'father, or, according to others, the fon of Theffalus *. Thefe names were quickly changed for thofe of Achæi and Hellenes, by which they are generally called in antient authors. The firft is derived from Achæus, the grandfon of Hellen the fon of Jupiter, according to the fable +. The other from Hellen, by fome reckoned the fon of Deucalion; tho' fome, with great probability, think the names Hellas and Hellenes derived from Elifba the eldeft fon of Javan, or Ion, the father of all the Greeks. Thucydides obferves, that the name Hellenes did not univerfally obtain over Greece, fince Homer appropriates it to thofe only who followed Achilles from Phthiotis. In feveral parts of Greece they were called Pelafgi; which name the Arcadians, who are generally reckoned the most antient inhabitants, challenged from their pretended founder Pelafgus, who gave the name of Pelafgia to the whole Peloponnefe. But the most antient name of all is univerfally allowed to be that of Iones, which the Greeks themselves derive from Ion the fon of Xuthus, or, according to the fable, of Apollo, by Creufa the daughter of Erichtheus, grandfon of Deucalion. But Jofephus, with great probability, affirms that their original is of a much older date; and that Javan, or Ion, the fon of Japhet and grandfon of Noah, and his defcendants, were the firft who peopled thefe countries, as the learned Bochart feems to have proved by very strong ar guments . Among the Greeks, indeed, only the original Athenians, and fuch colonies, as fprung from them, were called Iones; but the Hebrews, the Chaldæans, the Arabians, and others, give no other appellation than that of Iones to the whole body of the Grecian nations. And Mofes exprefsly tells us, that the defcendants of Japhet peopled the ifles of the Gentiles; which expreffion, according to the genius of the Hebrew, means all maritime countries at any diftance from Palestine, especially thofe along the Mediterranean . Greece, in its infant ftate, appears, even by the confeffion of The manthe Greek writers, to have been one continued uncultivated fo- ners of the reft, inhabited by ignorant and wild favages, who lived on every antient fruit, herb, or root, that came in their way, and sheltered Greeks. themselves from the inclemency of the weather in dens, clefts, and hollow trees §. The firft improvement in their way of living was introduced by Pelafgus, who, having taught them to feed on acorns, as a more wholesome food, to live in huts, and cover themselves with the skins of beafts, was afterwards highly reverenced among them on that account. The favagenefs of their manners, nevertheless, ftill continued for a long time. They were intirely ignorant of agriculture, and knew no other law than force. Their mutual violences, however, Eufeb. Chron. Ifidor. orig. 1. xiv. Plin. hift. 1. iv. zant, + Byzant. fub voce. + Phaleg. 1, iii. fchol. Ariftoph. ap. Hind. introd. hift. Græc. Steph. By- § Ifa. cap. ult. aching 1 teaching them the neceffity of uniting under fome head, finall focieties began to be formed; but thefe continuing in a state of hoftility against each other, the stronger were perpetually difpoffeffing the weaker of their fettlements. Thofe only were fafe from an invasion who inhabited the most craggy and barren fpots of ground, fuch as the country of Attica, where the inhabitants having remained undisturbed for a long time, while the reft of Greece was in a continual fluctuation, took the name of Autochthones, that is, men born in the country where they lived. Even after agriculture was introduced, and they began to live in cities and towns, they ftill continued their mutual incurfions, and their greatest occupation was robbery and piracy; fo that for a long time they remained ftrangers to the conveniencies of civil life, which had been improved to a great degree by the Jews, Egyptians, Midianites, Phoenicians, &c. ages before. By Homer's making oxen the ftandard of the value of things, it may be queftioned whether the use of money was common even in his days. They feem to have been firft civilized by the Egyptian and Phoenician colonies that arrived in their country. They knew nothing of writing, arithme ic, navigation, and commerce, till the arrival of Cadmus. Orpheus, Mufeus, and fome others, who travelled into Egypt, introduced the Egyptian divinity and religious rites. But as for aftronomy, geometry, philofophy, and magic, they were fetched long after, the firft from Babylon, the next from Egypt and Judæa, and the laft from Perfia. Their antient government was most rude and barbarous; every city, and almoft every obfcure town or village, being a petty tyranny, governed by a head, to whom, neverthelets, they gave the name of king. Laws, at leaft a written body of them, we do not find that they had, till the times of the Athenian archons ; the sentence of their kings being probably definitive, except in dubious and important cafes, when it was ufual for them to confult fome oracle, of which they had variety; but the two moft famous were, that of Jupiter at Dodona, and that of Apollo at Delphi, fituated on the hill Parnaffus. What was their religion or worship before the coming of Cecrops is uncertain; but he feems firft to have introduced the Egyptian theolo y, having, according to Paufanias, fet up the worship of Jupiter in his new kingdom of Athens. Orpheus, Dedalus, and Melampus, went and fetched new fupplies of Egyptian idolatry and fuperftition, which were received by the ignorant Grecians with great veneration. Such were in general the firft beginnings of Greece. We shall now enter into a more particular detail, and give a brief account of the feveral different ftates whereof the whole country confifted. Herod. 1. i. Diod. Sic. 1. i. Tatian. orat. cont. Grec. SECT. Τ SECT. I. The Hiftory of the antient Kingdom of SICYON. Thanos fuccention of 26 kings, whofe feveral reigns make antiently HE moft antient kingdom of Greece was that of Sicyon, which Sicyon boafts up an epoch of 960 years and upwards. It was originally cal- called led Egiala, from its fuppofed founder Egialeus; then Apia, Egia a. from its fourth king Apis; and laftly Sicyon, from Sicyon the 19th monarch, from whom even the whole Peloponnefe was called Sicyonia; which name continued for fome time after the kingdom was extinct *. This little kingdom was feated on the bay Its fituaof Corinth, having the province of Achaia on the weft, and the tion. ifthmus of Corinth on the eaft. What its extent was cannot be known. Befides its capital, which is fuppofed to have been feated on the river Afopus, and was much adorned by Sicyon, Ptolemy mentions another city, named Pletius. According to Eufebius, this monarchy was founded 1313 years before the first Olympiad, that is, about 259 years after the flood. By this computation it might claim to be the moft antient kingdom of the world next to the Egyptian; but feveral things feem to discountenance this opinion, particularly the account of the unformed and unfettled ftate of the favage Grecians. Befides, no mention is made of any memorable action performed by any of their kings, during the long space of 960 years; tho' this epoch, dark and remote as it is, is fo fruitful of the moft furprifing exploits in moft other cotemporary kingdoms. The reigns of the kings are also spun out to an unnatural length, amounting one with another to 35 and 40 years a-piece; which is almoft double the time that thofe of Judah and Ifrael reigned. Sir Ifaac Newton conjectures, with great probability, that chronologers have inferted eleven or twelve feigned names of kings, who did nothing, and thereby made Ægialeus, the founder of the monarchy, 300 years older than his brother Phoroneus. After the death of Zeuxippus, the laft of the 26 fuppofed kings, the ftate is faid to have been governed by the priests of Apollo Carneus for five years; after which Amphytyes held it nine years, and Charidemus eighteen. The Heraclide having then returned to the Peloponnefe, became maffers of it, or, according to Paufanias, the kingdom was incorporated with the Dores, and became fubject to that of Argos +. Stephan, de urb. Strab. + Eufeb. Chron. Paufan, in Corinth. R 3 SECT. The fitua tion and extent of Argos. Govern ΤΗ SECT. II. The Hiftory of the antient Kingdom of ARGOS. HIS kingdom is fuppofed by Eufebius to have begun about 1080 years before the firft Olympiad. It was at firft called Egiala, like the kingdom of Sicyon, and received the name of Argolis from Argos its fourth monarch. It was alfo called Hippim and Hippoboton, from the neighbouring paftures, in which Neptune is faid to have fed his horfes *; or rather from an excellent breed of horfes which that country was famed for. It was fituated on the north-eaft fide of the Peloponnefe, being washed by the fea on that fide; having part of Laconia on the fouth, and the kingdom of Sicyon on the north and weft. Its chief river was the Machus, which washed the metropolis of the fame name, both fo called from the founder of the kingdom. In this city was the brazen tower in which Danae being confined by her father, was deflowered by Jupiter. Next to Argos was Mycena, which became in procefs of time the feat of the kingdom. There were allo Troezen, Nauplia, Nemea, famous for the Nemean games, and Epidaurus, in which stood the most famed temple of Efculapius, reforted to from moft parts of Europe and Afia for the cure of all diftempers. The government of the Argives continued altogether moment of narchical, from its first foundation to its establishing itself into a downright democracy. But by what laws they were governed, and how far their monarchs were limited, is impoffible to be determined. the Ar gives. Their hif tory. Ina hus their firft king. Phor-neus. Apis. The founder of the kingdom, as we have obferved, is faid to have been Inachus, the fuppofed fon of Oceanus and Tethys; which perhaps means no more than that he came thither by fea.. He married his fifter Meliffa, by whom he had two fons, Phoroneus and Egialus. Phoroneus fucceeded his father, enlarged his territories, and built the city Phoroneum, into which he brought great part of his fubjects, who were before difperfed. By the nymph Lasdice he had a fon, named Apis, and a daughter, called Niobe, who, being deflowered by Jupiter, had by him a fon, named Argos. Apis fucceeded his father; but for his tyrannical government was expelled by a faction fupported by Thelxion king of Sicyon; which account fhews how little dependance there is in writings of this epocha, fince Thelxion, the fixth Sicyon king according to Eufebius, reigned near 100 years before Inachus. Paufan. in Corinth. Argos, Argos, the fon of Jupiter and Niobe, fucceeded his uncle. He Argos. is fuppofed to have been the founder of the capital city, and to have called it and the whole kingdom by his name. He first taught the Grecians agriculture, and from that time they came to be called Argivi from him. The four following kings were, Griafus, Phorbas, Triopas, and Crotopus. In the reign of this laft, Apollo is faid to have fent a monfter, called Pene, against the Argians, which fnatched the children from the mothers bofom, and deftroyed them, because a child which the king's daughter had borne to him, being expofed by its mother, had been devoured by the king's hounds. This monfter being killed at length by Carebus, Apollo fent them a grievous peftilence. Carebus confulting the oracle how the anger of the god might be appeafed, was forbid to return to Argos, and directed to take a tripod in his hand, and to build a temple to Apollo wherever it chanced to drop from him, which he accordingly did. The two next kings were, Sthenelus the fon of Crotopus, and Geleanor his fon, who was expelled his kingdom by Danaus an Egyptian. Danaus having been banished Egypt by his brother Egyptus, Danaus for refufing to marry his fifty daughters to the fifty fons of his brother, came to Argos, and claimed the kingdom, as a defcendant of Io the daughter of Inachus. The people, to whom the difpute was referred, decided in his favour: but foon after he was fettled on the throne, his kingdom was invaded by his fifty nephews from Egypt, who reduced him to fuch extremity, that he was forced to grant them his daughters in marriage, tho' he had been forewarned by an oracle that he should be killed by a fon-in-law. To prevent the fulfilling of the oracle, he ordered his daughters to kill all their husbands on the weddingnight; which they all punctually performed, except one, named Hypermneftra, who faved her bridegroom Lynceus; on which account her father ordered her to be immediately put to death: but he was honourably acquitted by the more humane Argives. Lynceus, the hufband of Hypermneftra, afterwards expelled Lynceus. Danaus out of his kingdom, and reigned in his ftead. He was fucceeded by his fon Abas, whofe two fons, Pratus and Acrifius, who were twins, are faid to have ftruggled together in their mother's womb; a fure prefage of the fatal struggle they afterwards had for the kingdom. They are reported to have been the first who made ufe of targets in battle. Pratus found means to ftep firft upon the throne, and held it Prætus. about feventeen years; his brother Acrifius having then raifed a party against him, and forced him to fly to his father-in-law Jobates king of Lycia. Thefe two, raifing an army in Lycia, foon invaded Argos, and obliged Acrifius to agree to a treaty; by which Prætus had Tyrius, and other maritime places; and Acrifius Argos, and the inland towns. Prætus had 43 daughters by his wife Stenobea, or Antea, as fhe is called by Homer. R 4 Acrifius |