The writer has been under a heavy debt to the numerous and excellent
works on Greek "Private Antiquities" and "Public Life" written in
English, French, or German, as well as to the various great Classical
Encyclopedias and Dictionaries, and to many treatises and monographs
upon the topography of Athens and upon the numerous phases of Attic
culture. It is proper to say, however, that the material from
such secondary sources has been merely supplementary to a careful
examination of the ancient Greek writers, with the objects of this
book kept especially in view. A sojourn in modern Athens, also,
has given me an impression of the influence of the Attic landscape
upon the conditions of old Athenian life, an impression that I have
tried to convey in this small volume.

I am deeply grateful to my sister, Mrs. Fannie Davis Gifford, for
helpful criticism of this book while in manuscript; to my wife,
for preparing the drawings from Greek vase-paintings which appear
as illustrations; and to my friend and colleague, Professor Charles
A. Savage, for a kind and careful reading of the proofs. Thanks
also are due to Henry Holt and Company for permission to quote
material from their edition of Von Falke's "Greece and Rome."


W. S. D.

University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
May, 1914.