26 HISTORY OF SPARTA. were not compatible with pettiness of mind. Most of the anecdotes and recorded sayings of individual Lacedæmonians breathe a certain magnanimity of spirit; although the Lacedæmonian state, which was the object of this worship, and was accustomed not to give but to receive sacrifices, was memorable for the peculiar pettiness of its political conduct-a selfishness so excessive, as by the blindness, and even the unSpartan cowardice, which it engendered, perpetually to frustrate its own ends. Such were the Spartans; those hereditary Tories and Con servatives of Greece. The revolutions which incessantly menaced every other Grecian state, and from which even Athens was not wholly secure, never threatened Sparta. The steadiness of the Spartan polity, and the constancy of Spartan maxims, were to the Greeks highly imposing phenomena. It was the only government in Greece which could trace an unbroken peaceable descent from a high antiquity, and from its real or supposed founder,' and this, we think with Mr. Grote, was one of the main causes of the astonishing ascendancy which the Spartans acquired over the Hellenic mind."'-E. R. [Probable date of PHIDON, KING OF ARGOS, B.C. 783, who is supposed to have first coined silver at Ægina. . . . and of the CORINTHIAN OLIGARCHY OF THE BACCHIADÆ, B.C. 745.] SPARTAN HISTORY CONTINUED. 'If we view Greek aristocracy in the mirror of Sparta, we shall at once become sensible of the chasm which separates the small brotherhood of Dorian conquerors, encamped in the midst of outnumbering Laconians and suspected helots, from the social and military aristocracy of France, or the political and landed aristocracy of England. Nor can the Spartan virtues or the Spartan vices excite any other than a philosophic interest. The characteristic virtues of the citizens of Lycurgus were summed in those simple lines, which told that the slain of Thermopyla had died in obedience to their country's laws. Their characteristic vices were the offspring of a military Utopia; the tyrannical discipline, black broth, iron money, and the compulsory equality of the public mess, produced their just results in Leonidas, Cleomenes, Pausanias, and Lysander.'-E. F. T. First Messenian War, B.C. 743-723. Capture of Ithome; Exploits and Death of Aristodemus, the Messenian King; Messene becomes tributary to Sparta. Institution, according to some, during this War, of the Ephoralty. Whether these magistrates named the Ephori were established by Lycurgus, or appointed under the sanction of the oracle more than a century after his time, is uncertain. Herodotus and Xenophon attri HISTORY OF SPARTA. 27 bute their appointment to Lycurgus, while Plutarch, after Aristotle, places their institution 130 years later, in the reign of Theopompus, of whom it is related, that when his wife upbraided him that he would leave the regal power to his children less than he received it, replied, Nay, but greater, because more lasting.' The Ephori were five in number, like the Quinqueviri at Carthage. They were annually chosen by the people, in their general assemblies, and designed to be a check on both the senate and the kings; thus possessing a power not unlike the tribunicial authority in Rome. In the exercise of this power they were obliged to be unanimous. It was among the duties of the Ephori, not only to preside in the assemblies of the people and collect their suffrages, but also to proclaim war and negotiate peace; to decide on the number of troops to be embodied, and to appoint the funds for their maintenance. They appear, indeed, at length to have engrossed nearly the whole power in the administration of the government; yet, according to Herodotus, the kings still possessed an authority and distinction scarcely consistent with such a power in the Ephori.-Enc. Metr. Second Messenian War, B.C. 679 (or 685) — 668. Union with Messenia of Argos, Arcadia, and Elis; Exploits of the hero Aristomenes, and of Tyrtæus; Eleven years siege of Ira: Ira captured; Messenia divided among the conquerors; the inhabitants reduced to the condition of the helots, except those who emigrated to Sicily, and colonized Zancle, thence called Messana. 'Aristomenes is the great champion of his country in the three battles which are represented as taking place during this war; the first was with indecisive result at Deræ; the second, a signal victory on the part of the Messenians at the Boar's grave; the third, an equally signal defeat, in consequence of the treacherous flight of Aristokrates, king of the Arcadian Orchomenus, who, ostensibly embracing the alliance of the Messenians, had received bribes from Sparta. Thrice did Aristomenes sacrifice to Zeus Ithomates the sacrifice called Hekatomphonia, reserved for those who had slain with their own hands 100 of the enemy in battle. At the head of a chosen band he carried his incursions more than once into the heart of the Lacedæmonian territory, surprised Amykla and Pharis, and even penetrated by night into the unfortified precincts of Sparta itself, where he suspended his shield, as a token of defiance, in the temple of Athene Chalkiækus. Thrice he was taken prisoner, but on two occasions marvellously escaped before he could be conveyed to Sparta; the third occasion was more fatal, and he was cast, by order of the Spartans, into the Kæadas, a deep rocky cavity in mount Taygetus, into which it was their habit to cast criminals. But even in this emergency the divine aid was not withheld from him. The fifty Messenians who shared his fate were all killed by the shock; but he alone was both supported by the gods, so as to reach the bottom unhurt, and enabled to find an unexpected means of escape; for when, abandoning all hope, he wrapped himself up in his cloak to die, he perceived a fox creeping about among the dead bodies; waiting until the animal 28 HISTORY OF SPARTA. approached him, he grasped its tail, defending himself from its bites as well as he could by means of his cloak; and being thus enabled to find the aperture by which the fox had entered, enlarged it sufficiently for crawling out himself. To the surprise both of friends and enemies he again appeared alive and vigorous at Eira. That fortified mountain, on the banks of the river Nedon, and near the Ionian sea, had been occupied by the Messenians after the battle in which they had been betrayed by Aristokrates the Arcadian; it was there that they had concentrated their whole force, as in the former war at Ithome, abandoning the rest of the country. Under the conduct of Aristomenes, assisted by the prophet Theoklus, they maintained this strong position for eleven years. At length they were compelled to abandon it; but, as in the case of Ithome, the final determining circumstances are represented to have been, not any superiority of bravery or organization on the part of the Lacedæmonians, but treacherous betrayal and stratagem seconding the fatal decree of the gods. Unable to maintain Eira longer, Aristomenes, with his sons and a body of his countrymen, forced his way through the assailants and quitted the country-some of them retiring to Arcadia and Elis, and finally migrating to Rhegium. He himself passed the remainder of his days in Rhodes, where he dwelt along with his son-in-law, Damagetus, the ancestor of the noble Rhodian family called the Diagorids, celebrated for its numerous Olympic victories.'-Gr. Gr. Sparta takes the lead among the Dorian States. Wars with Tegea and Argos; the Lacedæmonians gain Thyrea and the island of Cythera. Probable period of Zaleucus, the Locrian Lawgiver, B.c. 660; and somewhat later, about в.c. 600, The Seven Wise Men of Greece. 'The seven wise men, from whom the Greeks date the age in which politics began to be a science, were not speculative philosophers, but rulers, presidents, and counsellors of state-rulers, as Periander of Corinth and Pittacus of Mitylene; presidents, as Solon of Athens, Chilo of Sparta, Cleobulus of Lindos; counsellors, as Bias and Thales, of princes and cities. Of these, Solon is the only one with whom we are much acquainted; he is known as a lawgiver, and also as a soldier and poet. But it was not till after the wars with Persia, that the men appeared whom we call statesmen in the modern sense of the word. For it was then, for the first time, when a contest arose with a nation to all appearances infinitely superior in power, and the question of existence was at issue, and when good counsel was not less important than action, that a great political interest was excited, which employed the strongest minds.'-H. HISTORY OF ATHENS. HISTORY OF ATHENS. 29 Recovery of Salamis from the Megarians, at the advice of Solon, B.c. 595, and commencement of the First Sacred War against Crisa, which lasts Ten Years, when Crisa is taken by the Amphictyons. [Period of Sappho, Alcæus, and Stesichorus, about B.C. 610.] Factions in Attica of the Eupatridæ (oi èk Toû tediov), oligarchists; of the Mountaineers (oi vπeрáкpioi), democrats; and the Parali (oi rápaλo), desirous of a mixed form of government. Solon chosen Archon Eponymus, to reconcile the factions. LEGISLATION OF SOLON, B.C. 594. Solon, a man to whom not only Athens but the whole human race are deeply indebted.'-H. The main feature of his legislation was to abolish the oppressive aristocracy, without, however, introducing a pure democracy.'—H. R. His Laws were mainly,— 1. Provisional, 2. Fundamental, b. tion of the State. In reference to private life and private rights. • Solon might, had he so chosen, have made himself tyrant by heading this populace; but he preferred acting as mediator, and with this view caused himself to be elected archon, B.C. 594, as being an Eupatrid of the house (yévos) of Codrus. His first steps were the famous σεισάχθεια, or abolition of interest, which relieved the poorer classes from part of their oppressive debts, without encroaching too far on the legal and existing rights of others; and a lowering of the standard of the currency, thereby increasing the value of hard coin in hand, without altering the amount of existing bonds and notes. A total abolition is not to be thought of; but it seems certain that he annulled all mortgages, and fully reinstated every landowner in his property. He also abolished servitude for debt, at the same time liberating all who had fallen victims to the system; and in particular, passed an act of amnesty in |