that means made the votes equal. In confequence, Oreftes was acquitted of the accufation. From that time, whenever there was an equality of voices, they decided in favour of the accused, by giving him what they call the fuffrage of Minerva ɛ. The reign of Oreftes was glorious and flourishing. By his marriage with Hermione, daughter of Menelaus, he inherited the kingdom of Sparta. I have already observed, that he united the crown of Mycena to the kingdom of Argos i. Tifamenes his fon fucceeded him, and only wore the crown three years. It was in his reign that the kingdom of Mycena ended by the invafion of the Heraclida, who threw themselves into Peloponnefus, made themselves mafters of it, and changed the form of government 1. ARTICLE IV. THE BE S. BEOTIA was the first country of Greece faid to be inhabited; these people formerly called themselves Ectenes, and reckoned Ogyges for their first sovereign ". A violent plague having destroyed almost all the firft colony, the Hyanthes and the Aonians entered Beotia, and settled there. We are entirely ignorant of the events that happened till the time that Cadmus feized on it. Æfchil. in Eumen. v. 743. & 749. Arift. problem. fect. 29. prob. 13.; Hefychius voce los ñpor. See alfo Meziriac, in ep Ovid. t. 2. p. 271.; Bianchiani. ist. univ. p. 318.and the note on Marm. Oxon. p. 353. According to Varro, this custom should be yet more ancient than Oreftes; he fays it took place in the judgment which the Areopagus gave between Mars and Neptune, on account of the murder of Halirothius. Apud. Auguft. de civit. Dei, 1. 8. c. 10. In France the accufed are treated yet more favourably. There muft always be two voices majority for the most rigorous fentence. So among eleven, for example, if there are fix for an heavy punishment, and five for a lighter, the five carry it against the fix, and the court paffes the milder sentence. h Hygin. fab. 121.; Pauf. 1. 3. c. I. k Pauf. 1. 2. c. 18. Ibid. See alfo Strab. 1. q. p. 615, 1 See art. 6. i Art. 2. The -The arrival of this prince is one of the moft celebrated epochas of the Grecian history. It happened in the reign of Amphyction fecond king of Athens, 1519 years be fore Christ. It is of very little consequence to know whether Cadmus was originally an Egyptian or Phenician; that is a point I fhall not examine. It is fufficient to know that he came from Phenicia into Greece. All authors agree in this. The motive of his voyage, according to fome, was an order he received from the King his father, to go in fearch of his fifter Europa whom the Greeks had stolen away. After having been stopped by a tempest a long time, he came into Beotia. His first care was to go and confult the oracle of Delphos, to know in what country he might find Europa. The god, without anfwering his question, bid him fix his abode at a place that fhould be fhewn to him by an ox of a particular colour. On going out of the temple, Cadmus met one, which, after having led him a great way, laid down through wearinefs. Cadmus fixed himself in the very spot, and called it Beotia ". It was not without meeting with great refiftance from the inhabitants, that Cadmus was able to form his new eftablishment. The Hyantes in particular oppofed hem greatly. But a decifive battle obliged them to abandon their country, and to look for a retreat fomewhere else. The Aonians, become wife by the example of their neighbours, voluntarily fubmitted themfelves to the conqueror, who, on their becoming fubjects, permitted them to stay in their own country. From that time they were one and the fame people with the Phenicians'. This is the abridg • Marm. Oxon. ep. 7. P Eufeb. Chron. 1. 2. p. 79. According to an ancient tradition related by Athenaeus, 1.14. p. 658. Cadmus was only one of the principal officers of the King of Sidon. Seduced by the charms of Hermione or Harmione, a musician in the court of that prince, he carried her off, and conducted her into Boeotia. See upon this whole anecdote, le comment. du P. Calmet. ad Gen c. 37. v. 36. Athenaeus took this from the third book of Euhemeres, a famous author, but much cried down by antiquity, and I believe very unjustly, as I will fully fhew hereafter. Apollod.1 3. p. 136.; Hygin. fab. 178.; Pauf. 1. 9. c. 12. Pauf. 1. 9. c. 12. Pauf, 1. 9. c. 5. t Ibid. ment ment of the hiftory of this colony, which fable has strangely altered". When Cadmus faw himself in peaceable poffeffion of the country, he built a fortress, according to the custom of these first conquerors, which, from the name of its founder, was called Cadmeus *. As he wanted to increase the number of his fubjects, he first granted the favour of afylums, and gave an absolute security to all those who would fly for refuge to him . Cadmus fucceeded, and by this expedient made his city extremely populous. But he exposed it at the fame time to the jealousy of his neighbours, in that he protected criminals from the punishment they deserved. There are few colonies from whom the Greeks have drawn fuch great advantages as from this of Cadmus. Greece is indebted to him for alphabetic writing, the art of cultivating the vine, and the forging and working of metals. I fhall take a proper notice of all these particulars in the sequel of this work. Cadmus, after having reigned fome time in Beotia, faw a confpiracy formed which deprived him of the throne. Forced to retire, he looked for an afylum among the Encheleans. These people being at that time at war with the Illyrians, had received an answer from the oracle, which promised them victory if they marched under the conduct of Cadmus. They believed this; and having effectively put that prince at their head, they defeated the Illyrians. In acknowledgment of the fervice which Cadmus had done them, they chofe him king. There he finished his courfe. He died in that country. The moment that Cadmus abandoned his rifing princi pality, Polydore his fon afcended the throne 1. I fhall See Apollod. 1. 3. p. 136.; Ovid. met. 1.3. init.; Palaephat. c. 6.; Bannier, explicat. des fables, t. 6. p. 117. * Strab. 1. 9. p. 615.; Pauf. 1 9. c. 5. y Potter, Archaeolog. Gr. 1. 2. c. 2. p. 213. Romulus availed himself of the fame means to people Rome the more readily. Dion. Halic. 1. 2. p. 88.; T. Livius, 1. 1. n. 8.; Strabo, 1. 5. p. 352.; Plut. in Romulo, p. 22. E. z Apollod. 1. 3. p. 143.; Strabo, 1. 7. p. 503.; Pauf, 1. 9. c. 5. Apollod. & Pauf. Loco cit. VOL. II. b lbid. dwell no longer on the fucceffors of Cadmus. The family of that prince is but too well known by the fhocking miffortunes that overwhelmed it.. The moft tragical catastrophes feem to have been the portion of his fucceffors. They continued to Xanthus the laft King of Thebes. The manner in which he perished, was the reafon that the government changed its form, and became republican. A difference had arifen between the Athenians and Thebans about a city of which they difputed the poffeffion. The troops being in fight of each other, the two armies reflecting, that, in rifking a battle, there must be a great many killed on both fides, they agreed then, to fave the effufion of blood, to oblige the two kings themfelves to decide the quarrel of the two ftates. Timotheus, King of Athens, refufed the challenge, and refigned his royalty. Melanthus, to whom they offered it, accepted it, and killed the King of Thebes. 1 с : Thebans, in lofing their This event, joined to the misfortunes which feemed infeparable from the perfons of their fovereigns, gave the Thebans a diflike to royalty like the Athenians in this particular, who, on the death of Codrus, changed likewise the form of their government. But this change aggrandized the Athenians, whereas the kings, loft all their reputation 4, blic, carried its glory to the highest pitch it was capable of arriving at. Thebes, on the contrary, could only languish for a long time. It was more than feven hundred years before it could arife from its obfcurity. At laft it got out of it by the reputation which the victories of Epaminondas and Pelopidas gave to their arms. This republic played but a fhort fcene, it is true, but a moft brilliant one. But this is too foreign to our fubject to dwell upon it. b Conon apud Phot. narrat. 39. p. 447.; Strabo, 1. 9. p. 602.; Pauf. 1.9. c. 6.; Polyaen. ftrat. I. 1. c. 19.; Frontin. ftrat. 1. 2. n. 41.; Suidas, voce Απάτωρια, t. 2. p. 248. Pauf. 1. 9. c. 6. Pauf. ibid.; Herod.1. 9. n. 85. ARTICLE IT ARTICLE V. LACE DEMON. Tis not with the origin of this eity as with that of Athens, The beginning of Lacedæmon is abfolutely unknown. Its first years have been fo obfcured, that even fable itfelf has not found fufficient matter to embellish it. I fhall not therefore ftop to examine the different traditions which have been handed down to us about the origin of this people, of whom we are not at all inftructed. We must without doubt attribute the caufe of this to the contempt which at all times the Lacedæmonians had for letters . Lelex is looked upon as the first who is faid to have reigned over Laconia. Some fay that he was an Egyptian; others, that he was originally of that country. They place the beginning of his reign 1516 years before the Chriflian æra. Of most of the kings who have poffeffed the throne from this prince to Oreftes, we fcarce know any thing but their names; we can no where find either the time that each prince reigned, or even the number of years which make up the fum of their reigns. Befides the little we know of their actions, prefents nothing worthy of detaining the reader. Yet we must except Oebalus, the eighth king of Sparta from Lelex. This prince efpoufed for his fecond marriage Gorgophona, daughter of Perfeus. That princefs was then widow of Perieres, King of Meffina. This is the first example the Grecian history gives us of a widow's marrying . By this marriage he had Tyndarus. His father declared him heir to his dominions, and he enjoyed them fome time. But Oebalus had had by Nicoftrata, his first wife, a fon called Hippocoon. This prince, affifted by the nobles of the See Bochart, le P. Pezron. le Clerc, bibliotheque univ. t. 6. f Alian. var. hift. 1. 12. c. 50. Id. 1.3. init. Pauf. 1. 1. c. 44. k Id.l. 2. c. 21. 1 Id. 1. 3. c. 1. F 2 country, |