Tyrtacus.

TYRTEUS.

Bef. Ch. 684.

WAR ELEGIES.

ENGLISH TRANSLATOR: POLWHELE.

TYRTEUS, the son of Archimbrotus, was born at Miletus, the capital of Ionia; but was naturalized in Athens where he appears to have presided in a school of music and poetry, which the Greeks studied, not as mere liberal arts, but as honourable and important sciences. It is a common tradition, that the Spartans being worsted in the Messenian war, consulted the Delphic oracle, and were directed to request a general from the

Athenians; who, in ridicule, sent them the poet Tyrtæus. Why this should have been in ridicule is not very apparent. Eschylus, immortal by his tragic poetry, was no less famed as a warrior in the battle of Marathon and the sea fight of Salamis. Some account for the scornful intention, by supposing Tyrtæus deformed, and blind of an eye: a species of military disqualification, which would equally have affected Agesilaus and Hannibal. It is added, however, that Tyrtæus animated the Spartan soldiers by his martial poetry, to such a pitch of enthusiasm, that they, at once, overcame the Messenians. In all this, there is not a syllable of truth. The process of this poetic influence must be acknowledged to be somewhat slow, when it is considered, that, after the association of Tyrtæus in the command, the Spartans were baffled by the romantic valour of Aristomenes, for the space of eleven years: nor did they, at length, obtain possession of the fortress of Eira, into which the brave Messenians had withdrawn themselves, by any sudden burst of extraordinary heroism, but through the instrumentality of a Lacedæmonian

slave, and a Messenian adultress. The fact probably is, that Tyrtæus, like all other Athenians, had borne arms; and that both the studied slight, and the poetic inspiration are equally chimerical. This is not the only historical fable which meets with implicit acquiescence. It is surprising how the corrupted traditions of later historians have, in so many instances, superseded the accounts of the ancient annalists; who, living nearer to the times, must have been more accurately informed of the events which they record, than writers, who listen, as it were, to the echoes of tradition; and who, unwarily, adopt the sanguine exaggerations of national credulity, or the varnished prejudices of party. Thus it has become a received opinion, that the Athenians, at the battle of Marathon, ran forward at the charging step, and, at once, dispersed and destroyed the Persian army. Whereas the Persians, who are ignorantly represented by the moderns as an effeminate and indisciplined rabble, like the degenerate Turks, or the feeble Hindoos, actually defeated two divisions of the Athenian army, and drove them up the country: though,

being pressed and broken in one of the wings of their army, which took refuge in their ships, the Athenians became masters, of the field. It is equally matter of belief; of common-place allusion, and familiar illustration; and occupies a conspicuous paragraph in every abridgement of juvenile history, that Xerxes, having lost his whole army, his soldiery, his officers, and his staff; escaped singly himself across the Hellespont, in a fishing boat. Whereas, after deliberately ravaging the whole of Greece, and laying Athens in ashes, he retired, indeed, personally from the contest, on the defeat of his fleet by Themistocles; but he retired with his whole body guard: and he left his general Mardonius at the head of the main army, consisting of 300,000 men, to prosecute the campaign; and he did prosecute it, till he was defeated by the confederate Spartan and Athenian forces under Pausanias, at the battle of Platæa: when he also retreated, and passed into Asia with his army. It was therefore by a long, patient, and persevering warfare, and by a series of well-concerted and resolute actions, by sea and land; and not by a

sudden, miraculous effort, that the Greeks resisted, and repelled the Persians: who were a people trained and exercised in war, and were respected,

as such, by the Greeks themselves.

The compositions remaining of Tyrtæus breathe a high spirit of military honour. The style is nervous, and close; yet easy, and perspicuous.