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Excerpt from History of Greece 1. Greeks and Italians. - Most of the history that we have of Europe before the birth of Christ is the history of the Greeks and Italians. They were not the only nations in ancient Europe; there were other great races, such as the Gauls, and our own forefathers, the Germans. Why is it that ancient history tells us so much about the Greeks and the Italians, and so little about these? Because, while the Greeks and Italians learnt to live in cities, and made reasonable laws and governments, and grew rich by trade, these other nations remained savage and ignorant. If we knew their history during those times, it would not interest us. We should hear of little but battles and wanderings; and after hundreds of years we should find them living in much the same rough way as at the beginning. But while the northern races were still barbarous, the Greeks and Italians had begun to live more like modern nations, and had done great deeds, whose effects last to this day. The Greeks saved Europe from being conquered by Asiatic races, and spread a happier and more interesting life among the nations round them. Not that the Greeks were perfect, any more than other nations, ancient or modern. They had faults in abundance, and a great part of their history is the history of discord and violence. 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 historic