ferent chord, and allayed their angry passions by | He fed them on the banks of the Neda, which celebrating the blessings of concord and obedience to the laws.

were still open to the garrison of Eira. Here he caught the eye of a Messenian woman as she came to draw water; she admitted him into her house while her husband was guarding the citadel. On a rainy night the Messenian suddenly returned home, and related the cause that had drawn him off his post to his wife, while her paramour overheard him from a hi

Imboldened by his success, Aristomenes aimed at a higher mark. He sallied forth late in the evening, and by a wonderfully rapid march reached Amycle before the next sunrise; ere succour arrived from Sparta he had gathered his booty and was gone. But in a second inroad he found the Spartans better pre-ding-place. Aristomenes was prevented by a pared; half of their whole force, with both the wound from making his usual rounds; in his kings at their head, opposed his retreat. His absence the discipline of the garrison had relittle army was surrounded; he himself long laxed; in foul weather the sentinels left their kept his enemies at bay: at length, weakened by stations to seek shelter, and abandoned the loss of blood, he was stunned by a stone, and walls to the protection of the elements. The made prisoner with fifty of his companions. herdsman resolved to turn this discovery to acAll were condemned, as the vilest malefactors, count, by carrying it, as the price of forgiveness to be thrown down a high rock into a pit called and favour, to his master Emperamus, who, in the Ceadas. The rest were dashed to pieces the absence of the kings, had the command of by the fall; he alone came to the ground un- the Spartan army at Eira. Under his guidance harmed; saw the sky above, the naked sides the Spartans scaled the walls of the citadel, and of the precipice that enclosed him, and a cav- before the alarm was given were already withern dark as night at its foot, and wrapped him-in. The besieged, however, were still deterself in his field-cleak to wait for death. But mined to dispute every inch of ground that reon the third day a sound of life caught his ear: mained, and Aristomenes, in spite of his wound, uncovering his face, he perceived that a fox and though he had lost all hope, urged them to had found its way into the cave, through a pas- the conflict. As soon as the returning light ensage, therefore, which he might thread. Mo-abled the assailants to push forward, a fierce tionless he awaited its approach, caught hold of its tail, and guided by it as it struggled to escape, crept on till he saw a glimpse of light in the bowels of the rock, enlarged the opening with his hands, and the next day was again in Eira.

and obstinate combat arose in the streets and open places. Even the women took a share in it; and as the violence of the tempest prevented them from mounting on the roofs, to hurl stones and tiles on the enemy below, they armed themselves and fought among the men. But the fury of despair was fain to yield to fate: the rain poured down in torrents; the lightning seemed to flash in the eyes of the Messenians; the thunder sounded like the voice of an angry god in their ears. Still, for three days and nights they maintained the hopeless struggle; while the Spartans were relieved by fresh troops, their little band, fighting continually without rest, food, or shelter, dwindled and flagged from wounds and weakness. At length Theoclus, after exhorting Aristomenes to abandon the useless strife with destiny, and to save the last hopes of Messenia, and warning the Spartans that their triumph would not be perpetual, rushed into the thickest of the fight, and fell amid heaps of slain enemies. Then Aristomenes checked the ardour of the foremost among his warriors, bade them form themselves into a hollow square, enclosing their wives and children, and himself advanced towards the enemy, and by his gestures demanded a free passage. The Spartans, fearing to drive him to the last extremity, opened a road through their ranks for the fugitives, who, retreating in good order, safely gained the borders of Arcadia.

It would be long to relate all the other exploits and adventures of the invincible hero: how he cut to pieces a Corinthian army which was marching to join the Spartans; afterward, in time of truce, fell into an ambush of Cretan bowmen, and was taken, but again burst his bonds, through the pity of a maid, whom he rewarded with the hand of his son Gorgus. Thrice Aristomenes offered to Jupiter of Ithoné the extraordinary sacrifice called Hecatomphonia, because it was reserved for the warrior who had slain a hecatomb of foes. But he was said to have provoked the anger of the twin Protectors of Sparta by impiously counterfeiting their appearance, and disturbing a festival which the Spartans were celebrating in their honour with bloodshed.* The gods turned their faces away from Messenia. The eleventh year of the siege of Eira brought with it a sure sign that the end of the contest was approach"When a goat shall drink the water of the Neda," so the oracle had spoken, "the destruction of Messenia is at hand." But in the dialect of Messenia, the same word signified a goat and a wild fig-tree. One of these trees overhung the stream, and at length stretched Here they were received with hospitable its boughs down into the water. When Theo-kindness: their generous allies would even clus the seer saw this, he knew that the oracle have shared their own lands with them; but was accomplished, and that the fated term of the thoughts of Aristomenes were bent, not on resistance had arrived, and he warned Aristom-rest and ease, but on a new enterprise: while enes to resign himself to the loss of his coun

ing.

the Spartans were securely gathering the fruits of their recent victory, he meditated an expedition to surprise Sparta itself, and thus to take hostages for the moderation of the conquerors. But the plan was betrayed by the faithless Aristocrates, whose repeated treachery was now proved by an intercepted answer, in which the Soartan king Anaxander thanked him for his

ancient and his present services. When the assembly of the Arcadian people heard this, they stoned the traitor to death, and raised a monument inscribed with a record of his crime and of his punishment.

not ever since the return of the Heracleids, between Elis and Pisa. The latter state had more than once successfully asserted, not only its independence, but its claim to the right of presiding at the sacred games which were celAfter this disappointment fifty of the exiles, ebrated on its territory; first, as we have seen, with a kinsman of Aristomenes at their head, with the aid of Pheidon in the eighth Olympiad, secretly crossed the border, fell upon the Spar- and again in the 34th, when it was governed by tans, who were still plundering Eira, and died, a native prince named Pantaleon. Pantaleon sword in hand, in the land of their fathers. had also led succours to the Messenians in the Thus, in the first year of the twenty-eighth second war; and it is probable that, by so doOlympiad (B.C. 668), ended the second Messe-ing, he determined his enemies, the Eleans, to nian war. As many of the Messenians as re- abandon the Messenian cause and to ally themmained in the country became Helots, but prob- selves with Sparta. She requited their serviably few freemen submitted to this lot. Those ces by reducing the whole country that separaof Pylus and Methone, seeing no hope of re- ted the Hollow Elis from Messenia, under subtaining their independence after the fall of Eira,jection to them. Pisa was still ruled by her betook themselves to their ships and sailed to native kings, but they were now vassals of Cyllene, the Elean port. Methone was given Elis; and Demophon, son of Pantaleon, was by the Spartans to the Nauplians, whom Argos compelled to soothe the jealousy of the soverhad expelled from their own town: arrived in eign state by the most abject submission. His Elis, the Messenians sent to Aristomenes, and successor, Pyrrhus, excited some of the Tridesired him to lead them to a new country. phylian and other towns to revolt; but the He, however, could not yet abandon the task struggle ended in the complete subjugation of he had chosen for his life -to wage ceaseless all the insurgents. war with Sparta- but he appointed his two The old contest with Tegea, from which sons, Gorgus and Manticlus, to be the founders Sparta had hitherto reaped only shame and of the intended colony. The question was to loss, was at length terminated in her favour. what land they should steer their course. One Towards the middle of the sixth century before of their leaders proposed that they should seize our era, in the reigns of Ariston and AnaxanZacynthus, and from its ports infest the coasts dridas, an oracle bade the Spartans, if they of their conquerors. Manticlus bade them drop would prevail in the war, bring the bones of the thoughts of revenge and continual war, and Orestes, son of Agamemnon, to Sparta. Ansail to the great island of Sardinia, a rich and other mysterious answer directed them to easy conquest. Neither advice prevailed: one search for the relics at Tegea. Some gigantic band, however, under the two sons of Aristom- remains were accordingly dug up there and enes, sought the city of Rhegium, on the carried away. Tegea had now lost her pallastraits that separate Italy from Sicily. There dium; the arms of her enemy prospered, and they found some of their kinsmen, who had set- she sank into the rank of a dependant ally of tled there at the end of the former war. At a Sparta, distinguished only by the privilege of later period, in the 71st Olympiad, one of their occupying one of the wings in the armies of her countrymen, named Anaxilaus, raised himself confederate. The rivalry of Argos was not so to the supreme power in Rhegium: with his easily subdued: she still could not brook the aid they made themselves masters of the town loss of Cynuria; the growth of the Spartan of Zancle, on the opposite side of the straits, power rendered this little tract valuable as a which a band of Samian exiles had already barrier against its inroads. But, about the wrested from its rightful owners. They named same time that Tegea yielded, Sparta accomit Messene--it is still called Messina-and flour-plished this conquest by an effort which made ished there till many were induced to leave it for a new Messene in their ancient land.

Many, however, of the exiles remained in Greece, waiting for an opportunity of vengeance, which came, though long delayed. Aristomenes himself died in peace, at Rhodes, in the house of his son-in-law, Damagetus, who had been directed by the Delphic oracle to ally himself to the best of the Greeks. The Rhodians honoured him with a noble monument, and with the sacred rites due to a hero: his posterity were long the most illustrious family in the island. This tradition, at least, seems less fabulous than one which, founded, perhaps, on a poetical epithet, related that the Spartans had opened his body and found in it a hairy heart.

The yoke appeared now to be fixed on Messenia forever; and henceforward Sparta continued to rise towards undisputed pre-eminence in Peloponnesus and in all Greece. She rewarded her friends, humbled her rivals, and punished her enemies. Soon after the close of the war she stepped in to decide a quarrel that had subsisted for more than a century, if

the name of Othryades immortal. He was celebrated in the songs of the Spartan youth as the hero who alone, of three hundred Spartans, survived the battle which they fought with as many Argives, to decide the dispute about Cynuria, and, while the two remaining champions of Argos hastened home with the tidings of victory, raised a trophy which he inscribed with his blood, and then fell on his sword, that he might share the fate of his comrades. The fame of Sparta spread so far, that Croesus, the great king of Lydia, when he was directed by the Delphic oracle to make the most powerful of the Greeks his friends, sent his ambassadors with gifts to court her alliance. And Sparta was not slow to accept the Lydian gold, and willingly entered into a strict league with Crosus; she would, perhaps, even have assisted him with her arms when he was threatened by Cyrus, but his sudden ruin frustrated her intentions, and the conflict in which she seemed on the eve of engaging with Persia was put off to another season.

CHAPTER X.
NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND FORMS OF GOVERN-
MENT.

pact. The only exception that seems to have been admitted to this supposed law of nature I was where the division by which two tribes of the same race were separated into distinct THE series of migrations and conquests by communities had either not lasted long enough which the Thessalians, Baotians, and Dorians to efface the consciousness of their original became masters of the countries which they connexion, or had taken place under circumfinally occupied, was attended by changes of stances which, notwithstanding their political two kinds, one affecting the internal condition independence, kept them united as members of of Greece itself, the other the foreign lands in the same kindred. Where this tie subsisted, which the numerous colonies, which received it undoubtedly excluded ordinary incentives to their first impulse from the revolutions of the discord, and restrained wanton sallies of unpromother-country, successively settled. We shall voked hostility; so that though, between two take a review of the colonies in another chap- tribes so linked together, occasional quarrels ter; in the present we will notice some of the might break out into war, peace was the habitmost important effects produced by the above- ual and regular condition of their mutual intermentioned causes on the state of Greece. This course. Such appears to have been the degree subject will fall under two heads. We shall of union which once subsisted among the infirst consider some national institutions, which habitants of Attica, and in Megaris and Eueither sprang up in this new period, or assumed bæa; and in the two latter instances the mode a new character in it, and shall then inquire and terms of civil warfare were prescribed by into the political changes which took place ancient custom. A similar effect to that which within particular states, in the interval be- in these cases was produced by the feeling of tween the Return of the Heracleids and the affinity, arose in others out of accidental neightime when we shall see Greece first engaged bourhood. Perpetual warfare, pushed to the in a struggle with Persia. last extremity of hostile rage, would in no long We have hitherto made scarcely any mention time have consumed or ruined the little tribes of institutions tending to imbody the Greeks in whose territories occupied only a few adjacent one nation. In the Trojan expedition, indeed, valleys, always open to invasion: the necesas it is described by Homer, we see them uni- sity of mutual forbearance for general safety ted by a common language, a common religion, would naturally suggest the prudence of enterand a common enterprise. The former two ing into friendly associations, without any ultewere permanent bonds of union, but the latter rior views, either of aggrandizement cr of prowas an accidental and transitory one; nor does tection against a common enemy. Such an the poet indicate any which could supply its association, formed among independent neighplace. The causes which kept the Greeks bouring tribes for the regulation of their mutual asurder, notwithstanding their community of intercourse, and thus distinguished on the one language and religion, have been already point-hand from confederations for purposes offensive ed out in the natural features of the country and the equable distribution of strength by which the neighbouring tribes were enabled to balance each other, and to preserve mutual independence. We have also alluded to partial associations formed among neighbouring states, partly for religious, partly for political purposes. Of these associations in general, and particularly of one among them, which widened its original range so as to assume the aspect of a national confederacy, we shall now speak, principally to explain the causes which prevented it from becoming, in reality, what it appeared to be.

From the earliest times, the divided and unsettled state of Greece afforded abundant occasions of hostility among neighbouring tribes: there were always temptations to rapine, disputed claims, public or private encroachments, injuries unredressed, or too violently retaliated. The transition from the earlier period to that new order of things which is represented by the diffusion of the sons of Hellen, most probably tended to multiply these feuds, and the consequent alternation of wrongs and revenge. This actual relation, in which most communities were placed to each other, naturally suggested the notion that enmity and war were the necessary state of mankind, unless where there was some express agreement to restrain or temper it, and that the right of each state to overpower its neighbours, and to exercise the superiority thus acquired in whatever manner it might see fit could only be limited by com

or defensive, and on the other from the continued friendly relations subsisting among independent members of the same race, is the one properly described by the Greek term amphictyony.

This Greek word, which we shall be obliged to borrow, has been supposed by some ancient and modern writers to have been derived from the name of Amphictyon, the son of Deucalion, who is said to have founded the most celebrated of the Amphictyonic associations-that which is always to be understood under the title of the Amphictyonic Confederacy. There can, however, be scarcely any reasonable doubt that this Amphictyon is a merely fictitious person, invented to account for the institution attributed to him, the author of which, if it was the work of any individual, was probably no better known than those of the other Amphictyonies, which did not happen to become so famous. It would be a coincidence too marvellous to be ascribed to chance, that his name, with the change of a single letter, should be significant of the institution itself, which is not only his sole title to celebrity, but the whole groundwork and essence of his mythical being. The terin amphictyony, which has probably been adapted to the legend, and would be more properly written amphictiony, denotes a body referred to a local centre of union, and in itself does not imply any national affinity; and, in fact, the associations bearing this name include several tribes which were but very remotely connected together by descent. But the local centre of union appears

to have been always a religious one-a com- or council, This last appellation refers to the mon sanctuary, the scene of periodical meet- fact that the affairs of the whole amphictyonic ings for the celebration of a common worship; | body were transacted by a congress composed and this, among the Greeks, especially in the of deputies sent by the several states, accordearliest times, implies the belief of a certain de- ing to rules established from time immemorial. gree of kindred, which, as far as we know, was One peculiar feature of this congress was, that always confirmed by community of language. its meetings were held at two different places. It seems, therefore, not unreasonable to consid- There were two regularly convened every year: er the amphictyonic associations as founded on one in the spring, at Delphi, the other in the the same principle which united tribes of the autumn, near the little town of Anthela, within same race in peace and amity, though distance, the Pass of Thermopyla, at a temple of Demeor other accidental causes, might exclude some ter. This diversity of the places of meeting which, by blood, were as well entitled to share suggests a great variety of difficult questions as in the union as those which entered into it. to the origin of the league. It is very improbIt is probable that many amphictyonies once able that they were selected together, and it is existed in Greece, all trace of which has been not easy to determine which of them was aplost; and even with regard to those which hap- pointed first. The ancients seem to have conpen to have been rescued from total oblivion, sidered Delphi as the original centre of the our information is, for the most part, extremely union; and this opinion is confirmed by its andefective. One is merely mentioned by Stra-cient sanctity and the early renown of its oraho as having held its meetings at Onchestus in cle; whereas the choice of Thermopylæ could Boeotia, probably in the sanctuary of Poseidon, only have been dictated by its peculiar position, where a periodical festival appears to have been the importance of which was not connected celebrated with chariot races. No account is with any of the ordinary objects of the league. given of the states which composed it, or of any On the other hand, the name of Pylæa, which other particulars. Another, our knowledge of was applied as well to the assembly held at which we owe to the same author, must, if we Delphi as to that of Thermopyla, seems strongmay judge from the names of its members, have ly to indicate the priority of the latter place of been once of considerable importance. Its meeting; nor, if Delphi had been the earlier, is place of congress was also a sanctuary of Po- it easy to imagine why the other should ever seidon. long a revered and celebrated asylum, have been chosen. The readiest mode of recin the island of Calaurea. It included seven onciling these conflicting arguments may be to states, three towns of Argolis, Epidaurus, Her-suppose that there were originally two distinct mione, and Nauplia, Prasiæ in Laconia, the confederations; one, perhaps, formed of inland, island of Ægina, Athens, and the Baotian Or- the other of maritime tribes; and that, when chomenus. It seems clear that this confedera- these were united by the growing influence of cy must have been founded for a political rather Delphi, the ancient places of meeting were rethan for a religious purpose, since Træezen, tained as a necessary concession to the dignity though so near to the place of congress, and of each sanctuary. This conjecture seems to though Poseidon was its tutelary god, was not be confirmed by the legends which couple the a party to it. Its antiquity is attested by the name of Acrisius, king of Argos, with that of names of its members; for Orchomenus must | Amphictyon, in the history of the council. He have entered into it while still independent and is said to have founded the assembly at Delphi powerful; that is, before the Eolian conquest in emulation of that which Amphictyon had of Boeotia. But the motives which gave rise to founded at Thermopyla, and then to have comthis association, among states so remote from bined the two, and to have regulated them by one another, and apparently so little connected new laws.* This account might be substanby interest, can only be matter for very uncer- tially correct, though the agency of Acrisius tain conjecture. It has been suspected* that should have been referred to the wrong point, the weaker states-those of Peloponnesus- as we are elsewhere informed that he founded sought the protection of the more powerful the temple at Anthela, which would indicat against some formidable neighbours; but we that he was more immediately connected with do not venture so to fill up a blank in history. the congress of Thermopyla. That he was All that is certain is, that after the political re- the first who brought the confederacy into orlations out of which the confederacy arose had der, fixed the number of its members, the disbeen entirely altered, and it had sunk into utter tribution of the votes in the council, and the nainsignificance, Argos stepped into the place of ture of the causes which were to be subject to Nauplia, and Sparta into that of Prasiæ, for the its jurisdiction, is likewise mentioned by Strabo performance of the religious ceremonies, which as a received opinion. But the main question, became the sole object of the league. how Argos acquired such influence, or what power Acrisius more properly represents, is left in almost total obscurity: we can only suspect that he may, in this legend, have belonged rather to the northern than to the southern Achæans.

These are not the only instances by which we are led to conclude that amphictyonic associations were anciently much more numerous than appears from the scanty notices left of them in history. There seems to have been one in Argolis distinct from that of Calaurea ;† and another, of which Delos was the centre, attained to considerable celebrity. But of all such institutions, the most celebrated and important was the one known, without any other local distinction, as the Amphictyonic League By Müller, Æginetica, s. 8. + Paus., iv., 5.

The more important part of the subject is that which relates to the constitution, functions, and authority of the council. It is said to have been originally composed of deputies sent by twelve tribes or nations, each of which might include several independent states. The confeder* Schol. Eur., Orest., 1087

the Hellenes, to the period when the Hellenic name was confined to a few northern states, the original members of the confederacy.

ate tribes are variously enumerated by different | as a Hellenic confederacy, and this may have authors. A comparison of their lists enables us been the cause from which the Achæans of to ascertain the greater part of the names, and Phthia were not designated, in the proceedings to form a probable conjecture as to the rest; of the council, by the name of Hellenes, which but it also leads us to conclude that some chan- is peculiarly applied to them in the Homeric ges took place at a remote period in the consti- poems; but there seems to be no reason for retution of the council, as to which tradition is si- ferring a title which is sometimes given to the lent. The most authentic list of the Amphic-council in later times, of a general congress of tyonic tribes contains the following names : Thessalians, Boeotians, Dorians, Ionians, Perrhæbians, Magnetes, Locrians, Etæans, or Enianians, Phthiots, or Achæans of Phthia, Malians or Melians,* and Phocians. The orator Eschines, who furnishes this list, shows, by mentioning the number twelve, that one name is wanting. The other lists supply two names to fill up the vacant place, the Dolopes and the Delphians. It seems not improbable that the former were finally supplanted by the Delphians, who appear to have been a distinct race from the Phocians.t

After the Return of the Heracleids, the number of the Amphictyonic tribes-then, perhaps, already hallowed by time-continued the same; but the geographical compass of the league was increased by all that part of Peloponnesus which was occupied by the new Dorian states. And though a considerable part of Greece was still not included in it-for Arcadia, Elis, Achaia, Ætolia, and Acarnania never belonged to itthe power of the league, if measured by the exThe mere inspection of this list is sufficient tent of its territory, or unanimously exacted, to prove at once the high antiquity of the insti- would have been sufficient to command the tution and the imperfection of our knowledge obedience of the other states; and it might, with regard to its early history. It is clear that therefore, have been looked upon as a national the Dorians must have become members of the confederation. The causes which prevented it Amphictyonic body before the conquest, which from really acquiring this character will be evidivided them into several states, each incom- dent when we consider the mode in which the parably more powerful than most of the petty council was constituted, and the nature of its northern tribes, which possessed an equal num- ordinary functions. The constitution of the ber of votes in the council. It may, however, council rested on the supposition-once, perbe doubted whether they were among the ori-haps, not very inconsistent with the fact-of a ginal members, and did not rather take the place perfect equality among the tribes represented of one of the tribes which they dislodged from by it. Each tribe, however feeble, had two their seats in the neighbourhood of Delphi, per- votes in the deliberation of the congress; none, haps the Dryopes. On the other hand, the Thes- however powerful, had more. The order in salians were probably not received into the which the right of sending representatives to league before they made their appearance in the council was exercised by the various states Thessaly, which is commonly believed to have included in one Amphictyonic tribe was, pertaken place only twenty years before the Do-haps, regulated by private agreement; but, unrian invasion of Peloponnesus. It is, therefore, highly probable that they were admitted in the room of some other tribe which had lost its independence through the convulsions of this eventful period; and this may have been one of those which inhabited Boeotia before the Eolians from Arne gave their name to the country-the Minyans of Orchomenus, or the Cadmeans of Thebes. But so scanty is our information, that it has been conjectured,‡ perhaps with equal probability, that they did not gain entrance into the league before the sixth century B.C., when they took an active part in a war, which will be hereafter mentioned, between the Amphictyons and the town of Crissa. Hence it would appear that, before the Return of the Heracleids, the Amphictyonic body comprehended most of the Greek states north of the Isthmus; but, probably, notwithstanding the mention of Acrisius, none of those within it. It may already, at that time, have been considered

It is not certain whether these are names of two dif

ferent races, or variations of the name of one tribe; nor, in the former case, which is the right name. From Diodor., xviii., 11, it would seem that the Melians included the Malians, who were seated more to the north of the Malian Gulf.

They disclaimed the name of Phocians (Paus., iv., 34, 11), and appear, before the Peloponnesian war, distinct from them in their interests and political relations, connected by the latter with Sparta as the Phocians with Athens (Thuc., 1, 112). Hence, and from other indications, it has been inferred that the Dorians formed the ruling class at Delphi: a suspicion which is confirmed by the local dialect. By Wachsmuth, i., 119.

less one state usurped the whole right of its tribe, it is manifest that a petty tribe, which formed but one community, had greatly the advantage over Sparta or Argos, which could only be represented in their turn, the more rarely in proportion to the magnitude of the tribe to which they belonged. This right would have been of still less value if it had been shared among all the colonies of an Amphictyonic tribe; and this was the case with the Ionians: but the Eolian and Dorian colonies seem not to have claimed the same privilege. With regard to other details less affecting the general character of the institution, it will be sufficient here to observe that the council was composed of two classes of representatives called pylagores and hieromnemons, whose functions are not accurately dis tinguished. It seems, however, that the for mer was the body intrusted with the power of voting, while the office of the latter consisted in preparing and directing their deliberations, and carrying their decrees into effect. Athens three pylagores were annually elected; one hieromnemon was appointed by lot we do not know the practice of other states. Besides the council, which held its sessions either in the temple or in some adjacent building, there was an Amphictyonic assembly,* which met in the open air, and was composed of persons residing in the place where the congress

At