wheat, is it not true? And also somebody must have stood over the hot oven to make the loaf. Likewise with the glass of wine, or for that matter with the winter's sheep-skin coat that Greeks wore: always somebody must do the drudgery before the wine sparkles in the glass, or the warm pelt is on your back. No wonder the prosperous Greek citizen, intent on personal pleasures, left the cultivation of the soil to his human herd. But it did not necessarily follow that slaves were not, in exceptional cases, treated well-even liberally. A slave might become his master's secretary, or clerk, if we may use these modern words to indicate personal relationship in an age in which intimate social relations were largely unformulated. We have in this book repeatedly emphasized in passing the idea that the history of the Common Man has never been told, or for that matter is ever likely to be accurately recorded, and we have told reasons why. Here, then, referring specifically to Greece, we find villas filled with aristocrats, scholars, citizens of high social quality; philosophers disputing on such abstractions as justice, virtue, goodness; before the disputants' tables groaning with venison, figs, pomegranates, wines; the company lounging on divans; near by, bards to amuse with songs, or half-naked barbarian girls whirling through sensual dances. Yet not far away in a rubbish heap, is a scrap of paper containing these fateful words: "In reading the exaggerated customary presentation of cultural Greek influence, let us bear in mind that we are hearing the story of masters only, not of slaves; and that all the refinement and culture of Greek life was shared only by a small part of the total population. There is another story—the slave population—whose burden if it existed, would perhaps be too full of misery for us to bear to read. In other words, do not be misled by conventional accounts of the glory of Greek art. Do not overlook the peculiar foundation on which all Greek philosophical culture drew its support-the wretched servileclass, nameless and immense in numbers as are sands on the seashore. Greek philosophy, as a constructive force, had much to do with evolutions of democracy, but we must not close our eyes to Greek wretchedness, bestiality and inhumanities, man against man. It is necessary to understand these things at once, that no time may be lost. And if you are distressed by the miseries of human life and would turn your eyes away from the spectacle of man's vileness to his fellow-kind, regardless of the flattering speeches on his lips, then close this book here and now. It is true, renowned Greek thinkers mulled intently the inner meaning of mental abstractions, such as justice, happiness, life, death and the vast forever. The analytical Greek gloried in profound exertions to set forth, to identify and to systematize forms of law and order, in the domain of the intellect, and if possible to find counterparts in the world of little men. We know too that the by-product, though difficult to trace in detail, is very much in the world even today reflected in our own social ideals. The higher type of Greek thinker influenced unnumbered generations after Greece as a nation (if we may use that term in a conditional sense) had passed into the oblivion that inevitably awaits all human thinking. The Greek was by nature a schoolteacher, not so much for kindergarten classes or undergraduates, as for school-masters themselves. Many generations of students both in Church and State, as our later story shall clearly testify, owe fundamentals of their methods of thought to Plato's reasoning on abstract ideas. To ask a man to define goodness, happiness, virtue, forces him to go outside petty, humdrum and routine self-interest-and as soon as he does that, he is in essence, already necessarily cultivating that sense of fraternity which is at the basis of Democracy. We must affirm again that through holding thoughts on phases of Natural justice, the moral attitude of man toward his fellow-kind theoretically advances. And we may even believe, also, that the examination of ethical "ends" may in no slight measure have advanced the practice, as applied to practical life. Therefore, Greek rationalism has contributed to bring riches of wisdom, along the ethical side, that throughout centuries has remained the after-wonder of mankind; also, curiously enough, Greek spitefulness, oath-breaking, temporizing, tended to break down localisms and to supply experiment after experiment in social and political life. Thus each Greek factor, brains on one side, brawls on the other, helped along the rise of the masses. With each of these opposed elements, we purpose to make more intimate acquaintance-till Greek institutions give way to Roman domination in the 100's B. C., and the glory that was Greece declined, to rise no more. CHAPTER XII UNBIASED TESTIMONY OF DEGRADATION The Common Man in Greece, according to As was the average social foundation throughout the Ancient World, likewise in the childhood of Greece and throughout her whole career, there were two classes only: rulers and ruled. The economic and social basis of the state was chattel slavery. We must emphasize this cruel thought for centuries to come-almost indeed up to yesterday. First, let us say that cooperation between the local chief (king) and the elders was conventionally practiced; offering thus a starting point toward Democracy. Also, the popular Assembly, if we may use the term guardedly, was an essential of earliest Greek communal life. While this outline if unchecked by qualifications suggests offhand to the modern mind unlimited Democracy, we are of course speaking of tendencies only, and must temper our remarks for centuries to come. In early Greece, the government was ridiculously simple. Indeed, that remark will apply to her career to the end, till she passed to Rome (100's B. C.). There was no official bureaucracy, no financial system, no efficient protest on the part of the people, as against arbitrary rulers. Centuries-very many indeed-must pass before the rise of European sentiments of National unity, can be recorded in this book. In the interim, we have, in Greece, not even a situation that might pass for sentiments of a dynastic nature. All was tribal, remote, unorganized; open or covert hostility, leader against leader. About all we can say is that before the 800's B. C. in Greece, following the Homeric legend are rude forms of tribal cooperation. We do not mean that these assemblies had rules of order, and definite places of meeting; probably the general idea of giving counsel will cover the idea. With this broad statement we should not quarrel. Taking counsel is a customary aborigine way of leadership, and while it contains a Democratic germ, the comparison between that and modern delegates assembled as representatives of the government, is infinitely remote. A gulf of thirty centuries of social evolution lies between. That vast chasm we must cross, or we will not be able to retrace the narrow trail along which the Common Man came up-out of social and political Oblivion. Lycurgus, practical politician and military-master, set up his far-famed laws of Sparta (800's B. C.); and for upwards of 500 years thereafter the harsh political system of Lycurgus made Spartan life renowned for its austerity, simplicity and intense individuality. With obvious reservations, Lycurgus' plan presents an early type of democracy. To any extent, this statement is both true and false. If with specific limitations, we discern Democratic tendencies even amidst surprising evidences of harshness and autocracy, in another sense all modern ideals of Democracy are hopelessly violated because the masses were under the lash. However, let us be openminded. Sparta was frankly a military-state, and twothirds of the population were basely servile. The slaveclass was even denied the consolation of the temples. The theory in Antiquity was that the slave had no finer feelings, consequently his body was made to be whipped. In the end, he needed no pagan god, but his body was thrown by the roadside to be eaten by wolves and the bones picked up by vultures. Such was the customary fate of our remote ancestors in Greece. How did all this oppression of man by man start? History is human nature in action, man is prone to enslaving his kind. Man does not always call it by the name, slavery, but the result is self-evident. The hope is that in time all men will be free, but in the meantime centuries must pass. |