Across the isthmus from Corinth was the city of Meg'ara, of which, in 630 B.C., Theag'enes, a bold and ambitious man, made himself despot. Like many other usurpers of his time, he adorned the city with splendid and useful buildings. But he was overthrown after a rule of thirty years, and a violent struggle then ensued between the oligarchy and the people. At first the latter were successful; they banished many of the nobles, and confiscated their property, but the exiles returned, and by force of arms recovered their power. Still the struggle continued, and it was not until after many years that an oligarchical government was firmly established. Much interest is added to these revolutions in Megara by the writings of THEOG'NIS, a contemporary poet, and a member of the oligarchical party. "His writings," says THIRLWALL, "are interesting, not so much for the historical facts contained in them as for the light they throw on the character and feelings of the parties which divided his native city and so many others." In the poems of THEOGNIS "his keen sense of his personal sufferings is almost absorbed in the vehement grief and indignation with which he contemplates the state of Megara, the triumph of the bad [his usual term for the people], and the degradation of the good [the members of the old aristocracy]." Some of the social changes which the popular revolution had effected are thus described: Our commonwealth preserves its former fame: Our common people are no more the same. They that in skins and hides were rudely dressed, Nor dreamed of law, nor sought to be redressed By rules of right, but in the days of old Lived on the land like cattle in the fold, Are now the Brave and Good; and we, the rest, Are now the Mean and Bad, though once the best. It appears, also, that some of the aristocracy by birth had so far forgotten their leading position as to inter-marry with those who had become possessed of much wealth; and of this condition of things the poet complains as follows: But in the daily matches that we make The price is everything; for money's sake Men marry--women are in marriage given; The Bad or Coward, that in wealth has thriven, May match his offspring with the proudest race: Thus everything is mixed, noble and base. The usurpations in Sicyon, Corinth, and Megara furnish illustrations of what occurred in nearly all of the Grecian states during the seventh and sixth centuries before the Christian era. Some of those of a later period will be noticed in a subsequent chapter. CHAPTER VI. THE EARLY HISTORY OF ATHENS. I. THE LEGISLATION OF DRACO.