288 



mates of these first establishments beyond the 

 seas differed but little from those of the mother 

 country. The Greeks of Asia Minor and Sicily 

 were not strangers to the inhabitants of Argos, 

 Athens, and Corinth, from whom they boasted 

 their descent. A great analogy of manners con- 

 tributed to cement the union, which was found- 

 ed on religious and political interests. The co- 

 lonists frequently offered the first fruits of their 

 harvests in the temples of the metropolis i and 

 when by some sinister accident the sacred fire 

 was extinguished on the altars of Hestia, mes - 

 sengers were sent from the farther part of Ionia, 

 to rekindle the flame at the Prytancion of 

 Greece *. Every where, in Cyrene, as well as 

 on the banks of the Mseotis, the inhabitants 

 carefully preserved the traditions of the mother 

 country. Other remembrances, equally fitted 

 to affect the imagination, were attached to the 

 colonies themselves. They had their sacred 

 groves, their tutelary divinities, their local my- 

 thology, and, what gave life and durability to 

 the fictions of the first ages, they had poets, who 

 extended their glory as far as the metropolis 

 itself. 



These advantages, and many others, are want- 

 ing in modern colonies. The greater part are 



* Clavier, Mist, des premiers Temps de la Grece, t. ii, p. 67. 

 t. i, p. 188.) 



