Surrender of Athens to B. C. 404. B. C. 405. the Persian invasion. Peace was, therefore, concluded in the following terms: "That all the Athenian ships of war, except twelve, should be surrendered; that the long walls of the city should be destroyed; that all exiles should be restored to their country and their possessions; that the Athenians should treat the allies of Lacedæmon as their friends, and its foes as their enemies; and that the forces of Athens, by sea and land, should be at the complete disposal of the Spartans." These hard conditions having been ratified, Agis, with his army, took possession of the walls; and Lysander, with his fleet, entered the harbour. The fortifications which connected the city with its ports were demolished, while military music was played, and exulting shouts everywhere proceeded from the conquerors. The nobles of the aristocratic party, who were in exile, returned to their homes. On their arrival, the popular constitution was overthrown, the assemblies of the people prohibited, and the powers of government vested in thirty rulers. When this revolution was completed, the Peloponnesian forces withdrew, and left the humbled Athenians to enjoy all the repose which their new governors would power totally allow. Thus, in its twenty-seventh year, ended the Peloponnesian war, after totally subverting the grandeur of Athens, and destroying the finer spirit of Grecian freedom. The Athenian subverted. THE readers of the Iliad may remember that the combats of Homeric Introductory heroes are often interrupted by a polite delay, unknown in modern remarks. warfare: deeds of arms are suspended, while warriors relate family histories; and thus the reader's mind, after the excitement created by battles described, reposes awhile on these amicable conferences, in which are introduced old traditions, national customs, personal adventures, and traits of individual character. Something after the same manner we desire to interpose, between the graver and more political parts of the history of the Greeks, some account of their social condition. The subject ascends into that early literature in which history finds few trustworthy materials; it creates for itself a wide interest, because the manners and customs of antiquity are connected with our own daily life in the way either of likeness or of contrast. It may, therefore, communicate knowledge and amusement to minds which care little now for the restless politics of the Peloponnesian war. After the historian has gathered in his rich and more important harvest, much may remain for the antiquarian student" as the shaking of an olive-tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done:" but he who would labour in this field 1 Isaiah, xxiv. 13. Bruce. St. John. Barthelemy. Athenian Landor. must be willing to wander far, and to make his acquisitions by slow degrees. Sometimes these acquisitions are communicated to the public in an ample and orderly collection of facts, gathered from various writers of antiquity. Such details would naturally be interwoven with the author's own observations of admiration or censure, classical criticism, and comparison. This is the plan followed by Bruce, in his State of Society in the Age of Homer,' and St. John, in his Ancient Greece, a work which Walter S. Landor calls "the most learned, the most comprehensive, and the most judicious, ever written about the manners, the institutions, and the localities of that country." Other writers have sought the help of fiction: the circumstances, whether opinions or customs, political and domestic, are grouped around imaginary personages. Thus tessellated fragments of ancient writers are made to form, or to sanction, Greek history, biography, or novel; and what the subject loses in exact truthfulness, it is supposed to gain in vivacity and interest. 4 In the last century, the Abbé Barthelemy published a voluminous work, called Les Voyages du Jeune Anacharsis; the fictitious travels of a Scythian in Greece: the author was a laborious student, and examined widely; but critical scholarship was at that time far below its present elevation, and he had little skill in weighing the value of authorities. In 1741, four octavo volumes were privately printed, purporting to be a recently-discovered correspondence between Cleander, a Persian spy residing at Athens, and the ministers of the great king: his arrival is supposed to take place in the first year of the Peloponnesian war, and these "Athenian Letters," as they were called, conclude about the time of the death of Artaxerxes. They were the joint productions of Lord Hardwicke, Mr. Yorke, and others. In 1798, the work was published in quarto, and again in 1810. It was creditable to its authors; but it has been superseded by the increased knowledge and scholarship of later times. Landor's Pericles and Aspasia consists chiefly of letters, which pass between that celebrated beauty and a certain Cleone resident at Milētus: they are on matters domestic, political, and literary. Aspasia becomes acquainted with Pericles-converses with Anaxagoras-dines with Aristophanes1-writes to Herodotus, to express her admiration of his works"-reports a speech of Pericles on the defection of Euboea and Megara"-learns from Cleonē the affairs of 1 Duod. Belfast, 1827. Page 425, Letter 174, note. 2 Three vols. octavo, London, 1849. The work began in 1757, and was published in 1788. 5 About the year 362 B. C. Anacharsis arrives at Athens, and returns to Scythia 337 B. C. • Published with the rest of his works in 1846. Samos, and hears Thucydides read parts of his history.' There are some tender and some sad passages, and a few ludicrous sketches of domestic life, e. g., the supper given to Polus the actor; but as the literary and critical element of these letters predominate over the social, they lie in great measure beyond our present subject. In the works already mentioned, Barthelemy gives us fictitious Bekker. biography and travels. The Athenian Letters are chiefly political, and Bekker's Charicles is a Greek novel, not a romance: a novel, in that the characters introduced to give a portrait of Greek life are imaginary; not a romance, in that to each of the chapters or scenes an excursus, or essay, is annexed, giving authorities for the manner in which the several parts of the story are handled. The general incidents, the cast of the characters, and the particular details, are justified by a wide and accurate knowledge of ancient literature; and references are given to many modern authors, especially Germans. The work is arranged in twelve scenes, with the following titles: The Friends of Youth. Corinth. The Paternal Abode. The Trapezitæ. The Habits of Youth. The Banquet. The Trito. The Invalid. The Will. The Dionysia. The Ring. The Wedding Day. We proceed to offer to our readers some observations on the social condition of the ancient Greeks: not borrowing from the works above mentioned, except where acknowledgment is duly made; nor attempting to vie with them in copiousness or learning; but bringing within a small compass such details of private life as may stimulate inquiry into a department of knowledge which, in England at least, has been less cultivated than it deserves. SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS OF THE HOMERIC AGE, ATHENS POST-HOMERIC AGE. Male. Under the Grammarian, Philosopher, and Sophist. SPARTA Slavery; Education. 1 Letter 143. 2 Letter 78. Translated from the German by the Rev. Frederick Metcalf, 1 vol. 8vo. 1845. This chapter has an excursus on the markets and commerce; the one called Trito has an excursus on the slaves. To the works above mentioned should be added, Periclēs, a Tale of Athens; and Amymoně, a Romance of the days of Pericles. They are criticised in the Edinburgh Review, published in October, 1850. and the SECTION I. THE SOCIAL AND MILITARY CUSTOMS OF THE HOMERIC AGE. Homer BEGIN We then with Homer: in his works we have the earliest extant Rhapsodists. Greek, and a glimpse, if not a view, of society in its earliest form; or, at least, in a form earlier than any, except what the Old Testament describes. Homeric and patriarchal life have, as might be expected, many points of likeness. He who would see how characters and incidents assimilate, and how the Greek hexameter and Hebrew prose converge towards the same subject, will find an index of direction in Coleridge on the classic poets. But such examples lose their beauty Resemblance when isolated: to be properly felt, they should be read as parts of between the their own continuous stories: then "the Old Testament and the Iliad reflect light mutually each on the other; and in respect of the poetry and the manners at least, if not of the morals . . . he who has the longest studied, and the most deeply imbibed, the spirit of the Hebrew Scriptures, will the best understand, and the most lastingly appreciate, "the tale of Troy divine." Iliad and the Old Individuality As to Homer, etymologists have tormented his name: ancient of Homer. cities contended for the honour of his birth; some modern critics have been impartial to all the claimants, by denying that he was born anywhere; i. e., making the disputed name stand rather for a bundle of poems of various dates and authors than for a real living individual But taste and feeling, even if they are unable to answer the arguments of scholastic criticism, are wont to hold their own opinions: 1 Page 179. Coleridge, p. 180 (1 vol. 12mo, 1834). man. 3 Ε. 9. ὁμου ἄρω· ὁμηρειν· ὁ μη ὁρῶν. |