The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2Müller, Karl Otfried
History
The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2
Müller, Karl Otfried
Dorians -- History; Greece -- Antiquities, Dorian; Greece -- History -- Dorian Invasions, approximately 1125-1025 B.C.
8. It is not with a view of founding any calculation upon them, but merely
of giving a general idea of the numerical force of a Greek tribe (which
many would suppose to be a large nation), that I offer the following
remarks. At the flourishing period of the Doric power, about the time of
the Persian war, Sparta, which had then conquered Messenia, contained 8000
families, Argos above 6000; while in Sicyon, Corinth, Phlius, Epidaurus,
and Ægina, the Dorians were not so numerous, the constitution being even
more oligarchical in those states. Although in the colonies, where they
were less confined by want of sufficient space, and by the severity of the
laws, the inhabitants multiplied very rapidly, yet the number of original
colonists, as many of them as were Dorians, was very small. Now since in
the states of Peloponnesus, even after they had been firmly established,
the number of inhabitants, particularly of Dorians, never, from several
causes, much increased,(278) it seems probable that at the time of their
first irruption the whole number of their males was not above 20,000.(279)
Nor were the earlier settlements of Achæans and Ionians more considerable.
For the Ionians, as is evident from their traditions, appear as a military
race in Attica, and probably formed, though perhaps together with many
families of a different origin, one, and certainly the least, of four
tribes (the ὅπλητες(280)). The arrival of the Achæans is represented in
ancient traditions in the following simple manner: “Archander and
Architeles, the sons of Achæus, having been driven from Phthiotis, came to
Argos and Lacedæmon.”(281) Their names signify “the ruler,” and “the chief
governor.” Certainly the Achæans did not come to till the ground; as is
also evident from the fact that, when dislodged by the Dorians, and driven
to the northern coast, they took possession of Patræ, dwelt only in the
town, and did not disperse themselves into the smaller villages.(282)
It seems pretty certain that the Dorians migrated together with their
wives and children. The Spartans would not have bestowed so much attention
as they did on women of a different race; and all the domestic
institutions of the Dorians would have been formed in a manner very unlike
that which really obtained. This circumstance alone completely
distinguishes the migration of the Dorians from that of the Ionians, who
having, according to Herodotus, sailed from Attica without any women, took
native Carian women for wives, or rather for slaves, who, according to the
same writer, did not even dare to address their husbands by their proper
names. And this was probably the case with all the early settlements
beyond the sea, since the form of the ancient Greek galley hardly admitted
of the transport of women.
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