Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh

“ Their great achievement was to prevent the extension of the Persian power into Europe; but they can only claim a very subordinate part in the forward movement of Alexander. Yet they possessed a genius which has conquered the world. Their very passion for separatism gave birth to political science: while in philosophy, in the study of nature, in art, and literature, in nearly everything that affects our spiritual or physical well-being, the Hellenes did work of supreme excellence. ”

“ His reign was a period of great glory for Syracuse. He possessed a powerful fleet; the city was adorned with splendid buildings; he encouraged literature and art, and welcomed philosophers and men of learning to his court. Yet it was not a happy time for Western Greece. Dionysius and his fleets, indeed, were able to suppress Etruscan and Illyrian pirates, and to keep safe both the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian seas; but he used them also to force the cities of Southern Italy to submit to him. ”

“ It is a natural reflection that a sovereign has no such power of transferring a people to another ruler. He cannot, except in special circumstances, even name his successor. Yet it is not more outrageous than the transference of whole nations from one sovereign to another by treaty without the people so transferred being consulted, as has often happened in modern Europe. We must remember, however, that the larger part of the kingdom of Pergamus had been taken by the Romans bodily from King Antiochus and annexed to Pergamus, equally without any regard to national sentiment. ”

“ We have now to contemplate a Spartan Greece—a Greece, that is, in which any combined action that might be undertaken must be approved and led by the Spartans, and in which Sparta will claim the right of placing a resident or harmost and a garrison in any of the states formerly belonging to the Athenian alliance in which it seemed necessary. These residents speedily became more odious than the Athenian officers had ever been, and before many years had passed revolts were frequent and often successful. ”

“ Though we cannot suppose that ordinary people would reason with such refinement upon the effect of education, it was some such theory that unconsciously influenced the Greek view of its significance. But for the boys who looked forward to playing an important part in public life—generally the sons of wealthier parents—there was something else needed. In a democracy like that of Athens—and in varying degrees in other states—the only method of attaining power was to persuade the people, and to do that there was need of eloquence, the faculty of putting a case clearly and attractively. ”

“ Yet this age saw the beginning of the movement which was to make Athens for a long time the intellectual capital of Greece. Though his speculations on the nature and origin of the universe alarmed the people and caused his expulsion from the city, Anaxagoras spent some years in Athens and profoundly affected Pericles and his generation. Herodotus visited Athens more than once, and spent the last years of his life in Thurii, which was in great part an Athenian colony, while his successor in the art of history was a pure Athenian, Thucydides, son of Olorus. ”

“ We have seen in the seventh century B.C. that it was in the Greek cities of Asia—the Æolian colonies of the north-west and the Ionian colonies of the south-west—that Hellenic life seemed most active and vigorous. This was shown by the extraordinary activity in sending out fresh colonies, in the outburst of literature, and in the frequency of political movement and change. It was in these cities, it seemed at one time, that the Greeks were to work out their destiny. But this development was checked, in the first instance, by the rise of the Lydian kingdom, with a capital at Sardis. ”

“ Her supremacy in the dramatic art, indeed, was foreshadowed by the improvements of Thespis, Phrynichus, and Æschylus, dating from the time of the Peisistratidæ; but it was not till after the Persian invasions that the heightened position of Athens began to attract men of letters and philosophers to her as the natural home of literature and art, while the beauty of her buildings and the wealth of ornament which glorified them roused the admiration of foreigners, and made a marked impression on the character of her own citizens. ”

“ Of all the philosophers Plato is the greatest man of letters and master of style. His philosophy, though it inspired and still inspires many men of genius or special aptitude, was too purely ideal and critical to have much influence on ordinary people, and his successors—while professing to found themselves on him—reached in time a position of almost complete scepticism, which is never popular with the masses who desire, above all things, from their teachers something clear and definite. Nor did he, like the Sophists, give what was needed for practical life ”

“ It was when the days of strife were over and Athens had found peace without honour that the intellectual sceptre departed from her and found a place for a time in the Greek city of Alexander on the Nile. Peace may nurture genius, but does not seem to produce it. Nine of the ten orators might, perhaps, have lived in any age of Athenian history ”

“ The men and horses on the frieze of the Parthenon live and move, their faces express life-like emotion, and their eyes see. The names of the artists mentioned belong to the fifth century B.C., but in the next century Scopas of Paros, Praxiteles of Athens, Lysippus of Sicyon, worthily maintained the tradition; and if it is true that the Aphrodite of Melos (now in the Louvre) belongs to the second century B.C., Greek art remained at the very highest point of excellence at least till that time, while some of the statues of the early Emperors of Rome show scarcely less skill. ”

“ It will be seen therefore that at Cæsar's death there was hardly any part of the Empire in which there were not elements of mischief more or less active. The most peaceful district was perhaps Greece, though it managed to put itself under the frown of the triumrirs by sympathising with Brutus, and later on under that of Octavian by sympathising with Antony. The disturbances which most affected the actual residents in Rome and Italy were those in Sicily and Sardinia, Gaul and Illyricum. The man who should put an end to these would seem a saviour of society. ”

“ Thus Greece, which the course of events since the death of Alexander had brought into line with the Hellenistic kingdoms of Egypt, Syria, Pergamus, and Macedonia was now joined to the Roman system, destined before long to absorb the first three of these as it had already done the last. Greece cannot be said to have flourished in this new position. Population went down; what had once been important cities became mere villages, and most of the active and vigorous men who survived sought employment elsewhere, either as soldiers, or physicians, or teachers, or artists. ”

“ Peace was then made between all the warring states, from which, however, Sparta stood aloof. There was no more fighting for four years, but the general result of the ten years of Theban supremacy was weakness and disunion everywhere, the isolation of Sparta, and a renewed bitterness of feeling between Thebes and Athens, which were still the two strongest states.
But while Greece was thus squandering her strength in unprofitable quarrels, a power was growing up close by destined to absorb her and permanently destroy independent political life in her divided states. ”

“ The defeat of Pyrrhus (B.C. 275) and the capture of Tarentum by the Romans (B.C. 272) were the sure prelude to the loss of freedom for all the Greek cities. They had to join the Roman system, some on better terms than others, but all in some sort as subjects. For a time this seems to have secured a spell of security and prosperity for some of them—a relief, perhaps, from the attacks of surrounding nations. ”

“ The constitutional history of the reign is that which has generally engaged most attention. I have striven to state the facts clearly. Of their exact significance opinions will differ. I have given my own for what it is worth, and can only say that it has been formed independently by study of our authorities.
I have not tried to represent my hero as faultless or to make black white. Nothing can clear Augustus of the charge of cruelty up to B.C. 31. But in judging him regard must be had to his age and circumstances. ”

“ If we turn from material grievances to those of sentiment, we must note that the Roman and the Greek did not easily amalgamate in Greek lands. The Greek in Rome was both useful and agreeable, and most of the leading men found it convenient and pleasant to have educated Greeks as members of their household, not only to educate their children, but to supply themselves with the society they needed, to be friend, secretary, and the companion of leisure hours. ”

“ But by this time the Persian satrap at Sardis, Oroetes, had made up his mind that Polycrates must be got rid of. He was accordingly lured over to Asia by a pretended offer of Oroetes to join him in revolting from the king and seizing the treasures at Sardis; and was arrested on his way and put to death. His brother, who was willing to be subservient to Persia, was put in his place. In this way the Persian power over the Greek states was steadily strengthened, and was now becoming continually more formidable. The conquest of Phoenicia had put in the king's hand a numerous and enterprising navy. ”

“ They learnt, as they listened, how an overmastering Fate bound the gods themselves, how Zeus ruled with Justice as his assessor, and how all that sustained or concerned mortals was divine or divinely directed—the air they breathed, the ocean that surrounded the world, the fire that ministered to their needs, the sun, moon, and stars that gave them light, the earth that nurtured and fed them, the wisdom that guided their steps aright, and the folly that bred presumption and involved men in ruin. ”

“ In Dorian states, such as Argos, Corinth, and Sicyon, the government was first in the hands of a royal caste, or clan, who selected the king from their own number. These kings, however, were not autocratic, and the government was, in fact, a kind of oligarchy. But in them all alike there came a time when some one man, generally acting as a champion of the people, seized on the government and became a despot or tyrant. ”

“ In literature generally they were no less original, and have exercised a no less permanent influence. Neither writing, nor sculpture, nor painting, nor the art of modelling in clay began in Greek lands with the Hellenic world. The discoveries in the Troad, at Mycenae and Tiryns, and in Crete, already referred to, show that these arts existed many centuries before the dwellers in Greece were the Hellenes. But literature begins with them. The author, or authors, of the Iliad and Odyssey, indeed, wrote or recited before the Greeks began to speak of themselves generally as Hellenes ”

“ But the final cause which induced the Spartans to proclaim war was really dread of Athenian expansion. Athens had more power, than, according to Greek ideas, it was safe for any one state to possess.
The war which followed is called the Peloponnesian war, because Sparta dominated the Peloponnese, which, with the exception of Argolis and Achaia, was mainly on her side; but in fact nearly all continental Greece was hostile to Athens, who relied on her maritime and Asiatic allies. It was, therefore, a contest for the most part between a land and a sea power. ”

“ At sunrise Xerxes poured libations to his god, and a few hours later started for the pass. The Spartans, knowing themselves to be surrounded, determined to die fighting in the open. They quitted their shelter behind the Phocian wall and advanced into the wider part of the plain. A desperate hand-to-hand fight followed. Two of the king's brothers fell; many of the Persians were driven into the sea or were trodden under the feet of their own men. Presently Leonidas fell, and an obstinate battle raged round his corpse. ”