VII 

 GREEK SCIENCE IN THE EARLY ATTIC PERIOD 



WE have travelled rather far in our study of Greek 

 science, and yet we have not until now come to 

 Greece itself. And even now, the men whose names 

 we are to consider were, for the most part, born in out- 

 lying portions of the empire; they differed from the 

 others we have considered only in the fact that they 

 were drawn presently to the capital. The change is 

 due to a most interesting sequence of historical events. 

 In the day when Thales and his immediate succes- 

 sors taught in Miletus, when the great men of the 

 Italic school were in their prime, there was no single 

 undisputed centre of Greek influence. The Greeks 

 were a disorganized company of petty nations, welded 

 together chiefly by unity of speech ; but now, early in 

 the fifth century B.C., occurred that famous attack upon 

 the Western world by the Persians under Darius and his 

 son and successor Xerxes. A few months of battling 

 determined the fate of the Western world. The Orien- 

 tals were hurled back; the glorious memories of Mara- 

 thon, Salamis, and Plataea stimulated the patriotism 

 and enthusiasm of all children of the Greek race. The 

 Greeks, for the first time, occupied the centre of the 

 historical stage; for the brief interval of about half a 

 century the different Grecian principalities lived to- 

 gether in relative harmony. One city was recognized 



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