I 26 ] 



truders, not unfrequently recovered, in time, their old pof- 

 feflions *. Thus was Greece, in its early periods, in a ftate of 

 perpetual outrage and piratical warfare. The moft powerful 

 incentives, indeed, were offered to piracy, in a fea whofe innu- 

 merable iflands and ports afforded fingular opportunity and con- 

 venience for the pratStice ; and, in fad, the eflimation of piracy, 

 as an honourable pradice, long prevailed among the Greeks. 

 Thucydides obferves, that before the reign of Minos (who fitted 

 out a fleet, and exerted himfelf, to clear the feas of plunderers 

 and depredators) all the fliorcs, both of the Continent and the 

 iflands of Greece, were nearly deferted ; the ground was cultivated 

 only at a fecure diftance from the fea ; and there, only, towns and 

 villages were to be found. 



When fomething of civilization, and more fettled forms of 

 government, took place in Greece, it was divided into a vafl: 

 number of fmall ftates or kingdoms, all infpired with a degree 

 of jealoufy and rivalfliip ; all pofl'efled with mutual hatred and 

 animofity ; and all engaged in perpetual hoftilities againft each 

 other. Thefe inveterate contentions, which were diffufed over the 

 whole face of the country, and produced a variety of cruel and 

 fanguinary fcenes, muft have excited ferocious difpofitions in the 

 bofoms of the Greeks, and formed them to a certain feverity of 

 charader. Thefe accidental circumftances,' in their fltuation, 

 which predifpofed them to pay a particular attention to military 



inftitutions 



* See the beginning of the firft book of Thucydides. 



