CHAPTER VIII.
CONQUESTS OF SPARTA TOWARDS ARCADIA AND ARGOLIS.
State of Arcadia. — Tegea and Mantineia the most powerful Arcadian towns, before the building of Megalopolis. — Encroachments of Sparta upon the southern boundary of Arcadia. — Unsuccessful attempts of the Spartans against Tegea. — They are directed by the oracle to bring to Sparta the bones of the hero Orestês. — Their operations against Tegea become more successful; nevertheless, Tegea maintains her independence. — Boundaries of Sparta towards Argos — conquest of Thyreatis by Sparta. — Battle of the three hundred select champions, between Sparta and Argos, to decide the possession of the Thyreatis — valor of Othryades. — Thyreatis comes into possession of Sparta — efforts of the Argeians to recover it. — Alteration of Grecian opinion, as to the practice of deciding disputes by select champions. — Kynurians in Argolis, said to be of Ionic race, but Dorized. — Full acquisition of the southern portion of Peloponnesus, from sea to sea, by the Spartans before 540 B. C. — Great comparative power of Sparta at that early time. — Careful personal training of the Spartans at a time when other states had no training at all. — Military institutions of Sparta. — Peculiar and minute military subdivisions, distinct from the civil Enômoties, etc. — Careful drilling of the Enômoties. — In other Grecian cities there were no peculiar military divisions distinct from the civil. — Recognized superiority of Sparta — a part of early Grecian sentiment — coincident with the growing tendency to increased communion. — Homeric mode of fighting — probably belonged to Asia, not to Greece. — Argos — her struggles to recover the headship of Greece. — Her conquest of Mykenæ, Tiryns, and Kleônæ. — Nemean games. — Achaia — twelve autonomous towns, perhaps more — little known.
HISTORY OF GREECE.
PART I.
CONTINUATION OF LEGENDARY GREECE.