Myrsilus,

tyrant.

Alcaeus

(c. 600-570 B.C.).

Pittacus

netes [first years of 6th cent. ?].

prosperity; its ruling nobles, the Penthilids, were wealthy and
luxurious and oppressed the people. Tyrants rose and fell in rapid
succession; the echoes of hatred and jubilation
still ring to us from relics of the lyric poems of
Alcaeus. "Let us drink and reel, for Myrsilus
is dead." The poet was a noble and a fighter;
but in a war with the Athenians on the coast of
the Hellespont he threw away his shield, like
Archilochus, and it hung as a trophy at Sigeum.
He plotted with Pittacus against the tyrant, but
FIG. 55.-Early coin Pittacus was not a noble and his friendship with
of Methymna in Alcaeus was not enduring. Pittacus however,
Lesbos (reverse). who distinguished himself for bravery in the same
[legend: MAOTM- war with Athens, was to be the saviour of the
NAIO2].
state. He gained the trust of the people and
was elected ruler for a period of ten years in

Head of Pallas

holds office order to heal the sores of the city. Such a governor, possessing of aesymsupreme power but for a limited time, was called an aesymnetes. Pittacus gained the reputation of a wise lawgiver and a firm, moderate ruler. He banished the nobles who opposed him, among others the two most famous of all Lesbians, the poets Alcaeus and Sappho. At the end of ten years he laid down his office, to be enrolled after his death in the number of the Seven Wise Men. The ship of state had reached the haven, to apply a metaphor of Alcaeus, and the exiles could safely be allowed to return.

This was the brilliant period of the history of Lesbos, and a few surviving fragments of its two great poets, who struck new notes and devised new cadences of lyric song, give a glimpse of the free and luxurious life of the Aeolian island. The radiant genius of Sappho was inspired by her passionate attachments to young Lesbian maidens; the songs of Alcaeus, mirroring the commotions of party warfare, rang with the clatter of arms and the clinking of drinking-cups.

SECT. 7. THE TYRANNIES OF CENTRAL GREECE

About the middle of the seventh century, three tyrannies arose in central Greece in the neighbourhood of the Isthmus: at Corinth, at Sicyon, and at Megara. In each case the development was different, and is in each case instructive. In Sicyon the tyranny is brilliant and beneficent, in Corinth brilliant and oppressive, in Megara shortlived and followed by long intestine struggles.

The ruling clan of the Bacchiads at Corinth was overthrown by Cypselus, who had put himself at the head of the people A

characteristic legend was formed at an early time about the birth of Cypselus: Cypselus, suggested by the connexion of his name with κvéda, a legend of jar. His mother was a Bacchiad lady named Labda, who, being lame and consequently compelled to wed out of her own class, married

his birth and name.

FIG. 56.-Eurystheus hiding from Heracles in a jar (red figured Vase,
painted by Euphronius).

a certain Eětion, a man of the people. Having no children and con-
sulting the Delphic oracle on the matter, Eetion received this reply :-

High honour is thy due, Eetion,

Yet no man doth thee honour, as were right.
Labda thy wife will bear a huge millstone,

Destined to fall on them who rule alone,

And free thy Corinth from their rightless might.

The prophecy came to the ears of the Bacchiads and was con

Colonial

policy
of the

Cypselids.
Corinth

makes
Corcyra
subject.

firmed to them by another oracle. So, as soon as Labda's child was
born, they sent ten men to slay it. When the men came to the
court of Eetion's dwelling they found that he was not at home, and
they asked Labda for the infant. Suspecting nothing, she gave it
to one of them to take in his arms, but, as he was about to dash it
to the ground, the child smiled at him and he had not the heart to
slay it.
He passed it on to the second, but he too was moved with
pity; and so it was passed round from hand to hand, and none of
the ten could find it in his heart to destroy it. Then giving the
infant back to the mother, and going out into the courtyard, they
reviled each other for their weakness, and resolved to go in
again and do the deed together. But Labda listening at the
door overheard what they said, and hid the child in a jar, where
none of them thought of looking. Thus the boy was saved, but
the men falsely reported to the Bacchiads that they had performed
their errand.

The Bacchiads were banished and their property confiscated; dangerous persons were executed, and Cypselus took the reins of government into his own hands. Of the rule of Cypselus himself we know little; he is variously represented as harsh and mild. His son Periander succeeded, and of him more is recorded. The general features of the Cypselid tyrannis were a vigorous colonial and commercial policy, and the encouragement of art.

One of the earliest triumphs of Cypselus was probably the reduction of Corcyra, which had formed a fleet of its own and had grown to be a rival of its mother in the Ionian seas. It has already been mentioned that the earliest battle of ships between two Greek states was supposed to have been fought between Corinth and Corcyra. The attempt of Corinth to form a colonial empire was an interesting experiment. The idea of Cypselus corresponded to our modern colonial system, in which the colonies are in a relation of dependence to the mother-country, and not to that of the Greeks, in which the colony was an independent sovereign state. Geographical conditions alone rendered it out of the question to apply the new principle to Syracuse, but the success at Corcyra was followed up by a development of Corinthian influence in the north-west of Greece. The Acarnanian peninsula of Leucas was occupied and made into an island by piercing a channel through the narrow isthmus. Anactorion was founded on the south side of the Ambracian gulf, and inland, Apollonia. on the north side, Ambracia. Apollonia was planted on the coast of Epidam- Epirus; and farther north Corcyra, under the auspices of her mothercity, colonised Epidamnus. At a later period, and in another

Leucas.

Anactorion.

Ambracia.

nes.

1 The hiding in the jar is illustrated by Euphronius' picture of Eurystheus hiding from Heracles in a jar.

quarter of the Greek world, a son of Periander founded Potidaea in

the Chalcidic peninsula.

and

Cypselus and Periander did their utmost to promote the com- Trade. mercial activity of their city. In the middle of the seventh century the rival Euboean cities, Chalcis and Eretria, were the most important merchant states of Greece. But fifty years later they had Decline of somewhat declined; Corinth and Aegina were taking their place. Eretria Their decline was brought about by their rivalry, which led to an Chalcis. exhausting war for the Lelantine plain. It is said that this struggle War of the assumed the larger proportions of a Greek mercantile war, involv- Lelantine ing on one side Corinth and Samos as allies of Chalcis, on the other Plain (end Megara and Miletus as allies of Eretria. The dates are uncertain, of 7th cent.) but the fact seems to be that the strife was protracted and interrupted, and at some points in its course it may have led to consequences beyond Euboea. Archilochus sang how

Euboea's spear-famed lords

Shoot not with slings or bows, but smite with swords;

and Theognis of Megara at a much later date speaks of the end of (c. 590? the war as a recent event :

Cerinthus fallen; the Lelantine plain

Waste, and the vineyards; all the Good have fled;

The city in the power of evil men!

O might the Cypselids even so be sped!

at earliest).

an utterance which shows that the end of the war was complicated by domestic factions. Eretria suffered most in the struggle; she lost her share in the Lelantine plain, and she presently lost also her Oropus. continental territory, the plain of Oropus, which in the course of the sixth century passed under the power of Thebes. Moreover her sway over the islands of Andros, Tenos, and Ceos was undermined, and they came after a while under Athenian influence.

The decline of Chalcis was perhaps promoted by a radical change in the foreign policy of Corinth. This city had formerly cultivated the alliance of Samos. She now deserted this alliance and formed a friendship with her old foe Miletus. The cause of this change was, at least in great measure, the natural sympathy of tyrannies. Thrasybulus the powerful tyrant of Miletus sympathised with Periander the powerful tyrant of Corinth. This change in policy is connected with the change in the balance of mercantile power. Corinth is more prosperous than ever; and Aegina is be

FIG. 57.-Coin of
Corinth, 6th-5th
cent. (obverse).
Helmeted head of
Goddess.

Egyptian

name

of Periander's nephew.

Periander's canals.

(Tyrants patrons of

art and

literature.)

Dithyramb.

Invention

of rooftiles.

ἀετός.

Old temple

of Apollo.

ginning to share with her the place which was hitherto held by the cities of Euboea.

The foreign relations of Periander extended to Egypt, and there are two indications of his intercourse with the Egyptian monarchs Necho and Psammetichus II. His nephew and successor was called after the last-named king. Moreover we may guess that the canal works of Necho suggested to Periander undertakings of the same kind-the small canal which he actually cut at Leucas, and the great canal which he designed to cut through the isthmus of Corinth itself. But a Greek tyrant had not at his command the slave-labour of which an Egyptian king disposed, and the design fell through-an enterprise more than once attempted since, but not accomplished till our own day. Had Periander had the resources to carry out his idea, the subsequent history of Greek military and naval operations would have been largely changed.

While the most successful of the tyrants, like Periander, furthered material civilisation, they often manifested an interest in intellectual pursuits, and did something for the promotion of art. A new form of poetry called the dithyramb was developed at Corinth during this period, the rude strains which were sung at vintage-feasts in honour of Dionysus being moulded into an artistic shape. The discovery was attributed to Arion, a mythical minstrel, who was said to have leaped into the sea under the compulsion of mariners who robbed him, and to have been carried to Corinth on the back of a dolphin, the fish of Dionysus.

In architecture, Corinthian skill had made an important contribution to the development of the temple. In the course of the seventh century men began to translate into stone the old shrine of brick and wood; and stone temples arose in all parts of the Greek world-the lighter "Ionic" form in Ionia, the heavier "Doric" in the elder Greece. By the invention of roof-tiles, Corinthian workmen rendered it practicable to give a considerable inclination to the roof; and thus in each gable of the temple a large triangular space was left, inviting the sculptor to fill it with a story in marble. The pediment, as we name it, was called by the Greeks the "eagle"; and thus it was said that Corinth had discovered the eagle.

Seven great columns of limestone, which till the other day were almost the only sign that marked the site of ancient Corinth, are probably a relic of the reign of Periander. They belonged to the colonnade of a large Doric temple, with two separate chambers. It was a sanctuary of Apollo, and the second chamber was perhaps a treasury. The dedicatory offerings of the Cypselids at Delphi and Olympia were rich and remarkable. The treasure-house of