THK IMilXClI'LKS OF WOKLD-KM VI UK. 



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Can world-empire then be based on liberty ? Is it possible 

 that an Athenian empire would fare better than a Persian ? 

 The case was put to the test, for just as Athens is the typical 

 instance of a free state successfully resisting the principle of 

 empire, so Athens in turn became the typical instance of the 

 failure of a free state to establish empire. 



The failure of Athens was most significant. The numerous 

 little Greek city states had much in common. They recognized 

 their kinship in biped, they spoke the same language, they had 

 the same religion, they shared in the same public celebrations, 

 their civilizations were of the same type, they followed the 

 same intellectual ideals. Yet it proved impossible to weld them 

 together into a political unity ; each city clung to its right to 

 differ from the others ; each proved in the outcome as jealous of 

 Greek encroachment upon its individuality as of barbarian 

 aggression. And the bitterness of Greek towards Greek was 

 often deadly. Two great political crimes disfigure the history 

 of this period, and illustrate the incompetence of the Greek to 

 construct empire, even within the limits of the Greek-speaking 

 world itself — the destruction of Platsea by the Thebans, and the 

 failure on the part of Athens to support Olynthus until it was 

 too late to save it. 



Is " Empire " Desirable ? 



But if it be the case that small states are of such high 

 importance to humanity, and if the attempt to establish Empire 

 on an individualistic basis has failed as conspicuously as the 

 attempt to found it on armed compulsion, does not the question 

 arise, " Is Empire itself desirable ? " 



But whether we like it or not, the fact is that human history 

 flows in that direction. We have seen that Greece affords 

 numerous examples of the small city state. It was indeed a 

 fundamental principle to Aristotle that a city too large for its 

 citizens to hear the voice of a single town-crier had passed the 

 limits of wholesome growth. But in the later Middle Ages, 

 when this idea of the free city state was producing some of its 

 most splendid examples, another force was again making itself 

 felt — the idea of nationhood, as something higher, fuller, nobler 

 than cityhood. Community of race, of religion, of language, 

 were each felt to be reasons for striving for unity of government 

 and law. So, through the long centuries, England, France, 

 Spain, Italy, Germany have struggled, hoped and worked for 

 this ideal. So, to-day, Greece, Boumania, Serbia, Bulgaria, 



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