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EARLIEST CONDITION OF THE NATION, 23and Men elans, the most powerful of the Grecian princes,, bothlay in that peninsula, the first rank was clearly due to theAchaeans. But soon after this war, it was the lot of thattribe to be in part subjugated and reduced to the severestbondage, 1 and in part to be expelled from the lands whereit had resided, and confined to a small district, which fromthat time was called Achaia. This was a consequence ofthe immigration of the Dorians, under the directionof thedescendants of Hercules ;of which immigration the chiefobject was the conquest of the Peloponnesus; but it alsooccasioned a change in the places occupied by most of theother tribes of the Hellenes. From this time almost thewhole of the Peloponnesus was occupied by the Dorians, andthe kindred tribes of the JEtolians, who possessed Elis ;thedistrict of Achaia alone became the property of theAchseans, who, being in quest of refuge, drove from it thelonians. But besides this, a large part of the rest of Hellaswas occupied by tribes, which, though not expressly calledDorians, betrayed by their dialects their Doric origin;Boeotians, Locrians, Thessalians, and even the MacedonianHellenes belonged to this class; and although the inhabitantsof the western maritime tracts and isknds were at first called.ZEolians, their dialects were so similar, that they soon ceasedto be distinguished from the Dorians. This powerful tribewas also extended towards the east and west by means of itscolonies. Several of the islands of the Archipelago wereoccupied by them and; they flourished on the coast of AsiaMinor, and still more in Lower Italyand Sicily,and theircolonies bloomed even in Africa in Gyrene. The Ionicbranch, as far as we know, kept possession of no part of themain land of Greece, excepting Attica. 2 But Attica aloneoutweighed in glory and powerall the rest of Greece.Most of the largeisland of Euboea also belonged to thelonians ; many of the saiall islands of the Archipelago were1The Helots of the Spartans were, for the most part, descendants of theconquered Achseans. Thcopomp. Athen. vi, p. 265.* ap.The other lonians and even the Athenians laid aside the name ;and noneformally preserved it except those of Asia Minor. Herod. 1 143. Hencethe extent of this tribe cannot be accurately and indeed nogiven attempt;should be made to trace every little Grecian tribe to its origin, and form a treeof descent for them all. This the Greeks themselves were never able to do ;but the chief tribes remained distinct.