Carians, and islanders of the Ægean, who at first made the art of navigation subservient to piracy rather than commerce; and the Thracians, the Amazons, and other barbarous tribes from the north, made frequent incursions into the exposed Hellenic provinces. To resist these incursions the celebrated Amphictyonic league was founded by Amphictyon, a descendant of Deucalion: the federation was constantly receiving fresh accessions, until it included the greater part of the Grecian states; deputies from which met alternately at Delphi and Thermop'ylæ.

Like Europe in the middle ages, Greece at this period was infested by bands of robbers, who deemed plunder an honorable profession, and some of whom exercised the most atrocious cruelties on the hapless passengers. The adventurers who acquired most fame by their exertions in destroying the freebooters were Perseus, Her'cules, Bellerophon, Theséus, and the Dioskoúroi Cas'tor, and Pollux, whose romantic histories form a very large portion of Grecian mythology.

The most celebrated events in this period of uncertain history are, the Argonautic expedition, the two Theban wars, the siege of Troy, the return of the Heracleídæ, and the migration of the Ionian and Eolian colonies to Asia Minor. It is not easy to discover the real nature and objects of the Argonautic expedition: it appears certain that in the thirteenth century before the Christian era, a Thessalian prince, named Jáson, collected the young chivalry of Greece, and sailed on an expedition, partly commercial and partly piratical, in a ship named Argo, to the eastern shores of the Euxene sea. The Argonauts fought, conquered, and plundered; they planted a colony in Col'chis, and their chief brought a princess of that country home to Thessaly. But though impenetrable darkness veils the nature of this expedition, there can be no doubt of its results. From the era of the Argonauts, we may discover among the Greeks not only a more daring and more enlarged spirit of enterprise, but a more decisive and rapid progress toward civilization and humanity.

The worship of Diony'sus or Bac'chus was established at Thebes by Cad'mus; and the Phoenician mythology is full of the miseries and crimes that debased and ruined the family of Cad'mus. E'dipus, the most remarkable of his descendants, having been removed from the throne for an involuntary series of crimes, his sons, Eteoc'les and Polyníces, seized the kingdom, and agreed to reign in turn. Eteoc'les refused to perform the agreement; and Polyníces being joined by six of the most eminent generals in Greece, commenced the memorable war of "the Seven against Thebes" (*B. c. 1225). The result was fatal to the allies; Eteocles and Polyníces fell by mutual wounds; and Créon, who succeeded to the Theban throne, routed the confederate forces, five of whose leaders were left dead on the field. After the lapse of about ten years, the sons of the allied princes, called the Epigʻoni, marched against Thebes to avenge the death of their fathers. After a sanguinary conflict, the Thebans were routed with great slaughter, their leader slain, and their city captured. In consequence of these wars the Thebans were long odious to the rest of the Greeks, and they repaid this hatred by infidelity to the Hellenic cause during the Persian

war.

When the family of Pélops became powerful in southern Greece, they appear to have attempted to retaliate the injuries that had driven their ancestors into exile. In one of their plundering expeditions to the Phrygian coast, a young prince named Podar'kes was carried away captive, and detained until a large ransom had been paid for his liberation. From this circumstance, he was afterward named Príam, or "the purchased." At a subsequent period, Príam having become king of Troy, sent his son Páris, or Alexan'der, as an ambassador to the Peloponnesian princes, probably to negotiate a peace. He seduced Hel'en, the beautiful wife of Meneläus, king of Sparta, and conveyed her, with some valuable treasures, to Troy. The injured husband applied to his countrymen for redress. A large army, raised by the confederate kings, was placed under the command of Agamemnon, the brother of Menelaus.

Troy was at this time the capital of a powerful kingdom, possessing numerous allies and subjects. It mustered, according to Homer, an army of fifty thousand men; its walls could defy the imperfect machines then used in sieges, and its citadel was impregnable. Against this powerful kingdom the Greek princes undertook their expedition, with an army of about one hundred thousand men, conveyed in eleven hundred and eighty-six ships. These vessels were of very rude construction, having only halfdecks, and stones instead of anchors; the soldiers acted as rowers, and when they reached their destination the ships were hauled upon land.

The war was protracted ten years, during which several battles were fought under the walls of Troy; and we find that the military weapons used were in every respect similar to those employed by the ancient Egyptians. The city was finally taken by stratagem, and razed to the ground; most of the inhabitants were slain or taken, and the rest were forced to become exiles in distant lands. The victors, however, suffered nearly as much as the vanquished. During the protracted absence of the chiefs, usurpers had seized many of their thrones, aided by faithless wives and the rising ambition of young men. These circumstances necessarily led to fierce wars and intestine commotions, which greatly retarded the progress of Grecian civilization.

SECTION VII.-Grecian History from the Trojan War to the Establishment of the Greek Colonies in Asia.

FROM B. C. 1183 TO B. c. 994.

We have seen how the posterity of Pélops, by various means, obtained possession of the entire Peloponnésus, to the exclusion of the more ancient dynasties. Their rivals were the Perseída, who claimed, through their ancestor Per'seus, the honors of a divine descent, and who could boast of having in their family such heroes as Per'seus, Beller'ophon, and Her'cules. From the last-named hero a powerful branch of the Perseid family received the name of the Heracleídæ : they were persecuted by the Pelop'id sovereigns, and driven into exile. After having been hospitably received by the Athenians, they retired to the mountainous district of Dóris, and became masters of that wild and

barren province. The Dorian mountains were ill-calculated to satisfy men whose ancestors had inherited the fertile plains of the Peloponnésus. When the consequences of the Trojan war filled Greece with confusion, the Heracleída were encouraged to make an effort to regain their ancient rights; twice they attempted to break through the Corinthian isthmus, but were each time repulsed with considerable loss. Warned by these misfortunes, they abandoned the design of entering the Peloponnésus by land, and resolved to try their fortune in a naval expedition.

Their rendezvous was Naupac'tus (Lepanto), on the Corinthian gulf, where they were joined by a body of Ætolians, and by several of the Dorian tribes. By secret intrigues, a party was gained in Lacedæ'mon. A favorable gale, in the meantime, wafted their armament to the eastern coast of the Peloponnésus. Lacónia was betrayed to the invaders; Ar'golis, Messénia, E'lis, and Córinth, submitted to their authority; the mountainous districts of Arcádia, and the coast province, Ægialeía (afterward Achaía), were the only parts of the peninsula that remained unsubdued. The revolution was effected with little bloodshed; but not without great oppression of the ancient inhabitants, many of whom emigrated, while those who remained were reduced to slavery.

The associated victors divided the conquered provinces among themselves by lot. Aristodémus, who obtained Lacónia, happening to die, the kingdom was secured for his twin children, Eurys'thenes and Prócles, and from that time forth Sparta was governed by two kings. The commander of the Pelop'id forces at the isthmus, instead of attempting to recover his kindgom, invaded Ægialeía, expelled the Ionians, and gave that province the name of Achaía, which it ever after retained (B. c. 1104). Many of the fugitives sought refuge in Attica, where they C. were hospitably entertained by the Athenians, who were alarmed by the success and ambition of the Dorians. A still greater number passed over into Asia Minor, and founded the colonies of Iónia, Æólia, and Cária.

The jealousy of the Athenians was soon proved to be derived from reasonable fears. In the reign of Códrus the Dorians passed the boundaries of Attica, and seized the territory of Meg'ara, on the northern coast of the Saronic gulf. A cruel war ensued; Códrus in vain attempted to drive the intruders from their stronghold: at length, hearing that a superstitious rumor prevailed among them, that they would be successful as long as they refrained from injuring the Athenian king, he entered their camp in disguise, provoked a quarrel with a Dorian soldier, and suffered himself to be slain. On recognising the body, the superstitious Peloponnesians, despairing of success, abandoned their hostilities; and the Athenians, out of respect for his memory, declared that none of the human race was worthy to succeed Códrus, and therefore abolished royalty altogether (B. c. 1068).

Two of the Pelop'idæ, having unsuccessfully traversed the northern part of Greece in search of new settlements, finally crossed the Hellespont eighty-eight years after the taking of Troy, and established themselves along the coast of the ancient kingdom of Priam. Their colonies gradually extended from the peninsula of Cyzicus on the Propontis to the

mouth of the river Her'mus, which delightful country, together with the island of Les'bos, received the name of Æólia. The younger sons of Códrus, dissatisfied with the abolition of royalty, collected a numerous band of Athenians and Ionian exiles, with which they crossed the sea, and established themselves along the coast from the river Her'mus to the promontory of Posideíon, expelling the ancient inhabitants. The islands of Chíos and Sámos were subsequently seized, and all these countries were united by the common name of Iónia, or, as it was sometimes called, the Pan-Ionian confederacy.

The renewal of hostilities between the Athenians and Dorians led to the establishment of a third series of Greek colonies in Asia (B. c. 994). The Dorians having been driven from their stronghold in Meg'ara, were ashamed to return to the Peloponnésus ; part of them sailed to the islands of Creté and Rhodes, already peopled by Doric tribes; the rest settled in the peninsula of Cária, to which, in honor of their mother-country, they gave the name of Doris.

At a later period, the tide of emigration turned toward the west, and colonies were established in Sicily, and on the coasts of southern Italy. The Greeks seldom made settlements in the interior of the country; for most of their colonies were designed to extend commerce rather than conquests. Most of these colonies were independent states, and their institutions were generally improvements on those of the parent-country. Owing to their freedom and their superiority to their neighbors in the arts of civilized life, many of the colonies not only equalled but greatly surpassed their parent states in wealth and power.

CHAPTER IX.

THE HISTORY OF

THE GRECIAN STATES AND COLONIES,

BEFORE THE PERSIAN WAR.

SECTION I-Topography of Sparta.

THE city of Spar'ta, called also Lacedæ'mon, a name properly belonging to the suburbs, was built on a series of hills, whose outlines are varied and romantic, along the right bank of the Eurótas, within sight of the chain of Mount Taygétum. We have already mentioned, that it was not originally surrounded by walls; but the highest of its eminences served as a citadel, and round this hill were ranged five towns, separated by considerable intervals, occupied by the five Spartan tribes. The great square or forum, in which the principal streets of these towns terminated, was embellished with temples and statues : it contained also the edifices in which the senate, the ephori, and other bodies of Spartan magistrates, were accustomed to assemble: there was besides a splendid portico, erected by the Spartans from their share of the spoils taken at the battle of Plata'a, where the Persians were finally overthrown. Instead of being supported by pillars, the roof rested on gigantic statues, representing Persians habited in flowing robes.

On the highest of the eminences stood a temple of Miner'va, which, as well as the grove that surrounded it, had the privileges of an asylum. It was built of brass, as that at Delphi had formerly been.

The greater part of these edifices had no pretensions to architectural beauty; they were of rude workmanship, and destitute of ornament. Private houses were small and unadorned; for the Spartans spent the greater part of their time in porticoes and public halls. On the south side of the city was the Hippodromos, or course for horse and foot races; and at a little distance from that, the Platanis'tæ, or place of exercise for youth, shaded by beautiful palm-trees.

SECTION II.-Legislation of Lycurgus, and Messenian Wars.

FROM B. C. 880 TO B. c. 500.

THE DORIAN Conquerors of Lacónia formed themselves into a permanent ruling caste, and reduced the greater part of the inhabitants of the country to a state of vassalage, or rather perfect slavery. During two centuries the Spartans were engaged in tedious wars with the Argives,