THE HISTORY OF ALCOHOL. 237 



For Dionysos was one of the greatest gods of Greece. At the 

 vintage in the autumn all was fun and jollity, and in his honor 

 rude, humorous plays were acted by the country people. Hence 

 developed the " comedy," so named from kw/xos, the country cart 

 from which the actors at first held forth. In the spring, at the 

 opening of the new wine, occurred the great Dionysiac festival. 

 Every one flocked to Athens, from the countryside, from all 

 Greece, from the whole civilized world ; and there, in the great 

 Theater of Dionysos, the marble seats of which are still standing 

 under the walls of the Acropolis, were acted the glorious tragedies 

 of ^schylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the noblest masterpieces 

 of ancient literature. 



But after Athens and Sparta, and later Thebes, had wasted 

 their resources and exhausted their energies against each other, 

 a new and fierce and semibarbarous race came down from the 

 mountains and conquered the whole of Greece. Under the 

 famous King Philip of Macedon the weak and scattered clans 

 united, learned the art of war, and rapidly overthrew the more 

 civilized and cultivated lowlanders. This marked the end of 

 Grecian temperance. The Macedonian nobles were always heavy 

 drinkers, and toward the end of his career they were encouraged 

 in their habits by the king himself. 



Many stories have been handed down to us about the royal 

 drinking bouts. One, which has passed almost into a byword, 



Dionysos, from the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates. 

 (From The Antiquities of Athens, Stuart and Kevett. 1762.) 



relates to a famous philosopher, who brought a lawsuit, in 

 which he was a party, up before the highest court, the king 

 himself. The case was heard and the judgment given against 

 him. "I appeal," shouted the old man. "Whom do you ap- 

 peal to ? " said Philip, " I am the king ! " "I appeal," said the 

 other, " from Philip drunk to Philip sober." And the next day 



