170 



Agamemnon, became still more considerable: thus the 

 Hellenic language made a further progress. 



Arcadia was originally peopled by the Pelasgi ; and an- 

 ciently called Pelasgia. Pausan, 598, 599. How the Hel- 

 lenic language was introduced into it, does not' clearly 

 appear. It is certain, it was not by the introduction of 

 strangers; for Pausan. 375, tells us, it was from its very 

 origin, inhabited by the same people. It is probable then, 

 since it certainly adopted that language, that, being a very 

 small territory, and surrounded by people who spoke that 

 language, its inhabitants gradually acquired it; as the 

 people of Savoy did the French. Even if the account, 

 given by some writers, of its conquest, by Areas, the son 

 of Orchomenus,. were true; yet, as this event is said to 

 have happened 1834 years before Christ; that is, forty-four 

 years before the arrival of Ogyges, and, consequently, when 

 the Pelasgic language was spoken ail over Greece, the dif- 

 ficulty of explaining, how it was supplanted by the Greek, 

 would still remain. 



The Greek language M'as introduced into Bceotia, at a 

 much later period than into any other part of Greece. 

 After the return of Cecrops into Attica, the Aones, Hy- 

 antes, and other liiixed barbarian tribes, remained in Bce- 

 otia, until the arrival of Cadmus, in 1549, with a Phoe- 

 nician colony. After some resistance, he obtained the €rh- 

 tire possession of that country, and called it Cadmeia. 

 Strabo, 615. However, after the lapse of many years, the 

 descendants of Hellen, as appears by Diodorus, obtained 



a part 



