"Then follows the famous passage about the ruins, and about the tombs of Agamemnon and his party, which M. Schliemann has brought into such fresh notoriety.
V. 23, 2.
"[In the list of cities inscribed on the monument of the victory over the Persians, which Pausanias saw at Olympia, and which appears not to have been an exact duplicate of that at Delphi.]
"ἐκ δὲ χώρας τῆς ᾽Αργειας Τιρύνθιοι, Πλατ. δὲ μόνοι
Βοιώτων, καὶ ᾽Αργείων ὁι Μυκήνας ἔχοντες. 3. τούτων τῶν
πόλεων τοσαίδε ἦσαν ἐφ᾽ ἡμῶν ἔρημοι. Μυκηναιοι μὲν καὶ
Τιρύνθιοι τῶν Μηδικῶν ὕστερον ἐγένοντο ὑπὸ ᾽Α. ἀνάστατοι.VII. 25, 5.
"Μυκηναίοις γὰρ τὸ μὲν τεῖχος ἁλῶναι κατὰ τὸ ἰσχυρὸν
οὐυκ ἐδύνατο ὑπὸ Α. (ἐτετείχιστο γὰρ κατὰ ταὐτὰ [this is not
accurate] τῷ ἐν Τίρυνθι ὑπὸ τῶν Κυκλώπων καλουμένων)
κατὰ ἀνάγκην δὲ ἐκλείπουσι Μ. τὴν πόλιν ἐπιλειπόντων
σφᾶς τῶν σιτίων, καὶ ἀλλοὶ μέν τινές ἐς Κλεωνὰς ἀποχωροῦσιν
ἐξ αὐτῶν, τοῦ δημοῦ δὲ πλέον μὲν ἢ ἥμισυ ἐς Μακεδονίαν
καταφεύγουσιν παῤ ᾽Αλέξανδρον, ᾧ Μαρδόνιος ὁ Γωβρύου
τὴν ἀγγελίαν ἐπίστευσεν ἐς ᾽Αθηναίους ἀπαγγεῖλαι·
ὁ δὲ ἄλλος δῆμος ἀφίκοντο ἐς τὴν Κερύνειαν, καὶ ἐς τὰ ἔπειτα
ἐγένετο ἐπιφανεστέρα διὰ τὴν συνοίκησιν τῶν Μυκ.
"Nothing seems more precise than this. Pausanias was evidently quite sure of his facts, though one of them—the participation of the Mycenæans in the battle of Thermopylæ—was certainly wrong according to Herodotus. They went there, indeed, but retired with the other Greeks, who left the Spartans and Thespians with Leonidas. Apart from this, it seems, then, that the Argives were so jealous of the fame of Mycenæ on account of this glorious battle (at which Mycenæans never fought), that they undertook the siege of the great Cyclopean fort, and having starved out the population of the place, which they could not storm, they drove them out of the land to Kleonæ, Kerynea, and to Macedonia. The same lot befell the Tirynthians for the same reason, though Pausanias adds no details about the siege of their equally wonderful fort, which excited his loudest admiration.
"Herodotus corroborates the participation of Mycenæ and Tiryns in the Persian War, and says they together furnished four hundred men to the army of the Greeks, which fought at Platæa. He is perfectly silent as to the consequences of this act.
"Let us now examine a very different passage.
VIII. 27, 1.
"συνῆλθον δέ ὑπὲρ ἰσχύος ἐς αὐτὴν [sc. τὴν Μεγαλὴν πόλιν]
οἱ ᾽Αρκαδες, ἅτε καὶ ᾽Αργείους ἐπιστάμενοι τὰ μὲν ετι παλαιότερα
μόνον οὐ κατὰ μίαν ἡμέραν ἑκάστην κινδυνεύοντας
ὑπὸ Λακεδαιμονίων παραστῆναι τῷ πολέμῳ ἔπει δὲ ἀνθρώπων
πλήθει τὸ ῎Αργος ἐπηύξησαν, καταλύσαντες Τίρυνθα καὶ
᾽Ὑσιάς τε καὶ ᾽Ορνεὰς καὶ Μυκήνας καὶ Μιδείαν καὶ ει δή τι
άλλο πόλισμα οὐκ ἀξιόλογον ἐν τῇ ᾽Αργολίδι ἦν, τά τε ἀπὸ
Λακ. ἁδεέστερα τοῖς ᾽Αργ. ὑπάρχοντα, καὶ ἅμα ἐς τοὺς περιοίκους
ἴσχυν γενομένην αὐτοῖς.
"This passage is corroborated by II. 25, 6 and 8, in which the destruction of Omeæ and of Tiryns are mentioned in the same way. Thus, in § 8, ἀνέστησαν δὲ καὶ Τιρυνθίους ᾽Αργ., συνοίκους προσλαβεῖν καὶ τὸ Α. ἐπαυξῆσαι θελήσαντες.
"This account appears not only inconsistent with the former, but contradictory to it. There, the inhabitants of Mycenæ are expelled, and added to the strength of other cities; here, the special reason of the dispute is to secure more citizens for Argos, and to increase and consolidate its power. Any one who considers the conditions of the question for one moment will not hesitate to prefer this latter—a sound political view—to the sentimental story about Argive jealousy. The συνοικισμός of the Argive territory was like that of Thebes, of Athens, and of Megalopolis; and there can be no doubt that the importance of Argos in Greek history was wholly due to its early success in this most difficult and unpopular revolution.
DATE OF THE CAPTURE OF MYCENÆ.