History for ready reference, Volume 3, Greece to NibelungenLarned, J. N. (Josephus Nelson)
History
History for ready reference, Volume 3, Greece to Nibelungen
Larned, J. N. (Josephus Nelson)
History -- Dictionaries
"If there is any point in the annals of Greece at which we can
draw the line between the days of myth and legend and the
beginnings of authentic history, it is at the moment of the
great migrations. Just as the irruption of the Teutonic tribes
into the Roman empire in the 5th century after Christ marks
the commencement of an entirely new era in modern Europe, so
does the invasion of Southern and Central Greece by the
Dorians, and the other tribes whom they set in motion, form
the first landmark in a new period of Hellenic history. Before
these migrations we are still in an atmosphere which we cannot
recognize as that of the historical Greece that we know. The
states have different boundaries, some of the most famous
cities have not yet been founded, tribes who are destined to
vanish occupy prominent places in the land, royal houses of a
foreign stock are established everywhere, the distinction
between Hellene and Barbarian is yet unknown. We cannot
realize a Greece where Athens is not yet counted as a great
city, while Mycenae is a seat of empire; where the Achaian
element is everywhere predominant, and the Dorian element is
as yet unknown. When, however, the migrations are ended, we at
once find ourselves in a land which we recognize as the Greece
of history. The tribes have settled into the districts which
are to be their permanent abodes, and have assumed their
distinctive characters. … The original impetus which set the
Greek tribes in motion came from the north, and the whole
movement rolled southward and eastward. It started with the
invasion of the valley of the Peneus by the Thessalians, a
warlike but hitherto obscure tribe, who had dwelt about Dodona
in the uplands of Epirus. They crossed the passes of Pindus,
and flooded down into the great plain to which they were to
give their name. The tribes which had previously held it were
either crushed and enslaved, or pushed forward into Central
Greece by the wave of invasion. Two of the displaced races
found new homes for themselves by conquest. The Arnaeans, who
had dwelt in the southern lowlands along the courses of
Apidanus and Enipeus, came through Thermopylae, pushed the
Locriams aside to right and left, and descended into the
valley of the Cephissus, where they subdued the Minyae of
Orchomenus [see MINYI], and then, passing south, utterly
expelled the Cadmeians of Thebes. The plain country which they
had conquered received a single name. Boeotia became the
common title of the basins of the Cephissus and the Asopus,
which had previously been in the hands of distinct races. Two
generations later the Boeotians endeavoured to cross
Cithaeron, and add Attica to their conquests; but their king
Xanthus fell in single combat with Melanthus, who fought in
behalf of Athens, and his host gave up the enterprise. In
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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