascended the throne of Samos, everything had prospered with Polycrates; he had succeeded Polycrates and ln a^ nis undertakings, and his good fortune his ring.            seemed to be secured with a charm which
could not be broken. Deeply impressed with the spectacle of such prosperity, and at the same time penetrated with the feeling that the gods were envious of the happiness of men, Amasis of Egypt, as Herodotus informs us, sent Polycrates a word of friendly warning: " Let him throw away what he considered to be the most priceless of his possessions, and by
1 Aristot. Pol. v. 11.9=13136 ; Athenaeus; 540 E.j Suidas, Ibycus.
XVI. 31-1       POLYCRATES9 RING—HIS DEATH.               517
this loss escape the jealous wrath of heaven." Polycrates was moved by the advice; he selected a ring, the work of the famous artist Theodorus, as the choicest of his possessions, and cast it into the sea; by this sacrifice he thought that he would be removed from the list of those whose lot exceeded the limits of human felicity. But his precaution was in vain; the ring was swallowed by a fish; the fish was caught and presented to Polycrates, who, on recovering his jewel, was struck with the mysterious turn which events had taken, and wrote a full account of the whole matter to Amasis. The Egyptian renounced all further intimacy with Polycrates; a man so prosperous must needs be visited by the wrath of the gods, and he wished to escape the painful sight of a friend's calamity.1
These apprehensions were realised. By a single false step Polycrates was brought from the summit of his prosperity to a most disastrous end, perishing "unworthily Death of Poiy-of himself," and by a death so miserable that crates* Herodotus will not relate it. The satrap of Sardis at the time, which was shortly before the death of Oambyses (in 522 B.O.) was Oroetes, who, either owing to an insult which he had received from Polycrates, or because he had been taunted by the satrap of Dascyleum with the independence of Samos, conceived a deadly hatred to the tyrant, and resolved on his destruction. With this object he sent to Samos, requesting permission to convey himself and his treasure to the island, out of the reach of Cambyses, by whom, as he pretended, he was in danger of being put to death; how great the treasure was Polycrates might ascertain by sending to inspect it, and a part would willingly be given as the price of safety. Polycrates, who was greatly in need of money, at once fell into the trap. In spite of the warning of his daughter, he crossed over with a few Samians to Magnesia. No sooner had he arrived than he was seized and put to death, in some indescribable manner, and even his
1 Herod, iii. 39-43.
518
TYRANNY OF MAEANDRIUS.           [XVI. 32.
corpse was crucified. The Samians with htm were dismissed uninjured, and reminded that they owed their freedom to Oroetes; the retinue were kept as slaves, and among them was Democedes.1
32. It is easier to kill a tyrant than to dispose of his power. On the death of his master, Maeandrius, who was in possession of his palace, assembled the notables of Samos, and proposed that the government should be restored to them, making at the same time some limitations in his own favour; but the proposal was rejected, and Maeandrius was compelled to maintain himself as tyrant (supra, p. 439). Not many years elapsed before Syloson, the brother of Polycrates, The Persians wno had once gratified Darius by the present in samos.         of a scarlet cloak, was restored to Samos, with
the help of Otanes and a force of Persians. When Otanes arrived at the island no one attempted to offer any resistance, and even Maeandrius was willing to retire. But his brother Charilaus, who was partly insane, urged Maeandrius to attack the Persian soldiers while off their guard in expec-Treachery of tation of the peaceable cession of the island, or charilaus.         at anv rate to gjve him the command of his
mercenaries. Maeandrius was base enough to listen to this proposal; his own retreat from the island was secure; he reflected with pleasure that Samos would not pass unscathed into the hands of Syloson. He withdrew to the sea-shore by a secret passage, and meanwhile Charilaus threw open the gates of the Acropolis, and fell upon the unsuspecting Persians. He succeeded in cutting down a number of picked men, but when the rest of the force came up he was driven with his soldiers into the Acropolis. Otanes now determined on revenge; the instructions of Darius, that The island is he was not to kill or enslave any Samian, netted.             an(j ^0 place the island uninjured in the hands
of Syloson, "he forgot while bearing them in mind," and commanded his soldiers to slay every citizen—mail or boy.
* Herod, iii. 120-125
XVI. 33-1         Z2TC GREEK ISLANDS: DELOS.                  019
Samoa was " netted" after the Persian manner, and1 delivered over to Syloson, " empty of men." The tyranny thus re* established for Syloson passed to his son Aeaces, who was reigning at the time of the Ionian revolt.1
Delos.
33. For reasons which we can only conjecture—perhaps owing to its central situation, perhaps because from its very barrenness it could never be a coveted possession, or from some immemorial worship connected with the place The Deiian —Delos became the sacred island of the Ionian festival-tribe, the birth-place of the Ionian Apollo, where, reclining on Mount Cynthus and clasping the first-grown palm, Leto brought forth her glorious son. Thucydides tells us that in " ancient days " there was a great gathering of the Ionians and neighbouring islanders at Delos; thither they brought their wives and children to be present at the Deiian games, at which musical and gymnastic contests were held, and the cities celebrated choral dances. A picture of the festival has been preserved for us in the Hymn to Deiian Apollo, from which indeed Thucydides quotes his description. We can see the Ionians in their long sweeping robes of white, their hair fastened into a knot with golden grasshoppers; such was their splendour, so brave the show, that " one who looked thereon would say that they were immortals wha knew not age." " There is also another marvel, whereof the glory will never perish," the chorus of Deiian maids, who sang first of Apollo, of Leto and Artemis, and then took up the praise of famous men and women of old; so charming was the song that all around 'stood tranced to hear/ " for they imitate the tones and gestures of all, The minstrel and everyone seems to be speaking with his of Chios, own lips." "Fare ye well, maidens," the minstrel prays; u speak of me also in the after-time, whensoever a wayworn
1 Herod, iii. 139-149 ; vi. 13.    At a later time Otanes introduced new inhabitants into the island.
520                 THE DELIAN FESTIVAL—CRETE.       [XVI 34.
pilgrim shall come hither from afar and ask,—* 0 maidens, who of all the men that visit you is the sweetest singer ? In whose lays take ye most delight ?' Then softly answer ye one and all with heedful mind: ' The sightless bard, whose home is in rocky Chios.'"
Thucydides seems to have believed that this blind minstrel was no other than Homer himself, and in this case the Antiquity of "ancient days" would carry us back to the the Festival. ninth century B.C. at the latest. Modern criticism has, however, compelled us to abandon the idea that the Homeric hymns were the work of the authors of the Uwd or Odyssey, and there appears to be no evidence by which we can fix the date of the Hymn to Apollo.1 But the antiquity of the Delian festival is supported by the sacrifices and chorus which the Messenians sent to it in the generation which preceded the first Messenian war (i.e. circa 770 B.C.)— on which occasion the hymn was composed by Eumelus of Corinth (supra, p. 261). Two centuries later the prosperity of the Ionian cities of Athens and Samos added new splendour to the great Ionian festival. Pisistratus purified Delos by removing all the tombs which lay within sight of the temple, and Polycrates presented the adjacent island of Rhenea to the deity. But the disasters which subsequently overtook Ionia owing to the extension of the Persian empire led to a decline of the great Ionian gathering; and for some time before it was resuscitated by the Athenians in 426 B.C. the festival fell into comparative neglect.
CRETE.
34, Lying to the south of the Aegean, about equidistant from Malea and Rhodes, Crete formed the extreme limit of insular Hellas. The position was admirable both for trade and empire: the island formed a stepping-stone on the journey from Syria to the west, and it was the first land
1 Hym. Del. Apoll. 145 ff.; Thuc. iii. 104.; Pans. iv. 4. I.
XVI. 35]               CRETE—EARLY HISTORY.                         521
sighted by the mariner after leaving the Libyan shore; it also commanded the Aegean, round which the Greek cities were planted. Even in Homeric times Crete Antiquities of was a well-known landmark of the Phoenician Cretan history, sailor; and the empire of Minos had then been established for two generations! Our earliest picture represents the island as containing one hundred cities, all of which are in the control of a single monarch. A genealogy was invented by which Minos became the father of Deucalion, whose son was Idomeneus, the leader of the Cretans at Troy. But what we know of Crete in historical times by no means corresponds to this description. The monarchy has disappeared, and in the place of the hundred subject cities are a number of independent communities, inhabited by Dorian Greeks, and governed by institutions which appear to have been almost identical in every city. The The Cretan Greek historians and philosophers of the fourth instituti°ns. century B.C. regarded the Cretan institutions as the oldest in Hellas, and it was the general opinion that Lacedaemon, whose laws were the admiration of all, had obtained at least the germs of her polity and her training from the colony of Lyctus.1
35. The Cretan institutions present a curious mixture of equality and exclusiveness, of a people who were trained to live in common, and of nobles who were able to set laws at defiance. The chief executive officers were the ten Cosmi, who if chosen by the whole people were chosen only from certain privileged families. The length of time during which they held office is uncertain, but as we hear of suspensions and resignations it is reason-
1 We do indeed hear of a king Etearchus at Oaxus, or Axus, in Herodotus (iv. 154), but we do not know that the historian is using the word "king" in the sense of " monarch " (Hybrias says that he is called " a mighty king," infra, p. 526). There were subject cities in Crete into which the Dorian institutions never penetrated (vnfjKooi^ see infra). For the Cretan seamen, see Herod, iv. 151, and the proverb, 6 Kpfjs ayvocl 6d\aaraav ; and for the commanding positioa of the island, Arist. Pol. ii. 10=1271 6, with Newman's notes.
522
CRETAN INSTITUTIONS.               [XVI. 35-
able to suppose that the tenure was more than annual. The Cosmi were not only the chief rulers of the state, but also the generals-in-ehief of the community. From those Who had been Cosmi were chosen the Gerontes or elders, who formed the Council, which therefore consisted of men taken from privileged families. Of the Councillors we only know that they held office for life, that they were not required to give -v  „      .,       any   account   of   their   office   (dvwrevOwoi),
The Council.            \                                                     , \       ,    . .    '
and were uncontrolled m their decisions {avToyviopovei). The mode of election, the age of admission, the numbers, the duties are unknown. These exclusive elements in the Cretan institutions were balanced by a popular assembly composed of all the free citizens of full age, Th a      hi      ^e^ore which important questions were brought
for confirmation. The citizens might accept or reject (?) the proposals brought before them by the Cosmi and Gerontes, but no discussion was allowed; no citizen had the right to speak in the Assembly.1
When we compare these arrangements with the Lacedaemonian constitution, we find that the Cretan Cosmi united the military and political functions which at Sparta were divided between the kings and the ephors. But while the kings were hereditary, the Cosmi were elected; and while the ephors were chosen indiscriminately from all the Spartans, the right to become a Cosmos was restricted to certain privileged families. The Cosmi, like the ephors, are spoken of as ' chance persons' (01 tvxovt€s), which implies that no special qualification was required for the office; but the evils which we should have expected to arise out of such elections were obviated partly by the very limited scale on which the Cretan Cosmi were called upon to act as generals, and partly by the training which enabled every Cretan to be at least an efficient soldier, if not a competent general.    In fact, the
1 See Arist. Pol ii. c. 10, with Newman's notes. There is the same doubt about the Cretan Assembly which we have noticed at Lace-daemon (supra, p. 209).
XVI. 36.J             CMTAJV INSTITUTIONS.                     523
Cretan system was so far superior to the Lacedaemonian that the Cretan generals were at least elected, while the Lacedaemonian kings were hereditary, and the heir to the throne was released from the training. The restriction of the councillors to those who had been Cosmi is at first sight a striking distinction between the Lacedaemonian and Cretan constitution, yet the hereditary right of the Spartan kings to sit in an assembly which Was otherwise elective offers a certain resemblance to the Cretan arrangements which confined the privilege of being elected to a few families.
36. As in Sparta, so in Crete the constitution was supported by a system of training and common meals. The principle in both was the same; there was to be a complete separation between the military and the productive classes, every citizen was to be a soldier and to live for the state; but the details of the arrangements were different. The systematic training did not begin at Crete till the age of seventeen, though fathers took their sons at a t^ training far earlier age to the common dining-halls, at Crete, where they sat on the floor and listened to the conversation of their elders, or waited upon them at dinner. At seventeen the boys were formed into troops, not, however, in any fixed numbers, but every yduth of distinction was allowed to form as large a "troop" as he could get together; and the troop so formed W&s placed under the supervision of the father of the youth who had collected it. The members of the same troop had common sleeping-places, and took their meals together. The training went on for ten years, and consisted chiefly in running, in learning the use of arms and the bow; in scanty fare and clothing; in hunting on the hills of Crete; in conflicts between the various troops, in which the combatants, marching to the sound of music, fought with their fists, or even with steel. A certain number of youths were also trained as mounted soldiers, for in Crete the "knights" had horses, though the Spartans had not! When the training came to an end the youths, who wefe now in their twenty-eighth year, became full citizens; all
524                              CRETE: THE SERFS,                    [XVI. 37.
those who passed out of a troop at the same time were expected to marry at once, though they did not take their wives home till they were of an age to manage household affairs. After marriage, as before, the men dined at common tables.1
The common meals at Crete were not furnished, as at Sparta, by the contributions of the individual members, who The common lost their citizenship if unable to provide the meals.             quota, but by the  state.    The public funds
were divided into two halves, of which one went to the support of the temples and payment of state services, the other to the Syssitia. At the common meal rich and poor were on the same footing; no one could be deprived of his franchise by a failure of crops, or the invasion of an enemy. Even the wives and children of the citizens were supported at least to some extent from this fund. This arrangement, however communistic it may appear, by no means excluded the existence of unequal private property at Crete. It was only the public funds, arising from the cattle fed on public lands, or from the contributions of subjects, which were thus applied; the private estates of the citizens were entirely within their own control.2
37. Like the Spartan, the Cretan system of common meals and training rested on the distinction between a dominant The serfs          and a conquered   race—between   those who
at Crete.           owned and those who tilled the soil.    The
serfs, who were known at Crete as Mnoitae if they tilled the public land, and as Clarotae or Aphamiotae if they worked
1  Ephorus, in Strabo, p. 480 ff. ; Heracl. Pont. 3. It would appear that the Cretan girls married very young ; twelve years was fixed as the marriageable age, but it is possible .that the arrangement mentioned in the text was intended to put a restraint on early married life. The Cretan women are said (Plato, Laws, 780 E.) to have been dvopoderriToi, like the Spartan.
2  Dosiadas in Athenaeus, p. 143 A ; Aristotle, ii. 10, with Newman's notes. The statements of Dosiadas and Aristotle about the contributions to the syssitia do not agree. The mention of bvvarol in Crete implies difference in influence, which in turn implies difference in wealth.
XVI, 38]                    CRETANEDUCATION.                            525
on private estates, corresponded to the Helots of Sparta. Like them they were adscripti glebae, and bound to furnish a certain amount of the produce of the soil to the owner; like them they were not allowed to wear the arms of the freeman, the lance, the sword and the shield (though they might serve as bowmen). In other respects they enjoyed a far better position than the Helots, and those who were the serfs of private masters appear to have succeeded under certain circumstances to a share of the property. On the other hand there was no class in Crete which exactly corresponded to the Perioeci of Sparta. For in Crete there was no sovereign city, but a number of cities which had been acquired by gradual colonisation; the countiy had never been subdued from one end to the other by a conquering people, as Laconia was subdued by the Spartans. The towns which had not received Dorian institutions in the island seem to have governed themselves, paying a fixed amount of tribute to the Dorian cities; their position resembled that of the Magnetes or Perr-haebians in Thessaly; they were not, like the Perioeci of Sparta, embodied in the Dorian states and without an independent existence.1
38. The intellectual training of the Cretans was of the very slightest nature.    The boys were taught to read and write (ypdfjLiiaTa), and instructed in the ele-   intellectual ments of what was known  as  " music" in   training of Greek education.    To march in time and sing   the Cretans-a few warlike songs was a part of their martial exercise, and when taken to the dining halls by their fathers the boys could hear the discussion of public business and the praises
1 Arist. Pol ii. 5, 19 = 1264 a. That the slaves in Crete were on the whole well-treated is clear from Arist. Lc, and Athenaeus, p. 263 F. Their statements are confirmed by what we find in the Law of Gortyn. Besides the serfs the Cretans had household slaves, xPv<r^vrlTOh who stood on a less favoured footing (Schomann, O. Ant i. p. 300). Arist. Pol. ii. 10= 1271 b ult. gives the name " perioeci " to the Cretan slaves (cf. 1272 &, 18); but Sosicrates distinguishes them (Athenaeus, p. ^63 E.): rrjv /icv koivtjv Sovkciav oi Kprjrcs KaXovcrt fivoiav, rrjv 5c idiav d<fiafiid>Tas, tovs Be rrfpioiKovs vtttjkoovs.
526                            CRETAN CHARACTER.                   [XVI. 39.
of those who had done great things for the city. Beyond this their ambition did not soar. We hear of Thaletas as a poet who aided greatly in the development of the training in Crete and Sparta; but the only fruit of Cretan poetical genius which has come down to us is the song of Hybrias: The song of " Sword and spear are to me a mine of wealth, Hybrias.            and the goodly buckler, my body's defence:
with this I plough, with this I reap, with this I trample the sweet wine from the grape; by this am I known as a Lord of the Serfs. But they who have nor sword nor spear, nor a goodly buckler, the body's defence, crouching to my knee, worship me as lord, and call me mighty king."1 The Moral char- moral character of the Cretans was such as we acterofthe might expect it to be from their intellectual Cretans.            stagnation.     The Cretan prophet Epimenides
(supra, p. 403) spoke of his countrymen as " always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies;" Aristotle observes that they avoided the difficulties arising from over-population by affording opportunities for unnatural vice; and in the time of Polybius the Cretans were notorious throughout Hellas for their treachery and greed. In that historian's opinion it was absurd to compare the institutions of Sparta and Crete, for institutions are known by their fruits, and who would compare a Spartan with a Cretan ?2
39. The objects for which the Cretan and the Lacedaemonian institutions were founded were the same; both were Crete and           intended to ensure the safety of an immigrant
Sparta com- race in the midst of a subject population reduced pared#               to the condition of serfs.    But owing to differ-
ences in the institutions themselves, and still more to differences in the circumstances of Crete and Lacedaemon, it was inevitable that the principles should have different results in the two countries.    Firstly : At Sparta the ephorate and the
1 Bergk, Poet Lyr. @raec. Hi. 651.
* Kpjjrts «€t ^revcrau, xaica Brjpia, yavTcpcs dpyai.     Arist. PoL iu 10. 5 = 1272a; Polyb. vi. 47.
XVI. 39-1                 CRETE AND SPARTA.
527
monarchy existed side by side as elective and hereditary offices, the one growing, the other declining with the growth of democratic and the decline of aristocratic prejudices; and whatever resistance the kings may have offered, the arrangement was firm and durable. But the ofiiee of the Cosmi at Crete, who were at once elective and hereditary, was too exclusive to answer to the wishes of the whole community. We hear that the magistrates were sometimes suspended by a party of powerful nobles who wished to escape the penalty of their misdeeds, or that they resigned before the term of ofiiee was complete. In these periods of suspension the character of the government was changed, and what was nominally a " polity," or a government conducted in the interests of all, became the rule of a family in its own behalf, which the Greeks called a "dynasty." Secondly: At Lacedaemon there was one city only, in Crete there were many; and as they were often at war with each other, Crete was disturbed by domestic hostilities from which Sparta was entirely free. These conflicts might have ended in the entire ruin of the Dorian communities had it not been agreed by common consent that arms were never to be placed in the hands of the serfs. Thirdly: The Cretan serfs could not, like the Helots, seize the opportunity of their masters' absence in foreign wars to rise against them; owing to the number of the cities they were broken up into smaller groups; every town aided its neighbour against the common enemy, and no one city had such a force of rebels to repress as Sparta. Fourthly: In an island, which could neither make nor mar among the neighbours, bribery by foreign states was unknown among the high officials. • Greedy as the Cretans were, and eager to make money by any and every means, the Cosmi seem to have been free from the stain, perhaps because they never eujoyed the opportunity, of selling the interests of of their country. Fifthly: Though the insular position of Crete was thought by Aristotle to have provided a natural equivalent for the " expulsions of strangers " so common at Sparta, it is obvious that an island situated in the highway
528               THE ORIENTAL GREEKS: CYRENE.      XVI. 40.
of trade is less cut off from intercourse with the world than a city hidden in a remote mountain valley. The Cretans certainly did not discourage the visits of strangers, and special arrangements were made in the dining-halls for the reception of guests. But this hospitality never drew them into the circle of Greek politics; they lived apart, often sending out troops of mercenary archers, but neither entering into alliances, nor attempting conquests.1
CYRENE.
Battus 1.    • Arcesilaus 1. Battus 11.   . Arcesilaus 11. Battus in. Arcesilaus in.
•       631 B.C.-591   „
• . 575 „ . ?550 „ .     ?540   „
murdered 522   „
40. After the foundation of their city on the mainland of Libya near the spring of Apollo, the Cyrenaeans continued to flourish under Battus and his son Arcesilaus without any new accession to their numbers. But in the reign of the third monarch, Battus 11., surnamed the Blest, they invited the Greeks to join them in colonising Libya, and the appeal was supported by the oracle at Delphi. Great numbers of New colonists colonists flocked to the city and provided at Cyrene.         themselves with estates at the expense of the
natives.    The Libyan king, whose name was Adicran, unable to maintain his ground  against the invaders, put himself
1 Herodotus (iv. 151) mentions fxeroiicoi in Crete. Thucydides (ii. 85) speaks of a quarrel between Cydonia and Polichna. For the dialect of Crete see Baunack, Die Inschrift von Gortyn, and for the alphabet, which is very interesting owing to the retention of older forms, Roberts, Introduction to Greek Epigraphy, p. 48 ff. For Cretan coins, see Head, Hist Num.,-p. 382 ff. "No region of the Greek world affords a more suggestive series of silver coins than this rich and beautiful island of Crete." But there are no coins " which can be safely ascribed to an earlier date than the first half of the fifth century." In the older Cretan inscriptions, values are reckoned not by staters or drachmas, but by "cauldrons" and "tripods." (Roberts, J.c, p. 52 ff.).
XVI. 40.]
KINGS OF CYRENE.
m
in the hands of Apries, king of Egypt, who despatched an army to his assistance. But when the forces met at Irasa, the Egyptians were so severely defeated that few survived to carry the news to Egypt, and instead of restoring Egyptians Adicran to his possessions, Apries found him- »» Libya, self abandoned by his Egyptian soldiers, who suspected that they had been sent to destruction in order to increase the power of the Ionian mercenaries now domiciled in Egypt (wfra> p. 535). Battus was succeeded by his son Arcesilaus II., sur-named the Cruel. A quarrel between this king and his brothers led to the foundation of Barca by the discontented princes, who also caused the Libyans to revolt from Cyrene. Arcesilaus attempted to suppress the rebellion. For a time the Libyans retreated before his army, but on reaching a place called Leucon, they turned and attacked their pursuers. The Cyrenaeans were totally defeated ; no fewer than 7000 hoplites being left on the field. After this disaster Arcesilaus fell ill, and when suffering from the effects of a drug he was smothered by his brother Learchus, who was in turn treacherously assassinated by Eryxo, the wife of Arcesilaus. The throne now passed to the son of Arcesilaus, Battus the Third, who was lame. To men so sensitive of bodily defects in their rulers as the Greeks, this seemed an aggravation of misfortune, and in their distress the Cyrenaeans applied to Delphi for advice. They were bidden to put their affairs in the hands of a citizen of Mantinea in Arcadia, whence a leading citizen named Demonax was sent to be the legislator of Cyrene. His reforms were democratic. Demonax He arranged the citizens in three tribes, of atCyrene. which the first included the Theraeans and perioeci; the second the Peloponnesians and Cretans, and the third the rest of the islanders. Battus was allowed to keep the royal domain and the priesthoods, but the political powers which the kings had enjoyed were transferred to the people.1
1 Herod, iv. 159-161.    Diodorus, viii. 30, speaks of Demonax as the rrjs rS>v Kvprjvai<ov <rru<r€<x>s biaiTrjTTjS, but unfortunately bis account VOL. I.                                                                                            2 L
530        ARCESILAUS III. «Sr» QUEEN PHERETIMA. [XVI. 41.
41. The reformed constitution continued to exist during the reign of Battus in.; but on the accession of his son Arcesilaus ill. new troubles arose. The king was not content to remain a king in name only; he wished to recover the old prerogatives of the throne. Defeated in this attempt, he went into Arcesilaus in. ex^e a* Samos, while his mother Pheretima, and Pheretima. wno supported him in his ambition, retired to Cyprus. At this time Evelthon was king of Salamis, and to him Pheretima applied for help; but her application was in vain. Evelthon was willing to give her anything but an army, and at length, when she still persisted in her request, he sent her a golden distaff and spindle, " and a supply of wool," as the gifts most suitable for a woman. Arcesilaus was more fortunate at Samos; he was able to collect a considerable force by holding out the prospect of a division of land at Oyrene, and, encouraged by an ambiguous oracle, he led his forces to the city, from which he succeeded in expelling his opponents. In his victory he forgot the warning of the oracle, and proceeded to acts of cruelty, which when too late he foresaw would bring upon him the wrath of the deity, In order to avert the impending evil he retired from Cyrene to Barca, leaving his mother regent in his stead. His wife was the daughter of Alazir, king of Barca; to him, therefore, he might confidently look for protection. But when walking in the market-place he was recognised by some Cyrenaean refugees, The Death of wn0> w^tn tne a^ °f *ne Barcaeans, fell upon Arcesilaus.        him and slew him.   Alazir also was assassinated.
When Pheretima heard the news she left Cyrene for Egypt, where she sought the assistance of Aryandes, who now governed that country for Cambyses. Arcesilaus had rendered homage to the Persian king and agreed to pay him tribute; it was therefore the duty of the satrap to avenge him.   Aryandes put the
of the reforms is lost. Gilbert, Handbuch, ii. 229, thinks that the ephors mentioned by Heraclides Ponticus {Frag. 4, 5 M.) as administering law, may have been established by Demonax. Plutarch, De Virt. Mul. 25, gives a full account of the murder of Learchus, whom, however, he calls the "bad friend," not the brother of Arcesilaus.
XVI. 41.]                    SIEGE OF BARCA.                              531
whole of the forces of Egypt both on land and sea at the service of Pheretima; the army was commanded by Amasis, the fleet by Badres; but before despatching the expedition he sent to Barca and demanded the surrender of the murderers of Arcesilaus. The Barcaeans replied that they were all equally implicated; the king had been justly punished for the numerous acts of oppression of which he was guilty.
The Persian army now arrived at Barca, and when a second demand for the assassins was met by a second The persians refusal, it at once invested the city. The siege at Barca. went on for nine months; the mines of the Persians were discovered and destroyed by counter-mines; their attacks were constantly repulsed; and at length Amasis, finding every effort in vain, pretended a wish to come to terms. After digging a wide trench and covering it over with soil, he took his stand upon this manufactured ground, and agreed with the Barcaeans that they should pay tribute to the king, but remain otherwise unmolested, so long as the earth upon which they stood remained the same. On this the Barcaeans opened their gates, and received the Persians into the city, who no sooner found themselves in possession of the walls than they broke in the soil upon which they had stood when concluding the treaty, and declared the agreement void! Those who had taken a leading part in the murder of Arcesilaus were given up to Pheretima, who impaled them outside the city walls, to which she also affixed the breasts of their wives. The rest of the Barcaeans, except the Battiadae and those who supported them, were enslaved by the Persians; Pheretima left her friends in command of the city.
On their return the Persians were allowed to pass through the city of Cyrene. Badres, who of course could render no assistance at the inland town of Barca, attempted to make up for his enforced inaction by urging Amasis to seize the place, but Amasis refused to commit a new act of treachery; he was sent against Barca, not against Cyrene. After he had passed through the city he repented of the lost opportunity^ and requested permission to enter it a second time, but the
532             CYRENE: POLITICAL CONSTITUTION.    [XVI. 4*
Cyrenaeans refused his request. A panic now fell upon the army. Amasis retreated to a hill about seven miles from the city, but had hardly reached it when he received orders to return to Egypt On the way his forces were attacked by the Libyans, who slew many of the stragglers, attracted by their dress and armour. The captive Barcaeans were sent to Darius, who planted them in Bactria at a place to which they gave the name of their old city Barca (circa 521 B.C.)
"But Pheretima did not bring her life to a happy close. On her return to Egypt from Libya after taking vengeance on Death of           *he Barcaeans, she died by a miserable death,
Pheretima. being eaten of worms while yet alive. So true is it that the gods look with a jealous eye on those who are extreme in their revenge." Such are the words with which Herodotus closes his account of Pheretima.1
42. Of the constitution of Cyrene we know nothing beyond the few hints given by Herodotus. We begin with a monarchy, which here, as everywhere in Greece, fails to Constitution satisfy the advancing demands of the citizens, of Cyrene.          \\re ^q no^ know the reasons which induced
Battus the Blest to invite fresh colonists to the city; but we may assume that the new-comers would not cherish the same feelings of loyalty to the reigning family as the original settlers, and that their arrival marked the beginning of the decline of the monarchy.2 Then followed the quarrels between Arcesilaus II. and his brothers, and the disastrous defeat at Leucon.    The constitution became a democracy with a
1  Herod, iv. 162 ff., 200 ff.; Plut. De Virt. Mul. 25. As nothing is said of the Persian fleet at Cyrene, beyond the advice of Badres, the commander, to Amasis, it is perhaps doubtful whether it really went thither. Menecles of Barca gives a different account of Pheretima (Miiller, Frag. Hist. Oraec. iv. 449 : rcKcvrrfa-avros avrrjs tov iraibbs ftoXtp avri) ti\v &pxhv t*)$ Kvpfjvtjs <care«r^f, kcu rbv vibovv fiao-iXea Ka,TaoTT)(ra(ra tovs avrira^apevovs ra> tu<5 avrrjs *ApK€(rikq Kara Oakar-rav els Atyv7rrov direoreiKtv. intnapaycvopevrj $€ avrfi rrdvras dvciXc, (rvpir€L<ra<ra tov €\ovra rrjv Alyvirrov dpxhv t6ts 'Apvdvhrjv. Xafiovcra $€ bvvap.iv rrapa tov ftacrikeas tovs Kvprjvaiovs trucpG>t /^eipaxraro, kcu dvaxoprja-ao-a ft? Alyvirrov irikevTrjo-e.
2  Cf. Arist. Pol. v. 3=1303 a. 28.
XVI. 42.]                   PRODUCTS OF LIBYA.                             533
roi faineant at the head, but the details are unknown. We hear of a council at which Pheretima attended after her son left Cyrene for Barca; how it was elected, and what were its functions is not stated. The perioeci who are mentioned as forming the first tribe with the Theraeans—ie. with the original settlers—were perhaps Libyans.1
Herodotus is of opinion that Libya cannot be compared in fertility with Europe or Asia, but to this general statement he allows some exceptions. The land round the Cinyps (p. 438) was unlike the rest of Libya, and equal to Products and the very best land, even to Babylonia, in pro- trade of ducing wheat, the yield being at times three- Cyrene-hundred-fold. The land of the Euesperitae was also excellent, producing a hundred-fold in a good season. Of the fertility of the Cyrenaica Herodotus says less than later authors, but he calls attention to the peculiar advantages of situation which Cyrene enjoyed, owing to the elevation of the site, which was the highest in this part of Libya. Crops could be gathered there for eight months in the year, first on the low land near the shore, next on the middle ground, and last on the terrace above the city. The Cyrenaeans exported a large amount of vegetable produce; —wine, oil, dates, etc., but the most important article of commerce was the far-famed silphium, of which every part was valuable—the fruit, the stem, the leaf, the juice. The exact nature of this plant is uncertain; it is described by Theophrastus, and is often represented on Cyrenaean coins; but either the plant is extinct (and Strabo says that it was becoming scarce in his time), or the description is not sufficiently exact to allow of identification.8
1 The tribes of Cyrene (cf. Ar. Pol vi. 4, 13196) may be compared with those at Ephesus, for in both the citizens were arranged according to the places from which they came.   Mliller, Dorians, ii. 62, 181, E. T.
2 Herod, iv. 190. The city of Cyrene lay ten miles from the sea. 3V>r the silphium, Strabo, 837 ; Theophrast. Hist, Plant, vi. 3. I. The plant grew nowhere else {ib. iv. 4. i), and could not be cultivated.
534               THE ORIENTAL GREEKS: EGYPT      [XVI, 43.
EGYPT.
Psaminetichus 1. Necho
Psammetichus 11. Apries (Hophrah) Amasis Psammenitus
663—610 B.c. 609—595 „ 594-589 „ 588—570 „ 569—526 „ 525
43. We have already stated (p. 349) that Psammetichus 1. established himself in Northern Egypt as an independent prince in the first half of the seventh century B.C., with the help of Ionian and Carian mercenaries. For two centuries before this time the old empire of the Pharaohs, which in Decline of          the reign of Eamses the Great (circa 1320
Egypt.              b,C.) extended from Nubia to Syria, had been
falling to decay. The Egyptians were at no time a warlike nation; they preferred paying soldiers to fighting their own battles, and an ever-increasing multitude of mercenaries, the Ma or Mashawasha of the inscriptions, was introduced from Libya. The inevitable result followed. A soldier class was formed which in time became the ruling power in the country; a number of principalities grew up, each governed by a soldier-chief whose authority depended mainly on the swords at his disposal—the twelve kings of the narrative of Herodotus.
Meanwhile an Ethiopian empire arose at Napata near Mount Barkal in Nubia, which by degrees extended its power as Ethiopian          far northwards as Thebes, where, by forming
Kinss-              alliances with the powerful priests of Amon,
it became the representative of the old civilisation of Egypt. Then at the close of the eighth century the Assyrians appeared on the scene, and a struggle began for the supremacy of the country. At one time the Ethiopians were able to Assyrian           assert their authority—which was  however
invaders.           little more than nominal—over the  soldier-
chiefs ; at another Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal carried fire and sword to Memphis and Thebes.    Amid this confusion
XVI. 43-1   PSAMMETICHUS & HIS MERCENARIES,         535
Psammetichus, the prince of Sais, was able to establish his power over his rival chiefs. How he first rose to eminence, whether he was the viceroy of the Ethiopian Pharaoh or the vassal of the Assyrian conqueror, seems doubtful: what is certain is that he owed his throne mainly to the help of Ionian and Carian mercenaries; that he justified his claim to become the Pharaoh of Egypt by marrying the niece of Sabako, the first of the Ethiopian monarchs (whose dynasty failed in the male line); and that Assurbanipal, owing to troubles nearer home, was unable to shake him from his position.1
Thus the Greeks entered Egypt. At first they came as soldiers only. Psammetichus could not expect the support of the Egyptian mercenaries, for they were to a large extent in the service of the rival princes, whom he had outstripped in the race for the throne. It was necessary for him to retain the new-comers in his pay. On either side of the Pelusiac arm of the Nile, a little below the city of Bubastis, he established the Ionians and Carians in "camps," where they remained till the reign of Amasis, who removed them to Memphis to be his own body-guard, and in order to facilitate communication he placed Egyptian boys with the mercenaries that they might learn their language.2
Such obvious partiality to foreigners created a bitter feeling of jealousy in the Egyptian military caste.   Herodotus tells us that no fewer than 240,000 of the native or Libyan soldiers, wearied with the excessive service which Psam-      Difficulties metichus imposed upon them by keeping them      aiising from for three years without change in the guard-      shown toVhe stations of Elephantine (in the south), Daphne      Greeks, (in the east), and Marea (in the west), deserted to Ethiopia and offered their services to the king.   They were followed by
1  Wiedemann, Geschichte Aegypten.% p. 606, speaks of Psammetichus *s the viceroy of Nut-amen, the last Ethiopian Pharaoh; Maspero {Histoire ancienne, p. 528, ed. 4,) speaks of his fidelity to Assyria. The <Jreek authorities for Psammetichus are Herod, ii. 147-158; DiodoruB, i 66 ff.; Polyaenus, vii. 3 (worthless); Strabo, p. 801.
2 Herod, ii. 154.
536                                GREEKS IN EGYPT.                     [XVI. 43
Psammetichus, who endeavoured to induce them to return, but in vain, and they remained in Ethiopia on the lands allotted to them. That a King Psammetichus marched into Nubia is one of the most certain events in Egyptian history; the Greek mercenaries who accompanied him have left a record of their visit in the inscriptions on the leg of the colossus of Eamses at Abou-Simbel in Nubia. But whether the Psammetichus mentioned in the inscriptions is the first or the second king of the name cannot be decided, and the number of the deserters is no doubt exaggerated. Psammetichus was succeeded by Necho, who devoted his reign to the 'development of the trade and navigation of Egypt. He began the construction of a canal which was to connect the Mediterranean with the Red sea; he sent Phoenician ships round Africa, which proved for the first time that the continent was circumnavigable; and for the protection of commerce he maintained ships of war on the Mediterranean and the Red sea. His son was Psammetichus 11., who after a short reign was succeeded by Apries or Hophrah. Apries is said to have increased the number of the mercenaries to 30,000, and when the expedition against Cyrene failed, on which he had sent Egyptian troops only, an open mutiny took place among the native soldiers, who believed that their comrades had been wilfully sent to destruction (p. 529). Amasis, the king's brother-in-law, was despatched to recall them to obedience, but the troops persuaded him to put himself at their head and march against Apries, who attempted to meet them with his Greek mercenaries. A battle took place at Momemphis, in which Apries was defeated and taken prisoner. After reigning for six years as co-regent with Amasis he was put to death (569 B.C.).1
1 For the deserters, Herod, ii. 30, Diod. i. 67. For Necho, Herod, ii. 158, iv. 42; for Psammetichus 11., Apries, Amasis, ib. ii 161 ff. Maspero and E. Meyer accept the story of the desertion, and decide for Psammetichus 1. Wiedemann rejects it, and considers that the inscriptions were written during an invasion of Ethiopia by Psammetichus 11.
XVI. 44» 45-1  GREEK COLONY OF NAUCRATIS.                  53T
44.  Amasis was now king of Egypt, and the troops with whose aid he had won his position might reasonably look forward to an anti-Hellenic reaction which would restore to them their old privileges. But in this they were bitterly disappointed. Amasis had no sooner gained the throne than he manifested the strongest inclination to play a very independent part as Pharaoh. He refused to submit to the old solemn ceremonial, and when he was not occupied with the business of his office he indulged himself in genial pleasures with his friends. So far from favouring the Egyptian soldiery, he removed the Ionians from their camp on the Pelusiac arm of the Nile to Memphis, in order that they might become his body-guard. He married a Greek wife from the family of the Battiadae of Cyrene. He even allowed Greek merchants to settle at the city of Naucratis in the Delta—which he appears to have given up to them—and to
found temples for their gods on Egyptian soil,
though it is also true that he restrained them by very severe
laws from trafficking or even landing at any other place in
Egypt.1
45.  When we remember how sensitive the Greeks showed
1 Herod, ii. 154, 178. That a city on the site of Naucratis was in existence in the time of Psammetichus I. is rendered probable by the scarabaei found there ; and as these scarabaei come to an end with the beginning of the reign of Amasis, it is not unlikely that a change of population was made then. There is a doubt whether Psammetichus 1. allowed traders to settle in Egypt (Diodorus), or whether this was first permitted by Amasis (Herodotus). Strabo has a story of a Mikrjo-lcov reixos, founded near the Bolbitinic mouth of the Nile, in the.time of Psammetichus, and he represents the Milesians as subsequently founding Naucratis after "defeating Inaros at sea" (p. 801). Necho also sent presents to the temple of Apollo of Branchidae (Herod, ii. 159), at which we find an imitation of Egyptian art. There is therefore evidence of a close connection between Miletus and Egypt before the time of Amasis. But Strabo's account is very obscure, and Necho merely sent apadfipara to the god of the nation which assisted him. It is difficult to believe that Amasis can have restricted the privileges already granted to the Greeks by confining them under pain of death to one emporium, when hitherto they had been permitted to enter Egypt freely.    See Petrie, Naukratis, Part 1., chap. i.
£38           GREECE & EGYPTIAN CIVILISATION.    [XVI. 45.
themselves to the civilisation with which they were brought into contact in Asia Minor, we should expect to find them borrowing largely from the far more ancient and far more advanced civilisation of Egypt. That they did not was due to The Greeks tne circumstances under which they first entered little in-            the  country,  the restrictions imposed upon
Egyptian 7 them, and the exclusive spirit which governed civilisation. Egyptian society and religion. The mercenaries whom Psammetichus introduced were established in camps in the Delta apart from the Egyptians, and so far as we know they only visited other parts of Egypt on military service; even the merchants whom Amasis received into the country were not allowed to settle or to trade except at Naucratis, which was also situated in the Delta. The Greeks therefore had little opportunity of visiting the great temples and tombs; or of acquainting themselves with Egyptian life and manners. The habits and customs of the Egyptians were also of such a kind as to place an impassable barrier between the Greeks and themselves. They practised the rite of circumcision, which was revolting to the Greeks; they abs-Exciusive         tained from the flesh of cows, and would not
customs of the touch a pan or a knife which had been used by a Egyptians. jegg scrUpUi0US Qreek, much less kiss the mouth of man or woman who had eaten the forbidden meat; they held swine in abhorrence, an animal which the Greeks offered to their gods. The minute rules for purification observed by the Egyptians, the preservation of the body by embalmment, the worship of animals were to the Greeks foolishness. Much might have been learned about Egypt from the written monuments at Memphis, when Amasis transplanted the Ionians thither, but the hieroglyphics were quite unintelligible to the Greeks, and probably to the common people of Egypt, while Learned            the  attitude  of   the   learned   class   towards
de^TseTtne foreigners was one of patronising contempt. Greek.              Even when visited by Greeks of the intellectual
acuteness of Hecataeus and Herodotus, the priests claimed to be able to instruct                          id of Troy and the origin
XVI. 45-1     GREECE 6* EGYPTIAN CIVILISATION.           539
of the oracle of Dodona. To what extent they were acquainted with the past history of their own country we do not know, but they never hesitated to repeat fabulous and inaccurate stories about it. These stories were in fact the history of Egypt as it was known to the common people, from whom it passed to the Greeks through the mouths of ignorant interpreters. Even so patent a falsehood as the rise of the Nile in springs between Elephantine and Syene seems to have been thought by the scribe at Sais an explanation good enough to give to Herodotus. When at length, by the foundation of Alexandria, Greeks and Egyptians were brought more closely together, the civilisation of both countries was too effete to give or receive any quickening impulse. The Greeks may have acquired additions to their knowledge of mathematics and medicine from the Egyptians, from whom also the name of Epaphus and the worship of Isis passed to Greece at an early stage in the intercourse of the two countries. For the rest, Egypt was the Thibet of the day; and Egyptian doctrines on "the last things," real or supposed, had an attraction for the " esoteric Buddhists " of Greece, which increased as speculation became more spiritual than philosophical.1
1 By the time of Diodorus (see i. 69) it was believed that Orpheus, Homer, Pythagoras and Solon had visited Egypt in spite of the dangers which awaited aliens in that land before the reign of Psammetichus. This is of course a fiction due to admiration of the antiquity of Egypt. Herodotus is misled in the same direction, and discovers impossible connections between Egypt and Greece. Putting aside some scientific knowledge, the earlier Greeks borrowed nothing from Egypt but the doctrine of immortality, of transmigration—if indeed this is Egyptian—and the worship of Isis. Neither the art, nor the music, nor the poetry, nor the philosophy of the Greeks in their best days was influenced by Egypt.
540
NOTE.
NOTE ON THE LAWS OF SOLON, Page 418.
The following passage from Demosthenes (?) (Against Euergus and Mnesibulus, Kennedy, vol. v. pp. 95, 96) shows what difficulties lay before a man who wished to prosecute any one for the murder of a person not belonging to his own family. The woman to whom allusion is made had been the nurse of the plaintiff in the suit (which concerned false testimony). For her fidelity she had been set free ; she married and lived with her husband, but after his death she came back to the plaintiff's house. While attempting to defend his property, she had been beaten by the defendants, and died from the blows:—
" After her death I went to the Interpreters, to learn what course I ought to take in the matter; and I detailed to them everything which had taken place, the arrival of these men, the attachment of the woman to our family, the cause of my having her in my house, and that she had lost her life for not giving up the cup. The Interpreters, having heard my story, asked me whether they should expound the law to me only, or give me advice also. I replied, ' Both.' * Very well,' they said, 'then we will expound to you what the law is, and advise you what is for your good. The first thing is to carry a spear in front of the funeral procession, and to make proclamation at the tomb, if there is any one connected with the woman; and, after that, you must watch the tomb for three days. The advice that we give you is as follows:—As you were not present yourself, but only your wife and children, and you have no other witnesses, we recommend you not to make proclamation against any one by name, but generally against the homicides and guilty parties ; and further, not to commence proceedings before the king-archon. For the woman does not eome within the law to enable you, as she is no relation, and was not even a servant, according to your account. It is to relations and masters that the law assigns the duty of prosecuting. Should you therefore take an oath in the Palladium, you and your wife and children, and should you imprecate curses upon yourselves and your house, many people will form an unfavourable opinion of you, and, if your adversary be acquitted, you will be thought to have committed perjury ; and, if you convict him, you will incur public odiuin. Our advice is, that you perform the necessary religious ceremonies for yourself and your house, then bear the misfortune as patiently as you can, and take vengeance, if you like, in some other way.*n
INDEX  I.
(The firtt numeral refer* to the Chapter; the second to the Section,)
A
Abantes in Euboea, the, ii. 7, iii. 9. Abdera, xi. 5.
Acarnanfa, Legends of, HI. 18. Achaea, Conquest of, iii. 12.
-----Kings of, vii. 19.
-----Cities of, ibid.
-----Constitution, ibid.
Achaean age, ii. 8.
Achaean League, iii. 12.
Achaeans not distinct from Hellenes, ii. 8.
-----On Egyptian inscriptions, ii. 15.
-----In Italy, xi. 15.
Aehelous, R., i. 6, i. 8.
Acheron, B., i. 8.
Acragas, a colony from Gela, xi. 18.
Acte, Cities on, xi. 5.
Aegeus, iii. 10.
Aegialeis, the, iii. 12.
Aegina, under the Epidaurians, iii. 21.
-----at war with Athens, xv. 20.
Aeolian migration, Tradition of, iv. 12. Aeolians conquer Lesbos and found Cyme,
iv. 2. Aeolis, Boundaries of, iv. 2.
-----Cities of, iv. 8.
Aepytus, iii. 15.
Aetolia, Legends of, iii. 12.
Aetolians in the Peloponnesus, iii. 8.
Agamemnon, iii. 19.
Agariste, Story of the marriage of, xii. 7.
Aglaurus, i. 14.
Alalia in Corsica, xi. 16.
Alcaeus, xvi. 23.
Alcmaeon, iii. 18.
Alcmaeonids, the, rebuild the temple at
Delphi, xv. 17.   (See Clisthenes i.) Alcman, viii. 11.
Aleuadae, the, x. 8.
Alexander, son of Amyntas, king of Macedonia, x. 2.
Alluvial deposit in Greece, i. 6,
Alphabet, the, in Greece, iy. 16.
Althaea, iii. 12.
Alyattes at war with Miletus, xvi. 6.
-----Conquers Smyrna, xvi. 7.
Amasis of Egypt, xvi. 44.
Amazons, ii. 14.
-----Expelled from Attica by Theseus, fii. 11.
-----Worshippers of the Magna Mater, iv. 14.
Atnphictyony, of Central Greece at Thermo* pylae, x. 5.
-----At Argos, vii 2.
-----At Calauria, iii. 21.
Amphion, iii. 7.
Amphitrite, Homeric conception of^ ?. 44.
Amyclae, iii. 16.
-----Conquered by the Spartans, vt 90.
Amyntas, king of Macedonia, x. 2.
AnacLarsis, xiii. 26.
Anactorium, xi. 14.
Andania, iii. 15.
Antiope, Myth of, iii. 7.
Apaturia in Attica, the, ix. 18.
Apella or Assembly at Sparta, vi 10.
Apollo, Homeric conception of, v. 80.
Apollo Lyceus, vii. 8 (ft).
Apollo Smintheus, iv. 14.
Apries, king of Egypt, xvi 48.
Arcadia, Legends of, iii. 23.
-----Primitive nature of, iii. 28.
-----Kings of, iii. 23, vii. 14,18.
-----Inhabitants of, vii. 15.
-----Character and civilisation ot, ?U,
Arcesilaus of Cyrene, xvi. 40.
Archias, founder of Syracuse, xL 11.
Archilochus of Paros, xvi. 27. 541
EX I.
542
Archons, the, ix. 16, xiii.
Ardys, xvi. 5.
Areopagus, the, ix. 13.   (See App. ii.)
-----Reformed by Solon, xiii. 15.
Arethusa, i. 7.
Argive Amphictyony, the, vii. 2. Argo, voyage of the, iii. 5. Argolis, vii. 1.
— Want of water in, i. 6.
-----Variety of religious rites in, vii. 8.
Argos, legends of, ii. 15, iii. 17.
-----Conquered by Dorians, iii. 3.
-----Cities, etc., of, iii. 17.
-----Kings of, vii. 3.
-----Decline of, vii. 6.
-----Music at, vii. 7.
-----Invaded by Sparta, xiv. 14.
Argos Amphilochicum, iii. 13. Aristodemus, king of Messenia, viii. 7. Aristomenes, leader of Messenians against
Sparta, viii. 13.
-----Defeats the Spartans, ibid.                    i
-----Captured, but escapes, ibid.
-----Slays   many  of   the   Spartans,   and
plunders Laconian border, viii. 14.
— Retires to Rhodes, viii. 15. Arnaeans invade Boeotia, iii. 1.
-----Conquer the country and settle, iii. 8.
Art, aided by the climate of Greece, i. 14. -----In the Greek colonies, iv. 15.   Cf. xvi.
1, 45. Asclepius worshipped at Epidaurus, iii. 14.
-----Temple of, at Epidaurus, vii. 8.
Asia Minor, languages  of, are  Indo-Ger-
manic, ii. 9.
-----Climate and soil of, xvi. 1.
-----Colonisation of, by Aeolians, iv. 1.        i
-----------by Ionians, iv. 4.
Asiatic Greeks resemble the European, but
present points of difference, xvi. 1. Assembly, the, in Homeric poems, v. 22. Assembly or Apella at Sparta, the, vi. 10. Assembly, the, at Athens after Solon, xiii.
12. Atalanta, iii. 12. Athamas, iii. 5.
Athene, Homeric conception of, v. 89. Athenian envoys in Persia, xv. 20, 28. Athens, climate of, i. 13. .-----The Council, xiii. 13; App. ii. ;xv. 21,24.
— The Prytanies, xv. 24. -----Strategi, xv. 25.
-----Army and navy, xv. 25.
-----Assembly ix. 17; after Solon, xiii. 12.
-----The Phratries, ix. 18.
Athens, Family influence at, xv. 21, 23.
-----Tribes, xv. 21.
-----Denies, xv. 22, 23.
-----Areopagus reformed by Solon, xiii. 18.
-----Political condition of, ix. 16.
-----Social condition of, ix. 18.
-----At war with Euboea, xv. 20.
-----Conquers Chalcis, ibid.
-----At war with Thebes, ibid.
-----At war with Aegina, ibid,
-----At war with Lesbos for possession of
Sigeum, xvi. 26.
-----At war with Crisa, xiii. &
-----Conquers Salamis, ibid,
Attic Council, the, ix. 17, App. ii. Attica, Pelasgi in, iii. 1, ix. 6.
-----Lapithae in, ibid.
-----Kings of, iii. 10.
-----Divisions of, ibid.
-----In early times, ix.
Augeas, iii. 14.
B
Barbarians in Greece, ii. 2.
Barca, a colony from Cyrene, xvi. 8&
-----Persians at, xvi. 40.
Battus, xi. 17.
Bias of Priene, xvi. 17.
Black Sea (see Euxine), the, xi. 0.
Boeotia, History of, x. 6.
-----Legends of, iii. 6.
Boeotian League, x. 6. Byzantium, xi. 7.
c
Cadmea at Thebes, the, iii. 7.
Cadmus founds Thebes, ii. 14; iii. 6
Calaurian Amphictyony, iii. 21*
Carians, the ii. 5.
Catalogue, the, in the Iliad, v. 11*
Catana, xi. 10.
Cauconians, the, ii. 7.
Cecrops, iii. 10.
Centaurs, iii. 5.
Chalcedon, xi. 7.
Chalcis, xi. 3.
-----Conquered by Athens, xr. 20.
Chiron, iii. 5.
Chthonia, the, at Hermione, vii. 8 (c). Cimmerians, the, in Asia, xvi. 2. Cimon, son of Stesagoras, owner of famoctft, race-horses, his death xv. 15.
INDEX 1.
543
Cirrha war between Athens and, xiii. 3. Gleomenes, king of Sparta, xiv. 9, ff.
-----At Athens, xv. 19.
Cleruchi at Chalcis, xv. 20. Climate of Greece, i. 13.
-----Influence of, on inhabitants, i. 14.
-----------on religious conceptions, ibid.
Clisthenes (1), the Alcmaeonid, xv. 17.
— Returns to Athens, xv. 19.
— Heads the democratic party, ibid.
— Object of his reforms, ibid.
— Compelled to leave Athens, ibid.
— His ten tribes, xv. 21. -----His demes, xv. 22, 23.
— Enfranchises slaves and aliens, xv. 23.
— Introduces the lot in elections, ibid. -^His arrangement of the Council, xv.
24.
— Introduces ostracism, xv. 26.
— How did he carry his reforms ? xv. 27.
-----Criticism of his reforms, xv. 29.
Clisthenes (2) of Sicyon, xii. 5. Cocytus, R, i. 8.
Coinage, xi. 22.
Colonies, the Greek, chap. xL
-----Causes of, xi. 19.
-----Effect of, on natives, xi 21.
-----Nature of, xi. 20.
—- Table of, xi. 24.
Colophon, xvi. 7.
Copais, L., i. 9.
Copper in Greece, i. 10.
Corcyra taken by the Corinthians, xi. 12.
Corinth conquered by Dorians, iii. 8.
-----Early history of, iii. 18.
—— Sun-worship at, ibid.
-----Wealth and importance of, ibid.
-----Under monarchs, xi. 12.
-----Description of, etc., xii. 10.
Council at Athens, xiii. 13, App. ii; xv. 21,24. Country life of the Greeks, i. 14.
-----Influence of, on politics, i 15.
Crete, Phoenicians in, ii. 14. —- Dorian colonisation of, iv. 7. —— Cities of, ibid. —- Cosmi, the, xvi. 35.
— Council, the, ibid.
— Assembly, the ibid.
— Training at, ibid.
— Serfs at, xvi. 36.
— Moral character of inhabitants, xvi. 87.
— Compared with Sparta, xvi. 88. Crisa, war between Athens and, xiii. 8. Croesus and Solon, xiii. 25.
Croesus and Sparta, xiv. 4.
-----At Ephesus, xvi. 10.
-----His conquests, xvi. 9.
-----Defeat and fall of, xvi. 14.
Croton, xi. 15. Curetes, the, ii. 7. Cybele, iv. 12, xvi. 10. Cycle, the Epic, v. 2 ff.
-----Date of, v. 7.
Cylon, ix. 15.
Cyme, Aeolians found, It. 2.
Cypria, The, v. 5.
Cyprus, Phoenicians in, ii. 14.
-----Connection of, with Arcadia, iv. 9.
-----Account of, iv. 9.
-----Writing inj iv. 16.
Cypselus, xii. 11.
Cyrene, a Theraean settlement, xi. 17.
-----History of, xvi. 39, 40.
-----Constitution of, xvi 41.
-----Products and trade of, ibid.
Cyrus ii., founder of the Persian Empire,
xvi. 13. —- Defeats Croesus, xvi. 14. Cyzicus, xi. 8.
D
Daedalus, a personification of the artistic
skill of the Phoenicians, ii. 14. Danai, the, on Egyptian inscriptions, iii. 15. Danaids, the, iii. 17. Deianira, iii. 12. Delos, the festival at, xvi. 33. Delphi and the colonies, xi. 24. Delphinium, ix. 13. Demes at Athens, xv. 22, 23. Demonax at Cyrene, xvi. 39. Deucalion and Pyrrha, iii. 8. Dine, i. 6.
Dionysia, the, xv. 12. Dodona, x. 1. Dorians, in N. Greece, iii. 1.
-----Herodotus' account of, iii 8.
-----Invade the Peloponnesus, ibid*
-----In Messenia, iii. 15.
-----In Rhodes, iv. 8.
— Colonise the islands, iy. 7.
-----And mainland of Asia, iy. 10.
-----In Thessaly, x. 4.
-----In Asia, xvi 20.
Draco, ix. 12,18. Drought in Greece, i 6. Dryopians, iii. 7.
SM                                        INDEX T.
E
Earth held sacred by the Greeks, i. 14. Earthquakes, i. IS. Ecclesia at Athens, ix. 17. Egypt and Greece, ii. 15.
-----Greeks in, xi. 17, xvi. 42.
-----Exclusive customs of inhabitants, xvi.
45.
-----Kings of, xvi. 42.
-----Decline of, ibid.
-----Ethiopian kings of, ibid,
-----Invaded by Assyrians, ibid,
Elea in Luoania, a Phocaean colony, xl. 16. Eleans excluded from Isthmian Games, iii.14. Eleusinian mysteries, the, xv. 18. JBlis, divisions of, iii. 14.
-----Early history of, ibid,
-----Princes of, ibid.
-----Government of, vii. 18.
Eoeae of Hesiod, the, x. 11. Ephesus, an Ionian colony, iv. 5.
-----Attacked by Croesus, xvi. 10.
Ephetae, the, ix. 14.
Ephors, the, vi. 11; xiv. 2,16.
Epidamnus, xi. 14.
Epidaurus conquered by Dorians, iii. 3.
-----Worship at, iii. 21.
Epimenides, xiii. 6.
Epirus, chap. x.
Erechtheus, iii. 10.
Eretria, xi. 5.
Erse, i. 14.
Euboea, Phoenicians in, ii. 14.
-----Early inhabitants of, iii. 9.
-----Colonised by Athens, ibid.
------At war with Athens, xv. 20.
Eumelus, poem of, iii. 18. JSuxine Sea, the, xi. 9. Excavations, ii. 11.
F
Family influence at Athens, xv. 21, 23.
Fauna of Greece, i. 12.
Floods in Greece, i. 6.
Flora of Greece, i. 11.
Foreign settlers in Greece, ii. 14.
Fruits in Greece, i. 11.
G
Games, Isthmia, xi. 14.
-----Neraea, vii. 8.
-----Olympia, vii. 9, 12.
Games, Pythia, xiii. 4.
Gela, xi. 13.
Gerousia or Senate at Sparta, the, vt 9.
Gods once inhabited Greece, i. 14.
Gold in Greece, i. 10.
Greece.   (See Hellas.)
-----Rivers of, i. 5.
-----Productions and minerals of, 1.10.
-----Flora, wood, and fruits of, i. 11.
-----Wild animals of, i. 12.
-----Climate of, i. 13.
-----National characteristics of the inhabl* "-
tants of, i. 14.
-----Once inhabited by gods, ibid.
-----Influence of the country on politics of,
i. 15.
-----Phoenicians and foreign  settlers  in,
ii. 14.
-----History of, and Rome compared, i. 15.
-----Connection between, and Egypt, ii. 15,
xvi. 45.
Greek Language, Ii. 9.
-----Colonies in Italy, xi. 11.
-----Form of government in, iv. 1.
-----History, Scanty nature of the material!
for, xvi. 1.
Greeks.   (See Hellenes.)
-----Little influenced by Egyptian civilisation, xvi. 45.
-----Contempt of learned Egyptians for, ibid,
Gyges, xvi. 3, 4.
H
Halus, rites at, iii. 5.
Helen, myth of, iii. 7.
Helicon, worship of the muses on, x. 7.
Hellas.   (See Greece.)
-----Migrations in, iii. 1.
-----Limits and extent of, i. 1.
-----Characteristic features of, i. 2.
-----Northern and Southern, i. 8.
Hellenes.   (See Greeks.)
-----and Achaeans, ii. 8.
-----and Pelasgi, ibid.
-----Herodotus' account of, iii. 3.
Helos, conquest of, by Sparta, vi. 20. Helots at Sparta, vi. 19. Hera, vii. 8 (c).
-----Worship of, at Olympia, vii. 11.
Heracles, works connected with the name
of, i. 7.
-----Perhaps connected with Baal, ii. 14.
-----A Phoenician deity in Greek guise,
iii. 2.
IND1
Heracles, Labours of, iii. 24.
-----In Elis, iii. 14.                                      I
Heraclids, return of the, iii. 2.
Heraea, the, vii. 8.
Herodotus? aceount of the Dorians, iii. 8.
-----Hellenes, ibid.
-----Of Sparta, vL 2*7.
Hesiod, works of, v. 1; x. 9. —- Date and life of j x. 7.
-----A distinct historical personage, x. 8.
-----Characteristic features of the JPorfcs
and Days of, x. 9.
-------=— The Five Ages of, x. 0.
-----At Chalcis, ibid.
-----Calendar of, ibid.
—— Tkeogonia of, x. 10.
-----The Catalogue of, x. 11.
-----The Eoeae of, ibid.
•-----Contrast between Homer and, x. 12.
Hexapolis, the Dorian, iv. 10.
Hills, influence of, on character, i. 14.
Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus, xv. 15.
-----Quarrels with Harmodius, ibid.
-----Death of, ibid.                                      \
Hippias succeeds Pisistratus, xv. 15.            j
-----Causes Cimon to be put to death, ibid.
-----Tyranny of, after death of Hipparchus,
xv. 16.
-----Connection of, with Aeantides, xv. 18.
-----Expelled by Spartans from Athens,
ibid.
-----In Asia, xv. 20, 28.
Hissarlik, ii. 12. History, sources of, ii. 1. Hittite Empire, the, iv. 13. Homeric age, civilisation of, ii, 1. Homeric poems, the, chap. v.
-----Date of, v. 2, 8.
-----Value of, v. 8.
-----Omissions in, v. 9.
-----Gold mentioned in, v. 12.
-----Not a collection of ballads, v. 10.
-----Artistic nature of, ibid.
—— Language of, v. 17.
-----Characters in, v. 18.
-----Arguments for historical truth of, v. 19.
-----Ideal character of life in, v. 19.
-----Influence of, v. 32.
-----Unhistorical nature of, v. 9,13.
-----Geographical vagueness in, v. 10.
— Untrustworthy nature of, v. 11,15.
— Inconsistency of, v. 11.
-----Disregard of geography in, v. 12.
—— Supposed edition of, by Pisistratus, xv. 14. VOL. I
r/.                                        546
: Homeric rseligion, characteristics of, v. 58. j Homeric society, chap. v. 21 ff.
-----Women, v. 12.
-----The State, v. 22.
-----The King, ibid.
-----The Council and Assembly* ibid.
—- Priests, v. 23.
-----The People, v. 24.
-----Slaves, ibid.
-----Aliens^ v. 26.
-----Widows and Orphans, ibid,
-----Homicide, v. 27.
— Perjury; ibid.
-----The Family, v. 28.
-----Amusements, v. 30.
Homeric Theogony, chap. v. 32 flf.
-----Immortality of gods, v. 36.
-----Deities of the Olympic Circle, v. 39.
-----Zeus, Apollo, Athena, ibid.
-----Subordinate Deities, v. 40.
-----The Titans, v. 41.
-----Iris, Hermes,  Hebe,  Muses,  Hours,
Graces, v. 42.
-----Eos, Helios, the Winds, v. 43.
-----Deities of the sea, Poseidon, etc. v. 44.
-----Omniscience of the sea deities, ibid.
-----Demeter, Dionysus, the Nymphs, v. 45.
-----Hades, Persephone, the Erinyes, v. 46.
]-----Personification of abstractions, v. 47.
-----Deities have no fixed sphere of action,
v. 48.
-----Intercourse with men, v. 49.
-----Signs, Dreams, Oracles, Seers, v. 50.
-----Sacrifices, Priests, v. 51.
I-----Libations, Prayers, v. 52.
I Homeric and local tradition, ii. 1.
Human sacrifices, at Halus, iii. 5.
-----At Patrae, ii. 14.   (Cf. ii. 10.)
Hyacinthia, the, vi. 22.
Hyacinthus, ii. 14.
Hyantes, ii. 7.
Hybrias, the Cretan, xvi. 37.
Hyrnetho, iii. 17.
Hysiae, defeat of the Spartans at, viii. 12.
I
Ialysus, remains at, ii. 12.
Idas and Lynceus, iii. 7,15*
Iliad, The, v. 4, 5;
Io, of Argos, ii. 15, iii. 17.
Ion, iii. 10.
ionians, the, ii. 18.
-----In Euboea, iii. 9.
546
INDEX I.
Ionians driven out of Aegialea by Achaeans, iii. 22.
— Migration of, to Asia, iv. 4. -----Dialects of, iv. 6.
-----In Asia, xvi. 1-19.
Iron in Greece, i. 10.
Isagoras (archon 508 b.o.), supported by Cleomenes, xv. 19.
-----Opposes Clisthenes, ibid.
Islands of the Aegean, the, xvi. 21.
— Phoenicians in, ii. 14.
Isolation of the Greek cities, i. 15, xvi. 17. Isthmian Games, Revival of, under Peri-
ander, xii. 14. Italy, Greek colonies in, xi. 11.
-----Achaeans in, xi. 15.
Ithome, siege of, viii. 6, 7.
J
Jason, iii. 5. Javan, ii. 13.
K
Katavoihras, L 6.
L
Labdacus, iii. 7.
Lacedaemon.   (See Sparta.)
Lacustrine dwellings, ii. 11.
Laius, iii. 8.
Lakes of Greece, i. 9.
Language, traces of non-Greek, ii. 9.
-----And History, ii. 1.
-----Of Asia Minor, ii. 9.
-— Pelasgian, ibid.
Lapithae in Attica, iii. 1, ix. 6.
Leleges, the, ii. 14.
Leontini, xi. 10.
Lesbos, iEolian conquest of, It. 1
-----Account of, xvi. 22.
Lions' Gate at Mycenae, ii. 12, Locri Epizephyrii, xi. 15.
-----Cause of foundation of, xi. 19.
Locrians, the, x. 4. Locris, iii. 8. Logographers, the, ii. 4. Lot in elections, the, xv. 23. Lycaea, the, iii. 23. Lycaon, king of Arcadia, iii. 23. Lycia, tombs of, iv. 12. Lycians, the, iv. 12.
Lycophron, son of Periander, xii 17. Lycurgus, vi. 2, foil.
-----Herodotus' account of, vi 2.
-----Plutarch's account, ibid.
-----Doubts about Plutarch's account of,
vi. 3.
-----Was Spartan training due to ? vi. 14.
Lydian kings, xvi. 3 ff.
Lydians revolt from Cyras, xvi. 16.
Luxury among the Greeks, i. 14.
M
Macedonia, Kings of, x. 2.
Magna Mater, Worship of, iv. 14, xvi. 1.
Magnesia on the   Maeander,  an Aeolian
colony, iv. 3. Marble and stone in Greece, i. 10. Massilia, xi. 16. Medea, iii. 5, 18. Megara, xi. 7.
-----History of, xii. 20.
Megara in Sicily, xi. 13. Melanchrus of Mitylene, xvi. 25. Melanthus and Codrus, iv. 4. Meleager, iii. 12. Melkart, ii. 14.
Mermnadae, the, at Sardis, xvi. 4. Messenia, Legends of, iii. 15. Messenian wars, viii. Metapontum, xi. 15. Midas, Tomb of, iv. 12. Migrations in Hellas, iii. 1.
-----to Asia, dates of, iv. 18.
Miletus, an Ionian colony, iv. 5.
-----Fall of the monarchy at, xi. 8.
-----Prosperity of, ibid.
-----Attacked by Alyattes, xvi. 6.
-----Allied with the Lydians, xvi. 7.
-----Factions at, xvi. 8.
Miltiades, xv. 4.
Minerals of Greece, i. 10.
Mines in Greece, i. 10.
-----in the islands, worked by Phoenicians,
ii. 14. | Minos, a conqueror and lawgiver, ii. 14, iv. 7* Minyae expelled from Iolcus, iii. 1.
-----at Sparta, vi. 21.
Monarchy^ decline of, ix. 7, xi. 18.
Monuments and history, ii. 1.
-----the same on both sides of the Aegean.
ii. 11-12. Moon myths, iii. 7. Mountains in Hellas, N., i. 8. I ------S., i. 4.
INDEX I.                                        547
Mountains in Hellas, Characteristics of, i. 5. Musaeus, xv. 18. Music in Thrace, ii. 6.
-----at Sparta, viii. 11.
-----in Greece, xvi. 1.
Mycenae built by Perseus, iii. 17. Mysians invade Europe, iii. 1. Myths, Nature of, iii. 4.
-----Arise from many sources which cannot
now be distinguished, ibid, -----Interpretation of, ibid.
N"
Names, foreign, in Greece, ii. 9.
-----Repeated in Greece, ibid.
Naucraries, the, at Athens, ix. 16. Naucratis on the Nile, xi. 17.
-----Greek merchants at, xvi. 44.
Naxos, xi. 10.
Necho, king of Egypt, xvi. 43.
Neleus at Pylos, iii. 15.
Nemea, the, vit 8 (a).
Nestor, iii. 15.
Nineveh, Fall of, xvi. 12.
o
Odyssey, The, r. 4, 5.
Oedipus, i%jL
Oeneus of Calydon, iii. 12.
Olympia, the, vii. 9,12.
Onomacritus, xv. 13.
-— takes part in the supposed edition of
Homeric poems, xv. 14. Orchomenus, iii. 6. Oriental relics at Mycenae, ii. 12.
-----Influences in Asiatic Greece, xvi. 1.
Orsippus, xi. 7. Ostracism, xv. 26.
p
Palladium, the, ix. 13. Pambotis, Lake, i 9. Pamphylia, iv. 12. Panathenaea, the, xv. 11. Pandion, iii. 10.. Parians at Miletus, xvi. 8. Paros, xvi. 27.
Partheniae, Revolt of the, viii. 10. Patrae, worship at, ii. 14. Pelasgi, the, ii. 2, 3.
Pelasgi in Attica, iii. 1, ix. 6.
-----Achaeans and Hellenes, ii. 8.
Pelasgic age, ii. 3.
Pelasgic language, ii. 9.
Pelasgus, king of Arcadia, iii. 28.
Pellene, xi. 5.
Pelopids, the, iii. 17.
Peloponnesus, Mountain chains in, i. 4.
-----Invaded by Dorians, iii. 3.
-----Legends of, iii. 14, foil.
-----Phoenicians in, ii. 14.
Penestae, x. 3.
Peneus, R., i. 6.
Pentheus at Thebes, iii. 8.
Periander, son of Cypselus, iii. 18, foil.
— Subdues Corcyra, xi. 14.
Perinthus, xi. 7.
Perseus, iii. 17.
Persia, rise of, xvi. 13.
-----Athenian embassy to, xv. 20.
-----Athenian envoys in, xv. 28.
Pheretima, wife of Battus in., xvi. 40. Phidon, king of Argos, vii. 4.
-----Coinage, weights, and measures of, vii. 5.
Philolaus at Thebes, x. 6.
Phlius, Dorian conquests of, iii. 10.
Phocians, the, x. 4.
Phocis, iii. 8.
Phoenicians, Moloch, god of the, i. 14.
-----in Acarnania, iii. 13.
-----in Greece, ii. 16.
-----in Sicily, xi. 10.
Phrixus, iii. 5.
Phronime, xi. 17.
Phrygians and Thracians, the, ii. 6.
-— Tombs of, ii. 12.
-----Account of, iv. 12.
Phthiotes, the, x. 3. Pisa, kings of, vii. 9. Pisatis, iii. 14.
-----Conquest of, by the Eleans, vii. 10.
Pisistratidae expelled from Athens, xiv. 11. Pisistratus, tyranny of, chap. xv.
-----Library of, xv. 14.
-----Edition of Homeric poems by, ibid,
-----Death of, xv. 15.   \.
Pittacus of Lesbos, xvi. 25. Plataea, xv. 20.
Poetry, Use of, in history, v. 20. Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, xvi. 30.
-----Empire, Buildings, Court of, ibid,
-----Story of the ring of, xvi. 31.
Poseidon, Worship of, in Thessaly, x. 8.
-----Homeric conception of, v. 44.
Prasias, Lake (in Paeonia), ii. 11.
548                                        INDEX /.
Priapus, iv. 14. Products of Greece, i. 10. Prytanies at Athens, xv. 24. Pythian Games, the, xiii. 4.
R
Rainfall in Greece, i. 13. Ransom of prisoners, xv. 20. Relations of Greeks and natives, iv. 19. Religion, influenced by climate, i. 14. -----Connection of, with history, ii. 1.
— Greek and Indian, ii. 10.     .  ¦ <a
-----Characteristics of Greek, ibid.
Rhegium, xi. 11.
Rhodes, Phoenicians in, ii. 14.
-----Account of, iv. 8.
Rivers of Greece, i. 6.
— Legends of, i. 7.
— Sacred, ibid.
— Controlled by artificial means, ibid.
s
Sacadas, vii. T.
Sadyattes, xvi. 5.
Salamis conquered by Athens, xiii. 1.
Samos, history of, xvi. 29, foil.
-----Persians in, xvi. 32.
Santorin, remains at, ii. 12.
Sappho, xvi. 24.
Sardis, iv. 13.
Scopadae, x. 3.
Sea, Influence of, on character, i. 14.
Seisachtheia, the, xiii. 7, 8.
Selinus, xi. 18.
Selli, the, ii. 8.
Selymbria, xi. 7.
Semele, in. 6.
Semitic elements in Greek myth of Heracles,
iii. 25. Seven against Thebes, iii. 8. Sibyls, iv. 14.
Sicily, Greek colonies in, xi. 10. Sicyon conquered by Dorians, iii. 8.
-----Le'gends of, iii. 19.
-----Tyrants at, xii. 3.
Silver in Greece, i. 10
Sinope, xi. 8.
Sithonia, xi. 5.
Smyrna conquered by Alyattes, xvi. 7.
Solon, chap. xiii.
-----Arrangement of the Council by, xv. 21.
Sparta, Dorians at, iii. 3. -----Position of, iii. 16.
Sparta, Legends of, ibid.
-----Early history of, vi. 1.
-----Rhetrae, the, vi. 4, 5.
-----Tribes, the, vi. 4.
-----Obes, ibid.
-----Theopompus, Changes under, vi. 0,
-----Ephors, the, ibid.; xiv. 2, 16.
-----King3 at Sparta, vi. 7 ; xiv. 16.
——Origin of dual monarchy, vi. 8.
-----Gerousia, vi. 9.
-----Assembly, vi. 10.
-----Constitution, Stability of, vi. U.
-----Education, vi. 12.
-----Phiditia, the, vi. 14.
-----Division of land, vi. 18.
-----Perioeci, the, vi. 19.
-----Helots, the, ibid.
-----Cryptea, the, ibid.
-----Mothakes, ibid.
-----Neodamodes, ibid.
-----Constitution compared to Cretan, xvi. 38.
Spartans, Defeat of, at Hysiae, viii. 12.
-----History of, in the sixth century, chap.
xiv. Spercheus, R., i. 6. Sphinx, the, iii. 8.
Springs and fountains in Greece, i. 7. Stenyclarus, iii. 3,15. Stone Age, Relics of, ii. 11. Strategi at Athens, the, xv. 25. Styx, R., i. 8. Sun myths, iii. 7. Sybaris, xi. 15. Syracuse, xi. 12.
T
Tarentum, xi. 15.
Tegea conquered by Sparta, xiv. 1, 2.
Temenids, the, iii. 17.
Temmices, ii. 7.
Tempe, Vale of, i. 6.
Ten, the Boards of, at Athens, xv. 25.
Terpander, viii. 11.
Tetrarchies in Thessaly, x. 3.
Teucri, an Aeolian tribe, iv. 11.
-----Invade Europe, iii. 1.
Thales of Miletus, xiii. 20; xvi. 17. Thaletas, viii. 11. Theagenes of Megara, xii. 20. Thebes founded by Cadmus, iii. 4J.
-----Phoenicians at, ii. 14.
-----Gates of, iii. 7.
-----At war with Athens for Plataea, xv. 20.
Theognis, the poet of Megara, xii. 21.
INDEX I.
549
Theogonia of Hesiod, the, z. 10. Thera, Prehistoric remains at, ii. 12.
-----Phoenicians in, ii. 14.
-----Dorian colonisation of, iv. 9.
Therasia, Remains at, ii. 12. Theseus, iii. 11.
Thesprotians, the, invade Thessaly, iii. 1 Thessalia, Myths of, iii. 5.
-----Account of, x. S.
Thessalus, son of Pisistratus, xv. 15.
Thracians, ii. 6.
Thrasybulus of Miletus, xii. 15, xri. 6.
Tiryns, iii. 17.
Tombs at Mycenae, ii. 12.
-----in Lycia, iv. 12.
Tradition a source of history, ii 1. Trapezus, xi. 8. Trees and plants sacred, i. 14. Tribes at Athens, xv. 21. Triphylia, a division of Elis, iii. 14. —— Conquest of, by Eleans, vii. lft.
Triphylia, Deities worshipped at, vii. 11. Troezen, iii. 21. Trojan War, the, iii. 26.
-----¦ Historical truth of legend of, ibid.
-----Compared with the Chanson de Boland,
iUd. Troy, iv. 11.
Tyndareus at Sparta, iii. 16. Tyrannies not lasting, xv. 15. Tyrants in Greece, the, xii. Tyrtaeus, viii. 13,16.
u
Uinta, ii. 15.
z
Zanele, Messeniana at, viii VL
Sethus, iii. 7.
Zeus Laphystius, iii. 5,
INDEX II.
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