was foon fpread. Codrus is known. The Heraclidæ ima. gining, from the answer of the oracle, that the Athenians would be victorious, retired without giving battle". After the death of Codrus, the Athenians would have given him a fucceffor. But not finding any to compare with him, they abolished royalty. By this means the government of Athens was changed from monarchical, to republican. We will speak afterwards of the confequences of this revolution . I ARTICLE II. ARGO s. Have before obferved, that Argos was one of the most ancient kingdoms of Greece. I have likewife faid that the reigns of the firft fucceffors of Inachus deferved no attention. We therefore pass them over in filence to come to Gelanor. He was the laft of the race of the Inachida who enjoyed the crown. Gelanor had not reigned many months, before Danaus, at the head of an Egyptian colony, came to difpute the crown with him. The people were chofen to determine their difpute. Till that moment Danaus had had no commerce with the Argives. Every thing feemed united in favour of Gelanor. Danaus was scarce known to the people over whom he would reign. Gelanor, on the contrary, was the issue of the family which for a long time had been in poffeffion of the government, The motive which made them prefer Danaus is very fingular. At the time that they both met to attend the decifion of the people, a wolf fell upon an herd of cows which was paffing under the walls of "Juftin. loco cit.; Val. Max. 1. 5. c. 6. p. 489.; Pauf.1. 7. c. 25. Juftin. 1. 2. c. 7.; Vell. Patercul. I. 1. c. 2.; Paufan. 1. 4. c. 5. fub fin. y Part 3. book 1. chap. 5. 2 See part 1. book 1. Marm. Oxon. ep. 9.; Herod. 1. 2. n.91.; Apollod. 1. 2. p. 63.; Diod. 1. §. P. 376. Pauf. 1. 2. c. 16, the the city. He attacked the bull who marched at their head and overthrew him. The Argives took this accident for a decifive augury. They thought that Gelanor was reprefented by the bull, a tame animal, and Danaus by the wolf, a favage one. And on this principle they determined in favour of Danaus . As foon as he faw himself invested with fovereign authority, he thought of the means of preferving it. With this view he built a citadel in the city of Argos . Danaus edu cated in Egypt, where the arts were very flourishing, would impart them to his new fubjects. He fhewed them the way to meliorate their foil, and make it more fertile. This prince excelled all the kings who had preceded him; and that in fo diftinguifhed a manner, that, in confideration of it, the people changed the name which they had always borne, and did him the honour to adopt his . To Danaus, fucceeded Lynceus his fon-in-law 8; but there is nothing to be related of his reign, nor of those of his fucceffors, till we come to Acrifius. It is in the reigh of this prince that they place the arrival of Pelops in Greece ". He was fon of the famous Tantalus, King of Phrygia. A war with Ilus, fon of Tros, the fame who gave to Troy the name of Ilium, obliged Pelops to quit Afia, and to go into Greece with his fifter. Their arrival in a very little time occafioned great changes in the affairs of that part of Europe. Thucydides remarks, that Pelops eafily obtained great credit in Greece, because he brought there from Afia riches unknown before that time to the natives of the country. To which Plutarch adds, that the number of his children contributed to it as much as the greatness of his treasures. For his daughters were married to the most powerful princes of Greece, and he found means to procure fovereignties for each of his children. Pelops was more Pauf.1. 2. c. 19. Strabo, 1.8. p. 570. Euripid. apud Strab. 1. 8. p. 570. & Apollod. 1. 2. p. 67.; Pauf 1. 2. c. 6. Marth. p. 286. i Ibid. k lbid. 1 ibid. over a steady and prudent prince, and knew how to conquer most of the people of Peloponnefus. He was even fo far honoured and refpected, that they gave his name to all that peninfula. I shall have occafion in the sequel to speak of the posterity of Pelops. Let us return to Acrifius. No one is ignorant that the end of this prince was most unlucky. He loft his life by the hand of Perfeus his grandfon. By his death, Perfeus found himself King of Argos. But the manner by which he afcended the throne, gave him a diftafte to his kingdom. He condemned himself to quit his country, and engaged Megapentes king of Tyrinthus, his coufin, to change his kingdom with him ". The kingdom of Argos loft by the death of Acrifius almost all its glory. From Megapentes, who left his crown to Anaxagoras his fon, there is nothing certain in the fucceffion of the kings of Argos. All that we know, is, that Cylarabis was the laft of them. In the reign of this prince, Oreftes, son of Agamemnon, feized on the kingdom of Argos, and united it to that of Mycena, ARTICLE III. MY CEN Æ, Hough the kingdom of Mycena be the leaft ancient and the leaft confiderable in Greece; yet to leave nothing to be wished for relative to the ancient ftate of that part of Europe, I fhall examine its hiftory, but that very briefly. What we have read of the exchange made. between Perfeus and Megapentes, made me place here what I have to say on this fubject. The kingdom of Mycena owes its foundation to Perfeus. Tyrinthes was the capital of that new kingdom which that prince had just acquired; but, for reasons at prefent unknown, he refolved to change his refidence. As he m Apollod. 1. 2. p. 77.; Pauf. 1. 2. C, 16. Pauf. ibid. c. 18. Strabo, 1. 8. p. 579. looked looked for a proper place to build a new city, the hilt of his fword fell off. This accident appeared to him an happy prefage. He thought he there faw the will of the gods in a fenfible manner, and because μúns in Greek fignified the hilt of a fword, he built a city there, and called it Mycenæ P. Such were the motives by which they were commonly determined in these remote ages. Perfeus, a prince equally famous by his exploits and by his travels, is one of the most celebrated heroes of antiquity . But I believe I fhall be difpenfed with from entering into any detail of his actions. What history has tranfmitted to to us is fo disfigured by, fabulous and contradictory relations, that one cannot tell what to make of them. I fhall therefore content myself with just taking notice of his voyages in the article of navigation. The fucceffors of Perfeus were Mastor, Electrion, Sthe nelus, and Euryftheus. This laft was grandfon of Pelops by his mother Nicipper, whom Sthenelus had married. No one is ignorant of the labours with which he loaded Hercules his coufin. The family of Perfeus ended in the perfon of Euryftheus. Having made war in Attica, he perished there with all his children . At his death the crown of Mycena paffed into the family of Pelops. Upon going on his expedition against the Athenians, Eurytheus had intrusted the government of his dominions to his uncle Atreus, fon of Pelops. Atreus was, no fooner apprised of the death of his nephew, and the defeat of his army, than availing himself of the confternation which that event had thrown his countries into, he feized on the throne of Mycenae. This prince is but too well known by the horrible confequences of his implacable hatred of Thyeftes his elder brother. We know the caufe of it. To revenge himself of the difhonour he believed he had received, P Pauf. 1. 2. c. 16. 9 Herod. 1. 2. n. 91. t. 7. n. 61. et 150. ;. Apollod. 1. 2.; Hygin. fab. 64. ; Ovid. Met. 1. 4. Apollod. 1. 2. p. 78. 79. f Thucyd. 1. 1. p. 8.; Apollod. 1. 2. p. 122. : Diod. 1.4 p. 301. 302. t Thucyd. 1. 1. p. 89.; Diod. 1. 4. p. ZZ2 Atreus Atreus made Thyeftes eat his own children ". This unhappy father had been intimate with his own daughter Pelopia . From this incest he had a son whom he called Egyfthus. Egyfthus revenged his father by flaying Atreus. This death placed Thyeftes on the throne of Mycenæ. Agamemnon his nephew drove him ont: but by the intrigues of his wife Clytemneftra, he himself fome time af terward fell beneath the strokes of Egyfthus, who feized on the crown. This ufurper in his turn perished by the hand of Oreftes, who did not even spare his own mother. The crime of Oreftes did not go unpunished. Without fpeaking of the remorse of conscience, meant by the revenging furies with which the ancient tragedies have represented him tormented, he was accused before the people by Perilas, who, as coufin-german of Clytemnestra, demanded vengeance for her death. Oreftes was obliged to go to Athens to fubmit himself to the judgment of the Areopagus. 'Tis one of the most famous that this tribunal is faid to have given. Though fable has strangely disfi gured the circumstances, it is certain that this judgment was the epocha of a change of the utmost consequence in the criminal proceedings of the Athenians. For this reafon I will lay the facts before the reader. I leave to his own difcernment the care of difentangling the truth, from what has been added to it by the taste of an age too fond of the marvelous. The Areopagus difcuffed the affair of Oreftes with great attention. They were divided in opinion at the beginning; but in the end the number of the judges who were for condemning Oreftes, carried it by one vote over those who would have him acquitted. This unfortunate prince was going to be condemned; when Minerva joined herself, fay they, to the judges who were for pardoning, and by Pauf. 1. 2. c. 18.; Hygin. fab. 87.88. * Idem, ibid. Odyff. 1. 4. v. 91. 92. 1. 11. v. 408. &c.; Virgil. Æneid. 1. 11. v. 226. & • Pauf. 1. 8. c. 34. that |