tpe Arcadians and Achaeans that it was

common sense for the whole force to re-

main united.
The usual operations were carried on
for obtaining supplies, report having ar-
rived that Cleander, the Lacedaemonian
governor of Byzantium, was coming,
which he presently did, with a couple of
galleys but no transports. From informa-
tion received, Cleander was inclined to
regard the army as little better than a
band of brigands; but this idea was
successfully dissipated by Xenophon.
Cleander went back to Byzantium, and
the 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 once
more found itself on European soil, hav-
ipg received promises of pay from the
admiral Anaxibius. Suspicions of his real
itentions were aroused, and Xenophon
lad difficulty in keeping his men from
breaking loose and sacking Byzantium
itself.
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 to
payment and rewards. But now the
Lacedaemonians were engaged in a quar-
rel with the western satraps, Tissaphernes
and Artabazus; six thousand veterans so
experienced as those who had followed
this famous march into the heart of the
Persian empire, had fought their way
from Cunaxa to Trapezus, and had sup-
ported themselves mainly by their mili-
tary prowess in getting from Trapezus
to Europe, were a force by no means to
be neglected, and the bulk of the troops
were not unwilling to be incorporated in
the Spartan armies. So ends the story
of the retreat of the ten thousand
Greeks.
The History of Greece
GEORGE GROTE
A
S 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 of
Mitford's history, a work full of anti-democratic fervour. In some respects Grote's
work is a defence of the Athenian democracy. It appeared between 1846 and 1856
and 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 on
the subject as a whole, though later research has modified several of Grote's conclusions.
IEARLY HISTORY
T
HE divine myths constitute the
earliest matter of Greek history.
These may be divided into those
which belong to the gods and to the
leroes respectively; but most of them,
in point of fact, present gods, heroes and
men in juxtaposition. Every community
sought to trace its origin to some com-
mon divine, or semi-divine, progenitor;
the establishment of a pedigree was a
necessity; and each pedigree contains at
some point figures corresponding to some
actual historical character, before whom
the pedigree is imaginary, but after whom,
in the main, actual. The precise point
where the legend fades into the mythical,
or consolidates into the historical, is not
usually ascertainable.
The legendary period culminates in the
tale of Troy, which belongs to a period
prior to the Dorian conquest presented
in the Herakleid legend; the tale of Troy
itself remaining the common heritage of
the Greek peoples, and having an actual
basis in historical fact. The events, how-
ever, are of less importance than the pic-
ture of an actual historical, political and
social system, corresponding, not to the
supposed date of the Trojan war, but to
the date of the composition of the
Homeric poems.
Later ages regarded the myths them-
selves with a good deal of scepticism,
and were often disposed to rationalise
them, or to find for them an allegorical
interpretation. The myths of other Euro-
pean peoples have undergone a somewhat
similar treatment.
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Greece proper, that is, the European
territory occupied by the Hellenic peo-
ples, has a very extensive coast-line,
covers the islands of the Aegean and is
so mountainous on the mainland that
communication between one point and
another is not easy.
This facilitated the system which iso-
lated communities, compelling each one
to develop and perfect its own separate
organization; so that Greece became, not
a state, but a congeries of single separate
city statessmall territories centring in
the city, although in some cases the vil-
lage system was not centralised into the
city system.
On the other hand, the Hellenes very
definitely recognized their common
affinity, looked on themselves as a dis-
tinct aggregate, and very emphatically
differentiated that entire aggregate from
the non-Hellenes, whom they designated
'barbarians.'
Of these states, the first to come into
viewpost-Homericallyis Sparta, the
head of the Dorian communities, gov-
erned under the laws and discipline at-
tributed to Lycurgus, with its special
peculiarity of the dual kingship designed
to make a pure despotism impossible.
The government lay and remained in the
hands 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 seventh
centuries B.C. were characterised by the
two Messenian wars; and we note that
while the Hellenes generally recognized
her headship, Argos claimed a titular right
to that position.
As a general rule, the primitive mon-
archical system portrayed in the Homeric
poems was displaced in the Greek cities
by an oligarchical government, which in
turn was overthrown by an irregular
despotism called tyrannis, primarily es-
tablished by a professed popular leader,
who maintained his supremacy by mer-
cenary troops. One after another these
usurping dynasties were again ejected in
favour either of a restored oligarchy or
of a democracy. Sparta, where the power
of the dual kingship was extremely
limited, was the only state where the
legitimate kingship survived. Corinth at-
tained her highest power under the despot
Periander, son of Cypselus.
Of the Ionian section of Greek state
the supreme type is Athens. Her earljy
history is obscure. The kingship seems
to have ended by being, so to speak,
placed in commission, the royal function's
being discharged by an elected body of
Archons. Dissensions among the groups
of citizens issued in the democratic
Solonian constitution, which remained the
basis of Athenian government, except
during the despotism of the house of
Pisistratus in the latter half of the sixth
century B.C.
But outside of Greece proper were the
numerous Dorian and Ionian colonies',
really independent cities, planted in the
coast districts of Asia Minor, at Cyrene
and Barka in Mediterranean Africa, in
Epirus (Albania), Southern Italy, Sicily
and even at Massilia in Gaul and in
Thrace beyond the proper Hellenic area
These colonies brought the Greek work
in touch with Lydia and its king, Croesus
with the one seagoing Semitic power, tht
Phoenicians, with the Egyptians and
more remotely, with the wholly Orienta
empires of Assyria and Babylon, as wel
as with the outer barbarians of Scythia.
Between 560 and 510 B.C., Athens wa;
generally under the rule of the despot
Pisistratus and his son Hippias. In 510,
the Pisistratidae were expelled and
Athens became a pure democracy. Mean-
while, the Persian Cyrus had seized the
Median monarchy and overthrown every
other potentate in Western Asia; Egyp
was added to the vast Persian dominion
by his son Cambyses. A new dynasty
was established by Darius, the son of
Hystaspes, who organized the empire, bu
failed to extend it by invading European
Scythia.
T
HE revolt of the Ionic cities in Asia
Minor against the governments es
tablished by the 'great king' brought him
in contact with the Athenians, who sent
help to Ionia. Demands for 'earth and
water,' i.e. the formal recognition of Per-
sian sovereignty, sent to the apparently
insignificant Greek states were insolently
rejected. Darius sent an expedition to
punish Athens in particular, and thi
Athenians drove his army into the sea a
the battle of M arathon.
Xerxes, son of Darius, organized an
overwhelming force by land and sea to
eat up the Greeks. The invaders were
met but hardly checked at Thermopylae,
20
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where Leonidas and the immortal three
hundred fell; all Greece north of the
Isthmus of Corinth was in their hands,
including Athens. But their fleet was
shattered to pieces, chiefly by the Athe-
nians under Themistocles and Aristides
at Salamis, and the destruction of their
land forces was completed by the united
Greeks at Plataea. A further disaster
was inflicted on the same day at Mycale.
IITHE STRUGGLE OF ATHENS AND SPARTAN
M
EANWHILE, the Sicilian Greeks, led
by Gelo of Syracuse, successfully
resisted and overthrew the aggression of
Carthage, the issue being decided at the
battle of Himera. The part played by
Athens under the guidance of Themis-
tocles in the repulse of Persia gave her a
new position among the Greek states and
an indisputable naval leadership. As the
maritime head of Hellas she was chief of
the naval Delian League, now formed
ostensibly to carry on the war against
Persia. But the leaguers, who first con-
tributed a quota of ships, soon began to
substitute money to pro vide, ships, which
in effect swelled the Athenian navy and
turned the contributors into tributaries.
Thus, almost automatically, the Delian
League converted itself into an Athenian
empire.
In Athens itself an unparalleled per-
sonal ascendancy was acquired by
Pericles, who made the form of gov-
ernment and administration more demo-
cratic than before. But this growing
supremacy of Athens aroused the jealous
alarm of other Greek states. Sparta saw
her own titular hegemony threatened; the
sjbject cities grew restive under the
Athenian yoke. Sparta came forward
professedly as champion of the liberties
of Hellas; Athens refused to submit to
Spartan dictation and accepted the chal-
lenge which plunged Greece into the
Peloponnesian war.
The Athenians concentrated on the ex-
ansion of their naval armament, left the
pen country undefended and gathered
ithin the city walls, and landed forces
t will on the Peloponnese. Plataea, al-
lost their sole ally on land, held out
aliantly for some time, but was forced
o surrender; and Athens herself suffered
rightfully from a visitation of the plague.
A
FTER the death of Pericles, Cleon be-
.. came the most prominent leader of
he aggressive and democratic party,
'Jicias, of the anti-democratic peace
iarty. Over most of Greece in each state
he oligarchic faction favoured the Pelo-
ponnesian league, the democratic, Athens.
The general Demosthenes at Pylos ef-
fected the surrender of a Lacedaemonian
force, which temporarily shattered
Sparta's military prestige, a blow in some
degree counteracted by the brilliant
operations of Brasidas in the north,
where, however, both he and Cleon were
killed.
Meanwhile, Athens was awakening to
the possibilities of a great sea-empire, in
consequence of her intervention having
been invited in disputes among the Sicil-
ian states. As the outcome, incited by
the 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, was
dispatched in spite of the startling muti-
lation of the Hermae, a sacrilegious
performance attributed to Alcibiades.
It had hardly reached Sicily when he
was recalled, but made his escape and
spent some years in intriguing against
Athens.
The siege of Syracuse was progressing
favourably, when the Spartan Gylippus
was allowed to enter, and put new life
into the defence. Disaster followed on
disaster both by sea and land; finally,
the whole Athenian force was either cut
to pieces or surrendered at discretion, to
become the slaves of the Syracusans, both
Nicias and Demosthenes being put to
death.
Meanwhile, the truce between Athens
and Sparta had been ended and war
again 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, against
Athens. She, however, renovated her
navy with unexpected vigour. But, with
her fleets away, Alcibiades inspired oli-
garchical intrigues in the city; a coup
d'etat gave the government to the leaders
of a group of 400. The navy stood by
the democratic constitution, the 400 were
overthrown, and an assembly, nominally
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of 5,000, assumed the government. A
great Athenian triumph at Arginusae was
followed later by a still more overwhelm-
ing disaster at Aegos Potami.
The Spartan commander Lysander
blockaded Athens; starvation forced her
to surrender. Lysander established the
government known as that of the Thirty
Tyrants, who were headed by Kritias.
Lysander's ascendancy created in Sparta
a party in opposition to him; in the out-
come, the Spartan king Pausanias helped
in the overthrow of the Thirty at Athens
by Thrasybulus, and the restoration of
the 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: of
the Parthenon and Pheidias; of Aeschy-
lus, the soldier of M arathon; then of
Sophocles and Euripides and Aristoph-
anes; finally, of Socrates, the inspirer
of Plato and the founder of ethical sci-
ence.
IllTHE BLOTTING OUT OF HELLAS
T
HE triumph of Sparta had estab-
lished her empire among the
Greeks; she used her power with a
tyranny infinitely more galling than the
sway of Athens. The Spartan character
had become greatly demoralised. Agesi-
laus, who succeeded to the kingship, set
on foot ambitious projects for a Greek
conquest of Asia; but Greece began to
revolt against the Spartan dominion.
Thebes and other cities rose, and called
for help from Athens, their former foe.
In the first stages of the ensuing war,
of which the most notable battle was
Coronea, Sparta maintained her suprem-
acy within the Peloponnesus, but not
beyond. Athens obtained the counte-
nance of Persia, and the counter-diplo-
macy of Sparta produced the peace
known by the name of the Spartan
Antalcidas, establishing generally the au-
tonomy of Greek cities. But this in effect
meant the restoration of Spartan domina-
tion.
In course of time, however, this
brought about the defiance of Spartan
dictation by Thebes and the tremendous
check to her power inflicted at the battle
of Leuctra, by Epaminondas the Theban,
whose military skill and tactical origi-
nality there overthrew the Spartan mili-
tary prestige. As a consequence, half the
Peloponnese itself broke away from
Sparta; a force under Epaminondas aided
the Arcadians and the Arcadian federa-
tion was established.
Hellenic Sicily during these years was
having a history of her own of some im-
portance. Syracuse, after her triumph
over the Athenian forces, continued the
contest with her neighbours, which had
been the ostensible cause of the Athenian
expedition. But this was closed by the
advent of fresh invaders, the Cartha-
ginians, who renewed the attack repulsed
at Himera. Owing to the disaster t;o
Athens, her fleets were no longer to be
feared by Carthage as a protection to
the Hellenic world; and for two cen-
turies to corne, her interventions in Sicily
were incessant. Now, the presence of a
foreign foe in Sicily gave intriguers for
power at Syracuse their opportunity, of
which the outcome was the subversion of
the democracy and the establishment cf
Dionysius as despot.
His son, Dionysius II, succeeded, and
was finally ejected by the Corinthian
Timoleon, who, after a brilliant career
of victories as Syracusan general against
Carthage, acted as general liberator of
Sicilian cities from despotisms, laid dowi
his powers and was content with the pos: -
tion, not of despot, but of counsellor,
to the great prosperity of Sicily as a.
whole.
G
OING back to the north of Greece,
the semi-Hellenic Macedon with i
Hellenic dynasty was growing powerfu'.
Philipfather of Alexander the Great-
was now king, and was resolved to make
himself the head of the Greek world. Hi
great opponent is found in the person o
the Athenian orator Demosthenes, wb
saw that Philip was aiming at ascendanc
but generally failed to persuade the Athe
nians to recognize the danger in whic
they stood. Philip gradually achieved hi
immediate end of being recognized as th
captain-general of the Hellenes, and thei
leader in a new Persian war, when his lif>
was cut short by an assassin, and he wa;
succeeded by his youthful son Alex
ander.
The Greek states, awakening to thei
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practical subjection, would have thrown
off the new yoke, but the young king with
swift and overwhelming energy swept
down from Thrace upon Thebes, the
centre of resistance, and stamped it out.
He had already conceived, in part, at
least, his vast schemes of Asiatic con-
quest; while he lived Greece had prac-
tically no distinguishable history. She is
merely an appendage to Macedon. Every-
thing is absorbed in the Macedonian con-
queror. With an army incredibly small
for the task before him, he entered Asia
M inor and routed the Persian forces on
the 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 the
Persian king Darius at the Issus, cap-
tured Tyre after a remarkable siege and
took easy possession of Egypt, where he
founded Alexandria. Having organized
the administration of the conquered terri-
tories, he marched to the Euphrates, but
did not engage the enormous Persian
hosts till he had found and shattered
them at the battle of Gaugamela, also
called Arbela. Darius fled, and Alexan-
der swept on to Babylon, to Susa, to
Persepolis, assuming the functions of the
'Great King.' The fugitive Darius was
assassinated.
.ALEXANDER henceforth assumed a new
Xx. and oriental demeanour; but he
continued his conquests, crossing the
Hindu Kush to Bactria and then bursting
into the Punjab. But his ambitions were
ended by his death, and their fulfilment,
not at all according to his designs, was
left to the 'Diadochi,' the generals among
whom the conquered dominions were
parted. Athens led the revolt against
Macedonian supremacy, but in vain.
Demosthenes, condemned by Antipater,
took poison. The remainder of the his-
tory is that of the blotting out of Hellas
and of Hellenism.
Catiline
SALLUST
A VIGOROUS account of the notorious conspiracy of Catiline in 63 B.C. to overthrow
l \ the civil power in Rome, Sallust's Catiline is one of the best histories in Latin
literature. The narrative is vivid and consistent, and the sketches of character are
admirable in their power and conciseness. Although the author obviously hated the
democratic party with which Catiline was connected, and had no great admiration for
Cato 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 attempts
to 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 the
physical qualities of man; and the
task of the historian has attracted
me because it taxes the writer's abilities
to the utmost. Personal ambition had at
first drawn me into public life, but the
political atmosphere, full of degradation
,nd corruption, was so uncongenial that I
lesolved to retire and devote myself to
the production of a series of historical
studies, for which I felt myself to be the
better fitted by my freedom from the
hfluences 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 endowed
both in mind and body, but of extreme
depravity; with extraordinary powers of
endurance, reckless, crafty and versatile,
a master in the arts of deception, at once
grasping and lavish, unbridled in his pas-
sions, ready of speech, but with little true
insight. Of insatiable and inordinate am-
bitions, he was possessed, after Sulla's
supremacy, with a craving to grasp the
control of the state, utterly careless of
the means so the end were attained. Nat-
urally headstrong, he was urged forward
by his want of money, the consciousness
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