A Smaller History of Greece
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William Smith >> A Smaller History of Greece
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22 A SMALLER HISTORY OF GREECE
from the earliest times to the Roman conquest.
by WILLIAM SMITH, D.C.L., LL.D.
Note:
In this Etext, printed text in italics has been written in capital
letters.
Many words in the printed text have accents, etc. which have been
omitted. Dipthongs have been expanded into two letters.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I . . Geography of Greece.
CHAPTER II . . Origin of the Greeks, and the Heroic Age.
CHAPTER III . . General Survey of the Greek People.
National Institutions.
CHAPTER IV . . Early History of Peloponnesus and Sparta to
the end of the Messenian Wars, B.C. 668.
CHAPTER V . . Early History of Athens down to the
Establishment of Democracy by Clisthenes,
B.C. 510.
CHAPTER VI . . The Greek Colonies.
CHAPTER VII . . The Persian Wars.--From the Ionic Revolt to
the Battle of Marathon, B.C. 500-490.
CHAPTER VIII . . The Persian Wars.--The Battles of Thermopylae
Salamis, and Plataea, B.C. 480-479.
CHAPTER IX . . From the end of the Persian Wars to the
beginning of the Peloponnesian War,
B.C. 479-431.
CHAPTER X . . Athens in the time of Pericles.
CHAPTER XI . . The Peloponnesian War.--First Period, from the
commencement of the War to the Peace of Nicias,
B.C. 431-421.
CHAPTER XII . . The Peloponnesian War.--Second Period, from
the Peace of Nicias to the Defeat of the
Athenians in Sicily, B.C. 421-413.
CHAPTER XIII . . The Peloponnesian War.--Third Period, from the
Sicilian Expedition to the end of the War,
B.C. 413-404.
CHAPTER XIV . . The Thiry Tyrants, and the death of Socrates,
B.C. 404-399.
CHAPTER XV . . The Expedition of the Greeks under Cyrus, and
Retreat of the Ten Thousand, B.C. 401-400.
CHAPTER XVI . . The Supremacy of Sparta, B.C. 404-371.
CHAPTER XVII . . The Supremacy of Thebes, B.C. 371-361.
CHAPTER XVIII . . History of the Sicilian Greeks from the
Destruction of the Athenian Armament to the
Death of Timoleon.
CHAPTER XIX . . Phillip of Macedon, B.C. 359-336.
CHAPTER XX . . Alexander the Great, B.C. 336-323.
CHAPTER XXI . . From the Death of Alexander the Great to the
Conquest of Greece by the Romans, B.C. 323-146.
CHAPTER XXII . . Sketch of the History of Greek Literature
from the Earliest Times to the Reign of
Alexander the Great.
CHAPTER I.
GEOGRAPHY OF GREECE.
Greece is the southern portion of a great peninsula of Europe,
washed on three sides by the Mediterranean Sea. It is bounded on
the north by the Cambunian mountains, which separate it from
Macedonia. It extends from the fortieth degree of latitude to
the thirty-sixth, its greatest length being not more than 250
English miles, and its greatest breadth only 180. Its surface is
considerably less than that of Portugal. This small area was
divided among a number of independent states, many of them
containing a territory of only a few square miles, and none of
them larger than an English county. But the heroism and genius
of the Greeks have given an interest to the insignificant spot of
earth bearing their name, which the vastest empires have never
equalled.
The name of Greece was not used by the inhabitants of the
country. They called their land HELLAS, and themselves HELLENES.
At first the word HELLAS signified only a small district in
Thessaly, from which the Hellenes gradually spread over the whole
country. The names of GREECE and GREEKS come to us from the
Romans, who gave the name of GRAECIA to the country and of GRAECI
to the inhabitants.
The two northerly provinces of Greece are THESSALY and EPIRUS,
separated from each other by Mount Pindus. Thessaly is a fertile
plain enclosed by lofty mountains, and drained by the river
Peneus, which finds its way into the sea through the celebrated
Vale of Tempe. Epirus is covered by rugged ranges of mountains
running from north to south, through which the Achelous the
largest river of Greece, flows towards the Corinthian gulf.
In entering central Greece from Thessaly the road runs along the
coast through the narrow pass of Thermopylae, between the sea and
a lofty range of mountains. The district along the coast was
inhabited by the EASTERN LOCRIANS, while to their west were DORIS
and PHOCIS, the greater part of the latter being occupied by
Mount Parnassus, the abode of the Muses, upon the slopes of which
lay the town of Delphi with its celebrated oracle of Apollo.
South of Phocis is Boeotia, which is a large hollow basin,
enclosed on every side by mountains, which prevent the waters
from flowing into the sea. Hence the atmosphere was damp and
thick, to which circumstance the witty Athenians attributed the
dullness of the inhabitants. Thebes was the chief city of
Boeotia. South of Boeotia lies ATTICA, which is in the form of a
triangle, having two of its sides washed by the sea and its base
united to the land. Its soil is light and dry and is better
adapted for the growth of fruit than of corn. It was
particularly celebrated for its olives, which were regarded as
the gift of Athena (Minerva), and were always under the care of
that goddess. Athens was on the western coast, between four and
five miles from its port, Piraeus. West of Attica, towards the
isthmus, is the small district of MEGARIS.
The western half of central Greece consists of WESTERN LOCRIS,
AETOLIA and ACARNANIA. These districts were less civilised than
the other countries of Greece, and were the haunts of rude robber
tribes even as late as the Peloponnesian war.
Central Greece is connected with the southern peninsula by a
narrow isthmus, on which stood the city of Corinth. So narrow is
this isthmus that the ancients regarded the peninsula as an
island, and gave to it the name of PELOPONNESUS, or the island of
Pelops, from the mythical hero of this name. Its modern name,
the MOREA, was bestowed upon it from its resemblance to the leaf
of the mulberry.
The mountains of Peloponnesus have their roots in the centre of
the country, from which they branch out towards the sea. This
central region, called ARCADIA, is the Switzerland of the
peninsula. It is surrounded by a ring of mountains, forming a
kind of natural wall, which separates it from the remaining
Peloponnesian states. The other chief divisions of Peloponnesus
were Achaia, Argolis, Laconia, Messenia, and Elis. ACHAIA is a
narrow slip of country lying between the northern barrier of
Arcadia and the Corinthian gulf. ARGOLIS, on the east, contained
several independent states, of which the most important was
Argos. LACONIA and MESSENIA occupied the whole of the south of
the peninsula from sea to sea: these two countries were
separated by the lofty range of Taygetus, running from north to
south, and terminating in the promontory of Taenarum (now Cape
Matapan), the southernmost point of Greece and Europe. Sparta,
the chief town of Laconia, stood in the valley of the Eurotas,
which opens out into a plain of considerable extent towards the
Laconian gulf. Messenia, in like manner, was drained by the
Pamisus, whose plain is still more extensive and fertile than
that of the Eurotas. ELIS, on the west of Arcadia, contains the
memorable plain of Olympia, through which the Alpheus flows, and
in which the city of Pisa stood.
Of the numerous islands which line the Grecian shores, the most
important was Euboea, stretching along the coasts of Boeotia and
Attica. South of Euboea was the group of islands called the
CYCLADES, lying around Delos as a centre; and east of these were
the SPORADES, near the Asiatic coast. South of these groups are
the large islands of CRETE and RHODES.
The physical features of the country exercised an important
influence upon the political destinies of the people. Greece is
one of the most mountainous countries of Europe. Its surface is
occupied by a number of small plains, either entirely surrounded
by limestone mountains or open only to the sea. Each of the
principal Grecian cities was founded in one of these small
plains; and, as the mountains which separated it from its
neighbours were lofty and rugged, each city grew up in solitary
independence. But at the same time it had ready and easy access
to the sea, and Arcadia was almost the only political division
that did not possess some territory upon the coast. Thus shut
out from their neighbours by mountains, the Greeks were naturally
attracted to the sea, and became a maritime people. Hence they
possessed the love of freedom and the spirit of adventure, which
have always characterised, more or less the inhabitants of
maritime districts.
CHAPTER II.
ORIGIN OF THE GREEKS AND THE HEROIC AGE.
No nation possesses a history till events are recorded in written
documents; and it was not till the epoch known by the name of the
First Olympiad, corresponding to the year 776 B.C., that the
Greeks began to employ writing as a means for perpetuating the
memory of any historical facts. Before that period everything is
vague and uncertain; and the exploits of the heroes related by
the poets must not be regarded as historical facts.
The PELASGIANS are universally represented as the most ancient
inhabitants of Greece. They were spread over the Italian as well
as the Grecian peninsula; and the Pelasgic language thus formed
the basis of the Latin as well as of the Greek. They were
divided into several tribes, of which the Hellenes were probably
one: at any rate, this people, who originally dwelt in the south
of Thessaly, gradually spread over the rest of Greece. The
Pelasgians disappeared before them, or were incorporated with
them, and their dialect became the language of Greece. The
Hellenes considered themselves the descendants of one common
ancestor, Hellen, the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha. To Hellen
were ascribed three sons, Dorus, Xuthus, and AEolus. Of these
Dorus and AEolus gave their names to the DORIANS and AEOLIANS;
and Xuthus; through his two sons Ion and Achaeus, became the
forefather of the IONIANS and ACHAEANS. Thus the Greeks
accounted for the origin of the four great divisions of their
race. The descent of the Hellenes from a common ancestor,
Hellen, was a fundamental article in the popular faith. It was a
general practice in antiquity to invent fictitious persons for
the purpose of explaining names of which the origin was buried in
obscurity. It was in this way that Hellen and his sons came into
being; but though they never had any real existence, the tales
about them may be regarded as the traditional history of the
races to whom they gave their names.
The civilization of the Greeks and the development of their
language bear all the marks of home growth, and probably were
little affected by foreign influence. The traditions, however,
of the Greeks would point to a contrary conclusion. It was a
general belief among them that the Pelasgians were reclaimed from
barbarism by Oriental strangers, who settled in the country and
introduced among the rude inhabitants the first elements of
civilization. Attica is said to have been indebted for the arts
of civilized life to Cecrops, a native of Sais in Egypt. To him
is ascribed the foundation of the city of Athens, the institution
of marriage, and the introduction of religious rites and
ceremonies. Argos, in like manner, is said to have been founded
by the Egyptian Danaus, who fled to Greece with his fifty
daughters, to escape from the persecution of their suitors, the
fifty sons of his brother AEgyptus. The Egyptian stranger was
elected king by the natives, and from him the tribe of the Danai
derived their name, which Homer frequently uses as a general
appellation for the Greeks. Another colony was the one led from
Asia by Pelops, from whom the southern peninsula of Greece
derived its name of Peloponnesus. Pelops is represented as a
Phrygian, and the son of the wealthy king Tantalus. He became
king of Mycenae, and the founder of a powerful dynasty, one of
the most renowned in the Heroic age of Greece. From him was
descended Agamemnon, who led the Grecian host against Troy.
The tale of the Phoenician colony, conducted by Cadmus, and which
founded Thebes in Boeotia, rests upon a different basis. Whether
there was such a person as the Phoenician Cadmus, and whether he
built the town called Cadmea, which afterwards became the citadel
of Thebes, as the ancient legends relate, cannot be determined;
but it is certain that the Greeks were indebted to the
Phoenicians for the art of writing; for both the names and the
forms of the letters in the Greek alphabet are evidently derived
from the Phoenician. With this exception the Oriental strangers
left no permanent traces of their settlements in Greece; and the
population of the country continued to be essentially Grecian,
uncontaminated by any foreign elements.
The age of the heroes, from the first appearance of the Hellenes
in Thessaly to the return of the Greeks from Troy, was supposed
to be a period of about two hundred years. These heroes were
believed to be a noble race of beings, possessing a superhuman
though not a divine nature, and superior to ordinary men in
strength of body and greatness of soul.
Among the heroes three stand conspicuously forth: Hercules, the
national hero of Greece; Theseus, the hero of Attica; and Minos,
king of Crete, the principal founder of Grecian law and
civilization.
Hercules was the son of Zeus (Jupiter) and Alcmena; but the
jealous anger of Hera (Juno) raised up against him an opponent
and a master in the person of Eurystheus at whose bidding the
greatest of all heroes was to achieve those wonderful labours
which filled the whole world with his fame. In these are
realized, on a magnificent scale, the two great objects of
ancient heroism, the destruction of physical and moral evil, and
the acquisition of wealth and power. Such, for instance, are the
labours in which he destroys the terrible Nemean lion and Lernean
hydra, carries off the girdle of Ares from Hippolyte, queen of
the Amazons, and seizes the golden apples of the Hesperides,
guarded by a hundred-headed dragon.
Theseus was a son of AEgeus, king of Athens, and of AEthra,
daughter of Pittheus, king of Troezen. Among his many memorable
achievements the most famous was his deliverance of Athens from
the frightful tribute imposed upon it by Minos for the murder of
his son. This consisted of seven youths and seven maidens whom
the Athenians were compelled to send every nine years to Crete,
there to be devoured by the Minotaur, a monster with a human body
and a bull's head, which Minos kept concealed in an inextricable
labyrinth. The third ship was already on the point of sailing
with its cargo of innocent victims, when Theseus offered to go
with them, hoping to put an end for ever to the horrible tribute.
Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, became enamoured of the hero, and
having supplied him with a clue to trace the windings of the
labyrinth, Theseus succeeded in killing the monster, and in
tracking his way out of the mazy lair. Theseus, on his return,
became king of Attica, and proceeded to lay the foundations of
the future greatness of the country. He united into one
political body the twelve independent states into which Cecrops
had divided Attica, and made Athens the capital of the new
kingdom. He then divided the citizens into three classes,
namely, EUPATRIDAE, or nobles; GEOMORI, or husbandmen; and
DEMIURGI, or artisans.
Minos, king of Crete, whose history is connected with that of
Theseus, appears, like him, the representative of an historical
and civil state of life. Minos is said to have received the laws
of Crete immediately from Zeus; and traditions uniformly present
him as king of the sea. Possessing a numerous fleet, he reduced
the surrounding islands, especially the Cyclades, under his
dominion, and cleared the sea of pirates.
The voyage of the Argonauts and the Trojan war were the most
memorable enterprises undertaken by collective bodies of heroes.
The Argonauts derived their name from the Argo, a ship built For
the adventurers by Jason, under the superintendence of Athena
(Minerva). They embarked in the harbour of Iolcus in Thessaly
for the purpose of obtaining the golden fleece which was
preserved in AEa in Colchis, on the eastern shores of the Black
Sea, under the guardianship of a sleepless dragon. The most
renowned heroes of the age took part in the expedition. Among
them were Hercules and Theseus, as well as the principal leaders
in the Trojan war; but Jason is the central figure and the real
hero of the enterprise. Upon arriving at AEa, after many
adventures, king AEtes promised to deliver to Jason the golden
fleece, provided he yoked two fire-breathing oxen with brazen
feet, and performed other wonderful deeds. Here, also, as in the
legend of Theseus, love played a prominent part. Medea, the
daughter of AEtes, who was skilled in magic and supernatural
arts, furnished Jason with the means of accomplishing the labours
imposed upon him; and as her father still delayed to surrender
the fleece, she cast the dragon asleep during the night, seized
the fleece, and sailed away in the Argo with her beloved Jason.
The Trojan war was the greatest of all the heroic achievements.
It formed the subject of innumerable epic poems, and has been
immortalised by the genius of Homer. Paris, son of Priam, king
of Troy, abused the hospitality of Menelaus, king of Sparta, by
carrying off his wife Helen, the most beautiful woman of the age.
All the Grecian princes looked upon the outrage as one committed
against themselves. Responding to the call of Menelaus, they
assembled in arms, elected his brother Agamemnon, king of
Mycenae, leader of the expedition, and sailed across the AEgean
in nearly 1200 ships to recover the faithless fair one. Several
of the confederate heroes excelled Agamemnon in fame. Among them
Achilles, chief of the Thessalian Myrmidons, stood pre-eminent in
strength, beauty, and valour; whilst Ulysses, king of Ithaca;
surpassed all the rest in the mental qualities of counsel and
eloquence. Among the Trojans, Hector, one of the sons of Priam,
was most distinguished for heroic qualities and formed a striking
contrast to his handsome but effeminate brother Paris. Next to
Hector in valour stood AEneas, son of Anchises and Aphrodite
(Venus). Even the gods took part in the contest, encouraging
their favourite heroes, and sometimes fighting by their side or
in their stead.
It was not till the tenth year of the war that Troy yielded to
the inevitable decree of fate; and it is this year which forms
the subject of the Iliad. Achilles, offended by Agamemnon,
abstains from the war; and in his absence the Greeks are no match
for Hector. The Trojans drive them back into their camp, and are
already setting fire to their ships, when Achilles gives his
armour to his friend Patroclus, and allows him to charge at the
head of the Myrmidons. Patroclus repulses the Trojans from the
ships, but the god Apollo is against him, and he falls under the
spear of Hector. Desire to avenge the death of his friend proves
more powerful in the breast of Achilles than anger against
Agamemnon. He appears again in the field in new and gorgeous
armour, forged for him by the god Hephrastus (Vulcan) at the
prayer of Thetis. The Trojans fly before him, and, although
Achilles is aware that his own death must speedily follow that of
the Trojan hero, he slays Hector in single combat.
The Iliad closes with the burial of Hector. The death of
Achilles and the capture of Troy were related in later poems.
The hero of so many achievements perishes by an arrow shot by the
unwarlike Paris, but directed by the hand of Apollo. The noblest
combatants had now fallen on either side, and force of arms had
proved unable to accomplish what stratagem at length effects. It
is Ulysses who now steps into the foreground and becomes the real
conqueror of Troy. By his advice a wooden horse is built, in
whose inside he and other heroes conceal themselves. The
infatuated Trojans admit the horse within their walls. In the
dead of night the Greeks rush out and open the gates to their
comrades. Troy is delivered over to the sword, and its glory
sinks in ashes. The fall of Troy is placed in the year 1184 B.C.
The return of the Grecian leaders from Troy forms another series
of poetical legends. Several meet with tragical ends. Agamemnon
is murdered on his arrival at Mycenae, by his wife Clytaemnestra
and her paramour AEgisthus. But of these wanderings the most
celebrated and interesting are those of Ulysses, which form the
subject of the Odyssey. After twenty years' absence he arrives
at length in Ithaca, where he slays the numerous suitors who
devoured his substance and contended for the hand of his wife
Penelope.
The Homeric poems must not be regarded as a record of historical
persons and events, but, at the same time, they present a
valuable picture of the institutions and manners of the earliest
known state of Grecian society.
In the Heroic age Greece was already divided into a number of
independent states, each governed by its own king. The authority
of the king was not limited by any laws; his power resembled that
of the patriarchs in the Old Testament; and for the exercise of
it he was responsible only to Zeus, and not to his people. But
though the king was not restrained in the exercise of his power
by any positive laws, his authority was practically limited by
the BOULE; or council of chiefs, and the Agora, or general
assembly of freemen. These two bodies, of little account in the
Heroic age, became in the Republican age the sole depositories of
political power.
The Greeks in the Heroic age were divided into the three classes
of nobles, common freemen, and slaves. The nobles were raised
far above the rest of the community in honour, power, and wealth.
They were distinguished by their warlike prowess, their large
estates, and their numerous slaves. The condition of the general
mass of freemen is rarely mentioned. They possessed portions of
land as their own property, which they cultivated themselves; but
there was another class of poor freemen, called Thetes, who had
no land of their own, and who worked for hire on the estates of
others. Slavery was not so prevalent in the Heroic age as at a
later time, and appears in a less odious aspect. The nobles
alone possessed slaves, and they treated them with a degree of
kindness which frequently secured for the masters their
affectionate attachment.
Society was marked by simplicity of manners. The kings and
nobles did not consider it derogatory to their dignity to acquire
skill in the manual arts. Ulysses is represented as building his
own bed-chamber and constructing his own raft, and he boasts of
being an excellent mower and ploughman. Like Esau, who made
savoury meat for his father Isaac, the Heroic chiefs prepared
their own meals and prided themselves on their skill in cookery.
Kings and private persons partook of the same food, which was of
the simplest kind. Beef, mutton, and goat's flesh were the
ordinary meats, and cheese, flour, and sometimes fruits, also
formed part of the banquet; wine was drunk diluted with water,
and the entertainments were never disgraced by intemperance, like
those of our northern ancestors. The enjoyment of the banquet
was heightened by the song and the dance, and the chiefs took
more delight in the lays of the minstrel than in the exciting
influence of the wine.
The wives and daughters of the chiefs, in like manner, did not
deem it beneath them to discharge various duties which were
afterwards regarded as menial. Not only do we find them
constantly employed in weaving, spinning and embroidery, but like
the daughters of the patriarchs they fetch water from the well
and assist their slaves in washing garments in the river.
Even at this early age the Greeks had made considerable advances
in civilization. They were collected in fortified towns, which
were surrounded by walls and adorned with palaces and temples.
The massive ruins of Mycenae and the sculptured lions on the gate
of this city belong to the Heroic age, and still excite the
wonder of the beholder. Commerce, however, was little
cultivated, and was not much esteemed. It was deemed more
honourable for a man to enrich himself by robbery and piracy than
by the arts of peace. Coined money is not mentioned in the poems
of Homer. Whether the Greeks were acquainted at this early
period with the art of writing is a question which has given rise
to much dispute, and must remain undetermined; but poetry was
cultivated with success, though yet confined to epic strains, or
the narration of the exploits and adventures of the Heroic
chiefs. The bard sung his own song, and was always received with
welcome and honour in the palaces of the nobles.
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