Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/289

 COMMON APATHY AGAINST THE PERSIANS. 273 her relations both foreign and inter-political, admit of being grouped together in masses, with continued dependence on one or a few predominant circumstances. They may be said to constitute a sort of historical epopee, analogous to that which Herodotus has constructed out of the wars between Greeks and barbarians, from the legends of 16 and Europa down to the repulse of Xerxes. But when we are called back to the period between 776 and 560 B. c., the phenomena brought to our know! edge are scanty in number, exhibiting few common feelings 01 interests, and no tendency towards any one assignable purpose. To impart attraction to this first period, so obscure and unprom- ising, we shall be compelled to consider it in its relation with thf second ; partly as a preparation, partly as a contrast. Of the extra-Peloponnesian Greeks north of Attica, during these two centuries, we know absolutely nothing ; but it will be possible to furnish some information respecting the early condi- tion and struggles of the great Dorian states in Peloponnesus ; and respecting the rise of Sparta from the second to the first place in the comparative scale of Grecian powers. Athens becomes first known to us at the legislation of Drako and the attempt of Kylon (620 B. c.) to make himself despot; and we gather some facts concerning the Ionic cities in Euboea and Asia Minor, during the century of their chief prosperity, prior to the reign and conquests of Croesus. In this way, we shall form to ourselves some idea of the growth of Sparta and Athens, of the short-lived and energetic development of the Ionic Greeks, and of the slow working of those causes which tended to bring about increased Hellenic intercommunication, as con- trasted with the enlarged range of ambition, the grand Pan- Hellenic ideas, the systematized party-antipathies, and the intensified action, both abroad and at home, which grew out of the contest with Persia. There are also two or three remarkable manifestations which will require special notice during this first period of Grecian history: 1. The great multiplicity of colonies sent forth by individual cities, and the rise and progress of these several colonies ; 2. The number of despots who arose in the various Grecian cities ; 3. The lyric poetry ; 4. The rudiments of that VOL. n. 12* 18oc.