But while the Danaans were thus making their slow march to the north the Achæans were advancing southward from Corinth--a base of great importance to them then and always, as we may infer from the network of Cyclopean highways between it and their new centre. At Mycenæ, already a strong Perseid outpost, the two columns meet--when, we cannot say. But about 1500 B.C., or a little later, the Achæans had made themselves masters of the place and imposed upon it their own kings. We have no tradition of any struggle in connection with this dynastic revolution, and it appears probable that the Achæans did not expel the older stock. On the contrary, they scrupulously respected the tombs of the Danaid dynasty--it may be, because they felt the claim of kindred blood. In manners and culture there could have been but little difference between them, for the Achæans had already entered the strong current of Mycenæan civilisation. Indeed, we discern a reciprocal influence of the two peoples. Within certain of the Achæan tombs (as we may now term the beehives and rock chambers) we find separate shaft-graves, obviously recalling the Danaid mode of burial. On the other hand, it would appear that the typical Achæan tomb was adopted by the ruling classes among other Mycenæan peoples. Otherwise we cannot explain the existence of isolated tombs of this kind as at Amyclæ (Vaphio), Orchomenos, and Menidi--obviously the sepulchres of regal or opulent families; while the common people of these places--of non-Achæan stock--buried their dead in the ordinary oblong pits. Achæan ascendency is so marked that the Achæan name prevails even where that stock forms but an inconsiderable element of the population. Notably this is true of Laconia, where the rare occurrence of the beehive tomb goes to show that the pre-Dorian inhabitants were mostly descended from the older stock, which we have encountered at Tiryns and at Orchomenos.[d] FOOTNOTES [3] [Reprinted, by permission of the publishers, from the article “Mycenæan Civilisation,” by D. G. Hogarth, in the New Volumes of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_. Copyright, 1902, by The Encyclopædia Britannica Company.] [4] Helbig,[f] _Die Italiker in der Pœbene_, p. 11; cf. Pigorini[g] in _Atti dell’ Accad. dei Lincei_, viii. 265 ff. [5] This is not gainsaying the Phrygian extraction of the Pelopid line. “The true Phrygians were closely akin to the Greeks, quite as closely akin as the later Macedonians. We may fairly class the Pelopidæ as Achæan.” (Percy Gardner,[e] _New Chapters of Greek History_, p. 84.) [Illustration: RESTORATION OF A MYCENÆAN PALACE] [Illustration] CHAPTER III. THE HEROIC AGE [Sidenote: [_ca._ 1400-1200 B.C.]]