7. the history of greece by george grote, pp. 19-22

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  • tpe Arcadians and Achaeans that it wascommon sense for the whole force to re-main united.

    The usual operations were carried onfor obtaining supplies, report having ar-rived that Cleander, the Lacedaemoniangovernor of Byzantium, was coming,which he presently did, with a couple ofgalleys but no transports. From informa-tion received, Cleander was inclined toregard the army as little better than aband of brigands; but this idea wassuccessfully dissipated by Xenophon.Cleander went back to Byzantium, andthe Greeks marched from Calpe to Chry-sopolis, which faces Byzantium.

    Here the whole force was at last car-ried over to the opposite shore, and oncemore found itself on European soil, hav-ipg received promises of pay from theadmiral Anaxibius. Suspicions of his realitentions were aroused, and Xenophonlad difficulty in keeping his men from

    breaking loose and sacking Byzantiumitself.

    r TLTTMATELY, the greater part of the\U force took service with the Thra-

    cian king Seuthes. Seuthes, however,failed to carry out his promises as topayment and rewards. But now theLacedaemonians were engaged in a quar-rel with the western satraps, Tissaphernesand Artabazus; six thousand veterans soexperienced as those who had followedthis famous march into the heart of thePersian empire, had fought their wayfrom Cunaxa to Trapezus, and had sup-ported themselves mainly by their mili-tary prowess in getting from Trapezusto Europe, were a force by no means tobe neglected, and the bulk of the troopswere not unwilling to be incorporated inthe Spartan armies. So ends the storyof the retreat of the ten thousandGreeks.

    The History of GreeceGEORGE GROTE

    AS early as 1822 George Grotc conceived the idea of writing a reliable and authorita-L tive history of Greece, and was confirmed in his purpose by the publication ofMitford's history, a work full of anti-democratic fervour. In some respects Grote'swork is a defence of the Athenian democracy. It appeared between 1846 and 1856and covered Greek history from the earliest times till the close of the generation con-temporary with Alexander the Great. It still holds the field as the classic work onthe subject as a whole, though later research has modified several of Grote's conclusions.

    IEARLY HISTORY

    THE divine myths constitute theearliest matter of Greek history.These may be divided into thosewhich belong to the gods and to theleroes respectively; but most of them,in point of fact, present gods, heroes andmen in juxtaposition. Every communitysought to trace its origin to some com-mon divine, or semi-divine, progenitor;the establishment of a pedigree was anecessity; and each pedigree contains atsome point figures corresponding to someactual historical character, before whomthe pedigree is imaginary, but after whom,in the main, actual. The precise pointwhere the legend fades into the mythical,or consolidates into the historical, is notusually ascertainable.

    The legendary period culminates in the

    tale of Troy, which belongs to a periodprior to the Dorian conquest presentedin the Herakleid legend; the tale of Troyitself remaining the common heritage ofthe Greek peoples, and having an actualbasis in historical fact. The events, how-ever, are of less importance than the pic-ture of an actual historical, political andsocial system, corresponding, not to thesupposed date of the Trojan war, but tothe date of the composition of theHomeric poems.

    Later ages regarded the myths them-selves with a good deal of scepticism,and were often disposed to rationalisethem, or to find for them an allegoricalinterpretation. The myths of other Euro-pean peoples have undergone a somewhatsimilar treatment.

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  • Greece proper, that is, the Europeanterritory occupied by the Hellenic peo-ples, has a very extensive coast-line,covers the islands of the Aegean and isso mountainous on the mainland thatcommunication between one point andanother is not easy.

    This facilitated the system which iso-lated communities, compelling each oneto develop and perfect its own separateorganization; so that Greece became, nota state, but a congeries of single separatecity statessmall territories centring inthe city, although in some cases the vil-lage system was not centralised into thecity system.

    On the other hand, the Hellenes verydefinitely recognized their commonaffinity, looked on themselves as a dis-tinct aggregate, and very emphaticallydifferentiated that entire aggregate fromthe non-Hellenes, whom they designated'barbarians.'

    Of these states, the first to come intoviewpost-Homericallyis Sparta, thehead of the Dorian communities, gov-erned under the laws and discipline at-tributed to Lycurgus, with its specialpeculiarity of the dual kingship designedto make a pure despotism impossible.The government lay and remained in thehands of the conquering Spartan race-as for a time with the Normans in Eng-landwhich formed a close oligarchy,while within the oligarchical body the or-ganization was democratic and communis-tic. For Sparta, the eight and seventhcenturies B.C. were characterised by thetwo Messenian wars; and we note thatwhile the Hellenes generally recognizedher headship, Argos claimed a titular rightto that position.

    As a general rule, the primitive mon-archical system portrayed in the Homericpoems was displaced in the Greek citiesby an oligarchical government, which inturn was overthrown by an irregulardespotism called tyrannis, primarily es-tablished by a professed popular leader,who maintained his supremacy by mer-cenary troops. One after another theseusurping dynasties were again ejected infavour either of a restored oligarchy orof a democracy. Sparta, where the powerof the dual kingship was extremelylimited, was the only state where thelegitimate kingship survived. Corinth at-tained her highest power under the despotPeriander, son of Cypselus.

    Of the Ionian section of Greek statethe supreme type is Athens. Her earljyhistory is obscure. The kingship seemsto have ended by being, so to speak,placed in commission, the royal function'sbeing discharged by an elected body ofArchons. Dissensions among the groupsof citizens issued in the democraticSolonian constitution, which remained thebasis of Athenian government, exceptduring the despotism of the house ofPisistratus in the latter half of the sixthcentury B.C.

    But outside of Greece proper were thenumerous Dorian and Ionian colonies',really independent cities, planted in thecoast districts of Asia Minor, at Cyreneand Barka in Mediterranean Africa, inEpirus (Albania), Southern Italy, Sicilyand even at Massilia in Gaul and inThrace beyond the proper Hellenic areaThese colonies brought the Greek workin touch with Lydia and its king, Croesuswith the one seagoing Semitic power, thtPhoenicians, with the Egyptians andmore remotely, with the wholly Orientaempires of Assyria and Babylon, as welas with the outer barbarians of Scythia.

    Between 560 and 510 B.C., Athens wa;generally under the rule of the despotPisistratus and his son Hippias. In 510,the Pisistratidae were expelled andAthens became a pure democracy. Mean-while, the Persian Cyrus had seized theMedian monarchy and overthrown everyother potentate in Western Asia; Egypwas added to the vast Persian dominionby his son Cambyses. A new dynastywas established by Darius, the son ofHystaspes, who organized the empire, bufailed to extend it by invading EuropeanScythia.

    THE revolt of the Ionic cities in AsiaMinor against the governments established by the 'great king' brought himin contact with the Athenians, who senthelp to Ionia. Demands for 'earth andwater,' i.e. the formal recognition of Per-sian sovereignty, sent to the apparentlyinsignificant Greek states were insolentlyrejected. Darius sent an expedition topunish Athens in particular, and thiAthenians drove his army into the sea athe battle of Marathon.

    Xerxes, son of Darius, organized anoverwhelming force by land and sea toeat up the Greeks. The invaders weremet but hardly checked at Thermopylae,

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  • where Leonidas and the immortal threehundred fell; all Greece north of theIsthmus of Corinth was in their hands,including Athens. But their fleet wasshattered to pieces, chiefly by the Athe-

    nians under Themistocles and Aristidesat Salamis, and the destruction of theirland forces was completed by the unitedGreeks at Plataea. A further disasterwas inflicted on the same day at Mycale.

    IITHE STRUGGLE OF ATHENS AND SPARTAN

    MEANWHILE, the Sicilian Greeks, ledby Gelo of Syracuse, successfullyresisted and overthrew the aggression ofCarthage, the issue being decided at thebattle of Himera. The part played byAthens under the guidance of Themis-tocles in the repulse of Persia gave her anew position among the Greek states andan indisputable naval leadership. As themaritime head of Hellas she was chief ofthe naval Delian League, now formedostensibly to carry on the war againstPersia. But the leaguers, who first con-tributed a quota of ships, soon began tosubstitute money to pro vide, ships, whichin effect swelled the Athenian navy andturned the contributors into tributaries.Thus, almost automatically, the DelianLeague converted itself into an Athenianempire.

    In Athens itself an unparalleled per-sonal ascendancy was acquired byPericles, who made the form of gov-ernment and administration more demo-cratic than before. But this growingsupremacy of Athens aroused the jealousalarm of other Greek states. Sparta sawher own titular hegemony threatened; thesjbject cities grew restive under theAthenian yoke. Sparta came forwardprofessedly as champion of the libertiesof Hellas; Athens refused to submit toSpartan dictation and accepted the chal-lenge which plunged Greece into thePeloponnesian war.

    The Athenians concentrated on the ex-ansion of their naval armament, left thepen country undefended and gatheredithin the city walls, and landed forcest will on the Peloponnese. Plataea, al-lost their sole ally on land, held outaliantly for some time, but was forcedo surrender; and Athens herself sufferedrightfully from a visitation of the plague.

    AFTER the death of Pericles, Cleon be-.. came the most prominent leader ofhe aggressive and democratic party,'Jicias, of the anti-democratic peaceiarty. Over most of Greece in each statehe oligarchic faction favoured the Pelo-

    ponnesian league, the democratic, Athens.The general Demosthenes at Pylos ef-fected the surrender of a Lacedaemonianforce, which temporarily shatteredSparta's military prestige, a blow in somedegree counteracted by the brilliantoperations of Brasidas in the north,where, however, both he and Cleon werekilled.

    Meanwhile, Athens was awakening tothe possibilities of a great sea-empire, inconsequence of her intervention havingbeen invited in disputes among the Sicil-ian states. As the outcome, incited bythe brilliant young Alcibiades, she re-solved on the fatal Sicilian expedition.The expedition, planned on an unprece-dented scale, and placed under the com-mand of Alcibiades and Nicias, wasdispatched in spite of the startling muti-lation of the Hermae, a sacrilegiousperformance attributed to Alcibiades.It had hardly reached Sicily when hewas recalled, but made his escape andspent some years in intriguing againstAthens.

    The siege of Syracuse was progressingfavourably, when the Spartan Gylippuswas allowed to enter, and put new lifeinto the defence. Disaster followed ondisaster both by sea and land; finally,the whole Athenian force was either cutto pieces or surrendered at discretion, tobecome the slaves of the Syracusans, bothNicias and Demosthenes being put todeath.

    Meanwhile, the truce between Athensand Sparta had been ended and waragain declared. Sparta occupied perma-nently a post on Attic territory, Deceleia,with merciless effect. The Sicilian dis-aster moved the islanders, notably Chios,to revolt, with Spartan help, againstAthens. She, however, renovated hernavy with unexpected vigour. But, withher fleets away, Alcibiades inspired oli-garchical intrigues in the city; a coupd'etat gave the government to the leadersof a group of 400. The navy stood bythe democratic constitution, the 400 wereoverthrown, and an assembly, nominally

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  • of 5,000, assumed the government. Agreat Athenian triumph at Arginusae wasfollowed later by a still more overwhelm-ing disaster at Aegos Potami.

    The Spartan commander Lysanderblockaded Athens; starvation forced herto surrender. Lysander established thegovernment known as that of the ThirtyTyrants, who were headed by Kritias.Lysander's ascendancy created in Spartaa party in opposition to him; in the out-come, the Spartan king Pausanias helpedin the overthrow of the Thirty at Athens

    by Thrasybulus, and the restoration ofthe Athenian democracy. Throughout,the conduct of the democratic party con-trasted favourably with that of the oli-garchical faction.

    These eighty years were the great pe-riod of Athenian literature and art: ofthe Parthenon and Pheidias; of Aeschy-lus, the soldier of Marathon; then ofSophocles and Euripides and Aristoph-anes; finally, of Socrates, the inspirerof Plato and the founder of ethical sci-ence.

    IllTHE BLOTTING OUT OF HELLAS

    T HE triumph of Sparta had estab-lished her empire among theGreeks; she used her power with atyranny infinitely more galling than thesway of Athens. The Spartan characterhad become greatly demoralised. Agesi-laus, who succeeded to the kingship, seton foot ambitious projects for a Greekconquest of Asia; but Greece began torevolt against the Spartan dominion.Thebes and other cities rose, and calledfor help from Athens, their former foe.

    In the first stages of the ensuing war,of which the most notable battle wasCoronea, Sparta maintained her suprem-acy within the Peloponnesus, but notbeyond. Athens obtained the counte-nance of Persia, and the counter-diplo-macy of Sparta produced the peaceknown by the name of the SpartanAntalcidas, establishing generally the au-tonomy of Greek cities. But this in effectmeant the restoration of Spartan domina-tion.

    In course of time, however, thisbrought about the defiance of Spartandictation by Thebes and the tremendouscheck to her power inflicted at the battleof Leuctra, by Epaminondas the Theban,whose military skill and tactical origi-nality there overthrew the Spartan mili-tary prestige. As a consequence, half thePeloponnese itself broke away fromSparta; a force under Epaminondas aidedthe Arcadians and the Arcadian federa-tion was established.

    Hellenic Sicily during these years washaving a history of her own of some im-portance. Syracuse, after her triumphover the Athenian forces, continued thecontest with her neighbours, which hadbeen the ostensible cause of the Athenianexpedition. But this was closed by the

    advent of fresh invaders, the Cartha-ginians, who renewed the attack repulsedat Himera. Owing to the disaster t;oAthens, her fleets were no longer to befeared by Carthage as a protection tothe Hellenic world; and for two cen-turies to corne, her interventions in Sicilywere incessant. Now, the presence of aforeign foe in Sicily gave intriguers forpower at Syracuse their opportunity, ofwhich the outcome was the subversion ofthe democracy and the establishment cfDionysius as despot.

    His son, Dionysius II, succeeded, andwas finally ejected by the CorinthianTimoleon, who, after a brilliant careerof victories as Syracusan general againstCarthage, acted as general liberator ofSicilian cities from despotisms, laid dowihis powers and was content with the pos: -tion, not of despot, but of counsellor,to the great prosperity of Sicily as a.whole.

    GOING back to the north of Greece,the semi-Hellenic Macedon with iHellenic dynasty was growing powerfu'.Philipfather of Alexander the Great-was now king, and was resolved to makehimself the head of the Greek world. Higreat opponent is found in the person othe Athenian orator Demosthenes, wbsaw that Philip was aiming at ascendancbut generally failed to persuade the Athenians to recognize the danger in whicthey stood. Philip gradually achieved hiimmediate end of being recognized as thcaptain-general of the Hellenes, and theileader in a new Persian war, when his lif>was cut short by an assassin, and he wa;succeeded by his youthful son Alexander.

    The Greek states, awakening to thei

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  • practical subjection, would have thrownoff the new yoke, but the young king withswift and overwhelming energy sweptdown from Thrace upon Thebes, thecentre of resistance, and stamped it out.He had already conceived, in part, atleast, his vast schemes of Asiatic con-quest; while he lived Greece had prac-tically no distinguishable history. She ismerely an appendage to Macedon. Every-thing is absorbed in the Macedonian con-queror. With an army incredibly smallfor the task before him, he entered AsiaMinor and routed the Persian forces onthe River Granicus. The Greek Memnon,the one able leader for the Persians,would have organized against him a de-structive naval power; but death re-moved him.

    Alexander dispersed the armies of thePersian king Darius at the Issus, cap-tured Tyre after a remarkable siege andtook easy possession of Egypt, where hefounded Alexandria. Having organizedthe administration of the conquered terri-

    tories, he marched to the Euphrates, butdid not engage the enormous Persianhosts till he had found and shatteredthem at the battle of Gaugamela, alsocalled Arbela. Darius fled, and Alexan-der swept on to Babylon, to Susa, toPersepolis, assuming the functions of the'Great King.' The fugitive Darius wasassassinated.

    .ALEXANDER henceforth assumed a newXx. and oriental demeanour; but hecontinued his conquests, crossing theHindu Kush to Bactria and then burstinginto the Punjab. But his ambitions wereended by his death, and their fulfilment,not at all according to his designs, wasleft to the 'Diadochi,' the generals amongwhom the conquered dominions wereparted. Athens led the revolt againstMacedonian supremacy, but in vain.Demosthenes, condemned by Antipater,took poison. The remainder of the his-tory is that of the blotting out of Hellasand of Hellenism.

    CatilineSALLUST

    A VIGOROUS account of the notorious conspiracy of Catiline in 63 B.C. to overthrowl \ the civil power in Rome, Sallust's Catiline is one of the best histories in Latinliterature. The narrative is vivid and consistent, and the sketches of character areadmirable in their power and conciseness. Although the author obviously hated thedemocratic party with which Catiline was connected, and had no great admiration forCato or Cicero, his work is wonderfully impartial. Sallust's conception of history,indeed, as is exemplified also in his Jugurthine War, was very modern. He attemptsto bring before his readers not only the incidents of history, but also their causes;further, he invariably seeks to establish the connexion between events that a contem-

    porary would have treated as isolated facts.

    ITHE PLOTTING

    I ESTEEM the intellectual above thephysical qualities of man; and thetask of the historian has attractedme because it taxes the writer's abilitiesto the utmost. Personal ambition had atfirst drawn me into public life, but thepolitical atmosphere, full of degradation,nd corruption, was so uncongenial that Ilesolved to retire and devote myself tothe production of a series of historicalstudies, for which I felt myself to be thebetter fitted by my freedom from thehfluences which bias the political partisan.For the first of these studies I have se-lected the conspiracy of Catiline.

    Lucius Catilina [commonly called Cati-line] was of high birth, richly endowedboth in mind and body, but of extremedepravity; with extraordinary powers ofendurance, reckless, crafty and versatile,a master in the arts of deception, at oncegrasping and lavish, unbridled in his pas-sions, ready of speech, but with little trueinsight. Of insatiable and inordinate am-bitions, he was possessed, after Sulla'ssupremacy, with a craving to grasp thecontrol of the state, utterly careless ofthe means so the end were attained. Nat-urally headstrong, he was urged forwardby his want of money, the consciousness

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