5. The accounts already given show that Sicyon, [pg 092] Phlius, Cleonæ, Epidaurus, Trœzen, and Ægina received their share of Doric inhabitants either mediately or immediately from Argos. We can only regret the want of any accurate accounts respecting Mycenæ and Tiryns; the conquest of which cities must have been most difficult; but, when accomplished, decisive for the sovereignty of the Dorians. Pindar[306] considers the expulsion of the Achæan Danai from the gulf of Argos, and from Mycenæ, as identical with the expedition of the Heraclidæ; and Strabo states that the Argives united Mycenæ with themselves.[307] Nevertheless we find that in the Persian war Mycenæ and Tiryns were still independent states, and it admits of a doubt whether they had previously belonged for any length of time to Argos. That some ancient inhabitants at least still maintained themselves in the mountains above Argos, is shown by the instance of the Orneatæ. The inhabitants of Orneæ, a town on the mountainous frontier of Mantinea, having long been hostile to the Dorians, and at war with the Sicyonians,[308] were at length overpowered by Argos, and degraded to the state of periœci.[309] Now, since it is more probable that such a proceeding took place against the people of a different race, than against a colony of Argos, and also as there is nowhere any mention of a Doric settlement at Orneæ, it is evident that the inhabitants of Orneæ had up to that time been either Achæans or Arcadians.
6. Although from the foregoing accounts it appears that Argos almost entirely lost its power over the towns which it had been the means of bringing under the rule of the Dorians, yet in early times there existed certain [pg 093] obligations on the part of these cities towards Argos, which at a later period became mere forms. There was in Argos, upon the Larissa, a temple of Apollo Pythaëus, which had probably been erected soon after the invasion of the Dorians, as a sanctuary of the national deity who had led them into the country. It was a temple common to all the surrounding district, though belonging more particularly to the Argives.[310] The Epidaurians were bound at certain seasons to send sacrifices to it.[311] The Dryopians in early times, and afterwards also, in their character of Craugallidæ, or servants of the Delphian god, had at Asine and Hermione erected temples to Apollo Pythaëus, in acknowledgment of a similar dependence; and this was the only one spared by the Argives at the destruction of the former town.[312]
7. The fragments preserved respecting the ancient history of the Dryopians having been collected in a previous chapter,[313] we shall here only remark that this people possessed a considerable district in the most southern part of Argolis, the boundaries of which, so long as they remained inviolate, were defined by two points, viz. the temple of Demeter Thermesia on the frontier between Hermione and Trœzen, eighty stadia from Cape Scyllæum, and a hill between Asine, Epidaurus, and Trœzen,[314] and they may still be pointed out with tolerable certainty. Hercules, who, according to the Doric tradition, brought the Dryopians hither, had [pg 094] accurately marked out these boundaries. It is, however, also related that the Dryopians established themselves beyond these limits at Nemea[315] in Argolis: this, however, as well as Olympia, was not any particular town, but merely the name of a valley, and particularly of a temple of Zeus there situated.
8. The history of the establishment of Corinth, though marvellous and obscure, contains nevertheless some historical traces by no means unworthy of remark. In the first place, it is stated that this town did not receive its inhabitants from Argos. The purport of the tradition is as follows: “When Hippotes at the time of the passage of the Dorians from Naupactus slew the soothsayer, he was banished (according to Apollodorus for ten years),[316] during which time he led a roaming and predatory life;”[317] whence his son was called Ἀλήτης, or the Wanderer.[318] It is also recorded in the fragment of a tradition[319] that Hippotes, when crossing the Melian gulf, imprecated against those who wished to remain behind, “That their vessels might be leaky, and themselves the slaves of their wives.” In like manner his son Aletes passed through the territory at that time called Ephyra, where he received from scorn a clod of earth;[320] which in the ancient oracular language was a symbol of sovereignty.[321] [pg 095] We might almost guess from these traditions that the Dorian warriors had harassed, and at length subdued the ancient Ephyreans, by ravaging their lands, and by repeated invasions. This is confirmed by the very credible account of Thucydides relating to this point.[322] There was in the mountainous country, about sixty stadia from Corinth, and twelve from the Saronic gulf, a hill called Solygius, of which the Dorians had once taken possession for the purpose of making war against the Æolian inhabitants of Corinth. This hill was, however (at least in the time of Thucydides), entirely unfortified. Here we may recognise the very same method of waging war as in the account of Temenus given above, a method which in the Peloponnesian war was adopted by the Spartans at the fortifying of Decelea. Again, it is related in a tradition connected with the Hellotian festival, that at the taking of Corinth the Dorians set fire to the town, and even to the temple of Athene, in which the women had taken refuge.[323] In another it is stated that Aletes, being advised by an oracle to attack the city on a “crowned day,” took it during a great funeral solemnity by the treachery of the youngest daughter of Creon: these, however, are for the most part mere attempts at an historical interpretation of ancient festival ceremonies. As Aletes (according to his genealogy) lived one generation after the conquerors of Peloponnesus, the capture of Corinth was dated thirty years after the expedition of the Heraclidæ;[324] whence probably also arose the error of [pg 096] supposing that there had previously been Dorians at Corinth; as it was supposed that the Dorians had obtained their whole dominion over Peloponnesus at one time, by one expedition. The city appears to have received the name of Corinth at this time, instead of its former one of Ephyra;[325] and it seems that the Dorians called it with a certain preference “The Corinth of Zeus;” although ancient interpreters have in vain laboured to give a satisfactory explanation of this name.
9. The early inhabitants of Corinth were, according to the expression of Thucydides,[326] Æolians; and their traditions and religion show that they were very nearly connected with the Minyans of Iolcus and Orchomenus.[327] Their kings were the Sisyphidæ, whose genealogy closes with Hyantidas and Doridas. We find in the last name the same confusion which has been pointed out (amongst others) in the legend of Thessalus the son of Jason,[328] viz., that the arrival of a different nation was expressed by connecting the new comers genealogically with the heroes of the ruling race. Thus Doridas, i.e. the Dorians in a patronymic form, is the descendant of Sisyphus. Here begins the sovereignty of the Dorians; who, however, did not, as Pausanias[329] states, altogether expel the ancient inhabitants, but formed the aristocratic class of the new state. Pindar and Callimachus, indeed, call the whole Corinthian nation Aletiadæ[330] but merely by a poetical license; the only lineal descendants of Aletes being the [pg 097] ruling house, the Bacchiadæ, from which for a long time were taken the kings and Prytanes of Corinth and all its colonies. There were, however, at Corinth distinguished families of a different origin. The family of Cypselus, which afterwards obtained possession of the tyranny, was, according to Herodotus, of the blood of the Lapithæ, and descended from Cæneus.[331] They came, according to Pausanias, from Gonusa, near Sicyon, to assist the Dorians against Corinth:[332] Aletes, however, at the advice of an oracle, at first refused to receive them, but presently admitted them into the city, where they afterwards overthrew his own descendants. We shall allow this narrative, which contains a post eventum prophecy of the tyranny of the Cypselidæ, to rest on its own merits, remarking only that the Cænidæ had more reason to assist the ancient Æolians than the Dorians; and shall merely infer from it the existence of distinguished families in Corinth not of Doric descent.
10. As in this chapter we have hitherto rather followed a geographical than a chronological arrangement, we will now pass to the founding of Megara.[333] That event is represented by the ancient tradition as connected with the expedition of the Peloponnesians against Athens;[334] which is doubtless a correct statement, since Megara had before that epoch been closely united with Attica, and comprehended in Ionia. This [pg 098] expedition was, according to most authors, undertaken by the whole Peloponnesus; by some, however, the Corinthians are called the real authors of it, and Aletes the leader, Althæmenes of Argos, the son of Ceisus, being nevertheless joined with him. The defeat of the Doric invaders, by the voluntary sacrifice of Codrus, has been a favourite subject both with poets and rhetoricians.[335] It is sufficient for our purpose to oppose to this celebrated legend an obscure tradition that some Athenians, whom Lycophron calls Codri, had a share in the expedition of the Heraclidæ.[336] Whether or not the Ionians and Dorians met at the borders on this occasion, thus much is certain, that Megara in consequence of this invasion became a Doric town, and indeed soon afterwards a Corinthian colony.[337] It also remained for some time in complete dependence on Corinth, as Ægina upon Epidaurus; in proof of which it is mentioned that the Megarians were bound to mourn for every death that occurred in the family of the Bacchiadæ at Corinth.[338] When, however, the internal strength of Megara increased, it ventured to dissolve this connexion, and, in defiance of the Corinth of Zeus, to rout the Corinthians in the field.[339] The [pg 099] border-wars of the Megarians and Corinthians were carried on without intermission.[340] Megara appears not to have raised itself to the situation of a ruling city till after it had obtained its independence; since in earlier times it had been one of the five hamlets (κῶμαι) into which the country was divided, viz. the Heræans, Piræans, Megarians, Cynosyrians, and Tripodiscians.[341] These small communities also waged war with each other, but with a singular lenity, of which some almost marvellous accounts have been preserved; the conquerors carried their prisoners home, treated them as guests and companions, who were hence called δορύξενοι, in opposition to δορυάλωτοι.
11. We now turn to Laconia, which, according to the above-mentioned legend concerning the division of Peloponnesus, fell to the share of Aristodemus or his sons.[342] According to the common tradition (which was derived from the epic poets[343]) the twin brothers [pg 100] Eurysthenes and Procles[344] took possession of Sparta after the death of their father; whereas the national tradition of Sparta, as Herodotus informs us, represented Aristodemus himself as having been the first ruler,[345] and the double dominion of his children as not having been settled till after his death; the first-born, however, enjoying a certain degree of precedence.[346] This is, indeed, contradicted by the account of Thucydides,[347] who mentions as a Lacedæmonian tradition, that the kings who first took possession of Lacedæmon (i.e. Eurysthenes and Procles) were conducted thither with dances and sacrifices, an honour which at the command of the Delphian oracle was afterwards given to Pleistoanax at his restoration. This variation, however, is perhaps merely the effect of a pardonable negligence in the author.
12. It is, however, far more difficult to ascertain what was the condition of Laconia immediately after the invasion of the Dorians. For it is plain that the history, as it was arranged by Ephorus, and derived from him to other authors, is in contradiction with many isolated traditions, but which for that very reason are of the greater importance. So far, indeed, from the whole of the Laconian territory immediately [pg 101] falling into the hands of the Dorians,[348] it is certain that a powerful fortress of the ancient Achæans, at a short distance from Sparta itself, held out for nearly three centuries after the Doric invasion.
There was a saying, well known in antiquity, of the “silent Amyclæ;” thus called because its citizens had been so often alarmed by the report of the enemy coming, that they at last made a law that no one should give tidings of the enemy's approach; in consequence of which the town was at length taken.[349] This proverb, and the story on which it was founded, prove the existence of a long and determined contest between the two neighbouring cities. They also confirm the account of Pausanias, that the Dorians in the reign of Teleclus built a temple[350] to Zeus Tropæus, because they had at length, after a tedious and severe struggle, overcome the Achæans of Amyclæ and taken their city. This city of Amyclæ, one of the most ancient and considerable in Peloponnesus, of which there still remains a fort situated upon a rock on the side of mount Taygetus, was therefore so far from being reduced by the Spartans immediately, that it held out until the reign of Teleclus, 278 years after the invasion, a short time before the first Messenian war; and [pg 102] then was only taken after a tedious contest, which, from the proximity of Amyclæ and Sparta, must have been very dangerous to the latter city. Now it is not possible that before this victory Amyclæ and Sparta, distant only 20 stadia (2-1/2 miles) from each other, should have been engaged in constant war, as it must have soon ended in the destruction of one or the other city: their truces and armistices were, however, doubtless interrupted frequently by sudden incursions. The important territory near mount Taygetus belonged at that time to Amyclæ, and all this country was still in the possession of the Achæans, with whom some Minyans from Lemnos, and Cadmean Greeks, known by the name of Ægidæ, had united themselves. This is the territory from which the colonies of Thera, Melos, and Gortyna proceeded; so, according to Pindar, Amyclæ was the point from which the first colonies to Lesbos and Tenedos set out, and also (as may be inferred from other notices) those Achæans who took possession of Patræ.[351]
Sparta, on the other hand, must have been of very slight importance before the Doric migration; by which event alone it was enabled to become the ruler of all the surrounding states. For, in the first place, Sparta was not built in the same manner as Mycenæ, Tiryns, and other ruling cities founded before the Doric invasion; the Acropolis is a hill of inconsiderable height, and easy of ascent, without any trace of ancient fortifications or walls. Secondly, it is remarkably deficient in monuments and local memorials of the times of the Pelopidæ and other mythical princes; much as the Spartans in other instances clung to traditions [pg 103] and records of this kind: while Amyclæ and Therapne had these in great abundance. Amyclæ, in a beautiful and well-wooded country,[352] was the abode of Tyndareus and his family; here were the tombs of Cassandra and Agamemnon, who, according to a native tradition (preserved by Stesichorus and Simonides),[353] ruled in this city. At no great distance was situated the town of Therapne. Alcman calls it the “well-fortified Therapne;”[354] Pindar mentions its high situation;[355] by which they clearly imply a position and fortification similar to that of Tiryns. The latter also calls it the ancient metropolis of the Achæans, amongst whom the Dioscuri lived; here were the subterraneous cemeteries of Castor and Pollux,[356] vaulted, perhaps, in the ancient manner; here also the temples of the Brothers and of Helen in the Phœbæum, and many remains of the ancient symbolical religion.[357] It is also very remarkable, that on the banks of the Eurotas, in the district between Therapne and Amyclæ, there should have been discovered a building[358] which resembles the well-known treasury at Mycenæ, and [pg 104] which affords a certain proof that the dominion of the Pelopidæ extended to this district.