Mosaics of Grecian History by Marcius Willson and Robert Pierpont Willson

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* * * * *

I. THE CONSTITUTION OF LYCURGUS.

Having enlisted the aid of most of the prominent citizens, who
took up arms to support him, Lycurgus procured the enactment of
a code of laws founded on the institutions of the Cretan Minos,
by which the form of government, the military discipline of the
people, the distribution of property, the education of the
citizens, and the rules of domestic life were to be established
on a new and immutable basis. The account which Plutarch gives
of these regulations asserts that Lycurgus first established a
senate of thirty members, chosen for life, the two kings being
of the number, and that the former shared the power of the latter.
There were also to be assemblies of the people, who were to have
no right to propose any subject of debate, but were only authorized
to ratify or reject what might be proposed to them by the senate
and the kings. Lycurgus next made a division of the lands, for
here he found great inequality existing, as there were many indigent
persons who had no lands, and the wealth was centered in the
hands of a few.

In order farther to remove inequalities among the citizens,
Lycurgus next attempted to divide the movable property; but as
this measure met with great opposition, he had recourse to another
method for accomplishing the same object. He stopped the currency
of gold and silver coin, and permitted iron money only to be used;
and to a great quantity and weight of this he assigned but a small
value, so that to remove one or two hundred dollars of this money
would require a yoke of oxen. This regulation is said to have put
an end to many kinds of injustice; for "who," says Plutarch, "would
steal or take a bribe; who would defraud or rob when he could not
conceal the booty--when he could neither be dignified by the
possession of it nor be served by its use?" Unprofitable and
superfluous arts were also excluded, trade with foreign states
was abandoned, and luxury, losing its sources of support, died
away of itself.

Through the efforts of Lycurgus, Sparta was delivered from the
evils of anarchy and misrule, and began a long period of
tranquillity and order. Its progress was mainly due, however,
to that part of the legislation of Lycurgus which related to
the military discipline and education of its citizens. The position
of Sparta, an unfortified city surrounded by numerous enemies,
compelled the Spartans to be a nation of soldiers. From his birth
every Spartan belonged to the state; sickly and deformed children
were destroyed, those only being thought worthy to live who promised
to become useful members of society. The principal object of
Spartan education, therefore, was to render the Spartan youth
expert in manly exercises, hardy, and courageous; and at seven
years of age he began a course of physical training of great
hardship and even torture. Manhood was not reached until the
thirtieth year, and thenceforth, until his sixtieth year, the
Spartan remained under public discipline and in the service of
the state. The women, also, were subjected to a course of training
almost as rigorous as that of the men, and they took as great
an interest in the welfare of their country and in the success
of its arms. "Return, either with your shield or upon it," was
their exhortation to their sons when the latter were going to
battle. The following lines, supposed to be addressed by a Spartan
mother to the dead body of her son, whom she had slain because
he had ingloriously fled from the battle-field, will illustrate
the Spartan idea of patriotic virtue which was so sedulously
instilled into every Spartan:

Deme'trius, when he basely fled the field,
A Spartan born, his Spartan mother killed;
Then, stretching forth his bloody sword, she cried
(Her teeth fierce gnashing with disdainful pride),
"Fly, cursed offspring, to the shades below,
Where proud Euro'tas shall no longer flow
For timid hinds like thee! Fly, trembling slave,
Abandoned wretch, to Pluto's darkest cave!
For I so vile a monster never bore:
Disowned by Sparta, thou'rt my son no more."
--TYMNAE'US.

There were three classes among the population of Laconia--the
Dorians, of Sparta; their serfs, the He'lots; and the people of
the provincial districts. The former, properly called Spartans,
were the ruling caste, who neither employed themselves in
agriculture nor practiced any mechanical art. The Helots were
slaves, who, as is generally believed, on account of their
obstinate resistance in some early wars, and subsequent conquest,
had been reduced to the most degrading servitude. The people of
the provincial districts were a mixed race, composed partly of
strangers who had accompanied the Dorians and aided them in their
conquest, and partly of the old inhabitants of the country who
had submitted to the conquerors. The provincials were under the
control of the Spartan government, in the administration of which
they had no share, and the lands which they held were tributary to
the state; they formed an important part of the military force of
the country, and had little to complain of but the want of
political independence.

* * * * *

II. SPARTAN POETRY AND MUSIC.

With all her devotion to the pursuit of arms, the bard, the
sculptor, and the architect found profitable employment in Sparta.
While the Spartans never exhibited many of those qualities of
mind and heart which were cultivated at Athens with such wonderful
success, they were not strangers to the influences of poetry and
music. Says the poet CAMPBELL, "The Spartans used not the trumpet
in their march into battle, because they wished not to excite
the rage of their warriors. Their charging step was made to the
'Dorian mood of flute and soft recorder.' The valor of a Spartan
was too highly tempered to require a stunning or rousing impulse.
His spirit was like a steed too proud for the spur."

They marched not with the trumpet's blast,
Nor bade the horn peal out,
And the laurel-groves, as on they passed,
Rung with no battle-shout!

They asked no clarion's voice to fire
Their souls with an impulse high;
But the Dorian reed and the Spartan lyre
For the sons of liberty!

And still sweet flutes, their path around,
Sent forth Eolian breath;
They needed not a sterner sound
To marshal them for death!
--MRS. HEMANS.

"The songs of the Spartans," says PLUTARCH, "had a spirit which
could rouse the soul, and impel it in an enthusiastic manner to
action. They consisted chiefly of the praises of heroes that had
died for Sparta, or else of expressions of detestation for such
wretches as had declined the glorious opportunity. Nor did they
forget to express an ambition for glory suitable to their respective
ages. Of this it may not be amiss to give an instance. There
were three choirs in their festivals, corresponding with the
three ages of man. The old men began,

'Once in battle bold we shone;'

the young men answered,

'Try us; our vigor is not gone;'

and the boys concluded,

'The palm remains for us alone.'

Indeed, if we consider with some attention such of the
Lacedaemonian poems as are still extant, and enter into the spirit
of those airs which were played upon the flute when marching to
battle, we must agree that Terpan'der and Pindar have very fitly
joined valor and music together. The former thus speaks of
Lacedaemon:

Then gleams the youth's bright falchion; then the Muse
Lifts her sweet voice; then awful Justice opes
Her wide pavilion.

And Pindar sings,

Then in grave council sits the sage:
Then burns the youth's resistless rage
To hurl the quiv'ring lance;
The Muse with glory crowns their arms,
And Melody exerts her charms,
And Pleasure leads the dance.

Thus we are informed not only of their warlike turn, but of their
skill in music."

The poet ION, of Chios, gives us the following elegant description
of the power of Sparta:

The town of Sparta is not walled with words;
But when young A'res falls upon her men,
Then reason rules, and the hand does the deed.

* * * * *

III. SPARTA'S CONQUESTS.

Under the constitution of Lycurgus Sparta began her career of
conquest. Of the death of the great law-giver we have no reliable
account; but it is stated that, having bound the Spartans to make
no change in the laws until his return, he voluntarily banished
himself forever from his country and died in a foreign land.
During a century or more subsequent to the time of Lycurgus, the
Spartans remained at peace with their neighbors; but jealousies
arose between them and the Messe'nians, a people west of Laconia,
which, stimulated by insults and injuries on both sides, gave
rise to the FIRST MESSENIAN WAR, 743 years before the Christian
era. For the first four years the Spartans made little progress;
but in the fifth year of the war a great battle was fought, and,
although its result was indecisive, the Messenians deemed it
prudent to retire to the strongly fortified mountain of Itho'me.
In the eighteenth year of the conflict the Spartans suffered a
severe defeat, and were driven back into their own territory;
but at the close of the twentieth year the Messenians were obliged
to abandon their fortress of Ithome, and leave their rich fields
in the undisturbed possession of their conquerors. Many of the
inhabitants fled into Arcadia and other friendly territories,
while those who remained were treated with great severity, and
reduced to the condition of the Helots.

The war thus closed developed the warlike spirit that the
institutions of Lycurgus were so well calculated to encourage;
and the Spartans were so stern and unyielding in their exactions,
that they drove the Messenians to revolt thirty-nine years later,
685 B.C. The Messenians found an able leader in Aristom'enes,
whose valor in the first battle struck fear into his enemies,
and inspired his countrymen with confidence. In this struggle
the Argives, Arcadians, Si-cy-o'nians, and Pisa'tans aided
Messenia, while the Corinthians assisted Sparta. In alarm the
Spartans sought the advice of the Delphic oracle, and received
the mortifying response that they must seek a leader from the
Athenians, between whose country and Laconia there had been no
intercourse for several centuries. Fearing to disobey the oracle,
but reluctant to further the cause of the Spartans, the Athenians
sent to the latter the poet TYRTAE'US, who had no distinction as a
warrior. His patriotic and martial odes, however, roused the spirit
of the Spartans, and animated them to new efforts against the
foe. He appears as the great hero of Sparta during the SECOND
MESSENIAN WAR, and of his songs that have come down to us we give
the following as a specimen:

To the field, to the field, gallant Spartan band,
Worthy sons, like your sires, of our warlike land!
Let each arm be prepared for its part in the fight,
Fix the shield on the left, poise the spear with the right;
Let no care for your lives in your bosoms find place,
No such care knew the heroes of old Spartan race.
[Footnote: Mure's "History of Greek Literature,"
vol. iii., p. 195.]

But the Spartans were not immediately successful. In the first
battle that ensued they were defeated with severe loss; but in
the third year of the war the Messenians suffered a signal defeat,
owing to the treachery of Aristoc'rates, the king of their Arcadian
allies, who deserted them in the heat of battle, and Aristomenes
retired to the mountain fortress of Ira. The war continued, with
varying success, seventeen years in all; throughout the whole of
which period Aristomenes distinguished himself by many noble
exploits; but all his efforts to save his country were ineffectual.
A second time Sparta conquered (668 B.C.), and the yoke appeared
to be fixed on Messenia forever. Thenceforward the growing power
of Sparta seemed destined to undisputed pre-eminence, not only
in the Peloponnesus, but throughout all Greece. Before 600 B.C.
Sparta had conquered the upper valley of the Eurotas from the
Arcadians, and, forty years later, compelled Te'gea, the capital
of Arcadia, to acknowledge her supremacy. Still later, in 524
B.C., a long struggle with the Argives was terminated in favor
of Sparta, and she was now the most powerful of the Grecian states.

CHAPTER V.

FORMS OF GOVERNMENT, AND CHANGES IN GRECIAN POLITICS.

Although Greek political writers taught that there were, primarily,
but three forms of government--monarchy, or the rule of one;
aristocracy, that of the few; and democracy, that of the many
--the latter always limited by the Greeks to the freemen--yet
it appears that when anyone of these degenerated from its supposed
legitimate object, the welfare of the state, it was marked by a
peculiar name. Thus a monarchy in which selfish aims predominated
became a tyranny; and in later Grecian history, such was the
prevailing sentiment in opposition to kingly rule that all kings
were called tyrants: an aristocracy which directed its measures
chiefly to the preservation of its power became an oligarchy; and
a democracy that departed from the civil and political equality
which was its supposed basis, and gave ascendancy to a faction,
was sometimes designated by the term ochlocracy, or the dominion
of the rabble. "A democracy thus corrupted," says THIRLWALL,
"exhibited many features of a tyranny. It was jealous of all
who were eminently distinguished by birth, fortune, or reputation;
it encouraged flatterers and sycophants; was insatiable in its
demands on the property of the rich, and readily listened to
charges which exposed them to death or confiscation. The class
which suffered such oppression, commonly ill satisfied with the
principle of the Constitution itself, was inflamed with the most
furious animosity by the mode in which it was applied, and it
regarded the great mass of its fellow-citizens as its mortal
enemies."

As in all the Greek states there was a large class of people not
entitled to the full rights of citizenship, including, among
others, persons reduced to slavery as prisoners of war, and
foreign settlers and their descendants, so there was no such
form of government as that which the moderns understand by a
complete democracy. Of a republic also, in the modern acceptation
of the term--that is, a representative democracy--the Greeks
knew nothing. As an American statesman remarks, "Certain it is
that the greatest philosophers among them would have regarded as
something monstrous a republic spreading over half a continent
and embracing twenty-six states, each of which would have itself
been an empire, and not a commonwealth, in their sense of the
word."[Footnote: Hugh S. Legare's Writings, vol. i., p.440.]

* * * * *

I. CHANGES FROM ARISTOCRACIES TO OLIGARCHIES.

During several centuries succeeding the period of the supposed
Trojan war, a gradual change occurred in the political history
of the Grecian states, the results of which were an abandonment
of much of the kingly authority that prevailed through the Heroic
Age. At a still later period this change was followed by the
introduction and establishment, at first, of aristocracies, and,
finally, of democratic forms of government; which latter decided
the whole future character of the public life of the Grecians.
The three causes, more prominent than the rest, that are assigned
by most writers for these changes, and the final adoption of
democratic forms, are, first, the more enlarged views occasioned
by the Trojan war, and the dissensions which followed the return
of those engaged in it; second, the great convulsions that attended
the Thessalian, Boeotian, and Dorian migrations; and, third, the
free principles which intercourse and trade with the Grecian
colonies naturally engendered.

But of these causes the third tended, more than any other one,
to change the political condition of the Grecians. Whether the
migrations of the Greek colonists were occasioned, as they
generally were, by conquests that drove so many from their homes
to seek an asylum in foreign lands, or were undertaken, as was
the case in some instances, with the consent and encouragement
of the parent states, there was seldom any feeling of dependence
on the one side, and little or no claim of authority on the other.
This was especially the case with the Ionians, who had scarcely
established themselves in Asia Minor when they shook off the
authority of the princes who conducted them to their new settlements,
and established a form of government more democratic than any
which then existed in Greece.

With the rapid progress of mercantile industry and maritime
discovery, on which the prosperity of the colonies depended, a
spirit of independence grew up, which erelong exerted an influence
on the parent states of Greece, and encouraged the growth of free
principles there. "Freedom," says an eloquent author,[Footnote:
Heeren, "Polities of Ancient Greece," p. 103.] "ripens in colonies.
Ancient usage cannot be preserved, cannot altogether be renewed,
as at home. The former bonds of attachment to the soil, and ancient
customs, are broken by the voyage; the spirit feels itself to be
more free in the new country; new strength is required for the
necessary exertions; and those exertions are animated by success.
When every man lives by the labor of his hands, equality arises,
even if it did not exist before. Each day is fraught with new
experience; the necessity of common defence is more felt in lands
where the new settlers find ancient inhabitants desirous of being
free from them. Need we wonder, then, if the authority of the
founders of the Grecian colonies, even where it had originally
existed, soon gave way to liberty?"

But the changes in the political principles of the Grecian states
were necessarily slow, and were usually attended with domestic
quarrels and convulsions. Monarchy, in most instances, was
abolished by first taking away its title, and substituting that
of archon, or chief magistrate, a term less offensive than that
of king; next, by making the office of chief ruler elective,
first in one family, then in more--first for life, then for a
term of years; and, finally, by dividing the power among several
of the nobility, thus forming an aristocracy or oligarchy. At
the time in Grecian history to which we have come democracy was
as yet unknown; but the principal Grecian states, with the
exception of Sparta, which always retained the kingly form of
government, had abolished royalty and substituted oligarchy. This
change did not better the condition of the people, who, increasing
in numbers and intelligence, while the ruling class declined in
numbers and wealth, became conscious of their resources, and put
forward their claims to a representation in the government.

* * * * *

II. FROM OLIGARCHIES TO DESPOTISMS.

The fall of the oligarchies was not accomplished, however, by
the people. "The commonalty," says THIRLWALL, "even when really
superior in strength, could not all at once shake off the awe
with which it was impressed by years of subjection. It needed a
leader to animate, unite, and direct it; and it was seldom that
one capable of inspiring it with confidence could be found in
its own ranks," Hence this leader was generally found in an
ambitions citizen, perhaps a noble or a member of the oligarchy,
who, by artifice and violence, would make himself the supreme
ruler of the state. Under such circumstances the overthrow of
an oligarchy was not a triumph of the people, but only the
triumph of a then popular leader. To such a one was given the
name of tyrant, but not in the sense that we use the term. HEEREN
says, "The Grecians connected with this word the idea of an
illegitimate, but not necessarily of a cruel, government." As
the word therefore signifies simply the irresponsible rule of a
single person, such person may be more correctly designated by
the term despot, or usurper; although, in point of fact, the
government was frequently of the most cruel and tyrannical
character.

"The merits of this race of rulers," says BULWER, "and the
unconscious benefits they produced, have not been justly
appreciated, either by ancient or modern historians. Without her
tyrants Greece might never have established her democracies. The
wiser and more celebrated tyrants were characterized by an extreme
modesty of deportment: they assumed no extraordinary pomp, no
lofty titles--they left untouched, or rendered yet more popular,
the outward forms and institutions of the government--they were
not exacting in taxation--they affected to link themselves with
the lowest orders and their ascendancy was usually productive of
immediate benefit to the working-classes, whom they employed in
new fortifications or new public buildings--dazzling the citizens
by a splendor that seemed less the ostentation of an individual
than the prosperity of a state. It was against the aristocracy,
not against the people, that they directed their acute sagacities
and unsparing energies. Every politic tyrant was a Louis the
Eleventh, weakening the nobles, creating a middle class. He
effected his former object by violent and unscrupulous means. He
swept away by death or banishment all who opposed his authority
or excited his fears. He thus left nothing between the state and
a democracy but himself; and, himself removed, democracy naturally
and of course ensued."[Footnote: "Athens: Its Rise and Fall,"
vol. i., pp. 148, 149.]

From the middle of the seventh century B.C., and during a period
of over one hundred and fifty years, there were few Grecian cities
that escaped a despotic government. While the history of Athens
affords, perhaps, the most striking example of it, the longest
tyranny in Greece was that in the city of Si'cyon, which lasted
a hundred years under Orthag'orus and his sons. Their dynasty was
founded about 676 B.C., and its long duration is ascribed to its
mildness and moderation. The last of this dynasty was Clis'thenes,
whose daughter became the mother of the Athenian Clisthenes, the
founder of democracy at Athens on the expulsion of the Pisistrat'idae.
The despots of Corinth were more celebrated. Their dynasty endured
seventy-four years, having been founded in the year 655. Under
Perian'der, who succeeded to power in 625, and whose government
was cruel and oppressive, Corinth reached her highest prosperity.
His reign lasted upward of forty years, and soon after his death
the dynasty ended, being overpowered by Sparta.

Across the isthmus from Corinth was the city of Meg'ara, of which,
in 630 B.C., Theag'enes, a bold and ambitious man, made himself
despot. Like many other usurpers of his time, he adorned the
city with splendid and useful buildings. But he was overthrown
after a rule of thirty years, and a violent struggle then ensued
between the oligarchy and the people. At first the latter were
successful; they banished many of the nobles, and confiscated
their property, but the exiles returned, and by force of arms
recovered their power. Still the struggle continued, and it was
not until after many years that an oligarchical government was
firmly established. Much interest is added to these revolutions
in Megara by the writings of THEOG'NIS, a contemporary poet, and
a member of the oligarchical party. "His writings," says THIRLWALL,
"are interesting, not so much for the historical facts contained
in them as for the light they throw on the character and feelings
of the parties which divided his native city and so many others."

In the poems of THEOGNIS "his keen sense of his personal sufferings
is almost absorbed in the vehement grief and indignation with
which he contemplates the state of Megara, the triumph of the
bad [his usual term for the people], and the degradation of the
good [the members of the old aristocracy]." Some of the social
changes which the popular revolution had effected are thus described:

Our commonwealth preserves its former fame:
Our common people are no more the same.
They that in skins and hides were rudely dressed,
Nor dreamed of law, nor sought to be redressed
By rules of right, but in the days of old
Lived on the land like cattle in the fold,
Are now the Brave and Good; and we, the rest,
Are now the Mean and Bad, though once the best.

It appears, also, that some of the aristocracy by birth had so
far forgotten their leading position as to inter-marry with those
who had become possessed of much wealth; and of this condition of
things the poet complains as follows:

But in the daily matches that we make
The price is everything; for money's sake
Men marry--women are in marriage given;
The Bad or Coward, that in wealth has thriven,
May match his offspring with the proudest race:
Thus everything is mixed, noble and base.

The usurpations in Sicyon, Corinth, and Megara furnish illustrations
of what occurred in nearly all of the Grecian states during the
seventh and sixth centuries before the Christian era. Some of
those of a later period will be noticed in a subsequent chapter.

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