CHAPTER III.

THE UNCERTAIN PERIOD OF GRECIAN HISTORY:

EXTENDING FROM THE CLOSE OF THE TROJAN WAR TO THE FIRST WAR WITH PERSIA 1183 TO 490 B. C. 693 YEARS.

ANALYSIS. 1. Introductory.-2. Consequences of the Trojan war.-3. THESSA' LIAN CONQUEST.-[Epirus. Pin'dus. Penéus.-4. BœO'TIAN CONQUEST.-ÆO' LIAN MIGRATION. [Les'bos. 5 Dóris.] RETURN OF THE HERACLI' DE.-6. Numbers and military character of the Dórians.-Passage of the Corinthian Gulf.—[Corinthian Isthmus.-Corinthian Gulf.-Naupac'tus.]-7. Dorian conquest of the Peloponnésus. [Arcádia. Achaia.] Iónian and Dórian mi grations.-8. Dórian invasion of Attica.-[Athens. Delphos.] Self-sacrifice of Códrus. Government of Attica.—9. [Lacónia.] Its government. Lycurgus.-10. Travels of Lycur' gus. [The Brahmins.] INSTITUTIONS OF LYCUR' GUS.-11. Plutarch's account-senateassemblies-division of lands.-12. Movable property. The currency.-13. Public tables. Object of Spartan education, and aim of Lycur' gus.-14. Disputes about Lycurgus. His supposed fate, [Delphos, Créte. and E'lis.]—15. The three classes of the Ionian population Treatment of the Hélots.-16. The provincials. Their condition.-17. [Messénia. Ithóme FIRST MESSE' NIAN WAR. Results of the war to the Messenians.-18. Its influence on the Spartans. SECOND MESSE'NIAN WAR. Aristom'enes.-19. The Poet Tyrtæ' us. [Corinth. Sic' yon.] Battle of the Pamisus. The Arcadians. 20. Results of the war.-21. Government of Athens. DRA' co.-22. Severity of his laws.-23. Anarchy. LEGISLATION OF SOLON. Solon's integrity.-24. Distresses of the people. The needy and the rich -25. The policy of Solon. Debtors-lands of the poor-imprisonment. Classification of the citizens.-26. Disabilities and privileges of the fourth class. General policy of Solon's system.-27. The nine archons. The Senate of Four Hundred.-28. Court of the Areop' agus. Its powers. Institutions of Solon compared with the Spartan code.-29. Party feuds. Pisis' tratus.-30. His usurpation of power. Opposition to, and character of, his government.-31. The sons of Pisis' tratus. Conspiracy of Harmódius and Aristogiton.-32. EXPULSION OF THE PISISTRATIDs. Intrigues of Hip' pias. [Lyd ́ia. Per' sia.]—33. The Grecian colonies conquered by Crœ'sus-by the Persians. Application for aid.—34. ION' IC REVOLT. Athens and Eubœ'a aid the Ionians, [Eubœe'a. Sar'dis. Ephesus.] Results of the Iónian war. [Milétus.] Designs of Darius.

COTEMPORARY HISTORY.-I. PHŒNI CIAN HISTORY. 1. Geography of Phoenicia.-2. Early history of Phoenicia. Political condition. Colonies.-3. Supposed circumnavigation of Africa.— 4. Commercial relations. II. JEWISH HISTORY-Continuation of.-6. Accession of Saul to the throne. Slaughter of the Am' monites. [Jabesh Gil' ead. Gil' gal.] War with the Philistines.-7. Wars with the surrounding nations. Saul's disobedience.-8. David-his prowess. [Gath.] Saul's jealousy of David. David's integrity.-9. Death of Saul. [Mount Gil' boa.] Division of the kingdom between David and Ish' bosheth. [Hébron.] Union of the tribes.-10. Limited possess ions of the Israelites. [Tyre. Sidon. Joppa. Jerusalem.] David takes Jerusalem.-11. His other conquests. [Syria. Damascus. Rabbah.] Siege of Rabbah. Close of David's reign.—12. Solomon. His wisdom-fame-commercial relations.-13. His impiety. Close of his reign.14. Revolt of the ten tribes. Their subsequent history.-15. Rehoboam's reign over Judah. Reign of Ahaz. Hezekiah. Signal overthrow of the Assyrians.-17. Corroborated by profane history.-18. Account given by Herod' otus,-19, Reigns of Manas' seh, A'mon, Josiah, and Jehoahaz.-20. Reign of Jehoiakim-of Jechoniah.-21. Reign of Hezekiah. Destruc. tion of Jerusalem.-22. Captivity of the Jews.-23 Rebuilding of Jerusalem. III. RoMAN HISTORY.-24. Founding of Rome.-IV. PERSIAN HISTORY.-25. Dissolution of the Assyrian empire,-6, Establishment of the empire of the Medes and Babylonians. First and

second captivity of the Jews.-27. Other conquests of Nebuchadnez' zar. His war with the Phoenicians.-28. With the Egyptians. Fulfilment of Ezekiel's prophecy.-29. Impiety and pride of Nebuchadnez' zar. His punishment.-30. Belshaz' zar's reign. Rise of the separate kingdom of Média. Founding of the Persian empire.-31. Cyrus defeats Croe' sus—subjugates the Grecian colonies-conquers Babylon. Prophecies relating to Babylon.-32. Remainder of the reign of Cyrus.-33. Reign of Camby' ses. [Júpiter Am' mon.]-34. Accession of Darius Hystas' pes. Revolt and destruction of Babylon.-35. Expedition against the Scythians. [Scythia. River Don. Thruce.]-36. Other events in the history of Darius. His aims, policy, and government.-37. Extent of the Persian empire.

1. PASSING from the fabulous era of Grecian history, we enter upon a period when the crude fictions of more than mortal heroes, and demi-gods, begin to give place to the realities of human existence; but still the vague, disputed, and often contradictory annals on which we are obliged to rely, shed only an uncertain light around us; and even what we have gathered as the most reliable, in the present chapter, perhaps cannot wholly be taken as undoubted historic truth, especially in chronological details.

2. The immediate consequences of the Trojan war, as represented by Greek historians, were scarcely less disastrous to the victors than to the vanquished. The return of the Grecian heroes to their country is represented by Homer and other early writers to have been full of tragical adventures, while their long absence had encouraged usurpers to seize many of their thrones; and hence arose fierce wars and intestine commotions, which greatly retarded the progress of Grecian civilization.

3. Among these petty revolutions, however, no events of general I. THESSA' LIAN interest occurred until about sixty years after the fall of CONQUEST. Troy, when a people from Epírus,' passing over the mountain chain of Pin' dus, descended into the rich plains which lie along the banks of the Penéus,' and finally conquereda the country, to

1. The country of Epirus, comprised in the present Turkish province of Albánia, was at the north-western extremity of Greece, lying along the coast of the Adriatic Sea, or Gulf of Venice, and bounded on the north by Macedónia, and on the east by Macedónia and Thes'saly. The inhabitants in early times were probably Pelas' gic, but they can hardly be consid ered ever to have belonged to the Hellenic race, or Grecians proper. Epirus is principally distinguished in Roman history as the country of the celebrated Pyr' rhus (see p. 149.) The earliest oracle of Greece was that of Dodona in Epirus, but its exact locality is unknown. There was another oracle of the same name in Thes' saly. (Map No. I.) 2. Pin' dus is the name of the mountain chain which (Map No. I.)

separated Thes' saly from Epirus.

3. Penéus, the principal river of Thes' saly, rises in the Pin' dus mountains, and flowing in a course generally east, passes through the vale of Tem' pe, and empties its waters into the Ther maic Gulf, now the gulf of Salonica, a branch of the gear Sea, or Archipelago. (Map

No. L.)

a. About 1224 B. C.

which they gave the name of Thes' saly; driving away most of the inhabitants, and reducing those who remained to the condition of serfs, or agricultural slaves.

4. The fugitives from Thes' saly, driven from their own country, passed over into Boótia, which they subdued after a long II. BŒO'TIAN struggle, imitating their own conquerors in the disposal CONQUEST. of the inhabitants. The unsettled state of society occasioned by the Thessálian and Boótian conquests was the cause of collecting together various bands of fugitives, who, being joined by adventurers from Peloponnésus, passed over into Asia,a constituting the Æólian migration, so called from the race which took the prin- III. O' LIAN cipal share in it. They established their settlements in MIGRATION. the vicinity of the ruins of Troy, and on the opposite island of Les'bos,' while on the main land they built many cities, which were comprised in twelve States, the whole of which formed the Æólian Confederacy.

5. About twenty years after the Thessálian conquest, the Dórians, a Hellénic tribe, whose country, Dóris,' a mountainous region, was on the south of Thes' saly, being probably harassed by their northern reighbors, and desirous of a settlement in a more fertile territory, commenced a migration to the Peloponnésus, accompanied by portions of other tribes, and led, as was asserted, by descendants of Her' cules, who had formerly been driven into exile from the latter country. This important event in Grecian history is called the Return of the Heraclidæ. The migration of the Dórians was similar in its character to the return of the HERACLI' DÆ Israelites to Palestine, as they took with them their wives and chil dren, prepared for whatever fortune should award them.

IV. RETURN

OF THE

6. The Dórians could muster about twenty thousand fighting men, and although they were greatly inferior in numbers to the inhabitants of the countries which they conquered, their superior military tactics appear generally to have insured them an easy victory in the

1. Les' bos, one of the most celebrated of the Grocian islands, now called Mytilene, from its principal city, lies on the coast of Asia Minor, north of the entrance to the Gulf of Smyrna. Anciently, Les' bos contained nine flourishing cities, founded mostly by the Æolians. The Lesbians were notorious for their dissolute manners, while at the same time they were distinguished for intellectual cultivation, and especially for poetry and music. (Map No. III.) 2. Dóris, a small mountainous country, extending only about forty miles in length, was situated on the south of Thes' saly, from which it was separated by the range of mount ŒE' ta The Dorians were the most powerful of the Hellenic tribes. (Map No. I.)

. About 1040 B. C.

open field. Twice, however, they were repelled in their attempts to break through the Corinthian isthmus,' the key to Southern Greece, when, warned by these misfortunes, they abandoned the guarded isthmus, and crossing the Corinthian Gulf from Naupac' tus,' landed safely on the north-western coast of the peninsula. (B. C. 1104).

7. The whole of Peloponnésus, except the central and mountainous district of Arcádia' and the coast province of Acháia," was eventually subdued, and apportioned among the conquerors,-all the old inhabitants who remained in the country being reduced to an inferior condition, like that of the Saxon serfs of England at the time of the Norman conquest. Some of the inhabitants of the southern part of the peninsula, however, uniting under valiant leaders, conquered the province of Acháia, and expelled its Iónian inhabitants, many of whom, joined by various bands of fugitives, sought a retreat on the western coast of Asia Minor, south of the Æólian cities, where, in

1. The Corinthian Isthmus, between the Corinthian Gulf (now Gulf of Lepan' to) on the north-west, and the Saron' ic Gulf (now Gulf of Athens, or Ægina) on the south-east, unites the Peloponnesus to the northern parts of Greece, or Greece Proper. The narrowest part of this celebrated Isthmus is about six miles east from Corinth, where the distance across is about five miles. The Isthmus is high and rocky, and many unsuccessful attempts have been made to unite the waters on each side by a canal. The Isthmus derived much of its early celebrity from the Isthmian games celebrated there in honor of Pale' mon and Nep' tune. Ruins of the temple of Nep' tune have been discovered at the port of Schæ nus, on the east side of the Isthmus. (Map No. I.)

2. The Corinthian Gulf (now called the Gulf of Lepan' to) is an eastern arm of the Adriatic, or Gulf of Venice, and lies principally between the coast of ancient Phócis on the north, and of Achaia on the south. The entrance to the gulf, between two ruined castles, the Roumé ia on the north, and the Morea on the south, is only about one mile across. Within, the waters expand into a deep magnificent basin, stretching about seventy-eight miles to the south-east, and being, where widest, about twenty miles across. Near the mouth of this gulf was fought, in the year 1570, one of the greatest naval battles of modern times. (Map No. I.)

3. Naupac' tus (now called Lepan' to) stands on a hill on the coast of Lócris, about three and a half miles from the ruined castl of Roumélia. It is said to have derived its name from the circumstance of the Heraclidæ having there constructed the fleet in which they crossed over to the Peloponnésus. (Naus, a ship, and Pēgo, or Pēgnumi, to construct.) It was once a place of considerable importance, but is now a ruinous town. (Map No. I.)

4. Arcadia, the central country of the Peloponnésus, and, next to Lacónia, the largest of its six provinces, is a mountainous region, somewhat similar to Switzerland, having a length and breadth of about forty miles each. The most fertile part of the country was towards the south, where were several delightful plains, and numerous vineyards. The Alpheus is the principal river of Arcadia. Tégea and Mantinéa were its principal cities. Its lakes are small, but among them is the Stymphálus, of classic fame. The Arcadians, scarcely a genuine Greek race, were a rude and pastoral people, deeply attached to music, and possessing a strong love of freedom. (Map No. I.)

5. Achaia, the most northern country of the Peloponnésus, extended along the Corinthian Gulf, north of E' lis and Arcádia. It was a country of moderate fertility; its coast was for the most dart level, containing no good harbors, and exposed to inundations; and its streams were of small size, many of them mere winter torrents, descending from the ridges of Arcadia. Originally Achaia embraced the territory of Sic' yon, on the east, but the latter was finally wrested from it by the Dórians. The Acha' ans are principally celebrated for being the orig. inators of the celebrated Achæan league. (See p.107.) (Map No. I.)

process of time, twelve Iónian cities were built, the whole of which were united in the Iónian Confederacy, while their new country received the name of Iónia. At a later period, bands of the Dórians themselves, not content with their conquest of the Peloponnésus, thronged to Asia Minor, where they peopled several cities on the coast of Cária, south of Iónia; so that the 'gean Sea was finally circled by Grecian settlements, and its islands covered by them.

8. About the year 1068, the Dórians, impelled, as some assert, by a general scarcity, the natural effect of long-protracted wars, invaded At' tica, and encamped before the walls of Athens.' The chief of the Dórian expedition, having consulted the oracle of Del' phos,' was told that the Dórians would be successful so long as Códrus, the Athenian king, was uninjured. The latter, being informed of the answer of the oracle, resolved to sacrifice himself for the good of his country; and going out of the gate, disguised in the garb of a peasant, he provoked a quarrel with a Dórian soldier, and suffered himself to be slain. On recognizing the body, the superstitious Dórians, deeming the war hopeless, withdrew from At' tica; and the Athenians, out of respect for the memory of Códrus, declared that no one was worthy to succeed him, and abolished the form of roy alty altogether. Magistrates called archons, however, differing little from kings, were now appointed from the family of Códrus for life; after a long period these were exchanged for archons appointed for ten years, until, lastly, the yearly election of a senate of Archons gave the final blow to royalty in Athens, and established an aristocratical government of the nobility. These successive encroachments

1. Athens, one of the most famous cities of antiquity, is situated on the western side of the Attic peninsula, about five miles from the Saronic Gulf, now the Gulf of Ægina. Most of the ancient city stood on the west side of a rocky eminence called the Acrop' olis, surrounded by an extensive plain, and, at the time when it had attained its greatest magnitude, was twenty miles in circumference, and encompassed by a wall surmounted, at intervals, by strongly-for. tified towers. The small river Cephis' sus, flowing south, on the west side of the city, and the river Ilis' sus, on the east, flowing south-west, inclosed it in a sort of peninsula; but both streams lost themselves in the marshes south-west of the city. The waters of the Ilis' sus were mostly drawn off to irrigate the neighboring gardens, or to supply the artificial fountains of Athens. (Map No. I. See farther description, p. 564.)

2. Del' phos, or Del' phi, a small city of Phocis, situated on the southern declivity of Mount Parnas' sus, forty-five miles north-west from Cor' inth, and eight and a half miles from the nearest point of the Corinthian Gulf, was the seat of the most remarkable oracle of the ancient world. Above Del' phi arose the two towering cliffs of Parnas' sus, while from the chasm between them flowed the waters of the Castalian spring, the source of poetical inspiration. Below lay a rugged mountain, past which flowed the rapid stream Plis' tus; while on both sides of the plain, where stood the little city, arose steep and almost inaccessi le precipices. (Map No. I.)

a. 1068 B. C.

b. 752 B. C.

6. 682 B. C.