country, collected some troops, attacked the Goths, A. D. 269. killed a great number, and dispersed the rest, thus proving to the barbarians that science is not incompatible with courage. Liban. Or. Athens speedily recovered from this disaster, for A. D. 323. we find it soon afterwards offering honors to Constan- Zon. tine and receiving thanks from him. This prince conferred on the governor of Attica the title of grand-duke; a title, which being usurped by one family, at length became hereditary, and transformed the republic of Solon into a Gothic principality. Pita, Bishop of Athens, was present at the Council of Nice. Eunopes Zon, in Constantius, the successor of Constantine, after the A. D. 337. decease of his brothers Constantine and Constans, Const made a present of several islands to the city of Athens. Zos. lib. 3. Athen. Julian, educated among the philosophers of the A. D. 354. Portico, did not quit Athens without shedding tears. Jul. Ep. ad Gregory, Cyril, Basil, and Chrysostom, imbibed Greg Cyr their sacred eloquence in the birth-place of Demos- Bibl. Par. thenes. Bas. Chrys. Oper. Ap. Zos. lib. 4. Chandl. Inscrip. antiq. During the reign of Theodosius the Great, the A.D. 377. Goths ravaged Epire and Thessaly. They were preparing to pass into Greece, but were prevented by Theodore, general of the Achaians. Athens, out of gratitude, erected a statue to her deliverer. Honorius and Arcadius held the reins of empire when Alaric penetrated into Greece. Zosimus relates, that the conqueror, as he approached Athens, perceived Minerva in a menacing attitude on the top of the citadel, and Achilles standing before the ramparts. Alaric, if we are to believe the same historian, did not sack a city which was thus A. D. 395. Zos. lib. 5. A. D. 395. protected by heroes and by gods. has too much of the air of a fable. Syn. Ep. Op. edit. But this story Synesius, who omn, a Pet. lived much nearer to the event than Zosimus, compares Athens burned by the Goths to a victim consumed by the flames, and of which nothing but the bones are left. The Jupiter of Phidias is supposed to have perished in this invasion of the barbarians. Chandl. A. D. 433. A. D. 430. Corinth, Argos, the cities of Arcadia, Elis, and Laconia shared the same fate as Athens. "Sparta, so renowned," continues Zosimus, "could not be saved: it was abandoned by its citizens and betrayed by its chiefs, the base ministers of the unjust and dissolute tyrants who then governed the state." Stilico, when he marched to drive Alaric out of the Peloponnese, completed the devastation of that unfortunate country. Athenais, daughter of Leontius the philosopher, known by the name of Eudocia, was born at Athens, and became the wife of Theodosius the younger.* While Leontius held the reins of the eastern Bell. Vanda. empire, Genseric made a fresh incursion into Achaia. Procopius does not inform us how Sparta and Athens fared in this new invasion. lib. 1. c. 5. A. D. 527. The same historian describes, in his Secret History, * Historians have not paid attention to chronological order, and have misplaced the marriage of Eudocia, by making it anterior to the taking of Athens by Alaric. Zonaras says, that Eudocia, driven from home by her brothers, Valerius and Genesius, was obliged to seek refuge at Constantinople. Valerius and Genesius lived peaceably in their native country, and Eudocia procured their elevation to dignities of the empire. Is not all this history of the marriage and family of Eudocia a proof that Athens was not so great a sufferer by the invasion of Alaric as Synesius asserts, and that Zosimus may be right, at least in regard to the fact? the ravages of the barbarians in the following terms: A. D. 527. "Since Justinian has governed the empire, Thrace, the Chersonesus, Greece, and the whole country lying between Constantinople and the Gulph of Ionia, have been yearly ravaged by the Antes, the Sclavonians, and the Huns. More than two hundred thousand Romans have been killed or made prisoners by the barbarians in each invasion, and the countries which I have mentioned are become like the deserts of Scythia." Edif. lib. Justinian caused the walls of Athens to be repaired, and towers to be built on the Isthmus of Corinth. In the list of towns embellished or fortified by this prince, Procopius has not included Lacedæ- Proc. de. mon. It is remarked, that the emperors of the East . 2. had a Laconian, or, according to the pronunciation then introduced, a Tzaconian guard; the soldiers composing it were armed with pikes, and wore a Cod. Curop. kind of cuirass, adorned with the figures of lions; script. they were dressed in a short wide coat of woollen cloth, and had a hood to cover the head. The com mander of these men was called Stratopedarcha. The eastern empire having been divided into governments, styled Themata, Lacedæmon became the appanage of the brothers, or eldest sons of the emperor. The princes of Sparta assumed the title of Despots; their wives were denominated Despeenes, and the government Despotship. The despot resided at Sparta or Corinth.* Here commences the long silence of history, concerning the most celebrated regions of the universe. * This title of despot is not, however, peculiar to Sparta, and we find despots of the East, of Thessaly, &c. which produces very great confusion in history. ap. Byz A.D. 50%. Spon. Voy. tom. 2. A. D. 27. Spon and Chandler lose sight of Athens for seven hundred "either," as Spon observes, "on years, account of the defectiveness of history, which is brief and obscure in those ages, or because fortune granted it a long repose." We may, however, discover some traces of Sparta and Athens during this long interval. The first mention we find of Athens is in TheoByz, Script. phylactus Simocattus, the historian of the Emperor Mauritius. He speaks of the Muses "who shine at Athens in their most superb dresses," which proves that about the year 590, Athens was still the abode of the Muses. Theoph. 1. 8. c. 12. ap. A. D. 590. A. D. 650. & 6. The anonymous geographer of Ravenna, a Gothic Anon. 1. 4. Writer, who probably lived in the seventh century, names Athens thrice in his Geography; a work of which we have as yet but an ill-executed abridgment by Galateus. A. D. 816. Under Michael III. the Sclavonians over-ran Greece. Theoctistus defeated and drove them to the extremity of the Peloponnese. Two hordes of these people, the Ezerites and the Milinges, settled to the east and west of Taygetus, called at that time Pentadactyle. Notwithstanding what we are told by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, these Sclavonians were the ancestors of the Mainottes, who are not descended from the ancient Spartans, as some yet maintain, without knowing that this is but a ridiculous opinion broached by the last mentioned writer.* It was doubtless these Sclavonians that changed the name of Amyclæ into that of Sclabochorion. *The opinion of Pauw, who makes the Mainottes the descendants not of the Spartans, but of Laconians set at liberty by the Romans, is not grounded on any historic probability, Leo. Vit. We read in Leo the Grammarian, that the in- A. D. 915.. habitants of Greece, no longer able to endure the oppressions of Chases, the son of Job and prefect of Achaia, stoned him in a church at Athens during the reign of Constantine VH. Leo. Ann. Ann. Comn. Under Alexis Comnenus, some time before the A. D. 1081. Crusades, we find the Turks ravaging the Archipelago and all the western coasts. In an engagement between the Pisans and the A. D. 1085. Greeks, a count, a native of the Peloponese, dis- 1. tinguished himself by his valour about the year 1085: so that this country had not yet received the name of the Morea. 11. c. 9. et seq. lib. 4, 5, &c. Glycus. Epire and Thessaly were the theatre of the wars of A. D. 1085. Alexis Comnenus, Robert and Bohemond; and their Ann. Comn. history throws no light on that of Greece, properly so called. The first crusaders also passed through Constantinople without penetrating into Achaia. But, during the reign of Manuel Comnenus, who succeeded Alexis, the kings of Sicily, the Venetians, the Pisans, and other western nations, invaded Attica and the Peloponnese. Roger I. king of Sicily, removed Athenian artisans skilled in the cultivation of silk to Palermo. It was about this time that th Peloponnese changed its name for that of the Morea; at least I find the latter made use of by Nicetas, the Bald. c. 1. historian. It is probable that as silk-worms began to multiply in the east, a more extensive cultivation of the mulberry was found necessary. The Peloponnese derived its new appellation from the tree which furnished it with a new source of wealth. A. D. 1150. Nicet. Hist. Nicet. Ann. Roger made himself master of Corfu, Thebes, and A. D. 1140. Corinth, and had the boldness, says Nicetas, to attack Comn. 1. 2. towns situated farther up the country. But accord c. 1. |