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Mosaics of Grecian History

M >> Marcius Willson and Robert Pierpont Willson >> Mosaics of Grecian History



Produced by Robert J, Hall






MOSAICS OF GRECIAN HISTORY

BY MARCIUS WILLSON
AND ROBERT PIERPONT WILLSON



PREFACE.

The leading object had in view in the preparation of the present
volume has been to produce, within a moderate compass, a History
of Greece that shall not only be trustworthy, but interesting
to all classes of readers.

It must be acknowledged that our standard historical works, with
all their worth, do not command a perusal by the people at large;
and it is equally plain that our ordinary School Manuals--the
abridgments and outlines of more voluminous works--do not meet
with any greater favor. The mere outline system of historical
study usually pursued in the schools is interesting to those only
to whom it is suggestive of the details on which it is based; and
we have long been satisfied that it is not the best for beginners
and for popular use; that it inverts the natural order of
acquisition; that for the young to master it is drudgery; that
its statistical enumeration, if ever learned by them, is soon
forgotten; that it tends to create a prejudice against the study
of history; that it does not lay the proper foundation for future
historical reading; and that, outside of the enforced study of
the school-room, it is seldom made use of. The people in general--the
masses--do not read such works, while they do read with avidity
historical legends, historical romances, historical poems and
dramas, and biographical sketches. And we do not hesitate to assert
that from Shakspeare's historical plays the reading public have
acquired (together with much other valuable information) a
hundred-fold more knowledge of certain portions of English history
than from all the ponderous tomes of formal history that have ever
been written. It may be said that people ought to read Hume, and
Lingard, and Mackintosh, and Hallam, and Froude, and Freeman,
instead of Shakspeare's "King John," and "Richard II.," and "Henry
IV.," and "Henry VIII.," etc. It is a sufficient reply to say they
do not.

Historical works, therefore, to be read by the masses, must be
adapted to the popular taste. It was an acknowledgment of this
truth that led Macaulay, the most brilliant of historians, to
remark, "We are not certain that the best histories are not those
in which a little of the exaggeration of fictitious narrative
is judiciously employed. Something is lost in accuracy, but much
is gained in effect. The fainter lines are neglected, but the
great characteristic features are imprinted on the mind forever."
If the result to which Macaulay refers be once attained by an
introductory work so interesting that it shall come into general
use, it will, we believe, naturally lead to the reading of some
of the best standard works in the same historical field. In our
attempt to make this a work of such a preparatory character, we
have borne in mind the demand that has arisen for poetic illustration
in the reading and teaching of history, and have given this
delightful aid to historical study a prominent place--ofttimes
making it the sole means of imparting information. And yet we
have introduced nothing that is not strictly consistent with our
ideal of what history should be; for although some of the poetic
selections are avowedly wholly legendary, and others, still, in
a greater or less degree fictitious in their minor details--like
the by-plays in Shakspeare's historic dramas--we believe they do
no violence to historical verity, as they are faithful pictures
of the times, scenes, incidents, principles, and beliefs which
they are employed to illustrate. Aside, too, from their historic
interest, they have a literary value. Many prose selections from
the best historians are also introduced, giving to the narrative
a pleasing variety of style that can be found in no one writer,
even if he be a Grote, a Gibbon, or a Macaulay.

* * * * *

THE PRINCIPAL HISTORIES OF GREECE.

Believing that it may be of some advantage to the general reader,
we give herewith a brief sketch of the principal histories of
Greece now before the public. We may mention, among those of a
comprehensive character, the works of Goldsmith, Gillies, Mitford,
Thirlwall, Grote, and Curtius:

OLIVER GOLDSMITH, "the popular poet, the charming novelist, the
successful dramatist, and the witty essayist," wrote a popular
history of Greece, in two volumes, 8vo, 1774, embracing a period
from the earliest date down to the death of Alexander the Great.
It is an attractive work, elegantly written, but is superficial
and inaccurate.

In 1786 was published a history of ancient Greece, in several
volumes, by DR. JOHN GILLIES, who succeeded Dr. Robertson as
historiographer of Scotland. This is a work of considerable merit
but it is written in a spirit of decidedly monarchical tendencies,
although the author evidently aimed at great fairness in his
political views.

He says: "The history of Greece exposes the dangerous turbulence
of democracy, and arraigns the despotism of tyrants. By describing
the incurable evils inherent in every republican policy, it evinces
the inestimable benefits resulting to liberty itself from the
lawful dominion of hereditary kings, and the steady operation
of well-regulated monarchy."

In the year 1784 appeared the first volume of WILLIAM MITFORD'S
"History of Greece", subsequently extended to eight and ten volumes,
8vo. It is the first history of Greece that combines extensive
research and profound philosophical reflection; but it is "a
monarchical" history, by a writer of very strong anti-republican
principles. "It was composed," says Alison, the distinguished
historian of modern Europe, "during, or shortly after, the French
Revolution; and it was mainly intended to counteract the visionary
ideas in regard to the blessings of Grecian democracy, which had
spread so far in the world, from the magic of Athenian genius."
Says Chancellor Kent: "Mitford does not scruple to tell the truth,
and the whole truth, and to paint the stormy democracies of Greece
in all their grandeur and in all their wretchedness." Lord Byron
said of the author: "His great pleasure consists in praising tyrants,
abusing Plutarch, spelling oddly, and writing quaintly; and--what
is strange, after all--his is the best modern history of Greece
in any language." But this was penned before Thirlwall's and Grote's
histories were published. Lord Macaulay says of Mitford: "Whenever
this historian mentions Demosthenes he violates all the laws of
candor and even of decency: he weighs no authorities, he makes
no allowances, he forgets the best authenticated facts in the
history of the times, and the most generally recognized principles
of human nature." The North British Review, after calling Mitford
"a bad scholar, a bad historian, and a bad writer of English,"
says, farther, that "he was the first writer of any note who found
out that Grecian history was a living thing with a practical
bearing."

The next truly important and comprehensive Grecian history,
published from 1835 to 1840, in eight volumes, 8vo, was written
by CONNOP THIRLWALL, D. D., Bishop of St. David's. It is a scholarly,
elaborate, and philosophical work evincing a thorough knowledge
of Greek literature and of the German commentators. The historian
Grote said that, if it had appeared a few years earlier, he should
probably never have undertaken his own history of Greece. "I
should certainly," he says, "not have been prompted to the task
by any deficiencies such as those I felt and regretted in Mitford."

In comparing Thirlwall's history with Grote's, the North British
Review has the following judicious remarks: "Many persons, probably,
who have no special devotion to Grecian history wish to study its
main outlines in something higher than a mere school-book. To
such readers we should certainly recommend Thirlwall rather than
Grote. The comparative brevity, the greater clearness and terseness
of the narrative, the freedom from diversions and digressions,
all render it far better suited for such a purpose. But for the
political thinker, who regards Grecian history chiefly in its
practical bearing, Mr. Grote's work is far better adapted. The
one is the work of a scholar, an enlarged and practical scholar
indeed, but still one in whom the character of the scholar is
the primary one. The other is the work of a politician and man
of business, a London banker, a Radical M. P., whose devotion
to ancient history and literature forms the most illustrious
confutation of the charges brought against such studies as being
useless and impractical."

"The style of Thirlwall," says Dr. Samuel Warren of England, in
his Introduction to Law Studies, "is dry, terse, and exact--not
fitted, perhaps, for the historical tyro, but most acceptable
to the advanced student who is in quest of things."

GEORGE GROTE, Member of Parliament, and a London banker, who
wrote a history of Greece in twelve volumes, published from 1846
to 1855, has been styled, by way of eminence, the historian of
Greece, because his work is universally admitted by critics to
be the best for the advanced student that has yet been written.
The London Athenæum styles his history "a great literary undertaking,
equally notable whether we regard it as an accession of standard
value in our language, or as an honorable monument of what English
scholarship can do." The London Quarterly Review says: "Errors
the most inveterate, that have been handed down without misgiving
from generation to generation, have been for the first time
corrected by Mr. Grote; facts the most familiar have been presented
in new aspects and relations; things dimly seen, and only partially
apprehended previously, have now assumed their true proportions
and real significance; while numerous traits of Grecian character;
and new veins of Grecian thought and feeling, have been revealed
to the eyes of scholars by Mr. Grote's searching criticism, like
new forms of animated nature by the microscope."

The general character of the work has been farther well summed
up by Sir Archibald Alison. He says: "A decided liberal, perhaps
even a republican, in politics, Mr. Grote has labored to counteract
the influence of Mitford in Grecian history, and construct a
history of Greece from authentic materials, which should illustrate
the animating influence of democratic freedom upon the exertions
of the human mind. In the prosecution of this attempt he has
displayed an extent of learning, a variety of research, a power
of combination, which are worthy of the very highest praise, and
have secured for him a lasting place among the historians of modern
Europe."

We may also mention, in this connection, the valuable and scholarly
work of the German professor, Ernst Curtius (1857-'67), in five
volumes, translated by A. Ward (1871-'74). His sympathies are
monarchical, and his views more nearly accord with those of Mitford
and Thirlwall than with those of Grote.

The work by William Smith, in one volume, 1865, is an excellent
summary of Grecian history, as is also that of George W. Cox, 1876.
The former work, which to a considerable extent is an abridgment
of Grote, has been brought down, in a Boston edition, from the
Roman Conquest to the middle of the present century, by Dr. Felton,
late President of Harvard College. President Felton has also
published two volumes of scholarly lectures on Ancient and Modern
Greece (1867).

The works devoted to limited periods of Grecian history and special
departments of research are very numerous. Among the most valuable
of the former is the History of the Peloponnesian War, by the
Greek historian Thucydides, of which there are several English
versions. He was born in Athens, about the year 471 B.C. His is
one of the ablest histories ever written.

Herodotus, the earliest and best of the romantic historians,
sometimes called the "Father of History," was contemporary with
Thucydides. He wrote, in a charming style, an elaborate work on
the Persian and Grecian wars, most of the scenes of which he
visited in person; and in numerous episodes and digressions he
interweaves the most valuable history that we have of the early
Asiatic nations and the Egyptians; but he indulges too much in
the marvelous to be altogether reliable."

Of the numerous works of Xenophon, an Athenian who is sometimes
called the "Attic Muse," from the simplicity and beauty of his
style, the best known and the most pleasing are the Anab'asis,
the Memorabil'ia of Socrates, and the Cyropedi'a, a political
romance. He was born about 443 B.C. The best English translation
of his works is by Watson, in Harper's "New Classical Library."

The work of the Greek historian, Polybius, originally in forty
volumes, of which only five remain entire covered a period from
the downfall of the Macedonian power to the subversion of Grecian
liberty by the Romans, 146 B.C. It is a work of great accuracy,
but of little rhetorical polish, and embraces much of Roman history
from which Livy derived most of the materials for his account of
the wars with Carthage.

In the first century of our era, Plutarch, a Greek biographer,
wrote the "Parallel Lives" of forty-six distinguished Greeks and
Romans--a charming and instructive work, translated by John and
William Langhorne in 1771, and by Arthur Hugh Clough in 1858.

A history of Greece, in seven volumes, by George Finlay, a British
historian, long resident at Athens, is noted for a thorough knowledge
of Greek topography, art, and antiquity. The completed work embraces
a period from the conquest of Greece by the Romans to the middle
of the present century.

A History of Greek Literature, by J, P. Mahaffy, is the most
polished descriptive work in the department which it embraces.
It is happily supplemented by J. Addington Symonds' Studies of
the Greek Poets. Mr. Mahaffy, in common with many German scholars,
is an unbeliever in the unity of the Iliad.




CONTENTS.

[The names of authors from whom selections are taken are in
CAPITOLS.]

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL VIEW OF THE GRECIAN STATES AND ISLANDS.

Introductory.--Olympus.--HEMANS.--Pi'e-rus.--POPE.
1. Thessaly.--Tem'pe.-HEMANS.
2. Epi'rus.--Cocy'tus, Ach'eron, Dodo'na.--MILTON: HAYGARTH:
BYRON.
3. Acarna'nia.
4. Æto'lia.
5. Lo'cris.
6. Do'ris.
7. Pho'cis.--Parnassus.--BYRON.--Delphi.--HEMANS.
8. Boeo'tia.--Thebes.--SCHILLER.
9. Attica.--BYRON.
10. Corinth.--BYRON: HAYGARTH.
11. Acha'ia.
12. Arca'dia.
13. Ar'golis.--Myce'næ.--HEMANS.
14. Laco'nia.
15. Messe'nia.
16. E'lis.
17. The Isles of Greece.--BYRON.
Lemnos.--Euboe'a.--Cyc'la-des.--De'los.--Spor'a-des.--
Crete.--Rhodes.--Sal'amis.--Ægi'na.--Cyth'-era.--
"Venus Rising from the Sea."--WOOLNER.
Stroph'a-des.--VIRGIL.--Paxos.--Zacyn'thus.--
Cephalo'nia.--Ith'aca.--Leu'cas or Leuca'dia.--
Corcy'ra or Cor'fu.--"Gardens of Alcin'o-us."

CHAPTER II.

THE FABULOUS AND LEGENDARY PERIOD OF GRECIAN HISTORY.

I. Grecian Mythology.
Value of the Grecian Fables.--J. STUART BLACKIE.
The Battle of the Giants.--HE'SIOD
Hymn to Jupiter.--CLEAN'THES
The god Apollo.--OV'ID.
Fancies of the Greek Mind.--WORDSWORTH: LIDDELL: BLACKIE.
The Poet's Lament.--SCHILLER.
The Creation.--OVID.
The Origin of Evil.--HESIOD.
What Prome'theus Personified.--BLACKIE.
The Punishment of Prometheus.--ÆS'CHYLUS: SHELLEY
Deluge of Deuca'lion.--OVID.
Moral Characteristics of the Gods, etc.--MAHAFFY:
GLADSTONE: HOMER: ÆSCHYLUS: HESIOD.
Oaths.--HOMER: ÆSCHYLUS: SOPH'OCLES: VIRGIL.
The Future State.--HOMER.
1. Story of Tan'talus.--BLACKIE
2. The Descent of Or'pheus.--OVID: HOMER.
3. The Elys'ium.--HOMER: PINDAR.
Hindu and Greek Skepticism.--(Cornhill Magazine).

II. The Earnest Inhabitants of Greece.
The Founding of Athens.--BLACKIE.

III. The Heroic Age.
Heroic Times foretold to Adam.--MILTON
Twelve Labors of Hercules.--HOMER.
Fable of Hercules and Antæ'us.--COLLINS.
The Argonautic Expedition.--PINDAR.
Legend of Hy'las.--BAYARD TAYLOR.
The Trojan War.
1. The Greek Armament.--EURIP'IDES.
2. The name Helen.--ÆSCHYLUS.
3. Ulysses and Thersi'tes.--HOMER. (POPE).
4. Combat of Menela'us and Paris.--HOMER. (POPE).
5. Parting of Hector and Androm'a-che.--HOMER. (POPE).
6. Hector's Exploits and Death of Patro'clus.--HOMER.
(POPE).
7. The Shield of Achilles.--HOMER. (SOTHEBY).
8. Address of Achilles to his Horses.--HOMER. (POPE).
9. The Death of Hector.--HOMER. (BRYANT).
10. Priam Begging for Hector's Body.--HOMER. (COWPER).
11. Lamentations of Andromache and Helen.--HOMER. (POPE).
The Fate of Troy.--VIRGIL: SCHILLER.
Beacon Fires from Troy to Argos.--ÆSCHYLUS.
Remarks on the Trojan War.--THIRLWALL: GROTE.
Fate of the Actors in the Conflict.--ENNIUS: LANDOR: LANG.

IV. Arts and Civilization in the Heroic Age.
Political Life of the Greeks.--MAHAFFY: HEEREN.
Domestic Life and Character.--MAHAFFY: HOMER.
The Raft of Ulysses.--HOMER.

V. The Conquest of Peloponnesus, and Colonies in Asia Minor.
Return of the Heracli'dæ.--LUCAN.

CHAPTER III.

EARLY GREEK LITERATURE, AND GREEK COMMUNITY OF INTERESTS.

Ionian Language and Culture.--FELTON.

I. Homer and his Poems.--ANTIP'ATER: FELTON: TALFOURD: POPE:
COLERIDGE.

II. Some Causes of Greek Unity.
The Grecian Festivals.
1. Chariot Race and Death of Ores'tes.--SOPHOCLES.
2. Apollo's Conflict with the Python.--OVID.
3. The Apollo Belvedere.--THOMSON.
The National Councils.

CHAPTER IV.

SPARTA, AND THE LEGISLATION OF LYCURGUS.

Description of Sparta.--THOMSON.

I. The Constitution of Lycurgus.
Spartan Patriotic Virtue.--TYMNOE'US.

II. Spartan Poetry and Music.
Spartan March.--CAMPBELL.: HEMANS.
Songs of the Spartans.--PLUTARCH: TERPAN'DER: PINDAR: ION.

III. Sparta's Conquests.
War-song.--TYRTOE'US.

CHAPTER V.

FORMS OF GOVERNMENT, AND CHANGES IN GRECIAN POLITICS.

Introductory.--THIRLWALL: LEG'ARÉ.

I. Changes from Aristocracies to Oligarchies.--HEEREN.

II. Changes from Oligarchies to Despotisms.--THIRLWALL: HEEREN:
BULWER: TYRTOE'US.

CHAPTER VI.

THE EARLY HISTORY OF ATHENS.

I. The Legislation of Dra'co.

II. The Legislation of So'lon.--PLUTARCH: A'KENSIDE: SOLON:
THOMSON: SOLON.

III. The Usurpation of Pisis'tratus.
The Usurper and his Stratagem.--AKENSIDE.
Solon's Appeal to the Athenians.--AKENSIDE.
Character of Pisistratus.--THIRLWALL.
Conspiracy of Harmodius and Aristogi'ton.--CALLIS'TRATUS.

IV. Birth of Democracy.--THIRLWALL.

CHAPTER VII.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE GREEK COLONIES.

The Cave of the Cumæ'an Sibyl.--VIRGIL: GROTE.
The'ron of Agrigen'tum.--PINDAR.
Increase among the Sicilian Greeks.--GROTE.

CHAPTER VIII.

PROGRESS OF LITERATURE AND THE ARTS.

I. The Poems of Hesiod.--"Winter."--FELTON: MURE: THIRLWALL:
MAHAFFY.

II. Lyric Poetry.
Calli'nus of Ephesus.--"War Elegy".
Archil'ochus of Pa'ros--SYMONDS: MAHAFFY.
Alc'man.--"Sleep, or Night."--MURE.
Ari'on.--Stesich'orus.--MAHAFFY.
Alcæus.--"Spoils of War."--AKENSIDE.
Sappho.--"Defence of."--SYMONDS: ANTIP'ATER.
Anac'reon.--"The Grasshopper."--AKENSIDE.

III. Early Grecian Philosophy.
The Seven Sages.--(Maxims).-GROTE.
Tha'les, Anaxim'enes, Heracli'tus, Diog'enes,
Anaximan'der, and Xenoph'anes.
Pythag'oras and his Doctrines.--BLACKIE: THOMSON:
COLERIDGE: LOWELL.
The Eleusin'ian Mysteries.--VIRGIL.

IV. Architecture.
The Cyclo'pean Walls.--LORD HOUGHTON.
Dor'ic, Ion'ic, and Corinthian Orders.--THOMSON.
Cher'siphron, and the Temple of Diana.--STORY.
Temples at Pæs'tum.--CRANCH.

V. Sculpture.
Glaucus, Rhoe'cus, Theodo'rus, Dipæ'nus, Scyllis.
Cause of the Progress of Sculpture.--THIRLWALL.

CHAPTER IX.

THE PERSIAN WARS.

I. The Ionic Revolt.

II. The First Persian War.
The Battle of Marathon.
Legends of the Battle.--HEMANS: BLACKIE.
The Death of Milti'ades: his Character.--GROTE: GILLIES.
Aristi'des and Themis'tocles:--THOMSON: PLUTARCH: THIRLWALL.

III. The Second Persian Invasion.
Xerxes at Aby'dos.--HEROD'OTUS.
Bridging of the Hellespont.--JUVENAL: MILTON.
The Battle of Thermop'ylæ.
1. Invincibility of the Spartans.--HAYGARTH.
2. Description of the Contest.--HAYGARTH.
3. Epitaphs on those who fell.--SIMON'IDES.
4. The Tomb of Leon'idas.--ANON.
5. Eulogy on the Fallen.--BYRON
Naval Conflict at Artemis'ium.--PLUTARCH: PINDAR.
The Abandonment of Athens.
The Battle of Salamis.
1. Xerxes Views the Conflict.--BYRON.
2. Flight of Xerxes.--JUVENAL: ALAMANNI.
3. Celebrated Description of the Battle.--MITFORD:
ÆSCHYLUS.
4. Another Account.--BLACKIE.
The Battle of Platæ'a.
1. Description of the Battle.--BULWER.
2. Importance of the Victory.--SOUTHEY: BULWER.
3. Victory at Myc'a-le.--BULWER.
4. "The Wasps."--ARISTOPHANES.

CHAPTER X.

THE RISE AND GROWTH OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE.

I. The Disgrace and Death of Themistocles.
Tributes to his Memory.--PLATO: GEMINUS: THIRLWALL.
II. The Rise and Fall of Cimon.
Character of Cimon--THOMSON.
Battle of Eurym'edon.--SIMONIDES.
Earthquake at Sparta, and Revolt of the Helots.--BULWER:
ALISON.

III. The Accession of Pericles to Power.
Changes in the Athenian Constitution.--BULWER.
Tribute to Pericles.--CROLY.
Picture of Athens in Peace.--HAYGARTH.

CHAPTER XI.

THE PELOPONNESIAN WARS, AND THE FALL OF ATHENS.

Speech of Pericles for War.--THUCYD'IDES.

I. The First Peloponnesian War.
Funeral Oration of Pericles.--THUCYDIDES.
Comments on the Oration.--CURTIUS.
The Plague at Athens.--LUCRETIUS.
Death of Pericles.--CROLY: THIRLWALL: BULWER.
Character of Pericles.--MITFORD.

II. The Athenian Demagogues.
Cleon, the Demagogue.--GILLIES: ARISTOPH'ANES.
The Peace of Ni'cias.

III. The Sicilian Expedition.
Treatment of the Athenian Prisoners.--BYRON.

IV. The Second Peloponnesian War.
Humiliation of Athens.
Barbarities of the Contest.--MAHAFFY.

CHAPTER XII.

GRECIAN LITERATURE AND ART, FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE PERSIAN
TO THE CLOSE OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WARS (B.C. 500-403).

LITERATURE.

Introductory.
The Era of Athenian Greatness.--SYMONDS.

I. Lyric Poetry.
Simonides.--"Lamentation of Dan'a-ë."--MAHAFFY.
Pindar.--"Threnos."--THIRLWALL: PRIOR: SYMONDS: GRAY:
POPE: HORACE.

II. The Drama.--BULWER.
1. Tragedy.--Melpom'ene.--AKENSIDE.
Æschylus.--"Death of Agamemnon."--PLUMPTRE: LAWRENCE:
VAN SCHLEGEL: BYRON: MAHAFFY.
Sophocles.--OEd'ipus Tyran'nus."--TALFOURD: PHRYN'ICHUS:
SIM'MIAS.
Euripides.--"Alcestis Preparing for Death."--SYMONDS:
MILTON: MAHAFFY.
The Transitions of Tragedy.--GROTE.
2. Comedy.
Characterization of.
Aristophanes.--Extracts from "The Cloud." "Choral Song from
The Birds."--PLATO: GROTE: SEWELL: MILTON: RUSKIN.

III. History.
Hecatæ'ns.--MAHAFFY: NIEBUHR.
Herodotus.--"Introduction to History."--LAWRENCE.
Herodotus and his Writings.--MACAULAY.
Thucyd'i-des.--MAHAFFY.
Thucydides and Herodotus.--BROWNE.

IV. Philosophy.
Anaxag'oras: his Death.--WILLIAM CANTON.
The Sophists.--MAHAFFY.
Socrates.--"Defence of Socrates."--"Socrates' Views of
a Future State."--MAHAFFY: THOMSON: SMITH: TYLER: GROTE.

ART.

I. Sculpture and Painting.
Phid'ias.--LÜBKE: GILLIES: LÜBKE.
Polygno'tus.--Apollodo'rus.--Zeux'is.--Parrha'sius.
--Timan'thes.
Parrhasius and his Captive.--SENECA: WILLIS.

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