them, but rather were the ripe products of a society, which in its
excellences and weaknesses presents some of the most interesting
pictures and examples in the world. To understand the Athenian
civilization and genius it is not enough to know the outward history
of the times, the wars, the laws, and the lawmakers. We must see
Athens as the average man saw it and lived in it from day to day,
and THEN perhaps we can partially understand how it was that during
the brief but wonderful era of Athenian freedom and prosperity[*],
Athens was able to produce so many men of commanding genius as to
win for her a place in the history of civilization which she can
never lose.

[*]That era may be assumed to begin with the battle of Marathon
(490 B.C.), and it certainly ended in 322 B.C., when Athens passed
decisively under the power of Macedonia; although since the battle
of Cheroneia (338 B.C.) she had done little more than keep her
liberty on sufferance.


3. The Small Size and Sterility of Attica.--Attica was a very small
country according to modern notions, and Athens the only large city
therein. The land barely covered some 700 square miles, with 40
square miles more, if one includes the dependent island of Salamis.
It was thus far smaller than the smallest of our American "states"
(Rhode Island = 1250 square miles), and was not so large as many
American counties. It was really a triangle of rocky, hill-scarred
land thrust out into the Aegean Sea, as if it were a sort of
continuation of the more level district of Boeotia. Yet small as it
was, the hills inclosing it to the west, the seas pressing it form
the northeast and south, gave it a unity and isolation all its own.