military education greatly contributed". Their laws and institutions were revised by Lycurgus', who is erroneously supposed to have invented them. Two Kings of limited power, (the Agids and Proclids, or Eurypontids,) descended from Eurysthenes and Procles, the sons of the Heraclide chief Aristodēmus, had the priesthoods and command of the army, and presided over a Senate of twenty-eight citizens past the age of sixty, chosen by the rest of the people for life. All questions of importance were laid by the Senate before the Assembly of the Spartan people, in which none but magistrates were allowed to speak. Five Ephors, annually elected, watched over the conduct of the citizens, even kings being obliged to give account to them; and, like the Venetian Council of Ten, their rule soon became an intolerable despotism. The trade and manufactures of Laconia were carried on by the Lacedæmonian Periœcians, who, though belonging to the conquered race, retained their freedom, and were trusted with arms. They had, however, to pay tribute for their lands, and were long excluded from any share of the government and from all military command. The rest of the original inhabitants of the country were reduced to slavery, and called Helots. These farmed the lands of the Spartans on fair terms, served as light troops, and were often rewarded with freedom; but, on the whole, they were harshly and cruelly treated. The Spartans attacked their Dorian neighbours in Mes 6 Their meals were frugal, and eaten in common. The black broth of Sparta has become famous. 7 Uncle and guardian of king Charilaus. He is said to have divided the lands among the citizens,- a measure which, in truth, must date from the conquest of the country,-and to have invented iron money, to check the increase of trade and luxury. 8 That is, dwellers in the country. They could not intermarry with the Spartans. sēne, B. c. 743; and, after two desperate and sanguinary wars, forced them either to emigrate', or become Helots, B. c. 668. They also conquered part of the Argive territory, but failed in their attempts upon Arcadia. ATHENS. B. C. 1045. Death of Codrus. The Archontate. 683. Nine Annual Archons. 621. Laws of Draco. 594. Laws of Solon. 560. Usurpation of Pisistratus. 527. Death of Pisistratus. 510. Expulsion of the Pisistratids. Reforms of Clisthenes. The communities of Attica are said to have been united under one system of government by king Theseus. Codrus, the last of the kings, devoted himself to save his country, when the Dorians tried to advance beyond the Peloponnēsus, as it had been prophesied that the army which lost its leader should conquer, B. c. 10452. Athens now became an aristocratical republic, at the head of which a descendant of Codrus ruled as Archon or President. At the end of three centuries, this office was no longer held for life, but only for ten years. At length, B. c. 683, there was a further change, and nine annual Archons were chosen out of the whole body of the nobles. 3 9 The first struggle lasted twenty years, and ended with the surrender of the stronghold of Ithōme. The next generation of Messenians, headed by the hero Aristomenes, and assisted by the Argives and Arcadians, tried to throw off the Spartan yoke, B. c. 685. Owing to the treachery of an Arcadian king, Aristomenes was forced to retreat to Mount Eira, which he held for some years, till it was taken by surprise. 1 Messana in Sicily, originally called Zancle, was seized and occupied by some of these emigrants. 2 He disguised himself, insulted a Dorian, and was slain. 3 The first was the Eponymus, who gave his name to the year; the The nobles governed harshly. They were in the habit of lending money; and if their debtors could not pay, they were sold for slaves. As judges they were partial; an evil which Draco when Archon, B. c. 621, tried to correct by means of fixed laws. These were too severe to be enforced; and the people became so indignant, that the nobles, who were weakened by dissension, allowed Solon to be made Archon, with full power to reform the state, B. c. 594. Solon relieved the debtors, and deprived the nobles of all their privileges but the priesthoods; and, classing the people according to property, confined the chief offices to the rich. The Assembly of the people was to choose the magistrates, and freely to discuss whatever was laid before it by the Council, a body of four hundred members elected yearly by lot out of the four tribes'. The ten courts of justice were served by the six thousand members of the Helica, who were also elected yearly by lot. The Heliæa could overrule the decrees of the Assembly, if they violated the constitution. He moreover increased the powers of the court of Areopagus, in which all who had honourably served as Archons sat as judges. It had the care of the morals of the citizens, and the decision of all matters connected with religion. Cases of murder, perjury, and bribery, were tried there. These reforms neither pleased the selfish nobles, nor the second, the King, who presided over religious matters; the third, the Polemarch, or commander in chief; the rest were the Thesmothetæ, or judges. After the reforms of Clisthenes, the Archontate gradually became little more than an empty honour. He lowered the rate of interest, raised the nominal value of money, and set free those who had become slaves. 5 The tribes were made local by Clisthenes, who increased them to ten, and the Council to five hundred. Mars' Hill, the court before which St. Paul was brought. levellers who had longed to seize their estates. The struggles of faction were renewed, and the leader of the people, the Codrid Pisistratus, became the Tyrant' of Athens, B. C. 560. Though twice expelled, he, and his sons Hippias and Hipparchus after his death, B.C. 527, ruled with great lenity. But the murder of Hipparchus, owing to a disgraceful private quarrel, rendered Hippias suspicious and cruel; on which his enemies, the exiled Alemæonids, took advantage of the discontent which arose, and, with the help of Sparta, the whole family of the Pisistratids were driven out of Attica, B. c. 510. The Spartans, however, soon repented of what they had done. Democracy made rapid strides in Attica under Clisthenes the Alcmæonid, who, among other changes, made the Archons eligible by lot, and introduced the Ostracism3. They joined with the Athenian nobles in expelling him 10; but when they proceeded to set up an oligarchy, he was recalled by the people, who rose in arms, and drove out Cleomenes, the Spartan king. But for the opposition of the Corinthians, the Spartans would have attempted to restore Hippias, who now went over to Asia to seek for Persian aid. A Tyrant was a demagogue whom the people invested with absolute power. At that time all the Doric states, except Argos and Sparta, and most of the colonies, were thus governed. Descended from Alcmaon, the last perpetual Archon. The banishment of an over-powerful citizen for ten years by an arbitrary decree of the people. It was so called because the votes were written on pot-sherds. 10 It was easy to expel an Alcmæonid, as the family had once been guilty of sacrilege and murder towards the followers of Cylon, a discontented noble who, some time before the usurpation of Pisistratus, had tried to make himself tyrant. SECTION II. THE PERSIAN WARS. B. C. 546. Cyrus takes Sardis. 521. Accession of Darius. 499. Ionian revolt. The Burning of Sardis. The Greek colonies in Asia Minor were eventually subdued by Croesus, the wealthy king of Lydia, who in his turn was conquered, and Sardis his capital taken, B. c. 546, by Cyrus, king of the Persians (a people which had lately revolted against the Medes, and made them subjects), who afterwards reduced the kingdoms of Babylon and Egypt1. On the European side, Thrace was conquered and Macedon made tributary by Darius, who in the year 521 B. C. had been raised to the Persian throne. This prince also invaded Scythia; but its wandering tribes kept out of his reach, and obliged him to hasten back to the Danube for want of food. The Scythians, eager to cut off his retreat, urged the Asiatic Greeks to break up the bridge of boats there which they were guarding for him, and thus recover their freedom. The Athenian Miltiades, who was then tyrant of the Thracian Chersonese, was for doing it but the other chiefs were dissuaded by Histiæus of Miletus2. For this service Histiæus was rewarded by Darius, who notwithstanding dreaded his crafty disposition, and detained 1 Cyrus, who afterwards took Babylon, and allowed the Jews to rebuild the Temple, was succeeded by his son, the mad Cambyses, the conqueror of Egypt. On the death of the latter, Smerdis, a deceased brother, is said to have been personated by one of the Magi. Seven Persian noblemen conspired to kill the pretender, one of whom, Darius, the son of Hystaspes, obtained the vacant crown. ? He reminded these tributary chiefs, that they wanted the aid of Persia to keep down their own subjects. |