Greece, or Hellas, consisted of a number of small states, speaking the same language, and worshipping the same gods. Almost the whole of the Ægean coast of Asia Minor was occupied in early times by Greek Colonies, which supplanted those of the Phœnicians of Tyre and Sidon. The southern portion of this seaboard was occupied by the Dorians, and the northern by Ionians. In the course of time other Greek settlements were made on the Black Sea and Mediterranean Coast of Asia Minor; as well as at Syracuse, Gela and Agrigentum, in Sicily, and in Etruria and Magna Grecia in Italy. These colonies appear to have reached a higher state of art at an early period than Greece itself. The ascendency in art in Greece was enjoyed by the Dorians circa, 800 B.C.; after which Sparta took the lead, but was in turn excelled by the Ionians, when Athens became the focus of Greek art, and attained a degree of perfection in that respect that has remained unequalled to this day. Athens was destroyed by the Persians under Xerxes, 480 B.C.; but under Pericles (470-29 B.C.) Greek art reached its culmination. The abundant, although fragmentary, remains of Grecian architecture, sculpture, and the industrial arts, show most vividly the artistic feeling and culture of the early Greeks, with their great personality and religious sentiment, in which the personal interest of the gods and goddesses was brought into relation with the life and customs of the people. Their myths and traditions, their worship of legendary heroes, the perfection of their physical nature, and their intense love of the beautiful, were characteristic of the Greek people, from the siege of Troy to their subjection by Rome, B.C. 140. The almost inexhaustible store of Greek art, now gathered in the British Museum, and in other European museums, furnishes one of the most valuable illustrations of the many glorious traditions of the past. The vitality of conception, the dignity and noble grace of the gods, the consummate knowledge of the human figure, and the exquisite skill of craftsmanship, are here seen in the greatest diversity of treatment and incident. The work of Phidias, the most renowned of Greek sculptors, is largely represented in the British Museum by noble examples, showing his great personality, wonderful power, and his remarkable influence, upon contemporary and later plastic art.