he people, for
thirty years, but was expelled by the oligarchy, which regained power.
During his reign all kinds of popular excesses were perpetrated,
especially the confiscation of the property of the rich.

(M376) Other States are also illustrations of this change of government
from kings to oligarchies, and oligarchies to demagogues and tyrants, as
on the isle of Lesbos, where Pittacus reigned dictator, but with wisdom
and virtue--one of the seven wise men of Greece--and in Samos, where
Polycrates rivaled the fame of Periander, and adorned his capital with
beautiful buildings, and patronized literature and art. One of his friends
was Anacreon, the poet. He was murdered by the Persians, B.C. 522.

But the State which most signally illustrates the revolutions in
government was Athens.

"Where on the AEgean shore a city stands,--
Built nobly; pure the air, and light the soil:
Athena, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
And eloquence, native to famous wits."

(M377) Every thing interesting or impressive in the history of classical
antiquity clusters round this famous city, so that without Athens there
could be no Greece. Attica, the little State of which it was the capital,
formed a triangular peninsula, of about seven hundred square miles. The
country is hilly and rocky, and unfavorable to agriculture; but such was
the salubrity of the climate, and the industry of the people, all kinds of
plants and animals flourished. The history of the country, like that of
the other States, is mythical, to the period of the first Olympiad. Ogyges
has the reputation of being the first king of a people who claimed to be
indigenous, about one hundred and fifty years before the arrival of
Cecrops, who came, it is supposed, from Egypt, and founded Athens, and
taught the simple but savage natives a new religion, and the elements of
civilized life, 1556 B.C. It received its name from the goddess Neith,
introduced by him from Egypt, under the name of Athena, or Minerva. It was
also called Cecropia, from its founder. Until the time of Theseus it was a
small town, confined to the Acropolis and Mars Hill. This hero is the
great name of ancient Athenian legend, as Hercules is to Greece generally.
He cleared the roads of robbers, and formed an aristocratical
constitution, with a king, who was only the first of his nobles. But he
himself, after having given political unity, was driven away by a
conspiracy of nobles, leaving the throne to Menesth