Dio. Vespasian reduced Achaia to a Roman province, A. D. 79. and gave it a proconsul for its governor. Pliny the elder, a favourite of Vespasian and Titus, wrote, in the time of those princes, concerning various monuments of Greece. Philostr. in Apol. Thy. Eutr. Vict. Apollonius of Tyanæa, found the laws of Lycur- A. D. 91. gus still in force at Lacedæmon during the reign of Vit Domitian. Nerva favoured the Athenians. The monuments of A, D. 97. Herodes Atticus, and the description of Pausanias are Dio. nearly of this period. Pliny the younger, under Trajan, exhorts Maximus, A D. 115. Plin. jun. 1. 8. proconsul of Achaia, to govern Athens and Greece c. 24. with equity. Adrian rebuilt the monuments of Athens, com- A. D. 134. Dio. Spart. pleted the temple of Jupiter Olympus, erected a new Euseb. city near the ancient one, and caused the arts, sciences and letters to flourish once more in Greece. Antonius and Marcus Aurelius loaded Athens with A. D. 176. Capitol. Dio. favours. The latter in particular was solicitous to restore the Academy to its ancient splendor, he increased the number of the professors of philosophy, eloquence, and civil law, and fixed it at thirteen; two platonic, two paripatetic, two stoic, two epicurean, two professors of civil law, and one prefect of youth. Lucian, who lived at that time, says, that Athens swarmed with long beards, mantles, sticks, and wallets. The Polyhistor of Solinus appeared towards the conclusion of this century. Solinus describes several A. D. 176. of the monuments of Greece. He has not copied Pliny the naturalist, so closely as he has thought fit to assert. Herodian. Severus deprived Athens of part of its privileges as A. D. 194. a punishment for having declared in favour of Pescen- Spart. Dio. nius Niger. Herodian. Sparta having fallen into obscurity, while Athens A. D. 214, yet attracted the notice of the world, deserved the disgraceful esteem of Caracalla, who had in his army a A. D. 260. A. D. 261. Chandl. Trav. A. D. 269. A. D. 323. A. D. 387. Eunopes Zon. in Coust. A. D. 354. battalion of Lacedæmonians, and a guard of Spartans about his person. The Scythians having invaded Macedonia, in the time of the emperor Gallienus, laid siege to Thessalonica. The terrified Athenians rebuilt in haste, the walls which Sylla had demolished. Some years afterwards, the Heruli pillaged Sparta, Corinth, and Argos. Athens was saved by the valour of one of its citizens, named Dexippus equally renowned in the career of letters and of arms. The archonship was abolished about this time, and the stratigos, the inspector of the agora or market, became the first magistrate of Athens. During the reign of Claudius II, this city was taken by the Goths; they would have burned the libraries, but one of the barbarians opposed the design: "Let us," said he " preserve the books, which render the Greeks so easy a conquest, and extinguish in them the love of glory." Cleodemus, an Athenian, who had escaped the calamity of his country collected some troops, attacked the Goths, killed a great number, and dispersed the rest, thus proving to the barbarians that science is not incompatible with courage. Athens speedily recovered from this disaster, for we find it soon afterwards offering honours to Constantine and receiving thanks from him. This prince conferred on the governor of Attica the title of grand-duke ; a title, which being usurped by one family, at length became heredetary, and transformed the republic of Solon into a Gothic principality. Pita, bishop of Athens, was present at the Council of Nice. Constantius, the successor, of Constantine, after the decease of his brothers Constantine and Constans, made a present of several islands to the city of Athens. Julian, educated among the pilosophers of the porEp. ad Athen, tico, did not quit Athens without shedding tears. Gregory, Cyril, Basil, and Chrysostom, imbibed their sacred eloquence in the birth-place of Demosthenes. Zos. lib. 4. Jul. Greg. Cyr. Bas. Chrys. Oper. Ap. Bibl. Pat. Zos. lib. 4. During the reign of Theodosius the Great the A. D. 377. Goths ravaged Epire and Thessaly. They were pre- Chandl. paring to pass into Greece, but were prevented by scrip. antq. Theodore, general of the Achains. Athens out of gratitude, erected a statue to her deliverer. A.D. 395. Honorius and Arcadius held the reigns of empire 2os. lib. 5. when Alaric penetrated into Greece. Zosimus, relates that the conqueror, as he approached Athens, perceived Minerva in a menacing attitude on the top of the citidel; and Achilles standing before the ramparts. Alaric, if we are to believe the same historian, did not sack a city which was thus protected, by heroes and by gods. But this story has too much of the air of a fable. Synesius, who lived much nearer Syn. Ep. Op. to the event than Zosimus, compares Athens burned omn. a Pet. by the Goths, to a victim consumed by the flames, and of which nothing but the bones are left. The Ju- Chandl. Trav piter of Phidias is supposed to have perished in this invasion of the barbarians. Corinth, Argos, the cities of Arcadia, Elis and Laconia shared the same fate as Athens. "Sparta, so renowned," continues Zosimus, "could not be saved: it was abandoned by its citizens and betrayed by its chiefs, the base ministers of the unjust and dissolute tyrants who then governed the state." Stilico, when he marched to drive Alaric out of the A. D. 395. Peloponnese, completed the devastation of that unfortunate country. Zon in Th. II. Athenais, daughter of Leontius the philosopher, A. D. 423. known by the name of Eudocia, was born at Athens, and became the wife of Theodosius the younger.* Historians have not paid attention to chronological order, and have misplaced the marriage of Eudocia, by making it anterior to the taking of Athens by Alaric. Zonaras says, that Eudocia driven from home by her brothers, Valerius and Genesius, was obliged to seek refuge at Constantinople. Valerius and Genesius, lived peaceably in their native country, and Eudocia, procured, their elevation to dignities of the empire. Is not all this history of the marriage and family of Eudocia a proof that Athens was not so great a sufferer by the invasion of Alaric as Synesius asserts, and that Zosj. mus may be right, at least in regard to the fact. A. D. 480. Procop. de I. c. 5. While Leontius held the reigns of the eastern em Bell Vanda. I. pire, Genseric made a fresh incursion into Achaia. Procopius does not inform us how Sparta and Athens fared in this new invasion. A. D. 527. Proc. de Edif. lib. 4. c. 2. A. D. 527. A. D. 527. The same historian describes, in his Secret History, the ravages of the barbarians in the following terms: "Since Justinian has governed the empire, Thrace, the Chersonesus, Greece, and the whole. country lying between Constantinople and the Gulf of Ionia, have been yearly ravaged by the Antes, the Sclavonians, and the Huns. More than two hundred thousand Romans have been killed or made prisoners by the barbarians in each invasion, and the countries which I have mentioned are become like the deserts of Scythia." Justinian caused the walls of Athens to be repaired, and towers to be built on the Isthmus of Corinth. In the list of towns embellished or fortified by this prince, Procopius has not included Lacedæmon. It is remarked, that the emperors of the East had a Laconian, or according to the pronunciation then introduced a Tzaconian guard; the soldiers composing it were armed with pikes, and wore a kind of cuirass, adorned with the figures of lions; they were dressed in a short wide coat of woollen cloth, and had a hood to cover the head. The commander of these men was called Stratopedarcha. The eastern empire having been divided into governments, styled Themata, Lacedæmon became the appanage of the brothers, or eldest sons of the emperor. The princes of Sparta assumed the title of Despots; their wives were denominated Despænes, and the government Despotship. The despot resided at Sparta or Corinth.* Here commences the long silence of history, concerning the most celebrated regions of the universe, This title of despot is not, however, peculiar to Sparta, and we find despots of the East, of Thessaly, &c. which produces very great confusion in history. tom. 2. Spon and Chandler lose sight of Athens for seven hundred years, "either," as Spon observes, " on ac- Spon. Voy. count of the defectiveness of history, which is brief and obscure in those ages, or because fortune granted it a long repose." We may, however, discover some traces of Sparta and Athens during this long interval. The first mention we find of Athens is in Theo- Theoph. 1. 8. c. 12. ap. phylactus Simocattus, the historian of the Emperor Byz. Script. Mauritius. He speaks of the Muses "who shine at Athens in their most superb dresses," which proves that about the year 590, Athens was still the abode of the Muses. Raven. The anonymous geographer of Ravenna, a Gothic A. D. 650. writer, who probably lived in the seventh century, Anon. 1. 4. names Athens thrice in his Geography; a work of & 6. which we have as yet but an ill-executed abridgment by Galateus. Porph. de Under Michael III, the Sclavonians overran A. D. 846. Const. Greece. Theoctistus defeated and drove them to the extremity of the Peloponnese. Two hordes of these Adm. Imp. people, the Ezerites and the Milinges, settled to the east and west of Taygetus, called at that time Pen- A. D. 846, tadactyle. Notwithstanding what we are told by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, these Sclavonians were the ancestors of the Mainottes, who are not descended from the ancient Spartans, as some yet maintain, without knowing that this is but a ridiculous opinion broached by the last mentioned writer.* It was doubtless these Sclavonians that changed the name of Amycle into that of Selabochorion. We read in Leo the Grammarian, that the inhabit- A. D. 915. Leo, Vit. ants of Greece, no longer able to endure the oppres- Const. c. 2. sions of Chases, the son of Job and prefect of Achaia, stoned him in a church at Athens during the reign of Constantine VII. Under Alexis Commenus, some time before the A. D. 1081. Leo. Ann. * The opinion of Pauw who makes the Mainottes the descend. Comn. lib. 7. ants not of the Spartans, but of Laconians set at liberty by the Romans, is not grounded on any historic probability. G |