Chapter IX: Part 9

CHIOS is one of the most splendid islands in the world, for with the exception of a few desert and rough districts, it combines all the blessings of Ionia: it has excellent wine, and its soil produces in fact everything that agriculture demands of it; it had a beautiful harbour, and its inhabitants have at all times been active and enterprising men. Before the time of the Peloponnesian war, they showed wisdom in their relation to Athens, and took no part in the senseless insurrections of Samos and other islands, but conscientiously adhered to the treaties with Athens and remained quiet, whence they were treated by the Athenians with great respect. While the other towns had to pay money as contributions towards the Athenian fleet, Chios and Lesbos still retained their navy; Lesbos lost its fleet in consequence of its thoughtless revolt in the Peloponnesian war, but Chios remained faithful to Athens till after the Sicilian disaster. The Chians then wanted to place themselves at the head of an Ionian maritime confederation, which, however, was never realised. Afterwards they headed the the Social war (Olymp. 106). During the Macedonian period the Chians behaved with great prudence, and, like the Rhodians, preserved their republican independence. This state of things remained until the war of Mithridates, when they supported him, and were punished by the Romans in consequence. But the island soon recovered again. The great renown of Chios arose out of the belief, that Homer was a native of the island, and had lived there, because a _genos_ of Homerids existed there until a late period. In my opinion, Homer is a mythical hero; the genos of the Homerids must be viewed in the same light as all such γένη, e.g., that of the Asclepiadae and Butadae; a common origin of such a genos from one ancestor is altogether out of the question.[75] The author of a great portion of the Homeric poems, especially of the ground-work of our present Iliad, seems to have belonged to Smyrna; the testimony of those who call him Melesigenes is, in my opinion, entitled to the best consideration, although the author of the Hymn on Apollo calls himself a Chian.

About SMYRNA wonderful stories were current in antiquity. According to one of them, it was originally an Ionian settlement, and, considering its situation between Ephesus and Phocaea, this is most probable; afterwards it is stated to have passed into the hands of the Aeolians, from whom it was taken again, according to Herodotus, by the Ionians. It is then scarcely mentioned at all until after the time of Alexander. Antigonus the one-eyed in reality built Smyrna anew; nearly all that is related about its early history is legendary. Its site was so happily chosen, that among all the towns on that coast it was the most imperishable, and continually increased. Its harbour is very excellent, but had been overlooked in an unaccountable manner ever since its destruction by the Lydians. It was, particularly during the period that Ephesus was governed by Egypt, that Smyrna, being under the dominion of Syria, rose to eminence. During the unfortunate times of the Roman wars, the Smyrnaeans behaved with great prudence, as we see particularly from their treaty with the Magnesians. Under the Romans, and that even under the first emperors, Smyrna, alternately with Ephesus, was often the seat of the proconsul. The Romans procured its admission into the Ionian confederacy as the thirteenth town. According to the ancient notions, the Ionians would not have ventured to go beyond the sacred and established number, and in case of emergency, they would have incorporated a smaller town with a larger one, e.g., Lebedos with Ephesus or Colophon; but those scruples were then easily got over, and hence we now find thirteen Ionian towns mentioned in inscriptions, coins, etc. In like manner, Athens, in later times, had thirteen tribes, and a senate of the corresponding number of 650. Smyrna was often destroyed, once in a very fearful manner by Tamerlane, but it soon recovered. The correct orthography of the name, both with the Greeks and the Romans, is Zmyrna, in the same manner as they wrote Zmaragdos.

The meetings of the twelve Ionian towns took place at a spot called _Panionium_, below the promontory of Mycale, which formed about the central point among them. These meetings gave rise to a permanent town with a prytaneum, in which the meetings were held. This union among the Ionians was not of a political nature, though it seems to have been the original intention that it should be; but the autonomy of the individual states did not permit this, and hence Panionium was only a place for agones.

There were several more small towns in Ionia, which I will pass over here. Mount Mimas, a branch of mount Taurus, rises precipitously above Erythrae (ἠνεμόεις Μίμας in Homer).

AEOLIS.

The number of Aeolian towns in Asia Minor and the neighbouring islands amounted to thirty, but they formed several separate groups. One of these groups, the real Αἰολὶς δωδεκάπολις, had Cyme for its capital. There was also an Αἰολὶς ἐν Ἴδῃ in the interior of the country, which probably included Tenedos and Hecatonnesoi. Lesbos contained six towns. These Aeolian towns (the name is applied in its most proper sense to the first group or the dodecapolis) cannot, generally speaking, be compared in importance with the Ionian and Dorian settlements; they were μικρὰ πολίχνια; Smyrna’s importance belongs to the time when it had ceased to be Aeolian. It would lead me too far here to enumerate all the Aeolian towns whose names are mentioned only by one author or another, for they are otherwise unimportant; hence I shall notice only the most celebrated, and in point of fact there are only two out of the eleven (after the separation of Smyrna) that deserve to be noticed.

The first is CYME, with the surname _Phriconis_, which cannot be explained. The foundation of this place is assigned to an extremely early period, the report being, that it was built soon after the Trojan war. But not too much value must be attached to this tradition, any more than to most of the things belonging to the time anterior to the beginning of the Olympiads. Cyme is always spoken of as the greatest and most important among the Aeolian towns, but history does not justify this reputation, for the place nowhere appears possessed of power or influence. The historian Ephorus, who was born there, sheds considerable lustre upon it; the loss of his work is irreparable, and perhaps the most serious that we have to lament in ancient history. He cheerfully took the greatest pains to investigate the obscure periods of antiquity, and must be regarded as the first critical inquirer into the early history of Greece. He thoroughly deserves the respect paid to him by his contemporaries, although his style, according to the testimony of Isocrates, was dry and inferior to that of Theopompus: perhaps we should judge differently of him if we had his work. The opinion that Hesiod was a native of Cyme, seems to be a gross delusion, the origin of which, however, is not clear to me.

We must also notice GRYNEON with its celebrated temple of Apollo, who is for this reason called _Gryneus_ by Virgil and Ovid.

TEMNOS remained a somewhat important place even in later times. The other towns are quite insignificant.

The whole history of these Aeolian colonies is involved in singular obscurity. Penthilus, a son of Orestes, is said to have first settled with Aeolians in Lesbos, and Gras, his son or grand-son, is reported to have founded Cyme on the mainland; he was worshipped there as archegetes, which, however, means nothing else, than that the foundation was ascribed to Orestes himself. Gras here is probably nothing but the eponymus to _Graecus_, standing to the _Graeci_ in the same relation as Helen does to the Hellenes. The matter is so obscure that we ought to approach it with the utmost caution; I for my part cannot understand how Agamemnon’s grand-son should have gone into that country with such a miscellaneous race as the Aeolians, and with a colony which is said to have consisted chiefly of Thessalian Aeolians. I am much more inclined to believe, that after the Trojan war the race of the Pelopids or Agamemnonids remained behind as rulers in those parts; and this is not improbable in itself, since the fact of the Trojan war certainly cannot be doubted: the poetical account of Helen, of the siege, and the wooden-horse, is not historical, but the war and its final issue cannot be denied. I suppose, therefore, that Greeks under the Agamemnonids remained behind in the conquered Teucrian country. If this be so, we here have another instance of that change of the poles of a tradition, to which I have repeatedly drawn your attention: Pelops is transferred from Phrygia to Peloponnesus, and the Pelopids from Peloponnesus to Asia. But the chief point is this, we must regard the Greek inhabitants of that coast as a people of the same race as the western Hellenes, as in fact even in tradition all the country was originally Pelasgian, whence at a later period it likewise became identical with the Hellenic countries. The barbarous tribes on that coast, the Mysians, Lydians and Carians, did not arrive until a latter time. But we must not go too far in tracing this origin of the Aeolian colonies.

The northern part of Aeolis embraced the πολίχνια ἐν Ἴδῃ, in what was properly the Teucrian country; and to it belonged Abydos, Tenedos, and Hecatonnesoi. Although these towns were Greek, yet they were viewed by the ancients in a very different light. Some of them play rather a prominent part in the later wars of the Greeks, as for example SCEPSIS, the native place of the grammarian Demetrius, an historical commentator of Homer; the town is mentioned in Xenophon’s Hellenica. We must here also mention the Aeolian ILION, which arose after the destruction of ancient Ilion. ASSOS was situated at the foot of mount Ida, shut in between the mountains and the sea; some mysterious ruins of it are still extant. ABYDOS stood on the narrowest part of the Hellespont, where it is only seven stadia, about one mile, in breadth. TENEDOS was flourishing in consequence of its situation at the entrance of the Hellespont; it was a commercial place, populous and industrial, and derived advantages from its situation even as late as the time of the Romans. The town in Hecatonnesoi is mentioned only by Herodotus.

That this part of Aeolis was likewise a dodecapolis, is indeed no more than a conjecture, for we cannot make out the names of all the towns; but it is at least very probable partly from analogy, and partly from the words of Strabo; for out of the number of the thirty towns which he calls Aeolian, twelve belong to the southern dodecapolis and six to Lesbos.

LESBOS is the pearl of the Aeolian race; in the Trojan times it is called Pelasgian, but in such a manner that the Pelasgian Macar in Homer is an Aeolian.[76] Lesbos is a blessed country, and excellent for the cultivation of the vine and grain, like Chios; it is only wanting in mastix, and its wine too is somewhat inferior to that of Chios; it has, however, no rough districts like Chios, but only pleasing hills and numerous plains, many excellent harbours, and bays entering far into the country. It had originally six towns, among which, however, _Arisba_ was destroyed at an early period by the Methymnaeans; its name reminds us of the town on the mainland known from Homer; it had disappeared as early as the time of Herodotus. Among the remaining five, two are towns of importance, Mitylene and Methymna; the three others are Pyrrha, Eresos, and Antissa.

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.

East from mount Athos the Greek towns are found at greater intervals from one another. APOLLONIA (there are at least a dozen towns of this name), an important city, maintained its independence of Olynthus. Near it was situated STAGIRA, the birth-place of Aristotle, which was destroyed by Philip, but was restored in consequence of the entreaties of Aristotle.

The district then following is now called the country of SERES, a town situated at the mouth of the Strymon, and mentioned in the middle ages under the name of _Serrae_; it is an important place, but did not exist in antiquity. The river Strymon was, for a time, regarded as the boundary of Macedonia, but it belongs, properly speaking, to Paeonia. The country about its mouth, like that of Pella and Pallene, is one of the most productive districts, and particularly fit for the growth of cotton and tobacco, whence it was a χώρα περιμάχητος at an early period. It was as important to the Greeks as the ports of the Baltic are to the Dutch and English.

EION, an ancient Greek town at the mouth of the Strymon, was probably a factory of Thasos. From it Athens and the other maritime cities obtained the timber for shipbuilding, which was brought down the river in rafts. Cyprus, however, also furnished timber. Eion was a very strong place; it was long in possession of the Persians, and Boges maintained himself there long after the great forces of Xerxes had been defeated at Mycale and Plataeae; it was afterwards delivered by Cimon. In former times the Milesians had attempted to establish themselves in those parts, and now the Athenians did the same, at first without success, as the Thracians destroyed their colony. But in a second attempt they were more fortunate. They established themselves near the mouth of the river Strymon, about five miles from Eion, and founded the genuine Attic colony of AMPHIPOLIS. It derived its name from the fact of its being situated on both banks of the river and being surrounded by two arms of it; the city was planned with great skill, and built on an excellent site, which nature itself had destined to be a great commercial place, like Riga. The Athenians treated it with especial favour: it was not founded like other places which merely received cleruchi, or, according to the Roman fashion, did not possess municipal jurisdiction, but was a true colonial town, and, to a certain extent, independent of the supremacy of Athens. But the Thracians were dangerous neighbours, especially the Edonians; and in order to defend themselves against them, the colonists admitted Chalcidians as their fellow-citizens, who soon formed the majority, because the Chalcidian towns were not far distant, and because Amphipolis offered more attractions than other places. The Amphipolitans exported timber, corn, tar, pitch, iron, and other Thracian products: it was a necessary mart for the Paeonians and other neighbouring nations. At the time of the Peloponnesian war, when the exasperation between the Athenians and Chalcidians had risen very high, the latter succeeded in treacherously overpowering the Attic colony, and in securing the assistance of Sparta. Brasidas defended it against Cleon, and fell in the battle, but the possession of the town was nevertheless for a long time withheld from the Athenians, and Amphipolis henceforth remained a Chalcidian town. In the time of Timoleon, when the maritime power of Athens was again extended, Amphipolis was obliged to acknowledge her supremacy, but soon renounced it again, and the Athenians being then in an unwarlike condition were unable to re-conquer it. The possession of Amphipolis then became one of the baits by means of which Philip for a long time deceived the Athenians; but he took it for himself, and thenceforth, as long as the Macedonian empire existed, it remained one of its chief towns. Early in the middle ages (in the seventh century), it was destroyed by the Slavonians and other barbarians, and never recovered. The town of Seres stepped into its place.

The towns of ABDERA and MARONEA, both Ionian colonies of Teos, were situated on the coast of Thrace proper. Abdera is celebrated from the tradition about the silliness of its inhabitants, which has been carried to the height of absurdity in the romance of Wieland. These stories have almost made us forget, that Democritus, one of the greatest geniuses of Greece, was a native of Abdera. Maronea was an ancient seat of the worship of Bacchus, for the southern coast of Thrace is one of the countries in which the nobler kinds of wine were produced at a very early period.

AENOS, an Aeolian town, was situated at the mouth of the river Hebrus. All these countries afterwards belonged for a time to the kingdom of Egypt. If my intention of editing Polybius conjointly with Bekker should ever be realised, I contemplate adding a map of that coast.

The CHERSONESUS, which, between forty and fifty miles in length, extends between the κόλπος μέλας and the Hellespont, is connected with Thrace by an isthmus of about five miles in breadth, and was formerly a Thracian country, whence its name of _Chersonesus Thracica_. Such it appears in the cyclic poems, and the faithless tyrant, to whom Hecuba entrusts her son, is placed in this peninsula; but in the course of time Greeks settled there, and hence arose the colonies of _Sestos_, _Eleus_ (Ἐλεοῦς, Ἐλαιοῦς), and _Alopeconnesus_ on the coast of the Hellespont; but all of them, with the exception of Sestos, were unimportant. The interior contained the Thracian country of the Doloncians. When these latter were attacked by the Thracian tribes, they, in common with the Greek towns, applied to Athens for protection, for Athens was then already rising, and fought with the Mityleneans for the possession of Sigeon. At that time, the Athenians under Miltiades took possession of Chersonesus, and protected it by a line of fortifications against the Thracians, on which occasion they must have founded Cardia. The Thracians who formerly dwelt there, now became allies and subjects, in which relation they remained until the extension of the power of Persia. We must not imagine that the first taking possession of Chersonesus was not the work of Pisistratus; the tendency to refer to the people that which was done by the tyrants alone, is one of the later republican vanities. Yet it does not follow, that Athens at that time had a consolidated dominion over Chersonesus, unless indeed it was broken after the expulsion of the Pisistratids.

It contained twelve towns. The wall of Miltiades was long preserved, though it was often broken through and restored. Near it was CARDIA, according to tradition, an ancient Greek town, which only received new strength through Miltiades. It was destroyed by Lysimachus, perhaps not in anger, but, as was often done by the rulers of that time, for the purpose of enriching a favourite town with inhabitants. Thus Mahomed I., in order to raise Constantinople, transplanted to it many thousands of Christian Armenians and other people. For Lysimachus founded LYSIMACHIA by the side of Cardia, and this no doubt became his capital, though this is nowhere expressly mentioned, for it is in the spirit of the times; think only of Alexandria, Antioch, Demetrias, and Cassandrea! Lysimachia was great and splendid; it was afterwards under the dominion of Syria; in the wars between Seleucus Callinicus and Ptolemy Euergetes it passed from the hands of the Syrians into those of the Egyptians. The latter either set the town free, or it emancipated itself, and entered the relation of sympolity with the Aetolians. As the latter were unable to protect it, it was destroyed at the time of the Philippic war by the Thracians, for the Thracian tribes were then very powerful and tyrannical towards the Greeks. Being poorly restored by Antiochus the Great, it thenceforth was little more than a name, until in the end it disappears altogether. Cardia produced the historian Hieronymus, who wrote a history of the successors of Alexander and their descendants (Epigoni); he was an historian of great value, an able man, and a companion of Eumenes. The latter, too, was a native of Cardia, a man of a better kind than the other generals of Alexander; he was the only non-Macedonian who raised himself to the rank of a prince; he had a real enthusiasm for the house of Alexander, of which not a trace is to be found in any of the others.

All the remaining places were either Athenian or Ionian, and Alopeconnesus and Sestos alone are called Aeolian. Sestos is celebrated through the legend of Hero, and in history on account of the long siege which the Persians sustained there even after the battle of Mycale. This is the site of the ancient Dardanelles; the Hellespont there is only seven stadia in breadth.

I ought to have mentioned ABYDOS on the opposite coast, when speaking of Aeolis. It is renowned for its desperate defence against Philip, the son of Demetrius, and Antiochus, in their war against young Ptolemy. It is inconceivable what made the people of Abydos so determined not to exchange one master for another: they made away with themselves in order not to fall into the hands of Philip.

At a later time, CALLIPOLIS (now Gallipoli) arose in the neighbourhood of Sestos; it was an important town under the Byzantine emperors, and even as early as the reign of Justinian. In antiquity it was so insignificant, that it may be doubted as to whether it really existed.

The Chersonesus appears gradually to have become completely hellenised, although the Thracians were otherwise very obstinate. They entirely disappeared there, either because they quitted the peninsula or because they became amalgamated with the Greeks, for in the time of Philip all the people were Greek, and from the time of Timotheus onward, for a period of several years, the country was completely Athenian. But as the Athenians sent cleruchi into it, the Thracians revolted: hence the interference of Philip, who took possession of the peninsula. This was the occasion of Demosthenes’ speech, περὶ τῶν ἐν Χερσονήσῳ.

We shall now proceed along the Thracian coast as far as the mouth of the Pontus, and then cross over to the coast of Asia. The sea between the Hellespont and the Bosporus was called _Propontis_. The continuous line of coast of this sea never was entirely in the hands of the Greeks, but they possessed the most important points. On the Thracian coast, between Chersonesus and Perinthus, they had but few places, but the whole of the Bosporus was in their hands. The most important of these places is Perinthus; but before we come to it there are several smaller ones, which I will pass over.

PERINTHUS, a Samian colony, if we consider the course of the history of Samos, cannot have been founded after the time of the Persian war, and must probably be assigned to the time of Polycrates. This is a point which is self-evident, though no writer mentions it. The town is rarely noticed in history, and is remarkable only on account of the siege of Philip in Olymp. 109, when it was saved by the energetic assistance of Athens, which was afforded to it on the proposal of Demosthenes.

The Byzantine colony of SELYMBRIA (_bria_ with the Thracians signified a town, as in Mesembria) was situated between Perinthus and Byzantium.

BYZANTIUM, a colony of the Megarians, was situated between the Propontis, the Bosporus, and the bay called _Ceras_. Under the Byzantine emperors, this bay was called the Golden Horn (τὸ χρυσοῦν κέρας), and is situated between Pera and Constantinople, forming the great port of the city extending about five miles into the country; a river empties itself into its μυχός. It is not known at what time the Megarians were powerful enough to found such a colony, but, according to all accounts, it was at an early period, perhaps during the tyrannis of Theagenes, or even earlier. Megara probably acted only as mediator for the efflux of the surplus population of the Dorians, for itself was too small. The original name of Byzantium was Βύζας, of which the most distinct traces occur in the antiquities of Constantinople, as you may see in Codinus, _De originibus Constantinopolitanis_, a work which contains some important matters concerning mythology; but its language is miserably bad. All traditions go back to a hero Byzas, who is said to be the founder of the place, and is represented on coins, just as Taras in the case of Tarentum. A still older form was no doubt Βύζανς, like _Antians_, _Romans_, _Campans_, _ans_ being a genuine Pelasgian ending. The πολιτικὸν is Βυζάντιος, the citizens are called Βυζάντιοι, and the city τὸ Βυζάντιον (supply πόλισμα) in Thucydides.[80] In the earlier writers, such as Herodotus, οἱ Βυζάντιοι is far more common, for instead of the names of places with the unusual terminations _as_ (_ans_) and _us_ (_uns_), the names of the citizens are generally employed, as Λεοντῖνοι in Sicily from Λεοῦς, which does not occur at all. Such forms are used even where topically the place alone is meant. In like manner, we find in the middle ages _Tusculana_ or _Tusculanum_ (supply _civitas_ or _oppidum_), _Lanuvina_ or _Lanuvinum_; and many of these things have descended to our own times, as _Palestrina_ for _Praenestina_. The Romans called the city _Byzantium_, and from it they formed the new adjective _Byzantinus_, which remained indeed foreign to the Greeks, but is the only correct form in later times, when Byzantium was restored under the name of Constantinople.

I have made these observations, because even a grammarian like my dear friend Buttmann[81] has been mistaken on this point. In order to decide such questions, it is necessary to make investigations and to search even in the inelegant corners of the literature of the fifth and sixth centuries, and to be as familiar with it, as were Joseph Scaliger and J. F. Gronovius. In our time scholars move within too narrow limits; but we ought not to be satisfied with a knowledge of the elegant literature, but must go down to the middle ages; there are many points in the language, which receive the necessary light only from mediaeval writings.[82] Buttmann is right so far as the classical period is concerned.[83]

Byzantium was destined by nature to be one of the most important cities; and it was so much designed to become a large place, that the oracle commanding the settlers to establish themselves opposite to the coast of the Blind, said nothing but the plain truth. Chalcedon on the opposite coast was probably a Megarian settlement, but founded from Byzantium at its very earliest period, and not 150 years before the foundation of Byzantium by the Megarians. Byzantium controls the Bosporus and the whole of the Euxine, and it is inconceivable how the Greeks could settle on the Pontus, without previously taking possession of Byzantium. Its harbour is extremely safe and fit for the largest vessels; and even on the south side of the city, ships may anchor in the Propontis with great safety and without being exposed to the winds. The current from the Black Sea through the Hellespont affords a safety of defence, which is of great importance in case of an attack from the west, and that even without any necessity of fortifying the pass of Sestos. The climate is extremely healthy, the situation most beautiful, and the country all around the most fertile in the world. Not to leave unnoticed what is apparently accidental, I may mention that the sea there abounds in fish, which are a great advantage to those countries. The Black Sea is in general very rich in fish, and from it, from the Palus Maeotis, from the Don and Dniepr, large shoals of fish proceed annually through the Bosporus and the Hellespont towards the Aegean Sea; but the current always throws a great many into the harbour of Byzantium, where they find no outlet and are caught with the greatest facility, especially tunny fish and anchovies. When the Ionian cities became weaker, the Byzantians, availing themselves of their situation, levied a toll upon ships passing through the Bosporus, but were unable permanently to exact it, and became in consequence involved in serious wars.