The individual man 1 13 



did : the doings of the returned soldier of fortune were proverbial, and 

 a fruitful theme for comic poets. But the spectacle of wanton luxury 

 was more likely to lure enterprising individuals into ventures abroad 

 than to encourage patient industry at home. And there is little doubt 

 that such was the general result. The less vigorous of the poor citizens 

 remained, a servile mob, ever ready by grovelling compliments to earn 

 the bounties of kings. 



Political decay and changes of social circumstance were accom- 

 panied by new movements in the sphere of thought. It is generally 

 observed that in this period philosophy more and more appeals to the 

 individual man, regardless of whether he be a citizen or not. How far 

 this movement arose out of changed conditions may be open to 

 difference of opinion: but, as usual in human affairs, what began as an 

 effect continued to operate as a cause. The rapid spread of the Greek 

 tongue and Greek civilizatipn eastwards, known as Hellenizing, was 

 a powerful influence promoting cosmopolitan views. Alien blood could 

 no longer form an unsurmountable barrier: the Barbarian who spoke 

 Greek and followed Greek ways had won a claim to recognition, as had 

 already been foreseen by the mild sincerity 1 of Isocrates. But these 

 half-Greeks, some of them even of mixed blood, were now very 

 numerous. They competed with genuine Hellenes at a time when the 

 pride of the genuine Hellene was ebbing: even in intellectual pursuits, 

 in which the Hellene still claimed preeminence, they were serious and 

 eventually successful rivals. It is no wonder that earlier questionings 

 took new life, and that consciousness of common humanity tended to 

 modify old-established sentiment, even on such subjects as the relation 

 of master and slave. It was not merely that the philosophic schools 

 from different points of view, Cynic Cyrenaic Stoic Epicurean, per- 

 sistently regarded man as a mental and moral unit, whatever his 

 political or social condition might be. The fragments and echoes of 

 the later Comedy suffice to shew how frankly the slave could be pre- 

 sented on the public stage as the equal, or more than equal, of his master. 



The foundation of new cities by the Successor-kings was another 

 influence acting in the same direction. These were either royal capitals 

 or commercial centres, or both, like Alexandria. Others were impor- 

 tant from their situation as strategic posts, such as Lysimacheia by 

 the Hellespont or Demetrias commanding the Pagasaean gulf. Com- 

 peting powers could not afford to wait for gradual growth; so great 

 efforts were made to provide populations for the new cities without 

 delay. Sometimes multitudes were transplanted wholesale from older 

 communities. In any case no strict inquiry into the past condition of 

 transplanted persons can have taken place. In Sicily we know that 



50 p 50. 

 H. A. 



