his perfonal misfortunes, to the neglect even of Bacchus. But Clifthenes appropriated the chorufes to Bacchus, and the other folemnities to Melanippus.

LXVIII. He changed alfo the names of the Doric tribes, that thofe of the Sicyonians might be altogether different from thofe of the Argives, by which means he made the Sicyonians extremely ridiculous. He diftinguished the other tribes by

Larcher is of a contrary opinion, but avoids any difcuffion of the argument, as beyond the propofed limits of his plan.

To exhibit a chorus, was to purchase a dramatic piece of an author, and defray the expence of its reprefentation. This at Athens was the office of the archon, at Rome of the ædiles, The following paffage from Lyfias may serve to explain the ancient chorus with regard to its variety and expence.

"When Theopompus was archon, I was furnisher to a tragic chorus, and I laid out 30 mine-afterwards I got the victory. with the chorus of men, and it coft me 20 minæ. When Glaucippus was archon, I laid out eight minæ upon the pyrrichifts; when Diocles was archon, I laid out upon the cyclian chorus three mine; afterwards, when Alexias was archon, I furnished a chorus of boys, and it cost me fifteen minæ; and when Euclides was archon, I was at the charge of fixteen minæ on the comedians, and of seven upon the young pyrrichists.'

From which it appears that the tragic was the most expensive chorus, and its splendour in after-times became fo extravagant, that Horace complains the fpectators minded more what they faw than what they heard:

Dixit adhuc aliquid, nil fane, quid placet ergo

Lana Tarentino violas imitata veneno,

The bufinefs of the chorus at its firft inftitution was to fing dithyrambic vérfes in honour of Bacchus. How it afterwards became improved and extended, has been too often and too well difcuffed to require any elaborate difcuffion in this place.-T.

Ff3

the

the words Hys and Onos", fuperadding only their respective terminations: to his own tribe he prefixed the word Arche, expreffive of authority; those of his own tribe were therefore termed Archelaens; of the others, fome were called Hyatæ, fome Oneatæ, others Chæræatæ. The Sicyonians were known by these appellations during the time of Clifthenes, and for fixty years afterwards. After this period, in confequence of a confultation held amongst themselves, they changed these names to Hylleans, Pamphylians, and Dymanatæ. To these they added a fourth tribe, which in honour of Ægialeus, son of Adraftus, they called Ægialeans.

LXIX. Such was the conduct of Clifthenes of Sicyon. The Clifthenes of Athens, grandfon of the former by a daughter, and named after him, was, as it appears to me, defirous of imitating him from whom he was called. To fhew his contempt of the Ionians, he would not fuffer the tribes of Athens to bear any resemblance to thofe of Ionia. Having conciliated his countrymen, who had before been averse to him, he changed the names of the tribes, and increased their number. Inftead of four phylarchi he made ten, into which number of tribes he alfo divided the people; by which means he fo conciliated their favour, that he obtained a decided fuperiority over his opponents ".

LXX.

Hys and Onos.]-Literally, a fwine and an afs. 90 Over his opponents.]-Clifthenes and Ifagoras had no intention of becoming tyrants, and were united to expel the Pififtratida from Athens: but they were not at all the more harmonious on this account. The firft defired to establish a demo

cracy,

LXX. Ifagoras, though overcome, endeavoured to recover his importance; he accordingly applied to Cleomenes the Spartan, with whom he had formed the tie of hospitality whilst he was befieging the Pisistratidæ, and who has been fuspected of an improper connection with Ifagoras's wife. The Lacedæmonian prince, fending a herald before him, pronounced fentence of expulfion against Clifthenes, and many other Athenians, on pretence of their being polluted by facrilegious murder. Ifagoras prevailed upon him to make this his excufe, because the Alcmæonidæ, with thofe of their party, had been guilty of a murder, in which neither Ifagoras nor any of his followers were concerned.

LXXI. The reafon why thefe Athenians were called polluted ", was this: Cylon, a native of Athens, who had obtained the prize in the Olympic games, had been convicted of defigns upon the government, for, having procured a number of young men of the fame age with himself, he endeavoured to feize the citadel; disappointed in his hopes, he with his companions placed themselves

cracy, and to accomplish it he gave the people more authority than they ever poffefed before, by diftributing them into a greater number of tribes, making them by thefe means less eafy to be gained. Ifagoras, on the contrary, wifhed to establish an aristocracy; and as he could not poffibly fucceed in his views, unless by force, he therefore invited the Lacedæmonians to affift him.-Larcher.

91 Polluted.]-Literally Enagees, that is, polluted by their crime, and therefore devoted to the curse of the goddess whom they had offended: the term implies a facrilegious offence.-T.

before the fhrine of Minerva, as fuppliants. The Prytanes of the Naucrari ", who then governed Athens, perfuaded them to leave this fanctuary, under a promise that their lives fhould not be forfeited. Their being foon afterwards put to death "

was

92 The Prytanes of the Naucrari.]-I fhall endeavour, as concifely as poffible, to make this intelligible to the English reader.

The magiftrates of Athens were compofed of the Archons, the Areopagites, and the fenate of five hundred. When the people of Athens confifted only of four tribes, one hundred were elected by lot from each tribe; when afterwards they were divided into ten, fifty were chofen from each tribe; these were the Prytanes, and they governed the city by turns. Each body of fifty, according to Solon's establishment, ruled for the Space of thirty-five days, not all at once, but in regular divifions. of their body for a certain limited time. To expatiate on the fubject of the Prytanes, the particulars of their duty, and their various fubdivifions into other refponfible magiftracies, would require a long differtation.

Of the Naucrari, or, as it is fometimes written, Naucleri, what follows may perhaps be fufficient.

To the ten tribes of Clifthenes, two more were afterwards added; these twelve were divided into Aro, or boroughs, who anciently were named Naucrariæ: of these the magiftrates were called Naucrari; each Naucraria furnished for the public fervice two horfemen and one veffel. Each Athenian borough had anciently its own little fenate; thus the Prytanes of the Naucrari were a felect number, prefiding in each of these fenates. With refpect to the paffage before us," Many," fays Larcher," are of opinion that Herodotus ufes the expreffion of Prytanes of the Naucrari in a particular fenfe, meaning by Naucrari the Athenians in general; and by Prytanes, the Archons.-T.

93 Put to death.]-The particulars of this flrange bufinefs are related at length by Thucydides; much alfo concerning it may be found in the Sera numinis vindicta of Plutarch, and in

the

was generally imputed to the Alcmæonidæ.-Thefe events happened before the time of Pifistratus.

LXXII. Cleomenes having thus ordered the expulfion of Clifthenes, and the other Enagees, though Clifthenes had privately retired 94, came foon afterwards to Athens with a small number of attendants. His firft ftep was, to fend into exile as polluted feven hundred Athenian families 95, which Ifagoras pointed out to him. He next proceeded to diffolve the fenate, and to entrust the offices of government with three hundred of the faction of Ifagoras. The fenate exerted themselves, and pofitively refused to acquiefce in his projects; upon which Cleomenes, with Ifagoras and his party,

the Life of Solon. The detail in this place would not be interefting; the event happened 612 years before the Chriftian æra.-T.

94 Voluntarily retired.]-We are told by Elian, that Clifthenes, having introduced the law of the oftracism, was the first who was punished by it. Few English readers will require to be informed, that the oftracism was the Athenian sentence of banishment, determined by the people writing the name of the perfon to be banished on an oyster-shell.

The punishment itself was not always deemed dishonourable, for the victim, during the term of his banishment, which was ten years, enjoyed his eftate. A person could not be banished by the oftracism, unless an affembly of fix thousand were present. -T.

95 Athenian families.]—This expreffion is not fo unimportant as it may appear to a careless reader. There were at Athens many domefticated strangers, who enjoyed all the rights of citizens, except that they could not be advanced to a station of any authority in the ftate.-Larcher.