Although ancient Greece never formed a single state, the various Greek tribes always looked upon themselves as one people, and classed all other nations under the general name of Barbaroi (foreigners). There were four chief bonds of union between the Greek tribes. First and chiefly they had a common language, which, though it had considerable dialectic peculiarities when spoken by different tribes, was yet understood throughout every part of Greece and in all the Greek colonies. Secondly, they had common religious ideas and institutions, and especially in the oracle of Delphi (q.v.) they had a common religious sanctuary, which was held by all the states in equal reverence, and was resorted to from all parts of Greece, alike by communities and in dividuals, for advice in circumstances of diffi culty, and not unfrequently for indications as to the future. Thirdly, there was a general assem bly of the Greeks called the Amphictyonic League, in which the whole nation was repre sented by tribes (not by states), and the chief functions of which were to guard the interests of the sanctuary of Delphi, and to see that the wars between the separate states of Greece were not carried on in too merciless a manner. When any of the ordinances of the league were vio lated it was its duty to see that the violators were punished, and to entrust the infliction of the punishment to some one of its members. The fourth bond of union between the tribes of Greece consisted in the four great national festivals or games, the Olympian, Isthmian, Nemean and Pythian (qq.v.) which were held at different intervals in four different parts of Greece, in which all Greeks, and none but Greeks, were allowed to participate, and which slaves were not allowed even to witness. At these games contests took place in foot-racing and chariot-racing, boxing, wrestling and throwing with the quoit (or discus), and prizes were also awarded for works of art, poems, dramas, histories, etc. The prize was a simple wreath of olive or pine branches, or of parsley; but such a prize brought glory not only on the winner himself, but on his whole family and kindred, and even on the state to which he belonged. The victor was welcomed home by a triumphal procession, and his victory was cele brated in odes sung on the occasion, and some times composed by such poets as Simonides and Pindar. The Olympic games were the most celebrated of these festivals. They were held in the summer once every four years at Olym pia, in Elis; the month in which they were held was considered as sacred. and during it no acts of hostility were allowed to take place between any of the Greek states. Originally, the only contest was a foot-race, and so high was the honor of a victory in this race esteemed, that from that of Corcebus in 776 B.C. the whole of Greece reckoned the time. The year in which any event happened was styled the first, second, third or fourth year of a certain Olympiad, the name given to the interval elapsing between each celebration.
The various small states of Greece may be divided, according to the form of their con stitution, into the two great classes of aristo cratic and democratic. Sparta or Lacechemon, the chief town of Laconia and of the Dorians, was the leading aristocratic state; and Athens, the capital of Attica and the chief town of the Ionians, was the leading democratic state; and as a rule all the Doric states, and subsequently all those under the influence of Sparta, re sembled that city in their constitution; and all the Ionic states, and those under the influence of Athens, resembled it These two races are the only ones that come into prominence during the earlier part of Greek history subsequent to the Doric migration. Sparta is said to have
derived its form of government, and all its in stitutions, near the close of the 9th century u.c., from Lycurgus, who made minute regulations as to the course of education and the mode of life among the Spartans. He had but one ob ject, that of training the Spartan youth for war, and developing a hardy and warlike spirit among the people. The immediate results of this training were seen in the conquests which the Spartans effected over the surrounding states, especially over the Messenians in the fit and 7th centuries B.C. Many of the vanquished Messenians left their native country and founded the city of Messana in Sicily. Those who remained were reduced to the condition of Helots (q.v.).
The constitution of Athens was not orig. inally democratical, but monarchical. After ward it became aristocratic, and first received a more or less democratic constitution from Solon at the beginning of the 6th century B.0 This was followed about 50 years later by a despotic monarchy under the celebrated °tyrant° Pisis tratus, and his sons, Hippias and Hipparchus, the last survivor of whom, Hippias, reigned in Athens till 510 B. C. Hipparchus had been assassinated four years before; and the last four years of the reign of Hippias were dis tinguished by violence and cruelty. His enemies drove him from Athens, after which the re public was restored in a more purely democratic form than at first.
Hippias found refuge at the court of the king of Persia, with whose aid he hoped to be able to return and rule once more in Athens. The Persian monarchy had been established about 30 or 40 years before by Cyrus the Great, and its sway extended not only over the whole of Persia, Media and Babylonia, but also over Egypt and Asia Minor. With the rest of this last-mentioned territory the Greek colonies on the coast had been brought under the yoke of this empire, and although they chafed under the foreign dominion, they were kept in subjection by the native princes or tyrants whom the Persian monarch imposed on them as governors. One of the most powerful of these governors was Histimus of Miletus, whose behavior had excited the distrust of Darius, the Persian king, for the latter, on the pretence of rewarding him for a signal service invited him to his court and kept him at Susa in practical captivity. His tinus secretly incited his relative, Aristagoras of Miletus, to get up a rising among the Greek colonies of Asia Minor, in the hope that he might, during the disturbance, find an oppor tunity of returning to his home. The endeavors of Aristagoras were successful; all the Greek towns on the coast were soon in arms, ' and assistance was asked from the mother country. Only Athens, which feared lest Darius should re-establish Histizus, and the small Ionian town of Eretria in Eulxea, furnished any aid. The Greeks, in 496 B.C., conquered and burned the town of Sardis, the capital of Asia Minor, whereupon the rebellion extended over the whole of Ionia. But the superior forces of the enemy, and the want of union among the in surgents, led in the following year (495) to the loss of a naval battle, and soon after to the destruction of Miletus, the inhabitants of which were partly put td death and partly made captives.