Athens: Its Rise and Fall | Page 2

Augustus, the annals of the
world are merged into the chronicle of the Roman empire. In these
latter volumes it is my intention to complete the history of the Athenian

drama--to include a survey of the Athenian philosophy--to describe the
manners, habits, and social life of the people, and to conclude the
whole with such a review of the facts and events narrated as may
constitute, perhaps, an unprejudiced and intelligible explanation of the
causes of the rise and fall of Athens.
As the history of the Greek republics has been too often corruptly
pressed into the service of heated political partisans, may I be pardoned
the precaution of observing that, whatever my own political code, as
applied to England, I have nowhere sought knowingly to pervert the
lessons of a past nor analogous time to fugitive interests and party
purposes. Whether led sometimes to censure, or more often to vindicate
the Athenian people, I am not conscious of any other desire than that of
strict, faithful, impartial justice. Restlessly to seek among the ancient
institutions for illustrations (rarely apposite) of the modern, is, indeed,
to desert the character of a judge for that of an advocate, and to
undertake the task of the historian with the ambition of the pamphleteer.
Though designing this work not for colleges and cloisters, but for the
general and miscellaneous public, it is nevertheless impossible to pass
over in silence some matters which, if apparently trifling in themselves,
have acquired dignity, and even interest, from brilliant speculations or
celebrated disputes. In the history of Greece (and Athenian history
necessarily includes nearly all that is valuable in the annals of the
whole Hellenic race) the reader must submit to pass through much that
is minute, much that is wearisome, if he desire to arrive at last at
definite knowledge and comprehensive views. In order, however, to
interrupt as little as possible the recital of events, I have endeavoured to
confine to the earlier portion of the work such details of an antiquarian
or speculative nature as, while they may afford to the general reader,
not, indeed, a minute analysis, but perhaps a sufficient notion of the
scholastic inquiries which have engaged the attention of some of the
subtlest minds of Germany and England, may also prepare him the
better to comprehend the peculiar character and circumstances of the
people to whose history he is introduced: and it may be well to warn
the more impatient that it is not till the second book (vol. i., p. 181) that
disquisition is abandoned for narrative. There yet remain various points
on which special comment would be incompatible with connected and
popular history, but on which I propose to enlarge in a series of

supplementary notes, to be appended to the concluding volume. These
notes will also comprise criticisms and specimens of Greek writers not
so intimately connected with the progress of Athenian literature as to
demand lengthened and elaborate notice in the body of the work. Thus,
when it is completed, it is my hope that this book will combine, with a
full and complete history of Athens, political and moral, a more ample
and comprehensive view of the treasures of the Greek literature than
has yet been afforded to the English public. I have ventured on these
remarks because I thought it due to the reader, no less than to myself, to
explain the plan and outline of a design at present only partially
developed.
London, March, 1837.

CONTENTS.
BOOK I


CHAPTER
I Situation and Soil of Attica.--The Pelasgians its earliest
Inhabitants.--Their Race and Language akin to the Grecian.-- Their
varying Civilization and Architectural Remains.-- Cecrops.--Were the
earliest Civilizers of Greece foreigners or Greeks?--The Foundation of
Athens.--The Improvements attributed to Cecrops.--The Religion of the
Greeks cannot be reduced to a simple System.--Its Influence upon their
Character and Morals, Arts and Poetry.--The Origin of Slavery and
Aristocracy.
II The unimportant consequences to be deduced from the admission
that Cecrops might be Egyptian.--Attic Kings before Theseus.--The
Hellenes.--Their Genealogy.--Ionians and Achaeans Pelasgic.--Contrast
between Dorians and Ionians.-- Amphictyonic League.
III The Heroic Age.--Theseus.--His legislative Influence upon
Athens.--Qualities of the Greek Heroes.--Effect of a Traditional Age
upon the Character of a People.

IV The Successors of Theseus.--The Fate of Codrus.--The Emigration
of Nileus.--The Archons.--Draco.
V A General Survey of Greece and the East previous to the Time of
Solon.--The Grecian Colonies.--The Isles.--Brief account of the States
on the Continent.--Elis and the Olympic Games.
VI Return of the Heraclidae.--The Spartan Constitution and
Habits.--The first and second Messenian War.
VII Governments in Greece.
VIII Brief Survey of Arts, Letters, and Philosophy in Greece, prior to
the Legislation of Solon.
BOOK II


CHAPTER
I The Conspiracy of Cylon.--Loss of Salamis.--First Appearance of
Solon.--Success against the Megarians in the Struggle for
Salamis.--Cirrhaean War.--Epimenides.--Political