ORIGIN OF ATHENS AND SPARTA.
What language the Pelasgians used I cannot with certainty affirm; but if
I may form a conjecture from those Pelasgians who now exist, and inhabit
the town of Crestona above the Tyrrhenians, and from those Pelasgians
settled at Placia and Scylace on the Hellespont, they spoke a barbarous
language. And if the whole Pelasgian body did so, the Attic race, being
Pelasgic, must at the time they changed into Hellenes have altered their
language. The Hellenic race, however, appears to have used the same
language from the time they became a people. At first insignificant, yet
from a small beginning they have increased to a multitude of nations,
chiefly by a union with many other barbarous nations. But the Pelasgic
race, being barbarous, never increased to any great extent.
Of these nations Crœsus learnt that the Attic was oppressed and
distracted by Pisistratus, then reigning in Athens. When a quarrel
happened between those who dwelt on the sea-coast and the Athenians, the
former headed by Megacles, the latter by Lycurgus, Pisistratus aiming at
the sovereign power, formed a third party; and having assembled his
partisans under color of protecting those of the mountains, he contrived
this stratagem. He wounded himself and his mules, drove his chariot into
the public square, as if he had escaped from enemies that designed to
murder him in his way to the country, and besought the people to grant
him a guard, having before acquired renown in the expedition against
Megara, by taking its port, Nisæa, and displaying other illustrious
deeds. The people of Athens, deceived by this, gave him such of the
citizens as he selected, who were not to be his javelin men, but
club-bearers, for they attended him with clubs of wood. These men,
joining in revolt with Pisistratus seized the Acropolis, and Pisistratus
assumed the government of the Athenians, neither disturbing the existing
magistracies, nor altering the laws; but he administered the government
according to the established institutions, liberally and well. Not long
after, the partisans of Megacles and Lycurgus became reconciled and
drove him out. In this manner Pisistratus first made himself master of
Athens, and, his power not being firmly rooted, lost it. But those who
expelled Pisistratus quarrelled anew with one another; and Megacles,
harassed by the sedition, sent a herald to Pisistratus to ask if he was
willing to marry his daughter, on condition of having the sovereignty.
Pisistratus having accepted the proposal and agreed to his terms, in
order to his restitution, they contrive the most ridiculous project
that, I think, was ever imagined; especially if we consider, that the
Greeks have from old been distinguished from the barbarians as being
more acute and free from all foolish simplicity, and more particularly
as they played this trick upon the Athenians, who are esteemed among the
wisest of the Greeks. In the Pæanean tribe was a woman named Phya, four
cubits high, wanting three fingers, and in other respects handsome; this
woman they dressed in a complete suit of armor, placed her on a chariot,
and having shown her beforehand how to assume the most becoming
demeanor, they drove her to the city, with heralds before, who, on their
arrival in the city, proclaimed what was ordered in these terms: "O
Athenians, receive with kind wishes Pisistratus whom Minerva herself
honoring above all men now conducts back to her own citadel." The report
was presently spread among the people that Minerva was bringing back
Pisistratus; and the people in the city believing this woman to be the
goddess, both adored a human being, and received Pisistratus.
[Illustration: ATHENS FROM MOUNT HYMETTUS.]
Pisistratus having recovered the sovereignty in the manner above
described, married the daughter of Megacles in accordance with his
agreement, but Pisistratus soon hearing of designs that were being
formed against him, withdrew entirely out of the country, and arriving
in Eretria, consulted with his sons. The opinion of Hippias prevailing,
to recover the kingdom, they immediately began to collect contributions
from those cities which felt any gratitude to them for benefits
received; and though many gave large sums, the Thebans surpassed the
rest in liberality. At length (not to give a detailed account) time
passed, and every thing was ready for their return, for Argive
mercenaries arrived from Peloponnesus; and a man of Naxos, named
Lygdamis, who had come as a volunteer, and brought both men and money,
showed great zeal in the cause. Setting out from Eretria, they came back
in the eleventh year of their exile, and first of all possessed
themselves of Marathon. While they lay encamped in this place, their
partisans from the city joined them, and others from the various
districts, to whom a tyranny was more welcome than liberty, crowded to
them. The Athenians of the city, on the other hand, had shown very
little concern all the time Pisistratus was collecting money, or even
when he took possession of Marathon. But when they heard that he was
marching from Marathon against the city, they at length went out to
resist him; and marched with their whole force against the invaders. In
the mean time Pisistratus's party, advanced towards the city, and
arrived in a body at the temple of the Pallenian Minerva, and there took
up their position. Here Amphilytus, a prophet of Acarnania, moved by
divine impulse, approached Pisistratus, and pronounced this oracle in
hexameter verse:
"The cast is thrown—the net expanded wide—
At night the tunnies in the snare will glide."
He, inspired by the god, uttered this prophecy; and Pisistratus,
comprehending the oracle, and saying he accepted the omen, led on his
army. The Athenians of the city were then engaged at their breakfast,
and some of them after breakfast had betaken themselves to dice, others
to sleep; so that the army of Pisistratus, falling upon them by
surprise, soon put them to flight. As they were flying, Pisistratus
contrived a clever stratagem to prevent their rallying again, and forced
them thoroughly to disperse. He mounted his sons on horseback and sent
them forward. They, overtaking the fugitives, spoke as they were ordered
by Pisistratus, bidding them be of good cheer, and to depart every man
to his own home. The Athenians yielded a ready obedience, and thus
Pisistratus, having a third time possessed himself of Athens, secured
his power, more firmly, both by the aid of auxiliary forces, and by
revenues partly collected at home and partly drawn from the mines along
the river Strymon. He seized as hostages the sons of the Athenians who
had held out against him, and had not immediately fled, and settled them
at Naxos. He moreover purified the island of Delos, in obedience to an
oracle, and having dug up the dead bodies, as far as the prospect from
the temple reached, he removed them to another part of Delos.
Crœsus was informed that such was, at that time, the condition of the
Athenians; and that the Lacedæmonians, having extricated themselves out
of great difficulties, had gained the mastery over the Tegeans in war.
They had formerly been governed by the worst laws of all the people in
Greece, both as regarded their dealings with one another, and in holding
no intercourse with strangers. But they changed to a good government in
the following manner: Lycurgus, a man much esteemed by the Spartans,
having arrived at Delphi to consult the oracle, no sooner entered the
temple, than the Pythian spoke as follows:
"Lycurgus, thou art come to my rich fane,
Beloved by Zeus and all the heavenly train,
But whether god or man I fear to say,
Yet god thou must be more than mortal clay."
Some men say that, besides this, the Pythian also communicated to him
that form of government now established among the Spartans. But, as the
Lacedæmonians themselves affirm, Lycurgus being appointed guardian to
his nephew Leobotis,[3] king of Sparta, brought those institutions from
Crete. For as soon as he had taken the guardianship, he altered all
their customs, and took care that no one should transgress them.
Afterwards he established military regulations, and instituted the
ephori and senators. Thus, having changed their laws, they established
good institutions in their stead. They erected a temple to Lycurgus
after his death, and held him in the highest reverence. As they had a
good soil and abundant population, they quickly sprang up and
flourished. And now they were no longer content to live in peace; but
proudly considering themselves superior to the Arcadians, they sent to
consult the oracle at Delphi, touching the conquest of the whole country
of the Arcadians; and the Pythian gave them this answer: "Dost thou ask
of me Arcadia? thou askest a great deal; I cannot grant it thee. There
are many acorn-eating men in Arcadia, who will hinder thee. But I do not
grudge thee all; I will give thee Tegea to dance on with beating of the
feet, and a fair plain to measure out by the rod." When the
Lacedæmonians heard this answer reported, they laid aside their design
against all Arcadia; and relying on an equivocal oracle, led an army
against Tegea only, carrying fetters with them, as if they would surely
reduce the Tegeans to slavery. But being defeated in an engagement, as
many of them as were taken alive, were compelled to work, wearing the
fetters they had brought, and measuring the lands of the Tegeans with a
rod. Those fetters in which they were bound, were, even in my time,
preserved in Tegea, suspended around the temple of Alean Minerva.
In the first war, therefore, they had constantly fought against the
Tegeans with ill success, but in the time of Crœsus, and during the
reign of Anaxandrides and Ariston at Lacedæmon, they at length became
superior in the following manner: When they had always been worsted in
battle by the Tegeans, they sent to enquire of the oracle at Delphi,
what god they should propitiate, in order to become victorious over the
Tegeans. The Pythian answered, they should become so, when they had
brought back the bones of Orestes the son of Agamemnon. But as they were
unable to find the sepulchre of Orestes, they sent again to inquire of
the god in what spot Orestes lay interred, and the Pythian gave this
answer to the inquiries of those who came to consult her:
"Down in Arcadia's level plain I know,
Tegea lies:—and where woe lies on woe—
Where two bound winds impatient of the yoke,
Are forced to blow—where stroke replies to stroke:
Beneath the earth lies Agamemnon's son,
Bear him to Sparta and Tegea's won."
When the Lacedæmonians heard this, they were as far off the discovery as
ever, though they searched every where, till Lichas, one of the Spartans
who are called Agathoergi, found it. These Agathoergi consist of
citizens who are discharged from serving in the cavalry, such as are
senior, five in every year. It is their duty during the year in which
they are discharged from the cavalry, not to remain inactive, but go to
different places where they are sent by the Spartan commonwealth.
Lichas, who was one of these persons, discovered it in Tegea, both
meeting with good fortune and employing sagacity. For as the
Lacedæmonians had at that time intercourse with the Tegeans, he, coming
to a smithy, looked attentively at the iron being forged, and was struck
with wonder when he saw what was done. The smith perceiving his
astonishment desisted from his work, and said: "O Laconian stranger, you
would certainly have been astonished had you seen what I saw, since you
are so surprised at the working of iron. For as I was endeavoring to
sink a well in this enclosure, in digging, I came to a coffin seven
cubits long; and because I did not believe that men were ever taller
than they now are, I opened it and saw that the body was equal to the
coffin in length, and after I had measured it I covered it up again."
The man told him what he had seen, and Lichas, reflecting on what was
said, conjectured from the words of the oracle, that this must be the
body of Orestes, forming his conjecture on the following reasons: seeing
the smith's two bellows he discerned in them the two winds, and in the
anvil and hammer the stroke answering to stroke, and in the iron that
was being forged the woe that lay on woe; representing it in this way,
that iron had been invented to the injury of man. He then returned to
Sparta, and gave the Lacedæmonians an account of the whole matter; but
they brought a feigned charge against him and sent him into banishment.
He, going back to Tegea, related his misfortune to the smith, and wished
to hire the enclosure from him, but he would not let it. But in time,
when he had persuaded him, he took up his abode there; and having opened
the sepulchre and collected the bones, he carried them away with him to
Sparta. From that time, whenever they made trial of each other's
strength, the Lacedæmonians were by far superior in war; and the greater
part of Peloponnesus had been already subdued by them.