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Outline of Universal History

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CHAPTER II. THE FORMATION OF THE PRINCIPAL STATES.


ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT.--The early kings were obeyed as much for
their personal qualities, such as valor and strength of body, as for
their hereditary title. By degrees the noble families about the king
took control, and the kingship thus gave way to the rule of an
aristocracy. The priestly office, which required special knowledge,
remained in particular families, as the _Eumolpidae_e at
Athens,--families to whom was ascribed the gift of the seer, and to
whom were known the _Eleusinian mysteries_. The nobles were
landholders, with dependent farmers who paid rent. The nobles held
sway over tillers of the soil, artisans and seamen, who constituted
the people (the "demos"), and who had no share in political
power. This state of things continued until the lower class gained
more property and more knowledge; and the example of the colonial
settlements, where there was greater equality, re-acted on the parent
state. The struggle of the lower ranks for freedom was of long
continuance. In all Greek cities, there were _Metoeci_, or
resident foreigners without political rights, and also slaves from
abroad. Free-born Greeks busied themselves with occupations connected
with the fine arts, or with trade and commerce on an extended
scale. They commonly eschewed all other employments, and especially
menial labor.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE LYCURGUS.--According to the legend, disorders
in Sparta following the Dorian conquest, and strife between the
victors and the conquered, moved _Lycurgus_, a man of regal
descent, to retire to Crete, where the old Dorian customs were still
observed. On his return he gave to the citizens a constitution, which
was held in reverence by the generations after him. To him, also, laws
and customs which were really of later date, came to be ascribed. The
Spartan population consisted (1) of the _Spartiatæ_, who had full
rights, and those of less means,--both comprising the Dorian
conquerors. They were divided into three Phylæ, or tribes, each
composed of ten divisions (Obæ); (2) the _Periæci_, Achaeans who
paid tribute on the land which they held, were bound to military
service, but had no political rights; (3) the _Helots_, serfs of
the State, who were divided among the Spartiatæ by lot, and cultivated
their lands, paying to them a certain fraction of the harvest. The
form of government established by Lycurgus was an aristocratic
republic. The Council of Elders, twenty-eight in number, chosen for
life by the Phylæ, were presided over by two hereditary kings, who had
little power in time of peace, but unlimited command of the forces in
war. The popular assembly, composed of all Spartiatæ of thirty years
of age or upwards, could only decide questions without debate. Five
_Ephors_, chosen yearly by the Phylæ, acquired more and more
authority. Lycurgus is said to have divided the land into nine
thousand equal lots for the families of the Spartiatæ, and thirty
thousand for the Periceci. To keep down the helots required constant
vigilance, and often occasioned measures of extreme cruelty. The
_Crypteia_ was an organized guard of young Spartans, whose
business it was to prevent insurrection.

LAWS AND CUSTOMS.--The Spartan state was thus aristocratic and
military. It took into its own hands the education of the young. Weak
and deformed children were left to perish in a ravine of Taygetus, or
thrust down among the Periceci. Healthy children at the age of seven
were taken from their homes, to be reared under the supervision of the
State. They had some literary instruction, but their chief training
was in gymnastics. They were exercised in hunting and in drills; took
their meals together in the _syssitia_ (the public mess), where
the fare was rough and scanty; slept in dormitories together; and by
every means were disciplined for a soldier's life. The Spartan men
likewise fed at public tables, and slept in barracks, only making
occasional visits to their own houses. No money was in circulation
except iron: no one was permitted to possess gold or silver. Girls
were separately drilled in gymnastic exercises and made to be as hardy
as boys. Marriage was regulated by the State. There was more purity,
and women had a higher standing, in Sparta than in other parts of
Greece. The strength of the Spartan army was in the _hoplites_,
or heavy-armed infantry. In battle, messmates stood
together. Cowardice was treated with the utmost contempt. The rigorous
subordination of the young to their elders was maintained in war as in
peace. The legend held, that after this constitution of Lycurgus had
been approved by the Delphian oracle, he made the citizens swear to
observe it until he should return from a projected journey. He then
went to Crete, and stayed there until his death.

HEGEMONY OF SPARTA.--Having thus organized the body politic, Sparta
took the steps which gave it the _hegemony_ in Peloponnesus and
over all Greece. First, it conquered the neighboring state of
_Messenia_ in two great wars, the first ending about 725 B.C.,
and the second about 650 B.C. In the first of these wars, the
Messenians submitted to become tributary to Sparta, after their
citadel, _Ithome_, had been captured, and their defeated hero,
_Aristodemus_, had slain himself. Many of the vanquished
Messenians escaped from their country to Arcadia and Argolis. Some of
them fled farther, and founded _Rhegium_ in Lower Italy. In the
second war, the Messenians revolted against the tyrannical rule of
Sparta, and at first, under _Aristomenes_, were successful, but
were afterwards defeated by the Spartans, who were inspirited for the
conflict by the war-songs of the Athenian poet,
_Tyrtaeus_. _Aristomenes_ fled to Rhodes. Most of his people
were made helots. The _Arcadians_, after long resistance,
succumbed, and came under the Spartan hegemony (about 600
B.C.). _Argos_, too, was obliged to renounce its claim to this
position in favor of its Spartan antagonist, after its defeat by
_Cleomenes_, the Lacedaemonian king, at Thyrea (549 B.C.). The
_Argive League_ was dissolved, and Sparta gained the right to
command in every war that should be waged in common by the
Peloponnesian states, the right, also, to determine the contingent of
troops which each should furnish, and to preside in the council of the
confederacy. She now began to spread her power beyond Peloponnesus,
entered into negotiations with _Lydia_ (555 B.C.), and actually
sent an expedition to the coast of Asia (525 B.C.). Moreover as early
as 510 B.C., by interfering in the affairs of the states north of the
Corinthian isthmus, and with _Attica_ in particular, she sowed
among the Athenians the seeds of a lasting enmity.

GOVERNMENT IN ATHENS: DRACO.--According to the legend, _Codrus_,
who died about 1068 B.C., was the last of the Athenian kings. The
_Eupatrids_, the noble families, abolished monarchy, and
substituted for the king an _Archon_, chosen for life by them out
of the family of Codrus. The Eupatrids stood in a sort of patriarchal
relation to the common people. The inhabitants were divided into four
tribes. These were subdivided, first into _Brotherhoods_ and
_Clans_, and secondly, into classes based on consanguinity, and
classes arranged for taxation, military service, etc. The entire
community comprised the _Nobles_,--in whose hands the political
power was lodged,--the _Farmers_, and the _Artisans_. The
farmers and the artisans might gather in the _Agora_, and express
assent to public measures, or dissent. In process of time the archons
came to be chosen not from the family of Codrus exclusively, but from
the _Eupatrids_ generally. From 682 B.C. they were nine in
number, and they served but for one year. The administration of
justice was in the hands of the nobles, who were not restrained by a
body of written laws. The archon _Draco_, about 621 B.C., in
order to check this evil, framed a code which seemed harsh, though
milder than the laws previously enforced. Later it was said of his
laws that they were written in blood. This legislation was a
concession to which the nobles were driven by an uprising. Their hard
treatment of debtors, many of whom were deprived of their liberty, had
stirred up a serious conflict between the people and their masters. A
rebellion, led by _Cylon_, one of the Eupatrids, was put down,
and punished by means involving treachery and sacrilege. The
insurgents were slain clinging to the altars of the gods, where they
had taken refuge. Not long after it became necessary to introduce
other reforms at the advice of _Solon_, one of "the seven wise
men of Greece." He had acquired popularity by recovering
_Salamis_ from the Megarians, and in a sacred war against towns
which had robbed the temple of Apollo at Delphi.

LEGISLATION OF SOLON--The design of Solon was to substitute a better
system for the tyrannical oligarchy, but, at the same time, to keep
power mainly in the hands of the upper class. He divided the people
into four classes, according to the amount of their income. To the
richest of these the archonship, and admission into the
_Areopagus_, were confined. A new council was established, which
had the right to initiate legislation, composed of one hundred from
each of the four old tribes, and annually elected by the body of the
citizens. The _Ecclesia_, or assembly of the whole people, having
the right to choose the archons and councilors, was revived. _Courts
of Appeal_, with jury trials, were instituted. The old council of
the _Areopagus_ was clothed with high judicial and executive
powers. There were laws to relieve a portion of the debtors from their
burdens, and to abolish servitude for debt. Every father was required
to teach his son a handicraft.

PARTIES IN ATHENS.--The legislation of Solon was a measure of
compromise. It satisfied neither party. After journeys abroad, he
passed his old age in Athens, and was a spectator of the rising
contests between the discordant factions, which his constitution was
only able for a time to curb. There were three parties,--a
re-actionary party under _Lycurgus_, a progressive party led by
_Pisistratus_, and a moderate or middle party under
_Megacles_.

THE TYRANTS.--At this time, in almost all of the Grecian states,
monarchy had given place to aristocracy. The reign of an
_oligarchy_, the unbridled sway of a few, was commonly the next
step. Against this the people in different states,--the
_demos_,--rose in revolt. The popular leader, or "demagogue," was
some conspicuous and wealthy noble, who thus acquired supreme
authority. In this way, in the seventh and sixth centuries, most of
the states were ruled by "tyrants,"--a term signifying absolute
rulers, whether their administration was unjust and cruel, or fair and
mild. They endeavored to fortify their rule by collecting poets,
artists, and musicians about them, for their own pleasure and for the
diversion of the populace. Occasionally they gave the people
employment in the erection of costly buildings. They formed alliances
with one another and with foreign kings. Not unfrequently they
practiced violence and extortion. The _oligarchies_ sought to
dethrone them. Their overthrow often had for its result the
introduction of popular sovereignty. Among the most noted tyrants were
Periander of Corinth (625-585 B.C.), _Pittacus_ in Lesbos
(589-579 B.C.), and _Polycrates_ in Samos (535-522 B.C.).

The PISISTRATIDS.--The government of Athens, framed by Solon, was in
effect a "timocracy," or rule of the rich. At the head of the popular
party stood _Pisistratus_, a rich nobleman of high descent. He
succeeded, by means of his armed guard, in making himself master of
the citadel. Twice driven out of the city, he at length returned (538
B.C.), and gained permanent control by force of arms. He managed his
government with shrewdness and energy. Industry and trade
flourished. He decorated Athens with buildings and statues. Religious
festivals he caused to be celebrated with splendor. He ruled under the
legal forms by having _archons_ chosen to suit him. He died 527
B.C. _Hippias_, his son, governed with mildness until his younger
brother and colleague in power, _Hipparchus_, was slain by the
two friends, _Harmodius_ and _Aristogiton_. Then he gave the
rein to revengeful passion, and laid upon the people burdensome
taxes. _Hippias_ was driven out of the city by the
_Alcmaeonidae_ and other exiled nobles, assisted by the Spartan
king, _Cleomenes_ (510 B.C.). He fled to Asia Minor in order to
secure Persian help.

THE ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY.--Clisthenes, a brilliant man, the head of the
Alcmaeonid family, connected himself with the popular party, and
introduced such changes in the constitution as to render him the
founder of the Athenian Democracy. The power of the archons was
reduced. All of the free inhabitants of Attica were admitted to
citizenship. New tribes, ten in number, each comprising ten
_denes_, or hamlets, with their adjacent districts, superseded
the old tribes. A _council of five hundred_, fifty from each
tribe, supplanted Solon's council of four hundred. The courts of law
were newly organized. The _Ostracism_ was introduced; that is,
the prerogative of the popular assembly to decree by secret ballot,
without trial, the banishment of a person who should be deemed to be
dangerous to the public weal. Certain officers were designated by
lot. Ten _Strategi_, one from each tribe, by turns, took the
place of the _archon polemarchus_ in command of the army.

EFFECT OF DEMOCRACY.--Under this system of free government, the
energy of the Athenian people was developed with amazing rapidity. The
spirit of patriotism, of zeal for the honor and welfare of Athens,
rose to a high pitch. The power and resources of the city increased in
a proportionate degree. Culture kept pace with prosperity.

LYRICAL POETRY.--In the eighth century, when monarchy was declining,
and the tendency to democracy began to manifest itself, a new style of
poetry, different from the epic, arose. The narrative poems of
minstrels were heard at the great religious festivals. But there was a
craving for the expression of individual feeling. Hence, lyrical
poetry re-appeared, not in the shape of religious songs, as in the old
time, but in a form to touch all the chords of sentiment. Two new
types of verse appeared,--the _Elegiac_ and the _Iambic_. At
first the elegy was probably a lament for the dead. It was accompanied
by the soft music of the Lydian flute. The instruments which the
Greeks had used were string-instruments. The early Greek elegies
related to a variety of themes,--as war, love, preceptive wisdom. The
iambic meter was first used in satire. Its earliest master of
distinction was _Arckilochus_ of Paros (670 B.C.). It was
employed, however, in fables, and elsewhere when pointed or intense
expression was craved. The earliest of the Greek elegists,
_Callinus_ and _Tyrtaus_, composed war-songs. _Mimnermus,
Solon, Theognis, Simonides_ of _Ceos_, are among the most
famous elegists. Music developed in connection with lyric poetry. The
Greeks at first used the four-stringed lyre. Terpander made an epoch
(660 B.C.) by adding three strings. _Olympus_ and _Thaletas_
made further improvements. Greek lyric poetry flourished, especially
from 670 to 440 B.C. The Aeolian lyrists of _Lesbos_ founded a
school of their own. The two great representatives are _Alcaus_,
who sang of war and of love, and _Sappho_, who sang of
love. "Probably no poet ever surpassed Sappho as an interpreter of
passion in exquisitely subtle harmonies of form and sound."
_Anacreon_, an Ionian, resembled in his style the Aeolian
lyrists. He was most often referred to by the ancients as the poet of
sensuous feeling of every sort. The _Dorian_ lyric poetry was
mostly choral and historic in its topics. Greek lyric poetry reaches
the climax in _Simonides_ and _Pindar_. The latter was a
Boeotian, but of Dorian descent. _Simonides_ was tender and
polished; _Pindar_, fervid and sublime The extant works of Pindar
are the _Epinicia_, or odes of victory.

HISTORICAL WRITING.--This age witnesses the beginnings of historical
writing. But the _logographers_, as they were called, only wrote
prose epics. They told the story of the foundation of families and
cities, reconciling as best they could the myths, so far as they
clashed with one another.

PHILOSOPHY: THE IONIAN SCHOOL.--The Greeks were the first to
investigate rationally the causes of things, and to try to comprehend
the world as a complete system. The earliest phase of this movement
was on the side of physics, or natural philosophy. _Homer_ and
_Hesiod_ had accounted for the operations of nature by referring
them to the direct personal action of different divinities. The
earliest philosophers brought in the conception of some kind of matter
as the foundation and source of all things. The _Ionian School_
led the way in this direction. _Thales_ of Miletus (about 600
B.C.) made this primary substance to be
_water_. _Anaximander_ (611-? B.C.) made all things spring
out of a primitive stuff, without definite qualities, and without
bounds. He taught that the earth is round, invented the sun-dial,
engraved a map on a brass tablet, and made some astronomical
calculations. _Anaximenes_ (first half, 6th C.) derived all
things from _air_, which he made to be eternal and infinite.

THE ELEATIC SCHOOL.--The _Eleatic School_ conceived of the world
as one in substance, and held that the natural phenomena which we
behold, in all their variety and change, are unreal. _Xenophanes_
(who flourished from 572 to 478 B.C.) asserted this. _Parmenides_
(504-460 B.C.) taught that succession, change, the manifold forms of
things, are only _relative_; that is, are only our way of
regarding the one universal essence. _Zeno_ sought to vindicate
this theory logically by disproving the possibility of motion.

OTHER PHILOSOPHERS.--Another set of philosophers attempted definitely
to explain the appearances of things, the changing phenomena, which
had been called unreal. _Heraclitus_ made the world to be nothing
but these: There is no substratum of things: there is only an endless
flux, a cycle. All things begin and end in fire, the symbol of what is
real. _Empedocles_ ascribed all things to fire, air, earth, and
water, which are wrought into different bodies by "love" and "hate;"
or, as we should say, attraction and repulsion. _Democritus_ was
the founder of the _Atomists_, who made all things spring out of
the motions and combinations of primitive atoms. _Anaxagoras_
brought in intelligence, or reason, as giving the start to the
development of matter,--this principle doing nothing more, however,
and being inherent in matter itself.

PYTHAGORAS.--A different spirit in philosophy belonged to
_Pythagoras_ (580-500 B.C.), who was born in Samos, traveled
extensively, and settled in Croton, in southern Italy. His theory was,
that the inner substance of all things is number. Discipline of
character was a prime object. Pythagoras was sparing in his diet,
promoted an earnest culture, in which music was prominent, and gave
rise to a mystical school, in which moral reform and religious fueling
were connected with an ascetic method of living.

COLONIES.--It was during the era of the oligarchies and tyrannies that
the colonizing spirit was most active among the Greeks. Most of the
colonies were established between 800 and 550 B.C. Their names alone
would make a very long catalogue. They were of two classes: first,
_independent communities_, connected, however, with the parent
city by close ties of friendship; and secondly, _kleruchies_,
which were of the nature of garrisons, where the settlers retained
their former rights as citizens, and the mother city its full
authority over them. In _Sicily_, on the eastern side, were the
Ionian communities,--Naxos, Catana, etc. _Syracuse_ (founded by
Corinth 734 B.C.), _Gela_, and _Agrigentum_, which were
among the chief Dorian settlements, lay on the south-eastern and
south-western coasts. The oldest Greek town in _Italy_ was
_Cumae_ (not far from Naples), said to have been founded in 1050
B.C. _Tarentum_ (Dorian), _Sybaris_, and _Croton_
(Aeolic) were settled in the latter part of the eighth
century. _Locri_ (Aeolic) and _Rhegium_ (Ionic) were on the
south. The south-western portion of Italy was termed _Magna
Graecia_. _Massilia_ (Marseilles) was founded by the Phocaean
Ionians (about 600 B.C.). In the western Mediterranean the Greeks were
hindered from making their settlements as numerous as they would have
done, by the fact that Carthage and her colonies stood in the
way. _Cyrene_, on the coast of Africa, was a Dorian colony (630
B.C.), planted from _Thera_, an earlier Spartan
settlement. _Cyrene_ founded _Barca_. _Corcyra_ was
colonized by Corinth (about 700 B.C.). Along the coast of Epirus were
other Corinthian and Corcyrasan settlements. Chalcis planted towns in
the peninsula of Chalcidice, and from thence to _Selymbria_ (or
Byzantium), which was founded by Megara (657 B.C.). The northern
shores of the Ægean and the Propontis, and the whole coast of the
Euxine were strewn with Greek settlements. The Greek towns, especially
_Miletus_, on the western coast of Asia Minor, themselves sent
out colonies,--as _Cyzicus_ and _Sinope_, south of the
Propontis and the Euxine. The foregoing statements give only a general
idea of the wide extent of Greek colonization.

An exhaustive statement of the Greek colonies is given in
Rawlinson's _Manual of Ancient History_, p. 148 _seq_. See
also Abbott, _A History of Greece_, I. 333 _seq_.




PERIOD II. THE FLOURISHING ERA OF GREECE.




CHAPTER I. THE PERSIAN WARS.


THE IONIAN REVOLT.--Hardly were the Greeks in possession of liberty
when they were compelled to measure their strength with the mighty
Persian Empire. The cities of Asia Minor groaned under the tyranny of
their Persian rulers, and sighed for freedom. At length, under
propitious circumstances, _Miletus_ rose in revolt under the lead
of _Aristagoras_. Alone of the Grecian cities, Athens, and
Eretria on the island of Euboea, sent help. The insurrection was
extinguished in blood: its leaders perished. Miletus was destroyed by
the enemy 495 B.C.; and the Ionian towns were again brought under the
Persian yoke, which was made heavier than before. The Persian monarch,
_Darius_, swore vengeance upon those who had aided the rebellion.

THE BATTLE OF MARATHON.--_Mardonius_, the son-in-law of Darius,
moved with a fleet and an army along the Ægean coast. A storm
shattered the fleet upon the rocky promontory of Athos, and the land
force was partly destroyed by the Thracians. Mardonius retreated
homeward. The heralds who came to demand, according to the Persian
custom, "water and earth" of Athens and Sparta, were put to
death. Enraged at these events, Darius sent a stronger fleet under
_Datis_ and _Artaphernes_. They forced _Naxos_ and the
other _Cyclades_ to submission, captured and destroyed
_Eretria_, and sent off its inhabitants as slaves to the interior
of Asia. Guided on their path of destruction by the Athenian refugee,
_Hippias_, the Persians landed on the coast of Attica, and
encamped on the shore adjacent to the plain of _Marathon_. The
Athenians sent _Philippides_, one of the swiftest of couriers, to
Sparta for assistance, who reached that city, a hundred and
thirty-five or a hundred and forty miles distant, the next day after
he started. He brought back for answer that the Spartans were deterred
by religious scruples from marching to war before the full moon, which
would be ten days later. There was a Greek, as well as a Judaic,
Pharisaism. Left to themselves, the Athenians were fortunate in having
for their leader _Miltiades_, an able and experienced soldier,
who had been with the Persians in the Scythian campaign. At the head
of the Athenian infantry, ten thousand in number, whose hearts were
cheered before the onset by the arrival of a re-inforcement of one
thousand men, comprising the whole fighting population of the little
town of _Platæa_, Miltiades attacked the Persian army, ten times
as large as his own. The Athenians ran down the gentle slope at
Marathon, shouting their war-cry, or pæan, and, after a fierce
conflict, drove the Persians back to their ships, capturing their camp
with all its treasures (Sept. 12, 490 B.C.). This brilliant victory
was not the end of danger. The Greek watchmen saw a treacherous
signal, a glistening shield, on _Mount Pentelicus_, put there to
signify to the Persians that Athens was open to their attack. In that
direction, round Cape Sunium, the Persian fleet sailed. But
_Miltiades_, by a rapid march of twenty-three miles, reached the
city in season to prevent the landing. _Datis_ and
_Artaphernes_ sailed away. The traitor, _Hippias_, died on
the return voyage. The patriotic exultation of the Athenians was well
warranted. Never did they look back upon that victory without a thrill
of joyful pride. It proved what a united free people were capable of
achieving. More than that, MARATHON was one of the decisive battles
which form turning-points in the world's history. It was a mortal
conflict between the East and the West, between Asia and Europe,--the
coarse despotism under which individual energy is stifled, and the
dawning liberty which was to furnish the atmosphere required for the
full development and culture of the human mind.

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