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CHAPTER I Land and People 26

The land, 26. The name, 32. The origin of the Greeks, 33. Early conditions and moyements, 36.

CHAPTER n The Mtoenjban Aoe (ca. 1600-1000 b.o.) . • • .40

Hyoenaaan civilisation, 40. The problem of MycensBan chronology, 52. The testimony of art, 64. The problem of the Mycenaean race, 66.

CHAPTER ra The Heroio Aqe (1400-1200 B.a) 66

The value of the myths, 67. The exploits of Perseus, 68. The labours of Hercules, 69. The feats of Theseus, 71. The Seven against Thebes, 72. The Argonauts, 73. The Trojan War, 76. The town of Troy, 78. Paris and Helen, 79. The siege ci Troy, 80. Agamemnon's sad home-coming, 81. Character and spirit of the Heroic Age, 82. Geographical knowledge, 86. Navigation and astronomy, 88. Commerce and the arts, 89. The graphic arts, 91. The art of war, 92. Treatment of orphans, criminals, and slaves, 94. Manners and customs, 97.

CHAPTER IV

The Transition to Secure History (co. 1200-800 B,a) « • 90 BeIoch*s view of the conventional primitive history, 99«

X CONTENTS

CHAPTER V

PAGB

The migration in the view of Curtius, 115. Messenia, 117. Argos, 118. Arcadia, 121. Dorians in Crete, 124.

CHAPTER VI

Sparta and Ltourgus (ca, 885 b.o.) ... .128

Plutarch's account of Lycurgus, 129. The institutions of Lycurgus, 131. Regulations regarding marriage and the conduct of women, 133. The rearing of children, 135. The famed Laconic discourse ; Spartan discipline, 136. The senate ; burial customs; home-staying; the ambuscade, 138. Lycurgus' subterfuge to perpetuate his laws, 140. Ejects of Lycurgus' system, 141.

CHAPTER Vn

The Mbssbnian Wars of Sparta (ca. 764-580 b.o.) . . .143

First Messenian War, 144. The futile sacrifice of the daughter of Aristodemus, 146. The hero Aristomenes and the Second Messenian War, 147. The poet Tyrtaeus, 149.

CHAPTER Vm

Origin and early history of Athens, 154. King .^jgeus, 155. Theseus, 158. Rise of popular liberty, 162. Draco, the lawgiver, 164.

CHAPTER IX Some Characteristio Institutionb (884-590 b.o.) . . .167

The oracle at Delphi, 170. National festivals, 170. The Olympian games, 172. Character of the games, 173. Monarchies and oligarchies, 175. Tyrannies, 177. Democracies, 179.

CHAPTER X

Arcadia, Elis, and Achaia, 181. Argos, ^gina, and Epidaurus, 182. Sicyon and Megara, 184. Boeotia, Locris, Phocis, and Buboea, 187. Thessaly, 189. Corinth under Periander, 191.

CHAPTER XI Crete and the Colonies # • • • • 194 Beloch's account of Greek colonisation, 198.

CONTENTS xi

CHAPTER Xn

Solon the LAwatYEB (ca. 688-558 b.o.) • • • . 207

Tlie life and laws of Solon according to Plutarch, 209. The law concerning debts, 213. Class legislation, 215. Miscellaneous laws ; the rights of women, 216. Results <»f Solon's legislation, 217. Solon's journey and return; Pisistratus, 219. A modem view of Sokmian laws and constitution, 220.

CHAPTER ym

PiSISTRATUB THE TYRANT (550-527 B.a) • • • .222

The Tirtaes of Pisistratus' rule, 226.

CHAPTER XIV

Democbaoy Estabushbd at Athens (514-490 b.o.) . . .231

Clisthenes, the reformer, 286. Ostracism, 245. The democracy established, 251. Trouble with Thebes, 252.

. CHAPTER XV

The FmsT Foreion Invasion (506-490 b.o.) . .261

The origin of animosity, 262. The Ionic revolt, 264. War with .^^gina, 267. Hie first invasion, 268. Battle of Marathon, 272. On the courage of the (jtreeks, 277. If Darius had invaded Greece earlier, 279.

CHAPTER XVI

MlLTIADBB AND THE ALLEGED FlOKLENESS OF REPUBLICS (489 B.O.) . 280

CHAPTER XVII

The Plans of Xerxes (485-480 b.o.) . . . .285

Xerxes bridges the Hellespont, 295. How the host marched, 297. The size of Xerxes* army, 301.

CHAPTER XVra

Pbooebdinob in Obeeoe fbom Marathon to Thermoptljb (489-480 b.o.) 305

Themistocles and Aristides, 806. Congress at Corinth, 308. The vale of Tempo, 813. Xerxes reviews his host, 314.

CHAPTER TCITC Thebmopyljb (480 B.O.) 320

The famous story as told by Herodotus, 320. Leonidas and his allies, 321. Xerxes \ the pass, 323. The treachery of Ephialtes, 323. The final assault, 825. Di^ crepant accounts of the death of Leonidas, 327. After Thermopylae, 327, xii CONTENTS

CHAPTER XX

PASS

Thb Battles of Ahtiiiiihium and Salamib (480 B.a) . .330

Batde of Artemisiuin, 331. Athens abandoned, 334. The fleet at Salamis, 337. Xerxes at Delphi, 338. Athens taken, 339. Xerxes inspects his fleet, 340. Schemes of Themistocles, 342. BatUe of Salamis, 345. The retreat of Xerxes, 348. The spoils of victory, 35L Syracusan victory over Carthage, 352.

CHAPTER XXI From Salamib to Mtoalb (479 b.o.) . . .353

Mardonius makes overtures to Athens, 354. Mardonius moves on Athens, 356. Athens appeals to Sparta, 357. Mardonius destroys Athens and withdraws, 358. A preliminary skirmish, 360. Preparations for the battle of Platsea, 362. Battle of Plataea, 366. Mardonius falls and the day is won, 370. After the battle, 371. The Qreeks attack Thebes, 373. The flight of the Persian remnant, 874. Contemporary afifairs in Ionia, 374. Battle of Mycale, 376. After Mycale, 377. A review of results, 379. A glance forward, 379.

CHAPTER XXn The Aftermath of the War (478-468 b.o.) .382

Athens rebuilds her walls, 382. The new Athens, 384. The misconduct of Pausanias, 386. Athens takes the leadership, 388. The confederacy of Delos, 389. The treason of Pausanias, 391« Political changes at Athens, 394. The downfall of Themistodes, 396.

CHAPTER XXm The Growth of the Athenian Empire (479-462 b.o.) • . 402 The victories of Cimon, 408. Mitford's view of the period, 409.

CHAPTER XXIV The Rise of Pbrioles (462-440 b.o.) • . . .41$

The Areopagus, 420. Cimon exiled, 423. The war with Corinth, 424. TheLong^ Walls, 425. Cimon recalled, 427. The Five-Years' Truce, 430. The confederacy becomes an empire, 431. Commencement of decline, 432. The greatness of Pericles^ 436. A Greek federation planned, 436.

CHAPTER XXV Athens at War (440-432 b.o.) 48a

The Samian War, 438. The war with Ooreyra, 439. The war with Potidsa and Macedonia, 444.

CONTENTS xia

CHAPTER XXVI

PAOI

Imperial Athens under Pericles (460-480 b.o.) . . .448

Judicial reforms of Pericles, 454. Rhetors and sophisis, 459. Phidias aocusedy 461. Aspasia at the har, 462. Anaxagoras also assailed, 463.

CHAPTER XXVn Manners and Customs of the Age of Pericles (460-410 b.c.) • 465

CoBt of Hying and wages, 465. Schools, teachers, and books, 472. The position of a wife in Athens, 473.

CHAPTER XXVm Art of the Periclean Aqe (460-410 b.o.) . . • .477

Architecturv^ZT^ Sculpture, 483. Painting, music, etc., 487. The artists of the other cities of Hellas, 490.

CHAPTER TCTCTJC

Greek Literature 49S

Oratory and lyric poetry, 492. Tragedy, 497. Comedy, 504. The glory of Athens, 505.

chapter tctcic The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (432-431 b.o.) . . 508

Our sources, 508. The origin of the war, 510. Preparations for the conflict, 517. The surprise of Platsea, 522. Pericles' reconcentration policy, 526. The flrst year's ravage, 527.

CHAPTER XXXI The Plaque ; and the Death of Pericles (431-429 b.o.) . . 535

The oration of Pericles, 535. Thucydides' account of the plague, 539. Last puhlic speech of Pericles, 545. The end and glory of Pericles, 548. Wilhelm Oncken's estimate of Pericles, 551.

CHAPTER XXXn

The Second and Third Tears of the Peloponnesian War (429-428 B.a) 554

The Spartans and Thebans attack Platsea, 556. Part of the Platseans escape ; the vest capitulate, 557. Nayal and other combats, 560.

xiT CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXXni The Fourth to the Tenth YsABa— and Peace (428-4!^ b.o.) . . 566

The revolt of Mytilene, 666. Thucydides' account of the revolt of Corcyra, 670. Demosthenes and Sphacteria, 575. Further Athenian successes, 579. A check to Athens ; Brasidas becomes aggressive, 580. The banishment of Thucydides, 581. A truce declared; two treaties of peace, 582.

CHAPTER XXXIV The Rise of Alcibiadbs (450-416 b.o.) • • • .584

CHAPTER XXXV

The Siohjan Expedition (481-413 b.o.) . . .591

Sicilian history, 591. The mutilation of the Hermae, 596. The fleet sails, 599. Alcibiades takes flight, 601. Nicias tries strategy, 602. Spartan aid, 604. Alcibiades against Athens, 605. Athenian reinforcements, 606. Athenian disaster, 608. Thucydides^ famous account of the final disasters, 610. Demosthenes surrenders his detachment, 613. Nicias parleys, fights, and surrenders, 614. The fate of the captives, 615.

CHAPTER XXXVI

C;!lo8E op the Peloponnesian War (425-404 b.o.) . . .617

Athens after the Sicilian deblu^le, 617. Alcibiades again to the fore, 620. The overthrow of the democracy; the Four Hundred, 624. The revolt from the Four Hundred, 627. The triumphs of Alcibiades, 630. Alcibiades in disfavour again, 633. « Conon wins at Arginusae, 634. The trial of the generals, 636. Battle of iBjgospotami, 638. The fall of Athens, 640. A review of the war, 642. Grote's estimate of the Athenian Empire, 644.

Bbief Reference-List of Authorities bt Chapters • • • • • 647

PART IX

BASED CHIEFLY UPON THE FOLLOWING AUTHORITIES

ARRIAN, JULIUS BELOCH, A. B(ECKH, JOHN B. BURY, GEORG BUSOLT,

H. F. CLINTON, GEORGE W. COX, ERNST CURTIUS, HERMANN DIELS,

DIODORUS SICULUS, JOHANN G. DROYSEN, GEORGE GROTE,

HERODOTUS, GUSTAV F. HERTZBERG, ADOLF HOLM,

JUSTIN, JOHN P. MAHAFFY, EDUARD MEYER, WILLIAM MITFORD, ULRICH

VON WILAMOWITZ-MOLLENDORFF, KARL O. MULLER, CORNELIUS

NEPOS, PAUSANIAS, PLATO, PLUTARCH, QUINTUS CURTIUS,

HEINRICH SCHLIEMANN, STRABO, CONNOP THIRL-

WALL, THUCYDIDES, XENOPHON

TOGETHER WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ON

BY

EDUARD MEYER

A STUDY OF

THE EVOLUTION OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY

BY

HERMANN DIELS

AND A CHARACTERISATION OF

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HELLENIC SPIRIT

BY

ULRICH VON WILAMOWITZ-MOLLENDORFF

WITH ADDITIONAL CITATIONS FROM

CLAUDIUS .fiUANUS, ANAXIMENE8, APPLANUS ALEXANDRINUS, ARI8T0BU- LU8, ARISTOPHANES, ARISTOTLE, W. A8SMANN, W. BELOE, E. G. E. L. BUL- WER-LYTTON, CALLISTHENES, CICERO, E. S. CREASY, CONSTANTINE VII (PORPHYR0GENITU8), DEMOSTHENES, W. DRUMANN, VICTOR DURUY, ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRTFANNICA, EUGAMON, EURIPIDES, EUTROPIUS, G. H. A. SWALD, J. L. F. FLATHE, E. A. FREEMAN, A. FURTWANGLER AND G. LOSCHEE, P. GARDNER, J. GILLIES, W. E. GLADSTONE, O. GOLDSMITH, H. GOLL, J. DB LA GRAVlilRE, G. B. GRUNDY. H. R. HALL, G. W. F. HEGEL, W. HBLBIG, D. G. HOGARTH, ISOCRATES, R. C. JEBB, J0SEPHU8, F. C. R. KRUSE, P. H. LARCHBR, W. M. LEAKE, E. LERMINIER, LIVY, LYSIAS, J. C. F. MANSO, L. MENARD, H. H. MILMAN, J. A. R. MUNRO, B. G. NIEBUHR, W. ONCKEN, L. A. PKfcVOST-PARADOL, GEORGE PERROT AND CHARLES CHIPIEZ, PHILO- OTEPHANU8. L. PIGORINI, PHOTIUS, R. POHLMAN, POLYBIUS. J. POTTER, PTOLEMY LAGI, JAMES RENNELL, W. RIDGEWAY, K. RITTER. C. ROLLIN, J. RUSKIN, F. C. 8CHL0SSER, W. SCHORN, C. SCHUCHHARDT, S. SHARPE, G. SMITH, W. SMYTH, E. VON STERN, THEOGNIS, THE0P0MPU8, L. A. THIERS, C. TS0UNTA8 AND J. IRVING MANATT. TYRT^EUS, W. H. WADDINGTON, Q. WEBER, B. L WHEELER, C. W. P. A. WOLF, XANTHUS

THE SCOPE AND DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK

HISTORY

Written Spbciallt fob the Prbbbht Work

Bt Dr. EDUARD METER

Professor of Anoient History in the University of Berlin

The history of Greek civilisation forms the centre of the history of antiquity. In the East, advanced civilisations with settled states had existed for thousands of years ; and as the populations of Western Asia and of Egypt gradually came into closer political relations, these civilisations, in spite of all local differences in customs, religion, and habits of thought, gradually grew together into a uniform sphere of culture. This development reached its culmination in the rise of the great Persian universal monarchy, the ** kingdom of the lands," i.e. " of the world." - But from the very beginning these oriental civilisations are so completely dominated by the enort to maintain what has been won that all progress beyond this point is prevented. And although we can distinguish an individual, active, and progressive intellectual movement among many nations, — as in Egypt, among the Iranians and Indians, while among the Babylonians and rhoenicians nothing of the sort is thus far known, — nevertheless the forces that represent tradition are in the end everywhere victorious over it and force it to bow to their yoke. Hence, all oriental civilisations culminate in the creation of a theological system which governs all the relations and the whole field of thought of man, and is everywhere recognised as having existed from all eternity and as being inviolable to all future time.

With the cessation of political life and the establishment of the universal monarchy, the nationality and the distinctive civilisation of the separate districts are restricted to religion, which has become theology. The development of oriental civilisation then subsides in the competition of these religions and the unavoidable coalescence consequent thereupon. This is true even of that nation which experienced the richest intellectual development, and did the most important work of all oriental peoples — the Israelites. When the great political storms from which the universal monarchy arose have spent their rage, Israel, the nation, has developed into Judaism ; and under the Persian rule and with the help of the kingdom it organises itself as a church which seeks to put an end to all free individual movement, upon which the greatness of ancient Israel rests.

It was just the same with the ruling nation, the Persians, however vigorous their entrance into history under Cyrus. The Persian kingdom is^ indeed, a civilised state, but the civilisations that it includes lack the highest that a civilisation can offer : an energetic, independent life, a combination of the firm institutions and permanent attainments of the past with the free, progressive, and creative movement of individuality. So the East> after the Persian period, was unable of its own force to create anything new. It stagnated, and, had it not received new elements from without, had it been left permanently to itself, would perhaps in the course of centuries have altered its external form again and again, but would hardly have produced anything new or have progressed a step beyond what had already been attained.

But when Cyrus and Darius founded the Persian kingdom, the East no longer stood alone. The nations and kingdoms of the East came into communication with the coast of the Mediterranean very early — not later than the beginning of the second millennium B.C. ; and under their influence, about 1500 B.G., a civilisation arose among the Greeks bordering the iBgean. We call it the Mvcen»an, and in spite of its formal dependence upon the East it could, in the field of art (where alone we have an exact knowledge of it), take an independent and equal place beside the great civilisations of the East.

How Greek civilisation continued to advance from step to step for many centuries in the field of politics and society as well as in that of the intellect ; how it spread simultaneously over all the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean, from Massalia on the coast of the Ligurians and Cumad in the land of the Oscans to the Crimea and the eastern coast of the Black Sea, and in the south as far as Cyprus and Cilicia ; how Greek culture at the same time took root in much more remote districts, especially in Asia Minor ; and how under its influence an energetic civilisation arose among the tribes of Italy, cannot be depicted here.

W hen the Persian kingdom was founded the Hellenes had developed from a group of linguistically related tribes into a nation possessing a completely independent culture whose equal the world had never yet seen, a culture whose mainspring was that very political and intellectual freedom of the individual which was completely lacking in the East.

Hence its character was purely human, its aim the complete and harmonious development of man ; and if for that very reason it always strove ta be moderate and to adapt itself to the moral and cosmical forces that govern human life, nevertheless it could accomplish this only in free subordination, by absorbing the moral commandment into its own will. Therefore it did not permit the opposing theological tendencies to gain control, strong^ as was their development in considerable districts of Greece in the sixth century. At that very period, on the other hand, it was stretching out to

Sasp the apples on the tree of knowledge ; in the most advanced regions of ellas science and philosophy were opposing theology. National as it was, this culture lacked but one thing : the political unity of the nation, the co-ordination of all its powers in the vigorous organism of a great state.

The instinct of freedom itself, upon which the greatness of this civilisation rested, favoured by the geographical conformation of the Greek soil, had caused a constantly increasing political disunion, which saw in the complete and unlimited autonomy of every individual community, even of the tiniest of the hundreds of city states into which Hellas was divided, thes highest ideal of liberty, the only fit existence for a Hellene. And, internally, every one of these dwarf states was eaten by the canker of political and social contrasts which could not be permanently suppressed by any attempt to introduce a just political order founded upon a codified law and a written constitution — whether the ideal were the rule of the " best/' the rule of the whole, i.e. of the actual masses, or that of a mixed constitution. The smaller the city and its territory, the more apt were these attempts to become bloody revolutions. Lively as W8ts the public spirit, clearly as the justice of the demand for subordination to law was recognised, every individual and every party interpreted it according to its own conception and its own judgment, and at all times there were not a few who were ready to seize for themselves all that the moment offered.

To be sure, manifold and successful attempts to found a greater political power were brought about by the advancing growth of industry and culture, as well as by the development of the citizen army of hoplites, which had a firm tactical structure and was well schooled in the art of war. In the Peloponnesus Sparta brought the whole south under the rule of its citizens and not only effected the union of almost the whole peninsula into a league, but established its right, as the first military power of Hellas, to leadership in all common affairs.

In middle Greece, Thebes succeeded in uniting Boeotia into a federal state, while its neighbour Athens, which had maintained the unity of the Attic district since the beginning of history, began to annex the neighbouring districts of Megara, Boeotia, and Eubosa, and laid the foundation of a colonial power, as Corinth had formerly done. In the north the Thessalians acquired leadership over all surrounding tribes. In the west, in Sicily, usurpers had founded larger monarchical unified states, especially in Syracuse and Agrigentum.

But all these combinations were after all only of very limited extent and by no means firmly united ; on the contrary, the weaker communities felt even the loosest kind of federation, to say nothing of dependence, as an oppressive fetter which impaired the ideal of the individual destiny of the autonomous state, and which at least one party, — generally the one that happened to be out of power, — felt justified in bursting at the first opportunity.

However, as things lay, the nation found itself forced, with this sort of constitution, to take up the struggle for its political independence. The Greeks of Asia Minor, formerly subjects of the kings of Sardis, had become subjects of the Persian kingdom under Cyrus ; the free Hellenes had the most varied relations with the latter, and more than once gave him occasion to intervene in their affairs. The Persian kingdom, which under Darius no longer attempted conquests that were not necessary for the maintenance of its own existence, took no advantage of these provocations until the revolt of the Greeks of Asia Minor, supported by Athens, made war inevitable.

After the first attempt had failed Xerxes repeated it on the greatest scale. Against the Hellenic nation, whose alien character was everywhere a hindrance in its path, the Orient arose in the east and the west for a decisive struggle ; the Phoenician city of Carthage, the great sea power of the west, was in alliance with the Persian kingdom. Only the minority of the Hellenes joined in the defence ; in the west the princes of Syracuse and Agrigentum, in the east Sparta and the Peloponnesian league, Athens, the cities of Euboea and a few smaller powers. But in both fields of operation the Hellenes won a complete victory ; the Carthaginians were defeated on the Himera, in the east Themistocles broke the base of the Persian position by destroying their sea power with the Athenian fleet that he had created, and

4 THE HI8T0EY OF GEEECE

on the battle-field of Platsea the Persian land forces were defeated bj the superiority of the Greek armies of hoplites.

Thus the Hellenes had won the leading position in the world. For the moment there was no other power that could oppose them by land or sea ; the Asiatic king never again ventured an attack on Greece. Her absolute military superiority was founded upon the national character, the energetic public spirit, the voluntary subordination to law and discipline and the capacity for conceiving and realising great political ideas. The Hellenes could gain and assert permanently the ascendency over the entire Mediterranean world, and impress upon it for all time the stamp of their nationalitv, provided only that they were united and saw the way to gather together all their resources into a single firmly knit great power.

But the Greeks were not able to meet this first and most urgent demand ; though the days of particularism were irrevocably past, the idea which was so inseparably bound up with the very nature of Hellenism still exerted a powerful influence. As the individual communities were no longer able to maintain an independent existence, thev gathered about the two powers that had gained the leadership, and each of which was striving for supremacy : the patriarchal military state of Sparta and the new progressive great power of Athens.

With the victory over the East it had been decided that the individu* ality of Hellenic culture, the intellectual liberty which gives free play to all vigorous powers in both material and intellectual life, had asserted itself ; the future lay only along this way. Mighty was the advance that in all fields carried Greece along with gigantic strides ; after only a few decades the time before the Persian wars seemed like a remote and long past antiquity.

But mighty as were the advancing strides of the nation in trade and industry, in wealth and all the luxury of civilisation, in art and science, all these attainments finally became factors of political disintegration. They furthered the unlimited development of individualism, which in custom and law and political life recognises no other rule than its own ego and its claims. The ideal world of the time of the sophists and the politics of an Alcibiades and a Lysander are the results of this development.

Athens perceived the political tasks that were set for the Hellenic people and ventured an attempt to perform them. They could be accomplished only by admitting the new ideas into the programme of democracy, by the foundation and extension of sea power, by an aggressive policy which aimed more and more at the subjection of the Greek world under the hegemony of one city. In consequence all opposing elements were forced under the banner of Sparta, which adopted the programme of conservatism and particularism, in order to strengthen its resistance, and restrict and, if possible, overcome its rival.

The conflict was inevitable, though both sides were reluctant to enter upon it ; twenty years after the battle of Salamis it broke out. The fact that Athens was trying at the same time to continue the war against Persia and wrest Cyprus and Egypt from it gave her opponents the advantage ; she had far overestimated her strengfth. After a struggle of eleven years (460-449 B.C.) Athens found herself compelled to make peace with Persia and free the Greek mainland, only retaining absolute control over the sea.

Under the rule of Pericles she consolidated her power, and the ideals that lived in her were embodied in splendid creations. She proved herself equal.

in spite of all internal instability and crises, to a second attack of her Greek opponents (431-421 B.o.)I But it again became evident that the radical democracy, which was now at the helm, had no grasp of the realities of the political situation ; for the second time it stretched out its hand for the hegemony over all Hellas, in unnatural alliance with Alcibiades, the conscienceless, ambitious man who was aiming at the crown of Athens and Hellas.

Mighty indeed was the plan to subdue the Western world, Sicily first of all ; then with doubled power first to crush the opponents at home and then gain the supremacy over the whole Mediterranean world. But what a united Hellas might have accomplished was far beyond the resources of Athens, even if the democrats had not overthrown their dangerous ally at the first opportunity, and thus lamed the undertaking at the outset.

The catastrophe of the Athenians before Syracuse (418 B.C.) is the turning-point of Greek history. All the opponents of Athens united, and the Persian king, who saw that the hour had come to regain his former power without a struggle, made an alliance with them. Only through his subsidies was it possible for Sparta and her allies to reduce Athens — until she lay prostrate. And the gain fell to Persia alone, however feeble the kingdom had meanwhile become internally. Sparta, after overthrowing the despotism of Lysander, made an honest attempt to reorganise the Greek world after the conservative programme, and to fulfil the task laid upon the nation in the contest with Persia. But she only furnished her opponents at home, and particularism, which now immediately turned against its former ally, an occasion for a fresh uprising, which Sparta could master only by forming a new alliance with Persia. After the peace of 886 the king of Asia utters the decisive word even in the affairs of the Greek mother-country.

Here dissolution is going rapidly forward. Every power that has once more for a short time possessed some importance in Greece, succumbs to it in tnm ; first Sparta, then Thebes and Athens. The attempts to establish permanent and assured conditions by local unions in small districts, as in Chalcidice under Olynthus, in Boeotia and Arcadia, were never able to hold out more than a short time. It was useless to look longer for the fulfilment of the national destiny. Feeble as the Persian kingdom was internally, every revolt against it, to say nothing of an attempt to make conquests and acquire a new field of colonisation in Asia, — the programme that Isocrates repeatedly urged upon the nation, — was made impossible by internal strife. Prosperity was ruined, the energy of the nation was exhausted in the wild feuds of brigands, the most desolate conditions prevailed in all communities. Greek history ends in chaos, in a hopeless struggle of all against alL

In this same period, to be sure, the positive, constructive criticism of Socrates and his school rose in opposition to the negative tendencies of sophistry ; and made the attempt to put an end to the political misery, to create by a proper education the true citizen who looks only to the common welfare in place of the ignorant citizen of the existing states, who was governed only bv self-interest. These efforts resulted in the development of science and the preservation for all future time of the highest achievements of the intellectual life of Hellas, but they could not produce an internal transformation of men and states, whose earthly life does not lie within the sphere of the problems of theoretical perception, but in that of the problems of will and power. So at the same time that Greek culture has reached the highest point of its development, prepared to become the culture of the world, the Greek nation is condemned to complete impotence.

For the development in the West, different as was its course, led to no other result. In the fifth century Greece controlled almost all Sicily except the western point, the whole south of Italy up to Tarentum, Elea and Posidonia and the coast of Campania. Nowhere was an enemy to be seen that might have become dangerous. The Carthaginians were repulsed, and the power of the Etruscans, who in the sixth century had striven for the hegemony in Italy, decayed, partly from internal weakness, partly in consequence of the revolt of their subjects, especially the Romans and the Sabines. The Cumaeans under Aristodemus with the Sabines as their allies defeated Aruns, the son of Porsena of Clusium, at Aricia about 600 B.C., and in the year 474 the Etruscan sea power suffered defeat at Cumad from the fleet of Hiero of Syracuse.

The cities of western Greece stood then as if founded for all eternity ; they were adorned with splendid buildings, the gayest and most luxurious life developed in their streets ; and they had leisure enough, after the Greek manner, to dissipate their energies, which were not claimed by external enemies, in internal strife and in struggles for the hegemony. Only the bold attempts which Phocsea made in the sixth century to turn the western basin of the Mediterranean likewise into a Greek sea, to get a firm footing in Corsica and southern Spain, had succumbed to the resistance of the Carthaginians, who were in alliance with the Etruscans. Only in the north, on the coast of Liguria from the Alps to the Pyrenees, Massalia maintained its independence. Southern Spain, Gades, and the coast of the land of Tarshish (Tartessus) were occupied by the Carthaginians about the middle of the fifth centurv ; and the Greeks and all foreign mariners in general were cut off from the navigation of the ocean, as well as from the coasts of North Africa and Sardinia.