his independence, with the remains of his troops, and such of the inhabitants of the country as he could gather at Eira, in the mountains of the northern coast of Messenia. But, emboldened by success in his ravages through Laconia, he remained too long in the open country; he was captured by the Spartans, and, with fifty of his chosen companions, was brought in chains to Sparta, and thrown into a cavern, into which it was common to throw the greatest criminals. His companions were killed by the fall. But as the Spartans, who loved valour even in an enemy, allowed his request that he might be buried with his shield; the edge of the shield, striking against the sides of the cavern, broke his fall, and saved his life. Two days he lingered amid the stench of putrefying corpses, in expectation of a horrid death; on the morning of the third day, he perceived a fox devouring the mangled limbs of his companions. Seizing the animal by the tail, he was dragged to a chink in the rock, through which he effected his escape, and returned to Eira.

71. The final ruin of the Messenians was brought about by the treachery of a Spartan herdsman, who had robbed his master, and joined the Messenians. This man, being entertained by the wife of one of the Messenian guards, overheard the husband relating to his wife how he and other sentinels had left their post in a storm of rain— Aristomenes being prevented by a wound from going his nightly round. The herdsman immediately told what he had heard, in the hope of pardon from his master, who had the command of the Spartan force at Eira. Before the besieged Messenians could be alarmed by the barking of their dogs, the Spartans were in their fortress. For three days, Aristomenes urged his followers to a desperate fight, in the midst of a raging tempest. After struggling till their numbers were dreadfully reduced, they formed themselves into a hollow square, for the protection of their wives and children: they obtained a free passage through the Spartan ranks; and escaped into Arcadia. Some of the Messenians, living on the coast, took ship for Elea, and, under the guidance of Gorgus and Manticlus, sons of Aristomenes, joined some of their kinsmen--who had fled during the former war-at Messina, in Sicily. Others of the outcasts remained in Greece. Aristomenes retired to

Rhodes, where his memory was honoured as a hero, and his family were illustrious for many generations. - In another century-and-a-half we shall find the descendants of these fugitives recovering the land from which the Spartans drove their fathers.-The conquest of Messenia enabled Sparta to overcome the Tegeans, the most powerful of the Arcadian tribes, and to assert her military supremacy over the whole Peloponnesus, with the exception of the Achæans and the Argives.

72. When Croesus, king of Lydia, was directed by the Delphic oracle to make the most powerful of the Greeks his friends, he sent ambassadors with presents to Sparta, which entered into an alliance with him. Ambassadors came likewise from Ionia, and even from Scythia. The states composing the Peloponnesian confederacy, in which Sparta took the lead, were Corinth, Sicyon, Megara, Epidaurus, Arcadia, Phlius, Trozen, Hermione, Elis, with Pisa and Triphylia. Corinth was the state next in influence to Sparta.-The rising power of Athens, the Persian wars, the subsequent dissensions of Greece, and the changes introduced into the constitution, and into the foreign relations of Sparta, deprived her of her ascendency, and she sunk at last, with the rest of Greece, under the power of Rome.

CHAPTER VI.

GENERAL INSTITUTIONS OF GREECE.

The Amphictyonic League-First Sacred War-Public festivals of GreeceOlympic Games Athlete Prizes - Amphictyonic triumph at CrissaPythian Games-Local institutions-Government of Greece after the Dorian Conquest-Tyrannies-Their tendency-Democracy and Aristocracy-Reign of tyranny overthrown, B.C. 582, and succeeded by an oligarchy-Abolition of royalty in Sicyon-Poems of Homer-Megara-Government of the Boeotian states, principally aristocratical.

73. WHILE the Grecian states were independent of each other, they still formed one nation in language, in religion, and in common interests. Their territories naturally divided from each other by the outline of the country, and by their equality of power, kept them apart, and their

mutual jealousies often led to hostilities; but there were many causes of union-in a common ancestry, in the feelings of kindred, and in the necessity of mutual forbearance. Out of this natural alliance, added to religious considerations, arose the Amphictyonic League. This famous association appears to have been copied from similar associations of more ancient times. Its affairs were transacted by deputies sent from different states.

74. In spring they met at Delphi, and in winter at a temple of Ceres, at Anthela, within the defile of Thermopylæ. Its principal object was the guardianship of the Delphic oracle. Any insult offered to parties passing to or from the oracle, was punished with banishment or death. The first Sacred War, in which the town of Crissa was destroyed, after ten years' fighting, is the most celebrated example of its power. The oracle itself was not under the guidance of the league, but of the leading citizens of Delphi. The bribery by which favourable responses were obtained, contributed, together with the advancement of new opinions in philosophy, to the gradual weakening of its authority.

75. The public festivals of Greece were open to the whole Hellenic race. Of these, the most important were the Olympic Games, celebrated every fourth year, at Olympia, on the banks of the river Alpheus, in Elis.

76. The celebration lasted four days, and the period between one celebration and another was called an Olympiad. The festival was of unknown antiquity. But it was in the time of Lycurgus, apparently, and through Spartan influence, that the general concurrence of the Peloponnesians was secured; and in the course of time it extended to the whole Grecian people. At the time of the assembly, the territory of Elis was declared sacred: heralds proclaimed a sacred truce, putting a stop to all warfare, till the competitors could return home. Deputies from all parts of Greece, and from Grecian colonies in Asia, Africa, and Europe, assembled as spectators of the games, as to a religious solemnity, at which they regarded each other as the guests of Jupiter, the Olympian god.

77. The games consisted of foot races, horse races, chariot races, boxing, wrestling, leaping, throwing the spear, and the disc. Princes vied with princes in the contest;

but they were open to all Greeks legitimately born, and of unblemished character. The prize of the successful athletes was a garland of wild olive leaves; but this was the symbol only of applause from so vast an assembly of spectators, and a pledge of honours, and sometimes more tangible advantages to the victor, in his own state. The greatest sculptors devoted their talents to the statues of the victors, which adorned the allis, or Olympian grounds; and the greatest lyric poets consecrated their genius to the triumphant songs by which the success of the competitors was celebrated.

78. The triumph of the Amphictyonic Council at Crissa was celebrated by similar games in honour of Apollo, called the Pythian. Besides the athletic exercises, and the poetic contests of other games, the Pythian included competitors in music. The victors were rewarded with the spoils of Crissa. The other national games were celebrated at Nemea, in Argolis, and on the isthmus of Corinth. There were local institutions of the same kind in every part of Greece; and the germs of them were in every city.

79. The advantages of the Olympic Games have been unduly estimated. With the exception of the temporary truce, they did nothing towards uniting the Greeks, or in softening the fierceness of their hostilities. They impressed the Greeks with a sense of their own superiority to other nations; but their competitions only sharpened the mutual jealousy of rival cities. They were valuable, as affording opportunities for diffusing intelligence, enlarging mens' ideas, exchanging the productions of industry, and exhibiting the talents which refined the arts. On the whole, we regard these periodical exhibitions as forming an essential part of the universal system of training the bodily powers of a nation of warriors, while they indirectly promoted the vigour of mind by which that nation was no less distinguished. The fact that woman was forbidden, on pain of death, to be present at Olympia, during the games, is the strongest comment on their true character, and on the taste of the people.

80. It has already appeared that the governments of ancient Greece were small monarchies, and that these were displaced by the Dorian conquests. By slow degrees, the

men most illustrious for birth, valour, or wealth, assumed the reins of government. When this government was abused, or felt to be oppressive, the power of the freemen trained to arms, in cities, arose to limit and control it; and the majority of the inhabitants, being slaves, were continually regarded with distrust, and sometimes with fear. The action of the people on the government was different in different times and places. Disputes arose between the nobles and the people, which ended sometimes in admitting certain of the people into higher rank, and sometimes in the elevation of a noble who had espoused the people's cause, to supreme power, with various titles. A variety of popular acts were used to secure such power. Throughout Greece, such governments, when established by force, were called Tyrannies,-a term describing, merely, the nature of the government, as distinguished from either an hereditary or an elective monarchy. The tendency of the tyrannies was towards selfishness and oppression; and the tyrant of one state was ready to help the tyrant of another in suppressing the liberties of the people.

81. The fall of the tyrants was greatly promoted by the growing power of Sparta. When the power which had been the inheritance of a class was thrown open to every free citizen, the government became a democracy. In Arcadia, the republics were aristocratical, the ruling power being in the hands of nobles. In Elis, the monarchical government was extinguished soon after the Dorian conquest. In Achaia, the government became democratical at a very early period. In Argos, the government by kings continued till the Persian wars; though the substantial power was in the hands of the Dorian free citizens. In Corinth, the government passed from kings to an oligarchy-or the government of a few nobles-which was overthrown by Cypselus, succeeded by his son Periander, who, for forty years, maintained that species of authority called by the Greeks a tyranny, which was overthrown B.C. 582, by the Spartans, and succeeded by an oligarchy, the exact nature of which does not appear. The abolition of royalty in Sicyon is not mentioned; but the ancient aristocracy was overthrown by Orthagoras, a man of low birth, who founded a tyranny which lasted for a hundred years, and was destroyed, probably by Sparta, about the same time with that of Corinth. The history of