and they were assured that the time-the third generation-had now come when they should accomplish their return; not, however, as they had expected, over the guarded Isthmus, but across the mouth of the western gulf, where the opposite shores are parted by a channel only a few furlongs broad. Thus encouraged, with the aid of the Dorians, Ætolians, and Locrians,* they crossed the straits, vanquished Tisaménus, the son of Orestes, and divided the fairest portion of Peloponnesus among them. The belief that the Dorians were led to the conquest of Peloponnesus by princes of Achæan blood, the rightful heirs of its ancient kings, has the authority of all antiquity on its side. It had become current so early as the days of Hesiod; and it was received not only among the Dorians themselves, but among foreign nations. The protection afforded by the Athenians to the Heracleids against Eurystheus continued to the latest times to be one of the most favourite themes of the Attic poets and orators; and the precise district that had been assigned for the abode of the exiles was pointed out by tradition. In the Persian war the victory gained by Echemus over Hyllus was pleaded by the Tegeans as the ground of their title to an honourable post in the Greek army. Few traditions can boast of higher authority; and the fact is in itself by no means incredible, and admits of various explanations which would remove its principal apparent difficulties. Though the difference between the Dorians and Achæans was undoubtedly very wide in almost all points, still it might be expected entirely to disappear in a few generations after a small body of one nation had been incorporated in the other. The weak and unsettled state of the Dorians, in the earliest period of their history, renders it probable that they were then always willing to receive foreigners among them, who came recommended by illustrious birth, wealth, or merit, and that they might either have formed the Heracleids into a new tribe, or, if they were not numerous enough for this, have admitted them into one which was afterward called by a new name. Nevertheless, possible as this is, the truth of the story has been questioned, on grounds which are certainly not light or arbitrary, if they do not outweigh all that have been alleged in its support. What is said to have happened might have been invented, and the occasion and motives for the fabrication may be conceived still more easily than the truth of the fact, for such facts in the early history of Greece were undoubtedly much less common than such fictions. it is much less probable that the origin of the Dorian tribes, as of all similar political forms which a nation has assumed in the earliest period of existence, should have been distinctly remembered, than that it should have been forgotten, and have been then attributed to imaginary persons. This is so usual a process, that it might have been fairly assumed with regard to the two tribes which are said to have been named after the sons of Ægimius, though, by a singular anachronism, one legend relates that Pamphylus • The Locrians are said to have deceived the Peloponnesians, having engaged to give notice by signals if the Der aus should attempt to cross the straits. They broke the promise, qui the Peloponesans were taken by surPvt in Mai, Ser, Vet. u, p. 3-6. -P and Dymas fell in the last expedition by which their countrymen made themselves masters of Peloponnesus, and another represents Pamphylus as still living in the second generation after the conquest.* That the royal family should claim Hercules for its ancestor, though it was, in truth, of Dorian blood, can only be thought surprising by those who believe the exploits ascribed to that hero to have been the actions of one real person. But if there was a Dorian as well as an Achæan, and a Theban Hercules, the motives which led the Dorians to confound them, after the conquest of their new dominions, may be easily conceived. The Attic and Arcadian traditions, which appear to confirm the common story, might be adapted to it, though their foundation, whether real or imaginary, was originally different: the worship of Hercules, which was introduced in that part of Attica where the Heracleids were said to have taken up their temporary abode,† and the long struggle between Tegea and Lacedæmon, afforded ample room for fiction to play in. But we have, perhaps, dwelt too long on a doubtful point, which is, after all, of little moment, since it does not affect either the history or the institutions of the conquering race. We proceed to relate the issue of their expedition. The invaders bent their course westward, and ascended upon the coast of the Corinthian Gulf near Naupactus, manifestly with the view to strengthen themselves with the aid of the Etolians of Calydon, with whom they had, perhaps, before entered into amicable relations, as Hyllus was said to be the son of the Ætolian princess Dejanira. The progress of the fierce inland tribes, which finally extinguished the old Hellenic race of Calydon, may have been the principal motive of the migration with both nations. According to the received legend, the Heracleids were guided into Peloponnesus by Oxylus, an Ætolian chief, and their kinsman; for he belonged to the line of Œneus, the father of Dejanira, who, like Ægimius, had been protected by the arm of Hercules from a formidable enemy, the Thesprotians of Ephyra.‡ Oxylus alleged a title to Elis, like that under which his allies claimed the kingdoms of the Pelopids. The base of his statue in the market-place of Elis bore an inscription, importing that Etolus, his ancestor in the tenth generation, had quitted Elis, the original seat of his people, the Epeans, and had conquered that part of the land of the Curetes which afterward bore the name of Ætolia; and the truth of this memorial was confirmed by a corresponding inscription on the statue of tolus in the Etolian town of Thermi. Etolus had migrated because he had chanced to incur the stain of bloodshed; and a like misfortune had driven Oxylus into exile, when he met with the sons of Aristomachus, and stipulated with them for his hereditary kingdom of Elis as the price of his guidance, which an oracle had declared to be indispensable to their success. He was put into possession of it by the fortunate issue of a single combat between one of his Etolian followers and an Epean chieftain. It is added Apollod., ., 8, 3, 5. Paus., 11., 28, 6. † Paus.. .. 15, 3. Apollod., ii, 8. 3, 3. Apollod., ii., 7, 6, 1. Degmenus the Epean came armed with a bow, but was levelled with the ground by the sling of the Etolian Py the country. Henceforth this part of Peloponnesus bore the name of Achaia; according to one account, Tisamenus was slain in the decisive battle and buried in Helicé, whence, at a later period, the Spartans, by command of the Delphic oracle, transported his bones to Lacedæmon:* but another tradition supposed him to have reigned in Achaia after the departure or subjugation of the Ionians. After some years, a part of the Achæans, under Agorius, a descendant of Agamemnon, found a settlement in Elis, invited, it is said, by Oxylus, who was enjoined by an oracle to share his new domin ions with one of the Pelopids. The motive of this invitation may have been to establish a claim to the possession of Pisa, the ancient seat of Pelops. The dislodged Ionians first sought refuge among their kinsmen in Attica, and when the land became too narrow for them, followed the example of the Eolians, and, joined by swarms of fugitives and adventurers of various races, made for the coast of Asia. that he used the victory wisely and mildly; and the issue was in favour of the Achæans. that he permitted the ancient inhabitants, after The Ionians, after their defeat, took shelter in resigning a share of their lands to the Etolian Helicé, their principal town, but at length cainvaders, to retain the remainder as independ-pitulated with the conquerors for leave to quit ent owners; that he granted several privileges to Dius, the deposed king, and maintained unimpaired the sacred honours of Augeas and the other native heroes. The substance of this account may be well founded, though there can be little doubt that the new settlement was followed by migration from this as from other parts of Peloponnesus. Motives of policy may have concurred with those of national affinity in disposing the Eleans to a friendly union with the followers of Oxylus. They are described as engaged in constant wars with their southern neighbours, the people of Pisa, and the subjects of Nestor, and they were probably not unwilling to admit, and even to purchase by some sacrifices, an accession of strength which established their superiority. The conquest produced no other immediate revolution on the northwestern side of the peninsula. The territory of Pisa continued long after to be governed by its native princes, who owned no subjection to Elis. The remainder of the country afterward comprised under the name of Elis, whether it was still under the dominion of the house of Neleus, or had changed its masters, retained its independence for several centuries; though we shall see it occupied, after no long time, by a new colony. After the death or retreat of Tisamenus, the poetical legend of the conquest represents the Heracleids as only busied with the partition of his kingdom. Aristodemus, as it was believed everywhere, except at Sparta, had not lived to enter Peloponnesus, but had fallen at Delphi It is said that Oxylus, fearing lest the sight by a thunderbolt, or a shaft of Apollo; or, as of the fertile land, which had been promised as another tale ran, by the hands of assassins, rehis reward, might tempt the Heracleids to vio-lated to the house of Atreus.|| He had left late their compact with him, led them, not along twin sons, Procles and Eurysthenes, who sucthe western coast, but through Arcadia into the ceeded to his claim of an equal share with Teregion which they claimed as their patrimony. menus and Cresphontes. Three altars were We hear of no opposition made to the invaders erected, and on each a sacrifice was made to by the Arcadians; on the contrary, Cypselus, the divine father of Hercules. Then three lots who is called king of the Arcadians, gave his were cast into an urn filled with water. It had daughter in marriage to Cresphontes. But, as been agreed that the lots were to be stones, and Arcadia was at this time most probably divided that the first drawn should give possession of into a number of small states, this friendly dis- Argos, the second of Lacedæmon, the third of position of one does not exclude the possibility Messenia. But Cresphontes, to secure the fairof resistance having been offered by others; est portion, threw a clod of earth into the waand this may have been the beginning of the ter, which, being dissolved, remained at the struggle between Tegea and Sparta. Here, bottom of the vessel while the lots of his comhowever, the invaders effected no settlement, petitors were drawn. According to another but proceeded to the conquest of the countries form of the legend, Argos had been reserved for subject to the house of Atreus, and now gov- Temenus, who then conspired with Cresphonerned by Tisamenus, son of Orestes. Tradi- tes to defraud the children of Aristodemus.** tion varied greatly as to the fate of Tisamenus After the partition was completed, each of himself: according to one legend, he fell fight- the three altars was found occupied by a poring against the Heracleids;* according to an- tent, from which the diviners augured the desother, he withdrew from his territories, and led tiny and character of the people to which it beall the Achæans who desired independence longed. A toad was seen resting on that of against the Ionians on the coast of the Corin- Argos; a warning that she must abstain from thian Gulf. He is said, at first, to have pro- ambitious aggression, and remain content with posed to the Ionians to unite his people with her natural bounds. The restless hostility of them, on condition of being admitted to a fair Lacedæmon was prefigured by a serpent; the share of the land, and that it was only the jeal-craft which she imputed to her weaker neighousy of the Ionian princes, who feared lest Tis-bour, Messenia, by a fox. The descendants of amenus should become sole king of the united Hercules then took quiet possession of their alnation, that prevented his proposal from being lotted shares. accepted. The contest was decided by arms, This poetical legend, as well as other narratives of the same events which wear a more historical aspect, has undoubtedly crowded RETURN OF THE HERACLEIDS. 115 A similar plan which undertook the conquest of Argolis. Between three and four miles from Argos, on the western side of the gulf, is a hillock, which, in the time of Pausanias, was still covered with buildings. Among them was a monument of Temenus, whence the place was called Temenium, which then continued to be honoured with religious rites by the Dorians of Argos. The Temenium, says Pausanias, received its for he took possession of the ground and fortiname from Temenus, the son of Aristomachus; fied it, and from this position he and his Dorians carried on the war against Tisamenus and that Argos was the first object of the invaders' the Achæans. From this account we perceive attack; how long it held out we do not learn, but the site of the monument of Temenus would had fallen before his people had effected this lead us to infer that the eldest of the Heracleids conquest; and, in fact, we hear nothing more of his personal exploits. The expeditions by which the Dorian dominion was gradually extended over the northeast of the peninsula are ascribed to his successors: to these we shall return, after having pursued the fortunes of Cresphontes and the heirs of Aristodemus. transactions together which must have occu- | Nice followed its example.* pied many years, probably many generations. was pursued by that division of the Dorians The great revolution, which imposed a foreign yoke on the warlike Achæans, was certainly not effected by a momentary struggle. We cannot, indeed, distinctly trace the steps by - which the conquest was really achieved, but fragments of apparently genuine tradition remain to show what might, indeed, have been safely conjectured in the absence of positive information, that it was, in general, the tardy fruit of a hard contest. Dorians were probably everywhere greatly inThe numbers of the ferior to those of the enemy, and seem to be rather over than underrated when they are estimated at 20,000 warriors. may have been, in some degree, compensated This inequality by the advantages which their arms, their mode of fighting, tactics, and discipline, may have given them in the field. customed, perhaps, to depend much on the The Achæan bands, acprowess of their leaders, and furnished with no weapons capable of resisting the long Dorian spear and of making an impression on the broad shield, which, hanging from the shoulder to the knees, covered the whole body of the warrior, may have been easily borne down by the steady charge of their deep and serried phalanx. But, on the other hand, the art of besieging was even in later times foreign to Dorian warfare, and much slighter fortifications than those of the Larissa of Argos, of Tiryns, and Mycenae, would have sufficed to deter the invaders from the thought of attacking them. But, without balancing the resources of the contending nations, we find that, in fact, the issue of the war was not decided either by pitched battles or regular sieges. Traditions, which may be trusted, since they contradict notions which had become generally current on the subject, prove that the Dorian chieftains adopted a different plan for the subjugation of the country; one which, though tedious, was safer, and better adapted to their means and situation. It consisted in occupying a strong post in the neighbourhood of the enemy's city, and wearing him out by a continued series of harassing excursions. The remembrance of two such stations was preserved to later ages; and the glimpse they afford of the manner in to have retained its independence, and to have which the conquest was effected, is sufficient been occupied for several centuries by one But the Messenian Pylus seems long to show the groundlessness of the common be- branch of the family of Neleus; for descendants lief, that the fall of Tisamenus was attended by of Nestor are mentioned as allies of the Mesa sudden and complete triumph of the Dorians. senians in their struggle with Sparta in the latThe history of the Turks, at a period when ter half of the seventh century B.C. There they stood nearly at the same level of civiliza- is, however, some reason for doubting that the tion, affords a not uninteresting parallel. While rest of the country submitted so quietly, as has the Turkish Empire was yet confined to a small been generally supposed, to the rule of Cresdistrict at the foot of the Mysian Olympus, the phontes. Ephorus, indeed, related that he took rich and strongly fortified cities of Brusa and possession of Messenia, and divided it into five Nice excited the ambition of Othman, the districts, fixing his own residence in a central founder of the Ottoman dynasty. But the force position in the plain of Stenyclerus; and it and skill of his tribe were unequal to the task seems certain that he founded a new capital of reducing them by a direct assault, and he there. But, judging from analogy, we should therefore occupied forts in the neighbourhood suspect that this was the result, not of choice, of each, and pressed them with an irregular but of necessity, because neither Pylus nor Anbut wearisome blockade, which kept the garri-dania, the seat of the ancient kings, were yet in sons in constant fear of a surprise, and cut off his power, and that it was only the first step all their ordinary communications with the sur- towards the conquest of the whole land. Of rounding country. Brusa was so exhausted by this lingering operAt the end of ten years, ation that it capitulated, and in four years more time of the Trojan war, to the house of Atreus, for Agamemnon offers seven of its towns to Homer represents Messenia as subject, at the Achilles as the price of reconciliation. It constituted a part of the dominions of Menelaus till his death; after which, the Neleid kings of Pylus, who were probably already masters of the western coast, took advantage, it is said, of the weakness of his successors to wrest it from them. At the time of the Dorian invasion, Melanthus filled the throne of Messenia: whether he also reigned over Pylus and Triphylia may be reasonably doubted. said to have been disaffected towards him as a foreigner, and hence to have offered no resistance to the Dorians. Melanthus, in conseThe people are quence, quitted the country and retired to Attica, where, as we shall see, he became the founder of a house which supplied the Athenian annals with many of their most illustrious names. V. Hammer, Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches, i., p. These traditions seem to the footing on which the Dorians here stood | taken by surprise.* with the ancient inhabitants, we shall speak justify us in rejecting the statement that Amywhen we reach the period of the Messenian wars. cla revolted from Sparta after the death of PhiJonomus. If, however, we suppose that it reWe have little more certain information as mained independent till the time of its fall, it to the steps by which the subjugation of Laco- will be difficult to believe that the case was nia was effected. According to Ephorus, it different with the other districts of Laconia, was completed as quickly as that of Messenia. which were remote from Sparta. The most The strength of the Achæans was collected in probable view of the matter seems to be that Amycle; but this city was betrayed, or its in- the Dorians, who must be conceived to have habitants were induced to capitulate, by the entered Laconia from the north, first encamped perfidious counsels of one of their countrymen, at Sparta, where they found, perhaps, a few by name Philonomus. After this, Eurysthenes scattered hamlets, and were detained, by its and Procles divided the whole country into six advantageous situation, at the opening of the districts, over which they set governors, with vale of the Eurotos. They no doubt immedithe title of kings. That of Amycle they be- ately occupied a tract in the adjacent plain sufstowed on Philonomus, as the reward of his ficient for their support. Amycle, which lay treachery, while they themselves fixed their only two or three miles lower down the valley, residence in Sparta. During the reign of Eu- appears to have been the ancient capital of the rysthenes the conquered people were admitted Achæan kings: there were shown the monuto an equality of political privileges with the ments of Cassandra, of Agamemnon, and ClyDorians; but his successor, Agis, deprived them tæmnestra, attesting the popular belief that it of these rights, and, from fellow-citizens, redu- had been the scene of their sufferings and ced. them to subjects of the Spartans. The crimes. It also contained a revered sanctuary, greater part submitted without resistance. Only where Apollo was worshipped over the tomb of the inhabitants of Helos, a town on the coast, Hyacinthus, which, even after the city had sunk attempted to shake off the usurped dominion; into a village, continued to be enriched with the but their revolt was quelled, and they lost both most costly offerings by the piety of the Spartheir political independence and their personal tans. Sparta, indeed, is described in the Odysliberty, giving rise and name to the class of sey as the residence of Menelaus: it is, perserfs called Helots, whose condition will be haps, the same place with the hollow, craggy hereafter described.* There are strong grounds Lacedæmon ; but it is more probable that, in for suspecting that this account disguises a fact the Homeric poems, the name of Amycle had which the later Spartans must have found it been exchanged for one which had of late bedifficult to conceive, that they became masters come more celebrated, than that the Pelopids of Laconia only gradually, and after a long should have fixed their seat in an unwalled struggle. It would lead us to imagine that town, such as Sparta appears to have been from Amycle and its district escheated to the Spar- its origin to the period of its declining greattan kings after the death of Philonomus. But, ness. If Amycle was the Achæan capital, we instead of this, we find traces which strongly can the better understand how it might be able indicate that it continued to form an independ- to hold out against the Spartans, notwithstandent state for near three hundred years after the ing its close vicinity, and might be reduced only invasion. It is certain that its final conquest after the rest of Laconia had been subdued; was not effected before the reign of Teleclus, though, according to an account which seems towards the close of the ninth century B.C.; as well entitled to credit as that of Ephorus, and the terms in which this is related seem Helos itself, from which the Achæan serfs are plainly to imply that it had never before sub-commonly supposed to have been named, premitted to Sparta. "In the reign of Teleclus,' served its independence down to the reign of says Pausanias, "the Lacedæmonians took Alcamenes, the son of the conqueror of AmyAmycle, and Pharis, and Geronthræ, which clæ. were in possession of the Achæans. ple of the latter two towns were dismayed at the approach of the Dorians, and capitulated upon condition of being allowed to withdraw from Peloponnesus. But the Amycleans were not ejected at the first assault, but only after a long resistance and many notable deeds; and the Dorians showed the importance they attached to this victory by the trophy they raised over the Amyclæans."† This testimony is confirmed and illustrated by a tradition of a long-protracted warfare, which occasioned the proverb that spoke of the silence of Amycla. The peace of Amycle, we are told, had been so often disturbed by false alarms of the enemy's approach, that at length a law was passed forbidding such reports, and the silent city was * Strabo, viit, p. 364. Conon, 36. ཝཱ The peo tu.. 2. 6 Elsewhere (1, 12, 9) he observes of the same monument, The temple of Jupiter Tropeus (the Discomster; was built by the Dorians, after they had overpowered in war both the rest of the Achæans, who at that wn possession of Laconia, and the Amycleans." Besides the Dorians, there were foreigners of other nations who were driven about the same time to Laconia, by the tempest which was now sweeping over Greece, and their presence was attended by some important consequences, though it is not perfectly clear whether they contributed more to promote or to retard the conquest. Among these we may reckon the Cadmeans, whom the Boeotian invasion had forced to quit Thebes. Aristodemus had married a princess of the line of Cadinus, who bccame the mother of Eurysthenes and Procles, and on their father's death, Theras, their mother's brother, undertook the guardianship of the royal twins. When they grew up to manhood, Heyne on Virgil, Æn., x., 564. + Conon, 36. If Lacedæmon is not, rather, the name of the country, as Eustathius (on Od., iv., 1) understands it, which would explain the ambiguity which Müller (Dorians, 1., 5. 12) finds in Homer's use of the name. If, however, it is to be taken for a city, it is clearly another name for Sparta. Compare Od, ii, 327, 359, with iv., 1. 213. ◊ Paus., iii., 2, 7. Phlegon., Meurs, p. 145. who accompanied him, while their brethren whom they left behind fought for the Achæans. The six towns founded by them in Triphylia seem to imply that their number was considerable; and certainly there is reason to think that it was sufficient to be of no small moment in the contest between the Spartans and the Achæ ans; it must, however, be remembered that Triphylia was already peopled, in part, by a kindred race, which may have received them as friends. Besides the colony in Thera, they took part in another expedition, of which we shall soon have occasion to speak. We must now take a view of the manner in which the dominion of the Dorians was established in other parts of Peloponnesus. Theras was unable to bear the thought of de- | for a place of refuge; and, accordingly, we are scending from the honours of the regency to a informed by Conon that Philonomus admitted private station, and resolved on leading a colo- inhabitants from Imbros and Lemnos, who must ny to the island then called Calliste, afterward be the Minyan fugitives, into Amycle, and that Thera, which was said to have been peopled by in the third generation they rose up against the followers of Cadmus. He left a son behind him Dorians, but were compelled to migrate. A in Sparta, who became the founder of a house comparison of these different stories seems to which Herodotus, who relates this story, de- afford ground for concluding that these Minyans scribes as a great tribe, named the Egeids, from shared the fortunes, not of the Dorian conquerAgeus, the grandson of Theras. But, accord- ors, but of the Achæans, and that the main body ing to other accounts, which have stronger in- did not quit Laconia before the reduction of ternal marks of probability, the Ægeids, so call- Amycle had been completed. The connexion ed after an earlier Ægeus, were a Theban clan* described by Herodotus between them and Thewho accompanied the Dorians, and rendered ras may even seem to justify a doubt whether them important services in their invasion of the Egeids also were not allies of the AchæLaconia, and especially in their war with Amy- ans.* With regard to them, however, it is cla: so that we are led to suppose that sev- certainly safer to adhere to the common view, eral noble Cadmean families had migrated, on which is confirmed by the admission of the the approach of the Baotians, to Doris, where Egeids among the Spartans; an event much they were adopted as kinsmen, and followed more intelligible when referred to the time of the fortunes of that division of the Dorians the invasion than after the fall of Amycle. It which settled in Sparta, on account of the con- is not necessary to suppose that the Minyans nexion which they had formed with its leader. held so closely together, that a part might not Theras is said to have been joined in his ex-join the expedition of Theras, and the Spartans pedition by a band of Minyan adventurers, the posterity of the Argonauts, who had been driven out of Lemnos by those same Pelasgians whom the invasion of Boeotia had forced to take shelter in Attica, whence the consequences of their insolence, or the jealousy of the natives, compelled them to migrate to a new home. According to Herodotus, the expelled Minyans sought Laconia as the land of their fathers, because some of the Argonauts had come from thence, and for the same reason were at first hospitably entertained by the Spartans, who admitted them as kinsmen to the right of intermarriage. When, however, the strangers abused their good fortune, encroached upon the privileges of their benefactors, and claimed a share in the succession to the throne, the Spartans Temenus is said to have excited the jealousy were indignant, and determined to put them to of his sons by the favour he showed to Deiphondeath. But they were delivered from prison tes, a Heracleid, but of another line, who had by a pions artifice of their Spartan wives, who, married his daughter Hyrnetho, and to whose having obtained admission to their husbands un-aid he was principally indebted in his conquests. der the pretence of the last farewell, exchanged dresses with them, and remained in their stead. The fugitives escaped to the heights of Taygetus at the very time that Theras was preparing to embark for Calliste. A part of them consented to share his adventures; but the main body bent their march to the western coast of Peloponnesus, and invaded the land, which henceforth appears to have borne the name of Triphylia. They expelled its ancient possessors, the Caucones and other tribes, and found-ed him at Argos. Deiphontes drew a part of ed six towns, which formed as many independent states, under the names Lepreum, Macistus, Phrixa, Pyrgus, Epium, Nudium. The reality of this settlement in Triphylia cannot be reasonably questioned; but whether it took place at the time and under the circumstances described by Herodotus is extremely doubtful. His account evidently proceeds upon the supposition that the whole of Laconia was subject to the sons of Aristodemus. If a great part of it, and Amyclæ in particular, was still independent of Sparta, the Minyans would have been at no loss • Schol. Pind., Pyth.. v., 101. Isthm., vii., 18. They are here called purpur, in Herodotus (v., 149), øv. + Pindar and Ephorus, Aristotle, and other authors, quoted by the Scholiast in the passages last cited. What the extent of these conquests may have been, is, as we have seen, very doubtful: it seems clear, however, that they did not include the ancient capitals Tiryns and Mycenæ, for otherwise some tradition could not fail to have been preserved of their fall. They probably long retained their independence; and it is not even certain that they ever received a Dorian population. The sons of Temenus plotted against his life, and Ceisus, the eldest, succeed the Dorians over to his side, and with their aid undertook the conquest of Epidaurus. It was at this time governed by Pityreus, who is said to have been a descendant of Ion. He offered no resistance to the invaders, but with the prin * Müller (Orchomenus, p. 3 6) treats the affinity of the Egeids with the Spartan Heracleids as a mere fiction. But he seems to press Pindar's language to closely, who, when he says that the Egeids took possession of Amycle sthm, vu, 18), probably means only that they aided the Spartans in the conquest of Laconia. The arguments drawn from the honours paid to Timomachus at the Ilya this, and from some other indications of a connexion between the Minyans and the Ægeids, are not more convin |