ed it rich and powerful; like Venice, whose prosperity was never greater than when the republic possessed not a single square mile on the continent.

SECTION III.-The Grecian Islands in the Ægean and Mediterranean Seas.

THE Thracian islands occupy the north of the Ægean sea: the principal were, Thásos, Sam'othrace, and Im'brus.

Opposite to Im'brus, on the Asiatic coast, at the entrance of Hellespont, was the island of Ten'edos, remarkable for a temple dedicated to Apollo, under the name of Smin'theus.

Southwest of Ten'edos was Lem'nos (Stalimene), dedicated to Hephæstus or Vulcan, because the poets asserted that Vulcan, when flung from heaven by Jupiter, had fallen in this island. South of these were Sciathus (Sciatica). Scop'elos (Scopelo), and Scỳros (Skiro), where Achilles was concealed by Thetis.

South of Ten'edos, and opposite the city of Eph'esus, on the Asiatic coast, was Lesbos (Metelin). Further to the south was Chíos (Scio), whose wines were deemed the best in the ancient world. It also contained quaries of beautiful marble.

The largest island in the Ægean was Eubœ'a (Egripo), separated from the Baotian coast by a narrow strait called the Eurípus, which is now choked up.

In the Saronic gulf were the islands of Sal'amis and Ægína.

Southeast of Eubœ'a were the Cyclades, a cluster of islands deriving their name from their nearly forming a circle round the island of Délos. Orty'gia, or Délos, is celebrated in mythology as the birthplace of Apollo and Dian'a.

The other remarkable islands in this group were An'dros; Céos; Páros, celebrated for its white marble; Mélos; Nax'os, sacred to Bacchus; and l'os, said to have been the burial-place of Homer.

East of the Cyclades, and close along the Asiatic coast, was another cluster of islands called the Spor'ades, from their being irregularly scattered over the sea. The chief of these were, Sámos, sacred to Juno, and the birthplace of the philosopher Pythag'oras; Pat' mos, where St. John wrote the Revelations; Cos, the native country of the celebrated physician Hippocrates; Car'pathus (Scarpanto), which gave name to the Carpathian sea; and Rhodes.

Creté (Candia), the largest of the Grecian islands except Eubea, lies at the entrance of the Ægean. In ancient times it was celebrated for its hundred cities. Northeast of Creté is Cy'prus, the favorite island of Venus, whose Paphian bower is not yet forgotten in song, and whose loveliness has been celebrated by poets of every age and nation.

SECTION IV.-The Ionian Islands.

CORCY'RA, formerly called Drepanè (Corfu), is celebrated by Homer under the name of Phæacia, for its amazing riches and fertility. It was opposite that part of Epirus named Thesprotia, from which it was separated by a narrow strait called the Corcyrean.

Leucádia (Santa Maura), was originally a peninsula, but the isthmus that joined it to the mainland was cut through to facilitate navigation.

The Echin'ades (Curzolari) were a small cluster of islands near the mouth of the river Achelóus, of which the most celebrated was Dulichium, part of the kingdom of Ulys'ses. Near it was the little island of Ith'aca (Theaki), immortalized by Homer.

Cephalónia, anciently called Schéria, was the largest of the western Grecian islands, and the least noted in history.

South of this was Zacyn'thus (Zante), with a capital of the same name, celebrated for its fertile meads, its luxuriant woods, and its abundant fountains of bitumen.

West of the Peloponnésus are the Stroph'ades (Strivoli), more anciently called Plote, because they were supposed to have been floating islands; and south of them is the island of Sphactéria (Sphagia), which guards the entrance of Py'los (Navarino).

South of the Peloponnésus is the island of Cyth'erea (Cerigo), sacred to Venus, and celebrated in ancient times for its fertility and beauty.

SECTION V.-Social and Political Condition of Greece.

It is useless to investigate the social condition of the Greeks in what are called the heroic ages, because we have no credible account of that period. But when the certain history of Greece commences, we find the country divided between two races, the Ionian and the Dorian, distinguished from each other by striking characteristics, which were never wholly obliterated. We know, also, that two other races, the Eolian and Achæan, existed; but they seem to have become in a great degree identified with one or other of the two former.

The Ionians were remarkable for their democratic spirit, and consequent hostility to hereditary privileges. They were vivacious, prone to excitement, easily induced to make important changes in their institutions, and proud of their country and themselves. Their love of refined enjoyments made them diligent cultivators of the fine arts, but without being destitute of martial vigor. They were favorably disposed toward commerce; but, like too many other free states, they encumbered it with short-sighted restrictions, and they were cruel masters to their colonial dependancies.

The Dorian race, on the contrary, was remarkable for the severe simplicity of its manners, and its strict adherence to ancient usages. It preferred an aristocratic form of government, and required age as a qualification for magistracy, because the old are usually opposed to innovation. They were ambitious of supremacy, and the chief object of their institutions was to maintain the warlike and almost savage spirit of the nation. Slavery in its worst form prevailed in every Dorian state; and the slaves were almost deprived of hope-for the Dorian legislation was directed chiefly to fix every man in his hereditary condition. Commerce was discouraged on account of its tendency to change the ranks of society, and the fine arts all but prohibited, because they were supposed to lead to effeminacy.

. The differences between these two races is the chief characteristic

of Grecian politics; it runs, indeed, through the entire history, and was the principal cause of the deep-rooted hatred between Athens and Sparta. Next to this, the most marked feature in the political aspect of Greece is, that it contained as many free states as cities. Attica, Meg'aris, and Lacónia, were civic rather than territorial states; but there are few of the other divisions of the country that were united under a single government. The cities of A'chaia, Arcádia, and Bæótia, were independent of each other, though the Achæan cities were united by a federative league; and Thebes generally exercised a precarious dominion over the other cities of Bœótia. The supremacy of the principal state was called by the Greeks Hegemony; it included the right of determining the foreign relations of the inferior states, and binding them to all wars in which the capital engaged, and all treaties of peace which it concluded; but it did not allow of any interference in the internal administration of each government. This parcelling out of a small country, added to the frequent revolutions, facilitated by the narrow limits of each state, necessarily led to a more rapid development of political science in Greece than in any other country.

Divided as the Greeks were, there were many circumstances that united the whole Hellenic race by a common bond of nationality. Of these the chief was unity of religion, connected with which were the national festivals and games, at which all the Hellenes, and none others, were allowed to take a share. If, as is commonly supposed, the Greeks derived the elements of their religion from Asia or Egypt, they soon made it so peculiarly their own, that it retained no features of its original source. All Asiatic deities are more or less of an elementary character; that is, they symbolize some natural object, such as the sun, the earth, an important river; or some power of nature, such as the creative, the preserving, and the destroying power. In many instances both were combined, and the visible object was associated with the latent power. On the other hand, the gods of Greece were human personages, possessing the forms and the attributes of men, though in a highly exalted degree. The paganism of Asia was consequently a religion of fear; for it was impossible to conceive deities of monstrous forms sympathizing with man: hence, also, the priesthood formed a peculiar caste; for the mystery which veiled the god was necessarily extended to the mode in which he should be worshipped.

Instead of this gloomy system, the Greeks had a religion of love; they regarded their gods as a kind of personal friends, and hence their worship was cheerful and joyous. The priesthood was open to all; the office was commonly filled for a limited time only, and was not deemed inconsistent with other occupations. There is no doubt that the Grecian religion received its peculiar form from the beautiful fictions of the poets, especially Homer and Hesiod; for in all its features it is essentially poetical. We need scarcely dwell on the beneficial effects produced by this system on the fine arts, or its facilitating the progress of knowledge, by separating religion from philosophy.

The oracles of Dodóna and Delphi, the temples of Olympia and Délos, were national; they belonged to the whole Hellenic race. The responses of the oracles were more reverenced by the Dorian than the Ionian race, for the latter early emancipated itself from the trammels

of superstition. The worship in all was voluntary, and the large gifts emulously sent to them were the spontaneous offers of patriotic affection. Delphi was under the government of the Amphictyon'ic council; but this body did not limit its attention to the government of the temple: by its influence over the oracle, it acquired no small share in the affairs of different states; and it superintended the administration of the law of nations, even when the states represented in it were engaged in war.

The great public games were the Olympian, the Pythian, the Nemean, and the Isthmian. Foreigners might be spectators at these games, but Hellenes alone could contend for the prize. This right belonged to the colonies as well as to the states in the mother-country; and, as it was deemed a privilege of the highest value, it preserved the unity even of the most distant branches of the Hellenic race.

All the constitutions of the Grecian states were republican; but they varied so much in the different cities, that hardly any two were alike. In general, however, it may be stated, that in all the most severe public and private labors were intrusted to slaves; and in many, as Lacónia, agriculture was managed by them exclusively. This degraded manufacturing industry, and led to an undue depression not only of artisans and retailers, but even of master manufacturers. Foreign merchants were treated with unwise jealousy, and could never obtain the privileges of citizens. The right of coinage was reserved to the state; but it was not until a very late period that the Greeks began to pay attention to finance. Little or no taxation was necessary while the citizens served as voluntary soldiers; and the magistrates were rewarded with honor, not money. But when mercenary armies were employed, and ambassadors sent into distant lands, when the importance of a navy induced cities to outbid each other in the pay of their sailors, heavy taxes became necessary, and these brought many of the cities into great pecuniary embarrassment.

Another source of expense was the provision for public festivals and theatrical shows; to which was added, in Athens and other places, the payment of the dicasts, or persons analogous to our jurymen; though, instead of their number being limited to twelve, they frequently amounted to several hundreds, and had no presiding judges. This was doubly injurious; the multitude of the dicasts not only entailed a heavy expense upon the state, but the sum paid being small, few save those of the lower classes attended, whose decisions were not unfrequently guided by prejudice and passion, instead of law and justice.

The poetical nature of its religion, and the free constitution of its states, not only rendered Greece peculiarly favorable to the progress of literature, philosophy, and the fine arts, but gave these, in turn, a decided influence on the government. The tragic and lyric poets produced their pieces in honor of the gods; the comic poets at Athens discussed public affairs on the stage with a freedom, or rather licentiousness, which the wildest excesses of the modern press have never equalled; and the influence of the orators at Athens rendered them the leaders of the state.

The seeds of dissolution were thickly sown in the social system of the Greeks. The rivalry between the Dorian and Ionian races; the

turbulence and sedition natural to small republics; and the gradual decline of religion, followed by a consequent corruption of morals— rendered the duration of the constitution as brief as it was glorious.

SECTION VI. The traditional History of Greece from the earliest Ages to the Commencement of the Trojan War.

FROM AN UNKNOWN PERIOD TO ABOUT 1200 B. C.

SACRED history, confirmed by uniform tradition, informs us that Thrace, Macedon, and Greece, were peopled at an earlier period than the other portions of the western world. The first inhabitants were tribes of hunters and shepherds, whose earliest approaches to civilization were associations for mutual defence against robber-tribes, and the Phoenician corsairs that swept the coast of the Ægean to kidnap slaves. The Pelas'gi were the first tribe that acquired supremacy in Greece: they were probably of Asiatic origin; and the first place in which they appear to have made a permanent settlement was the Peloponnésus, where they erected Sic'yon (*в. c. 2000), and Argos (*B. c. 1800). In'achus was regarded by the Pelas'gi as their founder: he was probably contemporary with Abraham; but nothing certain is known of his history.

To the Pelas'gi are attributed the remains of those most ancient monuments generally called Cyclopian. They are usually composed of enormous rude masses piled upon one another, with small stones fitted in between the intervals to complete the work. From the Peloponnésus the Pelas'gi extended themselves northward to Attica, Boeotia, and Thessaly, which they are said to have entered under three leaders, Achæ'us, Phthius, and Pelas'gus; though by these names we ought probably to understand separate tribes rather than individuals. Here they learned to apply themselves to agriculture, and continued to flourish for nearly two centuries. (From *B. c. 1700 to *B. c. 1500.)

The Hellénes, a more mild and humane race, first appeared on Mount Parnas'sus, in Phocis, under Deucalion, whom they venerated as their founder (*B. c. 1433). Being driven thence by a flood, they migrated into Thessaly, and expelled the Pelas'gi from that territory. From this time forward the Hellénes rapidly increased, and extended their dominion over the greater part of Greece, dispossessing the more ancient race, which only retained the mountainous parts of Arcádia and the land of Dodóna. Numbers of the Pelas'gi emigrated to Italy, Creté, and some of the other islands.

of

The Hellenic race was subdivided into four great branches, the Æolians, Ionians, Dorians, and Achæans, which, in the historic age Greece, were characterized by many strong and marked peculiarities of dialect, customs, and political government; we may perhaps add, religious, or at least, heroic traditions, only that these appear to be connected rather with the localities in which they settled than with the stock from which they sprung. There were many smaller ramifications of the Hellenic race; but all united themselves to one or other of the four great tribes, whose names are derived from Deucalion's immediate posterity. It is the common attribute of ancient traditions to describe the achievements of a tribe or army as personal exploits of the leader;