Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/494

 474 L E S L E S classics of the 18th. He is perhaps the last great writer before the decadence (for since the time of Paul Louis Courier it has not been denied that the pliilo&oplie period is in point of style a period of decadence). His style is perfectly easy at the same time that it is often admirably epigrammatic. It has plenty of colour, plenty of flexibility, and may be said to be exceptionally well fitted for general literary work. The dates of the original editions of Le Sage s most important works have already been given. He published during his life a collection of his regular dramatic works, and also one of his pieces for the Foire, but the latter is far from exhaustive ; nor is there any edition which can be called so, though the (Euvres Choisics of 1782 and 1818 are useful. The Dialle Boiteux and Gil Bias have been reprinted and translated numberless times. Both will be found conveniently printed, together with Estevanille Gonzalcs and Guzman cV AlfaracJie, the best of the minor novels, in four volumes of Garnier s BibliotJieque Amusante (Paris, 1865). Turcarct and Crispin are to lie found in all collected editions of the French drama. There is a useful edition of them, with ample specimens of Le Sage s work for the Foire, in two volumes (Paris, 1821 ). (G-. SA. ) LESBOS was the nams applied by the Greeks to the island now called Metilin the ancient name of the chief city on the island, Mytilene, having been in the Middle Ages applied to the whole island. It lies along the coast of Mysia, north of the entrance to the Gulf of Smyrna. Strabo estimates its circumference as 1100 stadia, about 138 miles, and Scylax reckons it seventh in size of the islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The narrowest part of the channel which divides it from the Mysian coast, between the promontory of Argennum and the town of Assos, is about 8 miles wide. The island is of irregular shape ; it has three prominent points, Argennum on the north-east, Sigrium (now Sigri) on the west, and Malea (now Maria) on the south-east, and a deep gulf, the Euripus Pyrrhasus, now the port of Calloni, runs far into its western side between Sigrium and Malea. The surface is mountainous, but the soil is in spite of this exceedingly fertile ; the wine, oil, and grain of Lesbos were well known in ancient times. The climate is perhaps more delightful than that of any other part of the ^Egean ; the breezes and the sea temper the heat of summer, and the winter is not severe. Earth quakes were often experienced in the island ; the latest, that of 1861, is still remembered as one of the severest known in a country of earthquakes. The oldest inhabitants are said to have been Pelasgians ; and two generations before the Trojan war came lonians under Macareus. These two races may be said to represent respectively the first period of primitive barbarism, and the second period, when navigation brought to the island the commerce and intercourse of more advanced races ; it deserves notice that the name Macareus, the Phoenician Melkarth, is taken by Curtius as a sign of the presence of Phoenician traders. But the island begins to be important in history from the time of the ^Eolian immigration, which is said to have commenced one hundred and thirty years after the Trojan war; from this time it continued long to be one of the chief homes of Hellenic civilization. Homer refers to its wealth and its populous cities ; its chief fame lies in its connexion with the earliest development of Greek poetry and literature. Lesches the cyclic poet, Terpander, Arion, Hellanicus, Pittacus, Alcaeus, and Sappho were all natives of Lesbos. Probably no district of Greece can boast of so many names, most of them associated with some marked advance in literature, as Lesbos can enumerate between 700 and 500 B.C. The chief city of Lesbos was Mytilene or Mitylene, the latter spelling being general in literature while the former is the official spelling used on coins. It was originally built on an island close to the western coast of Lesbos; afterwards when the limits of the island were too narrow it was joined to Lesbos by a causeway, and the city spread out along the coast. On each side of this isthmus was a harbour ; not far from the city was a place called Maloeis, but it does not appear that this name was, as some have said, given to the northern harbour. The city has always been known for its delightful and healthy climate. With the advantage of its strong situation and good harbour it soon became one of the most powerful Greek cities of Asia Minor. It was the only ^Eolian city that possessed a strong navy. Its colonies were spread along Asia Minor and Thrace, and in the 6th century it maintained a long though finally unsuccessful contest with Athens for the possession of Sigeum. About its internal government little is known. After the kingly period there was a time when oligarchical and clemocratical factions contended with one another. The noble family of the Penthelidce, descended from Penthilus, son of Orestes, played a great part in these con tentions. Its Pelopid descent may be compared with various legends that connect Pelops with the island of Lesbos. The city fell under the Persian power after the defeat of Croesus. A tyrant Goes ruled it soon after, but was expelled when the island joined the Ionic revolt in 500 B.C. It was freed from the Persian yoke after the battles of Platcea and Mycale, and was a member of the Delian confederacy. It revolted from Athens 429 B.C., and was reduced after a long siege. The story of the cruel revenge which the Athenian assembly at first resolved on, of the second meeting and the more merciful resolution, and of the arrival of the second despatch vessel barely in time to prevent the massacre of the whole male popula tion, has been told by Thucydides. The territory of Myti lene was, however, divided among Athenian KXypov^oi. The harbour was the scene of a great battle between Callicratidas and Conon in the latter part of the Pelopon- nesian war ; but it is impossible here to trace all the vicissitudes of its history, which are coincident with the history of Greece in the East. It continued to be a rich and prosperous city throughout ancient history, and its name came during the Byzantine period to be applied to the whole island. It was long a stronghold of the Venetians during the Middle Ages, but has belonged to the Turkish empire since 1460. The other chief towns besides Mytilene were Methymna, Antissa, Eresus, and Pyrrha ; hence the island is some times callsd a Pentapolis. There was also a town called Arisba, which was destroyed by an earthquake before the time of Herodotus ; Conze finds its site inland at Palaio- kastro, north-east of the port of Calloni. Pyrrha lay on the south-east coast of this port, at a place also called Palaiokastro. Antissa, near Sigrium, was destroyed by the Romans in 168 B.C., as having sided with Perseus in the Macedonian war. Eresus, now Eresi, was also near Sigrium. Of these five cities, Mitylene was the chief ; Pyrrha, Eresus, and Antissa were under its influence, and seem almost always to have followed its lead. But Methymna on the north coast, though it had not such a fine situation as Mytilene, was a very strong place ; it was therefore able to maintain a constant quarrel with the more powerful city, and was always ready to side with its enemies. Molivo, still the second city of the island, occupies the site of the old Methymna. The name Methymna or Mathymna is derived from the wine for which it was famous (Virg., Georg., ii. 90). See Conze, Heine avf dcr Inscl Lesbos ; Plehn, Lcsbiaca ; Boutan, Archives d. Missions Scicnt. ct Liter., v. (according to Conze not very trustworthy) ; Zanders, Bcitr. z. Kundc d. Inscl Lesbos ; New ton, Travels ; and for the geography Cramer, Dcscr, q/ Asia Minor, and Forbiger, Alt. Gcogr. The best maps are the English admiralty charts, and those in Conze s work. LESGHIANS, or LESGHIS (from the Persian Leksi, called Leki by the Grusinians or Georgians, Armenians, and Ossetians), a number of tribes in the Caucasus form ing