Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/20

 4 HISTORY OF GREECE. maintaining the integrity of its territory under its leader Orsippus, the famous Olympic runner, against some powerful en- emies, probably the Corinthians. Ifc was of no mean consideration, possessing a territory which extended across Mount Geraneia to the Corinthian gulf, on which the fortified town and port of Pegoe, belonging to the Megarians, was situated ; it was mother of early and distant colonies, and competent, during the time of Solon, to carry on a protracted contest with the Athenians, for the possession of Salamis, wherein, although the latter were at last victorious, it was not without an intermediate period of ill-success and despair. Of the early history of Sikyon, from the period when it be- came Dorian down to the seventh century B. c., we know nothing. Our first information respecting it, concerns the establishment of the despotism of Orthagoras, about 680-670 B. c. And it is a point deserving of notice, that all the three above-mentioned towns, Corinth, Sikyon, and Megara, underwent during the course of this same century a similar change of government. In each of them a despot established himself; Orthagoras in Siky- on ; Kypselus in Corinth ; Theagenes in Megara. Unfortunately, we have too little evidence as to the state of things by which this change of government was preceded and brought about, to be able to appreciate fully its bearing. But what draws our attention to it more particularly is, that the like phenomenon seems to have occurred contemporaneously through out a large number of cities, continental, insular, and colonial, in many different parts of the Grecian world. The period between 650 and 500 B. c., witnessed the rise and downfall of many des- pots and despotic dynasties, each in its own separate city. Dur- ing the succeeding interval between 500 and 350 B. c., new despots, though occasionally springing up, become more rare ; political dispute takes another turn, and the question is raised directly and ostensibly between the many and the few, the people and the oligarchy. But in the still later times which follow the battle of Chacroneia, in proportion as Greece, declining in civic not less than in military spirit, is driven to the constant em- ployment of mercenary troops, and humbled by the overruling interference of foreigners, the despot with Hs standing foreign body-guard becomes again a characteristic of nime ; a tendency