The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2

by Karl Otfried Müller

2. The inhabitants of Sicyon appear in ancient times to have been distinguished from other Dorians by a lively and excitable temperament, and by a disposition which they had at an early period transferred to their mythical hero Adrastus, whose “tongue was softly persuasive.”[684] This very disposition, however, under the actual state of circumstances, opened the way to tyranny. In this instance of [pg 178] Sicyon, as in many others, the tyrant was the leader of the lower classes, who were opposed to the aristocracy. It was in this character that Orthagoras came forward, who, not being of an ancient family, was called by the nobles a cook.[685] But, notwithstanding its low origin, the family of this person maintained the supremacy for a longer period than any other, according to Aristotle[686] for a century, as they did not maltreat the citizens, and upon the whole respected the laws. Their succession is Orthagoras, Andreas, Myron, Aristonymus, and Cleisthenes,[687] of whom, however, the second and fourth never ascended the throne, or only reigned for a short time. Myron was conqueror at Olympia in the chariot-race in the 33d Olympiad (648 B. C), and afterwards built a treasury, in which two apartments were inlaid with Tartessian brass, and adorned with Doric and Ionic columns.[688] Both the architectural orders employed in this building, and the Tartessian brass, which the Phocæans had then brought to Greece in large quantities from the hospitable king Arganthonius,[689] attest the intercourse of Myron with the Asiatics; we shall presently see that this same correspondence was of considerable importance for the measures of other tyrants. Cleisthenes appears to have employed violence [pg 179] in obtaining the sovereignty,[690] which he held undisturbed, partly by creating terror through his military fame and exploits in arms, and partly by gaining the support of the people by the introduction of some democratic elements into the constitution. With regard to the latter measure, the singular alterations which he made in the tribes of Sicyon will be explained hereafter.[691] We will here only remark that Cleisthenes himself belonged to the subject tribe, which was not of Doric origin; and while he endeavoured to raise the latter, at the same time he sought to depress, and even to dishonour the Doric tribes, so that he entirely destroyed and reversed the whole state of things which had previously existed. For this reason Cleisthenes was at enmity with Argos, the chief Doric city of this district.[692] For the same reason he proscribed the worship of the Argive hero Adrastus, and favoured in its place the worship of Dionysus, a deity foreign to the Doric character; and lastly, prohibited the Homeric rhapsodists from entering the town, because Homer had celebrated Argos, and, we may add, an aristocratic form of government. These characteristic traits of a bold and comprehensive mind are gathered from the lively narrative of Herodotus. The same political tendency was inherited by his son-in-law Megacles, the husband of the beautiful Agariste, to obtain whose hand many rival youths had assembled in the palace of Cleisthenes, like the suitors of [pg 180] old, for that of Helen;[693] and it was particularly manifested in Cleisthenes of Athens, who changed the Athenian constitution by abolishing the last traces of separate ranks. With regard, however, to the warlike actions of Cleisthenes, he must have been very celebrated for his prowess; since in the war of the Amphictyons against Cirrha, although denounced as a stone-slinger (that is, a man of the lowest rank),[694] by the Pythian priestess, he shared the chief command of the army with the Thessalian Heraclid, Eurylochus, and helped to conquer the city.[695] This took place in the third year of the 47th Olympiad, or 592 B.C.[696] Out of the plunder of the town Cleisthenes built a portico for the embellishment of Sicyon;[697] he was also conqueror in the chariot-race at the second Pythiad (Olymp. 49. 3. 584 B.C.)[698] It may perhaps be possible from the scattered accounts concerning this prince to form a notion of his character. Cleisthenes was undoubtedly a man who was able to seize the spirit of the time, which aimed at great liberty and excitement—the very contrary of the settled composure of the Dorians; and, combining talents and versatility with the love of splendour and pageantry, ridiculed [pg 181] many things hitherto looked upon with awe, and set no limits to his love of change. Notwithstanding these qualities, he was, as is probable from the general testimony of Thucydides, overthrown by Sparta, perhaps soon after 580 B.C.;[699] nor was the ancient state of things restored at Sicyon till 60 years afterwards,[700] during which interval another tyrant named Æschines reigned, belonging however to a different family.

3. The Corinthian tyrants[701] were nearly allied with those of Sicyon; since the former, not belonging to the Doric nobility, were placed in the same situation as the latter with regard to this class. In Corinth, before the commencement of the dynasty of tyrants, the ruling power was held by the numerous[702] Heraclide clan of the Bacchiadæ, which had changed the original constitution into an oligarchy, by keeping itself distinct, in the manner of a caste, from all other families, and alone furnished the city with the annual prytanes, the chief magistrates. Cypselus the son of Aëtion, the grandson of Echecrates, from a Corinthian borough named Petra,[703] and not of Doric descent, although connected on his mother's side with the Bacchiadæ, overcame, with the assistance again of the lower classes,[704] the oligarchs, now become odious through their luxury[705] and insolence, the larger part of whom, either voluntarily or by compulsion, quitted Corinth;[706] and Cypselus became tyrant about the 30th [pg 182] Olympiad (660 B.C.),[707] from the inability of the people to govern itself independently. However violently the Corinthian orator in Herodotus accuses this prince, the judgment of antiquity in general was widely different. Cypselus was of a peaceable disposition, reigned without a body-guard,[708] and never forgot that he rose from a demagogue to the throne. He also undertook works of building, either from a taste for the arts, or for the purpose of employing the people. The treasury at Delphi, together with the plane-tree, was his work.[709] To him succeeded his son Periander, who was at first equally or more mild than his father.[710] Soon, however, his conduct became sensibly more violent, and, according to Herodotus, he was instigated by his correspondence with Thrasybulus, the tyrant of Miletus, who counselled him by every method to weaken, or even to exterminate, the nobility of his city.[711] Many of his actions were evidently prompted by the wish of utterly eradicating the peculiarities of the Doric race, which were closely connected with an aristocratic spirit. For this reason he abolished the public tables, and prohibited the ancient education.[712] He awed the people by his military splendour, and maintained triremes on both coasts of the [pg 183] Isthmus;[713] his person he protected by three hundred body-guards.[714] To maintain the city at peace, and to avoid all violent commotions, was a principle, on the observance of which the security of his dominion depended, and upon which a complete system of regulations was founded. With this view he abolished a criminal court[715] for the condemnation of such as wasted their patrimony, inasmuch as persons in this situation were likely to become innovators. He interdicted immoderate luxury, and an extravagant number of slaves. Idleness he considered as especially dangerous. So little true did he remain to the democratic principles of his father, that he expelled the people from the city;[716] and in order the more readily to accustom them to agricultural and mechanical labour, only permitted them to wear the dress of peasants.[717] His own expenses were trifling, and therefore he required no other taxes than harbour-dues and market-tolls. He also avoided, where his projects did not require it, all violence and open injustice; and was even at times so strict a maintainer of public morality, that the numerous procuresses of the luxurious Corinth were by his orders thrown into the sea;[718] the hospitable damsels of Aphrodite[719] being protected by religion. He, as well as his father, made the construction of [pg 184] splendid monuments of art[720] a means of taxing the property of the rich, and of employing the body of the people; though indeed his own refined taste took pleasure in such works. And in general, if considered in reference to the cultivation of taste and intellect, and the interests of agriculture and trade, the age of the tyrants was productive of a very great advancement in the Grecian states. The unpliant disposition, strict in the observance of all ancient customs and usages, was then first bent and subdued, and more liberal and extended views became prevalent. The tyrants were frequently in intimate connexion with the inhabitants of Asia Minor, whom Sparta despised for their luxury and effeminacy; and from the Lydian sultan in his harem at Sardes, a chain of communication, most important in its consequences, was established through the princes of Miletus and Samos with the countries in the immediate neighbourhood of Sparta. Periander was in correspondence not only with Thrasybulus, but also with Halyattes, the king of Lydia, and sent to the latter prince some Corcyræan youths to be castrated according to the oriental custom.[721] The names of his kinsmen, Psammetichus and Gordias, the latter Phrygian, the former Egyptian, are proofs of an hospitable intercourse with those countries. On the other side of Greece, the policy of the Cypselidæ led them to attempt the occupation of the coast [pg 185] of the Ionian sea as far as Illyria, and to establish a connexion with the barbarous nations of the interior.[722] Periander was of a daring and comprehensive spirit, and rivalled by few of his contemporaries, bold in the field, politic in council, though misled by continual distrust to undertake unworthy measures, and having too little regard for the good of the people when it interfered with his own designs; a friend of the arts, of an enlightened mind, but at the same time overcome by the strength of his passions; and, although devoid of awe for all sacred things, yet at times a prey to the most grovelling superstition. After the death of Periander, Psammetichus[723] the son of Gordias, of the same family, succeeded to the sovereignty, but only reigned three years, having been, without doubt, overthrown by the Spartans in Olymp. 49. 3. 582 B.C.[724]

4. Periander was married to the fair Melissa, whose beauty had captivated him in the house of her father, the tyrant Procles, while she was distributing wine to the labourers in a thin Doric dress.[725] Procles was ruler of Epidaurus and the island of Ægina, which were at that time still closely united; he himself was related by marriage to the princes of Orchomenus, and appears from this circumstance, and from his connexion with the family of Cypselus, to belong to the number of tyrants, who, being hostile to the Dorian aristocracy, obtained their power by the assistance of the lower ranks.

And when we also add that Theagenes of Megara, the father-in-law of Cylon the Athenian,[726] precisely resembled the princes already mentioned in his conduct (since he likewise obtained his power by attacking [pg 187] the rich landed proprietors, and had killed their flocks upon the pastures of the river),[727] and that like the others he endeavoured to please the people by embellishing the city, by the construction of an aqueduct, and of a beautiful fountain;[728] it is easy to perceive in the dynasties of the Sicyonian, Corinthian, Epidaurian, and Megarian tyrants, a powerful coalition against the supremacy of the Dorians, and the ancient principles of that race, the more powerful, as they knew how to render subservient to their own ends the opinions which had lately arisen; and it is a matter of wonder that Sparta should have succeeded in overthrowing this combination.

5. If, indeed, it is also borne in mind that the Ionic, as well as the Æolic and Doric[729] islands and cities of [pg 188] Asia, and also Athens, together with Phocis, Thessaly, and the colonies in Sicily and Italy, were all in the hands of tyrants, who doubtless assisted one another, and knew their common interest; and that Sparta alone, in most instances at the instigation of the Delphian oracle, declared against all these rulers a lasting war, and in fact overthrew them all, with the exception of the Sicilian tyrants; it must be confessed, that in this period of Grecian history no contest took place either greater, or, by its extent as well as its principles, of more important political and moral consequences. The following tyrants are stated by ancient historians to have been deposed by the Spartans:[730] the Cypselidæ of Corinth and Ambracia, the former in Olymp. 49. 3. (584 B.C.), the latter probably somewhat later; the Pisistratidæ of Athens, who were allied with the Thessalians, in Olymp. 67. 3. (510 B.C.);[731] their adherent Lygdamis of Naxos,[732] probably about the same time: Æschines of Sicyon, about the [pg 189] 65th Olympiad[733] (520 B.C.); Symmachus of Thasos; Aulis of Phocis; and Aristogenes of Miletus, of whom we know only the names;[734] the larger number were dethroned under the kings Anaxandridas and Ariston, Cleomenes and Demaratus. Of these tyrants, some they deposed by a military force, as the Pisistratidæ; but frequently, as Plutarch says, they overthrew the despotism without “moving a shield,” by despatching a herald, whom all immediately obeyed, “as, when the queen bee appears, the rest arrange themselves in order.”[735] In the time of Cleomenes also (525 B.C.) Sparta sent out a great armament, together with Corinthian and other allies, against Polycrates of Samos, the first Doric expedition against Asia, not, as is evident from the trivial reason stated by Herodotus, (viz. in order to revenge the plunder of a cauldron and a breastplate,) but with the intent of following up their principle of deposing all tyrants.[736] But the besieging of a fortified town, situated upon the sea, and at so great a distance, was beyond the strength of Peloponnesus. The last expedition of Sparta against the tyrants falls after the Persian war, when king Leotychidas, the conqueror at Mycale, was sent for the purpose of ejecting the Aleuadæ of Thessaly, who had delivered up the country to the Persians in 470 B.C. or somewhat later. Aristomedes and Angelus were actually dethroned, but the king suffering himself to be bribed by others, the expedition did not completely succeed.[737]

We may suppose with what pride the ambassador [pg 190] of Sparta answered Gelon the tyrant of Syracuse (however brilliant and beneficial his reign may have been), when he required the command in the Persian war: “Truly the Pelopid Agamemnon would lament, if he heard that the supremacy was taken from the Spartans by Gelon and the Syracusans!”[738]

6. To these important changes in the political history of that time we may annex the subordinate events in the interior of Peloponnesus.

Sparta, by the conquest of Cynuria, had obtained the key of the Argive territory. Soon after this, Cleomenes, the eldest son of Anaxandridas the Eurysthenid, succeeded to the throne, a man of great boldness and strength of mind, sagacious, enterprising, accustomed, after the manner of his age and country, to express himself in a concise and emphatic language, only too much inflated by family and personal pride, and in disposition more nearly resembling his contemporaries the tyrants than beseemed a king of Sparta. The first exploit of this prince[739] was the expedition against Argos. He landed in some vessels of Sicyon and Ægina on the coast of Tiryns, overcame the Argives at the wood of Argos,[740] slew the greater part of the men able to bear arms, and would have [pg 191] succeeded in capturing their city, had he not, from an inconceivable superstition, dismissed the allied army without making any further use of the victory, and contented himself with sacrificing in the temple of Here.[741] At the same time Argos, in consequence of this defeat, remained for a long time crippled, and it was even necessary that a complete change in her political condition should take place, in order to renovate the feeble and disordered state into which she had fallen.

7. For after the bond-slaves or gymnesii[742] of Argos had for a time governed the state thus deprived of its free inhabitants, until the young men who had in the mean time arisen to manhood overcame and expelled them, the Argives, as Aristotle[743] relates, saw themselves compelled, in order to restore the numbers of their free population, to collect about them the surrounding subjects of their city, the Periœci, and to [pg 192] distribute them in the immediate neighbourhood.[744] The completion of this plan took place one generation after the fatal battle with Cleomenes, at the time of the Persian war, in which Argos, whose attention was wholly occupied with strengthening her affairs at home, took no part. At that time the Argives, in order to increase their own numbers, dispeopled nearly all the large cities in the surrounding country, and transplanted the inhabitants to Argos;[745] particularly Tiryns, Mycenæ, Hyseæ, Orneæ, and Midea.[746] Tiryns and Mycenæ were in the time of the Persian war free, and even independent communities, which followed the command of Sparta without the consent of Argos; the latter town indeed contested with Argos the right to the administration of the temple of Here, and the presidency at the Nemean games.[747] The destruction of their city, which the Argives undertook in concert with the Cleonæans and Tegeates,[748] was effected in the year 464 B.C. (Olymp. 79. 1). But of the Mycenæans, a few only followed the Argives, as the larger number either took refuge at Cleonæ (which city was at that time independent, and had for some time the management of the Nemean games)[749], at Ceryneia in Achaia, and even in Macedonia.[750] Of the Tirynthians [pg 193] also some fled to Epidaurus, and some to Halieis in the territory of the Dryopians, in which place the expelled Hermioneans also found an asylum.[751] For Hermione, which Herodotus during the time of the Persian war considers as a Dryopian city,[752] was subsequently taken by the Argives.[753] The other cities which have been mentioned, had however, as we know of Orneæ and also Hysiæ, previously belonged to Periœci, being subjects of Argos, and were only then incorporated for the purpose of enlarging the metropolis.[754] The Argives, by these arbitrary proceedings, secured themselves as well against external foes as against their former enemies the bond-slaves, and also acquired a large number of laborious and industrious inhabitants, who, by the continuance of peace, soon re-established the prosperity and wealth of Argos.[755] The oracle has well marked out the principles which were then expedient for the welfare of that state, when it recommended it, as “the enemy of its neighbours, and friend of the gods, to draw in its arms, and [pg 194] remain in watchful quiet, guarding its head; for that the head would save the body.”[756] At the same time, however, by these proceedings, a complete change in the constitution was brought about, and Argos, as we shall see hereafter, gradually lost the peculiar features of the Doric character.

The other actions of Cleomenes of which we have any knowledge refer to the political changes at Athens, and could only be connectedly related in a history of the Athenian constitution, or in reference to the events in Ægina, which we have narrated elsewhere.