Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/59

CJREAT POWER OF PERIANDER. 43 The reign of Periander lasted for forty rears (u. c. G25-585) : Psammetichus son of Gordius, who succeeded him, reigned three years, and the Kypselid dynasty is then said to have closed, after having continued for seventy-three years. 1 In respect of power, magnificent display, and wide-spread connections both in Asia and in Italy, they evidently stood high among the Greeks of their time. Their offerings consecrated at Olympia excited great admiration, especially the gilt colossal statue of Zeus, and the large chest of cedar-wood dedicated in the temple of Here, overlaid with vari- ous figures in gold and ivory : the figures were borrowed from mythical and legendary story, and the chest was a commemora- tion both of the name of Kypselus and of the tale of his mar- vellous preservation in infancy. 2 If Plutarch is correct, this powerful dynasty is to be numbered among the despots put down by Sparta ; 3 yet such intervention of the Spartans, granting it to have been matter of fact, can hardly have been known to Herod- otus. Coincident in point of lime with the commencement of Perian- Scra Xuminis VindictA, c. 7, p. 553. Strabo, vii, p. 325 ; x, p. 452. Seym- nus Chins, v, 454. and Antoninus Liberalis, c. iv, who quotes the lost work called 'AfifipaKiKu of Athanadas. 1 See Mr. Clinton, Fasti Hellenic!, ad ann. 625-585 B. c. 1 Pausan. v, 2, 4 ; 17, 2. Strabo, viii, p. 353. Compare Schneider, Epimc trum ad Xenophon. Anabas. p. 570. The chest was seen at Olympia, both by Pausanias and by Dio Chrysostom (Or. xi, p. 325, Rciske). a Plutarch, De Herodot. Malign, c. 21, p. 859. If Herodotus had known or believed that the dynasty of the Kypselids at Corinth was put down by Sparta, he could not have failed to make allusion to the fact, in the long harangue which he ascribes to the Corinthian Sosiklus (v. 92). Whoever reads that speech, will perceive that the inference from silence to ignorance is in this case almost irresistible. O. Mailer ascribes to Periander a policy intentionally anti-Dorian, "prompted by the wish of utterly eradicating the peculiarities of the Doric race. For this reason he abolished the public tables, and prohibited the ancient education." (0. Mailer, Dorians, iii, 8, 3.) But it cannot be shown that any public tables (evaa'trta), or any peculiar education, analogous to those of Sparta, ever existed at Corinth. If nothing more be meant by these avamria than public banquets on particular festive occasions (sec "Vclcker, Prolegom. ad Theognid. c. 20, p. xxxvii), these are noway peculiar to Dorian cities. Nor does Theognis, v, 270, bear out V>lcker in affirming " syssitiorum vetus institutum" at Megara.