Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/48

32 HISTORY OF GREECE. oligarchies both at Corinth and Sikyon, perhaps also at Mo gara, the Dorian and non-Dorian elements of the community came into conflict more or less direct. The despots of Sikyon are the earliest of whom we have any distinct mention : their dynasty lasted one hundred years, a longer period than any other Grecian despots known to Aris- totle ; they are said, l moreover, to have governed with mildness and with much practical respect to the preexisting laws. Ortha- goras, 2 the beginner of the dynasty, raised himself to the position of despot about G76 B. c., subverting the preexisting Dorian oligarchy ; but the cause and circumstances of this rev- olution are not preserved. He is said to have been originally a cook. In his line of successors we find mention of Andreas, Myron, Aristonymus, and Kleisthenes ; but we know nothing ot any of them until the last, except that Myron gvuned a chariot victory at Olympia in the 33d Olympiad (G48 B. c.), and built, at the same holy place, a thesaurus containing two ornamented alcoves of copper for the reception of commemorative offerings from himself and his family. 3 Respecting Kleisthenes (whose 1 Aristot. Polit. v, 9, 21. An oracle is said to have predicted to the Sikyo- nians that they would be subjected for the period of a century to the hand of the scourgcr (Diodor. Fragm. lib. vii-x ; Fragm. xiv, ed. Maii). 2 Herodot. vi, 126; Pausan. ii, 8, 1. There is some confusion about tho names of Orthagoras and Andreas ; the latter is called a cook in Diodorus (Fragment. Excerpt. Vatic, lib. vii-x, Fragm. xiv). Compare Libanius in Sever, vol. iii, p. 251, Reisk. It has been supposed, with some probability, that the same person is designated under both names : the two names do not seem to occur in the same author. See Plutarch, Ser. Numin. Vind. c 7, p. 553. Aristotle (Polit. v, 10, 3) seems to have conceived the dominion as having passed direct from Myron to Kleisthenes, omitting Aristonymus. 3 Pansan. vi, 19, 2. The Eleians informed Pausanias that the brass i these alcoves came from Tartessiis (the south-western coast of Spain trow the Strait of Gibraltar to trn territory beyond Cadiz) : he declines ro guarantee the statement. Biu O. Mailer treats it as a certainty: "Two apartments inlaid with Tartossian brass, and adorned with Doric and Ionic column?. Both the architectural orders employed in this building, and the Tartessim brass, which the Phoea?ans had then brought to Greece in large quantities from the hospitable king Argnnthonius, attest the intercourse of Myron with the Asiatics." (Dorians, i, 8, 2.) So also Dr. Thirlwalt states the fact: " Copper of Tartessus, which had not long been introduced into