s and Spartans, resulted in the complete ascendency
of Sparta in the southern part of the Peloponnesus, about the time that
Cyrus overthrew the Lydian empire. The Ionian Greeks of Asia Minor invoked
their aid against the Persian power, and Sparta proudly rallied in their
defense.

(M372) Meanwhile, a great political revolution was going on in the other
States of Greece, in no condition to resist the pre-eminence of Sparta,
The patriarchal monarchies of the heroic ages had gradually been subverted
by the rising importance of the nobility, enriched by conquered lands.
Every conquest, every step to national advancement, brought the nobles
nearer to the crown, and the government passed into the hands of those
nobles who had formerly composed the council of the king. With the growing
power of nobles was a corresponding growth of the political power of the
people or citizens, in consequence of increased wealth and intelligence.
The political changes were rapid. As the nobles had usurped the power of
the kings, so the citizens usurped the power of the nobles. The
everlasting war of classes, where the people are intelligent and free, was
signally illustrated in the Grecian States, and democracy succeeded to the
oligarchy which had prostrated kings. Then, when the people had gained the
ascendency, ambitious and factious demagogues in turn, got the control,
and these adventurers, now called Tyrants, assumed arbitrary powers. Their
power was only maintained by cruelty, injustice, and unscrupulous means,
which caused them finally to be so detested that they were removed by
assassination. These natural changes, from a monarchy, primitive and just
and limited, to an oligarchy of nobles, and the gradual subversion of
their power by wealthy and enlightened citizens, and then the rise of
demagogues, who became tyrants, have been illustrated in all ages of the
world. But the rapidity of these changes in the Grecian States, with the
progress of wealth and corruption, make their history impressive on all
generations. It is these rapid and natural revolutions which give to the
political history of Greece its permanent interest and value. The age of
the Tyrants is generally fixed from B.C. 650 to B.C. 500--about one hundred
and fifty years.

(M373) No State passed through these changes of government more signally
than Corinthia, which, with Megaris, formed the isthmus which connected
the Peloponnesus with Greece Proper. It was a small territ