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• risk of a battle, they agreed to chufe an Etolian and an Elean, who, by fingle combat, fhould terminate the quarrel of the two pretenders. The Etolian got the victory; fo Oxylus was acknowledged King a.

It was thus that Peloponnefus went from the family of Pelops to the defcendents of Hercules. That part of Greece was not the only one that felt the effects of this revolution. The rest of the countries fuffered almost as much from the confequences of this event. The people who were first attacked, threw themfelves upon their neighbours: these here reciprocally carried defolation into the countries whose vicinity made them most convenient to them. The ftrongest drove out the weakest. Like the waves of an agitated fea, this people, fo to speak, flowed back one upon another. The Achaians were the first upon whom the storm fell. Forced to quit their country, they threw themselves upon the Ionians, whom they obliged to quit theirs. These last had recourfe to Melanthus, who had juft afcended the throne of Athens. Touched with the misfortunes of his ancient countrymen, this prince gave them a retreat in his kingdom f.

The return of the Heraclidæ into Peloponnefus is one of the most remarkable epochs of the Grecian hiftory. The confequences were fatal to the whole nation, as I shall fhew, when I come to speak of the state of arts and sciences in Greece during the course of the ages we are going over.

ARTICLE VII.

Obfervations on the ancient government of Greece. WE have feen from the expofure I have made of the beginnings of the Grecian hiftory, that the monarchical government was the first that took place among these people. This is a truth acknowledged by all the writers of antiqui

Strabo, ib. Pauf. 1. 5. c. 4. init.

Id. 1. 2. c. 13. init.; Herod. 1. 2. n. 171.; Diod. fragm. 1. 6.; Apud Syncell. p. 179.; Strabo. 1. 9. p. 602. Strab. 1. 9. p. 622.; Pauf. 1. 7. c. I.

VOL. II.

G

ty

ty. These famous republics, Athens, Thebes, Corinth, .. &c. were not formed but till pretty late. Let us examine what were the rights, the power, the offices, and authority of the first fovereigns of Greece. We fhall fee by the details we are going to make, how fhapeless and rude the ancient government of these people was.

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One ought to apply to the first kings of Greece, what I have faid of the firft fovereigns of Afia. They were very diftant from the idea we now join to the name of king. The extent of their dominions, their domains, and their power, in no refpect answered to the title they bore; a fmall city, a town, a few leagues of ground, were honoured with the name of kingdom. There were not then any confiderable cities in Greece. The greatest part of the inhabitants lived in the country. Thus when the hiftory of those times fpeaks of great monarchies, and of powerful kings, we ought always to understand it in comparison of the neighbouring ftates. Argolide which formed the kingdom of Agamemnon, was only a very fmall province. There are in France many eftates more confiderable, by the demefns that depend upon them, than this kingdom fo boasted of in Grecian antiquity.

The power of thofe kings was not much more extensive than their territories. The affair of Hypermnestra, daughter of Danaus, proves how very bounded was the authority of the Grecian fovereigns.,

Danaus was provoked at his daughter, because she had not executed an order he had given her to ftab her husband the first night of their marriage. He durft not punish her by his own authority. He cited her before the people, as guilty of difobedience: Hypermnestra was not only acquitted of the accufation, but was even honoured by the Argives, by being made priestels of Juno their principal divinity i.

Arift. polit. 1. 1. c. 10.; Dionyf. Halicarn. 1. 5. p. 336.; Strabo, 1. 7.p. 496. Thucyd. 1. 1. p. 11. lin. 70.

Pauf. 1. 2. c 19.; Eufeb. Chron. 1. 2. n. 582. It feems in thefe times that the King did not name the high priefteffes; but that they were elected by the people. See Iliad. 1. 6. v. 3cc,

We

- We likewife know that the kings of Attica, fo far from having fovereign authority, were often expofed to the caprices and violences, of their people. It was not uncommon: to see them take up arms against their prince, and often to: declare war against him. The will of the kings was not their rule. They governed themselves according to their own wills, and often came to blows with each other. They did not apply to the King but when the common danger obliged them to affemble: then indeed they fubmitted them-felves to his conduct.

What Homer tells us of the form of government of the kingdom of Ithaca, of that of the Pheacians, and of fome others, may ferve as a rule to judge of the rest of the ftates of Greece. We ought only to look upon the first sovereigns of this country, as chiefs of a kind of republic, where all the affairs were decided by a plurality of voices. The ancient government of the Greeks was, properly fpeaking, a medley, a compound of monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy ". The grandees had great authority, and enjoyed very extenfive privileges. In Homer, Alcinous, King of the Phea cians, fpeaking to the great men of the ftate, fays in plain terms," There are twelve chiefs who command a people, " and I am the thirteenth •. When Thefeus would make Athens the centre of the authority of the whole government, and bring under its jurifdiction all the cities and towns of Attica, he found great oppofition from the rich and most powerful of his kingdom, who were afraid of being stript of the best part of their authority P.

The people had likewife their rights. They held publie

* Plut. in Thef. p. 10. F.

1 Thucyd. 1. 2. p. 107. 108.

m Though, for reasons I fhall give in another place, I think we ought to look upon the ifle of the Pheacians as belonging to Afia, rather than Europe; yet finding great conformity between the government of the fe people and that of the Greeks, I thought I could strengthen the article I am at prefent treating of by examples drawn from the Pheacians.

n Arift. polit.1. 3. c. 14.; Dion. Halic. 1. 5. p. 337.

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Odyff. 1. 8. v. 390. These twelve chiefs, or princes were something like what the twelve peers of France were formerly.

P Plut. in Thef. p. 11.

G 2

affemblies

affemblies to deliberate, on affairs of ftate. The kings de-.. termined nothing of themfelves. They had a council compofed of the principal perfons of the nation : they there propofed what they judged proper. If their project was approved of, they put it in execution after having declared it to the af fembly of the people. This is what Ariftotle explains very diftinctly " It is eafy to remark," fays he, " by the an"cient forms of government very exactly copied and written "by Homer, that the kings proposed to the people what "had been refolved in council." We fhall again have occafion to return to this fubject, when we speak of the military difcipline of these ancient times.

Befides, the people lived in very great liberty, and almost in independence, without any obligation of obeying the fovereign, if he proposed what they thought was unjust or contrary to the laws of the ftate, to the received customs, or the interefts of particulars. The conftitution of government among the ancient inhabitants of Germany, was perfectly conformable to that of ancient Greece", and confequently as defective.

It appears further that it was the people who disposed of dignities. In the Odyffee, Ulyffes addreffing his fpeech to the Queen of the Pheacians, fays to her: "Great Queen, I "come to embrace your knees, thofe of the King, and thofe "of all thofe princes who are feated at your table. May the "gods grant them the favour of leaving to their children. "after them the riches and honours which the people have "heaped upon them." The power of the first kings of Greece was then extremely limited; their title amounted to

Ody 1. 8. init.

Iliad. 1. 2. v. 53. ; Odyff. 1. 3. v. 127.; Euftath. ad Iliad. 1. 1. v. 144. We muft take care to diftinguish assemblies from councils; they were two very different things. Assemblies,' Ayopai, were general, all the people had a right to be there. Councils, Béxar, were particular affemblies composed of chosen perfons.

In moral. 1. 3. c. 5. t. 2. p. 32. See alfo Dion. Halic. 1. 2. p. 86.

Book 5. chap. 3. Our ancient feudal government is exactly like the government of Greece in the heroic times. They knew no more then in one country than the other: barbarism reigned equally.

"Tacit. de mor. Germ. c. 11.

L. 7. V, 146, &c,

.. little more than a fort of pre-eminence over the other citizens of the state. Here is the whole amount of their prerogatives.

They had a right to assemble the people each in their own district. They voted firft, heard the complaints, and de termined the differences which happened among their fubjects. But the principal office of thefe kings, and that in which truly confifted the prerogatives of their dignity, was the command of the troops in time of war, and the fuperintendance of religion. They prefided at facrifices, public games, and holy combats. In Homer, the kings always did the office of facrificators. The Greeks were fo thoroughly convinced that the high priesthood could not be exercised but by their kings, that even in the cities that changed their monarchical government to republican, he who prefided over the mysteries and affairs of religion, had the title of king, and his wife that of queen". It was the fame thing among the Romans; in fpite of the averfion and contempt which these haughty republicans kept up for whatever bore the name of king, yet they had at Rome king of the facrifices .

The revenue of the kings was of the fame nature as that of private persons. It confifted in lands, woods, and above all in flocks c. The only difference between kings and pri vate persons was, that the kings had these things in larger quantities. The people even fhewed their gratitude in no other way but by making them prefents of this kind. The Athenians, to reward Thefeus for the fervices he had done them, gave him a certain quantity of land and inclosures •. Indeed it was the cuftom in thofe remote times, for the people to fhew their efteem and gratitude for their princes by

Arift. polit. 1. 3. c. 14. p. 357. B.; Ibid. c. 15. init,

z Arift. ibid.; Demofth. in Neaeram. p. 873.; Strabo, 1. 1. p. 43. 1. 14. p. 38.; Plut. t. 2. p. 279. C.

a Demofth. loco cit.; Pollux. 1.8. c. 9. fegm. 96.; Heraclid. in Polit.

b Cicero de divin. 1. 1. n. 40.; Dion. Halicarn. 1. 5. p. 278.

Odyff. 1. 14. v. 98. &c.; Pauf. 1. 4. c. 36.; See Meziriac in ep. Ovid. t.

2. p. 319.

Iliad. 1.6. v. 194. l. 9. v. 573.

Plut. in Thef. p. 10. E. The people in this refpect treated heroes like the gods, for the gods had lands confecrated to them.

prefents.

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