: on the royal prerogatives are almost the only events that fill the meagre annals of Athens for several centuries. 9. While these changes were occurring at Athens, Lacónia,' whose capital was Sparta, although often engaged in tedious wars with the Ar' gives, vas gradually acquiring an ascendancy over the Dórian states of the Peloponnésus. After the Heraclidæ had obtained possession of the sovereignty, two descendants of that family reigned jointly at Lacedæ' mon, but this divided rule served only to increase the public confusion. Things remained, however, in this situation until some time in the ninth century B. C., when Polydec' tes, one of the kings, died without children. The reins of government then fell into the hands of his brother Lycur' gus, but the latter soon resigned the crown to the posthumous son of Polydec' tes, and, to avoid the imputation of ambitious designs, went into voluntary exile, although against the wishes of the best of his countrymen. 10. He is said to have visited many foreign lands, observing their institutions and manners, and conversing with their sages-to have studied the Cretan laws of Minos-to have been a disciple of the Egyptian priests-and even to have gathered wisdom from the Brahmins of India, employing his time in maturing a plan for remedying the evils which afflicted his native country. On his return he ap plied himself to the business of framing a new constitution for Sparta, after consulting the Delphic oracle, which assured him that "the constitution he should establish would be the most excellent in the world." Having enlisted the aid of the most illustrious citizens, who took up arms to support him, he procured the enactment of a code of laws, by which the form of government, the military discipline of the people, the distribution of property, the education of the citizens, and the rules V. INSTITU TIONS OF LYCUR' GUS. 1. Lacónia, situated at the southern extremity of Greece, had Ar' golis and Arcádia on tho north, Messénia on the west, and the sea on the south and east. Its extent was about fifty miles from north to south, and from twenty to thirty from east to west. Its principal river was .ne Eurótas, on the western bank of which was Sparta, the capital; and its mountains were the ranges of Par' non on the north and east, and of Tayg' etus on the west, which rendered ae fertilo valley of the Eurótas, comprising the principal part of Lacónia, exceedingly diff cult of access. The two southern promontories of Laconia were Maléa and Tænárium, now called St. Angelo and Matapan. (Map No. I.) 2. The Ar' gives proper were inhabitants of the state and city of Ar'gos; but the word is oftea applied by the poets to all the inhabitants of Greece. (Map No. I.) 3. The Brahmins were a class of Hindoo priests and philosophers, worshippers of the India god Brama, the supposed creator of the world. They were the only persons who understood tho Sanscrit, the ancient language of Hindoostan, in which the sacred books of the Hindoos cero written. . fhirwall, i. p. 175. of domestic life, were to be established on a new and immutable basis. 11. The account which Plutarch gives of these regulations asserts that Lycur' gus first established a senate of thirty members, chosen for life, the two kings being of the number, and that the former shared the power of the latter. There were also to be assemblies of the people, who were to have no right to propose any subject of de bate, but were only authorized to ratify or reject what might be proposed to them by the senate and the kings. Lycur'gus next made a new division of the lands, for here he found great inequality existing, as there were many indigent persons who had no lands, and the wealth was centred in the hands of a few. 12. In order farther to remove inequalities among the citizens, an, as far as possible, to place all on the same level, he next atte: apted to divide the movable property, but as this measure met with great opposition, he had recourse to another method for accomplishing the same object. He stopped the currency of gold and silver coin, and permitted iron money only to be used; and, to a great quantity and weight of this he assigned but a small value, so that, to remove one or two hundred dollars of this money would require a yoke of oxen. This regulation put an end to many kinds of injustice, for "Who," says Plutarch, "would steal or take a bribe; who would defraud or rob, when he could not conceal the booty,— when he could neither be dignified by the possession of it, nor be served by its use?" Unprofitable and superfluous arts were excluded, trade with foreign States was abandoned; and luxury, losing its sources of support, died away of itself. 13. To promote sobriety, all the citizens, and even the kings, ate at public tables, and of the plainest fare; each individual being obliged to bring in, monthly, certain provisions for the common use. This regulation was designed, moreover, to furnish a kind of school, where the young might be instructed by the conversation of their ellers. From his birth, every Spartan belonged to the State; sickly and deformed infants were destroyed, those only being thought worthy to live who promised to become useful members of the community. The object of Spartan education was to render children expert in manly exercises, hardy, and courageous; and the principal aim of Lycur' gus appears to have been to render the Spartans a nation of warriors, although not of conquerors, for he dreaded the ef fects of an extension of territory beyond the boundaries of Lacónia 14. Lycur' gus left none of his laws in writing; and some of the regulations attributed to him were probably the results of subsequent legislation. It is even a disputed point in what age Lycur' gus lived, some making him cotemporary with the Heraclidæ, and others dating his era four hundred years later, after the close of the Messénian wars; but the great mass of evidence fixes his legislation in the ninth century before the Christian era. It is said that after he had completed his work, he set out on a journey, having previously bound the Spartans by an oath to make no change in his laws until his return, and, that they might never be released from the obliga tion, he voluntarily banished himself forever from his country, and died in a foreign land. The place and manner of his death are unknown, but Del' phos, Créte, and E' lis,' all claimed his tomb. 15. There were three classes among the population of Laconia :— the Dórians of Sparta; their serfs, the Hélots; and the people of the provincial districts.a The former, properly called Spartans, were the ruling caste, who neither employed themselves in agriculture nor commerce, nor practiced any mechanical art.b The Hélots were slaves, who, as is generally believed, on account of their obstiuate resistance in some early wars, and subsequent conquest, had been reduced to the most degrading servitude. They were always viewed with suspicion by their masters, and although some were occasionally emancipated, yet measures of the most atrocious violence were often adopted to reduce the strength and break the spirits of the bravest and most aspiring, who might threaten an insurrection. 16. The people of the provincial districts were a mixed race, composed partly of strangers who had accompanied the Dórians, and aided them in their conquest, and partly of the old inhabitants of the country who had submitted to the conquerors. The provincials were under the control of the Spartan government, in the adminis tiation of which they had no share, and the lands which they held were tributary to the State; they formed an important part of the 1. Del' phos and Créte have been described. The summit of Mount I'da, in Créte, was sacred to Jupiter. Here also Cyb' ele, the "mother of the gods," was worshipped. (The Mount I'da mentioned by the poets was in the vicinity of ancient Troy.) E' lis was a district of the Peloponnésus, lying west of Arcádia. At Olym' pia, situated on the river Alphéus, in this district, the celebrated Olympic games were celebrated in honor of Jupiter. E' lis, the capital of the district, was situated on the river Penéus, thirty miles north-west from Olym' pia. Map No. I.) b. Hill's Institutions f Ancient Greece, p. 153. a. Thirwall, i. 129. military force of the country, and, on the whole, had little to com plain of but the want of political independence. SÉNIAN WAR. 17. During a century or more after the time of Lycur' gus, the Spartans remained at peace with their neighbors, except a few petty contests on the side of Arcádia and Ar'gos. Jealousies, however, arose between the Spartans and their brethren of Messénia,' which, stimulated by insults and injuries on both sides, gave rise to the first Messénian war, 743 before the Christian era. vi. FIRST MESyears After a conflict of twenty years, the Messénians were obliged to abandon their principal fortress of Ithóme,' and to leave their rich fields in the possession of the conquerors. A few of the inhabitants withdrew into foreign lands, but the principal citizens took refuge in Ar' gos and Arcádia; while those who remained were reduced to a condition little better than that of the Lacónian Hé lots, being obliged to pay to their masters one-half of the fruits of the land which they were allowed to till. 18. The Messénian war exerted a great influence on the character and subsequent history of the Spartans, as it gave a full development to the warlike spirit which the institutions of Lycur' gus were so well calculated to encourage. The Spartans, stern and unyielding in their exactions from the conquered, again drove the Messénians to revolt (685 B. C.), thirty-nine years after the termi VII. SECOND nation of the former war. The latter found a worthy MESSÉNIAN leader in Aristom' enes, whose valor in the first battle struck fear into his enemies, and inspired his countrymen with confidence. The Spartans, sending to the Delphic oracle for advice, received the mortifying response, that they must seek a leader from the Athenians, between whose country and Lacónia there had been no intercourse for several centuries. WAR. 19. The Athenians, fearing to disobey the oracle, and reluctant to further the cause of the Spartans, sent to the latter the poet Tyrtae' us, who had never been distinguished as a warrior. His patriotic odes, however, roused the spirit of the Spartans, who, obtaining Dórian auxiliaries from Corinth, commenced the war anew. The 1. Messénia was a country west of Lacónia, and at the south-western extremity of the Peloponnésus. It was separated from E' lis on the north by the river Néda, and froin Arcádia and Lacónia by mountain ranges. The Pamisus was its principal river. On the western coast was the deep bay of Py' lus, which has become celebrated in modern history under the name of Navarino (see p.517)—the only perfect harbor of Southern Greece. (Map No. I.) 2. Ithome was in Central Messénia, on a high hill on the western side of the vale of the Pamisus. (Map No. 1.) 3. Cor' inth was situated near the isthmus of the same name, between the Gulf of Lepan' to Messénians, on the other hand, were aided by forces from Sic' ycn' and Ar' gos, Arcadia 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 Ægina 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 an quity, 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 rula 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 en 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 modera village of Basilico. (Map No. I.) ? The Pumisus (now called the Pimatza) was the principal river of Messénia (Map Nɔ L) |