on the coast of Africa, which was of
peculiar beauty, and was famous for eight hundred years.

(M393) So the Greeks, although they occupied a small territory, yet, by
their numerous colonies in all those parts watered by the Mediterranean,
formed, if not politically, at least socially, a powerful empire, and
exercised a vast influence on the civilized world. From Cyprus to
Marseilles--from the Crimea to Cyrene, numerous States spoke the same
language, and practiced the same rites, which were observed in Athens and
Sparta. Hence the great extent of country in Asia and Europe to which the
Greek language was familiar, and still more the arts which made Athens the
centre of a new civilization. Some of the most noted philosophers and
artists of antiquity were born in these colonies. The power of Hellas was
not a centralized empire, like Persia, or even Rome, but a domain in the
heart and mind of the world. It was Hellas which worked out, in its
various States and colonies, great problems of government, as well as
social life. Hellas was the parent of arts, of poetry, of philosophy, and
of all aesthetic culture--the pattern of new forms of life, and new modes of
cultivation. It is this Grecian civilization which appeared in full
development as early as five hundred years before the Christian era, which
we now propose, in a short chapter, to present--the era which immediately
preceded the Persian wars.

CHAPTER XVI.

GRECIAN CIVILIZATION BEFORE THE PERSIAN WARS.

Early civilization. We understand by civilization the progress which
nations have made in art, literature, material strength, social culture,
and political institutions, by which habits are softened, the mind
enlarged, the soul elevated, and a wise government, by laws established,
protecting the weak, punishing the wicked, and developing wealth and
national resources.

Such a civilization did exist to a remarkable degree among the Greeks,
which was not only the admiration of their own times, but a wonder to all
succeeding ages, since it was established by the unaided powers of man,
and affected the relations of all the nations of Europe and Asia which
fell under its influence.

It is this which we propose briefly to present in this chapter, not the
highest developments of Grecian culture and genius, but such as existed in
the period immediately preceding the Persian wars.

(M394) One important feature in the civilization