THE GRECIAN HISTORY, FROM THE EARLIEST STATE TO THE Death of Alexander the Great. BY DOCTOR GOLDSMITH. IN TWO VOLUMES.. VOL. I. DUBLIN: Frinted by James Cumming & Co. Hibernia Press Office FOR JOHN CUMMING, LOWER ORMOND QUAY. 1814. D 813. HISTORY OF GREECE. > T CHAP. I. Of the earliest State of Greece. HE first notices we have of every country. are fabulous and uncertain. Among an unenlightened people every imposture is likely to take place, for ignorance is the parent of credulity. Nothing therefore which the Greeks have transmitted to us concerning their earliest state, can be relied on. Poets were the first who began to record the actions of their countrymen, and it is a part of their art to strike the imagination: even at the expense of probability. For this reason, in the earliest accounts of Greece, we are presented with the machinations of gods and demi-gods, the adventures of heroes and giants, the ravages of monsters and dragons, and all the potency of charms and enchantments. Man, A plain historical man, seems to have no share in the picture, and while the reader wanders through the most delightful scenes the imagination can offer, he is scarce once presented with the actions of such a being as himself. It would be vain therefore, and beside the present purpose, to give an historical air to accounts which were never meant to be transmitted as true. Some writers indeed have laboriously undertaken to separate the truth from the fable, and to give us an unbroken narrative from the first dawning of tradition to the display of undoubted history; they have levelled down all mythology to their own apprehensions, every fable is made to look with an air of probability: instead of a golden fleece, Jason goes in pursuit of a great treasure; instead of destroying a chimera, Bellerophon reclaims a mountain; instead of an hydra, Hercules overcomes a robber. Thus the fanciful pictures of a strong imagination are taught to assume a serious gravity, and tend to deceive the reader still more by offering in the garb of truth what had been only meant to delight and allure him...i. The fabulous age, therefore, of Greece, must have no place in history; it is now too late to separate those parts which may have a real foundation in nature, from those which owe their existence wholly to the imagination. There are no traces left to guide us in that intricate pursuit, the dews of the morning are past, and it is vain to attempt continuing the chace in meridian splendor. It will be sufficient therefore for us, to observe, that Greece, like most other countries of whose origin we have any notice, was at first divided into a number of petty states, each Ancient commanded by its own sovereign. It is said in Scripture, that Javen, the son of Japhet, was the father of all those nations that went under the general denomination of Greeks. Of his four sons, Elisha, or Ellas, is said to have given name to the Έλληνες, a general name by which the Greeks were known. Tharsis, the second son, is thought to have settled in Achaia; Chittim settled in Macedonia; and Dodanim, the fourth son, in Thessaly in Epirus. How they portioned out the country, what revolu-. tions they experienced, or what wars they maintained, are utterly unknown; and indeed the history of petty barbarous states, if known, would hardly recompense the trouble of inquiry. In those early times, kingdoms were but inconsiderable: a single city, with a few leagues of land, was often honoured with that magnificent appellation; it would therefore embarrass history, to enter into the domestic privacy of every little state, as it would be rather a subject for the economist than the politician. It will suf 1 |