



Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger





ATHENS: ITS RISE AND FALL

by Edward Bulwer Lytton




DEDICATION.

TO HENRY FYNES CLINTON, ESQ., etc., etc.  AUTHOR OF "THE FASTI
HELLENICI."


My Dear Sir,

I am not more sensible of the distinction conferred upon me when you
allowed me to inscribe this history with your name, than pleased with
an occasion to express my gratitude for the assistance I have derived
throughout the progress of my labours from that memorable work, in
which you have upheld the celebrity of English learning, and afforded
so imperishable a contribution to our knowledge of the Ancient World.
To all who in history look for the true connexion between causes and
effects, chronology is not a dry and mechanical compilation of barren
dates, but the explanation of events and the philosophy of facts.  And
the publication of the Fasti Hellenici has thrown upon those times, in
which an accurate chronological system can best repair what is
deficient, and best elucidate what is obscure in the scanty
authorities bequeathed to us, all the light of a profound and
disciplined intellect, applying the acutest comprehension to the
richest erudition, and arriving at its conclusions according to the
true spirit of inductive reasoning, which proportions the completeness
of the final discovery to the caution of the intermediate process.  My
obligations to that learning and to those gifts which you have
exhibited to the world are shared by all who, in England or in Europe,
study the history or cultivate the literature of Greece.  But, in the
patient kindness with which you have permitted me to consult you
during the tedious passage of these volumes through the press--in the
careful advice--in the generous encouragement--which have so often
smoothed the path and animated the progress--there are obligations
peculiar to myself; and in those obligations there is so much that
honours me, that, were I to enlarge upon them more, the world might
mistake an acknowledgment for a boast.

    With the highest consideration and esteem,
                 Believe me, my dear sir,
             Most sincerely and gratefully yours,
                      EDWARD LYTTON BULWER
    London, March, 1837.




ADVERTISEMENT.


The work, a portion of which is now presented to the reader, has
occupied me many years--though often interrupted in its progress,
either by more active employment, or by literary undertakings of a
character more seductive.  These volumes were not only written, but
actually in the hands of the publisher before the appearance, and
even, I believe, before the announcement of the first volume of Mr.
Thirlwall's History of Greece, or I might have declined going over any
portion of the ground cultivated by that distinguished scholar [1].
As it is, however, the plan I have pursued differs materially from
that of Mr. Thirlwall, and I trust that the soil is sufficiently
fertile to yield a harvest to either labourer.

Since it is the letters, yet more than the arms or the institutions of
Athens, which have rendered her illustrious, it is my object to
combine an elaborate view of her literature with a complete and
impartial account of her political transactions.  The two volumes now
published bring the reader, in the one branch of my subject, to the
supreme administration of Pericles; in the other, to a critical
analysis of the tragedies of Sophocles.  Two additional volumes will,
I trust, be sufficient to accomplish my task, and close the records of
Athens at that period when, with the accession of Augustus, the annals
of the world are merged into the chronicle of the Roman empire.  In
these latter volumes it is my intention to complete the history of the
Athenian drama--to include a survey of the Athenian philosophy--to
describe the manners, habits, and social life of the people, and to
conclude the whole with such a review of the facts and events narrated
as may constitute, perhaps, an unprejudiced and intelligible
explanation of the causes of the rise and fall of Athens.

As the history of the Greek republics has been too often corruptly
pressed into the service of heated political partisans, may I be
pardoned the precaution of observing that, whatever my own political
code, as applied to England, I have nowhere sought knowingly to
pervert the lessons of a past nor analogous time to fugitive interests
and party purposes.  Whether led sometimes to censure, or more often
to vindicate the Athenian people, I am not conscious of any other
desire than that of strict, faithful, impartial justice.  Restlessly
to seek among the ancient institutions for illustrations (rarely
apposite) of the modern, is, indeed, to desert the character of a
judge for that of an advocate, and to undertake the task of the
historian with the ambition of the pamphleteer.  Though designing this
work not for colleges and cloisters, but for the general and
miscellaneous public, it is nevertheless impossible to pass over in
silence some matters which, if apparently trifling in themselves, have
acquired dignity, and even interest, from brilliant speculations or
celebrated disputes.  In the history of Greece (and Athenian history
necessarily includes nearly all that is valuable in the annals of the
whole Hellenic race) the reader must submit to pass through much that
is minute, much that is wearisome, if he desire to arrive at last at
definite knowledge and comprehensive views.  In order, however, to
interrupt as little as possible the recital of events, I have
endeavoured to confine to the earlier portion of the work such details
of an antiquarian or speculative nature as, while they may afford to
the general reader, not, indeed, a minute analysis, but perhaps a
sufficient notion of the scholastic inquiries which have engaged the
attention of some of the subtlest minds of Germany and England, may
also prepare him the better to comprehend the peculiar character and
circumstances of the people to whose history he is introduced: and it
may be well to warn the more impatient that it is not till the second
book (vol. i., p. 181) that disquisition is abandoned for narrative.
There yet remain various points on which special comment would be
incompatible with connected and popular history, but on which I
propose to enlarge in a series of supplementary notes, to be appended
to the concluding volume.  These notes will also comprise criticisms
and specimens of Greek writers not so intimately connected with the
progress of Athenian literature as to demand lengthened and elaborate
notice in the body of the work.  Thus, when it is completed, it is my
hope that this book will combine, with a full and complete history of
Athens, political and moral, a more ample and comprehensive view of
the treasures of the Greek literature than has yet been afforded to
the English public. I have ventured on these remarks because I thought
it due to the reader, no less than to myself, to explain the plan and
outline of a design at present only partially developed.

London, March, 1837.




CONTENTS.


 BOOK I

  CHAPTER

     I  Situation and Soil of Attica.--The Pelasgians its earliest
          Inhabitants.--Their Race and Language akin to the Grecian.--
          Their varying Civilization and Architectural Remains.--
          Cecrops.--Were the earliest Civilizers of Greece foreigners
          or Greeks?--The Foundation of Athens.--The Improvements
          attributed to Cecrops.--The Religion of the Greeks cannot
          be reduced to a simple System.--Its Influence upon their
          Character and Morals, Arts and Poetry.--The Origin of
          Slavery and Aristocracy.

    II  The unimportant consequences to be deduced from the admission
          that Cecrops might be Egyptian.--Attic Kings before
          Theseus.--The Hellenes.--Their Genealogy.--Ionians and
          Achaeans Pelasgic.--Contrast between Dorians and Ionians.--
          Amphictyonic League.

   III  The Heroic Age.--Theseus.--His legislative Influence upon
          Athens.--Qualities of the Greek Heroes.--Effect of a
          Traditional Age upon the Character of a People.

    IV  The Successors of Theseus.--The Fate of Codrus.--The
          Emigration of Nileus.--The Archons.--Draco.

     V  A General Survey of Greece and the East previous to the
          Time of Solon.--The Grecian Colonies.--The Isles.--Brief
          account of the States on the Continent.--Elis and the
          Olympic Games.

    VI  Return of the Heraclidae.--The Spartan Constitution and
          Habits.--The first and second Messenian War.

   VII  Governments in Greece.

  VIII  Brief Survey of Arts, Letters, and Philosophy in Greece,
          prior to the Legislation of Solon.


 BOOK II

  CHAPTER

     I  The Conspiracy of Cylon.--Loss of Salamis.--First Appearance
          of Solon.--Success against the Megarians in the Struggle for
          Salamis.--Cirrhaean War.--Epimenides.--Political State of
          Athens.--Character of Solon.--His Legislation.--General View
          of the Athenian Constitution.

    II  The Departure of Solon from Athens.--The Rise of Pisistratus.
          --Return of Solon.--His Conduct and Death.--The Second and
          Third Tyranny of Pisistratus.--Capture of Sigeum.--Colony
          In the Chersonesus founded by the first Miltiades.--Death of
          Pisistratus.

   III  The Administration of Hippias.--The Conspiracy of Harmodius
          and Aristogiton.--The Death of Hipparchus.--Cruelties of
          Hippias.--The young Miltiades sent to the Chersonesus.--The
          Spartans Combine with the Alcmaeonidae against Hippias.--The
          fall of the Tyranny.--The Innovations of Clisthenes.--His
          Expulsion and Restoration.--Embassy to the Satrap of Sardis.
          --Retrospective View of the Lydian, Medean, and Persian
          Monarchies.--Result of the Athenian Embassy to Sardis.--
          Conduct of Cleomenes.--Victory of the Athenians against the
          Boeotians and Chalcidians.--Hippias arrives at Sparta.--The
          Speech of Sosicles the Corinthian.--Hippias retires to
          Sardis.

    IV  Histiaeus, Tyrant of Miletus, removed to Persia.--The
          Government of that City deputed to Aristagoras, who invades
          Naxos with the aid of the Persians.--Ill Success of that
          Expedition.--Aristagoras resolves upon Revolting from the
          Persians.--Repairs to Sparta and to Athens.--The Athenians
          and Eretrians induced to assist the Ionians.--Burning of
          Sardis.--The Ionian War.--The Fate of Aristagoras.--Naval
          Battle of Lade.--Fall of Miletus.--Reduction of Ionia.--
          Miltiades.--His Character.--Mardonius replaces Artaphernes
          in the Lydian Satrapy.--Hostilities between Aegina and
          Athens.--Conduct of Cleomenes.--Demaratus deposed.--Death
          Of Cleomenes.--New Persian Expedition.

     V  The Persian Generals enter Europe.--Invasion of Naxos,
          Carystus, Eretria.--The Athenians Demand the Aid of Sparta.
          --The Result of their Mission and the Adventure of their
          Messenger.--The Persians advance to Marathon.--The Plain
          Described.--Division of Opinion in the Athenian Camp.--The
          Advice of Miltiades prevails.--The Drear of Hippias.--The
          Battle of Marathon.


 BOOK III

  CHAPTER

     I  The Character and Popularity of Miltiades.--Naval expedition.
          --Siege of Paros.--Conduct of Miltiades.--He is Accused and
          Sentenced.--His Death.

    II  The Athenian Tragedy.--Its Origin.--Thespis.--Phrynichus.--
          Aeschylus.--Analysis of the Tragedies of Aeschylus.

   III  Aristides.--His Character and Position.--The Rise of
          Themistocles.--Aristides is Ostracised.--The Ostracism
          examined.--The Influence of Themistocles increases.--The
          Silver--mines of Laurion.--Their Product applied by
          Themistocles to the Increase of the Navy.--New Direction
          given to the National Character.

    IV  The Preparations of Darius.--Revolt of Egypt.--Dispute for
          The Succession to the Persian Throne.--Death of Darius.--
          Brief Review of the leading Events and Characteristics of
          his Reign.

     V  Xerxes conducts an Expedition into Egypt.--He finally resolves
          on the Invasion of Greece.--Vast Preparations for the
          Conquest of Europe.--Xerxes arrives at Sardis.--Despatches
          Envoys to the Greek States, demanding Tribute.--The Bridge
          of the Hellespont.--Review of the Persian Armament at
          Abydos.--Xerxes encamps at Therme.

    VI  The Conduct of the Greeks.--The Oracle relating to Salamis.--
          Art of Themistocles.--The Isthmian Congress.--Embassies to
          Argos, Crete, Corcyra, and Syracuse.--Their ill Success.--
          The Thessalians send Envoys to the Isthmus.--The Greeks
          advance to Tempe, but retreat.--The Fleet despatched to
          Artemisium, and the Pass of Thermopylae occupied.--Numbers
          of the Grecian Fleet.--Battle of Thermopylae.

   VII  The Advice of Demaratus to Xerxes.--Themistocles.--Actions off
          Artemisium.--The Greeks retreat.--The Persians invade
          Delphi, and are repulsed with great Loss.--The Athenians,
          unaided by their Allies, abandon Athens, and embark for
          Salamis.--The irresolute and selfish Policy of the
          Peloponnesians.--Dexterity and Firmness of Themistocles.--
          Battle of Salamis.--Andros and Carystus besieged by the
          Greeks.--Anecdotes of Themistocles.--Honours awarded to him
          in Sparta.--Xerxes returns to Asia.--Olynthus and Potidaea
          besieged by Artabazus.--The Athenians return Home.--The
          Ostracism of Aristides is repealed.

  VIII  Embassy of Alexander of Macedon to Athens.--The Result of his
          Proposals.--Athenians retreat to Salamis.--Mardonius
          occupies Athens.--The Athenians send Envoys to Sparta.--
          Pausanias succeeds Cleombrotus as Regent of Sparta.--Battle
          of Plataea.--Thebes besieged by the Athenians.--Battle of
          Mycale.--Siege of Sestos.--Conclusion of the Persian War.


 BOOK IV

  CHAPTER

     I  Remarks on the Effects of War.--State of Athens.--Interference
          of Sparta with respect to the Fortifications of Athens.--
          Dexterous Conduct of Themistocles.--The New Harbour of the
          Piraeus.--Proposition of the Spartans in the Amphictyonic
          Council defeated by Themistocles.--Allied Fleet at Cyprus
          and Byzantium.--Pausanias.--Alteration in his Character.--
          His ambitious Views and Treason.--The Revolt of the Ionians
          from the Spartan Command.--Pausanias recalled.--Dorcis
          replaces him.--The Athenians rise to the Head of the Ionian
          League.--Delos made the Senate and Treasury of the Allies.--
          Able and prudent Management of Aristides.--Cimon succeeds
          To the Command of the Fleet.--Character of Cimon.--Eion
          besieged.--Scyros colonized by Atticans.--Supposed Discovery
          of the Bones of Theseus.--Declining Power of Themistocles.
          --Democratic Change in the Constitution.--Themistocles
          ostracised.--Death of Aristides.

    II  Popularity and Policy of Cimon.--Naxos revolts from the
          Ionian League.--Is besieged by Cimon.--Conspiracy and
          Fate of Pausanias.--Flight and Adventures of Themistocles.
          --His Death.

   III  Reduction of Naxos.--Actions off Cyprus.--Manners of
          Cimon.--Improvements in Athens.--Colony at the Nine Ways.
          --Siege of Thasos.--Earthquake in Sparta.--Revolt of Helots,
          Occupation of Ithome, and Third Messenian War.--Rise and
          Character of Pericles.--Prosecution and Acquittal of Cimon.
          --The Athenians assist the Spartans at Ithome.--Thasos
          Surrenders.--Breach between the Athenians and Spartans.--
          Constitutional Innovations at Athens.--Ostracism of Cimon.

    IV  War between Megara and Corinth.--Megara and Pegae garrisoned
          by Athenians.--Review of Affairs at the Persian Court.--
          Accession of Artaxerxes.--Revolt of Egypt under Inarus.--
          Athenian Expedition to assist Inarus.--Aegina besieged.--The
          Corinthians defeated.--Spartan Conspiracy with the Athenian
          Oligarchy.--Battle of Tanagra.--Campaign and Successes of
          Myronides.--Plot of the Oligarchy against the Republic.--
          Recall of Cimon.--Long Walls completed.--Aegina reduced.--
          Expedition under Tolmides.--Ithome surrenders.--The
          Insurgents are settled at Naupactus.--Disastrous Termination
          of the Egyptian Expedition.--The Athenians march into
          Thessaly to restore Orestes the Tagus.--Campaign under
          Pericles.--Truce of five Years with the Peloponnesians.--
          Cimon sets sail for Cyprus.--Pretended Treaty of Peace with
          Persia.--Death of Cimon.

     V  Change of Manners in Athens.--Begun under the Pisistratidae.--
          Effects of the Persian War, and the intimate Connexion with
          Ionia.--The Hetaerae.--The Political Eminence lately
          acquired by Athens.--The Transfer of the Treasury from Delos
          to Athens.--Latent Dangers and Evils.--First, the Artificial
          Greatness of Athens not supported by Natural Strength.--
          Secondly, her pernicious Reliance on Tribute.--Thirdly,
          Deterioration of National Spirit commenced by Cimon in the
          Use of Bribes and Public Tables.--Fourthly, Defects in
          Popular Courts of Law.--Progress of General Education.--
          History.--Its Ionian Origin.--Early Historians.--Acusilaus.
          --Cadmus.--Eugeon.--Hellanicus.--Pherecides.--Xanthus.--View
          of the Life and Writings of Herodotus.--Progress of
          Philosophy since Thales.--Philosophers of the Ionian and
          Eleatic Schools.--Pythagoras.--His Philosophical Tenets and
          Political Influence.--Effect of these Philosophers on
          Athens.--School of Political Philosophy continued in Athens
          from the Time of Solon.--Anaxagoras.--Archelaus.--Philosophy
          not a thing apart from the ordinary Life of the Athenians.


 BOOK V

  CHAPTER

     I  Thucydides chosen by the Aristocratic Party to oppose
          Pericles.--His Policy.--Munificence of Pericles.--Sacred
          War.--Battle of Coronea.--Revolt of Euboea and Megara--
          Invasion and Retreat of the Peloponnesians.--Reduction of
          Euboea.--Punishment of Histiaea.--A Thirty Years' Truce
          concluded with the Peloponnesians.--Ostracism of Thucydides.

    II  Causes of the Power of Pericles.--Judicial Courts of the
          dependant Allies transferred to Athens.--Sketch of the
          Athenian Revenues.--Public Buildings the Work of the People
          rather than of Pericles.--Vices and Greatness of Athens had
          the same Sources.--Principle of Payment characterizes the
          Policy of the Period.--It is the Policy of Civilization.--
          Colonization, Cleruchia.

   III  Revision of the Census.--Samian War.--Sketch of the Rise and
          Progress of the Athenian Comedy to the Time of Aristophanes.

    IV  The Tragedies of Sophocles.




ATHENS: ITS RISE AND FALL



BOOK I.


CHAPTER I.

Situation and Soil of Attica.--The Pelasgians its earliest
Inhabitants.--Their Race and Language akin to the Grecian.--Their
varying Civilization and Architectural Remains.--Cecrops.--Were the
earliest Civilizers of Greece foreigners or Greeks?--The Foundation of
Athens.--The Improvements attributed to Cecrops.--The Religion of the
Greeks cannot be reduced to a simple System.--Its Influence upon their
Character and Morals, Arts and Poetry.--The Origin of Slavery and
Aristocracy.


I.  To vindicate the memory of the Athenian people, without disguising
the errors of Athenian institutions;--and, in narrating alike the
triumphs and the reverses--the grandeur and the decay--of the most
eminent of ancient states, to record the causes of her imperishable
influence on mankind, not alone in political change or the fortunes of
fluctuating war, but in the arts, the letters, and the social habits,
which are equal elements in the history of a people;--this is the
object that I set before me;--not unreconciled to the toil of years,
if, serving to divest of some party errors, and to diffuse through a
wider circle such knowledge as is yet bequeathed to us of a time and
land, fertile in august examples and in solemn warnings--consecrated
by undying names and memorable deeds.

II.  In that part of earth termed by the Greeks Hellas, and by the
Romans Graecia [2], a small tract of land known by the name of Attica,
extends into the Aegaean Sea--the southeast peninsula of Greece.  In
its greatest length it is about sixty, in its greatest breadth about
twenty-four, geographical miles.  In shape it is a rude triangle,--on
two sides flows the sea--on the third, the mountain range of Parnes
and Cithaeron divides the Attic from the Boeotian territory.  It is
intersected by frequent but not lofty hills, and, compared with the
rest of Greece, its soil, though propitious to the growth of the
olive, is not fertile or abundant.  In spite of painful and elaborate
culture, the traces of which are yet visible, it never produced a
sufficiency of corn to supply its population; and this, the
comparative sterility of the land, may be ranked among the causes
which conduced to the greatness of the people.  The principal
mountains of Attica are, the Cape of Sunium, Hymettus, renowned for
its honey, and Pentelicus for its marble; the principal streams which
water the valleys are the capricious and uncertain rivulets of
Cephisus and Ilissus [3],--streams breaking into lesser brooks,
deliciously pure and clear.  The air is serene--the climate healthful
--the seasons temperate.  Along the hills yet breathe the wild thyme,
and the odorous plants which, everywhere prodigal in Greece, are more
especially fragrant in that lucid sky;--and still the atmosphere
colours with peculiar and various taints the marble of the existent
temples and the face of the mountain landscapes.

III.  I reject at once all attempt to penetrate an unfathomable
obscurity for an idle object.  I do not pause to inquire whether,
after the destruction of Babel, Javan was the first settler in Attica,
nor is it reserved for my labours to decide the solemn controversy
whether Ogyges was the contemporary of Jacob or of Moses.  Neither
shall I suffer myself to be seduced into any lengthened consideration
of those disputes, so curious and so inconclusive, relative to the
origin of the Pelasgi (according to Herodotus the earliest inhabitants
of Attica), which have vainly agitated the learned.  It may amuse the
antiquary to weigh gravely the several doubts as to the derivation of
their name from Pelasgus or from Peleg--to connect the scattered
fragments of tradition--and to interpret either into history or
mythology the language of fabulous genealogies.  But our subtlest
hypotheses can erect only a fabric of doubt, which, while it is
tempting to assault, it is useless to defend.  All that it seems to me
necessary to say of the Pelasgi is as follows:--They are the earliest
race which appear to have exercised a dominant power in Greece.  Their
kings can be traced by tradition to a time long prior to the recorded
genealogy of any other tribe, and Inachus, the father of the Pelasgian
Phoroneus, is but another name for the remotest era to which Grecian
chronology can ascend [4].  Whether the Pelasgi were anciently a
foreign or a Grecian tribe, has been a subject of constant and
celebrated discussion.  Herodotus, speaking of some settlements held
to be Pelaigic, and existing in his time, terms their language
"barbarous;" but Mueller, nor with argument insufficient, considers
that the expression of the historian would apply only to a peculiar
dialect; and the hypothesis is sustained by another passage in
Herodotus, in which he applies to certain Ionian dialects the same
term as that with which he stigmatizes the language of the Pelasgic
settlements.  In corroboration of Mueller's opinion we may also
observe, that the "barbarous-tongued" is an epithet applied by Homer
to the Carians, and is rightly construed by the ancient critics as
denoting a dialect mingled and unpolished, certainly not foreign.  Nor
when the Agamemnon of Sophocles upbraids Teucer with "his barbarous
tongue," [6] would any scholar suppose that Teucer is upbraided with
not speaking Greek; he is upbraided with speaking Greek inelegantly
and rudely.  It is clear that they who continued with the least
adulteration a language in its earliest form, would seem to utter a
strange and unfamiliar jargon to ears accustomed to its more modern
construction.  And, no doubt, could we meet with a tribe retaining the
English of the thirteenth century, the language of our ancestors would
be to most of us unintelligible, and seem to many of us foreign.  But,
however the phrase of Herodotus be interpreted, it would still be
exceedingly doubtful whether the settlements he refers to were really
and originally Pelasgic, and still more doubtful whether, if Pelasgia
they had continued unalloyed and uncorrupted their ancestral language.
I do not, therefore, attach any importance to the expression of
Herodotus.  I incline, on the contrary, to believe, with the more
eminent of English scholars, that the language of the Pelasgi
contained at least the elements of that which we acknowledge as the
Greek;--and from many arguments I select the following:

1st.  Because, in the states which we know to have been peopled by the
Pelasgi (as Arcadia and Attica), and whence the population were not
expelled by new tribes, the language appears no less Greek than that
of those states from which the Pelasgi were the earliest driven.  Had
they spoken a totally different tongue from later settlers, I conceive
that some unequivocal vestiges of the difference would have been
visible even to the historical times.

2dly.  Because the Hellenes are described as few at first--their
progress is slow--they subdue, but they do not extirpate; in such
conquests--the conquests of the few settled among the many--the
language of the many continues to the last; that of the few would
influence, enrich, or corrupt, but never destroy it.

3dly.  Because, whatever of the Grecian language pervades the Latin
[7], we can only ascribe to the Pelasgic colonizers of Italy.  In
this, all ancient writers, Greek and Latin, are agreed.  The few words
transmitted to us as Pelasgic betray the Grecian features, and the
Lamina Borgiana (now in the Borgian collection of Naples, and
discovered in 1783) has an inscription relative to the Siculi or
Sicani, a people expelled from their Italian settlements before any
received date of the Trojan war, of which the character is Pelasgic--
the language Greek.

IV.  Of the moral state of the Pelasgi our accounts are imperfect and
contradictory.  They were not a petty horde, but a vast race,
doubtless divided, like every migratory people, into numerous tribes,
differing in rank, in civilization [8], and in many peculiarities of
character.  The Pelasgi in one country might appear as herdsmen or as
savages; in another, in the same age, they might appear collected into
cities and cultivating the arts.  The history of the East informs us
with what astonishing rapidity a wandering tribe, once settled, grew
into fame and power; the camp of to-day--the city of to-morrow--and
the "dwellers in the wilderness setting up the towers and the palaces
thereof." [9]  Thus, while in Greece this mysterious people are often
represented as the aboriginal race, receiving from Phoenician and
Egyptian settlers the primitive blessings of social life, in Italy we
behold them the improvers in agriculture [10] and first teachers of
letters. [11]

Even so early as the traditional appearance of Cecrops among the
savages of Attica, the Pelasgians in Arcadia had probably advanced
from the pastoral to the civil life; and this, indeed, is the date
assigned by Pausanias to the foundation of that ancestral Lycosura, in
whose rude remains (by the living fountain and the waving oaks of the
modern Diaphorte) the antiquary yet traces the fortifications of "the
first city which the sun beheld." [12]  It is in their buildings that
the Pelasgi have left the most indisputable record of their name.
Their handwriting is yet upon their walls!  A restless and various
people--overrunning the whole of Greece, found northward in Dacia,
Illyria, and the country of the Getae, colonizing the coasts of Ionia,
and long the master-race of the fairest lands of Italy,--they have
passed away amid the revolutions of the elder earth, their ancestry
and their descendants alike unknown;--yet not indeed the last, if my
conclusions are rightly drawn: if the primitive population of Greece--
themselves Greek--founding the language, and kindred with the blood,
of the later and more illustrious Hellenes--they still made the great
bulk of the people in the various states, and through their most
dazzling age: Enslaved in Laconia--but free in Athens--it was their
posterity that fought the Mede at Marathon and Plataea,--whom
Miltiades led,--for whom Solon legislated,--for whom Plato thought,--
whom Demosthenes harangued.  Not less in Italy than in Greece