Part 20

MITYLENE: the orthography of this name is very uncertain; on coins and inscriptions we find Mytilana,[77] while in Greek MSS. and even in more recent Latin inscriptions, it is invariably written Mitylene. The former is in all probability the more ancient mode of spelling, yet it is difficult to introduce it into printed books. Mitylene rose to the rank of one of the greatest and most splendid cities, and Alcaeus called it ἁ μεγάλα Μιτυλάνα. No place in Greece has produced greater geniuses, for Alcaeus and Sappho are among the most excellent lyric poets in Greek literature. The history of Alcaeus is connected with that of his time, for he fought in behalf of the liberty of his country against usurpation. There, as everywhere else, members of the order of the nobles set themselves up as tyrants, and the demos, supported by Pittacus, rose against these δυναστεῖαι. Alcaeus, belonging to the aristocracy, was opposed to Pittacus, whom he unjustly attacked for his low birth and his usurpation, for Pittacus laid down his dictatorial power as soon as he had given laws to the state. Mitylene, being an insular city, together with the other towns spontaneously submitted to the Persians. Under the Pisistratids, the Mityleneans carried on war with the Athenians for the possession of Sigeum on the Hellespont, and afterwards took part in the insurrection of the Ionians in Asia Minor. After the battle of Salamis, they asserted their independence of Persia, and placed themselves under the protection of Athens. During the Peloponnesian war, they at first yielded to circumstances, but then allowed themselves, by Spartan influence, to be led to insurrection. Paches reduced the city, and Cleon wanted to raze it to the ground; a decree was passed that all its inhabitants should be made slaves and the country laid waste; but the city narrowly escaped the most frightful devastation; and cleruchi were sent into the island to whom the inhabitants had to pay tribute. At the end of the war, the Mityleneans joined Sparta, and in the Macedonian period they were allied with Byzantium, Chios, and Cos against Athens, and throughout the time of the Macedonian ascendancy maintained their republican independence. In the reign of Mithridates they were mad enough to take part in the murder of the Romans, and shewed on that occasion greater cruelty than any other people. After a long resistance on the part of its inhabitants, the Romans took the city, destroyed it, and sold its citizens as slaves; it was, however, restored through the influence of Theophanes, the favourite of Pompey. Mitylene had a double harbour.

METHYMNA was the only Lesbian town that did not take part in the revolt against Athens, for which reason it was favoured by the Athenians. Otherwise little is to be said of this place, except that Arion, the dithyrambic poet, was born there.

ERESOS, or ERESSOS, was, according to some, the birth-place of Sappho. This, however, is a doubtful point, but certain it is, that Theophrastus, the last genuine Greek classic, was a native of Eresos.

The two Asiatic towns of the name of MAGNESIA, the one on the Maeander, and the other at the foot of mount Sipylus, have this in common, that their origin is not accounted for in any of the Greek traditions about the migrations into Asia. It is a surprising phenomenon, that a people like the Magnetes should have settled there, far away from the coast and from the other Greek towns. But if we bear in mind, that the Magnetes decidedly belong to the Pelasgian race, and that in other parts of that portion of Asia, too, Thessalian Pelasgians occur, we can scarcely entertain a doubt, that the two Magnesias in Asia must be regarded as remnants of a Pelasgian population in those districts. In the earliest Graeco-Asiatic history, both towns act a prominent part; but we know nothing definite about their fate; one of them, it is uncertain which, is said to have been destroyed during the great migration of the Cimmerians or Treres. Afterwards, during the period of the earliest Ionian traditions, the Magnesians were powerful through their cavalry. Magnesia, near mount Sipylus, was a considerable town as late as the time of the Macedonian and Syrian dominion, and in the war of Antiochus against his brother, it was allied with Smyrna and displayed great vigour and valour.

This may suffice about the Greek settlements in western Asia from Cnidos to the Propontis. Cyprus is isolated, and does not properly belong to the Greek nation; I shall have occasion to speak of it hereafter, as well as of the Greek settlements in Phrygia.

THE KINGDOM OF PERGAMUS.

On the same coast, we meet with the city of PERGAMUS, the origin of which is similar to that of Antioch and Alexandria, though Pergamus, in language and manners, was more completely hellenised than Antioch ever could be, because of the predominance of the Syriac population, which was deeply interested in the preservation of its own language. The extent of the ruins still attests the ancient splendour of the place. When Alexander was conquering western Asia, and even during the time when his successor Lysimachus governed those parts, Pergamus was not a town, but only a castle on a precipitous rock, celebrated for its strength; the rock is called στροβιλοειδής, from its resemblance to a pine-cone. After the battle of Ipsus, when Lysimachus had obtained Phrygia on the Hellespont and Lydia, he deposited in that castle his treasures, amounting, it is said, to 9,000 talents, about £1,935,000. During the later years of this unhappy prince, when, owing to the intrigues of his second wife Arsinoë, who wished to secure the throne to her own children, the Furies entered his house, and when he commenced persecuting his children by his first wife, and even ordered Agathocles to be put to death, there arose such a commotion in his dominions, that many parts refused obedience to him, and the whole kingdom fell into a state of disorganisation. Seleucus Nicator attacked it, and Philetaerus, the governor of Pergamus, declared himself independent, and opened the gates to Seleucus. Philetaerus had for a long time been in possession of what had been intrusted to his care, and at first probably with honest intentions towards the house of Lysimachus. But when the whole family of the latter had become extinct, Philetaerus remained the ruler of the country. He was succeeded by his brother Eumenes as dynastes, a title which was then commonly given to those who would in former times have been called tyrants. With the assistance of Gallic mercenaries, he extended his dominions towards Syria, defeated Antiochus Soter, the son of Seleucus Nicator, and founded a regular principality. His son Attalus assumed the title of king, though he had but a small kingdom. But he extended it, and although it was at first reduced by the Romans, they afterwards favoured and raised him to the rank of king of Asia.

The city of PERGAMUS, or PERGAMUM (for both forms occur, the Greeks commonly preferring Πέργαμον, and the Romans _Pergamus_), arose under the successor of Philetaerus, at the foot of the rock on which the castle continued to exist. The city seems to have been an open place; the inhabitants probably felt the inconvenience of a fortified town, and owing to the progress which the art of besieging had then made, not much confidence was placed in the protection of walls. The city was beautiful and wealthy, and remained prosperous until the Pergamenian dynasty became extinct, and the kingdom was made over to the Romans as a province. During the rebellion of Aristonicus, the city suffered but was not destroyed; thenceforth, however, it became deserted and dull, though it still remained a respectable provincial city. During the period of its kings, literature was flourishing at Pergamus, and there existed a rivalry between it and Alexandria, as well as between their grammatical and poetical schools: but those of Pergamus were not able to equal their rivals. They must, however, be mentioned with respect, especially the grammatical school, and Pergamus during the best period took an active part in grammatical studies. Nicander belongs to the Pergamenian school; he is indeed a poet of an inferior order, but still ought not to be despised. Julius Caesar transferred the library of Pergamus to Alexandria as a compensation for the one destroyed by fire in the latter place. It is strange that even a man like Caesar was not free from a certain barbarism, and that he did not carry those literary treasures to Rome.

ATARNEUS, in the neighbourhood of Pergamus, had formerly belonged to the Chians, who possessed several places on the mainland; they had received it from the Persians as a reward for the treachery of a deserter. It was a Mysian town, but subsequently became hellenised, though without receiving a Greek colony: such places must be carefully distinguished from real Greek towns. It was very strongly fortified, and afterwards made itself independent of Chios. In later times we find Hermias as an independent prince of Atarneus; his daughter Pythias was married to Aristotle, who himself lived with him for three years.

GREEK SETTLEMENTS IN MACEDONIA AND THRACE.

We shall now proceed on the north of mount Olympus along the coast of the Aegean to consider the Greek colonies there. The συνεχὴς Ἑλλάς, according to Dicaearchus, who has hitherto been our guide, extends as far as mount Olympus. He has indeed some doubts as to whether Thessaly should be included, but he decides after all in the affirmative, because Greek was spoken in Thessaly. Thessaly was evidently a hellenised country, just like the east of Germany, where formerly Wendish was spoken, while now pure German prevails, though rivers and mountains still have names which are completely Wendish. This hellenisation, however, did not extend beyond the boundaries of Thessaly; it scarcely reached as far as Peraebia, which was partly Macedonian and partly Thracian, the country beyond Olympus being inhabited by Macedonian and Thracian tribes. In the Homeric Catalogue, Thessaly extends beyond the Axius, a most beautiful river, as far as Pieria, which was regarded as part of ancient Thrace.

PIERIA forms the slope of the range of mountains of which Olympus, at the mouth of the Peneus, is the highest peak, rising to the height of the snow-line; this charming coast country extends from mount Olympus as far as the Thermaic gulf. The most important among the several Greek towns along this coast were PYDNA and METHONE, which are called Chalcidian. It is very surprising to find, that the whole coast, from the foot of mount Olympus to the Strymon, though not continuously, yet for the greater part, is occupied by Greek, and, if we except the Dorian Potidaea, by Ionian towns, which are called Chalcidian, whence Thucydides’ expression, Χαλκιδῆς ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης. If the population of all these towns had come from Chalcis in Euboea alone, that city, nay the whole of Euboea, would have been drained; we must assume that there was only a nucleus of Chalcidian _ctistae_, who brought with them Chalcidian νόμιμα and took possession of the places; all the rest consisted of adventurers from all parts of Greece. Those towns were for the most part μικρὰ πολίσματα. Until the time of Philip, when Macedonia was a small and weak state, though more weak than small, they had in the most wonderful manner contrived to remain independent of Macedonia. The places on the western coast of the Thermaic gulf had no political connexion with those on the eastern side. In the reigns of Perdiccas and Archelaus, Pydna and Methone seem to have been allied with Macedonia, but only for a time; it is possible that they may have paid a tribute as a recognition, but they were free towns. Little can be said of them: Methone was conquered and destroyed by Philip, and Pydna was taken and changed into a Macedonian town. More about this will be said when I come to speak of Macedonia.

Proceeding from the coast of Pieria along that of Emathia and Bottiaea, we meet with several towns of which it is doubtful whether they were Chalcidian or Bottiaean: Therma, subsequently called Thessalonica, appears to have been Chalcidian, but I shall say more about this when I come to Macedonia.

AENEA on the promontory where the smaller and larger Thermaic gulfs separate, is called by Herodotus a Greek town, but seems to have originally been Pelasgian and to have afterwards become hellenised. Farther on the Greek towns are more closely together, though nearly all of them are without historical importance, whence I shall not enter upon an enumeration of them.

The Bottiaeans, who, at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, rose against the Athenians, were a Pelasgian people, akin to the Greeks, like the Epirots and Thessalians, but not Greek. I shall say more of them hereafter. If you will understand the first book of Thucydides, you must have a thoroughly clear notion about them, which the early commentators had not. The Bottians and Bottiaeans must be distinguished.

From the projecting Acte of Macedonia, three peninsulas run out into the sea: the easternmost contains mount ATHOS, which extends in a south-eastern direction, and is highest at the point where it reaches the sea; this mountain must be conceived to extend below the sea, first to Lemnos and thence to mount Ida. PALLENE, the western peninsula, forms the eastern shore of the Thermaic gulf, and is connected with the Acte by a narrow isthmus. The middle peninsula is called SITHONIA. The interior of the broad Acte was never inhabited by Greeks, but only by barbarians, except a few isolated points, such as Apollonia. Sithonia itself was likewise occupied by barbarians, and Μιξέλληνες existed only here and there. Pallene, on the other hand, was thoroughly Greek. This country is one of the most fertile in all Europe; it was also, like Campania, called _Phlegra_, a name implying a volcanic district of immense fertility. The use of manure in Pallene would be injurious and cause the wheat to shoot up too high. There are districts in that peninsula where tobacco, which otherwise exhausts the most fertile soil, is grown in ordinary corn-fields; but if it were not for the tobacco, everything would be overgrown with weeds, and it would require great labour to destroy them. Wheat there grows to a height of from five to six feet, and it is nothing uncommon to see it rise even to seven or eight feet. Hence that country was a χώρα περιμάχητος. Potidaea, one of the _faces malorum_ of the Peloponnesian war, was situated on the isthmus of Pallene. Potidaea and Syracuse, the two ill-fated places that brought ruin on Greece in this war, were colonies of Corinth.

The towns on this coast are called τὰ πολίσματα τὰ ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης, or πόλεις Χαλκιδικαὶ ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης. It is only in an improper sense that we speak of a country of the name of Chalcidice; wherever that name occurs, it is incorrect and belongs to a late period. We must not, however, believe that none but Chalcidian towns existed there; they only formed the majority; the towns were not even all Greek. Besides the Dorian Potidaea, there existed Andrian and Eretrian towns, though they were few in number. But the Hellenic character was communicated to the neighbouring tribes, not only to the Bottiaeans and Pelasgians of mount Athos, but also to the Thracians, so that in the time of Philip many places are called Greek, which at an earlier period did not bear that name. The thirty-two Greek places on the Thracian coast, so often mentioned by Demosthenes, which were conquered and destroyed by Philip, cannot be taken as Greek towns in the strict sense of the term, but there were among them some which are called by Thucydides δίγλωττοι. I must here notice an error which is found in most maps, and even in those of D’Anville; namely, Chalcis is marked as a large town in that district, though not a trace of it occurs in our authors. It is a mere invention from the name of the Chalcidian towns, and is based on no better authority than the alleged town of Magnesia in Thessaly.

POTIDAEA, a Corinthian and the only Doric settlement in that part, is one of those places, the situation of which is so fortunate, that in spite of all calamities they always recover. It was conquered by the Athenians and received cleruchi, who were no doubt expelled by Lysander like the cleruchi in all the other places; it would appear, however, that the ancient Corinthian inhabitants who had been scattered in all directions, scarcely returned at all, and the few who did return became subjects of Olynthus, with which they afterwards formed a relation of sympolity. During this period, therefore, Potidaea was insignificant, and was conquered by the Athenians at the time when they recovered their maritime power; it was then probably re-conquered by the Olynthians, and finally came into the permanent possession of Macedonia. It may then have been destroyed, but it was restored from its ruins by Cassander, and called CASSANDREA,[78] under which name it was one of the most important Macedonian cities, and at times was the capital of the whole empire. The foundation of Cassandrea and the enlargement of Thessalonica shew that Cassander had a quick eye in discovering the appropriate sites of towns. It is a remarkable fact that these cities, although for a considerable time the kings resided in them, still were tolerably independent republics under the supremacy of the very kings who had founded them. Under Ptolemy Ceraunus and Lysimachus, Cassandrea was one of the capitals of Macedonia. After the death of the former, it was separated from Macedonia, and fell into the hands of the terrible tyrant, Apollodorus. During the wars of the Romans it was an important city, and maintained that rank throughout the middle ages down to modern times; six years ago (1822) it was destroyed, but it will undoubtedly recover from this calamity also.

Among the six towns in Pallene, only MENDE and SCIONE, which were destroyed in a fearful manner by the Athenians, deserve to be mentioned. This is one of the cases in which we cannot say that the Athenians did not abuse their excessive power.

OLYNTHUS, situated on a hill beyond the isthmus, about five miles north of Potidaea, is one of those places which, however familiar their names may be to the reader of Demosthenes, are yet historically very obscure; information about them does not readily present itself to us, and it is only with difficulty that we can gather their history. Olynthus is one of the little Chalcidian places, which are mentioned at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. During that war, when the Chalcidians rose against Athens, they formed the determination, for the purpose of being better able to defend themselves, to give up their old and indefensible towns, and to unite in one place, to form a συνοικισμός, in which undertaking they were supported by Perdiccas and Brasidas. In this manner Olynthus became a large town, a new city being formed around the old place and the acra. It speedily rose to great power, and had scarcely existed fifty years, when we hear it spoken of as ruling far and wide over the neighbouring country. The expedition of Brasidas had overthrown the supremacy of Athens in those parts, and the Macedonian towns were yet too weak to be able to avail themselves of this opportunity: hence a great power was there imperceptibly developed. The old towns were reduced to the rank of demi. They did not limit themselves to the pedantry of admitting only Greeks, but received Bottiaeans, Macedonians, and other neighbouring tribes into their alliance, and this is the first great example of a sympolity.

After Olymp. 100, Xenophon, in his _Hellenica_,[79] mentions the fact, that the Olynthians were already ruling over a great part of Macedonia; they were even in possession of Pella, and their eastern neighbours, the Apolloniats and Acanthians, being attacked by them, applied to Sparta for assistance. The whole of the northern country was independent of Olynthus, but we do not know whether the towns of the middle peninsula were so likewise: the peninsula of mount Athos was, with few exceptions, quite barbarous, and the eastern coast of Sithonia was likewise inhabited by Thracians and Tyrrhenians, who, however, in the time of Scylax of Caryanda, had already adopted the Greek language, whence he includes them among the Greeks. Olynthus was the centre of all that country, owing to the great extension of its power. During the disputes about the succession in Macedonia, one town after another was ceded to it as a reward for its decisions. Those towns accordingly applied to the Spartans who sent them assistance for the purpose of weakening Olynthus before it should be too late. This expedition, however, failed, and the Olynthians maintained themselves. It was at that time that the Cadmea had been treacherously seized by the Spartans, and thus the expedition gave the Thebans and Boeotians an opportunity to shake off the Spartan yoke. Further accounts are now wanting—so scantily is the history of Greece known to us! Yet, if we steadily look at the circumstances of the time, we may discover at least so much as to be able to fill up the principal gaps. At the time when Philip came forward, Olynthus was still a powerful city, ruling far and wide, though we do not know how far its dominion extended eastward; it was one of the first cities, and is called by Demosthenes a πόλις μυρίανδρος. But its conduct in history does not appear honourable; the Olynthians were quite infatuated and foolish, and without any idea of the danger threatening from Macedonia, which was then governed by a man who knew how to make use of them. For the purpose of obtaining some petty, miserable advantages, they allied themselves with Philip, and when he cast off the mask and was evidently aiming at their destruction, they were seized with the greatest terror and despair; and then, when it was too late, imploringly prostrated themselves at the feet of the Athenians, and begged their pardon. The Athenians, forgetting everything, immediately supported them on the advice of Demosthenes, but through the detestable treachery of Eurycrates and Lasthenes the city was delivered up to Philip. He could not possibly allow Olynthus quietly to continue its existence, but consistently with the principles of his diabolical policy, he was obliged to destroy it, that he might rise higher: he acquired a beautiful country and a large revenue; he ruled without any formidable neighbours, and was thus enabled to mature his cherished scheme of marching against Hellas. Olynthus was never restored.

The only Greek town in the middle peninsula was TORONE, on the western coast of the Toronean gulf; the towns on the eastern coast and in the interior were Thracian. Sithonia (Σιθωνία), the name of this peninsula, is sometimes used by Latin poets for Thrace, but the _o_ is made short, the ear of the early Roman writers probably not catching the name correctly.

The whole of the interior of the northern part of the peninsula containing mount Athos is a hilly country with few plains; even its isthmus is hilly, but then the ground rises higher and higher till it reaches the top of mount Athos, the height of which has not yet been measured. This peninsula was inhabited by barbarians, that is, by Thracians and Tyrrhenians of Lemnos and Imbros, mixed with Greeks, whence they were δίγλωττοι, just as, previously to the reduction of Greece, both Greek and Romaic were spoken, e.g. by the Albanese at Castri (Delphi) and Marathon.

ACANTHUS, an Andrian colony, was situated on the gulf near the isthmus; it is remarkable on account of the canal which Xerxes caused to be dug near it—a senseless undertaking worthy of a barbarian.