Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/452

 436 HISTORY OF GREECE. Messenian war will thus stand as beginning somewhere about the 33d Olympiad, or 648 B. c., between seventy and .eighty years after the close of the fir^t, and lasting, according lo Pau- sanias, seventeen years ; according to Plutarch, more than twenty years. 1 senia, and takes no notice of the Pisatae. The affirmation of Julius Africanus (ap. Eusebium Chronic, i. p. 145, that the Pisatae revolted from Elis in tho 30th Olympiad, and celebrated the Olympic games themselves until 01. 52. | for twenty-two successive ceremonies) is in contradiction, first, with Pau- sanias (vi. 22, 2), which appears to me a clear and valuable statement, from its particular reference to the three non-Olympiads, secondly, with Pausa- nias (v. 9, 4), when the Eleians in the 50th Olympiad determine the number of Hellanodikae. I agree with Corsini (Fasti Attici, t. iii. p. 47) in setting aside the passage of Julius Africanns: Mr. Clinton (F. II. p. 253) is dis- pleased with Corsini for this suspicion, but he himself virtually does the same thing; for, in order to reconcile Jul. Africanus with Pausanias, he introduces a supposition quite different from what is asserted by either of them ; j. e. a joint agonothesia by Eleians and Pisatans together. This hypothesis of Mr. Clinton appears to me gratuitous and inadmissible : Afri- canus himself meant to state something quite different, and I imagine him to have been misled by an erroneous authority. See Mr. Clinton, F. II. ad. ann. 660 B. c. to 580 B. c. 1 Plutarch, DC Sera Num. Vind. p. 548 ; Pausan. iv. 15, 1 ; iv. 17. 3 : iv. 23, 2. The date of the second Messenian war, and the interval between the second and the first, are points respecting which also there is irreconcilable discrepancy of statement ; we can only choose the most probable : see the passages collected and canvassed in 0. Miillcr (Dorians, i, 7, 11, and in Mr. Clinton, Fast. Hellen. vol. i. Appendix 2, p. 257). According to Pausanias, the second war lasted from B.C. 685-GC8, and there was an interval between the first and the second war of thirty- nine years. Justin (iii. 5) reckons an interval of eighty years; Eusebius, an interval of ninety years. The main evidence is the passage of Tyrtoeus, wherein that poet, speaking during the second war, says, " The fathers of our fathers conquered Messene." Mr. Clinton adheres very nearly to the view of Pausanias; he supposes that the real date is only six years lowet (679-662). But I agree with Clavier (Histoire des Premiers Temps de la Grece, t- ii. p. 233) and O. MUller (1. c.) in thinking that an interval of thirty-nine years is too short to suit the phrase of fathers' fathers. Speaking in the present year (1846), it would not be held proper to say, " The fathers of our fathers carried on the war between 1793 and the peace of Amiens :" we should rather say, " The fathers of our fathers carried on the American war and the Seven Years' w ar." An ape is marked by its mature and even elderly members, by those between thirty-five and fifty-five years of age-