*

among men, none has such claims as Athens to wear the wreath of supremacy. Even now that her crown of flowers has been so long withered upon her brow, it blooms afresh in our hearts, with all its pristine beauty. But when her marts were filled with merchandise, and bustling with life— her ports open to a thousand vessels, bringing from the cities of Greece, the coasts of Asia Minor, and 'the countless Isles that gem the Egean deep,' all that was useful or luxurious in nature or in art ;† when mighty men lived within her walls, and the voice of genius was echoed back from all her splendid fanes, till it became the atmosphere of Athenian existence-how can we express that deepest, holiest feeling of love and admiration, which swelled in the breast of every Athenian, and quickened the pulses of his blood? The Athenian himself was so filled with the consciousness of her loveliness, that her name never rose to his lips unless accompanied by some term of endearment. There is no one acquainted with the Greek poets, or even historians, who can have avoided being struck with the exuberance of their affection towards Athens. Every epithet is lavished upon 'the Violet Crowned City,' which can convey the idea of loveliness or splendour. Even the richness and fulness of the Greek tongue, matchless as it is in these respects, appear inadequate to express with due warmth and energy, the passionate enthusiasm which they feel. Jealous, too, as were the other cities of Greece, of Athenian greatness, they all admitted the superior beauty and magnificence of the favored Athens. There was truth as well as eulogy in the honest boast of Isocrates, that she was universally admired and

The war navy of Athens, alone amounted to four hundred vessels at the close of the Persian contest. Thuc. lib. i, c. 74. Strabo. lib. ix, c. 1. † Επεισέρχεται δὲ διὰ μέγεθος τῆς πόλεως ἐκ πάσης γῆς τὰ πάντα, και ξυμβαίνει ἡμῖν μηδὲν οἰκειοτέρα τῆ ἀπολαύσει τὰ αὐτοῦ ἀγαθὰ γιγνόμενα καρπούσθαι ἢ καὶ τὰ τῶν ἄλλων ἀηθρώπων. Thuc. ii, 38.

We will cite a few instances. Athens is called by Pindar xpavaal. Οl. vi, 151, μεγαλοπόλιες, Pyth. vi, 1. μεγάλαι Nem. ii, 2. ἱεραί, Fr. xlv. By Eschylus dróponto. Pers. 348, Ed. Tauchn. yuyio, 974, (and the inhabitants dorixos λews par excellence, Eum. 997.) Sophocles calls it πασῶν ̓Αθῆναι τιμιωτάτη πόλις (Ed. Col. 108, Ed. Herm. (and see Stanley on Esch. Eum. 1000, Ed. Butler.) Every lover of Greek Tragedy will remember the choral song, commencing, suínov, géve, sãode xúpas, Ed. Col. 674. Euripides terms it soduro. Iph. T. 1449, Ed. Tauchn. Bio Med. 824, also apai, Troad. 800. Aris

beloved by strangers above all other cities. Her climate; her situation; the brightness and serenity of her empurpled skies; the salubrity of her atmosphere; the balmy breath and refreshing softness of her evening zephyrs; the rich verdure of her flowering hills; the sparkling clearness of her sacred streams; the laughing waves of the blue Saronic beneath her a pure and unmixed race, and a faultless

tophanes names it ευδαίμονες, Eq. 159, Ed. Becker, and see Schol. on Vesp. 98. Sometimes the epithets are piled upon each other.

Αἳ τε λιπαραί, και ιἰστέφανοι, και ἀοίδιμοι,

Ελλάδος ἔρεισμα, κλειναι ̓Αθῆναι. Pind. Fr. xlv. Ed. Boëchh

Which passage Aristophanes has imitated and amplified according to the Scholiast (ad. Eq. 1324,) by whom it is preserved.

Agor. 'Αλλ' ὀλυλύξατε φαινομένησιν ταῖς ἀρχαιᾶισιν ̓Αθήναις,

και θαυμασταῖς, και πολυύμνοις, ἵν' ὁ κλεινὸς Δῆμος ἐνοικέι. Chor. ὦ και λιπαρὰι, και ἰοστέφανοι, και ἀριζήλωται ̓Αθῆναι. Aristoph. Εq. 1324.

Cf. Eq. 1320, Acharn. 611. Eurip. Med. 824. λιπαρᾶισι τ ̓ ἐν ὀλβίαις Αθάναις. Alcest. 452. ἑστίαν τῆς Ἑλλάδος. Pythius apud Athen. Deipn. lib. vi, § 65. πρυτανείον Ελλάδος, ibid. Ελλαδος Έλλας, Αθῆναι. Thucyd. aut Timoth. Ep. Eurip. Anthol. Gr. vii, 45. τὴν λαμπροτάτην πόλεων πασῶν ap. Athen. Deipn. i, § 36. ὁμολογεῖται τὴν πόλιν ἡμων· ἀρχαιοτάτην είναι, και μεγίστην, και παρα πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις ὀνομαστοτάτην, Isocrat. Panegyr.

* Isocrat. Panegyr. and Panathenaic.

The skies of Greece are of a rich purple hue, much deeper than those of Italy, as we are assured, by one who was in his youth an active Philhellenist, and is now a distinguished professor, to whom we should be proud to refer by name.

† Ζεφύρου πνοαῖς ἱππεύσαντος ἐν οὐρανῷ κάλλιστον κελάδημα. Eur. Phœn. 211. εὐδιεινὸς και ἥδιστος των ανέμων. Aristot. Probl. lib. xxvi, § 31. λειότατός τε των ανέμων και ψυχρος. Ib. § 52.

$ Vertice de summo semper florentis Hymetti. Ovid Metam. lib. vii, 702. Florea per verni qualis friga duxit Hymetti. Valer. Flaccus. Argon. lib. v, 344.

|| Του καλλινάου * * Κηφισου ῥοάσ Eur. Med. 839. χαρίεντα, και καθαρα, και διαφανή τα ὑδάτα φαίνεται και ἐπιτήδεια κόραις πάιζειν παρ' αὐτά. Plat. Phadr. p. 229. Speaking of the Ilissus. ἱέρων ποταμών. * πόλις. Eur. Med. 846. On these rivers see Wachsmuth Hist. Ant. i, 14 n. 22 n. Thirlwall i, p. 27. Bulwer i, p. 2.

These waters blue that round you lave, &c. Byron. Giaour. Æschylus, too, had the Saronic before him, when he wrote those beautiful lines ποντίων τε κυματων ανήριθμον γέλασμα. Prom. Vinct. 89. So had Euripides when he spoke of καλον * πίνπου χευμα εὐήνεμον Dan, Fr. iii.

symmetry of form*-such was her dowry from the benignant hand of nature. To these she added the trophies of art; the glories of statesmanship and war; the pomp and solemnity of religion; the attraction of graceful amusements; and the magic of Letters. All these combined to weave a web of brilliancy around Athens; and when she won the homage of all hearts, the causes were as obvious as the feeling was deep.

It would at any time be a pleasing occupation to linger around a city thus graced and honored, and a most agreeable task to study the character and institutions of a people, which excited so much enthusiasm in its own day, and has perpetuated its fame through all succeeding generations as the greenest spot in the memory of the world. But there is a special temptation to undertake this inquiry offered to us at present, by the publication of Bishop Thirlwall's singularly accurate and learned History of Greece. What might under other circumstances have been a labor-though a labor in which the heart would have been deeply interested, becomes comparatively easy when presented under his careful and sa e guidance. For he has furnished us with the first work on Grecian History, which we can declare in all respects satisfactory. The numerous and important discoveries, made by German genius and erudition, are faithfully methodized and incorporated into the narrative; and it is no mean share of learning that the ablest Hellenist

*’Alyvãsoi xahol. Aristoph. Ach. 144.

† Καὶ γαρ θεαματα πλέιστα, και καλλισσα κέκτηται (sc. ἡ πόλις ημών) τα μὲν ταῖς σαπάναις ὑπερβάλλοντα, τα δὲ κατὰ τας τέχνας ευδοκιμούντα, τα δὲ αμφοτέροις τούτοις διαφέρονται και τὸ πλῆθος των αφικνουμένων πρὸς ημας τοσοῦτόν ἐστιν, ὥστ ̓ ἔι τι ἐν τω πλησιάζειν αλλήλοις αγαθον εστιν, και τοῦτο ὑπ' αὐτῆς περιειλήφθηναι. Isocrat. Panegyr. On the number of the games and other amusements of Athens consult Potter. Arch. Gr. † έγω τὴν πάσαν πόλιν τῆς Ἑλλαδος παίδευσιν εἶναι. Thuc. lib. ii, c. 41, which Isocrates, who so continually borrows from Thucydides, has amplified : τοσουτον απολέλοιπεν η πολις ημων περί του φρονέιν και λέγειν τοὺς ἄλλους ανθρώπους, ὥσθ' οἱ ταύτης μαθηται των άλλων διδα σκαλοι γεγόνασι, και τὸ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ὄνομα πεποίηκε, μηκετι τοῦ γένους, ἄλλα της διανοίας δοκειν τεκμήριον εἶναι και μαλλον Ελλήνας καλεῖσθαι τοὺς τῆς παιδεύσεως τῆς ημετέρας, ἢ τοὺς της κοινης φύσεως μετασχοντας. Isocrat. Panegyr. cf. De Pac. vide Cic. Brut. c. xiii, and Vell. Pater, also Milton Par. Reg. B. iv, vv. 236-80, where is a most beautiful eulogy of Athens, which cannot be read or studied too frequently,

of his day at Cambridge has himself brought to the execution of his task. In translating Niebuhr's great work, Bishop Thirlwall had long since familiarized himself with the skill, sagacity, and profundity of his original; and he has applied to the Chronicles of Greece the same rare qualifications which were so successful in elucidating the confused legends of Rome. Before the publication of the present work, we had no History of Greece in which we could confide. Gillies was weak and worthless; Rollin more suitable for the nursery than the library; Mitford passionate and prejudiced; and of Goldsmith we need not speak. Thirlwall is candid, learned and honest; and it is to be hoped that the convenience of a text-book so valuable may tend to the diffusion of a more general acquaintance with the life, character, and career of the ancient Greeks.

The absence of any unity in Grecian History, the complexity of its numerous branches, and the infinite variety of the topics embraced by it, no less than the extent of the volumes before us, will preclude our entering into any elaborate review of Bishop Thirlwall's work. Instead, therefore, of venturing upon a hopeless attempt, we have selected one branch of inquiry from the number presented; and, although we may not adhere very closely to our text, we profess to adopt the present work as our guide and mentor, while we examine into the History of Athens, and into the character. and genius of the ancient Athenians. For the more effectual support of our conclusions, we shall frequently refer to the very learned essay of Prof. Wachsmuth on the Historical Antiquities of the Greeks, only one half of which, to our great regret, has yet been translated. We shall also have recourse to the no less able work of Prof. C. F. Hermann; nor shall we suffer ourselves to be so far misled by the fool, ish depreciation of pedantry and sciolism, as to slight the aid of Bulwer's Athens-a book singularly beautiful in its execution, and instructive in its views. Bulwer, it is true, is deficient in the requisite scholarship, but his instinct has intuitively led him almost always in the right path, along which heavier learning dimly gropes its way. And, by his adoption of the immortal Fasti Hellenici of Fynes Clinton, a work barely known in this country, he has borrowed most of the benefits of that erudition, which he did not himself possess. With such allies we enter upon our task confidently, though without being by any means blind to the

numerous and real difficulties of its worthy accomplishment. We may, however, fairly risk a failure, when so many abler men have failed before us.

The situation of Athens was eminently beautiful. All that nature could bestow, with the single exception of a rich surrounding country, had been accorded to the Violet-Crowned Queen. And even in this point, art supplied, in a great

* *

*We will take the liberty of inserting here a note on 'orέpavos, as an epithet of Athens, for the consideration of philologists. All others will of course pass over, and it is hoped that they will excuse what they are not expected to read. Bulwer renders it 'Violet-crowned,' following Boeckh and Pind. Fr. xlvi, and such we believe, is the interpretation given to it by all others. This version is certainly sustained by Fr. xlv, but it may be doubted whether the lov in composition here has much further force than to augment the idea of beauty. The earliest use of the word is in Homerid. Hym. v. ioorέpavou xudspsins. The reference is rightly given in Drisler's new edition of Passow's Greek Lexicon, but the authority of Pindar should have been given before or in preference to Aristophanes, for its subsequent employment. The Scholiast on Aristoph. Eq. 1324, whom Mitchell follows, (ad. Ach. 637) thinks that Aristophanes borrowed the epithet from Pindar. But what import did Pindar attach to it? Boëckh ad Pind. Fr. xlv, considers it an allusion to the chaplets worn at Athenian festivals. Possibly it may have some remote allusion to the Muses, to whom the same and kindred epithets are applied ioβοστρύχοισι Μοίσαις Pind. Isthm. vi, 23. ιοπλοκάμων Μοισᾶν Pind. Pyth. i, 1. Μουσάων ιοστεφάνων, Theogn. 250, Ed. Wint. and Moura oorspávy. Theocr. Lyr. 7. So Sappho, the tenth Muse, is called by Alcmus, ἰοπλόκ', ἁγνά, μειλιχομείδα Σαπφοι. Fr. xxxviii, and δεισον άμμι τάν ιοπλοκον Fr. lxvi. for we adopt Blomfield's judicious reading instead of loxodov. Mus. Crit., vol. i., p. 440, and supply either Σαπφώ οι Μοισαν. Compare ioβοστρυχον Εὐαδναν. Pind. Οl. vi. 30, and ἑπτὰ ιοπλοκάμων θυγατέρων. Simonides ap. Athen. Deip. lib. xi., 180. In most of these passages we must render these epithets 'dark-haired,' beautiful-haired,' not 'woven with violets.' iorλóxov in the fragment of Alcæus would be better as a proparoxytone, The scholiast in Pindar gives μsλavorpixa as a synonyme; and see Heyne ad Hom. Il. iv., 242, xi. 298, xxiii. 850. Himerius, as quoted by Böeckh, considers lorrέpavo as conveying an allusion to the blue seas around Athens. But probably, in its original application, it was only a vague epithet of beauty, carrying with it, perhaps, an allusion to the constant presence of the Muses at Athens. (Vide Eurip. 824.) It is well known that many Greek compounds lose the full meaning of their component parts. (Boëckh De Metr. Pind. Præf.) No uniform signifi. cation can be given to lov in the compounds cited above, with which may be compared ἰόεντα σίδηρον. Il. xxiii. ἰοειδέα πόντον. Il. xi., 298, and ιοδνεφής. Od. iv., 135. Cf. σὰν κυανάμπυκα Θήβαν. Pind. Hymn., Fr. i. Añλov kuavaμяuxα. Theocr. xvii., 67, which is only intelligible by taking this view of such compounds. Latterly lorrépavos might