probably occupied several generations. It is in itself
improbable that the brave Achaeans quietly submitted to the
Dorian invaders after a momentary struggle. We have, moreover,
many indications that such was not the fact, and that it was only
gradually and after a long protracted contest that the Dorians
became undisputed masters of the greater part of Peloponnesus.

Argos was originally the chief Dorian state in Peloponnesus, but
at the time of the first Olympiad its power had been supplanted
by that of Sparta. The progress of Sparta from the second to the
first place among the states in the peninsula was mainly owing to
the military discipline and rigorous training of its citizens.
The singular constitution of Sparta was unanimously ascribed by
the ancients to the legislator Lycurgus, but there were different
stories respecting his date, birth, travels, legislation, and
death. His most probable date however is B.C. 776, in which year
he is said to have assisted Iphitus in restoring the Olympic
games. He was the son of Eunomus, one of the two kings who
reigned together in Sparta. On the death of his father, his
elder brother, Polydectes, succeeded to the crown, but died soon
afterwards, leaving his queen with child. The ambitious woman
offered to destroy the child, if Lycurgus would share the throne
with her. Lycurgus pretended to consent; but as soon as she had
given birth to a son, he presented him in the market-place as the
future king of Sparta. The young king's mother took revenge upon
Lycurgus by accusing him of entertaining designs against his
nephew's life. Hereupon he resolved to withdraw from his native
country and to visit foreign lands. He was absent many years,
and is said to have employed his time in studying the
institutions of other nations, in order to devise a system of