1. They were of the Aryan race, and showed a high capacity to receive the lessons taught by the experience and genius of all the past, and make them the stepping-stone to a higher civilization and freer institutions. They were preceded in the occupation of Greece by the Pelasgi, of the same stock, but too rude and uncultured to leave many traces of their presence except the ruins of immense cyclopean buildings, without inscriptions, indicating only a dawning culture, but a vigorous combination of physical force. The mythic history of Greece is in part a veiled and distorted account of the struggles of Hellens, or true Greeks, against those uncouth aborigines; the actual facts being mingled by the lively creative fancy of their poets with the religious traditions brought from their original home. The highly picturesque language of the primitive Aryan people accorded with the imaginative and observant character of that family,[64] and its inclination to extemporize some plausible explanation of the natural phenomena which awakened their attention, and, apparently, suggested the general course of invention and embellishment adopted by the poets, who were the historians, the theologians, and the only literary class of their period. Thus the early speculations and crude religious ideas assumed, in poetic hands, an exceedingly fanciful and marvelous garb; and their heroes, who succeeded in overcoming the difficulties of a new settlement, and in laying the foundation of their communities in a rude country filled with men and beasts almost equally wild and savage, were endowed by their grateful and admiring descendants with superhuman qualities, and wonder and reverence ascribed to them a descent from the gods. 2. A characteristic feature of Grecian heroic mythology is the number and mutual contests of these mythical heroes which indicate a leading characteristic of the nation—a disposition toward independence and decentralization. Every small community had its divine hero, and insisted on maintaining its government in its own hands. In the early times the immediate descendants of these local benefactors commonly obtained the sovereignty, more or less qualified, over their city and community. They all greatly respected the tie that bound them together in kinship as one race; but they never would permit it to deprive them of local independence. If they had a king he should be of their own tribe and choice; if they were ruled with harshness it should be only because they chose to submit to their own tyrant. They seldom permitted another community to manage their internal affairs. Various leagues were early formed among contiguous cities or states closely related by origin; but they dealt only in matters of common interest, and if one city or king was acknowledged as the head, it was only in a general sense for the sake of realizing some general plan.
3. This instinctive and resolute refusal to accept a centralized government was a new and important feature in the history[65] of men in a civilized, or highly organized state. It was the direct opposite of that which characterized Asiatic and African civilization, and held the Greek race open to a spontaneous growth and a mental development which made them the benefactors of the human family. With less individuality and mental force, or a less favorable time and situation, it would have kept them forever barbarous; but time had matured them and the nations about them, and their restless spirit of inquiry and constant movement among themselves stood in the place of the foreign action and shock of races that proved so beneficial and necessary to the Asiatics. The Egyptian, Chinese and Hindoo peoples reached a certain point of well regulated order, apparently by an original impulse, and stopped; the Chaldean, Assyrian and Persian races kept in the stream of progress by a sort of mechanical or forcible stir and intermingling of races and civilizations; and the principle accomplished, in each case, all it was capable of. Time and progress then transferred the care of the best interests of mankind to intelligence as embodied in the Greek race. Without being conscious of such a high destiny, they fulfilled it with fidelity, and remained true to themselves and faithful to the impulses of their own minds until humanity required training of a different kind, and another race, receiving their mental culture, added to it administrative ability and carried the old world as high as it could possibly go on its ancient base.
4. It seems probable that about B. C. 2000, or in the time of Abraham, the progenitors of the Greeks reached that country from the highlands east of the Caspian Sea. Greece extends about 220 miles from north to south, and 160 from east to west, with a very irregular outline, and contains about 34,000 square miles, much of this being mountainous and barren. The separation of the different states by these mountain ranges much favored the disposition of the people to local independence, and formed a bold and hardy race. Access from three sides to the sea led to commerce and colonization, while[66] it brought them into frequent contact with the most civilized people of the east without endangering their independence, and the lofty mountains on the north were an effectual barrier to the irruption of the wild and wandering tribes of northern Asia and Europe. Early in the history of the Greeks colonies came from Egypt and Phenicia and introduced the arts of those countries, then the most civilized in the world. This was about the time that the Jewish nation was founded by Moses, and we can easily understand that the native intelligence of the Greeks and their teachable spirit, led them to profit greatly by this early light.
5. The most celebrated traditions of this people relate to an expedition by the collective young chivalry of Greece, called the “Argonautic,” which indicates their enterprising spirit and early acquaintance with the sea, and also seems to have introduced the habit of planting colonies. Two wars against Thebes, in the central part of Greece, induced by the ambition and combinations of the kings of the various States, seem to have made much impression on the whole nation, while a combination of nearly all of its petty sovereigns, gathering an immense army, stated at 100,000 men, to punish an injury done to one of their number by the King of Troy, on the opposite coast of Asia, occupied ten years, and filled the whole country with confusion. This was soon followed by an event called the Return of the Heracleid?, or descendants of Hercules—a mythic hero of great celebrity—to their ancient dominion in the southern peninsula, called the Pelopenesus. It appears to have been attended by the migration of one tribe into the domains of another, which they forcibly dispossessed and produced the emigration of the conquered people into Asia, where they formed extensive colonies—independent—but preserving a love for their race, and forming an important element in Greek progress.
6. The commotions and miseries of this period and of subsequent times, which had their rise mainly in this, most of which were due to the restless ambition and personal quarrels[67] of their kings, came at length to disgust the spirited and progressive people with that form of government, and before the time that authentic history begins they had very generally set aside the kings and established a democracy; and where this was not the case, as in Sparta, the power of the kings became so limited that they were little more than leading magistrates in their respective cities. This was not often done by violent revolution, but generally in a quiet way, showing the steady and intelligent resolution of the people.
This rare nation knew how to adapt its governments to its needs. Not that everything went on without struggle or difficulty, nor that they did not share in the rude and sanguinary passions of their times. Their governments were often unsettled; there were frequent conflicts among aspirants for place and power in the state; they had a balance of power among the leading states to maintain; and the want of a strong central authority led to innumerable collisions and sometimes to desolating wars. But amidst all the confusion and imperfection of an early civilization they still maintained such an independence of any superior in each state that they could settle their internal affairs to suit themselves. They were yet uneducated men, in the enthusiastic young manhood of the world, but with spirit enough to be free.
7. That freedom had many defects. The true character of freedom was imperfectly apprehended in that age of the world. It was often violent; and much Grecian blood was shed by Greeks. It was frequently turbulent; and sometimes the strife of parties and factions did great injury to the welfare of the state. It was usually a restricted liberty in which all the inhabitants did not share, for the slave, the freedman, and the foreigner were admitted to no influence in the government, or in framing the laws; and there was always much oppression and injustice somewhere. It was not a well understood and well balanced liberty, as we comprehend it, but it left room for a large amount of free and spontaneous action. It made little account of the individual; that point was to be[68] learned and made duly prominent after the lapse of more than two thousand years. The Greek identified himself with his state. He would not have it large in order that each free citizen might have a personal influence in it. His public life was an education to him; and the very defects of his institutions fitted them more perfectly to meet the wants of that age than anything more complete could have done.
8. They developed rapidly under a system so free from restraint, coupled with a nature so ardent, and a thirst for knowledge so absorbing. Still it was at least two hundred years after they had re-arranged their primitive modes of government before they reached a degree of order and system that influenced them to record events as they passed, and observe the world outside of their state, and even then their most learned men wrote little. Men were absorbed in their private matters, or in the affairs of the state. They thought little of the future; they were devoting themselves diligently to the only means of education that existed in those days, intercourse and action. Their priesthood was quite different from what we found it in Chaldea and Egypt. They did not form a class, nor attempt to exercise an influence on government. They were appointed from the body of the citizens to offer sacrifices and conduct religious ceremonies. The high spirited and active minded Greeks were not fit subjects for the dominion of a priestly caste. Although Cecrops, an Egyptian, settled and civilized Athens, and introduced some of the social arrangements of his country, he did not plant the all-controlling priesthood. The Athenians, of all other Greeks, were the thoughtful, progressive intelligence of the nation. The poets compiled the geneaologies and histories of the gods, the heroes, and the past records of the people. There was no other literature, there were no other sources of information but those from which the poets drew—tradition and inherited customs. Of these the poets explained the origin and reason, and no one thought of questioning their tales. They were supposed to be inspired; and their marvelous[69] legends rested, to a certain extent, on monuments, habits, and oral tradition. Their lively narratives charmed and satisfied the public mind and gratified their pride. It was only in later years that the philosophers explained them away.
In the early days they had no standard by which to criticise them. All they required was that they should offer a pleasing explanation. The wisest of the Greeks came, ultimately, to believe in one God who ruled with wisdom and justice, and they laid the foundation of all useful knowledge by teaching men to think and reason; but true science was not possible in their age of the world. They, however, prepared the way for it.
9. Their religion was cheerful and bright, they had altars and temples in great numbers, and countless ceremonies in honor of particular deities. One class of these was festivals, or games, established, according to tradition, by their divine heroes. The Olympian Games were the most celebrated, and took place every fiftieth month at Olympia. In the year 776 B. C. they began to record the name of the victor in these games, and as that was done ever afterward, this became a fixed date and the interval between each was called an Olympiad. It was the beginning of reliable history, although it was one hundred and fifty years later that men of real wisdom, extensive observation and careful study began to flourish. But the eagerness with which the people sought information, and the honor in which they held men of thought and wisdom, encouraged study, reflection and travel for the sake of knowledge, so that this class, in time, became extremely numerous.
Their researches, and systems of what they held to be truth, were often imperfect, and, in many parts, false; but they were upright and earnest in the studies that were then possible, and did as much good, one might say, by their failures as by their successes. Inquirers, in after times, noted where and how they failed; so that all their pioneer work was useful—their mistakes for a warning, their success for instruction.
10. The course of Grecian development took two contrary directions, under the two leading states, Sparta and Athens.[70] The last represents the generally received idea of Greece—as a land where the people were lively and beautiful, intelligent and richly endowed with taste in the arts, or an exquisitely quick and thorough judgment of fitness, developed to the very highest point. Sparta, on the other hand, through its whole career, was a military state. Somewhere about one hundred years before the first Olympiad (B. C. 776), a lawgiver, named Lycurgus, had reformed the institutions of the Spartan state with the avowed and only object to render it capable of producing the most vigorous and hardy warriors. He made an equal distribution of lands, which were cultivated by the ancient inhabitants, reduced to slavery. They were called Helots, and were treated with great cruelty. Lycurgus abolished every species of luxury, subjected the young, both boys and girls, to the most rigorous training, and discouraged all the amenities of family and social life that he supposed might interfere with the rude hardiness of the soldier. The whole intelligence, activity and vigor of the Greek mind was, in this state, confined to military life. These institutions continued to exist in Sparta for more than five hundred years. Among any other race they would have secured to them the supreme dominion of the nation; but among this liberty loving people they merely sufficed to render them the general leaders in war, and one, only, among the most powerful and respectable Greek states. Besides, this experiment shows that there is little real advantage in systematically trampling down the native instincts of humanity in order to promote superiority in a particular direction.
11. The entirely spontaneous character of the Athenians made them, in general, the equal of the Spartans in military fame, and gloriously eminent in many other directions. But the various members of the Greek nation seem to have been made, by their intelligence and the earnestness, the completeness, of all their lines of development, the pioneers of humanity in their experiments. They exhausted all the capacities of a complete military education in an entire state, and presented the[71] most perfect achievements of a genius that had no models to commence on, in poetry, in painting, in sculpture, in philosophy and in such elements of science as were possible to humanity in their day.
It is worthy of remark that most of the Greek colonies, the Phenicians and their colonies, and a great part of the numerous nations in Italy became republican about the same time—as did the Romans later—and that those states which preserved hereditary monarchy, or tyrants—as those kings were called who were elected by the populace—had counterbalanced the individual despotism of the kingly office by various institutions that controlled and limited it.
12. At the period when history began to be carefully written and dates accurately given, civilization was under full career and rapidly moving westward. The Greeks had been struggling with the difficulties of the early times for more than a thousand years and had already begun to mature the institutions and to show the traits of character that afterwards made them so eminent and so useful in advancing the progress of mankind. The Tyrians, or commercial people of Phenicia, had formed the net-work of communication with all the parts of the earth then sufficiently civilized to produce anything which could be useful to the rest of the world, and Italy was alive with the energies of the primitive races, mainly Aryan—some of them transplanted from the East, and possessing many of the highest elements of the ancient culture—who fought the Romans with a vigor and persistence that contributed much to the discipline and strong development of that remarkable people, to whose instruction the Greek colonies in eastern Italy added not a little.
From this point the advance of the center of development toward the western continent, and of mental preparation for more perfect ideals of government was continuous. A more complete view of this progress will be gained by considering the general events of each century apart, or in chronological order.
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13. B. C. 776. This is the first definite and positive date in reliable history and commences the First Olympiad. The Olympic religious and national festival was celebrated by foot and chariot races, boxing, wrestling, etc., and was commenced by religious sacrifices and ceremonies, mainly in honor of the god Apollo. This peaceable assembly of all the representatives of the Grecian race was one of the chief means of maintaining the national union, and greatly promoted the maintenance and importance of a kind of national congress, called the Amphictyonic League. The first object of this League was the protection of their common worship; but it came to have, afterward, considerable importance as a political body; its decrees having the character and force of the Laws of Nations in modern times. It was composed of two delegates from each of the twelve leading states of Greece, and held two meetings yearly; one at Delphi, where was a celebrated temple and oracle of Apollo, and one at Thermopyl?. The twelve chief cities of the ?olian colonies of Greece in Asia Minor, and also the same number of Ionian colonies on the same coast more to the south, had each Amphictyonic, or International Leagues; but the Greeks from all the various regions they settled, as well as from the mother country, took a pride in participating in the Olympic games.
14. B. C. 753. This is one of the most important dates in the history of mankind. In this year, Rome, “The Eternal City,” was founded by a band of adventurers and outlaws, under the lead of the twin brothers, Romulus and Remus. A spirit of adventure was the most characteristic feature of that era, in Greece and about the Mediterranean sea, together with a passion for colonizing, or founding new states. Education, or growth, seems to pursue parallel lines in the same era, so that the same general tendencies move the masses of widely separated nations. Greece began, at this period, to send out a large number of colonists, in rapid succession, to Italy and the islands of the Mediterranean. The tendency had commenced more than three centuries before, but the colonies had[73] not gone far from the native state, and only one had been established in Italy, at Cum?. Carthage, a commercial colony of the Tyrians, had been founded 127 years before, and was now beginning to rival the parent city.
Rome gathered its population from all the neighboring states. The mingling of races has always been favorable to the progress of mankind. A single race, isolating itself and receiving no new blood or impulses from without becomes stationary and fixed in all its habits and advancement ceases beyond a certain point. The men who founded Rome were, apparently, a crowd of adventurers who had resolved to found a state. After building the walls of their city and providing themselves with habitations, they were destitute of wives—a serious want which would soon leave their new city without inhabitants. They remedied it in true Roman style—by violence. They made a festival without the walls to celebrate the founding of their state, and invited their nearest neighbors, the Sabines, to take part in it. The Sabines came with their wives and daughters. At a concerted moment the young Romans each seized a young Sabine woman, and carried her off into the city; the gates were closed and each proceeded to make his captive his wife.
The Sabines were powerless to prevent the deed, but they soon made war on their violent sons-in-law, and the young city would have been destroyed but for the interference of the stolen women who had become satisfied with the bold deed which gave them valiant husbands. The Sabines were induced to unite with the young state so far as to build a new city adjoining and take part in its rising fortunes. Romulus was elected king by his followers, but popular institutions were established to limit his power, under the strong instinct of vigorous organization that, from the first, characterized the new nation. The people maintained their right to make laws in conjunction with the king, and preserved a limited monarchy for 250 years. At this time the prophet Isaiah flourished[74] in Judea, and the kingdom of Samaria was approaching extinction.
15. B. C. 747. The Chaldeans established, or revived, their dominion in Babylon, under their king, Nabonassur, and seem to have been independent of Assyria for a time, but afterward to have been brought into a qualified subjection to that enterprising monarchy. It commences authentic history in the East, so far as well ascertained dates are concerned. In that year the Chaldean astronomers or priests, first introduced the Egyptian solar year, which furnished an accurate mode of measuring time. This was about the commencement of the Sixth Olympiad. Egypt was approaching its most perfect condition under its ancient system.
B. C. 743. Messenian war of 23 years—Sparta conquers Messene.
16. B. C. 735. A colony from Corinth founded the celebrated city of Syracuse in Sicily, and a fashion of colonizing seems to have obtained in Greece, which continued for a hundred years. The native enterprise of the Greeks, the great increase of inhabitants in their small territory, and the commotions and contests of parties in their states, which preceded the establishment of more complete popular governments, were probably the ruling causes of these foreign emigrations, and all contributed to the increase of knowledge, improvement in navigation, and the prevalence of a commercial spirit. Miletus, the leading Greek city of Ionia, in Asia Minor, became almost as powerful and prosperous by her commerce as Tyre in her best days. There were Grecian colonies on the coast of Africa west of Egypt, on the eastern coast of Italy, several in Sicily, one in France. They were, generally, very enterprising and prosperous, and diffused Greek intelligence and culture over a large part of the world as known at that time. They usually established a republican government. Syracuse remained republican for 251 years.
17. B. C. 728. The Assyrian Empire was now having its palmiest days, and spreading its dominion over all the central[75] parts of western Asia, from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. At this time Shalman-assur, or Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, led away the Ten Tribes of Israel into a hopeless captivity, and planted a different race in Samaria. Soon after this time the Ethiopians from the upper Nile established their dominion in Egypt, without apparently changing the general condition of things there. Three Ethiopian kings successively reigned in Egypt, and made conquests in Asia to some extent.
18. B. C. 600. About the beginning of this century the foundation of Greek philosophy was laid by Thales of Miletus, a Greek city in Asia. He represents the growth and acuteness of the Greek mind and the approach of its period of greatest activity. He travelled into Egypt in search of wisdom, and was the most able astronomer of his times. He calculated an eclipse of the sun, which, coming on just when two armies, the Median and Lydian, were about to engage in battle, so terrified them that they immediately separated and made peace. He was celebrated as a mathematician, and taught many truths concerning the existence of God which were far in advance of his time, and undertook to account for the origin of all things in a very bold and independent manner. He was one of the famous “Seven Wise Men” of Greece. Solon was held to be the first among the seven. He was an Athenian law-giver and writer, and established a very wise and enlightened system of government in Athens. He was a pure-hearted and clear-sighted man, enjoying the universal respect of the Greeks. Chilo, another of the seven, was a Spartan magistrate, held in the highest esteem for his wisdom. Pittacus of Mitylene, was a law-giver, held in high honor. Bias of Priene, in Ionia, was a very noble-hearted and public-spirited citizen, of universal reputation for wisdom. Cleobulus, of the island of Rhodes, was remarkable for his skill in answering difficult questions, and Periander of Corinth, the ruler, or tyrant, of that place, was the last of the seven. They were all living at the same time. They were only the most eminent among a people who could fully appreciate mental ability. The spirit of inquiry[76] continued to spread rapidly for two hundred years, when the greatest masters, who immortalized themselves and their race by their genius, appeared.
19. In the early part of this century the kingdom of Lydia, in the central part of Asia Minor, rose to great wealth and power. The Lydian kingdom was ancient—many of its customs being similar to those of the Egyptians—and the Etrurians of Italy, a much more polished and cultivated people than the Romans who conquered them, are thought, by some eminent historians, to have been a Lydian colony planted in Italy in unknown times. The Lydian kings made war on the Asiatic Greek colonies and reduced many of them to subjection. Cr?sus, the last king of Lydia, was proverbial for his vast wealth. He was conquered by Cyrus, the Persian, in the middle of the next century.
679 B. C. Numa, the second king of Rome, is said to have died. The Romans abstained from war during nearly the whole of his reign, which was occupied in settling the internal affairs of the new state, especially those relating to religion. He was followed by Tullus Hostilius, a very warlike prince, who did much to extend the Roman state.
20. About 650 B. C. a great change was introduced into Egypt, by Psammeticus, its king, who, having several rival claimants to the throne, employed the services of Greek soldiers to overcome them. For the first time the country was freely opened to foreigners, and the power of the priesthood broken. Thus the Greeks were instrumental in changing the current of Egyptian history.
The Median Kings began to make head in the east, and ventured—after various successful efforts to extend their dominion in other directions—to make direct war on Nineveh. At the close of the century, by the aid of the rebellious Nabopolassar, they succeeded in taking and destroying that city, and the whole of that immense empire was divided between Media and Nabopolassar, who made Babylon his capital.
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21. B. C. 590 to 500. Events in this century begin to crowd thick upon each other. The Greeks rapidly advanced; the Romans succeeded, amid constant wars, in securely establishing their state in Italy, marching from conquest to conquest, not without heavy reverses at times, from which they soon recovered.
598—Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem for the first time.
594—Solon was made archon at Athens, with almost unlimited power to change the existing institutions, and he introduced many very useful reforms.
588—Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and the Jews carried into captivity to Babylon, where they remained seventy years. Soon after, Nebuchadnezzar conquered Tyre, after a siege of many years, but he found himself in possession of the walls only, for the inhabitants had built another city on an island near by, but inaccessible to the conqueror, and left him a barren conquest.
560—The most memorable event that followed was the union of Media and Persia under the military prowess of Cyrus. He first employed the forces of the Medo-Persian kingdom in Asia Minor, conquering Lydia and the rest of that region, 549—and dethroning Cr?sus. Babylon and Egypt had both entered into an alliance with Cr?sus against Cyrus, but before they could send Cr?sus effectual aid Cyrus had triumphed. He then turned his arms against Babylon 538—which he took by stratagem after a long siege. Egypt was afterward obliged to become tributary to the universal conqueror.
534—Cyrus, who had before been the Persian general of the united armies under the Median king, Cyaxares, who was his maternal uncle, succeeded to the kingdom, and soon after sent the Jews home to their native land. During this period the Greeks swarmed on the eastern[78] part of the Mediterranean sea and carried on nearly all its commerce, the Tyrians being mainly confined to the trade with India, Arabia and the various parts of the Persian empire.
529—Occurred the death of Cyrus, full of years and glory. History has described him as the most amiable of all the great conquerors. He was succeeded by his son, Cambyses, who, to punish the revolt of the Egyptians 525—invaded that country and made it a Persian province.
522—Cambyses died and was succeeded by a Persian nobleman, Darius Hystaspes, the line of Cyrus being extinct. He finally broke the power of the priesthood in his dominions, which perished at once in Egypt and Babylon, where they had so long reigned supreme over the minds of men.
515—The second temple was dedicated at Jerusalem.
510—In this year occurred a very important event in Roman history—the establishment of the republic. Kings had reigned there two hundred and forty-three years.