Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/214

 198 HISTORY OF GREECE. Of Mitylene, the chief city of Lesbos, we hear some facts be- tween the 40th and 50th Olympiad (G20-580 B. c.), which un- fortunately reach us only in a faint echo. That city then num- bered as its own the distinguished names of Pittakus, Sappho, and Alkaeus : like many other Grecian communities of that time, it suffered much from intestine commotion, and experienced more than one violent revolution. The old oligarchy called the Pen- thilids (seemingly a gens with heroic origin), rendered themselves intolerably obnoxious by misrule of the most reckless character ; their brutal use of the bludgeon in the public streets was avenged by Megakles and his friends, who slew them and put down their government. 1 About the 42d Olympiad (G12 B. c.) we hear of Melanchrus, as despot of Mitylene, who was slain by the conspiracy of Pittakus, Kikis, and Antimenides, the last two being brothers of Alkoeus the poet. Other despots, Myrsilus, Megalagyrus, and the IQeanaktidse, whom we know only by name, and who appear to have been immortalized chiefly by the bitter stanzas of Alkajus, acquired afterwards the sovereignty of Mitylene. Among all the citizens of the town, however, the most fortunate, and the most deserving, was Pittakus the son of Ilyrr- liadus, a champion trusted by his countrymen alike in foreign war and in intestine broils. 2 The foreign war in which the Mityleneans were engaged, and in which Pittakus commanded them, was against the Athenians on the continental coast opposite to Lesbos, in the Troad, near Sigeium. The Mityleneans had already established various settle- ments along the Troad, the northernmost of which was Achilleium : they laid claim to the possession of this line of coast, and when Athens (about the 43d Olympiad, as it is said 3 ) attempted to plant 1 Aristot. Polit. v, 8, 13. 2 Diogen. LaOrt. i, 74; Suidas, v, K.iKt, Tl/rra/cof; Strabo, xiii, p. G17. Two lines of Alkaeus arc preserved, exulting in the death of Myrsilus (Al- kseus, Fragm. 12, ed. Schneiclcwin). Melanchrus also is named (Frngm. 13), and Pittakus, in a third fragment (73, ed. Schneid.), is brought into conncc- tf~) with Myrsilus. ... regard to the chronology of this war, see a note near the end of my previous chapter on the Solonian legislation. I have there noticed what I believe to be a chronological mistake of Herodotus in regard to tl c period between 600-560 B. c. Herodotus considers this war between the Mitylcne- vas and Athenians, in which Pittakus and Alkaeus were concerned, *x> have