Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/125

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SITES OF TOWNS. 109 Probably, in such primitive hill villages, a continuous circle of wall -would hardly be required as an additional means of defence, and would often be rendered very difficult by the rugged nature of the ground. But Thucydides represents the earliest Greeks those whom he conceives anterior to the Trojan war as liv- ing thus universally in unfortified villages, chietiy on account of their poverty, rudeness, and thorough carelessness for the mor- row. Oppressed, and held apart from each other by perpetual fear, they had not yet contracted the sentiment of fixed abodes : they were unwilling even to plant fruit-trees because of the un- certainty of gathering the produce, and were always ready to dislodge, because there was nothing to gain by staying, and a bare subsistence might be had any where. He compares them to the mountaineers of JEtolia and of the Ozolian Lokris in his own time, who dwelt in their unfortified hill villages with little or no intercommunication, always armed and fighting, and subsisting on the produce of their cattle and their woods, 1 clothed in un- dressed hides, and eating raw meat. The picture given by Thucydides, of these very early and un- town of Orchomenus (in Arcadia) (Pans. viii. 13, 2), of Nonakris (viii. 17, 5,) of Lusi (viii. 18, 3), Lykoreia on Parnassus (Pans. x. 6, 2; Strabo, ix. I. 418). Compare also Plato, Legg. iii. 2, pp. 678-679, who traces these lofty and craggy dwellings, general among the earliest Grecian townships, to the com- mencement of human society after an extensive deluge, which had covered all the lower grounds and left only a few survivors. 1 Tnucyd. i. 2. Qaiverai -yap TJ vvv 'E/l/laf Kahovficvt}, ov ndl.ai pepaiuf oiKov/Mfvri, uM.d fteravaaruaetf re ovaai ru. irpoTepa, KOI padiug eKaaroi TJ/V tavrijv uiroAeiiTOVTef , ^ta^ofievoi i'Trb TIVUV uel nvWfOVW TTJ$ "yup OVK ovaris, ov6' em/J.iyvvvTef adetic d/./try/lotf, ovre Kara yfjv vepoftevoi <5e ra avrtiv etfaaroi oaov uKo^yv, ical ireptovaiav xprj/taTuv OVK IXOVTES ovde yijv 0vret;ovrcf, udi]3.ov ov OTTOTE ri( iTre'h&uv, Kal uTsi%iaTuv ufia OVTUV, aAAof (Hpaipriaerat, T^f re /cai?' rjfj.epav uvayKdiov Tpo^f Travra- %ov uv f/yovfiEvoi eTUKparetv, ov xaheirtif inraviaTavro, not 6C avro oiirt Hfyi&ei TTohfuv ia%vov, OVTE ry u/.hj napaaKevy. About the distant and unfortified villages and rude habits of the ^Etolians and Lokrians, see Thucyd. iii. 94; Paus;m. x. 38,3: also of the Cisalpine Gauls, Polyb. ii. 1 7. Both Thucydides and Aristotle seem to have conceived the Homeric period as mainly analogous to the f3up[3apoi of their own day A.vei i' 'A^orore- A?7f heyuvj UTI rotavra uel notel *O/zj?pof ola fyv Tore' ijv 6e Toiavra ra '.ca?.o<u olunep nai vvv h Totf 3ao3upotf (Scl ol. Iliad, x. 151 i.