Orefies.

1

Penthilus.

Egialeus.

Diomedes.

which laft fell to him by the flight of Diomedes into Italy, after his return from the fiege of Troy. Oreftes foon after ran reflecting on the guilt of his parricide, became raving mad; but recovering his fenfes, he went and killed Pyrrhus, the fon of Achil les, in the temple of Apollo at Delphos, as he was espousing Hermione, the daughter of his uncle Menelaus, who had been promifed to him in marriage. Then marrying Hermione, by her he got alfo the kingdom of Sparta*.

Penthilus fucceeded his father Oreftes in both kingdoms; but in the third year of his reign was killed in a battle against the Achai. The Heraclide, who had already taken poffeffion of the greatest part of the Peloponnefe, after his death made themfelves mafters of the kingdoms of Mycena and Argos, which they held until the conqueft of the Peninfula by the Macedonians.

After the parting of the kingdoms of Mycena and Argos, as we have feen above, we find Adraftus a defcendant of Perfeus, and the fon of Talaon and Eurinome, reigning in Argos. This valiant prince married his two daughters; the one to Polinices, prince of Thebes, and the other to Tydeus, who had come to his court upon different accounts. Polynices came to beg his affiftance against his brother Eteocles, who had deprived him of his alternate fhare of the government, and foon prevailed upon him to affift him in perfon with a numerous army. Adraftus having arrived with his army at the foot of Citharon, a celebrated hill among the poets, fent Tideus to Thebes to demand the performance of the contract between Polynices and him. Upon his refufal, the Argians befieged the city, but were almost all cut off, Adraftus, of all the generals, alone efcaping. After this fiege there is no more mention of him.

He was fucceeded by his fon Egialeus, who, a few years after, entered into a confederacy with Diomedes, the fon of his brother-in-law Tydeus, and with the five fons of the other generals who had loft their lives in that expedition, to revenge their deaths upon the Thebans; and, if poffible, to level that city with the ground. Thence thefe seven captains were called Epigoni. Following the advice of the oracle, and appointing Alcmean their general, they fucceeded in their enterprife.

Diomedes after fucceeding to the crown of Argos, went with other Grecian princes to Troy. During his abfence, his wife giale, being plagued by Venus with a furor uteri, in revenge for the wound fhe had received from him at Troy, entertained a criminal familiarity with Cometes, the fon of Stheneleus. Soon after his return, Egiale perceiving that he had discovered her intrigue, attempted to kill him; but he first retired into the temple of Juno, and thence into Apulia in Italy, where he fettled with a few followers.

• Idem ibid.

The

The Heraclide in the mean time, fince their first expulfion out of the Peloponnefe, by Euriftheus, had made feveral fruitless attempts to regain it, failing in fome of their expeditions, by mifapprehending the meaning of the oracle. When they again confulted the oracle, they were promised better fuccefs under a general that had three eyes. Where to find fuch a general was the difficulty. At length, meeting an Etolian, named Oxylus, who was mounted on a horfe or mule, and returning to his own country, they ftopped him, as he and the beast he rode on had but three eyes betwixt them, and fuppofing him to be the perfon pointed at by the oracle, they chose him for their general, and promifed him the country of Elis for a recompence.

The kingdoms of Argos, Mycenae, and Lacedæmon, they challenged as their undoubted right, the firft as the defcendants of Perfeus, and the two laft as the defcendants of Hercules; who, having conquered them, left the first to Neftor, and the laft to Tyndarus, in truft for his own children. Having reduced the three kingdoms, they kept their promise to their three-eyed general, who being a descendant of Etolus, had a right to Elis, as his progenitor had been expelled from thence. The three chief heirs, Temenus, Crefphontes, and Ariftodemus, or rather his two fons Euristhenes and Procles, made a divifion of their conquefts. Temenus had Argos, Crefphontes Mycena, and Lacedæmon fell to the two laft.

Temenus expreffing a particular regard for Deiphontes, his fon- Temenus in-law, his fons fearing he would appoint him his fucceffor, hired at Argos. the Titans to murder their father. According to fome, Deiphontes was his fucceffor, but according to others, his eldest fon Cifus, who was fucceeded by Lacidamas. But the royal prerogative lofing ground very faft, he had little elfe but the title of a king. Meltas, the fon of Lacidamas, impatient of fuch reftraint, endeavoured, when it was too late, to reftore it to its ancient dignity. The people, however, proving too powerful, put a final end to the kingly authority; reduced the government into a downright democracy; and condemned their unhappy prince to death*.

The kingdom of Mycenae was not much longer lived. Cref phontes foon loft his new-gotten kingdom and his life, being murdered by the nobles with two of his fons, for his careffes to the people. His third fon, Epytus, fled to the king of Arcadia, who was his grandfather by the mother's fide, and when of age regained his kingdom by his affiftance. By wifely dividing his favours between the nobles and people, he gained the affections of both to fuch a degree, that the kings from thenceforth were called Epytide in honour of him. This popular liberality, however, could not fecure the regal dignity, which the people daily encroached upon, and at length totally fuppreffing, eftablifhed their own power.

* Polyen. Stratag. Apollod. Paufan. in Meffene.

SECT.

The

Attica.

climate,

and inha

SECT. III.

The Hiftory of the antient Kingdom of ATTICA.

bounds of ATTICA was feated along the fouth coaft of the gulph of Saron, having on the weft Megara and part of Boeotia, on the east the Egean fea, and on the north the reft of Baotia and the Euripus. It reached in length about fixty miles, and its greatest breadth was about fifty-fix miles. It was antiently called Acle and Atthis; and, according to Pliny, extended quite to the Ifthmus, fo that it must have included Megara; which, however, Its foil, by the greater part of hiftorians, is reckoned a diftinct country* The foil being naturally barren and craggy, the country remained unmolefted by invaders; whence the antient inhabitants bitants. lofing all remembrance of their firft progenitors, abfurdly imagined that they were the fpontaneous production of the foil, as well as the infects; and as a badge of it, Thucydides tells us, they wore a golden grafhopper in the curls of their hair. The climate is very moderate and the air ferene, especially about Athens, which ftood about two miles from the fea, with which it had a communication, by a channel reaching to the large harbour, called Piraus, capable of containing above one hundred fhips. There were fome other ports and cities of note in this kingdom; particularly Rhamnus and Eleufts, which laft being the frontier towards Megara, had been fo ftrongly fortified, that it was reckoned impregnable. But the largest and most opulent was the metropolis, called at firft Cecropia, from its founder, Cecrops; but afterwards Athens, from the goddefs Minerva, called by the Greeks Athene, to whom the city was dedicated. Befides its ftrength, beauty, and opulence, it was chiefly famed, 1. For the inviolable faith of its citizens: 2. For being the nursery of the best scholars and orators, choiceft wits, and greatest philofophers: 3. For having produced the greatest number of brave generals of any city in the world, not even excepting Rome.

The go

vernment of the

Athenians.

The chief river in this fmall kingdom was the Afopus, which divided it from Boeotia, and emptied itfelf into the Euripus.

Their government, till the establishment of the Archontes, continued altogether monarchical under a fucceffion of feventeen kings. The archons differed only from their kings, in fucceeding not by inheritance, but by election, and in being accountable to the people whenever it was required.

The revenues of this kingdom, occafioned by its commerce and frugality, are faid to have amounted to 12co Attic talents a year; which vaft income gave them a vast fuperiority over all their neighbours: and as their coin was commonly stamped with

* Mela. Cluver. Byzant, &c. Plin.

the

the figure of an ox, hence was the phrafe fo frequent among the Greeks, of a thing being worth 10 or 100 oxen *. Nothing more vifibly displays the wealth, ftrength, and populousness of the Attican state, than the numbers of tribes into which it was divided, each of which had a great number of large and populous cities and towns belonging to them, fenced with ftately walls, towers, &c. for a particular account of which we must refer our readers to the learned Spon.

1. The Alcmantid tribe contained 13 towns or districts. 2. The Eantid 5 towns. 3. The Antiochian 18. 4: The Attalid 2. 5. The Egeid 12. 6. That of Erictheus 12. 7. That of Hadrian 3. 8. The Hippothoontid 16. 9. The Cecropian 10. 10. The Leontine 16. 1. The Oeneid 13. 12. That of Ptolemais 4. 13. That of Pandion 9. To thefe our author adds 40 more cities, belonging to uncertain tribes, fo that the whole amounts to 178. Each tribe fent fifty deputies or Prytanes, to the grand council, which fat in the Prytanæum, and had a right to the greatest places of the government †.

This kingdom is generally allowed to have been founded by Cecrops, an Egyptian, who brought hither a colony of Saits from the mouth of the Nile of that name, according to the chronology of Eufebius, 780 years before the firft Olympiad, that is, about the year of the flood 792. According to the fame author, it continued under its monarchs 436 years. Those ancient monarchs, however, at firft, both here and in other kingdoms of Greece, were feldom confulted by the people, except in cafes of danger, each city being governed by its own magiftrates and courts: but in procefs of time the kings found means to engross almoft the whole civil power. The Archontic government, which followed, though made elective by their law, yet continued in the family of their laft king 313 years. One hundred and fixty years elapfing, from this time to the establishment of the commonwealth; the whole duration then of this govern- Their hifment, from Cecrops to Solon, amounted to 959 years.

tory.

Cecrops, the first king, is faid to have built the city of Athens, Cecrops and to have married the daughter of Actaus, fuppofed to have firft king. been king of Attica before him, and in her right laid the foundation of a new monarchy. He firft deified Jupiter, and ordained facrifices to be offered to him as the fupreme deity 1. He is affirmed to have been the first who fet up altars and idols, offered facrifices, and inftituted marriage among the Grecians; who, before his time, it seems, lived promifcuously. He taught his fubjects the art of navigation, and for the better adminiftration of justice among them, is faid to have divided them into the first four tribes. Some likewife make him the founder of the Areopagus, which inftitution others attribute to his fucceffor. Cecrops reigned 50 years, and at his death leaving only three

*Piut. in v.t. Thef. † Spon, voy, into Greece Vol. 2. ↑ Paufan. in Attic.

daughters,

Cranaus. daughters, Cranaus, one of the wealthieft citizens of Athens, found means to afcend the vacant throne; probably by marrying one of the daughters of the deceased monarch.

Amphictyon. Ericthonius.

Pandion.

Erectheus.

II.

Cranaus, after reigning about nine years, was dethroned by Amphityon, the fon of Deucalion, who had married his daughter Attis, from whom the country was named Attica. In his reign happened the flood of Deucalion; but the deluge of Ogyges, which deftroyed all Attica, where Ogyges is fuppofed to have reigned, was much more antient, and happened upwards of 200 years before the coming of Cecrops.

Amphictyon, after he had reigned to years, was himself depofed by

Ericthonius, the reputed fon of Vulcan and Tethys. He is faid to have been the first inventor of coaches, being lame of his feet, and to have been the first who brought, or at leaft ftamped filver into coin.

After reigning 50 years, he left the throne to his fon Pandion, the father of Progne and Philomela, who reigned 40 years, and was fucceeded by his fon Erectheus. In his reign Triptolemus is affirmed to have taught the Athenians agriculture, which he had learned from Ceres, in whofe honour the Eleufinian myfteries were inftituted, and fo called from the town of Eleufis.

Erectheus was reckoned the most powerful prince of his time, and after reigning fifty years, was unfortunately killed in a batCecrops tle againft the Eleufinians. Cecrops II. the eldeft fon of Erectheus, fucceeded his father. He is faid to have been the first who gathered the people into 12 towns, they having before his reign lived fcattered here and there in cottages. After reigning 40 years he was expelled from the throne by his two brothers, Metion and Pandorus, who, upon the death of their father, had for fome time contefted the fucceffion with him.

Pandion

II.

Ægeus.

His fon, Pandion II. however, held the throne for fome time, but was expelled by the fons of his uncle Metion. Pandion flying to Megara, Pylas, the king of that city, gave him his daughter Pelia in marriage, and afterwards made him his fucceffor. During his abode there he had four fons, and returning with them to Athens, he recovered the throne from the fons of Metion, and after he had reigned 25 years in all, either left the kingdom among his four fons, or they agreed to divide it after his death among themfeves; notwithftanding which, the royal dignity remained with the eldeft fon Egeus.

Egeus finding himself defpifed by his fubjects, on account of his want of iflue, went and confulted the oracle of Delphi ; and the answer of the Pythonefs being very obfcure, he had recourfe to Pitheus, king of Trezen, for an explanation. By the advice of that wife king, he privately got his daughter Ethra with child, but left her with her father and returned to Athens. She was foon after delivered of a fon, who was the famous Thefeus. At 10 years of age, being informed of his real father, he took leave of his mother and fet out for Athens, fired with an ambition of imitating the exploits of Hercules.

Egeus