 Chapter 5 of Hellenic history This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Mike Botez. Hellenic history by George Willis Botsford. Chapter 5 Evolution of City-State, Amphic Dionys and Leagues Economic and political transition from Minoan to Hellenic times. Limiting itself narrowly to islands and coasts, the Minoan civilization owed its evolution to the interplay of commercial and industrial cities. This decay consisted largely in the breaking down of the highly organized life of the city and a reversion to the simpler forms of existence native to field and mountain. The coming of the Northerners, accustomed to nothing better than the village, accentuated this change. The economy of the Middle Age accordingly was one of hunting, grazing and incipient agriculture. The emergence of historical Greece on the other hand, from the obscurity and depression of that period, consisted essentially in the revival of city civilization, based partly on the old seats of Minoan life and partly on newer foundations. It has already been noted that the area of the Minoan culture, mainly the Aegean islands and coasts, now becoming the home of brilliant cities, constituted the very heart of the Hellenic world. The Ethnos Ethnos. The interior and northwest of the peninsula, keeping in the background of culture, retained the more primitive form of the country state. This institution is designated as an ethnos, essentially a community resting on the basis of blood and negatively described as wanting the city organization. Such a people occupied a definite territory, usually limited by natural boundaries as mountain chains or seas, and was distinguished from other ethnoe by dialect and customs. Examples are the Aetolians, Akarnanians, Locrians and Arcadians. A large ethnos like the Aetolians comprised several sub-ethnoe which we may venture to call tribes. The latter were divided into smaller groups. The subdivision continuing till we reach the Fratri Brotherhood and its component families. The members of a Fratri as kinsmen stood side by side on the field of battle, and in time of peace protected the lives of the brethren, or rigged vengeance for their slain. Each group from Fratri upward, based on real or pretended kinship, had its social institutions, government and gods. But of these matters the ancient historians give us mere hints. The village, Komi, the Kanton, Systema, the city state, Polis, Polis. The people lived in small widely separated villages, most of them unworld. Though the village naturally contained a nucleus of kinsfolk, it was fundamentally territorial, comprising a mixed population, and served accordingly as the first step in the transition from tribal to political society. Neighboring villages, with little respect for the ties of kin, joined for mutual protection in a Kanton, which usually centered in a fortified hilltop. The village chief Demiurgos, public worker, represented his community in the Kantonal Diet. Several such Arcadian Kantons continued down into historical time. Under conditions favorable to the advancement of civilization, to the accumulation of wealth and to political development, the Kantonal center became a city, Polis. Throughout the historical period, we constantly observed the formation of cities from villages, and cannot doubt that in prehistoric Greece, the process was similar. Though the city thus developed on the basis of neighborhood, rather than of blood, it organized itself on the ethnic patterns in tribes, or their equivalents, and frateries, and assumed for its citizens a kinship which was fictitious. The new city was a sovereign state, whose organization and government sufficed for her entire territory. A community of this kind is described as a city-state, in contrast with a more primitive ethnic community, and with a territorial state of modern times. At the opening of the period, now under consideration, there were in Helas, in addition to many ethnic, a countless number of these states, ranging from a few square miles to a few hundred square miles in area. Whether of ethnos or polis, the government was originally vested in king, council, and popular assembly. Though essentially like that described by Homer, Minoan survivals in many places must have modified it, in the direction of greater definiteness and complexity. Its activity, however, was limited to defense against foreign enemies and domestic rebellion, maintenance of the God's good will and the arbitration of private disputes. The defense of life itself, as has been intimated, belonged to the families and fratries. Law was in fact customary, but the general feeling prevailed that the king, who ruled by divine sanction, received his judgments from Zeus or Apollo or some other deity. Transition to aristocracy, beginning about 750. In some ethny, as in Epirus and Macedon, monarchy persisted throughout historical times. The more progressive city-state, however, as the Ionian, began to adopt aristocracies about the middle of the 8th century. The change was gradual. The great nobles who formed the council took an ever-increasing part in the government till they usurped complete control. Their means of aggrandizement were the degradation of the king to a mere priest and judge. The institution of new offices, in addition to the kingship, the reduction of the tenure of all offices to a single year, and the appointment and supervision of officials, rendering them responsible to the council for their administration. In this way, the council made itself supreme, while the officers became its tools, and the assembly lost the little significance it had possessed under the monarchy. Law. The idea of law underwent a corresponding change, while it remained for a time purely customary as before. The nobles generally regarded themselves not as recipients of legal revelations, but as keepers of a body of law, once divinely established and now handed down as a precious heritage from father to son. The nobles made use of their legal monopoly to decide cases capriciously, or from motives of favoritism or in pursuit of bribes. Perceived by their love of money exclaims Solon of Athens, the nobles desire recklessly to destroy the great city. As to the people, the mind of their magistrates is dishonest. Magistrates who are doomed to suffer many ills because of their monstrous violence. They grow wealthy in obedience to unjust deeds. Codifications of the Law. Zaleukus. These evils, it was doubtless thought, could be partially remedied by the codification of legal usages. The state already possessed some written documents, including lists of magistrates and treaties, and it was but natural that writing should now be extended to the preservation of laws. The earliest European code known to history was produced at Lockei, Italy. The story is told that on consulting the Oracle in a time of civil confusion, the Lockeians were directed to a slave shepherd named Zaleukus. Set free and established as legislator, he drew up a code of laws which he explained were given him by Athena in dreams. He carefully regulated the lives of the citizens and imposed the stigma of a depraved character on women and men, who indulged in an excess of liberty or luxury of dress or ornament. He placed property and business contracts under better control, and deprived the judge of the power to give arbitrary decisions. Ordinances concerning personal injuries were severe, requiring a knife or a knife and a tooth for a tooth. In a case of appeal, we are informed, judge and appealant had each other to appear with his neck in a noose, and the one who failed to sustain his cause was executed on the spot. In like manner, the proposer of a new law was required to advocated with a noose about his neck. The result was that the Lockeians became famous for conservatism, military spirit, hospitality and sound morals. There at Lockei, says Pindar, do ye, O Muses, join in the Song of Triumph? I pledge my word that to no stranger banishing folk ye shall come, nor unacquainted with things noble, but of the highest in the arts and valiant with a spear. With the Muses setting myself thereunto fervently, have I embraced the Lockeians' famous race, and have sprinkled my honey over a city of goodly men. The laws of Zaleucus will suffice as an illustration of early codes. Those of Athens will be considered in another place. From aristocracy to tyranny. In Thessaly, the aristocrats who had rested the supreme power from the king, long retained their supremacy. People swear they were usually too weak to endure more than a century or there about. Often the aristocracy was overthrown by a tyrant, usurper, unconstitutional ruler. It is noteworthy that among the Greek states of the 7th century, Lasdemon alone so far as we know, possessed a standing army sufficient for maintaining domestic peace and protecting life and property. The rest were filled with civil strife. This condition made the usurpation of government easy. Sometimes a magistrate refused to lay down his office on its expiration, but maintained himself by force. In this way he became a tyrant, or the tyrant might be an empire whom warring factions chose to arbitrate between them and who took advantage of the occasion to seize the government. More commonly he was an ambitious politician, who failing in a struggle for office appealed to the people, promising them economic or political advantage in return for their support. A military reputation added to smoothness of speech increased his chances for success. With the help of the commons he would overthrow his fellow aristocrats and make himself master. Tyranny at Corinth 657 to 586, conventional though uncertain dates. Among the earliest tyrannies was that of the Kipcelli day at Corinth. Kipcellus the founder overthrew the ruling Bacchia day, to whom he was related on his mother's side. During his reign of 30 years he drove many Corinthians into exile, many he deprived of their wealth, and very many more of their lives. His words of Herodotus should apply only to his treatment of the nobles. By the people he was so beloved throughout his reign as to require no personal guard. The Bacchiat policy of colonization and patronage of the useful and fine arts he inherited and handed down to his son and successor Periander. Of the latter Herodotus has still more discreditable stories to tell. Elsewhere however we learn that he was an able commander in war and a wise and moderate ruler. By checking the importation of slaves he assured to skilled workmen a better social standing than this class enjoyed anywhere else in Helas. To encourage agriculture as well as political quiet he forbade unoccupied persons to live within the city. A council which he established was charged with the duty of checking the growth of luxury and of seeing that no one spent more than his income warranted. As market and harbor customs sufficed for the needs of government the citizens were relieved of direct taxes. These statesman like measures help account for his long reign of 44 years. The tyranny survived him but 3 years when it was overthrown by a band of conspirators. Tyranny at Scyon 670 to 560, conventional though uncertain dates, next in brilliance among the early Hellenic tyrants stood the Orthogoridi of Scyon. This city lay northwest of Corinth in the narrow but fertile valley of the Esopus. The little district was as famous for its garden and orchard products as for bronze wares and potteries. In addition to landlords and their serfs there had developed a considerable class of artisans and traders, whereas usually the tyrant was of noble birth, Orthogoras who usurped the government of Scyon was from a lower social class, Clistines, early 6th century. Of his descendants it was Clistines who made his city one of the most brilliant in Hellas. His first effort was to free Scyon from the political control which Argos hither too had exercised over it. This object he accomplished in a successful war with a dominant power. Moreover, he forbade the Rhapsodists to chant in Scyon their epics which celebrated the glories of Argos. To free his countrymen from religious dependence on their former master he determined to expel from his city the cult of Adrastus, an Argyve hero. With this end in view he built a shrine to the Theban hero Melanipus who in story had figured as a deadly enemy of Adrastus. To the newly adopted hero he transferred all the revenues and festivals of the old where upon the priests of Adrastus beat a hasty retreat from Scyon. This anecdote illustrates the singular importance of hero cults among the early Greeks. The three Doric tribes to which the landowners belonged still reminded Scyon of its close connection with Argos, till Clistinis abolished their names, contemptuously substituting piglings, donkeys and porkers, whereas his own tribe of shoremen evidently comprising artisans and traders he dignified by the name of ruling class, Arkelai. This measure hints at a policy which transformed Scyon from an agricultural to an industrial and commercial state. The wooing of Agariste. Another picture of this illustrious tyrant drawn by Herodotus shows him a lordly generous host. On his invitation came young men of noblest birth from every part of Helas to woo his daughter Agariste and for a whole year he entertained them, while he tested their athletic and musical training, their social and table manners, their breeding and temper. He looked with favor on Hippoclethys of Athens, till the latter one evening displayed a marvelous skill in dancing. After representing Laconian figures and then Attic, he closed with a performance on the table head downward, his feet gesticulating in air. Ah, son of Tissander, exclaimed the sovereign, though hast danced away thy wedding. The other answered, Hippoclethys cares not, which became a proverb at Athens. In a polite address, Kleistinnes then expressed his regret, but not having a daughter to bestow on every one of his highly accomplished guests, and promising them a silver talent each as a trifling substitute he concluded. To the son of Alcmaeon, Megacles, I offer my daughter Agariste in marriage, according to the laws of the Athenians. The offer was accepted, and the two who were thus united became the parents of the famous Athenian law giver, Kleistinnes, and the great-grandparents of the still-more-famous Pericles. This story sheds a pleasant light on the social relations and intermarriage of the great nobles of Greece, on the genial elegance of the tyrant, and on his wide interstate connections. The death of Kleistinnes, about 570, closed the century-long rule of his dynasty. Evidently, other tyrants succeeded, and it was not till near the end of the sixth century, about 510, that Scyon shook off the yoke. In the case of both Corinth and Scyon, the revolution was accomplished by a band of noble conspirators, supported by the Lacedaemonians. Both cities adopted moderate oligarchy, and both entered the Peloponnesian League. General Character of the Tyrone These examples sufficiently illustrate, for the present purpose, the character of the earlier tyranny. Whatever the tyrant's origin, his authority was generally exercised in the interest of peace, material prosperity, and progress in civilization. Put an end alike to the factional strife of nobles, and the sectional conflicts of tribes, he reduced his people to harmony and established domestic peace. No force in the Hellenic world of the time contributed so much to cultural progress. The tyrant's patronage attracted poets, painters, sculptures, and architects, who formed in his court a brilliant and versatile society. Everywhere accepting in Scyon, rhapsodists were engaged to recite the Homeric poems at popular gatherings, and everywhere at festivals in honour of the new god, Dionysus, song and recitation, the germ of the drama, celebrated the sufferings, and joys he experienced among mankind. By thus fostering literary interest among the people, and by attaching them to New York cults, he freed them in a degree from the priestly influence of the old nobility, and educated them for self-government, redress of legal and political wrongs. The tyrant's promise to the commons he fulfilled by putting an end to aristocratic oppression, to the exactions of landlords, and to the unjust sentences of magistrates. Generally he enforced the existing laws and constitution, though he was far from permitting the people to enjoy any real political power. The leveling of social classes, the enforcement of law by mercenary aid, developing a much needed civic discipline, together with an enlightened educational policy, constituted an essential and long-reaching stride on the way from aristocracy to democracy. Necessarily, however, as the tyrant concentrated governmental power in his own hands, the political rights of the citizens slept, while individuals of pronounced ambition were exiled or put to death. The long continuance of despotism would have crushed the genius of the Greeks and reduced them to the dead level of aegiotics. Fortunately, tyrannies were short-lived, whereas the usurper himself was a statesman. His sons and even more his grandsons, corrupted by wealth and unlimited power, so degenerated as to give the word tyrant the meaning which it had retained to the present time. Almost inevitably, however, the tyranny was succeeded either by democracy or by an oligarchy more liberally constituted than the earlier aristocracy. Oligarchy, literally an oligarchy, is a rule of the few. According to Aristotle, the few who base their right upon wealth. The narrowest and most oppressive form arose where a clique of wealthy man seized the government and exploited the state in their own interest. It is characterized by Aristotle as dynastic, a hydra-headed tyranny, far more heartless than the despotism of an individual. Broader and more indurable was the nightly oligarchy, in which participation in the government depended upon economic ability to furnish all necessary equipments for service on horseback. The night provided from his own estate, either a single horse or two horses, one for himself, the other for his squire. Caucus and Eretria are examples. This form of oligarchy in which political privileges are graded on the basis of property is precisely described as a democracy, a democracy of the heavy infantry. A more popular form was so broad as to admit to active citizenship all who could equip themselves with a panoply for war. The latter developed from the former, mainly through the growth of states in population and wealth. The earliest government which existed among the Hellenies, after the overthrow of the kingly power, grew up from the warrior class and was originally taken from the knights. For strength and superiority in war at that time depended on cavalry, indeed without discipline infantry are useless, and in ancient times there was no military knowledge or tactics, and therefore the strength of armies lay in their cavalry. But when cities increased and the heavy armed grew in strength, more had a share in the government. The best known example is that of Athens immediately before so long. A democracy of the heavy infantry may expand, either directly or through the tyranny to democracy. The latter kind of government will be treated in connection with reforms of Chlisthenes at Athens, political versatility of the Hellenies. By means of typical instances, we have now traced the main lines of development from monarchy to the beginning of democracy. For appreciating the genius of the Greeks, however, we must bear in mind that in the creation of forms of government, they showed the same boundless versatility as in the fields of literature, art and philosophy. Taking their most precious contributions to civilization is the republican government, which they devised in endless variety, and which assured to the citizens a varying degree of liberty and self-government. In this atmosphere of freedom they created political science, as represented by the works of Plato and Aristotle. We must not condemn these efforts because in some, or all respects, they fall short of the actualities or ideals of today. But in all fairness, we must regard the Greeks as pioneers, whose political strivings necessarily tentative have furnished to after ages suggestions and inspirations for a more perfectly balanced democracy. Combinations of states. The motive which first led neighboring states, whether ethnic or cities, to combine in leagues lies far anterior to recorded history. It might have been a border market, the need of allies, the desire for frontier security, or a nascent consciousness of kindred blood. Whatever may have been the practical impetus to friendly intercourse, such neighboring states chose the sanctuary of a deity conveniently situated, at which to hold a periodical festival for worship, often to a fair for the interchange of goods. A union of neighbors ostensibly for a religious object, but sometimes serving more practical ends, was turned an anfiktoni. That of Delos, centering in the shrine of Apollo on that island, reached the height of its splendor, probably early in the 7th century. The Homeric hymn, to the Delian Apollo composed at that time, celebrates the gathering of the Ionians, with their wives and children, to worship this god, with music, dancing, and gymnastic exercises, and to trade. From an original union of insular neighbors, it had come to include all the Ionians. Whatever assuming a political character, it eventually declined. Another anfiktoni comprised 12th Ethni in the neighborhood of Thermopylae. Its earliest seat of worship was the shrine of Demeter at Anthela, near that pass, but in time it acquired a second and more important center, in the temple of Apollo, a Delphi. Hence it came to be known as a Delphic anfiktoni. The object of the league was the protection of the shrines, especially of the temple and oracle of Apollo. The government lay in the hands of an anfiktonic council comprising 48 speakers, four from each tribe, and 12 recorders. The speakers alone proposed and debated measures. The recorders alone voted. A resolution adopted by this council in the memorial past imposed the north upon the members of the league not to destroy an anfiktonic city or to cut it off from running water in war or peace. Here was one of the earliest attempts to mitigate the primitive rigors of war. Many other decrees of the council are known to us, including one which forbade the Greeks to levy tolls on pilgrims to the shrine, and another requiring the states of the league to keep in repair their own roads leading to Delphi. Against the state which trespassed upon any rights of the god, it had the power to declare a sacred war. Although the council sometimes championed the cause of Hellas, as could any association or individual, it never acquired a recognized authority over all the Greeks. And notwithstanding its occasional participation in political affairs, it remained essentially a religious convocation. Hegemony A union religious at basis tended to become unpolitical, especially when it contained a state of superior power and secular ambition. For example, the Bioscian anfiktoni, whose deities were Poseidon and Athena, was converted into a federal union by Thebes. Its constitution, which developed toward the end of the 5th century, grouped the states of the league in 11 units, roughly equal in population. These units were equally represented in the federal magistracy, council and court, and had equal military and financial burdens. It provided further for a referendum of important matters to the states, and seems to have admitted of an initiative from the states. Theoretically, the arrangement was most admirable, but in fact, the Thebans, who constituted four of the 11 units of representation, dominated the federal policy. These examples will suffice for illustrating the anfiktoni and the earlier experimentation with political unions of states. Other confederations will be mentioned in the course of this narrative. The brilliancy of the Greek mind is devising systems of combination, however, was for a long time more than offset by the excessive individualism of small republics, to whom sovereign independence was the breath of life. Chapter 6 of Hellenic history. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Mike Botez, Hellenic history by George Willis Botsford. Chapter 6 Crete, Lassidemann and the Peloponnesian League. One Crete. City states and their federation. Of the hundred Cretan cities existing in the Middle Age, at least fifty survived to historical time or were replaced by newer foundations and are known by name. They joined in a league to resist invasion and established a federal court for the settlement of their disputes. Notwithstanding these institutions, the city states often fought with one another. The most important were Gnosis, Gorton and Sidonia, which, when combined, were able to control the policy of the rest. Social classes. Because of the relatively small number of Hellenic immigrants into Crete, Minoan institutions as well as Minoan art, survived to historical time with less modification than elsewhere. The Lictians, says Aristotle, are a colony of the Lassidemonians, and the colonists, when they came to Crete, adopted the laws which they found existing among the inhabitants. A photos too holds the opinion that the institutions, which were accustomed to describe as peculiarly Dorian, existed in the native cities of Crete before the Dorian immigration. Society in Lictus and elsewhere was organized in stereotyped classes, such as we expect to find in any old stagnant civilization. Most bought slaves were in the cities, employed in domestic service. Higher in rank were the serfs, some public, others private. These slaves, serfs, have some regularly recurring festivals in Sidonia, during which no free men enter the city, but the slaves are masters of everything, and have the right even to flock the free men. Their family and business rights were extensive, and they were carefully protected by law. Among the free men were various social grades, lowest were the periocci, dwellers around, the inhabitants of a city in subjection to another. We know little of their condition. The citizens of a free state were by birth either common or noble. All were alike warriors living in the city, and differentiated from the farming class by a law of Minos. The most important features of their life were their military education and their public tables, training of children and youths. The children were taught to read, to sing the traditional songs, and to play the double pipe and lyre, two instruments inherited from a known time. At an early age, they were taken to the public tables to wait on their fathers. Clad in mint garments which are rarely changed, they ate their food together sitting on the ground. The boys attached to each table were organized in a company under a master. The groups thus formed took rudimentary training for war, and fought sham battles. When they reached the 17th year, they were organized in troops, each under the leadership of a noble youth, whose father supervises training and enforced discipline. On certain appointed days, troop encounters troop, marching in time to the sound of pipe and lyre, as is their custom in actual war. All the members who have reached the required age are compelled to marry. They do not bring their brides home forthwith, but wait till the latter are able to attend to household matters. The dowry of a girl is equal to half of her brother's portion. Evidently the troop was the company which sat at one table. The masses of the older men were called simply clubs, evidently transformed from the troops of youth. Public tables The limited number of citizens in a state is proved by the fact that the tables were under a single roof. Each table was in charge of a woman, who, with the help of common laborers and slaves, prepared and served the food, given the choices dishes to the citizens most distinguished for wisdom and prowess. An ancient authority informs us that the people of Ligtai conduct their public tables as follows. Each brings in a tenth of his produce, as well as the public revenues, which the authorities of the state distribute among the several houses. Each slave, too, contributes monthly, when a genet and stator espoltaks. This arrangement conduced to equality, as state aid permitted the poorest citizens to eat at the public tables. Military and religious aspects of the training. The object of their peculiar mode of life was military. That courage and not fear might predominate. They custom themselves from childhood, to the use of arms, and to endure fatigue. Accordingly, they disregarded heat and cold, rugged and steep roads, blows received in gymnastic exercises and in set battles. They practiced archery. And the curates, young men, initiated into the mysteries of Zeus, the divine youth, performed the Pyrrhic war dance in armor, while they chanted a song to the Lord of all that is wet and gleaming, praying for full jars, fleecy flocks, fruitful fields, prosperous seaborn ships, and goodly law. Political development. The original kingship changed to an aristocracy, in which the chief magistrates were ten Cosmey, keepers of order, who commanded in war, exercised judicial and general administrative functions, and enforced discipline among the citizens. They were assisted and limited by council and an assembly. But in early period, the laws were reduced to writing. A considerable part of the Code of Gortyn has been preserved in an inscription. Gradually, the government grew more popular, till in the 3rd century, democracy became universal. 2. Lassedamen. Political unification of Laconia. In Laconia, conditions were in some respects similar to those of Crete. Although probably a larger percentage of the Laconians were of Northern descent, yet their civilization owed more to the Minoans than to the Indo-European race. Unlike Crete, Laconia contained one city-state, Sparta, which excelled all the rest in military power, advantageously located near the center of the country, and probably commanding a wider area, and larger population than any other, well-invigorated too with Northern blood. This city brought all Laconia under her power, 8th century. Adjacent communities she absorbed, and reduced the others to subjection as perio-key. The nearer result was increased wealth, and temporarily a richer culture for the dominant state, but more enduringly, the growth of the strongest military power in Helas. Laconian culture of the 7th century. Earlier in the 7th century, the commercial relations of Sparta with the Asiatic Greeks bore cultural fruit. On invitation, the lesbian musician Terpander came with his seven-stringed Cretan lyre to Sparta to allay a political disturbance. The Greeks were far more sensitive to music than we are, and it is impossible for us to appreciate the moral effect a fortative verse sung to a strange and masterful melody. Shortly afterward, Thalitas of Gortin, invited by the Spartans to visit their city, brought with him the choral song and dance. The word chorus applied originally to the dancing place, then to the group of performers, and finally to their song. The Pyrrhic word dance he is said to have invented. However, that may be, he introduced it into Sparta. In music, the Spartan found a powerful instrument for training, and no state employed it with equal success. Later in the century, we find Alcman active at Sparta. A hint from an extant fragment has led to the view that he was a Lydian from Sardis. At all events, he speaks the Doric tongue, and identifies himself heart and soul with the natives. These poems open to us a view of Spartan life which we find nowhere else, a life of contentment, of peace and love and pleasure, from the gods' vengeance. But he is happy, who cheerily weaves the web of his days unwipping. He invites to Laconia the goddess Aphrodite, leaving her lovely cyprus and pathos encircled by waves. He calls upon the muse of sweet voice, daughter of Zeus, to begin the delightful melody adding charm to the song, and inspiring the graceful dance of fair-gowned girls with their carven ivory necklets. These sentiments of his, and many more, no less gentle, were in keeping with the Laconia of his age. We come to Great Demeter's Fane, way nine, all maidens all in goodly raiment clad. In goodly raiment clad with necklets bright, of carven ivory that shone like snow. First Messenian war. In a general way, we have traced the history of Laconia through the Middle Age to its acme of cultural development in the seventh century. The conquest of this country by Sparta was connected closely as effect and cause. With the growth in that city of a ruling military class of landowners, supported by agricultural serfs, helots, a social system derived from Minoan life, having nothing to do but drill and fight. The military class naturally developed an ambitious policy of conquest. Toward the close of the eighth century, they had waged the war of aggression upon Messenia. The population of this country at the time was Achaean, a blend of aborigines with early Greek-speaking immigrants, among whom doubtless Dorians had already settled. However the pretext for the war may have been, the Spartan poet Terteus gives a real motive as a desire to plow and plant fertile Messenia. The same poet, who, living shortly after the time, is our only reliable authority for the event, tells us that for nineteen years the fathers of our fathers, warriors stout of heart, fought unresting to possess her, and in the twentieth, the foe men, forsaking their rich fields, fled from the lofty heights of Mount Ithomy. Many of the conquered were reduced to serfdom, like asses worn with heavy loads, bitterly are they forced to bring their master, the half of all the soil produces, and whenever the baleful fate of death overtakes their lord, they and their wives mustn't join in lamenting him. Second Messenian war, about 650. After this conquest, we hear of other Lacedaemonian wars with neighbors, not all so fortunate. There were two internal disturbances, which detracted from the reputation of the state. Taken advantage of their weakness, the Messenians, supported by Argyves, Arcadians, and Pisatans, revolted. In their first struggle, with this powerful coalition, the Lacedaemonians were beaten and lost courage. It was the most critical period of their early history. Wealth, art, poetry, the refinements of life, had developed here as nowhere in the peninsula. In the pursuit of culture and comfort, the Spartans were fast losing their warlike character. It was under these untoward conditions that Tirteus came forward to inspire and guide. He was not merely a poet, but a statesman and a military leader, as was so long shortly afterward at Athens. Through his general ship, the Lacedaemonians conquered Messenia. In battle songs he aroused his countrymen to fight and die, if need be for the Fatherland, setting before them as an alternative to victory, a life of wandering beggary, a noble thing it is to die a valiant man, falling in the front line of warriors in the battle for the Fatherland. The most grievous of all fates is to live one city in fertile fields, and to wander begging with a dear mother and aged father, and little children and wedded wife. After a long hard struggle, the Messenians who failed to escape from the country, resumed the yoke of Serfdom. Conquest and land system. In her earlier conquests, Sparta had readily admitted the higher class to citizenship, on condition of removing to the governing city. In this way, Old Central Laconia became the private property of the Spartan citizens, and when Messenia was subdued, the Spartans distributed among themselves a broad district extending through the center of that country to the western coast. All the towns disappeared from this region, as they had disappeared from Central Laconia. The lot assigned the individual Spartan was of such a size, as to supply him with seventy medimi of barley, and his wife with twelve, and oil and wine in proportion. The farms thus granted by the state were hereditary and inalienable. Other lands were freely bought and sold, and in time it became permissible to give away or bequeath the hereditary lot. The result was that differences in wealth arose among the Spartans. As the citizens were forbidden to engage in trade of every kind, their only lawful source of income was agriculture and grazing. Having originally adopted iron as money, as had various other Greek states, at a time when this metal was still scarce, they were compelled by law to adhere to it, centuries after silver and gold had elsewhere become current. In Laconia, as in Minoan Crete, the ruling community tended to make of itself a military caste on the basis of a socialism rigorously enforced by the state. At first, liberal with a citizenship, the Spartans in time hedged themselves strictly in, refusing except on the rarest occasions to admit a stranger to their political community, and ruling in a lordly spirit over their subjects. The elements of social and governmental system derived from the Minoans. They gradually, thousand to six hundred, adapted to their own requirements, and the discipline described in the following pages did not become severe till the sixth century. To maintain their social and political superiority, the Spartans constituted themselves as a perpetual army and transformed their city into a camp. Their whole life was occupied with training. This principle controlled marriage, the birth and education of children, economy and occupation, in brief every activity of life. In other countries of Greece, Castam gave the father the option of rearing his child, or of putting it to death immediately after birth. In Sparta, this function was usurped by the elders of the tribe. If they found the infant weak or deformed, they ordered it exposed in a glen of Mount Tigitus. If however he reached the standard of strength and shapeliness, they directed the father to rear him. To the seventh year, children were in the care of their mothers and of nurses, who were competent women, strictly supervised by the state. The child was trained to eat coarse food without complaint, to cultivate bravery and a cheerful disposition. When reaching the age of seven, he was taken from his mother and placed directly under the control of the state. In the organization of these boys in troops, under youthful captains of prudence and daring for athletic and military drill, and in their education in reading and music, there was a thorough going similarity to crittin' conditions already described. It was not often that the Spartan boys were permitted to bathe or annoyed themselves with oil. They had no bedclothing but slept in their companies. On piles of rushes, they had gathered from the banks of the Eurotas. Under the direction of their captain, they cooked their own meals, the bigger boys bringing logs for the fire, the smaller gathering pot herbs. They contributed also what they had stolen from the gardens or from the tables of the men. Theft was encouraged as an exercise in agility and cleverness. One quote in the act was punished for clumsiness by flogging and fasting. Their meals were purposely made scant as an inducement to ingenuity in providing extras and as means of developing tall slender bodies. Once a year, the Supreme Test of Endurance was applied. When a dealter of Artemis Orthia, the great Minoan goddess, the boys submitted to a flogging. Some endured to death. The severe training resulted not only in strength, agility and endurance, but also in a quiet, modest bearing which has no parallel in modern life. The young Spartans walked the streets, their hands within the folds of their cloaks, their gaze fixed on the ground before them. You might sooner expect a stone image to find voice than one of these Spartan youths. To divert the eye of a bronze statue were less difficult. Barrack Life At the age of twenty, the youth became a man liable to service in the field. It was now permitted him to marry, but for a long time he could see his wife only by stealth. In fact, he never had the enjoyment of a home, but passed his entire life in military drill, eating and sleeping in the barracks. At the age mentioned he joined a secession, mess. It comprised about fifteen members who filled vacancies by co-optation. Their ballots were breadcrumbs, and so great a value did they set on unanimity that a single adverse ballot sufficed to the Barak candidate. Each member contributed his monthly share of barley, wine, cheese and figs, with a little cash for luxuries. Their meat was chiefly pork and wild game. The former was an ingredient of their famous black broth. If you should live in Lassa Damon's bounds, you must comply with all the fashions there. Go to their spare fidotia for supper, and feast on their black broth, and not disdain. To wear fierce whiskers, and seek no indulgence. Further than this, but keep the old customs, such as their country doth compel. Mature men. At thirty the Spartan became a mature man, privileged to attend the assembly, and to fill such political offices as required no advanced age qualification. Continuing their military exercises, the men passed the remainder of their time. In the gymnasia and clubs were a desizitia, discoursing in brief laconic satire, not on money and business matters, but on the honorable and base. The austerities of life found relief in the merriment of wine parties. Among the images of their deities was a little statue of the god of laughter. The severity was mitigated too in campaigns, which accordingly seemed to them a relief from the labors of peace. Girls and women. Girls underwent a similar training. They too practiced running, wrestling, leaping, and throwing the discus and spear, contending for prizes in the sports before the assembled citizens. The state required such exercises as it considered health and strength in women essential to the physical perfection of the race. Their presence at the competition of youths, with approval and railery, incited to the utmost the development of the contestant's energy and skill. The women had a part as well in many religious festivals. The Parthenia of Alkman are choral songs for girls, who, in the ambrosial night, bear a mantle to Artemis as a gift, while the stars contend with them in beauty, in streaming tresses grace the leader like gold unalloyed. In nimbleness, strength, and loveliness of form, these athletic girls are like steeds compactly built that win the prize with ringing hoofs, creatures of winged dreams. As Alkman sings, married women, their training continued only till marriage. The chief wedding ride was a pretended abduction of the bride by force, a relic of the primitive custom of marriage by actual capture. While their husbands lived in the barracks, they enjoyed leisure and comparative luxury at home. Through dowries and inheritances, they gradually accumulated property, till, in the time of Aristotle, they owned nearly two-fifths of the land. This accumulation of wealth in their hands, under conditions as they existed in Laconia, tended to impoverish the men, to lessen the number who had the means of performing citizen duties, hence to weaken the state. Having greater leisure, the women probably attained to a higher intellectual level than their husbands. We hear much too of their patriotism. They held up before husband, son, or father the high Spartan standard of honesty and valor. In all Greece, the women of Sparta alone ruled the men, yet notwithstanding the praises of other writers, Aristotle lays severe strictures on their character, and it may well be that they deteriorated before his age. So degenerate were they in the fourth century, as to proving time of invasion a greater mischief even than the enemy, a self-imposed socialistic despotism. We find accordingly at Sparta, a socialistic community under a self-imposed despotism, which sacrificed the individual to the ideal good of the state, which eradicated the family with its powerful moral influence, and robbed marriage of its sanctity, compelling all the young to regard the elders as their parents, and making it a function of the older people to admonish and to chastise the younger as their children. By limiting education almost exclusively to physical exercise, the system tended to stun the intellect and the imagination. These defects, however, showed themselves but gradually with the lapse of centuries. Social classes among the Spartans were degrees of rank, highest in nobility were the two royal families from whom respectively were taken the two kings, below were other hereditary nobles, who alone were qualified for membership in the Gerusia, Senate council, still lower were the Massive Commons, whose means enabled them to contribute to the Sissitia, and who were physically able to undergo the training. All who had these qualifications were peers. Those who failed in either respect were inferiors. The latter were undoubtedly debarred from political rights, which, however, they could resume on making good the deficiency. Helots. Reference has incidentally been made to the helots, who were serfs like those of Crete. Most probably they originated in a class of Minoan serfs, increased by conquest, perhaps too in early time by death and oppression, till finally they came to be many times their master in number. They were assigned to the lands of the citizens, who were forbidden to enfranchise them or to sell them outside the country. The idea was that they belonged to the state rather than to the individual. They lived with their families in cottages, on the lots assigned to them, rendered to their masters the amount of produce fixed by law, and kept the rest for themselves. In fruitful years they could save something, which they occasionally increased by labor for others or by plunder in war, with the result that many acquired considerable estates. In addition to tilling the soil, they aided in preparing their masters meals, and performed any other menial labor imposed by their individual lords or by the state. In war they served as light troops, or as oarsmen in the fleet, attended to the wounded and waited on their masters. Oarsmen required to serve in the heavy infantry. As often happened in the Peloponnesian war, the meritorious were rewarded with freedom. Freedmen We hear of several kinds of degrees of freedom without being able to define them all. The Neuodamodis, new citizens, performed military duty but lacked the franchise. The Mothonnes formed a large class, many of whom seem to have been children of Spartan fathers and hellot mothers. They were brought up as foster brothers of the youths. Though lacking political rights, they were personally free and shared in the Spartan training. Some became prominent in military offices and acquired the full citizenship. The policy of degrading the hellots, notwithstanding favors thus occasionally received, the condition of the hellots was wretched. They were kept in mind of their servitude by the clothes they wore. A dogskin cap and a mantle of shipskin, girded at the waist by a broad belt. The same dress, it is true, was worn from primitive times by free rural laborers in other parts of Hellas, but this circumstance did nothing to mitigate the contrast in Lassa Demon between serfs and lords. Whereas the Spartans were forbidden sweetmeats and excessive drinking and olimoral songs, they would not permit the hellots to sing the noble lays of the great national poets, but compel them on occasions to make an exhibition of intoxication and of their low melodies and dances as a warning to the Spartan youth to beware of such practices. The Kryptia. To over all the hellots and keep them in a spirit of subjection, the government instituted a secret police force, termed Kryptia, comprising the most prudent young men of Sparta. Armed with daggers, these policemen were accustomed to range through the country. Concealing themselves in the daytime and traveling by night, they used to cut down any hellot to whom suspicion attached. To avoid incurring thus the guilt of murder, says Aristotle, the yefors were accustomed every year on entering office to proclaim war upon the hellots. The Spartan domain and the surrounding Periochi. Spartans and hellots have been considered in connection because of their interdependence as lords and serfs, as well as because of their local relations. Hellots were only found in the homes and on the lands of the Spartans. Extending nearly around this domain was a strip of territory occupied by the Periochi, dwellers around. They lived in towns or cities, polies of their own, about a hundred a number. Many were originally free, but had been reduced to dependence by Sparta. It is equally clear that many were colonies formed by Sparta, in part with immigrants from other countries. The object of the Spartans in thus surrounding their domain with a chain of colonies is evident. In the first place, they wished in this way to provide a defense for their territory. More important was their desire to cut off the hellots from the outside world, leaving the neighbors no opportunity to interfere and the hellots no hope of escape. In return for the favor shown them by Sparta, the Periochi thus stood guards over the serfs. The Periochic towns. Each Periochic town had its own government, usually immune from Spartan interference. The inhabitants were personally free, and as in any Greek state were divided into nobles and commons. Their equality with other Greeks is shown by the part they took as competitors in the great national games. Not subject to the Spartan discipline, they enjoyed a relatively large liberty in the employment of their time, and in the choice of occupations. Many were farmers, but as the best lands had been taken by the ruling people, a great number devoted themselves to manufacturing and commerce. They worked the iron mines of Mount Tygetus, and manufactured various iron and steel fabrics, such as keys, swords, helmets, and axes. As workers in bronze, they showed artistic taste. We hear of their drinking cups, their shoes, chairs, tables, and chariots. Some manufactured sea-purple, with which they dyed woollen garments. Commerce brought them wealth, for their wares were in high favor throughout the world. They were not without intellectual eminence, for they gave several poets to Helas, and their wisest man, Misson, was reckoned among the seven sages. They had their religious festivals, in which the Spartans enjoyed a part. As a diannual national celebration to Artemis at Cariae, where the Lacedaemonian girls joined in the dance. Relation of the Periochi to Sparta. The towns themselves were individually subject to Sparta, evidently on fixed terms. Modern citizens were not permitted to reside or possess property, within a periochic town, whereas the periochi were privileged to reside in Sparta, for the sake of conducting business there. They paid the rolling city contributions in the time of need, and in war performed military duty. Their heavy infantry was only less efficient than the Spartan. The arsenals and warships of Lacedaemon were theirs, though necessarily under Spartan command, and they formed a considerable part of the cruise. In army and navy, men of this class rose by merit to high positions. None, however, obtained access to the Spartan citizenship, or shared in the Lacedaemonian government, or in any way influenced its policy. And yet, in the Lacedaemonian state, they were not regarded as aliens. They, with the Spartans, constituted the Lacedaemonians, citizens of several cities included in the state, whereas the hellots before emancipation were excluded from the name and civil rights. The amount of Spartan interference in their local affairs was variable. Because of its exposed position, Kythera was occupied by a garrison under a Harmost, associated with a civil magistrate. Other towns were ordinarily liable to occupation, only when threatened by an enemy. Contended with their lot, the Periochi long remained faithful. With the progress of time, however, as the number of Spartans dwindled, the burden of service fell more and more heavily upon them. Then first they became dissatisfied with their condition. The amount of personal liberty, which the Periochi continued to enjoy, was great. Those who so lived, as to incur no political suspicion, were secure enough in life and property. Yet this condition existed on sufferance only, for the Ephors had a right to arrest and put to death without trial. Any Periocos whom they judged dangerous. This power was moderately exercised, and the bond of interest and sympathy which united the Periochi to Sparta remained strong. The Lacedaemonian Army The primary aim of the social organization and discipline was the military superiority of Sparta. The germ of her phalanx was a Minoan inheritance fostered, 1. By her rapidly grown exclusiveness, 2. By the superior fertility and extent of her original territory, supporting a remarkably large number of landowners of sufficient means, to enable them to equip themselves for heavy infantry service. 3. By the absence of an acropolis of imposing height, to exercise a moral power of protective control over the neighborhood, compelling an unusual dependence on the strong military arm. In the time of Tertebus the phalanx had not reached its complete development. As yet the warrior held no fixed position, but it greatly depended on his own courage, whether he would fight in the front rank among the champions, or farther back in the lines, or stand far off beyond the range of darts. It was meritorious in the young men to take the front rank. Some were heavy infantry and others light. The heavy footmen wore a helmet with lofty crest, a great shield covering breast, body, hips and legs, or in its place a round embossed shield with a cuirass beneath. For offense they carried swords and long glances, the light troops crouching beneath their bucklers in loose formation hurled stones from slings and threw their polished javelins. The metal of the protecting armor was bronze, whereas their weapons of offense were probably now of iron, which the mines of Laconia abundantly furnished. In time the citizen body of light troops was eliminated, and the heavy armed were organized in five moray, from the five local tribes into which the Spartans came to be divided. A six mora, as a guard for the kings, seems to have been formed from all five tribes. As the number of Spartans declined, the vacant places in the mora were filled with periochi, whereas the helots usually served as light troops or as mere laborers. The military age extended from the 20th to the 60th year. The kings, the commanders of the army, and in the earliest known constitution the chief magistrates, were the two kings, from the royal families of the Aghiyads and Yuri Ponteds respectively. Whatever may have been the origin of the double kingship, the institution was looked upon as a safeguard against tyranny. The perpetual discord between the kings weakened their office, permitting the growth of more popular institutions. The kings were priests of Zeus and certain other gods and judges, in cases concerning family law and public highways. As commanders of the army, they originally had the right to declare war against whatsoever enemy they pleased, but this and other powers were gradually taken from them. In war and peace, they received fixed portions of the sacrificial victims, and in general enjoyed many privileges and honors. Their persons were sacred, and after death they received worship as heroes. On the disease of a king, women went about the streets beating on copper kettles, while mounted messengers spread the news throughout Laconia and Messenia. Representatives of every household, of every social class, under penalty of the law, gathered to mourn the dead. Like Aegeatics on similar occasions, the assembled thousands, men and women, intermingled, beat their foreheads with the right goodwill, and make lamentation without stint, saying this one who died last of their kings was the best of all. Here doubtless, survived the shred of their pomp and ceremony practiced by their ancestry. On the Minoan side, centuries earlier, at the Beehive tombs. The Council, Gerusia. The Gerusia, Council of Old Men, was composed of 28 elders and the two kings. The former were chosen from a few noble genties. They were required to have reached the age of 60, and to have gained distinction for sobriety, virtue and wisdom. The mode of election was peculiar. Candidates for the vacant place walked through the assembly one by one, in an order previously determined by lot, receiving as they passed the acclamation of the people. The members of the returning board, supposed to be ignorant of the order in which the candidates presented themselves, were secreted in a room nearby, where they could hear without seeing. By the loudness and extent of the acclamation, they determined which was the more popular, and therefore the successful candidate. The idea seems to have been that the will of the people expressed itself, not by majority of votes, but by the intensity of feeling on the part of the assembly as a whole. This method, which Aristotle describes as childish, readily admitted connivance between the Council and the returning board, forethoughting the popular will. The functions of the Gerusia were like those of the Homeric Council, but far more definite. It considered measures to be presented to the assembly, and assisted the chief magistrates in the management of public affairs. It exercised jurisdiction in cases affecting the life or civil status of the citizens, and in all important criminal cases in which citizens were involved. The presidency of the body, originally belonging to the kings, was in time transferred to the Ephors. The popular assembly, Appella. The Appella, popular assembly, comprised the fully privileged citizens 30 years of age and upward, who served in the heavy infantry. Under the presidency of the kings, afterward of the Ephors, it elected magistrates, decided questions concerning the succession of kings, and accepted or rejected the measures which the magistrates and council rarely brought before it. As at Rome, the members of the assembly had no right to initiate measures or to join in the debate. They were strictly limited to listening and voting. Where in Hellas, however, the supreme political authority rested ultimately with a dominant military class, and at Sparta, accordingly, it was vested in the assembly of heavy infantry. This body it was, which rested the supreme power from the kings. The assembly did not exercise its authority directly, however, but devolved it upon a board of five Ephors, elected annually from the qualified citizens. Only in questions of war, peace, and other matters of unusual importance, did it reserve the right of decision. The government was a broad military aristocracy, tempered by a strong magistracy. The Ephors, overseers, evidently existed from very early time, but only with the lapse of centuries did they come to supersede the kings as the heads of the state. On entering office, they issued this edict, shaver moustaches and obey the laws, that they may not be grievous to you. The first part of the order enforced the custom which we find pictured on their monuments. The second commanded subjection to discipline. These magistrates supervised the training of youths and watched over the conduct of the citizens through their entire lives. They acquired the right to preside over the Garrusia and the Appella. To try nearly all the civil cases and to prosecute criminals before the council of elders. Over hellots they exercised absolute power, and in cases of political emergency, they could put a periocus to death untried. Their authority extended over the kings. At a close of every nine year period of a king's reign, they watched the sky for no man, which if found deposed him. Oftener by threats of prosecution for misconduct, they drove him into exile. As heads of the state, they conducted negotiations with other governments. These powers and many others of slightly less importance, they had gradually acquired before the opening of the 4th century. 3. Argos, Lasdemon, and the Peloponnesian League Argos. In the day of their glory, the kings of Mycenae and Argos governed a broad mainland realm and claimed hegemony over many islands. With the decline of Minoan civilization and the immigration of north-western Greeks, their power declined. And in the territory once subject to them, many cities, old and new, maintained their independence. Such was the condition of Argolis, one Phaedon, king, or some say tyrant, ascended the throne. His reign cannot be certainly dated, and his achievements display a semi-mythical color. On the whole, it seems to accord best with the few known facts, to place him near the middle of the 7th century prior to the 2nd Messenian War. It was his achievement to concentrate all Argolis under his authority, to extend his sway northward over Corinth and Aegean and southward over Kenuria, the narrow strip of land between Mount Parnon and the sea, continuing in the island of Chithera. Probably it was he who led the Argives to an overwhelming victory over the Lasdemonians at Hissie. Then he invaded Ellis, expelled its magistrates from the presidency of the Olympic Games, and assumed that office himself. This act is characterized by Herodotus as extreme insolence. By spreading abroad over Peloponnes, the system of measures already in vogue in Aegean, he left a permanent impress of his name on that part of Greece. His imposing personality shed a sunset glow upon the departing glory of his city. While bidding fair to become the arbiter of Hellas, he was dislodged from his hold on Olympia by a coalition of Lasdemonians and aliens, and his death finally put an end to the hopes he had raised. His successor on the throne was the weakling, who enjoyed scarcely more than the name of Sovereign. Argos was consequently in no position to set bounds to the expanding power of Lasdemon. Arcadia, the ambition of the Spartans, first directed itself northward. There was the table land of Arcadia surmounted by high mountain ranges, which divided the country into a number of basins. In each basin, dwelt a canton comprising several villages. These mountaineers were simple folk, liberty-loving, unpolished, and warlike. Only on the eastern border did cities grow up under the cultural influence of Argos. Here were three city-states – Tegeya or Comenus and Mantinea. No political bond united the Arcadians, but an ethnic sympathy found nurture at their common shrine of Zeus at Lycosura, where they joined in festive worship. Without definite knowledge, the student of history yet gains the impression that they possessed means of common action in war. In their conflict with Laconia, they seem to have followed the lead of Tegeya, their most powerful state. Lasdemon wins the headship of Arcadia, 600 to 550. The Lasdemonians, after their conquest of Messenia, could not long remain at peace with the world. Their numbers were still doubtless increasing, and they coveted more lands and heloats. Their social political organization, framed exclusively for war, could find nurture in nothing but conquest. Their kings accordingly sent to consult the Oracle of Delphi on the prospect of conquering all Arcadia. The prophetess answered, The land of Arcadia, though asked, though asked too much, I refuse it. Many there are in Arcadian land, stout men, eating acorns. They will prevent thee from this, but I am not grudging toward thee. Tegeya, beaten with sounding feet, I will give thee to Dancian, and a fair plain I will give thee, to measure with line and divide it. Trusting to this deceitful Oracle, they concentrated their strength against Tegeya. But they were beaten, and the captives taken were compelled to work the fields of Tegeya, wearing the fetters they had brought with them for shackling conquered Arcadians. Several times while gaining success elsewhere, they tried in vain to conquer Tegeya. Originally they won a victory over that state, but not such as to promise a conquest. Originally they had planned to halotize the Tegeans, but now they were content to form a permanent alliance with them, about 550. Following this example, the Arcadian cantons, one by one, entered into a league with Lassa Daemon. Lassa Daemon wins the hegemony of Peloponnes, 550 to 500. Meantime the struggle between Lassa Daemon and Argos continued. Till before the middle of the 6th century, Sparta had rested from her ancient rival Kenuria and Kithera. From the reign of Fidon, the aliens were friendly to Lassa Daemon, through whose support they had conquered a broad and fertile domain. Hence they were ready for close alliance with Sparta. Corinth and Sicion, freed from tyrannies, entered the league. Then some states of Argolis as Trezen and Epidorus, and afterward Megara and Egina. Before the close of the 6th century, all the states of Peloponnes, accepting Argolis and the greater part of Akea, were leagueed with Lassa Daemon. Organization of the Peloponnesian League. There was no general federal constitution, but a separate treaty united each state with Lassa Daemon. The members pledged themselves to furnish military forces for the wars waged by the league, to serve under the command of the Lassa Daemonian kings. No tributes were levied, but occasional contributions were required. A Congress of Deputies meted Sparta or Corinth to deliberate on federal interests, particularly on questions of war, peace and alliance. The allies were free to manage their own affairs, and the burdens of war were light. Their representation in the common diet made them content with their position, for they felt they were free and had a fair share in the deliberations. The statement of Herodotus, that the greater part of Peloponnes was subjected to Lassa Daemon, is therefore wholly misleading. As the union rested on a treaty basis, it was federal, though not to a degree afterward attained elsewhere. Herself under the rule of a few, and therefore hostile to both tyrannies and democracies, Lassa Daemon upheld oligarchy among her allies. To this end she sometimes interfered in the home politics of her allies, and occasionally she felt compelled to check excessive ambition or self-aggrandizement in the individual states in order to maintain her own hegemony. To keep themselves qualified for opposition fraught with as much burden as honor. The Spartans increased the severity of their discipline, eschewed the refinements they had formerly allowed themselves, and subjected the individual more rigorously to the state. For these purposes increased power was given the e-force, who in the 6th century began to supersede the kings as the heads of the state. However crude and imperfect, the political system was admirable for the age, especially it created a strong, well-centralized military force, at a time when the danger of Oriental conquest began to threaten Greece. End of chapter 6