Ancient History in the Secondary School

WILLIAM FAIRLEY, Ph.D., Editor.

THE GLORY AND THE RUIN OF GREECE.

With the work of the present month we come to a period of Greek history marked by the extreme of contrast. We are to study the crowning glories of Greece in the realm of mind, and her downfall on the side of political strength and success. Both facts should be emphasized. This section is specially well fitted for topical study. A series of such topics may well be as follows:

1. Map of Attica and the Athenian Empire at its widest. Plan of Athens. Pictures of Athens. Side topic: the sources of the wealth of Athens. (Mines, taxes, tribute).

2. Athenian public life. Intense devotion of citizen to state affairs. Opportunity for every citizen to hold office.

3. Social, industrial and private life. Aspasia, as throwing a side light on position of woman.

4. Greek art—sculpture, architecture, painting.

5. Greek drama: its development and power.

6. Greek philosophy. The attempt to read the problems of life. Special reference to Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

7. Athenian democracy under Pericles. The Constitution.

8. The career of Pericles: born leader of a democracy.

9. The Peloponnesian War.

10. Military and naval affairs. Athenian naval supremacy. The Theban phalanx.

11. Spartan and Theban control. Military rule of conquered sections.

12. Greek political failure.

Here is a good month’s work; and one which will test the teacher. Remark has already been made in this series of articles on the surpassing debt of modern civilization to Greek thought. The present is the opportunity for the pupil to grasp the extent of this debt. The value of such grasp will depend on the teacher. It is easy to imagine the dullness of mere text-book work here. The student may be led through such a period, and have no more impression left on him than he would by learning the boundaries of our forty-six States. On the other hand, he may be so impressed by the marvellous activities of the Greek mind as to be able always hereafter to understand why literature makes so multitudinous references to this petty people.

Minimize the Study of War.

The better text-books are admirable in their restraint in dealing with such topics as the Peloponnesian War. One fine book gives only six pages to it, and omits all trivial details. Another good book gives only about eight pages. This is as it should be. That war, and the later attempts at control by Thebes are to be taken, not as studies of heroic endeavor, but as melancholy examples of human foolishness. The bitter costs and heavy losses of war can find no more striking illustration than in the period of the great struggle for control in Greece. These were essentially civil wars from our point of view. It is true there was no political unity in Greece, save of the fleeting federations; but for all that the wars of the fifth century and the first half of the fourth were wars among peoples who should have been brothers. Historians tell us that there are no “lessons” to be drawn from past occurrences. But, spite of that dictum, the political fate of Greece points plainly to the evils of unnecessary war. Some wars are unavoidable race conflicts; others center about the struggle for freedom from tyranny; others come from the clash of older and newer ideas. But fratricidal war, such as the internal conflicts of Greece, is only horrible. The recent ebullition of temper between England and Germany, peoples of the same stock, is an illustration of the sort of thing that the Greek example may well warn against.

The Periclean Democracy.

It is a relief to turn away from war and its evils to the living interests of peaceful life. The young student will come across many references in his later reading to Athenian democracy. That democracy reached its flowering under Pericles. In the outline of topics given at the beginning of this article, number 7 calls for a period devoted to the study of this democracy. How shall such a lesson be taught?

In a preceding article it was suggested that the pupils make an outline of the older Athenian constitutions. This outline may well be supplemented first of all by one of the various assemblies, courts and offices of the Periclean time. But that is only the bones of the study. The lesson might proceed by a series of comparisons with modern conditions. First of all, What did an Athenian mean by “democracy,” and what do we mean? The answer to this question will show the mighty advance of the modern idea over the best of the older world. The growth of the power of the popular assembly as over against that of the senate and Areopagus should be pointed out. And its modern counterpart in the growing distrust of legislatures and the demand for the referendum may be used to illustrate the same tendency among us.

The degree of intelligence among the Athenians who constituted the assembly must be noted. Probably so able a body of citizens would be hard to match in a modern state of a thousand times the size of Athens. But was this excellence, founded on slave labor, and the idea that the worth of the true citizen is measured by his political activity too dearly bought?

The long control of Pericles, “the leader of the people,” illustrates finely the fact that the great man is sure to assert himself and to be used by his fellow citizens under whatever system of government, and whether he holds office or not. On the other hand, the theoretic division of executive responsibility, rising from distrust of one-man power, was a weakness. States must use and trust their great men, putting heavy responsibilities on them.

Contrast may well be drawn between a court at Athens and one in any part of the United States. Here will be opportunity for finding out how little the average youth really knows about our jury system.

Greek Drama.

Another topical lesson suggested is number 5, on the Greek drama. The growth of drama from the old chorus may be traced with its addition of an actor—then two actors—then three. The names of the chief dramatists, Æschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, should be linked with our Shakespeare and Molière, (What American playwrights fit worthily in such a class?) The difference between tragedy and comedy can be shown, tracing the etymology of the two words as given in any standard dictionary. Set the pupils to discussing the difference between a good play and a bad one. Why do these few old Greek plays live, and their characters become commonplaces of literature, with the characters of Goethe and Shakespeare? What characters of modern plays are likely or worthy to live? And at some time in the all-too-short period there might be short illustrative readings from a translation—Browning, or Shelley. Only by some such enlivening method will our charges ever get any grasp on the fact that Greek drama was epoch-making in its importance. We might well compare the open-air theater of Greece with our modern play-house; and also the different spirit in which the Greek took his drama.

Greek Art.

Again attention is to be focused on the fact that the Greeks were leaders and masters in art. And the surpassing wonder is that when the rest of the world had been satisfied with winged bulls and sphinxes and grotesquely conventional forms of men these people arrived in a century or two at a perfection which is the delight and the despair of the world. Their supremacy in carving the human figure in marble needs to be connected with their devoted attention to the development of the living form by athletic exercise. In our larger schools will be found casts, perhaps, at any rate, pictures, of the best pieces of Greek art. Their restraint, their simplicity may be dwelt on. In the country where the one lone teacher, not an expert, either in history or art, has not even a “pallid bust of Pallas,” he or she can at least make use of the illustrations in the text-book. Above all, let us try not to let this period be one of dull memorizing of names. It needs interpreting to the young folks so that they may see the wonder of it all, and the controlling influence it has exercised on the ages since.

The Lesson in Philosophy.

That same lone teacher just referred to may feel that it is absurd to ask for a lesson on philosophy with children. But, is it not true that in childhood some of us have been more curious about the problems of existence than we have since had time or taste to be? So if we cannot read to the boys and girls passages from the Phædo or the Apology, we can stir our pupils to a sense of the pressing nature of the problems which the Greeks first (save the Hebrews) strove rationally to solve. They asked and tried to find rational answers to such questions as, What is the relation of mind to matter? What is God? What is man? Does man die as the beast dies? And to these questions the men of this period found not unworthy answers. So in every field of human thought we find them pioneers and teachers of the world.