Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/66

38 Mythology accounted for this by tracing their descent from a common ancestor Hellen and his sons. The Æolians occupied Central and Northern Greece from Bœotia to Thessaly, some islands, and the northern part of the coast of Asia Minor. The Ionians made their way to the northern part of Peloponnese, to certain islands, to Attica, and to the part of Asia Minor between ^Eolis and Caria. The Dorians first seem to have settled in Central Greece (in which a small district long retained their name), and at some time between B.C. 1000 and 800 to have pushed southward, occupying on their way Megara, Corinth, and Sicyon, and eventually to have overrun the greater part of the Peloponnese, in which Argolis, Laconia, and Messenia became predominately Dorian. This immigration, whatever its nature, seems not to have been a solitary movement, for we find that in the Homeric times the Dorians had already found their way to Crete. Nor was their occupation of the Peloponnese complete. Arcadia and Elis retained their ancient inhabitants, and so many Achæans escaped to the north, or retained their position there, that the district on the Corinthian Gulf was called Achaia. Nor in the districts which they occupied did they destroy or remove the people which they found there. They reduced them to an inferior, or in some cases to a servile, condition instead, and thus created for themselves and posterity a long series of difficulties, but they allowed them for the most part to remain in their ancient homes.

The next great movement was an outburst of