Chapter 5

THE LANDS OF THE WEST AND THE RISE OF GREECE TO ABOUT 500 B.C. [1]

20. PHYSICAL EUROPE

EUROPE A PENINSULA OF ASIA

The continent of Asia, projecting its huge bulk southwestward between the seas, gradually narrows into the smaller continent of Europe. The boundary between the two regions is not well defined. Ancient geographers found a convenient dividing line north of the Black Sea in the course of the river Don. Modern map makers usually place the division at the Ural Mountains, the Caspian Sea, and the Caucasus. Each of these boundaries is more or less arbitrary. In a geographical sense Europe is only the largest of the great Asiatic peninsulas.

PHYSICAL FEATURES OF EUROPE

But in physical features the two continents disclose the most striking contrasts. The sea, which washes only the remote edges of Asia, penetrates deeply into Europe and forms an extremely irregular coast line with numerous bays and harbors. The mountains of Europe, seldom very high and provided with easy passes, present no such barriers to intercourse as the mightier ranges of Asia. We miss in Europe the extensive deserts and barren table-lands which form such a feature of Asiatic geography. With the exception of Russia the surface, generally, is distributed into plains, hills, and valleys of moderate size. Instead of a few large rivers, such as are found in Asia, Europe is well supplied with numerous streams that make it possible to travel readily from one district to another.

CENTRAL AND NORTHERN EUROPE

The almost unbroken mountain chain formed by the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Balkans, sharply separates the central land mass of Europe from the regions to the south. Central Europe consists, in general, of lowlands, which widen eastward into the vast Russian plain. Northern Europe includes the British Isles, physically an extension of Europe, and the peninsulas of Scandinavia and Finland, between the Baltic Sea and the Arctic Ocean. Twenty centuries ago central and northern Europe was a land of forests and marshes, of desolate steppes and icebound hills. The peoples who inhabited it--Celts in the west, Teutons or Germans in the north, Slavs in the east --were men of Indo-European [2] race and speech. They were still barbarians. During ancient times we hear little of them, except as their occasional migrations southward brought them into contact with the Greeks and the Romans.

SOUTHERN EUROPE

Southern Europe comprises the three peninsulas of Spain, Italy, and the Balkans, which reach far south into the Mediterranean. This great inland sea is divided into two parts near the center, where Africa and the island of Sicily almost touch each other across a narrow strait. The eastern part contains several minor seas, of which the one called the Aegean had most importance in Greek history.

21. GREECE AND THE AEGEAN

THE AEGEAN SEA

The Aegean is an almost landlocked body of water. The Balkan peninsula, narrowing toward the Mediterranean into the smaller peninsula of Greece, confines it on the west. On the east it meets a boundary in Asia Minor. The southern boundary is formed by a chain of islands, while the only opening northward is found in the narrow passage leading to the Black Sea. The coasts and islands of the Aegean thus make up a little world set off by itself.

CONTINENTAL GREECE

Continental Greece is a tiny country. Its greatest length is scarcely more than two hundred and fifty miles; its greatest breadth is only one hundred and eighty miles. Mountain ridges, offshoots of the Balkans, compose the greater part of its area. Into the valleys and deep gorges of the interior the impetuous sea has everywhere forced a channel. The coast line, accordingly, is most irregular--a constant succession of sharp promontories and curving bays. The mountains, crossing the peninsula in confused masses, break it up into numberless valleys and glens which seldom widen into plains. The rivers are not navigable. The few lakes, hemmed in by the hills, have no outlets except in underground channels. In this land of the Greeks no place is more than fifty miles from a mountain range, or more than forty miles from some long arm of the Mediterranean.

THE AEGEAN ISLANDS

From the Greek mainland to the coast of Asia Minor the traveler follows a route thickly studded with rocky islands. They are near enough together to permit the passage from one to another without losing sight of land. The Aegean islands thus served as "stepping-stones" between Greece and Asia Minor. [3]

WESTERN ASIA MINOR

Western Asia Minor resembles Continental Greece in its deeply indented coast, variety of scenery, and mild climate. The fertile river valleys of this region early attracted Greek colonists. They built here many flourishing cities, especially along the central coast, which came to be known as Ionia.

INFLUENCE OF GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS

Greek history well illustrates the influence of geographical conditions on the life of a people. In the first place, mountain ranges cut up Continental Greece into many small states, separated from one another by natural ramparts. Hence the Greeks loved most of all their own local independence and always refused to unite into one nation under a single government. In the second place, the near presence of the sea made sailors of the Greeks and led them to devote much energy to foreign commerce. They early felt, in consequence, the stimulating effects of intercourse with other peoples. Finally, the location of Greece at the threshold of Asia, with its best harbors and most numerous islands on the eastern coast, enabled the country to receive and profit by all the culture of the Orient. Greece faced the civilized East.

22. THE AEGEAN AGE (TO ABOUT 1100 B.C.)

A PREHISTORIC CIVILIZATION

The Greeks of historic times knew very little about their prehistoric period. Instead of accurate knowledge they had only the beautiful legends preserved in ancient poems, such as the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_. Within our own day, however, remarkable excavations have disclosed the remains of a widespread and flourishing civilization in times so distant that the historic Greeks had lost all sight of it. As in the Orient, [4] the labors of modern scholars are yearly adding to our knowledge of ancient life.

SCHLIEMANN'S EXCAVATIONS AT TROY

The man who did most to reveal the prehistoric civilization of Greece was a wealthy German merchant named Heinrich Schliemann. An enthusiastic lover of Homer, he believed that the stories of the Trojan War related in the _Iliad_ were not idle fancies, but real facts. In 1870 A.D. he started to test his beliefs by excavations at a hill called Hissarlik, on the northwestern coast of Asia Minor. Here tradition had always fixed the site of ancient Troy. Schliemann's discoveries and those of later explorers proved that at Hissarlik at least nine successive cities had come into existence, flourished, and passed away. Excavations completed in 1892 A.D. have shown that the sixth city in order from the bottom was the one described in the Homeric poems. It had powerful walls defended by towers, well-fortified gates, and palaces of stone. The marks of fire throughout the ruins indicate that the city must have been destroyed by a disastrous conflagration.

SCHLIEMANN'S EXCAVATIONS AT MYCENAE AND TIRYNS

The remarkable disclosures at Troy encouraged Schliemann to excavate other Homeric sites. At Mycenae, a prehistoric city of Argolis in Greece, he laid bare six rock-hewn graves, containing the skeletons of nineteen persons, men, women, and children. The faces of the dead had been covered with thin masks of gold, and their bodies had been decked with gold diadems, bracelets, and pendants. The other funeral offerings include gold rings, silver vases, and a variety of bronze weapons. At Tiryns, once the capital of Argolis, he uncovered the ruins of an extensive structure with gateways, open courts, and closed apartments. Characteristic of this edifice were the separate quarters occupied by men and women, the series of storerooms for provisions, and such a modern convenience as a bathroom with pipes and drains. In short, the palace at Tiryns gives us a clear and detailed picture of the home of a Homeric prince.

EVANS'S EXCAVATIONS AT GNOSSUS

But the fame of even Schliemann's discoveries has been somewhat dimmed by the excavations made since 1900 A.D. on the site of Gnossus, the ancient capital of the island of Crete. At Gnossus an Englishman, Sir Arthur Evans, has found the remains of an enormous palace, with numerous courts, passages, and rooms. Here is the royal council chamber with the throne on which the king once sat. Here are the royal magazines, still filled with huge earthenware jars for the storage of provisions. A great number of brilliant pictures--hunting scenes, landscapes, portraits of men and women--cover the palace walls. Buried in some of the chambers were thousands of clay tablets with inscriptions which, if ever read, will add new chapters to ancient history. [5]

ANTIQUITY OF AEGEAN CIVILIZATION

These discoveries in the Aegean enable us to place another venerable center of civilized life by the side of Babylonia and Egypt. As early as 3000 B.C. the primitive inhabitants of the Aegean were giving up the use of stone tools and weapons for those of metal. Bronze soon came into general use, as is shown by the excavations. The five centuries between 1600 and 1100 B.C. appear to have been the time when the civilization of the Aegean Age reached its highest development.

THE FINE ARTS

Remarkable progress took place during Aegean times in some of the fine arts. We find imposing palaces, often splendidly adorned and arranged for a life of comfort. Wall paintings, plaster reliefs, and fine carvings in stone excite our admiration. Aegean artists made beautiful pottery of many shapes and cleverly decorated it with plant and animal forms. They carved ivory, engraved gems, and excelled in the working of metals. Some of their productions in gold, silver, and bronze were scarcely surpassed by Greek artists a thousand years later. [6]

COMMERCE

There was much intercourse throughout the Mediterranean during this period. Products of Aegean art have been found as far west as Sicily, Italy, and Spain, Aegean pottery has frequently been discovered in Egyptian tombs. Some objects unearthed in Babylonia are apparently of Aegean workmanship. In those ancient days Crete was mistress of the seas. Cretan merchants preceded the Phoenicians as carriers between Asia and Europe. [7] Trade and commerce thus opened up the Mediterranean world to all the cultural influences of the Orient.

DOWNFALL OF AEGEAN CIVILIZATION

Aegean civilization did not penetrate beyond the shores of Asia Minor, the islands, and the coasts of Continental Greece. The interior regions of the Greek peninsula remained the home of barbarous tribes, which had not yet learned to build cities, to create beautiful objects of art, or to traffic on the seas. By 1100 B.C. their destructive inroads brought the Aegean Age to an end.

23. THE HOMERIC AGE (ABOUT 1100-750 B.C.)

COMING OF THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS

The barbarians who overthrew Aegean civilization seem to have entered Greece from the north, perhaps from the region the Danube River. They pushed gradually southward, sometimes exterminating or enslaving the earlier inhabitants of the country, but more often settling peaceably in their new homes. Conquerors and conquered slowly intermingled and so produced the one Greek people which is found at the dawn of history. These Greeks, as we shall call them henceforth, also occupied the islands of the Aegean Sea and the coast of Asia Minor. The entire basin of the Aegean thus became a Greek world.

THE HOMERIC EPICS

The period between the end of the Aegean Age and the opening of historic times in Greece is usually called the Homeric Age, because many features of its civilization are reflected in two epic poems called the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_. The former deals with the story of a Greek expedition against Troy; the latter describes the wanderings of the hero Odysseus on his return from Troy. The two epics were probably composed in Ionia, and by the Greeks were attributed to a blind bard named Homer. Many modern scholars, however, consider them the work of several generations of poets. The references in the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_ to industry, social life, law, government, and religion give us some idea of the culture which the historic Greeks received as their inheritance.

INDUSTRY

The Greeks as described in the Homeric epics were in a transitional stage between the life of shepherds and that of farmers. Wealth consisted chiefly of flocks and herds, though nearly every freeman owned a little plot of land on which he cultivated grain and cared for his orchard and vineyard. There were few skilled workmen, for almost everything was made at home. A separate class of traders had not yet arisen. Commerce was little followed. The Greeks depended on Phoenician sailors to bring to their shores the commodities which they could not produce themselves. Iron was known and used, for instance, in the manufacture of farm tools. During Homeric times, however, that metal had not yet displaced copper and bronze. [8]

SOCIAL LIFE

Social life was very simple. Princes tended flocks and built houses; princesses carried water and washed clothes. Agamemnon, Odysseus, and other heroes were not ashamed to be their own butchers and cooks. The Homeric knights did not ride on horseback, but fought from chariots. They sat at table instead of reclining at meals, as did the later Greeks. Coined money was unknown. Trade was by barter, values being reckoned in oxen or in lumps of gold and silver. Men bought their wives by making gifts of cattle to the parents. The art of writing is mentioned only once in the Homeric poems, and doubtless was little used.

LAW AND MORALITY

The times were rude. Wars, though petty, were numerous and cruel. The vanquished suffered death or slavery. Piracy, flourishing upon the unprotected seas, ranked as an honorable occupation. It was no insult to inquire of a seafaring stranger whether he was pirate or merchant. Murders were frequent. The murderer had to dread, not a public trial and punishment, but rather the personal vengeance of the kinsmen of his victim. The Homeric Greeks, in fact, exhibited the usual defects and vices of barbarous peoples.

HOMERIC GEOGRAPHY

The _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ disclose a considerable acquaintance with peninsular Greece and the coasts of Asia Minor. Cyprus, Egypt, and Sicily are also known in part. The poet imagines the earth as a sort of flat shield, with Greece lying in the center. [9] The Mediterranean, "The Sea," as it is called by Homer, and its continuation, the Euxine, [10] divided the world into two equal parts. Surrounding the earth was "the great strength of the Stream of Ocean," [11] a river, broad and deep, beyond which lay the dark and misty realm of the mythical Cimmerians. The underworld of Hades, home of the dead, was beneath the surface of the earth.

24. EARLY GREEK RELIGION

THE OLYMPIAN COUNCIL

We may learn from the Homeric poems what were the religious ideas held by the early Greeks. The greater gods and goddesses were not numerous. Less than a score everywhere received worship under the same names and in all the temples. Twelve of the chief deities formed a select council, which was supposed to meet on the top of snow-crowned Olympus. The Greeks, however, did not agree as to what gods and goddesses should be included in this august assemblage.

ATTRIBUTES OF THE DEITIES

Many of the Olympian deities appear to have been simply personifications of natural phenomena. Zeus, "father of gods and men," as Homer calls him, was a heaven god, who gathered the clouds in storms and hurled the lightning bolt. Apollo, a mighty god of light, who warded off darkness and evil, became the ideal of manly beauty and the patron of music, poetry, and healing. Dionysus was worshiped as the god of sprouting and budding vegetation. Poseidon, brother of Zeus, ruled the sea. Hera, the wife of Zeus, represented the female principle in nature. Hence she presided over the life of women and especially over the sacred rites of marriage. Athena, who sprang full-grown from the forehead of Zeus, embodied the idea of wisdom and all womanly virtues. Aphrodite, who arose from the foam of the sea, was the goddess of love and beauty. Demeter, the great earth- mother, watched over seed-time and harvest. Each deity thus had a kingdom and a function of its own.

CONCEPTIONS OF THE DEITIES

The Greeks made their gods and goddesses after themselves. The Olympian divinities are really magnified men and women, subject to all human passions and appetites, but possessed of more than human power and endowed with immortality. They enjoy the banquet, where they feast on nectar and ambrosia; they take part in the struggles of the battle field; they marry and are given in marriage. The gods, morally, were no better than their worshipers. They might be represented as deceitful, dissolute, and cruel, but they could also be regarded as upholders of truth and virtue. Even Homer could say, "Verily the blessed gods love not evil deeds, but they reverence justice and the righteous acts of men." [12]

IDEAS OF THE OTHER WORLD

Greek ideas of the other world were dismal to an extreme. The after-life in Hades was believed to be a shadowy, joyless copy of the earthly existence. In Hades the shade of great Achilles exclaims sorrowfully, "Nay, speak not comfortably to me of death. Rather would I live on earth as the hireling of another, even with a landless man who had no great livelihood, than bear sway among all the dead." [13] It was not until several centuries after Homer that happier notions of the future life were taught, or at least suggested, in the Eleusinian mysteries. [14]

25. RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS: ORACLES AND GAMES

ORACLE OF APOLLO AT DELPHI

The Greeks believed that communications from the gods were received from certain inspired persons at places called oracles. The oracle of Apollo at Delphi in Phocis enjoyed the utmost veneration. It lay within a deep cave on the rocky side of Mount Parnassus. Out of a chasm rose a volcanic vapor which had a certain intoxicating power. The Pythia, or prophetess of Apollo, sat on a tripod over the steaming cleft and inhaled the gas. The words she uttered in delirium were supposed to come from the god. They were taken down by the attendant priests, written out in verse, and delivered to the suppliants.

INQUIRIES AT THE ORACLE

The fame of Apollo as the patron of inspiration and prophecy spread throughout Greece and penetrated to foreign lands. Every year thousands of visitors made their way to Apollo's shrine. Sick men prayed for health, childless men prayed for offspring. Statesmen wished to learn the fate of their political schemes; ambassadors sent by kings and cities sought advice as to weighty matters of peace and war. Above all, colonists came to Delphi in order to obtain directions as to the best country in which to settle. Some of the noblest cities of the Greek world, Cyrene and Byzantium, for example, [15] had their sites fixed by Apollo's guidance.

CHARACTER OF THE RESPONSES

The priests who managed the oracle and its responses were usually able to give good advice to their inquirers, because news of every sort streamed into Delphi. When the priests were doubtful what answer to give, the prophecy of the god was sometimes expressed in such ambiguous fashion that, whatever the outcome, neither Apollo nor his servants could be charged with deceit. For instance, when Croesus, the Lydian king, was about to attack Cyrus, he learned from the oracle that "if he warred with the Persians he would overthrow a mighty empire" [16]--but the mighty empire proved to be his own. [17]

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

Athletic games were held in different parts of Greece from a remote period. The most famous games were those in honor of Zeus at Olympia in Elis. They took place every fourth year, in midsummer. [18] A sacred truce was proclaimed for an entire month, in order that the thousands of spectators from every part of Greece might arrive and depart in safety. No one not of Greek blood and no one convicted of crime or of the sin of impiety might participate in the contests. The candidates had also to prove that they were qualified for the severe tests by a long and hard training. Once accepted as competitors, they could not withdraw. The man who shrank back when the hour of trial arrived was considered a coward and was punished with a heavy fine.

THE CONTESTS

The games occupied five days, beginning with the contests in running. There was a short-distance dash through the length of the stadium, a quarter-mile race, and also a longer race, probably for two or three miles. Then followed a contest consisting of five events: the long jump, hurling the discus, throwing the javelin, running, and wrestling. It is not known how victory in these five events taken together was decided. In the long jump, weights like dumb-bells were held in the hands, the swing of the weights being used to assist the spring. The discus, which weighed about twelve pounds, was sometimes hurled more than one hundred feet. The javelin was thrown either by the hand alone or with the help of a thong wound about the shaft and held in the fingers. In wrestling, three falls were necessary for a victory. The contestants were free to get their grip as best they could. Other contests included boxing, horse races, and chariot races. Women were apparently excluded from the games, yet they were allowed to enter horses for the races and to set up statues in honor of the victors.

THE VICTOR'S REWARD

The Olympian festival was profoundly religious, because the display of manly strength was thought to be a spectacle most pleasing to the gods. The winning athlete received only a wreath of wild olive at Olympia, but at home he enjoyed the gifts and veneration of his fellow-citizens. Poets celebrated his victories in noble odes. Sculptors reproduced his triumphs in stone and bronze. To the end of his days he remained a distinguished man.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GAMES

There were few Greeks who at least once in their lives did not attend the festival. The crowds that gathered before and after the games turned the camp into a great fair, at which merchants set up their shops and money changers their tables. Poets recited their lines before admiring audiences and artists exhibited their masterpieces to intending purchasers. Heralds read treaties recently formed between Greek cities, in order to have them widely known. Orators addressed the multitude on subjects of general interest. The games thus helped to preserve a sense of fellowship among Greek communities.

26. THE GREEK CITY-STATE

NATURE OF THE CITY STATE

The Greeks in Homeric times had already begun to live in towns and cities. A Greek city, being independent and self-governing, is properly called a city-state. Just as a modern nation, it could declare war, arrange treaties, and make alliances with its neighbors. Such a city-state included not only the territory within its walls, but also the surrounding district where many of the citizens lived.

THE CITIZENS

The members of a Greek city-state were very closely associated. The citizens believed themselves to be descended from a common ancestor and so to be all related. They were united, also, in the worship of the patron god or hero who had them under his protection. These ties of supposed kinship and common religion were of the utmost importance. They made citizenship a privilege which came to a person only by birth, a privilege which he lost by removal to another city. Elsewhere he was only a foreigner without legal rights--a man without a country.

GOVERNMENT OF THE CITY-STATE

The Homeric poems, which give us our first view of the Greek city-state, also contain the most ancient account of its government. Each city-state had a king, "the shepherd of the people" [19] as Homer calls him. The king did not possess absolute authority. He was surrounded by a council of nobles, chiefly the great landowners of the community. They helped him in judgment and sacrifice, followed him to war, and filled the principal offices. Both king and nobles were obliged to consult the common people on matters of great importance. For this purpose the ruler would summon the citizens to the market place to hear the deliberations of his council and to settle such questions as making war or declaring peace. All men of free birth could attend the assembly, where they shouted assent to the decision of their leaders or showed disapproval by silence. This public assembly had little importance in the Homeric Age, but later it became the center of Greek democracy.

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CITY-STATE

After the middle of the eighth century B.C., when historic times began in Greece, some interesting changes took place in the government of the city- states. In some of them, for example, Thebes and Corinth, the nobles became strong enough to abolish the kingship altogether. Monarchy, the rule of one, thus gave away to aristocracy, [20] the rule of the nobles. In other states, for instance, Sparta and Argos, the kings were not driven out, but their power was much weakened. Some states came under the control of usurpers whom the Greeks called "tyrants." A tyrant was a man who gained supreme power by force and governed for his own benefit without regard to the laws. There were many tyrannies in the Greek world during the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. Still other states went through an entire cycle of changes from kingship to aristocracy, from aristocracy to tyranny, and from tyranny to democracy or popular rule.

SPARTA AND ATHENS AS TYPES OF THE CITY-STATE

The isolated and independent Greek communities thus developed at an early period many different kinds of government. To study them all would be a long task. It is better to fix our attention on the two city-states which held the principal place in Greek history and at the same time presented the most striking contrasts in government and social life. These were Sparta and Athens.

27. THE GROWTH OF SPARTA (TO 500 B.C.)

SPARTA AND THE PELOPONNESIAN LEAGUE

The Greek invaders who entered southern Greece, or the Peloponnesus, [21] were known as Dorians. They founded the city of Sparta, in the district of Laconia. By the close of the sixth century B.C. the Spartans were able to conquer their immediate neighbors and to organize some of the city-states of the Peloponnesus into a strong confederacy called the Peloponnesian League. The members of the league did not pay tribute, but they furnished troops to serve in war under Spartan leaders, and they looked to Sparta for guidance and protection. Thus this single city became the foremost power in southern Greece.

SPARTA A MILITARY CAMP

It is clear that the Spartans must have been an extremely vigorous and warlike people. Their city, in fact, formed a military camp, garrisoned by soldiers whose whole life was passed in war and in preparation for war. The Spartans were able to devote themselves to martial pursuits because they possessed a large number of serfs, called helots. The helots tilled the lands of the Spartans and gave up to their masters the entire product of their labor, except what was necessary for a bare subsistence.

GOVERNMENT OF SPARTA

Spartan government also had a military character. In form the state was a kingdom, but since there were always two kings reigning at once and enjoying equal authority, neither of them could become very powerful. The real management of public affairs lay in the hands of five men, known as ephors, who were elected every year by the popular assembly. The ephors accompanied the kings in war and directed their actions; guided the deliberations of the council of nobles and the assembly of freemen; superintended the education of children; and exercised a general oversight of the private life of citizens. The ephors had such absolute control over the lives and property of the Spartans that we may describe their rule as socialistic and select Sparta as an example of ancient state socialism. Nowhere else in the Greek world was the welfare of the individual man so thoroughly subordinated to the interests of the society of which he formed a unit.

THE SPARTAN BOY

Spartan education had a single purpose--to produce good soldiers and obedient citizens. A sound body formed the first essential. A father was required to submit his son, soon after birth, to an inspection by the elders of his tribe. If they found the child puny or ill-shaped, they ordered it to be left on the mountain side, to perish from exposure. At the age of seven a boy was taken from his parents' home and placed in a military school. Here he was trained in marching, sham fighting, and gymnastics. He learned to sing warlike songs and in conversation to express himself in the fewest possible words. Spartan brevity of speech became proverbial. Above all he learned to endure hardship without complaint. He went barefoot and wore only a single garment, winter and summer. He slept on a bed of rushes. Every year he and his comrades had to submit to a flogging before the altar of the goddess Artemis, and the hero was the lad who could bear the whipping longest without giving a sign of pain. It is said that boys sometimes died under the lash rather than utter a cry. Such ordeals are still a feature of savage life to-day.

THE ADULT SPARTAN

On reaching the age of twenty the youth was considered a warrior. He did not live at home, but passed his time in barracks, as a member of a military mess to which he contributed his proper share of food, wine, and money. At the age of thirty years the young Spartan became a full citizen and a member of the popular assembly. He was then compelled to marry in order to raise children for the state. But marriage did not free him from attendance at the public meals, the drill ground, and the gymnasium. A Spartan, in fact, enjoyed little home life until his sixtieth year, when he became an elder and retired from actual service.

EXCELLENCE OF THE SPARTAN SOLDIERY

This exclusive devotion to military pursuits accomplished its object. The Spartans became the finest soldiers of antiquity. "All the rest of the Greeks," says an ancient writer, "are amateurs; the Spartans are professionals in the conduct of war." [22] Though Sparta never produced great thinkers, poets or artists, her military strength made her the bulwark of Greece against foreign foes. The time was to come when Greece, to retain her liberties, would need this disciplined Spartan soldiery. [23]

28. THE GROWTH OF ATHENS (to 500 B.C.)

ATHENS AS A CITY-STATE

The district of Attica, though smaller than our smallest American commonwealth, was early filled with a number of independent city-states. It was a great step in advance when, long before the dawn of Greek history, these tiny communities were united with Athens. The inhabitants of the Attic towns and villages gave up their separate governments and became members of the one city-state of Athens. Henceforth a man was a Athenian citizen, no matter in what part of Attica he lived.

OPPRESSIVE RULE OF THE NOBLES

At an earlier period, perhaps, than elsewhere in Greece, monarchy at Athens disappeared before the rising power of the nobles. The rule of the nobility bore harshly on the common people. Popular discontent was especially excited at the administration of justice. There were at first no written laws, but only the long-established customs of the community. Since all the judges were nobles, they were tempted to decide legal cases in favor of their own class. The people, at length, began to clamor for a written code. They could then know just what the laws were.

DRACO'S CODE, 621 B.C.

After much agitation an Athenian named Draco was employed to write out a code for the state. The laws, as published, were very severe. The penalty for most offenses, even the smallest theft, was death. The Athenians used to declare that the Draconian code had been written, "not in ink, but in blood." Its publication, however, was a popular triumph and the first step toward the establishment of Athenian democracy.

LEGISLATION OF SOLON, 594-593 B.C.

The second step was the legislation of Solon. This celebrated Athenian was accounted among the wisest men of his age. The people held him in high honor and gave him power to make much-needed reforms. At this time the condition of the Attic peasants was deplorable. Many of them had failed to pay their rent to the wealthy landowners, and according to the old custom were being sold into slavery. Solon abolished the custom and restored to freedom all those who had been enslaved for debt. He also limited the amount of land which a noble might hold. By still another law he admitted even the poorest citizens to the popular assembly, where they could vote for magistrates and judge of their conduct after their year of office was over. By giving the common people a greater share in the government, Solon helped forward the democratic movement at Athens.

TYRANNY OF PISISTRATUS, 560-527 B.C.

Solon's reforms satisfied neither the nobility nor the commons. The two classes continued their rivalry until the disorder of the times enabled an ambitious politician to gain supreme power as a tyrant. [24] He was Solon's own nephew, a noble named Pisistratus. The tyrant ruled with moderation and did much to develop the Athenian city-state. He fostered agriculture by dividing the lands of banished nobles among the peasants. His alliances with neighboring cities encouraged the rising commerce of Athens. The city itself was adorned with handsome buildings by architects and sculptors whom Pisistratus invited to his court from all parts of Greece.

REFORMS OF CLISTHENES, 508-507 B.C.

Pisistratus was succeeded by his two sons, but the Athenians did not take kindly to their rule. Before long the tyranny came to an end. The Athenians now found a leader in a noble named Clisthenes, who proved to be an able statesman. He carried still further the democratic movement begun by Draco and Solon. One of his reforms extended Athenian citizenship to many foreigners and emancipated slaves ("freedmen") then living in Attica. This liberal measure swelled the number of citizens and helped to make the Athenians a more progressive people. Clisthenes, it is said, also established the curious arrangement known as ostracism. Every year, if necessary, the citizens were to meet in assembly and to vote against any persons whom they thought dangerous to the state. If as many as six thousand votes were cast, the man who received the highest number of votes had to go into honorable exile for ten years. [25] Though ostracism was intended as a precaution against tyrants, before long it came to be used to remove unpopular politicians.

ATHENS A DEMOCRATIC STATE

There were still some steps to be taken before the rule of the people was completely secured at Athens. But, in the main, the Athenians by 500 B.C. had established a truly democratic government, the first in the history of the world. The hour was now rapidly approaching when this young and vigorous democracy was to show forth its worth before the eyes of all Greece.

29. COLONIAL EXPANSION OF GREECE (ABOUT 750-500 B.C.)

THE GREAT AGE OF COLONIZATION

While Athens, Sparta, and their sister states were working out the problems of government, another significant movement was going on in the Greek world. The Greeks, about the middle of the eighth century B.C., began to plant numerous colonies along the shores of the Mediterranean and of the Black Sea. The great age of colonization covered more than two hundred years. [26]

REASONS FOR FOUNDING COLONIES

Several reasons led to the founding of colonies. Trade was an important motive. The Greeks, like the Phoenicians, [27] could realize large profits by exchanging their manufactured goods for the food and raw materials of other countries. Land hunger was another motive. The poor soil of Greece could not support many inhabitants and, when population increased, emigration afforded the only means of relieving the pressure of numbers. A third motive was political and social unrest. Greek cities at this period contained many men of adventurous disposition who were ready to seek in foreign countries a refuge from the oppression of nobles or tyrants. They hoped to find in their new settlements more freedom than they had at home.

CHARACTER OF THE GREEK COLONY

A Greek colony was not simply a trading post; it was a center of Greek life. The colonists continued to be Greeks in customs, language, and religion. Though quite independent of the parent state, they always regarded it with reverence and affection: they called themselves "men away from home." Mother city and daughter colony traded with each other and in time of danger helped each other. A symbol of this unity was the sacred fire carried from the public hearth of the old community to the new settlement.

COLONIZATION IN THE NORTH AND EAST

The Greeks planted many colonies on the coast of the northern Aegean and on both sides of the long passage between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Their most important colony was Byzantium, upon the site where Constantinople now stands. They also made settlements along the shores of the Black Sea. The cities founded here were centers from which the Greeks drew their supplies of fish, wood, wool, grain, metals, and slaves. The immense profits to be gained by trade made the Greeks willing to live in a cold country so unlike their own and among barbarous peoples.

COLONIZATION IN THE WEST

The western lands furnished far more attractive sites for colonization. The Greeks could feel at home in southern Italy, where the genial climate, pure air, and sparkling sea recalled their native land. At a very early date they founded Cumae, on the coast just north of the bay of Naples. Emigrants from Cumae, in turn, founded the city of Neapolis (Naples), which in Roman times formed a home of Greek culture and even to-day possesses a large Greek population. To secure the approaches from Greece to these remote colonies, two strongholds were established on the strait of Messina: Regium (modern Reggio) on the Italian shore and Messana (modern Messina) on that of Sicily. Another important colony in southern Italy was Tarentum (modern Taranto).

THE SICILIAN COLONIES

Greek settlements in Sicily were mainly along the coast. Expansion over the entire island was checked by the Carthaginians, who had numerous possessions at its western extremity. The most celebrated colony in Sicily was Syracuse, established by emigrants from Corinth. It became the largest of Greek cities.

OTHER MEDITERRANEAN COLONIES

In Corsica, Sardinia, and on the coast of Spain Carthage also proved too obstinate a rival for the Greeks to gain much of a foothold. The city of Massilia (Marseilles), at the mouth of the Rhone, was their chief settlement in ancient Gaul. Two colonies on the southern shore of the Mediterranean were Cyrene, west of Egypt, and Naucratis, in the Delta of the Nile. From this time many Greek travelers visited Egypt to see the wonders of that strange old country.

RESULTS OF COLONIZATION

Energetic Greeks, the greatest colonizers of antiquity, thus founded settlements from the Black Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. "All the Greek colonies" says an ancient writer, "are washed by the waves of the sea, and, so to speak, a fringe of Greek earth is woven on to foreign lands." [28] To distinguish themselves from the foreigners, or "barbarians," [29] about them, the Greeks began to call themselves by the common name of Hellenes. Hellas, their country, came to include all the territory possessed by Hellenic peoples. The life of the Greeks, henceforth, was confined no longer within the narrow limits of the Aegean. Wherever rose a Greek city, there was a scene of Greek history.

30. BONDS OF UNION AMONG THE GREEKS

LANGUAGE AS A UNIFYING FORCE

The Greek colonies, as we have seen, were free and independent. In Greece itself the little city-states were just as jealous of their liberties. Nevertheless ties existed, not of common government, but of common interests and ideals, which helped to unite the scattered sections of the Greek world. The strongest bond of union was, of course, the one Greek speech. Everywhere the people used the same beautiful and expressive language. It is not a "dead" language, for it still lives in modified form on the lips of nearly three million people in the Greek peninsula, throughout the Mediterranean, and even in remote America.

LITERATURE AS UNIFYING FORCE; HOMER

Greek literature, likewise, made for unity. The _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_ were recited in every Greek village for centuries. They formed the principal textbook in the schools; an Athenian philosopher calls Homer the "educator of Hellas." It has been well said that these two epics were at once the Bible and the Shakespeare of the Greek people.

RELIGION AS A UNIFYING FORCE; AMPHICTYONIES

Religion formed another bond of union. Everywhere the Greeks worshiped the same gods and performed the same sacred rites. Religious influences were sometimes strong enough to bring about federations known as amphictyonies, or leagues of neighbors. The people living around a famous sanctuary would meet to observe their festivals in common and to guard the shrine of their divinity. The Delphic amphictyony was the most noteworthy of these local unions. It included twelve tribes and cities of central Greece and Thessaly. They established a council, which took the shrine of Apollo under its protection and superintended the athletic games at Delphi.

A NEW AGE

The seventh and sixth centuries before Christ form a noteworthy epoch in Greek history. Commerce and colonization were bringing their educating influence to bear upon the Greeks. Hellenic cities were rising everywhere along the Mediterranean shores. A common language, literature, and religion were making the people more and more conscious of their unity as opposed to the "barbarians" about them.

THE GREEK WORLD, 500 B.C.

Greek history has now been traced from its beginnings to about 500 B.C. It is the history of a people, not of one country or of a united nation. Yet the time was drawing near when all the Greek communities were to be brought together in closer bonds of union than they had ever before known.

STUDIES

1. On the map facing page 66 see what regions of Europe are less than 500 feet above sea level; less than 3000 feet; over 9000 feet.

2. Why was Europe better fitted than Asia to develop the highest civilization? Why not so well fitted as Asia to originate civilization?

3. "The tendency of mountains is to separate, of rivers to unite, adjacent peoples." How can you justify this statement by a study of European geography?

4. Why has the Mediterranean been called a "highway of nations"?

5. Locate on the map several of the natural entrances into the basin of the Mediterranean.

6. At what points is it probable that southern Europe and northern Africa were once united?

7. Compare the position of Crete in relation to Egypt with that of Sicily in relation to the north African coast.

8. Why was the island of Cyprus a natural meeting place of Egyptian, Syrian, and Greek peoples?

9. What modern countries are included within the limits of the Balkan peninsula?

10. Describe the island routes across the Aegean (map between pages 68- 69).

11. What American states lie in about the same latitude as Greece?

12. Compare the boundaries of ancient Greece with those of the modern kingdom.

13. What European countries in physical features closely resemble Greece? What state of our union?

14. Why is Greece in its physical aspects "the most European of European lands"?

15. What countries of Greece did not touch the sea?

16. Tell the story of the _Iliad_ and of the _Odyssey_.

17. Explain the following terms: oracle; amphictyony; helot; Hellas; Olympiad; and ephors.

18. Give the meaning of our English words "ostracism" and "oracular."

19. Explain the present meaning and historical origin of the following expressions: "a Delphic response"; "Draconian severity"; "a laconic speech."

20. What is the date of the first recorded Olympiad? of the expulsion of the last tyrant of Athens?

21. Describe the Lions' Gate (illustration, page 70) and the François Vase (illustration, page 77).

22. Compare Greek ideas of the future life with those of the Babylonians.

23. Why has the Delphic oracle been called "the common hearth of Hellas"?

24. What resemblances do you discover between the Olympian festival and one of our great international expositions?

25. Define and illustrate these terms: monarchy; aristocracy; tyranny; democracy.

26. Why are the earliest laws always unwritten?

27. What differences existed between Phoenician and Greek colonization?

28. Why did the colonies, as a rule, advance more rapidly than the mother country in wealth and population?

29. What is the origin of the modern city of Constantinople? of Marseilles? of Naples? of Syracuse in Sicily?

FOOTNOTES

[1] Webster, _Readings in Ancient History_, chapter iii, "Early Greek Society as Pictured in the Homeric Poems"; chapter iv, "Stories from Greek Mythology"; chapter v, "Some Greek Tyrants"; chapter vi, "Spartan Education and Life."

[2] See pages 16-17.

[3] For the island routes see the map between pages 68-69.

[4] See page 42.

[5] See the illustration, page 10.

[6] See the plate facing page 70.

[7] See pages 29, 48.

[8] See page 5.

[9] See the map, page 76.

[10] The Greek name of the Black Sea.

[11] _Iliad_, xviii, 607.

[12] _Odyssey_, xiv, 83-84.

[13] _Odyssey_, xi, 488-491.

[14] See page 227.

[15] See pages 88,90.

[16] Herodotus, i, 53.

[17] See page 37.

[18] The first recorded celebration occurred in 776 B.C. The four-year period between the games, called an Olympiad, became the Greek unit for determining dates. Events were reckoned as taking place in the first, second, third, or fourth year of a given Olympiad.

[19] _Iliad_, ii, 243.

[20] _Aristocracy_ means, literally, the "government of the best." The Greeks also used the word _oligarchy_--"rule of the few"--to describe a government by citizens who belong to the wealthy class.

[21] "Pelops's island," a name derived from a legendary hero who settled in southern Greece.

[22] Xenophon, _Polity of the Lacedaemonians_, 13.

[23] The Spartans believed that their military organization was the work of a great reformer and law-giver named Lycurgus. He was supposed to have lived early in the ninth century B.C. We do not know anything about Lycurgus, but we do know that some existing primitive tribes, for instance, the Masai of East Africa, have customs almost the same as those of ancient Sparta. Hence we may say that the rude, even barbarous, Spartans only carried over into the historic age the habits of life which they had formed in prehistoric times.

[24] See page 82.

[25] The name of an individual voted against was written on a piece of pottery (Greek _ostrakon_), whence the term _ostracism_. See the illustration, page 97.

[26] See the map facing page 50.

[27] See page 49.

[28] Cicero, _De republica_, ii, 4.

[29] Greek _barbaroi_, "men of confused speech."