. Soon afterwards
he ventured forth upon the sea and conquered all the cities of the
AEgean. Finally in the fifteenth century before our era he plundered and
ravaged Cnossus and ten centuries after their first appearance upon the
scene the Hellenes were the undisputed rulers of Greece, of the
AEgean and of the coastal regions of Asia Minor. Troy, the last great
commercial stronghold of the older civilisation, was destroyed in the
eleventh century B.C. European history was to begin in all seriousness.

THE GREEK CITIES

THE GREEK CITIES THAT WERE REALLY STATES

WE modern people love the sound of the word "big." We pride ourselves
upon the fact that we belong to the "biggest" country in the world and
possess the "biggest" navy and grow the "biggest" oranges and potatoes,
and we love to live in cities of "millions" of inhabitants and when we
are dead we are buried in the "biggest cemetery of the whole state."

A citizen of ancient Greece, could he have heard us talk, would not have
known what we meant. "Moderation in all things" was the ideal of
his life and mere bulk did not impress him at all. And this love of
moderation was not merely a hollow phrase used upon special occasions:
it influenced the life of the Greeks from the day of their birth to the
hour of their death. It was part of their literature and it made them
build small but perfect temples. It found expression in the clothes
which the men wore and in the rings and the bracelets of their wives. It
followed the crowds that went to the theatre and made them hoot down any
playwright who dared to sin against the iron law of good taste or good
sense.

The Greeks even insisted upon this quality in their politicians and in
their most popular athletes. When a powerful runner came to Sparta and
boasted that he could stand longer on one foot than any other man in
Hellas the people drove him from the city because he prided himself
upon an accomplishment at which he could be beaten by any common goose.
"That is all very well," you will say, "and no doubt it is a great
virtue to care so much for moderation and perfection, but why should
the Greeks have been the only people to develop this quality in olden
times?" For an answer I shall point to the way in which the Greeks
lived.

The people of Egypt or Mesopotamia had been the "subjects" of a
mysterious Supreme Ruler who lived miles and miles away in a dark palace
and who was rarely seen by the masses of the p