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.

Notwithstanding the valor of Aristómenes, the war ended in the 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 Messana. Those 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 Pericci. 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 Spartans was finally crushed by the Thebans.

After subduing the Messenians, the Spartans carried on a war with the Arcadians, who had been among the allies of the Messenians. 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.

Sparta had been the rival of Argos from the earliest times. Argos then held the entire eastern coast of the Peloponnesus under her dominion. 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 power ful 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 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 cen

tury 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.

HILE Sparta under the laws of Lycurgus was advancing in power 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 branchesbrotherhoods 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 citizensnobles, 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 Alcmæon, 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 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 highpriest 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-inchief, 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 Thesmothetæ, or Legislators, 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.

Court of Areopagus, or 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.

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 that "they were written in blood instead of ink." He punished even the slightest offenses with death, saying that the smallest crimes deserved death and that

he had no severer punishment for the greatest ones. The only effect of Draco's severe laws was to render them inoperative, as is usually the case with over-rigorous statutes. Men were willing to prosecute only the greatest criminals; and as a result almost all offenders escaped punishment, and were thus encouraged to continue in their wrongdoing. Draco's code placed the lives of the citizens of Athens at the mercy of the

content. 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 Jove." Cylon forgot that the Diasia was the greatest festival of Jove at Athens, and supposed that the oracle alluded to the Olympic Games; and at the next celebration of these games he seized the Acropolis, with a strong force consisting of his own partisans and of troops furnished him by his father-in-law, the tyrant of Megara. He was not supported by the great mass of the people, and was blockaded in the Acropolis by the troops of the government. Cylon succeeded in making his escape; but his followers, reduced by hunger, soon submitted to the government troops, and found refuge at the altar of Athênê. The archon, Megacles, a member of the renowned family of the Alcmæonidæ, found them at that altar, and induced them to come forth from there, by promising to spare their lives, fearing that their death there would pollute the sanctuary. But as soon as they had left the temple they were attacked and massacred. Some were even slain at the sacred altar of the Furies, or Eumenides, where they sought safety. This act of sacrilege on the part of the archons aroused fresh troubles at Athens. The entire family of the Alcmæonidæ were looked upon as tainted with the sacrilege of Megacles, and the friends of those thus massacred demanded vengeance upon the accursed race. By means of their wealth and influence, the family of Megacles were able to uphold themselves against their enemies to the end of the seventh century before Christ; but were finally banished from Attica by the decree of a council of three hundred members of their own order (B. C. 597).

The banishment of the Alemæonidæ in B. C. 597 did not quiet the superstitious alarm excited at Athens by the sacrilege of

Megacles; and while the Athenian people were aroused by these fears a plague broke out in the city, and this was considered a punishment sent by the gods for this dreadful crime. The people consulted the Delphic oracle, which told them to invite the renowned Cretan prophet and sage, Epimenides, to visit Athens and purify the city of pollution and sacrilege. Epimenides was greatly famed for his knowledge of the healing powers of nature. He visited Athens and performed certain rites and sacrifices which the people believed would propitiate the offended deities. The plague disappeared; and the Athenians, in gratitude, offered their deliverer a talent of gold, which he refused. He would accept no other payment than a branch of the sacred olive tree which grew on the Acropolis. This purification of Athens occurred in B. C. 596.

The archons now opened their eyes to a proper sense of the perils which menaced the state. The sacrifices of Epimenides had stopped the plague, but did not end the popular discontent. The factious disturbances in the city became more and more frequent and fierce. The Athenians were now divided into three factions. The first of these consisted of the wealthy nobles, who favored an oligarchy, or a government in which all political power is vested in a few privileged individuals. The second party consisted of the poor peasantry, who favored democracy, or a government in which the masses of the people are the ruling power. The third party was composed of the merchants, who preferred a mixed constitution, in which the oligarchical and democratic elements were combined. These three factions were arrayed against each other in the fiercest animosity.

Another element of trouble adding to the distraction of the state was the hostile feeling which had grown up between the rich and the poor. Some of the citizens had acquired great wealth, while the great mass of the people had sunk into the most abject poverty, and were generally overborne with burdens entailed on them by their extravagance, and which they had no reasonable

hope of ever being able to discharge. This condition of affairs was rendered more distressful by the fact that a harsh law existed in Athens, authorizing a creditor to seize the person of his debtor, and to retain, or even to sell, him as a slave. The rich only too eagerly took advantage of this cruel statute; and the poor were consequently exasperated to so intense a pitch that a general insurrection of the lower orders appeared to be on the verge of breaking out in Athens.

In this dangerous condition of affairs at Athens, the wisest men of all parties looked to Solon, a descendant of Codrus, and a person of recognized talents, virtues and wisdom, as the only person who possessed sufficient ability and influence to allay the unhappy differences which divided the people and to avert the misfortunes which threatened the state. Solon's justice, wisdom and kindness won for him the affection of the poor, while the rich were friendly to him because he was one of their class, so that he possessed the respect and confidence of every class. Influential persons encouraged him to aspire to, or rather to assume, regal power, so that he could more readily and effectually repress disorder and tumult, control faction, and force obedience to such laws as he might deem necessary to enact; but he resolutely and persistently declined to follow such advice. After some deliberation, Solon accepted the office of Archon, with special powers, which had been conferred upon him by an almost unanimous vote. Solon was a native of the island of Salamis. His father, Execestides, although of distinguished rank, possessed only a very moderate degree of wealth, so that Solon found himself obliged to devote a great part of his youth to mercantile pursuits, to acquire for himself a competence. This proved of some advantage to him as a lawgiver, as it led him to visit foreign lands, thus affording him the best possible opportunities for studying men and manners, and for comparing the different systems of civil and political economy then existing in the various civilized countries of the ancient world. During these mercantile expeditions, Solon is said