Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/286

 g70 HISTORY OF GREECE. It lias already been mentioned that the twelve races or subdi- visions, members of what is called the Amphiktyonic convocation, were as follows : North of the pass of Thermopylae, Thessalians, Perrhaebians, Magnetes, Achzeans, Melians, -ZEnianes, Dolopes. South of the pass of Thermopylae, Dorians, lonians, Bceo- .ians, Lokrians, Phokians. Other Hellenic races, not comprised among the Amphik- tyons, were The JEtolians and Akarnanians, north of the gulf of Corinth. The Arcadians, Eleians, Pisatans, and Triphylians, in the cen- tral and western portion of Peloponnesus : I do not here name the Achaeans, who occupied the southern or Peloponnesian coast of the Corinthian gulf, because they may be presumed to have been originally of the same race as the Phthiot Achaeans, and therefore participant in the Amphiktyonic constituency, though their actual connection with it may have been disused. The Dryopes, an inconsiderable, but seemingly peculiar sub- division, who occupied some scattered points on the sea-coast, Hennione on the Argolic peninsula; Styrus and Karystus in Euboea ; the island of Kythnus, etc. Though it may be said, in a general way, that our historical discernment of the Hellenic aggregate, apart from the illusions of legend, commences with 776 B. c., yet, with regard to the larger number of its subdivisions just enumerated, we can hardly be said to possess any specific facts anterior to the invasion of Xerxes in 480 B. c. Until the year 560 B c., (the epoch of Croesus in Asia Minor, and of Peisistratus at Athens,) the his- lory of the Greeks presents hardly anything of a collective character : the movements of each portion of the Hellenic world begin and end apart from the rest. The destruction of Kirrha by the Amphiktyons is the first historical incident which brings into play, in defence of the Delphian temple, a common Hellenic feeling of active obligation. But about 560 B. c., two important changes are seen to come into operation, which alter the character of Grecian history, extricating it out of its former chaos of detail, and centralizing its isolated phenomena : 1. The subjugation of the Asiatic Crocks by Lydia and by Persia, followed by their struggles for