The American Encyclopedia of History, Biography and Travel: Comprising Ancient and Modern History: the Biography of Eminent Men of Europe and America, and the Lives of Distinguished Travelers.Prescott, Thomas H.
History
The American Encyclopedia of History, Biography and Travel: Comprising Ancient and Modern History: the Biography of Eminent Men of Europe and America, and the Lives of Distinguished Travelers.
Prescott, Thomas H.
Biography; World history
attached to Hyllus, the eldest son of Hercules, that he constituted
him the heir of his throne. Twice the Heraclidæan princes
unsuccessfully attempted to establish themselves in the sovereignty of
the Peloponnesus, which they claimed as their right; but on the third
trial, they accomplished their object. In the year 1104 B. C., three
brothers named Temenus, Cresphontes, and Aristodemus, said to have
been the great-grandsons of Hyllus, invaded the Peloponnesus at the
head of the Dorians, and conquered the greater part of it, with the
exception of the province of Arcadia, the mountainous character of
which enabled its inhabitants to defend it with success against the
invaders.
Temenus obtained the kingdom of Argos, Cresphontes established himself
in Messenia, and as Aristodemus had died during the war, his twin sons
Eurysthenes and Procles shared between them the throne of Sparta. The
thrones of Corinth and Elis were occupied by other branches of the
Heraclidæan family. The Dorian troops were rewarded with the lands of
the conquered inhabitants, who were driven out of the Peloponnesus, or
reduced to slavery. Great numbers of the Peloponnesians, who were
expatriated by the Dorian invaders, passed over into Asia Minor, where
they founded several colonies in a district afterwards called _Æolia_,
from the name of the people by whom these colonies were established.
Others took refuge in Attica, where the Athenians received them in a
friendly manner. This, it would appear, gave offence to the new rulers
of the Peloponnesian states, and war was commenced between the Dorians
and the Athenians. In the year 1070 B. C., Attica was invaded by a
numerous army of the Peloponnesians, and Athens itself seemed menaced
with destruction. This emergency produced a display of patriotic
devotion on the part of Codrus, the Athenian king, which has rarely
been paralleled in the annals of mankind, and deserves to be held in
everlasting remembrance:――
At Delphi in Phocis there was a temple of Apollo, to the priests of
which the Greeks were wont to apply for information regarding future
events, in the same manner as the people of comparatively recent times
were accustomed to consult astrologers, soothsayers, and other artful
imposters on similar questions. Now Codrus had learned that the
Peloponnesians had received at Delphi a prophetical response, to the
effect that they should not be victorious in the war, if they did not
kill the Athenian king. Determined to save his country at the expense
of his own life, Codrus disguised himself in a peasant’s dress, and
entering the Peloponnesian camp, provoked a quarrel with a soldier, by
whom he was killed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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