becomes the portion of the sons of Aristodemos, and Messênê that of Kresphontes.

Whether the eastward migrations, which are said to be caused by the return of the Herakleids, represent any real events, we cannot tell. These movements led, it is said, to the founding of those Hellenic settlements which studded the western coasts of Asia Minor, with the shores of the Hellespont and the Propontis, and which were found even on the banks of the Borysthenes and the Tanais.

CHAPTER IV.

HELLENES AND BARBARIANS.

LONG before the dawn of contemporary history a certain feeling of kinship had sprung up among the tribes which were in the habit of calling themselves Greeks, or rather Hellenes. Between them there was first the bond of a common language; but this connexion was acknowledged, necessarily, only in so far as one tribe understood the dialect of another. All who could not be thus understood were cut off from the great Hellenic society by barriers which were supposed to be impassable. They were speakers of barbarous tongues, and belonged, therefore, virtually to another world. But these convictions rested on no solid historical grounds; and all that can be said is that long trains of circumstances, which it would be impossible to trace or to account for, led certain tribes to acknowledge in some cases relationship which they repudiated in others. So far as this relationship was recognised, a common speech was regarded as evidence of descent from a common stock. But this evidence was not admitted in many cases where we see the affinity clearly enough; and thus to the Dorian or the Ionian a Roman was not much less a barbarian than were the Phenicians or the Gauls. Still, as time went on, the character of many of these tribes was so far modified by like influences as to present features which sufficiently distinguished them from other tribes. To the Asiatic generally the human body was a thing which, if he had the power, he might insult and mutilate at will, or disgrace by unseemly and servile prostrations. Of such usages the Greek practically knew nothing; and as he would have shrunk from the horrible punishments which Persian kings inflicted on those who

incurred their wrath, so he rejoiced to look upon the vigour and beauty of the unclothed body which carried to the Oriental a sense of unseemliness and shame. Above all, with him this respect for the person was accompanied by a moral self-respect which no adverse conditions could ever wholly extinguish. Looking at these points of marked contrast with the nations of Asia, whether Aryan or Semitic, we may speak broadly of a Greek national character; and this contrast would, we cannot doubt, have crossed the mind of every Athenian and Spartan on being asked to what race he belonged.

This feeling of nationality, which, however, was never allowed to intrude into the region of politics, was sustained and strengthened, as we have seen, by a common religion. The primitive hearth and altar had been from the first the sacred spot where the members of the family might meet on all occasions of festival; and these feasts were marked by games which in the course of ages began to attract visitors from other clans now recognised as sprung from the same stock. Such was the simple origin of those splendid and solemn gatherings which made the names of Pytho and Olympia famous. For their preservation and for the general regulation of the festivals some of the Greek tribes formed themselves into societies called Amphiktyoniai, as denoting the nearness of their abode to the common sanctuary. Of the many societies thus formed some attained a wide celebrity. But there was one which from the completeness of its organization became so far pre-eminent as to be styled expressly the Amphiktyonia. This was the alliance of which the representatives met at Delphoi in the spring, and in the autumn at Thermopylai. The chief work of this council was to watch over the safety and to guard the interests of the Delphian temple.

The tribes composing this Amphiktyonia did not include all who were intitled to be called Hellenes; but the tribes which were shut out could make use of the oracle at Delphoi or contend in the games at the Olympic and Pythian festivals. All Greeks therefore were admitted to share the large intellectual inheritance which placed them in the front ranks of mankind. The full influence of these great gatherings on the education of the people at large cannot be easily realised; yet as we read the stirring strains of the great Delian Hymn, we may to some extent understand the charm which attracted to

them all that was noble and generous through the wide range

of Greek society.

This great Hellenic aggregate, in one sense a nation, in another a mere fortuitous combination of isolated and centrifugal atoms, must be accepted as the starting point of our history. Of the changes which preceded the advent or growth of this Hellenic people we know nothing. The record of them was never made, or it has been lost irretrievably.

Confining ourselves within these limits, we may form some idea of the actual condition of the several countries collectively regarded as Hellas, when history was in its dawn.

At this time the Thessalians appear as lords of the rich plains watered by the Peneios and studded with cities, among which Pherai and Pharsalos, Krannon and Larissa are historically the most prominent.

To the south of the rich and beautiful valley of the Spercheios, bounded by the luxuriant slopes of Othrys to the north and the more barren range of Oita to the south, dwelt the Lokrians, Dorians, and Phokians. To the west of the Ozolian Lokrians and of the little state of Doris lay the fastnesses of mountain tribes known as Etolians and Akarnanians. With these rude and savage clans the comparatively orderly people of Doris and Phokis stand out in marked contrast; but in historical importance all these are far surpassed by the Boiotians, who regarded the whole country stretching from Chaironeia and Orchomenos to the Euboian sea and from the lands of the Opountain Lokrians to the Corinthian gulf as the inalienable possession of the Boiotian confederacy. That Orchomenos was the seat of a powerful people at a time when Mykenai and Tiryns stood foremost among the cities in the Peloponnesos is sufficiently attested by the huge works which completed the imperfect drainage of the lake Kopaïs through the natural outlets called Katabothra. But before the dawn of the historic ages the greatness of Orchomenos had passed away, and Thebes becomes henceforth the leader of the confederacy.

If from these communities to the north of the Corinthian gulf we turn to the Peloponnesos at the beginning of the genuine historical age, we find that the preponderant state is Sparta. Her territory includes nearly half the peninsula in a line extending from Thyrea on the east to the mouth of the Neda on the west. She has thus swallowed up all Messênê,

and no small portion of land which, as the tradition asserts, had once been under the dominion of Argos. The tribes who occupied the central highlands of the Peloponnesos exhibit, at the time when we first become historically acquainted with them, social conditions much resembling those of the highland tribes to the north of the Corinthian gulf.

Lastly, to the west of the great mountain-chain of Taygetos lay the magnificently fertile plains of Stenyklaros and Makaria, the territory of that old Messenian state whose fortunes were precisely opposed to those of the half savage hamlets which together formed the city of Sparta. Messênê, after a long and desperate struggle, went down before her austere rival, while Sparta became not merely the head of the Dorian tribes but a power which made itself felt throughout all Hellas, and in some sort succeeded in inforcing a common law. In her chief characteristics Sparta stood alone. This lack of sympathy with the general Hellenic mind was shown in her whole polity; and this polity, it was believed, was brought into permanent shape by the legislation of Lykourgos.

The historian who lived nearest to the alleged time of the great Spartan lawgiver is Herodotos; and the account which he gives is briefly this,-that Lykourgos became guardian of his nephew the young King Leobotas or Labotas, while Sparta was still utterly disorganized and unruly; that, resolving to put an end to this shameful anarchy, he went to Krete, and thence returned to change all Spartan manners and customs; that when afterwards he visited Delphoi, the priestess, although she confessed some hesitation, ranked him among gods rather than among men, and that after his death the Spartans built a temple in his honour and speedily became the orderly and mighty people which he wished to make them. According to Herodotos, the Spartan tradition made Lykourgos the guardian of Labotas, of the Agiad or Eurysthenid line of kings; but the writers whom Plutarch followed would have it that the child intrusted to him was not Labotas but Charilaos, of the Prokleid or Eurypontid house, and that Lykourgos, having been appointed regent on the death of his brother Polydektes, had rejected the proposals of his widow, who wished him to marry her and make himself king. According to this version the love of the widow was thus turned to hate, and the charge which she brought against him, of seeking the life of the babe whom

he had presented to the Spartans as their king, drove him into exile.

In short, the stories told of Lykourgos are altogether inconsistent, and of the lawgiver and his works we cannot be said to know anything. We must therefore content ourselves with such knowledge of the early condition of Sparta as may be furnished by statements relating to the working of the Spartan constitution at a time which may be said to mark the dawn of contemporary history.

CHAPTER V.

THE CONSTITUTION AND EARLY HISTORY OF SPARTA.

THE Spartans in relation to the inhabitants of the country generally formed strictly an army of occupation; and their whole polity may be said to be founded on the discipline of such an army. Externally, they occupied a position closely analogous to that of William the Conqueror and his Normans in England; internally they were governed by a close oligarchy headed by two co-ordinate kings. The power of these kings is said to have received some limitations from Lykourgos, to whom the Spartans attributed the establishment of the Gerousia, or senate of twenty-eight old men (the whole number of the assembly being thirty, as the kings sat and voted with them), and also of the periodical popular assemblies which were held in the open air. In these meetings the citizens were not allowed to discuss any measures, their functions being bounded to the acceptance or the rejection of the previous resolutions of the Gerousia. To this earlier constitution a further check was added by the institution of a new executive board of five men called Ephoroi (overseers), who acquired, if they did not at the first receive, powers which in the issue became paramount in the state. By the oath interchanged every month, the kings swore that they would exercise their functions according to the established laws, while the ephors undertook on that condition to maintain their authority.

When we reach the times of contemporary historians, we find the population of the Spartan territories marked off into three classes, the Spartiatai or full citizens, the Perioikoi, and the Helots. The distinctions between these classes severally are sufficiently clear; but it seems impossible to attain any certainty.