Early European History Part 18

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

Athletic games were held in different parts of Greece from a remote period. The most famous games were those in honor of Zeus at Olympia in Elis. They took place every fourth year, in midsummer. [18] A sacred truce was proclaimed for an entire month, in order that the thousands of spectators from every part of Greece might arrive and depart in safety. No one not of Greek blood and no one convicted of crime or of the sin of impiety might partic.i.p.ate in the contests. The candidates had also to prove that they were qualified for the severe tests by a long and hard training. Once accepted as compet.i.tors, they could not withdraw. The man who shrank back when the hour of trial arrived was considered a coward and was punished with a heavy fine.

THE CONTESTS

The games occupied five days, beginning with the contests in running.

There was a short-distance dash through the length of the stadium, a quarter-mile race, and also a longer race, probably for two or three miles. Then followed a contest consisting of five events: the long jump, hurling the discus, throwing the javelin, running, and wrestling. It is not known how victory in these five events taken together was decided. In the long jump, weights like dumb-bells were held in the hands, the swing of the weights being used to a.s.sist the spring. The discus, which weighed about twelve pounds, was sometimes hurled more than one hundred feet. The javelin was thrown either by the hand alone or with the help of a thong wound about the shaft and held in the fingers. In wrestling, three falls were necessary for a victory. The contestants were free to get their grip as best they could. Other contests included boxing, horse races, and chariot races. Women were apparently excluded from the games, yet they were allowed to enter horses for the races and to set up statues in honor of the victors.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE DISCUS THROWER (DISCOBOLUS) (Lancelotti Palace, Rome) Marble copy of the bronze original by Myron, a sculptor of the fifth century B.C. Found in 1781 A.D. on the Esquiline Hill, Rome. The statue represents a young man, perhaps an athlete at the Olympian games, who is bending forward to hurl the discus. His body is thrown violently to the left with a twisting action that brings every muscle into play.]

THE VICTOR'S REWARD

The Olympian festival was profoundly religious, because the display of manly strength was thought to be a spectacle most pleasing to the G.o.ds.

The winning athlete received only a wreath of wild olive at Olympia, but at home he enjoyed the gifts and veneration of his fellow-citizens. Poets celebrated his victories in n.o.ble odes. Sculptors reproduced his triumphs in stone and bronze. To the end of his days he remained a distinguished man.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HERMES AND DIONYSUS (Museum of Olympia) An original statue by the great sculptor, Praxiteles. It was found in 1877 A.D. at Olympia. Hermes is represented carrying the child Dionysus, whom Zeus had intrusted to his care. The symmetrical body of Hermes is faultlessly modeled; the poise of his head is full of dignity; his expression is refined and thoughtful. Manly strength and beauty have never been better embodied than in this work.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ATHLETE USING THE STRIGIL (APOXYOMENUS) (Vatican Gallery, Rome)

Marble copy of the bronze original by Lysippus, a sculptor of the fourth century B.C. The statue represents an athlete rubbing his arm with a flesh sc.r.a.per to remove the oil and sand of the palestra, or exercising ground.

His slender form suggests quickness and agility rather than great strength.]

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GAMES

There were few Greeks who at least once in their lives did not attend the festival. The crowds that gathered before and after the games turned the camp into a great fair, at which merchants set up their shops and money changers their tables. Poets recited their lines before admiring audiences and artists exhibited their masterpieces to intending purchasers. Heralds read treaties recently formed between Greek cities, in order to have them widely known. Orators addressed the mult.i.tude on subjects of general interest. The games thus helped to preserve a sense of fellowship among Greek communities.

26. THE GREEK CITY-STATE

NATURE OF THE CITY STATE

The Greeks in Homeric times had already begun to live in towns and cities.

A Greek city, being independent and self-governing, is properly called a city-state. Just as a modern nation, it could declare war, arrange treaties, and make alliances with its neighbors. Such a city-state included not only the territory within its walls, but also the surrounding district where many of the citizens lived.

THE CITIZENS

The members of a Greek city-state were very closely a.s.sociated. The citizens believed themselves to be descended from a common ancestor and so to be all related. They were united, also, in the worship of the patron G.o.d or hero who had them under his protection. These ties of supposed kinship and common religion were of the utmost importance. They made citizenship a privilege which came to a person only by birth, a privilege which he lost by removal to another city. Elsewhere he was only a foreigner without legal rights--a man without a country.

GOVERNMENT OF THE CITY-STATE

The Homeric poems, which give us our first view of the Greek city-state, also contain the most ancient account of its government. Each city-state had a king, "the shepherd of the people" [19] as Homer calls him. The king did not possess absolute authority. He was surrounded by a council of n.o.bles, chiefly the great landowners of the community. They helped him in judgment and sacrifice, followed him to war, and filled the princ.i.p.al offices. Both king and n.o.bles were obliged to consult the common people on matters of great importance. For this purpose the ruler would summon the citizens to the market place to hear the deliberations of his council and to settle such questions as making war or declaring peace. All men of free birth could attend the a.s.sembly, where they shouted a.s.sent to the decision of their leaders or showed disapproval by silence. This public a.s.sembly had little importance in the Homeric Age, but later it became the center of Greek democracy.

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CITY-STATE

After the middle of the eighth century B.C., when historic times began in Greece, some interesting changes took place in the government of the city- states. In some of them, for example, Thebes and Corinth, the n.o.bles became strong enough to abolish the kingship altogether. Monarchy, the rule of one, thus gave away to aristocracy, [20] the rule of the n.o.bles.

In other states, for instance, Sparta and Argos, the kings were not driven out, but their power was much weakened. Some states came under the control of usurpers whom the Greeks called "tyrants." A tyrant was a man who gained supreme power by force and governed for his own benefit without regard to the laws. There were many tyrannies in the Greek world during the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. Still other states went through an entire cycle of changes from kingship to aristocracy, from aristocracy to tyranny, and from tyranny to democracy or popular rule.

SPARTA AND ATHENS AS TYPES OF THE CITY-STATE

The isolated and independent Greek communities thus developed at an early period many different kinds of government. To study them all would be a long task. It is better to fix our attention on the two city-states which held the princ.i.p.al place in Greek history and at the same time presented the most striking contrasts in government and social life. These were Sparta and Athens.

27. THE GROWTH OF SPARTA (TO 500 B.C.)

SPARTA AND THE PELOPONNESIAN LEAGUE

The Greek invaders who entered southern Greece, or the Peloponnesus, [21]

were known as Dorians. They founded the city of Sparta, in the district of Laconia. By the close of the sixth century B.C. the Spartans were able to conquer their immediate neighbors and to organize some of the city-states of the Peloponnesus into a strong confederacy called the Peloponnesian League. The members of the league did not pay tribute, but they furnished troops to serve in war under Spartan leaders, and they looked to Sparta for guidance and protection. Thus this single city became the foremost power in southern Greece.

SPARTA A MILITARY CAMP

It is clear that the Spartans must have been an extremely vigorous and warlike people. Their city, in fact, formed a military camp, garrisoned by soldiers whose whole life was pa.s.sed in war and in preparation for war.

The Spartans were able to devote themselves to martial pursuits because they possessed a large number of serfs, called helots. The helots tilled the lands of the Spartans and gave up to their masters the entire product of their labor, except what was necessary for a bare subsistence.

GOVERNMENT OF SPARTA

Spartan government also had a military character. In form the state was a kingdom, but since there were always two kings reigning at once and enjoying equal authority, neither of them could become very powerful. The real management of public affairs lay in the hands of five men, known as ephors, who were elected every year by the popular a.s.sembly. The ephors accompanied the kings in war and directed their actions; guided the deliberations of the council of n.o.bles and the a.s.sembly of freemen; superintended the education of children; and exercised a general oversight of the private life of citizens. The ephors had such absolute control over the lives and property of the Spartans that we may describe their rule as socialistic and select Sparta as an example of ancient state socialism.

Nowhere else in the Greek world was the welfare of the individual man so thoroughly subordinated to the interests of the society of which he formed a unit.

THE SPARTAN BOY

Spartan education had a single purpose--to produce good soldiers and obedient citizens. A sound body formed the first essential. A father was required to submit his son, soon after birth, to an inspection by the elders of his tribe. If they found the child puny or ill-shaped, they ordered it to be left on the mountain side, to perish from exposure. At the age of seven a boy was taken from his parents' home and placed in a military school. Here he was trained in marching, sham fighting, and gymnastics. He learned to sing warlike songs and in conversation to express himself in the fewest possible words. Spartan brevity of speech became proverbial. Above all he learned to endure hardship without complaint. He went barefoot and wore only a single garment, winter and summer. He slept on a bed of rushes. Every year he and his comrades had to submit to a flogging before the altar of the G.o.ddess Artemis, and the hero was the lad who could bear the whipping longest without giving a sign of pain. It is said that boys sometimes died under the lash rather than utter a cry. Such ordeals are still a feature of savage life to-day.

THE ADULT SPARTAN

On reaching the age of twenty the youth was considered a warrior. He did not live at home, but pa.s.sed his time in barracks, as a member of a military mess to which he contributed his proper share of food, wine, and money. At the age of thirty years the young Spartan became a full citizen and a member of the popular a.s.sembly. He was then compelled to marry in order to raise children for the state. But marriage did not free him from attendance at the public meals, the drill ground, and the gymnasium. A Spartan, in fact, enjoyed little home life until his sixtieth year, when he became an elder and retired from actual service.

EXCELLENCE OF THE SPARTAN SOLDIERY

This exclusive devotion to military pursuits accomplished its object. The Spartans became the finest soldiers of antiquity. "All the rest of the Greeks," says an ancient writer, "are amateurs; the Spartans are professionals in the conduct of war." [22] Though Sparta never produced great thinkers, poets or artists, her military strength made her the bulwark of Greece against foreign foes. The time was to come when Greece, to retain her liberties, would need this disciplined Spartan soldiery.

[23]

28. THE GROWTH OF ATHENS (to 500 B.C.)

ATHENS AS A CITY-STATE

The district of Attica, though smaller than our smallest American commonwealth, was early filled with a number of independent city-states.

It was a great step in advance when, long before the dawn of Greek history, these tiny communities were united with Athens. The inhabitants of the Attic towns and villages gave up their separate governments and became members of the one city-state of Athens. Henceforth a man was a Athenian citizen, no matter in what part of Attica he lived.

OPPRESSIVE RULE OF THE n.o.bLES

At an earlier period, perhaps, than elsewhere in Greece, monarchy at Athens disappeared before the rising power of the n.o.bles. The rule of the n.o.bility bore harshly on the common people. Popular discontent was especially excited at the administration of justice. There were at first no written laws, but only the long-established customs of the community.

Since all the judges were n.o.bles, they were tempted to decide legal cases in favor of their own cla.s.s. The people, at length, began to clamor for a written code. They could then know just what the laws were.

DRACO'S CODE, 621 B.C.

After much agitation an Athenian named Draco was employed to write out a code for the state. The laws, as published, were very severe. The penalty for most offenses, even the smallest theft, was death. The Athenians used to declare that the Draconian code had been written, "not in ink, but in blood." Its publication, however, was a popular triumph and the first step toward the establishment of Athenian democracy.