Mosaics of Grecian History

As the Greeks, in common with the Egyptians and other Eastern nations, placed the reign of the gods anterior to the race of mortals, Grecian mythology--which is a system of myth...

In a former chapter we briefly traced the growth of Grecian literature and art from their beginnings down to the time of the Persian wars. Within this period, as we noticed, the...

The Romans conducted their administration of Greece with much wisdom and moderation, treating both its religion and municipal institutions with great respect. As MR. FINLAY says...

Returning now to the political and military history of Greece, we find that, about the year 550 B.C., the independence of the Grecian colonies on the coast of Asia Minor was cru...

As we have seen in a former chapter, Greek tragedy attained its zenith with the three great masters--Æschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. As MAHAFFY well says, "Its later annals...

Turning now to the affairs of Greece, we find that, three years after Alexander entered Asia, the Spartans made a determined effort to throw off the Macedonian yoke. They were j...

The various successful schemes of Pericles for enriching and extending the power of Athens were regarded with fear and jealousy by Sparta and her allies, who were only waiting f...

The earliest written compositions of the Greeks, of which tradition or history has preserved any record, were poetical; a circumstance which, noticed in other nations also, has...

Four years after the battle of Mantine'a the Grecian states again became involved in domestic hostilities, known as the Sacred War, the second in Grecian history to which that t...

The country called HELLAS by the Helle'nes, its native inhabitants, and known to us by the name of Greece, forms the southern part of the most easterly of the three great penins...

The rapid development of literature and the arts is one of the most pleasing and striking features of Grecian history. As one writer has well said, "There was an uninterrupted p...

good, no, not one, Psalm xiv. 3), Bias; "Avoid extremes" (the golden mean), Cleobulus; "Know thy opportunity" (Seize time by the forelock), Pittacus; "Nothing is impossible to i...

Six years after the battle of Platæa the career of Xerxes was terminated by assassination, and his son, Artaxerxes Longim'anus, succeeded to the throne. In the mean time Athens...

Before proceeding to the history of the downfall of Greece, and her subjugation by a foreign power--a result that soon followed the events just narrated--we turn aside to notice...

As we have already stated, the successive encroachments on the royal prerogatives that followed the death of Co'drus, and that finally resulted in the establishment of an oligar...

The aid given by Cyrus the Persian to Sparta in her contest with Athens, as related in a preceding chapter, was bestowed with the understanding that Sparta should give him her a...

Spread on Eurotas' bank, Amid a circle of soft rising hills, The patient Sparta stood; the sober, hard, And man-subduing city; which no shape Of pain could conquer, nor of pleas...

Although Greek political writers taught that there were, primarily, but three forms of government--monarchy, or the rule of one; aristocracy, that of the few; and democracy, tha...

An important part of the history of Greece is that which embraces the age of Grecian colonization, and the extension of the commerce of the Greeks to nearly all the coasts of th...

I. Grecian Mythology. Value of the Grecian Fables.--J. STUART BLACKIE. The Battle of the Giants.--HE'SIOD Hymn to Jupiter.--CLEAN'THES The god Apollo.--OV'ID. Fancies of the Gre...

II. The Drama.--BULWER. 1. Tragedy.--Melpom'ene.--AKENSIDE. Æschylus.--"Death of Agamemnon."--PLUMPTRE: LAWRENCE: VAN SCHLEGEL: BYRON: MAHAFFY. Sophocles.--OEd'ipus Tyran'nus."-...

V. The Greek Revolution. A Prophetic Vision of the Struggle.--SHELLEY'S "Hellas". Song of the Greeks.--CAMPBELL. American Sympathy with Greece.--TUCKERMAN: WEBSTER. The Sortie a...

III. The Second Persian Invasion. Xerxes at Aby'dos.--HEROD'OTUS. Bridging of the Hellespont.--JUVENAL: MILTON. The Battle of Thermop'ylæ. 1. Invincibility of the Spartans.--HAY...

II. Lyric Poetry. Calli'nus of Ephesus.--"War Elegy". Archil'ochus of Pa'ros--SYMONDS: MAHAFFY. Alc'man.--"Sleep, or Night."--MURE. Ari'on.--Stesich'orus.--MAHAFFY. Alcæus.--"Sp...

Introductory.--Olympus.--HEMANS.--Pi'e-rus.--POPE. 1. Thessaly.--Tem'pe.-HEMANS. 2. Epi'rus.--Cocy'tus, Ach'eron, Dodo'na.--MILTON: HAYGARTH: BYRON. 3. Acarna'nia. 4. Æto'lia. 5...

I. The First Peloponnesian War. Funeral Oration of Pericles.--THUCYDIDES. Comments on the Oration.--CURTIUS. The Plague at Athens.--LUCRETIUS. Death of Pericles.--CROLY: THIRLWA...

I. The Disgrace and Death of Themistocles. Tributes to his Memory.--PLATO: GEMINUS: THIRLWALL. II. The Rise and Fall of Cimon. Character of Cimon--THOMSON. Battle of Eurym'edon....

II. Some Causes of Greek Unity. The Grecian Festivals. 1. Chariot Race and Death of Ores'tes.--SOPHOCLES. 2. Apollo's Conflict with the Python.--OVID. 3. The Apollo Belvedere.--...

The Founding of Ætna.--PINDAR. Hi'ero's Victory at Cu'mæ.--PINDAR. Admonitions to Hiero.--PINDAR. Dionysius the Elder.--PLUTARCH. Damon and Pythias.--The Hostage.--SCHILLER. Arc...