300 GORDIUS II.-OTREUS-MIDAS III.-MIDAS IV. perhaps, be longer remembered than any great exploit of his reign. Pan and Apollo, according to the ancient legends of the Greeks, were rivals in music, and held a trial of their skill before Midas. He decided in favor of Pan, at which Apollo was so incensed, that he caused a pair of ass's ears to grow on the monarch's head, as a token of his stupidity. The unfortunate king, unable to get rid of his long ears, was compelled to invent a covering for his head, in order to conceal them, and this was the origin of the royal diadem. He succeeded, for some time, in keeping his ears out of sight; but his barber at length discovered them. Barbers appear to have been, in ancient times, quite as loquacious and communicative as in our own day; and the king's secret was soon divulged. Another account says that Midas was advised by the oracle to 66 bury his secret." He accordingly went into the fields, one dark night, with a spade, dug a hole in the ground, and whispered in it, "Midas, the king, has ass's ears." He then filled up the hole, and went home, believing he had effectually buried the secret in the earth. But, some time afterward, a crop of reeds sprung up on the spot, which, whenever they were agitated by the wind, repeated audibly the words, 'Midas, the king, has ass's ears." Whatever the facts may be, this tale was doubtless founded on some real occurrence. The "ass's ears of Midas" formed a current proverb among the Greeks; and there is no question of the fact that a king of this name once reigned in Phrygia. A sepulchral monument has been discovered in this country, bearing the inscription, in ancient Pelasgic characters, "To King Midas." It is also remarkable that the same monument is ornamented with a singular species of sculptured knot, which at once calls to mind the celebrated Gordian knot. Of Midas nothing further is related, except that his wife Hermodica invented the method of coining money. The date of his reign may be fixed at about 650 B. C. Midas was succeeded by his eldest son, Gordius II., who fortified the city of Gordium with a strong wall. Ancharus, according to some authors, was the successor of Gordius; according to others, he was his brother, but never attained to the throne. He is celebrated for having sacrificed himself for his country in the following manner: An earthquake destroyed a great part of the city of Celænæ, and left an enormous chasm yawning to a great depth. The oracles were consulted, and the answer they gave was, that the opening would not close till the most valuable thing in human life was thrown into it. Upon this declaration, the inhabitants cast in their gold, silver, jewels, and other valuable effects, for the common safety; but the chasm still remained open. Ancharus then, revolving in his mind that life was the most valuable possession, as it included all other things, resolved to devote himself for the preservation of his countrymen. Accordingly, he took an affectionate farewell of his wife and father, and, mounting his horse, rode at full speed into the opening, which immediately closed upon him. This is one of the tales in ancient history which have been copied into the accounts of other countries, particularly by the early annalists of Rome, who relate the circumstances of the earthquake and the chasm as having happened in the forum of that city, when the calamity was arrested by the devotion of Marcus Curtius. History abounds with these repetitions. Otreus is mentioned as the next king of Phrygia; but none of his actions have been recorded. Lityerses, who followed him, reigned at Celænæ, and is described as a cruel tyrant, who frequently labored in the fields as a common husbandman, and, for his amusement, cut off the heads of his fellow-laborers, and bound up their bodies in the sheaves. For these and similar acts of barbarity, he was at length put to death by Hercules, who was, at this period, acting the part of a knight-errant, roaming about the country, and ridding it of wild beasts and tyrants. The dead body of Lityerses was thrown into the River Meander. The Phrygian reapers are said, for some unknown reason, to have cherished the memory of this king, and usually sang a hymn, in harvest time, which they called, after his name, "Lityerses.' The name of his successor is not given in history ; but, during his reign, the crown was usurped by Midas III. in the following manner: He engaged a party of his adherents in a conspiracy, and arranged a great religious festival, to be celebrated outside the walls of Gordium. At the time appointed, the whole party marched out of the city, accompanied by a numerous band of musicians, and all with weapons concealed under their garments. The citizens, whose curiosity was excited by this imposing display, followed them out of the city, unsuspicious of treachery; when the conspirators, suddenly throwing away their musical instruments, fell upon them, seized the city, and proclaimed Midas king. This usurper was succeeded by Gordius III., who was followed by Midas IV. This prince is mentioned by Herodotus as having presented the oracle of Delphi with a chair or tribunal of the most exquisite workmanship. During his reign, Asia Minor was invaded by the Cimmerians, a people whose country was believed to be enveloped in darkness. They dwelt in the north of Europe, a region which was so little known to the Greeks in that age, that the most extravagant fables were related of it. The Cimmerians appear to have been a fierce and barbarous nation; they overran a great part of Asia Minor, captured the great and opulent city of Sardis, and made a dreadful slaughter among the people of Lydia, Paphlagonia, and Phrygia. Midas, unable to defend his kingdom from these cruel invaders, abandoned himself to despair, and committed suicide by drinking bull's blood. The family of this king was peculiarly unfortunate. He had two sons, one of whom accidentally killed his brother. The unhappy survivor fled to the court of Croesus, king of Lydia, where, by another accident, he had the misfortune to kill the son of that king; upon which he committed suicide. This event will be found more fully related in the history of Lydia. Shortly after this catastrophe, Phrygia submitted to the arms of Croesus, and became a province of the Lydian empire. On the overthrow of Croesus by Cyrus the Great, Phrygia fell under the Persian dominion. CHAPTER CLIX. Famous Men of Phrygia - Esop-Epictetus. Æsop, the celebrated fabulist, according to the most common accounts, was a native of Phrygia. He is represented as very deformed in person, being dwarfish in stature, hunchbacked, and homely in countenance. In early life he was a slave; and the EMINENT PHRYGIANS-ESOP-EPICTETUS. merchant who had bought him for sale found it very difficult to get him off his hands. For some time he was employed as a day laborer; he then served Xanthus, a philosopher, and Demarchus, an Athenian. After this he became the property of a Samian named Iadmus, who gave him his freedom. The other circumstances of his life are but imperfectly known, though many biographies of Esop may be found, which are full of particulars concerning him; upon these, however, very little reliance can be placed. It is said that, shortly after obtaining his liberty, he visited Croesus, king of Lydia, who had heard of his reputation, and was very desirous of seeing him. The strange deformity of Esop's person shocked the king at first, and much abated the good opinion which he had conceived of him. But the beauty of his mind soon shone forth through the coarse veil that covered it; and Croesus found, as Esop said on another occasion, that we ought not to consider the form of the vessel, but the quality of the liquor which it contains. Æsop is said, also, to have made several voyages into Greece. Being at Athens a short time after Pisistratus had usurped the sovereignty and abolished the popular government, and observing that the Athenians bore this new yoke with great impatience, he repeated to them the celebrated fable of the frogs who demanded a king from Jupiter. : Plutarch relates the manner of Esop's death thus He went to Delphi, with a great quantity of gold and silver, to offer, in the name of Croesus, a sacrifice to Apollo, and make a gift to each inhabitant. A quarrel arose between Esop and these people, which occasioned him, after the sacrifice, to send back the money to Croesus, with the information that those for whom it was intended had rendered themselves unworthy of his bounty. The Delphians, in revenge for this, caused Æsop to be condemned as guilty of sacrilege, and thrown from the top of a rock. It was believed that Apollo, offended by this action, punished them with plague and famine, which afflicted them for two generations. To expiate their crime, they caused it to be proclaimed in all the assemblies of Greece, that if any man, for the honor of Esop, would come and claim vengeance for his death, they would give him satisfaction. In the third generation, a Samian presented himself, who claimed no other relation to the fabulist than being descended from the man who had owned him when a slave. The Delphians made the requisite satisfaction to this individual, and thereby delivered themselves from the pestilence and famine. The Athenians, those excellent judges of true glory, erected a noble statue to Esop, to remind the world, says Phædrus, that the path of honor is open to all mankind, and that it was not to birth, but to merit, that they paid so honorable a distinction. Esop is regarded as the chief of all fabulists, and even as the original inventor of the simple and natural manner of conveying instruction by fables. No doubt fables were current among many nations of the East before Esop's time; but he was the first of all profane writers who laid hold of the fiction of the language of brutes, developed and improved it, and made a happy and successful application of it, by attracting a general attention to this pleasing vehicle of instruction, which is within the reach of all capacities, and equally adapted to the understanding and taste of 301 persons of all ages and conditions. He was the first that, in order to give body and substance to virtues, vices, duties, and maxims of society, used ingenious artifices of invention and description, and successfully clothed these abstractions with graceful and familiar images borrowed from nature. The fables of Esop are void of all ornament, but they abound with good sense. Plato tells us that Socrates, when in prison and waiting for the hour of his execution, amused himself by turning some of them into verse. It is doubted whether the fables of Æsop, such as we have in the common Greek editions, are all his, at least in regard to the expression. Many of them are ascribed to Maximus Planudes, a monk of Constantinople, who lived in the fourteenth century, and wrote a biography of the fabulist. The English editions of Esop contain many additions by later writers. 66 Æsop's jokes " are mentioned by the Athenian comic poet Aristophanes in terms which lead us to suppose that they were generally repeated at convivial parties. The fables of the Latin poet Phædrus are probably all taken from Esop. He introduces them with the following distich: "Mine is the task, in easy verse, The tales of Æsop to rehearse." The Oriental philosopher and fabulist Lokman is supposed by many to have been the same person with Esop. The former, by the Arabic writers, is made contemporary with David and Solomon. It is certain that the same fables are current under the names of both these persons, and the correspondence between their personal histories, as commonly told, is too close to be entirely accidental. Epictetus the philosopher was a native of Hierapolis, in Phrygia, and was born in the early part of the first century. Little is known of his early life, except that he was a slave to one of the guards of the emperor Nero, named Epaphroditus. He afterwards obtained his freedom, and embraced the Stoic philosophy, which was at that time the most perfect and most severe sect. He lived at Rome till the year 96, when all the philosophers were banished from the city by an edict of Domitian. He then went to Nicopolis, in Epirus, where he resided many years, always in great poverty, but highly honored and esteemed. In the reign of Adrian, he returned to Rome, and was favorably received by that emperor. He died at an advanced age, but the precise date is unknown. His philosophy consisted in the resolution to suffer evils patiently and enjoy pleasure in moderation. When his master tortured him by binding his leg with great force, he told him calmly, "You will break my leg." When the limb really broke, the philosopher only said, with equal calmness, “Did I not tell you so?" It is very evident that Epictetus was indebted quite as much to the strength of his nervous system as to his philosophic temper for his power of enduring pain. The memory of Epictetus was highly respected by persons of all ranks, and the little property of which he was the possessor was so highly prized, that his earthen lamp was sold for a sum equal to five thousand dollars. He maintained firmly the immortality of the soul, and speaks in his writings of the happiness of good men after death in terms which might suit a Christian discourse. The Island of Cyprus. Cyprus Ancient History of Cyprus - The Phoenicians The Greeks- The Romans The Crusaders Modern HistoryThe Venetians The Turks- Famous Men of Cyprus. THERE are several islands scattered along the coast of Asia Minor, which must be geographically, as well as historically, regarded as connected with this portion of the continent. The principal of these islands are Cyprus, the largest, Rhodes, Cos, Samos, Chios, and Lesbos. There are also some others, of less note. CYPRUS lies in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, adjoining Asia Minor and Syria, being separated from the former by a strait called the Sea of Cilicia. It is about one hundred and forty miles long, and fifty miles broad. A range of mountains runs through the island from east to west, called Olympus by the ancients. The highest summits are about seven thousand feet above the level of the sea. The plains and hill sides are very fertile, producing corn and wine in abundance: the latter is regarded as the staple production of the island. On the plains the heat of summer is intense, and the rivers are mostly dry at this season. Cyprus is at present called by the Turks Kibris. In the Bible it is called Chittim from Citium, one of its ancient cities. The Greeks gave it a variety of names, as Paphos, Cytherea, Acamantis, Cerastis, Asphelia, Amathusia, Erosa, &c. It was consecrated to Venus, and is represented by the Greek and Latin poets as the birthplace of that goddess and the abode of the Graces. The name of Cyprus, which has prevailed over all the others, was derived from the cypress-tree, which grew here in great abundance. The Phoenicians appear to have been the first inhabitants of Cyprus. They settled colonies here at a very early period, perhaps two thousand years before Christ. The Ethiopians are mentioned as constituting a part of the early population; but these are supposed to have been either Egyptians, or Ethiopian slaves who were introduced by the Egyptians, when the latter obtained possession of the island. The history of Cyprus, under the Phoenicians, is very little known. When they first landed in the island, it was covered with a thick forest. Copper mines were discovered shortly after, and the woods were cut down for the When the Phoenicians purpose of smelting the ore. began to navigate the Mediterranean more extensively, they found the forests of Cyprus valuable for the timber they afforded for ship-building. How long the island continued in a state of dependence on Phoenicia is not known. Colonies of Greeks established themselves on the coasts at an uncertain date. The Egyptians conquered the whole island, or the greater part of it, in the sixth century B. C. Strabo describes Cyprus, about this period, as divided among several petty tyrants or chieftains, who were at times in alliance with the neighboring powers of Asia Minor, and at other times at war with them. When the Persians extended their dominion in the west, this island shared the fate of the adjoining states, and became a dependency of the great king. On the overthrow of the Persian empire by Alexander, Cyprus fell into his hands. On his death, the island, with Egypt, was assigned to Ptolemy, the son of Lagus. The Ptolemies retained possession of Cyprus for many generations. Sometimes it was united to the kingdom of Egypt, and at others it was governed, as a separate principality, by a chief of the Ptolemæan dynasty. The last of these princes, brother to Ptolemy Auletes, king of Egypt, the father of Cleopatra, incurred the enmity of the Romans in the following manner: A Roman named Publius Clodius Pulcher, having been captured by the pirates of Cilicia, sent to the king of Cyprus for money to procure his ransom. The king sent so small a sum that the pirates refused to release their prisoner. Clodius, however, succeeded in obtaining his liberty by other means, and some time after his return to Rome, was elected tribune of the people. This gave him an opportunity to revenge the affront which the king of Cyprus had put upon him. He procured a decree to be passed for reducing that island to a Roman province, though no ground of quarrel existed between the two nations, except the private affair above related. M. Cato was sent with a strong force to take possession of Cyprus; and the | Salamis, Leucolia, Citium, Amathus, Palæa, Cunium, king, hearing of his approach, was struck with such terror that he committed suicide. Cato found the royal treasury well filled, and sent a large amount of treasure to Rome. Thus the niggardly behavior of the king of Cyprus cost him his crown and life. In those ages, Cyprus was celebrated for its abundant population, which was computed at above a million, and for the beauty of its scenery, and the gay manners and loose disposition of the inhabitants. The women were models of beauty, and the whole island was sacred to Venus; hence she was called Cypria, or the Cyprian goddess. The city of Paphos is said to have been founded on the spot where she first landed on rising from the sea. The splendid temple in which she was worshipped, contained a hundred altars, which smoked daily with a profusion of frankincense; and though exposed to the open air, it is said they were never wet with the rain. Treta, Bousoura, and Paphos. Most of these have disappeared. The present towns are, Nicosia, the Turkish capital, containing about twelve thousand inhabitants; Famagosta, once populous, but now decayed; Larnica, which occupies the site of the ancient Citium, and is the most flourishing place in the island, being the chief seat of trade, and the residence of the European consuls and factors. There are also a few other small towns. A great part of this fertile and beautiful island is uncultivated, and is overgrown with thyme and other aromatic herbs. The principal exports are cotton, wine, salt, corn, opium, turpentine, silk, and fruit. The population is about fifty thousand, the greater part of whom are Greeks. Zeno, the philosopher, was a native of Cyprus. He was born at Citium, 346 B. C., and educated as a merchant. On one of his trading voyages, he was shipwrecked on the coast of Attica, and lost all his property. He wandered penniless to Athens, where, as he was strolling about the streets, he entered a bookseller's shop, and took up a volume, to beguile his melancholy. It was a work of Xenophon, and the reading of it gave him so much pleasure that he forgot his losses. He asked the bookseller where the philosophers were to be found, of whom Xenophon had spoken in this book. Crates the Cynic happening to pass by at that moment, the bookseller pointed him out, and advised Zeno to follow him. The shipwrecked Cyprian immediately became the disciple of Crates, with whom he studied for ten years. He then passed ten more with Stilpon of Megara, Xenocrates, and Polemon, after which he instituted a new sect on his own authority. As he usually delivered his lectures in a porch, called stoa in Greek, his followers were called Stoics. Such was the origin of a word which has been adopted into all the cultivated languages of Europe. When the Roman empire was divided, Cyprus was assigned to the Byzantine emperors. After several vicissitudes of fortune, it became a separate principality, under a branch of the imperial house of the Comneni. During the crusades, Richard I. of England made himself master of the island, and sold it to the Templars, or Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. They governed Cyprus with so much tyranny that the inhabitants revolted, and Richard was compelled to resume the sovereignty. In 1192, he transferred it to Guy of Lusignan, who had been the Christian king of Jerusalem, but was expelled from that city by the Saracens. The Lusignan dynasty reigned in Cyprus for nearly three hundred years, during which period the island enjoyed great prosperity. In 1458, by the death of John III. of Lusignan, the crown devolved on Charlotte, his daughter. She was dethroned by her illegitimate brother James, assisted by the Mamelukes of Egypt. James, having married Catharine Cornaro, a Venetian lady, died in 1473, leaving the kingdom to The reputation of Zeno quickly spread throughout his widow. She was delivered of a son shortly after- Greece. He continued to teach philosophy for fortywards, and the republic of Venice assumed the guar-eight years after the founding of his sect, and he lived dianship of the young prince. On his death, (1489,) the Venetians persuaded Catharine to abdicate the crown in favor of the republic; and in this manner Cyprus became transferred to the dominion of Venice. Cyprus remained in the possession of the Venetians nearly a century. In 1570, the Turks, under Selim II., invaded the island. They took Nicosia by storm, and massacred twenty thousand of the inhabitants. They next laid siege to Famagosta, which was long and gallantly defended, but was forced to capitulate in 1571. The Venetian commander, Bragadino, was flayed alive, in violation of the terms by which he surrendered, and all the other officers were put to the sword. The Turkish pacha, Mustapha, by whose command this act of perfidious cruelty was performed, caused the skin of Bragadino to be stuffed with straw, and hung up at the yard-arm of his ship, as he returned to Constantinople. The Venetians raised a monument to the memory of this brave and unfortunate general, and his relatives, after a time, ransomed his skin, which they placed in the monument. The Turks have retained possession of Cyprus from that time to the present day. The ancient cities of Cyprus were Arsinoe, Soli, Limenia, Lapathus, Agidus, Aphrodisium, Carpathia, to the age of ninety-eight without any bodily disease. After his death, the Athenians built him a tomb in the suburb of Ceramica, and by a public decree bestowed on him a crown of gold, with other extraordinary honors. Zeno borrowed some doctrines of his philosophy from the other schools. He differed from the Cynics, as they devoted themselves much to speculative studies, which he wholly discarded. The Stoics, however, resembled the Cynics to some extent in their general austerity of manners and character. They inculcated indifference to pleasure and pain, adversity and prosperity, as a state of mind essential to happiness. The doctrine of fate was one of their main peculiarities. They considered all things as controlled by an eternal necessity, to which even the deity submitted. Their system of morals was in general strict, and outwardly correct, but founded on a cold and self-relying pride. They defended suicide, and Zeno himself is said to have died by his own hand. The doctrines of Stoicism, however, stimulated men to heroic deeds, and the later disciples of the sect are supposed to have borrowed some of the principles of Christianity. They speak of the world as destined to be destroyed by a vast conflagration, and succeeded by another, new and pure. HODES. CHAPTER CLXI. 1000 B. C. to A. D. 1840. Colossus of Rhodes. Settlement of the Greeks in this Island - Rhodian Revolutions Government of the Romans - The Knights of The Turks Famous Men of Cos. Famous Men of this Rhodes Rhodes. Island. THE Island of Rhodes lies near the coast of Caria, etween the Gulfs of Syme and Macri. It is nearly venty miles from the main land, and is about one undred and twenty miles in circuit. The soil is ncommonly fruitful, which gave occasion to an anHent fable respecting golden showers which fell here. produced such abundance of all kinds of delicious uits, and wines of so exquisite a taste, that they were sed by the Romans chiefly in their sacrifices, and Fere thought, as Virgil informs us, to be too good for mortals. This island is blessed with so beautiful a limate, that, it is said, no day ever passes without unshine: on this account, the ancient poets pretended nat Phœbus was in love with Rhodes. This island was one of the earliest inhabited of all ne territories in this quarter; and the Greek poets ave displayed more than their usual ingenuity in nventing fables to account for the origin of the first ettlers. Pindar, in one of the most beautiful of his des, describes this island as raised from the waves y Apollo, like Delos. The earliest inhabitants were alled Telchines, which is supposed to have been one f the many names by which the Phoenicians were nown among foreign nations. After these are menoned the Heliade, the Danaides, and others, as nhabitants of Rhodes; but these were, perhaps, mythological personages. The island was called Ophiusa, Edrea, and Trinacria. Tlepolemus, the son of Hercules, is said to have ettled a colony in Rhodes about the time of the Troan war; and this chieftain is named in the Iliad as he commander of the Rhodian forces which assisted he Greeks in that contest. Homer, at the same time, makes mention of three ancient towns in Rhodes, namely, Lindus, Camyrus, and Ialysus, and division of the island into districts attached A second migration from Greece to Rhode the Argive Althæmenes, took place about S The three towns above mentioned, in c with the neighboring cities, Cos, Halicarna Cnidus, formed the Doric confederacy alr scribed. The Rhodians were early dist for their maritime enterprise. They made to distant countries, and founded colonies in places. Among these were Rhodes in Iberia Sicily, Parthenope in Italy, Corydalla and in Lycia, and Soli in Cilicia. Rhodes appears to have been at first gov kings; but, about 660 B. C., the monarchica government was abolished, and the admi intrusted to magistrates called prytanes. D Peloponnesian war, the Athenians and La nians, by turns, made themselves masters of and the government underwent various flu between oligarchy and democracy. In the B. C., Rhodes became independent; but this was of short duration. Mausolus, king of Ca in consequence of the assistance which he the Rhodians in their war with the Athenians, great power in the island. He now joined the in oppressing the citizens. After his death, hi Artemisia, seized the Rhodian fleet by a st and established her power in the island. E was, at length, interrupted by political disorde mixed government succeeded. Two prytai invested with the chief magistracy, each pre his turn for six months. The legislature cons senate and a popular assembly: in the latter, tl voted by show of hands. The poor were with corn and maintained at the expense of The superintendence of marine affairs and of lic concerns was managed on oligarchical p The good effects of a constitution so modifi shown by the cessation of internal convulsion Rhodes now became more flourishing and than ever. The old maritime powers of Gre ing fallen to decay, the supremacy of the into the hands of the Rhodians. Comme |