Author Description

Excerpt from The History of Greece, Vol. 5 In a higher degree than the other nations of ancient and of modern times, the Hellenes possess an independent history. Their civilization is based on their connexion with the East; but that which thence accrued to them they independently developed, and thoroughly converted into property of their own. Foreign nations at various times interfered in the relations between the Hellenic states; but these interventions actually brought about the reverse of that which they had been intended to accomplish. The Persian Wars only served to raise the Hellenes to a full consciousness of their national resources; and so far from the later proceedings on the part of Persia which affected Greece having had their origin in Persia itself, it was rather the Hellenic states which transferred to the Great King an influence such as he would never have been capable of acquiring by himself, and such as he was also unable to turn to account. For, notwithstanding the disruption of the Hellenic nation, it was beyond his power to recover the dominion over the sea, upon which the relations between Persia and Greece entirely hinged. Thus the development of the Hellenic states had hitherto been of a thoroughly independent character. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.