plished; their women in the mean time remon strated, that, from their long absence, all posterity would be at an end. To remedy this inconvenience, they detached fifty of their most promising young men from the army to go to Sparta, and to lie promiscuously with all the young women they fancied. The offspring of these virgins were from them called Parthenie, who, finding themselves contemned and slighted by the Spartans on their return, as a spurious brood, joined some years after in an insurrection with the Helotes, but were soon suppressed. Being expelled the state, they went under the conduct of their captain, Philantus, and settled at Tarentum in Italy.

A.M.3319.

After a rigorous subjection of thirty-nine years, the Messenians once more made a vigorous struggle for freedom, being headed by Aristomenes, a young man of great courage and capacity. The success of the first engagement was doubtful, and the Lacedæmonians being advised by the oracle to send for a general from among the Athenians, this politic state sent them Tyrtæus, a poet and schoolmaster, whose chief business was to harangue and repeat his own verses. The Spartans were little pleased with their new leader, but their veneration for the oracle kept them obedient to his commands. Their success, however, did not seem to improve with their duty: they suffered a defeat from Aristomenes, who, losing his shield in the pursuit, their total overthrow was prevented. A second and a third defeat followed soon after; so that the

Lacedæmonians, quite dispirited, had thoughts of concluding a peace upon any terms. But Tyrtæus so inflamed them by his orations and songs in praise of military glory, that they resolved upon another battle, in which they were victorious; and soon after Aristomenes was taken prisoner in a skirmish with fifty of his followers.

The adventures of this hero deserve our notice.Being carried prisoner to Sparta, he was thrown into a deep dungeon, which had been used for the execution of malefactors, and his fifty soldiers with him. They were all killed by the fall, except Aristomenes, who, finding a wild beast at the bottom preying upon a carcass, securing the animal's mouth, he continued to hold by the tail, until the beast made directly to its hole. There finding the issue too narrow, he was obliged to let go his hold; but following the track with his eye, he perceived a glimmering from above, and at length wrought his way out. After this extraordinary escape, he repaired immediately to his troops, and at their head made a successful sally, by night, against the Corinthian forces. Nevertheless, he was once more, shortly after, taken by some Cretans; but his keepers being made drunk, he stabbed them with their own daggers, and returned to his forces. But his single valour was not sufficient to avert the ruin of his country; although, with his own single prowess, he had thrice earned the Hecatomphonia, a sacrifice due to those who had killed one hundred of the enemy hand to hand in battle; yet, the body of his

forces being small, and fatigued with continual duty, the city of Eira, which he defended, was A.M.3340. taken, and the Messenians were obliged to take refuge with Anaxilas, a prince of Sicily. As for Tyrtæus, the Lacedæmonians made him free of their city, which was the highest honour they had in their power to bestow. By the accession of the Messenian country to the territory of Sparta, this state became one of the most powerful of all Greece; and was second only to Athens, which state it always considered with an eye of jealousy.

CHAPTER III.

OF THE GOVERNMENT OF ATHENS, THE LAWS OF SOLON, AND THE HISTORY OF THE REPUBLIC FROM THE TIME OF SOLON TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE PERSIAN WAR.

We now return to Athens. Codrus, the last king of this state, having devoted himself for the good of his country, a magistrate, under the title of Archon, was appointed to succeed him. The first who bore this office was Medon, the son of the late king, who, being opposed by his brother Nileus, was preferred by the oracle, and accordingly invested with his new dignity. This magistracy was at first for life; it was soon after reduced to a period of ten years, and at last became annual; and in this state it continued for near three hundred years. During this inactive government, little offers to adorn the page of history; the spirit of extensive dominion had not as yet entered into Greece; and the citizens were too much employed in their private intrigues to attend to foreign concerns. Athens, therefore, continued a long time incapable of enlarging her power; content with safety amidst the contending interests of aspiring potentates and factious citizens.

A.M.3380.

A desire of being governed by written laws at last made way for a new change in government. For more than a century they had seen the good effects of laws in the regulation of the Spartan commonwealth and, as they were a more enlightened people, they expected greater advantages from a new institution. In the choice, therefore, of a legislator, they pitched upon Draco, a man of acknowledged wisdom and unshaken integrity, but rigid, even beyond human sufferance. It does not appear that any state of Greece was possessed of written laws before his time. However, he was not afraid to enact the most severe laws, which laid the same penalties on the most atrocious and the most trifling offences. These laws punished all crimes with death, and are said not to be writteu with ink, but with blood. This legislator being asked why he punished most offences with death? replied, Small crimes deserve death, and I have no higher for the greatest. But the excessive severity of his laws prevented them from being justly administered. Sentiments of humanity in the judges, compassion for the accused when his fault was not equal to his suffering, the unwillingness of witnesses to exact too cruel an atonement, their fears also of the resentment of the people; all these conspired to. render the laws obsolete before they could well be put in execution. Thus the new laws counteracted their own purposes, and their excessive rigour paved the way for the most dangerous impunity.

It was in this distressful state of the common