CHAPTER IV
From the Institution of the Olympic Games to the Death of Cyrus. THE first recorded Olympiad belongs to the year 776. Of these games Hercules was the mythical founder, and this era is supposed to be that of their revival. But Mr. Grote has admitted that if from this time we can speak of some events as historical, the real history of Greece does not commence for two centuries later. The IO first Olympiad simply records the Victory of Corœbus; but of the historical existence of Corœbus we have no further evidence than a monument which was alleged to mark his grave (Pausanias, v. 8, 3, viii, 26, 3. See also Cox's Persian War, p. 287). These games, however, were of the greatest importance not merely as furnishing the means of chronological computation, but in their influence on the national character of the Greeks. In fact, it was only or chiefly in reference to these religious festivals that they could be said to have any national character at all. Their life was essentially one of cities, and their alliances bring before us a mere collection of units entirely independent of each other. In these games then they had a bond of union which kept up some feeling of national life, and contributed powerfully to bring about their victory over the armies of Darius and Xerxes.
Of the migration of barbarians in Northern Europe we can say nothing positively. The Celtic tribes who forced their way at a later time into Italy and Greece and Asia Minor, may have approached the Alps; but the want of all contemporary evidence must make every statement uncertain. Rome, we may perhaps say, was now entering on the course which hereafter was to carry her to universal conquest; and even this may be a hazardous assumption. Among the Greek States, those of Athens and Sparta were the most prominent. The latter, under the institutions ascribed to Lycurgus, was growing more and more like a camp of hostile occupation in a conquered country; the former, free in great part from the factions which vexed other cities, was becoming rapidly prosperous, and laying the foundation of her maritime ascendancy.
The sceptre of Babylon was at this time swayed by Nebuchadnezzer, by whom the kingdom of Judea was totally overthrown, 587 B. C., and its temple burned to the ground in the following year. He also took and demolished the city of Tyre, despoiled Egypt, and made such prodigious conquests both in the East and West, that the fame of his victories filled the world with awe; till at length his empire comprehended Phœnicia, Syria, Babylonia, Media, Persia, and part of India. One great object of his pride and ambition was to render his capital beyond all example gorgeous; nor can we consider the wonders of that city, as related by Herodotus, at all incredible, when we remember that the strength and resources of his mighty empire was made subservient to the purpose.
The next important event that occurred was the revolution occasioned by the misconduct of Evil-merodach, Nebuchadnezzar's son, who, without provocation, wantonly attacked and began to plunder and lay waste the country of the Medes. This produced an immediate revolt, which quickly extended over all Media and Persia. The Medes, headed by Astyages and his son Cyaxares, drove back the intruder and his followers with great slaughter; nor does it appear that the Babylonish monarch was afterwards able to reduce them to subjection. We now come to the period when the brilliant career of Cyrus demands our notice. He had signalized himself in various wars under Astyages, his grandfather, when, having been appointed generalissimo of the Median and Persian forces, he attacked the Babylonish empire, and the city of Babylon itself fell before his victorious arms. Cyrus now issued a decree for the restoration of the Jews, and the rebuilding of their temple. By a succession of victories he had become master of all the East, and for some time the Asiatic affairs continued in a state of tranquility. It is necessary to observe in this place, that the Medes, before the time of Cyrus, though a great and powerful people, were eclipsed by the superior prowess of the Babylonians. But Cyrus having conquered their kingdom, by the united force of the Medes and Persians, it appears that the great empire of which he was the founder must have taken its name from both nations; so that the empire of the Medes and that of the Persians were one and the same, though in consequence of the glory of its wise and victorious leader it subsequently retained only the latter name. Meanwhile it continued to extend itself on every side; and at length Cambyses, the son and successor of Cyrus, conquered Egypt, and added that country to his already overgrown dominions.