Thus was gained the misleading appearance of a pragmatic history of Grecian antiquity; and although even in ancient times occasional critical doubts were not wanting, this system as a whole was accepted by the Greeks as historical truth.[c] FOOTNOTES [7] [Reproduced by permission from his _Griechische Geschichte_. The subject here treated is one on which the authorities are by no means agreed. Other views are presented in a subsequent chapter.] [Illustration] CHAPTER V. THE DORIANS Land of the lordly mien and iron frame! Where wealth was held dishonour, Luxury’s smile Worse than a demon’s soul-destroying wile! Where every youth that hailed the Day-God’s beam, Wielded the sword, and dreamt the patriot’s dream; Where childhood lisped of war with eager soul, And woman’s hand waved on to glory’s goal. --NICHOLAS MICHELL. From the earliest period there were two peoples of Greece who seem, at least in the eye of later generations, to have been pre-eminent--the Dorians and the Ionians. Of the former the leaders are the Spartans; of the latter, the Athenians. In the main, so preponderant are these two cities that, viewed retrospectively, Greek history comes to seem the history of Athens and Sparta. This appears a curious anomaly when one considers that these cities were not great world emporiums like Babylon and Nineveh and Rome, but at best only moderate-sized towns. Yet they influenced humanity for all time to come; and our study of Greek history perforce resolves itself largely into the doings of the citizens of these two little communities. We shall first consider the history of the Dorians, who, though in the long run the less important of the two, were the earlier to appear prominently on the stage of history.[a] The Dorians derived their origin from those districts in which the Grecian nation bordered towards the north upon numerous and dissimilar races of barbarians. As to the tribes which dwelt beyond these boundaries we are indeed wholly destitute of information; nor is there the slightest trace of any memorial or tradition that the Greeks originally came from those quarters. On these frontiers, however, the events took place which effected an entire alteration in the internal condition of the whole Grecian nation, and here were given many of those impulses, of which the effects were so long and generally experienced. The prevailing character of the events alluded to, was a perpetual pressing forward of the barbarous races, particularly of the Illyrians, into more southern districts.