M INTRODUCTION. 



tyonic council is, perhaps, the most remarkable political establish- 

 ment which ever took place among mankind. 



In the year before Christ 1322, the Isthmian games were instituted 

 at Corinth ; and in 1303 the famous Olympic games by Pelopsj 

 which games, together with the Pythian and Nemsean, have been 

 rendered immortal by the genius of Pindar. 



The Greek states, formerly unconnected with each other, except 

 by mutual inroads and hostilities, soon began to act with concert, and 

 to undertake distant expeditions for the general interest of the con- 

 federacy. 



The first of these was the famous expedition of the Argonauts, in 

 which all Greece appears to have taken part. 



tj p The object of the Argonauts was to open the commerce of 

 i^v-o" the Euxine Sea, and to establish colonies in the adjacent coun- 

 . •* try of Colchis. The ship Argo, which was the admiral of the 

 fleet, is the only one particularly named ; though we learn from 

 Homer, and other ancient writers, that several vessels were employ- 

 ed in that expedition. The fleet was long tossed about on different 

 coasts ; but at length arrived at jEm, the capital of Colchis, after 

 performing a voyage, which, considering the mean condition of the 

 naval art during that age, was not less important than the circum- 

 -n p navigation of the earth by our modern discoverers. During 

 . . ' the interval between this voyage and the war against Troy, 

 ' which was undertaken to recover the fair Helena, a queen of 

 Sparta, who had been carried off by Paris, son of the Trojan king, 

 the Greeks must have made a wonderful progress in arts, in power, 

 and opulence. No less than 1200 vessels were employed in this 

 expedition, each of which, at a medium, contained upwards of one 

 hundred men. These vessels, however, were but half-decked ; and 

 it does not appear that iron entered at all into their construction. 

 If we add to these circumstances, that the Greeks had not the use 

 of the saw, an instrument so tfecessary lo the carpenter^ a modern 

 must form but a mean notion of the strength or elegance of this 

 fleet. 



Having thus considered the state of Greece as a whole, let us exa- 

 mine the circumstances of the particular countries into which it 

 was divided. There appears originally to have been a remarkable 

 resemblance, as to their political situation, between the different 

 kingdoms of Greece. They were governed each by a king, or ra- 

 ther by a chieftain, who was their leader in time of war, their judge 

 in time of peace, and who presided in the administration of their 

 religious ceremonies. This prince, however, was far from being 

 absolute. In each society there were a number of other leaders, 

 whose influence over their particular clans or tribes was not less 

 considerable than that of the king over his immediate followers. 

 These captains were often at war with each other, and sometimes 

 with their sovereign; and, each particular state was, in miniature, 

 what the whole country "had been before the time of Amphictyon. 

 Theseus, king of Attica, about the year B. C. 1234, had, by his 

 exploits, acquired great reputation for valour and ability. He saw 

 the inconveniences to which this country, from being divided into 

 twelve districts, was exposed ; and he conceived, that, by means of 

 the influence which his personal character, united to the royal au- 

 thority with which he was invested, had universally procured him, 

 he might be able to remove them. For this purpose he endeavour- 



