colonization. The Greeks could feel at home in southern Italy, where the genial climate, pure air, and sparkling sea Colonization recalled their native land. At a very early date in the west they founded Cumæ, on the coast just north of the bay of Naples. Emigrants from Cumæ, in turn, founded the city of Neapolis (Naples), which in Roman times formed a home of Greek culture and even to-day possesses a large Greek population. To

Pæstum, the Greek Poseidonia, was a colony of Sybaris. The malarial atmosphere of the place led to its desertion in the ninth century of our era. Hence the buildings there were not used as quarries for later structures. The so-called "Temple of Neptune" at Pæstum is one of the best-preserved monuments of antiquity.

secure the approaches from Greece to these remote colonies, two strongholds were established on the strait of Messina: Regium 1 on the Italian shore and Messana 2 on that of Sicily. Another important colony in southern Italy was Tarentum.3

Greek settlements in Sicily were mainly along the coast. Expansion over the entire island was checked by the Carthaginians, who had numerous possessions at its western The Sicilian extremity. The most celebrated colony in Sicily colonies was Syracuse, established by emigrants from Corinth. It became the largest of Greek cities.

In Corsica, Sardinia, and on the coast of Spain Carthage also proved too obstinate a rival for the Greeks Other Medito gain much of a foothold. The city of Massilia terranean (Marseilles), at the mouth of the Rhone, was

colonies

their chief settlement in ancient Gaul. Two colonies on the

1 Modern Reggio.

2 Modern Messina.

3 Modern Taranto.

southern shore of the Mediterranean were Cyrene, west of Egypt, and Naucratis, in the Delta of the Nile. From this time many Greek travelers visited Egypt to see the wonders of that strange old country.

Energetic Greeks, the greatest colonizers of antiquity, thus founded settlements from the Black Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. Results of "All the Greek colonies" says an ancient writer, colonization "are washed by the waves of the sea, and, so to speak, a fringe of Greek earth is woven on to foreign lands." 1 To distinguish themselves from the foreigners, or "barbarians," about them, the Greeks began to call themselves by the common name of Hellenes. Hellas, their country, came to include all the territory possessed by Hellenic peoples. The life of the Greeks, henceforth, was confined no longer within the narrow limits of the Ægean. Wherever rose a Greek city, there was a scene of Greek history.

30. Bonds of Union among the Greeks

The Greek colonies, as we have seen, were free and independent. In Greece itself the little city-states were just as jealous of their liberties. Nevertheless ties existed, not Language as a unifying of common government, but of common interests force and ideals, which helped to unite the scattered sections of the Greek world. The strongest bond of union was, of course, the one Greek speech. Everywhere the people used the same beautiful and expressive language. It is not a "dead" language, for it still lives in modified form on the lips of nearly three million people in the Greek peninsula, throughout the Mediterranean, and even in remote America.

Literature as a unifying

Greek literature, likewise, made for unity. The Iliad and the Odyssey were recited in every Greek village for centuries. They formed the principal textbook in the schools; an Athenian philosopher calls Homer the "educator of Hellas." It has been well said that these two epics were at once the Bible and the Shakespeare of the Greek people.

force; Homer

1 Cicero, De republica, ii, 4.

2 Greek barbaroi, "men of confused speech."

The

Religion as a
unifying
force; am-

phictyonies

Religion formed another bond of union. Everywhere the Greeks worshiped, the same gods and performed the same sacred rites. Religious influences were sometimes. strong enough to bring about federations known as amphictyonies, or leagues of neighbors. people living around a famous sanctuary would meet to observe their festivals in common and to guard the shrine of their divinity. The Delphic amphictyony was the most noteworthy of these local unions. It included twelve tribes and cities of central Greece and Thessaly. They established a council, which took the shrine of Apollo under its protection and superintended the athletic games at Delphi.

A new age

The seventh and sixth centuries before Christ form a noteworthy epoch in Greek history. Commerce and colonization were bringing their educating influence to bear upon the Greeks. Hellenic cities were rising everywhere along the Mediterranean shores. A common language, literature, and religion were making the people more and more conscious of their unity as opposed to the "barbarians" about them.

Greek history has now been traced from its beginnings to about 500 B.C. It is the history of a people, not of one country or of a united nation. Yet the time was drawing The Greek

near when all the Greek communities were to be brought together in closer bonds of union than they had ever before known.

Studies

world, 500 B.C.

1. On the map facing page 66 see what regions of Europe are less than 500 feet above sea level; less than 3000 feet; over 9000 feet. 2. Why was Europe better fitted than Asia to develop the highest civilization? Why not so well fitted as Asia to originate civilization? 3. "The tendency of mountains is to separate, of rivers to unite, adjacent peoples." How can you justify this statement by a study of European geography? 4. Why has the Mediterranean been called a "highway of nations"? 5. Locate on the map several of the natural entrances into the basin of the Mediterranean. 6. At what points is it probable that southern Europe and northern Africa were once united? 7. Compare the position of Crete in relation to Egypt with that of Sicily in relation to the north African coast. 8. Why was the island of Cyprus a natural meeting place of Egyptian, Syrian, and Greek peoples? 9. What modern countries are included within the limits of the Balkan peninsula?

10. Describe the island routes across the Egean (map between pages 68-69). 11. What American states lie in about the same latitude as Greece? 12. Compare the boundaries of ancient Greece with those of the modern kingdom. 13. What European countries in physical features closely resemble Greece? What state of our union? 14. Why is Greece in its physical aspects "the most European of European lands"? 15. What countries of Greece did not touch the sea? 16. Tell the story of the Iliad and of the Odyssey. 17. Explain the following terms: oracle; amphictyony; helot; Hellas; Olympiad; and ephors. 18. Give the meaning of our English words "ostracism" and "oracular." 19. Explain the present meaning and historical origin of the following expressions: "a Delphic response"; "Draconian severity"; "a laconic speech." 20. What is the date of the first recorded Olympiad? of the expulsion of the last tyrant of Athens? 21. Describe the Lions' Gate (illustration, page 70) and the François Vase (illustration, page 77). 22. Compare Greek ideas of the future life with those of the Babylonians. 23. Why has the Delphic oracle been called "the common hearth of Hellas"? 24. What resemblances do you discover between the Olympian festival and one of our great international expositions? 25. Define and illustrate these terms: monarchy; aristocracy; tyranny; democracy. 26. Why are the earliest laws always unwritten? 27. What differences existed between Phoenician and Greek colonization? 28. Why did the colonies, as a rule, advance more rapidly than the mother country in wealth and population? 29. What is the origin of the modern city of Constantinople? of Marseilles? of Naples? of Syracuse in Sicily?

CHAPTER V

THE GREAT AGE OF THE GREEK REPUBLICS TO 362 B.C.1

31. The Perils of Hellas

THE history of the Greeks for many centuries had been uneventful a history of their uninterrupted expansion over barbarian lands.

overlord, in the person of Cyrus the Great. The subjugation

1 Webster, Readings in Ancient History, chapter vii, "Xerxes and the Persian Invasion of Greece"; chapter viii, "Episodes from the Peloponnesian War"; chapter ix, "Alcibiades the Athenian"; chapter x, "The Expedition of the Ten Thousand"; chapter xi, "The Trial and Death of Socrates."