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THE

NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY,

Aster, Lenox and Tiiden

Foundations.
1905

33541

THE HISTORY

ОР

GREECE.

CHAP. I.

Of the earliest state of Greece.

THE first notices we have of every country are fabulous and uncertain. Among an unenlightened people every imposture is likely to take place, for ignorance is the parent of credulity. Nothing therefore which the Greeks have transmitted to us concerning their earliest state can be relied on. Poets were the first who began to record the actions of their countrymen, and it is a part of their art to strike the imagination even at the expence of probability. For this reason, in the earliest accounts of Greece, we are presented with the machinations of gods and demi-gods, the adventures of heroes and giants, the ravages of monsters and dragons, and all the potency of charms and enchantments. Man, plain historical man, seems to have no share in the picture, and while the reader wanders through the most delightful scenes the imagination can offer, he is scarce once presented with the actions of such a being as himself.

It would be vain therefore, and beside the present purpose, to give an historical air to accounts which were never meant to be transmitted as true. Some writers indeed have laboriously undertaken to separate the truth from the fable, and to give us an unbroken narrative from the first dawning of tradition to the display of undoubted history; they have levelled down all mythology to their own apprehen sions: every fable is made to look with an air of probability. Instead of a golden fleece, Jason goes in pursuit of a great treasure; instead of destroying a chimera, Bellerophon reclaims a mountain; instead of an hydra, Hercules overcomes a robber.

Thus the fanciful pictures of a strong imagination are taught to assume a serious severity, and tend to deceive the reader still more, by offering, in the garb of truth, what had been only meant to delight and allure him.

The fabulous age, therefore, of Greece must have no place in history. It is now too late to separate those parts which may have a real foundation in nature from those which owe their existence wholly to the imagination. There are no traces left, to guide us in that intricate pursuit. The dews of the morning are past and it is vain to attempt continuing the chace in meridian splendor. It will be sufficient, therefore, for us to observe, that Greece, like most other countries, of whose origin we have any notice, was at first divided into a number of petty states, each commanded by its own sovereign. Ancient Greece, which is now the south part of Turkey in Europe, is bounded on the east by the Egean sea, now called the Archipelago; on the south, by the Cretan or Candian sea; on the west by the Ionian sea; and on the north by Illyria and Thrace. Of such very narrow extent, and so very contemptible with regard to territory was that country which gave birth to all the arts of war and peace; which produced the greatest generals, philosophers, poets, painters, architects and statuaries that the world ever boasted; which overcame the most powerful monarchs, and dispersed the most numerous armies that ever were brought into the field, and at last became the instructor of all mankind.

It is said in scripture that Jayan, the son of Japeth, was the father of all these nations that went under the general denomination of Greeks. Of his four sons, Elisha, or Ellas, is said to have given name to the Exλis, a general name by which the Greeks were known. Tharsis, the second son, is thought to have settled in Achaia; Chittim settled in Macedonia; and Dodanim, the fourth son, in Thessaly in Epirus. How they portioned out the country, what revolutions they experienced, or what wars they maintained, are utterly unknown. And indeed the history of petty barbarous states, if known, would hardly recompence the trouble of enquiry. In those early times, kingdoms were but inconsiderable: a single city, with a few leagues of land, was often honoured with that magnificent appellation; it would therefore embarrass history to enter into the domestic privacy of every little state, as it would be rather a subject for the economist than the politician. It will suffice to observe, that Sicyon is said to have been the most ancient kingdom of Greece. The beginning of this petty

sovereignty is placed by historians in the year of the world one thousand nine hundred and fifteen; before Jesus Christ two thousand eighty-nine, and before the first Olympiad, one thousand three hundred and thirteen. The first king was Egialeus. Its duration is said to have been a thousand years.,

The kingdom of Argos, in Peloponnesus, began a thousand and eighty years before the first Olympiad, in the time of Abraham. The first king was Inachus.

A. M.

2148.

The kingdom of Mycænæ succeeded. The seat of government was translated thither from Argos by Perseus, the grandson of Acrisius, the last king of that country, whom Perseus unfortunately slew. The kings who reigned at Mycane after Perseus, were Electryon, Sthenlus, and Eurystheus; the latter of whom was driven out by the Heraclide, or the descendants of Hercules, who made themselves masters of Peloponnesus.

The kingdom of Athens was first founded by
A. M.

Cecrops, an Egyptian. This prince, having setled 2448.
in Attica, divided the whole country subject to him
into twelve districts, and also established a court for judg-
ing causes, entitled the Areopagus. Amphictyon, the third
king of Athens, procured a confederacy among the twelve
states of Greece, which assembled twice a year at Ther-
mopyla, there to offer up common sacrifices, and to con-
sult for the common interest of the association. Theseus,
one of the succeeding kings of this state, united the twelve
boroughs of Cecrops into one city. Codrus was the last of
this line, he, devoted himself to death for his people. The
Heraclidæ having made an irruption as far as the gates of
Athens, the oracle declared, that they should be conquer-
ors whose king should fall in this contest. To take the
earliest advantage, therefore, of this answer, Codrus dis-
guised himself in the habit of a peasant, and provoking one
of the enemies, soldiers, was killed by him. Whereupon,
the Athenians sent a herald to demand the body of their
king, which message struck such a damp into the enemy,
that they departed without striking another blow.
Codrus, the title of king was extinguished among the Athen-
ians. Medon, his son, was set at the head of the common-
wealth, with the title of Archon, which signifies chief go-
vernor. The first of this denomination had their places
for life, but the Athenians growing weary of a government
which represt their love of freedom, they abridged the

terms of the Archon's power to ten years, and at last made the office elective every year.

A. M.

The kingdom of Thebes was first founded by Cadmus. This hero coming by sea from the coast of 2549. Phoenicia, settled in that part of the country which

was afterwards called Boeotia. He there built the city of Thebes which, from his own name, he called Cadmæa, and there fixed his seat of power and dominion. The adventures of his unhappy posterity, Laius, Jocasto, Oedipus, Eteocles, and Polynices, make a shining figure among the poetical fictions of that period.

A. M.

The kingdom of Sparta, or Lacedæmon, is supposed to have been first instituted by Lelix. Helena, the tenth in succession from this monarch, is equally famous for her beauty and infidelity. She had not lived above three years with her husband, Menelaus, before she was carried off by Paris, the son of Priam, king of Troy. This seems to be the first occasion in which the Greeks united in one common cause. The Greeks took Troy after a ten years siege, much about the time that Jephthah was the judge in Israel. Corinth began later than the other cities above-mention d to be formed into a state, or to be governed by its kings. It was at first subject to Argos and Mycanx; 2628. but Sisiphus, the son of Æolus, made himself master of it; and when his descendants were dispossessed, Bachis assumed the reins of power. The go- 2930. vernment after this became aristocratical, a chief magistrate being annually chosen by the name of Prytanni. At last Cypselus having gained the people, usurped the supreme authority, which he transmitted to his son Periander, who was ranked among the seven wise men of Greece, from the love he bore to learning, and his encou ragement of its professors.

A. M.

The kingdom of Macedonia was first governed by Caranus, descended from Hercules, and subsisted from his time till the defeat of Perseus by the Romans, a space of six hundred and twenty-six years.

Such is the picture Greece offers in its earliest infancy. A combination of little states, each governed by its respec-tive sovereign, yet all uniting for their mutual safety and general advantage. Still, however, their intestine contentions were carried on with great animosity; and, as it happens in all petty states under the dominion of a single commander, the jealousies of the princes were a continual cause of discord. From this distressful situation, those states, by degrees, began to emerge: a different spirit began to

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