who preferred *tyranny to freedom. Their number was thus soon and considerably increased. Whilst Pisistratus was providing himself with money, and even when he was stationed at Marathon, the Athenians of the city appeared to be under no alarm: but when they heard that he had left his post, and was advancing towards them, they began to assemble their forces, and to think of obstructing his return. Pisistratus continued to approach, with his men, in one collected body: he halted at the temple of the Pallenian † Minerva, opposite to which he fixed his camp. Whilst he remained in this situation, Amphylutus, a priest of Acarnania, approached him, and, as if by divine inspiration 85, thus addressed him in heroic verse: The cast is made; the net secures the way; they came in tears, to solicit forgiveness. "You must have been mistaken," said Pisistratus; " my wife did not go abroad yesterday."-T. * As this is the first time the word tyranny occurs, it may be necessary to inform the English reader, that in its literal sense it means the government of one person, that is, a monarchy. † Pallene was the name of a village in Attica, and was famous for the residence of the Pallantides, the fifty sons of Pallas, who were all killed by Theseus, when he came to take possession of his paternal inheritance. See Plutarch's Life of Theseus. 85 In the sacred processions in early times the deity used to be carried about in a shrine, which circumstance was always H 3 LXIII. Pisistratus considered the declaration as prophetic, and prepared his troops accordingly. The Athenians of the city were then engaged at their dinner; after which, they retired to the amusement of dice, or to sleep 6. The party of Pisistratus, then making the attack, soon com 86 pelled always attended with shouts and exclamations, and the whole was accompanied with a great concourse of people. The ancient Greeks styled these celebrities the procession of the P'Omphi, and from hence were derived the words μ and pompa. These originally related to a procession of the oracles, but were afterwards made use of to describe any cavalcade or show. In the time of Herodotus the word seems, in some degree, to have retained its true meaning, being by him used for the oracular influence. He informs us that Amphylutus was a diviner of Acarnan, and that he came to Pisistratus with a commission from heaven. By this he induced that prince to prosecute a scheme which he recommended. Bryant. 86 To sleep.]-In all the warmer climates of the globe, the custom of sleeping after dinner is invariably preserved. It appears from modern travellers, that many of the present inhabitants of Athens have their houses flat-roofed, and decorated with arbours, in which they sleep at noon. We are informed, as well by Herodotus, as by Demosthenes, Theophrastus, and Xenophon, that, anciently, the Athenians in general, as well citizens as soldiers, took only two repasts in the day. The meaner sort were satisfied with one, which some took at noon, others at sunset. The following passage from Horace not only proves the intimacy which prevailed betwixt Mæcenas, Virgil, and Horace, but satisfies us, that at a much later period, and in the most refined state of the Roman empire, the mode of spending the time after dinner was similar to that here mentioned: Lusum it Maecenas, dormitum ego Virgiliusque. pelled them to fly. Pisistratus, in the course of the pursuit, put in execution the following sagacious stratagem, to continue their confusion, and prevent their rallying: he placed his sons on horseback, and directed them to overtake the fugitives; they were commissioned to bid them remove their apprehensions, and pursue their usual employments. LXIV. The Athenians took him at his word, and Pisistratus thus became a third time master of Athens 7. He by no means neglected to secure his authority, by retaining many confederate troops, and providing pecuniary resources, partly from Attica itself, and partly from the river Strymon 88 The 87 Third time master of Athens.]-Pisistratus, tyrant as he was, loved letters, and favoured those who cultivated them. He it was who first collected Homer's works, and presented the public with the Iliad and Odyssey in their present form.— Bellanger. Cicero, in one of his letters to Atticus, subsequent to the battle of Pharsalia, thus expresses himself: "We are not yet certain whether we shall groan under a Phalaris, or enjoy ourselves under a Pisistratus."-T. 88 River Strymon.-This river is very celebrated in classical story: there are few of the ancient writers who have not made mention of it; at the present day it is called, at that part where it empties itself into the Egean, Golfo di Contessa. Upon the banks of this river, Virgil beautifully describes Orpheus to have lamented his Eurydice. Amongst the other rivers memorable in antiquity for their production of gold, were the Pactolus, Hermus, Ganges, Tagus, Iber, Indus, and Arimas pus.-T. The children of those citizens, who, instead of retreating from his arms, had opposed his progress, he took as hostages, and sent to the island of Naxos; which place he had before subdued, and given up to Lygdamis. In compliance also with an oracular injunction, he purified Delos 89: all the dead bodies, which lay within a certain distance of the temple, were, by his orders, dug up, and removed to another part of the island. By the death of some of the Athenians in battle, and by the flight of others with the Alcmæonides, he remained in undisturbed possession of the supreme authority *. LXV, Such was the intelligence which Croesus received concerning the situation of Athens. With respect 89 Purified Delos.]-Montfaucon says, that the whole island of Delos was consecrated by the birth of Apollo and Diana, and that it was not allowable to bury a dead body in any part of it. It should seem from the passage before us, that this must be understood with some restriction.-T.— Montfaucon's authority is Thucydides iii. p. 359. Strabo x. p. 436. Spanheim's notes on the hymn of Callimacus in Delos, p. 320. *The following inscription was engraven on the statue of Pisistratus, at Athens: "Twice I have been sovereign, twice have the people of Athens expelled and twice have they recalled me. I am that Pisistratus, wise in council, who collected the scattered books of Homer which were before sung in detached pieces. That great poet was our fellow citizen, for we Athenians founded Smyrna." See the Analecta Vet. Poet. Græc. vol. iii, p. 216. respect to the Lacedæmonians, after suffering many important defeats, they had finally vanquished the Tegeans. Whilst Sparta was under the government of Leon and Hegesicles*, the Lacedæmonians, successful in other contests, had been inferior to the Tegeans alone: of all the Grecian states, they had formerly the worst laws; bad with regard to their own internal government, and intolerable to strangers. They obtained good laws, by means of the following circumstance: Lycurgus 9°, a man of distinguished character at Sparta, happened to visit the Delphic oracle. 90 * Herodotus writes Hegesicles, which is agreeable to the Ionian dialect; but Pausanias and the Attic writers call it Agasicles.-Larcher. 9° Lycurgus.]—For an account of the life and character of Lycurgus, we refer the reader, once for all, to Plutarch. His institutes are admirably collected and described by the Abbé Barthelemy, in his Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis, vol. iv. 110.—T.—The life of Lycurgus was the first which Plutarch published, as he himself observes in the life of Theseus. He seems to have had a strong attachment to the Spartans and their customs, as Xenophon likewise had. For, besides this life, and those of several other Spartan chiefs, we have a treatise of his on the laws and customs of the Lacedæmonians, and another of laconic apophthegms. He makes Lycurgus in all things a perfect hero, and alleges his behaviour as a proof that the wise man, so often described by the philosophers, was not a mere ideal character, unattainable by human nature. It is certain, however, that the encomiums bestowed upon him and his laws, by the Delphic oracle, were merely a contrivance between the Pythoness and himself; and some of his laws, for instance, that concerning the women, were exceptionable.-Langhorne, |