Chap. 18. Of the Senate of Five-hundred Chap. 19. Of the Senate and Court of Areopagus Chap. 20. Of fome other Courts of Justice Chap. 23. Of the Publick Judgments, Actions, &c. Chap. 24. Of the Private Judgments, Actions, &c. 126 Chap. 25. Of the Athenian Punishments and Rewards 129 Laws about the Refufal of Offices Laws concerning Honours, to be conferred on thofe, who have deferved well of the Common-wealth ibid.. Hap. 1. Of the first Authors of Religious Worship in Chap. 2. Of their Temples, Altars, Images, and Afyla 185 Chap. 3. Of the Grecian Priests and their Offices 202 Chap. 4. Of the Grecian Sacrifices Chap. 7. Of the Grecian Divination, and Oracles in ge- neral Chap. 8. Of the Oracles of Jupiter Chap. 9. Of the Oracles of Apollo Chap. 10. Of the Oracle of Trophonius Chap. 17. Of Divination by ominous Words and Things 336 Archeologia Graca, OR, THE ANTIQUITIES OF GREE CE. A Book I. CHAP I. Of the State of Athens till Cecrops. LL Ages have had a great Efteem and Venera tion for Antiquity; and not only of Men, but of Families, Cities, and Countries, the moft Ancient have always been accounted the most Honourable. Hence arofe one of the first and moft univerfal Difputes that ever troubled Mankind; almost every Nation, whose first Original was not very manifeft, pretending to have been of an equal Duration with the Earth itself. Thus the Egyptians, Scythians, and Phrygians phanfied themfelves to be the firft Race of Mankind, and the Arcadians boafted that they were pookalor, or before the Moon. The want of Letters did not a little contribute to these Opinions; for almoft every Colony and Plantation, wanting Means whereby to preferve the Memory of their Ancestors, and deliver them down to Pofterity, in a few Generations for got their Mother-Nation, and thought they had inhabited their own Country from the Beginning of the World, B Our Athenians had too their Share in this Vanity, and made as great and loud Pretenfions to Antiquity, as the best of their Neighbours; they gave out that they were produced at the fame time with the Sun (a), and affumed to themselves the honourable Name (for fo they thought it) of Auloxoves, which Word fignifies Perfons produc'd out of the fame Soil that they inhabit: For it was an old Opinion, and almost every where received among the Vulgar, that in the Beginning of the World, Men, like Plants, were by fome ftrange prolifick Virtue produced out of the fertile Womb of one common Mother, Earth; and there fore the Ancients generally called themselves Infeves, Sons of the Earth, as Hefychius informs us (b); alluding to the fame Original, the Athenians fometimes ftil'd themselves Tires, Grafhoppers; and fome of them wore Grafhoppers of Gold, binding them in their Hair, as Badges of Honour, and Marks to distinguish them from others of later Duration, and less noble Extraction, because those Infects were believed to be generated out of the Ground (c); Virgil has mention'd this Custom in his Poem entituled Ciris. Ergo omnis caro refidebat cura capillo, Wherefore she did, as was her constant Care, Mr. Fo. Abell, of Linc. Coll. Without doubt the Athenians were a very ancient Nation, and it may be, the first that ever inhabited that Country; for when Thessaly, and Peloponnefus, and almost all the fertile Regions of Greece chang'd their old Masters every Year, the Barrenness of their Soil fecur'd them from foreign Invafions. Greece at that time had no conftant and fettled Inhabitants, but there were continual Removes, the ftronger always difpoffeffing the weaker; and therefore they liv'd, as we fay, from Hand to Mouth, and provided no more than what was neceffary for prefent Suftenance, expecting every Day when fome powerful Nation should come and difplace them, as they had lately done their Predeceffors (a). Amidst all these Troubles and Tumults, Attica lay fecure and unmolefted, being protected from foreign Enemies by means of a craggy and unfruitful Soil, that could not afford Fuel for Contention, and fe cur'd from intestine and civil Broils, by the quiet and peaceable Difpofitions of its Inhabitants; for in those Golden Days no Affectation of Supremacy, nor any Sparks of Ambition had fired Mens Minds, but every one liv'd full of Content and Satisfaction in the Enjoyment of an equal Share of Land, and other Neceffaries, with the rest of his Neighbours. The usual Attendance of a long and uninterrupted Peace are Riches and Plenty; but in thofe Days, when Men lived upon the Products of (a) Menander Rhetor. (b) In voce Inyeres. (c) Thucydides lib. I, Euftathius Iliad (d) Thucyd, ibid, |