GREECE 



Greece, to which the Minoan civili- 

 zation had not extended. In the 

 13th century the Minoans, with 

 their superior civilization, ex- 

 tended their ascendancy into the 

 southernmost regions reached by 

 the advancing Hellenes, and estab- 

 lished what is called the Mycenean 

 civilization within the Moreca or 

 Peloponnesus. 



Achaeans and Hellenes 

 The most inclusive name of the 

 Hellenes at this era was Achaeans 

 or Danaans, with Aeolians and 

 lonians as subdivisions About the 

 12th or llth century, a new and 

 ruder Hellenic wave, the Dorian, 

 rolled down from the N.W. The 

 Dorian pressure drove first the nor- 

 thern Aeolians, and then the 

 southern lonians, to push their 

 way across the islands to the coasts 

 of Asia Minor. It was, however, 

 only in the S., in the eastern Morea 

 and on the Isthmus of Corinth, 

 that the Dorians effected a con- 

 quest, destroying the Minoan as- 

 cendancy, and then carrying their 

 arms eastwards, across Crete and 

 the southern islands, to the south- 

 western coast of Asia Minor. 



By the year 1000' B.C. Hellas 

 had formed itself ; Hellenes were 

 permanently established over the 

 whole Hellenic area the Greek 

 peninsula, the islands of the Aegean 

 Sea, and the coasts of Asia Minor. 

 The time when the Hellenic name 

 superseded Achaean as the com- 

 mon title of the race is uncertain, 

 but it was manifestly later than 

 the shaping of the two great epics 

 of Homer (probably in the 9th 

 century), who speaks always of 

 Achaeans and Danaans, not of 

 Hellenes. The 7th century was the 

 era of the Western Hellenic ex- 

 pansion into Sicily and Italy, due 

 to the fact that eastward expan- 

 sion was blocked by geographical 

 conditions. Powerful non-Hellenic 

 kingdoms were already estab- 

 lished in Asia Minor, against which 

 the Hellenic states on the coast 

 could make no advance across the 

 inland hill-country. 



Geographical Influences 



Geographical conditions deter- 

 mined the character of Hellenic 

 political development ; on the one 

 hand preventing political unifica- 

 tion, and on the other fostering a 

 high degree of organization in the 

 separate political units. Every 

 island was made a natural unit by 

 the sea ; hill ranges cut up the 

 mainland into small areas, isolated 

 from each other, generally tending 

 to the evolution of a city forming 

 the centre of an agricultural dis- 

 trict which became a political unit 

 where the concentrated life fostered 

 a vigorous political activity. But 

 the Greeks, having no common foe, 



3667 



had no incentive to union either for 

 self-defence or for conquest, the 

 two great motives to unification. 



Nevertheless, they had the com- 

 mon bond of religion and language, 

 and the common characteristics of 

 political development which caused ' 

 them to feel themselves apart from 

 the " barbarians " who had no 

 share in their religious mysteries, 

 and were politically undeveloped. 

 Thus, under normal conditions, to 

 the Greek the enemy to be sus- 

 pected was the rival Greek state ; 

 the alien was the citizen of a rival 

 .state. 



In each community the course of 

 political development followed the 

 same lines up to a certain point. 

 From the earliest times each little 

 state consisted of a free population 

 of tribesmen, with their slaves 

 captives, or earlier peoples con- 

 quered in war ; all ruled over by 

 an hereditary king, controlled or 

 guided by a 'council of the heredi- 

 tary clan chiefs whose families 

 formed an aristocracy, while the 

 people periodically assembled for 

 military or other purposes to con- 

 firm or possibly to reject the more 

 important projects designed by 

 their rulers. In course of time in 

 every state except Sparta, which 

 retained the kingship under pecu- 



ORSKCB 



established a dynasty more or less 

 permanent, which rested upon the 

 employment of a paid soldiery. 

 More commonly the second or 

 third generation saw the forcible 

 ejection of the tyrant and the re- 

 covery of political control by the 

 old aristocratic families in conjunc- 

 tion with wealthy families from the 

 commons, who established an oli- 

 garchy; or else the popular party 

 established a democracy. 



The more powerful cities usually 

 exercised a certain dominion over 

 a group of their weaker neighbours, 

 but such a dominion rarely ex- 

 tended over so wide an area as that 

 of an average English county. 



Thus, by the 6th century B.C. 

 Hellas was composed of a great 

 number of small city states, most 

 of them independent ; though the 

 flourishing and wealthy cities of 

 Asia Minor, while remaining auton- 

 omous, had been compelled to ac- 

 knowledge the sovereignty of the 

 Oriental monarchy of Lydia. The 

 6th century was, roughly speaking, 

 the age of the tyrants. 



The Persian Menace 



But the second half of this cen- 

 tury saw a new portent the crea- 

 tion of the Persian Empire by 

 Cyrus (q.v.), and his successors, 

 Cambvses and Darius (7 .?.). The 





Greece. Restoration of the temple of Demeter, in which the Eleusinian 

 mysteries were celebrated 



lost great empires of the ancient world, 

 Babylonian, Assyrian, or Egyptian, 

 had never touched Europe, and 



liar conditions, the monarch 

 his hereditary functions, and even 

 if the royal family survived it 

 became absorbed among the other 

 noble houses. 



Then came a period of struggle 

 between nobles and commons, 

 usually culminating in the military 

 success of a noble who, having suc- 

 cessfully espoused the popular 

 cause, turned his victory to 

 account by assuming a monarchy, 

 shorn, however, of the sacred 

 character originally attaching to 

 the institution. To these monarchs 

 the Greeks gave the name of iy- 

 rannos, tyrant, or rather absolute 

 ruler. Here and there a tyrant 



never 



had scarcely penetrated W. of the 

 Taurus Mountains. B*ut now the 

 Persians and Medes from beyond 

 the Euphrates carried their do- 

 minion first over the whole of Asia 

 Minor, then absorbed the Baby- 

 lonian empire, and finally swept 

 into Egypt and subjugated it. 

 The conquest of Asia Minor meant 

 that the Greek cities were included 

 in the great provinces or satrapies 

 organized by the Persian kings ; 

 -and when Dariuls crossed into 

 Europe, 513 B.C., and conducted 

 an experimental campaign in the 



