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ANCIENT GREECE. [niur. nr.place in the islands, which became almost entirely Phoenician. Even this doubt vanishes, when we regard Cadmusnot as a person, but as the symbol of the Phoenician coloniesin Greece ;although the early and distinct notices of Cadmus in Herodotus, render it difficult to give up the usualrepresentation. Nor should we forget the establishmentmade by Pelops of Lydia in the peninsula which bears hisname. 1 That also was occasioned by the events of war.Tantalus, the father of Pelops, having been driven from Lydia by Ilus, king of Troy, sought and found in Argos a placeof refuge for himself and his treasures.Yet very different answers have been given to the question,"What influence had the emigration of those foreign colonistson the culture of the Greeks"?And more have denied thanLave conceded, that such an influence was exerted. Wherecultivated nations make establishments in the vicinity ofthe civilizabarbarians, it would be wrong to infer directlytion of the latter, unless it be confirmed by distinct evidence.The aborigines of America have been for more than twocenturies the immediate neighbours of civilized Europeans,and yet how little have they adopted from them ! And ifdoubts were entertained in the case of the Greeks, it waschiefly because their whole national culture was so remarkably different from that of those Eastern nations,that theformer could hardly seem much indebted to the latter.Yet the testimony of the Greeks themselves proves suchan influence too clearly to be doubted. Cecrops is expresslymentioned, as having first established domestic union amongthe inhabitants of Attica, by the introduction of regularand asmarriages ; having built the citadel which afterwardsbore his name. The same is true of the citadel which Cadmus built in Thebes ;and if we interpret the account ofHerodotus respecting the introduction of the alphabet byhim, to mean only, that the Hellenes were indebted for it tothe Phoenicians, (which on the whole can hardly be doubted,)the case would not be changed. And if Pelops not onlyemigrated to Argos with his treasures, but gave his name tothe peninsula, the facts admit of no other interpretationthan that his emigration was productive of the most important consequences*1Strabo, p, 222.