The Book of the Ancient Greeks

An Introduction to the History and Civilization of Greece from the Coming of the Greeks to the Conquest of Corinth by Rome in 146 B.C.

By

Dorothy Mills, M.A.

Teacher of History at the Brearley School, New York Author of "The Book of the Ancient World"

With 16 Illustrations and a Map

G. P. Putnam's Sons New York & London The Knickerbocker Press

Copyright, 1925 by Dorothy Mills Published, August, 1925 Second impression, March, 1928 Third impression, October, 1928 Fourth impression, September, 1929 Fifth impression, October, 1930 Sixth impression, October, 1931 All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission.

The Knickerbocker Press New York Made in the United States of America

To M. C. S. M.

PREFACE

This book, like the first of the series the Book of the Ancient World, was used in its original manuscript form by one of my history classes. It carries on the story of the way in which man has been learning how to live from the time of the Coming of the Greeks to the loss of Greek independence in 146 B.C.

The spirit of a nation is expressed and its history is recorded in three ways: in its political history, in its literature and in its art. The aim of this book has been to use such parts of the political history of the Greeks, of their literature and of their art as seem to have been the outward and visible signs of the spirit that inspired them.

It would not have been possible to write this book in this way without the kind permission of translators and publishers to use copyright translations. I gladly take this opportunity to acknowledge my debt to Professor Gilbert Murray and the Oxford University Press for the translation of the Iphigenia in Tauris; to Mr. A. W. Pickard—Cambridge and the Oxford University Press for the translations from Demosthenes; to Mr. A. E. Zimmern and the Oxford University Press for passages from the Greek Commonwealth; and to the Trustees of the Jowett Fund and the Oxford University Press for translations from Plato and Thucydides; to Sir Arthur Evans for passages from an article in the Monthly Review; to Mr. G. S. Freeman for translations from the Schools of Hellas by the late Kenneth J. Freeman; to Mr. A. S. Way for a passage from the Persians; to Mr. A. W. Crawley for passages from the translation of the Odyssey by Butcher and Lang; to Mrs. Putnam for an extract from The Lady; to Miss Leslie White Hopkinson for her arrangement of one of the Elegiacs of Solon; to Messrs. Macmillan and Co. for translations from the Iliad by Lang, Leaf and Myers, from Pausanias by Sir J. G. Frazer, from Plato's Republic by Davies and Vaughan, from the Trial and Death of Socrates by F. G. Church, from Herodotus by G. C. Macaulay, from Xenophon by H. G. Dakyns, and for various translations in Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals (E. N. Gardiner), The City State of the Greeks and Romans (W. Warde Fowler) and Our Hellenic Heritage (H. R. James); to Messrs. J. M. Dent and Sons for translations from Plutarch's Lives; to Messrs. G. Bell and Sons for translations from Aristophanes by B. B. Rogers, from Theocritus by S. C. Calverley and from Aristotle by Sir F. G. Kenyon; to Messrs. George Allen and Unwin for translations from the Homeric Hymns by Andrew Lang; to Messrs. Edward Arnold and Co. for three poems from Love, Worship and Death by Sir Rennell Rodd; and to Messrs. Longmans, Green and Co. for translations from Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology by J. W. Mackail, and from Greek History for Young Readers by Alice Zimmern.

This book is only intended as an introduction to the history of Greek civilization, and the difficulty of my task has been to decide on what to omit. Everyone will not agree with me as to what I have taken and what I have left, but my aim will have been accomplished, if the book should create a desire to know something more of the great heritage which has come to us from the Greeks.

DOROTHY MILLS. NEW YORK, March, 1925.

CONTENTS

CRETE AND THE CIVILIZATION OF THE EARLY AEGEAN WORLD

CHAPTER

I.—THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD

II.—CRETE

I.—LEGENDS OF CRETE II.—THE PALACES OF CRETE III.—DRESS IV.—RELIGION AND LITERATURE V.—A DAY IN CRETE VI.—THE DESTROYERS

III.—THE MAINLAND

I.—TROY AND THE FIRST DISCOVERIES II.—MYCENAE AND TIRYNS III.—LIFE IN THE HOMERIC AGE IV.—THE GREEK MIGRATIONS

THE GREEKS

I.—THE LAND OF GREECE

II.—GREEK RELIGION AND THE ORACLES

III.—THE OLYMPIC GAMES

IV.—THE GREEK CITY-STATE

V.—SPARTA

I.—THE GOVERNMENT OF SPARTA: LAWS OF LYCURGUS II.—CUSTOMS IN SPARTA III.—SPARTAN EDUCATION

VI.—THE GROWTH OF ATHENS

I.—EARLIEST ATHENS II.—THE RULE OF THE FEW: THE OLIGARCHY III.—SOLON, THE WISE MAN OF ATHENS AND THE RULE OF THE MANY IV.—THE TYRANTS

VII.—GREEK COLONIES

I.—THE FOUNDING OF A COLONY II.—IONIA AND LYDIA

VIII.—THE BEGINNING OF THE PERSIAN WARS

I.—DARIUS AND THE IONIAN REVOLT II.—MARATHON

IX.—THE GREAT PERSIAN INVASION UNDER XERXES

I.—THE PREPARATIONS: (a) THE PERSIANS (b) THE GREEKS II.—THERMOPYLAE III.—THEMISTOCLES IV.—SALAMIS TO THE END

X.—THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE

I.—THE FORTIFICATIONS OF ATHENS II.—THE CONFEDERACY OF DELOS III.—THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE UNDER PERICLES

XI.—LIFE IN ANCIENT ATHENS IN THE TIME OF PERICLES

I.—A WALK IN ANCIENT ATHENS II.—ATHENIAN DRESS III.—THE ATHENIAN HOUSE IV.—ATHENIAN TRADE V.—ATHENIAN POTTERY

XII.—A DAY WITH AN ATHENIAN

I.—THE ATHENIAN GENTLEMAN II.—THE ATHENIAN LADY

XIII.—THE ATHENIAN SCHOOLBOY

XIV.—THE GREEK THEATRE

XV.—THE TEMPLES OF ATHENS

I.—GREEK TEMPLES II.—THE ACROPOLIS IN THE TIME OF PERICLES III.—LATER HISTORY OF THE ACROPOLIS

XVI.—THE DOWNFALL OF ATHENS

I.—RIVALRY BETWEEN ATHENS AND SPARTA AND THE BEGINNING OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR II.—ATHENS DURING THE WAR III.—ALCIBIADES IV.—THE DOWNFALL OF ATHENS AND THE SUPREMACY OF SPARTA V.—THE MARCH OF THE TEN THOUSAND

XVII.—THE GREAT DAYS OF THEBES

I.—LEGENDS AND EARLY HISTORY OF THEBES II.—EPAMINONDAS

XVIII.—ALEXANDER THE GREAT

I.—PHILIP OF MACEDON II.—DEMOSTHENES III.—ALEXANDER THE GREAT

XIX.—THE GIFTS OF GREECE TO THE WORLD

I.—THE GREEK SPIRIT II.—SOCRATES III.—GREEK LITERATURE: THE PHILOSOPHERS IV.—GREEK LITERATURE: THE HISTORIANS V.—GREEK LITERATURE: THE DRAMATISTS VI.—GREEK ART

XX.—THE HELLENISTIC AGE

I.—THE EXTENT OF GREEK INFLUENCE II.—ALEXANDRIA III.—SCIENCE IN THE HELLENISTIC AGE IV.—THE END OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE AND THE POWER FROM THE WEST

SUGGESTIONS ABOUT BOOKS FOR FURTHER READING

INDEX

ILLUSTRATIONS

Hermes of Praxiteles . . . Frontispiece

Outline Map of Greece and Coasts of the Aegean Sea [missing from source book]

Snake Goddess and Cupbearer

The Birth of Aphrodite

Discobolus of Myron

A Girl Racer

The Temple of Poseidon at Paestum

Pericles

Athens with the Acropolis

Greek Vases

The Flute Lesson, and the Writing Lesson

The Lyre Lesson, and the Poetry Lesson

Music School Scenes

The Theatre at Epidaurus

The Parthenon

Alexander the Great

Sophocles

Chronological Chart

[Transcriber's Note: the above Chronological Chart and the map mentioned on the title page were both missing from the source book.]

CRETE AND THE CIVILIZATION OF THE EARLY AEGEAN WORLD