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HISTORY  OF  GREECE; 


FROM   THE 


EARLIEST  PERIOD  TO  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  GENERATION 
CONTEMPORARY  WITH  ALEXANDER  THE  GREAT. 


BY  GEORGE  GROTE,  F.R.S., 

D.C.L.  OXON.  AND  LL.D.  CAMIi., 
VICE-CIIANCELLOB    OF    THE    UKIVEKSITr    OF    LONDON. 


A  A'EW  EDITION. 
IN  TWELVE  VOLUMES.- VOL.  III. 

WITH  PORTRAIT  AND  PLANS. 


LONDON: 

JOHN  MURRAY,  ALBEMARLE  STREET. 

18G9. 

The  right  of  Translation  is  reserved. 


PART  L—  LEGENDARY  GREECE. 


Octov  "(hoc,,  o?  xctXeovrat 
TipoTcp'/]  yevsY].  —  HESIOD. 


PART.  II— HISTORICAL  GREECE. 
IloAie;  jj,spo~cuv  dvOpuiKtov. — HOMER. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  III. 


PART  II— CONTINUATION  OF  HISTORICAL 
GREECE. 


CHAPTEE  IX. 

CORIXTH,    SlKYON,    AND    3MEOABA. — AGE    OF    THE    GRECIAN   DESPOTS. 

Pago  Page 

Early  commerce  and  enterprise  The  demagogue-despot   of  the 

of  the  Corinthians         . .       .  .  1          earlier  times   compared  with 

Oligarchy  of  the  Bacchiadse    ..  2         the  demagogue  of  later  times    21 

Early  condition  of  Megara     ..  ib.      Contrast    between    the    despot 

Early  condition  of  Sikyon      ..  4         and    the    early    heroic    king. 

Rise  of  the  despots ib.         Position  of  the  despot          .  ,    23 

Earliest    changes     of    govern-  Good     government    impossible 

ment  in   Greece       5         to  him      ,       .  .       .  ,     24 

Peculiarity  of  Sparta         .  .      . .  6      Conflict  between  oligarchy  and 
Discontinuance  of  kingship  in  despotism  preceded    that  he- 
Greece  generally 7          tween    oligarchy    and    demo- 
Comparison    witli     the    middle                 cracy          28 

ages  of  Europe       8      Early    oligarchies    included    a 

Anti-monarchical  sentiment  of  multiplicity  of  different  sec- 
Greece— Mr.  Mitford      . .       .  .  11         tions  and  associations  . .       .  .    ib. 
Causes  which  led  to  the  growth  Government    of  the  Geomori— 

of  that  sentiment 14         a   close   order   of  present   or 

Change  to  oligarchical  govern-  past  proprietors      29 

ment         15      Classes  of  the  people       ..      ..     30 

Such   change   indicates   an  ad-  Military  force  of  the  early  oli- 

vance  in  the  Greek  mind      ..  16          ^archies  consisted  of  cavalry     ib, 

Dissatisfaction  with  the  olignr-  Eise  of  the  heavy-armed  infan- 

chies— mode.-:    by    which    the  try  and  of  the    free    military 

despots  acquired  power        .  .  18          marine — both      unfavourable 

Examples 1!'          to  oligarchy 31 

Tendency  towards  a  better  or-  Dorian  states — Dorian  and non- 

ganised  citizenship        ..       ..  20          DoriaTi  inliabitants         ..       .  .    ib. 

Character   and  working    of  the  Dynasty  of  despots    at  Sikyon 

despots ib.         — the  Orthayoridw          ..      ..    {6. 

VOL.  III.  ft   2 


iv 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  III. 


CHAPTER  IX.—  continued. 


Page 

Violent  proceedings  of  Kleis- 
thenes  33 

Classes  of  the  Sikyonian  po- 
pulation   35 

Fall  of  the  Orthagoridae — state 
of  Siky6n  after  it  . .  . .  36 

The  Sikyonian  despots  not  put 
down  by  Sparta  37 

Despots    at   Corinth — Kypselus     39 


Pago 

Periander      40 

Great  power  of  Corinth  under 

Periander  43 

Fall    of  the  Kypselid   dynasty  ib. 

Megara — Theagenes  the  despot  43 

Disturbed  government  at  Me- 
gara— The  poet  Theognis  . .  44 

Analogy  of  Corinth,  Siky&n 

and  Megara 40 


CHAPTER  X. 


TONIC  PORTION  OP  HELLAS.— ATHENS  BEFOBE  SOLON. 


History  of  Athens  before  Drako 
— only  a  list  of  names  ..  ..  48 

No  king  after  Kodrus.  Life 
archons.  Decennial  archons. 
Annual  archons,  nine  in  num- 
ber   »&. 

Archonship  of  Kre&n,  B.  c.  683 
— commencement  of  Attic 
chronology  49 

Obscurity  of  the  civil  condi- 
tion of  Attica  before  Solon  50 

Alleged  duodecimal  division 
of  Attica  in  eaily  times  . .  ib. 

Four  Ionic  tribes  —  Geleontes, 
Hopletes,  -iEgikoreis,  Arga- 
deis 51 

These  not  names  of  castes  or 
professions  62 

Component  portions  of  the  four 
tribes  ib. 

The  Trittys   and  the  Naukrary    ib. 

The  Phratry  and  the  Gens      .  .     53 

What  constituted  the  gens  or 
gentile  communion  ..  ..  54 

Artificial  enlargement  of  the 
primitive  family  association. 
Ideas  of  worship  and  ancestry 
coalesce 57 

Belief  in  a  common  divine  an- 
cestor   58 

This  ancestry  fabulous,  yet 
still  accredited  59 

Analogies  from   other   nations     60 

Kouiau  and  Grecian  geutes    ..     64 


Eights  and  obligations  of  the 
gentile  and  phratric  brethren 

The  gens  and  phratry  after  the 
revolution  of  Kleisthen§s  be- 
came extra-political 

Many  distinct  political  com- 
munities originally  in  Athens. 
— Theseus 

Long  continuance  of  the  can- 
tonal feeling 

What  demes  were  originally 
independent  of  Athens.  — 
Eleusis  

Eupatridoe,  Geomori,  and  De- 
miurgi  

Eupatridre  originally  held  all 
political  power  

Senate  of  Areopagus 

The  nine  archons — their  func- 
tions .. 


68 


69 


Drako  and  his  la^ws 

Different  tribunals  for  homicide 

at  Athens    

Regulations     of   Drako    about 

the  Ephetae        

Local    superstitions    at  Athens 

about  trial  of  homicide 
Attempted   usurpation   by  Ky- 

l&n       

His    failure,    and    massacre    of 

his  partisans  by  order  of  the 

Alkma'Onids      

Trial  and  condemnation  of  the 

Alkm;e6nids      , 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  III. 

CHAPTER  X.— continued. 

Page 

Pestilence     and    suffering     at  EpimenidSs  visits  and  purifies 

Athens        85  Athens        87 

Mystic  sects  and  brotherhoods  His  life  and  character      ..      ..    88 

in    the    sixth    century     B.C.  Contrast   of  his   age   with  that 

Epimenid§s  of  Krete     ..      ..86  of  Plato ib. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

SOLONIAN    LAWS    AND    CONSTITUTION. 

Life,   character,    and  poems  of  the    previous   law  had  given 

Solon           90  rise      104 

War  between  Athens    and  Me-  Solon's  law  finally  settled  the 

gara  about  Salamis        ..      ..     91  question  —  no         subsequent 

Acquisition      of    Salamis      by  complaint  as  to  private  debts 

Athens        92  — respect     for    contracts    un- 

Settlement    of  the    dispute   by  broken  under  the  democracy  106 

Spartan  arbitration  in  favour  Distinction    made    in   an  early 

of  Athens 93  society   between    the    princi- 

State    of  Athens    immediately  pal    and    the     interest    of   a 

before  the  legislation  of  So-  loan — interest  disapproved  of 

Ion 94  in  toto         108 

Internal  dissension— misery  of  This  opinion  was   retained   by 

the  poorer  population  ..       ..     95  the  philosophers,  after  it  had 

Slavery  of  the  debtors— law  of  ceased  to  prevail  in  the  corn- 
debtor  and  creditor        ..       ..     96  munity  generally 114 

Injustice    and    rapacity    of  the  Solonian     Seisachtheia     never 
rich 97  imitated    at    Athens— money- 
General   mutiny  and    necessity  standard  honestly  maintained 
for  a  large  reform 98  afterwards         115 

Solon  made  archon,  and  invest-  Solon  is  empowered  to  modify 
ed    with    full   powers    of   le-  the  political  constitution     ..  117 
gislation ib.  His  census — four  scales  of  pro- 
He    refuses    to     make    himself  perty 118 

despot         99  Graduated  liability  to  income- 

His  Seisachtheia,  or  relief-law  tax,  of  the  three  richest  class- 

for  the  poorer  debtors  ..       ..  100  es,    one    compared    with   the 

Debasing  of   the  money-stand-  other 119 

ard       101  Admeasurement      of     political 

General  popularity  of  the  moa-  rights  and  franchises  accord- 
sure     after   partial     dissatis-  ing  to  this  scale— a  timocracy  121 
faction       103  Fourth  or  poorest    class  — exer- 

Different  statements  afterwards  cised  powers  only  in   assem- 

as  to    the  nature    and  extent  bly— chose     magistrates    and 

of  the  Seisachtheia         ..       ..    ,'ft,  held  them  to  accountability     16. 

Necessity  of  the  measure— mis-  Pro-boul  eutic  or  pre-consider- 

chievous   contracts   to  which  ing  Senate  of  Four  Hundred  122; 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  III. 

CHAPTER  XI.— continued. 


Page 

Senate  of  Areopagus— its  pow- 
ers enlarged  *&• 

Confusion  frequently   seen  be- 
tween Solonian  and  post-So- 
lonian  institutions         ..      ••  123 
Loose   language    of  the  Athe- 
nian orators  on  this  point  ..    »6. 

Solon  never  contemplated  the 
future  change  or  revision  of 
his  own  laws 125 

Solon  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  Athenian  democracy,  but 
his  institutions  are  not  de- 
mocratical  126 

The  real  Athenian  democracy 
begins  with  Kleisthenes  ..  128 

Athenian  government  after  So- 
lon still  oligarchical,  but  mi- 
tigated   129 

The  archons  still  continued  to 
be  judges  until  after  the  time 
of  Kleisthenes  130 

After-changes  in  the  Athenian 
constitution  overlooked  by 
the  orators,  but  understood 
by  Aristotle,  and  strongly 
felt  at  Athens  during  the  time 
of  Perikles  131 

Gentes  and  Phratries  under  the 
Solonian  constitutions— sta- 
tus of  persons  not  included 
in  them 133 

Laws  of  Solon 134 

The  Drakonian  laws  about  ho- 
micide retained  ;  the  rest  ab- 
rogated   ib. 

Multifarious  character  of  the 
laws  of  Solon:  no  appearance 
of  classification  135 

He  prohibits  the  export  of  land- 
ed produce  from  Attica,  ex- 
cept oil 136 

The  prohibition  of  little  or  no 
effect  137 

Encouragement  to  artisans  and 
industry ib. 

Power  of  testamentary  bequest 
—first  sanctioned  by  Solon  139 


Page 

Laws  relating  to  women         . .  140 

Regulations  about  funerals    . .    »&. 

About  evil-speaking  and  abu- 
sive language  142 

Rewards  to  the  victors  at  the 
sacred  games ib. 

Theft 143 

Censure  pronounced  by  Solon 
upon  citizens  neutral  in  a 
sedition 144 

Necessity  under  the  Grecian 
city-government,  of  some  po- 
sitive sentiment  on  the  part 
of  the  citizens  14S 

Contrast  in  this  respect  be- 
tween the  age  of  Solon  and 
the  subsequent  democracy  146 

The  same  idea  followed  out 
in  the  subsequent  Ostracism  ib. 

Sentiment  of  Solon  towards 
the  Homeric  poems  and  the 
drama  147 

Difficulties  of  Solon  after  the 
enactment  of  the  laws.  He 
retires  from  Attica  . .  . .  148 

Visits  Egypt  and  Cyprus        .  .    ib. 

Alleged  interview  and  conver- 
sation of  Solon  with  Croesus 
at  Sardis 149 

Moral  lesson  arising  out  of 
the  narrative 153 

State  of  Attica  after  the  Solo- 
nian legislation  154 

Return  of  Solon  to  Athens    ..    ib. 

Rise  of  Peisistratus 155 

His  memorable  stratagem  to 
procure  a  guard  from  the 
people  156 

Peisistratus  seizes  the  Akropo- 
lis  and  becomes  despot — cou- 
rageous resistance  of  Solon  157 

Death  of  Solon — his  character     ib. 

Appendix,  on  the  procedure 
of  the  Roman  law  respecting 
principal  and  interest  in  a 
loan  of  money  ICO 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  III. 


Vii 


CHAPTER  XII. 

ETJBOEA.— CYCLADES. 


Page 
The  islands  called  Cyclades       164 

Euboea         ib. 

Its  six  or   seven  towns — Chal- 

kis,  Eretria  &o 165 

How  peopled      166 

Early   power   of  Chalkis,    Ere- 
tria, Naxos,  &c 167 

Early  Ionic  festival  at  DSlos  ; 

crowded  and  wealthy  . .       . .  168 
Its  decline  about  560  B.O. — cau- 
ses thereof       169 

Homeric    hymn   to    the  Delian 


Apollo — evidence  as  to  early 
Ionic  life  170 

War  between  Chalkis  and  Ere- 
tria in  early  times — exten- 
sive alliances  of  each  ..  . .  ib. 

Commerce  and  colonies  of  Chal- 
kis and  Eretria — Euboic  scale 
of  money  and  weight  . .  . .  172 

Three  different  Grecian  scales 
—  jEginsean ,  Euboic,  and 
Attic — theirratio  to  each  other  ib. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

ASIATIC  IONIANS. 


Twelve  Ionic  cities  in  Asia   .  .  173 

Legendary  event  called  the 
Ionic  migration  ib. 

Emigrants  to  these  cities — di- 
verse Greeks ib. 

Great  differences  of  dialect 
among  the  twelve  cities  . .  176 

Ionic  cities  really  founded  by 
different  migrations  . .  . .  tb- 

Consequences  of  the  mixture 
of  inhabitants  in  these  co- 
lonies— more  activity — more 
instability  176 

Mobility  ascribed  to  the  Ionic 
race  as  compared  with  the 
Doric — arises  from  this  cause  ib. 

Ionic  cities  in  Asia — mixed 
with  indigenous  inhabitants  177 

Worship  of  Apollo  and  Arte- 
mis—  existed  on  the  Asiatic 
coast  prior  to  the  Greek  im- 
migrants—adopted by  them  ib. 

Pan-Ionic  festival  and  Amphi- 


ktyony  on  the  promontory 
of  Mykale  

Situation  of  Miletus— of  the 
other  Ionic  cities 

Territories  interspersed  with 
Asiatic  villages 

Magnesia  on  the  Maeander — 
Magnesia  on  Mount  Sipylus 

Ephesus— Androklus  the  (Ekist 
— first  settlement  and  distri- 
bution   

Increase  and  acquisitions  of 
Epliesus 

Koloph&n,  its  origin  and  his- 
tory   

Temple  of  Apollo  at  Klarus, 
near  Kolophon — its  legends 

Lebetlus,  Te&s,  Klazomensc,  &c. 

Internal  distribution  of  the  in- 
habitants of  Teos 

Erythra;  and  Chios 

KlazomensB— Phnkffia 

Smyrna        


178 
179 
ib. 
180 

LSI 

1?:; 


1-5 

ib. 

186 
187 
189 
fB. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


.TEouc  GREEKS  IN  ASIA. 

Twelve  cities  of  JKolic  Greeks  191      Kyme— the    earliest  as  well  as 
Their     situation— eleven     near  the     most     powerful    of    the 

together  on  the  Klu'itic  Gulf    ib.          twelve       193 

Legendary  vEolic  migration  ..  192      Magnesia  ad  Sipylum      ..      ..    it. 


viii 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  IIL 


CHAPTER  XIV.— continued. 


Page 

Lesbos        194 

Early    inhabitants    of   Lesbos 

before  the  JEolians       . .       . .  195 
2Kolie  establishments  in  the  re- 
gion of  Mount  Ida        . .      .  .  196 
Continental  settlements  of  Les- 
bos and  Tenedos t&. 

Ante-Hellenic    inhabitants    in 
the    region    of  Mount    Ida — 
Mysians  and  Teukrians         . .  197 
Teukrians  of  Gergis          ..      ..198 


Page 

Mityl6n8— its  political  dissen- 
sions— its  poets t&. 

Power  and  merit  of  Pittakus     199 
Alkseus    the     poet — his    flight 

from  battle 200 

Bitter  opposition  of  Pittakus 
and  Alkseus  in  internal  (po- 
litics   »&. 

Pittakus  is  created  JEsymnete, 
or  Dictator  of  Mitylgnd  . .  201 


CHAPTER  XV. 


Asiatic  Dorians— their  Hexa- 
polis  203 

Other  Dorians,  not  included 
in  the  Hexapolis 204 


Exclusion      of    Halikarnassus 
from  the  Hexapolis       . .      . . 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

NATIVES  OF  ASIA  MINOH  WITH  WHOM  THE  GREEKS  BECAME  CONNECTED. 


Indigenous  nations  of  Asia 
Minor— Homeric  geography  205 

Features  of  the  country  ..      ..  206 

Names  and  situations  of  the 
different  people  207 

Not  originally  aggregated  into 
large  kingdoms  or  cities  . .  tZ>. 

River  Halys — the  ethnographi- 
cal boundary.  Syro-Arabians 
eastward  of  that  river  .  .  ..  208 

Thracian  race — in  the  north  of 
Asia  Minor \b. 

Ethnical  affinities  and  migra- 
tions .  .  210 


Partial  identity  of  legends     .  .  211 
Phrygians   ..........  212 

Their  influence  upon  the  early 

Greek  colonists      ......  213 

Greek  musical  scale  —  partly 

borrowed  from  the  Phrygians  214 
Phrygian  music  and  worship 

among    the    Greeks    in    Asia 

Minor        ..........  215 

Character  of  Phrygians,  Lydi- 

ans,  and  Mysians  ......  216 

Primitive  Phrygian  king  or 

hero  Gordius  ........  219 

Midas  ............  i5. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

LYDIANS. — MEDES.— CIMMERIANS.— SCYTHIANS. 

Lydians — their    music  and   in-  Early  Lydian  kings          ..      ..  222 

struments         221  Kamlaules  and  Gyges      ..      . .    ib. 

They  and   their    capital  Sardis  The  Mermnad  dynasty  succeeds 

unknown  to  Homer      ..      . .    »6.         to  the  Hetakleid 223 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  III.  lx 

CHAPTER  XVII.— continued. 


-»8~  Pagfl 

Legend  of  Gyg8s  in  Plato      . .  223  Difficulties  in  the   narrative  of 

Feminine     influence     running  Herodotus        249 

through    the  legends  of  Asia  Cimmerians  in  Asia  Minor      . .  251 

Minor        224  Scythians  in  Upper  Asia.  .      . .  255 

Distribution  of  Lydia  into  two  Expulsion    of    these    Nomads, 

parts — Lydia  and  Torrhebia     225  after  a  temporary  occupation  256 

Proceedings  of  Gyges      .  .      .  .    t&.  Lydian    kings     Sadyattes    and 

His  son  and  successor  Ardya     226  Alyattes — war    against  MilS- 

Assyrians  and  Modes        . .       .  .    ib.         tus i&. 

First  Median  king— De'iokes  . .  229  Sacrilege    committed    by    Aly- 

His  history    composed    of  Gre-  attes — oracle — he  makes  peace 

cian  materials,  not  Oriental     230         with  MilStus 257 

Phraortes— Kyaxares         ..      ..232  Long  reign— death— and  sepul- 

Siege  of  Nineveh — invasion  of  chre  of  AlyattSs 258 

the  Scythians  and  Cimmerians  235      Cruesus          259 

The  Cimmerians         ib.  Ho    attacks    and   conquers  the 

The  Scythians 236         Asiatic  Greeks        ib. 

Grecian     settlements     on    the  "Want    of    cooperation     among 

coast  of  the  Euxine      .  .      . .  237         the  Ionic  cities      260 

Scythia  as  described  by  Hero-  Unavailing  suggestion  of  Tha- 

dotus        238  les— to      merge     the     twelve 

Tribes  of  Scythians          . .      . .  239  Ionic     cities    into    one    Pan- 
Manners  and  worship      ..       ..  241  Ionic  city  at  Teos          ..       ..  201 
Scythiansformidable  fromnum-  Capture  of  Ephcsus          ..       .  .    ib, 

bers  and  courage 243  Croesus     becomes     king    of   all 

Sarmatians . .      . .  244  Asia  westward  of  the  Halys  202 

Tribes    east    and   north   of  the  New    and    important    a?ra     for 

Palus  Mccotis           245  the  Hellenic  world— commen- 

Tauri  in  the  Crimea— Massagetse  246  oing    with    the    conquests  of 

Invasion  of  Asia  by  Scythians  Croesus      263 

and  Cimmerians 247  Action    of  the    Lydian   empire 

Cimmerians  driven  out  of  their  continued    on    a    still    larger 

country  by  the  Scythians     . .  248  scale  by  the  Persians   . .      .  .  2C4 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

PHENICJANS. 

Phenicians      and     Assyrians —  Pheuician  colonies — Utica,  Car- 
members    of   the   Semitic   fa-                thage,  Gadgs,  Ac 272 

inily  of  the  human  race        ..  2C5  Commerce    of    the    Phenicians 

Early     presence    of   Phenician  of  Gades— towards  Africa  on 

ships    in    the  Grecian    seas—  one  side   and  Britain    on  the 

in  the  Homeric  times   .  .       .  .  2C6          other          274 

Situation  and  cities  of  Phenicia  267  Productive    region    round    Ga- 

Phenician  commerce  flourished  des,  called  TartSssus     .  .       .  .  275 

more    in   the    earlier   than  in        '  Phenicians    and    Carthaginians 

the  later  times  of  Greece     ..  271  —the    establishments   of   the 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  III. 


CHAPTER 


Page 

latter  combined  views  of  em- 
pire  with  views  of  commerce  276 

Phenicians  and  Greeks  in  Si- 
cily  and  Cyprus  —  the  latter 
partially  supplant  the  former  277 

Iberia  and  Tartgssus  —  unvisi- 
ted  by  the  Greeks  before 
about  630  B.O  .......  278 

Memorable  voyage  of  the  Sa- 
mian  Kolaeus  to  Tartessus  279 

Exploring  voyages  of  the  Ph6- 
kseans,  between  630-570  B.C.  281 


.—  continued. 


Pago 

Important  addition  to  Grecian 
geographical  knowledge,  and 
stimulus  to  Grecian  fancy, 
thus  communicated  .  .  .  .  2S2 

Circumnavigation  of  Africa  by 
the  Phenicians  ......  283 

This  circumnavigation  was  re- 
ally  accomplished  —  doubts  of 
critics,  ancient  and  modern, 
examined  ........  284 

Caravan-trade  by  land  carried 
on  by  the  Phenicians  .  .  .  .  290 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

ASSYBIANS.—  BABYLON. 

Assyrians  —  their     name     rests 

chiefly    on   Nineveh   and  Ba- 

bylon        ..........  291 

Chaldseans  at  Babylon—  order 

of  priests          ........  292 

Their  astronomical  observa- 

tions         ..........  293 

Babylonia  —  its  laborious  culti- 

vation  and  fertility  ..  ..  295 
City  of  Babylon  —  its  dimen- 

sions  and  walls      ......  296 

Babylon  —  only  known  during 

the   time    of   its   degradation 

—  yet  even  then  the  first  city 

in  Western  Asia    ......  301 


Immense  command  of  human 
labour  possessed  by  the  Ba- 
bylonian kings  ......  303 

Collective  civilization  in  Asia, 
without  individual  freedom 
or  development  ......  304 

Graduated  contrast  between 
Egyptians,  Assyrians,  Phe- 
nicians,  and  Greeks  ..  ..  t'6. 

Deserts  and  predatory  tribes 
surrounding  the  Babylonians  t'6. 

Appendix,  'Nineveh  and  its 
Kemains',  by  Mr.  Layard  ..  300 


CHAPTER  XX. 


EGYPT 

Phenicians  —  the  link  of  com- 
merce  between  Egypt  and 
Assyria  ........  ^  308 

Herodotus  —  earliest  Grecian  in- 
formant  about  Egypt  ..  .  .  i&. 

The  Nile  in  the  time  of  Hero- 
dotus  ..........  309 

Thebes  and  Upper  Egypt  —  of 
more  importance  in  early 
times  than  Lower  Egypt,  but 
not  so  in  the  days  of  Hero- 
dotus  ..........  312 

Egyptian  castes  or  hereditary 
professions  ........  315 


IANS. 

Priests         ..........  315 

The  military  order    ......  31S 

Different  statements  about  the 

castes       ..........  317 

Large  town  population  ofEgypt  319 
Profound  submission  of  the 

people       ..........  320 

Destructive  toil  imposed  by 

the  great  monuments  ..  .  .  il 
Worship  of  animals  ..  ..  322 
Egyptian  kings—  taken  from 

different  parts  of  the  country  323 
Eelations  of  Egypt  with  As- 

syria         ..........  324 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  III. 


xi 


CHAPTER  XX.— continued. 


Egyptian  history  not  known 
before  Psammetichus  . .  . .  325 

First  introduction  of  Greeks 
into  Egypt  under  Psammeti- 
chus— stories  connected  with 
it  i&. 

Importance  of  Grecian  merce- 
naries to  the  Egyptian  kings — 
caste  of  interpreters  .  .  . .  326 

Opening  of  the  Kan6pic  branch 
of  the  Nile  to  Greek  com- 
merce— Greek  establishment 
at  Naukratis 327 

Discontents  and  mutiny  of  the 
Egyptian  military  order  . .  328 


Page 

Nek&s — son  of  Psammetichus 
— his  active  operations..  ..  330 

Defeated  by  Nebuchadnezzar 
at  Carchemisch  332 

Psammis,  son  of  Nek&s  Apries  333 

Amasis — dethrones  Apries  by 
means  of  the  native  soldiers  334 

He  encourages  Grecian  com- 
merce   335 

Important  factory  and  reli- 
gious establishment  for  the 
Greeks  at  Naukratis  . .  . .  ill. 

Prosperity  of  Egypt  under 
Amasis 338 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


DECLINE  OP  THE  I'HENICIANS.— GROWTH  OP  CAHTHAGE. 


Decline  of  the  Phenicians — 
growth  of  Grecian  marine 
and  commerce  339 

Effect  of  Phenicians,  Assyri- 
ans, and  Egyptians  on  the 
Greek  mind.  —  The  alphabet. 
—  The  scale  of  money  and 
weight  340 

The  gnomon— and  the  division 
of  the  day  341 


Carthage  342 

^ra  of  Carthage  i'Z». 

Dominion  of  Carthage  ..  ..  343 

Dido il>. 

First  known  collision  of  Greeks 

and  Carthaginians— Massalia  345 
Amicable  relations  between 

Tyre  and  Carthage        .,      ..    if>. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

\VESTEKN  COLONIES  OF  GREECE— IN  ETIRUS,  ITALY,  SICILY,  AND  GAUL. 


Early  unauthenticated  emigra- 
tion from  Greece 346 

Ante-Hellenic  population  of 
Sicily— Sikcls—Sikaus— Ely- 
mi — Phenicians  ..  ..  .  .  ib. 

CEnotria— Italia  347 

Pelnsgi  in  Italy          i&. 

Latins  —  (Enotrians  — Epirots  — 
ethnically  cognate  .  .  . .  348 

Analogy  of  languages — Greek, 
Latin,  and  Oscan 351 


Grecian  colonisation  of  ascer- 
tained date  in  Sicily — com- 
mences in  735  B.C. 

Cumre  in  Campania — earlier — 
date  unknown  

Prosperity  of  Cumte  between 
700-500  B.C 

Decline  of  Cumse  from  500  B.C. 

Kevolution— despotism  of  Aris- 
todemus  , ••  >• 


352 

353 


xil  CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  III. 

CHAPTER  XXII.— continued. 

Page  Pago 

Invasion  ofCumse  by  Tuscans  Epizephyrian  Lokri 375 

and  Samnites  from   the  inte-  Original    settlers     of    Lokri— 

'  rior ib.  their   character  and  circum- 

Kapid   multiplication    of  Gre-  stances 376 

cian   colonies   in   Sicily   and  Treachery  towards   the  indige- 

Italy,  beginning  with  735  B.C.  357         nous  Sikels 377 

Foundation  of  Naxos  in  Sicily  Mixture  of  Sikels  in  their  ter- 

by  TheoklSs 358  ritory — Sikel  customs  adopt- 

Spot    where    the    Greeks    first  ed i'5. 

landed  in  Sicily — memorable  Lokrian  lawgiver  Zaleukus    . .  378 

afterwards        ib.  Rigour    of   his    laws — govern- 

Ante-Hellenic   distribution    of  mer.t  of  Lokri         379 

Sicily        359     Rhegium i&. 

Foundation  of  Syracuse  ..       ..  360  Chalkidic  settlements   in  Italy 

Leontini  and  Katana        ..      . .  361  and  Sicily — Rhegium,  Zankle, 

Megara  in  Sicily       . .      . .      . .    ib.  Naxos,  Katana,  Leontini     . .  380 

Gela 362  Kaul&nia  and  Skylletium        . .    ib. 

Zankle ,      afterwards    Mess6n§  Siris  or  Herakleia 381 

(Messina)          ib.      Metapontium      382 

Sub-colonies — Akrae,Kasmenae,  Tarentum — circumstances  of  its 

Kamarina,  &c.         363         foundation      383 

Agrigentum,  Selinus,  Himera,  The  Parthenia: — Phalanthus  the 

&c t&.         oekist         384 

Prosperity      of      the     Sicilian  Situation  and  territory  of  Ta- 

Greeks       364         rentum 385 

Mixed  character   of  the   popu-  lapygians 387 

lation        366     Messapians         »'&. 

Peculiarity     of   the     monetary  Prosperity  of  the  Italian  Greeks 

and   statical   system,    among  between  700-500  B.C 388 

the      Sicilian      and      Italian  Ascendency  over  the  (Enotrian 

Greeks      ..      • ib.         population       389 

Sikels    and    Sikans    gradually  Krot&n    and   Sybaris— at    their 

hellenised         367  maximum  from  560-510  B.C.       390 

Difference  between  the  Greeks  The    Sybarites — their   luxury — 

in  Sicily  and  those  in  Greece  their  organisation,   industry, 

Proper       368          and  power       393 

Native     population    in    Sicily  Grecian  world  about  5CO  B.C. — 

not  numerous  enough  to  be-  Ionic   and  Italic  Greeks  are 

come  formidable  to  the  Greek  then     the     most     prominent 

settlers      370         among  Greeks         394 

Sikel  prince  Duketius      . .      . .    ib.  Consequences    of    the    fall    of 

Grecian   colonies    in   Southern  Sybaris 395 

Italy          371  Krotoniates  —  their    salubrity. 

Native  popu1  ation  and  territory  372  strength,  success  in  the  Olym- 

Sybaris  and  Krot&n          ..       ..  373          pic  games,  Ac :)98 

Territory  and    colonies   of  Sy-  Massalia ib. 

baris  and  Krot6n 374 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  III.  adii 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

GRECIAN  COLONIES  IN  AND  NEAR  EPIKCS. 

Page  Ambrakia  founded   by  Corinth    i&. 

Korkyra       399  Joint    settlements    by   Corinth 

Early   foundation    of  Korkyra  and  Korkyra 402 

from  Corinth 409  Leukas  and  Anaktorium          . .    ib. 

Eolations     of     Korkyra     with  Apollonia  and  Epidamnus      . .  404 

Corinth 401  Belations  between   these  colo- 

Relations  with  Epirus    ..      . .    ib.  nies— Commerce     ..      ..      ..  405 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

AKAKNANIANS. — EPIROTS. 

Akarnanians       403  Others,   with  the  Macedonians 

Their  social  and  political  con-  — impossible     to     mark    the 

dition        .409          boundaries       412 

Epirots — comprising    different  Territory  distributed  into    vil- 

tribes,  with  little  or  uo  eth-  lages — no  considerable  cities  413 

ideal  kindred          410  Coast    of  Epirus    discouraging 

Some  of  these  tribes  ethnically  to  Grecian  colonisation        .  .  414 

connected     with      those      of  Some  Epirotic  tribes  governed 

Southern  Italy        411  by  kings,  others  not     ..       ..  415 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

ILLYRIANS,  MACEDONIANS,  PAEONIANS. 

Different  tribes  of  Illyrians    ..  417  maic  Gulf,  between  the  Mace- 
Conflicts  and  contrast  of  Illy-  donians  and  the  sea      . .       .  .  429 

rians  with  Greeks 421     Frconians 431 

Epidamnus    and    Apollonia  in  Argeian  Greeks  who  established 

relation  to  the  Illyrians       . .  422  the  dynasty    of  Edessa — Per- 

Early  Macedonians 424          dikkas       432 

Their  original  seats 425  Talents    for    command     mani- 

General   view    of    the    country  fested    by     Greek    chieftains 

which    they    occupied  —  east-  over  barbaric  tribes       ..       ..  433 

ward  of  Pindus  and  Skardus     ib.  Aggrandisement  of  the  dynasty 

Distribution  and   tribes   of  the  of  Edessa — conquests    as  far 

Macedonians 427  as  the  Thermaic  Gulf,  as  well 

Macedonians    round    Edessa —  as  over  the  interior  Macedo- 

the   leading   portion    of    the  nians         434 

nation       428  Friendship  between  king  Amy  11- 

Pieriaus     and    Bottireans — ori-  tas  and  the  Peislstratids      . .  435 

ginally  placed  on  the  Ther- 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

THRACIANS  AND  GREEK  COLONIES  IN  THRACE. 

Thiacians — their  numbers    and  Many  distinct  tribes,  yet  little 

abode        436         diversity  of  character  ..       ..430 


xtv 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  III. 

CHAPTER  XXVI.— continued. 


Their  cruelty,  rapacity,  and 
military  efficiency  . .  . .  437 

Thracian  worship  and  character 
Asiatic 438 

Early  date  of  the  Chalkidic  co- 
lonies in  Thrace ib. 

Meth6ng  the  earliest  —  about 
720  B.C 439 

Several  other  small  settlements 
on  the  Chalkidic  peninsula 
and  its  three  projecting  head- 
lands   il. 

Chalkidic  peninsula  —  Mount 
Athos  440 

Colonies    in   Pall6n6,    or    the 


Pago 

westernmost     of     the    three 
headlands         440 

In  Sithonia,  or  the  middle  head- 
land           ib. 

In   the    headland    of    Athos — 
Akanthus,  Stageira,  &c.       . .  441 

Greek  settlements  east   of  the 
Strym&n  in   Thrace        . .       . .    i& 

Island  of  Thasus       442 

Thracian  Chersonesus       .  .      . .  443 

Perinthus,  Selymbria,  and  By- 
zantium     il>. 

Grecian    settlements     on     the 
Euxine,  south  of  the  Danube  444 

Lenmos  and  Imbros          ..      ,  .    ib 


CHAPTEE  XXVII. 


KYKENE  AND  BAEKA. — HESPEKIDES. 


First  voyages  of  the  Greeks  to 
Libya  445 

Foundation  of  Kyren§      . .      . .    ib. 

Founded  by  Battus  from  the 
island  of  Thera  446 

Colony  first  settled  in  the  island 
of  Platcea  —  afterwards  re- 
moved to  Kyreng 447 

Situation  of  Kyreng ib. 

Fertility,  produce  and  pros- 
perity   449 

Libyan  tribes  near  Kyr&no       .  .  450 

Extensive  dominion  of  Kyreng 
and  Barka  over  the  Libyans  451 

Connection  of  the  Greek  colo- 
nies with  the  Nomads  of 
Libya  453 

Manners  of  the  Libyan  Nomads  454 

Mixture  of  Greeks  and  Libyan 
inhabitants  at  Kyreng  .  .  .  .  455 

Dynasty  of  Battus  at  Kyrgng — 
fresh  colonists  from  Greece  456 

Disputes  with  the  native  Li- 
byans   457 

Arkesilaus  the  Second,    prince 


of  Kyrene— misfortunes  of 
the  city— foundation  of  Barka  453 

Battus  the  Third — a  lame  man — 
r-form  by  Demdnax  . .  . .  459 

New  immigration  —  restoration 
of  the  Battiad  Arkesilaus  the 
Third  461 

Oracle  limiting  the  duration  of 
the  Battiad  dynasty  . .  .  .  ib. 

Violences  at  Kyreng  under 
Arkesilaus  the  Third  . .  . .  462 

Arkesilaus  sends  his  sub- 
mission to  Kambyses  king  of 
Persia  ib, 

Persian  expedition  from  Egypt 
against  Barka  —  Pheretimg 
mother  of  Arkesilaus  ..  ..  463 

Capture  of  Barka  by  perfidy — 
cruelty  of  Pheretimg  .  ,  .  .  464 

Battus  the  Fourth  and  Arke- 
silaus the  Fourth— final  ex- 
tinction of  the  dynasty  about 
460-450  B.C ib. 

Constitution  of  Dem6nax  not 
durable  ,  ..465 


CONTENTS  OP  VOLUME  III.                                    xv 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

PAN-HELLENIC  FESTIVALS.— OLYMPIC,  PYTHIAN,  NEMEAN,  AND 
ISTHMIAN. 

Page  Page 

"Want   of   grouping   and  unity  Early  state  and  site  of  Delphi  474 

in  the  early  period  of  Grecian  Phokian  town  of  Krissa  . .      .  .  475 

history      466  Kirrha,  the  sea-port  of  Krissa    476 

New  causes  tending   to   favour  Growth  of  Delphi  and  Kirrha— 

union  begin   after  560    B.C. —  decline  of  Krissa 477 

no   general   war  between  776  Insolence     of     the    Kirrhseans 

and  500  B.C.  known  to  Thucy-  punished  by  the  Amphiktyons    Hi. 

dides          467  First  Sacred  War,  in  695  B.C.      479 

Increasing  disposition   to  reli-  Destruction  of  Kirrha. — Pythian 

gious,  intellectual  and  social  games  founded  by  the  Amphi- 

union        468          ktyons       ib. 

^Reciprocal  admission  of  cities  Nemeau  and  Isthmian  games      480 

to  the  religious   festivals    of  Pan-Hellenic  character  acquired 

each  other        469  by    all    the    four    festivals  — 

Early   splendour   of   the   Ionic  Olympic,   Pythian,    Nemean, 

festival  at  Delos— its  decline  470         and  Isthmian 482 

Olympic  games — their  celebrity  Increased  frequentation  of  the 

and  long  continuance  . .      .  .  471  other  festivals  in  most  Greek 

Their    gradual    increase  — new  cities  483 

matches  introduced       .  .      . .  472  All   other  Greek  cities,   except 

Olympic      festival  —  the      first  Sparta,  encouraged  such  visits  485 

which  passes  from  a  local  to  Effect   of  these    festivals   upon 

a  Pan-Hellenic  character     ..  474         the  Greek  mind 186 

Pythian  games  or  festival       ..    ib. 


HISTOEY  OF  GREECE. 


PART  II. 

CONTINUATION  OF  HISTORICAL  GREECE. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

CORINTH,  SIKYON,  AND  MEGARA— AGE  OF  THE 
GRECIAN  DESPOTS. 

I  HAVE  thus  brought  down  the  history  of  Sparta  to  the 
period  marked  by  the  reign  of  Peisistratus  at  Athens ;  at 
which  time  she  had  attained  her  maximum  of  territory, 
was  confessedly  the  most  powerful  state  in  Greece,  and 
enjoyed  a  proportionate  degree  of  deference  from  the  rest. 
1  now  proceed  to  touch  upon  the  three  Dorian  cities  on 
and  near  to  the  Isthmus — Corinth,  Sikyon,  and  Megara,  as 
they  existed  at  this  same  period. 

Even  amidst  the  scanty  information  which  has  reached 
us,  we  trace  the  marks  of  considerable  maritime  Early  com- 
energv  and  commerce  among  the  Corinthians,  as  me'ce  a.n<i 

.,      ,  ttl7,          , ,          .    ,   ,,  rm      ?          i    L-  enterprise 

iar  back  as  the  eighth  century  B.C,  Ihe  foundation  Of  the  co- 
ofKorkyra  and  Syracuse,  in  the  eleventh  Olym-  rintMans. 
piad,  or  7  34  B.C.  (of  which  I  shall  speak  farther  in  connexion 
with  Grecian  colonisation  generally),  by  expeditions  from 
Corinth  ,  affords  proof  that  they  knewhowto  turnto  account 
the  excellent  situation  which  connected  them  with  the  sea 
onbothsides  of  Peloponnesus.  Moreover  Thucydides,1  while 
he  notices  them  as  the  chief  liberators  of  the  sea  in  early 
times  from  pirates,  also  tells  us  that  the  first  great  improve- 
ment in  ship-building — -the  construction  of  the  trireme,  or 
ship  of  war,  with  a  full  deck  and  triple  banks  for  the  rowers 
— was  the  fruit  of  Corinthian  ingenuity.  It  was  in  the  year 

1  Thucyd.  i.  13. 
VOL. in.  2 


2  HISTOEY  OF  GREECE.  PACT  II. 

703  B.C.,  that  the  Corinthian  Ameinokles  built  four  triremes 
for  the  Samians,  the  first  which  those  islanders  had  ever 
possessed.  The  notice  of  this  fact  attests  as  well  the  im- 
portance attached  to  the  new  invention,  as  the  humble  scale 
on  which  the  naval  force  in  those  early  days  was  equipped. 
And  it  is  a  fact  of  not  less  moment,  in  proof  of  the  maritime 
vigour  of  Corinth  in  the  seventh  century  B.C.,  that  the 
earliest  naval  battle  known  to  Thucydides  was  one  which 
took  place  between  the  Corinthians  and  the  Korkyraeans, 
B.C.  664.1 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  the  line  of  Herakleid 
kings  in  Corinth  subsides  gradually,  through  a  seriesof  empty 
names,  into  the  oligarchy  denominated  Bacchiadae  or  Bac- 
oiigarchy  chiads,  under  whom  our  first  historical  know- 
of  the  Bac-  ledge  of  the  city  begins.  The  persons  so  named 
were  all  accounted  descendants  of  Herakles,  and 
formed  the  governing 'caste  in  the  city;  intermarrying  usu- 
ally among  themselves,  and  choosing  from  their  own  number 
an  annual  prytanis,  or  president,  for  the  administration  of 
affairs.  Of  their  internal  government  we  have  no  accounts, 
except  the  tale  respecting  Archias  the  founder  of  Syracuse,  - 
one  of  their  number,  who  had  made  himself  so  detested  by 
an  act  of  brutal  violence  terminating  in  the  death  of  the 
beautiful  youth  Aktseon,  as  to  be  forced  to  expatriate. 
That  such  a  man  should  have  been  placed  in  the  distin- 
guished post  of  (Ekist  of  the  colony  of  Syracuse,  gives  us 
no  favourable  idea  of  the  Bacchiad  oligarchy:  we  do  not 
however  know  upon  what  original  authority  the  story  de- 
pends, nor  can  we  be  sure  that  it  is  accurately  recounted. 
But  Corinth  under  their  government  had  already  become 
a  powerful  commercial  and  maritime  city. 

Megara,  the  last  Dorian  state  in  this  direction  east- 
Early  con-  ward,  and  conterminous  with  Attica  at  the  point 
dition  of  where  the  mountains  called  Kerata  descend  to 
Eleusis  and  the  Thriasian  plain,  is  affirmed  to 
have  been  originally  settled  by  the  Dorians  of  Corinth, 
and  to  have  remained  for  some  time  a  dependency  of  that 
city.  It  is  farther  said  to  have  been  at  first  merely  one  of 

1  Thycyd.  i.  13.  liast.  ad  Apollon.  Rhod.    iv.    1212, 

*  Plutarch,  Amator.  Narrat.  c.  2,  seem  to  connect  this  act  of  outrage 

p.  772;  Diodor.  Fragm.  lib.  viii.  p.  with  the  expulsion  of  theBacchiadre 

26.    Alexander   .?£tolu8    (Fragm.    i.  from  Corinth,  which  did  not    take 

6,  ed.  Schneidewin),  and  the  Scho-  place  until  long  afterwards. 


CITAP.  IS.      COKINTH,  SIKYON,  ETC.— THE  DESPOTS.  3 

five  separate  villages — Megara,  Heraea,  Peirsea,  Kynosura, 
Tripodiskus — inhabited  by  a  kindred  population,  and 
generally  on  friendly  terms,  yet  sometimes  distracted  by 
quarrels,  and  on  those  occasions  carrying  on  war  with  a 
degree  of  lenity  and  chivalrous  confidence  which  reverses 
the  proverbial  affirmation  respecting  the  sanguinary  char- 
acter of  enmities  between  kindred.  Both  these  two  state- 
ments are  transmitted  to  us  (we  know  not  from  what 
primitive  source)  as  explanatory  of  certain  current  phrases : ' 
the  author  of  the  latter  cannot  have  agreed  with  the  author 
of  the  former  in  considering  the  Corinthians  as  masters  of 
the  Megarid,  because  he  represents  them  as  fomenting 
wars  among  these  five  villages  for  the  purpose  of  acquiring 
that  territory.  Whatever  may  be  the  truth  respecting  this 
alleged  early  subjection  of  Megara,  we  know  it2  in  the 
historical  age,  and  that  too  as  early  as  the  fourteenth 
Olympiad,  only  as  an  independent  Dorian  city,  maintaining 
the  integrity  of  its  territory  under  its  leader  Orsippus  the 
famous  Olympic  runner,  against  some  powerful  enemies, 
probably  the  Corinthians.  It  was  of  no  mean  consideration, 
possessing  a  territory  which  extended  across  Mount  Ger- 
aneia  to  the  Corinthian  Gulf,  on  which  the  fortified  town 

1  The  first  account  seems  referred  57;    Pausan.   iv.     14,    3;    Tyrtaeus, 

to   Demon    (a   writer   on  Attic  ar-  Fragm.).     Pausanias  conceives  the 

chseology,    or   what    is    called    an  victory  of  the  Megarians  over  the 

'AT9</J6f  p3<?r^)  whose  date  is  about  Corinthians,    which   he    saw    com- 

280  B.C.     See  PhanodeTni,  DeTnoiiis,  memorated  in  the  Megarian  QTJCJO:U- 

C'litodemi,   atque     Istri,    'AT9iSiov,  pis   at  Olympia,    as   having   taken 

Fragmenta,  ed.  Siebelies,  Prsefatio,  place    before    the    first    Olympiad, 

p.     viii.-xi.).      It    is    given   as  the  when  Phorbas   was   life-archon  at 

explanation     of     the     locution  — 6  Athens :     Phorbas     is    placed     by 

Aio<;  KoptvOo?.  See  Schol.  ad  Pindar,  chronologers    fifth    in    the     series 

Nem.  vii.  ad  finem  ;  Schol.  Aristo-  from  Medon  son  of  Codrus  (Pausan. 

phan.    Ban.    440:    the    Corinthians  i.   39,    4;    vi.    19,    9).       The     early 

seem    to     have    represented    their  enmity  between   Corinth    and  Me- 

Eponymous  hero  as    son    of  Zeus,  gara  is  alluded  to  in  Plutarch,  De 

though   other  Greeks    did    not   be-  Malignitate  Herodoti,  p.  868,  c.  85. 

lieve  them  (Pausan.  ii.  1,  1).     That  The  second  story  noticed  in  the 

the  Megarians  were   compelled   to  text  is  given   by   Plutarch,   Quses- 

come  to  Corinth  for  demonstration  tion.      Grsec.    c.    17,    p.    295,   in  il- 

of  mourning    on    occasion    of  the  lustration    of  the   meaning   of  th" 

oecease  of  any  of  the  members  of  word  Aop'^svo?. 

the    Bacchiad    oligarchy,     is,    per-  2    Pausanias,    i.    44,   1,    and     the 

liaps,     a     story    copied     from     the  epigram  upon  Orsippus  in  Boeckh, 

regulation  at  Sparta  regarding  the  Corpus  Inscript.  Gr.  Xo.  1050,  with 

i'eriicki  and  Helots    (Herodot.    vi.  Boeckh's  commentary. 

B  2 


4  HISTORY  OF  GEEECE.  PART  II. 

and  port  of  Pegse,  belonging  to  the  Hegarians,  was  situated. 
It  was  mother  of  early  and  distant  colonies, — and  competent, 
during  the  time  of  Solon,  to  carry  on  a  protracted  contest 
with  the  Athenians,  for  the  possession  ofSalamis;  wherein, 
although  the  latter  were  at  last  victorious,  it  was  not 
without  an  intermediate  period  of  ill-success  and  despair. 

Of  the  early  history  of  Sikyon,  from  the  period  when 
Early  con-  &  became  Dorian  down  to  the  seventh  century 
dition  of  B.C.,  we  know  nothing.  Our  first  information 
Siky&n.  respecting  it,  concerns  the  establishment  of  the 
despotism  of  Orthagoras,  about  680-670  B.C.  And  it  is  a 
point  deserving  of  notice,  that  all  the  three  above-men- 
tioned towns, — Corinth,  Sikyon,  and  Megara — underwent 
during  the  course  of  this  same  century  a  similar  change  of 
government.  In  each  of  them  a  despot  established  himself: 
Orthagoras  in  Sikyon;  Kypselus  in  Corinth;  Theagenes  in 
Megara. 

Unfortunately  we  have  too  little  evidence  as  to  the 
Eise  of  the  state  of  things  by  which  this  change  of  govern- 
dospots.  ment  was  preceded  and  brought  about,  to  be  able 
to  appreciate  fully  its  bearing.  But  what  draws  our 
attention  to  it  more  particularly  is,  that  the  like  phenomenon 
seems  to  have  occurred  contemporaneously  throughout  a 
large  number  of  cities,  continental,  insular  and  colonial,  in 
many  different  parts  of  the  Grecian  world.  The  period 
between  650  and  500  B.C.  witnessed  the  rise  and  downfall 
of  many  despots  and  despotic  dynasties,  each  in  its  own 
separate  city.  During  the  succeeding  interval  between 
500  and  350  B.C.,  newdespots,  though  occasionally  springing 
up,  become  more  rare.  Political  dispute  takes  another 
turn,  and  the  question  is  raised  directly  and  ostensibly 
between  the  many  and  the  few — the  people  and  the  oli- 
garchy. But  in  the  still  later  times  which  follow  the  battle 
of  Chseroneia,  in  proportion  as  Greece,  declining  in  civic 
not  less  than  in  military  spirit,  is  driven  to  the  constant 
employment  of  mercenary  troops,  and  humbled  by  the 
overruling  interference  of  foreigners — the  despot  with  his 
standing  foreign  body-guard  becomes  again  a  characteristic 
of  the  time;  a  tendency  partially  counteracted,  but  never 
wholly  subdued,  by  Aratus  and  the  Achsean  league  of  the 
third  century  B.C. 

It  would  have  been  instructive  if  we  had  possessed  a 
faithful  record  of  these  changes  of  government,  in  some  of 


CHAP.  IX.  SIKYON.-MEGARA.  5 

the  more  considerable  of  the  Grecian  towns.  In  the  absence 
of  such  evidence,  we  can  do  little  more  than  col-   Earliest 
lect  the  brief  sentences  of  Aristotle  and  others   changes  of 
respecting  the  causes  which  produced  them.  For   m'ent^n 
as  the  like  change  of  government  was  common,   Greece, 
near  about  the  same  time,  to  cities  very  different  in  locality, 
in  race  of  inhabitants,  in  tastes  and  habits,  and  in  wealth, 
it  must  partly  have  depended  upon  certain  general  causes 
which  admit  of  being  assigned  and  explained. 

In  a  preceding  chapter  I  tried  to  elucidate  the  heroic 
government  of  Greece,  so  far  as  it  could  be  known  from 
the  epic  poems — a  government  founded  (if  we  may  employ 
modern  phraseology)  upon  divine  right  as  opposed  to  the 
sovereignty  of  the  people,  but  requiring,  as  an  essential 
condition,  that  the  king  shall  possess  force,  both  of  body 
and  mind,  not  unworthy  of  the  exalted  breed  to  which  he 
belongs.  *  In  this  government  the  authority,  which  per- 
vades the  whole  society,  all  resides  in  the  king.  But  on 
important  occasions  it  is  exercised  through  the  forms  of 
publicity:  he  consults,  and  even  discusses,  with  the  council 
of  chiefs  or  elders — he  communicates  after  such  consulta- 
tion with  the  assembled  Agora, — who  hear  and  approve, 
perhaps  hear  and  murmur,  but  are  not  understood  to  exer- 
cise an  option  or  to  reject.  In  giving  an  account  of  the 
Lycurgean  system,  I  remarked  that  the  old  primitive 
Rhetrse  (or  charters  of  compact)  indicated  the  existence  of 
these  same  elements;  a  king  of  superhuman  lineage  (in  this 
particular  case  two  coordinate  kings) — a  senate  of  twenty- 
eight  old  men,  besides  the  kings  who  sat  init-andanEk- 
klesia  or  public  assembly  of  citizens,  convened  for  the  pur- 
pose of  approving  or  rejecting  propositions  submitted  to 
them,  with  little  or  no  liberty  of  discussion.  The  elements 
of  the  heroic  government  of  Greece  are  thus  found  to  be 
substantially  the  same  as  those  existing  in  the  primitive 
Lycurgean  constitution;  in  both  cases  the  predominant 
force  residing  in  the  kings — and  the  functions  of  the  senate, 
still  more  those  of  the  public  assembly,  being  comparatively 
narrow  and  restricted:  in  both  cases  the  regal  authority 
being  upheld  by  a  certain  religious  sentiment,  which  tended 
to  exclude  rivalry  and  to  ensure  submission  in  the  people 
up  to  a  certain  point,  in  spite  of  misconduct  or  deficiency 

1    See    a    striking  passage  in  Plutarch,  Pr.t-cept.    Reipubl.    Gerend. 
c.   5,   p.  801. 


6  HISTOEY  OF  GBEECE.  PART  II. 

in  the  reigning  individual.  Among  the  principal  Epirotic 
tribes  this  government  subsisted  down  to  the  third  century 
B.C.,  l  though  some  of  them  had  passed  out  of  it,  and  were 
in  the  habit  of  electing  annually  a  president  out  of  the  gens 
to  which  the  king  belonged. 

Starting  from  these  points,  common  to  the  Grecian 
Peculiarity  heroic  government,  and  to  the  original  Lycurgeau 
of  Sparta,  system,  we  find  that  in  the  Grecian  cities  gener- 
ally the  king  is  replaced  by  an  oligarchy,  consisting  of  a 
limited  number  of  families — while  at  Sparta  the  kingly 
authority,  though  greatly  curtailed,  is  never  abolished. 
And  the  different  turn  of  events  at  Sparta  admits  of  being 
partially  explained.  It  so  happened  that  for  five  centuries 
neither  of  the  two  coordinate  lines  of  Spartan  kings  was 
ever  without  some  male  representatives,  so  that  the  senti- 
ment of  divine  right,  upon  which  their  pre-eminence  was 
founded,  always  proceeded  in  an  undeviating  channel.  That 
sentiment  never  wholly  died  out  in  the  tenacious  mind  of 
Sparta,  but  it  became  sufficiently  enfeebled  to  occasion  a 
demand  for  guarantees  against  abuse.  If  the  senate  had 
been  a  more  numerous  body,  composed  of  a  few  principal 
families,  and  comprising  men  of  all  ages,  it  might  perhaps 
have  extended  its  powers  so  much  as  to  absorb  those  of 
the  king.  But  a  council  of  twenty-eight  old  men,  chosen 
indiscriminately  from  all  Spartan  families,  was  essentially 
an  adjunct  and  secondary  force.  It  was  insufficient  even  as 
a  restraint  upon  the  king — still  less  was  it  competent  to 
become  his  rival;  and  it  served  indirectly  even  as  a  sup- 
port to  him,  by  preventing  the  formation  of  any  other  pri- 
vileged order  powerful  enough  to  be  an  overmatch  for  his 
authority.  This  insufficiency  on  the  part  of  the  senate  was 
one  of  the  causes  which  occasioned  the  formation  of  the 
annually  renewed  Council  of  Five,  called  the  Ephors;  ori- 
ginally a  defensive  board  like  the  Homan  Tribunes,  in- 
tended as  a  restraint  upon  abuse  of  power  in  the  kings, 
but  afterwards  expanding  into  a  paramount  and  unrespon- 
sible  Executive  Directory.  Assisted  by  endless  dissensions 
between  the  two  coordinate  kings,  the  Ephors  encroached 
upon  their  power  on  every  side,  limited  them  to  certain 
special  functions,  and  even  rendered  them  accountable  and 
liable  to  punishment,  but  never  aspired  to  abolish  the  dio-- 
nity.  That  which  the  regal  authority  lost  in  extent  (to 

1  Plutarch,  Pyrrh.  c.  5.    Aristot.  Polit.  v.  9,  1. 


CHAP.  IX.         GOVERNMENT  OF  SPARTA.  7 

borrow  the  just  remark  of  king  Theopompus !)  it  gained  in 
durability.  The  descendants  of  the  twins  Eurysthenes  and 
Prokles  continued  in  possession  of  their  double  sceptre 
from  the  earliest  historical  times  down  to  the  revolutions 
of  Agis  III.  and  Kleomenes  III. — generals  of  the  military 
force,  growing  richer  and  richer,  and  reverenced  as  well 
as  influential  in  the  state,  though  the  Directory  of  Ephors 
were  their  superiors.  And  the  Ephors  became  in  time 
quite  as  despotic,  in  reference  to  internal  affairs,  as  the 
kings  could  ever  have  been  before  them.  For  the  Spartan 
mind,  deeply  possessed  with  the  feelings  of  command  and 
obedience,  remained  comparatively  insensible  to  the  ideas 
of  control  and  responsibility,  and  even  averse  to  that  open 
discussion  arid  censure  of  public  measures  or  officers,  which 
such  ideas  imply.  "We  must  recollect  that  the  Spartan 
political  constitution  was  both  simplified  in  its  character 
and  aided  in  its  working  by  the  comprehensive  range  of 
the  Lycurgean  discipline  with  its  rigorous  equal  pressure 
upon  rich  and  poor,  which  averted  many  of  the  causes 
elsewhere  productive  of  sedition — habituating  the  proudest 
and  most  refractory  citizen  to  a  life  of  undeviating  obedience 
— satisfying  such  demand  as  existed  for  system  and  regu- 
larity— rendering  Spartan  personal  habits  of  life  much 
more  equal  than  even  democratical  Athens  could  parallel; 
but  contributing  at  the  same  time  to  engender  a  contempt 
for  talkers,  and  a  dislike  of  methodical  and  prolonged 
speech,  which  of  itself  sufficed  to  exclude  all  regular  inter- 
ference of  the  collective  citizens,  either  in  political  or  judi- 
cial affairs. 

Such  were  the  facts  at  Sparta.     But  in  the  rest  of 
Greece  the  primitive    heroic    government  was    Diaconti- 
modified  in  a  very  different  manner:  the  people   nuance  of 
outgrew,  much  more  decidedly,  that  feeling  of  in'Gree'ce 
divine  right  and  personal  reverence  which  ori-   generally, 
ginally  gave    authority  to  the  king.     Willing  submission 
ceased  on  the  part  of  the  people,  and  still  more  on  the  part 
of  the  inferior   chiefs;    and    with   it    ceased    the    heroic 
royalty.     Something  like  a  system  or  constitution  came  to 
be  demanded. 

Of  this  discontinuance  of  kingship,  so  universal  in 
the  political  march  of  Hellas,  one  main  cause  is  doubtless 
to  be  sought  in  the  smallness  and  concentrated  residence 

1  Aristot.  Polit.  v.  0,  1. 


8  HISTORI  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

of  each  distinct  Hellenic  society.  A  single  chief,  perpetual 
Compari-  and  unresponsible,  was  noway  essential  for  the 
son  w*ddi  maintenance  of  union.  In  modern  Europe,  for 
ages^o'f  '  the  most  part,  the  different  political  societies 
Europe.  which  grew  up  out  of  the  Roman  empire 
embraced  each  a  considerable  population  and  a  wide  extent 
of  territory.  The  monarchical  form  presented  itself  as  the 
only  known  means  of  union  between  the  parts;  the  only 
visible  and  imposing  symbol  of  a  national  identity.  Both 
the  military  character  of  the  Teutonic  invaders,  as  well  as 
the  traditions  of  the  Roman  empire  which  they  dismem- 
bered, tended  towards  the  establishment  of  a  monarchical 
chief.  The  abolition  of  his  dignity  would  have  been  looked 
upon  as  equivalent,  and  would  really  have  been  equivalent, 
to  the  breaking  up  of  the  nation ;  since  the  maintenance  of 
a  collective  union  by  means  of  general  assemblies  was  so 
burdensome,  that  the  kings  themselves  vainly  tried  to  exact 
it  be  force,  and  representative  government  was  then  un- 
known. 

The  history  of  the  middle  ages — though  exhibiting 
constant  resistance  on  the  part  of  powerful  subjects,  fre- 
quent deposition  of  individual  kings,  and  occasional  changes 
of  dynasty — contains  few  instances  of  any  attempt  to 
maintain  a  large  political  aggregate  united  without  a  king, 
either  hereditary  or  elective.  Even  towards  the  close  of 
the  last  century,  at  the  period  when  the  federal  constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  of  America  was  first  formed,  many 
reasoners  regarded '  as  an  impossibility  the  application  of 
any  other  system  than  the  monarchical  to  a  territory  of 
large  size  and  population,  so  as  to  combine  union  of  the 
whole  with  equal  privileges  and  securities  to  each  of  the 
parts.  And  it  might  perhaps  be  a  real  impossibility  among 
any  rude  people,  with  strong  local  peculiarities,  difficult 
means  of  communication,  and  habits  of  representative 
government  not  yet  acquired.  Hence  throughout  all  the 
larger  nations  of  mediaeval  and  modern  Europe,  with  few 
exceptions,  the  prevailing  sentiment  has  been  favourable 

1  See    this    subject    discussed   in  cussion— Letters  9,  10,  14,    by   Mr. 

the  admirable  collection  of  letters,  Madison. 

called    the   Federalist,    written    in  '•II    est    de    la   nature   d'une  rt- 

1787,    during    the    time    when    the  publique    (says    Montesquieu,    Es- 

federal  constitution  of  the  United  prit  des  Loix',    viii.  16)  de  n'avoir 

States  of  America  was   under  dis-  qu:un  petit   territoire:    gans    cela, 

eile  ne  pout  guere  subsister." 


CHAP.  IX.  LARGE  AND  SMALL  STATES.  i) 

to  monarchy ;  but  wherever  any  single  city  or  district,  or 
cluster  of  villages,  whether  in  the  plains  of  Lombardy  or 
in  the  mountains  of  Switzerland,  has  acquired  indepen- 
dence— wherever  any  small  fraction  has  severed  itself  from 
the  aggregate — the  opposite  sentiment  has  been  found,  and 
the  natural  tendency  has  been  towards  some  modification 
of  republican  government;1  out  of  which  indeed,  as  in 
Greece,  a  despot  has  often  been  engendered,  but  always 
through  some  unnatural  mixture  of  force  and  fraud.  The 
feudal  system,  evolved  out  of  the  disordered  state  of  Europe 
between  the  eighth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  always  pre- 
sumed a  permanent  suzerain,  vested  with  large  rights  of  a 
mixed  personal  and  proprietary  character  over  his  vassals, 
though  subject  also  to  certain  obligations  towards  them: 
the  immediate  vassals  of  the  king  had  subordinate  vassals 
of  their  own,  to  whom  they  stood  in  the  same  relation:  and 
in  this  hierarchy-  of  power,  property,  and  territory  blended 
together,  the  rights  of  the  chief,  whether  king,  duke,  or 
baron,  were  conceived  as  constituting  a  status  apart,  and 
neither  conferred  originally  by  the  grant,  nor  revocable  at 

•David  Hume,  in  his  Essay XV,  dred    absolute   princes,    great  and 

(vol.    i.  p.  159,   ed.  1760),   after   re-  small,   in   Europe;    and    allowing 

marking  "that  all  kinds  of  govern-  twenty    years    to    each    reign,    we 

ment,   free  and  despotic,    seem  to  may  suppose  that  there  have  been 

have   undergone   in   modern  times  in   the   whole   two    thousand    mo- 

(i.  e.  as  compared  with  ancient)  a  narchs   or   tyrants,   as    the   Greeks 

great    change   to  the  better,   with  would   have   called    them;    yet   of 

regard  both  to  foreign  and  domes-  these  there  has  not  been  one,   not 

tic  management, "proceeds  to  say:—  even   Philip   II.  of  Spain,    so   bad 

uBut  though  all  kinds  of  govern-  as    Tiberius,    Caligula,    Nero,   Do- 

ment  be  improved  in  modern  times,  mitian,    who  were   four   in  twelve 

yet  monarchical  government  seems  amongst  the  Koman  emperors.     It 

to  have  made  the  greatest  advances  must  however   be  confessed,    that 

towards   perfection.     It   may   now  though   monarchical    governments 

be  affirmed  of  civilized  monarchies,  have  approached  nearer  to  popular 

what  was  formerly    said  in  praise  ones   in   gentleness    and   stability, 

of  republics  alone,   that   they  are  they  are   still   much  inferior.     Our 

a  government  of  laws,  not  of  men.  modern  education  and  customs  in- 

They  are  found   susceptible  of  or-  stil  more  humanity  and  moderation 

fler,    method,    and   constancy   to  a  than  the  ancient,  but  have  not  as 

surprising    degree.       Property    is  yet  been  able  to  overcome  entirely 

there  secure:  industry  encouraged;  the  disadvantages  of  that   form  of 

the    arts  flourish;    and   the    prince  government." 

lives    secure    among  his    subjects,  *  See  the  Lectures  of  M.  Guizot, 

like  a  father   among  his  children.  Cours  d'Histoire   Moderne,    Le<;on 

There  are  perhaps,  and  have  been  30,  vol.  iii.  p.  167,  edit,  i  £9. 
for  two  centuries ,  near  two  hun- 


10  HI5TOEY  OF  GEEECE.  PART  IL 

the  pleasure  of  those  over  whom  they  were  exercised. 
This  view  of  the  essential  nature  of  political  authority  was 
a  point  in  which  the  three  great  elements  bf  modern 
European  society — the  Teutonic,  the  Roman,  and  the 
Christian — all  concurred,  though  each  in  a  different  way 
and  with  different  modifications;  and  the  result  was,  a 
variety  of  attempts  on  the  part  of  subjects  to  compromise 
with  their  chief,  without  any  idea  of  substituting  a  dele- 
gated executive  in  his  place.  On  particular  points  of  these 
feudal  monarchies  there  grew  up  gradually  towns  with  a 
concentrated  population,  among  whom  was  seen  the  remark- 
able combination  of  a  republican  feeling,  demanding  col- 
lective and  responsible  management  in  their  own  local 
affairs,  with  a  necessity  of  union  and  subordination  towards 
the  great  monarchical  whole ;  and  hence  again  arose  a  new 
force  tending  both  to  maintain  the  form,  and  to  predeter- 
mine the  march,  of  kingly  government.  1  And  it  has  been 
found  in  practice  possible  to  attain  this  latter  object — to 
combine  regal  government  with  fixity  of  administration, 

1  M.  Augustan  Thieiry  observes,  not  very   effective,    was  in  theory 

Lettres   sur   THistoire   de  France,  always  admitted:   their  name  was 

Lettre  xvi.  p.  255:  used   in  public   acts  and  appeared 

"Sans   aucun    souvenir    de  This-  upon    the     coin."  —  View     of    the 

toire    Grecque     ou   Komaine,     les  Middle  Ages,  Part  I.  ch.  3.  p.  346, 

bourgeois  des  onzieme  et  douzieme  sixth  edit. 

siecles,  soit  que  leur  ville  fut  sous  See  also  M.  Raynouard,  Histoire 

la  seigneurie  d'un  roi,  d'un  comte,  du    Droit    Municipal     en    France, 

d'un  due,  d'un  eveque  ou  d'uae  ab-  "Book    iii.   c  i.    12.    vol.   ii.    p.    lot-, : 

baye  allaient  droit  a  la  republique:  "Cette     separation     essentielle     et 

mais  la  reaction  du  pouvoir  6tabli  fondameutale   entre   les  actes,    les 

les  rejetait  souvent  en  arridre.    Du  agens    du     gouvernement— et    les 

balancement    de    ces    deux   forces  actes,  les  agens  de  I'adininistration 

opposfies    resultait    pour    la    ville  locale    pour   les   affaires   locales— 

une  sorte  de  gouvernement  mixte,  cette  demarcation   politique,   dout 

et  c'est  ce  qui  arriva,  en  g6ne>al,  1'empire  Romain  avoit  donn6  1'ex- 

dans  le  nord  de  la  France,  comme  emple,    et    qui   concilioit   le   gou- 

le    prouvent   les    chartes   de   com-  vernement   monarchique   avec  une 

mime."  administration      populaire— conti- 

Even    among    the  Italian  cities,  nua   plus    ou  moins  expresse'ment 

which  became   practically  self-go-  sous  lea  trois  dynasties." 

verning,    and  produced  despots  as  M.    Raynouard    presses    too    far 

many  in  number    and  as  unprinci-  his  theory  of   the    continuous  pre- 

pk'd    in  character    as    the  Grecian  servation  of  the  municipal  powers 

(I  shall  touch  upon  this   compari-  in  towns  from    the  Roman  empire 

son    more   largely    hereafter),    Mr.  down  to  the  third  French  dynasty  ; 

Ilallam  observes,  that  "the  sever-  but  into  this  question  it  is  not  ne- 

eignty    of    the    emperors,     though  cessary   for  my   purpose    to  enter. 


CHAP.  IX.    ANTI-MONAKCHICAL  SENTIMENT  OF  GBEECE.         11 

equal  law  impartially  executed,  security  to  person  and 
property,  and  freedom  of  discussion  under  representative 
forms, — in  a  degree  which  the  wisest  ancient  Greek  would 
have  deemed  hopeless.1  Such  an  improvement  in  the 
practical  working  of  this  species  of  government,  speaking 
always  comparatively  with  the  kings  of  ancient  times  in 
Syria,  Egypt,  Judaea,  the  Grecian  cities,  and  Home, — 
coupled  with  the  increased  force  of  all  established  routine, 
and  the  greater  durability  of  all  institutions  and  creeds 
which  have  obtained  footing  throughout  any  wide  extent 
of  territory  and  people — has  caused  the  monarchical  senti- 
ment to  remain  predominant  in  the  European  mind  (though 
not  without  vigorous  occasional  dissent)  throughout  the 
increased  knowledge  and  the  enlarged  political  experience 
of  the  last  two  centuries. 

It  is  important  to  show  that  the  monarchical  institutions 
and  monarchical  tendencies  prevalent  through-    Anti-mo- 
out  mediaeval  and  modern  Europe  have  been   narchicai 
both  generated  and  perpetuated  by  causes  pecu-   ^Greece— 
liar  to   those  societies,  whilst  in  the  Hellenic    Mr.  MH- 
societies   such  causes  hud  no  place — in    order   f 
that  we  may  approach  Hellenic  phaenomena  in  the  proper 
spirit,  and  with  an  impartial  estimate  of  the  feeling  universal 
among  Greeks  towards  the  idea  of  a  king.     The  primitive 
sentiment  entertained  towards  the  heroic  king  died  out, 
passing  first  into  indifference,  next — after  experience   of 
the  despots — into  determined  antipathy. 

To  an  historian  like  Mr.  Mitford,  full  of  English  ideas 
respecting  government,  tliis  anti-monarchical  feeling  appears 
of  the  nature  of  insanity,  and  the  Grecian  communities 
like  madmen  without  a  keeper:  while  the  greatest  of  ail 
benefactors  is  the  hereditary  king  who  conquers  them  from 
without — the  second  best  is  the  home  despot  who  sdzes 
the  acropolis  and  puts  iris  fellow-citizens  under  coercion. 

1  In  reference  to  the  Italian  re-  voulu  choisir  uri  maitre,  mais  sen- 
publics  of  the  middle  ayes,  M.  Sis-  lenient  un  protecteur  coiitrc  le.s 
raondi  observes,  speaking  of  Phi-  nobles,  un  cupitame  des  gens  do 
lip  della Torre,  denominated signor  guerre,  et  un  chef  de  la  justice. 
by  the  people  of  Goino,  Verculli  Inexperience  1  ui  appiit  trop  tard, 
and  Bergamo,  "Dans  cos  villes,  que  ces  prerogatives  reunies  con- 
non  plus  que  dans  cclles  que  son  stituoient  un  souveraiii."— Repu- 


12  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAET  II. 


There  cannot  be  a  more  certain  way  of  misinterpreting 
distorting  Grecian  phenomena  than  to  read  them  in 


and 
this 

spirit,  which  reverses  the  maxims  both  of  prudence  and 
morality  current  in  the  ancient  world.  The  hatred  of  kings 
as  it  stood  among  the  Greeks  (whatever  may  be  thought 
about  a  similar  feeling  now)  was  a  pre-eminent  virtue, 
flowing  directly  from  the  noblest  and  wisest  part  of  their 
nature.  It  was  a  consequence  of  their  deep  conviction  of 
the  necessity  of  universal  legal  restraint;  it  was  a  direct 
expression  of  that  regulated  sociality  which  required  the 
control  of  individual  passion  from  every  one  without 
exception,  and  most  of  all  from  him  to  whom  power  was 
confided.  The  conception  which  the  Greeks  formed  of  an 
unresponsible  One,  or  of  a  king  who  could  do  no  wrong, 
may  be  expressed  in  the  pregnant  words  of  Herodotus:1 
"He  subverts  the  customs  of  the  country:  he  violates  women: 
he  puts  men  to  death  without  trial."  No  other  conception 
of  the  probable  tendencies  of  kingship  was  justified  either 
by  a  general  knowledge  of  human  nature,  or  by  political 
experience  as  it  stood  from  Solon  downward:  no  other 
feeling  than  abhorrence  could  be  entertained  for  the  charac- 
ter so  conceived:  no  other  than  a  man  of  unprincipled 
ambition  would  ever  seek  to  invest  himself  with  it. 

Our  larger  political  experience  has  taught  us  to  modify 
this  opinion,  by  showing  that  under  the  conditions  of 
monarchy  in  the  best  governments  of  modern  Europe  the 
enormities  described  by  Herodotus  do  not  take  place — and 
that  it  is  possible,  by  means  of  representative  constitutions 
acting  under  a  certain  force  of  manners,  customs,  and 
historical  recollection,  to  obviate  many  of  the  mischiefs 
likely  to  flow  from  proclaiming  the  duty  of  peremptory 
obedience  to  an  hereditary  and  unresponsible  king,  who 
cannot  be  changed  without  extra-constitutional  force.  But 
such  larger  observation  was  not  open  to  Aristotle,  the 
wisest  as  well  as  the  most  cautious  of  ancient  theorists; 
nor  if  it  had  been  open,  could  he  have  applied  with  assu- 
rance its  lessons  to  the  governments  of  the  single  cities  of 
Greece.  The  theory  of  a  constitutional  king,  especially, 
as  it  exists  in  England,  would  have  appeared  to  him  im- 
practicable: to  establish  a  king  who  will  reign  without 
governing — in  whose  name  all  government  is  carried  on, 

'  Herod,  iii.  80.     Nojxaid    t»  xivsi  TiaTpic*,  xai  i'-Ud-rcu  fuvaTxac;,    xTsivei 


CHAP.  IX.    HATRED  OF  MOXARCHS  AMONG  THE  GREEKS.        13 

yet  whose  personal  will  is  in  practice  of  little  or  no  effect 
— exempt  from  all  responsibility,  without  making  use  of 
the  exemption — receiving  from  every  one  unmeasured 
demonstrations  of  homage,  which  are  never  translated  into 
act  except  within  the  bounds  of  a  known  law — surrounded 
with  all  the  paraphernalia  of  power,  yet  acting  as  a  passive 
instrument  in  the  hands  of  ministers  marked  out  for  his 
choice  by  indications  which  he  is  not  at  liberty  to  resist. 
This  remarkable  combination  of  the  fiction  of  superhuman 
grandeur  and  licence  with  the  reality  of  an  invisible  strait- 
waistcoat,  is  what  an  Englishman  has  in  his  mind  when  he 
speaks  of  a  constitutional  king.  The  events  of  our  history 
have  brought  it  to  pass  in  England,  amidst  an  aristocracy 
the  most  powerful  that  the  world  has  yet  seen — but  we 
have  still  to  learn  whether  it  can  be  made  to  exist  else- 
where, or  whether  the  occurrence  of  a  single  king,  at  once 
able,  aggressive,  and  resolute,  may  not  suffice  to  break  it 
up.  To  Aristotle,  certainly,  it  could  not  have  appeared 
otherwise  than  unintelligible  and  impracticable:  not  likely 
even  in  a  single  case — but  altogether  inconceivable  as  a 
permanent  system  and  with  all  the  diversities  of  temper 
inherent  in  the  successive  members  of  an  hereditary  dynasty. 
When  the  Greeks  thought  of  a  man  exempt  from  legal 
responsibility,  they  conceived  him  as  really  and  truly  such, 
in  deed  as  well  as  in  name,  with  a  defenceless  community 
exposed  to  his  oppressions;  and  their  fear  and  hatred  of 
him  was  measured  by  their  reverence  for  a  government  of 
equal  law  and  free  speech,1  with  the  ascendency  of  which 

1    Euripides       (Supplices,      429)      The  person  called  "a  king  accord- 
states  plainly  the  idea  of  a  -rupotv-      ing    to  law"  is,   in   his  judgement, 

o  king  at  all:  '0  ij.k->  ydp  xa-i 
op-ov  >.3Yrj|J--voi;  fiasiXj'jc;  o'jx  s~iv 
IOO;  xaOa^jp  SIT:O|AEV  paaO.sia;  (iii. 

11,    1). 

Respecting      ISOVO|A'.TJ,      br/ppir,, 
nopprjola— equal    laws     and    equal 
et?,     TOV    vifj.cn      speech — as   opposed    to  monarci  y, 
x£XTr]ujvo<;  see    Herodot.     iii.    142,    v.     7S — ',  2 : 

Ay-ro:  rap'    a>j-<|>.  Thucyd.     iii.     62;    Demosthon.     ad 

Compare  Soph.  Antigon.  737.  See  Leptin.  c.  C.  p.  461;  Eurip.  Ion. 
also  the  discussion  in  Aristot.  Polit.  671. 

iii.  sect.  10  and  11,  in  which  the  Of  Timoleon  it  was  stated,  as  p. 
rule  of  the  king  is  discussed  in  part  of  the  grateful  vote  pas-el 
comparison  with  the  government  after  his  death  hy  the  Syracu^an 
of  laws;  compare  also  iv,  8,  2—3.  assembly— ?Tt  TOU?  Tupiwou;  •/.-+-•;.- 


14  HISTOKY  Or  GREECE.  PA&T  II. 

their  whole  hopes  of  security  were  associated, — in  the 
democracy  of  Athens  more  perhaps  than  in  any  other 
portion  of  Greece.  And  this  feeling,  as  it  was  one  of  the 
best  in  the  Greek  mind,  so  it  was  also  one  of  the  most 
widely  spread, — a  point  of  unanimity  highly  valuable  amidst 
so  many  points  of  dissension.  We  cannot  construe  or 
criticise  it  by  reference  to  the  feelings  of  modern  Europe, 
still  less  to  the  very  peculiar  feelings  of  England,  respecting 
kingship:  and  it  is  the  application,  sometimes  explicit  and 
sometimes  tacit,  of  this  unsuitable  standard,  which  renders 
Mr.  Mitford's  appreciation  of  Greek  politics  so  often  in- 
correct and  unfair. 

When  we  try  to  explain  the  course  of  Grecian  affairs, 
Causes  110^  fr°m  *ne  circumstances  of  other  societies, 
•which  but  from  those  of  the  Greeks  themselves,  we 

1rtwthtof  shall  see  good  reason  for  the  discontinuance  as 
that  sen-  '  well  as  for  the  dislike  of  kingship.  Had  the  Greek 
timent.  mind  been  as  stationary  and  unimproving  as  that 
of  the  Orientals,  the  discontent  with  individual  kings  might 
have  led  to  no  other  change  than  the  deposition  of  a  bad 
king  in  favour  of  one  who  promised  to  be  better,  without 
ever  extending  the  views  of  the  people  to  any  higher  con- 
ception than  that  of  a  personal  government.  But  the  Greek 
mind  was  of  a  progressive  character,  capable  of  conceiving 
and  gradually  of  realizing  amended  social  combinations. 
Moreover  it  is  in  the  nature  of  things  that  any  government 
— regal,  oligarchical  or  democratical — which  comprises 
only  a  single  city,  is  far  less  stable  than  if  it  embraced  a 
wider  surface  and  a  larger  population.  When  that  semi- 
religious  and  mechanical  submission,  which  made  up  for 
the  personal  deficiencies  of  the  heroic  king,  became  too 
feeble  to  serve  as  a  working  principle,  the  petty  prince 
was  in  too  close  contact  with  his  people,  and  too  humbly 
furnished  out  in  every  way,  to  get  up  a  prestige  or  delusion 
of  any  other  kind.  He  had  no  means  of  overawing  their 
imaginations  by  that  combination  of  pomp,  seclusion,  and 
mystery,  which  Herodotus  and  Xenophon  so  well  appreciate 
among  the  artifices  of  kingcraft.1  As  there  was  no  new 

>.'!>m,  — -j-  =  ^ur/.;  T  o  >'j  c -<Q  PL  r, 'j  c  TV.!;  '  See  the  account  ofDeiokes  the 

2t?.e).iu>72i«.     (Plutarch    Timoleon,  first  Median  king  in  Herodotus,  i. 

c.  30.)  9S,  evidently  an  outline   drawn  by 

See  Karl  Fried.  Hermann,  Griech.  Grecian     imagination  :      also      tho 

Stciatsalterthiimer,    sect.    61  —  G5.  Cyropa?dia    of    Xenophon,    viii.   1, 


CHAP.  IX.  EARLY  OLIGARCHIES  IN  GREECE.  15 

feeling  upon  which  a  perpetual  chief  could  rest  his  power, 
so  there  was  nothing  in  the  circumstances  of  the  community 
which  rendered  the  maintenance  of  such  a  dignity  necessary 
for  visible  and  effective  union.1  In  a  single  city,  and  a 
small  circumjacent  community,  collective  deliberation  and 
general  rules,  with  temporary  and  responsible  magistrates, 
were  practicable  without  difficulty. 

To  maintain  an  unresponsible  king,  and  then  to  con- 
trive accompaniments  which  shall  extract  from  him  the 
benefits  of  responsible  government,  is  in  reality  a  highly 
complicated  system,  though,  as  has  been  remarked,  we  have 
become  familiar  with  it  in  modern  Europe.  The  more 
simple  and  obvious  change  is,  to  substitute  one  or  more 
temporary  and  responsible  magistrates  in  place  of  the  king 
himself.  Such  was  the  course  which  affairs  took  in  Greece. 
The  inferior  chiefs,  who  had  originally  served  as  council 
to  the  king,  found  it  possible  to  supersede  him,  and  to 
alternate  the  functions  of  administration  among  themselves; 
retaining  probably  the  occasional  convocation  of  the  general 
assembly,  as  it  had  existed  before,  and  with  as  little  prac- 
tical efficacy.  Such  was  in  substance  the  character  of  that 
mutation  which  occurred  generally  throughout  the  Grecian 
states,  with  the  exception  of  Sparta:  kingship 

Change  to  ;  .   ,.   ,       ,  ,       *-        -..  i     •.         i 

oligarch!-  was  abolished,  and  an  oligarchy  took  its  place 
eai  govern-  — a  council  deliberating  collectively,  deciding 
general  matters  by  the  majority  of  voices,  and 
selecting  some  individuals  of  their  own  body  as  temporary 
and  accountable  administrators.  It  was  always  an  oligarchy 
which  arose  on  the  defeasance  of  the  heroic  kingdom.  The 
age  of  democratical  movement  was  yet  far  distant,  and  the 
condition  of  the  people — the  general  body  of  freemen — 
was  not  immediately  altered,  either  for  better  or  worse, 
by  the  revolution.  The  small  number  of  privileged  persons, 
among  whom  the  kingly  attributes  were  distributed  and 
put  in  rotation,  were  those  nearest  in  rank  to  the  king 
himself;  perhaps  members  of  the  same  large  gens  with  him. 

40;    viii.   3,  1—14;    vii.  5,    37  ....  and  Sciences,  p.  I9S,  ed.  17(10.     The 

o'i  roorqi  (Aovcjj  ev6|xi£e  (Kupos)  xpijvai  effects    of  the   greater   or   less  ex- 

TV'JI;   Sp/ov-ra;    TOJV    apjrofi^'HOM    en-  tent  of  territory,  upon  the    nnture 

'firiti-i    7tj!     psXttova?    a-jTUjv    ei-m,  of  the  government,    are   also    well 

i),),a  xai  x7T'/YOT,TS'J3iv  OJETO  jrpfjvoti  discussed   in  Destutt  Tracy,    Com- 

auTO'j;,  &c.  mentaire  sur  1'Esprit    des  Loix  do 

1  David    Hume,    Essay  xvii.     On  Montesquieu,  ch.  viii. 
the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Arts 


16  HISTOEY  OF  GREECE.  FART  IL 

and  pretending  to  a  common  divine  or  heroic  descent.  As 
far  as  we  can  make  out,  this  change  seems  to  have  taken 
place  in  the  natural  course  of  events  and  without  violence. 
Sometimes  the  kingly  lineage  died  out  and  was  not  re- 
placed; sometimes,  on  the  death  of  a  king,  his  son  and  suc- 
cessor was  acknowledged1  only  as  archon — or  perhaps  set 
aside  altogether  to  make  room  for  a  Prytanis  or  president 
out  of  the  men  of  rank  around. 

At  Athens,  we  are  told  that  Kodrus  was  the  last  king 
and  that  his  descendants  were  recognised  only  as  archons 
for  life.  After  some  years,  the  archons  for  life  were 
replaced  by  archons  for  ten  years,  taken  from  the  body  of 
Eupatridse  or  nobles;  subsequently,  the  duration  of  the 
archonship  was  further  shortened  to  one  year.  At  Corinth, 
the  ancient  kings  are  said  to  have  passed  in  like  manner 
into  the  oligarchy  of  the  Bacchiadse,  out  of  whom  an  annual 
Prytanis  was  chosen.  We  are  only  able  to  make  out  the 
general  fact  of  such  a  change,  without  knowing  how  it  was 
brought  about — our  first  historical  acquaintance  with  the 
Grecian  cities  beginning  with  these  oligarchies. 

Such  oligarchical  governments,  varying  in  their  details 
Such  kut  analogous  in  general  features,  were  common 

change  in-  throughout  the  cities  of  Greece  Proper  as  well 
advance  "in  as  °^  *ne  c°l°nies>  throughout  the  seventh  cen- 
the  Greek  tury  B.C.  Though  they  had  little  immediate 
Imnd-  tendency  to  benefit  the  mass  of  the  freemen,  yet 

when  we  compare  them  with  the  antecedent  heroic  govern- 
ment, they  indicate  an  important  advance — the  first  adoption 

1  Aristot.  Polit.  iii.  6—7;  iii.  10,  rection  et  des  franchises  muni- 

7—8.  cipales  accordees.  Quelque  face 

M.  Augustin  Thierry  remarks,  du  proble^ne  qu'on  envisage,  il 
in  a  similar  spirit,  that  the  great  reste  bien  eutendu  que  les  con- 
political  change,  common  to  so  stitutions  urbaines  du  xii.  et  du 
large  a  portion  of  mediaeval  Europe  xiii.  siecle,  comme  toute  espece 
in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  cen-  d'institutions  politiques  dans  tous 
turieswhereby  the  many  different  les  temps,  ont  pu  s'e'tablir  a  force 
communes  or  city  constitutions  ouverte,  s'octroyer  de  guerre  lasse 
vrere  formed,  was  accomplished  ou  de  plein  gr<5,  etre  arrach6es  ou 
under  great  varieties  of  manner  sollicitdes,  vendues  ou  donn£es 
and  circumstances;  sometimes  by  gratuitement :  les  grandes  r£volu- 
violence,  sometimes  by  harmonious  tions  sociales  s'accomplissent  par 
accord.  tous  ces  moyens  a.  la  fois." — (Aug. 

"C'est  une  controverse  qui  doit  Thierry,  Re'cits  des  Temps  M6ro- 

finir,  que  celle  des  franchises  vingiens,  Preface,  p.  19,  2de  6dit.) 
municipales  obtenues  par  1'insur- 


CHAP.  IX.  EARLY  OLIGARCHIES  IX  GREECE.  17 

of  a  deliberate  and  preconceived  system  in  the  management 
of  public  affairs.1  They  exhibit  the  first  evidences  of  new 
and  important  political  ideas  in  the  Greek  mind — the 
separation  of  legislative  and  executive  powers;  the  former 
vested  in  a  collective  body,  not  merely  deliberating  but 
also  finally  deciding — while  the  latter  is  confided  to  tempo- 
rary individual  magistrates,  responsible  to  that  body  at 
the  end  of  their  period  of  office.  We  are  first  introduced 
to  a  community  of  citizens,  according  to  the  definition  of 
Aristotle — men  qualified,  and  thinking  themselves  qualified, 
to  take  turns  in  command  and  obedience.  The  collective 
sovereign,  called  The  City,  is  thus  constituted.  It  is  true 
that  this  first  community  of  citizens  comprised  only  a  small 
proportion  of  the  men  personally  free;  but  the  ideas  upon 
which  it  was  founded  began  gradually  to  dawn  upon  the 
minds  of  all.  Political  power  had  lost  its  heaven-appointed 
character,  and  had  become  an  attribute  legally  communi- 
cable as  well  as  determined  to  certain  definite  ends:  and 
the  ground  was  thus  laid  for  those  thousand  questions 
which  agitated  so  many  of  the  Grecian  cities  during  the 
ensuing  three  centuries,  partly  respecting  its  apportion- 
ment, partly  respecting  its  employment, — questions  some- 
times raised  among  the  members  of  the  privileged  oligarchy 
itself,  sometimes  between  that  order  as  a  whole  and  the 
non-privileged  Many.  The  seeds  of  those  popular  move- 
ments, which  called  forth  so  much  profound  emotion,  so 
much  bitter  antipathy,  so  much  energy  and  talent,  through- 
out the  Grecian  world,  with  different  modifications  in  each 
particular  city,  may  thus  be  traced  back  to  that  early 
revolution  which  erected  the  primitive  oligarchy  upon  the 
ruins  of  the  heroic  kingdom. 

How  these  first  oligarchies  were  administered  we  have 
no  direct  information.  13 ut  the  narrow  and  anti-popular 
interests  naturally  belonging  to  a  privileged  few,  together 

1  Aristot.  Folit.  iii.  10,  7.  'Er£t  object  for  which  the  Europeantowus 
(ik  (i.  e.  after  the  early  kings  had  in  the  middle  ages,  in  the  twelfth 

century,  struggled  with  so  murh 
energy,  and  ultimately  obtained  : 
a  charter  of  incorporation,  and  a 
qualified  privilege  of  internal 

(Ji3T7.3av.  self-governmeut. 

KOIVQV  TI,  a  commune,  the  great 

VOL.  III.  C 


18  HISTORY  OF  GBEECE.  PAET  II. 


Dissatisfac-  with  the  general  violence  of  private  manners 

tion  with  and  passions,  leave  us  no  ground  for  presuming 

trarchles—  favourably  respecting  either  their  prudence  or 

modes  by  their  good  feeling;  and  the  facts  which  we  learn 

•which  the  respecting  the  condition  of  Attica  prior  to  the 

despots   ac-    o     r     .        &      . 

quired  boloman  legislation  (to  be  recounted  in  the  next 
power.  chapter)  raise  inferences  all  of  an  unfavourable 
character. 

The  first  shock  which  they  received,  and  by  which  so 
many  of  them  were  subverted,  arose  from  the  usurpers 
called  Despots,  who  employed  the  prevalent  discontents 
both  as  pretexts  and  as  aids  for  their  own  personal  ambition, 
while  their  very  frequent  success  seems  to  imply  that  such 
discontents  were  wide  spread  as  well  as  serious.  These 
despots  arose  out  of  the  bosom  of  the  oligarchies,  but  not 
all  in  the  same  manner.1  Sometimes  the  executive  magis- 
trate, upon  whom  the  oligarchy  themselves  had  devolved 
important  administrative  powers  for  a  certain  temporary 
period,  became  unfaithful  to  his  choosers,  and  acquired 
sufficient  ascendency  to  retain  his  dignity  permanently  in 
spite  of  them  —  perhaps  even  to  transmit  it  to  his  son.  In 
other  places,  and  seemingly  more  often,  there  arose  that 
noted  character  called  the  Demagogue,  of  whom  historians 
both  ancient  and  modern  commonly  draw  so  repulsive  a 
picture:2  a  man  of  energy  and  ambition,  sometimes  even  a 
member  of  the  oligarchy  itself,  who  stood  forward  as 
champion  of  the  grievances  and  sufferings  of  the  non- 
privileged  Many,  acquired  their  favour,  and  employed  their 
strength  so  effectively  as  to  put  down  the  oligarchy  by  force, 
and  constitute  himself  despot.  A  third  form  of  despot, 
some  presumptuous  wealthy  man,  like  Kylon  at  Athens, 
without  even  the  pretence  of  popularity,  was  occasionally 

1  The  definition    of    a   despot  is  that  it  came  from   the  Lydians    or 

given    in     Cornelius    Nepos,    Vit.  Phrygians  (Comment,  ad  Corp.  In- 

Miltiadis,  c.  8:  —  "Ornnes  habentur  scrip.  No.  3439). 

et  dicuntur  tyranni,  qui  potestate  2    Aristot.    Polit.    v.    8,    2,    3,    4. 

stint  perpetua  in  ca  civitate,    quse  T6pavv<K  —  2*   zpoa-aTiy.vj^    p'£T,?   *'' 

libertate  usa  est  :"  compare  Cicero  o>jx     o).).o'ji-i     i-n.^\i^-'j.>zi     (Plato. 

de  Republic^,  ii.  20,  27;  iii.  U.  Repub.  viii.  c.    17.  p.    505).     O'josvt 

The  word  T'jpa-jw;    was    said    by  yap  8f(  a5r().ov,  *-t  r.  5  :_  -'jpav;o?  sx 

Hippias   the    sopbist  to  have  first  8r,|iox6X«xos  c'JjTai  (Dionys.  Halic. 

found     its     way     into     the    Greek  vi.    GO)  :    a    preposition    decidedly 

language    about    the    time    of  Ar-  too  general. 
chilochus  (B.C.  COO):  Boeckh  thinks 


CHAP.  IX.      OLIGARCHIES  SUBVERTED  BY  DESPOTS.  19 

emboldened,  by  the  success  of  similar  adventurers  in  other 
places,  to  hire  a  tr6op  of  retainers  and  seize  the  acropolis. 
And  there  were  examples,  though  rare,  of  a  fourth  variety 
—  the  lineal  descendant  of  the  ancient  kings  —  who,  instead 
of  suffering  himself  to  be  restricted  or  placed  under  control 
by  the  oligarchy,  found  means  to  subjugate  them,  and  to 
extort  by  force  an  ascendency  as  great  as  that  which  his 
forefathers  had  enjoyed  by  consent.  To  these  must  be 
added,  in  several  Grecian  states,  the  JEsymnete  or  Dictator, 
a  citizen  formally  invested  with  supreme  and  unresponsible 
power,  placed  in  command  of  the  military  force,  and  armed 
with  a  standing  body-guard,  but  only  for  a  time  named, 
and  in  order  to  deal  with  some  urgent  peril  or  ruinous 
internal  dissension.1  The  person  thus  exalted,  always 
enjoying  a  large  measure  of  confidence,  and  generally  a 
man  of  ability,  was  sometimes  so  successful,  or  made  himself 
so  essential  to  the  community,  that  the  term  of  his  office 
was  prolonged,  and  he  became  practically  despot  for  life; 
or  even  if  the  community  were  not  disposed  to  concede  to 
him  this  permanent  ascendency,  he  was  often  strong  enough 
to  keep  it  against  their  will. 

Such  were  the  different  modes  in  which  the  numerous 
Greek  despots  of  the  seventh  and  sixth  centuries  Examples. 
B.C.  acquired  their  power.  Though  we  know  thus  much  in 
general  terms  from  the  brief  statements  of  Aristotle,  yet 
unhappily  we  have  no  contemporary  picture  of  any  one  of 
these  communities,  so  as  to  give  us  the  means  of  appreci- 
ating the  change  in  detail.  Of  the  persons  who,  possessing 
inherited  kingly  dignity,  stretched  their  paternal  power  so 
far  as  to  become  despots,  Aristotle  gives  us  Pheidon  of 
Argosas  an  example,  whose  reign  has  been  already  narrated. 
Of  those  who  made  themselves  despots  by  means  of  official 
power  previously  held  under  an  oligarchy,  he  names  Pha- 
laris  at  Agrigentum  and  the  despots  at  Miletus  and  other 
cities  of  the  Ionic  Greeks:  among  others  who  raised  them- 
selves by  becoming  demagogues,  he  specifies  Panfetius  in 
the  Sicilian  town  of  Leontini,  Kypselus  at  Corinth,  and 
Peisistratus  at  Athens:2  of  YEsymnetes  or  chosen  despots, 

1  Aristot.  iii.  0,  5;  iii.  10,  1—10;      Strabo,    xiii.    p.    (117;    and  Aristnt. 


Fragment.  Ecrum  Public-arum,  ccl. 


aud  Dioiij's.  Hal.     A.  li.  v.  73— 7-1 ; 


20  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAET  IL 

Pittakus  of  Mitylene  is  the  prominent  instance.  The 
military  and  aggressive  demagogue,  subverting  an  oligarchy 
which  had  degraded  and  ill-used  him,  governing  as  a  cruel 
despot  for  several  years,  and  at  last  dethroned  and  slain,  is 
farther  depicted  by  Dionysius  of  Jjalikarnassus  in  the 
history  of  Aristodemus  of  the  Italian  Cumse. J 

From  the  general  statement  of  Thucydides  as  well  as 
Tendency  of  Aristotle,  we  learn  that  the  seventh  and  sixth 
towards  a  centuries  B.C.  were  centuries  of  progress  for  the 

better  orga-     .^         ,       ...  ,,       .  •,,{-     .°  -, 

nised  Greek  cities  generally,  in  wealth,  in  power,  ana 

citizenship,  inpopulation;  and  the  numerous  colonies  founded 
during  this  period  (of  which  I  shall  speak  in  a  future 
chapter)  will  furnish  further  illustration  of  such  progressive 
tendencies.  Now  the  changes  just  mentioned  in  the  Grecian 
governments,  imperfectly  as  we  know  them,  are  on  the 
whole  decided  evidences  of  advancing  citizenship.  For  the 
heroic  government,  with  which  Grecian  communities  begin, 
is  the  rudest  and  most  infantine  of  all  governments:  desti- 
tute even  of  the  pretence  of  system  or  security,  incapable 
of  being  in  any  way  foreknown,  and  depending  only  upon 
the  accidental  variations  in  the  character  of  the  reigning 
individual,  who  in  most  cases,  far  from  serving  as  a  protec- 
tion to  the  poor  against  the  rich  and  great,  was  likely  to 
indulge  his  passions  in  the  same  unrestrained  way  as  the 
latter,  and  with  still  greater  impunity. 

The  despots,  who  in  so  many  towns  succeeded  and 
supplanted  this  oligarchical  government,  though 

( haracter        , ,  I  ,  °  .       .    ,      °          ,, 

and  work-  they  governed  on  principles  usually  narrow  and 
ing  of  the  selfish,  and  often  oppressivelv  cruel,  "taking  no 

despots.  ,,  •,'  ,     .,  . ,  x -1  ,        ."  '          n  mi 

thought  (to  use  the  emphatic  words  of  Thucy- 
dides) except  each  for  his  own  body  and  his  own  family" — 
yet  since  they  were  not  strong  enough  to  crush  the  Greek 
mind,  imprinted  upon  it  a  painful  but  improving  political 
lesson,  and  contributed  much  to  enlarge  the  range  of  ex- 
perience as  well  as  to  determine  the  subsequent  cast  of 
feeling.  -  They  partly  broke  down  the  wall  of  distinction 

the  songs  of  Alkants  as  his  evidence  The    rei?n     of   Aristodemus     falls 

respecting    the   elevation    of    Tit-  about  510  B.C. 

takus:     a     very      sufficient      proof  -  Thucyd.  i.  17.     TJoivvoi    Zi  "111 

doubtless — but   we    may    see    that  -r^i-i  i-i  T^T-  'E).).7;vixai;    roXsn,   to 

he  had  no  other  informant's,  except  j-j'    EOTJTCUV  u.i vov  roco-nuiAf/rii    £?  TS 

the  poets,  about  these  early  times.  TO    -<i>;j.*    y.ai    g;   -&   TOV   \.Wi    c/ixov 
1  Dioiiys.  Hal.   A.   R.   vii.   2,   12. 


CHAP.  IX.    CHABACTEK  AND  WORKING  OF  THE  DESPOTS.        21 

between  the  people — properly  so  called,  the  general  mass 
of  freemen — and  the  oligarchy:  indeed  the  demagogue- 
despots  are  interesting  as  the  first  evidence  of  the  growing 
importance  of  the  people  in  political  affairs.  The  demagogue 
stood  forward  as  representing  the  feelings  and  interests  of 
the  people  against  the  governing  lew,  probably  availing 
himself  of  some  special  cases  of  ill-usage,  and  taking  pains 
to  be  conciliatory  and  generous  in  his  own  personal  beha- 
viour. When  the  people  by  their  armed  aid  had  enabled 
him  to  overthrow  the  existing  rulers,  they  had  thus  the 
satisfaction  of  seeing  their  own  chief  in  possession  of  the 
supreme  power,  but  they  acquired  neither  political  rights 
nor  increased  securities  for  themselves.  What  measure  of 
positive  advantage  they  may  have  reaped,  beyond  that  of 
seeing  their  previous  oppressors  humiliated,  we  know  too 
little  to  determine. '  But  even  the  worst  of  despots  was 
more  formidable  to  the  rich  than  to  the  poor;  and  the  latter 
may  perhaps  have  gained  by  the  change,  in  comparative 
importance,  notwithstanding  their  share  in  the  rigours 
and  exactions  of  a  government  which  had  no  other  perma- 
nent foundation  than  naked  fear. 

A  remark  made  by  Aristotle  deserves  especial  notice 
here,  as  illustrating  the  political  advance  and  education  of 
the  Grecian  communities.     He  draws  a  marked    The   dema. 
distinction  between  the  early  demagogue  of  the   gogue- 
seventh  and  sixth  centuries,  and  the  later  dema-   thePe°arlier 
gogue,  such  as  he  himself,  and  the  generations   times  com- 
immediately   preceding,   had   witnessed.      The   the^ema-1 
former  was  a  military  chief,  daring  and  full  of  gogue  of 
resource,  who  took  arms  at  the  head  of  a  body   later  timcs- 
of  popular  insurgents,  put  down  the  government  by  force, 
and  made  himself  the  master  both  of  those  whom  he  deposed 
and  of  those  by  whose  aid  he  deposed  them :  while  the  latter 
was  a  speaker,  possessed  of  all  the  talents  necessary  for 
moving  an  audience,  but  neither  inclined  to,  nor  qualified 
for,  armed  attack — accomplishing  all  his  purposes  by  pacific 

vj-.zi'i   £t'    i. 3<57).st9n    rJaov    eS'jvatvTO  nexion   and    mutual   goodwill   be- 

fii).i3T5t,  Tic  -6/.31C  ii"xvjv.  twcen  the  despot    and    the   poorer 

1  Wachsmuth  (Hellenische  Alter-  freemen.    Community  of  antipathy 

Ihumskunde,  sect.  49-r,l)  and  Titt-  against   the    old    oligarchy    was    a 

mann     (Griechisch.      Staatsverfas-  bond    essentially    temporary,    dis- 

sungen,  p.  527-533)  both  make  too  solved  as  soon    as    that    oligarchy 

much  of  the  supposed  friendly  con-  v.Tus  put  down. 


22  HISTOEY  OF  GREECE.  PAET  II. 

and  constitutional  methods.  This  valuable  change — sub- 
stituting discussion  and  the  vote  of  an  assembly  in  place  of 
an  appeal  to  arms,  and  procuring  for  the  pronounced  de- 
cision of  the  assembly  such  an  influence  over  men's  minds 
as  to  render  it  final  and  respected  even  by  dissentients — 
arose  from  the  continued  practical  working  of  democratical 
institutions.  I  shall  have  occasion,  at  a  later  period  of  this 
history,  to  estimate  the  value  of  that  unmeasured  obloquy 
which  has  been  heaped  on  the  Athenian  demagogues  of  the 
Peloponnesian.  war — Kleon  and  Hyperbolus;  but  assuming 
the  whole  to  be  well-founded,  it  will  not  be  the  less  true 
that  these  men  were  a  material  improvement  on  the  earlier 
demagogues  such  as  Kypselus  and  Peisistratus,  who  em- 
ployed the  armed  agency  of  the  people  for  the  purpose  of 
subverting  the  established  government  and  acquiring  des- 
potic authority  for  themselves.  The  demagogue  was 
essentially  a  leader  of  opposition,  who  gained  his  influence 
by  denouncing  the  men  in  real  ascendency,  and  in  actual 
executive  functions.  Now  under  the  early  oligarchies  his 
opposition  could  be  shown  only  by  armed  insurrection,  and 
it  conducted  him  either  to  personal  sovereignty  or  to  de- 
struction. But  the  growth  of  democratical  institutions 
ensured  both  to  him  and  to  his  political  opponents  full 
liberty  of  speech,  and  a  paramount  assembly  to  determine 
between  them;  whilst  it  both  limited  the  range  of  his  am- 
bition, and  set  aside  the  appeal  to  armed  force.  The  railing 
demagogue  of  Athens  at  the  time  of  the  Peloponnesian  war 
(even  if  we  accept  literally  the  representations  of  his  worst 
enemies)  was  thus  a  far  less  mischievous  and  dangerous 
person  than  the  fighting  demagogue  of  the  earlier  centuries ; 
and  the  "growth  of  habits  of  public  speaking"1  (to  use 
Aristotle's  expression)  was  the  cause  of  the  difference. 
Opposition  by  the  tongue  was  a  beneficial  substitute  for 
opposition  by  the  sword. 

The  rise  of  these  despots  on  the  ruins  of  the  previous 
oligarchies  was,  in  appearance,  a  return  to  the  principles 

1  Aristot.  Polit.  v.  4,  4 ;  7,3.  'E~l  oi   8r(iA«Yu>Yot    r,a«v    sx   TOJV  aTpaTTj- 

6=  TCOV  ip/atiov,  "j-t  •[i-SJi-r,  6  a-JTO!;  Y'/-)''~a>'''   '''>   Y"?   "^  2»ivoi  r,30tv  ).3- 

BrjjiaTfuJYos  xcti  atpotTrjo;,  E'K;  T'jpotv-  Y£ir  ''rjv  ^i)  TTJ;  p'r,TOptxyj<;  r^rty.i-n^ 

wSa  [AEtifisXXov  <r/soov  yap  oi  ->.it-  oi  cy/i(ji£v<ii  \i-(s.\.<i  Br,jjLaYt«>YorJ3i  [J.iv, 

OTOI  TUJV  dpy_ai(ov  T'jpivviDv  zv.  5r(aa-  5i'   di-tipiav   oi   TUJV    r:oXi}iiv.iI)v    oOn 

fiofiu-i  Y^Y0'''-*31-     AITIOV  o;  Toy   TOTS  sriTtOt-jTOti,    -}.r(v     £v    no'J    fyvjv    "' 

jxiv  YsvizOai,  vyv  Bi  jtij,  871  tow  jj.iv,     Y:Vr-"*  >oioOTo/. 


CHAP.  IX.         EAKLJER  AND  LATER  DEMAGOGUES.  23 

of  the  heroic  age — the  restoration  of  a  government  of  per- 
sonal will  in  place  of  that  systematic  arrange-   Contrast 
ment  known  as  the  City.    But  the  Greek  mind   between 

in          <>  ji  i  •       •    i         J.T-    j.     tne  despot 

had  so  far  outgrown  those  early  principles,  that  and  the 
no  new  government  foundedthereuponcouldmeet  early  heroic 
with  willing  acquiescence,  except  under  some  Position  of 
temporary  excitement.  At  first  doubtless  the  po-  the  despot, 
pularity  of  the  usurper — combined  with  the  fervour  of  his 
partisans  and  the  expulsion  or  intimidation  of  opponents, 
and  further  enhanced  by  the  punishment  of  rich  oppres- 
sors— was  sufficient  to  procure  for  him  obedience;  and  pru- 
dence on  his  part  might  prolong  this  undisputed  rule  for 
a  considerable  period,  perhaps  even  throughout  his  whole 
life.  But  Aristotle  intimates  that  these  governments,  even 
when  they  began  well,  had  a  constant  tendency  to  become 
worse  and  worse.  Discontent  manifested  itself,  and  was 
aggravated  rather  than  repressed  by  the  violence  employed 
against  it,  until  at  length  the  despot  became  a  prey  to 
mistrustful  and  malevolent  anxiety,  losing  any  measure  of 
equity  or  benevolent  sympathy  which  might  once  have  ani- 
mated him.  If  he  was  fortunate  enough  to  bequeath  his 
authority  to  his  son,  the  latter,  educated  in  a  corrupt  at- 
mosphere and  surrounded  by  parasites,  contracted  dis- 
positions yet  more  noxious  and  unsocial.  His  youthful 
appetites  were  more  ungovernable,  while  he  was  deficient 
in  the  prudence  and  vigour  which  had  been  indispensable 
to  the  self-accomplished  rise  of  his  father.1  For  such  a 
position,  mercenary  guards  and  a  fortified  acropolis  were 
the  only  stay — guards  fed  at  the  expense  of  the  citizens, 
and  thus  requiring  constant  exactions  on  behalf  of  that 
which  was  nothing  better  than  a  hostile  garrison.  It  was 
essential  to  the  security  of  the  despot  that  he  should  keep 
down  the  spirit  of  the  free  people  whom  he  governed;  that 
he  should  isolate  them  from  each  other,  and  prevent  those 
meetings  and  mutual  communications  which  Grecian  cities 
habitually  presented  in  the  School,  the  Lesche,  or  the  Pa- 
laistra;  that  he  should  strike  off  the  overtopping  ears  of 
corn  in  the  field  (to  use  the  Greek  locution)  or  crush  the 


1  Aristot.    Polit.    v.    8,    20. 


sions  — the  lust  as  well  as  the  anger 


\v.iole  tenor  of  this  eighth  cluipter      — of  a  Grecian 


(of  the  fifth  book)   shows  how  un- 


; ruined  were    the  personal  pas- 


(Sophokles    ap.    Scliol.    Aristides, 


vol.  iii.  p.  291,  ed.  Diudorf). 


24  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAKT  II. 

exalted  and  enterprising  minds. 1  Nay,  he  had  even  to  a 
certain  extent  an  interest  in  degrading  and  impoverishing 
them,  or  at  least  in  debarring  them  from  the  acquisition 
either  of  wealth  or  leisure.  The  extensive  constructions 
undertaken  by  Polykrates  at  Samos,  as  well  as  the  rich 
donations  of  Periander  to  the  temple  at  Olympia,  are  con- 
sidered by  Aristotle  to  have  been  extorted  by  these  des- 
pots with  the  express  view  of  engrossing  the  time  and 
exhausting  the  means  of  their  subjects. 

It  is  not  to  be  imagined  that  all  were  alike  cruel  or 
unprincipled.  But  the  perpetual  supremacy  of  one  man  or 
one  family  had  become  so  offensive  to  the  jealousy  of  those 
who  felt  themselves  to  be  his  equals,  and  to  the  general 
feeling  of  the  people,  that  repression  and  severity  were 
inevitable,  whether  orismiallv  intended  or  not. 

Good  go-          .      -.  '  .P  °      -i        • 

vemment  And  even  it  an  usurper,  having  once  entered 
impossible  Upon  this  career  of  violence,  grew  sick  and  averse 

to  him.  ,  L   .,  ,.  ,    ,.      ;.°  ,      ,    „     ,  . 

to  its  continuance,  abdication  only  lett  him  in 
imminent  peril,  exposed  to  the  vengeance2  of  those  whom 

1  Aristot.  Polit.  iii.  8,  3  ;  v.  P,  7.  and  disadvantages  of  all  the  three. 

Herodot.   v.   92.     Herodotus   gives  The   case   made    out    against   mo- 

the    story   as   if  Thrasybulus    had  narchy    is    by     far    the    strongest, 

been   the  person   to    suggest    this  while    the    counsel    on    behalf    of 

hint  by  conducting  the  messenger  monarchy  assumes  as  a  part  of  his 

of  Periander  into  a  corn-field  and  case  that   the   individual  monarch 

there  striking  oft   the   tallest   ears  is  to  be  the  best  man  in  the  state, 

with  his  stick:    Aristotle    reverses  The     anti- monarchical     champion 

the  two,  and  makes  Periander  the  Otanes  concludes  a  long  string  of 

adviser :    Livy  (i.  54)  transfers  the  criminations     against     the    despot 

scene    to    Gabii    and   Home,    with  with  these  words  above-noticed, — 

Sextus   Tarqninius    as  the   person  "He   subverts   the  customs   of  the 

sending   for  counsel    to  his  father  country:    he  violates    women:    he 

at  Rome.    Compare  Plato,  Republ.  puts  men  to  death  untried."  (Herod, 

viii.  C.  17.    p.   565  ;    Eurip.  Supplic.  iii.  80-82). 

414-455.  l  Tliucyd.  ii.  62.     Compare  again 

The  discussion  which  Herodotus  the  speech,  of  Kleon,  iii.  37-40 — CD; 

ascribes    to    the   Persian   conspira-  T'jpav/ioa  f  ap  £/"£  ag-»;M,  rt-i  Xa[tetv 

tors,  after  the  assassination  of  the  \ii-i    cioixov    SoxsT    etvai,    dtpsivai    SE 

Magian  king,  whether  they  should  £-iv.i-/0'jvo-j. 

constitute  the  Persian  government  The  better  sentiment  against  des- 

as  a  monarchy,  an  oligarchy,  or  a  pots  seems  to  be  as  old  as  Alkseus, 

democracy,  exhibits  a  vein  of  ideas  and  we  find  traces  of  it   in  Solon 

purely     Grecian,      and     altogether  and    Theognis     (Theognis,     3S-50  ; 

foreign  to  the  Oriental  conception  Solon,  Fragm.  vii.  p.  32,  ed.  Schnei- 

of  government.     But  it   sets  forth  de\vin).      Phaiiias    of    Eresus    had 

— briefly,  yet  with  great  perspicuity  collected  in    a  book   the  uAssassi- 

aud   penetration  —  the    advantages  nations  of  Despots  from  revenge" 


CHAP.  IX.  PHILOSOPHERS'  VIEW  OF  DESPOTS.  25 

he  had  injured — unless  indeed  he  could  clothe  himself  with 
the  mantle  of  religion,  and  stipulate  with  the  people  to  be- 
come priest  of  some  temple  and  deity;  in  which  case  his 
new  function  protected  him,  just  as  the  tonsure  and  the 
monastery  sheltered  a  dethroned  prince  in  the  middle  ages. l 
Several  of  the  despots  were  patrons  of  music  and  poetry, 
courting  the  goodwill  of  contemporary  intellectual  men  by 
invitation  as  well  as  by  reward.  Moreover  there  were  some 
cases,  such  as  that  of  Peisistratus  and  his  sons  at  Athens, 
in  which  an  attempt  was  made  (analogous  to  that  of  Au- 
gustus at  Home)  to  reconcile  the  reality  of  personal  omni- 
potence with  a  certain  respect  for  pre-existing  forms.2  In 
such  instances  the  administration — though  not  unstained 
by  guilt,  never  otherwise  than  unpopular,  and  carried  on 
by  means  of  foreign  mercenaries — was  doubtless  practi- 
cally milder.  But  cases  of  this  character  were  rare;  and 
the  maxims  usual  with  Grecian  despots  were  personified 
in  Periander  the  Kypselid  of  Corinth — a  harsh  and  brutal 
person,  though  not  destitute  either  of  vigour  or  intelligence. 
The  position  of  a  Grecian  despot,  as  depicted  by  Plato, 
by  Xenophon  and  by  Aristotle,3  and  farther  sustained  by 

(T'jpavvcov  d-mpsarst:;    ex  Ti|A<upi.a? —  ce   que    leur  pouvoir    fut    attribu6 

Athenaeus,  iii.  p.  90  ;  x.  p.  43^).  &    un  droit   her6ditaire,  parce   que 

1  See  the    story    of   Mccamlrius,  I'heredit6  aurait  presque    toujours 
minister     and   successor    of    Poly-  et6    r6torqu6     contre     eux.      Ceux 
krates    of    Samos,    in    Herodotus,  qui   avaient   succede    a    une  repu- 
iii.  142,  143.  blique,  avaient  abaisse  des  nobles 

2  Thucyd.    vi.    54.      The    epitaph  plus     anciens     et     plus     illustres 
of    Archedike,     the     daughter     of  qu'eux :    ceux  qui  avaient  succ6d6 
Hippias    (which    was    inscribed    at  a  d'autres  seigneurs  n'avaient  tenu 
Larapsakus,      where      she      died),  aucun   compte     du  droit    de   leurs 
though   written   by  a    great  friend  predecesseurs,      et      se      sentaient 
of  Hippias,    conveys   the  sharpest  interests  a  le  nier.    Us  se  disaieut 
implied  invective  against  the  usual  done    mandataires    du  peuple  :    ils 
proceedings  of  the  despots: —  ne   prenaient  jamais  le  commamle- 

'H  TtotTpo;   TS   xai    drjopoi;    aos).!pcbv  ment  d'une  ville,  lors  meme  qu'ils 

T'   VJ32  T'jpavvtov  1'avaient    souraise    par    les  armes, 

riaioujj    -' ,    O'jy_    Ti!"'^ri     ''O^1'    £?  sans  se  faire  attribuer  par  les  an- 

oiT7.3'Ja/,ir,v.  ciens  ou  par  1'assemblee  du  peuple, 

(Time,  vi.  59.)  selon  que  les  tins  ou  les  autres  se 

The     position     of     Augustus     at  moutraicnt    plus    dociles,    le    titre 

Rome,      and      of     Peisistratus  '  at  et  les  pouvoirs  de  seigneur  gendral, 

Athens,    may    be    illustrated    by  a  pour    un    an,     pour   cinq    ans,    ou 

passage  in  Sismondi,  Republiques  pour  toute  leur  vie,  avec  une  paie 

Italiennes,  vol.  iv.  ch.  2ii.  p.  208:—  fixe,  qui    devoit    etre  prise  sur  les 

"Les  petits  monarques  de  chaque  deniers  de  la  communaute." 
villc     s'opposaieut     eux-memes    &         '  Consult  especially  the  treatise 


26  HISTORY  OF  GKEECE.  PABT  II. 

the  indications  in  Herodotus,  Thucydides,  and  Isokrates, 
though  always  coveted  by  ambitious  men,  reveals  clearly 
enough  "those  wounds  and  lacerations  of  mind"  whereby 
the  internal  Erinnys  avenged  the  community  upon  the 
usurper  who  trampled  them  down.     Far  from  considering 
success  in  usurpation  as  a  justification  of  the  attempt  (ac- 
cording to  the  theories  now  prevalent  respecting  Cromwell 
and  Bonaparte,  who  are  often  blamed  because  they  kept  out 
a  legitimate  king,  but  never  because  they  seized  an  un- 
authorized power  over  the  people),  these  philosophers  re- 
gard the  despot  as  among  the  greatest  of  criminals.     The 
man  who  assassinated  him  was  an  object  of  public  honour 
andreward,  and  a  virtuous  Greek  would  seldomhave  scrupled 
to  carry  his  sword  concealed  in  myrtle  branches,  like  Har- 

of  Xenophon,  called  Hiero,  or  passage  (Annal.  vi.  6):  "Neque 
T'joawixo?,  in  which  the  interior  frustra  praestantissimus  sapientise 
life  and  feelings  of  the  Grecian  firmare  solitus  est,  si  recludantur 
despot  are  strikingly  set  forth,  in  tyrannorum  mentes,  posse  aspici 
a  supposed  dialogue  with  the  poet  laniatus  et  ictus:  quando  ut  cor- 
Simonides.  The  tenor  of  Plato's  pora  verberibus,  ita  saevitia,  libi- 
remarks  in  tLe  eighth  and  ninth  dine,  mails  consultis,  animus 
books  of  the  Republic,  and  those  dilaceretur.  Quippe  Tiberium  non 
of  Aristotle  in  the  fifth  book  (ch.  fortuna,  non  solitudines,  prote- 
8  and  9)  of  the  Politics,  display  gebant,  quin  tormenta  pectoris 
the  same  picture,  though  not  with  suasque  ipse  poenas  fateretur." 
such  fulness  of  detail.  The  speech  It  is  not  easy  to  imagine  power 
of  one  of  the  assassins  of  Euphr&n  more  completely  surrounded  with 
(despot  of  Sikyon)  is  remarkable,  all  circumstances  calculated  to 
as  a  specimen  of  Grecian  feeling  render  it  repulsive  to  a  man  of 
(Xenoph.  Hellen.  vii.  3,  7 — 12).  ordinary  benevolence  :  the  Grecian 
The  expressions  both  of  Plato  and  despot  had  large  means  of  doing 
Tacitus,  in  regard  to  the  mental  harm,— scarcely  any  means  of  doing 
wretchedness  of  the  despot,  are  good.  VTet  the  acquisition  of 
the  strongest  which  the  language  power  over  others,  under  any  con- 
affords: — Ksi  r.i-irtf.  7^  dXTjQiia  ditions,  is  a  motive  so  all-absorb- 
eilv£-o!i,  eiv  7t;  ?).r;v  fy'jyji'i  £711377;-  ing,  that  even  this  precarious  and 
Tai  BeaoaaQai,  xai  <?o?ou  fi^ta-i  Sii  anti-social  sceptre  was  always 
T.i'ii'ic,  -'j'j  ?ifj'J,  oipaoaajj-tl);  ~z  xai  intensely  coveted,— Tupa-ms,  XP^I*-a 
ooy/tl)/  rXr.pr,;  ....  'AviYXTi  X7<1  a?3/.spov,  re/XXol  8s  ay-jj?  jpau70ii 
eivat,  xal  ETI  |xa).).o-i  YiyvsaOat  ay-qi  slai  (Herod,  iii.  53).  See  the 
f,  i:po7Spov  610  -rt'i  ap/7]-<,  cOovspoj,  striking  lines  of  Solon  (Fragment. 
oT:t37U),  d?txo),  ioiXo),  avoaioj,  xal  vii.  ed.  Schneidewin),  and  the 
r.Aar^  xaxia?  sav8oxeT  T3  xott  700937,  saying  of  Jason  of  Pheree,  who 
x^i  e;  anivTtov  To'i-to-i  |j.a).i37oc  (XE-I  used  to  declare  that  he  felt  hunger 
o'!)7u>  £u3T'J/si  si/ai,  i-Hi7a  Si  xal  until  he  became  despot, — TUI-^V, 
TOO;  -Xr^io-/  a-jToy  toiouToy;  dr^p-  ?TI  [ir,  7ypavv'jt'  (jb;  oux  J7:t37djX3-/o; 
73^3931.  (Republic,  ix.  p.  PQ0.)  loiibTr,c  sivai  (Aristot.  Polit.  iii. 
And  Tacitus,  in  tlie  well-known  2,  6). 


CHAP.  IX.    SHORT  DURATION  OF  DESPOTIC  GOVERNMENT.      27 

naodius  and  Aristogeiton,  for  the  execution  of  the  deed. J  A 
station,  which  overtopped  the  restraints  and  obligations  in- 
volved in  citizenship,  was  understood  at  the  same  time  to 
forfeit  all  title  to  the  common  sympathy  and  protection;2  so 
that  it  was  unsafe  forthedespot  to  visit  in  personthose great 
Pan-Hellenic  games  in  which  his  own  chariot  might  perhaps 
have  gained  the  prize,  and  in  which  the  Theors  or  sacred 
envoys,  whom  he  sent  as  representatives  of  his  Hellenic  city, 
appeared  with  ostentatious  pomp.  A  government  carried 
on  under  these  unpropitious  circumstances  could  never  be 
otherwise  than  short-lived.  Though  the  individual  daring 
enough  to  seize  it,  often  found  means  to  preserve  it  for  the 
term  of  his  own  life,  yet  the  sight  of  a  despot  living  to  old 
age  was  rare,  and  the  transmission  of  his  power  to  his  son 
still  more- so.3 

1  See    the   beautiful    Skolion    of  viSiov  xatdX'Jaic)  as  among  the  most 

Kallistratus,  so  popular  at  Athens,  splendid   of  human    exploits — and 

xxvii.  p.   456,    apud    Schneidewin,  the   account   given   by    Xenophon 

Poet.    Grace. — 'Ev    p-'iptou  xXaSl    TO  of  the   assassination    of   Jason   of 

£i'fO?  <popr;7io,  &c.  PhertCj  Hellenic,  vi.  4,  32. 

Xenophon,    Hiero,    ii.  8.     Ot  TU-  2  Ijivy,    xxxviii.    50.      "Qui    jus 

pocvvoi  r.dvts;  TravToiy^  luq  Sid  noXs-  sequum  pati  non  possit,  in  eum  vim 

p.iot;  Kopeiov-ai.  Compare  Isokrates,  haud     injustam     esse."      Compare 

Or.  viii.  ('De   Pace)   p.   1S2 ;   Polyb.  Theognis,  v.  Ila3,  ed.  Gaisf. 

ii.    59;    Cicero,  Orat.    pro    Milone,  'Plutarch,    Sept.    Sapient.    Con- 

c.  29.  viv.  c.  2.  p.  147.— we  EpunTjOst?  u-6 

Aristot.    Polit.    ii.    4,    8.     'Erst  MoX-iiayopou  TOU  "Iu>vo<;,  TI  TiapoiSoqo- 

dStxoiJcjl  ys  TOC  pi-fia-a.  Sia -:a?  UT:£p-  TSTOV  sir;;  eiopaxoot;,  ditoxpi/aio,  TU- 

poXas,    dXX'    o'j    6ia  TavaYxa^a'  <>l<iv  pavvov  yspov'a. — Compare  the  answer 

T'jpavvouoiv,  ouy_  TV  a  |j.y]    917(1)31-   816  of  Thales  in   the  same  treatise,  c. 

7.-J.I    ai  Tijxai    |XEY«Xoti,  civ   ditoxiilviQ  7.  p.  152. 

Me,  o'i  xXsitTTjv,  AXXa  Tupavvov.  The    orator    Lysias,     present    at 

There  cannot  be    a  more  power-  the  Olympic  games,  and  seeing  the 

ful  manifestation  of  the  sentiment  Theors    of   the    Syracusan    despot 

entertained   towards    a    despot   in  Dionysius    also     present    in    tents 

the     ancient   world,   than   the    re-  with  gilding  and  purple,  addressed 

marks  of  Plutarch  on  the  conduct  an    harangue    inciting   the   assem- 

of  Timoleon   in    assisting   to    put  bled  Greeks  to  demolish  the  tents 

to    death    his    brother   the    despot  (Lysise  Acrfoq  '0/.'jjj.Tt2XX,  3?ragm. 

Timophanes   (Plutarch,    Timoleon,  p.   Oil,    ed.  Reisk. ;  Dionys.   Hali- 

c.    4 — 7;    and     Comp.    of   Timoleon  car.    De  Lysia  Judicium,  c.  29-30). 

with  Pniilus    TKmilius,  o.    5).     See  Theophrastus    ascribed   to    Themi- 

also      Plutarch,      Comparison      of  stokles  a  similar  recommendation 

Dion   and   Urutua,   c.    S,    and    Plu-  in  reference  to  the  Theors  and  the 

tarch,    Praicepta    Reipublica;     Ge-  prize    chariots     of    the    Syracusan 

rcnda-,  c.  11.  p.  805;    c.    17,  p.  813;  despot    Hiero     (Plutarch,     Themi- 

c.     32.    p.    824,— he    speaks    of   the  stokles,  c.  25). 

putting   duwu   of  a  despot  (-rvipxv-  The   cojuraon-places  of  the   rhe- 


28  HISTOBY  OF  GKEECE.  PART  II. 

Amidst  the  numerous  points  of  contention  in  Grecian 
Conflict  be-  political  morality,  this  rooted  antipathy  to  a 
tween  oii-  permanent  hereditary  ruler  stood  apart  as  a 
IesCloUsmd  sentiment  almost  unanimous,  in  which  the  thirst 
preceded  for  pre-eminence  felt  by  the  wealthy  few,  and 
tween^U-  ^ne  ^ove  °^  e1ua^  freedom  in  the  bosoms  of  the 
garchy  and  many,  alike  concurred.  It  first  began  among  the 
democracy,  oligarchies  of  the  seventh  and  sixth  centuries 
B.C.,  being  a  reversal  of  that  pronounced  monarchical  sen- 
timent which  we  now  read  in  the  Iliad;  and  it  was  trans- 
mitted by  them  to  the  democracies  which  did  not  arise  until 
a  later  period.  The  conflict  between  oligarchy  and  despo- 
tism preceded  that  between  oligarchy  and  democracy,  the 
Lacedaemonians  standing  forward  actively  on  both  occasions 
to  uphold  the  oligarchical  principle.  A  mingled  sentiment 
of  fear  and  repugnance  led  them  to  put  down  despotism  in 
several  cities  of  Greece  during  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  just 
as  during  their  contest  with  Athens  in  the  following  century, 
they  assisted  the  oligarchical  party  to  overthrow  democracy. 
And  it  was  thus  that  che  demagogue-despot  of  these  earlier 
times — bringing  out  the  name  of  the  people  as  a  pretext, 
and  "the  arms  of  the  people  as  a  means  of  accomplishment, 
for  his  own  ambitious  designs — served  as  a  preface  to  the 
reality  of  democracy  which  manifested  itself  at  Athens  a 
short  time  before  the  Persian  war,  as  a  development  of  the 
seed  planted  by  Solon. 

As  far  as  our  imperfect  information  enables  us  to  trace, 
Early  oil-  these  early  oligarchies  of  the  Grecian  states, 
prchies  against  which  the  first  usurping  despots  contend- 
muitipTi- a  ed,  contained  in  themselves  more  repulsive  ele- 
city  of  ments  of  inequality,  and  more  mischievous  bar- 
gecu^ns*  riers  between  the  component  parts  of  the  popu- 
and  as-  lation,  than  the  oligarchies  of  later  days.  What 
m8'  was  true  of  Hellas  as  an  aggregate,  was  true, 
though  in  a  less  degree,  of  each  separate  community  which 

tors     afford    the    best    proof   how  |x  i  v  ou  zpaYfAtTO^yj-rci  ifj-otpTr^oLTOC, 

unanimous    was    the    tendency    in  rt  avSpatXaOT.ixaTO?.     'E<jTi  yap  St-to; 

the  Greek  mind  to  rank  the  despot  6  TOTCO?'  o  |AJV  11;,  xaxa  T(l)v  KETIO- 

among  the  most  uJioas  criminals,  •jTjpsu  tisv  10  v,    oiov     XOCTOC   TUpav- 

and  the  man  who  put  him  to  death  •<  o  u  ,      zpoOoTou,     av5p&9ovou, 

.among   the   benefactors    of  huma-  a  3  <i>  T  o  y  •     6     2s     tn,      u-sp      xiuv 

nity.     The   rhetor   Theon,   treating  •/ o  T,  3  7  o  v    Tl    giaitsrpaY|ii-'W'    W'> 

upon   common-places,   says:    Toro?  urep  tupavvoxto  vou,  d  pi  otiu)?, 

toTi    l.it'jt    otO;r(Tixo;    6  ;A  oi.c,  y  oo  -  vc,  jj.o 'j  i7o  u.     (Theou,  rrogyiunus- 


CHAP.  IX.  CLASSES  OF  THE  PEOPLE.  29 

went  to  compose  that  aggregate.  Each  included  a  variety 
of  clans,  orders,  religious  brotherhoods,  and  local  or  pro- 
fessional sections,  very  imperfectly  cemented  together:  so 
that  the  oligarchy  was  not  (like  the  government  so  deno- 
minated in  subsequent  times)  the  government  of  a  rich  few 
over  the  less  rich  and  the  poor,  but  that  of  a  peculiar  order, 
sometimes  a  Patrician  order,  over  all  the  remaining  society. 
In  such  a  case  the  subject  Many  might  number  opulent  and 
substantial  proprietors  as  well  as  the  governing  Few;  but 
these  subject  Many  would  themselves  be  broken  into  differ- 
ent heterogeneous  fractions  not  heartily  sympathising  with 
each  other,  perhaps  not  intermarrying  together,  nor  par- 
taking of  the  same  religious  rites.  The  country-population, 
or  villagers  who  tilled  the  land,  seem  in  these  early  times 
to  have  been  held  to  a  painful  dependence  on  the  great 
proprietors  who  lived  in  the  fortified  town,  and  to  have  been 
distinguished  by  a  dress  and  habits  of  their  own,  which 
often  drew  upon  them  an  unfriendly  nickname.  These 
town  proprietors  often  composed  the  governing  class  in 
early  Grecian  states;  while  their  subjects  consisted — 1. 
Of  the  dependent  cultivators  living  in  the  district  around; 
by  whom  their  lands  were  tilled.  2.  Of  a  certain  number 
of  small  self-working  proprietors  (a'jioupyol),  whose  pos- 
sessions were  too  scanty  to  maintain  more  than  themselves  by 
the  labour  of  their  own  hands  on  their  own  plot  of  ground 
— residing  either  in  the  country  or  the  town,  as  the  case 
might  be.  3.  Of  those  who  lived  in  the  town,  having  not 
land,  but  exercising  handicraft,  arts  or  commerce. 

The  governing  proprietors  went  by  the  name  of  the 
Gamori  or  Geomori,  according  as  the  Doric  or   Govem- 
lonic  dialect  might  be  used  in  describing  them,   "lc'nt  of.t^e 
since  they  were  found  in  states  belonging  to  one   a  close 
race  as  well  as  to  the  other.     They  appear  to   order  of 
have  constituted  a  close  order,  transmitting  their   p^t6pro-r 
privileges  to  their  children,  but  admitting  no   prietors. 
new  members  to  a  participation.     The  principle  called  by 
Greek  thinkers  a  Timocracy  (the  apportionment  of  political 
rights  and  privileges  according  to   comparative  property; 
seems  to  have  been  little,  if  at  all,  applied  in  the  earlier 
times.     We  know  no  example  of  it  earlier  than  Solon.     So 


30  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II, 

that  by  the  natural  multiplication  of  families  and  mutation 
of  property,  there  would  come  to  be  many  individual  Ga- 
mori  possessing  no  land  at  all,1  and  perhaps  worse  off  than 
those  small  freeholders  who  did  not  belong  to  the  order; 
while  some  of  these  latter  freeholders,  and  some  of  the  ar- 
tisans and  traders  in  the  towns,  might  at  the  same  time  be 
rising  in  wealth  and  importance.  Under  a  political  classi- 
fication such  as  this,  of  which  the  repulsive  inequality  was 
aggravated  by  a  rude  state  of  manners,  and  which  had  no 
flexibility  to  meet  the  changes  in  relative  position  amongst 
individual  inhabitants,  discontent  and  outbreaks  were  un- 
avoidable. The  earliest  despot,  usually  a  wealthy  man  of 
the  disfranchised  class,  became  champion  and  leader  of  the 
malcontents.2  However  oppressive  his  rule  might  be,  at 
least  it  was  an  oppression  which  bore  with  indiscriminate 
severity  upon  all  the  fractions  of  the  population;  and  when 
the  hour  of  reaction  against  him  or  against  his  successor 
arrived,  so  that  the  common  enemy  was  expelled  by  the 
united  efforts  of  all,  it  was  hardly  possible  to  revive  the 
pre-existing  system  of  exclusion  and  inequality  without 
some  considerable  abatements. 

As  a  general  rule,  every  Greek  city-community  in- 
Ciasses  of  eluded  in  its  population,  independent  of  bought 
the  people,  slaves,  the  three  elements  above  noticed, — con- 
siderable land -proprietors  with  rustic  dependents,  small 
self- working  proprietors,  and  town -artisans, — the  three 
elements  being  found  everywhere  in  different  proportions. 
But  the  progress  of  events  in  Greece,  from  the  seventh 
century  B.C.  downwards,  tended  continually  to  elevate  the 
comparative  importance  of  the  two  latter;  while  in  those 
early  clays  the  ascendency  of  the  former  was  at  its  maximum, 
Military  and  altered  only  to  decline.  The  military  force 
force  of  the  of  most  of  the  cities  was  at  first  in  the  hands  of 
parchios1  'the  great  proprietors,  and  formed  by  them.  It 
consisted  of  consisted  of  cavalry,  themselves  and  their  retain- 

lr> '  ers,  with  horses  fed  upon  their  lands.  Such  was 
the  primitive  oligarchical  militia,  as  constituted  in  the 
seventh  and  sixth  centuries  B.C.3  at  Chalkis  and  Eretria  in 
Euboea,  as  well  as  at  Kolophon  and  other  cities  in  Ionia, 

1  Like   various    members    of   the          3  Aristot.   Polit.    iv.  3,  2;    11,  10. 
Polish   or   Hungarian  noblesse    in  Aristot.  Rerum  Public.  Fragm.  ed. 
recent  times.  Neumann,   Fragm.  v.   EC^OEIOM   ro- 

2  Thucyd.  i.  13,  /.iiiiat,  p.  112;  btrabo,  x.  p.  417. 


CHAP.  ix.  CLASSES  OF  THE  PEOPLE.  31 

and  as  it  continued  in  Thessaly  down  to  the  fourth  century 
E.C.  But  the  gradual  rise  of  the  small  proprietors  and  town- 
artisans  was  marked  by  the  substitution  of  heavy -armed 
infantry  in  place  of  cavalry.    Moreover  a  further  change 
not  less  important  took  place,  when  the  resistance   Rise  of  the 
to  Persia  led  to  the  great  multiplication  of  Gre-   ^med"  in- 
cian  ships  of  war,  manned  by  a  host  of  seamen   fantry  and 
who  dwelt  congregated  in  the  maritime  towns,    of  the  feee 
All  these  movements  in  the  Grecian  communities    marine- 
tended  to  break  up  the  close  and  exclusive  oli-   ]?oth  un" 

,.  .,,         ,.%  j?      j.    i_-   j.      •      i  i  favourable 

garchies  with  which  our  first  historical  know-    to  oii- 
ledge  commences;  and  to  conduct  them,  either    £arc)iy. 
to  oligarchies  rather  more  open,  embracing  ail  men  of  a 
certain  amount  of  property — -or  else  to  democracies.    But 
the  transition  in  both  cases  was  usually  attained  through 
the  interlude  of  the  despot. 

In  enumerating  the  distinct  and  unharmonious  elements 
of  which  the  population  of  these  early  Grecian  communities 
was  made  up,  we  must  not  forget  one  further  element  which 
was  to  be  found  in  the  Dorian  states  generally   Dorian 
— men  of  Dorian,  as  contrasted  with  men  of  non-    states- 
Dorian,  race.     The  Dorians  were  in  all  cases   non^'orl'in 
immigrants  and  conquerors,  establishing  them-    inhabi- 
selves  along  with  and  at  the  expense  of  the  prior    * 
inhabitants.   Upon  what  terms  the  co-habitation  was  estab- 
lished, and  in  what  proportions  invaders  and  invaded  came 
together — we  have  little  information.    Important  as  this 
circumstance  is  in  the  history  of  these  Dorian  communities, 
we  know  it  only  as  a  general  fact,  without  being  able  to 
follow  its  results  in  detail.    But  we  see  enough  to  satisfy 
ourselves  that  in  those  revolutions  which  overthrew  the 
oligarchies  both  at  Corinth  and  Sikyon — perhaps  also  at 
Megara — the  Dorian  and  non-Dorian  elements  of  the  com- 
munity came  into  conflict  more  or  less  direct. 

The  despots  of  Sikyon  are  the  earliest  of  whom  we 
have  any  distinct  mention.  Their  dynasty  lasted   Dynasty  of 
100  years,  a  longer  period  than  any  other  Gre-    despots  at 
cian  despots  known  to  Aristotle;  they  are  said1    the^Ortha- 
moreover  to  have  governed  with  mildness  and    gorida?. 


32  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAH  II. 

with  much  practical  respect  to  the  pre-existing  laws. 
Orthagoras,  the  beginner  of  the  dynasty,  raised  himself  to 
the  position  of  despot  about  676  B.C.,  subverting  the  pre- 
existing Dorian  oligarchy;  1  but  the  cause  and  circumstances 
of  this  revolution  are  not  preserved.  He  is  said  to  have 
been  originally  a  cook.  In  his  line  of  successors  we  find 
mention  of  Andreas,  Myron,  Aristonymus  and  Kleisthenes. 
Myron  gained  a  chariot  victory  at  Olympia  in  the  33rd 
Olympiad  (648  B.C.),  and  built  at  the  same  holy  place  a 
thesaurus  containing  two  ornamented  alcoves  of  copper, 
for  the  reception  of  commemorative  offerings  from  himself 
and  his  family.2  Respecting  Kleisthenes  (whose  age  must 
be  placed  between  600-560  B.C.,  but  can  hardly  be  deter- 
mined accurately),  some  facts  are  reported  to  us  highly 
curious,  but  of  a  nature  not  altogether  easy  to  follow  or 
verify. 

we  learn  from  the  narrative  of  Herodotus  that  the 
tribe  to  which  Kleisthenes3  himself  (and  of  course  his 
progenitors  Orthagoras  and  the  other  Orthagoridse  also) 

1  Herodot.  vi.  126  ;  Pausan.  ii.  8,  laid    -with    Tartessian    brass,     and 
1.     There  is  some  confusion  about  adorned  with  Doric   and  Io?iic  co- 
the  names    of  Orthagoras    and  An-  lumns.       Both      the      architectural 
dreas  ;   the   latter   is    called  a  cook  orders    employed  in  this  building, 
in    Diodorus    (Fragment.    Excerpt,  and    the    Tartessian    brass,    which 
Vatic,     lib.     vii.-x.    Fragm.     xiv.).  the    Phoka?ans    had    then    brought 
Compare   Libanius    in    Sever,    vol.  to  Greece  in  large  quantities  from 
iii.  p.  251,  Reisk.  It  has  been  sup-  the  hospitable  king  Arganthonius, 
posed,  with  some  probability,  that  attest    the    intercourse    of    Myron 
the  same  person  is  designated  un-  with  the  Asiatics."    (Dorians,  i.  8, 
der    both    names :    the   two  names  2.)    So    also   Dr.   Thirlwall     states 
do  not  seem  to  occur  in  the  same  the    fact  :     "copper    of    Tartessus, 
author.    See  Plutarch,  Ser.  Xumin.  which  had  not  long  been  introduced 
Vind.  c.  7.  p.  553.  into  Greece."     (Hist.    Gr.    ch.  x.  p. 

Aristotle    (Polit.  v.  10,    3)  seems  433,  2nd  ed.)     Yet,   if   we  examine 

to    have    conceived    the    dominion  the    chronology    of   the    case,    we 

as  having  passed  direct  from  Myrfm  shall     see     that      the      thirty-third 

to    Kleistheues,     omitting    Arist6-  Olympiad  (048  B.C.)  must  have  been 

nymus.  earlier  even  than  the  first  discovery 

2  Pausan.  vi.  19,  2.    The  Eleiaus  of  Tartessus  by  the  Greeks,— before 
informed  Pausanias   that  the  brass  the    accidental    voyage    of   the  Sa- 
in   these   alcoves   came   from   Tar-  inian  merchant  K<*>laeus  first  made 
tessus    (the   southwestern   coast  of  the    region    known    to    them,    and 
Spain  from  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar  more  than  half  a  century  (at  least) 
to  the  territory  beyond  Cadiz)  :  he  earlier  than    the    commerce    of  the 
declines    to    guarantee    the    state-  Phokn?ans  with  Arganthonius.  Com- 
ment.    But  O.    Miiller   treats    it  as  pare  Herod,  iv.  152;  i.  103,  107. 

a  certainty, — "two   apartments   in-          •  Hurodot.  v.  67. 


CHAP.  IX.  KLEISTHENBS-DESPOT  OF  SIKYON.  33 

belonged,  was  distinct  from  the  three  Dorian  tribes,  who 
have  been  already  named  in  my  previous  chapter  respect- 
ing the  Lycurgean  constitution  at  Sparta — the  violent 
Hylleis,Pamphyli,andDymanes.  We  also  learn  ^°c^e^ 
that  these  tribes  were  common  to  the  Sikyonians  Kie^sthe- 
and  the  Argeians.  Kleisthenes,  being  in  a  state  of  n§s- 
bitter  hostility  with  Argos,  tried  in  several  ways  to  abolish 
the  points  of  community  between  the  two.  Sikyon,  originally 
dorised  by  settlers  from  Argos,  was  included  in  the  "lot 
of  Temenus,"  or  among  the  towns  of  the  Argeian  con- 
federacy. The  coherence  of  this  confederacy  had  become 
weaker  and  weaker,  partly  without  doubt  through  the 
influence  of  the  predecessors  of  Kleisthenes ;  but  the  Ar- 
geians may  perhaps  have  tried  to  revive  it,  thus  placing 
themselves  in  a  state  of  war  with  the  latter,  and  inducing 
him  to  disconnect  palpably  and  violently  Sikyon  from  Argos. 
There  were  two  anchors  by  which  the  connexion  held — 
first,  legendary  and  religious  sympathy;  next,  the  civil 
rites  and  denominations  current  among  the  Sikyoniaii. 
Dorians :  both  of  them  were  torn  up  by  Kleisthenes.  He 
changed  the  names  both  of  the  three  Dorian  tribes,  and  of 
that  non-Dorian  tribe  to  which  he  himself  belonged:  the 
last  he  called  by  the  complimentary  title  of  Archelai  (com- 
manders of  the  people);  the  first  three  he  styled  by  the 
insulting  names  of  Hyatse,  Oneatse,  and  Choereatae,  from 
the  three  Greek  words  signifying  a  boar,  an  ass,  and  a  little 
pig.  The  extreme  bitterness  of  such  an  insult  can  only  be 
appreciated  when  we  fancy  to  ourselves  the  reverence  with 
which  the  tribes  in  a  Grecian  city  regarded  the  hero  from 
whom  their  name  was  borrowed.  That  these  new  denomi- 
nations, given  by  Kleisthenes,  involved  an  intentional 
degradation  of  the  Dorian  tribes  as  well  as  an  assumption 
of  superiority  for  his  own,  is  affirmed  by  Herodotus,  and 
seems  well-deserving  of  credit. 

But  the  violence  of  which  Kleisthenes  was  capable  in 
his  anti- Argeian  antipathy,  is  manifested  still  more  plainly 
in  his  proceedings  with  respect  to  the  hero  Adrastus  and 
to  the  legendary  sentiment  of  the  people.  Something  has 
already  been  said  in  a  former  chapter1  about  this  remark- 
able incident,  which  must  however  be  here  again  briefly 
noticed.  The  hero  Adrastus,  whose  chapel  Herodotus 
himself  saw  in  the  Sikyonian  agora,  was  common  both  to 

1  See  above,  Furt  I.  ch.  21. 
VOL.  III.  D 


34  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

Argos  and  to  Sikyon,  and  was  the  object  of  special  rever- 
ence at  both.  He  figures  in  the  legend  as  king  of  Argos, 
and  as  the  grandson  and  heir  of  Polybus  king  of  Sikyon. 
He  was  the  unhappy  leader  of  the  two  sieges  of  Thebes, 
so  famous  in  the  ancient  epic.  The  Sikyonians  listened 
with  delight  both  to  the  exploits  of  the  Argeians  against 
Thebes,  as  celebrated  in  the  recitations  of  the  epical  rhap- 
sodes, and  to  the  mournful  tale  of  Adrastus  and  his  family 
misfortunes,  as  sung  in  the  tragic  chorus.  Kleisthenes  not 
only  forbade  the  rhapsodes  to  come  to  Sikyon,  but  further 
resolved  to  expel  Adrastus  himself  from  the  country — 
such  is  the  literal  Greek  expression,1  the  hero  himself 
being  believed  to  be  actually  present  and  domiciled  among 
the  people.  He  first  applied  to  the  Delphian  oracle  for 
permission  to  carry  this  banishment  into  direct  effect;  but 
the  Pythian  priestess  returned  an  answer  of  indignant 
refusal, — "Adrastus  is  king  of  the  Sikyonians,  but  thou  art 
a  ruffian."  Thus  baffled,  he  put  in  practice  a  stratagem 
calculated  to  induce  Adrastus  to  depart  of  his  own  accord.2 
He  sent  to  Thebes  to  beg  that  he  might  be  allowed  to  in- 
troduce into  Sikyon  the  hero  Melanippus;  and  the  per- 
mission was  granted.  Now  Melanippus — being  celebrated 
in  the  legend  as  the  puissant  champion  of  Thebes  against 
Adrastus  and  the  Argeian  besiegers,  and  as  having  slain 
both  Mekisteus  the  brother,  and  Tydeus  the  son-in-law,  of 
Adrastus — was  pre-eminently  odious  to  the  latter.  Kleis- 
theues  brought  this  anti-national  hero  into  Sikyon,  assign- 
ing to  him  consecrated  ground  in  the  prytaneiuni  or 
government -house,  and  even  in  that  part  which  was  most 
strong]y  fortified:3  (for  it  seems  that  Adrastus  was  con- 
ceived as  likely  to  assail  and  to  battle  with  the  intruder) 
— moreover  he  took  away  both  the  tragic  choruses  and  the 
sacrifice  from  Adrastus,  assigning  the  former  to  the  god 
Dionysus,  and  the  latter  to  Melanippus. 

The  religious  manifestations  of  Sikyon  being  thus 
transferred  from  Adrastus  to  his  mortal  foe,  and  from  the 
cause  of  Argeians  in  the  siege  of  Thebes  to  that  of  the 

1  Herod,  v.  07.     ToVrov  E-:0'J(j./,7o  s    EzayxYousvo?    SE    6    FO.siaQivTj? 
6  KXeioOevT,;,    EO/TX   'Afftivt,    iv.jia-  TOV  MaXx-H—ov,   TJUS-JC/;    ot   dz:sc=?s 
Xiiv  ix  TV;?  ytbpr,?.  i-j  K'JTW  -w  irpytavr,i'JJ  v.at  puv  Ev'JsiJ- 

2  Herod,   v.  07.    'fcswt-.i'-.z   u-V/'-  "^   "^p'J":  sv    TOJ   isyjpoTaTtj).    (Ke- 
vr,v   TT;    a'JTO;   6    "Ao^jTo;    a-a)./,a-  rud.  i(<.) 


CHAP.  IX.        ADRASTUS  EXPELLED  FROM  SIKYON.  35 

Thebans,  Adrastus  was  presumed  to  have  voluntarily  re- 
tired from  the  place.  And  the  purpose  which  Kleisthenes 
contemplated,  of  breaking  the  community  of  feeling  be- 
tween Sikyon  and  Argos,  was  in  part  accomplished. 

A  ruler  who  could  do  such  violence  to  the  religious 
and  legendary  sentiment  of  his  community  may  C!asses 
well  be  supposed  capable  of  inflicting  that  de-  Of  Syko- 
liberate  insult  upon  the  Dorian  tribes  which  is  £Jtk>nPOpU~ 
implied  in  their  new  appellations.  As  we  are 
uninformed,  however,  of  the  state  of  things  which  preceded, 
we  know  not  how  far  it  may  have  been  a  retaliation  for 
previous  insult  in  the  opposite  direction.  It  is  plain  that 
the  Dorians  of  Sikyon  maintained  themselves  and  their 
ancient  tribes  quite  apart  from  the  remaining  community; 
though  what  the  other  constituent  portions  of  the  popula- 
tion were,  or  in  what  relation  they  stood  to  these  Dorians, 
we  are  not  enabled  to  make  out.  We  hear  indeed  of  a 
dependent  rural  population  in  the  territory  of  Sikyon,  as 
well  as  in  that  of  Argos  and  Epidaurus,  analogous  to  the 
Helots  in  Laconia.  In  Sikyon  this  class  was  termed  the 
Korynephori  (club-men)  or  the  Katonakophori,  from  the 
thick  woollen  mantle  which  they  wore,  with  a  sheepskin 
sewn  on  to  the  skirt :  in  Argos  they  were  called  Gymnesii, 
from  their  not  possessing  the  military  panoply  or  the  use 
of  regular  arms:  in  Epidaurus,  Konipodes  or  the  Dusty- 
footed.1  We  may  conclude  that  a  similar  class  existed  in 
Corinth,  in  Megara,  and  in  each  of  the  Dorian  towns  of  the 
Argolic  Akte.  But  besides  the  Dorian  tribes  and  these 
rustics,  there  must  probably  have  existed  non-Dorian  pro- 
prietors and  town-residents,  and  upon  them  we  may  sup- 
pose that  the  power  of  the  Orthagoridee  and  of  Kleisthenes 
was  founded,  perhaps  more  friendly  and  indulgent  to  the 
rustic  serfs  than  that  of  the  Dorians  had  been  previously. 
The  moderation,  which  Aristotle  ascribes  to  the  Ortha- 
goridBe  generally,  is  belied  by  the  proceedings  of  Kleis- 
thenes. But  we  may  probably  believe  that  his  predeces- 
sors, content  with  maintaining  the  real  predominance  of 
(lie  non-Dorian  over  the  Dorian  population,  meddled  very 

1  Julius  Pollux,  iii.  P"> ;  Plutarch,  As  an    analogy    to  this   name  of 

Quaist.   Grrec.    c.   1.    p.    2'J1 ;     Tlico-  Konipodes,  we  may  notice  the  an- 

pompus  ap.  Athenseum,  vi.  p.  271;  cientcourts  of  justice  called  Courts 

"Welcker,   1'rolegomen.    ad  Theog-  of  Pic-powder  in  England,  Pieds- 

nid.  c.  19.  p.  xxxiv.  poudrcs.                        jj  9 


36.  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAKT  H. 

little  with  the  separate  position  and  civil  habits  of  the  latter 
— while  Kleisthenes,  provoked  or  alarmed  by  some  attempt 
on  their  part  to  strengthen  alliance  with  the  Argeians,  re- 
sorted both  to  repressive  measures  and  to  that  offensive 
nomenclature  which  has  been  above  cited.  The  preserva- 
tion of  the  power  of  Kleisthenes  was  due  to  his  military 
energy  (according  to  Aristotle)  even  more  than  to  his 
moderation  and  popular  conduct.  It  was  aided  probably 
by  his  magnificent  displays  at  the  public  games,  for  he  was 
victor  in  the  chariot-race  at  the  Pythian  games  582  B.C., 
as  well  as  at  the  Olympic  games  besides.  Moreover  he 
was  in  fact  the  last  of  the  race,  nor  did  he  transmit  his 
power  to  any  successor.1 

The  reigns  of  the  early  Orthagoridae  then  may  be 
Fail  of  the  considered  as  marking  a  predominance,  newly  ac- 
Ortha-  quired  but  quietly  exercised,  of  the  non-Dorians 

ftzte^ot'  over  the  Dorians  in  Sikyon:  the  reign  of  Kleis- 
Sikyon  thenes,  as  displaying  a  strong  explosion  of  anti- 
pathy from  the  former  towards  the  latter.  And 
though  this  antipathy,  with  the  application  of  those  op- 
probrious tribe-names  in  which  it  was  conveyed,  stand 
ascribed  to  Kleisthenes  personally — we  may  see  that  the 
non-Dorians  in  Sikyon  shared  it  generally,  because  these 
same  tribe-names  continued  to  be  applied  not  only  during 
the  reign  of  that  despot,  but  also  for  sixty  years  longer, 
after  his  death.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  remark  that 
such  denominations  could  never  have  been  acknowledged  or 
employed  among  the  Dorians  themselves.  After  the  lapse  of 
sixty  years  from  the  death  of  Kleisthenes,  the  Sikyonians 
came  to  an  amicable  adjustment  of  the  feud,  and  placed 
the  tribe-names  on  a  footing  satisfactory  to  all  parties. 
The  old  Dorian  denominations  (Hylleis,  Pamphyli,  and 
Dymanes)  were  re-established,  while  the  name  of  the  fourth 
tribe,  or  non-Dorians,  was  changed  from  Archelai  to  Jilgia- 
leis — ^Egialeus  son  of  Adrastus  being  constituted  their 
eponymus.2  This  choice,  of  the  son  of  Adrastus  for  an 

1  Aristot.  Polit.  v.  9,  21;  Pausan.      yov  09101  Sivre-,   pisTJpaXov    e?   TOO? 
x-  ^>  3-  'D.Xea?   xoii    Iloifj^uXoix;   y.otl    Aujj.7- 

2  Herod,    v.    08.      To'iToujt    ToTai  VOITOK;-    TETap-ou?    8s    auTOiai   r.pctai- 
'Aivojxacri    7(I>v    (puXsiov    e-/p£umo    oi  OEVTO   eitl   TOO  'Aoprjaiou  jratSos   Al- 
SiX'jibviot,    xoti    ir.{    KXeiaOsveoi;    op-  fiy.t.ios     -^-i     s-(u'vu,u.ir(v     rcoisu|j.evoi 
X.ov-0?,  xai  exeivou  TEQvEujTo?  |Ti  ir.'  xexX^sOai  A'tYiaXJa?. 


CHAP.  IX.  SIKYON  AND  KLEISTHEXES.  37 

eponymus,  seems  to  show  that  the  worship  of  Adrastus 
himself  was  then  revived  in  Sikyon,  since  it  existed  in 
the  time  of  Herodotus. 

Of  the  war  which  Kleisthenes  helped  to  conduct  against 

Kirrha,  for  the   protection  of    the   Delphian   The  sikyo- 
temple,  I  shall   speak  in  another  place.     His   nlj^n  ^s- 
death  and  the  cessation  of  his  dynasty  seem  to   put*down 
have  occurred  about  560  B.C.,  as  far  as  the  chro-   bv  Sparta, 
nology  can  be  made  out. l     That  he  was  put  down  by  the 

1  Tho  chronology  of  Orthagoras  (Herod,  vi.  12(i).  Now  the  reign 
and  his  dynasty  is  perplexing,  of  Croesus  extended  from  560-546 
The  commemorative  offering  of  B.C.  and  his  deputation  to  the 
Myr&n  at  Olympia  is  marked  for  oracles  in  Greece  appears  to  have 
fi48  B.C.,  and  this  must  throw  back  taken  place  about  550  B.C.  If  this 
the  beginning  of  Orthagoras  to  a  chronology  be  admitted,  the  mar- 
period  between  C80-670.  Then  we  riage  of  Megaklos  with  the  daugh- 
are  told  by  Aristotle  that  the  en-  ter  of  the  Sikyonian  Kleisthenes 

tiro  dynasty  lasted  100  years  ;  but  cannot  have  taken  place  until  con- 
it  must  have  lasted  probably  some-  siderably  after  556  B.C.  See  the 

what  longer,  for  the  death  of  long,  but  not  very  satisfactory, 

Kleisthenes  can  hardly  be  placed  note  of  Larcher,  ad  Herodot.  v.  60. 
earlier  than  SCO  B.C.  The  war  But  I  shall  show  grounds  for 
against  Kirrha  (595  B.C.)  and  the  believing,  when  I  recount  the  in- 
Pythian  victory  (582  B.C.)  fall  with-  terview  between  Solon  and  Crcesus, 
in  his  reign:  but  the  marriage  of  that  Herodotus  in  his  conception 
his  daughter  Agariste  with  Mega-  of  events  misdates  very  consider- 
kles  can  hardly  be  put  earlier  ably  the  reign  and  proceedings 
than  570  B.C.,  if  so  high  ;  for  Kleis-  of  Croesus  as  well  as  of  Peisistra- 
thenes  the  Athenian,  the  son  of  tus.  This  is  a  conjecture  of  Nie- 

that  marriage,  effected  the  demo-  huhr  which  I  think  very  just,  and 
cratical  revolution  at  Athens  in  which  is  rendered  still  more  pro- 
509  or  508  B.C.  "Whether  the  daughter  bable  by  what  we  find  here  stated 

whom  Megaklis  gave  in  marriage  about  the  succession  of  the  Alk- 
to  Peisistratus  about  554  B.C.,  was  mtcoiiida?.  For  it  is  evident  that 
also  the  offspring  of  that  marriage,  Herodotus  here  conceives  the  ad- 

as  Larcher  contends,  we  do  not  venture  between  AlkrmeOn  and 
know.  Crcesus  as  having  occurred  one 

Megakles  was  the  son  of  that  generation  (about  twenty-five  or 
Alkmrcon  who  bad  assisted  the  thirty  years)  anterior  to  the  mar- 
deputies  sent  by  Crcesus  of  Lydia  riage  between  Megakles  and  the 
into  Greece  to  consult  the  different  daughter  of  Kleisthenes.  That  ad- 
oracles,  and  whom  Crcesus  reward-  venture  will  thus  stand  about  590- 
ed  so  liberally  as  to  make  his  585  B.C.,  which  would  be  about 
fortune  (compare  Herod,  i.  4(5;  vi.  the  time  of  the  supposed  interview 
125):  and  the  marriage  of  Mega-  (if  real)  between  Solon  and  Crcesus, 
kles  was  in  the  next  generation  describing  the  maximum  of  the 
after  this  enrichment  of  Alkmccon  power  aiid  prosperity  of  the  latter. 


38  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II, 

Spartans  (as  K.  P.  Hermann,  0.  Muller,  and  Dr.  Thirlwall 
suppose)1  can  be  hardly  admitted  consistently  with  the 
narrative  of  Herodotus,  who  mentions  the  continuance  of 
the  insulting  names  imposed  by  him  upon  the  Dorian  tribes 
for  many  years  after  his  death.  Now,  had  the  Spartans 
forcibly  interfered  for  the  suppression  of  his  dynasty,  we 
may  reasonably  presume  that,  even  if  they  did  not  restore 
the  decided  preponderance  of  the  Dorians  in  Sikyon,  they 
would  at  least  have  rescued  the  Dorian  tribes  from  this 
obvious  ignominy.  But  it  seems  doubtful  whether  Kleis- 
thenes had  any  son:  and  the  extraordinary  importance  at- 
tached to  the  marriage  of  his  daughter  Agariste,  whom  he 
bestowed  upon  the  Athenian  Megakles  of  the  great  family 
Alkmseonidee,  seems  rather  to  envince  that  she  was  an 
heiress — not  to  his  power,  but  to  his  wealth.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  as  to  the  fact  of  that  marriage,  from  which 
was  born  the  Athenian  leader  Kleisthenes,  afterwards  the 
author  of  the  great  democratical  revolution  at  Athens  after 
the  expulsion  of  the  Peisistratidae ;  but  the  lively  and 
amusing  details  with  which  Herodotus  has  surrounded  it 
bear  much  more  the  stamp  of  romance  than  of  reality. 
Drest  up  apparently  by  some  ingenious  Athenian  as  a  com- 
pliment to  the  Alkmseonid  lineage  of  his  city,  which  com- 
prised both  Kleisthenes  and  Perikles,  the  narrative  com- 
memorates a  marriage-rivalry  between  that  lineage  and 
another  noble  Athenian  house,  and  at  the  same  time  gives 
a  mythical  explanation  of  a  phrase  seemingly  proverbial  at 
Athens — "Hippokleides  don't  care." 2 

1  Muller,  Dorians,  book  i.  S,  2  ;  Agariste     which    he     was    on    tho 
Thirlwall,    Hist,  of  Greece,  vol.  i.  point    of   obtaining.     It   seems    to 
ch.  x.  p.  486,  2nd  ed.  be  a  story  framed  upon  the  model 

2  Herod,  vi.  127-131.   The  locution  of  various  incidents  in  the  old  epic, 
explained    is  —  O'j     cpcnTU     'In-o-  especially  the  suitors  of  Helen. 
xXslSirj :    compare   the   allusions  to  On  one  point,   however,   the  au- 
it   in   the   Parcemiographi,   Zenob.  thor    of  the   story   seems  to    have 
v.  31;    Diogenian.  vii.  21;   Suidas,  overlooked  both  the  exigencies  of 
xi.  45,  ed.  Schott.  chronology  and  the   historical  po- 

The  convocation  of  the  suitors  sition  and  feelings  of  his  hero 
at  the  invitation  of  Kleisthenes  Kleisthene's.  For  among  the  sui- 
from  all  parts  of  Greece,  and  the  tors  who  present  themselves  at 
distinctive  mark  and  character  of  Sikyon  in  conformity  with  the  in- 
each,  is  prettily  told,  as  well  as  vitation  of  the  latter,  one  is  Le6- 
the  drunken  freak  whereby  Hip-  kedes ,  son  of  1'heidon  the  despot 
pokleides  forfeits  both  the  favour  of  Argos.  Now  the  hostility  and 
of  Kleisthenes  and  the  hand  of  vehement  antipathy  towards  Argos, 


CHAP.  IX.    KYPSELUS  AND  HIS  DYNASTY  AT  COKINTH.  39 

Plutarch  numbers  JEschines  of  Sikyon1  among  the 
despots  put  down  by  Sparta:  at  what  period  this  took 
place,  or  how  it  is  to  be  connected  with  the  history  of 
Kleisthenes  as  given  in  Herodotus,  we  are  unable  to  say. 

Contemporaneous  with  the  Orthagoridae  at  Sikyon' — 
but  beginning  a  little  later  and  closing  somewhat   Despots  at 
earlier — we  find  the  despots  Kypselus  and  Pe-   Corinth— 
riander  at  Corinth.     The  former  appears  as  the   ^^s& 
subverter  of  the  oligarchy  called  the  Bacchiadaa.     Of  the 
manner  in  which  he  accomplished  his  object  we  find  no  in- 
formation: and  this  historical  blank  is  inadequately  filled 
up  by  various  religious  prognostics  and  oracles,  foreshadow- 
ing the  rise,  the  harsh  rule,  and  the  dethronement  after 
two  generations,  of  these  powerful  despots. 

According  to  an  idea  deeply  seated  in  the  Greek  mind, 
the  destruction  of  a  great  prince  or  of  a  great  power  is 
usually  signified  by  the  gods  beforehand,  though  either 
through  hardness  of  heart  or  inadvertence  no  heed  is  taken 
of  the  warning.  In  reference  to  Kypselus  and  the  Bacchi- 
adae,  we  are  informed  that  Melas,  the  ancestor  of  the  former, 
was  one  of  the  original  settlers  at  Corinth  who  accompanied 
the  first  Dorian  chief  Aletes,  and  that  Aletes  was  in  vain 
warned  by  an  oracle  not  to  admit  him.2  Again  too,  im- 
mediately before  Kypselus  was  born,  the  Bacchiadae  re- 
ceived notice  that  his  mother  was  about  to  give  birth  to 
one  who  would  prove  their  ruin:  the  dangerous  infant 

which  Herodotus  ascribes  in  an-  gers  resort  here  to  the  usual  re- 
other  place  to  the  Sikyonian  Kleis-  source  in  cases  of  difficulty:  they 
thenos,  renders  it  all  but  impos-  recognise  a  second  and  later  Phei- 
sihle  that  the  son  of  any  king  of  don,  whom  they  affirm  that  Hero- 
Argos  could  have  become  a  candi-  dotus  has  confounded  with  the 
date  for  the  hand  of  Agariste.  I  first;  or  they  alter  the  text  of  He- 
have  already  recounted  the  vio-  rodotus  by  reading  in  place  of 
lence  which  Klcisthenus  did  to  the  "son  of  Pheid&n,''  "descendant  of 
legendary  sentiment  of  his  native  Pheidon."  But  neither  of  these 
town,  and  the  insulting  names  conjectures  rests  upon  any  basis: 
which  he  put  upon  the  Sikyonian  the  text  of  Herodotus  is  smooth 
Dorians — all  under  the  influence  and  clear,  and  the  second  Pheidon 
of  a  strong  anti-Argeian  feeling,  is  nowhere  else  authenticated.  See 
Next,  as  to  chronology:  Pheidon  I/archer  and  "Wesseling  ad  loc.: 
king  of  Argos  lived  some  time  be-  compare  also  Part  II.  ch.  4.  of  this 
tween  VC'i-7-iO  ;  and  his  son  can  never  History. 

have    been    a    candidate     for     the  '  Plutarch,  De  Herod.  Malign,  c. 

daughter    of    Kleisthenes,     whose  21.  p.  !-59. 

reign    falls   600-560   B.C.  Chroiiolo-  2  Pausan.  ii.  4,  9. 


40  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  n. 

escaped  destruction  only  by  a  hair's  breadth,  being  preser- 
ved from  the  intent  of  his  destroyers  by  lucky  concealment  in 
a  chest.  Labda,  the  mother  of  Kypselus,  was  daughter  of 
Amphion,  who  belonged  to  the  gens  or  sept  of  the  Bacchi- 
adse;  but  she  was  lame,  and  none  of  the  gens  would  consent 
to  marry  her  with  that  deformity.  Eetion,  son  of  Eche- 
krates,  who  became  her  husband,  belonged  to  a  different, 
yet  hardly  less  distinguished,  heroic  genealogy.  He  was 
of  the  Lapithae,  descended  from  Kseneus,  and  dwelling  iu 
the  Corinthian  deme  called  Petra.  "We  see  thus  that  Kyp- 
selus was  not  only  a  high-born  man  in  the  city,  but  a  Bac- 
chiad  by  half-birth:  both  of  these  circumstances  were  likely 
to  make  exclusion  from  the  government  intolerable  to  him. 
He  rendered  himself  highly  popular  with  the  people,  and 
by  their  aid  overthrew  and  expelled  the  Bacchiadae,  con- 
tinuing as  despot  at  Corinth  for  thirty  years  until  his  death 
(B.C.  655 — 625).  According  to  Aristotle,  he  maintained 
throughout  life  the  same  conciliatory  behaviour  by  which 
his  power  had  first  been  acquired;  and  his  popularity  was 
so  effectually  sustained  that  he  had  never  any  occasion  for 
a  body-guard.  But  the  Corinthian  oligarchy  of  the  century 
of  Herodotus  (whose  tale  that  historian  has  embodied  in 
the  oration  of  the  Corinthian  envoy  Sosikles1  to  the  Spar- 
tans) gave  a  very  different  description,  and  depicted  Kyp- 
selus as  a  cruel  ruler,  who  banished,  robbed,  and  murdered 
by  wholesale. 

His  son  and  successor  Periander,  though  energetic  as 
a  warrior,  distinguished  as  an  encoura^er  of  po- 

x»Griflnu6r  o 

etry  and  music,  and  even  numbered  by  some 
among  the  seven  wise  men  of  Greece — is  nevertheless  uni- 
formly represented  as  oppressive  and  inhuman  in  his  treat- 
ment of  subjects.  The  revolting  stories  which  are  told 
respecting  his  private  life,  and  his  relations  with  his  mother 
and  his  wife,  may  for  the  most  part  be  regarded  as  calum- 
nies suggested  by  odious  associations  with  his  memory. 
But  there  seems  good  reason  for  imputing  to  him  tyranny 
of  the  worst  character.  The  sanguinary  maxims  of  pre- 

1  Aristot.  Polit.  v.  9,  22.  Herodot.  general  view  of  Herodotus  (Aristot. 

v.  92.  The  tale  respecting  Kypselus  CEconom.  ii.  2);  but  I  do  not  trust 

and   his   wholesale    exaction  from  the  statements  of  this  treatise  for 

the  people,  contained  in  the  spuri-  facts    of  the  sixth  or  seventh  cen- 

ous  second  book  of  the  (Economica  turies  B.C. 
of    Aristotle,    coincides    with    the 


CHAP.  IX.  GRKA.T  POWET  OP  PKRIANDEB  41 

caution,  so  often  acted  upon  by  Grecian  despots,  were 
traced  back  in  ordinary  belief  to  Periander1  and  his  con- 
temporary  Thrasybulus  despot  of  Miletus.  He  maintained 
a  powerful  body-guard,  shed  much  blood,  and  was  exorbi- 
tant in  his  exactions,  a  part  of  which  was  employed  in 
votive  offerings  at  Olympia.  Such  munificence  to  the  gods 
was  considered  by  Aristotle  and  others  as  part  of  a  deli- 
berate system,  with  the  view  of  keeping  his  subjects  both 
hard  at  work  and  poor.  On  one  occasion  we  are  told  that 
he  invited  the  women  of  Corinth  to  assemble  for  the  cele- 
bration of  a  religious  festival,  and  then  stripped  them  of 
their  rich  attire  and  ornaments.  By  some  later  writers  he 
is  painted  as  the  stern  foe  of  everything  like  luxury  and 
dissolute  habits — enforcing  industry,  compelling  every  man 
to  render  account  of  his  means  of  livelihood,  and  causing  the 
procuresses  of  Corinth  to  be  thrown  into  the  sea. 2  Though 
the  general  features  of  his  character,  his  cruel  tyranny  no 
less  than  his  vigour  and  ability,  may  be  sufficiently  relied 
on,  yet  the  particular  incidents  connected  with  his  name  are 
all  extremely  dubious.  The  most  credible  of  all  seems  to 
be  the  tale  of  his  inexpiable  quarrel  with  his  son  and  his 
brutal  treatment  of  many  noble  Korkyraean  youths,  as 
related  in  Herodotus.  Periander  is  said  to  have  put  to 
death  his  wife  Melissa,  daughter  of  Prokles  despot  of 
Epidaurus.  His  son  Lykophron,  informed  of  this  deed, 
contracted  an  incurable  antipathy  against  him.  Periander, 
after  vainly  trying  both  by  rigour  and  by  conciliation,  to 
conquer  this  feeling  on  the  part  of  his  son,  sent  him  to 
reside  at  Korkyra,  then  dependent  upon  his  rule;  but  when 
he  found  himself  growing  old  and  disabled,  he  recalled  him 
to  Corinth,  in  order  to  ensure  the  continuance  of  the  dynasty. 
Lykophron  still  obstinately  declined  all  personal  commu- 
nication with  his  father,  upon  which  the  latter  desired  him 
to  come  to  Corinth,  and  engaged  himself  to  go  over  to 
Korkyra.  So  terrified  were  the  Korkyrteans  at  the  idea 
of  a  visit  from  this  formidable  old  man,  that  they  put 
Lykophron  to  death — a  deed  which  Periander  avenged  by 
seizing  three  hundred  youths  of  their  noblest  families,  and 
sending  them  over  to  the  Lydian  king  Alyattes  at  Sardis, 


42  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAET  II. 

in  order  that  they  might  be  castrated  and  made  to  serve  as 
eunuchs.  The  Corinthian  vessels  in  which  the  youths  were 
despatched  fortunately  touched  at  Samos  in  the  way;  where 
the  Samians  and  Knidians,  shocked  at  a  proceeding  which 
outraged  all  Hellenic  sentiment,  contrived  to  rescue  the 
youths  from  the  miserable  fate  intended  for  them,  and 
after  the  death  of  Periander  sent  them  back  to  their 
native  island.1 

While  we  turn  with  displeasure  from  the  political  life 
Great  of  this  man,  we  are  at  the  same  time  made  ac- 

p?^er.  .       quainted  with  the  great  extent  of  his  power — 

of  Corinth  ,  ,  9.    ,  ,  . 

under  Pe-  greater  than  that  which  was  ever  possessed  by 
riander.  Corinth  after  the  extinction  of  his  dynasty. 
Korkyra,  Ambrakia,  Leukas,  and  Anaktorium,  all  Corinth- 
ian colonies,  but  in  the  next  century  independent  states, 
appear  in  his  time  dependencies  of  Corinth.  Ambrakia  is 
said  to  have  been  under  the  rule  of  another  despot  named 
Periander,  probably  also  a  Kypselid  by  birth.  It  seems 
indeed  that  the  towns  of  Anaktorium,  Leukas,  and  Apol- 
lonia  in  the  Ionian  Gulf,  were  either  founded  by  the 
Kypselids,  or  received  reinforcements  of  Corinthian  colo- 
nists, during  their  dynasty,  though  Korkyra  was  estab- 
lished considerably  earlier.2 

The  reign  of  Periander  lasted  for  forty  years  (B.C. 
G25-585):  Psammetichus  son  of  Gordius,  who  succeeded 
Fall  of  the  him>  reigned  three  years,  and  the  Kypselid 
Kypselid  dynasty  is  then  said  to  have  closed  after  having 
continued  for  seventy-three  years.3  In  respect 
of  power,  magnificent  display,  and  wide-spread  connexions 
both  in  Asia  and  in  Italy,  they  evidently  stood  high  among 
the  Greeks  of  their  time.  Their  offerings  consecrated  at 
Olympia  excited  great  admiration,  especially  the  gilt  colos- 
sal statue  of  Zeus  and  the  large  chest  of  cedar-wood 
dedicated  in  the  temple  of  Here,  overlaid  with  various 
figures  in  gold  and  ivory.  The  figures  were  borrowed  from 
mythical  and  legendary  story,  while  the  chest  was  a  com- 

1  Herodot.  iii.  47-54.     He  details  c.  7.  p.  553.     Strabo,  vii.  p.  325  :  x. 
at  some  length  this  tragical  story,  p.  452.    Scymnus  Chius,  v.  454.  and 
Compare    Plutarch,     Da    Herodoti  Antoninus   Liberalis,    c.    iv.,    who 
Malignitat.  c.  22.  p.  860.  quotes   the    lost  work   called  'Ap.- 

2  Aristot.    Polit.    v.    3,    6;    8,    9.  [)  psxixoc  of  Athanadas. 
Plutarch,  Amatorius,  c.  23.  p.  708.  3  See  >Ir.  Clinton,  Fasti  Hellenic!, 
and    Do    Sera    Numinis    Vindicta,  ad  aun.  625-585  B.C. 


CHAP.  IX.          MEGARA— THEAGENES.  43 

rnomoration  both  of  the  name  of  Kypselus  and  of  the  tale 
of  his  marvellous  preservation  in  infancy.  1  If  Plutarch  is 
correct,  this  powerful  dynasty  is  to  be  numbered  among 
the  despots  put  down  by  Sparta.2  Yet  such  intervention 
of  the  Spartans,  granting  it  to  have  been  matter  of  fact, 
can  hardly  have  been  known  to  Herodotus. 

Coincident  in  point  of  time  with  the  commencement 
of  Periander's  reign  at  Corinth,  we  find  Thea-  Megara— 
genes  despot  at  Megara,  who  is  also  said  to  have  Theagengs 
acquired  his  power  by  demagogic  arts,  as  well  the  despot- 
as  by  violent  aggressions  against  the  rich  proprietors, 
whose  cattle  he  destroyed  in  their  pas.tures  by  the  side  of 
the  river.  We  are  not  told  by  what  previous  conduct  on 
the  part  of  the  rich  this  hatred  of  the  people  had  been 
earned;  but  Theagenes  carried  the  popular  feeling  com- 
pletely along  with  him,  obtained  by  public  vote  a  body  of 
guards  ostensibly  for  his  personal  safety,  and  employed 
them  to  overthrow  the  oligarchy.3  Yet  he  did  not  maintain 
his  power  even  for  his  own  life.  A  second  revolution 
dethroned  and  expelled  him,  on  which  occasion,  after  a 
short  interval  of  temperate  government,  the  people  are 
said  to  have  renewed  in  a  still  more  marked  way  their 
antipathies  against  the  rich;  banishing  some  of  them  with 
confiscation  of  property,  intruding  into  the  houses  of  others 


1  Pausan.  v.  2,  4;    17,  2.     Strabo,  — "prompted  by  the  wish  of  utterly 

viii.    p.   353.     Compare    Schneider,  eradicating  the  peculiarities  of  the 

Epimetrum  ad  Xeiiophon.  Auabas.  Doric    race.     For    this    reason   he 

p.    570.      The    chest    was    seen    at  abolished   the    public    tables,    and 

Olympia   both    by    Pausanias    and  prohibited  the  ancient  education." 

by  Dio    Chrysostom  (Or.  x.  p.  325,  (O.  Muller,  Dorians,  iii.  8,  3.) 

lleiske).  But  it  cannot  be  shown  that  any 

1  Plutarch,  De  Herodot.  Malign,  public  talles  (auiaiTioi)  or  any  pe- 
c.  21.  p.  859.  If  Herodotus  had  culiar  education,  analogous  to 
known  or  believed  that  the  dynasty  those  of  Sparta,  ever  existed  at 
of  the  Kypselids  at  Corinth  was  Corinth.  If  nothing  more  be  meant 
put  down  by  Sparta,  he  could  not  by  these  j'jj3iTia  than  public  ban- 
have  failed  to  make  allusion  to  quets  on  particular  festive  occa- 
the  fact  in  the  long  harangue  which  sions  (see  Welcker,  1'rolegom.  ad 
lie  ascribes  to  the  Corinthian  So-  Theognid.  c.  20.  p.  xxxvii.),  these 
sikles  (v.  92).  Whoever  reads  that  are  noway  peculiar  to  Dorian  cities, 
speech,  will  preceive  that  the  in-  Nor  does  Theognis,  v.  270,  bear 
ierence  from  silence  to  ignorance  out  Welcker  in  affirming  "syssi- 
is  in  this  case  almost  irresistible,  tiorum  votusinstitutum"atMegarn. 

O.  Miiller   ascribes   to  Periander  *  Aristot.  Polit.  v.  4;  5 ;   Rhetor. 

a  policy  intentionally  anti-Dorian  i.  2,  7. 


44  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

with  demands  for  forced  hospitality,  and  even  passing  a 
formal  Palintokia — or  decree  to  require  from  the  rich  who 
had  lent  money  on  interest,  the  refunding  of  all  past 
interest  paid  to  them  by  their  debtors. l  To  appreciate 
correctly  such  a  demand,  we  must  recollect  that  the  prac- 
tice of  taking  interest  for  money  lent  was  regarded  by  a 
large  proportion  of  early  ancient  society  with  feelings  of 
unqualified  reprobation.  And  it  will  be  seen,  when  we 
come  to  the  legislation  of  Solon,  how  much  such  violent 
reactionary  feeling  against  the  creditor  was  provoked  by 
the  antecedent  working  of  the  harsh  law  determining  his 
rights. 

We  hear  in  general  terms  of  more  than  one  revolution 
in  the  government  of  Megara — a  disorderly  democracy 
subverted  by  returning  oligarchical  exiles,  and  these  again 
unable  long  to  maintain  themselves;2  but  we  are  alike 
uninformed  as  to  dates  and  details.  And  in  respect  to  ono 
of  these  struggles  we  are  admitted  to  the  outpourings  of 
a  contemporary  and  a  sufferer — the  Megarian  poet  Theog- 
Disturbed  nis.  Unfortunately  his  elegiac  verses  as  we  pos- 
menTat  sess  t'nem  are  ^n  a  s^ate  so  broken,  incoherent 
Megara—  and  interpolated,  that  we  make  out  no  distinct 
Theognis.  conception  of  the  events  which  call  them  forth. 
Still  less  can  we  discover  in  the  verses  of  Theognis  that 
strength  and  peculiarity  of  pure  Dorian  feeling,  which, 
since  the  publication  of  0.  Muller's  History  of  the  Dorians, 
it  has  been  the  fashion  to  look  for  so  extensively.  But 
we  see  that  the  poet  was  connected  with  an  oligarchy  of 
birth,  and  not  of  wealth,  which  had  recently  been  subverted 
by  the  breaking  in  of  the  rustic  population  previously 
subject  and  degraded — that  these  subjects  were  content 
to  submit  to  a  single-headed  despot,  in  order  to  escape 
from  their  former  rulers — and  that  Theognis  had  himself 
been  betrayed  by  his  own  friends  and  companions,  stripped 
of  his  property  and  exiled,  through  the  wrong  doing  uof 
enemies  whose  blood  he  hopes  one  day  to  be  permitted  to 
drink."3  The  condition  of  the  subject  cultivators  previous 
to  this  revolution  he  depicts  in  sad  colours:  they  "dwelt 
without  the  city,  clad  in  goatskins,  and  ignorant  of  judicial 

1  Plutarch,    Quast.    Gra>c.    c.    18.          3  Thcognis,  vv.  262,  349,  512,  600, 
p.  295.  828,  834,  1119,  1200,    Gaisf.    edit.  :  — 

2  Aristot.  Polit.  iv.  12,  10;    v.  1,  T(I>v  EITJ  jisXav  aT|xa  HIEIV,  &c. 
6;  4,  3. 


CHAP.  IX.  THEOGNIS  THE  MEGARIAX  POET.  45 

sanctions  or  laws:"1  after  it,  they  had  become  citizens,  and 
their  importance  had  been  immensely  enhanced.  Thus 
(according  to  his  impression)  the  vile  breed  has  trodden 
down  the  noble — the  bad  have  become  masters,  and  the 
good  are  no  longer  of  any  account.  The  bitterness  and 
humiliation  which  attend  upon  poverty,  and  the  undue  as- 
cendency which  wealth  confers  even  upon  the  most  worth- 
less of  mankind,2  are  among  the  prominent  subjects  of  his 
complaint.  His  keen  personal  feeling  on  this  point  would 
be  alone  sufficient  to  show  that  the  recent  revolution  had 
no  way  overthrown  the  influence  of  property;  in  contra- 
diction to  the  opinion  of  AVelcker,  who  infers  without 
ground,  from  a  passage  of  uncertain  meaning,  that  the  land 
of  the  state  had  been  formally  re-divided.3  The  Megarian 

But  the  early  or  political  meaning 
always  remained,  and  the  fluctua- 
tion  between  the  two  has  been 
productive  of  frequent  misunder- 
standing.  Constant  attention  is 
ai.Y<I>v  necessary  when  we  read  the  ex- 
pressions  oi  aY«Oot,  ej&Xoi,  xaXo- 

"E;iu  6'  OJ3T1  1X0(901  -rjsS'  EVE-     y.aY«Ooi)     xpvjaToi,    <£c.    or    on    the 
\>.vi-'i  itoXsGi;.  other  hand,  oi  xaxoi,  SiiXoi,  &c.,  to 

2  Theogonis,    vv.    174,    267,    523,      examine    whether    the    context   is 
700,  865,  Gaisf.  such  as  to  give  to  them  vhe  ethical 

3  Consult    the  Prolegomena    to      or  the  political  meaning.    "VVelcker 
VTelcker's     edition    of    Theognis  ;      seems  to  go  a    step    too   far   when 
also  those  of  Schneidewin  (Delectus      lie  says  that  the  latter  sense   -fell 
Elegiac.  Poetar.  p.  46 — 55).  into    desuetude,    through    the    in- 

The  Prolegomena  of  Welcker  iiuence  of  the  Socratic  philosophy.'' 
arc  particularly  valuable  and  full  (Prolog,  sect.  11.  p.  xxv.)  The 
of  instruction.  He  illustrates  at  t~wo  meanings  both  remained  extant 
great  length  the  tendency  common  at  the  same  time,  as  we  see  by 
to  Theognis  with  other  early  Aristotle  (Polit.  iv.  8,  2)  — ay_s8ov 
Greek  poets,  to  apply  the  words  yip  -otpct  TGI?  zXiljTOK  oi  Euitopoi, 
good  and  Ixifl,  not  with  reference  TUJV  xocXu>v  y-dy'-'J^''  Boxouai  xccriygiv 
to  any  ethical  standard,  but  to  yuJpav.  A  careful  distinction  is 
wealth  as  contrasted  with  poverty  sometimes  found  in  Plato  and 
—nobility  with  low  birth— strength  Thucydides,  who  talk  of  the  oli- 
with  weakness — conservative  and  garchs  as  "the  persons  called  super- 
oligarchical  politics  as  opposed  excellent" — TOVK  xaXox  v.aya'J&'j; 
to  innovation  (sect.  10 — 18).  The  CivO|£3^0|x£vGU4  (Thucyd.  viii.  48). — 
ethical  meaning  of  these  words  is  i>~fj  tcbv  rXouaiujv  T;  xai  v.aXiL/ 
not  absolutely  unknown,  yet  rare,  v.aYaOu>v  XEYOIJL£VCOV  i-i  -^  TtoXn 
in  Tlieogiiis  :  it  gradually  grew  up  (Plato,  Hep.  viii.  p.  561). 
at  Athens,  and  became  popularized  The  same  double  sense  is  to  be 
by  the  Pocratic  school  of  philo-  found  equally  prevalent  in  the 
Eophers  as  well  as  by  the  orators.  Latin  language  :  -Uonique  et  mali 


46  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAKT  II. 

revolution,  so  far  as  we  apprehend  it  from  Theognis, 
appears  to  have  improved  materially  the  condition  of 
the  cultivators  around  the  town,  and  to  have  streng- 
thened a  certain  class  whom  he  considers  "the  bad  rich" — 
while  it  extinguished  the  privileges  of  that  governing 
order,  to  which  he  himself  belonged,  denominated  in  his 
language  "the  good  and  the  virtuous,"  with  ruinous  effect 
upon  his  own  individual  fortunes.  How  far  this  govern- 
ing order  was  exclusively  Dorian,  we  have  no  means  of  deter- 
mining. The  political  change  by  which  Theognis  suffered, 
and  the  new  despot  whom  he  indicates  as  either  actually 
installed  or  nearly  impending,  must  have  come  considerably 
after  the  despotism  of  Theagenes;  for  the  life  of  the  poet 
seems  to  fall  between  570-490  B.C.,  while  Theagenes  must 
have  ruled  about  630-600  B.C.  From  the  unfavourable  pic- 
ture therefore,  which  the  poet  gives  as  his  own  early  ex- 
perience, of  the  condition  of  the  rural  cultivators,  it  is 
evident  that  the  despot  Theagenes  had  neither  conferred 
upon  them  any  permanent  benefit,  nor  given  them  access 
to  the  judicial  protection  of  the  city. 

It  is  thus  that  the  despots  of  Corinth,  Sikyon  and 
„  Meerara  serve  as  samples  of  those  revolutionary 

Analogy  of    .    n°  ,  .  ,     ,  -,      ,-,       ,        .       •  n  ,  i 

Corinth,  influences  which  towards  the  beginning  ot  the 
Sikyon  and  sixth  century  B.C.  seem  to  have  shaken  or  over- 
turned the  oligarchical  governments  in  very 
many  cities  throughout  the  Grecian  world.  There  existed 
a  certain  sympathy  and  alliance  between  the  despots  of 
Corinth  and  Sikyon:1  how  far  such  feeling  was  further 
extended  to  Megara  we  do  not  know.  The  latter  city  seems 
evidently  to  have  been  more  populous  and  powerful  during 

cives  appellati,  non  ob   merita   in  tionally  confounded  together,  when 

rempublicam,  omnibus  pariter  cor-  he  gives  his  definition    of  optimus 

ruptis:  sed  uti  quisque  locuplotis-  qjiisgue.      "\Yclcker    (Prolog,   s.    12) 

simus,    et    injuria    validior,     quia  produces  several    other    examples 

prsssentia    defendebat,    pro     bono  of    the    like    equivocal     meaning, 

habebatur."     (Sallust.    Hist.  Frag-  There   are   not   wanting   instances 

ment.     lib.    i.    p.    ?35,   Cort.)    And  of   the    same    use    of  language  in 

again   Cicero    (De    Republ.   i.  34)  :  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  early 

"Hoc  errore  vulgi   cum    rempubli-  Germans — boni  homines,  probi  ho- 

cain  opes  paucorum,  non  virtutes,  mines,  Rachinburgi,   Gudemanner. 

tenere  cceperunt,  nomen    illi  prin-  See       Savigny,       Geschichte       des 

cipes  oplimatium  mordicus  tenent,  Romisch.    Rechts    im    jMittelalter, 

re  autem  carent  eo   nomine/'     In  vol.  i.  p.  184  ;  vol.   ii.  p.  xxii. 

'"icero's     Oration    pro    Sextio    (c.  l  Herod,  vi.  128. 
4o)    the    two    meanings   are  inten- 


CHAP.  IX.    GOOD  AND  BAD— AS  UNDERSTOOD  BY  THEOGNIS.    47 

the  seventh  and  sixth  centuries  B.C.  than  we  shall  afterwards 
find  her  throughout  the  two  brilliant  centuries  of  Grecian 
history.  Her  colonies,  found  as  far  distant  as  Bithynia 
and  the  Thracian  Bosphorus  on  one  side,  and  as  Sicily  on 
the  other,  argue  an  extent  of  trade  as  well  as  naval  force 
once  not  inferior  to  Athens;  so  that  we  shall  be  the  less 
surprised  when  we  approach  the  life  of  Solon,  to  find  her 
in  possession  of  the  island  of  Salamis,  and  long  maintaining 
it,  at  one  time  with  every  promise  of  triumph,  against  the 
entire  force  of  the  Athenians. 


48  HISTORY  OF  GEEECE.  PART  II. 


CHAPTER  X. 

• 

IONIC  PORTION  OF  HELLAS— ATHENS  BEFORE  SOLON. 

HAVING  traced  in  the  preceding  chapters  the  scanty  stream 
of  Peloponnesian  history,  from  the  first  commencement  of 
an  authentic  chronology  in  776  B.C.,  to  the  maximum  of 
Spartan  territorial  acquisition,  and  the  general  acknowledge- 
ment of  Spartan  primacy,  prior  to  547  B.C.,  I  proceed  to 
state  as  mach  as  can  be  made  out  respecting  the  Ionic 
portion  of  Hellas  during  the  same  period.  This  portion 
comprehends  Athens  and  Eubcea — the  Cyclades  islands — 
and  the  Ionic  cities  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  with  their 
different  colonies. 

In  the  case  of  Peloponnesus,  we  have  been  enabled  to 
History  of  discern  something  like  an  order  of  real  facts  in 
Athens  be-  theperiodalludedto — Spartamakesgreatstrides, 
-oni?rak°  while  Argos  falls.  In  the  case  of  Athens,  un- 
list  of  fortunately,  our  materials  are  less  instructive. 
The  number  of  historical  facts,  anterior  to  the 
Solonian  legislation,  is  very  few  indeed:  the  interval  be- 
tween 776  B.C.  and  624  B.C.,  the  epoch  of  Drake's  legislation 
a  short  time  prior  to  Kylon's  attempted  usurpation,  gives 
us  merely  a  list  of  archons,  denuded  of  all  incident. 

In  compliment  to  the  heroism  of  Kodrus,  who  had 
NO  king  sacrificed  his  life  for  the  safety  of  his  country, 
after  KO-  we  are  told  that  no  person  after  him  was  per- 
arch'on^ife  mitted  to  bear  the  title  of  king.*  His  son 
Decennial  JVIedon,  and  twelve  successors — Akastus,  Archip- 
Annuai'ar-  Pus>  Thersippus,  Phorbas,  Megakles,  Diognetus, 
chons,  nine  Pherekles,  Ariphron,  Thespieus,  Agamestor, 
iu  number.  ^Escilyius>  anj  Alkmjeon— were  all  archons  for 
life.  In  the  second  year  of  Alkmseon  (752  B.C.),  the  dignity 
of  archon  was  restricted  to  a  duration  of  ten  years:  and 
seven  of  these  decennial  archons  are  numbered — Charops, 
yEsirnides,  Kleidikus,  Hippomenes,  Leokrates,  Apsandrus, 

1  Justin,  ii.  7. 


CHAP.  X.  ATHENS  BEFORE  SOLON.  49 

Eryxias.  With  Kreon,  who  succeeded  Eryxias,  the  archon- 
ship  was  not  only  made  annual,  but  put  into  commission 
and  distributed  among  nine  persons.  These  nine  archons 
annually  changed  continue  throughout  all  the  historical 
period,  interrupted  only  by  the  few  intervals  of  political 
disturbance  and  foreign  compression.  Down  to  Kleidikus 
and  Hippomenes  (714  B.C.),  the  dignity  of  archon  had  con- 
tinued to  belong  exclusively  to  the  Medontidse  or  descend- 
ants of  Medon  and  Kodrus;1  at  that  period  it  was  thrown 
open  to  all  the  Eupatrids,  or  order  of  nobility  in  the  state. 
Such  is  the  series  of  names  by  which  we  step  down 
from  the  level  of  legend  to  that  of  history.  All  . 

..,.,,  r-Aji  •  ^         i      Arclionshlp 

our  historical  knowledge  ot  Athens  is  confined   Of  Kreon, 

to  the  annual  archons;  which  series  of  epony-    B-c-  683— 
P  T7-      A       -,  i       •  A       J      commence- 

mous  archons,  trom  Kreon  downwards,  is  per-  meut  of 
fectly  trustworthy. 2  Above  683  B.C.,  tne  Attic  £mc  cl«o- 
antiquaries  have  provided  us  with  a  string  of 
names,  which  we  must  take  as  we  find  them,  without  being 
able  either  to  warrant  the  whole  or  to  separate  the  false 
from  the  true.  There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  the  general 
fact  that  Athens,  like  so  many  other  communities  of  Greece, 
was  in  its  primitive  times  governed  by  an  hereditary  line 
of  kings,  and  that  it  passed  from  that  form  of  government 
into  a  commonwealth,  first  oligarchical,  afterwards  demo- 
cratical. 

We  are  in  no  condition  to  determine  the  civil  classi- 
fication and  political  constitution  of  Attica,  even  at  the 
period  of  the  archonship  of  Kreon,  6S3  B.C.,  when  authentic 
Athenian  chronology  first  commences — much  less  can  we 
pretend  to  any  knowledge  of  the  anterior  centuries.  Great 
political  changes  were  introduced  first  by  Solon  (about 
594  B.C.),  next  by  Kleisthenes  (509  B.C),  afterwards  by 
Aristeides,  Perikles  and  Ephialtes,  between  the  Persian 
andPeloponnesianwars:  so  that  the  old  ante-Solonian— nay 
even  the  real  Solonian — polity  was  thus  put  more  and  more 
out  of  date  and  out  of  knowledge.  But  all  the  information 


1  Pausan.   i.  3,   2;    Suidas,  MTtro- 
XSVT);;  Diogeniaii.  Centur.  Proverb, 
ii.  1.  'kaz^iz-zprt-i  'I  —  rjijuvou:. 

2  See    Boeckh     on     the     Parian 


50  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAKT  II. 

which  we  possess  respecting  that  old  polity  is  derived  from 
authors  who  lived  after  all  or  most  of  these  great 

Obscurity  ,  i       i         /?     T  i 

of  the  civil  changes — and  who,  finding  no  records,  nor  any- 
condition  thing  better  than  current  legends,  explained  the 

of  Attica         ~       f.  ,, 

before  foretime  as  well  as  they  could  by  guesses  more 

Solon.  or  less  ingenious,  generally  attached  to  the  do- 

minant legendary  names.  They  were  sometimes  able  to 
found  their  conclusions  upon  religious  usages,  periodical 
ceremonies,  or  common  sacrifices,  still  subsisting  in  their 
own  time.  These  were  doubtless  the  best  evidences  to  be 
found  respecting  Athenian  antiquity,  since  such  practices 
often  continued  unaltered  throughout  all  the  political 
changes.  It  is  in  this  way  alone  that  we  arrive  at  some 
partial  knowledge  of  the  ante-Solonian  condition  of  Attica, 
though  as  a  whole  it  still  remains  dark  and  unintelligible, 
even  after  the  many  illustrations  of  modern  commentators. 

Philochorus,  writing  in  the  third  century  before  the 
Alleged  Christian  sera,  stated,  that  Kekrops  had  origin- 
duodecimal  ally  distributed  Attica  into  twelve  districts — - 
ofVAt«ca  Kekropia, Tetrapolis, Epakria, Dekeleia,  Eleusis, 
in  early  Aphidnse,  Thorikus,  Brauron,  Kytherus,  Sphet- 
times.  £ug^  J£ephisia,  Phalerus — and  that  these  twelve 

were  consolidated  into  one  political  society  by  Theseus.1 
This  partition  does  not  comprise  the  Megarid,  which,  accord- 
ing to  other  statements,  is  represented  as  united  with 
Attica,  and  as  having  formed  part  of  the  distribution  made 
by  king  Pandion  among  his  four  sons,  Xisus,  ^Egeus,  Pallas 
and  Lykus — a  story  as  old  as  Sophokles  at  least.2  In  other 
accounts,  again,  a  quadruple  division  is  applied  to  the 
tribes,  which  are  stated  to  have  been  four  in  number,  be- 
ginning from  Kekrops — called  in  his  time  Kekropis, 
Autochthon,  Aktaea  and  Paralia.  Under  king  Kranaus, 
these  tribes  (we  are  told)  received  the  names  of  KranaYs, 
Atthis,  Mesogtea  and  Diakria3 — under  Erichthonius,  those 
of  Dias,  Athenais,  Poseiclonias,  Hephgestias:  at  last,  shortly 
after  Erechtheus,  they  were  denominated  after  the  four 
sons  of  Ion  (son  of  Kreusa  daughter  of  Erechtheus,  by 

1  Philochorus   ap.    Strabo.   is.  p.  of  Xisus    from   the  isthmus  of  Co- 
396.     See   Schomann,  Antiq.   J.   P.  rinth  as  far  as   the  Pythinm   (near 
Grsec.  b.  v.  sect.  2 — 5.  CEnoe)    and   Eleusis    (Str.  j'6. ;   but 

2  Strabo,   ix.  p.  302.   Philochorus  there  were  many  different  tales, 
and  Andron  extended  the  kingdom          *  Pollux,  viii.  c.  9.  109—111. 


CHAP.  X.  FOUR  EARLY  TRIBES  OF  ATTICA.  51 

Apollo),  G-eleontes,  Hopletes,  ^Egikoreis,  Argadeis.  The 
four  Attic  or  Ionic  tribes,  under  these  last-men-  Four  Ionic 
tioned  names,  continued  to  form  the  classification  tribes— 
of  the  citizens  until  the  revolution  of  Kleisthenes  IJ^jJJ' 
in  509  B.C.,  by  which  the  ten  tribes  were  intro-  jEgikoreis, 
duced,  as  we  find  them  down  to  the  period  of  Argadeis- 
Macedonian  ascendency.  It  is  affirmed,  and  with  some 
etymological  plausibility,  that  the  denominations  of  these 
four  tribes  must  originally  have  had  reference  to  the  occu- 
pations of  those  who  bore  them — the  Hopletes  being  the 
warrior-class,  the  yEgikoreis  goatherds,  the  Argadeis  ar- 
tisans, and  the  G-eleontes  (Teleontes,  or  Gredeontes)  culti- 
vators. Hence  some  authors  have  ascribed  to  the  ancient 
inhabitants  of  Attica1  an  actual  primitive  distribution  into 
hereditary  professions  or  castes,  similar  to  that  which  pre- 
vailed in  India  and  Egypt.  If  we  should  even  grant  that 
such  a  division  into  castes  might  originally  have  prevailed, 
it  must  have  grown  obsolete  long  before  the  time  of  Solon: 
but  there  seem  no  sufficient  grounds  for  believing  that  it 
ever  did  prevail.  The  names  of  the  tribes  may  have  been 
originally  borrowed  from  certain  professions,  but  it  does 
not  necessarily  follow  that  the  reality  corresponded  to  this 
derivation,  or  that  every  individual  who  belonged  to  any 
tribe  was  a  member  of  the  profession  from  whence  the  name 
had  originally  been  derived.  From  the  etymology  of  the 
names,  be  it  ever  so  clear,  we  cannot  safely  assume  the 
historical  reality  of  a  classification  according  to  professions. 
And  this  objection  (which  would  be  weighty  even  if  the 
etymology  had  been  clear)  becomes  irresistible  when  we 
add  that  even  the  etymology  is  not  beyond  dispute;2  that 
the  names  themselves  are  written  with  a  diversity  which 

1  Ion,  the  father  of  the  four  ho-  at  Kyzikus  concur  -with  Herodotus 
roes  after  whom  these  tribes  wore  and    others    in    giving  Geleontes. 
named,    was  affirmed  by  ono  story  Plutarch  (Solon,  25)  gives  Gedeon- 
to   be   the   primitive    civilising  Ic-  tes.     In    an    Athenian    inscription 
gislator   of  Attica,  like  Lykurgus,  recently     published    by    Professor 
Numa,  or  "Deukaliou  (Plutarch,  adv.  Ross  (dating  seemingly  in  the  first 
Koloten,  c.  31.  p.  1125).  century   after   the   Christian    tera), 

2  Thus    Euripides     derives    the  the    worship    of    Zeus    Geledn    at 
Al-ftxopsi;,  not  from  ai;  a  goat,  but  Athens  has  been  for  the  first  time 
from    Ai-fi;    the    JEgis    of   Athene1  verified— Aio;    FeXEOvTO?    tspoxr^y'j; 
(Ion.  1581) :  he  also  gives  Teleontes,  (Ross,    Die   Attischen   Demen,   pp. 
derived  from  an  eponymous   Telon  vii.-ix.  Halle,  1840). 

son  of  Ion,  while  the  inscriptions 

E  2 


52  HISTOEY  OF  GBEECE.  PART  II. 

K  t  am  cannot  be  reconciled;  and  that  the  four  pro- 
of castes  fessions  named  by  Strabo  omit  the  goatherds  and 
or  pro-  include  the  priests;  while  those  specified  by 
Plutarch  leave  out  the  latter  and  include  the 
former.  * 

All  that  seems  certain  is,  that  these  were  the  four  an- 
cient Ionic  tribes  (analogous  to  the  Hylleis,  Pamphyli  and 
Dymanes  among  the  Dorians)  which  prevailed  not  only  at 
Athens,  but  among  several  of  the  Ionic  cities  derived  from 
Athens.  The  Geleontes  are  mentioned  in  inscriptions  now 
remaining  belonging  to  Teos  in  Ionia,  and  all  the  four  are 
named  in  those  of  Kyzikus  in  the  Propontis,  which  was  a 
foundation  from  the  Ionic  Miletus.2  The  four  tribes,  and 
the  four  names  (allowing  for  some  variations  of  reading), 
are  therefore  historically  verified.  But  neither  the  time 
of  their  introduction,  nor  their  primitive  import,  are  as- 
certainable  matters;  nor  can  any  faith  be  put  in  the  various 
constructions  of  the  legends  of  Ion,  Erechtheus,  and 
Kekrops,  by  modern  commentators. 

These  four  tribes  may  be  looked  at  either  as  religious 
and  social  acre'reo-ates.  in  which  capacitv  each 

Component        „    ,,  •       i    jV          T>I_      j.    •  j      • 

portions  of  oi  them  comprised  three  Jrhratries  and  ninety 
the  four  Gentes ;  or  as  political  aggregates,  in  which  point 
of  view  each  included  three  Trittyes  and  twelve 
Naukraries.  Each  Phratry  contained  thirty  Gentes:  each 
Trittys  comprised  four  Xaukraries:  the  total  numbers  were 
thus  360  Gentes  and  4S  Naukraries.  Moreover  each  gens 
is  said  to  have  contained  thirty  heads  of  families,  of  whom 
therefore  there  would  be  a  total  of  10,SOO. 

Comparing  these  two  distributions  one  with  the  other, 
The  Trittys  we  mav  remai'k  that  they  are  distinct  in  their 
and  the  nature  and  proceed  in  opposite  directions.  The 
Naukrary.  Trittys  and  the  Xaukrary  are  essentially  frac- 
tional subdivisions  of  the  tribe,  and  resting  upon  the  tribe 

1  Plutarch  (Solon,  c.  251 ;  Strabo,  K.  F.  Hermann  (Lehrbuch  Aer 

viii.  p.  383.  Compare  Plato,  Kritias,  Griechischen  Staatsalterthiimer, 

p.  no.  sect.  91-9G)  gives  a  summary  of  all 

-  Boeckh,  Corp.  Inscr.  Nos.  3078,  that  can  be  known  respecting  thesa 

3079,  3C65.  The  elaborate  commen-  old  Athenian  tribes.  Compare  II- 

tary  on  this  last-mentioned  inscrip-  gen,  De  Trihubus  Atticis,  p.  9  se£. 

lion,  in  which  Boeckh  vindicates  Tittmann ,  Griechische  Staatsver- 

the  early  historical  reality  of  the  fassungen,  pp.  570-582;  Wacl.smuth. 

classification  by  professions,  is  Hellenische  Alterthumsk'indCjSe^t.. 

noway  satisfactory  to  my  mind.  43,  44. 


CHAP.  X.  TRIBES,PHBATRIES.GENTES,  ETC.  53 

as  their  higher  unity:  the  Naukrary  is  a  local  circumscrip- 
tion, composed  of  the  Naukrars  or  principal  householders 
(so  the  etymology  seems  to  indicate),  who  levy  in  each 
respective  district  the  quota  of  public  contributions  which 
belongs  to  it,  and  superintend  the  disbursement, — provide 
the  military  force  incumbent  upon  the  district,  being  for 
each  naukrary  two  horsemen  and  one  ship, — and  furnish 
the  chief  district -officers,  the  Prytanes  of  the  Naukrari.  * 
A  certain  number  of  foot  soldiers,  varying  according  to 
the  demand,  must  probably  be  understood  as  accompanying 
these  horsemen;  but  the  quota  is  not  specified,  as  it  was, 
perhaps,  thought  unnecessary  to  limit  precisely  the  obliga- 
tions of  any  except  the  wealthier  men  who  served  on  horse- 
back,— at  a  period  when  oligarchical  ascendency  was  para- 
mount, and  when  the  bulk  of  the  people  was  in  a  state  of 
comparative  subjection.  The  forty- eight  naukraries  are 
thus  a  systematic  subdivision  of  the  four  tribes,  embracing 
altogether  the  whole  territory,  population,  contributions, 
and  military  force  of  Attica, — a  subdivision  framed  exlu- 
sively  for  purposes  connected  with  the  entire  state. 

But  the  Phratries  and  Gentes  are  a  distribution  com- 
pletely different  from  this.     They  seem  aggre-    The  phra. 
gations  of  small  primitive  unities  into  larger;   try  and 
they  are  independent  of,  and  do  not  presuppose,   the  &ens- 
the  tribe;  they  arise  separately  and  spontaneously,  without 


1  About  the  Naukraries,  see  Aris- 


the  functions  of  the  vauToSl 


,      . 
O>;  Nauxpdpwv,  He-     judges  in 


cases  of  illicit  admissio 
into  the  phratores.  See  Hesychin 
and  Harpokration,  v.  Xwro&ixat; 


, 
rodot.   v.    71:    they    conducted  the 


.      . 
military  proceedings  in  resi 


to  the  usurpation  of  Kylon. 


54  HISTORY  OF  GEEECE.  PAET  II. 

preconcerted  uniformity,  and  without  reference  to  a  common 
political  purpose;  the  legislator  finds  them  pre-existing, 
and  adapts  or  modifies  them  to  answer  some  national  scheme. 
"We  must  distinguish  the  general  fact  of  the  classification, 
and  the  successive  subordination  in  the  scale,  of  the  families 
to  the  gens,  of  the  gentes  to  the  phratry,  and  of  the  phratries 
to  the  tribe — from  the  precise  numerical  symmetry  with 
which  this  subordination  is  invested,  as  we  read  it, — thirty 
families  to  a  gens,  thirty  gentes  to  a  phratry,  three  phratries 
to  each  tribe.  If  such  nice  equality  of  numbers  could  ever 
have  been  procured,  by  legislative  constraint1  operating 
upon  pre-existent  natural  elements,  the  proportions  could 
not  have  been  permanently  maintained.  But  we  may 
reasonably  doubt  whether  it  ever  did  so  exist:  it  appears  more 
like  the  fancy  of  an  antiquary  who  pleased  himself  by 
supposing  an  original  systematic  creation  in  times  anterior 
to  records,  by  multiplying  together  the  number  of  days  in 
the  month  and  of  months  in  the  year.  That  every  phratry 
contained  an  equal  number  of  geutes,  and  every  gens  an 
equal  number  of  families,  is  a  supposition  hardly  admissible 
without  better  evidence  than  we  possess.  But  apart  from 
this  questionable  precision  of  numerical  scale,  the  Phratries 
and  G-entes  themselves  were  real,  ancient,  and  durable  asso- 
ciations among  the  Athenian  people,  highly  important  to 
be  understood.2  The  basis  of  the  whole  was  the  house, 
hearth  or  family, — a  number  of  which,  greater  or  less,  com- 
•What  con-  Posed  the  Grens  or  Genos.  This  gens  was  there- 
stituted  the  fore  a  clan,  sept,  or  enlarged,  and  partly  factitious, 
gentile1  brotherhood,  bound  together  by, — 1.  Common 
commu-  religious  ceremonies,  and  exclusive  privilege  of 
priesthood,  in  honour  of  the  same  god,  supposed 
to  be  the  primitive  ancestor  and  characterised  by  a  special 
surname.  2.  By  a  common  burial-place.  3.  By  mutual 

1  Meier,  De  Gentilitate  Attica,  seems  to  pervade  the  whole  of 

pp.  22-24,  conceives  that  this  nu-  Teutonic  and  Scandinavian  anti- 

merical  completeness  was  enacted  quity,  much  more  extensively  than 

by  Solon;  but  of  this  there  is  no  the  tything ;— there  is  no  ground 

proof,  nor  is  it  in  harmony  with  for  believing  that  these  precise 

the  general  tendencies  of  Solon's  numerical  proportions  were  in  ge- 

legislation.  neral  practice  realized:  the  sys- 

1  So  in  reference  to  the  Anglo-  tematic  nomenclature  served  its 

Saxon  Tythinga  and  Hundreds,  and  purpose  by  marking  the  idea  of 

to  the  still  more  widely-spread  graduation  and  the  type  to  which 

division  of  the  Hundred,  which  a  certain  approach  was  actually 


CHAP.  X.      RE  AT,  CHARACTER  OF  THE  ATTIC  GENTES.  55 

rights  of  successions  to  property.  4.  By  reciprocal  obligations 
of  help,  defence,  and  redress  of  injuries.  5.  By  mutual 
right  and  obligation  to  intermarry  in  certain  determinate 
cases,  especially  where  there  was  an  orphan  daughter  or 
heiress.  0.  By  possession,  in  some  cases  at  least,  of  common 
property,  an  archon  and  a  treasurer  of  their  own. 

Such  were  the  rights  and  obligations  characterising  the 
gentile  union.1  The  phratric  union,  binding  together 
several  gentes,  was  less  intimate,  but  still  included  some 
mutual  rights  and  obligations  of  an  analogous  character; 
especially  a  communion  of  particular  sacred  rites,  and 
mutual  privileges  of  prosecution  in  the  event  of  a  phrator 
being  slain.  Each  phratry  was  considered  as  belonging  to 
one  of  the  four  tribes,  and  all  the  phratries  of  the  same  tribe 
enjoyed  a  certain  periodical  communion  of  sacred  rites, 
under  the  presidency  of  a  magistrate  called  the  Phylo-Ba- 
sileus  or  Tribe  King,  selected  from  the  Eupatrids:  Zeus 
Geleon  was  in  this  manner  the  patron  god  of  the  tribe 
Geleontes.  Lastly,  all  the  four  tribes  were  linked  together 
by  the  common  worship  of  Apollo  Patrous  as  their  divine 
father  and  guardian:  for  Apollo  was  the  father  of  Ion,  and 
the  Eponyms  of  all  the  four  tribes  were  reputed  sons  of  Ion. 

Thus  stood  the  primitive  religious  and  social  union  of 
the  population  of  Attica  in  its  gradually  ascending  scale — 
as  distinguished  from  the  political  union,  probably  of  later 
introduction,  represented  at  first  by  the  Trittyes  and  Nau- 
kraries,  and  in  after  times  by  the  ten  Kleisthenean  tribes, 
subdivided  into  Trittyes  and  Demes.  The  religious  and 

made.  Mr.  Thorpe  observes  respect-  becomes    known    to    us,     differed 

ing  the  Hundred,    in   his  Glossary  greatly  in  extent  in  various  parts 

to    the    'Ancient    Laws    and   Insti-  of  England. " 

tutes    of    England,'     v.    Hundred,  '  Sec  the  instructive  inscription 

TyOnny,   Frid-Borg,   &c.     "In   the  in  Professor  Ross's  work  (Ueber  die 

3)ialogus    de    Scaccario,    it   is  said  Demen    von  Attika,    p.  26)    of   the 

that    a   Hundred   'ex  hydarum  ali-  fi-ir^   'AjjL'jvsvSpiSdjy ,     commemora- 

quot  centenariis,  sed  non  determi-  ting    the   archon  of  that  gens,  the 

natis,    constat:    quidam    enim    ex  priest    of  Kekrops,   the   T-/|xia?    or 

pluribus,    quidam    ex    paucioribus  treasurer,    and    the    names    of  the 

constat.'     Some   accounts   make   it  m  mbers,  witli  the  deme  and  tribe 

consist     of     precisely    a    hundred  of  each  individual.    Compare  Boss- 

hydes,  others  of  a  hundred  tythings,  lor,  De  Gent.  Atticis,  p.  53.    About 

others  of  a   hundred  free  families,  the  peculiar  religious  rites  of  the 

Certain    it   is,    that   whatever  may  gens  called  Gephyr»i,  see  Herodot. 

have  been  its  original  organization,  v.  01. 
the  Hundred,   at  the  time  when  it 


56  HISTOBY  OF  GBEECE.  PAET  IL 

family  bond  of  aggregation  is  the  earlier  of  the  two :  but 
the  political  bond,  though  beginning  later,  will  be  found 
to  acquire  constantly  increasing  influence  throughout  the 
greater  part  of  this  history.  In  the  former,  personal  rela- 
tion is  the  essential  and  predominant  characteristic1 — local 
relation  being  subordinate:  in  the  latter,  property  and  resi- 
dence become  the  chief  considerations,  and  the  personal 
element  counts  only  as  measured  along  with  these  accom- 
paniments. All  these  phratric  and  gentile  associations,  the 
larger  as  well  as  the  smaller,  were  founded  upon  the  same 
principles  and  tendencies  of  the  Grecian  mind2 — a  co- 
alescence of  the  idea  of  worship  with  that  of  ancestry,  or  of 
communion  in  certain  special  religious  rites  with  communion 
of  blood,  real  or  supposed.  The  god  or  hero,  to  whom  the 
assembled  members  offered  their  sacrifices,  was  conceived 
as  the  primitive  ancestor  to  whom  they  owed  their  origin; 
often  through  a  long  list  of  intermediate  names,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Milesian  Hekatseus,  so  often  before  adverted  to.3 

1  O'jXal  Y£''ix«t  opposed   to  9uXai      opY^uJve?  as  synonymous   with  fz-t- 
TOzixai.— Dionys.  Hal.   Ant.    Bom.      vyJTai    (see    Orat.    ii.  p.   19,   20—2?, 
iv.  14.  ed.       Bek.).       Schomann      (Aiitiq. 

2  Plato,  Euthydem.  p.  302;  Aristot.  J.  P.  Grsec.  §.  xxvi.)  considers  the 
ap.  Schol.  in    Platon.    Axioch.    p.  two  as  essentially  distinct.  <J>pr,7prj 
465.,    ed.    Bek.     'ApisTOtsXir;?    <f"r^i-  and  cpyXov  both  occur  in  the  Iliad, 
TOO  oXou  i:Xr,8oo;  8ir,pr(jig-,o'j  'AOr,vT(-  ii.    362.      See    the    Dissertation    of 
3iv    sts   TS   TOO?  Ystu?Y°'JS    *a'    "o-j?  Battmann,  Ueber  den  Begriff  von 
OYjjjuo'jpYO'JS,  9'jXcc?  auTtov  Ei-<«t  Tss-  (SpaTpia  (Mythologus,  c.  24.  p.  305); 
notpai;,  TIUV  8s  tpuXibv  sxdaTTji;  (xotpa^  and  that  of  Meier,   De    Gentilitate 
Ei-m    -rpsT?,    a?  TpiT-'ias    TS  xaXo'jji  Attici,  where  the  points  of  know- 
y.i.i    cppatpta;1    iviy-r^    Ss    TO-JTIOV  ledge     attainable    respecting     tlie 
Tpiaxorra  =ivai  fi-irn   TO  5:  fi-ifj^  i%  Gentes  are    well  put   together  and 
Tpiixo-iTa  ivopiuv  a'jvij-am-  TOUTOU?  discussed. 

o-/)  TOO;  sis  ti  Y^'/T1  TSTayixJ  MOM?  YSv"  ^-n  th&  Thersean  Inscription  (Xo. 

•ii-.i<i  xa).o-i3i.     Pollux,  viii.    3.     Oi  2443  ap.   Boeckh.   Corp.  Inscr.,  see 

(xeTs/ovti!;  TOJ   Y^'t-'-';!    Y5''''''/Tal   X3<1  nis    comment,    p.    310)    containing 

6jxoY»'-a*"E«'    Y^'st    (ii''    rJ'i    -po3r,-  the  testament  of  Epikteta,  where- 

y.o-j-s;,  sx  6i  Trj;  3'J-<6oo'j  O'JTW  -pos-  by  a  bequest  is  made  to   ot  3UYTS" 

aYOps'Jojxsvoi:    compare  also  iii.  52;  vsT;— 6  avostios   Tiiv  SUYYS'«"'' — this 

Mceris.  Atticist.  p.  108.  latter  word  does  not  mean  kindred 

Harpokrat.  v.'AttoXXuw  ITatpijio;,  or   blood   relations,    but  a  variety 

Ssoiviov,    Fcvv^Tat,     'OpYstovs;,    &c.  of  the  gentile  union— "thiasus"  or 

Etymol.  Magn.  v.  Few^Tai;  Suidas,  "sodalitium."'    Boeckh. 

v.  'OpYsum;;  Pollux,  viii.   65;  De-  *  Herodot    i.    143.     'ExaToiioj— YS- 

mosthen.    cont.    Eubulid.    p.    1310.  v£T,Xovr,3av:v    -t   iw.vi    xal    ivaSVj- 

EiTa  9patopsq,  siTa    'AitoXXiBNO?    --/-  javri    TT)  ;    7ia7ptT)v    £;    exxoi?s'x«Tov 

Tpq'.o'j  X7t  Ato;  spy.io'j  Y^-'^TCii:  and  0;ov.    Again  YtvtTlXoYT.OdVTt    SIO'JTO;, 

co  ,t.  Xeoeram,  p.  13C5.     Isceus  uses  xai  •i-iilr^w.i  k-  gxy.iiOJ/.ST'jv  dsov. 


CHAP.  X.      EEAL  CHARACTER  OF  THE  ATTIC  GENTES.  57 

Each  family  had  its  own  sacred  rites  and  funereal  com- 
memoration of  ancestors,  celebrated  by  the  master  of  the 
house,  to  which  none  but  members  of  the  family  were  ad- 
missible: so  that  the  extinction  of  a  family,  carrying  with 
it  the  suspension  of  these  religious  rites,  was  held  by  the 
Greeks  to  be  a  misfortune,  not  merely  from  the  loss  of  the 
citizens  composing  it,  but  also  because  the  family  gods  and 
the  names  of  deceased  citizens  were  thus  deprived  of  their 
Artificial  honours l  and  might  visit  the  country  with  dis- 
eniarge-  pleasure.  The  larger  associations,  called  Gens, 
primitive  *  Phratry,  Tribe,  were  formed  by  an  extension  of 
family  as-  the  same  principle — of  the  family  considered  as 
ideas  'of1'  a  religious  brotherhood,  worshipping  some  corn- 
worship  mon  god  or  hero  with  an  appropriate  surname, 
cestry1"  anc^  recognising  him  as  their  joint  ancestor;  and 
coalesce.  the  festivals  Theoenia  and  Apaturia2  (the  first 
Attic,  the  second  common  to  all  the  Ionic  race)  annually 

The    Attic    expression  —  afyia-czi.*  his  sons.    It  is  his  consolation   in 

ispuiv     xal     6(jico-(— illustrates     the  declining  years,  to  think  that  they 

intimate  association  between  family  will  continue    the   performance  of 

relationship  and  common  religious  the  prescribed  rites  in  the    hall  of 

privileges.— Isceus,    Orat.   vi.  p.  89.  ancestors,  and  at  the  family  tombs, 

ed.  Bek.  when  he  is  no  more  ;  and  it  is  the 

1  Isffius,  Or.  vi.  p.  6t ;  ii.  p.  38;  absence  of  this  prospect  whicli 
Demosth.  adv.  Makartatum.  p.  makes  the  childless  doubly  miser- 
1053—1075;  adv.  Leochar.  p.  1093.  able.  The  superstition  derives  in- 
Respecting  this  perpetuation  of  fluence  from  the  importance  at- 
the  family  sacred  rites,  the  feeling  tached  by  the  government  to  this 
prevalent  among  the  Athenians  is  species  of  posthumous  duty  ;  a 
much  the  same  as  what  is  now  seen  neglect  of  which  is  punishable,  as 
in  China.  we  have  seen,  by  the  laws.  Indeed, 

Mr.    Davis    observes — "Sons    are  of  all   the   subjects    of  their  care, 

considered  in  this  country,    where  there  are  none  which    the  Chinese 

the  power  over  them  is  so  absolute  so     religiously    attend    to    as    the 

through  life,  as  a  sure  support,  as  tombs  of  their    ancestors,    concei- 

well  as  a  probable  source  of  wealth  ving    that    any    neglect    is  sure   to 

and  dignities,  should  they  succeed  be  followed  by  worldly  nrsfortune." 

in  learning.     I!ut  the  grand  object  — (The   Chinese,    by  John    Francis 

is,  the    perpetuation    of   the    race,  Davis,    chap.    ix.    p.    131—134,    ed. 

to    sacrifice   at    the    family  tombs.  Knight,  1840.) 

Without  sons,  a  man  lives  without  Mr.  Mill  notices  the   same   state 

honour    or    satisfaction,    and   dies  of  feeling   among   the    Hindoos.— 

iinhappy  ;  and  as  the  only  remedy,  (History  of  British  India,  book  ii. 

he  is  permitted    to  adopt  the  sons  chap.  vii.  p.  3^1,  ed.  Svo.) 

Of  his  younge*  brothers.  2  Xenoph.  Hellen.  i.  '•>,  8  :  Hero- 

ult  is  not   during  life  only    that  dot.    i.    147;     Suidas.    'An-vjoia — 

Ci   man    looks    for    the    service    of  Zi'j;     OpdtTpio; — 'ASr^aia      cfpxTpt'x, 


58  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

brought  together  the  members  of  these  phratries  and  gentes 
for  worship,  festivity,  and  maintenance  of  special  sympathies; 
thus  strengthening  the  larger  ties  without  effacing  the 
smaller. 

Such  were  the  manifestations  of  Grecian  sociality,  as 
we  read  them  in  the  early  constitution,  not  merely  of  Attica, 
but  of  other  Grecian  states  besides.  To  Aristotle  and 
Diksearchus  it  was  an  interesting  inquiry  to  trace  back  all 
political  society  into  certain  assumed  elementary  atoms, 
and  to  show  by  what  motives  and  means  the  original  families, 
each  having  its  separate  meal-bin  and  fireplace,1  had  been 
brought  together  into  larger  aggregates.  JBut  the  historian 
must  accept  as  an  ultimate  fact  the  earliest  state  of  things 
which  his  witnesses  make  known  to  him,  and  in  the  case 
now  before  us,  the  gentile  and  phratric  unions  are  matters 
into  the  beginning  of  which  we  cannot  pretend  to  penetrate. 

Pollux  (probably  from  Aristotle's  lost  work  on  the 
Constitutions  of  Greece)  informs  us  distinctly  that  the 
members  of  the  same  gens  at  Athens  were  not  commonly 
related  by  blood, — and  even  without  any  express  testimony 
we  might  have  concluded  such  to  be  the  fact.  To  what 
extent  the  gens  at  the  unknown  epoch  of  its  first  formation 
was  based  upon  actual  relationship,  we  have  no  means  of 
determining,  either  with  regard  to  the  Athenian  or  the 
Roman  gentes,  which  were  in  all  main  points  analogous. 
Gentilism  is  a  tie  by  itself;  distinct  from  the  family  ties, 
but  presupposing  their  existence  and  extending  them  by 
an  artificial  analogy,  partly  founded  in  religious  belief  and 
partly  on  positive  compact,  so  as  to  comprehend  strangers 
in  blood.  All  the  members  of  one  gens,  or  even 

Belief  in  a         „  , 

common  ot  one  phratry,  believed  themselves  to  be  sprung, 
cestor  an~  no^  indeed  from  the  same  grandfather  or  great- 
grandfather, but  from  the  same  divine  or  heroic 
ancestor.  All  the  contemporary  members  of  the  phratry 
of  Hekateeus  had  a  common  god  for  their  ancestor  in  the 

the   presiding    god  of  the  phratric  TpuoTixi,    Aristot.    (Economic,    ii 

union. — Plato,  Euthydem,  c.  2S.  p.  4),    are   doubtless    the    parallel   of 

302  ;  Demosth.  adv.  Makart.   p.  1054  the  Athenian  phratries. 

See  Meier,    De  Gentilitate   Attica,  i  Dika-archus   ap.   Stephan.   Byz. 

p.  11— 14.  v.    IloToa  ;   Aristot.    Polit.   i.    1,    6; 

The  Ti-rptat  at  Byzantium,   which  'OpLOjiTvJo;  and  opio-xotrvoy?    are  the 

were    different     from     Oi-xi&i,    and  old  words  cited  by  the  latter  from 

which    possessed     corporate    pro-  Charondas  and  Epimenidea. 
perty    (71  TS    fJiKsumxot  xsi  -a  r.tt- 


CHAP.  X.     COMMON  DIVINE  ANCESTOK  OF  THE  GENS.  59 

sixteenth  degree;  and  this  fundamental  belief,  into  which 
the  Greek  mind  passed  with  so  much  facility,  was  adopted 
and  converted  by  positive  compact  into  the  Gentile  and 
Phratric  principle  of  union.  It  is  because  such  a  trans- 
fusion, not  recognised  by  Christianity,  is  at  variance  with 
modern  habits  of  thought,  and  because  we  do  not  readily 
understand  how  such  a  legal  and  religious  fiction  can  have 
sunk  deep  into  the  Greek  feelings,  that  the  Phratries  and 
Gentes  appear  to  us  mysterious.  But  they  are  in  harmony 
with  all  the  legendary  genealogies  which  have  been  set 
forth  in  the  preceding  volume.  Doubtless  Niebuhr,  in  his 
valuable  discussion  of  the  ancient  Roman  Gentes,  is  right 
in  supposing  that  they  were  not  real  families,  procreated 
from  'any  common  historical  ancestor.  Still  it  is  not  the 
less  true  (though  he  seems  to  suppose  otherwise)  that  the 
idea  of  the  gens  involved  the  belief  in  a  common  first  father, 
divine  or  heroic — a  genealogy  which  we  may  This  an- 
properly  call  fabulous,  but  which  was  conse-  cestry  fa- 
crated  and  accredited  among  the  members  of  8tiil"accre6- 
the  gens  itself,  and  served  as  one  important  aited. 
bond  of  union  between  them. *  And  though  an  analytical 
mind  like  Aristotle  might  discern  the  difference  between 
the  gens  and  the  family,  so  as  to  distinguish  the  former  as 
the  offspring  of  some  special  compact — still  this  is  no  fair 

1  Niebuhr,  Bbmische  Geschiche,  Dr.  Wilda,  in  his  learned  work, 

vol.  i.  p.  317-337.  Varro's  Ian-  'Das  Deutsche  Strafrecht'  (Halle, 

guage  on  that  point  is  clear  : —  1842),  dissents  from  Niebuhr  in  the 

'•Ut  in  hominibus  quoedam  sunt  opposite  direction,  and  seems  to 

cognationes  et  gentilitates,  sic  in  maintain  that  the  Grecian  and 

verbis.  Ut  enim  abJEmilio  homines  Roman  gentes  were  really  distant 

orti  .ZEmilii  et  gentiles,  sic  ab  blood  relations  (p.  123).  How  this 

.Emilii  nomine  declinatce  voces  in  can  be  proved,  I  do  not  know: 

gentilitate  nominal!. "  Paul.  Dia-  and  it  is  inconsistent  with  the 

con.  p.  04.  '-Gentilis  dicitur  ex  opinion  which  he  advances  in  the 

eodcm  genere  ortus,  et  is  qui  simili  preceding  page  (p.  122)  very  justly 

nomine  appellatur, "&c.  See  Becker,  —that  these  quasi  families  are 

Handbuch  dur  Eomischen  Alter-  primordial  facts  in  early  human 

thiimer,  part  2.  abth.  2.  p.  36.  society,  beyond  which  we  cannot 

The  last  part  of  the  definition  carry  our  researches.  "The  farther 

ought  to  be  struck  out  for  the  we  go  back  in  history,  the  more 

Grecian  gentes.  The  passage  of  does  the  community  exhibit  the 

Varro  does  not  prove  the  historical  form  of  a  family,  though  in  reality 

reality  of  the  primitive  father  or  it  is  not  a  inure  family.  This  is 

Genarch  ./Emilius,  but  it  proves  the  limit  of  historical  research, 

that  the  members  of  the  gens  be-  which  no  man  can  transgress  with 

lieved  iu  lam.  impunity'1  (p.  122;. 


60  HISTORY  OF  GREECE,  PART  II. 

test  of  the  feelings  usual  among  early  Greeks.  Nor  is  it 
certain  that  Aristotle  himself,  son  of  the  physician  Niko- 
machus,  who  belonged  to  the  gens  of  the  Asklepiads, l  would 
have  consented  to  disallow  the  procreative  origin  of  all 
these  religious  families  without  any  exception.  The  natural 
families  of  course  changed  from  generation  to  generation, 
some  extending  themselves  while  others  diminished  or  died 
out;  but  the  gens  received  no  alterations,  except  through 
the  procreation,  extinction,  or  subdivision  of  these  com- 
ponent families.  Accordingly  the  relations  of  the  families 
with  the  gens  were  in  perpetual  course  of  fluctuation,  and 
the  gentile  ancestorial  genealogy,  adapted  as  it  doubtless 
was  to  the  early  condition  of  the  gens,  became  in  process 
of  time  partially  obsolete  and  unsuitable.  We  hear  of  this 
genealogy  but  rarely,  because  it  is  only  brought  before 
the  public  in  certain  cases  pre-eminent  and  venerable.  But 
the  humbler  gentes  had  their  common  rites,  and  common 
superhuman  ancestor  and  genealogy,  as  well  as  the  more 
celebrated:  the  scheme  and  ideal  basis  was  the  same  in  all. 
Analogies,  borrowed  from  very  different  people  and 
Analogies  parts  of  the  world,  prove  how  readily  these  en- 
from  other  large d  and  factitious  family  unions  assort  with 
ms>  the  ideas  of  an  early  stage  of  society.  The 
Highland  clan,  the  Irish  sept,2  the  ancient  legally  consti- 

1  Diogen.  Laert.  v.  1.  relatives,    fight    and    slay   a    man, 

7  See  Colonel  Leake's  Travels  then  if  he  have  maternal  relative-,, 
in  Northern  Greece,  ch.  2.  p.  85  let  them  pay  a  third  of  the  wer: 
(the  Greek  word  spi-rpisi  seems  his  guild-brethren  a  third  part :  for 
to  be  adopted  in  Albania);  Boue,  a  third  let  him  flee.  If  he  have  no- 
La  Turquie  en  Europe,  vol.  ii.  maternal  relatives,  let  his  guild- 
oh.  i.  p.  15—17;  chap.  4.  p.  530;  brethren  pay  half :  for  half  let  him 
Spenser's  View  of  the  State  of  flee  ....  If  a  man  kill  a  man  thus 
Ireland  (vol.  vi.  p.  1542-1543  of  circumstanced,  if  he  have  no  rela- 
Tonson's  edition  of  Spenser's  tives,  let  half  he  paid  to  the  king, 
"Works,  1715);  Cyprien  Robert,  half  to  his  guild-brethren."  (Thorpe, 
Die  Slaven  in  der  Turkey,  b.  1.  ch.  Ancient  Laws  and  Institutes  of 
land2.  England,  vol.  i.  p.  70-81.)  Again 

So  too,  in  the  laws  of  King  in  the  same  work,  Leges  Henrici 
Alfred  in  England  on  the  subject  Primi,  vol.  i.  p.  596,  the  ideas  of 
of  murder,  the  guild-brethren  or  the  kindred  and  the  guild  run  to- 
members  of  the  same  guild  are  getlier  in  the  most  intimate  man- 
made  to  rank  in  the  position  of  ner: — ''Si  quis  hominem  occid;it — 
distant  relatives  if  there  happen  Si  eum  tune  cognatio  sua  deserat, 
to  be  no  blood  relatives: —  et  pro  eo  gildare  nolit,"  Ac.  In 

ulf  a  man,   kinless   of  paternal  the  Salic   law,    the   members  of  a 


CHAP.  X.        WIDE  DIFFUSION  OF  THE  GENTILE  TIE.  61 

tuted  families  in  Friesland  and  Dithmarsch,  the  Phis  or 
Phara  among  the  Albanians,  are  examples  of  a  similar 
practice:1  and  the  adoption  of  prisoners  by  the  North 

contubernium   were   invested  with  Niebuhr,   Horn.   Gesch.   vol.  i.  pp. 

the    same    rights    and    obligations  317,  350,  2nd  edit. 

one  towards  the  other  (Rogge,  Ge-  The   AJlerghi  of   Genoa    in    the 

richtswesen  der  Germanen,  ch.  iii.  middle  ages  were  enlarged  families 

p.  62).     Compare  Wilda,  Deutscb.es  created  by  voluntarycompact:— uDe 

Strai'recht,  p.  389,  and  the  valuable  tout    temps     (observes    Sismondi) 

special  treatise  of  the  same  author  les  families  puissantes  avoient  ete 

<Das    Gildenwesen  im  Mittelalter.  dans  1'usage,  a  Genes,  d'augmenter 

Berlin,  1831),  where  the  origin  and  encore  leur  puissance  en  adoptant 

progress    of   the    guilds   from   the  d'autres     families     moins    riches, 

primitive  times  of  German  heathen-  moins    illustres,    ou    moins    nom- 

ism   is   unfolded.     He   shows   that  breuses — auxquelles  elles  commu- 

these  associations  have  their  basis  niquoient  leur  nom  et  leurs  armes, 

in  the  earliest  feelings  and  habits  qu'elles  prenoient  ainsi   1'engage- 

of  the   Teutonic    race— the   family  ment  de  proteger— et  qui  en  retour 

was   as   it  were   a  natural  guild —  s'associoient  a  toutes  leurs  querel- 

the  guild,  a  factitious  family.  Com-  les.    Les  maisons   dans   lesquelles 

mon  religious  sacrifices  and  festi-  on     entroit    ainsi    par     adoption, 

vals — mutual  defence  and  help,  as  dtoient  nommees  des  alberghi  (au- 

well     as    mutual    responsibility —  berges),  ct  il  y  avoit  peu  de  mai- 

were  the  recognised  bonds  among  sons    illustres    qui    ne    se    fussent 

the  congildonea ;  they  were  sorori-  ainsi  recrutees  a  1'aide  de  quelque 

tates  as  well  as  fraternitates,  com-  famille   fitrangere."     (Republiques 

prehending  both  men  and  women  Italiennes,  t.  xv.  ch.  120.  p.  366.) 

(dereu   Genossen  wie    die    Glieder  Eichhorn    (Deutsche  Staats-  und 

einer  Farnilie    eng   unter  einander  Rechts-Geschichte,  sect.  is.  vol.  i. 

verbunden  warcn,    p.  145).     Wilda  p.  P4,  5th  edit.)  remarks  in  regard 

explains  how  this  primitive  social  to  the  ancient  Germans,    that  the 

and   religious  yliratry  (sometimes  German  "familia;  et  propinquitates" 

this  very  expression  frat ria  is  used,  mentioned  by  Tacitus  (Germ.  c.  7), 

see  p.  109)    passed   into  something  and  the   "gentibus  cognationibus- 

like    the    more    political   tribe    or  que  hominum"  of  Ca?sar  (B.  G.  vi. 

pliyle  (see  pp.  43,    57,    HO,    116.  120,  22),     bore     more     analogy    to    the 

12n,    344).      The    sworn    commune,  Roman   gens   than  to  relationship 

which  spread  so  much  throughout  of  blood    or   wedlock.     According 

Europe    in    the    beginning    of   the  to  the  idea  of  some  of  the  German 

twelfth  century,    partakes   both  of  tribes,      even     blood- relationship 

the  one  and  of  the  other— conjura-  might  be    formally  renounced  and 

fio—amu-ilia  jurata  (pp.  14P,  169).  broken   off,  with  all    its  connected 

The    members    of     an    Albanian  rights  and  obligations,  at  the  plea- 

pliara    arc     all    jointly    bound    to  sure    of  the  individual:     he  might 

exact,  and  each  severally  exposed  declare   himself   c/.-oi^-o;,    to    use 

to  suffer,  the  vengeance  of  blood,  the    Greek     expression.      See     the 

in    the  event  of  homicide  commit-  Titul.  63  of  the  Salic  law  as  quoted 

ted  upon,  or  by,  any  one  of  them  by  Eichhorn,  I.  c. 

(Boue.   ut  supra).  Professor  Koutorga  of  St.  Peters- 

1  See    the    valuable    chapter    of  burg  (in  his  Essai  sur  1'Organisa- 


62  HISTOBY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

American  Indians,  as  well  as  the  universal  prevalence  and 
efficacy  of  the  ceremony  of  adoption  in  the  Grecian  and 
Roman  world,  exhibit  to  us  a  solemn  formality  under  cer- 
tain circumstances,  originating  an  union  and  affections 
similar  to  those  of  kindred.  Of  this  same  nature  were  the 
Phratries  and  Gentes  at  Athens,  the  Curise  and  Gentes  at 
Rome.  But  they  were  peculiarly  modified  by  the  religious 
imagination  of  the  ancient  world,  which  always  traced  back 
the  past  time  to  gods  and  heroes:  and  religion  thus  supplied 
both*  the  common  genealogy  as  their  basis,  and  the  privi- 
leged communion  of  special  sacred  rites  as  means  of  com- 
memoration and  perpetuity.  The  Gentes,  both  at  Athens 
and  in  other  parts  of  Greece,  bore  a  patronymic  name,  the 
stamp  of  their  believed  common  paternity:  we  find  the 
Asklepiadae  in  many  parts  of  Greece — the  Aleuadse  in 
Thessaly — the  Midylidse,  Psalychidse,  Blepsiadae,  Eux- 
enidse,  at  jEg'mm — the  Branchidse  at  Miletus — the  Nebridse 
at  Kos — the  lamidse  and  Klytiadae  at  Olympia — the  Ake- 
storidee  at  Argos — the  Kinyradse  in  Cyprus — the  Penthi- 
lidce  at  Mitylene1 — the  Talthybiadse  at  Sparta, — not  less 

sion  de  la  Tribu  dans  1' Antiquity,  elements;  so  that  they  become 
translated  from  Russian  into  French  larger  tribes,  "formdes  a-  la  fois 
by  il.  Chopin,  Paris  1839)  has  traced  par  le  developpement  de  1'element 
out  and  illustrated  the  fundamen-  familial,  etpar  1'aggregation  d'ele- 
tal  analogy  between  the  social  mens  Strangers." — "Tout  cela  se 
classification,  in  early  times,  of  naturalise  par  le  contact,  et  chacuti 
Greeks,  Romans,  Germans,  and  des  nouveaux  venus  prend  la  qua- 
Russians  (see  especially  pp.  47.  lite  d'Amri  (homme  des  Beni  Amer) 
213).  Respecting  the  early  history  tout  aussi  bien  que  les  descendans 
of  Attica,  however,  many  of  his  d'Amer  lui-meme."  (Tableau  de  la 
positions  are  advanced  upon  very  Situation  des  Etablissemens  Fran- 
untrustworthy  evidence  (see  p.  123  c.ais  en  Algerie,  Mar.  1846,  p.  393). 
scq.).  '  Pindar,  Pyth.  viii.  53;  Isthm.  vi. 
Among  the  Arab  tribes  in  Algeria  92;  Nem.  vii.  103;  Strabo,  ix.  p. 
there  are  some  which  are  supposed  421;  Stephan.  Byz.  v.  Ku>^;  Hero- 
to  be  formed  from  the  descendants,  dot.  v.  44;  vii.  134;  ix.  37;  Pausan. 
real  or  reputed,  of  some  holy  man  x.  1,  4 ;  Kallimachus,  Lavacr.  Pal- 
or  maraliout,  whose  tomb,  covered  lad.  33;  Schol.  Pindar.  Pyth.  ii.  27 ; 
with  a  white  dome,  is  the  central  Aristot.  Pol.  v.  8,  13;  'A/.suiSwv 
point  of  the  tribe.  Sometimes  a  TO'J;  zpcbTou?,  Plato,  Menon. '  1, 
tribe  of  this  sort  is  divided  into  which  marks  them  as  a  numerous 
/Vrta  or  sections,  each  of  which  gens.  See  Buttmann,  Dissert,  on 
has  for  its  head  or  founder  a  son  the  Aleuadse,  in  the  Mythologus, 
of  the  Tribe-eponymus  or  founder,  vol.  ii.  p.  246.  Bacchiadse  at  Corinth, 
Sometimes  these  tribes  are  enlarged,  soioojotv  xsi  rjyovio  i;  <xXX.r,).u>v  (Hc- 
by  adjunction  or  adoption  of  new  rod.  v.  82). 


CHAP.  X.  GENTES  AND  DEFIES  IN  ATTICA.  63 

than  the  Kodridse,  Eumolpidse,  Phytaliclfe,  Lykomedoe, 
Butadte,  Buneidse,  Hesycliidse,  Brytiadae,  &c.  in  Attica. ' 
To  each  of  these  corresponded  a  mythical  ancestor  more  or 
less  known,  and  passing  for  the  first  father  as  well  as  the 
eponymous  hero  of  the  gens — Kodrus,  Eumolpus,  Butes, 
Phytalus,  Hesychus,  &c. 

The  revolution  of  Kleisthenes  in  509  B.C.  abolished  the 
old  tribes  for  civil  purposes,  and  created  ten  new  tribes — 
leaving  the  phratries  and  gentes  unaltered,  but  introducing 
the  local  distribution  according  to  denies  or  cantons,  as  the 
foundation  of  his  new  political  tribes.  A  certain  number  of 
denies  belong  to  each  of  the  ten  Kleisthenean  tribes  (the 
denies  in  the  same  tribes  were  not  usually  contiguous,  so 
that  the  tribe  was  not  coincident  with  a  definite  circum- 
scription), and  the  deme,  in  which  every  individual  was 
then  registered,  continued  to  be  that  in  which  his  descend- 
ants were  also  registered.  But  the  gentes  had  no  connexion, 
as  such,  with  these  new  tribes,  and  the  members  of  the  same 
gens  might  belong  to  different  demes.2  It  deserves  to  be 
remarked,  however,  that  to  a  certain  extent,  in  the  old 
arrangement  of  Attica,  the  division  into  gentes  coincided 
with  the  division  into  demes,  i.e.  it  happened  not  unfrequently 
that  the  gennetcs  (or  members  of  the  same  gens)  lived  in 
the  same  canton,  so  that  the  name  of  the  gens  and  the  name 
of  the  deme  was  the  same.  Moreover,  it  seems  that 
Kleisthenes  recognised  a  certain  number  of  new  demes,  to 
which  he  gave  names  derived  from  some  important  gens 
resident  near  the  spot.  It  is  thus  that  we  are  to  explain 
the  large  number  of  the  Kleisthenean  demes  which  bear 
patronymic  names.3 

1  Harpokration,  v. 'Etsofio'jTaoat,  insufficient.  Theideas  of  thephratry 
BvjToiv/t:    Thucyci.    viii.    5". ;    Phi-  and  the  tribe  are  often  confounded 
tarch,  Theseus,    12;    Thcmistokles,  together;      thus     the     JEgeidte     of 
1;    Demosth.    cont.    NeaT.    p.  13(i5;  Sparta,    whom  Herodotus   (iv.  149) 
Polcmo    ap.  Schol.  ad  Soph.  CEdip.  calls  atribe,  are  by  Aristotle  call- 
1vol.  480  ;   Plutarch,  Vit.  X.  Orator,  ed     a     Pliratry,     of    Thebans    (ap. 
p.  811-844.     See  the  Dissertation  of  Schol.    ad    Pindar.   Isthm.   vii.  IS). 
O.  Miiller,  De  Minerva  Poliade,  c.  2.  Compare  Wachsmuth,  Hellenische 

2  Demostli.    cont.    Nea'r.    p.  1365.  Alterthumskunde,  sect.  83,  p.  17. 
Tittmann    (Griechische    Staatsver-         A  great  many  of  the  demes  seem 
fass.  p.  277)    thinks    that   every  ci-  to  have  derived    their  names  from 
tizen,  after  the  Kleisthenean  revo-  the  shrubs    or    plants    which    grew 
lution,  was  of  necessity  a  member  in  their  neighbourhood   (Schol.  ad 
of    some    phratry,    as    well    as    of  Aristophan.  Plutus,  5HO,  M'jppiveiOs, 
some  deme  :  but  the  evidence  which  'P^uvoO;,  &c.). 

ha   produces    is   iii   my   judgement         '  i'or    example,    ^EthaliJot-,    Bu- 


64  HISTORY  OP  GREECE.  P^BT  II  . 

There  is  one  remarkable  difference  between  the  Roman 
Roman  and  an<^  ^ne  Grecian  gens,  arising  from  the  different 
Grecian  practice  in  regard  to  naming.  A  Roman  Patri- 
gentes.  cian  bore  habitually  three  names  —  the  gentile 
name,  with  one  name  following  it  to  denote  his  family,  and 
another  preceding  it  peculiar  to  himself  in  that  family.  But 
in  Athens,  at  least  after  the  revolution  of  Kleisthenes.  the 
gentile  name  was  not  employed  :  a  man  was  described  by 

tadae,  Koth&kidse,  Dsedalidse,  Eire-  We    find    the    same    patronymic 

sidse,    Epieikidffi,    Erceadse,   Eupy-  names  of  demes  and  villages  else- 

ridae,   Ecbelidae,  Keiriadae,  Kydan-  -where:   in  K&s  and  Rhodes  (Ross. 

tidae,    LakiadK,   Pamb&tadae,    Peri-  Inscr.  Gr.  ined.,  Nr.  15—26.  Halle, 

thoidse,Persido3,  Semachidaa,  Skam-  1846);  Lestadce  in  Naxos  (Aristotle 

bonidae,   Sybrida?,    Titakidce,  Thyr-  ap.  Athenoe.  viii.  p.  348)  ;  Botachidx 

gonida?,      Hybadoe,       Thymoetadje,  at    Tegea     (Stepli.    Byz.    in    v.)  : 

Pa?onida?,  Philaidae,   Chollidre:    all  Branchidce  near  Miletus,  <Sc.  ;    and 

these  names  of  demes,  bearing  the  an    interesting   illustration   is    af- 

patronymic    form,     are    found    in  forded,   in    other  times   and    other 

Harpokration  and    Stephanus  Byz.  places,    by    the    frequency    of  the 

alone.  ending  ikon  in  villages  near  Zurich 

We  do  not  know   that  the  Kspa-  in  Switzerland,  —  Mezikon,   Nenni- 

(j.ii;   ever  constitued  a   y^'o?,    but  kon,  Wezikon,  <Sc.    Bluntschli,  in 

the  name  of  the  deme    Kipotjistt;  is  his  history    of  Zurich,    shows  that 

evidently    given,    upon    the    same  theseterminationsareabridgemeuts 

principle,    to    a    place   chiefly   oc-  of  inghoven,  including  an  original 

cupied  by  potters.     The  gens  Kot-  patronymic    element  —  indicating 


,  - 

not  always  distinguishable.  Rechts-Geschichteder  Stadt  Zurich, 

The    Butada-,    though    a    highly  vol.  i.  p.  26). 

venerable   gens,    also   ranked  as  a  In    other   inscriptions    from    the 

deme  (see  the  Psephism  about  I.y-  island   of  K&s,   published  by  Pro- 

kurgus  in  PJutarch,  Vit.  X.  Orator,  fessor  Ross,  we  have  a  deme  men- 

p.  8">2)  :    yet  we   do  not  know  that  tioned  (without  name),    composed 

there  was  any  locality  called  Bu-  of    three     coalescing    gentes,     uln 

tadae.    Perhaps  some  of  the  names  hoc  et   sequente   titulo  alium  jam 

above  noticed  may  be  simply  names  deprehendimus    demum     Coum,    e 

of    gentes,     eiirolled     as     demes,  tribus    gentibus    appellatione    pa- 

but  without  meaning  to  imply  any  tronymica    conflatum,    Antimachi- 

community    of   abode    among    the  darum,  .ZEgiliensium,  Archidarurn,'' 

members.  (Ross,  Inscript.  Gra^c.  Ined.  Fascic. 

The    members    of  a  Roman  gens  iii.   No.    307.   p.    44.     Berlin,    1845.) 

occupied  adjoining  residences,    on  This   is  a  specimen  of  the  process 

some    occasions—  to    what     extent  systematically  introduced  byKleis- 

we  do  not  know  (Heiberg,  De  Fa-  then5s  in  Attica. 
miliari   Patriciorum   Nexu,   ch.  24, 
C5.     Sleswic,  1829). 


CHAP.  X.      UNEQUAL  DIGNITY  OF  DIFFERENT  GENTES.  65 

his  own  single  name,  followed  first  by  the  name  of  his  father 
and  next  by  that  of  the  deme  to  which  he  belonged, — as 
JLschines,  son  of  Atrometus,  a  Kothokid.  Such  a  difference 
in  the  habitual  system  of  naming  tended  to  make  the  gentile 
tie  more  present  to  every  one's  mind  at  Home  than  in  the 
Greek  cities. 

Before  the  pecuniary  classification  of  the  Atticans 
introduced  by  Solon,  the  Phratries  and  Gentes,  and  the 
Trittyes  and  Naukraries,  were  the  only  recognised  bonds 
among  them,  and  the  only  basis  of  legal  rights  and  obli- 
gations, over  and  above  the  natural  family.  The  gens  con- 
stituted a  close  incorporation,  both  as  to  property  and  as  to 
persons.  Until  the  time  of  Solon,  no  man  had  any  power 
of  testamentary  disposition.  If  he  died  without  children, 
his  gennetes  succeeded  to  his  property, 1  and  so  they  con- 
tinued to  do  even  after  Solon,  if  he  died  intestate.  An 
orphan  girl  might  be  claimed  in  marriage  of  Bi.-ntg  and 
right  by  any  member  of  the  gens,  the  nearest  obligations 
agnates  being  preferred;  2  if  shee  was  poor,  and  °jmtt1]fe  and 
he  did  not  choose  to  marry  her  himself,  the  law  phratric 
of  Solon  compelled  him  to  provide  her  with  a  brethren- 
dowry  proportional  to  his  enrolled  scale  of  property,  and 
to  give  her  out  in  marriage  to  another ;  and  the  magnitude 
of  the  dowry  required  to  be  given  (large  even  as  fixed  by 
Solon  and  afterwards  doubled)  seems  a  proof  that  the  law- 
giver intended  indirectly  to  enforce  actual  marriage.3  If  a 
man  was  murdered,  first  his  near  relations,  next  his  gennetes 
and  phrators,  were  both  allowed  and  required  to  prosecute 
the  crime  at  law;4  while  his  fellow  demots,  or  inhabitants 

1  Plutarch,    Solon,    21.     We   iind  duced    (Dcmosth.    cont.    Euerg.  et 

a    common     cemetery    exclusively  Mnesib.    p.    1161),    we    may  gather 

belonging   to    the    gens   and   tena-  from     the    law     as    it     stands     in 

ciously  preserved    (Demosth.  cont.  Demosth.  cont.   Makartat.   p.  1069, 

Eubulid.  p.  1307  ;  Cicero,  Legg.  ii.  which  includes  the    phrators,    and 

26).  therefore,  a  fortiori,   the  gennetes 

-  Demosth.    cont.     Makartat.     p.  or  gentiles. 

lOfiS.     See  the    singular  additional          The  same  word  Y^O?  is    used   to 

proviso  in  Plutarch,  Solon,  c.  20.  designate      both      the      circle      of 

3  See   Meursius,    Themis    Attica,  nameable  relatives,  brothers,    first 
i.  13.  cousins  (OY^IUTEII;,  Demosth.  cont. 

4  That    this    was     the     primitive  Makartat.  c.  9.  p.  10.5-'),  &c.,  going 
custom,    and    that    the    limitation  beyond    the    oixo?— and   the    quasi- 
ar/pi!;  avipii»5(I>-j  (Meier,  Do  Bonis  family    or    gens.      As    the   gentile 
Dnmnat.  p.  23,  cites  '/.v£'itaoujv  7.7.1  tie    tended    to    become  weaker,  so 
f  p'jcropu)-;)  was  subsequently  intro-  the     former     sense     of    the     word 

VOL.  III.  P 


66  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAKT  II. 

of  the  same  deme,  did  not  possess  the  like  right  of  prose- 
cuting. All  that  we  hear  of  the  most  ancient  Athenian 
laws  is  based  upon  the  gentile  and  phratric  divisions,  which 
are  treated  throughout  as  extensions  of  the  family.  It  is 
to  be  observed  that  this  division  is  completely  independ- 
ent of  any  property  qualification — rich  men  as  well  as  poor 
being  comprehended  in  the  same  gens.1  Moreover  the 
different  gentes  were  very  unequal  in  dignity,  arising  chiefly 
from  the  religious  ceremonies  of  which  each  possessed  the 
hereditary  and  exclusive  administration,  and  which,  being 
in  some  cases  considered  as  of  pre-eminent  sanctity  in  refer- 
ence to  the  whole  city,  were  therefore  nationalized.  Thus 
the  Eumolpidae  and  Kerykes,  who  supplied  the  Hierophant 
and  superintended  the  mysteries  of  the  Eleusinian  Demeter 
— and  the  Butadae,  who  furnished  the  priestess  of  Athene 
Polias  as  well  as  the  priest  of  Poseidon  Erechtheus  in  the 
acropolis — seem  to  have  been  reverenced  above  all  the 
other  gentes.2  When  the  name  Butadse  was  selected  in 

became  more  and  more  current,  to  house;  •which  I  cannot  but  think 
the  extinction  of  the  latter.  Oi  inconvenient,  because  that  word 
EV  yevEi  or  oi  itpoaigxovTS?  would  is  the  natural  equivalent  of  oixoi; 
have  home  a  wider  sense  in  the  — a  very  important  word  in  re- 
days  of  Drake  than  in  those  of  ference  to  Attic  feelings,  and 
Demosthenes  :  StjYY-'^s  usually  quite  different  from  YEVOC  (Hist,  of 
he-longs  to  Ysvoi  in  the  narrower  Greece,  vol.  ii.  p.  14.  ch.  11).  lit 
sense,  Y£vvr,77)?  to  fi'ios  in  the  will  be  found  impossible  to  trans- 
wider  sense,  but  ISJEUS  sometimes  late  it  by  any  known  English 
uses  the  former  word  as  an  exact  word  which  does  not  at  the  same 
equivalent  of  the  latter  (Orat.  vii.  time  suggest  erroneous  ideas  : 
pp.  95,  99,  102,  103,  Eekker).  which  I  trust  will  be  accepted  as 
T  piaxas  appears  to  be  noted  in  my  excuse  for  adopting  it  untrans- 
Pollux  as  the  equivalent  of  yevoc  lated  into  this  history, 
or  gens  (viii.  Ill),  but  the  word  '  Demosthen.  cont.  Makartat. 
does  not  occur  in  the  Attic  orators,  I.  c. 

and     we     cannot     make     out     its  z  See  .aSschines  de  Fals&   Legat. 

meaning   with  certainty  :     the   In-  p.  292.  c.  46  ;  Lysias  cont.  Andokid. 

scription  of  the  Deme  ofPeirreeus  p.  108;  Andokid.    de    Mysteriis,    p. 

given  in  Boeckli    (Corp.  Insc.  No.  03,   Reiskc;    Deinarchus    and   Hel- 

111.  p.  140)  rather  adds  to  the  con-  lanikus  ap.  Harpokration.  v.  'lepo- 

fusion  by  revealing   the   existence  cpivuTjc;. 

of     a      Tpiaxa?     constituting     the  In    case    of    crimes    of   impiety, 

fractional  part  of  a  deme,  and  not  particulary  in  offences  against  the 

connected    with    a  gens:    compare  sanctity     of    the     Mysteries,      the 

Boeckh's    Comment,    ad    loc.    and  Eumolpidrc  had  a  peculiar  tribunal 

his   Addenda     and    Corrigenda,    p.  of  their  own  number,  before  which 

900.  offenders  were  brought  by  the  king 

Dr.    Thirlwall     translates    Y^VOI«>  archon.       Whether    it     was     often 


CHAP.  X.      UNEQUAL  DIGNITY  OF  DIFFERENT  GENTES.  67 

the  Kleisthenean  arrangement  as  the  name  of  a  deme,  the 
holy  gens  so  called  adopted  the  distinctive  denomination 
of  Eteobutadee,  or  "The  true  Butadse."  1 

A  great  many  of  the  ancient  gentes  of  Attica  are  known 
to  us  by  name ;  but  there  is  only  one  phratry  (the  Achniadse) 
whose  title  has  come  down  to  us.2  These  phratries  and 
gentes  probably  never  at  any  time  included  the  whole 
population  of  the  country — and  the  proportion  not  included 
in  them  tended  to  become  larger  and  larger,  in  the  times 
anterior  to  Kleisthenes,3  as  well  as  afterwards.  They  re- 
mained, under  his  constitution  and  throughout  the  subse- 
quent history,  as  religious  quasi-families  or  corporations, 
conferring  rights  and  imposing  liabilities  which  were  en- 
forced in  the  regular  dikasteries,  but  not  directly  connected 
with  the  citizenship  or  with  political  functions:  a  man  might 
be  a  citizen  without  being  enrolled  in  any  gens.  The  forty- 
used,  seems  doubtful.  They  had  TOIC,  <ppaTOpji,  XOCTO  to1!)?  exslvcav 
also  certain  unwritten  customs  of  voao'j?  (Isteus.  Or.  viii.  p.  115,  ed. 
great  antiquity,  according  to  which  Bek.  ;  vii.  p.  99:  iii.  p.  49). 
they  pronounced  (Demosthen.  cont.  Bossier  (De  Gentibus  et  Familiis 
Androtion.  p.  001;  Sehol.  ad  Attica,  Darmstadt,  1833),  and 
Demosth.  vol.  ii.  p.  137,  Reiske :  Meier  (De  Gentilitate  Attica,  p. 
compare  Meier  and  Schumann,  41—54)  have  given  the  names  of 
Der  Attische  Prozess,  p.  117).  The  those  Attic  geutes  that  are  known: 
Butadse  also  had  certain  old  un-  the  list  of  Meier  comprises  seventy- 
written  maxims  (Androtion  ap.  nine  in  number  (see  Koutorga, 
Athense.  ix.  p.  374).  Organis.  Trib.  p.  122). 

Co  upare  Bossier,  De  Gentibus  *  Tittmann  (Griech.  Staatsalter- 
et  Familiis  Atticfe,  p.  20,  and  thumer,  p.  271)  is  of  opinion  that 
Ostermann,  De  Prscconibus  Grascor.  Kleisthenes  augmented  the  number 
sect.  2  and  3  (Marpurg.  1845).  of  phratries,  but  the  passage  of 

1  Lycurgus    the    orator    is    des-     Aristotle  brought   to   support   this 
cribcd    as     TOV     Syj|j.ov     BouT(i57)<;,      opinion  is  insufficient  proof  (Polit 
YSMOU?  TOO  Ttbv  'ErsopouTaSu);  (Flu-     vi.  2,  11).    Still  less  can   we  agree 
tarch,  Vit.  X.  Orator,  p.  841).  with  Plainer  (Beitrage  zur  Kennt 

2  In  an  inscription  (apud  Boeckh.     niss  des  Attischen  Rechts,    p.  74- 
Corpus  Inscrip.  No.   4f>5).  77),  that  three  new  phratries  were 

Four  names    of  the  phratries  at  assigned  to  each  of  the  new  Kleis- 

the    Greek    city    of  Neapolis,  and  thenean  tribes. 

six  names  out  of  the  thirty  Roman  Allusion  is  made   in  Hesychiue, 

curia-,  havebeen preserved  (Becker,  'AtpiaxaoTOi,     "E£<o     tpiotxcxSoi;,     to 

Hanclbuch    der  Bomischen    Alter-  persons  not  included  in  any  gens, 

thumer,  p.  32;   Boeckh,   Corp.   In-  but  this  can  hardly  be  understock 

script,  ii.  p.  650).  to  refer  to  times  anterior  to  Kleis- 

Each  Attic  phratry  seems  to  have  thenes,  as  "VVachsmuth  would  arguu 

had    its    own    separate     laws    and  (p.  238). 
customs,    distinct    from    the    rest, 


68  HISTOEY  OF  GREECE.  PAKT  II. 

eight  Xaukraries  ceased  to  exist,  for  any  important  pur- 
poses, under  his  constitution.  The  deme,  instead  of  the 
naukrary,  became  the  elementary  political  division,  for 
The  gens  military  and  financial  objects;  while  the  demarch 
and  phratry  became  the  working  local  president,  instead  of 
revolution  tne  cnief  °f  tne  naukrars.  The  deme  however 
ofKieis-  was  not  coincident  with  a  naukrary,  nor  the 
became  demarch  with  the  previous  chief  of  the  naukrary, 
extra-  though  they  were  analogous  and  constituted  for 

political.  ^e  kke  purp0se.  i  While  the  naukraries  had 
been  only  forty-eight  in  number,  the  denies  formed  smaller 
subdivisions,  and  (in  later  times  at  least)  amounted  to  a 
hundred  and  seventy-four.2 

But  though  this  early  quadruple  division  into  tribes 
is  tolerably  intelligible  in  itself,  there  is  much  difficulty  in 
reconciling  it  with  that  severalty  of  government  which  we 
learn  to  have  originally  prevailed  among  the  inhabitants 
of  Attica.  From  Kekrops  down  to  Theseus  (says  Thucy- 
Many  dis-  dides)  there  were  many  different  cities  in  Attica, 
ticai  com-  eacn  °^  them  autonomous  and  self-governing, 
munities  with  its  own  prytaneium  and  its  own  archons. 
in' Athens.  ^  was  onty  on  °ccasi°ns  of  some  common  danger 
—Theseus,  that  these  distinct  communities  took  counsel 
together  under  the  authority  of  the  Athenian  kings, 
whose  city  at  that  time  comprised  merely  the  holy  rock  of 
Athene  on  the  plain3  (afterwards  so  conspicuous  as  the 
acropolis  of  the  enlarged  Athens),  together  with  a  narrow 

1    The    language    of  Photius    on  ch.    21.    p.    256):    yet  I  cannot  but 

this     matter     (v.      Nauxpapltt     (xiv  doubt    its     correctness.      For    the 

6-otov  TI  T)  augjLfjLopia  xal  6  8rj[AO<;.  TpiTT'K  (one-third  of  a  Kleisthenean 

va-ixpapos  8s  6i-o7.6v   TI    6   STjfxcrpyrjc)  tribe)  was   certainly  retained   and 

is  more  exact  than  that  of  Harpo-  was     a      working     and     available 

kration,    who    identifies    the    two  division      (see      Demosthenes      de 

completely— v.  Ar,[AC<p-/<j<:.    If  it  be  Symmoriis,  c.  T.  p.  184),  and  it  seems 

true  that  the  naukraries  were  con-  hardly  probable  that  there  should 

tinued     under     the    Kleisthenean  be  two  co-existing   divisions,    one 

constitution,    with   the    alteration  representing    the    third    part,    the 

that  they  were  augmented  to  fifty  other    the    fifth   part,    of  the  same 

in   number,    five    to    every    Kleis-  tribes, 

thenean  tribe,  they  must  probably  2  Strabo,  ix.  p.  396. 

have  been  continued  in  name  alone  3   Strabo,    ix.    p.     396,     rstpa    4v 

without     any     real     efficiency     or  ireSiip  Ktpu>txou|t4irt)  x&xX<p.   Euripid. 

functions.     Kleidemus    makes   this  Ion,  1578,  axo^sXov   ot    wous'    EJAOV 

statement,    and  Boeckh  follows  it  (AthOne). 
(Public  Economy  of  Athens,   1.  ii. 


CHAP.  X.  THESEUS.  G9 

area  under  it  on  the  southern  side.  It  was  Theseus  (he 
states)  who  effected  that  great  revolution  whereby  the 
whole  of  Attica  was  consolidated  into  one  government — 
all  the  local  magistracies  and  councils  being  made  to  centre 
in  the  prytaneium  and  senate  of  Athens.  His  combined 
sagacity  and  power  enforced  upon  all  the  inhabitants  of 
Attica  the  necessity  of  recognising  Athens  as  the  one  city 
in  the  country,  and  of  occupying  their  own  abodes  simply 
as  constituent  portions  of  Athenian  territory.  This  im- 
portant move,  which  naturally  produced  a  great  extension 
of  the  central  city,  was  commemorated  throughout  the 
historical  times  by  the  Athenians  in  the  periodical  festival 
called  Syncekia,  in  honour  of  the  goddess  Athene.  1 

Such  is  the  account  which  Thucydides  gives  of  the 
original  severalty  and  subsequent  consolidation  of  the 
different  portions  of  Attica.  Of  the  general  fact  there  is 
no  reason  to  doubt,  though  the  operative  cause  assigned 
by  the  historian — the  power  and  sagacity  of  Theseus — 
belongs  to  legend  and  not  to  history.  Nor  can  we  pretend 
to  determine  either  the  real  steps  by  which  such  a  change 
was  brought  about,  or  its  date,  or  the  number  of  portions 
which  went  to  constitute  the  full-grown  Athens — further 
enlarged  at  some  early  period,  though  we  do  not  know 
when,  by  voluntary  junction  of  the  Bo3otian  or  semi-Boeo- 
tian town  Eleutherse,  situated  among  the  valleys  of  Kithseron 
between  Eleusis  and  Platgea.  It  was  the  standing  habit 
of  the  population  of  Attica,  even  down  to  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  war,2  to  reside  in  their  several  cantons,  where  their 
ancient  festivals  and  temples  yet  continued  as  relics  of  a 
state  of  previous  autonomy.  Their  visits  to  the  city  were 
made  only  at  special  times,  for  purposes  religious  Long  con- 
or  political,  and  they  still  looked  upon  the  coun-  tinuance 
try  residence  as  their  real  home.  How  deep-  cantonal 
seated  this  cantonal  feeling  was  among  them,  feeling. 

1    Thucyd.     ii.    15;     Theophrast.  a  religious  ceremony  in  honour  of 

Charact.  29,  4.     Plutarch  (Theseus,  that    god.      The    junction     of    the 

24)  gives  the  proceedings  of  Theseus  town    with    Athens    is    stated    by 

in     creator     detail,      and     with     a  Pausanias  to  have  taken   place  in 

stronger  tinge  of  democracy.  consequence    of   the   hatred   of  its 

-  Pausan.  i.  2,  4 ;  38,  2.     Diodor.  citizens  for  Thebes,  and  must  have 

Sicul.  iv.  2.     Schol.  ad  Aristophan.  occurred     before    509     B.C.,     about 

Acharn.  242.  which  period  we  find  Hysise  to  be 

The  Athenians   transferred  from  the  frontier  demo   of  Attica    (He- 

Eleutherrc      to      Athens      both      a  rodot.  v.  72;  vi.  108). 
venerable  statue  of  Dionysus    and 


70  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

we  may  see  by  the  fact  that  it  survived  the  temporary 
exile  forced  upon  them  by  the  Persian  invasion,  and  was 
resumed  when  the  expulsion  of  that  destroying  host  enabled 
them  to  rebuild  their  ruined  dwellings  in  Attica.1 

How  many  of  the  demes  recognised  by  Kleisthenes 
had  originally  separate  governments,  or  in  what  local  aggre- 
gates they  stood  combined,  we  car, not  now  make  out.  It 
must  be  recollected  that  the  city  of  Athens  itself  contained 
several  demes,  while  Peiraeeus  also  formed  a  deme  apart. 
Some  of  the  twelve  divisions,  which  Philochorus  ascribes 
to  Kekrops,  present  probable  marks  of  an  ancient  substan- 
tive existence — Kekropia,  or  the  region  surrounding  and 
including  the  city  and  acropolis;  the  Tetrapolis,  composed 
of  CEnoe,  Trykorythus,Probalinthus  and  Marathon ; 2  Eleusis; 
Aphidnee  and  Dekeleia, 3  both  distinguished  by  their  pecu- 
liar mythical  connexion  with  Sparta  and  the  Dioskuri. 
But  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  that  Phalerum  (which  is  one 
of  the  separate  divisions  named  by  Philochorus)  can  ever 
have  enjoyed  an  autonomy  apart  from  Athens.  Moreover 
we  find  among  some  of  the  demes  which  Philochorus  does 
not  notice,  evidences  of  standing  antipathies,  and  prohi- 
bitions of  intermarriage,  which  might  seem  to  indicate  that 
these  had  once  been  separate  little  states.4  Though  in 

1  Thucyd.   ii.   15,    16.   oiSsv    a).Xo  a    communion    for     sacrifice    and 
f,  itoXiv  TTJV  4iUTOO   <ii:oX£irtov  Ixaa-  religious    purposes,    and    as    con- 
TO; — respecting  the  Athenians  from  taining    the    deme   Bate.    See    In- 
the  country  who  were  driven  into  scriptiones   Attica?    nuper   repertae 
Athens  at  the  first  invasion  during  duodecim,  by  Ern.  Curtius;  Berlin, 
the  Peloponnesian  war.  1843:  Inscript.  j.  p.    3.     The   exact 

2  Etymologicon  Magn.  v.  'Ezaxpia  site  of  the  deme  Bate   in  Attica  is 
yibpa;  Strabo,viii.  p.  383  ;  Stephan.  unknown    (Boss,    Die   Demen  von 
Byz.  v.  TcTpa^oXi?.  Attika,  p.  C4) :  and   respecting  the 

The  TETpixiojjioi  comprised  the  four  question,   what   portion  of  Attica 

demes,    IlE'.pxiEic,  Oa).T]p£Ti;,    Evr.s-  was  called  Mesogrea,  very  different 

TSUJVE;.  9'j;jLoiTaSai  (Pollux,  iv.  105) :  conjectures      have     been    started, 

whether   this    is    an   old   division,  which    there     appears    to    be     no 

however,   has    been    doubted   (see  means  of  testing.     Compare  Scho- 

Ilgen,  De  Tribubus  Atticis,  p.  51).  mann     de     Comitiis,     p.    343,    and 

The    'Erctxpeiov    Tpi-TiK   is    men-  "Wordsworth,    Athens   and   Attica, 
tioned     in     an     inscription     apud  p.  229,  2nd  edit. 
Ross    (Die    Demen   von  Attika,  p.          '  Dika?arclms,  Fragm.  p.  109,  ed. 
vi.).      Compare    Boeckh    ad    Corp.  Fuhr.  ;  Plutarch,  Theseus,  c.  33. 
Inscr.  no.  82:  among  other  demes,          4  Such  as  that  between  the  Pal- 
it    comprised    the    deme    P16theia.  lenaans  arid  Agnusians    (Plutarch, 
Mesogrea      also      (or     rather     the  Theseus.  12). 
Mosogei,    oi  Mtaoytioi)    appears  as         Acliarna?    was    the    largest    and 


CHAP.  X.  ELEUSIS.  71 

most  cases  we  can  infer  little  from  the  legends  and  religious 
ceremonies  which  nearly  every  deme^ad  pe-  -, 

i-        ,       .,      -,,,         j.  .1  p  -n 11         •  What  de- 

culiar  to  itself,  yet  those  ot  Jideusis  are  so  re-  mes  were 
markable,  as  to  establish  the  probable  autonomy  priginaiiy 
of  that  township  down  to  a  comparatively  late  e^of U 
period.  The  Homeric  hymn  to  Demeter,  re-  Athens.— 
counting  the  visit  of  that  goddess  to  Eleusis  after 
the  abduction  of  her  daughter,  and  the  first  establishment 
of  the  Eleusinian  ceremonies,  specifies  the  eponymous 
prince  Eleusis,  and  the  various  chiefs  of  the  place — Keleos, 
Triptolemus,  Diokles,  and  Eumolpus.  It  also  notices  the 
Rharian  plain  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Eleusis.  But  not 
the  least  allusion  is  made  to  Athens  or  to  any  concern  of 
the  Athenians  in  the  presence  or  worship  of  the  goddess. 
There  is  reason  to  believe  that  at  the  time  when  this  hymn 
was  composed,  Eleusis  was  an  independent  town:  what 
that  time  was,  we  have  no  means  of  settling,  though  Voss 
puts  it  as  low  as  the  30th  Olympiad.2  And  the  proof  hence 
derived  is  so  much  the  more  valuable,  because  the  hymn 
to  Demeter  presents  a  colouring  strictly  special  and  local: 
moreover  the  story  told  by  Solon  to  Croesus,  respecting 
Tellus  the  Athenian  who  perished  in  battle  against  the 
neighbouring  townsmen  of  Eleusis,3  assumes  in  like  manner 
the  independence  of  the  latter  in  earlier  times.  Nor  is  it 
unimportant  to  notice,  that  even  so  low  as  300  B.C.  the 
observant  visitor  Dikaearchus  professes  to  detect  a  differ- 
ence between  the  native  Athenians  and  the  Atticans,  as 
well  in  physiognomy  as  in  character  and  taste.4 

In  the  history  set  forth  to  us  of  the  proceedings  of 
Theseus,  no  mention  is  made  of  these  four  Ionic  tribes;  but 

most  populous  deme  in  Attica  (see  heroes    of    the    Attic     demos     and 

Boss,    Die    Demon    von  Attika,   p.  tribes  (Preller,   Polemonis  Fragm. 

f.2 ;  Thucyd.  ii.  21)  ;  yet  Philochorus  p.    42):    the    Atthidographers   wore 

does    not    mention    it    as    having  all  rich  on   the   same  subject:    see 

ever     constituted      a     substantive  the    Fragments     of   the    Attlris    of 

TtiXi;.  Hellanikus  (p.  24,  ed.  Preller),  also 

Several    of   the    demes    seem    to  those  of  Istrus,  Philochorus,  &c. 

have  stood  in   repute   for  peculiar  2  J.  H.  Voss,    Erlautcrungen,  p. 

qualities,   good    or  bad:    see  Aris-  1:  see  the  hymn,  90  — 10(i,  451—475: 

tophan.    Acharn.    177,    with   Elms-  compare   Hermesianax     ap.  Athcn. 

ley's  note.  xiii.  p.  597. 

1  Strabo,    ix.    p.    3!IG;    Plutarch,  '  Herodot.  i.  30. 

Theseus,    14.    Polemo    had  written  "  Dika-arch.  Vita  Gracite,  p.  141, 

a  book  expressly  on  the  eponymous  Fragm.  ed.  Fuhr. 


72  HISTOEY  OF  GREECE.  PAKT  II. 

another  and  a  totally  different  distribution  of  the  people 
EU  tr'd  *n*°  ^uPafridae,  Geomori  and  Demiurgi,  which 
Ge6mori,  '  he  is  said  to  have  first  introduced,  is  brought 
and  De-  ^0  our  notice :  Dionysius  of  Halicarnassus  gives 
only  a  double  division — Eupatridse  and  de- 
pendent cultivators;  corresponding  to  his  idea  of  the 
patricians  and  clients  in  early  Rome1.  As  far  as  we,  can 
understand  this  triple  distinction,  it  seems  to  be  disparate 
and  unconnected  with  the  four  tribes  above-mentioned. 
The  Eupatridae  are  the  wealthy  and  powerful  men,  belong- 
ing to  the  most  distinguished  families  in  all  the  various 
gentes,  and  principally  living  in  the  city  of  Athens,  after 
the  consolidation  of  Attica:  from  them  are  distinguished 
the  middling  and  lower  people,  roughly  classified  into  hus- 
bandmen and  artisans.  To  the  Eupatridae  is  ascribed  a 
religious  as  well  as  a  political  and  social  ascendency.  They 
are  represented  as  the  source  of  all  authority  on  matters 
both  sacred  and  profane:2  they  doubtless  comprised  those 
gentes,  such  as  the  Butadae,  whose  sacred  ceremonies  were 
looked  upon  with  the  greatest  reverence  by  the  people; 
and  we  may  conceive  Eumolpus,  Keleos,  Diokles,  &c.,  as 
they  are  described  in  the  Homeric  hymn  to  Demeter,  in 
the  character  of  Eupatridse  of  Eleusis.  The  humbler  gentes, 
and  the  humbler  members  of  each  gens,  would  appear  in 
this  classification  confounded  with  that  portion  of  the 
people  who  belonged  to  no  gens  at  all. 

From  these  Eupatridae  exclusively,  and  doubtless  by 
Eupatrida;  their  selection,  the  nine  annual  archons — pro- 
heidiJaiily  bably  also  the  Prytanes  of  the  Naukrari — were 
political  taken.  That  the  senate  of  Areopagus  was  formed 
power.  of  members  of  the  same  order,  we  may  naturally 
presume.  The  nine  archons  all  passed  into  it  at  the  ex- 
piration of  their  year  of  office,  subject  only  to  the  con- 
dition of  having  duly  passed  the  test  of  accountability: 
and  they  remained  members  for  life.  These  are  the  only 
political  authorities  of  whom  we  hear  in  the  earliest  im- 

1  Plutarch,  Theseus,  c.  25  ;  Dionys.  Erechthoids,    Pandionids,    Pallan- 
Hal.  ii.  8.  tids,  &c.     See   also  Plutarch,    The- 

2  Etymologic.   Magn.   EuraTpiSat  seus,  c.  24;  Hesychius,  'AyponLTai. 
— oi  auTO  TO  OOTU  OIXOUVTEI;,  xat  |J.£-  Yet  Isokrates  seems  to  speak  of 
TJjrovTSi;   TOU    pocaiXixou  Y^WJ;,   xai  the  great  family  of  the  Alkmiconidte 
trjv  -<I)v  tsptav  ETCtjjLJXeiav  roio'ifxsvoi.  as  not  included    among  the  Kupa- 
The    potaO.ixov    YEVOS    inchides  not  tridie   (Orat.   xvi.  De  Bigis,  p.  Hoi, 
only    the    Kodrids     but    also    the  p.  506  Bek.). 


CHAP.  X.          SENATE  OF  AREOPAGUS.  73 

perfectly  known  period  of  the  Athenian  government, 
after  the  discontinuance  of  the  king,  and  the  adop- 
tion of  the  annual  change  of  archons.  The  senate  of 
senate  of  Areopagus  seems  to  represent  the  Areopagus, 
Homeric  council  of  old  men;1  and  there  were  doubtless, 
on  particular  occasions,  general  assemblies  of  the  people, 
with  the  same  formal  and  passive  character  as  the  Homeric 
agora — at  least  we  shall  observe  traces  of  such  assemblies 
anterior  to  the  Solonian  legislation.  Some  of  the  writers  of 
antiquity  ascribed  the  first  establishment,  of  the  senate  of 
Areopagus  to  Solon,  just  as  there  were  also  some  who  con- 
sidered Lycurgus  as  having  first  brought  together  the  Spar- 
tan Grerusia.  But  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  this  is  a  mis- 
take, and  that  the  senate  of  Areopagus  is  a  primordial  in- 
stitution, of  immemorial  antiquity,  though  its  constitution 
as  well  as  its  functions  underwent  many  changes.  It  stood 
at  first  alone  as  a  permanent  and  collegiate  authority, 
originally  by  the  side  of  the  kings  and  afterwards  by  the 
side  of  the  archons.  It  would  then  of  course  be  known  by 
the  title  of  The  Boule — The  senate  or  council;  its  distinct- 
ive title,  "Senate  of  Areopagus"  (borrowed  from  tho  place; 
where  its  sittings  were  held)  would  not  be  bestowed  until 
the  formation  by  Solon  of  the  second  senate  or  council, 
from  which  there  was  need  to  discriminate  it. 

This  seems  to  explain  the  reason  why  it  was  never 
mentioned  in  the  ordinances  of  Drako,  whose  silence  sup- 
plied one  argument  in  favour  of  the  opinion  that  it  did  not 
exist  in  his  time,  and  that  it  was  first  constituted  by  Solon.  - 
AYe  hear  of  the  senate  of  Areopagus  chiefly  as  a  judicial 
tribunal,  because  it  acted  in  this  character  constantly 
throughout  Athenian  history,  and  because  the  orators  have 
most  frequent  occasion  to  allude  to  its  decision  on  matters 
of  trial.  But  its  functions  were  originally  of  the  widest 
senatorial  character,  directive  generally  as  well  as  judicial. 
And  although  the  gradual  increase  of  democracy  at  Athens 
(as  will  lie  hereafter  explained)  both  abridged  its  powers 
and  contributed  still  further  comparatively  to  lower  it,  by 
enlarging  the  direct  working  of  the  people  in  assembly  and 
judicature,  as  well  as  that  of  the  senate  of  Five  Hundiv;!, 


74  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAST  II. 

which  was  a  permanent  adjunct  and  auxiliary  of  the  public 
assembly — yet  it  seems  to  have  been,  even  down  to  the  time 
of  Perikles,  the  most  important  body  in  the  state.  And  after 
it  had  been  cast  into  the  background  by  the  political  reforms 
of  that  great  man,  we  still  find  it  on  particular  occasions 
stepping  forward  to  reassert  its  ancient  powers,  and  to  as- 
sume for  the  moment  that  undefined  interference  which  it 
had  enjoyed  without  dispute  in  antiquity.  The  attach- 
ment of  the  Athenians  to  their  ancient  institutions  gave 
to  the  senate  of  Areopagus  a  constant  and  powerful  hold 
on  their  minds,  and  this  feeling  was  rather  strengthened 
than  weakened  when  it  ceased  to  be  an  object  of  popular 
jealousy — when  it  could  no  longer  be  employed  as  an 
auxiliary  of  oligarchical  pretensions. 

Of  the  nine  archons,  whose  number  continued  un- 
altered from  683  B.C.  to  the  end  of  the  free  de- 
archons—  mocracy,  three  bore  special  titles — the  Archon 
their  func-  Eponymus,  from  whose  name  the  designation  of 
the  year  was  derived,  and  who  was  spoken  of  as 
The  Archon;  the  Archon  Basileus  (king),  or  more  frequent- 
ly, the  Basileus ;  and  the  Polemarch.  The  remaining  six 
passed  by  the  general  title  of  Thesmothetae.  Of  the  first 
three,  each  possessed  exclusive  judicial  competence  in  re- 
gard to  certain  special  matters:  the  Thesmothetse  were  in 
this  respect  all  on  a  par,  acting  sometimes  as  a  board, 
sometimes  individually.  The  Archon  Eponymus  deter- 
mined all  disputes  relative  to  the  family,  the  gentile,  and 
the  phratric  relations :  he  was  the  legal  protector  of  orphans 
and  widows.  *  The  Archon  Basileus  (or  king  archon)  en- 
joyed competence  in  complaints  respecting  offences  against 
the  religious  sentiment  and  respecting  homicide.  The 
Polemarch  (speaking  of  times  anterior  to  Kleisthenes)  was 
the  leader  of  military  force  and  judge  in  disputes  between 
citizens  and  non-citizens.  Moreover  each  of  these  three 
archons  had  particular  religious  festivals  assigned  to  him, 
which  it  was  his  duty  to  superintend  and  conduct.  The 
six  Thesmothetse  seem  to  have  been  judges  in  disputes  and 
complaints,  generally,  against  citizens,  saving  the  special 
matters  reserved  for  the  cognizance  of  the  first  two  archons. 
According  to  the  proper  sense  of  the  word  Thesmothetse, 
all  the  nine  archons  were  entitled  to  be  so  called,2  though 

1  Pollux,  viii.  t-9— 91.  *  We    read    the    fkajjLo'iJTcuv    dvi- 


CHAP.  X.  XIXE  ARCHONS  AT  ATHENS.  75 

the  first  three  had  especial  designations  of  their  own.  The 
word  Thesmoi  (analogous  to  the  Themistes l  of  Homer)  in- 
cludes in  its  meaning  both  general  laws  and  particular  sen- 
tences— the  two  ideas  not  being  yet  discriminated,  and  the 
general  law  being  conceived  only  in  its  application  to  some 
particular  case.  Drako  was  the  first,  Thcsmothet  who  was 
called  upon  to  set  down  his  Thesmoi  in  writing,  and  thus 
to  invest  them  essentially  with  a  character  of  more  or  less 
generality. 

In  the  later  and  better-known  times  of  Athenian  law, 
we  find  these  archons  deprived  in  great  measure  of  their 
powers  of  judging  and  deciding,  and  restricted  to  the  task 
of  first  hearing  the  parties  and  collecting  the  evidence, 
next,  of  introducing  the  matter  for  trial  into  the  appro- 
priate dikastery,  over  which  they  presided.  But  originally 
there  was  no  separation  of  powers;  the  archons  both  judged 
and  administered,  sharing  among  themselves  those  privileges 
which  had  once  been  united  in  the  hands  of  the  king,,  and 
probably  accountable  at  the  end  of  their  year  of  office  to 
the  senate  of  Areopagus.  It  is  probable  also  that  the 

xc'.3i<;  in  Demosthen.  cont.  Eubuli-  the  flaaixoi  of  Drako  and  the 
dera,  c.  17.  p.  1319.  and  Pollux,  vouoi  of  Solon  (De  Mysteriis,  p. 
viii.  85;  a  series  of  questions  11).  This  is  the  adoption  of  a. 
which  it  was  necessary  for  them  phrase  comparatively  modern ; 
to  answer  befor.:  they  were  ad-  Solon  called  his  own  laws  <ko-|ju.t. 
mitted  to  occupy  their  office.  Si-  The  oath  of  the  ittpiitriXoi  vorfai 
milar  questions  must  have  been  (the  youth  who  formed  the  armed 
put  to  the  Archon,  the  Basileus,  police  of  Attica  during  the  fir?t 
and  the  Polemarch  :  so  that  the  two  years  of  their  military  a.ae), 
words  <!lsc;|j.o'j£Tu><  <ivixpist:  may  as  given  in  Pollux  (vii.  106), 
reasonably  be  understood  to  apply  seems  to  contain  many  ancient 
to  all  the  nine  archons,  as  indeed  phrases:  this  phrase— xa-  rot?  Osa- 
,ve  find  the  words  too?  k-rtii  Hpyji-i-  [xoT;  T^Te  iop'j(j.svOK  -1130^21 — is  ro- 
T3?  i-/--;y.f.i-/:TS  shortly  afterwards,  markable,  as  it  indicates  the  an 
p.  132,).  Besides,  all  the  nine,  after  cient  association  of  religious  sane- 
passing  tiie  E-jfj'i-,3'.  at  the  close  of  tion  which  adhered  to  the  word 
their  official  year,  became  members  Q;j(j.'jt ;  for  iSpozaOai  is  the  word 
of  the  Areiopagus.  employed  in  reference  to  the  es tab  - 

1  Respecting    the   word    fj£|j.ij-e<;  Hshment   and  domiciliation  of  the 

in   the   Homeric  sense,    see  above,  gods  who  protected  the   country— 

ch.  xx.  9e3rJc(i  •;6jii'j?  isthe  later  expression 

Both    Aristotle   (Polit.    ii.    9,    9)  for       making        laws.        Compare 

and    Demosthenes    (contr.     .Kuerg.  Stobams  De  Republic,  xliii.  4q.  ed, 

et    Mnfisitml.    c.    1  •>.   p.   llfil)    call  Gaisl'ord,     and    Domosthen.     coijt, 

the     ordinances     of    Drako     -/ojxo'.,  >Iacartat.  c.  13.  p.  lOliO. 
not9ssy.iji.  Andokides  distinguishes 


76  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

functions  of  that  senate,  and  those  of  the  prytanes  of  the 
naukrars,  were  of  the  same  double  and  confused  nature. 
All  of  these  functionaries  belonged  to  the  Eupatrids,  and 
all  of  them  doubtless  acted  more  or  less  in  the  narrow 
interest  of  their  order:  moreover  there  was  ample  room 
for  favouritism,  in  the  way  of  connivance,  as  well  as  anti- 
pathy, on  the  part  of  the  archons.  That  such  was  decidedly 
the  case,  and  that  discontent  began  to  be  serious,  we  may 
infer  from  the  duty  imposed  on  the  thesmothet  Drako,  B.C. 
Drako  and  624,  to  put  in  writing  the  Thesmoi  or  Ordinances, 
his  laws.  so  {hat  they  might  be  "shown  publicly"  and 
known  beforehand. *  He  did  not  meddle  with  the  political 
constitution,  and  in  his  ordinances  Aristotle  finds  little 
worthy  of  remark  except  .the  extreme  severity2  of  the 
punishments  awarded:  petty  thefts,  or  even  proved  idleness 
of  life,  being  visited  with  death  or  disfranchisement. 

But  we  are  not  to  construe  this  remark  as  demonstra- 
ting any  special  inhumanity  in  the  character  of  Drako,  who 
was  not  invested  with  the  large  power  which  Solon  after- 
wards enjoyed,  and  cannot  be  imagined  to  have  imposed 
upon  the  community  severe  laws  of  his  own  invention. 
Himself  of  course  an  Eupatrid,  he  set  forth  in  writing  such 
ordinances  as  the  Eupatrid  archons  had  before  been  accus- 
tomed to  enforce  without  writing,  in  the  particular  cases 
which  came  before  them;  and  the  general  spirit  of  penal 
legislation  had  become  so  much  milder,  during  the  two 
centuries  which  followed,  that  these  old  ordinances  appeared 
to  Aristotle  intolerably  rigorous.  Probably  neither  Drako, 
nor  the  Lokrian  Zaleukus,  who  somewhat  preceded  him  in 
date,  were  more  rigorous  than  the  sentiment  of  the  age: 
indeed  the  few  fragments  of  the  Drakoniau  tables  which 
have  reached  us,  far  from  exhibiting  indiscriminate  cruelty, 
introduce,  for  the  first  time,  into  the  Athenian  law,  mitiga- 
ting distinctions  in  respect  to  homicide;3  founded  on  the 

1  'OTE    8£(j(x6<;    soavTj  oSe — such  42)     does    not    agree     with     him. 
is  the  exact  expression   of  Solon's  Taylor,  Lectt.  Lysiacse,  ch.  10. 
law    (Plutarch,  Solon,  c.    19) ;    the  Respecting  the  flsojxoi  of  Drako, 
word    ftsajxoc;    is    found    in   Solon's  see  Kuhn  ad  .aSlian.  V.  H.  viii.  10. 
own  poems,  Qcajjio'j;  6'    6jxoio'j<;    TU>  The    preliminary    sentence    which 
xotxu)  -s.  •xdfoQui.  Porphyry  (De  Abstinentia,    iv.  22) 

2  Aristot.  Polit.  ii.  9,  9  ;  Rhetoric,      ascribes   to    Drako    can   hardly  be 
ii.  25,  1;  Aulus  Gell.  N.  A.  xi.  18;      genuine. 

Pausanias,  ix.  36,  4;  Plutarch,  3  Pausanias,  ix.  36,2.  Apaxovrot 
Solon,  c.  19;  though  Pollux  (viii.  'ABr^atot?  'JsaiAO^iT^xavTo;  ii  TU>V 


CHAP.  X.  EPHET.S3,  AREOPAGUS,  ETC.  77 

variety  of  concomitant  circumstances.  He  is  said  to  have 
constituted  the  judges  called  Ephetae,  fifty-one  elders 
belonging  to  some  respected  gens  or  possessing  an  exalted 
position,  who  held  their  sittings  for  trial  of  homicide  in 
three  different  spots,  according  to  the  difference  of  the 
cases  submitted  to  them.  If  the  accused  party,  admitting 
the  fact,  denied  any  culpable  intention  and  Different 
pleaded  accident,  the  case  was  tried  at  the  place  tribunals 
called  the  Palladium;  when  found  guilty  of  mfcide"at 
accidental  homicide,  he  was  condemned  to  a  Athens. 
temporary  exile,  unless  he  could  appease  the  relatives  of 
the  deceased,  but  his  property  was  left  untouched.  If, 
again,  admitting  the  fact,  he  defended  himself  by  some 
valid  ground  of  justification,  such  as  self-defence,  or  flagrant 
adultery  with  his  wife  on  the  part  of  the  deceased,  the  trial 
took  place  on  ground  consecrated  to  Apollo  and  Artemis, 
called  the  Delphinium.  A  particular  spot  called  the 
Phreattys,  close  to  the  seashore,  was  also  named  for  the 
trial  of  a  person,  who  while  under  sentence  of  exile  for  an 
unintentional  homicide,  might  be  charged  with  a  second 
homicide,  committed  of  course  without  the  limits  of  the 
territory:  being  considered  as  impure  from  the  effects  of 
the  former  sentence,  he  was  not  permitted  to  set  foot  on 
the  soil,  but  stood  his  trial  on  a  boat  hauled  close  in  shore. 
At  the  Prytaneium  or  government-house  itself,  sittings 
were  held  by  the  four  Phylo-Basileis  or  Tribe  Kings,  to 
try  any  inanimate  object  (a  piece  of  wood  or  stone,  &c.) 
which  had  caused  death  to  any  one,  without  the  proved 
intervention  of  a  human  hand:  the  wood  or  stone,  when 
the  fact  was  verified,  was  formally  cast  beyond  the  border.1 

exsivoo    X-XTESTT]     M&JACOV    ou?  EYpstpsv  probably   includes    the   Areopagus 

ir.i    Trj;    rxpyyj?,    aXXtov     TO    Onoaiov  (see  Utimosthen.    cont.  Aristokrat. 

ioiisv   etv2i    y_py;,    -f.i.l    or)  xai.  Ttfxuj-  c.   II.   p.   641). 

plot?    [xor/vj  :    compare   Demosthen.          About    the    judges    iv     <Dp»a-Tii, 

cont.  Aristokrat.  p.  637;  Lysias  de  see    Aristot.    Tolit.    iv.    13,    2.     On 

Cicde  Eratosthen.  p.  31.  the  general  subject  of  this  ancient 

1  Harpokration,  vv.  'E?£To:i,  'I:,ri  and    obscure    criminal    procedure, 

A^Xtpivuo,  '1'1-t  IlaXXaoiq),  'livOpsa-r-  see  Matthia?,  De  Judiciis  Athenien- 

TOI;     Pollux,    viii.    119,    124,    125;  sium  (in  Miscellan.  Philolo.cic.  vol. 


^fakartat.  c.  13.  p.  10C^.  "Wlien  bey  den  Attikern.  b.  i.  cli.  1;  and 
Pollux  speaks  of  the  five  courts  E.  W.  We  her,  Comment,  ad  De- 
iii  which  tlie  Ephetse  judged,  he  mosthen.  cont.  Aristocrat,  pp.  (i27. 


78  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAST  II. 

All  these  distinctions  of  course  imply  the  preliminary  in- 
vestigation of  the  case  (called  Anakrisis)  by  the  king  archon, 
in  order  that  it  might  be  known  what  was  the  issue  and 
where  the  sittings  of  the  Ephetse  were  to  be  held. 

So  intimately  was  the  mode  of  dealing  with  homicide 
connected  with  the  religious  feelings  of  the  Athenians, 
that  these  old  regulations,  never,  formally  abrogated  through- 
out the  historical  times,  were  read  engraved  on  their  column 
by  the  contemporaries  of  Demosthenes. ]  The  Areopagus 
continued  in  judicial  operation,  and  the  Ephetae  are  spoken 
of  as  if  they  were  so,  even  through  the  age  of  Demosthenes; 
though  their  functions  were  tacitly  usurped  or  narrowed, 
and  their  dignity  impaired, 2  by  the  more  popular  dikasteries 

641  :  Meier  und  Schb'mann,  Attisch.          The     Germanic     codes    do     not 

Prozess,  p.  14 — 19.  content  themselves  with  imposing 

I   cannot    consider    the    Ephetae  a    general    obligation    to    appease 

as  judges    in    appeal,   and   I  agree  the   relatives   and    gentiles    of  the 

•with  those  (Schomann,  Antiq.  Jur.  slain  party,  but  determine  before- 

Pub.  Gr.  p.   171 ;    Meier  und  Scho-  hand    the     sum     which     shall     be 

raann,     Attisch.     Prozess,     p.    16 ;  sufficient    for   the  purpose,   which, 

Platner,  Prozess  und  Klagen,  t.  i.  in  the  case  of  involuntary  homicide, 

p.  1?)  who  distrust  the  etymology  is  paid  to  the  surviving  relatives  as 

which    connects    this     word    with  a  compensation.  As  to  the  difference 

easiiao;.     The  active  sense    of  the  between  culpable    homicide,  justi- 

word,     akin     to      s'ftiixxi     (JEsch.  fiable  homicide,  and  accidental  ho- 

Prom.    4)    and   i'si-u.in    meets    the  micide,  see  the   elaborate   treatise 

case   better:    see   O.   Muller,    Pro-  of  Wi;da,  Das  Deutsche  Strafrecht, 

legg.    ad    Mythol.   p.    424    (though  ch.  viii.  p. '544— 559,  whose   doctrine 

there   is    no    reason   for   believing  however  is  disputed  by  Dr.  Triimmer 

the     Ephetre     to     be     older    than  in  the  treatise  above  noticed. 
Drake):    compare    however    K.   F.         At      Rome,     according     to    the 

Hermann,       Lehrbuch     der     Grie-  Twelve    Tables     and     earlier,    in- 

chischen     Staatsalterthilmer,    sect,  voluntary  homicide  was   to  be  ex- 

103,  104,  who  thinks  differently.  piated    by    the    sacrifice   of   a  ram 

The     trial,     condemnation     and  (Walter,  Geschichte    des  Romisch. 

banishment    of   inanimate    objects  Rechts,  sect.  76S). 
which  had  been  the  cause  of  death,          '  Demosth.      cont.      Euerg.       et 
was    founded    on    feelings    widely   .  Mnesib.  p.  1161. 
diffused    throughout    the    Grecian         -  Demosthen.    cont.     Aristocrat, 

world   (see   Pausan.  vi.    11,  2;  and  p.    647.      -o-vJTOt;     SixotoTTjpiots,    a 

Theokritus,  Idyll,  xxiii.  60)  :    ana-  <j£o!.     xotTJ5ii;av,     xetl     (x£-a     -raO-a 

logous  in  principle  to  the  English  av^puiroi  ypii/Ton  rsi-i-i  TOV  y_povov, 

law    respecting    deodand,    and    to  p.     643.— oi.    rorj7:     jcapyyj;    TO    v6- 

the    spirit   pervading    the    ancient  p-'-y-?-     SisSsvTss,    oi-tve;    TroO'    r,3ocv, 

Germanic     codes      generally     (see  t".'i'  ^pcus;,   SITS  Ssoi.     Sae   also  the 

Dr.    0.    Triimmer,   Die    Lehre    von  Oration    cont.    Makartat.    p.    106T ; 

der   Zureohnung,   c.   28— 38.    Ham-  JEschin.    cont.   Ktesiphon.    p.  C36  ; 

bnrg,'l"4n).  Antiph.  De  Cade  Herodis,  c.  U. 


CHAP.  X.  LOCAL  SUPERSTITIONS  AT  ATHENS.  79 

afterwards  created.  It  is  in  this  way  that  they  have  be- 
come known  to  us,  while  the  other  Drakonian  institutions 
have  perished:  but  there  is  much  obscurity  respecting  them, 
particularly  in  regard  to  the  relation  between  the  Ephetae 
and  the  Areopagites.  Indeed  so  little  was  known  on  the 
subject,  even  by  the  historical  inquirers  of  Athens,  that 
most  of  them  supposed  the  council  of  Areopagus  to  have 
received  its  first  origin  from  Solon;  and  even  Aristotle, 
though  he  contradicts  this  view,  expresses  himself  in  no 
very  positive  language.  *  That  judges  sat  at  the  Areopagus 
for  the  trial  of  homicide,  previous  to  Drako,  seems  implied 
in  the  arrangements  of  that  lawgiver  respecting  Reguia- 
the  Ephetae,  inasmuch  as  he  makes  no  new  ^on^  of 
provision  for  trying  the  direct  issue  of  intention-  about  the 
al  homicide,  which,  according  to  all  accounts,  Ephetse. 
fell  within  the  cognizance  of  the  Areopagus:  but  whether 
the  Ephetae  and  the  Areopagites  were  the  same  persons, 
wholly  or  partially,  our  information  is  not  sufficient  to 
discover.  Before  .Drako,  there  existed  no  tribunal  for 
trying  homicide,  except  the  senate,  sitting  at  the  Areopagus. 
And  we  may  conjecture  that  there  was  something  con- 
nected with  that  spot — legends,  ceremonies,  or  religious 
feelings — which  compelled  judges  there  sitting  to  condemn 
every  man  proved  guilty  of  homicide,  and  forbad  them  to 
take  account  of  extenuating  or  justifying  circumstances.2 
Drako  appointed  the  Ephetae  to  sit  at  different  places; 
places  so  pointedly  marked,  and  so  unalterably  maintained, 
that  we  may  see  in  how  peculiar  a  manner  those  special 
issues,  of  homicide  under  particular  circumstances,  which 
he  assigned  to  each,  were  adapted  in  Athenian  belief,  to 
the  new  sacred  localities  chosen,3  each  having  its  own 

The    popular   Dikastery,    in    the  2  Bead  on  this  subject  the  maxims 

age  of  Isokrates  and  Demosthenes,  laid  down   by   Plato,    about    theft 

held    sittings  ir.'i  JXoO.Xaouo  for  the  (Legg.    xii.    p.    941).    Nevertheless 

trial     of  charges    of  unintentional  Plato    copies,    to    a    great    degree, 

homicide  — a    striking    evidence    of  the    arrangements    of   the    ephetic 

the   special   holiness    of   the  place  tribunals,    in     his     provisions    for 

for  that  purpose  (see  Isokrat.  cout.  homicide  (Legg.  ix.  p.  865-873). 

Kallimaehum,    Or.    xviii.     p.    381  ,  *  I  know  no   place  in  which  the 

Demosth.  cont.  Nerer.  p.  1348).  special    aptitude    of  particular  lo- 

Tbe    statement    of   Pollux   (viii.  calities,    consecrated    eacli    to    its 

125),  that  the  Ephetse  became  des-  own  purpose,  is  so  powerfully  set 

pised,    is    not    confirmed    by     the  forth,  as  in  the  speech  of  Camillas 

language  of  Dgmosthenes.  against    the    transfer    of  Eome   to 

1  Vlutarch,  Solon,  c.  19:  Aristot.  Vcii  (Livy,  v.  52). 
Polit.  ii.  ',),  2. 


80  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

distinct  ceremonial  and  procedure  appointed  by  the  gods 
themselves.  That  the  religious  feelings  of  the  Greeks 
were  associated  in  the  most  intimate  manner  with  particular 
Local  su-  localities,  has  already  been  often  remarked ;  and 
perstitions  Drako  proceeded  agreeably  to  them  in  his 
abouthtriai  arrangements  for  mitigating  the  indiscriminate 
of  homi-  condemnation  of  every  man  found  guilty  of 
homicide,  which  was  unavoidable  so  long  as  the 
Areopagus  remained  the  only  place  of  trial.  The  man 
who  either  confessed,  or  was  proved,  to  have  shed  the 
blood  of  another,  could  not  be  acquitted  or  condemned  to 
less  than  the  full  penalty  (of  death  or  perpetual  exile  with 
confiscation  of  property)  by  the  judges  on  the  hill  of  Ares, 
whatever  excuse  he  might  have  to  offer:  but  the  judges  at 
the  Palladium  and  Delphinium  might  hear  him,  and  even 
admit  his  plea,  without  contracting  the  taint  of  irreligion.1 
Drako  did  not  directly  meddle  with,  nor  indeed  ever 
mention,  the  judges  sitting  in  Areopagus. 

1  It    has    been   remarked    to   me  Two  points   of  view,   respecting 

that   what  I   here    state    is     incon-  homicide,  are  here  put  in  conflict: 

sistent     with    the     Eumenides     of  one  represented  by  the  Eumeuides, 

-^Eschylus,  which  introduce  Orestes  the  other  by  Apollo,    acting  indi- 

as  tried  at  the  Areopagus  and  ac-  rectly  with  the  sanction  of  Zeus, 

quitted,    although  his  matricide    is  The  divine  privileges  oftheEu- 

confessed  ;  becauso  the  justification  menides    are    put   in   on   one   side, 

preferred  by  Apollo  in  his  behalf,  those  of  Apollo  on  the  other  :  the 

that   Klytsemnestra    had    deserved  former  complain  that  the  latter  in- 

her    death    by    having    previously  terferes    with   them,    and    meddles 

slain  Agamemnon,  is  held  sufficient,  with  proceedings  which  do  not  le- 

I  think,  however,  that  an  attentive  gitimately  (227-715)  belong  to  him, 

study  of  that  very  curious  drama,  while  they   each   hold  out  terrible 

far  from  contradicting  what  is  here  menaces  of  the  mischief  which  they 

said   in   the   text,    will    farther   il-  will  do   respectively    to  Attica,    if 

lustrate  and  confirm  it.  the  verdict  be  given  against  them 

The    cause    tried    represents  two  (710—714). 

parties:   first,  the  official  prosecu-  Athene,  as   patroness    of  Attica, 

tors    or    avenging    goddesses    (the  has  to  protect  her  territory  against 

Eumenides),  who  claim  Orestes  as  injury     from     both    sides,    and    to 

their    victim,     peremptorily,      and  avoid  giving  offence  to  either.  This 

•without  even  listening  to  any  ex-  is  really  contrived,    as  inuch  as  it 

cuse,  the  moment   that  the  fact  of  is  possible    to    do    consistent  with 

his    matricide    is     verified:     next,  finding    any    verdict    at    all.     The 

Orestes    himself,    who    admits    the  votes  of  the  Dikasts  or  Jurors  are 

act,  but   pleads    that  he   has  com-  made  to  be  equal,  so  that  they  at 

mitted    it    to    avenge    his    father,  least,   as   Athenians,    may  not  ex- 

under  the  sanction  and  even  insti-  asperate  either  of  the  powerful  an- 

gation  of  Apollo,   who  appears  as  tagonists:     and     the    acquittal    of 

his  witness  and  champion.  Orestes     ensues,    because     Athene 


X.            LOCAL  SUPERSTITIONS  AT  ATIIEXS.  81 

In  respect  to  homicide,  then,  the  Drakonian  ordinances  . 
•were  partly  a  reform  of  the  narrowness,  partly  a  mitigation 

herself  has  pronounced  in  his  fa-  i.    120.     5?   (2sjj.va?    6sot?)   |j.£Ta    TOV 

vour,  on  the  groxind  that  her  sym-  'Opscmrjv    oi    'AGTjvatoi    rcXrjaiov    "cw 

pathies  are  with  the  male  sex  rather  'Apitou  rayou    iSpoaavto,   tva  iroX).YJs 

than  the  female,  and  that  the  mur-  TI|J.TJ;  -royojsiv.)     The  Areopagus  is 

<ler    of  Agamemnon    counts    with  thus  made  over  and  consecrated  to 

her  for  more  than  that  of  Klystccm-  them:    and  as  a  consequence,    the 

nestra.   This  trial,  assumed  as  the  procedure    against     homicide,     as 

first  ever  held  for  blood  spilt  (Tptb-  there     conducted,    must    be    made 

T*;  oixa?    -/piMOMtEc  a"|J.aTrjt;  yjTou —  conformable  to  their  point  of  view  : 

C82),    terminates    in    a    verdict    of  peremptory    condemnation    of   the 

acquittal  pronounced  by  Athene  as  guilty    person,    without    admitting 

casting  vote  among  equal  numbers  either      excuse      or     justification, 

of  the  Dikasts.  Athene,  in  her  bargain  with  them, 

Upon  this   the   Eumenides   burst  engages  that  they  shall  never  again 

into    violent    expression    of    com-  be  exposed  to  such  an  humiliation 

plaint  and  menace,    which  Athene  as    they  have  recently   undergone 

docs   her    best    to    appease.     They  by  the   acquittal   of  Orestes :    that 

complain     of     having     been     van-  they  shall  receive  the  highest  mea- 

quished  and  dishonoured  •  she  tells  sure    of    reverential    worship.      In 

them  that  they   have   not  been  so,  return    for   this,    they    promise    to 

because  the  votes  were  equal:  and  ensurs   abundant  blessings   to  the 

that  she  decided   herself  in  favour  land  (040—985). 

of  Orestes,  because  lie  had  been  Hero,  then,  is  the  result  of  the 
acting  undcrthe  sanction  and  guar.  drama  of  JKschylus,  showing  how 
antee  of  Apollo,  indirectly  even  those  goddesses  became  coiisecra- 
of  Zeus  :  to  both  of  whom  the  ted  on  or  close  to  the  Areopagus, 
responsibility  of  the  act  really  be-  and  therefore  how  their  view  of 
longed.  She  then  earnestly  entreats  homicide  became  exclusively  para- 
thc  Kumenides  to  renounce  their  mount  on  that  locality. 
displeasure,  and  to  accept  a  do-  It  was  not  necessary,  for  the  pur- 
micile  in  Attica,  together  with  the  pose  of  xK.schylus,  to  say  what 
most  signal  testimonies  of  worship  provision  Athene  made  to  instal 
and  reverence  from  the  people.  For  Apollo  and  to  deal  with  his  view 
a  long  time  they  refuse:  at  length  of  homicide,  opposed  to  that  of 
they  relent,  and  agree  to  become  the  Eumonides.  Apollo,  in  the 
inmates  along  with  her  in  Athens  case  of  Orestes,  had  gained  the 
(;.  i-oust  ITaXXaoo;  gU'JQixlav,  917—  victory,  and  required  nothing  more. 
ij.z-oiy.iotv  V  i\i-'fii  s*J  zi'^vt't',  1017).  Yet  his  view  and  treatment  of  ho- 
Athene  then  conducts  them,  with  micide,  admitting  of  certain  special 
solemn  procession,  to  the  resting-  justifications,  is  not  to  be  alto- 
place  appointed  for  them  ,  (-p'/:zp7.v  gether  excluded  from  Athens, 
','  z'i.z  y_07j  ST:'.-/_ZIV  6y./.o!;j.ou;  j.-o-  though  it  is  excluded  from  the 
8ii;ouaav,  1001).  Areopagus.  This  difficulty  is  solved 
Now  this  resting-place,  consc-  by  providing  the  new  judgement- 
crated  ever  afterwards  to  the  T-u-  seat  at  Delphinium,  or  the  temple 
menides,  was  close  by,  or  actually  of  Apollo  Delphinius  (Plutarch, 
upon  the  hill  called  Areopagus.  Theseus,  c.  12— 14.  K.  T\  Hermann, 
(1'ausan.  i.  28.  C.  Scliol.  ad  Thucyd.  Gottesdienst.  Alterthiimer.  Gricch. 

VOL.  III.  G 


62  HISTORY  OF  GREECE,  PAKT  IL. 

of  the  rigour,  of  the  old  procedure;  and  these  are  all  that 
have  come  down  to  us,  having  been  preserved  unchanged 
from  the  religious  respect  of  the  Athenians  for  antiquity 
on  this  peculiar  matter.  The  rest  of  his  ordinances  are 
said  to  have  been  repealed  by  Solon,  on  account  of  their 
intolerable  severity.  So  they  doubtless  appeared,  to  the 
Athenians  of  a  later  day,  who  had  come  to  measure  offences 
by  a  different  scale;  and  even  to  Solon,  who  had  to  calm 
the  wrath  of  a  suffering  people  in  actual  mutiny. 

That  under  this  eupatrid  oligarchy  and  severe  legisla- 
tion, the  people  of  Attica  were  sufficiently  miserable,  we 
shall  presently  see  when  I  recount  the  proceedings  of 
Solon.  But  the  age  of  democracy  had  not  yet  begun,  and 
the  government  received  its  first  shock  from  the  hands  of 
an  ambitious  Eupatrid  who  aspired  to  the  despotism.  Such 
was  the  phase  (as  has  been  remarked  in  the  preceding 
chapter)  through  which,  during  the  century  now  under 
c  onsideration,  a  large  proportion  of  the  Grecian  govern- 
ments passed. 

Kylon,  an  Athenian  patrician — who  superadded,  to  a 
Attempted  great  family  position,  the  personal  celebrity  of 
usurpation  a  victory  at  Olympia,  as  runner  in  the  double 
by  Kyi6n.  stadium — conceived  the  design  of  seizing  the 
acropolis  and  constituting  himself  despot.  "Whether  any 
special  event  had  occurred  at  home  to  stimulate  this  pro- 
ject, we  do  not  know:  but  he  obtained  both  encouragement 
and  valuable  aid  from  his  father-in-law  Theagenes  of  Me- 
gara,  who,  by  means  of  his  popularity  with  the  people,  had 
already  subverted  the  Megarian  oligarchy,  and  become  des- 
pot of  his  native  city.  Previous  to  so  hazardous  an  attempt, 
however,  Kylon  consulted  the  Delphian  oracle,  and  was 
advised  by  the  god  in  reply,  to  take  the  opportunity  of  "the 
greatest  festival  of  Zeus"  for  seizing  the  acropolis.  Such 
expressions,  in  the  natural  interpretation  put  upon  them 
by  every  Greek,  designated  the  Olympic  games  in  Pelo- 
ponnesus. To  Kylon,  moreover,  himself  an  Olympic  victor, 
that  interpretation  came  recommended  by  an  apparent 
peculiar  propriety.  But  Thucydides,  not  indifferent  to  the 

60.    3),    where    the     procedure    of  The    legend    of  Apollo    and  the 

Apollo,    in     contradistinction     to  Delphinium  thus  forms  the  sequel 

that  of  the  Eumenides,  is  followed,  and    complement    to     that    of   the 

and  where  justifiable  homicide  may  Eumenides  and  the  Areopagus, 
be  put  in  plea. 


CHAP.  X.  CONSPIEACY  OF  KYLON.  83 

credit  of  the  oracle,  reminds  his  readers  that  no  question 
was  asked  nor  any  express  direction  given,  where  the  in- 
tended "greatest  festival  of  Zeus"  was  to  be  sought — 
whether  in  Attica  or  elsewhere — and  that  the  public  festi- 
val of  the  Diasia,  celebrated  periodically  and  solemnly  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Athens,  was  also  denominated  the 
'•greatest  festival  of  Zeus  Meilichius."  Probably  no  such 
exegetical  scruples  presented  themselves  to  any  one,  until 
after  the  miserable  failure  of  the  conspiracy;  least  of  all  to 
Kylon  himself,  who,  at  the  recurrence  of  the  next  ensuing 
Olympic  games,  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a  force,  partly 
furnished  by  Theagenes,  partly  composed  of  his  friends  at 
home,  and  took  sudden  possession  of  the  sacred  rock  of 
Athens.  But  the  attempt  excited  general  indignation 
among  the  Athenian  people,  who  crowded  in  from  the 
country  to  assist  the  archons  and  the  prytanes  of  the 
Naukrari  in  putting  it  down.  Kylon  and  his  companions 
were  blockaded  iii  the  Acropolis,  where  they  soon  found 
themselves  in  straits  for  want  of  water  and  provisions; 
and  though  many  of  the  Athenians  went  back  to  their  homes, 
a  sufficient  besieging  force  was  left  to  reduce  the  conspira- 
tors to  the  last  extremity.  After  Kylon  himself  had  es- 
caped by  stealth,  and  several  of  his  companions  had  died 
of  hunger,  the  remainder,  renouncing  all  hope  of  defence, 
sat  down  as  suppliants  at  the  altar.  The  archon  lEegakles, 
on  regaining  the  citadel,  found  these  suppliants  on  the 
point  of  expiring  with  hunger  on  the  sacred  ground,  and 
to  prevent  such  a  pollution,  engaged  them  to  quit  the  spot 
by  a  promise  of  sparing  their  lives.  No  sooner  H^  f.iiiure, 
however  had  they  been  removed  into  profane  aud  ma*- 
ground,  than  the  promise  was  violated  and  they  hls'par- 
were  put  to  death:  some  even,  who,  seeing  the  tisans  by 
fate  with  which  they  were  menaced,  contrived  thee.A.ik- 
to  throw  themselves  upon  the  altar  of  the  m^'6nid3. 
Venerable  goddesses  (or  Eumenides)  near  the  Areopagus, 
received  their  death  wounds  in  spite  of  that  inviolable 
protection. l 

Though  the  conspiracy  was  thus  put  down,  and  the 
government  upheld,  these  deplorable  incidents  left  behind 
them  a  long  train  of  calamity — profound  religious  remorse 
mingled  witli  exasperated  political  antipathies.  There  still 

1  The   narrative   is   given  in  Thucyd.   i.  126;   Herod,  v.  71;  Plutarch, 
Solon,  12.  ., 


84  HISTORY  01?  GREECE.  PAST  II. 

remained,  if  not  a  considerable  Kylonian  party,  at  least  a 
large  body  of  persons  who  resented  the  way  in  which  the 
Kylonians  had  been  put  to  death,  and  who  became  in  con- 
sequence bitter  enemies  of  Megakles  the  archon,  and  of  the 
great  family  of  the  Alkmseonidse,  to  which  he  belonged. 
Not  only  Megakles  himself  and  his  personal  assistants  were 
denounced  as  smitten  with  a  curse,  but  the  taint  was 
supposed  to  be  transmitted  to  his  descendants,  and  we  shall 
hereafter  find  the  wound  re-opened,  not  only  in  the  second 
and  third  generation,  but  also  two  centuries  after  the 
original  event,  i  When  we  see  that  the  impression  left  by 
the  proceeding  was  so  very  serious,  even  after  the  length 
of  time  which  had  elapsed,  we  may  well  believe  that  it  was 
sufficient,  immediately  afterwards,  to  poison  altogether  the 
tranquillity  of  the  state.  The  Alkmseonids  and  their  parti- 
sans long  defied  their  opponents,  resisting  any  public  trial. 
The  dissensions  continued  without  hope  of  termination, 
until  Solon,  then  enjoying  a  lofty  reputation  for  sagacity 
and  patriotism,  as  well  as  for  bravery,  persuaded  them  to 
submit  to  judicial  cognizance, — at  a  moment  so  far  distant 
Trial  and  from  the  event,  that  several  of  the  actors  were 
cond,>mna-  dead.  They  were  accordingly  tried  before  a 

tioii  of  the  .    n    .     ,.J  „  -,-,0  J    ,    .  ,       -.r      ;,          ,. 

Aikmseo-  special  judicature  ot  300  Jiiupatrids,  iuyron  ot 
nids.  tne  demePhlyeis  being  their  accuser.  In  defend- 

ing themselves  against  the  charge  that  they  had  sinned 
against  the  reverence  due  to  the  gods  and  the  consecrated 
right  of  asylum,  they  alleged  that  the  Kylonian  suppliants, 
when  persuaded  to  quit  the  holy  ground,  had  tied  a  cord 
round  the  statue  of  the  goddess  and  clung  to  it  for  protec- 
tion in  their  march;  but  on  approaching  the  altar  of  the 
Eumemdes,  the  cord  accidentally  broke — and  this  critical 
event  (so  the  accused  persons  argued)  proved  that  the 
goddess  had  herself  withdrawn  from  them  her  protecting 
hand  and  abandoned  them  to  their  fate.2  Their  argument, 
remarkable  as  an  illustration  of  the  feelings  of  the  time, 

1  Aristophan.  Equit.  445,  and  "When  Ephesus  was  besieged  by 

the  Scholia;  Herodot.  v.  70.  Cra'sus,  the  inhabitants  sought 

-  Plutarch,  Solon,  c.  12.  If  the  protection  to  their  town  by  de- 
story  of  the  breaking  of  the  cord  dicating  it  to  Artemis  ;  they  carried 
had  been  true,  Thucydides  could  a  cord  from  the  walls  of  the  town 
hardly  have  failed  to  notice  it  ;  to  the  shrine  of  the  goddess, 
but  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  which  was  situated  without  the 
that  it  was  the  real  defence  urged  walls  (Herod,  i.  26).  The  Savnian 
by  the  Alknitconids.  despot  Polykratcs,  when  he  con- 


CHAP.  X.  TEIAL  OF  THE  ALKM^ONIDS.  85 

was  not  however  accepted  as  an  excuse.  They  were  found 
guilty,  and  while  such  of  them  as  were  alive  retired  into 
banishment,  those  who  had  already  died  were  disinterred 
and  cast  beyond  the  borders.  Yet  their  exile,  continuing 
as  it  did  only  for  a  time,  was  not  held  sufficient  to  expiate 
the  impiety  for  which  they  had  been  condemned.  The 
Alkmseonids,  one  of  the  most  powerful  families  in  Attica, 
long  continued  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  tainted  race,  *  and  in 
cases  of  public  calamity  were  liable  to  be  singled  out  as 
having  by  their  sacrilege  drawn  down  the  judgement  ot 
the  gods  upon  their  countrymen.2 

The  banishment  of  the  guilty     parties  was  not  found 
sufficient  to  restore  tranquillity.     Not  only  did  pestilential 
disorders   prevail,   but  the   religious    susceptibilities   and 
apprehensions  of  the  Athenian  community  also  remained 
deplorably  excited.    They  were  oppressed  with  sorrow  and 
despondency,  saw  phantoms  and  heard  supernatural  mena- 
ces, and  felt  the  curse  of  the  gods  upon  them  without  abate- 
ment.3   In  particular,  it  appears  that  the  minds 
of  the  women  (whose  religious  impulses  were    and  suf- 
recojmised  generally  bv  the  ancient  legislators   f.ering  at 

'      •    •  t.   1  C   1  *.      1\  it,         T   i  Athens. 

as  requiring  watchful  control)  were  thus  distur- 
bed and  frantic.  The  sacrifices  offered  at  Athens  did  not 
succeed  in  dissipating  the  epidemic,  nor  could  the  prophets 
at  home,  though  they  recognised  that  special  purifications 
were  required,  discover  what  were  the  new  ceremonies 
capable  of  appeasing  the  divine  wrath.  The  Delphian 
oracle  directed  them  to  invite  a  higher  spiritual  influence 
from  abroad,  and  this  produced  the  memorable  visit  of  the 
Kretaii  prophet  and  sage  Epimenides  to  Athens. 

The  century  between  620  and  500  B.C.  appears  to  have 
been  remarkable  for  the  first  diffusion  and  potent  influence 
of  distinct  religious  brotherhoods,  mystic  rites,  and  expia- 
tory ceremonies,  none  of  which  (as  I  have  remarked  in 
a  former  chapter)  find  any  recognition  in  the  Homeric  epic. 
To  this  age  belong  Thaletas,  Aristeas,  Abaris,  Pythagoras, 

secrated  to  the  Dolian  Apollo  tho  imagination. 

neighbouring    island    of   Rheneia,  1  Horodot.  i.  61. 

connected    it    with    tho    island    of  -    See     Thucyd.    v.    Ifi,    and    liis 

Delos  by  means  of  a    chain    (Tliu-  language     respecting    Pleistoaiiax 

cyd.  iii.  101).  of  Sparta. 

These    analogies    illustrate     tho  3    Plutarch,    Solon,     c.    12.      K-/1 

powerful      effect      of      visible      or  ';o3ot    TIVS;    i'f.     £ii3ioottu.o vtot;    ap.a 

material  continuity  on  the  Grecian  'sy.zy.'j.-i  -f.•J.-^\y^  -'<ti   -'//.:  /,   &r. 


86  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAKT  II. 

Onomakritus,  and  the  earliest  proveable  agency  of  the  Or- 
Mystic  phic  sect. l  Of  the  class  of  men  here  noticed, 
sects  and  Epimem'des,  a  native  of  Phsestus  or  Knossus 
hoods6  in  in  Krete,2  was  one  of  the  most  celebrated — 
the  sixth  an(j  the  old  legendary  connexion  between  Athens 

century  B.C.  ,     -,-r       ,  i  •    i        i  ••       ic    •       i\.       ,    i  c 

Epimenides  and  .Krete,  which  shows  itself  in  the  tales  of 
of  Krete.  Theseus  and  Minos ,  is  here  again  manifested 
in  the  recourse  which  the  Athenians  had  to  this  island  to 
supply  their  spiritual  need.  Epimenides  seems  to  have 
been  connected  with  the  worship  of  the  Kretan  Zeus,  in 
whose  favour  he  stood  so  high  as  to  receive  the  denomina- 
tion of  the  new  Kurete3  (theKuretes  having  been  the  pri- 
mitive ministers  and  organizers  of  that  worship).  He  was 
said  to  be  the  son  of  the  nymph  Balte;  to  be  supplied  by 
the  nymphs  with  constant  food,  since  he  was  never  seen  to 
eat;  to  have  fallen  asleep  in  his  youth  in  a  cave,  and  to 
have  continued  in  this  state  without  interruption  for  fifty- 
seven  years;  though  some  asserted  that  he  remained  all 
this  time  a  wanderer  in  the  mountains,  collecting  and  study- 
ing medicinal  botany  in  the  vocation  of  an  latromantis,  or 
Leech  and  Prophet  combined.  Such  narratives  mark  the 
idea  entertained  by  antiquity  of  Epimenides  the  Purifier,4 
who  was  now  called  in  to  heal  both  the  epidemic  and  the 
mental  affliction  prevalent  among  the  Athenian  people,  in 
the  same  manner  as  his  countryman  and  contemporary 
Thaletas  had  been,  a  few  years  before,  invited  to  Sparta 
to  appease  a  pestilence  by  the  effect  of  his  music  and  reli- 
gious hymns.5  The  favour  of  Epimenides  with  the  gods, 

1  Lobeck,     Aglaophamus,   ii.   p.     Pythagor.  c,  28. 

313;  Hoeckh,  Kreta,  iii.  2.  p.  252.  Plutarch '(Sept.  Sapient.  Conviv. 

2  The     statements      respecting  p.    157)    treats    Epimenides  simply 
Epimenides  are  collected  and  dis-  as  having  lived  up  to  the  precepts 
cussed  in  the  treatise  of  Heinrich,  of   the    Orphic    life,    or  vegetable 
EpimenidesausKreta.  Leipsic,  1801.  diet:  to  this   circumstasice,   I   pre- 

3  Diogen,  Laert.  i.  114,  115.  sume,    Plato    (Legg.     iii.     p.     677) 
"  Plutarch,  Solon,  c.  12  ;  Diogen.     must    be      understood      to    refer, 

Laert.  i.  100 — 115;  Pliny,  H.  N.  vii.  though  it  is  not  very  clear.  See 
52.  8iO'ft),f(?  xal  ao'fa;  ~3pt  -a  0;ia  the  Fragment  of  the  lost  Kretes  of 
•tYjv  ev8ou<Tta<mx<)v  xal  TS  A SS-IXTQV  Euripides,  p.  08,  ed.  Dindorf. 
oo'flav,  &c.  Maxim.  Tyrius,  Karmanor  of  Tarrlia  in  Krete 
xxxviii.  3.  5:tv6?  TCI  &si2,  ryj  p.i<!u>->  had  purified  Apollo  himself  for 
ot/.).'  u-vov  CCJ-TOJ  6tTjY*t"o  (iaxpov  the  slaughter  of  Pytho  (Pausan. 

ii.  30,  3). 

5  Plutarch,  De  Musiea,  p.  1134 — 
lamblichus,     Vit.      114G;  Pausanias,  i.  14,  3. 


CHAP.  X.  EPIMENIDES  OF  KEETE.  87 

his  knowledge  of  propitiatory  ceremonies,  and  his  power 
of  working  upon  the  religious  feeling,  was  completely 
successful  in  restoring  both  health  and  mental  tranquillity 
at  Athens.  He  is  said  to  have  turned  out  some  „  .  .,. 

.  ,  ,.  Epimenides 

black  and  white  sheep  on  the  Areopagus,  direct-  visits  and 
ing  attendants  to  follow  and  watch  them,  and  to  ^j^ 
erect  new  altars  to  the  appropriate  local  deities 
on  the  spots  where  the  animals  lay  down.1  He  founded 
new  chapels  and  established  various  lustral  ceremonies; 
and  more  especially  he  regulated  the  worship  paid  by  the 
women  in  such  manner  as  to  calm  the  violent  impulses 
which  had  before  agitated  them.  We  know  hardly  any- 
thing of  the  details  of  his  proceeding,  but  the  general  fact  of 
his  visit,  and  the  salutary  effects  produced  in  removing  the 
religious  despondency  which  oppressed  the  Athenians,  are 
well  attested.  Consoling  assurances  and  new  ritual  pre- 
cepts, from  the  lips  of  a  person  supposed  to  stand  high  in 
the  favour  of  Zeus,  were  the  remedy  which  this  unhappy 
disorder  required.  Moreover,  Epimenides  had  the  pru- 
dence to  associate  himself  with  Solon,  and  while  he  thus 
doubtless  obtained  much  valuable  advice,  he  assisted  indi- 
rectly in  exalting  the  reputation  of  Solon  himself,  whose 
career  of  constitutional  reform  was  now  fast  approaching. 
He  remained  long  enough  at  Athens  to  restore  completely 
a  more  comfortable  tone  of  religious  feeling,  and  then  de- 
parted, carrying  with  him  universal  gratitude  and  admi- 
ration, but  refusing  all  other  reward,  except  a  branch  from 
the  sacred  olive  tree  in  the  acropolis.2  His  life  is  said  to 

1  Cicero  (Legg.  ii.  11)  states  that  the  tribunal  of  Arcopages,  for  the 

Epimenides    directed    a  temple    to  accuser   and   the  accused    to  stand 

be  erected  at  Athens  to  Tppt?  and  upon,  were  called  by  these  namea 

'AvatSsict  (Violence  and  Impudence):  — T^psuK,    that    of     the    accused; 

Clemens  said  that  he    had    erected  'AvaiStta?,   that   of   the    accuser   (i. 

altars  to  the  same    two  goddesses  23,    5).      The      confusion     between 

(Protrepticon,  p.  22)  :  Theophrastus  stones    and    altars    is    not  difficult 

said     that     there     were     altars     at  to  be  understood.     The  other  story 

Athens  (without   mentioning   Epi-  told   by   Neanthes    of  Kyzikus    re- 

menides)    to    the   same    (ap.  Zeno-  specting  Epimenides,   that    lie  had 

bium,  Proverb.  Cent.  iv.  30).     Ister  offered  two  young  men    as    human 

spoke  ofa  ispo/AvcuSsta?  at  Athens  sacrifices,      was     distinctly      pro- 

(Istri  Fragm.  ed.  Siebelis,  p.  G2).   I  nounced  to  be  untrue  by  Polemo  : 

question   whether    this    story    has  and    it    reads    completely     like    a 

any    other     foundation     than     the  romance  (Athenreus,  xiii.    p.  602). 

fact  stated  by  Pausanias,   that  the  2  Plutarch,      Pnvcept.      Ileipubl. 

stones   which    were    placed   before  Gcrcnd.  c.  27,  p.  820. 


b8  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

have  been  prolonged  to  the  unusual  period  of  154  years, 
His  life  and  according  to  a  statement  which  was  current 
character,  duringthe  timeof  his  younger  contemporary  Xe- 
nophanes  of  Kolophon.  *  The  Kretans  even  ventured  to 
affirm  that  he  lived  300  years.  They  extolled  him  not 
merely  as  a  sage  and  a  spiritual  purifier,  but  also  as  a  poet 
— very  long  compositions  on  religious  and  mythical  subjects 
being  ascribed  to  him;  according  to  some  accounts,  they 
even  worshipped  him  as  a  god.  Both  Plato  and  Cicero 
considered  Epimenides  in  the  same  light  in  which  he  was 
regarded  by  his  contemporaries,  as  a  prophet  divinely 
inspired,  and  foretelling  the  future  under  fits  of  temporary 
ecstacy.  But  according  to  Aristotle,  Epimenides  himself 
professed  to  have  received  from  the  gods  no  higher 
gift  than  that  of  divining  the  unknown  phsenomena  of 
the  past.2 

The  religious  mission  of  Epimenides  to  Athens,  and 
its  efficacious  as  well  as  healing  influence  on  the  public 
mind,  deserve  notice  as  characteristics  of  the  age  in  which 
they  occurred.3  If  we  transport  ourselves  two  centuries 
forward  to  the  Peloponnesian  war,  when  rational  influences 
and  positive  habits  of  thought  had  acquired  a  durable  hold 
upon  the  superior  minds,  and  when  practical  discussions 
.  on  political  and  judicial  matters  were  familiar 

Contrast  of     .  .   .,         . J         . .  .  ,  ,, 

his  age  to  every  Athenian  citizen,  no  such  uncontroll- 
with  that  a|3ie  religious  misery  could  well  have  subdued 

of  Plato.          ,!  , .  °         ,  ,.  •{  .-.       -n  •,   i      i  v    • 

the  entire  public;  while,  it  it  had,  no  living  man 
could  have  drawn  to  himself  such  universal  veneration  as 
to  be  capable  of  effecting  a  cure.  Plato, 4  admitting  the 
real  healing  influence  of  rites  and  ceremonies,  fully  believed 
in  Epimenides  as  an  inspired  prophet  during  the  past;  but 
towards  those  who  preferred  claims  to  supernatural  power 
in  his  own  day,  he  was  not  so  easy  of  faith.  He,  as  well 
as  Euripides  and  Theophrastus,  treated  with  indifference, 
and  even  with  contempt,  the  Orpheotelestee  of  the  later 

1  Diogen.  Laert.  I.  c.  able  example  of  carelessness  as  to 

1  Plato,  Legg.  i.  p.  642;    Cicero,  chronology. 

De   Divinat.   i.    18.     Aristot.    Rhet.          3  Respecting   the   characteristics 

iii.  17.  of  this  age,  see  the  second  chapter 

Plato     places     Epimenides     ten  of  the   treatise    of  Heinrich  above 

years  before  the  Persian    invasion  alluded  to,  Kreta  und  Griechenland 

of  Greece,    whereas   his   real   date  in  Hinsicht  auf  "Wunderglauben. 
is   near  upon  COO   B.C. — a    remark-         4  Plato,  Kratylus,  p.  405;  Ph;tdr. 

p.  214. 


CHAP.  X.  EPIMEXIDES  OP  KRETE.  89 

times,  who  advertised  themselves  as  possessing  the  same 
patent  knowledge  of  ceremonial  rites,  and  the  same  means 
of  guiding  the  will  of  the  gods,  as  Epimenides  had  wielded 
before  them.  These  Orpheotelestse  unquestionably  num- 
bered a  considerable  tribe  of  believers,  and  speculated 
with  great  effect,  as  well  as  with  profit  to  themselves,  upon 
the  timorous  consciences  of  rich  men.  *  But  they  enjoyed  no 
respect  with  the  general  public,  or  with  those  to  whose  au- 
thority the  public  habitually  looked  up.  Degenerate  as  they 
were,  however,  they  were  the  legitimate  representatives  of 
the  prophet  and  purifier  from  Knossus,  to  whose  presence  the 
Athenians  had  been  so  much  indebted  two  centuries  before: 
and  their  altered  position  was  owing  less  to  any  falling  off  in 
themselves,  than  to  an  improvement  in  the  mass  upon  whom 
they  sought  to  operate.  Had  Epimenides  himself  come  to 
Athens  in  those  days,  his  visits  would  probably  have  been 
as  much  inoperative  to  all  public  purposes  as  a  repetition 
of  the  stratagem  of  Phye,  clothed  and  equipped  as  the 
goddess  Athene,  which  had  succeeded  so  completely  in  the 
days  of  Peisistratus — a  stratagem  which  even  Herodotus 
treats  as  incredibly  absurd,  although  a  century  before  his 
time,  both  the  city  of  Athens  and  the  Denies  of  Attica  had 
obeyed,  as  a  divine  mandate,  the  orders  of  this  magnificent 
and  stately  woman  to  restore  Peisistratus.1 

1  Eurip.     Hippolyt.     1)57;    Plato,  Hopubl.     ii.    p.     3G4;     Thoophrast. 
Cliaract.  c.  10. 

2  Herodot.  i.  CO. 


90  HISTOBY  OF  GREECE.  PAKT  II. 


CHAPTER  XL 

SOLONIAN  LAWS  AND  CONSTITUTION. 

WE  now  approach  a  new  sera  in  Grecian  history — the  first 
known  example  of  a  genuine  and  disinterested  constitu- 
tional reform,  and  the  first  foundation-stone  of  that  great 
fabric,  which  afterwards  became  the  type  of  democracy  in 
Greece.  The  archonship  of  the  eupatrid  Solon  dates  in 
594  B.C.,  thirty  years  after  that  of  Drako,  and  about  eigh- 
teen years  after  the  conspiracy  of  Kylon  (assuming  the  lat- 
ter event  to  be  correctly  placed  B.C.  612). 

The  lives  of  Solon  by  Plutarch  and  Diogenes  (espe- 
cially the  former)  are  our  principal  sources  of  in- 
acter  and  formation  respecting  this  remarkable  man,  and 
poems  of  while  we  thank  them  for  what  they  have  told 
us,  it  is  impossible  to  avoid  expressing  disap- 
pointment that  they  have  not  told  us  more.  For  Plutarch 
certainly  had  before  him  both  the  original  poems,  and  the 
original  laws,  of  Solon,  and  the  few  transcripts,  which  he 
gives  from  one  or  the  other,  form  the  principal  charm  of 
his  biography.  But  such  valuable  materials  ought  to  have 
been  made  available  to  a  more  instructive  result  than  that 
which  he  has  brought  out.  There  is  hardly  anything  more 
to  be  deplored,  amidst  the  lost  treasures  of  the  Grecian 
mind,  than  the  poems  of  Solon;  for  we  see  by  the  remaining 
fragments,  that  they  contained  notices  of  the  public  and 
social  phsenomena  before  him.  which  he  was  compelled 
attentively  to  study — blended  with  the  touching  expression 
of  his  own  personal  feelings,  in  the  post  alike  honourable 
and  difficult,  to  which  the  confidence  of  his  countrymen 
had  exalted  him. 

Solon,  son  of  Exekestides,  was  a  Eupatrid  of  middling 
fortune, l  but  of  the  purest  heroic  blood,  belonging  to  the 
gens  or  family  of  the  Kodrids  and  Neleids,  and  tracing  his 
origin  to  the  god  Poseidon.  His  father  is  said  to  have 

1  Plutarch,  Solon,  i.;  Diogen.  Laort.  Hi.  1;  Aristot.  Polit.   IT.  9,  10. 


CHAP.  XI.     TVAB  BETWEEN  ATHENS  AND  MEGAEA.  91 

diminished  his  substance  by  prodigality,  which  compelled 
Solon  in  his  earlier  years  to  have  recourse  to  trade,  and 
in  this  pursuit  he  visited  many  parts  of  Greece  and  Asia. 
He  was  thus  enabled  to  enlarge  the  sphere  of  his  observa- 
tion, and  to  provide  material  for  thought  as  well  as  for 
composition.  His  poetical  talents  displayed  themselves  at 
a  very  early  age,  first  on  light,  afterwards  on  serious,  sub- 
jects. It  will  be  recollected  that  there  was  at  that  time 
110  Greek  prose  writing,  and  that  the  acquisitions  as  well 
as  the  effusions  of  an  intellectual  man,  even  in  their  sim- 
plest form,  adjusted  themselves  not  to  the  limitations  of 
the  period  and  the  semicolon,  but  to  those  of  the  hexa- 
meter and  pentameter.  Nor  in  point  of  fact  do  the  verses 
of  Solon  aspire  to  any  higher  effect  than  we  are  accustomed 
to  associate  with  an  earnest,  touching,  and  admonitory  prose 
composition.  The  advice  and  appeals  which  he  frequently 
addressed  to  his  countrymen1  were  delivered  in  this  easy 
metre,  doubtless  far  less  difficult  than  the  elaborate  prose 
of  subsequent  writers  or  speakers,  such  as  Thucydides, 
Isokrates.  or  Demosthenes.  His  poetry  and  his  reputation 
became  known  throughout  many  parts  of  Greece,  so  that 
he  was  classed  along  with  Tliales  of  Miletus,  Bias  of  Priene, 
Pittakus  of  Mitylene,  Periander  of  Corinth,  Kleobulus  of 
Lindus,  Cheilon  of  Lacedsemon — altogether  forming  the 
constellation  afterwards  renowned  as  the  seven  wise  men. 
The  first  particular  event  in  respect  to  which  Solon 
appears  as  an  active  politician,  is  the  possession  War  te_ 
of  the  island  of  Salamis,  then  disputed  between  tween 
Megara  and  Athens.  Megara  was  at  that  time  ^Igwl  and 
able  to  contest  with  Athens,  and  for  some  time  about 
to  contest  with  success,  the  occupation  of  this  im-  Salamis- 
portant  island — a  remarkable  fact,  which  perhaps  may  be 
explained  by  supposing  that  the  inhabitants  of  Athens  and 
its  neighbourhood  carried  on  the  struggle  with  only  par- 
tial aid  from  the  rest  of  Attica.  However  this  may  be,  it 
appears  that  the  Megarians  had  actually  established  them- 
selves in  Salamis,  at  the  time  when  Solon  began  his  politi- 
cal career,  and  that  the  Athenians  had  experienced  so  much 
loss  in  the  struggle,  as  to  have  formally  prohibited  any 
citizen  from  ever  submitting  a  proposition  for  its  re*con- 
quest.  Stung  with  this  dishonourable  abnegation,  Solon 
counterfeited  a  state  of  ecstatic  excitement,  rushed  into  the 

1  Plutarch,  Solon,  v. 


92  HISTOKY  OF  GBEECE.  PART  II. 

agora,  and  there  on  the  stone  usually  occupied  by  the  of- 
ficial herald,  pronounced  to  the  surrounding  crowd  a  short 
elegiac  poem1  which  he  had  previously  composed  on  the 
subject  of  Salamis.  Enforcing  upon  them  the  disgrace  of 
abandoning  the  island,  he  wrought  so  powerfully  upon 
their  feelings,  that  they  rescinded  the  prohibitory  law: — 
"Rather  (he  exclaimed)  would  I  forfeit  my  native  city  and 
become  a  citizen  of  Pholegandrus,  than  be  still  named  an 
Athenian,  branded  with  the  shame  of  surrendered  Salamis !" 
The  Athenians  again  entered  into  the  war,  and  conferred 
upon  him  the  command  of  it — partly,  as  we  are  told,  at  the 
instigation  of  Peisistratus,  though  the  latter  must  have 
been  at  this  time  (600-594  B.C.)  a  very  young  man,  or  rather 
a  boy. 2 

The  stories  in  Plutarch,  as  to  the  way  in  which  Sala- 
.  .  .  mis  was  recovered,  are  contradictory  as  well  as 
tiorTof1"  apocryphal,  ascribing  to  Solon  various  strata- 
Saiamis  gems  to  deceive  the  Megarian  occupiers.  Un- 
fortunately no  authority  is  given  for  any  of 
them.  According  to  that  which  seems  the  most  plausible, 
he  was  directed  by  the  Delphian  god  first  to  propitiate  the 
local  heroes  of  the  island;  and  he  accordingly  crossed  over 
to  it  by  night,  for  the  purpose  of  sacrificing  to  the  heroes 
Periphemus  and  Kychreus  on  the  Salaminian  shore.  Five 
hundred  Athenian  volunteers  were  then  levied  for  the  at- 
tack of  the  island,  under  the  stipulation  that  if  they  were 
victorious  they  should  hold  it  in  property  and  citizen- 


1  Plutarch,    Solon;   viii.     It  was  Nissea   the   port   of  Megara.    Now 
a  poem  of  100  lines,  /otpiSMtio;  jtirj  the  first  usurpation  of  Peisistratus 
aeitoiYjp.i'Jlov.  was  in  560  B.C.  and  we  can  hardly 

Diogenes  tells  us  that  '•Solon  believe  that  he  can  have  been  pro- 
read  the  verses  to  the  people  minent  and  renowned  in  a  war  no 
through  the  medium  of  the  herald"  less  than  forty  years  before. 
— a  statement  not  less  deficient  in  It  will  be  seen  hereafter  (see  the 
taste  than  in  accuracy,  and  which  note  on  the  interview  between 
spoils  the  whole  effect  of  the  Solon  and  Kroesus  towards  the  end 
vigorous  exordium,  ACi-os  7.i$'->\  of  this  chapter)  that  Herodotus, 
^).flov  ao'  ijj.3ptrj;  2aXa|/.tvo«,  &c.  and  perhaps  other  authors  also, 

2  PJutarch.   I.  c. ;    Diogen.  Lae'rt.  conceived  the  Solonian  legislation 
i.  47.    Both  Herodotus    (i.  59)  and  to  date  at  a   period   later   than   it 
some    authors    read    by     Plutarch  really   does;    instead    of  594   B.C., 
ascribed   to  Peisistratus   an  active  they  placed  it  nearer  to  the  usur- 
part  in  the  war  against  the  Mega-  pation  of  Peisistratus. 

rians,     and    even    the    capture    of 


CHAP.  XI.  SAL  AMIS  ACQUIEED  BY  ATHENS.  93 

ship,  i  They  were  safely  landed  on  an  outlying  promontory, 
while  Solon,  having  been  fortunate  enough  to  seize  a  ship 
which  the  Megarians  had  sent  to  watch  the  proceedings, 
manned  it  with  Athenians  and  sailed  straight  towards  the  city 
of  Salamis,  to  which  the  Athenians  who  had  landed  also 
directed  their  march.  The  Megarians  marched  out  from 
the  city  to  repel  the  latter,  and  during  the  heat  of  the  en- 
gagement, Solon,  with  his  Megarian  ship  aud  Athenian 
crew,  sailed  directly  to  the  city.  The  Megarians,  inter- 
preting this  as  the  return  of  their  own  crew,  permitted  the 
ship  to  approach  without  resistance,  and  the  city  was  thus 
taken  by  surprise.  Permission  having  been  given  to  the 
Megarians  to  quit  the  island,  Solon  took  possession  of  it 
for  the  Athenians,  erecting  a  temple  to  Enyalius,  the  god 
of  war,  on  Cape  Skiradium,  near  the  city  of  Salamis.2 

The  citizens  of  Megara,  however,  made  various  efforts  for 
the  recovery  of  so  valuable  a  possession,  so  that  a  war  en- 
sued long  as  well  as  disastrous  to  both  parties.  At  last  it 
was  agreed  between  them  to  refer  the  dispute  to  the  arbi- 
tration of  Sparta,  and  five  Spartans  were  appointed  to  de- 
cide it — Kritolaidas,  Amompharetus,  Hypsechidas,  Anaxilas 
and  Kleomenes.  The  verdict  in  favour  of  Athens  Settlement 
was  founded  on  evidence  which  it  is  somewhat  Of  the  dis- 
curious  to  trace.  Both  parties  attempted  to  Pute  °y 
show  that  the  dead  bodies  buried  in  the  island  arbitration 
conformed  to  their  own  peculiar  mode  of  inter-  ™  favour  of 
ment,  and  both  parties  are  said  to  have  cited 
verses  from  the  catalogue  of  the  Iliad3 — each  accusing 
the  other  of  error  or  interpolation.  But  the  Athe- 
nians had  the  advantage  on  two  points ;  first  there 
were  oracles  from  Delphi,  wherein  Salamis  was  mentioned 


1  Plutarch,    Solon,    x'jpiou;    sriou  Salaminian    war    (Plutarch,    comp. 
TOO  riXtTsyjis-ii:.    Tlio  strict  mean-  Solon  and  Public,  c.  4). 

ing   of  these   word    re  Tors    only  to  Polyicnus   (i.    20)    ascribes  a  dif- 

tho  government  of  the  island;  but  ferent  stratagem  to  Solon :  compare 

it  seems  almost  certainly  implied  JElian,  V.  H.  vii.  19.     It  is  hardly 

chat  they  would  be  established  in  necessary  to    say  that  the  account 

it    as    Kleruchs    or   proprietors   of  which   the  IMejrarians  gave   of  the 

land,  not  meaning  necessarily  that  way  in  which  they   lost  the  island 

<tll    the     pre-existing     proprietors  was  totally  different :  they  imputed 

would  be  expelled.  it  to  the  treachery  of  some  exiles 

2  Plutarch,  Solon,  8,  9,  10.    Dai-  (Pausan.   i.  40,  41:  compare  Justin, 
machus  of  Plateea,  however,  denied  ii.  7. 

to  Solon  any  personal  share  in  the  3  Aristot.  Ehet.  i.  1C,  3. 


94  HISTOEY  OF  GREECE.  PAHT  II. 

with  the  epithet  Ionian;  next  Philaeus  and  Eurysakes,  sons 
of  the  Telamonian  Ajax,  the  great  hero  of  the  island,  had 
accepted  the  citizenship  of  Athens,  made  over  Salamis  to 
the  Athenians,  and  transferred  their  own  residences  to 
Brauron  and  Melite  in  Attica,  where  the  deme  or  gens 
Philaidae  still  worshipped  Philgeus  as  its  epoymous  ancestor. 
Such  a  title  was  held  sufficient,  and  Salamis  was  adjudged 
by  the  five  Spartans  to  Attica, l  with  which  it  ever  after- 
wards remained  incorporated  until  the  days  of  Macedonian 
supremacy.  Two  centuries  and  a  half  later,  when  the  ora- 
tor ^Eschines  argued  the  Athenian  right  to  Amphipolis 
against  Philip  of  Macedon,  the  legendary  elements  of  the 
title  were  indeed  put  forward,  but  more  in  the  way  of  pre- 
face or  introduction  to  the  substantial  political  grounds.2 
But  in  the  year  600  B.C.,  the  authority  of  the  legend  was 
more  deep-seated  and  operative,  and  adequate  by  itself  to 
determine  a  favourable  verdict. 

In  addition  to  the  conquest  of  Salamis,  Solon  increased 
his  reputation  by  espousing  the  cause  of  the  Delphian 
temple  against  the  extortionate  proceedings  of  the  inhab- 
itants of  Kirrha,  of  which  more  will  be  said  in  a  coming 
chapter;  and  the  favour  of  the  oracle  was  probably  not 
without  its  effect  in  procuring  for  him  that  encouraging 
prophecy  with  which  his  legislative  career  opened. 

It  is  on  the  occasion  of  Solon's  legislation  that  we  ob- 

state  of  *a*n  our  ^rs^  gh'mPse — unfortunately  but  a 
Athens  im-  glimpse — of  the  actual  state  of  Attica  and  its 
mediately  inhabitants.  It  is  a  sad  and  repulsive  picture, 

before  the  ..  ,.,.      ,     ,.        r,  .,  r     . 

legisia-  presenting  to  us  political  discord  and  private 
tion  of  suffering  combined. 

Violent  dissensions  prevailed  among  the 
inhabitants  of  Attica,  who  were  separated  into  three  fac- 
tions— the  Pedieis,  or  men  of  the  plain,  comprising  Athens, 

1  Plutarch,    Solon,    10:    compare  towards  the  west.     This  statement 

Aristot.    Khet.    i.    16.     Alkibiades  therefore  afford  -  no   proof  of  any 

traced   up  his  fives   to  Eurysakes  peculiarity  of  Athenian  custom  in 

(Plutarch,  Alkibiad.  c.  1) ;   Miltia-  burial. 

des  traced  up  his  to  Philjeus  (He-  The    Eurysakeium,    or    precinct 

rodot.  vi.  35).  sacred  to  the  hero  Eurysakes  stood 

According   to    the    statement   of  in  the  deme  of  Melite  (Harpokrat. 

Hereas     the    Megarian,     both    his  ad  v.),  which  formed  a  portion  of 

countrymen  and  the  Athenians  had  the  city  of  Athens. 

the  same  way  of  interment:  both  2  JEschin. Fals.  Legal,  p.  250,  c.  14, 
interred  the  dead  with  their  faces 


CHAP.  XI.  ATHENS  BEFOEE  SOLON.  95 

Eleusis,  and  the  neighbouring  territory,  among  whom  the 
greatest  number  of  rich  families  were  included;  the  moun- 
taineers in  the  east  and  north  of  Attica,  called  Diakrii, 
who  were  on  the  whole  the  poorest  party;  and  the  Paralii  in 
the  southern  portion  of  Attica  from  sea  to  sea,  whose  means 
and  social  position  were  intermediate  between  the  two.1 
Upon  what  particular  points  these  intestine  disputes  turned 
we  are  not  distinctly  informed.  They  were  not  however 
peculiar  to  the  period  immediately  preceding  the  archon- 
tate  of  Solon.  They  had  prevailed  before,  and  they  reap- 
pear afterwards  prior  to  the  despotism  of  Peisistratus;  the 
latter  standing  forward  as  the  leader  of  the  Diakrii,  and  as 
champion,  real  or  pretended,  of  the  poorer  population. 

But  in  the  time  of  Solon  these  intestine  quarrels  were 
internal  aggravated  by  something  much  more  difficult  to 
dissension  to  deal  with  —  a  general  mutiny  of  the  poorer 
7fmthery  population  against  the  rich,  resulting  from  misery 
poorer  po-  combined  with  oppression.  The  Thetes,  whose 
pui  tion.  condition  we  have  already  contemplated  in  the 
poems  of  Homer  and  Hesiod,  are  now  presented  to  us  as 
forming  the  bulk  of  the  population  of  Attica  —  the  cultiva- 
ting tenants,  metayers,  and  small  proprietors  of  the  coun- 
try. They  are  exhibited  as  weighed  down  by  debts  and 
dependence,  and  driven  in  large  numbers  out  of  a  state  of 
freedom  into  slavery  —  the  whole  mass  of  them  (we  are 
told)  being  in  debt  to  the  rich,  who  were  proprietors  of 
the  greater  part  of  the  soil.2  They  had  either  borrowed 
money  for  their  own  necessities,  or  they  tilled  the  lands  of 
the  rich  as  dependent  tenants,  paying  a  stipulated  portion 
of  the  produce,  and  in  this  capacity  they  were  largely  in 
;:rrear. 

1  Plutarch,    Solon,    c.    13.      The  7tp03c<Yopiu6|ASvot   xoci    STJTS?'   r)  y_pla 

language  of  Plutarch,  in  which  he  Xoc^ivovTe;  ETC'I  701?  aojjAOJiv,  ay1"'!'1" 

talks  of  the  Pedieis  as  represent-  (xoi  tot?  SavciXo'jaiv  ^aavoijjtsv  SOTOU 
ing  the  oligarchical  tendency,  and 


democratical,  is  not  quite  accurate  TJVSYX^OVTO   rccuXsTv 

when  applied  to  the  days  of  Solon.  cpE'iystv      8ta  -rrjv      /aXEKOTrjra     TUJV 

Democratical  pretensions,  as  such,  BaveiuTtuv.    Oi  8g  nXsTatoi  xal  pu)|j.a- 

can   hardly   be  said   to    have   then  ),so>7o(Tot    jiwatavTo  xrxl  irspsxdXciuv 

existed.  aXXirjXou<   IJ.TJ  nsptopav,  &c. 

'Plutarch,  Solon,  13.    *Ar:a<;  [juv  Respecting  these  Hektemori,  "ten- 

yap  6  STJU.')?  TJv  &7t6ypsu>«  T«I)v  rXou-  ants    paying    one-sixth     portion," 

oituv  rt  -(ip  EYst"pTfou''  ^^^i'">1?  exT«  we  find  little   or  no    information; 

T«I)v  71  .ojjiiviov  tiXouvTS<;,  ixT/.nopi'ji  they  are  just  noticed  in  Hesychius 


96  HISTORY  OF  GEEECE.  PABT  II. 

All  the  calamitous  effects  were  here  seen  of  the  old 
harsh  law  of  debtor  and  creditor — once  prevalent  in  Greece, 
Italy,  Asia,  and  a  large  portion  of  the  world — combined 
with  the  recognition  of  slavery  as  a  legitimate  status,  and 
of  the  right  of  one  man  to  sell  himself  as  well  as  that  of 
another  man  to  buy  him.  Every  debtor  unable  to  fulfil  his 
contract  was  liable  to  be  adjudged  as  the  slave  of  his  creditor, 
until  he  could  find  means  either  of  paying  it  or  working  it 
out;  and  not  only  he  himself,  but  his  minor  sons  and  un- 
married daughters  and  sisters  also,  whom  the  law  gave  him 
the  power  of  selling.1  The  poor  man  thus  borrowed  upon 
the  security  of  his  body  (to  translate  literally  the  Greek 
phrase)  and  upon  that  of  the  persons  in  his  family.  So 
severely  had  these  oppressive  contracts  been  slavery  of 
enforced,  that  many  debtors  had  been  reduced  ^ie  debtors 
from  freedom  to  slavery  in  Attica  itself, — many  debtor  and 
others  had  been  sold  for  exportation, — and  some  creditor. 
had  only  hitherto  preserved  their  own  freedom  by  selling 
their  children.  Moreover  a  great  number  of  the  smaller 
properties  in  Attica  were  under  mortgage,  signified  (accord- 
ing to  the  formality  usual  in  the  Attic  law,  and  continued 
down  throughout  the  historical  times)  by  a  stone  pillar 
erected  on  the  land,  inscribed  with  the  name  of  the  lender 
and  the  amount  of  the  loan.  The  proprietors  of  these 
mortgaged  lands,  in  case  of  an  unfavourable  turn  of  events, 
had  no  other  prospect  except  that  of  irremediable  slavery 
for  themselves  and  their  families,  either  in  their  own  native 
country  robbed  of  all  its  delights,  or  in  some  barbarian 
region  where  the  Attic  accent  would  never  meet  their  ears. 

(v.  'ExTr.|iopoi,  'Eitijj.cipTcc)    and   in  evidence  in  Attica  of  that  sanctity 

Pollux,    vii.    151;    from    whom    we  of  obligation  which  is  said  to  have 

learn  that  eri.aopTO?  yrj  was  an  ex-  bound   the    Eoman   patron   to    his 

pression  which  occurred  in  one  of  client. 

the  Solonian  laws.     Whether  they  '  So   the  Frisii,   when  unable  to 

paid  to  the  landlord  one-sixth,  or  pay    the    tribute    imposed    by   the 

retained  for  themselves  only  one-  Eoman  empire,  "primo  boves  ipsos, 

sixth,  has  been  doubted  (see  Pho-  mox  agros,  postremo  corpora  con- 

tius,  rUXi-ai).    ,  jugum  et  liberorum,  servitio  trade- 

Dionysius  Hal.  (A.  E.  ii.  9)  com-  bant"  (Tacit.  Annal.  iv.  72).   About 

pares  the  Thetes  in  Attica   to    the  the  selling  of  children  by  parents, 

Eoman  clients:    that   both   agreed  to  pay  the  taxes,  in  the  later  times 

in  being  relations  of  personal  and  of  the  Eoman  empire,  see  Zosimus, 

proprietary  dependence  is  certain  ;  ii.    3-;    Libauius,   t.   ii.  p.  427,  ed. 

but  we  can  hardly  carry  the  com-  Paris  1027. 
paiison   farther,    nor  is   there  any 


CHAP.  XI.  ARCHOXSHIP  OF  SOLON.  97 

Some  had  fled  the  country  to  escape  legal  adjudication  of 
their  persons,  and  earned  a  miserable  subsistence  in  foreign 
parts  by  degrading  occupations.  Upon  several,  too,  this 
deplorable  lot  had  fallen  by  unjust  condemnation  and 
corrupt  judges;  the  conduct  of  the  rich,  in  regard  to  money 
sacred  and  profane,  in  regard  to  matters  public  as  well  as 
private,  being  thoroughly  unprincipled  and  rapacious. 

The  manifold  and  long-continued  suffering  of  the  poor 
under  this  system,  plunged  into  a  state  of  debase-  .,  . 
ment  not  more  tolerable  than  that  of  the  Gallic  amTra-6 
plebs1  —  and  the  injustices  of  the  rich  in  whom  pacity  of 
all  political  power  was  then  vested  —  are  facts 
well  attested  by  the  poems  of  Solon  himself,  even  in  the 
short  fragments  preserved  to  us.2  It  appears  that  imme- 
diately preceding  the  time  of  his  archonship,  the  evils  had 
ripened  to  such  a  point  —  and  the  determination  of  the  mass 
of  sufferers,  to  extort  for  themselves  some  mode  of  relief, 
had  become  so  pronounced  —  that  the  existing  laws  could 
no  longer  be  enforced.  According  to  the  profound  remark 
of  Aristotle  —  that  seditions  are  generated  by  great  causes 
but  out  of  small  incidents3  —  we  may  conceive  that  some 
recent  events  had  occurred  as  immediate  stimulants  to  the 
outbreak  of  the  debtors,  —  like  those  which  lend  so  striking 
an  interest  to  the  early  Roman  annals,  as  the  inflaming 
sparks  of  violent  popular  movements  for  which  the  train 
had  long  before  been  laid.  Condemnations  by  the  archons, 
of  insolvent  debtors,  may  have  been  unusually  numerous; 
or  the  maltreatment  of  some  particular  debtor,  once  a 
respected  freeman,  in  his  condition  of  slavery,  may  have 
been  brought  to  act  vividly  upon  the  public  sympathies  — 
like  the  case  of  the  old  plebeian  centurion  at  Home4  (first 
impoverished  by  the  plunder  of  the  enemy,  then  reduced 


C:esar.  Bell.  Gall.  vi.  13. 


Sec  the  Fragment  r.z^i  tyj;  AOf;- 


,  No.  2,  Schncidewin 


T7.t    rcoXXoi  ycitav  E?  dX- 


Livj',ii.23;  Dionys.  Hal.  A.  "R. 


vi.   2R  :   compare   luvy,  vi.   34  —  30. 


';An  placeret,  frcnore  circumvcn- 


tarn    plebem,     potius    ciuam    sorte 


VOL.  III. 


98  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

to  borrow,  and  lastly  adjudged  to  his  creditor  as  an  insol- 
vent), who  claimed  the  protection  of  the  people  in  the 
forum,  rousing  their  feelings  to  the  highest  pitch  by  the 
General  marks  of  the  slave-whip  visible  on  his  person, 
mutiny  and  gome  such  incidents  had  probably  happened, 

necessity          ,,  •.  ,  ,.    ,       .  r  J  r.r,t 

for  a  large  though  we  have  no  historians  to  recount  them, 
reform.  Moreover  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  imagine,  that 
that  public  mental  affliction  which  the  purifier  Epimenides 
had  been  invoked  to  appease,  as  it  sprung  in  part  from 
pestilence,  so  it  had  its  cause  partly  in  years  of  sterility, 
which  must  of  course  have  aggravated  the  distress  of  the 
small  cultivators.  However  this  may  be,  such  was  the 
condition  of  things  in  594  B.C.,  through  mutiny  of  the  poor 
freemen  and  Thetes,  and  uneasiness  of  the  middling  citizens, 
that  the  governing  oligarchy,  unable  either  to  enforce  their 
private  debts  or  to  maintain  their  political  power,  were 
obliged  to  invoke  the  well-known  wisdom  and  integrity  of 
Solon.  Though  his  vigorous  protest  (which  doubtless 
rendered  him  acceptable  to  the  mass  of  the  people)  against 
the  iniquity  of  the  existing  system,  had  already  been  pro- 
claimed in  his  poems — they  still  hoped  that  he  would  serve 
as  an  auxiliary  to  help  them  over  their  difficulties.  They 
therefore  chose  him,  nominally  as  archon  along  with 
Philombrotus,  but  with  power  in  substance  dictatorial. 

It  had   happened  in  several  Grecian  states,  that  the 

governing  oligarchies,  either  by  quarrels  among  their  own 

members   or  bv   the  general  bad  condition  of 

Solon  made     ,,  .  y         .,     9  , 

archon,  the  people  under  their  government,  were  de- 
and  in-  prived  of  that  hold  upon  the  public  mind  which 

vested -with    L  ,.    ,   ,       ,,     .  c  *•  a  ,.  , 

full  powers   was  essential  to  their  power,     oometimes  (as  in 

of  legisia-     the  case  of  Pittakus  of  Mitylene  anterior  to  the 

archonship  of  Solon,  and  often  in  the  factions 

of  the  Italian  republics  in  the  middle  ages)  the  collision  of 

creditum  solvat,  corpus  in  nervum  the    explanation    which    he    there 

ac    supplicia    dare?     et     gregatim  gives  of  the  Nexi  as  distinguished 

quotidie  de  foro  addictos  duci,  et  from  the  Addicti,  have  been  shown 

rcpleri   vinctis   nobiles  domos?  et  to  be  incorrect  by  M.  von  Savigny, 

ubicunque    patricius    habitet,     ibi  in  an  excellent  Dissertation  Ueber 

carcerem  privatum  esse  ?"  dag  Altromische  Schuliirecht  (Ab- 

The    exposition    of   Xie'  uhr   re-  liandlungeii   Berlin  Academ.    1833, 

specting    the    old   Roman    law    of  p.    70 — 73).    an    abstract    of   which 

debtor   and   creditor  (Rom.  Gesch.  will  be   found   in  an   appendix  at 

i.    p.    (02    seq, ;     Arnold's    Roman  the  close  of  this  chapter. 
Hist.,  ch.  viii.  vol.  i.  p.  135),    and 


CHAP.  XI.         AECHONSHIP  OF  SOLON.  99 

opposing  forces  had  rendered  society  intolerable,  and  driven 
all  parties  to  acquiesce  in  the  choice  of  some  reforming 
dictator.  Usually,  however,  in  the  early  Greek  oligarchies, 
this  ultimate  crisis  was  anticipated  by  some  ambitious  in- 
dividual, who  availed  himself  of  the  public  discontent  to 
overthrow  the  oligarchy  and  usurp  the  powers  of  a  despot. 
And  so  probably  it  might  have  happened  in  Athens,  had 
not  the  recent  failure  of  Kylon,  with  all  its  miserable  con- 
sequences, operated  as  a  deterring  motive.  It  T 

.      J        .  ,     .      ,-,  i         rS    i        i  •  M-     He  refuses 

is  curious  to  read,  in  the  words  01  colon  nimseli,  to  make 
the  temper  in  which  his  appointment  was  con-  himself 
strued  by  a  large  portion  of  the  community,  but 
most  especially  by  his  own  friends:  bearing  in  mind  that  at 
this  early  day,  so  far  as  our  knowledge  goes,  democratical 
government  was  a  thing  unknown  in  Greece — all  Grecian 
governments  were  either  oligarchical  or  despotic,  the  mass 
of  the  freemen  having  not  yet  tasted  of  constitutional 
privilege.  His  own  friends  and  supporters  were  the  first 
to  urge  him,  while  redressing  the  prevalent  discontents,  to 
multiply  partisans  for  himself  personally,  and  seize  the 
supreme  power.  They  even  "chid  him  as  a  madman,  for 
declining  to  haul  up  the  net  when  the  fish  were  already 
enmeshed." l  The  mass  of  the  people,  in  despair  with  their 
lot,  would  gladly  have  seconded  him  in  such  an  attempt; 
whilemany  even  amongthe  oligarchy  might  have  acquiesced 
in  his  personal  government,  from  the  mere  apprehension 
of  something  worse  if  they  resisted  it.  That  Solon  might 
easily  have  made  himself  despot,  admits  of  little  doubt. 
And  though  the  position  of  a  Greek  despot  was  always 
perilous,  he  would  have  had  greater  facility  for  main- 
taining himself  in  it  thanPeisistratus  possessed  after  him; 
so  that  nothing  but  the  combination  of  prudence  and 
virtue,  which  marks  his  lofty  character,  restricted  him 
within  the  trust  specially  confided  to  him.  To  the  sur- 
prise of  every  one, — to  the  dissatisfaction  of  his  own 
friends,- — under  the  complaints  alike  (as  he  says)  of  various 
extreme  and  dissentient  parties,  who  required  him  to  adopt 

1  See   Plutarch,    Solon,    14  ;    and          'Ej'O.i  ^ip  OE&U  OIOOVTOC,  auto?  vrt. 
above  all,  the  Trochaic  tetrameters 
of    Solon     linnself,     addressed    to 


100  HISTORY  OF  GKEECE.  PAST  II. 

measures  fatal  to  the  peace  of  society1 — he  set  himself 
honestly  to  solve  the  very  difficult  and  critical  problem  sub- 
mitted to  him. 

Of  all  grievances  the  most  urgent  was  the  condition 
of  the  poorer  class  of  debtors.  To  their  relief  Solon's  firsb 
measure,  the  memorable  Seisachtheia,  or  shaking  off  of 
His  Sei-  burthens,  was  directed.  The  relief  which  it 
sachtheia,  afforded  was  complete  and  immediate.  It  can- 
uw^or^  celled  at  once  all  those  contracts  in  which  the 
the  poorer  debtor  had  borrowed  on  the  security  either  of 
debtors.  jais  person  or  of  his  land:  it  forbad  all  future 
loans  or  contracts  in  which  the  person  of  the  debtor  was 
pledged  as  security:  it  deprived  the  creditor  in  future  of 
all  power  to  imprison,  or  enslave,  or  extort  work  from,  his 
debtor,  and  confined  him  to  an  effective  judgement  at  law 
authorizing  the  seizure  of  the  property  of  the  latter.  It 
swept  off  all  the  numerous  mortgage  pillars  from  the  landed 
properties  in  Attica,  leaving  the  land  free  from  all  past 
claims.  It  liberated  and  restored  to  their  full  rights  all 
debtors  actually  in  slavery  under  previous  legal  adjudication : 
and  it  even  provided  the  means  (we  do  not  know  how)  of 
re-purchasing  in  foreign  lands,  and  bringing  back  to  a  re- 
newed life  of  liberty  in  Attica,  many  insolvents  who  had 
been  sold  for  exportation.2  And  while  Solon  forbad  every 
Athenian  to  pledge  or  sell  his  own  person  into  slavery,  ho 

J  Aristides,  TTcpt  TOO  ITapoKpOEf-  *Api3Ta,  FT]  [AsXaiva,  TTJ?  kfu)  T:OTE 

(Act-To;,  ii.  p.  397;  and  Fragm.  29,  "Opou?  dvsiXov  itoXXotyij  KZT.rflotzs, 

Schn.  of  the  Iambics  of  Solon: —  IlpoaSev  8s  SouXsuo'jsa,  vuv  eXsu- 

.     .    . £'.  Y'ip  Yj'-liXov  Sspa. 

°A  TGI?    £vav~lotsiv   TJvSovev  TOTS.  UoXXou?     3'     "AQ^vac;,    TrccTptS'    eis 

Ao9it;  5'  a  TOiatv    otEpon;  Spaaou  . . . .  SSOXTITOV 

DoXXdiv    av    dvOpiov    ^3'    g)r7jp(b9K]  'Av^yayov    7;pa9svTa?,     aXXov     sx- 

7:0X1?.  Stxa>;, 

1  See   the    valuable   fragment   of  "AXXov   Eixalux;'  Toil?   8'   ivafxair,; 

his  Iambics,  preserved  by  Plutarch  o-o 

and    Aristides,    the  expression    of  KpT^u-ov  XsyovTa?,  yXtujjav  OUXST' 

which    is   rendered  more    emphatic  'ATTIXT,-/ 

bythe  appeal  to  the  personal  Eurlh,  'IsvTo;;,  cix;  av    TtoXXcc/ij    7:Xavio^.E- 

:'.s  having  passed  by    his  measures  vo'JV 

from   slavery   into   freedom    (com-  Too?   8'    EvQcxo'  auT&u    SouXliJv  asi" 

pare  Plato,  Legg.  v.  p.  740—741)  :—  xia 

2'->u.[jL2pT'.)poir1     TC<UT'     av     EV    oixr^  'Eyov-a?,     r^T,     8sc7:6':cn     Tpoja.su- 

Kpovou  IASVO'J?] 

MyjTT,p,   \t.t'[\.3-rt    8ai[iovtov   'OXujA-  'EXEuftspoui;  -i'n-i.i. 

T:iu)»  ".Iso  Plutarch,  Solon,  c.  13, 


CHAP.  XI,  SEISACHTIIEIA,  OK  BELIEF-LAW.  101 

took  a  step  farther  in  the  same  direction  by  forbidding  him 
to  pledge  or  sell  his  son,  his  daughter,  or  an  unmarried 
sister  under  his  tutelage — excepting  only  the  case  in  which 
cither  of  the  latter  might  be  detected  in  unchastity.1 
"Whether  this  last  ordinance  was  contemporaneous  with  the 
Seisachtheia,  or  followed  as  one  of  his  subsequent  reforms, 
seems  doubtful. 

By   this   extensive   measure   the   poor   debtors — the 
Thetes,  small  tenants,  and  proprietors — together  with  their 
families,  were  rescued  from  suffering  and  peril.   But  these 
were  not  the  only  debtors  in  the  state:  the  creditors  and 
landlords  of  the  exonerated  Thetes  were  doubtless  in  their 
turn  debtors  to  others,  and  were  less  able  to  discharge 
their  obligations  in  consequence  of  the  loss  inflicted  upon 
them  by  the  Seisachtheia.   It  was  to  assist  these  wealthier 
debtors,  whose  bodies  were  in  no  danger — yet  D  b    • 
without  exonerating  them  entirely — that  Solon   ofetheln° 
resorted  to  the  additional  expedient  of  debasing   money- ^ 
the  money  standard.     He  lowered  the  standard 
of  the  drachma  in  a  proportion  something  more  than  25 
per  cent.,  so  that  100  drachmas  of  the  new  standard  con- 
tained no  more  silver  than  73  of  the  old,  or  100  of  the  old 
were  equivalent  to  133  of  the  new.     By  this  change  the 
creditors  of  these  more  substantial  debtors  were  obliged 

1  Plutarch,  Solon,  c.  23:  com-  2.  p.  427)  rejects  the  above-men- 
pare  c.  13,  The  statement  in  Sex-  tioned  statement  of  Sextus  Em- 
tus  Empiricus  (Pyrrhon.  Hypot.  pirieus,  and  farther  contends  that 
iii.  24,  211)  that  Solon  enacted  a  the  exposure  of  new-born  infants 
law  permitting  fathers  to  kill  (cpo-  was  not  only  rare,  but  discoun- 
vE'isiv)  their  children,  cannot  be  tenanced  as  well  by  law  as  by 
true,  and  must  be  copied  from  opinion ;  the  evidence  in  the  La- 
some  untrustworthy  authority  :  tin  comedies  to  the  contrary,  he 
compare  Dionys.  Hal.  A.  R.  ii.  2ti,  considers  as  manifestations  of 
where  Dionysius  contrasts  the  pro-  Roman,  and  not  of  Athenian, 
digious  extent  of  the  patria  po-  manners.  In  this  latter  opinion 
testas  among  the  early  Romans,  I  do  not  think  that  he  is  borne 
with  the  restrictions  which  all  out,  and  I  agree  in  the  statement 
the  Greek  legislators  alike— Solon,  of  Schomann  (Ant.  J.  P.  Grrcc.  sec. 
Pittakus,  Charondas— either  found  82),  that  the  practice  and  feeling 
or  introduced  ;  he  says  however  of  Athens  as  well  as  of  Greece 
that  the  Athenian  father  was  per-  generally,  left  it  to  the  discretion 
mitted  to  disinherit  legitimate  of  the  father  whether  he  would 
male  children,  which  does  not  consent,  or  rnfuse,  to  bring  up  r. 
E-ccm  to  be  correct.  newborn  child. 

Meier  (.Der  Attigche  Prozess.  iii. 


102  HISTORY  OP  GEEECE.  PART  II. 

to  submit  to  a  loss,  while  the  debtors  acquired  an  exemption, 
to  the  extent  of  about  27  per  cent.1 

Lastly,  Solon  decreed  that  all  those  who  had  been 
condemned  by  the  archons  to  atimy  (civil  disfranchisement) 
should  be  restored  to  their  full  privileges  of  citizens — ex- 
cepting however  from  this  indulgence  those  who  had  been 
condemned  by  the  Ephetse,  or  by  the  Areopagus,  or  by 
the  Phylo-Basileis  (the  four  kings  of  the  tribes),  after  trial 
in  the  Prytaneium,  on  charges  either  of  murder  or  treason.2 
So  wholesale  a  measure  of  amnesty  affords  strong  grounds 
for  believing  that  the  previous  judgments  of  the  archons 
had  been  intolerably  harsh ;  and  it  is  to  be  recollected  that 
the  Drakonian  ordinances  were  then  in  force. 

Such  were  the  measures  of  relief  with  which  Solon 
met  the  dangerous  discontent  then  prevalent.  That  the 
wealthy  men  and  leaders  of  the  people — whose  insolence 
and  iniquity  he  has  himself  severely  denounced  in  his 
poems,  and  whose  views  in  nominating  him  he  had  greatly 
disappointed3 — should  have  detested  propositions  which 
robbed  them  without  compensation  of  many  legal  rights, 
it  is  easy  to  imagine.  But  the  statement. of LPluiarch,  that 
the  poor  emancipated  debtors  were  also  dissatisfied,  from 
having  expected  that  Solon  would  not  only  remit  their 
debts,  but  also  redivide  the  soil  of  Attica,  seems  utterly 
incredible;  nor  is  it  confirmed  by  any  passage  now  remaining 
of  the  Solonian  poems.4  Plutarch  conceives  the  poor 
debtors  as  having  in  their  minds  the  comparison  with  Ly- 
kurgus  and  the  equality  of  property  at  Sparta,  which  (as 
I  have  already  endeavoured  to  show)5  is  a  fiction;  and  even 
had  it  been  true  as  matter  of  history  long  past  and  anti- 
quated, would  not  have  been  likely  to  work  upon  the 

1  Plutarch,  Solon,  c.  15.  See  the  throughout  the  Greek  cities,  pro- 
full  exposition  given  of  this  de-  claimed  first  by  order  of  Alexan- 
basement  of  the  coinage  inBoeckh's  der  the  Great,  afterwards  by  Poly- 
jVIetrologie,  ch.  ix.  p.  515.  sperchon,  exception  is  made  of 

M.    Boeekh   thinks    (ch.  xv.  s.  2)  men  exiled  for  sacriloge  or  homi- 

that    Solon   not    only   debased  the  cide    (Diodor.   xvii.  109 ;    xviii.  8— 

coin,  but  also  altered  the  weights  46). 

and  measures.     I  dissent   from    his  3  Plutarch,    Solon,    c.     15.      cuoe 

opinion  on  this    latter   point,    and  (j.a).av.<i<;,    060'     u-stxu)v    Tote     6'jvot- 

liave  given  my  reason  for  so  doing  JJ.EVOI?,    ouoi    rrpoi;   7)8ovf(v   TUJV    s).o- 

in    a  review    of  his   valuable  trea-  [xj-/ujv,  I'JsTO  TO'j?  VOJJLOU?,  &c. 

tise  in  the  Classical  Museum,  Xo.l.  "  Plu'arch,  Solon,  c.  10. 

-  Plutarch,  Solon,  c.    19.     In  the  *  Sej  above,  part  ii.  ch.  vi. 
general      restoration      of      exiles 


CHAP.  XI.  SEISACHTHEIA,  OK  RELIEF-LAW.  103 

minds  of  the  multitude  of  Attica  in  the  forcible  way  that 
the  biographer  supposes.   The  Seisachtheia  must  have  ex- 
asperated the  feelings  and  diminished  the  fortunes  of  many 
persons;  but  it  gave  to  the  large  body  of  Thetes  and  small 
proprietors  all  that  they  could  possibly  have  hoped.     We 
are  told  that  after  a  short  interval  it  became  eminently 
acceptable  in  the  general  public  mind,  and  procured  for 
Solon  a  great  increase  of  popularity — all  ranks   General 
concurring  in  a  common  sacrifice  of  thanksgiving   popularity 
and  harmony. l     One  incident  there  was  which   of  the 
occasioned  an  outcry  of  indignation.    Three  rich   after  par- 
friends  of  Solon,  all  men  of  great  family  in  the   *}*]  di.ssa- 

,    ,          .'  i  •   i         -11    i.  TJ.         tisfaction. 

state,  and  bearing  names  which  will  hereafter 
reappear  in  this  history  as  borne  by  their  descendants — 
Konon,  Kleinias  and  Hipponikus — having  obtained  from 
Solon  some  previous  hint  of  his  designs,  profited  by  it, 
first,  to  borrow  money,  and  next,  to  make  purchases  of 
lands;  and  this  selfish  breach  of  confidence  would  have 
disgraced  Solon  himself,  had  it  not  been  found  that  he  was 
personally  a  great  loser,  having  lent  money  to  the  extent 
of  five  talents.2 

In  regard  to  the  whole  measure  of  the  Seisachtheia, 
indeed,  though  the  poems  of  Solon  were  open  to   Different 
every  one,  ancient  authors  gave  different  state-   statements 
ments  both  of  its  purport  and  of  its  extent.   as  to  the 
Most  of  them  construed  it  as  having  cancelled  nature  ami 
indiscriminately  all  money  contracts;  while  An-   the  Sei- 
drotion  and  others  thought  that  it  did  nothing   sachtheia. 
more  than  lower  the  rate  of  interest  and  depreciate  the 
currency  to  the  extent  of  27  per  cent.,  leaving  the  letter 
of  the    contracts  unchanged.     How  Androtion   came   to 
maintain  such  an  opinion  we  cannot  easily  understand. 
For  the  fragments  now  remaining  from  Solon  seem  dis- 
tinctly to  refute  it,  though,  on  the  other  hand,  they  do  not 
go  so  far  as  to  substantiate  the  full  extent  of  the  opposite 
view  entertained  by  many  writers, — that  all  money  con- 
tracts   indiscriminately   were    rescinded:3    against    which 

1  Plutarch,    Z.  c.  !9uscb   Tc    xoiv^  3    Plutarch,    Solon,    c.    15.      The 
2etudy_QitOM  ~f,v  Suaiav    6-W|J.iXrJV~£?,  statement  of  Dionysius  of  Halic.  in 
Ac.  regard    to    the  bearing   of  the  Sei- 

2  The  Anecdote  is  noticed,   but  sachtheia  is  in  the    main   accurate 
without  specification  of  the  names  — XP;t"'J     orosoiv     'liTjOiaajxsvTjv     -rot; 
of  the  friends,  in  Plutarch,  Beipub.  a-opon    (v.    65)— to     the    debtors 
Gereiid.  PrKcep.  p.  807.  •who    where  liable  on  the  security 


104  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

there  is  also  a  farther  reason,  that  if  the  fact  had  been  so, 
Solon  could  have  had  no  motive  to  debase  the  money 
standard.  Such  debasement  supposes  that  there  must 
have  been  some  debtors  at  least  whose  contracts  remained 
valid,  and  whom  nevertheless  he  desired  partially  to  assist. 
His  poems  distinctly  mention  three  things: — 1.  The 
removal  of  the  mortgage-pillars.  2.  The  enfranchisement 
of  the  land.  3.  The  protection,  liberation,  and  restoration, 
of  the  persons  of  endangered  or  enslaved  debtors.  All 
these  expressions  point  distinctly  to  the  Thetes  and  small 
proprietors,  whose  sufferings  and  peril  were  the  most 
urgent,  and  whose  case  required  a  remedy  immediate  as 
well  as  complete.  We  find  that  his  repudiation  of  debts 
was  carried  far  enough  to  exonerate  them,  but  no  farther. 
It  seems  to  have  been  the  respect  entertained  for  the 
character  of  Solon  which  partly  occasioned 

Necessity         .,  .  .  i_-  n  i  •  3- 

of  the    "  these  various  misconceptions  01  his  ordinances 

measure—  for  the  relief  of  debtors.    Androtion  in  ancient, 

ousCcou-'~  and  some  eminent  critics  in  modern  times,  are 

tracts  to  anxious  to  make  out  that  he  gave  relief  without 

which  the       T  ....  T>    i  ii  •  •    • 

previous  loss  or  injustice  to  any  one.  ±>ut  this  opinion 
law  had  seems  inadmissible.  The  loss  to  creditors  by 
the  wholesale  abrogation  of  numerous  pre-exist- 
ing contracts,  and  by  the  partial  depreciation  of  the  coin, 
is  a  fact  not  to  be  disguised.  The  Seisachtheia  of  Solon, 
unjust  so  far  as  it  rescinded  previous  agreements,  but 

of  their  bodies    and    their    lands,  volution.     Nor    does    the    passage 

and  who  were  chiefly  poor — not  to  from  Plato  (Legg.  iii.  p.  634)  apply 

all  debtors.  to  the   case. 

Herakleides  Pontic.  (HoXiT.  c.  1)  Both   Wachsmuth  and  Hermann 

and  Dio   Chrysostom   (Or.  xxxi.  p.  appear  to  me  to  narrow  too  much 

331)  express  themselves  loosely.  the  extent   of  Solon's   measure   in 

Both  Wachsmuth  (Hell.  Alterth.  reference  to  the  clearing  of  debtors, 
v.  i.  p.  259)  and  K.  F.  Hermann  But  on  the  other  hand,  they  enlarge 
(Gr.  Staatsalter.  s.  106)  quote  the  the  effect  of  his  measures  in  another 
Heliastic  oath  and  its  energetic  way,  without  any  sufficient  evidence 
protest  against  repudiation,  as  evi-  — they  think  that  he  raised  the 
dence  of  the  bearing  of  the  Solo-  villein  tenants  into  free  proprietors. 
nian  Seisachtheia.  But  that  oath  Of  this  I  see  no  proof,  and  think 
is  referable  only  to  a  later  period;  it  improbable.  A  large  proportion 
it  cannot  be  produced  in  proof  of  of  the  small  debtors  whom  Solon 
any  matter  applicable  to  the  time  exonerated  were  probably  free  pro- 
of Solon;  the  mere  mention  of  the  prietors  before;  the  existence  of 
senate  of  Five  Hundred  in  it,  the  Spot  or  mortgage  pillars  upon 
shows  that  it  belongs  to  times  their  land  proves  this, 
subsequent  to  the  Kleisthenean  re- 


CHAP.  XI.          SEISACHTHEIA,  OR  RELIEF-LAW.  105 

highly  salutary  in  its  consequences,  is  to  be  vindicated  by 
showing  that  in  no  other  way  could  the  bonds  of  govern- 
ment have  been  held  together,  or  the  misery  of  the  multi- 
tude alleviated.  "We  are  to  consider,  first,  the  great 
personal  cruelty  of  these  pre-existing  contracts,  which 
condemned  the  body  of  the  free  debtor  and  his  family  to 
slavery ;  next,  the  profound  detestation  created  by  such  a 
system  in  the  large  mass  of  the  poor,  against  both  the 
judges  and  the  creditors  by  whom  it  had  been  enforced, 
which  rendered  their  feelings  unmanageable,  so  soon  as 
they  came  together  under  the  sentiment  of  a  common 
danger  and  with  the  determination  to  ensure  to  each  other 
mutual  protection.  Moreover,  the  law  which  vests  a  cre- 
ditor with  power  over  the  person  of  his  debtor,  so  as  to 
convert  him  into  a  slave,  is  likely  to  give  rise  to  a  class  of 
loans  which  inspire  nothing  but  abhorrence — money  lent 
with  the  foreknowledge  that  the  borrower  will  be  unable 
to  repay  it,  but  also  in  the  conviction  that  the  value  of 
his  person  as  a  slave  will  make  good  the  loss:  thus  reducing 
him  to  a  condition  of  extreme  misery,  for  the  purpose 
sometimes  of  aggrandizing,  sometimes  of  enriching,  the 
lender.  Now  the  foundation  on  which  the  respect  for 
contracts  rests,  under  a  good  law  of  debtor  and  creditor, 
is  the  very  reverse  of  this.  It  rests  on  the  firm  conviction 
that  such  contracts  are  advantageous  to  both  parties  as  a 
class,  and  that  to  break  up  the  confidence  essential  to  their 
existence  would  produce  extensive  mischief  throughout  all 
society.  The  man  whose  reverence  for  the  obligation  of  a 
contract  is  now  the  most  profound,  would  have  entertained 
a  very  different  sentiment  if  he  had  witnessed  the  dealings 
of  lender  and  borrower  at  Athens  under  the  old  ante-Solo- 
nian  law.  The  oligarchy  had  tried  their  best  to  enforce 
this  law  of  debtor  and  creditor  with  its  disastrous  series 
of  contracts;  and  the  only  reason  why  they  consented  to 
invoke  the  aid  of  Solon,  was  because  they  had  lost  the 
power  of  enforcing  it  any  longer,  in  consequence  of  the 
newly  awakened  courage  and  combination  of  the  people. 
That  which  they  could  not  do  for  themselves,  Solon  could 
not  have  done  for  them,  even  had  he  been  willing.  Nor 
had  he  in  his  position  the  means  either  of  exempting  or 
compensating  those  creditors  who,  separately  taken,  were 
open  to  no  reproach;  indeed,  in  following  his  proceedings, 
we  see  plainly  that  he  thought  compensation  due,  not  to 


106  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

the  creditors,  but  to  the  past  sufferings  of  the  enslaved 
debtors,  since  he  redeemed  several  of  them  from  foreign 
captivity,  and  brought  them  back  to  their  home.  It  is 
certain  that  no  measure,  simply  and  exclusively  prospective, 
would  have  sufficed  for  the  emergency.  There  was  an 
absolute  necessity  for  overruling  all  that  class  of  pre- 
existing rights  which  had  produced  so  violent  a  social  fever. 
While,  therefore,  to  this  extent,  the  Seisachtheia  cannot  be 
acquitted  of  injustice,  we  may  confidently  affirm  that  the 
injustice  inflicted  was  an  indispensable  price  paid  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  peace  of  society,  and  for  the  final  abro- 
gation of  a  disastrous  system  as  regarded  insolvents. l  And 
the  feeling  as  well  as  the  legislation  universal  in  the  modern 
European  world,  by  interdicting  beforehand  all  contracts 
for  selling  a  man's  person  or  that  of  his  children  into 
slavery,  goes  far  to  sanction  practically  the  Solouian  repu- 
diation. 

One  thing  is  never  to  be  forgotten  in  regard  to  this 
measure,  combined  with  the  concurrent  amendments  intro- 
duced by  Solon  in  the  law — it  settled  finally  the  question 
to  which  it  referred.  Never  again  do  we  hear  of  the  law 
of  debtor  and  creditor  as  disturbing  Athenian  tranquillity. 
The  general  sentiment  which  grew  up  at  Athens,  under 
the  Solonian  money-law  and  under  the  democratical  govern- 
Soion's  ment,  was  one  of  high  respect  for  the  sanctity 
law  finally  Of  contracts.  Not  only  was  there  never  any 

settled  the       ,  -i      •        n          \  n         •  -i  r 

question—  demand  in  the  Athenian  democracy  lor  new 
no  subse-  tables  or  a  depreciation  of  the  money  standard. 

quent  com-     ,  PIT  j.-  c  i 

plaint  as  to  but  a  formal  abnegation  ot  any  such  projects 

private  was  inserted  in  the  solemn  oath  taken  annually 

respect  for  by  the  numerous  Dikasts,  who  formed  the  po- 

contracts  pular  judicial  body  called  Helisea  or  the  Heli- 

unbroken  ,  .      .  ,••  , ,         i  •    i        i     i       j  xi, 

under  the  asticjurors — the  same  oath  which  pledged  them 
democracy,  to  uphold  the  democratical  constitution,  also 

1  That  which  Solon  did  for  the  abrogation  of  all  the  debts  of 
Athenian  people  in  regard  to  debts,  debtors  unable  to  pay,  without 
is  less  than  what  was  promised  to  exception — if  the  language  of 
the  Roman  plebs  (at  the  time  of  Dionysius  is  to  be  trusted,  which 
its  secession  to  the  Jlons  Sacer  in  probably  it  cannot  be. 
491  B.C.)  by  JMenenius  Agrippa,  the  Dr.  Thirlwall  justly  observes  re- 
envoy  of  the  senate,  to  appease  specting  Solon,  "He  must  be  con- 
them,  though  it  does  not  seem  to  sidered  as  an  arbitrator  to  whom 
have  been  ever  realized  (Dionys.  all  the  parties  interested  submit- 
Halic.  vi.  S3).  He  promised  an  ted  their  claims,  with  the  avowed 


CH.  XI.  DISTINCTION  BET  WEEN  PRINCIPAL  AND  INTEREST.  107 

bound  them  to  repudiate  all  proposals  either  for  an  abro- 
gation of  debts  or  for  a  redivision  of  the  lands. i  There 
can  be  little  doubt  that  under  the  Solonian  law,  which 
enabled  the  creditor  to  seize  the  property  of  his  debtor, 
but  gave  him  no  power  over  the  person,  the  system  of 
money-lending  assumed  a  more  beneficial  character.  The 
old  noxious  contracts,  mere  snares  for  the  liberty  of  a  poor 
freeman  and  his  children,  disappeared,  and  loans  of  money 
took  their  place,  founded  on  the  property  and  prospective 
earnings  of  the  debtor,  which  were  in  the  main  useful  to 
both  parties,  and  therefore  maintained  their  place  in  the 
moral  sentiment  of  the  public.  And  though  Solon  had 
found  himself  compelled  to  rescind  all  the  mortgages  on 
land  subsisting  in  his  time,  we  see  money  freely  lent  upon 

intent  that  they  should  be  decided  between -/pso? and  SavsTov)  ;  Plainer, 

by    him,    not    upon  the    footing  of  Prozess  und  Klagen,  B.  ii.  Absch. 

legal   right,    but    according    to  his  n-  PP-  349,  361. 

own   view    of  the   public  interest.  There  was  one  exceptional  case, 

It  was   in   this  light    that  he  him-  in    which   the    Attic     law    always 

self    regarded    his    office,    and    he  continued    to     the     creditor    that 

appears  to  have  discharged  it  faith-  power   over  the  person    of  the  in- 

fully  and  discreetly."     (History  of  solvent  debtor  which  all  creditors 

Greece,  ch.  xi.  vol.  ii.  p.  42.)  had    possessed    originally— it    was 

1  Demosthcn.  cont.  Timokrat.  p.  when  the  creditor  had  lent  money 

746.     oi)5i  TUJV  vp=u>v  T(I)-<  .ioiojv  ar.'j-  f°r    the    express    purpose    of   ran- 

•xoiia;,  rjijos  Y^  ivoiSaofjLO-;  -TJ?   AOr,-  soming  the  debtor   from   captivity 

vottdr;,      o.jo'      oixiuj-/      (•jir/airjijp.oLi):  (Demosthen.  cont.  Nikostr.  p.  1249) 

compare     Dio     Chrysostom,    Orat.  — analogous  to    the  Actio  Depensi 

xxxi.  p.  332,  who  also  dwells  upon  i11  the  old  Roman  law. 

the    anxiety     of    various     Grecian  -^ny  citizen  who  owed  money  to 

cities  to  iix  a  curse  upon  all  pro-  the    public    treasury    and     whose 

positions   for   /pitov    ocTtoxorY)    and  debt  became    overdue,   was    depri- 

Y/;?    i-;7.07.rjj.o;.     What    is   not   less  ved  for  the  time  of  all  civil  rights 

remarkable  is,    that  Dio  seems  not  until  lie  had  cleared  it  off. 

to    be   aware    of  any   well-authen-  Diodorus  (i.  79)    gives  us  an  al- 

ticated  case  in   Grecian  history  in  leged  law    of   the    Egyptian    king 

which   a    redivision    of  lands    had  Bocchoris  releasing  the  persons  of 

ever  actually  taken    place  —  o    (XT,O'  debtors    and    rendering   their   pro- 

"),(.'.)-  I-U.E-J  *V  T.'J-Z  3'^ii^rr  (I.  c.)  perties    only   liable,    which    is    af- 

For  the  law  of  debtor  and  credi-  iirmcd  to  have  served  as  an  ex- 
tor  as  it  stood  during  the  times  ample  for  Solon  to  copy.  If  we 
of  the  Orators  at  Athens,  see  He-  can  trust  this  historian,  lawgivers 
raldus,  Animadv.  ad  Salmasium,  in  other  parts  of  Greece  still  re- 
p.  174 — 28fi ;  Meier  und  Schomann,  tained  the  old  severe  law  ensla- 
Der  Attischo  Prozess,  b.  iii.  c.  2.  ving  the  debtor's  person:  compare 
p.  4!)7  Si'qq.  (though  I  doubt  the  a  pasEaga  in  Isokrates  (Orat.  xiv. 
distinction  which  they  there  draw  Platuicus,  p.  305;  p.  414  Bek.). 


108  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

this  same  security,  throughout  the  historical  times  of 
Athens,  and  the  evidentiary  mortgage  pillars  remaining 
ever  after  undisturbed. 

In  the  sentiment  of  an  early  society,  as  in  the  old 
Distinction  R°man  law,  a  distinction  is  commonly  made 
made  in  between  the  principal  and  the  interest  of  a  loan, 
societrly  though  the  creditors  have  sought  to  blend  them 
between  indissolubly  together.  If  the  borrower  cannot 
ohmTajad  ^nl  hig  promise  to  repay  the  principal,  the 
the  interest  public  will  regard  him  as  having  committed  a 
intere°tan~  wrong  which  he  must  make  good  by  his  person, 
disappro-  But  there  is  not  the  same  unanimity  as  to  his 
yed  of  in  promise  to  pay  interest:  on  the  contrary,  the 

MO.  ,. L      J       n      •      ,  ,  -T,     •,  3     J   ll 

very  exaction  01  interest  will  be  regarded  by 
many  in  the  same  light  in  which  the  English  law  considers 
usurious  interest,  as  tainting  the'wholse  transaction.  But 
in  the  modern  mind,  principal,  and  interest  within  a  limited 
rate,  have  so  grown  together,  that  we  hardly  understand 
how  it  can  ever  have  been  pronounced  unworthy  of  an 
honourable  citizen  to  lend  money  on  interest.  Yet  such 
is  the  declared  opinion  of  Aristotle  and  other  superior 
men  of  antiquity;  while  at  Rome,  Cato  the  censor  went  so 
far  as  to  denounce  the  practice  as  a  heinous  crime. l  It 
was  comprehended  by  them  among  the  worst  of  the  tricks 
of  trade — and  they  held  that  all  trade,  or  profit  derived 
from  interchange,  was  unnatural,  as  being  made  by  one 
man  at  the  expense  of  another:  such  pursuits  therefore 
could  not  be  commended,  though  they  might  be  tolerated 
to  a  certain  extent  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  bvit  they  be- 
longed essentially  to  an  inferior  order  of  citizens.2  "What 

1  Aristot.  Polit.  i.  4,  23;  Cato  ap.  nian  Seisachtheia. 

Cicero,   de    Offic.    ii.   25.     Plato  in  2  Aristot.  Polit.  i.  4,  23.  TT-;  8s  JAE- 

his   treatise    de    Legg.    (v.    p.    742)  TafSXrjttxyj^   'i  £  Y  o  (JLSVTJ?   Sixaiioq 

forbids  all  lending  on  interest;  in-  (oO  yip  xaTa  rf Jaiv,  aXX'  O.K'  aXXr(Xcuv 

deed  he  forbids  any  private  citizen  iuTiv),  suXoyw-aTa  (AtasiTai  r,  63oXo- 

to  possess  either  gold  or  silver.  CJTSTIXT,,  <£c.  Compare  Ktliic.  Jsikoui. 

To  illustrate  the   marked   differ-  iv.  1. 

ence  made  in  the  early  Roman  law,  Plutarch  borrows  from  Aristotle 

between  the  claim  for  the  principal  the  quibble  derived  from  the  word 

and  that  for  the  interest,    I  insert  TOXO?    (the   Greek    expression  for 

in  an  Appendix  at  the  end  of  this  interest),  which  has  given  birth  to 

Chapter  the  explanation    given  by  the  well-known  dictum  of  Aristotle 

M.  von  Savigny   of  the   treatment  — that  money  being  naturally  bar- 

of  the  Ivexi  and  Addicti  -  connected  ren,    to   extract   offspring   from   it 

as  it  is  by  analogy  with  the  Solo-  must  necessarily    be    contrary    to 


CHAP.  XI.  LOAXS  OX  INTEREST.  109 

is  remarkable  in  Greece  is,  that  the  antipathy  of  a  very 
early  state  of  society  against  traders  and  money-lenders 
lasted  longer  among  the  philosophers  than  among  the  mass 
of  the  people — it  harmonised  more  with  the  social  ideal 
of  the  former,  than  with  the  practical  instincts  of  the 
latter. 

In  a  rude  condition  such  as  that  of  the  ancient  Ger- 
mans described  by  Tacitus,  loans  on  interest  are  unknown. 
Habitually  careless  of  the  future,  the  Germans  were  grati- 
fied both  in  giving  and  receiving  presents,  but  without  any 
idea  that  they  thereby  either  imposed  or  contracted  an 
obligation.1  To  a  people  in  this  state  of  feeling,  a  loan  on 
interest  presents  the  repulsive  idea  of  making  profit  out 
of  the  distress  of  the  borrower.  Moreover,  it  is  worthy  of 
remark,  that  the  first  borrowers  must  have  been  for  the 
most  part  men  driven  to  this  necessity  by  the  pressure  of 
want,  and  contracting  debt  as  a  desperate  resource,  without 
any  fair  prospect  of  ability  to  repay:  debt  and  famine  run 
together  in  the  mind  of  the  poet  Hesiod.2  The  borrower 

nature    (see  Plutach,    Be  Vit.  JEr.  qu'il  emprunte   .    .   .   Les  priiteurs 

Al.  p.  829).  sur  gage  a,   gros  interet,   les  seuls 

1  Tacit.  Germ.  26.  "Fcenus  agitare  quipretent  veritablementau  pauvre 
et  in   usuras   extenders,   ignotum;  pour  ses  besoins  journaliers  et  non 
ideoque    magis    servatur    quam   si  pour  le  inettre  en  etat  de  gagiier. 
vetitum  esset.'1     (c.  21.)    "Gaudent  ne  font  point  le  m&me  mal  que  les 
muneribus:  sed  neo  data  imputant,  anciens   usuriers    qui  conduisoient 
nee  acceptis  obliguntur."  par  degres  a  la  misere  et  a.  1'escla- 

2  Hesiod,  Opp.  Di.  647,  404.    Bo'J-  vago  les  pauvres  citoyens  auxquels 
).r,ai    y/jja    T£    rpocuYSiv,    xai    }.\y.r,-i  ils    avoicnt    procure    des     secour.- 
UTEprrj.      Some   good    observations  funestes  .  .  .  Le  creaiicier  qui  pou- 
on  this  subject  are  to  be  found  in  vait  rcduire  son  debiteur  en  escla- 
the  excellent   treatise    of  M.  Tur-  vage  y  trouvait  un   profit:    c'etoit 
got,  written  in  17G3,  "Memoire  sur  un    esclave    qu'il    acquerait:    mais 
les  Prets  d'Argent":—  au.iourd'liui  le  creaiicier  salt  qu'en 

"Les  causes  qui  avoient  autrefois  privant  son  d6biteur  de  la  liberte 

rendu  odieux  le  pret  &  interet,  out  il    n'y    gagnera    autre    cliose    quc 

cess6  d'agir  avec  tant  de  force  .  .  .  d'etre  oblige  de  le  nourrir  en  pri- 

De  toutes  ces  circonstances  reunies,  son:    aussi    ne   s'avise-t-on  pas  de 

il  est  r6sultc5  que  les  emprunts  faits  faire    contractor   £   un  homme  qui 

par   le    pauvre    pour   sulisister    ne  n'a   rien,    ct    qui    est  reduit  &  em- 

sont  plus  qu'un  objet  ^  peine  sen-  prunter  pour  vivre,  des  engagemens 

siblo  dans  la  somme   totale   d'em-  qui    emportent    la    coiitrainte    par 

prunts:  que  la  plus  gramlc  partie  corps.     La   seule    surete    vraiment 

des  prets  se  font  a  1'homme  riclic,  solide  centre  1'homme  pauvre  est  If 

ou  du  moins  Al'homme  industrieux,  gage:  et  1'homme  pauvre  s'estimf 

qui  ospere  so   procurer    de    grands  heureux  do  trouver  un  sccours  pour 

prolits    par    1'emploi    de    1'argeut  le  moment   sans  autre  danger  que 


1 10  HISTOBY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

is,  in  this  unhappy  state,  rather  a  distressed  man  soliciting 
aid,  than  a  solvent  man  capable  of  making  and  fulfilling  a 
contract.  If  he  cannot  find  a  friend  to  make  him  a  free 
gift  in  the  former  character,  he  will  not,  under  the  latter 
character,  obtain  a  loan  from  a  stranger,  except  by  the 
promise  of  exorbitant  interest, l  and  by  the  fullest  even- 
tual power  over  his  person  which  he  is  in  a  condition  to 
grant.  In  process  of  time  a  new  class  of  borrowers  rise  up 
who  demand  money  for  temporary  convenience  or  profit, 

de  perdre  ce  gage.  Aussi  le  peuple  the    common    rate    of   interest    at 

a-t-il  plutot  de  la  reconnoissance  Athens  in  the  time  of  the  orators, 
pour  ces  petits  usuriers  qui  le  The  valuable  Inscription  (No. 

secourent   daus   son  besoin,   quoi-  1845  in  his  Corpus  Inscr.  Pars  viii. 

qu'ils  lui    vendent   assez   cher   ce  p.     23.     sect.     3)     proves    that    at 

secours."     (Me'moire   sur   les  Prets  Korkyra  a  rate  of  2  per   cent,    per 

d' Argent,     in    the     collection     of  month,  or  24  per  cent,  per  annum, 

(Euvres  de  Turgot,    by  Dupont  de  might  be  obtained    from   perfectly 

Nemours,  vol.   v.  sect.  xxx.  xxxi.  solvent  and  responsible  borrowers, 

pp.  326,  327,  329.  For    this    is  a   decree   of  the  Kor- 

1   "In    Bengal     (observes    Adam  kyrcean     government,     prescribing 

Smith,  Wealth  of  Nations,  b.  i.  ch.  what  shall  be  done  with  a  sum  of 

9.  p.  143,    ed.   1812)    money   is    fre-  money    given    to  the  state  for  the 

quently  lent  to  the  farmers  at  40,  Dionysiac    festivals — placing    that 

50,  and  60  per  cent.,   and   the  sue-  money    under   the    care  of  certain 

ceeding  crop  is  mortgaged  for  the  men    of   property    and     character, 

payment."  and  directing  them  to  lend   it  out 

Respecting  this  commerce  at  Flo-  exactly  at  2  per  cent,    per   montb, 

rence  in  the  middle  ages,  M.  Dep-  neither    more    nor    Jess,     until    a 

ping   observes: — "II    semblait   que  given    sum    shall    be  accumulated. 

1'esprit  commercial  fut   inne  chez  This  Inscription    dates   about   the 

les   Florentins:   deja    aux   12me   et  third    or  second  century   B.C.,  ac- 

13™e    siecles,     on    les    voit    tenir  cording  to  Boeckh's  conjecture, 
des  banques  et  preter  de  1'argent         The     Orchomenian     Inscription, 

aux  princes.    Us  ouvrirent  partout  No.  1569,  to    -which   Boeckh  refers 

des  maisons  de  pret,  march&rent  de  in  the  passage    above   alluded   to, 

pair  avec  les  Lombards,  et,  il  faut  is    unfortunately    defective  in  the 

le  dire,  ils  furent  souvent  maudits,  words     determining     the    rate     of 

comme  ceux-ci,  par  lours  diSbiteurs,  interest  payable  to  Eubulus  :    but 

&   cause   de   leur   rapacitiS.     Vingt  there    is    another,     the     Therrean 

pour    cent    par    an    6tait    le    taux  Inscription  (No.  244fi),    containing 

ordinaire  des  preteurs  Florentins:  theTestament  ofEpiktfita,  wherein 

et  il  n'etait  pas  rare  qu'ils  en  pris-  the  annual  sum  payable  in  lieu  of 

sent  trente  et  quaraiite."    Depping,  a    principal     sum    bequeathed,    is 

Histoire    du    Commerce     entre    le  calculated    at  7  per    cent.;    a  rate 

Levant    et  1'Europe.    vol.  i.  p.  235.  which    Boeckh   justly    regards     as 

Boeckh     (Public     Economy      of  moderate,  considered  .in   reference 

Athens,  book  i.  ch.  22)  gives  from  to  ancient  Greece. 
12    to    18    per   cent,  per  annum  as 


CHAP.  XI.  LOANS  ON  INTEREST.  Ill 

but  with  full  prospect  of  repayment — a  relation  of  lender 
and  borrower  quite  different  from  that  of  the  earlier  period, 
when  it  presented  itself  in  the  repulsive  form  of  misery  on 
the  one  side,  set  against  the  prospect  of  very  large  profit 
on  the  other.  If  the  Germans  of  the  time  of  Tacitus 
looked  to  the  condition  of  the  poor  debtors  in  Gaul,  re- 
duced to  servitude  under  a  rich  creditor,  and  swelling  by 
hundreds  the  crowd  of  his  attendants,  they  would  not  be 
disposed  to  regret  their  own  ignorance  of  the  practice  of 
money-lending. l  How  much  the  interest  of  money  was 
then  regarded  as  an  undue  profit  extorted  from  distress,  is 
powerfully  illustrated  by  the  old  Jewish  law;  the  Jew  being 
permitted  to  take  interest  from  foreigners  (whom  the  law- 

1  Cfesar,    B.    Gr.    i.  4,  respecting  law  of  Rome,  against  the  insolvent 

the  Gallic  chiefs  and   plebs:    "Die  debtor     on     loan.        King     Alfred 

constitute     causre     dictionis,     Or-  exhorts    the     creditor     to     lenity 

getorix  ad  judicium  omnem   suam  (Laws    of    King    Alfred,     Thorpe, 

i'amiliam,   ad  hoininum  millia  de-  Ancient  Laws  of  England,   vol.   i. 

cciu,    undique    coegit:      et    omnes  p.  53.  law  35). 

clientes,  oSccrafosque  suos,  quorum  A    striking    evidence    of  the  al- 

inagnum  numeruin  habchat,  eodem  teration  of  the    character   and  cir- 

conduxit:      per     eos,     ne     causam  cumstances     of    debtors,    between 

diceret,    se   eripuit."    Ibid.  vi.  13  :  the     age     of    Solon    and    that    of 

"Plerique,  cum  aut  cere  alieno,  aut  Plutarch,  is  afforded  by  the    trea- 

magnitudine    tributorum,    aut    in-  tise    of    the    latter,     "De    Vitaudo 

juria  potentiorum,  premuntur,  sese  JEre  Alieno,"  wherein  he  sets  forth 

in    servitutem     dicant     nobilibus.  in  the  most  vehement   manner  the 

In    hos    eadem    omnia    sunt    jura,  miserable  consequences  of  getting 

qure     dominis     in     servos."       The  into    debt.      "The    poor,"    lie  says, 

wealthy   Romans   cultivated    their  "f7o  not  get  into  debt,    for    no    one 

large    possessions     partly    by    the  will    lend    them     money    (TO!?    -((/.r> 

hands  of  adjudged  debtors,   in  the  Kwdpoiq  ou  Savslil/jimv,  iXXa    3°'J^o- 

time  of  Columella  (i.  3,  14):  "more  JJLS-/OI;  suropiav  tiva  sotUToiq  xTasSoti 

prccpotentium,  qui  possident   fines  xai    fxapTUpa    olSioji    y.a'i    fefaiu)-;^ 

gentium,  quos   .  .  .  aut    occupatos  «;iov,    ott     Ey_it     xis-t'jzs'ly.i) :     the 

nexu    civium,    aut    ergastulis,    to-  borrowers  are   men  who  liave  still 

nent."  some  property  and    some    security 

According  to  the  Teutonic  codes  to  offer,  but  who  wish  to  keep  up 

also,    drawn  up    several    centuries  a  rate  of  expenditure  beyond  what 

subsequently  to  Tacitus,  it   seems  they  can  afford,  and  become  utterly 

that    the     insolvent     debtor     fulls  ruined      by      contracting      debts.'' 

under   the    power    of   his  creditor  (IMut.     p.    827,    830.)      This    shows 

and    is    subject  to  personal  fetters  how  intimately  the  multiplication 

and  chastisement  (Grimm,  Deutsche  of   poor    debtors    was     connected 

Rechtsalterthfmier,     p.      (512  —  015):  with  the  liability  of  their  persons 

both  he  and  Von  Savigny  assimilate  to     enslavement.      Compare     Plu- 

it  to  the  terrible  process  of  personal  tarch,  Do  Cupidine  Divitiurum,    c. 

execution  and   addiction  in  the  old  2.  p.  523. 


112                                   HISTOKY  OF  GREECE.  PART.  II. 

giver  did  not  think  himself  obliged  to  protect),  but  not 

from  his  own  countrymen.1  The  Koran  follows  out  this 
point  of  view  consistently,   and  prohibits   the   taking   of 

1  Levitic.  xxv.  35 — 36;  Deuteron.  advantage    of   the    necessities     of 

xxiii.   20.     This    enactment    seems  the  meaner  sort,  had  exacted  heavy 

sufficiently  intelligible:  yetM.  Sal-  usury  of  them,   making  them   pay 

vador    (Histoire    des    Institutions  the  centesima  for  all  moneys  lent 

de   Mo'ise,    liv.    iii.  ch.   6)   puzzles  them,  that  is,  1  per  cent,  for  every 

himself  much  to  assign  to  it  some  month,  which  amounted  to  12   per 

far-sighted     commercial     purpose,  cent,  for  the  whole  year;    so  that 

"Unto  thy  brother  thou    shalt  not  they     were     forced    to     mortgage 

lend    upon     usury,    but    unto     a  their  lands,  and  sell  their  children 

stranger    thou    mayst    lend    upon  into  servitude,  to  have  wherewith 

usury.'"    It  is  of  more    importance  to    buy    bread    for   the   support  of 

to  remark  that  the  word  here  trans-  themselves      and     their     families: 

lated    usury    really     means     any  which  being  a  manifest  breach    of 

interest  for  money,  great  or  small  the    law    of    God,    given   them  by 

— see  the  opinion  of  the  Sanhedrim  Moses  (for  that  forbids  all  the  race 

of    seventy     Jewish    doctors,     as-  of  Israel  to  take  usury  of  any    of 

sembled  at  Paris  in  1807,    cited   in  their  brethren),  Nehemiah,   on   his 

M.  Salvador's  work,  I.  c.  hearing  horeof,  resolved  forthwith 

The    Mosaic    law    therefore    (as  to    remove    so    great    an  iniquity; 

between  Jew  and  Jew,  or  even  as  in     order     whereto     he    called     a 

between    Jew   and   the  JASTOIXO?  or  general  assembly  of  all  the  people, 

resident     stranger,     distinguished  where  having  set  forth  unto   them 

from  the  foreigner)  went  as  far  as  the  nature  of  the  offence,  how  great 

the  Koran  in  prohibiting  all  taking  a  breach  it  was  of  the  divine  law, 

of  interest.      That  its    enactments  and    how     heavy     an     oppression 

were  not  much  observed,  we  have  upon  their  brethren,  and  how  much 

one  proof  at  least  in  the  proceeding  it     might    provoke    the    wrath    of 

of   Kehemiah    at    the   building   of  God  against  them,  he  caused  it  to 

the  second  temple — which  presents  be  enacted  by  the  general  suffrage 

so     curious     a     parallel     in    many  of   that    whole   assembly,    that   all 

respects     to      the      Solonian    Sei-  should    return     to    their    brethren 

sachtheia,     that    I    transcribe    the  whatsoever    had    been    exacted  of 

account  of  it  from  Prideaux,  Con-  them  upon  usury,  and  also  release 

nection     of    Sacred     and    Profane  all  ihelanfls ,  vineyards, olive-yarHs, 

History,  part  i.  b.  6.  p.  290: —  and  houses,  which  had  been  taken 

"The    burden   which  the    people  of  them  upon  mortgage  on  the  ac- 

underwent  in   the    carrying    on    of  count  hereof." 

this  work,  and  the  incessant  labour  The  measure  of  Nehemiah appears 

which     they      were      enforced      to  thus    to    have    been    not  merely  a 

undergo  to  bring  it  to  so  speedy  a  Seisachtheia  such  as  that  of  Solon, 

conclusion,   being   very    great  .  .  .  but  also  a  raXivToxloc  or  refunding 

care  was  taken  to  relieve  them  from  of  interest  paid  by   the   debtor   in 

a  much    greater   burden,     the    op-  past   time— analogous    to  the  pro- 

pression   of   usurers;     which   they  ceeding  of  the  Megarians  on  eman- 

then  in  great  misery  lay  under,  and  cipating     themselves     from    their 

had  much  greater  reason    to   com-  oligarchy,     as    recounted      above, 

plain    of.     For    the    rich,    taking  Chapter  ix. 


CHAP.  XI.  LOANS  ON  INTEJREST.  113 

interest  altogether.  In  most  other  nations,  laws  have  been 
made  to  limit  the  rate  of  interest,  and  at  Rome  especially, 
the  legal  rate  was  successively  lowered — though  it  seems, 
as  might  have  been  expected,  that  the  restrictive  ordinances 
were  constantly  eluded.  All  such  restrictions  have  been 
intended  for  the  protection  of  debtors ;  an  effect  which 
large  experience  proves  them  never  to  produce,  unless  it 
be  called  protection  to  render  the  obtaining  of  money  on 
loan  impracticable  for  the  most  distressed  borrowers.  But 
there  was  another  effect  which  they  did  tend  to  produce — 
they  softened  down  the  primitive  antipathy  against  the 
practice  generally,  and  confined  the  odious  name  of  usury 
to  loans  lent  above  the  fixed  legal  rate. 

In  this  way  alone  could  they  operate  beneficially,  and 
their  tendency  to  counterwork  the  previous  feeling  was  at 
that  time  not  unimportant,  coinciding  as  it  did  with  other 
tendencies  arising  out  of  the  industrial  progress  of  society, 
which  gradually  exhibited  the  relation  of  lender  and  bor- 
rower in  a  light  more  reciprocally  beneficial,  and  less 
repugnant  to  the  sympathies  of  the  bystander. l 

At  Athens  the  more  favourable  point  of  view  pre- 
vailed throughout  all  the  historical  times.  The  march  of 
industry  and  commerce,  under  the  mitigated  law  which 
prevailed  subsequently  to  Solon,  had  been  sufficient  to 
bring  it  about  at  a  very  early  period  and  to  suppress  all 
public  antipathy  against  lenders  at  interest.2  We  may 
remark  too,  that  this  more  equitable  tone  of  opinion  grew 
up  spontaneously,  without  any  legal  restriction  on  the  rate 
of  interest, — no  such  restriction  having  ever  been  imposed 
and  the  rate  being  expressly  declared  free  by  a  law  as- 
cribed to  Solon  himself.3  The  same  may  probably  be  said  of 

1  In  every  law  to  limit  the  rato  shows  that  the  law,  though  passed, 

of  interest,  it  is  of  course  implied  was  not  carried  into  execution, 

that  the  law  not  only  ought  to  fix,  2  Boeckh  (Public  Econ.  or  Athens, 

but  can  fix,  tliB  maximum   rate    at  b.  i.  ch.  22.  p.  128)  thinks  differently 

which    money    is    to  be  lent.     The  —in  my  judgment,  contrary  to  the 

tribunes    at    Rome     followed    out  evidence :    the    passages    to  which 

this  proposition  with  perfect  con-  he      refers      (especially      that     of 

sistency  :    they    passed   successive  Theophrastus)  are  not  sufficient  to 

laws  for  the  reduction  of  the  rate  sustain  his  opinion,  and  there  are 

of   interest,    until    at   length   they  other    passages     which    go    far   to 

made  it  illegal  to  take  any  interest  contradict  it. 

at  all:  "Genucium.  tribunumplebis,  3  Lysias  cont.    Theomncst.  A.    c. 

tulisse    ad    populum,    ne   fcenerari  5.  p.  300. 
liceret."      (Liiv.    vii.     42.)     History 

VOL.   III.  1 


114  HISTOBY  OF  GREECE.  PAET  II. 

the  communities  of  Greece  generally — at  least  there  is  no 
information  to  make  us  suppose  the  contrary.  But  the 
feeling  against  lending  money  at  interest  remained  in  the 
This  opin-  bosoms  of  the  philosophical  men  long  after  it  had 
iof  -wad  ceased  to  form  a  part  of  the  practical  morality 
by  the  phi-  of  the  citizens,  and  long  after  it  had  ceased  to 
losophers,  ke  justified  by  the  appearances  of  the  case  as  at 
bad'ceased  first  it  really  had  been.  Plato,  Aristotle,  Cicero, l 
to  prevail  an(j  Plutarch,  treat  the  practice  as  a  branch  of 
community  that  commercial  and  money-getting  spirit  which 
generally,  they  are  anxious  to  discourage;  and  one  conse- 
quence of  this  was,  that  they  were  less  disposed  to  contend 
strenuously  for  the  inviolability  of  existing  money-contracts. 
The  conservative  feeling  on  this  point  was  stronger  among 
the  mass  than  among  the  philosophers.  Plato  even  com- 
plains of  it  as  inconveniently  preponderant,2  and  as  arrest- 
ing the  legislator  in  all  comprehensive  projects  of  reform. 
For  the  most  part  indeed  schemes  of  cancelling  debts  and 
redividing  lands  were  never  thought  of  except  by  men  of 
desperate  and  selfish  ambition,  who  made  them  stepping- 
stones  to  despotic  power.  Such  men  were  denounced  alike 
by  the  practical  sense  of  the  community  and  by  the  specu- 
lative thinkers:  but  when  we  turn  to  the  case  of  the  Spartan 
king  Agis  III.,  who  proposed  a  complete  extinction  of 
debts  and  an  equal  redivision  of  the  landed  property  of 
the  state,  not  with  any  selfish  or  personal  views,  but  upon 
pure  ideas  of  patriotism,  well  or  ill  understood,  and  for  the 
purpose  of  renovating  the  lost  ascendency  of  Sparta — we 
find  Plutarch3  expressing  the  most  unqualified  admiration 

1  Cicero,  De  Officiis,  i.  42.  practicable  condition:  thelawgiver 

2  Plato,    Legg.     iii.    p.    684.     UK  is  to    take   care    that    debts    shall 
iiuystpouvTi  £7)  vonoOsTT)    xivsiv   TU>V  not    be    contracted    to    an    extent 
TCHOU-CUV  TI  Tta?  ocTtaMTrj,    \ifu)-i,  (AT)  hurtful  to  the   state — "Quamobrem 
•xivstv  TO:  dxlvrjTa,  xai  e-apot-roct   Y%  ne  s^  KB  alienum,  quod  reipublicse 
TS      (ivaSaafjLoiX;     £i<j7)7ou|ji.r;ov      v.cd  noceat,    providendum     est     (quod 
Xpeibv    ditoxoTtac.,    UJJT'    elc    oitoptav  multis  rationibus    caveri    potest): 
•xa'jtjTauOoci  iciivTa  civopa,  &c. :  com-  non,  si  fuerit,  ut   locupletes  suum 
pare    also    v.    p.     736—737,     where  perdant,    debitores    lucrentur    ali- 
similar  feelings  ar,:   intimated  not  enum,"  &c.     What    the   multcs   ra- 
less  emphatically.  Hones  were,  which    Cicero   had   in 

Cicero     lays     down     very     good  his    mind.    I   do  not  know.     Corn- 
principles    about    the   mischief  of  pare  his  opinion  about  fczneratores, 
destroying  faith  in  contracts;   but  Offic.  i.  42;  ii.  25. 
his  admonitions  to  this  effect  seem  3    See    Plutarch's  Life    of  Agis, 
to   be    accompanied    with    an    im-  especially  ch  13,  about  the  bonfire 


CHAP.  XI.  PERMANENCE  OF  ATHENIAN  MONEY-STANDARD.    115 

of  this  young  king  and  his  projects,  and  treating  the  op- 
position made  to  him  as  originating  in  no  better  feelings 
than  meanness  and  cupidity.  The  philosophical  thinkers 
on  politics  conceived  (and  to  a  great  degree  justly,  as  I 
shall  show  hereafter)  that  the  conditions  of  security,  in  the 
ancient  world,  imposed  upon  the  citizens  generally  the 
absolute  necessity  of  keeping  up  a  military  spirit  and 
willingness  to  brave  at  all  times  personal  hardship  and 
discomfort;  so  that  increase  of  wealth,  on  account  of  the 
habits  of  self-indulgence  which  it  commonly  introduces, 
was  regarded  by  them  with  more  or  less  of  disfavour.  If 
in  their  estimation  any  Grecian  community  had  become 
corrupt,  they  were  willing  to  sanction  great  interference 
with  pre-existing  rights  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  it 
back  nearer  to  their  ideal  standard.  And  the  real  security 
for  the  maintenance  of  these  rights  lay  in  the  conservative 
feelings  of  the  citizens  generally,  much  more  than  in  the  opi- 
nions which  superior  minds  imbibed  from  the  philosophers. 
Such  conservative  feelings  were  in  the  subsequent 
Athenian  democracy  peculiarly  deep-rooted. 
The  mass  of  the  Athenian  people  identified  in-  Saisach- 
separably  the  maintenance  of  property  in  all  its  theia  "evei 

-I  -,i     ,1      ,       n   1-1     •     i  i  imitated  at 

various  shapes  with  that  or  their  laws  and  con-   Athens— 
stitution.     And  it  is  a  remarkable  fact,   that   money- 
though  the  admiration  entertained  at  Athens  for   honestly 
Solon  was  universal,  the  principle  of  his  Sei-    maintained 
sachtheia  and  of  his  money-depreciation  was  not   a 
only  never  imitated,  but  found  the  strongest  tacit  repro- 
bation; whereas  at  Home,  as  well  as  in  most  of  the  king- 
doms  of  modern  Europe,  we  know  that  one  debasement 
of  the  coin  succeeded  another.     The  temptation,  of  thus 
partially  eluding  the  pressure  of  financial  embarrassments, 
proved,  after  one  successful  trial,  too  strong  to  be  resisted, 
and  brought  down  the  coin  by  successive  depreciations  from 
the  full  pound  of  twelve  ounces  to  the  standard  of  one  half 
ounce.   It  is  of  some  importance  to  take  notice  of  this  fact, 
when  we  reflect  how  much  "Grecian   faith"  lias   been  de- 
graded by  the  Roman  writers  into  a  byword  for  duplicity 
in  pecuniary  dealings.1     The  democracy  of  Athens  (and 
indeed  the  cities  of  Greece  generally,  both  oligarchies  and 


116  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

democracies)  stands  far  above  the  senate  of  Rome,  and  far 
above  the  modern  kingdoms  of  France  and  England  until 
comparatively  recent  times,  in  respect  of  honest  dealing 
with  the  coinage.1  Moreover,  while  there  occurred  at 
Rome  several  political  changes  which  brought  about  new 
tables2  or  at  least  a  partial  depreciation  of  contracts,  no 
phfenomenon  of  the  same  kind  ever  happened  at  Athens, 
during  the  three  centuries  between  Solon  and  the  end  of 

puts  the  Greeks  greatly  below  the  1'autre   de   1'Europe,   le  florin    on 

Romans  in  point   of  veracity   and  sequin    de  Florence    est    toujours 

good  faith  (vi.  56);  in  another  pas-  rest<i    le   m§me:    il    est    dn    meme 

sage  he  speaks  not  quite  so  confi-  poids,  du  mSme  titre;  il    porte  la 

dently  (xviii.  17).     Even  the  testi-  meme  empreinte  que  celui  qui  fut 

mony  of  the  Roman  writers  is  some-  battu  en  1252."     (Republiques  Ita- 

times  given  in  favour  ol  Attic  good  liennes,  vol.  iii.  ch.  18.  p.  176.) 

faith,  not  against  it—"   ut   semper  M.    Boeckh     (Public     Econ.     of 

et   in   omni    re,    quicquid    sincera  Athens,  i.  6;  iv.  19),  while  affirming 

fide    gereretur,  id   Romani,    Attica  justly    and     decidedly,     that     the 

fieri,      proedicarent. "       (Velleius  Athenian    republic    always    set   a 

Paterc.  ii.  23.)  high    value     on    maintaining    the 

The  language  of  Heffter  (Athenii-  integrity  of  their  silver  money— yet 

ische    Gerichtsverfassung,    p.  466),  thinks  that  the  gold   pieces  which 

especially,  degrades  very  undeser-  were  coined  in    Olymp.   93.  2.   (408 

vedly  the  state  of  good   faith  and  B.C.)  under  the    archonship  of  An- 

credit  at  Athens.  tigen;!S    (out   of  the   golden   orna- 

The   whole    tone    and    argument  ments   in   the   acropolis,    and   at  a 

of    the    Oration     of    Demosthengs  time     of    public     embarrassments) 

against  Leptines    is    a   remarkable  were  debased  and  made  to  pass  for 

proof  of  the  respect  of  the  Atheni-  more  than   their   value.    The  only 

an  Dikastery   for  vested  interests,  evidence  in  support  of  this  position 

even    under     less    obvious    forms  appears  to  be  the  passage   in  Ari- 

than  that  of  pecuniary  possession,  stophanes  (Ran.   719-737)   with   the 

We  may  add  a  striking  passage  of  Scholia ;    but    this    very    passage 

Demosthenes  cont.Timokrat. where-  seems  to  me   rather   to    prove   the 

in    he    denounces    the    rescinding  contrary.     "The  Athenian   people 

of  past  transactions  (-ft  r.ZT.pifiii>>a  (says     Aristophanes )     deal      with 

Xyaat,  contrasted  with  prospective  their   public   servants    as    they  do 

legislation)  as  an  injustice  peculiar  with   their  coins:   they   prefer  the 

to  oligarchy,  and  repugnant  to  the  new  and  bad  to  the  old  and  good.'' 

feelings  of  a  democracy  (cont.  Ti-  If  the  people  were  so  exceedingly, 

mokrat.  c.  20.  p.  724;  c.  30,  747).  and  even    extravagantly,    desirous 

1  A  similar  credit,  in   respect  to  of  obtaining   the    new   coins,   this 

monetary  probity,  maybe  claimed  is   a   strong   proof  that  they  were 

for   the   republic    of  Florence.     M.  not  depreciated,  and  that   no   loss 

Sismondi  says,  "Au  milieu  des  re-  was     incurred    by    giving    the    old 

volutions    monetaires   de    tous    les  coins  in  exchange  for  them.     Tluy 

pays  voisins  et  tandis  que  la  mau-  might   perhaps   be   carelessly   exe- 

vaisefoides  gouvernemens  altfroit  cuted. 

le    numeraire     d'une     extremity    a  2  '-Sane  vetus  Urbi  fomebre   ma- 


CHAP.  XI.        POLITICAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  SOLON.  117 

the  free  working  of  the  democracy.  Doubtless  there  were 
fraudulent  debtors  at  Athens;  while  the  administration  of 
private  law,  though  not  in  any  way  conniving  at  their 
proceedings,  was  far  too  imperfect  to  repress  them  as 
effectually  as  might  have  been  wished.  But  the  public 
sentiment  on  the  point  was  just  and  decided.  It  may  be 
asserted  with  confidence  that  a  loan  of  money  at  Athens 
was  quite  as  secure  as  it  ever  was  at  any  time  or  place  of 
the  ancient  world, — in  spite  of  the  great  and  important 
superiority  of  Rome  with  respect  to  the  accumulation  of  a 
body  of  authoritative  legal  precedent,  the  source  of  what  was 
ultimately  shaped  into  the  Roman  jurisprudence.  Among 
the  various  causes  of  sedition  or  mischief  in  the  Grecian 
communities, l  we  hear  little  of  the  pressure  of  private  debt. 
By  the  measures  of  relief  above  described, 2  Solon  had 
accomplished  results  surpassing  his  own  best  „ 

T-     i       -i  i        T     i  ,1  •!•         T  Solon  is 

hopes.  Be  had  healed  the  prevailing  discontents;   empowered 

and  such  was  the  confidence  and  gratitude  which  *?  modify 
111-        •      -i   xi    j.  i  n    i  tne  poii- 

he  had  inspired,  that  he  was  now  called  upon  to   tical  con- 
draw  up  a  constitution  and  laws  for  the  better   stitution. 
working  of  the  government  in  future.     His  constitutional 
changes  were  great  and  valuable:  respecting  his  laws,  what 
we  hear  is  rather  curious  than  important. 

It  has  been  already  stated  that,  down  to  the  time  of 
Solon,  the  classification  received  in  Attica  was  that  of  the 
four  Ionic  tribes,  comprising  in  one  scale  the  Phratries  and 
(jentes,  and  in  another  scale  the  three  Trittyes  and  forty- 
eight  Naukraries — while  the  Eupatridse,  seemingly  a  few 
specially  respected  gentes,  and  perhaps  a  few  distinguished 
families  in  all  the  gentes,  had  in  their  hands  all  the  powers 

lum  (says  Tacitus,  Ann.  vi.  1C)  et  of  the  Boeotian  towns  was  con- 
seditionumdiscordiavumqui'creber-  demned  to  sit  publicly  in  the  agora 
•ima  causa,"  &c.  :  compare  Appian,  with  a  basket  --  *-*-  *-  — a 


118  HISTOKY  OF  GKEECE.  PART  II, 

of  government.  Solon  introduced  a  new  principle  of 
classification — called  in  Greek  the  timocratic  principle.  He 
distributed  all  the  citizens  of  the  tribes,  without  any  re- 
ference totheirgentes  or  phratries,  into  four  classes,  accord- 
ing to  the  amount  of  their  property,  which  he  caused  to 
be  assessed  and  entered  in  a  public  schedule.  Those  whose 
annual  income  was  equal  to  500  medimni  of  corn  (about 
700  Imperial  bushels)  and  upwards — one  medimnus  being 
considered  equivalent  to  one  drachma  in  money — he  placed 
in  the  highest  class;  those  who  received  between  300  and 
500  medimni  or  drachms  formed  the  second  class;  and  those 
between  200  and  300,  the  third.1  The  fourth  and  most 
numerous  class  comprised  all  those  who  did 

His  census  •,       -,       .    -f-,.  ,  •,    , 

—four  not  possess  land  yielding  a  produce  equal  to 

scales  of  200  medimni.  The  first  class,  called  Pentakosio- 
medimni,  were  alone  eligible  to  the  archonship 
and  to  all  commands:  the  second  were  called  the  knights 
or  horsemen  of  the  state,  as  possessing  enough  to  enable 
them  to  keep  a  horse  and  perform  military  service  in  that 
capacity:  the  third  class,  called  the  Zeugitae,  formed  the 
heavy-armed  infantry,  and  were  bound  to  serve,  each  with 
his  full  panoply.  Each  of  these  three  classes  was  entered 
in  the  public  schedule  as  possessed  of  a  taxable  capital 
calculated  with  a  certain  reference  to  his  annual  income, 
but  in  a  proportion  diminishing  according  to  the  scale  of 
that  income — and  a  man  paid  taxes  to  the  state  according 
to  the  sum  for  which  he  stood  rated  in  the  schedule;  so 
that  this  direct  taxation  acted  really  like  a  graduated  in- 
come-tax. The  rateable  property  of  the  citizen  belonging 
to  the  richest  class  (the  Pentakosiomedimnus)  was  cal- 
culated and  entered  on  the  state-schedule  at  a  sum  of  capital 
equal  to  twelve  times  his  annual  income:  that  of  the 
Rippeus,  Horseman  or  knight,  at  a  sum  equal  to  ten  times 
his  annual  income:  that  of  the  Zeugite,  at  a  sum  equal  to 
five  times  his  annual  income.  Thus  a  Pentakosiomedim- 

1  Plutarch,  Solon,  18 — 23;  Pollux,  He  took  a  medimnus   (of  wheat 

xiii.    130;    Aristot.   Polit.    ii.   0,  4 ;  or    barley?)     as     equivalent   to    a 

Aristot.     Fragm.     r.ipi     IIoXiTeUov,  drachm,    and  a  sheep  at  the   same 

>"r.  51,  ed.  Neumann;  Harpokration  value  (i1>.  c.  23). 

and  Photius,  v.  '!--«:;;   Etymolog.  The    medimnus    seems  equal    to 

?>iag.  Zeoyiffiov,  6rjTtx6v  ;  the  Etym.  about   ls/s    (1-4)    English    Imperial 

Mag.     Zs'jyiaiov,     and    the    Schol.  bushel :  consequently  500  medimni 

Aristoph.  Equit. 627,  recognise  only  =700    English     Imperial    bushels, 

three  classes.  or  87 '/2  quarters. 


CHAP.  XI.         POLITICAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  SOLON.  119 

nus  whose  income  was  exactly  500  drachms  (the  minimum 
qualification  of  his  class),  stood  rated  in  the  schedule  for  a 
taxable  property  of  6000  drachmsorone  talent,  being  twelve 
times  his  income — if  his  annual  income  were  1000  drachms, 
he  would  standrated  for  1 2,000  drachms  ortwo talents,  being 
the  same  proportion  of  income  to  rateable  capital.  But  when 
we  pass  to  the  second  class,  Horsemen  or  knights,  the  pro- 
portion of  the  two  is  changed.  The  Horseman  Graduated 
possessing  an  income  of  just  300  drachms  (or  300  liability  to 
medimni)  would  stand  rated  for  3000  drachms,  or  oT'theThree 
ten  times  his  real  income,  arid  so  in  the  same  pro-  richest 
portion  for  any  income  above  300  and  below  500.  °o^seasr'edne 
Again,  in  the  third  class,  or  below  300,  the  pro-  with  the 
portion  is  a  second  time  altered — the  Zeugite  other- 
possessing  exactly  200  drachms  of  income  was  rated  upon  a 
still  lower  calculation,  at  1000  drachms,  or  a  sum  equal  to 
five  times  his  income;  and  all  incomes  of  this  class  (between 
200  and  300  drachms)  would  in  like  manner  be  multiplied  by 
five  in  order  to  obtain  the  amount  of  rateable  capital.  Upon 
these  respective  sums  oi'scheduled  capital,  all  direct  taxation 
was  levied.  If  the  state  required  one  per  cent,  of  direct  tax, 
the  poorest  Pentakosiomedimnus  would  pay  (upon  6000 
drachms)  60  drachms;  the  poorest  Hippeus  would  pay  (upon 
3000  drachms)  30 ;  the  poorest  Zeugite  would  pay  upon  1000 
drachms)  10  drachms.  And  thus  this  mode  of  assessment 
would  operate  like  a  graduated  income-tax,  looking  at  it  in 
reference  to  the  three  different  classes — but  as  an  equal 
income-tax,  looking  at  it  in  reference  to  the  different  indi- 
viduals comprised  in  one  and  the  same  class. l 

'The  excellent  explanation  of  the  pay  if  called  upon:  of  course  the 

Solonian    (-i^.r^i.)    property -sche-  state  does  not    call    for   the  ivhole 

dule    and  graduated  qualification,  of   a    man's    rated    property,    but 

first  given  by  Boeckh  in  his  Staats-  exacts    an    equal    proportion    of  it 

haushaltungder  Athener  (b.iii.c.  5),  from  each. 

has  elucidated  a  subject  which  was,  On    one   point    I   cannot    concur 

before   him,   nothing    but  darkness  with  Boeckh.  He  fixes  the  pecuni- 

and  mystery.  The  statement  of  Pol-  ary  qualification  of  the  third  class, 

lux  (viii.  130),  given  in  very  loose  or  Xeugites,    at   150   drachms,    not 

language,  had  been,  before  Boeckh,  at  200.  All  the  positive  testimonies 

erroneously    apprehended:    dv/().tj-  (as  he  himself  allows,  p.  31)  agree 

->.',->  sic   TO  OTijxoatov,  does  not  mean  in  fixing  200,  and  not  150;  and  the 

the    sums     which    the    Pantakosio-  inference  drawn  from  the  old  law, 

aieclimnus,    the     Hippeus,    or    the  quoted  in  Demosthenes  (cont.  Ma- 

Zeugite,  actually  paid  to  the  state,  kartat.  p.  1067)  is  too  uncertain  to 

but  the  sums  for    which    each    was  outweicrh   this    concurrence    of  au- 

ratud.  or  widen  each  was  lialile  to  thorities. 


120  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAKT  II. 

All  persons  in  the  state  whose  annual  income  amounted 
to  less  than  200  medimni  or  drachms  were  placed  in  the 
fourth  class,  and  they  must  have  constituted  the  large 
majority  of  the  community.  They  were  not  liable  to  any 
direct  taxation,  and  perhaps  were  not  at  first  even  entered 
upon  the  taxable  schedule,  more  especially  as  we  do  not 
know  that  any  taxes  were  actually  levied  upon  this  schedule 
during  the  Solonian  times.  It  is  said  that  they  were  all 
called  Thetes,  but  this  appellation  is  not  well  sustained, 
and  cannot  be  admitted:  the  fourth  compartment  in  the 
descending  scale  was  indeed  termed  the  Thetic  census, 
because  it  contained  all  the  Thetes,  and  because  most  of 
its  members  were  of  that  humble  description;  but  it  is  not 
conceivable  that  a  proprietor  whose  land  yielded  to  him  a 
clear  annual  return  of  100,  120,  140,  or  180  drachms,  could 
ever  have  been  designated  by  that  name. l 

Moreover  the  whole  Solonian  process  seems  to  me  rather  corn- 
schedule  becomes  clearer  and  more  plicated,  and  the  employment  of 
symmetrical  if  we  adhere  to  the  a  fraction  such  as  5/9  (both  difficult 
statement  of  200  drachms,  and  not  and  not  much  above  the  simple 
150,  as  the  lowest  scale  of  Zeugite  fraction  of  one-half)  very  improb- 
income  ;  for  the  scheduled  capital  able  :  moreover  Boeckh's  own  table 
is  then,  in  all  the  three  scales,  a  (p.  41)  gives  fractional  sums  in 
definite  and  exact  multiple  of  the  the  third  class,  when  none  appear 
income  returned — in  the  richest  in  the  first  or  second, 
class  it  is  twelve  times— in  the  Such  objections,  of  course,  would 
middle  class,  ten  times— in  the  not  be  admissible,  if  there  was 
poorest,  five  times  the  income,  any  positive  evidence  to  prove  the 
But  this  correspondence  ceases,  if  point.  But  in  this  case  they  are 
weadopt  the  suppositionof  Boeckh,  in  harmony  with  all  the  positive 
that  the  lowest  Zeugite  income  was  evidence,  and  are  amply  sufficient 
150  drachms ;  for  the  sum  of  1000  (in  my  judgement)  to  countervail 
drachms  (at  which  the  lowest  the  presumption  arising  from  the 
Zeugite  was  rated  in  the  schedule)  old  law  on  which  Boeckh  relies, 
is  no  exact  multiple  of  150  drachms.  '  See  Boeckh,  Staatshaushaltung 
In  order  to  evade  this  difficulty,  der  Athener,  it*  supra.  Pollux 
Boeckh  employs  a  way  bothround-  gives  an  Inscription  describing 
about  andincluilingnice  fractions :  Anthemion  son  of  Diphilus, — 
hethinks  thattheincomeof  eachwas  SYJTIXOU  dvTi  tjXou;  izrio'  7jj.si'ii- 
converted  into  capital  by  multiply-  jitvos.  The  word  TC).EW  does  not 
ing  by  twelve. and thatinthecaseof  necessarily  mean  actual  payment, 
the  richest  class,  or  Pentakosiome-  but  "the  being  included  in  a  class 
dimni,  the  whole  sum  so  obtained  with  a  certain  aggregate  of  duties 
was  entered  in  the  schedule— in  arid  liabilities," — equivalent  to 
the  case  of  the  second  class,  or  censeri  (Boeckh,  p.  36). 
Hippeis,  5/K  of  the  sum— and  in  Plato  in  his  treatise  De  Legibus 
the  case  of  the  third  class,  or  admits  a  quadripartite  census  of 
Zeusites,  5,,j  of  the  sum.  Now  this  citizens,  according  to  more  or  less 


CHAP.  XI.        GRADUATED  POLITICAL  PRIVILEGES.  121 

Such  were  the  divisions  in  the  political  scale  established 
by  Solon,  called  by  Aristotle  a  Timocracy,  in  Admea. 
which  the  rights,  honours,  functions,  and  liabili-  surement 
ties  of  the  citizens  were  measured  out  according  r/ghtshan°d J 
to  the  assessed  property  of  each.  The  highest  franchises 
honours  of  the  state — that  is,  the  places  of  the  toC°jjfsmg 
nine  archons  annually  chosen,  as  well  as  those  in  scale— a 
the  senate  of  Areopagus,  into  which  the  past  Tim°cracy- 
archons  always  entered — perhaps  also  the  posts  of  Prytanes 
of  the  Naukrari — were  reserved  for  the  first  class:  the 
poor  Eupatrids  became  ineligible,  while  rich  men  not 
Eupatrids  were  admitted.  Other  posts  of  inferior  distinc- 
tion were  filled  by  the  second  and  third  classes,  who  were 
moreover  bound  to  military  service,  the  one  on  horseback, 
the  other  as  heavy-armed  soldiers  on  foot.  Moreover,  the 
Liturgies  of  the  state,  as  they  were  called — unpaid  functions 
such  as  the  trierarchy,  choregy,  gymnasiarchy,  &c.,  which 
entailed  expense  and  trouble  on  the  holder  of  them — were 
distributed  in  some  way  or  other  between  the  members  of 
the  three  classes,  though  we  do  not  know  how  the  distri- 
bution was  made  in  these  early  times.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  members  of  the  fourth  or  lowest  class  were  disqualified 
from  holding  any  individual  office  of  dignity.  They  per- 
formed no  liturgies,  served  in  case  of  war  only  as  light- 
armed  or  with  a  panoply  provided  by  the  state,  and  paid 
nothing  to  the  direct  property-tax  or  Eisphora.  It  would 
be  incorrect  to  say  that  they  paid  no  taxes,  for  indirect 
taxes,  such  as  duties  on  imports,  fell  upon  them  in  common 
with  the  rest:  and  we  must  recollect  that  these  latter  were, 
throughout  a  long  period  of  Athenian  history,  in  steady 
operation,  while  the  direct  taxes  were  only  F 
levied  on  rare  occasions.  poorest 

But  though  this  fourth  class,  constituting  class  T 
the  great  numerical  majority  of  the  free  people,  po\vers 
were  shut  out  from  individual  office,  their  col-  on]y  \]\ 

,         .  ,-,  .,        assembly— 

iective  importance  was  in  another  way  greatly  chose  ma- 
increased.     They  were  invested  with  the  right  gistrates 
of  choosing  the  annual  archons,  out  of  the  class  them  to 
of  Pentakosiomedimni;  and  what  was  of  more  account- 
importance   still,   the   archons  and   the   magis- 


122  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

trates  generally,  after  their  year  of  office,  instead  of  being 
accountable  to  the  senate  of  Areopagus,  were  made  for- 
mally accountable  to  the  public  assembly  sitting  in  judge- 
ment upon  their  past  conduct.  They  might  be  impeach- 
ed and  called  upon  to  defend  themselves,  punished  in  case 
of  misbehaviour,  and  debarred  from  the  usual  honour  of  a 
seat  in  the  senate  of  Areopagus. 

Had  the  public  assembly  been  called  upon  to  act  alone 
p  b  without  aid  or  guidance,  this  accountability 

leutic  or  would  have  proved  only  nominal.  But  Solou 
pre-cpn-  converted  it  into  a  reality  by  another  new  in- 
ieifate  gof  stitution,  which  will  hereafter  be  found  of  great 
Four  Hun-  moment  in  the  working  out  of  the  Athenian 
democracy.  He  created  the  pro-bouleutic  or 
pre-considering  senate,  with  intimate  and  especial  reference 
to  the  public  assembly — to  prepare  matters  for  its  dis- 
cussion, to  convoke  and  superintend  its  meetings,  and  to 
ensure  the  execution  of  its  decrees.  The  senate,  as  first 
constituted  by  Solon,  comprised  400  members,  taken  in 
equal  proportions  from  the  four  tribes, — not  chosen  by  lot 
(as  they  will  be  found  to  be  in  the  more  advanced  stage  of 
the  democracy),  but  elected  by  the  people,  in  the  same 
way  as  the  archons  then  were, — persons  of  the  fourth  or 
poorest  class  of  the  census,  though  contributing  to  elect, 
not  being  themselves  eligible. 

But  while  Solon  thus  created  the  new  pre-considering 
senate,  identified  with  and  subsidiary  to  the  popular 
Senate  of  assembly,  he  manifested  no  jealousy  of  the  pre- 
.Aruopagus  existing  Areopagitic  senate.  On  the  contrary, 
ers  en-°W  he  enlarged  its  powers,  gave  to  it  an  ample 
larged.  supervision  over  the  execution  of  the  laws  gener- 
ally, and  imposed  upon  it  the  censorial  duty  of  inspecting 
the  lives  and  occupation  of  the  citizens,  as  well  as  of 
punishing  men  of  idle  and  dissolute  habits.  He  was  him- 
self, as  past  archon,  a  member  of  this  ancient  senate,  and 
he  is  said  to  have  contemplated  that  by  means  of  the  two 
senates,  the  state  would  be  held  fast,  as  it  were  with  a 
double  anchor,  against  all  shocks  and  storms.1 

Such  are  the  only  new  political  institutions  (apart 
from  the  laws  to  be  noticed  presently)  which  there  are 
grounds  for  ascribing  to  Solon,  when  we  take  proper  care 

1    Plutarch,    Solou,    18,    19,     23;      Athenreus,  iv.p.  168 ;  Valer.  Maxim. 
Philochorus,    Frag.    CO,    ed.  Didot.      ii.  G. 


CHAP.  XI.        ANALYSIS  OF  SOLONIAN  INSTITUTIONS.  123 

to  discriminate  what  really  belongs  to  Solon  and  his  age, 
from  the  Athenian  constitution  as  afterwards  re-   Confusion 
modelled.     It  has  been  a  practice  common  with   frequently 
many  able  expositors  of  Grecian  affairs,  and  foil-   tweeu  So- 
owed  partly  even  by  Dr.  Thirlwall, l  to  connect   lonita«?  aud 
the  name  of  Solon  with  the  whole  political  and   Fo>nian°iu- 
judicial  state  of  Athens  as  it  stood  between  the   stitutions. 
age  of  Perikles  and  that  of  Demosthenes, — the  regulations 
of  the  senate  of  five  hundred,  the  numerous  public  dikasts 
or  jurors  taken  by  lot  from  the  people,  as  well  as  the  body 
annually  selected  for  law-revision,  and  called  Nomothets, 
and  the  prosecution  (called  the  Graphe  Paranomon)  open 
to  be  instituted  against  the  proposer  of  any  measure  ille- 
gal, unconstitutional  or  dangerous.     There  is  indeed  some 
countenance  for  this  confusion  between  Solonian 
and  post-Solonian  Athens,  in  the  usage  of  the   ^ageo^the 
orators    themselves.     For      Demosthenes    and   Athenian 
^Eschines  employ  the  name  of  Solon  in  a  very    °hist<pointl 
loose  manner,  and  treat  him  as  the  author  of  in- 
stitutions belonging  evidently  to  a  later  age:  for  example 
the  striking  and  characteristic  oath  of  the  Heliastic  jurors, 
which  Demosthenes2  ascribes  to  Solon,  'proclaims  itself  in 

1  Menrsius,  Solon,  passim ;  Sigo-  to    6    -Kj|j.oGE-r^    (c.    Ktosiphon.    p. 

nius,    De  Kepubl.  Athen.  i.    p.    39  389). 

(though  in  some  passages  he  makes  Dr.    Thirlwall    notices    the    oath 

a  marked  distinction   between  the  as    prescribed    by    Solon   (History 

time  before  and  after  Kleisthcnes,  of  Greece,    vol.  ii.    ch.    xi.    p.  47). 

p.  28).  See  Waclismuth,  Hcllenische  So  again  Demosthenes  and  .SSschi- 

Alterthumskunde,  vol.  i.   sect.    40,  nes,    in   the   orations  against  Lep- 

47;  Tittmann,    Gricchische    Staats-  tines   (c.   21.    p.    480)    and    against 

verfassungen,  p.  14C ;   Platner,  Der  Timokrat.     p.      706,     7117— compare 

Attische    Prozess,    book    ii.    ch.  5.  yEschin.  c.  Ktesipb.  p.  429— in  com- 

p.  28—38:     Dr.  Thirlwall,    History  monting      upon      the      formalities 

of  Greece,  vol.  ii.  ch.  xi,  p.  40—57.  enjoined  for  repealing  an  existing 

Niebuhr,    in    bis    brief  allusions  law  and  enacting  a  new  one,  while 

to  the  legislation  of  Solon,   keeps  ascribing  the  whole  to  Solon — say, 

duly  in  view  the  material  difference  among    other    things,    that    Solon 

between  Athens  as   constituted  by  directed  the  proposer  "to    post  up 

Solon,    and    Athens    as  it  came  to  bis     project     of     law     before     the 

be  after  Kleisthenes  ;  but   he    pro-  Eponymi"     (exQsivai     spojOsv     TUJV 

sumes   a   closer    analogy    between  'EiKUv6|ji.tBv):     now     the     Kponymi 

the     Roman    patricians     and     the  were    (the    statues    of)    the  heroes 

Athenian    Eupatridas   than   we  are  from  wThom   the   ten    Kleiathenean 

entitled  to  count  upon.  tribes  drew  their   names,    and    the 

-  Demosthen.  cont.  Timokrat.  p.  law    making     mention     of     these 

Tiii.     ./fcschinus    ascribes    this  oath  statues,    proclaims    itself   as    of  a 


124  HISTOKY  OF  GKEKCE.  PART  II. 

many  ways  as  belonging  to  the  age  after  Kleisthenes ,  es- 
pecially by  the  mention  of  the  senate  of  five  hundred,  and 
not  of  four  hundred.  Among  the  citizens  who  served  as 
jurors  or  dikasts,  Solon  was  venerated  generally  as  the 
author  of  the  Athenian  laws.  An  orator  therefore  might 
well  employ  his  name  for  the  purpose  of  emphasis,  without 
provoking  any  critical  inquiry  whether  the  particular  in- 
stitution, which  he  happened  to  be  then  impressing  upon 
his  audience,  belonged  really  to  Solon  himself  or  to  the 

date  subsequent  to  Kleisthenes.  words  and  matters  esentially  post- 
Even  the  law  defining  the  treat-  Solonian,  so  that  modifications 
ment  of  the  condemned  murderer  subsequent  to  Solon  must  have 
who  returned  from  exile,  which  been  introduced.  This  admission 
both  Demosthenes  and  Doxopater  seems  to  me  fatal  to  the  cogency 
(ap.  "Walz.  Collect.  Khetor.  vol.  ii.  of  his  proof:  see  Schomann,  De 
p.  223)  call  a  law  of  Drake,  is  Comitiis,  ch.  vii.  p.  266 — 26S ;  and 
really  later  than  Solon,  as  may  be  the  same  author,  Antiq.  <T.  P.  Att. 
seen  by  its  mention  of  the  ci!;cov  sect,  xxxii.  His  opinion  is  shared 
(Demosth.  cont.  Aristok.  p.  629).  by  K.  P.  Hermann,  Lehrbuch  der 

Andokides  is  not  less  liberal   in  Griech.     Staatsalterth.     sect.     131; 

his    employment    of    the    name    of  and     Platner,     Attischer    Prozess, 

Solon  (see    Orat.    i.   De    Mysteriis,  vol.  ii.  p.  38. 

p.  13),  where  he  cites  as  a  law    of         Meier,    De    Bonis    Damnatorum. 

Solon,    an    enactment    \vhich   con-  p.     2,    remarks     upon     the     laxity 

tains    the    mention    of    the     tribe  with    which    the     orators    use    the 

.-Eantis    and     the     senate     of    five  name  of  Solon:  "Oratores  Solonis 

hundred  (obviously  therefore  sub-  nomine  srepe  utuntur,  ubi  omnino 

sequent      to      the      revolution     of  legislatorem  quemquam  significare 

Kleisthenes),  besides  other  matters  volunt,  etiamsi    a  Solone  ipso  lex 

which  prove  it  to  have  been  passed  lata  non  est."    Hermann  Schelling, 

even  subsequent  to  the  oligarchical  in     his     Dissertation     de     Solonis 

revolution    of    the    four    hundred,  Legibus  ap.  Oratt.   Attic.    (Berlin, 

towards  the  close  of  the  Pelopou-  1842),  has  collected    and  discussed 

nesian    war.      The    Prytanes,     the  the  references  to  Solon  and  to  his 

Proedri,  and  the  division  of  the  year  laws  in  the  orators.   He  controverts 

into    ten    portions     of  time,    each  the  opinion  just  cited  from  Meier, 

called  by  the  name    of  a   prytany  but  upon  arguments  no  way  satis- 

— so  interwoven  with  all  the  public  factory  to  me   (p.  C — ?);   the   more 

proceedings     of    Athens— do     not  so    as   he    himself  admits  that  the 

belong    to    the    Solonian    Athens,  dialect  in  which  the  Solonian  Jaws 

but    to    Athens     as    it    stood  after  appear    in    the     citation     of    the 

the  ten  tribes   of  Kleisthenes.  orators    can    never   have  been  the 

Schomann  maintains  emphatic-  original  dialect  of  Solon  himself 
ally,  that  the  sworn  Nomothetai  (p.  3—5),  and  makes  also  sub- 
as  they  stood  in  the  days  of  De-  stantially  the  same  admission  as 
mosthenes  were  instituted  by  Sol  on  ;  Schomann,  in  regard  to  the  presence 
but  he  admits  at  the  same  time  of  post-Soloniau  matters  in  the 
that  the  allusions  of  the  orators  supposed  Solouian  law  (p.  23 — 27). 
to  this  institution  include  both 


CHAP.  XI.         ANALYSIS  OF  SOLOXIAN  INSTITUTIONS.  125 

subsequent  periods.  Many  of  those  institutions,  which 
Dr.  Thirlwall  mentions  in  conjunction  with  the  name  of 
Solon,  are  among  the  last  refinements  and  elaborations  of 
the  democratical  mind  of  Athens — gradually  prepared, 
doubtless,  during  the  interval  between  Kleisthenes  and 
Perikles,  but  not  brought  into  full  operation  until  the 
period  of  the  latter  (400-429  B.  c.).  For  it  is  hardly  pos- 
sible to  conceive  these  numerous  dikasteries  and  assem- 
blies in  regular,  frequent,  and  long  standing  operation, 
without  an  assured  payment  to  the  dikasts  who  composed 
them.  Now  such  payment  first  began  to  be  made  about 
the  time  of  Perikles,  if  not  by  his  actual  proposition;1  and 
Demosthenes  had  good  reason  for  contending  that  if  it 
were  suspended,  the  judicial  as  well  as  the  administrative 
system  of  Athens  would  at  once  fall  to  pieces.2  It  would 
be  a  marvel,  such  as  nothing  short  of  strong  direct  evi- 
dence would  justify  us  in  believing,  that  in  an  age  when 
even  partial  democracy  was  yet  untried,  Solon  should  con- 
ceive the  idea  of  such  institutions;  it  would  be  Solon 

a  marvel  still  greater  that  the  half-emancipated   never  con- 

,        &,,  .  f.          i  11-        templated 

Thetes  and  small  proprietors,  tor  whom  he  iegis-    the  future 

lated — yet  trembling  under  the  rod  of  the  Eu-  c'i^nPe  or 
patrid  archons,  and  utterly  inexperienced  in  col-  onus 
lective  business — should  have  been  found  sud-  own  laws- 
denly  competent  to  fulfil  these  ascendent  functions,  such 
as  the  citizens  of  conquering  Athens  in  the  days  of  Peri- 
kles— full  of  the  sentiment  of  force  and  actively  identi- 
fying themselves  with  the  dignity  of  their  community — 
became  gradually  competent,  and  not  more  than  competent, 
to  exercise  with  effect.  To  suppose  that  Solon  contem- 
plated and  provided  for  the  periodical  revision  of  his  laws 
by  establishing  a  Nomothetic  jury  or  dikastery,  such  as 
that  which  we  find  in  operation  during  the  time  of  De- 
mosthenes, would  be  at  variance  (in  my  judgement)  with 
any  reasonable  estimate  either  of  the  man  or  of  the  age. 
Herodotus  says  that  Solon,  having  exacted  from  the  Alhe- 
nians  solemn  oaths  that  they  would  not  rescind  any  of  his 
laws  for  ten  years,  quitted  Athens  for  that  period,  in  order 
that  he  might  not  be  compelled  to  rescind  them  himself: 
Plutarch  informs  us  that  he  u;ave  to  his  laws  force  for  a 


126  HISTOET  OF  GKBECE.  PAET  II. 

century  absolute. l  Solon  himself,  and  Drako  before  him, 
had  been  lawgivers  evoked  and  empowered  by  the  special 
emergency  of  the  times :  the  idea  of  a  frequent  revision  of 
laws,  by  a  body  of  lot-selected  dikasts,  belongs  to  a  far 
more  advanced  age,  and  could  not  well  have  been  present 
to  the  minds  of  either.  The  wooden  rollers  of  Solon,  like 
the  tables  of  the  Roman  decemvirs,2  were  doubtless  intend- 
ed as  a  permanent  "fons  omnis  publici  privatique  juris." 

If  we  examine  the  facts  of  the  case,  we  shall  see  that 
Solon  laid  nothing  more  than  the  bare  foundation  of  the 
dationUof  democracy  of  Athens  as  it  stood  in  the  time  of 
the  Athe-  Perikles,  can  reasonably  be  ascribed  to  Solon. 

man  demo-     ,,T  ,1  i      /o    i  r   i_- 

cracy,  but  1  gave  to  the  people  (Solon  says  in  one  ot  his 
Ms  institu-  short  remaining  fragments3)  as  much  strength 
noTde'mo-  as  sufficed  for  their  needs,  without  either  enlar- 
craticai.  ging  or  diminishing  their  dignity:  for  those  too 
who  possessed  power  and  were  noted  for  wealth,  I  took 
care  that  no  unworthy  treatment  should  be  reserved.  I 
stood  with  the  strong  shield  cast  over  both  parties,  so  as 
not  to  allow  an  unjust  triumph  to  either."  Again,  Aristotle 
tells  us  that  Solon  bestowed  upon  the  people  as  much  power 
as  was  indispensable,  but  no  more:4  the  power  to  elect  their 

1  Herodot.  i.  29;  Plutarch,  Solon,  people    only    so    much    power    as 
c.   25.     Aulus   Gellius   affirms   that  could  not  be  withheld  from  them.'' 
the  Athenians  swore  under  strong  (Kom.  Geschichte  t.  ii.  p.  346,  2nd 
religious  penalties  to  observe  them  ed.)   Taking  the  first  two  lines  to- 
for  ever  (ii.  12).  gether,  I  think  JSTiebuhr's  meaning 

2  Livy,  iii.  34.  is  substantially   correct,   though  I 

3  Solon,  Fragm.  ii.  3,  ed.  Schnei-  give  a  more  literal  translation  ray- 
dewin: —  self.  Solon  seems  to  be  vindicating 

Ay;[A(u  [J.EV  yap  eSiuxa  toaov  xpdiT&i;,  himself    against    the    reproach    of 

oaaov  s-apy.si,  having     been     too     democratical, 

Ti|j.fJ?   &'JT'    d'-psXuw,    oij"'  ETiopE-  which  was  doubtless   addressed  to 

cdfjuvor  him  in  every   variety  of  language. 

Oi   8'    ^ly'J•l    vJvap.iv   xoit    y_pr,(xs3iv  *  Aristot.   Polit.     ii.    9,    4.     'E-Ei 

rjjav  ay^TOi,  SoXcov    y     soixs    TTJV    dvayxouoTaTyjv 

Kat  TO!?  r;pa3i|j.Tjv  [XTjOsv  dsixEi;  anooiSovai  T<ii  8r(jj.uj  Suvafiw,  TO  -i.e. 

lysiv.  dpyct;    aipsiaSou    xal    suOOveiv    (ATjSi 

Eo~Tjv  &  •msi^sXtov    xpaTSpov  ai-  ynp  TOOTOU  x'Jpio?    ojv  6  S^jj-O?,  6oO- 

xoc  ifxcciTspoioi,  t.oc.  av  sir,  xal  ^oXsjxioc. 
Nixav    6'     o6x    e'iaa'     o'j5;T£po'j?  In  tliis  passage  respecting  Solon 
oiSixux;.  (containing  sections  2,  3,  4  of  the 
The  reading    £--ap-xsi    in  the  first  edition    of  M.    Barthelemy  St.  Hi- 
line  is  not   universally    approved:  laire)  Aristotle  first  gives  the  opin- 
Brunck     adopts     s-apxelv,     which  ion    of  certain   critics  who  praised 
Xiebuhr  approves.    The  latter  con-  Solon,  with  the  reasons  upon  which 
strues  it  to  mean—  "I  gave  to  the  it    is   founded ;    next,   the    opinion 


CHAP.  XI.  SOLON  POUNDER  OF  ATHENIAN  DEMOCRACY.          127 

magistrates  and  hold  them  to  accountability:  if  the  people 
had  had  less  than  this,  they  could  not  have  been  expected 
to  remain  tranquil — they  would  have  been  in  slavery  and 
hostile  to  the  constitution.  Not  less  distinctly  does  Hero- 
dotus speak,  when  he  describes  the  revolution  subsequently 
operated  by  Kleisthenes — the  latter  (he  tells  us)  found 
"the  Athenian  people  excluded  from  everything."  *  These 
passages  seem  positively  to  contradict  the  supposition,  in 
itself  sufficiently  improbable,  that  Solon  is  the  author  of 
the  peculiar  democratical  institutions  of  Athens,  such  as 
the  constant  and  numerous  dikasts  for  judicial  trials  and 
revision  of  laws.  The  genuine  and  forward  democratical 
movement  of  Athens  begins  only  with  Kleisthenes,  from 
the  moment  when  that  distinguished  Alkmseonid,  either 
spontaneously  or  from  finding  himself  worsted  in  his  party 
strife  with  Isagoras,  purchased  by  lai'ge  popular  con- 
cessions the  hearty  co-operation  of  the  multitude  under 
very  dangerous  circumstances.  While  Solon,  in  his  own 
statement  as  well  as  in  that  of  Aristotle,  gave  to  the  people 
as  much  power  as  was  strictly  needful,  but  no  more  — 
Kleisthenes  (to  use  the  significant  phrase  of  Herodotus), 
"being  vanquished  in  the  party  contest  with  his  rival,,  took 
the  people  into  partners/up."  -  It  was,  thus,  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  weaker  section,  in  a  strife  of  contending  nobles, 
that  the  Athenian  people  owed  their  first  admission  to  po- 
litical ascendency — in  part,  at  least,  to  this  cause,  though 
the  proceedings  of  Kleisthenes  indicate  a  hearty  and  spon- 

of   certain  critics  who  blamed  him,  SvjjjLOVj      zpotspov     a^ioau-svov      itav- 

with    their    reasons  ;     thirdly,    his  TID-J,  Ac. 

own  judgement.     The  first  of  these  2  Herodot.    v.    06-69.      OJTOI    ii 

three    contains    sect.    2    (from    26-  ivOpc;  (Kleisthenes    and   Isagoras) 

Xuva  5'  sV.ot,  down  to  ~'j.  SixaoT^pia  esTCuiocja i  zipl  6'jMi|j.eu>c'  s3ao'J|j.iVjc 

noils'/;     jx     r:dc-jTiov).      The     second  03    6    K).Eu9ivY)s    tov    OTJIJLOV    TTSOJJ- 

coutains  the    greater   part    of  sect.  •exipi'sTa      .... 

3    (from     Aio    xai     'j.iu.'fn-'n     -ri-^q  ....    'Q;  yap  8-jj -rov 'A9-/J- atu)> 

The   remainder  is  his    own  judge-  -TOTE  ~po^   -.r^t    siuu~oCi    rtooiiQi 

ment.     I  notice  this,    because    sec-  (Kleisthenes)  ra;  tpuXi;  U.STU>J 

tions  2  and  3  are    not  to  be  taken  ....     rt<t    3s,    TO-;    3/j'j.ov    irp 

as  the  opinion  of  Aristotle  himself,  JJLS-JCC,    -oX'Acp     xaru^EpOs    TU 

but  of   those   upon    whom   he  was  oT'/3UU7S(o-;. 

commenting,  who  considered  Solon          As  to    the    marked    demorrn*ieal 

as    the    author   of  the   dikasteries  tendency    of     the     proceedings    <>f 

selected  by  lot.  Kleisthenes,  see  Aristot.  Polit.  vi. 

1  Herod.it.     v.    CO.     tov    'A!J/,-;aiwv  2,   11  ;   iii.   1,   10. 


128  HISTOKY  OP  GREECE.  PAET  II. 

taneous  popular  sentiment.  But  such  constitutional  ad- 
mission of  the  people  would  not  have  been  so  astonishingly 
fruitful  in  positive  results,  if  the  course  of  public  events 
for  the  half  century  after  Kleisthenes  had  not  been  such 
as  to  stimulate  most  powerfully  their  energy,  their  self- 
reliance,  their  mutual  sympathies,  and  their  ambition.  I 
shall  recount  in  a  future  chapter  these  historical  causes, 
The  real  which,  acting  upon  the  Athenian  character,  gave 
Athenian  such  efficiency  and  expansion  to  the  great  demo- 
beminsracy  cratical  impulse  communicated  by  Kleisthenes: 
with  Kieis-  at  present  it  is  enough  to  remark  that  that  im- 
thenes.  pulse  commences  properly  with  Kleisthenes,  and 
not  with  Solon. 

But  the  Solonian  constitution,  though  only  the  foun- 
dation, was  yet  the  indispensable  foundation,  of  the  sub- 
sequent democracy.  And  if  the  discontents  of  the  miser- 
able Athenian  population,  instead  of  experiencing  his 
disinterested  and  healing  management,  had  fallen  at  once 
into  the  hands  of  selfish  power-seekers  like  Kylon  or  Pisi- 
stratus  —  the  memorable  expansion  of  the  Athenian  mind 
during  the  ensuing  century  would  never  have  taken  place, 
and  the  whole  subsequent  history  of  Greece  would  probably 
have  taken  a  different  course.  Solon  left  the  essential  pow- 
ers of  the  state  still  in  the  hands  of  the  oligarchy.  The 
party  combats  (to  be  recounted  hereafter)  between  Peisi- 
stratus,  Lykurgus  and  Megakles,  thirty  years  after  his  legis- 
lation, which  ended  in  the  despotism  of  Peisistratus,  will 
appear  to  be  of  the  same  purely  oligarchical  character  as 
they  had  been  before  Solon  was  appointed  archon.  But 
(he  oligarchy  which  he  established  was  very  different  from 
the  unmitigated  oligarchy  which  he  found,  so  teeming  with 
oppression  and  so  destitute  of  redress,  as  his  own  poems 
testify. 

It  was  he  who  first  gave  both  to  the  citizens  of  middling 
Athenian  property  and  to  the  general  mass,  a  locus  standi 
menTafter  against  the  Eupatrids.  He  enabled  the  people 
Solon  still  partially  to  protect  themselves,  and  familiarised 
caVbut1"  them  with  the  idea  of  protecting  themselves,  by 
mitigated,  the  peaceful  exercise  of  a  constitutional  fran- 
chise. The  new  force,  through  which  this  protection  was 
carried  into  effect,  was  the  public  assembly  called  Helisea, ' 

1  Lysias    cont.    Tbeomnest.  A.  c.      ti.|jLr,3Tj    TJ    'HXiotia    as    a    Soloniau 
0.  p.    357,  wiio  gives    siv    (JLYJ    ;:poa-      phrase;  though  we  are  led  to  doubt 


CHAP.  XI.  MITIGATED  OLIGAKCHY.  129 

regularised  and  armed  with  enlarged  prerogatives  and 
farther  strengthened  by  its  indispensable  ally — the  pro- 
bouleutic  or  preconsidering  senate.  Under  the  Solonian 
constitution,  this  force  was  merely  secondary  and  defensive, 
but  after  the  renovation  of  Kleisthenes  it  became  para- 
mount and  sovereign.  It  branched  out  gradually  into  those 
numerous  popular  dikasteries  which  so  powerfully  modi- 
fied both  public  and  private  Athenian  life,  drew  to  itself 
the  undivided  reverence  and  submission  of  the  people,  and 
by  degrees  rendered  the  single  magistracies  essentially  sub- 
ordinate functions.  The  popular  assembly,  as  constituted 
by  Solon,  appearing  in  modified  efficiency  and  trained  to  the 
office  of  reviewing  and  judging  the  general  conduct  of  a 
past  magistrate — forms  the  intermediate  stage  between 
the  passive  Homeric  agora,  and  those  omnipotent  assemblies 
and  dikasteries  which  listened  to  Perikles  or  Demosthenes. 
Compared  with  these  last,  it  has  in  it  but  a  faint  streak  of 
democracy — and  so  it  naturally  appeared  to  Aristotle,  who 
wrote  with  a  practical  experience  of  Athens  in  the  time  of 
the  orators;  but  compared  with  the  first,  or  with  the  ante- 
Solonian  constitution  of  Attica,  it  must  doubtless  have 
appeared  a  concession  eminently  democratical.  To  impose 
upon  the  Eupatrid  archon  the  necessity  of  being  elected, 

whether  Solon  can  ever  have  cm-  dikasteries  sat  (Demosthen.  cont. 
ployed  it,  when  we  find  Pollux  Timokrat.  c.  21,  p.  726)  :  every 
(vii.  5,  22)  distinctly  stating  that  dikastery  is  in  fact  always  address- 
Solon  used  the  word  sraiTict  to  ed  as  if  it  were  the  assembled 
signify  what  the  orators  called  people  engaged  in  a  specific  duty. 
7cpoaTi|j.v;j[i9!T'x.  I  imagine  the  term  'HXictia  in 
The  original  and  proper  meaning  the  time  of  Solon  to  have  been 
of  the  word  'H/.taiot  is,  the  public  used  in  its  original  meaning — the 
assembly  (see  Tittmann,  Griech-  public  assembly,  perhaps  with  the 
Staatsverfass.  p.  215 — 21(!)  :  in  sub-  implication  of  employment  in 
sequent  times  we  find  it  signifying  judicial  proceeding.  The  fixed 
at  Athens— 1.  The  aggregate  of  number  of  GOOD  does  not  date  before 
6000  dikasts  chosen  by  lot  annually  the  time  of  Kleisthenes,  because 
and  sworn,  or  the  assembled  people  it  is  essentially  connected  with 
considered  as  exercising  judicial  the  ten  tribes:  while  the  subdivision 
functions;  2.  Each  of  the  separate  of  this  body  of  COOO  into  various 
fractions  into  which  this  aggregate  bodies  of  jurors  for  different  courts 
body  was  in  practice  subdivided  and  purposes  did  not  commence, 
for  actual  judicial  business,  probably,  until  after  the  first  re- 
'ExxXY]3i7.  became  the  term  for  the  forms  of  Kleisthenes.  I  shall 
public  deliberative  assembly  pro-  revert  to  this  point  when  I  touch 
perly  so  called,  which  could  never  upon  the  latter  and  his  times. 
be  held  on  the  same  day  that  the 

VOL.  III. 


130  HISTOEY  OF  GKEECB.  PAST  II. 

or  put  upon  his  trial  of  after-accountability,  by  the  rabble 
of  freemen  (such  would  be  the  phrase  in  Eupatrid  society), 
would  be  a  bitter  humiliation  to  those  among  whom  it  was 
first  introduced;  for  we  must  recollect  that  this  was  the 
most  extensive  scheme  of  constitutional  reform  yet  pro- 
pounded in  Greece,  and  that  despots  and  oligarchies  shared 
between  them  at  that  time  the  whole  Grecian  world.  As 
it  appears  that  Solon,  while  constituting  the  popular 
assembly  with  its  pro-bouleutic  senate,  had  no  jealousy  of 
the  senate  of  Areopagus,  and  indeed  even  enlarged  its  pow- 
ers— we  may  infer  that  his  grand  object  was,  not  to  weaken 
the  oligarchy  generally,  but  to  improve  the  administration 
and  to  represss  the  misconduct  and  irregularities  of  the  in- 
dividual archons;  and  that  too,  not  by  diminishing  their 
powers,  but  by  making  some  degree  of  popularity  the  con- 
dition both  of  their  entry  into  office,  and  of  their  safety  or 
honour  after  it. 

It  is,  in  my  judgement,  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  Solon 
The  transferred  the  judicial  power  of  the  archons  to 

archons  a  popular  dikastery.  These  magistrates  still 
tinued°to  continued  self-acting  judges,  deciding  and  con- 
be  .judges  derailing  without  appeal — not  mere  presidents 
the^im"6*  °f  an  assembled  jury,  as  they  afterwards  came 
of  Kiel-  to  be  during  the  next  century. l  For  the  general 
sthenes.  exercise  of  such  power  they  were  accountable 
after  their  year  of  office.  Such  accountability  was  the 

1  The  statement  of  Plutarch,  that  mind    from     confusion    with    the 

Solon    gave    an    appeal    from    the  Roman    provocatiu,     which    really 

decision  of  the  archon  to  the  judge-  was  an  appeal  from  the  judgement 

ment     of    the     popular    dikastery  of  the  consul  to  that  of  the  people. 

(Plutarch,  Solon,  18),  is  distrusted  Plutarch's     comparison     of     Solon 

by  most  of  the  expositors,  though  with  Publicola  leads  to  this  suspi- 

Dr.  Thirlwall    seems    to    admit  it,  cion — Kcu  TOI?  Oc'lyoucu  6ixr,v,    e-t- 

justifying    it    by    the    analogy    of  xotXeiaSai  TOV  STJJJL.OV,  toarccp  6  SoXiov 

the    Ephetre    or   judges    of   appeal  TO1!)?    Btxoia-ac,     iSioxs    (Publicola). 

constituted     by    Drako     (Hist,     of  The    Athenian    archon   was    first  a 

Greece,  vol.  ii.  ch.  xi.  p.  46).  judge  without  appeal  ;    and   after- 

To  me  it    appears    that  the  Dra-  wards,    ceasing   to   be  a  judge,    he 

konian    Ephetre    were    not     really  became    president    of   a   dikastery, 

judges    in   appeal:   but   be   that  as  performing  only  those  preparatory 

it  may,  the  supposition  of  an  appeal  steps    which    brought    the    case  to 

from  the  judgement    of  the  archon  an  issu"   fit    for   decision:    but    he 

is    inconsistent    with    the     known  does  not   seem   ever  to    have  been 

course  of  Attic  procedure,  and  has  a  judge  subject  to  appeal, 

apparently    arisen     in    Plutarch's  It  is  hardly  just   to  Plutarch   to 


CHAP.  XI.  MITIGATED  OLIGARCHY.  131 

security  against  abuse — a  very  insufficient  security,  yet  not 
wholly  inoperative.  It  will  be  seen  however  presently,  that 
these  archons,  though  strong  to  coerce,  and  perhaps  to  op- 
press, small  and  poor  men — had  no  means  of  keeping  down 
rebellious  nobles  of  their  own  rank,  such  as  Peisistratus, 
Lykurgus,  and  Megakles,  each  with  his  armed  followers. 
"When  we  compare  the  drawn  swords  of  these  ambitious 
competitors,  ending  in  the  despotism  of  one  of  them,  with 
the  vehement  parliamentary  strife  between  Themistokles 
and  Aristeides  afterwards,  peaceably  decided  by  the  vote 
of  the  sovereign  people  and  never  disturbing  the  public 
tranquillity — we  shall  see  that  the  democracy  of  the  ensuing 
century  fulfilled  the  conditions  of  order,  as  well  as  of  pro- 
gress, better  than  the  Solonian  constitution. 

To  distinguish  this   Solonian  constitution    from  the 
democracy  which  followed  it,  is  essential  to  a   After- 
due  comprehension  of  the  progress  of  the  Greek   the^fthe-n 
mind,  and  especially  of  Athenian  affairs.     That   nian  con- 
democracy  was  achieved  by  gradual  steps,  which    ^t^ioa 
will  be  hereafter  described.     Demosthenes  and   by  the 
JEschines  lived  under  it  as  a  system  consum-   orators,  but 

L     i  T    •       f    ^^         j.-    -j.  i  j.i  i.  c    understood 

mated  and  in  lull  activity,  when  the  stages  01    by  Aris- 
its  previous  growth  were  no  longer  matter  of  totlej  and 

-i    ji         TI  i  i    j     strongly 

exact  memory;  and  the  dikasts  then  assembled   felt  at 
in  -judgement  were  pleased  to  hear  their  con-    Ath.ens,, 

,./   ,.*=  •    .    j        -j-i,    AT  -4-1  ?    during  the 

stitution  associated  with  the  names  either  01  time  of 
Solon  or  of  Theseus.  Their  inquisitive  contem-  ^erikies. 
porary  Aristotle  was  not  thus  misled:  but  even  common- 
place Athenians  of  the  century  preceding  would  have  es- 
caped the  same  delusion.  For  during  the  whole  course  of 
the  democratical  movement  from  the  Persian  invasion  down 
to  the  Peloponnesian  war,  and  especially  during  the  changes 
proposed  by  Perikles  and  Ephialtes,  there  was  always  a 
slrenuous  party  of  resistance,  who  would  not  suffer  the 
people  to  forget  that  they  had  already  forsaken,  and  were 
ou  the  point  of  forsaking  still  more,  the  orbit  marked  out 
by  Solon.  The  illustrious  Perikles  underwent  innumerable 

n  ake   him   responsible  for  the  ab-  with  the  saving  expression  ~l.e'[z-rj.i-, 

s  ird   remark    that    Solon   rendered  "it    is    said;"    and     we    may    well 

1]  s   laws  intentionally  obscure,  in  doubt  whether  it  was  ever  seriously 

o  'dor  that  the  dikasts   might  have  inteiided  even  by  its  author,  who- 

n  ore    to    do    and    greater    power,  ever  lie  may  have  been, 
lie  gives  the  remark,  himself,  only 

K    2 


132  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAST  II. 

attacks  both  from  the  orators  in  the  assembly  and  from  the 
comic  writers  in  the  theatre.  And  among  these  sarcasms 
on  the  political  tendencies  of  the  day,  we  are  probably  to 
number  the  complaint,  breathed  by  the  poet  Kratinus,  of 
the  desuetude  into  which  both  Solon  and  Drako  had  fallen 
— UI  swear  (said  he  in  a  fragment  of  one  of  his  comedies) 
by  Solon  and  Drako,  whose  wooden  tablets  (of  laws)  are 
now  employed  by  people  to  roast  their  barley." l  The  laws 
of  Solon  respecting  penal  offences,  respecting  inheritance 
and  adoption,  respecting  the  private  relations  generally, 
&c.,  remained  for  the  most  part  in  force:  his  quadripartite 
census  also  continued,  at  least  for  financial  purposes,  until 
the  archonship  of  Nausinikus  in  377  B.C. — so  that  Cicero 
and  others  might  be  warranted  in  affirming  that  his  laws 
still  prevailed  at  Athens:  but  his  political  and  judicial  ar- 
rangements had  undergone  a  revolution2 not  less  complete 
and  memorable  than  the  character  and  spirit  of  the  Athe- 
nian people  generally.  The  choice,  by  way  of  lot,  of 
archons  and  other  magistrates — and  the  distribution  by  lot 
of  the  general  body  of  dikasts  or  jurors  into  pannels  for 
judicial  business — may  be  decidedly  considered  as  not  be- 
longing to  Solon,  but  adopted  after  the  revolution  of 
Kleisthenes; 3  probably  the  choice  of  senators  by  lot 
also.  The  lot  was  a  symptom  of  pronounced  democratical 
spirit,  such  as  we  must  not  seek  in  the  Solonian  institu- 
tions. 

1  Kratinus  ap.    Plutarch.    Solon,  sessed  under   the  Solonian  consti- 

25. —  tution,— TOO    TOC<;   ap/a?  xaTMTrjaai 

IIpo?   TOO  26)>iovo<;   xat  Apaxovto?,  xal  Xaftsiv   OIXTJV   napa   rtbv   s!;3|jLap- 

0131  vuv  Tav6v~u>v,  which  coincides  with  the 

Opuyouaiv  TJOT]  TO?  xa)rpu;   TOCIS  phrase     of     Aristotle  —  -<i<;     apy_a? 

X'Jppeatv.  atpEioBai     xal     euO'JvEtv, — supposing 

Isokrates   praises    the   moderate  dpyovTtuv  to    be  understood  as  the 

democracy     in    early    Athens,     as  substantive  of  £;otfjLap-avo-/Tuy;. 

compared   with    that  under   which  Compare    Isokratgs,    Or.    vii.    p. 

he    lived ;    but     in    the    Orat.    vii.  143   (p.   192   Bek.)   and   p.    150    (202 

(Areopagitic.)     he     connects     the  Bek.),   and    Orat.    xii.    p.   260—204 

former   with   the    names    of  Solon  (351—356  Bek.). 

and  Kleistlienes,  while  in  the  Orat.  2  Cicero,  Orat.  pro  Sext.  Eoscio, 

xii.  (Panathenaic.)  he  considers  the  c.  25;  ^Elian,  V.  H.  viii.  10. 

former    to    have    lasted    from    the  3  This  seems    to    be   the  opinion 

days  of  Theseus  to  those  of  Solon  of  Dr.    Thirlwall,    against   AVachs- 

and    Peisistratus.      In    this    latter  muth  ;  though  he  speaks  with  doubt 

oration  lie  describes  pretty  exactly  (History  of  Greece,  vol.  ii.  ch.  11, 

the  power   which   the   people  pos-  p.  48,  2nd  ed.). 


CHAP.  XI.      GRADUAL  CHANGE  IN  LAWS  OF  SOLON.  133 

It  is  not  easy  to  make  out  distinctly  what  was  the 
political   position   of  the   ancient  Gentes  and   „ 

i    •  01    i         -I    fj.   ii  mi       f          i.    -\  trentes  and 

Phratries,  as  Solon  left  them,     Hie  tour  tribes   Phratries 
consisted  altogether  of  gentes  and  phratries.  in-   under  the 

i     ii     i  111        -ill-  Solonian 

somuch  that  no  one  could  be  included  in  any   constitu- 
one  of  the  tribes  who  was  not  also  a  member  tion— sta- 

J         1  XT  J.T-  tus    of  Per- 

of  some  gens  and  phratry.  JNow  the  new  pro-  sons  not  in- 
bouleutic  or  preconsidering  senate  consisted  of  °'uded  iu 
400  members, — 100  from  each  of  the  tribes:  per- 
sons not  included  in  any  gens  or  phratry  could  therefore 
have  had  no  access  to  it.  The  conditions  of  eligibility 
were  similar,  according  to  ancient  custom,  for  the  nine 
archons — of  course,  also,  for  the  senate  of  Areopagus.  So 
that  there  remained  only  the  public  assembly,  in  which  an 
Athenian  not  a  member  of  these  tribes  could  take  part: 
yet  he  was  a  citizen,  since  he  could  give  his  vote  for 
archons  and  senators,  and  could  take  part  in  the  annual 
decision  of  their  accountability,  besides  being  entitled  to 
claim  redress  for  wrong  from  the  archons  in  his  own  per- 
son— while  the  alien  could  only  do  so  through  the  inter- 
vention of  an  avouching  citizen  or  Prostates.  It  seems 
therefore  that  ail  persons  not  included  in  the  four  tribes, 
whatever  their  grade  of  fortune  might  be,  were  on  the 
same  level  in  respect  to  political  privilege  as  the  fourth 
and  poorest  class  of  the  Solonian  census.  It  has  already 
been  remarked,  that  even  before  the  time  of  Solon,  the 
number  of  Athenians  not  included  in  the  gentes  or  phra- 
tries was  probably  considerable:  it  tended  to  become  greater 
and  greater,  since  these  bodies  were  close  and  unexpansive, 
while  the  policy  of  the  new  lawgiver  tended  to  invite  in- 
dustrious settlers  from  other  parts  of  Greece  to  Athens. 
Such  great  and  increasing  inequality  of  political  privilege 
helps  to  explain  the  weakness  of  the  government  in  repel- 
ling the  aggressions  of  Peisistratus,  and  exhibits  the  im- 
portance of  the  revolution  afterwards  wrought  by  Klei- 
sthenes,  when  he  abolished  (for  all  political  purposes)  the 
four  old  tribes,  and  created  ten  new  comprehensive  tribes 
in  place  of  them. 

In  regard  to  the  regulations  of  the  senate  and  the  as- 
sembly of  the  people,  as  constituted  by  Solon,  we  are  alto- 
gether without  information:  nor  is  it  safe  to  transfer  to  the 
Solonian  constitution  the  information,  comparatively  ample, 
which  we  possess  respecting  these  bodies  under  the  later 
democracy. 


134  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAST  II. 

The  laws  of  Solon  were  inscribed  on  wooden  rollers 
Laws  of  and  triangular  tablets,  in  the  species  of  writing 
Solon.  called  Boustrophedon  (lines  alternating  first 

from  left  to  right,  and  next  from  right  to  left,  like  the 
course  of  the  ploughman),  and  preserved  first  in  the  Akro- 
polis,  subsequently  in  the  Prytaneium.  On  the  tablets, 
called  Kyrbeis,  were  chiefly  commemorated  the  laws  re- 
specting sacred  rites  and  sacrifices:1  on  the  pillars  or  rol- 
lers, of  which  there  were  at  least  sixteen,  were  placed  the 
regulations  respecting  matters  profane.  So  small  are  the 
fragments  which  have  come  down  to  us,  and  so  much  has 
been  ascribed  to  Solon  by  the  orators  which  belongs  really 
to  the  subsequent  times,  that  it  is  hardly  possible  to  form 
any  critical  judgement  respecting  the  legislation  as  a  whole, 
or  to  discover  by  what  general  principles  or  purposes  he 
was  guided. 

He  left  unchanged  all  the  previous  laws  and  practices 
respecting  the  crime  of  homicide,  connected  as  they  were 
intimately  with  the  religious  feelings  of  the  people.  The 
laws  of  Drako  on  this  subject,  therefore,  remain- 
nian  iaws°~  ed,  but  on  other  subjects,  according  to  Plutarch, 
about  ho-  they  were  altogether  abrogated:2  there  is  how- 
retained;  ever  room  for  supposing,  that  the  repeal  cannot 

the  rest  have  been  •  so  sweeping  as  this  biographer  re- 
abrogated. 

presents. 

The  Solonian  laws  seem  to  have  borne  more  or  less 

1  Plutarch,     Solon,    23 — 25.      He-  written     commentaries     expressly 

particularly  mentions  the  sixteenth  about  them    (Plutarch,    Solon,  i. ; 

a;cov :  we  learn  also  that  the  thir-  Suidas,  v.  'OpyEOJvsi; ;  compare  also 

teenth  oc^tuv    contained   the  eighth  Aleursius,    Solon,  c.  24;   Vit.  Aris- 

law    (c.    19) :   the    twenty-first   law  totelis   ap.    Westermann.   Vitarum 

is  alluded   to    in  Harpokration,  v.  Scriptt.    Gra?c.     p.    404),     and    the 

"OTI  ot  r.fjir-.rA.  collection  in  Stephan.  Thesaur.  p. 

Some  remnants  of  these  wooden  1095. 

rollers  existed  in  the  days  of  Plu-  2  Plutarch,  Solon,  c.  17;  Cyrill. 
tarch  in  the  Athenian  Prytaneium.  cont.  Julian,  v.  p.  169,  ed.  Span- 
See  Harpokration  and  Photius,  v.  heim.  The  enumeration  of  the 
K'Jp-liis;  Aristot.  «pi  RoXtTEiiuv,  different  admitted  justifications  for 
Frag.  35,  ed.  Neumann  ;  Euphorioii  homicide,  which  we  find  in  De- 
ap.  Harpokrat.  '0  xaTCuQsv  vojj.0;.  mosth.  cont.  Aristokrat.  p.  637, 
Bekker,  Anecdota,  p.  413.  seems  rather  too  copious  and  sys- 
What  we  read  respecting  the  tematic  for  the  age  of  Drako ;  it 
a;ovss  and  the  xOpftei;  does  not  may  have  been  amended  by  Solon, 
convey  a  clear  idea  of  them.  Be-  or  perhaps  in  an  age  subsequent 
sides  Aristotle,  both  Seleukus  and  to  Solon. 
Didymus  are  named  as  having 


CHAP.  XI.  LAWS  OF  SOLON.  135 

upon    all  the  great  departments  of  human    interest  and 
duty.     We  find  regulations  political  and  religious,  public 
and  private,  civil  and  criminal,  commercial,  agri-   Multif 
cultural,  sumptuary,   and  disciplinarian.     Solon   rious1  char- 
provides  punishment  for  crimes, restricts  the  pro-   |oter  of 
f'essiou   and   status    of  the    citizen,   prescribes    appearance 
detailed  rules  for  marriage  as  well  as  for  burial,    of  cias- 

j-ji  i»         •  a         11  j  c         sification. 

for  the  common  use  01  springs  and  wells,  and  lor 
the  mutual  interest  of  conterminous  farmers  in  planting  or 
hedging  their  properties.  As.  far  as  we  can  judge  from 
the  imperfect  manner  in  which  his  laws  come  before  us, 
there  does  not  seem  to  have  been  any  attempt  at  a  syste- 
matic order  or  classification.  Some  of  them  are  mere 
general  and  vague  directions,  while  others  again  run  into 
the  extreme  of  speciality. 

By  far  the  most  important  of  all  was  the  amendment 
of  the  law  of  debtor  and  creditor  which  has  already  been 
adverted  to,  and  the  abolition  of  the  power  of  fathers  and 
brothers  to  sell  their  daughters  and  sisters  into  slavery. 
The  prohibition  of  all  contracts  on  the  security  of  the  body 
was  itself  sufficient  to  produce  a  vast  improvement  in  the 
character  and  condition  of  the  poorer  population, — a  result 
which  seems  to  have  been  so  sensibly  obtained  from  the 
legislation  of  Solon,  that  Boeckh  and  some  other  eminent 
authors  suppose  him  to  have  abolished  villenage  and  con- 
ferred upon  the  poor  tenants  a  property  in  their  landt^, 
annulling  the  seignorial  rights  of  the  landlord.  But  this 
opinion  rests  upon  no  positive  evidence,  nor  are  we  war- 
ranted in  ascribing  to  him  any  stronger  measure  in  refer- 
ence to  the  land  than  the  annulment  of  the  previous 
mortgages.  * 

The  first  pillar  of  his  laws  contained  a  regulation  re- 
specting exportable  produce.  He  forbade  the  exportation 
of  all  produce  of  the  Attic  soil,  except  olive-oil  alone. 
And  the  sanction  employed  to  enforce  observance  of  this 
law  deserves  notice,  as  an  illustration  of  the  ideas  of  the 
time — the  archon  was  bound  on  pain  of  forfeiting  100 
drachms,  to  pronounce  solemn  curses  against  every 

1  See   Boeckh,    Public    Economy  that  Solon  enacted  a  law  to  limit 

of  the  Athenians,  book  iii.  sect.  5.  the    quantity    of    land    which   any 

Tittmann    (Griechische    Staatsver-  individual    citizen    might   acquire, 

fas s.  p.  «51)  and    others    have  sup-  But  the  passage  does  not  seem  to 

posed  (from  Aristot.  Polit.  ii.  4,  4)  me  to  hear  out  such  an  opinion. 


136  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAST  n. 

offender.1  "We  are  probably  to  take  this  prohibition  in 
He  pro-  conjunction  with  other  objects  said  to  have  been 
Mbits  the  contemplated  by  Solon,  especially  the  encour- 
ismded  °ro-  agementi  of  artisans  and  manufacturers  at  Athens, 
duce  from  Observing  (we  are  told)  that  many  new  immi- 
ce^oh""  &ran*s  were  Just  then  flocking  into  Attica  to 
seek  an  establishment,  in  consequence  of  its  great- 
er security,  he  was  anxious  to  turn  them  rather  to  manu- 
facturing industry  than  to  the  cultivation  of  a  soil  na- 
turally poor.2  He  forbade  the  granting  of  citizenship  to 
any  immigrants,  except  to  such  as  had  quitted  irrevocably 
their  former  abodes,  and  come  to  Athens  for  the  purpose 
of  carrying  on  some  industrious  profession;  and  in  order  to 
prevent  idleness,  he  directed  the  senate  of  Areopagus  to 
keep  watch  over  the  lives  of  the  citizens  generally,  and 
punish  every  one  who  had  no  course  of  regular  labour  to 
support  him.  If  a  father  had  not  taught  his  son  some  art 
or  profession,  Solon  relieved  the  son  from  all  obligation  to 
maintain  him  in  his  old  age.  And  it  was  to  encourage  the 
multiplication  of  these  artisans,  that  he  ensured,  or  sought 
to  ensure,  to  the  residents  in  Attica  the  exclusive  right  of 
buying  and  consuming  all  its  landed  produce  except  olive- 
oil,  which  was  raised  in  abundance  more  than  sufficient  for 
their  wants.  It  was  his  wish  that  the  trade  with  for- 
eigners should  be  carried  on  by  exporting  the  produce  of 
artisan  labour,  instead  of  the  produce  of  land.3 

•Plutarch,  Solon,    24.     The  first  2  Plutarch,  Solon,  22.  Tat?  TS-/VCUC 

law,  however,    is    said  to  have  re-  d?iiu(j.a  rspuOrjXi. 

lated   to    the   ensuring   of  a  main-  3  Plutarch,    Solon,    22—24.     Ac- 

tenance  to  wives  and  orphans  (Har-  cording   to  Herodotus,    Solon  had 

pokration,  v.  2iTo;).  enacted  that  the  authorities  should 

By  a  law  of  Athens  (which  marks  punish  every  man  with  death  who 

itself  out  as  belonging  to  the  cen-  could  not  show  a  regular  mode  of 

tury  after  Solon,  by  the  fulness  of  industrious  life     (Herod,    ii.    177  ; 

its  provisions   and    by  the  number  Diodor.  i.  77). 

of  steps  and  official  persons  named  So  severe  a  punishment  is  not 
in  it),  the  rooting  up  of  an  olive-  credible  ;  nor  is  it  likely  that  So- 
tree  in  Attica  was  forbidden,  under  Ion  borrowed  his  idea  from  Egypt, 
a  penalty  of  200  drachms  for  each  According  toPollux  (viii.  6)  idle- 
tree  so  destroyed — except  for  sacred  ness  was  punished  by  atimy  (ci- 
purposes,  or  to  the  extent  of  two  vil  disfranchisement)  under  Drako  : 
trees  per  annum  for  the  conve-  under  Polon,  this  punishment  only 
nience  of  the  proprietor  (De-  took  effect  against  the  person  who 
7'.m^then.  cont.  Makartat.  c.  16.  p.  had  been  convicted  of  it  on  three 
lu,4).  successive  occasions.  See  Meur- 


CHAP.  XI.  PBOHIBITIONS  OF  SOLON.  131 

This  commercial  prohibition  is  founded  on  principles 
substantially  similar  to  those  which  were  acted  The  pro- 
upon  in  the  early  history  of  England,  with  refer-  ^fl^  or 
ence  both  to  corn  and  to  wool,  and  in  other  no  effect. 
European  countries  also.  In  so  far  as  it  was  at  all  operative 
it  tended  to  lessen  the  total  quantity  of  produce  raised 
upon  the  soil  of  Attica,  and  thus  to  keep  the  price  of  it 
from  rising, — a  purpose  less  objectionable  (if  we  assume 
that  the  legislator  is  to  interfere  at  all)  than  that  of  our 
late  Corn  Laws,  which  were  destined  to  prevent  the  price 
of  grain  from  falling.  But  the  law  of  Solon  must  have 
been  altogether  inoperative,  in  reference  to  the  great 
articles  of  human  subsistence;  for  Attica  imported,  both 
largely  and  constantly,  grain  and  salt-provisions, — probably 
also  wool  and  flax  for  the  spinning  and  weaving  of  the  wo- 
men, and  certainly  timber  for  building.  Whether  the  law 
was  ever  enforced  with  reference  to  figs  and  honey,  may 
well  be  doubted;  at  least  these  productions  of  Attica  were 
in  after-times  generally  consumed  and  celebrated  through- 
out Greece.  Probably  also  in  the  time  of  Solon,  the 
silver-mines  of  Laureium  had  hardly  begun  to  be  worked: 
these  afterwards  became  highly  productive,  and  furnished 
to  Athens  a  commodity  for  foreign  payments  not  less  con- 
venient than  lucrative. i 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  the  anxiety,  both  of  Solon 
and  of  Drako,  to  enforce  among  their  fellow  citizens  indus- 
trious and  self-maintaining  habits;2  and  we  shall  find  the 
same  sentiment  proclaimed  by  Perikles,  at  the  time  when 
Athenian  power  was  at  its  maximum.  Nor  ought  we  to 
pass  over  this  early  manifestation  in  Attica  of  an 
opinion  equitable  and  tolerant  towards  sedentary  ment"^86 
industry,  which  in  most  other  parts  of  Greece  artisansand 
was  regarded  as  comparatively  dishonourable. 
The  general  tone  of  Grecian  sentiment  recognised  no  occu- 
pations as  perfectly  worthy  of  a  free  citizen  except  arms, 
agriculture,  and  athletic  and  musical  exercises;  and  the 
proceedings  of  the  Spartans,  who  kept  aloof  even  from 

sius,   Solon,  c.  17;    and  the  'Areo-  2    Thucyd.    ii.     40     (the    funeral 

pagus'   of    the    siune    author,    c.    8  oration  delivered  by  Perikles)— xat 

and  9;    and    Taylor,  Lectt.  Lysiac.  TO    irevsjQoti    cuy    O(XO).OYE'V   TIVI  ol- 

cap.  10.  aypov,  a).),'    cu    Statp»'JY»iv    -PTf-  a'~ 

1    Xenophon,     De    Vectigaiibus,  oy_iov. 
iii.  2. 


138  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

agriculture  and  left  it  to  their  Helots,  were  admired,  though 
they  could  not  be  copied,  throughout  most  part  of  the 
Hellenic  world.  Even  minds  like  Plato,  Aristotle  and  Xe- 
nophon  concurred  to  a  considerable  extent  in  this  feeling, 
which  they  justified  on  the  ground  that  the  sedentary  life 
and  unceasing  house-work  of  the  artisan  were  inconsistent 
with  military  aptitude.  The  town-occupations  are  usually 
described  by  a  word  which  carries  with  it  contemptuous 
ideas,  and  though  recognised  as  indispensable  to  the 
existence  of  the  city,  are  held  suitable  only  for  an  inferior 
and  semi-privileged  order  of  citizens.  This,  the  received 
sentiment  among  Greeks,  as  well  as  foreigners,  found  a 
strong  and  growing  opposition  at  Athens,  as  I  have  already 
said — corroborated  also  by  a  similar  feeling  at  Corinth. l 
The  trade  of  Corinth,  as  well  as  of  Chalkis  in  Euboea,  was 
extensive,  at  a  time  when  that  of  Athens  had  scarce  any 
existence.  But  while  the  despotism  of  Periander  can 
hardly  have  failed  to  operate  as  a  discouragement  to  in- 
dustry at  Corinth,  the  contemporaneous  legislation  of  Solon 
provided  for  traders  and  artisans  a  new  home  at  Athens, 
giving  the  first  encouragement  to  that  numerous  town-po- 
pulation both  in  the  city  and  in  the  Peireeeus,  which  we 
find  actually  residing  there  in  the  suceeding  century.  The 
multiplication  of  such  town  residents,  both  citizens  and 
metics,  (i.  e.  resident  persons,  not  citizens,  but  enjoying  an 
assured  position  and  civil  rights)  was  a  capital  fact  in  the 
onward  march  of  Athens,  since  it  determined  not  merely 
the  extension  of  her  trade,  but  also  the  pre-eminence  of 
her  naval  force — and  thus,  as  a  farther  consequence,  lent 
extraordinary  vigour  to  her  democratical  government.  It 
seems  moreover  to  have  been  a  departure  from  the  primi- 
tive temper  of  Atticism,  which  tended  both  to  cantonal 
residence  and  rural  occupation.  We  have  therefore  the 
greater  interest  in  noting  the  first  mention  of  it  as  a  conse- 
quence of  the  Solonian  legislation. 

To  Solon  is  first  owing  the  admission  of  a  power  of 
testamentary  bequest  at  Athens,  in  all  cases  in  which  a 

1  Herodot.  ii.  167 — 177  ;   compare  proves    that    if  any    manufacturer 

Xenophon,  (Economic,  iv.  3.  engaged  in  politics,  his  party   op- 

The  unbounded  derision,  however,  ponents  found  enough  of   the    old 

which    Aristophanes     heaps     upon  sentiment  remaining   to  turn  it  to 

Kle&n     as     a     tanner,     and     upon  good  account  against  him. 
Hyperbolus      as      a      lamp-maker, 


Cn.  XI.  TESTAMENTABY  BEQUESTS  ALLOWED  BY  SOLON.      139 

man  had  no  legitimate  children.  According  to  the  pre-exist- 
ing custom,  we  may  rather  presume  that  if  a  de-  Power  of 
ceased  person  left  neither  childrennorbloodrela-  tary^e-11" 
tions,  his  property  descended  (as  at  Rome)  to  his  quest- 
gens  and  phratry. J  Throughout  most  rude  states  ^r0s*esda ™~ 
of  society  the  power  of  willing  is  unknown,  as  Solon, 
among  the  ancient  Germans — among  the  Romans  prior  to 
the  twelve  tables — in  the  old  laws  of  the  Hindus,2  &c. 
Society  limits  a  man's  interest  or  power  of  enjoyment  to 
his  life,  and  considers  his  relatives  as  having  joint  rever- 
sionary claims  to  his  property,  which  take  effect,  in  certain 
determinate  proportions,  after  his  death.  Such  a  view  was 
the  more  likely  to  prevail  at  Athens,  since  the  perpetuity 
of  the  family  sacred  rites,  in  which  the  children  and  near 
relatives  partook  of  right,  was  considered  by  the  Athenians 
as  a  matter  of  public  as  well  as  of  private  concern.  Solon 
gave  permission  to  every  man  dying  without  children  to 
bequeathe  his  property  by  will  as  he  should  think  fit;  and 
the  testament  was  maintained  unless  it  could  be  shown  to 
have  been  procured  by  some  compulsion  or  improper  se- 
duction. Speaking  generally,  this  continued  to  be  the  law 
throughout  the  historical  times  of  Athens.  Sons,  wherever 
there  were  sons,  succeeded  to  the  property  of  their  father 
in  equal  shares,  with  the  obligation  of  giving  out  their 
sisters  in  marriage  along  with  a  certain  dowry.  If  there 
were  no  sons,  then  the  daughters  succeeded,  though  the 
father  might  by  will,  within  certain  limits,  determine  the 
person  to  whom  they  should  be  married,  with  their  rights 
of  succession  attached  to  them;  or  might,  with  the  consent 
of  his  daughters,  make  by  will  certain  other  arrangements 
about  his  property.  A  person  who  had  no  children  or 
direct  lineal  descendants  might  bequeathe  his  property  at 
pleasure:  if  he  died  without  a  will,  first  his  father,  then  his 
brother  or  brother's  children,  next  his  sister  or  sister's 
children  succeeded:  if  none  such  existed,  then  the  cousins 
by  the  father's  side,  next  the  cousins  by  the  mother's  side, 
— the  male  line  of  descent  having  preference  over  the  fe- 
male. Such  was  the  principle  of  the  Solonian  laws  of  suc- 

1  This    seems    the  just    meaning  Meier,  De  Gentilitate  Attica,  p.  33. 

of    the     words,     ev     TUJ     li-izi    TOO  2  Tacitus,  German,  c.  20  ;  Rallied, 

"QvTjx'JTo?  £'021  7a  y_pr,iAC(Ta    -/.si   7ov  Preface  to    Gentoo  Code,  p.  i.  iii. ; 

i,ly.rj'i  xrx7«(jLEvsiv,  for  that  early  day  Mill's  History  of  British  India,  b. 

(Plutarch,     Solon,     21) :     compare  ii.  ch.  iv.  p.  214. 


140  HISTORY  OP  GREECE.  PAKT  II. 

cession,  though  the  particulars  are  in  several  ways  obscure 
and  doubtful. !  Solon,  it  appears,  was  the  first  who  gave 
power  of  superseding  by  testament  the  rights  of  agnates 
and  gentiles  to  succession, — a  proceeding  in  consonance 
with  his  plan  of  encouraging  both  industrious  occupation 
and  the  consequent  multiplication  of  individual  acquisi- 
tions.2 

It  has  been  already  mentioned  that  Solon  forbade  the 
Laws  sa^e  °f  daughters  or  sisters  into  slavery  by  fathers 

relating  or  brothers ;  a  prohibition  which  shows  how 
to  women.  mucn  females  had  before  been  looked  upon  as 
articles  of  property.  And  it  would  seem  that  before  his 
time  the  violation  of  a  free  woman  must  have  been  punished 
at  the  discretion  of  the  magistrates;  for  we  are  told  that 
he  was  the  first  who  enacted  a  penalty  of  100  drachms 
against  the  offender,  and  twenty  drachms  against  the  seducer 
of  a  free  woman.3  Moreover  it  is  said  that  he  forbade  a 
bride  when  given  in  marriage  to  carry  with  her  any  per- 
sonal ornaments  and  appurtenances,  except  to  the  extent 
of  three  robes  and  certain  matters  of  furniture  not  very 
Keguia-  valuable.4  Solon  farther  imposed  upon  women 
tions  about  several  restraints  in  regard  to  proceeding  at  the 
unerais.  obsequies  of  deceased  relatives.  He  forbade 
profuse  demonstrations  of  sorrow,  singing  of  composed 
dirges,  and  costly  sacrifices  and  contributions.  He  limited 
strictly  the  quantity  of  meat  and  drink  admissible  for  the 
funeral  banquet,  and  prohibited  nocturnal  exit,  except  in 
a  car  and  with  a  light.  It  appears  that  both  in  Greece  and 
Home,  the  feelings  of  duty  and  affection  on  the  part  of 
surviving  relatives  prompted  them  to  ruinous  expense  in 

1  See  the  Dissertation  of  Bunsen,  *  Plutarch,  Solon,  21.  10.  -/pi-jiaTa, 

De  Jure  Hereditario  Atheniensium,  XTV-aa-rot  -d>v  E/OVTIUV  ir.Q\.Jt3z-i. 

pp.  2S,  29;  and  Hermann  Schelling,  *  According  to   JEschines    (cont. 

De     Solonis    Legibus    ap.     Oratt.  Timarch.   pp.    16 — 78),   the   punish- 

Atticos,  ch.  xvii.  ment  enacted  by  Solon  against  the 

The  adopted  son  was  not  allow-  KGiotycuyoc ,  or  procurer,  in  such 
ed  to  bequeathe  by  will  that  cases  of  seduction,  was  death, 
property  of  which  adoption  had  *  Plutarch,  Solon,  20.  These 
made  him  the  possessor  :  if  he  left  cpspvsl  were  independent  of  the 
no  legitimate  children,  the  heirs  dowry  of  the  bride,  for  which  the 
at  law  of  the  adopter  claimed  it  husband,  when  he  received  it,  com- 
as of  right  (Demosthen.  cont.  Le-  monly  gave  security,  and  repaid 
ochar.  p.  1100;  cont.  Stephan.  B.  it  in  the  event  of  his  wife?s  death  : 
p.  1133;  Bunsen,  ut  sup.  p.  55— 58 j.  see  Bunsen,  De  Jure  Hered.  Ath. 

p.  43. 


CHAP.  XI.              BEGTJLATIONS  ABOUT  FUNERALS.  141 

a  funeral,  as  well  as  to  unmeasured  effusions  both  of  grief 
and  conviviality;  and  the  general  necessity  experienced 
for  legal  restriction  is  attested  by  the  remark  of  Plutarch, 
that  similar  prohibitions  to  those  enacted  by  Solon  were 
likewise  in  force  at  his  native  town  of  Chseroneia. * 

1  Plutarch,  I.  c.  The  Solonian  penses  incurred  to  this  day  among 
restrictions  on  the  subject  of  funer-  the  Hindoos,  in  the  celehration  of 
als  were  to  a  great  degree  copied  marriage.  (Rambles  and  Recollec- 
in  the  twelve  tables  at  Rome:  see  tions  of  an  Indian  Official,  vol.  i. 
Cicero,  De  Legg.  ii.  23,  24.  He  ch.  vi.  p.  51—53.) 
esteems  it  a  right  thing  to  put  the  "I  do  not  believe  there  is  a 
rich  and  the  poor  on  a  level  in  country  upon  earth,  in  which  a 
respect  to  funeral  ceremonies,  larger  portion  of  the  wealth  of  the 
Plato  follows  an  opposite  idea,  and  community  is  spent  in  the  cere- 
limits  the  expense  of  funerals  upon  monies  of  marriage.  .  .  .  One  of 
a  graduated  scale  according  to  the  the  evils  which  press  most  upon 
census  of  the  deceased  (Legg.  xii.  Indian  society,  is,  the  necessity 
p.  9")9).  which  long  usage  has  established 
Demosthenes  (cont.  Makartat.  of  squandering  largesums  of  money 
p.  1071)  gives  what  he  calls  the  in  marriage  ceremonies.  Instead 
Solonian  law  on  funerals,  different  of  giving  what  they  can  to  their 
from  Plutarch  on  several  points.  children  to  establish  them,  and 
Ungovernable  excesses  of  grief  enable  them  to  provide  for  their 
among  the  female  sex  are  some-  families,  parents  everywhere  feel 
times  mentioned  in  Grecian  towns  :  bound  to  squander  all  they  have, 
see  the  (xsvixov  TE^Qo?  among  the  and  all  they  can  borrow,  in  the 
IMilesian  women  (Polygon,  viii.  f>3) ;  festivities  of  marriage.  .  .  .  Every 
the  Milesian  women,  however,  had  man  feels  himself  bound  to  waste 
a  tinge  of  Karian  feeling.  all  his  stock  and  capital,  and  ex- 
Compare  an  instructive  inscrip-  haust  all  his  credit ,  in  feeding 
tion  recording  a  law  of  the  Greek  idlers  during  the  ceremonies  which 
city  of  Gambreion  in  ^Eolic  Asia  attend  the  marriage  of  his  children, 
Minor,  wherein  the  dress,  the  pro-  because  his  ancestors  squandered 
ceedings,  and  the  time  of  allowed  similar  sums,  and  he  would  sink 
mourning,  for  men,  women  and  in  the  estimation  of  society  if  he 
children  who  had  lost  their  rela-  were  to  allow  his  children  to  bo 
tives,  are  strictly  prescribed  under  married  with  less.  There  is  nothing 
severe  penalties  (Franz,  Fiinf  In-  which  husband  and  wife  recollect 
schriften  und  ftinf  Stiidto  in  Klein-  through  life  with  so  much  pride 
asien,  Berlin,  1S40,  p.  17).  Expen-  and  pleasure  as  the  cost  of  their 
sive  ceremonies  in  the  celebration  marriage,  if  it  happen  to  be  large 
of  marriage  are  forbidden  by  some  for  their  condition  in  life  ;  it  is 
of  the  old  Scandinavian  laws  their  Amoku,  their  title  of  nobility. 
(Wilda,  Das  Gildenwesen  im  Mit-  Nothing  is  now  more  common  than 
telaltcr,  p.  18).  to  see  an  individual  in  the  hum- 
Ana  we  may  understand  the  mo-  blest  rank,  spending  all  he  has  or 
tivos  whether  we  approve  the  wis-  can  borrow,  in  the  marriage  of  one 
doni  or  not,  of  sumptuary  restric-  out  of  many  daughters,  and  trust- 
tions  on  these  ceremonies,  when  ing  to  Providence  for  the  means  of 
we  read  the  account  given  by  Co-  marrying  the  others."' 
louel  Bleeman  of  the  ruinous  ex- 


142  HISTOEY  OF  GKEECE.  PAET  II. 

Other  penal  enactments  of  Solon  are  yet  to  be  men- 
tioned. He  forbade  absolutely  evil-speaking 
About  evil-  with  respect  to  the  dead.  He  forbade  it  like- 
andaabu?  wise  with  respect  to  the  living,  either  in  a  temple 
sive  lan-  or  before  judges  or  archons,  or  at  any  public 
festival — on  pain  of  a  forfeit  of  three  drachms 
to  the  person  aggrieved,  and  two  more  to  the  public  trea- 
sury. How  mild  the  general  character  of  his  punishments 
was,  may  be  judged  by  this  law  against  foul  language,  not 
less  than  by  the  law  before-mentioned  against  rape.  Both 
the  one  and  the  other  of  these  offences  were  much  more 
severely  dealt  with  underthe  subsequent  law  ofdemocratical 
Athens.  The  peremptory  edict  against  speaking  ill  of  a 
deceased  person,  though  doubtless  springing  in  a  great 
degree  from  disinterested  repugnance,  is  traceable  also  in 
part  to  that  fear  of  the  wrath  of  the  departed  which 
strongly  possessed  the  early  Greek  mind. 

It  seems  generally  that  Solon  determined  by  law  the 
outlay  for  the  public  sacrifices,  though  we  do 
tffTue*8  n0^  know  what  were  his  particular  directions. 
victors  at  We  are  told  that  he  reckoned  a  sheep  and  a 
Barnes016*  medimnus  (of  wheat  or  barley?)  as  equivalent, 
either  of  them,  to  a  drachm,  and  that  he  also 
prescribed  the  prices  to  be  paid  for  first-rate  oxen  intend- 
ed for  solemn  occasions.  But  it  astonishes  us  to  see  the 
large  recompense  which  he  awarded  out  of  the  public 
treasury  to  a  victor  at  the  Olympic  or  Isthmian  games:  to  the 
former  500  drachms,  equal  to  one  year's  income  of  the  high- 
est of  the  four  classes  on  the  census;  to  the  latter  100 
drachms.  The  magnitude  of  these  rewards  strikes  us  the 
more  when  we  compare  them  with  the  fines  on  rape  and 
evil  speaking.  We  cannot  be  surprised  that  the  philosopher 
Xenophanea  noticed,  with  some  degree  of  severity,  the 
extravagant  estimate  of  this  species  of  excellence,  current 
among  the  Grecian  cities.1  At  the  same  time,  we  must 
remember  both  that  these  Pan-Hellenic  sacred  games  pre- 
sented the  chief  visible  evidence  of  peace  and  sympathy 
among  the  numerous  communities  of  Greece,  and  that  in 
the  time  of  Solon,  factitious  reward  was  still  needful  to  en- 
courage them.  In  respect  to  land  and  agriculture  Solon 

1  Plutarch,  Solon,  23.  Xeno-  rewards  were  even  larger  anterior 
phanes,  Frag.  2,  ed.  Schneidewin.  to  Solon:  he  reduced  them  (Diog. 
If  Diogenes  is  to  be  trusted,  the  Ii.  i.  55). 


CHAP.  XI.     SOLON'S  LEGISLATION  OF  SACRED  GAMES.  143 

proclaimed  a  public  reward  of  five  drachms  for  every  wolf 
brought  in,  and  one  drachm  for  every  wolfs  cub :  the  ex- 
tent of  wild  land  has  at  all  times  been  considerable  in 
Attica.  He  also  provided  rules  respecting  the  use  of  wells 
between  neighbours,  and  respecting  the  planting  in  conter- 
minous olivegrounds.  "Whether  any  of  these  regulations 
continued  in  operation  during  the  better-known  period  of 
Athenian  history  cannot  be  safely  affirmed.1 

In  respect  to  theft,  we  find  it  stated  that  Solon  re- 
pealed the  punishment  of  death  which  Drako  had 

T  i      11     ,  j  i  u.  Theft. 

annexed  to  that  crime,  and  enacted  as  a  penalty, 
compensation  to  an  amount  double  the  value  of  the  pro- 
perty stolen.  The  simplicity  of  this  law  perhaps  affords 
ground  for  presuming  that  it  really  does  belong  to  Solon. 
But  the  law  which  prevailed  during  the  time  of  the  orators 
respecting  theft2  must  have  been  introduced  at  some  later 
period,  since  it  enters  into  distinctions  and  mentions  both 
places  and  forms  of  procedure,  which  we  cannot  reasonably 
refer  to  the  forty-sixth  Olympiad.  The  public  dinners  at 
the  Prytaneium,  of  which  the  archons  and  a  select  few 
partook  in  common,  were  also  either  first  established,  or 
perhaps  only  more  strictly  regulated,  by  Solon.  He  ordered 
barley-cakes  for  their  ordinary  meals,  and  wheat  en  loaves 
for  festival  days,  prescribing  how  often  each  person  should 
dine  at  the  table.3  The  honour  of  dining  at  the  table  of 

1  Plutarch,    Solon,    c.    23.      See  is  evident   that   Solon  was    stated 
Suidas,  v.  <t>cia6|j.£'Jac.  to  have  enacted  this  law  generally 

2  See    the    laws    in   Demostheu.  for  all  thefts  ;  we  cannot  tell  from 
cont.  Timokrat.    p.  733  —  736.     Not-  whom   he    copied,   but   in   another 
withstanding  the    opinion    both  of  part     of    his     work,     he    copies    a 
Heraldus  (Animadversion,    in  Sal-  Solonian     law     from    the    wooden 
mas.  iv.  8)  and  of  Meier  (Attischer  a;ovg(  OH  the  authority  of  Aristotle 
I'rozoss,  p.  35G),  I  cannot  imagine  (ii.  12). 

anything   more    than    the   basis   of          Plato,    in    his    Laws,   prescribes 

these    laws    to    be  Solonian— they  the    puma    dupli    in    all    cases    of 

indicate  a  state  of  Attic  procedure  theft    without    distinction     of  cir- 

too  much  elaborated  for  that    day  cumstances  (Legg.  ix.  p.   857;    xii. 

(Lysias    c.    Theomn.    p.    3")6).     The  p.  041):  it  was    also    the  primitive 

word  iro8f>x(ixxig  belongs  to  Solon,  law    of  Koine  :     "posuerunt   furem 

and  probably  the  penalty,  of   five  duplo     condemnari,     fceneratorom 

days'   confinement    in    the    stocks,  quadiuplo."    (Cato,  De  lie  Rustica, 

for  the  thief  who  had  not  restored  Proojmium) — that  is  to  say,  in  cases 

what  he  hud  stolen.  of  furtiim  nee  manifestum  (Walter, 


144  HISTORY  OF  GEEECE.  PART  II. 

the  Prytaneium  was  maintained  throughout  as  a  valuable 
reward  at  the  disposal  of  the  government. 

Among  the  various  laws  of  Solon,  there  are  few  which 
have  attracted  more  notice  than  that  which  pronounces 
the  man,  who  in  a  sedition  stood  aloof  and  took  part  with 
neither  side,  to  be  dishonoured  and  disfranchised. l 
pronoun-  Strictly  speaking,  this  seems  more  in  the  nature 
ced  by  Of  an  emphatic  moral  denunciation,  or  a  religious 

Solon  upon  ,/  .         ,  ,.  i  i          ^   v    • 

citizens         curse,  than  a  legal  sanction  capable  ot  being 
neutral  in     formally  applied  in  an  individual  case  and  after 

a  sedition.       •     j  •    •    i    j.    •    i        11  i.    .1  e    \  .- 

judicial  trial, — though  the  sentence  ot  Atimy, 
under  the  more  elaborated  Attic  procedure,  was  both  de- 
finite in  its  penal  consequences  and  also  judicially  delivered. 
We  may  however  follow  the  course  of  ideas  under  which 
Solon  was  induced  to  write  this  sentence  on  his  tables,  and 
we  may  trace  the  influence  of  similar  ideas  in  later  Attic 
institutions.  It  is  obvious  that  his  denunciation  is  confined 
to  that  special  case  in  which  a  sedition  has  already  broken 
out:  we  must  suppose  that  Kylon  has  seized  the  Akropolis, 
or  that  Peisistratus,  Megakles,  and  Lykurgus,  are  in  arms 
at  the  head  of  their  partisans.  Assuming  these  leaders  to 
be  wealthy  and  powerful  men,  which  would  in  all  probab- 
ility be  the  fact,  the  constituted  authority — such  as  Solon 
saw  before  him  in  Attica,  even  after  his  own  organic  amend- 
ments— was  not  strong  enough  to  maintain  the  peace;  it 
became  in  fact  itself  one  of  the  contending  parties.  Under 
such  given  circumstances,  the  sooner  every  citizen  publicly 
declared  his  adherence  to  some  one  of  them,  the  earlier  this 
suspension  of  legal  authority  was  likely  to  terminate.  No- 
thing was  so  mischievous  as  the  indifference  of  the  mass, 
or  their  disposition  to  let  the  combatants  fight  out  the  mat- 
ter among  themselves,  and  then  to  submit  to  the  victor. 2 
Nothing  was  more  likely  to  encourage  aggression  on  the 
part  of  an  ambitious  malcontent,  than  the  conviction, 
that  if  he  could  once  overpower  the  small  amount  of  phy- 
sical force  which  surrounded  the  archons,  and  exhibit  him- 
self in  armed  possession  of  the  Prytaneium  or  the  Akro- 
polis, he  might  immediately  count  upon  passive  submission 

iv.  p.    137  :    Diogen.    Lae'rt.    i.    58  :  Ser&    Numinia     Vindicta,    p.    550  ; 

xal     rpiitcn     T7]v     a'jvxYu>YY;v     TUJV  Aulus  Gell.  ii.  12. 

ev-jsa    ac,y_6M7iov     e-oir)3Ev,     si?     TO  2  See  a  case  of  such  indifference 

crovsiTreiv.  manifested  by  the  people  of  Argoa 

1   Plutarch,    Solon,    20,    and    Do  in  Plutarch's  Life  of  Aratus,  c.  27- 


CHAP.  XI.         SOLON'S  CENSURE  OF  NEUTRALITY.  145 

on  the  part  of  all  the  freemen  without.     Under  the  state 
of  feeling  which  Solon  inculcates,  the  insurgent    leader 
would  have  to  calculate  that  every  man  who  was  not  ac- 
tively in  his  favour  would  be  actively  against  him,  and 
this  would  render  his  enterprise  much  more  dangerous. 
Indeed  he  could  then  never  hope  to  succeed,  except  on  the 
double  supposition  of  extraordinary  popularity  in  his  own 
person,  and  wide-spread  detestation  of  the  existing  govern- 
ment.    He  would  thus  be  placed  under  the  influence  of 
powerful  deterring  motives;   so  that  ambition  would  be 
less  likely  to  seduce  him  into  a  course  which  threatened 
nothing  but  ruin,  unless  under  such  encouragements  from 
the  pre-existing  public  opinion  as  to  make  his  success  a  re- 
sult desirable  for  the  community.    Among  the  small  polit- 
ical societies  of  Greece — especially  in  the  age    Necessity, 
of  Solon,  when  the  number  of  despots  in  other   £nde?  tho 
parts  of  Greece  seems  to  have  been  at  its  maxim-   City-go- 
um — every  government,  whatever  might  be  its   vemments, 
form,  was  sufficiently  weak  to  make  its  over-   positive 
throw  a  matter  of  comparative  facility.    Unless    sentiment 

,,  -, -         i-      i       i     j?  r       •  °n  tlie  Part 

upon  the  supposition  ot  a  band  of  foreign  mer-    Of  the 

cenaries — which  would  render  the  government  citizens. 
a  system  of  naked  force,  and  which  the  Athenian  lawgiver 
would  of  course  never  contemplate — there  was  no  other  stay 
for  it  except  a  positive  and  pronounced  feeling  of  attachment 
on  the  part  of  the  mass  of  citizens.  Indifference  on  their 
part  would  render  them  a  prey  to  every  daring  man  of 
wealth  who  chose  to  become  a  conspirator.  That  they 
should  be  ready  to  come  forward,  not  only  with  voice  but 
with  arms — and  that  they  should  be  known  beforehand  to 
be  so — was  essential  to  the  maintenance  of  every  good 
Grecian  government.  It  was  salutary,  in  preventing  mere 
personal  attempts  at  revolution;  and  pacific  in  its  tendency, 
even  where  the  revolution  had  actually  broken  out — be- 
cause in  the  greater  number  of  cases  the  proportion  of 
partisans  would  probably  be  very  unequal,  and  the  inferior 
party  would  be  compelled  to  renounce  their  hopes. 

It  will  be  observed  that  in  this  enactment  of  Solon. 
the  existing  government  is  ranked  merely  as  one  of  the 
contending  parties.  The  virtuous  citizen  is  enjoined, 
not.  to  come  forward  in  its  support,  but  to  come  for- 
ward at  all  events,  either  for  it  or  against  it.  Positive 
and  early  action  is  all  which  is  prescribed  to  him  as 


146  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAKT  II. 

matter  of  duty.  In  the  age  of  Solon  there  was  no 
Contrast  in  political  idea  or  system  yet  current  which 
b^t^een*0*  COU^  be  assumed  as  an  unquestionable  datum 
the  age  of  — no  conspicuous  standard  to  which  the  citizens 
the0subsed  cou^  be  pledged  under  all  circumstances  to  at- 
quent  de-  tach  themselves.  The  option  lay  only,  be- 
mocracy.  tween  a  mitigated  oligarchy  in  possession,  and 
a  despot  in  possibility;  a  contest  wherein  the  affections  of 
the  people  could  rarely  be  counted  upon  in  favour  of  the 
established  government.  But  this  neutrality  in  respect  to 
the  constitution  was  at  an  end  after  the  revolution  of  Kleis- 
thenes,  when  the  idea  of  the  sovereign  people  and  the 
democratical  institutions  became  both  familiar  and  precious 
to  every  individual  citizen.  We  shall  hereafter  find  the 
Athenians  binding  themselves  by  the  most  sincere  and  so- 
lemn oaths  to  uphold  their  democracy  against  all  attempts 
to  subvert  it :  we  shall  discover  in  them  a  sentiment  not 
less  positive  and  uncompromising  in  its  direction,  than  ener- 
getic in  its  inspirations.  But  while  we  notice  this  very  im- 
portant change  in  their  character,  we  shall  at  the  same 
time  perceive  that  the  wise  precautionary  recommendation 
of  Solon,  to  obviate  sedition  by  an  early  declaration  of  the 
impartial  public  between  two  contending  leaders,  was  not 
lost  upon  them.  Such,  in  point  of  fact,  was  the  purpose 
The  same  °f  that  salutary  and  protective  institution  which 
idea  foi-  is  called  the  Ostracism.  When  two  party-leaders, 
inline  °ub-  in  ^ne  early  stages  of  the  Athenian  democracy, 
sequent  each  powerful  in  adherents  and  influence,  had 
stracism.  becorQe  passionately  embarked  in  bitter  and  pro- 
longed opposition  to  each  other,  such  opposition  was  likely 
to  conduct  one  or  other  to  violent  measures.  Over  and 
above  the  hopes  of  party  triumph,  each  might  well  fear 
that  if  he  himself  continued  within  the  bounds  of  legality, 
he  might  fall  a  victim  to  aggressive  proceedings  on  the 
part  of  his  antagonists.  To  ward  off  this  formidable  danger, 
a  public  vote  was  called  for  to  determine  which  of  the  two 
should  go  into  temporary  banishment,  retaining  his  pro- 
perty and  unvisited  by  any  disgrace.  A  number  of  citizens 
not  less  than  6000,  voting  secretly  and  therefore  independ- 
ently, were  required  to  take  part,  pronouncing  upon  one 
or  other  of  these  eminent  rivals  a  sentence  of  exile  for  ten 
years.  The  one  who  remained  became  of  course  more 
powerful,  yet  less  in  a  situation  to  be  driven  into  anti-con- 


CHAP.  XI.      PRECAUTIONARY  NATURE  OF  OSTRACISM.  147 

gtitutional  courses,  than  he  was  before.  I  shall  in  a  future 
chapter  speak  again  of  this  wise  precaution  and  vindicate 
it  against  some  erroneous  interpretations  to  which  it  has 
given  rise.  At  present  I  merely  notice  its  analogy  with 
the  previous  Solonian  law,  and  its  tendency  to  accomplish 
the  same  purpose  of  terminating  a  fierce  party-feud,  by 
artificially  calling  in  the  votes  of  the  mass  of  impartial 
citizens  against  one  or  other  of  the  leaders, — with  this  im- 
portant difference,  that  while  Solon  assumed  the  hostile 
parties  to  be  actually  in  arms,  the  ostracism  averted  that 
grave  public  calamity  by  applying  its  remedy  to  the  pre- 
monitory symptoms. 

I  have  already  considered,  in  a  previous  chapter,  the 
directions  given  by  Solon  for  the  more  orderly  sentiment 
recital  of  the  Homeric  poems;  and  it  is  curious  ofSoionto- 
to  contrast  his  reverence  for  the  old  epic  with  Homeric16 
the  unqualified  repugnance  which  he  manifested  poems  and 
towards  Thespis  and  the  drama — then  just  the  drama- 
nascent,  and  holding  out  little  promise  of  its  subsequent 
excellence.  Tragedy  and  comedy  were  now  beginning  to 
be  grafted  on  the  lyric  and  choric  song.  First  one  actor 
was  provided  to  relieve  the  chorus;  next  two  actors  were 
introduced  to  sustain  fictitious  characters  and  carry  on  a 
dialogue,  in  such  manner  that  the  songs  of  the  chorus  and 
the  interlocution  of  the  actors  formed  a  continuous  piece. 
Solon,  after  having  heard  Thespis  acting  (as  all  the  early 
composers  did,  both  tragic  and  comic)  in  his  own  comedy, 
asked  him  afterwards  if  he  was  not  ashamed  to  pronounce 
such  falsehoods  before  so  large  an  audience.  And  when 
Thespis  answered  that  there  was  no  harm  in  saying  and 
doing  such  things  merely  for  amusement,  Solon  indignantly 
exclaimed,  striking  the  ground  with  his  stick,1  "If  once  we 
come  to  praise  and  esteem  such  amusement  as  this,  we  shall 
quickly  find  the  effects  of  it  in  our  daily  transactions." 
~For  the  authenticity  of  this  anecdote  it  would  be  rash  to 
vouch,  but  we  may  at  least  treat  it  as  the  protest  of  some 
early  philosopher  against  the  deceptions  of  the  drama; 
and  it  is  interesting  as  marking  the  incipient  struggles  of 
that  literature  in  which  Athens  afterwards  attained  such 
unrivalled  excellence. 

It  would  appear  that  all  the  laws  of  Solon  were  pro- 
claimed, inscribed,  and  accepted  without  either  discussion 

1  riutavcli,  Solon,  29;    Diogen.  Lnert.  i.  50. 


143  HISTOEY  OP  GEEECE.  PART  II, 

or  resistance.  He  is  said  to  have  described  them,  not  as 
the  best  laws  which  he  could  himself  have  imagined,  but 
as  the  best  which  he  could  have  induced  the  people  to 
accept.  He  gave  them  validity  for  the  space  of  ten  years 
during  which  period1  both  the  senate  collectively  and  the 
archons  individually  swore  to  observe  them  with  fidelity; 
under  penalty,  in  case  of  non-observance,  of  a  golden  statue 
Difficulties  as  large  as  life  to  be  erected  at  Delphi.  But 
after°the  though  the  acceptance  of  the  laws  was  accom- 
enactment  plished  without  difficulty,  it  was  not  found  so 
of  the  laws.  easy  either  '  for  the  people  to  understand  and 

He  retires          -•    J  f        ,-,       „         L  -,    •     ,,  -.-. 

from  obey,  or  tor  the  Iramer  to  explain  them.     Every 

Attica.  day  persons  came  to  Solon  either  with  praise, 
or  criticism,  or  suggestions  of  various  improvements,  or 
questions  as  to  the  construction  of  particular  enactments  ; 
until  at  last  he  became  tired  of  this  endless  process  of 
reply  and  vindication,  which  was  seldom  successful  either 
in  removing  obscurity  or  in  satisfying  complainants. 
Foreseeing  that  if  he  remained  he  would  be  compelled  to 
make  changes,  he  obtained  leave  of  absence  from  his 
countrymen  for  ten  years,  trusting  that  before  the  expira- 
tion of  that  period  they  would  have  become  accustomed  to 
his  laws.  He  quitted  his  native  city,  in  the  full  certainty 
that  his  laws  would  remain  unrepealed  until  his  return; 
for  (says  Herodotus)  "the  Athenians  could  not  repeal  them, 
since  they  were  bound  by  solemn  oaths  to  observe  them 
for  ten  years."  The  unqualified  manner  in  which  the 
historian  here  speaks  of  an  oath,  as  if  it  created  a  sort 
of  physical  necessity  and  shut  out  all  possibility  of  a 
contrary  result,  deserves  notice  as  illustrating  Grecian 
sentiment.  2 

On  departing  from  Athens,  Solon  first  visited  Egypt, 

visits  where  he  communicated  largely  with  Psenophis 

Egypt  and     of  Hcliopolis    and   Sonchis   of  Sais,  Egyptian 

priests  who  had  much  to  tell  respecting  their 

ancient  history,  and  from  whom  he  learnt  matters  real  or 

1  Plutarch,  Solon,  15.  rcotrjaai    'A9r)vatot,      6py.ioiai 

2  Hcrodot.    i.    29.     SoXtov,     dtvrjp     yip      [AsyaXoiai   •   xfltTtiyovto, 


cexa,     "voc    or]    |j.r]    -1*10.    TCU-*    voaiov         One   hundred   years   is   the   term 
oivaYxasQ^    /.Oioti    TCOV    sOi-o1    CCJTO'I     stated  by  Plutarch  (Solon,  25). 
Ya       oux     oioi.     TS    -^aav      auTO 


CHAP.  XI.        SOLON  QUITS  ATHEXS.— HIS  TEAVELS.  149 

pretended,  far  transcending  in  alleged  antiquity  the  oldest 
Grecian  genealogies — especially  the  history  of  the  vast  sub- 
merged island  of  Atlantis,  and  the  war  which  the  ancestors 
of  the  Athenians  had  successfully  carried  on  against  it, 
9000  years  before.  Solon  is  said  to  have  commenced  an 
epic  poem  upon  this  subject,  but  he  did  not  live  to  finish 
it,  and  nothing  of  it  now  remains.  From  Egypt  he  went 
to  Cyprus,  where  he  visited  the  small  town  of  ^Epeia,  said 
to  have  been  originally  founded  by  Demophon  son  of  The- 
seus, and  ruled  at  this  period  by  the  prince  Philokyprus — 
each  town  in  Cyprus  having  its  own  petty  prince.  It  was 
situated  near  the  river  Klarius  in  a  position  precipitous 
and  secure,  but  inconvenient  and  ill-supplied.  Solon  per- 
suaded Philokyprus  to  quit  the  old  site  and  establish  a 
new  town  down  in  the  fertile  plain  beneath.  He  himself 
staid  and  became  (Ekist  of  the  new  establishment,  making 
all  the  regulations  requisite  for  its  safe  and  prosperous 
march,  which  was  indeed  so  decisively  manifested,  that 
many  new  settlers  flocked  into  the  new  plantation,  called 
by  Philokyprus  Soli,  in  honour  of  Solon.  To  our  deep 
regret,  we  are  not  permitted  to  know  what  these  regula- 
tions were;  but  the  general  fact  is  attested  by  the  poems 
of  Solon  himself,  and  the  lines,  in  which  he  bade  farewell 
to  Philokyprus  on  quitting  the  island,  are  yet  before  us. 
On  the  dispositions  of  this  prince  his  poem  bestowed  un- 
qualified commendation.1 

Besides  his  visit  to  Egypt  and  Cyprus,  a  story  was 
also  current  of  his  having  conversed  with  the    , 

T      v        i  •         r*  L  o       T          mi  •      Alleged 

.Lydian  king  brcesus  at  bardis.     Ine  communi-   interview 
cation  said  to  have  taken  place  between  them   and  c?n~ 
has  been  woven  by  Herodotus  into  a  sort  of  s'oion  with 
moral  tale  which  forms  one  of  the  most  beautiful    Croesus  at 
episodes  in  his  whole  history.    Though  this  tale 
has  been  told  and  retold  as  if  it  were  genuine  history,  yet 
as  it  now  stands,  it  is  irreconcileable  with  chronology — 
although  very  possibly  Solon  may  at  some  time  or  other 
have  visited  Sardis.  and  seen  Croesus  as  hereditary  prince.2 

1  Plutarch,  Solon,   26  ;    Herodot.  z  Plutarch  tells  us   that    several 

v.  113.    The  statement  of  Diogenes  authors  rejected  the  reality  of  this 

that  Solon  founded  Soli  in  Kilikia,  interview  as  being  chronologically 

and   that  he    died    in    Cyprus,    are  impossible.  It  is  to  be  recollected 

not  worthy  of  credit  (Diog.  Laert.  that  the   question   all    turns  upon 

i.  51—02).  the  interview  asdescrttedljyHi.ro- 


150 


HISTORY  OF  GREECE. 


PART  II. 


But  even  if  no  chronological  objections  existed,   the 
moral  purpose  of  the  tale  is  so  prominent,  and  pervades  it 


dotus  and  its  alleged  sequel ;  for 
that  there  may  have  been  an  inter- 
view between  Solon  and  Croesus 
at  Sardis,  at  some  period  between 
B.C.  £94  and  560,  is  possible,  though 
not  shown. 

It  is  evident  that  Solon  made 
no  mention  of  any  interview  with 
Croesus  in  his  poems :  otherwise 
the  dispute  would  have  been  settled 
at  once.  Now  this,  in  a  man 
like  Solon,  amounts  to  negative 
evidence  of  some  value,  for  he 
noticed  in  his  poems  both  Egypt 
and  the  prince  Philokyprus  in 
Cyprus,  and  had  there  been  any 
conversation  so  impressive  as  that 
which  Herodotus  relates,  between 
him  and  Crcesus,  he  could  hardly 
have  failed  to  mention  it. 

\\~esseling,  Larcher,  Volney,  and 
Mr.  Clinton,  all  try  to  obviate  the 
chronological  difficulties,  and  to 
save  the  historical  character  of 
this  interview,  but  in  my  judge- 
ment unsuccessfully.  See  Mr.  Clin- 
ton's ~F.  H.  ad  ann.  546  B.C.,  and 
Appendix,  c.  17.  p.  298.  The  chro- 
nological data  are  there — Crossus 
was  born  in  595  B.C.,  one  year 
before  the  legislation  of  Solon: 
he  succeeded  to  his  father  at  the 
age  of  thirty-five,  in  560  B.C.  :  he 
was  overthrown,  and  Sardis  cap- 
tured, in  546  BC.,  by  Cyrus. 

Mr.  C". inton,  after  AVesseling  and 
the  others,  supposes  that  Croesus 
was  king  jointly  with  his  father 
Halyattgg,  during  the  lifetime  of 
the  latter,  and  that  Solon  visited 
Lydia  and  conversed  with  Crcesus 
during  this  joint  reign  in  570  B.C. 
"AVe  may  suppose  that  Solon  left 
Athens  in  B.C.  575,  about  twenty 
years  after  his  archonship,  and 
returned  thither  in  B.C.  5C5,  about 
five  years  before  the  usurpation  of 
Peisistratus''  (p.  300).  Tpon  which 


hyopothesis  we  may  remark,— 

1.  The  arguments  whereby  Wesse- 
ling  and  Mr.  Clinton  endeavour  to 
show  that  Croesus  was  king  jointly 
with  his  father,  do  not  sustain  the 
conclusion.  Thepassage  of  Nicolaus 
Damaskenus,  which  is  produced  to 
show  that   it  was  Halyattgs    (and 
not  Croesus)  who  conquered  Karia, 
only  attests  that  Halyattes  marched 
with  an  armed  force  against  Karia 
(ir.'i  Koipiav  OTpaTSUtov)  :   this    sama 
author    states,     that    Croesus    was 
deputed    by    Halyattgs   to    govern 
Adramyttium  and  the  plain  of Thele 
(apysiv     d~oOj5ii.yiJ.JvCK),      but     Mr. 
Clinton    stretches    this     testimony 
to    an    inadmissible    extent    when 
he  makes  it  tantamount  to  a  con- 
quest of  JEolis  by  Halyattes    ("so 
that  JZolis  is  already  conquered"}. 
Nothing   at  all  is  said  about  JEolis 
or  the  cities   of  the  JEolic  Greel;s 
in  this  passage  of  Nikolaus,  whicli 
represents  Croesus  as    governing  a 
sort    of  satrapy    under    his    father 
Halyattes,  just  as  Cyrus  the  younger 
did  in  after-times  under  Artaxerxes. 
And  the  expression  of  Herodotus, 
ETUI  ",  Sovro?  TOO  7:3Tpoi;,  expaTYja* 
xrjs  apx?js  6  Kpoiaoq,  appears  to  me, 
when  taken  along  with  the  context, 
to  indicate  a  bequest  or  nomination 
of  successor,    and    not  a   donation, 
during  life. 

2.  The  hypothesis  therefore   that 
Crossus   was  king   570   B.C.,  during 
the  life-time  of  his  father,   is    one 
purely    gratuitous,   resorted   to  an 
account  of  the  chronological  diffi- 
culties connected  with  the  account 
of  Herodotus.    But  it  is    quite  in- 
sufficient  for  such   a   purpose.     It 
does  not  save  us  from  the  necessity 
of  contradicting  Herodotus  in  most 
of  his  particulars;    there  may  per- 
haps have  been   an   interview    be- 
tween   Solon    and    Crcesus   in   B.C. 


CHAP.  XI.  SOLON  AND  CRCESUS.  151 

so  systematically  from  beginning  to  end,  that  these  internal 
grounds  are  of  themselves  sufficiently  strong  to  impeach 
its  credibility  as  a  matter  of  fact,  unless  such  doubts 


570,  but  it  cannot  be  the  interview      probably  altogether  fictitious,  such 


Solon's  laws — at  the   maximum  of  wild     boar     on    Mount     Olympus, 

the    power    of   Crcesus,    and    after  the  ultimate  preservation  of  Croesus, 

numerous    conquests     effected    by  etc.,  are  put  together  so  as  to  convey 

himself    as    king— at  a  time   when  an   impressive   moral  lesson.     The 

Crcesus   had  a  son   old    enougli   to  whole  adventure    of  Adrastus   and 

be  married  and  to  command  armies  the  son   of  Crcesus   is   depicted   in 

(Herod,  i.  35)— at  a  time  moreover  language  eminently  beautiful  and 

immediately    preceeding   the   turn  poetical. 

of  his  fortunes  from  prosperity  to          Plutarch     treats      the      impres- 

adversity,  first  in  the  death  of  his  siveness    and   suitableness   of  this 

son,    succeeded    by    two    years    of  narrative  as   the  best  proof  of  its 

mourning,  which  were  put  an  end  historical    truth,    and    puts     aside 

to  (^ivOso;  ir^-a'jjE,    Herod,  i.  40)  the    chronological    tables    as    un- 

by  the   stimulus    of  war   with   the  worthy  of  trust.     Upon  which  rea- 

Persians.      That    war,    if  we    read  soning  Mr.  Clinton  has  the  follow- 

the    events    of   it   as    described    in  ing   very  just   remarks: — "Plutarch 

Herodotus,     cannot     have     lasted  must  have  had  a  very  imperfect  idea 

more  than  three  or  four  years,— so  of  the  nature  of   historical    evidence, 

that  the    interview  between  Solon  if    he     could     imagine     that     the 

and  Croesus,  as  Herodotus  conceived  suitableness     of   a     story     to     the 

it,  may   be    fairly    stated    to    have  character    of    Solon    was   a  better 

occurred  within  seven  years  before  arguments  for  its  authenticity  than 

the  capture  of  Sardis.  the  number  of  witnesses  by  whom 

If  we  put  together  all  these  it  is  attested.  Those  who  invented 
conditions,  it  will  appear  that  the  scene  (assuming  it  to  be  a 
the  interview  recounted  by  He-  fiction)  would  surely  have  had  the 
rodotus  is  a  chronological  im-  skill  to  adapt  the  discourse  to  the 
possibility  :  and  Xiebuhr  (Rom.  character  of  the  actors"  (p.  300). 
Gesch.  vol.  i.  p.  579)  is  right  in  To  make  this  remark  quite  coin- 
saying  that  the  historian  has  fallen  plete,  it  would  be  necessary  to  add 
into  a  mistake  of  ten  olympiads  the  words  '•trustworthiness  an<l 
or  forty  years  ;  his  recital  would  means  of  knowledge,"1  in  addition 
consist  with  chronology,  if  we  to  the  "number"  of  attesting  wit- 
suppose  that  the  Solonian  legis-  nesses.  And  it  is  a  remark  the 
lation  were  referable  to  554  B.C.,  more  worthy  of  notice,  inasmuch 
and  not  to  594.  as  Mr.  Clinton  here  pointedly 

In     my    judgement,    this    is     an  adverts  to  the  existence  of  plausible 

illustrative  tale,  in  which   certain  fiction,  asbeing  completely  distinct 

real  characters— Crcesus  and  Solon  from    attested    matter     of    fact — a 

— and  certain  real  facts— the  great  distinction    of    which    he    took  no 

power  and  succeeding  ruin  of  the  account  in  his   vindication   of  tho 

former    by   the    victorious    arm   of  historical  credibility  of   the    early 

Cyrus— together  with  certain  fact;  Greek  legends. 


152  HISTOKT  OF  GKEECE.  PAET  II. 

happen  to  be  outweighed — which  in  this  case  they  are  not 
— by  good  contemporary  testimony.  The  narrative  of 
Solon  and  Croesus  can  be  taken  for  nothing  else  but  an 
illustrative  fiction,  borrowed  by  Herodotus  from  some  phi- 
losopher, and  clothed  in  his  own  peculiar  beauty  of  ex- 
pression, which  on  this  occasion  is  more  decidedly  poetical 
than  is  habitual  with  him.  I  cannot  transcribe,  and  I  hardly- 
dare  to  abridge  it.  The  vain-glorious  Croesus,  at  the 
summit  of  his  conquests  and  his  riches,  endeavours  to  win 
from  his  visitor  Solon  an  opinion  that  he  is  the  happiest 
of  mankind.  The  latter,  after  having  twice  preferred  to 
him  modest  and  meritorious  Grecian  citizens,  at  length 
reminds  him  that  his  vast  wealth  and  power  are  of  a  tenure 
too  precarious  to  serve  as  an  evidence  of  happiness — that 
the  gods  are  jealous  and  meddlesome,  and  often  make  the 
show  of  happiness  a  mere  prelude  to  extreme  disaster — 
and  that  no  man's  life  can  be  called  happy  until  the  whole 
of  it  has  been  played  out,  so  that  it  may  be  seen  to  be  out 
of  the  reach  of  reverses.  Croesus  treats  this  opinion  as 
absurd,  but  "a  great  judgement  from  God  fell  upon  him, 
after  Solon  was  departed — probably  (observes  Herodotus) 
because  he  fancied  himself  the  happiest  of  all  men."  First 
he  lost  his  favourite  son  Atys,  a  brave  and  intelligent  youth 
(his  only  other  son  being  dumb).  For  the  Mysians  of 
Olympus,  being  ruined  by  a  destructive  and  formid- 
able wild  boar  which  they  were  unable  to  subdue,  applied 
for  aid  to  Crcesus,  who  sent  to  the  spot  a  chosen  hunting 
force,  and  permitted — though  with  great  reluctance,  in 
consequence  of  an  alarming  dream — that  his  favourite  son 
should  accompany  them.  The  young  prince  was  uninten- 
tionally slain  by  the  Phrygian  exile  Adrastus,  whom  Croe- 
sus had  sheltered  and  protected.1  Hardly  had  the  latter 
recovered  from  the  anguish  of  this  misfortune,  when  the 

1  Herod,  i.  32.    *Q  KpoTas,  i-iati-  borrowed     from     the     legend     of 

jxevov  [it  ~'j  QsioV)  ~av    eov   tpGovspov  Kalydon. 

TS     TH.II     -rapa/ibcs?,     £7:sip(uta?     |AE  The    whole     scene     of  Adra«tus, 

dvOpiorTjturj  7:paY[ii"iDv    rript.     i.  34.  returning  after   the    accident   in   a 

Ms-roc   Oe    2ci).u>va   OI/OJASVOV,    iXa'-Uv  state  of  desperate  remorse,  praying 

EX  flsoo  vsp.son  p.JY<*iiQ  KpoToov,   OK  for  cleatti  with  outstretched  hands, 

Eixaaou  OTI  £Vfj|xi3£  CWJTOV  stvai  a.-i-  spared  by  Crcesus,  and  then  killing 

bpib-iov  a.r.iL'i-u)v  ci/.3i"J~27iv.  himself  on  the  tomb  of  the  young 

The      hunting-match,      and     the  prince,  is  deeply  tragic  (Herod,  i, 

terrible  wild-  boar  with  whom   the  41 — 45). 
Mysians  cannot  cope,  appear  to  be 


CHAP.  XI.  SOLON  AND  CROESUS,  153 

rapid  growth  of  Cyrus  and  the  Persian  power  induced  him 
to  go  to  war  with  them,  against  the  advice  of  his  wisest 
counsellors.  After  a  struggle  of  about  three  years  he  was 
completely  defeated,  his  capital  Sardis  taken  by  storm,  and 
himself  made  prisoner.  Cyrus  ordered  a  large  pile  to  be 
prepared,  and  placed  upon  it  Croesus  in  fetters,  together 
with  fourteen  young  Lydians,  in  the  intention  of  burning 
them  alive,  either  as  a  religious  offering,  or  in  fulfilment 
of  a  vow,  "or  perhaps  (says  Herodotus)  to  see  whether  some 
of  the  gods  would  not  interfere  to  rescue  a  man  so  pre- 
eminently pious  as  the  king  of  Lydia."  *  In  this  sad  extrem- 
ity, Croesus  bethought  him  of  the  warning  which  he  had 
before  despised,  and  thrice  pronounced,  with  a  deep  groan, 
the  name  of  Solon.  Cyrus  desired  the  interpreters  to 
inquire  whom  he  was  invoking,  and  learnt  in  reply  the 
anecdote  of  the  Athenian  lawgiver,  together  with  the 
solemn  memento  which  he  had  offered  to  Croesus  during 
more  prosperous  days,  attesting  the  frail  tenure  of  all 
human  greatness.  The  remark  sunk  deep  into  the  Persian 
monarch  as  a  token  of  what  might  happen  to  himself:  he 
repented  of  his  purpose,  and  directed  that  the  pile,  which 
had  already  been  kindled,  should  be  immediately  ex- 
tinguished. But  the  orders  came  too  late.  In  spite  of  the 
most  zealous  efforts  of  the  bystanders,  the  flame  was  found 
unquenchable,  and  Croesus  would  still  have  been  burnt, 
had  he  not  implored  with  prayers  and  tears  the  succour 
of  Apollo,  to  whose  Delphian  and  Theban  temples  he  had 
given  such  munificent  presents.  His  prayers  were  heard, 
the  fair  sky  was  immediately  overcast  and  a  profuse  rain 
descended,  sufficient  to  estinguish  the  flames.2  The  life  of 
Croesus  was  thus  saved,  and  he  became  afterwards  the 
confidential  friend  and  adviser  of  his  conqueror. 

Such  is  the  brief  outline  of  a  narrative  which  Hero- 
dotus has  given  with  full  development  and  with 

rr      ,        T,  iii  Moral  les- 

impressive  effect.     It  would  have  served  as  a   sou  arising 
show-lecture  to  the  youth  of  Athens  not  less  ad-   out  of.thc 
mirably  than  the  well-known  fable  of  the  Choice 
of  Herakles,  which  the  philosopher  Prodikus.3  a  junior 


154  HISTORY  OP  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

contemporary  of  Herodotus,  delivered  with  so  much 
popularity.  It  illustrates  forcibly  the  religious  and  ethical 
ideas  of  antiquity;  the  deep  sense  of  the  jealousy  of  the 
gods,  who  would  not  endure  pride  in  any  one  except 
themselves;1  the  impossibility,  for  any  man,  of  realising  to 
himself  more  than  a  very  moderate  share  of  happiness;  the 
danger  from  reactionary  Nemesis,  if  at  any  time  he  had 
overpassed  such  limit;  and  the  necessity  of  calculations 
taking  in  the  whole  of  life,  as  a  basis  for  rational  com- 
parison of  different  individuals.  And  it  embodies,  as  a 
practical  consequence  from  these  feelings,  the  often- 
repeated  protest  of  moralists  against  vehement  impulses 
and  unrestrained  aspirations.  The  more  valuable  this 
narrative  appears,  in  its  illustrative  character,  the  less  can 
we  presume  to  treat  it  as  a  history. 

It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  we  have  no  information 
state  of  respecting  events  in  Attica  immediately  after 
Attica  after  the  Solonian  laws  and  constitution,  which  were 
nian'ie-  promulgated  in  594  B.C.,  so  as  to  understand 
gisiation.  better  the  practical  effect  of  these  changes. 
"What  we  next  hear  respecting  Solon  in  Attica  refers  to  a 
period  immediately  preceding  the  first  usurpation  of  Peisis- 
Retum  of  tratus  in  560  B.C.,  and  after  the  return  of  Solon 
Solon  to  from  his  long  absence.  We  are  here  again  in- 
troduced to  the  same  oligarchical  dissensions  as 
are  reported  to  have  prevailed  before  the  Solonian  legis- 
lation: the  Pedieis,  or  opulent  proprietors  of  the  plain 
round  Athens,  under  Lykurgus;  the  Parali  of  the  south 
of  Attica,  under  Megakles;  and  the  Diakrii  or  mountaineers 
of  the  eastern  cantons,  the  poorest  of  the  three  classes, 
under  Peisistratus,  are  in  a  state  of  violent  intestine  dis- 
pute. The  account  of  Plutarch  represents  Solon  as 
returning  to  Athens  during  the  height  of  this  sedition. 
He  was  treated  with  respect  by  all  parties,  but  his  recom- 
mendations were  no  longer  obeyed,  and  he  was  disqualified 
by  age  from  acting  with  effect  in  public.  He  employed 
his  best  efforts  to  mitigate  party  animosities,  and  applied 
himself  particularly  to  restrain  the  ambition  of  Peisis- 
tratus.  whose  ulterior  projects  he  quickly  detected. 

The  future  greatness  of  Peisistratus  is  said  to  have 

1  Herodot.   vii.  10.     <l>i/.s»i.  Ya     6      . . 


CHAP.  XI.                               KETURN  OP  SOLON.                                       155 

been  first  portended  by  a  miracle  which  happened,  even 
before  his  birth,  to  his  father  Hippokrates  at  EiseofPei- 
the  Olympic  games.  It  was  realised,  partly  sistratus. 

by  his  bravery  and  conduct,  which  had  been  displayed  in 
the  capture  of  Nissea  from  the  Megarians J — partly  by  his 

1    Herodot.  i.  59.     I   record    this  call  a  mistake   in   his  chronology, 

allusion    to  Nisa;a  and   the   Mega-  the   interval    between    COO -560  B.C. 

rian   war,    because    I   find    it   dis-  shrinks   from    forty  years   to  little 

tinctly  stated   in   Herodotus  ;    and  or  nothing.   Such  mistake  appears, 

because   it  may   possibly   refer   to  not  only  on  the   present  occasion, 

some     other     later     war     between  but  also  upon  two  others;  first,  in 

Athens  and  Megara  than  that  which  regard  to  the  alleged  dialogue  be- 

is  mentioned  in  Plutarch's  Life  of  tween  Solon  and  Crcesus,  described 

Solon   as   having   taken   place   be-  and  commented  upon  a  few  pages 

fore  the  Solonian  legislation  (that  above  ;  next,  in  regard  to  the  poet 

is  ,   before  594  B.C.),   and  therefore  Alkasus  and  his  inglorious   retreat 

nearly  forty  years  before  this  move-  before  the  Athenian    troops  at  Si- 

ment    of    Peisistratus    to    acquire  geium   and  Acliilleium ,   where  le 

the  despotism.     Peisistratus   must  lost  his  shield  ,    when   the  Mityle- 

then   have   been   so  young  that  he  neans   were  defeated.     The  leality 

could  not   with   any   propriety   be  of   this    incident    is    indisputable, 

said     to     have     "captured    Nisxa''  since  it  was  mentioned  by  Alka  us 

(Nljxtav    -t    E),U)V)  :    moreover    the  himself  in    one    of  his  songs;   but 

public  reputation,  which  was  found  Herodotus    represents    it    to    have 

useful    to    the    ambition    of  Peisi-  occurred  in  an  Athenian  expedition 

stratus  in  560  B.C.,  must  have  rest-  directed  by  Peisistratus.    Now  the 

ed    upon    something    more   recent  war  in  which  Alkrtus  incurred  this 

than   his  bravery    displayed    about  misfortune,  and  which  was  brought 

597  B.C.— just  as  the  celebrity  which  to  a  close  by  the  mediation  of  Pe- 

enabled  Napoleon  to  play  the  game  riander  of  Corinth,  must  have  taken 

of  successful  ambition  on  the  18th  place     earlier    than    584  B.C.,    and 

Brumaire  (Nov.  1799)  was  obtained  probably    took     place     before    the 

by  victories  gained  within  the  pre-  legislation   of  Solon;   long  before 

ceding    live    years,    and  could  not  the  time  when  Peisistratus  had  the 

have  been  represented  by  any  his-  direction     of    Athenian      affairs  — 

toriaii    as    resting    upon    victories  though  the  latter  may  have  carried 

gained    in    the    Seven  Years'    war,  on  ,    and    probably    did    carry    on, 

between  1756-1703.  another   and   a  later  war    against 

At  the  same   time    my    belief  is,  the  Mityleneans   in   those  regions, 

that    the    words    of   Herodotus   re-  which    led   to    the    introduction    of 

specting  Peisistratus  do  really  re-  his  illegitimate    son  Hegesistratus 

fer  to  the  Megarian  war  mentioned  as    despot    of   Sigeium    (Herod,  v. 

in  Plutarch's    Life    of   Solon,    and  <)4,  95). 

that  Herodotus  supposed  that  Me-  If  we  follow   the   representation 

gariau    war    to    have     been    much  given  by  Herodotus  of  these  three 

more  near  to  the  despotism  of'Pei-  different  strings  of  events,  we  shall 

sistratus  than  it  really  was.    In  the  see    that   the    same    chronological 

conception    of  Herodotus  ,    and  by  mistake  pervades  nil  of  them  — ho 

what  (after  Niebuhr)  I  venture    to  jumps    over  nearly  ten  olympiads, 


156  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAHT  II. 

popularity  of  speech  and  manners,  his  championship  of  the 
poor,1  and  his  ostentatious  disavowal  of  all  selfish  preten- 
sions —  partly  by  an  artful  mixture  of  stratagem  and  force. 
Solon,  after  having  addressed  fruitless  remonstrances  to 
Peisistratus  himself,  publicly  denounced  his  designs  in 
verses  addressed  to  the  people.  The  deception,  whereby 
Peisistratus  finally  accomplished  his  design,  is  memorable 
in  Grecian  tradition.?  He  appeared  one  day  in  the  agora 
of  Athens  in  his  chariot  with  a  pair  of  mules: 
rable  stra-"  he  had  intentionally  wounded  both  his  person 
tagem  to  an(j  the  mules,  and  in  this  condition  he  threw 
sTguard  himself  upon  the  compassion  and  defence  of  the 
from  the  people,  pretending  that  his  political  enemies 
had  violently  attacked  him.  He  implored  the 
people  to  grant  him  a  guard,  and  at  the  moment  when 
their  sympathies  were  freshly  aroused  both  in  his  favour 
and  against  his  supposed  assassins,  Aristo  proposed  formally 
to  the  Ekklesia  (the  pro-bouleutic  senate,  being  composed 
of  friends  of  Peisistratus,  had  previously  authorised  the 
proposition)3  that  a  company  of  fifty  club-men  should  be 
assigned  as  a  permanent  body-guard  for  the  defence  of 
Peisistratus.  To  this  motion  Solon  opposed  a  strenuous 
resistance,4  but  found  himself  overborne,  and  even  treated 
as  if  he  had  lost  his  senses.  The  poor  \vere  earnest  in 
favour  of  it.  while  the  rich  were  afraid  to  express  their 
dissent;  and  he  could  only  comfort  himself  after  the  fatal 
vote  had  been  passed,  by  exclaiming  that  he  was  wiser 
than  the  former  and  more  determined  than  the  latter. 
Such  was  one  of  the  first  known  instances  in  which  this 
memorable  stratagem  was  played  off  against  the  liberty  of 
a  Grecian  community. 

The  unbounded  popular  favour  which  had  procured 
the  passing  of  this  grant  was  still  farther  manifested  by 

or  forty  years.   Alkoeus  is  the  con-          '  Aristot.   Politic,   v.  4,   5;    Plu- 
temporary    of  Pittakus  and  Solon,      tarch,  Solon,  29. 

I  have  already  remarked,  in  the  2  Plato,  Republic,  viii.  p.  565. 
previous  chapter  respecting  the  to  Tupocwixov  al;Tr,|j.a  TO  7to).ufJpu).>.rj- 
despots  of  Sikyon  (Ch.  ix.),  another 
instance  of  confused  chronology  in 
Herodotus  respecting  the  events 


f  this  period  —  respecting  Croesus, 


Megakles,  Alkmscdn  and  Kleisthe- 


IIjt3i3TpaTioai  ovrsc,  &c. 
n6s  of  Siky6n.  4  Plutarch,  Solon,    29,  30;   Diog. 

Laert.  i.  50,  51. 


CHAP.  XI.  STRATAGEM  OF  PEISISTBATUS:  157 

the  absence  of  all  precautions  to  prevent  the  limits  of  the 
grant  from  being  exceeded.  The  number  of  the  body-guard 
was  not  long  confined  to  fifty,  and  probably  their  clubs 
were  soon  exchanged  for  sharper  weapons.  Peisistratus 
thus  found  himself  strong  enough  to  throw  off  the  mask 
and  seize  the  Akropolis.  His  leading  opponents,  Peisigtra. 
Hegakles  and  the  Alkmaeonids,  immediately  fled  tus  seizes 
the  city,  and  it  was  left  to  the  venerable  age  ^j^10' 
and  undaunted  patriotism  of  Solon  to  stand  for-  courageous 
ward  almost  alone  in  a  vain  attempt  to  resist  resistance 
the  usurpation.  He  publicly  presented  himself 
in  the  market-place,  employing  encouragement,  remons- 
trance and  reproach,  in  order  to  rouse  the  spirit  of  the 
people.  To  prevent  this  despotism  from  coming  (he  told 
them)  would  have  been  easy;  to  shake  it  off  now  was  more 
difficult,  yet  at  the  same  time  more  glorious.1  But  he 
spoke  in  vain,  for  all  who  were  not  actually  favourable  to 
Peisistratus  listened  only  to  their  fears,  and  remained  pas- 
sive; nor  did  any  one  join  Solon,  when,  as  a  last  appeal,  he 
put  on  his  armour  and  planted  himself  in  military  posture 
before  the  door  of  his  house.  "I  have  done  my  duty  (he 
exclaimed  at  length);  I  have  sustained  to  the  best  of  my 
power  my  country  and  the  laws:"  and  he  then  renounced 
all  farther  hope  of  opposition — though  resisting  the  in- 
stances of  his  friends  that  he  should  flee,  and  returning  for 
answer,  when  they  asked  him  on  what  he  relied  for  pro- 
tection, "On  my  old  age."  Nor  did  he  even  think  it 
necessary  to  repress  the  inspirations  of  his  Muse.  Some 
verses  yet  remain,  composed  seemingly  at  a  moment  when 
the  strong  hand  of  the  new  despot  had  begun  to  make 
itself  sorely  felt,  in  which  he  tells  his  countrymen — "If  ye 
have  endured  sorrow  from  your  own  baseness  of  soul, 
impute  not  the  fault  of  this  to  the  gods.  Ye  have  your- 
selves put  force  and  dominion  into  the  hands  of  these  men, 
and  have  thus  drawn  upon  yourselves  wretched  slavery." 

It  is  gratifying  to  learn  that  Peisistratus,  whose  con- 
duct throughout   his  despotism  was  comparatively  mild, 
left  Solon  untouched.  How  long  this  distinguish-    Deatl,  Of 
ed  man    survived    the  practical  subversion    of  Solon— ins 
his  own  constitution,    we   cannot  certainly    de-   character- 
termine:  but    according  to  the  most  probable   statement 

1  Plutarch,    Solon,    30:     Diosen.  Laert.  i.49;  Diodor.  Excerpta,  lib. 
vii.-x. .  ed.  JIaii.  Fr.  xix.-xxiv. 


158  HISTOEY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

he  died  during  the  very  next  year,   at  the  advanced  age 
of  eighty. 

We  have  only  to  regret  that  we  are  deprived  of  themeans 
of  following  more  in  detail  his  noble  and  exemplary  character. 
He  represents  the  best  tendencies  of  his  age,  combined  with 
much  that  is  personally  excellent;  the  improved  ethical  sen- 
sibility; the  thirst  for  enlarged  knowledge  and  observation, 
not  less  potent  in  old  age  than  in  youth;  the  conception  of 
regularised  popular  institutions,  departing  sensibly  irom  the 
type  and  spirit  of  the  governments  around  him,  and  cal- 
culated to  found  a  new  character  in  the  Athenian  people;  a 
genuine  and  reflecting  sympathy  with  the  mass  of  the  poor, 
anxious  not  merely  to  rescue  them  from  the  oppressions  of 
the  rich,  but  also  to  create  in  them  habits  of  self-relying 
industry;  lastly,  during  his  temporary  possession  of  apower 
altogether  arbitrary,  not  merely  an  absence  of  all  selfish 
ambition,  but  a  rare  discretion  in  seizing  the  mean  between 
conflicting  exigencies.  In  reading  his  poems  we  must  always 
recollect  that  what  now  appears  common-place  was  once 
new,  so  that  to  his  comparatively  unlettered  age,  the  social 
pictures  which  he  draws  were  still  fresh,  and  his  exhor- 
tations calculated  to  live  in  the  memory.  The  poems  com- 
posed on  moral  subjects  generally  inculcate  a  spirit  of  gentle- 
ness towards  others  and  moderation  in  personal  objects. 
They  represent  the  gods  as  irresistible,  retributive,  favour- 
ing the  good  and  punishing  the  bad,  though  sometimes 
very  tardily.  But  his  compositions  on  special  and  present 
occasions  are  usually  conceived  in  a  more  vigorous  spirit; 
denouncing  the  oppressions  of  the  rich  at  one  time,  and  the 
timid  submission  to  Peisistratus  at  another — and  expressing 
in  emphatic  language  his  own  proud  consciousness  of  having 
stood  forward  as  champion  of  the  mass  of  the  people.  Of 
his  early  poems  hardly  anything  is  preserved.  The  few 
lines  remaining  seem  to  manifest  a  jovial  temperament 
which  we  may  well  conceive  to  have  been  overlaid  by  such 
political  difficulties  as  he  had  to  encounter — difficulties 
arising  successively  out  of  the  Megarian  war,  the  Kylonian 
sacrilege,  the  public  despondency  healed  by  Epimenides, 
and  the  task  of  arbiter  between  a  rapacious  oligarchy  and 
a  suffering  people.  In  one  of  his  elegies  addressed  to 
Mimnermus,  he  marked  out  the  sixtieth  year  as  the  longest 
desirable  period  of  life,  in  preference  to  the  eightieth  year, 


CHAP.  XI.  CHARACTER  OF  SOLON  159 

which  that  poet  had  expressed  a  wish  to  attain.1  But  his 
own  life,  as  far  as  we  can  judge,  seems  to  have  reached  the 
longer  of  the  two  periods;  and  not  the  least  honourable 
part  of  it  (the  resistance  to  Peisistratus)  occurs  immediate- 
ly before  his  death. 

There  prevailed  a  story,  that  his  ashes  were  collected 
and  scattered  around  the  island  of  Salamis,  which  Plutarch 
treats  as  absurd — though  he  tells  us  at  the  same  time  that 
it  was  believed  both  by  Aristotle  and  by  many  other  con- 
siderable men.  It  is  at  least  as  ancient  as  the  poet  Kratinus, 
who  alluded  to  it  in  one  of  his  comedies,  and  I  do  not  feel 
inclined  to  reject  it.2  The  inscription  on  the  statue  of 
Solon  at  Athens  described  him  as  a  Salaminian:  he  had 
been  the  great  means  of  acquiring  the  island  for  his  country : 
and  it  seems  highly  probable  that  among  the  new  Athenian 
citizens,  who  went  to  settle  there,  he  may  have  received  a 
lot  of  land  and  become  enrolled  among  the  Salaminian 
demots.  The  dispersion  of  his  ashes  connecting  him  with 
the  island  as  its  CEkist,  may  be  construed,  if  not  as  the  ex- 
pression of  a  public  vote,  at  least  as  apiece  of  affectionate 
vanity  on  the  part  of  his  surviving  friends.3 

AVe  have  now  reached  the  period  of  the  usurpation  of 
Peisistratus  (B.C.  500),  whose  dynasty  governed  Athens 
(with  two  temporary  interruptions  during  the  life  of 
Peisistratus  himself)  for  fifty  years.  The  history  of  this 
despotism,  milder  than  Grecian  despotism  generally,  and 
productive  of  important  consequences  to  Athens,  will  be 
reserved  for  a  succeeding  chapter. 

1  Solon,  Fragment  22,  ed.  Bcrgk.  TTTSO    -rd)v  TSTTipav;,  p.  172;    p.  230 
Isokrates    affirms    that    Solon  was  Dindorf).     The    inscription   on  his 
the   first   person   to  whom  the  ap-  statue,     which     describes     him    as 
pellation    Sophist    (in    later   times  born  in    Salamis,   can  hardly  have 
carrying  with  it  so  much  obloquy)  been   literally    true  ;    for  when  he 
was    applied    (Isokrates,     Or.    xv.  was  born,    Salamis  was  not  incor- 
De    Permutatione,    p.    344;    p.    49G  porated    in    Attica.      But    it    may 
Bek.).  have  been  true  by  a  sort  of  adop- 

2  Plutarch,    Solon,    32;    Kratinus  tion    (see    Diogen.     Laert.    i.    02). 
ap.  Diogen.  Laert.  i.  02.  The    statue    seems    to    have    been 

3  Aristides,  in  noticing  this  story  erected  by  the  Salaminians    them- 
of  the   spreading   of  the    ashes   of  selves,    a   long  time    after   Solon: 
Solon  in   Salamis,    treats    him    as  see  Menage  ad  Diogen.  Laert.  I.  c. 
'Apy^ysTY;;  of  the  island  (Orat.  xlvi. 


160  HISTORY  OP  GEEECE.  PAET  II. 

APPENDIX. 

The  explanation  which  M.  von  Savigny  gives  of  the  Nexi  and  Ad- 
dicti  under  the  old  Roman  law  of  debtor  and  creditor  (after  he  has 
refuted  the  elucidation  of  Niebuhr  on  the  same  subject),  while  it  throws 
great  light  on  the  historical  changes  in  Eoman  legislation  on  that  im- 
portant matter,  sets  forth  at  the  same  time  the  marked  difference  made 
in  the  procedure  of  Rome,  between  the  demand  of  the  creditor  for 
repayment  of  principal,  and  the  demand  for  payment  of  interest. 

The  primitive  Roman  law  distinguished  a  debt  arising  from  money 
lent  (pecunia  certa  credita)  from  debts  arising  out  of  contract,  delict, 
sale,  <£c.,  or  any  other  source  :  the  creditor  on  the  former  ground  had 
a  quick  and  easy  process,  by  which  he  acquired  the  fullest  power 
over  the  person  and  property  of  his  debtor.  After  the  debt  on  loan 
was  either  confessed  or  proved  before  the  magistrate,  thirty  days  were 
allowed  to  the  debtor  for  payment:  if  payment  was  not  made  within 
that  time,  the  creditor  laid  hold  of  him  (mantis  injectio)  and  carried 
him  before  the  magistrate  again.  The  debtor  was  now  again  required 
either  to  pay  or  to  find  a  surety  (vindex) ;  if  neither  of  these  demands 
were  complied  with,  the  creditor  took  possession  of  him  and  carried 
him  home,  where  he  kept  him  in  chains  for  two  months;  during  which 
interval  he  brought  him  before  the  prsetor  publicly  on  three  successive 
nundinse.  If  the  debt  was  not  paid  within  these  two  months,  the  sen- 
tence of  addiction  was  pronounced,  and  the  creditor  became  empowered 
either  to  put  his  debtor  to  death,  or  to  sell  him  for  a  slave  (p.  81),  or 
to  keep  him  at  forced  work,  without  any  restriction  as  to  the  degree 
of  ill-usage  which  might  be  inflicted  upon  him.  The  judgement  of  the 
magistrate  authorised  him,  besides,  to  seize  the  property  of  his  debtor 
wherever  he  could  find  any,  within  the  limits  sufficient  for  payment: 
this  was  one  of  the  points  which  Niebuhr  had  denied. 

Such  was  the  old  law  of  Rome,  with  respect  to  the  consequences 
of  an  action  for  money  had  and  received,  for  more  than  a  century 
after  the.  Twelve  Tables.  But  the  law  did  not  apply  this  stringent 
personal  execution  to  any  debt  except  that  arising  from  loan— and 
even  in  that  debt  only  to  the  principal  money,  not  to  the  interest — 
which  latter  had  to  be  claimed  by  a  process  both  more  gentle  and  less 
efficient,  applying  to  the  property  only  and  not  to  the  person  of  the 
debtor.  Accordingly  it  was  to  the  advantage  of  the  creditor  to  devise 
some  means  for  bringing  his  claim  of  interest  under  the  same  stringent 
process  as  his  claim  for  the  principal;  it  was  also  to  his  advantage, 
if  his  claim  arose,  not  out  of  money  lent,  but  out  of  sale,  compen- 
sation for  injury,  or  any  other  source,  to  give  to  it  the  form  of  an 
action  for  money  lent.  Now  the  Xexum,  or  Xexi  obligatio,  was  an 
artifice— a  fictitious  loan— whereby  this  purpose  was  accomplished.  The 
severe  process  which  legally  belonged  only  to  the  recovery  of  the 
principal  money,  was  extended  by  the  Xexum  so  as  to  comprehend 
the  interest;  and  so  as  to  comprehend  also  claims  for  money  arising 
from  all  other  sources  (as  well  as  from  loan),  wherein  the  law  gave 
no  direct  recourse  except  against  the  property  of  a  debtor.  The  Debi- 
tor Xexus  was  made  liable  by  this  legal  artifice  to  pass  into  the  con- 
dition of  an  Addictus,  either  without  having  borrowed  money  at  all, 

for  the   interest  as   well  as  for    the  principal  of  that  which  he  had 


borrowed. 


CHAP.  XI.      ROMAN  LAW  OF  DEBTOR  AND  CREDITOB.  1G1 

The  Lex  Pcetelia,  passed  about  B.C.  325,  liberated  all  the  Nexi  then 
under  liability,  and  interdicted  the  Nexi  obligatio  for  ever  afterwards 
(Cicero,  De  Republ.  ii.  34;  Livy,  viii.  28).  Here,  as  in  the  Seisaeh- 
theia  of  Solon,  the  existing  contracts  were  cancelled,  at  the  same  time 
that  the  whole  class  of  similar  contracts  were  forbidden  for  the  future. 

But  though  the  Nexi  obligatio  was  thus  abolished,  the  old  strin- 
gent remedy  still  continued  against  the  debtor  on  loan,  as  far  as  the 
principal  sum  borrowed,  apart  from  interest.  Some  mitigations  were 
introduced:  by  Lex  Julia,  the  still  more  important  provision  was  ad- 
ded, that  the  debtor  by  means  of  a  Cessio  Bonorum  might  save  liis 
person  from  seizure.  But  this  Cessio  Bonorum  was  coupled  with  con- 
ditions which  could  not  always  be  fulfilled,  nor  was  the  debtor  ad- 
mitted to  the  benefit  of  it,  if  he  had  been  guilty  of  carelessness  or 
dishonesty.  Accordingly  the  old  stringent  process,  and  the  addiction 
in  which  it  ended,  though  it  became  less  frequent,  still  continued 
throughout  the  course  of  Imperial  Rome,  and  even  down  to  the  time 
of  Justinian.  The  private  prison,  with  adjudicated  debtors  working 
in  it,  was  still  the  appendage  to  a  Roman  moneylender's  house,  even 
in  the  third  and  fourth  centuries  after  the  Christian  sera,  though  the 
practice  seems  to  have  become  rarer  and  rarer.  The  status  of  the 
Ailclictus  Debitor,  with  its  peculiar  rights  and  obligations,  is  dicussed 
by  Quintilian  (vii.  3) ;  and  Aulus  Gellius  (A.D.  160)  observes— "Addici 
namque  mine  et  viriciri  multos  viclemus,  quia  vinculorum  poenam  deter- 
rimi  homines  contemnunt."  (xx.  1.) 

If  the  Addictus  Debitor  was  adjudged  to  several  creditors,  they 
were  allowed  by  the  Twelve  Tables  to  divide  his  body  among  them. 
No  example  was  known  of  this  power  having  been  ever  carried  into 
effect,  but  the  law  was  understood  to  give  the  power  distinctly. 

It  is  useful  to  have  before  us  the  old  Roman  law  of  debtor  and 
creditor,  partly  as  a  point  of  comparison  with  the  ante-Soloiiian  prac- 
tice in  Attica,  partly  to  illustrate  the  difference  drawn  in  an  early 
state  of  society  between  the  claim  for  the  principal  and  the  claim  for 
the  interest. 

See  the  Abhandlung  of  Von  Savigny  in  the  Transactions  of  the 
Berlin  Academy  for  lS3:j,  p.  70—103  ;  the  subject  is  also  treated  by  the 
same  admirable  expositor  in  his  System  des  heutigen  Rb'mischen  Rechts, 
vol.  v.  sect.  19,  and  in  Ullage  xi.  10,  11  of  that  volume. 

The  same  peculiar  stringent  process,  which  was  available  in  the 
ease  of  an  action  for  pecunia  certa  crcflita,  was  also  specially  extend- 
ed to  the  surety,  who  had  paid  down  money  to  liquidate  another 
man's  debt:  the  debtor,  if  insolvent,  became  his  Addictus — this  was 
the  Adio  Deptnsi.  I  have  already  remarked  in  a  former  note,  that  in 
the  Attic  law,  a  case  analogous  to  this  was  the  only  one  in  which  the 
original  remedy  against  the  person  of  the  debtor  was  always  main- 
tained. "When  a  man  had  paid  money  to  redeem  a  citizen  from  cap- 
tivity, the  latter,  if  he  did  not  repay  it,  became  the  slave  of  the  party 
who  had  advanced  the  money. 

Walter  (Geschichte  des  Rb'mischen  Rechts,  sect.  583—715,  2nd  ed.) 
calls  in  question  the  above  explanation  of  Von  Saviguy,  on  grounds 
which  do  not  appear  to  me  sul'Iicient. 

How  long  the  feeling  continued,  that  it  was  immoral  and  irreligious 
to  receive  any  interest  at  all  for  money  lout,  may  be  seen  from  the  follo\v- 

YOL.  III.  M 


1G2  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAKT  II. 

ing  notice   respecting   the   state    of    the    law    in    France    even    down 
to  1789:— 

"Avant  la  Revolution  Franchise  (de  1789)  le  pr§t  a  inter§t  n'etait 
pas  (Sgalement  admis  dans  les  diverses  parties  du  royaume.  Dans  les 
pays  de  droit  ecrit,  il  etait  permis  de  stipuler  l'int<5ret  des  deniers 
prates:  mais  la  jurisprudence  des  parlemens  riSsistait  souvent  a  cet 
usage.  Suivant  le  droit  commun  des  pays  coutumiers,  on  ne  pouvait 
stipuler  aucun  interet  pour  le  pret  appele1  en  droit  mututtm.  On  tenait 
pour  maxime  que  1'argent  ne  produisant  rien  par  lui-mdme,  un  tel 
pret  devait  etre  gratuit :  que  la  perception  d'interets  etait  nne  usurer 
a  cet  egard,  on  admettait  assez  g<5neralement  les  principes  du  droib 
canonique.  Du  reste,  la  legislation  et  la  jurisprudence  variaient 
suivant  les  localites  et  suivant  la  nature  des  contrats  et  des  obliga- 
tions." (Carette,  Lois  Annotees,  ou  Lois,  Decrets,  Ordonnances,  Paris 
1843;  Note  sur  le  Decret  de  1'Assemblee  Nationale  concernant  le  Pret 
et  Interet,  Aout  11,  1789.) 

The  National  Assembly  declared  the  legality  of  all  loans  on  in- 
terest, "suivant  le  taux  determine  par  la  loi,"  hut  did  not  then  fix 
any  special  rate.  "Le  decret  du  11  Avril  1793  defendit  la  vente  et 
1'achat  du  numeraire."  "La  loi  du  6  floreal,  an  in,  declara  que  1'or 
ot  1'argent  sont  marchandises  ;  mais  elle  fut  rapportee  par  le  decret 
du  2  prairial  suivant.  Les  articles  1905  et  1907  du  Code  Civil  per- 
mettent  le  pret  a  interSt,  mais  au  taux  fixe  ou  autorise  par  la  loi.  La 
loi  du  3  Sept.  1607  a  fix<§  le  taux  d'interet  a  5  per  cent,  en  matiere 
civile  et  a  6  per  cent,  en  matiere  commerciale." 

The  article  on  Lending-houses,  in  Beckmann's  History  of  Inven- 
tions (vol.  iii.  pp.  9 — 50),  is  highly  interesting  and  instructive  on  the 
same  subject.  It  traces  the  gradual  calling  in  question,  mitigation, 
and  disappearance,  of  the  ancient  antipathy  against  taking  interest 
for  money;  an  antipathy  long  sanctioned  by  the  ecclesiastics  as  well 
as  by  the  jurists.  Lending-houses,  or  Monts  de  Piete,  -were  first  com- 
menced in  Italy  about  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  by  some 
Franciscan  monks,  for  the  purpose  of  rescuing  poor  borrowers  from  the 
exorbitant  exactions  of  the  Jews:  Pope  Pius  II.  (.33neas  Silvius,  one 
of  the  ablest  of  the  Popes,  about  1458—1464)  was  the  first  who  approved 
of  one  of  them  at  Perugia,  but  even  the  papal  sanction  was  long 
combated  by  a  large  proportion  of  ecclesiastics.  At  first  it  was  to  be 
purely  charitable  ;  not  only  neither  giving  interest  to  those  who  con- 
tributed money,  nor  taking  interest  from  the  borrowers— but  not  even 
providing  fixed  pay  to  the  administrators:  interest  was  tacitly  taken, 
but  the  popes  were  a  long  time  before  they  would  formally  approve 
of  such  a  practice.  "At  Vicenza,  in  order  to  avoid  the  reproach  of 
usury,  the  artifice  was  employed  of  not  demanding  any  interest,  but 
admonishing  the  borrowers  that  they  should  give  a  remuneration  ac- 
corJing  to  their  piety  and  ability."  (p.  31.)  The  Dominicans,  parti- 
tans  of  the  old  doctrine,  called  these  establishments  Montes  Impiefatis. 
A  Franciscan  monk,  Bernardinus,  one  of  the  most  active  promoters 
of  the  Monts  de  Pi6te,  did  not  venture  to  defend,  but  only  to  excuse 
as  an  unavoidable  evil,  the  payment  of  wages  to  the  clerks  and  ad- 
ministrators: '-Speciosius  et  religiosius  fatebatur  Bernardinus  fore,  si 
absque  ullo  penitus  obolo  et  pretio  mutuum  daretur  et  commodaretur 
libere  pecunia,  sed  pium  opus  et  pauperum  subsidium  exiguo  sic  dura- 


CHAP.  XI.      ROMAN  LAW  OF  DEBTOR  AND  CBEDITOR.  163 

turum  tempore.  Non  enim  (inquit)  tantus  est  ardor  hominum,  ut 
gubornatores  et  officiates,  Montiurn  ministerio  neoessarii,  velint  laborem 
hunc  omnem  gratis  subire:  quod  si  remunerandi  sint  ex  sorte  princi- 
pali,  vel  ipso  deposito,  seu  exili  Montium  serario,  brevi  exhaurietur, 
etcoramodum  opportunumque  istud  pauperum  refugium  ubique  peribit." 
(p.  33.) 

The  council  of  Trent,  during  the  following  century,  pronounced 
in  favour  of  the  legality  and  usefulness  of  these  lending-houses,  and 
this  has  since  been  understood  to  be  the  sentiment  of  the  Catholic 
church  generally. 

To  trace  this  gradual  change  of  moral  feeling  is  highly  instructive — 
the  more  so,  as  that  general  basis  of  sentiment,  of  which  the  antipathy 
against  lending  money  on  interest  is  only  a  particular  case,  still  prevails 
largely  in  society  and  directs  the  current  of  moral  approbation  and 
disapprobation.  In  some  nations,  as  among  the  ancient  Persians  before 
Cyrus,  this  sentiment  lias  been  carried  so  far  as  to  repudiate  and  des- 
pise all  buying  and  selling.  (Herodot.  i.  153.)  With  many,  the  prin- 
ciple of  reciprocity  in  human  dealings  appears,  when  conceived  in 
theory,  odious  and  contemptible,  and  goos  by  some  bad  name,  such 
as  egoism,  selfishness,  calculation,  political  economy,  &c. :  the  only 
sentiment  which  they  will  admit  in  theory,  is,  that  the  man  who  has, 
ought  to  be  ready  at  all  times  to  give  away  to  him  who  has  not; 
while  the  latter  is  encouraged  to  expect  and  require  such  gratuitous 
donation. 


1C4  HISTORY  OF  GKEECE,  PAKT  II. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

EUBCEA.— CYCLADES. 

AMONG  the  Ionic  portion  of  Hellas  are  to  be  reckoned  (be- 
The  islands  s^es  Athens)  Eubcea,  and  the  numerous  group 
called  Cy-  of  islands  included  between  the  southernmost 
Eubcean  promontory,  the  eastern  coast  of  Pelo- 
ponnesus and  the  north-western  coast  of  Krete.  Of 
these  islands  some  are  to  be  considered  as  outlying  pro- 
longations, in  a  south-easterly  direction,  of  the  mountain- 
system  of  Attica;  others,  of  that  of  Euboea;  while  a  certain 
number  of  them  lie  apart  from  either  system,  and  seem 
referable  to  a  volcanic  origin.1  To  the  first  class 
belong  Keos,  Kythnus,  Serlphus,  Pholegandrus,  Sikinus, 
Gyarus,  Syra,  Paros,  and  Antiparos;  to  the  second  class, 
Andros,  Tenos,  Mykonos,  Delos,  Naxos,  Amorgos;  to  the 
third  class,  Kimolus,  Melos,  Thera.  These  islands  passed 
amongst  the  ancients  by  the  general  names  of  Cyclades 
and  Sporades;  the  former  denomination  being  commonly 
understood  to  comprise  those  which  immediately  surrounded 
the  sacred  island  of  Delos, — the  latter  being  given  to  those 
which  lay  more  scattered  and  apart.  But  the  names  are 
not  applied  with  uniformity  or  steadiness  even  in  ancient 
times:  at  present,  the  whole  group  are  usually  known  by 
the  title  of  Cyclades. 

The  population  of  these  islands  was  called  Ionic — 
with  the  exception  of  Styra  and  Karystus  in  the  southern 
part  of  Eubcea,  and  the  island  of  Kythnus,  which  were 
peopled  by  Dryopes,2  the  same  tribe  as  those  who  have 
been  already  remarked  in  the  Argolic  peninsula;  and  with 
the  exception  also  of  Melos  and  Thera,  which  were  colonies 
from  Sparta. 

The  island  of  Euboea,  long  and  narrow  like  Krete, 

and  exhibiting  a  continuous  backbone  of  lofty 

mountains    from    northwest    to    south-east,   is 

separated  from  Boeotia  at  one  point  by  a  strait  so  narrow 

1  See  Fiedler,  Reisen  durch  Griechenland,  vol.  ii.  p.  87. 

2  Herodot.  viii.  4Cj  Thucyd.  vii.  57. 


CHAP.  XII.  EUBCBA— CYCLADES.  165 

(celebrated  in  antiquity  under  the  name  of  the  Euripus), 
that  the  two  were  connected  by  a  bridge  for  a  large  portion 
of  the  historical  period  of  Greece,  erected  during  the  later 
times  of  the  Peloponnesian  war  by  the  inhabitants  of 
Ghalkis. l  Its  general  want  of  breadth  leaves  little  room 
for  plains.  The  area  of  the  island  consists  principally  of 
mountain,  rock,  dell,  and  ravine,  suited  in  many  parts  for 
pasture,  but  rarely  convenient  for  grain-culture  or  town 
habitations.  Some  plains  there  were,  however,  of  great 
fertility,  especially  that  of  Lelantum,2  bordering  on  the 
sea  near  Chalkis,  and  continuing  from  that  city  in  a  south- 
erly direction  towards  Eretria.  Chalkis  and  Eretria,  both 
situated  on  the  western  coast,  and  both  occupying  parts  of 
this  fertile  plain,  were  the  two  principal  places  in  the 
island:  the  domain  of  each  seems  to  have  extended  across 
the  island  from  sea  to  sea.3  Towards  the  northern  end  of 
the  island  were  situated  Histifea,  afterwards  called  Oreus 
— as  well  as  Kerinthus  and  Dium:  Athense  Diades,  ^Edep- 
sus,  ^Eg«,  and  Orobise,  are  also  mentioned  on  the  north- 
western coast  over  against  Lokris.  Dystus,  Styra,  and 
Karystus  are  made  known  to  us  in  the  portion  of  the  island 
south  of  Eretria — the  two  latter  opposite  to  the  Attic 
demes  Halce  Araphenides  and  Prasiae.4  The  its  six  or 
wide  extent  of  the  island  of  Euboea  was  thus  ^e^fnn_ 
distributed  between  six  or  seven  cities,  the  Chalkis, 
larger  and  central  portion  belonging  to  Chalkis  Eretria,  &c 
and  Eretria.  But  the  extensive  mountain  lands,  applicable 
only  for  pastures  in  the  summer — for  the  most  part  public 
lands,  let  out  for  pasture  to  such  proprietors  as  had  the 
means  of  providing  winter  sustenance  elsewhere  for  their 
cattle, — were  never  visited  by  any  one  except  the  shepherds. 
They  were  hardly  better  known  to  the  citizens  resident  in 

1  Diodor.  xiii.  47.  of  Rkyrus   as  opposite    to   Eretria, 

2  Kallimachus,  Hymn,  ad  Delum,  the  territory  of  which  must  there- 
239,    with    Spanhoim's   note  ;    The-  fore    havo   included    a    portion    of 
ognis,    v.    888;    Theophrast.    Hist.  the    eastern     coast    of    Eubcea,    as 
Plant.  8,  5.  well    as    tho    western.     He   recog- 

See  T.eake,    Travels  in   Northern  nis"s  ™^  four  citios  in  the  islantl 

Greece,    vol.  ii.  ch.    14.   p.  254,  seq.  | -Karystus,   Eretria,   Chalkis,   and 

Tho    passage   of  Thcogms  leads  to  ' 

the   belief   that   Kerinthus  formed         «  Mannert,  Geograph.  dor   Gr.  u. 

part  of  the  territory  of  Chalkis.  Rom.     part.    viii.    book.    i.     c.     1G. 

3  Skylax  (c.  59)  treats  the  island  p.  248;    iStraliu,  x.  p.  4!5  --149. 


166  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAET  II. 

Chalkis  and  Eretria  than  if  they  had  been  situated  on  the 
other  side  of  the  ^Egean. 1 

The  towns  above  enumerated  in  Euboea,  excepting 
HOW  peo-  Athense  Diades,  all  find  a  place  in  the  Iliad.  Of 
pied.  their  history  we  know  no  particulars  until  con- 

siderably after  776  B.  c.  They  are  first  introduced  to  us 
as  Ionic,  though  in  Homer  the  population  are  called  Aban- 
tes.  The  Greek  authors  are  never  at  a  loss  to  give  us  the 
etymology  of  a  name.  "While  Aristotle  tells  us  that  the 
Abantes  were  Thracians  who  had  passed  over  into  the 
island  from  Abse  in  Phokis,  Hesiod  deduces  the  name  of 
Euboea  from  the  cow  16. 2  Hellopia,  a  district  near  Histiaea, 
was  said  to  have  been  founded  by  Hellops  son  of  Ion: 
according  to  others,  ./Eklus  and  Kothus,  two  Athenians,3 
were  the  founders,  the  former  of  Eretria,  the  latter  of 
Chalkis  and  Kerinthus:  and  we  are  told,  that  among 
the  demes  of  Attica,  there  were  two  named  Histiaea  and  Ere- 
tria, from  whence  some  contended  that  the  appellations  of  the 
two  Euboean  towns  were  derived.  Though  Herodotus  re- 
presents the  population  of  Styra  as  Dryopian,  there  were 
others  who  contended  that  the  town  had  originally  been 
peopled  from  Marathon  and  the  Tetrapolis  of  Attica,  partly 
from  the  deme  called  Steirei's.  The  principal  writers  whom 

1  The  seventh  Oration  of  Dio  Two-thirds  of  the  territory  of 
Chrysostom,  which  describes  his  this  Euhoic  city  consisted  of  barren 
shipwreck  near  Cape  Kaphareus,  on  mountain  (p.  232);  it  must  prob- 
tlie island  of  Eubcea,  and  the  shelter  ably  have  been  Karystus. 
and  kindness  which  he  experienced  The  high  lands  of  Euboea  wero 
from  a  poor  mountain  huntsman,  both  uninhabited  and  difficult  of 
presents  one  of  the  most  interest-  approach,  even  at  the  time  of  thn 
ing  pictures  remaining,  of  this  battle  of  Marathon,  when  Chalkia 
purely  rustic  portion  of  the  Greek  and  Eretria  had  not  greatly  de- 
population (Or.  vii.  p.  221  seq_.) —  clined  from  the  maximum  of  their 
men  who  never  entered  the  city,  power :  the  inhabitants  of  Eretrir. 
and  were  strangers  to  the  habits,  looked  to  -ra  axpa  T-/JI;  E'}(5oi7|«  as 
manners,  and  dress  there  prevailing  a  refuge  against  the  Persian  force 
— men  who  drank  milk  and  were  under  Datis  (Herod,  vii.  100). 
clothed  in  skins  (YaXotXToroT7.<;  ov/jp,  *  Strabo,  x.  p.  445. 
oupsifia-a?,  Eurip.  Elektr.  169),  yet  3  Plutarch,  Quaest.  Grrcc.  p.  296: 
nevertheless  (as  it  seems)  possess-  Strab.x.  p.  446(whose  statements  are 
ing  right  of  citizenship  (p.  238)  very  perplexed):  Velleius  Pater- 
whicli  they  never  exercised.  The  cul.  i.  4. 

industry  of  the  poor  men  visited  by  According  to  Skymnus  the  Chian 

Dion  had  brought  into  cnltivation  (v.  572),    Chalkis    was    founded  by 

a  little  garden  and  field  in  a  desert  Pandflrus  son    of  Erechtheus,   and 

spot  near  Kaphareus.  Kerinthus  by  Kothon,  from  Athens. 


CHAP.  XII.  CHALKIS,  ERETRIA,  NAXOS,  ETC.  167 

Strabo  consulted  seem  to  trace  the  population  of  Euboea, 
by  one  means  or  another,  to  an  Attic  origin;  though  there 
were  peculiarities  in  the  Eretrian  dialect  which  gave  rise 
to  the  supposition  that  they  had  been  joined  by  settlers 
from  Elis,  or  from  the  Triphylian  Makistus. 

Our  earliest  historical  intimations  represent  Chalkis 
and  Eretria  as  the  wealthiest,  most  powerful,  and  Early 
most  enterprising  Ionic  cities  inEuropean  Greece  power  of 
—  apparently  surpassing  Athens,  and  not  inferior  Eretria1 
to  Samos  or  Miletus.  Besides  the  fertility  of  Naxos,  &c. 
the  plain  Lelantum,  Chalkis  possessed  the  advantage  of 
copper  and  iron  ore  —  obtained  in  immediate  proximity  both 
to  the  city  and  to  the  sea  —  which  her  citizens  smelted  and 
converted  into  arms  and  other  implements,  with  a  very 
profitable  result.  The  Chalkidic  sword  acquired  a  distinctive 
renown.  l  In  this  mineral  source  of  wealth  several  of  the 
other  islands  shared:  iron  ore  is  found  in  Keos,  Kythnus, 
and  Seriphus,  and  traces  are  still  evident  in  the  latter  island 
of  extensive  smelting  formerly  practised.2  Moreover  in 
Hiphnus,  there  were  in  early  times  veins  of  silver  and  gold, 
by  which  the  inhabitants  were  greatly  enriched;  though 
their  large  acquisitions,  attested  by  the  magnitude  of  the 
tithe3  which  they  offered  at  the  Delphian  temple,  were 
only  of  temporary  duration,  and  belong  principally  to  the 
seventh  and  sixth  centuries  before  the  Christian  eera.  The 
island  of  Naxos  too  was  at  an  early  day  wealthy  and  popu- 
lous. Andros,  Tenos,  Keos,  and  several  other  islands,  were 
at  one  time  reduced  to  dependence  upon  Eretria:4  other 
islands  seem  to  have  been  in  like  manner  dependent  upon 
Naxos,  which  at  the  time  immediately  preceding  the  Ionic 


(Aristophan.  Equit.  237)—  certainly  cates  the  probable  site  (vol.  i.  p.  443). 

belongs    to     the     Kuboic    Chalkis,  3     Herodot.     iii.     57.        Siphnus, 

not    to    the     Thrakian    Clialkidike.  however,  was  still  of  considerable 

Hoeckh,         Staatshaushalt           der  wealth  and    importance    about    38u 

Athener,    vol.    ii.    p.  2=4.  App.  xi.,  B.C.,  —  see       Isokrates,       Or.       xix. 

cites   X^Xxtoixa   r.T.\[ArJ    in    an  in-  (JKgin.)  s.    9—47.      Tho    Siphnians, 

F;:ription  :      compare     Steph.     Byz.  in    an    evil    hour,    committed    tlio 

X  v.)./l;.  —  Nv.'jjixXiitr)?        E'lifiv./,;,  wroiii;  of  withholding  their    tithe: 

Homer,  Hymn.  Apoll.  210.  the  sea  soon  rushed  in  and  rendered 

5  See  the   inineralogical    account  the     mines     ever     afterwards      un- 

o('  the  island?  in  Fiedler    (Kciaen,  workable  ("Pausan.  x.  11,   2). 

Vul.  ii.  pp.  88,  118,  562).  <  Ktrabo,  x.  p.  413. 


168  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  FABT  II. 

revolt  possessed  a  considerable  maritime  force,  and  could 
muster  8000  heavy-armed  citizens1 — a  very  large  force  for 
any  single  Grecian  city.  The  military  force  of  Eretria  was  not 
much  inferior;  for  in  the  temple  of  the  Amarynthian  Artemisr 
nearly  a  mile  from  the  city,  to  which  the  Eretrians  were  in  the 
habitof  marching insolemnprocession  to  celebrate  the  festival 
of  the  goddess,  there  stood  an  ancient  column  setting  forth  that 
the  procession  had  been  performed  by  no  less  than  3000 
hoplites,  600  horsemen,  and  60  chariots.2  The  date  of  this 
inscription  cannot  be  known,  but  it  can  hardly  be  earlier 
than  the  45th  Olympiad  or  600  B.  c. — near  about  the  time 
of  the  Solonian  legislation.  Chalkis  was  still  more  power- 
ful than  Eretria:  both  were  in  early  times  governed  by  an 
oligarchy,  which  among  the  Chalkidians  was  called  the 
Hippobotge  or  Horsefeeders — proprietors  probably  of  most 
part  of  the  plain  called  Lelantum,  and  employing  the  ad- 
joining mountains  as  summer  pasture  for  their  herds.  The 
extent  of  their  property  is  attested  by  the  large  number  of 
4000  Kleruchs  or  out-freemen,  whom  Athens  quartered  upon 
their  lauds,  after  the  victory  gained  over  them  when  they  as- 
sisted the  expelled  Hippias  in  his  efforts  to  regain  the  Athe- 
nian sceptre.3 

Confining  our  attention,  as  we  now  do,  to  the  first- 
two  centuries  of  Grecian  history,  or  the  intervalbetween776 
B.  c.  and  560  B.  c.,  there  are  scarce  any  facts  which  we  can 
produce  to  ascertain  the  condition  of  these  Ionic  islands. 
Two  or  three  circumstances  however  may  be  named  which 
go  to  confirm  our  idea  of  their  early  wealth  and  importance. 

1.  The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Apollo  presents  to  us  the 
Early  ionic  islan(l  °f  Delos  as  the  centre  of  a  great  periodical 
festival  at  festival  in  honour  of  Apollo,  celebrated  by  all 
crowded  the  cities,  insular  and  continental,  of  the  Ionic 
and  name.  What  the  date  of  this  hymn  is,  we  have 

wealthy.  nQ  meang  Of  determining.  Thucydides  quotes 

1  Herodot.   v.    31.      Compare  the  But    the    extent   and  fertility  of 

accounts    of   these  various  islands  the   Xaxi  an  plain  perfectly   suffice 

in  the  recent  voyages  of  Professor  for   that   aggregate   population    of 

Koss,  Keisen  auf  den  Griechischen  100,000  souls,   which  seems  implied 

Inseln,     vol.    i.    letter    2;   vol.    ii.  in  the  account  of  Herodotus, 

letter  15.  2  Strabo,  ?.  c. 

The  population  of  Naxos  is  now  3    Herodot.    v.    77;     Aristoteles, 

about  11,000  souls;  that  of  Andros  Fragment      r.zpi      DoXi-stio/,      ed. 

15,000  (Ross,  vol.  i.  p.  28;   vol.   ii.  Neumann,     p.     111  —  112:     compare 

p.  22).  Aristot.  Polit.  iv.  3,  2. 


CHAP.  XII.        EARLY  IONIC  FESTIVAL  AT  DELOS.  169 

it  without  hesitation  as  the  production  of  Homer,  and 
doubtless  it  was  in  his  time  universally  accepted  as  such — 
1  hough  modern  critics  concur  in  regarding  both  that  and 
the  other  hymns  as  much  later  than,  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey. 
Yet  it  cannot  probably  be  later  than  600  B.  c.  The  descrip- 
tion of  the  Ionic  visitors  presented  to  us  in  this  hymn  is 
splendid  and  imposing.  The  number  of  their  ships,  the 
display  of  their  finery,  the  beauty  of  their  women,  the 
athletic  exhibitions  as  well  as  the  matches  of  song  and 
dance — all  these  are  represented  as  making  an  inefface- 
able impression  on  the  spectator:1  "the  assembled  lonians 
look  as  if  they  were  beyond  the  reach  of  old  age  or  death." 
Such  was  the  magnificence  of  which  Delos  was  the  periodi- 
cal theatre,  calling  forth  the  voices  and  poetical  genius  not 
merely  of  itinerant  bards,  but  also  of  the  Delian  maidens 
in  the  temple  of  Apollo,  during  the  century  preceding  560 
i',.  c.  At  that  time  it  was  the  great  central  festival  of  the 
lonians  in  Asia  and  Europe;  frequented  by  the  twelve  Ionic 
cities  in  and  near  Asia  Minor,  as  well  as  by  Athens  and 
Chalkis  in  Europe.  It  had  not  yet  been  superseded  by  the 
.Kphesia  as  the  exclusive  festival  of  these  Asiatics;  nor  had 
the  Panathensea  of  Athens  reached  the  importance  which 
afterwards  came  to  belong  to  them  during  the  plenitude  of 
the  Athenian  power. 

We  find  both  Polykrates  of  Samos,  and  Peisistratus 
of  Athens,  taking  a  warm  interest  in  the  sanctity  of  Delos 
and  the  celebrity  of  her  festival. 2  But  it  was  partly  the 
rise  of  these  two  great  Ionian  despots,  partly  the  its  decline 
conquests  of  the  Persians  in  Asia  Minor,  which  about 

,1  •        n  n  ,,       ,,  560    B.C. 

broke  up  the  independence    ot    the  numerous   -causes 
petty  Ionian  cities,  during  the  last  half  of  the    thereof, 
sixth  century  before  the  Christian  sera;   hence  the  great 
festival  at  Delos  gradually  declined  in  importance.   Though 
never  wholly  intermitted,  it  was  shorn  of  much  of  its  pre- 
vious ornament,  and  especially  of  that  which  constituted 
the  first  of  all  ornaments — the  crowd  of  joyous  visitors. 
And  Thucydides,  when  he  notices  the  attempt  made  by  the 

1  Horn.  Hynni.  Apoll.  Del.  140—          Hy-r.to-i     yip     T.SV      IOOITO      X^?l''> 
176;  Thucycl.  iii.  104:  -rsp'^t-ro  Si  Oujxov, 

Oceir]     y.'     aOavatoo?     xal    ayr^a)-          'Av^v.;  T'  E'UOV^IJOV,  xmXXt'ibvO'j;  " 


170  HISTOEY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

Athenians  during  the  Peloponnesian  war,  in  the  height  of 
their  naval  supremacy,  to  revive  the  Delian  festival,  quotes 
the  Homeric  Hymn  to  Apollo  as  a  certificate  of  its  fore- 
gone and  long-forgotten  splendour.  We  perceive  that  even 
he  could  find  no  better  evidence  than  this  hymn,  for  Gre- 
cian transactions  of  a  century  anterior  to  Peisistratus — and 
we  may  therefore  judge  how  imperfectly  the  history  of 
this  period  was  known  to  the  men  who  took  part  in  the 
Peloponnesian  war.  The  hymn  is  exceedingly  precious  as 
Homeric  an  historical  document,  because  it  attests  to  us 
Jif  mp  \°  a  transitory  glory  and  extensive  association  of 
Apollo— n  the  Ionic  Greeks  on  both  sides  of  the  ^Egean 
al^o  nce  ^ea'  wkicn  the  conquests  of  the  Lydians  first,  and 
early  ionic  of  the  Persians  afterwards,  overthrew — a  time 
life.  when  the  hair  of  the  wealthy  Athenian  was  de- 

corated with  golden  ornaments,  and  his  tunic  made  of  linen, l 
like  that  of  the  Milesians  and  Ephesians,  instead  of  the 
more  sober  costume  and  woollen  clothing  which  he  sub- 
sequently copied  from  Sparta  and  Peloponnesus — a  time 
too  when  the  Ionic  name  had  not  yet  contracted  that  stain 
of  effeminacy  and  cowardice  which  stood  imprinted  upon 
it  in  the  time  of  Herodotus  and  Thucydides,  and  which 
grew  partly  out  of  the  subjugation  of  the  Asiatic  lonians 
by  Persia,  partly  out  of  the  antipathy  of  the  Peloponnesian 
Dorians  to  Athens.  The  author  of  the  Homeric  hymn,  in 
describing  the  proud  lonians  who  thronged  in  his  day  to 
the  Delian  festival,  could  hardly  have  anticipated  a  time  to 
come  when  the  name  Ionian  would  become  a  reproach, 
such  as  the  European  Greeks,  to  whom  it  really  belonged 
were  desirous  of  disclaiming.2 

2.  Another  illustrative  fact  in  reference  both  to  the 
War  be-  lonians  generally,  and  to  Chalkis  and  Eretria  in 
t.Te!,n.  ,  particular,  during  the  century  anterior  to  Peisis- 

'  nalkisand    f  .  '         ,     °,          ,   .      ,,    J  ,, 

Eretria  in  tratus, — is  to  be  louiiu  in  the  war  between  these 
early  times  two  cities  respecting  the  fertile  plain  Lelautum 
diiances  which  lay  between  them.  In  general,  it  appears, 
of  each.  these  two  important  towns  maintained  harmonious 
relations.  But  there  were  some  occasions  of  dispute,  and 

1  Thucyd.  i.  6.     ota  TO  ac3p0°:-!1[t~rj''!  tionable     with     reference    to     the 
&c.  times  immediately  preceding  Hero- 

2  Herodot.  i.  143.     Oi  (xsv  vuv  a).-  dotus,  but  not  equally   admissible 
).oi   "IcovEi;    xai    oi    'AOrpaioi    ly'j-[vi  in     regard    to    the    earlier     times. 
TO     G'JvG|xa,     O'j     poulofiEvoi     'lujvi?  Compare  Thuoyd.   i.  124    (with  the 
xexXyjaftai— an      assertion     unques-  Scholium),  and  also  v.  9;    viii.  25. 


CIIAP.  XII.     WAK  BETWEEN  CHALKIS  AND  ERETEIA.  171 

one  in  particular,  wherein  a  formidable  war  ensued  between 
them,  several  allies  joining  with  each.  It  is  remarkable 
that  this  was  the  only  war  known  to  Thucydides,  (anterior 
to  the  Persian  conquest.)  which  had  risen  above  the  dig- 
nity of  a  mere  quarrel  between  neighbours;  and  in  which 
so  many  different  states  manifested  a  disposition  to  inter- 
fere, as  to  impart  to  it  a  semi-Hellenic  character. l  Re- 
specting the  allies  of  each  party  on  this  occasion  we  know 
only,  that  the  Milesians  lent  assistance  to  Eretria,  and  the 
Samians,  as  well  as  the  Thessalians  and  the  Chalkidic  co- 
lonies in  Thrace,  to  Chalkis.  A  column,  still  visible  during 
the  time  of  Strabo  in  the  temple  of  the  Amarynthian  Ar- 
temis near  Eretria,  recorded  the  covenant  entered  into 
mutually  by  the  two  belligerents,  to  abstain  from  missiles, 
and  to  employ  nothing  but  hand-weapons.  The  Eretrians 
are  said  to  have  been  superior  in  horse,  but  they  were  van- 
quished in  the  battle:  the  tomb  of  Kleomachus  of  Phar- 
salus,  a  distinguished  warrior  who  had  perished  in  the  cause 
of  tho  Chalkidians,  was  erected  in  the  agora  of  Chalkis. 
AVe  know  nothing  of  the  date,  the  duration,  or  the  parti- 
culars of  this  war;2  but  it  seems  that  the  Eretrians  were 
worsted,  though  their  city  always  maintained  its  dignity 
as  the  second  state  in  the  island.  Chalkis  was  decidedly 
the  first,  and  continued  to  be  flourishing,  populous  and 
commercial,  long  after  it  had  lost  its  political  importance, 
throughout  all  the  period  of  Grecian  independent  history.3 
3.  Of  the  importance  of  Chalkis  and  Eretria,  during 

1     Tlmeyd.    i.    15.       The    second      v.-lio   perished    in    the   war  against 
Messenian    war    cannot    have     ap-     Eretria  respecting  Lelantum.     But 


This  visit  of  Hesiod    to    Chalkis 
'rom  Askra      was    represented   as    the    scene    of 

ID    i.iiuiKi*,     (,011    tue     occasion    of      his  poetical  competition  witli  and 
the    funeral    games    celebrated    by      victory      over      Homer      (see      +1'" 
the  son.?  of  Amphidamas  in  honour      Certamen  Horn,  et  Hes.  p.  315, 
of    their     deceased     father,)      and      Gottl.). 


172  HISTORY  OP  GREECE.  PAKT  II. 

the  seventh  and  part  of  the  eighth  century  before  the  Chris- 
Commerce  tian  8era>  we  gather  other  evidences — partly  in 
and  co-  the  numerous  colonies  founded  by  them  (to  which 
Chafkis'and  I  shall  advert  in  a  subsequent  chapter), — partly 
Eretria—  in  the  prevalence  throughout  a  large  portion 
^jaie^of  °f  Greece,  of  the  Euboic  scale  of  weight  and  mo- 
money  and  ney.  What  the  quantities  and  proportions  of  this 
scale  were,  has  been  first  shown  by  M.  Boeckh  in 
his  'Metrologie.'  It  was  of  Eastern  origin,  and  the  gold 
collected  by  Dareius  in  tribute  throughout  the  vast  Per- 
sian empire  was  ordered  to  be  delivered  in  Euboic  talents. 
Its  divisions — the  talent  equal  to  60  minae,  the  mina  equal 
to  100  drachms,  the  drachm  equal  to  6  obols — were  the 
same  as  those  of  the  scale  called  JEginasan,  introduced  by 
Pheidon  of  Argos.  But  the  six  obols  of  the  Euboic 
drachm  contained  a  weight  of  silver  equal  only  to  five 
^Eginsean  obols,  so  that  the  Euboic  denominations — drachm, 
mina,  and  talent — were  equal  only  to  five-sixths  of  ths 
same  denominations  in  the  .zEginsean  scale.  It  was  the 
Euboic  scale  which  prevailed  at  Athens  before  the  de- 
basement introduced  by  Solon;  which  debase- 

Three  dif-  .     ,  ,.  -, J       ,    _„ 

ferent  Gre-  nient  (amounting  to  about  2/  per  cent.,  as  has 
cian  scales  "been  mentioned  in  a  previous  chapter,)  created 
iuean5,1"  a  third  scale  called  the  Attic,  distinct  both  from 
Euboic,  the^EginseanandEuboic — standing  to  the  former 
^their tlC  in  the  ratio  of  3 :  5,  and  to  the  latter  in  the  ratio 
ratio  to  Of  IS:  25.  It  seems  plain  that  the  Euboic  scale 
ier°  was  adopted  by  the  lonians  through  their  inter- 
course with  the  Lydians1  and  other  Asiatics,  and  that  it 
became  naturalised  among  their  cities  under  the  name  of 
the  Euboic,  because  Chalkis  and  Eretria  were  the  most 
actively  commercial  states  in  the  ^Egean — just  as  the 
superior  commerce  of  JEgina,  among  the  Dorian  states, 
had  given  to  the  scale  introduced  by  Pheidou  of  Argos 
the  name  of  ^Eginaean.  The  fact  of  its  being  so  called 
indicates  a  time  when  these  two  Euboean  cities  surpassed 
Athens  in  maritime  power  and  extended  commercial  rela- 
tions, and  when  they  stood  among  the  foremost  of  the  Ionic 
cities  throughout  Greece.  The  Euboic  scale,  after  having 
been  debased  by  Solon  in  reference  to  coinage  and  money, 
still  continued  in  use  at  Athens  for  merchandise.  The 
Attic  mercantile  mina  retained  its  primitive  Euboic  weight. 2 

1  Herodot.  i.  9i.  *  See  Boeckh's  Metrologie,  c.  8  and  9. 


ASIATIC  lOXIANS.  173 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

ASIATIC  ION  I  AN  S. 

THERE  existed  at  the  commencement  of  historical  Greece 
in  7 70  B.C.,  besides  the  lonians  in  Attica  and  the  T 
Cyclades,  twelve  Ionian  cities  of  note  on  or  near  longevities 
the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  besides  a  few  others   in  Asia- 
less  important.     Enumerated   from  south  to  north,  they 
stand — Miletus,  Myus,  Priene,  Samos,  Ephesus,  Kolophon, 
Lebedus,  Teos,  Erythrae,  Chios,  Klazomense,  Phoksea. 

That  these  cities,  the  great  ornament  of  the  Ionic 
name,  were  founded  by  emigrants  from  European  Greece, 
there  is  no  reason  to  doubt.  How  or  when  they  were 
founded,  we  have  no  history  to  tell  us:  the  legend,  which 
has  already  been  set  forth  in  a  preceding  chap-  Legendary 
ter.  gives  us  a  great  event  called  the  Ionic  mi-  e^e"t  cal1' 

f          9  i          ,  ,       •    ,      ,  .    ,     ed  the 

gration,  referred  by  chronologists  to  one  special  i,mic 
year,  140  years  after  the  Trojan  war.  This  migration, 
massive  grouping  belongs  to  the  character  of  legend.  The 
^Eolic  and  Ionic  emigrations,  as  well  as  the  Dorian  con- 
quest of  Peloponnesus,  are  each  invested  with  unity  and 
imprinted  upon  the  imagination  as  the  results  of  a  single 
great  impulse.  But  such  is  not  the  character  of  the  his- 
torical colonies:  when  we  come  to  relate  the  Italian  and 
Sicilian  emigrations,  it  will  appear  that  each  colony  has 
its  own  separate  nativity  and  causes  of  existence.  In  the 
case  of  the  Ionic  emigration,  this  large  scale  of  legendary 
conception  is  more  than  usually  conspicuous,  since  to  that 
event  is  ascribed  the  foundation  or  re-peopling  both  of  the 
Cyclades  and  of  the  Asiatic  Ionian  cities. 

Euripides  treats  Ion,1  the  son  of  Kreusa  by  Apollo, 
as  the  planter  of  these  latter  cities.    But  the  more  current 
form  of  the  legend  assigns  that  honour  to  the    r.mi.m-ants 
sons    of  Ivodrus,  two   of  whom  are    especially   *°  t'iese 
named,  corresponding  to  the  two  greatest  of  the    diverse 
ten  continental  Ionic  cities :  Androklus  as  founder    Greeks. 

1  Euripid.     Ion,  1540.      x-l-Top'    "Ai'.ivj;  y/Jv/6;. 


174  HISTOBY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

of  Ephesus,  Neileus  of  Miletus.  These  two  towns  are 
both  described  as  founded  directly  from  Athens.  The 
others  seeru  rather  to  be  separate  settlements,  neither 
consisting  of  Athenians,  nor  emanating  from  Athens,  but 
adopting  the  characteristic  Ionic  festival  of  the  Apaturia 
and  (in  part  at  least)  the  Ionic  tribes — and  receiving  prin- 
ces from  the  Kodrid  families  at  Ephesus  or  Miletus,  as  a 
condition  of  being  admitted  into  the  Pan-Ionic  confederate 
festival.  The  poet  Mimnermus  ascribed  the  foundation 
of  his  native  city  Kolophon  to  emigrants  from  Pylus  in 
Peloponnesus,  under  Andrsemon:  Teos  was  settled  by 
Minyse  of  Orchomenus,  under  Athamas:  Klazomenee  by 
settlers  from  lOeonse  and  Phlius,  Phoksea  by  Phokians, 
Priene  in  large  portion  by  Kadmeians  from  Thebes.  And 
with  regard  to  the  powerful  islands  of  Chios  and  Samos, 
it  does  not  appear  that  their  native  authors — the  Chian 
poet  Ion  or  the  Samian  poet  Asius — ascribed  to  them  a 
population  emanating  from  Athens.  Nor  could  Pausanias 
make  out  from  the  poems  of  Ion  how  it  happened  that 
Chios  came  to  form  a  part  of  the  Ionic  federation. 1  He- 
rodotus especially  dwells  upon  the  number  of  Grecian 
tribes  and  races  who  contributed  to  supply  the  population 
of  the  twelve  Ionic  cities — Minyse  from  Orchomenus,  Kad- 
meiaus,  Dryopians,  Phokians,  Molossians,  Arkadian  Pelas- 
gians,  Dorians  from  Epidaurus,  and  "several  other  sections" 
of  Greeks.  Moreover  he  particularly  singles  out  the  Mile- 
sians, as  claiming  for  themselves  the  truest  Ionic  bk  cd, 
and  as  having  started  from  the  Prytaneium  at  Athens;  thus 
plainly  implying  his  belief  that  the  majority  at  least  of  the 
remaining  settlers  did  not  take  their  departure  from  the 
same  hearth.2 


1  Pausan.  vii.  4,  6.     To3au7a  sipr,-  xaXXiov    TI    Y£Y°';a">    ("upirj    TtoXXyj 
xo-ra  i;  X'.c/jc  "Iiovo;  S'jpijxoj.  O'j  JASV-  XSY*IV  7<I>v  "AjiaMTsq  e£  E'j,3otr(;  eliiv 
701    ixi'.vj;    Y£    £ipT,Xi,    xaV     T^TIVOG  O'jx    iXciy_iaT7;    [j.oipa,     70131    'Icovir^; 
ot7iav  Xioi  7sXou3iv  e;  'Iu>va(.  jAETa  oOSe  7oy  OVOJAOCTO?  O'iSsv'  Mivuai 

Eespecting  Saraos,  and  its  primi-  6s    'Opyoasviot      dv«}».sjAtxo7at,     xcri 

live  Karian  inhabitants,    displaced  KaSfistoi,    xai  Ap'Jo-Ec,    x'at     Oojy.i£- 

by  Patrokles  and  Tembrion  at  the  d-ooijjxioi,  xal  MoXoosol,  -/.al'Afxa- 

liead    of    Grecian     emigrants,     see  6;;  [ItXaaYOt)   xoii.    Atopiss?  'E^ioa'J- 

Etymol.  3Iag.  v.  'Ai7'j7:iXo(ia.  ptot,    «X).ct    7*  iO-^sa  r.'j'/.'i.y.  ava(jLi|ii- 

2  Herodot.  i.  146.     i-si,  oj^   ys  571  ya7ai.     Oi  os  SOTSUJV,  dzo  TO"J  IIpu- 
fiaXXov  &y7oi  (i.  e.    the    inhabitants  -wfau     700    "AQTjvaituv    opar/jEv-s^, 
of    the      Pan-Ionic     Dodekapolis)  xal     •<o[xi'o-(7»;     Y2''''71'-1"7"01     ^'-'a- 
"Iiovs?    slj'.    7<I)v     aXXiov    'Iibvai/,    rj  'Iibvai-i,  O'JTII  Si  oO  "(Vi'j.<. xv.;  ^YaTov 


CHAP.  XIII.  EMIGRANTS  TO  IONIA.  175 

But  the  most  striking  information  which  Herodotus 
conveys  to  us  is,  the  difference  of  language  or   Great  dif. 
dialect  which  marked  these  twelve  cities.  Miletus,   ferences 
Myus  and  Priene,  all  situated  on  the  soil  of  the    °^ j^60' 
Karians,  had  one  dialect:  Ephesus,  Kolophon,   the  twelve 
Lebedus,  Teos,  Klazomense  and  Phoksea,  had  a   c 
dialect  common  to  all,  but  distinct  from  that  of  the  three 
preceding:  Chios  and  Ery three  exhibited  a  third  dialect, 
and  Samos  by  itself  a  fourth.     The  historian   does  not 
content  himself  with  simply  noting  such  quadruple  variety 
of  speech;  he  employs  very  strong  terms  to  express  the 
degree  of  dissimilarity. i     The  testimony  of  Herodotus  as 
to  these  dialects  is  of  course  indisputable. 

Instead  of  one  great  Ionic  emigration,  then,  the  state- 
ments   above-cited   conduct   us    rather   to    the 
supposition  of  many    separate    and   successive   really °ItieS 
settlements,  formed  by  Greeks  of  different  sec-    founded  by 
tions,  mingling  with  and  modified  by  pre-existing    dl.fferent 
Lydians  and  Karians,  and  subsequently  allying 
themselves  with  Miletus  and  Ephesus  into  the  so-called 
Ionic  Amphiktyony.     As  a  condition  of  this  union,  they 
are  induced  to  adopt  among  their  chiefs,  princes  of  the 
Kodrid  gens  or  family:  who  are  called  sons  of  Kodrus,  but 
who  are  not  for  that  reason  to  be  supposed  necessarily 
contemporary  with  Androklus  or  Neileus. 

The  chiefs  selected  by  some  of  the  cities  are  said  to 
have  been  Lykians, 2  of  the  heroic  family  of  Grlaukus  and 
Bellerophon:  there  were  other  cities  wherein  the  Kodrids 
and  the  Glaukids  were  chiefs  conjointly.  Respecting  the 

cli    drotX'..','.!,    i).),a     Koi£tpc<s    i'/iv,  Apaturia    (i.    147).     But    we    must 

7(Lv  s'frjvs'jjoev  Trj'j;  frj-iixz  .  •  •  TcciiTa  construe  both  these  tests  with  in- 

o;  ft-i  -(Voasva  i-,  MI/./(T<;J.  diligence.     Ephesus  and  Kolophon 

The    polemical    tone,    in    which  were     Ionic,      though     neither     of 

this    remark    of   Herodotus   is    do-  them  celebrated  the  Apaturia.  And 

livered,  is  explained  by  Dahlmann  the  colony  might  be  formed  under 

on    the    supposition     that    it    was  the    auspices      of   Athens,     though 

destined  to  confute    certain  bortst-  the    settlers   were  neither    natives, 

ful     pretensions     of   the    Milesian  nor  even  of  kindred  race  with  the 

Hekat.'cus    (see    Biilir,    ad  Zoo.,  and  natives,  of  Attica. 

Klausen    and    Hekatiei    Frag.  225).  '  Herod,  i.  142.     Ephesus,    Kolo- 

The  tost  oflonism,  according  to  plum,  Lebedus,  Teos,  Kln^oinetia'. 

the     statement    of    Herodotus,    is,  J'hokica— luTst  ai  ro/.si;    rf^-t   -o'J- 

that  a  city  should  derive  its  origin  -^v>    XsyOdar^i    rJu.0).rJ-,'io'j3i    X7T« 

from    Athens,    and    that    it  should  Y^*"SS8tv  o'iSiv,   ;'?':  '&=    O.U.O-JCO^EO'JJI. 

celebrate     the     solemnity     of     the  2  Hcrodot.  i.  140. 


176  HISTOET  OP  GREECE.  PART  II. 

dates  of  these  separate  settlements,  we  cannot  give  any 
account,  for  they  lie  beyond  the  commencement  of  authen- 
tic history.  We  see  some  ground  for  believing  that  most 
of  them  existed  for  some  time  previous  to  776  B.C.,  but  at 
what  date  the  federative  solemnity  uniting  the  twelve  cities 
was  commenced,  we  do  not  know. 

The  account  of  Herodotus  shows  us  that  these  colonies 

were  composed  of  mixed  sections  of  Greeks, — 
quences  of  an  important  circumstance  in  estimating  their 
the  mixture  character.  Such  was  usually  the  case  more  or 
antsnlinblt"  ^ess  ^n  resPec^  to  all  emigrations.  Hence  the 
these  co-  establishments  thus  planted  contracted  at  once, 
mo^e  Sao-  generally  speaking,  both  more  activity  and  more 
tivity—  instability  than  was  seen  among  those  Greeks 
stability  w^°  remaine(l  a^  home,  among  whom  the  old 

habitual  routine  had  not  been  counterworked 
by  any  marked  change  of  place  or  of  social  relations.  For 
in  a  new  colony  it  became  necessary  to  alter  the  classi- 
fication of  the  citizens,  to  range  them  together  in  fresh 
military  and  civil  divisions,  and  to  adopt  new  characteristic 
sacrifices  and  religious  ceremonies  as  bonds  of  union  among 
all  the  citizens  conjointly.  At  the  first  outset  of  a  colony, 
moreover,  there  were  inevitable  difficulties  to  be  surmount- 
ed which  imposed  upon  its  leading  men  the  necessity  of 
energy  and  forethought — more  especially  in  regard  to 
maritime  affairs,  on  which  not  only  their  connexion  with 
the  countrymen  whom  they  had  left  behind,  but  also  their 
means  of  establishing  advantageous  relations  with  the  po- 
pulation of  the  interior,  depended.  At  the  same  time,  the 
new  arrangements  indispensable  among  the  colonists  were 
far  from  working  always  harmoniously:  dissension  and 
partial  secessions  were  not  unfrequent  occurrences.  And 

what  has  been  called  the  mobility  of  the  Ionic 

Mobility  ,        -,i      ,i      T-V      •        •  i 

ascribed  race,  as  compared  with  the  Doric,  is  to  be  as- 
to  the  ionic  cribecl  in  a  pTeat  measure  to  this  mixture  of  races 

race  as  i     ,  •        ^  •   •  c  j_   •    j. • 

compared  and  externaf  stimulus  arising  out  01  expatriation, 
with  the  For  there  is  no  trace  of  it  in  Attica  anterior 
arises  to  Solon;  while  on  the  other  hand,  the  Doric 

from  this       colonies  of  Korkyra  and  Syracuse  exhibit  a  po- 
pulation not  less  excitable  than  the  Ionic  towns 
generally,1    and  much  more  so  than  the   Ionic  colony  of 

1  Thucyd.  vi.  17,  about  the  Sici-      paStot?    I/oust    TUJV    TcoXitsiiov    TO? 
lian    Greeks  — v/Xof:     ~s    Y'P    £'•>!*-      usTa^oXon  xat  £::i£&y_d?. 
UIXT&II;  jtoXoavBpouaiv  at  riXsi;,   xa't 


CHAP.  XIII.       MIXED  POPULATION  OF  IOXIC  CITIES.  177 

Massalia.  The  remarkable  commercial  enterprise,  which 
will  be  seen  to  characterise  Miletus,  Samos  and  Phoksea, 
belongs  but  little  to  anything  connected  with  the  Ionic 
temperament. 

All  the  Ionic  towns,  except  Klazomenae  and  Phoksea, 
are  represented  to  have  been  founded  on  some  ionic  cities 
pre-existing  settlements  ofKarians,  Lelegians,  in  Asia— 

fr  -ra  T  n    i          •  ,     T  mixed  with 

Kretans,  Lydians,  or  Pelasgians.  1  In  some  cases  indigenous 
these  previous  inhabitants  were  overcome,  slain  inhibit- 
or expelled;  in  others  they  were  accepted  as 
fellow -residents,  so  that  the  Grecian  cities,  thus  estab- 
lished, acquired  a  considerable  tinge  of  Asiatic  customs 
and  feelings.  "What  is  related  by  Herodotus  respecting 
the  first  establishment  of  Neileus  and  his  emigrants  at  Mi- 
letus is  in  this  point  of  view  remarkable.  They  took  out 
with  them  no  women  from  Athens  (the  historian  says),  but 
found  wives  in  the  Karian  women  of  the  place,  whose  hus- 
bands and  fathers  they  overcame  and  put  to  death;  and  the 
women,  thus  violently  seized,  manifested  their  repugnance 
by  taking  a  solemn  oath  among  themselves  that  they  would 
never  eat  with  their  new  husbands,  nor  ever  call  them  by 
their  personal  names.  This  same  pledge  they  imposed 
upon  their  daughters;  but  how  long  the  practice  lasted  we 
are  not  informed.  We  may  suspect  from  the  language  of 
the  historian  that  traces  of  it  were  visible  even  in  his  day, 
in  the  family  customs  of  the  Milesians.  The  population 
of  this  greatest  of  the  Ionic  towns  must  thus  have  been 
half  of  Karian  breed.  It  is  to  be  presumed  that  what  is 
true  of  Neileus  and  his  companions  would  be  found  true 
also  respecting  most  of  the  maritime  colonies  of  Greece, 
and  that  the  vessels  which  took  them  out  would  be  scantily 
provided  with  women.  But  on  this  point  unfortunately 
we  are  left  without  information. 

The  worship  of  Apollo  Didymseus,  at  Branchidse  near 
Miletus  —  that  of  Artemis,  near  Ephesus —  and  \VorsMp  <>f 
that  of  the  Apollo  Klarius,  near  Kolophon —  Apollo  and 

•,  -11  !•»•;•        Artemis — 

seems  to  nave  existed  among  the  native  Asiatic    existed  on 
population  before  the  establishment  of  either  of  the  Asia.tic 

lu  ii  -L-  m  •    i.    •  i  •    i       coast    prior 

these  three  cities.     To  maintain  such  pre-exist-  to  the 

ing  local  rights  was  not  less  congenial  to  the  Greek  im^ 

feelings  than  beneficial  to  the  interests,  of  the  SaopteVby 

Greeks.     All  the  three  establishments  acquired  them- 

1  SeeRaoul  Kochette,  Histoiro  dos  Colonies  Grecquos,  b.  iv.  c.  10.  p.  93. 
VOL.  III.  K 


178  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  IL 

increased  celebrity  under  Ionic  administration,  contribu- 
ting in  their  turn  to  the  prosperity  of  the  towns  to  which 
they  were  attached.  Miletus,  Myus,  and  Priene  were  situa- 
ted on  or  near  the  productive  plain  of  the  river  Maeander; 
while  Ephesus  was  in  like  manner  planted  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Ka'ister,  thus  immediately  communicating  with  the 
productive  breadth  of  land  separating  Mount  Tmolus  on 
the  north  from  Mount  Messogis  on  the  south,  through 
which  that  river  runs :  Kolophon  is  only  a  very  few  miles 
north  of  the  same  river.  Possessing  the  best  means  of 
communication  with  the  interior,  these  three  towns  seem 
to  have  thriven  with  greater  rapidity  than  the  rest;  and 
they,  together  with  the  neighbouring  island  of  Samos,  con- 
stituted in  early  times  the  strength  of  the  Pan-Ionic  Am- 
phiktyony.  The  situation  of  the  sacred  precinct 

Pan-Ionic        rn-n         -j*       /     i  j.i  •     c     j.-       n  i    i         L     i  \ 

festival  and   ol  .roseidon  (where  this  iestival  was  celebrated), 
Ampirikty-    on  ^he  n0rth  side  of  the  promontory  of  Mvkale, 

ony  on   the  T>   •  *     *  j  i,    j.  in    t,  j  nrM»i 

promont-       near  Priene,  and  between  Ephesus  and  Miletus, 
°jy  °.'  seems  to  show  that  these  towns  formed  the  pri- 

mitive centre  to  which  the  other  Ionian  settle- 
ments became  gradually  aggregated.  For  it  was  by  no 
means  a  centrical  site  with  reference  to  all  the  twelve;  so 
that  Thales  of  Miletus — who  at  a  subsequent  period  re- 
commended a  more  intimate  political  union  between  the 
twelve  Ionic  towns,  and  the  establishment  of  a  common 
government  to  manage  their  collective  affairs — indicated 
Teos,1  and  not  Priene,  as  the  suitable  place  for  it.  More- 
over it  seems  that  the  Pan-Ionic  festival,  -  though  still  for- 
mally continued,  had  lost  its  importance  before  the  time 
of  Thucydides,  and  had  become  practically  superseded  by 
the  festival  of  the  Ephesia,  near  Ephesus,  where  the  cities 
of  Ionia  found  a  more  attractive  place  of  meeting. 

1  Herodot.  i.  170.  care  of  the  Prieneans.    The  formal 

2  Both    Diodorus     (xv.    49)    and  transfer  is    not  probable:     Thucy- 
Dioiiysius  of  Halikarnassus  (A.  R.  didOs  (iii.  104)   proves   that   in  his 
iv.  25)  speak  as  if  the  convocation  time  the   festival    of  Ephesia    was 
or    festival     had     been     formally  practically    the  Pan-Ionic   rendez- 
trausferred    to    Ephesus,     in    con-  vous,  though  Herodotus   does   not 
sequence  of  the  insecurity    of  the  seem  to  have  conceived  it  as  such, 
meetings  near  Mykale ;   Strabo  on  See    Guhl,    Ephesiaca,   part    iii.  p. 
the    contrary   speaks    of   the    Pan-  117;    and  K.  F.    Hermann,    Gottes- 
lonia   as  if  they   were  still  in  his  dienstliche  Alterthiimer   der  Grie- 
time     celebrated     in    the    original  chen,  c.  GO.  p.  343. 

spot  (xiv.    p.     G3U- 035)     under    the 


CHAP.  XIII.  SITUATION  OP  MILETUS.  179 

An  island  close  adjoining  to  the  coast,  or  an  outlying 
tongue  of  land  connected  with  the  continent  by  Situation 
a  narrow  isthmus,  and  presenting  some  hill  sut-  ^  ^I6etua 
ficient  for  an  acropolis,  seem  to  have  been  con-  other  ionic 
sidered  the  most  favourable  situations  for  Gre-  cities. 
cian  colonial  settlement.  To  one  or  other  of  these  descrip- 
tions most  of  the  Ionic  cities  conform. l  The  city  of  Mile- 
tus at  the  height  of  its  power  had  four  separate  harbours, 
formed  probably  by  the  aid  of  the  island  of  Lade  and  one 
or  two  islets  which  lay  close  off  against  it.  The  Karian  or 
Kretan  establishment,  which  the  Ionic  colonists  found  on 
their  arrival  and  conquered,  was  situated  on  an  eminence 
overhanging  the  sea,  and  became  afterwards  known  by  the 
name  of  Old  Miletus,  at  a  time  when  the  new  Ionic  town 
had  been  extended  down  to  the  waterside  and  rendered 
maritime.2  The  territory  of  this  important  city  seems  to 
have  comprehended  both  the  southern  promontory  called 
Poseidium  and  the  greater  part  of  the  northern  promontory 
of  Mykale,3  reaching  on  both  sides  of  the  river  Mreander. 
The  inconsiderable  town  of  Myus4  on  the  southern  bank  of 
the  Mseander,  an  offset  seemingly  formed  by  the  secession 
of  some  Milesian  malcontents  under  a  member  of  the  Xeleid 
gens  named  Kydrelus,  maintained  for  a  long  time  its  auto- 
nomy, but  was  at  length  absorbed  into  the  larger  unity  of 
Miletus;  its  swampy  territory  having  been  rendered  unin- 
habitable by  a  plague  of  gnats.  Priene  acquired  an  im- 
portance, greater  than  naturally  belonged  to  it,  by  its  im- 
mediate vicinity  to  the  holy  Pan-Ionic  temple  and  its  func- 
tion of  administering  the  sacred  rites5 — a  dignity  which  it 
probably  was  only  permitted  to  enjoy  in  consequence  of 
the  jealousies  of  its  greater  neighbours  Miletus,  Ephesus, 
and  Sarrios.6  The  territories  of  these  Grecian  Territories 
cities  seem  to  have  been  interspersed  with  inter- 

ir      •  -n  i     i  i      •       ji  TJ  •  c    spersrdwith 

Ivarian  villages,  probably  in  the    condition  ot    Asiatic 

Subjects.  villages. 

It  is  rare  to  find  a  genuine  Greek  colony  established 

1  The    site     of   Miletus    is    best 
indicated    by   Arrian,    i.  19-20;  see 
that    of  Phok.Ta,    Erythro:,    Myon- 
nesus,Klazomense,Kolophon,  Teds         *  Strabo,   xiv.    p.  G3fi;   Vitruvius, 
(Strabo,    xiv.  p.   Gl-1 — K45 ;    Pausan.      iv.  1;   Polya-n.  viii.   35. 

vii.    3,    2;     "Livy,      xxxvii.     27—31;          5  Strabo,  xiv.   p.  G3G— 633. 
TKucyd.  viii.  31).  <•  TUucyd.  i.  Ho. 

2  Strabo,  xiv.  p.  G35.  _,-,  .-, 


180  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  FAHT  II. 

Magnesia  a^  any  distance  from  the  sea;  but  the  two  Asia- 
cm  the  tic  towns  called  Magnesia  form  exceptions  to 
— Magnesia  this  position — one  situated  on  the  south  side  of 
on  Mount  the  Mseander,  or  rather  on  the  river  Lethaeus, 
JPJ  us-  which  runs  into  the  Mseander:  the  other  more 
northerly,  adjoining  to  the  ^Slolic  Greeks,  on  the  northern 
declivity  of  Mount  Sipylus,  and  near  to  the  plain  of  the 
river  Hermus.  The  settlement  of  both  these  towns  dates 
before  the  period  of  history.  The  tale  *  which  we  read  af- 
firms them  to  be  settlements  from  the  Magnetes  in  Thes- 
saly,  formed  by  emigrants  who  had  first  passed  into  Krete, 
under  the  orders  of  the  Delphian  oracle,  and  next  into 
Asia,  where  they  are  said  to  have  extricated  the  Ionic  and 
^Eolic  colonists,  then  recently  arrived,  from  a  position  of 
danger  and  calamity.  By  the  side  of  this  story,  which  can 
neither  be  verified  nor  contradicted,  it  is  proper  to  men- 
tion the  opinion  of  Niebuhr,  that  both  these  towns  of  Mag- 
nesia are  remnants  of  a  primitive  Pelasgic  population,  akin 
to,  but  not  emigrants  from,  the  Magnetes  of  Thessaly — 
Pelasgians  whom  he  supposes  to  have  occupied  both  the 
valley  of  the  Hermus  and  that  of  the  Kai'ster,  anterior  to 
the  ^Eolic  and  Ionic  migrations.  In  support  of  this  opin- 
ion, it  may  be  stated  that  there  were  towns  bearing  the 
Pelasgic  name  of  Larissa,  both  near  the  Hermus  and  near 
the  Mseander;  Menekrates  of  Elsea  considered  the  Pelas- 
gians as  having  once  occupied  most  part  of  that  coast; 
and  0.  Miiller  even  conceives  the  Tyrrhenians  to  have 
been  Pelasgians  from  Tyrrha,  a  town  in  the  interior  of 
Lydia  south  of  Tmolus.  The  point  is  one  upon  which  we 
have  not  sufficient  evidence  to  advance  beyond  conjecture.2 

1  Conon,  Narrat.  29;  Strabo,  xiv.      371;  O.   Muller,    Etrusker,    Einlei- 
p.  630—047.  tungj  "•  5.  p.  80.  The    evidence  on 

The    story    in   Parthenius   about  which  Miiller's  conjecture  is  built 

Leukippus,     leader    TUJV     os-/.a"'j-  seems  however  unusually  slender, 

Osv~u>v  sx  Oipr,;  ;j-'  'A5(Ar(TVJ,  who  and  the  identity  of  Tyrrhenes  and 

came    to    the    Ephesian    territory  Torrhebos,    or   the    supposed    con- 

and    acquired    possession    of    the  fusion  of  the  one  with   the    other, 

place     called    Kretinseon    by    the  is  in  no  way  made  out.    Pelasgians 

treacheiy  of  Leukophrye,  daughter  are     spoken     of    in     Tralles     and 

of  Mandrolytos,   whether  truth  or  Aphrodisias    as    well   as  in  Nino§ 

romance,   is    one  of  the  notices  of  (Steph.    Byz.    v.    NIVOTJ),    but    this 

Thessalian    migration    into    those  name    seems   destined    to    present 

parts  (Parthen.  Xarrat.  f>).  nothing    but    problems    and   delu- 

2  Strabo,  xiii.  p.  021.  See  Niebuhr  sions. 
Kleine    Historische     Schriften,    p. 


CHAP.  XIII.  EPHESTTS.  181 

Of  the  Tonic  towns,  with  which  our  real  knowledge  of 
Asia  Minor  begins,  Miletus l  was  the  most  powerful.  Its 
celebrity  was  derived  not  merely  from  its  own  wealth  and 
population,  but  also  from  the  extraordinary  number  of  its 
colonies,  established  principally  in  thePropontis  and  Euxine, 

and  amounting,  as  we  are  told  by  some  authors,  to  not  less 
than  75  or  80.  Respecting  these  colonies  I  shall  speak 
presently,  in  treating  of  the  general  colonial  expansion  of 
Greece  during  the  eighth  and  seventh  centuries  B.C.:  at 
present  it  is  sufficient  to  notice,  that  the  islands  of  Ikarus 
and  Lerus, 2  not  fjjr  from  Samos  and  the  Ionic  coast  ge- 
nerally, were  among  the  places  planted  with  Milesian 
settlers. 

The  colonization  of  Ephesus  by  Androklus  appears 
to  be  connected  with  the  Ionic  occupation  of  r 
Samos,  so  far  as  the  confused  statements  which   Androklus 
we  find  enable  us  to  discern.    Androklus  is  said   *he  tEkist— 
to  have  lingered  upon  that  island  for  a  long   mentS 
time,  until  the  oracle  vouchsafed  to  indicate  to   £nd .  distri- 
him  what  particular  spot  to  occupy  on  the  con- 
tinent.    At  length,  the  indication  being  given,  he  planted 
his  colonists  at  the  fountain  of  Hypelfeon  and  on  a  portion 
of  the  hill  of  Koressus,  within  a  short  distance  of  the 
temple  and  sanctuary  of  Artemis;  whose  immediate  in- 
habitants he  respected  and  received  as  brethren,  while  he 
drove  away  for  the  most  part  the  surrounding  Lelegians 
and  Lydians.   The  population  of  the  new  town  of  Ephesus 
was  divided  into  three  tribes, — the  pre-existing  inhabitants, 

Respecting     Magnesia     on     tho  on    the    Meander    (Paus.    x.  32,  4) 

Mreauder,      consult      Aristot.      ap.  cannot  bo  thought  to  prove  much, 

Athen.    iv.  p.   173,    -who    calls    tho  considering    how   extensively   that 

town  a  colony  from  Delphi.     But  god    was     worshipped     along    tho 

the     intermediate     settlement     of  Asiatic  coast,  from  Lykia  to  Troas. 

these  colonists   in  Krete,    or    even  The  great  antiquity  of  this  Gre- 

the    reality    of   any     town    called  ciaii  establishment  was  recognised 

Magnesia   in   Krete,    appears    very  in  the  time  of  the  Roman  emperors  ; 

questionable:      Plato's     statement  see    Inscript.     M'o.  2910   in  Boeckh, 

(Leprg.  iv.  702;    xi.  919)  can  hardly  Corp.  Ins. 

be   taken   as    any  evidence.     Com-  '    'Iu>vi/(«      ~pbs'jirt\in      (Ilerodot. 

pare    O.    Muller,     History     of    the  v.  28). 

Dorians,    book    ii.  ch.  3  ;    Hoeckh,  '  Strabo,    xiv.  p.  635.     Ikarus   or 

Kreta,    book     iii.    vol.    ii.    p.    413.  Ikaria     however    appears    in    later 

Muller    gives     these    "Sagen"    too  times  as  be'onging    to  Samos    and 

much    in    the    stylo   of  real    facts:  used  only  for    pasture    (Strabo,    p. 

the  worship  of  Apollo  at  Magnesia  039;  x.  p.  4^8). 


182  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

or  Ephesians  proper,  the  Bennians,  and  the  Euonymeis,  so 
named  (we  are  told)  from  the  deme  Euonymus  in  Attica.  * 
So  much  did  the  power  of  Androklus  increase,  that  he  was 
enabled  to  conquer  Samos,  and  to  expel  from  it  the  prince 
Leogorus.  Of  the  retiring  Samians,  a  part  are  said  to  have 
gone  to  Samothrace  and  to  have  there  established  them- 
selves; while  another  portion  acquired  possession  of  Mara- 
thesium  near  Ephesus,  on  the  adjoining  continent  of  Asia 
Minor,  from  whence,  after  a  short  time,  they  recovered  their 
island,  compelling  Androklus  to  return  to  Ephesus.  It 
seems,  however,  that  in  the  compromise  and  treaty  which 
ensued,  they  yielded  possession  of  Marathesium  to  An- 
droklus,2 and  confined  themselves  to  Ansea,  a  more  south- 
erly district  farther  removed  from  the  Ephesian  settlement, 
and  immediately  opposite  to  the  island  of  Samos.  An- 
droklus is  said  to  have  perished  in  a  battle  fought  for  the 
defence  of  Priene,  which  town  he  had  come  to  aid  against 
an  attack  of  the  Karians.  His  dead  body  was  brought 
from  the  field  and  buried  near  the  gates  of  Ephesus,  where 
the  tomb  was  yet  shown  during  the  days  of  Pausanias.  But 
a  sedition  broke  out  against  his  sons  after  him,  and  the 
malcontents  strengthened  their  party  by  inviting  reinforce- 
ments from  Teos  and  Karina.  The  struggle  which  ensued 
terminated  in  the  discontinuance  of  the  kingly  race  and  the 
establishment  of  a  republican  government — the  descend- 
ants of  Androklus  being  allowed  to  retainboth  considerable 
honorary  privileges  and  the  hereditary  priesthood  of  the 
Eleusinian  Demeter.  The  newly-received  inhabitants  were 
enrolled  in  two  new  tribes,  making  in  all  five  tribes,  which 
appear  to  have  existed  throughout  the  historical  times  at 
Ephesus.3  It  appears  too  that  a  certain  number  of  fugitive 
proprietors  from  Samos  found  admission  among  the  Ephe- 
sians and  received  the  freedom  of  the  city;  and  the  part  of 
the  city  in  which  they  resided  acquired  the  name  of  Sa- 
morna  or  Smyrna,  by  which  name  it  was  still  known  in  the 
time  of  the  satirical  poet  Hipponax,  about  530  B.C.4 

1  Kreophylus  ap.  Athen.   viii.  p.  Ephesus,    whether    his   account  of 
361 ;    Ephor.  Fragrn.   32,  ed.  Marx  ;  their  origin  and  primitive   history 
Stephan.  Byz.  v.  Bsvvcc :   see  Guhl,  be  well-founded   or  not.     See  also 
Ephesiaca,  p.  20.  Strabo,  xiv.  p.  633;  Steph.  Byz.  v. 

2  Pausan.  vii.  4,  3.  E'jiuvj^.ia.    Karene  or  Karine  is  in 

3  The    account    of   Ephorus    ap.  JKolis,  near  Titana   and  Gryneium 
Steph.  Byz.  v.  Bsvvz,  attests  at  least  (Herod,  vii.  42;  Steph.  Byz.  Kdipr;-//,). 
the  existence  of  the  five   tribes    at  *     Stephan.     Byz.     v.     2ci|i.op-<a; 


CHAP.  XIII.  KOLOPHON.  183 

Such  are  the  stories  which  we  find  respecting  the  in- 
fancy of  the  Ionic  Ephesus.     The  fact  of  its  in- 
crease and  of  its  considerable  acquisitions  of  and  acqui- 
territory,  at  the  expense  of  the  neighbouring   sitions  of 

-r      T        J .  •        x  T         j.  •     T          j.    i  i          TJ.    j  2    Ephesus. 

Lydians, l  is  at  least  indisputable.  It  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  ever  very  powerful  or  enterprising 
at  sea.  Few  maritime  colonies  owed  their  origin  to  its 
citizens.  But  its  situation  near  the  mouth  and  the  fertile 
plain  of  the  Kai'ster  was  favourable  both  to  the  multipli- 
cation of  its  inland  dependencies  and  to  its  trade  with  the 
interior.  A  despot  named  Pythagoras  is  said  to  have  sub- 
verted by  stratagem  the  previous  government  of  the  town, 
at  some  period  before  Cyrus,  and  to  have  exercised  power 
for  a  certain  time  with  great  cruelty.2  It  is  worthy  of 
remark,  that  we  find  no  trace  of  the  existence  of  the  four 
Ionic  tribes  at  Ephesus;  and  this,  when  coupled  with  the 
fact  that  neither  Ephesus  nor  Kolophon  solemnised  the 
peculiar  Ionic  festival  of  the  Apaturia,  is  one  among  other 
indications  that  the  Ephesian  population  had  little  com- 
munity of  race  with  Athens,  though  the  CEkist  may  have 
been  of  heroic  Athenian  family.  Guhl  attempts  to  show, 
on  mistaken  grounds,  that  the  Greek  settlers  at  Ephesus 
were  mostly  of  Arkadian  origin.3 

Kolophon — about  fifteen  miles  north  of  Ephesus,  and 
divided  from  the  territory  of  the  latter  by  the   Koloph&n 
precipitous  mountain  range  called  Gallesium —    its  origin 
though  a  member  of  the  Pan-Ionic  Amphiktyony,    and 
seems  to  have  had  no  Ionic  origin.     It  recognised  neither 
an  Athenian  CEkist  nor  Athenian  inhabitants.     The  Kolo- 
phonian  poet  Mimnermus  tells   us  that  the  (Ekist  of  the 

Hesycli.  27-p.o-ncr. ;  Athemcus,  vi.  p.  at    Erythr;c.     It    is    hardly    likely 

267  ;  Hipp6nax,Fragm.  32,  Schncid.  ;  that    there    should    have    been   an 

Straho,  xiv.  p.  633.    Some  however  oligarchy     called     by     that     same 

said    that    the    vims     of    Ephesus,  name  both  at  Erythrac  and  Ephesus: 

called   Smyrna,    derived   its    name  there  is    hero    some    confusion  be- 

from  an  Amazon.  tween  Erythr£C  and  Ephesus  which 

1  Strabo,  xiv    p.  C20.  we  are  unable  to  clear  up.  Bato  of 

a  Bato  ap.  Suidas,  v.    IIuQ ^op7-?-  Sin^pfi  wrote   a   book   r.zrA   7<I>v   iv 

In  this  article  of  Suidas,  however,  'Ecpsaoj  Tupavvtov  (Athen.  vii.  p.  289). 
it    is    stated    that    "the     Ephesian          3  Guhl,  Ephesiaca,   cap.    ii.    s.  2. 

Pythagoras  put  down  by  means  of  p.  28.     The  passage  which  he  cites 

a  crafty    plot   the    government    of  in  Aristeides  (Or.  xlii.  p.  523)  refers 

those  who  were  called  the  Basilida:."  not  to  Ephesus,  but  to  Pergamus, 

Xow    Aristotle  talks    ("Polit.    v.  5,  and   to    the    mythe    of   Auge    and 

4)  of  the  oligarchy  of  the  BasilidM  TClephus:  compare  ibid.  p.  251. 


184  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

place  was  the  Pylian  Andraemon,  and  that  the  settlers 
were  Pylians  from  Peloponnesus.  "We  quitted  (he  says) 
Pylus,  the  city  of  Neleus,  and  passed  in  our  vessels  to  the 
.much-desired  Asia.  There,  with  the  insolence  of  superior 
force,  and  employing  from  the  beginning  cruel  violence, 
we  planted  ourselves  in  the  tempting  Kolophon."1  This 
description  of  the  primitive  Kolophonian  settlers,  given 
with  Homeric  simplicity,  forcibly  illustrates  the  account 
given  by  Herodotus  of  the  proceedings  of  Neileus  at  Mile- 
tus. The  establishment  of  Andrsemon  must  have  been 
effected  by  force,  and  by  the  dispossession  of  previous  in- 
habitants, leaving  probably  their  wives  and  daughters  as 
a  prey  to  the  victors.  The  city  of  Kolophon  seems  to 
have  been  situated  about  two  miles  inland;  having  a  forti- 
fied port  called  Notium,  not  joined  to  it  by  long  walls  as 
the  Peirseeus  was  to  Athens,  but  completely  distinct. 
There  were  times  in  which  this  port  served  the  Kolopho- 
nians  as  a  refuge,  when  their  upper  town  was  assailed  by 
Persians  from  the  interior.  But  the  inhabitants  of  Notium 
occasionally  manifested  inclinations  to  act  as  a  separate 
community,  and  dissensions  thus  occurred  between  them 
and  the  people  in  Kolophon2 — so  difficult  was  it  in  the 
Greek  mind  to  keep  up  a  permanent  feeling  of  political 
amalgamation  beyond  the  circle  of  the  town  walls. 

It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  nothing  beyond  a  few 
lines  of  ilimnermus,  and  nothing  at  all  of  the  long  poem 
of  Xenophanes  (composed  seemingly  nearly  a  century  after 
Mimnermus)  on  the  foundation  of  Kolophon,  has  reached 
us.  The  statements  of  Pausanias  omit  all  notice  of  that 
violence  which  the  native  Kolophonian  poet  so  emphatic- 

1  Mimnerm.    Fragm.    9,    Schneid.      of  Odysseus  in  Homer   (Odyss.  is. 
ap.  Strab.  xiv.  p.  C34:—  40):  — 

'HusTi     8'     alrj     Il'JXov      N'/i/.T/tov          'IXioQsv  [/.£  <?ipwi  avS|xo;  Kixovesai 

ajTU    XtTTOVTSi;  7CE).233SV 

*I|j.EpTrp  'Aatrjv  vTj'Jitv  dtjnxoiicQa1  'labour  j'vOa  8'    eftiu  i:6Xiv   eTrpv.- 

E?  5'  spa77)v  KciXo'jiuva,  piY)v  u-soo-  6ov,  ibXsja  8'   oito'li;' 

r).o*  e/ovTs?,  'Ex  1:0X10?  8'  dX6y_o'j?  xai  x7/([jL77a 

'EWfisf*'     opyaXsr,;     u^pio?    r,'l!.-  iroXXi  Xa^iv:*? 

jjLOvs?.  Aaaa«(j.s8',  &c. 

Mimnerraus,   in  his   poem  called  Mimnermus    comes    in    point   of 

Nanno,  namedAndriemon  as  found-  time    a    little  before    Solon,     B.C. 

er     (Strabo,     p.      633).       Compare  620— COO. 

this  behaviour  with   the   narrative  2  Aristot.  Polit.  v.  2, 12;  ThucydU 

iii.  34. 


CHAP.  XIII.    LEBEDUS,  TEOS,  KLAZOMEN^,  ETC.  185 

ally  signalizes  in  his  ancestors.  They  are  derived  more 
from  the  temple  legends  of  the  adjoining  Klarian  Temple  of 
Apollo,  and  from  morsels  of  epic  poetry  refer-  Apoiio  at 
ring  to  that  holy  place,  which  connected  itself  ^""KO- 
with  the  worship  of  Apollo  in  Krete,  at  Delphi,  lophon- 
and  at  Thebes.  The  old  Homeric  poem,  called  l 
Thebai's,  reported  that  Manto,  daughter  of  the  Theban 
prophet  Teiresias,  had  been  presented  to  Apollo  and 
Delphi  as  a  votive  offering  by  the  victorious  Epigoni:  the 
god  directed  her  to  migrate  to  Asia,  and  she  thus  arrived 
at  Klarus,  where  she  married  the  Kretan  Rhakius.  The 
offspring  of  this  marriage  was  the  celebrated  prophet 
Mopsus,  whom  the  Hesiodic  epic  described  as  having 
gained  a  victory  in  prophetic  skill  overKalchas;  the  latter 
having  come  to  Klarus  after  the  Trojan  war  in  company 
with  Amphilochus  son  of  Amphiaraus.  *  Such  tales  evince 
the  early  importance  of  the  temple  and  oracle  of  Apollo 
at  Klarus,  which  appears  to  have  been  in  some  sort  an 
emanation  from  the  great  sanctuary  of  Branchidse  near 
Miletus ;  for  we  are  told  that  the  high  priest  of  Klarus  was 
named  by  the  Milesians.2  Pausanias  states  that  Mopsus 
expelled  the  indigenous  Karians,  and  established  the  city 
of  Kolophon;  and  the  Ionic  settlers  under  Promethus  and 
Damasichthon,  sons  of  Kodrus,  were  admitted  amicably  as 
additional  inhabitants:3  a  story  probably  emanating  from 
that  of  the  Kolophonian  townsmen  in  the  time  of  Mimner- 
mus.  It  seems  evident  that  not  only  the  Apollinic  sanctu- 
ary at  Klarus,  but  also  the  analogous  establishments  on 
the  south  of  Asia  Minor  at  Phaselis,  Mallus,  &c.,  had  their 
own  foundation  legends,  (apart  from  those  of  the  various 
bands  of  emigrant  settlers,)  in  which  they  connected  them- 
selves by  the  best  thread  which  they  could  devise  with  the 
epic  glories  of  Greece.4 

Passing  along  the  Ionian   coast   in   a  north-westerly 
direction  from  Kolophon,  we  come  first  to  the 
small  but  independent  Ionic  settlement  of  Le-    Te&s,  Kla- 
bedus — next,  to  Teos,  which  occupies  the  south-    zomemc, 
ern  face  of  a  narrow  isthmus,  Klazomenae  being 


186  HISTOET  OF  GKEECE.  PART  II. 

placed  on  the  northern.  This  isthmus,  a  low  narrow  valley 
of  about  six  miles  across,  forms  the  eastern  boundary  of  a 
very  considerable  peninsula,  containing  the  mountainous 
and  woody  regions  called  Mimas  and  Korykus.  Teos  is 
said  to  have  been  first  founded  by  Orchomenian  Minyae 
under  Athamas,  and  to  have  received  afterwards  by  con- 
sent various  swarms  of  settlers,  Orchomenians  and  others, 
under  the  Kodrid  leaders  Apoekus,  Nauklus  and  Damasus.  t 
The  valuable  Teian  inscriptions  published  in  the  large 
collection  of  Boeckh,  while  they  mention  certain  names 
and  titles  of  honour  which  connect  themselves  with  this 
Orchomenian  origin,  reveal  to  us  some  particulars  respect- 
internal  ing  the  internal  distribution  of  the  Teian  citi- 
distribu-  gens.  The  territory  of  the  town  was  distributed 
inhabitants  amongst  a  certain  number  of  towers,  to  each  of 
of  Te&s.  which  corresponded  a  symm'ory  or  section  of 
the  citizens,  having  its  common  altar  and  sacred  rites,  and 
often  its  heroic  Eponymus.  How  many  in  number  the  tribes 
of  Teos  were,  we  do  not  know.  The  name  of  the  Greleontes, 
one  of  the  four  old  Ionic  tribes,  is  preserved  in  an  inscription'; 
but  the  rest,  both  as  to  names  and  number,  are  unknown.  The 
symmories  or  tower-fellowships  of  Teos  seem  to  be  ana- 
logous to  the  phratries  of  ancient  Athens — forming  each 
a  factitious  kindred,  recognising  a  common  mythical 
ancestor,  and  bound  together  by  a  communion  at  once  re- 
ligious and  political.  The  individual  name  attached  to 
each  tower  is  in  some  cases  Asiatic  rather  than  Hellenic, 
indicating  in  Teos  the  mixture  not  merely  of  Ionic  and 
J£o\ic,  but  also  of  Karian  or  Lydian  inhabitants,  of  which 
Pausanias  speaks.2  Gerrhseidae  or  Cherrseidae,  the  port 

1  Steph.  'Byz.  v.  TEW  ;  Pausan.  the  inscription.  In  two  other 

vii.  3,  3;  Strabo,  xiv.  p.  633.  inscriptions  (Nos.  3065.  3066)  there 

Anakreon  called  the  town  'A6a-  occur  'Eyivou  ay|ji[xopta — "EytvaSat — 

piavTiSa  Teio  (Strab.  I.  c.).  as  the  title  of  a  civil  division 

1  Pausan.  vii.  3,  3.  See  the  without  any  specification  of  an 

Inscrip.  No.  3064  in  Boeckh's  Corp.  'Ey_ivou  r'JpY&c  ;  but  it  is  reasonable 

Ins.,  which  enumerates  twenty-  to  presume  that  the  itopYo;  and 

eight  separate  rcupfoi.  It  is  a  list  the  ou[x(Ji.r/pla  are  coincident  divi- 

of  archons,  with  the  name  and  sions.  The  (DtXaioo  r'ipycn  occurs 

civil  designation  of  each:  I  do  also  in  another  Inscr.  ]S"o.  3081. 

not  observe  that  the  name  of  the  Philieus  is  the  Athenian  hero,  son 

same  rcupyoc  ever  occurs  twice —  of  Ajax,  aiid  eponyre  of  the  deme 

'ApTEfjuuv,  too  Oi).7to'J  Ti'JpYou,  or  gens  Philaidse  in  Attica,  who 

(JM.atSr,?,  &c. :  there  are  two  TvipYot,  existed,  as  we  here  see,  in  Te6s 

the  names  of  which  are  effaced  on  also.  In  Inscription,  No.  3082,  a 


CHAP.  XIII.  EEYTHR^E  AND  CHIOS.  187 

on  the  west  side  of  the  town  of  Teos,  had  for  its  eponymous 
hero  Greres  the  Boeotian,  who  was  said  to  have  accompanied 
the  Kodrids  in  their  settlement. 

The  worship  of  Athene  Polias  at  Erythrse  may  prob- 
ably   be    traceable  to  Athens,    and   that   of   the  Tyrian 
Herakles  (of  which  Pausanias  recounts  a  singular  legend) 
would  seem  to  indicate  an  intermixture  of  Phoenician  in- 
habitants.    But    the    close    neighbourhood  of  Erythra; 
Hrythrae  to  the  island  of  Chios,  and  the  marked   and  Chios. 
analogy  of  dialect  which  Herodotus1  attests  between  them, 
show  that  the  elements  of  the  population  must  have  been 

citizen  is  complimented  as  vsov  derived  from  the  tower;  for  XotX- 
'A9a|j.or<-a,  after  the  name  of  the  xtSsTt;  or  XaXxtSsy?  was  the  de- 
old  Minyan  hero.  In  No.  3078,  nomination  of  a  village  in  the 
the  Ionic  trihe  of  the  FeXEovTE?  ia  Teian  territory.  In  regard  to  some 
named  as  existing  at  Te6s.  persons,  the  gentile  epithet  is 
Among  the  titles  of  the  towers  derived  from  the  tower— TOO  OiXaiou 
we  find  the  following — toy  KiSuo;  jtOpYOU,  Ot).ator^— Toy  FccXaloou 
rypYou,  TOO  KtMCtpdXou  Tvipfou,  TOU  TcopYQUj  FaXaialST)*; — TOU  AaSSou 
'Ijpuo?  r.upfw,  Toy  AiSSou  rcypYou,  Ttupyou,  AaSSsio? — TOU  itupfou  TOO  Ki- 
•tou  2i-;TUo?  itopYo'j :  these  names  £<I)vo;,  Ki'iov  :  in  other  cases  not— 
seem  to  be  rather  foreign  than  toti 'ExaSioo  rcipYou,  SxT]3r)t8if)$ — TOU 
Hellenic.  KiSiK,  'Ispu?,  SIVTUC,  Mrjpioou?  TtupYou,  BpuaxlSiqs — TOU 
AaoSoc,  are  Asiatic,  perhaps  Karian  'laBjjuiou  it'ipYou,  Astoviorj;,  &c.  In 
or  Ijydian:  respecting  the  name  the  Inser.  3065,  3066,  there  is  a 
Aioofj?,  compare  Steph.  IByz.  v.  formal  vote  of  the  "Ejrivou  oufjijAopia 
Tpsfjiiajo;,  where  AotSa?  appears  as  or  'E-/_ivaocu  (both  names  occur). 
a  Karian  name :  Boeckh  (p.  651)  Mention  is  also  made  of  the 
expresses  his  opinion  that  Adcooo;  POJJXO;  TTJS  3U[X[xopi<nc,  and  of  the 
is  Karian  or  Lydian.  Then  annual  solemnity  called  Leukathea, 
KivdtfiiXo?  seems  plainly  not  Hel-  seemingly  a  gentile  solemnity  of 
Ionic:  it  is  rather  Phoenician  the  Echinadso,  which  connects 
(.ViinitaZ,  Asdru&aZ,  <Sc.),  tliough  itself  with  the  mythical  family  of 
lioeckh  (in  his  Introductory  Com-  Athamas.  As  an  analogy  to  these 
ment  to  the  Sarmatian  Inscriptions,  Teian  towers,  we  may  compare 
Part  xi.  p.  109)  tells  us  that  ;3a),o^  the  r-jpYOi  in  the  Greek  settlement 
is  also  Thracian  or  Getic— "paXoc  of  Olbia  in  the  Euxine  (Boeckh, 
Iiaud  dubie  Thracica  aut  Getica  Insc.  2058),  -upYo<;  Eoaio?,  wupY'J? 
cst  radix  finalis,  quam  tones  in  'EutSaupou — they  were  portions  of 
Dacico  nomino  Decebalus,  et  in  the  fortifications.  See  also  Dio 
nomine  populi  Triballorum."  Tlie  Chrysostom,  Orat.  xxxvi.  p.  76—77. 
name  -rou  K69ou  ic'ipY00)  KoOiOT)?,  A  large  tower,  belonging  to  a 
is  Ionic:  ^Eklus  and  Kothus  are  private  individual  named  Agio- 
represented  as  Ionic  oekists  in  machus,  is  mentioned  in  Kyreua 
Eubcea.  Another  name— Rap^n;,  (Herod,  iv.  lf!4). 

•coy    I'l-'iilvj    -ypyo-j,    XaXxiOiio?—          '  Hprod.  i.  142  :  comjjare  Xhuoyd. 

affords    an    instance   in   which  the  viii.  5. 
local    or     gentile     epithet    is   not 


188  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAET  II. 

much  the  same  in  both.  The  Chian  poet  Ion  mentioned 
the  establishment  of  Abantes  from  Euboea  in  his  native 
island,  under  Amphiklus,  intermixed  with  the  pre-existing 
Karians.  Hektor,  the  fourth  descendant  from  Amphiklus, 
was  said  to  have  incorporated  this  island  in  the  Pau-Ionic 
Amphiktyony.  It  is  to  Pherekydes  that  we  owe  the  men- 
tion of  the  name  of  Egertius,  as  having  conducted  a  miscel- 
laneous colony  into  Chios;  and  it  is  through  Egertius 
(though  Ion,  the  native  poet,  does  not  appear  to  have  no- 
ticed him)  that  this  logographer  made  out  the  connexion 
between  the  Chians  and  the  other  group  of  Kodrid  settle- 
ments, i  In  Erythrse,  Knopus,  or  Kleopus  is  noted  as  the 
Kodrid  (Ekist,  and  as  having  procured  for  himself,  partly 
by  force,  partly  by  consent,  the  sovereignty  of  the  pre- 
existing settlement  of  mixed  inhabitants.  The  Erythraean 
historian  Hippias  recounted  how  Knopus  had  been  treach- 
erously put  to  death  on  shipboard,  by  Ortyges  and  some 
other  false  adherents;  who,  obtaining  some  auxiliaries  from 
the  Chian  king  Amphiklus,  made  themselves  masters 
of  Erythrse  and  established  in  it  an  oppressive  oli- 
garchy. They  maintained  the  government,  with  a  tem- 
per at  once  licentious  and  cruel,  for  some  time,  admitting  none 
but  a  chosen  few  of  the  population  within  the  walls  of  the 
town;  until  at  length  Hippotes  the  brother  of  Knopus, 
arriving  from  without  at  the  head  of  some  troops,  found 
sufficient  support  from  the  discontents  of  the  Erythrseans 
to  enable  him  to  overthrow  the  tyranny.  Overpowered  in 
the  midst  of  a  public  festival,  Ortyges  and  his  companions 
were  put  to  death  with  cruel  tortures.  The  like  tortures 
were  inflicted  upon  their  innocent  wives  and  children2 — 
a  degree  of  cruelty  which  would  at  no  time  have  found 
place  amidst  a  community  or  European  Greeks:  even  in 
the  murderous  party  dissensions  of  Korkyra  during  the 
Peloponnesian  war,  death  was  not  aggravated  by  preli- 
minary tortures.  Aristotle3  mentions  the  oligarchy  of  the 
Basilids  as  having  existed  in  Erythrae,  and  as  having  been 

1  Strabo.  xiv.  p.  633.  and    the     consequent     stratagem, 

2  Hippias  ap.  Atben.    vi.   p.  259;  whereby    Kii6pus      made     himself 
Polyajn.     viii.    44,     gives    another  master  of  Erythrre,  represents  that 
story    about     Kn6pus.      Erythne,  town     as     powerful      anterior    to 
called  Kv(iMtO'!>i:o).i;  (Steph.  Byz.  v.).  the  Ionic  occupation  (Polyaen.  viii. 

The     story    told    by     Polyeenus      43). 
about    the    dictum    of  the    oracle,         *  Aristot.  Polit.  v.  f>}  4, 


CHAP.  XIII.  SMYRXA.  189 

overthrown  by  a  democratical  revolution,  although  pru- 
dently managed.  To  what  period  this  is  to  be  referred 
we  do  not  know. 

Klazomense  is  said  to  have  been  founded  by  a  wander- 
ing party,  either  of  lonians  or  of  inhabitants  Kiazomena? 
from  Kleonse  and  Phlius,  under  Parphorus  or  — Ptoksea. 
Paralus ;  and  Phokeea  by  a  band  of  Phokians  under  Philo- 
gones  and  Damon.  This  last-mentioned  town  was  built  at 
the  end  of  a  peninsula  which  formed  part  of  the  territory 
of  the  ^Eolic  Kyme:  the  Kymseans  were  induced  to  cede 
it  amicably,  and  to  permit  the  building  of  the  new  town. 
The  Phokians  asked  and  obtained  permission  to  enrol 
themselves  in  the  Pan-Ionic  Amphiktyony;  but  the  per- 
mission is  said  to  have  been  granted  only  on  condition 
that  they  should  adopt  members  of  the  Kodrid  family  as 
their  (Ekists:  and  they  accordingly  invited  from  Erythrse 
and  Teos  three  chiefs  belonging  to  that  family  or  gens — 
— Derates,  Periklus,  and  Abartus.  * 

Smyrna,  originally  an  ^Eolic  colony,  established  from 
Kyme,  fell  subsequently  into  the  hands  of  the 
lonians  of  Kolophon.  A  party  of  exiles  from  myrn 
the  latter  city,  expelled  during  an  intestine  dispute,  were 
admitted  by  the  Smyrnseans  into  their  city — a  favour  which 
they  repaid  by  shutting  the  gates  and  seizing  the  place  for 
themselves,  at  a  moment  when  the  Smyrnseans  had  gone 
forth  in  a  body  to  celebrate  a  religious  festival.  The  other 
.^Eolic  towns  sent  auxiliai'ies  for  the  purpose  of  re-estab- 
lishing their  dispossessed  brethren;  but  they  were  com- 
pelled to  submit  to  an  accommodation  whereby  the  lonians 
retained  possession  of  the  town,  restoring  to  the  prior  in- 
habitants all  their  moveables.  These  exiles  were  dis- 
tributed as  citizens  among  the  other  ./Eolic  cities.2 

Smyrna  after  this  became  wholly  Ionian;  and  the  in- 
habitants in  later  times,  if  we  may  judge  by  Aristeides  the 
rhetor,  appear  to  have  forgotten  the  Jfiolic  origin  of  their 
town,  though  the  fact  is  attested  by  Herodotus  and  by 
Mimnermus.3  At  what  time  the  change  took  place  we  do 

1  Pausan.  vii.  3,  3.     In  Pausanias  remark      (Histoire      des      Colonies 

the    name  stands    Alartus  ;    but    it  Grecques.  b.  iv.  c.  13.  p.  95). 

probably  ought  to  be  Abarnus,  the  2    Herod,     i.     150  ;      Mimnermus, 

Kponymus  of  Cape  Abarnis  in  the  Fragm. — 

Ph&kKan   territory  :    see    Steplian.  Qzw-i    po'j),^    Sjj-'JpvTjv   ei).o(i£v    Ai- 

r.yz.   v.    'A^pMi;.     Raoul    Kochette  o/.ioa. 

puts  Abarnus  without  making  any  3  See   Raoul    Rochette,    Histoire 


190  HISTOKY  OF  (JHEECE.  PART  II. 

not  know,  but  Smyrna  appears  to  have  become  Ionian  be- 
fore the  celebration  of  the  twenty-third  Olympiad  (B.C.  668), 
when  Onomastus  the  Smyrnaean  gained  the  prize.1  Nor 
have  we  information  as  to  the  period  at  which  the  city  was 
received  as  a  member  into  the  Pan-Ionic  Amphiktyony; 
for  the  assertion  of  Vitruvius  is  obviously  inadmissible, 
that  it  was  admitted  at  the  instance  of  Attains  king  of 
Pergamus,  in  place  of  a  previous  town  called  Melite,  ex- 
cluded by  the  rest  for  misbehaviour.2  As  little  can  we 
credit  the  statement  of  Strabo,  that  the  city  of  Smyrna 
was  destroyed  by  the  Lydian  kings,  and  that  the  inhab- 
itants were  compelled  to  live  in  dispersed  villages  until  ifs 
restoration  by  Antigonus.  A  fragment  of  Pindar,  which 
speaks  of  "the  elegant  city  of  the  Smyrnseans,"  indicates 
that  it  must  have  existed  in  his  time.3  The  town  of  Erse, 
near  Lebedus,  though  seemingly  autonomous,4  was  not 
among  the  contributors  to  thePan-Ionion;  Myonuesus  seems 
to  have  been  a  dependency  of  Teos,  as  Pygela  and  Marathe- 
sium  were  of  Ephesus.  Notium,  after  its  re-colonization  by 
the  Athenians  during  the  Peloponnesian  war,  seems  to 
have  remained  separate  from  and  independent  of  Kolo- 
phon:  at  least  the  two  are  noticed  by  Skylax  as  distinct 
towns.5 

ies  Colonies    Greeques,    b.    iv.  ch.  *  Strabo,    xiv.    p.    646;     Pindar, 

5.  p.  43;  Aristeides,    Orat.   xx.-xxi.  Frag.  155,  Dissen. 

pp.  260,  2C7.  *  Thucyd.  viii.  19. 

•  Pausan.  v.  8,  3.  *  Skylax,  c.  97;  Tbucyd.  iii,  34, 

2  Vitruvius,  iv.  1, 


CHAP.  XIV.  .2EOLIC  GREEKS  IN  ASIA. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

MOL1C  GREEKS  IN  ASIA. 

ON  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor   to  the  north  of  the  twelve 
Ionic    confederated    cities,   were   situated    the 
twelve  uEolic  cities,  apparently  united  in  a  simi-    cities  of 
lar  manner.     Besides  Smyrna,  the  fate  of  which   -^oiic 
has  already  been  described,    the  eleven  others 
were — -Temnos,  Larissa,  Neon-Teichos,  Kyme,  ^Egse,  ITy- 
rina,  Gryneium,  Killa,  Notium,  ^Egiroessa,  Pitane.     These 
twelve  are  especially  noted  by  Herodotus,  as  the  twelve 
ancient  continental  JEolic  cities,  and  distinguished  on  the 
one  hand  from  the  insular  ^Eolic  Greeks,  in  Lesbos,  Tene- 
clos,  and  Hekatonnesoi — and  on  the  other  hand  from  the 
./Eolic  establishments  in  and  about  mount  Ida,  which  seem 
to  have  been  subsequently  formed  and  derived  from  Lesbos 
and  Kyme. 4 

Of  these  twelve  JEolic  towns,  eleven  were  situated 
very  near  together,  clustered  round  the  Elaeitic 
Gulf:  their  territories,  all  of  moderate   extent,    Their  BU 
seem  also  to  have  been  conterminous  with  each    eleven  near 
other.     Smyrna,  the  twelfth,  was  situated  to  the   t1°seA,l\ei:  "" 
south  of  Mount  Sipylus,  and  at  greater  distance   Gulf, 
from  the  remainder — one  reason  why  it  was  so 
soon  lost  to  its  primitive  inhabitants.  These  towns  occupied 
chiefly  a  narrow  but  fertile  strip  of  territory  lying  between 
the  base  of  the  woody  mountain-range  called  Sardene  and 
the  sea.2    Gryneium,  like  Kolophon  and  Miletus,  possessed 
a  venerated  sanctuary  of  Apollo,  of  older  date  than  the 
yEolic  immigration.     Larissa,  Temnos,  and  -<Ega3  were  at 
some  little  distance    from   the    sea;    the    first   at   a    short 
distance  north  of  the  Hermus,  by  which  its  territory  was 


192  HISTORY  OF  GKEECE.  PABT  II. 

watered  and  occasionally  inundated,  so  as  to  render  em- 
bankments necessary;1  the  last  two  upon  rocky  mountain- 
sites,  so  inaccessable  to  attack,  that  the  inhabitants  were 
enabled,  even  during  the  height  of  the  Persian  power,  to 
maintain  constantly  a  substantial  independence.2  Elsea, 
situated  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Kai'kus,  became  in  later 
times  the  port  of  the  strong  and  flourishing  city  of  Per- 
gamus ;  while  Pitana,  the  northernmost  of  the  twelve,  was 
placed  between  the  mouth  of  the  Ka'ikus  and  the  lofty  pro- 
montory of  Kane,  which  closes  in  the  Elaeitic  Gulf  to  the 
northward.  A  small  town  Kanse  close  to  that  promontory 
is  said  to  have  once  existed.3 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  the  legend  ascribes 
Legendary  the  origin  °f  these  colonies  to  a  certain  special 
jEoiic  event  called  the  .^Eolic  emigration,  of  which 

migration.  chronologers  profess  to  know  the  precise  date, 
telling  us  how  many  years  it  happened  after  the  Trojan 
war,  considerably  before  the  Ionic  emigration.4  That  the 
^Eolic  as  well  as  the  Ionic  inhabitants  of  Asia  were  emi- 
grants from  Greece,  we  may  reasonably  believe,  but  as  to 
the  time  or  circumstances  of  their  emigration  we  can 
pretend  to  no  certain  knowledge.  The  name  of  the  town 

1  Strabo  xiii.  p.  621.  the  south  bank  of  the  Hermus;  but 
2  Xenoph.  Hcllen.  iv.  8,  5.  The  the  better  testimony  of  Aristeidos 
rhetor  AristeidSs  (Orat.  Sacr.  xxvii.  proves  the  contrary  ;  Skylax  (c.  94) 
p.  347  p.  535  D.)  describes  in  detail  does  not  name  TSmnos,  which 
his  journey  from  Smyrna  to  Per-  seems  to  indicate  that  its  territory 
gamus,  crossing  the  Hermus,  and  was  at  some  distance  from  the  sea. 
passing  through  Larissa,  Kym6,  The  investigations  of  modern  tra- 
Myrina,  Gryneium,  Elsea.  He  seems  Tellers  have  as  yet  thrown  little 
not  to  have  passed  through  Tern-  light  upon  the  situation  of  Tem- 
nos,  at  least  he  does  not  name  it:  nos  or  of  the  other  JEolic  towns: 
moreover  we  know  from  Pausanias  see  Arundel,  Discoveries  in  Asia 
(v.  13,  3)  that  Temnos  was  on  the  Minor,  vol.  ii.  pp.  292-298. 
north  bank  of  the  Hermus.  In  the  3  Pliny,  H.  N.  v.  30. 
best  maps  of  this  district  it  is  •»  Strabo,  xiii.  pp.  582-G21,  corn- 
placed,  erroneously,  both  on  the  pared  with  Pseudo-Herodotus,  Vit. 
south  bank,  and  as  if  it  were  on  Homer,  c.  1-38,  who  says  that  Les- 
the  high  road  from  Smyrna  to  Kym8.  bos  was  occupied  by  the  JEolians 
We  may  infer  from  another  pas-  130  years  after  the  Trojan  war; 
sage  of  Aristeides  (Or.  xlviii.  p.  Kym6,  20  years  after  Lesbos; 
351,  p.  408  D.)  that  Larissa  was  Smyrna,  18  years  after  Kyme. 
nearer  to  the  mouth  of  the  Hermus  The  chronological  statements  of 
than  the  maps  appear  to  place  it.  different  writers  are  collected  iii 
According  to  Strabo  (xiii.  p.  622),  Mr.  Clinton's  Fast.  Hellen.  c.  5. 
it  would  seem  that  Larissa  was  on  pp.  104,  105. 


CHAP.  XIV.  KYME.  193 

Larissa,  and  perhaps  that  of  Magnesia  on  Mount  Sipylus 
(according  to  what  has  been  observed  in    the  preceding 
chapter),  has  given  rise  to  the  supposition  that  the  anterior 
inhabitants  were  Pelasgians,  who,  having  once  occupied 
the  fertile  banks  of  the  Hermus,  as  well  as  those  of  the 
Kai'ster  near  Ephesus,  employed  their  industry  in  the  work 
of  embankment.  1   Kyme  was  the  earliest  as  well 
as  the  most  powerful  of  the  twelve  ^Eolic  towns;   earnest  as 
Xeon-Teichos  having  been  originally  established    wel1  as  the 
by  the  Kymseans  as  a  fortress  for  the  purpose   powerful 
of  capturing  the  Pelasgic  Larissa.    Both  Kyme   °f  the 
and  Larissa  were  designated  by  the  epithet  of 
Phrikonis.  By  some  this  was  traced  to  the  mountain  Phri- 
kium  in  Lokris;  from  whence  it  was  alleged  that  the  JEolic 
emigrants  had  startedto  cross  theJEgean:  by  others  it  seems 
to  have  been  connected  with  an  eponymous  hero  Phrikon.2 
It  was  probably  from  Kyme  and  its  sister  cities  on  the 
Elseitic  Gulf  that  Hellenic  inhabitants  penetrated  into  the 
smaller  towns  in  the  inland  plain  of  the  Ka'ikus — Pergamus, 
Halisarna,  Gambreion,  &c.3     In  the  more  southerly  plain 
of   the  Hermus,  on  the  northern  declivity  of  Magnesia 
Mount  Sipylus,   was  situated  the  city  of  Mag-   ad 
nesia,  called  Magnesia  ad  Sipylum  in  order  to   SlPylum- 
distinguish    it   from   Magnesia    on    the    river    Mseander. 
Both  these  towns  called  Magnesia  were  inland — the  one 
bordering  upon  the  Ionic  Greeks,  the  other  upon  the  JGolic, 
but  seemingly  not  included  in   any  Amphiktyony  either 
with  the  one  or  the  other.   Each  is  referred  to  a  separate 
and  early  immigration  either  from  the  Magnetes  in  Thes- 
saly  or  from  Krete.     Like  many  other  of  the  early  towns, 
Magnesia  ad   Sipylum  appears  to  have    been    originally 
established  higher  up  on  the  mountain — in  a  situation  nearer 
to  Smyrna,  from  which  it  was  separated  by  the  Sipylene 
range — and  to  have  been  subsequently  brought  down  nearer 
to  the  plain  on  the  north  side  as  well  as  to  the  river  Her- 
mus.   The  original  site,  Paige-Magnesia,4  was  still  occupied 

1  Strabo,  xiii.  p.  C21.  p.  75  (Berlin,  18431. 

2  Strabo,  xiii.  021;  Pseudo-Hero-          3  Xcnoph.  Hellcn.  iii.  1,  6;  Ana- 
dot,  c.  14.  Aoiol  Opixiovo?,  compared      bas.  vii.  8,  24. 

with  c.  38.  *  There  is  a  valuable  inscription 

Opi-y-tov  appears  in  later  times  as  in  Boeckh's   collection,    No.  3137, 

an  ^Etoliau   proper   name;    Opixo?  containing  the  convention  between 

as  a  Lokrian.      See  Anecdota  Del-  the     inhabitants     of    Smyrna    and 

phica  by    E.  Curtius,   Inscript.  40.  Magnesia.     Palce-Magnesia    seems 

VOL.  III.  O 


194  HISTOEY  OF  GEEECE.  PABT  II. 

as  a  dependent  township,  even  during  the  times  of  the 
Attalid  and  Seleukid  kings.  A  like  transfer  of  situation, 
from  a  height  difficult  of  access  to  some  lower  and  more 
convenient  position,  took  place  with  other  towns  in  and 
near  this  region;  such  as  Gambreion  and  Skepsis,  which 
had  their  False  -  Gambreion  and  False -Skepsis  not  far 
distant. 

Of  these  twelve ^Eolic  towns,  it  appears  that  all  except 
Kyme  were  small  and  unimportant.  Thucydides,  in  reca- 
pitulating the  dependent  allies  of  Athens  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  Peloponnesian  war,  does  not  account  them 
worthy  of  being  enumerated. l  Nor  are  we  authorized  to 
conclude,  because  they  bear  the  general  name  of  .-Eolians, 
that  the  inhabitants  were  all  of  kindred  race,  though  a  large 
proportion  of  them  are  said  to  have  been  Boaotians,  and 
the  feeling  of  fraternity  between  Boeotians  and  Lesbians 
was  maintained  throughout  the  historical  times.  One  ety- 
mology of  the  name  is  indeed  founded  upon  the  supposition 
that  they  were  of  miscellaneous  origin.2  We  do  not  hear, 
moreover,  of  any  considerable  poets  produced  by  the  ^Eolic 
continental  towns.  In  this  respect  Lesbos  stood 
alone — an  island  said  to  have  been  the  earliest 
of  all  the  .J3olic  settlements,  anterior  even  to  Kyme.  Six 
towns  were  originally  established  in  Lesbos — Mitylene, 
Methymna,  Eresus,  Pyrrha,  Antissa,  and  Arisbe:  the  last- 
mentioned  town  was  subsequently  enslaved  and  destroyed 
by  the  Methymnseans,  so  that  there  remained  only  five 
towns  in  all.3  According  to  the  political  subdivision  usual 
in  Greece,  the  island  had  thus,  first  six,  afterwards  five, 
independent  governments;  of  which,  however,  Mitylene, 
situated  in  the  south-eastern  quarter  and  facing  the  promon- 
tory of  Kane,  was  by  far  the  first — while  Methymna,  on 
the  north  of  the  island  over  against  Cape  Lekton,  was  the 
second.  Like  so  many  other  Grecian  colonies,  the  original 

to  have  been  a  strong   and  impor-  2  Strabo,  ir.  p.  402  ;  Thucyd.  viii. 

tant  post.  100;  Pseudo-Herodot.  Vit.  Homer. 

"Magnates   a  Sipylo'"  Tacit.  An-  i.     'Ewel    Y«p     rj     iraXat     AtoXiumi; 

nal.   ii.    47;    Pliny,    H.    N.   v.    29;  Kufir)   EXTI^STO,     cuvyjXQov    ev    TOUTOJ 

Pausan.  iii.  24,  2.   rpo;    3appav   "ou  ravToSocra    E?V£«   cE).Xr(-j'.yoi,    xat    Cvj 

2i-6).o'j.  xod    EX   MaY''r,atas,   &c.    Etymolog. 

Stephan.  Byzantinus  notices  only  Magn.  v.  AloXsi?. 

Magnesia  ad  Mseandrum,  not  Mag-  3  Herodot.   i.    151;     Strabo,    xiii. 

nesia  ad  Sipylum.  p.  590. 

'  Thucyd.  ii.  9. 


CHAP.  XIV.  .ffiOLIC  TOWNS.  195 

city  of  Mitylene  was  founded  upon  an  islet  divided  from 
Lesbos  by  a  narrow  strait;  it  was  subsequently  extended 
on  to  Lesbos  itself,  so  that  the  harbour  presented  two 
distinct  entrances.  1 

It  appears  that  the  native  poets  and  fabulists  who 
professed  to  deliver  the  archaeology  of  Lesbos,  dwelt  less 
upon  the  J^olic  settlers  than  upon  the  various  heroes  and 
tribes  who  were  alleged  to  have  had  possession  of  the 
island  anterior  to  that  settlement,  from  the 
deluge  of  Deukalion  downwards,— just  as  the  SS^*" 
Chian  and  Samian  poets  seem  to  have  dwelt  prin-  Lesbos 
cipally  upon  the  ante-Ionic  antiquities  of  their  ^j^i^.1"3 
respective  islands.  After  the  Pelasgian  Xanthus 
son  of  Triopas,  comes  Makar  son  of  Krinakus,  the  great 
native  hero  of  the  island,  supposed  by  Plehn  to  be  the 
eponym  of  an  occupying  race  called  the  Makares.  The 
Homeric  hymn  to  Apollo  brings  Makar  into  connexion 
with  the  ./Eolic  inhabitants,  by  calling  him  son  of  ^Eolus: 
and  the  native  historian  Myrsilus  also  seems  to  have  treat- 
ed him  as  an  ^Eolian.2  To  dwell  upon  such  narratives 
suited  the  disposition  of  the  Greeks ;  but  when  we  come 
to  inquire  for  the  history  of  Lesbos,  we  find  ourselves 
destitute  of  any  genuine  materials  not  only  for  the  period 
prior  to  the  JEolic  occupation,  but  also  for  a  long  time 
after  it:  nor  can  we  pretend  to  determine  at  what  date 
that  occupation  took  place.  We  may  reasonably  believe 
it  to  have  occurred  before  776  B.C.,  and  it  therefore  be- 
comes a  part  of  the  earliest  manifestation  of  real  Grecian 
history.  Both  Kyme,  with  its  eleven  sister  towns  on  the 
continent,  and  the  islands  Lesbos  and  Tenedos,  were  then 
/Eolic.  I  have  already  remarked  that  the  migration  of 
the  father  of  Hesiod  the  poet,  from  the  /Eolic  Kyme  to 
Askra  in  Boeotia,  is  the  earliest  authentic  fact  known  to 
us  on  contemporary  testimony, — seemingly  between  770 
and  700  n.c. 

But  besides  these  islands,  and  the  strip  of  the  con- 
tinent between  Kyme  and  Pitane  (which  constitiited  the 


196  HISTORY  OF  GEEECE.  PABT  II. 

territory  properly  called  ^Eolis),  there  were  many  other 
./Eolic  establishments  in  the  region  near  Mount  Ida,  the 
Troad,  and  the  Hellespont,  and  even  in  European  Thrace. 
.2Eoiic  estab-  All  these  establishments  seem  to  have  emanated 
in  htheC  rtS  fr°m  Lesbos,  Kyme  and  Tenedos,  but  at  what 
gion  of  time  they  were  formed  we  have  no  information. 
Mount  Ida.  Thirty  different  towns  are  said  to  have  been 
established  by  these  cities,1  from  whence  nearly  all  the 
region  of  Mount  Ida  (meaning  by  that  term  the  territory 
west  of  a  line  drawn  from  the  town  of  Adramyttion  north- 
ward, to  Priapos  on  the  Propontis)  came  to  be  ./Eolised. 
A  new  -/Eolis2  was  thus  formed,  quite  distinct  from  the 
jEolis  near  the  Elseitic  Gulf,  and  severed  from  it  partly  by 
the  territory  of  Atarneus,  partly  by  the  portion  of  Mysia 
and  Lydia,  between  Atarneus  and  Adramyttium,  including 
the  fertile  plain  of  Thebe.  A  portion  of  the  lands  on  this 
coast  seems  indeed  to  have  been  occupied  by  Lesbos,  but 
the  far  larger  part  of  it  was  never  ^-Eolic.  Nor  was  Epho- 
rus  accurate  when  he  talked  of  the  whole  territory  be- 
tween Kyme  and  Abydos  as  known  under  the  name  of 


The  inhabitants  of  Tenedos  possessed  themselves  of 
the  strip  of  the  Troad  opposite  to  their  island,  northward 
of  Cape  Lekton  —  those  of  Lesbos  founded  Assus,  Gargara, 
Lamponia,  Antandrus,4  &c.,  between  Lekton  and  the 

north-eastern  corner  of  the  Adramyttian  Gulf 
uTsett'ie-  —  while  the  Kymseans  seem  to  have  established 
-ments  of  themselves  at  Kebren  and  other  places  in  the  in- 
Ten1ed8os!ind  ^an^  Idsean  district,  s  As  far  as  we  can  make  out, 

this  north-western  corner  (west  of  a  line  drawn 

1  Strabo,   xiii.   pp.  621,  622.     Ms-  JJekton  :    under  JEolis  he  includes 

YIJTOV    BE    E3T'.    TIJOV    A!o).ix<Irj     X7t  Kebren,    Skepsis,     Jseandreia    and 

dpij-rr,  K'jfxr,,  xal  oysoov  [iT/rpi-oXic  Pityeia,    though    how    these    four 

aur^    TS   *at   f,   Ai33<>>    "«uv    a/./.cuv  towns  are  to  be  called  g-'t  SaXiajij 

itoXeiov    Tptdxo-cca     r.vj     TOV     ipvO-  it  is  not  easy  to    see   (Skylax,   94, 

JJLO-J,  &c.  95).  ^or  does  Skj-lax  notice  either 

-  Xenophon,    Kellen.    iii.    1,    10.  the   Perrca    of   Tenedos,    or   Assos 

(jiEypt    -r^?    <I)apva3iXo'j    A'.o/.i5o:—  T)  and  Gargara. 

Aio/.U  a'J~'»i  V'  V-i'i  Oc<pva3'Vj'J.  *  Strabo,  xiii.  p.  583. 

Xenophon  includes  the  whole  of  4  Thucyd.  iv.  52  ;  viii.  108.  Strabo, 

the  Troad  under  the  denomination  xiii.  p.  CIO;    Stephan.  Byz.  'Aiioe; 

of    .tEolis.      Skylax    distinguishes  Pausan.  vi.  4,  5. 

the  Troad    from  .ZEolis  :   he    desig-  5  Pseudo-Herod.     Vit.     Horn.    c. 

nates  as  the  Troad  the  coast  towns  20:  — 
rom  Dardanus  seemingly   down  to 


CHAP.  XIV.        .ffiOLIC  GREEKS  NEAR  MOUNT  IDA.  197 

from  Smyrna  to  the  eastern  corner  of  the  Propontis) 
seems  to  have  been  occupied,  anterior  to  the  Hellenic  settle- 
ments, by  Mysians  and  Teukrians  —  who  are  mentioned 
together,  in  such  manner  as  to  show  that  there  was  no 
great  ethnical  difference  between  them.1  The  Ante-Hei- 
elegiac  poet  Kallinus,  in  the  middle  of  the  se-  L"°*ctin^a" 
venth  century  B.C.,  was  the  first  who  mentioned  the  region 
the  Teukrians;  treating  them  as  immigrants  j^j"11* 
from  Krete,  though  other  authors  represented  sians  and 
them  as  indigenous,  or  as  having  come  from  At-  Teukrians. 
tica.  However  the  fact  may  stand  as  to  .their  origin,  we 
may  gather  that  in  the  time  of  Kallinus  they  were  still  the 
great  occupants  of  the  Troad.  2  Gradually  the  south  and 
west  coasts,  as  well  as  the  interior  of  this  region,  became, 
penetrated  by  successive  colonies  of  ^Eolic  Greeks,  to 
whom  the  iron  and  ship  timber  of  Mount  Ida  were  valu- 
able acquisitions.  Thus  the  small  Teukrian  townships  (for 
there  were  no  considerable  cities)  became  vEolised;  while 
on  the  coast  northward  of  Ida,  along  the  Hellespont  and 
Propontis,  Ionic  establishments  were  formed  from  Miletus 
and  Phokaea,  and  Milesian  colonists  were  received  into  the 
inland  town  of  Skepsis.3  In  the  time  of  Kallinus,  the 
Teukrians  seem  to  have  been  in  possession  of  Hamaxitus 
and  Kolonse,  with  the  worship  of  the  Sminthian  Apollo, 
in  the  south-western  region  of  the  Troad:  a  century  and  a 
half  afterwards,  at  the  time  of  the  Ionic  revolt,  Herodotus 
notices  the  inhabitants  of  Gergis  (occupying  a  portion  of 
the  northern  region  of  Ida  in  the  line  eastward  from  Dar- 
danus  and  Ophrynion)  as  "the  remnant  of  the  ancient  Teu- 
krians."4 We  also  find  the  Mityleneans  and  Athenians 
contending  by  arms  about  600-5  SO  B.C.  for  the  possession 
of  Sigeium  at  the  entrance  of  the  Hellespont.5  Probably 


Herodot.   v.  122.     eTXs  JAJV    Alo- 


a'jops;;  ly_(oat.  xai,  EiXe  6s      spYtSa^,  TOO;  O-oXsi-f- 

Ta  Ss  Ktppr,via    "ou7ov  ~'n  ypovov  ftsvT7.;  T(JJV  apyaiuiv  T£'J7.r/u)v,  Ac. 

Ti'eiv    rorpEjxs'ja..'iv:o     oi     K'jaaToi  The  Teukrians,  in  the  conception 

''r''  "t  *J3lQj  xai.    Yi''£T«i  O'JTO'H  oi-  of    Herodotus,    were    the     Trojans 

fX-  described  in  the  Iliad—  the  Ts'JXpU 

'  Herodot.  vii.  20.  fr>  seems  the  same  as  'IXia?  ff[  (ii. 

2  Kallinus  ap.  Strabo.  xiii.  p.  C04  ;  n*). 

J  Herodot.  v.  94. 


198  HISTOEY  OF  GBEECE.  PAET  II. 

the  Lesbian  settlements  on  the  southern  coast  of  the 
Troad,  lying  as  they  do  so  much  nearer  to  the  island,  as 
well  as  the  Tenedian  settlements  on  the  western  coast 
opposite  Tenedos,  had  been  formed  at  some  time  prior  to 
this  epoch.  We  farther  read  of  ^Eolic  inhabitants  as  pos- 
sessing Sestos  on  the  European  side  of  the  Hellespont. l 
The  name  Teukrians  gradually  vanished  out  of  present 
use,  and  came  to  belong  only  to  the  legends  of  the  past; 
preserved  either  in  connexion  with  the  worship  of  the 
Sminthian  Apollo,  or  by  writers  such  as  Hellanikus  and 
Kephalon  of  Gergis,  from  whence  it  passed  to 

Teukriana       ,,    -s    ,  3,  '  ,-,       T     ,.  •       rf 

of  Gergia.  the  later  poets  and  to  the  .Latin  epic.  It  appears 
that  the  native  place  of  Kephalon  was  a 
town  called  Gergis  or  Gergithes  near  Kyme:  there  was 
also  another  place  called  Gergetha  on  the  river  Ka'ikus, 
near  its  sources,  and  therefore  higher  up  in  Mysia.  It 
was  from  G-ergith.es  near  Kyme  (according  to  Strabo),  that 
the  place  called  Gergis  in  Mount  Ida  was  settled:2  prob- 
ably the  non-Hellenic  inhabitants,  both  near  Kyme  and 
in  the  region  of  Ida,  were  of  kindred  race,  but  the  settlers 
who  went  from  Kyme  to  Gergis  in  Ida  were  doubtless 
Greeks,  and  contributed  in  this  manner  to  the  conversion 
of  that  place  from  a  Teukrian  to  an  Hellenic  settlement. 
In  one  of  those  violent  dislocations  of  inhabitants,  which 
were  so  frequent  afterwards  among  the  successors  of  Alex- 
ander in  Asia  Minor,  the  Teukro-Hellenic  population  of 
the  Idsean  Gergis  is  said  to  have  been  carried  away  by  At- 
talus  of  Pergamus,  in  order  to  people  the  village  of  Ger- 
getha near  the  river  Kaikus. 

"We  must  regard  the  JSolic  Greeks  as  occupying  not 
only  their  twelve  cities  on  the  continent  round  the  Elasitic 
Gulf,  and  the  neighbouring  islands,  of  which  the  chief  were 
Lesbos  and  Tenedos — but  also  as  gradually  penetrating 
and  hellenising  the  Idaean  region  and  the  Troad.  This 
last  process  belongs  probably  to  a  period  subsequent  to 
776  B.C.,  but  Kyme  and  Lesbos  doubtless  count  as  vEolic 
from  an  earlier  period. 

Of  Mitylene,  the  chief  city  of  Lesbos,  we  hear  some 
Mityigng—  facts  between  the  fortieth  and  fiftieth  Olympiad 
its  poiiti-  (620-580  B.C.),  which  unfortunately  reach  us 
sensions—  only  in  a  faint  echo.  That  city  then  numbered 
its  poets.  as  its  own  the  distinguished  names  of  Pittakus, 

1  Herodot.  ix.  115,  *  Strabo,  xiii.  589—616. 


CHAP.  XIV.  PITTAKUS.  199 

Sappho,  and  Alkaeus.  Like  many  other  Grecian  com- 
munities'of  that  time,  it  suffered  much  from  intestine  com- 
motion, and  experienced  more  than  one  violent  revolution. 
The  old  oligarchy  called  the  Penthilids  (seemingly  a  gens 
with  heroic  origin),  rendered  themselves  intolerably  ob- 
noxious by  misrule  of  the  most  reckless  character;  their 
brutal  use  of  the  bludgeon  in  the  public  streets  was  aven- 
ged by  JMegakles  and  his  friends,  who  slew  them  and  put 
down  their  government.  1  About  the  forty-second  Olympiad 
(612  B.C.)  we  hear  of  JVIelanchrus,  as  despot  of  Mitylene, 
who  was  slain  by  the  conspiracy  of  Pittakus,  Kikis,  and 
Antimenidas — the  last  two  being  brothers  of  Alkseus  the 
poet.  Other  despots,  Myrsilus,  Megalagyrus,  and  the 
Kleanaktidse,  whom  we  know  only  by  name,  and  who 
appear  to  have  been  immortalized  chiefly  by  the  bitter 
stanzas  of  Alkseus,  acquired  afterwards  the  sovereignty  of 
Mitylene.  Among  all  the  citizens  of  the  town,  however, 
the  most  fortunate,  and  the  most  deserving,  was  Pittakus 
the  son  of  Hyrrhadus — a  champion  trusted  by  his  coun- 
trymen alike  in  foreign  war  and  in  intestine  broils.2 

The  foreign  war  in  which  the  Mityleneans  were  engaged 
and  in  which  Pittakus  commanded  them,  was  power  and 
against  the  Athenians  on  the  continental  coast  op-  merit  ofPit- 
posite  to  Lesbos,  in  the  Troad  near  Sigeium.  The 
Mityleneans  had  already  established  various  settlements 
along  the  Troad,  the  northernmost  of  which  was  Achilleium. 
They  laid  claim  to  the  possession  of  the  whole  line  of  coast, 
and  when  Athens  (about  the  43rd  Olympiad,  as  it  is  said3) 

1  Aristot.  Polit.  v.  $,  13.  tua    in    regard    to    the    period   be- 

*  Diogen.  Laert.  i.  74  ;  Suidas,  v.  tween  600-560  B.C.    Herodotus  con- 

Kixi;,    riiT-raxcn;    Strabo,    xiii.    p.  siders  this  war  between   the  Mity- 

617.   Two  lines  of  Alkwus  are  pre-  leneans    and  Athenians,   in   which 

served,    exulting   in   the  death   of  Pittakus    and    Alkoeus    were    con- 

Myrsilus    (Alkceus,   Fragm.   12,  ed.  cerned,   to   have    been  directed  by 

Sclmeidewin).    Mclanchrus  also  is  Peisistratus,  whose  government  did 

named  (Fragm.   13),    and  Pittakus,  not  commence   until  560  B.C.  (He- 

inathird fragment (73, ed.Sclnieid.),  rodot.  v.  94,  95). 

is    brought    into    connexion    with  My  suspicion  is,  that  there  were 

Myrsilus.  two  Athenian  expeditions  to  theso 

3  In  regard  to  the  chronology  of  regions,— one    (probably   colonial) 

this  war  see   a   note    near  the  end  in  the  time   of  Alkaeus   and  Pitta- 

of  my  previous  chapter  on  the  So-  kus;    a  second,    much   afterwards, 

Ionian    legislation.    I  have    there  undertaken   by   order  of  Peisistra- 

noticed    what   I    believe    to    be    a  tus,  whose  illegitimate  son  Heeie- 

chrouological  mistake   of  Herodo-  sistratus,  became,  in  consequence, 


200  HISTOEY  OF  GREECE.  PART  H. 

attempted  to  plant  a  settlement  at  Sigeium,  they  resisted 
the  establishment  by  force.  At  the  head  of  the  Mityienean 
troops,  Pittakus  engaged  in  single  combat  with  the  Athe- 
nian commander  Phrynon,  and  had  the  good  fortune  to 
kill  him.  The  general  struggle  was  however  carried  on 
with  no  very  decicive  result.  On  one  memorable 

Alkseus  the  -         , , J    -»r-i  n    i  t    *  -n 

poet—hia  occasion  the  Mityleneans  fled;  and  Alkseus  the 
battle  fr°m  Poe^>  serving  as  an  hoplite  in  their  ranks,  com- 
memorated in  one  of  his  odes  both  his  flight 
and  the  humiliating  loss  of  his  shield,  which  the  victorious 
Athenians  suspended  as  a  trophy  in  the  temple  of  Athene 
at  Sigeium.  His  predecessor  Archilochus,  and  his  imitator 
Horace,  have  both  been  frank  enough  to  confess  a  similar 
misfortune,  which  Tyrtseus  perhaps  would  not  have  en- 
dured to  survive. 4  It  was  at  length  agreed  by  Mitylene 
and  Athens  to  refer  the  dispute  to  Periander  of  Corinth. 
While  the  Mityleneans  laid  claim  to  the  whole  line  of  coast, 
the  Athenians  alleged  that  inasmuch  as  a  contingent  from 
Athens  had  served  in  the  host  of  Agamemnon  against 
Troy,  their  descendants  had  as  good  a  right  as  any  other 
Greeks  to  share  in  the  conquered  ground.  It  appears  that 
Periander  felt  unwilling  to  decide  this  delicate  question 
of  legendary  law.  He  directed  that  each  party  should 
retain  what  they  possessed;  a  verdict2  still  remembered 
and  appealed  to  even  in  the  time  of  Aristotle,  by  the  in- 
habitants of  Tenedos  against  those  of  Sigeium. 

Though  Pittakus  and  Alkaeus  were  both  found  in  the 

same  line  of  hoplites  against  the  Athenians  at 

Bitter  op-     Sigeium,  yet  in  the  domestic  politics  of  their 

position    of         °.          .'    •>   ,,     .     ,          .  ,f    .      e,  ... 

Pittakus  native  city,  their  bearing  was  that  ot  bitter  ene- 
?n  Intern  Ui8  m^eSt  Alkseus  and  Antimenidas  his  brother 
politics.  were  worsted  in  this  party-feud,  and  banished : 
but  even  as  exiles  they  were  strong  enough 
seriously  to  alarm  and  afflict  their  fellow -citizens, 
while  their  party  at  home,  and  the  general  dissension 

despot  of  Sigeium.   Herodotus  ap-  Anakreon,   but   not   certainly  (sea 

pears  to    me   to    have   merged   the  Fr.  81,  ed.    Schneidewin),    is  to  be 

two  into  one.  regarded    as   having  thrown   away 

1  See   the   difficult    fragment    of  his  shield. 

Alkfcus    (Fr.   24,  ed.  Schneidewin)  2  Aristot.  Rhetoric,  i.  16,  2,  where 

preserved   in   Strabo,   xiii.   p.  COO;  I 1  <x  f  yo  ?  marks  the  date.  Aristotle 

Hcrodot.    v.   94,    95;    Archilochus,  passed  some  time  in  these  regions, 

Eleg.    Fr.   i.    5,    ed.    Schneidewiu ;  at  Atarneus,  with  the  despot  Her- 

Horat.  Carm.  ii.  7,  9;  perhaps  also  meias. 


CHAP.  XIV.  PITTAKUS.  201 

within  the  walls,  reduced  Mitylene  to  despair.  In  this 
calamitous  condition,  the  Mityleneans  had  recourse  to 
Pittakus,  who — with  his  great  rank  in  the  state  (his  wife 
belonged  to  the  old  gens  of  the  Penthilids),  courage  in  the 
field,  and  reputation  for  wisdom — inspired  greater  confi- 
dence than  any  other  citizen  of  his  time.  He  Pittakus  is 
was  by  universal  consent  named  ^Esymnete  or  created 
dictator  for  ten  years,  with  unlimited  powers  J:  ^DUrtator 
and  the  appointment  proved  eminently  successful,  of  Mity- 
How  effectually  he  repelled  the  exiles,  and  ene' 
maintained  domestic  tranquillity,  is  best  shown  by  the 
angry  effusions  of  Alkseus;  whose  songs  (unfortunately 
lost)  gave  vent  to  the  political  hostility  of  the  time  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  speeches  of  the  Athenian  orators  two 
centuries  afterwards — and  who,  in  his  vigorous  invectives 
against  Pittakus,  did  not  spare  even  the  coarsest  nicknames, 
founded  on  alleged  personal  deformities.2  Respecting  the 
proceedings  of  this  eminent  Dictator,  the  contemporary 
and  reported  friend  of  Solon,  we  know  only  in  a  general 
way,  that  he  succeeded  in  re-establishing  security  and 
peace,  and  that  at  the  end  of  his  term  he  voluntarily  laid 
down  his  power3 — affording  presumption  not  only  of 
probity  superior  to  the  lures  of  ambition,  but  also  of  that 
conscious  moderation  during  the  period  of  his  dictatorship 
which  left  him  without  fear  as  a  private  citizen  afterwards. 
He  enacted  various  laws  for  Mitylene,  one  of  which  was 
sufficiently  curious  to  cause  it  to  be  preserved  and  com- 
mented on — for  it  prescribed  double  penalties  against  offen- 
ces committed  by  men  in  a  state  of  intoxication.4  But  he  did 
not  (like  Solon  at  Athens)  introduce  any  constitutional 

1  Aristot.  Polit.  iii.  9,  5,  C ;  Dio-  ).avac  paaO.E'icov  — "Grind,  mill, 

nys.  Halik.  Ant.  Bora.  v.73;Plehn,  grind;  for  Pittakus  also  grinds, 

Lesbiaca,  p.  4fi — 50.  the  master  of  great  Mitylene." 

a  Diogen.  Ijaert.  i.  81.  This  has  the  air  of  a  genuine  com- 

3  Strabo,    xiii.    p.     617;    Diogen.  position  of  the  time,  set    forth   by 
Tjaert.    i.    75  ;     Valer.    Maxim,     vi.  the    enemies    of  Pittakus,   and  im- 
5,  1.  puting  to  him  (through  a  very  in- 

4  Aristot.  Polit.  ii.  9,  9  ;  Rhetoric,  telligible      metaphor)      tyrannical 
ii.  27,  2.  conduct;     though    both     Plutarch 

A    ditty    is    said    to    have    been  (Sept.  Sap.  Conv.  c.  14.  p.  157)  and 

sung  by  the  female  grinding  slaves  Diogenes  Lae'rt.  (i.  81)   construe  it 

in    Lesbos,    -when    the    mill    went  literally,    as    if  Pittakus  had  been 

heavily:  'AXsi,  |j.'!>).cc,   a).si-  y.al   •jap  accustomed  to  take  bodily  exercise 

IhtTaxo?   dXsT,   Ta;   [ir/aXa;    MIT'J-  at  the  hand-mill. 


202  HISTORY  OP  GKEECE.  PABT  II. 

changes,  nor  provide  any  new  formal  securities  for  public 
liberty  and  good  government:  l  which  illustrates  the  remark 
previously  made,  that  Solon  in  doing  this  was  beyond  his 
age  and  struck  out  new  lights  for  his  successors  —  since  on 
the  score  of  personal  disinterestedness,  Pittakus  and  he  are 
equally  unimpeachable.  What  was  the  condition  of  Mity- 
lene  afterwards,  we  have  no  authorities  to  tell  us.  Pittakus 
is  said  (if  the  chronological  computers  of  a  latter  age  can 
be  trusted)  to  have  died  in  the  52nd  Olympiad  (B.C.  572- 
568).  Both  he  and  Solon  are  numbered  among  the  Seven 
Wise  Men  of  Greece,  respecting  whom  something  will  be 
said  in  a  future  chapter.  The  various  anecdotes  current 
about  him  are  little  better  than  uncertified  exemplifications 
of  a  spirit  of  equal  and  generous  civism:  but  his  songs  and 
his  elegiac  compositions  were  familiar  to  literary  Greeks 
in  the  age  of  Plato. 


1  Aristot.  Polit.  ii.  9,  9.     ifiniQ  6s  xal   nniaxbs  yij*.<ov 
aXX'  ou  KoXi-sla?, 


CHAP.  XV.  ASIATIC  DOEIANS.  203 


CHAPTER  XV. 

ASIATIC  DORIANS. 

THE  islands  of  Rhodes,  Kos,  Syme,  Nisyros,  Kasus,  and 
Karpathus,  are  represented  in  the  Homeric  catalogue  as 
furnishing  troops  to  the  Grecian  armament  before  Troy. 
Historical  Rhodes,  and  historical  Kos,  are  occu-  Asiatic  Do- 
pied  by  Dorians,  the  former  with  its  three  separate  rians— their 
cities  of  Lindus,  Jalysus,  and  Kameirus.  Two  Hexa-P°hs- 
other  Dorian  cities,  both  on  the  adjacent  continent,  are 
joined  with  these  four  as  members  of  an  Amphiktyony 
on  the  Triopian  promontory,  or  south-western  corner  of 
Asia  Minor — thus  constituting  an  Hexapolis,  including 
Halikarnassus,  Knidus,  Kos,  Lindus,  Jalysus,  and  Kameirus. 
Knidus  was  situated  on  the  Triopian  promontory  itself; 
Halikarnassus  more  to  the  northward,  on  the  northern  coast 
of  the  Keramic  Gulf:  neither  of  the  two  are  named  in 
Homer. 

The  legendary  account  of  the  origin  of  these  Asiatic 
Dorians  has  already  been  given,  and  we  are  compelled  to 
accept  their  Hexapolis  as  a  portion  of  the  earliest  Grecian 
history,  of  which  no  previous  account  can  be  rendered. 
The  circumstance  of  Rhodes  and  Kos  being  included  in  the 
Catalogue  of  the  Iliad  leads  us  to  suppose  that  they  were 
Greek  at  an  earlier  period  than  the  Ionic  or  ^Eolic  settle- 
ments. It  may  be  remarked  that  both  the  brothers  Anti- 
phus  and  Pheidippus  from  Kos,  and  Tlepolemus  from 
Rhodes,  are  Herakleids, —  the  only  Herakleids  who  figure 
in  the  Iliad:  and  the  deadly  combat  between  Tlepolemus 
and  Sarpedon  may  perhaps  be  an  heroic  copy  drawn  from 
real  contests,  which  doubtless  often  took  place  between  the 
Rhodians  and  their  neighbours  the  Lykians.  That  Rhodes 
and  Kos  were  already  Dorian  at  the  period  of  the  Homeric 
Catalogue,  I  see  no  reason  for  doubting.  They  are  not 
called  Dorian  in  that  Catalogue,  but  we  may  well  suppose 
that  the  name  Dorian  had  not  at  that  early  period  come 
to  be  employed  as  a  great  distinctive  class  name,  as  it  was 


204  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAST  II, 

afterwards  used  in  contrast  with  Ionian  and  ^Eolian.  In 
relating  the  history  of  Pheidon  of  Argos,  I  have  mentioned 
various  reasons  for  suspecting  that  the  trade  of  the  Dorians 
on  the  eastern  coast  of  the  Peloponnesus  was  considerable 
at  an  early  period,  and  there  may  well  have  been  Doric 
migrations  by  sea  to  Krete  and  Rhodes,  anterior  to  the 
time  of  the  Iliad. 

Herodotus  tells  us  that  the  six 'Dorian  towns,  which 
other  DO-  had  established  their  Amphiktyony  on  the  Trio- 
rians,  not  plan  promontory,  were  careful  to  admit  none  of 
irTthe  the  neighbouring  Dorians  to  partake  of  it.  Of 

Hexapoiis.  these  neighbouring  Dorians,  we  make  out  the 
islands  of  Astypalsea,  and  Kalymnse,  *  Nisyrus,  Karpathus, 
Syme,  Telus,  Kasus,  and  Chalkia;  also,  on  the  continental 
coast,  Myndus,  situated  on  the  same  peninsula  with  Hali- 
karnassus— and  Phaselis,  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Lykia  to- 
wards Pamphylia.  The  strong  coast-rock  of  lasus,  midway 
between  Miletus  and  Halikarnassus,  is  said  to  have  been 
originally  founded  by  Argeians,  but  was  compelled  in  con- 
sequence of  destructive  wars  with  the  Karians  to  admit 
fresh  settlers  and  a  Neleid  (Ekist  from  Miletus.2  Bargylia 
and  Karyanda  seem  to  have  been  Karian  settlements  more 
or  less  hellenised.  There  probably  were  other  Dorian 
towns,  not  specially  known  to  us,  upon  whom  this  exclusion 
from  the  Triopian  solemnities  was  brought  to  operate.  The 
Exclusion  six  Amphiktyonised  cities  were  in  course  of  time 
of  Haiikar-  reduced  to  five,  by  the  exclusion  of  Halikarnas- 
fromUtbe  sus:  the  reason  for  which  (as  we  are  told)  was, 
Hexapoiis.  that  a  citizen  of  Halikarnassus,  who  had  gained 
a  tripod  as  prize,  violated  the  regulation,  which  required 
that  the  tripod  should  always  be  consecrated  as  an  offering 
in  the  Triopian  temple,  in  order  that  he  might  carry  it  off 
to  decorate  his  own  house.3  The  Dorian  Amphiktyony  was 
thus  contracted  into  a  Pentapolis.  At  what  time  this  in- 
cident took  place  we  do  not  know,  nor  is  it  perhaps  un- 
reasonable to  conjecture  that  the  increasing  predominance 
of  the  Karian  element  at  Halikarnassus  had  some  effect 
in  producing  the  exclusion,  as  well  as  the  individual  mis- 
behaviour of  the  victor  Agasikles. 

1  See  the  Inscriptions  inBoeckh's  Dialecto  Dorica,  p.  15,  553  j  Diodor. 

collection,    2483— 2G71 :    the     latter  v.  53,  54. 

is    an   lasian  Inscription,    reciting  2  Volyb.  xvi.  5. 

a  Doric  decree  by  the    inhabitants  3  Herodot.  i.  144. 
of     Kalymnfe;     also     Ahrens,     De 


XVI.  GEOGRAPHY  OF  ASIA  illNOK.  205 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

NATIVES  OF  ASIA  MINOR  WITH  WHOM  THE  GREEKS 
BECAME  CONNECTED. 

FROM  the  Grecian  settlements  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor1 
and  on  the  adjacent  islands,  our  attention  must  now  be 
turned  to  those  non-Hellenic  kingdoms  and  people  with 
whom  they  there  came  in  contact. 

Our  information  with  respect  to  all  of  them  is  unhap- 
pily very  scanty.    And  we  shall  not  improve  our   T 

L      ^      ,  •         -I        ,     i  •          ,1  in  ,     T     •        Indigenous 

narrative  by  taking  the  catalogue,  presented  in   nations  of 
the  Iliad,  of  allies  of  Troy,  and  construing  it  as   A*]'a  Mi™r 

...   .,  f  i          TL'  c    —Homeric 

if  it  were  a  chapter  of  geography.  It  any  proof  geography. 
were  wanting  of  the  unpromising  results  of  such 
a  proceeding,  we  may  find  it  in  the  confusion  which  darkens 
so  much  of  the  work  of  Strabo — who  perpetually  turns 
aside  from  the  actual  and  ascertainable  condition  of  the 
countries  which  he  is  describing,  to  conjectures  on  Homeric 
antiquity,  often  announced  as  if  they  were  unquestionable 
facts.  Where  the  Homeric  geography  is  confirmed  by 
other  evidence,  we  note  the  fact  with  satisfaction;  where 
it  stands  unsupported,  or  difficult  to  reconcile  with  other 
statements,  we  cannot  venture  to  reason  upon  it  as  in  itself 
a  substantial  testimony.  The  author  of  the  Iliad,  as  he 
has  congregated  together  a  vast  body  of  the  different 
sections  of  Greeks  for  the  attack  of  the  consecrated  hill  of 
Ilium,  so  he  has  also  summoned  all  the  various  inhabitants 
of  Asia  Minor  to  cooperate  in  its  defence.  He  has  planted 
portions  of  the  Kilikians  and  Lykians,  whose  historical 
existence  is  on  the  southern  coast,  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
oftheTroad.  Those  only  will  complain  of  this  who  have 
accustomed  themselves  to  regard  him  as  an  historian  or 
geographer.  If  we  are  content  to  read  him  only  as  the 
first  of  poets,  we  shall  no  more  quarrel  with  him  for  a 
geographical  misplacement,  than  with  his  successor  Arkti- 
mis  for  bringing  on  the  battle-field  of  Ilium  the  Amazons 
or  the  ^Ethiopians. 


206  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAET  II. 

The  geography  of  Asia  Minor  is  even  now  very  imper- 
fectly known, J  and  the  matters  ascertained  respecting  its 
ancient  divisions  and  boundaries  relate  almost  entirely 
Features  either  to  the  later  periods  of  the  Persian  empire, 
of  the  or  to  times  after  the  Macedonian  and  even  after 

country.  ^e  Roman  conquest.  To  state  them  as  they 
stood  in  the  time  of  Croesus  king  of  Lydia,  before  the 
arrival  of  the  conquering  Cyrus,  is  a  task  in  which  we  find 
little  evidence  to  sustain  us.  The  great  mountain  chain 
of  Taurus,  which  begins  from  the  Chelidonian  promontory 
on  the  southern  coast  of  Lykia,  and  strikes  north-eastward  as 
far  as  Armenia,  formed  the  most  noted  boundary-line  during 
the  Roman  times.  But  Herodotus  does  not  once  mention 
it;  the  river  Halys  is  in  his  view  the  most  important  geo- 
graphical limit.  Northward  of  Taurus,  on  the  upper 
portions  of  the  rivers  Halys  and  Sangarius,  was  situated 
the  spacious  and  lofty  •central  plain  of  Asia  Minor.  To  the 
north,  west,  and  south  of  this  central  plain,  the  region  is 
chiefly  mountainous,  as  it  approaches  all  the  three  seas, 
the  Euxine,  the  ^Egean,  and  the  Pamphylian — most  moun- 
tainous in.  the  case  of  the  latter,  permitting  no  rivers  of 
long  course.  The  mountains  Kadmus,  Messogis,  Tniolus, 
stretch  westward  towards  the  ^Egean  Sea,  yet  leaving 
extensive  spaces  of  plain  and  long  valleys,  so  that  the 
Mseander,  the  Kaister,  and  the  Hermus,  have  each  con- 
siderable length  of  course.  The  north-western  part  includes 
the  mountainous  regions  of  Ida.  Temnus,  and  the  Mysian 
Olympus,  with  much  admixture  of  fertile  and  productive 
ground.  The  elevated  tracts  near  the  Euxine  appear  to 
have  been  the  most  wooded — especially  Kytorus:  the  Par- 
thenius,  the  Sangarius,  the  Halys,  and  the  Iris,  are  all  con- 
siderable streams  flowing  northward  towards  that  sea. 
Nevertheless,  the  plain  land  interspersed  through  these 
numerous  elevations  was  often  of  the  greatest  fertility ; 

1  For  the  general    geography  of  to  he  made   out:    it   is   not  nnfre- 

Asia  jNIinor,    see   Albert  Forbiger,  quently  the  practice  with  the  com- 

Handbuch  der  Alt.  Geogr.   part  ii.  pilers  of  geographical    manuals  to 

sect.  61,  and  an   instructive    little  make  a  show  of  full   knowledge, 

treatise,  Fiinf  Inschriften  und  fiinf  and   to    disguise    the   imperfection 

Stiidte   in  Klein -Asien,    by  Franz  of  their  data.     Xor  do  they  always 

and   Kiepert,    Berlin   1840,    with  a  keep     in     view     the     necessity    of 

map     of     1'hrygia    annexed.      The  distinguishing    between    the  terri- 

latter    is    particularly  valuable   as  torial  names  and  divisions   of  ono 

showing  us  how  much  yet  remains  age  and  those  of  another. 


CHAP.  XVI.  NATIONS  IN  ASIA  MINOB.  207 

and  as  a  whole,  the  peninsula  of  Asia  Minor  was  considered 
as  highly  productive  by  the  ancients,  in  grain,  wine,  fruit, 
cattle,  and  in  many  parts,  oil ;  though  the  cold  central  plain 
did  not  carry  the  olive. l 

Along  the  western  shores  of  this  peninsula,  where  the 
various   bands   of  Greek   emigrants  settled,  we 
hear  of  Pelasgians,  Teukrians,  Mysians,  Bithy-   ^t™aetsio*nsd 
nians,  Phrygians,  Lydians  or  Maeonians,  Karians,   Of  tiie 
Lelegians.    Farther  eastward  are  Lykians,  Pisi-   different 
dians,  Kilikians,  Phrygians,   Kappadokians,  Pa-   p 
phlagonians,  Mariandynians,  &c.     Speaking  generally,   we 
may    say    that  the  Phrygians,    Teukrians    and   Mysians 
appear  in  the  north-western  portion,  between  the  river 
Hermus  and  the  Propontis — the  Karians  and  Lelegians 
south  of  the  river  Mseander, — and  the  Lydians  in  the  central 
region  between  the  two.     Pelasgians  are  found  here  and 
there,  seemingly  both  in  the  valley  of  the  Hermus  and  in 
that  of  the  Kai'ster.    Even  in  the  time  of  Herodotus,  there 
were  Pelasgian  settlements  at  Plakia  and  Skylake  on  the 
Propontis,  westward  of  Kyzikus:  and  0.  Miiller  would  trace 
the  Tyrrhenian  Pelasgians  to  Tyrrha,   an  inland  town  of 
Lydia,  whence  he  imagines  (thotigh  without  much  proba- 
bility) the  name  Tyrrhenian  to  be  derived. 

One  important  fact  to  remark,  in  respect  to  the  native 
population  of  Asia  Minor  at  the  first  opening  of  Not  origin_ 
this  history,  is,  that  they  were  not  aggregated  ally  aggre- 
into  great  kingdoms  or  confederations,  nor  even  f^e  king- 
into  any  large  or  populous  cities — but  distribu-  doms  or 
ted  into  many  inconsiderable  tribes,  so  as  to  pre-  ° 
sent  no  overwhelming  resistance,  and  threaten  no  formi- 
dable danger,  to  the  successive  bodies  of  Greek  emigrants. 
The  only  exception  to  this  is,  the  Lydian  monarchy  of 
Sardis,  the  real  strength  of  which  begins  with  Gyges  and 
the  dynasty  of  the  Mermnadse,  about  700  B.  c.  Though  the 
increasing  force  of  that  kingdom  ultimately  extinguished 
the  independence  of  the  Greeks  in  Asia,  it  seems  to  have 
noway  impeded  their  development,  as  it  stood  when  they 
first  arrived  and  for  a  long  time  afterwards.  Nor  were 
either  Karians  or  Mysians  united  under  any  one  king,  so 
as  to  possess  facilities  for  aggression  or  conquest. 

1  Cicero,    Pro    Lege    Manilii.    c.  the     olive     tree,     in    Ritter,     Kr<l- 

6;    Str.ibo,    xii,    p.    572;    Heroclot.  kuntle,     West-Asien,    fo.    iii.,     Ab- 

V.  32.     See  the  instructive  account  theilimg   iii. ;    Absclm.    1    S.  50,  p. 

of  the   spread   and   cultivation  of  022—537. 


208  HISTOBY  OF  GBEECE.  PART  II. 

As  far  as  can  be  made  out  from  our  scanty  data,  it 
appears  that  all  the  nations  of  Asia  Minor  west 
? la— Ihe^  *^e  river  Halys,  were,  in  a  large  sense,  of 
ethnogra-  kindred  race  with  each  other,  as  well  as  with 
botmdar  *ne  Thracians  on  the  European  side  of  the  Bos- 
Syro-Ara-  phorus  and  Hellespont.  East  of  the  Halys  dwelt 
ward*  ofast"  tne  Pe°ple  °f  Syro-Arabian  or  Semitic  race, — 
that  river.  Assyrians,  Syrians,  and  Kappadokians — as  well 
as  Kilikians,  Pamphylians  and  Solymi,  along  its 
upper  course  and  farther  southward  to  the  Pamphylian 
sea.  Westward  of  the  Halys  the  languages  were  not  Semi- 
tic, but  belonging  to  a  totally  different  family 1 — cognate 
yet  distinct  one  from  another,  perhaps  not  mutually  intelli- 
gible. The  Karians,  Lydians  and  Mysians  recognised  a 
certain  degree  of  brotherhood  with  each  other,  attested 
by  common  religious  sacrifices  in  the  temple  of  Zeus  Ka- 
rios  atMylasa.2  But  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  each 
of  these  nations  mutually  comprehended  each  other's 
speech.  Herodotus,  from  whom  we  derive  the  knowledge 
of  these  common  sacrifices,  acquaints  us  at  the  same  time 
that  the  Kaunians  in  the  south-western  corner  of  the  pen- 
insula had  no  share  in  them,  though  speaking  the  same 
language  as  the  Karians.  He  does  not,  however,  seem  to 
consider  identity  or  difference  of  language  as  a  test  of  na- 
tional affinity. 

Along  the  coast  of  the  Euxine,  from  the  Thraci  an 
Bosphorus  eastward  to  the  river  Halys,  dwelt  Bithynians 
Thracian  or  Thynians,  Mariandynians  and  Paphlagonians 
race— in  — a\\  recognised  branches  of  the  widely-extended 

the   north        ml          .  ml        T>-J.I         •  •    n        - 

of  Asia  Thracian  race.  The  Bithynians  especially,  in 
Minor.  the  north-western  portion  of  this  territory, 
reaching  from  the  Euxine  to  thePropontis,  are  often  spoken 

1  Herodot.   i.    72;    Heeren,  Ideen  preceded    them,    have   shown   that 

tiber  den  Verkehr  der  Alten  Welt,  the  Armenian  language  belongs  in 

Part.    i.    Abth.    i.    p.   142 — 145.      It  its  structure  to  the  Indo-Germanie 

may    be  remarked,    however,    that  family,  and  is  essentially    distinct 

the    Armenians,    eastward    of   the  from  the  Semitic:  see  Ritter,  Erd- 

Halys,    are   treated   by    Herodotus  kunde,    West-Asien,   b.    iii.    Abth. 

as    colonists    from  the    Phrygians  iii-  ;   Abschn.    i.   5.    36.    p.  577—582. 

(vii.  73) :  Stephanus  Byz.    says  tho  Herodotus  rarely   takes    notice  of 

same  v.  'Afjxsvtot,    adding   also,  xoil  the  language  spoken,  nor  does  he 

TIQ    '-ptuv^j    no),Xa    cppoYi'o'jat.      The  on    this   occasion,    when  speaking 

more  careful  researches  of  modern  of  the  river  Halys    as   a  boundary, 

linguists,    after    much    groundless  *  Herodot.  i.  170    171. 
assertion  on  the  part  of  those  who 


CHAP.  XVI.  NATIONS  IN  ASIA  MINOR.  209 

of  as  Asiatic  Thracians  —  while  on  the  other  hand  various 
tribes  among  the  Thracians  of  Europe  are  denominated 
Thyni  or  Thynians:1  so  little  difference  was  there  in  the 
population  on  the  two  sides  of  the  Bosphorus,  alike  brave, 
predatory,  and  sanguinary.  The  Bithynians  of  Asia  are 
also  sometimes  called  Bebryldans,  under  which  denomina- 
tion they  extend  as  far  southward  as  the  Gulf  of  Kios  in 
the  Propontis.2  They  here  come  in  contact  with  Mygdo- 
nians,  Mysians  and  Phrygians.  Along  the  southern  coast 
of  the  Propontis,  between  the  rivers  Rhyndakus  and  ^Esepus, 
in  immediate  neighbourhood  with  the  powerful  Greek 
colony  of  Kyzikus,  appear  the  Doliones;  next,  Pelasgians 
at  Plakia  and  Skylake;  then  again,  along  the  coast  of  the 
Hellespont  near  Abydus  and  Lampsakus,  and  occupying  a 
portion  of  the  Troad,  we  find  mention  made  of  other 
Bebrykians.3  In  the  interior  of  the  Troad,  or  the  region 
of  Ida,  are  Teukrians  and  ilysians.  The  latter  seem  to 
extend  southward  down  to  Pergamus  and  the  region  of 
Mount  Sipylus,  and  eastward  to  the  mountainous  region 
called  the  llysian  Olympus,  south  of  the  lake  Askanius, 
near  which  they  join  with  the  Phrygians.4 

1  Straho,    vii.    pp.    295—303;    xii.  The  name  Mvpta-j-Suvol,  like   Bt- 
pp.    542,   504,  5fi5,  572;   Herodot.  i.  Quvot,   may    probably  be  an  exten- 
28  ;  vii.  74,  75;  Xenoplion.  Hellenic,  sion  or  compound  of  the  primitive 
i.    3,    2;    Anabasis,    vii.   2,   22—32.  6uvol  ;  perhaps  also  BiJSpyxsc  stands 
Mannert,    Geographic   cler  Gr.  und  in    the  same   relation   to  Bptye?  or 
Rcimer,  b.  viii.   ch.  ii.  p.  403.  Opuyii;.     Hellanikus     wrote     6  •!>(*.- 

2  Dionys.  Terieget.  805:    Apollo-  ppiov,  A'ijA^piov  (Steph.  Eyz.    in  v.). 
dorus,   i.    9,    20.      Theokritus    puts  Kios  is  Mysian  in  Herodotus,  v. 
the    Bebrykians    on    the    coast    of  122  :  according  to  Skylax,  the  coast 
the  Euxine—  Id,  xxii.  29;    Syncell.  from   the   Gulf   of  Astakus  to  that 

- 


war.     The  Greeks  whom  lie  follow- 

ed     assigned     the     origin      of    the  CCJTIOV  r/fina-ai  oti  TO?);  yev 

Bitljynians   to    Thracian   followers  ro)  EJAVJC.      Strabo,     xiii.     p.     586; 

of    Rhesus,    who    fled    from    Troy  Conon,     Narr.     12;     Dionys.     Hal. 

after  the  latter  had  been  killed  by  i.  51. 

THomedes:    Dolonkus,    eponym    of  4  Hekatrcus,  Frag.  204,  ed.  Didot  ; 

the  Thracians  in   the  Chersonesus,  Apollodor.  i.  9,  IS  j  Strabo.  xii.  p. 

is     called      brother      of     Bithynus  504—  575. 

(Stuph.  P,yz.  AoXoy/o;—  Bi'j'jvtj). 

VOL.  111.  r 


210  HISTORY  OF  GBEECE.  PAET  II. 

As  far  as  any  positive  opinion  can  be  formed  respecting 
.  nations  of  whom  we  know  so  little,  it  would 

Ethnical  ,,     ,       ,       -»r      •  i  T-»I  • 

affinities  appear  that  the  Mysians  and  Phrygians  are  a 
and  mi-  sor^  of  connecting  link  between  Lydians  and 
Karians  on  one  side,  and  Thracians  (European  as 
well  as  Asiatic)  on  the  other — a  remote  ethnical  affinity 
pervading  the  whole.  Ancient  migrations  are  spoken  of  in 
both  directions  across  the  Hellespont  and  the  Thracian 
Bosphorus.  It  was  the  opinion  of  some  that  Phrygians, 
Mysians  and  Thracians  had  immigrated  into  Asia  from 
Europe;  and  the  Lydian  historian  Xanthus  referred  the 
arrival  of  the  Phrygians  to  an  epoch  subsequent  to  the 
Trojan  war.1  On  the  other  hand,  Herodotus  speaks  of  a 
vast  body  of  Teukrians  and  Mysians,  who,  before  the  Trojan 
war,  had  crossed  the  strait  from  Asia  into  Europe,  expelled 
many  of  the  European  Thracians  from  their  seats,  crossed 
the  Strymon  and  the  Macedonian  rivers,  and  penetrated  as 
far  southward  as  the  river  Peneus  in  Thessaly — as  far 
westward  as  the  Ionic  Grulf.  This  Teukro-Mysian  migration 
(he  tells  us)  brought  about  two  consequences:  first,  the 
establishment  near  the  river  Strymon  of  thePseonians,  who 
called  themselves  Teukrian  colonists;2  next,  the  crossing 
into  Asia  of  many  of  the  dispossessed  Thracian  tribes  from 
the  neighbourhood  of  the  Strymon  into  the  north-western 
region  of  Asia  Minor,  by  which  the  Bithynian  or  Asiatic 
Thracian  people  was  formed.  The  Phrygians  also  are 
supposed  by  some  to  have  originally  occupied  an  European 
soil  on  the  borders  of  Macedonia  near  the  snow-clad  Mount 
Bermion,  at  which  time  they  were  called  Briges, — an 
appellative  name  in  the  Lydian  language  equivalent  to 
freemen  or  Franks:3  while  the  Mysians  are  said  to  have 
come  from  the  north-eastern  portions  of  European  Thrace 
south  of  the  Danube,  known  under  the  Roman  empire  by 
the  name  of  Moesia.4  But  with  respect  to  the  Mysians  there 
was  also  another  story,  according  to  which  they  were  des- 
cribed as  colonists  emanating  from  the  Lydians;  put  forth 


CHAP.  XVI.     ETHNICAL  AFFINITIES  AND  MIGRATIONS.  211 

according  to  that  system  of  devoting  by  solemn  vow  a  tenth 
of  the  inhabitants,  chosen  by  lot,  to  seek  settlements  else- 
where, which  recurs  not  unfrequently  among  the  stories  of 
early  emigrations,  as  the  consequence  of  distress  and  famine. 
And  this  last  opinion  was  supported  by  the  character  of 
the  Mysian  language,  half  Lydian  and  half  Phrygian,  of 
which  both  the  Lydian  historian  Xanthus,  and  Menekrates 
of  Elsea,1  (by  whom  the  opinion.was  announced,)  must  have 
been  very  competent  judges. 

Front-such  tales  of  early  migration  both  ways  across 
the  Hellespont  and  the  Bosphorus,  all  that  we  Partial 
can  with  any  certainty  infer  is,  a  certain  measure  identity  of 
of  affinity  among  the  population  of  Thrace  and  legends- 
Asia  Minor — especially  visible  in  the  case  of  the  Phrygians 
and  Mysians.  The  name  and  legends  of  the  Phrygian  hero 
Midas  are  connected  with  different  towns  throughout  the 
extensive  region  of  Asiatic  Phrygia — Kelsena?,  Pessinus, 
Ankyra,2  Gordium — as  well  as  with  the  neighbourhood  of 
Mount  Bermion  in  Macedonia.  The  adventure  whereby 
Midas  got  possession  of  Silenus,  mixing  wine  with  the 
spring  of  which  he  drank,  was  localised  at  the  latter  place 
as  well  as  at  the  town  of  Thymbrion,  nearly  at  the  eastern 
extremity  of  Asiatic  Phrygia.3  The  name  Mygdonia,  and 
the  eponymous  hero  Mygdon,  belong  not  less  to  the  Euro- 
pean territory  near  the  river  Axius  (afterwards  a  part  of 
Macedonia)  than  to  the  Asiatic  coast  of  the  eastern  Pro- 
pontis,  between  Kios  and  the  river  Rhyndakus.4  Otreus 

1  Strabo,  xii.  p.  572;  Herodot.  territory  Mygdonia  and  the 

vii.  74.  Mygdonians,  in  the  distant  region 

*  Diodor.  iii.  69;  Arrian,  ii.  3,  1 ;  of  Mesopotamia,  eastward  of  the 

Quint.  Curt.  iii.  1,  12;  Athena:,  x.  river  Chaboras  (Plutarch.  Lucullus, 

]>.  415.  We  may  also  notice  the  32  ;  Polyb.  v.  51 ;  Xenophon,  Anab. 

town  of  KoTudeiov  near  MiSdsiov  iv.  3,  4),  is  difficult  to  understand, 

ia  Phrygia,  as  connected  with  the  since  it  is  surprising  to  find  a 

name  of  the  Thracian  goddess  branch  of  these  more  westerly 

Kntys  (Strabo,  x.  p.  470;  xii.  p.  Asiatics  in  the  midst  of  the  Syro- 

r'70)-  Arabian  population.  Strabo  (xv. 

"Herodot.viii.  138;  Theopompus,  p.  747)  justly  supposes  it  to  date 

Frag.  74,  75,  7G,  Didot  (he  intro-  only  from  the  times  of  the  Mace- 

duced  a  long  dialogue  between  donian  conquest  of  Asia,  which 

Midas  and  Silenus— Dionys.  Halik.  would  indeed  bo  disproved  by  the 

Vett.  Script.  Censur.  p.  70;  Theon.  mention  of  the  name  in  Xenophon  ; 

Progymnas.  c.  2)  ;  Strabo,  xiv.  p.  but  this  reading  in  the  text  of 

CfO;  Xenophon.  Anabas.  i.  2,  13.  Xenophon  is  rejected  by  the  best 

1  Strabo,  vii.  p.  575,  570;  Stoph.  recent  editors,  since  several  MSS. 

£yz.  Mu-jSovia;  Thucyd.  ii.  99.  The  have  M^o-moi  in  place  of  Muy- 

p  2 


212  HISTORY  OF  GBEECE.  PART  II. 

and  Mygdon  are  the  commanders  of  the  Phrygians  in  the 
Iliad ;  and  the  river  Odryses,  which  flowed  through  the 
territory  of  the  Asiatic  Mygdonians  into  the  Rhyndakus, 
affords  another  example  of  homonymy  with  the  Odrysian 
Thracians l  in  Europe.  And  as  these  coincidences  of  names 
and  legends  conduct  us  to  the  idea  of  analogy  and  affinity 
between  Thracians  and  Phrygians,  so  we  find  Archilochus, 
the  earliest  poet  remaining  to  us  who  mentions  them  as 
contemporaries,  coupling  the  two  in  the  same  simile. 2  To 
this  early  Parian  lambist,  the  population  on  the  two  sides 
of  the  Hellespont  appears  to  have  presented  similarity  of 
feature  and  customs. 

To  settle  with  any  accuracy  the  extent  and  condition 
Phrygians  of  these  Asiatic  nations  during  the  early  days 
of  Grecian  settlement  among  them  is  impractic- 
able. The  problem  was  not  to  be  solved  even  by  the  an- 
cient geographers,  with  their  superior  means  of  knowledge. 
The  early  indigenous  distribution  of  the  Phrygian  popu- 
lation is  unknown  to  us;  for  even  the  division  into  the 
Greater  and  Lesser  Phrygia  belongs  to  a  period  at  least 
subsequent  to  the  Persian  conquest  (like  most  of  the  recog- 
nised divisions  of  Asia  Minor),  and  is  only  misleading  if 
applied  to  the  period  earlier  than  Croesus.  It  appears 
that  the  name  Phrygians,  like  that  of  Thracians,  was  a 
generic  designation,  and  comprehended  tribes  or  separate 
communities  who  had  also  specific  names  of  their  own. 
"We  trace  Phrygians  at  wide  distances :  on  the  western  bank 
of  the  river  Halys — at  Kelsense,  in  the  interior  of  Asia 
Minor,  on  the  upper  course  of  the  river  Maeander — and  on 

Sovioi.     See    Forbiger,    Handbuch  near  approximation  in   the    poet's 

der    Alten    Geographie,    Part.    ii.  mind   of  Thracians   and  Phrygians, 

sect.  PS,  p.  C.28.  The  phrase  ccj).u>  fipj-ov    Pfj'sti)  is 

1  Iliad,   iii.    188;    Strabo,   xii.  p.  probably  to  be   illustrated   by   the 
551.     The  town  of  Otroea,  of  which  Anabasis  of  Xenophon   (iv.  5.  27), 
Otreus  seems  to  be  the  eponymus,  where  he  describes  the  half-starved 
was   situated   in    Phrygia  just    on  Greek    soldiers    refreshing    thern- 
the    borders    of  Bithyuia   (Strabo,  selves  in  the  Armenian  villages. They 
xii.  p.  506).  found    there    large    bowls    full    of 

2  Archiloch.  ITragm.  28  Schneid.,  barley- wine  or  beer,  with  the  grains 
26  Gaisf. —  of    barley    floating    in    it.      They 

<jj3-£p  ag).o>  pputov  r,  ©prj'iE  drank  the  liquid  by  sucking  through 

(ivijp  long  reeds  or  straws  without   any 

"H  Opo;  s^f'J'S)  *c.  joint  in  them   (xi).7|Mi    tvii-.i   oox 

The  passage  is  too  corrupt  to  sup-  E-/OVTS?)     which     they    found    put 

port   any    inference,     except    the  there  for  the  express  purpose. 


CHAP.  XVI.  PHRYGIANS.  213 

the  coast  of  the  Propontis  near  Kios.  In  both  of  these 
latter  localities  there  is  a  salt  lake  called  Askanius,  which 
is  the  name  both  of  the  leader  of  the  Phrygian  allies  of 
Troy  and  of  the  country  from  whence  they  are  said  to  come, 
in  the  Iliad.1  They  thus  occupy  a  territory  bounded  on 
the  south  by  the  Pisidian  mountains — on  the  west  by  the 
Lydians  (indicated  by  a  terminal  pillar  set  up  by  Croesus 
at  Kydrara2) — on  the  east  by  the  river  Halys,  on  the  other 
side  of  which  were  Kappadokians  or  Syrians: — on  the 
north  by  Paphlagonians  and  Mariandynians.  But  it  seems 
besides  this,  that  they  must  have  extended  farther  to  the 
west,  so  as  to  occupy  a  great  portion  of  the  region  of 
Mount  Ida  and  the  Troacl.  For  Apollodorus  considered 
that  both  the  Doliones  and  the  Bebrykians  were  included 
in  the  great  Phrygian  name;3  and  even  in  the  ancient  poem 
called  'Phoronis'  (which  can  hardly  be  placed  later  than 
600  B.C.),  the  Daktyls  of  Mount  Ida,  the  great  discoverers 
of  metallurgy,  are  expressly  named  Phrygian.4  The 
custom  of  the  Attic  tragic  poets  to  call  the  inhabitants  of 
the  Troad  Phrygians,  does  not  necessarily  imply  any  trans- 
lation of  inhabitants,  but  an  employment  of  the  general 
name,  as  better  known  to  the  audience  whom  they  address- 
ed, in  preference  to  the  less  notorious  specific  name — just 
as  the  inhabitants  of  Bithynia  might  be  described  either 
as  Bithynians  or  as  Asiatic  Thracians. 

If  (as  the  language  of  Herodotus  and  Ephorus5  would 
seem  to  imply)  we  suppose  the  Phrygians  to  be   Their  influ- 
at  a  considerable  distance  from  the  coast  and   e"co  uP°n 
dwelling  only  in  the  interior,  it  will  be  difficult    Greelfcoio- 
to  explain  to  ourselves  how  or  where  the  early   nists- 

1  Iliad,  ii.  873;  xiii.  702  :  Arrian,  2  Herodot.  i.  72;  vii.  30. 

j.  29:  Herodot.  vii.  30.     The  boun-  *  Strabo,    xiv.    p.    678:    compare 

dary  of  the   Phrygians  southward  xiii.    p.    586.      The    legend    makes 

towards  the  Pisidians,   and    west-  Dolion  son   of  Silenus,   who   is  so 

ward    as    well    as    northwestward  much  connected  with  the  Phrygian 

towards  the  Lydians  and  Mysians,  Midas  (Alexand.  ./Etolus  ap.  Strab. 

could   never   be    distinctly    traced  xiv.  p.  CS1). 

(Strabo,  xii.  pp.  504,  576,628):  the  *  Phoronis,  Fragm.  5,  ed.  Diintzer, 

volcanic    region    called     Katake-  p.  57 — 

haumene  is  referred  in  Xenophoii's          s'^Qa  YO^TES 

time   to    Mysia  (Anabas.  i.    2,10):  'losToi    Qs-'t-fsz     avopzt,    opsjTgpoi, 

compare    the    remarks    of  Kiepert  oixaS'  I-;iiov,  &c. 

in   the    treatise    above   referred   to  5    Kphorus    ap.    Strabo,    xiv.    p. 

1-Hinf  Inschriften  und   fuuf  Stadte,  678;  Herodot.  v.  49. 

p.  27. 


214  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II, 

Greek  colonists  came  to  be  so  much  influenced  by 
them;  whereas  the  supposition  that  the  tribes  occupying 
the  Troad  and  the  region  of  Ida  were  Phrygians  elucidates 
this  point.  And  the  fact  is  incontestable,  that  both  Phry- 
gians and  Lydians  did  not  only  modify  the  religious  mani- 
festations of  the  Asiatic  Greeks,  and  through  them  ,of  the 
Grecian  world  generally — but  also  rendered  important  aid 
towards  the  first  creation  of  the  Grecian  musical  scale. 
Of  this  the  denominations  of  the  scale  afford  a  proof. 

Three  primitive  musical  modes  were  employed  by  the 
Greek  mu-  Greek  poets,  in  the  earliest  times  of  which  later 
sicai  scale  authors  could  find  any  account — the  Lydian, 
borrowed  which  was  the  most  acute — the  Dorian,  which 
from  the  was  the  most  grave — and  the  Phrygian  inter- 
Pnrygians.  mediate  between  the  two;  the  highest  note  of 
the  Lydian  being  one  tone  higher,  that  of  the  Dorian  one 
tone  lower,  than  the  highest  note  of  the  Phrygian  scale.  * 
Such  were  the  three  modes  or  scales,  each  including  only  a 
tetrachord,  upon  which  the  earliest  Greek  masters  worked: 
many  other  scales,  both  higher  and  lower,  were  subsequent- 
ly added.  It  thus  appears  that  the  earliest  Greek  music 
was,  in  large  proportion,  borrowed  from  Phrygia  and  Lydia. 
When  we  consider  that  in  the  eighth  and  seventh  centuries 
before  the  Christian  aera,  music  and  poetry  conjoined  (often 
also  with  dancing  or  rhythmical  gesticulation)  was  the  only 
intellectual  manifestation  known  among  the  Greeks — and 
moreover,  that  in  the  belief  of  all  the  ancient  writers, 
every  musical  mode  had  its  own  peculiar  emotional  in- 
fluences, powerfully  modified  the  temper  of  hearers,  and 
was  intimately  connected  with  the  national  worship — we 
shall  see  that  this  transmission  of  the  musical  modes  im- 
plies much  both  of  communication  and  interchange  be- 
tween the  Asiatic  Greeks  and  the  indigenous  population 
of  the  continent.  Now  the  fact  of  communication  between 
the  Ionic  and  the  ^Eolic  Greeks,  and  their  eastern  neigh- 
bours, the  Lydians,  is  easy  to  comprehend  generally,  though 
we  have  no  details  as  to  the  way  in  which  it  took  place. 
But  we  do  not  distinctly  see  where  it  was  that  the  Greeks 
came  so  much  into  contact  with  the  Phrygians,  except  in 
the  region  of  Ida,  the  Troad,  and  the  southern  coast  of  the 
Propontis.  To  this  region  belonged  those  early  Phrygian 

1  See  the   learned  and  valuable  Dissertation  of  Boeckh,  De  Metris 
Pindari,  iii.  8.  p.  235-235. 


CHAP.  XVI.  MUSIC  OF  PHEYGIA.  215 

musicians  (under  the  heroic  names  of  Olympus,  Hyagnis, 
Marsyas),  from  whom  the  Greeks  borrowed.1  And  we 
may  remark  that  the  analogy  between  Thracians  and 
Phrygians  seems  partly  to  hold  in  respect  both  to  music 
and  to  religion;  since  the  old  my  the  in  the  Iliad,  wherein 
the  Thracian  bard  Thamyris,  rashly  contending  in  song 
with  the  Muses,  is  conquered,  blinded  and  stripped  of  his 
art,  seems  to  be  the  prototype  of  the  very  similar  story 
respecting  the  contention  of  Apollo  with  the  Phrygian 
Marsyas2 — the  cithara  against  the  flute;  while  the  Phry- 
gian Midas  is  farther  characterised  as  the  religious  disciple 
of  Thracian  Orpheus. 

In   my  previous  chapter  relating  to   the  legend    of 
Troy,3  mention  has  been  already  made  of  the    Phrygian 
early  fusion  of  the  ./Eolic  Greeks  with  the  in-   music  and 
digenous  population  of  the  Troad.     It  is  from   Tmong^he 
hence  probably  that  the  Phrygian  music  with    Greeks  in 
the  flute  as  its  instrument— employed  in  the   * 
orgiastic  rites  and  worship  of  the  Great  Mother  in  Mount 
Ida,  in  the  Mysian  Olympus,  and  other  mountain  regions 
of  the  country,  and  even  in  the  Greek  city  of  Lampsakus4 

!  Plutarch,  Be  Musica,    c.    5,    7,  lestes  the  dithyrarnbist  as  a  satyr, 

p.   1132;   Aristoxenus   ap.   Athenae.  son    of    a    nymph — /o^orf'''5'   X£l" 

xiv.  p.  624;  Alkman,  Frag.  104,  ed.  poxT'Jnw     'f'^pi    M'jipj'ja    xXjo;    (Te- 

Bergk.  lestes  ap.  Athena;,  xiv.  p.  617). 

Aristoxenus  seems   to  have  con-  -  Xenoph.  Anab.  i.  2,  8;   Homer. 

sidered  the  Phrygian    Olympus    as  Iliad,  ii.  595;    Straho,   xii.    p.  578: 

the    great    inventive    genius    who  the  latter  connects    Olympus   with 

crave    the    start    to  Grecian    music  Kelrcna1,  as  well  as  Marsyas.     Ju- 

(Plutarcli,    i1>.    p.    1135—1141):     his  stin,  xi.  7 :    "Mida,  qui  ab    Orpheo 

music  was  employed  almost  entirely  sacrorum      solemnibus      initiatus, 

for   hymns   to    the   gods,   religious  Phrygiam  religionibus  implevit." 

worship,   the  Metroa  or  ceremonies  The    coins    of    Midaeion,    Kadi, 

in  honour  of  the  Great  Mother  (p.  and  3'rymnessus,  in  the  more  north- 

1140).     Compare  Clemen.   Alexand.  erly  portion    of  Phrygia,    bear  the 

Strom,  i.  p.  300.  impress  of  the  Phrygian  hero  Midas 

M^prJ'.';    may    perhaps   have    its  (Eckhel,  Doctrina  Kummorum  Vet. 

etymology  in  the  Karian  orLydian  iii.  p.  143-16^). 

language.      2vJ2-     was    in    Karian  3  Part  I.  ch.  xv. 

equivalent    to    T  i  •.:  o  •;    (see     Steph.  "  The  fragment  of  Hipponax  men- 

P>yz.  v.  2o'j'/Y£/.7)  :   Ma  was  one   of  tioning  an  eunuch  of  Lampsakus, 

the  various  names  of  Ehea  (Step)i.  ricli    and    well-fed,    reveals    to    us 

ISyz.     v.     M'ijTaypa).        The     word  the    Asiatic   habits,    and    probably 

would    have     boon     written     Map-  worship,  in  that  place  (Fragm.  26, 

'rjou  by  an  JEolic  Greel:.  ed.  Bergk):  — 

Marsyas    is    represented    by    To- 


216  HISTOJBY  OF  GEEECE.  PAKT  II. 

— passed  to  the  Greek  composers.  Its  introduction  is 
coseval  with  the  earliest  facts  respecting  Grecian  music, 
and  must  have  taken  place  during  the  first  century  of  the 
recorded  Olympiads.  In  the  Homeric  poems  we  find  no 
allusion  to  it,  but  it  may  probably  have  contributed  to 
stimulate  that  development  of  lyric  and  elegiac  composi- 
tion which  grew  up  among  the  post-homeric  ^olians  and 
lonians,  to  the  gradual  displacement  of  the  old  epic.  An- 
other instance  of  the  fusion  of  Phrygians  with  Greeks  is 
to  be  found  in  the  religious  ceremonies  of  Kyzikus,  Kius, 
and  Prusa,  on  the  southern  and  south-eastern  coasts  of  the 
Propontis.  At  the  first  of  the  three  places,  the  worship 
of  the  Great  Mother  of  the  Gods  was  celebrated  with  much 
solemnity  on  the  hill  of  Dindymon,  bearing  the  same  name 
as  that  mountain  in  the  interior,  near  Pessinus,from  whence 
Cybele  derived  her  principal  surname  of  Dindymene.1 
The  analogy  between  the  Kretan  and  Phrygian  religious 
practices  has  been  often  noticed,  and  confusion  occurs  not 
unfrequently  between  Mount  Ida  in  Krete  and  the  moun- 
tain of  the  same  name  in  the  Troad;  while  the  Teukrians 
of  Gergis  in  the  Troad — who  were  not  yet  Hellenised  even 
at  the  time  of  the  Persian  invasion,  and  who  were  affirmed 
by  the  elegiac  poet  Kallinus  to  have  immigrated  from 
Krete — if  they  were  not  really  Phrygians,  differed  so  little 
from  them  as  to  be  called  such  by  the  poets. 

The  Phrygians  are  celebrated  by  Herodotus  for  the 
Character  abundance  both  of  their  flocks  and  their  agri- 
of  Phry-  cultural  produce.2  The  excellent  wool  for  which 
flans'  and  Miletus  was  always  renowned  came  in  part  from 
Mysians.  fne  upper  valley  of  the  river  Maeauder,  which 
they  inhabited.  He  contrasts  them  in  this  respect  with 
the  Lydians,  among  whom  the  attributes  and  capacities  of 
persons  dwelling  in  cities  are  chiefly  brought  to  our  view : 
much  gold  and  silver,  retail  trade,  indigenous  games,  un- 
chastity  of  young  women,  yet  combined  with  thrift  and  in- 
dustry.3 Phrygian  cheese  and  salt-provisions — Lydian  un- 
guents,4 carpets  and  coloured  shoes — acquired  notoriety. 


CHAP.  XVI.       PHRYGIANS,  LYDIANS,  MYSIANS.  217 

Both  Phrygians  and  Lydians  are  noticed  by  Greek  authors 
subsequent  to  the  establishment  of  the  Persian  empire  as 
a  people  timid,  submissive,  industrious,  and  useful  as  slaves 
— an  attribute  not  ascribed  to  the  Mysians,  *  who  are  usually 
described  as  brave  and  hardy  mountaineers,  difficult  to 
hold  in  subjection:  nor  even  true  respecting  the  Lydians,, 
during  the  earlier  times  anterior  to  the  complete  overthrow 
of  Croesus  by  Cyrus;  for  they  were  then  esteemed  for  their 
warlike  prowess.  Nor  was  the  different  character  of  these 
two  Asiatic  people  yet  effaced  even  in  the  second  century 
after  the  Christian  aera.  For  the  same  Mysians,  who  in 
the  time  of  Herodotus  and  Xenophon  gave  so  much  trouble 
to  the  Persian  satraps,  are  described  by  the  rhetor  Aris- 
teides as  seizing  and  plundering  his  property  at  Laneion 
near  Hadriani — while  on  the  contrary  he  mentions  the 
Phrygians  as  habitually  coming  from  the  interior  towards 
the  coast  regions  to  do  the  work  of  the  olive-gathering.2 
During  the  times  of  Grecian  autonomy  and  ascendency, 
in  the  fifth  century  B.C.,  the  conception  of  a  Phrygian  or  a 
Lydian  was  associated  in  the  Greek  mind  with  ideas  of 
contempt  and  servitude,3  to  which  unquestionably  these 
Asiatics  became  fashioned,  since  it  was  habitual  with  them 
under  the  Roman  empire  to  sell  their  own  children  into 

Alexis    ap.    Athense.   iii.    75:    some  xxv.  p.  318).  About  the  Phrygians, 

Phrygians  however  had  never  seen  Aristeides,  Orat.  xlvi.  p.  303,    TUJV 

a    fig-tree    (Cicero    pro    Flacco,    c.  8e  TtXouaiouv  Ivsxa   eU  TTJV   Onspoptav 

17).  d^alpo'Jaiv,     <I>aep     oi     Opoyj;    TU>V 

Carpets    of    Sardis    (Athena;,    v.  eXatuv  evsxa  TTJS  auXXoYTj?- 

197)  :    cp'jtvixiSsi;  2«p6iavixat  (Plato,  The    declamatory    prolixities    of 

Comicus  ap.   Athena;,   ii.  48) ;    'Asi  Aristeides    offer    little    reward    to 

eiXojjL'jpov    Tiav    TO     2ip3siov     fives  the  reader  except  these  occasional 

(Alexis  ap.  Athena;,  xv.  p.  691,  and  valuable     evidences     of    existing 

again  ib.  p.    C90) ;    IloOa;    6s  fl&lxi-  custom. 

Xo?  (idaSXir)?  exaX'j::7s  AuSiov   xaXov  3    Hermippus    ap.  Athena;,    i.    p. 

IpY'JV      (Sappho,      Fragm.     54.     cd.  27.   'AvSpiroS'    EX   <J>prjYic<?,  &c.,  the 

Schneidewin;  Bchol.  Aristoph.  Pac.  saying    ascribed    to     Sokrates    in 

1174).  Lilian,  V.  H.  x.  14  ;  Euripid.  Alcest. 

1  Xenophon,  Anabas.  i.  6,  7;  iii.  C91 ;   Xenophon,   Agesilaus,    i.   21; 
2,  23;  Memorab.  iii.  5,  26,  dxovcis-  Strabo,  vii.  p.304  ;  Polyb.  iv.  38.  The 
T7.t  M'jaoi;  JEschyl.  Pers.  40,  dfipo-  Thracians  sold  their  children  into 
SlociTot  A'joot.  slavery — (Herod,  v.  0)as  the  Circas- 

2  Aristeid.  Orat.  xxvi.  p.  34G.  The  sians  at  present  (Clarke's    Travels. 
Xo'-pot:  "A-'Jo;  was  very  near  to  this  vol.  i.  p.  378). 

place  Laneion,  which  shows  the  AsO-oT^poc  Xayw  OpuYo?  was  a 
identity  of  the  religious  names  Greek  proverb  (Strabo.  i.  p.  SO: 
throughout  Lydia  and  Mysia  (Or.  compare  Cicero  pro  Flacco,  c.  27). 


218  HISTORY  OF  GKEECE.  PART  IL 

slavery1 — a  practice  certainly  very  rare  among  the  Greeks, 
even  when  they  too  had  become  confounded  among  the 
mass  of  subjects  of  imperial  Rome.  But  we  may  fairly 
assume  that  this  association  of  contempt  with  the  name 
of  a  Phrygian  or  a  Lydian  did  not  prevail  during  the  early 
period  of  Grecian  Asiatic  settlement,  or  even  in  the  time 
of  Alkman,  Himnermus,  or  Sappho,  down  to  600  B.C.  "We 
first  trace  evidence  of  it  in  a  fragment  of  Hipponax.  It 
began  with  the  subjection  of  Asia  Minor  generally,  first 
under  Croesus2  and  then  under  Cyrus,  and  with  the  senti- 
ment of  comparative  pride  which  grew  up  afterwards  in 
the  minds  of  European  Greeks.  The  native  Phrygian 
tribes  along  the  Propontis,  with  whom  the  Greek  colonists 
came  in  contact — Bebrykians,  Doliones,  Mygdonians,  &c. 
— seem  to  have  been  agricultural,  cattle-breeding,  and 
horse-breeding;  yet  more  vehement  and  warlike  than  the 
Phrygians  of  the  interior,  as  far  at  least  as  can  be  made  out 
\>y  their  legends.  The  brutal  but  gigantic  Amykus  son  of 
Poseidon,  chief  of  the  Bebrykians,  with  whom  Pollux  con- 
tends in  boxing — and  his  brother  Mygdon  to  whom  Hera- 
kles  is  opposed — are  samples  of  a  people  whom  the  Greek 
poets  considered  ferocious,  and  not  submissive;3  while  the 
celebrity  of  the  horses  of  Erichthonius,  Laomedon,  and 
Asius  of  Arisbe,  in  the  Iliad,  shows  that  horse-breeding 
was  a  distinguishing  attribute  of  the  region  of  Ida,  not  less 
in  the  mind  of  Homer  than  in  that  of  Virgil.4 

According  to  the  legend  of  the  Phrygian   town  of 
Gordium  on  the  river  Sangarius,  the  primitive  Phrygian 

1  Philostrat.   Vit.   Apollon.    viii.  <bp;)fx(i    (xsv    e;  MO.TJTOV    dXciTEU- 

7,  12,  p.  346.    The  slave-merchants  oov-a?. 

seem  to  have  visited  Thessaly,  and  '    Theocrit.   Idyll,    xxii.    47-133  ; 

to  have  bought  slaves  at  Pagasa;  ;  Apollon.  Khod.  i.  937-954 ;  ii.  5-140 ; 

these  were    either  Penests  sold  by  Valer.    Flaoc.   iv.    100;   Apollodor. 

their  masters  out  ofthe  country,  or  ii.  5,  9. 

perhaps  non-Greeks  procured  from  4  Iliad,    ii.  138;   xii.  97;  xx.   219; 

the  borderers  in  the  interior  (Ari-  Virgil,   Georgic.  iii.  270: — 

stoph.  Plutus,  |521;  Herrnippus  ap.  "Illas    ducit   amor    (equas)  trans 

Athena?  i.  p.  27.  Ai  IlaYaaai  606X00%  Gargara,   transque   sonantem 

y.yi  BTiy|A3TV<X5  7tapsy_oyai.  Ascanium,"  <fec. 

2  Phrygian  slaves  seem   to   have  Klausen(JEneas  und  diePenaten, 

been  numerous  at   Miletus    in   the  vol.  i.  pp.   52-56,    102-107)    has    put 

time    of    Hipponax,    Frag.    36,    ed.  together    with   great    erudition  all 

Bergk: —  the  legendary   indications  respect- 

Kal    TO'J;    oo).oixo'.K,    TJV    Xocpwjt,  ing  these  regions. 


CHAP.  XVI.  GORDIUS.— MIDAS.  21!) 

king  Gordius  was    originally  a  poor  husbandman,  upon 
the  yoke  of  whose  team,  as  he  one  day  tilled  p  . 
his  field,  an  eagle  perched  and  posted  himself.   Phrygian 
Astonished   at   this   portent,  he  consulted  the   £in8  or 
Telmissean  augurs  to  know  what  it  meant,  when   Gordius. 
a  maiden  of  the  prophetic  breed  acquainted  him 

.,      .     .,        ,  .        ,  r      A  ,      ..        ,    ,-"•    i  .      „       .-,         Midas. 

that  the  kingdom  was  destined  to  his  family. 
He  espoused  her,  and  the  offspring  of  the  marriage  was 
Midas.  Sedition  afterwards  breaking  out  among  the 
Phrygians,  they  were  directed  by  an  oracle,  as  the  only 
means  of  tranquillity,  to  choose  for  themselves  as  king  the 
man  whom  they  should  first  see  approaching  in  a  waggon. 
Gordius  and  Midas  happened  to  be  then  coming  into  the 
town  in  their  waggon,  and  the  crown  was  conferred  upon 
them.  Their  waggon,  consecrated  in  the  citadel  of  Gor- 
dium  to  Zeus  Basileus,  became  celebrated  from  the  in- 
soluble knot  whereby  the  yoke  was  attached,  and  from  the 
severance  of  it  afterwards  by  the  sword  of  Alexander  the 
Great.  Whosoever  could  untie  the  knot,  to  him  the  king- 
dom of  Asia  was  portended,  and  Alexander  was  the  first 
whose  sword  both  fulfilled  the  condition  and  realised  the 
prophecy. J 

Of  these  legendary  Phrygian  names  and  anecdotes  we 
can  make  no  use  for  historical  purposes.  Weknownothing 
of  any  Phrygian  kings,  during  the  historical  times;  but 
Herodotus  tells  us  of  a  certain  Midas  son  of  Gordius,  king 
of  Phrygia,  who  was  the  first  foreign  sovereign  that  ever 
sent  offerings  to  the  Delphian  temple,  anterior  to  Gyges  of 
Lydia.  This  Midas  dedicated  to  the  Delphian  god  the 
throne  onwhich  he  was  in  the  habit  of  sitting  to  administer 
justice.  Chronologers  have  referred  the  incident  to  a 
Phrygian  king  Midas  placed  by  Eusebius  in  the  tenth 
Olympiad — a  supposition  which  there  are  no  means  of 
verifying. 2  There  may  have  been  a  real  Midas  king  of 
Gordium;  but  that  there  was  ever  any  great  united  Phry- 
gian monarchy,  we  have  not  the  least  ground  for  supposing. 
The  name  Gordius  son  of  Midas  again  appears  in  the  legend 

1  Arrian,  ii.  3;  Justin,  xi.  7.  self   (Plutarch,    Casar,    9;    Hygin. 

According  to  another  tale,  Midas      fab.  191), 

was  sou  of  the  Great  Mother   her-         -  Herodot.  i.  14,  with  Wesseling's 

note. 


220  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAST  II. 

of  Croesus  and  Solon  told  by  Herodotus,  as  part  of  the  ge- 
nealogy of  the  ill-fated  prince  Adrastus :  here  too  it  seems 
to  represent  a  legendary  rather  than  a  real  person.1 

Of  the  Lydians  I  shall  speak  in  the  following  chapter. 

1  Herodot.  i.  34, 


CHAP.  XVII.  LYDIANS.  221 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

LYDIANS.— MEDES.— CIMMERIANS.— SCYTHIANS. 

THE  early  relations  between  the  Lydians  and  the  Asiatic 
Greeks,  anterior  to  the  reign  of  Gyges,  are  not  ^  dians_ 
better  known  to  us  than  those  of  the  Phrygians,    their  music 
Their  native  music  became  partly  incorporated  and  iustru- 

•j.i     j.t        f^         ^  j.1       TVL          •  •  ments. 

with  the  (jreek,  as  the  Phrygian  music  was;  to 
which  it  was  very  analogous,  both  in  instruments  and  in 
character,  though  the  Lydian  mode  was  considered  by  the 
ancients  as  more  effeminate  and  enervating.  The  flute  was 
used  alike  by  Phrygians  and  Lydians,  passing  from  both  of 
them  to  the  Greeks.  But  the  magadis  or  pectis  (a  harp 
with  sometimes  as  many  as  twenty  strings,  sounded  two 
together  in  octave)  is  said  to  have  been  borrowed  by  the 
Lesbian  Terpander  from  the  Lydian  banquets. l  The  flute- 
players  who  acquired  esteem  among  the  early  Asiatic 
Greeks  were  often  Phrygian  or  Lydian  slaves;  and  even 
the  poet  Alkman,  who  gained  for  himself  permanent  renown 
among  the  Greek  lyric  poets,  though  not  a  slave  born  at 
Sardis,  as  is  sometimes  said,  was  probably  of  Lydian  ex- 
traction. 

It  has  been  already  mentioned  that  Homer  knows 
nothing  of  Lydia  or  Lydians.  He  names  Mreonians   T]      and 
in  juxtaposition  with  Karians,  and  we  are  told   their 
by  Herodotus  that  the  people  once  called  Mseo-   gardi^un- 
nian  received  the  new  appellation  of  Lydian   known  to 
from  Lydus  son  of  Atys.     Sardis,  whose  almost  Homer- 
inexpugnable  citadel  was  situated  on  a  precipitous  rock 
on  the  northern  side  of  the  ridge  of  Tmolus,  overhanging 
the  plain  of  the  river  Hermus,  was  the  capital  of  the  Ly- 
dian kings.    It  is  not  named  by  Homer,  though  he  mentions 
both  Tmolus  and  the  neighbouring  Gygsean  lake:  the  forti- 
iication  of  it  was  ascribed  to  an  old  Lydian  king  named 
Aleles,  and  strange  legends  were  told  concerning  it.2    Its 

1  Pindar,  ap.  Athena;,  xiv.  p.  C35  ;      p.  G2fi;  Pausan.  iv.  5,  4, 
compare  Tclestes  ap.  Athena?,  xiv.         2  Herodot.  i.  81. 


222  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAKT  II. 

possessors  were  enriched  by  the  neighbourhood  of  the  river 
Paktolus,  which  flowed  down  from  Mount  Tmolus  towards 
the  Hermus,  bringing  considerable  quantities  of  gold  in  its 
sands.  To  this  cause  historians  often  ascribed  the  abundant 
treasure  belonging  to  Croesus  and  his  predecessors.  But 
Croesus  possessed,  besides,  other  mines  near  Pergamus ; l 
while  another  cause  of  wealth  is  also  to  be  found  in  the 
general  industry  of  the  Lydian  people,  which  the  circum- 
stances mentioned  respecting  them  seem  to  attest.  They 
were  the  first  people  (according  to  Herodotus)  who  ever 
carried  on  retail  trade;  and  the  first  to  coin  money  of  gold 
and  silver. 2 

The  archaeologists  of  Sardis  in  the  time  of  Herodotus 
Early  Ly-  (a  century  after  the  Persian  conquest)  carried 
dian  kings,  very  far  back  the  antiquity  of  the  Lydian 
monarchy,  by  means  of  a  series  of  names  which  are  in  great 
part,  if  not  altogether,  divine  and  heroic.  Herodotus  gives 
us  first  Manes,  Atys,  and  Lydus — next  a  line  of  kings  be- 
ginning with  Herakles,  twenty-two  in  number,  succeeding 
each  other  from  father  to  son  and  lasting  for  505  years. 
The  first  of  this  line  of  Herakleid  kings  was  Agron,  des- 
cended from  Herakles  in  the  fourth  generation — Herakles, 
Alkseus,  Ninus,  Belus,  and  Agron.  The  twenty-second 
prince  of  this  Herakleid  family,  after  an  uninterrupted 
succession  of  father  and  son  during  505  years,  was  Kan- 
daules, called  by  the  Greeks  Myrsilus  the  son  of  Myrsus. 
With  him  the  dynasty  ended,  and  ended  by  one  of  those 
curious  incidents  which  Herodotus  has  narrated  with  his 
usual  dramatic,  yet  unaffected,  emphasis.  It  was  the  divine 
will  that  Kandaules  should  be  destroyed,  and  he  lost  his 
rational  judgement.  Having  a  wife  the  most  beautiful 
woman  in  Lydia,  his  vanity  could  not  be  satisfied  without 
exhibiting  her  naked  person  to  Gyges  son  of  Daskylus,  his 
principal  confidant  and  the  commander  of  his  guards.  In 
spite  of  the  vehement  repugnance  of  Gyges,  this  resolution 
was  executed;  but  the  wife  became  aware  of  the  inexpiable 
affront,  and  took  her  measures  to  avenge  it.  Surrounded 
by  her  most  faithful  domestics,  she  sent  for  Gyges,  and 
Kandauigs  addressed  him, — "Two  ways  are  now  open  to 
and  Gyges.  thee,  Gryges:  take  which  thou  wilt.  Either  kill 
Kandaules,  wed  me,  and  acquire  the  kingdom  of  Lydia — or 

1  Aristot.  Mirabil.  Auscuitat.  52.          2  Herodot.  i.  94. 


CHAP.  XVIL  LEGEND  OF  GYGES.  223 

else  thou  must  at  once  perish.  For  thou  hast  seen  for- 
bidden things,  and  either  thou,  or  the  man  who  contrived 
it  for  thee,  must  die."  Gyges  in  vain  entreated  to  be  spared 
so  terrible  an  alternative:  he  was  driven  to  the  option,  and 
he  chose  that  which  promised  safety  to  himself.  *  The 
queen,  planting  him  in  ambush  behind  the  bed-chamber 
door,  in  the  very  spot  where  Kandaules  had  placed  him  as 
a  spectator,  armed  him  with  a  dagger,  which  he  plunged 
into  the  heart  of  the  sleeping  king. 

Thus  ended  the  dynasty  of  the  Herakleids;  yet  there 
was  a  large  party  in  Lydia  who  indignantly   The  Merm- 
resentedthe  death  of  Kandaules,  and  took  arms   nad  dy- 
against  Gyges.    A  civil  war  ensued,  which  both   cg^  !"c" 
parties   at   length   consented  to  terminate  by   the  Hera- 
reference  to  the  Delphian  oracle.   The  decision   kleid- 
of  that  holy  referee  being  given  in   favour    of   Gyges, 
the  kingdom  of  Lydia  passed  to  his  dynasty,  called  the 
Mermnadse.     But  the  oracle  accompanied  its  verdict  with 
an  intimation  that  in  the  person  of  the  fifth  descendant  of 
Gyges,  the  murder  of  Kandaules  would  be  avenged — a 
warning  of  which  (Herodotus  innocently  remarks)  no  one 
took  any  notice,  until  it  was  actually  fulfilled  in  the  person 
of  Croesus.2 

In  this  curious  legend,  which  marks  the  commencement 
of  the  dynasty  called  Mermnada?,  the  historical  kings  of 
Lydia — we  cannot  determine  how  much,  or  whether  any 
part,  is  historical.  Gyges  was  probably  a  real  man,  con- 
temporary with  the  youth  of  the  poet  Archilochus;  but  the 
name  Gyges  is  also  an  heroic  name  in  Lydiaii  archaeology. 
He  is  the  eponymus  of  the  Gygaean  lake  near  Sardis.  Of 
the  many  legends  told  respecting  him,  Plato  has  L,CfTen(1  Of 
preserved  one,  according  to  which,  Gyges  is  a  Gyges  in 
mere  herdsman  of  the  king  of  Lydia:  after  a  Plato- 
terrible  storm  and  earthquake  he  sees  near  him  a  chasm  in 
the  earth,  into  which  he  descends  and  finds  a  vast  horse 
of  brass,  hollow  and  partly  open,  wherein  there  lies  a 
gigantic  corpse  with  a  golden  ring.  This  ring  he  carries 
away,  and  discovers  unexpectedly  that  it  possesses  the 
miraculous  property  of  rendering  him  invisible  at  pleasure. 

1  Herodot.    i.   13.     aipss-at   syTot;     Herodotus. 

itspulvxi— a  phrase  to  which  Gibbon         2  Herodot.  i.  13.  TO'JTOU  TO}  I-EO? 
lias    ascribed    an     intended     irony 
which  it  is  difficult  to  discover  in 


224  HISTOEY  OP  GREECE.  JART  n. 

Being  sent  on  a  message  to  the  king  he  makes  the  magic 
ring  available  to  his  ambition.  He  first  possesses  himself 
of  the  person  of  the  queen,  then  with  her  aid  assassinates 
the  king,  and  finally  seizes  the  sceptre.1 

The  legend  thus  recounted  by  Plato,  thoroughly 
Oriental  in  character,  has  this  one  point  in  common  with 
the  Herodotean,  that  the  adventurer  Gyges,  through  the 
Feminine  favour  and  help  of  the  queen,  destroys  the  king 
influence  and  becomes  his  successor.  Feminine  preference 
through  the  an<^  patronage  are  the  cause  of  his  prosperity. 
legenSs  of  Klausen  has  shown2  that  this  "aphrodisiac  in- 
Asia  Minor.  fluence»  runs  in  a  peculiar  manner  through  many 
of  the  Asiatic  legends,  both  divine  and  heroic.  The 
Phrygian  Midas  or  Grordius  (as  before  recounted)  acquires 
the  throne  by  marriage  with  a  divinely  privileged  maiden: 
the  favour,  shown  by  Aphrodite  to  Anchises,  confers  upon 
the  -^Eneadse  sovereignty  in  the  Troad:  moreover  the  great 
Phrygian  and  Lydian  goddess  PJiea  or  Cybele  has  always 
her  favoured  and  self-devoting  youth  Atys,  who  is  worship- 
ped along  with  her,  and  who  serves  as  a  sort  of  mediator 
between  her  and  mankind.  The  feminine  element  appears 
predominant  in  Asiatic  mythes.  Midas,  Sardanapalus, 
Sandon,  and  even  Herakles,3  are  described  as  clothed  in 
women's  attire  and  working  at  the  loom;  while  on  the  other 
hand  the  Amazons  and  Semiramis  achieve  great  con- 
quests. 

Admitting  therefore  the  historical  character  of  the 
Lydian  kings  called  Mermnadse,  beginning  with  Gryges 
about  71 5-(i90  B.C.,  and  ending  with  Croesus,  we  find  nothing 
but  legend  to  explain  to  us  the  circumstances  which  led  to 
their  accession.  Still  less  can  we  make  out  anything 
respecting  the  preceding  kings,  or  determine  whether  Lydia 
was  ever  in  former  times  connected  with  or  dependent 
upon  the  kingdom  of  Assyria,  as  Ktesias  affirmed.4  Nor 
can  we  certify  the  reality  or  dates  of  the  old  Lydian  kings 
namedby  thenative  historian  Xanthus, — Alkimus,  Kambles, 

'Plato,  Republ.  ii.  p.  360;  Cicero,  the  Rheinisch.  Museum  fur  Plrilo- 

Offic.  iii.  9.  Plato  (x.  p.  612)  com-  logie,  Jahrgang  iii.  p.  22-38  ;  also 

pares  very  suitably  the  ring  of  Movers,  Die  Phb'nizier,  ch.  xii.  p. 

Gyges  to  the  helmet  of  Had&s.  452-470. 

2  See  Klausen,  JEneas  und  die  i  Diodor.  ii.  2.  Niehuhr  also 

Penatcn,  pp.  34,  110,  &c. :  compare  conceives  that  Lydia  was  in  early 

Menke,  Lydiaca,  ch.  8,  9.  days  a  portion  of  the  Assyrian 

2  See  the  article  of  0.  Muller  in  empire  (Kleine   Schriften,    p.   371). 


C3AP.  XVII.  GYGES.  225 

Adramytes.  *    One  piece  of  valuable  information,  however, 
we  acquire  from  Xanthus — the  distribution  of  Distribu- 
Lydia  into  two  parts,  Lydia  proper  and  Tor-   tion  of 
rhebia,  which  he  traces  to  the  two  sons  of  Atys   tJ0  £,Jt8— 
— Lydus  and  Torrhebus;  he  states  that  the  dialect    Lydia  and 
of  the  Lydians  and  Torrhebians  differed  much   a 
in  the  same  degree  as  that  of  Doric  and  Ionic  Greeks.2 
Torrhebia   appears   to   have   included  the   valley  of  the 
Kai'ster,  south  of  Tmolus,  and  near  to  the  frontiers  of 
Karia. 

With  Gyges,  the  Mermnad  king,  commences  the  series 
of  aggressions  from  Sardis  upon  the  Asiatic  proceed. 
Greeks,  which  ultimately  ended  in  their  sub-  legs  of 
jection.  Gyges  invaded  the  territories  of  Miletus  Gyses- 
and  Smyrna,  and  even  took  the  city  (probably  not  the 
citadel)  of  Kolophon.  Though  he  thus  however  made  war 
upon  the  Asiatic  Greeks,  he  was  munificent  in  his  donations 
to  the  Grecian  god  of  Delphi.  His  numerous  as  well  as 
costly  offerings  were  seen  in  the  temple  by  Herodotus. 
Elegiac  compositions  of  the  poet  Mimnermus  celebrated 
the  valour  of  the  Smyrnseans  in  their  battle  with  Gyges.3 
"We  hear  also,  in  a  story  which  bears  the  impress  of  Lydian 
more  than  of  Grecian  fancy,  of  a  beautiful  youth  of  Smyrna 
named  Magnes.  to  whom  Gyges  was  attached,  and  who 
incurred  the  displeasure  of  his  countrymen  for  having  com- 
posed verses  in  celebration  of  the  victories  of  the  Lydians 
over  the  Amazons.  To  avenge  the  ill-treatment  received 
by  this  youth,  Gyges  attacked  the  territory  of  Magnesia 
(probably  Magnesia  on  Sipylus)  and  after  a  considerable 
struggle  took  the  city.4 

How  far  the  Lydian  kingdom  of  Sardis  extended  du- 
ring the  reign  of  Gyges,  we  have  no  means  of  ascertaining. 
Strabo  alleges  that  the  whole  Troad5  belonged  to  him,  and 
that  the  Greek  settlement  of  Abydus  on  the  Hellespont 
was  established  by  the  Milesians  only  under  his  auspices. 
On  what  authority  this  statement  is  made,  we  are  not  told, 
and.  it  appears  doubtful,  especially  as  so  many  legendary 


T.  "lVor,3o;.    The  whole  gcnealocry 
given     by    Dio.iysiiu    is    probably 
VOL.  III. 


1  II.  rod.  i.  14;  Pausan.  ix.  29.  2. 


4    Mkolaus    Damasc.    p.    52.    ed. 


226  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

anecdotes  are  connected  with  the  name  of  Gyges.  This 
prince  reigned  (according  to  Herodotus)  thirty-eight  years, 
and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Ardys,  who  reigned  forty- 
nine  years  (about  B.C.  678-629).  We  learn  that 
^cTssoT3  • he  attacked  the  Milesians,  and  took  the  Ionic 
Ardys.  city  of  Priene.  Yet  this  possession  cannot  have 
been  maintained,  for  the  city  appears  afterwards 
as  autonomous.1  His  long  reign  however  was  signalised 
by  two  events,  both  of  considerable  moment  to  the  Asia- 
tic Greeks;  the  invasion  of  the  Cimmerians — and  the  first 
approach  to  collision  (at  least  the  first  of  which  we  have 
any  historical  knowledge)  between  the  inhabitants  of  Ly- 
dia  and  those  of  Upper  Asia  under  the  Median  kings. 

It  is  affirmed  by  all  authors  that  the  Medes  were  ori- 
ginally numbered  among  the  subjects  of  the  great  Assyrian 
empire,  of  which  Nineveh  (or  Ninos  as  the 
™dSyMedes.  &reeks  calls  it)  was  the  chief  town,  and  Baby- 
lon one  of  the  principal  portions.  That  the  po- 
pulation and  power  of  these  two  great  cities  (as  well  as  of 
several  others  which  the  Ten  Thousand  Greeks  in  their 
march  found  ruined  and  deserted  in  those  same  regions)  is 
of  high  antiquity,2  there  is  no  room  for  doubting.  But  it 
is  noway  incumbent  upon  a  historian  of  Greece  to  entangle 
himself  in  the  mazes  of  Assyrian  chronology,  or  to  weigh 
the  degree  of  credit  to  which  the  conflicting  statements  of 
Herodotus,  Ktesias,  Berosus,  Abydenus,  &c.  are  entitled. 
With  the  Assyrian  empire3 — which  lasted,  according  to 
Herodotus,  520  years,  according  to  Ktesias,! 360  years — 
the  Greeks  have  no  ascertainable  connection.  The  city  of 
Nineveh  appears  to  have  been  taken  by  the  Medes  a  little 

1  Tlerodot.  i.  15.  bylon  ;  then  1453  years  down  to  the 
•  Xenopbou.  Anabas.  ili.  4,  7;  reign  ofPhul  king  of  Assyria  (Bo- 
10,  11.  rosi  Fragmenta,  p.  8,  ed.  Richteri. 
1  Herodot.  i.  95;  Ktesias,  Fragm.  Air.  Clinton  sets  forth  the  chief 
Assyr.  xiii.  p.  419,  ed.  Biibr. ;  Dio-  statements  and  discrepancies  re- 
dor,  ii.  21.  Ktesiaa  gives  30  gene-  specting  Assyrian  chronology  in 
rations  of  Assyrian  kings  from  Xi-  his  Appendix,  c.  4.  But  the  sup- 
nyas  to  Sardanapalus :  Velloius,  positions  to  which  he  resorts,  in 
33:  Eusebius,  35:  Syncellus,  40:  order  to  bring  them  into  harmony, 
Castor,  27:  Cephalion,  23.  See  13a.hr  appear  to  me  uncertified  and  gra- 
•  dCtesiam,  p.  42--'.  The  Babylonian  tuitous. 

chronology  of  Berosus  (a  priest  of  Compare   the   different,    but  not 

Belus,  about  2SO  B.C.)  gave  S6  kings  more  successful  track  followed  by 

and  31, COO  years    from   the   deluge  Larcher  (Chronologic,  o.  3 ,  p.  145 

to   the  JUedian  occupation  of  Ba-  —157). 


CHAP.  XVII.  ASSYRIANS  OF  NINEVEH.  227 

before  the  year  600  B.C.  (insofar  as  the  chronology  can  be 
made  out),  and  exercised  no  influence  upon  Grecian  affairs. 
Those  inhabitants  of  Upper  Asia,  with  whom  the  early 
Greeks  had  relation,  were  the  Medes,  and  the  Assyrians 
or  Chaldaeans  of  Babylon — both  originally  subject  to  the 
Assyrians  of  Nineveh — both  afterwards  acquiring  inde- 
pendence— and  both  ultimately  embodied  in  the  Persian 
empire.  At  what  time  either  of  them  became  first  in- 
dependent, we  do  not  know.1  The  astronomical  canon, 
which  gives  a  list  of  kings  of  Babylon  begianing  with 

1  Here  again  both  Larcher  and  is  limited  liy  Scripture  to  B.C.  711. 
Mr.  Clinton  represent  the  time,  at  Again,  p.  261,  he  says,  respecting 
which  the  Medes  made  themselves  the  four  Median  kings  mentioned 
independent  of  Assyria,  asperfectly  by  Eusebius  before  De'iokes —  "If 
ascertained,  though  Larcher  places  they  existed  at  all,  they  governed 
it  in  748  B.C.  ,  and  Mr.  Clinton  in  Media  during  the  empire  of  the 
711  B.C.  "L'epoque  ne  me  parolt  Assyrians,  as  we  Icnow  from  Scrip- 
pas  douteuse"  (Chronologic,  c.  iv.  hire."  And  again,  p.  280  —  "The 
p.  157),  says  Larcher.  Mr.  Clinton  precise  date  of  the  termination  (of 
treats  the  epoch  of  711  B.C.  for  this  the  Assyrian  empire)  in  B.C.  711  is 
same  event,  as  fixed  upon  "the  given  by  Scripture,  with  which  He- 
aiithority  of  Scripture,"  and  roa-  rodotus  agrees,"  &c. 
sons  upon  it  in  more  than  one  Mr.  Clinton  here  treats,  more 
place  as  a  fact  altogether  indispu-  than  once,  the  revolt  of  the  Medes 
table  (Appendix,  c.  iii.  p.  2,r>9) :  as  fixed  to  the  year  711  B.C.  by 
;:\Ve  may  collect  from  Scripture  Scripture  •  but  he  produces  no  pas- 
that  the  Medes  did  not  become  in-  sage  of  Scripture  to  justify  his 
tlepende.it  (ill  after  the  death  of  allegation:  and  the  passage  which 
Sennacherib  ;  and  accordingly  Jo-  lie  cites  from  .Tosephus  alludes, 
scphus  (Ant.  x.  2),  having  related  not  to  the  Median  revolt,  but  to 
the  death  of  this  king  and  the  mi-  the  destruction  of  the  Assyrian 
i-aeulous  recovery  of  llczekiah  from  empire  by  the  Medes.  Herodotus 
sickness,  adds — ii  TO  •!>•:<»  -<]i  X.I1''1''.'  represents  the  Medes  as  revolting 
a'j-ii'i'^  -.rt-i  T'.ov 'Aaj'jpiojv  'J.^yr^i  u-&  from  the  Assyrian  empire,  and 
Mr/.io-/  •/.7.T7/.'j',r/(ai.  But  the  deatli  maintaining  their  independence  for 
of  Sennacherib ,  as  will  be  shown  some  time  (undefined  in  extent) 
hereafter,  is  determined  to  the  be-  before  the  election  of  De'iokes  as 
L'inning  of  711  i;.c.  The  Median  king:  but  he  gives  us  no  means  of 
revolt,  then,  did  not  occur  before  determining  the  date  of  the  Median 
R.C.  711;  which  refutes  Couringius,  revolt.  "When  Mr.  Clinton  says  (p. 
who  raises  it  to  B.C.  715,  and  Val-  2S1',  Xote  0.)  —"I  suppose  Herodo- 
ckenaer,  who  raises  it  to  u.c.  741.  tus  to  plr.ce  the  revolt  of  the  Medes 
Herodotus  indeed  implies  an  inter-  in  Olymp.  17.  2,  since  ho  places  the 
val  of  some  space  between  tlio  Accession  of  D.Vi'okes  in  Olymp. 
revolt  of  the  Modes  and  the  eloc-  17.  3," — this  is  a  conjecture  of  his 
tiou  of  Deio'.;i"'S  to  bo  king.  ]3ut  own:  and  the  narrative  of  Hero- 
thesis  anui  7. 0,73t/.E'jToi  could  not  do  tus  seems  plainly  to  ii.ip 


228                                   HISTORY  OF  GKEECB.  PART  II. 

what  is  called  the  sera  of  Nabonassar,  or  747  B.C.,  does  not 
prove  at  what  epoch  these  Babylonian  chiefs  became  in- 

two  events.  Diodorus  gives  the  flourishing  and  powerful  in  its  own 
same  interval  as  lasting  for  many  territory.  Herodotus  further  con- 
generations  (Diod.  ii.  32).  ceives  Nineveh  as  taken  by  Kya- 
We  know— both  from  Scripture  xarSs  the  Mede,  about  the  year 
and  from  the  Phoenician  annals,  600  B.C.,  without  any  mention  of 
as  cited  by  Josephus — that  the  Babylonians — on  the  contrary,  in 
Assyrians  of  Nineveh  were  power-  his  representation,  Nitokris  tha 
ful  conquerors  in  Syria,  Judrea,  queen  of  Babylon  is  afraid  of  the 
and  Phoenicia,  during  the  reigns  Medes  (i.  185),  partly  from  the 
of  Salmaneser  and  Sennacherib,  general  increase  of  their  power, 
The  statement  of  Josephus  further  but  especially  from  their  having 
implies  that  Media  was  subject  to  taken  Nineveh  (though  Mr.  Clinton 
Salmaneser,  who  took  the  Israelites  tells  us,  p.  275,  that  "Nineveh  was 
from  their  country  into  Media  and  destroyed  B.C.  606,  as  we  have  seen 
Persis,  and  brought  the  Cuthaeans  from  the  united  testimonies  of 
out  of  Media  and  Persis  into  the  the  Scripture  and  Herodotus,  Jy 
lands  of  the  Israelites  (Joseph,  ix.  the  Medes  and  Babylonians"). 
14,  1 ;  x.  9,  7).  We  know  farther  Construing  fairly  the  text  of 
that  after  Sennacherib,  the  Assy-  Herodotus,  it  will  appear  that  ho 
rians  of  Nineveh  are  no  more  conceived  the  relations  of  these 
mentioned  as  invaders  or  distur-  oriental  kingdoms  between  8JO  and 
bers  of  Syria  or  Judcea ;  the  Chal-  560  B.C.  differently  on  many  mate- 
dseans  or  Babylonians  become  then  rial  points  from  Ktesias,  or  Bero- 
the  enemies  whom  those  countries  sus,  or  Josephus.  And  he  himself 
have  to  dread.  Josephus  tells  us,  expressly  tells  us,  that  he  heard 
that  at  this  epoch  the  Assyrian  "four  different  tales"  even  respect- 
empire  was  destroyed  by  the  Medes  ing  Cyrus  (i.  95) — much  more 
— or,  as  he  says  in  another  place,  respect  ng  events  anterior  to  Cyrus 
by  the  Medes  and  Babylonians  by  mor;  than  a  century. 
(x.  2,  2 ;  x.  5,  1).  Here  is  good  The  chronology  of  the  Medes, 
evidence  for  believing  that  the  Babyloni  ins,  Lydians,  and  Greeks 
Assyrian  empire  of  Nineveh  sus-  in  Asia,  when  we  come  to  the  se- 
tained  at  this  time  a  great  shock  veuth  century  B.C.,  acquires  some 
and  diminution  of  power.  But  as  i.xed  points  which  give  us  assu- 
to  the  nature  of  this  diminution,  ranee  of  correctness  within  certain 
and  the  way  in  which  it  was  limits;  but  above  the  year  7(,0  B.C. 
brought  about,  it  appears  to  me  no  such  fixed  points  can  be  de- 
that  there  is  a  discrepancy  of  tected.  Wo  cannot  discriminate 
authorities  which  we  have  no  the  historical  from  the  mythical 
means  of  reconciling — Josephus  in  our  authorities — we  cannot  re- 
follows  the  same  view  as  Ktesias,  concile  them  with  each  other, 
of  the  destruction  of  the  empire  except  by  violent  changes  and 
of  Nineveh  by  the  Medes  and  Ba-  conjectures— nor  can  we  determine; 
bylonians  united,  while  Herodotus  which  of  them  ought  to  be  set 
conceives  successive  revolts  of  the  aside  in  favour  of  the  other.  Thq 
territories  dependent  upon  Nine-  names  and  dates  of  the  Babylonian 
veh,  beginning  with  that  of  the  kings  down  from  Nabonassar,  in 
Medes,  and  still  leaving  Nineveh  the  Canon  of  Ptolemy,  are  doubt- 


CHAP.  XVII.        MEDIANS— FIRST  KING  DEIOKES.  229 

dependent  of  Nineveh:  and  the  catalogue  of  Median  kings, 
which  Herodotus  begins  with  Deiokes,  about  709-711  B.C., 
is  commenced  by  Ktesias  more  than  a  century  earlier — 
moreover  the  names  in  the  two  lists  are  different  almost 
from  first  to  last. 

For  the  historian  of  Greece,  the  Medes  first  begin  to 
acquire  importance  about  656  B.C.,  under  a  king  whom 
First  Me-  Herodotus  calls  Phraortes,  son  of  Deiokes. 
.Han  king—  Respecting  Deiokes  himself,  Herodotus  re- 
Deiokes.  counts  to  us  how  he  came  to  be  first  chosen 
king.1  The  seven  tribes  of  Medes  dwelt  dispersed  in 
separate  villages,  without  any  common  authority,  and  the 
mischiefs  of  anarchy  were  painfully  felt  among  them. 
Deiokes,  having  acquired  great  reputation  in  his  own 
village  as  a  just  man,  was  invoked  gradually  by  all  the  ad- 
joining villages  to  settle  their  disputes.  As  soon  as  his 
efficiency  in  this  vocation,  and  the  improvement  which  he 
brought  about,  had  become  felt  throughout  all  the  tribes, 
he  artfully  threw  up  his  post  and  retired  again  into  pri- 
vacy,— upon  which  the  evils  of  anarchy  revived  in  a  man- 
ner more  intolerable  than  before.  The  Medes  had  now  no 
choice  except  to  elect  a  king.  The  friends  of  Deiokes  ex- 
patiated so  warmly  upon  his  virtues,  that  he  was  the  per- 
son chosen.2  The  first  step  of  the  new  king  was  to  exact 

less  authentic,  but  they  are  names  actions"  to  identify  the  kings :  but 

and    dates    only.      "When  we  come  unfortunately  the  times  are  marked 

to  apply  them  to  illustrate  real  or  only  by    the    succession    of   kings, 

supposed    matters    of  fact,    drawn  and    the    transactions    are   known 

from  other  sources,  they  onlycreate  only  by  statements   always  scanty 

a     new    embarrassment,     for    even  and  often  irreconcileable  with  each 

the  names  of  the  kings  as  reported  other.    So  that  our  means  of  iden- 

by  different  authors  do  not  agree,  tifying    the     kings    are    altogether 

and  Mr.  Clinton  informs  us  (p.  277;  insu  rlcient,  and  whoever  will  exa- 

— "In  tracing  the  identity  of  East-  mine  the  process  of   identification 

em      kings,      the     times     and     the  as    it     appears     in     Mr.     Clinton's 

transactions  are  better  guides  than  chapters,    will    see    that  it   is  in  a 

the  names;    for   these,   from  many  high  degree  arbitrary;    more    arbi- 

v.-ell-known  causes  (as  the  changes  trary  still  are  the  processes  which 

which     they     undergo    in    passing  lie  employs    for   bringing    about  a 

through  the  Greek    language,    and  forced  harmony  between  discrepant 

the    substitution    of  a  title    or   an  authorities.    Xor  is  Volney  (Oiro- 


chroiiological  results. 

i  Hcrodot.  i.  9G— inn. 
is    a     now     problem:     we     are     to          -  Herodot.  i.  97.  ib;  o'  j-'cy  So/so, 
employ     "the     times     and    trans- 


230  HISTOBY  OF  GREECE.  PAET  n. 

from  the  people  a  body  of  guards  selected  by  himself;  next, 
he  commanded  them  to  build  the  city  of  Ekbatana,  upon 
a  hill  surrounded  with  seven  concentric  circles  of  walls, 
his  own  palace  being  at  the  top  and  in  the  innermost.  He 
farther  organised  the  scheme  of  Median  despotism;  the 
king,  though  his  person  was  constantly  secluded  in  a  forti- 
fied palace,  inviting  written  communications  from  all  ag- 
grieved persons,  and  administering  to  each  the  decision 
or  the  redress  which  they  required — informing  himself, 
moreover,  of  passing  events  by  means  of  ubiquitous  spies 
and  officials,  who  seized  all  wrong-doers  and  brought  them 
to  the  palace  for  condign  punishment.  Deiokes  farther 
constrained  the  Medes  to  abandon  their  separate  abodes 
and  concentrate  themselves  in  Ekbatana,  from  whence  all 
the  powers  of  government  branched  out.  And  the  seven 
distinct  fortified  circles  in  the  town,  coinciding  as  they  do 
with  the  number  of  the  Median  tribes,  were  probably  con- 
ceived by  Herodotus  as  intended  each  for  one  distinct 
tribe — the  tribe  of  Deiokes  occupying  the  innermost  along 
with  himself.1 

Except  the  successive  steps  of  this  well-laid  political 
plan,  we  hear  of  no  other  acts  ascribed  to  Dei'okes.  He  is 
said  to  have  held  the  government  for  fifty-three  years,  and 
then  dying,  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Phraortes.  Of  the 
His  history  rea^  history  of  Deiokes,  we  cannot  be  said  to 
composed  know  anything.  For  the  interesting  narrative  of 
material*11  Herodotus,  of  which  the  above  is  an  abridgment, 
not  presents  to  us  in  all  its  points  Grecian  society 

Oriental.  an(j  j(jeagj  no^  Oriental.  It  is  like  the  discussion 
which  the  historian  ascribes  to  the  seven  Persian  conspira- 
tors, previous  to  the  accession  of  Darius — whether  they 
shall  adopt  an  oligarchical,  a  democratical,  or  a  monarchi- 
cal form  of  government;2  or  it  may  be  compared,  perhaps 
more  aptly  still,  to  the  Cyropeedia  of  Xenophon,  who  beauti- 

(jKxXiOTa  IXiYov  oi  TOO  A-/j'i6xsa)  cpiXot,  fs  a'u^pov,  &c.  and  ....&!  xatij- 
&c.  xoTTol  TS  xal  xotTijxoot  -^aav  <iva 

1  Herodot.   i.    98,   99,    100.     Olxo-      irajav  TTJV  X("Pri''  ~V  ^P7.s- 
8o(i7j9ivTU)V  6i  ::a-(TU)v,  XOJJJLOV  tovSs          2  Herodot.  iii.  80 — 82.    Herodotus, 

while  he  positively  asserts  the 
genuineness  of  these  deliberations, 
lets  drop  the  intimation  that  many 
of  his  contemporaries  regarded 
them  as  of  Grecian  coinage. 


CIIAP.  XVII.    MEDIANS— FIRST  KING  DEIOKES.  231 

fully  and  elaborately  works  out  an  ideal  such  as  Herodotus 
exhibits  in  brief  outline.  The  story  of  Dei'okes  describes 
what  may  be  called  the  despot's  progress,  first  as  candidate 
and  afterwards  as  fully  established.  Amidst  the  active 
political  discussion  carried  on  by  intelligent  Greeks  in  the 
days  of  Herodotus,  there  were  doubtless  many  stories  of 
the  successful  arts  of  ambitious  despots,  and  much  remark 
as  to  the  probable  means  conducive  to  their  success,  of  a 
nature  similar  to  those  in  the  Politics  of  Aristotle:  one  of 
ihese  tales  Herodotus  has  employed  to  decorate  the  birth 
and  infancy  of  the  Median  monarchy.  His  Dei'okes  begins 
like  a  clever  Greek  among  other  Greeks,  equal,  free  and 
disorderly.  He  is  athirst  for  despotism  from  the  beginning, 
r.nd  is  forward  in  manifesting  his  rectitude  and  justice,  "as 
beseems  a  candidate  for  command;" '  he  passes  into  a  despot 
by  the  public  vote,  and  receives  what  to  the  Greeks  was 
! he  great  symbol  and  instrument  of  such  transition,  a  per- 
sonal body-guard;  he  ends  by  organising  both  the  machi- 
nery and  the  etiquette  of  a  despotism  in  the  Oriental 
fashion,  like  the  Cyrus  of  Xenophon.2  Only  that  both 
these  authors  maintain  the  superiority  of  their  Grecian  ideal 
over  Oriental  reality,  by  ascribing  both  to  Dei'okes  and 

'Herodot.  i.  90.    'EovTOjv  5s  a>j-:o-  wipe  his  nose;    or    turn   round   to 

VIU.IDV  ri'jTtov  d-j7   77)v  yjziipov,  <I>3£  look  at  any  thing,  when   the  king 

C.'JTIC  E;  Tupocvvi8a<;  rcepiTp.Oov.     'A-jr]p  is    present    (Herodot.    i.    99 ;   Xen. 

EJ  TOICJI  M//>nat  £yEvs70    GO-SOS,   TU>  Cyrop.  viii.  1,  42).     Again,  viii.    3, 

<j;Jvo|j.7    yjv    ATJ'OOXTJS   ....    OJTOS    6  1,  about    the    pompous    procession 

•ir/ioxTjs,  Epoca'J^K   I'jpavvtoos,    s^oUs  of   Cyrus    when    lie    rides  out — xal 

*COl70ij     &C CQ    Si    07],     Ot3    (J/JEUJ-        Y^P    rj-'^~'fi'.    7'^C    £;sX7J£tO^    7j  <J£U.V07YJS 

j.'.ivoc  a&VTjv,  tO'J<;  7E  xai  5iX3ttOQ  r,v.  TjfJtlv  ooxsi  [j.ia  7wv  7S^vuw  Etv7t  7iJbv 
2  Compare  tlie  chapters  above  jj.E|irly_c(v7",^s-/(Uv,  7r,v  ipyyj-;  JJLTJ  £uxa77- 
/eferred  to  in  Herodotus  with  the  cpov^Tov  Eivcti— analogous  to  the 
eighth  book  of  the  Cyroprtdia,  Median  Dei'okes  in  Herodotus— 
wherein  Xenophon  describes  the 
manner  in  which  the  Median  des- 
potism was  put  in  effective  order 
and  turned  to  useful  account  by 
Cyrus,  especially  the  arrangements 
for  imposing  on  the  imagination 
of  his  subjects  (xaTayor^susiv,  viii. 
1,  40)  — (it  is  a  small  thing,  but 
marks  the  corrnato  plan  of  He- 
rodotus and  Xenophon),  Dei'okes  him  as  eyes  and  ears  throughout 
forbids  his  subjects  to  laugh  or  the  country  (Cyrop.  viii.  2.  12). 
spit  in  his  presence.  Cyrus  also  Deiiol-f.i  has  many  x7Ta3xo-Cii  arid 
directs  that  no  one  shall  spit,  or  xa-/,xoot  (Herodot.  16.). 


232  HISTORY  OF  GEEECE.  PABT  II. 

Cyrus  a  just,  systematic  and  laborious  administration,  such 
as  their  own  experience  did  not  present  to  them  in  Asia. 
Probably  Herodotus  had  visited  Ekbatana  (which  he  des- 
cribes and  measures  like  an  eye-witness,  comparing  its 
circuit  to  that  of  Athens),  and  there  heard  that  Deiokes 
was  the  builder  of  the  city,  the  earliest  known  Median  king, 
and  the  first  author  of  those  public  customs  which  struck 
him  as  peculiar,  after  a  revolt  from  Assyria:  the  interval 
might  then  be  easily  filled  up,  between  Median  autonomy 
and  Median  despotism,  by  intermediate  incidents  such  as 
would  have  accompanied  that  transition  in  the  longitude 
of  Greece.  The  features  of  these  inhabitants  of  Upper 
Asia,  for  a  thousand  years  forward  from  the  time  at  which 
we  are  now  arrived — under  the  descendants  of  Deiokes,  of 
Cyrus,  of  Arsakes,  and  of  Ardshir — are  so  unvarying, !  that 
we  are  much  assisted  in  detecting  those  occasions  in  which 
Herodotus  or  others  infuse  into  their  history  indigenous 
Grecian  ideas. 

Phraortes  (G58-636  B.  c.),  having  extended  the  dominion 
Phraortss.  °f  *ne  ^edes  over  a  large  portion  of  Upper  Asia, 
— Kyaxa-  and  conquered  both  the  Persians  and  several 
res'  other  nations,  was  ultimately  defeated  and  slain 

in  a  war  against  the  Assyrians,  of  Nineveh;  who,  though 
deprived  of  their  external  dependencies,  were  yet  brave 
and  powerful  by  themselves.  His  son  Kyaxares  (636-595 
B.  c.)  followed  up  wi,th  still  greater  energy  the  same  plans 
of  conquest,  and  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  who  intro- 
duced any  organisation  into  the  military  force — before  his 
time,  archers,  spearmen  and  cavalry  had  been  confounded 
together  indiscriminately,  until  this  monarch  established 
separate  divisions  for  each.  He  extended  the  Median  do- 
minion to  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Halys,  which  river 
afterwards,  by  the  conquests  of  the  Lydlan  king  Croesus, 
became  the  boundary  between  the  Lyclian  and  Median 
empires:  and  he  carried  on  war  for  six  years  with  Alyattes 
king  of  Lydia,  in  consequence  of  the  refusal  of  the  latter  to 

1     "\Vhen     the     Roman    emperor  in  the  school  of  Greek  and  Roman 

Claudius  sends  the  young  Parthian  politics, — "Addidit     pritcepta,     ut 

prince  Meherdates,    who  had  been  non  dominationem  ac   servos,    sc-i 

an    hostage    at    Rome,   to    occupy  rectorem   et  cives,  cogitaret :    cl  •- 

the    kingdom  which   the   Parthian  mentiamque   ac  justitiam,    quanto 

envoys  tendered  to  him,   he   gives  ignara  barbaris,  tanto   toli'ratiorr,- 

him  some  good  advice,   conceived  capesseret.''   (Tacit.  Annal.  xii.  11.) 


CHAP.  XVIL  PHRAORTES— KYAXAKES.  233 

give  up  a  band  of  Scythian  Nomads,  who  having  quitted 
the  territory  of  Kyaxares  in  order  to  escape  severities  with 
which  they  were  menaced,  had  sought  refuge  as  suppliants 
in  Lydia. l  The  war,  indecisive  as  respects  success,  was 
brought  to  its  close  by  a  remarkable  incident.  In  the  midst 
of  a  battle  between  the  Median  and  Lydian  armies  there 
happened  a  total  eclipse  of  the  sun,  which  occasioned  equal 
alarm  to  both  parties,  and  induced  them  immediately  to 
cease  hostilities.2  The  Kilikian  prince  Syennesis,  and  the 
Babylonian  prince  Labynetus  interposed  their  mediation, 
and  effected  a  reconciliation  between  Kyaxares  and  Aly- 
attes,  one  of  the  conditions  of  which  was,  that  Alyattes 
gave  his  daughter  Aryenis  in  marriage  to  Astyages  son 
of  Kyaxares.  In  this  manner  began  the  connection  between 
the  Lydian  and  Median  kings  which  afterwards  proved  so 
ruinous  to  Croesus.  It  is  affirmed  that  the  Greek  philo- 
sopher Thales  foretold  this  eclipse;  but  we  may  reasonably 
consider  the  supposed  prediction  as  not  less  apocryphal 
than  some  others  ascribed  to  him,  and  doubt  whether  at 
that  time  any  living  Greek  possessed  either  knowledge 
or  scientific  capacity  sufficient  for  such  a  calculation.3 

1  The  passage   of  such  Nomadic  Persia,  in  the  Journal  of  the  Geo- 

hordos    from    one    government    in  graphical  Society  of  London,  1837, 

the     East     to    another,     has    been  vol.   vii.  p.    240.    and    Carl    Hitter, 

always,    and  is   even  down   to  the  Erdkunde  von  Asien,  "\Vest-Asiun, 

present   day,    a   frequent  cause   of  Band  ii.    Abtheilung  ii.  Abschnitt 

dispute      between      the      different  ii.  sect.  8.  p.  387. 

governments  :     they    are    valuable  2  Herodot.  i.  74—103. 

both  as  tributaries  and  as  soldiers.  3  Compare     the    analogous    caso 

The     Turcoman      Hats      (so     these  of  the    prediction    of   the    coming 

Komadic  tribes  are  now  called)  in  olive     crop      ascribed      to      Thales 

the  north-east  of  Persia  frequently  (Aristot.  Polit.  i.    4,  5  ;    Cicero    Do 

pass    backwards    and   forwards,    as  Divinat.  i.  3).      Anaxagoras    is   as- 

tlieir    convenience    suits,   from  tho  sorted   to    have    predicted    the  fall 

Persian   territory    to     the    Usbcks  of  an  aerolithe  (Aristot.  Meteorol. 

of  Khiva    and   Bokhara:    wars  be-  i.  7;  Pliny,    H.  N.  ii.  58;  Plutarch, 

tween  Persia  and  Kussia  have  been  Lysand.  c.  5). 

in  like  manner  occasioned    by  tho  Thales   is    said  by    Herodotus  to 

transit    of    the     Hats     across     tho  have    predicted    that     the    eclipse 

the     frontier      from      Persia      into  would   take    place  "in    the  year  in 

Georgia:   so    also   the   Kurd  tribes  which    it    actually     did    occur1'— a 

near    Mount    Zagros    have    caused  statement  so  vague  that  it  streng- 

by   their   movements    quarrels    be-  thons  the  grounds  of  doubt, 

twcen  tho  Persians  and  the  Turks.  The  fondness  of  the  lonians    for 

See     Morior,      Account      of      tho  exhibiting     the     wisdom     of    their 

Iliyats    or    Wandering    Tribes     of  eminent     philosopher     Tliales     in 


234                                    HISTORY  OF  GBEECE.  PAET  II. 

The  eclipse  itself,  and  its  terrific  working  upon  the 
minds  of  the  combatants,  are  facts  not  to  be  called  in 
question;  though  the  diversity  of  opinion  among  chro- 
nologists,  respecting  the  date  of  it,  is  astonishing.1 

conjunction    with    the     history    of  Thales"    (or    said    to     have    heen 

the    Lydian    kings,    may    be    seen  predicted  by  Thalgs),   is  the  event 

farther  in  the  story  of  Thales  and  now    under    discussion,    described 

Croesus  at  the  river  Halys  (Herod,  by  Herodotus,  i.  74.  Although  three 

i.    75) — a    story    which    Herodotus  such  astronomers  as  Francis  Baiiy, 

himself  disbelieves.                       ,  Oltmanns,   and  Ideler  had  agreed, 

1  Consult,  for  the    chronological  after  researches   undertaken    inde- 

views  of  these  events,   Larcher   ad  pendently  of  each  other,   in  fixing 

Herodot.  i.  74;  Volney,  Eecherches  on    the    solar   eclipse    of  610    B.C. 

sur  1'Histoire  Ancienne,   vol.  i.  p.  as   the   only   one    within    possible 

330—355  ;  Mr.  Fynes  Clinton,  Fasti  limits  of  time,  which  would  satisfy 

Hellenici,  vol.   i.  p.   418   (Note  ad  the    conditions   of  Herodotus— yet 

B.C.  617,2);  Des  Vignoles,  Chrono-  Professor  Airy  has   shown   strong 

logic  de  1'Histoire  Sainte,   vol.  ii.  grounds  for  mistrusting  the  lunar 

p.     245  ;     Ideler,     Handbuch    der  data  on  which  they  all  proceeded. 

Chronologic,  vol.  i.  p.  209.  He  says,    "I  have    examined  every 

No     less    than     eight     different  total  eclipse  in  Oltmann's    tables, 

dates   have    been   assigned  by  dif-  extending  from  B.C.  631  to  B.C.  5S5, 

ferent  chronologists  for  this  eclipse  and   I   find  only  one  (namely,    that 

—the    most     ancient   625  B.C.,    the  of   B.C.    585,    May    28)    which    can 

most  recent  583  B.C.    Volney  is  for  have    passed   near   to  Asia   Minor. 

625  B.C.;  Larcher   for  597  B.C.  ;   Des  That   of    B.C.    610,    September     30, 

Vignoles  for  585  B.C.  ;  Mr.  Clinton  which   was  adopted  by  Baily  and 

for  603  B.C.    Volney  observes,  with  Oltmanns,    is    now    thrown    norfh 

justice,    that  the    eclipse    on   this  even    of  the   Sea  of  Azof  (p.  193). 

occasion   "n'est     pas    1'accessoire,  It    is    certain,     as   Professor   Airy 

la    broderie    du  fait,  mais    le   fait  assumes,  that  the  battle   described 

principal   lui-meme"   (p.  347):    the  by    Herodotus    must    have     taken 

astronomical      calculations      con-  place  somewhere  in  Asia  Minor, 

cerning   the    eclipse   are  therefore  Thus   stands   the  case    about  the 

by    far   the   most  important  items  date  of  this  eclipse  as  determined 

in  the  chronological  reckoning  of  by  high    authority  upon   the  most 

this  event.  correct  data  yet  attained. 

Three  eminent  astronomers,  One  interesting  sentence  I  tran- 
1'rancis  Baily,  Oltmanns,  and  scribe  from  Professor  Airy,  be- 
Ideler,  have  fixed  upon  the  eclipse  cause  it  tends  to  confirm  the 
of  B.C.  610,  September  30,  as  the  general  fact  stated  by  Herodotus, 
only  one  fulfilling  the  conditions  apart  from  the  perplexities  con- 
required  by  the  narrative.  Lastly,  nected  with  the  date  of  the  eclipse, 
in  the  Philosophical  Transactions  Tbe  Professor  says,  p.  180: — 
of  the  Royal  Society  of  London  "Mr.  Baily  in  the  first  place 
for  1P53,  Professor  Airy  has  insert-  pointed  out  that  only  a  total  eclipse 
ed  an  elaborate  Article  ^On  the  could  satisfy  the  account  of  He- 
Eclipses  of  Agathokles,  Thales,  rodotus  — and  that  a  total  eclipso 
and  Xerxes,"  pp.  179—200.  That  would  suffice.  He  lived  to  witness 
which  he  calls  the  '-Eclipse  of  the  total  eclipse  of  1842,  but  ha 


CHAP.  XVII.  THE  CIMMERIANS.  235 

It  was.  after  this  peace  with  Alyattes,  as  far  as  we 
can  make  out  the  series  of  events  in  Herodotus,  that  Kya- 
xares  collected  all  his  forces  and  laid  siege  to  Nineveh,  but 
was  obliged   to   desist   by   the  unexpected  inroad  of  the 
Scythians.     Nearly  at  the  same  time,  or  some- 
what  before  the  time,  that  Upper  Asia  was  de-   Nineveh— 
related  by  these  formidable  Nomads,  Asia  Minor   {?vagio.n  of 
too  was  overrun  by  other  Nomads — the  Gimme-   thiansVnd 
I'ians — Ardys  being  then  king  of  Lydia;  and  the   Oimme- 
two  invasions,  both  spreading  extreme  disaster, 
are  presented  to  us  as  indirectly  connected  together  in  the 
way  of  cause  and  effect. 

The  name  Cimmerians  appears  in  the  Odyssey — the 
fable  describes  them  as  dwelling  beyond  the  TheCimme- 
ocean-stream,  immersed  in  darkness  and  unblest  rians- 
by  the  rays  of  Helios.  Of  this  people  as  existent  we  can 
render  no  account,  for  they  had  passed  away,  or  lost  their 
identity  and  become  subject,  previous  to  the  commence- 
ment of  trustworthy  authorities;  but  they  seem  to  have 
been  the  chief  occupants  of  the  Tauric  Chersonesus 
(Crimea)  and  of  the  territory  between  that  peninsula  and 
the  river  Tyras  (Dniester),  at  the  time  when  the  Greeks 
first  commenced  their  permanent  settlements  on  those  coasts 
in  the  seventh  century  B.C.  The  numerous  localities  which 
bore  their  name,  even  in  the  time  of  Herodotus,  *  after  they 
had  ceased  to  exist  as  a  nation — as  well  as  the  tombs  of 

observed  it  from  the  room  of  a  shall  bo  forced  to  admit  that  He- 
house  where  probably  he  could  rodotus  was  mistaken  in  reprcsent- 
searcely  remark  the  general  effect  ing  the  battle  to  have  taken  place 
of  the  eclipse.  I  have  myself  seen  in  the  reign  of  Kyaxares,  who,  as 
two  total  eclipses  (those  of  1842  far  as  we  can  make  out,  died  in 
and  I'-'ol),  being  on  both  occasions  595  B.C.  The  battle  must  have 
in  the  open  country,  and  I  can  taken  place  during  the  reign  of 
fully  testify  to  the  sudden  and  Astyages,  son  of  Kyaxares  ;  and 
awful  effect  of  a  total  eclipse.  I  Cicero  (de  Divinat.  i.  49)  distinctly 
have  seen  many  large  partial  states  that  the  eclipse  did  occur 
oclipses,  and  one  annular  eclipse  in  the  reign  of  Astyages,  while 
concealed  by  clouds;  and  I  be-  Pliny  (H.  N.  ii.  12)  also  gives 
licve  that  a  large  body  of  men,  the  date  of  the  eclipse  as  Olymp. 
intent  on  military  movements,  48-4,  or  5S5  B.C. 

would      scarcely     have     remarked  *  Herodot.  iv.  11—12.     Hekataua 

on   these    occasions   anything    un-  also     spoke     of    a    town    Kiij.jj.5oi; 

usual."  (Strabo,  vii.  p.  204). 

If  the  year  585  B.C.  be  recognised  Respecting  the  Cimmerians,  con- 
as  the  real  date  of  the  total  eclipse  suit  Ukert,  Skythien,  p.  SCO  seq<}. 
to  which  Herodotus  refers,  we 


236  HISTOKY  OP  GKEECE.  PART  II. 

the  Cimmerian  kings  then  shown  near  the  Tyras — suffi- 
ciently attest  this  fact.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  they 
were  (like  their  conquerors  and  successors  the  Scythians) 
a  nomadic  people,  mare-milkers,  moving  about  with  their 
tents  and  herds,  suitably  to  the  nature  of  those  unbroken 
steppes  which  their  territory  presented,  and  which  offered 
little  except  herbage  in  profusion.  Strabo  tells  us1  (on 
what  authority  we  do  not  know)  that  they  as  well  as  the 
Treres  and  other  Thracians,  had  desolated  Asia  Minor 
more  than  once  before  the  time  of  Ardys,  and  even  earlier 
than  Homer. 

The  Cimmerians  thus  belong  partly  to  legend,  partly 
The  Soy-  to  history;  but  the  Scythians  formed  for  several 
thians.  centuries  an  important  section  of  the  Grecian 
contemporary  world.  Their  name,  unnoticed  by  Homer, 
occurs  for  the  first  time  in  the  Hesiodic  poems.  When 
the  Homeric  Zeus  in  the  Iliad  turns  his  eye  away  from 
Troy  towards  Thrace,  he  sees,  besides  the  Thracians  and 
Mysians,  other  tribes  whose  names  cannot  be  made  out, 
but  whom  the  poet  knows  as  milk-eaters  and  mare-milkers.2 
The  same  characteristic  attributes,  coupled  with  that  of 
"having  waggons  for  their  dwelling-houses,"  appear  in 
Hesiod  connected  with  the  name  of  the  Scythians.3  The 
navigation  of  the  Greeks  into  the  Euxine  gradually  became 
more  and  more  frequent,  and  during  the  last  half  of  the 
seventh  century  B.C.  their  first  settlements  on  its  coasts 
were  established.  The  foundation  of  Byzantium,  as  well 
as  of  the  Pontic  Herakleia  (at  a  short  distance  to  the  east 
of  the  Thracian  Bosphorus)  by  the  Megarians,  is  assigned 
to  the  thirtieth  Olympiad,  or  658  B.C.4  The  succession  of 
colonies  founded  by  the  enterprise  of  Milesian  citizens  on 

1  Strabo,  i.  pp.  6,  59,  61.  rXaxToaaYiov    el?     atav,     oi-^vstt; 

1  Homer,  Iliad,  xiii.  4. —  otxi'  EyovTuw  •  •  . 

A'jto?    Si    zaXtv   Tpsrsv  Alflto^a;,    -liy'-1^    TS,    los    Sx'JQa; 

033S  9«ivcu,  irr.^aoXYo'J;. 

Noo'fiv  £9'  i--o-o).ur>    6pir;x(JJv  xa-  Strabo,  vii.  p.  300—302. 

6opcb[i5-(o;  ili-i  "  Kaoul    Kochette,   Histoire   des 

M'J3tI)v  -'   iY/sjJLci/iov,  xoti  xfi'j(i)->  Colonies    Grecques,     torn.     iii.    ch. 

lr--T)[jLO>.Y<i>v,  xiv.    p.  297.     The   dates     of  thes<J 

rXaxTO<pdY«ov,    'A3U"';    TS,    oixato-  Grecian      settlements      near     tho 

TiTiov  ivQpibrujv.  Danube  are  very  vague  and  untrust- 

Compare  Strabo,  xii.  p.  553.  worthy. 
3  Hesiod,  Fragm.    63— 01,  Markt- 
Echeffel:— 


CHAP.  XVII.  TRIBES  OF  SCYTHIANS.  237 

the  western  coast  of  the  Euxine,  seems  to  fall  not  very 
long  after  this  date — at  least  within  the  following  century. 
Istria,  Tyras,  and  Olbia  or  Borysthenes,  were  planted  re- 
spectively near  the  mouths  of  the  three  great  rivers 
Danube,  Dniester,  and  Bog:  Kruni,  Odessus,  Tomi,  Kal- 
latis,  and  Apollonia,  were  also  planted  on  the  south-western 
or  Thracian  coast — northward  of  the  dangerous  land  of 
Salmydessus,  so  frequent  in  wrecks — yet  south  of  the 
Danube.  l  According  to  the  turn  of  Grecian  religious  faith, 
the  colonists  took  out  with  them  the  worship  of  the  hero 
Achilles  (from  whom  perhaps  the  cekist  and  some  of  the 
expatriating  chiefs  professed  to  be  descended),  which  they 
established  with  great  solemnity  both  in  the  various  towns 
and  on  the  small  adjoining  islands.  The  earliest  proof 
which  we  find  of  Scythia,  as  a  territory  familiar  to  Grecian 
ideas  and  feeling,  is  found  in  a  fragment  of  the  poet  Alkgeus 
(about  B.C.  000),  wherein  he  addresses  Achilles2  as  "sover- 
eign of  Scythia."  There  were,  besides,  several  other  Mile- 
sian foundations  on  or  near  the  Tauric  Cherso-  Grecian 
nese  (Crimea)  which  brought  the  Greeks  into  settlements 

.          ,-  '     -,i        ,1  o       ,i  •  TT        11-         on  the  coast 

conjunction    with    the     fecythians — Jtieraldeia,    Of  the 
Chersonesus  and  Theodosia,    on   the    southern   Euxine. 
coast   and  the  south-western   corner   of  the   peninsula — 
Pantikapseum  and  the  Teian  colony  of  Phanagoria  (these 
two  on  the  European  and  Asiatic  sides  of  the  Cimmerian 
Bosphorus  respectively),  and  Kepi,  Hermonassa,  &c.  not 
far  from  Phanagoria,  on  the  Asiatic  coast  of  the  Euxine. 
Last  of  all,  there  was,  even  at  the  extremity  of  the  Palus 
ILteotis  (Sea  of  Azof),  the  Grecian  settlement  of  Tanais.3 

1  Skymnus  CIiLus,  v.  730,  Fragm.  in   Diintzer's   Collection   of  Epicc. 
2—2.'.  Toot.    Grxc.    p.    15),     but    it    may 

2  Alka-us,     Fragm.     49,     Tiergk;  reasonably     be      doubted    whether 
Eustath.   ad   Dionys.   Perieg.  300—  ),s'jy.r,  vyjso;   in  his    poem  was  any- 

'A-/<.W.z~J,  <>  (Y«S>  Schueid.)  SxyOt-  thing     but     a    fancy— not    yet    lo- 

y.'i?  ii.i?,t<.t.  calised    upon    the  little    island  off 

Alkman,    somewhat    earlier,    made  the  mouth  of  the  Danube, 

mention    of   the   Issedones  (Alkm.  For    the    early    allusion    to    the 

Frag.  120,  Hrrgk  ;    Stepli.    By/,    v.  Pnntus     Fuxinus    and     its     neigli- 

'Isar,8ovs?— he    called    them     Asse-  bouring  inhabitants,    found  in  the 

tlonesi  and  of  the  Ehiptvan  moun-  Greek  poets,  see  TTVort,    Skythicn. 

1:-.ins  (Fr.  SO).  pp.     15— is,     7* ;    though    lie     puts 

In  the  old  epic  of  Arktinus,  the  the  Ionian  colonies    in  the  Pontus 

deceased    Achilles     is    transported  nearly  a  century  too  early,  in  my 

to    an    clysium    in    the   ).syxf,  v/^30;  judgement. 

(see  the  argument  of  the  JEthiupis  3   Comnure  Dr.  Clail;e's   dcscrip- 


238  HISTOKY  OP  GREECE.  PART  II. 

AH  or  most  of  these  seem  to  have  been  founded  during  the 
course  of  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  though  the  precise  dates 
of  most  of  them  cannot  be  named;  probably  several  of  them 
anterior  to  the  time  of  the  mystic  poet  Aristeas  of  Prokon- 
nesus,  about  540  B.C.  His  long  voyage  from  the  Palus 
Mseotis  (Sea  of  Azof)  into  the  interior  of  Asia  as  far  as  the 
country  of  the  Issedones  (described  in  the  poem,  now  lost, 
called  the  Arimaspian  verses),  implies  an  habitual  inter- 
course between  Scythians  and  Greeks  which  could  not  well 
have  existed  without  Grecian  establishments  on  the  Cim- 
merian Bosphorus. 

Hekatseus  of  Miletus1  appears  to  have  given  much 
geographical  information  respecting  the  Scy- 

Scythia  as      f,  .  to     s-  .-,  -r>    ^    TT          i    j_  i  11 

described  thian  tribes.  .But  Herodotus,  who  personally 
by  He-  visited  the  town  of  Olbia,  together  with  the  in- 
land regions  adjoining  to  it,  and  probably  other 
Grecian  settlements  in  the  Euxine  (at  a  time  which  we  may 
presume  to  have  been  about  450-440  B.C.) — and  who  con- 
versed with  both  Scythians  and  Greeks  competent  to  give 
him  information — has  left  us  far  more  valuable  statements 
respecting  the  Scythian  people,  dominion,  and  manners,  as 
they  stood  in  his  day.  His  conception  of  the  Scythians, 
as  well  as  that  of  Hippokrates,  is  precise  and  well- denned 
— very  different  from  that  of  the  later  authors,  who  use  the 
word  almost  indiscriminately  to  denote  all  barbarous  Nomads. 
His  territory  called  Scythia  is  a  square  area,  twenty  days' 
journey  or  4000  stadia  (somewhat  less  than  500  English 
miles)  in  each  direction — bounded  by  the  Danube  (the 
course  of  which  river  he  conceives  in  a  direction  from 

tion   of  the  present  commerce  be-  stes    seem   to    have   been   familiar 

tween  Taganrock  (not  far  from  the  with    the    poem    of   Aristeas:    sea 

ancient  Greek  settlement  of  Tanais)  Klausen,    ad  loc.;    Steph.   Byz.   v. 

and   the  Archipelago:   besides    ex-  'T^p^op*101-  Compare  also  JEschyl. 

porting  salt-fish,  corn,  leather,  &c.  Prometh.  409,  710,  805. 

in  exchange  for  wines,   fruit,  &c.,  Hellaniktis   also    seems   to   have 

it  is  the  great  deposit   of  Siberian  spoken  about  Scythia  in  a  manner 

productions:  from  Orenburg  it  re-  generally  conformable  to  Herod  o- 

ceives  tallow,  furs,  iron,  &c.  ;  this  tus   (Strabo  ,    xii.  p.  550).     It   does 

is  doubtless   as    old  as  Herodotus,  little  credit  to  the  discernment  of 

(Clarke's    Travels    in    Russia,    ch.  Strabo  that  ho  treats  with  disdain 

xv.  p.  330.)  the   valuable    Scythian   chapter   of 

1  Hekatiei  Fragment.,  Fr.  153, 168,  Herodotus — ctrsp     IL?.)./.av.-/.o;     -/.'A 

ed.  Klausen.    Hekatseus  mentioned  'HpoSoTis   v.al  E;jco;o;  x  set  Erf  Xua- 

the  Issedones  (Fr.  103 ;  Steph.  Byz.  pr(aav  TJIAOJV  (il,). 
v.  'Iu3r;oovi?)  ;   both  he  and  Dama- 


CHAP.  XVII.  TKIBES  OF  SCYTHIANS.  239 

N.W.  to  S.E.),  the  Euxine,  and  the  Palus  Maeotis  with  the 
river  Tanais,  on  three  sides  respectively — and  on  the  fourth 
or  north  side  by  the  nations  called  Agathyrsi,  Neuri,  An- 
drophagi  and  Melanchlseni. l  However  imperfect  his  idea 
of  the  figure  of  this  territory  may  be  found,  if  we  compare 
it  with  a  good  modern  map,  the  limits  which  he  gives  us 
are  beyond  all  dispute:  from  the  Lower  Danube  and  the 
mountains  eastward  of  Transylvania  to  the  Lower  Tanais, 
the  whole  area  was  either  occupied  by  or  subject  to  the 
Scythians.  And  this  name  comprised  tribes  differing 
materially  in  habits  and  civilization.  The  great  mass  of 
the  people  who  bore  it,  strictly  Nomadic  in  their  habits — 
neither  sowing  nor  planting,  but  living  only  on  food  de- 
rived from  animals,  especially  mare's-milk  and  cheese — 
moved  from  place  to  place,  carrying  their  families  in  wag- 
Tribes  of  gons  covered  with  wicker  and  leather,  them- 
Scythians.  selves  always  on  horseback  with  their  flocks  and 
herds,  between  the  Borysthenes  and  the  Palus  iTaeotis. 
They  hardly  even  reached  so  far  westward  as  the  Borys- 
thenes, since  a  river  (not  easily  identified)  which  Herodotus 
calls  Pantikapes,  flowing  into  the  Borysthenes  from  the 
eastward,  formed  their  boundary.  These  Nomads  were  the 
genuine  Scythians,  possessing  the  marked  attributes  of  the 
race,  and  including  among  their  number  the  Regal  Scy- 
thians2 —  hordes  so  much  more  populous  and  more  effective 

1  Herodot.  iv.  100-101.     See,   re-  but  we  shall  have  occasion,  in  the 

spocting  the  Scythia  of  Herodotus,  course    of   this    history,    to  notice 

the   excellent  dissertation   of  Xie-  memorable    examples    of    extreme 

buhr,    contained  in  his  Kleine  hi-  misapprehension   in  regard  to  dis- 

storische  Schriften,  "Ucber  die  Ge-  tance  and  bearings  in  these  remote 

schichte  der  Skythen  ,  Geten,  untl  regions,  common  to  him  not  only 

Sarmaten,"  p. 360,  alike  instructive  \vith  his  contemporaries,  but  also 

as  to  the  geography  and  the  history,  with  Ms  successors. 

Also  the  two  chapters  in  Vclcker's  2  Herod,  iv.  17—21,  40—56;  Hip- 

Mythischc  Geographic,  ch.  vii.-viii.  pokrates,  Do  Aere,  Locis  et  Aquis, 

sect.   2:>  —  2G,   respecting   the   goo-  o.vi. ;  JSschyl.  Prometh.  709;  Justin. 

graphical    conceptions    present    to  ii.  2. 

Herodotus    in    his    description    of  it  js  unnecessary  to  multiply  ci- 
tations   respecting    Nomadic    li(V, 

Herodotus  has  much  in  his  Scy-  the  same  under  such  wide  ditferen- 

tliian   geography,   however,   which  cos  both  of  time  and  of  latitude — 

no  comment  can  enable   us  to  uii-  the    same    with    the    "armentarius 

derstaml.    Compared  with  his  pre-  Afer"  of  Virgil    (Georgic.   iii.   -*'•' 

decessors,    his    geographical    con-  and    the    -campcstros    Scytliio"    of 

ceptions  evince  great  improvement;  Horace    (Ode  iii.  21,  12),    and  tho 


240  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

in  war  than  the  rest,  as  to  maintain  undisputed  ascendency, 
and  to  account  all  other  Scythians  no  better  than  their 
slaves.  It  was  to  these  that  the  Scythian  kings  belonged, 
by  whom  the  religious  and  political  unity  of  the  name  was 
maintained — each  horde  having  its  separate  chief  and  to 
a  certain  extent  separate  worship  and  customs.  But  be- 
sides these  Nomads,  there  were  also  agricultural  Scythians, 
with  fixed  abodes,  living  more  or  less  upon  bread,  and 
raising  corn  for  exportation,  along  the  banks  of  the  Borys- 
thenes  and  the  Hypanis. l  And  such  had  been  the  influence 
of  the  Grecian  settlement  of  Olbia  at  the  mouth  of  the 
latter  river  in  creating  new  tastes  and  habits,  that  two 
tribes  on  its  western  banks,  the  Kallipidse  and  the  Ala- 
zones,  had  become  completely  accustomed  both  to  tillage 
and  to  vegetable  food,  and  had  in  other  respects  so  much 
departed  from  their  Scythian  rudeness  as  to  be  called  Hel- 
lenic-Scythians, many  Greeks  being  seemingly  domiciled 
among  them.  Northward  of  the  Alazones  lay  those  called 

Tartars    of   the   present    day;    see  Situation  des  Etablissemens  Fran- 

Dr.  Clarke's  Travels  in  Russia,  ch.  c.ais  en  Algerie,  p.  393,  Paris,  Mar. 

xiv.  p.  310.  1846). 

The   fourth  book   of  Herodotus,          *  Ephorus    placed    the    Karpidte 

the  Tristia  and  Epistolas  ex  Ponto  immediately  north   of  the  Danube 

of   Ovid,    the    Toxaris    of  I/ucian  (Fragm.  78,    Marx;    Skymn.  Chius, 

(see  c.  36  vol.  i.  p.  544  Hemst.),  and  I1  2).    I   agree    with   Niebuhr    that 

the  Inscription  of  Olbia   (Xo.  2058  this    is    probably     an     inaccurate 

in  Boeckh's  Collection),  convey  a  reproduction    of  the   Kallipidae  of 

genuine  picture    of  Scythian  man-  Herodotus,    though    Boeckh   is   of 

ners  as  seen  by  the   near  observer  different    opinion    (Introduct.     ad 

and  resident  —  very  different   from  Inscriptt.     Sarmatic.      Corpus    In- 

the  pleasing  fancies  of  distant  poets  script,   part  xi.  p.  81).     The  vague 

respecting  the  innocence  ofpasto-  and  dreamy  statements  of  Ephorus, 

ral  life.   The  poisoned  arrows  which  so  far  as  we  know  them   from  the 

Ovid  so  much  complains  of  in  the  fragments,    contrast    unfavourably 

Sarmatians  and  Gette  (Trist.  iii.  10,  with  the  comparative  precision  of 

60,  among  other  passages    and  Lu-  Herodotus.     The    latter    expressly 

can,    iii.  27o),    are   not   noticed  by  separates  the  Androphagi  from  the 

Herodotus  in  the  Scythians.  Scythians — iOvo;    eov    i5iov    y.at    ou- 

The     dominant     Golden     Horde  6ajj.(L;    2x'jQr/.6v    (iv.    18),    whereas 

among  the  Tartars,  in  the  time  of  when   we   compare    Strabo,  vii.  p. 

Zinghis  Khan,  has  been  often  spo-  302    and    Skymn.    Chi.    105-115,   we 

ken  of.    Among  the  different  Arab  see    that    Ephorus    talked    of  the 

tribes   now   in  Algeria,    some   are  Androphagi   as    a   variety    of  Scy- 

noble,  others  enslaved  :    the  latter  thians — sOvo;  avSpoipayiJOv  2y.u9u>v. 
habitually,  and  by  inheritance,  ser-         The    valuable     inscription    from 

vants    of   the    former,     following  Olbia  (Xr.  2058  Boeckh)  recognises 

wherever  ordered   (Tableau   de   la  MitjeXXijVs;  near  that  town. 


CHAP.  XVII.        SCYTHIAN  NATION  AND  TEIBES.  241 

the  agricultural  Scythians,  who  sowed  corn,  not  for  food, 
but  for  sale. J 

Such  stationary  cultivators  were  doubtless  regarded 
by  the  predominant  mass  of  the  Scythians  as  de-   mannerg 
generate  brethren.    Some  historians  even  main-   and 
tain  that  they  belonged  to  a  foreign  race,  stand-   worsniP- 
ing  to  the  Scythians  merely  in  the  relation  of  subjects2 — 
au  hypothesis  contradicted  implicitly,  if  not  directly,  by 
the  words  of  Herodotus,  and  no  way  necessary  in  the  pre- 
sent case.     It  is  not  from  them  however  that  Herodotus 
draws  his  vivid  picture  of  the  people,  with  their  inhuman 
rites  and  repulsive  personal  features.     It  is  the  purely 
Nomadic  Scythians  whom  he  depicts,  the  earliest  specimens 
of  the  Mongolian  race  (so  it  seems  probable3)  known  to 

1  Herod,    iv.   17.    We    may  illus-  iQvcx;  should  be  ipijTrjpiS,  and  other 
trate  this  statement    of  Herodntits  portions  Mojitos;,  is  far  from  being 
by  an  extract  from  Heber's  journal  without    parallel;     such     was    the 
as    cited    in  Dr.    Clarke's   Travels,  case  with  the  Persians,  for  example 
ch.  xv.  p.  337:— "The  Nagay  Tartars  (Herodot.    i.    12G),    and     with    the 
begin  to  the    west    of   Marinopol:  Iberians  between    the  Euxine  and 
they  cultivate  a  good  deal  of  corn,  the  Caspian  (Strabo,  xi.  p.  500). 
yet   they   dislike   bread   as    an   ar-  The    Pontic    Greeks    confounded 
ticle  of  food."  Agathyrsus,  Gelonus,  and  Scythes 

2  Niebuhr   (Dissertat.   ut  sup.  p.  in  the  same    genealogy,   as    being 
S60),   Boeckh   (Introd.    Inscrip.   ut  three    brethren,    sons    of  Herakles 
sup.  p.  110)    and    Hitter    (Vorhalle  by  the  |M$oisdp9»v04  "Eyi3va   of  the 
der    Geschichte,    p.    316)     advance  Hylsca    (iv.     7-1M).      Herodotus    is 
this  opinion.    But    we    ought    not  more  precise:  he  distinguishes  both 
on   this    occasion   to    depart   from  the    Agathyrsi     and     Geloni    from 
the  authority  of  Herodotus,  whoso  Scythians. 

information  respecting  the  people  *  Both  Niebuhr  and  Boeckh   ac- 

of  Scythia,    collected   by    himself  count  the  ancient  Scythians  to  be 

on  the    spot,  is    one    of  the    most  of  Mongolian  race  (Niebuhr  in  the 

instructive    and    precious  portions  Dissertationabove-mentioned,  Un- 

of  his    whole    work.     He    is    very  tersuchungen   iiber   die  Geschichte 

careful  to  distinguish  what  is  Scy-  der  Skythen,  Geten  und  Sarmaten, 

thian    from    what    is    not.     Those  among     the     Kleine      Historischo 

tribes  whicli  Niebuhr  (contrary  to  Schriften,  p.  302;   Boeckh,  Corpus 

the  sentiment  of  Herodotus)    ima-  Inscriptt.    Grajcarum,    Introductio 

pines  not  to  be  Scythian,  were  the  ad   Inscriptt.    Sarmatic.  part  xi.  p. 

tribes  nearest  and   best  known    to  81).    Paul  Joseph  Schafarik,  in  his 

him  ;  probably   he   had    personally  elaborate  examination  of  the  ethno- 

visited  them,  since  we  know   that  graphy  of  the  ancient   people    de- 

hn    went     up     the     river    Hypanis  scribed     as      inhabiting      northern 

(Bog)   as  high   as   the   Kxampwus,  Europe    and    Asia,    arrives    at   tho 

four  days'  journey  from  the  sea  (iv  saine    result    (Slavische    Alterthu- 

fi>-81).  mer,    Pag.    1813,   vol.    i.   xiii.   6.   p. 

That  some  portions   of  the  same  279). 

VOL.  III.  ft 


242                                  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  IT. 

history,  and  prototypes  of  the  Huns  and  Bulgarians  of 
later  centuries.  The  Sword,  in  the  literal  sense  of  the 
word,  was  their  chief  god l — an  iron  scimitar  solemnly  ele- 
vated upon  a  wide  and  lofty  platform,  which  was  supported 

A   striking    illustration    of  this  to  that  between  the  Scythians  and 

analogy     of    race    is    noticed     by  Mongols. 

Alexander  von  Humboldt,  in  speak-  The    principle    npon    which   the 

ing    of   the    burial-place    and    the  Indo-European   family    of  the  hn- 

funeral    obsequies    of   the    Tartar  man  race  is  defined  and  parted  off, 

Tchinghiz  Khan:—  appears  to  me  inapplicable  to  any 

"lies  cruautds  lors  de  la  pompe  particular  case  wherein  the  language 
funebre  des  grands-khans  ressem-  of  the  people  is  unknown  to  us. 
blent  entierement  a  celles  qua  The  nations  constituting  that  fa- 
nous  trouvons  dficrites  par  H6ro-  mily  have  no  other  point  of  affi- 
dote  (iv.  71)  environ  1700  ans  avant  nity  except  in  the  roots  and  struc- 
la  mort  de  Tchinghiz,  et  65°  de  ture  of  their  language;  on  every 
longitude  plus  a  1'ouest,  chez  les  other  point  there  is  the  widest 
Hcythes  du  Gerrhus  et  dn  Bory-  difference.  To  enable  us  to  affirm 
sthene."  (Humboldt,  Asie  Centrale  that  the  Massagetce,  or  the  Scy- 
vol.  i.  p.  244.)  thians,  or  the  Alaui,  belonged  to 

Nevertheless  M.   Humboldt   dis-  the  Indo-European  family,  it  would 

sants  from  the  opinion  of  Niebuhr  be  requisite  that  we    should  know 

and    Boeckh,     and    considers    the  something  of  their  language.    But 

Scythians    of  Herodotus   to    be  of  the     Scythian    language    may    be 

Indo-Germanic,   not  of  Mongolian  said  to  be  wholly    unknown;   and 

race:  Klaproth  seems  to  adopt  the  the    very    few    words     which     are 

same    view    (see    Humboldt,    Asie  brought  to  our  knowledge   do  not 

Centrale,    vol.  i.   p     401,    and    his  tend     to    aid    the     Indo-European 

valuable  work,  Kosmos,  p. 491,  note  hypothesis. 

3S3).    He   assumes   it  as   a  certain  *  See  the  story  of  the  accidental 

fact,  upon  what  evidence  I  do  not  discovery   of  this   Scythian    sword 

distinctly    see,     that    no    tribe    of  when  lost,   by  Attila    the   chief  of 

Turk    or    Mongol     race     migrated  the  Huns    (Priscus   ap.  Jornandem 

westward  out  of  Central  Asia  until  de    Rebus    Geticis,    c.    35,    and    in 

considerably    later   than   the   time  Eclog.  Legation,  p.  50). 

of  Herodotus.     To  make    out  such  Lucian  in  the  Toxaris  (c.  3?.  vol. 

a  negative,  seems  to  me  impossible  :  ii.  p.  540,  Hemst.)  notices  the  wor- 

and   the   marks    of  ethnographical  ship    of  the  Akinakes   or  Scimitar 

analogy,  so  far   as   they   go,   deci-  by  the    Scythians   in   plain    terms, 

dedly    favour    the   opinion  of  Nie-  without  interposing  the  idea  of  the 

buhr.     Ukert     also     (Skythien,    p.  god       Ar§s :       compare      Clemen. 

266-2SO)  controverts  the  opinion  of  Alexand.  Protrept.  p.  25,  Syl.  Am- 

Niebuhr.  mianus    Marcellinus,    in    speaking 

At    the    same    time    it    must   be  of  the  Alani  (xxxi.  2),    as  well  as 

granted  that  these  marks    are    not  Pomponius  Mela  (ii.  1)  and  Solinus 

very   conclusive,    and    that    many  (c.  20),  copy  Herodotus.  Ammiaiius 

Nomadic    hordes,     whom    no    one  is  more   literal   in   his    description 

\vould  refer  to  the  same  race,  may  of   the    Sarmatian     sword-worship 

yet  have  exhibited   an   analogy  of  (xvii.  12),  "Eductisque  mucronilms, 

manners  and  characteristics  equal  quos  pro  nuniinibus   coluut/'  dc. 


XVII.    NUMBERS  AND  POWER  OP  THE  SCYTHIANS.        243 

on  masses  of  faggots  piled  underneath — to  whom  sheep, 
horses,  and  a  portion  of  their  prisoners  taken  in  war,  were 
offered  up  in  sacrifice.  Herodotus  treats  this  sword  as 
the  image  of  the  god  Ares,  thus  putting  an  Hellenic  inter- 
pretation upon  that  which  he  describes  literally  as  a  bar- 
baric rite.  The  scalps  and  the  skins  of  slain  enemies,  and 
sometimes  the  skull  formed  into  a  drinking-cup,  constituted 
the  decoration  of  a  Scythian  warrior.  Whoever  had  not 
slain  an  enemy,  was  excluded  from  participation  in  the  an- 
nual festival  and  bowl  of  wine  prepared  by  the  chief 
of  each  separate  horde.  The  ceremonies  which  took  place 
during  the  sickness  and  funeral  obsequies  of  the  Scythian 
kings  (who  were  buried  at  Gerrhi  at  the  extreme  point  to 
which  navigation  extended  up  the  Borysthenes)  partook  of 
the  same  sanguinary  disposition.  It  was  the  Scythian 
practice  to  put  out  the  eyes  of  all  their  slaves.  The  awk- 
wardness of  the  Scythian  frame,  often  overloaded  with  fat, 
together  with  extreme  dirt  of  body,  and  absence  of  all  dis- 
criminating feature  between  one  man  and  another,  com- 
plete the  brutish  portrait. l  Mare's  milk  (with  cheese  made 
from  it)  seems  to  have  been  their  chief  luxury,  and  prob- 
ably served  the  same  purpose  of  procuring  the  intoxicating 
drink  called  kumiss,  as  at  present  among  the  Bashkirs  and 
the  Kalmucks.2 

If  the  habits  of  the  Scythians  were  such  as  to  create 
in  the  near  observer  no  other  feeling  than  repugnance, 
their  force  at  least  inspired  terror.     They  ap- 
peared in  the  eyes  of  Thucydides  so  numerous   ^cyth'a"? 

j  r  •  i    i  ^ ii      L  i  n  •  formidable 

and  so  formidable,  that  he  pronounces  them  irre-   from  num- 
bistible,  if  they  could  but  unite,  by  any  other  na-   bers  and 

•li  •      i  •     i  11  TT         j    L        i  courage. 

tion  within  his  knowledge.    Herodotus,  too,  con- 
ceived the  same  idea  of  a  race  among  whom  every  man 
was  a  warrior  and  a   practised  horse-bowman,  and  who 
were  placed  by  their  mode  of  life  out  of  all  reach  of  an 

1  Herodot.  iv.  3 — G2,  71 — 75;    So-  Hippokrates  was    accustomed  to 

pliokles,    CKnomaus— ap.     Athena;,  see  the  naked  figure  in  its  highest 

ix.  p.  410;  Hippokrate^,  De    Aero,  perfection    at   the    Grecian    games: 

Locis  ot  Aquis,  cli.  vi.  s.  91—  09,  etc.  hence    perhaps    he  is   led  to  dwell 

It  is  s'jlilom   that  we  obtain,    in  more  emphatically  on  the  corporeal 

reference  to  the  modes   of   life    of  defects  of  the   Scythians. 

an  ancient   population,   two    such  2  See  Pallas,  Reise  durch    Russ- 

excellent   witnesses  as   Herodotus  land,  and    Dr.    Clarke,    Travels    in 

and    Ilippokratus    about   the    Scy-  Russia,  ch.  xii.  p.  238. 
thiaus. 


244  HISTORY  OF  GKEECE.  PAET  II. 

enemy's  attack.1  Moreover,  Herodotus  does  not  speak 
meanly  of  their  intelligence,  contrasting  them  in  favour- 
able terms  with  the  general  stupidity  of  the  other  nations 
bordering  on  the  Euxine.  In  this  respect  Thucydides 
seems  to  differ  from  him. 

On  the  east,  the  Scythians  of  the  time  of  Herodotus 
were  separated  only  by  the  river  Tanais  from  the  Sarma- 
tians,  who  occupied  the  territory  for  several  day's  journey 
north-east  of  the  Palus  Mseotis :  on  the  south  they  were 
divided  by  the  Danube  from  the  section  of  Thraciaus  call- 
ed Getse.  Both  these  nations  were  Nomadic,  analogous 
to  the  Scythians  in  habits,  military  efficiency,  and  fierce- 
ness. Indeed  Herodotus  and  Hippokrates  distinctly  inti- 
mate that  the  Sarmatians  were  nothing  but  a  branch  of 
Scythians,2  speaking  a  Scythian  dialect,  arid 

Sarmatians.     ,.•>,.          .\      3r £          °,,     .       J    .    . 

distinguished   from   their   neighbours    on    the 
other  side  of  the  Tanais  chiefly  by  this  peculiarity — that 

1  Thucyd.  ii.  95;  Herodot.   ii.  46  authors  have  shared    this    opinion, 
— 47:  his    idea    of  the   formidable  which    identifies    the     Sarmatians 
power  of  the  Scythians  seems  also  with  the   Slavi ;    but  Paul  Joseph 
to    be    implied    in.    his  expression  Schafarik  (Slavische   Alterthiimer, 
(c.  81),  xal  oXlyous,  tu?  2xu6a?  sivai.  vol.   i.   c.    16)   has    given  powerful 

Herodotus  holds  the    same   Ian-  reasons  against  it. 

guage  about  the  Thracians,  however,  Nevertheless     Schafarik     admits 

as  Thucydides  about  the  Scythians  the  Sarmatians    to    be    of  Median 

— irresistible,  if  they  could  but  act  origin,  and  radically  distinct  from 

with  union  (v.  3).  the    Scythians.     But  the    passages 

2  The  testimony  of  Herodotus  to  which    are    quoted    to    prove    this 
this  effect  (iv.  110—117)  seems  clear  point  from  Diodorus  (ii.  43),  from 
and  positive,  especially   as  to   the  Mela   (i.    19),   and   from   Pliny  (H. 
language.    Hippokrates  also  calls  K.  vi.   7),   appear   to   me    of   much 
the  SauromatiB    IQvo?  2xu8ix6v    (De  less  authority    than   the    assertion 
Aere,  Locis  et  Aquis,    c.  vi.   sect,  of   Herodotus.    In   none    of  these 
89,  Petersen).  authors     is    there     any    trace     of 

I  cannot  think  that  there  is  any  inquiries     made     in     or    near    the 

sufficient   ground    for    the   marked  actual    spot    from  neighbours  and 

ethnical  distinction  which   several  competent  informants,  such  as  \ve 

authors    draw     (contrary     to     He-  find      in     Herodotus.        And      the 

rodotus)    between    the     Scythians  chapter     in    Diodorus,     on    which 

and  the  Sarmatians.     Boeckh  con-  both    Boeckh    and    Schafarik     lay 

aiders  the  latter  to    be   of  Mudiau  especial  stress,  is  one  of  the  least 

or  Persian  origin,  but  to    be    also  trustworthy    in.    the    whole     book, 

the     progenitors     of    the     modern  To    believe    in    the     existence     of 

Sclavonian  family :  "SarmatsB,  Sla-  Scythian  kings  who    reigned   over 

vorum  haud   dubie   parentes"    (In-  all  Asia    from   the  Eastern   Ocean 

troduct.    ad  Inscr.  Sarmatic.   Corp.  to  the  Caspian,  and  sent  out  large 

Insc.  part  xi.  p.  S3).      Many  other  colonies  of  Medians  and  Assyrians 


CHAP.  XVII.  SARMATIANS.  245 

the  women  among  them  were  warriors  hardly  less  daring 
and  expert  than  the  men.  This  attribute  of  Sarrnatian 
women,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  is  well  attested  —  though  Hero- 
dotus has  thrown  over  it  an  air  of  suspicion  not  properly 
belonging  to  it,  by  his  explanatory  genealogical  mythe, 
deducing  the  Sarmatians  from  a  mixed  breed  between  the 
Scythians  and  the  Amazons. 

The  wide  extent  of  steppe  eastward  and  north-east- 
ward of  the  Tanais,  between  the  Ural  mountains  and  the 
Caspian,  and  beyond  the  possessions  of  the  Sar- 
matians,   was    traversed   by   Grecian   traders,    and'mtrth8* 
even  to  a  good  distance  in  the  direction  of  the   of  tho  Pa- 
Altai  mountains  —  the  rich  produce  of  gold,  both   J|lgs  Mffi°~ 
in  Altai  and  Ural,  being  the  great  temptation. 
First  (according  to  Herodotus)  came  the  indigenous  No- 
madic nation  called  Budini,  who  dwelt  to  the  northward 
of  the   Sarmatians,1  and  among  whom  were  established 

is    surely    impossible;    and    Wcs-  Joseph  Schafarik  (Slavische  Alter- 

seling    speaks    much    within     the  thttmer,  i.  10.  p.  185  —  195)  has  shown 

truth  when  ho    says,    "Verum  htoc  more    plausible     grounds    for    be- 

dubia     admodum    atque    iucerta."  lieving  both  them  and  the  Neuri  to 

It    is    remarkable    to    see  Boeckh  bo  of  Slavic  family.    It  seems  that 

treating  this  passage  as  conclusive  the   names   Budini  and   Neuri    are 

against     Herodotus     and     Hippo-  traceable  to  Slavic  roots;  that  the 

krates.    M.  Boeckh  has  also  given  wooden  town    described    by  Hsro- 

a  copious    analysis   of  the   names  dotus    in   the  midst    of  the  Budini 

found    in     the    Greek    inscriptions  is  an  exact  parallel    of  the  primi- 

from     Scythian,       Sarmatian      and  tive    Slavic    towns,    down    even  to 

Mieotic    localities     (Introduct.     ad  the  twelfth  century  ;    and  that  the 

Inscripp.    Sarmatic.),    and    he    en-  description  of  the  country  around, 

deavours  to  establish    an   analogy  with   its  woods    and  marshes  con- 

between  the  two  latter  classes  and  taining  beavers,    otters,    &c.,   har- 

Median  names.     But   the    analogy  monisos      better      with      Southern 

holds  just  as  much  with  regard  to  Poland  and  Eussia  than   with  the 

the  Scythian  names.  neighbourhood  of  the  Ural   moun- 

1  The  locality   which    Herodotus  tains.     From   the    colour    ascribed 

assigns     to     the      Budini      creates  to  the  Budini,  no  certain  inference 

difficulty.     According    to   his  own  can  be  drawn:  f~).i'j7.6v  is  itoiv  'u/o- 

statement,  it  would  seem  that  they  pto:      SCT'I     xai     lyjpp'ov     (iv.     1<1S). 

ought  to  be  near  to  the  Neuri  (iv.  Mannert  construes    it  in  favour  of 

1(15),    and   so  in  fact  Ptolemy  pla-  Teutonic   family,   Scliafarik    in  fa- 

ces   them    (v.    9)   near   about   Vol-  vour  of  Slavic;  and  it  is  to  be  re- 

hynia     and     the     sources      of     the  marked,     that     Hippokrutes     talks 

of  the  Scythians  generally   as    ex- 
tremcly     ituppol    (Be    Acre,    Locia 


Mannert  (Geographic  der  Griech. 


und  Romer,  Der  Norden  der  Erde, 


et  Aquis,  c.  vi.  :    compare  Aristot. 


v.  iv 


toba    a  Teutonic    tribe;  but    Paul         These   reasonings  are  plausible; 


246  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAET  II. 

a  colony  of  Pontic  Greeks  intermixed  with  natives  and  call- 
ed Geloni:  these  latter  inhabited  a  spacious  town,  built 
entirely  of  wood.  Beyond  the  Budini  eastward  dwelt  the 
Thyssagetae  and  the  Jurkse,  tribes  of  hunters,  and  even  a 
body  of  Scythians  who  had  migrated  from  the  territories 
of  the  Regal  Scythians.  The  Issedones  were  the  eastern- 
most people  respecting  whom  any  definite  information 
reached  the  Greeks;  beyond  them  we  find  nothing  but 
fable1 — the  one-eyed  Arimaspians,  the  gold-guarding 
Grypes  or  Griffins,  and  the  bald-headed  Argippsei.  It  is 
impossible  to  fix  with  precision  the  geography  of  these 
different  tribes,  or  to  do  more  than  comprehend  approxi- 
mately their  local  bearings  and  relations  to  each  other. 

But  the  best  known  of  all  is  the  situation  of  the  Tauri 
(perhaps  a  remnant  of  the  expelled  Cimmerians),  who 
Tauri  in  the  dwelt  in  the  southern  portion  oftheTauric 
Crimea—  Chersonesus  (or  Crimea),  and  who  immolated 
Massaget».  jluman  sacrifices  to  their  native  virgin  goddess 
— identified  by  the  Greeks  with  Artemis,  and  serving  as  a 
basis  for  the  affecting  legend  of  Iphigeneia.  The  Tauri 
are  distinguished  by  Herodotus  from  Scythians,2  but  their 

yet  we  can  hardly  venture  to  alter  posing  that  the  higher  parts  of  tho 

the  position  of  the  Budini  as  He-  latter   belonged,  to   the  former:   a 

rodotus    describes  it,     eastward  of  mistake  not   unnatural,   since  tho 

the   Tanais.    For   he   states  in  the  two  rivers  approach  pretty  near  to 

moot    explicit     manner    that    the  each  other  at  one  particular  point, 

route    as    far    as    the   Argippcei  is  and    since  the  lower  parts  of  the 

thoroughly  known,   traversed  both  Volga,  together  with  the  northern 

by     Scythian     and     by     Grecian  shore   of  the    Caspian,    where    its 

traders,   and  that  all   the  nations  embouchure  is  situated,  appear  to 

in  the  way  to  it  are  known  (iv.  24):  have  been  little  visited  and  almost 

(AE/pi   (J.SV  TO'JTiuv    roXXr)  nepifiveia  unknown  in  antiquity.  There  cannot 

•crj;    jwpTjc    edtt  xal   T<iv   Ifxzpoafisv  be  a  more  striking  evidence  how  un- 

49vscov   v.ai   yip  Sx'jQsiov  TIVS;  a  1:1-  known  these    regions    were,    than 

*vsov"oti  s?  oi'jTO'jc,  T(I)v    &u    j(a^sn°v  *^e  persuasion,  so  general  in  anti- 

istt  TjuQsjQai,  xou  'EXXrjviov  Tibv   ex  quity,  that  the  Caspian  Sea  was  a 

BopujQsMsoi;    TS     e|Ai:Gplo'j     xai     T(i>v  gulf  of  the  ocean,  to  which  Hero- 

a)-).u)v    IlovTixtuv    e(j:T:opla)v.     These  dotus,   Aristotle  and   Ptolemy  are 

Greek  and  Scythian  traders,  in  their  almost  the  only  exceptions.  Alox- 

journey  from    the   Pontiu   seaports  ander    von    Humboldt    has    some 

into  the  interior,    employed  seven  valuable  remarks  on  the  tract  laid 

different   languages    and   as   many  down    by     Herodotus      from    the 

interpreters.  Tanais     to     the     Argipprci     (Asie 

Volckei-    thinks   that  Herodotus  Ceutrale,  vol.  i.  p.  390—400) 

or  his  informants    confounded   the  '  Herodot.  iv.  80. 

Don    with    the    Volga    (Mythische  2  Plerodot.  iv.  99—101.  Dionysius 

Geographic,    sect.  24.  p.  190),   sup-  Pericgetes  seems   to  identify  Cim- 


CHAP.  XVII.    CIMMERIANS  EXPELLED  BY  SCYTHIANS.  247 

manners  and  state  of  civilization  seem  to  have  been  very 
analogous.  It  appears  also  that  the  poAverful  and  numerous 
Massagetae,  who  dwelt  in  Asia  on  the  plains  eastward  of 
the  Caspian  and  southward  of  the  Issedones,  were  so  ana- 
logous to  the  Scythians  as  to  be  reckoned  as  members  of 
the  same  race  by  many  of  the  contemporaries  of  Hero- 
dotus. ! 

This  short  enumeration  of  the  various  tribes  near  the 
Euxine  and  the  Caspian,  as  well  as  we  can  make  invasion  of 
them  out,  from  the  seventh  to  the  fifth  century  Asif.  ^ 

.  ,  „     ,    •>     Scythians 

B.C.,  is  necessary  tor  the  comprehension  or  that  andCimme- 
double  invasion  of  Scythians  and  Cimmerians  rians. 
which  laid  waste  Asia  between  030  and  610  B.C.  We  are 
not  to  expect  from  Herodotus,  born  a  century  and  a  half 
afterwards,  any  very  clear  explanations  of  this  event,  nor 
were  all  his  informants  unanimous  respecting  the  causes 
which  brought  it  about.  But  it  is  a  fact  perfectly  within 
the  range  of  historical  analogy,  that  accidental  aggrega- 
tions of  number,  development  of  aggressive  spirit,  or 
failure  in  the  means  of  subsistence,  among  the  Nomadic 
tribes  of  the  Asiatic  plains,  have  brought  on  the  civilised 
nations  of  Southern  Europe  calamitous  invasions  of  which 
the  primary  moving  cause  was  remote  and  unknown.  Some- 
times a  weaker  tribe,  flying  before  a  stronger,  has  been  in 
this  manner  precipitated  upon  the  territory  of  a  richer  and 
less  military  population,  so  that  an  impulse  originating  in 
the  distant  plains  of  Central  Tartary  has  been  propagated 
until  it  reached  the  southern  extremity  of  Europe,  through 
successive  intermediate  tribes — a  phenomenon  especially 
exhibited  during  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  of  theChristian 
cera.  in  the  declining  years  of  the  Homan  empire.  A  pressure 
so  transmitted  onward  is  said  to  have  brought  down 
the  Cimmerians  and  Scythians  upon  the  more  southerly 
regions  of  Asia.  The  most  ancient  story  in  explanation 
of  this  incident  seems  to  have  been  contained  in  the  epic 
poem  (now  lost)  called  Arimaspia,  of  the  mystic  Aristeas 
of  Prokonnesus,  composed  apparently  about  540  B.C.  This 

merians   and   Tauri    (v.    US:    com-  pares    the    inroads    of   tho    Sakf1, 

paro  v.  G<<n,  where  the  Cimmerians  which    was    the    name    applied   by 

are    placed  on  the  Asiatic    side  of  the  Persians    to   tho    Scythians,  t  > 

the  Cimmerian  Bosphorus,  adjacent  those    of  the   Cimmerians   arid   the 

to  the  Sindi).  Treres  (xi.  p.  511-512). 
1  Herodot.   i.    202.      Strabo    com- 


248  HISTORY  OF  GEEECE.  PAET  II, 

poet,  under  the  inspiration  of  Apollo,1  undertook  a 
pilgrimage  to  visit  the  sacred  Hyperboreans  (especial 
votaries  of  that  god)  in  their  elysium  beyond  the  iihipgeaa 
mountains ;  but  he  did  not  reach  farther  than  the  Issedones. 
According  to  him,  the  movement,  whereby  the  Cimmerians 
had  been  expelled  from  their  possessions  on  the  Euxine 
Sea,  began  with  the  Grypes  or  Griffins  in  the  extreme 
north — the  sacred  character  of  the  Hyperboreans  beyond 
was  incompatible  with  aggression  or  bloodshed.  The 
Grypes  invaded  the  Arimaspians,  who  on  their  part  assail- 
ed their  neighbours  the  Issedones.2  These  latter  moved 
southward  or  westward  and  drove  the  Scythians  across  the 
Tanais;  while  the  Scythians,  carried  forward  by  this  onset, 
expelled  the  Cimmerians  from  their  territories  along  the 
Palus  Moeotis  and  the  Euxine. 

We  see  thus  that  Aristeas  referred  the  attack  of  the 
Cimmerians  Scythians  upon  the  Cimmerians  to  a  distant  im- 
driven  out  pulse  proceeding  in  the  first  instance  from  the 
count'rj  Grypes  or  Griffins.  But  Herodotus  had  heard 
by  the  it  explained  in  another  way  which  he  seems  to 
Scythians,  ^h^jj  more  correct — the  Scythians,  originally 
occupants  of  Asia,  or  the  regions  east  of  the  Caspian,  had 
been  driven  across  the  Araxes,  in  consequence  of  an  un- 
successful war  with  the  Massagetse,  and  precipitated  upon 
the  Cimmerians  in  Europe.3 

When  the  Scythian  host  approached,  the  Cimmerians 
were  not  agreed  among  themselves  whether  to  resist  or 
retire.  The  majority  of  the  people  were  dismayed  and 
wished  to  evacuate  the  territory,  while  the  kings  of  the 
different  tribes  resolved  to  fight  and  perish  at  home.  Those 
who  were  animated  with  such  fierce  despair,  divided  them- 
selves along  with  the  kings  into  two  equal  bodies,  and 
perished  by  each  other's  hands  near  the  river  Tyras,  where 
the  sepulchres  of  the  kings  were  yet  shown  in  the  time  of 
Herodotus.-1  The  mass  of  the  Cimmerians  fled  and  aban- 
doned their  country  to  the  Scythians;  who,  however,  not 
content  with  possession  of  the  country,  followed  the  fugi- 
tives across  the  Cimmerian  Bosphorus  from  west  to  east, 
under  the  command  of  their  prince  Madyes  son  of  Proto- 

1  Herodot.  iv.    13.  (poi^oXajjLrto;      a).),o;  X'JYO?,  j'yoov  u)Si,   TOJ  jj.d).u73 
Yevojjievoc.  XEyo[j.svw  a'j-ros  7:poaxsT[j.at. 

-  Herodot.  iv.  13.  4  Herodot.  iv.  11. 

3  Herodot.  iv.    11.  'Eaii   6s  xal 


CHAP.  XVII.     CIMMERIANS  EXPELLED  BY  SCYTHIANS.  249 

thyes.  The  Cimmerians,  coasting  along  the  east  of  the 
Euxine  Sea  and  passing  to  the  west  of  Mount  Caucasus, 
made  their  way  first  into  Kolchis,  and  next  into  Asia 
Minor,  where  they  established  themselves  on  the  peninsula 
on  the  northern  coast,  near  the  site  of  the  subsequent 
Grecian  city  of  Sinope.  But  the  Scythian  pursuers,  mis- 
taking the  course  taken  by  the  fugitives,  followed  the  more 
circuitous  route  east  of  Mount  Caucasus  near  to  the  Caspian 
Sea;i  which  brought  them,  not  into  Asia  Minor,  but  into 
Media.  Both  Asia  Minor  and  Media  became  thus  exposed 
nearly  at  the  same  time  to  the  ravages  of  northern  Nomads. 

These  two  stories,  representing  the  belief  ofHerodotus 
and  Aristeas,  involve  the  assumption  that  the  Scythians 
were  comparatively  recent  immigrants  into  the  territory 
between  the  Ister  and  the  Palus  Mseotis.  But  the  legends 
of  the  Scythians  themselves,  as  well  as  those  of  the  Pontic 
Greeks,  imply  the  contrary  of  this  assumption;  and  describe 
the  Scythians  as  primitive  and  indigenous  inhabitants  of 
the  country.  Both  legends  are  so  framed  as  to  explain  a 
triple  division,  which  probably  may  have  prevailed,  of  the 
Scythian  aggregate  nationality,  traced  up  to  three  heroic 
brothers:  both  also  agree  in  awarding  the  predominance 
to  the  youngest  brother  of  the  three,2  though,  in  other 
respects,  the  names  and  incidents  of  the  two  are  altogether 
different.  The  Scythians  called  themselves  Skoloti. 

Such  material  differences,  in  the  various  accounts 
mven  to  Herodotus  of  the  Scvthian  and  Cim-  T 

c      .     .  J      -.  Difficulties 

merian   invasions    ot    Asia,   are    by   no    means   in  the  nar- 
wonderful,  seeing  that  nearly  two  centuries  had   rative  of 
elapsed  between  that  event  and  his  visit  to  the 
Pontus.    That  the  Cimmerians  (perhaps  the  northernmost 
portion    of  the   great  Thracian   name    and  conterminous 
with  the  Getae  on  the  Danube)  were  the  previous  tenants 
of  much  of  the  territory  between  the  Ister  and  the  Palus 
Mgeotis,  and  that  they  were  expelled  in  the  seventh  century 
B.C.  by  the  Scythians,  we  may  follow  Herodotus  in  believing. 
But   Niebuhr    has    shown   that   there   is    creat   intrinsic 


1  Tlerodot,  iv.  1 — 12.  the     Tuka — assert    for    themselves 

2  Herodot,  iv.  5 — 9.     At  this  day,  a     legendary     genealogy    deduced 
the   throe    great   tribes    of  the  No-  from    three   brothers   (Frazer,  Xar- 
madic  Turcomans     on    the    north-  rntive    of  a  Journey   in  Khorasan, 
eastern    border   of  Persia   near  the  p.  253). 

Oxua— the  Yamud,  the  Gokla,  and 


250 


HISTORY  OF  GREECE. 


PABT  II. 


improbability  inhis  narrative  of  the  march  of  the  Cimmerians 
into  Asia  Minor,  and  in  the  pursuit  of  these  fugitives  by 
the  Scythians.  That  the  latter  would  pursue  at  all,  when 
an  extensive  territory  was  abandoned  to  them  without 
resistance,  is  hardly  supposable:  that  they  would  pursue 
and  mistake  their  way,  is  still  more  difficult  to  believe:  nor 
can  we  overlook  the  great  difficulties  of  the  road  and  the 
Caucasian  passes,  in  the  route  ascribed  to  the  Cimmerians.  1 
Niebuhr  supposes  the  latter  to  have  marched  into  Asia 
Minor  by  the  western  side  of  the  Euxine  and  across  the 
Thracian  Bosphorus,  after  having  been  defeated  in  a 
decisive  battle  by  the  Scythians  near  the  river  Tyras, 
where  their  last  kings  fell  and  were  interred.2  Though 
this  is  both  an  easier  route,  and  more  in  accordance  with 
the  analogy  of  other  occupants  expelled  from  the  same 
territory,  we  must,  in  the  absence  of  positive  evidence, 
treat  the  point  as  unauthenticated. 

The  inroad  of  the  Cimmerians  into  Asia  Minor  was 
doubtless  connected  with  their  expulsion  from  the  northern 
coast  of  the  Euxine  by  the  Scythians,  but  we  may  well 
doubt  whether  it  was  at  all  connected  (as  Herodotus  had 
been  told  that  it  was)  with  the  invasion  of  Media  by  the 
Scythians,  except  as  happening  near  about  the  same  time. 
The  same  great  evolution  of  Scythian  power,  or  propulsion 
by  other  tribes  behind,  may  have  occasioned  both  events, 

1  Read  the  description  of  the  dif- 
ficult escape  of  Mithridates  Eupa- 
tor,  with  a  mere  handful  of  men 
from  Pontus  to  Bosphorus  by  this 
route,  between  the  western  edge 
of  Caucasus  andthe  Euxine  (Strabo, 
xi.  p.  495  —  496)—  7)  TUJV  'Ay«iu>v  xal 
Z'lfiai  xsi  'Hnoytov  7:7pa).ia  —  all 
piratical  and  barbarous  tribes  —  -y 


;iapa).ta  y_a).sr<L«  r'si,  -a  roXXa  i\i- 
P*ivu>v  ir.i  -rfi  fJi'/.oi33aM  :  compare 
Plutarch,  Pompeius,  c.  34.  Pompey 
thought  the  route  unfit  for  his 
march. 

To  suppose  the  Cimmerian  tribes 
•with  their  waggons  passing  along 
such  a  track  would  require  strong 
positive  evidence.  According  to 
Ptolemy,  however,  there  were  two 
passes  over  the  range  of  Caucasus 
—the  Caucasian  or  Albanian  gates, 


near  Derbend  and  the  Caspian, and 
the  Sarmatian  gates,  considerably 
more  to  the  westward  (Ptolemy, 
Geogr.  v.  9;  Eorbiger,  Handbuch 
der  Alten  Geographic,  vol.  ii.  sect. 
56.  p.  55).  It  is  not  impossible 
that  the  Cimmerians  may  have  fol- 
lowed the  westernmost,  and  the 
Scythians  the  easternmost,  of  these 
two  pas&es;  but  the  whole  story 
is  certainly  very  improbable. 

2  See  Xiebuhr's  Dissertation 
above  referred  to,  p.  366 — 307.  A 
reason  for  supposing  that  the  Cim- 
merians came  into  Asia  Minor  from 
the  west  and  not  from  the  east, 
is,  that  we  find  them  so  much  con- 
founded with  the  Thracian  Trere?, 
indicating  seemingly  a  joint  in- 
vasion. 


CHAP.  XVII.        CIMMERIANS  IN  ASIA  MINOE.  251 

— brought  about  by  differentbodies  of  Scythians,  but  nearly 
contemporaneous. 

Herodotus  tells  us  two  facts  respecting  the  Cimmerian 
immigrants  into  Asia  Minor.     They  committed   Cimmerians 
destructive,  though  transient,  ravages  in  many   in  Asia 
parts  of  Paphlagonia,  Phrygia,  Lydia,  and  Ionia   Mlnor- 
— and  they  occupied  permanently  the  northern  peninsula,1 
whereon  the  Greek  city  of  Sinope  was  afterwards  planted. 
Had  the  elegies  of  the  contemporary  Ephesian  poet  Kalli- 
nus  been  preserved,  we  should  have  known  better  how  to 
appreciate  these  trying  times.  He  strove  to  keep  alive  the 
energy  of  his  countrymen  against  the  formidable  invaders.  '- 

1  Herodot.  i.    6—15  ;    iv.  12.     oat-  a  Cimmerian  prince  who  drove  tlie 

vovT7.i  8s  oi  Ki|j.|/.jpiot,   ^c'JYovTS;  e?  Treres  out  of  Asia  Minor;  whereas 

TTjv  'Ajlrjv  TOO;  Sv.ufJa?  xal  TTJV  Xsp-  Herodotus    mentions    him    as    the 

c6vTiaov  xtlaavTec,    EVT^J   vov  2i-  Scythian    prince     who     drove    the 

vtbr:r]  r.rj\i$  'EX)-T,/l(;  oTxiaTat.  Cimmerians  out   of  their  own  ter- 

1  Kallinus,    Fragment,    2,   3,    ed.  ritory  into  Asia  Minor  (i.  103). 

Bergk.     Nijv  8"  ir.{  Kt(X(j.epi.u>v  atpa-  The  chronology   of  Herodotus  is 

to?    epysTcu     oppijAoepyuv    (Strabo,  intelligible    and     consistent    with 

xiii.  p.  627:  xiv.  633-647).    O.  Mill-  itself:    that    of  Strabo    we    cannot 

ler   (History   of  the   Literature   of  settle,   when   he   speaks    of   runny 

Ancient   Greece,    ch.  x.    s.   4)    and  different   invasions.     Nor   does  Ids 

Mr.  Clinton  (Fasti   Hellenici,    B.C.  language  give  us  the  smallest  rea- 

71C — 635)  may   be   consulted  about  son    to    suppose    that    he    was    in 

the   obscure    chronology    of   these  possession  of  any  means  of  deter- 

events.      The    Scythico-Cimmerian  mining  dates  for  these  early  times 

invasion   of  Asia,    to    which  Hero-  —nothing     at    all     calculated     to 

tlotus   alludes,    appears    fixed   for  justify    the     positive     chronology 

some  date   in   the    reign   of  Ardys  which  Mr.    Clinton    deduces   from 

the  Lydian,  640—629  B.C.,  and  may  him:  compare  Fasti  Hellenici,  B.C. 

stand    for   635    B.C.   as    Mr.  Clinton  035,    629,    617.     Strabo    says,    after 

puts  it.  O.  Muller  is  right,  I  think,  affirming   that   Homer    knew   both 

in    stating    that    the    fragment    of  the    name    and    the    reality    of  the 

the  poet  Kallinus    above  cited  al-  Cimmerians   (i.   p.    6;   iii.  p.  149)— 

ludes    to    this    invasion;     for    the  x«l  Y&p  *«8' "0|X7jpov,  $)  icpo  ctito  o 

supposition    of   Mr.    Clinton    that  fiixpiv,  Xeyouji    TTJV   TU>V  Kipi|Asplo« 

Kallinus    here    alludes    to    an    in-  icooov  -(t'li^tii  TTJV  (J-sy^pi  TTJI;  AloXl- 

vasion   past   and   not  present,    ap-  g0;  xcd   -rrj;   '  luma?— "which  place? 

pears  to  be  excluded  by  the  word  the  first  appearance  oftheCimme- 

vov.     Mr.  Clinton  places  both  Kal-  riims  in  Asia  Minor   a    century    at 

linus  and  Archilochus  (in  my  judge-  least  before    the   Olympiad    of  Co- 

ment)    half    a    century    too    high;  rcobus"    (says    Mr.    Clinton).      35ut 

for  I  agree  with  O.  Muller  in  dis-  what  means  could  Ktrabo  have  1  ad 

believing  the    story  told  by  Pliny  to     chronologise    events     as    hap- 

of  the    picture    sold   by  Bulavchus  peiiing    at    or    a    liftle    before   the 

to  Kandaules.     O.    Muller   follows  time    of   Homer?     !No    date    in  the 

Strabo    (i.  p.  61)   in  calling  Madys  Grecian    world    was   so    couUstid, 


HISTORY  OF  GREECE. 


PART  II. 


From  later  authors  (who  probably  had  these  poems  before 
them)  we  learn  that  the  Cimmerian  host,  having  occupied 


or  so  indeterminable,  as  the  time 
of  Homer :  nor  will  it  do  to  rea- 
son, as  Mr.  Clinton  does,  f.  e.  to 
take  the  latest  date  fixed  for  Ho- 
mer among  many,  and  then  to  say 
that  the  invasion  of  the  Cimmerians 
must  be  at  least  B.C.  876:  thus  as- 
suming it  as  a  certainty  that  whe- 
ther the  date  of  Homer  be  a  cen- 
tury earlier  or  later,  the  invasion 
of  the  Cimmerians  must  be  made 
to  fit  it.  "When  Strabo  employs 
such  untrustworthy  chronological 
standards,  he  only  shows  us  (what 
everything  else  confirms)  that  there 
existed  no  tests  of  any  value  for 
events  of  that  early  date  in  the 
Grecian  world. 

Mr.  Clinton  announces  this  ante- 
Homeric  calculation  as  a  chrono- 
logical certainty  :  "The  Cimmerians 
first  appeared  in  Asia  Minor  about 
a  century  before  B.C.  776.  An  ir- 
ruption is  recorded,  in  B.C.  782. 
Their  last  inroad  was  in  B.C.  635. 
The  settlement  of  Ambron  (the 
Milesian,  at  Sin6p§)  may  be  placed 
at  about  B.C.  782,  twenty-six  years 
before  the  sera  assigned  to  (the 
Milesian  or  Sin&pic  settlement  of) 
Trapezus." 

On  what  authority  does  Mr. 
Clinton  assert  that  a  Cimmerian 
irruption  was  recorded  in  B.C.  762? 
Simply  on  the  following  passage 
of  Orosius,  which  he  cites  at  B.C. 
035  : — "Anno  ante  urbem  conditam 
tricesimo — Tune  etiam  Amazontim 
penfis  et  Cimmeriorum  in  Asiam 
repentinus  incursus  plurimum  diu 
lateque  vastationem  et  stragem  in- 
tulit."  If  this  authority  of  Orosius 
is  to  be  trusted,  we  ought  to  say 
that  the  invasion  of  the  Amazons 
was  a  recorded  fact.  To  treat  a 
fact  mentioned  in  Orosius  (an 
author  of  the  fourth  century  after 
Christ)  and  referred  to  B.C.  782,  as 


a  recorded  fact,  confounds  the  most 
important  boundary-lines  in  regard 
to  the  appreciation  of  historical 
evidence. 

In  fixing  the  Cimmerian  invasion 
of  Asia  at  782  B.C.,  Mr.  Clinton  has 
the  statement  of  Orosius,  whatever 
it  may  be  worth,  to  rest  upon; 
but  in  fxing  the  settlement  of 
Ambron  the  Milesian  (at  Sin6pS) 
at  782  B.C.,  I  know  not  that  ha 
had  any  authority  at  all.  Eusehius 
does  indeed  place  the  foundation 
of  Trapezus  in  756  B.C.,  and  Tra- 
pezus is  said  to  have  been  a  colony 
from  Sin&pS ;  and  Mr.  Clinton 
therefore  is  anxious  to  find  some 
date  for  the  foundation  of  Sin&pS 
anterior  to  756  B.C.;  but  there  is 
nothing  to  warrant  him  in  select- 
ing 782  B.C.,  rather  than  any  other 
year. 

In  my  judgement,  the  establish- 
ment of  any  Milesian  colony  in 
the  Euxine  at  so  early  a  date  as 
756  B.C.  is  highly  improbable:  and 
when  we  find  that  the  same  Euse- 
bius  fixes  the  foundation  of  SinopS 
(the  metropolis  of  Trapezus)  as 
low  down  as  629  B.C.,  this  is  an 
argument  with  me  for  believing 
that  the  date  which  he  assigns  to 
Trapezus  is  by  far  too  early.  Mr. 
Clinton  treats  the  date  which  Eu- 
sebius  assigns  to  Trapezus  as  cer- 
tain, and  infers  from  it,  that  the 
date  which  the  same  author  assigns 
to  Sinope  is  130  years  later  than 
the  reality:  I  reverse  the  inference, 
considering  the  date  which  he  as- 
signs to  Sinope  as  the  more  trust- 
worthy of  the  two,  and  deducing 
the  conclusion,  that  the  date  which 
he  gives  for  Trapezus  is  130  years 
at  least  earlier  than  the  reality. 

On  all  grounds,  the  authority 
of  the  chronologists  is  greater  with 
regard  to  the  later  of  the  two 


CHAP.  XVII.    MAGNESIA  SACKED  BY  THE  CIMMERIANS.         253 

the  Lydian  chief  town  Sardis  (its  inaccessible  acropolis 
defied  them),  poured  with  their  waggons  into  the  fertile 
valley  of  the  Ka'ister,  took  and  sacked  Magnesia  on  the 
Mseander,  and  even  threatened  the  temple  of  Artemis  at 
Ephesus.  But  the  goddess  so  well  protected  her  own  town 
and  sanctuary,1  that  Lygdamis  the  leader  of  the  Cimmeri- 
ans, whose  name  marks  him  for  a  Greek,  after  a  season  of 
prosperous  depredation  in  Lydia  and  Ionia,  conducting  his 
host  into  the  mountainous  regions  of  Kilikia,  was  there 
overwhelmed  and  slain.  Though  these  marauders  perished, 
the  Cimmerian  settlers  in  the  territory  near  Sinope  re- 
mained: and  Ambron,  the  first  Milesian  oekist  who  tried  to 
colonise  that  spot,  was  slain  by  them,  if  we  may  believe 
Skymnus.  They  are  not  mentioned  afterwards,  but  it  seems 
not  unreasonable  to  believe  that  they  appear  under  the 
name  of  the  Chalybes,  whom  Herodotus  mentions  along 
that  coast  between  the  Mariandynians  and  Paphlagonians, 
and  whom  Mela  notices  as  adjacent  to  Sinope  and  Amisus.2 
Other  authors  place  the  Chalybes,  on  several  different 
points,  more  to  the  east,  though  along  the  same  parallel  of 
latitude — between  the  Mosynoeki  and  Tibareni — near  the 
river  Thermodon — and  on  the  northern  boundary  of  Ar- 
menia, near  the  sources  of  the  Araxes;  but  Herodotus  and 
Mela  recognise  Chalybes  westward  of  the  river  Halys  and 

periods    than    to    the    earlier,  and  Ksx).l[x=voi     valouoi      POO;     icopov 

there     is     besides     the    additional  'Ivcr/iiovv;;. 

probability  arising  out  of  what  is  TA  8:1X0;  paoiXitov  oaov  vjXt-er  w 

a     suitable     date      for      Jlilesian  fj.rj  iasXXs 

settlement.  To    which    I  will    add,  OUT'    ay-o;  2xuQiy)vSs  raXijxTCETS;, 

that  Herodotus   places   the   settle-  w-z  it;  aXXo; 

r.ient      of    the     Cimmerians     near  Oaaiov  cv  XSIJAUJVI  KauoTpiuj  r,jav 

"that  spot   where    Sinope    is    now  5u.'ji£ai, 

settled,"    in    the    reign    of  Ardys,         *A'j>  d^ovosT^jEiv 

soon    after    035    B.C.      Sinope    was  In  the  explanation  of  the  proverb 

therefore  not  founded  at  the    time  2x'jOu>v  £pr(;j.lcr,  allusion  is  made  to  a 

when  the  Cimmerians  went   there,  suddenpanie  and  flight  of  Scythians 

in  the  belief  of  Herodotus.  fromEphesus(Hesychius,v.  SxuOibv 

1  Strabo,  i.   p.   Cl  ;   Kallimachus,  Ep7)fi.i«)— probably  this    must    refer 

Hymn,  ad  Dianam,  251 — 200 —  to    some    story    of  interference  on 

r/.'/i'/cov  aXs^i'Ujj.sv  r,-ii.Xr,<js  the  part  of  Artemis  to  protect  the 

(E'fsaov)  town    against    these     Cimmerians. 

A'JYO^UH  63piaTT;c,  ii-t  8s  axpaTOv  The  confusion  between  Cimmerians 

in-YjULoX-fajv  and  Scythians  is  very  frequent. 

*HY^YS    Ki,w.|J-tpiiov,    '^•j.^i^    taov,  ~  Herodot.    i.  28;  Mela,  i.  19,    9; 

01  fa  reap'  au-ov  Skyum.  Chi.  Fragm.  207. 


254  HISTORY  OP  GREECE.  PAET  II. 

the  Paphlagonians,  near  to  Sinope.  These  Chalybes  were 
brave  mountaineers,  though  savage  in  manners ;  distinguish- 
ed as  producers  and  workers  of  the  iron  which  their  moun- 
tains afforded.  In  the  conceptions  of  the  Greeks,  as  mani- 
fested in  a  variety  of  fabulous  notices,  they  are  plainly 
connected  with  Scythians  or  Cimmerians ;  whence  it  seems 
probable  that  this  connexion  was  present  to  the  mind  of 
Herodotus  in  regard  to  the  inland  population  near  Sinope. l 
Herodotus  seems  to  have  conceived  only  one  invasion 
of  Asia  by  the  Cimmerians,  during  the  reign  of  Ardys  in 
Lydia.  Ardys  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Sadyattes,  who 
reigned  twelve  years;  and  it  was  Alyattes,  son  and  suc- 
cessor of  Sadyattes  (according  to  Herodotus),  who  expelled 
the  Cimmerians  from  Asia.2  But  Strabo  seems  to  speak 
of  several  invasions,  in  which  the  Treres,  a  Thracian  tribe, 
were  concerned,  and  which  are  not  clearly  discriminated; 
while  Kallisthenes  affirmed  that  Sardis  had  been  taken  by 
the  Treres  and  Lykians.3  We  see  only  that  a  large  and 

1    The    ten    thousand  Greeks    in  on  the  river   Thermdd&n   seems   to 

their     homeward      march      passed  be   one    of  the   manifestations,    is 

through  a  people   called  Chalybes  discussed  in  Hoeckh,  Kreta,  book 

between  Armenia  and  the  town  of  i.  p.  294 — 305 ;    and   Mannert,   Geo- 

Trapezus,    and    also     again     after  graphie  der  Griechen   und    Homer, 

eight   days'    march    westerly  from  vi.  2.  p.  408—416:    compare  Stephan. 

Trapezus,    between     the    Tibareni  Byz.  v.  XdXupiC.    Mannert  believes 

andMosynceki:  compare Xenophon,  in    an  early  Scythian  immigration 

Anabas.  iv.  7,  15;  v.  5,  1;  probably  into     these     regions.        The      Ten 

different     sections     of     the     same  Thousand  Greeks    passed   through 

people.     The   last-mentioned   Cha-  the    territory    of   a    people  called 

lybes  seem  to  have  been   the   best  Skythini,    immediately     bordering 

known,    from     their    iron    works,  on    the    Chalybes     to    the     north ; 

and    their   greater    vicinity  to  the  which  region    some    identify   with 

Greek  ports  :    Ephorus   recognised  the    Sakasenfj    of  Strabo    (xi.    511) 

them    (see   Ephori    Fragm.   80 — 82,  occupied    (according   to   that    geo- 

ed.    Marx) ;    whether    he    knew    of  grapher)  by  invaders  from  Eastern 

the  more  easterly  Chalybes,  north  Scythia. 

of   Armenia,    is    less    certain:    so  It  seems  that  Sinope  was  one  of 

also  Dionysius  Periegetes,  v.    768;  the    most    considerable   places  for 

compare  Eustathius  ad  loc.  the    export    of    the    iron    used    in 

The  idea  which  prevailed  among  Greece ;  the  Sinopic  as  well  as  the 

ancient    writers,    of    a    connexion  Chalybdic    (or  Chalybic)    iron  had 

between    the    Chalybes     in     these  a    special      reputation      (Stephan. 

regions  and  the  Scythians  or  Cim-  Byz.  v.  Aaxs57.i|ji.io^). 

merians  (XtzXu,^?  SxoQoJv    a-oixot;,  About     the     Chalybes,    compare 

.ZEschyl.     Sept.    ad     Thebas,     729;  Ukert,  Skythien,  p.  521—523. 

and    Hesiod.    ap.     Clemen.     Alex.  2  Herodot.  i.  15,  16. 

Fir.  i.  p.   132),    and    of    which    the  *  Strabo,  xi.  p.  511;  xii.    p.   552; 

supposed  residence  of  the  Amazons  xiii.  p.  627. 


I 

CHAP.  XVII.  SCYTHIANS  IN  UPPER  ASIA.  255 

fair  portion  of  Asia  Minor  was  for  much  of  this  seventh 
century  B.  c.  in  possession  of  these  destroying  Nomads,  who 
while  on  the  one  hand  they  afflicted  the  Ionic  Greeks,  on 
the  other  hand  indirectly  befriended  them  by  retarding  the 
growth  of  the  Lydian  monarchy. 

The  invasion  of  Upper  Asia  by  the  Scythians  appears 
to  have  been  nearly  simultaneous  with  that  of  scythians 
Asia  Minor  by  the  Cimmerians,  but  more  ruinous  in  Upper 
and  longer  protracted.  The  Median  king  Kyax-  Asia' 
ares,  called  away  from  the  siege  of  Nineveh  to  oppose  them, 
was  tot  ally  defeated;  and  the  Scythians  became  full  masters 
of  the  country.  They  spread  themselves  over  the  whole 
of  Upper  Asia,  as  far  as  Palestine  and  the  borders  of  Egypt, 
where  Psamrnetichus  the  Egyptian  king  met  them  and 
only  redeemed  his  kingdom  from  invasion  by  prayers  and 
costly  presents.  In  their  return  a  detachment  of  them 
tacked  the  temple  of  Aphrodite  at  Askalon;  an  act  of 
sacrilege  which  the  goddess  avenged  both  upon  the  plunder- 
ers and  their  descendants,  to  the  third  and  fourth  genera- 
tion. Twenty-eight  years  did  their  dominion  in  Upper 
Asia  continue,1  with  intolerable  cruelty  and  oppression; 
until  at  length  Kyaxares  and  the  Medes  found  means  to 
entrap  the  chiefs  into  a  banquet,  and  slew  them  in  the  hour 
of  intoxication.  The  Scythian  host  once  expelled,  the 
Medes  resumed  their  empire.  Herodotus  tells  us  that  these 
Scythians  returned  to  the  Tauric  Chersonese,  where  they 
i'ound  that  during  their  long  absence,  their  wives  had  inter- 
married with  the  slaves,  while  the  new  offspring  which  had 
grown  up  refused  to  readmit  them.  A  deep  trench  had 
been  drawn  across  a  line  over  which  their  march  lay,2  and 
the  new-grown  youth  defended  it  with  bravery,  until  at 

The     poet    Kallinus    mentioned  to    affect    the    Scythians,    and   the 

both   Cimmerians   and    Treres    (Fr.  religious   interpretation   put  upon 

2,    3,    ed.    Bergk ;    Strabo,   xiv.    p.  them    by    the    sufferers    (De   Ae're, 

C33— C47).  Locis   et  Aquis,   c.  vi.  s.  10G-109). 

1   Herodot.   i.  105.     The    account  2  See,  in  reference  to  the  direc- 

given  by  Herodotus  of  the  punish-  tioii  of  this  ditch,  Volcker,  in  the 

ment     inflicted     by     the     oil'muled  work     above    referred     to    on    the 

Aphrodite    oil   the   Scythian   jilun-  Scythia    of  Herodotus    (Mythische 

<lerers ,     and    on     their    children's  Geographie,  ch.  vii.  p.  177). 

children  down  to  his  time,  becomes  That  the  ditch  existed  there  can 

especially     interesting     when     we  be    no    reasonable    doubt;    though 

combine   it   with   the  statement  of  the    tale    given    by    Herodotus    is 

Hippokrates  respecting  the  pecu-  highly  improbable, 
liar  incapacities  which  were  so  apt 


256  HISTOKY  OP  GREECE.  PAST.  II. 

length  (so  the  story  runs)  the  returning  masters  took  up 
their  whips  instead  of  arms,  and  scourged  the  rebellious 
slaves  into  submission. 

Little  as  we  know  about  the  particulars  of  these  Cim- 
merian and  Scythian  inroads,  they  deserve  notice  as  the 
first  (at  least  the  first  historically  known)  among  the  numer- 
ous invasions  of  cultivated  Asia  and  Europe  by  the 
Nomads  of  Tartary.  Huns,  Avars,  Bulgarians,  Magyars, 
Turks,  Mongols,  Tartars,  &c.  are  found  in  subsequent  cen- 
turies repeating  the  same  infliction,  and  establishing  a 
dominion  both  more  durable,  and  not  less  destructive,  than 
the  transient  scourge  of  the  Scythians  during  the  reign  of 
Kyaxares. 

After  the  expulsion  of  the  Scythians  from  Asia,  the 
full  extent  and  power  of  the  Median  empire  was 
Expulsion  re-established;  and  Kyaxares  was  enabled  again 
Nomads,  to  besiege  Nineveh.  He  took  that  great  city, 
after  a  tem-  an(j  reduced  under  his  dominion  all  the  Assyri- 
cupation?  ans  except  those  who  formed  the  kingdom  of 
Babylon.  This  conquest  was  achieved  towards 
the  close  of  his  reign,  and  he  bequeathed  the  Median  em- 
pire, at  the  maximum  of  its  grandeur,  to  his  son  Astyages, 
in  595  B.  c.1 

As  the  dominion  of  the  Scythians  in  Upper  Asia  lasted 
twenty-eight  years  before  they  were  expelled  by  Kyaxares, 
so  also  the  inroads  of  the  Cimmerians  through  Asia  Minor, 
which  had  begun  during  the  reign  of  the  Lydian  king 
Ardys,  continued  through  the  twelve  years  of  the  reign  of 
L  dian  his  son  Sadyattes  (629-617  B.  c.)?  and  were  finally 
khigsansa-  terminated  by  Alyattes,  son  of  the  latter.2 
dyattes  Notwithstanding  the  Cimmerians,  however, 

and  Aly-  . ,  .  •,.,. 

attes— war  Sadyattes  was  in  a  condition  to  prosecute  a  war 
against  Mi-  against  the  Grecian  city  of  Miletus,  which  con- 
tinued during  the  last  seven  years  of  his  reign, 
and  which  he  bequeathed  to  his  son  and  successor.  Aly- 
attes continued  the  war  for  five  years  longer.  So  feeble 

1  Herodot.    i.    106.     Mr.    Clinton  ten  years  of  the  reign  of  Kyaxares. 

fixes    the   date    of   the    capture    of  2  From  whom  Polyaenus  borrow- 

Nineveh    at   C06  B.C.   (F.  H.  vol.  i-  ed    his    statement,    that    Alyattes 

p.  209),  upon  grounds  which  do  not  employed  with  effect   savage  dogs 

appear  to   me  conclusive:   the  ut-  against  the  Cimmerians,    I  do   not 

most  -which    cau   be    made   out   is,  know  (Polyren.  vii.  2,  1). 
that  it   was  taken   during  the  last 


CHAP.  XVII.  SACRILEGE  OF  ALYATTES.  257 

was  the  sentiment  of  union  among  the  various  Grecian 
towns  on  the  Asiatic  coast,  that  none  of  them  would  lend 
any  aid  to  Miletus  except  the  Chians,  who  were  under 
special  obligations  to  Miletus  for  previous  aid  in  a  contest 
against  Erythrae.  The  Milesians  unassisted  were  no  match 
for  a  Lydian  army  in  the  field,  though  their  great  naval 
strength  placed  them  out  of  all  danger  of  a  blockade ;  and 
we  must  presume  that  the  erection  of  those  mounds  of 
earth  against  the  walls,  whereby  the  Persian  Harpagus 
vanquished  the  Ionian  cities  half  a  century  afterwards,  was 
then  unknown  to  the  Lydians.  For  twelve  successive  years 
the  Milesian  territory  was  annually  overrun  and  ravaged, 
previous  to  the  gathering  in  of  the  crop.  The  inhabitants, 
after  having  been  defeated  in  two  ruinous  battles,  gave  up 
all  hope  of  resisting  the  devastation;  so  that  the  task  of 
the  invaders  became  easy,  and  the  Lydian  army  pursued 
their  destructive  march  to  the  sound  of  flutes  and  harps. 
While  ruining  the  crops  and  the  fruit-trees,  Alyattes  would 
not  allow  the  farm-buildings  or  country-houses  to  be  burnt, 
in  order  that  the  means  of  production  might  still  be  pre- 
served, to  be  again  destroyed  during  the  following  season. 
By  such  unremitting  devastation  the  Milesians  were  re- 
duced to  distress  and  famine,  in  spite  of  their  command  of 
the  sea.  The  fate  which  afterwards  overtook  them  during 
the  reign  of  Croesus  of  becoming  tributary  subjects  to  the 
throne  of  Sardis,  would  have  begun  half  a  century  earlier, 
had  not  Alyattes  unintentionally  committed  a  profanation 
against  the  goddess  Athene.  Her  temple  at  Assessus 
accidentally  took  fire  and  was  consumed,  when  gacr;le  e 
his  soldiers  on  a  windy  day  were  burning  the  committed 
Milesian  standing  corn.  Though  no  one  took  ^^le— °S 
notice  of  this  incident  at  the  time,  yet  Alyattes  he  makes 
on  his  return  to  Sardis  was  smitten  with  pro-  j^net*  With 
longed  sickness.  Unable  to  obtain  relief,  he 
despatched  envoys  to  seek  humble  advice  from  the  god  at 
Delphi.  But  the  Pythian  priestess  refused  to  furnish  any 
healing  suggestions  until  he  should  have  rebuilt  the  burnt 
temple  of  Athene, — and  Periander,  at  that  time  despot  of 
Corinth,  having  learnt  the  tenor  of  this  reply,  transmitted 
private  information  of  it  to  Thrasybulus  despot  of  Miletus, 
with  whom  he  was  intimately  allied.  Presently  there  ar- 
rived at  Miletus  a  herald  on  the  part  of  Alyattes,  proposing 
a  truce  for  the  special  purpose  of  enabling  him  to  rebuild 

VOL.  III.  S 


258  HISTOEY  OF  GBEECE.  PAET  II 

the  destroyed  temple — the  Lydian  monarch  believing  the 
Milesians  to  be  so  poorly  furnished  with  subsistence  that 
they  would  gladly  embrace  such  temporary  relief.  But 
the  herald  on  his  arrival  found  abundance  of  corn  heaped 
up  in  the  agora,  and  the  citizens  engaged  in  feasting  and 
enjoyment;  for  Thrasybulus  had  caused  all  the  provision 
in  the  town,  both  public  and  private,  to  be  brought  out, 
in  order  that  the  herald  might  see  the  Milesians  in  a  con- 
dition of  apparent  plenty,  and  carry  the  news  of 
it  to  his  master.  The  stratagem  succeeded.  Alyattes, 
under  the  persuasion  that  his  repeated  devastation 
inflicted  upon  the  Milesians  no  sensible  privations, 
abandoned  his  hostile  designs,  and  concluded  with  them  a 
treaty  of  amity  and  alliance.  It  was  his  first  proceeding 
to  build  two  temples  to  Athene,  in  place  of  the  one  which 
had  been  destroyed,  and  he  then  forthwith  recovered  from 
his  protracted  malady.  His  gratitude  for  the  cure  was 
testified  by  the  transmission  of  a  large  silver  bowl,  with 
an  iron  footstand  welded  together  by  the  Chian  artist 
Glaukus — the  inventor  of  the  art  of  thus  joining  together 
pieces  of  iron.1 

Alyattes  is  said  to  have  carried  on  other  operations 
Long  reign  against  some  of  the  Ionic  Greeks:  he  took 
<detth~i  Smyrna,  but  was  defeated  in  an  inroad  on  the 
chreSof)U  territory  of  Klazomense. 2  But  on  the  whole  his 
Alyattes.  long  reign  of  fifty-seven  years  was  one  of  tran- 
quillity to  the  Grecian  cities  on  the  coast,  though  we  hear 
of  an  expedition  which  he  undertook  against  Karia.3  He 
is  reported  to  have  been  during  youth  of  overweening  in- 
solence, but  to  have  acquired  afterwards  a  just  and  im- 
proved character.  By  an  Ionian  wife  he  became  father  of 
Croesus,  whom  even  during  his  lifetime  he  appointed  satrap 
of  the  town  of  Adramyttium  and  the  neighbouring  plain 
of  Thebe.  But  he  had  also  other  wives  and  other  sons, 
and  one  of  the  latter,  Adramytus,  is  reported  as  the  found- 
er of  Adramyttium.4  How  far  his  dominion  in  the  in- 
terior of  Asia  Minor  extended,  we  do  not  know,  but  very 

1  Herodot.  i.  20-23.  Mr.  Clinton  states  Alyattes  to 

1  Herodot.  i.  IS.  Polyaenus  (vii. 2,  have  conquered  Karia,  and  also 

2)  mentions  a  proceeding  ofAlyat-  ^Eolis,   for   neither  of  -which   do  I 

t6s  against  the  Kolophonians.  find  sufficient  authority  (FaJti 

3  Xikolaus  Damasken.  p.  54.  ed.  Hellen.  ch.  xvii.  p.  29=.. 

Orelli;    Xanthi    Fragment,    p.  243,  4    Aristoteles    ap.   Stephen.   Byz. 

Creuzer.  v.  'A5pau.'j™eTov. 


CHAP.  XVII.    CECESUS  CONQUERS  THE  ASIATIC  GREEKS.        259 

probably  his  long  and  comparatively  inactive  reign  may 
have  favoured  the  accumulation  of  those  treasures  which 
afterwards  rendered  the  wealth  of  Crcesus  so  proverbial. 
His  monument,  an  enormous  pyramidal  mound  upon  a 
stone  base,  erected  near  Sardis  by  the  joint  efforts  of  the 
whole  Sardian  population,  was  the  most  memorable  curio- 
sity in  Lydia  during  the  time  of  Herodotus.  It  was  in- 
ferior only  to  the  gigantic  edifices  of  Egypt  and  Babylon.1 
Croesus  obtained  the  throne,  at  the  death  of  his  father, 
by  appointment  from  the  latter.  But  there  was  _ 

J  ii-ir-  JIT         Croesus, 

a  party  among  the  Lydians  who  had  favoured  the 

pretensions  of  his  brother  Pantaleon.  One  of  the  richest 
chiefs  of  that  party  was  put  to  death  afterwards  by  the 
new  king,  under  the  cruel  torture  of  a  spiked  carding 
machine — his  property  being  confiscated.2  The  aggressive 
reign  of  Crcesus,  lasting  fourteen  years  (559-545  B.C.), 
formed  a  marked  contrast  to  the  long  quiescence  of  his 
father  during  a  reign  o  f  fifty-seven  years. 

Pretences  being  easily  found  for  war  against  the  Asia- 
tic Greeks,  Crcesus  attacked  them  one  after  the  He  attacks 
other.  Unfortunately  we  know  neither  the  par-  an<^  co"' 
ticulars  of  these  successive  aggressions,  nor  the  Asiatic 
previous  history  of  the  Ionic  cities,  so  as  to  be  Greeks- 
able  to  explain  how  it  was  that  the  fifth  of  the  Mermnad 
kings  of  Sardis  met  with  such  unqualified  success,  in  an 
enterprise  which  his  predecessors  had  attempted  in  vain. 
Miletus  alone,  with  the  aid  of  Chios,  had  resisted  Alyattes 
and  Sadyattes  for  eleven  years — and  Crcesus  possessed  no 
naval  force,  any  more  than  his  father  and  grandfather. 
But  on  this  occasion,  not  one  of  the  towns  can  have  dis- 
played the  like  individual  energy.  In  regard  to  the  Mile- 
sians, we  may  perhaps  suspect  that  the  period  now  under 
consideration  was  comprised  in  that  long  duration  of  in- 
testine conflict  which  Herodotus  represents  (though  with- 
out defining  exactly  when)  to  have  crippled  the  forces  of 
the  city  for  two  generations,  and  which  was  at  length  ap- 
peased by  a  memorable  decision  of  some  arbitrators  invited 
from  Paros.  These  latter,  called  in  by  mutual  consent  of 
the  exhausted  antagonist  parties  at  Miletus,  found  both 
the  city  and  her  territory  in  a  state  of  general  neglect  and 
ruin.  But  on  surveying  the  lands,  they  discovered  some 
which  still  appeared  to  be  tilled  with  undiminished  diligence 

1  Ilcroilot.  i.  92,  93.  »  Hcrodot.  i.  92. 


260  HISTOKY  OF  GREECE.  PAET  II. 

and  skill:  to  the"  proprietors  of  these  lands  they  con- 
signed the  government  of  the  town,  in  the  belief  that  they 
would  manage  the  public  affairs  with  as  much  success  as 
their  own.1  Such  a  state  of  intestine  weakness  would 
partly  explain  the  easy  subjugation  of  the  Milesians  by 
Croesus;  while  there  was  little  in  the  habits  of  the  Ionic 
cities  to  present  the  chance  of  united  efforts  against  a  com- 
Want  of  mon  enemy.  These  cities,  far  from  keeping  up 
coopera-  anv  effective  political  confederation,  were  in  a 

tion  among       ,  *         P  ,     -,-:r  T.I  e         •>       ,1  T 

the  ionic  state  ot  habitual  jealousy  or  each  other,  and  not 
cities.  unfrequently  in  actual  war.2  The  common  re- 

ligious festivals — the  Deliac  festival  as  well  as  the  Pan- 
Ionia,  and  afterwards  the  Ephesia  in  place  of  the  Delia — 
seem  to  have  been  regularly  frequented  by  all  the  cities 
throughout  the  worst  of  times.  But  these  assemblies  had 
no  direct  political  function,  nor  were  they  permitted  to 
control  that  sentiment  of  separate  city-autonomy  which 
was  paramount  in  the  Greek  mind — though  their  influence 
was  extremely  precious  in  calling  forth  social  sympathies. 
Apart  from  the  periodical  festival,  meetings  for  special 
emergences  were  held  at  the  Pan-Ionic  temple;  but  from 
such  meetings  any  city,  not  directly  implicated,  kept  aloof.3 
As  in  this  case,  so  in  others  not  less  critical  throughout 
the  historical  period — the  incapacity  of  large  political  com- 
bination was  the  source  of  constant  danger,  and  ultimately 
proved  the  cause  of  ruin,  to  the  independence  of  all  the 
Grecian  states.  Herodotus  warmly  commends  the  advice 
given  by  Thales  to  his  Ionic  countrymen — and  given  (to 
use  his  remarkable  expression)  "before  the  ruin  of  Ionia"* 

1    Herodot.   v.    28.     xa-'JTrsp&s   8e  generations,  at  an  early  period  torn 

To'JTswv,    k-\  ?'Jo  YEVSSI;   dvopibv  vo-  by     intestine     dissension,     could 

OTjoaaa  -in  [iiXtaTa  oToioei.  hardly  have  meant  these    "two  ge- 

Alyattgs      reigned      tifty-seven  nerations"  to  apply  to  a  time  ear- 
years,  and  the  vigorous  resistance  Her  than  617  B.C. 
•which  the  Milesians  offered  to  him  2  Herodot.  i.  17;  vi.  99;  Athento. 
took  place  in  the  first  six  years  of  vi.  p.  267.   Compare  K.  P.  Hermann, 
his  reign.    The    utwo   generations  Lehrbuch  der  Griech.  Staats-Alter- 
of  intestine  dissension"  may  well  thiimer,  sect.  77.  note  28. 
have  succeeded   after  the  reign  of 

Thrasybulus.  This  indeed  is  a  mere  '  See  **e  remarkable  case  of  M,- 
conjecture,  yet  it  may  be  observed  'etus  sendln«  "o  deputies  to  a  Pan- 
that  Herodotus,  speaking  of  the  Ionic  meeting ,  being  safe  herself 
time  of  the  Ionic  revolt  (600  B.C.),  from  danSer  (Herodot.  i.  141). 
and  intimating  that  Miletus,  though  *  Herodot.  i.  141-170.  ypvjuTTj  ?£ 
then  peaceable,  had  been  for  two  xal  r.pi-i  TJ  Siao9apf(vai  'Iu>vir,v,  6i- 


CHAP.  XVII.  IONIC  GBEEK3.  261 

— that  a  common  senate,invested  with  authority  over  all  the 
twelve  cities,  should  be  formed  within  the  walls  of   Unavailin 
Teos,  as  the  most  central  in  position;  and  that  all   suggestion 
the  other  cities  should  account  themselves  mere   °f  j^lgs~ 
demes    of   this    aggregate    commonwealth     or   the  twelve 
Polis.     And  we  cannot  doubt  that  such  was  the   ^to^ne*68 
unavailing  aspiration  of  many  a  patriot  of  Mile-   Pan-ionic 
tus  or  Ephesus,  even  before  the  final  operations   ^J  at 
of  Croesus  were  opened  against  them. 

That  prince  attacked  the  Greek  cities  successively, 
finding  or  making  different  pretences  for  hostility  against 
each.  He  began  with  Ephesus,  which  is  said  to  have  been 
then  governed  by  a  despot  of  harsh  and  oppressive  charac- 
ter, named  Pindarus,  whose  father  Melas  had  married  a 
daughter  of  Alyattes,and  who  was  therefore  himself  nephew 
of  Croesus.  *  The  latter,  having  in  vain  invited  Pindarus 
and  the  Ephesians  to  surrender  the  town,  brought  up  his 
forces  and  attacked  the  walls.  One  of  the  towers  being 
overthrown,  the  Ephesians  abandoned  all  hope  of  defending 
their  town,  and  sought  safety  by  placing  it  under  Capture  of 
the  guardianship  of  Artemis,  to  whose  temple  Ephesus. 
they  carried  a  rope  from  the  walls — a  distance  little  less 
than  seven  furlongs.  They  at  the  same  time  sent  a  message 
of  supplication  to  Croesus,  who  is  said  to  have  granted  them 
the  preservation  of  their  liberties,  out  of  reverence  to  the 
protection  of  Artemis;  exacting  at  the  same  time  that  Pin- 
darus should  quit  the  place.  Such  is  the  tale  of  which  we 
find  a  confused  mention  in  JElian  and  Polysenus.  But 
Herodotus,  while  he  notices  the  fact  of  the  long  rope  where- 
by the  Ephesians  sought  to  place  themselves  in  contact 
•\vith  their  divine  protectress,  does  not  indicate  that  Croesus 
was  induced  to  treat  them  more  favourably.  Ephesus,  like 

}.£u>     <i^?&os    Mi/.Yjtjiou     YVU)(J.YJ    i~(i-  time  •when  ho  was  hereditary  prince, 

•VJTO,  &c.  and  in  the   life -time    of  Alyattes. 

About    the   Pan -Ionia    and    the  He   had   borrowed  a  large    sum  of 

F/phesia,  see  Thucyd.  iii.  101 ;  Dio-  money  from  a  rich  Ephesian  named 

nys.  Halik-iv.  25;   Herodot.  i.  143-  Pamphaes  ,  which  was  essential  to 

148.    Compare  also  Whitt",  De  Re-  enable    him   to  perform  a  military 

bus  Chiorum  Publicis,  sect.  vii.  p.  duty    imposed    upon    him    by    Ids 

father.    The  story  is  given  in  some 

1  Tf  we  may  believe  the  narrative  detail  by  Nikolaus  ,    Eragm.  p.  54, 

of  Xikolaus  Dainaskenus  ,    Croesus  ed.  Orell.— I  know  not  upon  what 

had  been  in  relations  with  Ephesus  authority. 
and  with  the  Ephesians  during  the 


262  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

all  the  other  Grecian  towns  on  the  coast,  was  brought  under 
subjection  and  tribute  to  him.1  How  he  dealt  with  them, 
and  what  degree  of  coercive  precaution  he  employed  either 
to  ensure  subjection  or  collect  tribute,  the  brevity  of  the 
historian  does  not  acquaint  us.  But  they  were  required 
partially  at  least,  if  not  entirely,  to  raze  their  fortifications; 
for  on  occasion  of  the  danger  which  supervened  a  few 
vears  afterwards  from  Cyrus,  they  are  found  practically  un- 
fortified. 2 

Thus  completely  successful  in  his  aggressions  on  the 
continental  Asiatic  Greeks,  Croesus  conceived  the  idea  of 
assembling  a  fleet,  for  the  purpose  of  attacking  the  islanders 
of  Chios  and  Samos;  but  became  convinced  (as  some  said, 
by  the  sarcastic  remark  of  one  of  the  seven  Greek  sages, 
Bias  or  Pittakus)  of  the  impracticability  of  the  project. 
He  carried  his  arms,  however,  with  full  success,  over  other 
parts  of  the  continent  of  Asia  Minor,  until  he  had  subdued 
the  whole  territory  within  the  river  Halys,  excepting  only 
rr.mi  the  Kilikians  and  the  Lykians.  The  Lydian 

ill-  «*  • 

king  of  all  empire  thus  reached  the  maximum  of  its  power, 
westward  comprehending,  besides  the  ./Eolic,  Ionic,  and 
of  the  Doric  Greeks  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  the 

Halys.  Phrygians.  Mysians,  Mariandynians,    Chalybes, 

Paphlagonians,  Thynian  and  Bithynian  Thracians,  Karians, 
and  Pamphylians.  And  the  treasures  amassed  by  Croesus 
at  Sardis,  derived  partly  from  this  great  number  of  tribu- 
taries, partly  from  mines  in  various  places  as  well  as  the 
auriferous  sands  of  the  Paktolus,  exceeded  anything  which 
the  Greeks  had  ever  before  known. 

We  learn,  from  the  brief  but  valuable  observations  of 
Herodotus,  to  appreciate  the  great  importance  of  these 
conquests  of  Croesus,  with  reference  not  merely  to  the 

1  Herodot.  i.  26  ;  ^lian,  V.  H.  iii.  from   the   city   to   the   Arteraision, 

20;  Polysen.  vi.  50.    The  story  con-  we  may  quote    an  analogous   case 

tained     in    yElian     and     Polysenus  of    the     Kylonian     suppliants     at 

seems   to  come  from  Bat6n   of  Si-  Athens,    who   sought   to  maintain 

nope:    see  Guhl,   Ephesiaca,  ii.  3.  their    contact    with    the    altar    by 

p.  26,  and  iv.  6.  p.  150.  means    of  a  continuous  cord  — un- 

The  article  in  Suidas,  v.  'Apt-  fortunately  the  cord  broke  (Plu- 
OTapyo;,  is  far  too  vague  to  be  in-  tarch,  Solon,  c.  12). 
terwoven  as  a  positive  fact  into  2  Herodot.  i.  141.  "Iiovsc  SE,  co; 
Ephesian  history  (as  Guhl  inter-  rjxo'Jjav  —  ~-l'/.=-^  ~-  ~sf  i^i'-'-v/To 
weaves  it)  immediately  consequent  I/.337ot,  &c. :  compare  also  the  state- 
on  the  retirement  of  Pindarus.  ment  respecting  Phokasa,  c.  1CS. 

In  reference  to  the  rope  reaching 


CHAP.  XVII.     ALTERATION  OF  THE  HELLENIC  WORLD.          263 

Grecian  cities  actually  subjected,  but  also  indirectly  to  the 
whole  Grecian  world. 

"Before  the  reign  of  Croesus  (observes  the  historian) 
all  the  Greeks  were  free :  it  was  by  him  first  that 

,    ,        ,    .     .        .    .,  J,      .,  -,    ,         I\ew  and 

Greeks   were  subdued  into  tribute."     And  he   important 
treats  this  event  as  the  initial  phenomenon  of   o^/01- the 
theseries,  out  of  which  grew  the  hostile  relations   world— 
between  the  Greeks  on  one  side,  and  Asia  as   cpmmen- 
represented  by  the  Persians  on  the  other,  which   the  cod- 
were  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  himself  and  his    <iuests  of 

Crcesus. 

contemporaries. 

It  was  in  the  case  of  Crcesus  that  the  Greeks  were 
first  called  upon  to  deal  with  a  tolerably  large  barbaric 
aggregate  under  a  warlike  and  enterprising  prince,  and  the 
result  was  such  as  to  manifest  the  inherent  weakness  of 
their  political  system,  from  its  incapacity  of  large  com- 
bination. The  separated  autonomous  cities  could  only 
maintain  their  independence  either  through  similar  disunion 
on  the  part  of  barbaric  adversaries — or  by  superiority,  on 
their  own  side,  of  military  organisation  as  well  as  of 
geographical  position.  The  situation  of  Greece  proper 
and  of  the  islands  was  favourable  to  the  maintenance  of 
such  a  system:  not  so  the  shores  of  Asia  with  a  wide  in- 
terior country  behind.  The  Ionic  Greeks  were  at  this  time 
different  from  what  they  became  during  the  ensuing  cen- 
tury. Little  inferior  in  energy  to  Athens  or  to  the  general 
body  of  European  Greeks,  they  could  doubtless  have  main- 
tained their  independence,  had  they  cordially  combined. 
But  it  will  be  seen  hereafter  that  the  Greek  colonies — 
planted  as  isolated  settlements,  and  indisposed  to  political 
union,  even  when  neighbours — all  of  them  fell  into  depend- 
ence so  soon  as  attack  from  the  interior  came  to  be  power- 
fully organised;  especially  if  that  organisation  was  conduct- 
ed by  leaders  partially  improved  through  contact  with  the 
Greeks  themselves.  Small  autonomous  cities  maintain 
themselves  so  long  as  they  have  only  enemies  of  the  like 
strength  to  deal  with:  but  to  resist  larger  aggregates  re- 
quires such  a  concurrence  of  favourable  circumstances  as 
can  hardly  remain  long  without  interruption.  And  the 
ultimate  subjection  of  entire  Greece,  under  the  kings  of 
ilacedon,  was  only  an  exemplification  on  the  widest  scale 
of  this  same  principle. 


264  HISTOBY  OF  GEEECE.  PAHT  II. 

The  Lydian  monarchy  under  Croesus,  the  largest  with 
A  .  f  which  the  Greeks  had  come  into  contact  down 
the  Lydian  to  that  moment,  was  very  soon  absorbed  into  a 
empire  con-  s^\\  larger — the  Persian;  of  which  the  Ionic 

tmued  on  a     -^         ,      °  „,  .,.  '      .    , 

still  larger  Greeks,  after  unavailing  resistance,  became  the 
scale  by  the  subjects.  The  partial  sympathy  and  aid  which 
they  obtained  from  the  independent  or  European 
Greeks,  their  western  neighbours,  followed  by  the  fruitless 
attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Persian  king  to  add  these  latter 
to  his  empire,  gave  an  entirely  new  turn  to  Grecian  history 
and  proceedings.  First,  it  necessitated  a  degree  of  cen- 
tral action  against  the  Persians  which  was  foreign  to  Greek 
political  instinct;  next,  it  opened  to  the  noblest  and  most 
enterprising  section  of  the  Hellenic  name — the  Athenians 
— an  opportunity  of  placing  themselves  at  the  head  of  this 
centralising  tendency;  while  a  concurrence  of  circumstances, 
foreign  and  domestic,  imparted  to  them  at  the  same  time 
that  extraordinary  and  many-sided  impulse,  combining 
action  with  organisation,  which  gave  such  brilliancy  to  the 
period  of  Herodotus  and  Thucydides.  It  is  thus  that  most 
of  the  splendid  phsenomena  of  Grecian  history  grew,  directly 
or  indirectly,  out  of  the  reluctant  dependence  in  which  the 
Asiatic  Greeks  were  held  by  the  inland  barbaric  powers, 
beginning  with  Croesus. 

These  few  observations  will  suffice  to  intimate  that  a 
new  phase  of  Grecian  history  is  now  on  the  point  of  open- 
ing. Down  to  the  time  of  Croesus,  almost  everything 
which  is  done  'Or  suffered  by  the  Grecian  cities  bears  only 
upon  one  or  other  of  them  separately:  the  instinct  of  the 
Greeks  repudiates  even  the  modified  form  of  political  cen- 
tralisation, and  there  are  no  circumstances  in  operation 
to  force  it  upon  them.  Relation  of  power  and  subjection 
exists  between  a  strong  and  a  weak  state,  but  no  tendency 
to  standing  political  coordination.  From  this  time  for- 
ward, we  shall  see  partial  causes  at  work,  tending  in  this 
direction,  and  not  without  considerable  influence;  though 
always  at  war  with  the  indestructible  instinct  of  the  nation, 
and  frequently  counteracted  by  selfishness  and  misconduct 
on  the  part  of  the  leading  cities. 


CHAP.  XVIII.  PHENICIAN9.  265 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

PHENICIANS, 

OF  the  Phenicians,  Assyrians,  and  Egyptians,  it  is  neces- 
sary for  me  to  speak  so  far  as  they  acted  upon  the  condi- 
tion, or  occupied  the  thoughts,  of  the  early  Greeks,  without 
undertaking  to  investigate  thoroughly  their  previous  his- 
tory. Like  the  Lydians,  all  three  became  absorbed  into 
the  vast  mass  of  the  Persian  empire,  retaining  however 
their  social  character  and  peculiarities  after  having  been 
robbed  of  their  political  independence. 

The  Persians  and  Medes — portions  of  the  Arian  race, 
and  members  of  what  has  been  classified,  in  respect  of  lan- 
guage, as  the  great  Indo-European  family — oc-   pheuicians 
cupied  a  part  of  the  vast  space  comprehended   and  Assy- 
between  the  Indus  on  the  east,  and  the  line  of  members 
Mount  Zagros  (running  eastward  of  the  Tigris   of  the  Se- 
and  nearly  parallel  with  that  river)  on  the  west,   family  of 
The  Phenicians  as  well  as  the  Assyrians  be-   the  human 
longed  to  the  Semitic,  Aramaean,  or  Syro-Ara-   ' 
bian  family,  comprising,  besides,  the  Syrians,  Jews,  Arabi- 
ans, and  in  part  the  Abyssinians.     To  what  established 
family  of  the  human  race  the  swarthy  and  curly-haired 
Egyptians  are  to  be  assigned,  has  been  much  disputed. 
We  cannot  reckon  them  as  members  of  either  of  the  two 
preceding,  and  the  most  careful  inquiries  render  it  prob- 
able that  their  physical  type  was  something  purely  African, 
approximating  in  many  points  to  that  of  the  Xegro. l 

1  See  the  discussion  in  Dr.  Pri-  ties  (observes  Dr.  Prichard,  p.  13S), 

chard,  Natural  History  of  Man,  the  Egyptians  were  an  African 

sect-  xvii.  p.  152.  race.  In  the  eastern  and  even  in 

M^XaY'/posi;  xai  ouXorptys?  (Hero-  the  central  parts  of  Africa,  we 
dot.  ii.  104;  compare  Ammian.  shall  trace  the  existence  of  various 
Miticell.  xxii.  16,  "subfusculi,  tribes  in  physical  characters  nearly 
atrati,"'  &c.)  are  certain  attributes  resembling  the  Egyptians;  and  it 
of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  depend-  would  not  be  difficult  to  observe 
injt  upon  the  evidence  of  an  eye-  among  many  nations  of  that  con- 
witness,  tinent  a  gradual  deviation  from 

'•In  their  complexion,  and  in  the  physical  type  of  the  Egyptian 

many  of  their  physical  peculiar!-  to  the  strongly-marked  character 


•266  HISTOEY  OF  GEEECE.  PABT  II. 

It  has  already  been  remarked  that  the  Phenician  mer- 
chant and  trading  vessel  figures  in  the  Homeric  poems  as 
a  well-known  visitor,  and  that  the  variegated  robes  and 
golden  ornaments  fabricated  at  Sidon  are  prized 
sencJ  of6"  among  the  valuable  ornaments  belonging  to 
Phenician  the  chiefs. l  We  have  reason  to  conclude  gener- 
Gr'ecian  the  a^y>  *nat  *n  these  early  times,  the  Phenicians 
seas— in  the  traversed  the  ./Egean  Sea  habitually,  and  even 
times"0  formed  settlements  for  trading  and  mining  pur- 
poses upon  some  of  its  islands.  On  Thasos,  es- 
pecially, near  the  coast  of  Thrace,  traces  of  their  aban- 
doned gold-mines  were  visible  even  in  the  days  of  Herodotus, 
indicating  both  persevering  labour  and  considerable  length 
of  occupation.  But  at  the  time  when  the  historical  sera 
opens,  they  seem  to  have  been  in  course  of  gradual  retire- 
ment from  these  regions.2  Their  commerce  had  taken  a 
different  direction.  Of  this  change  we  can  furnish  no  par- 
ticulars; but  we  may  easily  understand  that  the  increase  of 
the  Grecian  marine,  both  warlike  and  commercial,  would 
render  it  inconvenient  for  the  Phenicians  to  encounter 

of    the    Negro,    and    that    without  don :    see    Hesiodi  Fragment,  xxx. 

any  very  decided   break   or   inter-  ed     Marktscheffel,   and  Etymolog. 

ruption.     The    Egyptian   language  Magnum,  v.  BufiXo;. 

also,    in   the   great    leading    prin-  2    The     name     Adramyttion     or 

ciples  of  its  grammatical  construe-  Atramyttion  (very  like  the  Africo- 

tion,    bears   much  greater  analogy  Phenician    name    Adrumetum)    is 

to    the    idioms    of  Africa  than  to  said    to    be     of    Phenician    origin 

those  prevalent  among  the  people  (Olshausen.  De  Origine  Alphabet!, 

of  other  regions."  p.  7,  jn  Kieler   Philologische   Stu- 

1    Homer,    Iliad,    vi.  200;    xxiii.  dien,  1841).     There    were   valuable 

740;  Odyss.  xv.  116:—  mines    afterwards  worked   for  the 

....    r.t'-).oi  zajA-oixtX&i,   Ipy*  account  of  Croesus  near  Pergamus, 

Y'jvsttxtov  and  these  mines  may  have  tempted 

Si$ovicuv.  Phenician  settlers  to  those  regions 

Tyre  is  not  named  either  in  the  (Aristotel.   Mirab.   Auscult.    c.  52), 

Iliad  or  Odyssey,  though  a  passage  The  African  inscriptions,   in  the 

in  Probus  (ad  Virg.  Georg.  ii.  115)  Monumenta   Phoenic.    of  Gesenius, 

sec-ms   to  show    that   it   was  men-  recognise  Makar  as  a  cognomen  of 

tioned    in   one   of  the  epics  which  Baal:    and   Movers   imagines    that 

passed  under  the  name  of  Homer:  the  hero  Makar,   who    figures  con- 

"Tyrum    Sarram    appellatam   esse,  spicuously    in    the    mythology    of 

Homerus   docet:    quern   etiam  En-  Lesbos,  Chios,  Samos,  K6s,  Rhodes, 

nius    sequitur    cum    dicit,    Posnos  &c.,  is   traceable  to  this  Phenician 

Sarra  oriundos."  god  andl'henician  early  settlements 

The  Hesiodic  catalogue  seems  to  in  those  islands  (Movers,  die  Reli- 

have  noticed  both  Byblus  and  Si-  gion  der  Phonicier,  p.  420). 


CHAP.  XVIII.  PHENICIAXS.  267 

such  enterprising  rivals — piracy  (or  private  war  at  sea) 
being  then  an  habitual  proceeding,  especially  with  regard 
to  foreigners. 

The  Phenician  towns  occupied  a  narrow  strip  of  the 
coast  of  Syria  and  Palestine,  about  120  miles  in   situation 
length — never  more,  and  generally  much  less,   and  cities 
than  twenty  miles  in  breadth — between  Mount    c 
Libanus  and  the  sea.    Aradus  (on  an  islet,  with  Antaradus 
and  Marathus  over  against  it  on  the  mainland)  was  the 
northernmost,    and  Tyre  the  southernmost  (also  upon  a 
little  island,  with  Palse-Tyrus  and  a  fertile  adjacent  plain 
over  against  it).     Between  the  two  were  situated  Sidon, 
Berytus,  Tripolis,  and  Byblus,  besides  some  smaller  towns  l 

1  Strabo,  xvi.  p.  754-758;  Skylax,  living    in    an    island    even    in   the 

Peripl.    c.    104 ;    Justin,     xviii.    3 ;  time     of    their    king    Hiram,    the 

Arrian,    Exp.  Al.  ii.    16-19;    Xeno-  contemporary  of  Solomon  (Joseph, 

phon,  Anab.  i.  5,. 6.  Ant.  Jud.  viii.  2,  7).   Arrian  treats 

Unfortunately  the  text  of  Skylax  the     temple     of    Herakles     in   the 

is  here    extremely    defective,    and  island   Tyre    as   the   most    ancient 

Strabo's  account  is  in  many  points  temple  within  the  memory  of  man 

perplexed,     from    his    not    having  (Exp.  Al.  ii.  16).    The  Tyrians  also 

travelled   in   person   through  Phe-  lived    on   their   island   during    the 

nicia,   Ccele-Syria,    or   Judaa:    see  invasion    of    Salmaneser     king    of 

Grosskurd's  note  on  p.  755,  and  the  Nineveh,  and  their  position  enabled 

Einleitung  to   his   Translation    of  them    to     hold    out    against    him, 

Strabo,  sect.  6.  while    Paloc-Tyrus    on     the     terra 

Respecting  the  original  relation  firma    was    obliged   to    yield  itself 

between    Palse-Tyrus     and     Tyre,  (Joseph,  ib.  ix.    14,    2).     The    town 

there   is    some  difficulty   in  recon-  taken    (or   reduced    to  capitulate), 

ciling    all   the   information,   little  after  a  long   siege,    by  Xebuchad- 

as   it   is,    which    we    possess.     The  nezzar,    was     the     insular    Tyrus, 

name  Pahe-Tyrus  (it  has   been  as-  not  the  continental  or  Palaj-Tyrus, 

sumed  as  a  matter  of  course  :  com-  which     had     surrendered     without 

pare     Justin,    xi.    10)    marks     that  resistance  to  Salmancser.   It  is  not 

town   as    the    original   foundation  correct,     therefore,     to     say — with 

from    which     the    Tyrians     subse-  Volney     (Recherches      sur     1'Hist. 

quently    moved    into    the    island:  Anc.  ch.  xiv.  p.  249),  Heoren  (Ideen 

there  was  also  on  the   mainland  a  iiber  den  Verkehr  tier  Alten  Welt, 

place    named    Palrc-Byblos    (Plm.  part  i.  Abth.  2.  p.  11)  and  others — 

H.  X.  v.  2);  Ptolem.  v.  15),  which  that    the   insular  Tyro    was    called 

was    in   like  manner  construed  as  now    Tyre,    and    that    the    site    of 

the  original  seat  from  whence  the  Tyro  was  changed  from  continental 

town  properly   called  Byblus    was  to  insular,   in    consequence  of  the 

derived.    Yet  the  account  of  Hero-  taking  of  the  continental  Tyre  by 

dotus  plainly  represents  the  insular  Nebuchadnezzar:  the  site  remained 

Tyrus,  with  its  temple  of  Heraklos,  unaltered,  and  the  insular  Tyrians 

as  the  original  foundation  (ii.  44),  became    subject     to    him    and    his 

auu  the  Tvrians    are   described   as  successors  until  the  destruction  of 


268  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  IL 

attached  to  one  or  other  of  these  last-mentioned,  and 
several  islands  close  to  the  coast  occupied  in  like  manner; 
while  the  colony  of  Myriandrus  lay  farther  north,  near  tho 
borders  of  Kilikia.  Whether  Sidon  or  Tyre  was  the  most 
ancient,  seems  not  determinable.  If  it  be  true,  as  some 
authorities  affirmed,  that  Tyre  was  originally  planted  from 
Sidon,  the  colony  must  have  grown  so  rapidly  as  to  surpass 
its  metropolis  in  power  and  consideration;  for  it  became 
the  chief  of  all  the  Phenician  towns. l  Aradus,  the  next 

the  Chaldzean  monarchy  by  Cyrus,  insular  situation;  for  the  adjacent 
Hengstenberg's  Dissertation,  De  mainland,  whereon  Palze-Tyrus  was 
Rebus  Tyriorum  (Berlin,  1832),  is  placed,  was  a  fertile  plain,  thus 
instructive  on  many  of  these  points:  described  by  William  of  Tyre 
he  shows  sufficiently  that  Tyre  was,  during  the  time  of  the  Crusaders  :— 
from  the  earliest  times  traceable,  "Erat  prsedicta  civitas  non  solum 
an  insular  city;  but  he  wishes  at  munitissima,  sed  etiam  fertilitate 
the  same  time  to  show,  that  it  was  praecipua  et  amoenitate  quasi  sin- 
also,  from  the  beginning,  joined  gularis :  nam  licet  in  medio  rnari 
on  to  the  mainland  by  an  isthmus  sita  est,  et  in  modum  insulse  tota 
(p.  10-25) — which  is  both  incon-  fluctibus  cinuta;  habet  tamen  pro 
sistent  with  the  former  position  foribus  latiiundium  per  omnia 
and  unsupported  by  any  solid  commendabile,  et  planitiem  sibi 
proofs.  It  remained  an  island  continuam  divitis  glebse  et  opimi 
strictly  so-called,  until  the  siege  soli,  multas  civibus  ministrans 
by  Alexander:  the  mole,  by  which  commoditates.  Quse  licet  modica 
that  conqueror  had  stormed  it,  videaturrespectualiarumregionum, 
continued  after  his  day,  perhaps  exiguitatem  suam  multa  redimit 
enlarged,  so  as  to  form  a  perma-  ubertate,  ct  infinita  jugera  mul- 
nent  connection  from  that  time  tiplici  foecuuditate  compensat.  Nee 
forward  between  the  island  and  tamen  tautis  arctatur  angustiis. 
the  mainland  (Plin.  H.  N.  v.  19;  Protenditur  enim  in  Austrum  versus 
Strabo,  xvi.  p.  757),  and  to  render  Ptolemaidem  usque  ad  eum  locum, 
the  insular  Tyrus  capable  of  being  qui  hodie  vulgo  dicitur  districtum 
included  by  Pliny  in  one  compu-  Scandarionis,  milliaribus  quatuor 
tation  of  circumference  jointly  aut  quinque  :  e  regiouein  Septeutri- 
with  PaltE-Tyrus,  the  mainland  onem  versus  Sareptam  et  Sidonem 
town.  iterum  porrigitur  totidem  milliari- 

It  may  be  doubted  whether  we  bus.  In  latitudinem  vero  ubi  mini- 
know  the  true  meaning  of  the  mum  ad  duo,  ubi  plurimum  ad 
word  which  the  Greeks  called  tria,  habens  milliaria."  (Apud 
[laXcu-Tupoi;.  It  is  plain  that  the  Hengstenberg  ut  sup.  p.  5.)  Com- 
Tyrians  themselves  did  not  call  pare  Maundrell,  Journey  from 
it  by  that  name:  perhaps  the  The-  Aleppo  to  Jerusalem,  p.  50,  ed. 
nician  name  which  this  continental  1749;  and  Volney,  Travels  in 
adjacent  town  bore,  may  have  Egypt  and  Syria,  vol.  ii.  p.  210 
been  something  resembling  Pala>-  — 226. 

Tyrus  in  sound  but  not  coincident  '  Justin    (xviii.     3)     states     that 

in  meaning.  Sidon  was  the  metropolis  of  Tyre, 

The  strength  of  Tyre    lay    in  its  but  the  series  of  events    which  he 


OHAP.  XVIII.  TYKE.  2G9 

in  importance  after  these  two,  was  founded  by  exiles  from 
Sidon,  and  all  the  rest  either  by  Tyrian  or  Sidonian  settlers. 
Within  this  confined  territory  was  concentrated  a  greater 
degree  of  commercial  wealth,  enterprise,  and  manufacturing 
ingenuity,  than  could  be  found  in  any  other  portion  of  the 
contemporary  world.  Each  town  was  an  independent  com- 
munity, having  its  own  surrounding  territory  and  political 
constitution  and  its  own  hereditary  prince;1  though  the 
annals  of  Tyre  display  many  instances  of  princes  assas- 
sinated by  men  who  succeeded  them  on  the  throne.  Tyre 
appears  to  have  enjoyed  a  certain  presiding,  perhaps  con- 
trolling, authority  over  all  of  them,  which  was  not  always 
willingly  submitted  to;  and  examples  occur  in  which  the 
inferior  towns,  when  Tyre  was  pressed  by  a  foreign  enemy,2 
took  the  opportunity  of  revolting,  or  at  least  stood  aloof. 
The  same  difficulty  of  managing  satisfactorily  the  relations 
between  a  presiding  town  and  its  confederates,  which  Grecian 
history  manifests,  is  found  also  to  prevail  in  Phenicia,  and 
will  be  hereafter  remarked  in  regard  to  Carthage;  while 
the  same  effects  are  also  perceived,  of  the  autonomous  city 
polity,  inkeeping  alive  theindividual  energies  andregulated 
aspirations  of  the  inhabitants.  The  predominant  sentiment 
of  jealous  town-isolation  is  forcibly  illustrated  by  the  cir- 
cumstances of  Tripolis,  established  jointly  by  Tyre,  Sidon, 
and  Aradus.  It  consisted  of  three  distinct  towns,  each  one 
furlong  apart  from  the  other  two,  and  each  with  its  own 
separate  walls;  though  probably  constituting  to  a  certain 
extent  one  political  community,  and  serving  as  a  place  of 
common  meeting  and  deliberation  for  the  entire  Pheniciau 
name.3  The  outlying  promontories  of  Libanus  and  Anti- 
Libanus  touched  the  sea  along  the  Phenician  coast,  and 
those  mountainous  ranges,  though  rendering  a  large  portion 
of  the  very  confined  area  unlit  tor  cultivation  of  corn,  furn- 
ished what  was  perhaps  yet  more  indispensable  —  abundant 

recounts  is    confused  and  unintel-  and    Sidon   to    have   been  founded 

ligible.    Strabo  also,  in  one  place,  "by  AgenAr  (iv.  4,  15). 

calls  Sidon  tbe  fA7)Tp6:i:o),i<;  TU>M  <t>m-  '  Seo  the  interesting  citations  of 

vixwi   (i.  p.  40);    in    another   place  Joscphus  from  Dius  and  Monander, 

ho   states    it   as    a    point    disputed  who  had  access  to  the  Tyrian  a-va- 


,T.  x.   11,   1). 

-  Joseph.  Antiqq.  .T.  ix.  14,  2. 
3  Diodor.  xvi.  41;  Skylax,   c.  104. 


270  HISTORY  OF  GBEECE.  PART  II. 

supplies  of  timber  for  ship-building;  while  the  entire 
want  of  all  wood  in  Babylonia,  except  the  date  palm, 
restricted  the  Assyrians  of  that  territory  from  maritime 
traffic  on  the  Persian  Ghilf.  It  appears  however  that  the 
mountains  of  Lebanon  also  afforded  shelter  to  tribes  of 
predatory  Arabs,  who  continually  infested  both  the  Pheni- 
cian  territory  and  the  rich  neighbouring  plain  of  Ccele- 
Syria. J 

The  splendid  temple  of  that  great  Phenician  god 
(Melkarth),  whom  the  Greeks  called  Herakles,2  was  situated 
in  Tyre.  The  Tyrians  affirmed  that  its  establishment  had 
been  coeval  with  the  first  foundation  of  the  city,  2300 
years  before  the  time  of  Herodotus.  This  god,  the  com- 
panion and  protector  of  their  colonial  settlements,  and  the 
ancestor  of  the  Phcenico-Libyan  kings,  is  found  especially 
at  Carthage,  Gades  and  Thasos.3  Some  supposed  that  the 
Phenicians  had  migrated  to  their  site  on  the  Mediterranean 
coast  from  previous  abodes  near  the  mouth  of  the  Euphrates,4 


1  Strabo,  xvi.  p.  756.  one  idea  started   was,   that  he  had 

7  A  Maltese  inscription  identifies  visited  these  Sidonians  in  the  Per- 

the  Tyrian  Melkarth  with  'HpaxXTJs  sian  Gulf,  or  in  the  Erythraean  Sea 

(Gesenius,  Monument.  Phrenic,  tab.  (Strabo,    i.    p.    42).     The    various 

vi.).  opinions  which  Strabo  quotes,  in- 

3  Herodot.   ii.  44;    Sallust,  Bell,  eluding  those  of  Eratosthenes  and 
Jug.  c.  18 ;    Pausan.   x.  12,   2 ;    Ar-  Krates,   as    well   as  his    own  com- 
rian,  Exp.  Al.  ii.  16;  Justin,  xliv.  ments,    are    very   curious.    Krates 
5:  Appian,  vi.  2.  supposed  that  Menelaus  had  passed 

4  Herodot.  i.  2;    Ephorus,   Frag,  the   Straits    of  Gibraltar    and    cir- 
40,  ed.  Marx;  Strabo,  xvi.  p.  766 —  cumnavigated   Libya   to   -(Ethiopia 
784,  with  Grosskurd's  note  on  the  and    India,    which    voyage    would 
former   passage;    Justin,    xviii.   3.  suffice    (he   thought)  to  fill  up  the 
In  the  animated  discussion  carried  eight  years.     Other   supposed  that 
on  among  the  Homeric  critics  and  Menelaus   had   sailed  first   up  the 
the  great  geographers  of  antiquity,  Nile,  and  then   into    the  Red  Sea, 
to  ascertain  u-here  it  was  that  Me-  by   :means    of   the    canal    (8iiup'j;) 
nelaus    actually    went   during  his  which  existed  in    the    time  of  the 
eight  years'  wandering  (Odyss.  iv.  Alexandrine    critics    between    the 
g5) —  Nile  and  the  sea;  to  which  Strabo 

^  Y«p   TCoXXoc    ittxQ<i>v   xcxt    noXX'  replies    that    this    canal    was    not 

E-aXTjOsli;  made  until  after  the  Trojan  war. 

'HY«YO[J.T]V  ev  vr(ooi)  xcu  oyoodtToj  Eratosthengs  stated  a  still  more 

ETEI  rjXGov,  remarkable  idea:  he  thought  that 

K'!>-pov,<I>oivixY]v  TE,  xoci  AtYU-Tlouq  in  the  time  of  Homer  the  Strait 

i::aXr9s!<;  of  Gibraltar  had  not  yet  been  burst 

AifHorai;  T'  ix6[XT)v,  xat  2i5ovious,  open,  so  that  the  Mediterranean 

xsl  'EpEjJi'-io'J!;,  was  on  that  side  a  closed  sea; 

Kai  AiJi'JTjV,  &c,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  its  level 


CHAP.  XVIII.  UTICA.— CARTHAGE.-GADES.  271 

or  on  islands  (named  Tylus  and  Aradus)  of  the  Persian 
Gulf;  while  others  treated  the  Mediterranean  Phenicians 
as  original,  and  the  others  as  colonists.  Whether  such  be 
the  fact  or  not,  history  knows  them  in  no  other  portion  of 
Asia  earlier  than  in  Phenicia  proper. 

Though  the  invincible  industry  and  enterprise  of  the 
Phenicians  maintained  them  as  a  people  of  im-   Phemcian 
portance  down   to  the   period   of  the   Roman   commerce 

•     i       f   j.1      •  •  i  flourished 

empire,  yet  the  period  01  their  widest  range  more  in  the 
and  greatest  efficiency  is  to  be  sought  much  ^rlief 
earlier — anterior  to  700  B.C.  In  these  remote  the  later 
times  they  and  their  colonists  were  the  exclusive  times, 
navigators  of  the  Mediterranean:  the  rise  of  the  Greek 
maritime  settlements  banished  their  commerce  to  a  great 
degree  from  the  ^Egean  Sea,  and  embarrassed  it  even  in 
the  more  westerly  waters.  Their  colonial  establishments 
were  formed  in  Africa,  Sicily,  Sardinia,  the  Balearic  Isles, 
and  Spain.  The  greatness  as  well  as  the  antiquity  of  Car- 
thage, Utica,  and  Gades,  attest  the  long-sighted  plans  of 
Phenician  traders,  even  in  days  anterior  to  the  first  Olym- 
piad. We  trace  the  wealth  and  industry  of  Tyre,  and  the 
distant  navigation  of  her  vessels  through  the  Red  Sea  and 
along  the  coast  of  Arabia,  back  to  the  days  of  David  and 
Solomon.  And  as  neither  Egyptians,  Assyrians,  Persians, 
or  Indians,  addressed  themselves  to  a  sea-faring  life,  so  it 
seems  that  both  the  importation  and  the  distribution  of  the 

•was  then  so   mticli   higher,    that  it  teg  — that Menelaushadsailed  round 

covered  the  Isthmus   of  Suez,   and  Africa— it  is   to  be   remarked  that 

joined    the    lied    Sea.     It   was    (he  all    the    geographers    of    that  day 

thought)     the     disruption      of    the  formed  to  themselves  a  very  insuf- 

Strait  of  Gibraltar  which  first  low-  fieient   idea  of   the   extent   of  that 

ered    the  level    of  tl.o  -water,    and  continent,     believing    that    it    did 

left    the     Isthmus     of    Suez     dry;  not  even  reach  so  far  southward  as 

though  Menelaus,  in  his  time,  had  the  equator. 

sailed  from  the  Mediterranean  into  Strabo  himself  adopts  neither  of 

the    Bed    Sea     without     difficulty,  these  three  opinions,  but  construes 

This  opinion  Eratosthenis  had  im-  the  Homeric  words    describing  the 

bibed  from  Straton  of  Lampsukus,  wanderings     of    Meuelaus     as    ap- 

tlie      successor     of   Theophrastus  :  plying  only  to  the  coasts  of  Egypt, 

Hipparchus     controverted    it,     to-  Libya.  Phonicia,  &c.     He  suggests 

pother  with  many  other  of  the  opin-  various  reasons,  more  curious  than, 

ions    of    Eratothenes    (see    Strabo,  convincing,    to    prove    that    Meiie- 

i.  pp.  3^,49,56;  Seidel.   1'ragmenta  laus    may    easily   have  spent  eight 

Eratosthenii,  p.  39).  years     in     these     visits     of    mix.;d 

In  i-ui'-TCiice  to  the  view  of  Kra-  friendship  and  piracy. 


272  IIISTOBY  OF  GKEECE.  PART  II. 

products  of  India  and  Arabia  into  Western  Asia  and  Europe 
were  performed  by  the  Idumsean  Arabs  between  Petra  and 
the  Red  Sea — by  the  Arabs  of  Gerrha  on  the  Persian 
Gulf,  joined  as  they  were  in  later  times  by  a  body  of  Chal- 
dsean  exiles  from  Babylonia — and  by  the  more  enterprising 
Phenicians  of  Tyre  and  Sidon  in  these  two  seas  as  well  as 
in  the  Mediterranean.1 

The  most  ancient  Phenician  colonies  were  Utica, 
nearly  on  the  northernmost  point  of  the  coast  of  Africa 
and  in  the  same  gulf  (now  called  the  Gulf  of  Tunis)  as 
Carthage,  over  against  Cape  Lilybseum  in  Sicily — and 
Gades,  or  Gadeira,  in  Tartessus,  or  the  south- 
coionTes1—  western  coast  of  Spain.  The  latter  town,  found- 
utica,  Car-  ed  perhaps  near  1000  years  before  the  Christian 
eiesg(&c.  *"  sera?2  nas  maintained  a  continuous  prosperity, 
and  a  name  (Cadiz)  substantially  unaltered,  longer 
than  any  town  in  Europe.  How  well  the  site  of  TJtica 
was  suited  to  the  circumstances  of  Phenician  colonists  may 
be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  Carthage  was  afterwards  es- 
tablished in  the  same  gulf  and  near  to  the  same  spot,  and 
that  both  the  two  cities  reached  a  high  pitch  of  prosperity. 
The  distance  of  Gades  from  Tyre  seems  surprising,  and  if 
we  calculate  by  time  instead  of  by  space,  the  Tyrians  were 
separated  from  their  Tartessian  colonists  by  an  interval 
greater  than  that  which  now  divides  an  Englishman  from 
Bombay;  for  the  ancient  navigator  always  coasted  along 
the  land,  and  Skylax  reckons  seventy-five  days3  of  voyage 
from  the  Kanopic  (westernmost)  mouth  of  the  Nile  to  the 
pillars  of  Herakles  (Strait  of  Gibraltar);  to  which  some 

1  SeeEitter,  Erdkunde  von  Asien,  v.  FaSsTpoc).    Archaleus  is  a  version 

West-Asien,   Buoh  iii.  Abtheilung  of  the  name  Hercules,  in  the  opin- 

iii.  Absohnitt  i.  s.  29.  p.  50.  ion  of  Movers. 

1  Strabo  speaks  of  the  earliest  3  Skylax,  Periplus,  c.  110.  "Car- 
settlements  of  the  Phenicians  in  teia,  ut  quidam  putant,  aliquando 
Africa  and  Iberia  as  [M-/.poM  TIJOV  Tartossus ;  et  quam  transvecti  ex 
Tptoixibv  uiTEpov  (i.  p.  48).  Utica  Africa  Phcenices  habitant,  atque 
is  affirmed  to  have  been  287  years  unde  nos  sumus,  Tingentcra," 
earlier  than  Carthago  (Aristut.  (Mela,  ii.  G,  75.)  The  expression 
Mirab.  Auscult.  c.  134) :  compare  transvecti  ex  Africa  applies  as  much 
Vclleius  Paterc.  i.  2.  v  to  the  Phenicians  as  to  the  Cartha- 

Archaleus,   son   of  Phcenix,   was  ginians :   "ufergue  Panus"1   (Horat. 

stated  as  the   founder  of  Gades  in  Od.  ii.  11)  means  the  Carthaginians, 

th^  Phenician   history  of  Claudius  and  the  Pheuicians  of  Gades. 
Julius,  now  lost  (Etymolog.  Magn. 


CiiAp.  XVIII.     PHENICIAN  COMMERCE  FKOM  GADES.  273 

more  days  must  be  added  to  represent  the  full  distance 
between  Tyre  and  Grades.  But  the  enterprise  of  these  early 
mariners  surmounted  all  difficulties  consistent  with  the 
principle  of  never  losing  sight  of  the  coast.  Proceeding 
along  the  northern  coast  of  Libya,  at  a  time  when  the 
mouths  of  the  Xile  were  still  closed  by  Egyptian  jealousy 
against  all  foreign  ships,  they  appear  to  have  found  little  temp- 
tation to  colonise1  on  the  dangerous  coast  near  to  the  two 
gulfs  called  the  Great  and  Little  Syrtis — in  a  territory  for 
the  most  part  destitute  of  water,  and  occupied  by  rudeLiby- 
an  Nomads,  who  were  thinly  spread  over  the  wide  space  be- 
tween the  western  Nile2and  Cape  Hermsea,  now  called  Cape 
Bona.  The  subsequent  Grecian  towns  of  Kyrene  and  Barka, 
whose  well-chosen  site  formed  an  exception  to  the  general 
character  of  the  region,  were  not  planted  with  any  view  to 
commerce;3  while  the  Phenician  town  of  Leptis,  near  the 
gulf  called  the  Great  Syrtis,  was  established  more  as  a  shelter 
for  exiles  from  Sidon,  than  by  a  preconcerted  scheme  of 
colonization.  The  site  of  TItica  and  Carthage,  in  the  gulf 
immediately  westward  of  Cape  Bona,  was  convenient  for 
commerce  with  Sicily,  Italy  and  Sardinia;  and  the  other 
Phenician  colonies,  Adrumetum,  Neapolis,  Hippo  (two 
towns  so  called),  the  Lesser  Leptis,  &c.,  were  settled  on 
the  coast  not  far  distant  from  the  eastern  or  western 


1  Strabo,  xvii.  p.  630.  CV.pe    Soloeis    with    what    is    iiovr 

-   Capo    Soloeis,     considered     by  called  Cape  Cnntin;    Heeron    con- 

TTerodotus      as     the     westernmost  siders  it   to    lie    the    same   as  Cape 

headland    of    Libya,    coincides    in  Blanco;      Bougainville      as      Cape 

name     with     the    Phcniciaii     town  Boyador. 

Soloeis    in    Western    Sicily,     also  '  Sallust, Bell.  Jug.  c.  78,    It  was 

(s  •  eminglv)     with     {lie     Phenician  termed      Leptis     Magna,     to     dis- 

settlement  Surf  (Mela,  ii.  6,  05)  in  tinguish    it    from    another    Leptis, 

Southern  Ib.-ria  or  Tartessus.  Cape  more  to    the  westward    and  nearer 

Hermrea  was  the  name  of  the  north-  to  Carthage,    called  Leptis  Farva: 

eastern    headland    of    the    Gulf   of  but  this  latter  seems  to  have  been 

Tunis,  and  also  the  name  of  a  cape  generally  known  by  the  name  Lep- 

in  Libya  two  days'    sail  westward  tis  (Forlnger,  Alte  Gcogr.  sect.  109. 

of  the  Pillars  of  Herakles  (Skylax,  p.  814).     In  Leptis  Magna  the  pro- 

c.  111).  portion  of  Phenician  colonists  was 

Probably  all  the  re  mark  able  head-  so  inconsiderable  that  the  Phenician 

lauds  in  these   seas   received  their  language  had  been  lost,  and  that  of 
ni'mes  Vrom  the  Phenicians.     Bath 
Munnert   (Geogr.    d.  Gr.   und  liiim. 
x.   2.    p.    4!'5)    and    Forbiger    (Alte 
Ceogr.    sect.    111.    p.   S>J7)    identify 

VOL.  HI. 


the  natives,  whom  ballust  calls 


274  HISTOEY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

promontories  which  included  the  Gulf  of  Tunis,   common, 
to  Carthage  and  Utica. 

These  early  Phenician  settlements  were  planted  thus 

in  the  territory  now  known  as  the  kingdom  of  Tunis  and 

the  eastern  portion  of  the  French  province  of 

Commerce        ,-,  i  •  -n  n        T-.-II 

of  the  Oonstantme.      _r  rom   tnence   to   the  irillars  01 

of  fTadls-8  Herakles  (Strait  of  Gibraltar)  we  do  not  hear  of 

towards  any  others.      But  the  colony  of  Gades,  outside 

Africa  on  Of  the  Strait,  formed  the  centre  of  a  flourishing 

one  side  -,  .   '  ,  .   ,  •,     j 

and  Britain  and.  extensive  commerce,  wnicn  reached,  on  one 
on  the  gjd  e  far  to  the  south,  not  less  than  thirty  days'  sail 
along  the  western  coast  of  Africa l — and  on  the 
other  side  to  Britain  and  the  Scilly  Islands.  There  were 
numerous  Phenician  factories  and  small  trading  towns 
along  the  western  coast  of  what  is  now  the  empire  of  Mo- 
rocco; while  the  island  of  Kerne,  twelve  days'  sail  along 
the  coast  from  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar,  formed  an  es- 
tablished depot  for  Phenician  merchandise  in  trading  with 
the  interior.  There  were,  moreover,  not  far  distant  from 
the  coast,  towns  of  Libyans  or  Ethiopians,  to  which  the 
inhabitants  of  the  central  regions  resorted,  and  where  they 
brought  their  leopard  skins  and  elephants'  teeth  to  be  ex- 
changed against  the  unguents  of  Tyre  and  the  pottery  of 
Athens.2  So  distant  a  trade  with  the  limited  navigation 

1  Strabo,    xvii.    p.   825,  826.     He  esting    and     valuable    Travels    of 

found  it   stated   by    some   authors  Dr.  Earth,  the  last  describer  of  this 

that    there    had    once    been    three  now    uninviting    region — Wande- 

hundred     trading     establishments  rungeii  durch  die  Kustenlander  des 

along   this   coast,   reaching   thirty  Mittelmeers,  ch.  i.  p.  23-49.    I  had 

days' voyage  southward  from  Tingis  in    my    former     edition     followed 

(Tangier);  but  that  they  had  been  Strabo  in  confounding  Tingis  with 

chiefly  ruined  by  the  tribes  of  the  Lixns  :  an  error  pointed  out  by  Dr. 

interior— the    Puarusians    and    Xi-  Earth,  and  by  Grosskurd. 
gritae.     He  suspects  the  statement         2  Compare  Skylax,  c.  111.  and  tho 

of   being    exaggerated,    but    there  Periplus    of   Hauno,    ap.    Hudson, 

seems  nothing  at  all  incredible  in  it.  Geogr.    Gja-c.   Min.    vol.    i.   p.   l-'l. 

From  Strabo's  language  we  gather  I  have   already    observed   that  the 

that   Eratosthenes    set     forth     the  Tapiyo;  (salt  provisions)  from  Ga- 

statement   as   in  his  judgement    a  deira    was    currently    sold    in    the 

true   one.    The   text   of  Strabo,    p.  markets  of  Athens,  from  the  Pelo- 

.C25,  as  we  read  It,  confounds  Tinpis  ponnesian  war   downward.— Eupo- 

with     Lixus ;      another     Phenician  lis,  Fragm.  23  ;  MzpixS;,  p.  506,  ed. 

settlement  about  two  days' journey  Meineke,  Comic.  Grac. 
southward    along    the    coast,    and          Ilc/Tsp'    f/<    TO  lipr/o;;    Op'iytov  vj 
according    to    some    reports    even  FaoEip'-xiv: 

Older   than  Gades.     See   the  inter-  Compare    the    citations    from    thl 


CHAP.  XVIII.     PHEXICIAN  COMMEECE  FROM  CADES.  275 

of  that  day,  could  not  be  made  to  embrace  very  bulky 
goods. 

But  this  trade,  though  seemingly  a  valuable  one,  con- 
stituted only  a  small  part  of  the  sources  of  wealth,  open 
to  the  Phenicians  of  Grades.  The  Turditanians  and  Tur- 
duli,  who  occupied  the  south-western  portion  of  Spain 
between  the  Anas  river  (Guadiana)  and  the  Mediterranean, 
seem  to  have  been  the  most  civilized  and  improveable  sec- 
tion of  the  Iberian  tribes,  well-suited  for  commercial  rela- 
tions with  the  settlers  who  occupied  the  Isle  of  Leon,  and 
who  established  the  temple,  afterwards  so  rich  and  fre- 
quented, of  the  Tyrian  Herakles.  And  the  extreme  pro- 
ductiveness of  the  southern  region  of  Spain,  in  _ 

,  .,  -,  n          -L      .-,•  Productive 

corn,  fish,  cattle,  and  wine,  as  well  as  in  silver  re.ci' m 
ond  iron,  is  a  topic  upon  which  we  find  but  one   r°lllld  <*a- 

-1      ,          .,  rnl       ,         .,  des,  called 

language  among  ancient  writers.  Ine  territory  Tartessus. 
round  Gades,  Carteia,  and  the  other  Phenician 
settlements  in  this  district,  was  known  to  the  Greeks  in 
the  sixth  century  B.C.  by  the  name  of  Tartessus,  and  re- 
garded by  them  somewhat  in  the  same  light  as  Mexico  and 
Peru  appeared  to  the  Spaniards  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
For  three  or  four  centuries  the  Phenicians  had  possessed 
the  entire  monopoly  of  this  Tartessian  trade,  without  any 
rivalry  on  the  part  of  the  Greeks.  Probably  the  metals 
there  procured  were  in  those  days  their  most  precious  ac- 
quisition, and  the  tribes  who  occupied  the  mining  regions 
of  the  interior  found  a  new  market  and  valuable  demand, 
for  produce  then  obtained  with  a  degree  of  facility  exag- 
gerated into  fable.1  It  was  from  Gades  as  a  centre  that 
these  enterprising  traders,  pushing  their  coasting  voyage 
yet  far!  her,  established  relations  with  the  tin-mines  of 
Cornwall,  perhaps  also  with  amber-gatherers  from  the 
coasts  of  the  Baltic.  It  requires  some  effort  to  cai'ry  back 
our  imaginations  to  the  time  when,  along  all  this  vast 
length  of  country,  from  Tyre  and  Siclon  to  the  coast  of 
Cornwall,  there  was  no  merchant-ship  to  buy  or  sell  goods 
except  these  Phenicians.  The  rudest  tribes  find  advantage 
in  such  visitors;  and  we  cannot  doubt,  that  the  men  whose 
resolute  love  of  gain  braved  so  many  hazards  and  difficulties, 


276  HISTOBY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

must  have  been  rewarded  with  profits  on  the  largest  scale 
of  monopoly. 

The  Phenician  settlers  on  the  coast  of  Spain  became 
gradually  more  and  more  numerous,  and  appear  to  have 
been  distributed,  either  in  separate  townships  or  inter- 
mingled with  the  native  population,  between  the  mouth  of 
the  Anas  (Guadiana)  and  the  town  of  Malaka  (Malaga)  on. 
the  Mediterranean.  Unfortunately  we  are  very  little 
informed  about  their  precise  localities  and  details,  but 
we  find  no  information  of  Phenician  settlements  on  the 
Mediterranean  coast  of  Spain  northward  of  Malaka;  for 
Phenicians  Carthagena  or  New  Carthage  was  a  Carthaginian 
and  Car-  settlement,  founded  only  in  the  third  century 
-tahgenelatab-  B.  c.— after  the  first  Punic  war.  i  The  Greek 
lishments  word  Phenicians  being  used  to  signify  as  well 
utter*  com-  *he  inhabitants  of  Carthage  as  those  of  Tyre 
bined  views  and  Sidon,  it  is  not  easy  to  distinguish  what 
wittr-vdews  bel°ngs  to  each  of  them.  Nevertheless  we 
of  com-  can  discern  a  great  and  important  difference 
in  the  character  of  their  establishments,  especial- 
ly in  Iberia.  The  Carthaginians  combined  with  their 
commercial  projects  large  schemes  of  conquest  and 
empire.  It  is  thus  that  the  independent  Phenician 
establishments  in  and  near  the  Gulf  of  Tunis  in  Africa 
were  reduced  to  dependence  upon  them — while  many  new 
small  townships,  direct  from  Carthage  itself,  were  planted 
on  the  Mediterranean  coast  of  Africa,  and  the  whole  of 
that  coast  from  the  Greek  Syrtis  westward  to  the  Pillars 
of  Herakles  (Strait  of  Gibraltar)  is  described  as  their 
territory  in  the  Periplus  of  Skylax  (B.  c.  360).  In  Iberia, 
during  the  third  century  B.  c.,  they  maintained  large 
armies,2  constrained  the  inland  tribes  to  subjection,  and 
acquired  a  dominion  which  nothing  but  the  superior  force 
of  Rome  prevented  from  being  durable;  while  in  Sicily 
also  the  resistance  of  the  Greeks  prevented  a  similar  con- 
summation. But  the  foreign  settlements  of  Tyre  and 
Sidon  were  formed  with  views  purely  commercial.  In  the 
region  of  Tartessus,  as  well  as  in  the  western  coast  of 
Africa  outside  of  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar,  we  hear  only  of 
pacific  interchange  and  metallurgy;  and  the  number  of 
Phenicians  who  acquired  gradually  settlements  in  the 

1  Strabo,   iii.    pp.    156,    158,   1C1 ;  Polybius,  iii.  10,  3-10. 
*  Polyb.  i.  10;  ii.  1. 


CHAP.  XVIII.    PHENICIANS  SUPPLANTED  BY  GREEKS.  277 

interior  was  so  great,  that  Strabo  describes  these  towns 
(not  less  than  200  in  number)  as  altogether  phenicised.  1 
Since,  in  his  time,  the  circumstances  favourable  to  new 
Phenician  immigrations  had  been  long  past  and  gone — 
there  can  be  little  hesitation  in  ascribing  the  preponder- 
ance, which  this  foreign  element  had  then  acquired,  to  a 
period  several  centuries  earlier,  beginning  at  a  time  when 
Tyre  and  Sidon  enjoyed  both  undisputed  autonomy  at 
home  and  the  entire  monopoly  of  Iberian  commerce, 
without  interference  from  the  Greeks. 

The  earliest  Grecian  colony  founded  in  Sicily  was 
that  of  Naxos,  planted  by  the  Chalkidians  in 
735  B.C.:  Syracuse  followed  in  the  next  year,  ^GtSs 
and  during  the  succeeding  century  many  flourish-  in  Sicily 
ing  Greek  cities  took  root  on  the  island.  !ftheCuttet 
These  Greeks  found  the  Phenicians  already  in  partially 
possession  of  many  outlying  islets  and  promon-  thePformer 
tories  all  round  the  island,  which  served  them 
in  their  trade  with  the  Sikels  and  Sikans  who  occupied 
the  interior.  The  safety  and  facilities  of  this  established 
trade  were  to  so  great  a  degree  broken  up  by  the  new- 
comers, that  the  Phenicians,  relinquishing  their  numerous 
petty  settlements  round  the  island,  concentrated  themselves 
in  three  considerable  towns  at  the  south-western  angle 
near  Lilybseum2 — Motye,  Soloeis  and  Pauormus — and  in 
the  island  of  Malta,  where  they  were  least  widely  separated 
from  Utica  and  Carthage.  The  Tyrians  of  that  day  were 
hard-pressed  by  the  Assyrians  under  Sahnaneser,  and  the 
power  of  Carthage  had  not  yet  reached  its  height;  other- 
wise probably  this  retreat  of  the  Sicilian  Phenicians  before 
the  Greeks  would  not  have  taken  place  without  a  struggle. 
But  the  early  Phenicians,  superior  to  the  Greeks  in  mer- 
cantile activity,  and  not  disposed  to  contend,  except  under 
circumstances  of  very  superior  force,  with  warlike  adven- 
turers bent  on  permanent  settlement — took  the  prudent 
course  of  circumscribing  their  sphere  of  operations.  A 
similar  change  appears  to  have  taken  place  in  Cyprus,  the 
other  island  in  which  Greeks  and  Phenicians  came  into 
close  contact.  If  we  may  trust  the  Tyrian  annals  consulted 


278  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

by  the  historian  Menander,  Cyprus  was  subject  to  the 
Tyrians  even  in  the  time  of  Solomon. l  We  do  not  know 
the  dates  of  the  establishment  of  Paphos,  Salamis,  Kitium, 
and  the  other  Grecian  cities  there  planted — but  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  they  were  posterior  to  this  period,  and 
that  a  considerable  portion  of  the  soil  and  trade  of  Cyprus 
thus  passed  from  Phenicians  to  Greeks;  who  on  their  part 
partially  embraced  and  diffused  the  rites,  sometimes  volup- 
tuous, embodied  in  the  Phenician  religion.2  In  Kilikia, 
too,  especially  at  Tarsus,  the  intrusion  of  Greek  settlers 
appears  to  have  gradually  hellenised  a  town  originally 
Phenician  and  Assyrian;  contributing,  along  with  the  other 
Grecian  settlements  (Phaselis,  Aspendus  and  Side)  on  the 
southern  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  to  narrow  the  Pheniciau 
range  of  adventure  in  that  direction.3 

Such  was  the  manner  in  which  the  Phenicians  found 
themselves  affected  by  the  Greek  settlements.  And  if  the 
lonians  of  Asia  Minor,  when  first  conquered  by  Harpagus 
and  the  Persians,  had  followed  the  advice  of  the  Prienean 
Bias  to  emigrate  in  a  body  and  found  one  great  Pan-Ionic 
colony  in  the  island  of  Sardinia,  these  early  merchants 
would  have  experienced  the  like  hindrance4  carried  still 
farther  westward — perhaps  indeed  the  whole  subsequent 
history  of  Carthage  might  have  been  sensibly  modified. 
Iberia  and  But  Iberia,  and  the  golden  region  of  Tartessus, 
Tartossus  remained  comparatively  little  visited,  and  still  less 
sited  by  colonised,  by  the  Greeks;  nor  did  it  even  be- 
th«  Greeks  come  known  to  them,  until  more  than  a  century 
abou^eso  after  their  first  settlements  had  been  formed  in  Si- 
B-c-  cily.  Easy  as  the  voyage  from  Corinth  toCadizmay 

UQW  appear  to  us,  to  a  Greek  of  the  seventh  or  sixth  cen- 
turies B.C.  it  was  a  formidable  undertaking.  He  was  under 
the  necessity  of  first  coasting  along  Akarnania  audEpirus, 


3  Tar-us    is    mentioned    by    Di 


1  See    the    reference    in    Joseph 


ctant.  i.  21 ;    Strabo,  xiv.  p.  CSS. 


CHAP.  XVIII.      SPEEAD  OF  GEEEK  SETTLEMENTS.  279 

then  crossing,  first  to  the  island  of  Korkyra,  and  next  to 
the  Gulf  of  Tarentum.  Proceeding  to  double  the  southern- 
most cape  of  Italy,  he  followed  the  sinuosities  of  the  Me- 
diterranean coast,  by  Tyrrhenia,  Liguria,  Southern  Gaul 
and  Eastern  Iberia,  to  the  Pillars  of  Herakles  or  Strait 
of  Gibraltar:  or  if  he  did  not  do  this,  he  had  the  alter- 
native of  crossing  the  open  sea  from  Krete  or  Peloponnesus 
to  Libya,  and  then  coasting  westward  along  the  perilous 
coast  of  the  Syrtes  until  he  arrived  at  the  same  point. 
Both  voyages  presented  difficulties  hard  to  be  encountered : 
but  the  most  serious  hazard  of  all,  was  the  direct  transit 
across  the  open  sea  from  Krete  to  Libya.  It  was  about  the 
year  630  B.C.  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  island  of  Thera, 
starved  out  by  a  seven  years'  drought,  were  enjoined  by 
the  Delphian  god  to  found  a  colony  in  Libya.  Nothing 
short  of  the  divine  command  would  have  induced  them  to 
obey  so  terrific  a  sentence  of  banishment;  for  not  only  was 
the  region  named  quite  unknown  to  them,  but  they  could 
not  discover,  by  the  most  careful  inquiries  among  practised 
Greek  navigators,  a  single  man  who  had  ever  intentionally 
made  the  voyage  to  Libya. l  One  Kretan  only  could  they 
find — a  fisherman  named  Korobius — who  had  been  driven 
thither  accidentally  by  violent  gales,  and  he  served  them 
as  guide. 

At  this  juncture  Egypt  had  only  been  recently  opened 
to  Greek  commerce — Psammetichus  having  been  the  first 
king  who  partially  relaxed  the  jealous  exclusion  of  ships 
from  the  entrance  of  the  Nile,  enforced  by  all  his  predeces- 
sors. The  incitement  of  so  profitable  a  traffic  emboldened 
some  Ionian  traders  to  make  the  direct  voyage  from  Krete 
to  the  mouth  of  that  river.  It  was  in  the  prosecution  of 
one  of  these  voyages,  and  in  connexion  with  the  foundation 
of  Kyrene  (to  be  recounted  in  a  future  chapter),  that  we 
are  made  acquainted  with  the  memorable  adventure  of 
the  Samian  merchant  Kolreus.  While  bound  Memorable 
for  Egypt,  he  had  been  driven  out  of  his  course  v°yas«  of 
by  contrary  winds  and  had  found  shelter  on  an  Koiam™!*11 
uninhabited  islet  called  Plat.ea,  off  the  coast  of  '^n-iessus. 
Libya — the  spot  where  the  emigrants  intended  for  Kyrene 
first  established  themselves,  not  long  afterwards.  From 
hence  he  again  started  to  proceed  to  Egypt,  but  again 

1  Hcrodot.   iv.  151. 


280  HISTOEY  OF  GBEECE.  PART  II. 

without  success;  violent  and  continuous  east  winds  drove 
him  continually  to  the  westward,  until  he  at  length  passed 
the  Pillars  of  Herakles,  and  found  himself,  under  the  pro- 
vidential guidance  of  the  gods,1  an  unexpected  visitor 
among  the  Phenicians  and  Iberians  of  Tartessus.  What 
the  cargo  was  which  he  was  transporting  to  Egypt,  we  are 
not  told.  But  it  sold  in  this  yet  virgin  market  for  the 
most  exorbitant  prices.  He  and  his  crew  (says  Herodotus2) 
"realised  a  profit  larger  than  ever  fell  to  the  lot  of  any 
known  Greek  except  Sostratus  the  JEginetan,  with  whom 
no  one  else  can  compete."  The  magnitude  of  their  profits 
may  be  gathered  from  the  votive  offering  which  they  erected 
on  their  return  in  the  sacred  precinct  of  Here  at  Samos,  in 
gratitude  for  the  protection  of  that  goddess  during  their 
voyage.  It  was  a  large  bronze  vase,  ornamented  with  pro- 
jecting griffins'  heads  and  supported  by  three  bronze  kneel- 
ing figures  of  colossal  stature:  it  cost  six  talents,  and  re- 
presented the  tithe  of  their  gains.  The  aggregate  of 
sixty  talents 3  (about  Jgl  6,000,  speaking  roughly),  correspond- 
ing to  this  tithe,  was  a  sum  which  not  many  even  ot  the 
rich  men  of  Athens  in  her  richest  time,  could  boast  of  pos- 
sessing. 

To  the  lucky  accident  of  this  enormous  vase  and  the 
inscription  doubtless  attached  to  it,  which  Herodotus  saw 
in  the  Herseon  at  Samos,  and  to  the  impression  which  such 
miraculous  enrichment  made  upon  his  imagination — we  are 
indebted  for  our  knowledge  of  the  precise  period  at  which 
the  secret  of  Phenician  commerce  at  Tartessus  first  became 

1  Herodot.    iv.    152.     6si^    no|j.7t^j  TapTrjjsoiJ  3*°''»  'A[A5t).Osia?xspa?,  nav 
jrpjaip.svoq.  ooov  £uSai[iovia<;  -/j-.paXotiov. 

2  Herodot.  iv.  152.  To  oi  Efji-optov  3  The-e  talents  cannot  have  been 
TOO  o  (Tartessus)  rft   axr;poiTO-;  ToO-  Attic  talents  ;  for  the  Attic  talent 
TOV    6v   ycvivr  ujs-s   drovocrr^javTss  first  arose  from  the  debasement  of 
VJT  i     o~iau>     (j.sYi3Ta    87;  'EXXV)vuv  the  Athenian    money    standard    by 
Ttiv  IDV,  T(I)v  r;(xsii;  aTp:x£(o<:  KJJLSV,  sx  Solon,    which  did    not  occur  until 
oop  luiv  exsp5r,3a'(,  JJUTOI  -ft  Sibarpcr  a  generation    after   the   voyage    of 
-rj-i     TOV     Aoco?aij.otv7o:,     A'tYivTjTTjV  Kolaeus.     They  must  have  been  ei- 
TO'JTW  yip  O'ix  oi'-t  -^  £St3c-.i  a).).ov.  tlier  Euboic  or  ^Dgina?an    talents; 

Allus'ons  to  the  prodigious  wealth  probably   the    former,    seeing  that 

of  Tartessus    were   found   in   Ana-  the  case  belongs   to    the  island  of 

kreon,!Fragm.  8,  ed.Bergk;  Stephan.  Samos.  Sixty  Euboic  talents  would 

Byz.  Ty.pTYjSjO;  ;  Kustath.  ad  Dionys.  be  about  equivalent  to  the  sum  sta- 

1'erieget.     332,   TzpTr,33'-Jc,    "r^i  xo<l  6  ted  inthe  text.  For  the  proportion  of 

'  Avxxpsiov  oyjal  itavs'joot  \i.vii ;  Hime-  the  various  Greek  monetary  scales, 

rius  ap.  Photium,  Cod.  243.  p.  59D —  see  above,  part.  2.ch.  iv. and  ch.  xii. 


CHAP.  XVIII.    EXPLORING  VOYAGES  OP  THE  PHOK^ANS.    281 

known  to  the  Greeks.  The  voyage  of  Kolseus  opened  to 
the  Greeks  of  that  day  a  new  world  hardly  less  important 
(regard  being  had  to  their  previous  aggregate  .of  know- 
ledge) than  the  discovery  of  America  to  the  Europeans  of 
the  last  half  of  the  fifteenth  century.  But  Kolseus  did 
little  more  than  make  known  the  existence  of  this  distant 
and  lucrative  region:  he  cannot  be  said  to  have  shown  the 
way  to  it.  Nor  do  we  find,  in  spite  of  the  foundation  of 
Kyrene  and  Barka,  which  made  the  Greeks  so  much  more 
familiar  with  the  coast  of  Libya  than  they  had  been  before 
— that  the  route,  by  which  he  had  been  carried  against 
his  own  will,  was  ever  deliberately  pursued  by  Greek 
traders. 

Probably  the  Carthaginians,  altogether  unscrupulous 
in  proceedings  against  commercial  rivals, 1  would  have  ag- 
gravated its  natural  maritime  difficulties  by  false  information 
and  hostile  proceedings.  The  simple  report  of  such  gains, 
however,  was  well-calculated  to  act  as  a  stimulus  Expiorin^ 
to  other  enterprising  navigators.  ThePhokaeans,  voyages  of 
during  the  course  of  the  next  half-oentury,  push-  kafansh°~ 
ing  their  exploring  voyages  both  along  the  between 
Adriatic  and  along  the  Tyrrhenian  coast,  and  G3°-570  B-c- 
founding  Massalia  in  the  year  GOO  B.C.,  at  length  reached 
the  Pillars  of  Herakles  and  Tartessus  along  the  eastern 
coast  of  Spain.  These  men  were  the  most  adventurous 
mariners2  that  Greece  had  yet  produced,  creating  a 
jealous  uneasiness  even  among  their  Ionian  neighbours.3 
Their  voyages  were  made,  not  with  round  and  bulky  mer- 
chantships,  calculated  only  for  the  maximum  of  cargo,  but 
with  armed  pcntekonters — and  they  were  thus  enabled  to 
defy  the  privateers  of  the  Tyrrhenian  cities  on  the  Mediter- 
ranean, which  had  long  deterred  the  Greek  trader  from 
any  habitual  traffic  near  the  Strait  of  Messina.4  There  can 
be  little  doubt  that  the  progress  of  the  Phokoeans  was  very 
blow,  and  the  foundation  of  Massalia  (Marseilles),  one  of 

1  Strabo,    xvii.    p.    802;     Aristot.  TSOOICJIV — the    expressions    are    ro- 
Miral).  Ausc.  c.  84-132.  markable. 

2  Herodot.  i.  lr.3.  Ot  Si  Owxaiss?  '  llerodot.    i.   104,    K'5    gives    an 
ovJT'ji     vx'j-ri/.i^ai     [iotxpfj<Ji      7cp<i>tot  example  of  the  jealousy  of  the  Clii- 
M'.).),r;vuuv  s/prjjavro,    xal   TOM    'Aoot-  ans  in  respect  to  the  islands  called 
•1,1    y.7.1    "TjV  T'jp3Y]vir,M    xocl  Tr,-j   'I''/,-  (Enussse. 

piyjv      -A'j.'i    -v/  TapTTjoaov    OOTOI  sljiv         4  Ephorus,  Frngm.  52,  ed.  Marx  j 
oi  x*TaOii;7.-/TS.;-    £-ja'jTi).).ov70   Si  o'j      Strabo,  vi,  p.  2U7. 


282  HISTOKY  OF  GREECE,  PART  It 

ihe  most  remote  of  all  Greek  colonies,  may  for  a  time  have 
absorbed  their  attention:  moreover  they  had  to  pickup  in« 
formation  as  they  went  on,  and  the  voyage  was  one  of  dis- 
covery, in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word.  The  time  at  which 
they  reached  Tartessus,  may  seemingly  be  placed  between 
570-560  B.C.  They  made  themselves  so  acceptable  to  Ar- 
ganthonius — king  of  Tartessus,  or  at  least  king  of  part  of 
that  region — that  he  urged  them  to  relinquish  their  city  of 
Phoksea  and  establish  themselves  in  his  territory,  offering 
to  them  any  site  which  they  chose  to  occupy.  Though  they 
declined  this  tempting  offer,  yet  he  still  continued  anxious 
to  aid  them  against  dangers  at  home,  and  gave  them  a  large 
donation  of  money — whereby  they  were  enabled  at  a  critical 
moment  to  complete  their  fortifications.  Arganthonius 
died  shortly  afterwards,  having  lived  (we  are  told)  to  the 
extraordinary  age  of  120  years,  of  which  he  had  reigned  80. 
The  Phokseans  had  probably  reason  to  repent  of  their 
refusal ;  since  in  no  very  long  time  their  town  having  been 
;aken  by  the  Persians,  half  their  citizens  became  exiles, 
and  were  obliged  to  seek  a  precarious  abode  in  Corsica, 
in  place  of  the  advantageous  settlement  which  old  Argan- 
thonius had  offered  to  them  in  Tartessus. l 

By  such  steps  did  the  Greeks  gradually  track  out  the 
important  lines  of  Phenician  commerce  in  the  Mediter- 
addition  to  ranean,  and  accomplish  that  vast  improvement 
Jeographi-  in  their  geographical  knowledge — the  circum- 
cai  know-  navigation  of  what  Eratosthenes  and  Strabo 
stimulus"  termed  "our  sea,"  as  distinguished  from  the 
to  Grecian  external  Ocean.2  Little  practical  advantage 

fancy,    thus     ,  i       •         i   r  A.        ]•  i   •    i 

comimmi-  However  was  derived  irom  the  discovery,  which 
cated.  was  only  made  during  the  last  years  of  Ionian 

independence.  The  Ionian  cities  became  subjects  of 
Persia,  and  Phoksea  especially  was  crippled  and  half-de- 
populated in  the  struggle.  Had  the  period  of  Ionian  enter- 
prise been  prolonged,  we  should  probably  have  heard  of 
other  Greek  settlements  in  Iberia  and  Tartessus, — over 
and  above  Emporia  and  Rhodus,  formed  by  the  Massaliots 
between  the  Pyrenees  and  the  Ebro, — as  well  as  of  increa- 
sing Grecian  traffic  with  those  regions.  The  misfortunes 
of  Phokaea  and  the  other  Ionic  towns  saved  the  Phenicians 
of  Tartessus  from  Grecian  interference  and  competition, 

'  Herodnt.  i.  105. 

1  'H  xa&'  r^u-a;  Gi).asaa  (Strabo)  ;  TV-JOS  c«-  Oa).aTT«  (Herod,  iv.  41). 


CHAP.  XVIII.  ADDITION  TO  GEOGKAPHICAL  KNOWLEDGE.    2S3 

such  as  that  which  their  fellow-countrymen  in  Sicily  had 
been  experiencing  for  a  century  and  a  half. 

But  though  the  Ephesian  Artemis,  the  divine  pro- 
tectress of  Phoksean.  emigration,  was  thus  prevented  from 
becoming  consecrated  in  Tartessus  along  with  the  Tyrian 
Herakles,  an  impulse  not  the  less  powerful  was  given  to 
the  imaginations  of  philosophers  like  Thales  and  poets  like 
Stesichorus — whose  lives  cover  the  interval  between  the 
supernatural  transport  of  Kolseus  on  the  wings  of  the  wind, 
and  the  persevering,  well-planned,  exploration  which  ema- 
nated from  Phokeea.  While,  on  the  one  hand,  the  Tyrian 
Herakles  with  his  venerated  temple  at  Gades  furnished  a 
new  locality  and  details  for  mythes  respecting  the  Grecian 
Herakles — on  the  other  hand,  intelligent  Greeks  learnt  for 
the  first  time  that  the  waters  surrounding  their  island  and 
the  Peloponnesus  formed  part  of  a  sea  circumscribed  by 
assignable  boundaries.  Continuous  navigation  of  the  Pho- 
kfeans  round  the  coasts,  first  of  the  Adriatic,  next  of  the 
Gulf  of  Lyons  to  the  Pillars  of  Herakles  and  Tartessus, 
first  brought  to  light  this  important  fact.  The  hearers  of 
Archilochus,  Simonides  of  Amorgus,  and  Kallinus,  living 
before  or  contemporary  with  the  voyage  of  Kolreus,  had 
no  known  sea-limit  either  north  of  Korkyra  or  west  of 
Sicily:  but  those  of  Anakreon  and  Hipponax,  a  century 
afterwards,  found  the  Euxine,  the  Palus  Mreotis,  the  Adri- 
atic, the  Western  Mediterranean,  and  the  Libyan  Syrtes, 
all  so  far  surveyed  as  to  present  to  the  mind  a  definite 
conception,  and  to  admit  of  being  visibly  represented  by 
Anaximander  on  a  map.  However  familiar  such  knowledge 
has  now  become  to  us,  at  the  time  now  under  discussion  it 
was  a  prodigious  advance.  The  Pillars  of  Herakles, 
especially,  remained  deeply  fixed  in  the  Greek  mind,  as  a 
terminus  of  human  adventure  and  aspiration:  of  the  Ocean 
beyond,  men  were  for  the  most  part  content  to  remain 
ignorant. 

It  has  already  been  stated,  that  the  Phoenicians,  as 
coast  explorers,  were  even  more   enterprising   Circumna- 
than  the  Phokseans.     But  their  jealous  com-   ^P*^  ,of 
mercial    spirit  induced  them  to   conceal   their   the'ruo-5 
track, — to    give  information  designedly    false1   nioiaus- 

1  The  geographer  Ptolemy,  -with  common  with  the  old  trader?, 
penuino  scientific  zeal,  complains  respecting  the  countries  \vhich 
bitterly  of  the  reserve  and  frauds  they  visited  (Ptolem.  Ocogr.  i.  11). 


284  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

respecting  dangers  and  difficulties, — and  even  to  drown  any 
commercial  rivals  when  they  could  do  so  with  safety.1 
One  remarkable  Phenician  achievement,  however,  contem- 
porary with  the  period  of  Phoksean  exploration,  must  not 
be  passed  over.  It  was  somewhere  about  600  B.C.  that 
they  circumnavigated  Africa;  starting  from  the  Red  Sea, 
by  direction  of  the  Egyptian  king  Nekos,  son  of  Psam- 
metichus — going  round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  to  Gades 
— and  from  thence  returning  to  the  Nile. 

It  appears  that  Nekos,  anxious  to  procure  a  water- 
communication  between  the  Red  Sea  and  the  Mediterranean, 
began  digging  a  canal  from  the  former  to  the  Nile,  but 
desisted  from  the  undertaking  after  having  made  con- 
siderable progress.  In  prosecution  of  the  same  object,  he 
despatched  these  Phenicians  on  an  experimental  voyage 
from  the  Red  Sea  round  Libya,  which  was  successfully 
accomplished,  though  in  a  time  not  less  than  three  years; 
for  during  each  autumn,  the  mariners  landed  and  remained 
on  shore  a  sufficient  time  to  sow  their  seed  and  raise  a 
crop  of  corn.  They  reached  Egypt  again  through  the 
Strait  of  Gibraltar,  in  the  course  of  the  third  year,  and 
recounted  a  tale — "which  (says  Herodotus)  others  may 
perhaps  believe,  but  I  cannot  believe" — that  in  sailing 
round  Libya  they  had  the  sun  on  their  right  hand,  i.  e.  to 
the  north.2 

The  reality  of  this  circumnavigation  was  confirmed 
.  to  Herodotus  by  various  Carthaginian  infor- 
cumnavi-  mants,3  and  he  himself  fully  believes  it.  There 
gation  was  seems  good  reason  for  sharing  in  his  belief, 
Tceoampiished  though  several  able  critics  reject  the  tale  as 
—doubts  of  incredible.  The  Phenicians  were  expert  and 
o^nt8and "  daring  masters  of  coast  navigation,  and  in  going- 
modem,  round  Africa  they  had  no  occasion  ever  to  lose 

examined.          .    ,  ,         ,,    •,        -,         VrT  ,-,      ,      ,-, 

sight    of  land.      \\  e  may  presume  that   their 
vessels  were  amply  stored,  so  that  they  could  take  their 

1  Strabo,  iii.  p.  175,  176;  xvii.  p.      66-noi  slaiv  oi  Xsyi-JT;:.    These  Car- 
802.  thaginians,     to     whom    Herodotus 

2  Herodot.    iv.    42.      K?.i    i),;y>v,      here  alludes,  told  him   that  Libya 

was  circumnavigable :  but  it  does 
not  seem  that  they  knew  of  any 
other  actual  circumnavigation  ex- 


have    made    some    allusion    to    it, 


CIIAP.  XVIII.       CIRCUMNAVIGATION  OF  AFEICA.  285 

own  time,  and  lie  by  in  bad  weather;  we  may  also  take  for 
granted  that  the  reward  consequent  upon  success  was 
considerable.  For  any  other  mariners  then  existing,  indeed, 
the  undertaking  might  have  been  too  hard,  but  it  was  not 
so  for  them,  and  that  was  the  reason  why  Nekos  chose 
them.  To  such  reasons,  which  show  the  story  to  present 
110  intrinsic  incredibility  (that  indeed  is  hardly  alleged 
even  by  Mannert  and  others  who  disbelieve  it),  we  may 
add  one  other,  which  goes  far  to  prove  it  positively  true. 
They  stated  that  in  the  course  of  their  circuit,  while  going 
westward,  they  had  the  sun  on  their  right  hand  (i.  e.  to 
the  northward) ;  and  this  phenomenon,  observable  accord- 
ing to  the  season  even  when  they  were  within  the  tropics, 
could  not  fail  to  force  itself  on  their  attention  as  constant, 
after  they  had  reached  the  southern  temperate  zone.  But 
Herodotus  at  once  pronounces  this  part  of  the  story  to  be 
incredible,  and  so  it  might  appear  to  almost  every  man, 
Greek,1  Phenician  or  Egyptian,  not  only  of  the  age  of 
Xekos,  but  even  of  the  time  of  Herodotus,  who  heard  it; 
since  none  of  them  possessed  either  actual  experience  of 
the  phenomena  of  a  southern  latitude,  or  a  sufficiently 
correct  theory  of  the  relation  between  sun  and  earth,  to 
understand  the  varying  direction  of  the  shadows:  and  few 
men  would  consent  to  set  aside  the  received  ideas  with 
reference  to  the  solar  motions,  from  pure  confidence  in  the 
veracity  of  these  Phenician  narrators.  Now  that  under 
such  circumstances  the  latter  should  invent  the  tale  is 
highly  improbable;  and  if  they  were  not  inventors,  they 
must  have  experienced  the  phenomenon  during  the  southern 
portion  of  their  transit. 

instead  of  proceeding,    as   he  does  evidently  not    the   meaning  of  the 

immediately,    to    tell    the    story  of  historian  :    he    brings   forward   the 

the     Persian     Satastes,    who    tried  opinion    of   the    Carthaginians    as 

and  failed.  confirmatory      of     the     statement 

The  testimony  of  the  Carthagin-  ni:ule  by  the  Phcuicians  employed 

ians   is   so  far  valuable,    as   it  do-  by  Nel«'>s. 

clares  their  persuasion  of  the  truth  '  Diodorus  (iii.  40)  talks  correct 

of    the    statement    made   by  those  language    about    the    direction    of 

Phenicir.ns.  the  shadows  southward  of  the  tropic 

Some  critics  have   construed  the  of   Cancor   (compare   Pliny,    H.  N. 

words,  in  which  Herodotus  alludes  vi.  29) — one  mark  of  the  extension 

to    the    Carthaginians     as    his    in-  of  geographical  and    astronomical 

formants,  as  it'  what  they  told  him  observations  during  the  four  inter- 

was  the  story  of  the  fruitless  attempt  veiling  centuries  between  him  and 

made    by    Sataspus.      Dut     this    is  Herodotus. 


286  HISTORY  OF  GEEECE.  PART  II. 

Some  critics  disbelieve  this  circumnavigation,  from 
supposing  that  if  so  remarkable  an  achievement  had  really 
taken  place  once,  it  must  have  been  repeated,  and  practical 
application  must  have  been  made  of  it.  But  though  such 
a  suspicion  is  not  unnatural,  with  those  who  recollect  how 
great  a  revolution  was  operated  when  the  passage  was 
rediscovered  during  the  fifteenth  century — yet  the  reason- 
ing will  not  be  found  applicable  to  the  sixth  century  before 
the  Christian  sera. 

Pure  scientific  curiosity,  in  that  age,  counted  for  noth- 
ing. The  motive  of  Nekos  for  directing  this  enterprise 
was  the  same  as  that  which  had  prompted  him  to  dig  his 
canal, — in  order  that  he  might  procure  the  best  commu- 
nication between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Red  Sea.  But, 
as  it  has  been  with  the  north-west  passage  in  our  time,  so 
it  was  with  the  circumnavigation  of  Africa  in  his — the 
proof  of  its  practicability  at  the  same  time  showed  that  it 
was  not  available  for  purposes  of  traffic  or  communication, 
looking  to  the  resources  then  at  the  command  of  navigators 
— a  fact,  however,  which  could  not  be  known  until  the  ex- 
periment was  made.  To  pass  from  the  Mediterranean  to 
the  Red  Sea  by  means  of  the  Xile  still  continued  to  be  the 
easiest  way;  either  by  aid  of  the  land  journey,  which  in  the 
times  of  the  Ptolemies  was  usually  made  from  Koptos  on 
the  Xile  to  Berenike  on  the  Red  Sea — or  by  means  of  the 
canal  of  Nekos,  which  Darius  afterwards  finished,  though 
it  seems  to  have  been  neglected  during  the  Persian  rule  in 
Egypt,  and  was  subsequently  repaired  and  put  to  service 
under  the  Ptolemies.  Without  any  doubt  the  successful 
Phenician  mariners  underwent  both  severe  hardship  and 
great  real  perils,  besides  those  still  greater  supposed  perils, 
the  apprehension  of  which  so  constantly  unnerved  the 
minds  even  of  experienced  and  resolute  men  in  the  unknown 
Ocean.  Such  was  the  force  of  these  terrors  and  difficulties, 
to  which  there  was  no  known  termination,  upon  the  mind  of 
the  Achsernenid  Sataspes  (upon  whom  the  circumnavigation 
of  Africa  was  imposed  as  a  penalty  "worse  than  death"  by 
Xerxes,  in  commutation  of  a  capital  sentence),  that  he 
returned  without  having  finished  the  circuit,  though  by  so 
doing  he  forfeited  his  life.  He  affirmed  that  he  had  sailed 
"until  his  vessel  stuck  fast,  and  could  move  on  no  farther" 
—a  persuasion  not  uncommon  in  ancient  times  and  even 
down  to  Columbus,  that  there  was  a  point,  beyond  which 


CHAP.  XVIII.     TEKROBS  OF  THE  UNKNOWN  OCEAN.  287 

the  Ocean,  either  from  mud,  sands,  shallows,  fogs,  or  accu- 
mulations of  sea-weed,  was  no  longer  navigable.1 

'Skylax,  after  following  the  consequence  of  the  large  admixture 
line  of  coast  from  the  Mediterranean  of  earth,  mud,  or  vegetable  cover- 
outside  of  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar,  ing,  which  had  arisen  in  it  from 
and  then  south-westward  along  the  disruption  of  the  great  island 
Africa  as  far  as  the  island  of  Kerne,  or  continent  Atlantis  (Tima:us,  p. 
Hoes  oai  to  say,  that  "beyond  KernS  25;  andKritias,  p.  10-);  which  pas- 
the  sea  is  no  longer  navigable  sages  are  well-illustrated  by  the 
from  shallows  and  mud  and  sea-  Scholiast,  who  seems  to  have  read 


r/.aTO?  xai  avio'Jtv  rj;o,  CO3T3  xevtei'J  sxsi    eivoti    j^iupov     TEjayoc   03    SQTVJ 

(Skylax,    c.    109).      Nearchus,     on  1X6?    TI?,    E7ti7:oXa^o'jTO?   uSaTO?    oi 

undertaking  his    voj'age  down  the  rcoXXoo,    xat    poTavv]!;    eiti<p9(ivO|xsv7]t 

Indus    and    irom    thence    into  the  TO'JTOJ.     See   also  Plutarch's   fancy 

Persian  Gulf,  is  not  certain  whether  of  the  dense,   earthy,   and  viscous 

the    external     sea    will    be    found  Kronian    sea    (some     days    to    the 

navigable — si   Srj  7:Xu>TG?  fi  EUTIV  6  westward    of  Britain),   in   which  a 

TOMTIT)  TOVTO?    (Nearchi  Periplus,  p.  ship  could  with  difficulty  advance, 

•2:  compare  p.  40  ap.  Geogr.  Minor,  and  only  by  means  of  severe  pulling 

vol.  i.    ed.    Hudson).     Pytheas   de-  with  the  oars  (Plutarch,  De  Facie 

scribed  the  neighbourhood  of  Thule  in    Orbe    Luna;,   c.    2C.  p.  941).     So 

us  a  sort    of    chaos — a    medley    of  again  in  the  two  geographical  pro- 

'•arth,    sea   and   air   in   which   you  ductions  in  verse  by  Hufus  Festus 

,-ould  neither  wall;   nor    sail— OUTS  Avienus    (Hudson,     Geogr.   Minor, 

yyj  xa'J'  auTTj/  'j~r,py_;v  OUTS  QaXaaaa  vol.  iv.,  Descriptio  Orbis  Terrre,  v. 

'l'J-^  ar,o,  aXXoc    aJY''-?1^^  Tl  EX  ~w-  57,  and  Ora  Maritima,   v.  406-415)  : 

eoixoc,   sv  qj  in  the  first  of  these  two,  the  den- 

]/     BdtXaaoav  sity  of  the   water  of  the   Western 

v-i-y.,     xai  Ocean    is     ascribed     to    its     being 

TCJUV  oXojv,  saturated  with  salt— in  the  second, 

•i  h~'j.fjyj-i-  we  have  shallows,  large  quantities 

itxo;  7'JTCK  of  sea-weed,  and  wild  beasts  swim- 

(Pytheas)  iwpaxsvcti,  TciXXa  SJXjysiv  ming  about,  which  the  Carthaginian 

i\  axoyjc  (Strabo,  ii.  p.  104).  Again,  Himilco  aflirmed  himself  to    have 

the  priests  of  Memphis  told  Hero-  seen  : 

(lotus   that    their   conquering   hero  "Plerumque  porro  tenue  teiiditur 

Sesostris   had   equipped    a  fleet  in  salum, 

the    Arabian     Gulf,     and    made    a  TJtvix  arenas  subjacentes  occulat ; 

voyage    into    the    Erythra-an    b^a,  Exsuperat  autem  gurgitem  fucus 

subjugating     people     everywhere,  frequens 

"until  he  came  to  a  sea  no  longer  Atque  impcditurrcstus  exuligine: 

navigable    from    shallows"— OUXSTI  Vis    vel    lerarum    pelagus    ornne 

Tt/.cuTYp  u-6  ppa-^stuv  (Herod,  ii.  109).  internatat , 

1'lato   represents   the   sea    without  Mutusque  terror  ex  feris  Ijabitat 

tlie  Pillars  of  HeraklOs  as  impene-  freta. 
trable  and  unfit  for  navigation,  in 


288                                    HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAST  II. 

Now  we  learn  from  hence  that  the  enterprise,  even  by 
those  who  believed  the  narrative  of  Nekos's  captains,  was 

Hsec  olim  Himilco  Pcenus  Oceano  maniere   frappante   aux  rficits  ani- 

super  mes  des  premiers    compagnons  de 

Spectasse  gemet  et  piobasse  ret-  Colomb." 

tulit:  Columbus  was  the  first  man  who 

Hsec  nos,  ab  imis  Punicorum  an-  traversed   the  sea   of  Sargasso,  or 

nalibus  area  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean   south 

Prolata  longo  tempore,  edidimus  of  the  Azores,  where  it  is  covered 

tibi."  by  an  immense  mass   of  sea-weed 

Compare  also  v.  115-130  of  the  same  for  a  space  six  or  seven   times   as 

poem,     where    the     author    again  large  as  France:   the  alarm  of  his 

quotes  from  a  voyage  cff  Himilco,  crew  at   this  unexpected  spectacle 

who  had  been  four   months  in  the  was   considerable.     The   sea-weed 

ocean    outside    of    the    Pillars    of  is   sometimes   so   thickly   accumu- 

Hercules  :—  lated,   that  it  requires  a  eonsider- 

"Sic  nulla  late  flabra  propellunt  able    wind    to     impel    the    vessel 
ratem,  through  it.     The  remarks  and  corn- 
Sic   segnis  humor  sequoris  pigri  parisons    of  M.   von  Humboldt   in 
stupet,  reference   to    ancient   and   modern 

Adjicit  et  illud,  plurimum  inter  navigation  are    highly   interesting 

gurgites  (Examen.  ut  sup.  pp.  69,  88,  91,  Ac.). 

Extare   fucum,    et  seepe  virgulti  J.  M.  Gesner  (Disscrtat.  de  Navi- 

vice  gationibus  extra  Columnas  Hercu- 

Retinere  puppim,"  &c.  lis,     sect.     6    and    7)    has    a    good 

The  dead  calm,  mud,  and  shal-  defence  of  the  story  told  by  Hero- 
lows  of  the  external  ocean  are  dotus.  Major  Kennell  also  adopts 
touched  upon  by  Aristot.  Meteoro-  the  same  view,  and  shows  by  many 
log.  ii.  1,  14,  and  seem  to  have  arguments  how  much  easier  the 
been  a  favourite  subject  of  decla-  circumnavigation  was  from  the 
mation  with  the  rhetors  of  the  East  than  from  the  West  (Geograph. 
Augustan  age.  See  Seneca,  Suaso-  System  of  Herodotus,  p.  080) :  com- 
riar.  i.  1.  pare  Ukert,  Geograph.  der  Griechen 

Even    the   companions   and    con-  und  Homer,  vol.  i.  p.  61 ;  Mannert, 

temporaries     of    Columbus,    when  Geog.    d.  G.  und  Bb'mer,   vol.  i.  p. 

navigation  had  made  such  compa-  19-26.     Gossellin    (Ilecherches    sur 

rative  progress,  still  retained  much  la  Geogr.  des  Anc.    i.    p.    149)    and 

of  thesefearsrcspectingthe  dangers  Mannert   both  reject   the   story   as 

and    difficulties    of    the    unknown  not     worthy     of     belief:      Heeren 

ocean: — "Le  tableau    exagere1    (ob-  defends  it  (Ideen  iiber  den  Verkehr 

serves  A.  von.  Humboldt,  Examen  der  Alten  Welt,  i.  2.  p.  Sfi-05). 

Critique  de  1'Histoire      de  la  G6o-  Agatharchides,  in  the  second  cen- 

graphie,    t.  iii.  p.  95)    que    la   ruse,  tury,  B.C.,    pronounces  the  eastern 

des  Ph£niciens  avait  trace  des  dif-  coast  of  Africa,    southward  of  the 

ficulte's  qu'opposuient  &  la  naviga-  Bed  Sea,  to  be  as  yet  unexamined: 

tion  au  dela   des  Colonnes  d'Her-  he  treats  it  as  a  matter  of  certainty 

cule,    de  CernS,    et  de  1'Ile  Sacr6e  however  that  the  sea  to  the  south- 

(lerne'),     le     fucus,     le    limon,     le  westward    is   continuous    with    the 

manque  de  fond,    et  le  calme  per-  "Western    Ocean    (De    Eubro   Msiri, 

p6tuel  de  la  mer,  ressemble  d'une  Geogr.  Minores,cd.  Huds.  v.  i.p.  11). 


CHAP.  XVIII.    TERRORS  OP  THE  UNKNOWN  OCEAN.  289 

regarded  as  at  once  desperate  and  unprofitable;  but  doubt- 
less many  persons  treated  it  as  a  mere  "Phenician  lie"1  (to 
use  an  expression  proverbial  in  ancient  times).  The  cir- 
cumnavigation of  Libya  is  said  to  have  been  one  of  the  pro- 
jects conceived  by  Alexander  the  Great.2  We  may  readi- 
ly believe  that  if  he  had  lived  longer,  it  would  have 
been  confided  to  Nearchus  or  some  other  officer  of  the 

1  Strabo,  iii.  p.  170.  Satasp§s  (the  there  was  a  continuous  isthmus 
unsuccessful  Persian  circumnavi-  which  rendered  it  impracticable  to 
gator  of  Libya,  mentioned  just  go  by  sea  from  the  one  point  to 
above)  had  violated  the  daughter  the  other;  he  is  himself  however 
of  another  Persian  nobleman,  Zopy-  persuaded  that  the  Atlantic  is 
TUS  son  of  Megabyzus,  and  Xerxes  o'ippou?  on  both  sides  of  Africa, 
had  given  orders  that  he  should  be  and  therefore  that  circumnaviga- 
crucified  for  this  act:  his  mother  tion  is  possible.  He  as  well  as 
begged  him  off  by  suggesting  that  Poseidonius  (ii.  p.  98-lfiO)  clisbe- 
he  should  he  condemned  to  some-  lieved  the  tale  of  the  Phenicians 
thing  "worse  than  death" — the  cir-  sent  by  Nekos.  He  must  have 
cumnavigation  of  Libya  (Herod,  derived  his  complete  conviction, 
iv.  43).  Two  things  are  to  bo  that  Libya  might  be  circumnavi- 
remarked  in  respect  to  his  voyage  :  gated,  from  geographical  theory, 
— 1.  He  took  with  him  a  ship  and  which  led  him  to  contract  the 
seamen  from  Egypt;  we  are  not  dimensions  of  that  continent  south- 
told  that  they  were  Phenician;  ward— inasmuch  as  the  thing  in  his 
yrffbably  no  other  mariners  than  belief  never  had  been  done, 
'I'lienicians  were  competent  to  such  though  often  attempted.  Mannert 
a  voyage — and  even  if  the  crew  of  (Geog.  d.  G-.  und  Horn.  i.  p.  2-1) 
Sataspes  had  been  Phenicians,  ho  erroneously  says  that  Strabo  and 
could  not  offer  rewards  for  success  others  founded  their  belief  on  the 
equal  to  those  at  the  disposal  of  narrative  of  Herodotus. 
Nekos.  2.  He  began  his  enterprise  It  is  worth  while  remarking  that 
from  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar  instead  Strabo  cannot  have  read  the  story 
of  from  the  Red  Sea;  now  it  seems  in  Herodotus  with  much  attention, 
that  the  current  between  Madagas-  since  he  mentions  Darius  as  the 
car  and  the  eastern  coast  of  Africa  king  who  sent  the  Phenicians 
sots  very  strongly  towards  the  round  Africa,  not  Nek6s ;  nor  does 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  so  that  while  ho  take  notice  of  the  remarkable 
it  greatly  assists  the  southerly  statement  of  these  navigators  re- 
voyage,  on  the  other  hand,  it  makes  specting  the  position  of  the  sun. 
return  by  the  same  way  very  dim-  There  were  doubtless  many  apo- 
cult.  (See  Humboldt,  Examen  Cri-  cryphal  narratives  current  in  his 
tique  do  1'Histoire  de  la  G6ogra-  time  respecting  attempts,  success- 
pine,  t.  i.  p.  3433.)  Strabo  however  ful  and  unsuccessful,  to  circumna- 
affirms  that  all  those  who  had  iried  vigate  Africa,  as  we  may  see  by  the 
to  circumnavigate  Africa,  both  tale  of  Kudoxus  (Strabo,  ii.  98; 
from  the  Red  Sea  and  from  the  Cornel.  Xep.  ap.  Plin.  H.  N.  ii.  67, 
Strait  of  Gibraltar,  had  been  forced  who  gives  the  story  very  differ- 
to  return  without  success  (i.  p.  32),  ently  ;  and  Pomp.  Mela,  iii.  0). 
so  that  most  people  believed  that  2  Arrian,  Exp.  Al.  vii.  1,  2. 

VOL.  III.  U 


290  HISTOEY  OF  GEEECE.  PART  II. 

like  competence,  and  in  all  probability  would  have  suc- 
ceeded, especially  since  it  would  have  been  undertaken 
from  the  eastward — to  the  great  profit  of  geographical 
knowledge  among  the  ancients,  but  with  little  advantage 
to  their  commerce.  There  is  then  adequate  reason  for  ad- 
mitting that  these  Phenicians  rounded  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  from  the  East  about  600  B.C.,  more  than  2000  years 
earlier  than  Vasco  de  Gama  did  the  same  thing  from  the 
West;  though  the  discovery  was  in  the  first  instance  of 
no  avail,  either  for  commerce  or  for  geographical  science. 
Besides  the  maritime  range  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  their 
trade  by  land  in  the  interior  of  Asia  was  of  great  value  and 
importance.  They  were  the  speculative  merchants  who 
Caravan-  directed  the  march  of  the  caravans  laden  with 
trade  by  Assyrian  and  Egyptian  products  across  the  de- 
o'n'by^th'e  serts  which  separated  them  from  inner  Asia1 — 
Phenicians.  an  operation  which  presented  hardly  less  dif- 
ficulties, considering  the  Arabian  depredators  whom  they 
were  obliged  to  conciliate  and  even  to  employ  as  carriers, 
than  the  longest  coast  voyage.  They  seem  to  have  stood 
alone  in  antiquity  in  their  willingness  to  brave,  and  their 
ability  to  surmount,  the  perils  of  a  distant  land-traffic;2  and 
their  descendants  at  Carthage  and  TJtica  were  not  leTss 
active  in  pushing  caravans  far  into  the  interior  of  Africa. 

'Herodot.  i.l.  <I>olvixa<;— aTiorfivsov-  about  the  land  trade  of  the  Pheni- 
iv.c,  cpop-ta  'Aaaopta  T£  xai  Al/fOii-riot.  cians. 

1  See  the  valuable  chapter  in  The  twenty-seventh  chapter  of 
Heeren  (Ueber  den  Verkehr  der  the  Prophet  Ezekiel  presents  a 
Alten  "Welt,  i.  2.  Abschn.  4.  p.  90)  striking  picture  of  the  general 

commerce  of  Tyre. 


CHAP.  XIX.  ASSYKIANS— BABYLON.  21J1 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

ASSYEIANS— BABYLON. 

THE  name  of  the  Assyrians  who  formed  one  wing  of 
this  early  system  of  intercourse  arid  commerce.  . 

i  •    n  it  -i-  o  -XT-  i      Assyrians 

rests  chiefly  upon  the  great  cities  01  .Nineveh  —their 
and  Babylon.    To  the  Assyrians  of  Nineveh  (as   n,am<:  rests 

11  IT  j.-          j\   •  -i      j    •  i        chiefly  on 

has  been  already  mentioned)  is  ascribed  in  early   Nineveh 
tijnesavery  extensive  empire,  covering  much  of  ?nd  Ba- 

*     •  11  -sr  9  .,          bylon. 

Upper  Asia,  as  well  as  Mesopotamia  or  the 
country  between  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris.  Respect- 
ing this  empire — its  commencement,  its  extent,  or  even 
ilie  mode  in  which  it  was  put  down — nothing  certain  can 
be  affirmed.  But  it  seems  unquestionable  that  many  great 
and  flourishing  cities — and  a  population  inferior  in  enter- 
prise, but  not  in  industry,  to  the  Phenicians — were  to  be 
found  on  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  in  times  anterior  to  the 
first  Olympiad.  Of  these  cities,  Nineveh  on  the  Tigris  and 
Babylon  on  the  Euphrates  were  the  chief: 1  the  latter  being 
in  some  sort  of  dependence,  probably,  on  the  sovereigns  of 
Nineveh,  yet  governed  by  kings  or  chiefs  of  its  own,  and 
comprehending  an  hereditary  order  of  priests  named  Chal- 
dseans,  masters  of  all  the  science  and  literature  as  well  as 
of  the  religious  ceremonies  current  among  the  people, 
and  devoted  from  very  early  times  to  that  habit  of  astro- 
nomical observation  which  their  brilliant  sky  so  much  fa- 
voured. 

The  people  called  Assyrians  or  Syrians  (for  among 
the  Greek  authors  no  constant  distinction  is  maintained 
between  the  two2)  were  distributed  over  the  wide  territory 

1  Herodot.  i.  178.  Tyj<;  o: 'Ajjupi/^  ception    of    the  old  Assyria:    Opis 

E3-i    [j.*v    7.VJ    x«i     ciX)a    i:r>Xi-u.ccra  oil    the    Tigris,    and    Sittake    very 

lizfd.\a  -oXXi'    TO  Zk    6vo|Aa<JT<iTaTov  near  the  Tigris,  were  among  them 

xai  ljy_'jpoT77ov,    xal    Iv'Ja    091,    -r^  (Xonoph.  Annb.  ii.  4,  13-25):    com- 

Ni-(0'J  cocfati-ro'J  Y'V''J|A^'^J,  -a.  past-  pare  Diodor.  ii.  11. 

Xr/ra  '/.aTsj-rrjXES,  TJV  Bsp'jXtbv.  2  Herodot.  i.  72;    iii.  90 — 91;   vii. 

The  existence  of  these  and  several  63:  Strabo,    xvi.    p.  730,    also  ii.  p. 

other  great  cities    is   an  important  84,  in  which  he  takes  exception  to 

item  to  bo    taken   in,    in    our  con-  the   distribution    of    the    olxou(/.iv7j 


292 


HISTORY  OF  GKEECE. 


PAST  II. 


bounded  on  the  east  by  Mount  Zagros  and  its  north-west- 
erly continuation  towards  Mount  Ararat,  by  which  they 
were  separated  from  the  Medes — and  extending  from  thence 
westward  and  southward  to  the  Euxine  Sea,  the  river 
Halys,  the  Mediterranean  Sea  and  the  Persian  Gulf — thus 
covering  the  whole  course  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates 
south  of  Armenia,  as  well  as  Syria  and  Syria-Palsestme, 
and  the  territory  eastward  of  the  Halys  called  Kappadokia. 
But  the  Chaldaean  order  of  priests  appears  to 

Chaldaeans      •,  ,  •,.  T»T_IJ      if- 

at  Babylon  have  been  peculiar  to  Babylon  and  other  towns 
—order  of  in  its  territory,  especially  between  that  city  and 
the  Persian  Gulf.  The  vast,  rich,  and  lofty 
temple  of  Belus  in  that  city  served  them  at  once  as  a  place 
of  worship  and  an  astronomical  observatory.  It  was  the 
paramount  ascendency  of  this  order  which  seems  to  have 
caused  the  Babylonian  people  generally  to  be  spoken  of  as 
Chaldaeans — though  some  writers  have  supposed,  without 
any  good  proof,  a  conquest  of  Assyrian  Babylon  by  bar- 
barians called  Chaldaeans  from  the  mountains  near  the 
Euxine.1 


(inhabit ed  portion  of  the  globe)made 
by  Eratosthenes,  because  it  did  not 
include  in  the  same  compartment 
(sspaYU)  Syria  proper  and  Meso- 
potamia ;  he  calls  Ninus  and  Se- 
miramis,  Syrians.  Herodotus  con- 
siders the  Armenians  as  colonists 
from  the  Phrygians  (vii.  73). 

The  Homeric  names  '  Apijiot, 
'EpSjA-So!.  (the  first  in  the  Iliad,  ii. 
783,  the  second  in  the  Odyssey, 
iv.  84)  coincide  with  the  Oriental 
name  of  this  race  Aram :  it  seems 
more  ancient  in  the  Greek  habits 
of  speech,  than  Syrians  (see  Strabo, 
xvi.  p.  7?6). 

The  Hesiodic  Catalogue  too,  as 
well  as  Stesichorus,  recognised 
Ara'bus  as  the  son  of  Hermes  by 
Thronie  daughter  of  Belus  (Hesiod, 
"frag.  29,  ed.  Marktscheffel;  Strabo, 
i.  p.  42). 

1  Heeren,  in  his  account  of  the 
Babylonians  (Ideen  uber  den  Ver- 
kehr  der  Alten  Welt,  part  i.  Ab- 
theilung  2.  p.  1C8),  speaks  of  this 
conquest  of  Babylon  by  Chaldaan 


barbarians  from  the  northern  moun- 
tains as  a  certain  fact,  explaining 
the  great  development  of  the  Ba- 
bylonian empire  under  Xabopolasar 
and  Nebuchadnezzar  from  630— &SO 
B.C.;  it  was  (he  thinks)  the  new 
Chaldsean  conquerors  who  thus  ex- 
tended their  dominion  over  Judaea 
and  Phenicia. 

I  agree  with  Volney  (Chronologie 
des  Babyloniens,  ch.  x.  p.  215)  in 
thinking  this  statement  both  un- 
supported and  improbable.  Man- 
nert  seems  to  suppose  the  Chal- 
deans of  Arabian  origin  (Geogr. 
der  G.  und  Kom.,  part  v.  8.  2.  ch. 
xii.  p.  419).  The  passages  of  Strabo 
(xvi.  p.  739)  are  more  favourable  to 
this  opinion  than  to  that  of  Hee- 
ren ;  but  we  make  out  nothing 
distinct  respecting  the  Chaldjeans 
except  that  they  were  the  priestly 
order  among  the  Assyrians  of  Ba- 
bylon, as  they  are  expressly  termed 
by  Herodotus— to?  Xsyomi  ct  Xa).- 
SaToi,  EOVT£<;  TO'JTO'J  Toy  (Uqy  (of 
Zeus  Belus)  (Herodot.  i.  181). 


CHAP.  XIX.                   ASSYKIANS.-BABYLOST.  293 

There  were  exaggerated  statements  respecting  the  an- 
tiquity of  their  astronomical  observations,  which   Their  astro. 
cannot  be  traced  as  of  definite  and  recorded  date   nomicai  ob- 
higher  than  the  eera  of  Nabonassar  1  (747  B.C.),   8 
as  well  as  respecting  the  extent  of  their  acquired  knowledge, 

1  The    earliest    Chaldoean    astro-  modern     lunar    tables    (Geminus, 

nomicai  observation,  known  to  the  Isagoge   in   Arati    Phenomena,    c. 

astronomer  Ptolemy,    both  precise  15 :  Ideler,    1.  c.  pp.   153,    154,    and 

and  of  ascertained  date  to  a  degree  in  his  Handbuch  der  Chronologic, 

sufficient  for  scientific  use,   was  a  vol.  i.  Absch.  ii.  p.  207). 

lunar    eclipse    of    the    19th   March  There    seem   to  have  been  Chal- 

721  B.C.— the   27th  year    of  the  a-ra  dsean  observations)  both  made  and 

of  Nabonassar   (Ideler,    Ueber    die  recorded,    of    much    greater    anti- 

AstronomischenBeobachtungenier  quity  than  the  sera  of  Nabonassar ; 

Alton,    p.    19,    Berlin,    1806).     Had  though  we  cannot  lay  much  stress 

Ptolemy  known    any    older   obser-  on  the  date  of  1903  years  anterior 

vations    conforming   to    these  con-  to  Alexander   the  Great,    which  is 

ditioiis,  he  would  not  have  omitted  mentioned  by  Simplicius  (ad  Aris- 

to  notice  them:    his  own  words  in.  tot.  de   Cculo,    p.  123)    as  being  the 

the  Almagest  testify  how  much  he  earliest    period    of    the    Chaldrean 

valued    the   knowledge    and    com-  observations    sent     from    Babylon 

parison    of    observations    taken  at  by  Kallisthenes  to  Aristotle.    Ide- 

distant  intervals   (Almagest,   b.    3.  ler   thinks   that    the  Chaldrcan  ob- 

p.  62,  ap.  Ideler,  L  c.  p.  1),  and  at  servations   anterior   to   the   sera  of 

the   same  time   imply   that   he  had  Nabonassar  were  useless  to  astro- 

none    more    ancient   than    the    Eera  nomers    from    the    want    of    some 

of  Nabonassar  (Aim.  iii.  p.  77,  ap.  ;  xed    a?ra,     or    definite    cycle,    to 

Idel.  p.  160).  identify  the  date  of  each  of  them. 

That  the  Chaldteans  had  been,  The  common  civil  year  of  the 
long  before  this  period,  in  the  Chaldieans  had  been  from  the  be- 
habit  of  observing  the  heavens,  ginning  (like  that  of  the  Greeks) 
there  is  no  reason  to  doubt ;  and  a  lunar  year,  kept  in  a  certain 
the  exactness  of  those  observations  degree  of  harmony  with  the  sun 
cited  by  Ptolemy  implies  (accord-  by  cycles  of  lunar  years  and  inter- 
ing  to  the  judgement  of  Ideler,  16.  calation.  Down  to  the  a>r;i  ot'Na- 
p.  Hi")  long  previous  practice.  The  bonassar,  the  calendar  was  in  con- 
period  of  223  lunations,  after  which  fusion,  and  there  was  nothing  to 
the  moon  reverts  nearly  to  the  verify  either  the  time  of  accession 
same  positions  in  reference  to  the  of  the  kings  or  that  of  nstronomi- 
apsides  and  nodes,  and  after  which  cal  phenomena  observed,  except 
eclipses  return  nearly  in  the  same  the  days  and  months  of  this  lunar 
order  and  magnitude,  appears  to  year.  In  the  reign  of  Nabonassar 
have  been  discovered  by  the  Chal-  tin;  astronomers  at  Babylon  intro- 
dreans  (''Defectus  ducentis  vigiuti  duce  (not  into  civil  use,  but  for  their 
tribus  meusibus  redire  in  suos  orbes  own  purposes  and  records)  the 
certum  est,"  Pliny,  H.  N.  ii.  13),  Egyptian  solar  year—  of  305  days,  or 
and  they  deduced  from  hence  the  12  months  of  thirty  days  each, 
mean  daily  motions  of  the  moon  with  five  added  days,  beginning 
with  a  degree  of  accuracy  which  with  the  first  of  the  month  Thoth, 
dill'urs  only  by  four  seconds  from  the  commencement  of  the  £fc.)i>- 


294 


HISTOEY  OF  GBEECE. 


PAHT  II. 


so  largely  blended  with  astrological  fancies  and  occult 
influences  of  the  heavenly  bodies  on  human  affairs.  But 
however  incomplete  their  knowledge  may  appear  when 
judged  by  the  standard  of  after- times,  there  can  be  no  doubt, 
that  compared  with  any  of  their  contemporaries  of  the  sixth 
century  B.C.  (either  Egyptians,  Greeks  or  Asiatics)they  stood 
pre-eminent,  and  had  much  to  teach,  not  only  to  Thales  and 
Pythagoras,  but  even  to  later  inquirers,  such  as  Eudoxus 
and  Aristotle.  The  conception  of  the  revolving  celestial 
sphere,  the  gnomon,  and  the  division  of  the  day  into  twelve 
parts,  are  affirmed  by  Herodotus l  to  have  been  first  taught 
to  the  Greeks  by  the  Babylonians;  and  the  continuous  ob- 
servation of  the  heavens  both  by  the  Egyptian  and  Chal- 
dsean priests,  had  determined  with  considerable  exactness 
both  the  duration  of  the  solar  year  and  other  longer  periods 


tian  year — and  they  thus  first  ob- 
tained a  continuous  and  accurate 
mode  of  marking  the  date  of  events. 
It  is  not  meant  that  the  Chaldaeans 
then  for  the  first  time  obtained 
from  the  Egyptians  the  knowledge 
of  the  solar  year  of  3C5  days,  but 
that  they  then  for  the  first  time 
adopted  it  in  their  notation  of 
time  for  astronomical  purposes, 
fixing  the  precise  moment  at  which 
they  began.  Nor  is  there  the  least 
reason  to  suppose  that  the  tera  of 
Nabonassar  coincided  with  any 
political  revolution  or  change  of 
dynasty.  Ideler  dicusses  this  point 
(pp.  146-173,  and  Handbuch  der 
Chronol.  pp.  215-220).  Syncellus 
might  correctly  say— 'Ano  No,3ova- 
aaso'J  TOO?  ^povo'Jq  ~rj?  T<I>V  aarpujv 
•rcapatrjprj  330)5  XaXSaioi  rjxpipajjav 
(Chronogr.  p.  207). 

We  need  not  dwell  upon  the 
back  reckonings  of  the  Chaldceans 
for  periods  of  720,000,  490,000, 
470,000  years,  mentioned  by  Cicero, 
Diodorus  und  Pliny  (Cicero,  De 
Divin.  ii.  46;  Diod.  ii.  31;  Pliny, 
H.  N.  vii.  57),  and  seemingly  pre- 
sented by  Berosus  and  others  as 
the  preface  of  Babylonian  history. 

It   is   to   be  noted  that  Ptolemy 


always  cited  the  Chaldsean  obser- 
vations as  made  by  "the  Chaldcsans," 
never  naming  any  '  individual ; 
though  in  all  the  other  observa- 
tions to  which  he  alludes,  he  ia 
very  scrupulous  in  particularising 
the  name  of  the  observer.  Doubt- 
less he  found  the  Chaldrean  obser- 
vations registered  just  in  this  man- 
ner; a  point  which  illustrates  what 
is  said  in  the  text  respecting  the 
collective  character  of  their  civi- 
lization, and  the  want  of  indivi- 
dual development  or  prominent 
genius. 

The  superiority  of  the  Chaldsean 
priests  to  the  Egyptian  as  astro- 
nomical observers  is  shown  by 
the  fact,  that  Ptolemy,  though  li- 
ving at  Alexandria,  never  mentions 
the  latter  as  astronomers,  nor  cites 
any  Egyptian  observations;  while 
he  cites  thirteen  Chaldsean  obser- 
vations in  the  years  B.  c.  721,  720, 
523,  502,  491,  383,  382,  245,  237,  229: 
the  first  ten  being  observations  of 
lunar  eclipses;  the  last  three,  of 
conjunctions  of  planets  and  fixed 
stars  (Ideler,  Handbuch  der  Chro- 
nologic, vol.  i.  Ab.  ii.  p.  195— 
199). 

i  Herodot.  ii.  109. 


CIIAP.  XIX.         ASTRONOMY  OP  THE  CHALDEANS.  295 

ofastronomicalrecurrence;  thus  impressing  upon  intelligent 
Greeks  the  imperfection  of  their  own  calendars,  and  fur- 
nishing them  with  a  basis  not  only  for  enlarged  observa- 
tions of  their  own,  but  also  for  the  discovery  and  applica- 
tion of  those  mathematical  theories  whereby  astronomy 
first  became  a  science. 

It  was  not  only  the  astronomical  acquisitions  of  the 
priestly  caste  which  distinguished  the  early  Babylonians. 
The  social  condition,  the  fertility  of  the  country,   Babylonia 
the    dense    population,    and    the    persevering    Tlts  lab°- 

.     ,  r  Ti        •    i     i  •!       J.  j.    i  nous  cul- 

industry  of  the  inhabitants,  were  not  less  re-  tivationand 
markable.  Respecting  Nineveh,1  once  the  great-  fertility, 
est  of  the  Assyrian  cities,  we  have  no  good  information, 
nor  can  we  safely  reason  from  the  analogy  of  Babylon, 
inasmuch  as  the  peculiarities  -of  the  latter  were  al- 
together determined  by  the  Euphrates,  while  Nineveh 
was  seated  considerably  farther  north,  and  on  the  east 
bank  of  the  Tigris.  But  Herodotus  gives  us  valuable 
particulars  respecting  Babylon  as  an  eye-witness.  We 
may  judge  by  his  account,  representing  its  condition  after 
much  suffering  from  the  Persian  conquest,  what  it  had 
been  a  century  earlier  in  the  days  of  its  full  splendour. 

The  neighbouring  territory,  receiving  but  little  rain,2 

1  The  ancient  Ninus  or  Nineveh  Ktesias,    according   to    Diodorus 

•was  situated  on  the    eastern  bank  (ii.  3),  placed  Ninus  or  Nineveh  on 

of  the  Tigris,  nearly  opposite  the  the    .Euphrates,     which    we     must 

modern  town  of  Mousul  or  Mosul,  presume  to    bo    an    inadvertence — 

Herodotus  (i.  193)  and  Straho  (xvi.  probably  of  Diodorus  himself,    for 

p.  737)  both  speak  of  it   as   being  Ktesias  would  be  less  likely  than 

destroyed  ;  but  Tacitus   (Ann.  xii.  he  to  confound  the  Euphrates  and 

l:i)  and  Ammian.  Mareell.  (xviii.  7)  the  Tigris.    Compare  Wesseling  ad 

mention  it  as  subsisting.   Its  ruins  Diodor.  ii.  3,  and    Biihr   ad  Ktesia? 

liatl  been  long  remarked  (see  The-  Fragm.  ii.  Assyr.  p.  392. 

venot,    Voyages,   liv.   i.    ch.    xi.  p.  -  Herodot.  i.  193.  "H  frj  TUJV  ' ASJU- 

]"(>,    and   Niebuhr,   Eeisen,  vol.  ii.  pitov     uz-ii     |j-iv      oXt-j-w— while     lie 

p.  360),  but  have  never  been  exam-  speaks    of  rain    falling    at  Thebes 

ined    carefully    until   recently    by  in  Egypt  as  a  prodigy,  which  never 

Rich,     Laynrd,     and     others:      see  happened  except  just  at  themoment 

Hitter,  "Wcst-Asien,  b.  iii.  Abthoil.  when  the    country   was    conquered 

iii.  Abschn.  i.  s.  45.  p.  171-221;  and  by   Cambyses — ou   yap    6r)   USTOCI    -ret 

Forbiger,  Handbuch  der  Alton  Geo-  avio    ~r^    AlyJ'tou    TO  r.y.cA-7.-i  (iii. 

graphic,  s.  9C,    p.    612;    and    above  10).  It  is  not  unimportant  to  notice 

all    the    interesting    work    of    Mr.  this  distinction  between    the    little 

Ijayard,  who  has  procured  from  the  rain  of  Babylonia,  and  the  no  rain 

spot  so  many  valuable  remains  of  of    Upper     Egypt— as    a    mark    of 

antiquity.  measured  assertion  in  the  historian 


296  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAET  II. 

owed  its  fertility  altogether  to  the  annual  overflowing  of 
the  Euphrates,  on  which  the  labour  bestowed,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  limiting,  regularising,  and  diffusing  its  supply  of 
water,  was  stupendous.  Embankments  along  the  river — 
artificial  reservoirs  in  connexion  with  it  to  reeeive  an  ex- 
cessive increase — new  curvilinear  channels  dug  for  the 
water  in  places  where  the  stream  was  too  straight  and 
rapid — broad  and  deep  canals  crossing  the  whole  space 
between  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris,  and  feeding  numer- 
ous rivulets l  or  ditches  which  enabled  the  whole  breadth 
of  land  to  be  irrigated — all  these  toilsome  applications 
were  requisite  to  ensure  due  moisture  for  the  Babylonian 
soil.  But  they  were  rewarded  with  an  exuberance  of 
produce,  in  the  various  descriptions  of  grain,  such  as  He- 
rodotus hardly  dares  to  particularise.  The  country  pro- 
duced no  trees  except  the  date-palm;  which  was*  turned  to 
account  in  many  different  ways,  and  from  the  fruit  of 
which,  both  copious  and  of  extraordinary  size,  wine  as 
well  as  bread  was  made.2  Moreover,  Babylonia  was  still 
more  barren  of  stone  than  of  wood,  so  that  buildings  as 
well  as  walls  were  constructed  almost  entirely  of  brick,  for 
which  the  earth  was  well-adapted;  while  a  flow  of  mineral 
bitumen,  found  near  the  town  and  river  of  Is,  higher  \\p 
the  Euphrates,  served  for  cement.  Such  persevering  and 
systematic  labour  applied  for  the  purpose  of  irrigation, 
excites  our  astonishment;  yet  the  description  of  what  was 
done  for  defence  is  still  more  imposing.  Babylon,  tra- 
versed in  the  middle  by  the  Euphrates,  was  sur- 
s'abyi'on—  rounded  by  walls  three  hundred  feet  in  height, 
its  d'men-  seventy-five  feet  in  thickness,  and  composing 
walls. and  a  square  of  which  each  side  was  one  hundred 
and  twenty  stadia  (or  nearly  fifteen  English 
miles)  in  length.  Around  the  outside  of  the  walls  was 

from  whom  so  much  of  our  know-  in  the  ancient  Babylonia,  seo 

ledge  of  Grecian  history  is  derived.  Theophrastus,  Hist.  Plant,  ii.  C, 

It  chanced  to  rain  hard  during  2-6;  Xenoph.  Cyrop.  vii.  5,  12; 

the  four  days  which  the  traveller  Anab.  ii.  3,  15;  Diodor.  ii.  53; 

Niebuhr  spent  in  going  from  the  there  were  some  which  bore  no 

ruins  of  Babylon  to  Bagdad,  at  fruit,  but  which  afforded  good  wood 

the  end  of  November  1763  (Heisen,  for  house-purposes  and  furniture, 

vol.  ii.  p.  292).  Theophrastus  gives  the  same 

1  Herodot.  i.  193 ;  Xenophon,  general  idea  of  the  fertility  and 

Anab.  i.  7,  15;  ii.  4,  13-22.  produce  of  the  soil  in  Babylonia 

1  About  the  date-palms  (cpoivixs?)  as   Herodotus,    though    the    two- 


CHAP.  XIX.  TEMPLE  OF  BELUS.  297 

a  broad  and  deep  moat  from  whence  the  material  for 
the  bricks  composing  them  had  been  excavated;  while 
one  hundred  brazen  gates  served  for  ingress  and  egress. 
Besides,  there  was  an  interior  wall  less  thick,  but  still 
very  strong;  and  as  a  still  farther  obstruction  to  invaders 
from  the  north  and  north-east,  another  high  and  thick 
wall  was  built  at  some  miles  from  the  city,  across  the 
space  between  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris — called  the 
wall  of  Media,  seemingly  a  little  to  the  north  of  that  point 
where  the  two  rivers  most  nearly  approach  to  each  other, 
and  joining  the  Tigris  on  its  west  bank.  Of  the  houses 
many  were  three  or  four  stories  high,  and  the  broad  and 
straight  streets,  unknown  in  a  Greek  town  until  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  Peirseeus  by  Hippodamus  near  the  time 
of  the  Peloponnesian  war,  were  well-calculated  to  heighten 
the  astonishment  raised  by  the  whole  spectacle  in  a  visi- 
tor like  Herodotus.  The  royal  palace,  with  its  memorable 
terraces  or  hanging  gardens,  formed  the  central  and  com- 
manding edifice  in  one  half  of  the  city — the  temple  of  Belus 
in  the  other  half. 

That  celebrated  temple,  standing  upon  a  basis  of  one 
square  stadium,  and  enclosed  in  a  precinct  of  two  square 
stadia  in  dimension,  was  composed  of  eight  solid  towers, 
built  one  above  the  other,  and  is  alleged  by  Strabo  to  have 
been  as  much  as  a  stadium  or  furlong  high  (the  height  is 
not  specified  by  Herodotus1).  It  was  full  of  costly  deco- 
rations, and  possessed  an  extensive  landed  property.  Along 

hundred-fold,  ami  sometimes  throe-  represents  the  entire  distance  in 

hundred-fold,  which  was  stated  to  upward  march  from  the  bottom  to 

the  latter  as  tho  produce  of  the  the  top.  He  as  well  as  Arrian  say.} 

land  in  grain,  appears  in  his  state-  that  Xerxes  destroyed  both  the 

ment  cut  down  to  fifty-fold  or  temple  of  Belus  and  all  the  other 

one-hundred-fold  (Hist.  Plant,  viii.  temples  at  Babylon  (xotOsiXsv,  xa- 

7,  4).  -rsaw^sv,  iii.  16,  fi;  vii.  17,  4);  he 

llespecting  the  numerous  useful  talks  of  the  intention  of  Alexander 

purposes  for  which  tho  date-palm  to  rebuild  it,  and  of  his  directions 

was  made  to  serve  (a  Persian  song  given  to  level  the  foundation  anovr, 

enumerated  three  hundred  and  carrying  away  the  loo'se  earth  and 

sixty),  see  Strabo,  xvi.  p.  742;  ruins.  This  cannot  be  reconciled 

Ammian  Marcoll.  xxiv.  3.  with  the  narrative  of  Herodotus, 

1  Herodot.  i.  178;  Strabo,  xvi.  nor  with  the  statement  of  Pliny 

p.  738;  Arrian,  E.  A.  vii.  17,  7.  (vi.  30),  nor  do  I  believe  it  to  be 

fc-trabo  does  not  say  that  it  was  a  true.  Xerxes  plundered  the  temple 

stadium  in  perpendicular  height:  of  much  of  its  wealth  and  orna- 

\ve  may  suppose  that  the  stadium  rnents ;  but  that  he  knocked  down 


298                                 HISTORY  OP  GREECE.                              PART  II. 

the  banks  of  the  river,  in  its  passage  through  the  city,  were 
built  spacious  quays,  and  a  bridge  on  stone  piles — for  the 
placing  of  which  (as  Herodotus  was  told)  Semiramis  had 
caused  the  river  Euphrates  to  be  drained  off  into  the  large 
side  reservoir  and  lake  constructed  higher  up  its  course.1 

the    vast    building    and   the   other  more  than  give  what  he  heard.  He 

Babylonian  temples,  is  incredible,  had    bestowed   much    attention  on 

Babylon  always  continued  one  of  Assyria  and  its   phenomena,  as  is 

the    chief    cities     of    the    Persian  evident  from  the  fact  that  he  had 

empire.  written   (or   prepared    to  write,    if 

1  What  is   stated  in  the  text  re-  the    suspicion   be   admissible    that 

epecting  Babylon,  is  taken  almost  the    work  was   never  completed — 

entirely   from    Herodotus:    I  have  Fabricius,    Biblioth.    Grcec.   ii.    20, 

given  briefly   the   most   prominent  5)  a  special  Assyrian  history,  which 

points  in  his  interesting  narrative  has  not  reached  us  ('Aajuoioisi  X6- 

(i.  178-193),  which  well  deserves  to  Yol(Jl»  *•  106—184).   He  is  very  pre- 

be  read  at  length.  cise  in  the    measures   of  which  he 

Herodotus   is    in    fact   our    only  speaks :  thus  having  described  the 

original    witness,     speaking    from  dimensions  of  the   walls  in  "royal 

his  own  observation  and  going  into  cubits,"   he    goes   on    immediately 

details,    respecting  the  marvels  of  to  tell  us  how  much  that  measure 

Babylon.    Ktesias,  if  his  work  had  differs  from  an  ordinary  cubit.  He 

remained,  would  have  beenanother  designedly    suppresses    a    part    of 

original  witness  ;  but  we  have  only  what  he   had  heard  respecting  the 

a  few  extracts    from   him   by  Dio-  produce    of  the    Babylonian    soil, 

dorus.    Strabo    seems  not   to  have  from  the  mere  apprehension  of  not 

visited  Babylon,  nor  can  it  be  af-  being  believed. 

firmed  that  Kleitarchus  did  so.  To  these  reasons  for  placing  faith 
Arrian  had  Aristobulus  to  copy,  in  Herodotus  we  may  add  another, 
and  is  valuable  as  far  as  he  goes;  not  less  deserving  of  attention, 
but  he  does  not  enter  into  many  That  which  seems  incredible  in  the 
particulars  respecting  the  magni-  constructions  which  he  describes, 
tude  of  the  city  or  its  appurtenan-  arises  simply  from  their  enormous 
ces.  Berosus  also,  if  we  possessed  bulk,  and  the  frightful  quantity 
his  book,  would  have  been  an  eye-  of  human  labour  which  must  have 
witness  of  the  state  of  Babylon  been  employed  to  execute  them, 
more  than  a  century  and  a  half  He  does  not  tell  us,  like  Berosus 
later  than  Herodotus,  but  the  few  (Fragm.  p.  66),  that  these  wonder- 
fragments  remaining  are  hardly  at  ful  fortifications  were  completed 
all  descriptive  (see  Berosi  Fragm.  in  fifteen  days — nor,  like  Quintus 
p.  64 — 67,  ed.  Richter).  Curtius,  that  the  length  of  one 

The    magnitude     of    the    works  stadium    was    completed    on    each 

described  by  Herodotus   naturally  successive   day   of  the   year   (v.  1, 

provokes   suspicions    of  exaggera-  26).    To  bring  to  pass  all  that  He- 

tion.    But  there  are  good  grounds  rodotus   has    described,   is   a  mere 

for  trusting  him,  in  my  judgement,  question   of  time,   patience,   num- 

on  all  points  which  fell  under  his  her  of  labourers,  and  cost  of  ma'n- 

own  vision  and  means  of  verifica-  taining     them — for    the    materials 

tion— as    distinguished    from    past  were  both  close  at  hand  aud  inex- 

facts,    on    which    he    could   do   no  haustible. 


CHAP.  XIX.                          TEMPLE  OF  BELUS.                                     299 

Besides  this  great  town  of  Babylon  itself,  there  were 
throughout  the  neighbourhood,  between  the  canals  which 

Now  what  would  be  the  limit  this  we  may  observe  —  First,  the 

imposed  upon  the  power  and  will  expression  (TO  TSIJTO?  rspisIXi)  does 

of  the  old  kings  of  Babylonia  on  not  imply  that  the  wall  was  so 

these  points?  We  can  hardly  assign  thoroughly  and  entirely  razed  by 

that  limit  with  so  much  confidence  Darius  as  to  leave  no  part  stand- 

as  to  venture  to  pronounce  a  state-  ing,  —  still  less  that  the  great  and 

ment  of  Herodotus  incredible,  broad  moat  was  in  all  its  circuit 

\vhen  he  tells  us  something  which  filled  up  and  levelled.  This  would 

be  has  seen,  or  verified  from  eye-  have  been  a  most  laborious  oper- 

•svitnesses.  The  pyramids  and  other  ation  in  reference  to  such  high 

works  in  Egypt  are  quite  sufficient  and  bulky  masses,  and  withal  not' 

to  make  us  mistrustful  of  our  own  necessary  for  the  purpose  of  ren- 

raeaus  of  appreciation  ;  and  the  dering  the  town  defenceless  ;  for 

great  wall  of  China  (extending  for  which  purpose  the  destruction  of 

120')  English  miles  along  what  was  certain  portions  of  the  wall  is 

once  the  whole  northern  frontier  sufficient.  Next,  Herodotus  speaks 

of  the  Chinese  empire—  from  20  to  distinctly  of  the  walls  and  ditch 

25  feet  high—  wide  enough  for  six  as  existing  in  his  time,  when  he 

horses  to  run  abreast,  and  fur-  saw  the  place;  which  does  not  ex- 

nished  with  a  suitable  number  of  elude  the  possibility  that  numerous 

gates  and  bastions)  contains  more  breaches  may  have  been  designedly 

material  than  all  the  buildings  of  made  in  them,  or  mere  openings 

the  British  empire  put  together,  left  in  the  walls  without  any  ac- 

according  to  Barrow's  estimate  tual  gates,  for  the  purpose  of  ob- 

(Transactions  of  the  Koyal  Asiatic  viating  all  idea  of  revolt.  But 

Society,  vol.  i.  p.  7.  t.  v.  ;  and  Ide-  however  this  latter  fact  may  be, 

ler,  Ueber  die  Zeitrechnung  dor  certain  it  is  that  the  great  walls 

Chinesen,  in  the  Abhandlungen  of  were  either  continuous,  or  dis- 

the  Berlin  Academy  for  1837,  ch.  3.  continuous  only  to  the  extent  of 

p.  291).  these  designed  breaches,  when  He- 

Ktcsias    gave   the    circuit  of  the  odotus    saw     them.     He   describes 


Curtius,   :!CS    stadia;    and    Strabo, 

385  stadia;    all  different   from  He-  IxaaT&v  120  oT7.6lu)v,    eo'Jjr]^    TETpa- 

rodotus,    who    gives  480  stadia,    a  -yibwj'    00701    a-ri&ioi    T-^C;    z£oio8ou 

square    of    120    stadia     each     side.  TTJ;     7:6X10;    ylvovTat    ou-<a-!xv7s<; 

Grosskurd  (ad  Strabon.  xvi.  p.  738),  480.     To    JAEM    vuv    jiEY1"0'    TOJC/IJTOV 

Iietronne,  and  Heeren,  all  presume  SJTI    TOU    ajTSo;   TOU    Bxfi'jXu)vi.ou. 

that  the    smaller  number    must  be  'KxEx6ff|j./(7o   5s    ti>;    ouoiv    oXXo   r.6- 

the  truth,  and  that  Herodotus  must  Xuijia  TUT;    f,asl;   iZpz-1-    -racpof    p.k-i 

have  been  misinformed;  and  Gross-  npu)Ta    (j.iv    piOjot    TE    xai    e'jpsot    xai 

kurd  farther  urges,  that  Herodotus  r.\irt    UOXTO;    ^ssiOisi-     \i^-fj.     BE, 

cannot  have  seen    the  walls,  inas-  "S'-'/.o?  -ivr^y.o^T'j:  y.i-i    r.r^iio-i  pan- 

much  as  he    himself    tells   us   that  /.Yjiiuv  i'n'i  TO  s'joo;,  'Jio;  oi,  Birjxo- 
Darius    caused    them    to    be    razed 
after  the  second  siege  and  re-con- 
quest  (Hcrodot.  iii.  159).    But  upon 


300 


HISTORY  OF  GREECE. 


PART  II. 


united  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris,  many  rich  and  popu- 
lous villages,  while  Borsippa  and  other  considerable  towns 
were  situated  lower  down  on  the  Euphrates  itself.  And 

(c.  181)— TO'JTO  (icv  Sr,  TO  TEiyoi;  Oib- 


icepiSsT,  o'i  iroXXqj  TEIJ>   oo9ev£3Ts- 

pON    TOO     ETEpO'J     TEtXO'J?)     ffTSWOTSpOV 

8s.  Then  he  describes  the  temple 
of  Zeus  B61us  with  its  vast  di- 
mensions— xai  E?  £|AE  TOOTO  ETl  SOV, 
OUO  OTaOicoV  ftdcvTT),  EOV  TSTptZYWVOV 

—in  the  language  of  one  who  had 
himself  gone  up  to  the  top  of  it. 
After  having  mentioned  the  stri- 
king present  phenomena  of  the 
temple,  he  specifies  a  statue  of 
solid  gold,  twelve  cubits  high, 
which  the  Chaldseans  told  him  had 
once  been  there,  but  which  he  did 
not  see,  and  he  carefully  marks 
the  distinction  in  his  language— 

TjV    8s    SV     TU>     -EfJLEVEl    TO'JTtf     ETl     TOV 

ypovov  EXSI-/OV  xai  dvOpiii;  OyiuSsxa 
itr//£U>v,  yp'jjso?  UTEpso?.  'Eyio  (i£v 
fjuv  O'jx  EIOOV  TOC  8s  Hfttai  Ono 
XaUaltov,  routa  >.E7U>  (c.  183). 

The  argument  therefore  by  which 
Grosskurd  justifies  the  rejection  of 
the  statement  of  Herodotus  is  not 
to  be  reconciled  with  the  language 
of  the  historian  :  Herodotus  certain- 
ly saw  both  the  walls  and  the 
ditch.  Ktesias  saw  them  too,  and 
his  statement  of  the  circuit,  as  360 
stadia,  stands  opposed  to  that  of 
480  stadia,  which  appears  in  Hero- 
dotus. But  the  authority  of  Hero- 
dotus is  in  my  judgement  so  much 
superior  to  that  of  Ktesias,  that  I 
accept  the  larger  figure  as  more 
worthy  of  credit  than  the  smaller. 
Sixty  English  miles  (speaking  in 
round  numbers)  of  circuit  is  doubt- 
less a  wonder,  but  forty-five  miles 
in  circuit  is  a  wonder  also  :  grant- 
ing means  and  will  to  execute  the 
lesser  of  these  two,  the  Babylonian 
kings  can  hardly  be  supposed  in- 
adequate to  the  greater. 

To  me  the  height  of  these  artifi- 


cial mountains,  called  tca??s.  ap- 
pears even  more  astonishing  than 
their  length  or  breadth.  Yet  it  is 
curious  that  on  this  point  the  two 
eye-witnesses,  Herodotus  and 
Ktgsias,  both  agree,  with  only  the- 
difference  between  royal  cubits 
and  common  cubits.  Herodotus 
states  the  height  at  200  royal  cubits  : 
Ktesias,  at  fifty  fathoms,  which 
are  equal  to  200  common  cubits 
(Diod.  ii.  7)  —  TO  8s  '3'^os,  u>s  \iit 


7cr,y_u)v  ittvr^xovta.  Olearius  (ad 
Philostratum  Vit.  Apollon.  Tyac. 
i.  25)  shows  plausible  reason  for 
believing  that  the  more  recent 
writers  (vEtimpoi)  cut  down  the 
dimensions  stated  by  Ktgsias  simply 
because  they  thought  such  a  vast 
height  incredible.  The  difference 
between  the  royal  cubit  and  the 
common  cubit  (as  Herodotus  on 
this  occasion  informs  us)  was  three 
digits  in  favour  of  the  former; 
his  200  royal  cubits  are  thus  equal 
to  337  feet  8  inches:  KtSsias  has 
not  attended  to  the  difference  be- 
tween royal  cubits  and  common 
cubits,  and  his  estimate  therefore 
is  lower  than  that  of  Herodotus 
by  37  feet  8  inches. 

On  the  whole,  I  cannot  think 
that  we  are  justified,  either  by 
the  authority  of  such  counter- 
testimony  as  can  be  produced,  or 
by  the  intrinsic  wonder  of  the  case, 
in  rejecting  the  dimensions  of  tha 
walls  of  Babylon  as  given  by  He- 
rodotus. 

Quintus  Curtius  states  that  a 
large  proportion  of  the  enclosed 
space  was  not  occupied  by  dwell- 
ings, but  sown  and  planted  (v.  1, 
26:  compare  Diodor.  ii.  7). 


CHAP.  XIX.  BABYLONIAN  INDUSTRY.  801 

the  industry,  agricultural  as  well  as  manufacturing,  of  the 
collectivepopulationwas  not  less  persevering  than  product- 
ive. Their  linen,  cotton,  and  woollen  fabrics,  and  their 
richly  ornamented  carpets,  were  celebrated  throughout  all 
the  Eastern  regions.  Their  cotton  was  brought  in  part 
from  island?  in  the  Persian  Gulf.  The  flocks  of  sheep 
tended  by  the  Arabian  Nomads  supplied  them  with  wool 
finer  even  than  that  of  Miletus  or  Tarentum.  Besides  the 
Chaldsean  order  of  priests,  there  seem  to  have  been  among 
them  certain  other  tribes  with  peculiar  hereditary  customs. 
Thus  there  were  three  tribes,  probably  near  the  mouth  of 
the  river,  who  restricted  themselves  to  the  eating  of  fish 
alone ;  but  we  have  no  evidences  of  a  military  caste  (like 
that  in  Egypt)  nor  any  other  hereditary  profession. 

In  ordi-r  to  present  any  conception  of  what  Assyria 
was,  in  the  early  days  of  Grecian  history  and  during  the 
two  centuries  preceding  the  conquest  of  Babylon  by  Cyrus 
in  536  B.C.,  we  unfortunately  have  no  witness  earlier  than 
Herodotus,  who  did  not  see  Babylon  until  near  a  century 
after  that  event — about  seventy  years  after  its  still  more 
disastrous  revolt  and  second  subjugation  by  Darius.   Baby- 
lonia had  become  one  of  the  twenty  satrapies  of  the  Persian 
empire,  and  besides  paying  a  larger  regular  tribute  than 
any  of  the  other  nineteen,  supplied,  from  its  exuberant  soil, 
provision  for  the  Great  King  and  his   countless  host  of 
attendants  during  one-third  part  of  the  year.1     Yet  it  was 
then  in  a  state  of  comparative  degradation,  having  had  its 
immense  walls  breached  by  Darius,  and  having  afterwards 
undergone  the  ill-usage  of  Xerxes;  who,  since  he  stripped 
its  temples,  and  especially  the  venerated  temple  of  Belus, 
of  some  of  their  richest  ornaments,  would  probably  be  still 
more  reckless  in  his  mode  of  dealing  with  the   Babylon-- 
civic edifices.2     If  in  spite  of  such  inflictions,    only 
and  in  spite  of  that  manifest  evidence  of  poverty   Curing  the 
and  suffering  in  the  people  which  Herodotus  ex-    time  of  its 
pressly  notices,  it  continued  to  be  what  he  des-   uo^-yt't 
cribes,  still  counted  as  almost  the  chief  city  of   even  then 
the  Persian    empire,  both  in  the  time  of  the    cHy^n* 
younger  Cyrus  and  in  that  of  Alexander3 — we    Western 
may  judge  what  it  must  once  have  been,  without   Asia' 

1  Herodot.  i.  196.  Exp.    Al.    iii.    10,    3.     -/at    ajict    TO} 

2  Arrian,  Exp.  Al.  iii.  1C,  0:  vii.  r:  <•//.= p.  oy  TO  a'D.o;  /)  Boc3'j).u»  *«i  ~* 
17,   3;   Quint.   Curtius,  iii.   3,  10.  So'jja  jsxivSTO. 

3  Xenoph.  Auab.  i.  4;  11;  Arrian, 


302  HISTORY  OF  GBEECE.  JTABT  II. 

either  foreign  satrap  or  foreign  tribute,1  under  its  Assyrian 
kings  and  Chaldsean  priests,  during  the  last  of  the  two 
centuries  which  intervened  between  the  aera  of  Nabonassar 
and  the  capture  of  the  city  by  Cyrus  the  Great.  Though 
several  of  the  kings,  during  the  first  of  these  two  centuries, 
had  contributed  much  to  the  great  works  of  Babylon,  yet 
it  was  during  the  second  century  of  the  two,  after  the  capture 
of  Nineveh  by  the  Medes,  and  under  Nebuchadnezzar  and 
Nitokris,  that  the  kings  attained  the  maximum  of  their 
power  and  the  city  its  greatest  enlargement.  It  was  Ne- 
buchadnezzar who  constructed  the  seaport  Teredon,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Euphrates,  and  who  probably  excavated  the 
long  ship  canal  of  near  400  miles,  which  joined  it.  That 
canal  was  perhaps  formed  partly  from  a  natural  western 
branch  of  the  Euphrates. 2  The  brother  of  the  poet  Alkseus 
— Antimenidas,  who  served  in  the  Babylonian  army,  and 
distinguished  himself  by  his  personal  valour  (600-580  B.C.) 
— would  have  seen  it  in  its  full  glory.3  He  is  the  earliest 
Greek  of  whom  we  hear  individually  in  connexion  with  the 
Babylonians.  It  marks4  strikingly  the  contrast  between 
the  Persian  kings  and  the  Babylonian  kings,  on  whose  ruin 
they  rose — that  while  the  latter  incurred  immense  expense 

1  See  the  statement  of  the  large  lonel  Chesney's  expedition  in  1836, 
receipts  of  the   satrap  Tritantaech-  are  to  be  trusted.    That  expedition 
mes,   and  his    immense    establish-  gave  the  first  complete   and   accu- 
ment   of  horses   and   Indian    dogs  rate    survey   of  the   course   of  the 
(Herodot.  i.  192).  river,   and  led  to  the  detection  of 

2  There  ia  a  valuable  examination  many    mistakes    previously    com- 
of  the  lower  course  of  the  Euphra-  mitted  by  Mannert,  Reichard,  and 
tes,  with  the  changes  -which  it  has  other  able  geographers  and  charto- 
undergone,  in  Hitter,  West-Asien,  graphers.     To   the    immense    mass 
b.  iii.  Abtheil.  iii.  Abschnitt  i.  sect,  of  information  contained  in  Hitter's 
29.  p.  45-49,   and  the  passage  from  comprehensive  and  laborious  work, 
Abydenus  in  the  latter  page.  is  to   be   added   the  farther  merit, 

For  the  distance  between  Tergdon  that  he  is  always  careful  in  point- 
er Diridotis,  at  the  mouth  of  the  ing  out  where  the  geographical 
Euphrates  (which  remained  sepa-  data  are  insufficient  and  fall  short 
rate  from  that  of  the  Tigris  until  of  certainty.  See  West-Asien,  B. 
the  first  century  of  the  Christian  iii.  Abtheilung  iii.  Abschnitt  i.  sect. 
asra),  to  Babylon,  see  Strabo,  ii.  41.  p.  959. 
p.  80  ;  xvi.  p.  739.  3  Strabo,  xiii.  p.  617,  with  the 

It  is  important  to  keep  in  mind  mutilated     fragment     of    Alkseus, 

the  warning  given  by  Ritter,  that  which  O.  Miiller  has  so  ingeniously 

none  of  the  maps  of  the  course  of  corrected  (Rheinisch.  Museum,  i.  4. 

the  river  Euphrates,  prepared  pre-  p.  237). 

viously  to   the  publication  of  Co-  *  Strabo,  xvi.  p.  740. 


CHAP.  XIX.         POWER  OF  BABYLONIAN  KINGS.  303 

to  facilitate  the  communication  between  Babylon  and  the 
sea,  the  former  artificially  impeded  the  lower  course  of  the 
Tigris,  in  order  that  their  residence  at  Susa  might  be  out 
of  the  reach  of  assailants. 

That  which  strikes  us  most,  and  which  must  have 
struck  the  first  Grecian  visitors  much  more,  both   immense 
in  Assyria  and  Egypt,  is  the  unbounded  com-   ^™mm°^ 
mand  of  naked  human  strength  possessed  by   labour  Pos- 
these  early  kings,  and  the  effect  of  mere  mass   J.ess®d  ^y 

i    '     i    A  i-      11  ••!     i      -ji  the  Baby- 

and  indefatigable  perseverance,  unaided  either  Ionian 
by  theory  or  by  artifice,  in  the  accomplishment  kinss- 
of  gigantic  results. l  In  Assyria  the  results  were  in  great 
part  exaggerations  of  enterprises  in  themselves  useful  to 
the  people  for  irrigation  and  defence:  religious  worship 
was  ministered  to  in  the  like  manner,  as  well  as  the  personal 
fancies  and  pomp  of  their  kings:  while  in  Egypt  the  latter 
class  predominates  more  over  the  former.  We  scarcely 
trace  in  either  of  them  the  higher  sentiment  of  art,  which 
owes  its  first  marked  development  to  Grecian  susceptibility 
and  genius.  But  the  human  mind  is  in  every  stage  of  its 
progress,  and  most  of  all  in  its  rude  and  unreflecting  period, 
strongly  impressed  by  visible  and  tangible  magnitude,  and 
awe-struck  by  the  evidences  of  great  power.  To  this 
feeling,  for  what  exceeded  the  demands  of  practical  con- 
venience and  security,  the  wonders  both  in  Egypt  and 
Assyria  chiefly  appealed.  The  execution  of  such  colossal 
works  demonstrates  habits  of  regular  industry,  a  concen- 
trated population  under  one  government,  and  above  all, 
an  implicit  submission  to  the  regal  and  priestly  sway — 
contrasting  forcibly  with  the  small  autonomous  communities 
of  Greece  and  Western  Europe,  wherein  the  will  of  the 
individual  citizen  was  so  much  more  energetic  and  uncon- 
trolled. The  acquisition  of  habits  of  regular  industry,  so 
foreign  to  the  natural  temper  of  man,  was  brought  about 
in  Egypt  and  Assyria,  in  China  and  Hindostan,  before  it 
had  acquired  any  footing  in  Europe;  but  it  was  purchased 
either  by  prostrate  obedience  to  a  despotic  rule,  or  by  im- 
prisonment within  the  chain  of  a  consecrated  institution 
of  caste.  Even  during  the  Homeric  period  of  Greece, 


304  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

Collective  these  countries  had  attained  a  certain  civilization 
inVAsiation  ^  mass>  without  the  acquisition  of  any  high 
without'  mental  qualities  or  the  development  of  any  in- 
individual  dividual  genius.  The  religious  and  political 

freedom  , .  , .  .  .  °   ,          ,         r       . 

or  deve-  sanction,  sometimes  combined  and  sometimes 
lopment.  separate,  determined  for  every  one  his  mode  of 
life,  his  creed,  his  duties,  and  his  place  in  society,  without 
leaving  any  scope  for  the  will  or  reason  of  the  agent 
himself.  Now  the  Phenicians  and  Carthaginians  manifest 
a  degree  of  individual  impulse  and  energy  which  puts  them 
greatly  above  this  type  of  civilization,  though  in  their 
tastes,  social  feelings  and  religion,  they  are  still  Asiatic. 
And  even  the  Babylonian  community — though  their  Chal- 
dsean  priests  are  the  parallel  of  the  Egyptian  priests,  with 
a  less  measure  of  ascendency — combine  with  their  indus- 
trial aptitude  and  constancy  of  purpose,  something  of  that 
strenuous  ferocity  of  character  which  marks  so  many  people 
of  the  Semitic  race — Jews,  Phenicians,  and  Carthaginians. 
These  Semitic  people  stand  distinguished  as  well  from 
the  Egyptian  life — enslaved  by  childish  caprices 

Graduated  ,     °JK        ,  .  ,    ,  A  „  .       v   f  „ 

contrast  and   antipathies,   and  by  endless  frivolities   of 

between  ceremonial  detail — as  from  the  flexible,  many- 

AsSyyrians,'  sided,  and  self-organising  Greek;  the  latter  not 

Phenicians,  on]y  capable  of  opening  both  for  himself  and  for 

and  Greeks.     ,11  j.i       i  •    T_  n          f  •    j.   11      j 

the  human  race  the  highest  walks  ot  intellect, 
and  the  full  creative  agency  of  art,  but  also  gentler  by 
far  in  his  private  sympathies  and  dealings  than  his 
contemporaries  on  the  Euphrates,  the  Jordan,  or  the 
Nile — for  we  are  not  of  course  to  compare  him  with  the 
exigencies  of  Western  Europe  in  the  eighteenth  and 
nineteenth  centuries. 

Both  in  Babylonia  and  in  Egypt,  the  vast  monuments, 
Deserts  and  embankments  and  canals,  executed  by  collective 
predatory  industry,  appeared  the  more  remarkable  to  an 
rounding*"  ancient  traveller  by  contrast  with  the  desert 
the  Baby-  regions  and  predatory  tribes  immediately  sur- 
lonians.  rounaing  them.  West  of  the  Euphrates,  the 
sands  of  Arabia  extended  northward,  with  little  interruption, 
to  the  latitude  of  the  Gulf  of  Issus ;  they  even  covered  the 
greater  part  of  Mesopotamia,1  or  the  country  between  the 
Euphrates  and  the  Tigris,  beginning  a  sho'rt  distance  north- 
ward of  the  wall  called  the  wall  of  Media  above-mentioned, 

1   See    the    description    of    this  desert  in  Xenoph.  Anab.  i.  5,  1-8. 


CHAP.  XIX.    PREDATORY  TRIBES  AROUND  BABYLON.  305 

which  (extending  in  a  direction  nearly  southward  from  the 
Tigris  to  the  Euphrates)  had  been  erected  to  protect 
Babylonia  against  the  incursions  of  the  Medes.  *  Eastward 
of  the  Tigris  again,  along  the  range  of  Mount  Zagros,  but 
at  no  great  distance  from  the  river,  were  found  the  Elymsei, 
Kosssei,  Uxii,  Parsetakeni,  &c. — tribes  which  (to  use  the 
expression  of  Strabo),2  "as  inhabiting  a  poor  country,  were 
under  the  necessity  of  living  by  the  plunder  of  their  neigh- 
bours." Such  rude  bands  of  depredators  on  the  one  side, 
and  such  wide  tracts  of  sand  on  the  two  others,  without 
vegetation  or  water,  contrasted  powerfully  with  theindustry 
and  productiveness  of  Babylonia.  Babylon  itself  is  to  be 
considered,  not  as  one  continuous  city,  but  as  a  city  together 
with  its  surrounding  district  enclosed  within  immense 
walls,  the  height  and  thickness  of  which  were  in  themselves 
a  sufficient  defence,  so  that  the  place  was  assailable  only  at 
its  gates.  In  case  of  need  it  would  serve  as  shelter  for  the 
persons  and  property  of  the  village-inhabitants  in  Baby- 
lonia. We  shall  see  hereafter  how  useful  under  trying 
circumstances  such  a  resource  was,  when  we  come  to 
review  the  invasions  of  Attica  by  the  Peloponnesians,  and 
the  mischiefs  occasioned  by  a  temporary  crowd  pouring  in 
from  the  country,  so  as  to  overcharge  the  intramural  ac- 
commodations of  Athens.  Spacious  as  Bab ylon  was,  however, 
it  is  affirmed  by  Strabo  that  Ninus  or  Nineveh  was  con- 
siderably larger. 

1  The  Ten  Thousand  Greeks  pass-  order  of  ArtaxerxSs  to  oppose  the 

ed  from  the  outside   to    the  inside  march    of  the  younger  Cyrus  with 

of  the  wall    of  Media:    it  was   100  the  Nahar-Malcha  or  Royal  Canal 

font   high,    20  feet   wide,    and  was  between  the  Tigris  and  the  Euphra- 

reported  to  them   as    extending  20  tes:  see  Xenoph.  Anab.  i.  7,  15. 

pavasangs  or  f;00  stadia  (=  70  miles)  It    is    singular    that    Herodotus 

in  length  (Xenoph.  Anab.  ii.  4,  12).  makes  no  mention   of  the  wall  of 

Eratosthenes  called  it  TO  Sefj-tpipii-  Media,  though  his   subject   (i.  185) 

GO;  oiciTiiyuixa  (Strabo,  ii.  p.  80).  naturally  conducts  him  to  it.   The 

There   is    some   confusion  about  little    information    which    can    be 

the  wall  of  Media:  Mannert  (Geogr.  found   about  it,    will   be  seen  put 

der  G.  und  R.  v.  2.  p.  280)  and  For-  together  in  Oh.  70;  where  I  recount 

bister  also  (Alte  Geogr.  sect.  97.  p.  the  Expedition  of  Cyrus. 

filfi.  note  94)    appear   to  have  con-  2  Strabo,  xvi.  p.  744. 
founded   the  ditch    dug  by  special 


306  HISTOBY  OP  GBEECE.  PAEi  II. 

APPENDIX. 

Since  the  first  edition  of  these  volumes,  the  interesting  work  of 
Mr.  Layard — "Nineveh  and  its  Bemains,"  together  with  his  illustrative 
Drawings — "The  Monuments  of  Nineveh" — have  been  published.  And 
through  his  unremitting  valuable  exertions  in  surmounting  all  the 
difficulties  connected  with  excavations  on  the  spot,  the  British  Mu- 
seum has  been  enriched  with  a  valuable  collection  of  real  Assyrian 
sculptures  and  other  monuments.  A  number  of  similar  relics  of  Assy- 
rian antiquity,  obtained  by  M.  Botta  and  others,  have  also  been  depos- 
ited in  the  museum  of  the  Louvre  at  Paris. 

In  respect  to  Assyrian  art,  indeed  to  the  history  of  art  in  general, 
a  new  world  has  thus  been  opened,  which  promises  to  be  fruitful  of 
instruction ;  especially  when  we  consider  that  the  ground  out  of 
which  the  recent  acquisitions  have  been  obtained,  has  been  yet  most 
imperfectly  examined,  and  may  be  expected  to  yield  an  ampler  har- 
vest hereafter,  assuming  circumstances  tolerably  favourable  to  investi- 
gation. The  sculptures  to  which  we  are  now  introduced ,  with  all 
their  remarkable  peculiarities  of  style  and  idea,  must  undoubtedly  date 
(from  the  eighth  or  seventh  century  B.C.  at  the  latest— and  may  be 
much  earlier.  The  style  which  they  display  forms  a  parallel  and  sub- 
ject of  comparison,  though  in  many  points  extremely  different,  to  that 
of  early  Egypt — at  a  time  when  the  ideal  combinations  of  the  Greeks 
were,  as  far  as  we  know,  embodied  only  in  epic  and  lyric  poetry. 

But  in  respect  to  early  Assyrian  history,  we  have  yet  to  find  out 
whether  much  new  information  can  be  safely  deduced  from  these  in- 
teresting monuments.  The  cuneiform  inscriptions  now  brought  to  light 
are  indeed  very  numerous:  and  if  they  can  be  deciphered,  on  rational 
and  trustworthy  principles,  we  can  hardly  fail  to  acquire  more  or  less 
of  positive  knowledge  respecting  a  period  now  plunged  in  total  dar- 
kness. But  from  the  monuments  of  art  alone,  it  would  be  unsafe  to 
draw  historical  inferences.  For  example,  when  we  find  sculptures  re- 
presenting a  king  taking  a  city  by  assault,  or  receiving  captives  brought 
to  him,  &c.,  we  are  not  to  conclude  that  this  commemorates  any  real 
and  positive  conquest  recently  made  by  the  Assyrians.  Our  know- 
ledge of  the  subjects  of  Greek  sculpture  on  temples  is  quite  sufficient 
to  make  us  disallow  any  such  inference,  unless  there  be  some  corro- 
borative proof.  Some  means  must  first  be  discovered,  of  discriminating 
historical  from  mythical  subjects:  a  distinction  which  I  here  notice, 
the  rather,  because  Mr.  Layard  shows  occasional  tendency  to  overlook 
it  in  his  interesting  remarks  and  explanations  :  see  especially,  vol.  ii. 
ch.  vi.  p.  409. 

Prom  the  rich  and  abundant  discoveries  made  at  Nimroud,  combined 
with  those  at  Kouyunjik  and  Khorsabad,  Mr.  Layard  is  inclined  to 
comprehend  all  these  three  within  the  circuit  of  ancient  Nineveh:  ad- 
mitting for  that  circuit  the  prodigious  space  alleged  by  Diodorua  out 
of  Ktesias,  480  stadia  or  above  fifty  English  miles.  (See  Nineveh  and 
its  Eemains.  vol.  ii.  ch.  ii.  p.  242-253.)  Mr.  Layard  considers  that  the 
north-west  portion  of  Niniroud  exhibits  monuments  more  ancient,  and 
at  the  same  time  better  in  style  and  execution,  than  the  south-west 
portion, — or  than  Kouyunjik  and  Khorsabad  (vol.  ii.  ch.  i.  p.  204:  ch. 
iii.  p.  305).  If  this  hypothesis,  as  to  the  ground  covered  by  Nineveh, 


CHAP.  XIX.  NINEVEH  AND  ITS  EEMAINS.  307 

be  correct,  probably  future  excavations  will  confirm  it— or,  if  incorrect, 
refute  it.  But  I  do  not  at  all  reject  the  supposition  on  the  simple 
ground  of  excessive  magnitude:  on  the  contrary,  I  should  at  once  be- 
lieve the  statement,  if  it  were  reported  by  Herodotus  after  a  visit  to 
the  spot,  like  the  magnitude  of  Babylon.  The  testimony  of  Ktgsias  is 
indeed  very  inferior  in  value  to  that  of  Herodotus:  yet  it  ought  hardly 
to  be  outweighed  by  the  supposed  improbability  of  so  great  a  walled 
space,  when  we  consider  how  little  we  know  where  to  set  bounds  to 
the  power  of  the  Assyrian  kings  in  respect  to  command  of  human  la- 
bour for  any  process  merely  simple  and  toilsome,  with  materials  both 
near  and  inexhaustible.  Not  to  mention  the  great  wall  of  China,  we 
have  only  to  look  at  the  Picts  "Wall,  and  other  walls  built  by  the  Eo- 
mans  in  Britain,  to  satisfy  ourselves  that  a  great  length  of  fortification 
under  circumstances  much  less  favourable  than  the  position  of  the  an- 
cient Assyrian  kings,  is  noway  incredible  in  itself.  Though  the  walls 
of  Nineveh  and  Babylon  were  much  larger  than  those  of  Paris  as  it 
now  stands,  yet  when  we  compare  the  two  not  merely  in  size,  but  in 
respect  of  costliness,  elaboration,  and  contrivance,  the  latter  will  be 
found  to  represent  an  infinitely  greater  amount  of  work. 

Larissa  and  Mespila,  those  deserted  towns  and  walls  which  Xeno- 
phon  saw  in  the  retreat  of  the  Ten  Thousand  (Anabas.  iii.  4,  6-10), 
coincide  in  point  of  distance  and  situation  with  Nimroud  and  Kou- 
yunjik,  according  to  Mr.  Layard's  remark.  And  his  supposition  seems 
not  improbable,  that  both  of  them  were  formed  by  the  Medes  out  of 
the  ruins  of  the  conquered  city  of  Nineveh.  Neither  of  them  singly 
seems  at  all  adequate  to  the  reputation  of  that  ancient  city,  or  walled 
circujt.  According  to  the  account  of  Herodotus,  Phraortes  the  second 
Median  king  had  attacked  Nineveh,  but  had  been  himself  slain  in  the 
attempt,  and  lost  nearly  all  his  army.  It  was  partly  to  revenge  this 
disgrace  that  Kyaxares  son  of  Phraortes  assailed  Nineveh  (Herod,  i. 
102-103) :  we  may  thus  see  a  special  reason,  in  addition  to  his  own 
violence  of  temper  (i.  73),  why  he  destroyed  the  city  after  having  taken 
it  (Ni-jou  dvaa-ti-ou  fzvtj\i.i-iris,  i.  178).  It  is  easy  to  conceive  that  this 
vast  walled  space  may  have  been  broken  up  and  converted  into  two 
Median  towns,  both  on  the  Tigris.  In  the  subsequent  change  from 
Median  to  Persian  dominion,  these  towns  also  became  depopulated, 
as  far  as  the  strange  tales  which  Xenophon  heard  in  his  retreat  can  be 
trusted.  The  interposition  of  these  two  Median  towns  doubtless  con- 
tributed, for  the  time,  to  put  out  of  sight  the  traditions  respecting  the 
old  Ninus  which  had  before  stood  upon  their  site.  But  such  traditions 
never  became  extinct,  and  a  new  town  bearing  the  old  name  of  Ninus 
must  have  subsequently  arisen  on  the  spot.  This  second  Ninus  is  re- 
cognised by  Tacitus,  Ptolemy,  and  Ammianus,  not  only  as  existing, 
but  as  pretending  to  uninterrupted  continuity  of  succession  from  the 
ancient  "caput  Assyria?." 

Mr.  Layard  remarks  on  the  facility  with  which  edifices,  such  as 
those  in  Assyria,  built  of  sunburnt  bricks,  perish  when  neglected,  and 
crumble  away  into  earth,  leaving  little  or  no  trace. 


308  EISTOEY  OF  GEEECE.  PAST  II. 


CHAPTER    XX. 

EGYPTIANS. 

IP,  on  one  side,  the  Phenicians  were  separated  from  the 
productive  Babylonia  by  the  Arabian  Desert. 

Phenicians     r      .,         ,,  -j        ,1  -•  p   ,1 

—  the  link  on  the  other  side,  the  western  portion  of  the 
of  com-  same  desert  divided  them  from  the  no  less  pro- 
tween  ductive  valley  of  the  Nile.  In  those  early  times 

Egypt  and  which  preceded  the  rise  of  Greek  civilization, 
their  land  trade  embraced  both  regions,  and  they 
served  as  the  sole  agents  of  international  traffic  between 
the  two.  Conveniently  as  their  towns  were  situated  for 
maritime  commerce  with  the  Nile,  Egyptian  jealousy  had 
excluded  Phenician vessels  not  less  thanthoseof  the  Greeks 
from  the  mouths  of  that  river,  until  the  reign  ofPsamme- 
tichus  (672-618  B.C.);  and  thus  even  the  merchants  of  Tyre 
could  then  reach  Memphis  only  by  means  of  caravans,  em- 
ploying as  their  instruments  (as  I  have  already  observed) 
the  Arabian  tribes,1  alternately  plunderers  and  carriers. 

Respecting  Egypt,  as  respecting  Assyria,  since  the 
Herodotus  works  of  Hekataeus  are  unfortunately  lost,  our 
—earliest  earliest  information  is  derived  from  Herodotus, 
informant  wno  visited  Egypt  about  two  centuries  after  the 
about  reign  of  Psammetichus,  when  it  formed  part  of 

Egypt.  one  of  the  twenty  Persian  satrapies.  The  Egyp- 
tian marvels  and  peculiarities  which  he  recounts,  are  more 
numerous  as  well  as  more  diversified,  than  the  Assyrian; 
and  had  the  vestiges  been  effaced  as  completely  in  the 
former  as  in  the  latter,  his  narrative  would  probably  have 
met  with  an  equal  degree  of  suspicion.  But  the  hard  stone, 

1  Strabo,    xvi.    p.  766,    776,    778;  aut  sylvis    capiunt,    nihil    invicem 

Pliny,  H.  X.  32.     "Arabes,    mirum  redimentibus." 

dictu,    ex   innumeris    populis  pars  The  latter   part   of  this   passage 

n?qua  in  commerciis  aut  latrociniis  of  Pliny   presents    an    enunciation 

degunt:    in    universnm    gentes  di-  sufficiently  distinct,  though  by  im- 

tissimfe ,    nt    apud    quas    maximae  plication  only,    of  what    has  been 

opes    Eomanorum     Parthorumque  called  the  mercantile  theory  in  po- 

subsistant — vendentibus  qu;i  a  mari  l;tical  economy. 


CHAP.  XX.  EGYPTIANS.  309 

combined  with  the  dry  climate  of  Upper  Egypt  (where  a 
shower  of  rain  counted  as  a  prodigy),  have  given  such  per- 
manence to  the  monuments  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  that 
enough  has  remained  to  bear  out  the  father  of  Grecian 
history,  and  to  show,  that  in  describing  what  he  professes 
to  have  seen,  he  is  a  guide  perfectly  trustworthy.  For 
that  which  he  heard,  he  appears  only  in  the  character  of  a 
reporter,  and  often  an  incredulous  reporter.  Yet  though 
this  distinction  between  his  hearsay  and  his  ocular  evidence 
is  not  only  obvious,  but  of  the  most  capital  moment1 — it 
has  been  too  often  neglected  by  those  who  depreciate  him 
as  a  witness. 

The  mysterious  river  Nile,  a  god2  in  the  eyes  of  ancient 
Egyptians,  and  still  preserving  both  its  volume  xhe  Nile  in 
and  its  usefulness  undiminished  amidst  the  ge-  the  time  of 
neral  degradation  of  the  country,  reached  the  Herodotus- 
sea  in  the  time  of  Herodotus  by  five  natural  mouths,  be- 
sides two  others  artificially  dug.  Its  Pelusiac  branch 
formed  the  eastern  boundary  of  Egypt,  its  Kanopic  branch 
(170  miles  distant)  the  western;  while  theSebennytic  branch 
was  a  continuation  of  the  straight  line  of  the  upper  river: 

1  To  give    one   example: — Hero-  'Hpoo&To;   TC  xai   aXXoi  9>,uc(pou3iv, 

dotus  mentions    an  opinion    given  GIOV,  <£c. 

to  him  by  the  YporjjLjjLctTijTTi?  (compt-  Many  other  instances  might  be 
roller)  of  the  property  of  AthenS  cited,  both  from  ancient  and  mo- 
at Sais,  to  the  effect  that  the  sour-  dern  writers,  of  similar  careless- 
ces  of  the  Nile  were  at  an  im-  ness  or  injustice  towards  this  ad- 
measurable  depth  in  the  interior  of  mirable  author.) 
the  earth,  between  Syene  and  Ele-  *  Oi  ipss;  TOO  NsD.O'j,  Herod,  ii. 
•phantinS,  and  that  Psammetichus  90.  The  water  of  the  Nile  is  found, 
had  vainly  tried  to  sound  them  on  chemical  analysis,  to  be  of  re- 
with  a  rope  many  thousand  fa-  markable  purity.  It  was  supposed 
thorns  in  length  (ii.  28).  In  men-  also  by  the  Egyptian  priests  to 
tioning  this  tale  (perfectly  deser-  have  a  fattening  property.  In 
ving  of  being  recounted  at  least,  their  eyes,  all  fat,  flesh,  or  super- 
because  it  came  from  a  person  of  fluous  excrescence  (such  as  huir 
considerable  station  in  the  coun-  or  nails)  on  the  body,  was  im- 
try),  Herodotus  expressly  says, —  pure.  Accordingly  the  bull  Apis 
'•this  comptroller  seemed  to  me  to  was  not  allowed  to  drink  out  of 
be  only  bantering,  though  he  pro-  the  Nile,  lest  he  should  become 
fessed  to  know  accurately" — G-JTO;  fat;  but  had  a  well  especially  sunk 
8s  iy.rj(-ft  zitl.eiv  sSoxss,  (pi[j.ivo<;  for  him  (Plutarch,  De  laid.  etOsir. 
slosvai  atpsxjux.  Is  ow  Strabo  (xvii.  c.  5.  p.  353,  with  the  note  of  Par- 
p.  819),  in  alluding  to  this  story,  they,  in  his  recent  edition  of  that 
introduces  it  just  as  if  Herodotus  treatise,  p.  101). 
had  told  it  for  a  fact— Ilo/./.i  5 


310 


HISTOBY  OF  GKEECE. 


PABT  II. 


from  this  latter  branched  off  the  Saitic  and  the  Mendesian 
arms.1  The  overflowings  of  the  Nile  are  far  more  ferti- 
lising than  those  of  the  Euphrates  in  Assyria, — partly  from 
their  more  uniform  recurrence  both  in  time  and  quantity, 
partly  from  the  rich  silt  which  they  bring  down  and  de- 
posit, whereas  the  Euphrates  served  only  as  moisture.  The 
patience  of  the  Egyptians  had  excavated,  in  Middle  Egypt, 
the  vast  reservoir  (partly,  it  seems,  natural  and  pre-exist- 
ing) called  the  Lake  of  Moeris — and  in  the  Delta,  a  net- 
work of  numerous  canals.  Yet  on  the  whole  the  hand  of 
man  had  been  less  tasked  than  in  Babylonia;  whilst  the 
soil,  annually  enriched,  yielded  its  abundant  produce  with- 
out either  plough  or  spade  to  assist  the  seed  cast  in  by  the 
husbandman.2  That  under  these  circumstances  a  dense 

Egypt  served  the  purpose  partly 
of  communication  between  the  dif- 
ferent cities,  partly  of  a  constant 
supply  of  water  to  those  towns 
which  were  not  immediately  on 
the  Nile:  ''that  vast  river,  so  con- 
stantly at  work,"  (to  use  the  lan- 
guage of  Herodotus— UTto  TOOOUTOV 
re  itoT<i(AO'J  xai  OUTCO;  epfa-rixou,  ii. 
11.)  spared  the  Egyptians  all  the 
toil  of  irrigation  which  the  Assy- 
rian cultivator  underwent  (ii.  14). 
Iiower  Egypt,  as  Herodotus  saw 
it,  though  a  continued  flat,  was 
unfit  either  for  horse  or  car,  from 
the  number  of  intersecting  canals 
—  avt--&;  xai  dvajjLaSsuTO?  (ii.  108). 
But  Lower  Egypt,  as  Volney  saw 
it,  was  among  the  countries  in  the 
world  best  suited  to  the  action  of 
cavalry,  so  that  he  pronounces  the 
native  population  of  the  country 
to  have  no  chance  of  contending 
against  the  Mamelukes  (Volney, 
Travels  in  Egypt  and  Syria,  vol. 
i.  ch.  12,  sect.  2,  p.  199).  The  coun- 
try has  reverted  to  the  state  in 
which  it  was  (iTtrzaai^r,  xil  dfia;euo- 
[AEvr,  itaaa)  before  the  canals  were 
made — one  of  the  many  striking 
illustrations  of  the  difference  be- 
tween the  Egypt  which  a  modern 
traveller  visits,  and  that  which 
Herodotus  and  even  Strabo  saw 


1  The  seven  mouths  of  the  Nile, 
so  notorious  in  antiquity,  are  not 
conformable   to  the    modern    geo- 
graphy   of  the  country:    see  Man- 
iiert,    Geogr.  der  Gr.   und  Bom.  x. 
1.  p.  539. 

The  breadth  of  the  base  of  the 
Delta,  between  Pelusium  and  Ka- 
n&pus,  is  overstated  by  Herodotus 
(ii.  6-9)  at  3600  stadia;  Diodorus 
(i.  34)  and  Strabo  give  1300  stadia, 
which  is  near  the  truth,  though 
the  text  of  Strabo  in  various  pas- 
sages is  not  uniform  on  this  mat- 
ter, and  requires  correction.  See 
Grosskurd's  note  on  Strabo,  ii.  p. 
64  (note  3.  p.  101),  and  xvii.  p.  166 
(note  9.  p.  332).  Pliny  gives  the 
distance  at  170  miles  (H.  N.  v.  9). 

2  Herod,    i.    193.      HapaYivsTcu    6 
3iTo?    (in   Babylonia)    c/'j,    xaTaitsp 
k-i  AiY'JrTO),  SUT&U  TOO  KOTajAOO  ava- 
^aivovTG?  e?  xa?  df&'ipa;,  aX).a  x£P3' 
T£  xai  XTi>.io/r,iot3i  dpS 
Ba^uXtoviT]    /ibpr)    rasa 


vo?1  rj  fop 
xardzsp   rj 


&c. 

Herodotus  was  informed  that 
the  canals  in  Egypt  had  been  dug 
by  the  labour  of  that  host  of  pri- 
soners whom  the  victorious  Se- 
sostris  brought  home  from  Ins  con- 
quests (ii.  108).  The  canals  in 


CHAP.  XX.      FIRST  OPENING  OF  EGYPT  TO  THE  GREEKS.      311 

and  regularly  organised  population  should  have  been  con- 
centrated in  fixed  abodes  along  the  valley  occupied  by  this 
remarkable  river,  is  no  matter  of  wonder.  The  marked 
peculiarities  of  the  locality  seem  to  have  brought  about 
such  a  result,  in  the  earliest  periods  to  which  human  so- 
ciety can  be  traced.  Along  the  550  miles  of  its  undivided 
course  from  Syene  to  Memphis,  where  lor  the  most  part  the 
mountains  leave  only  a  comparatively  narrow  strip  on  each 
bank  —  as  well  as  in  the  broad  expanse  between  Memphis 
and  the  Mediterranean  —  there  prevailed  a  peculiar  form 
of  theocratic  civilization,  from  a  date  which  even  in  the 
time  of  Herodotus  was  immemorially  ancient.  But  if  we 
seek  for  some  measure  of  this  antiquity,  earlier  than  the 
time  when  Greeks  were  first  admitted  into  Egypt  in  the 
reign  of  Psammetichus,  we  find  only  the  computations  of 
the  priests,  reaching  back  for  many  thousand  years,  first 
of  government  by  immediate  and  present  gods,  next  of 
human  kings.  Such  computations  have  been  transmitted 
to  us  by  Herodotus,  Manetho,  and  Diodorus1  —  agreeing 
in  their  essential  conception  of  the  foretime,  with  gods 
in  the  first  part  of  her  series  and  men  in  the  second,  but 
differing  materially  in  events,  names,  and  epochs.  Prob- 
ably, if  we  possessed  lists  from  other  Egyptian  temples,  be- 
sides those  which  Manetho  drew  up  at  Heliopolis  or  which 
Herodotus  learnt  at  Memphis,  we  should  find  discrepancies 
from  both  these  two.  To  compare  these  lists,  and  to  re- 
concile them  as  far  as  they  admit  of  being  reconciled,  is 
interesting  as  enabling  us  to  understand  the  Egyptian 
mind,  but  conducts  to  no  trustworthy  chronological  re- 
sults, and  forms  no  part  of  the  task  of  an  historian  of 
Greece. 


—  "Xrjv  uXior/p  Siwp'JYiov  ETU  Siibpyfi  fected   by  this   river   in    10,000    or 

TIA/jQsisibv  (Strabo,  xvii.  p.  788).  20,000  years,  or  "in  the  whole  space 

Considering  the  early  age  of  He-  of  time  elapsed  before  I  was  borir1 

lodotus,  his   remarks    on  the  geo-  (ii.     11).      So     also,      Anaxagoras 

logical  character  of  Egypt  as  a  de-  (Fragm.    p.    179,     Schaub.)     enter- 

posit  of  the  accumulated  mud  by  tained  just  views    about  the  cause 

the  Nile,    appear   to   me   most  re-  of  the   rising   of  the  Nile,   though 

markable    (ii.    8—14).    Having    no  Herodotus  did  not  share  his  views. 

fixed  nu-mber  of  years  included  in  About  the  lake   of  Mceris,   see  a 

his  religious   belief  as  measuring  note  a  little  farther  on. 

the  past  existence  of  the  earth,  he  '  See   note  in  Appendix  to  this 

carries  his  mind  back  without  dif-  chapter. 
tculty  to  what  may  have  been  ef- 


312  HISTOBY  OF  GEEECE.  PABT  II. 

To  the  Greeks  Egypt  was  a  closed  world  before  the 
reign  ofPsammetichus,  though  after  that  time  it  gradually 
became  an  important  part  of  their  field  both  of  observation 
and  action.  The  astonishment  which  the  country  created 
in  the  mind  of  the  earliest  Grecian  visitors  may  be  learnt 
even  from  the  narrative  of  Herodotus,  who  doubtless  knew 
it  by  report  long  before  he  went  there.  Both  the  physical 
and  moral  features  of  Egypt  stood  in  strong  contrast  with 
Grecian  experience.  "Not  only  (says  Herodotus)  does  the 
climate  differ  from  all  other  climates,  and  the  river  from  all 
other  rivers,  but  Egyptian  laws  and  customs  are  opposed  on 
almost  all  points  to  those  of  other  men." l  The  Delta  was  at 
that  time  full  of  large  and  populous  cities, 2  built  on  artificial 
elevations  of  ground  and  seemingly  not  much  inferior  to 
Memphis  itself,  which  was  situated  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Nile  (opposite  to  the  site  of  the  modern  Cairo),  a  little 
higher  up  than  the  spot  where  the  Delta  begins.  From 
Thebes  and  ^ne  time  when  the  Greeks  first  became  cognizant 
Upper  of  Egypt,  to  the  building  of  Alexandria  and  the 

more'im"*  reign  of  the  Ptolemies,  Memphis  was  the  first 
portance  city  in  Egypt.  Yet  it  seems  not  to  have  been 
tLies'uian  a^waYs  so 5  there  had  been  an  earlier  period  when 
Lower  Thebes  was  the  seat  of  Egyptian  power,  and 

noYso  \n*  Upper  Egypt  of  far  more  consequence  than 
the  days  of  Middle  Egypt.  Vicinity  to  the  Delta,  which 
Herodotus.  must  always  have  contained  the  largest  number 
of  cities  and  the  widest  surface  of  productive  territory, 
probably  enabled  Memphis  to  usurp  this  honour  from 
Thebes ;  and  the  predominance  of  Lower  Egypt  was  still 
farther  confirmed  when  Psammetichus  introduced  Ionian 
and  Karian  troops  as  his  auxiliaries  in  the  government  of 
the  country.  But  the  stupendous  magnitude  of  the  tem- 

1  Herodot.   ii.  36.     AIYU^TIOI  5[Aa  bing  to  Herodotus   the  unrivalled 
tip    o'jpav<£>    Tiji    -xaTa    acpia?    sow  prosperity    which     they     affirmed 
i-rs&oifj),  xal  T<}>  r.o-i|j.oj  o'iaiv  aXXoir,v  Egypt    to     hare     enjoyed     under 
nap£7_o[As-jiu  TJ   oi    aXXot   Ttotajjiot,   ta  Amasis,    the    last    king   before  tl.e 
KoXXi   TtdivTa   ejjiraXiv   toiai    aXXotcn  Persian  conquest,   said    that  there 
dvflpiurtoiat  e<jTT,3a-*TO  rjSja  xai  VOJAOU?.  were     then     20,000    cities    in     the 

2  Theokritus  (Idyll,  xvii.  83)  cele-  country   (ii.   177).     Diodorus    tells 
brates  Ptolemy  Philadelphus  king  us  that   18,000  different    cities  and 
of    Egypt    as    ruling     over    33,333  considerable   villages    were    regis- 
cities :    the    manner    in    which    he  tered    in   the    Egyptian    iv7yp7cal 
strings    these    figures    into    three  (i.  31)   for  the   ancient   times,   but 
hexameter     verses     is     somewhat  that   £0,000  weie  auialered   un^.er 
ingenious.    The  priests,   in  descri-  the  Ptolemies. 


CHAP.  XX.    FIRST  OPENING  OF  EGIPT  TO  THE  GBEEKS.        313 


pies  and  palaces,  the  profusion  of  ornamental  sculpture 
and  painting,  the  immeasurable  range  of  sepulchres  hewn 
in  the  rocks  still  remaining  as  attestations  of  the  grandeur 
of  Thebes — not  to  mention  Ombi,  Edfu  and  Elephantine 
— show  that  Upper  Egypt  was  once  the  place  to  which  the 
land-tax  from  the  productive  Delta  was  paid,  and  where 
the  kings  and  priests  who  employed  it  resided.  It  has  been 
even  contended  that  Thebes  itself  was  originally  settled  by 
immigrants  from  still  higher  regions  of  the  river;  and  the  re- 
mains,yet  found  along  the  Nile  inNubia,are  analogous,both 
in  style  and  in  grandeur,  to  those  in  the  Thebais. 1  What  is 
remarkable  is,  that  both  the  one  and  the  other  are  strikingly 
distinguished  from  the  Pyramids,  which  alone  remain  to  il- 
lustrate the  site  of  the  ancient  Memphis.  There  are  no  pyra- 
mids either  in  Upper  Egypt  or  in  Nubia;  but  on  the  Nile 
above  Nubia,  near  the  Ethiopian  Meroe,  pyramids  in  great 
number,  though  of  inferior  dimensions,  are  again  found. 

From  whence,  or  in  what  manner,  Egyptian  institu- 
tions first  took  their  rise,  we  have  no  means  of  determin- 
ing. Yet  there  seems  little  to  bear  out  the  supposition 
of  Heeren-  and  other  eminent  authors,  that  they  were 


1  Respecting  the  monuments  of 
ancient  Egyptian  art,  see  the  sum- 
mary of  0.  Miiller,  Archaologie  der 
Kuust,  sect.  215-233,  and  a  still 
better  account  and  appreciation  of 
them  in  Carl  Schnaase,  Geschichte 
der  Bildenden  Kiinste  bey  den 
Alten,  Dtisseldorf,  184?.,  vol.  i.  book 
ii.  ch.  1  and  2. 

lu  regard  to  the  credibility  and 
value  of  Egyptian  history  anterior 
to  rsammetichus,  there  are  many 
excellent  remarks  by  Mr.  Kenrick, 
in  the  preface  to  his  work,  'The 
Egypt  of  Herodotus'  (the  second 
book  of  Herodotus,  with  notes). 
About  the  recent  discoveries  de- 
rived from  the  hieroglyphics,  he 
says,  '-We  know  that  it  was  the 
custom  of  the  Egyptian  kings  to 
inscribe  the  temples  and  obelisks 
which  they  raised  with  their  own 
names  or  with  distinguishing  hiero- 
glyphics ;  but  in  no  one  instance 
do  these  names  as  read  by  the 
mo dci a  -Joiipherars  of  hierogly- 


phics on  monuments  said  to  havo 
been  raised  by  kings  before  Psam- 
nietichus,  correspond  with  the 
names  given  by  Herodotus."  (Pre- 
face, p.  xliv.)  He  farther  adds  in 
a  noto,  "A  name  which  has  been 
read  phonetically  Mcna,  has  been 
found  at  Thebes,  and  Mr.  Wilkin- 
son supposes  it  to  be  Menes.  It 
is  remarkable,  however,  that  the 
names  which  follow  are  not  phone- 
tically written,  so  that  it  is  pro- 
bable that  this  is  not  to  be  read 
Mena.  Besides,  the  cartouche, 
which  immediately  follows,  is  that 
of  a  king  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty  ; 
so  that,  at  all  events,  it  cannot 
have  been  engraved  till  many  cen- 
turies after  the  supposed  age  of 
Menes;  and  the  occurrence  of  the 
name  no  more  decides  the  question 
of  historical  existence  than  that 
of  Cecrops  in  the  Parian  Chroni  Uv' 
2  Heeren,  Ideen  tiber  den  Vei- 
kehr  der  Alten  Welt,  part  ii.  1.  p 
403.  The  opinion  given  by  Parthey, 


314 


HISTORY  OF  GREECE. 


PAKT  II. 


transmitted  down  the  Nile  by  Ethiopian  colonists  from 
Meroe.  Herodotus  certainly  conceived  Egyptians  and 
Ethiopians  (who  in  his  time  jointly  occupied  the  border 
island  of  Elephantine,  which  he  had  himself  visited)  as 
completely  distinct  from  each  other,  in  race  and  customs 
not  less  than  in  language ;  the  latter  being  generally  of 
the  rudest  habits,  of  great  stature,  and  still  greater  physi- 
cal strength — the  chief  part  of  them  subsisting  on  meat 
and  milk,  and  blest  with  unusual  longevity.  He  knew  of 
Meroe,  as  the  Ethiopian  metropolis  and  a  considerable  city, 
fifty-two  days'  journey  higher  up  the  river  than  Elephan- 
tine. But  his  informants  had  given  him  no  idea  of  analogy 
between  its  institutions  and  those  of  Egypt. l  He  states 
that  the  migration  of  a  large  number  of  the  Egyptian 
military  caste,  during  the  reign  of  Psammetichus,  into 
Ethiopia,  had  first  communicated  civilised  customs  to  these 
southern  barbarians.  If  there  be  really  any  connexion 
between  the  social  pheenomena  of  Egypt  and  those  of 
Meroe,  it  seems  more  reasonable  to  treat  the  latter  as 
derivative  from  the  former. 2 


however  (De  Philis  Insula,  p.  100, 
Berlin,  1830),  may  perhaps  be  just: 
"AntiquissimS,  aetate  eundem  popu- 
lum,  dicamus  -iEgyptiacum,  Nili 
ripas  inde  a  Meroe  insulfi,  usque 
ad  ./Egyptum  inferiorem  occupasse, 
e  monumentorum  congruentia  ap- 
paret:  posteriore  tempore,  tabulis  et 
annalibus  nostris  longe  superiore, 
alia  stirps  .iEthiopica  interiora 
terra;  usque  ad  cataractam  Syenen- 
sem  obtinuit.  Ex  qua  sctate  certa 
rerum  notitia  ad  nos  pervenit, 
./Egyptiorum  et  ^Ethiopum  segre- 
gatio  jam  facta  est.  Herodotus 
cseterique  scriptores  Graci  populos 
acute  discernunt." 

At  this  moment,  SygnS  and  its 
cataract  mark  the  boundary  of  two 
people  and  two  languages— Egyp- 
tians and  Arabic  language  to  the 
north,  Nubians  and  Berber  lan- 
guage to  the  south  (Parthey,  ibid.). 

1  Compare  Herodot.  ii.  30-32;  Hi. 
19-25:  Strabo,  xvi.  p.  818.  Hero- 
dotus gives  the  description  of  their 
armour  and  appearance  as  part 
of  the  army  of  Xerxes  (vii. 


69);  they  painted  their  bodies: 
compare  Plin.  H.  N.  xxxiii.  3(5. 
How  little  Ethiopia  was  visited  in 
his  time,  may  be  gathered  from 
the  tenor  of  his  statements:  ac- 
cording to  Diodorus  (i.  37),  no 
Greeks  visited  it  earlier  than  the 
expedition  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus 
• — o'3~(O?  a£sva  •qv  Ta  ;isp'i  too;  TOUOU; 
TO'Jtou!;,  xal  T:av7cX<i><;  sTttxivSuvcf. 
Diodorus  however  is  incorrect  in 
saying  that  no  Greek  had  ever 
gone  as  far  southward  as  the 
frontier  of  Egypt :  Herodotus  cer- 
tainly visited  Elephantine,  prob- 
ably other  Greeks  also. 

The  statements  respecting  the 
theocratical  state  of  Mero6  and 
its  superior  civilization  come  from 
Diodorus  (iii.  2,  5,  7),  Strabo  (xvii. 
p.  822)  and  Pliny  (H.  N.  vi.  29-33), 
much  later  than  Herodotus.  Dio- 
dorus seems  to  have  had  no  older 
informants  before  him  (about 
Ethiopia)  than  Agatharchides  and 
ArtemidSrus,  both  in  the  second 
century  B.C.  (Diod.  iii.  10). 

'2  "\VesS'  ling  ad  Diodor.  iii.  3. 


CHAP.  XX  CASTES  IN  EGYPT.  315 

The  population  of  Egypt  was  classified  into  certain 
castes  or  hereditary  professions;  of  which  the 
number  was  not  exactly  defined,  and  is  repre-  castes  or 
sented  differently  by  different  authors.  The  ^ofe^fols 
priests  stand  clearly  marked  out,  as  the  order  p 
richest,  most  powerful,  and  most  venerated.  Distributed 
all  over  the  country,  they  possessed  exclusively  the  means 
of  reading  and  writing,1  besides  a  vast  amount  of  narrative 
matter  treasured  up  in  the  memory,  the  whole  stock  of 
medical  and  physical  knowledge  then  attainable,  and  those 
rudiments  of  geometry  (or  rather  land-measuring)  whicli 
were  so  often  called  into  use  in  a  country  annually  inun- 
dated. To  each  god,  and  to  each  temple,  throughout  Egypt, 
lands  and  other  properties  belonged,  whereby  the  numer- 
ous bands  of  priests  attached  to  him  were  maintained.  It 
seems  too  that  a  farther  portion  of  the  lands  of  the  king- 
dom was  set  apart  for  them  in  individual  property, 
though  on  this  point  no  certainty  is  attainable.  . 
Their  ascendency,  both  direct  and  indirect,  over 
the  minds  of  the  people,  was  immense.  They  prescribed 
that  minute  ritual  under  which  the  life  of  every  Egyptian, 
riot  excepting  the  king  himself2,  was  passed,  and  which 
was  for  themselves  more  full  of  harassing  particularities 
than  for  any  one  else.3  Every  day  in  the  year  belonged 
to  some  particular  god;  the  priests  alone  knew  to  which. 
There  were  different  gods  in  every  Nome,  though  Isis  and 

1  Herodot.   ii.   37.      Qid:z^it<i    Si  daily  duties  of  the  Egyptian  king 
Hipiaauj?     SOVTS?     (j.a).icjTa     nav-iov  were  measured  out  by  the  priests: 
otv'Jp(Jj-u>v,  &c.   He  is  astonished  at  compare     Plutarch,     De     Isid.     et 
the  retentiveness  of  their  memory;  Osirid.  p.  353,  who  refers  to  Heka- 
some   of  them  had  more  stories  to  taeus    (probably    Hekatanis   of  Ab- 
tell  than  any  one  whom  he  had  ever  dera)    and  Eudoxus.      The    priests 
seen   (ii.    77-109;   Diodor.  i.  73).  represented  that  Psammetichus  was 

The    word    priest    convoys    to   a  the  first  Egyptian  king  who  broke 

modern  reader  an    idea  very  differ-  through  the  priestly   canon   limit- 

ent    from    that    of    the     Egyptian  ing  the  royal    allowance   of  wine ; 

ispsT?,  who  were  not  a   profession,  compare  Strabo,  xvii.  p.  7!'0. 

but    an    order,    'comprising     many  The    Ethiopian    kings   at   Meroe 

occupations       and       professions —  are  said  to  have  been  kept  in    the 

Josephus     the    Jew     was    in   like  like  pupilage  by  the  priestly  order, 

manner  an  ispso?  xa-oc  fsvo?  (cont.  until    a    king    named    Ergamenes 

Apion.  c.  3).  So  also  the  Brahmins  during  the  reign  of  Ptolemy  Phila- 

iu  British  India  are  an  order.  d<'lphus     in    Egypt,     emancipated 

2  Diodorus    (i.  7fl — 73)    gives    an  himself  and  put  the  chief  priest  to 
elaborate  description  of  the  mon-  death  (Diodor.  iii.  6). 

astic    strictness     with    which     the         3  Herodot.  ii.  82,  S3. 


31G  HISTOKY  Of  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

Osiris  were  common  to  all.  The  priests  of  each  god  con- 
stituted a  society  apart,  more  or  less  important,  according 
to  the  comparative  celebrity  of  the  temple.  The  high 
priests  of  Hephsestos,  whose  dignity  was  said  to  have  been 
transmitted  from  father  to  son  through  a  series  of  341 
generations  *  (commemorated  by  the  like  number  of  colos- 
sal statues,  which  Herodotus  himself  saw),  were  second  in 
importance  only  to  the  king.  The  property  of  each  temple 
included  troops  of  dependents  and  slaves,  who  were  stamp- 
ed with  "holy  marks,"2  and  who  must  have  been  numer- 
ous in  order  to  suffice  for  the  large  buildings  and  their 
constant  visitors. 

Next  in  importance  to  the  sacerdotal  caste  were 
the  military  caste  or  order,  whose  native 
ary'o'rdw."  names  indicated  that  they  stood  on  the  left- 
hand  of  the  king,  while  the  priests  occupied 
the  right.  They  were  classified  into  Kalasiries  and 
Hermotybii,  who  occupied  lands  in  eighteen  particular 
Nomes  or  provinces  principally  in  Lower  Egypt.  The 
Kalasiries  had  once  amounted  to  160,000  men,  the  Her- 
motybii to  250,000,  when  at  the  maximum  of  their  po- 
pulation; but  that  highest  point  had  long  been  past  in 
the  time  of  Herodotus.  To  each  man  of  this  soldier- 
caste  was  assigned  a  portion  of  land  equal  to  about  6 1/2 
English  acres,  free  from  any  tax;  but  what  measures  were 
taken  to  keep  the  lots  of  land  in  suitable  harmony  with  a 
fluctuating  number  of  holders,  we  know  not.  The  state- 
ment of  Herodotus  relates  to  a  time  long  past  and  gone, 
and  describes  what  was  believed,  by  the  priests  with  whom 
he  talked,  to  have  been  the  primitive  constitution  of  their 
country  anterior  to  the  Persian  conquest.  The  like  is  still 
more  true  respecting  the  statement  of  Diodorus;4  who 
says  that  the  territory  of  Egypt  was  divided  into  three 
parts — one  part  belonging  to  the  king,  another  to  the 
priests,  and  the  remainder  to  the  soldiers.5  His  language 
seems  to  intimate  that  every  Nome  was  so  divided,  and 
even  that  the  three  portions  were  equal,  though  he  does 
not.  expressly  say  so.  The  result  of  these  statements, 
combined  with  the  history  of  Joseph  in  the  book  of  Genesis, 
seems  to  be,  that  the  lands  of  the  priests  and  the  soldiers 

1  Hcrodot.  ii.  143.  *  Herodot.    i.    If 5,    166;    Diodor. 

2  Herodot.  ii.  113.  sTiyua-s  ici.         i.  73. 

1  Herodot.  ii.  30.  5  Diodor.  i.  73. 


CHAP.  XX.  MILITARY  CASTE  IN  EGYPT.  317 

were  regarded  as  privileged  property  and  exempt  from 
all  burthens,  while  the  remaining  soil  was  consid- 
ered as  the  property  of  the  king,  who  however 
received  from  it  a  fixed  proportion,  one-fifth  of  the 
total  produce,  leaving  the  rest  in  the  hands  of  the 
cultivators. »  We  are  told  that  Sethos,  priest  of  the  god 
Phtha  (or  Hephsestos)  at  Memphis  and  afterwards  named 
King,  oppressed  the  military  caste  and  deprived  them  of 
their  lands.  In  revenge  for  this  they  withheld  from  him 
their  aid  when  Egypt  was  invaded  by  Sennacherib. 
Farther,  in  the  reign  of  Psammetichus,  a  large  number 
(240,000)  of  these  soldiers  migrated  into  Ethiopia  from  a 
feeling  of  discontent,  leaving  their  wives  and  children 
behind  them.2  It  was  Psammetichus  who  first  introduced 
Ionian  and  Karian  mercenaries  into  the  country,  and  began 
innovations  on  the  ancient  Egyptian  constitution:  so  that 
the  disaffection  towards  him,  on  the  part  of  the  native 
soldiers,  no  longer  permitted  to  serve  as  exclusive  guards 
to  the  king,  is  not  difficult  to  explain.  The  Kalasiries 
and  Hermotybii  were  interdicted  from  every  description 
of  art  or  trade.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  under  the 
Persians  their  lands  were  made  subject  to  the  tribute. 
This  may  partly  explain  the  frequent  revolts  which  they 
maintained,  with  very  considerable  bravery  against  the 
Persian  kings. 

Herodotus  enumerates  five  other  races  (so  he  calls 
them)  or  castes,  besides  priests  and  soldiers3 —   T 

.    '  ,        ,  r    ,  .    ,  Different 

herdsmen,  swineherds,  tradesmen,  interpreters,   statements 
and  pilots;  an  enumeration  which  perplexes  us,    about  the 
inasmuch  as  it  takes  no  account  of  the  husband- 
men, who  must  always  have  constituted  the  majority  of  the 
population.     It  is  perhaps  for  this  very  reason  that  they 
are  not  comprised  in  the  list — not  standing  out  specially 
marked  or  congregated  together,  like  the  five  above-named, 
and  therefore  not  seeming  to  constitute  a  race  apart.   The 
distribution  of  Diodorus,  who  specifies  (over  and  above 

1  Besides    this     general    rent    or  belonged    to    the    kings,   •without 

land-tax  received  by  the  Egyptian  any  other  proprietor:  it  yielded  a 

kings,    there    seem    also    to    have  large  revenue,  and  passed  into  the 

been  special  crown-lands.     Strabo  hands    of  the   Roman    government 

mentions  an  island  in  the  Nile  (in  in  Strabo's  time  (xvii.  p.  818). 

the    Thebaid)    celebrated    for    the  z  Herodot.  ii.  30-141. 

extraordinary     excellence     of    its  *  Herodot.  i.  1G4. 
dute-palms  ;  the  whole  of  this  island 


318  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

priests  and  soldiers)  husbandmen,  herdsmen,  and  artificers, 
embraces  much  more  completely  the  whole  population. l 
It  seems  more  the  statement  of  a  reflecting  man,  pushing 
out  the  principle  of  hereditary  occupations  to  its  con- 
sequences; (and  the  comments  which  the  historian  so  abund- 
antly interweaves  with  his  narrative  show  that  such  was 
the  character  of  the  authorities  which  he  followed;) — while 
the  list  given  by  Herodotus  comprises  that  which  struck 
his  observation.  It  seems  that  a  certain  proportion  of  the 
soil  of  the  Delta  consisted  of  marsh  land,  including  pieces 
of  habitable  ground,  but  impenetrable  to  an  invading  enemy, 
and  favourable  only  to  the  growth  of  papyrus  and  other 
aquatic  plants.  Other  portions  of  the  Delta,  as  well  as  of 
the  upper  valley  in  parts  where  it  widened  to  the  eastward, 
were  too  wet  for  the  culture  of  grain,  though  producing 
the  richest  herbage,  and  eminently  suitable  to  the  race  of 
Egyptian  herdsmen,  who  thus  divided  the  soil  with  the 
husbandmen. 2  Herdsmen  generally  were  held  reputable ; 
but  the  race  of  swineherds  were  hated  and  despised,  from 
the  extreme  antipathy  of  all  other  Egyptians  to  the  pig — 
which  animal  yet  could  not  be  altogether  proscribed,  be- 
cause there  were  certain  peculiar  occasions  on  which  it 
was  imperative  to  offer  him  in  sacrifice  to  Selene  or  Diony- 
sus. Herodotus  acquaints  us  that  the  swineherds  were 
interdicted  from  all  the  temples,  and  that  they  always  inter- 
married among  themselves,  other  Egyptians  disdaining  such 
an  alliance — a  statement  which  indirectly  intimates  that 
there  was  no  standing  objection  against  intermarriage  of 
the  remaining  castes  with  each  other.  The  caste  or  race 
of  interpreters  began  only  with  the  reign  of  Psammetichus, 
from  the  admission  of  Greek  settlers,  then  for  the  first  time 
tolerated  in  the  country.  Though  they  were  half  Greeks, 
the  historian  does  not  note  them  as  of  inferior  account,  ex- 
cept as  compared  with  the  two  ascendant  castes  of  soldiers 
and  priests.  Moreover  the  creation  of  a  new  caste  shows 
that  there  was  no  consecrated  or  unchangeable  total  number. 

1  Diodor.  i.  74.    About  the  Egyp-  The    expression    of  Herodotus— 

tian  castes  generally,  see'Heeren,  ot  r.irA  TTJV  cm  a  ipojxiv  vjv  Atyj"Civ 

Ideen  iiber  den  Verkehr  dor  Alton  oixsouji — indicates  that  the  portion 

Welt,  part  ii.  2.  p.  572-C95.  of  the  soil  used  as  pasture  -was  not 

1  See  the  citation  from  Maillet's  inconsiderable. 

Travels  in  Egypt,  in  Heeren,  Ideen,  The    inhabitants     of    the    marsh 

p.  590  ;  also  Voluey's  Travels,  vol.  land  were   the    most   \varlike   part 

i.  ch.  C.  p.  77.  of  the  population  (Thucyd.  i.  110). 


CHAP.  XX.        LAKGE  TOWN  POPULATION  OJP  EGYPT.  319 

Those  whom  Herodotus  denominates  tradesmen  (-/.arrr^oi) 
are  doubtless  identical  with  the  artisans  (re/viTai)  Large  to  wn 
specified  by  Diodorus — the  town  population  population 
generally  as  distinguished  from  that  of  the  of  E8ypt- 
country.  During  the  three  months  of  the  year  when  Egypt 
was  covered  with  water,  festival  days  were  numerous — the 
people  thronging  by  hundreds  of  thousands,  in  vast  barges, 
to  one  or  other  of  the  many  holy  places,  combining  worship 
and  enjoyment. l  In  Egypt  weaving  was  a  trade,  whereas 
in  Greece  it  was  the  domestic  occupation  of  females. 
Herodotus  treats  it  as  one  of  those  reversals  of  the  order 
of  nature  which  were  seen  only  in  Egypt,2  that  the  weaver 
staid  at  home  plying  his  web  while  his  wife  went  to  market. 
The  process  of  embalming  bodies  was  elaborate  and  uni- 
versal, giving  employment  to  a  large  special  class  of  men. 
The  profusion  of  edifices,  obelisks,  sculpture  and  painting, 
all  executed  by  native  workmen,  required  a  large  body  of 
trained  sculptors,3  who  in  the  mechanical  branch  of  their 
business  attained  a  high  excellence.  Most  of  the  animals 
in  Egypt  were  objects  of  religious  reverence,  and  many  of 
them  were  identified  in  the  closest  manner  with  particular 
gods.  The  order  of  priests  included  a  large  number  of 
hereditary  feeders  and  tenders  of  these  sacred  animals.4 

1  Herodot.  ii.  59,  CO.  of  proportion,  are   general  charac- 

2  Herodot.  ii.  35 ;  Sophokl.  CEclip.  teristics     of    Egyptian     sculpture. 
Colon.     332:     whore     the     passage  There  are  yet   seen  in   their  quar- 
cited  by  the  Scholiast  of  Nympho-  ries  ohclisks  not  severed  from  the 
dorus  is  a  remarkable    example  of  rock,    but    having    three    of    their 
the  habit    of    ingenious  Greeks  to  sides  already    adorned   with  hiero- 
represent    all    customs  which  they  glyphics ;    so    certain  were  they  of 
thought  worthy  of  notice,  as  hav-  cutting    off   the    fourth    side    with 
ing  emanated    from   the    design  of  precision     (Schnaase,     Gesch.     der 
some  great    sovereign  ;    here  Nym-  Bild.  Kiinste,  i.  p.  428). 
phodurus    introduces    Sesostris    as  All  the  Nomes  of  Egypt,  however, 
the  author  of  the  custom    in  ques-  were  not  harmonious  in  their  feel- 
tion,    in    order  that  the  Egyptians  ings  respecting  animals:  particular 
might  be  rendered  effeminate.  animals  were  worshipped   in  some 

3  The    process    of   embalming   is  Nomcs,  which  in  other  Nomes  were 
minutely     described     (Herod,     ii.  objects    even    of    antipathy,    espe- 
S5— 90) ;    the    word    which    he    uses  cially  the  crocodile  (Herod,  ii.  09; 
for  it  is  the  same  as  that  for  salt-  Strabo,  xvii.p.  817:  see  particularly 
ing     meat      and     fish — TCKOI/S'JIIC:  the  fifteenth  Satire  of  -Juvenal). 
compare  Strabo,  xvi.  p.  704.  *  Herodot.    ii.    05 — 72;  Diodor.  i. 

Ferfectness     of   execution,    mas-      83—90;    Plutarch,    Isid.  et  Osir.  p. 
tery  of  the  hardest  stone,  and  unde-      380. 
viating  obedience    to  certain  rules         Hasselquist     identified     all     the 


320  HISTORY  OF  GBEECE.  PART  II. 

Among  the  sacerdotal  order  were  also  found  the  computers 
of  genealogies,  the  infinitely  subdivided  practitioners  in 
the  art  of  healing,  &C.,1  who  enjoyed^  good  reputation,  and 
were  sent  for  as  surgeons  to  Cyrus  and  Darius.  The 
Egyptian  city-population  was  thus  exceedingly  numerous, 
so  that  king  Sethon,  when  called  upon  to  resist  an  invasion 
without  the  aid  of  the  military  caste,  might  well  be  sup- 
posed to  have  formed  an  army  out  of  "the  tradesmen,  the 
artisans,  and  the  market-people." 2  And  Alexandria,  at  the 
commencement  of  the  dynasty  of  the  Ptolemies,  acquired 
its  numerous  and  active  inhabitants  at  the  expense  of 
Memphis  and  the  ancient  towns  of  Lower  Egypt. 

The  mechanical  obedience  and  fixed  habits  of  the  mass 
of  the  Egyptian   population   (not   priests    or 

Profound  ,  n .  oJ  r  r    r  \  r 

submission  soldiers)  wasapomtwhich  made  much  impression 
of  the  upon  Grecian  observers.  Solon  is  said  to  have 

introduced  at  Athens  a  custom  prevalent  in 
Egypt,  whereby  the  Nomarch  or  chief  of  each  Nome  was 
required  to  investigate  every  man's  means  of  living,  and  to 
punish  with  death  those  who  did  not  furnish  evidence  of 
some  recognised  occupation.3  It  does  not  seem  that  the 
institution  of  Caste  in  Egypt — though  ensuring  unapproach- 
able ascendency  to  the  Priests  and  much  consideration 
to  the  Soldiers — was  attended  with  any  such  profound  de- 
basement to  the  rest  as  that  which  falls  upon  the  lowest 
caste  or  Sudras  in  India.  No  such  gulf  existed  between 
them  as  that  between  the  Twice-born  and  the  Once-born 
in  the  religion  of  Brahma.  Yet  those  stupendous  works, 
which  form  the  permanent  memorials  of  the  country,  remain 
at  the  same  time  as  proofs  of  the  oppressive  exactions  of 
the  kings,  and  of  the  reckless  caprice  with  which  the  lives 
Destructive  as  we^  as  ^e  contributions  of  the  people  were 
toil  im-  lavished.  One  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
the'gTeS  Egyptians  were  said  to  have  perished  in  the 
mo'nu-  digging  of  the  canal,  which  king  Nekos  began 

ments.  ^^  ^  nof.  finish,  between  the  Pelusian  arm  of 

the  Nile  and  the  Red  Sea;4  while  the  construction  of  the 

birds  carved    on    the  Obelisk   near  out  the  sick  into  the  market-place 

Mataroa    (Heliopolis)    (Travels   in  to    profit    by    the     sympathy    and 

Egypt,  p.  99).  advice  of  the  passers-by  (Herodot. 

'  Herodot.  ii.  82,  83  ;    iii.    1,   129.  i.  197). 

It  is  one  of  the  points    of  distinc-  2  Herod,  ii.  141. 

tion  between  Egyptians  and  Baby-  3  Herodot.  iii.  177. 

lonians    that    the    latter    had    no  «  Herodot.    ii.    168.       Read    the 

surgeons   or    larpoi:    they   brought  account    of   the  foundation  of  Pe- 


CHAP.  XX.  SUBMISSION  OF  THE  PEOPLE.  321 

two  great  pyramids,  attributed  to  the  kings  Cheops  and 
Chephren,  was  described  to  Herodotus  by  the  priests  as  a 
period  of  exhausting  labour  and  extreme  suffering  to  the 
whole  Egyptian  people.  And  yet  the  great  Labyrinth1 
(said  to  have  been  built  by  the  Dodekarchs)  appeared  to 
him  a  more  stupendous  work  than  the  Pyramids,  so  that 
the  toil  employed  upon  it  cannot  have  been  less  destructive. 
The  moving  of  such  vast  masses  of  stone  as  were  seen  in 
the  ancient  edifices  both  of  Tipper  and  Lower  Egypt,  with 
the  imperfect  mechanical  resources  then  existing,  must  have 
tasked  the  efforts  of  the  people  yet  more  severely  than  the 
excavation  of  the  half-finished  canal  of  Nekos.  Indeed  the 
associations  with  which  the  Pyramids  were  connected,  in  the 
minds  of  those  with  whom  Herodotus  conversed,  were  of 
the  most  odious  character.  Such  vast  works,  Aristotle 
observes,  are  suitable  to  princes  who  desire  to  consume  the 
strength  and  break  the  spirit  of  their  people.  With  Greek 
despots,  perhaps  such  an  intention  may  have  been  sometimes 
deliberately  conceived.  But  the  Egyptian  kings  may  be 
presumed  to  have  followed  chiefly  caprice  or  love  of  pomp 
— sometimes  views  of  a  permanent  benefit  to  be  achieved 
— as  in  the  canal  of  Nekos  and  the  vast  reservoir  of  Moeris,2 

tersburg  by  Peter  the  Great  : —  -Erp'j|x3vov  e?  TO  I<jy_aTOv  xaxoo. 
"Au  milieu  de  ces  reformes,  gran-  (Diodor.  i.  63,  64). 
des  et  petites,  qui  faisaient  les  ITspi  t(iv  riupcifjiiScov  (Diodorus 
amusements  du  czar,  et  de  la  observes)  ouSsv  oXux  ouSs  itapa  ToT? 
guerre  terrible  qui  1'occupait  centre  ef/cupi.OK,  ouSs  rcapa  TOI?  auYYPa" 
Charles  XII.,  il  jeta  les  fondemens  <psuoiv,  <jU[xcpu)vsTTC(i.  He  then  alludes 
de  1'importante  villo  et  du  port  to  some  of  the  discrepant  stories 
dc  Petersbourg,  en  1714,  dans  un  about  the  date  of  the  Pyramids, 
marais  oft  il  n'y  avait  pas  une  and  the  names  of  their  construct- 
cibane.  Pierre  travailla  de  ses  ors.  This  confession,  of  the  corn- 
mains  a  la  premiere  maison  :  rien  plete  want  of  trustworthy  informa- 
ne  le  rcbuta:  des  ouvriers  furent  tion  respecting  the  most  remark- 
forces  do  venir  sur  ce  hord  de  la  able  edifices  of  Lower  Egypt,  forms 
mer  Baltique,  des  frontieres  d'As-  a  striking  contrast  with  the  statc- 
trachan,  des  bords  de  la  Mer  Noire  ment  which  Diodorus  had  given 
et  dc  la  Mer  Caspienne.  II  perit  (c.  44),  that  the  priests  possessed 
plus  de  cent  mille  homines  dans  records,  "continually  handed  down 
les  travaux  qu'il  fallut  faire,  et  from  reign  to  reign,  respecting 
dans  les  fatigues  et  la  disette  qu'on  470  Egyptian  kings." 
essuya:  mais  en  fin  la  ville  existe."  *  It  appears  that  the  lake  of 
(Voltaire,  Anecdotes  sur  Pierre  le  Mceris  is,  at  least  in  great  part,  a 
Grand,  in  his  CEuvres  Completes  natural  reservoir,  though  improved 
ed.  Paris,  1825,  torn.  xxxi.  p.  491).  by  art.  for  the  purposes  wanted, 
1  Herodot.  ii.  124 — 129.  TOV  Xsiuv  and  connected  with  the  river  by 

VOL.  III.  Y 


322  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PA.BT  II. 

with  its  channel  joining  the  river — when  they  thus  expended 
the  physical  strength  and  even  the  lives  of  their  subjects. 
Sanctity  of  animal  life  generally,  veneration  for  parti- 
cular animals  in  particular  Homes,  and  abstinence  on  reli- 
gious grounds  from  certain  vegetables,  were  among  the 
marked  features  of  Egyptian  life,  and  served  pre-eminent- 
ly to  impress  upon  the  country  that  air  of  singu- 
animaisP  °f  larity  which  foreigners  like  Herodotus  remark- 
ed in  it.  The  two  specially  marked  bulls,  call- 
ed Apis  at  Memphis  and  Mnevis  at  Heliopolis,  seemed  to 
have  enjoyed  a  sort  of  national  worship.1  The  ibis,  the 
cat,  and  the  dog,  were  throughout  most  of  the  Nomes 
venerated  during  life,  embalmed  like  men  after  death,  and 
if  killed,  avenged  by  the  severest  punishment  of  the  offend- 
ing party:  but  the  veneration  of  the  crocodile  was  con- 
fined to  the  neighbourhood  of  Thebes  and  the  lake  of 
Moeris.  Such  veins  of  religious  sentiment,  which  dis- 
tinguished Egypt  from  Phenicia  and  Assyria  not  less  than 
from  Greece,  were  explained  by  the  native  priests  after 
their  manner  to  Herodotus;  though  he  declines  from  pious 
scruples  to  communicate  what  was  told  to  him.2  They  seem 
remnants  continued  from  a  very  early  stage  of  Petichism — 
and  the  attempts  of  different  persons,  noticed  inDiodorus 
and  Plutarch,  to  account  for  their  origin,  partly  by  legends, 
partly  by  theory,  will  give  little  satisfaction  to  any  one.3 
Though  Thebes  first,  and  Memphis  afterwards,  were 

an     artificial     canal,    sluices,    &c.  circumstances    connected   with  the 

(Kenrick  ad  Herodot.  ii.  1*9.)  worship  of  the  goat  in  the  Mende- 

"The  lake  still  exists,  of  dimin-  sian    Nome    (Pindar,    Fragm.     Inc. 

ished    magnitude,  being    about   60  179,  ed.  Bergk).     Pindar   had    also 

miles    in    circumference,     but     the  dwelt,  in  one  of  his  Prosodia,  upon 

communication    with    the  Xile  has  the  mythe  of  the  gods  having  dis- 

ceased."    Herodotus  gives  the  cir-  guiscd  themselves  as  animals,  when 

cumferenceas  3600stadia,=between  seeking  to  escape    Typhon:  which 

400  and  450  miles.  was  one  of  the    tales    told    as    an 

I  incline    to    believe    that    there  explanation    of    the     consecration 

was  more    of    the  hand  of   man  in  of  animals    in  Egypt:    see   Pindar, 

it     than     Mr.     Kenrick      supposes,  Fragm.  Inc.  p.  61,  ed.  Bergk:    Por- 

thoufh     doubtless    the    receptacle  phyr.  de  Abstinent,    iii.  p.  251,  ed. 

was  natural.  Rhoer. 

1  Herodot.  ii.  38 — 46,    65 — 72;  iii.  2  Herodot.  ii.  65.     Diodorus  does 

27 30;  Diodor.  i.  83—90.     '  not    feel    the    same    reluctance  to 

It  is    surprising    to    find    Pindar  mention  these  <ir6?f.r,-:a  (i.  86). 

introducing    into  one  of  his    odes  3  Diodor.  i.  86,  87  ;   Plutarch,  De 

a.  plain  mention  of  the  monstrous  IsiJ.  et  Osirid.  p.  377  seq. 


CHAP.  XX.  NUMEROUS  DYNASTIES  OF  KINGS.  323 

undoubtedly  the  principal  cities  of  Egypt,  yet  if  the  dy- 
nasties of  Manetho  are  at  all  trustworthy  even  Egyptian 
in  their  general  outline,  the  Egyptian  kings  £J£f*~from 
were  not  taken  uniformly  either  from  one  or  different 
the  other.  Manetho  enumerates  on  the  whole  £*J^t°ftha 
twenty-six  different  dynasties  or  families  of 
kings,  anterior  to  the  conquest  of  the  country  by  Kambyses 
— the  Persian  kings  between  Kambyses  and  Darius  No- 
thus,  down  to  the  death  of  the  latter  in  405  B.C.  constitu- 
ting his  twenty-seventh  dynasty.  Of  these  twenty-six 
dynasties,  beginning  with  the  year  5702  B.C.,  the  first  two 
are  Thinites — the  third  and  fourth,  Memphites — the  fifth, 
from  the  island  of  Elephantine — the  sixth,  seventh  and 
eighth,  again  Memphites —  the  ninth  and  tenth,  Herakleo- 
polites —  the  eleventh,  twelfth  and  thirteenth,  Diospolites 
or  Thebans — the  fourteenth,  Choites — the  fifteenth  and  six- 
teenth, Hyksos  or  Shepherd  Kings — the  seventeenth,  Shep- 
herd Kings,  overthrown  and  succeeded  by  Diospolites — 
the  eighteenth  (B.C.  1655-1327,  in  which  is  included  Barne- 
ses the  great  Egyptian  conqueror,  identified  by  many  au- 
thors with  Sesostris,  1411  B.C.),  nineteenth  and  twentieth, 
Diospolites —  the  twenty-first,  Tanites — the  twenty-second, 
Bubastites — the  twenty-third,  again  Tanites — the  twenty- 
fourth,  Sai'tes — the  twenty-fifth,  Ethiopians,  beginning 
with  Sabakon,  whom  Herodotus  also  mentions — the  twen- 
ty-sixth, Saites,  including  Psammetichus,  Nekos,  Apries  or 
TJaphris,  and  Amasis  or  Amosis.  We  see  by  these  lists, 
that  according  to  the  manner  in  which  Manetho  construed 
the  antiquities  of  his  country,  several  other  cities  of  Egypt, 
besides  Thebes  and  Memphis,  furnished  kings  to  the  whole 
territory.  But  we  cannot  trace  any  correspondence  be- 
tween the  Nomes  which  furnished  kings,  and  those  which 
Herodotus  mentions  to  have  been  exclusively  occupied  by 
the  military  caste.  Many  of  the  separate  Nomes  were  of 
considerable  substantive  importance,  and  had  a  marked 
local  character  each  to  itself,  religious  as  well  as  political; 
though  the  whole  of  Egypt,  from  Elephantine  to  Pelusium 
and  Kanopus,  is  said  to  have  always  constituted  one  king- 
dom, from  the  earliest  times  which  the  native  priests  could 
conceive. 

"We  are  to  consider  this  kingdom  as  engaged,  long  be- 
fore the  time  when  Greeks  were  admitted  into  it,  *  in  a 

1  On    this    early    trade    between  Egypt,    Phenicia,     and    Palestine, 


Y  2 


324  HISTOEY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

standing  caravan  commerce  with  Phenicia,  Palestine,  Ara- 
bia, and  Assyria.   Ancient  Egypt  having  neither 

Relations  .    '  V.  .  ,     i    PJf.         .        &     ,       .,    . 

of  Egypt  vines  nor  olives,  imported  both  wine  and  oil;1 
with  AS-  while  it  also  needed  especially  the  frankincense 
and  aromatic  products  peculiar  to  Arabia,  for 
its  elaborate  religious  ceremonies.  Towards  the  last  quart- 
er of  the  eighth  century  B.C.  (a  little  before  the  time  when 
the  dynasty  of  the  Mermnadse  in  Lydia  was  commencing  in 
the  person  of  Gryges),  we  trace  events  tending  to  alter  the 
relation  which  previously  subsisted  between  these  coun- 
tries, by  continued  aggressions  on  the  part  of  the  Assyrian 
monarchs  of  Nineveh — Salmaneser  and  Sennacherib.  The 
former  having  conquered  and  led  into  captivity  the  ten 
tribes  of  Israel,  also  attacked  the  Phenician  towns  on  the 
adjoining  coast:  Sidon,  Palse-Tyrus,  and  Ake  yielded  to 
him,  but  Tyre  itself  resisted,  and  having  endured  for  five 
years  the  hardships  of  a  blockade  with  partial  obstruction 
of  its  continental  aqueducts,  was  enabled  by  means  of  its 
insular  position  to  maintain  independence.  It  was  just  at 
this  period  that  the  Grecian  establishments  in  Sicily  were 
forming,  and  I  have  already  remarked  that  the  pressure  of 
the  Assyrians  upon  Phenicia  probably  had  some  effect  in 
determining  that  contraction  of  the  Phenician  occupations 
in  Sicily  which  really  took  place  (B.C.  730 — 720).  Respect- 
ing Sennacherib,  we  are  informed  by  the  Old  Testament 
that  he  invaded  Judsea — and  by  Herodotus  (who  calls  him 
king  of  the  Assyrians  and  Arabians)  that  he  assailed  the 
pious  king  Sethos  in  Egypt:  in  both  cases  his  army  ex- 
perienced a  miraculous  repulse  and  destruction.  After 
this  the  Assyrians  of  Nineveh,  either  torn  by  intestine  dis- 
sension, or  shaken  by  the  attacks  of  the  Medes,  appear  no 
longer  active;  but  about  the  year  630  B.C.,  the  Assyrians  or 
Chaldseans  of  Babylon  manifest  a  formidable  and  increa- 
sing power.  It  is  moreover  during  this  century  that  the 
old  routine  of  the  Egyptian  kings  was  broken  through, 

anterior  to  any  acquaintance  with  the  transport  of   water,   in  the  re- 

the    Greeks,     see     Josephus    cont.  turn    journeys    across    the    Desert 

Apion.  i.  12.  (iii.  C). 

1    Herodotus    notices    the    large  In  later    times,   Alexandria   was 

importation  of  wine  into  Egypt  in  supplied    with    wine   chiefly   from 

his   day,    from   <~11  Greece    as  well  Laodikeia  in  Syria  near  the  mouth 

as  from   Phenicia,    as    well   as  the  of   the     Orontes     (Strabo,    xvi.    p. 

employment  of  the  earthen  vessels  751). 
in  which  it   had   been  brought  for 


CHAP.  XX.     GRECIAN  MERCENARIES    ESTABLISHED.  325 

and  a  new  policy  displayed  towards  foreigners  by  Psam- 
metichus — which,  while  it  rendered  Egypt  more  formi- 
dable to  Judsea  and  Phenicia,  opened  to  Grecian  ships  and 
settlers  the  hitherto  inaccessible  Nile. 

Herodotus  draws  a  marked  distinction  between  the 
history  of  Egypt  before  Psammetichus  and  the  following 
period.     The  former  he  gives  as  the  narration   Egyptian 
of  the  priests,  without  professing  to  guarantee   i"story  not 

,i    ri    ,  i  •  i       j.i      i     v  n       known  be- 

lt— the  latter  he  evidently  believes  to  be  well-   fore  p?am- 

ascertained. l  And  we  find  that  from  Psamme-  meticims. 
tichus  downward,  Herodotus  and  Manetho  are  in  tolerable 
harmony,  whereas  even  for  the  sovereigns  occupying  the 
last  fifty  years  before  Psammetichus,  there  are  many  and 
irreconcileable  discrepancies  between  them;2  but  they  both 
agree  in  stating  that  Psammetichus  reigned  fifty-four 
years. 

So  important  an  event,  as  the  first  admission  of  the 
G  reeks  into  Egvpt,  was  made,  bv  the  informants   T 

r  TT         14.          i       i.  /  1  :First  ]ntr°- 

oi  Herodotus,   to   turn  upon  two   prophecies,   auction  of 
After  the  death  of  Sethos  (priest  of  Hephsestos   ^e(*s  into 
as  well  as  king),  who  left  no  son,  Egypt  became   under 
divided  among  twelve  kings,  of  whom  Psammeti-   Psammeti- 
chus was  one.     It  was  under  this  dodekarchy,   stories 
according  to   Herodotus,   that  the   marvellous   connected 
labyrinth  near  the  Lake  of  Mceris  was  constructed. 
The  twelve  lived  and  reigned  for  some  time  in  perfect 
harmony.    But  a  prophecy  had  been  made  known  to  them, 
that  the  one  who  should  make  libations  in  the  temple  of 
Hephsestos  out  of  a  brazen  goblet,  would  reign  over  all 
Egypt.     Now  it  happened  that  one  day  when  they  all  ap- 
peared armed  in  that  temple  to  offer  sacrifice,  the  high 
priest  brought  out  by  mistake  only  eleven  golden  goblets 
instead  of  twelve ;  and  Psammetichus,  left  without  a  goblet, 
made  use  of  his  brazen  helmet  as  a  substitute.   Being  thus 
considered,  though  unintentionally,   to  have  fulfilled  the 
condition    of  the    prophecy,   by    making    libations    in  a 
brazen  goblet,  he  became  an  object  of  terror  to  his  eleven 
colleagues,  who  united  to  despoil  him  of  his  dignity  and 
drove  him  into  the  inaccessible  marshes.   In  this  extremity 


326  HISTOEY  OF  GBEECE.  PART  II. 

he  sent  to  seek  counsel  from  the  oracle  of  Leto  at  Buto, 
and  received  for  answer  an  assurance  that  "vengeance 
would  come  to  him  by  the  hands  of  brazen  men  showing 
themselves  from  the  seaward."  His  faith  was  for  the 
moment  shaken  by  so  startling  a  conception  as  that  of 
brazen  men  for  his  allies.  But  the  prophetic  veracity  of 
the  priest  at  Buto  was  speedily  shown,  when  an  astonished 
attendant  came  to  acquaint  him  in  his  lurking-place,  that 
brazen  men  were  ravaging  the  sea-coast  of  the  Delta.  It 
was  a  body  of  Ionian  and  Karian  soldiers,  who  had  landed 
for  pillage ;  and  the  messenger  who  came  to  inform  Psam- 
metichus  had  never  before  seen  men  in  an  entire  suit  of 
brazen  armour.  That  prince,  satisfied  that  these  were  the 
allies  whom  the  oracle  had  marked  out  for  him,  immediate- 
ly entered  into  negotiation  with  the  lonians  andKarians, 
enlisted  them  in  his  service,  and  by  their  aid  in  conjunction 
with  his  other  partisans  overpowered  the  other  eleven 
kings — thus  making  himself  the  one  ruler  of  Egypt. l 

Such  was  the  tale  by  which  the  original  alliance  of  an 
importance  Egyptian  king  with  Grecian  mercenaries,  and 
of  Grecian  the  first  introduction  of  Greeks  into  Egypt,  was 
rieTto'The  accounted  for  and  dignified.  What  followed  is 
Egyptian  more  authentic  and  more  important.  Psammeti- 
caste^f  in-  chus  provided  a  settlement  and  lands  for  his 
terpreters.  new  allies,  on  the  Pelusiac  or  eastern  branch  of 
the  Nile,  a  little  below  Bubastis.  The  lonians  were  planted 
on  one  side  of  the  river,  the  Karians  on  the  other;  and 
the  place  was  made  to  serve  as  a  military  position,  not 
only  for  the  defence  of  the  eastern  border,  but  also  for 
the  support  of  the  king  himself  against  malcontents  at 

1  Herodot.  ii.  149-152.  This  narra-  kings,    ruled   at    Sai's    and    in    the 

tive  of  Herodotus,    however  little  neighbouring    part    of  the   Delta: 

satisfactory  in  an   historical  point  he  opened  a  trade,  previously  un- 

of  view,    bears    evident  marks    of  known  in  Egypt,  with  Greeks  and 

being   the  genuine  tale   which  he  Phenicians,    so  profitable   that  his 

heard  fromthe  priests  of  Hephsestos.  eleven  colleagues   became  jealous 

Diodorus    gives    an   account  more  of   his     riches     and    combined    to 

historically  plausible,  but  he  could  attack  him.    He  raised  an  army  of 

not   well    have    had    any    positive  foreign  mercenaries   and  defeated 

authorities    for    that    period,    and  his   colleagues    (Diodor.   i.  66,  67). 

he    gives    us    seemingly   the  ideas  Polyanms    gives    a  different    story 

of    Greek    authors    of  the  days  of  about  Psammetiohus  and  the  ICarian 

the   Ptolemies.     Psammetichus  (he  mercenaries  (vii.  3). 
tells    us),    as    one    of   the   twelve 


CHAJP.  XX.       GKECIAN  MERCENARIES  ESTABLISHED.  327 

home:  it  was  called  the  Stratopeda,  or  the  Camps.1  He 
took  pains  moreover  to  facilitate  the  intercourse  between 
them  and  the  neighbouring  inhabitants  by  causing  a  number 
of  Egyptian  children  to  be  domiciled  with  them,  in  order 
to  learn  the  Greek  language.  Hence  sprung  the  Inter- 
preters, who  in  the  time  of  Herodotus  constituted  a  per- 
manent hereditary  caste  or  breed. 

Though  the  chief  purpose  of  this  first  foreign  settle- 
ment in  Egypt,  between  Pelusium  and  Bubastis,  Opening  of 
was  to  create  an  independent  military  force,  tlie  .Ka- 

-.        ..,     ..        a  r       Ii       i  •  L  -L  e    ndpic 

and  with  it  a  fleet,  for  the  king,  —  yet  it  was  oi   branch  of 
course  an  opening  both  for  communication  and   ^ie  ^ile  to 
traffic,  to  all  Greeks  and  to  all  Phenicians,  such   merce— 
as  had  never  before  been  available.      And  it  Gre(;k  es~ 
was  speedily  followed  by  the  throwing  open  of  a^  Nan- 
the   itanopic   or   westernmost  branch   of   the   Gratis. 
river  for  the  purposes  of  trade  specially.     According  to  a 
statement  of  Strabo,  it  was  in  the  reign  of  Psammetichus 
that  the  Milesians  with  a  fleet  of  thirty  ships  made  a  des- 
cent on  that  part  of  the  coast,  first  built  a  fort  in  the 
immediate  neighbourhood,  and  then  presently  founded  the 
town  of  Naukratis  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Kanopic  Nile. 
There  is  much  that  is  perplexing  in  this  affirmation  of 
Strabo;  but  on  the  whole  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the 
establishment   of  the  Greek  factories  and  merchants   at 
Naukratis  may  be  considered  as  dating  in  the  reign  of 
Psammetichus2  —  Naukratis  however  must  have  been  a  city 

1  Herodot.  ii.  154.  and    the    Milesians:    moreover,    if 

-    Strabo,    xvii.    p.    P01.      xctl    TO  by    XCCTGI     Kua^ipY]     be     meant     in 

M'.)-T]ai(u-(     TSiy/ji;'     -rXsOaavTi?     fap  the  time  of  Kyaxares,  as  the  trans- 

it    W  rj.\i.ij.rL-i-jjj<)     Tpiixov-ra     vauoiv  lators  render  it,  we  have  in  imme- 

MiXrjtnoi   xaTti    Kua£ap7](ooTO!;  diate    succession    ir.'i    Wa|j.(j. 


moaning,     which     is    (to    say    the 


TO  \zyjii-i  xitj|xa-  XP^vtlJ  ^'  avan),£'i- 


least  of  it)  a  very   awkward   sen- 


tence.    The  words  OUTO?  3s    TOJV 
Mr,6(ov    look    not    unlike   a  com- 
meiit  added  by  some    early  reader 
GzipOiV.  of  Strabo,    wlio    could   not    under- 

"\Vhat  is  meant  by  the  allusion  stand  why  Kyaxares  should  be 
to  Kyaxares,  or  to  Inarus,  in  this  here  mentioned,  and  who  noted 
passage,  I  do  not  understand,  his  difficulty  in  words  which  have 
We  know  nothing  of  any  relations  subsequently  found  their  way  into 
either  between  Kyaxares  and  Psam-  the  toxt.  Then  again  Inarus  be- 
luetichus,  or  between  Kyaxares  longs  to  the  period  between  the' 


328  HISTOBY  OF  GBEECB.  PABT  II. 

of  Egyptian  origin  in  which  these  foreigners  were  per- 
mitted to  take  up  their  abode — not  a  Greek  colony,  as 
Strabo  would  have  us  believe.  The  language  of  Herodotus 
seems  rather  to  imply  that  it  was  king  Amasis  (between 
whom  and  the  death  of  Psammetichus  there  intervened 
nearly  half  a  century)  who  first  allowed  Greeks  to  settle 
at  Naukratis.  Yet  on  comparing  what  the  historian  tells 
us  respecting  the  courtezan  Rhodopis  and  the  brother  of 
Sappho  the  poetess,  it  is  evident  that  there  must  have  been 
both  Greek  trade  and  Greek  establishments  in  that  town 
long  before  Amasis  came  to  the  throne.  We  may  consider 
then,  that  both  the  eastern  and  western  mouths  of  the  Nile 
became  open  to  the  Greeks  in  the  days  of  Psammetichus: 
the  former  as  leading  to  the  head-quarters  of  the  mercenary 
Greek  troops  in  Egyptian  pay — the  latter  for  purposes 
of  trade. 

While  this  event  afforded  to  the  Greeks  a  valuable 
enlargement  both  of  their  traffic  and  of  their  field  of  obser- 
vation, it  seems  to  have  occasioned  an  internal  revolution 
in  Egypt.    The  Nome  of  Bubastis,  in  which  the 
Discontents   new    military    settlement    of    foreigners    was 

and  mutiny        i       j_    j    •  t_         a  .1  •    j    i 

of  the  planted,  is  numbered  among  those  occupied  by 

Egyptian      the  Egyptian  military  caste.1     Whether  their 

military  11-  i_    j.    i  c 

order.  lands  were  in  part  taken  away  trom  them  we 

do  not  know ;  but  the  mere  introduction  of  such 
foreigners  must  have  appeared  an  abomination,  to  the 
strong  conservative  feeling  of  ancient  Egypt.  And  Psam- 
metichus treated  the  native  soldiers  in  a  manner  which 
showed  of  how  much  less  account  Egyptian  soldiers  had 
become,  since  the  "brazen  helmets"  had  got  footing  in  the 

Persian   and  Peloponnesian  wars ;  found    Inarus    the    son    of    Psam- 

at  least  we  know  no  other  person  metichus  mentioned  two  centuries 

of  that  name  than  the  chief  of  the  afterwards,   and  identified  the  two 

Egyptian     revolt     against    Persia  Psammetichuses  with  each  other. 

(Thucyd.  i.  114),  who  is  spoken  of  The  statement  of  Strabo  has  bean 

as  a  "Libyan,  the  son  of  Psamme-  copied  by  Stepb.  Byz.  v.  Na'ixpaTn. 

tichus."    The  mention  of  Kyaxares  Eusebius    also    announces   (Chron. 

therefore  here  appears  unmeaning,  i.    p.    168)     the    Milesians    as    the 

while    that    of  Inarus    is    an  ana-  founders    of    Naukratis,   but    puts 

chronism  :    possibly  the  story  that  the  event  at  753  B.C.,    during  what 

the     Milesians   founded  Xaukratis  he  callstheMilesian  thalassokraty : 

"after  having  worsted  Inarus    in  a  see  Mr.  Fynes  Clinton  ad  aim.  732 

sea-fight,"    may    have    grown    out  B.C.  in  the  Fasti  Hellenici. 

of   the    etymology     of    the    name  J  Herodot.  ii.  166. 
•Naukratis,  in  the  mind  of  one  who 


CHAP.  XX.     DISCONTENTS  OF  THE  MILITARY  OEDEB.  329 

land.  It  had  hitherto  been  the  practice  to  distribute  such 
portions  of  the  military,  as  were  on  actual  service,  in  three 
different  posts :  at  Daphne  near  Pelusium,  on  the  north- 
eastern frontier — at  Marea  on  the  north-western  frontier, 
near  the  spot  where  Alexandria  was  afterwards  built — and 
at  Elephantine,  on  the  southern  or  Ethiopian  boundary. 
Psammetichus,  having  no  longer  occasion  for  their  services 
on  the  eastern  frontier,  since  the  formation  of  the  merce- 
nary camp,  accumulated  them  in  greater  number  and  de- 
tained them  for  an  unusual  time  at  the  two  other  stations, 
especially  at  Elephantine.  Here,  as  Herodotus  tells  us, 
they  remained  for  three  years  unrelieved.  Diodorus  adds 
that  Psammetichus  assigned  to'  those  native  troops  who 
fought  conjointly  with  the  mercenaries,  the  least  honour- 
able post  in  the  line.  Discontent  at  length  impelled  them 
to  emigrate  in  a  body  of  240,000  men  into  Ethiopia,  leaving 
their  wives  and  children  behind  in  Egypt.  No  instances 
on  the  part  of  the  Psammetichus  could  induce  them  to 
return.  This  memorable  incident,1  which  is  said  to  have 
given  rise  to  a  settlement  in  the  southernmost  regions 
of  Ethiopia,  called  by  the  Greeks  the  Automoli  (though 
the  emigrant  soldiers  still  call  themselves  by  their  old 
Egyptian  name),  attests  the  effect  produced  by  the  intro- 
duction of  the  foreign  mercenaries  in  lowering  the  position 
of  the  native  military.  The  number  of  the  emigrants 
however  is  a  point  noway  to  be  relied  upon.  We  shall 
presently  see  that  there  were  enough  of  them  left  behind 
to  renew  effectively  the  struggle  for  their  lost  dignity. 

It  was  probably  with  his  Ionian  and  Karian  troops 
that  Psammetichus  carried  on  those  warlike  operations  in 
Syria  which  filled  so  large  a  proportion  of  his  long  and 
prosperous  reign  of  fifty-four  years.2  He  besieged  the 
city  of  Azotus  in  Syria  for  twenty-nine  years,  until  he  took 
it — the  longest  blockade  which  Herodotus  had  ever  heard 
of.  Moreover  he  was  in  that  country  when  the  destroy- 
ing Scythian  Nomads  (who  had  defeated  the  iledian  king 
Kyaxares  and  possessed  themselves  of  Upper  Asia)  ad- 
vanced to  invade  Egypt;  a  project  which  Psammetichus, 
by  large  presents,  induced  them  to  abandon.3 

There   were,  however,   yet  more  powerful    enemies, 

1  Hcrodot.  ii.  30;  Diodor.  i.  67.         v;377.toc;  t<Jbv  ~po"po-<  |?'jtii).ju>-;  (He- 
1  'Arpi.r,s — os  (Asti  9f«jJi|jir(Ti->(Ov  TOV      rodot.  ii.  161). 
iio'JToli   icpoicitopst    ifz-tt-<j    S'jSstijjio-          l  Uerodot.  i.  105;  ii.  107. 


330 


HISTORY  OF  GREECE. 


PABT  II. 


against  whom  he  and  his  son  Nekos  (who  succeeded  him 
seemingly  about  604  B.  c.1)  had  to  contend  in  Syria  and 
the  lands  adjoining.  It  is  just  at  this  period,  during  the 
reigns  of  Nabopolassar  and  his  son  Nebuchadnezzar  (B.  c. 
NekOs— son  625-561)  that  the  Chaldseans  or  Assyrians  of 
of  Psamme-  Babylon  appear  at  the  maximum  of  their  power 

tichus    his  -, J  ".         -,.  ...  ,  .,      ,,        A      r   . 

active  ope-  and  aggressive  disposition;  while  the  Assyrians 
rations.  of  Ninus  or  Nineveh  lose  their  substantive 
position  through  the  taking  of  that  town  by  Kyaxares 
(about  B.  c.  600) — the  greatest  height  which  the  Median 
power  ever  reached.  Between  the  Egyptian  Nekos  and 

1  The  chronology  of  the  Egyptian 
kings  from  Psammetichus  to  Amasis 


According  to  Herodotus, 

Psammetichns  reigned   54  years. 
NekSs     ...        „          16      „ 
Psammis      .    .        „  6      „ 

Apries     ...        „  25      „ 

Amasis    ...        -  4J       - 

Diodorus  gives  22  years  for  Apri§s 
and  55  years  for  Amasis  (i.   68). 

Now  the  end  of  the  reign  of 
Amasis  stands  fixed  for  526  B.C., 
and  therefore  the  beginning  of  his 
reign  (according  to  both  Herodo- 
tus and  Manetho)  to  570  B.C.  or 
569  B.C.  According  to  the  chrono- 
logy of  the  Old  Testament,  the 
battles  of  Megiddo  and  Carche- 
misch,  fought  by  Nek6s,  fall  about 
609—605  B.C.,  and  this  coincides 
•with  the  reign  of  Nek&s  as  dated 
by  Herodotus,  but  not  as  dated 
by  Manetho.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  appears  from  the  evidence  of 
certain  Egyptian  inscriptions  re- 
cently discovered,  that  the  real 
interval  from  the  beginning  of 
Kechao  to  the  end  of  Uaphris  is 
only  forty  years,  and  not  forty- 
seven  years,  as  the  dates  of  Hero- 
dotus •would  make  it  (Boeckh, 
Manetho  und  die  Hundsstern-Pe- 
riode,  p.  341 — 34?),  which  would 
place  the  accession  of  Xek&s  in 
610  or  609  B.C.  Boeckh  discusses  at 
some  length  this  discrepancy  of 


is  given  in  some  points  differently 
by  Herodotus   and  by  Manetho:— 

According  to  Manetho  ap.  African. 

Psammetichns  reigned  54   years. 

Nechao  II.      .        „  6      „ 

Psammathis  „  6      „ 

Uaphris  ...        .  19      „ 

Amosis    .     .    .        „  44      „ 

dates,  and  inclines  to  the  suppo- 
sition that  Nek&s  reigned  nine  or 
ten  years  jointly  with  his  father, 
and  that  Herodotus  has  counted 
these  nine  or  ten  years  twice,  once 
in  the  reign  ofPsammetichus,  once 
in  that  of  Xek&s.  Certainly  Psara- 
metichus  can  hardly  have  been 
very  young  when  his  reign  began, 
and  if  he  reigned  fifty-four  years, 
he  must  have  reached  an  extreme 
old  age,  and  may  have  been  pro- 
minently aided  by  his  son.  Adopt- 
ing the  suppositions  therefore  that 
the  last  ten  years  of  the  reign  of 
Psammetichus  may  be  reckoned 
both  for  him  and  for  Xek&s — that 
forNek&s  separately  only  six  years 
are  to  be  reckoned— and  that  the 
number  of  years  from  the  begin- 
ning of  Xek&s's  separate  reign  to 
the  end  of  Uaphris  is  forty— Boeckh 
places  the  beginning  of  Psamme- 
tichus in  654  B.C.,  and  not  in  670 
B.C.,  as  the  data  of  Herodotus 
would  make  it  (t&.  p.  342-350). 
.  Mr.  Clinton,  Fast.  Hellen.  B.C. 
616,  follows  Herodotus. 


CHAP.  XX.  NEKOS— HIS  CANAL— HIS  NAVY.  331 

his  grandson  Apries  (Pharaoh  Necho  and  Pharaoh  Hophra 
of  the  Old  Testament)  on  the  one  side,  and  the  Babylonian 
Nebuchadnezzar  on  the  other,  Judaea  and  Phenicia  form 
the  intermediate  subject  of  quarrel.  The  political  inde- 
pendence of  the  Phenician  towns  is  extinguished  never 
again  to  be  recovered.  At  the  commencement  of  his  reign, 
it  appears,  Nekos  was  chiefly  anxious  to  extend  the  Egyp- 
tian commerce,  for  which  purpose  he  undertook  two 
measures,  both  of  astonishing  boldness  for  that  age — a 
canal  between  the  lower  part  of  the  eastern  or  Pelusiac 
Nile  and  the  inmost  corner  of  the  Red  Sea — and  the  cir- 
cumnavigation of  Africa;  his  great  object  being  to  procure 
a  water-communication  between  the  Mediterranean  and 
the  Red  Sea.  He  began  the  canal  (much  about  the  same 
time  as  Nebuchadnezzar  executed  his  canal  from  Babylon 
to  Teredon)  with  such  reckless  determination,  that  120,000 
Egyptians  are  said  to  have  perished  in  the  work.  But 
either  from  such  disastrous  proof  of  the  difficulty,  or  (as 
Herodotus  represents)  from  the  terrors  of  a  menacing 
prophecy  which  reached  him,  he  was  compelled  to  desist 
Next  he  accomplished  the  circumnavigation  of  Africa, 
already  above  alluded  to ;  but  in  this  way  too  he  found  it 
impracticable  to  procure  any  available  communication  such 
as  he  wished.1  It  is  plain  that  in  both  these  enterprises 
he  was  acting  under  Phenician  and  Greek  instigation;  and 
we  may  remark  that  the  point  of  the  Nile,  from  whence 
the  canal  took  its  departure,  was  close  upon  the  mercenary 
camps  or  Stratopeda.  Being  unable  to  connect  the  two 
seas  together,  he  built  and  equipped  an  armed  naval  force 
both  upon  the  one  and  the  other,  and  entered  upon  agres- 
sive  enterprises,  naval  as  well  as  military.  His  army,  on 
inarching  into  Syria,  was  met  at  Megiddo  (Herodotus  says 
Magdolum)  by  Josiah  king  of  Judah,  who  was  himself  slain 
and  so  completely  worsted,  that  Jerusalem  fell  into  the 
power  of  the  conqueror,  and  became  tributary  to  Egypt. 
It  deserves  to  be  noted  that  Nekos  sent  the  raiment  which 
lie  had  worn  on  the  day  of  this  victory  as  an  offering  to 
the  holy  temple  of  Apollo  at  Branchidse  near  Miletus2 — 

1  Herodot.    ii.    158.      Kespecting  about  ninety  miles, 

the  canal    of  Nek6s,    see    the   ex-  *    Herodot.    ii.     159.      Diodorus 

planation  of  Mr.  Kenrick    on  this  makes  no  mention  of  Nekos. 

chapter   of  Herodotus.     From  Bu-  The  account  of  Herodotus  coin- 

bastis  to  Suez  the  length  would  be  cides  in  the  main  with  the  history 


332  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

the  first  recorded  instance  of  a  donation  from  an  Egyptian 
king  to  a  Grecian  temple,  and  a  proof  that  Hellenic  af- 
finities were  beginning  to  take  effect  upon  him.  Probably 
we  may  conclude  that  a  large  proportion  of  his  troops  were 
Milesians. 

But  the  victorious  career  of  Nekos  was  completely 
Defeated  by  checked  by  the  defeat  which  he  experienced  at 
Nebuchad-  Carchemisch  (or  Circesium)  on  the  Euphrates, 
Carche-a  from  Nebuchadnezzar  and  the  Babylonians,  who 
misch.  not  only  drove  him  out  of  Judaea  and  Syria  but 

also  took  Jerusalem,  and  carried  away  the  king  and  the 
principal  Jews  into  captivity.1  Nebuchadnezzar  farther 
attacked  the  Phenician  cities,  and  the  siege  of  Tyre  alone 
cost  him  severe  toil  for  thirteen  years.  After  this  long  and 
gallant  resistance,  the  Tyrians  were  forced  to  submit,  and 
underwent  the  same  fate  as  the  Jews.  Their  princes  and 
chiefs  were  dragged  captive  into  the  Babylonian  territory, 
and  the  Phenician  cities  became  numbered  among  the 
tributaries  of  Nebuchadnezzar.  So  they  seem  to  have  re- 
mained, until  the  overthrow  of  Babylon  by  Cyrus:  for  we 
find  among  those  extracts  (unhappily  very  brief)  which 
Josephus  has  preserved  out  of  the  Tyrian  annals,  that 
during  this  interval  there  were  disputes  and  irregularities 
in  the  government  of  Tyre2  — judges  being  for  a  time  sub- 

of  the  Old   Testament   about  Pha-  cont.  Apion.  i.  19,  20,  and  Antiqu. 

•  raoh  Necho  and  Josiah.  The  great  J.  x.  11,  1,   and   Beros.   Fragment, 

city  of  Syria    which   he    calls  Kd-  ed.  Bichter,  p.  65—67. 

OUTI?      seems      to     be    Jerusalem,  2  Menander    ap.    Joseph.    Antiq. 

though    "\Vesseling     (ad     Herodot.  J.   ix.   14,    2.    'Er.'i    ElQ(o3i).o'J    TOO 

iii.  5)    and    other   able   critics  dis-  pastXsco?   sitoXiopxyjae   Na3o'Jy_oScn6- 

pute    the    identity.      See    Volney,  oopo?    TTJV    Tipov   SK     ITTJ    SsxaTpti. 

Recherches    sur    1'Hist.    Anc.   vol.  That   this    siege  of   thirteen  years 

:i.  ch.  13.  p.  239  :    "Les  Arabes  ont  ended   in   the  storming,   capitula- 

conserve   1'habitude   d'appeler  Je-  tion,  or  submission  (we  know  not 

rusalem  la  Sainte  par    excellence,  which,    and    Volney  goes   beyond 

el  Qods.  Sans  doute  les  Chaldgens  the    evidence   when  he  says,  "Les 

et    les    Syriens    lui    donnerent    le  Tyriens   furent  emporte's    d'assaut 

memo  nom,  qui  dans  leur  dialecte  par  le   roi   de  Babylone,"  Becher- 

est   Qadouta,   dont   Herodote   rend  ches  sur  1'Histoire  Ancienne,   vol. 

bien  1'orthographia  quand   il  ecrit  ii.  ch.  14.    p.    250)    of  Tyre    to    the 

KaS'jTti;.''  Chaldaean    king,    is    quite    certain 

1  Jeremiah,  xlvi.  2  ;  2nd  book  of  from  the  mention  which  after- 
Kings,  xxiii.  and  xxiv.;  Josephus,  wards  follows  of  the  Tyrian  prin- 
Ant.  J.  x.  5,  1;  x.  6.  1.  ces  being  detained  captive  in  Ba- 

About  Nebuchadnezzar,    see  the  bylonia.   Hengstenberg  (De  Bebus 

Fragment   of  Berosus    ap.  Joseph,  Tyriorunij    p.   34—77)    heapa    up  a 


CHAP.  XX.  PSAMMIS.  333 

stituted  in  the  place  of  kings;  while  Merbal  and  Hirom, 
two  princes  of  the  regal  Tyrian  line,  detained  captive  in 
Babylonia,  were  successively  sent  down  on  the  special 
petition  of  the  Tyrians,  and  reigned  at  Tyre;  the  former 
four  years,  the  latter  twenty  years,  until  the  conquest  of 
Babylon  by  Cyrus.  The  Egyptian  king  Apries,  indeed,  son 
of  Psammis  and  grandson  of  Nekos,  attacked  Sidon  and 
Tyre  both  by  land  and  sea,  but  seemingly  without  any  re- 
sult, i  To  the  Persian  empire,  as  soon  as  Cyrus  had  con- 
quered Babylon,  they  cheerfully  and  spontaneously  sub- 
mitted,2 whereby  the  restoration  of  the  captive  Tyrians 
to  their  home  was  probably  conceded  to  them,  like  that  of 
the  captive  Jews. 

Nekos  in  Egypt  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Psammis, 
and  he  again,  after  a  reign  of  six  years,  by  his 
son  Apries ;  of  whose  power  and  prosperity  Hero-   S03n  of 1S: 
dotus  speaks  in  very  high  general  terms,  though   ^ek.*l8" 
the  few  particulars  which  he  recounts  are  of  a 
contrary  tenor.     It  was  not  till  after  a  reign  of  twenty- 
five  years  that  Apries  undertook  that  expedition  against 
the  Greek  colonies  in  Libya — Kyreue  and  Barka — which 
proved   his  ruin.     The  native  Libyan  tribes  near  those 
cities  having  sent  to  surrender  themselves  to   him  and 
entreat   his  aid   against  the  Greek  settlers,  Apries  des- 
patched  to   them   a    large     force     composed     of    native 
Egyptians;  who  (as  has  been  before  mentioned)  were  sta- 
tioned on  the  north-western  frontier  of  Egypt,  and  were 
therefore  most  available  for  the  march  against  Kyrene. 

mass  of  arguments,   most  of  them  sessions  in  Judaea  and  Syria,  have 

very    inconclusive,    to    prove    this  been  exaggerated   into  a  conquest 

point,    about    which    the    passage  of  Egypt  itself. 

cited  by  Josephus   from  Menander  *  Herodot.     ii.    161.      He    simply 

leaves  no  doubt.  What  is  not  true,  mentions  what  I  have  stated  in  the 

is,    that   Tyre   was    destroyed   and  text ;  while  Diodorus  tells  us  (i.  08) 

laid  desolate  by  Nebuchadnezzar:  that  the  Egyptian  king  took  Sidon 

siill  less  can   it   be   believed    that  by  assault,  terrified  the  other  Phe- 

tliat    king    conquered    Egypt    and  nician  towns  into  submission,  and 

Libya,    as   Megasthenes,    and  oven  defeated  the  Phenicians  and  Cypri- 

Berosus    so    far    as    Egypt  is  con-  ans   in    a   great   naval    battle,    ac- 

c"rned,    would     have   us   believe —  quiring  a  vast  spoil, 

the  argument  of  Larchcr  ad  Hero-  What    authority    Diodoms    here 

dot.  ii.  Hi^  is    anything    but   satis-  followed,  I  do  not  know;  but  the 

factory.     The   defeat  of  the  Egyp-  measured    statement  of  Hrrodotus 

tian  king  at  Carchemisch,  and  the  is  far  the  most  worthy  of  credit, 

stripping     him   of  his   foreign  pos-  2  Herodot.  iii.  in. 


334  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  U. 

The  Kyrenean  citizens  advanced  to  oppose  them,  and  a 
battle  ensued  in  which  the  Egyptians  were  completely 
routed  with  severe  loss.  It  is  affirmed  that  they  were 
thrown  into  disorder  from  want  of  practical  knowledge 
of  Grecian  warfare1 — a  remarkable  proof  of  the  entire 
isolation  of  the  Grecian  mercenaries  (who  had  now  been 
long  in  the  service  of  Psammetichus  and  his  successors) 
from  the  native  Egyptians. 

This  disastrous  reverse  provoked  a  mutiny  in  Egypt 
against  Apries,  the  soldiers  contending  that  he  had  des- 
patched them  on  the  enterprise  with  a  deliberate  view  to 
their  destruction,  in  order  to  assure  his  rule  over  the  re- 
maining Egyptians.  The  malcontents  found  so  much  sym- 
pathy among  the  general  population,  that  Amasis,  a  Sai'tic 
Egyptian  of  low  birth  but  of  considerable  intelligence, 
whom  Apries  had  sent  to  conciliate  them,  was  either  per- 
suaded or  constrained  to  become  their  leader,  and  prepared 
to  march  immediately  against  the  king  at  Sai's.  Unbounded 
and  reverential  submission  to  the  royal  authority  was  a  habit 
so  deeply  rooted  in  the  Egyptian  mind,  that  Apries  could 
not  believe  the  resistance  to  be  serious.  He  sent  an  of- 
ficer of  consideration  named  Patarbemis  to  bring  Amasis 
before  him.  When  Patarbemis  returned,  bringing  back 
from  the  rebel  nothing  better  than  a  contemptuous  refusal 
to  appear  except  at  the  head  of  an  army,  the  exasperated 
king  ordered  his  nose  and  ears  to  be  cut  off.  This  act  of 
atrocity  caused  such  indignation  among  the  Egyptians  round 
him,  that  most  of  them  deserted  and  joined  the  revolters, 
who  thus  became  irresistibly  formidable  in  point  of  num- 
bers. There  yet  remained  to  Apries  the  foreign  mer- 
cenaries— thirty  thousand  lonians  and  Karians — whom  he 
summoned  from  their  Stratopeda  on  the  Pelusiac  Nile  to 
Amasis—  n^s  residence  at  Sai's.  This  force,  the  creation 
dethrones  of  his  ancestor  Psammetichus  and  the  main  re- 
means8  of  liance  of  his  family,  still  inspired  him  with  such 
the  native  unabated  confidence,  that  he  marched  to  attack 
soldiers.  ^he  far  sUperior  numbers  under  Amasis  at  Mo- 
memphis.  Though  his  troops  behaved  with  bravery,  the 
disparity  of  numbers,  combined  with  the  excited  feeling  of 
the  insurgents,  overpowered  him:  he  was  defeated  and 
carried  prisoner  to  Sai's,  where  at  first  Amasis  not  only 
spared  his  life,  but  treated  him  with  generosity.2  Such 

1  Herodot.  ii.  161;  iv.  169.       2  Herodot.    ii.    162-169;     Diodor.  i.  68. 


CHAP.  XX. 


AMASIS.  335 


however  was  the  antipathy  of  the  Egyptians,  that  they 
forced  Amasis  to  surrender  his  prisoner  into  their  hands, 
and  immediately  strangled  him. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  trace  in  these  proceedings  the 
outbreak  of  a  long-suppressed  hatred  on  the  part  of  the  Egyp- 
tian soldier-caste  towards  the  dynasty  of  Psammetichus, 
to  whom  they  owed  their  comparative  degradation,  and  by 
whom  that  stream  of  Hellenism  had  been  let  in  upon 
Egypt  which  doubtless  was  not  witnessed  without  great 
repugnance.  It  might  seem  also  that  this  dynasty  had  too 
little  of  pure  Egyptianisru  in  them  to  find  favour  with  the 
priests.  At  least  Herodotus  does  not  mention  any  religious 
edifices  erected  either  by  Nekos  or  Psammis  or  Apries, 
though  he  describes  much  of  such  outlay  on  the  part  of 
Psammetichus — who  built  magnificent  Propylsea  to  the 
temple  of  Hephsestos  at  Memphis1  and  a  splendid  new 
chamber  or  stable  for  the  sacred  bull  Apis — and  more  still 
on  the  part  of  Amasis. 

Nevertheless  Amasis,  though   he   had   acquired  the 
crown  by  this  explosion  of  native  antipathy,  found   H 
the  foreign  adjuncts  so  eminently  advantageous,    courages 
that  he  not  only  countenanced,  but  multiplied    Grecian 
them.  Egypt  enjoyed  under  him  a  degree  of  power 
and  consideration  such  as  it  neither  before  possessed,  nor 
afterwards  retained — for  his  long  reign  of  forty-four  years 
(570-526  B.C.)  closed  just  six  months  before  the  Persian 
conquest  of  the  country.     As  he  was  eminently  phil-Hel- 
lenic,  the  Greek  merchants  at  Naukratis — the  permanent 
settlers  as  well  as  the  occasional  visitors — obtained  from 
him  valuable  enlargement   of  their   privileges.     Besides 
granting  permission  to  various  Grecian  towns  to    T 

,    T.T  i  P  T         n  ,  i      •       Important 

erect  religious  establishments  lor  such  of  their  factory  and 

citizens  as  visited  the  place,  he  also  sanctioned  reli^i,°.^ 

the  constitution  of  a  formal  and  organised  em-  mentforthe 

porium  or  factory,  invested  with  commercial  pri-  Greeks  at 

•1  ^  J        -J.-U         i.1.       -L  •      J  1         jSaukratis. 

vileges,  and  armed  with  authority  exercised  by 
presiding  officers  regularly  chosen.  This  factory  was 
connected  with,  and  probably  grew  out  of,  a  large  religious 
edifice  and  precinct,  built  at  the  joint  cost  of  nine  Grecian 
cities:  four  of  them  Ionic, — Chios,  Teos,  Phokaea,  and 
Klazomense;  four  Doric, — lihodes,  Knidus,  Halikarnassus, 
and  Phaselis;  and  one  ./Eolic, — Mitylene.  By  these  nine 

1  llerodot.  ii.  153. 


336  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

cities  the  joint  temple  and  factory  was  kept  up  and  its 
presiding  magistrates  chosen.  But  its  destination,  for  the 
convenience  of  Grecian  commerce  generally,  seems  revealed 
by  the  imposing  title  of  The  Hellenion.  Samos,  Miletus, 
and  -^Egina  had  each  founded  a  separate  temple  at  Nau- 
kratis for  the  worship  of  such  of  their  citizens  as  went 
there;  probably  connected  (as  the  Hellenion  was)  with 
protection  and  facilities  for  commercial  purposes.  While 
these  three  powerful  cities  had  thus  constituted  each  a 
factory  for  itself,  as  guarantee  to  the  merchandise,  and  as 
responsible  for  the  conduct  of  its  own  citizens  separately 
• — the  corporation  of  the  Hellenion  servedboth  as  protection 
and  control  to  all  other  Greek  merchants.  And  such  was 
the  usefulness,  the  celebrity,  and  probably  the  pecuniary 
profit,  of  the  corporation,  that  other  Grecian  cities  set  up 
claims  to  a  share  in  it,  falsely  pretending  to  have  contri- 
buted to  the  original  foundation.  1 

Naukratis  was  for  a  long  time  the  privileged  port  for 
Grecian  commerce  with  Egypt.  No  Greek  merchant  was 
permitted  to  deliver  goods  in  any  other  part,  or  to  enter 
any  other  of  the  mouths  of  the  Nile  except  the  Kanopic. 
If  forced  into  any  of  them  by  stress  of  weather,  he  was 
compelled  to  make  oath  that  his  arrival  was  a  matter  of 
necessity,  and  to  convey  his  goods  round  by  sea  into  the 
Kanopic  branch  to  Naukratis.  If  the  weather  still  forbade 
such  a  proceeding,  the  merchandise  was  put  into  barges 
and  conveyed  round  to  Naukratis  by  the  internal  canals  of 
the  Delta.  Such  a  monopoly,  which  made  Naukratis  in 
Egypt  something  like  Canton  in  China  or  Nangasaki  in 
Japan,  no  longer  subsisted  in  the  time  of  Herodotus.2 
But  the  factory  of  the  Hellenion  was  in  full  operation  and 

1  Herodot.  ii.  178.  The  few  words  ctL  ro).t?  SIJIM  ni  jrapsjrouaoci.  "Osat 
of  the  historian  about  these  Greek  81  aXXai  noXi;  JJLET  a  it  o  t£  u  VTOC  i, 
establishments  at  Naukratis  are  oyosv  091  JAETSOV  (xstaitoisuvtai. 
highly  valuable,  and  we  can  only  We  are  here  let  into  a  vein  of 
wish  that  he  had  told  us  more :  he  commercial  jealousy  between  the 
speaks  of  them  in  the  present  Greek  cities  about  which  we  should 
tense,  from  personal  knowledge —  have  been  glad  to  be  farther  in- 
to (jijv  vov  (AEyiaTOv  otOtEuiv  Tsij.3-;oq 
•xcci  odvo|i.a<JT6ToiTov  EOV  xal  XPT1" 
[AOJTccTOV)  xoXsujisvov  8s  'EXXrjviov, 
<xi8s  TioXt?  Etaiv  ai  i:apsy_o'jaai— 

To'JtECDV     (JLSV     E3TI    TOOTO    TO    TSfiSVO?, 

xal    TzpocrTaTa;    TO'J    ijAnoplo'J    ai)Tai 


CHAP.  XX.    PROSPERITY  OF  EGYPT  UNDER  AMASIS. 


337 


dignity,  and  very  probably  he  himself,  as  a  native  of  one 
of  the  contributing  cities,  Halikarnassus,  may  have  profited 
by  its  advantages.  At  what  precise  time  Naukratis  first 
became  licensed  for  Grecian  trade,  we  cannot  directly  make 
out.  But  there  seems  reason  to  believe  that  it  was  the 
port  to  which  the  Greek  merchants  first  went,  so  soon  as 
the  general  liberty  of  trading  with  the  country  was  con- 
ceded to  them;  and  this  would  put  the  date  of  such  grant 
at  least  as  far  back  as  the  foundation  of  Kyrene  and  the 
voyage  of  the  fortunate  Kolseus,  who  was  on  his  way  with 
a  cargo  to  Egypt  when  the  storms  overtook  him — about 
(530  B.C.,  during  the  reign  of  Psammetichus.  And  in  the 
time  of  the  poetess  Sappho  and  her  brother  Charaxus,  it 
seems  evident  that  Greeks  had  been  some  time  established 
at  Naukratis. l  But  Amasis,  though  his  predecessors  had 
permitted  such  establishment,  may  doubtless  be  regarded 
as  having  given  organisation  to  the  factories,  and  as  having 


1  The  beautiful  Thracian  courte- 
zan, Rhodopis,  was  purchased  by 
a  Samian  merchant  named  Xanthes, 
and  conveyed  to  Naukratis,  in 
order  that  he  might  make  money 
by  her  (nat1  ipfuyir^i).  The  specu- 
lation proved  a  successful  one,  for 
Charaxus,  brother  of  Sappho,  going 
to  Naukratis  with  a  cargo  of  wine, 
became  so  captivated  with  RhodO- 
I>is,  that  he  purchased  her  for  a 
very  large  sum  of  money,  and  gave 
her  her  freedom.  She  then  carried 
on  her  profession  at  Naukratis  on 
lier  own  account,  and  realised  a 
I.andsome  fortune,  the  tithe  of 
v.-hich  she  employed  in  a  votive 
offering  at  Delphi.  She  acquired 
so  much  renown,  that  the  Egyptian 
Creeks  ascribed  to  her  the  build- 
ing of  one  of  the  pyramids,— a 
supposition  on  the  absurdity  of 
which  Herodotus  makes  proper 
comments,  but  which  proves  the 
preat  celebrity  of  the  name  of  Rho- 
dopis (Herodot.  ii.  134).  Athonanis 
calls  her  Doriclie,  and  distinguishes 
her  from  Rhodopis  (xiii.  p.  59fi, 
compare  Siiidas,  v.  'PoSuj-iooq  dvi- 

VOL.  III. 


6y)iirx).  When  Charaxus  returned ' 
to  Mitylene,  his  sister  Sappho  com- 
posed a  song,  in  which  she  greatly 
derided  him  for  this  proceeding — 
a  song  which  doubtless  Herodotus 
knew,  and  which  gives  to  the  whole 
anecdote  a  complete  authenticity. 
Now  we  can  hardly  put  the  age 
of  Sappho  lower  than  600-580  B.C. 
(see  Mr.  Clinton,  Fasti  Hellen.  ad 
aim.  595  B.C.,  and  Ulrici,  Geschichte 
der  Griech.  Lyrik,  cb.  xxiii.  p.  SCO)  : 
Alkseus,  too,  her  contemporary, 
had  himself  visited  Egypt  (AlcEei 
Fragm.  103,  ed.  Bergk ;  Strabo,  i. 
p.  63).  The  Greek  settlement  at 
Naukratis  therefore  must  be  deci- 
dedly older  than  Amasis,  who  began 
to  reign  in  570  B.C.,  and  the  resid- 
ence of  Rhodopis  in  that  town 
must  have  begun  earlier  than  Ama- 
sis,  though  Herodotus  calls  her 
•/.IT'  A(X*ot'v  dxfji'i'lo'Jsa  (ii.  134).  \Ve 
cannot  construe  the  language  of 
Herodotus  strictly,  when  he  says 
that  it  was  Amasis  who  pet-miffed 
the  resilience  of  Greeks  at  Naukra- 
tis (ii.  ITS). 


338  HISTORY  OF  GEBECE.  PART  IL 

placed  the  Greeks  on  a  more  comfortable  footing  of  security 
than  they  had  ever  enjoyed  before. 

This  Egyptian  king  manifested  several  other  evidences 
of  his  phil-Hellenic  disposition  by  donations  to 

Prosperity       T\  i   -if         3      .-,          n         •  i  TT 

of  Egypt       Delphi  and  other  Grecian  temples.     He  even 
under  married  a  Grecian  wife  from  the  city  of  Kyrene. l 

Moreover  he  was  in  intimate  alliance  and  relations 
of  hospitality  both  with  Polykrates  despot  of  Samos  and 
with  Croesus  king  of  Lydia.2  He  conquered  the  island  of 
Cyprus,  and  rendered  it  tributary  to  the  Egyptian  throne. 
His  fleet  and  army  were  maintained  in  good  condition,  and 
the  foreign  mercenaries,  the  great  strength  of  the  dynasty 
whom  he  had  supplanted,  were  not  only  preserved,  but  even 
removed  from  their  camp  near  Pelusium  to  the  chief  town 
Memphis,  where  they  served  as  the  special  guards  of  Amasis.3 
Egypt  enjoyed  under  him  a  degree  of  power  abroad  and 
prosperity  at  home  (the  river  having  been  abundant  in  its 
overflowing),  which  was  the  more  tenaciously  remembered 
on  account  of  the  period  of  disaster  and  subjugation  imme- 
diately following  his  death.  And  his  contributions,  in  ar- 
chitecture and  sculpture,  to  the  temples  of  Sai's4  and  Mem- 
phis were  on  a  scale  of  vastness  surpassing  every-thing 
before  known  in  Lower  Egypt. 

1  Herodot,  ii.  181.  es  MJjx'ftv,  cpoXaxTjv  £urJTog  itoie'ijie- 

2  Herodot.  i.  77;  iii.  39.  vo?  itpo;  AlyUBTicDv. 

3  Herodot.  ii.  182,  154.    xstTotxtsa         *  Herodot.  ii.  175-177. 


CHAP.  XXI.  DECLINE  OF  THE  PHENICIANS.  339 


CH  APTEE  XXI. 

DECLINE  OF  THE  PHENICIANS.— GROWTH  OP 
CAKTHAGE. 

THE  preceding  sketch  of  that  important  system  of  foreign 
nations — Phenicians,  Assyrians,  and  Egyptians — who  oc- 
cupied the  south-eastern  portion  of  the  (oixoujxsvTj)  inhabited 
worldof  an  early  Greek,  brings  them  down  nearly  to  the  time 
at  which  they  were  all  absorbed  into  the  mighty  Between 
Persian  empire.  In  tracing  the  series  of  events  700-530  B.C. 
which intervenedbetween  700  B.C.  and  530B.C.,  we  the^phenl- 
observe  a  material  increase  of  power  both  in  the  cians— 
Chaldseans  and  Egyptians,  and  an  immense  exten-  Grecian  °f 
sion  of  Grecian  maritime  activity  and  commerce —  marine  and 
but  we  at  the  same  time  notice  the  decline  of  Tyre  c 
and  Sidon,  both  in  power  and  traffic.  The  arms  of  Nebuch- 
ndne/zar  reduced  thePhenician  cities  to  the  same  state  of 
dependence  as  that  which  the  Ionian  cities  underwent 
half  a  century  later  from  Croesus  and  Cyrus;  while  the 
ships  of  Miletus,  Phokeea  and  Samos  gradually  spread 
over  all  those  waters  of  the  Levant  which  had  once 
been  exclusively  Phenician.  In  the  year  704  B.C.,  the 
Samians  did  not  yet  possess  a  single  trireme: l  down 
to  the  year  630  B.C.,  not  a  single  Greek  vessel  had 
yet  visited  Libya.  But  when  we  reach  550  B.C.,  we  find 
the  Ionic  ships  predominant  in  the  JEgean,  and  those 
of  Corinth  and  Korkyra  in  force  to  the  west  of  Pelopon- 
nesus— we  see  the  flourishing  cities  of  Kyrene  and  Barka 
already  rooted  in  Libya,  and  the  port  of  Naukratis  a  busy 
emporium  of  Grecian  commerce  with  Egypt.  The  trade 
by  land — which  is  all  that  Egypt  had  enjoyed  prior  to 
Psammetichus,  and  which  was  exclusively  conducted  by 
J'henicians — is  exchanged  for  a  trade  by  sea,  of  which  the 
Phenicians  have  only  a  share,  and  seemingly  a  smaller  share 
than  the  Greeks.  Moreover  the  conquest  by  Amasis  of  the 
island  of  Cyprus,  half-filled  with  Plienician  settlements  and 

1  Tlnieyd.  i.  13. 

z  2 


340  HISTORY  OF  GEEECE.  PAET  II. 

once  the  tributary  dependency  of  Tyre — affords  an  addi- 
tional mark  of  the  comparative  decline  of  that  great  city. 
In  her  commerce  with  the  Bed  Sea  and  the  Persian  Gulf 
she  still  remained  without  a  competitor,  the  schemes  of  the 
Egyptian  king  Nekos  having  proved  abortive.  Even  in 
the  time  of  Herodotus,  the  spices  and  frankincense  of  Arabia 
were  still  brought  and  distributed  only  by  the  Phenician 
merchant.1  But  on  the  whole,  both  political  and  industrial 
development  of  Tyre  are  now  cramped  by  impediments,  and 
kept  down  by  rivals,  not  before  in  operation;  so  that  the 
part  which  she  will  be  found  to  play  in  the  Mediterranean, 
throughout  the  whole  course  of  this  history,  is  one  sub- 
ordinate and  of  reduced  importance. 

The  course  of  Grecian  history  is  not  directly  affected 
by  these  countries.  Yet  their  effect  upon  the  Greek  mind 
was  very  considerable,  and  the  opening  of  the 
fheniciEuis  Nile  by  Psammetichus  constitutes  an  epoch  in 
Assyrians, '  Hellenic  thought.  It  supplied  to  their  obser- 
tians^enfthe  vation  a  large  and  diversified  field  of  present 
Greek  reality,  while  it  was  at  the  same  time  one  great 

alphabet?6  source  ofthose  mysticising  tendencies  which  cor- 
— The  scale  rupted  so  many  of  their  speculative  minds.  But 
ancTwea^ht.  *°  Phenicia  and  Assyria,  the  Greeks  owe  two 
acquisitions  well-deserving  special  mention — the 
alphabet,  and  the  first  standard  and  scale  of  weight  as 
well  as  coined  money.  Of  neither  of  these  acquisitions 
can  we  trace  the  precise  date.  That  the  Greek  alphabet 
is  derived  from  the  Phenician,  the  analogy  of  the  two 
proves  beyond  dispute,  though  we  know  not  how  or  where 
the  inestimable  present  was  handed  over,  of  which  no 
traces  are  to  be  found  in  the  Homeric  poems.2  The  Latin 

1  Herodot.  iii.  107.  .     .     .     Non    commoramur     in    iis 

4  The  various  statements  or  con-  qiise  de   litterarum  origine  et  pro- 

jectures  to  be   found  in  Greek  au-  pagatione  ex  fabulosa  Pelasgorum 

thors    (all    comparatively     recent)  historic     (cf.    Knight,     p.    119-123; 

respecting  the  origin  of  the  Greek  Raoul  Rochette,  p.  67-P7)  neque  in 

alphabet,    are  collected    by  Franz,  iig  qua:  de  Cadmo  narrantur,  quern 

Epigraphice  Grteca,  s.  iii.  pp.  12-20:  unquam    fuisse    hodie    jam    nemo 

"Omnino  Gra;ci   alphabet!  ut  certa  crediderit   ....   Alphabet!  Phoe- 

primordia   aunt  in   origine  Thceni-  nicii  oinnes  22  literas  cum  antiquis 

ciS,,  ita  certus  terminus  in  littera-  Groecis  congruere,   hodie  nemo  est 

tura  lonica    seu    Simonidea.    Qute  qui    ignoret."     (p.    14,    15.)     Franz 

inter  utrumque  n  veteribus  ponuii-  gives  valuable  information  respect- 

tur,    incerta    omuia  et   fabulosa    .  ing   the  changes    gradually    intro- 


CHAP.  XXI.  ALPIIABET.-SCALE  OF  WEIGHT.  341 

alphabet,  which  is  nearly  identical  with  the  most  ancient 
Doric  variety  of  the  Greek,  was  derived  from  the  same 
source — also  the  Etruscan  alphabet,  though  (if  0.  Muller 
is  correct  in  his  conjecture)  only  at  second-hand  through 
the  intervention  of  the  Greek.1  If  we  cannot  make  out 
at  what  time  the  Phenicians  made  this  valuable  communi- 
cation to  the  Greeks,  much  less  can  we  determine  when  or 
how  they  acquired  it  themselves — whether  it  be  of  Semitic 
invention,  or  derived  from  improvement  upon  the  phonetic 
hieroglyphics  of  the  Egyptians.2 

Besides  the  letters  of  the  Alphabet,  the  scale  of 
weight  and  that  of  coined  money  passed  from  Phenicia 
and  Assyria  into  Greece.  It  has  been  shown  by  Boeckh 
in  his  'Metrologie'  that  the  ^Eginsean  scale3 — with  its 
divisions,  talent,  mna,  and  obolus — is  identical  with  the 
Babylonian  and  Phenician  ;  and  that  the  word  Mna,  which 
forms  the  central  point  of  the  scale,  is  of  Chaldeean  origin. 
On  this  I  have  already  touched  in  a  former  chapter,  while 
relating  the  history  of  Pheidon  of  Argos,  by  whom  what 
is  called  the  ^giriaean  scale  was  first  promulgated. 

In  tracing  therefore  the  effect  upon  the  Greek  mind, 
of  early  intercourse  with  the  various  Asiatic   _hc 
nations,  we  find  that  as  the  Greeks  made  up   mon-and 
their  musical  scale  (so  important  an  element  of  tiie  division 

,,     .  -.  L   i        -IL         \  •  j.  i      i  •  of  the    day. 

their  early  mental  culture)  in  part  by  borrowing 

from  Lydians  and  Phrygians — so  also  their  monetary  and 

duced    into    the    Greek    alphabet,  chorus.    Schol.    ap.  Bekker.  Anec- 

and    the    erroneous   statements    of  dot.  ii.  p.  780)  ascribes  them  to  Pa- 

the  Grammatici  as  to  what  letters  lamSdes. 

were  original,  and  what  were  sub-  Both  Franz    and   Kruse    contend 

scquently  added.  strenuously  for  the    existence  and 

Kruse  also  in  his    'Hellas'    (vol.  habit  of  writing  among  the  Greeks 

i.  p.  13,    and  in  the    first  Beylage,  in  times    long  anterior  to  Homer; 

annexed  to  that  volume)    presents  in  which  I  dissent  from  them, 

an    instructive    comparison    of  the  '  See    O.    Muller,    Die    Etrusker 

Greek,  Latin,  and  Phenician  alpha-  (iv.  0),    where    there    is    much   iu- 

bets.  structiou  on  the  Tuscan  alphabet. 

The  Greek  authors,    as  might  be  2  This  question  is  raised  and  dis- 

cxpected  ,     were     generally     much  cussed  by  Justus  Olshausen,  Ueber 

more  fond  of  referring   the  origin  den  Ursprung    des  Alphabetes    (p. 

of  letters  to  native  heroes  or  gods,  1-10),    in   the   Kieler  Philologischc 

fcuch    as    PalamCdes,     Prometheus,  Studien,  1841. 

ISIusani=.  Orpheus,  Linus,  etc.,  than  3  See  Boeckh,  Metrologie,  ch.iv. 

to     the     Phenicians.       The    oldest  vi. ;    also  the  preceding  volume  of 

known    statement    (that    of   fc-tO;i-  this  History. 


342  HISTOKY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

statical  system,  their  alphabetical  writing,  and  their  duo- 
decimal division  of  the  day  measured  by  the  gnomon  and 
the  shadow,  were  all  derived  from  Assyrians  and  Phe- 
nicians.  The  early  industry  and  commerce  of  these 
countries  were  thus  in  many  ways  available  to  Grecian 
advance,  and  would  probably  have  become  more  so  if  the 
great  and  rapid  rise  of  the  more  barbarous  Persians  had 
not  reduced  them  all  to  servitude.  The  Phenicians, 
though  unkind  rivals,  were  at  the  same  time  examples  and 
stimulants  to  Greek  maritime  aspiration;  and  the  Phe- 
nician  worship  of  that  goddess  whom  the  Greeks  knew 
under  the  name  of  Aphrodite,  became  communicated  to 
the  latter  in  Cyprus,  in  Kythera,  in  Sicily — perhaps  also 
in  Corinth. 

The  sixth  century  B.  c.,  though  a  period  of  decline 
for  Tyre  and  Sidon,  was  a  period  of  growth  for 
their  African  colony  Carthage,  which  appears 
during  this  century  in  considerable  traffic  with  the  Tyr- 
rhenian towns  on  the  southern  coast  of  Italy,  and  as  thrust- 
ing out  the  Phokaean  settlers  from  Alalia  in  Corsica.  The 
wars  of  the  Carthaginians  with  the  Grecian  colonies  in 
Sicily,  so  far  as  they  are  known  to  us,  commence  shortly 
after  500  B.  c.,  and  continue  at  intervals,  with  fluctuating 
success,  for  two  centuries  and  a  half. 

The  foundation  of  Carthage  by  the  Tyrians  is  placed 
at  different  dates,  the  lowest  of  which  however  is  819  B.C.: 
Mra,  of  other  authorities  place  it  in  878  B.C.,  and  we 
Carthage,  have  no  means  of  deciding  between  them.  I  have 
already  remarked  that  it  is  by  no  means  the  oldest  of  the 
Tyrian  colonies.  But  though  Utica  and  Gades  were  more 
ancient  than  Carthage,1  the  latter  so  greatly  outstripped 

1  Utica  is  said  to  have  been  found-  B.C.   (Heeren.  Ideen  iiber  den  Ver- 

ed  287  years  earlier  than  Carthage;  kehr,  &c.,  part  ii,  b.  i.  p.  29).  Ap- 

the  Author,  who    states   this,  pro-  pian  states  the  date  of  the  found- 

fessing    to    draw    his    information  ation     as     fifty     years    before    the 

from  Fheuician   histories  (Aristot.  Trojan  war  (De  Keb.  Punic,  c.  1) ; 

Mirab.   Auscult.    c.    134).     Velleius  Philistus  as   twenty-one  years  be- 

Paterculus  states  Gades  to  be  older  fore  the  same  event  (Philist.  Fragm. 

than  Utica,  and  places  the  found-  60,  ed.  Gb'ller) ;  Timseus,  as  thirty- 

ation  of  Carthage  B.C.  819  (i.  2,  6).  eight   years   earlier   than   the   first 

He   seems    to    follow   in  the   main  Olympiad    (Timsei   Fragm.   21,   ed. 

the  same    authority  as  the  compo-  Didot)  ;  Justin,  seventy-two  years 

ser  of  the  Aristotelic  compilation  earlier    than     the    foundation     of 

above-cited.  Other  statements  place  Eome  (xviii.  6). 

the  foundation  of  Carthage  in  878  The    citation    which    Josephus 


CHAP.  XXI.  CARTHAGE.  343 

them  in  wealth  and  power,  as  to  acquire  a  sort  of  federal 
pre-eminence  .over  all  the  Phenician  colonies  on  the  coast 
of  Africa.  In  those  later  times  when  the  domin-  Dominion 
ion  of  the  Carthaginians  had  reached  its  maxi-  of  Car- 
mum,  it  comprised  the  towns  of  Utica,  Hippo, 
Adrumetum,  and  Leptis, — all  original  Phenician  founda- 
tions, and  enjoying  probably  even  as  dependents  of  Car- 
thage, a  certain  qualified  autonomy — besides  a  great  num- 
ber of  smaller  towns  planted  by  themselves,  and  inhabited 
by  a  mixed  population  called  Liby-Phenicians.  Three 
hundred  such  towns — a  dependent  territory  covering  half 
the  space  between  the  Lesser  and  the  Greater  Syrtis,  and 
in  many  parts  remarkably  fertile — a  city  said  to  contain 
700,000  inhabitants,  active,  wealthy,  and  seemingly  homo- 
geneous— and  foreign  dependencies  in  Sicily,  Sardinia,  the 
Balearic  isles,  and  Spain, — all  this  aggregate  of  power,  un- 
der one  political  management,  was  sufficient  to  render  the 
contest  of  Carthage  even  with  Rome  for  some  time 
doubtful. 

But  by  what  steps  the  Carthaginians  raised  them- 
selves to  such  a  pitch  of  greatness  we  have  no  information. 
We  are  even  left  to  guess  how  much  of  it  had  already 
been  acquired  in  the  sixth  century  B.C.  As  in  the  case  of 
so  many  other  cities,  we  have  a  foundation  legend  decora- 
ting the  moment  of  birth,  and  then  nothing  farther.  The 
Tyrian  princess  Dido  or  Elisa,  daughter  of  Belus,  sister 
of  Pygmalion  king  of  Tyre,  and  wife  of  the  wealthy  Sichae- 
us  priest  of  Herakles  in  that  city — is  said  to  D 
have  been  left  a  widow  in  consequence  of  the 
murder  of  Sicheeus  by  Pygmalion,  who  seized  the  treasures 
belonging  to  his  victim.  But  Dido  found  means  to  disap- 
point him  of  his  booty,  possessed  herself  of  the  gold  which 
had  tempted  Pygmalion,  and  secretly  emigrated,  carrying 
with  her  the  sacred  insignia  of  Herakles.  A  considerable 
body  of  Tyrians  followed  her.  She  settled  at  Carthage  on 
a  small  hilly  peninsula  joined  by  a  narrow  tongue  of  land 
to  the  continent,  purchasing  from  the  natives  as  much  land 
as  could  be  surrounded  by  an  ox's  hide,  which  she  caused 

gives   from   Hollander's    work,  ex-  Apion.    i.   c.  17,  18).      Apion    said 

tracted      from      Tyrian     an '/-(••> •J.^il,  that  Carthago  was    founded  in  tho 

placed  the  foundation  of  Carthage  first  year  of  Olympiad  7  (B.C.  T4c) 

143  years  after  the  building  of  the  (Joseph,  c.  Apion.  ii.  2). 
temple  of  Jerusalem  (Joseph,  cont. 


344  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  H. 

to  be  cut  into  the  thinnest  strip,  and  thus  made  it  sufficient 
for  the  site  of  her  first  citadel,  Byrsa,  which  afterwards 
grew  up  into  the  great  city  of  Carthage.  As  soon  as  her 
new  settlement  had  acquired  footing,  she  was  solicited  in 
marriage  by  several  princes  of  the  native  tribes,  especially 
by  the  Grsetulian  Jarbas,  who  threatened  war  if  he  were 
refused.  Thus  pressed  by  the  clamours  of  her  own  people, 
who  desired  to  come  into  alliance  with  the  natives,  yet 
irrevocably  determined  to  maintain  exclusive  fidelity  to 
her  first  husband,  she  escaped  the  conflict  by  putting  an 
end  to  her  life.  She  pretended  to  acquiesce  in  the  pro- 
position of  a  second  marriage,  requiring  only  delay  suf- 
ficient to  offer  an  expiatory  sacrifice  to  the  manes  of  Sichse- 
us.  A  vast  funeral  pile  was  erected,  and  many  victims 
slain  upon  it,  in  the  midst  of  which  Dido  pierced  her  own 
bosom  with  a  sword  and  perished  in  the  flames.  Such  is 
the  legend  to  which  Virgil  has  given  a  new  colour  by  in- 
terweaving the  adventures  of  JEneas,  and  thus  connecting 
the  foundation  legends  of  Carthage  and  Rome,  careless 
of  his  deviation  from  the  received  mythical  chronology. 
Dido  was  worshipped  as  a  goddess  at  Carthage  until  the 
destruction  of  the  city:1  and  it  has  been  imagined  with 
some  probability  that  she  is  identical  with  Astarte,  the 
divine  patroness  under  whose  auspices  the  colony  was  ori- 
ginally established,  as  Grades  and  Tarsus  were  founded  un- 
der those  ofHerakles — the  tale  of  the  funeral  pile  and  self- 
burning  appearing  in  the  religious  ceremonies  of  other 
Cilician  and  Syrian  towns.2  Phenician  religion  and  wor- 
ship was  diffused  along  with  the  Phenician  colonies  through- 
out the  larger  portion  of  the  Mediterranean. 

The  Phokseans  of  Ionia,  who  amidst  their  adventurous 
voyages  westward  established  the  colony  of  Massalia  (as 
early  as  600  B.  c.),  were  only  enabled  to  accomplish  this 
by  a  naval  victory  over  the  Carthaginians — the  earliest 

1  "Quamdiu  Carthago  invicta  fuit,  (De   Eeb.    Pun.    I):   that    of  Dido 

pro  Dea  culta  eat."    (Justin,  xviii.  was  current  both    among   the  Ko- 

6;  Virgil,  -SSneid,  i.  340—370.)    We  mans  and  Carthaginians:  of  ZOrus 

trace    this   legend   about   Dido  up  (or    Ez6rus)    and    Karched&n,   the 

to    Timaus    (Timtei   Frag.    23,   ed.  second  is  evidently  of  Greek  coin- 

Didot) :   Philistus    seems    to   have  age,  the  first  seems  genuine  Pheni- 

followed  a  different  story— he  said  cian  :  see  Josephus   cont.  Apion  i. 

that   Carthage    had    been    founded  c.   18—21. 

by   Azor    and   Karchedon    (Philist.  2  See  Movers,  Die  Phonizier,  pp, 

Fr.  50).  Appian  notices  both  stories  609— C16. 


CHAP.  XXI.      MASSALIA.— TYRE  AND  CARTHAGE.  345 

example  of  Greek  and  Carthaginian  collision  which  has 
been  preserved  to  us.   The  Carthaginians  were   First 
jealous  of  commercial  rivalry,  and   their  traffic   known  coi- 
\\-ith  the  Tuscans  and  Latins  in  Italy,  as  well  as   0rg°^s0^nd 
their  lucrative  mine-working  in  Spain,  dates  from  Oarthagi- 
a  period  when  Greek  commerce  in  those  regions  ^ns^. 
was    hardly    known.       In   Greek   authors   the 
denomination  Phenicians   is  often  used  to  designate  the 
Carthaginians  as  well  as  the  inhabitants  of  Tyre  and  Si- 
don,  so  that  we  cannot  always  distinguish  which  of  the  two 
is  meant.     But  it  is  remarkable  that  the  distant  establish- 
ment of  Gades,  and  the  numerous  settlements  planted  for 
commercial  purposes  along  the  western  coast  of  Africa 
and  without  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar,  are  expressly  ascribed 
to  the  Tyrians. l     Many  of  the  other  Phenician  establish- 
ments on  the  southern  .coast  of  Spain  seem  to  have  owed 
their  origin  to  Carthage  rather  than  to  Tyre.     But  the 
relations  between  the  two,    so  far  as  we  know   Amicable 
them,  were  constantly  amicable,  and  Carthage   relations 
even  at  the  period  of  her  highest  glory  sent    Tetl"gee^d 
Theori  with  a  tribute   of  religious  recognition    Carthage. 
to  the  Tyrian  Herakles :  the  visit  of  these  envoys 
coincided  with  the  siege  of  the  town  by  Alexander  the 
Great.     On  that  critical  occasion,  the  wives  and  children 
of  the  Tyrians  were  sent  to  find  shelter  at  Carthage.   Two 
centuries  before,  when  the  Persian  empire  was  in  its  age 
of  growth  and  expansion,  the  Tyrians  had  refused  to  aid 
Kambyses  with  their  fleet  in  its  plans  for  conquering  Car- 
thage, and  thus  probably  preserved  their  colony  from  sub- 
jugation.2 

1  Strabo,  xvii.  p.  826.  -  Ilerodot.  iii.  19. 


346  HISTOBY  OF  GKEECE.  PART  IL 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

WESTERN  COLONIES  OF  GREECE— IN  EPIRUS,  ITALY, 
SICILY,  AND  GAUL. 

THE  stream  of  Grecian  colonisation  to  the  westward,  as 
far  as  we  can  be  said  to  know  it  authentically,  with 
names  and  dates,  begins  from  the  llth  Olympiad.  But  it 
Early  ^s  reasonable  to  believe  that  there  were  other 

unauthen-  attempts  earlier  than  this,  though  we  must 
emigration  content  ourselves  with  recognising  them  as 
from  generally  probable.  There  were  doubtless  de- 

Greece,  tached  bands  of  volunteer  emigrants  or  marauders 
who,  fixing  themselves  in  some  situation  favourable  to 
commerce  or  piracy,  either  became  mingled  with  the  native 
tribes,  or  grew  up  by  successive  reinforcements  into  an 
acknowledged  town.  Not  being  able  to  boast  of  any 
filiation  from  the  Prytaneiurn  of  a  known  Grecian  city, 
these  adventurers  were  often  disposed  to  fasten  upon  the 
inexhaustible  legend  of  the  Trojan  war,  and  ascribe  their 
origin  to  one  of  the  victorious  heroes  in  the  host  of  Aga- 
memnon, alike  distinguished  for  their  valour  and  for  their 
ubiquitous  dispersion  after  the  siege.  Of  such  alleged 
settlements  by  fugitive  Grecian  or  Trojan  heroes,  there 
were  a  great  number,  on  various  points  throughout  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean;  and  the  same  honourable 
origin  was  claimed  even  by  many  non-Hellenic  towns. 

In  the  eighth  century  B.C.,  when  this  westerly  stream 
of  Grecian  colonisation  begins  to  assume  an  authentic 
shape  (735  B.C.),  the  population  of  Sicily  (as  far  as  our 
scanty  information  permits  us  to  determine  it)  consisted  of 
Ante-  two  races  completely  distinct  from  each  other — 

Hellenic       Sikels  and  Sikans — besides  the  Elymi  (a  mixed 

population  ,n       j.    ,.       ,     ,,  i     jS 

of  Sicily—  race  apparently  distinct  irom  both,  occupying 
Pikeis—  Eryx  and  Egesta  near  the  westernmost  corner 
Elymi—  of  the  island)  and  the  Phenician  colonies  and 
Phenicians.  coast  establishments  formed  for  purposes  of 
trade.  According  to  the  belief  both  of  Thucydides  and 
Philistus,  these  Sikans,  though  they  gave  themselves  out 


CHAP.  XXII.       POPULATION  OF  SICILY  AND  ITALY.  347 

as  indigenous,  were  yet  of  Iberian  origin J  and  immigrants 
of  earlier  date  than  the  Sikels — by  whom  they  had  been 
invaded  and  restricted  to  the  smaller  western  half  of  the 
island.  The  Sikels  were  said  to  have  crossed  over  origi- 
nally from  the  south-western  corner  of  the  Calabrian 
peninsula,  where  a  portion  of  the  nation  still  dwelt 
in  the  time  of  Thucydides.  The  territory  known  to  Greek 
writers  of  the  fifth  century  B.C.  by  the  names  of  (Enotria 
on  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  Italia  on  (Enotria— 
that  of  the  Gulfs  of  Tarentum  and  Squillace,  Italia- 
included  all  that  lies  south  of  a  line  drawn  across  the 
breadth  of  the  country,  from  the  Gulf  of  Poseidonia 
(Psestum)  and  the  river  Silarus  on  the  Mediterranean  Sea, 
to  the  north-west  corner  of  the  Gulf  of  Tarentum.  It 
was  bounded  northwards  by  the  lapygians  and  Messapians, 
who  occupied  the  Salentine  peninsula  and  the  country  im- 
mediately adjoining  to  Tarentum,  and  by  the  Peuketians 
on  the  Ionic  Gulf.  According  to  the  logographers  Phere- 
kydes  and  Hellanikus,2  (Enotrus  and  Peuketius  were  sons 
ot'Lykaon,  grandsons  of  Pelasgus,  and  emigrants  in  very 
early  times  from  Arcadia  to  this  territory.  An  important 
statement  in  Stephanus  Byzautinus3  acquaints  us  that  the 
serf-population,  whom  the  great  Hellenic  cities  in  this 
portion  of  Italy  employed  in  the  cultivation  of  their  lands, 
were  called  Pelasgi,  seemingly  even  in  the  his-  Peiasgi  in 
torical  times.  It  is  upon  this  name  probably  Italy- 
that  the  mythical  genealogy  of  Pherekydes  is  constructed. 
This  (Enotrian  or  Pelasgian  race  were  the  population  whom 
the  Greek  colonists  found  there  on  their  arrival.  They  were 
known  apparently  under  other  names,  such  as  the  Sikels 
(mentioned  even  in  the  Odyssey,  though  their  exact  locality 
in  that  poem  cannot  be  ascertained),  the  Italians  or  Italia, 
properly  so  called — the  Morgetes — and  the  Chaones — all  of 
them  names  of  tribes  either  cognate  or  subdivisional. 4  The 

1  Thucyd.  vi.  2  ;  Philistus,  Fragm.  was,    or  might  have  been,   person- 

3,  ed.  Goller,  ai>.  Diodor.  v.  6.     Ti-  ally    cognizant    of   Iberian  merce- 

uioeus  adopted  the  opposite  opinion  nariea  in  the    service  of    the  elder 

(Diodor.  I.  c.),  also  Kphorus,  if  we  Dionysius. 

may  judge  by  an  indistinct  passage  2   Pherekyd.  Fragm.  F5,  ed.Didot; 

of  Stvabo.    (vi.    p.  270).     Dionysius  Hellanik.  Fr.  53,  ed.  Didot ;  Dionys. 

of   Halikarnassus    follows    Thucy-  Halik.  A.  K.  i.  11,  13,  22;  Skyinnus 

didcs   (A.  E.   i.  22).  Cliius,  v.  3<:2;  Pausan.  viii.  3,  5. 

The    opinion    of    Philistus    is  of  3  Stophan.  Byz.  v.  Xtoi. 

much  value  ou  this  point,  since  ha  4  Aristot.  Polit.   vii.  9,  3.     "Qx&'Jv 


348  HISTOBY  OP  GBEECE.  PAET  II. 

Chaones  or  Chaonians  are  also  found  not  only  in  Italy,  but 
in  Epirus,  as  one  of  the  most  considerable  of  the  Epirotic 
tribes ;  while  Pandosia,  the  ancient  residence  of  the  CEno- 
trian  kings  in  the  southern  corner  of  Italy, 1  was  also  the 
name  of  a  township  or  locality  in  Epirus,  with  a  neigh- 
bouring river  Acheron  in  both.  From  hence,  and  from 
some  other  similarities  of  name,  it  has  been  imagined  that 
Epirots,  (Enotrians,  Sikels,  &c.  were  all  names  of  cognate 
people,  and  all  entitled  to  be  comprehended  under  the 
generic  appellation  of  Pelasgi.  That  they  belonged  to  the 
same  ethnical  kindred,  there  seems  fair  reason  to  presume; 
and  also  that  in  point  of  language,  manners,  and  character, 
they  were  not  very  widely  separated  from  the  ruder 
branches  of  the  Hellenic  race. 

It  would  appear  too  (as  far  as  any  judgement  can  be 
Latins—  formed  on  a  point  essentially  obscure)  that  the 
(Enotrians  (Enotrians  were  ethnically  akin  to  the  primitive 
— ettmi-*8  population  of  Rome  and  Latium  on  one  side,2 
caiiy  as  they  were  to  the  Epirots  on  the  other;  and 

cognate.  thafa  tribes  of  this  race,  comprising  Sikels,  and 
Itali  properly  so  called,  as  sections,  had  at  one  time  occupied 
most  of  the  territory  from  the  left  bank  of  the  river  Tiber 
southward  between  the  Apennines  and  the  Mediterranean. 

5k    TO    Trpos    TTJV    'laitUY'av    xal    tov  gration  of  (Enotrus   from   Arcadia 

'loviov    Xtovs?   (or   XdoveO    ~rt'i  xa-  to    Southern    Italy     as    recounted 

Xo'Jfilvr^  2iptr  rjuav  8e  y.ai  oi  Xu>vsc  by  Pherekydes  :    it    seems    to  have 

OrjtOTpo!  TO  Y^v0?-  been  mentioned    even   as   early  as 

Antiochus    Fr.     3,     4,    6,   7,    ed.  in  one  of  the  Hesiodic  poems  (.Ser- 

Didot ;  Strabo.  vi.  p.  254 ;    Hesych.  vius  ad  Virg.  .2En.  viii.  138) :  com- 

v.     XtovTjv;     Dionys.     Hal.    A.     E.  pare    Steph.     Byz.    v.     IIa).).arciGv 

i.  12.  The  earliest  Latin  authors    appear 

1  Livy,  viii.  24.  all    to    have    recognised    Evandcr 

2  For    the     early    habitation    of  and  his  Arcadian    emigrants:     see 
Sikels    or    Siculi    in    Latium    and  Dionys.      Hal.     i.     31,     32.     ii.     9, 
Campania,  see  Dionys.  Hal.  A.  K.  with     his      references     to     Fabius 
i.  1  —  21:    it    is    curious    that  Siculi  Pictor      and      .ZElius     Tubero,      i. 
an<l  Sicani,    whether   the   same    or  79,     SO;     also     Cato     ap.    Solinum, 
different,   the   primitive  ante-Hel-  c.  2.    If  the  old  reading   'Apxiotuv, 
leuic  population  of  Sicily,  are  also  in    Thucyd.    vi.    2    (which    Be]<];er 
numbered  as  the    ante-Koman   po-  has  now  altered  into    2ixE).u>v),  be 
pulation     of    Eome  :     see     Virgil,  retained,    Thucydides   would    also 
JKneid,    viii.  328,    and    Servius  ad  stand  as   witness  for    a    migration 
.3iueid.  xi.  317.  from  Arcadia   into  Italy.     A  third 

The  alleged  ancient  emigration  emigration  of  Pelasgi,  from  Pelo- 
of  Evander  from  Arcadia  to  La-  ponnesus  to  the  river  Sarnus  in 
tium  forms  a  parallel  to  the  emi-  Southern  Italy  (near  Pompeii), 


CHAP.  XXII.  (EXOTRIANS.— OSCANS.  349 

BothHerodotus,  and  his  junior  contemporary  theSyracusan 
Antiochus,  extend  (Enotria  as  far  northward  as  the  river 
Silarus,1  and  Sophokles  includes  the  whole  coast  of  the 
Mediterranean,  from  the  Strait  of  Messina  to  the  Gulf  of 
Genoa,  under  the  three  successive  names  of  CBnotria,  the 
Tyrrhenian  Gulf,  and  Liguria.2  Before  or  during  the  fifth 
century  B.C.,  however,  a  different  population,  called  Opi- 
cians,  Oscans,  or  Ausonians,  had  descended  from  their 
original  seats  on  or  north  of  the  Apennines,3  and  had  con- 
quered the  territory  between  Latium  and  the  Silarus, 
expelling  or  subjugating  the  (Enotrian  inhabitants,  and 
planting  outlying  settlements  even  down  to  the  Strait  of 

was  mentioned  by  Conon  (ap.  Ser-  and  Bruttium :    see  Mannert,   Geo- 

vium  ad.  Virg.  JEn.  vii.  730).  graphic    dor    Griech.    und    Homer, 

1  Herodotus  (i.  24 — 167)  includes  part    ix.    b.    9.    ch.    i.  p.  86.    Livy, 

Klea   (or  Velia)    in    CF.notria— and  speaking  with  reference  to  317  B.C., 

Tarentum    in    Italia;    while    An-  when  the  Lucanian  nation  as  well 

tiochus  considers   Tarentum   as   in  as  the  Bruttiaiis  were  in  full  vigour, 

lapygia,  and  the    southern  bound-  describes  only  tho  sea-coast  of  the 

ary    of  the    Tarcntino   territory  as  lower  sea  as  Grecian — "cum    omni 

the   northern   boundary    of  Italia:  ora  Griecorum  inferimaris  aThuriis 

Dionysius  of  Halikarnassus  (A.  R.  Xeapolim     et     Cumas "     (ix.     19). 

ii.  1)  seems  to  copy  from  Antiochus  Verrius  Flaccus  considered  the  Si- 

when    he    extends     the    (Enotrians  kels    as    Grccci    ( Festus,    v.   Major 

along     the     whole     south-western  Groecia,  with  Miiller's  note), 
corner    of   Italy,    within    the    line          a  Sophokles,   Triptolem.    Fr.  527. 

drawn    from    Tarentum    to    Posei-  ed.  Dindorf.      He    places   the  lake 


...    p.    253).      Skymnus     Chius    (v.  ed.  Bruiick,    v.   "Aopvo;.     Euripides 

247)    recognises    the    same   bound-  (Medea,    1310—1326)   seems    to    ex- 

aries.  tend    Tyrrheuia    to    the    Strait    of 

Twelve  CEnotrian  cities  are  cited  Messina. 

by    name   (in    Steplianus   Byzauti-         3  Aristot.  Polit,   vii.  9,  3.     (jSxou'j 

nus)  from  the  E'jp(b-r)  of  Hekatreus  81  TO  p.iv    zpos   ~7)v   Toppr,viav  'Or.i- 

(Fragm.  30—39,  ed,  Didot):  Skylax  xo;.,   xal  r:piTspov  xai  vuv  xaXo'insvoi 

in    his    Periplus     does     not    name  TYJV     e7tix).7]jtv     AOOOVE?.      Festus: 

OOnotrians  ;    he    enumerates    Cam-  "Awsomamappellavit  Auson,  Ulys- 

panians,  Samnites,  and  Lucanians  sis  et  Calypsus  filius,  earn  primam 

(cap.  9-13).  Tlie  intimate  connexion  partem    Italics    in    qu£    sunt  urbes 

between      Miletus      and      Sybaris  Beneventum  et  Cales :  deinde  pau- 

would  enable  Hekata-us  to  inform  latim  tota  quoque  Italia  qua>  Apen- 

himself  about  the  interior  CEnotriaii  niuo    finitur,    dicta    est   Ausonia,'1 

country.  &c.     The    original    Ausonia   would 

CEnotria  and  Italia    together  (as  tlius  coincide  nearly  with  the  terri- 

conceived  by  Antiochus  and  Hero-  tory    called    Samnium,     after     the 

dotus)  comprised  what  was  known  Sabine    emigrants    had    conquered 

a  century    afterwards    as    .Lueania  it:  see  Livy,  viii.  16;  Strabo,  v.  p. 


350 


HISTOEY  OP  GREECE. 


PAET  II. 


Messina  and  the  Liparsean  isles.  Hence  the  more  precise 
Thucydides  designates  the  Campanian  territory,  in  which 
Cumae  stood,  as  the  country  of  the  Opici;  a  denomination 
which  Aristotle  extends  to  the  river  Tiber,  so  as  to  com- 
prehend within  it  Rome  and  Latium.  1  Not  merely  Cam- 
pania, but  in  earlier  times  even  Latium,  originally  occupied 
by  a  Sikel  or  (Enotrian  population,  appears  to  have  been 
partially  overrun  and  subdued  by  fiercer  tribes  from  the 
Apennines,  and  had  thus  received  a  certain  intermixture 
of  Oscan  race.  But  in  the  regions  south  of  Latium,  these 
Oscan  conquests  were  still  more  overwhelming;  and  to  this 
cause  (in  the  belief  of  inquiring  Greeks  of  the  fifth  century 
B.C.)2  were  owing  the  first  migrations  of  the  (Enotrian  race 
out  of  Southern  Italy,  which  wrested  the  larger  portion  of 
Sicily  from  the  pre-existing  Sikanians. 

This   imperfect  account,  representing  the  ideas   of 


250  ;  Virg.  2En.  vii.  727,  with  Ser- 
vius.  Skymnus  Chius  (v.  227)  has 
copied  from  the  same  source  as 
Festus.  For  the  extension  of 
Ausonians  along  various  parts  of 
the  more  southern  coast  of  Italy, 
even  to  Ehegium  as  well  as  to  the 
Liparsean  isles,  see  Diodor.  v.  7,  8  ; 
Cato,  Origg.  Fr.  lib.  iil.  ap.  Probum 
ad  Virg.  Bucol.  v.  2.  The  Pythian 
priestess,  in  directing  the  Chalkidic 
emigrants  to  Ehegium,  says  to 
them — "EvQa  itoXiv  oixilU,  81801  8s 
aoi  A&aova  ^rtbpav  (Diodor.  Fragm. 
xiii.  p.  11,  ap.  Scriptt.  Vatic,  ed. 
Maii).  Temesa  is  Ausonian  in 
Strabo,  vi.  p.  255. 

1  Thucyd.  vi.  3;  Aristot.  ap. 
Dionys.  Hal.  A.  E.  i.  72.  'A^cuibv 
Tivas  T<I>v  arco  Tpolrj?  dvaxo[xiCo(jis- 
viov — iXQsiv  el?  TOV  toitov  TOUTOV  TVJ? 
'0;uxrjs,  5?  xaXsiTai  AaTtov. 

Even  in  the  time  of  Cato  the 
elder,  the  Greeks  comprehended 
the  Eomans  under  the  general, 
and  with  them  contemptuous, 
designation  of  Opici  (Cato  ap. 
Plin.  H.  N.  xxii.  1:  see  Antiochus 
ap.  Strab.  v.  p.  242). 

4   Thucyd.    vi.    2.      SixsUl    8s    s£ 


d?  SixeXtav  (see  a  Fragment  of  the 
geographer  Menippus  of  Pergamus, 
in  Hudson's  Geogr.  Minor,  i.  p. 
76).  Antiochus  stated  that  the 
Sikels  were  driven  out  of  Italy 
into  Sicily  by  the  Opicians  and 
CEnotrians;  but  the  Sikels  them- 
selves, according  to  him,  were  also 
(Enotrians  (Dionys.  H.  i.  12-22). 
It  is  remarkable  that  Antiochus 
(who  wrote  at  a  time  when  the 
name  of  Eome  had  not  begun  to 
exercise  that  fascination  overmen's 
minds  which  the  Eoman  power 
afterwards  occasioned),  in  setting 
forth  the  mythical  antiquity  of  the 
Sikels  and  CEnotrians,  represents 
the  eponymous  Sikelus  as  an  exilo 
from  Eome,  who  came  into  the 
south  of  Italy  to  the  king  Merges, 
successor  of  Italus  —  'Ercei  8s  'I-raXo; 


TOUTOuSsdtvrjp  acp  IXSTO  ex'Pcbjj.r]5(f'j- 
YOU;,  SixsXo;  ov&jxa  ai>7<|>  (Antiochus 
ap.  Dionys.  H.  i.  73:  compare  c.  12). 
Philistus  considered  Sikelus  to 
be  a  son  of  Italus:  both  he  and 
Hellanikus  believed  in  early  migra- 
tions from  Italy  into  Sicily,  but 
described  the  emigrants  differently 
(Philistus,  Fragm.  2,  ed.  Didot). 


CHAP.  XXII.  GRECIAN  COLONISATION.  351 

Greeks  of  the  fifth  century  B.C.  as  to  the  early  Analogy  of 
population  of  Southern  Italy,  is  borne  out  by  the  ^-uages 
fullest  comparison  which  can  be  made  between  Latin)*  and 
the  Greek,  Latin,  and  Oscan  language — the  first  Oscan. 
two  certainly,  and  the  third  probably,  sisters  of  the  same 
Indo-European  family  of  languages.  While  the  analogy, 
structural  and  radical,  between  Greek  and  Latin,  establishes 
completely  such  community  of  family — and  while  compara- 
tive philology  proves  that  on  many  points  the  Latin  departs 
less  from  the  supposed  common  type  and  mother-language 
than  the  Greek — there  exists  also  in  the  former  a  non- 
Grecian  element,  and  non-Grecian  classes  of  words,  which 
appear  to  imply  a  confluence  of  two  or  more  different  people 
with  distinct  tongues.  The  same  non-Grecian  element, 
thus  traceable  in  the  Latin,  seems  to  present  itself  still 
more  largely  developed  in  the  scanty  remains  of  the  Oscan. J 

1  See    the    learned    observations  Dorians     from    the    lonians:    see 

upon  the  early  languages  of  Italy  Niebuhr,    Rom.    Gesch.    torn.    i.   p. 

and  Sicily,  which  Miiller  has  pre-  69.] 

fixed  to  his  work  on  the  Etruscans  "Such  a  comparison  of  languages 
(Einleitung,  i.  12).  I  transcribe  presents  to  us  a  certain  view, 
the  following  summary  of  his  views  which  I  shall  here  briefly  unfold, 
respectingthe  early  Italian  dialects  of  the  earliest  history  of  the  Ita- 
and  races :— "The  notions  which  Han  races.  At  a  period  anterior 
•we  thus  obtain  respecting  the  early  to  all  records,  a  single  people, 
languages  of  Italy  are  as  follows :  akin  to  the  Greeks,  dwelling  ex- 
the  Sikel,  a  sister  language  nearly  tended  from  the  south  of  Tuscany 
allied  to  the  Greek  or  Pelasgic ;  down  to  the  Straits  of  Messina, 
the  Latin,  compounded  from  the  occupies  in  the  upper  part  of  its 
Sikel  and  from  the  rougher  dialect  territory  only  the  valley  of  the 
of  the  men  called  Aborigines;  the  Tiber — lower  down,  occupies  the 
Oscan,  akin  to  the  Latin  in  both  mountainous  districts  also,  and 
its  two  elements  ;  the  language  in  the  south,  stretches  across  from 
spoken  by  the  Sabine  emigrants  in  sea  to  sea — called  Sikels,  CEnotri- 
their  various  conquered  territories,  aus,  or  Peucetiaiis.  Other  moun- 
Oscan  ;  the  Saline  proper,  a  distinct  tain  tribes,  powerful  though  not 
and  peculiar  language,  yet  nearly  widely  extended,  live  in  the  north- 
connected  with  the  non-Grecian  ernAbruzzo  and  its  neighbourhood: 
element  in  Latin  and  Oscan,  as  i'1  the  east  the  Sabines,  southward 
well  as  with  the  language  of  the  from  them  the  cognate  Marsi,  more 
oldest  Ausonians  and  Aborigines."  to  the  west  the  Aborigines,  and 

[N.B.  This  last  statementrespect-  among  them  probably  the  old  Auso- 

ing  the  original  Sabine   language,  nians  or  Oscans.     About  1000  years 

is  very    imperfectly    made    out  :    it  prior    to    the    Christian  a;ra,   there 

seems    equally    probable    that   the  arises    among     these    tribes    (from 

i^abellians  may  have  differed  from  whom  almost   all  the  popular    ini- 

the     Oscaus    no     more     than     the  grations     in.     ancient     Italy    have 


352  HISTOBY  OF  GEEECE.  PART  II. 

Moreover  the  Greek  colonies  in  Italy  and  Sicily  caught 
several  peculiar  words  from  their  association  with  the 
Sikels,  which  words  approach  in  most  cases  very  nearly  to 
the  Latin — so  that  a  resemblance  thus  appears  between 
the  language  of  Latium  on  the  one  side,  and  that  of  (Eno- 
trians  and  Sikels  (in  Southern  Italy  and  Sicily)  on  the 
other,  prior  to  the  establishments  of  the  Greeks.  These 
are  the  two  extremities  of  the  Sikel  population;  between 
them  appear  in  the  intermediate  country  the  Oscan  or 
Ausonian  tribes  and  language;  and  these  latter  seem  to 
have  been  in  a  great  measure  conquerors  and  intruders 
from  the  central  mountains.  Such  analogies  of  language 
countenance  the  supposition  of  Thucydides  and  Antiochus, 
that  these  Sikels  had  once  been  spread  over  a  still  larger 
portion  of  Southern  Italy,  and  had  migrated  from  thence 
into  Sicily  in  consequence  of  Oscan  invasions.  The  element 
of  affinity  existing  between  Latins,  (Enotrians  and  Sikels 
— to  a  certain  degree  also  between  all  of  them  together 
and  the  Greeks,  but  not  extending  to  the  Opicians  or 
Oscans,  or  to  the  lapygians — may  be  called  Pelasgic  for 
want  of  a  better  name.  But  by  whatever  name  it  be  called, 
the  recognition  of  its  existence  connects  and  explains  many 
isolated  circumstances  in  the  early  history  of  Rome  as  well 
as  in  that  of  the  Italian  and  Sicilian  Greeks. 

The  earliest  Grecian  colony  in  Italy  or  Sicily,  of 
Grecian  which  we  know  the  precise  date,  is  placed  about 
coionisa-  735  B-C  eighteen  years  subsequent  to  the  Var- 

tion  of  as-  •  »T>  ^i     j.  J.T.  v 

certained  roman  sera  of  Home ;  so  that  the  causes,  tending 
date  in  to  subject  and  hellenise  the  Sikel  population  in 
commences  the  southern  region,  begin  their  operation  nearly 
in  735  B.C.  at  the  same  time  as  those  which  tended  gradually 
to  exalt  and  aggrandise  the  modified  variety  of  it  which 

proceeded)  amovement  whereby  the  with    the    Ausonians,     the     Oscan 

Aborigines    more    northward,     the  nation;     the   latter   extends    itself 

Sikels  more  southward,    are  preci-  over    what   was   afterwards    called 

pitated    upon     the    Sikels    of   the  Samnium  and  Campania.     Still  the 

plains    heneath.     Many   thousands  population    and    power    of    these 

of  the  great  Sikel  nation  withdraw  mountain    tribes,    especially    that 

to   their  brethren    the    CEnotrians,  of  the  Sabines,    goes    on   perpetu- 

and  by  degrees  still  farther  across  ally  on  the  increase :  as  they  press- 

tlie  Strait  to  the  Island   of  Sicily,  ed    onward    towards    the  Tiber,  at 

Others  of  them  remain    stationary  the  period    when    Home    was  only 

in  their  residences,    and   form,    in  a  single  town,  so  they  also  advance  1 

conjunction  with   the  Aborigines,  southwards,     and    conquered  first, 

the    Latin   nation— in    conjunction  the     mountainous     Opica;      next, 


CHAP.  XXII.  GRECIAN  COLONISATION.  353 

existed  in  Latium.  At  that  time,  according  to  the  in- 
formation given  to  Thucydides,  the  Sikels  had  been 
established  for  three  centuries  in  Sicily.  Hellanikus  and 
Philistus — who  both  recognised  a  similar  migration  into 
that  island  out  of  Italy,  though  they  give  different  names 
both  to  the  emigrants  and  to  those  who  expelled  them 
— assign  to  the  migration  a  date  three  generations  before 
the  Trojan  war.1  Earlier  than  735  B.C.,  however,  though 
we  do  not  know  the  precise  sera  of  its  commencement, 
there  existed  one  solitary  Grecian  establishment  in  the 
Tyrrhenian  Sea — the  Campanian  Cumse  near  Cape  Mi- 
senum;  which  the  more  common  opinion  of  chronologists 
supposed  to  have  been  founded  in  1050  B.C.,  and  Cuma  in 
whichhas  even  been  carriedback  bysomeauthors  Campania— 
to  1 139  B.C.2  Without  reposing  any  faith  in  this  date  un- 
early  chronology,  we  may  at  least  feel  certain  known. 
that  it  is  the  most  ancient  Grecian  establishment  in  any 
part  of  Italy,  and  that  a  considerable  time  elapsed  before 
any  other  Greek  colonists  were  bold  enough  to  cut  them- 
selves off  from  the  Hellenic  world  by  occupying  seats  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Strait  of  Messina,3  with  all  the 
hazards  of  Tyrrhenian  piracy  as  well  as  of  Scylla  and 
Charybdis.  The  Campanian  Cumse  (known  almost  entirely 
by  this  its  Latin  designation)  received  its  name  and  a  por- 
tion of  its  inhabitants  from  the  JEolic  Kyine  in  Asia  Minor. 
A  joint  band  of  settlers,  partly  from  this  latter  town,  partly 
from  Chalkis  in  Eubcea — the  former  under  the  Kymtean 
Hippokles,  the  latter  under  the  Chalkidian  Megasthenes 
— having  combined  to  form  the  new  town,  it  was  settled 
by  agreement  that  Kyme  should  bestow  the  name,  and  that 

some  centuries  later,    the    Opician  of  Cumrc  still  farther  back  to  1139 

plain,    Campania;    lastly,    the  an-  n.  C.    (Histoire    des  Colonies  Grec- 

cieut   country    of    the    (Knotrians,  ques,  book  iv.  c.  12.  p.  KiO). 
afterwards   denominated  Lucania."          The    mythes    of  Cumoe    extended 

Compare  Niebuhr,  Riimisch.    Ge-  to   a  period  preceding   t'..e  Chalki- 

scliicht.  vol.  i.  p.  80,  2nd  edit.,  and  die  settlement.     See  the   stories  of 

the   first   chapter    of   Mr.    Donald-  Aristrcus  and  Daedalus  ap.  Sallust. 

son's  Varronianus.  Fragment.    Incert.    p.  204,  ed.  Del- 

1  Thucyd.  vi.  2;  Philistus,  Frag.  phin.  ;      and     Servius      ad     Virgil. 
2,   ed.  Didot.  JEnc.id.  vi.  17.  The  fabulous  Thes- 

2  Strabo,  v.  p.  243;  Velloius  Pa-  piadx,  or  primitive  Greek  settlers 
trrcul.    i.  5  ;    Eusebius,   p.  121.     M.  in  Sardinia,  were  supposed  in  early 
Ivaoul  Rochettc,  assuming  a  differ-  ages  to  have  left   that   island   and 
out    computation     of    the    date    of  retired  to  Cumrc  (Diodor.  v.  15). 
the   Trojan    war,    pushes    the   date          *  Ephorus,  Frag.  52,  ed.  Didot. 

VOL.  lit.  2  A 


354  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAHT  II, 

Chalkis  should  enjoy  the  title  and  honours  of  the  mother- 
city,  i 

Cumse,  situated  on  the  neck  of  the  peninsula,  which 
terminates  in  Cape  Misenum,  occupied  a  lofty  and  rocky 
hill  overhanging  the  sea,2  and  difficult  of  access  on  the 
land  side.  The  unexampled  fertility  of  the  Phlegrsean 
plains  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  city,  the  copious 
supply  of  fish  in  the  Lucrine  lake,3  and  the  goldmines  in 
the  neighbouring  island  of  Pithekusse — both  subsisted  and 
enriched  the  colonists.  Being  joined  by  fresh  settlers  from 
Chalkis,  from  Eretria,  and  even  from  Samos,  they  became 
numerous  enough  to  form  distinct  towns  at  Diksearchia 
and  Neapolis,  thus  spreading  over  a  large  portion  of  the 
Bay  of  Naples.  In  the  hollow  rock  under  the  very  walls 
of  the  town  was  situated  the  cavern  of  the  prophetic 
Sibyl — a  parallel  and  reproduction  of  the  Gergithian  Sibyl 
near  Kyme  in  .^Eolis.  In  the  immediate  neighbourhood, 
too,  stood  the  wild  woods  and  dark  lake  of  Avernus,  con- 
secrated to  the  subterranean  gods  and  offering  an  estab-  . 
lishment  of  priests,  with  ceremonies  evoking  the  dead  for 
purposes  of  prophecy  or  for  solving  doubts  and  mysteries. 
It  was  here  that  Grecian  imagination  localised  the  Cim- 
merians and  the  fable  of  Odysseus;  and  the  Cumaeans 
derived  gains  from  the  numerous  visitors  to  this  holy  spot,4 
perhaps  hardly  less  than  those  of  the  inhabitants  of  Krissa 
from  the  vicinity  of  Delphi.  Of  the  relations  of  these 
Cumaeans  with  the  Hellenic  world  generally,  we  unfor- 
tunately know  nothing.  But  they  seem  tc  have  been  in 
intimate  connexion  with  Rome  during  the  time  of  the 
Kings,  and  especially  during  that  of  the  last  king  Tarquin;5 
forming  the  intermediate  link  between  the  Greek  and  Latin 
world,  whereby  the  feelings  of  the  Teukrians  and  Ger- 

1  Strabo,  v.  p.  243;    Velleius  Pa-  nus:     qui     olim    propter    piscium 
terc.  i.  5.  copiam    vectigalia   magna   pnesta- 

2  See   the    site    of  Curate    as  des-  bantu  (Servius  ad  Virg.  Georgic.  ii. 
cribed    by  Agathias    (on    occasion  101). 

of  the  siege   of  the  place  by  Nar-  4  Strabo,  v.  p.  243.    Kai  s'ue-Xscv 

ses,   in  552  A.  D.),    Hiator.    i.    8-10;  f£    ot     rcpo8ooA|tevoi    xal     IXaoofievoi 

also  by  Strabo,  v.  p.  244.  TO;J!;    xata^Sovloo?    8ai(jLova?,    OI»TU» 

s  Diodor.    iv.    21.    v.    71;    Polyb.  TU>V  usr]YO'j|J.£vu)v  "a   toiaos    Upeujv* 

iii.  91;    Pliny,    H.  N.  iii.  5;    Livy,  r^pYoXap/jyoTCDv  TOV  Toitov. 

viii.  22.     "In   Baiano    sinu   Campa-  5  Dionys.    H.    iv.  61,    62;   vi.   21.- 

iiia;   contra  Puteolanam   civitntem  Livyj  ii-  34. 

lacus  sunt  duo,  Avernus  et  Lucri- 


CHAP.  XXII.  CUMJE  IN  ITALY.  355 

githians  near  the  JEolic  Ivyme,  and  the  legendary  stories 
of  Trojan  as  well  as  Grecian  heroes — ^neas  and  Odysseus 
— passed  into  the  antiquarian  imagination  of  Home  and 
Latium.  i  The  writers  of  the  Augustan  age  knew  Cumse 
only  in  its  decline,  and  wondered  at  the  vast  extent  of  its 
ancient  walls,  yet  remaining  in  their  time.  But  during  the 
two  centuries  prior  to  500  B.C.,  these  walls  enclosed  a  full 
and  thriving  population,  in  the  plenitude  of  pros-  T 

.  o  r    i  '  J.  f  .          Prosperity 

perity, — with  a  surrounding  territory  extensive    Of  Cum® 

as  well  as  fertile.2  resorted  to  by  purchasers   |?®*^!?!?n 

,,  ,,  _    '        .  J    r  ,    700-500  B.C. 

of  corn  irom  ,±lome  in  years  ot  scarcity,  and 

unassailed  as  yet  by  formidable  neighbours — and  with  a 
coast  and  harbours  well-suited  to  maritime  commerce.  At 
that  period  the  town  of  Capua  (if  indeed  it  existed  at  all) 
was  of  very  inferior  importance.  The  chief  part  of  the  rich 
plain  around  it  was  included  in  the  possessions  of  Cumae:3 
not  unworthy  probably,  in  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  to  be 
numbered  with  Sybaris  and  Kroton. 

The  decline  of  Cumae  begins  in  the  first  half  of  the 
fifth  century  B.C.  (500 — 450  B.C.),  first  from  the  growth  of 
hostile  powers  in  the  interior — the  Tuscans  and  Samnites 
- — next  from  violent  intestine  dissensions  and  a  neciine  of 
destructive  despotism.  The  town  was  assailed  Cumse  from 
by  aformidable  host  of  invaders  from  the  interior,  5<  °  B-c- 
Tuscans  reinforced  byUmbrian  and  Daunian  allies;  which 
Dionysius  refers  to  the  04th  Olympiad  (524 — 520  B.C.), 
though  upon  what  chronological  authority  we  do  not  know, 
and  though  this  same  time  is  marked  by  Eusebius  as  the 
date  of  the  foundation  of  Diksearchia  from  Cumse.  The 
invaders,  in  spite  of  great  disparity  of  number,  were  bravely 

1  Soo,  respecting  the  transmission  derived  their  origin  from  Odysseus 

of     nlcas      and     fables     from     the  and  Circe  (Livy;  i.  49). 

JT-olic  Kyme    to  Cumrc   in  Campa.  The    tomb    of  Elpenor,    the   lost 

nia,    the    first  volume  of  this  His-  companion  of  Odysseus,  was  shown 

tory,  chap.  xv.  atCirceii  in  the  days  of  Theophra- 

U'he  father   of  Hesiod    was  a  na-  stus  (Hist.  Plant,  v.  8,  3)  and  tSUy- 

tive    of  the  JKolic  Kyme:    we  find  lax  (c.  10). 

in  the  Ilesiodio  Theogony  (ad  fin.)  Hesiod    notices   the   promontory 

mention  of  Latiuus    as  the  son  of  of  1'clorus,    the  Strait  of  Messina, 

Odysseus  and  Circe:    Serving  cites  and    the    islet   of  Ortygia   at  Syra- 

tlie  same   from    the  'Aa-toorou?.  of  ciise    (Diodor.   iv.  85;  Strabo,   i.  p. 

Hesiod  (Servius  ad  Virg.  JEn.  xii.  2'J). 

li<2;    compare    Cato,    Fragment,  p.  -  Livy,  ii.  9. 

oil,    ed.    Lion).     The    greut    family  3  Niebuhr ,    Komisch.    Gcschicht. 

of   the  Mamilii    at  Tusculum    also  vol.  i.  p.  70.    2nd  edit. 

2  A  2 


356  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

repelled  by  the  Cumseans,  chiefly  through  the  heroic  ex- 
ample of  the  citizen  then  first  known  and  distinguished — 
Aristodemus  Malakus.  The  government  of  the  city  was 
oligarchical,  and  the  oligarchy  from  that  day  became  jeal- 
ous of  Aristodemus;  who,  on  his  part,  acquired  extraordi- 
nary popularity  and  influence  among  the  people.  Twenty 
years  afterwards,  the  Latin  city  of  Aricia,  an  ancient  ally 
of  Cumse,  being  attacked  by  a  Tuscan  host,  entreated  suc- 
Eevoiution  cour  from  the  Cumseans.  The  oligarchy  of  the 
— des-  latter  thought  this  a  good  opportunity  to  rid 

potism  of        ,,  r  A     •   j.    j*  j.i         j 

Aristode-  themsclvcso!  Aristodemus,  whom  theydespatch- 
mus-  ed  by  sea  to  Aricia,  with  rotten  vessels  and 

an  insufficient  body  of  troops.  But  their  stratagem  failed 
and  proved  their  ruin;  for  the  skill  and  intrepidity  of  Ari- 
stodemus sufficed  for  the  rescue  of  Aricia.  He  brought 
back  his  troops  victorious  anddevoted  to  himself  personally. 
He  then,  partly  by  force,  partly  by  stratagem,  subverted 
the  oligarchy,  put  to  death  the  principal  rulers,  and  con- 
stituted himself  despot.  By  a  jealous  energy,  by  disarming 
the  people,  and  by  a  body  of  mercenaries,  he  maintained 
himself  in  this  authority  for  twenty  years,  running  his 
career  of  lust  and  iniquity  until  old  age.  At  length  a  con- 
spiracy of  the  oppressed  population  proved  successful 
against  him;  he  was  slain  with  all  his  family,  and  many 
of  his  chief  partisans,  and  the  former  government  was 
restored. l 

The  despotism  of  Aristodemus  falls  during  the  exile 
,   of  the  expelled  Tarquin2  (to   whom   he   gave 

Invasion  of      •,     •>,      \  c  T>  j  j      •        J.T 

Cuma;  by  shelter)  from  Home,  and  during  the  government 
Tuscans  Of  Qelon  at  Syracuse.  Such  a  calamitous  period 
Samnites  of  dissension  and  misrule  was  one  of  the  great 
from  the  causes  of  the  decline  of  Cumse.  Nearly  at  the 
same  time,  the  Tuscan  power,  both  by  land  arid 
sea,  appears  at  its  maximum;  while  the  Tuscan  establish- 
ment at  Capua  also  begins,  if  we  adopt  the  sera  of  the 
town  as  given  by  Cato.3  There  was  thus  created  at  the 
expense  of  Cumse  a  powerful  city,  which  was  still  farther 
aggrandised  afterwards  when  conquered  and  occupied  by 
the  Samnites;  whose  invading  tribes,  under  their  own  name 

1    The    history     of    Aristodemus      (viii.  3-10). 
Malakus   is  given    at  some   length         2  Livy,  ii.  21. 
by    Dionysius     of     Halikarnassus          '  Velleius  Patercul.  i.  5. 


CHAP.  XXII.  GRECIAN  COLONIES  IN  SICILY.  357 

or  that  of  Lucanians,  extended  themselves  during  the  fifth 
and  fourth  centuries  B.C.  even  to  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of 
Tarentura. l  Cumse  was  also  exposed  to  formidable  dangers 
from  the  sea-side:  a  fleet  either  of  Tuscans  alone,  or  of 
Tuscans  and  Carthaginians  united,  assailed  it  in  474  B.C., 
when  it  was  only  rescued  by  the  active  interposition  of 
Hiero  despot  of  Syracuse;  by  whose  naval  force  the  invaders 
were  repelled  with  slaughter.2  These  incidents  go  partly 
to  indicate,  partly  to  explain,  the  decline  of  the  most 
ancient  Hellenic  settlement  in  Italy — a  decline  from  which 
it  never  recovered. 

After  briefly  sketching  the  history  of  Cumae,  we  pass 
naturally  to  that  series  of  powerful  colonies  which  were 
established  in  Sicily  and  Italy  beginning  with  735  B.C. — 
enterprises  in  which  Chalkis,  Corinth,  Megara,  Sparta,  the 
Achseans  in  Peloponnesus  and  the  Lokrians  out  of  Pelo- 
ponnesus, were  all  concerned.  Chalkis,  the  metropolis  of 
Cumte,  became  also  the  metropolis  of  Naxos,  the  most 
ancient  Grecian  colony  in  Sicily,  on  the  eastern  coast 
of  the  island,  between  the  Strait  of  Messina  and  Mount 
JEtna. 

The  great  number  of  Grecian  settlements,  from  differ- 
ent   colonising    towns,    which    appear   to  have   Kapi(1  mul. 
taken  effect  within  a  few  years  upon  the  eastern   implication 
coast  of  Italy  and  Sicily — from  the  lapygian    coimiic-sfhi 
Cape  to  Cape  Pachynus — leads  us  to  suppose   Sicily  and 

that  the  extraordinary  capacities  of  the  country   ?tal.y>  . 
c  •    •  LL-I          i     j   i  i  beginning 

tor  receiving  new  settlers  had  become  known    with 

only  suddenly.  The  colonies  follow  so  close  735  B-c- 
upon  each  other,  that  the  example  of  the  first  cannot  have 
been  the  single  determining  motive  to  those  which  followed. 
I  shall  have  occasion  to  point  out,  even  a  century  later 
(on  the  occasion  of  the  settlement  of  Kyrene),  the  narrow 
range  of  Grecian  navigation;  so  that  the  previous  supposed 
ignorance  would  not  be  at  all  incredible,  were  it  not  for 
the  fact  of  the  pre-existing  colony  of  Cumae.  According 
to  the  practice  universal  with  Grecian  ships — which  rarely 
permitted  themselves  to  lose  sight  of  the  coast  except  in 
cases  of  absolute  necessity — every  man,  who  navigated  from 
Greece  to  Italy  or  Sicily,  first  coasted  along  the  shores  of 

1  Com  pave  Strabo,    v.  p.  250;   vi.          -  Diodor.    xi.   61;    Pindar.    Pyth. 
p.    2G4.      "Cuniiinos     Osca    mutavit      i.  71. 
vicinia,''  says  Velleius,  1.  c. 


358  HISTOBY  OF  GBEECE.  PAET  II. 

Akarnania  and  Epirus  until  he  reached  the  latitude  of 
Korkyra;  he  then  struck  across  first  to  that  island,  next 
to  the  lapygian  promontory,  from  whence  he  proceeded 
along  the  eastern  coast  of  Italy  (the  Gulfs  of  Tarentum 
and  Squillace)  to  the  southern  promontory  of  Calabria  and 
the  Sicilian  Strait ;  he  would  then  sail,  still  coastwise,  either 
to  Syracuse  or  to  Cumse,  according  to  his  destination.  So 
different  are  nautical  habits  now,  that  this  fact  requires 
special  notice.  We  must  recollect  moreover,  that  in  735 
B.C.,  there  were  yet  no  Grecian  settlements  either  in  Epirus 
or  in  Korkyra:  outside  of  the  Gulf  of  Corinth,  the  world 
was  non-Hellenic,  with  the  single  exception  of  the  remote 
Cumae.  A  little  before  the  last-mentioned  period,  Theokles 
(an  Athenian  or  a  Chalkidian — probably  the 

loundation    i  ,,      \     -i     •  ,    -,  -1,,  J    ,       c 

of  Naxos  latter),  being  cast  by  storms  on  the  coast  ot 
in  Sicily  by  Sic|ly  became  acquainted  with  the  tempting 

Theokle.s.          i  ,  nji  -i  -^    .1      j-      r        j 

character  ot  the  soil,  as  well  as  with  the  dispersed 
and  half-organised  condition  of  the  petty  Sikel  communities 
who  occupied  it. l  The  oligarchy  of  Chalkis,  acting  upon 
the  information  which  he  brought  back,  sent  out  under  his 
guidance  settlers,2  Chalkidian  and  Naxian,  who  founded 
the  Sicilian  Naxos.  Theokles  and  his  companions  on 
landing  first  occupied  the  eminence  of  Taurus,  immedi- 
ately overhanging  the  sea  (whereon  was  established  four 
centuries  afterwards  the  town  of  Tauromenium,  after 
Naxos  had  been  destroyed  by  the  Syracusan  despot  Diony- 
sius);  for  they  had  to  make  good  their  position  against  the 
Sikels,  who  were  in  occupation  of  the  neighbourhood,  and 
whom  it  was  requisite  either  to  dispossess,  or  to  subjugate. 
Spot  where  After  they  had  acquired  secure  possession  of 
the  Greeks  the  territory,  the  site  of  the  city  was  transferred 
^Sicily16'1  ^0  a  convenient  spot  adjoining;  but  the  hill  first 
memorable  occupied  remained  ever  memorable,  both  to 
afterward,.  Greeks  and  to  Sikels>  Qn  it  was  erected  the 

altar  of  Apollo  Archegetes,  the  divine  patron  who  (through 
his  oracle  at  Delphi)  had  sanctioned  and  determined  Hel- 
lenic colonisation  in  the  island.  The  altar  remained  per- 

1  Thucyd.  vi.  3;  Strabo,  vi.  p.  267.  v.  Xa).xi;. 

2  The  admixture  of  Xaxian  colo-         Ephorus   put  together  into   one 
nists    may    be    admitted,    as    well  the  Ciiallddian   and    the  Megarian 
upon  the  presumption  arising  from  migrations,   which  Thucydides  re- 
the   name,    as   from  the   statement  presents    as   distinct  (Ephorus  a;i. 
of  Hellauikus,    ap.    Stephan.   Byz.  Strabo.  vi.  p.  2U7). 


CHAP.  XXII.  CABTHAGINIANS  IN  SICILY.  359 

manently  as  a  sanctuary,  common  to  all  the  Sicilian  Greeks, 
where  the  Theors  or  sacred  envoys  from  their  various 
cities,  when  they  visited  the  Olympic  and  other  festivals 
of  Greece,  were  always  in  the  habit  of  offering  sacrifice 
immediately  before  their  departure.  To  the  indigenous 
Sikels  who  maintained  their  autonomy,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  hill  was  an  object  of  lasting  but  odious  recollection, 
as  the  spot  in  which  Grecian  conquest  and  intrusion  had 
first  begun;  so  that  at  the  distance  of  three  centuries  and 
a  half  from  the  event,  we  find  them  still  animated  by  this 
sentiment  in  obstructing  the  foundation  of  Tauromenium. l 
At  the  time  when  Theokles  landed,  the  Sikels  were 
in  possession  of  the  larger  half  of  the  island,  lying  chiefly 
to  the  east  of  the  Hersean  mountains2 — a  con-  A  Hel 
tinuous  ridge  stretching  from  north-west  to  lenicdistri- 
south-east,  distinct  from  that  chain  of  detached  1^t.ion  of 
motfntains,  much  higher,  called  the  Nebrodes, 
which  run  nearly  parallel  with  the  northern  shore.  "West 
of  the  Heraean  hills  were  situated  the  Sikans;  and  west  of 
these  latter,  Eryx  and  Egesta,  the  possessions  of  the  Elymi: 
along  the  western  portion  of  the  northern  coast,  also,  were 
placed  Motye,  Soloeis,  and  Panormus  (now  Palermo),  the 
Phenician  or  Carthaginian  seaports.  The  formation  (or 
at  least  the  extension)  of  these  three  last-mentioned  ports, 
however,  was  a  consequence  of  the  multiplied  Grecian  colo- 
nies; for  the  Phenicians  down  to  this  time  had  not  founded 
any  territorial  or  permanent  establishments,  but  had  con- 
tented themselves  with  occupying  in  a  temporary  way 
various  capes  or  circumjacent  islets,  for  the  purpose  of 
trade  with  the  interior.  The  arrival  of  formidable  Greek 
settlers,  maritime  like  themselves,  induced  them  to  abandon 
these  outlying  factories,  and  to  concentrate  their  strength 
in  the  three  considerable  towns  above-named,  all  near  to 
that  corner  of  the  island  which  approached  most  closely  to 
Carthage.  The  east  side  of  Sicily,  and  most  part  of  the 
south,  were  left  open  to  the  Greeks,  with  no  other  opposi- 
tion than  that  of  the  indigenous  Sikels  and  Sikans,  who 
Avere  gradually  expelled  from  all  contact  with  the  sea-shore, 

1  Thucyd.  vi.  3;  Diodor.  xiv.  59-83.  p.    53)    places    it    at    the    GemelK 

2  Mannert   places   the   boundary  Colles,    rather   more   to   the  west- 
of    Sikels    and     Sikans     at    these  ward— thus  contracting  the  domain 
mountains:    Otto  Siefert  (Akragas  of    the    Sikans:    compare    Diodor. 
und    scin   Gclnet,    Hamburg,    1846,  iv.  82-83. 


360  HISTOBT  OF  GEEECB.  PAKT  II. 

except  on  part  of  the  north  side  of  the  island — and  who 
were  indeed  so  unpractised  at  sea  as  well  as  destitute  of 
shipping,  that  in  the  tale  of  their  old  migration  out  of 
Italy  into  Sicily,  the  Sikels  were  affirmed  to  have  crossed 
the  narrow  strait  upon  rafts  at  a  moment  of  favourable 
wind.1 

In  the  very  next  year2  to  the  foundation  of  Naxos, 
B.C.  734.  Corinth  began  her  part  in  the  colonisation  of  the 
Founda-  island.  A  body  of  settlers,  under  the  (Ekist 
tion  of  Archias,  landed  in  the  islet  Ortygia,  farther 
Syracuse.  southward  on  the  eastern  coast,  expelled  the 
Sikel  occupants,  and  laid  the  first  stone  of  the  mighty  Syra- 
cuse. Ortygia,  two  English  miles  in  circumference,  was 
separated  from  the  main  island  only  by  a  narrow  channel, 
which  was  bridged  over  when  the  city  was  occupied  and  enlar- 
ged by  Cfelon  in  the  "2nd  Olympiad,  if  not  earlier.  It  formed 
only  a  small  part,  though  the  most  secure  and  best-fortified 
part,  of  the  vast  space  which  the  city  afterwards  occupied. 
But  it  sufficed  alone  for  the  inhabitants  during  a  consider- 
able time,  and  the  present  city  in  its  modern  decline  has 
again  reverted  to  the  same  modest  limits.  Moreover  Orty- 
gia offered  another  advantage  of  not  less  value.  It  lay 
across  the  entrance  of  a  spacious  harbour,  approached  by 
a  narrow  mouth,  and  its  fountain  of  Arethusa  was  memor- 
able in  antiquity  both  for  abundance  and  goodness  of 
water.  We  should  have  been  glad  to  learn  something  re- 
specting the  numbers,  character,  position,  nativity,  &c.  of 
these  primitive  emigrants,  the  founders  of  a  city  afterwards 
comprising  a  vast  walled  circuit,  which  Strabo  reckons  at 
180  stadia,  but  which  the  modern  observations  of  Colonel 
Leake  announce  as  fourteen  English  miles,3  or  about  \'2£ 
stadia.  We  are  told  only  that  many  of  them  came  from 
the  Corinthian  village  of  Tenea,  and  that  one  of  them  sold 
to  a  comrade  on  the  voyage  his  lot  of  land  in  prospective, 
for  the  price  of  a  honey-cake.  The  little  which  we  hear 
about  the  determining  motives4  of  the  colony  refers  to  the 
personal  character  of  the  oekist.  Archias  son  of  Euagetus, 
one  of  the  governing  gens  of  the  Bacchiadse  at  Corinth,  in 

1  Thucyd.  vi.  2.  *  See   Colonel    Leake,    notes    on 

2  Mr.    Fynes     Clinton     discusses  the  Topography  of  Syracuse,  p.  41. 
the   sera    of   Syracuse,    Fasti   Hel-  4  Athens,  iv.  167;    Strabo,  ix.  p. 
lenici,    ad  B.C.   734.    and    the   same  380. 

work  vol.    ii.  Appendix  xi.  p.  2C4. 


CHAP.  XXII.        SYRACUSE— LEOXTINI  AND  KATANA.  361 

the  violent  prosecution  of  unbridled  lust,  had  caused, 
though  unintentionally,  the  death  of  a  free  youth  named 
Aktseon;  whose  father  Melissus,  after  having  vainly  en- 
deavoured to  procure  redress,  slew  himself  at  the  Isthmian 
games,  invoking  the  vengeance  of  Poseidon  against  the  ag- 
gressor. J  Such  were  the  destructive  effects  of  this  pater- 
nal curse,  that  Archias  was  compelled  to  expatriate.  The 
Bacchiadee  placed  him  at  the  head  of  the  emigrants  to  Or- 
tygia,  in  734  B.C.:  at  that  time,  probably,  this  was  a  sen- 
tence of  banishment  to  which  no  man  of  commanding  sta- 
tion would  submit  except  under  the  pressure  of  necessity. 

There  yet  remained  room  for  new  settlements  between 
Naxos  and  Syracuse;  and  Theokles,  the  cekist   ;Leontini 
of  Xaxos.  found  himself  in  a  situation  to  oc-   and 
cupy  part  of  this  space  only  five  years  after   Katana- 
the  foundation  of  Syracuse:  perhaps  he  may  have  been 
joined  by  fresh  settlers.     He  attacked  and  expelled  the 
Sikels2  from  the  fertile  spot  called  Leontini,  seemingly 
about  half-way  down  on  the  eastern  coast  between  Mount 
^Etna  and  Syracuse:  and  also  from  Katana,  immediately 
adjoining  to  Mount  jEtna,  which  still  retains  both  its  name 
and   its  importance.     Two  new  Chalkidic  colonies  were 
thus  founded — Theokles  himself  becoming  cekist  of  Leon- 
tini, and  Euarchus,  chosen  by  thelvatauaean  settlers  them- 
selves, of  Katana. 

The  city  of  Megara  was  not  behind  Corinth  and  Chal- 
kis  in  furnishing  emigrants  to  Sicily.  Lamis  the  Megarian, 
having  now  arrived  with  a  body  of  colonists,  took  possession 
first  of  a  new  spot  called  Trotilus,  but  after-  Meparian 
wards  joined  the  recent  Chalkidian  settlement  Si«iy. 
at  Leontini.  The  two  bodies  of  settlers,  however,  not  liv- 
ing in  harmony,  Lamis,  with  his  companions,  was  soon  ex- 
pelled; he  then  occupied  Thapsus,3  at  a  little  distance  to 
the  northward  of  Ortygia  or  Syracuse,  and  shortly  after- 
wards died.  His  followers  made  an  alliance  with  Hyblon, 
king  of  a  neighbouring  tribe  of  Sikels,  who  invited  them 
to  settle  in  his  territory.  They  accepted  the  proposition, 
relinquished  Thapsus,  and  founded,  in  conjunction  with 

1  Diodor.  Frag.  Lit.   viii.    p.    24 ;      casion. 

Plutarch,   Narrat.  Amator.    p.  772;          3  Pclya?nus  details  a  treacherous 

Hchol.  Apollon.  Khod.  iv.  1212.  stratagem  -whereby  this   expulsion 

2  Polya'nus  (v.  5,  1)  describes  the  is  said  to  have  been  accomplished 
stratagem  of  Theokles  on  this  oc-  (v.  u,  2). 


362  HISTOBY  OF  GEEECB.  PAST  H. 

Hyblon,  the  city  called  the  Hyblgean  Megara,  between 
Leontini  and  Syracuse.  This  incident  is  the  more  worthy 
of  notice,  because  it  is  one  of  the  instances  which  we  find 
of  a  Grecian  colony  beginning  by  amicable  fusion  with  the 
pre-existing  residents:  Thucydides  seems  to  conceive  the 
prince  Hyblon  as  betraying  his  people  against  their  wishes 
to  the  Greeks.  1 

It  was  thus  that,  during  the  space  of  five  years,  several 
distinct  bodies  of  Greek  emigrants  had  rapidly  succeeded 
each  other  in  Sicily.  For  the  next  forty  years,  we  do  not 
hear  of  any  fresh  arrivals,  which  is  the  more  easy  to  under- 
stand as  there  were  during  that  interval  several  considerable 
foundations  on  the  coast  of  Italy,  which  probably  took  off 
the  disposable  Greek  settlers.  At  length,  forty-five  years 
after  the  foundation  of  Syracuse,  a  fresh  body  of 
settlers  arrived;  partly  from  Rhodes  under  Anti- 
phemus,  partly  from  Krete  under  Entimus.  They  founded 
the  city  of  Gela  on  the  south-western  front  of  the  island, 
between  Cape  Pachynus  and  Lilybaeum  (B.C.  690) — still  on 
the  territory  of  the  Sikels,  though  extending  ultimately  to 
a  portion  of  that  of  the  Sikans.2  The  name  of  the  city  was 
given  from  that  of  the  neighbouring  river  Gela. 

One  other  fresh  migration  from  Greece  to  Sicily  re- 
mains to  be  mentioned,  though  we  cannot  assign  the  exact 
date  of  it.     The  town  of  Zankle  (now  Messina), 
afterwards     on  the  strait  between  Italy  and  Sicily,  was  at 
Messene        first  occupied  by  certain  privateers  or  pirates 

(Messina).       f  >-,  ,, J      .,       ,.     r-,     .  ,-V 

irom  Uumse — the  situation  being  eminently  con- 
venient for  their  operations.  But  the  success  of  the  other 
Chalkidic  settlements  imparted  to  this  nest  of  pirates  a 
more  enlarged  and  honourable  character.  A  body  of  new 
settlers  joined  them  fromChalkis  and  other  towns  of  Eubcea, 
the  land  was  regularly  divided,  and  two  joint  oekists  were 
provided  to  qualify  the  town  as  a  member  of  the  Hellenic 
communion — Perieres  from  Chalkis,  and  Kratsemenes  from 
Cumae.  The  name  Zankle  had  been  given  by  the  primitive 
Sikel  occupants  of  the  place,  meaning  in  their  language 
a  sickle;  but  it  was  afterwards  changed  to  Messene  by 
Anaxilas  despot  of  Rhegium,  who,  when  he  conquered  the 

1  Thucyd.  vi.  3.  "TfiXuJvo?  tou  2  Thuoyd.  vi.  4;  Diodor.  Excerpt. 
Paai).iu>t  rcpoSovTO?  TTJV  xu)pav  xai  Vatican,  ed.  Maii,  Fragm.  xiii.  p. 
xaOrj/jjaijLsvou.  13;  Pausanias,  viii.  46,  2. 


CHAP.  XXII.  GELA.— ZANKLE.  363 

town,  introduced  new  inhabitants  in  a  manner  hereafter  to 
be  noticed. l 

Besides  these  emigrations  direct  from  Greece,  the 
Hellenic  colonies  in  Sicily  became  themselves  Sub-co- 
the  founders  of  sub-colonies.  Thus  the  Syracusans,  V^  ^Ika 
seventy  years  after  their  own  settlement  (B.C.  mena/,  Ka- 
G64),  founded  Akrae — Kasmenae,  twenty  years  marina,  AC. 
afterwards  (B.C.  644),  and  Kamarina  forty-five  years  after 
Kasmenae  (B.C.  599):  Daskon  and  Menekolus  were  the 
oskists  of  the  latter,  which  became  in  process  of  time  an 
independent  and  considerable  town,  while  Akrae  and  Kas- 
menae  seem  to  have  remained  subject  to  Syracuse.  Kama- 
rina was  on  the  southwestern  side  of  the  island,  forming 
the  boundary  of  the  Syracusan  territory  towards  Gela. 
Kallipolis  was  established  from  Naxos,  andEubcea  (a  town 
so  called)  from  Leontini.2 

Hitherto  the  Greeks  had  colonised  altogether  on  the 
territory  of  the  Sikels.  But  the  three  towns  .  . 
which  remain  to  be  mentioned  were  all  founded  tum,  Se- 
in  that  of  the  Sikans3 — Agrigentum  or  Akragas  linus>  Hi- 
— Selinus — and  Himera.  The  two  former  were 
both  on  the  south-western  coast — Agrigentum  bordering 
upon  Gela  on  the  one  side  and  upon  Selinus  on  the  other. 
Himera  was  situated  onthe  westerly  portion  of  the  northern 
coast — the  single  Hellenic  establishment,  in  the  time  of 
Thucydides,  which  that  long  line  of  coast  presented.  The 
inhabitants  of  the  Hyblaaan  Megara  were  founders  of  Seli- 
nus,  about  630  B.C.,  a  century  after  their  own  establishment. 
The  cekist  Pamillus,  according  to  the  usual  Hellenic  prac- 
tice, was  invited  from  their  metropolis  Megara  in  Greece 
Proper,  but  we  are  not  told  how  many  fresh  settlers  came 
with  him:  the  language  of  Thucydides  leads  us  to  suppose 
that  the  new  town  was  peopled  chiefly  from  the  Hyblsean 
Megarians  themselves.  The  town  of  Akragas  or  Agri- 
gentum, called  after  the  neighbouring  river  of  the  former 
name,  was  founded  from  Gela  in  B.C.  5S2.  Its  oekists  were 
Aristonous  and  Pystilus,  and  it  received  the  statutes  and 

1  Thucyd.  vi.  4.  among  the  Sikanian   townships  or 

-  Strabo,  vi.  p.  272.  villages,    with    its    prince    Tcutus, 

3  Stephanus  Byz.    Stxavio;,  f,  rspl-  is  said  to  have  been  conquered  by 

yoopo;  'AxpaYocvTiM<Lv.    Herodot.  vii,  Phalaris     despot     of    Agrisfutuni, 

170;  Diodor.  iv.  78.  through    a    mixture    of    craft    and 

Vessa,     the     most    considerable  force  (1'olyreu.  v.  1,  4). 


364  HISTOEY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

religious  characteristics  ofGela.  Himera,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  founded  from  Zankle,  under  three  cekists,  Eu- 
kleides,  Simus,  and  Sakon.  The  chief  part  of  its  inhabitants 
were  of  Chalkidic  race,  and  its  legal  and  religious  character- 
istics were  Chalkidic.  But  a  portion  of  the  settlers  were 
Syracusan  exiles,  called  Myletidse,  who  had  been  expelled 
from  home  by  a  sedition,  so  that  the  Himersean  dialect  was  a 
mixture  of  Doric  and  Chalkidic.  Himera  was  situated  not 
far  from  the  towns  of  the  Elymi — Eryx  and  Egesta. 

Such  were  the  chief  establishments  founded  by  the 

Greeks  in  Sicily  during  the  two  centuries  after  their  first 

settlement    in  735  B.  c.      The  few  particulars 

Prosperity  ,  .  -  r 

of  the  just  stated  respecting  them  are  worthy  ot  all 
Sicilian  confidence — for  they  come  to  us  from  Thucydides 

Greeks.  ,      ,    .,  ,. •?    ,          ,    ,  „  •>  ~,      , 

— but  they  are  unfortunately  too  lew  to  anord 
the  least  satisfaction  to  our  curiosity.  It  cannot  be  doubt- 
ed that  these  first  two  centuries  were  periods  of  steady 
increase  and  prosperity  among  the  Sicilian  Greeks,  undis- 
turbed by  those  distractions  and  calamities  which  super- 
vened afterwards,  and  which  led  indeed  to  the  extraordi- 
nary aggrandisement  of  some  of  their  communities,  but 
also  to  the  ruin  of  several  others.  Moreover  it  seems  that 
the  Carthaginians  in  Sicily  gave  them  no  trouble  until 
the  time  of  Gelon.  Their  position  will  indeed  seem  sin- 
gularly advantageous,  if  we  consider  the  extraordinary 
fertility  of  the  soil  in  this  fine  island,  especially  near  the 
sea-its  capacity  for  corn,  wine  and  oil,  the  species  of  culti- 
vation to  which  the  Greek  husbandman  had  been  accustom- 
ed under  less  favourable  circumstances — its  abundant 
fisheries  on  the  coast,  so  important  in  Grecian  diet,  and 
continuing  undiminished  even  at  the  present  day — together 
with  sheep,  cattle,  hides,  wool,  and  timber  from  the  native 
population  in  the  interior.  These  natives  seem  to  have 
been  of  rude  pastoral  habits,  dispersed  either  among  petty 
hill-villages,  or  in  caverns  hewn  out  of  the  rock,  like  the 
primitive  inhabitants  of  the  Balearic  islands  and  Sardinia; 
so  that  Sicily,  like  New  Zealand  in  our  century,  was  now 
for  the  first  time  approached  by  organised  industry  and 
tillage. !  Their  progress,  though  very  great,  during  this 

1  Of  these  Sikel  or  Sikan  caverns  Captain  W.  H.  Smyth — Sicily   and 

many  traces  yet  remain  :    see  Otto  its  Islands,  London,  1824,  p.  190. 

Siefert,  Akragas   nnd  spin  Crehiet,  "These  cryptse  (observes  the  lat- 

p;>.  39,  45,  41),  55,  and  the  work  of  ter)  appear  to  have  been  the  earliest 


CHAP.  XXII.    PROSPERITY  OF  THE  SICILIAN  GREEKS.  365 

most  prosperous  interval  (between  the  foundation  of 
Naxos  in  735  B.C.  to  the  reign  of  Gelon  at  Syracuse  in 
485  B.  c.),  is  not  to  be  compared  to  that  of  the  English 
colonies  in  America  ;  but  it  was  nevertheless  very  great, 
and  appears  greater  from  being  concentrated  as  it  was  in 
and  around  a  few  cities.  Individual  spreading  and  sepa- 
ration of  residence  were  rare,  nor  did  they  consist  either 
with  the  security  or  the  social  feelings  of  a  Grecian  colo- 
nist. The  city  to  which  he  belonged  was  the  central  point 
of  his  existence,  where  the  produce  which  he  raised  was 
brought  home  to  be  stored  or  sold,  and  where  alone  his 
active  life,  political,  domestic,  religious,  recreative,  &c., 
was  carried  on.  There  were  dispersed  throughout  the 
territory  of  the  city  small  fortified  places  and  garrisons, l 
serving  as  temporary  protection  to  the  cultivators  in  case 
of  sudden  inroad;  but  there  was  no  permanent  residence 
for  the  free  citizen  except  the  town  itself.  This  was,  per- 
haps, even  more  the  case  in  a  colonial  settlement,  where 
everything  began  and  spread  from  one  central  point,  than 
in  Attica,  where  the  separate  villages  had  once  nourished 
a  population  politically  independent.  It  was  in  the  town, 
therefore,  that  the  aggregate  increase  of  the  colony  pal- 
pably concentrated  itself — property  as  well  as  population 
— private  comfort  and  luxury  not  less  than  public  force 
and  grandeur.  Such  growth  and  improvement  was  of 
course  sustained  by  the  cultivation  of  the  territory,  but 

effort  of  a  primitive  and  pastoral  continued  line  of  rocks  which  sup- 
people  towards  a  town,  and  are  ported  the  town.  In  the  inside  of 
generally  without  regularity  as  to  this  natural  wall  are  excavated 
shape  and  magnitude:  in  after-ages  the  tombs  of  (probably)  the  prin- 
tliey  perhaps  served  as  a  retreat  in  cipal  citizens.  The  very  interest- 
time  of  danger,  and  as  a  place  of  ing  ruins  of  little  Akr;e,  high  up 
security,  in  case  of  extraordinary  in  the  Herrean  range,  nestle  under 
alarm,  for  women,  children,  and  a  cliff  in  which  numbers  of  tombs 
valuables.  In  this  light,  I  was  are  excavated.  The  Necropolis  of 
particularly  struck  with  the  re-  Syracuse,  between  Achradiua  and 
semblance  these  rude  habitations  the  Great  Harbour,  is  composed  of 
bore  to  the  caves  I  had  s.een  in  similar  rock  excavations:  and  thero 
Owliyhee,  for  similar  uses.  The  are  subterraneous  galleries  or  ca- 
Troglodyte  villages  of  Northern  tacombs  also  high  up  in  Epipoloe." 
Africa,  of  which  I  saw  several,  are  About  the  early  cave-residences 
also  precisely  the  same.  in  Sardinia  and  the  Balearic  islands 

"The    rock    caves    of   Sicily    are  consult  Diodor.  v.  15-17. 

remarkable.     The    southern    walls  '  Thucydid.  vi.  45.     Ta   -£Di-6Xia 

of   Agrigentum    are    formed    of   a  ta  EV  TQ  X^f*  (of  Syracuse). 


366  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAET  II. 

the  evidences  of  it  were  most  manifest  in  the  town.  The 
large  population  which  we  shall  have  occasion  to  notice  as 
belonging  to  Agrigentum,  Sybaris,  and  other  cities,  will 
illustrate  this  position. 

There  is  another  point  of  some  importance  to  mention 
Mixed  char-  in  regard  to  the  Sicilian  and  Italian  cities.  The 
acter  of  the  population  of  the  town  itself  may  have  been 
population,  principal!^  though  not  wholly,  Greek;  but  the 
population  of  the  territory  belonging  to  the  town,  or  of 
the  dependent  villages  which  covered  it,  must  have  been 
in  a  great  measure  Sikel  or  Sikan.  The  proof  of  this  is 
found  in  a  circumstance  common  to  all  the  Sicilian  and 
Italian  Greeks — the  peculiarity  of  their  weights. 

Peculiarity  Jj  ,  em,    ' 

of  the  mo-  measures,  monetary  system,  and  language.  The 
notary  and  pound  and  ounce  are  divisions  and  denominations 

statical sys-    £    •,          •  1.11  TJ.    i  j     cr    -i 

tem  among  belonging  altogether  to  Italy  and  oicily,  and. 
the  Sicilian  unknown  originally  to  the  Greeks,  whose  scale 
Greeks!  " 1  consisted  of  the  obolus,  the  drachma,  the  mina, 
and  the  talent.  Among  the  Greeks,  too,  the 
metal  first  and  most  commonly  employed  for  money  was 
silver,  while  in  Italy  and  Sicily  copper  was  the  primitive 
metal  made  use  of.  Now  among  all  the  Italian  and  Sici- 
lian Greeks  a  scale  of  weight  and  money  arose  quite 
different  from  that  of  the  Greeks  at  home,  formed  by  a 
combination  and  adjustment  of  the  one  of  these  systems  to 
the  other.  It  is  in  many  points  complex  and  difficult  to 
understand,  but  in  the  final  result  the  native  system  seems 
to  be  predominant,  and  the  Grecian  system  subordinate.1 

1  Respecting    the    statical    and  weight  of  copper,  at  the  time  when 

monetary  system,  prevalent  among  the  valuation  was  taken, 

the    Italian    and    Sicilian    Greeks,  The    common    denominations   of 

see  Aristot.  Fragment,    r.zpi   FloXt-  money  and  weight  (with  the  excep- 

TSICOV,  ed.  Neumann,  p.  102;  Pollux,  tion   of  the    talent,    the    meaning 

iv.    174,    ix.   80-87 ;    and  above  all,  of   which   was    altered    while    the 

Boeckh,    Metrologie,    ch.   xviii.   p.  word  was  retained)    seem  to  have 

292,   and   the   abstract   and  review  been  all    borrowed  by   the  Italian 

of  that  work  in  the  Classical  Mu-  and  Sicilian  Greeks  from  the  Sikcl 

seum,  No.  1 ;    also  O.  Miiller,  Die  or  Italic  scale,    not  from  the  Gre- 

Etrusker,  vol.  i.  p.  309.  cian  —  voufijjio?,     Htpa,     8sxa).i7pov, 

The  Sicilian  Greeks  reckoned  by  TC£vtr,x(mdXi7pov,  itev70'iYxlo''i  e;««i 

talents,  each  consisting  of  120  litrse  tETpoci;,  Tpiac,  ^aiva,  r;;xi).tTptov  (see 

or  librae:  the  JEginrean  obolus  was  Fragments  of  Kpicharmus  and  So- 

the  equivalent  of  the  litra,  having  phron,     ap.    Ahrens     de    Dialecto 

been  the  value  in  silver  of  a  pound  Doricsl,  Appendix,  pp.  435,  471,  472, 

and  Athence.  xi.  p.  479). 


CHAP.  XXII.          MIXED  RACES  OF  INHABITANTS.  367 

Such  a  consequence  as  this  could  not  have  ensued,  if  the 
Greek  settlers  in  Italy  and  Sicily  had  kept  themselves 
apart  as  communities,  and  had  merely  carried  on  com- 
merce and  barter  with  communities  of  Sikels.  It  implies 
a  fusion  of  the  two  races  in  the  same  community,  though 
doubtless  in  the  relation  of  superior  and  subject,  and  not 
in  that  of  equals.  The  Greeks  on  arriving  in  the  island 
expelled  the  natives  from  the  town,  perhaps  also  from  the 
lands  immediately  round  the  town.  But  when  they  gradu- 
ally extended  their  territory,  this  was  probably  accom- 
plished, not  by  the  expulsion,  but  by  the  subjugation,  of 
those  Sikel  tribes,  whose  villages,  much  subdivided  and 
each  individually  petty,  their  aggressions  successively 
touched. 

At  the  time  when  Theokles  landed  on  the  hill  near 
Naxos,  and  Archias  in  the  islet  of  Ortygia,  and  when  each 
of  them  expelled  the  Sikels  from  that  particular  spot,  there 
were  Sikel  villages  or  little  communities  spread  through 
all  the  neighbouring  country.  By  the  gradual  encroach- 
ments of  the  colony,  some  of  these  might  be  dispossessed 
and  driven  out  of  the  plains  near  the  coast  into  the  more 
mountainous  regions  of  the  interior.  But  many  of  them 
doubtless  found  it  convenient  to  submit,  to  surrender  a 
portion  of  their  lands,  and  to  hold  the  rest  as  subordinate 
villagers  of  an  Hellenic  city  community. l  We  find  even 
at  the  time  of  the  Athenian  invasion  (414  B.C.)  villages 
existing  in  distinct  identity  as  Sikels,  yet  subject  and 
tributary  to  Syracuse. 

Moreover  the  influence  which  the  Greeks  exercised, 
though  in  the  first  instance  essentiallv  conrpul-  „ 

°i  i          .  j.          IP  V  ji         Sikels  and 

sory,  became  also  in  part  sen-operating — the  sikans  gra- 
ascendency  of  a  higher  over  a  lower  civilization.  dual'y  hel- 

-r,  i  •  f  L     i    j  Ionised. 

It  was  the  working  ol  concentrated  townsmen, 
safe  among  one  another  by  their  walls  and  by  mutual  con- 
fidence, and  surrounded  by  more  or  less  of  ornament,  public 
as  well  as  private — upon  dispersed,  unprotected,  artless 
villagers,  who  could  not  be  insensible  to  the  charm  of  that 
superior  intellect,  imagination,  and  organisation,  which 
wrought  so  powerfully  upon  the  whole  contemporaneous 
world.  To  understand  the  action  of  these  superior  immi- 
grantsuponthe  native  but  inferior  Sikels,  during  those  three 
earliest  centuries  (730-430  B.C.)  which  followed  the  arrival 

1  Tliucyd.  vi.  S3. 


368  HISTOEY  OF  GREECE.  PAET  II. 

of  Archias  and  Theokles,  we  have  only  to  study  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  same  action  during  the  three  succeeding 
centuries  which  preceded  the  age  of  Cicero.  At  the  period 
when  Athens  undertook  the  siege  of  Syracuse  (B.C.  415), 
the  interior  of  the  island  was  occupied  by  Sikel  and  Sikan 
communities,  autonomous  and  retaining  their  native  customs 
and  language,  i  But  in  the  time  of  Verres  and  Cicero  (three 
centuries  and  a  half  afterwards)  the  interior  of  the  island 
as  well  as  the  maritime  regions  had  become  hell enised:  the 
towns  in  the  interior  were  then  hardly  less  Greek  than 
those  on  the  coast.  Cicero  contrasts  favourably  the  charac- 
ter of  the  Sicilians  with  that  of  the  Greeks  generally  (f.  e. 
the  Greeks  out  of  Sicily),  but  he  nowhere  distinguishes 
Greeks  in  Sicily  from  native  Sikels;2  nor  Enna  and  Cen- 
turipi  from  Katana  and  Agrigentum.  The  little  Sikel 
villages  became  gradually  semi-hellenised  and  merged  into 
subjects  of  a  Grecian  town:  during  the  first  three  centuries, 
this  change  took  place  in  the  regions  of  the  coast — during 
the  following  three  centuries,  in  the  regions  of  the  interior; 
and  probably  with  greater  rapidity  and  effect  in  the  earlier 
period,  not  only  because  the  action  of  the  Grecian  com- 
munities was  then  closer,  more  concentrated,  and  more 
compulsory,  but  because  also  the  obstinate  tribes  could 
then  retire  into  the  interior. 

The  Greeks  in  Sicily  are  thus  not  to  be  considered  as 
purely  Greeks,  but  as  modified  by  a  mixture  of 

Difference       1.,     ,J      -.  „.,     '     ,  J  -.     , 

between  oikel  and  bikan  language,  customs,  and  cnarac- 
the  Greeks  ter.  Each  town  included  in  its  non-privileged 
and  those  population  a  number  of  semi-hellenised  Sikels 
in  Greece  (or  gikans,  as  the  case  might  be),  who  though 
in  a  state  of  dependence,  contributed  to  mix  the 

1  Thucyd.  vi.  62-87;  vii.  13.  seventy  years   after  its  foundation 

1  Cicero  in  Verrem,  Act.  ii.  lib.  colonised  Akrsc,  also  Enna,  situ- 

iv.  c.  26-51;  Diodor.  v.  6.  ated  in  the  centre  of  the  island"1 

Contrast  the  manner  in  which  (Hist,  of  Dorians,  i.  6,  7).  Enna 

Cicero  speaks  of  Agyrium,  Centu-  is  mentioned  by  Stephanus  Byz. 

ripi  and  Enna,  with  the  description  as  a  Syracusan  foundation,  but 

of  these  places  as  inhabited  by  without  notice  of  the  date  of  its 

autonomous  Sikels.  B.C.  39C,  in  the  foundation,  which  must  have  been 

wars  of  the  elder  Dionysius  (Dio-  much  later  than  Mxiller  here  affirms. 

dor.  xiv.  55,  58,  78).  Both  Sikans  Serradi  Falco  (Antichita,  di  Sicilia, 

and  Sikels  were  at  that  time  com-  Introd.  t.  i.  p.  9)  gives  Enna  as 

pletely  distinguished  from  the  having  been  founded  later  than 

Greeks,  in  the  centre  of  the  island.  Akrae,  but  earlier  than  Kasmena?; 

O.  Miiller  states    that   "Syracuse  for  which  date  I  find  no  authority. 


CHAP.  XXII.  SICILIAN  COMEDY.  369 

breed  and  influence  the  entire  mass.  "We  have  no  reason 
to  suppose  that  theSikelor  (Enotrian  language  ever  became 
written,  like  Latin,  Oscan,  or  Umbrian.  1  The  inscriptions 
of  Segesta  and  Halesus  are  all  in  Doric  Greek,  which  sup- 
planted the  native  tongue  for  public  purposes  as  a  separate 
language,  but  not  without  becoming  itself  modified  in  the 
confluence.  In  following  the  ever-renewed  succession  of 
violent  political  changes,  the  inferior  capacity  of  regulated 
and  pacific  popular  government,  and  the  more  unrestrained 
voluptuous  licence — which  the  Sicilian  and  Italian  Greeks2 
exhibit  as  compared  with  Athens  and  the  cities  of  Greece 
Proper — we  must  call  to  mind  that  we  are  not  dealing  with 
pure  Hellenism;  and  that  the  native  element,  though  not 
unfavourable  to  activity  or  increase  of  wealth,  prevented 
the  Grecian  colonists  from  partaking  fully  in  that  improved 
organisation  which  we  so  distinctly  trace  in  Athens  from 
Solon  downwards.  How  much  the  taste,  habits,  ideas,  re- 
ligion, and  local  mythes,  of  the  native  Sikels  passed  into 
the  minds  of  the  Sikeliots  or  Sicilian  Greeks,  is  shown  by 
the  character  of  their  literature  and  poetry.  Sicily  was  the 
native  country  of  that  rustic  mirth  and  village  buffoonery 
which  gave  birth  to  the  primitive  comedy — politicised  and 
altered  at  Athens  so  as  to  suit  men  of  the  market-place, 
the  ekklesia,  and  the  dikastery — blending,  in  the  comedies 
of  the  Syracusan  Epicharmus,  copious  details  about  the 
indulgences  of  the  table  (for  which  the  ancient  Sicilians 
were  renowned)  with  Pythagorean  philosophy  and  moral 
maxims — but  given  with  all  the  naked  simplicity  of  common 
life,  in  a  sort  of  rhythmical  prose  without  even  the  restraint 
of  a  fixed  metre,  by  the  Syracusan  Sophron  in  his  lost 
Mimes,  and  afterwards  polished  as  well  as  idealised  in  the 
Bucolic  poetry  of  Theokritus.3  That  which  is  commonly 

Talaria  (see  Stcph.  Byz.  ad  woe.)  is  478— 2tv.sXo;   xo|X'^oq   drfjp  Ilo-cl  TOO 

also    mentioned    as    another  Syra-  (ia-rjp'  £93. 

cusan    city,    of  which  we   do   not  Bornhardy,     Grundriss     der    Ge- 

know  either  tho  date  or  the  parti-  schichtc  der  Griech.  Litteratur,  vol. 

culars  of  foundation.  ii.    ch.    120.    sect.    2-5  ;    Grysar,    Do 

1  Ahreus,    De    Dialecto    DoricS.,  Doriensium      Comcedia.      Cologne, 

sect.  i.  p.   3.  182?,     ch.    i.    pp.    41,    55,     57,    210; 

-Plato,     Kpistol.      vii.     p.     32f,  ;  Bncckli,   De  Grti-cse   Tragced.  Prin- 

riautus.  Eudeus,  Act.  i.  Sc.  i.  50;  cip.  p.  52:  Aristot.  ap.  Athen.T.  xi. 

Act.  ii.  Sc.  vi.  58.  505.     The    7.;j--y.'Jj'jc.   seems    to  have 

•    Timokreon,    Fragment.    5     ap.  been  a  native   Sikel  fashion,    bor- 
Aiirens,    De    Dialecto    Doric'),    p. 

VOL.  Til.  '2  B 


370  HISTOEY  OF  GBEECB.  PAET  IL 

termed  the  Doric  comedy  was,  in  great  part  at  least,  the 
Sikel  comedy  taken  up  by  Dorian  composers — the  Doric 
race  and  dialect  being  decidedly  predominant  in  Sicily. 
The  manners  thus  dramatised  belonged  to  that  coarser  vein 
of  humour  which  the  Doric  Greeks  of  the  town  had  in 
common  with  the  semi-hellenised  Sikels  of  the  circumjacent 
villages.  Moreover  it  seems  probable  that  this  rustic  po- 
pulation enabled  the  despots  of  the  Greco-Sicilian  towns 
to  form  easily  and  cheaply  those  bodies  of  mercenary  troops, 
by  whom  their  power  was  sustained,  1  and  whose  presence 
rendered  the  continuance  of  popular  government,  even 
supposing  it  begun,  all  but  impossible. 

It  was  the  destiny  of  most  of  the  Grecian  colonial  es- 
jj.    .  tablishments  to  perish  by  the  growth  and  ag- 

puiation°in  gression  of  those  inland  powers  upon  whose 
Sicily  not  coast  they  were  planted;  powers  which  gradu- 

numerous          .,,  r      -.    c     L       ,,        '.*..,          ,,   ,,       ff>       , 

enough  to  ally  acquired,  from  the  vicinity  ot  the  Greeks, 
become  a  military  and  political  organisation,  and  a  power 

formidable         „  J,       ,  *••,         ,.  °      ,  .1          ,    *, 

to  the  of  concentrated  action,  such  as  they  had  not 

Greek  originally  possessed.     But  in  Sicily  the  Sikels 

were  not  numerous  enough  even  to  maintain 
permanently  their  own  nationality,  and  were  ultimately 
penetrated  on  all  sides  by  Hellenic  ascendency  and  man- 
ners. We  shall  nevertheless  come  to  one  remarkable  at- 
tempt, made  by  a  native  Sikel  prince  in  the  82nd  Olympiad 
Sikei  (455  B.C.) — the  enterprising  Duketius — to  group 

prince  many  Sikel  petty  villages  into  one  considerable 

Duketius.  town,  and  thus  to  raise  his  countrymen  into 
the  Grecian  stage  of  polity  and  organisation.  Had  there 
been  any  Sikel  prince  endowed  with  these  superior  ideas 

rowed  by  the   Greeks  (Athenscus,  "Librorum    eccillum  habeo  ple- 

xv.  pp.  CGfi — C68).  num  soracum. 

The    Sicilian     po'jxo)aa3[j.oc    was  Dabuntur  dotis  tibi  inde  scxcenti 

a  fashion  among  the  Sicilian  herds-  logi, 

men  earlier  than  Epicharmus,  who  Atque  Attici  omnes,  nullum   Si- 
noticed  the  alleged  inventor  of  it,  culum  acceperis." 
Diomus,    the    po'JxoXo?    SixsXiiiJTr,?  Compare  the  beginning  of  the  pro- 
(Athense.   xiv.   p.  619).     The   rustic  logue   to    the   Menrcchmi   of  Plau- 
manners  and  speech  represented  in  tus. 

the  Sicilian  comedy  are  contrasted  The  comic  |j."j5c,;  began  at  Syra- 

with  the  town  manners  and  speech  cuse    with   Epicharmus   and   Phor- 

of  the  Attic    comedy,   by  Plautus,  mis  (Aristot.  Poet.  v.  5). 

PerssD,  Act.  iii.  Sc.  i.  v.  31:—  '  Zenobius,  Proverb,  v.  81-2i-/.:- 

Xo;  OTpotTicb-rjt. 


CHAP.  XXII.  GBECIAN  COLONIES  IN  ITALY.  371 

at  the  time  when  the  Greeks  first  settled  in  Sicily,  the  sub- 
sequent history  of  the  island  would  probably  have  been 
very  different.  But  Duketius  had  derived  his  projects 
from  the  spectacle  of  the  Grecian  towns  around  him,  and 
these  latter  had  acquired  much  too  great  power  to  permit 
him  to  succeed.  The  description  of  his  abortive  attempt, 
however,  which  we  find  in  Diodorus,  1  meagre  as  it  is, 
forms  an  interesting  point  in  the  history  of  the  island. 

Grecian  colonisation  in  Italy  began  nearly  at  the  same 
time  as  in  Sicily,  and  was  marked  by  the  same   G     . 
general   circumstances.      Placing  ourselves   at   colonies 
Ilhegium  (now  Reggio)  on  the  Sicilian  strait,   in  South- 
we   trace  Greek   cities   gradually   planted   on 
various  points  of  the  coast  as  far  as  Cumae  on  the  sea  and 
Tarentum  (Taranto)  on  the  other.     Between  the  two  seas 
runs  the  lofty  chain  of  the  Apennines,  calcareous  in  the 
upper  part  of  its  course,  throughout  Middle  Italy — granitic 
and  schistose  in  the  lower  part,  where  it  traverses  the  ter- 
ritories now  called  the  Hither  and  the  Farther  Calabria. 
The  plains  and  valleys  on  each  side  of  the  Calabriaii  Apen- 
nines exhibit  a  luxuriance  of  vegetation  extolled  by  all  ob- 
servers, and  surpassing  even  that  of  Sicily;2  and  great  as 
the  productive  powers  of  this  territory  are  now,  there  is 
full  reason  for  believing  that  they  must  have  been  far 
greater  in  ancient  times.     For  it  has  been  visited  by  re- 
peated  earthquakes,  each  of  which   has    left  calamitous 
marks  of  devastation.     Those  of  1G3S  and  1783  (especially 
the  latter,  whose  destructive    effects  were   on  a  terrific 

1  Dioclor.  xi.  90,  01;  xii.  9.  sen    not    their    crops.     All    things 

1  Sec  Dolomiou,  Dissertation  on  grow  there,   and   nature   seems    to 

the  Earthquakes  of  Calabria  Ultra  anticipate   the    wishes  of  the  hus- 

in  1783,    in   Pinkerton,   Collection  handman.    There   is    never    a    suf- 

of  Voyages    and    Travels,    vol.    v.  ficiency    of   hands    to    gather    the 

p.  280.  whole  of  the  olives,  which  finally 

"It    is    impossible    (he    observes)  fall  and  rot    at   the  bottom  of  the 

to  form   an    adequate    idea   of  the  trees  that  bore  them,  in  the  months 

fertility   of   Calabria  Ultra,    parti-  of   Februar3*   and    March.     Crowds 

cularly  of  that  part  called  the  Plain  of  foreigners,  principally  Sicilians, 

(south-west  of  the  Apennines    be-  come  tlx're  to  help  to  gather  them, 

low  the  Gulf  of  St.  Euferaia).    The  and    share    the    produce    with   the 

fields,  productive  of  olive-trees  of  grower.     Oil   is   their   chief  article 

larger  growth  than  any  seen  else-  of  exportation  :    in    every    quarter 

where,  are  yet  productive  of  grain,  their  wines  are  pood  and  precious." 

Vines  load  with  their  branches  the  Compare  pp.  27S — 2^2. 
trees  on  which  they  grow,  yet  les- 


372  HISTOEY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II, 

scale  both  as  to  life  and  property  i)  are  of  a  date  sufficiently 
recent  to  adjnit  of  recording  and  measuring  the  damage 
done  by  each;  and  that  damage,  in  many  parts  of  the  south- 
western coast,  was  great  and  irreparable.    Ani- 

Native  ,    j         ,-,      '     • .-,  °.  ,,          rr          ..,       ,  .   , 

popuia-  mated  as  the  epithets  are,  therefore,  with  which 
tion  and  the  modern  traveller  paints  the  present  fertility 
of  Calabria,  we  are  warranted  in  enlarging  their 
meaning  when  we  conceive  the  country  as  it  stood  between 
720-320  B.C.,  the  period  of  Grecian  occupation  and  independ- 
ence; while  the  unhealthy  air  which  now  desolates  the 
plains  generally,  seems  then  to  have  been  felt  only  to  a, 
limited  extent,  and  over  particular  localities.  The  founders 
of  Tarentum,  Sybaris,  Kroton,  Lokri,  and  Rhegium  planted 
themselves  in  situations  of  unexampled  promise  to  the  in- 
dustrious cultivator,  which  the  previous  inhabitants  had 
turned  to  little  account;  though  since  the  subjugation  of 
the  Grecian  cities,  these  once  rich  possessions  have  sunk 
into  poverty  and  depopulation,  especially  the  last  three 
centuries,  from  insalubrity,  indolence,  bad  administration, 
and  fear  of  the  Barbary  corsairs. 

The  (Enotrians,  Sikels,  or  Italians,  who  were  in  pos- 
session of  these  territories  in  720  B.C.,  seem  to  have  been 
rude  petty  communities — procuring  for  themselves  safety 
by  residence  on  lofty  eminences — more  pastoral  than  agri- 
cultural, and  some  of  them  consuming  the  produce  of  their 
fields  in  common  mess,  on  a  principle  analogous  to  the 
syssitia  of  Sparta  or  Krete.  King  Italus  was  said  to  have 
introduced  this  peculiarity2  among  the  southernmost  por- 
tion of  the  (Enotrian  population,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
have  bestowed  upon  them  the  name  of  Italians,  though 
they  were  also  known  by  the  name  of  Sikels.  Throughout 
the  centre  of  Calabria  between  sea  and  sea,  the  high  chain 
of  the  Apennines  afforded  protection  to  a  certain  extent 
both  to  their  independence  and  to  their  pastoral  habits. 
But  these  heights  are  made  to  be  enjoyed  in  conjunction 
with  the  plains  beneath,  so  as  to  alternate  winter  and  sum- 
mer pasture  for  the  cattle.  It  is  in  this  manner  that  the 
richness  of  the  country  is  rendered  available,  since  a  large 

1  Mr.    Keppel     Craven     observes  the  whole   of  Calabria  Ultra,    and 

(Tour  through   the    Southern  Pro-  extended  its  ravages  as  far  north- 

vinces  of  Naples,  ch.  xiii.   p.  254),  ward  as  Cosenza.'' 

"The    earthquake    of  1783  may   be  2  Aristot.  Polit.  vii.  9,  3. 
wid   to    have    altered    the   face  of 


€HAP.  XXII.  SYBAEIS  AKD  KKOTON.  373 

portion  of  the  mountain  range  is  buried  in  snow  during 
the  winter  months.  Such  remarkable  diversity  of  soil  and 
climate  rendered  Calabria  a  land  of  promise  for  Grecian 
settlement.  The  plains  and  lower  eminences  were  as  pro- 
ductive in  corn,  wine,  oil,  and  flax,  as  the  mountains  in 
summer-pasture  and  timber — and  abundance  of  rain  falls 
upon  the  higher  ground,  which  requires  only  industry  and 
care  to  be  made  to  impart  the  maximum  of  fertility  to  the 
lower.  Moreover  a  long  line  of  sea-coast  (though  not  well 
furnished  with  harbours)  and  an  abundant  supply  of  fish, 
came  in  aid  of  the  advantages  of  the  soil.  While  the 
poorer  freemen  of  the  Grecian  cities  were  enabled  to  ob- 
tain small  lots  of  fertile  land  in  the  neighbourhood,  to  be 
cultivatedby  their  own  hands,and  to  provide  tor  the  most  part 
their  own  food  and  clothing — the  richer  proprietors  made 
profitable  use  of  the  more  distant  portions  of  the  territory 
by  means  of  their  cattle,  sheep,  and  slaves. 

Of  the  Grecian  towns  on  this  favoured  coast,  the  earliest 
as  well  as  the  most  prosperous  were,  Sybaris  and  gybaris  and 
Kroton:  both  in  the  Gulf  of  Tarentum— both  Krot6n. 
of  Achaean  origin — and  conterminous  with  each  other  in 
respect  of  territory.  Kroton  was  placed  not  far  to  the 
west  of  the  south-eastern  extremity  of  the  Gulf,  called  in 
ancient  times  the  Lakinian  cape,  and  ennobled  by  the 
temple  of  the  Lakinian  Here,  which  became  alike  venerated 
and  adorned  by  the  Greek  resident  as  well  as  by  the  passing 
navigator.  One  solitary  column  of  the  temple,  the  humble 
remnant  of  its  past  magnificence,  yet  marks  the  extremity 
of  this  once-celebrated  promontory.  Sybaris  seems  to  have 
been  planted  in  the  year  720  B.C.,  Kroton  in  710  B.C.:  Iseli- 
keus  was  oekist  of  the  former, l  Myskellus  of  the  latter.  This 
large  Achaean  emigration  seems  to  have  been  connected 
with  the  previous  expulsion  of  the  Achaean  population 


c.  8.  p.  30,  c.  9.  p. 


374  HISTOEY  OP  GREECE.  PART  II. 

from  the  more  southerly  region  of  Peloponnesus  by 
the  Dorians,  though  in  what  precise  manner  we  are  not 
enabled  to  see.  The  Achaean  towns  in  Peloponnesus  appear 
in  later  times  too  inconsiderable  to  furnish  emigrants,  but 
probably  in  the  eighth  century  B.C.  their  population  may 
have  been  larger.  The  town  of  Sybaris  was  planted  be- 
tween two  rivers,  the  Sybaris  and  the  Krathis  1  (the  name 
of  the  latter  borrowed  from  a  river  of  Achaia) ;  the  town 
of  Kroton  about  twenty-five  miles  distant,  on  the  river 
yEsarus.  The  primitive  settlers  of  Sybaris  consisted  in 
part  of  Troezenians,  who  were  however  subsequently 
expelled  by  the  more  numerous  Achaeans — a  deed  of 
violence  which  was  construed  by  the  religious  sentiment 
of  Antiochus  and  some  other  Grecian  historians,  as  having 
drawn  down  upon  them  the  anger  of  the  gods  in  the  ulti- 
mate destruction  of  the  city  by  the  Krotoniates. 2 

The  fatal  contest  between  these  two  cities,  which 
ended  in  the  ruin  of  Sybaris,  took  place  in  510  B.C.,  after 
the  latter  had  subsisted  in  growing  prosperity  for  210  years. 
And  the  astonishing  prosperity  to  which  both  of  them 
attained  is  a  sufficient  proof  that  during  most  of  this  period 
they  had  remained  in  peace  at  least,  if  not  in  alliance  and 
common  Achaean  brotherhood.  Unfortunately,  the  general 
fact  of  their  great  size,  wealth  and  power,  is  all  that  we 
are  permitted  to  know.  The  walls  of  Sybaris  embraced 
a  circuit  of  fifty  stadia,  or  near  six  miles,  while  those  of 
Kroton  were  even  larger,  comprising  little  less  than  twelve 
miles.3  A  large  walled  circuit  was  advantageous  for  shel- 
tering the  moveable  property  in  the  territory  around, 
which  was  carried  in  on  the  arrival  of  an  invading  enemy. 
Both  cities  possessed  an  extensive  dominion  across  the 
Calabrian  peninsula  from  sea  to  sea.  But  the  territorial 
range  of  Sybaris  seems  to  have  been  greater  and  her 
colonies  wider  and  more  distant — a  fact  which  may  perhaps 
explain  the  smaller  circuit  of  the  city. 

The  Sybarites  were  founders  of  Laus  and  Skidrus,  on 
Territory  the  Mediterranean  Sea  in  the  Gulf  of  Policastro, 
and  co-  an(j  even  of  the  more  distant  Poseidonia — now 
Sybaris  and  known  by  its  Latin  name  of  Paestum,  as  well  as 
Kroton.  by  the  temples  which  still  remain  to  decorate 
its  deserted  site.  They  possessed  twenty-five  dependent 

1  Herodot.  i.  145.  2  Aristot.  Polit.  v.  1,  10. 

1  Strabo,  vi.  p.  202  :  Livy,  xxiv.  3. 


CHAP.  XXII.  SYBARIS  AND  KROTON.  375 

towns,  and  ruled  over  four  distinct  native  tribes  or  nations. 
What  these  nations  were  we  are  not  told,1  but  they  were 
probably  different  sections  of  the  CBuotriau  name.  The 
Krotoniates  also  reached  across  to  the  Mediterranean  Sea, 
and  founded  (upon  the  gulf  now  called  St.  Euphemia)  the 
town  of  Terina,  and  seemingly  also  that  of  Lametini.2  The 
inhabitants  of  the  Epizephyrian  Lokri,  which  was  situated 
in  a  more  southern  part  of  Calabria  Ultra  near  the  modern 
town  of  Grerace,  extended  themselves  in  like  manner  across 
the  peninsula.  They  founded  upon  the  Mediterranean 
coast  the  towns  of  Hipponium,  Medina,  and  Mataurum,3 
as  well  as  Melse  and  Itoneia,  in  localities  not  now  exactly 
ascertained. 

Myskellus  ofRhypes  inAchaia,  the  founder  of  Kroton 
under  the  express  indication  of  the  Delphian 
oracle,  is  said  to  have  thought  the  site  of  Sybaris 
preferable,  and  to  have  solicited  permission  from  the  oracle 
to  plant  his  colony  there,  but  he  was  admonished  to  obey 
strictly  the  directions  first  given.1  It  is  farther  affirmed 
that  the  foundation  of  Kroton  was  aided  by  Archias,  then 
passing  along  the  coast  with  his  settlers  for  Syracuse, 
who  is  also  brought  into  conj Diction  in  a  similar  manner 
with  the  foundation  of  Lokri:  but  neither  of  these  state- 
ments appears  chronologically  admissible. 

The   Italian   Lokri   (called  Epizephyrian,   from   the 
neighbourhood  of  Cape  Zephyrium)  was  founded   Epizephy- 
in  the  year  G33  B.C.  by  settlers  from  the  Lokriaris   rian  Lokri. 
—  either  the  Ozolian  Lokrians  in  the  Krissjean  Gulf,  or 

1  Strabo,    vi.    p.    203;  v.   p.    251;  Zenob.  Proverb.  Centur.  iii.  42. 
Skymn.      Chi.      v.     244;      Herodot.  Though  Myskellus  is  thus  given 
vi.  21.  as  the  cckist  of  Kroton,  yet  we  find 

2  Stephan.  Byz.  v.  Tspr/7. — A^JA/,-  a  Krotoniatic  coin  with  the  inscrip- 
Tt-,0'.:  Skymn.  Chi.  305.  tion     "Hoxy.).^;    O'txijTac;     (Eckhel, 

3  Thucyd.    v.    5;    Strabo,    vi.    p.  Doctrin.     Numm.    Vet.    vol.    i.    p. 
250:  Skymn    Chi.  307.     Stepli.  By*.  172):     the   worship    of    HeraklSs  at 
calls  Mataurum  -'JXi?  2iy.sXioK.  Kroton  under  this  title  is  analogous 

•>  Herodot.  viii.  47.  K^TIO/ITJT'/I,  to  that  of  'A-noXXtov  OtxiaT/^  xoct 

•;i-i't-.  iiji-j  'Ay'jiioi:  the  date  of  the  Aujjj.2-i.Tr,;  at  jligina  (Pythrcnetus 

foundation  is  given  by  Dionysius  ap.  Schql.  Pindar.  Xem.  v.  81). 

of  Halikarnassus  (A.  R.  ii.  59).  There  were  various  legends  respect- 

The  oracular  commands  deli-  ing  Hdrakles,  the  Epoiiymus 

vered  to  Myskellus  are  found  at  Krotfln,  and  Lakinius.  Herakleides 

length  in  the  Fragments  of  Dio-  Pontieus,  Fragm.  30,  ed.  Roller; 

doru  =  ,  published  by  Maii  (Scriptt.  Diodor  iv.  24;  Ovid,  Metamorph. 

Vet.  Fragm.  x.  p.  8)  :  compare  xv.  1— C3. 


376  HISTOBY  OF  GEEECE.  PART  II. 

those  of  Opus  on  the  Eubcean  Strait.  This  point  was  dis- 
puted even  in  antiquity,  and  perhaps  both  the  one  and  the 
other  may  have  contributed:  Euanthus  was  the  cekist  of 
the  place. 1  The  first  years  of  the  Epizephyrian  Lokri  are 
said  to  have  been  years  of  sedition  and  discord.  And  the 
vile  character  which  we  hear  ascribed  to  the  primitive 
colonists,  as  well  as  their  perfidious  dealing  with  the 
natives,  are  the  more  to  be  noted,  as  the  Lokrians,  of  the 
times  both  of  Aristotle  and  of  Polybius,  fully  believed 
these  statements  in  regard  to  their  own  ancestors. 

The  original  emigrants  to  Lokri  were,  according  to 
_  .  .  Aristotle,  a  body  of  runaway  slaves,  men-steal- 

settiers  of  ers,  and  adulterers,  whose  only  legitimate  con- 
Lokri—  nexion  with  an  honourable  Hellenic  root  arose 
character  from  a  certain  number  of  well-born  Lokrian 
and  circum-  Women  who  accompanied  them.  These  women 
belonged  to  those  select  families  called  the 
Hundred  Houses,  who  constituted  what  may  be  called  the 
nobility  of  the  Lokrians  in  Greece  Proper,  and  their 
descendants  continued  to  enjoy  a  certain  rank  and  pre- 
eminence in  the  colony,  even  in  the  time  of  Polybius. 
The  emigration  is  said  to  have  been  occasioned  by  dis- 
orderly intercourse  between  these  noble  Lokrian  women 
and  their  slaves — perhaps  by  intermarriage  with  persons 
of  inferior  station  where  there  had  existed  no  recognised 
conmibium;^  a  fact  referred,  by  the  informants  of  Aristotle, 
to  the  long  duration  of  the  first  IVIessenian  war — the 
Lokrian  warriors  having  for  the  most  part  continued  in 
theMessenian  territory  as  auxiliaries  of  the  Spartans  during 
the  twenty  years  of  that  war,3  permitting  themselves  only 
rare  and  short  visits  to  their  homes.  This  is  a  story  re- 
sembling that  which  we  shall  find  in  explanation  of  the 
colony  of  Tareiitum.  It  comes  to  us  too  imperfectly  to 
admit  of  criticism  or  verification;  but  the  unamiable  char- 

1  Strtbo,  vi.  p.  259.  Euantheia,  *  Polyb.  xii.  6,  8,  9;  Dionys. 
Hyantheia,  or  CKanthcia,  was  one  Pcrieget.  v.  365. 
of  the  towns  of  the  Ozolian  Lo-  3  This  fact  may  connect  the 
krians  on  the  north  side  of  the  foundation  of  the  colony  of  Lokri 
Krisssean  Gulf,  from  \vhich  perhaps  with  Sparta;  but  the  statement  of 
the  emigrants  may  have  departed,  Pausanias  (iii.  3,  1),  that  the  Spar- 
carrying  with  them  the  name  and  tans  in  the  reign  of  king  Polydo- 
patronage  of  its  eponymous  cekist  rus  founded  both  Lokri  and  Krot6n, 
(Plutarch,  Qurcst.  Grtec.  c.  15;  Sky-  seems  to  belong  to  a  different 
lax,  p.  14).  historical  conception. 


CHAP.  XXII.  ZALEUKUS  THE  LOKEIAN.  377 

acter  of  the  first  emigrants  is  a  statement  deserving  credit, 
and  very  unlikely  to  have  been  invented.  Their  first 
proceedings  on  settling  in  Italy  display  a  perfidy  in  accord- 
ance with  the  character  ascribed  to  them. 
They  found  the  territory  in  this  southern  portion  towards'the 
of  the  Calabriau  peninsula  possessed  by  native  indigenous 
Sikels,  who,  alarmed  at  their  force  and  afraid 
to  try  the  hazard  of  resistance,  agreed  to  admit  them  to  a 
participation  and  joint  residence.  The  covenant  was  con- 
cluded and  sworn  to  by  both  parties  in  the  following  terms : 
— "There  shall  be  friendship  between  us,  and  we  will  enjoy 
the  land  in  common,  so  long  as  we  stand  upon  this  earth 
and  have  heads  upon  our  shoulders."  At  the  time  when 
the  oath  was  taken,  the  Lokrians  had  put  earth  into  their 
shoes  and  concealed  heads  of  garlic  upon  their  shoulders; 
so  that  when  they  had  divested  themselves  of  these  append- 
ages, the  oath  was  considered  as  no  longer  binding. 
Availing  themselves  of  the  first  convenient  opportunity, 
they  attacked  the  Sikels  by  surprise  and  drove  them  out 
of  the  territory,  of  which  they  thus  acquired  the  exclusive 
possession.1  Their  first  establishment  was  formed  upon 
the  headland  itself,  Cape  Zephyrium  (now  Bruzzano). 
But  after  three  or  four  years  the  site  of  the  town  was 
moved  to  an  eminence  in  the  neighbouring  plain,  in  which 
the  Syracusans  are  said  to  have  aided  them.2 

In  describing  the  Grecian  settlers  in  Sicily,  I  have 
already  stated  that  they  are  to  be  considered  as 
Greeks  with  a  considerable  infusion  of  blood,  of  |I!xt1ur?  ot 
habits,  and  of  manners,  from  the  native  Sikels.   their  terri- 
The  case  is  the  same  with  the  Italiots  or  Italian  tory    Sikdl 
Greeks,  and  in  respect  to  these  Epizephyrian    adopted. 
Lokrians,  especially,  we  find  it  expressly  noticed 
by  Polybius.     Composed  as  their  band  was  of  ignoble  and 
worthless  men,  not  bound  together  by  strong  tribe-feelings 
or  traditional  customs,  they  were  the  more  ready  to  adopt 
new  practices,  as  well  religious  as  civil,3  from  the  Sikels. 

1  Polyb.  xii.  6 — 12.  panionshipj   or  as  auxiliaries  :  per- 

2  Strabo,     vi.    p.    259.      We    find  haps  the  accounts    all    come  from 
that  in  the  accounts   given    of  the  the  Syracusan  historian  Antiochus, 
foundation    of    Korkyra,     Krot'in,  who  exaggerated    the  intervention 
and    Lokri,    reference    is    made  to  of  his  own  ancestors. 

the   Syracusan    settlers,    either    as         3  ''Nil  patrium,  nisi  nomen,  habet 
contemporary  in  the  \vay  of   com-     Komanus  alumnus,"  observes  Pro- 


378  HISTOKY  OF  GKEECE.  PAKT  II, 

One  in  particular  is  noticed  by  the  historian — the  religious 
dignity  called  the  Phialephorus  or  Censer-bearer,  enjoyed 
among  the  native  Sikels  by  a  youth  of  noble  birth,  who 
performed  the  duties  belonging  to  it  in  their  sacrifices; 
but  the  Lokrians,  while  they  identified  themselves  with 
the  religious  ceremony  and  adopted  both  the  name  and  the 
dignity,  altered  the  sex  and  conferred  it  upon  one  of  those 
women  of  noble  blood  who  constituted  the  ornament  of 
their  settlement.  Evendown  to  the  days  ofPolybius,  some 
maiden  descended  from  one  of  these  select  Hundred  Houses 
still  continued  to  bear  the  title  and  to  perform  the  cere- 
monial duties  of  Phialephorus.  We  learn  from  these 
statements  how  large  a  portion  of  Sikels  must  have  become 
incorporated  as  dependents  in  the  colony  of  the  Epize- 
phyrian  Lokri,  and  how  strongly  marked  was  th  e  intermixture 
of  their  habits  with  those  of  the  Greek  settlers;  while  the 
tracing  back  among  them  of  all  eminence  of  descent  to  a 
few  emigrant  women  of  noble  birth,  is  a  peculiarity  be- 
longing exclusively  to  their  city. 

That  a  body  of  colonists,  formed  of  such  unpromising 
materials,  should  have  fallen  into  much  lawlessness  and 
disorder,  is  noway  surprising;  but  these  mischiefs  appear 
to  have  become  so  utterly  intolerable  in  the  early  years  of 
the  colony,  as  to  force  upon  every  one  the  necessity  of 
some  remedy.  Hence  arose  a  phenomenon  new  in  the 
march  of  Grecian  society — the  first  promulgation  of  writ- 
ten laws.  The  Epizephyrian  Lokrians,  having  applied  to 
the  Delphian  oracle  for  some  healing  suggestion  under 
their  distress,  were  directed  to  make  laws  for  themselves ; l 
and  received  the  ordinances  of  a  shepherd  named  Zaleu- 
Lokrian  kus,  which  he  professed  to  have  learnt  from  the 
lawgiver  goddess  Athene  in  a  dream.  His  laws  are  said 
to  have  been  put  in  writing  and  promulgated  in 
664  B.  c.,  forty  years  earlier  thau  those  of  Drako  at 
Athens. 

That  these  first  of  all  Grecian  written  laws  were  few 
and  simple,  we  may  be  sufficiently  assured.  The  only  fact 
certain  respecting  them  is  their  extraordinary  rigour:2  they 

pertiua  (iv.  37)  respecting  the  Eo-  well-applicable  to  Lokri. 

mans:    repeated   with  still  greater  '     Aristot.     ap.     Schol.     Pindar. 

bitterness  in  the  epistle  in  Sallust  Olymp.  x.  17. 

from    Mithridate's    to    ArsacSs    (p.  *  Proverb.    Zenob.  Centur.  iv.  20. 

191,    Delph.    ed.).     The    remark    is  Za>.i'Jxou  vo(xo?,    i-r.i   tu>v  aTtoTojACUv. 


CZIAP.  XXII.  ZALEUKUS  THE  LOKRIAN.  379 

seem  to  have  enjoined  the  application  of  the  lex  talionis 
as  a  punishment  for  personal  injuries.     In  this   ^ 

f-f.     ,  r,  •',       ,  ,-.         Rigour  of 

general  character  of  his  laws,  Zialeukus  was  the  his  laws- 
counterpart  of  Drako.  But  so  little  was  ^v®ri^.enfi 
certainly  known,  and  so  much  falsely  asserted, 
respecting  him,  that  Timaeus  the  historian  went  so  far  as 
to  call  in  question  his  real  existence ' — against  the  authori- 
ty not  only  of  Ephorus,  but  also  of  Aristotle  and  Theo- 
phrastus.  The  laws  must  have  remained  however,  for  a 
long  time,  formally  unchanged;  for  so  great  was  the  aver- 
sion of  the  Lokrians,  we  are  told,  to  any  new  law,  that  the 
man  who  ventured  to  propose  one  appeared  in  public  with 
a  rope  round  his  neck,  which  was  at  once  tightened  if  he 
failed  to  convince  the  assembly  of  the  necessity  of  his 
proposition.2  Of  the  government  of  the  Epizephyrian 
Lokri  we  know  only  that  in  later  times  it  included  a  great 
council  of  1000  members,  and  a  chief  executive  magistrate 
called  Kosmopolis;  it  is  spoken  of  also  as  strictly  and 
carefully  administered. 

The  date  of  Rhegium  (Reggio),  separated  from  the 
territory  of  the  Epizephyrian  Lokri  by  the  river  Halex, 
must  have  been  not  only  earlier  than  Lokri,  but  _ 

v  a    r.      •         -f  j-t.         L    L  L     c    Khegium. 

even  earlier  than  bybaris — if  the  statement  of 
Antiochus  be  correct,  that  the  colonists  were  joined  by 
those  ilessenians,  who,  prior  to  the  first  ITessenian  war, 
were  anxious  to  make  reparation  to  the  Spartans  for  the 
outrage  offered  to  the  Spartan  maidens  at  the  temple  of 
Artemis  Limnatis,  but  were  overborne  by  their  couutry- 

1   Strabo,    vi.    p.    259;     Skymnus  totle,    shows    how    loose  were  the 

Cliius,  v.  313  ;    Cicero   de  Legg.  ii.  affirmations  respecting  the  Lokrian 

C,  and  Epist.  ad  Attioum,  vi.  1.  lawgiver    (ap.    Strabo.    vi.  p.  200). 

Heyne,    Opuscula,    vol.  ii.,    Epi-  Other    statements   also  concerning 

metrum  ii.p.  60 — 6S;  Goller  ad  Tima:i  him,  alluded   to   by  Aristotle  (Po- 

Fragment.    pp.    220-259.      Eentley  litic.    ii.    9,    3),    were    distinctly  at 

(on   the  Epistles    of    Phalaris,    ch.  variance  \vith  chronology, 

xii.  p.  274)    seems  to  countenance,  Charondas,    the    lawgiver  of  the 

without  adequate  reason,  the  doubt  Chalkidic  towns  in  Italy  and  Sicily, 

of   T  imams  about  the  existence  of  as  far  as  we  can  judge  amidst  much 

Zaleukus.    But    the    statement    of  confusion  of    testimony,    seems  to 

Ephorus, that  Zaleukus  had  collect-  belong     to     an     age     much     later 

ed  his   ordinances  from  the  Kretan,  than    Zaleukus:    I    shall    speak    of 

Laconia'i,    and    Areiopagitic    cus-  him  hereafter. 

toms.    when    contrasted     with    the  2  Demosthen.    cont.   Timokrat.  p 

simple     and      far      more      credible  744;  Polyb.  xii.  10. 
statement    above-cited   froi:i   Aiis- 


S80  HIST  OB  Y  OF  GBEECE.  PABT  II. 

men  and  forced  into  exile.  A  different  version  however 
is  given  by  Pausanias  of  this  migration  of  Messenians  to 
Rhegium,  yet  still  admitting  the  fact  of  such  migration  at 
the  close  of  the  first  Messenian  war,  which  would  place 
the  foundation  of  the  city  earlier  than  720  B.C.  —  Though 
Rhegium  was  a  Chalkidic  colony,  yet  a  portion  of  its  in- 
habitants seem  to  have  been  undoubtedly  of  Messenian 
origin,  and  amongst  them  Anaxilas,  despot  of  the  town 
between  500-470  B.C.,  who  traced  his  descent  through  two 
centuries  to  a  Messenian  emigrant  named  Alkidamidas.  l 
The  celebrity  and  power  of  Anaxilas,  just  at  the  time 
when  the  ancient  history  of  the  Greek  towns  was  begin- 
ning fro  be  set  forth  in  prose  and  with  some  degree  of 
system,  caused  the  Messenian  element  in  the  population  of 
Rhegium  to  be  noticed  prominently.  But  the  town  was 
essentially  Chalkidic,  connected  by  colonial  sisterhood 
Chalkidic  with  the  Chalkidic  settlements  in  Sicily  —  Zankle. 
settlements  Naxos,  Katana,  and  Leontini.  The  original 
slciiy—  and  emigrants  departed  from  Chalkis,  as  a  tenth  of 
Rhegium,  the  citizens  consecrated  by  vow  to  Apollo  in 
NaxolT'Ka-  consequence  of  famine;  and  the  directions  of  the 
tana,  Leon-  god,  as  well  as  the  invitation  of  the  Zanklaeans, 
guided  their  course  to  Rhegium.  The  town  was 
nourishing,  and  acquired  a  considerable  number  of  depend- 
ent villages  around,2  inhabited  doubtless  by  cultivators  of 
the  indigenous  population.  But  it  seems  to  have  been 
often  at  variance  with  the  conterminous  Lokrians,  and 
received  one  severe  defeat,  in  conjunction  with  the  Taren- 
tines,  which  will  be  hereafter  recounted. 

Between  Lokri  and  the  Lakinian  cape  were  situated 
the  Achaean  colony  of  Kaulonia,  and  Skylletium;  the  latter 
Kaui6nia  seemingly  included  in  the  domain  of  Kroton, 
and  though  pretending  to  have  been  originally 

Skyiistium.  foun(je(j  ty.  Menestheus,  the  leader  of  the  Athe- 
nians at  the  siege  of  Troy:  Petilia,  also,  a  hill-  fortress 
north-west  of  the  Lakinian  cape,  as  well  as  Makalla,  both 
comprised  in  the  territory  of  Kroton,  were  affirmed  to  have 
been  founded  by  Philoktetes.  Along  all  this  coast  of  the 
Gulf  of  Tarentum,  there  were  various  establishments 
ascribed  to  the  heroes  of  the  Trojan  war3  —  Epeius, 


1  Strabo,  vi.  p.  257;    Pausan.  iv.      (X7 
23,  2.  Tsptoi7.io3(;  |J)TE  o'jy/ac,  <tc. 

a  Strabo,    vi.    p.   258.      izyj-t    £i          *    Strabo,     vi.     p.     263;     Aristot. 


CHAP.  XXII.  CHALKIDIC  SETTLEMENTS.  381 

Philoktetes,  Nestor — or  to  their  returning  troops.  Of  these 
establishments,  probably  the  occupants  had  been  small, 
miscellaneous,  unacknowledged  bauds  of  Grecian  adven- 
turers, i  who  assumed  to  themselves  the  most  honourable 
origin  which  they  could  imagine,  and  who  became  after- 
wards absorbed  into  the  larger  colonial  establishments 
which  followed;  the  latter  adopting  and  taking  upon 
themselves  the  heroic  worship  of  Philoktetes  or  other 
warriors  from  Troy,  which  the  prior  emigrants  had  begun. 
During  the  flourishing  times  of  Sybaris  and  Kroton, 
it  seems  that  these  two  great  cities  divided  the  whole 
length  of  the  coast  of  the  Tarentine  Gulf,  from  the  spot 
now  called  Rocca  Imperiale  down  to  the  south  of  the  La- 
kinian  cape.  Between  the  point  where  the  dominion  of 
Sybaris  terminated  on  the  Tarentine  side,  and  Tareiitum 
itself,  there  were  two  considerable  Grecian  settlements — 
Siris,  afterwards  called  Herakleia  and  Metapon- 
tium.  The  fertility  and  attraction  of  the  terri-  JaSlkTeia. 
tory  of  Siris,  with  its  two  rivers,  Akiris  and 
Siris,  were  well-known  even  to  the  poet  Archilochus2 
(060  B.  c.),  but  we  do  not  know  the  date  at  which  it  passed 
from  the  indigenous  Choriians  or  Chaonians  into  the  hands 
of  Greek  settlers.  A  citizen  of  Siris  is  mentioned  among 
the  suitors  for  the  daughter  of  the  Sikyonian  Kleisthenes 
(580-560  B.  c.)  AVe  are  told  that  some  Kolophonian  fugi- 
tives, emigrating  to  escape  the  dominion  of  the  Lydian 
kings,  attacked  and  possessed  themselves  of  the  spot, 
giviiig  to  it  the  name  Polieion.  The  Chonians  of  Siris 
jiscribod  to  themselves  a  Trojan  origin,  exhibiting  a  wooden 
image  of  the  Ilian  Athene,  which  they  affirmed  to  have 
been  brought  away  by  their  fugitive  ancestors  after  the 
capture  of  Troy.  When  the  town  was  stormed  by  the 
.Ionian?,  many  of  the  inhabitants  clung  to  this  relic  for 
protection,  but  were  dragged  away  and  slain  by  the 
victors, :J  whose  sacrilege  was  supposed  to  have  been  t"io 
cause  that  their  settlement  was  not  durable.  At  the  time 

Mirab.Ausc.   c.  100  ;    Atlienio.   xii.  2  Archiloch.  FraRin.  17,  ed.  Schnci- 

p.  r,->:\.     It  id  to  these  ret.mted  Kho-  dewin. 

;•:•;,„    companions    of    TWpolomua  *  Herodot.  vi.  127 ;  Btrabo,  vi.  p. 

before  Troy,    that    the    allusion  in  262.     The  na.no  Foheion   seems  to 

Strabo  refers,  to  Rhodian  occupants  be  read  lUsIov   in    Aristot.  Mirab. 

near  Sybaris  (xiv.  p.  CM).  Auscult.  10i5. 

i  BeoJTaiinort    Geographic,  part  Xicbuhr  assigns  this  Kolophonian 

•  .    ,     0    ell    n    „    93,1°  settlement  of  Siris  to  the  reign  of 


382  EISTOBY  OF  GBEEC3.  PABT  II. 

of  the  invasion  of  Greece  by  Xerxes,  the  fertile  territory 
of  Siritis  was  considered  as  still  open  to  be  colonised;  for 
the  Athenians,  when  their  affairs  appeared  desperate,  had 
this  scheme  of  emigration  in  reserve  as  a  possible  resource; 1 
and  there  were  inspired  declarations  from  some  of  the 
contemporary  prophets  which  encouraged  them  to  under- 
take it.  At  length,  after  the  town  of  Thurii  had  been 
founded  by  Athens,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  dismantled  Sy- 
baris,  the  Thurians  tried  to  possess  themselves  of  the  Siri- 
tid  territory,  but  were  opposed  by  the  Tarentines. 2  Ac- 
cording to  the  compromise  concluded  between  them. 
Tarentum  was  recognised  as  the  metropolis  of  the  colony, 
but  joint  possession  was  allowed  both  to  Tarentines  and 
Thurians.  The  former  transferred  the  site  of  the  city, 
under  the  new  name  Herakleia,  to  a  spot  three  miles  from 
the  sea,  leaving  Siris  as  the  place  of  maritime  access  to  it.3 
About  twenty-five  miles  eastward  of  Siris  on  the  coast 
Metapon-  of  theTarentine  Gulf  was  situated  Hetapontium, 
tium.  a  Greek  town  which  was  affirmed  by  some  to 

draw  its  origin  from  the  Pylian  companions  of  Xestor — by 
others,  from  the  Phokian  warriors  of  Epeius,  on  their  re- 
turn from  Troy.  The  proofs  of  the  former  were  exhibited 
in  the  worship  of  the  Neleid  heroes, — the  proofs  of  the 
latter  in  the  preservation  of  the  reputed  identical  tools 
with  which  Epeius  had  constructed  the  Trojan  horse.4 
Metapontium  was  planted  on  the  territory  of  the  Chonians 
or  (Enotrians,  but  the  first  colony  is  said  to  have  been  de- 
stroyed by  an  attack  of  the  Samnites,5  at  what  period  we 

Gyges  in  Lydia;  for -which  I  know  *  Strabo,  1.  c. ;  Justin,  xx.  2  ;  Vel- 

no  other  evidence  except  the  state-  leius  Paterc.   i.    1;    Aristot.  Miralj. 

ment   that  Gyges   took   TUJV   Ko).o-  Auscult.  c.  108.    This  story  respect- 

cwv'.iov   to    aatu   (Herodot.   i.    14);  ing  the   presence   and  implements 

but  this  is  no  proof  that  the  inhabit-  of  Epeius  may  have  arisen  through 

ants  then  emigrated;  forKoloph&n  the  Phocian  settlers  from  Krissa. 

was   a  very   flourishing   and  pros-  5  The  words  of  Strabo — r^avlsCr, 

perous  city  afterwards.  8'    OTTO    Socu'ntcLv    (vi.   p.    264)    can 

Justin    (xx.    2)   gives   a    case    of  hardly    be    connected     with     the 

sacrilegious    massacre    committed  immediately    following    narrative 

near  the  statue  of  Athene  at  Siris,  which  he   gives  out  of  Antiochus, 

which   appears   to   be    totally  dif-  respecting  the  revival  of  the  place 

ferent  from  the  tale  respecting  the  by   new  Achaean   settlers,    invited 

Kolophouians.  by  the   Achfeans    of  Sybaris.     For 

1  Herodot.  viii,  62.  the    latter    place    was   reduced  to 

1  Strabo,  vi.  p.  2G1.  impotence  in  510  B.C.:    invitations 

'  Strabo,  I.  c.  by   the  Acharans   of  Sybaria    must 


CHAP.  XXII.  METAPONTIUM.  3S3 

do  not  know.  It  had  been  founded  by  some  Achaean  settlers 
— under  the  direction  of  the  rekist  Daulius,  despot  of  the 
Phokian  Krissa,  and  invited  by  the  inhabitants  of  Sybaris 
— who  feared  that  the  place  might  be  appropriated  by  the 
neighbouring  Tarentines,  colonists  from  Sparta  and  here- 
ditary enemies  in  Peloponnesus  of  the  Achcean  race.  Be- 
fore the  new  settlers  arrived,  however,  the  place  seems  to 
have  been  already  appropriated  by  the  Tarentines;  for  the 
Achaean  Leukippus  only  obtained  their  permission  to  land 
by  a  fraudulent  promise,  and  after  all  had  to  sustain  a 
forcible  struggle  both  with  them  and  with  the  neighbour- 
ing CEnotrians,  which  was  compromised  by  a  division  of 
territory.  The  fertility  of  the  Metapontine  territory  was 
hardly  less  celebrated  than  that  of  the  Siritid. l 

Farther  eastward  of  lletapontium,  again  at  the  dis- 
tance of  about  twenty-five  miles,  was  situated  Tarentum 
the  great  city  of  Taras  or  Tarentum,  a  colony  -circum- 
from  Sparta  founded  after  the  first  Messenian  Of  its 
war,  seemingly  about  707  B.  c.  The  cekist  foundation. 
Phalanthus,  said  to  have  been  a  Herakleid,  was  placed  at 
the  head  of  a  body  of  Spartan  emigrants — consisting  prin- 
cipally of  some  citizens  called  Epeunaktas  and  of  the  youth 
called  Parthenia?,  who  had  been  disgraced  by  their  country- 
men on  account  of  their  origin  and  were  on  the  point  of 
breaking  out  into  rebellion.  It  was  out  of  the  Messenian 
war  that  this  emigration  is  stated  to  have  arisen,  in  a  man- 
ner analogous  to  that  which  has  been  stated  respecting  the 
Epizephyrian  Lokrians.  The  Lacedsemonians,  before  enter- 
ing Messenia  to  carry  on  the  war,  had  made  a  vow  not  to 
return  until  they  should  have  completed  the  conquest;  a 
vow  in  which  it  appears  that  some  of  them  declined  to  take 
part,  standing  altogether  aloof  from  the  expedition.  "When 

therefore  be  anterior  to  that  date,  of  Metapontium  by  the  Greeks,  not 

Tf  Daulius  despot  of  Krissa   is   to  to  the  revival  of  the  town  after  its 

be  admitted  as  the  cokist  of  Meta-  destruction  by  the  Samnites. 

pontium,  the  plantation  of  it  must  '  Strabo,    L    c.;    Stephanus   Byz. 

be  placed  early  in  the  first  half  of  (v.  Mstoctto-mov)  identities  Metapon- 

the  sixth    century   B.C.  ;    but   there  tiura    and    Siris    in    a    perplexing 

is  great  difficulty  in  admitting  the  manner. 

extension  of  Samnite  conquests  to  Livy    (xxv.  15)   recognises  Meta- 

the  Gulf  of  Tarentum    at    so  early  pontium  as  Achaean:  compare  Hey 

a  period  as  this.     I   therefore  con-  no,  Opuscula,  vol.  ii.,  Prolus.  xii 

?tni(!    the  words    of  Antioclitis    as  p.  207. 
referring  to  the  original  settlement 


384  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  li- 

the absent  soldiers  returned  after  many  years  of  absence 
consumed  in  the  war,  they  found  a  numerous  progeny 
which  had  been  born  to  their  wives  and  daughters  during 
the  interval,  from  intercourse  with  those  (Epeunaktse)  who 
had  staid  at  home.  The  Epeunaktse  were  punished  by 
being  degraded  to  the  rank  and  servitude  of  Helots;  the 

children  thus  born,  called  Parthenise,  l  were  also 
thenia;^-"  cut  off  from  all  the  rights  of  citizenship,  and 
Phaianthus  hei<j  in  dishonour.  But  the  parties  punished 

were  numerous  enough  to  make  themselves 
formidable,  and  a  conspiracy  was  planned  among  them  in- 
tended to  break  out  at  the  great  religious  festival  of  the 
Hyakinthia,  in  the  temple  of  the  Amyklsean  Apollo.  Pha- 
ianthus was  the  secret  chief  of  the  conspirators,  who  agreed 
to  commence  their  attack  upon  the  authorities  at  the  mo- 
ment when  he  should  put  on  his  helmet.  The  leader,  how- 
ever, never  intending  that  the  scheme  should  be  executed, 
betrayed  it  beforehand,  stipulating  for  the  safety  of  all 
those  implicated  in  it.  At  the  commencement  of  the  fes- 
tival, when  the  multitude  were  already  assembled,  a  herald 
was  directed  to  proclaim  aloud  that  Phaianthus  would  not 
on  that  day  put  on  his  helmet — a  proclamation  which  at 
once  revealed  to  the  conspirators  that  they  were  betrayed. 
Some  of  them  sought  safety  in  flight,  others  assumed  the 
posture  of  suppliants;  but  they  were  merely  detained  in 
confinement,  with  assurance  of  safety,  while  Phalanthus 
was  sent  to  the  Delphian  oracle  to  ask  advice  respecting 
emigration.  He  is  said  to  have  inquired  whether  he  might 
be  permitted  to  appropriate  the  fertile  plain  of  Sikyon, 
but  the  Pythian  priestess  emphatically  dissuaded  him,  and 
enjoined  him  to  conduct  his  emigrants  to  Satyrium  and 
Tarentum,  where  he  would  be  "a  mischief  to  the  lapygians." 
Phaianthus  obeyed,  and  conducted  the  detected  conspira- 
tors as  emigrants  to  the  Tarentine  Gulf,  -  which  he  reached 

1  Parthenise,  i.  e.  children  of  vir-  Rustica,  ii.  10,  9.) 

gins:    the     description    given     by  2  For   this    story  respecting   the 

~Va.no     of     the    Illyrian    virginea  foundation  of  Tarentum,  see  Strabo, 

illustrates  this  phrase : — "Quas  vir-  vi.  p.  278—280  (who  gives  the  ver- 

gines  ibi   appellant,    nonnunquam  sions  both  of  Antiochus  and  Epho- 

annorum    xx,    quibus    mos    eorum  rus)  ;  Justin,  iii.  4  ;    Diodorus,  xv. 

non    denegavit,     ante    nuptias    ut  C6 ;  Excerpta  Vatican,  lib.  vii.— x., 

succumberent    quibus    vellent,    et  ed.  Mali,  Fr.  12;  Servius  ad  Virgil, 

incomitatis    ut    vagari    liceret,    et  JEuoid.  iii.  551. 

lileroa   habere."     (Varro ,    De  Be  There  are  several  points  of  clif- 


CHAP.  XXII.    HAEBOUB  AND  FISHERY  OF  TARENTUM.  385 

a  few  years  after  the  foundation  of  Sybaris  and  Kroton  by 
the  Achseans.  According  to  Ephorus,  he  found  these  prior 
emigrants  at  war  with  the  natives,  aided  them  in  the  con- 
test, and  received  in  return  their  aid  to  accomplish  his 
own  settlement.  But  this  can  hardly  have  consisted  with 
the  narrative  of  Antiochus,  who  represented  the  Achaeans 
of  Sybaris  as  retaining  even  in  their  colonies  the  hatred 
against  the  Dorian  name  which  they  had  contracted  in 
Peloponnesus.1  Antiochus  stated  that  Phalanthus  and  his 
colonists  were  received  in  a  friendly  manner  by  the  in- 
digenous inhabitants  and  allowed  to  establish  their  new 
town  in  tranquillity. 

If  such  was  really  the  fact,  it  proves  that  the  native 
inhabitants  of  the  soil  must  have  been  of  purelv   c 

.    ,        ,  ,     -.  .,  ,  .  „  , ,  • ,  i  Situation 

inland  habits,  making  no  use  ot  the  sea  either   and  tom- 
for  commerce  or  for  fishery,  otherwise  they  would   *orv  of 

i         TI      i  v          •   i     j  i  -L  j.1     L     c    Tarentum. 

hardly  have  relinquished  such  a  site  as  that  of 
Tarentum — which,  while  favourable  and  productive  even 
in  regard  to  the  adjoining  land,  was  with  respect  to  sea- 
advantages  without  a  parallel  in  Grecian  Italy.2  It  was 
the  only  spot  in  the  Gulf  which  possessed  a  perfectly  safe 
and  convenient  harbour.  A  spacious  inlet  of  the  sea  is 
there  formed,  sheltered  by  an  isthmus  and  an  outlying- 
peninsula  so  as  to  leave  only  a  narrow  entrance.  This 
inlet,  still  known  as  the  Mare  Piccolo,  though  its  shores 
and  the  adjoining  tongue  of  land  appear  to  have  undergone 
much  change,  affords  at  the  present  day  a  constant,  inex- 
haustible, and  varied  supply  of  fish,  especially  of  shell-fish; 
which  furnish  both  nourishment  and  employment  to  a  large 
proportion  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  contracted  modern 
Taranto,  just  as  they  once  served  the  same  purpose  to  the 
numerous,  lively,  and  jovial  population  of  the  mighty 
Tarentum.  The  concentrated  population  of  fishermen 

ference  between  Antiochus,  Epho-  The  local  eponymous  heroes  Ta- 

rus  and   Servius ;   the    story  given  ras    and    Satyrus    (from   Satyrium) 

iu  the  text  follows  the  former.  were    celebrated    and    worshipped 

The   statement   of  Hesychius  (v.  among  the  Tarontines.  See  Cieero, 

rixf/BcMETai)    seems    on    the     whole  Verr.   iv.  fiO,  13;    Servius   ad   Virg. 

somewhat    more    intelligible   than  Guorg.   ii.    197;    Zumpt.  ap.  Orelli, 

that  given  by  Strabo — Ot  xa-i  TO-J  Onomasticoii  Tullian.  ii.  p.  570. 

Mi3jr,-nax6v  r.6),£|j.ov  auTot;  ysvi[jL£v'ji  '  Compare  Strabo,  vi.  p.  264  and 

EX  Tibv   QspaitaivoiV    xcrt    oi   e~    av  =  x-  p.  280. 

£OTO'J  XiQpa  YSV«U|ASVOI  raTo.-q.   Jus-  2  Strabo,  vi.  p.  278;   Polyb.  x.  1. 
tin  translates  Parthenice,  Sjjurii, 

VOL.  III.  2  C 


386 


HISTORY  OF  GEEECE. 


PART  II.. 


formed  a  predominant  element  in  the  character  of  the 
Tarentine  democracy.  *  Tarentum  was  just  on  the  borders 
of  the  country  originally  known  as  Italy,  within  which 
Herodotus  includes  it,  while  Antiochus  considers  it  in 
lapygia,  and  regards  Metapontium  as  the  last  Greek  town 
in  Italy. 

Its  immediate  neighbours  were  the  lapygians,  who, 


1  Juvenal,  Sat.  vi.  297.  "Atque 
coronatum  et  petulans  madidum- 
que  Tarentuin :"  compare  Plato, 
Legg.  i.  p.  637;  and  Herat.  Satir. 
ii.  4,  34.  Aristot.  Polit.  iv.  4,  1. 
oi  otXteic  ev  Tdpavtt  xat  BoCavtitp. 
"Tarentina  ostrea,"  Varro  Fragm. 
p.  301,  ed.  Bipont. 

To  illustrate  this  remark  of 
Aristotle  on  the  fishermen  of  Ta- 
rentum as  the  predominant  class 
in  the  democracy,  I  transcribe  a 
passage  from  Mr.  Keppel  Craven's 
Tour  in  the  Southern  Provinces 
of  Naples,  ch.  x.  p.  182:— "Swin- 
burne gives  a  list  of  ninety-three 
different  sorts  of  shell-fish  which 
are  found  in  the  Gulf  of  Taranto ; 
but  more  especially  in  the  Mare 
Piccolo.  Among  these,  in  ancient 
times,  the  inurex  and  purpura 
ranked  foremost  in  value;  in  our 
degenerate  days  the  muscle  and 
oyster  seem  to  have  usurped  a  pre- 
eminence as  acknowledged  but  less 
dignified ;  but  there  are  numerous 
other  tribes  held  in  proportionate 
estimation  for  their  exquisite  fla- 
vour, and  as  greedily  sought  for 
during  their  respective  seasons. 
The  appetite  for  shellfish  of  all 
sorts,  which  seems  peculiar  to  the 
natives  of  these  regions,  is  such 
as  to  appear  exaggerated  to  a 
foreigner,  accustomed  to  consider 
only  a  few  of  them  as  eatable. 
This  taste  exists  at  Taranto,  if 
possible,  in  a  stronger  degree  than 
in  any  other  part  of  the  kingdom, 
and  accounts  for  the  comparatively 
large  revenue  which  government 
draws  from  this  particular  branch 


of  commerce.  The  Mare  Piccolo 
is  divided  into  several  portions, 
which  are  let  to  different  societies, 
•who  thereby  become  the  only  pri- 
vileged fishermen;  the  lower  class- 
es are  almost  all  employed  by 
these  corporations,  as  every  re- 
volving season  of  the  year  affords 
occupation  for  them,  so  that  na- 
ture herself  seems  to  have  afforded 
the  exclusive  trade  most  suited  to 
the  inhabitants  of  Taranto.  Both 
seas  abound  with  varieties  of 
testacea,  but  the  inner  gulf  (the 
Mare  Piccolo)  is  esteemed  most 
favourable  to  their  growth  and 
flavour;  the  sandy  bed  is  literally 
blackened  by  the  muscles  that 
cover  it;  the  boats  that  glide  over 
its  surface  are  laden  with  them; 
they  emboss  the  rocks  that  border 
the  strand,  and  appear  equally 
abundant  on  the  shore,  piled  up 
in  heaps."  Mr.  Craven  goes  on  to 
illustrate  still  farther  the  wonder- 
ful abundance  of  this  fishery;  but 
that  which  haa  been  already  trans- 
cribed, while  it  illustrates  the 
above-noticed  remark  of  Aristotle, 
will  at  the  same  time  help  to  ex- 
plain the  prosperity  aud  physical 
abundance  of  tho  ancient  Taren- 
tum. 

For  an  elaborate  account  of  the 
state  of  cultivation,  especially  of 
the  olive,  near  the  degenerate 
modern  Taranto,  see  the  Travels  of 
M.  de  Salis  Marschlius  in  the 
Kingdom  of  Xaples  (translated  by 
Aufrere,  London,  1795),  sect.  5.  pp. 
82—107,  163—173. 


CHAP.  XXII.  MESSAPIANS.  3S7 

under  various  subdivisions  of  name  and  dialect,  seem  to 
have  occupied  the  greater  part  of  south-eastern  Ia  .ang 
Italy,  including  the  peninsula  denominated  after  ap  gl 
them  (yet  sometimes  also  called  the  Salentine),  between 
the  Adriatic  and  the  Tarentine  Gulf, — and  who  are  even 
stated  at  one  time  to  have  occupied  some  territory  on  the 
south-east  of  that  Gulf,  near  the  site  of  Kroton.  The 
lapygian  name  appears  to  have  comprehended  Messapians, 
Salentines,  andKalabrians;  according  to  some  evenPeuke- 
tians  and  Daunians,  as  far  along  the  Adriatic  as  Mount 
Garganus  or  Drion:  Skylax  notices  in  his  time  (about  300 
B.C.)  five  different  tongues  in  the  country  which  he  calls 
lapygia.  *  The  Messapians  and  Salentines  are  spoken  of 
as  immigrants  from  Krete,  akin  to  theMiuoian  or  primitive 
Kretans;  and  we  find  a  national  genealogy  which  recognises 
lapyx  son  of  Daedalus,  an  immigrant  from  Sicily.  But  the 
story  told  to  Herodotus  was,  that  the  Kretan  soldiers  who 
had  accompanied  Minos  in  his  expedition  to  recover  Dse- 
dalus  from  Kamikus  in  Sicily,  were  on  their  return  home 
cast  away  on  the  shores  of  lapygia,  and  became  the  founders 
of  Hyria  and  other  Messapian  towns  in  the  interior  of  the 
country.2  Brundusium  also,  or  Brentesion  as  the  Greeks 
called  it,3  inconsiderable  in  the  days  of  Herodotus,  but 
famous  intheHoman  times  afterwards  as  the  most  frequented 
sea-port  for  voyaging  to  Epirus,  was  a  Messapian  town. 
The  native  language  spoken  by  the  lapygian  Messa- 
Messapians  was  a  variety  of  the  Oscan:  the  Latin  Pians- 
poet  Ennius,  a  native  of  Rudise  in  the  lapygian  peninsula, 
spoke  Greek,  Latin,  and  Oscan,  and  even  deduced  his  pe- 
digree from  the  ancient  national  prince  or  hero  Messapus.4 

1  Skylax  does  not  mention  at  all  of  the  Motupontine  territory  ;  com- 

the  name  of  Italy;  lie  gives  to  the  prehcnding  Metapontium  iu  Italy, 

whole  coast,  from  Khegium  to  Po-  and    Tarentum    in    lapygia    (Anti- 

seidonia     on     the     Mediterranean,  ochns.     Frag.     C,     cd.     D:dot;     ap. 

and    from    tlio    same    point   to    the  Strabo.  vi.  p.  251). 

limit  between Thurii  and  Heraklcia  Herodotus    however    speaks   not 

on  the  Gulf  of  Tarentum,  the  name  oniy  of  Metapoutium,   but   also  of 

of  Lucania   (c.  li>,  I").     From  this  Tarentum,  as  being  in  Italy  (i.  24; 

point    lie    extends   lapygia   to    the  ijj.  isc, ;  iv.  15). 
Mount  Drion  or  Gar«ann*.   so  that 

he    includes     not    only     Metapon-  Herodot.  vii.  170 ;  Pliny..  H.  N. 

tiurn,    but    also    Heraklcia    in  la-  l!'"  1G;  Athenns.  xii.p  523;  Sorvius 

pygi^  ad  Virgil.  JKncid.  viii.  9. 

Antiochus  draws  theline between         3  Hcrodot.  iv.  t'9. 
Italy  and  lapygia  at  the  extremity         4  Servius    ad  Virgil.  JEr.eid.  vii. 

2  c  2 


388  HISTOBY  OP  GREECE.  PART  II. 

"We  are  told  that  during  the  lifetime  of  Phalanthus, 
the  Tarentine  settlers  gained  victories  over  the  Messapians 
and  Peuketians,  which  they  commemorated  afterwards  by 
votive  offerings  at  Delphi — and  that  they  even  made 
acquisitions  at  the  expense  of  the  inhabitants  of  Brun- 
dusium  * — a  statement  difficult  to  believe,  if  we  look  to  the 
distance  of  the  latter  place,  and  to  the  circumstance  that 
Herodotus  even  in  his  time  names  it  only  as  a  harbour. 
Phalanthus  too,  driven  into  exile,  is  said  to  have  found  a 
hospitable  reception  at  Brundusium  and  to  have  died  there. 
Of  the  history  of  Tarentum,  however,  during  the  first 
230  years  of  its  existence,  we  possess  no  details.  We  have 
reason  to  believe  that  it  partook  in  the  general  prosperity 
of  the  Italian  Greeks  during  those  two  centuries,  though 
remaining  inferior  both  to  Sybaris  and  to  Kroton.  About 
the  year  510  B.C.,  these  two  latter  republics  went  to  war, 
and  Sybaris  was  nearly  destroyed;  while  in  the  subsequent 
half-century  the  Krotoniates  suffered  the  terrible  defeat  of 
Sagra  from  the  Lokrians,  and  the  Tarentines  experienced 
an  equally  ruinous  defeat  from  the  lapygian  Messapians. 
From  these  reverses,  however,  the  Tarentines  appear  to 
have  recovered  more  completely  than  the  Krotoniates ;  for 
the  former  stand  first  among  the  Italiots  or  Italian  Greeks, 
from  the  year  400  B.C.  down  to  the  supremacy  of  the  Ho- 
mans,  and  made  better  head  against  the  growth  of  the  Lu- 
canians  and  Bruttians  of  the  interior. 

Such  were  the  chief  cities  of  the  Italian  Greeks  from 
Prosperity  Tarentum  on  the  upper  sea  to  Poseidonia  on 
of  the  the  lower;  and  if  we  take  them  during  the  period 

Greeks  preceding  the  ruin  of  Sybaris  (in  510  B.C.),  they 
between  will  appear  to  have  enjoyed  a  degree  of  pros- 
700-500  B.C.  perity  even  surpassing  that  of  the  Sicilian 
Greeks.  The  dominion  of  Sybaris,  Kroton,  and  Lokri 
extended  across  the  peninsula  from  sea  to  sea.  The  moun- 
tainous regions  of  the  interior  of  Calabria  were  held  in 
amicable  connexion  with  the  cities  and  cultivators  in  the 
plain  and  valley  near  the  sea — to  the  reciprocal  advantage 
of  both.  The  petty  native  tribes  of  (Enotrians,  Sikels,  or 
Italians  properly  so-called,  were  partially  hellenised,  and 
brought  into  the  condition  of  village  cultivators  and 
shepherds  dependent  upon  Sybaris  and  its  fellow-cities; 

C91.  Polybius  distinguishes  lapy-  *  Pausanias,  x.  10,  3;  x.  13,  5; 
gians  from  Messapians  (ii.  24).  Strabo,  vi.  p.  282;  Justin,  iii.  4. 


C3AP.  XXII.     ASCENDENCY  OF  ITALIAN  GREEKS.  389 

a  portion  of  them  dwelling  in  the  town,  probably,  as 
domestic  slaves  of  the  rich  men,  but  most  of  them  remaining 
in  the  country  region  as  serfs,  Penestse,  or  coloni,  inter- 
mingled with  Greek  settlers,  and  paying  over  parts  of  their 
produce  to  Greek  proprietors. 

But  this  dependence,  though  accomplished  in  the  first 
instance  by  force,  was  yet  not  upheld  exclusively  by  force. 
It  was  to  a  great  degree  the  result  of  an  organised  march 
of  life,  and  of  more  productive  cultivation  brought  within 
their  reach — of  new  wants,  both  created  and  supplied — of 
temples,  festivals,  ships,  walls,  chariots,  &c.,  which  imposed 
upon  the  imagination  of  the  rude  landsmen  and  shepherds* 
Against  mere  force  the  natives  could  have  found  shelter  in 
the  unconquerable  forests  and  ravines  of  the  Calabrian 
Apennines,  and  in  that  vast  mountain  region  of  the  Sila, 
lying  immediately  behind  the  plains  ofSybaris,  where  even 
the  French  army  with  its  excellent  organisation  in  1807 
found  so  much  difficulty  in  reaching  the  bandit  villagers.  * 
It  was  not  by  arms  alone,  but  by  arms  and  arts  combined 
— a  mingled  influence,  such  as  enabled  imperial  Rome  to 
subdue  the  fierceness  of  the  rude  Germans  and  Ascend- 
Britons — that  the  Sybarites  and  Krotoniates  ency  h 
acquired  and  maintained  their  ascendency  over  cEnotrian 
the  natives  of  the  interior.  The  shepherd  of  the  population, 
banks  of  the  river  Sybaris  or  Krathis  not  only  found  a  new 
exchangeable  value  for  his  cattle  and  other  produce,  be- 
coming familiar  with  better  diet  and  clothing  and  improved 
cultivation  of  the  olive  and  the  vine — but  he  was  also 
enabled  to  display  his  prowess,  if  strong  arid  brave,  in  the 
public  games  at  the  festival  of  the  Lakinian  Here,  or  even 
at  the  Olympic  games  in  Peloponnesus.2  It  is  thus  that 
we  have  to  explain  the  extensive  dominion,  the  great 
population,  and  the  wealth  and  luxury  of  the  Sybarites 
and  Krotoniates — a  population  of  which  the  incidental 
reports  as  given  in  figures  are  not  trustworthy,  but  which 
we  may  well  believe  to  have  been  very  numerous.  The 

1  See  a  description  of  the  French  p.    201. 

military  operations  in  those  almost  The    whole    picture    of   Calabria 

inaccessible  regions,   contained  in  contained  in  this   volume   is    both 

a  valuable  publication  by  a  Frencli  interesting   and   instructive:    mili- 

gcncral  officer,    on  service  in  that  tary    operations   had   never  before 

country  for  three  years,    'Calabria  been  carried  on,    probably,  in  the 

during  military  residence  of  three  mountains  of  the  Sila. 

years,'  London,    1832,    Letter     xx  2  See  Theokritvis,  Idyll,  iv    6-35, 


390  HISTORY  OP  GREECE.  PAET  II. 

native  CBnotrians,  while  unable  to  combine  in  resisting 
Greek  force,  were  at  the  same  time  less  widely  distinguished 
from  the  Greeks  in  race  and  language,  than  the  Oscans 
of  Middle  Italy,  and  therefore  more  accessible  to  Greek 
pacific  influences ;  while  the  Oscan  race  seem  to  have  been 
both  fiercer  in  repelling  the  assaults  of  the  Greeks,  and 
more  intractable  as  to  their  seductions.  The  lapygians 
were  not  modified  by  the  neighbourhood  of  Tareutum  in 
the  same  degree  as  the  tribes  adjoining  to  Sybaris  and 
Kroton  by  their  contact  with  those  cities.  The  dialect  of 
Tarentum, l  as  well  as  of  Herakleia,  though  a  marked  Doric, 
admitted  many  local  peculiarities;  and  the  farces  of  the 
Tarentine  poet  Rhinthon,  like  the  Syracusan  Sophron, 
seem  to  have  blended  the  Hellenic  with  the  Italic  in  lan- 
guage as  well  as  in  character. 

About  the  year  560  B.  c.,  the  time  of  the  accession  of 
Peisistratus  at  Athens,  the  close  of  what  may  properly  be 
called  the  first  period  of  Grecian  history,  Sybaris  and 
Kroton  were  at  the  maximum  of  their  power,  which  each 

maintained  for  half  a  century  afterwards,  until 
Syblrfs-1^  the  fatal  dissension  between  them.  "We  are  told 
their  maxi-  that  the  Sybarites  in  that  final  contest  marched 
5GO-5ior0Bmc  against  Kroton  with  an  army  of  300,000  men. 

Fabulous  as  this  number  doubtless  is,  we 
cannot  doubt  that  for  an  irruption  of  this  kind  into  an 
adjoining  territory,  their  large  body  of  semi-hellenised 
native  subjects  might  be  mustered  in  prodigious  force. 
The  few  statements  which  have  reached  us  respecting 
them,  touch,  unfortunately,  upon  little  more  than  their 
luxury,  fantastic  self- indulgence,  and  extravagant  indolence, 
for  which  qualities  they  have  become  proverbial  in  modern 
times  as  well  as  in  ancient.  Anecdotes  illustrating  these 
qualities  were  current,  and  served  more  than  one  purpose 
in  antiquity.  The  philosopher  recounted  them  in  order 
to  discredit  and  denounce  the  character  which  they 
exemplified:  while  among  gay  companies,  "Sybaritic  tales," 
or  tales  respecting  sayings  and  doings  of  ancient  Sybarites, 

which   illustrates   the   point  here  of  Rhinthon  with  the  native  Italic 

stated.  Mimes. 

1   SuidaSj    v.    'PlvOtov;    Stephan.  The  dialect  of  the  other  cities  of 

Byz.  v.  Tapc<;:  compare  Beriihardy,  Italic  Greece  is  very  little  known: 

Grundriss  der  Rb'mischen  Literatur  the    ancient  Inscription  of  Betilia 

Abschnitt    ii.    pt.    2.    p.    1>5,    186,  is  Doric:  see  Ahrens,  De  Dialecto 

about  the  analogy  of  these  tf/.uaxi?  Dorica,  sect.  40.  p.  418. 


CHAP.  XXII.  KBOTON  AND  SYBAEIS.  391 

formed  a  separate  and  special  class  of  excellent  stories  to 
be  told  simply  for  amusement1 — with  which  view  witty 
romancers  multiplied  them  indefinitely.  It  is  probable 
that  the  Pythagorean  philosophers  (who  belonged  origi- 
nally to  Kroton,  but  maintained  themselves  permanently 
as  a  philosophical  sect  in  Italy  and  Sicily,  with  a  strong 
tinge  of  ostentatious  ascetism  and  mysticism),  in  their 
exhortations  to  temperance  and  in  their  denunciations  of 
luxurious  habits,  might  select  by  preference  examples  from. 
Sybaris,  the  ancient  enemy  of  the  Krotoniates,  to  point 
their  moral ;  and  that  the  exaggerated  reputation  of  the 
city  thus  first  became  the  subject  of  common  talk  through- 
out the  Grecian  world.  For  little  could  be  actually 
known  of  Sybaris  in  detail,  since  its  humiliation  dates  from 
the  first  commencement  of  Grecian  contemporaneous 
history.  Hekataeus  of  Miletus  may  perhaps  have  visited 
it  in  its  full  splendour,  but  even  Herodotus  knew  it  only 
by  past  report;  and  the  principal  anecdotes  respecting  it 
are  cited  from  authors  considerably  later  than  him,  who 
follow  the  tone  of  thought  so  common  in  antiquity,  in 
ascribing  the  ruin  of  the  Sybarites  to  their  overweening 
corruption  and  luxury. 2 

1  Aristopb.  Vesp.  1260.  Alaunnxov  KleisthenSs  of  SikySn  invited  from 

•yEXoiov,  y)  2'jpapiTiv.ov.  What  is  all  Greece  suitors  of  proper  dignity 

meant  by  Su^otpiTiy.ov  ysXoiov  is  for  the  hand  of  his  daughter, 

badly  explained  by  the  Scholiast,  Smindyride's  of  Sybaris  carne  among 

but  is  perfectly  well  illustrated  by  the  number,  "the  most  delicate  and 

Aristophanes  himself  in  subsequent  luxurious  man  ever  known"  (ent 

verses  of  the  samo  play  (1427-1436),  rXEioTov  67)  y}.^-?^  els  dvrjp  ditsixsTo 

where  Philokleon  tells  two  good  — Herodot.  vi.  127),  and  Sybaris 

stories  respecting  ua  Sybaritan  was  at  that  time  (B.C.  580-560)  in 

man,"  and  a  "woman  in  Sybaris:"  its  greatest  prosperity.  In  Cha- 

'A-«jp  Suftepit/j?  £;£«J£M  e£  apiAiTO?,  nifeleon,  Tima:us,  and  other  writers 

&c.— sv  2'j3apsi  YUV13  rcOTe  KaTJaE'  subsequent  to  Aristotle,  greater 

dyivoM1  *c.  details  wore  given.  Smindyrides 

These  2'j3otpia  e-ttpOsYt*'"01  are  as  was  sai<l  to  have  taken  with  him 

old  as  Epicharmus,  whose  mind  to  the  marriage  100  domestic  ser- 

v.-as  much  imbued  with  the  Pytha-  vants,  fishermen,  bird-catchers,  and 

gorean  philosophy.  See  Etymolog.  cooks  (Atheuoe.  vi.  271;  xii.  541). 

Magn.  2o3«pi"£iv.  -ZElian  amused  The  details  of  Sybaritic  luxury, 

himself  also  with  the  ijTopictt  2'jpa-  given  in  A  thenasus  ,  are  chiefly 

pnixai  (V.  H.  xiv.  20):  compare  borrowed  from  writers  of  this  post- 

Hesychius,  S'j^^pi'ixo'i  Xoyoi,  and  Aristotelian  age — Herakleides  of 

Suidas,  Su^apiTtxat?.  Pontus,  Phylarchus,  Klearohu«, 

'2  Thus  Herodotus  (vi.  127)  in-  Tim:eus  (Athenie.  vii.  519-522). 

forms  us  that  at  the  time  when  The  best-authenticated  of  all  tho 


392 


HISTOKY  OF  GBEECB. 


PART  II. 


Making  allowance,  however,  for  exaggeration  on  all 
these  accounts,  there  can  be  no  reason  to  doubt 
The  £y£a:  that  Sybaris,  in  560  B.  c.,  was  one  of  the  most 
luxury—61  wealthy,  populous,  and  powerful  cities  of  the 
their  orga-  Hellenic  name;  and  that  it  also  presented  both 
fndustry'  comfortable  abundance  among  the  mass  of  the 
and  power,  citizens,  arising  from  the  easy  attainment  of 
fresh  lots  of  fertile  land,  and  excessive  indul- 
gences among  the  rich — to  a  degree  forming  marked 
contrast  with  Hellas  Proper,  of  which  Herodotus  charac- 
terised Poverty  as  the  foster-sister.1  The  extraordinary 
productiveness  of  the  neighbouring  territory — alleged  by 
Varro,  in  his  time,  when  the  culture  must  have  been  much 
worse  than  it  had  been  under  the  old  Sybaris,  to  yield  an 
ordinary  crop  of  a  hundred-fold,2  and  extolled  by  modern 


examples  of  Sybaritic  wealth  is 
the  splendid  figured  garment,  fif- 
teen cubits  in  length,  which 
AlkimenSs  the  Sybarite  dedicated 
as  a  votive  offering  in  the  temple 
of  the  Lakinian  Here.  Dionysius 
of  Syracuse  plundered  that  temple, 
got  possession  of  the  garment,  and 
is  said  to  have  sold  it  to  the  Car- 
thaginians for  th-e  price  of  120 
talents:  Polemou  the  Periegetes 
seems  to  have  seen  it  at  Carthage 
(Aristot.  Mirab.  Ausc.  96;  Athense. 
xii.  541).  Whether  the  price  be 
correctly  stated,  we  are  not  iu  a 
situation  to  determine. 

1  Herodot.    vii.    102.     r-g    'EXXdBi 
HSVIT)  [J.SV  alei  XOTS  auvxpocpo?  £ati. 

2  Varro,    De   Ke    Kustica,    i.   44. 
"In  Sybaritano    dicunt   etiam  cum 
centesimo    redire     solitum."      The 
land  of   the   Italic    Greeks   stands 
iirst  for  wheaten  bread   and  beef; 
that    of    Syracuse     for    pork     and 
cheese   (Hermippus   ap.  Athense.  i. 
p.  27):   about   the  excellent  -wheat 
of     Italy,      compare      Sophokl6s, 
Triptolem.  Frag.    529,  ed.  Dindorf. 

Theophrastus  dwells  upon  the 
excellence  of  the  land  near  Mylre, 
in  the  territory  of  the  Sicilian 
Messene,  which  produced  (accord- 
ing to  him)  thirty-fold  (Hist.  Plant. 


ix.  2,  8.  p.  259,  ed.  Schneid.).  This 
affords  some  measure  of  compari- 
son both  for  the  real  excellence 
of  the  ancient  Sybaritan  territory, 
and  for  the  estimation  in  which  it 
was  held:  its  estimated  produce 
being  more  than  three  times  that 
ofMyliB. 

See  in  Mr.  Keppel  Craven's  Tour 
in  the  Southern  Provinces  of  Naples 
(chapters  xi.  xii.  pp.  212-218), 
the  description  of  the  rich  and 
productive  plain  of  the  Krathis 
(in  the  midst  of  which  stood  the 
ancient  Sybaris),  extending  about 
sixteen  miles  from  Cassano  to  Co- 
rigliano,  and  about  twelve  miles 
from  the  former  town  to  the  sea. 
Compare  also  the  picture  of  the 
same  country  in  the  work  by  a 
French  officer  referred  to  in  a  pre- 
vious note,  'Calabria  during  a  mi- 
litary residence  of  three  years.' 
London,  1832,  Letter  xxii.  p.  219 
—226. 

Hekatseus  (c.  39,  ed.  Klausen) 
calls  Cosa — Koaaa,  rcoXi?  O'ivunpu>v 
ev  (xsooyaie'..  Cos&  is  considered  to 
be  identical,  seemingly  on  good 
grounds,  with  the  modern  Cassano 
(Csesar,  Bell.  Civ.  iii.  22):  assu- 
ming this  to  be  correct,  there  must 
have  been  an  CEnotrian  dependent 


CHAP.  XXII.  FERTILE  LANDS  OF  SYBARIS.  393 

travellers  even  in  its  present  yet  more  neglected  culture 
— has  been  already  touched  upon.  The  river  Krathis — 
still  the  most  considerable  river  of  that  region — at  a  time 
when  there  was  an  industrious  population  to  keep  its 
water-course  in  order,  would  enable  the  extensive  fields 
of  Sybaris  to  supply  abundant  nourishment  for  a  popula- 
tion larger  perhaps  than  any  other  Grecian  city  could 
parallel.  But  though  nature  was  thus  bountiful,  industry, 
good  management,  and  well-ordered  government  were 
required  to  turn  her  bounty  to  account:  where  'these  are 
wanting,  later  experience  of  the  same  territory  shows  that, 
its  inexhaustible  capacities  may  exist  in  vain.  That  luxury 
which  Grecian  moralists  denounced  in  the  leading  Syba- 
rites between  560  and  510  B.  c.,  was  the  result  of  acqui- 
sitions vigorously  and  industriously  pushed,  and  kept 
together  by  an  orderly  central  force,  during  a  century 
and  a  half  that  the  colony  had  existed.  Though  the  Troe- 
zenian  settlers  who  formed  a  portion  of  the  original  emi- 
grants had  been  expelled  when  the  Achseans  became  more 
numerous,  yet  we  are  told  that,  on  the  whole,  Sybaris  was 
liberal  in  the  reception  of  new  immigrants  to  the  citizen- 
ship t  and  that  this  was  one  of  the  causes  of  its  remarkable 
advance.  Of  these  additional  comers  we  may  presume 
that  many  went  to  form  its  colonies  on  the  Mediterranean 
Sea,  and  some  to  settle  both  among  its  four  dependent 
inland  nations  and  its  twenty-five  subject  towns.  Five 
thousand  horsemen,  we  are  told,  clothed  in  showy  attire, 
formed  the  processional  march  in  certain  Sybaritic  festi- 
vals— a  number  which  is  best  appreciated  by  comparison 
with  the  fact,  that  the  knights  or  horsemen  of  Athens  in 
her  best  days  did  not  exceed  1200.  The  Sybaritic  horses 
if  we  are  to  believe  a  story  purporting  to  come  from 
Aristotle,  were  taught  to  move  to  the  sound  of  the  flute; 
and  the  garments  of  these  wealthy  citizens  were  composed 
of  the  finest  wool  from  Miletus  in  Ionia2 — the  Tarentine 
wool  not  having  then  acquired  the  distinguished  renown 
which  it  possessed  five  centuries  afterwards  towards  the 
close  of  the  Roman  republic.  Next  to  the  great  abundance 
of  home  produce — corn,  wine,  oil,  flax,  cattle,  fish,  timber, 
&c. — the  fact  next  in  importance,  which  we  hear  respecting 
Sybaris  is,  the  great  traffic  carried  on  with  Miletus :  these 

town  within  eight  miles  of  tlio  an-          *  Diodor.  xii.  9. 

cieut  city  of  Sybaria.  »  Atheuicus,  xii.  p.  619. 


394  HISTOBY  OF  GBEECE.  PABT  II. 

two  cities  were  more  intimately  and  affectionately  connect- 
ed together  than  any  two  Hellenic  cities  within  the  know- 
ledge of  Herodotus,1  The  tie  between  Tarentum  and 
Knidus  was  also  of  a  very  intimate  character,2  so  that  the 
great  intercourse,  personal  as  well  as  commercial,  between 
the  Asiatic  and  the  Italic  Greeks,  appears  as  a  marked 
fact  in  the  history  of  the  sixth  century  before  the  Christian 
sera. 

In  this  re  spect,  as  well  as  in  several  others,  the  Hel- 
lenic world  wears  a  very  different  aspect  in  560  B.  c.  from 
that  which  it  assumed  a  century  afterwards,  and  in  which 
it  is  best  known  to  modern  readers.  At  the  former  period 
Grecian  the  ^onic  and  Italic  Greeks  are  the  great  orna- 
worid  ments  of  the  Hellenic  name,  carrying  on  a  more 

560°  B!C.  lucrative  trade  with  each  other  than  either  of 
ionic  and  them  maintained  with  Greece  Proper;  which 
Greeks  are  both  of  them  recognised  as  their  mother  country, 
then  the  though  without  admitting  any  thing  in  the  nature 
rn\?nenPtr0~  of  established  headship.  The  military  power 
among  of  Sparta  is  indeed  at  this  time  great  and  pre- 
ponderant in  Peloponnesus,  but  she  has  no  navy, 
and  she  is  only  just  essaying  her  strength,  not  without 
reluctance,  in  ultramarine  interference.  After  the  lapse 
of  a  century,  these  circumstances  change  materially.  The 
independence  of  the  Asiatic  Greeks  is  destroyed,  and  the 
power  of  the  Italic  Greeks  is  greatly  broken;  while  Sparta 
and  Athens  not  only  become  the  prominent  and  leading 
Hellenic  states,  but  constitute  themselves  centres  of  action 
for  the  lesser  cities  to  a  degree  previously  unknown. 

It  was  during  the  height  of  their  prosperity,  seem- 
ingly, in  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  that  the  Italic  Greeks 
either  acquired  for,  or  bestowed  upon,  their  territory  the 
appellation  of  Magna  Graecia,  which  at  that  time  it  well 
deserved;  for  not  only  were  Sybaris  and  Kroton  then  the 
greatest  Grecian  cities  situated  near  together,  but  the 
whole  peninsula  of  Calabria  may  be  considered  as  attached 
to  the  Grecian  cities  on  the  coast.  The  native  (Enotrians 
and  Sikels  occupying  the  interior  had  become  hellenised, 
or  semi-hellenised  with  a  mixture  of  Greeks  among  them — 

1  Herodot.  vi.  21.  Respecting  the  The  pitch  from   the   pine  forests 

great  abundance  of  ship-timber  in  in  the  Sila  was  also  abundant  and 

the  territory  of  the  Italiots  (Italic  celebrated  (Strabo,  vi.  p.  261). 

Greeks,),  see  Thucyd.  vi.  90;  vii.  25.  z  Herodot.  iii.  138. 


Cnxp.  XXII.        GREECE  IN  SIXTH  CENTURY  B.C.  395 

common  subjects  of  these  great  cities.  The  whole  extent 
of  the  Calabrian  peninsula,  within  an  imaginary  straight 
line  carried  from  Sybaris  to  Poseidonia,  might  then  be 
fairly  considered  as  Hellenic  territory.  Sybaris  maintained 
much  traffic  with  the  Tuscan  towns  in  the  Mediterranean; 
so  that  the  communication  between  Greece  and  Rome, 
across  the  Calabrian  isthmus,1  may  perhaps  have  been 
easier  during  the  time  of  the  Roman  kings  (whose  expulsion 
was  nearly  contemporaneous  with  the  ruin  of  Sybaris) 
than  it  became  afterwards  during  the  first  two  Conse- 
centuries  of  the  Roman  republic.  But  all  these  quences 
relations  underwent  a  complete  change  after  the  fail  olf 
breaking  up  of  the  power  of  Sybaris  in  510  B.C.,  Sybaris. 
and  the  gradual  march  of  the  Oscan  population  from  Middle 
Italy  towards  the  south.  Cumae  was  overwhelmed  by  the 
Samnites,  Poseidonia  by  the  Lucanians;  who  became  pos- 
sessed not  only  of  these  maritime  cities,  but  also  of  the 
whole  inland  territory  (now  called  the  Basilicata,  with  part 
of  the  Hither  Calabria)  across  from  Poseidonia  to  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  Gulf  of  Tarentum:  while  the  Brut- 
tians — a  mixture  of  outlying  Lucanians  with  the  Greco- 
(Enotrian  population  once  subject  to  Sybaris,  speaking 
both  Greek  and  Oscan2 — became  masters  of  the  inland 
mountains  in  the  Farther  Calabria  from  Consentia  nearly 
to  the  Sicilian  strait.  It  was  thus  that  the  ruin  of  Sybaris, 
combined  with  the  spread  of  the  Lucanians  and  Bruttians, 
deprived  the  Italic  Greeks  of  thufc  inland  territory  which 
they  had  enjoyed  in  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  and  restricted 
them  to  the  neighbourhood  of  the  coast.  To  understand 
the  extraordinary  power  and  prosperity  of  Sybaris  and 
Kroton,  in  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  when  the  whole  of  this 
inland  territory  was  subject  to  them  and  before  the  rise 
of  the  Lucanians  and  Bruttians,  and  when  the  name  Magna 
Graecia  was  first  given — it  is  necessary  to  glance  by  con- 
trast at  these  latter  periods;  more  especially  since  the 
same  name  still  continued  to  be  applied  by  the  Romans  to 
Italic  Greece  after  the  contraction  of  territory  had  rendered 
it  less  appropriate. 

Of  Kroton  at  this  early  period  of  its  power  and  pros- 
perity we  know  even  less  than  of  Sybaris.  It  stood  dis- 
tinguished both  for  the  number  of  its  citizens  who  re- 
ceived prizes  at  the  Olympic  games,  and  for  the  excellence 

1  Athenaus,  xii.  p.  519.  7  Festus,  v.  bilinguos  Bmtates. 


396  HISTORY  OF  GBEECE.  PART  II. 

of  its  surgeons  or  physicians.  And  what  may  seem  more 
Krotonia-  surprising,  if  we  consider  the  extreme  present 
tes— their  insalubrity  of  the  site  upon  which  it  stood,  it  was 
strength^1  in  ancient  times  proverbially  healthy,1  which 
Sh°cois  in  ^as  no^  so  muck  the  case  with  the  more  fer- 
pic  ga^m  tile  Sybaris.  Respecting  all  these  cities  of 
mes,  &c.  Italic  Greeks,  the  same  remark  is  applicable  as 
was  before  made  in  reference  to  the  Sicilian  Greeks — that 
the  intermixture  of  the  native  population  sensibly  affected 
both  their  character  and  habits.  We  have  no  information 
respecting  their  government  during  this  early  period  of 
prosperity,  except  that  we  find  mention  at  Kroton  (as  at 
the  Epizephyrian  Lokri)  of  a  senate  of  1000  members,  yet 
not  excluding  occasionally  the  ecclesiaor  general  assembly.' 
Probably  the  steady  increase  of  their  dominion  in  the 
interior,  and  the  facility  of  providing  maintenance  for  new 
population,  tended  much  to  make  their  political  systems, 
whatever  they  may  have  been,  work  in  a  satisfactory 
manner.  The  attempt  of  Pythagoras  and  his  followers  to 
constitute  themselves  a  ruling  faction  as  well  as  a  philo- 
sophical sect,  will  be  recounted  in  a  subsequent  chapter. 
The  proceedings  connected  with  that  attempt  will  show 
that  there  was  considerable  analogy  and  sympathy  between 
the  various  cities  of  Italian  Greece,  so  as  to  render  them 
liable  to  be  acted  on  by  the  same  causes.  But  though  the 
festivals  of  the  Lakinian  Here,  administered  by  the  Kro- 
toniates,  formed  from  early  times  a  common  point  of 
religious  assemblage  to  all3 — yet  the  attempts  to  institute 
periodical  meetings  of  deputies,  for  the  express  purpose 
of  maintaining  political  harmony,  did  not  begin  until  after 
the  destruction  of  Sybaris,  nor  were  they  ever  more  than 
partially  successful. 

One  other  city,  the  most  distant  colony  founded  by 
Greeks  in  the  western  regions,  yet  remains  to  be  mentioned; 
and  we  can  do  no  more  than  mention  it,  since  we  have  no 
facts  to  make  up  its  history.  Massalia,  the  modern  Mar- 
Ma  i'a  seilles,  was  founded  by  the  Ionic  Phokseans  in 
the  45th  Olympiad,  about  597  B.C.,4  at  the  time 
when  Sybaris  und  Kroton  were  near  the  maximum  of  their 

1  Strabo,  vi.  p.  262.  «  This  date  depends  upon  Timseus 

2  Jamblichus,   Vit.    Pythagor,  c.      (as  quoted  by  Skymnus  Chius,  210) 
9.  p.  33;  o.  35.  p.  210.  and  Solinus ;  there  seems  no  reason 

*  Athenffius,  xii.  541.  for  distrusting    it,    though  Tuuoy- 


CHAP.  XXII.  MASSALIA.  397 

power — when  the  peninsula  of  Calabria  was  all  Hellenic, 
and  when  Cumse  also  had  not  yet  been  visited  by  those 
calamities  which  brought  about  its  decline.  So  much 
Hellenism  in  the  south  of  Italy  doubtless  facilitated  the 
western  progress  of  the  adventurous  Phokeean  mariner. 
It  would  appear  that  Massalia  was  founded  by  amicable 
fusion  of  Phoksean  colonists  with  the  indigenous  Gauls,  if 
we  may  judge  by  the  romantic  legend  of  the  Protiadae,  a 
Massaliotic  family  or  gens  existing  in  the  time  of  Aristotle. 
Euxenus,  a  Phoksean  merchant,  had  contracted  friendly 
relations  with  Nanus,  a  native  chief  in  the  south  of  Gaul, 
and  was  invited  to  the  festival  in  which  the  latter  was  about 
to  celebrate  the  marriage  of  his  daughter  Petta.  According 
to  the  custom  of  the  country,  the  maiden  was  to  choose  for 
herself  a  husband  among  the  guests  by  presenting  him 
with  a  cup :  through  accident,  or  by  preference,  Petta  pre- 
sented it  to  Euxenus,  and  became  his  wife.  Protis  of 
Massalia,  the  offspring  of  this  marriage,  was  the  primitive 
ancestor  and  eponym  of  the  Protiadse.  According  to 
another  story  respecting  the  origin  of  the  same  gens,  Protis 
was  himself  the  Phoksean  leader  who  married  Gyptis, 
daughter  of  Nannus  king  of  the  Segobrigian  Grauls.1 

Of  the  history  of  Massalia  we  know  little,  nor  does  it 
appear  to  have  been  connected  with  the  general  movement 
of  the  Grecian  world.  We  learn  generally  that  the  Massa- 
liots  administered  their  affairs  with  discretion  as  well  as 
with  unanimity,  and  exhibited  in  their  private  habits  an 
exemplary  modesty — that  although  preserving  alliance 
with  the  people  of  the  interior,  they  were  scrupulously 
vigilant  in  guarding  their  city  against  surprise,  permitting 
no  armed  strangers  to  enter — that  they  introduced  the 
culture  of  vines  and  olives,  and  gradually  extended  the 
Greek  alphabet,  language,  and  civilization  among  the 
neighbouring  Gauls — that  they  not  only  possessed  and 
fortified  many  positions  along  the  coast  of  the  Gulf  of 

did6s  (i.  13)  and  Isokrates  (Archi-  who  however   puts   the   arrival    of 

damus,   p.   31C)    seem    to    conceive  the  Phokrcans,  in  these  regions  and 

Massalia   as   founded   by   the  Pho-  at  Tartessus,  much  too  early, 

kceans  about   60   years  later,    when  '  Aristotle,  MajasXiibttuvTroXiTSia, 

Ionia  was  conquered  by  Harpagus  ap.  Atheneeum.  xiii.  p.  57C  ;  Justin, 

(see  Bruckner,  Historia  Keip.  Mas-  xliii.    3.      Plutarch     (Solon,    c.    2) 

siliensium,  sect.  2.  p.  9,  and  Raoul  seems  to  follow  the  same  story  as 

Kochette,     Histoire    des     Colonies  Justin. 
Grecques,     vol.     iii.    pp.    405—413, 


398  HISTORY  OF  GEEECB.  PART  II. 

Lyons,  but  also  founded  five  colonies  along  the  eastern 
coast  of  Spain — that  their  government  was  oligarchical, 
consisting  of  a  perpetual  senate  of  600  persons,  yet  admit- 
ting occasionally  new  members  from  without,  and  a  small 
council  of  fifteen  members — that  the  Delphinian  Apollo 
and  the  Ephesian  Artemis  were  their  chief  deities,  planted 
as  guardians  of  their  outlying  posts,  and  transmitted  to 
their  colonies.1  Although  it  is  common  to  represent  a 
deliberate  march  and  steady  supremacy  of  the  governing 
few,  with  contented  obedience  on  the  part  of  the  many,  as 
the  characteristic  of  Dorian  states,  and  mutability  not  less 
than  disturbance  as  the  prevalent  tendency  in  Ionian — yet 
there  is  no  Grecian  community  to  whom  the  former  attri- 
butes are  more  pointedly  ascribed  than  the  Ionic  Massalia. 
The  commerce  of  the  llassaliots  appears  to  have  been 
extensive,  and  their  armed  maritime  force  sufficiently 
powerful  to  defend  it  against  the  aggressions  of  Carthage — 
their  principal  enemy  in  the  western  Mediterranean. 

1  Strabo,  iv.  p.  179 — 182;    Justin,  tion  took  place  by  admitting  into 

xliii.  4—5;    Cicero,  Pro  Flacco,  2G.  it,  occasionally,  men  selected  from 

It  rather   appears    from   Aristotle  the  latter. 

(Polit.  v.  5,  2  ;    vi.  4—5)    that    the  Some  authors   seem  to  ;have  ac- 

senate  •was  originally  a  body  com-  cused  the  Massaliots  of   luxurious 

pletely   close,    which   gave  rise  to  and    effeminate   habits    (see   Athe- 

discontent  on  the  part  of  wealthy  nceus,  xii.  p.  523). 
men  not  included  in  it:   a  uaitiga- 


CHAP.  XXIII.  POKKYKA.  399 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

GEECIAN  COLONIES  IN  AND  NEAE  EPIRUS. 

ON  the  eastern  side  of  the  Ionian  Sea  were  situated 
the  Grecian  colonies  of  Korkyra,  Leukas,  Anaktorium, 
Ambrakia,  Apollonia,  and  Epidamnus. 

Among  these,  by  far  the  most  distinguished,  for  situa- 
tion, for  wealth,  and  for  power,  was  Korkyra — now  known 
as  Corfu,  the  same  name  belonging,  as  in  anti- 
quity,  both  to  the  town  and  the  island,  which  is 
separated  from  the  coast  of  Epirus  by  a  strait  varying 
from  two  to  seven  miles  in  breadth.  Korkyra  was  found- 
ed by  the  Corinthians,  at  the  same  time  (we  are  told)  as 
Syracuse.  Chersikrates,  a  Bacchiad,  is  said  to  have  accom- 
panied Archias  on  his  voyage  from  Corinth  to  Syracuse, 
and  to  have  been  left  with  a  company  of  emigrants  on  the 
island  of  Korkyra,  where  he  founded  a  settlement.  1  "What 
inhabitants  he  found  there,  or  how  they  were  dealt  with 
we  cannot  clearly  make  out.  The  island  was  generally 
conceived  in  antiquity  as  the  residence  of  the  Homeric 
Phgeakians,  and  it  is  to  this  fact  that  Thucydides  ascribes 
in  part  the  eminence  of  the  Korkyrsean  marine.2  Accord- 
ing to  another  story,  some  Eretrians  from  Euboea  had 
settled  there,  and  were  compelled  to  retire.  A  third  state- 
ment represents  the  Liburnians3  as  the  prior  inhabitants 
— and  this  perhaps  is  the  most  probable,  since  the  Libur- 
nians were  an  enterprising,  maritime,  piratical  race,  who 
long  continued  to  occupy  the  more  northerly  islands  in 
the  Adriatic  along  the  Illyrian  and  Dalmatian  coast. 
That  maritime  activity,  and  number  of  ships  both  warlike 
and  commercial,  which  we  find  at  an  early  date  among  the 
Korkyrseans,  and  in  which  they  stand  distinguished  from 
the  Italian  and  Sicilian  Greeks,  may  be  plausibly  attributed 
to  their  partial  fusion  with  pre-existing  Liburnians;  for 

1  Straho,     vi.    p.    269  :     compare  3  Strabo,  1.  c.  j    Plutarch,  Qurest. 
Tima-us,     Fragm.    49;    ed.    Gollor;  Grtcc.    c.    11  :    a    different    fable  in 
IV.  So,  oil.  Didot.  Conon,     Narrat.     3,     ap.    Photium 

2  Thucyd.  i.  25.  Cod.  80. 


400  HIS  TOBY  OF  GKEECE.  PAKT  II. 

the  ante-Hellenic  natives  of  Magna  Greecia  and  Sicily  (as 
has  been  already  noticed)  were  as  unpractised  at  sea  as 
the  Liburnians  were  expert. 

At  the  time  when  the  Corinthians  were  about  to  co- 
lonize Sicily,  it  was  natural  that  they  should  also  wish  to 
Early  plant  a  settlement  at  Korkyra,  which  was  a  post 

foundation    of  great  importance  for  facilitating  the  voyage 

of  Korkyra    »_  '      -n  t      f  ,       TJ.   i  e    "ii 

from  from  Peloponnesus  to  Italy,  and   was  farther 

Corinth.  convenient  for  traffic  with  Epirus,  at  that  period 
altogether  non-Hellenic.  Their  choice  of  a  site  was  fully 
justified  by  the  prosperity  and  power  of  the  colony,  which, 
however,  though  sometimes  in  combination  with  the 
mother-city,  was  more  frequently  alienated  from  her  and 
hostile,  and  continued  so  throughout  most  part  of  the 
three  centuries  from  700-400  B.C.1  Perhaps  also  Molykreia 
and  Chalkis,2  on  the  south-western  coast  of  ^Etolia,  not  far 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Corinthian  Gulf,  may  have  been 
founded  by  Corinth  at  a  date  hardly  less  early  than 
Korkyra. 

It  was  at  Corinth  that  the  earliest  improvements  in 
Greek    ship-building,  and    the   first   construction   of  the 
trireme  or  war-ship  with  a  triple  bank  of  oars,  was  intro- 
duced.    It  was  probably  from  Corinth  that  this 

Eelations         .  r        i    ±       -rr      i  -J_TJJ. 

of  Korkyra  improvement  passed  to  Korkyra,  as  it  did  to 
S"1**1  ,  Samos.  In  early  times,  the  Korkyraean  navy 

Corinth.  .  , ...  J     ,  .,,     ,1     V,      -    , 

was  in  a  condition  to  cope  with  the  L/ormtluan; 
and  the  most  ancient  naval  battle  known  to  Thucydides3 
was  one  between  these  two  states,  in  664  B.C.  As  far  as 
we  can  make  out,  it  appears  that  Korkyra  maintained  her 
independence  not  only  during  the  government  of  the  Bac- 
chiads  at  Corinth,  but  also  throughout  the  long  reign  of 
the  despot  Kypselus,  and  a  part  of  the  reign  of  his  son 
Periander.  But  towards  the  close  of  this  latter  reign,  we 
find  Korkyra  subject  to  Corinth.  The  barbarous  treat- 
ment inflicted  by  Periander,  in  revenge  for  the  death  of 
his  son,  upon  300  Korkyraean  youths,  has  already  been  re- 
counted in  a  former  chapter.4  After  the  death  of  Perian- 
der, the  island  seems  to  have  regained  its  independence, 
but  we  are  left  without  any  particulars  respecting  it  from 
about  555  B.C.  down  to  the  period  shortly  preceding  the 

1  Herodot.  iii.  49.  •  Herodot.  iii.  49 — 51 ;  see  above, 

*  Thucyd.  i.  108;  iii.  102.  chap.  is. 

3  Thucyd.  i.  13. 


CHAP.  XXIII.  COEINTH,  EPIRUS.  401 

invasion  of  Greece  by  Xerxes — nearly  a  century.  At  this 
later  epoch  the  Korkyrseans  possessed  a  naval  force  hard- 
ly inferior  to  any  state  in  Greece.  The  expulsion  of  the 
Kypselids  from  Corinth,  and  the  re-establishment  of  the 
previous  oligarchy  or  something  like  it,  does  not  seem  to 
have  reconciled  the  Korkyrseans  to  their  mother-city.  For 
it  was  immediately  previous  to  the  Peloponnesian  war  that 
the  Corinthians  preferred  the  bitterest  complaints  against 
them,1  of  setting  at  nought  those  obligations  which  a  co- 
lony was  generally  understood  to  be  obliged  to  render. 
No  place  of  honour  was  reserved  at  the  public  festivals  of 
Korkyra  for  Corinthian  visitors,  nor  was  it  the  practice  to 
offer  to  the  latter  the  first  taste  of  the  victims  sacrificed — 
observances  which  were  doubtless  respectfully  fulfilled  at 
Ambrakia  and  Leukas.  Nevertheless  the  Koi'kyraeans  had 
taken  part  conjointly  with  the  Corinthians  in  favour  of 
Syracuse,  when  that  city  was  in  imminent  danger  of  being 
conquered  and  enslaved  by  Hippokrates2  despot  of  Gela 
(about  492  B.C.) — an  incident  showing  that  they  were  not 
destitute  of  generous  sympathy  with  sister  states,  and  lead- 
ing us  to  imagine  that  their  alienation  from  Corinth  was 
as  much  the  fault  of  the  mother-city  as  their  own. 

The  grounds  of  the  quarrel  were,  probably,  jealousies 
of  trade — especially  trade  with  the  Epirotic  and   Delations 
Illyrian  tribes,  wherein  both  were  to  a  great   with 
degree  rivals.     Safe  at  home  and  industrious  in     'Puus- 
the  culture  of  their  fertile  island,  the  Korkyrseans  were 
able  to  furnish  wine  and  oil  to  the  Epirots  on  the  main-land, 
in  exchange  for  the  cattle,  sheep,  hides   and  wool   of  the 
latter — more    easily    and    cheaply    than    the    Corinthian 
merchant.     And  for  the  purposes  of  this  trade,  they  had 
possessed  themselves  of  a  Persea  or  strip  of  the  main-land 
immediately  on  the  other  side  of  the  intervening  strait, 
where  they  fortified  various  posts  for  the  protection  of 
their  property.3     The  Corinthians  were  personally  more 
popular  among  the  Epirots  than  the  Korkyraeans;4  but   it 
was  not  until  long  after  the  foundation  of  Korkyra  that 
they  established  their  first  settlement  on  the    Ambrakia 
main-land- — Ambrakia,  on  the  north  side  of  the    founded  by 
Ambrakiotic  Gulf,  near  the  mouth  of  the  river 

1  Thucyd.  i.  25 — 37.  tions  are  probably  alluded  to  also 

5  Herod  ot.  vii.  155.  i.  4")-f4.     7,    =;   TIJJV  sxs'viov  y_iopi.u)v. 

3  Thucyd.  iii.  PO.    These  fortifica-          "   Thucy.  i.  47. 

VOL.  III.  2   D 


402  HISTOKY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

Arachthus.  It  was  during  the  reign  of  Kypselus,  and  under 
the  guidance  of  his  son  Gorgus,  that  this  settlement  was 
planted,which  afterwards  became  populous  and  considerable. 
"We  know  nothing  respecting  its  growth,  and  we  hear  only 
of  a  despot  named  Periander  as  ruling  in  it,  probably 
related  to  the  despot  of  the  same  name  at  Corinth.  1  Pe- 
riander of  Ambrakia  was  overthrown  by  aprivate  conspiracy, 
provoked  by  his  own  brutality  and  warmly  seconded  by  the 
citizens,  who  lived  constantly  afterwards  under  a  popular 
government. 2 

Notwithstanding  the  long-continued  dissensions  be- 
tween Korkyra  and  Corinth,  it  appears  that  four  consider- 
able settlements  on  this  same  line  of  coast  were  formed  by 
the  joint  enterprise  of  both — Leukas  and  Anaktorium,  to 

the  south  of  the  mouth  of  the  Ambrakiotic 
m°ents8by  "'  Gulf — and  Apollonia  and  Epidamnus,  both  in 
Corinth  and  the  territory  of  the  Illyrians  at  some  distance 

to  the  north  of  the  Akrokeraunian  promontory. 
In  the  settlement  of  the  two  latter,  the  Korkyrseans  seem 
to  have  been  the  principals — in  that  of  the  two  former,  they 
were  only  auxiliaries.  It  probably  did  not  suit  their  policy 
to  favour  the  establishment  of  any  new  colony  on  the  inter- 
mediate coast  opposite  to  their  own  island,  between  the 
Leukas  and  promontory  and  the  gulf  above-mentioned. 
Anakto-  Leukas,  Anaktorium,  and  Ambrakia,  are  all 

referred  to  the  agency  of  Kypselus  the  Corinthian. 
The  tranquillity  which  Aristotle  ascribes  to  his  reign  may 
be  in  part  ascribed  to  the  new  homes  thus  provided  for 
poor  or  discontented  Corinthian  citizens.  Leukas  was 
situated  near  the  modern  Santa  Maura:  the  present  island 
was  originally  a  peninsula,  and  continued  to  be  so  until 
the  time  of  Thucydides;  but  in  the  succeeding  half-century, 
the  Leukadians  cut  through  the  isthmus,  and  erected  a 
bridge  across  the  narrow  strait  connecting  them  with  the 
main-land.  It  had  been  once  an  Akarnanian  settlement, 
named  Epileukadii,  the  inhabitants  of  which  falling  into 
civil  dissension,  invited  1000  Corinthian  settlers  to  join 
them.  The  new-comers  choosing  their  opportunity  for 
attack,  slew  or  expelled  those  who  had  invited  them,  made 
themselves  masters  of  the  place  with  its  lands,  and  con- 

1  Strabo,    vii.    p.    325,    x.    p.  452;  Skymn.  Chi.  463:   Eaoul  Eochettc, 
Hint,    des    Colon.    Grecq.    vol.    iii.  p.  291. 

2  Aristot.  Polit.  v.  3,  5;  v.  8,  9. 


CHAP.  XXIII.        AMBBAKIA,  ANAKTOB1UM,  LEUKAS.  403 

verted  it  from  an  Akarnanian  village  into  a  Grecian  town. l 
Anaktorium  was  situated  a  short  distance  within  the  mouth 
of  the  Ambrakian  Gulf — founded,  like  Leukas,  upon  Akar- 
nanian soil  and  with  a  mixture  of  Akarnanian  inhabitants, 
by  colonists  under  the  auspices  of  Kypselus  or  Periander. 
In  both  these  establishments  Korkyrsean  settlers  partici- 
pated ; 2  in  both  also,  the  usual  religious  feelings  connected 
with  Grecian  emigration  were 'displayed  by  the  neighbour- 
hood of  a  venerated  temple  of  Apollo  overlooking  the  sea 
— Apollo  Aktius  near  Anaktorium,  and  Apollo  Leukatas 
near  Leukas.3 

Between  these  three  settlements — Ambrakia,  Anak- 
torium, and  Leukas — and  the  Akarnanian  population  of 
the  interior,  there  were  standing  feelings  of  hostility;  per- 
haps arising  out  of  the  violence  which  had  marked  the  first 
foundation  of  Leukas.  The  Corinthians,  though  popular 
with  the  Epirots,  had  been  indifferent  or  unsuccessful  in 
conciliating  the  Akarnanians.  It  rather  seems  indeed  that 
the  Akarnanians  were  averse  to  the  presence  or  neighbour- 
hood of  any  powerful  sea-port;  for  in  spite  of  their  hatred 
towards  the  Ambrakiots,  they  were  more  apprehensive 

1  About  Leukas,    see   Strabo,  ,x.  that    the    Dioryktos    had    already 

p.  452;  Skylax,  p.  34;    Steph.  Byz.  been  dug  before   the  time  of  Thu- 

v.  "EnO.EuxaSiot.  cydides.  But  it  seems  more  reason- 

Strabo  seems  to  ascribe  the  cut-  a1)le   to    s«PP°se   that   Strabo  was 

ting  through  of  tho  isthmus  to  the  '"^informed  as   to    the   date,    and 

original  colonists.  But  Thucydides  that   the   cut   took    Place   at  some 

speaks  of  this  isthmus  in  the  plain-  time  Between  the  age  of  Thucydi- 

est    manner    (iii.   81),    and    of  the  dCs  and  that  of  SkyU*. 

Corinthian    ships    of   war  as  being  Boeckh    (ad   Corp.    Inscriptt.  Gr. 

transported  across  it.    The  Dioryk-  *.  i.  p.  58)    and    \V.    C.  Miillcr  (De 

tos,  or  intervening  factitious  canal,  Corcyrajor.      Republics-,      Getting. 

was    always    shallow,     only    deep  18;!5,  p.  la)  agree  with  Mannert. 

enough  for  boats,  so  that  ships  of  *  Skymn.  Chius,   458;    Thucyd.  i. 

war  had  still  to  be    carried  across  55;  Plutarch,  Thrmistokles,  c.  24. 

by  hand  or  machinery  (Polyb.  v.  5)  :  3  Thucyd.  i.  40  ;  Strabo,  x.  p.  4r,2. 

both  Plutarch  (Do  Sera  Xum.  Vind.  Before    22')    B.C.,     the    temple     of 

p.  552)    and   Pliny    treat  Leukadia  Apono  Aktius,  which  in  the  time 

a.  having   again   become    a  pcnin-  of  Thucydides  belonged    to  Anak- 

sula,     from    the    accumulation     of  torium,  had  come  to  belong  to  the 

sand  (H.  N.  iv.  1):    compare  Livy,  Akarnanians;    it   seems    also    that 

xxxiii.  17.  t]10  town   itself  had   been   merged 

Manuort  (Geograph.  dor  Gr.  und  in     the     Akarnaiiiau     league,     for 

ROTH.  Part  viii.  b.  1.  p.  72)  accepts  Polybius    does    not  mention  it  se- 

the  statement  of  Strabo,  and  thinka  parately  (Polyb.  iv.  03). 

2  I>  -2 


404  HISTOBY  OP  GKEECE.  PAET  II. 

of  seeing  Ambrakia  in  the  hands  of  the  Athenians  than 
in  that  of  its  own  native  citizens.  * 

The  two  colonies  north  of  the  Akrokeraunian  pro- 
Apoiionia  montory,  and  on  the  coast-land  of  the  Illyrian 
and  Epi-  tribes — Apollonia  and  Epidamnus — were  formed 
damnus.  chiefly  by  the  Korkyraeans,  yet  with  some  aid 
and  a  portion  of  the  settlers  from  Corinth,  as  well  as  from 
other  Doric  towns.  Esp  ecially  it  is  to  be  noticed,  that  the 
cekist  was  a  Corinthian  and  a  Herakleid,  Phalius  the  son 
of  Eratokleides — for  according  to  the  usual  practice  of 
Greece,  whenever  a  city,  itself  a  colony,  founded  a  sub- 
colony,  the  cekist  of  the  latter  was  borrowed  from  the 
mother-city  of  the  former.2  Hence  the  Corinthians  ac- 
quired a  partial  right  of  control  and  interference  in  the 
affairs  of  Epidamnus,  which  we  shall  find  hereafter  leading 
to  important  practical  consequences.  Epidamnus  (better 
known  under  its  subsequent  name  Dyrrhachium)  was 
situated  on  an  isthmus  on  or  near  the  territory  of  the 
Illyrian  tribe  called  Taulantii,  and  is  said  to  have  been 
settled  about  627  B.C.  Apollonia,  of  which  the  god  Apollo 
himself  seems  to  have  been  recognised  as  cekist,3  was 
founded  under  similar  circumstances,  during  the  reign  of 
Periander  of  Corinth,  on  a  maritime  plain  both  extensive 
and  fertile,  near  the  river  Aous,  two  days'  journey  south 
of  Epidamnus. 

Both  the  one  and  the  other  of  these  two  cities  seem 
to  have  flourished,  and  to  have  received  accession  of  in- 
habitants from  Triphylia  in  Peloponnesus,  when  that  coun- 
try was  subdued  by  the  Eleians.  Respecting  Epidamnus, 
especially,  we  are  told  that  it  acquired  great  wealth  and 
population  during  the  century  preceding  thePeloponnesian 
war.4  A  few  allusions  which  we  find  in  Aristotle,  too 

1  Thucyd.  iii.  94,  95,  115.  xal    zoVjavOpcoiro? ;    Strabo,    vii.   p. 

2  Tliucyd.  i.  24-26.  316,    viii.    p.    357:    Stepl).    Byz.    v. 

3  The    rhetor   Aristeides    pays    a  'Ano/.Xiuvia ;  Plutarch,  De  Sera  Nu- 
similar  compliment  to  Kyzikus,  in  min.   Vind.  p.  553;  Pausan.  v.  22,  2. 
his   Panegyrical    Address    at    that  Respecting    the    plain    near    tha 
city— the  god  Apollo  had  founded  site  of  the  ancient  Apollonia,  Co- 
it  personally  and  diroctly  himself,  lonel  Leake  observes:  "The  culti- 
not  through  any  human   cekist,    as  vation  of  this  noble  plain,  capable 
was    the   case  with   other  colonies  of   supplying   grain   to    all  Illyria 
(Aristeide's,  Aoyos  rspi  Ku^txoUj  Or.  and  Epirus,  with  an  abundance  of 
xvi.  p.  414;  vol.  i.  p.  3S4,  Dindorf).  other  productions,    is    conr.ned    to 

••  Thucyd.   i.   24.     iyi-tt-tj    jj.»Y*'-'1      a  few  patches  of  maize  iiear  the  vil- 


CHAP.  XXIII.  APOLLONIA  AND  EPIDAMNUS.  405 

brief  to  afford  much  instruction,  lead  us  to  suppose  that 
the  governments  of  both  began  by  being  close  oligarchies 
under  the  management  of  the  primitive  leaders  of  the  co- 
lony— that  in  Epidamnus,  the  artisans  and  tradesmen  in  the 
town  were  considered  in  the  light  of  slaves  belonging  to 
the  public — but  that  in  process  of  time  (seemingly  some- 
what before  the  Peloponnesian  war)  intestine  dissensions 
broke  up  this  oligarchy,1  substituted  a  periodical  senate, 
with  occasional  public  assemblies,  in  place  of  the  perma- 
nent phylarchs  or  chiefs  of  tribes,  and  thus  introduced  a 
form  more  or  less  democratical,  yet  still  retaining  the  ori- 
ginal single-headed  archon.  The  Epidamnian  government 
was  liberal  in  the  admission  of  metics  or  resident  aliens — 
— a  fact  which  renders  it  probable  that  the  alleged  public 
slavery  of  artisans  in  that  town  was  a  status  carrying  with 
it  none  of  the  hardships  of  actual  slavery.  It  was  through 
an  authorised  selling  agent,  or  Poletes,  that  all  traffic  be- 
tween Epidamnus  and  the  neighbouring  Illyrians  was  car- 
ried on — individual  dealing  with  them  being  interdicted.2 
Apollonia  was  in  one  respect  pointedly  distinguished  from 
Epidamnus,  since  she  excluded  metics  or  resident  strangers 
with  a  degree  of  rigour  hardly  inferior  to  Sparta.  These 
few  facts  are  all  that  we  are  permitted  to  hear  respecting 
colonies  both  important  in  themselves  and  interesting  »s 
they  brought  the  Greeks  into  connexion  with  distant  people 
and  regions. 

The   six   colonies  just  named — Korkyra,  Ambrakia, 
Anaktorium,  Leukas,  Apollonia,  and  Epidamnus — form  an 
aggregate  lying  apart  from  the  Hellenic  name  and  con- 
nected with  each  other,  though  not  always  maintained  in 
harmony,  by  analogy  of  race  and  position,  as    Relations 
well  as  by  their  common  original  from  Corinth,    between 
That  the  commerce  which  the  Corinthian  mer-    colonies.— 
chants  carried  on  with  them,  and  through  them    Commerce. 

lages"  (Travels  in  Northern  Greece,  Joseph  Muller  (Prn«.  1844),  p.  02. 
vol.  i.  ch.  vii.  p.  367).     Compare  c.          '  Thuevd.  i.  25  :  Avistot.  Polit.  ii. 

ii.  p.   70.  4,   1:5;    iii.   11,   1;     iv.  3,  8;    v.  1,  6; 

The  country  surroundingDurazzo  v-  3j  •*• 

(the    ancient    Epidamnus)    is    des-          The  allusions  of  the  philosopher 

cribed  by  another  excellent  obser-  are  so  brief,  as  to  convey  little  or 

ver    as    highly    attractive,    though  no  knowledge:  see  O.  Mullor,  Do- 

iiow  unhealthy.     See  the  valuable  rians,  b.  iii.  9,  0;  Tittmaim,  Griech. 

topographical      work,      'Albanian,  Staatsverfass.  p.  4!>1. 
BumclicTi,  unrt  die  Oesterreiclriscb.-         -  1'lutarch,    Qun-st.    Grrcc.  p.  297. 

monteiiegrhiische  Griiuxe,  von  Dr.  c.  •!'•' ;  ^-Klian,  V.  H.  xiii.  10. 


406  HISTOKY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

with  the  tribes  in  the  interior,  was  lucrative,  we  can  have 
no  doubt;  and  Leukas  and  Ambrakia  continued  for  a  long 
time  to  be  not  merely  faithful  allies,  but  servile  imitators, 
of  their  mother-city.  The  commerce  of  Korkyra  is  also 
represented  as  very  extensive,  and  carried  even  to  the 
northern  extremity  of  the  Ionic  Gulf.  It  would  seem  that 
they  were  the  first  Greeks  to  open  a  trade  and  to  establish 
various  settlements  on  the  Illyrian  and  Dalmatian  coasts, 
as  the  Phokseans  were  the  first  to  carry  their  traffic  along 
the  Adriatic  coast  of  Italy.  The  jars  and  pottery  of  Korkyra 
enjoyed  great  reputation  throughout  all  parts  of  the  Gulf. 1 
The  general  trade  of  the  island,  and  the  encouragement 
for  its  shipping,  must  probably  have  been  greater  during 
the  sixth  century  B.C.,  while  the  cities  of  Magna  Grsecia, 
were  at  the  maximum  of  their  prosperity,  than  in  the  en- 
suing century  when  they  had  comparatively  declined.  Nor 
can  we  doubt  that  the  visitors  and  presents  to  the  oracle 
of  Dodona  in  Epirus,  which  was  distant  two  days'  journey 
on  landing  from  Korkyra,  and  the  importance  of  which  was 
most  sensible  during  the  earlier  periods  of  Grecian 
history,  contributed  to  swell  the  traffic  of  the  Kor- 
kyrseans. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the  monetary  system 
established  at  Korkyra  was  thoroughly  Grecian  and  Corin- 
thian, graduated  on  the  usual  scale  of  obols,  drachms,  minge, 
and  talents,  without  including  any  of  those  native  Italian 
or  Sicilian  elements  which  were  adopted  by  the  cities  in 
Magna  Graecia  and  Sicily.  The  type  of  the  Corinthian 
coins  seems  also  to  have  passed  to  those  of  Leukas  and 
Ambrakia.2 

Of  the  islands  of  Zakynthus  and  Kephallenia  (Zante 
and  Cephalonia)  we  hear  very  little:  of  Ithaka,  so  interest- 
ing from  the  story  of  the  Odyssey,  we  have  no  historical 

1  "W.    C.   Jluller,    Be  Corcyrreor.  given  that  the  river  Danube  forked 

Eepub.    ch.    3.    p.     60-fi2  ;     Aristot.  at  a  certain  point  of  its  course  into 

iMirab.  Ausc    c.  \'A:  Hesychius,  v.  two  streams,  one  flowing  into  the 

Kspx'jpaioi     ajj/f  opsi;  ;     Herodot.    i.  Adriatic,  the  other  into  the  Euxine. 

145.  2  See    the    Inscriptions    No.  1833 

The    story    given    in    the    above  and  Xo.  1^45,   in  the  collection  of 

passage  of  the  Pseudo-Aristotle  is  Boeckh,  and  Boeckh's  Metrologi^, 

to    be    taken    in    connection    with  vii.  8.  p.  97.    Respecting  the  Corin- 

the  succeeding  chapter  of  the  same  thian    coinage    our   information  is 

work  (105),  wherein  the  statement  confused  and  imperfect, 
(largely    credited    in   antiquity)    is 


CHAP.  XXIII.  COMMEKCE.  407 

information  at  all.  The  inhabitants  of  Zakynthus  were 
Achgeans  from  Peloponnesus:  Kephallenia  was  distributed 
among  four  separate  city-governments.  1  Neither  of  these 
islands  plays  any  part  in  Grecian  history  until  the  time  of 
the  maritime  empire  of  Athens,  after  the  Persian  war. 

1  Thucyd.  ii.  30-C6. 


408  HISTOBY  OB1  QjREECE.  PABI   II. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

AKARNANIANS.  -EPIKOTS. 

SOME  notice  must  be  taken  of  those  barbarous  or  non-Hel- 
lenic nations  who  formed  the  immediate  neighbours  of 
Hellas,  west  of  the  range  ofPindus,  and  north  of  that  range 
which  connects  Pindus  with  Olympus — as  well  as  of  those 
other  tribes  who,  though  lying  more  remote  from  Hellas 
proper,  were  yet  brought  into  relations  of  traffic  or  hos- 
tility with  the  Hellenic  colonies. 

Between  the  Greeks  and  these  foreign  neighbours,  the 
Akama-  Akarnanians,  of  whom  I  have  already  spoken 
mans.  briefly  in  my  preceding  volume,  form  the  proper 

link  of  transition.  They  occupied  the  territory  between 
the  river  Achelous,  the  Ionian  Sea,  and  the  Ambrakian 
Gulf:  they  were  Greeks,  and  admitted  as  such  to  contend 
at  the  Pan-Hellenic  games,1  yet  they  were  also  closely 
connected  with  the  Amphilochi  and  Agraei,  who  were  not 
Greeks.  In  manners,  sentiments,  and  intelligence,  they 
were  half-Hellenic  and  half-Epirotic — like  the  ^Etolians 
and  the  Ozolian  Lokrians.  Even  down  to  the  time  of 
Thucydides,  these  nations  were  subdivided  into  numerous 
petty  communities,  lived  in  unfortified  villages,  were 
frequently  in  the  habit  of  plundering  each  other,  and  never 
permitted  themselves  to  be  unarmed:  in  case  of  attack, 
they  withdrew  their  families  and  their  scanty  stock,  chiefly 
cattle,  to  the  shelter  of  difficult  mountains  or  marshes. 
They  were  for  the  most  part  light-armed,  few  among  them 
being  trained  to  the  panoply  of  the  Grecian  hoplite ;  but 
they  were  both  brave  and  skilful  in  their  own  mode  of 
warfare,  and  the  sling  in  the  hands  of  the  Akarnanian  was 
a  weapon  of  formidable  efficiency.2 

Notwithstanding  this  state  of  disunion  and  insecurity, 
however,  the  Akarnanians  maintained  a  loose  political 
league  among  themselves.  A  hill  near  the  Amphilochian 
Argos,  on  the  shores  of  the  Ambrakian  Gulf,  had  been 

1  See  Aristot.  Fragm.   rcspi  IIoXi-      "Axapviviuv  r&XiTsia. 
TSIUJV,     ed.     Neumann;     Fragm.    2.         z  Pollux,  i.  150;  Thucyd.  ii.  81. 


CHAP.  XXIV.  AKAENAKIANS.— EPIKOT8.  409 

fortified  to  serve  as  a  judgement-seat  or  place  of  meeting 
for  the  settlement  of  disputes.  And  it  seems  that  both 
Stratus  and  (Eniadse  had  become  fortified  in  some  measure 
towards  the  commencement  of  the  Peloponnesian  war.  The 
former,  the  most  considerable  township  in  Akarnania,  was 
situated  on  the  Achelous,  rather  high  up  its  course — the 
latter  was  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  was  rendered 
difficult  of  approach  by  its  inundations.  *  Astakus,  Solium, 
Palaerus,  and  Alyzia,  lay  on  or  near  the  coast  of  the  Ionian 
Sea,  between  (Eniaclaa  and  Leukas:  Phytia,  Koronta,  Me- 
deon,  Limnsea  and  Thyrium,  were  between  the  southern 
shore  of  the  Ambrakian  Gulf  and  the  river  Achelous. 

The   Akarnanians   appear  to   have    produced   many 
prophets.     They  traced  up  their  mvthical  an-   „ 

TI  .LI      j       c  ii      •  •     i"i  j.i         Theirsocial 

cestry,  as  well  as  that  or  their  neighbours  the   and  po- 
Amphilochians,  to  the  most  renowned  prophetic   litical 

/•        -i  /i       n          •        n  A          i  •  condition. 

lamily  among  the  (Grecian  heroes — Amphiaraus, 
with  his  sous  Alkmgeon  and  Amphilochus:  Akarnan,  the 
eponymous  hero  of  the  nation,  and  other  eponymous  heroes 
of  the  separate  towns,  were  supposed  to  be  the  sons  of 
Alkmgeon.2  They  are  spoken  of,  together  with  the 
.^Etoliaus,  as  mere  rude  shepherds  by  the  lyric  poet  Alk- 
man,  and  so  they  seem  to  have  continued  with  little  al- 
teration until  the  beginning  of  the  Peloponnesian  war, 
when  we  hear  of  them,  for  the  first  time,  as  allies  of  Athens 
and  as  bitter  enemies  of  the  Corinthian  colonies  on  their 
coast.  The  contact  of  those  colonies,  however,  and  the 
large  spread  of  Akarnanian  accessible  coast,  could  not  fail 
to  produce  some  effect  in  socialising  and  improving  the 
people.  And  it  is  probable  that  this  effect  would  have 
been  more  sensibly  felt,  had  not  the  Akarnanians  been 
kept  back  by  the  fatal  neighbourhood  of  the  JEtolians, 
with  whom  they  were  in  perpetual  feud — a  people  the 
most  unprincipled  and  unimprovable  of  all  who  bore  the 
Hellenic  name,  and  whose  habitual  faithlessness  stood  in 
marked  contrast  with  the  rectitude  and  steadfastness  of 

1  Thucyd.  ii.  102;  iii.  105.  and  stringing  together  a  plausible 

2  Thui'.vd.     ii.     6^-102;     Stephan.  narrative  to  explain  why  they  did 
Byz.  v.  Ootttcd.    See  the  discussion  not.      The     time     came    when    the 
in  Strabo  (x.  p.  462),   whether    the  Akarnanians     gained     credit    with 
Akarnanians  did,   or  did  not,  take  Rome  for  this  supposed  absence  of 
l>art  in  the  expedition  against  Troy  ;  their  ancestors. 

Ephorus  maintaining  the  negative 


410  HISTORY  OJ-'  GREECE.  PART  II. 

the  Akarnanian  character. l  It  was  in  order  to  strengthen 
the  Akarnanians  against  these  rapacious  neighbours  that 
the  Macedonian  Kassander  urged  them  to  consolidate  their 
numerous  small  townships  into  a  few  considerable  cities. 
Partially  at  least  the  recommendation  was  carried  into 
effect,  so  as  to  aggrandise  Stratus  and  one  or  two  other 
towns.  But  in  the  succeeding  century,  the  town  of  Leukas 
seems  to  lose  its  original  position  as  a  separate  Corinthian 
colony,  and  to  pass  into  that  of  chief  city  of  Akarnania, 2  which 
it  lost  only  by  the  sentence  of  the  Roman  conquerors. 
Passing  over  the  borders  of  Akarnania,  we  find  small 
E  _  nations  or  tribes  not  considered  as  Greeks,  but 
comprising  known,  from  the  fourth  century  B.C.  downwards, 
different  under  the  common  name  of  Epirots.  This  word 

tribes,  with  .„  ,        .    ,     ,  .  r    p  ,. 

little  or  no  signifies  properly,  inhabitants  01  a  continent  as 
ethnical  opposed  to  those  of  an  island  or  a  peninsula.  It 
came  only  gradually  to  be  applied  by  the  Greeks 
as  their  comprehensive  denomination  to  designate  all  those 
diverse  tribes,  between  the  Ambrakian  Gulf  on  the  soc.th  and 
west,  Pindus  on  the  east,  and  the  Illyrians  and  Macedonians 
to  the  north  and  north-east.  Of  these  Epirots,  the  prin- 
cipal were — the  Chaonians,  Thesprotians,  Kassopians,  and 
Molossians,3  who  occupied  the  country  inland  as  well  as 
maritime  along  the  Ionian  Sea  from  the  Akrokeraunian 
mountains  to  the  borders  of  Ambrakia  in  the  interior  of 
the  Ambrakian  Gulf.  The  Agrseans  and  Amphilochians  dwelt 
eastward  of  the  last-mentioned  gulf,  bordering  upon  Akar- 
nania: the  Athamanes,  the  Tymphaeans,  and  the  Talares 
lived  along  the  western  skirts  and  high  range  of  Pindus. 
Among  these  various  tribes  it  is  difficult  to  discriminate 
the  semi-Hellenic  from  the  non-Hellenic;  for  Herodotus 
considers  both  Molossians  and  Thesprotians  as  Hellenic — 
and  the  oracle  of  Dodona,  as  well  as  the  Nekyomanteion 
(or  holy  cavern  for  evoking  the  dead)  of  Acheron,  were 
both  in  the  territory  of  the  Thesprotians,  and  both  (in  the 
time  of  the  historian)  Hellenic.  Thucydides,  on  the  other 
hand,  treats  both  Molossians  and  Thesprotians  as  barbaric, 
and  Strabo  says  the  same  respectingthe  Athamanes,  whom 
Plato  numbers  as  Hellenic.4  As  the  Epirots  were  con- 

1  Polyb.  iv.  30:  compare  also  ix.          *  Skylax.  c.  28-32. 

40.  «  Herodot.  ii.  58,  v.  127  ;  Thucyd. 

2  Diodor.    xix.    67;   Livy    xxxiii.     ii.  80 ;   Plato,   Minos,   p.   315.     The 
1G-17  ;  xlv.  31.  Chaouiaus   and  Thesprotians  were 


•CHAP.  XXIV.  EPIROTS.  411 

founded  with  the  Hellenic  communities  towards  the  south, 
BO  they  become  blended  with  the  Macedonian  and  Illyrian 
tribes  towards  the  north.  The  Macedonian  Orestse,  north 
of  the  Cambunian  mountains  and  east  of  Pindus,  are  called 
by  Hekatseus  a  Molossian  tribe;  and  Strabo  even  extends 
the  designation  Epirots  to  the  Illyrian  Paroraei  and  Atin- 
tanes,  west  of  Pindus,  nearly  on  the  same  parallel  of  latitude 
with  the  Orestse. l  It  must  be  remembered  (as  observed 
above),  that  while  the  designations  lllyrians  and  Macedo- 
nians are  properly  ethnical,  given  to  denote  analogies  of 
language,  habits,  feeling,  and  supposed  origin,  and  probably 
acknowledged  by  the  people  themselves — the  name  Epirots 
belongs  to  the  Greek  language,  is  given  by  Greeks  alone, 
and  marks  nothing  except  residence  on  a  particular  portion 
of  the  continent.  Theopompus  (about  340  B.C.)  reckoned 
fourteen  distinct  Epirotic  nations,  among  whom  the  Mo- 
lossians  and  Chaonians  were  the  principal.  It  is  possible 
that  some  of  these  may  have  been  semi-Illyrian,  others  semi- 
Macedonian,  though  all  were  comprised  by. him  under  the 
common  name  Epirots.2 

Of  these  various  tribes,  who  dwelt  between  the  Akro- 
kerauuian  promontory  and  the  Ambrakian  Gulf,   c 

L.  i  j.       i  i  c         i      •      i      Some  of 

some  at  least  appear  to  have  been  ot   ethnical    these  tribes 
kindred   with   portions    of   the    inhabitants    of   ^"ca^y 
Southern  Italy.     There  were  Chaonians  on  the    with  thoss 
Gulf  of  Tarentum  before  the  arrival  of  the  Greek   of  Southern 
settlers,  as  well  as  in  Epirus.     Though  we  do 
not  find  the  name  Thesprotians  in  Italy,  we  find  there  a 
town  named  Pandosia  and  a  river  named  Acheron,  the  same 
as  among  the  Epirotic  Thesprotians:  the  ubiquitous  name 
Pelasgiaii  is  connected  both  with  one  and  with  the  other. 
This  ethnical  affinity,  remote  or  near,  between  (Enolrians 

separated    by    the     river    Thyamis  and   Akarnanians    (iii.   04-95),   and 

(now     Kalamas) — Thucyd.     i.     4G  ;  is  applied  to  inhabitants  of  Thrace 

btephanus  Byz.  v.  Tpoicc.  (iv.  105). 

1  Hekativus,  Fr.  77,  ed.  Klausen  ;  Epirus  is  used  in  its  special  sense 

i-'trabo,  vii.  p.  326  ;  Appian,  Illyric.  to  designate  the   territory    west  of 

c.  7.     In   the    time    of  Thucydides,  1'indus,  by  Xenophon,    Hellen.  vi. 

the    Molossi     and     the     Atintanes  1,  7. 

were  under  the  same  king  (ii.  SO).  Compare     Mannert,     Geographie 

The  name  'HTtsipujTai,  with  Thuey-  der   Griech.    und    Romer,    part   vii. 

dides,    means    only    inhabitants  of  book  2.  p.  283. 

a     continent— oi     TCCJT^     T,r;ipiuT7i  2  Strabo,  vii.  p.  ^24. 
(i.    47  ;    ii.    80)    includes    ^Etoliui.3 


412  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAST  II. 

and  Epirots,  which  we  must  accept  as  a  fact  without  being 
able  to  follow  it  into  detail,  consists  at  the  same  time  with 
the  circumstance — that  both  seem  to  have  been  susceptible 
of  Hellenic  influences  to  an  unusual  degree,  and  to  have 
been  moulded,  with  comparatively  little  difficulty,  into  an 
imperfect  Hellenism,  like  that  of  the  ^Etolians  and  Akar- 
nanians.  The  Thesprotian  conquerors  of  Thessaly  passed 
in  this  manner  into  Thessalian  Greeks.  The  Amphilochians 
who  inhabited  Argos  on  the  Ambrakian  Grulfwere  hellenised 
by  the  reception  of  Greeks  from  Ainbrakia,  though  the 
Amphilochians  situated  without  the  city  still  remained 
barbarous  in  the  time  of  Thucydides : *  a  century  afterwards, 
probably,  they  would  be  hellenised  like  the  rest  by  a  longer 
continuance  of  the  same  influences — as  happened  with  the 
Sikels  in  Sicily. 

To  assign  the  names  and  exact  boundaries  of  the 
different  tribes  inhabiting  Epirus  as  they  stood 
with  the  in  the  seventh  and  sixth  centuries  B.C.,  at  the 
Macedo-  time  when  the  western  stream  of  Grecian  coloni- 
impossible  sation  was  going  on,  and  when  the  newly-estab- 
to  mark  the  Hghed  Ambrakiots  must  have  been  engaged  in 

boundaries.         -i  .          ,-  IT          j.i 

subjugating  or  expelling  the  prior  occupants 
of  their  valuable  site — is  out  of  our  power.  We  have  no 
information  prior  to  Herodotus  and  Thucydides,  and  that 
which  they  tell  us  cannot  be  safely  applied  to  a  time  either 
much  earlier  or  much  later  than  their  own.  That  there 
was  great  analogy  between  the  inland  Macedonians  and  the 
Epirots,  from  Mount  Bermius  across  the  continent  to  the 
coast  opposite  Korkyra,  in  military  equipment,  in  the 
fashion  of  cutting  the  hair,  and  in  speech,  we  are  apprised 
by  a  valuable  passage  of  Strabo ;  who  farther  tells  us  that 
many  of  the  tribes  spoke  two  different  languages2 — a  fact 
which  at  least  proves  very  close  intercommunion,  if  not  a 
double  origin  and  incorporation.  Wars  or  voluntary  seces- 
sions and  new  alliances  would  alter  the  boundaries  and  re- 
lative situation  of  the  various  tribes.  And  this  would  be 

1  Thucyd.  ii.  68.  Turks,  that  most  of  the  natives  find 

2  Strabo,    vii.   p.    324.     In    these  themselves  tinder  the  necessity  of 
same   regions,    under   the   Turkish  acquiring    two,    sometimes    three, 
government    of    the    present    day,  languages:  see  Dr.  Grisebach,  Reise 
such     is     the    mixture    and    inter-  durch  Rumelien  ujid  nach  Erussa, 
course  of  Greeks,  Albanians,  Bui-  ch.  xii.  vol.  ii.  p.  68. 

garic  Sclavonians,  Wallachiaus  and 


CHAP.  XXIV.  EPIROT8.— MACEDONIANS.  413 

the  more  easily  effected,  as  all  Epirus,  even  in  the  fourth 
century  B.C.,  was  parcelled  out  among  an  aggre-  Territ 
gate  ofvillages,  without  any  great  central  cities:  so  distributed 
that  the  severance  of  a  village  from  theMolossian  j^*"^1" 
union,  and  its  junction  with  the  Thesprotian  (ab-  ncfconsi- 
stracting  from  the  feelings  with  which  it  might  be  derabie 
connected),  wouldmake  little  practical  difference 
in  its  condition  or  proceedings.  The  gradual  increase  of 
Hellenic  influence  tended  partially  to  centralise  this  political 
dispersion,  enlarging  some  of  the  villages  into  small  towns 
by  the  incorporation  of  some  of  their  neighbours;  and  in 
this  way  probably  were  formed  the  seventy  Epirotic  cities 
which  were  destroyed  and  given  up  to  plunder  on  the  same 
day,  by  Paulus  Emilius  and  the  Roman  senate.  The  Thes- 
protian Ephyre  is  called  a  city  even  by  Thucydides. l 
Nevertheless  the  situation  was  unfavourable  to  the  forma- 
tion of  considerable  cities,  either  on  the  coast  or  in  the  in- 
terior, since  the  physical  character  of  the  territory  is  an 
exaggeration  of  that  of  Greece — almost  throughout,  wild, 
rugged  and  mountainous.  The  valleys  and  low  grounds, 
though  frequent,  are  never  extensive — while  the  soil  is 
rarely  suited,  in  any  continuous  spaces,  for  the  cultivation 
of  corn;  insomuch  that  the  flour  for  the  consumption  of 
Janina,  at  the  present  day,  is  transported  from  Thessaly 
over  the  lofty  ridge  of  Pindus  by  means  of  asses  and  mules;'-2 
while  the  fruits  and  vegetables  are  brought  from  Arta,  the 
territory  of  Ambrakia.  Epirus  is  essentially  a  pastoral 
country :  its  cattle  as  well  as  its  shepherds  and  shepherd's  dogs 
were  celebrated  throughout  all  antiquity;  and  its  population 
then,  as  now,  found  divided  village  residence  the  most  suitable 
to  their  means  and  occupations.  In  spite  of  this  natural 
tendency,  however,  Hellenic  infUiences  were  to  a  certain 
extent  efficacious,  and  it  is  to  them  that  we  are  to  ascribe 
the  formation  of  towns  like  Phoenike — an  inland  city  a  few 
miles  removed  from  the  sea,  in  a  latitude  somewhat  north 
of  the  northernmost  point  of  Korkyra,  which  Polybius 
notices  as  the  most  flourishing3  of  the  Epirotic  cities  at  the 

1  Livy,  xlv.  34;  Thucyd.  i.  47.  210,  2S3:  ch.  ix.  vol.  i.  p.  411;  Cy- 
J'hanote,  in  the  more  northerly  prien  Robert,  Les  Slaves  de  Tur- 
part  of  Epirus,  is  called  only  a  q.uie,  book  iv.  ch.  2. 

Boo^oTott    Ttpii-jcc;    e£6);o(. — Pindar. 


Greece,  ch.  xxxviii.  vol.  iv.  pp.  207, 


414  HISTOKY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

time  when  it  was  plundered  by  the  Illyrians  in  230  B.C. 
Passaron,  the  ancient  spot  where  the  Molossian  kings  were 
accustomed  on  their  accession  to  take  their  coronation-oath, 
had  grown  into  a  considerable  town,  in  this  last  century 
before  the  Roman  conquest;  while  Tekmon,  Phylake,  and 
Horreum  also  become  known  to  us  at  the  same  period. l 
But  the  most  important  step  which  those  kings  made  towards 
aggrandisement,  was  the  acquisition  of  the  Greek  city  of 
Ambrakia,  which  became  the  capital  of  the  kingdom  of 
Pyrrhus,  and  thus  gave  to  him  the  only  site  suitable  for  a 
concentrated  population  which  the  country  afforded. 

If  we  follow  the  coast  of  Epirus  from  the  entrance 
Coast  of  °f  the  Ambrakian  Gulf  northward  to  the  Akro- 
Epirus  dis-  kerauuian  promontory,  we  shall  find  it  dis- 
to'arfcUm  couraging  to  Grecian  colonisation.  Therearenone 
cpionisa-  of  those  extensive  maritime  plains  which  the 
Gulf  of  Tarentum  exhibits  on  its  coast,  and 
which  sustained  the  grandeur  of  Sybaris  and  Kroton. 
Throughout  the  whole  extent,  the  mountain-region,  abrupt 
and  affording  little  cultivable  soil,  approaches  near  to  the 
sea;2  and  the  level  ground,  wherever  it  exists,  must  be 
commanded  and  possessed  (as  it  is  now)  by  villagers  on 
hill-sites,  always  difficult  of  attack  and  often  inexpugnable. 
From  hence,  and  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Korkyra — 
herself  well  situated  for  traffic  with  Epirus,  and  jealous  of 
neighbouring  rivals — we  may  understand  why  the  Grecian 
emigrants  omitted  this  unprofitable  tract,  and  passed  on 
either  northward  to  the  maritime  plains  of  Illyria,  or 
westward  to  Italy.  In  the  time  of  Herodotus  and  Thucy- 
dicles,  there  seems  to  have  been  no  Hellenic  settlement 
between  Ambrakia  and  Apollonia.  The  harbour  called 
Glykys  Limen,  with  the  neighbouring  valley  and  plain,  the 
most  considerable  in  Epirus  next  to  that  of  Ambrakia, 
near  the  junction  of  the  lake  and  river  of  Acheron  with 
the  sea — were  possessed  by  the  Thesprotian  town  of 
Ephyre,  situated  on  a  neighbouring  eminence;  perhaps  also 
in  part  by  the  ancient  Thesprotian  town  of  Paudosia,  so 
pointedly  connected,  both  in  Italy  and  Epirus,  with  the 
river  Acheron. 3  Amidst  the  almost  inexpugnable  mountains 

1  Plutarch,  Pyrrh.  c.  i. ;  Livy,  Bou£,  La  Tnrquie  en  Europe,  G6o- 

xlv.  26.  graphic  G£n6rale,  vol.  i.  p.  57. 

-  See  the  description  ofthegeo-  3  Seethe  account  of  this  territory 

graphical  features  of  Epirus  in  in  Colonel  Leake's  Travels  in 


CHAP.  XXIV.    CHAONIANS,  THESPEOTIANS,  MOLOSSIANS.     415 

and  gorges  which  mark  the  course  of  that  Thespro- 
tian  river,  was  situated  the  memorable  recent  community 
of  Suli,  which  held  in  dependence  many  surrounding  villages 
in  the  lower  grounds  and  in  the  plain — the  counterpart  of 
primitive  Epirotic  rulers  in  situation,  in  fierceness,  and  in 
indolence,  but  far  superior  to  them  in  energetic  bravery 
and  endurance.  It  appears  that  after  the  time  of  Thucy- 
dides,  certain  Greek  settlers  must  have  found  admission 
into  the  Epirotic  towns  in  this  region.  For  Demosthenes1 
mentions  Pandosia,  Buchetia,  and  Eleea,  as  settlements  from 
Elis,  which  Philip  of  Macedon  conquered  and  handed  over 
to  his  brother-in-law  the  king  of  the  Molossian  Epirots;  and 
Strabo  tells  us  that  the  name  of  Ephyre  had  been  changed 
to  Kichyrus,  which  appears  to  imply  an  accession  of  new 
inhabitants. 

Both  the  Chaonians  and  Thesprotians  appear,  in  the 
time  of  Thucydides,  as  having  no  kings:  there  was  a  privi- 
leged kingly  race,  but  the  presiding  chief  was  changed  from 
year  to  year.  The  Molossians,  however,  had  a  some  KPI- 
line  of  kings,  succeeding  from  father  to  son,  roti°  tri^es 
which  professed  to  trace  its  descent  through  by\lngs, 
fifteen  generations  downward,  from  Achilles  and  others  n°*- 
Xeoptolemus  to  Tharypas  about  the  year  400  B.C.:  thus 
forming  a  scion  of  the  great  ^Eakid  race.  Admetus,  the 
Molossian  king  to  whom  Themistokles  presented  himself 
as  a  suppliant,  appears  to  have  lived  in  the  simplicity  of 
an  inland  village  chief.  But  Arrybas,  his  son  or  grandson, 
is  said  to  have  been  educated  at  Athens,  and  to  have  in- 
troduced improved  social  regularity  into  his  native  country: 
while  the  subsequent  kings  both  imitated  the  ambition  and 
received  the  aid  of  Philip  of  Macedon,  extending  their  do- 
minion2 over  a  large  portion  of  the  other  Epirots.  Even  in 


i  must  have    been  individually 


'•To  the    ancient  sites    (observes 


Demosthenes,  De  Haloneso,  ch. 


merous  in  the  greatvalleys  watered      7,  p.  84  R  ;  Strabo,  vii.  p.  U24. 

by  the  Lower  Acheron,  the  Lower          2  Skylax,  c.  32;  Pausanias,  i.  11  j 

Tliyainis,    and  their  tributaries,    it      Justin,   xvii.  G. 


416  HISTOEY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

the  time  of  Skylax,  they  covered  a  large  inland  territory, 
though  their  portion  of  sea-coast  was  confined.  From  the 
narrative  of  Thucydides,  we  gather  that  all  the  Epirots, 
though  held  together  by  no  political  union,  were  yet  willing 
enough  to  combine  for  purposes  of  aggression  and  plunder. 
The  Chaonians  enjoyed  a  higher  military  reputation  than 
the  rest.  But  the  account  which  Thucydides  gives  of  their 
expedition  against  Akarnania  exhibits  a  blind,  reckless, 
boastful  impetuosity,  which  contrasts  strikingly  with  the 
methodical  and  orderly  march  of  their  Greek  allies  and 
companions. l 

To  collect  the  few  particulars  known,  respecting  these 
ruder  communities  adjacent  to  Greece,  is  a  task  indispen- 
sable for  the  just  comprehension  of  the  Grecian  world,  and 
for  the  appreciation  of  the  Greeks  themselves  by  comparison 
or  contrast  with  their  contemporaries.  Indispensable  as 
it  is,  however,  it  can  hardly  be  rendered  in  itself  interesting 
to  the  reader,  whose  patience  I  have  to  bespeak  by  assu- 
ring him  that  the  facts  hereafter  to  be  recounted  of  Grecian 
history  would  be  only  half  understood  without  this  pre- 
liminary survey  of  the  lands  around. 

That    the   Arrhybas   of  Justin  is  a  minor  at  the  beginning  of  the  3?e- 

the  same  as  the  Tharypas  of  Pau-  loponnesian  war — seems  probable, 

sanias — perhaps    also    the  same  as  *  Tlmcyd.  ii.  81. 
Tharyps  in  Thucydides,    who  was 


CHAP.  XXV.    ILLYEIANS,  MACEDONIANS,  P2EONIANS.  417 


CHAPTER  XXV. 
ILLYRIANS,  MACEDONIANS,  P^ONIANS. 

NORTHWABD  of  the  tribes  called  Epirotic  lay  tliose 
more  numerous  and  widely  extended  tribes  who  Different 
bore  the  general  name  of  Illyrians,  bounded  on  tribes  of 
the  west  by  the  Adriatic,  on  the  east  by  the  Inyrians- 
mountain-range  of  Skardus,  the  northern  continuation  of 
Pindus,  and  thus  covering  what  is  now  called  Middle  and 
Upper  Albania,  together  with  the  more  northerly  moun- 
tains of  Montenegro,  Herzegovina,  and  Bosnia.  Their 
limits  to  the  north  and  north-east  cannot  be  assigned.  But 
the  Dardani  and  Autariatse  must  have  reached  to  the 
north-east  of  Skardus  and  even  east  of  the  Servian  plain 
of  Kossovo;  while  along  the  Adriatic  coast,  Skylax  extends 
the  race  so  far  northward  as  to  include  Dalmatia,  treating 
the  Liburnians  and  Istrians  beyond  them  as  not  Illyrian: 
yet  Appian  and  others  consider  the  Liburnians  and 
Istrians  as  Illyrian,  and  Herodotus  even  includes  under 
that  name  the  Eneti  or  Veneti  at  the  extremity  of  the 
Adriatic  Gulf.1  The  Bulini,  according  to  Skylax,  were 

1  Herod,  i.  If 6  ;  Skylax,  c.  19-27;  sertation  on  the  Macedonians,  with 

Appian,  Illyric.  c.  2,  4,  8.  that  in  Baud's  Travels;  but  tha 

The  geography  of  the  countries  extreme  deficiency  of  the  maps, 

occupied  in  ancient  times  by  the  even  as  they  no-w  stand,  is  emphati- 

Illyrians,  Macedonians,  Pa:onians,  cally  noticed  by  Bou6  himself  (see 

Thracians,  &c.,  and  now  possessed  his  Critique  des  Cartes  do  la 

by  a  great  diversity  of  races,  among  Turquie  in  the  fourth  volume  of 

whom  the  Turks  and  Albanians  his  Voyage)  —  by  Paul  Joseph 

retain  the  primitive  barbarism  Schaffarik,  the  learned  historian 

without  mitigation,  is  still  very  of  the  Sclavonic  race,  in  the  preface 

imperfectly  understood;  though  attached  by  him  to  Dr.  Joseph 

the  researches  of  Colonel  Leake,  Mailer's  Topographical  Account 

of  Bou6,  of  Grisebach,  and  others  of  Albania— and  by  Griaebach,  who 

(especially  the  valuable  travels  of  in  his  surveys  taken  from  the 

the  latter),  have  of  late  thrown  summits  of  the  mountains  Peristeri 

much  light  upon  it.  How  much  and  Ljubatrin,  found  the  map 

our  knowledge  is  extended  in  this  differing  at  very  stop  from  the 

direction, may  be  seenby  comparing  bearings  which  presented  tliem- 

the  map  prefixed  to  Mannert's  selves  to  his  eye.  It  is  only  since 

(jeographie,  or  to  0.  Miiller's  Dis-  Boud  and  Grisebach  that  the  idea 

VOL.  III.  2  E 


418 


HISTOET  OP  GEEECB, 


PART  II, 


the  northernmost  Illyrian  tribe:  the  Amantini,  immediately 
northward  of  the  Epirotic  Chaonians,  were  southernmost. 


has  been  completely  dismissed, 
derived  originally  from  Strabo,  of 
a  straight  line  of  mountains  (eufisla 
Ypa[x[jL7j,  Strabo,  lib.  vii.  Fragm.  3) 
running  across  from  the  Adriatic 
to  the  Euxine,  and  sending  forth 
other  lateral  chains  in  a  direction 
nearly  southerly.  The  mountains 
of  Turkey  in  Europe,  when  ex- 
amined with  the  stock  of  geological 
science  which  M.  Viquesnel  (the 
companion  of  Bou£)  and  Dr.  Grise- 
bach bring  to  the  task,  are  found 
to  belong  to  systems  very  different, 
and  to  present  evidences  of  con- 
ditions of  formation  often  quite 
independent  of  each  other. 

The  thirteenth  chapter  of  Grise- 
bach's  Travels,  presents  the  best 
account  which  has  yet  been  given 
of  the  chain  of  Skardus  and  Pin- 
dus :  he  has  been  the  first  to  prove 
clearly,  that  the  Iijubatrin,  which 
immediately  overhangs  the  plain 
of  Kossovo  at  the  southern  border 
of  Servia  and  Bosnia,  is  the  north- 
eastern extremity  of  a  chain  of 
mountains  reaching  southward  to 
the  frontiers  of  JEtolia,  in  a  direc- 
tion not  very  wide  of  N-S.— with 
the  single  interruption  (first  brought 
to  view  by  Colonel  Leake)  of  the 
Klissoura  of  Devol — a  complete 
gap,  where  the  river  Devol,  rising 
on  the  eastern  side,  crosses  the 
chain  and  joins  the  Apsus  or  Bera- 
tino  on  the  western— (it  is  remark- 
able that  both  in  the  map  of  BouS 
and  in  that  annexed  to  Dr.  Joseph 
Muller's  Topographical  Description 
of  Albania,  the  river  Devol  is 
made  to  join  the  Genussus  or 
Skoumi,  considerably  north  of  the 
Apsus,  though  Colonel  Leake's 
map  gives  the  correct  course).  In 
Grisebach's  nomenclature  Skardus 
is  made  to  reach  from  the  Ljuba- 
trin  as  its  north-eastern  extremity, 


south-westward  and  southward  as 
far  as  the  Klissoura  of  Devol: 
south  of  that  point  Pindus  com- 
mences, in  a  continuation  however 
of  the  same  axis. 

In  reference  to  the  seats  of  the 
ancient  Illyrians  and  Macedonians, 
Grisebach  has  made  another  obser- 
vation of  great  importance  (vol. 
ii.  p.  121.)  Between  the  north- 
eastern extremity,  Mount  Ljubatrin 
and  the  Klissoura  of  Devol,  there 
are  in  the  mighty  and  continuous 
chain  of  Skardus  (above  7000  feet 
high)  only  two  passes  fit  for  an 
army  to  cross  :  one  near  the  north- 
ern extremity  of  the  chain,  over 
which  Grisebach  himself  crossed, 
from  Kalkandele  to  Prisdren,  a 
very  high  col,  not  less  than  5000 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea; 
the  other,  considerably  to  the 
southward,  and  lower  as  well  as 
easier,  nearly  in  the  latitude  of 
Lychnidus  or  Ochrida.  It  was  over 
this  last  pass  that  the  Roman  Via 
Egnatia  travelled,  and  that  the 
modern  road  from  Scutari  and 
Durazzo  to  Bitolia  now  travels. 
"With  the  exception  of  these  two 
partial  depressions,  the  long  moun- 
tain ridge  maintains  itself  undimin- 
ished  in  height,  admitting  indeed 
paths  by  which  a  small  company 
either  of  travellers,  or  of  Albanian 
robbers  from  the  Dibren,  may  cross 
(there  is  a  path  of  this  kind  which 
connects  Struga  with  Ueskioub, 
mentioned  by  Dr.  Joseph  Miiller, 
p.  70,  and  some  others  by  Bou6, 
vol.  iv.  p.  546),  but  nowhere  admit- 
ting the  passage  of  an  army. 

To  attack  the  Macedonians,  there- 
fore, an  Illyrian  army  would  have 
to  go  through  one  or  other  of 
these  passes,  or  else  to  go  round 
the  north-eastern  pass  of  Katscha- 
nik,  beyond  the  extremity  of 


CHAP.  XXV.    ILLTEIANS,  MACEDONIANS,  P.2EONIANS.  419 

Among  the  southern  Illyrian  tribes  are  to  be  numbered 
the  Taulantii — originally  the  possessors,  afterwards  the 
immediate  neighbours,  of  the  territory  on  which  Epidam- 
nus  was  founded.  The  ancient  geographer  Hekatseus1 
(about  500  B.  c.)  is  sufficiently  well  acquainted  with  them 
to  specify  their  town  Sesarethus.  He  names  the  Chelidonii 
as  their  northern,  the  Encheleis  as  their  southern,  neigh- 
bours; and  the  Abri  also  as  a  tribe  nearly  adjoining.  We 

I/jubatrin.  And  we  shall  find  that,  Pelagonise  (Livy,  xxxi.  34)  are  the 
in  point  of  fact,  the  military  oper-  pass  by  which  they  entered  Mace- 
ations  recorded  between  the  two  donia  from  the  north.  Ptolemy 
nations,  carry  us  usually  in  one  or  even  places  the  Dardani  at  Skopite 
other  of  these  directions.  The  (TTeskioub)  (iii.  9);  his  information 
military  proceedings  of  Brasidas  about  these  countries  seems  better 
(Thucyd.  iv.  124)— of  Philip  the  son  than  that  of  Strabo. 
of  Amyntas  king  of  Macedon  The  important  topographical  in- 
(Diodor.  xvi.  8) — of  Alexander  the  struction  contained  in  Grisebach's 
<rreat  in  the  first  year  of  his  reign  work  was  deprived  of  much  of  its 
(Arrian,  i.  5),  all  bring  us  to  the  value  from  the  want  of  a  map  an- 
pass  near  Lychnidus  (compare  Livy,  nexed.  This  deficiency  has  now 
xxxii.  9;  Plutarch,  Flaminin.  c.  4)  ;  been  supplied  (1853)  in  the  new 
while  the  Illyrian  Dardani  and  map  of  Turkey  in  Europe,  pub- 
Autariata;  border  upon  Pseonia,  to  lished  by  Kiepert  of  Berlin; 
the  north  ofPclagonia,  and  threat-  wherein  the  data  of  Grisebach, 
en  Macedonia  from  the  north-east  Bou6,  Viquesnel,  Joseph  Miiller, 
of  the  mountain-chain  of  Skardus.  and  several  others,  are  for  the  first 
The  Autariatee  are  not  far  removed  time  combined  and  turned  to  ac- 
from  the  Paeonian  Agrianes,  who  count.  Kiepert's  map  is  a  mate- 
dwelt  near  the  sources  of  the  rial  addition  to  our  knowledge  of 
IStrymon,  and  both  Autariata-  and  the  countries  south  of  the  Danube. 
Dardani  threatened  the  return  The  "Erlauterungen"  annexed  to 
march  of  Alexander  from  the  it,  while  they  set  forth  the  best 
Danube  into  Macedonia,  after  his  evidences  on  which  a  chartographer 
successful  campaign  against  the  of  Turkey  in  the  present  day  can 
Getre,  low  down  in  the  course  of  proceed,  proclaim  however  the  de- 
that  great  river  (Arrian,  i.  5).  plorable  paucity  of  scientific  or 
"\Vithout  being  ablo  to  determine  accurate  observations, 
the  precise  line  of  Alexander's  '  Hekatroi  Fragm.  ed.  Klausen, 
march  on  this  occasion,  we  may  Fr.  (16—70;  Thucyd.  i.  26. 
see  that  these  two  Illyrian  tribes  Skylax  places  the  Encheleis  north 
must  have  come  down  to  attack  of  Epidamnus  and  of  the  Taulantii. 
him  from  Upper  Mccsia,  and  on  It  maybe  remarked  that  Hekatous 
the  eastern  side  of  the  Axius.  seems  to  have  communicated  much 
This,  and  the  fact  that  the  Dar-  information  respecting  the  Adria- 
dani  were  the  immediate  neigh-  tic:  he  noticed  the  city  of  Adria 
hours  of  the  Poeonians,  shows  us  at  the  extremity  of  the  Gulf,  and 
that  their  seats  could  not  havo  the  fertility  and  abundance  of  the 
been  far  removed  from  Upper  territory  around  it  (Fr.  58:  com- 
Moesia  (Livy,  xlv.  20) :  the  fauces  pure  Skyinnus  Chius,  384). 

2  E    2 


420  HISTOBY  OF  GBEEGE.  PABT  II. 

hear  of  the  Illyrian  Parthini,  nearly  in  the  same  regions 
— of  the  Dassaretii, l  near  Lake  Lychnidus — of  thePenestae, 
with  a  fortified  town  Uscana,  north  of  the  Dassaretii — of 
the  Ardiseans,  the  Autariatse,  and  the  Dardanians,  through- 
out Upper  Albania  eastward  as  far  as  Upper  Moesia, 
including  the  range  of  Skardus  itself;  so  that  there  were 
some  Illyrian  tribes  conterminous  on  the  east,  with  Mace- 
donians, and  on  the  south  with  Macedonians  as  well  as 
with  Pseonians.  Strabo  even  extends  some  of  the 
Illyrian  tribes  much  farther  northward,  nearly  to  the 
Julian  Alps.2 

With  the  exception  of  some  portions  of  what  is  now 
called  Middle  Albania,  the  territory  of  these  tribes 
consisted  principally  of  mountain  pastures  with  a  certain 
proportion  of  fertile  valley,  but  rarely  expanding  into  a 
plain.  The  Autariatae  had  the  reputation  of  being  un- 
warlike,  but  the  Illyrians  generally  were  poor,  rapacious, 
fierce  and  formidable  in  battle.  They  shared  with  the 
remote  Thracian  tribes  the  custom  of  tattowing3  their 
bodies  and  of  offering  human  sacrifices:  moreover,  they 
were  always  ready  to  sell  their  military  service  for  hire, 
like  the  modern  Albanian  Schkipetars,  in  whom  probably 
their  blood  yet  flows,  though  with  considerable  admixture 
from  subsequent  immigrations.  Of  the  Illyrian  kingdom 
on  the  Adriatic  coast,  with  Skodra  (Scutari)  for  its  capital 
city,  which  became  formidable  by  its  reckless  piracies  in 
the  third  century  B.  c.,  we  hear  nothing  in  the  flourishing 
period  of  Grecian  history.  The  description  of  Skylax 
notices  in  his  day,  all  along  the  northern  Adriatic, 

1  Livy,    xliii.    9 — 18.      Mannert  greater  expense  and  difficulty  than 
(G-eograph.  der  Griech.  und  Bomer,  the  sum  gained  would  repay.    The 
part  vii.  ch.  9.  p.  386  seq.)  collects  same    was    the    case  in    Epirus   or 
the   points   and   shows  how    little  Lower  Albania,    previous    to    the 
can  be  ascertained   respecting  the  time  of  Ali  Pacha:  in  Middle   Al- 
localities   of  these  Illyrian  tribes,  bania,  the   country  does  not  pre- 

2  Strabo,  iv.  p.  206.  sent  the   like  difficulties,   and    no 

3  Strabo,    vii.    p.   315;    Arrian,  i.  such  exemptions  are  allowed  (Bou^, 
6,4-11.     So   impracticable    is   the  Voyage  en  Turquie,  vol.  iii.  p.  192). 
territory,  and  so  narrow  the  means  These  free  Albanian   tribes  are  in 
of  the  inhabitants,    in   the    region  the  same  condition  with  regard  to 
called   Upper   Albania,   that   most  the    Sultan    as    the    Mysians    and 
of  its  resident  tribes  even  now  are  Pisidians   in   Asia  Minor  with  re- 
considered   as    free,    and    pay    no  gard  to   the  king   of  Persia  in  an- 
tribute  to  the  Turkish  government:  cient  times   (Xenophon,  Anab.  iii. 
the  Pachas  cannot  extort  it  without  2,  23). 


CHAP.  XXV.    ILLYKIANS,  MACEDONIAHS,  P^ONIANS.  421 

a  considerable  and  standing  traffic  between  the  coast  and 
the  interior,  carried  on  by  Liburnians,  Istrians,  and  the 
small  Grecian  insular  settlements  of  Pharus  and  Issa.  But 
he  does  not  name  Skodra,  and  probably  this  strong  post 
(together  with  the  Greek  town  Lissus,  founded  by  Dio- 
nysius  of  Syracuse)  was  occupied  after  his  time  by  con- 
querors from  the  interior, l  the  predecessors  of  Agron  and 
Gentius,  just  as  the  coast-land  of  the  Thermaic  Gulf  was 
conquered  by  inland  Macedonians. 

Once  during  the  Peloponnesian  war,  a  detachment, 
of  hired  Illyrians,  marching  into  Macedonia  conflicts 
Lynkestis  (seemingly  over  the  pass  of  Skardus  and  con- 
a  little  east  of  Lychnidus  or  Ochrida),  tried  the  mlrianB 
valour  of  the  Spartan  Brasidas.  On  that  with 
occasion  (as  in  the  expedition  above  alluded  to  Greeks- 
of  the  Epirots  against  Akarnania)  we  shall  notice  the 
marked  superiority  of  the  Grecian  character,  even  in  the 
case  of  an  armament  chiefly  composed  of  helots  newly 
enfranchised,  over  both  Macedonians  and  Illyrians.  We 
shall  see  the  contrast  between  brave  men  acting  in  concert 
and  obedience  to  a  common  authority,  and  an  assailing 
host  of  warriors,  not  less  brave  individually,  but  in  which 
every  man  is  his  own  master,2  and  fights  as  he  pleases. 
The  rapid  and  impetuous  rush  of  the  Illyrians,  if  the  first 
shock  failed  of  its  effect,  was  succeeded  by  an  equally 
rapid  retreat  or  flight.  We  hear  nothing  afterwards 
respecting  these  barbarians  until  the  time  of  Philip  of 
Macedon,  whose  vigour  and  military  energy  first  repressed 
their  incursions,  and  afterwards  partially  conquered  them. 
It  seems  to  have  been  about  this  period  (400-350  B.C.)  that 
the  great  movement  of  the  Gauls  from  west  to  east  took 
place,  which  brought  the  Gallic  Skordiski  and  other  tribes 
into  the  regions  between  the  Danube  and  the  Adriatic  Sea, 
and  which  probably  dislodged  some  of  the  northern 
Illyrians  so  as  to  drive  them  upon  new  enterprises  and 
fresh  abodes. 

What  is  now  called  Middle  Albania,  the  Illyrian  ter- 
ritory immediately  north  of  Epirus,  is  much  superior  to 

1  IHodor.  xv.  13;  Polyl).  ii.  4.  jo-iyirj,  contrasted  with   the  orderly 

2  Sec  the   description    in  Thucy-      array  of  Greeks. 

(liilf'S  (iv.  124—128;  especially  the  "Illyriorum  velocitas  ad  excur- 
exhortation  which  he  puts  into  tho  siones  ot  impetus  subitos." — Livy, 
mouth  of  Brasidas  —  ai-oxr/aTiop  xxxi.  35. 


422  HISTOBY  OF  GBEECE,  TAKT  II. 

the  latter  in  productiveness.  1  Though  mountainous,  it  pos- 
Epidamnus  sesses  more  both  of  low  hill  and  valley,  and 
and  Apol-  ampler  as  well  as  more  fertile  cultivable  spaces, 
relation  Epidamnus  and  Apollonia  formed  the  seaports 
to  the  of  this  territory.  To  them  commerce  with  the 

sou  them  Illyrians,  less  barbarous  than  the  north- 
ern, was  one  of  the  sources2  of  great  prosperity  during 
the  first  century  of  their  existence — a  prosperity  inter- 
rupted in  the  case  of  the  Epidamnians  by  internal  dissen- 
sions, which  impaired  their  ascendency  over  their  Illyrian 
neighbours,  and  ultimately  placed  them  at  variance  with 
their  mother-city  Korkyra.  The  commerce  between  these 
Greek  seaports  and  the  interior  tribes,  when  once  the 
Greeks  became  strong  enough  to  render  violent  attack 
from  the  latter  hopeless,  was  reciprocally  beneficial  to 
both  of  them.  Grecian  oil  and  wine  were  introduced  among 
these  barbarians,  whose  chiefs  at  the  same  time  learnt  to 
appreciate  the  woven  fabrics,3  the  polished  and  carved 
metallic  work,  the  tempered  weapons,  and  the  pottery, 
which  issued  from  Grecian  artisans.  Moreover,  the  impor- 
tation sometimes  of  salt-fish,  and  always  that  of  salt  itself, 
was  of  the  greatest  importance  to  these  inland  residents, 
especially  for  such  localities  as  possessed  lakes  abounding 
in  fish  like  that  of  Lychnidus.  We  hear  of  wars  between 
the  Autariatae  and  the  Ardisei,  respecting  salt-springs  near 
their  boundaries,  and  also  of  other  tribes  whom  the  pri- 
vation of  salt  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  submitting  to  the 
Romans.4  On  the  other  hand  these  tribes  possessed  two 

1  See    Pouqueville,    Voyage    en  ric.  17;  Aristot.  Mirab.  Ausc.  c.  138. 
Grece,  vol.  i.  ch.  23  and  24;  Grise-  For  the  extreme  importance  of  the 
bach,   Keise   durch  Kumelien  und  trade   in    salt,    as    a   bond  of  con- 
nach   Brussa,    vol.  ii.    p.   138,  139;  nexion,  see  the  regulations  of  the 
Boue,  La  Turquie  en  Europe,  Geo-  Romans  when   they  divided  Mace- 
graphie  Generate,  vol.  i.  p.  60-65.  donia  into  four  provinces,  with  the 

2  Skymnus  Chius,  v.  418-425.  distinct    view    of    cutting    off    all 

3  Thucydides  mentions  the  O'-pavTa  connexion    between    one    and   tho 
xal    Xsta,     xotl    T)    oXXr)    xccTaaxsur),  other.     All   commercium   and  con- 
which   the    Greek    settlements    on  iiubium    were    forbidden    between 
the  Thracian  coast  sent  up  to  king  them.     The   fourth    region,    whose 
Seuthes    (ii.    98):     similar    to    the  capital  was  Pelagonia  (and  which 
u-fiajjiaS'    iepot,  and  to  the  ^spioipav  included  all  the  primitive  or  Upper 
TsxTovtov   SatSotXa,    offered    as    pre-  Macedonia,    east   of  the    range   of 
sents  to  the  Delphian  god  (Eurip.  Pindus    and    Skardus),    was    alto- 
Ion,  1141 ;  Pindar,  Pyth.  v.  46).  gether  inland,  and  it  was  expressly 

*  Strabo,  vii.  p.  317  ;  Appian,  Illy-      forbidden  to  draw  its  salt  from  the 


CHAP.  XXV.    ILLYRIANS,  MACEDONIANS,  P.EONIANS.  423 

articles  of  exchange  so  precious  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Greeks,  that  Polybius  reckons  them  as  absolutely  indis- 
pensable1— cattle  and  slaves;  which  latter  were  doubtless 
procured  from  Illyria,  often  in  exchange  for  salt,  as  they 
were  from  Thrace  and  from  the  Euxine,  and  from  Aquileia 

third  region,  or  the  country  be-  extremity  of  the  Euxine  (Strabo, 
tween  the  Lower  Axius  and  the  xi.  p.  508):  so  little  have  those 
Peneius  ;  while  on  the  other  hand  tribes  changed,  that  the  Circassi- 
the  Illyrian  Dardani  (situated  ans  now  carry  on  much  the  same 
northward  of  Upper  Macedonia)  trade.  Dr.  Clarke's  statement  car- 
received  express  permission  to  draw  ries  us  back  to  the  ancient  world: 
their  salt  from  this  third  or  mari-  — "The  Circassians  frequently  sell 
time  region  of  Macedonia:  the  salt  their  children  to  strangers,  parti- 
v/as  to  be  conveyed  from  the  Ther-  cularly  to  the  Persians  ami  Turks, 
inaic  Gulf  along  the  road  of  the  and  theirprinces  supply  the  Turkish 
Axius  to  Stobi  in  Pseonia,  and  was  seraglios  with  the  most  beautiful 
there  to  be  sold  at  a  fixed  price.  of  the  prisoners  of  both  sexes  whom 
The  inner  or  fourth  region  of  they  take  in  war.  In  their  com- 
ITacedonia,  which  included  the  merce  with  the  Tchernomorski  Cos- 
modern  Bitoglia  and  Lake  Castoria,  sacks  (north  of  the  river  Kuban), 
could  easily  obtain  its  salt  from  the  Circassians  bring  considerable 
the  Adriatic,  by  the  communication  quantities  of  wood,  and  the  deli- 
afterwards  so  well  known  as  the  cious  honey  of  the  mountains, 
lloman  Egnatian  way  ;  but  the  sewed  up  in  goats'  hides,  with  the 
communication  of  the  Dardani  with  hair  on  the  outside.  These  articles 
the  Adriatic  led  through  a  country  they  exchange  for  salt,  a  com- 
of  the  greatest  possible  difficulty,  modity  found  in  the  neighbouring 
and  it  was  probably  a  great  con-  lakes,  of  a  very  excellent  quality, 
venience  to  them  to  receive  their  Salt  is  more  precious  than  any 
supply  from  the  Gulf  of  Therma  other  kind  of  wealth  to  the  Circas- 
by  the  road  along  the  Vardar  sians,  and  it  constitutes  the  most 
(Axius)  (Livy,  xlv.  29).  Compare  acceptable  present  which  can  be 
the  route  of  Grisebach  from  Salo-  offered  to  them.  They  weave  mats 
uichi  to  Scutari,  in  his  Reise  durch  of  very  great  beauty,  which  find 
Kumelien,  vol.  ii.  a  ready  market  both  in  Turkey  and 

1  About  the  cattle  in  Illyria,  Kussia.  They  are  also  ingenious 

Aristotle,  Do  Mirab.  Ausc.  c.  128.  in  the  art  of  working  silver  and 

There  is  a  remarkable  passage  in  other  metals,  and  in  the  fabrication 

Polybius,  wherein  he  treats  the  of  guns,  pistols  and  sabres.  Some, 

importation  of  slaves  as  a  matter  which  they  offered  us  for  sale,  we 

of  necessity  to  Greece  (iv.  37).  The  suspected  had  been  procured  in 

purchasing  of  the  Thracian  slaves  Turkey  in  exchange  for  slaves. 

in  exchange  for  salt  is  noticed  by  Their  bows  and  arrows  are  made 

Menander  —  Gpot;  EU'COVYJ?  eT,  Tfo?  with  inimitable  skill,  and  the  ar- 

«).oi;  f)YGpa<ju,evO?:  see  Proverb,  rows  being  tipt  with  iron,  and 

Xenob.  ii.  12,  and  Diogenian,  i.  100.  otherwise  exquisitely  wrought,  are 

The  same  trade  was  carried  on  considered  by  the  Cossacks  and 

In  antiquity  with  the  nations  on  Russians  as  inflicting  incurable 

and  near  Caucasus,  from  the  soa-  wounds."  (Clarke's  Travels,  vol. 

port  of  Dioskurias  at  the  eastern  i.  ch.  xvi.  p.  378.) 


424  HISTORY  OF  GBEECE.  PART  II. 

in  the  Adriatic,  through  the  internal  wars  of  one  tribe 
with  another.  Silver-mines  were  worked  at  Damastiura 
in  Illyria.  Wax  and  honey  were  probably  also  articles  of 
export,  and  it  is  a  proof  that  the  natural  products  of  Illyria 
were  carefully  sought  out,  when  we  find  a  species  of  iris 
peculiar  to  the  country  collected  and  sent  to  Corinth, 
where  its  root  was  employed  to  give  the  special  flavour  to 
a  celebrated  kind  of  aromatic  unguent. l 

The  intercourse  between  the  Hellenic  ports  and  the 
Illyrians  inland,  was  not  exclusively  commercial.  Grecian 
exiles  also  found  their  way  into  Illyria,  and  Grecian  mythes 
became  localised  there,  as  may  be  seen  by  the  tale  of  Kad- 
mus  and  Harmonia,  from  whom  the  chiefs  of  the  Illyrian 
Encheleis  professed  to  trace  their  descent.2 

The  Macedonians  of  the  fourth  century  B.C.  acquired, 
Early  Ma-  from  the  ability  and  enterprise  of  two  successive 
cedonians.  kings,  a  great  perfection  in  Greek  military  or- 
ganization without  any  of  the  loftier  Hellenic  qualities. 
Their  career  in  Greece  is  purely  destructive,  extinguishing 
the  free  movement  of  the  separate  cities,  and  disarming 
the  citizen-soldier  to  make  room  for  the  foreign  mercenary 
whose  sword  was  unhallowed  by  any  feelings  of  patriotism 
— yet  totally  incompetent  to  substitute  any  good  system 
of  central  or  pacific  administration.  But  the  Macedonians 
of  the  seventh  and  sixth  centuries  B.C.  are  an  aggregate 
only  of  rude  inland  tribes,  subdivided  into  distinct  petty 
principalities,  and  separated  from  the  Greeks  by  a  wider 
ethnical  difference  even  than  the  Epirots;  since  Herodotus, 
who  considers  the  Epirotic  Molossians  and  Thesprotians 
as  children  of  Hellen,  decidedly  thinks  the  contrary  respect- 
ing the  Macedonians.3  In  the  main,  however,  they  seem 
at  this  early  period  analogous  to  the  Epirots  in  character 

1  Theophrast.  Hist.   Plant,   iv.  5,  in  the  Euxine  Sea  towards  a  citizen 

2;   ix.    7,  4 ;    Pliny,  H.    N.    xiii.  2;  of  Epidamnus     (Earth,    Corinthio- 

xxi.  19;  Strabo,  vii.  p.  326.  Coins  of  rum  Mercatur.  Hist.  p.  49;  Aristot. 

Epidamnus  and  Apollonia  are  found  Mirab.  Auscult.  c.  104). 

not    only    in    Macedonia,     but    in  2  Herodot.v.  61 ;  viii.  137  :  Strabo, 

Thrace  and  in  Italy:    the   trade  of  vii.  p.  326.  Skylax  places  the  XiQoi 

these  two  cities  probably  extended  of  Kadmus   and  Harmonia   among 

across  from  sea  to  sea,  even  before  the   Illyrian    Manii,   north    of   tha 

the   construction   of  the   Egnatian  Encheleis  (Diodor.  xix.  53;  Pausan. 

way ;    and   the    Inscription   205C  in  ix.  5,  3). 

the   Corpus    of  Boeckh   proclaims  3  Herodot.  v.  22. 
the   gratitude    of  Odessus    (Varna) 


CHAP.  XXV.    ILLYRIANS,  MACEDONIANS,  P.EONIANS.  425 

and  civilization.  They  had  some  few  towns,  but  they  were 
chiefly  village  residents,  extremely  brave  and  pugnacious: 
the  customs  of  some  of  their  tribes  enjoined  that  the  man 
who  had  not  yet  slain  an  enemy  should  be  distinguished 
on  some  occasions  by  a  badge  of  discredit.1 

The  original  seats  of  the  Macedonians  were  in  the 
regions  east  of  the  chain  of  Skardus  (the  northerly  con- 
tinuation of  Pindus) — north  of  the  chain  called  Their  ori- 
theCambunian  mountains,  which  connects  Olym-  8inal  seats. 
pus  with  Pindus,  and  which  forms  the  north-western  boun- 
dary of  Thessaly;  but  they  did  not  reach  so  far  eastward 
as  the  Thermaic  Gulf;  apparently  not  farther  eastward 
than  Mount  Berrnius,  or  about  the  longitude  of  Edessa  and 
Berrhoia.  They  thus  covered  the  upper  portions  of  the 
course  of  the  rivers  Haliakmon  and  Erigon,  before  the 
junction  of  the  latter  with  the  Axius;  while  the  upper 
course  of  the  Axius,  higher  than  this  point  of  junction, 
appears  to  have  belonged  to  Paeonia,  though  the  boundaries 
of  Macedonia  and  Pseonia  cannot  be  distinctly  marked  out 
at  any  time. 

The  large  space  of  country  included  between  the 
above-mentioned  boundaries  is  in  great  part  General 
mountainous,  occupied  by  lateral  ridges  or  eleva-  vievv  of  the 
tions  which  connect  themselves  with  the  main  winch  they 
line  of  Skardus.  But  it  also  comprises  three  occupied- 
wide  alluvial  basins  or  plains,  which  are  of  great  p'indus  and 
extent  and  well-adapted  to  cultivation — the  Skardus. 
plain  of  Tettovo  or  Kalkandele  (northernmost  of  the  three), 
which  contains  the  sources  and  early  course  of  the  Axius 
or  Vardar — that  of  Bitolia,  coinciding  to  a  great  degree 
with  the  ancient  Pelagonia,  wherein  the  Erigon  flows  to- 
wards the  Axius — and  the  larger  and  more  undulating  basin 
of  Grevcno  and  Anaselitzas,  containing  the  Upper  Haliak- 
mon with  its  confluent  streams:  this  latter  region  is 
separated  from  the  basin  of  Thessaly  by  a  mountainous 
line  of  considerable  length,  but  presenting  numerous  easy 
passes.2  Reckoning  the  basin  of  Thessaly  as  a  fourth, 

1  Aristot.    Polit.    vii.   2,    G.     That  i.  p.  199:    «un  bon  nombro  do  cols 
the  Macedonians   were  chiefly  vil-  diriges    du    nord    su    sud,    comir.o 
lage  residents,  appears  from   Tliu-  pour  inviter  les   habitants  do  pa?- 
cyd.    ii.    100.    iv.    124,  though    this  ser    d'uno   do   ccs    provinces   dans 
does    not  exclude  some  towns.  1'autre.'' 

2  BouiJ,  Voyage   eu  Tunj.uie,  vol. 


426  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAET  II 

here  are  four  distinct  enclosed  plains  on  the  east  side  of 
this  long  range  of  Skardus  and  Pindus — each  generally 
bounded  by  mountains  which  rise  precipitously  to  an 
alpine  height,  and  each  leaving  only  one  cleft  for  drainage 
by  a  single  river — the  Axius,  the  Erigon,  the  Haliakmon 
and  the  Peneius  respectively.  All  four,  moreover,  though 
of  high  level  above  the  sea,  are  yet  for  the  most  part  of 
distinguished  fertility,  especially  the  plains  of  Tettovo,  of 
Bitolia,  and  Thessaly.  The  fat  rich  land  to  the  east  of 
Pindus  and  Skardus  is  described  as  forming  a  marked 
contrast  with  the  light  calcareous  soil  of  the  Albanian 
plains  and  valleys  on  the  western  side.  The  basins  of 
Bitolia  and  of  the  Haliakmon,  with  the  mountains  around 
and  adjoining,  were  possessed  by  the  original  Macedonians ; 
that  of  Tettovo,  on  the  north,  by  a  portion  of  the  Pseonians. 
Among  the  four,  Thessaly  is  the  most  spacious;  yet  the 
two  comprised  in  the  primitive  seats  of  the  Macedonians, 
both  of  them  very  considerable  in  magnitude,  formed  a 
territory  better  calculated  to  nourish  and  to  generate 
a  considerable  population  than  the  less  favoured  home, 
and  smaller  breadth  of  valley  and  plain,  occupied  by 
Epirots  or  Illyrians.  Abundance  of  corn  easily  raised, 
of  pasture  for  cattle,  and  of  new  fertile  land  open  to 
cultivation,  would  suffice  to  increase  the  numbers  of  hardy 
villagers,  indifferent  to  luxury  as  well  as  to  accumulation, 
and  exempt  from  that  oppressive  extortion  of  rulers  which 
now  harasses  the  same  fine  regions. l 

1  For  the  general  physical  char-  plateaux  abondans  en  p&turages 

acter  of  the  region,  both  east  and  inepuisables,  oil  paissent  d'innom- 

west  of  Skardus,  continued  by  brables  troupeaux  de  boeufs,  de 

Pindus,  see  the  valuable  chapter  chevres,  et  de  menu  betail  .... 

of  Grisebach's  Travels  above  re-  Le  ble,  le  mais,  et  les  autres  grains 

ferred  to  (Reisen,  vol.  ii.  ch.  viii.  sont  toujours  &  tres  bas  prix,  & 

p.  125—130;  c.  xiv.  p.  175;  c.  xvi.  cause  de  la  difficult^  des  debouches, 

p.  214—216;  c.  xvii.  p.  244,  245).  d'ou  1'on  exporte  une  grande 

Respecting  the  plains  comprised  quantity  de  laines,  de  cotons,  de 

in  the  ancient  Pelagonia,  see  also  peaux  d'agneaux,  de  buffles,  et  da 

the  Journal  of  the  younger  Pouque-  chevaux,  qui  passent  parlemoyen 

Tille,  in  his  progress  from  Trav-  des  caravanes  en  Hongrie." 

nik  in  Bosnia  to  Janina.  He  re-  (Pouqueville,  Voyage  dans  la  Grece, 

marks,  in  the  two  days'  march  torn.  ii.  ch.  62.  p.  495.)  So  also 

from  Prelepe  (Prilip)  through  Bi-  Grisebach,  describing  his  journey 

tolia  to  Fiorina,  "Dans  cette  route  from  Bitolia  to  Prilip,  mentions 

on  parcourt  des  plaines  luxurian-  —"spacious  fields,  of  immeasurable 

tes  couvertes  de  moissons,  de  vas-  extent,  covered  with  wheat,  barley, 

tes  prairies  reniplies  de  trefle,  des  andmaizD,  together  with  rich  mea- 


CHAP.  XXV.     ILLYBIANS,  MACEDONIANS,  V^ONIANS.  427 

The  inhabitants  of  this  primitive  Macedonia  doubtless 
differed  much  in  ancient  times,  as  they  do  now,   Distribu- 
according  as  they  dwelt  on  mountain  or  plain,   J1?,11  and_ 

1    •  -i          -i     T  i          i  •     i        T»    L    tribes  of 

and  in  soil  and  climate  more  or  less  kind.  .But  the  Mace- 
all  acknowledged  a  common  ethnical  name  and  donians. 
nationality,  and  the  tribes  were  in  many  cases  distinguished 
from  each  other,  not  by  having  substantive  names  of  their 
own,  but  merely  by  local  epithets  of  Grecian  origin.  Thus 
•we  find  Elymiotse  Macedonians  or  Macedonians  of  Elymeia 
— Lynkestse  Macedonians  or  Macedonians  of  L/ynkus,  &c. 
Orestse  is  doubtless  an  adjunct  name  of  the  same  character. 
The  inhabitants  of  the  more  northerly  tracts,  called  Pela- 
gonia  and  Deuriopus,  were  also  portions  of  the  Macedonian 
aggregate,  though  neighbours  of  the  Pseonians,  to  whom 
they  bore  much  affinity:  whether  the  Eordi  and  Almopians 
were  of  Macedonian  race,  it  is  more  difficult  to  say.  The 
Macedonian  language  was  different  from  Illyrian,  i  from 
Thracian,  and  seemingly  also  from  Pseonian;  it  was  also 
different  from  Greek,  yet  apparently  not  more  widely  dis- 
tinct than  that  of  the  Epirots;  so  that  the  acquisition  of 
Greek  was  comparatively  easy  to  the  chiefs  and  people, 

dows  and  pasture-grounds  border-  rugged  land,  pursuant  to  the  state- 
ing  the  water''  (p.  214).  ment  of  Iiivy  (xlv.  29),  who  says, 

Again,    M.   Bou6   remarks    upon  respecting    the     fourth     region    of 

this    same    plain,   in    his   Critique  Macedonia   as    distributed    by    the 

des  Cartes  de  la  Turquie,  Voyage,  Romans,   "Frigida  haec  omnis,   du- 

vol.  iv.  p.  483,  "La  plaine  immense  raque  cultu,   et    aspera  plaga  est : 

de  Prilip,   de   Bitolia,    et   de    Flo-  cultorum     quoque     ingenia     terrse 

rina,  n'est  pas  represented  (sur  les  similia    habet:    ferociores    eos    et 

cartes)  de   mauiere   a  ce    qu'on  ait  accolae  barbari  faciunt,  nunc  hello 

une  idee   de   son  etendue,    et   sur-  exercentes,   nunc    in  pace  miscen- 

tout  de  sa  largeur  ....  La  plaine  tes  ritus  suos." 

de  Sarigoul  est  change's  en  vallee,"  This  is  probably  true  of  the 
&c.  The  basin  of  the  Haliakmdn  mountaineers  included  in  the  re- 
he  remarks  to  be  represented  gion,  but  it  is  too  much  genera- 
cqually  imperfectly  on  the  maps:  lised. 

compare    also   his  Voyage,    i.   pp.  '  Polyb.  xxviii.  8,  9.  This  is  the 

211,  299,  300.  most  distinct   testimony  which  we 

I  notice    the    more    particularly  possess,    and   it   appears  to  me  to 

the  large  proportion  of  fertile  plain  contradict     the     opinion    both     of 

and   valley    in   the   ancient  Mace-  Maniiert  (G-eogr.  der  Gr.  und  Rom. 

donia,   because    it    is  often  repre-  vol.  vii.  p.    492)   and    of  O.  Miiller 

sented  (and  even  by  O.  Miiller,  in  (On  the  Macedonians,    sect.  28-30), 

his    Dissertation    on    the     ancient  that  the  native  Macedonians  were 

Macedonians,  attached  to  his  His-  of  Illyrian  descent, 
tory  of  the  Dorians)  as  a  cold  aud 


428  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II, 

though  there  were  always  some  Greek  letters  which  they 
were  incapable  of  pronouncing.  And  when  we  follow  their 
history,  we  shall  find  in  them  more  of  the  regular  warrior 
conquering  in  order  to  maintain  dominion  and  tribute,  and 
less  of  the  armed  plunderer — than  the  Illyrians,  Thracians, 
or  Epirots,  by  whom  it  was  their  misfortune  to  be  sur- 
rounded. They  approach  nearer  to  the  Thessalians,1  and 
to  the  other  ungifted  members  of  the  Hellenic  family. 

The  large  and  comparatively  productive  region  covered 
by  the  various  sections  of  Macedonians,  helps  to  explain 
that  increase  of  ascendency  which  they  successively  ac- 
quired over  all  their  neighbours.  It  was  not  however 
until  a  late  period  that  they  became  united  under  one 
government.  At  first,  each  section — how  many  we  do  not 
know — had  its  own  prince  or  chief.  The  Elymiots  or  in- 
habitants of  Elymeia,  the  southernmost  portion  of  Mace- 
donia, were  thus  originally  distinct  and  independent;  also 
the  OrestaB,  in  mountain  seats  somewhat  north-west  of  the 
Elymiots — the  Lynkestse  and  Eordi,  who  occupied  portions 
of  territory  on  the  track  of  the  subsequent  Egnatian  way, 
between  Lychnidus  (Ochrida)  and  Edessa — the  Pelago- 
nians,2  with  a  town  of  the  same  name,  in  the  fertile  plain 
of  Bitolia — and  the  more  northerly  Deuriopians.  And  the 
early  political  union  was  usually  so  loose,  that  each  of  these 
denominations  probably  includes  many  petty  indepen- 
dencies, small  towns,  and  villages.  The  section  of  the 
Macedo-  Macedonian  name  who  afterwards  swallowed  up 
nians  round  all  the  rest  and  became  known  as  The  Mace- 
the6  leading  donians,  had  their  original  centre  at  JEgse  or 
portion  of  Edessa — the  lofty,  commanding  and  picturesque 
the  nation.  site  of  ^e  moaern  Vodhena.  And  though  the 
residence  of  the  kings  was  in  later  times  transferred  to  the 
marshy  Pella,  in  the  maritime  plain  beneath,  yet  Edessa 
was  always  retained  as  the  regal  burial  place,  and  as  the 
hearth  to  which  the  religious  continuity  of  the  nation  (so 

1  The  Macedonian  military  array  "Macedonian!,  qua  tantis  barba- 

seems  to  have  been  very  like  that  rorum  gentibus  attingitur,  ut  sem- 

of  the  Thessalians— horsemen  well-  per      Macedonicis      imperatoribus 

mounted  and  armed  and  maintain-  iidem    fines    imperii    fuerint    qui 

ing   good   order  (Thucyd.  ii.   201)  :  gladiorum  atque  pilorum."  (Cicero, 

of  their  infantry,    before    the  time  in  Pison.  c.  xvi.) 

of  Philip  son   of  Amyntas,   we  do  2  Strabo,  lib.  vii.   Fragm.  20,  ed. 

not  much  hear.  Tafel. 


CHAP.  XXV.    ILLYRIANS,  MACEDONIANS,  PJEONIANS.        ,      429 

much  reverenced  in  ancient  times)  was  attached.  This 
ancient  town,  which  lay  on  the  Homan  Egnatian  way  from 
Lychnidus  to  Pella  and  Thessalonika,  formed  the  pass  over 
the  mountain-ridge  called  Bermius,  or  that  prolongation  to 
the  northward  of  Mount  Olympus,  through  which  the 
Haliakmon  makes  its  way  out  into  the  maritime  plain  at 
Yerria,  by  a  cleft  more  precipitous  and  impracticable  than 
that  of  the  Peneius  in  the  defile  of  Tempe. 

This  mountain-chain  called  Bermius,  extending  from 
Olympus  considerably  to  the  north  of  Edessa, 
formed  the    original  eastern  boundary  of  the   and.rBot- 
Macedonian  tribes ;  who  seem  at  first  not  to  have   titans— 
reached  the  valley  of  the  Axius  in  any  part  of  °"gmally 

ni  i.    •    i       J-J          i.  i         L     Placed  on 

its  course,  and  who  certainly  did  not  reach  at   the  Ther- 
first  to  the  Thermaic  Gulf.     Between  the  last-   ™e^  ®*lf' 
mentioned  gulf  and  the  eastern  counterforts  of  the  Mace- 
Olympus  and   Bermius  there  exists  a  narrow   d°nians 
strip  of  plain  land  or  low  hill  which  reaches  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Peneius  to  the  head  of  the  Thermaic  Gulf; 
it  there  widens  into  the  spacious  and  fertile  plain  of  Salo- 
nichi,  comprising  the  mouths  of  the  Haliakmon,  the  Axius, 
and  the  Echeidorus.     The  river  Ludias,  which  flows  from 
Edessa  into  the  marshes  surrounding  Pella,  and  which  in 
antiquity  joined  the  Haliakmon,  near  its  mouth,  has  now 
altered  its  course  so  as  to  join  the  Axius.     This  narrow 
strip,  between  the  mouths  of  the  Peneius  and  the  Haliak- 
mon, was  the  original  abode  of  the  Pierian  Thracians,  who 
dwelt  close  to  the  foot  of  Olympus,  and  among  whom  the 
worship    of  the  Muses  seems  to  have  been  a  primitive 
characteristic;   Grecian  poetry  teems  with  local  allusions 
and  epithets  which  appear  traceable  to  this   early  fact, 
1  hough  we  are  unable  to  follow  it  in  detail.     North  of  the 
Pierians,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Haliakmon  to  that  of  the 
Axius,  dwelt  the  Bottieeans. l     Beyond  the  river  Axius,  at 

1  I  have   followed  Herodotus   in  were   true,    it  would   leave  hardly 

stating  the  original  series  of  occu-  any  room  for  the  Bottiseans,  whom 

pants  on  the    Thermaic    Gulf,     an-  nevertheless  Thucydides  recognizes 

tcrior  to  theMacedonian  conquests,  on  the  coast;  for  the  whole  space 

Thucydides    introduces    the    Pffio-  between    the    mouths    of   the    two 

nians  between  Bottia>ans  and  Myg-  rivers,   Axius    and    Haliakmon,   is 

<louians:  he  says  that  the  Pceonians  inconsiderable;  moreover,  I  cannot 

possessed  "a  narrow    strip  of  land  but    suspect    that  Thucydides    has 

on  the  side  of  the  Axius,  down  to  been  led  to  believe,  by  finding  in 

I'ella  and  the  sea"  (ii.  96).     If  this  the  Iliad    that   the  Prconiau   allies 


430 


HISTOEY  OF  GREECE. 


PAET  II. 


the  lower  part  of  its  course,  began  the  tribes  of  the  great 
Thracian  race — Mygdonians,  Krestonians,  Edonians,  Bi- 
saltae,  Sithonians:  the  Mygdonians  seem  to  have  been 
originally  the  most  powerful,  since  the  country  still  con- 
tinued to  be  called  by  their  name,  Mygdonia,  even  after  the 
Macedonian  conquest.  These,  and  various  other  Thracian 
tribes,  originally  occupied  most  part  of  the  country  between 
the  mouth  of  the  Axius  and  that  of  the  Strymon;  together 
with  that  memorable  three-pronged  peninsula  which  derived 
from  the  Grecian  colonies  its  name  of  Chalkidike.  It  will 
thus  appear,  if  we  consider  the  Bottieeans  as  well  as  the 
Pierians  to  be  Thracians,  that  the  Thracian  race  extended 
originally  southward  as  far  as  the  mouth  of  the  Peneius: 
the  Bottiseans  professed  indeed  a  Kretan  origin,  but  this 
pretension  is  not  noticed  by  either  Herodotus  or  Thucy- 


of  Troy  came  from  the  Axius,  that 
there  must  have  been  old  Peeonian 
settlements  at  the  mouth  of  that 
river,  and  that  he  has  advanced 
the  inference  as  if  it  were  a  cer- 
tified fact.  The  case  is  analogous 
to  what  he  says  ahout  the  Boeotians 
iu  his  preface  (upon  which  O. 
Miiller  has  already  commented) ; 
he  stated  the  immigration  of  the 
Boeotians  into  Bceotia  as  having 
taken  place  after  the  Trojan  war, 
hut  saves  the  historical  credit  of 
the  Homeric  catalogue  by  adding 
that  there  had  heen  a  fraction  of 
them  in  Bceotia  before,  from  whom 
the  contingent  which  went  to  Troy 
was  furnished  (<i7ro§acr|ji6<;,  Thucyd. 
i.  12). 

On  this  occasion,  therefore, 
having  to  choose  hetween  Hero- 
dotus and  Thucydides,  I  prefer  the 
former.  O.  Miiller  (On  the  Mace- 
donians, sect.  11)  would  strike  out 
just  so  much  of  the  assertion  of 
Thucydides  as  positively  contra- 
dicts Herodotus,  and  retain  the 
rest;  he  thinks  that  the  Peeonians 
came  down  very  near  to  the  mouth 
of  the  river,  hut  not  quite.  I  con- 
fess that  this  does  not  satisfy  me  ; 
the  more  so  as  the  passage  from 


Livy  by  which  he  would  support 
his  view  will  appear,  on  examina- 
tion, to  refer  to  Pseonia  high  up 
the  Axius — not  to  a  supposed  por- 
tion of  Paeonia  near  the  mouth 
(Livy,  xlv.  29). 

Again,  I  would  remark  that  tho 
original  residence  of  the  Pierians 
between  the  Peneius  and  the 
Haliakm&n  rests  chiefly  upon  the 
authority  of  Thucydides :  Hero- 
dotus knows  the  Pierians  in  thcii 
seats  between  Mount  Pangseus  anq, 
the  sea,  but  he  gives  no  intimation 
that  they  had  before  dwelt  south 
of  the  Haliakm6n;  the  tract  between 
the  Haliakm&n  and  the  Peneiua 
is  by  him  conceived  as  Lower 
Macedonia  or  Macedonis,  reaching 
to  the  borders  of  Thessaly  (vii. 
127-173).  I  make  this  remark  in 
reference  to  sect.  7-17  of  O.  Miiller's 
Dissertation,  wherein  the  concep- 
tion of  Herodotus  appears  incor- 
rectly apprehended,  and  some 
erroneous  inferences  founded  upon 
it.  That  this  tract  was  the  original 
Pieria,  there  is  sufficient  reason 
for  believing  (compare  Strabo,  vii. 
Frag.  22,  with  Tafel's  note,  and 
ix.  p.  410  ;  Livy,  xliv.  9) ;  but  Hero- 
dotus notices  it  only  as  Macedonia. 


CHAP.  XXV.    ILLYKIANS,  MACEDONIANS,  PJEONIANS.  431 

dides.  In  the  time  of  Skylax, i  seemingly  during  the  early 
reign  of  Philip  the  son  of  Amyntas,  Macedonia  and  Thrace 
were  separated  by  the  Strymon. 

We  have  yet  to  mention  the  Pseonians,  a  numerous  and 
much-divided  race,  seemingly  neither  Thracian  nor  Tl 

-ii/r         j       •  Tii      •          T.    j.  c  x     i.     j         Pffiomans. 

Macedonian  nor  lllyrian,  but  professing  to  be  des- 
cended from  the  Teukri  of  Troy.  These  Pseonians  occupied 
both  banks  of  the  Strymon,  from  the  neighbourhood  of 
Mount  Skomius,  in  which  that  river  rises,2  down  to  the  lake 
near  its  mouth:  some  of  their  tribes  possessed  the  fertile 
plain  of  Siris  (now  Seres) — the  land  immediately  north  of 
Mount  Pangseus — and  even  a  portion  of  the  space  through 
which  Xerxes  marched  on  his  route  from  Akanthus  to 
Therma.  Besides  this,  it  appears  that  the  upper  parts  of 
the  valley  of  the  Axius  were  also  occupied  by  Pseonian 
tribes ;  how  far  down  the  river  they  extended,  we  are  unable 
to  say.  AVe  are  not  to  suppose  that  the  whole  territory 
between  Axius  and  Strymon  was  continuously  peopled  by 
them.  Continuous  population  is  not  the  character  of  the 
ancient  world,  and  it  seems  moreover  that  while  the  land 
immediately  bordering  on  both  rivers  is  in  very  many  places 
of  the  richest  quality,  the  spaces  between  the  two  are  either 
mountain  or  barren  low  hill — forming  a  marked  contrast 
with  the  rich  alluvial  basin  of  the  Macedonian  river  Erigon.3 
The  Pseonians  in  their  north-western  tribes  thus  bordered 
upon  the  Macedonian  Pelagonia — in  their  northern  tribes, 
upon  the  Illyrian  Dardani  and  Autariatse — in  their  eastern, 
southern  and  south-eastern  tribes,  upon  the  Thracians  and 
Pierians;4  that  is,  upon  the  second  seats  occupied  by  the 
expelled  Pierians  under  Mount  Pangseus. 

1  Skylax,   c.    07.     The    conquests  distance  from  the  left  bank  of  the 
of  Philip    extended   the    boundary  Axius  (Grisebach,  Rcisen,  v.  ii.  p. 
beyond  the  Strymon  to  the  Nestus  225;  Boue,   Voyage,  vol.  i.  p.  1GS). 
(Strabo,    lib.    vii.    Fragm.    33,    ed.  For  the  description  of  the  banks 
Tafel).  of   the    Axius    (Vardar)     and    tlio 

2  Mount    Skomius    seems   to  be  Strymon,    see    Leake,    Travels    in 
the  mountain  now  called  Vitoshka,  Northern   Greece,    vol.   iii.   p.   201, 
between  Kadomir  and  Sophia,  near  and  Bou<5,  Voyage  en  Turquie,  vol. 
the  south-eastern  frontier  of  Servia  i.  p.  19C-199.     "La   plaine    ovale  de 
(Thucyd.  ii.  90;  Grisebach,  vol.  ii.  Seres    est    un    des    diamans    de    la 
cli.  x.  p.  29).  couronne    de    Byzance,"    &c.      He 

*   See    this    contrast    noticed    in  remarks  how  incorrectly  the  course 

Grisebach,   especially  in  reference  of  the  Strymon  is  depicted  on  the 

to  the  \vi(i>j  but  barren  region  called  maps  (vol.  iv.  p.  482). 

the    plain    of  Mustapha,    110  great  «  The    expression    of   Strabo    or 


432  HISTORY  OP  GREECE.  PART  II. 

Such  was,  as  far  as  we  can  make  it  out,  the  position 
of  the  Macedonians  and  their  immediate  neighbours,  in  the 
seventh  century  B.C.  It  was  first  altered  by  the  enterprise 
and  ability  of  a  family  of  exiled  Greeks,  who  conducted  a 
section  of  the  Macedonian  people  to  those  conquests  which 
their  descendants,  Philip  and  Alexander  the  Great,  after- 
wards so  marvellously  multiplied. 

Respecting  the  primitive  ancestry  of  these  two  princes, 
Argeian  there  were  different  stories,  but  all  concurred  in 
Greeks  who  tracing  the  origin  of  the  family  to  the  Herakleid 
thladynasCty  or  Temenid  race  of  Argos.  According  to  one 
of  Edessa—  story  (which  apparently  cannot  be  traced  higher 
Perdikkas.  ^an  Theopompus),  Karanus,  brother  of  the 
despot  Pheidon,  had  migrated  from  Argos  to  Macedonia, 
and  established  himself  as  conqueror  at  Edessa.  According 
to  another  tale,  which  we  find  in  Herodotus,  there  were 
three  exiles  of  the  Temenid  race,  Gauanes,  Aeropus,  and 
Perdikkas,  who  fled  from  Argos  to  Illyria,  from  whence 
they  passed  into  Upper  Macedonia,  in  such  poverty  as  to 
be  compelled  to  serve  the  petty  king  of  the  town  Lebsea 
in  the  capacity  of  shepherds.  A  remarkable  prodigy 
happening  to  Perdikkas  foreshadows  the  future  eminence 
of  his  family,  and  leads  to  his  dismissal  by  the  king  of 
Lebaea — from  whom  he  makes  his  escape  with  difficulty. 
He  is  preserved  by  the  sudden  rise  of  a  river,  immediately 
after  he  had  crossed  it,  so  as  to  become  impassable  by  the 
horsemen  who  pursued  him ;  to  this  river,  as  to  the  saviour 
of  the  family,  solemn  sacrifices  were  still  offered  by  the 
kings  of  Macedonia  in  the  time  of  Herodotus.  Perdikkas 
with  his  two  brothers  having  thus  escaped,  established 
himself  near  the  spot  called  the  Garden  of  Midas  on  Mount 
Bermius.  From  the  loins  of  this  hardy  young  shepherd 
sprang  the  dynasty  of  Edessa. l  This  tale  bears  much  more 
the  marks  of  a  genuine  local  tradition  than  that  of  Theo- 
pompus ;  and  the  origin  of  the  Macedonian  family,  or  Ar- 
geadse,  from  Argos,  appears  to  have  been  universally  recog- 
nised by  Grecian  inquirers,2  so  that  Alexander  the  son  of 

his    Epitomator — TTJV   ITatovtav    |JLS-  much  more  loosely.  Compare  Hero- 

ypt     IleXaYOviat;    xal    Ilispto!?    EXTE-  dot.  v.  13-16,   vii.  124;    Thucyd.  ii. 

•raaQai— seems  quite  exact,  though  96;  Diodor.  xx.  19. 

Tafel  finds  a  difficulty  in  it.     See  >  Herodot.  viii.  137,  138. 

his  note  on  the  Vatican  Fragments  z  Herodot.  v.  22.  Argeadae,  Strabo, 

of  the  seventh  Book  of  Strabo,  Fr.  lib.  vii.  Fragm.  20,  ed.  Tafel,  which 

37.    The  Fragment  40  is  expressed  may    probably    have  ^  been    erro- 


CHAP.  XXV.    II/LYKIANS,  MACEDONIANS,  ETONIANS.  433 

Amyntas,  the  contemporary  of  the  Persian  invasion,  was 
admitted  by  the  Hellanodikae  to  contend  at  the  Olympic 
games  as  a  genuine  Greek,  though  his  competitors  sought 
to  exclude  him  as  a  Macedonian. 

The  talent  for  command  was  so  much  more  the  attribute 
of  the  Greek  mind  than  of  any  of  the  neigh-   TaJ 
bouring  barbarians,  that  we  easily  conceive  a   command 
courageous  Argeian   adventurer  acquiring   to   manifested 

i  •          i  f  j.1        i         i    j-         L         by  Greek 

himself  great  ascendency  m  the  local  disputes  chieftains 
of  the  Macedonian  tribes,  and  transmitting  the  °™r  ba£- 
chieftainship  of  one  of  those  tribes  to  his  off- 
spring. The  influence  acquired  by  Miltiades  among  the 
Thracians  of  the  Chersonese,  and  by  Phormio  among  the 
Akarnanians  (who  specially  requested  that  after  his  death 
his  son  or  some  one  of  his  kindred  might  be  sent  from 
Athens  to  command  them1),  was  very  much  of  this  character. 
We  may  add  the  case  of  Sertorius  among  the  native  Iberians. 
In  like  manner,  the  kings  of  the  Macedonian  Lynkestse 
professed  to  be  descended  from  the  Bacchiadse2  of  Corinth; 
and  the  neighbourhood  of  Epidamnus  and  Apollonia,  in  both 
of  which  doubtless  members  of  that  great  gens  were  domi- 
ciliated,  renders  this  tale  even  more  plausible  than  that  of 
an  emigration  from  Argos.  The  kings  of  the  Epirotic 
Molossi  pretended  also  to  a  descent  from  the  heroic  JEakid 
race  of  Greece.  In  fact,  our  means  of  knowledge  do  not 
enable  us  to  discriminate  the  cases  in  which  these  reigning 
families  were  originally  Greeks,  from  those  in  which  they 
were  Hellenised  natives  pretending  to  Grecian  blood. 

After  the  foundation-legend  of  the  Macedonian  king- 
dom, we  have  nothing  but  a  long  blank  until  the  reign  of 
king  Amyntas  (about  520-500  B.C.),  and  his  son  Alexander 
(about  480  B.C.).  Herodotus  gives  us  five  successive  kings 
between  the  founder  Perdikkas  and  Amyntas — Perdikkas, 
Argseus,  Philippus,  Aeropus,  Alketas,  Amyntas,  and  Alexan- 
der— the  contemporary  and  to  a  certain  extent  the  ally  of 
Xerxes.3  Though  we  have  no  means  of  establishing  any 

eously      changed      into      .ffigeadse  agrees    in    the    number    of    kings. 

(Justin,  vii.  1).  but  does   not    give   the   names    (ii- 

1    Thucyd.    iii.     7;     Heroclot.    vi.  100). 

3-1-37:    compare    the    story    of  Zal-          For    the    divergent    lists    of  the 

moxis    among    the     Thraciaus     (i.  early    Macedonian    kings,    see  Mr- 

'Ji).  Clinton's   Fasti   Helleuici,    vol    ii. 

-  Strabo,  vii.  p.  326.  p.  221. 

3  Herodot.  viii.  139.     Thueydides 

VOL.  III.  2  F 


434  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAET  U. 

dates  in  this  early  series,  either  of  names  or  of  facts,  yet 
AT  ran  we  see  ^a^  ^e  Temenid  kings,  beginning  from 
disfment  of  a  humble  origin,  extended  their  dominions  succes- 
the  dynasty  sively  on  all  sides.  They  conquered  the  Briges,1 

of  Edessa—          .    .J     ,,        ,,     .  .    ,  ,J  ^        ,r          <   -n      &  • 

conquests  originally  their  neighbours  on  Mount  Bermius 
as  far  ag  — fae  Eordi,  bordering  on  Edessa  to  the  west- 

the  Ther-  ,         ,  „     n 

maio  Gulf,  ward,  who  were  either   destroyed  or  expelled 

as  weth  as  from  the  country  (a  small  remnant  of  them  still 

interior  existed  in   the  time  of  Thucydides   at   Physka 

Mace-  between  Strvmon  and  Axius) — the  Almopians, 

donians.  •    i       j   j.    -i.         j?        i  •  L  p 

an  inland  tribe  ot  unknown  site — and  many  of 
the  interior  Macedonian  tribes  who  had  been  at  first  auto- 
nomous. Besides  these  inland  conquests,  they  had  made 
the  still  more  important  acquisition  of  Pieria  (the  territory 
which  lay  between  Mount  Bermius  and  the  sea),  from  whence 
they  expelled  the  original  Pierians,  who  found  new  seats 
on  the  eastern  bank  of  theStrymonbetweenMountPangaeus 
and  the  sea.  Amyntas  king  of  Macedon  was  thus  master 
of  a  very  considerable  territory,  comprising  the  coast  of 
the  Thermaic  Gulf  as  far  north  as  the  mouth  of  the  Haliak- 
mon,  and  also  some  other  territory  on  the  same  gulf  from 
which  the  Bottiseans  had  been  expelled;  but  not  comprising 
the  coast  between  the  mouths  of  the  Axius  and  the  Haliak- 
mon,  nor  even  Pella  the  subsequent  capital,  which  were 
still  in  the  hands  of  the  Bottiseans  at  the  period  when 
Xerxes  passed  through.2  He  possessed  also  Anthemus,  a 
town  and  territory  in  the  peninsula  of  Chalkidike,  and 
some  parts  of  Mygdonia,  the  territory  east  of  the  mouth  of 
the  Axius;  but  how  much,  we  do  not  know.  "We  shall  find 
the  Macedonians  hereafter  extending  their  dominion  still 
farther,  during  the  period  between  the  Persian  and  Pelo- 
ponnesian  war. 

1  This  may  be  gathered,  I  think,  the  Thermaic  Gulf  at  the  time  when 

from  Herodot.  vii.   73  and  viii.  138.  Xerxgs    passed    (viii.    127).     These 

The     alleged     migration     of     the  two  statements  seem  to   me    com- 

Briges  into  Asia,    and    the  change  patible,  and  both  admissible:    the 

of   their    name    to    Phryges,    is    a  former    Bottioeans    were    expelled 

statement  which  I  do   not  venture  by  the  Macedonians  subsequently, 

to  repeat  as  credible.  anterior  to  the  Peloponnesian  war. 

1  Herodot.    vii.    123.     Herodotus  My  view    of   these    facts    there- 
recognises  both  Bottiaeans  between  fore     differs    somewhat    from    that 
the  Axius  and  the  Haliakmdn— and  of    O.    Miiller    (Macedonians    sect. 
Bottiroans  at   Olynthus,   whom  the  16). 
Macedonians    had     expelled    from 


CHAP.  XXV.    ILLYKIANS,  MACEDONIANS,  PJEOXIAXS.  435 

We  hear  of  king  Amyntas  in  friendly  connexion  with  the 
Peisistratid  princes  at  Athens,  whose  dominion   , 

A          i    •       J   t,  c  j.i_        Friendship 

was  in  part  sustained  by  mercenaries  from  the   between 
Strymon;  and  this  amicable  sentiment  was  con-   king 
tinued    between    his    son   Alexander   and   the   and  the 
emancipated  Athenians. l     It  is  only  in  the  reigns   Peisistra- 
of  these  two  princes  that  Macedonia  begins  to 
be  implicated  in  Grecian  affairs.     The  regal  dynasty  had 
become  so  completely  Macedonised,  and  had  so  far  renounced 
its  Hellenic   brotherhood,    that  the  claim   of  Alexander 
to  run  at  the  Olympic  games  was  contested  by  his  compet- 
itors, who  compelled  him  to  prove  his  lineage  before  the 
Hellanodikse. 

1  Herodot.  i.  59;  v.  94;  viii.  133. 


43fi  HISTOBY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

THRACIANS  AND  GREEK  COLONIES  IN  THRACE. 

THAT  vast  space  comprised  between  the  rivers,  Strymon 
Thracians  an(^  Danube,  an(^  bounded  to  the  west  by  the 
— theiram  easternmost  Illyrian  tribes,  northward  of  the 
"ndabo'de  Strymon,  was  occupied  by  the  innumerable  sub- 
divisions of  the  race  called  Thracians  or  Threi- 
cians.  They  were  the  most  numerous  and  most  terrible 
race  known  to  Herodotus :  could  they  by  possibility  act  in 
unison  or  under  one  dominion  (he  says)  they  would  be  irre- 
sistible. A  conjunction  thus  formidable  once  seemed  im- 
pending, during  the  first  years  of  the  Peloponnesian  war, 
under  the  reign  of  Sitalkes  king  of  the  Odrysse,  who  reigned 
from  Abdera  at  the  mouth  of  the  Nestus  to  the  Euxine, 
and  compressed  under  his  sceptre  a  large  proportion  of 
these  ferocious  but  warlike  plunderers;  so  that  the  Greeks 
even  down  to  Thermopylae  trembled  at  his  expected  ap- 
proach. But  the  abilities  of  that  prince  were  not  found 
adequate  to  bring,  the  whole  force  of  Thrace  into  effective 
co-operation  and  aggression  against  others. 

Numerous  as  the  tribes  of  Thracians  were,  their  cus- 
Many  dis-  toms  and  character  (according  to  Herodotus) 
tinet  tribes,  were  marked  by  great  uniformity:  of  the  Getse, 

yet  httle         ,-,       m  .          ,J   °,  ,        ,    1n     J  „  ..' 

diversity  of  the  Trausi,  and  others,  he  tells  us  a  few  parti- 
character,  cularities.  And  the  large  tract  over  which  the 
race  were  spread,  comprising  as  it  did  the  whole  chain  of 
Mount  Hsemus  and  the  still  loftier  chain  of  Rhodope,1  to- 

1  This  territory  of   ancient  Rho-  made   to   the  French  Government) 

dope — the    inland     space    between  have  been  employed  by  Kiepert  in 

the  Strymon,  the  Hebrus,   and  the  the  preparation  of  his  new  map  of 

^Bgean  Sea— has   been  less  visited  European    Turkey,  just   published 

by    modern    travellers,    and    is    at  (1853).     But  Viquesnel's    own  map 

present  more  thorougly  unknown,  of  the  region  of  Rhodope  has  not 

than  any  part  of  European  Turkey,  yet  appeared  (see  Kiepert's  Erlau- 

M.    Viquesnel    visited    it    in    1847,  terungen,    annexed    to     his    Map, 

and  the  topographical  data  collect-  p.  5). 
ed   by  him  (embodied    in   a  report 


CH.  XXVI.  THKACIANS  AND  GBEEK  COLONIES  IN  THBACK.    437 

gether  with  a  portion  of  the  mountains  Orbelus  and  Sko- 
mius,  was  yet  partly  occupied  by  level  and  fertile  surface 
— such  as  the  great  plain  of  Adrianople,  and  the  land  to- 
wards the  lower  course  of  the  rivers  Nestus  and  Hebrus. 
The  Thracians  of  the  plain,  though  not  less  warlike,  were 
at  least  more  home-keeping,  and  less  greedy  of  foreign 
plunder,  than  those  of  the  mountains.  But  the  general 
character  of  the  race  presents  an  aggregate  of  repulsive 
features,  unredeemed  by  the  presence  of  even  the  common- 
est domestic  affections. l  The  Thracian  chief  deduced  his 
pedigree  from  a  god  called  by  the  Greeks  Hermes,  to  whom 
he  offered  up  worship  apart  from  the  rest  of  his  tribe, 
sometimes  with  the  acceptable  present  of  a  human  victim. 
He  tattowed  his  body,3  and  that  of  the  women  belonging 
to  him,  as  a  privilege  of  honourable  descent:  he  bought  his 
wives  from  their  parents,  and  sold  his  children  for  exporta- 
tion to  the  foreign  merchant:  he  held  it  disgraceful  to 
cultivate  the  earth,  and  felt  honoured  only  by  the  acquisi- 
tions of  war  and  robbery.  The  Thracian  tribes  worshipped 
deities  whom  the  Greeks  assimilate  to  Ares,  Dionysus, 
and  Artemis.  The  great  sanctuary  and  oracle  of  their  god 
Dionysus  was  in  one  of  the  loftiest  summits  of  Rhodope, 
amidst  dense  and  foggy  thickets — the  residence  of  the  fierce 
and  unassailable Satrse.  To  illustrate  the  Thracian  char- 
acter, we  may  turn  to  a  deed  perpetrated  by  the  king  of 
the  Bisaltse — perhaps  one  out  of  several  chiefs  xheir 
of  that  extensive  Thracian  tribe — whose  ter-  cruelty, 
ritory,  between  Strymon  and  Axius,  lay  in  the  amTmu' 
direct  march  of  Xerxes  into  Greece,  and  who,  Htary  ef- 
to  escape  the  ignominy  of  being  dragged  along  tency- 
amidst  the  compulsory  auxiliaries  of  the  Persian  invasion, 
fled  to  the  heights  of  lihodope,  forbidding  his  six  sons  to 
take  any  part  in  it.  From  recklessness,  or  curiosity,  the 
sons  disobeyed  his  commands,  and  accompanied  Xerxes  in- 
to Greece.  They  returned  unhurt  by  the  Greek  spear, 
but  the  incensed  father,  when  they  again  came  into  his 

1  Mannert  assimilates  the  civili-  ciis."  Plutarch  (Do  Sorl  Numin. 
zation  of  the  Thracians  to  that  of  the  Vindict.  c.  13.  p.  558)  speaks  as  if 
Gauls  when  Julius  Crcsar  invaded  the  womeu  only  were  tattowed,  in 
them  —  a  great  injustice  to  the-  Thrace:  he  puts  a  singular  inter- 
latter,  in  my  judgement  (Geograph.  prctation  upon  it,  as  a  continuous 
der  Gr.  und  Rom.  vol.  ii.  p.  23).  punishment  on  the  sex  for  having 

-  Cicero,  Do  Officiis,  ii.  7.     "Bar-  slain  Orpheus, 
barum    compunctum    notis    TUrei- 


438  HISTOEY  OF  GKEECE.  PAST  II. 

presence,  caused  the  eyes  of  all  of  them  to  "be  put  out. 
Exultation  of  success  manifested  itself  in  the  Thracians  by 
increased  alacrity  in  shedding  blood;  but  as  warriors,  the 
only  occupation  which  they  esteemed,  they  were  not  less 
brave  than  patient  of  hardship;  maintaining  a  good  front, 
under  their  own  peculiar  array,  against  forces  much  su- 
perior in  all  military  efficacy. 1  It  appears  that  the  Thyni- 
ans  and  Bithynians, 2  on  the  Asiatic  side  of  the  Bosphorus, 
perhaps  also,  the  Mysians,  were  members  of  this  great  Thra- 
cian  race  which  was  more  remotely  connected  also  with 
Thracian  the  Phrygians.  And  the  whole  race  may  be  said 
rn°dShip  *°  Present  a  character  more  Asiatic  than  Euro- 
character  pean;  especially  in  those  ecstatic  and  madden- 
Asiatic.  ^g  religious  rites,  which  prevailed  not  less 
among  the  Edonian  Thracians  than  in  the  mountains  of 
Ida  and  Dindymon  of  Asia,  though  with  some  important 
differences.  The  Thracians  served  to  furnish  the  Greeks 
with  mercenary  troops  and  slaves,  and  the  number  of 
Grecian  colonies  planted  on  the  coast  had  the  effect  of 
partially  softening  the  tribes  in  the  immediate  vicinity,  be- 
tween whose  chiefs  and  the  Greek  leaders  intermarriages 
were  not  unfrequent.  But  the  tribes  in  the  interior  seem 
to  have  retained  their  savage  habits  with  little  mitigation; 
so  that  the  language  in  which  Tacitus3  describes  them 
is  an  apt  continuation  to  that  of  Herodotus,  though  coming 
more  than  five  centuries  after. 

To  note  the  situation  of  each  one  among  these  many 
different  tribes,  in  the  large  territory  of  Thrace,  which  is 
even  now  imperfectly  known  and  badly  mapped,  would  be 
unnecessary  and  indeed  impracticable.  I  shall  proceed  to 
mention  the  principal  Grecian  colonies  which  were  formed 
in  the  country,  noticing  occasionally  the  particular  Thracian 
tribes  with  which  they  came  in  contact. 

The  Grecian  colonies  established  on  the  Thermaio 
Early  date  Gulf,  as  well  as  in  the  peninsula  of  Chalkidike — 
°f  V16. ,.  emanating  principally  from  Chalkis  and  Eretria, 

Chalkidic         .,  i        °  ri  r       J  ,•,     •  •  •, 

colonies  though  we  do  not  know  their  precise  epoch — 
in  Thrace,  appear  to  have  been  of  early  date,  and  probably 

1  For    the    Thracians    generally,  the  relations  of  Xenophon  and  the 

see  Herodot.  v.  3—9,    vii.  110,  viii  Ten  Thousand  Greeks  with  SeuthSs 

116,    ix.    119 ;    Thucyd.   ii.   ICO,  vii.  the  Thracian  prince. 

29,    30;    Xenophon,  Anabas.  vii.  2,  -  Xenoph.  Anab.  vi.  2,   17;    He- 

38,    and  the   seventh   hook    of  the  rodot.  vii.  75. 

Anabasis  generally,  whichdcscribes  *  Tacit.  Annal.  ii.  66;  iv.  46. 


CH.  XXVI.  THEACIANS  AND  GEEEK  COLONIES  IN  THEACE.    439 

preceded  the  time  when  the  Macedonians  of  Edessa  ex- 
tended their  conquest  to  the  sea.  At  that  early  period, 
they  would  find  the  Pierians  still  between  the  Peneius 
and  Haliakmon — also  a  number  of  petty  Thracian  tribes 
throughout  the  broad  part  of  the  Chalkidic  peninsula;  they 
would  find  Pydna  a  Pierian  town,  and  Therma,  Anthemus, 
Chalastra,  &c.,  Mygdonian. 

The   most  ancient  Grecian  colony  in  these  regions 
seems  to  have  been  Methone,  founded  by  the 
Eretrians  in  Pieria;  nearly  at  the  same  time   the  earliest 
(if  we  may  trust  a  statement  of  rather  suspicious    —  about 

V  L  il  1        Al  -J.         tC     •  •  72°    B-C- 

character,  though  the  date  risen  is  noway  im- 
probable) as  Korkyra  was  settled  by  the  Corinthians 
(about  730-720  B.C.1).  It  was  a  little  to  the  north  of  the 
Pierian  town  of  Pydna,  and  separated  by  about  ten  miles 
from  the  Bottisean  town  of  Alorus,  which  lay  north  of  the 
Haliakmon.2  We  know  very  little  about  Methone,  except 
that  it  preserved  its  autonomy  and  its  Hellenism  until  the 
time  of  Philip  of  Macedon,  who  took  and  destroyed  it. 
But  though,  when  once  established,  it  was  strong  enough 
to  maintain  itself  in  spite  of  conquest  made  all  around  by 
the  Macedonians  of  Edessa,  we  may  fairly  presume  that  it 
could  not  have  been  originally  planted  on  Macedonian 
territory.  Nor  in  point  of  fact  was  the  situation  peculiarly 
advantageous  for  Grecian  colonists,  inasmuch  as  there  were 
other  maritime  towns,  not  Grecian,  in  its  neighbourhood 
- — Pydna,  Alorus,  Therma,  Chalastra;  whereas  the  point  of 
advantage  for  a  Grecian  colony  was,  to  become  the  ex- 
clusive seaport  for  inland  indigenous  people. 

The  colonies,  founded  by  Chalkis  and  Eretria  on  all 
the  three  projections  of  the  Chalkidic  peninsula,    s 
were  numerous,  though  for  a  long  time  incon-    other  small 
siderable.      We    do   not   know    how    far   these   settlements 
projecting  headlands  were  occupied  before  the    Chaikidio 
arrival  of  the  settlers  from  Euboea.    Such  arrival   peninsula 
we  may  probably  place  at  some  period  earlier   three  8 
than  GOO  B.C.    For  after  that  period  Chalkis  and  projecting 
Eretria   seem   rather   on    the    decline;    and    it  h 
appears  too,  that  the  Chalkidian  colonists  in  Thrace  aided 
their  mother-city  Chalkis  in  her  war  against  Eretria,  which 
cannot  be  much  later  than  GOO  B.C.,  though  it  may  be  con- 
siderably earlier. 

'  riuttu-cii,  Qiuest.  Gnoc.  p.  293.         -  skylax,  c.  G7. 


440  HISTOBY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  n. 

The  range  of  mountains  which  crosses  from  the  Ther- 
maic  to  the  Strymonic  Gulf  and  forms  the  northern  limit 
of  the  Chalkidic  peninsula,  slopes  down  towards  the  southern 
extremity,  so  as  to  leave  a  considerable  tract  of  fertile  land 
between  the  Toronaic  and  the  Thermaic  Gulfs,  including 
the  fertile  headland  called  Palleiie — the  westernmost  of 
those  three  prongs  of  Chalkidike  which  run  out  into  the 
JEgean.  Of  the  other  two  prongs  or  projections,  the 

easternmost  is  terminated  by  the  sublime  Mount 
peninsula  Athos,  which  rises  out  of  the  sea  as  a  precipitous 
—Mount  rock  6400  feet  in  height,  connected  with  the 

mainland  by  a  ridge  not  more  than  half  the 
height  of  the  mountain  itself,  yet  still  high,  rugged  and 
woody  from  sea  to  sea,  leaving  only  little  occasional  spaces 
fit  to  be  occupied  or  cultivated.  The  intermediate  or 
Sithonian  headland  is  also  hilly  and  woody,  though  in  a 
less  degree — both  less  inviting  and  less  productive  than 
Pallene.  1 

JEneia,  near  that  cape  which  marks  the  entrance  of 
the  inner  Thermaic  Gulf — and  Potideea,  at  the  narrow 
„  .  isthmus  of  Pallene — were  both  founded  by 

Faiiene,  or  Corinth.  Between  these  two  towns  lay  the  fer- 
the  western-  fa\e  territoy  called  Krusis  or  Krosssea,  forming 
oi°the  in  aftertimes  a  part  of  the  domain  of  Olynthus, 

three  head-   but  in  the  sixth  century  B.C.  occupied  by  petty 

Thracian  townships.2  Within  Pallene  were  the 
towns  of  Meude,  a  colony  from  Eretria  —  Ski  one,  which, 
having  no  legitimate  mother-city,  traced  its  origin  to  Pel- 
lenian  warriors  returning  from  Troy — Aphytis,  Neapolis, 
^Ege,  Therambos,  and  Sane,3  either  wholly  or  partly  co- 
in Sitho  lonies  from  Eretria.  In  the  Sithonian  peninsula 
nia,  or  the  were  Assa,  Pilorus,  Singus,  Sarte,  Torone,  Ga- 
middie  lepsus,  Sermyle.  and  Mekyberna:  all  or  most  of 

headland.  r  /      '  i          J     r   riu    n  -j- 

these  seem  to  nave  been  01  unaikicuc  origin. 
But  at  the  head  of  the  Toronaic  Gulf  (which  lies  between 

1  For  the  description   of  Chalki-  pronged,    but  as  terminating  only 

dik6,  see  Grisebach's   Reisen,   vol.  in  the  peninsula   of  PallSuS,  with 

ii.    ch.    10.    pp.    6 — 16,    and  Leake,  Potidrca  at  its  isthmus. 

Travels    in  Northern  Gruece,    vol.  2    Herodot.     vii.     123;     Skymnus 

iii.  ch.  24.  p.  152.  Chius,  v.  C27. 

If  we  read    attentively   the   des-  3  Strabo,   x.   p.  447;    Thucyd.  iv. 

cription  of  Chalkidike  as  given  by  120-123;  Pompon.  Mela,  ii.  2;   Ho- 

Skylax    (c.  67),    we  shall    see  that  rodot.  vii.  123. 
he  did   not   conceive    it    as   three- 


CH.  XXVI.  THEACIANS  AND  (iKEEK  COLONIES  IN  THRACE.     441 

Sithonia  and  Pallene)  was  placed  Olynthus,  surrounded  by 
an  extensive  and  fertile  plain.  Originally  a  Bottisean  town, 
Olynthus  will  be  seen  at  the  time  of  the  Persian  invasion 
to  pass  into  the  hands  of  the  Chalkidian  Greeks, l  and  gra- 
dually to  incorporate  with  itself  several  of  the  petty  neigh- 
bouring establishments  belonging  to  that  race;  whereby 
the  Chalkidians  acquired  that  marked  preponderance  in 
the  peninsula  which  they  retained,  even  against  the  efforts 
of  Athens,  until  the  days  of  Philip  of  Macedon. 

On  the  scanty  spaces,  admitted  by  the  mountainous 
promontory  or  ridge  ending  in  Athos,  were  planted  some 
Thracian  and  some  Pelasgic  settlements  of  the   In  the  head. 
same  inhabitants  as  those  who  occupied  Lemnos   land  of 
and  Imbros ;  a  few  Chalkidic  citizens  being  do-   Akanthus 
miciliated  with  them,  and  the  people  speaking   Stageira, ' 
both  Pelasgic  and  Hellenic.   But  near  the  narrow   &c- 
isthmus  which  joins  this  promontory  to  Thrace,  and  along 
the  north-western  coast  of  the  Strymonic  Gulf,  were  Gre- 
cian towns  of  considerable  importance— Sane,  Akanthus, 
Stageira,  and  Argilus,  all  colonies  from  Andros,  which  had 
itself  been  colonised  from  Eretria. 2  Akanthus  and  Stageira 
are  said  to  have  been  founded  in  654  B.C. 

Following   the   southern   coast   of  Thrace,  from  the 
mouth  of  the  river  Strymon  towards  the  east,   Greek 
we  may  doubt  whether,  in  the  year  560  B.C.,  any   settlements 

•  i       1 1    •    j          i  i     •        r/-(       ill    east  Ol  the 

considerable  independent  colonies  01  Greeks  had    strymon 

yet  been  formed  upon  it.  The  Ionic  colony  of  in  Thrace. 
Abdera,  eastward  of  the  mouth  of  the  river  Nestus,  formed 
from  Teos  in  Ionia,  is  of  more  recent  date,  though  the 
Klazomenians3  had  begun  an  unsuccessful  settlement  there 
as  early  as  the  year  65 1  B.C.;  while  Diksea — the  Chian  settle- 
ment of  Maroneia — and  the  Lesbian  settlement  of -^Enus 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Hebrus — are  of  unknown  date4  The 
important  and  valuable  territory  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Strymon,  where,  after  many  ruinous  failures,5  the  Athenian 
colony  of  Amphipolis  afterwards  maintained  itself,  was  at 

1  Herodot.  vii.  122;  viii.  127.    Ste-          '  Solimis,  x.  10. 

plianus  Byz.  (v.  IIa>>Xr(vr()  gives  us  •"  Herodot.  i.  108;  vii.  58-59,  109; 

sumo    idea    of  the    mytlies    of   the  Skymnus  Chius,  v.  075. 

lost  Greek  writers,  Hegesippus  and  4  Thucyd.  i.  100,  iv.  102;  Herodot. 

Theagenes,  about  PalleuS.  v.  11.    Large  quantities  of  corn  are 

2  Thucyd.    iv.    84,    103,    109.     See  now   exported    from    this  territory 
Ilr.  ("Huton's    Fasti  Hellenici,    ad  to  Constantinople    (Leakc,   North, 
aim.  C54  B.C.  Gr.  vol.  iii.  ch.  25.  p.  i~'2). 


442  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAET  II. 

the  date  here  mentioned  possessed  by  Edonian  Thracians 
and  Pierians.  The  various  Thracian  tribes — Satrse,  Edo- 
nians,  Dersseans,  Sapaeans,  Bistones,  Kikones,  Paetians,  &c. 
— were  in  force  on  the  principal  part  of  the  tract  between 
Strymon  and  Hebrus,  even  to  the  sea-coast.  It  is  to  be 
remarked  however  that  the  island  of  Thasus,  and  that  of 
Samothrace,  each  possessed  what  in  Greek  was  called  a 
Persea l — a  strip  of  the  adjoining  mainland  cultivated  and 
defended  by  means  of  fortified  posts  or  small  towns.  Prob- 
ably these  occupations  are  of  very  ancient  date,  since  they 
seem  almost  indispensable  as  a  means  of  support  to  the 
islands.  For  the  barren  Thasus,  especially,  merits  even 
at  this  day  the  uninviting  description  applied  to 
Thasus.0*  it  by  the  poet  Archilochus,  in  the  seventh  cen- 
tury B.C. — "  an  ass's  backbone,  overspread  with 
wild  wood;"2  so  wholly  is  it  composed  of  mountain  naked 
or  wooded,  and  so  scanty  are  the  patches  of  cultivable  soil 
left  in  it,  nearly  all  close  to  the  sea-shore. 

This  island  was  originally  occupied  by  the  Phenicians, 
who  worked  the  gold-mines  in  its  mountains  with  a  degree 
of  industry,  which,  even  in  its  remains,  excited  the  admira- 
tion of  Herodotus.  How  and  when  it  was  evacuated  by 
them,  we  do  not  know.  But  the  poet  Archilochus3  formed 
one  of  a  body  of  Parian  colonists  who  planted  themselves 
on  it  in  the  seventh  century  B.C.,  and  carried  on  war,  not 
always  successful,  against  the  Thracian  tribe  called  Saians: 
on  one  occasion,  Archilochus  found  himself  compelled  to 
throw  away  his  shield.  By  their  mines  and  their  pos- 

1  Herodot.  vii.   103-109;    Thucyd.  Thasus  (now  Tasso)    contains  at 

i.  101.  present  a  population  of  about  6000 

* ^Ss  8'  tost'  ovou  Wyn  Greeks,  dispersed    in   twelve  small 

"EjTTjxev,  u).r)s  a.fp\.i$  CTUStS'.pirjq.  villages  ;  it  exports  some  good  ship- 

Archiloeh.  Fragm.  17-18,  ed.  Schnei-  timber,    principally    fir,    of  which 

dewin.  there  is  abundance    on   the  island, 

The    striking   propriety    of    this  together  with    some    olive  oil  and 

description,    even   after    the    lapse  wax ;     but    it    cannot     grow    corn 

of  2500  years,    may  be  seen   in  the  enough  even  for  this  small  popula- 

Travels  of  Grisebach,  vol.  i.  ch.  7.  tiou.     Ko    mines    either    are    now, 

p.  210-218,  and  in  Prokesch,  Denk-  or  have  been  for  a   long   time,    in 

wiirdigkeiten    des    Orients,    Th.    3.  work. 

p.  612.     The    view   of  Thasus  from  3  Archiloch.  Fragm.  5,  ed.  Schnei- 

the    sea  justifies    the    title    'Hepin)  dewin;  Aristophan.  Pac.  1298,  with 

(CEnomaus      ap.     Euseb.     Pr<vpar.  the  Scholia:  Strabo,  x.  p.  487,  xii. 

Evang.     vii.    p.    256;     Steph.    Eyz.  p.  549;  Thucyd.  iv.  104. 


CH.  XXVI.    THRACIANS  AND  GREEK  COLONIES  IN  THBACE.    443 

sessions  on  the  mainland  (which  contained  even  richer  mines, 
at  Skapte  Hyle,  and  elsewhere,  than  those  in  the  island), 
the  Thasian  Greeks  rose  to  considerable  power  and  popu- 
lation. And  as  they  seem  to  have  been  the  only  Greeks, 
until  the  settlement  of  the  Milesian  Histiseus  on  the  Stry- 
mon  about  510  B.C.,  who  actively  concerned  themselves  in 
the  mining  districts  of  Thrace  opposite  to  their  island,  we 
cannot  be  surprised  to  hear  that  their  clear  surplus  reve- 
nue before  the  Persian  conquest,  about  493  B.C.,  after  de- 
fraying the  charges  of  their  government  without  any  taxa- 
tion, amounted  to  the  large  sum  of  200  talents,  sometimes 
even  to  300  talents,  in  each  year  (#46,000—66,000). 

On  the  long  peninsula  called  the  Thracian  Chersonese 
there  may  probably  have  been  small  Grecian  settlements 
at  an  early  date,  though  we  do  not  know  at  what   Thracian 
time  either  the  Milesian  settlement   of  Kardia,   Cherso- 
on  the  western  side  of  the  isthmus  of  that  pen-   nesus- 
insula,  near  the  ^Egean  Sea — or  the  ^Eolic  colony  of  Sestus 
on  the  Hellespont — was    founded.     The  Athenian  ascend- 
ency in  the  peninsula  begins  only  with  the  migration  of  the 
first  Miltiades,  during  the  reign  of  Peisistratus 
at  Athens.  The  Samian  colony  of  Perinthus,  on    Perinthus, 
the  northern  coast  of  the  Propontis, l  is  spoken   an^Byzan- 
of  as  ancient  in  date,  and  the  Megarian  colonies,   tium. 
Selymbria  and  Byzantium,  belong  to  the  seventh 
century  B.C.:  the  latter  of  these  two  is  assigned  to  the  30th 
Olympiad  (657  B.C.),  and  its  neighbour  Chalkedon,    on  the 
opposite  coast,  was  a  few  years  earlier.  The  site  of  Byzan- 
tium in  the  narrow  strait  of  the  Bosphorus,  with  its  abun- 
dant thunny-fishery, a  which  both  employed  and  nourished 
a  large  proportion  of  the  poorer  freemen,  was  alike    con- 
venient either  for  maritime  traffic  or  fur  levying  contribu- 
tions on  the  numerous  corn  ships  which   passed    from  the 
Euxine  into  the  JEgean.     We  are  even  told  that  it  held  a 
considerable     number     of    the    neighbouring    Bithynian 
Thracians  as  tributary  Peri  raid.     Such  dominion,   though 
probably  maintained  during  the  more  vigorous  period  of 
Grecian  city  life,  became    in    later   times   impracticable, 
and  we  even  find  the  Byzantines  not  always  competent  to 
the  defence  of  their  own  small  surrounding  territory.  The 


444  HISTOEY  OF  GKREECE.  PAST  II. 

place,  however,  will  be  found  to  possess  considerable  im- 
portance during  all  the  period  of  this  history.1 

The  Grecian  settlements  on  the  inhospitable  south- 
western coast  of  the  Euxine,    south    of   the 
Grecian        Danube,  appear  never  to  have  attained    any 

settlements  .,     •    .fr        .,  ••IIP/.          />    /^         r 

on  the          consideration:   the  principal   trainc   of  Greek 
Eu^jne> ,.     ships  in  that  sea  tended  to  more  northerly  ports. 

SOUth  of  the  ill         i  P.I          -r>  n          A  -i      •          ,1 

Danube.  on  the  banks  of  the  Borysthenes  and  in  the 
Tauric  Chersonese.  Istria  was  founded  by  the 
Milesians  near  the  southern  embouchure  of  the  Danube — 
Apollonia  and  Odessus  on  the  same  coast  more  to  the 
south — all  probably  between  600-560  c.  c.  The  Megarian 
or  Byzantine  colony  of  Mesambria  seems  to  have  been 
later  than  the  Ionic  revolt:  of  Kallatis  the  age  is  not 
known.  Tomi,  north  of  Kallatis  and  south  of  Istria,  is 
renowned  as  the  place  of  Ovid's  banishment. 2  The  picture 
which  he  gives  of  that  uninviting  spot,  which  enjoyed  but 
little  truce  from  the  neighbourhood  of  the  murderous 
Getae,  explains  to  us  sufficiently  why  these  towns  acquired 
little  or  no  importance. 

The  islands  of  Lemnos  and  Imbros,  in  the  JEgean, 
were  at  this  early  period  occupied  by  Tyrrhe- 
imbrno°ssand  nian  Pelasgi.  They  were  conquered  by  the 
Persians  about  508  B.  c.,  and  seem  to  have 
passed  into  the  power  of  the  Athenians,  at  the  time  when 
Ionia  revolted  from  the  Persians.  If  the  mythical  or 
poetical  stories  respecting  these  Tyrrhenian  Pelasgi  con- 
tain any  basis  of  truth,  they  must  have  been  a  race  of 
buccaneers  not  less  rapacious  than  cruel.  At  one  time, 
these  Pelasgi  seem  also  to  have  possessed  Samothrace,  but 
how  or  when  they  were  supplanted  by  Greeks,  we  find  no 
trustworthy  account:  the  population  of  Samothrace  at  the 
time  of  the  Persian  war  was  Ionic.3 

1  Polyb.  iv.  39;  Phylarch.  Fragm.  cities  on  this  coast.    Tomi,  Kalla- 
10,  ed.  Didot.  tis,  Mcsambria,  and  Apollonia,  are 

2  Skymiius  Chius,  720-740;  Hero-  presumed   by  Blaramberg   to   have 
dot.  ii.   33,    vi.  33;    Strabo,   vii.  p.  belonged   to   this   union.     See  In- 
319;  Skylax,  c.  C8 ;    Mannert,  Heo-  script.  No.  2056  c. 

graph,    d.   Gr.   und  Rom.   vol.   vii.  Syncellus  however  (p.  213)  placet 

ch.  8.  p.  126-140.  the  foundation  of  Istria  consider- 

An  inscription  in   Boeckh's  Col-  ably  earlier,  in  651  B.O. 

lection   proves    the   existence  of  a  3  Herodot.  viii.  80. 
pentapolis  or  union  of  five  Grecian 


CHAP.  XXVII.  KYKENE  AND  BARKA.— HESPEKIDES.  445 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

KYRENE  AND  BAEKA.— HE  SPERIDES. 

IT  has  been  already  mentioned  in  a  former  chapter,  that 
Psammetichus  king  of  Egypt,  about  the  middle  of  the 
seventh  century  B.C.,  first  removed  those  prohibitions  which 
had  excluded  Grecian  commerce  from  the  country.  In  his 
reign,  Grecian  mercenaries  were  first  established  in  Egypt, 
and  Grecian  traders  admitted,  under  certain  regulations, 
into  the  Nile.  The  opening  of  this  new  market  emboldened 
them  to  traverse  the  direct  sea  which  separates  T 

T^   A,       c  IT!  j  -j.i      First  voya- 

Krete  irom  JLgypt — a  dangerous  voyage  with   ges  of  the 
vessels  which  rarely  ventured  to  lose  sight  of  ?i?eks  to 
land— and    seems    to   have    first    made    them      l  ya" 
acquainted  with  the  neighbouring  coast  of  Libya,  between 
the  Nile  and  the  gulf  called  the  Great  Syrtis.     Hence 
arose  the  foundation  of  the  important  colony  called  Kyrene. 

As  in  the  case  of  most  other  Grecian  colonies,  so  in 
that  of  Kyrene,  both  the  foundation  and  the  early  history 
are  very  imperfectly  known.  The  date  of  the  event,  as 
far  as  can  be  made  out  amidst  much  contradiction  of 
statement,  was  about  630  B.C.1  Thera  was  the  mother-city, 
herself  a  colony  from  Lacedaemon;  and  the  settlements 
formed  in  Libya  became  no  inconsiderable  ornaments  to 
the  Dorian  name  in  Hellas. 

According  to  the  account  of  a  lost  historian,  Menekles 2 
— political  dissension  among  the  inhabitants  of  Foundation 
Thera  led  to  that  emigration  which  founded  of  Kyrene. 
Kyrene.  The  more  ample  legendary  details  which  Hero- 
dotus collected,  partly  from  Theraean,  partly  from  Ky- 
rensean  informants,  are  not  positively  inconsistent  with 
this  statement,  though  they  indicate  more  particularly  bad 
seasons,  distress,  and  over-population.  But  both  of  them 
dwell  emphatically  on  the  Delphian  oracle  as  the  instigator 
as  well  as  the  director  of  the  first  emigrants,  whose 

1  See   the  discussion  of  the    :rra      different     statements    are    notice.! 
of    KyrBnfi     in     Tlirige,      Historia      and  compared. 
CyrOnil's,  ch.  22,    23,    24,    where  the          2  Schol.  ad  Pindar.  Tyth.  iv.' 


446  HISTOBY  OF  GBEEGE.  PAET  II. 

apprehensions  of  a  dangerous  voyage  and  an  unknown  country 
were  very  difficult  to  overcome.  Both  of  them  affirmed 
that  the  original  cekist  Battus  was  selected  and  consecrated 
to  the  work  by  the  divine  command:  both  called  Battus 
the  son  of  Polymnestus,  of  the  mythical  breed  called 
Minyse.  But  on  other  points  there  was  complete  diver- 
gence between  the  two  stories,  and  the  Kyrenaeans  them- 
selves, whose  town  was  partly  peopled  by  emigrants  from 
Krete,  described  the  mother  of  Battus  as  daughter  of 
Founded  Etearchus,  prince  of  the  Kretan  town  of  Axus. l 
by  Battns  Battus  had  an  impediment  in  his  speech,  and  it 
island  of  was  on  his  entreating  from  the  Delphian  oracle 
Thera.  a  cure  for  this  infirmity  that  he  received  direc- 

tions to  go  as  "a  cattle-breeding  oekist  to  Libya."  The 
suffering  Therseans  were  directed  to  assist  him.  But  neither 
he  nor  they  knew  where  Libya  was,  nor  could  they  find 
any  resident  in  Krete  who  had  ever  visited  it.  Such  was 
the  limited  reach  of  Grecian  navigation  to  the  south  of  the 
^Egean  Sea,  even  a  century  after  the  foundation  of  Syr  aHuse. 
At  length,  by  prolonged  inquiry,  they  discovered  a  man 
employed  in  catching  the  purple  shellfish,  named  Korobius, 
who  said  that  he  had  been  once  forced  by  stress  of  weather 
to  the  island  of  Platea,  close  on  the  shores  of  Libya,  and 
on  the  side  not  far  removed  from  the  western  limit  of 
Egypt.  Some  Therseans  being  sent  along  with  Korobius 
to  inspect  this  island,  left  him  there  with  a  stock  of  pro- 
visions, and  returned  to  Thera  to  conduct  the  emigrants. 
From  the  seven  districts  into  which  Thera  was  divided, 
emigrants  were  drafted  for  the  colony,  one  brother  being 
singled  out  from  the  different  numerous  families  by  lot. 
But  so  long  was  their  return  to  Platea  deferred,  that  the 
provisions  of  Korobius  were  exhausted,  and  he  was  only 
saved  from  starvation  by  the  accidental  arrival  of  a  Samian 
ship,  driven  by  contrary  winds  out  of  her  course  on  the 
voyage  to  Egypt.  Koleeus,  the  master  of  this  ship  (whose 
immense  profits  made  by  the  first  voyage  to  Tartessus  have 
been  noticed  in  a  former  chapter),  supplied  him  with  pro- 
visions for  a  year — an  act  of  kindness  which  is  said  to  have 
laid  the  first  foundation  of  the  alliance  and  good  feeling 
afterwards  prevalent  between  Thera,  Kyrene,  and  Samos. 
At  length  the  expected  emigrants  reached  the  island,  having 
found  the  voyage  so  perilous  and  difficult,  that  they  once 

1  Herodot.  iv.  150-154. 


CHAP.  XXVII.    KYRENE  AND  BARKA.— HESPERIDES.  447 

returned  in  despair  to  Thera,  where  they  were  only  pre- 
vented by  force  from  re-landing.  The  band  which  accom- 
panied Battus  was  all  conveyed  in  two  pentekonters — armed 
ships  with  fifty  rowers  each.  Thus  humble  was  the  start 
of  the  mighty  Kyrene,  which,  in  the  days  of  Herodotus, 
covered  a  city-area  equal  to  the  entire  island  of  Platea.  * 

That  island,  however,  though  near  to  Libya,  and  sup- 
posed bv  the  colonists  to  be  Libya,  was  not  so    „  , 

T,          ,1  n         en  i      i      j          L     Colony  first 

in  reality:  the  commands  of  the  oracle  had  not   settled  in 
been  literally  fulfilled.     Accordingly  the  settle-   the  island 

•     i         -ii      -j.          j.i  •          i      ?i         i   i_-       f          of  Platen  — 

ment  carried  with  it  nothing  but  hardship  lor  afterwards 
the  space  of  two  years;  and  Battus  returned  g"!."?^|d  to 
•with  his  companions  to  Delphi,  to  complain  that 
the  promised  land  had  proved  a  bitter  disappointment. 
The  god,  through  his  priestess,  returned  for  answer,  "If 
you,  who  have  never  visited  the  cattle-breeding  Libya, 
know  it  better  than  I  who  have,  I  greatly  admire  your 
cleverness."  Again  the  inexorable  mandate  forced  them 
to  return.  This  time  they  planted  themselves  on  the 
actual  continent  of  Libya,  nearly  over  against  the  island  of 
Platea,  in  a  district  called  Aziris,  surrounded  on  both  sides 
by  fine  woods,  and  with  a  running  stream  adjoining.  After 
six  years  of  residence  in  this  spot,  they  were  persuaded  by 
some  of  the  indigenous  Libyans  to  abandon  it,  under  the 
promise  that  they  should  be  conducted  to  a  better  situation. 
Their  guides  nowbrought  them  to  theactual  site  of  Kyrene, 
eaying,  "Here,  men  of  Hellas,  is  the  place  for  you  to  dwell, 
ior  here  the  sky  is  perforated."2  The  road  through  which 
Ihey  passed  had  led  through  the  tempting  region  of  Irasa 
Math  its  fountain  Theste,  and  their  guides  took  the  precau- 
tion to  carry  them  through  it  by  night,  in  order  that  they 
might  remain  ignorant  of  its  beauties. 

Such  were  the  preliminary  steps,  divine  and  human, 
v/hich brought  Battus  and  his  colonists  to  Kyrene.    Situation 
In  the  time  of  Herodotus,  Irasa  was  an  outlying    of  Kyreng. 
portion  of  the  eastern  territory  of  this  powerful  city.     But 
•vve  trace  in  the  story  just  related  an  opinion  prevalent 
among  his  Kyrensean  informants,  that  Irasa  with  its  foun- 
tain Theste  was  a  more  inviting  position  than  Kyrene  with 


448  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAKT  II. 

its  fountain  of  Apollo,  and  ought  in  prudence  to  have  been 
originally  chosen:  out  of  which  opinion,  according  to  the 
general  habit  of  the  Greek  mind,  an  anecdote  is  engendered 
and  accredited,  explaining  how  the  supposed  mistake  was 
committed.  What  may  have  been  the  recommendations 
of  Irasa,  we  are  not  permitted  to  know;  but  descriptions 
of  modern  travellers,  no  less  than  the  subsequent  history 
of  Kyrene,  go  far  to  justify  the  choice  actually  made. 
The  city  was  placed  at  the  distance  of  about  ten  miles 
from  the  sea,  having  a  sheltered  port  called  Apollonia, 
itself  afterwards  a  considerable  town  —  it  was  about  twenty 
miles  from  the  promontory  Phykus,  which  forms  the 
northernmost  projection  of  the  African  coast,  nearly  in 
the  longitude  of  the  Peloponnesian  Cape  Teenarus(Matapan). 
Kyrene  was  situated  about  1800  feet  above  the  level  of 
the  Mediterranean,  of  which  it  commanded  a  fine  view,  and 
from  which  it  was  conspicuously  visible,  on  the  edge  of  a 
range  of  hills  which  slope  by  successive  terraces  down  to 
the  port.  The  soil  immediately  around,  partly  calcareous, 
partly  sandy,  is  described  by  Captain  Beechey  to  present 
a  vigorous  vegetation  and  remarkable  fertility;  though  the 
ancients  considered  it  inferior  in  this  respect  both  toBarka  l 
and  Hesperides,  and  still  more  inferior  to  the  more  westerly 
region  near  Kinyps.  But  the  abundant  periodical  rains, 
attracted  by  the  lofty  heights  around,  and  justifying  the 
expression  of  the  "perforated  sky,"  were  even  of  greater 
importance  under  an  African  sun  than  extraordinary  rich- 
ness of  soil.2  The  maritime  regions  near  Kyrene  and 

1  Herodot.  iv.  198.  Beechey:   see   an   interesting  surn- 

See,     about     the     productive     mary  in  the  History  of  the  Barbary 


Hymn.  ad.  Apoll.  65,  with  the  note  Historia    Gyrenes   is   defective,   as 

of    Spanheim;    Pindar,    Pyth.    iv.,  the    author    seems    never    to   have 

with  the  Scholia.  passim;  Diodor.  iii.  seen     the     careful     and     valuable 

49;  Arrian,  Indica,  xliii   13.  Strabo  observations    of  Captain    Beechey, 

(xvii  p.  837)  sawKyrene  from  the  sea  and  proceeds  chiefly  on   the  state- 

in  sailing  by,  and  was  struck  with  ments  of  Delia  Cella. 

the   view:   he   does   not  appear  to  I  refer   briefly   to    a   few    among 

have  landed.  the    many     interesting    notices    of 

The  results  of  modern  observation  Captain  Beechey.    For  the    site  of 


expl 


CHAP.    XXVII.  KYEENE  AND  BAEKA.— HESPEEIDES.  449 

Barka,  and  Hesperides,  produced  oil  and  wine  as  well  as 
corn,  while  the  extensive  district  between  these  towns, 
composed  of  alternate  mountain,  wood  and  plain,  was 
eminently  suited  for  pasture  and  cattle-breeding.  The  ports 
were  secure,  presenting  conveniences  for  the  intercourse 
of  the  Greek  trader  with  Northern  Africa,  such  as  were 
not  to  be  found  along  all  the  coast  of  the  Great  Syrtis 
westward  of  Hesperides.  Abundance  of  appli-  Fertilit 
cable  land — great  diversity  both  of  climate  and  produce,' 
of  productive  season,  between  the  sea-side,  the  and 
low  hill,  and  the  upper  mountain,  within  a  small  p 
space,  so  that  harvest  was  continually  going  on,  and  fresh 
produce  coming  in  from  the  earth,  during  eight  months  of 
the  year — together  with  the  monopoly  of  the  valuable  plant 
called  the  Silphium,  which  grew  nowhere  except  in  the 
Kyrenaic  region,  and  the  juice  of  which  was  extensively 
demanded  throughout  Greece  and  Italy — led  to  the  rapid 
growth  of  Kyreue,  in  spite  of  serious  and  renewed  political 
troubles.  And  even  now,  the  immense  remains  which  still 
mark  its  desolate  site,  the  evidences  of  past  labour  and 
solicitude  at  the  Fountain  of  Apollo  and  elsewhere,  together 
•with  the  profusion  of  excavated  and  ornamented  tombs, 

chain  of  mountains  about  fourteen  miles  (p.  380). 

miles    distant    to    the    south-east-  An  extensive,    fertile,    and   well 

•ward,"— see   Beechey,    Expedition,  watered  mountain-plain  of  Merge, 

ch.  xi.  p.   287-315  ;    l:a    great    many  constituted     the     territory    of    the 

date-palm  trees  in  the   neighbour-  ancient     Barka     (i&.     ch.     xiii.     p. 

hood'1  (ch.    xii.   p.  340-351).  395-401)  :      the     bricks,     which    the 

The    distance    between   Bengazi  Arabic  geographers    state    to  have 

(Hesperides)  and   Ptolemeta    (Pto-  been  exported  from  Barka  to  Egypt 

lemais,  the  port  of  Barka)  is  lifty-  (p.    399),    are   noticed   by   Stephan. 

seven  geographical  miles,  along  a  Byzant.  (v.  Bipxr,)  as  constituting 

fertile  and  beautiful  plain,  stretch-  the  material  of  the  houses  at  Barka. 

ing     from    the     mountains    to    the  The  road   from  Barka   to  KyrenS 

sea.        Between      these     two      was  presents  continued  marks  of  ancient 

situated  the  ancient  Teucheira  (ib.  chariot-wheels    (ch.    xiv.    p.    40o)  ; 

ch.  xii.  p.  347),    about   thirty-eight  aiter   passing   the   plain  of  Merge, 

miles  from  Hesperides  (p.  :;*'•)),   in  it  becomes  hilly  and  woody,  '-but 

a  country  highly  productive  where-  on    approaching   Grenna   (Kyrene) 

ever  it  is    cultivated    (p.    350  -J55).  it   becomes    more    clear    of  wood  5 

Exuberant    vegetation    exists  near  the  valleys    produce   fine   crops  of 

the    deserted  Ptolemeta   (or  Ptolc-  barley,   and  the  hills  excellent  pns- 

mais)    after    the    winter    rains    (p.  turage  for  cattle"  (p.  409).     Luxu- 

:;64).     The  circuit  of  Ptolemais,  as  riant    vegetation    comes    after    the 

measured  by  the  ruins  of  its  walls,  winter    rains     in    the    vicinity    of 

was  about  three  and  a  half  English  Kyrene  (ch.  xv.  p.  4C5). 

VOL.  III.  -   G 


450  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAKT  II. 

attest  sufficiently  what  the  grandeur  of  the  place  must  have 
been  in  the  days  of  Herodotus  and  Pindar.  So  much  did 
the  Kyrenseans  pride  themselves  on  the  Silphium,  found 
wild  in  their  hack  country  from  the  island  of  Platea  on  the 
east  to  the  inner  recess  of  the  Great  Syrtis  westward — the 
leaves  of  which  were  highly  salubrious  for  cattle  and  the 
stalk  for  man,  while  the  root  furnished  the  peculiar  juice 
for  export — that  they  maintained  it  to  have  first  appeared 
seven  years  prior  to  the  arrival  of  the  first  Grecian  colonists 
in  their  city.  * 

But  it  was  not  only  the  properties  of  the  soil  which 
promoted  the  prosperity  of  Kyrene.  Isokrates2  praises  the 
well-chosen  site  of  that  colony,  because  it  was  planted  in. 
the  midst  of  indigenous  natives  apt  for  subjection,  and  far 
Libyan  distant  from  any  formidable  enemies.  That  the 
tribes  near  native  Libyan  tribes  were  made  conducive  in 
Kyrene.  an  eminent  degree  to  the  growth  of  the  Greco- 
Libyan  cities,  admits  of  no  doubt;  and  in  reviewing  the 
history  of  these  cities,  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  their 
population  was  not  pure  Greek,  but  more  or  less  mixed, 
like  that  of  the  colonies  in  Italy,  Sicily,  or  Ionia.  Though 
our  information  is  very  imperfect,  we  see  enough  to  prove 
that  the  small  force  brought  over  by  Battus  the  Stammerer 
was  enabled  first  to  fraternise  with  the  indigenous  Libyans 
— next,  reinforced  by  additional  colonists  and  availing 
themselves  of  the  power  of  native  chiefs,  to  overawe  and 
subjugate  them.  Kyrene — combined  with  Barka  and  Hes- 
perides,  both  of  them  having  sprung  from  her  root3 — 
exercised  over  the  Libyan  tribes  between  the  borders  of 
Egypt  and  the  inner  recess  of  the  Great  Syrtis,  for  a  space 
of  three  degrees  of  longitude,  an  ascendency  similar  to  that 
which  Carthage  possessed  over  the  more  westerly  Libyans 
near  the  Lesser  Syrtis.  "Within  these  Kyreneean  limits, 

1  Theophrast.   Hist.   PI.  vl.  3,  3;  Tripoli's;      but      no      one      before 
ix.  1,  7  ;  Skylax.  c.  107.  Alexander   the    Great    would   have 

2  Isokrates,  Or.  v.  ad  Philipp.  p.  understood   the    expression  Penta- 
84  (p.  107   ed.  Bek.).     Thera   being  polis,  used  under  the   Romans  to 
a  colony  of  Laceda^mon,    and  Ky-  denote  Kyreng,   Apollonia,  Ptole- 
r6ue  of  Thera,   Isokrates  spceks  of  mais,  Teucheira,   and  Berenike  or 
Kyrene  as  a  colony  of  Lacedaimon.  Hesperides. 

3  Pindar,   Pyth.    iv.  26.     K'jpr^TjV  Ptolemais,  originally  the  port  of 
— asTiuiM    pt'ctv.      In    the    time    of  Barka,    had    become     autonomous 
Herodotus  these   three  cities   may  and    of    greater    importance    than 
possibly  have  been  spoken  of  as  a  the  latter. 


CHAP.  XXVII.     KYRENE  AND  BABKA.— HESPEEIDES.  451 

and  farther  westward  along  the  shores  of  the  Great  Syrtis, 
the  Libyan  tribes  were  of  pastoral  habits;  westward,  beyond 
the  Lake  Tritonis  and  the  Lesser  Syrtis,1  they  began  to 
be  agricultural.  Immediately  westward  of  Egypt  were 
the  Adyrmachidse,  bordering  upon  Apis  and  Marea,  the 
Egyptian  frontier  towns;2  they  were  subject  to  the  Egyp- 
tians, and  had  adopted  some  of  the  minute  ritual  and 
religious  observances  which  characterised  the  region  of 
the  Nile.  Proceeding  westward  from  the  Adyrmachidse 
were  found  the  Giligammse,  the  Asbystae,  the  Auschisse, 
the  Kabales,  and  the  Nasamones — the  latter  of  whom 
occupied  the  south-eastern  corner  of  the  Great  Syrtis — 
next,  the  Makse,  Gindanes,  Lotophagi,  Machlyes,  as  far  as 
a  certain  river  and  lake  called  Triton  and  Extensive 
Tritonis,  which  seems  to  have  been  near  the  dominion 
Lesser  Syrtis.  These  last-mentioned  tribes  were  an^Barka 
not  dependent  either  on  Kyrene  or  on  Carthage,  over  the 
at  the  time  of  Herodotus,  nor  probably  during  kibyans. 
the  proper  period  of  free  Grecian  history  (600-300  B.C.). 
But  in  the  third  century  B.C.,  the  Ptolemaic  governors  of 
Kyrene  extended  their  dominion  westward,  while  Carthage 
pushed  her  colonies  and  castles  eastward,  so  that  the  two 
powers  embraced  between  them  the  whole  line  of  coast 
between  the  Greater  and  Lesser  Syrtis,  meeting  at  the 
spot  called  the  Altars  of  the  Brothers  Philosni — celebrated 
for  its  commemorative  legend.3  Moreover,  even  in  the 
sixth  century  B.C.,  Carthage  was  jealous  of  the  extension 
of  Grecian  colonies  along  this  coast,  and  aided  the  Libyan 
j\Ial«e  (about  510  B.C.)  to  expel  the  Spartan  prince  Dorieus 
from  his  settlement  near  the  river  Kinyps;  near  that  spot 
was  afterwards  planted,  by  Phenician  or  Carthaginian 

1  The    accounts    respecting    the      the  two  at  525  Roman  miles  (Pliny, 
lake  called  in   ancient    times  Tri-      H.  N.  v.  C). 

tonis  are  however  very  uncertain:  3  Sallust,    Bell.    Jugurth.   c.    75; 

see  Dr.  Shaw's  Travels  in  Barbary,  Valerius    Maximus,    v.    6.     Thrigo 

p.  127.    Strabo  mentions  a  lake  so  (Histor.     Cyr.    c.     49)     places    this 

called    near    Ilesperides    (xvii.    p.  division     of    the     Syrtis     between 

P3fi) ;    Pherekydes     talks    of   it.    as  Kyrene      and     Carthage      at     somo 

noar   Irasa    (Phcrekyd.    Fragm.    33  period  between  400-330  B.C.,  anterior 

rl.  eel.  Didot).  to  the  loss  of  the  independence  of 

2  Eratosthenes,    born   at   "KSreno  Kyrend  ;    but  I  cannot    think    that 
and    resident   at   Alexandria,    esti-  it  was  earlier  than  the  Ptolemies: 
mated    the    land-journey    between  compare  Strabo,  xvii.  p.  836. 

2  G  2 


452  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

exiles,  the  town  of  Leptis  Magna1  (now  Lebida),  which 
does  not  seem  to  have  existed  in  the  time  of  Herodotus. 
Nor  does  the  latter  historian  notice  the  Marmaridae,  who 
appear  as  the  principal  Libyan  tribe  near  the  west  of 
Egypt  between  the  age  of  Skylax  and  the  third  century  of 
the  Christian  sera.  Some  migration  or  revolution  sub- 
sequent to  the  time  of  Herodotus  must  have  brought  this 
name  into  predominance.2 

The  interior  country  stretching  westward  from  Egypt 
(along  the  thirtieth  and  thirty-first  parallel  of  latitude)  to 
the  Great  Syrtis,  and  then  along  the  southern  shore  of 
that  gulf,  is  to  a  great  degree  low  and  sandy,  and  quite 
destitute  of  trees ;  yet  affording  in  many  parts  water,  herb- 
age, and  a  fertile  soil.3  But  the  maritime  region  north  of 

1  The  Carthaginian  establishment  miseries  and  privations  attendant 
Neapolis   is  mentioned  by  Skylax  upon  it;    for  this   desert  (he  con- 
(c.   109),     and    Strabo    states    that  tinues)   is   far   removed   from    any 
Leptis  was   another  name   for  the  habitations,    and   nothing    is    pro- 
same  place  (xvii.  p.  835).  duced  there  whatever.     So  that   if 

2  Skylax,    c.    107;  Vopiscus,  Vit.  these   poor   people   would   have   a 
Prob.   c.   9;    Strabo,    xvii.   p.    838;  supply   of  grain,    or  of  any  other 
Pliny,  H.  N.  v.  5.  Prom  the  Libyan  articles    necessary    to   their  exist- 
tribe  Marmaridse   was    derived   the  ence,   they   are   obliged   to  pledge 
name   Marmarika   applied   to   that  their  children  to  the  Sicilians  who 
region.  visit  the  coast;  who,  on  providing 

3  TOtTCEivq  TS  xtxl  'Ji«pi|j.u>87j<;  (Hero-  them  with   these   things,    carry  off 
dot.  iv.  191);  Sallust,  Bell.  Jugur-  the  children  they  have  received  .... 
thin.  c.  17.  "It    appears   to    be    chiefly    from 

Captain  Beechey  points  out  the  Leo  Africanus  that  modern  histo- 

mistaken  conceptions  which  have  rians  have  derived  their  idea  of 

been  entertained  of  this  region: —  what  they  term  the  district  and 

"It  is  not  only  in  the  works  of  desert  of  Barca.  Yet  the  whole  of 
early  writers  that  we  find  the  na-  the  Cyrenaica  is  comprehended 
ture  of  the  Syrtis  misunderstood;  within  the  limits  which  they  assign 
for  the  whole  of  the  space  between  to  it ;  and  the  authority  of  Hero- 
Mesurata  (i.  e.  the  cape  which  forms  dotus,  without  citing  any  other, 
the  western  extremity  of  the  Great  would  be  amply  sufficient  to  prove 
Syrtis)  and  Alexandria  is  described  that  this  tract  of  country  not  only 
by  Leo  Africanus,  under  the  title  was  no  desert,  but  was  at  all  times 
of  Barca,  as  a  wild  and  desert  remarkable  for  its  fertility  .... 
country,  where  there  is  neither  The  impression  left  upon  ourminds, 
water  nor  land  capable  of  cultiva-  after  reading  the  account  of  Hero- 
tion.  He  tells  us  that  the  most  dotus,  would  be  much  more  con- 
powerful  among  the  Mahometan  sistent  with  the  appearance  and 
invaders  possessed  themselves  of  peculiarities  of  both,  in  their  actual 
the  fertile  parts  of  the  coast,  state,  than  that  which  would  result 
leaving  the  others  only  the  desert  from  the  description  of  any  suc- 
for  their  abode,  exposed  to  all  the  ceeding  writer  ....  The  district 


CHAP.  XXVII.     KYftENE  AND  BAKKA.-HESPERIDES.  453 

this,  constituting  the  projecting   bosom  of  the  African 
coast  from  the  island  of  Platea  (GKilf  of  Bomba)   connexion 
on  the   east  to  Hesperides  (Bengazi)  on   the    of  the  Greek 
west,  is  of  a  totally  different  character;  covered   ^t^the 
with  mountains  of  considerable  elevation,  which   Nomads 
reach  their  highest  point  near  Kyrene,  inter-   ° 
spersed  with  productive  plain  and  valley,  broken  by  frequent 
ravines  which  carry  off  the  winter  torrents  into  the  sea, 
and  never  at  any  time  of  the  year  destitute  of  water.     It 
is  this  latter  advantage  that  causes  them  to  be  now  visited 
every  summer  by  the  Bedouin  Arabs,  who  flock  to  the  in- 
exhaustible Fountain  of  Apollo  'and  to  other  parts  of  the 
mountainous  region  from  Kyrene  to  Hesperides,  when  their 
supply  of  water  and  herbage  fails  in  the  interior;1  and  the 

of  Barca,  including  all  the  country  plain,  or  table-land  of  Merge,  the 

between  Mesurata  and  Alexandria,  site    of    the    ancient   Barka,    "The 

neither  is,  nor  ever  was,  so  desti-  water  from   the   mountains    enclo- 

tute  and  barren  as  has  been  repre-  sing  the  plain  settles  in  pools  and 

sented ;    the  part  of  it  which  con-  lakes    in    different    parts    of    this 

stitutes  the   Cyrenaica   is    capable  spacious  valley  ;  and  affords  a  con- 

of  the  highest  degree  of  cultivation,  staiit   supply,   during    the  summer 

and  many  parts  of  the  Syrtis  afford  months,  to  the  Arabs  who  frequent 

excellent  pasturage,  while  some  of  it''  (ch.  xiii.  p.  390).    The  red  earth 

it  is  not  only   adapted   to  cultiva-  which  Captain  Beechey  observed  in 

tion,    but    does    actually    produce  this  plain  is  noticed  by  Herodotus 

good  crops  of  barley  and  dhurra."  in  regard  to  Libya  (ii.  12).    Stephan. 

(Captain  Beechey,    Expedition   to  Byz.  also  mentions  the  bricks  used 

Northern    Coast    of  Africa,    ch.    x.  in  building  (v.  Bapxr;).  Derna,  too, 

pp.  2ii3,  265,  2G7,  209:  comp.  ch.  xi.  to  the  eastward    of  Cyrene    on  the 

p.  321.)  sea-coast,  is  amply  provided  with 

1  Justin,  xiii.  7.  "amceuitatem  loci  water  (ch.  xvi.  p.  471). 

ct    fontium    ubertatcm."      Captain  Respecting  Kyrene  itself,  Captain 

Beechey  notices  this  annual  migra-  Beechey  states  : — "During  the  time, 

tion  of  the  Bedouin  Arabs: —  about  a  fortnight,   of  our  absence 

"Teucheira  (on  the  coast  between  from  Cyrene,  the  changes  which 
Hespurides  and  Barka)  abounds  in  had  taken  place  in  the  appearance 
wells  of  excellent  water,  which  of  the  country  about  it  were  re- 
are  reserved  by  the  Arabs  for  their  markable.  We  found  the  hills  on 
summer  consumption,  and  only  re-  our  return  covered  with  Arabs, 
sorted  to  when  the  more  inland  their  camels,  flocks,  and  herds; 
supplies  arc  exhausted:  at  other  the  scarcity  of  water  in  the  interior 
times  it  is  uninhabited.  Many  of  at  this  time  having  driven  the  Be- 
the  excavated  tombs  are  occupied  douins  to  the  mountains,  and  par- 
as dwelling-houses  by  the  Arabs  ticularly  to  Cyrene,  where  the 
during  their  summer  visits  to  that  springs  afford  at  all  times  an 
part  of  the  coast.'1  (Beechey,  Exp.  abundant  supply.  The  corn  was 
to  North.  Afdc.  ch.  xii.  p.  354.)  all  cut,  and  the  high  grass  and 

And   about    the   wide   mountain  luxuriant    vegetation,     which    we 


454  HISTOEY  OF  GREECE.  PABT  II. 

same  circumstance  must  have  operated  in  ancient  times  to 
hold  the  Nomadic  Libyans  in  a  sort  of  dependence  on  Ky- 
rene and  Barka.  Kyrene  appropriated  the  maritime  portion 
of  the  territory  of  the  Libyan  Asbystse :  *  the  Auschisae  occu- 
pied the  region  south  of  Barka,  touching  thesea  nearHespe- 
rides:  the  Kabales  dwelt  near  Teucheira  in  the  territory  of 
Barka.  Over  the  interior  spaces  these  Libyan  Nomads, with 
their  cattle  and  twisted  tents,  wandered  unrestrained,  amply 
fed  upon  meat  and  milk,2  clothed  in  goat  skins,  and  enjoying 
better  health  than  any  people  known  to  Herodotus.  Their 
breed  of  horses  was  excellent,  and  their  chariots  or  wag- 
gons with  four  horses  could  perform  feats  admired  even  by 
Greeks.  It  was  to  these  horses  that  the  princes3  and  mag- 
nates of  Kyrene  and  Barka  owed  the  frequent  successes  of 
Manners  of  their  chariots  in  the  games  of  Greece.  The  Li- 
the Libyan  byan  Nasamones,  leaving  their  cattle  near  the 
Nomads.  SQ^  were  in  the  habit  of  making  an  annual  jour- 
ney up  the  country  to  the  Oasis  of  Augila  for  the  purpose 
of  gathering  the  date-harvest,4  or  of  purchasing  dates;  and 
the  Bedouin  Arabs  from  Bengazi  still  make  this  same 
journey  annually,  carrying  up  their  wheat  and  barley,  for 
the  same  purpose.  Each  of  the  Libyan  tribes  was  dis- 
tinguished by  a  distinct  mode  of  cutting  the  hair,  and  by 
some  peculiarities  of  religious  worship,  though  generally 
all  worshipped  the  Sun  and  the  Moon.5  But  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  Lake  Tritonis  (seemingly  the  western  ex- 
tremity of  Grecian  coasting  trade  in  the  time  of  Herodotus, 

had  found  it  so    difficult   to    wade  Pindar,  Pyth.  ix.  127,  iicitsuTal  No- 
through  on  former  occasions,   had  (jiotSi?.    Pompon.  Mela,  i.  8. 
been  eaten  down  to   the   roots   by  3  See  the  fourth,  fifth  and  ninth 
the  cattle"  (ch.  xviii.  pp.  517,  520).  Pythian    Odes    of  Pindar.    In  the 

The  winter  rains  are  also  abund-  description  given  by  Sophoklea 
ant,  between  January  and  March,  (Electra,  695)  of  the  Pythian  con- 
at  Bengazi  (the  ancient  Hesperides):  test,  in  which  pretence  is  made 
sweet  springs  of  water  are  found  that  Orestes  has  perished,  ten  con- 
near  the  town  (ch.  xi.  pp.  282,  315,  tending  chariots  are  supposed,  of 
327).  About  Ptolemeta,  or  Ptole-  which  two  are  Libyan  from  Barka : 
mais,  the  port  of  the  ancient  Barka,  of  the  remaining  eight,  one  only 
il.  ch.  xii.  p.  363.  comes  from  each  place  named. 

1  Herodot.    iv.    170-171.      itapaXioe  4  Herodot.  iv.  172 — 1?2.   Compare 

(jooopn  sijosiij-wv.    Strabo,  ii.  p.  131.  Hornemann's    Travels     in    Africa, 

ToXuiArjXcio  xai   iroXuxap-o-aTa;  y_6o-  p.    48,    and   Heeren,    Verkehr  und 

vo«,  Pindar,  Pyth.  ix.  7.  Handel    der   Alten    Welt,    Th.   ii. 

1  Herodot.   iv.   186,    187,  189,  190.  Abth.  1.  Abschnitt  vi.  p.  226. 

NojJKxSgi;  xpiOtpaycn  xcd  YaXax-OTtoTai.  5  Herodot.  iv.  175 — 188. 


CHAP.    XXVII.  KYBENE  AND  BAEKA.— HESPEEIDES.  455 

\vho  knows  little  beyond,  except  from  Carthaginian  author- 
ities), the  Grecian  deities  Poseidon  and  Athene,  together 
with  the  legend  of  Jason  and  the  Argonauts,  had  been 
localised.  There  were  moreover  current  prophecies  an- 
nouncing that  one  hundred  Hellenic  cities  were  destined 
one  day  to  be  founded  round  the  lake — and  that  one  city 
in  the  island  Phla,  surrounded  by  the  lake,  was  to  be 
planted  by  the  Lacedaemonians. l  These  indeed  were  among 
the  many  unfulfilled  prophecies  which  from  every  side 
cheated  the  Grecian  ear,  proceeding  probably  from  Kyre- 
naeaii  or  Thersean  traders,  who  thought  the  spot  advan- 
tageous for  settlement,  and  circulated  their  own  hopes 
under  the  form  of  divine  assurances.  It  was  about  the 
year  510  B.C.2  that  some  of  the  Theraeans  conducted  the 
Spartan  prince  Dorieus  to  found  a  colony  in  the  fertile 
region  of  Kinyps,  belonging  to  the  Libyan  Makte.  But 
Carthage,  interested  in  preventing  the  extension  of  Greek 
settlements  westward,  aided  the  Libyans  in  driving  him 
out. 

The  Libyans  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  Ky- 
rene were  materially  changed  by  the  establishment  of  that 
town.  They  constituted  a  large  part — at  first  Mixture  of 
probably  far  the  largest  part — of  its  constituent  Grceks  and 
population.  Not  possessing  that  fierce  tenacity  habitants11 
of  habits  which  the  Mahomedan  religion  has  im-  at  KyrenS. 
pressed  upon  the  Arabs  of  the  present  day,  they  were  opea 
to  the  mingled  influence  of  constraint  and  seduction  ap- 
plied by  Grecian  settlers;  and  in  the  time  of  Herodotus, 
the  Kabales  and  the  Asbystce  of  the  interior  had  come  to 
copy  Kyrensean  tastes  and  customs.3  The  Theroean  co- 
lonists, having  obtained  not  merely  the  consent,  but,  even 
the  guidance,  of  the  natives  to  their  occupation  of  Kyrene 
constituted  themselves  like  privileged  Spartan  citizens  in 
the  midst  of  Libyan  Peri oeki.4  They  seem  to  have  mar- 
ried Libyan  wives,  so  that  Herodotus  describes  the  women 
of  Kyrene  and  Barka  as  following,  even  in  his  time,  reli- 
gious observances  indigenous  and  not  Hellenic.5  Even  the 


1  Heroclot.  iv.  178.  179,  105,  196. 


5  Herodot.  iv.   iSfi-TSO.    Compare 


also  the  story  in  Pindar,  Pyth.  ix. 


103-126,  about  Alexidamus,  t] 


krates    the   Kyre- 


na'an;  how  the  former  won,  by  ma 


l\  J  VC,V7.iu)V. 

*  Herodot.    iv.    161.     6f(]',7,liov    -/at      swiftness     in     running,    a     Libyan 
TUJV  -if  ic/ixuuv,  Ac.  inaiduii,     daughter    of   Auta;us    of 


456  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PART  EL 

descendants  of  the  primitive  oekist  Battus  were  semi-Li- 
byan, for  Herodotus  gives  us  the  curious  information  that 
Battus  was  the  Libyan  word  for  a  king,  and  deduces  from 
it  the  just  inference  that  the  name  Battus  was  not  ori- 
ginally personal  to  the  oskist,  but  acquired  in  Libya  first 
as  a  title ;  1  though  it  afterwards  passed  to  his  descendants 
as  a  proper  name.  For  eight  generations  the  reigning 
princes  were  called  Battus  and  Arkesilaus,  the  Libyan  de- 
nomination alternating  with  the  Greek,  until  the  family 
was  finally  deprived  of  its  power.  Moreover  we  find  the 
chief  of  Barka,  kinsman  of  Arkesilaus  of  Kyrene,  bearing 
the  name  of  Alazir;  a  name  certainly  not  Hellenic,  and 
probably  Libyan.2  We  are  therefore  to  conceive  the  first 
Theraean  colonists  as  established  in  their  lofty  fortified 
post  Kyrene,  in  the  centre  of  Libyan  Perioeki,  till  then 
strangers  to  walls,  to  arts,  and  perhaps  even  to  cultivated 
land.  Probably  these  Perioeki  were  always  subject  and 
tributary,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  though  they  con- 
tinued for  half  a  century  to  retain  their  own  king. 

To  these  rude  men  the  Theraeans  communicated  the 
Dynasty  of  elements  of  Hellenism  and  civilization,  not  with- 
Battus  at  out  receiving  themselves  much  that  was  non- 
freli^colo-  Hellenic  in  return;  and  perhaps  the  reactionary 
nists  from  influence  of  the  Libyan  element  against  the  Hel- 
lenic might  have  proved  the  stronger  of  the 
two,  had  they  not  been  reinforced  by  new-comers  from 
Greece.  After  forty  years  of  Battus  the  (Ekist  (about 
630-590  B.C.)  and  sixteen  years  of  his  son  Arkesilaus  (about 
590-574  B.C.),  a  second  Battus3  succeeded,  called  Battus 
the  Prosperous,  to  mark  the  extraordinary  increase  of 
Kyrene  during  his  presidency.  The  Kyrenaeans  under  him 
took  pains  to  invite  new  settlers  from  all  parts  of  Greece 
without  distinction — a  circumstance  deserving  notice  in 
Grecian  colonization,  which  usually  manifested  a  pre- 
ference for  certain  races,  if  it  did  not  positively  exclude 
the  rest.  To  every  new-comer  was  promised  a  lot  of  laud, 
and  the  Delphian  priestess  strenuously  seconded  the  wishes 
of  the  Kyrenseans,  proclaiming  that  "whosoever  should 
reach  the  place  too  late  for  the  land-division,  would  have 

Irasa — and     Kallimachus,  Hymn.          3  Respecting   the   chronology    of 

Apoll.   86.  the   Battiad   princes,    see   Boeckh, 

1  Herodot.  ir.  155.  ad  Pindar.    Pyth.    iv.    p.    265.    and 

1  Herodot.  iv.  164.  Thrige,  Histor.  Gyrenes,  p.  127,  seq* 


CHAP.  XXVII.    KYBENE  AND  BABKA.-HESPERIDES.  457 

reason  to  repent  it."  Such  promise  of  new  land,  as  well  as 
the  sanction  of  the  oracle,  were  doubtless  made  public  at 
all  the  games  and  meetings  of  Greeks.  A  large  number 
of  new  colonists  embarked  for  Kyrene:  the  exact  number 
is  not  mentioned,  but  we  must  conceive  it  to  have  been 
very  great,  when  we  are  told  that  during  the  succeeding 
generation,  not  less  than  7000  Grecian  hoplites  of  Kyrene 
perished  by  the  hands  of  the  revolted  Libyans — yet  leaving 
both  the  city  itself  and  its  neighbour  Barka  still  powerful. 
The  loss  of  so  great  a  number  as  7000  Grecian  hoplites  has 
very  few  parallels  throughout  the  whole  history  of  Greece. 
In  fact,  this  second  migration,  during  the  government  of 
Battus  the  Prosperous,  which  must  have  taken  place  be- 
tween 574-554  B.C.,  ought  to  be  looked  upon  as  the  moment 
of  real  and  effective  colonization  for  Kyrene.  It  was  on 
this  occasion  probably  that  the  port  of  Apollonia,  which 
afterwards  came  to  equal  the  city  itself  in  importance,  was 
first  occupied  and  fortified — for  the  second  swarm  of  im- 
migrants came  by  sea  direct,  while  the  original  colonists 
had  reached  Kyrene  by  land  from  the  island  of  Platea 
through  Irasa.  The  fresh  immigrants  came  from  Pelopon- 
nesus, Krete,  and  some  other  islands  of  ths  ^Egean. 

To  furnish  so  many  new  lots  of  land,  it  was  either 
necessary,  or  it  was  found  expedient,  to  dispossess  many 
of  the  Libyan  Periceki;  who  found  their  situa-    Djsputea 
tion,  in  other  respects  also,  greatly  changed  for   with  the 
the  worse.     The  Libyan  king  Adikran,  himself  Litwims 
among  the  sufferers,  implored  aid  from  Apries 
king  of  Egypt,  then  in  the  height  of  his  power;  sending  to 
declare  himself  and  his  people  Egyptian  subjects,  like  their 
neighbours  the  Adyrmachidse.     The  Egyptian  prince,  ac- 
cepting the  offer,  despatched  a  large  military  force  of  the 
native  soldier-caste,  who  were  constantly  in  station  at  the 
western  frontier-town  Marea,  by  the  route  along  shore  to 
attack  Kyrene.     They  were  met  at  Irasa  by  the  Greeks  of 
Kyrene,  and  being  totally  ignorant  of  Grecian  arms  and 
tactics,  experienced  a  defeat  so  complete  that  few  of  them 
reached  home. l   The  consequences  of  this  disaster  in  Egypt, 
where  it  caused  the  transfer  of  the  throne  from  Apries  to 
Ainasis,  have  been  noticed  in  a  former  chapter. 

Of  course  the  Libyan  Periceki  were  put  down,  and  the 
redivision  of  lands  near  Kyrene  among  the  Greek  settlers 

1  HoroJot-  iv.  109. 


458  HISTOBY  OF  GBEECE.  PAKT  II. 

accomplished,  to  the  great  increase  of  the  power  of  the  city. 
And  the  reign  of  Battus  the  Prosperous  marks  a  flourishing 
sera  in  the  town,  with  a  large  acquisition  of  land-dominions, 
antecedent  to  years  of  dissension  and  distress.  The  Kyre- 
naeans  came  into  intimate  alliance  with  Amasis  king  of 
Egypt,  who  encouraged  Grecian  connexion  in  every  way, 
and  who  even  took  to  wife  Ladike,  a  woman  of  theBattiad 
family  at  Kyrene;  so  that  the  Libyan  Periceki  lost  all 
chance  of  Egyptian  aid  against  the  Greeks. J 

New  prospects,  however,  were  opened  to  them  during 
the  reign  of  Arkesilaus  the  Second,  son  of  Battus  the 
Arkesiiaus  Prosperous  (about  554-544  B.C.).  The  behaviour 
the  Second  of  -fcjug  prince  incensed  and  alienated  his  own 
Kyr§ne—  brothers,  who  raised  a  revolt  against  him,  se- 
EfiSh°rt'Un—  ceded  with  a  portion  of  the  citizens,  and  induced 
foundation  a  number  of  the  Libyan  Periceki  to  take  part 
of  Barka.  yith  them.  They  founded  the  Greco-Libyan  city 
of  Barka,  in  the  territory  of  the  Libyan  Auschisae,  about 
twelve  miles  from  the  coast,  distant  from  Kyrene  by  sea 
about  seventy  miles  to  the  westward.  The  space  between 
the  two,  and  even  beyond  Barka  as  far  as  the  more  wester- 
ly Grecian  colony  called  Hesperides,  was  in  the  days  of 
Skylax  provided  with  commodious  ports  for  refuge  or 
landing.2  At  what  time  Hesperides  was  founded  we  do 
not  know,  but  it  existed  about  510  B.C.3  Whether  Arkesi- 
laus obstructed  the  foundation  of  Barka  is  not  certain;  but 
he  marched  the  Kyrensean  forces  against  those  revolted 
Libyans  who  had  joined  it.  Unable  to  resist,  the  latter 
fled  for  refuge  to  their  more  easterly  brethren  near  the 
borders  of  Egypt,  and  Arkesilaus  pursued  them.  At  length, 
in  a  district  called  Leukon,  the  fugitives  found  an  oppor- 
tunity of  attacking  him  at  such  prodigious  advantage,  that 
they  almost  destroyed  the  Kyrensean  army;  7000  hoplites 
(as  has  been  before  intimated)  being  left  dead  on  the  field. 
Arkesiiaus  did  not  long  survive  this  disaster.  He  was 
strangled  during  sickness  by  his  brother  Learchus,  who 
aspired  to  the  throne;  but  Eryxo,  widow  of  the  deceased 
prince,4  avenged  the  crime  by  causing  Learchus  to  be 
assassinated. 

1  Herodot.  ii.  180-181.  »  Herodot.  iv.  204. 

1  Herodot.  iv.  160;  Skylax,  c.  «  Herodot.  iv.  160.  Plutarch  (De 

107;  Hekataeus,  Fragm.  300.  ed.  Virtutibus  Mulier.  p.  261)  and  Po- 

Klausen.  lyaiius  (viii.  41)  give  various  de- 


CHAP.  XXVII.  KYRENE  AND  BARKA.— HESPEKIDES.  459 

That  the  credit  of  the  Battiad  princes  was  impaired 
by  such  a  series  of  disasters  and  enormities,  we  can  readily 
believe.  But  it  received  a  still  greater  shock  Battus  the 
from  the  circumstance,  that  Battus  the  Third,  Third— a 
son  and  successor  of  Arkesilaus,  was  lame  and  refornM-Jy"" 
deformed  in  his  feet.  To  be  governed  by  a  man  Dem&nax. 
thus  personally  disabled,  was  in  the  minds  of  the  Kyre- 
naeans  an  indignity  not  to  be  borne,  as  well  as  an  excuse 
for  pre-existing  discontents.  The  resolution  was  taken  to 
send  to  the  Delphian  oracle  for  advice.  They  were  direct- 
ed by  the  priestess  to  invite  from  Mantineia  a  moderator, 
empowered  to  close  discussions  and  provide  a  scheme  of 
government.  The  Mantineans  selected  Demonax,  one  of 
the  wisest  of  their  citizens,  to  solve  the  same  problem 
which  had  been  committed  to  Solon  at  Athens.  By  his 
arrangement,  the  regal  prerogative  of  the  Battiad  line  was 
terminated,  and  a  republican  government  established,  seem- 
ingly about  543  B.C.;  the  dispossessed  prince  retaining  both 
the  landed  domains1  and  the  various  sacerdotal  functions 
which  had  belonged  to  his  predecessors.  Respecting  the 
government,  as  newly  framed,  however,  Herodotus  unfor- 
tunately gives  us  hardly  any  particulars.  Demonax  classi- 
fied the  inhabitants  of  Kyrene  into  three  tribes;  composed 
of — 1.  Therseans  with  their  Libyan  Perioeki;  2.  Greeks 
who  had  come  from  Peloponnesus  and  Krete;  3.  such 

tails  of  this  stratagem  on  the  part  pressiou  to  revenues   derived  from 

of  Eryxo  ;  Learchus  being  in  love  sacred  property.     The  reference  of 

with  her.  Plutarch  also  states  that  Wesseliug  to  Hesych.  — BOITTOU  aiX- 

I/earchus    maintained     himself    as  cptov— is  of  no  avail  for  illustrating 

despot   for    some   time    by    the  aid  this  passage.' 

of  Egyptian    troops    from  Amasis,          The    supposition    nf   O.    Miiller, 

and  committed  great  cruelties.  His  tnat  the  preceding  king  had  made 

story    has    too    much    the   air   of  a  himself     despotic     by     means      of 

romance  to  bo  transcribed  into  the  Egyptian   soldiers,   appears   to  me 

text,    nor    do   I   know    from  what  not   probable   and    not    admissible 

authority  it  is  taken.  upon  the  simple  authority  of  Plu- 

1  Herodot.    iv.    101.      Tcp    paaiXs'i  .tarch's   romantic    story,    when    wo 

B'JcTT(j)  7£|jL£-/ea  i;  =  ),u)v  xal  ipio-'J^at;,  take  into  consideration  the  silence 

TCI    ci).).a    r.ivTOt    -ra    rpoTSpov    EI-//JV  of    Herodotus.     Nor   is   lie    correct 

ot   paiO.Eis  E4  (XEjov  ~q>  OT^w  ifJr,xs.  in  affirming  that  Demonax  "restored 

I  construe   the    word    T£|j.j'jia   as  the  supremacy  of  the  community  :" 

meaning    all    the  domains,    doubt-  that  legislator  superseded  the   old 

less  largo,  which  had  belonged  to  kingly     political     privileges,    and 

the    Battiad   princes;    contrary    to  framed     a    new    constitution    (see 

Thrige    (Historia    CyronCs,    ch.    38.  O.  Miiller,    History    of  Dorians,  b. 

p.     150),     who     restricts     the     ex-  iii.  eh.  0.  s.  13). 


460  HISTOKY  01'  GBEECE.  PART  II. 

Greeks  as  had  come  from  all  other  islands  in  the  JSgean. 
It  appears  too  that  a  senate  was  constituted,  taken  doubt- 
less from  these  three  tribes,  and,  we  may  presume,  in  equal 
proportion.  It  seems  probable  that  there  had  been  before 
no  constitutional  classification,  nor  political  privilege,  ex- 
cept what  was  vested  in  the  Theraeans — that  these  latter, 
the  descendants  of  the  original  colonists,  were  the  only 
persons  hitherto  known  to  the  constitution — and  that  the 
remaining  Greeks,  though  free  landed  proprietors  and 
hoplites,  were  not  permitted  to  act  as  an  integral  part  of 
the  body  politic,  nor  distributed  in  tribes  at  all. l  The 
whole  powers  of  government — up  to  this  time  vested  in 
the  Battiad  princes,  subject  only  to  such  check,  how  effect- 
ive we  know  not,  which  the  citizens  of  Thersean  origin 
might  be  able  to  interpose — were  now  transferred  from  the 
prince  to  the  people,  that  is,  to  certain  individuals  or  as- 
semblies chosen  somehow  from  among  all  the  citizens. 
There  existed  at  Kyrene,  as  at  Thera  and  Sparta,  a  board 
of  Ephors,  and  a  band  of  three  hundred  armed  police,2 
analogous  to  those  who  were  called  the  Hippeis  or  Horse- 
men at  Sparta.  Whether  these  were  instituted  by  De- 
monax  we  do  not  know,  nor  does  the  identity  of  titular 
office,  in  different  states,  afford  safe  ground  for  inferring 
identity  of  power.  This  is  particularly  to  be  remarked 
with  regard  to  the  Perioaki  at  Kyrene,  who  were  perhaps 
more  analogous  to  the  Helots  than  to  the  Periceki  of 
Sparta.  The  fact  that  the  Perkeki  were  considered  in  the 
new  constitution  as  belonging  specially  to  the  Thersean 
branch  of  citizens,  shows  that  these  latter  still  continued 

1  Both  O.  Muller  (Dor.  b.  iii.  4,  thrownintotribes  at  all.  Some  for- 
6)  and  Thrige  (Hist.  Cyren.  o.  38.  mal  enactment  or  regulation  was 
p.  148)  speak  of  Dem&nax  as  having  necessary  for  this  purpose,  to  de- 
abolished  the  old  tribes  and  created  fine  and  sanction  that  religious, 
new  ones.  I  do  not  conceive  the  social,  and  political  communion 
change  in  this  manner.  Dem6nax  which  went  to  make  up  the  idea 
did  not  abolish  any  tribes,  but  of  the  Tribe.  It  is  not  to  be  as- 
distributed  for  the  first  time  the-  sumed,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that 
inhabitants  into  tribes.  It  is  pos-  there  must  necessarily  have  been 
sible  indeed  that  before  his  time  tribes  anterior  to  Dem&nax,  among 
the  Theraans  of  KyrenS  may  have  a  population  so  miscellaneous  in 
been  divided  among  themselves  its  origin. 

into  distinct  tribes;   but  the  other  2  Hesychius,  Tpiaxdc-not ;  Eustath. 

inhabitants,     having     immigrated  ad   Horn.  Odyss.  p.  303;   Heraklei- 

from   a   great   number   of  different  dSs  Pontic.  De  Polit.  c.  4. 
places,     had    never    before    been 


CHAP.  XXVII.  KYKENE  AND  BAEKA.-HESPEKIDES.  4G1 

a  privileged  order,  like  the  Patricians  with  their  Clients 
at  Rome  in  relation  to  the  Plebs. 

That  the  re-arrangement  introduced  by  Demonax  was 
wise,  consonant  to  the  general  current  of  Greek  „ 
feeling,  and  calculated  to  work  well,  there  is   gration-^"" 
good  reason  to  believe.     No  discontent  within   restoration 
would    have   subverted  it  without  the  aid   of  tiad  Arke-" 
extraneous  force.     Battus  the  Lame  acquiesced   S^*",8  the 
in  it  peaceably  during  his  Life;  but  his  widow 
and  his  son,  Pheretime  and  Arkesilaus,  raised   a  revolt 
after  his  death  and  tried  to  regain  by  force  the  kingly 
privileges   of  the  family.      They  were  worsted  and   ob- 
liged  to   flee — the   mother   to    Cyprus,   the   son   to    Sa- 
nios — where   both    employed    themselves    in    procuring 
foreign  arms  to   invade  and  conquer  Kyrene.      Though 
Pheretime   could  obtain  no  effective  aid  from  Euelthon 
prince  of  Salamis  in  Cyprus,  her  son  was  more  successful 
in  Samofc;,  by  inviting  new  Greek  settlers  to  Kyrene,  under 
promise  of  a  redistribution  of  the  land.     A  large  body  of 
emigrants  joined  him  on  this  proclamation;   the  period 
seemingly  being  favourable  to  it,  since  the  Ionian  cities 
had  not  long  before  become  subject  to  Persia,  and  were 
discontented  with  the  yoke.   But  before  he  conducted  this 
numerous  band  against  his  native  city,  he  thought  proper 
to   ask  the  advice  of  the  Delphian  oracle.      Success  in  the 
undertaking  was  promised  to  him,  but  modera-    Oracle 
tion  and  mercy  after  success  were  emphatically   lirnitingthe 

.    .        j  J  .         ,>  i       •         i  •      i-f  -i  j.i      T)    L      duration  of 

enjoined,  on  pain  ot  losing  his  life;  and  the  Bat-  the  Battiad 
tiud  race  was  declared  by  the  god  to  be  destined  dynasty, 
to  rule  at  Kyrene  for  eight  generations,  but  no  longer — as 
fur  as  four  princes  named  Battus  and  four  named  Arkesi- 
laus. !  "More  than  such  eight  generations  (said  the  Pythia), 
Apollo  forbids  the  Battiads  even  to  aim  at."  This  oracle 
v  as  doubtless  told  to  Herodotus  by  Kyrengean  informants 
•\vhen  he  visited  their  city  after  the  final  deposition  of 
Ihe  Battiad  princes,  which  took  place  in  the  person  of  the 
fourth  Arkesilaus,  between  460-450  B.C.;  the  invasion  of 
Kyrene  by  Arkesilaus  the  Third,  sixth  prince  of  the 
Battiad  race,  to  which  the  oracle  professed  to  refer,  having 
occurred  about  530  B.C.  The  words  placed  in  the  mouth 

1  Heroclot.  iv.  163.    'Enl  [xiv  TSU-      K.'jpr,vr,?-     irXeov   JASVTOI   TOUTOU    ouSi 
ospci;      BatTo'j?,      xctl      'ApxssiXsuK      imposfiat  rcotpatvesu 
TEJJSpoti;,  Si.5c<iU|jLtv  Ao;ir(4  3:<3t'-s'Jslv 


462  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  PAET  II. 

of  the  priestess  doubtless  date  from  the  later  of  these  two 
periods,  and  afford  a  specimen  of  the  way  in  which  pre- 
tended prophecies  are  not  only  made  up  by  ante-dating 
after-knowledge,  but  are  also  so  contrived  as  to  serve  a 
present  purpose;  for  the  distinct  prohibition  of  the  god 
"not  even  to  aim  at  a  longer  lineage  than  eight  Battiad 
princes,"  seems  plainly  intended  to  deter  the  partisans  of 
the  dethroned  family  from  endeavouring  to  reinstate  them. 

Arkesilaus  the  Third,  to  whom  this  prophecy  purports 
Violences  to  have  been  addressed,  returned  with  his 
at  Kyrgne-  mother  Pheretime  and  his  army  of  new  colonists 
kesiiaus1"  to  Kyrene.  He  was  strong  enough  to  carry  all 
the  Third,  before  him — to  expel  some  of  his  chief  opponents 
and  seize  upon  others,  whom  he  sent  to  Cyprus  to  be 
destroyed;  though  the  vessels  were  driven  out  of  their 
course  by  storms  to  the  peninsula  of  Knidus,  where  the 
inhabitants  rescued  the  prisoners  and  sent  them  to  Thera. 
Other  Kyrenaeans,  opposed  to  the  Battiads,  took  refuge 
in  a  lofty  private  tower,  the  property  of  Aglomachus, 
wherein  Arkesilaus  caused  them  all  to  be  burnt,  heaping 
wood  around  and  setting  it  on  fire.  But  after  this  career 
of  triumph  and  revenge,  he  became  conscious  that  he  had 
departed  from  the  mildness  enjoined  to  him  by  the  oracle, 
and  sought  to  avoid  the  punishment  which  it  had  threat- 
ened by  retiring  from  Kyrene.  At  any  rate  he  departed 
from  Kyrene  to  Barka,  to  the  residence  of  the  Barkaean 
prince  his  kinsman  Alazir,  whose  daughter  he  had  married. 
But  he  found  in  Barka  some  of  the  unfortunate  men  who 
had  fled  from  Kyrene  to  escape  him.  These  exiles,  aided 
by  a  few  Barkeeans,  watched  for  a  suitable  moment  to  assail 
him  in  the  market-place,  and  slew  him  together  with  his 
kinsman  the  prince  Alazir.1 

The  victory  of  Arkesilaus  at  Kyrene,  and  his  assas- 
Arkesiiaus  sination  at  Barka,  are  doubtless  real  facts.  But 
sends  his  they  seem  to  have  been  compressed  together 
tobKamby?  and  incorrectly  coloured,  in  order  to  give  to  the 
sSs  king  death  of  the  Kyrencean  prince  the  appearance 
of  Persia.  Qf  &  divine  judgement.  For  the  reign  of  Arke- 
silaus cannot  have  been  very  short,  since  events  of  the 
utmost  importance  occurred  within  it.  The  Persians  under 
Kambyses  conquered  Egypt,  and  both  the  Kyrensean  and 
the  Barksean  prince  sent  to  Memphis  to  make  their  sub- 

1  Herodot.  iv.  163— 1C4. 


CHAP.  XXVII.  KYKENE  AND  BAKKA.-HESPERIDES.  463 

mission  to  the  conqueror — offering  presents  and  imposing 
upon  themselves  an  annual  tribute.  These  presents  of  the 
Kyrenseans,  500  minae  of  silver,  were  considered  by  Kam- 
byses  so  contemptibly  small,  that  he  took  hold  of  them  at 
once  and  threw  them  among  his  soldiers.  And  at  the 
moment  when  Arkesilaus  died,  Aryandes,  the  Persian 
satrap  after  the  death  of  Kambyses,  is  found  established  in 
Egypt,  i 

During  the  absence  of  Arkesilaus  atBarka,  his  mother 
Pheretime  had  acted  as  regent,  taking  her  place   B.c.  517-513. 
at  the  discussions  in  the  senate.     But  when  his   Persian  ex- 
death  took  place,  and  the  feeling  against  the   Pediti°n 
Battiads    manifested  itself  strongly  at  Barka,    against 
she  did  not  feel  powerful  enough  to  put  it  down.   Barka— 

i  j.  a.     TI      '  T    •*.      •]   r  A  i  PheretimS 

and  went  to  Jigypt  to  solicit  aid  from  Aryandes.  mother  of 
The  satrap,  being  made  to  believe  that  Arkesi-  Arkesilaus. 
laus  had  met  his  death  in  consequence  of  steady  devotion 
to  the  Persians,  sent  a  herald  to  Barka  to  demand  the  men 
who  had  slain  him.  The  Barkseans  assumed  the  collective 
responsibility  of  the  act,  saying  that  he  had  done  them  in- 
juries both  numerous  and  severe — a  farther  proof  that  his 
reign  cannot  have  been  very  short.  On  receiving  this 
reply,  the  satrap  immediately  despatched  a  powerful  Persian 
armament,  laud-force  as  well  as  sea-force,  in  fulfilment  of 
the  designs  of  Pheretime  against  Barka.  They  besieged  the 
town  for  nine  months,  trying  to  storm,  to  batter,  and  to 
undermine  the  walls ; 2  but  their  efforts  were  vain,  and  it 
was  taken  at  last  only  by  an  act  of  the  grossest  perfidy. 
Pretending  to  relinquish  the  attempt  in  despair,  the  Persian 
general  concluded  a  treaty  with  the  Barkaeans,  wherein  it 
was  stipulated  that  the  latter  should  continue  to  pay  tribute 
to  the  Great  King,  but  that  the  army  should  retire  without 
farther  hostilities:  "I  swear  it  (said  the  Persian  general), 
and  my  oath  shall  hold  good,  as  long  as  this  earth  shall 
keep  its  place."  But  the  spot  on  which  the  oaths  were 
exchanged  had  been  fraudulently  prepared:  a  ditch  had 
been  excavated  and  covered  with  hurdles,  upon  which 
again  a  surface  of  earth  had  been  laid.  The  Barkfeans, 
confiding  in  the  oath,  and  overjoyed  at  their  liberation, 
immediately  opened  their  gates  and  relaxed  their  guard; 
while  the  Persians,  breaking  down  the  hurdles  and  letting 

1  Herodot.  iii.  13;  iv.  1G5— 116.  a  narrative  in  many  respects  cliffer- 

'2  Polyicnus  (Stratcg.  vii.  2;)  gives      cut    from  this  of  Herodotus. 


464  HIST  OB  Y  OF  GREECE.  PART  II. 

fall  the  superimposed  earth,  so  that  they  might  comply 
with  the  letter  of  their  oath,  assaulted  the  city  and  took  it 
without  difficulty. 

Miserable  was  the  fate  which  Pheretime  had  in  reserve 
Capture  of  for  these  entrapped  prisoners.  She  crucified 
Baifui  by  ^e  cn^ef  opponents  of  herself  and  her  late  son 
cruelty  of  around  the  walls,  on  which  were  also  affixed  the 
Pheretime.  breasts  of  their  wives:  then,  with  the  exception 
of  such  of  the  inhabitants  as  were  Battiads  and  noway  con- 
cerned in  the  death  of  Arkesilaus,  she  consigned  the  rest 
to  slavery  in  Persia.  They  were  carried  away  captive  into 
the  Persian  empire,  where  Darius  assigned  to  them  a  village 
in  Baktria  as  their  place  of  abode,  which  still  bore  the  name 
of  Barka,  even  in  the  days  of  Herodotus. 

During  the  course  of  this  expedition,  it  appears,  the 
Persian  army  advanced  as  far  as  Hesperides,  and  reduced 
many  of  the  Libyan  tribes  to  subjection.  These,  together 
with  Kyrene  and  Barka,  figure  afterwards  among  the 
tributaries  and  auxiliaries  of  Xerxes  in  his  expedition  against 
Greece.  And  when  the  army  returned  to  Egypt,  by  order 
of  Ariandes,  they  were  half  inclined  to  seize  Kyreue  itself 
in  their  way,  though  the  opportunity  was  missed  and  the 
purpose  left  unaccomplished. l 

Pheretime  accompanied  the  retreating  army  to  Egypt, 
where  she  died  shortly  of  a  loathsome  disease,  consumed 
by  worms;  thus  showing  (says  Herodotus2)  that  "excessive 
cruelty  in  revenge  brings  down  upon  men  the  displeasure 
of  the  gods."  It  will  be  recollected  that  in  the  veins  of 
this  savage  woman  the  Libyan  blood  was  intermixed 
with  the  Grecian.  In  Greece  Proper,  political  enmity 
kills — but  seldom,  if  ever,  mutilates — or  sheds  the  blood 
of  women. 

We  thus  leave  Kyrene  and  Barka  again  subject  to 
Eattus  the  Battiad  princes,  at  the  same  time  that  they  are 
Fourth  and  tributaries  of  Persia.  Another  Battus  and 
th^F^urtii  another  Arkesilaus  have  to  intervene  before 
—final  ex-  the  glass  of  this  worthless  dynasty  is  run  out, 
thnecdynas0ty  between  460-450  B.C.  I  shall  not  at  present  carry 
about  460-  the  reader's  attention  to  this  last  Arkesilaus, 
who  stands  honoured  by  two  chariot  victories 
in  Greece,  and  two  fine  odes  of  Pindar. 

1  Herodot.  iv.  203,  204.  *  Herodot.  iv.  205. 


CHAP.  XXVII.    KYEENE  AND  BABKA.-HESPEKIDES.  465 

Thevictory  of  the  third  Arkesilaus,  and  the  restoration 
of  the  Battiads,  broke  up  the  equitable  con-   conatitu- 
stitution  established  by  Demonax.     His  triple   ijon6of 
classification  into  tribes  must  have  been  com-   nordur- 
pletely  remodelled,  though  we  do  not  know  how;   able- 
for  the  number  of  new  colonists  whom  Arkesilaus  introduced 
must  have  necessitated  a  fresh  distribution  of  land,  and  it 
is  extremely  doubtful  whether  the  relation  of  the  Thersean 
class  of  citizens  with  their  Perioeki,  as  established  by  De- 
monax, still  continued  to  subsist.    It  is  necessary  to  notice 
this  fact,  because  the  arrangements  of  Demonax  are  spoken 
of  by  some  authors  as  if  they  formed  the  permanent  con- 
stitution of  Kyrene ;  whereas  they  cannot  have  outlived  the 
restoration  of  the  Battiads,  nor  can  they  even  have  been 
revived  after  that  dynasty  was  finally  expelled,  since  the 
number  of  new  citizens  and  the  large  change  of  property, 
introduced  by  Arkesilaus  the  Third,  would  render  them 
inapplicable  to  the  subsequent  city.  • 


VOL.  III.  2  H 


466  HISTOBY  OF  GBEECE.  PABT 


CHAPTER   XXVIII. 

PAN-HELLENIC  FESTIVALS— OLYMPIC,  PYTHIAN, 
NEMEAN,  AND  ISTHMIAN. 

IN  the  preceding  chapters  I  have  been  under  the  necessity 
of  presenting  to  the  reader  a  picture  altogether  incoherent 
and  destitute  of  central  effect.  I  have  specified  briefly  each 
of  the  two  or  three  hundred  towns  which  agreed  in  bearing 
the  Hellenic  name,  and  recounted  its  birth  and  early  life, 
as  far  as  our  evidence  goes — but  without  being  able  to 
point  out  any  action  and  reaction,  exploits  or  sufferings, 
prosperity  or  misfortune,  glory  or  disgrace,  common  to  all. 
„  f  To  a  great  degree,  this  is  a  characteristic  in- 
grouping  separable  from  the  history  of  Greece  from  its 
and  unity  beginning  to  its  end:  for  the  only  political  unity 

in  the  early        ,^  ,    .,  fc  .    '       .      .,          •',*     ,     ,  . , J 

period  which  it  ever  receives,  is  the  melancholy  unity 

of  Grecian  of  subjection  under  all-conquering  Rome.  No- 
thing short  of  force  will  efface  in  the  mind  of 
a  free  Greek  the  idea  of  his  city  as  an  autonomous  and 
separate  organization.  The  village  is  a  fraction,  but  the 
city  is  an  unit, — and  the  highest  of  all  political  units,  not 
admitting  of  being  consolidated  with  others  into  a  ten  or 
a  hundred,  to  the  sacrifice  of  its  own  separate  and  in- 
dividual mark.  Such  is  the  character  of  the  race,  both  in 
their  primitive  country  and  in  their  colonial  settlements 
— in  their  early  as  well  as  in  their  late  history — splitting 
by  natural  fracture  into  a  multitude  of  self-administering, 
indivisible,  cities.  But  that  which  marks  the  early  historical 
period  before  Peisistratus,  and  which  impresses  upon  it  an 
incoherence  at  once  so  fatiguing  and  so  irremediable,  is, 
that  as  yet  no  causes  have  arisen  to  counteract  this  political 
isolation.  Each  city,  whether  progressive  or  stationary, 
prudent  or  adventurous,  turbulent  or  tranquil,  follows  out 
its  own  thread  of  existence,  having  no  partnership  or  com- 
mon purposes  with  the  rest,  nor  being  yet  constrained  into 
any  active  communion  with  them  by  extraneous  forces.  In 
likemanner,  the  races  which  on  every  side  surround  the 


XXVIII.          PAN-HELLENIC  FESTIVALS.  467 

Hellenic  world  appear  distinct  and  unconnected,  not  yet 
taken  up  into  any  co-operating  mass  or  system. 

Contemporaneously  with  the  accession  of  Peisistratus, 
this  state  of  things  becomes  altered  both  in  and  out  of 
Hellas — the  former  as  a  consequence  of  the  latter.  For  at 
that  time  begins  the  formation  of  the  great  Persian  empire, 
which  absorbs  into  itself  not  only  Upper  Asia  and  Asia 
Minor,  but  also  Phenicia,  Egypt,  Thrace,  Macedonia,  and 
a  considerable  number  of  the  Grecian  cities  themselves; 
while  the  common  danger,  from  this  vast  aggregate, 
threatening  the  greater  states  of  Greece  Proper,  drives 
them,  in  spite  of  great  reluctance  and  jealousy,  into  active 
union.  Hence  arises  a  new  impulse,  counter-  New  causeg 
working  the  natural  tendency  to  political  isola-  tending  to 
tion  in  the  Hellenic  cities,  and  centralising  their  ^nion 
proceedings  to  a  certain  extent  for  the  two  cen-  begin  after 
turies  succeeding  6  5  0  B.C.  ;  Athens  and  Sparta  both  leneralwar 
availing  themselves  of  the  centralising  tendencies  between 
which  had  grown  out  of  the  Persian  war.  But  ™.  a£*own 
during  the  interval  between  776-560  B.C.,  no  to  Thucy- 
Buch  tendency  can  be  traced  even  in  commence-  did§s- 
ment,  nor  any  constraining  force  calculated  to  bring  it 
about.  Even  Thucydides,  as  we  may  see  by  his  excellent 
preface,  knew  of  nothing  during  these  two  centuries  except 
separate  city-politics  and  occasional  wars  between  neigh- 
bours. The  only  event,  according  to  him,  in  which  any 
considerable  number  of  Grecian  cities  were  jointly  con- 
cerned, was  the  war  between  Chalkis  and  Eretria,  the  date 
of  which  we  do  not  know.  In  that  war,  several  cities  took 
part  as  allies;  Samos,  among  others,  with  Eretria — Miletus 
with  Chalkis:1  how  far  the  alliances  of  either  may  have 
extended,  we  have  no  evidence  to  inform  us,  but  the  pre- 
sumption is  that  no  great  number  of  Grecian  cities  was 
comprehended  in  them.  Such  as  it  was,  however,  this  war 
between  Chalkis  and  Eretria  was  the  nearest  approach, 
and  the  only  approach,  to  a  Pan-Hellenic  proceeding,  which 
Thucydides  indicates  between  the  Trojan  and  the  Persian 
wars.  Both  he  and  Herodotus  present  this  early  period 
only  by  way  of  preface  and  contrast  to  that  which  follows 
—when  the  Pan-Hellenic  spirit  and  tendencies,  though 
never  at  any  time  predominant,  yet  counted  for  a  powerful 
element  in  history,  and  sensibly  modified  the  universal 

1  Thucyd.  i.  15. 

2  II  2 


468  HISTORY  OP  GKEECE.  PART  II. 

instinct  of  city-isolation.  They  tell  us  little  about  itr 
either  because  they  could  find  no  trustworthy  informants, 
or  because  there  was  nothing  in  it  to  captivate  the  imagi- 
nation in  the  same  manner  as  the  Persian  or  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  wars.  From  whatever  cause  their  silence  arises,  it 
is  deeply  to  be  regretted,  since  the  phenomena  of  the  two 
centuries  from  776-560  B.C.,  though  not  susceptible  of  any 
central  grouping,  must  have  presented  the  most  instructive 
matter  for  study,  had  they  been  preserved.  In  no  period 
of  history  have  there  ever  been  formed  a  greater  number 
of  new  political  communities,  under  much  variety  of  cir- 
cumstances, personal  as  well  as  local.  A  few  chronicles, 
however  destitute  of  philosophy,  reporting  the  exact 
march  of  some  of  these  colonies  from  their  commencement 
— amidst  all  the  difficulties  attendant  on  amalgamation 
with  strange  natives,  as  well  as  on  a  fresh  distribution  of 
land — would  have  added  greatly  to  our  knowledge  both  of 
Greek  character  and  Greek  social  existence. 

Taking  the  two  centuries  now  under  review,  then,  it 
will  appear   that  there  is  not  only  no  growing 

Increasing  T,-\        •,  .i/~i  ,    .   °     -i     ±_  ° 

disposition  political  unity  among  the  Grecian  states,  but  a 

to  reii-  tendency  even  to  the  contrary — to  dissemination 

teiieetuai  and  mutual  estrangement.    Not  so,  however,  in 

and  social  regard  to  the  other  feelings  of  unity  capable  of 

union.  ?    .   , .        ,     ,  i  i    j 

subsisting  between  men  wno  acknowledge  no 
common  political  authority — sympathies  founded  on  com- 
mon religion,  language,  belief  of  race,  legends,  tastes  and 
customs,  intellectual  appetencies,  sense  of  proportion  and 
artistic  excellence,  recreative  enjoyments,  &c.  On  all 
these  points,  the  manifestations  of  Hellenic  unity  become 
more  and  more  pronounced  and  comprehensive,  in  spite  of 
increased  political  dissemination,  throughout  the  same 
period.  The  breadth  of  common  sentiment  and  sympathy 
between  Greek  and  Greek,  together  with  the  conception 
of  multitudinous  periodical  meetings  as  an  indispensable 
portion  of  existence,  appears  decidedly  greater  in  560  B.C. 
than  it  had  been  a  century  before.  It  was  fostered  by  the 
increased  conviction  of  the  superiority  of  Greeks  as  com- 
pared with  foreigners — a  conviction  gradually  more  and 
more  justified  as  Grecian  art  and  intellect  improved,  and 
as  the  survey  of  foreign  countries  became  extended — as 
well  as  by  the  many  new  efforts  of  men  of  genius  in  the 
fiuid  of  music,  poetry,  statuary,  and  architecture;  each  of 


CHAP.  XXVIII.  PAN-HELLENIC  FESTIVALS.  469 

whom  touched  chords  of  feeling,  belonging  to  other  Greeks 
hardly  less  than  to  his  own  peculiar  city.  At  the  same 
time,  the  life  of  each  peculiar  city  continues  distinct,  and 
even  gathers  to  itself  a  greater  abundance  of  facts  and 
internal  interests;  so  that  during  the  two  centuries  now 
under  review  there  was  in  the  mind  of  every  Greek  an 
increase  both  of  the  city-feeling  and  of  the  Pan-Hellenic 
feeling,  but  on  the  other  hand  a  decline  of  the  old  senti- 
ment of  separate  race — Doric,  Ionic,  JEolic. 

I  have  already,  in  my  former  volume,  touched  upon 
the  many-sided  character  of  the  Grecian  religion,   _ 

L      •  -i.    j-j     •    j.        n  i.i  •  1     Reciprocal 

entering  as  it  did  into  all  the  enjoyments  and   admission 
sufferings,  the   hopes  and  fears,   the   affections   f£  citie.s  to 
and  antipathies  of  the  people — not  simply  im-    gious  festl- 

posing  restraints  and  obligations,  but  protecting,   vals  of , 

•\L-   i    •  i   j-         -c  •         11  i.T-  -11         each  other, 

multiplying  and  diversifying  all  the  social  plea- 
sures and  all  the  decorations  of  existence.  Each  city  and 
even  each  village  had  its  peculiar  religious  festivals, 
wherein  the  sacrifices  to  the  gods  were  usually  followed 
by  public  recreations  of  one  kind  or  other — by  feasting  on 
the  victims,  processional  marches,  singing  and  dancing,  or 
competition  in  strong  and  active  exercises.  The  festival 
was  originally  local,  but  friendship  or  communion  of  race 
was  shown  by  inviting  others,  non-residents,  to  partake  in 
its  attractions.  In  the  case  of  a  colony  and  its  metropolis, 
it  was  a  frequent  practice  that  citizens  of  the  metropolis 
were  honoured  with  a  privileged  seat  at  the  festivals  of 
the  colony,  or  that  one  of  their  number  was  presented  with 
the  first  taste  of  the  sacrificial  victim.1  Reciprocal  fre- 
quentation  of  religious  festivals  was  thus  the  standing 
evidence  of  friendship  and  fraternity  among  cities  not 
politically  united.  That  it  must  have  existed  to  a  certain 
degree  from  the  earliest  days,  there  can  be  no  reasonable 
doubt;  though  in  Homer  and  Hesiod  we  find  only  the 
celebration  of  funeral  games,  by  a  chief  at  his  own  private 
expense,  in  honour  of  his  deceased  father  or  friend — with 

1  Thucyd.  i.  20.     See   the    tale  in  of  them  perished  in  crossing.    For 

Pausanias  (v.  25,  1)  of  the  ancient  the    Theory    (or    solemn   religious 

chorus  sent  annually  from  Messenfi  deputation)    periodically    sent    by 

in  Sicily  across   the  strait  to  Ehe-  the  Athenians    to   Delos,    see  Plu- 

gium,    to    a    local   festival    of   the  tarch,  Xicias,  c.  3;  Plato,  Phoedon, 

Khegians— thirty-five    hoys    with  a  c.  1.  p.  58.     Compare    also    Strabo, 

chorus-master    and   a   flute-player:  ix.  p.  419,  on  the  general  subject. 
on  one    unfortunate    occasion,    all 


470  HISTOBY  OF  GREECE.  PAET  II, 

all  the  accompanying  recreations,  however,  of  a  public 
festival,  and  with  strangers  not  only  present,  but  also 
contending  for  valuable  prizes.1  Passing  to  historical 
Greece  during  the  seventh  century  B.C.,  we  find  evidence 
of  two  festivals,  even  then  very  considerable,  and  frequent- 
ed by  .Greeks  from  many  different  cities  and  districts — the 
festival  at  Delos,  in  honour  of  Apollo,  the  great  place  of 
meeting  for  lonians  throughout  the  uEgean — and  the 
Olympic  games. 

The  Homeric  Hymn  to  the  Delian  Apollo,  which 
must  be  placed  earlier  than  600  B.  c.,  dwells  with  emphasis 
Eariy  on .  the  splendour  of  the  Delian  festival,  un- 

spiendour  rivalled  throughout  Greece,  as  it  would  appear, 
festival™10  during  all  the  first  period  of  this  history,  for 
at  Deioa—  wealth,  finery  of  attire,  and  variety  of  exhibi- 
clme<  tions  as  well  in  poetical  genius  as  in  bodily 
activity2 — equalling  probably  at  that  time,  if  not  surpass- 
ing, the  Olympic  games.  The  complete  and  undiminished 
grandeur  of  this  Delian  Pan-Ionic  festival  is  one  of  our 
chief  marks  of  the  first  period  of  Grecian  history,  before 
the  comparative  prostration  of  the  Ionic  Greeks  through 
the  rise  of  Persia.  It  was  celebrated  periodically  in 
every  fourth  year,  to  the  honour  of  Apollo  and  Artemis. 
Moreover  it  was  distinguished  from  the  Olympic  games 
by  two  circumstances  both  deserving  of  notice — first,  by 
including  solemn  matches  not  only  of  gymnastic,  but  also 
of  musical  and  poetical  excellence,  whereas  the  latter  had 
no  place  at  Olympia;  secondly,  by  the  admission  of  men, 
women  and  children  indiscriminately  as  spectators,  whereas 
women  were  formally  excluded  from  the  Olympic  ceremony.5 
Such  exclusion  may  have  depended  in  part  on  the  inland 
situation  of  Olympia,  less  easily  approachable  by  females 
than  the  island  of  Delos;  but  even  making  allowance  for 
this  circumstance,  both  the  one  distinction  and  the  other 
mark  the  rougher  character  of  the  -lEtolo-Dorians  in 
Peloponnesus.  The  Delian  festival,  which  greatly  dwindled 
away  during  the  subjection  of  the  Asiatic  and  insular 

1  Homer,    Iliad,    xi.    879.   xxiii.  sus,  and  the  festival  called  Ephesia, 
679;  Hesiod,  Opp.  Di.  651.  had    become    the     great    place     of 

2  Homer.      Hymn.     Apoll.     160  j  Ionic    meeting,     the     presence    of 
Thucyd.  iii.  104.  women  was  still  continued  (Dionys. 

*  Pausan.  v.  6,   5;    .Elian,  N.  H.     Hal.  A.  K.  iv.  25). 
x.  1 ;  Thucyd.  iii.  104.  When  Ephe- 


CHAP.  XXVIII.  PAN-HELLENIC  FESTIVALS.  471 

Greeks  to  Persia,  was  revived  afterwards  by  Athens  during 
the  period  of  her  empire,  when  she  was  seeking  in  every 
way  to  strengthen  her  central  ascendency  in  the  JEgean. 
But  though  it  continued  to  be  ostentatiously  celebrated 
under  her  management,  it  never  regained  that  command- 
ing sanctity  and  crowded  frequentation  which  we  find 
attested  in  the  Homeric  Hymn  to  Apollo  for  its  earlier 
period. 

Very  different  was  the  fate  of  the  Olympic  festival — 
on  the  banks  of  the  Alpheius l  in  Peloponnesus, 
near  the  old  oracular  temple  of  the  Olympian   game?-? 

Zeus — which  not  only  grew  up  uninterruptedly   *h?ir  celf- 
f  n  i,      •  i     ru  •  £-0          brity  and 

irom  small  beginnings  to  the  maximum  of  Pan-  iong  con- 
Hellenic  importance,  but  even  preserved  its  trance, 
crowds  of  visitors  and  its  celebrity  for  many  centuries  after 
the  extinction  of  Greek  freedom,  and  only  received  its  final 
abolition,  after  more  than  1 100  years  of  continuance,  from 
the  decree  of  the  Christian  emperor  Theodosius  in  394  A.D. 
I  have  already  recounted  in  the  preceding  volume  of  this 
History,  the  attempt  made  by  Pheidon,  despot  of  Argos, 
to  restore  to  the  Pisatans,  or  to  acquire  for  himself,  the 
administration  of  this  festival — an  event  which  proves  the 
importance  of  the  festival  in  Peloponnesus,  even  so  early 
as  740  B.C.  At  that  time,  and  for  some  years  afterwards, 
it  seems  to  have  been  frequented  chiefly,  if  not  exclusively, 
by  the  neighbouring  inhabitants  of  Central  and  Western 
Peloponnesus — Spartans,  Messenians,  Arkadians,  Triphy- 
lians,  Pisatans,  Eleians,  and  Achseans2 — and  it  forms  an 
important  link  connecting  the  ^Etolo-Eleians,  and  their 
privileges  as  Agonothets,  to  solemnise  and  preside  over  it, 
with  Sparta.  IVom  the  year  720  B.C.,  we  trace  positive 
evidences  of  the  gradual  presence  of  more  distant  Greeks 
— Corinthians,  Megarians,  Bosotians,  Athenians,  and  even 
Smyrnoeans  from  Asia.  We  observe  also  other  proofs  of 
growing  importance,  in  the  increased  number  and  variety 
of  matches  exhibited  to  the  spectators,  and  in  the  sub- 
stitution of  the  simple  crown  of  olive,  an  honorary  reward, 
in  place  of  the  more  substantial  present  which  the  Olympic 
festival  and  all  other  Grecian  festivals  began  by  conferring 
upon  the  victor.  The  humble  constitution  of  the  Olympic 

1  Strabo,  viii.  p.  353;  Pindar,  *  See  K.  F.  Hermann,  Lphrbuch 
Olymp.  viii.  2;  Xenophoii,  Hellen.  der  Griecliiachen  Staats-Alterthii- 
iv.  7,  2  ;  iii.  2,  22.  mer  sect.  10. 


472  HISTORY  OF  GBEECE.  PAST  II. 

games  presented  originally  nothing  more  than  a  match  of 
runners  in  the  measured  course  called  the  Stadium.  A 
continuous  series  of  the  victorious  runners  was  formally  in- 
scribed and  preserved  by  the  Eleians,  beginning  with  Ko- 
rcebus  in  776  B.C.,  and  was  made  to  serve  by  chronological 
inquirers  from  the  third  century  B.C.  downwards,  as  a  means 
of  measuring  the  chronological  sequence  of  Grecian  events. 
It  was  on  the  occasion  of  the  seventh  Olympiad  after  Ko- 
roebus  that  Daikles  the  Messenian  first  received  for  his 
victory  in  the  stadium  no  farther  recompense  than  a  wreath 
from  the  sacred  olive-tree  near  Olympia:1  the  honour  of 
being  proclaimed  victor  was  found  sufficient,  without  any 
pecuniary  addition.  But  until  the  fourteenth  Olympiad 
(724  B.C.)  there  was  no  other  match  for  the  spectators  to 
witness  besides  that  of  simple  runners  in  the  stadium.  On 
that  occasion  a  second  race  was  first  introduced,  of  runners 
in  the  double  stadium,  or  up  and  down  the  course. 
duaUif-1  In  the  next  or  fifteenth  Olympiad  (720  B.C.)  a 
crease—  third  match,  the  long  course  for  runners,  or 
es  7n^a  "  several  times  up  and  down  the  stadium.  There 
troduced.  were  thus  three  races — the  simple  Stadium,  the 
double  Stadium  orDiaulos,  and  the  long  course  orDolichos, 
all  for  runners — which  continued  without  addition  until 
the  eighteenth  Olympiad,  when  the  wrestling-match  and 
the  complicated  Pentathlon  (including  jumping,  running, 
the  quoit,  the  javelin,  and  wrestling)  were  both  added.  A 
farther  novelty  appears  in  the  twenty- third  Olympiad  (6 88 
B.C.),  the  boxing-match;  and  another  still  more  important 
in  the  twenty-fifth  (680  B.C.),  the  chariot  with  four  full- 
grown  horses.  This  last-mentioned  addition  is  deserving 
of  special  notice,  not  merely  as  it  diversified  the  scene  l>y 
the  introduction  of  horses,  but  also  as  it  brought  in  a  totally 
new  class  of  competitors — rich  men  and  women,  who  possess- 
ed the  finest  horses  and  could  hire  the  most  skilful  drivers, 
without  any  personal  superiority  or  power  of  bodily  display 
in  themselves.2  The  prodigious  exhibition  of  wealth  in 

1  Dionys.  Halikarn.  Ant.  Bom.  i.  viii.  26.  Compare  the  Scholia  on 
71;  Phlegon,  Be  Olympiad,  p.  140.  Pindar,  Nem.  and  Isthm.  Argument, 
For  an  illustration  of  the  stress  p.  425—514,  ed.  Boeckh. 
laid  by  the  Greeks  on  the  purely  z  See  the  sentiment  of  Agesilaus, 
honorary  rewards  of  Olympia,  and  somewhat  contemptuous,  respect- 
on  the  credit  which  they  took  to  ing  the  chariot-race,  as  described 
themselves  as  competitors,  not  for  by  Xenophon  (Agesilaus,  ix.  6) : 
money,  but  for  glory,  see  Herodot.  the  general  feeling  of  Greece, 


CHAP.  XXVIII.         PAN-HELLENIC  FESTIVALS.  473 

which  the  chariot  proprietors  indulged,  is  not  only  an 
evidence  of  growing  importance  in  the  Olympic  games,  but 
also  served  materially  to  increase  that  importance  and  to 
heighten  the  interest  of  spectators.  Two  farther  matches 
were  added  in  the  thirty-third  Olympiad  (648  B.C.) — the 
Pankration,  or  boxing  and  wrestling  conjoined,1  with  the 
hand  unarmed  or  divested  of  that  hard  leather  cestus2worn 
by  the  pugilist,  which  rendered  the  blow  of  the  latter  more 
terrible,  but  at  the  same  time  prevented  him  from  grasping 
or  keeping  hold  of  his  adversary — and  the  single  race-horse. 
Many  other  novelties  were  introduced  one  after  the  other, 
which  it  is  unnecessary  fully  to  enumerate — the  race  be- 
tween men  clothed  in  full  panoply  and  bearing  each  his 
shield — the  different  matches  between  boys,  analogous  to 
those  between  full-grown  men,  and  between  colts  of  the 
same  nature  as  between  full-grown  horses.  At  the  maximum 
of  its  attraction  the  Olympic  solemnity  occupied  five  days, 
but  until  the  seventy-seventh  Olympiad,  all  the  various 
matches  had  been  compressed  into  one — beginning  at  day- 
break and  not  always  closing  before  dark.3  The  seventy- 
seventh  Olympiad  follows  immediately  after  the  successful 
expulsion  of  the  Persian  invaders  from  Greece,  when  the 

however,    is    more    in    conformity  is   the    Latin   word    (Virg.  .33n.  v. 

with  what  Thucydidfis  (vi.  16)  puts  404):   the  Greek  word  XSUTO?  is  an 

into  the  inouth  of  Alkibiades,  and  adjective    annexed   to  i[A<ki; — xsatov 

Xenophon  into   that   of  Simonid<5s  ifiavroc— noXuxsaTo?  t|j.a<;  (Iliad,  xiv. 

(Xenophon,     Hiero,     xi.   5).      The  214.  iii.  371).     Seo  Pausan.  viii.  40, 

great  respect  attached  to  a  family  3,  for  the  description  of  the   inci- 

which  had  gained  chariot  victories  dent  which  caused  an  alteration  in 

is  amply  attested :  see  Herodot.  vi.  this  hand-covering  at  the  Nemean 

35,  3f>,  103,  126 — 01x17)  -E9pizi:oTp6<po«  games:     ultimately     it     was     still 

— ami  vi.  70,  about  Demaratus  king  farther   hardened   by   the  addition 

of  Sparta.  of  iron. 

1  Autholog.  Palatin.  ix.  588;  vol.         *  'AiQXiov   7CE|j.icap.ipoui;   dfxlXXoc? — 

ii.  p.  2'J9,  Jacobs.  Pindar,     Olymp.    v.     6:     compare 

4  The    original   Greek  word    for  Schol.  ad  Pindar.  Olymp.  iii.  33. 
this    covering    (which    surrounded         See     the     facts     respecting    tha 

the  middle  hand  and  upper  portion  Olympic  Agon  collected  by  Corsini 

of  the   fingers,   leaving    both    the  (Dissertationes  Agonisticir, Dissert, 

ends  of  the  fingers  and  the  thumb  i.  sect.  8,9, 10),  and  still  more  amply 

exposed)  was  ijj.a<;,  the  word  for  a  set  forth,  with  a  valuable  commen- 

thong,  strap,   or  whip,   of  leather:  tary,    by    Krauso    (Olympia,    oder 

the  special  word  (xupjir^  seems   to  Darstellung   der    grossen    Olympi- 

havo    been    afterwards    introduced  sclien  Spiele,  Wien  1838,  sect.  8-11 

(Hesychius,   v.  ll(iic):   see  Homer,  especially). 
Iliad,  xxiii.  686.  Cestus,  or  Cocatus, 


474  HISTOKY  OF  GREECE.  PART  n, 

Pan-Hellenic  feeling  had  been  keenly  stimulated  by  resist- 
ance to  a  common  enemy;  and  we  may  easily  conceive  that 
this  was  a  suitable  moment  for  imparting  additional  dignity 
to  the  chief  national  festival. 

We  are  thus  enabled  partially  to  trace  the  steps 
Olympic  whereby,  during  the  two  centuries  succeeding 
festival—  776  B.C.,  the  festival  of  the  Olympic  Zeus  in  the 
•which'pass-  Pisatid  gradually  passed  from  a  local  toa  national 
es  from  character,  and  acquired  an  attractive  force  capable 
a  Pan-  *  °f  bringing  together  into  temporary  union  the 
Hellenic  dispersed  fragments  of  Hellas,  from  Marseilles 

ter>  to  Trebizond.  In  this  important  function  it  did 
not  long  stand  alone.  During  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  three 
other  festivals,  at  first  local,  become  successively  national- 
ised— the  Pythia  near  Delphi,  the  Isthmia  near  Corinth, 
the  Nemea  near  Kleone,  between  Sikyon  and  Argos. 

In  regard  to  the  Pythian  festival,  we  find  a  short  notice 
Pythian  °^  ^ue  particular  incidents  and  individuals  by 
games  or  whom  its  reconstitution  and  enlargement  were 
festival.  brought  about — a  notice  the  more  interesting, 
inasmuch  as  these  very  incidents  are  themselves  a  mani- 
festation of  something  like  Pan-Hellenic  patriotism,  stand- 
ing almost  alone  in  an  age  which  presents  little  else  in 
operation  except  distinct  city-interests.  At  the  time  when 
Early  state  ^ne  Homeric  Hymn  to  the  Delphinian  Apollo 
and  site  of  was  composed  (probably  in  the  seventh  century 
Delphi.  B.C.),  the  Pythian  festival  had  as  yet  acquired 
little  eminence.  The  rich  and  holy  temple  of  Apollo  was 
then  purely  oracular,  established  for  the  purpose  of  com- 
municating to  pious  inquirers  "the  counsels  of  the  Immor- 
tals." Multitudes  of  visitors  came  to  consult  it,  as  well  as 
to  sacrifice  victims  and  to  deposit  costly  offerings;  but 
while  the  god  delighted  in  the  sound  of  the  harp  as  an 
accompaniment  to  the  singing  of  Paeans,  he  was  by  no 
means  anxious  to  encourage  horse-races  and  chariot-races 
in  the  neighbourhood.  Nay,  this  psalmist  considers  that 
the  noise  of  horses  would  be  "a  nuisance," — the  drinking 
of  mules  a  desecration  to  the  sacred  fountains — and  the 
ostentation  of  fine-built  chariots  objectionable,1  as  tending 
to  divert  the  attention  of  spectators  away  from  the  great 

1  Horn.  Hymn.  Apoll.  262. 

nr^otvisv    o"     alei     XTUTCO;     IKTICOV          'ApSijASvol    T'     oip^s?    £[A<I>v    Upwv 
tbxsiexiov,  duo  rTjTfscuv' 


CHAP.  XXVIII.         PAN-HELLENIC  FESTIVALS.  475 

temple  and  its  wealth.  From  such  inconveniences  the  god 
was  protected  by  placing  his  sanctuary  "in  the  rocky  Pytho" 
— a  rugged  and  uneven  recess,  of  no  great  dimensions, 
embosomed  in  the  southern  declivity  of  Parnassus,  and 
about  2000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  while  the  topmost 
Parnassian  summits  reach  a  height  of  near  8000  feet.  The 
situation  was  extremely  imposing,  but  unsuited  by  nature 
for  the  congregation  of  any  considerable  number  of  spec- 
tators— altogether  impracticable  for  chariot-races — and 
only  rendered  practicable  by  later  art  and  outlay  for  the 
theatre  as  well  as  for  the  stadium;  the  original  stadium, 
when  first  established,  was  placed  in  the  plain  beneath. 
Such  a  site  furnished  little  means  of  subsistence,  but  the 
sacrifices  and  presents  of  visitors  enabled  the  ministers  of 
the  temple  to  live  in  abundance,1  and  gathered  together 
by  degrees  a  village  around  it. 

Near  the  sanctuary  of  Pytho,   and  about  the  same 
altitude,  was  situated  the  ancient  Phokian  town  phokian 
of  Krissa,  on  a  projecting  spur  of  Parnassus —   town  of 
overhung  above  by  the  line  of  rocky  precipice   :KrlS3a' 
called  the  Phsedriades,  and  itself  overhanging  below  the  deep 
ravine  through  which  flows  the  river  Peistus.    On  the  other 
side  of  this  river  rises  the  steep  mountain  Kirphis,  which 
projects  southward  into  the  Corinthian  Gulf — the  river 
reaching  that  gulf  through  the  broad  Krissaean,  or  Kir- 
rhsean,  plain,  which  stretches  westward  nearly  to  theLokrian 
town  of  Amphissa;  a  plain  for  the  most  part  fertile  and 
productive,  though  least  so  in  its  eastern  part  immediately 

*Ev8a    TK     d^Qpibiituv     pouX^aeTai  verger    of   his    Delphian     temple, 

eloopdaoSai  who  waters  it    from  the  Kastalian 

ApjiaTa  t"  £>j7:olT,Ta  xal  WXOTCGGCJJV  spring,     sweeps     it     with     laurel 

XTUITOV  Tirnwv,  boughs,    and    keeps    off    with    his 

*H  vr,6v  TE  (Ufay  xal  XTr,|A3tTa  rciXX'  bow     and     arrows    the     obtrusive 

ivsovT*.  birds  (Ion,  105,  143,  151).  Whoever 

Also  v.  2-8-394.     fi}4.\{av   6116   Hotp-  reads  the  description   of  Professor 

vf,3oio — 4,85.    6716  TCTU^I  IIoipvT,30io —  Ulrichs    (Keiaen  und  Forschungen 

Pindar,     Pyth.     viii.    90.      Il'/Jom?  '  in  Griechenland,  ch.  7.  p.  110)  will 

ev  YudiXot?— Strabo,   ix.  p.  418.     ne-  see  that  thebirda — eagles,  vultures, 

tptu$s«  /toplov   xocl  8*«TpoetS4; — He-  and     crows— are    quite     numerous 

liodorus,  JEthiop.  ii.    26:    compare  enough  to   have  been  exceedingly 

Will.  Gb'tto,  Das  Delphische  Orakel  troublesome.     The    whole   play   of 

(Leipzig  1839),  p.  39-42.  Ion  conveys  a   lively   idea    of   the 

1  Bu>|xoi  |JL'  IipeppoV)  ouziibv  t'  Asl  Delphian   temple    and    its  scenery, 

£|MO;,  says  Ion  (in  Euripides,  Ion,  with  which  Euripides  wasdoubtless 

334)  the  slave    of  Apollo,    and  the  familiar. 


476 


HISTOBY  OF  GEEECE. 


PART 


under  the  Kirphis,  where  the  seaport  Kirrha  was  placed.  1 
The  temple,  the  oracle,  and  the  wealth  of  Pytho,  belong  to 
the  very  earliest  periods  of  Grecian  antiquity.  But  the 
octennial  solemnity  in  honour  of  the  god  included  at  first 
no  other  competition  except  that  of  bards,  who  sang  each 
a  paean  with  the  harp.  It  has  been  already  mentioned,  in 
my  preceding  volume,  that  the  Amphiktyonic  assembly 
held  one  of  its  half-yearly  meetings  near  the  temple  of 
Pytho,  the  other  at  Thermopylae.  >j 

In  those  early  times  when  the  Homeric  Hymn  to  Apollo 
Kirrha  the  was  comP°sed,  the  town  of  Krissa  appears  to 
sea-port  of  have  been  great  and  powerful,  possessing  all 
Krissa.  ^e  "b^ad  plain  between  Parnassus,  Kirphis,  and 
the  gulf,  to  which  latter  it  gave  its  name — and  possessing 
also,  what  was  a  property  not  less  valuable,  the  adjoining 
sanctuary  of  Pytho  itself,  which  the  Hymn  identifies  with 
Krissa,  not  indicating  Delphi  as  a  separate  place.  The 


1  There  is  considerable  perplexity 
respecting  Krissa  and  Kirrha,  and 
it  still  remains  a  question  among 
scholars  whether  the  two  names 
denote  the  same  place,  or  different 
places  ;  the  former  is  the  opinion 
of  O.  Miiller  (Orchomenos,  p.  495). 
Strabo  distinguishes  the  two,  Pau- 
eanias  identifies  them,  conceiving 
no  other  town  to  have  ever  existed 
except  the  seaport  (x.  37,  4).  Man- 
nert  (Geogr.  d.  Gr.  u.  Rom.  viii.p.148) 
followsStrabo,  and  represents  them 
different. 

I  consider  the  latter  to  be  the 
correct  opinion;  upon  the  grounds, 
and  partly  also  on  the  careful  to- 
pographical examination,  of  Pro- 
fessor Ulrichs,  who  gives  an  ex- 
cellent account  of  the  whole  sce- 
nery of  Delphi  (Reisen  und  For- 
schungen  in  Griechenland,  Bremen 
1840,  chapters  1,  2,  3).  The  ruins 
described  by  him  on  the  high 
ground  near  Kastri,  called  the 
Forty  Saints,  may  fairly  be  con- 
sidered as  the  ruins  of  Krissa ;  the 
ruins  of  Kirrha  are  on  the  sea- 
shore near  the  mouth  ofthoPleis- 
tus.  The  plain  beneath  might 


without  impropriety  be  called  e  ither 
theKrissxan  or  the  Kirrhsean  plain 
(Herodot.  viii.  32;  Strabo,  ix.  p. 
419).  Though  Strabo  was  right  in 
distinguishing  Krissa  from  Kirrha, 
and  right  also  in  the  position  of 
the  latter  under  Kirphis,  he  con- 
ceived incorrectly  the  situation  of 
Krissa ;  and  his  representation  that 
there  were  two  wars— in  the  first 
of  which,  Kirrha  was  destroyed  by 
the  Krissseans,  while  in  the  second, 
Krissa  itself  was  conquered  by  the 
Amphiktyons — is  not  confirmed  by 
any  other  authority. 

The  mere  circumstance  that  Pin- 
dar gives  us  in  three  separate  pas- 
sages, Kplja,  Kpiaotov,  Kpiaotioi? 
(Isth.  ii.  26 ;  Pyth.  v.  49,  vi.  18), 
and  in  five  other  passages,  Klfipa, 
Klppae,  Klppaflev  (Pyth.  iii.  33,  vii. 
14,  viii.  26,  x.  24,  xi.  20),  renders  it 
almost  certain  that  the  two  names 
belong  to  different  places,  and 
are  not  merely  two  different  names 
for  the  same  place;  the  poet  could 
not  in  this  case  have  any  metri- 
cal reason  for  varying  the  deno- 
mination, as  the  metre  of  the  two 
words  is  similar. 


CHAP.  XXVIII.         PAN-HELLENIC  FESTIVALS.  477 

Krissaeans  doubtless  derived  great  profits  from  the  number 
of  visitors  who  came  to  visit  Delphi,  both  by  land  and  by 
sea,  and  Kirrha  was  originally  only  the  name  for  their  sea- 
port. Gradually,  however,  the  port  appears  to  have  grown 
in  importance  at  the  expense  of  the  town,  just  as  Apollonia 
and  Ptolemais  came  to  equal  Kyrene  and  Barka,  and  as 
Plymouth  Dock  has  swelled  into  Devonport;  while  at  the 
same  time  the  sanctuary  of  Pytho  with  its  administrators 
expanded  into  the  town  of  Delphi,  and  came  to  claim  an 
independent  existence  of  its  own.  The  original  relations 
between  Krissa,  Kirrha,  and  Delphi,  were  in  this  manner 
at  length  subverted,  the  first  declining  and  the  Growth  of 
two  latter  rising.  The  Krissaeans  found  them-  £j^"_and 
selves  dispossessed  of  the  management  of  the  decline  of 
temple,  which  passed  to  the  Delphians;  as  well  Krissa. 
as  of  the  profits  arising  from  the  visitors,  whose  disburse- 
ments went  to  enrich  the  inhabitants  of  Kirrha.  Krissa 
was  a  primitive  city  of  the  Phokian  name,  and  could  boast 
of  a  place  as  such  in  the  Homeric  Catalogue,  so  that  her 
loss  of  importance  was  not  likely  to  be  quietly  endured. 
Moreover,  in  addition  to  the  above  facts,  already  sufficient 
in  themselves  as  seeds  of  quarrel,  we  are  told  that  the 
Kirrhseans  abused  their  position  as  masters  of  the  avenue 
to  the  temple  by  sea,  and  levied  exorbitant  tolls  on  the 
visitors  who  landed  there — a  number  constantly  increasing 
from  the  multiplication  of  the  transmarine  colonies,  and 
from  the  prosperity  of  those  in  Italy  and  Sicily.  Besides 
such  offence  against  the  general  Grecian  public,  they  had 
also  incurred  the  enmity  of  their  Phokian  neighbours  by 
outrages  upon  women,  Phokiau  as  well  as  Argeian,  who 
were  returning  from  the  temple.  * 

Thus  stood  the  case,  apparently,  about  595  B.C.,  when 
the  Araphiktyonic  meeting  interfered — either  prompted  by 

the  Phokians,  or  perhaps  on  their  own  sponta-   T 

i    '  f    i         j    ,       ,,  -\  Insolence 

neous  impulse,  out  ot  regard  to  the  temple — to   Of  the 
punish  the  Kirrhaeaus.  After  a  war  of  ten  years,   Kinhaeans 
the  first  Sacred  ~\Var  in  Greece,  this  object  was    by'Yhe16 
completely   accomplished,   by   a  joint  force  of  AmpMk- 
Thessalians  under  Eurylochus,Sykyonians  under   y°L 

1  Athenians,  xiii.  p.  660  ;   .ZEschi-  nes  mentions   along  with  the  Kir- 

aes  cont.  Ktesiphont.  c.  36,  p.  406;  rhceans    as    another    impious    race 

Strabo,  ix.  p.  418.    Of  the  Akragal-  who  dwelt    in    the   neighbourhood 

lidse,  or  Kraugallidn?,  whom  .^Eschi-  of  the    god — and   who    were    over- 


478  HISTOEY  OF  GBEECE.  PABT  II. 

Kleisthenes,  and  Athenians  under  Alkmseon;  the  Athenian 
Solon  being  the  person  who  originated  and  enforced  in 
the  Amphiktyonic  council  the  proposition  of  interference. 
Kirrha  appears  to  have  made  a  strenuous  resistance,  until 
its  supplies  from  the  sea  were  intercepted  by  the  naval 
force  of  the  Sikyonian  Kleisthenes.  Even  after  the  town 
was  taken,  its  inhabitants  defended  themselves  for  some 
time  on  the  heights  of  Kirphis.1  At  length,  however, 
they  were  thoroughly  subdued.  Their  town  was  destroyed 
or  left  to  subsist  merely  as  a  landing-place;  while  the  whole 
adjoining  plain  was  consecrated  to  the  Delphian  god, 
whose  domains  thus  touched  the  sea.  Under  this  sentence, 
pronounced  by  the  religious  feeling  of  Greece,  and  sancti- 
fied by  a  solemn  oath  publicly  sworn  and  inscribed  at 
Delphi,  the  land  was  condemned  to  remain  untilled  and 
unplanted,  without  any  species  of  human  care,  and  serving 
only  for  the  pasturage  of  cattle.  The  latter  circumstance 
was  convenient  to  the  temple,  inasmuch  as  it  furnished 
abundance  of  victims  for  the  pilgrims  who  landed  and  came 
to  sacrifice — for  without  preliminary  sacrifice  no  man  could 
consult  the  oracle;2  while  the  entire  prohibition  of  tillage 
was  the  only  means  of  obviating  the  growth  of  another 
troublesome  neighbour  on  the  seaboard.  The  ruin  of 
Kirrha  in  this  war  is  certain:  though  the  necessity  of  a 
harbour  for  visitors  arriving  by  sea,  led  to  the  gradual 
revival  of  the  town,  upon  a  humbler  scale  of  pretension. 
But  the  fate  of  Krissa  is  not  so  clear,  nor  do  we  know 
whether  it  was  destroyed,  or  left  subsisting  in  a  position 
of  inferiority  with  regard  to  Delphi.  From  this  time  for- 
ward, however,  the  Delphian  community  appear  as  sub- 
stantive and  autonomous,  exercising  in  their  own  right 
the  management  of  the  temple;  though  we  shall  find,  on 
more  than  one  occasion,  that  the  Phokians  contest  this 
right,  and  lay  claim  to  the  management  of  it  for  them- 
selves3— a  remnant  of  that  early  period  when  the  oracle 

thrown  along  with   the  Kirrhreans  2  ;   Plutarch,  Solon,  c.  11 ;  Pausan. 

— we  have  no  farther  information,  ii.  9,    6.     Pausanias    (x.  37,   4)   and 

O.  Miiller's  conjecture  would  iden-  Polytenus  (Strateg.  iii.  6)   relate  a 

tify  them  with  the  Dryopes  (Dori-  stratagem    of  Solon,    or   of  Eury- 

ans,   i.   2.  5,   and  his  Orchomenos,  lochus,  to  poison  the  water  of  the 

p.  406) ;  Harpokration,  v.  KpccjY3^-'  Kirrhjeans  with  hellehore. 

Xl5at.  2  Eurip.  Ion,  230. 

1  Sohol.  ad  Pindar.   Pyth.  Intro-  *  Thucyd.  i.  112. 
duct,  j    Schol.  ad  Pindar.  Xern.  ix. 


CHAP.  XXVm.        PAN-HELLENIC  FESTIVALS.  479 

stood  in  the  domain  of  the  Phokian  Krissa.  There  seems 
moreover  to  have  been  a  standing  antipathy  between  the 
Delphians  and  the  Phokians. 

The  Sacred  "War  just  mentioned — emanating  from  a 
solemn  Amphiktyonic  decree,  carried  on  jointly  by  troops 
of  different  states  whom   we  do  not  know  to   v 
have  ever  before  co-operated,  and  directed  ex-   sacred 
clusively  towards  an  object  of  common  interest   }J'ar>  ia 

•      •       -t       Tf        f      L       e  i  • i     •  •       596  B-°- 

—is  in  itseli  a  tact  ot  nigh  importance  as  mani- 
festing a  decided  growth  of  Pan-Hellenic  feeling.  Sparta 
is  not  named  as  interfering — a  circumstance  which  seems 
remarkable  when  we  consider  both  her  power,  even  as  it 
then  stood,  and  her  intimate  connexion  with  the  Delphian 
oracle — while  the  Athenians  appear  as  the  chief  movers, 
through  the  greatest  and  best  of  their  citizens.  The  credit 
of  a  large-minded  patriotism  rests  prominently  upon  them. 
But  if  this  Sacred  War  itself  is  a  proof  that  the  Pan- 
Hellenic  spirit  was  growing  stronger,  the  positive  result  in 
which  it  ended  reinforced  that  spirit  still  farther. 

mi  -i        f  TV-      i  i          -i  i       -LT  Destruction 

Ihe  spoils  of  -Kirrlia  were  employed  by  the  vie-  Of  Kirrha. 

torious  allies  in  founding  the  Pythian  games.  ~ pythian 

The   octennial   festival   hitherto    celebrated  at  founded  by 

Delphi  in  honour  of  the  god.  including  no  other  the  Am- 

....  ,     .         ,°      v.  T°,I  phiktyons. 

competition  except  in  the  harp  and  the  psean, 
was  expanded  into  comprehensive  games  on  the  model  of 
the  Olympic,  with  matches  not  only  of  music,  but  also  of 
gymnastics  and  chariots — celebrated,  not  at  Delphi  itself, 
but  on  the  maritime  plain  near  the  ruined  Kirrha — and 
under  the  direct  superintendence  of  the  Amphiktyons 
themselves.  I  have  already  mentioned  that  Solon  provided 
large  rewards  for  such  Athenians  as  gained  victories  in 
the  Olympic  and  Isthmian  games,  thereby  indicating  his 
sense  of  the  great  value  of  the  national  games  as  a  means 
of  promoting  Hellenic  intercommunion.  It  was  the  same 
feeling  which  instigated  the  foundation  of  the  new  games 
on  the  Kirrhsean  plain,  in  commemoration  of  the  vindica- 
ted honour  of  Apollo,  and  in  the  territory  newly  made 
over  to  him.  They  were  celebrated  in  the  autumn,  or  first 
half  of  every  third  Olympic  year;  the  Amphiktyons  being 
the  ostensible  Agonothets  or  administrators,  and  appoint- 
ing persons  to  discharge  the  duty  in  their  names.1  At  the 

1   Mr.    Clinton    thinks    that    the      the  autumn:  M.  Boockh  refers  the 
Pythian  games  wore  celebrated  in      celebration  to  the  spring:   Krause 


480  HISTOKY  OF  GKEECE.  PAEI  II. 

first  Pythian  ceremony  (in  586  B.C.),  valuable  rewards  were 
given  to  the  different  victors;  at  the  second  (582  B.C.), 
nothing  was  conferred  but  wreaths  of  laurel — the  rapidly 
attained  celebrity  of  the  games  being  such  as  to  render 
any  farther  recompense  superfluous.  The'Sikyonian  despot 
Kleisthenes  himself,  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  conquest  of 
Kirrha,  gained  the  prize  at  the  chariot-race  of  the  second 
Pythia.  We  find  other  great  personages  in  Greece  fre- 
quently mentioned  as  competitors,  and  the  games  long 
maintained  a  dignity  second  only  to  the  Olympic,  over 
which  indeed  they  had  some  advantages;  first,  that  they 
were  not  abused  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  petty  jeal- 
ousies and  antipathies  of  any  administering  state,  as  the 
Olympic  games  were  perverted  by  the  Eleians,  on  more 
than  one  occasion;  next,  that  they  comprised  music  and 
poetry  as  well  as  bodily  display.  From  the  circumstances 
attending  their  foundation,  the  Pythian  games  deserved, 
even  more  than  the  Olympic,  the  title  bestowed  on  them 
by  Demosthenes — "  the  common  Agon  of  the  Greeks."  * 
The  Olympic  and  Pythian  games  continued  always  to 

be  the  most  venerated  solemnities  in  Greece. 
and"1  Yet  the  Nemea  and  Isthmia  acquired  a  celebrity 

isthmian       not  much  inferior;  the  Olympic  prize  counting 

for  the  highest  of  all.2  Both  the  Nemea  and 
the  Isthmia  were  distinguished  from  the  other  two  festivals 
by  occurring,  not  once  in  four  years,  but  once  in  two  years; 
the  former  in  the  second  and  fourth  years  of  each  Olyui- 

agrees  with  Boeckh  (Clinton,  Fast,  to    have    been    celebrated    in    the 

Hell.    vol.    ii.    p.    200,    Appendix ;  third  year  of  each  Olympiad,   and 

Boeckh,    ad  Corp.  Inscr.    No.  1638.  in  the  spring   (Krause,  p.  187).    It 

p.  813;   Krause,    Die  Pythien,   Ne-  seems   improbable   that  these  two 

meen  und  Isthmien,  vol.  ii.  p.  29-  great  festivals   should  have    coma 

35).  one  immediately   after  the   other, 

Mr.  Clinton's  opinion  appears  to  which  nevertheless  must   be   sup- 

me  the  right  one.    Boeckh  admits  posed,  if  we  adopt  the  opinion  of 

that,  with  the  exception  of  Thucy-  Boeckh  and  Krause. 

dides  (v.  1-19),  the  other  authorities  Though   the  Pythian    games    be- 

go  to  sustain  it ;    but  he  relies  on  long     to    late     summer    or     early 

Thucydides  to  outweigh  them.  Now  autumn,    the    exact   month    is   not 

the  passage    of  Thucydides,  prop-  easy  to   determine:    see   the  refer- 

erly   understood,   seems   to   me  as  ences  in  K.  P.  Hermann,  Lehrbuch 

much  in  favour  of  Clinton's  view  der  gottesdienstlichen  Alterthumer 

as  the  rest,  if  not  more.  der  Griechen,  ch.  49.  not  12. 

I  may  remark,  as  a  certain  addi-  '  Demosthen.  Philipp.  iii.  p.  119. 

tional  reason  in  favour  of  Mr.  Clin-  2  Pindar,  Nem.  x.  28-33. 
ton's  view,  that  the  Isthmia  appear 


CHAP.  XXVIII.        PAN-HELLENIC  FESTIVALS.  481 

piad,  the  latter  in  the  first  and  third  years.  To  both  is 
assigned,  according  to  Greek  custom,  an  origin  connected 
with  the  interesting  persons  and  circumstances  of  legen- 
dary antiquity;  but  our  historical  knowledge  of  both  begins 
with  the  sixth  century  B.C.  The  first  historical  Nemead 
is  presented  as  belonging  to  Olympiad  52  or  53  (572-568 
B.C.),  a  few  years  subsequent  to  the  Sacred  War  above-men- 
tioned and  to  the  origin  of  the  Pythia.  The  festival  was 
celebrated  in  honour  of  the  Nemean  Zeus,  in  the  valley  of 
Nemea  between  Phlius  and  Kleonse.  The  Kleonaeans 
themselves  were  originally  its  presidents,  until,  at  some 
period  after  460  B.C.,  the  Argeians  deprived  them  of  that 
honour  and  assumed  the  honours  of  administration  to 
themselves.1  The  Nemean  games  had  their  Hellanodikae 7 
to  superintend,  to  keep  order,  and  to  distribute  the  prizes, 
as  well  as  the  Olympic. 

Respecting  the  Isthmian  festival,  our  first  historical 
information  is  a  little  earlier,  for  it  has  already  been  stated 
that  Solon  conferred  a  premium  upon  every  Athenian 
citizen  who  gained  a  prize  at  that  festival  as  well  as  at  the 
Olympian — in  or  after  594  B.C.  It  was  celebrated  by  the 
Corinthians  at  their  isthmus,  in  honour  of  Poseidon,  and 
if  we  may  draw  any  inference  from  the  legends  respecting 
its  foundation,  which  is  ascribed  sometimes  to  Theseus, 
the  Athenians  appear  to  have  identified  it  with  the  anti- 
quities of  their  own  state.3 

1  Strabo,   viii.  p.  377;    Plutarch,  before   Olympiad  80.     I  take  a  dif- 

Arat.  c.  28  ;  Mauncrt,  Geogr.  d.  Gr.  ferent   view,    and    am    disposed   to 

u.  Horn.  pt.  viii.  p.  fi50.  Compare  the  reject   the    statement    of  Eusebius 

gecond     chapter    in    Krause,     Die  altogether;  the  more  so  as  Pindar's 

1'ythien,    Nemoon    und    Isthmien,  tenth  Nemean  ode  is  addressed  to 

vol.  ii.  p.  108  seqq.  an  Argeian  citizen  named  Theioeus; 

That   the    Kleona:ans    continued  and  if  there  had  been  at  that  time 

•without  interruption  to  administer  a  standing  dispute  between  Argoa 

the  Nemean  festival  down  to  Olym-  and  Kleome  on   the  subject  of  the 

piad  80  (4CO  B.C.),    or  thereabouts,  administration    of  the  Nemea,   the 

is  the  rational  inference  from  Pin-  poet  would  hardly  have  introduced 

dar,  Nem.  jr.  42:  compare  Ncm.  iv.  the  mention  of  the  Nemean  prizes 

17.   Eusebius  indeed  states  that  the  gained  by  the  ancestors  of  Theia'us, 

Argeians  seized  the  administration  under  the  untoward  designation  of 

for  themselves  in  Olympiad  53.    In  "prizes    received     from    Kleonrcan 

order   to   reconcile   this   statement  men." 

vitli  the  above  passage  in  Pindar,  »  See  Boookh,  Corp.  Inscript.  No. 

critics     ha\e    concluded    that    the  1126. 

Arpeians   lost   it    again,    and    that  '  K.  TT.  Hermann,  in  his  Lehrbuch 

the  IvleoiiEcans   resumed  it  a  little  der  Griechischen  Staatsalterthiimer 

VOL.  111.  2  I 


482  HISTOBY  OF  GKREECE.  PABT  II. 

"We  thus  perceive  that  the  interval  between  600-560 
B.C.  exhibits  the  first  historical  manifestation  of  the  Pythia, 
Pan-Hei-  Isthmia,  and  Nemea — the  first  expansion  of  all 
lenic  cha-  the  three  from  local  into  Pan-Hellenic  festivals. 
T1ii:redab~  ^°  ^e  Olympic  games,  for  some  time  the  only 
aiTthe  four  great  centre  of  union  among  all  the  widely  dis- 
festivais—  persed  Greeks,  are  now  added  three  other  sacred 

Olympic,          A     »  f  J.T-     vi  T_T  ,•         11 

Pythian,  Agones  ot  the  like  public,  open,  national  char- 
Nemean,  acter;  constituting  visible  marks  as  well  as  tute- 
isthmian.  lary  bonds,  of  collective  Hellenism,  and  ensuring 
to  every  Greek  who  went  to  compete  in  the  match- 
es, a  safe  and  inviolate  transit  even  through  hostile  Hel- 

(ch.  32.  not.  7,  and  ch.  65.  not.  3),  the  more  improbable  in  this  case 

and  again  in  his  more  recent  work  that  the  Sikyonians  should  have 

(Lehrbuch  der  gottesdienstlichen  been  active,  inasmuch  as  they  had 

Alterthiimer  der  Griechen,  part  iii.  under  Kleisthengs  a  little  before 

ch.  49,  also  not.  6),  both  highly  contributed  to  nationalize  the  Py- 

valuable  publications,  maintains,  thian  games  :  a  second  interference 

— 1.  That  the  exaltation  of  the  for  a  similar  purpose  ought  not  to 

Isthmian  and  Nemean  games  into  be  presumed  without  eome  evi- 

Pan- Hellenic  importance  arose  dence.  To  prove  his  point  about 

directly  after  and  out  of  the  fall  the  Isthmia,  Hermann  cites  only 

of  the  despots  of  Corinth  and  a  passage  of  Solinus  (vii.  14),  "Hoc 

Sikyon.  2.  That  it  was  brought  spectaculum,  per  Cypselum  tyran- 

about  by  the  paramount  influence  numintermissum,  Corinthii  Olymp. 

of  the  Dorians,  especially  by  Sparta.  49  solenmitati  pristinse  reddide- 

3.  That  the  Spartans  put  down  the  runt."  To  render  this  passage  at 

despots  of  both  these  two  cities.  all  credible,  we  must  read  Cypseli- 

The  last  of  these  three  proposi-  das  instead  of  Cypselum  which  de- 

tions  appears  to  me  untrue  in  re-  ducts  from  the  value  of  a  witness- 

spect  to  Sikyon  — improbable  in  whose  testimony  can  never  under 

respect  to  Corinth  :  my  reasons  for  any  circumstances  be  rated  high, 

thinking  so  have  been  given  in  a  But  granting  the  alteration,  there 

former  chapter.  And  if  this  be  so,  are  two  reasons  against  the  asser- 

the  reason  for  presuming  Spartan  tion  of  Solinus.  One,  a  positive 

intervention  as  to  the  Isthmian  and  reason,  that  Solon  offered  a  large 

Nemean  games  falls  to  the  ground;  reward  to  Athenian  victors  at  the 

for  there  is  no  other  proof  of  it,  Isthmian  games  :  his  legislation 

nor  does  Sparta  appear  to  have  falls  in  594  B.C.,  ten  years  before 

interested  herself  in  any  of  the  four  the  time  when  the  Isthmia  are  said 

national  festivals  except  the  Olym-  by  Solinus  to  have  been  renewed 

pic,  with  which  she  was  from  an  after  a  long  intermission.  The  other 

early  period  peculiarly  connected,  reason  (negative,  though  to  my 

Nor  can  I  think  that  the  first  of  mind  also  powerful)  is  the  silence 

Hermann's  three  propositions  is  of  Herodotus  in  that  long  invective 

at  all  tenable.  No  connexion  what-  which  he  puts  into  the  mouth  of 

ever  can  be  shown  between  Sikyon  Sosikl§s  against  the  Kypselids  (v. 

and  the  Nemean  games;  and  it  is  92).  If  Kypselus  had  really  been 


CHAP.  XXVIII.         PAN-HELLEXIC  FESTIVALS.  483 

lenic  states.1  These  four,  all  in  or  near  Peloponnesus, 
and  one  of  which  occurred  in  each  year,  formed  the  Period, 
or  cycle  of  sacred  games,  and  those  who  had  gained  prizes 
at  all  the  four  received  the  enviable  designation  of  Perio- 
donikes.2  The  honours  paid  to  Olympic  victors  on  their 
return  to  their  native  city,  were  prodigious  even  in  the 
sixth  century  B.C.,  and  became  even  more  extravagant 
afterwards.  We  may  remark,  that  in  the  Olympic  games 
alone,  the  oldest  as  well  as  the  most  illustrious  of  the  four, 
the  musical  and  intellectual  element  was  wanting.  All 
the  three  more  recent  Agones  included  crowns  for  exercises 
of  music  and  poetry,  along  with  gymnastics,  chariots,  and 
horses. 

It  was  not  only  in  the  distinguishing  national  stamp 
set  upon  these  four  great  festivals,  that  the  gradual  in- 
crease of  Helleriiofamily-feeling  exhibited  itself,   increased 
during  the    course    of  this    earliest    period    of  frequenta- 

Grecian  history.    Pursuant  to  the  same  tenden-    tl"n  °^  t!1.e 

r    •         f    L-     i     •        n  A  -i       11      other  festl" 

cies,  religious  festivals  in  all  the  considerable    vais  in 

towns  gradually  became  more  and  more  open  ^g^16011 
and  accessible,  attracting  guests  as  well  as  com- 
petitors from  beyond  the  border.  The  comparative  digni- 
ty of  the  city,  as  well  as  the  honour  rendered  to  the  presi- 
ding god,  were  measured  by  the  numbers,  admiration,  and 
envy,  of  the  frequenting  visitors.3  There  is  no  positive 
evidence  indeed  of  such  expansion  in  the  Attic  festivals 
earlier  than  the  reign  of  Peisistratus,  who  first  added  the 

guilt}'  of  so  great  an  insult  to  the  *  Festus,  v.  Perihodos,  p.  217,  ed. 

feelings  of  the    people    as  to  sup-  Miiller.     See  the  animated    protest 

press    their   most    solemn  festival,  of    the     philosopher    Xenophanes 

the    fact  would    hardly  have   been  against  the  great  rewards  given  to 

omitted    in   the    indictment  which  Olympic   victors  (510-520  B.C.),  Xe- 

Sosikles  is  made   to   urge    against  nophan.    Fragment.    2.    p.    357,    ed. 

him.     Aristotle  indeed,   represent-  Bergk. 

ing  Kypselus  as  a  mild  and  popular  3  Thucyd.  vi.  16.  Alkibiades  says, 

despot,  introduces  a  contrary  view  xcri  0301  au   ev   TTJ    ri/.st    y^prtf'iius  TJ 

of  his  character,  which,   if  we  ad-  dXXoj     to>     XafJUJtp'Jvop.'Ji,      TOI?     JJLSV 

mitted  it,    would    of  itself  suffice  daToT?  ipflovtiToci,  <f'ia;i,  itpo;  oi  TOO? 

to    negative   the   supposition    that  Savoy?  xsl  OCJTT)  isjr'J?  oaivsTcu. 

he  had  suppressed  the  Isthmia.  The    greater  Panathena'a  are  as- 

1  Plutarch,  Arat.  c.  28.    v-xi  z'j-iz-  cribed  to  Peisistratus  by  the  Scho- 

X'j'Jr)  7<it£  rpoJTD'/  (by  order  of  Ara-  liast  on  Aristeidfis,  vol.  iii.  p.  323, 

tus)     TJ     8i8o[i.avT)     Tol?     c<Y<JL>'i3-:ou;  ed.  Dindorf:    judging  by  what  im- 

dij'jXia  xoci  i3c?iXiioc,  a  deadly  stain  mediately  precedes,  the  statement 

on  the  character  of  Aratus.  seems  to  come  from  Aristotle. 

•2  I  2 


484  HISTOBY  OF  GBEECE.  PART  II. 

quadrennial  or  greater  Panathensea  to  the  ancient  annual 
or  lesser  Panathenaea.  Nor  can  we  trace  the  steps  of 
progress  in  regard  to  Thehes,  Orchomenus,  Thespiae, 
Megara,  Sikyon,  Pellene,  JEgina,  Argos,  &c.,  but  we  find 
full  reason  for  believing  that  such  was  the  general  reality. 
Of  the  Olympic  or  Isthmian  victors  whom  Pindar  and 
Simonides  celebrated,  many  derived  a  portion  of  their 
renown  from  previous  victories  acquired  at  several  of  these 
local  contests1 — victories  sometimes  so  numerous,  as  to 
prove  how  wide-spread  the  habit  of  reciprocal  frequenta- 
tion  had  become:2  though  we  find,  even  in  the  third  cen- 
tury B.C.,  treaties  of  alliance  between  different  cities,  in 
which  it  is  thought  necessary  to  confer  such  mutual  right 
by  express  stipulation.  Temptation  was  offered,  to  the 
distinguished  gymnastic  or  musical  competitors,  by  prizes 
of  great  value.  Timseus  even  asserted,  as  a  proof  of  the 
overweening  pride  of  Kroton  and  Sybaris,  that  these  cities 
tried  to  supplant  the  preeminence  of  the  Olympic  games, 
by  instituting  games  of  their  own  with  the  richest  prizes 
to  be  celebrated  at  the  same  time3 — a  statement  in  itself 
not  worthy  of  credit,  yet  nevertheless  illustrating  the  ani- 
mated rivalry  known  to  prevail  among  the  Grecian  cities, 
in  procuring  for  themselves  splendid  and  crowded  games. 
At  the  time  when  the  Homeric  Hymn  to  Demeter  was 
composed,  the  worship  of  that  goddess  seems  to  have  been 
purely  local  at  Eleusis.  But  before  the  Persian  war,  the 
festival  celebrated  by  the  Athenians  every  year,  in  honour 
of  the  Eleusinian  Demeter,  admitted  Greeks  of  all  cities 
to  be  initiated,  and  was  attended  by  vast  crowds  of  them.* 

1  Simouides,  Fragm.  154-158,   ed.  tween    the    inhabitants    of   Latua 

Bergk  ;  Pindar,  Xem.  x.  45 ;  Olymp.  and    those    of   Gifts    in    Krete,   in 

xiii.  107.  Boeckh's    Corp.     Inscr.     No.    2554, 

The    distinguished  athlete  Thea-  wherein    this    reciprocity    is     ex- 

genSs   is   affirmed   to    hare   gained  pressly  stipulated.    Boeckh  places 

1200  prizes  in  these  various  agones  :  this   Inscription  in   the  third  cen- 

according  to  some,  1400  prizes  (Pan-  tury  B.C. 

san.  vi.  11,    2;    Plutarch,    Prsecept.  »  Timaeus,  Fragra.  82,    ed.  Didot. 

Bejp.  Ger.  c.  15.  p.  811).  The  Krotoniates  furnished  a  great 

An    athlete    named     Apollonius  numher    of    victors    hoth    to    the 

arrived   too    late   for  the  Olympic  Olympic  and  to  the  Pythian  games 

games,  having  staid  away  too  long  (Herodot.    viii.    47  ;    Pausan.   x.  5, 

from  his    anxiety  to   get  money  at  5-x.  7,  3;   Krause,   Gymnastik  und 

various    agones    in  Ionia  (Pausan.  Agonistik    der    Hellenen,   vol.   ii. 

v.  21,  5)  sect.  29.  p.  752). 

1  See  particularly,  the  treaty  be-  *  Herodot.  viii.  05.   xji   HUTUJV  6 


CHAP.  XXVIII.        PAN-HELLENIC  FESTIVALS.  485 

It  was  thus  that  the  simplicity  and  strict  local  appli- 
cation of  the  primitive  religious  festival,  among  the  greater 
states  in  Greece,  gradually  expanded,  on  certain  AH  other 
great  occasions  periodically  recurring,  into  an  ^rt?ggk( 
elaborate  and  regulated  series  of  exhibitions —  except 
not  merely  admitting,  but_  soliciting,  the  frater-  encouraged 
nal  presence  of  all  Hellenic  spectators.  In  this  such  visits. 
respect  Sparta  seems  to  have  formed  an  exception  to 
the  remaining  states.  Her  festivals  were  for  herself  alone, 
and  her  general  rudeness  towards  other  Greeks  was  not 
materially  softened  even  at  the  Karneia1  and  Hyakinthia, 
or  GymnopcBdiae.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Attic  Dionysia 
were  gradually  exalted,  from  their  original  rude  spon- 
taneous outburst  of  village  feeling  in  thankfulness  to  the 
god,  followed  by  song,  dance,  and  revelry  of  various 
kinds — into  costly  and  diversified  performances,  first  by 
a  trained  chorus,  next  by  actors  superadded  to  it.2  And 
the  dramatic  compositions  thus  produced,  as  they  em- 
bodied the  perfection  of  Grecian  art,  so  they  were  emi- 
nently calculated  to  invite  a  Pan-Hellenic  audience  and 
to  encourage  the  sentiment  of  Hellenic  unity.  The 
dramatic  literature  of  Athens  however  belongs  properly 
to  a  later  period.  Previous  to  the  year  500  B.  c.,  we 
see  only  those  commencements  of  innovation  which  drew 
upon  Thespis3  the  rebuke  of  Solon;  who  however  himself 


pou).6[i.£vo(;  xal  TUJV  fiXXiov 'EXXi^ 

U-'JSITOU. 


some  strangers  came  to  the  Sparta 
festivals,    but    which    also    prove 


jiiTai.  i^* 

The  exclusion  of  all  competitors      tin 


Plutarch,  Do  Cupidine  Divitiaru 


strangers  who  came  to  the  Gymno-  of    the    ancient     simple    Athenian 

pa)di;e    at    Sparta    (Xenophon,  Jle-  festival. 

morab.  i.  2,  61;    Plutarch,   Kimon,  3    Plutarch,     Solon,    c.    29:     see 

c.  12) — a  story    which    proves    that  above,  chap.  xi.  vol.  iii.  p.  195. 


48G  HISTOEY  OF  GKEECE.  PART  II. 

contributed  to  impart  to  the  Panathenaic  festival  a  more 
solemn  and  attractive  character,  by  checking  the  licence 
of  the  rhapsodes  and  ensuring  to  those  present  a  full 
orderly  recital  of  the  Iliad. 

The  sacred  games  and  festivals,  here   alluded  to  as 
a  class,   took   hold   of  the    Greek   mind   by   so  great  a 

variety  of  feelings,1  as  to  counterbalance  in  a 
th'se'testl-  kigh  degree  the  political  disseverance;  and  to 
vais  upon  keep  alive  among  their  wide-spread  cities  in 
mhi£reek  the  midst  of  constant  jealousy  and  frequent 

quarrel,  a  feeling  of  brotherhood  and  congenial 
sentiment  such  as  must  otherwise  have  died  away.  The 
Theors,  or  sacred  envoys  who  came  to  Olympia  or  Delphi 
from  so  many  different  points,  all  sacrified  to  the  same 
god  and  at  the  same  altar,  witnessed  the  same  sports, 
and  contributed  by  their  donatives  to  enrich  or  adorn  one 
respected  scene.  Moreover  the  festival  afforded  opportu- 
nity for  a  sort  of  fair,  including  much  traffic  amid  so 
large  a  mass  of  spectators;2  and  besides  the  exhibitions  of 
the  games  themselves,  there  were  recitations  and  lectures 
in  a  spacious  council-room  for  those  who  chose  to  listen 

1  The   orator  Lysias,   in   a  frag-      Olympic     festival    by    the    name 
ment  of  his   lost  Panegyrical  Ora-      mercatus. 

tion,    preserved    by    Dionysius    of  There  were  booths  all  round  tho 

Halikarnassus   (vol.  v.  p.  520   B.),  Altis,   or   sacred    precinct  of  Zeus 

describes  the  influence  of  the  games  (Schol.     Pindar.     Olymp.     xi.    55), 

with    great    force    and    simplicity,  during  the  time  of  the  games. 

Hgrakles,     the    founder    of    them,  Strabo     observes     with     justice, 

iyibva   [xsv   acuixaTurj    s-oinjas,  tpi/.o-  respecting  the  multitudinous  festi- 

Ti[Atav  8s  7tXo'JT<o,   YVIOJJLTJI;  8'  sitiSst-  vals  generally — 'H    ^avrjupi;  ,     iu- 

civ    sv   TU>    xaX/i37u>    TTJ;   'EXXdSo?.  roptxov      Tt     TrpiyiAa     (x.     p.     486), 

iii    TO'JTiuv     azivTiuv     Ivsxa     EC    TO  especially   in    reference   to  Delos: 

a'i"6   IXQu>jj.£v ,   -it    H.EV  o'iojjisvoi,  7a  see  Cicero  pro  Lege  Manilla,  c.  18: 

03    axo'ja6[AS-/ot.     'Hy^jaTO    y^P    T°''  compare  Pausanias,  x.  32,  9,  about 

i-j&aos  auXXoyov    a  p  •/ r,  v   ys  ve  aflat  the  Panegyris  and  fair  at  Tithorea 

T  o  I  <;    °E  ). ),  •rl  3  i     ~J]<^    r.^'i^     a  \-  in  Phokis,  and  Becker,    Charikles, 

Xr,X  ou«  91X17?.  vol.  i.  p.   283. 

2  Cicero,  Tusc.  Qurest.  v.  3.  "Mer-  At  the  Attic  festival  of    the  He- 
catitm  eum,  qui  haberetur  maximo  rakleia,    celebrated    by    the    com- 
ludorum    apparatu    totius    Gnicise  munion  called  Mesogei,   or    a  cer- 
celebritate:    nam   ut  illic  alii  cor-  tain  number  of  the   denies     consti- 
poribus  exercitatis   gloriam  et  no-  tuting  Mesogrea,  a  regular  market- 
bilitatem     coronae     peterent,     alii  due  or  aYoposTtxov  was   levied  upon 
emendi    aut    vendendi    qusestu    et  those  who  brought   goods   to    sell 
lucre  ducerentur,"  &c.  (Inscriptiones  Attica;  nuper  repertse 

Both    Velleius    Paterculus    also      12,  by  E.  Curtius,  p.  3-7). 
(i.  8)  and  Justin    (xiii.  5)   call   the 


CHAP.  XXVIII.        PAX-HELLENIC  FESTIVALS.  487 

to  them,  lay  poets,  rhapsodes,  philosophers  and  historians 
— among  which  last  the  history  of  Herodotus  is  said  to 
have  been  publicly  read  by  its  author.  1  Of  the  wealthy 
and  great  men  in  the  various  cities,  many  contended 
simply  for  the  chariot-victories  and  horse-victories.  But 
there  were  others  whose  ambition  was  of  a  character  more 
strictly  personal,  and  who  stripped  naked  as  runners, 
wrestlers,  boxers,  or  pankratiasts,  having  gone  through 
the  extreme  fatigue  of  a  complete  previous  training.  Kylon 
whose  unfortunate  attempt  to  usurp  the  sceptre  at  Athens 
has  been  recounted,  had  gained  the  prize  in  the  Olympic 
stadium :  Alexander  son  of  Amyntas,  the  prince  of 
Macedon,  had  run  for  it:2  the  great  family  of  the  Dia- 
goridae  at  Rhodes,  who  furnished  magistrates  and  gene- 
rals to  their  native  city,  supplied  a  still  greater  number 
of  successful  boxers  and  pankratiasts  at  Olympia,  while 
other  instances  also  occur  of  generals  named  by  various 
cities  from  the  list  of  successful  Olympic  gymnasts;  and 
the  odes  of  Pindar,  always  dearly  purchased,  attest  how 
many  of  the  great  and  wealthy  were  found  in  that  list.3 
The  perfect  popularity,  and  equality  of  persons,  at  these 
great  games,  is  a  feature  not  less  remarkable  than  the 

1  Pausan.  vi.  23,  5;    Diodor.  xiv.      1,  2;  Xenophon,  Hellenic,  i.  5,  19: 
100,  xv.  7;  Lucian,  Quomodo  Histo-      Compare  Strabo,  xiv.  p.  655. 

ria    sit    conscribenda,    c.    42.     See  3  The  Latin  writers  remark  it  as 

Krause,  Olympia.  sect.  29,  p.  183—  a   peculiarity    of  Grecian    feeling, 

186.  as  distinguished  from  Roman,  that 

2  Thucyd.     j.     120;    Hcrodot.    v.  men  of  great  station    accounted  it 
22-71.     EurybatSs    of   Argos    (He-  an     honour     to     contend     in     the 
rodot.  vi.  92) ;  Philippus  and  Phayl-  games:  see,  as  a  specimen,  Tacitus, 
lus    of   Kroton    (v.    47  :    viii.    47)  ;  Uialogus    de    Orator,    c.    9.     "Ac  si 
Euulkides  ofEretria  (v.  1  2);  Her-  in  Grrecia  natus  esses,  ubi  ludicras 
molykus  of  Athens  (ix.  105).  quoque    artes    exercere    hoiiestum 

Pindar  (Nem.  iv.  and  vi.)  gives  est,  ac  tibi  Micostrati  robur  Dii 

the  numerous  victories  of  the  Bas-  dedissent,  non  paterer  irnmanes 

Bidse  and  Theandrid;e  at  JEgina :  illos  et  ad  pugnarn  natos  lacertos, 

also  Melissus  the  pankratiast  and  levitate  juculi  vanegcere."  Again, 

his  ancestors  the  Kleonymida;  of  Cicero,  pro  Flacco,  c.  13,  in  his 

Thebes — TijxasvTS?  «py_a(l  =  ^  ~po-  sarcastic  style —  "Quid  si  etiara 

£t*i'A  T'  e7iiy_iopiu)v  (Isthm.  iii.  25).  occisus  est  a  piratis  Adramyttenus, 

Respecting  the  extreme  celebrity  homo  nobilis,  cujus  est  fere  nobis 

of  Diagoras  and  his  sons,  of  the  omnibus  nomen  auditum,  Atinas 

Rhodian  gens  Eratida?,  DamapOtus,  pugil,  Olympionices  ?  hocestapml 

Akusilaus,  and  Dorieus,  see  Pindar,  Graicos  (quoniam  de  eorum  gravi- 

Olymp.  vii.  16-145,  with  the  Scho-  fate  dicimus)  prope  majus  et  glo- 

lia;  Thucyd.  iii.  11;  Pausan.  vi.  1,  riosius,  quam  Roma:  triuniphasse.-'' 


488  HISTOEY  OF  GREECE.  PART  IL 

exact  adherence  to  predetermined  rule,  and  the  self- 
imposed  submission  of  the  immense  crowd  to  a  handful 
of  servants  armed  with  sticks,1  who  executed  the  orders 
of  the  Eleian  Hellanodikse.  The  ground  upon  which  the 
ceremony  took  place,  and  even  the  territory  of  the  admi- 
nistering state,  was  protected  by  a  "Truce  of  God"  during 
the  month  of  the  festival,  the  commencement  of  which  was 
formally  announced  by  heralds  sent  round  to  the  different 
states.  Treaties  of  peace  between  different  cities  were 
often  formally  commemorated  by  pillars  there  erected, 
and  the  general  impression  of  the  scene  suggested  nothing 
but  ideas  of  peace  and  brotherhood  among  Greeks.2  And 
I  may  remark  that  the  impression  of  the  games  as  belong- 
ing to  all  Greeks,  and  to  none  but  Greeks,  was  stronger 
and  clearer  during  the  interval  between  600 — 300  B.C.,  than 
it  came  to  be  afterwards.  For  the  Macedonian  conquests 
had  the  effect  of  diluting  and  corrupting  Hellenism,  by 
spreading  an  exterior  varnish  of  Hellenic  tastes  and 
manners  over  a  wide  area  of  incongruous  foreigners,  who 
were  incapable  of  the  real  elevation  of  the  Hellenic  cha- 
racter; so  that  although  in  later  times  the  games  continued 
undiminished  both  in  attraction  and  in  number  of  visitors, 
the  spirit  of  Pan-Hellenic  communion  which  had  once 
animated  the  scene  was  gone  for  ever. 

1  Lichas,  one  of  the  chief  men  Isthmia,  and  Nemea  (Thucydides, 

of  Sparta,  and  moreover  a  chariot-  iii.  11,  viii.  9,  10,  v.  49-51,  and 

victor,  received  actual  chastisement  Xenophou,  Hellenic,  iv.  7,  2;  v. 

on  the  ground,  from  these  staff-  1,  29)  shows  that  serious  political 

bearers,  for  an  infringement  of  business  was  often  discussed  at 

the  regulations  (Thucyd.  v.  50).  these  games  —  that  diplomatists 

4  Thucyd.  v.  18-47,  and  the  curious  made  use  of  the  intercourse  for 

ancient  Inscription  in  Boeckh's  the  purpose  of  detecting  the  secret 

Corpus  Inscr.  Nr.  11.  p.  28,  record-  designs  of  states  -whom  they  sus- 

ing  the  convention  between  the  pected  — and  that  the  administering 

Eleians  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  state  often  practised  manoeuvres 

Arcadian  town  of  Heraja.  in  respect  to  the  obligations  of 

The  comparison  of  various  pas-  truce  for  the  Hieromenia  or  Holy 

sages  referring  to  the  Olympia,  Season. 

END  OF  VOL.  III. 


LEIPZIG  :    PKINTBD    BY    W.    DEUQULIN. 


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