Rhegium, situated on the straits of Messina, opposite Sicily, was colonized by the Chalcidians, but received a large number of Messenians, who settled here at the close both of the first and second Messenian wars. Anaxilas, who made himself despot of the city about B. c. 500, was of Messenian descent; and it was he who changed the name of the Sicilian Zancle into Messana, when he seized the latter city in B. C. 494.

§ 9. Tarentum, situated at the head of the gulf which bears its name, was a colony from Sparta, and was founded about B. c. 708. During the long absence of the Spartans in the first Messenian war, an illegitimate race of citizens had been born, to whom the name of Parthenia (sons of maidens) was given. Being not only treated with contempt by the other Spartans, but excluded from the citizenship, they formed a conspiracy under Phalanthus, one of their number, against the government; and when their plot was detected, they were allowed to quit the country and plant a colony under his guidance. It was to these circumstances that Tarentum owed its origin. It was admirably situated for commerce, and was the only town in the gulf which possessed a perfectly safe harbour. After the destruction of Sybaris, it became the most powerful and flourishing city in Magna Græcia, and continued to enjoy great prosperity till its subjugation by the Romans. Although of Spartan origin, it did not maintain Spartan habits; and its citizens were noted at a later time for their love of luxury and pleasure.

The cities of Magna Græcia rapidly declined in power after the commencement of the fifth century before the Christian era. This was mainly owing to two causes. First, the destruction of Sybaris deprived the Greeks of one of their most powerful cities, and of a territory and an influence over the native population, to which no other Greek town could succeed; and, secondly, they were now for the first time brought into contact with the warlike Samnites and Lucanians, who began to spread from Middle Italy towards the south. Cuma was taken by the Samnites, and Posidonia (Pæstum) by the Lucanians; and the latter people in course of time deprived the Greek cities of the whole of their inland territory.

10. The Grecian settlements in the distant countries of Gaul and Spain were not numerous. The most celebrated was Massalia, the modern Marseilles, founded by the Ionic Phocæans in B. C. 600. It planted five colonies along the eastern coast of Spain, and was the chief Grecian city in the sea west of Italy. The commerce of the Massaliots was extensive, and their navy sufficiently powerful to repel the aggressions of Carthage. They possessed considerable influence over the Celtic tribes in their

neighbourhood, among whom they diffused the arts of civilized life, and a knowledge of the Greek alphabet and literature.

§ 11. The northern coast of Africa between the territories of Carthage and Egypt was also occupied by Greek colonists. About the year 650 B. C. the Greeks were for the first time allowed to settle in Egypt and to carry on commerce with the country. This privilege they owed to Psammetichus, who had raised himself to the throne of Egypt by the aid of Ionian and Carian mercenaries. The Greek traders were not slow in availing themselves of the opening of this new and important market, and thus became acquainted with the neighbouring coast of Africa. Here they founded the city of Cyrene about B. c. 630. It was a colony from the Island of Thera in the Ægean, which was itself a colony from Sparta. The situation of Cyrene was well chosen. It stood on the edge of a range of hills, at the distance of ten miles from the Mediterranean, of which it commanded a fine view. These hills descended by a succession of terraces to the port of the town, called Apollonia. The climate was most salubrious, and the soil was distinguished by extracrdinary fertility. With these advantages Cyrene rapidly grew in wealth and power; and its greatness is attested by the immense remains which still mark its desolate site. Unlike most Grecian colonies, Cyrene was governed by kings for eight generations. Battus, the founder of the colony, was the first king; and his successors bore alternately the names of Arcesilaüs and Battus. On the death of Arcesilaüs IV., which must have happened after B. c. 460, royalty was abolished and a democratical form of government established.

Cyrene planted several colonies in the adjoining district, of which Barca, founded about B. c. 560, was the most important. § 12. The Grecian settlements in Epirus, Macedonia, and Thrace claim a few words.

There were several Grecian colonies situated on the eastern side of the Ionian sea in Epirus and its immediate neighbourhood. Of these the island of Corcyra, now called Corfu, was the most wealthy and powerful. It was founded by the Corinthians, about B. c. 700; and in consequence of its commercial activity it soon became a formidable rival to the mother-city. Hence a war broke out between these two states at an early period; and the most ancient naval battle on record was the one fought between their fleets in B. c. 664. The dissensions between the mother-city and her colony are frequently mentioned in Grecian history, and were one of the immediate causes of the Peloponnesian war. Notwithstanding their quarrels, they joined in planting four Grecian colonies upon the same line of coast

Leucas, Anactorium, Apollonia, and Epidamnus in the settlement of the two former the Corinthians were the principals, and in that of the two latter the Corcyræans took the leading part.

The colonies in Macedonia and Thrace were very numerous, and extended all along the coast of the Egean, of the Hellespont, of the Propontis, and of the Euxine, from the borders of Thessaly to the mouth of the Danube. Of these we can only glance at the most important. The colonies on the coast of Macedonia were chiefly founded by Chalcis and Eretria in Euboea; and the peninsula of Chalcidice, with its three projecting headlands, was covered with their settlements, and derived its name from the former city. The Corinthians likewise planted a few colonies on this coast, of which Potidæa, on the narrow isthmus of Pallene, most deserves mention.

Of the colonies in Thrace, the most flourishing were Selymbria and Byzantium,* both founded by the Megarians, who appear as an enterprising maritime people at an early period. The farthest Grecian settlement on the western shores of the Euxine was the Milesian colony of Istria, near the southern mouth of the Danube.

§ 13. The preceding survey of the Grecian colonies shows the wide diffusion of the Hellenic race in the sixth century before the Christian era. Their history has come down to us in such a fragmentary and unconnected state, that it has been impossible to render it interesting to the reader; but it could not be passed over entirely, since some knowledge of the origin and progress of the more important of these cities is absolutely necessary, in order to understand aright many subsequent events in Grecian history.

* The foundation of Byzantium is placed in B.c. 657.

Coin of Cyrene, representing on the reverse the Silphium, which was the chief article

AVKAIQS

ΔΑΜΑΚΑΥΟΣ

Alcæus and Sappho. From a Painting on a Vase.

CHAPTER XIII.

HISTORY OF LITERATURE.

§ 1. Perfection of the Greeks in literature. $ 2. Greek epic poetry divided into two classes, Homeric and Hesiodic. § 3. Poems of Hesiod. § 4. Origin of Greek lyric poetry. § 5. Archilochus. § 6. Simonides of Amorgos. 7. Tyrtæus and Alcman. § 8. Arion and Stesichorus. § 9. Alcæus and Sappho. § 10. Anacreon. § 11. The Seven Sages of Greece. § 12. The Ionic school of philosophy. Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes. § 13. The Eleatic school of philosophy. Xenophanes. § 14. The Pythagorean school of philosophy. Life of Pythagoras. Foundation and suppression of his society in the cities of Magna Græcia.

1. THE perfection which the Greeks attained in literature and art is one of the most striking features in the history of the people. Their intellectual activity and their keen appreciation of the beautiful constantly gave birth to new forms of creative genius. There was an uninterrupted progress in the development of the Grecian mind from the earliest dawn of the history of the people to the downfall of their political independence; and each succeeding age saw the production of some of those master works of genius which have been the models and the admiration of all subsequent time. It is one of the objects of the present work to trace the different phases of this intellectual growth. During the two centuries and a half comprised in this book many species of composition, in which the Greeks after

wards became pre-eminent, were either unknown or little practised. The drama was still in its infancy, and prose writing, as a branch of popular literature, was only beginning to be cultivated; but epic poetry had reached its culminating point at the commencement of this epoch, and throughout the whole period the lyric muse shone with undiminished lustre. It is therefore to these two species of composition that our attention will be more particularly directed on the present occasion.

§ 2. There were in antiquity two large collections of epic poetry. The one comprised poems relating to the great events and enterprises of the Heroic age, and characterised by a certain poetical unity; the other included works tamer in character and more desultory in their mode of treatment, containing the genealogies of men and gods, narratives of the exploits of separate heroes, and descriptions of the ordinary pursuits of life. The poems of the former class passed under the name of Homer; while those of the latter were in the same general way ascribed to Hesiod. The former were the productions of the Ionic and Eolic minstrels in Asia Minor, among whom Homer stood preeminent and eclipsed the brightness of the rest: the latter were the compositions of a school of bards in the neighbourhood of Mount Helicon in Boeotia, among whom in like manner Hesiod enjoyed the greatest celebrity. The poems of both schools were composed in the hexameter metre and in a similar dialect; but they differed widely in almost every other feature. Of the Homeric poems, and of the celebrated controversy to which they have given rise in modern times, we have already spoken at length: it therefore only remains to say a few words upon those ascribed to Hesiod.

§ 3. Three works have come down to us bearing the name of Hesiod-the "Works and Days," the "Theogony," and a description of the "Shield of Hercules." The first two were generally considered in antiquity as the genuine productions of Hesiod; but the Shield of Hercules" and the other Hesiodic poems were admitted to be the compositions of other poets of his school. Many ancient critics indeed believed the "Works and Days" to be the only genuine work of Hesiod, and their opinion has been adopted by most modern scholars. Of Hesiod himself there are various legends related by later writers; but we learn from his own poem that he was a native of Ascra, a village at the foot of Mount Helicon, to which his father had migrated from the Æolian Cyme in Asia Minor. He further tells us that he gained the prize at Chalcis in a poetical contest; and that he was robbed of a fair share of his heritage by the un* See Chap. V.