Part 6

AEGINA, though not in Peloponnesus, belongs to it more than to any other country out of Peloponnesus. According to the statement which makes its circumference largest, it amounted only to 180 stadia, or about twenty-two English miles; it is therefore probably much smaller than it is generally drawn in our maps, and its importance is to us a real mystery, seeing that as a maritime power it was not only equal but superior to Athens. Yet the mystery may perhaps be solved. Hydra and Spezzia are barren rocks, which Aegina is not; they are also smaller than Aegina, and yet their maritime pursuits procured them a population of several thousands; the soil of the small state of Ragusa is rocky, and produces no more corn than is required for a few months, and yet Ragusa as a republic kept many hundred ships, and even during the present revolution it has had many ships, some of which were well armed. When, however, we read of an Aeginetan fleet of from seventy to eighty galleys, each of which required about 200 marines, we cannot suppress our astonishment. Still more surprising is the statement of Athenaeus, that the island once had 470,000 slaves, for which he refers to no less an authority than Aristotle. There must be some error here, or else Athenaeus had misunderstood Aristotle, for the statement is absolutely impossible. The highest prosperity of Aegina belongs to a period when slavery did not yet prevail very much in Greece; and at other times, as I shall show presently, Aegina was by no means populous. We may indeed well understand that the island, which at an early period had a democratic form of government, may have had a navy more powerful than that of Athens before the time of Themistocles, as Athens had so long been governed by its great aristocratic landowners. During the period between the Pisistratids and the Persian wars, the struggle for the supremacy was carried on between Athens and Aegina with great exasperation and varying success, until Themistocles decided it by inducing Athens to apply all her energy to her navy, to make Phaleros a good harbour, and to build an imposing fleet. During the period between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, the Athenians had the upper hand and subdued the Aeginetans; at the commencement of the Peloponnesian war, the Athenians expelled the inhabitants of Aegina from their island, because they did not trust them, and the Lacedaemonians gave up Cythera (Cerigo) to them.[25] The fact that they maintained and supported themselves there is a proof that their number was very small. After the Peloponnesian war they were led back, but although Athens was so much reduced, Aegina never recovered its former importance. During the first war between Philip and the Romans, P. Sulpicius took Aegina, and reduced the whole population to slavery, from which they were afterwards ransomed by the kindness of their friends on the mainland.[26] Afterwards it fell into the hands of the kings of Pergamus; but we do not know whether it remained under their dominion until the overthrow of the Achaean confederacy. Aegina is one of those places whose destruction Serv. Sulpicius laments in his consolatory letter to Cicero. It seems to have been during such a devastation that the temple of Zeus Hellenios perished, among the ruins of which were found the celebrated Aegina marbles, which are at present in the museum of Munich.

LACONIA.

Laconia was of different extent at different times. Laconia, in the reign of Aristodemus and his sons, or the country such as it was originally at the time of the Heracleid conquest, was very far from being as large as the land afterwards bearing the same name; it was not even as large as the Laconia in Strabo or Pausanias, but perhaps similar to what it was during the Macedonian period, especially after the death of Nabis, when the fate of Lacedaemon had been determined by the Achaeans. The Heracleid Laconia, therefore, at the first distribution of the peninsula, could hardly be compared with the Heracleid Argos.

As regards the origin of the kingdom of Sparta, the tradition that Eurysthenes and Procles were twin-sons of Aristodemus, is altogether mythical.[27] Any one familiar with the spirit of ancient legendary history, can clearly see the process through which the narrative has passed. Both Herodotus and a fragment of Alcaeus have preserved the statement, that, according to the common tradition, Aristodemus himself reigned at Sparta and died there. But later writers represent him as having died before he arrived with the Heracleids in Peloponnesus, being killed by Apollo at Pytho. The fact is, that as his name was not found among those of the Doric chiefs, tradition made him the father of the two kings, for as Argos had three, so Sparta had two kings corresponding with the two highest among the phylae; and the two Spartan kings are nothing but the heads of the two γένη of the Eurypontids and Agiads, belonging to two different phylae; one of them is designated as the οἰκίη ὑποδεεστέρη, because it belonged to the less noble phyle; whence we cannot be surprised at their not being called Eurysthenids and Proclids. Aristodemus is merely a mythical name, signifying that his descendants are the noblest among their people. The conquerors of Sparta, on their arrival, are said to have found Tisamenus, the son of Orestes. Those who looked upon this tradition as a piece of genuine history, felt that it was difficult to see, how the son of Orestes had come from Mycenae to Sparta; and the ancients extricated themselves by the story, that Orestes, succeeded to the throne of Menelaus by marrying Hermione—a story which is unknown to the author of the first part of the Odyssey, for he speaks of Megapenthes, a son of Menelaus, which again is only an expression of the general idea, that the house of Menelaus ended in sorrow. There can be no doubt that the most ancient form of the tradition is this, that Temenus, the Doric king of Argos, possessed the same supremacy over the sons of Aristodemus at Sparta, and over Cresphontes in Messene, as had in former times been exercised by the king of Mycenae over the whole of Achaean Peloponnesus. But Spartan pride, at an early time, endeavoured to cast this humiliating tradition into the shade. Hence also the statement that Cresphontes drew lots, as to whether he should obtain Laconia or Messene, Argos being altogether out of the question.

It is only from a fragment of Ephorus in Strabo, that we know anything about the feudal principalities of the Dorians in Laconia. This piece of information once hung upon a thread, and was nearly destroyed by a mutilation of the passage in the manuscript from which all the others are derived; if the book were lost, or but a little more mutilated, we should know absolutely nothing about this feudal system—so much our knowledge of the most important circumstances often depends upon a mere accident. Hence it is quite legitimate, in case of such information being wanting, to supply the deficiency with rational boldness, in accordance with the general principles of historical development. Now, according to Ephorus, the Dorian kings divided Laconia into six principalities. The first was Sparta, where they themselves exercised the supremacy over the other principalities, just as the Capetingian kings of Paris and Orleans, who ruled over the country as far as Orleans (Isle de France) as a distinct principality, and were recognised as kings in the rest of France, but in such a manner that their vassals again, within their own territories, were true princes or kings. In regard to the other principalities, Strabo (p. 424, D)[28] says, that _Amyclae_, at a distance of about five miles from Sparta, was given to the Achaean who, by his faithless counsel, had induced the Achaean king of the time to capitulate and quit his country; he is elsewhere called Philonomus.[29] The text of Strabo is here much mutilated; there is one line of which the greater part is legible, and of the next only a few words. I am convinced, however, that I have discovered the meaning, namely, that the remaining four kingdoms were _Las_, _Helos_, _Aepys_, and _Pherae_, the two last of which subsequently belonged to Messene.[30] These five states then stood to Sparta in the relation of isopolity, and their citizens might exercise the Spartan franchise; but the sovereignty in all foreign relations belonged to Sparta, so that the Spartan conquest at that time imposed no heavy yoke upon the feudal principalities. This relation was altered by Agis I.[31] The Spartan Dorians broke through the relation of these isopolite states in such a manner as boldly to deprive them of their rights, to depose the kings, and reduce the inhabitants to the condition of περίοικοι, in which they remained indeed free, but became dependent and lost the right of exercising the Spartan franchise. The people of Helos refused to submit to these terms, in consequence of which their town was destroyed by the Spartans.[32] The Homeric Catalogue mentions some other places in Laconia, as _Bryseae_ and _Messe_, of which afterwards not a trace occurs, and which may have been destroyed at that time. Many towns probably perished before the Spartans were masters of one-fourth of the whole country.

The geographical relations of Laconia are likewise extremely obscure; but I have very little doubt that if a person were without bias and carefully to distinguish the different periods, he might arrive at more satisfactory results than have as yet been gained.

The name LACEDAEMON was, in antiquity, not applied to the city but to the country, especially the valley of the Eurotas. In the Catalogue, it is clearly distinguished from Sparta.

Οἳ δ’ εἶχον κοίλην Λακεδαίμονα κητώεσσαν Φᾶρίν τε Σπάρτην τε—

The Alexandrian grammarians rightly say that the κοίλη Λακεδαίμων refers to the valley of Lacedaemon, just like κοίλη Ἦλις. Sparta, on the other hand, always remained the proper name of the city, and it is only in later writers, such as Polybius, that Lacedaemon is used as the name of the city; wherever it occurs in this sense in earlier authors, it must be regarded as an exception to the rule.

The middle of the south of Peloponnesus, from Arcadia downwards, is formed by Mount TAYGETUS (now Pentedactylon), which ends in Cape Taenarus. This mountain, as I have already observed, is the seat of frequent volcanic commotions. Porphyry, the stone of which it consists, is found most commonly in volcanic mountains; the green serpentine, likewise peculiar to Taygetus, is found there in great masses, whence we meet in Roman poets with the expressions, _metalla Taygeti_, _metalla Laconica_, _virides lapides Taygeti_; _Taygeti virent metalla_. Mount Taygetus is full of caverns; the most important are those near Taenarus (now Cape Matapan), whence the legend that the entrance to the lower world was there. Just as this mountain runs between the rivers Pamisus and Eurotas, so another runs between the Eurotas and the Argolic Gulf; the latter is of no less importance, though lower than Taygetus, and terminates in Cape Malea. Taygetus is wild, and large tracts on its top are incapable of cultivation; but in its lower parts it has fertile valleys. The valley of the Eurotas (now Vasilipotamos), is broad and beautiful, and the river itself, both in length and depth, is the most important in all Peloponnesus.

SPARTA, situated on the Eurotas, was a royal city from the earliest times; according to tradition, it was the residence of Menelaus, and afterwards of the Heracleid kings. From its beginning down to the Macedonian period, it remained an open place; but, like all other Greek cities, it had an acropolis, whence the expression which is applied to Sparta as well as to other places, that it was inhabited κωμηδόν, does not exclude the existence of an ἀκρόπολις. On the heights of Epirus, too, traces of Cyclopian walls and earthen ramparts have been discovered, although it was inhabited κωμηδόν, which shows that towns thus described were not surrounded by walls, but built round a fortified central point. In this condition Sparta remained until the Macedonian period. For a long time the Spartans, no doubt, lived in their open city, as it were unconsciously, but afterwards the feeling of their own greatness and security told them that it was not worth while to build walls. When however they were visited by the Macedonians, Sparta was surrounded with walls which remained until the city was united with the Achaean confederacy, when they had to be pulled down again.

The houses at Sparta were built in an irregular and poor manner, almost all being made of clay; such was indeed the case in other Greek towns also, but at Sparta it was pre-eminently so, and the city appears to have had no regular streets at all. There were, however, a few notable buildings, though they cannot exactly be called magnificent. Under the dominion of the Romans, Sparta was the most important city in Peloponnesus, for during the Achaean war it had joined the Romans, and had thereby afforded them a welcome pretext for destroying Achaia. Ancient Sparta seems to have perished at an early part of the middle ages, when the unfortunate Peloponnesus was ravaged by the Slavonians. The building of the town of _Misitra_ is ascribed to a prince of the family of the Palaeologi, but the probable fact is that he only restored it. There are few places of which so scanty ruins are discoverable as of Sparta. _Limnae_ was a suburb of Sparta.

About five miles from it was situated AMYCLAE, which was older than the Doric conquest, and was respected by the Spartans.

Little can be said about the other places in Laconia. GYTHEION was the ἐπίνειον of Sparta even during the maritime supremacy of Athens, and remained what it then was as long as Sparta occurs in ancient history; but it is not by any means a particularly good harbour.

It is not worth while to enumerate the places along the coast, for we can say nothing about them, absolutely nothing being known except their sites. The most important among them is EPIDAURUS, surnamed LIMERA (now Monembasia or Napoli di Malvasia), to distinguish it from other towns of the same name, with a very beautiful and safe harbour, which was especially protected by a rock within it; on it was built the citadel, which from its natural position was extremely strong. But Epidaurus was too far from Sparta, and too much separated from it by mountains ever to become its port town.

SELLASIA, in the interior of the country, situated between Tegea and Sparta, in a pass where mount Taygetus and the other range of mountains come close together, was a place of great historical reputation. It was important as a military post, for it was occupied by Cleomenes in the war against the Macedonians and Achaeans, and he there suffered his unfortunate defeat. It seems at all times to have belonged to Lacedaemon. But the case of PELLANA, BELEMINA, and other places between Megalopolis and Sparta was different; they originally belonged to Arcadia, just as Epidaurus Limera, Prasiae and others belonged to Argos, to which in the end they were restored. Such change in the boundaries of Laconia took place in the time of Philip of Macedonia, in consequence of a decision which he made at Corinth after the battle of Chaeronea. Such at least must be our inference, for we afterwards find the Achaeans and Argives, without any war, in the possession of those parts, so that the Spartans must either have ceded them of their own accord, or the Achaeans and Argives were put in possession of them by force. However much, therefore, the Spartans may boast of never having stooped under the power of Macedonia, it is nothing but one of the many untruths they have uttered.

The district about Taenarus and the coast-country from the borders of Messenia to Malea, afterwards bore the name of _Eleutherolacones_. This tract of country is mentioned by Strabo and Pausanias with praise, and it is said to have contained eighteen towns, the inhabitants of which were designated by that name, because they had made themselves independent of the supremacy of Sparta. Strabo refers the origin of this emancipation to Augustus, but it probably arose from other circumstances. When T. Quinctius Flamininus entered Laconia, and Nabis indulged in several acts of insolence, the Romans, believing it dangerous to wage war against him, connived at it; meantime he committed all possible cruelties against the unfortunate Peloponnesians, and insulted the Romans into the bargain: in short, he carried matters so far, that Flamininus, contrary to his own inclinations, was forced to punish him; and although Flamininus was unwilling, utterly to annihilate him, yet Nabis was afterwards unable to recover himself. The consuls then proceeded to the towns on the coast (the modern Maina, as far as Malea, now St. Angelo), which renounced Nabis, and were constituted by the Romans as free and independent towns. If afterwards, when the Achaean confederacy was broken up, they were restored to Sparta, and remained subject to it until the time of Augustus, the Romans must have given them up at that time; and Strabo’s expression can refer only to a second constitution. But on the whole, those towns were insignificant.

The island of CYTHERA (Cerigo) is separated from Laconia by a channel of the sea; in antiquity it was the same as it is now, a rugged, volcanic island, presenting a dismal aspect on account of its dark, burned rocks. Aesthetic historians, anxious to have a more beautiful place for the temple of Cytherea, have described the island as a paradise, and supposed that a devastating change had taken place at a later period. But not a trace of this is found among the ancients. The island was thinly peopled. When the Athenians had expelled the Aeginetans from the island, the Spartans gave up Cythera to them, and from this, as I have already observed, we may infer that, as the island contained but little fertile land, the number of Aeginetans must have been small. If, therefore, Aegina once actually had an enormous population, it can have been owing only to some accidental circumstance, as was the case with Pisa at the time of the conquest of Sardinia.[33]

The real central point of the volcanic mountain-range of Peloponnesus and of the Archipelago, is the island of THERA; one branch of the volcanic range proceeds from Thera northward in the direction of Lemnos; another turns to the East towards Rhodes and the coast of Ionia, whence the frequent earthquakes in those parts. The whole district from Delos to Lemnos, thence to the Asiatic coast, and thence again to Thera, forms as it were a circle.

The ancients imagined that Laconia once contained within its boundaries 39,000 farms; but this statement is not well authenticated. The greater part of the country as far as the sea was agricultural land in the possession of the Spartans, and cultivated by their serfs or helots.

MESSENE, MESSENIA, MESSENIACA.

The third of the Dorian kingdoms is Messene, Messenia, or Messeniaca, for all these three names are applied to the kingdom of Cresphontes. The boundaries in the mythical age cannot be accurately defined, but so far as we can see, they were about the same as in the Macedonian period; it perhaps extended to the very top of Taygetus and the sources of the Pamisus. Although it was likewise a mountainous country, yet owing to the splendid valley of the Pamisus (valley of Calamata), which is one of the richest in the world, and to other fertile coast-districts, it enjoyed the reputation of being a particularly wealthy country, whence, according to tradition, it was so much the object of the cupidity of Cresphontes, when lots were drawn for Lacedaemon and Messene, that he used a false lot. At present the country is in an unspeakably miserable condition. The name Messene is said originally to have belonged to the country only, and not to a city.

Messene, too, originally consisted of one sovereign principality and several dependent ones, the Achaean princes being in a relation of dependence on the Dorian kings. But while at Sparta the ancient inhabitants were deprived of the actual exercise of their rights, they rose in Messene to a condition of equality with their Dorian conquerors, and the latter became amalgamated with the ancient inhabitants into one compact nation. The two states also differed in other respects: Sparta was ruled by two kings, while in Messene a Heracleid monarchy was established. The early history of Messene is as uncertain as that of the Roman kings; the traditions about the destruction of the kingdom are anything but authentic, and we cannot fix the time of that event within a hundred years. This observation is too important not to be repeated in this place. The colony of Messenians which is said to have been established at Zancle, is probably nothing but an inference from the subsequent name of that place; for the foundation of that colony, if we assign it to the time in which alone it can be conceived to have been established, would be separated by more than a century from the events in Messene, to which it is said to owe its origin. The only historical fact is, that the last Messenian war belongs to the period about Olymp. 80; some towns were then reduced to the condition of perioeci, but the great body of the country people became helots, and the land was divided among the Spartans. The war ended with the capitulation of the helots, who had withdrawn to the citadel of Ithome, whence the besieged obtained a free departure to Naupactus; in this latter place they afterwards lived under the protection of Athens. The chronology of the early history of Greece is so uncertain, that, although we are here speaking of the period subsequent to the Persian wars, the exact year in which the last Messenian war was brought to a close cannot be determined; its outbreak is known to belong to about Olymp. 80, as at that time Taygetus was shaken by a violent earthquake. The war lasted at least ten years. From that time till about the battle of Leuctra, a period of about eighty years, Messene remained for the most part a wilderness, as the Morea was under the dominion of the Turks, even during the time that it had already somewhat recovered (1670-1680). In this condition, the country was found by the Athenian fleet which, during the Peloponnesian war, appeared before Sphacteria; the ancient towns lay in ruins. It was a well-deserved punishment for Sparta’s tyranny and cruelty, that this was the very point at which the Athenians entered the Spartan dominion and established themselves about Pylos.

After the battle of Leuctra, Epaminondas collected all those who gave themselves out to be descendants of the ancient Messenians; and they were joined by numbers of Arcadians, Boeotians, perioeci of Sparta, and helots who had shaken off the Spartan yoke, and he led them back into Messene. This restoration of Messene was unquestionably just, and Sparta had well deserved the infliction; but for Greece it was an unfortunate event, for in the circumstances of the time, when the danger was threatening from Macedonia, the only thing which might have saved Greece, was concentration and strengthening, but by no means a going back to the ancient times. Hence Macedonia declared in favour of Messene, as well as of Argolis and Arcadia, for the purpose of weakening Sparta. Had the latter been able to renew and consolidate itself, as was subsequently attempted by Cleomenes, and had it been joined by all the Peloponnesians, Greece might still have defied Macedonia for centuries, and all the subsequent scenes of misery would not have occurred.