hese three events into one focus as
the solemn and formal opening of history. It is good to have a
beginning, a starting post, from which to date all possible historical
events that are worthy to be regarded as such. But it is better still to
find that by the rarest of accidents, by a good luck that could never
have been looked for, the three separate starting posts--which
historical truth obliges us to assume for the three great fields of
history, Roman, Grecian, and Asiatic[37]--all closely coincide in point
of time; or, to use the Greek technical term, all closely synchronize.

II. With respect to Greece and the Olympiad in particular, she will
inform her pupil that the Olympic games, celebrated near the town of
Olympia, recurred every fifth year; that is to say, there was a clear
interval of four years between each revolution of the games. Each
Olympiad, therefore, containing four years, it is usual in citing the
particular Olympiad in which an event happened, to cite also the year,
should that be known, or, being known, should that be of importance.
Thus Olymp. CX. 3 would mean that such a thing, say X, occurred in the
third year of the 110th Olympiad; that is, four times 110 will be 440;
and this, deducted from 777 (the era of the Olympiads), leaves 337 years
B.C. as the era when X occurred. Only that, upon reviewing the case, we
find that the 110th Olympiad was not absolutely completed, not by one
year; which, subtracted from the 337, leaves 336 B.C. as the true date.
If her pupil should say, 'But were there no great events in Greece
before the Olympiads?' the teacher will answer, 'Yes, a few, but not
many of a rank sufficient to be called Grecian.' They are merely local
events; events of Thessaly, suppose; events of Argos; but much too
obscure, both as to the facts, as to the meaning of the facts, and as to
the dates, to be worth any student's serious attention. There were,
however, three events worthy to be called _Grecian_; partly because
they interested more States than one of Greece; and partly because they
have since occupied the Athenian stage, and received a sort of
consecration from the great masters of Grecian tragedy. These three
events were the fatal story of the house of Oedipus; a story
stretching through three generations; and in which the war against the
Seven Gates of Thebes was but an episode. Secondly, the Argonautic
expedition (voyage of the ship _Argo_, and of the sailors in that ship,
_i.e._