Greece -- History; Greece -- Politics and government; Imperialism
We have made our peace with economics by considering first the
effect of occupation and residence in giving to the citizens of each
city-state solidarity of interest and attitude. We have dwelt a little
on the force which beliefs as to their origin and their destiny
hereafter exerted in keeping the city-states apart. We have still to
notice the centrifugal influence on the Greek race of their urban
institutions and politics.
Each city in Greece had its own laws and customs. These were not, as
with us, cold abstractions, but real, ever active, almost living,
personal forces, moulding incessantly their subjects according to
a given model. The citizens of each city had, in fact, a general
family resemblance, due to the imprint set upon them by their social
and political institutions. Cities acquired by this means clear-cut
individualities which were capable of definition, not simply by
narrating their history, but also in terms of physical, intellectual,
and emotional qualities. We may illustrate this point by observing
that the Hellenes created one literary type which we have not borrowed
from them: they wrote the biographies of cities as well as of men.
Their philosophers studied the effects upon urban character of climate,
prevailing winds and pursuits, location with reference to the sun and
the sea, contact with foreigners, and other similar agencies. They
even had specifics which they prescribed for the physiological and
pathological ills of cities, just as our sciolists, on a much more
slender basis of facts, however, diagnose the diseases and classify the
good and evil qualities of nations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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