PHILOLOGY 



PHILOPCEMEN 



127 



the Lower Franconian, whence comes the Dutch ; 

 tli-- Kranuoiiian of Mid Germany ; and tlie Old 

 High German, s|>oken in different dialects from 

 South to Middle Germany, whence is derived the 

 modern literary German. (8) The Slavonic, to 

 which belong Bohemian, Polish, Old Bulgarian, and 

 the parents of the Russian and numerous dialects 

 of south-eastern Europe ; together with the Lithu- 

 anian, Old Prussian, and Lettish languages of the 

 south lialtic, which, though their records are late, 

 yet oreserve strikingly early linguistic features. 

 See ARYAN LANGUAGES. 



That there was such a language as the hypo- 

 thetic parent of all these Aryan languages is certain 

 ( though such knowledge brings us no nearer to the 

 one original language if one there was spoken by 

 primeval man ). \V e can recover its character with 

 certainty, for we know it* suffixes both formative 

 and inflectional ; its vocabulary we know in part 

 only. Now, if there was a language there must 

 have been a people to speak that language no 

 doubt with many dialects, whence eventually 

 sprang the derived languages which we know, and 

 pnilialily many others which are lost. Dialectal 

 variation is the inevitable condition of all lan- 

 guages where there is no common literary tongue : 

 that tends to level the speech of the whole area : 

 and where there is great facility of communication 

 throughout the area tin- dialects may die out, as 

 they are rapidly doing in England. * But though 

 we assort with confidence that there was a common 

 Imlii Germanic language, spoken by an Indo-Ger- 

 manic people, we do not maintain that the people 

 who speak the several languages derived from that 

 llip ci, nun. ,n parent are wholly of the same race. 

 England, an we know, is inhabited by the descend- 

 ants of Celts, of various nationalities enrolled in the 

 Roman legions, of Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians, 

 of Norsemen, and of Franco-Normans ; all of whom 

 (peak the same English language. But that fact 

 does not make us doubt that there was once a 

 common Teutonic language spoken (in various 

 dialects) by the different memliersof a Teutonic race 

 which occupied Britain. It is extremely probable 

 that there has been a like history in other lands where 

 other Indo-Germanic languages are now spoken. 

 That does not in the least disprove the existence of 

 an Indo-Germanic race, speaking different Indo-Ger- 

 manic dialects, settling themselves in the different 

 "Miintries of Europe and western Asia, and mixing 

 their blood with that of the races whom they found 

 aln j ady there. The proportion of Indo-Germanic 

 Mood in any given nation may be considerable : it 

 may lie very little. It is possible that in some 

 nations it may lie nothing at all : some stronger, 

 but less civilised race may have overpowered the 

 lndi> Germanic stock, but taken their language. 

 Such loss has its parallels in history e.g. when the 

 Norsemen conquered part of France, but lost their 

 own language. This would explain the fact that 

 races of marked racial difference with short skulls, 

 and dark hair and colouring are found speaking 

 cognate languages with men of long skulls, ruddy 

 colour, and Tight hair. Such an inconsistency has 

 seemed to some anthropologists to absolutely 

 destroy the value of language as a test of race, 

 nothing of the kind. Linguistic arguments 

 are as valuable as anthropologic ones ; but neither 

 l_'i\'' conclusive proof, only indications. The two 

 sciences should work independently. Good anthro- 

 pologists, such as ITische and Penka, may be bad 

 HagnivU ; but results drawn from harmony of the 

 strongest evidence on either side may lie fruitful. 

 Most, however, of these problems will probably never 

 admit of certain solution. The evidence which 

 now would place the habitat of the parent-race in 

 northern Europe is only somewhat more weighty 

 than that which formerly placed it in Pamir. 



See especially Paul's Principien dfr Sprachfleichifhte, 

 translated bv Strong ( 1888 ) ; anil the History ofLamjuaiie 

 (based on the same book I, by Strong, Loseman, and 

 Wheeler ( 1891 ). Whitney's Life and Growth of Lanyuaye 

 ( Inter. So. series), Max-Miiller's Esmyi on the Science of 

 /Mnr/uaiie, and Sayce's Introduction, to the Science of 

 In mi mine are useful; the latter contains a full list of 

 authorities. By far the best book on the history of the 

 Indo-Germanic languages in their earlier stage is Brug- 

 iniiiiifs Lottfarativt Grammar I trans, vol. i. by Wright, 

 vol. ii. by Conway and Kouse, 1888). Here will be found 

 mentioned all the recent works of any importance in this 

 department A short book referring chiefly to Greek and 

 Latin is Victor Henri's Precis de Grarnmaire Comparie 

 ( 1888 ), also translated. For Romance languages the latest 

 and most complete work is Grober's great Grundriss der 

 liomanischen Philoloijie ( Strasburg, 1886-88 ), in which the 

 different Romance languages are treated by the most com- 

 petent authorities. Diez's Gramma-tit der Romanischen 

 ^prachen, though somewhat out of date, is clear and 

 good. A similar book on the Germanic languages is Paul's 

 Grundritg der Gentianixcheit Pltilolotiie (1889 ft set/.). 

 Special students of English should use Sievers-Cook's 

 Grammar of Old Englnh (Ginn, Heath, & Co. 1885), 

 Sweet's Hittory of Enijluh bounds (1888), and Skeat'a 

 Principle! of Englitli Etymology ( 1887 and 1891 ). For 

 Phonetics. Sweet's Handbook of Phonetics should be con- 

 sulted. All questions on the early history of the Indo- 

 Germanic people and its probable habitat are exhaust- 

 ively treated in the I'rehisttiric Antiquttiex of the Aryan 

 /qp/(Scliradcr-Jevons, 1890). Isaac Taylor's Oriiiinof 

 tht Ariiani (1890) is a useful smaller book on the same 

 subject. The grammars and other works dealing with 

 the modem languages of Europe are too numerous to be 

 mentioned here. 



Philomela, according to the Greek legend, 

 was changed into either a swallow or a nightingale. 

 Poets are (or rather were) fond of calling the night- 

 ingale by its classic name. 



I'lliloiMPineil. a patriot of Greece, was born 

 at Megalopolis about 252 B.C. In 222 he was 

 one of the defenders of Megalopolis against Cleo- 

 menes, king of Sparta, anil next year he fought 

 with the Macedonians against the Spartans. He 

 then served in Crete with such distinction that in 

 210 he was appointed general of the Acluean horse. 

 In 208 lie was raised to the highest military dignity 

 in Greece, being elected ttratigo* or Commander- 

 in-chief of the Aclm*an League. The battle of 

 Mantinea (208), in which the Spartans were again 

 utterly routed, raiser! him to the pinnacle of fame, 

 ami at the Neniean festival which followed he was 

 proclaimed lil>erator of Greece. So great was his 

 influence that the Macedonian monarch, Philip, 

 l>egan to fear that Greece would regain its inde- 

 pendence, and tried, vainly, to have him secretly 

 assassinated. During the next few years he was 

 absent in Crete, and returned to the Peloponnesus 

 in 194 to find the Romans in Greece. On the 

 departure of the consul FJamininus, Nabis of 

 Sparta recommenced hostilities ngainst the 

 Aclueans ; Philopumien was once more appointed 

 strategos (192), and in a pitched battle nearly 

 annihilated the troops of Naois. He now exerted 

 all his power to heal the divisions among the 

 Acha'ans, and to prevent them from affording the 

 Romans a pretext for taking away their independ- 

 ence. In 188 he took a tierce revenge on Sparta 

 for having put a number of his friends to death, 



Two years later Philoposmen ( now an old man of 

 seventy) was elected strategos for the eighth time. 

 When lying ill of a fever at Argos he rose from 

 his sick-l>ed to quell the revolt of the Messeiiians, 

 but was overpowered by numbers, and fell into the 

 hands of Deinocrates, the leader of the Messeiiians, 

 who two nights after sent him a cup of poison. 

 Philopuiiuen drank it and died. 



