Messénians, on the other hand, were aided by forces from Sic'yon' and Ar' gos, Arcádia and E' lis, and, in a great battle near the mouth of the Pamísus, in Messénia, they completely routed their enemies. In the third year of the war the Arcádian auxiliaries of the Messénians, seduced by bribes, deserted them in the heat of battle, and gave the victory to the Spartans. 20. The war continued, with various success, seventeen years, throughout the whole of which period Aristom' enes distinguished himself by many noble exploits; but all his efforts to save his country were ineffectual. A second time Sparta conquered (668), and the yoke appeared to be fixed on Messénia forever. Thenceforward the growing power and reputation of Sparta seemed destined to undisputed preeminence, not only in the Peloponnésus, but throughout all Greece. 21. At the period of the close of the second Messénian war, Athens, as previously stated, was under the aristocratical government of a senate of archons-magistrates chosen by the nobility from their own order, who possessed all authority, religious, civil, and military. The Athenian populace not only enjoyed no political rights, but was reduced to a condition but little above servitude; and it appears to have been owing to the anarchy that arose from ruinous extortions of the nobles on the one hand, and the resistance of the people on the other, that Dráco, the most eminent of the nobility, was chosen to prepare the first written code of laws for the government of the State. (622 B. C.) VIII. DRA' CO. on the north-west, and of Egina on the south-east, two miles from the nearest point of the former, and seven from the latter. The site of the town was at the north foot of a steep rock called the Acrop' olis of Cor' inth, 1,336 feet in height, the summit of which is now, as in antiquity, occupied as a fortress. This eminence may be distinctly seen from Athens, from which it is distant no less than forty-four miles in a direct line. Cor' inth was a large and populous city when St. Paul preached the Gospel there for a year and six months. (Acts, xviii. 11.) The present town, though of considerable extent, is thinly peopled. The only Grecian ruin now to be seen there is a dilapidated Doric temple. (Map No. I.) "Where is thy grandeur Corinth? Shrunk from sight, Thy ancient treasures, and thy rampart's height, Thy god-like fanes and palaces! Oh, where Thy mighty myriads and majestic fair! Relentless war has poured around thy wall, 1. Sic' yon, once a great and flourishing city, was situated near the Gulf of Lepan' to, about ten miles north-west from Cor' inth. It boasted a high antiquity, and by some was considered older than Ar' gos. The ruins of the ancient town are still to be seen near the small modern (Map No. I.) village of Basilico. 2. The Pamisus (now called the Pimatza) was the principal river of Messenia. (Map No. I.) 22. The severity of his laws has made his name proverbial. Their character was thought to be happily expressed, when one said of them that they were written, not in ink, but in blood. He attached the same penalty to petty thefts as to sacrilege and murder, saying that the former offences deserved death, and he had no greater punishment for the latter. It is thought that the nobles suggested the severity of the laws of Dráco, thinking they would be a convenient instrument of oppression in their hands; but human nature revolted against such legalized butchery, and the system of Draco soon fell into disuse. TION OF SOLON. 23. The commonwealth was finally reduced to complete anarchy, without law, or order, or system in the administration of justice, when Solon, who was descended from the line of Códrus, was raised to the office of first magistrate (594 B. C.), and, by the consent of all parties, was chosen as a general arbiter of their differ- IX. LEGISLA ences, and invested with full authority to frame a new constitution and a new code of laws. The almost unlimited power conferred upon Solon might easily have been perverted to dangerous purposes, and many advised him to make himself absolute master of the State, and at once quell the numerous factions by the exercise of royal authority. And, indeed, such a usurpation would probably have been acquiesced in with but little opposition, as offering, for a time at least, a refuge from evils that had already become too intolerable to be borne. But the stern integrity of Solon was proof against all temptations to swerve from the path of honor, and betray the sacred trust reposed in him. 24. The grievous exactions of the ruling orders had already reduced the laboring classes, generally, to poverty and abject depend ence all whom bad times or casual disasters had compelled to borrow, had been impoverished by the high rates of interest; and thousands of insolvent debtors had been sold into slavery, to satisfy the demands of relentless creditors. In this situation of affairs the most violent or needy demanded a new distribution of property, as had been done in Sparta; while the rich would have held on to all the fruits of their extortion and tyranny. 25. But Solon, pursuing a middle course between these extremes, relieved the debtor by reducing the rate of interest, and enhancing the value of the currency, so that three silver mine paid an indebtedness of four he also relieved the lands of the poor from all incumbrances; he abolished imprisonment for debt; he restored to liberty those whom poverty had placed in bondage; and he repealed all the laws of Dráco, except those against murder. He next arranged all the citizens in four classes, according to their landed property; the first class alone being eligible to the highest civil offices and the highest commands in the army, while only a few of the lower offices were open to the second and third classes. The latter classes, however, were partially relieved from taxation; but in war they were required to equip themselves for military service, the one as cavalry, and the other, as heavy armed infantry. 26. Individuals of the fourth class were excluded from all offices, but in return they were wholly exempt from taxation; and yet they had a share in the government, for they were permitted to take part in the popular assemblies, which had the right of confirming or rejecting new laws, and of electing the magistrates; and here their votes counted the same as those of the wealthiest of the nobles. In war they served only as light troops, or manned the fleets. Thus the system of Solon, being based primarily on property qualifications, provided for all the freemen; and its aim was to bestow upon the commonalty such a share in the government as would enable it to protect itself, and to give to the wealthy what was necessary for retaining their dignity;-throwing the burdens of government on the latter, and not excluding the former from its benefits. 27. Solon retained the magistracy of the nine archons, but with abridged powers; and, as a guard against democratical extravagance on the one hand, and a check to undue assumptions of power on the other, he instituted a Senate of Four Hundred, and founded or remodelled the court of the Areop' agus. The Senate consisted of members selected by lot from the first three classes; but none could be appointed to this honor until they had undergone a strict examination into their past lives, characters, and qualifications. The Senate was to be consulted by the archons in all important matters, and was to prepare all new laws and regulations, which were to be submitted to the votes of the assembly of the people. 28. The court of the Areop' agus, which held its sittings on an eminence on the western side of the Athenian Acrop' olis, was com posed of persons who had held the office of archon, and was the supreme tribunal in all capital cases. It exercised, also, a general superintendence over education, morals, and religion; and it could suspend a resolution of the public assembly which it deemed fraught with folly or injustice, until it had undergone a reconsideration. Such is a brief outline of the institutions of Solon, which exhibit a mingling of aristocracy and democracy, well adapted to the character of the age, and the circumstances of the people. They exhibit less control over the pursuits and domestic habits of individuals than the Spartan code, but at the same time they show a far greater regard for the public morals. 29. The legislation of Solon was not followed by the total extinction of party spirit, and ere long the three prominent factions in the State renewed their ancient feuds. Pisis' tratus, a wealthy kinsman of Solon, who had supported the measures of the latter by his eloquence and military talents, had the art to gain the favor of the populace, and constitute himself their leader. When his schemes were ripe for execution, he one day drove into the public square, his mules and himself disfigured with recent wounds inflicted by his own hands, but which he induced the multitude to believe had been received from a band of assassins, whom his enemies, the nobility, had hired to murder the friend of the people. An assembly was immediately convoked by his partizans, and the indignant crowd voted him a guard of fifty citizens to protect his person, although warned by Solon of the pernicious consequences of such a measure. 30. Pisis' tratus took advantage of the popular favor which he had gained, and, arming a larger body, seized the Acrop' olis, and made himself master of Athens. But the usurper, satisfied with the power of quietly directing the administration of government, made no changes in the constitution, and suffered the laws to take their or dinary course. The government of Pisis' tratus was probably a less evil than would have resulted from the success of either of the other factions; and in this light Solon appears to have viewed it, although he did not hesitate to denounce the usurpation; and, rejecting the usurper's offers of favor, it is said that he went into voluntary exile, and died at Sal' amis.1 (559 B. C.) Twice was Pisis' tratus driven from Athens by a coalition of the opposing factions; but as the latter were almost constantly at variance with each other, he finally returned at the head of an army, and regained the sovereignty, which he held until his death. Although he tightened the reins of government, yet he ruled with equity and mildness, courting popularity by a generous treatment of the poorer citizens, and gratifying the national pride by adorning Athens with many useful and magnificent works. 1. Sal' amis is an island in the Gulf of Ægina, near the coast of At' tica, and twelve or fifteen miles south-west from Athens. (See Map No. I.) 31. On the death of Pisis' tratus (528 B. C.), his sons Hip' pias, Hippar' chus, and Thes' salus succeeded to his power, and for some years trod in his steps and prosecuted his plans, only taking care to fill the most important offices with their friends, and keeping a standing force of foreign mercenaries to secure themselves from hostile factions and popular outbreaks. After a joint reign of fourteen years a conspiracy was planned to free At' tica from their rule, aț the head of which were two young Athenians, Harmódius and Aristogeíton, whose personal resentment had been provoked by an atrocious insult to the family of the former. Hippar' chus was killed, but the two young Athenians also lost their lives in the struggle. X. EXPULSION 32. Hip' pias, the elder of the ruling brothers, now that he had injuries to avenge, became a cruel tyrant, and thus alienated the affections of the people. The latter finally obtained aid from the Spartans, and the family of the Pisistratids was driven from Athens, never to regain its former ascendency; although but a few years after its expulsion, Sparta, repenting the course she had taken, made an ineffectual effort to restore Hip' pias to the throne of which she had aided in depriving him. Hip' pias then fled to the court of Artapánes, governor of Lyd' ia,' then a part of the Persian dominions of Daríus, where his intrigues greatly contributed to the opening of a war between Greece and Persia.2 33. Nearly half a century before this time, Croe' sus, king of Lyd' ia, had conquered the Grecian colonies on the coast of Asia Minor; but he ruled them with great mildness, leaving them their political institutions undisturbed, and requiring of them little more than the payment of a moderate tribute. A few years later they experienced a change of masters, and, together with Lyd' ia, fell, by conquest, under the dominion of the Persians. But they were still allowed to retain their own form of government by paying tribute to their conquerors; yet they seized every opportunity to deliver them 1. Lyd' ia was a country on the coast of Asia Minor, having Mys'ia on the north, Phryg' ia on the east, and Caria on the south. The Grecian colony of Iónia was embraced within Lyd'ia and the northern part of Cária, extending along the coast. (Map No. IV.) 2. Modern Persia, a large country of Central Asia, extends from the Caspian Sea on the north, to the Persian Gulf on the south, having Asiatic Turkey on the west, and the provinces of Affghanistan and Beloochistan on the east. For the greatest extent of the Persian empire, which was during the reign of Darius Hystas' pes, see the Map No. V. 3. Cra' sus, the last king of Lyd' is, was famed for his riches and munificence. Herod' otus (i. 30–33, and 36, &c.) and Plutarch (life of Solon) give a very interesting account of the visit of the Athenian Solon to the court of that prince, who greatly prided himself on his riches, and vainly thought himself the happiest of mankind. |