Athens had her days of severity and cruelty, too, under Draco, who
established her first laws. But the people rebelled, and in 594
B.C. Solon, a man of great sagacity, prepared a constitution,
which was a model of wisdom, justice, and even of gentleness. The
government established by Solon was an aristocratic Republic, in which the
common people had no part. The Chief, or Archon, as he was called, was
chosen by the nobles, and served for a stated time, like our Presidents.

But the supreme authority lay in the "Court of Areopagus," whose members
had already served as Archons. The Areopagus really ruled the State, a
Senate of four hundred members preparing the cases which were to be
brought before it for decision.

Athens prospered under this rule. But an ambitious noble stirred the
people to believe they were unjustly excluded from office and from power,
and produced a new government, which, under the cloak of a democracy, was
really a despotism, with the scheming Pisistratus at its head, or, as it
was called, its "Tyrant" (meaning simply ruler).

But Lycurgus did something else besides placing an austere and merciless
system upon Sparta. He helped to re-establish the famous and ancient
Olympic Games (776 B.C.).

You know how we feel about our great baseball and football games; how
excited we are, and how glad or how sorry if one team or the other is
defeated. Well, suppose, instead of these, there was one great game every
four years, in which all the country could compete. And suppose the victor
in this great game was crowned and treated like a king forever afterward.
That would be what the Olympic Games were in Greece.