liberty those whom poverty had placed in bondage; and he repealed all the laws of Dráco, except those against murder. He next arranged all the citizens in four classes, according to their landed property; the first class alone being eligible to the highest civil offices and the highest commands in the army, while only a few of - the lower offices were open to the second and third classes. The latter classes, however, were partially relieved from taxation; but in war they were required to equip themselves for military service, the one as cavalry, and the other as heavy armed infantry. 26. Individuals of the fourth class were excluded from all offices, but in return they were wholly exempt from taxation; and yet they had a share in the government, for they were permitted to take part in the popular assemblies, which had the right of confirming or rejecting new laws, and of electing the magistrates; and here their votes counted the same as those of the wealthiest of the nobles. In war they served only as light troops, or manned the fleets. Thus the system of Solon, being based primarily on property qualifications, provided for all the freemen; and its aim was to bestow upon the commonalty such a share in the government as would enable it to protect itself, and to give to the wealthy what was necessary for retaining their dignity;-throwing the burdens of government on the latter, and not excluding the former from its benefits. 27. Solon retained the magistracy of the nine archons, but with abridged powers; and, as a guard against democratical extravagance on the one hand, and a check to undue assumptions of power on the other, he instituted a Senate of Four Hundred, and founded or remodelled the court of the Areop' agus. The Senate consisted of members selected by lot from the first three classes; but none could be appointed to this honor until they had undergone a strict examination into their past lives, characters, and qualifications. The Senate was to be consulted by the archons in all important matters, and was to prepare all new laws and regulations, which were to be submitted to the votes of the assembly of the people. 28. The court of the Areop' agus, which held its sittings on an eminence on the western side of the Athenian Acrop' olis, was composed of persons who had held the office of archon, and was the supreme tribunal in all capital cases. It exercised, also, a general superintendence over education, morals, and religion; and it could suspend a resolution of the public assembly which it deemed fraught with folly or injustice, until it had undergone a reconsideration. Such is a brief outline of the institutions of Solon, which exhibit a mingling of aristocracy and democracy, well adapted to the character of the age, and the circumstances of the people. They exhibit less control over the pursuits and domestic habits of individuals than the Spartan code, but at the same time they show a far greater re gard for the public morals. 29. The legislation of Solon was not followed by the total extinction of party spirit, and ere long the three prominent factions in the State renewed their ancient feuds. Pisis' tratus, a wealthy kinsman of Solon, who had supported the measures of the latter by his eloquenee and military talents, had the art to gain the favor of the populace, and constitute himself their leader. When his schemes were ripe for execution, he one day drove into the public square, his mules and himself disfigured with recent wounds inflicted by his own hands, but which he induced the multitude to believe had been received from a band of assassins, whom his enemies, the nobility, had hired to murder the friend of the people. An assembly was immediately convoked by his partizans, and the indignant crowd voted him a guard of fifty citizens to protect his person, although warned by Solon of the pernicious consequences of such a measure. 30. Pisis' tratus took advantage of the popular favor which he had gained, and, arming a larger body, seized the Acrop' olis, and made himself master of Athens. But the usurper, satisfied with the power ef quietly directing the administration of government, made no changes in the constitution, and suffered the laws to take their or dinary course. The government of Pisis' tratus was probably a less evil than would have resulted from the success of either of the other factions; and in this light Solon appears to have viewed it, although he did not hesitate to denounce the usurpation; and, rejecting the usurper's offers of favor, it is said that he went into voluntary exile, and died at Sal' amis.' (559 B. C.) Twice was Pisis' tratus driven from Athens by a coalition of the opposing factions; but as the latter were almost constantly at variance with each other, he finally returned at the head of an army, and regained the sovereignty, which he held until his death. Although he tightened the reins of government, yet he ruled with equity and mildness, courting popularity by a generous treatment of the poorer citizens, and gratifying the national prido by adorning Athens with many useful and magnificent works. 1. Sal' amis is an island in the Gulf of Ægina, near the coast of At' tica, and twelve or fifteen miles south-west from Athens. (See Map No. I.) 31. On the death of Pisis' tratus (528 B. C.), his sons Hip' pias, Hippar' chus, and Thes' salus succeeded to his power, and for some years trod in his steps and prosecuted his plans, only taking care to fill the most important offices with their friends, and keeping a standing force of foreign mercenaries to secure themselves from hostile factions and popular outbreaks. After a joint reign of fourteen years a conspiracy was planned to free At' tica from their rule, at the head of which were two young Athenians, Harmódius and Aristogeíton, whose personal resentment had been provoked by an atrocious insult to the family of the former. Hippar' chus was killed, but the two young Athenians also lost their lives in the struggle. X. EXPULSION 32. Hip' pias, the elder of the ruling brothers, now that he had injuries to avenge, became a cruel tyrant, and thus alienated the affections of the people. The latter finally obtained aid from the Spartans, and the family of the Pisistratids was driven from Athens, never to regain its former ascendency; although but a few years after its expulsion, Sparta, repenting the course she had taken, made an ineffectual effort to restore Hip' pias to the throne of which she had aided in depriving him. Hip' pias then fled to the court of Artapánes, governor of Lyd' ia,' then a part of the Persian dominions of Daríus, where his intrigues reatly contributed to the opening of a war between Greece and Persia. 33. Nearly half a century before this time, Cro' sus, king of Lyd' ia, had conquered the Grecian colonies on the coast of Asia Minor; but he ruled them with great mildness, leaving them their political institutions undisturbed, and requiring of them little more than the payment of a moderate tribute. A few years later they experienced a change of masters, and, together with Lyd' ia, fell, by conquest, under the dominion of the Persians. But they were still allowed to retain their own form of government by paying tribute to their conquerors; yet they seized every opportunity to deliver them 1. Lyd' ia was a country on the coast of Asia Minor, having Mys'ia on the north, Phryg'la on the east, and Caria on the south. The Grecian colony of lónia was embraced within Lyd'ia and the northern part of Cária, extending along the coast. (Map No. IV.) 2. Modern Persia, a large country of Central Asia, extends from the Caspian Sea on the north, to the Persian Gulf on the south, having Asiatic Turkey on the west, and the provinces of Affghanistan and Beloochistan on the east. For the greatest extent of the Persian empire. which was during the reign of Darius Hystas' pes, see the Map No. V. 3. Cre' sus, the last king of Lyd' ia, was famed for his riches and munificence. Herod' otus (1. 30-33, and 36, &c.) and Plutarch (life of Solon) give a very interesting account of the visi. of the Athenian Solon to the court of that prince, who greatly prided himself on his riches, and vainly thought himself the happiest of mankind. selves from this species of thraldom, and finally the Ionians sought the aid of their Grecian countrymen, making application, first to Sparta, but in vain, and next (B. C. 500) to Athens, and the Grecian islands of the E' gean Sea. ΧΙ. ΙΟΝΙΟ REVOLT. 34. The Athenians, irritated at this time by a haughty demand of the Persian monarch, that they should restore Hip' pias to the throne, and regarding Daríus as an avowed enemy, gladly took part with the Tónians, and, in connection with Euboe' a,' furnished their Asiatic countrymen with a fleet of twentyfive sail. The allied Grecians were at first successful, ravaging Lyd' ia, and burning Sar' dis,' its capital; but in the end they were defeated near Eph' esus;' the commanders quarrelled with each other; and the Athenians sailed home, leaving the Asiatic Greeks divided among themselves, to contend alone against the whole power of Persia. Still the Iónian war was protracted six years, when it was terminated by the storming of Milétus,* (B. C. 494,) the capital of the Iónian confederacy. The surviving inhabitants of this beautiful 1. Eube' a, (now called Neg' ropont',) a long, narrow, and irregular island of the Æ' gean Sea, (now Grecian Archipel' ago,) extended one hundred and ten miles along the eastern coast of Bœótia and At' tica, from which it was separated by the channel of Euripus, which, at one place, was only forty yards across. The chief town of the island was Chal' cis, (now Neg' ropont',) on the western coast. (Map No. I.) 2. Sar' dis, the ancient capital of Lyd' ia, was situated on both sides of the river Pactolus, a southern branch of the Her' mus, seventy miles east from Smyr' na. In the annals of Christianity, Sar' dis is distinguished as having been one of the seven churches of Asia. A miserable village, called Sart, is now found on the site of this ancient city. (Map No. IV.) 3. Eph' esus, one of the Ionian cities, was situated on the south side, and near the mouth of the small river Cays'ter, on the coast of Lyd' ia, thirty-eight miles south from Smyr' na. Here stood a noble temple, erected in honor of the goddess Diana; but an obscure individual, of the name of Heros' tratus, burned it, in order to perpetuate his memory by the infamous notoriety which such an act would give him! The grand council of Iónia endeavored to disappoint the incendiary by passing a decree that his name should not be mentioned, but it was divulged by the historian Theopom' pus. A new temple was subsequently built, far surpassing the first, and ranked among the seven wonders of the world. When St. Paul visited Ephesus, still the cry was, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians" (Acts, xix. 28, 34); but the worship of the goddess was doomed speedily to decline, and here St. Paul founded the principal of the Asiatic churches. But war, the ravages of earthquakes, and the desolating hand of time, have com. pleted the ruin of this once famous city. "The glorious pomp of its heathen worship is no longer remembered; and Christianity, which was there nursed by apostles, and fostered by general councils, until it increased to fulness of stature, barely lingers on in an existence hardly visible." (Map No. IV.) 4. Milėtus, the most distinguished of the Ionian cities of Asia Minor, and once greatly celebrated for its population, wealth, commerce, and civilization, was situated in the province of Cária, on the southern shore of the bay into which the small river Lat' mus emptied, and about thirty-five miles south from Ephesus. St. Paul appears to have sojourned here a few days; and here he assembled the elders of the Ephesian church, and delivered unto them an affectionate farewell address. (Acts, xx. 15, 38.) Milétus is now a deserted place, but contains the ruins of a few once magnificent structures, and still bears the name of Palat, or the Palaces. (Map No. IV.) and opulent city were carried away by order of Daríus, and settled near the mouth of the Tígris. Daríus next turned his resentment against the Athenians and Euboe' ans, who had aided the Iónian revolt, meditating, however, nothing less than the conquest of all Greece (B. C. 490). The events of the "Persian War" which followed, will next be narrated, after we shall have given some general views of cotemporary history, during the period which we have passed over in the preceding part of the present chapter. COTEMPORARY HISTORY: 1184 to 490 B. C. [I. PHOENICIAN HISTORY.]-1. The name Phoenicia was applied to the north-western part of Palestine and part of the coast of Syria, embracing the country from Mount Carmel, north, along the coast, to the city and island Arádus,—an extent of about a hundred and fifty miles. The mountain ranges of Lib' anus and Anti-Lib' anus formed the utmost extent of the Phoenician territory on the east. The surface of the country was in general sandy and hilly, and poorly adapted to agriculture; but the coast abounded in good harbors, and the fisheries were excellent, while the mountain ranges in the interior afforded, in their cedar forests, a rich supply of timber for naval and other purposes. 2. At a remote period the Phoenicians, who are supposed to have been of the race of the Canaanites,a were a commercial people, but the loss of the Phoenician annals renders it difficult to investigate their early history. Their principal towns were probably independent States, with small adjacent territories, like the little Grecian republics; and no political union appears to have existed among them, except that arising from a common religious worship, until the time of the Persians. The Phoenicians occupied Sicily before the Greeks; they made themselves masters of Cy' prus, and they formed settlements on the northern coast of Africa; but the chief seat of their early colonial establishments was the southern part of Spain, whence they are said to have extended their voyages to Britain, and even to the coasts of the Baltic. 3. It is also related by Herod' otus, (B. IV. 42,) that at an epoch which is believed to correspond to the year 604 before the Christian era, a fleet fitted out by Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, but manned and commanded by Phoenicians, departed from a port on a. Niebuhr's Lect. on Ancient Hist. i. 113. |