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Problems in Greek history
Chapter 1 No.1
Our Earlier Historians of Greece.
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Definite and indefinite problems 1
Examples in theology and metaphysics 1
Examples in literature 2
The case of history generally 3
Special claims of Greek history 4
The claims of Rome and of the Jews 4
Greek influences in our religion 4
Increasing materials 5
Plan of this Essay 6
Universal histories 6
Gillies 7
Effects of the French Revolution on the writers of the time 8
Mitford writes a Tory history of Greece 8
He excites splendid refutations 9
Thirlwall: his merits 10
his coldness 11
his fairness and accuracy, but without enthusiasm 11
Clinton's Fasti: his merits 12
Contrast of Grote's life 13
His theory Radicalism 13
The influences of his time 14
To be compared with Gibbon 14
His eloquence; his panegyric on democracy 15
Objections: that democracies are short-lived 16
that the Athenian democrat was a slave-holder and a ruler over subjects 16
The Athenian not the ideal of the Greeks 17
Grote's treatment of the despots 18
Their perpetual recurrence in the Greek world 18
Advantages of despotism 18
Good despots not infrequent 19
Grote a practical politician 20
His treatment of Alexander the Great 20
Contrast of Thirlwall 20
Grote ignores the later federations, and despises their history 21
His treatment of the early legends 22
Even when plausible, they may be fictions 22
Thirlwall's view less extreme 23
Influence of Niebuhr on both historians 23
Neither of them visited Greece, which later historians generally regard as essential 24
Ernst Curtius and Victor Duruy 25
The value of autopsy in verifying old authors 25
Example in the theatre of Athens 25
Its real size 26
No landscape for its background 26
Greek scenery and art now accessible to all 27
Chapter 2 No.2
Recent Treatment of the Greek Myths.
The newer histories 28
Not justifiable without particular reasons 28
Max Duncker 28
Not suited to English readers 29
Busolt and Holm 29
Return to Grote 30
Holm's postulate 30
The modern attitude 31
Pure invention a rare occurrence 31
Plausible fiction therefore not an adequate cause 32
Cases of deliberate invention, at Pergamum, which breed general suspicion of marvellous stories 32
Example of a trustworthy legend from Roman history 33
Niebuhr, Arnold, Mommsen 34
The rex sacrorum at Rome 34
The king-archon at Athens 35
Legends of foreign immigrants 35
Corroborative evidence of art, but not of language 35
Corroboration of legends in architecture 37
Explanation of myths by the solar theory 37
The analogy of Indian and Persian mythology, expounded by Professor Max Müller, founded on very wide learning 38
long since shown inadequate, because it implies sentimental savages, which is contrary to our experience 39
K. O. Müller's contribution 40
The transference of myths 41
Old anecdotes doing fresh duty 41
Example from the Trojan legend 41
but not therefore false 42
The contribution of Dr. Schliemann 42
History not an exact science 43
Historical value of the Homeric poems 44
Mycen? preserved in legend only 44
General teaching of the epic poems 44
Social life in Greece 45
Alleged artificiality of the poems 45
Examples from the Iliad 45
not corroborated by recent discoveries 46
Fick's account of the Homeric dialect 46
Difficulties in the theory 47
Analogies in its favour 48
Its application to the present argument 48
Illustration from English poetry 49
The use of stock epithets 49
High excellence incompatible with artificiality 50
The Homeric poems therefore mainly natural 50
but only generally true 51
and therefore variously judged by various minds 52
Chapter 3 No.3
Theoretical Chronology.
Transition to early history 53
The Asiatic colonies 53
Late authorities for the details 54
The colonization of the West 54
The original authority 55
What was nobility in early Greece? 55
Macedonian kings 56
Romans 56
Hellenistic cities 56
Glory of short pedigrees 56
The sceptics credulous in chronology 57
The current scheme of early dates 57
The so-called Olympic register 58
Plutarch's account of it 58
The date of Pheidon of Argos 59
revised by E. Curtius 60
since abandoned 60
The authority of Ephorus 61
not first-rate 62
Archias, the founder of Syracuse 62
associated with legends of Corcyra and Croton 63
Thucydides counts downward from this imaginary date 64
Antiochus of Syracuse 64
not trustworthy 65
his dates illusory 66
though supported by Thucydides 66
who is not omniscient 66
Credulity in every sceptic 67
Its probable occurrence in ancient critics 68
Value of Hippias' work 68
Even Eratosthenes counts downward 69
Clinton's warning 69
Summary of the discussion 69
The stage of pre-Homeric remains 70
Prototype of the Greek temple 70
Degrees in this stage 71
Probably not so old as is often supposed 72
Mr. Petrie's evidence 72
The epic stage 72
The earliest historical stage 73
The gap between Homer and Archilochus 73
Old lists suspicious, and often fabricated 74
No chronology of the eighth centuryB.C. to be trusted 75
Cases of real antiquity 76