Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/77

Rh About the period of the first Olympiad (B.C. 776) the general settlement in the Peloponnese had become that of later times, at any rate as regards the territories occupied by the several nations. But in many of the states themselves there were for many years after this date a regular cycle of changes in government. In Dorian states, such as Argos, Corinth, and Sicyon, the government was first in the hands of a royal caste, or clan, who selected the king from their own number. These kings, however, were not autocratic, and the government was, in fact, a kind of oligarchy. But in them all alike there came a time when some one man, generally acting as a champion of the people, seized on the government and became a despot or tyrant. Thus in Corinth about B.C. 655 the power of the royal clan of the Bacchiadae was overthrown by Cypselus, whose descendants held the tyranny till B.C. 580. In Sicyon about B.C. 676 a certain Orthagoras separated his city from the oligarchic government of Argos, and he and his descendants ruled it for about a hundred years. In Argos for many generations a family claiming to be descended from the original king Temenus had the monopoly of power, till they, too, were overthrown by Pheidon.

Now these tyrants who held power in the Peloponnese, roughly between B.C. 700 and B.C. 600, were often men of remarkable character, who did much for the prosperity and power of their states. Corinth and Sicyon both rose to importance under them, in wealth as well as in naval strength. In Argos, especially, Pheidon did great things. He