CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



and finally it was made annual, and also distrib- 

 uted among nine persons, one being called the 

 Archon Eponymus, because the year was distin- 

 guished by his name. It is with the first annual 

 archon, Creon, 683 B.C. that the authentic history 

 of Athens begins. These archons, together with 

 the council of nobles afterwards called the court 

 of Areopagus, exercised the whole power of the 

 . and administered justice, sucn as it was. 

 The Athenian government was thus an oligarchy ; 

 but the changes introduced by the archon Solon, 

 594 B.C. laid the foundation of that democratic 

 constitution which was afterwards perfected by 

 -thcnes. The condition of the population at 

 the time of Solon was one of extreme suffering 

 and discord, arising chiefly from the oppressive 

 execution of the law of debtor and creditor. This 

 law was of old extremely harsh in Greece; it 

 assigned the debtor that could not fulfil his con- 

 tract as the sl.ive of his creditor. The great part 

 of the soil of Attica was in the hands of the rich, 

 and the mass of the population, who tilled the 

 lands as tenants, were eitner in hopeless arrears, 

 or already, with their families, actual slaves. 

 Driven to desperation, the populace were ready to 

 rise in mutiny ; and thus it was agreed to confer 

 dictatorial power on Solon, well known for his 

 wisdom, integrity, and sympathy with the people, 

 and allow him to solve the problem. The dis- 

 ease being desperate, Solon applied the desperate 

 remedy of abolishing existing contracts, liberating 

 those that had been reduced to slavery, and for- 

 bidding for the future any one from pledging his 

 own person or that of a member of his family. He 

 next divided the freemen into four classes, accord- 

 ing to the amount of their property. It was only 

 the richer classes that paid taxes and were eligible 

 to the offices of state ; but all had votes in the 

 assembly that elected the archons, and all sat in 

 judgment on their past conduct on the expiry of 

 their year of office. The government, though still 

 oligarchical, was thus modified by popular control. 

 Its free operation was for some time (560-510 B.C.) 

 interrupted by the usurpation of Peisistratus and 

 his sons, whose tyranny, however, was mild and 

 enlightened. 



On the banishment of the Peisistratidae (510 

 B.C.), a further political reform was introduced by 

 Cleisthenes, who extended the basis of the consti- 

 tution, and rendered it essentially democratic. To 

 Cleisthenes is ascribed the origin of the practice 

 called ostracism, by which any person might be 

 banished for ten years, without being accused 

 of any crime, if the Athenians apprehended that 

 he had acquired too much influence, or harboured 

 designs against the public liberty. Ostracism was 

 so called, because the citizens, in voting for its 

 infliction, wrote the name of the obnoxious indi- 

 vidual upon a shell (pstreori). 



Literature. This age was distinguished for the 

 cultivation of lyric poetry. The most distinguished 

 poets of this class were Archilochus of Paros (700 

 B.C.), Alcaeus and Sappho of Lesbos, Anacreon, 

 and Pindar. 



At the commencement of the sixth century 

 before Christ, there sprang up in different parts of 

 Greece a number of men who obtained the appel- 

 lation of the Seven Sages, on account of their 

 practical sagacity. These were : Solon, Thales, 

 Pittacus, Periander, Cleobulus, Chilon, and Bias. 

 Out of the wisdom of the Seven Sages, as from 



92 



a germ, sprang the philosophy for which Greece 

 was afterwards so celebrated. The first begin- 

 nings of geometry and astronomy have been traced 

 to Thales of Milesia (650 B.C.), the founder of the 

 school called the Ionic. 



SECOND PERIOD: 500-478 B.C. 

 War with Persia. 



On the overthrow of the Lydian monarchy (546 

 B.C. ; see ANCIENT HISTORY), the Greek cities of 

 Asia Minor fell under the dominion of Persia. The 

 Athenians had aided their Asiatic kindred, though 

 but feebly, and now the Persian monarch resolved 

 to chastise Athens, and to subjugate the whole of 

 Greece. He accordingly sent heralds through the 

 Greek cities to demand 'earth and water,' as 

 tokens of submission. Many of them sent in 

 their submission ; but Athens and Sparta treated 

 the demand as an insult, and put the heralds to 

 death. In the meantime, an immense Persian 

 fleet and army, accompanied by the exiled despot 

 of Athens, Hippias, as guide, crossed the ^Egaean, 

 laying waste the islands as they passed ; and at 

 last the army landed in the Bay of Marathon, on 

 the east coast of Attica. Tidings of the imminent 

 danger of Athens were immediately despatched 

 to Sparta ; but superstitious custom forbade the 

 Spartans to march till after the full moon, five 

 days later. The Athenians resolved to hazard 

 battle alone, and marched against the enemy to 

 the plain of Marathon. Their army numbered 

 about 10,000, and they were joined on the battle- 

 field by 1000 men from the little state of Plataea. 

 This small force, skilfully disposed by the Athenian 

 general Miltiades, attacked with such impetuosity 

 the tenfold more numerous Persians, that the 

 latter were completely routed, and driven on 

 board their ships, with which they sailed back to 

 Asia Minor (490 B.C.). The Spartan army arrived 

 in time to learn that all was over. The battle of 

 Marathon is justly reckoned one of those that 

 influence the fate of the world ; had the issue been 

 the reverse, the whole course of subsequent history 

 might have been different. 



The after-career of Miltiades is melancholy. 

 Intoxicated by the admiration his conduct had 

 excited, he abused the unlimited confidence of his 

 countrymen, and employed a force that they had 

 placed at his discretion in avenging a private 

 quarrel. For this he was impeached as worthy of 

 death ; and his friends, finding it impossible to 

 excuse or even palliate his recent conduct, appealed 

 to his previous services. The jurors were moved 

 to commute the punishment to a heavy fine, which, 

 however, he did not live to pay, having died shortly 

 after of an injury received before his trial. 



The danger from Persia was not yet over. 

 Darius had for several years been levying forces 

 for renewing the contest, when he was succeeded 

 (485 B.C.) by his son Xerxes, who continued the 

 preparations on a yet vaster scale. From every 

 part of his wide dominions he collected an arma- 

 ment such as had never been seen before. For 

 its transport into Europe, he caused a bridge of 

 boats to be built across the Hellespont, where it 

 is a mile wide. The first bridge having been 

 destroyed by a storm as soon as completed, the 

 wrath of the monarch was beyond all bounds. 

 The heads of the engineers were struck off ; the 

 audacity of the sea was chastised by 300 lashes, 





