James Stephens - "Here are Ladies"

Laura Lee Hope - "The Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point"

John Morley - "Critical Miscellanies, Volume I (of 3)"

E.V. Lucas - "Highways & Byways in Sussex"

Editorial
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

A General History for Colleges and High Schools

P >> P. V. N. Myers >> A General History for Colleges and High Schools




They moreover promoted intercourse and trade; for the festivals became
great centres of traffic and exchange during the continuance of the games.
They softened, too, the manners of the people, turning their thoughts from
martial exploits and giving the states respite from war; for during the
month in which the religious games were held it was sacrilegious to engage
in military expeditions. In all these ways, though they never drew the
states into a common political union, still they did impress a common
character upon their social, intellectual, and religious life.

THE AMPHICTYONIC COUNCIL.--Closely connected with the religious festivals
were the so-called Amphictyonies, or "leagues of neighbors." These were
associations of a number of cities or tribes for the celebration of
religious rites at some shrine, or for the protection of some particular
temple.

Pre-eminent among all such unions was that known as the Delphic
Amphictyony, or simply The Amphictyony. This was a league of twelve of the
sub-tribes of Hellas, whose main object was the protection of the Temple
of Apollo at Delphi. Another of its purposes was, by humane regulations,
to mitigate the cruelties of war.

The so-called First Sacred War (600-590 B.C.) was a crusade of ten years
carried on by the Amphictyons against the cities of Crissa and Cirrha for
their robbery of the treasures of the Delphian temple. The cities were
finally taken, levelled to the ground, and the wrath of the gods invoked
upon any one who should dare to rebuild them. The spoils of the war were
devoted to the establishment of musical contests in honor of the Delphian
Apollo. Thus originated the renowned Pythian festivals, to which allusion
has just been made.




CHAPTER XII.

AGE OF THE TYRANTS AND OF COLONIZATION:
THE EARLY GROWTH OF SPARTA AND OF ATHENS.
(776-500 B.C.)


1. AGE OF THE TYRANTS AND OF COLONIZATION.

THE TYRANTS.--In the Heroic Age the preferred form of government was a
patriarchal monarchy. The _Iliad_ says, "The rule of many is not a
good thing: let us have one ruler only,--one king,--him to whom Zeus has
given the sceptre." But by the dawn of the historic period, the
patriarchal monarchies of the Achaean age had given place, in almost all
the Grecian cities, to oligarchies or aristocracies.

THE OLIGARCHIES GIVE WAY TO TYRANNIES.--The nobles into whose hands the
ancient royal authority thus passed were often divided among themselves,
and invariably opposed by the common freemen, who, as they grew in
intelligence and wealth, naturally aspired to a place in the government.
The issue of long contentions was the overthrow almost everywhere of
oligarchical government and the establishment of the rule of a single
person.

Usually this person was one of the nobility, who held himself out as the
champion of the people, and who with their help usurped the government.
One who had thus seized the government was called a tyrant. By this term
the Greeks did not mean one who rules harshly, but simply one who holds
the supreme authority in the state illegally. Some of the Greek Tyrants
were mild and beneficent rulers, though too often they were all that the
name implies among us.

But the Greeks always had an inextinguishable hatred of arbitrary rule;
consequently the Tyrannies were, as a rule, short-lived, rarely lasting
longer than three generations. They were usually violently overthrown, and
the old oligarchies re-established, or democracies set up in their place.
As a rule, the Dorian cities preferred oligarchical, and the Ionian cities
democratical, government. The so-called Age of the Tyrants lasted from 650
to 500 B.C.

Among the most noted of the Tyrants were the Pisistratidae, at Athens, of
whom we shall speak hereafter; Periander at Corinth (625-585 B.C.), who
was a most cruel ruler, yet so generous a patron of artists and literary
men that he was thought worthy of a place among the Seven Sages; and
Polycrates, Tyrant of Samos (535-522 B.C.), who, with that island as a
stronghold, and with a fleet of a hundred war-galleys, built up a sort of
maritime kingdom in the AEgean, and for the space of more than a decade
enjoyed such astonishing and uninterrupted prosperity, that it was
believed his sudden downfall and death--he was allured to the Asian shore
by a Persian satrap, and crucified--were brought about by the envy of the
gods, [Footnote: Herodotus tells how Amasis of Egypt, the friend and ally
of the Tyrant, becoming alarmed at his extraordinary course of good
fortune, wrote him, begging him to interrupt it and disarm the envy of the
gods, by sacrificing his most valued possession. Polycrates, acting upon
the advice, threw into the sea a precious ring, which he highly prized;
but soon afterwards the jewel was found by his servants in a fish that a
fisherman had brought to the palace as a present for Polycrates. When
Amasis heard of this, he at once broke off his alliance with the Tyrant,
feeling sure that he was fated to suffer some terrible reverse of fortune.
The event justified his worst fears.] who the Greeks thought were apt to
be jealous of over-prosperous mortals.

THE FOUNDING OF COLONIES.--The Age of the Tyrants coincides very nearly
with the era of greatest activity in the founding of new colonies.
Thousands, driven from their homes, like the Puritans in the time of the
Stuart tyranny in England, fled over the seas, and, under the direction of
the Delphian Apollo, laid upon remote and widely separated shores the
basis of "Dispersed Hellas." The overcrowding of population and the Greek
love of adventure also contributed to swell the number of emigrants.
During this colonizing era Southern Italy became so thickly set with Greek
cities as to become known as _Magna Graecia_, "Great Greece." Here were
founded during the latter part of the eighth century B.C. the important
Dorian city of Tarentum; the wealthy and luxurious Achaean city of Sybaris
(whence the term _Sybarite_, meaning a voluptuary); the Great Crotona,
distinguished for its schools of philosophy and its victors in the
Olympian games.

Upon the island of Sicily was planted, by the Dorian Corinth, the city of
Syracuse (734 B.C.), which, before Rome had become great, waged war on
equal terms with Carthage.

In the Gulf of Lyons was established about 600 B.C. the important Ionian
city of Massalia (Marseilles), the radiating point of long routes of
travel and trade.

On the African coast was founded the great Dorian city of Cyrene (630
B.C.), and probably about the same time was established in the Nile delta
the city of Naucratis, through which the civilization of Egypt flowed into
Greece.

The tide of emigration flowed not only to the west and south, but to the
north as well. The northern shores of the AEgean and those of the
Hellespont and the Propontis were fringed with colonies. The Argonautic
terrors of the Black Sea were forgotten or unheeded, and even those remote
shores received their emigrants. Many of the settlements in that quarter
were established by the Ionian city of Miletus, which, swarming like a
hive, became the mother of more than eighty colonies.

Through this wonderful colonizing movement, Greece came to hold somewhat
the same place in the ancient Mediterranean world that England as a
colonizer occupies in the world of today. Many of these colonies not only
reflected honor upon the mother land through the just renown of their
citizens, but through their singularly free, active, and progressive life,
they exerted upon her a most healthful and stimulating influence.


2. THE GROWTH OF SPARTA.

SITUATION OF SPARTA.--Sparta was one of the cities of the Peloponnesus
which owed their origin or importance to the Dorian Invasion (see p. 96).
It was situated in the deep valley of the Eurotas, in Laconia, and took
its name Sparta (sown land) from the circumstance that it was built upon
tillable ground, whereas the heart and centre of most Greek cities
consisted of a lofty rock (the citadel, or acropolis). It was also called
Lacedaemon, after an early legendary king.

CLASSES IN THE SPARTAN STATE.--In order to understand the social and
political institutions of the Spartans, we must first notice the three
classes--Spartans (Spartiatae), Perioeci, and Helots--into which the
population of Laconia was divided.

The Spartans proper were the descendants of the Dorian conquerors of the
country. They composed but a small fraction of the entire population.
Their relations to the conquered people were those of an army of
occupation. Sparta, their capital, was simply a vast camp, unprotected by
any walls until later and degenerate times. The martial valor of its
citizens was thought its only proper defence.

The Perioeci (dwellers-around), who constituted the second class, were the
subjugated Achaeans. They were allowed to retain possession of their lands,
but were forced to pay tribute, and, in times of war, to fight for the
glory and interest of their Spartan masters.

The third and lowest class was composed of slaves, or serfs, called
Helots. The larger number of these were laborers upon the estates of the
Spartans. They were the property of the state, and not of the individual
Spartan lords, among whom they were distributed by lot. Practically they
had no rights which their Spartan masters felt bound to respect. It is
affirmed that when they grew too numerous for the safety of the state,
their numbers were thinned by a deliberate massacre of the surplus
population.

THE LEGEND OF LYCURGUS.--The laws and customs of the Spartans have excited
more interest, perhaps, than any similar institutions of the ancient
world. A mystery and halo were thrown about them by their being attributed
to the creative genius of a single lawgiver, Lycurgus.

Lycurgus, according to tradition, lived about the ninth century B.C. He is
represented as acquainting himself with the laws and institutions of
different lands, by converse with their priests and sages. He is said to
have studied with great zeal the laws of Minos, the legendary lawgiver of
the Cretans. Like the great legislator Moses, he became learned in all the
wisdom of the Egyptians.

After much opposition, a system of laws and regulations drawn up by
Lycurgus was adopted by the Spartan people. Then, binding his countrymen
by a solemn oath that they would carefully observe his laws during his
absence, he set out on a pilgrimage to Delphi. In response to his inquiry,
the oracle assured him that Sparta would endure and prosper as long as the
people obeyed the laws he had given them. Lycurgus caused this answer to
be carried to his countrymen; and then, that they might remain bound by
the oath they had taken, he resolved never to return. He went into an
unknown exile.

THE KINGS, THE SENATE, AND THE POPULAR ASSEMBLY.--The so-called
Constitution of Lycurgus provided for two joint kings, a Senate of Elders,
and a Popular Assembly.

The two kings corresponded in some respects to the two consuls in the
later Roman republic. One served as a check upon the other. This double
sovereignty worked admirably; for five centuries there were no attempts on
the part of the Spartan kings to subvert the constitution. The power of
the joint kings, it should be added, was rather nominal than real (save in
time of war); so that while the Spartan government was monarchical in
form, it was in reality an aristocracy, the Spartans corresponding very
closely to the feudal lords of mediaeval Europe.

The Senate consisted of thirty elders. The powers of this body were at
first almost unlimited. After a time, however, officers called ephors were
elected by the Popular Assembly, and these gradually absorbed the powers
and functions of the Senate, as well as the authority of the two associate
kings.

The Popular Assembly was composed of all the citizens of Sparta over
thirty years of age. By this body laws were made, and questions of peace
and war decided. In striking contrast to what was the custom at Athens,
all matters were decided without debate. The Spartans were fighters, not
talkers; they hated discussion.

REGULATIONS AS TO LANDS AND MONEY.--At the time of Lycurgus the lands of
Laconia had become absorbed by the rich, leaving the masses in poverty and
distress. It is certain that the lawgiver did much to remedy this ruinous
state of affairs. Tradition says that all the lands were redistributed, an
equal portion being assigned to each of the nine thousand Spartan
citizens, and a smaller and less desirable portion to each of the thirty
thousand Perioeci,--but it is not probable that there was any such exact
equalization of property.

The Spartans were forbidden to engage in trade; all their time must be
passed in the chase, or in gymnastic and martial exercise. Iron was made
the sole money of the state. This, according to Plutarch, "was of great
size and weight, and of small value, so that the equivalent for ten minae
(about $140) required a great room for its stowage, and a yoke of oxen to
draw it." The object of this, he tell us, was to prevent its being used
for the purchase of "foreign trumpery."

THE PUBLIC TABLES.--The most peculiar, perhaps, of the Lycurgean
institutions were the public meals. In order to correct the extravagance
with which the tables of the rich were often spread, Lycurgus ordered that
all the Spartan citizens should eat at public and common tables. Excepting
the ephors, none, not even the kings, were excused from sitting at the
common mess. One of the kings, returning from a long expedition, presumed
to dine privately with his wife, but received therefor a severe reproof.

A luxury-loving Athenian, once visiting Sparta and seeing the coarse fare
of the citizens, is reported to have declared that now he understood the
Spartan disregard of life in battle. "Any one," said he, "must naturally
prefer death to life on such fare as this."

EDUCATION OF THE YOUTH.--Children were considered as belonging to the
state. Every infant was brought before the Council of Elders; and if it
did not seem likely to become a robust and useful citizen, it was exposed
in a mountain glen. At seven the education and training of the youth were
committed to the charge of public officers, called boy-trainers. The aim
of the entire course, as to the boys, was to make a nation of soldiers who
should despise toil and danger and prefer death to military dishonor.
Reading and writing were untaught, and the art of rhetoric was despised.
Spartan brevity was a proverb, whence our word _laconic_ (from Laconia),
implying a concise and pithy mode of expression. Boys were taught to
respond in the fewest words possible. At the public tables they were not
permitted to speak until questioned: they sat "silent as statues." As
Plutarch puts it, "Lycurgus was for having the money bulky, heavy, and of
little value; and the language, on the contrary, very pithy and short, and
a great deal of sense compressed in a few words."

But before all things else the Spartan youth was taught to bear pain
unflinchingly. Often he was scourged just for the purpose of accustoming
his body to pain. Frequently, it is said, boys died under the lash,
without betraying their suffering by look or moan.

Another custom tended to the same end as the foregoing usage. The boys
were at times compelled to forage for their food. If detected, they were
severely punished for having been so unskilful as not to get safely away
with their booty. This custom, as well as the fortitude of the Spartan
youth, is familiar to all through the story of the boy who, having stolen
a young fox and concealed it beneath his tunic, allowed the animal to tear
out his vitals, without betraying himself by the movement of a muscle.

The Cryptia, which has been represented as an organization of young
Spartans who were allowed, as a means of rendering themselves ready and
expert in war, to hunt and kill the Helots, seems in reality to have been
a sort of police institution, designed to guard against uprisings of the
serfs.

ESTIMATE OF THE SPARTAN INSTITUTIONS.--That the laws and regulations of
the Spartan constitution were admirably adapted to the end in view,--the
rearing of a nation of skilful and resolute warriors,--the long military
supremacy of Sparta among the states of Greece abundantly attests. But
when we consider the aim and object of the Spartan institutions, we must
pronounce them low and unworthy. The true order of things was just
reversed among the Lacedaemonians. Government exists for the individual: at
Sparta the individual lived for the state. The body is intended to be the
instrument of the mind: the Spartans reversed this, and attended to the
education of the mind only so far as its development enhanced the
effectiveness of the body as a weapon in warfare.

Spartan history teaches how easy it is for a nation, like an individual,
to misdirect its energies--to subordinate the higher to the lower. It
illustrates, too, the fact that only those nations that labor to develop
that which is best and highest in man make helpful contributions to the
progress of the world. Sparta, in significant contrast to Athens,
bequeathed nothing to posterity.

THE MESSENIAN WARS.--The most important event in Spartan history between
the age of Lycurgus and the commencement of the Persian War was the long
contest with Messenia, known as the First and Second Messenian Wars (about
750-650 B.C.). Messenia was one of the districts of the Peloponnesus
which, like Laconia, had been taken possession of by the Dorians at the
time of the great invasion.

It is told that the Spartans, in the second war, falling into despair,
sent to Delphi for advice. The oracle directed them to ask Athens for a
commander. The Athenians did not wish to aid the Lacedaemonians, yet dared
not oppose the oracle. So they sent Tyrtaeus, a poet-schoolmaster, who they
hoped and thought would prove of but little service to Sparta. Whatever
truth there may be in this part of the story, it seems indisputable that
during the Second Messenian War, Tyrtaeus, an Attic poet, reanimated the
drooping spirits of the Spartans by the energy of his martial strains.
Perhaps it would not be too much to say that Sparta owed her final victory
to the inspiring songs of this martial poet.

The conquered Messenians were reduced to serfdom, and their condition made
as degrading and bitter as that of the Helots of Laconia. Many, choosing
exile, pushed out into the western seas in search of new homes. Some of
the fugitives founded Rhegium, in Italy; others, settling in Sicily, gave
name and importance to the still existing city of Messina.

GROWTH OF THE POWER OF SPARTA.--After having secured possession of
Messenia, Sparta conquered the southern part of Argolis. All the southern
portion of the Peloponnesus was now subject to her commands.

On the north, Sparta extended her power over many of the villages, or
townships, of Arcadia; but her advance in this direction having been
checked by Tegea, one of the few important Arcadian cities, Sparta entered
into an alliance with that city, which ever after remained her faithful
friend and helper. This alliance was one of the main sources of Spartan
preponderance in Greece during the next hundred years and more.

Sparta was now the most powerful state in the Peloponnesus. Her fame was
spread even beyond the limits of Hellas. Croesus, king of Lydia, sought an
alliance with her in his unfortunate war with Persia, which just now was
the rising power in Asia.


3. THE GROWTH OF ATHENS.

THE ATTIC PEOPLE.--The population of Attica in historic times was
essentially Ionian in race, but there were in it strains of other Hellenic
stocks, besides some non-Hellenic elements as well. This mixed origin of
the population is believed to be one secret of the versatile yet well-
balanced character which distinguished the Attic people above all other
branches of the Hellenic family. It is not the absolutely pure, but the
mixed races, like the English people, that have made the largest
contributions to civilization.

THE SITE OF ATHENS.--Four or five miles from the sea, a flat-topped rock,
about one thousand feet in length and half as many in width, rises with
abrupt cliffs, one hundred and fifty feet above the level of the plains of
Attica. The security afforded by this eminence doubtless led to its
selection as a stronghold by the early Attic settlers. Here a few
buildings, perched upon the summit of the rock and surrounded by a
palisade, constituted the beginning of the capital whose fame has spread
over all the world.

THE KINGS OF ATHENS.--During the Heroic Age Athens was ruled by kings,
like all the other Grecian cities. The names of Theseus and Codrus are the
most noted of the regal line.

[Illustration: THE ACROPOLIS AT ATHENS. (From a Photograph.)]

To Theseus tradition ascribed the work of uniting the different Attic
villages, or cantons, twelve in number, into a single city, on the seat of
the ancient Cecropia (see p. 92). This prehistoric union, however or by
whomsoever effected, laid the basis of the greatness of Athens.

Respecting Codrus, the following legend is told: At one time the Dorians
from the Peloponnesus invaded Attica. Codrus having learned that an oracle
had assured them of success if they spared the life of the Athenian king,
disguised himself, and, with a single companion, made an attack upon some
Spartan soldiers, who instantly slew him. Discovering that the king of
Athens had fallen by a Lacedaemonian sword, the Spartans despaired of
taking the city, and withdrew from the country.

THE ARCHONS (1050?-612 B.C.).--Codrus was the last king of Athens. His
successor, elected by the nobles, was given simply the name of Archon, or
Ruler, for the reason, it is said, that no one was thought worthy to bear
the title of the divine Codrus. The real truth is, that the nobles were
transforming the Homeric monarchy into an oligarchy, and to effect the
change were taking away from the king his royal powers. At the outset
there was but one Archon, elected for life; later, there were nine, chosen
annually.

Throughout these early times the government was in the hands of the
nobles; the people, that is, the free farmers and artisans, having no part
in the management of public affairs. The people at length demanded a voice
in the government, or at least legal protection from the exactions and
cruelties of the wealthy.

THE LAWS OF DRACO (about 620 B.C.).--To meet these demands, the nobles
appointed one of their own number, Draco, to prepare a code of laws. He
reduced existing customs and regulations to a definite and written
constitution, assigning to the smallest offence the penalty of death. This
cruel severity of the Draconian laws caused an Athenian orator to say of
them that "they were written, not in ink, but in blood." But for their
harshness Draco was not responsible: he did not make them; their severity
was simply a reflection of the harshness of those early times.

THE REBELLION OF CYLON (612 B.C.).--Soon after the enactment of Draco's
laws, which naturally served only to increase the discontent of the
people, Cylon, a rich and ambitious noble, taking advantage of the state
of affairs, attempted to overthrow the government and make himself
supreme. He seized the citadel of the Acropolis, where he was closely
besieged by the Archons. Finally the Archon Megacles offered the
insurgents their lives on condition of surrender. They accepted the offer,
but fearing to trust themselves among their enemies without some
protection, fastened a string to a statue of Athena, and holding fast to
this, descended from the citadel, into the streets of Athens. As they came
in front of the altars of the Furies, the line broke; and Megacles,
professing to believe that this mischance indicated that the goddess
refused to shield them, caused them to be set upon and massacred.

The people were alarmed lest the fierce anger of the avenging Furies had
been incurred by the slaughter of prisoners in violation of a sacred oath
and before their very altars. Calamities that now befell the state
deepened their apprehension. Thus the people were inflamed still more
against the aristocracy. They demanded and finally secured the banishment
of the Alcmaeonidae, the family to which Megacles belonged. Even the bones
of the dead of the family were dug up, and cast beyond the frontiers. The
people further insisted upon a fresh revision of the laws and a share in
the government.

THE LAWS OF SOLON (594 B.C.).--Solon, a man held in great esteem by all
classes, was chosen to draw up a new code of laws. He repealed many of the
cruel laws of Draco; permitted the return of persons driven into exile;
gave relief to the debtor class, especially to the poor farmers, whose
little plots were covered with mortgages, by reducing the value of the
money in which they would have to make payment; ordered those held in
slavery for debt to be set free; and cancelled all fines payable to the
state. These measures caused contentment and prosperity to take the place,
everywhere throughout Attica, of previous discontent and wretchedness.

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