History of the World/History of the World (Bureau Development, Inc.)(1992).BIN/dp/0431/04316.txt

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$Title{Rollin's Ancient History: History Of Alexander's Successors
Section V.}
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$Author{Rollin, Charles}
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$Subject{greece
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ancient
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$Date{1731}
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Title:       Rollin's Ancient History: History Of Alexander's Successors
Book:        Chapter VIII.
Author:      Rollin, Charles
Date:        1731

Section V.

Reflections On The Causes Of The Grandeur, Declension, And Ruin Of Greece.

     After having seen the final ruin of Greece, which has supplied us through
a series of so many ages with such fine examples of heroic virtues and
memorable events, we may be admitted to return to the place from whence we
began, and consider, by way of abridgment, and at one view, the rise,
progress, and declension of the principal states that composed it.  Their
whole duration may be divided into four ages.

The First And Second Ages Of Greece.

     I shall not dwell upon the ancient origin of the Greeks, nor the fabulous
times before the Trojan war, which make the first age, and may be called the
infancy of Greece.

     The second age, which extends from the taking of Troy to the reign of
Darius I., king of Persia, was in a manner its youth.  In those early years it
formed, fortified, and prepared itself for those great things it was
afterwards to act, and laid the foundation of that power and glory, which at
length rose so high, and became the admiration of all future ages.

     The Greeks, as Monsieur Bossuet ^415 observes, who had naturally great
wit, had been cultivated by kings and colonies which came from Egypt, who,
settling in several parts of the country, spread universally the excellent
polity of the Egyptians.  It was from them they learned the exercises of the
body, wrestling, the horse, foot, and chariot races, and the other combats,
which they carried to their highest perfection, by means of the glorious
crowns given to the victors in the Olympic games.  But the best thing taught
them by the Egyptians, was to be docile and obedient, and to suffer themselves
to be formed by laws for the good of the public.  They were not private
persons, who regarded nothing but their own interests and concerns, and had no
sense of the calamities of the state but as they suffered themselves, or as
the repose of their own family was involved in them: the Greeks were taught to
consider themselves and their families as part of a greater body, which was
that of the state.  The fathers brought up their children in this opinion; and
the children were taught from their cradle to look upon their country as their
common mother, to whom they more strictly appertained than to their parents.

[Footnote 415: Universal History.]

     The Greeks, instructed thus by degrees, believed they were capable of
governing for themselves, and most of the cities formed themselves into
republics, under different forms of government, which had all of them liberty
for their vital principle; but that liberty was wise, reasonable, and
subservient to laws.  The advantage of this government was that their citizens
loved their country the better from transacting their affairs in common, and
from being all equally capable of its honors and dignities. Besides this, the
condition of private persons, to which all returned when they quitted
employments, prevented them from abusing an authority, of which they might
soon be deprived; whereas power often becomes haughty, unjust and oppressive,
when under no restraints, and when it is to have a long or continual duration.

     The love of labor removed the vices and passions which generally occasion
the ruin of states.  They led a laborious and busy life, intent upon the
cultivation of lands and of arts, and not excluding the husbandman or the
artist from the first dignities of the state; preserving between all the
citizens and members of the state a great equality, void of pomp, luxury, or
ostentation. He who had commanded the army for one year, fought the next in
the rank of a private officer, and was not ashamed of the most common
functions.

     The reigning character in all the cities of Greece was a particular
affection for poverty, moderation in fortune, simplicity in buildings,
movables, dress, equipage, domestics, and table.  It is surprising to consider
the small retributions with which they were satisfied for their application in
public employments, and services rendered the state.

     What might not be expected from a people formed in this manner, educated
and nurtured in these principles, and endued from their earliest infancy with
maxims so proper to exalt the soul, and to inspire it with great and noble
sentiments?  The effects exceeded all idea, and all hope that could possibly
have been conceived of them.

The Third Age Of Greece.

     We now come to the glorious times of Greece, which have been, and will
for ever be, the admiration of all ages.  The merit and virtue of the Greeks,
shut up within the compass of their cities, had but faintly dawned, and shone
with but a feeble ray, till this age.  To produce and place them in their full
light, some great and important occasion was necessary, wherein Greece,
attacked by a formidable enemy, and exposed to extreme dangers, was compelled,
in some measure, to quit her home, and to show herself abroad in open day such
as she was.  And this was supplied by the Persians in their invasions of
Greece, first under Darius, and afterwards under Xerxes.  All Asia, armed with
the whole force of the east, overflowed on a sudden, like an impetuous
torrent, and come pouring, with innumerable troops, both by sea and land,
against a little spot of Greece, which seemed about to be entirely swallowed
up and overwhelmed at the first shock.  Two small cities, however, Sparta and
Athens, not only resisted those formidable armies, but attacked, defeated,
pursued, and destroyed the greatest part of them.  Let the reader call to
mind, which is all I have here in view, the prodigies of valor and fortitude
which shone out at that time, and continued to do so long after on like
occasions.  To what were the Greeks indebted for such astonishing successes,
so much above all probability, unless to the principles I have mentioned,
which were profoundly engraven in their hearts by education, example, and
practice, and had become, by long habit, a second nature in them?

     Those principles, we cannot repeat it too often, were the love of
poverty, contempt of riches, disregard of self-interest, attention to the
public good, desire of glory, love of their country, and above all, such a
zeal for liberty, which no danger was capable of intimidating, and such an
irreconcilable, abhorrence for whoever conceived the least thought against it,
as united their counsels, and put an end to all dissension and discord in a
moment.

     There was some difference between the republics as to authority and
power, but none in regard to liberty; on that side they were perfectly equal.
The states of ancient Greece were exempted from that ambition which occasions
so many wars in monarchies, and had no thoughts of aggrandizing themselves, or
of making conquests at the expense of each other.  They confined themselves to
the cultivation, improvement, and defence of their neighbors, but did not
endeavor to usurp any thing from them.  The weaker cities, in the peaceable
possession of their territory, did not apprehend invasion from the more
powerful.  This occasioned such a multitude of cities, republics, and states
of Greece, which subsisted to the latest times in a perfect independence,
retaining their own forms of government, with the laws, customs, and usages
derived from their forefathers.

     When we examine with some attention the conduct of these people, either
at home or abroad, their assemblies, deliberations, and motives for the
resolutions they took, we cannot sufficiently admire the wisdom of their
government; and we are tempted to ask ourselves, from whence could arise this
greatness of soul in the citizens of Sparta and Athens; whence these noble
sentiments, this consummate wisdom in politics, this profound and universal
knowledge in the art of war, whether for the invention and construction of
machines for the attack and defence of places, or the drawing up and disposing
all the motions of an army in battle; add to this, that superior ability in
maritime affairs, which always rendered their fleets victorious, which so
gloriously acquired them the empire of the sea, and obliged the Persians to
renounce it forever by a solemn treaty?

     We see here a remarkable difference between the Greeks and Romans. The
latter, immediately after their conquests, suffered themselves to be corrupted
by pride and luxury.  After Antiochus had submitted to the Roman yoke, Asia,
subdued by their victorious arms, conquered its conquerors by riches and
voluptuousness; and that change of manners was sudden and rapid, especially
after Carthage, the haughty rival of Rome, was destroyed.  It was not so with
the Greeks; nothing was more exalted than the victories they had gained over
the Persians; nothing more soothing than the glory they had acquired by their
great and illustrious exploits.  After so glorious a period, the Greeks long
persevered in the same love of simplicity, frugality, and poverty; the same
remoteness from pomp and luxury; the same zeal and ardor for the defence of
their liberty, and the preservation of their ancient manners.  It is well
known how much the islands and provinces of Asia Minor, over which the Greeks
so often triumphed, were abandoned to effeminate pleasures and luxury; they,
however, never suffered themselves to be infected by that contagious softness,
and constantly preserved themselves from the vices of conquered people.  It is
true, they did not make those countries provinces, but their commerce and
example alone might have proved very dangerous to them.

     The introduction of gold and silver into Sparta, from whence they were
banished under severe penalties, did not happen till about eighty years after
the battle of Salamin; and the ancient simplicity of manners was adhered to
long afterwards, notwithstanding that violation of the laws of Lycurgus.  As
much may be said of the rest of Greece, which did not grow weak and
degenerate, but slowly and by degrees.  This is what remains to show.

The Fourth Age Of Greece.

     The principal cause of the weakening and declension of the Greeks, was
the disunion which rose up among themselves.  The Persians, who had found them
invincible in arms, as long as their union existed, applied their whole
attention and policy in sowing the seeds of discord among them.  For that
reason they employed their gold and silver, which succeeded much better than
their steel and arms had done before.  The Greeks, attacked invisibly in this
manner by bribes secretly conveyed into the hands of those who had the
greatest share in their governments, were divided by domestic jealousies, and
turned their victorious arms against themselves, which had rendered them
superior to their enemies.

     Their decline of power from these causes, gave Philip and Alexander an
opportunity of subjecting them.  Those princes, to accustom them to servitude,
covered their design with the pretence of avenging them upon their ancient
enemies.  The Greeks fell blindly into that gross snare, which gave the mortal
blow of their liberty.  Their avengers became more fatal to them than their
enemies.  The yoke imposed on them by the hands which had conquered the
universe, could never be removed; those little states were no longer in a
condition to shake it off.  Greece, from time to time animated by the
remembrance of her ancient glory, roused from her lethargy, and made some
attempts to reinstate herself in her ancient condition; but those efforts were
ill-concerted, and as ill-sustained by her expiring liberty, and tended only
to augment her slavery; because the protectors, whom she called in to her aid,
soon made themselves her masters.  So that all she did was to change her
fetters and make them the heavier.

     The Romans at length totally subjected her; but it was by degrees, and
with much artifice.  As they continually pushed on their conquests from
province to province, they perceived that they should find a barrier to their
ambitious projects in Macedonia, formidable by its neighborhood, advantageous
situation, reputation in arms, and very powerful in itself, and by its allies.
The Romans artfully applied to the small states of Greece, from whom they had
less to fear, and endeavored to gain them by the attractive charms of liberty,
which was their darling passion, and of which they knew how to awaken in them
their ancient ideas.  After having with great address made use of the Greeks
to reduce and destroy the Macedonian power, they subjected all those states,
one after another, under various pretexts.  Greece was thus swallowed up at
last in the Roman empire, and became a province of it, under the name of
Achaia.

     She did not lose with her power that ardent passion for liberty, which
was her peculiar character. ^416 The Romans, when they reduced Greece into a
province, reserved to the people almost all their privileges; and Sylla, who
punished them so cruelly sixty years after, for having favored the arms of
Mithridates, did not abridge those of their liberty, who escaped his
vengeance. ^417 In the civil wars of Italy, the Athenians were seen to espouse
with warmth the party of Pompey, who fought for the republic. ^418 Julius
Caesar revenged himself upon them no otherwise than by declaring that he
pardoned them out of consideration for their ancestors.  But after Caesar was
killed, their inclination for liberty made them forget his clemency.  They
erected statues to Brutus and Cassius, near those of Harmodius and
Aristogiton, the ancient deliverers of Athens, and did not take them down till
solicited by Antony, when he became their friend, benefactor and magistrate.

[Footnote 416: Strab. l. xi.]

[Footnote 417: Plut. in Sylla.]

[Footnote 418: Diod. l. xlii. p. 191, et l. xlvii. p. 339.]

     After having been deprived of their ancient power, they still retained
another sovereignty, which the Romans could not take from them, and to which
they were obliged to pay homage.  Athens continued always the metropolis of
the sciences, the school of polite arts, and the centre and standard of
refined taste in all the productions of the mind.  Several cities, as
Byzantium, Caesaria, Alexandria, Ephesus, and Rhodes, shared that glory with
Athens, and by her example, opened schools which became very famous.  Rome,
haughty as she was, acknowledged this glorious empire. She sent her most
illustrious citizens to be finished and refined in Greece.  They were
instructed there in all the parts of sound philosophy, the knowledge of
mathematics, the science of natural things, the rules of manners and duties,
the art of reasoning with justice and method: all the treasures of eloquence
were imbibed there, and the method taught of treating the greatest subjects
with propriety, force, elegance, and perspicuity.

     A Cicero, already the admiration of the bar, conceived he wanted
something, and did not blush to become the disciple of the great masters whom
Greece then produced.  Pompey in the midst of the his glorious conquests, did
not think it a dishonor to him, in passing Rhodes, to hear the celebrated
philosophers, who taught there with great reputation, and to make himself in
some measure their disciple.

     Nothing shows more clearly the respect retained for the ancient
reputation of Greece, than a letter of Pliny the Younger.  He writes in this
manner to Maximus, appointed governor of that province by Trajan. "Call to
mind, my dear Maximus, that you are going into Achaia, the true Greece, the
same Greece where learning and the polite arts had their birth; where even
agriculture was invented, according to the common opinion. Remember that you
are sent to govern free cities and free men, if ever any such there were; who,
by their virtues, actions, alliances, treaties, and religion, have known how
to preserve the liberty they receive from nature. Revere the gods their
founders; respects their heroes, the ancient glory of their nation, and the
sacred antiquity of their cities, the dignity, great exploits, and even
foibles and vanity of that people.  Remember, it is from those sources that we
have derived our law; that we did not impose our laws upon them after we had
conquered them, but that they gave us theirs, at our request, before they were
acquainted with the power of our arms.  In a word, it is to Athens you are
going; it is at Lacedaemon you are to command.  It would be inhuman and
barbarous to deprive them of that faint image, that shadow which they retain
of their ancient liberty." ^419

[Footnote 419: Lib. vii. c. 24.]

     While the Roman empire was declining, that empire of genius, of the mind,
always supported itself, without participating in the revolutions of the
other.  Greece was resorted to for education and improvement from all parts of
the world.  In the fourth and fifth centuries, those great lights of the
church, St. Bazil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Johannes Chrysostom, went to
Athens to imbibe, as from their source, all the profane sciences. The emperors
Tit. Antonius, M. Aurelius, Lucius Verres, &c., who could not go to Greece,
brought Greece in a manner home to them, by receiving the most celebrated
philosophers into their palaces, that they might be intrusted with the
education of their children, and to improve themselves by their instructions.
Marcus Aurelius, even while he was emperor, went to hear the philosophers
Apollonius and Sextus, and to take lessons from them as a common disciple.

     By a new kind of victory, unknown before, Greece had imposed its laws on
Egypt and the whole east, from whence she had expelled barbarism, and
introduced a taste for the arts and sciences in its room; obliging, by a kind
of right of conquest, all those nations to receive her language and adopt her
customs; a testimonial highly glorious to a people, and which argues a much
more illustrious superiority, than that not founded in merit, but solely on
the force of arms.  Plutarch observes somewhere, that no Greek ever thought of
learning Latin, and that a Roman who did not understand Greek was held in no
great estimation.