[ 477 ] 
Oux. cefac.S'oi' n oXvx.oif>a.viYi, ElX Koipciv®*. g<py, 
Ets BAXIAETS, « zS'cox.e Kpovov 7 rats dyxuAofJLrfleca 
Xx.yi7r1gov r r,^e &e/jucfct$i Ivcc acpiaiv /3et<7tAguw(6y). 
Is it at all furprifing, then, that Pififlratus, whofe 
abilities and intereft appear to have been very great, 
fhould feize the government of Athens at this time ? 
And doth there not appear the highefl reafon in the 
world why he, as well as Solon, fhould take fuch par- 
ticular care of Homer’s poems. Upon the whole, 
then, I think, it may be concluded, with a good de- 
gree of probability, from what hath been here laid 
down, that the Iliad and Odyjfy were both compofed 
about the time of Cyrus, or the year before Chrift 
yy8. if, as the antients generally do, we make his 
reign to commence from his taking of Babylon. 
And fince thofe that make Hefiod the oldefl of the 
two poets, place him but a few years earlier than Ho- 
(67) Iliad, ii. <v. 204. It was natural for the lonians to apply tbem- 
felves to the Athenians, as being the largeft maritime power, and be- 
caufe, as Thucydides informs us, 1 av etc y.u> A.dr,vatoi kxi N nyicoraiv 
Ttohhdi ojttffctv. Pag. 11. Edit. Waff. See, likewife, Meurf de Fort. 
Athen. c. 6. Herodotus fays, that, upon this occaiion, all the Ionian?, 
except the Milefians, met in their common council called Tray id 10 . ; and 
that iJoi'i Kotvu hoy to TTiftyreiV aiyfz*.*( sc ’S.Trdfmi Fz iUTj/dfv{ \co<n n 
[jMf'z&.v . The reafon, perhaps, of their fending to Sparta, was, to en- 
gage the Peloponnefians ; that being not only the principal City there at 
that time, but, likewife, having an old quarrel with the Afiatics ever fince 
the Trojan war. Why he hath not mentioned their fending to the Athe- 
nians, is not very evident : Perhaps the members of this council, out of 
hatred to the reft of the Greek cities in their neighbourhood, planted by 
the Athenians, refufed to ask their afiiftance : And this reafon Herodotus 
himfelf feems to help us to. 0/ uXv ruV ahAct Icoyzz x). AihiyAioi I pvyov 
Txvoy.ct a [idhoo.zt’O/ lct,vzi ahha. >tj yvy ^cuycyrou jtoi u t. e.\h:t 
UVTUS ■.TTCtA 7 /lV.l'iSK l T&l cfoyd. j'. Pag. £9. 
mer ? 
