part 3, chapter 3.

ASUNCION: A. D. 1537. The founding of the city.

See PARAGUAY: A. D. 1515-1557.

ATABEGS, ATTABEGS, OR ATTABECKS.

"From the decline of the dynasty of Seljook to the conquest of Persia by Hulakoo Khan, the son of Chenghis, a period of more than a century, that country was distracted by the contests of petty princes, or governors, called Attabegs; who, taking advantage of the weakness of the last Seljookian monarchs, and of the distractions which followed their final extinction, established their authority over some of the finest provinces of the Empire. Many of these petty dynasties acquired such a local fame as, to this day, gives an importance to their memory with the inhabitants of the countries over which they ruled. ... The word Attabeg is Turkish: it is a compound word of 'atta,' master, or tutor, and 'beg,' lord; and signifies a governor, or tutor, of a lord or prince."

_Sir J. Malcolm, History of Persia, volume 1; chapter 9._

"It is true that the Atabeks appear but a short space as actors on the stage of Eastern history; but these 'tutors of princes' occupy a position neither insignificant nor unimportant in the course of events which occurred in Syria and Persia at the time they flourished."-

_W. H. Morley, Preface to Mirkhond's History of the Atabeks._

See, also, SALADIN, THE EMPIRE OF.

ATAHUALPA, The Inca.

See PERU: A. D. 1581-1533.

ATELIERS NATIONAUX OF 1848, AT PARIS.

See FRANCE; A. D. 1848 (FEBRUARY-MAY), and (APRIL-DECEMBER).

ATHABASCA, The District of.

See NORTHWEST TERRITORIES OF CANADA.

ATHABASCANS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ATHABASCAN FAMILY.

ATHALAYAS.

See SARDINIA, THE ISLAND: NAME AND EARLY HISTORY.

ATHEL.--ATHELING.--ATHELBONDE,

See ADEL.

ATHENRY, Battle of.

The most desperate battle fought by the Irish in resisting the English conquest of Ireland. They were terribly slaughtered and the chivalry of Connaught was crushed. The battle occurred Aug. 10, A. D. 1316.

M. Haverty, _History of Ireland, p, 282._

ATHENRY: End----------

ATHENS:

ATHENS: The Preëminence of Athens.

"When we speak of Greece we think first of Athens. ... To citizens and to strangers by means of epic recitations and dramatic spectacles, she presented an idealised image of life itself. She was the home of new ideas, the mother-city from which poetry, eloquence, and philosophy spread to distant lands. While the chief dialects of Greece survive, each not as a mere dialect but as the language of literature,--a thing unknown in the history of any other people,--the Attic idiom, in which the characteristic elements of other dialects met and were blended, has become to us, as it did to the ancients, the very type of Hellenic speech. Athens was not only the 'capital of Greece,' the 'school of Greece;' it deserves the name applied to it in an epitaph on Euripides: 'his country is Athens, Greece of Greece.' The rays of the Greek genius here found a centre and a focus."

_S. H. Butcher, Some Aspects of the Greek Genius, pages 38-39._

"Our interest in ancient history, it may be said, lies not in details but in large masses. It matters little how early the Arcadians acquired a political unity or what Nabis did to Mycenæ; that which interests us is the constitution of Athens, the repulse of Persia, the brief bloom of Thebes. Life is not so long that we can spend our days over the unimportant fates of uninteresting tribes and towns."

ATHENS: Area and Population.

"The entire circuit of the Asty [the lower city, or Athens proper], Long Walls and maritime city, taken as one inclosure, is equal to about 17 English miles, or 148 stades. This is very different from the 200 stades which Dion Chrysostom states to have been the circumference of the same walls, an estimate exceeding by more than 20 stades even the sum of the peripheries of the Asty and Peimic towns, according to the numbers of Thucydides. ... Rome was circular, Syracuse triangular, and Athens consisted of two circular cities, joined by a street of four miles in length,--a figure, the superficies of which was not more than the fourth part of that of a city of an equal circumference, in a circular form. Hence, when to Rome within the walls were added suburbs of equal extent, its population was greater than that of all Attica. That of Athens, although the most populous city in Greece, was probably never greater than 200,000."

_W. M. Leake, Topography of Athens, section 10._

Ionian Origin.

See DORIANS AND IONIANS.

ATHENS: The Beginning of the city-state. How Attica was absorbed in its capital.

"In the days of Cecrops and the first kings [see ATTICA] down to the reign of Theseus, Attica was divided into communes, having their own town-halls and magistrates. Except in case of alarm the whole people did not assemble in council under the king, but administered their own affairs, and advised together in their several townships. Some of them at times even went to war with him, as the Eleusinians under Eumolpus with Erectheus. But when Theseus came to the throne, he, being a powerful as well as a wise ruler, among other improvements in the administration of the country, dissolved the councils and separate governments, and united all the inhabitants of Attica in the present city, establishing one council and town-hall. They continued to live on their own lands, but he compelled them to resort to Athens as their metropolis, and henceforward they were all inscribed in the roll of her citizens. A great city thus arose which was handed down by Theseus to his descendants, and from his day to this the Athenians have regularly celebrated the national festival of the Synoecia, or 'union of the communes' in honour of the goddess Athenè. Before his time, what is now the Acropolis and the ground lying under it to the south was the city. Many reasons may be urged in proof of this statement."

_Thucydides, History (Jowett's translation), book 2, section 15._

ALSO IN: _M. Duncker, History of Greece, book 3, chapter 7 (volume 2)_.

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[Image: Map]

PLAN OF ATHENS.

From "Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens," by Jane E. Harrison and Margaret de G. Verrall.

[Image: Map]

HARBORS OF ATHENS.

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ATHENS: From the Dorian Migration to B. C. 683. End of kingship and institution of the Archons.

At the epoch of the Boeotian and Dorian migrations (see GREECE: THE MIGRATIONS), Attica was flooded by fugitives, both from the north and from the Peloponnesus. "But the bulk of the refugees passed on to Asia, and built up the cities of Ionia. ... When the swarms of emigrants cleared off, and Athens is again discernable, the crown has passed from the old royal house of the Cecropidæ to a family of exiles from Peloponnesus. ... A generation later the Dorian invasion, which had overwhelmed Corinth and torn away Megara from the Attic dominion, swept up to the very gates of Athens. An oracle declared that the city would never fall if its ruler perished by the hand of the invaders; therefore King Codrus disguised himself as a peasant, set out for the Dorian camp, struck down the first man he met, and was himself slain by the second. The invasion failed, and the Athenians, to perpetuate the memory of their monarch's patriotism, would not allow the title of 'king' to be borne by the descendants who succeeded him on the throne, but changed the name to 'archon,' or 'ruler.' ... These legends evidently cover some obscure changes in the internal history of Attica."

_C. W. C. Oman, History of Greece, chapter 11._

"After the death of Codrus the nobles, taking advantage, perhaps, of the opportunity afforded by the dispute between his sons, are said to have abolished the title of king, and to have substituted for it that of Archon. This change, however, seems to have been important, rather as it indicated the new, precarious tenure by which the royal power was held, than as it immediately affected the nature of the office. It was, indeed, still held for life; and Medon, the son of Codrus, transmitted it to his posterity. ... After twelve reigns, ending with that of Alcmæon [B. C. 752], the duration of the office was limited to ten years; and through the guilt or calamity of Hippomenes, the fourth decennial archon, the house of Medon was deprived of its privilege, and the supreme magistracy was thrown open to the whole body of nobles. This change was speedily followed by one much more important. ... The duration of the archonship was again reduced to a single year [B. C. 683]; and, at the same time, its branches were severed and distributed among nine new magistrates. Among these, the first in rank retained the distinguishing title of the Archon, and the year was marked by his name. He represented the majesty of the state, and exercised a peculiar jurisdiction--that which had belonged to the king as the common parent of his people, the protector of families, the guardian of orphans and heiresses, and of the general rights of inheritance. For the second archon the title of king [basileus], if it had been laid aside, was revived, as the functions assigned to him were those most associated with ancient recollections. He represented the king as the high-priest of his people; he regulated the celebration of the mysteries and the most solemn festivals; decided all causes which affected the interests of religion. ... The third archon bore the title of Polemarch, and filled the place of the king as the leader of his people in war, and the guardian who watched over its security in time of peace. ... The remaining six archons received the common title of thesmothetes, which literally signifies legislators, and was probably applied to them as the judges who determined the great variety of causes which did not fall under the cognizance of their colleagues; because, in the absence of a written code, those who declare and interpret the laws may be properly said to make them."

_C. Thirlwall, History of Greece, chapter 11._

"We are in no condition to determine the civil classification and political constitution of Attica, even at the period of the Archonship of Kreon, 683 B. C., when authentic Athenian chronology first commences, much less can we pretend to any knowledge of the anterior centuries. ... All the information which we possess respecting that old polity is derived from authors who lived after all or most of these great changes [by Solon, and later]--and who, finding no records, nor anything better than current legends, explained the foretime as well as they could by guesses more or less ingenious, generally attached to the dominant legendary names."

_G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 10._

ALSO IN: _G. F. Schömann, Antiquity of Greece: The State, part 3, chapter 3._

ATHENS: B. C. 624. Under the Draconian Legislation.

"Drako was the first thesmothet, who was called upon to set down his thesmoi [ordinances and decisions] in writing, and thus to invest them essentially with a character of more or less generality. In the later and better-known times of Athenian law, we find these archons deprived in great measure of their powers of judging and deciding, and restricted to the task of first hearing of parties and collecting the evidence, next, of introducing the matter for trial into the appropriate dikastery, over which they presided. Originally, there was no separation of powers; the archons both judged and administered.... All of these functionaries belonged to the Eupatrids, and all of them doubtless acted more or less in the narrow interest of their order; moreover, there was ample room for favouritism in the way of connivance as well as antipathy on the part of the archons. That such was decidedly the case, and that discontent began to be serious, we may infer from the duty imposed on the thesmothet Drako, B. C. 624, to put in writing the thesmoi or ordinances, so that they might be 'shown publicly' and known beforehand. He did not meddle with the political constitution, and in his ordinances Aristotle finds little worthy of remark except the extreme severity of the punishments awarded: petty thefts, or even proved idleness of life, being visited with death or disfranchisement. But we are not to construe this remark as demonstrating any special inhumanity in the character of Drako, who was not invested with the large power which Solon afterwards enjoyed, and cannot be imagined to have imposed upon the community severe laws of his own invention. ... The general spirit of penal legislation had become so much milder, during the two centuries which followed, that these old ordinances appeared to Aristotle intolerably rigorous."

_G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 10 (volume 3)._

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ATHENS: B. C. 612-595. Conspiracy of Cylon. Banishment of the Alcmæonids.

The first attempt at Athens to overturn the oligarchical government and establish a personal tyranny was made, B. C. 612, by Cylon (Kylon), a patrician, son-in-law of the tyrant of Megara, who was encouraged and helped in his undertaking by the latter. The conspiracy failed miserably. The partisans of Cylon, blockaded in the acropolis, were forced to surrender; but they placed themselves under the protection of the goddess Minerva and were promised their lives. More effectually to retain the protection of the goddess until their escape was effected, they attached a cord to her altar and held it in their hands as they passed out through the midst of their enemies. Unhappily the cord broke, and the archon Megacles at once declared that the safeguard of Minerva was withdrawn from them, whereupon they were massacred without mercy, even though they fled to the neighboring altars and clung to them. The treachery and bad faith of this cruel deed does not seem to have disturbed the Athenian people, but the sacrilege involved in it caused horror and fear when they had had time to reflect upon it. Megacles and his whole family--the Alcmæonids as they were called, from the name of one of their ancestors--were held accountable for the affront to the gods and were considered polluted and accursed. Every public calamity was ascribed to their sin, and at length, after a solemn trial, they were banished from the city (about 596 or 595 B. C.), while the dead of the family were disinterred and cast out. The agitations of this affair exercised an important influence on the course of events, which opened the way for Solon and his constitutional reforms.

_C. Thirlwall, History of Greece, chapter 11._

ALSO IN: _G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 10._

ATHENS: B. C. 610-586. Struggle with Megara for Salamis. Cirrhæan or First Sacred War.

"The petty state of Megara, which, since the earlier ages, had, from the dependent of Athens, grown up to the dignity of her rival, taking advantage of the internal dissensions in the latter city, succeeded in wresting from the Athenian government the isle of Salamis. It was not, however, without bitter and repeated struggles that Athens at last submitted to the surrender of the isle. But, after signal losses and defeats, as nothing is ever more odious to the multitude than unsuccessful war, so the popular feeling was such as to induce the government to enact a decree by which it was forbidden, upon pain of death, to propose reasserting the Athenian claims. ... Many of the younger portion of the community, pining at the dishonour of their country, and eager for enterprise, were secretly inclined to countenance any stratagem that might induce the reversal of the decree. At this time there went a report through the city that a man of distinguished birth ... had incurred the consecrating misfortune of insanity. Suddenly this person appeared in the market place, wearing the peculiar badge [a cap] that distinguished the sick. ... Ascending the stone from which the heralds made their proclamations, he began to recite aloud a poem upon the loss of Salamis, boldly reproving the cowardice of the people, and inciting them again to war. His supposed insanity protected him from the law--his rank, reputation, and the circumstance of his being himself a native of Salamis, conspired to give to his exhortation a powerful effect, and the friends he had secured to back his attempt loudly proclaimed their applauding sympathy with the spirit of the address. The name of the pretended madman was Solon, son of Execestides, the descendant of Codrus. ... The stratagem and the eloquence of Solon produced its natural effect upon his spirited and excitable audience, and the public enthusiasm permitted the oligarchical government to propose and effect the repeal of the law. An expedition was decreed and planned, and Solon was invested with its command. It was but a brief struggle to recover the little island of Salamis. ... But the brave and resolute Megarians were not men to be disheartened by a single reverse; they persisted in the contest--losses were sustained on either side, and at length both states agreed to refer their several claims on the sovereignty of the island to the decision of Spartan arbiters. And this appeal from arms to arbitration is a proof how much throughout Greece had extended that spirit of civilisation which is but an extension of the sense of justice. ... The arbitration of the umpires in favour of Athens only suspended hostilities; and the Megarians did not cease to watch (and shortly afterwards they found) a fitting occasion to regain a settlement so tempting to their ambition. The credit acquired by Solon in this expedition was shortly afterwards greatly increased in the estimation of Greece. In the Bay of Corinth was situated a town called Cirrha, inhabited by a fierce and lawless race, who, after devastating the Sacred territories of Delphi, sacrilegiously besieged the city itself, in the desire to possess themselves of the treasures which the piety of Greece had accumulated in the Temple of Apollo. Solon appeared at the Amphictyonic council, represented the sacrilege of the Cirrhæans, and persuaded the Greeks to arm in defence of the altars of their tutelary god [B. C. 595]. Clisthenes, the tyrant of Sicyon, was sent as commander-in-chief against the Cirrhæans; and (according to Plutarch) the records of Delphi inform us that Alcmæon was the leader of the Athenians. The war [known as the First Sacred War] was not very successful at the onset; the oracle of Apollo was consulted, and the answer makes one of the most amusing anecdotes of priestcraft. The besiegers were informed by the god that the place would not be reduced until the waves of the Cirrhæan Sea washed the territories of Delphi. The reply perplexed the army; but the superior sagacity of Solon was not slow in discovering that the holy intention of the oracle was to appropriate the lands of the Cirrhæans to the profit of the temple. He therefore advised the besiegers to attack and to conquer Cirrha, and to dedicate its whole territory to the service of the god. The advice was adopted--Cirrha was taken [B. C. 586]; it became thenceforth the arsenal of Delphi, and the insulted deity had the satisfaction of seeing the sacred lands washed by the waves of the Cirrhæan Sea. ... The Pythian games commenced, or were revived, in celebration of this victory of the Pythian god."

_Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, Athens: Its Rise and Fall,