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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1892. Excerpt:... CHAPTER IV. AGE OF CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES AND OF COLONIZATION: GROWTH OF SPARTA AND OF ATHENS. (776-500 B.C.; I. General Features Of The Period. Introductory.--A hasty sketch, such as we propose to give in this section, of the general features of the period upon which we now enter,--the period embraced between the close of the Legendary Age and the beginning of the Persian Wars,--will serve as a sort of introduction to the history during this same time of Sparta and Athens, the representative cities of Greece. On the other hand, the story of the early growth of these cities, which we shall give in the two following sections, will in turn illustrate what we shall here have to say respecting Hellenic affairs in general during this formative period of Greek history. The Homeric Monarchies give Place to Oligarchies.--We have seen that in the Heroic Age the preferred form of government was a patriarchal monarchy. The Iliad says, " The rule of many is not a good thing: let us have one ruler only,--one king,--him to whom Zeus has given the sceptre and the tutelary sanctions."' But by the dawn of the historic period, the patriarchal monarchies of the Achaean age had given place, in almost all the Grecian cities, to oligarchies or aristocracies. The power of the "Zeusborn" kings had passed into the hands of the nobles of his council. In Sparta, however, the monarchy was not actually abolished, though the kings--there were two--were, as we shall learn, robbed of so much of their power that they remained scarcely more than shadow-sovereigns. 1 II. 203-206. THE OLIGARCHIES GIVE WAY TO TYRANNIES. 187 The Oligarchies give Way to Tyrannies.--As the Homeric monarchies were superseded by oligarchies, so these in turn were superseded by tyrannies. The nobles into whose han...