СНАР.
VII.

State of

Greece after

war.

CHAPTER VII.

THE RETURN OF THE HERACLEIDS.

---

In

State of Greece after the Trojan War. The Thessalians
migrate from Epirus into Thessaly. They drive out the
Baotians. Who conquer Boeotia. Dorian migration.-
Connection between the Dorians and the Heracleids.
quiry into the truth of the legend. The Dorians break into
Peloponnesus. Conquest of Elis. The Achæans retreat
before the Dorians into Ionia. - Partition of the conquered
land among the Heracleids. Means by which the Dorians
effected their conquests. Settlement of Cresphontes in Mes-
senia. Various accounts of the subjugation of Laconia. —
Resistance of Amycle.- The Dorians in Laconia joined by
the Egeids. The Minyans in Laconia and Triphylia.
The Dorians in Epidaurus. - In Trozen - Sicyon - and
Phlius. The Dorians conquer Corinth. Invade Attica.
Codrus. Conquest of Megara and Egina. - Expedi-
tions of the Dorians to Crete. Colonies founded by Pollis.
By Althamenes. State of Crete at the time of the
Dorian Conquest. Cretan institutions. Subjects.
-Cretan Sys-

Slaves. Freemen. Form of Government.

THE Trojan war, as we find it described, was not, acthe Trojan cording to any conception that may be formed of the magnitude of the expedition and the conquest, an event that necessarily produced any important effects on the condition of Greece. There is no apparent reason why, as soon as it was ended, all the surviving princes and chiefs might not have returned to their dominions, to enjoy the fruits of their victory in honourable repose, and have transmitted their sceptres in peace to their children.1 The Odyssey accordingly

'See B. Thiersch, p.165. foll., and his essay, (in Jahn's Jahrbücher für Philologie und Pädagogik, 1826,) Ueber Homer's Europäischen Ursprung, p. 440., and, for the opposite view of the subject, Plass, (in Seebode's Neues Archiv für Philologie und

represents parts of Greece - especially the dominions
of Nestor and Menelaus as continuing, after the
war, under the rule of the heroes who fought at Troy;
and we might infer from this description, that the
great national struggle was followed by a period of
general tranquillity. On the other hand, the poet
signifies that, after the fall of Troy, the victors in-
curred the anger of the gods, who had before espoused
their cause.
The Odyssey is filled with one example
of the calamities which the divine wrath brought upon
the Greeks, in the person of Ulysses, king of Ithaca.
Menelaus himself, though we find him in the poem
reigning in great prosperity at Lacedæmon, was only
permitted to reach home after a long course of wan-
dering over distant seas and lands. Ajax, son of
Oileus, perished in the waves. Agamemnon was mur-
dered, on his return to Argos, by Ægisthus, who in
his absence had seduced his wife Clytemnestra, and
who usurped the throne of the murdered king, which
was not recovered before the end of several years by
Orestes, the rightful heir. Neoptolemus, son of Achil-
les, Philoctetes, one of the Thessalian chiefs, Diomed
of Argos, and Idomeneus of Crete, are expressly said
to have returned safe with all their followers. But
the poet does not inform us in what state they found
their dominions, or how long they retained possession
of them; and in the legends of later times they are
related to have been forced by various causes to quit
their native land, and to settle in foreign regions. We
cannot indeed place any reliance on these and other
similar traditions, because the hint which the Odyssey
suggests of the disasters which befel the Greeks after
their victory', might easily be expanded by the im-
agination of later poets; and still more, because the

Pädagogik, 1828,) Versuch ueber den Trojanischen Krieg als Historische Thatsache,
p. 60., who represents the return of the heroes as followed by a series of revolutions
and conflicts in Greece.

CHAP.

VIL

VII.

CHAP. vanity of colonies was always interested in tracing their origin to a remote period, and a renowned name. But in itself it is probable enough that, in many instances, the long absence of the chiefs might give occasion to usurpations or revolutions, and to the expulsion or voluntary migration of royal or noble families. Still, how far this was actually the case, must remain uncertain. One inevitable result however of such an event as the Trojan war, must have been, to diffuse among the Greeks a more general knowledge of the isles and coasts of the Ægean, and to leave a lively recollection of the beauty and fertility of the regions in which their battles had been fought. This would direct the attention of future emigrants in search of new homes, toward the same quarter; and the fact, that the tide of migration really set in this direction first, when the state of Greece became unsettled, may not unreasonably be thought to confirm the reality of the Trojan war.1

For sixty years however after the fall of Troy, history is silent as to any great change in the face of Greece. At the end of that period, if not sooner, began a long train of wars, invasions, and migrations, which finally introduced a new order of things both in Greece itself, and in most of the surrounding countries. The original source of this memorable revolution probably lay out of the limits of Greece, The Thes- and beyond the reach of historical investigation. We are only able to trace it as far as Thessaly, which was from Epirus the scene of its first visible outbreak. Here, how saly. soon after the Trojan war we are unable to conjecture, the Thessalians, crossing over the chain of Pindus from Epirus, descended into the rich plains on the banks of the Peneus, and began the conquest of the country, which finally derived its name from

salians

migrate

into Thes

1 Plass, u. s. p. 63.

CHAP.

VII.

them. As they came from the Thesprotian Ephyra, an ancient seat of the Pelasgians, it seems probable that they belonged to that race; and this is confirmed B. C. 1124. by the fact, that, though they never rose to a level in civilisation with the other Greeks, they spoke the same language. A few slight peculiarities in their national dress, and the reproach of fickleness, faithlessness, and coarse sensuality 1, which in after-times clung to their character, are hardly sufficient grounds for supposing that they were of a totally foreign origin an Illyrian tribe, which adopted the speech of the conquered people.2 Their fabulous progenitor, Thessalus, was called by some a son of Hercules; by others, of Hæmon, from whom Thessaly had anciently received the name of Hæmonia. The motive for inventing the last genealogy, may have been the wish to establish a legitimate title to their conquest; and, as migrations appear to have taken place very early from Thessaly to Epirus, their claim might not be absolutely unfounded. They were likewise said to have been headed by descendants of Antiphus and Phidippus, who traced their line through Thessalus to Hercules; though in the Homeric catalogues these two chiefs lead their forces from Cos and the neighbouring islands on the coast of Asia.3 Here too there may have been truth at the bottom: though the nation was Pelasgian, some of their chiefs may have been of pure Hellenic blood. The Thessalians were always famous for their love of horses, and their skill

1 On the faithlessness of the Thessalians see Voemel, Proleg. ad Demosth. Phil. i, § 24. n. 8., and add Livy, xxxiv. 51. On their gluttony, Athen. x. 12. and ii. p. 47. b. On the licentiousness of their entertainments only a little less gross than that of the Roman Floralia (Val. Max. ii. 10. 8.)- Athen. xiii. p. 607. c. * See Mueller, Dorians, Introduction. § 4. and compare the remark of Heraclides Pont. in Athenæus, xiv. 19. Θεσσαλοὶ, οὗτοι γάρ εισι τὴν ἀρχὴν τοῦ γένους Αἰολεῦσι μεταδόντες, παραπλήσιον ἀεὶ ποιοῦνται τοῦ βίου τὴν ἀγωγήν· and the description which follows of the Eolian character: τὸ τῶν Αἰολέων ἦθος ἔχει τὸ γαῦρον καὶ ογκώδες, ἔτι δὲ ὑπόχαυνον· ὁμολογεῖ δὲ ταῦτα ταῖς ἱπποτροφίαις αὐτῶν καὶ ξενοδοχίαις· οὐ πανούργον δὲ, ἀλλὰ ἐξηρμένον καὶ τεθαῤῥηκός· διὸ καὶ οἰκεῖόν ἐστ' αὐτοῖς ἡ φιλοποσία καὶ τὰ ἐρωτικὰ, καί πᾶσα ἡ περὶ τὴν δίαιταν ἄνεσις.

See Boeckh. Explic. ad Pind. Pyth. x. (vol. iii. p. 332.).

CHAP.

VIL

B. C. 1124.

out the

Boutians;

in horsemanship; and it was probably to their cavalry, an arın at this time new to the Greeks, that they were mainly indebted for their success. Their advance however was gradual; and they experienced a long resistance from the Achæans, They drive Perrhæbians, and Magnetes. Among the tribes which yielded soonest to the shock, were the Bootians, who inhabited the central territory of Eolis, where the Eolians, its ancient occupiers, appear to have been mingled with a different race, which gave its name to the whole population. It was commonly believed to have come from Thebes, having been driven thence by the Thracians and Pelasgians, after the city had been destroyed in its war with Argos 2: and this is certainly credible enough in itself; though here again we may suspect a fabrication, designed to prove that they were not intruders in their new possessions, but only conquered Boeotia as their rightful inheritance, and exercised a just retaliation in expelling the Pelasgian usurpers; and hence, though the current story is sanctioned by the Homeric catalogue, and by Thucydides, the fabulous genealogy, which makes their ancestor, Bootus, a son of Itonus and of Arné, daughter of Eolus, may perhaps convey more simply and faithfully all that was really known of their earlier history and relations. For Arné and Iton were two of their principal towns; and the temple of the Itonian Athené, on the river Coralius, their national sanctuary. The Thessalian conquest was attended with a very general migration of the freemen from Eolis: all who remained, either were, or now became, serfs, under the peculiar name of Penests. They directed their march towards the country henceforth called Bootia. Its subjugation

who con

quer Baotia.

1 Aristot. Polit. ii. 9.

Strabo, ix. p. 401. 9Пevéστai, labourers. According to some authors (Archemachus in Athen., vi. 85.), they were originally called μevéσraι, as clinging to the soil.