CHAPTER VI.
Return of the Heraclidae .-- The Spartan Constitution and Habits .-- The first and second Messenian War.
I.

We have already seen, that while the Dorians remained in Thessaly, the Achaeans possessed the greater part of the Peloponnesus.

But, under the title of the Return of the Heraclidae (or the descendants of Hercules), an important and lasting revolution established the Dorians in the kingdoms of Agamemnon and Menelaus.

The true nature of this revolution has only been rendered more obscure by modern ingenuity, which has abandoned the popular accounts for suppositions still more improbable and romantic.

The popular accounts run thus:--Persecuted by Eurystheus, king of Argos, the sons of Hercules, with their friends and followers, are compelled to take refuge in Attica.