Archæologia Græca, Or The Antiquities of Greece

LL Ages have had a great Efteem and Veneration for Ar tiquity; and not only of Men, but of Families, Cities, and A Countries, the most Ancient have always been accounted

the most Honourable. Hence arofe one of the first and

moft univerfal Disputes that ever troubled Mankind; almost every Nation, whose first Original was not very manifeft, pretending to have been of an equal Duration with the Earth it felf. Thus the gyp tians, Scythians, and Phrygians phanfied themselves to be the first Race of Mankind, and the Arcadians boafted that they were goriva, or before the Moon. The want of Letters did not a little contribute to these Opinions; for almoft every Colony and Plantation, wanting means whereby to preferve the Memory of their Ancestors, and deliver them down to Pofterity, in a few Generations forgot their Mother-Nation, and thought they had inhabited their own Country from the beginning of the World.

Our

a

Our Athenians too had their Share in this Vanity, and made as great and loud Pretenfions to Antiquity, as the beft of their Neighbours; they gave out that they were produc'd at the fame time with the Sun, and affumed to themselves the honourable Name (for fo they thought it) of Aurixdores, which word fignifies Perfons produc'd out of the fame Soil that they inhabit: For it was an old Opinion, and almost every where received among the Vulgar, that in the beginning of the World, Men, like Plants, were by fome ftrange prolifick Virtue produc'd out of the fertile Womb of one common Mother, Earth; and therefore the Ancients generally called themselves Inves, Sons of the Earth, as Hefychius informs us, alluding to the fame Original, the Athenians fometimes ftyl'd themselves Tires, Grashoppers; and fome of them wore Grafhoppers of Gold, binding them in their Hair, as Badges of Honour, and Marks to diftinguish them from others of later Duration, and less noble Extraction, because those Infects were believ'd to be generated out of the Ground; Virgil has mention'd this Custom in his Poem entituled Ciris.

Ergo omnis caro refidebat cura capillo,
Aurea folemni comptum quem fibula ritu
Cecropia tereti nectebat dente cicada.

Wherefore fhe did, as was her conftant Care,
With Grafhoppers adorn her comely Hair,
Brac'd with a golden Buckle Attick wife.

Mr. Jo. Abell of Linc. Coll. Without doubt the Athenians were a very ancient Nation, and it may be, the firft that ever inhabited that Country; for when Theffaly, and Peloponnefus, and almost all the fertile Regions of Greece chang'd their old Masters every Year, the Barrennefs of their Soil fecur'd them from foreign Invafions. Greece at that time had no conftant and fettled Inhabitants, but there were continual Removes, the ftronger always difpoffeffing the weaker; and therefore they liv'd, as we fay, from Hand to Mouth, and provided no more than what was neceflary for present Suftenance, expecting every Day when fome more powerful Nation fhould come and difplace them as they had lately done their Predeceffors. Amidst all these Troubles and Tumults, Attica lay fecure and unmolefted, being protected from foreign Enemies, by means of a craggy and unfruitful Soil, that could not afford Fuel for Contention; and fecur'd from inteftine and civil Broils, by the quiet and peaceable Difpofitions of its Inhabitants; for in those Golden Days no Affectation of Supremacy, nor any Sparks of Ambition had fired Men's Minds, but every one liv'd full of Content and Satisfaction in the enjoyment of an equal fhare of Land, and other Neceffaries, with the reft of his Neighbours.

The ufual Attendants of a long and uninterrupted Peace are Riches and Plenty; but in thofe Days, when Men liv'd upon the Products of

Menander Rhetor. b In voce гays. ↑ Thucydides lib. 1. Euftathins

ad Iliad. y.

Thucyd. ibid.

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