HISTORY OF GREECE. 



poets, where they were multiplied and transformed 

 in various ways ; and in process of time, numbers 

 of these, at first short and unconnected lays, were 

 combined and arranged so as to form continuous 

 narrative or epic poems. There was a large num- 

 ber of such poems extant in ancient Greece, but 

 they are all lost except the Iliad and Odyssey, 

 ascribed to Homer, celebrating the siege of Troy, 

 and the subsequent adventures of Ulysses. The 

 controversies of the learned concerning the 

 person and the works of Homer are endless. At 

 least seven cities of Asiatic Greece laid claim to 

 his birth. No less disputed is the date to be 

 assigned to these celebrated poems : about the 

 middle of the ninth century before the Christian 

 era, is probably near the mark. 



The legends thus embodied in song were recited 

 either in short fragments before private companies, 

 or as continuous narratives at public festivals, 

 and they constituted the whole intellectual stock 

 of the people for several ages. 



Besides the poetic charm attaching to these 

 works, they are interesting to us as revealing the 

 state of society among the Greeks at that early 

 age ; for Homer's pictures of life and manners 

 were those of his own day. The Iliad and Odyssey 

 represent a state of society in which there is no 

 such thing as law. The king or chief defends 

 and governs his people according to immemorial 

 usage ; and is responsible to none but Jove for 

 the exercise of his authority. The condition and 

 character of the heroic Greeks bear no incon- 

 siderable resemblance to those of chivalrous 

 Europe in the middle ages, or even the clans of 

 the Scottish Highlands a century ago ; making 

 allowance for differences resulting from climate 

 and religion. 



Hesiod, supposed to have flourished a consider- 

 able time after Homer, probably about 700 B.C. is 

 the great authority as to the genealogy and history 

 of the gods. His work is an ancient and genuine 

 attempt to furnish a consecutive history of the 

 divine foretime, and therefore his theogony ob- 

 tained an extensive circulation among the Hellenes, 

 and was in a manner their Bible. 



HISTORIC AGES. 



The authentic history of Greece commences 

 with the epoch known as the First Olympiad, 

 corresponding to the year 776 B.C. about which 

 time the Greeks began to employ writing as the 

 means of perpetuating the memory of events. 



It falls naturally into six periods : 



I. From 776 to 500 B.C. or the period during 

 which the various states and colonies of Greece 

 pursued their separate career, without either 

 alliance or collision with each other. 



II. From 500 to 478 B.C. or the period of the 

 struggles with Persia. 



'.. From 478 to 404 B.C. or the period of the 

 Peloponnesian wars, in which the peninsular 

 states were struggling against the supremacy of 

 Athens. 



IV. From 404 to 371 B.c. when the battle of 

 Leuctra crowned the efforts of Thebes to attain to 

 the headship of Greece. 



V. From 371 to 338 B.c when the battle of 

 Chaeronea rendered Philip the Macedonian master 

 of Greece. 



,_ VI - From 338 to 300 B.C. or the period of the 

 Macedonian supremacy. 



FIRST PERIOD: 776-500 B.C. 



We cannot afford even to enumerate the multi- 

 plicity of independent states, or rather, self-govern- 

 ing towns, which during this period made up the 

 Hellenic world. A few remarks on their con- 

 dition generally, with a brief indication of the 

 course of events in one or two of the more import- 

 ant states, must suffice. 



Government and Social Condition. Before the 

 era of authentic history, the primitive kingships of 

 the heroic ages had in most cases been abolished, 

 and the government vested in some kind of oli- 

 garchy a council deciding by the majority of 

 votes, and electing some individuals of their own 

 body as a temporary and accountable executive. 

 This government of the Few was the first form of 

 republicanism in Greece. The age of democracy, 

 or the government of the Many, was still distant, 

 and the condition of the general mass of freemen 

 appears to have been little affected by the change. 

 The first check which the oligarchies received 

 arose from usurpers called tyrants, or despots, 

 who availed themselves of prevailing discontents 

 to compass the ends of their own ambition. Some- 

 times it was a magistrate, who, at the expiration 

 of his term of office, found himself able to retain 

 it in spite of the electors. More frequently, it was 

 a demagogue, who stood forward as the champion 

 of the many in their grievances, and engaged their 

 strength to put down the few, and exalt him in 

 their stead. Sometimes a presumptuous rich man 

 hired a body of retainers to seize the Acropolis, 

 and place the government in his hands. The 

 period between 650 and 500 B.C. witnessed the 

 rise and fall of many such despots and despotic 

 dynasties, of which the most celebrated were 

 those of Corinth, Sicyon, and Megara. But there 

 was in the Greek mind a deeply rooted antipathy 

 to anything like permanent or hereditary power 

 vested in an individual, and even those who 

 exercised a sovereignty with moderation, could 

 never retain their popularity ; for a position which 

 dispensed with the restraints and obligations 

 involved in citizenship, was understood to forfeit 

 all title to the common sympathy and protection. 

 The man who assassinated a despot was con- 

 sidered worthy of public honour and reward. 

 Hence few of the despots lived to old age, 

 and still fewer transmitted their power to their 

 ons. 



Sparta was the only state that retained a kingly 

 _overnment during the brilliant period of Grecian 

 iiistory. The two co-ordinate lines of Spartan 

 icings continued to represent in unbroken descent 

 the divine right of the Heracleids to the soil of 

 Sparta. The Spartans were always ready to lend 

 their powerful assistance towards the overthrow of 

 usurpers in other states, but they seldom succeeded 

 in restoring the oligarchy. The sway of the despots 

 had done much to lessen the distance between 

 the Few and the Many ; and when they were 

 removed, it was found impossible in most cases 

 to reinstate the nobles in their ancient privileges. 

 The internal history of the Grecian states 

 became henceforth a struggle between the democ- 

 racy and the aristocracy. 



In reference to the social condition of the people, 



