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GRECIAN CIVILIZATION BEFORE THE PERSIAN WARS
Early civilization.
We understand by civilization the progress which nations
have made in art, literature, material strength,
social culture, and political institutions, by which
habits are softened, the mind enlarged, the soul elevated, and
a wise government, by laws established, protecting the weak,
punishing the wicked, and developing wealth and national
resources.
Such a civilization did exist to a remarkable degree among
the Greeks, which was not only the admiration of their own
times, but a wonder to all succeeding ages, since it was established
by the unaided powers of man, and affected the
relations of all the nations of Europe and Asia which fell
under its influence.
It is this which we propose briefly to present in this chapter,
not the highest developments of Grecian culture and
genius, but such as existed in the period immediately preceding
the Persian wars.
The peculiar situations of the various States, independent
of each other, warlike, encroaching, and ambitious, led
naturally to numerous wars, which would have been civil
wars had all these petty States been united under a common
government. But incessant wars, growing out of endless
causes of irritation, would have soon ruined these States,
and they could have had no proper development. Something
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was needed to restrain passion and heal dissensions
without a resort to arms, ever attended by dire calamities.
And something was needed to unite these various States, in
which the same language was spoken, and the same religion
and customs prevailed. This union was partially effected by
the Amphictyonic Council. It was a congress,
composed of deputies from the different States,
and deliberating according to rules established from time
immemorial. Its meetings were held in two different places,
and were convened twice a year, once in the spring, at Delphi,
the other in the autumn, near the pass of Thermopylæ.
Delphi was probably the original place of meeting, and was,
therefore, in one important sense, the capital of Greece.
Originally, this council or congress was composed of deputies
from twelve States, or tribes—Thessalians, Bœotians,
Dorians, Ionians, Perrhæbians, Magnetes, Locrians, Octæans,
Phthiots, Achæans, Melians, and Phocians. These tribes
assembled together before authentic history commences, before
the return of the Heracleids. There were other States
which were not represented in this league—Arcadia, Elis,
Æolia, and Acarnania; but the league was sufficiently
powerful to make its decisions respected by the greater part
of Greece. Each tribe, whether powerful or weak, had two
votes in the assembly. Beside those members who had the
exclusive power of voting, there were others, and more numerous,
who had the privilege of deliberation. The object
of the council was more for religious purposes than political,
although, on rare occasions and national crises, subjects of a
political nature were discussed. The council laid down the
rules of war, by which each State that was represented was
guaranteed against complete subjection, and the supplies of
war were protected. There was no confederacy against
foreign powers. The functions of the league were confined
to matters purely domestic; the object of the league was the
protection of temples against sacrilege. But the council
had no common army to execute its decrees, which were
often disregarded. In particular, the protection of the Delphic
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oracle, it acted with dignity and effect, whose responses
were universally respected.
As the Delphic oracle was the object which engrossed the
most important duties of the council, and the responses
of this oracle in early times was a sacred
law, the deliberations of the league had considerable influence,
and were often directed to political purposes. But the
immediate management of the oracle was in the hands of
the citizens of Delphi. In process of time the responses of
the oracle, by the mouth of a woman, which were thus controlled
by the Delphians, lost much of their prestige, in consequence
of the presents or bribery by which favorable
responses were gained
More powerful than this council, as an institution, were
the Olympic games, solemnized every four years,
in which all the states of Greece took part. These
games lasted four days, and were of engrossing interest.
They were supposed to be founded by Hercules, and were of
very ancient date. During these celebrations there was a
universal truce, and also during the time it was necessary
for the people to assemble and retire to their homes. Elis,
in whose territory Olympia was situated, had the whole
regulation of the festival, the immediate object of which
were various trials of strength and skill. They included
chariot races, foot races, horse races, wrestling, boxing, and
leaping. They were open to all, even to the poorest Greeks;
no accidents of birth or condition affected these honorable
contests. The palm of honor was given to the men who
had real merit. A simple garland of leaves was the prize,
but this was sufficient to call out all the energies and ambition
of the whole nation. There were, however, incidental
advantages to successful combatants. At Athens, the citizen
who gained a prize was rewarded by five hundred
drachmas, and was entitled to a seat at the table of the
magistrates, and had a conspicuous part on the field of
battle. The victors had statues erected to them, and called
forth the praises of the poets, and thus these primitive sports
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incidentally gave an impulse to art and poetry. In later
times, poets and historians recited their compositions, and
were rewarded with the garland of leaves. The victors of
these games thus acquired a social pre-eminence, and were held
in especial honor, like those heroes in the Middle Ages who
obtained the honor of tournaments and tilts, and, in modern
times, those who receive decoration at the hands of kings.
The celebrity of the Olympic games, which drew spectators
from Asia as well as all the States of Greece,
led to similar institutions or festivals in other places.
The Pythian games, in honor of Apollo, were celebrated near
Delphi every third Olympic year; and various musical contests,
exercises in poetry, exhibitions of works of art were
added to gymnastic exercises and chariot and horse races.
The sacrifices, processions, and other solemnities, resemble
those at Olympia in honor of Zeus. They lasted as long as
the Olympic games, down to A.D. 394. Wherever the worship
of Apollo was introduced, there were imitations of these
Pythian games in all the States of Greece.
The Nemæan and Ithmian games were celebrated each
twice in every Olympiad, the former on the plain
of Nemæa, in Argolis; the latter in the Corinthian
Isthmus, under the presidency of Corinth. These also
claimed a high antiquity, and at these were celebrated the
same feats of strength as at Olympia. But the Olympic
festival was the representation of all the rest, and transcended
all the rest in national importance. It was viewed
with so much interest, that the Greeks measured time itself
by them. It was Olympiads, and not years, by which the
date of all events was determined. The Romans reckoned
their years from the foundation of their city; modern Christian
nations, by the birth of Christ; Mohammedans, by the
flight of the prophet to Medina; and the Greeks, from the
first recorded Olympiad, B.C. 776.
It was in these festivals, at which no foreigner, however
eminent, was allowed to contend for prizes, that
the Greeks buried their quarrels, and incited each
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other to heroism. The places in which they were celebrated
became marts of commerce like the mediæval fairs of Germany;
and the vast assemblage of spectators favored that
communication of news, and inventions, and improvements
which has been produced by our modern exhibitions. These
games answered all the purposes of our races, our industrial
exhibitions, and our anniversaries, religious, political, educational,
and literary, and thus had a most decided influence
on the development of Grecian thought and enterprise.
The exhibition of sculpture and painting alone made them
attractive and intellectual, while the athletic exercises
amused ordinary minds. They were not demoralizing, like
the sports of the amphitheatre, or a modern bull-fight, or
even fashionable races. They were more like tournaments
in the martial ages of Europe, but superior to them
vastly, since no woman was allowed to be present at the
Olympic games under pain of death.
It has already been shown that the form of government in
the States of Ancient Greece, in the Homeric
ages, was monarchical. In two or three hundred
years after the Trojan war, the authority of kings had greatly
diminished. The great immigration and convulsions destroyed
the line of the ancient royal houses. The abolition of royalty
was in substance rather than name. First, it was divided
among several persons, then it was made elective, first for
life, afterward for a definite period. The nobles or chieftains
gained increasing power with the decline of royalty, and
the government became, in many States, aristocratic. But
the nobles abused their power by making an oligarchy,
which is a perverted aristocracy. This aroused hatred and
opposition on the part of the people, especially in the maritime
cities, where the increase of wealth by commerce and the
arts raised up a body of powerful citizens. Then followed
popular revolutions under leaders or demagogues. These
leaders in turn became tyrants, and their exactions gave rise
to more hatred than that produced by the government of
powerful families. They gained power by stratagem, and perverted
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it by violence. But to amuse the people whom they
oppressed, or to please them, they built temples,
theatres, and other public buildings, in which a
liberal patronage was extended to the arts. Thus Athens and
Corinth, before the Persian wars, were beautiful cities, from
the lavish expenditure of the public treasury by the tyrants
or despots who had gained ascendency. In the mean time,
those who were most eminent for wealth, or power, or virtue,
were persecuted, for fear they would effect a revolution. But
the parties which the tyrants had trampled upon were rather
exasperated than ruined, and they seized every opportunity
to rally the people under their standard, and effect an overthrow
of the tyrants. Sparta, whose constitution remained
aristocratic, generally was ready to assist any State in throwing
off the yoke of the usurpers. In some States, like
Athens, every change favored the rise of the people, who
gradually obtained the ascendency. They instituted the principle
of legal equality, by which every freeman was
supposed to exercise the attributes of sovereignty.
But democracy invariably led to the ascendency of factions,
and became itself a tyranny. It became jealous of all who
were distinguished for birth, or wealth, or talents. It encouraged
flatterers and sycophants. It was insatiable in its
demands on the property of the rich, and listened to charges
which exposed them to exile and their estates to confiscation.
It increased the public burdens by unwise expenditures
to please the men of the lower classes who possessed
political franchise.
But different forms of government existed in different
States. In Sparta there was an oligarchy of nobles which
made royalty a shadow, and which kept the people in slavery
and degradation. In Athens the democratic principle prevailed.
In Argos kings reigned down to the Persian wars.
In Corinth the government went through mutations
as at Athens. In all the States and cities experiments
in the various forms of government were perpetually
made and perpetually failed. They existed for a time, and
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were in turn supplanted. The most permanent government
was that of Sparta; the most unstable was that of Athens.
The former promoted a lofty patriotism and public morality
and the national virtues; the latter inequalities of wealth,
the rise of obscure individuals, and the progress of arts.
The fall of the ancient monarchies and aristocracies was closely connected with commercial enterprise and the increase of a wealthy class of citizens. In the beginning of the seventh century before Christ, a great improvement in the art of ship-building was made, especially at Corinth. Colonial settlements kept pace with maritime enterprise; and both of these fostered commerce and wealth. The Euxine lost its terrors to navigators, and the Ægean Sea was filled with ships and colonists. The Adriatic Sea was penetrated, and all the seas connected with the Mediterranean. From the mouth of the Po was brought amber, which was highly valued by the ancients. A great number of people were drawn to Egypt, by the liberal offers of its kings, who went there for the pursuit of knowledge and of wealth, and from which they brought back the papyrus as a cheap material for writing. The productions of Greece were exchanged for the rich fabrics which only Asia furnished, and the cities to which these were brought, like Athens and Corinth, rapidly grew rich, like Venice and Genoa in the Middle Ages.
Wealth of course introduced art. The origin of art may have
been in religious ideas—in temples and the statues
of the gods—in tombs and monuments of great
men. But wealth immeasurably increased the facilities both
for architecture and sculpture. Artists in old times, as in
these, sought a pecuniary reward—patrons who could afford
to buy their productions, and stimulate their genius. Art
was cultivated more rapidly in the Asiatic colonies
than in the mother country, both on account of
their wealth, and the objects of interest around them. The
Ionian cities, especially, were distinguished for luxury and
refinement. Corinth took the lead in the early patronage
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of art, as the most wealthy and luxurious of the Grecian
cities.
The first great impulse was given to architecture. The
Pelasgi had erected Cyclopean structures fifteen
hundred years before Christ. The Dorians built
temples on the severest principles of beauty, and the Doric
column arose, massive and elegant. Long before the Persian
wars the temples were numerous and grand, yet simple and
harmonious. The temple of Here, at Samos, was begun in
the eighth century, B.C., and built in the Doric style, and,
soon after, beautiful structures ornamented Athens.
Sculpture rapidly followed architecture, and passed from
the stiffness of ancient times to that beauty which
afterward distinguished Phidias and Polynotus.
Schools of art, in the sixth century, flourished in all the
Grecian cities. We can not enter upon the details, from the
use of wood to brass and marble. The temples were filled
with groups from celebrated masters, and their deep recesses
were peopled with colossal forms. Gold, silver, and ivory
were used as well as marble and brass. The statues of heroes
adorned every public place. Art, before the Persian wars,
did not indeed reach the refinement which it subsequently
boasted, but a great progress was made in it, in all its
forms. Engraving was also known, and imperfect pictures
were painted. But this art, and indeed any of the arts, did
not culminate until after the Persian wars.
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