epocha is famous in hiftory, and should carefully be remembered, as well as that of the Olympiads.

An Olympiad is the revolution of four compleat years, from one celebration of the Olympick games to another. We shall elsewhere give an account of the inftitution of these games, which were celebrated every four years, near the town of Pisa, otherwife called Olympia.

The common æra of the Olympiads begins in the fummer of the year of the world 3228, 776 years before Jefus Chrift, from the games, in which Corebus won the prize in the races.

Fourfcore years after the taking of Troy, the Heraclidæ reentered the Peloponnefus, and feized Lacedæmon, where two brothers, Euryfthenes and Procles, fons of Ariftodemus, began to reign together, and from their time the scepter always continued jointly in the hands of the defcendants of those two families. Many years after this, Lycurgus inftituted that body of laws for the Spartan ftate, which rendered both the legiflator and republick fo famous in hiftory: I shall speak of them at large in the fequel.

(r) CORINTH. Corinth began later, than the other cities I have been fpeaking of, to be governed by particular kings. It was at firft fubject to thofe of Argos and Mycena; at laft Sifyphus, the fon of Eolus, made himself mafter of it. But his defcendants were difpoffeffed of the throne by the Heraclide, about 110 years after the fiege of Troy.

The regal power, after this, came to the defcendants of Bacchis, under whom the monarchy was changed into an ariftocracy, that is, the reins of the government were in the hands of the elders, who annually chofe from among themfelves a chief magiftrate whom they called Prytanis. At laft Cypfelus having gained the people, ufurped the fupreme authority, which he tranfmitted to his fon Periander; who was ranked among the Grecian fages, on account of the love he bore to learning, and the protection and encouragement he gave to learned men.

() MACEDONIA. It was a long time before the Greeks had any great regard to Macedonia. Her kings, living retired in woods and mountains, feemed not to be confidered as a part of Greece. They pretended, that their kings, of whom CARANUS was the firft, were defcended from Hercules. Philip and his fon Alexander raised the glory of this kingdom to a very high pitch. It had fubfifted 471 years before the death of Alexander, and continued 155 more, till Perfeus was beaten and taken by the Romans; in all 626 years.

(r) A. M, 2628, Ant. J. C. 1376. (1) A. M. 3191. Ant. J. C. 1831

WE

ARTICLE

V.

Colonies of the GREEKS fent into Afia minor.

E have already obferved, that fourfcore years after the. taking of Troy, the Heraclidæ recovered Peloponnefus, after having defeated the Pelopidæ, that is, Tifamenes and Penthilus, fons of Oreftes; and that they divided the kingdoms of Mycena, Argos and Lacedæmon among them.

So great a revolution as this almost changed the face of the country, and made way for several very famous tranfmigrations; which the better to understand, and to have the clearer idea of the fituation of the Grecian nations, as alfo of the four dialects, or different idioms of fpeech, that prevailed among them, it will be neceffary to look a little farther back into history.

(t) Deucalion, who reigned in Theffaly, and under whom happened the flood that bears his name, had by Pyrrha his wife two fons, Helenus and Amphictyon. This laft, having driven Cranaus out of Athens, reigned there in his place. Helenus, if we may believe the hiftorians of his country, gave the name of Hellenes to the Greeks: He had three fons, Æolus, Dorus, and Xuthus.

Eolus, who was the eldeft, fucceeded his father, and befides Theffaly had Locris and Boeotia added to his dominions. Several of his defcendants went into Peloponnefus with Pelops, the fon of Tantalus, king of Phrygia, from whom Peloponnefus took its name, and settled themselves in Laconia.

The country contiguous to Parnaffus, fell to the share of Dorus, and from him was called Doris.

Xuthus, compelled by his brothers, upon fome particular difguft, to quit his country, retired into Attica, where he married the daughter of Evechtheus, king of the Athenians, by whom he had two fons, Achæus and Ion.

An involuntary murder, committed by Achæus, obliged him to retire to Peloponnefus, which was then called Egialæa, of which one part was from him called Achaia. His defcendants fettled at Lacedæmon.

Ion, having fignalized himself by his victories, was invited by the Athenians to govern their city, and gave the country his name; for the inhabitants of Attica were likewife called Ionians. The number of the citizens increased to such a degree, that the Athenians were obliged to fend a colony of the lonians into Peloponnefus, who likewise gave the name to the country they poffeffed.

(t) Strab. 1. viii, p. 383, &c. Paufan, 1. vii. p. 396, &c,

Thus

Thus all the inhabitants of Peloponnefus, though compofed of different people, were united under the names of Achæans and Ionians.

The Heraclidæ, fourscore years after the taking of Troy, refolved seriously to recover Peloponnefus, which of right belonged to them. They had three principal leaders, fons of Ariftomachus, namely, Timenes, Crefphontes, and Ariftodemus; the laft dying, his two fons, Euryfthenes and Procles, fucceeded him. The fuccefs of their expedition was as happy as the motive was just, and they recovered the poffeffion of their ancient dominion. Argos fell to Timenes, Meffenia to Crefphontes, and Laconia to the two fons of Ariftodemus.

Such of the Achæans as were defcended from Æolus, and had hitherto inhabited Laconia, being driven from thence by the Dorians, who accompanied the Heraclide into Peloponnefus, after fome wandering, fettled in that part of Afia minor, which from them took the name of Æolis, where they founded Smyrna, and eleven other cities; but the town of Smyrna came afterwards into the hands of the Ionians. The Eolians Became likewife possessed of several cities of Lesbos.

As for the Achæans of Mycenæ and Argos, being compelled to abandon their country to the Heraclide, they feized upon that of the Ionians, who dwelt at that time in a part of Peloponnefus. The latter fied at firft to Athens their original country, from whence they fome time afterwards departed under the condu& of Nileus and Androcles, both fons of Codrus, and feized upon that part of the coaft of Afia minor, which lies between Caria and Lydia, and from them was named Ionia; here they built twelve cities, Ephefus, Clazomenæ, Samos, Fr.

(u) The power of the Athenians, who had then Codrus for their king, being very mach augmented by the great number of refugees that were fled into their country, the Heraclide thought proper to oppose the progress of their power, and for that reafon made war upon them. The latter were worfted in a battle, but ftill remained masters of Megaris, where they built Megara, and fettled the Dorians in that country in the room of the Ionians.

(w) One part of the Dorians continued in the country after the death of Codrus, another went to Crete; the greateft number fettled in that part of Afia minor which from them was called Doris, where they built Halicarnaffus, Cnidus and other cities, and made themselves mafters of the island of Rhodes, Cos, &c.

The

(Strab. p. 393.

(w) Ibid. p. 653.

The GRECIAN dialects.

It will now be more eafy to underftand what we have to fay concerning the feveral Grecian dialects. Thefe were four in number; the Attick, the Ionick, the Dorick, and the Æolick. They were in reality four different languages, each of them perfect in its kind, and used by a diftinct nation; but yet all derived from, and grounded upon the fame original tongue. And this diverfity of languages can no ways appear wonderful in a country, where the inhabitants confifted of different nations, that did not depend upon one another, but had each its particular territories.

1. The Attick dialect is that which was used in Athens and the country round about. This dialect has been chiefly used by Thucydides, Ariftophanes, Plato, Ifocrates, Xenophon, and Demofthenes.

2. The Ionick dialect was almoft the fame with the ancient Attick; but after it had paffed into feveral towns of Afia minor, and into the adjacent iflands, which were colonies of the Athenians, and of the people of Achaia, it received a fort of new tincture, and did not come up to that perfe& delicacy, which the Athenians afterwards attained to. Hippocrates and Herodotus writ in this dialect.

3. The Dorick was first in ufe among the Spartans, and the people of Argos; it paffed afterwards into Epirus, Libya, Si cily, Rhodes, and Crete. Archimedes and Theocritus, both, of them Syracufans, and Pindar, followed this dialect.

4. The Æolick dialect was at first usedy the Boeotians and their neighbours, and then in Æolis, a country in Afia minor, between Ionia and Myfia, which contained ten or twelve cities, that were Grecian colonies. Sappho and Alcæus, of whofe works very little remains, wrote in this dialect. We find alfo a mixture of it in the writings of Theocritus, Pindar, Homer, and many others.

ARTICLE VI.

The republican form of government almoft generally established throughout GREECE.

TH

HE reader may have obferved in the little I have faid about the feveral fettlements of Greece, that the primordial ground of all thofe different ftates was monarchical government, which was the most ancient of all forms, the most univerfally received and established, the moft proper to main

tain

tain peace and concord; and which, as (x) Plato obferves, is formed upon the model of paternal authority, and of that gentle and moderate dominion, which fathers exercise over their families.

But, as the ftate of things degenerated by degrees, through the injuftice of ufurpers, the feverity of lawful mafters, the infurrections of the people, and a thousand accidents and revolutions, that happened in those states; a different fpirit feized the people which prevailed over all Greece, kindled a violent defire of liberty, and brought about a general change of government every where, except in Macedonia; fo that monarchy gave way to a republican government, which however was diverfified into almost as many various forms as there were different cities, according to the different genius and peculiar character of each people.

However, there ftill remained a kind of tincture or leven of the ancient monarchical government, which frequently inflamed the ambition of private citizens, and made them defire to become mafters of their country. In almoft every state of Greece, fome private perfons arofe, who, without any right to the throne, either by birth, or election of the citizens, endeavoured to advance themfelves to it by cabal, treachery and violence; and who, without any respect for the laws, or regard to the publick good, exercised a fovereign authority, with a defpotick empire and arbitrary fway. In order to fupport their unjuft ufurpations in the midft of diftrufts and alarms, they thought themfelves obliged to prevent imaginary, or to fupprefs real confpiracies, by the most cruel profcriptions; and to facrifice to their own fecurity all thofe, whom merit, rank, wealth, zeal for liberty, or love of their country, rendered obnoxious to a fufpicious and unfettled government, which found itself hated by all, and was fenfible it deferved to be fo. It was this cruel and inhuman treatment, that rendered these men fo odious, and brought upon them the appellation of Tyrants, and which furnished fuch ample matter for the declamation of orators, and the tragical reprefentations of the

theatre.

All these cities and diftricts of Greece, that feemed fo entirely different from one another, in their laws, customs, and interefts, were nevertheless formed and combined into one fole, entire, and united body; whofe ftrength increased to fuch a degree, as to make the formidable power of the Perfians under Darius

(x) Plat. l. iii. de Leg. p. 680.

This word originally fignified no more than king, and was anciently the title of lawful princes.