mus and the Ithome. senian commander, offered his own daughter as a victim; and as she was about to be sacrificed, her lover desperately endeavored to save her by the Aristode pretext that she was not fitted for the immolation. The only effect of this declaration was to excite the rage of Aristodémus, who had so greatly Defense of distinguished himself during the struggle by his valor and ability that he was elevated to the throne of Messenia. But in the midst of all his greatness and his triumphs, remorse for having sacrificed his daughter tormented him, so that he finally committed suicide upon her grave. His death was followed by the conquest of the Messenians by the Spartans, who forced the Messenians to evacuate Ithomé. Thus ended the First Messenian War, B. C. 723, Messenia being annexed to the Lacedæmonian territory. Many of the Messenians sought refuge in Argolis and Arcadia, and those who remained were reduced to slavery by the Spartans. Ithomé was razed to the ground. Second Messenian War. After enduring Spartan oppression for thirty-nine years, the Messenians rose in revolt against their tyrannical masters; and, under the leadership of a skillful general named Aristómenes, they began the Second Messenian War, which lasted seventeen years (B. C. 685-668). The Messenians were aided by the Argives, the Arcadians, the Elians and the Sicyonians; while Sparta's only ally, as in the preceding war, was Corinth. The first battle was indecisive; but, with the assistance of their allies, the Messenians, under their able general, Aristómenes, defeated the Spartans in three battles. Thoroughly disheartened by their reverses, the Spartans consulted the Delphic oracle, and were told that they must obtain a leader from Athens if they wished to be victorious. In consequence of the natural jealousy between Sparta and Athens, the Spartans were reluctant to send to Athens for a leader, Aristom- and the Athenians were as reluctant to furnish one, but both feared to enes and disobey the oracle. The Athenians in derision sent the lame schoolTyrtæus. master and poet, Tyrtæus, to lead the Spartan armies; but Tyrtæus proved to be as good a leader as could have been found, as he so aroused the patriotic ardor and martial spirit of the Spartans by his soulstirring odes and lyrics that their drooping spirits were revived, and they were stimulated to redoubled exertions and speedily caused the struggle to assume an attitude favorable to them and discouraging to their foes. Aristom enes and the of Ira. The Spartans were defeated with great loss by the Messenians and their allies in a great battle at the Boar's Grave, in the plain of Defense Steny clerus, and were obliged to retire to their own territory; but in the third year of the war the Messenians were defeated through the treachery of Aristócrates, the king of the Arcadian Orchomenus. a result of this defeat, Aristómenes, unable to again take the field, threw himself into the mountain fortress of Ira, where he continued the As struggle for eleven years, resisting all the Spartan assaults, and frequently sallying forth from his stronghold and ravaging Laconia with fire and sword. His exploits were very brilliant. He three times offered to Zeus the Ithomates, the sacrifice called Hecatomphonsa, which could only be offered by a warrior who had slain a hundred foes with his own hand. He was at one time captured with some of his companions, carried to Sparta, and cast with them into a deep cavern, which the Spartans were accustomed to use as a receptacle for such criminals as had been condemned to capital punishment. Aristómenes escaped unhurt by the fall, but all his companions were killed. He expected to die of hunger in this dismal cavern; but on the third day, after he had lain himself down to die, he heard a faint noise, and, after rising up, he observed, by a faint light descending from above, a fox busily engaged in gnawing the dead bodies of his companions. He cautiously approached the fox and seized hold of its tail, and was thus enabled to follow the animal in its efforts to escape through the darkness, until it made its way to the outside by a small opening. With a little effort, Aristómenes widened this opening sufficiently to enable his body to pass through, and thus escaped to Messenia, where he was joyfully welcomed by his countrymen. of Messenia. Notwithstanding the valor of Aristómenes, the war ended in the Conquest triumph of the Spartans, who surprised Ira one night while Aristómenes was disabled by a wound. He succeeded in cutting his way through the enemy with the bravest of his followers, and was thus enabled to escape. Taking refuge in Arcadia, he there formed a plan to surprise Sparta, but this plan was betrayed by Aristócrates, who was stoned to death by his countrymen for this treachery. Aristómenes then retired to the island of Rhodes, where he married a chief's daughter and lived the remainder of his days in ease and quiet. Many of the Messenians, not willing to submit to Sparta a second time, abandoned their country and retired to the island of Sicily, where they colonized MesThose who remained were reduced by the Spartans to the condition of Helots, or slaves; with the exception of the inhabitants of a few of the Messenian towns, who were admitted to the position of Perioci. Thus ended the Second Messenian War, B. C. 668; and Messenia was annexed to Laconia, and its history ceased until B. C. 369. The Messenians for a long time cherished the memory of Aristómenes, and the legends of subsequent times declared that his spirit was seen animating his countrymen and scattering ruin among their enemies, in the famous battle of Leuctra, in which the power of the Sparta's Spartans was finally crushed by the Thebans. sana. After subduing the Messenians, the Spartans carried on a war with the Arcadians, who had been among the allies of the Messenians. Wars with Arcadia and Argos. Sparta's Power, Influence and Am bition. Sparta and Athens. The Spartans conquered the southern portion of Arcadia, but were unable to reduce the city of Tegea, which offered a successful resistance and defied the Lacedæmonian power for a century, before it was finally taken, B. C. 554, and Arcadia reduced. Sparta had been the rival of Argos from the earliest times. Argos then held the entire eastern coast of the Peloponnesus under her dominion. Soon after the death of Lycurgus the Spartans wrested from the Argives all the territory eastward to the sea and northward beyond the city of Thyrea, annexing it to Laconia. About B. C. 547 the Argives began another war against Sparta to recover their lost territory, but they were defeated and their power was broken. Sparta was for some time the most powerful state of Greece. Her own territory of Laconia, or Lacedæmon, embraced the entire South of the Peloponnesus, and the other Peloponnesian states were so completely humbled that they were unable to resist her supremacy. The Spartan influence had thus far been restricted within the narrow limits of the Peloponnesus, but about this time it began to extend into foreign lands. In B. C. 555, Croesus, the great Lydian king, sent an embassy to Sparta, acknowledging that state as the leading power in Greece, and soliciting its alliance to resist the rising power of Persia under Cyrus the Great. The Spartans accepted the offers of Croesus, and prepared an expedition to assist him, but before it could be sent Cyrus conquered Lydia. This alliance marks the commencement of Sparta's foreign policy, and was followed by other Spartan expeditions beyond the limits of the Greek continent. In B. C. 525 Sparta and Corinth sent a combined expedition to the coast of Asia Minor to depose Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos, but it failed in its object. Sparta's ambition now arose to such a height that she assumed the right to interfere in the affairs of the Greek states outside of the Peloponnesus, as the champion of the cause of oligarchy. Her efforts against Attica excited the fear and hatred which the Athenians entertained for the Spartans for almost a century and a half. Sparta's influence among the states of Greece was always on the side of oligarchy or despotism, and against democracy, such as that of Athens; and the aristocracy of every Grecian city regarded Sparta as its natural champion and protector, while the democratic elements everywhere looked to Athens as their friend and supporter. Thus Sparta-the great power of the Peloponnesus and the great rival of Athens during the whole period of Grecian history—became the leader of the Dorian branch of the Hellenic race, and the champion of aristocracy and oligarchy among the Grecian states; while Athens became the head of the Ionian element, the champion of democracy, and the leader in Greek philosophy, literature, oratory and art. SECTION VI.-ATHENS UNDER THE LAWS OF DRACO AND SOLON. in Athens. WHILE Sparta under the laws of Lycurgus was advancing in power Troubles and extending its dominion, Athens was greatly distracted and nearly brought to the brink of ruin by the contests of domestic factions, being a prey to all the evils of oligarchical oppression on the one hand and popular violence and disorder on the other. During the early period the people of Athens were divided into four tribes-Teleontes, Hopletes, Ægicoreis and Argadeis. These were subdivided into two branches-brotherhoods and clans, and Thirdlings and Naucraries. The former division was founded upon consanguinity. The latter was upon an artificial arrangement of the state for purposes of taxation and military service. There were three classes of citizens-nobles, farmers and artisans. The nobles were vested with the whole political power, and filled all the offices in the state. The Senate, or Court of Areopagus, which held its sessions on Mars' Hill, was composed of members of this class. The first archon of Athens after the abolition of royalty in B. C. 1068 was Medon, the son of Codrus, the last Athenian king, who had so patriotically sacrificed his life in a war with the Dorians. On the death of Alcmaon, the thirteenth archon, and the last one for life, the Eupatrids, or Athenian nobles, limited the archon's term of office to ten years (about B. C. 752). This dignity was still bestowed on the descendants of Codrus and Medon; but about B. C. 714 all the nobles were made eligible to the office. In the year B. C. 683 another important change was made in the constitution by increasing the number of archons from one to nine, to be thenceforth elected annually. The first of these archons was the head of the executive power and was usually called, by way of distinction, The Archon, and sometimes the Archon Eponymus, because he he gave his name to the year. He presided over the whole body of archons, and was the representative of the dignity of the state. He decided all disputes concerning the family and protected widows and orphans. The second archon was honored with the title of The Basileus, or The King, as he represented the king in his position as the high-priest of the state religion. He was the judge in every case regarding the national religion and homicide. The third archon, styled The Polemarch, or Commander-in-chief, directed the war department, and commanded the Athenian army in the field until the time of Clisthenes. He adjudicated disputes between Athenian citizens and strangers. The remaining six archons, called Thesmotheta, or Legis Tribes and Classes in Athens. The Early Archons. Nine Archons. Court of gus. lators, officiated as presidents of law courts and decided all matters not specially pertaining to the first three. The whole body of archons constituted the supreme council of the state. There being no code in Athens, the decisions of the archons had the force of laws. In addition to the archons, there was the Court of Areopagus, or Areopa- Senate, which derived its name from the place of its meeting, on a rocky eminence, opposite the Acropolis, known as the Hill of Ares, or Mars' Hill. This council was composed of Eupatrids, or nobles, only ; and all the archons became members of it at the end of their official terms of archonship. It was called simply the Senate or Council. Solon afterwards instituted another Senate, and the original council was named Areopagus, to distinguish it from the new body. Tyranny of the Archons. Draco, the First Lawgiver of Athens. Cylon and the Alcmonidæ. The nobles possessed the chief power in the state, and they used this power to oppress the people, as oligarchies generally do. The archons were vested with arbitrary powers, as there was no written code to restrain them, and they very naturally advanced the interests of their own order to the injury of the commons. In about half a century after the establishment of the yearly archons, the popular dissatisfaction reached such a height, and the general demand for a written code of laws had become so vehement, that the nobles were unable to resist any longer. The crimes and disorders of the state continued with unabated violence. In this situation of affairs, Draco, a man of uprightness and integrity, but of a stern and cruel disposition, was elected archon (B. C. 623), and was assigned the task of preparing a code and reforming the institutions of Athens. He framed for the Athenian people a code of laws so severe that it was said "they were written in blood instead of ink." He punished even the slightest offenses with death, death and that he had no The only effect of Draco's saying that the smallest crimes deserved Draco's code placed the lives of the citizens at the mercy of the nobles, and thus increased the popular discontent. A noble named Cylon sought to turn this feeling to his own advantage by making himself tyrant of Athens, B. C. 612. He had won the olive crown at the Olympic Games, and had married the daughter of Theagenes, who had made himself tyrant of Megara. He consulted the Delphic oracle before making his attempt, and was told to seize the Acropolis of Athens "at the great festival of Zeus." Cylon forgot that the Diasia was the greatest festival of Zeus at Athens, and supposed that |