CHAPTER III.

THEOGNIS IN EXILE. DRIVEN from his country through an unsuccessful ris- ing against the party in power, Theognis next appears as a refugee in Eubcea, where a faction of congenial political views has tempted him to take up his residence. But his sojourn must have been brief. The aristocracy of the island was no match for the commonalty, when the latter was backed by Corinthian sympathisers, whose policy was to upset hereditary oligarchies, and to lift an individual to supreme power on the shoulders of the people. Before this strong and sinister influence our poet probably had to bow in Euboaa, as he had already bowed in Megara. The principles to which he clung so tenaciously were doomed to ill luck, and he felt the disasters of his party little short of a personal disgrace. It was the old story of the rjood and bad, in the political and social sense already noticed ; and, as at Megara, the good got the worst of it : r " Alas for our disgrace ! Cerinthus lost,* The fair Lelantian plain ! A plundering host

• Cerinthus was a city of Euboea, and Lelantum a well- watered

plain, which was an old source of contention betwixt the Ere- trians and Chalcidians.