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then he must omit nothing; and whatever may be his private opinions, he should never suffer them to bias him to such a degree as to suppress or to distort the truth.

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I SHALL divide this Introduction into two Mea moirs; in the first I shall take up the history of Sparta and Athens, at about the age of Augustus, and bring it down to the present time. In the second I shall enquire into the authenticity of the religious traditions relative to Jerusalem.

Spon, Wheeler, Fanelli, Chandler, and Leroi have, it is true, treated of the fortunes of Greece in the middle ages; but the picture drawn by those writers is far from being a finished one. They have. contented themselves with general facts, and not taken the trouble to dispel the confusion which pervades the history of the Byzantine empire; they were moreover ignorant of the existence of some Travels in the Levant. While I avail myself of their labours, I shall endeavour to supply their omissions.

As to the history of Jerusalem, it is involved in no obscurity in the barbarous ages; we never lose sight of the holy city. But when the pilgrims tell you: "We repaired to the tomb of Jesus Christ; we entered the grotto where the Redeemer of the world sweated blood," &c. an incredulous reader

B. C. 87.
Plut. in Syl.
Appian.

B. C. 87.

B. C. 47.
Cæs. de Bell,

Civil. Dion.

might imagine that the pilgrims were misled by uncertain traditions. Now this is the point which I purpose to discuss in the second memoir of this Introduction.

I now proceed to the history of Sparta and Athens. When the Romans began to make their appearance in the East, Athens declared itself their enemy, and Sparta followed their fortunes. Sylla burned the Piræus and Munychia; he plundered the city of Cecrops, and made such a slaughter of its citizens, that, as Plutarch informs us, their blood filled the whole Ceramicus, and ran out at the doors.

In the civil wars of Rome, the Athenians espoused the cause of Pompey, which they looked upon as the cause of Liberty: the Lacedæmonians adhered to Cæsar, who was too generous to revenge himself on Athens. Sparta, faithful to the memory of Cæsar, fought at the battle of Philippi against Brutus, who had promised the pillage of Lacedæmon to his soldiers in case they were victorious. The Athenians erected statues to Brutus, attached Plut. in Ant. themselves to Anthony, and were punished by Augustus. Four years before the death of that prince, they revolted against him.

Appian. Plut.

in Vit. Brut.

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B. C. 44.

B. C. 41.

B. C. 21.
Vell. Pat.

A. D. 10.

Suet. in Aug.

A. D. 25.
Tit.Liv.An.4.

De sit. Orb. L. 9.

Athens was free during the reign of Tiberius. Sparta pleaded at Rome, and lost a petty cause against the Messenians, formerly its slaves. The contested point was the possession of the temple of Diana Limnatis, that very Diana whose festival was the occasion of the Messenian wars.

If we suppose Strabo to have lived during the reign of Tiberius, the description of Sparta and Athens by that geographer must refer to the time of which we are now speaking.

Tacit. Ann. 1. 2.

When Germanicus visited Athens, out of respect A.D. 18. to its former glory, he divested himself of the insignia of power, and was preceded by only a single lictor.

De Sit. Crb

1.

Pomponius Mela wrote about the time of the A.D. $6. Emperor Claudius. He merely mentions Athens in 1 2. his description of the coast of Attica.

Nero visited Greece, but he went neither to Athens A. D. 67. nor to Lacedæmon.

Xiphil. in

Ner.

Dio.

Vespasian reduced Achaia to a Roman province, A.D. 79. and gave it a proconsul for its governor. Pliny the elder, a favorite of Vespasian and Titus, wrote, in the time of those princes, concerning various monuments of Greece.

A. D. 91.
Philostr. in
Vit. Apol.

Apollonius of Tyanæa found the laws of Lycurgus still in force at Lacedæmon during the reign of Thy Domitian.

Eutr. Vict.

Nerva favoured the Athenians. The monuments A. D. 97. of Herodes Atticus and the description of Pausa- Dio. nias are nearly of this period. Pliny the younger, under Trajan, exhorts Maxi- AD. 115. mus, proconsul of Achaia, to govern Athens Greece with equity.

and

Plin. jun, 1, 8. c. 24.

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Dio. Spart

Adrian rebuilt the monuments of Athens, com- A, D. :54. pleted the temple of Jupiter Olympus, erected a Euseb, new city near the ancient one, and caused the arts, sciences, and letters to flourish once more in Greece. Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius loaded Athens A. D 176. Capitol, Dio, with favours. The latter in particular was solicitous to restore the Academy to its ancient splendor; he increased the number of the professors of philosophy, eloquence, and civil law, and fixed it at thirteen ; two platonic, two peripatetic, two stoic, two epicurean, two professors of civil law, and one prefect of

A, D. 176. youth. Lucian, who lived at that time, says, that Athens swarmed with long beards, mantles, staves, and wallets.

A. D. 194 Herodian. Spart. Dio.

A. D. 214: Herodian.

A. D. 260.
Trebell. Zon.

A. D, 261,
Trebell,

Chandl, Trav.

A. D, 269,
Zon,

The Polyhistor of Solinus appeared towards the conclusion of this century. Solinus describes several of the monuments of Greece. He has not copied Pliny the naturalist so closely as he has thought fit

to assert.

Severus deprived Athens of part of its privileges as a punishment for having declared in favour of Pescennius Niger.

Sparta having fallen into obscurity, while Athens yet attracted the notice of the world, deserved the disgraceful esteem of Caracalla, who had in his army a battalion of Lacedæmonians, and a guard of Spartans about his person.

The Scythians having invaded Macedonia, in the time of the Emperor Gallienus, laid siege to Thessalonica. The terrified Athenians rebuilt in haste the walls which Sylla had demolished.

Some years afterwards, the Heruli pillaged Sparta, Corinth, and Argos. Athens was saved by the valour of one of its citizens, named Dexippus, equally renowned in the career of letters and of arms.

The archonship was abolished about this time, and the stratigos, the inspector of the agora or market, became the first magistrate of Athens.

During the reign of Claudius II. this city was taken by the Goths; they would have burned the libraries, but one of the barbarians opposed the design: "Let us," said he, .66 preserve the books, which render the Greeks so easy a conquest, and extinguish in them the love of glory." Cleodemus, an Athenian, who had escaped the calamity of his

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