DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0024
OF THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ATHENS.
Ergootnuis caro residcbat cura cupillo,
Aurea solemni comptum quern fibula ritu
Cjcropia: tereii nectebat dente cicada:.
Wherefore she did, as was her constant care,
With grasshoppers adorn her comely hair,
Brac'd with a golden clasp, as do the Attic fair. j. abell ok linc. col, ' •
Without doubt the Athenians were a very ancient nation, and it may be
the first that ever inhabited that country ; for, when Thessaly and Pelo-
ponnesus, and almost all the fertile regions of Greece, changed their old
masters every year, the barrenness of their soil secured them from fo-
reign invasions. Greece at that time had no constant and settled inhabit-
ants, but there were continual removes, the stronger always dispossess-
ing the weaker ; and therefore they lived, as we say, from hand to mouth,
and provided no more than what was necessary for present sustenance,
expecting every day when some more powerful nation should come and
displace them, as they had lately done their predecessors(l). Amidst all
these troubles and tumults, Attica lay secure and unmolested, being pro-
tected from foreign enemies, by means of a craggy and unfruitful soil, that
could not afford fuel for contention ; and secured from intestine and civil
broils by the quiet and peaceable dispositions of its inhabitants ; for,inthese
golden days, no affectation of supremacy, nor any sparks of ambition had
fired men's minds, but every one lived full of content and satisfaction in
the en joyment of an equal share of land, and other necessaries, with the
rest of his neighbours.
The usual attendants of a long and uninterrupted peace, are riches and
plenty ; but in those days, when men lived upon the products of their
own soil, and had not found out the way of.supplying their wants by traffic,
the case was quite contrary, and peace was only the mother of poverty
and scarceness, producing a great many new mouths to consume, but af-
fording no new supplies to satisfy them. This was soon experienced by
the Athenians ; for in a few ages they were increased to such a number>
that their country being not only unfruitful, but confined within very nar-
row bounds, was no longer able to furnish them with necessary provisions.
This forced them to contrive some means to disburden it; and therefore
they sent out colonies to provide new habitations, which spread them-
selves in the several parts of Greece.
This sending forth of colonies was very frequent in the first ages of the
world, and several instances there are of it in later times, especially
amongst the Gauls and Scythians, who often left their native countries in
vast bodies, and, like general inundations, overturned all before them.
Meursius reckons to the number of forty plantations peopled by Atheni-
ans ; but, amongst them all, there was none so remarkable as that in Asia
the Less, which they called by the name of their native country, Ionia.
For the primitive Athenians were named Iones, and Iaones(2,) and hence
it came to pass, that there was a very near affinity between the Attic and
old Ionic dialect, as Eustathius observes(3). And though the Athenians
thought fit to lay aside their ancient name, yet it was not altogether out
of use in Theseus's reign, as appears from the pillar erected by him in
the isthmus, to show the bounds of the Athenians on the one side, and
the Peloponnesians on the other ; on the east side of which was this in
scription(4),
(DThucyd. ib.
(3) Iliad, d.
(2) Herodot. lib. i. Strabo Geogr. lib. ix, jEschvlus Pfersis
(4) Plutarch. Theseo-
Ergootnuis caro residcbat cura cupillo,
Aurea solemni comptum quern fibula ritu
Cjcropia: tereii nectebat dente cicada:.
Wherefore she did, as was her constant care,
With grasshoppers adorn her comely hair,
Brac'd with a golden clasp, as do the Attic fair. j. abell ok linc. col, ' •
Without doubt the Athenians were a very ancient nation, and it may be
the first that ever inhabited that country ; for, when Thessaly and Pelo-
ponnesus, and almost all the fertile regions of Greece, changed their old
masters every year, the barrenness of their soil secured them from fo-
reign invasions. Greece at that time had no constant and settled inhabit-
ants, but there were continual removes, the stronger always dispossess-
ing the weaker ; and therefore they lived, as we say, from hand to mouth,
and provided no more than what was necessary for present sustenance,
expecting every day when some more powerful nation should come and
displace them, as they had lately done their predecessors(l). Amidst all
these troubles and tumults, Attica lay secure and unmolested, being pro-
tected from foreign enemies, by means of a craggy and unfruitful soil, that
could not afford fuel for contention ; and secured from intestine and civil
broils by the quiet and peaceable dispositions of its inhabitants ; for,inthese
golden days, no affectation of supremacy, nor any sparks of ambition had
fired men's minds, but every one lived full of content and satisfaction in
the en joyment of an equal share of land, and other necessaries, with the
rest of his neighbours.
The usual attendants of a long and uninterrupted peace, are riches and
plenty ; but in those days, when men lived upon the products of their
own soil, and had not found out the way of.supplying their wants by traffic,
the case was quite contrary, and peace was only the mother of poverty
and scarceness, producing a great many new mouths to consume, but af-
fording no new supplies to satisfy them. This was soon experienced by
the Athenians ; for in a few ages they were increased to such a number>
that their country being not only unfruitful, but confined within very nar-
row bounds, was no longer able to furnish them with necessary provisions.
This forced them to contrive some means to disburden it; and therefore
they sent out colonies to provide new habitations, which spread them-
selves in the several parts of Greece.
This sending forth of colonies was very frequent in the first ages of the
world, and several instances there are of it in later times, especially
amongst the Gauls and Scythians, who often left their native countries in
vast bodies, and, like general inundations, overturned all before them.
Meursius reckons to the number of forty plantations peopled by Atheni-
ans ; but, amongst them all, there was none so remarkable as that in Asia
the Less, which they called by the name of their native country, Ionia.
For the primitive Athenians were named Iones, and Iaones(2,) and hence
it came to pass, that there was a very near affinity between the Attic and
old Ionic dialect, as Eustathius observes(3). And though the Athenians
thought fit to lay aside their ancient name, yet it was not altogether out
of use in Theseus's reign, as appears from the pillar erected by him in
the isthmus, to show the bounds of the Athenians on the one side, and
the Peloponnesians on the other ; on the east side of which was this in
scription(4),
(DThucyd. ib.
(3) Iliad, d.
(2) Herodot. lib. i. Strabo Geogr. lib. ix, jEschvlus Pfersis
(4) Plutarch. Theseo-