THE RISE OF PERSONALItT 65 



lous region were cities in close trade communication with Crete 

 and later with Greece. The most western of these trading- 

 posts was Troy. The Black Sea and its rivers were ancient 

 trade-routes carrying northward the wares and ideas of more 

 favored and advanced southern lands. Southwestern Russia 

 and the Balkans came very early under the sway of Mediter- 

 ranean stimuli and influences. 



Here agriculture and cattle-raising sprang up early. Civil- 

 ization progressed rapidly, and the cake of custom had less 

 opportunity to harden. There was far less uniformity, isola- 

 tion was impossible, tribal characteristics were less marked. 

 There were wealth and inequality of possession. Change was 

 comparatively rapid. Individual leadership and initiative 

 were at a premium. It was a land of restless adventurers com- 

 pared with the more stolid peasants of northern Europe. 



Here was the ancient home of the Aryans; extending far to 

 the eastward, its northern extent is still uncertain. A com- 

 mon language was used all over its wide unbroken area, doubt- 

 less with many dialects. It had to express the needs and 

 thoughts of many conditions and cultures, was used in trade 

 and commerce. Those who spoke it were in communication 

 with many men, cities and lands, it was in a sense cosmopoli- 

 tan, flexible and adaptable. Before the end of Neolithic times 

 its sphere of influence had probably reached far beyond the 

 borders of the old Aryan homeland. 



Not very far from 2000 b. c, the people were swarming out 

 from their old home. The eastern Aryans went into Persia 

 and on into India. Aryan names soon appear in Asia Minor. 

 The western Aryans invaded Greece and spread over Europe. 

 We have an excellent picture of the Achaean leaders in Homer's 

 chieftains. They were fighters and adventurers, boastful and 

 loud mouthed, running over with animal life and spirits, great 

 talkers and story-tellers not overhampered by respect for 

 truth, good mixers and magnetic leaders. They hated toil and 

 work. These adventurers were freebooters; open, generous, 

 frank, kindly when not opposed, rough and cruel as a parcel 

 of schoolboys when angered. 



