prefents. For this reafon it is, that the fcripture often fpeaks of the prefents which the princes received from their fubjects. It was alfo an ancient cuftom among the Romans, to give as a reward a certain quantity of lands. Independently of their particular demefns, these princes levied fubfidies on their people. On fome occafions they even impofed new taxes. It was likewife ufual to exact tributes from conquered people *. It appears that these last tributes were paid in kind 1. For the reft the riches of these first fovereigns could not be very confiderable; it is fufficient, to be convinced of this, to confider, that Greece, in the heroic times, was without trade, without arts, without navigation, deftitute, in a word, of all the resources which procure abundance and riches to a country". It is true, history speaks of one Minyas, King of the Phlegians, whose revenues were fo confiderable, that he furpaffed all his predeceffors in riches. They add, that he was the first King of Greece who built an edifice on purpose to deposite his treafures". This prince might reign about 1300 years before Chrift; 50 before the expedition of the Argonauts ". They have likewife boasted of the riches of Athamas, King of Orchomene. Athamas was grandfon of Deucalion, and fon-in-law of Cadmus P. I will not difpute these facts, but shall only fay, that we ought to understand them with proper reftrictions. Minyas and Athamas might be looked upon as very rich, comparatively with the other kings of Greece their cotemporaries. But as these sovereigns were not then opulent, it follows that we ought not to apply to Plin. 1. 18. fect. 3. init. See likewise Tacit. de mor. Germ. c. 15. h Iliad. 1. 9. v. 156. i Odyff. I. 13. V. 14. 15. Apollod. 1. 2. p. 85.; Diod. 1. 4. p. 255.; Pauf. 1. 9. c. 37. init. Plut. t. 2. p. 294. D. in See Thucyd. 1. 1. n. 11.; Herod. 1. 8. n. 137. I fhall have an opportupity of examining this more particularly when I come to speak of the state of arts and commerce of the Greeks, in the ages we are at present employed about. Book 4. " Pauf. 1. 9. c. 36. See Mezriac. in ep. Ovid. t. 2. p. 56. &c. Apollod. 1. 1. p. 31.; Hygin. fab. 139. the the riches of Minyas and Athamas the idea we at this time annex to thefe expreffions. I have taken care to remark in the first part of this work, that in Egypt and Afia the throne was hereditary я. The fame maxim prevailed in Greece. The fceptre passed from father to fon, and commonly to the eldeft. Superftition alone had fometimes the power to make them reject the prefumptive heir. This appears by the difcourfe which Homer makes Telemachus hold with Neftor, who demands of that young prince, whether the people had taken an averfion to him in confequence of fome anfwer of the oracle. If then we except fome particular circumftances", the order of the crowns paffing from the father to the fon, feems to have been conftantly and generally followed. We need only cast our eyes on the Grecian history to be convinced of this truth. I think I ought not to finish this article without speaking of oracles, and the influence which they had on the conduct of the people. The queftion of Neftor to Telemachus, which I have juft now mentioned, brings us naturally to it. We should never have done were we to cite all the examples which ancient history affords of the power and effect of oracles. We may find traces fufficiently plain in the short account I have given of the principal events that happened in Greece, during the ages that we are at present running over. These facts fhew us to what a degree the Greeks were then blinded with that fuperftition. It will fuffice to: fay, that nothing was done without the advice of the oracles. They confulted them not only for great enterprises, but even in private affairs. Were they to make war or peace, 9 Book 1. Odyff. 1.1. v. 387. 1. 16. v. 401.; Arift. polit. 1. 3. c. 14. p. 357. A.; Thucyd. 1. 1. p. 12. lin. 71. The genealogy which Homer makes of the fceptre of Agamemnon, Iliad. 1. 2. v. 46. & 101. is alone fufficient to prove that the crown was hereditary among the Greeks: but this fact is elsewhere established by a number of paffages of the fame poet. Apollod. 1. 3. p. 202.; Diod. 1. 5. p. 376. lin. 96. 1. 6. fragm.; Apud. Syncell. p. 179. C. Odyff. 1. 3. v. 215. See alfo 1. 16. v. 96. & Euftath. p. 1464. lin. 25. "See art. 2. & 3. to found a new city, avert fome calamity, establish new laws, reform ancient ones, change the conftitution of the ftate, they had recourfe to the oracle. Its anfwer was the fupreme authority which determined and influenced the people. If a private perfon wanted to marry, undertake a voyage, had he an important affair in hand, was attacked with a dangerous diftemper, he went and confulted the o racle. In a word, nothing more generally influenced the conduct of the ancient people of Greece. 'Tis to the oracles that we must ascribe most of the great events we read of in the firit ages in the Greek hiftory; events, for the most part, fingular, unexpected, and of which we find no example in the latter ages. We fee among those of which we are now fpeaking, revolutions and fudden changes, which can neither be attributed to policy nor the force of arms. From whence then did they fpring? From oracles. They even directed the manner of bringing about thefe events. They threw that uncertainty on them which we always look on with aftonishment. We ought alfo to afcribe to oracles the new forts of worship which we know to have been introduced at different times into Greece. All these movements fprung from a principle unknown to us at prefent. In this confifts the most effential and most remarkable difference of the genius of former nations, and those of this time. At this day among the people of Europe, policy and the force of arms are the only means ambition can employ. We very feldom fee fuperftition feduce the minds to fuch a pitch as to occafion revolutions; but in the times I mention, it was always this feduction that occafioned revolutions, and decided the fate of empires. And what means did they ufe to effect this feduction? The oracles. If we wanted evidences to prove the rudeness and ignorance of the Greeks in the heroic times, their credulity, and their respect for oracles, are proofs more than fufficient * See Flat, de leg. 1, 6. p. 869. A. & 1,8. init. to to demonftrate that truth. This fpecies of fuperftition has no force or empire but proportionally to the grofs ignorance of the people: witnefs the favages, who do not undertake any thing till they have previously confulted their divines and their oracles. ARTICLE VIII. Of the ancient customs and first laws of Greece. Efore we enter on the subject, it is proper to recapitu Before late fummarily what I have faid in the first part of this work, of the origin and distinction of laws. I have shewn that, originally, the people were governed by customs, which, by length of time and long ufage, acquired the force of laws. We have called thefe forts of laws, na tural lavis. I have faid afterwards, that to make up for the little extent and precifion of these natural laws, the first kings had made different regulations, to which we have given the name of pofitive laws. I have distinguished these positive laws into two claffes; into political laws, and civil laws. The reader cannot have forgot, that under the name of political laws, I have comprifed all the rules which relate to the fupporting the civil government of the fociety, and properly form the conftitution of the ftate. Such are the laws on the obligations of marriage; the penal laws, those which prefcribe the form and ceremonies of public worship, &c. I have included under the name of civil laws, all those established to regulate the particular interests of the different members of the fociety. Such are the laws concerning fales, commerce, contracts, &c. I have faid also, that the inftitution of political laws was prior to the inftitution of civil laws. We fhall discover from what history acquaints us of the establishment and progrefs of the laws of Greece, the truth of all these propofitions. We know of no pofitive laws in Greece more ancient H than than thofe of the Athenians. They were indebted for them to Cecrops, who afcended the throne about 1582 years before Chrift. It is true, before this prince, Phoroneus had given fome laws to the inhabitants of the Argolide. But there are none of them preferved. Befides, it does not appear, that the other people of Greece have ever borrowed any thing from the Argives; whereas the laws of Athens have been adopted, not only in almost all the cities of Greece, but even in the greatest part of Europe ›. We must then fix the epoch of the establishment of positive Taws in Greece to the year 1532 before the Chriftian æra, the time of the arrival of Cecrops in Attica. But it is ́not natural to fuppose, that till the time of this prince, 'Greece was without any kind of law. We ought then to conclude, that, till that time, the greatest part of the Greeks knew no other laws but thofe tacit conventions, which I have affirmed to have been the bafis and foundation of all focieties, and which I have called natural laws. Having given a particular account of the rules eftablished by Cecrops, in the article of Athens; the reader may have obferved, that all thefe regulations are only political inftitutions; as the institution of marriage, the ceremonies of religion, those of funerals, and the cftablishment of tribunals to judge of crimes and offences. There is no mention made of any ordinance which one can range in the clafs of civil laws. We ought not to be furprised at this. The Athenians, like all the other people of Greece, had not yet applied themfelves to agriculture, the practice of which was not well established in that part of Europe, till towards the reign of Erechtheus, about 170 years after Cecrops. It is at this era we ought to fix the knowFedge and establishment of civil laws among the Greeks. y Adfunt Athenienfes, unde humanitas, doétrina, religio, fruges, jura, leges ortae, atque in omnes terras diftributae putantur. Cicero pro L. Flacco, 1. 26. t. 5. p. 261.; Lucretius, 1. 6. init.; Macrob. fat. 1. 3. c. 12. p. 413. 4 Marm. Oxon. ep. 12. See part 1. book 1. See what I have faid on this fubject, part 1, book 1. Here |