Early European History Part 16

[16] _Job_, X, 21.

[17] See page 28.

[18] See the ill.u.s.trations, pages 27, 54, 58, 63.

[19] See page 13.

[20] See page 186, note 2.

[21] See page 48.

[22] See the ill.u.s.tration, page 46.

CHAPTER IV

THE LANDS OF THE WEST AND THE RISE OF GREECE TO ABOUT 500 B.C. [1]

20. PHYSICAL EUROPE

EUROPE A PENINSULA OF ASIA

The continent of Asia, projecting its huge bulk southwestward between the seas, gradually narrows into the smaller continent of Europe. The boundary between the two regions is not well defined. Ancient geographers found a convenient dividing line north of the Black Sea in the course of the river Don. Modern map makers usually place the division at the Ural Mountains, the Caspian Sea, and the Caucasus. Each of these boundaries is more or less arbitrary. In a geographical sense Europe is only the largest of the great Asiatic peninsulas.

PHYSICAL FEATURES OF EUROPE

But in physical features the two continents disclose the most striking contrasts. The sea, which washes only the remote edges of Asia, penetrates deeply into Europe and forms an extremely irregular coast line with numerous bays and harbors. The mountains of Europe, seldom very high and provided with easy pa.s.ses, present no such barriers to intercourse as the mightier ranges of Asia. We miss in Europe the extensive deserts and barren table-lands which form such a feature of Asiatic geography. With the exception of Russia the surface, generally, is distributed into plains, hills, and valleys of moderate size. Instead of a few large rivers, such as are found in Asia, Europe is well supplied with numerous streams that make it possible to travel readily from one district to another.

CENTRAL AND NORTHERN EUROPE

The almost unbroken mountain chain formed by the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Balkans, sharply separates the central land ma.s.s of Europe from the regions to the south. Central Europe consists, in general, of lowlands, which widen eastward into the vast Russian plain. Northern Europe includes the British Isles, physically an extension of Europe, and the peninsulas of Scandinavia and Finland, between the Baltic Sea and the Arctic Ocean.

Twenty centuries ago central and northern Europe was a land of forests and marshes, of desolate steppes and icebound hills. The peoples who inhabited it--Celts in the west, Teutons or Germans in the north, Slavs in the east --were men of Indo-European [2] race and speech. They were still barbarians. During ancient times we hear little of them, except as their occasional migrations southward brought them into contact with the Greeks and the Romans.

SOUTHERN EUROPE

Southern Europe comprises the three peninsulas of Spain, Italy, and the Balkans, which reach far south into the Mediterranean. This great inland sea is divided into two parts near the center, where Africa and the island of Sicily almost touch each other across a narrow strait. The eastern part contains several minor seas, of which the one called the Aegean had most importance in Greek history.

21. GREECE AND THE AEGEAN

THE AEGEAN SEA

The Aegean is an almost landlocked body of water. The Balkan peninsula, narrowing toward the Mediterranean into the smaller peninsula of Greece, confines it on the west. On the east it meets a boundary in Asia Minor.

The southern boundary is formed by a chain of islands, while the only opening northward is found in the narrow pa.s.sage leading to the Black Sea.

The coasts and islands of the Aegean thus make up a little world set off by itself.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, PHYSICAL MAP OF EUROPE]

CONTINENTAL GREECE

Continental Greece is a tiny country. Its greatest length is scarcely more than two hundred and fifty miles; its greatest breadth is only one hundred and eighty miles. Mountain ridges, offshoots of the Balkans, compose the greater part of its area. Into the valleys and deep gorges of the interior the impetuous sea has everywhere forced a channel. The coast line, accordingly, is most irregular--a constant succession of sharp promontories and curving bays. The mountains, crossing the peninsula in confused ma.s.ses, break it up into numberless valleys and glens which seldom widen into plains. The rivers are not navigable. The few lakes, hemmed in by the hills, have no outlets except in underground channels. In this land of the Greeks no place is more than fifty miles from a mountain range, or more than forty miles from some long arm of the Mediterranean.

THE AEGEAN ISLANDS

From the Greek mainland to the coast of Asia Minor the traveler follows a route thickly studded with rocky islands. They are near enough together to permit the pa.s.sage from one to another without losing sight of land. The Aegean islands thus served as "stepping-stones" between Greece and Asia Minor. [3]

WESTERN ASIA MINOR

Western Asia Minor resembles Continental Greece in its deeply indented coast, variety of scenery, and mild climate. The fertile river valleys of this region early attracted Greek colonists. They built here many flourishing cities, especially along the central coast, which came to be known as Ionia.

INFLUENCE OF GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS

Greek history well ill.u.s.trates the influence of geographical conditions on the life of a people. In the first place, mountain ranges cut up Continental Greece into many small states, separated from one another by natural ramparts. Hence the Greeks loved most of all their own local independence and always refused to unite into one nation under a single government. In the second place, the near presence of the sea made sailors of the Greeks and led them to devote much energy to foreign commerce. They early felt, in consequence, the stimulating effects of intercourse with other peoples. Finally, the location of Greece at the threshold of Asia, with its best harbors and most numerous islands on the eastern coast, enabled the country to receive and profit by all the culture of the Orient. Greece faced the civilized East.

22. THE AEGEAN AGE (TO ABOUT 1100 B.C.)

A PREHISTORIC CIVILIZATION

The Greeks of historic times knew very little about their prehistoric period. Instead of accurate knowledge they had only the beautiful legends preserved in ancient poems, such as the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_. Within our own day, however, remarkable excavations have disclosed the remains of a widespread and flourishing civilization in times so distant that the historic Greeks had lost all sight of it. As in the Orient, [4] the labors of modern scholars are yearly adding to our knowledge of ancient life.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, AEGEAN CIVILIZATION]

[Ill.u.s.tration: EXCAVATIONS AT TROY The great northeast tower of the sixth city. The stairs at the right belong to the eighth city.]

SCHLIEMANN'S EXCAVATIONS AT TROY

The man who did most to reveal the prehistoric civilization of Greece was a wealthy German merchant named Heinrich Schliemann. An enthusiastic lover of Homer, he believed that the stories of the Trojan War related in the _Iliad_ were not idle fancies, but real facts. In 1870 A.D. he started to test his beliefs by excavations at a hill called Hissarlik, on the northwestern coast of Asia Minor. Here tradition had always fixed the site of ancient Troy. Schliemann's discoveries and those of later explorers proved that at Hissarlik at least nine successive cities had come into existence, flourished, and pa.s.sed away. Excavations completed in 1892 A.D.

have shown that the sixth city in order from the bottom was the one described in the Homeric poems. It had powerful walls defended by towers, well-fortified gates, and palaces of stone. The marks of fire throughout the ruins indicate that the city must have been destroyed by a disastrous conflagration.

SCHLIEMANN'S EXCAVATIONS AT MYCENAE AND TIRYNS

The remarkable disclosures at Troy encouraged Schliemann to excavate other Homeric sites. At Mycenae, a prehistoric city of Argolis in Greece, he laid bare six rock-hewn graves, containing the skeletons of nineteen persons, men, women, and children. The faces of the dead had been covered with thin masks of gold, and their bodies had been decked with gold diadems, bracelets, and pendants. The other funeral offerings include gold rings, silver vases, and a variety of bronze weapons. At Tiryns, once the capital of Argolis, he uncovered the ruins of an extensive structure with gateways, open courts, and closed apartments. Characteristic of this edifice were the separate quarters occupied by men and women, the series of storerooms for provisions, and such a modern convenience as a bathroom with pipes and drains. In short, the palace at Tiryns gives us a clear and detailed picture of the home of a Homeric prince.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LIONS' GATE, MYCENAE The stone relief, of triangular shape, represents two lions (or lionesses) facing each other on opposite sides of a pillar. The heads of the animals have been lost.]

EVANS'S EXCAVATIONS AT GNOSSUS

But the fame of even Schliemann's discoveries has been somewhat dimmed by the excavations made since 1900 A.D. on the site of Gnossus, the ancient capital of the island of Crete. At Gnossus an Englishman, Sir Arthur Evans, has found the remains of an enormous palace, with numerous courts, pa.s.sages, and rooms. Here is the royal council chamber with the throne on which the king once sat. Here are the royal magazines, still filled with huge earthenware jars for the storage of provisions. A great number of brilliant pictures--hunting scenes, landscapes, portraits of men and women--cover the palace walls. Buried in some of the chambers were thousands of clay tablets with inscriptions which, if ever read, will add new chapters to ancient history. [5]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE VAPHIO GOLD CUPS (National Museum, Athens) These beautiful objects were found in 1888 within a "bee-hive" tomb at Vaphio in Laconia. The two cups are of beaten gold, ornamented with designs in _repousse_ work. The first scene represents a wild-bull hunt.

The companion piece pictures four tame bulls under the care of a herdsman.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: SILVER FRAGMENT FROM MYCENAE (National Museum, Athens) A siege scene showing the bows, slings, and huge shields of Mycenaean warriors. In the background are seen the masonry of the city wall and the flat-roofed houses.]

ANTIQUITY OF AEGEAN CIVILIZATION