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reputation of his wisdom, and the confidence of the
people in his integrity, had procured him.
However, in a little time afterwards, this ordinance
was generally approved, and the same powers as be-
fore were continued to Solon.

He repealed all the laws that had been made by Draco, except those against murder. The reason of his doing this, was the excessive rigour of those laws, which inflicted death alike upon all sorts of offenders; so that they who were convicted of sloth and idleness, or they that had stolen only a few herbs or a little fruit out of a garden, were as severely punished as those that were guilty of murder or sacrilege.

He then proceeded to the regulation of offices, employments, and magistracies, all which he left in the hands of the rich; for which reason he distributed all the rich citizens into three classes, ranging them according to the difference of their incomes and revenues, and according to the value and estimation of each particular man's estate. Those that were found to have 500 measures per annum, as well in corn as in liquids, were placed in the first rank; those that had 300 were placed in the second; and those that had but 200 made up the third.

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Greece had brought from the neart of Scythia) said one day to Solon, I wonder you should empower wise men only to deliberate and debate upon affairs, and leave the determination and decision of them wholly to fools.

Upon another occasion, when. Solon was conversing with him upon some other regulations he had in view, Anacharsis, astonished that he could expect to succeed in his designs of restraining the avarice and injustice of the citizens by written laws, answered him in this manner: Give me leave to tell you, that these written laws are just like spiders' webs: the weak and small may be caught and entangled in them; but the rich and powerful will break through them and despise them.

Solon, who was an able and prudent man, was very sensible of the inconveniences that attend a democracy, or popular government: but, having thoroughly studied, and being perfectly well acquainted with, the character and disposition of the Athenians, he knew it would be a vain attempt to take the sovereignty out of the people's hands; and that if they parted with it at one time, they would soon resume it at another by force and violence. He therefore contented himself with limiting their power by the authority of the Areopagus and the council of Four Hundred; judging, that All the rest of the citizens, whose income fell short the state, bein; supported and strengthened by these of 200 measures, were comprised in a fourth and last two powerful bodies, as by two good anchors, would class, and were never admitted into any employments. not be so liable to commotions and disorders as it had But, in order to make them amends for this exclusion been, and that the people would enjoy more tranquillity. from offices, he left them a right to vote in the assem- I shall mention only some of the laws which Solon blies and judgments of the people; which at first made, by which the reader may be able to form a judgseemed to be a matter of little consequence, but in ment of the rest. In the first place, every particular time became extremely advantageous, and made them person was authorized to espouse the quarrel of any masters of all the affairs of the city; for most of the one that was injured and insulted; so that the first law-suits and differences were ultimately referred to comer might prosecute the offender, and bring him to the people, to whom an appeal lay from all the judg-justice for the outrage he had committed. ments of the magistrates; and in the assemblies of the people the greatest and most important affairs of the state, relating to peace or war, were also determined. The Areopagus, so called from the place where its assemblies were held, had been a long time established. Solon restored and augmented its authority, leav-ferences and dissensions did not declare themselves ing to that tribunal, as the supreme court of judicature, a general inspection and superintendency over all affairs, as also the care of causing the laws (of which he made that body the guardian) to be observed and put in execution. Before his time, the citizens of the greatest probity and worth were made the judges of the Areopagus. Solon was the first that thought it convenient that none should be honoured with that dignity, except such as had passed through the office of Archon. Nothing was so august as this senate; and its reputation for judgment and integrity became so very great, that the Romans sometimes referred causes, which were too intricate for their own decision, to the determination of this tribunal.

The design of this wise legislator by this ordinance was, to accustom his citizens to have a fellow-feeling of one another's sufferings and misfortunes, as they were all members of one and the same body.

By another law, those persons that in public difof one party or other, but waited to see how things would go before they determined, were declared infamous, condemned to perpetual banishment, and to have all their estates confiscated. Solon had learnt, from long experience and deep reflection, that the rich, the powerful, and even the wise and virtuous, are usually the most backward to expose themselves to the inconveniences which public dissensions and troubles produce in society; and that their zeal for the public good does not render them so vigilant and active in the defence of it, as the passions of the factious render them industrious to destroy it; that the right side being thus abandoned by those that are capable of giving more weight, authority, and strength to it by Nothing was regarded or attended to here, but truth their union and concurrence, becomes unable to grap alone; and to the end that no external objects might ple with the audacious and violent enterprises of a divert the attention of the judges, their tribunal was few daring innovators. To prevent this misfortune, always held at night, or in the dark; and the orators which may be attended with the most fatal consequenwere not allowed to make use of any exordium, di-ces to a state, Solon judged it proper to force the well gression, or peroration.

Solon, to prevent as much as possible the abuse which the people might make of the great authority he left them, created a second council, consisting of 400 men, 100 out of every tribe; and ordered all causes and affairs to be brought before this council, and to be maturely examined by them, before they were proposed to the general assembly of the people; to the judgment of which the sentiments of the other were to submit, and to which alone belonged the right of giving a final sentence and decision. It was upon this subject that Anacharsis (whom the reputation of the sages of

1 Plut. in Solon. p. 88.

affected, by the fear of greater inconveniences to themselves, to declare at the very beginning of any commotion, for the party that was in the right, and to animate the spirit and courage of the best citizens by engaging with them in the common danger. By this method of accustoming the minds of the people to look upon that man almost as an enemy and a traitor, that should appear indifferent to, and unconcerned at, the misfortunes of the public, he provided the state with a quick and sure resource against the sudden enterprises of wicked and profligate citizens.

Solon abolished the giving of portions in marriage with young women unless they were only daughters; and ordered that the bride should carry no other forThis was a hill near the citadel of Athens, called Areo-tune to her husband than three suits of clothes, and pagus, that is to say, the hill of Mars; because it was there Mars had been tried for the murder of Halirrothius, the son of Neptune.

3 Val. Max. 1. viii. c. 1. Lucian in Hermot. p. 595. Quintil. 1. vi. c. 1.

some household goods of little value; for he would not have matrimony become a traffic, and a mere com• Ibid. p. 89.

Plut, in Solon. p. 88,

• Ibid.

merce of interest; but desired that it should be regarded as an honourable fellowship and society, in order to raise subjects to the state, to make the married pair live agreeably and harmoniously together, and to give continual testimony of mutual love and tenderness to each other.

Before Solon's time, the Athenians were not allowed to make their wills; the wealth of the deceased always devolved upon his children and family. Solon's law allowed every one that was childless, to dispose of his whole estate as he thought fit; preferring by that means friendship to kindred, and choice to necessity and constraint, and rendering every man truly master of his own fortune, by leaving him at liberty to bestow it where he pleased. This law however did not authorize indifferently all sorts of donations: it justified and approved of none but those that were made freely and without any compulsion; without having the mind distempered and intoxicated by potions or charms, or perverted and seduced by the allurements and caresses of a woman; for this wise lawgiver was justly persuaded, that there is no difference to be made between being seduced and being forced, looking upon artifice and violence, pleasure and pain, in the same light, when they are made use of as means to impose upon men's reason, and to captivate the liberty of their understandings.

Another regulation he made was to lessen the rewards of the victors at the Isthmian and Olympic games,1 , and to fix them at a certain value, viz. 100 drachmas, which make about two pounds, for the first sort; and 500 drachmas, or about ten pounds, for the second. He thought it a shameful thing, that athleta and wrestlers, a sort of people not only useless, but often dangerous to the state, should have any considerable rewards allotted them, which ought rather to be reserved for the families of those persons who died in the service of their country; it being very just and reasonable, that the state should support and provide for such orphans, who probably might come in time to follow the good examples of their fathers.

In order to encourage arts, trades, and manufactures, the senate of the Areopagus was charged with the care of inquiring into the ways and means that every man made use of to gain his livelihood, and of chastising and punishing all those who led an idle life. Besides the fore-mentioned view of bringing arts and trades into a flourishing condition, this regulation was founded upon two other reasons still more important.

to ourselves in having children, but only the gratification of a loose passion. Having then satisfied his own desires, he has no proper right over the persons who may spring from this disgraceful intercourse, upon whose lives, as well as births, he has entailed an indelible infamy and reproach.

It was prohibited to speak any ill of the dead:2 because religion directs us to account the dead as sacred, justice requires us to spare those that are no more, and good policy should hinder hatred from becoming immortal.

It was also forbidden to affront or give ill language to any body in the temples, in courts of judicature, in public assemblies, and in the theatres, during the time of representation: for to be no where able to govern our passions and resentments, argues too untractable and licentious a disposition; as on the other hand, to restrain them at all times, and upon all occasions, is a virtue beyond the strength of mere human nature, and a perfection reserved for the evangelical law. Cicero observes, that this wise legislator of Athens, whose laws were in force even in his time, had provided no law against parricide; and being asked the reason why he had not, he answered: That to make laws against, and ordain punishments for, a crime that hitherto had never been known or heard of, was the way to introduce it, rather than to prevent it. I omit seve ral of his laws concerning marriage and adultery, in which there are remarkable and manifest contradictions, and a great mixture of light and darkness, knowledge and error, which we generally find even among the very wisest of the heathens, who had no established principles.

A. M. 3445. Ant. J. C. 559.

After Solon had published his laws, and engaged the people by public oath to observe them religiously, at least for the term of 100 years, he thought proper to remove from Athens, in order to give them time to take root, and to gather strength by custom; as also to rid himself of the trouble and importunity of those who came to consult him about the meaning of his laws, and to avoid the complaints and ill will of others: for, as he said himself, in great undertakings it is hard (if not impossible) to please all parties. He was absent ten years, in which interval of time we are to place his journeys into Egypt, into Lydia, to visit king Croesus, and into several other countries. At his return he found the whole city in commotion and trouble; the three old factions were revived, and had formed three different parties. First, Solon considered, that such persons as have Lycurgus was at the head of the people that inhabited no fortune, and make use of no methods of industry the low-lands; Megacles, son of Alcmaon, was the to gain their livelihood, are ready to employ all man-leader of the inhabitants upon the sea-coast; and Piner of unjust and unlawful means for acquiring money; and that the necessity of subsisting some way or other disposes them for committing all sorts of misdemeanours, rapine, knaveries, and frauds; from which springs up a school of vice in the bosom of the commonwealth; and such a leaven gains ground, as does not fail to spread its infection, and by degrees corrupt the manners of the public.

In the second place, the most able statesmen have always looked upon these indigent and idle people as a troop of dangerous, restless, and turbulent spirits, eager after innovation and change, always ready for seditions and insurrections, and interested in revolutions of the state, by which alone they can hope to change their own situation and fortune. It was for all these reasons, that in the law we are speaking of, Solon declared, that a son should not be obliged to support his father in old age or necessity, if the latter had not taken care to have his son brought up to some trade or occupation. All children that were spurious and illegitimate, were exempted from the same duty: for it is evident, says Solon, that whoever thus. contemns the dignity and sanctity of matrimony, has never had in view the lawful end we ought to propose

1 Plut. p. 91. Diog. Laert. in Solon. p. 37.

sistratus had declared for the mountaineers, to whom were joined the handicraftsmen and labourers who lived by their industry, and who were particularly hostile to the rich: of these three leaders the two latter were the most powerful and considerable.

Magacles was the son of that Alcmaon whom Crasus had extremely enriched for a particular service which he had done him. He had likewise married a lady, who had brought him an immense portion; her name was Agarista, the daughter of Clisthenes, tyrant of Sicyon. This Clisthenes was the richest and most opulent prince at this time in Greece. In order to be able to choose a worthy son-in-law, and to know his temper, manners, and character, from his own experience, Clisthenes, invited all the young noblemen of Greece to come and spend a year with him at his house; for this was an ancient custom in that country. Several youths accepted the invitation, and came from different parts, to the number of thirteen. Nothing was seen every day but races, games, tour

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naments, magnificent entertainments, and conversa | be prolonged. But Pisistratus, after he had subdued tions upon all sorts of topics. One of the gentlemen, all, thought this conquest imperfect till he had gained who had hitherto surpassed all his competitors, lost the princess, by having made use of some indecent gestures and postures in his dancing, with which her father was extremely offended. Clisthenes, at the end of the year, declared for Megacles, and sent the rest of the noblemen away, loaded with civilities and presents. Such was Megacles.

Solon: and as he was well acquainted with the means that are proper to conciliate an old man, he spared no caresses, omitted nothing, that could tend to soften and win upon him, and showed him all possible marks of friendship and esteem, doing him all manner of honour, having him often about his person, and publicly professing a great veneration for his Pisistratus was a well-bred man,' of a gentle and laws; which in truth he both observed himself, and insinuating behaviour, ready to succour and assist the caused to be observed by others. Solon seeing it was poor; prudent and moderate towards his enemies; impossible either to bring Pisistratus by fair means to a most artful and accomplished dissembler; and one renounce this usurpation or to depose him by force, who had all the exterior of virtue, even beyond the thought it a point of prudence not to exasperate the most virtuous; who seemed to be the most zealous tyrant by rejecting the advances he made him, and stickler for equality among the citizens, and who ab- hoped, at the same time, that by entering into his consolutely declared against all innovations and change.fidence and counsels, he might at least be capable of It was not very hard for him to impose upon the conducting and turning into a proper channel a power people with all this artifice and address. But Solon which he could not abolish, and of mitigating the misquickly saw through his disguise, and perceived the chief and calamity that he had not been able to predrift of all his seeming virtue and fair pretences; vent. however, he thought fit to observe measures with him in the beginning, hoping, perhaps, by gentle methods to bring him back to his duty.

It was at this time3 Thespis began to change the Grecian tragedy: I say change: because it was invented long before. This novelty drew all the world after it. Solon went among the rest for the sake of hearing Thespis, who acted himself, according to the custom of the ancient poets. When the play was ended, he called to Thespis, and asked him, Whether he was not ashamed to utter such lies before so many people? Thespis made answer, That there was no harm in lies of that sort, and in poetical fictions, which were made only for diversion.-No, replied Solon, giving a great stroke with his stick upon the ground; but if we suffer and approve of lying for our own diversion, it will quickly find its way into our serious engagements, and all our business and affairs.

In the mean time Pisistratus still pushed on his point; and, in order to accomplish it, made use of a stratagem that succeeded as well as he could expect. He gave himself several wounds; and in that condition, with his body all bloody, he caused himself to be carried in a chariot into the market place, where he inflamed the populace, by giving them to understand that his enemies had treated him in that manner, and that he was the victim of his zeal for the public good. An assembly of the people was immediately convened and there it was resolved, in spite of all the remonstrances Solon could make against it, that fifty guards should be allowed Pisistratus for the security of his person. He soon augmented the number as much as he thought fit, and by their means made himself master of the citadel. All his enemies betook themselves to flight, and the whole city was in great consternation and disorder, except Solon, who loudly reproached the Athenians with their cowardice and folly, and the tyrant with his treachery. Upon his being asked what it was that gave him so much firmness and resolution? It is, said he, my old age. He was indeed very old, and did not seem to risk much, as the end of his life was very near: though it often happens, that men grow fonder of life, in proportion as they have less reason and right to desire it should

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Solon did not survive the liberty of his country two years complete: for Pisistratus made himself master of Athens, under the archon Comias, the first year of the 51st Olympiad; and Solon died the year following, under the archon Hegestratus, who succeeded Comias.

The two parties, the heads of which were Lycurgus and Megacles, uniting, drove Pisistratus out of Athens. He was, however, soon recalled by Megacles, who, gave him his daughter in marriage. But a difference, that arose upon occasion of this match, having embroiled them afresh, the Alcmaconidæ had the worst, and were obliged to retire. Pisistratus was twice deposed, and twice found means to reinstate himself. His artifices acquired him his power, and his moderation maintained him in it; and without doubt his eloquence, which even in Tully's judgment was very great, rendered him very acceptable to the Athenians who were but too apt to be affected with the charms of oratory, as it made them forget the care of their liberty. An exact submission to the laws distinguished Pisistratus from most other usurpers: and the mildness of his government was such as might make many a lawful sovereign blush. For which reason, the character of Pisistratus has been thought worthy of being set in opposition to that of other tyrants. Cicero, doubting what use Cæsar would make of his victory at Pharsalia, wrote to his dear friend Atticus, We do not yet know, whether the destiny of Rome will have us groan under a Phalaris, or live under a Pisistratus.

This tyrant, indeed, if we are to call him so, always showed himself very popular and moderate; and had such a command of his temper, as to bear reproaches and insults with patience, when he had it in his power to revenge them with a word. His gardens and orchards were open to all the citizens; 10 in which he was afterwards imitated by Cimon. It is said he was the first who opened a public library in Athens," which after his time was much augmented, and at last carried into Persia by Xerxes, when he took the city. But Zeleucus Nicanor, a long time afterwards, caused it to be brought back to Athens. Cicero' thinks also it was Pisistratus who first made the Athenians acquainted with the poems of Homer; who arranged the books in the order in which we now find them, whereas before they were confused, and not digested; and who first caused them to be publicly read at the

▾ Pisistratus dicendo tantùm valuisse dicitur, ut el Athenienses regium imperium oratione capti permitterent. Val. Mar. 1. viii. c. 9.

Quis doctior iisdem temporibus, aut cujus eloquentia literis instructior fuisse traditur, quàm Pisistrati? Cic. de Orat. 1. iii. n. 137.

rus.

Incertum est Phalarimne, an Pisistratum, sit imitatuAd Attic. 1. vii. Ep. xix. 9 Val. Max. 1. v. c. 1. 10 Athen. l. xii. p. 532. 13 Lib. iii. de Orat n 137.

11 Aul. Gel. 1. vi. c. 17.

feasts called Panathenæa. Plato ascribes this honour | future against a like enterprise, and to secure a safe to his son Hipparchus.'

retreat for himself, in case of any accident, he endeavoured to strengthen himself by a foreign support, and to that end gave his daughter in marriage to the son of the tyrant of Lampsacus.

In the mean time," the Alcmæonidæ, who from the beginning of the revolution, had been banished from Athens by Pisistratus, and who saw their hopes frustrated by the bad success of the last conspiracy, did not however lose courage, but turned their views another way. As they were very rich and powerful, they got themselves appointed by the Amphictyons, who constituted the general council of Greece, to superintend the rebuilding of the temple of Delphi, for the sum of 300 talents, or 300,000 crowns. As they sons for being so on this occasion, they added to this sum a great deal of their own money, and made the whole front of the temple all of Parian marble, at their particular expense; whereas by the contract made with the Amphictyons, it was only to have been made of common stone.

Pisistratus died in tranquillity, and transmitted to his sons the sovereign power, which he had usurped thirty years before; seventeen of which he had reigned in peace. His sons were Hippias and HipA. M. 3478. parchus. Thucydides adds a third, Ant. J. C. 526. whom he calls Thessalus. They seem to have inherited from their father an affection for learning and learned men. Plato, who attributes to Hipparchus what we have said concerning the poems of Homer, adds, that he invited to Athens the famous poet Anacreon, who was of Teos, a city of Ionia; and that he sent a vessel of fifty oars on purpose for him. He likewise enter-were naturally generous, and had besides their reatained at his house Simonides, another famous poet of the isle of Ceos, one of the Cyclades, in the Egean sea, to whom he gave a large pension, and made very rich presents. The design of these princes in inviting men of letters to Athens was, says Plato, to soften and cultivate the minds of the citizens, and to infuse into them a relish and love for virtue, by giving them a taste for learning and the sciences. Their care extended even to the instructing of the peasants and country people, by erecting not only in the streets of the city, but in all the roads and highways, statues of stone, called Mercuries, with grave sentences and moral maxims carved upon them; in which manner those silent monitors gave instructive lessons to all passengers. Plato seems to suppose that Hipparchus had the authority, or that the two brothers reigned together. But Thucydides shows, that Hippias, as the eldest of the sons, succeeded his father in the government. Be this at it may, their reign in the whole, after the death of Pisistratus, was only of eighteen years' duration: it ended in the following manner.

Harmodius and Aristogiton, both citizens of Athens, had contracted a very strict friendship. Hipparchus, angry with the former for a personal affront he pretended to have received from him, endeavoured to revenge himself upon his sister, by putting a public affront upon her, obliging her shamefully to retire from a solemn procession, in which she was to carry one of the sacred baskets, alleging, that she was not in a fit condition to assist at such a ceremony. Her brother, and still more his friend, being stung to the quick by so gross and outrageous an af front, took from that moment a resolution to attack the tyrants. And to do it the more effectually, they waited for the opportunity of a festival, which they judged would be very favourable for their purpose: this was the feast of the Panathenæa, in which the ceremony required that all the tradesmen and artificers should be under arms. For the greater security, they admitted only a very small number of the citizens into their secret; conceiving that upon the first motion all the rest would join them. The day being come, they went betimes into the market-place, armed with daggers. Hippias came out of the palace, and went to the Ceramicus, which was a place without the city, where the company of guards then were, to give the necessary orders for the ceremony. The two friends having followed him thither, saw one of the conspirators talking very familiarly with him, which made them apprehend they were betrayed. They could have executed their design that moment upon Hippias; but were willing to begin their vengeance upon the author of the affront they had received. They therefore returned into the city, where, meeting with Hipparchus, they killed him; but being immediately apprehended, themselves were slain, and Hippias found means to dispel the storm.

After this affair, he no longer observed any measures, and reigned like a true tyrant, putting to death a vast number of citizens. To guard himself for the

In Hipparch. p. 228. 2 Arist. lib. v. de Rep. c. 12.
In Hip. p. 228, 229. * Lib. vi. p. 446.
Thucyd. I. vi. p. 446-450.
VOL. I.-24

The

The liberality of the Alcmeonida was not altoge ther a free bounty; neither was their magnificence towards the god of Delphi a pure effect of religion: policy was the chief motive. They hoped by this means to acquire great influence in the temple, and it happened according to their expectation. money, which they plentifully poured into the hands of the priestess, rendered them absolute masters of the oracle, and of the pretended god who presided over it, and who for the future becoming their echo, did no more than faithfully repeat the words they dictated to him, and gratefully lent them the assistance of his voice and authority. As often therefore as any Spartan came to consult the priestess, whether upon his own affairs or upon those of the state, no promise was ever made him of the god's assistance, but upon condition that the Lacedæmonians should deliver Athens from the yoke of tyranny. This order was so often repeatto them by the oracle, that they resolved at last to make war against the Pisistratida, though they were under the strongest engagements of friendship and hospitality with them: herein preferring the will of God, says Herodotus, to all human considerations.

The first attempt of this kind miscarried; and the troops they sent against the tyrant were repulsed with loss. Notwithstanding a little time after, they made a second, which seemed to promise no better success than the first; because most of the Lacedæmonians, seeing the siege they had laid before Athens likely to continue a great while, retired and left only a small number of troops to carry it on. But the tyrant's children, who had been clandestinely conveyed out of the city, in order to be put in a safe place, being taken by the enemy, the father, to redeem them, was obliged to come to an accommodation with the Athenians, by which it was stipulated, that he should depart out of Attica in five days' time. Accordingly, he actually retired within the time A. M. 3496. limited, and settled at Sigæum, a Ant. J. C. 508. town in Phrygia, seated at the mouth of the river Scamander.

Pliny observes, that the tyrants were driven out of Athens the same year the kings were expelled Rome. Extraordinary honours were paid to the memory of Harmodius and Aristogiton. Their names were infinitely respected at Athens in all succeeding ages, and almost held in equal reverence with those of the gods. Statues were forthwith erected to them in the marketplace, which was an honour that had never been conferred on any man before. The very sight of these statues, exposed to the view of all the citizens, kept up their hatred and detestation of tyranny, and daily renewed their sentiments of gratitude to those generous defenders of their liberty, who had not scrupled About 40,000l. sterling,

Herod. 1. v. c. 62-96.

• Τὰ γὰρ τοῦ Θεοῦ πρεσβύτερα ἐποιεῦντο, ἢ τὰ τῶν ἀνδρων. Plin. l. xxxiv. c. 4.

The deputy of Corinth spoke first on this occasion, and expressed great astonishment that the Lacedæmonians, who were themselves avowed enemies of tyranny, and professed the greatest abhorrence for all arbitrary government, should desire to establish it elsewhere: he exposed to their view, in the fullest light, all the cruel and horrid effects of tyrannical government, which his own country, Corinth, had but very lately felt by woful experience. The rest of the deputies applauded his discourse, and were of his opinion. Thus the enterprise came to nothing; and had no other effect than to discover the base jealousy of the Lacedæmonians, and to cover them with shame and confusion.

to purchase it with their lives, and to seal it with their | imposture, began to think of reinstating Hippias, one blood. Alexander the Great,' who knew how dear of the sons of Pisistratus; and to that end sent for the memory of these men was to the Athenians, and him from Sigæum, whither he had retired. They then how far they carried their zeal in this respect, thought communicated their design in an assembly of the dehe did them a sensible pleasure in sending back to them puties of their allies, whose assistance and concurthe statues of those two great men, which he found in rence they were anxious to secure, in order to render Persia after the defeat of Darius, and which Xerxes their enterprise successful. had formerly carried thither from Athens. Pausanias ascribes this action to Seleucas Nicanor, one of the successors of Alexander; and adds, that he also sent back to the Athenians their public library, which Xerxes had carried off with him into Persia. Athens, at the time of her deliverance from tyranny, did not confine her gratitude solely to the authors of her liberty, but extended it even to a woman who had signalized her courage on that occasion. This woman was a courtesan, named Leana, who by the charms of her beauty, and skill in playing on the harp, had particularly captivated Harmodius and Aristogiton. After their death, the tyrant, who knew they had concealed nothing from this woman, caused her to be put to the torture, in order to make her declare the names of the Hippias, defeated of his hopes, retired into Asia to other conspirators. But she bore all the cruelty of Artaphernes, governor of Sardis for the king of Pertheir torments with an invincible constancy, and ex- sia, whom he endeavoured by every method to enpired in the midst of them; showing the world that gage in a war against Athens; representing to him, her sex is more courageous, and more capable of that the taking of so rich and powerful a city would keeping a secret, than some men imagine. The Athe-render him master of all Greece. Artaphernes herenians would not suffer the memory of so heroic an upon required of the Athenians that they would reinaction to be lost; and to prevent the lustre of it from state Hippias in the government; to which they made being sullied by the consideration of her character as no other answer, than by a downright and absolute a courtesan, they endeavoured to conceal that cir- refusal. This was the original ground and occasion cumstance, by representing her, in the statue which of the wars between the Persians and the Greeks, they erected to her honour, under the figure of a lion- which will be the subject of the following books.. ess without a tongue.

Plutarch, in the life of Aristides, relates a circumstance which does great honour to the Athenians, and shows to what a pitch they carried their gratitude to their deliverer, and their respect for his memory. They had learned that the grand-daughter of Aristogiton lived at Lemnos, in very mean and poor circumstances, nobody being willing to marry her upon account of her extreme indigence and poverty. The people of Athens sent for her, and, marrying her to one of the most rich and considerable men of their city, gave her an estate in land in the town of Potamos for her portion. Athens seemed, in recovering her liberty, to have also recovered her pristine courage. During the reigns of her tyrants, she had acted with indolence and indifference, as knowing what she did was not for herself, but for them. But after her deliverance from their yoke, the vigour and activity she exerted was of a quite different kind; because then her labours were her own.

Athens, however, did not immediately enjoy a perfect tranquillity. Two of her citizens, Clisthenes, one of the Alemæonidæ, and Isagoras, who were men of the greatest power in the city, by contending with each other for superiority, created two considerable factions. The former, who had gained the people on his side, made an alteration in the form of their establishment, and instead of four tribes, whereof they consisted before, divided that body into ten tribes, to which he gave the names of the ten sons of Ion, whom the Greek historians make the father and first founder of the nation. Isagoras, seeing himself inferior in credit to his rival, had recourse to the Lacedæmonians. Cleomenes, one of the two kings of Sparta, obliged Clisthenes to depart from Athens, with 700 families of his adherents. But they soon returned with their leader, and were restored to all their estates and fortunes.

The Lacedæmonians, stung with spite and jealousy against Athens, because she took upon her to act independent of their authority; and repenting also that they had delivered her from her tyrants upon the credit of an oracle, of which they had since discovered the

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ARTICLE IX.

ILLUSTRIOUS MEN WHO DISTINGUISHED THEMSELVES IN
THE ARTS AND SCIENCES.

I begin with the poets, as the most ancient.
HOMER, the most celebrated and illustrious of all
the poets, is he of whom we have the least knowledge,
either with respect to the country where he was born,
or the time in which he lived. Among the seven
cities of Greece that contended for the honour of hav-
ing given him birth, Smyrna seems to have the best
title to that glorious distinction.

Heredotus tells us, that Homer wrote 400 years before his time, that is, 340 years after the taking of Troy; for Herodotus flourished 740 years after that expedition.

A. M. 3160. Ant. J. C. 844.

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Some authors have pretended that he was called Homer, because he was born blind. Velleius Paterculus rejects this story with contempt. If any man, says he, believes that Homer was born blind, he must be so himself, and even have lost all his senses. Indeed, according to the observation of Cicero, Homer's works are rather pictures than poems, so perfectly does he paint to the life, and set the images of every thing he undertakes to describe before the eyes of the reader; and he seems to have been intent upon introducing all the most delightful and agreeable objects that nature affords into his writings, and making them in a manner pass in review before his readers.

What is most astonishing in this poet is, that being the first, at least of those that are known, who applied himself to that kind of poetry which is the most sublime and difficult of all, he should however

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