Engaged in such pursuits, and surrounded by so many noble objects, calculated to rouse the feelings, it is no wonder that the Arcadians were addicted to music and poetry. To Pan, the god of shepherds, and the patron of rustic festivals, they paid their daily homage by exer cising their skill in the song and the dance, with the music of the pipe. During their repasts, they all occa sionally joined in singing. Music was a stated branch of their education, and under the special patronage of the magistrates. The Arcadian music and poetry were probably like those of all nations in their early stages, artless and uncouth ; but they possessed a natural ex pression and a fervid sensibility, that have procured this sequestered nation the first rank in rural song.
But music, though it unquestionably softened their domestic manners, did not by any means render the Arcadians effeminate, nor the less formidable to their enemies. On the contrary, the very flute which soothed them in their retirement, animated them with rage in the clay of battle,, and regulated the evolutions of their battalions. War was not their trade ; but the privations of a shepherd's condition, the exercises of the chase, and their occasional encounters with robbers in defence of their cattle, rendered them peculiarly qualified for military service. Their warlike character was not a little indebted to another circumstance. From the various invasions of Peloponncsus by Danaus, Pelops, and others, but particularly after the descent of the Heracleidx, accompanied by a swarm of Dorians from mounts Eta and Parnassus, the language, manners, and inhabitants of the neighbouring districts were so much altered, that the Arcadians, who alone retained their independence, considered themselves as the only legiti mate Greeks. Proud of their Eolian extraction, they despised their lowland neighbours as upstarts ; and, con fident in their own courage, and the natural strength of their own country, they waged frequent hostilities with these Dorian strangers, by whose possessions they were on all sides surrounded.
The Arcadians accordingly were renowned for their prowess. In early times, these hardy bands took the field, clothed in the skins of wolves and bears, and armed with javelins and pikes, which they wielded with micom mon dexterity. In after ages, their martial equipment was improved. The Mantincans invented a piece of defensive armour called after their own name, and had the reputation of being the first who used a military dress. Even the ladies of this country imbibed the same
warlike spirit. When the Lacedxmonians invaded Tegea, and prompted by a dubious oracle, had a number of chains prepared for their captives, in the heat of bat tle, a party of Arcadian women fell upon them with su-'1 fury, that these sullen warriors were put to the rout ; and their king Chorilaus, with many of his people, being taken, they were bound neck and heels with their own chains. This martial ardour, together with the poverty incident to a mountainous country, urged many of the Arcadians to serve in foreign armies. These merce naries fought for interests not connected with their own country ; and hence, to imitate the .1rcadians, signified, among the Greeks, to labour and toil for the advantage of others.
The government of Arcadia, like that of most nations, was originally monarchical. From Pelasgus, their foun der, who is computed to have flourished a little before Cecrops, about fifteen hundred years before the Chris tian zra, to their last king Aristocratcs, they reckoned in all 25 kings. On the murder of this prince, which happened 800 years after the beginning of the monarchy, a kind of federal republic was established, which conti nued ever after, formed by a rude coalition of the principal towns, which became each the centre of a subordinate commonwealth. In these cantons all the citizens had a right to give their opinion, and vote in the general as sembly, while certain officers called Demiurgi, or tri bunes of the people, exercised the principal functions of the state. The constitution of Mantinea is praised by the ancients as a model in its kind. The federal con cerns were managed by deputies from the several can tons, who assembled in former times at Mantinea, but afterwards in Megalopolis, where 10,000 representatives are said to have met in council. The bond of union be tween these little states was exceedingly slender, the chief cantons often acting independently, and concluding separate treaties with foreign powers ; a circumstance but ill calculated for the purpose of aggression, and therefore, in their case, advantageous ; but yet quite sufficient for that of defence, powerfully influenced as they were by the prejudice of country and common origin.