The History of Greece ... Translated by A. W. Ward

Front matter

THE HISTORY OF GREECE. BY PROEESSOR DR. ERNST CURTIUS. THANSLATliD BY ADOLPHUS WILLIAM WAKD, M.A. FELLOW O, 1ST. PETER'S COLLEGE, CAMIlIU U. :i; ; PBOFEBSOR OF HJSTOKY IN OWENS COLLEGE. MANCHESTER. VOL. I. LONDON : IUCHAJRI) BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STBEET, jM-Hylicr in ©rbiiiarji io $n |pajtstg. 1868. NOTICE. This Translation being, like its German original, designed for popular use, the Greek names occurring in it have been spelt in the manner familiar to English readers. A translation scarcely appears to offer a suitable occasion for attempting an inno vation which has not yet been consistently carried out in more than one History of Greece in the English language. The Translator regrets the inevitable necessity of altering the division of volumes adopted in the original. Owens College, Manchester, Nov. 9th, 1867.

CONTENTS. BOOK THE FIRST. THE GREEKS BEFORE THE DORIAN MIGRATION. CHAP. fAOE I. — Land and People 1 II. — The Pre-Historic Ages of the Hellenes 38 III.— The Earliest States 69 IV. — The Migrations and Changes op Settlements among the Greek Tribes 103 BOOK THE SECOND. FROM THE DORIAN MIGRATION TO THE PERSIAN WARS. I.— History of Peloponnesus 161 II.— History of Attica -. 297 III. — The Hhxlenes beyond the Archipelago BOOK THE EIRST. THE GREEKS BEFORE THE DORIAN MIGRATION. CHAP. I, Conditions of climate. THE HISTOEY OF GREECE.

Chapter 1. Land And People

We speak of Europe and Asia, and involuntarily allow these terms to suggest to us two distinct quarters of the globe, separated from one another by natural boundaries. But where are these boundaries ? Possibly a frontier-line may be found in the north, where the Ural Mountains cut through the broad complexes of land ; but to the south of the Pontus nature has nowhere severed east from west, but rather done her utmost closely and inseparably to unite them. . The same mountain-ranges which pass across the Archipelago extend on dense successions of islands over the Propontis : the. coast-lands on either side belong to one another as if they were two halves of fine country : and harbours such as Thessalonica and Athens have from the first been incomparably nearer to the coast-towns of Ionia than to their own interior, while from the western shores of their own continent they are still farther separated by broad tracts of land and by the difficulties of a lengthy seavoyage.

Sea and air unite the coasts of the Archipelago into one connected whole ; the same periodical winds blow from the Hellespont as far as Crete, and regulate navigation by the same conditions, and the climate by the same changes. Scarcely a single point is to be found VOL. I. li B HISTORY OF GREECE. [Book I. 2 CHAP. I between Asia, and Europe where, in clear weather, a mariner would feel himself left in a solitude between sky and water ; the eye reaches from island to island, and easy voyages of a day lead from bay to bay. And therefore at "all times the same nations have inhabited either shore, and since the days of Priam the same languages and customs have obtained both here and there. " The Greek of theislands is as much at home at Smyrna as he is at Nauplia : Salonichi lies in Europe, and yet belongs to the trading towns of the Levant : notwithstanding all changes of political cir cumstances, Byzantium to this day ranks as the metropolis on either side : and as one* swell of the waves rolls from the shore of Ionia up to Salamis, so neither has any movement of population ever affected the coast on one side without extending itself to the other.

Arbitrary political decisions have in ancient and modern times separated the two opposite coasts, and used some of the broader straits between the islands as boundary-lines ; but no separation of this kind has ever become more than an external one, nor has any succeeded in dividing what nature has so clearly appointed for the theatre of a common history. As decided a£ the homogeneous character of tlr coastlands, which lie opposite one another from eat to west, is the difference between the regions in th<. direction from north to south. On the northern border of the Ægean Sea no myrtle-leaf adorns the shore ; and the climate resembles that of a district of Central Germany : no southern fruit groAvs in any part of Bourn elia With the 40th decree of latitude a new region begins. Here, on the coasts and in the sheltered valleys, occur the first signs of the neighbourhood of a warmer world , and the first forests of constant verdure.

But here, also, a trifling elevation suffices to change the whole condition of its vicinity ; thus, a mountain like Atho* bears on its heights nearly all European species i * trees at once. And totally and utterly different is the natuv/d condition of the interior. The Bay of Joannina, Book I.] LAND AND PEOPLE. 3 CHAP. I lying nearly a degree farther south than Naples, has the climate of Lombardy : in the interior of Thessaly no olive-tree will flourish, aud the entire Pindus is a stranger to the flora of Southern Europe. At the 39 th degree, and not before, the warm air of sea and coast penetrates into the interior, where a rapid advance makes itself visible. Even in Phthiotis rice and cotton are already grown, and frequent speci mens of the olive-tree begin to occur. In Eubœa and Attica there are even scattered instances of the palm-tree, which in larger groups adorns the southern Cyclades, and which in the plains of Messenia will, under favourable circumstances, at times even produce edible dates.

None of the rarer southern fruits prosper in the neighbourhood of Athens without special cultivation ; whfle on the east coast of Argoiis lemon and orange trees grow in thick forests, and in the gardens of the Naxiotes even the tender lime ripens, Avhose fragrant fruit, plucked in January, is transported in the space of a few hours to coasts where neither vine nor olive will flourish. Thus, within a boundary of not more than two degrees of latitude, the land of Greece reaches from the beeches of Pindus into the climate of the palm ; nor is there on the entire known surface of the globe any other region in which the different zones of climate and flora, meet one another in so rapid a succession. The results are a variety in the living forms of nature and an abundance of her produce, which necessarily excited the minds of the inhabitants, awakened their attention and industry, and called mercantile inter change into life among them.

These differences of climate are, as a rule, common to both shores. Yet even the regions of the eastern and western shores, with all their homogeneousness, show a thorough difference between one another ; for the similarity of the shores is not more strongly marked than the difference in the formation of the countries themselves. B IBook I. HISTORY OF GREECE. 4 CHAP. I Asia Minor. It would seem as if the Ægean Avere in possession of the peculiar power of transforming, after a fashion of its own, all the mainland,— in other Avords, of every where penetrating into and breaking it up, of forming by this resolving process islands, peninsulas, necks of land, and promontories, and thus creating a line of coast of disproportionately great extent, with innume rable natural harbours. Such a coast may be called a Greek coast, because those regions in which Hellenes have settled possess it as peculiar to them before all countries of the earth.

The following is the difference between the countries on the eastern and western shore. The mainland of the eastern is only outAArardly affected by this forma tion. As a whole, notwithstanding its peninsular shape, it is justly called Asia Minor; for it shares with the districts of Anterior Asia the mighty elevation of the Avhole. Like a lesser Iran it builds itself up out of the midst of the three seas ; presenting in the interior a massy, inaccessible region of highlands of cool temperature and dry atmosphere, in which stony and ill-watered plains are freely interspersed Avith fertile districts, suitable for the support of great and hardy nations. NoAvhere is the sea reached by the rim of this great table-land, AA-hich is belted on all sides by mountain ranges. The mightiest of the latter is the Taurus, a Avail of rocks, Avhose lofty edges and precipitous walls separate the southern districts from the heart of the country.

Towards the north, in the direction of the Pontus, the terraces are ranged in more extensive breadth, Avith undulating hilly country, and a gradually progressing declivity. Towards the west is the. greatest variety of formation. In the direction of the Pro pontis and the Hellespont the edge of the interior highland country rises to mountains of considerable height, and well supplied with streams and pastures, — the Mysian Olympus and the Trojan Ida : towards the side of the Archipelago occurs a sudden transition CHAP. I The coasts of Asia ,',! nor 5 Book I. J LAND AND PEOPLE. from the inland to the coast* country. A line drawn from Constantinople straight through Asia Minor to the Lycian Sea roughly indicates the degree of longitude at Avhich the masses of table-land suddenly break off, where the country is everywhere broken up into natural divisions, and in wide fertile river-courses opens towards the sea, which runs to meet them in numerous bays.

Here is, as it were, the beginning of a new world, of another country, which resembles a border of a different material woven on to a garment ; and Avere we desirous of distinguishing the quarters of the globe according to the formation of their sod, we should have to set up the boundary marks betAveen Asia and Europe on this line, which separates the country of the interior from that of the coast. Asia Minor, on account of the peculiar format inn of its countries, comprehending the greatest variety of contrasts, Avithout any unity to connect them, has altogether never shoAvn itself suited for a common national history. So much the more have the ter race-lands of Asia Minor at all times been the theatre of a history, and the dwelling-place of nations of their own, Avhich have known hoAv to keep themselves free from the dominion of the interior.

The Avestern border of Asia Minor consists, in the first instance, of the estuary-land of the four great rivers Avhich flow into the sea through valleys lying parallel to one another, the Mæander, the Cayster, the Hei-mus, and the Caicus (to name them in their order of succession from south to north). In no region of the ancient world was luxuriance of arable and pas ture land so immediately united to all the advantages of an excellent coast formation. The development of the coast-line of Ionia in all its bays and projections amounts to more than quadruple its extent in a straight line from north to south. On the north and south sides this formation of coast is not so consistently the same, but only appears here in certain districts, to which, on the other hand, this very participation in the [Book I. HISTORY OF GREEGE. 6 CHAP. I. Greece in Europe.

Hellenic formation of country has attached a peculiar mission of taking part in Hellenic history . Among these districts are the shores of the Propontis and the Caro-Lycian coastland. Thus in the east the sea has not been able to Helle nize more than the border of the mainland : it is far otherwise on the opposite side. Here also is massed a mainland, projected into the sea in a south ward direction between the Adriatic and the Pontus ; but this central body is not only, like Asia Minor, out wardly fashioned by the sea and dislocated on its coasts, but the very heart of the country continues to be broken up into peninsulas and islands, till at last it becomes entirely absorbed into this loose formation. The whole mass of the countries of Western Greece is cut off by the chain of high mountain ranges stretching in a great arc from the Adriatic to the Black Sea from all the districts belonging to the terri tory of the Danube, and is thus bidden to develop itself in a southward direction, as a world by itself, according to laAvs of its oavu.

The Thracian Hærnus, with its impervious ridges, constitutes a natural boun dary, the difficulties of which pre\rent all national intercourse ; while from Asia the approach is easy and open. In the same way it is easy to recognise, in the development of the entire southern mass of countries between the Adriatic and the Ægean, the circumstance that the eastern or Asiatic side is always the favoured one, i.e., that all the districts on this side enjoAan especially happy organisation for a systematic political -life, and that the abundance of harbours in their coasts imposes on them a special mission for maritime com merce. Thus, in the first instance, Albania and Jilyria are nothing but a crowd of rocky ridges folloAving one another in close succession, and of narrow defiles, with .scarcely sufficient space left for roads to be constructed through them ; their coasts are savage and inhospitable.

Notwithstanding, then, that in ancient times caravans * -rossed the mountains, in order to exchange, in the Book I.] LAND AND PEOPLE. 7 CHAP. I Mace do ma central land between the two seas, the produce of the Ionian Islands and of the Archipelago ; notAvithstanding that subsequently the Romans constructed a main road from Dyrrhaehium straight across the country ; Illyria has, through the whole course of time, remained a land of barbarians. But hoAV vast, is the difference in everything which meets us on crossing to the eastern side over the Scardus Pass ! Here numerous springs at the base of the central chain SAvell into mighty rivers, which flow into broad loAvlands, and these lowlands are embraced in great circlets by the mountain ranges which belt the plain, and leave only a narrow egress into the sea for the rivers of the country.

Inner Macedonia con sists of a succession of three such encircled plains, the waters of which unite and force themselves into the recess of the deeply-indented gulf of Thessalonica. For Macedonia is favoured above Illyria, not only by the great arable plains of its interior, but also by an accessible, hospitable coast. Instead of monotonously savage lines of coast, a broad mass of mountains here springs out between the, niuuths of the Axius and the Strymon, and extends far into the sea with three rocky projections, abounding in bays, of which the eastern most terminates in Mount Athos. More than 6,400 feet it rises above the sea, with its precipitous walls of marble ; equidistant from the entrance of the Hellespont and from that of the Pagasæan gulf, it casts its shadow as far as tlie market-place of Lemnos, and offers a guiding point for navigation, visible many miles off, and commanding the whole northern Archipelago.

By this Greek formation of their coasts Macedonia and Thrace are connected Avith the Greek Avorld, while the territorial condition of their interior is totally diflerent from that of Hellas proper. They are liigh huid countries, where the population, cut off from the iS, as it AACie, held enchained in secluded circles of Valleys. [Book I. 8 HISTORY OF GREECE. CHAP. I Northern Greece. Central The 40th degree of latitude cuts the knot of mountain ranges, which announces a new formation to- Avards the south. The country loses the character of Alpine land ; the mountains, besides becoming loAver, tamer, and more capable of cultivation, arrange themselves more and more into a discernible system of hilly chains, surrounding the cultivated plains, and dividing and protecting the country, without making it inaccessible, savage, and barren.

This advance in the organisation of the count&y, howeA^er, a^'.nin pre vails only on the eastern side, Avhere the fertile basin of the valley of the Peneus spreads out amidst its hills ; on the side of the sea, ton, it is shut out by the Ossa range, Avhich, under the name of Pelion, parallel to Athos, extends into the sea like a rocky mole. TAAdce, however, the mountains are broken through, and Thessaly at the same time emptied of its waters and opened to external intercourse towards the east, viz. at the water-gate of the Vale of Tempe, and again to the south, AAdiere, between Pelion and Othrys, the Pagasæan Gulf stretches deep and broad into the laud. And now toAvards the south the formation of the country continues to increase in multiplicity ; and to the ramification of the mountains correspond the bays of the sea, opening into the land from the and west.

By this means the Avhole body of country is so manifoldly broken up, that it becomes a succession of peninsulas, connected with one another by isthmuses. And at the same point, under the 39tb degree of latitude, begins Central Greece (Hellas, in the stricter sense of the name), where, between the Ambracian and Malian Gulfs, the conical height of Tymphrestus rises to a height of more than 7,000 feet, and once again binds together in the centre eastern and western halves of Greece. Towards the west Tymphrestus toAvers over the regions watered by the Aehelous, which, with the districts contiguous to them, remain excluded from the more broken-up Book I.] LAND AND PEOPLE. 9 CHAP. I 0.6 f formation of the eastern half. Towards the east the Œta chain extends, and at the southern border of the Malian Gulf forms the Pass of Thermopylæ, where betwixt morass and precipitous rock, the mere breadth of a road is left, for reaching the southern districts.

From Thermopylæ straight across to the Corinthian Gulf the distance is less than §ix_ miles.* This is the isthmus, commencing from which the peninsula of Eastern Central Greece extends as far as the Promontory of Sunium. The main mountain range of this peninsula is the Parnassus, whose crest, 7,500 feet in height, was held sacred by the generations of men dwelling around it, as the starting-point of a new human race. From its northern base the Cephissus flows into the great basin of the Bœotian valley, bounded by the Helicon, with its ramifications. Helicon is closely folloAved by Cithæron, another cross-range from sea to sea, separating Attica from Bœotia. It would be difficult to find two countries contiguous to and at the same time more different from one another than these. Bœotia is an inland territory, complete and secluded in itself, where the superabundant water stagnates in. the depths of the valleys — a land of damp fogs and luxuriant vegetation on a rich soil.

The whole of Attica, is projected into the sea, which it admits into its bays ; its soil is dry and rocky, and covered with a thin coating of earth, and it is surrounded :by the r transparent atmosphere of the island-world to which, by situation and climate, it belongs. Its mountain-ranges cany themselves on in the sea, and form the inner group of the Cyclades, just as the outer group consists of the continuations of Eubœa. Once upon a time Attica Avas the southernmost member of the continent of Greece, till out of the waters emerged the low narrow bridge of land which was to add the island of Pelops, as the completest of jjeninsulas, as last and concluding member to the body of the main- * Geographical. [Book I. 10 HISTORY OF GREECE. CHAP. I Pelopon uesas. land. Thus, without severing the continuous cohesion of the country, in the midst of it two broad inland seas, abounding in harbours, meet one another, the one opening towards Italy, the other towards Asia.

The Peloponnesus forms a whole by itself; it con tains in its OAvn centre its principal mountain-range, whose mighty bulwarks embrace the high inland country of Arcadia, whfle its ramifications break up the surrounding districts. These are either mere terraces of the inner highland country, like Arcadia and Elis, or new mountain-ranges issue, and, running in a south or eastward direction, form the trunk of new peninsulas : such is the origin of the Messenian, Laconian, ami Argive peninsulas, and of the deeply cut gulfs between them, with their broad straits. Equal in rich variety to the outline of the country is the constitution of its interior. On the mono tonous table-land of Arcadia one fancies oneself in the midst of an extensive inland district ; the basins of its valleys participate in the organisation and the heavy foggy atmosphere of Bœotia : whereas the closely-packed mountain-chains of Western Arcadia tnble the wild Alpine scenery of Epirus.

The west coast of Peloponnesus corresponds to the flat shores of the Achelous districts ; the rich plains of the Pamisus and Eurotas are natural gifts of the river, as in the case of the Thessalian Peneus, Avhich floAvs out of mountain clefts ; finally, Argoiis, with its Inachus Plain, opens towards the south, aud its peninsula, abounding in rocky harbours and projecting islands, is both by situation and soil like a second Attica. Thus the creative nature of Hellas once more, in the southernmost member of the country, repeats all its favourite formations, compressing within narrow limits the greatest variety of contrasts. Notwithstanding 'this confusing multiplicity in the relations of the soil, A\-e find, asserting themselves in all their severity, certain plain and clear laws, which impress upon the whole of European Greece tl Book I.] LAND AND PEOPLE. 11 of a peculiar organisation.

Among these are the cochap. i. operation of sea and. mountains in marking off the different parts of the country ; further, the series of guiatiZ, cross-bars running out from the central range, and, in combination with the Illyrico-Macedonic highlands, ' rendering access to the dwellings of the Greeks impos- £™J/" sible from the north, isolating them from the mainland, and confining them entirely to the sea and the opposite coasts. The very nature of the northern highlands forces their inhabitants to live in their narrow well watered valleys as peasants, shepherds, and hunters ; to steel their strength by the Alpine air, and to preserve, it intact amidst their simple and natural con ditions of life, until the time shall have come for them to descend into the regions farther to the south, tlie more subdiAdded and manifold formation of Avhich has, in turn, assigned to them the mission of becoming a theatre for the creation of states, and of leading their inhabitants in an eastAvard direction into the maritime and coast intercourse of a neAv and wider world.

For, in fine, of all the laws which regulate the formation of the countries of European Greece, this is at once the most undeniable and the most important, that, beginning at the Thracian coast, the east side is marked out as the frontage of the whole complex of countries. With the exception of tAvo bays and of thejGrulf of Corinth, the western sea, from Dyrrhachium to Methone, washes nothing but precipitous cbffs or a flat shore, an accretion of the sea, and disfigured by lagunes ; while innumerable deep bays and anchorages open from the mouth of the Strymon, as far as Cape JVIalea, to invite the inhabitants of tlie islands hard by il into, or their oavu population to sail out of, them. The form of rocky coast which prevails on the east side, and renders maritime intercourse possible at almost every point of a long line of shore, at the same time conduces to a superior healthiness of climate, and is better adapted for the. foundation of cities.

Thus the vvholc history of Hellas has thrown itself on the eastern CHAP. I coast, and those tribes which were driven into the rear of the land, such as, e.g., the Western Locrians, were by this means simultaneously excluded from active participation in the progress of the national development. The history of a nation is by no means to be re garded solely as a consequence of the natural condition of its local habitations. But thus much it is easy to perceive : a formation of soil as peculiar as that com manding the basin of the Archipelago may Avell give a peculiar direction to the development of the history of its inhabitants. In Asia great, complexes of countries possess a his tory common to all of them. There one nation raises itself over a multitude of others, and in every case decrees of fate fall, to Avhich vast regions, with their millions of inhabitants, are uniformly subjected.

Against a history of this kind every foot breadth of Greek land rises in protest. There the ramification of the mountains has formed a series of cantons, every one of Avhich has received a natural call and a natural right to a separate existence. The Ariliagers of Avide plains quail at the thought of defending their laws and property against an over powering force of arms ; they submit to AAdiat is the will of Heaven, and the survivor tranquilly budds him self a iicaa^ hut near the ruins of the old. But where the land which has been Avith difficulty cultivated is belted by mountains with lofty ridges and narroAV passes, which a little band is able to hold against, a multitude, there men receive, together A\dth these weapons of defence, the courage, for using them. In the members of every local federation arises the feeling of belonging together by the will and command of God ; the common state grows by itself out of the hamlets of the A^alley : and in every such state there springs up at the same time the consciousness of an independence fully justified before God and man.

He who desires to enslave such a land must attack and LAND AND PEOPLE. 13 Book I.] CHAP. I The atmosphere and the sea. conquer it anew in every one of its mountain valleys. In the worst, case the summits of the mountains and inaccessible caves are able to shelter the remnant of the free inhabitants of the land. But, besides the political independence, it is also the multiplicity of culture, manners, and langu i characteristic of Ancient Greece Avhich it is impossible to conceive as existent Avithout the multiplicitous for mation of its territory, for Avithout the barriers of the mountains the various elements composing its population would have early lost their individuality by contact with one another. Now Hellas is not only a secluded and Avell-guarded country, but, on the other hand, again, more open to ; commerce than any other country of the ancient world.

For from three sides the sea penetrates into all parts of the countiy; and Avhile it accustoms men's eyes to greater acutencss and their minds to higher enterprise, never ceases to excite their fancy for the sea, which, in regions where no ice binds it during the whole course of the year, effects an incomparably closer union between the lands than is the case with the inhospitable inland seas of the North. If it is easily agitated, it is also easily calmed again ; its dangers are, diminished by the multitude of safe bays for anchorage, which the mariner may speedily reach at the approach of foul weather. They are further decreased by the trans parent clearness of the atmosphere, which allows the mariner at daytime to recognise the guiding points of his course at a distance of as many as twenty infles, and. at night spreads over his head a cloudless sky, where the rising and setting of the stars in peaceful tranquillity regulate, the business of peasant and man ner.

The winds are the legislators of the weather ; but even they, in these latitudes, submit to certain rules, and only rarely rise to the vehemence of desolating hurricanes. Never, except in the short winter season, is there any uncertain irregularity in wind and weather ; the commencement of the fair season — the CHAP. I safe months, as the ancients called it— brings with _ it an immutable law followed by the Avinds in the entire Archipelago : every morning the north wind arises from the coasts of Thrace, and passes over the whole island-sea : so that men were accustomed to designate all the regions lying beyond that of these coasts as the side beyond the north wind. This is the wind which once carried Miltiades to Lcmnos, and at all times secured advantages of such importance to those who commanded the northern coasts.

Often these winds (the Etesian) for Aveeks together assume the character of a storm, and when the sky is clear waves of froth appear as far as the eye can see ; but, the winds are regularenough to be free from danger, and they subside at sunset : then the sea becomes smooth, and air and water tranquil, till almost imperceptibly a slight con trary wind arises, a breeze from the south. When the mariner at Ægina becomes aware of this, he weighs anchor, and drops into the Piræus in a feAV hours of the night. This is the sea-breeze sung of by the poets of antiquity, and now called the Embates, whose approach is ever mfld, soft, and salutary. The currents passing along the coasts facilitate naAdgation in the gulfs and sounds of the sea ; the flight of migratory birds, the shoals of tunny-fish reappearing at fixed seasons of the year, serve as welcome signs for the mariner.

The regularity in the. whole life of nature and in the motion of air and sea, the mild and humane character of the Ægean, essentially contributed to make the inhabitants of its coasts use it with the fullest confidence, and live on and with it. Men soon learn all the secrete of the art of m'-er navigation to an end, but never those of naAagating the sea ; the differences between dwellers on the banks of a river soon Aranish by mutual contact, Avhereas the sea suddenly brings the greatest contrasts together ; strangers arrive who have been living under another sky, and according to other laAvs : there ensues an endless comparing, learning and teaching, and the more Book I.] LAND AND PEOPLE. 15 CHAP. I remunerative the interchange of the produce of different countries, the more restlessly the human mind labours victoriously to oppose the dangers of the sea by a constant succession of new inventions.