157 



lasgi, they, afterwards, t»y incorporating several barbarian 

 tribes, became as considerable as many other nations: and, 

 that for this, among many other reasons, the Pclasgi, -who 

 were barbarians, never became considerable: probably, as 

 Mr. I'Archer remarks, because they never adopted any 

 other tribe. From this passage, I think, it may also be 

 inferred, that the Hellenic or Greek language never re- 

 ceived any improvement, from the time of the first Ionic 

 descent. 



A very learned and judicious translator of Herodotus 

 thinks, that, if Attica had been originally possessed b}' 

 the Pelasgi, it would have been called Pelasgia; as Pelo- 

 ponnesus had been. And, probably, it would, if the Pe- 

 lasgi had been equally powerful there; and had I'etained 

 the possession of it, as long as they did of Sicyon and 

 Argos: but most of them had been expelled from Attica, 

 in the earliest age to which history reaches. He thinks, 

 also, that the Aones and Tenmices were not Pelasgi: but, 

 may not they have been Pelasgic tribes.'' Strabo tells us, 

 there were many tribes of them, p. 921 ; and quotes Ho- 

 mer's 2^ Iliad, V. 840. And, are we not bound to think 

 them Pelasgi, by the express testimony of HerodoCus, un- 

 contradicted by any ancient historian ? The learned tran- 

 slator thinks Ogyges to have been king of the Aones and 

 Tenmices ; and to have fled with them, into Boeotia, at 

 the time of the flood, which bears his name, 7 I'Archer, 

 270. If so^ he must have reigned in Attica, at the time 

 that the Aones and Teuuiices possessed it; and, conse- 

 quently. 



