The Greeks
Our knowledge of the first appearance of Greeks in Asia Minor has undergone radical revision in recent years. Their prehistoric culture can be traced as far back as the Neolithic. The chief interest of modern discovery centers around the now accepted fact that Greek culture originally invaded the region from the south and that the Indo-European element which brought Aryan speech to the land is a later wave which flooded the original Mediterranean stock at some time during the transition from the Age of Bronze to that of Iron.[215] The southwestern coast was first colonized. A northerly extension occurred thence and proceeded mainly along the coast.[216]
The sequence of geological events preceding man’s appearance upon the Ægean coast of Asia had imparted features which were destined to favor human development to an exceptional degree. A land-bridge connecting the Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas occupied the site of the Ægean Sea at the dawn of quaternary times. The subsidence of the land during this period was accompanied by heavy fracturing trending in east-west lines. The Ægean archipelago, studded with islands and surrounded by deeply indented coasts, conveys a vivid picture, on the map, of the crustal deformity which occurred.
Climate also conferred its share of advantages. The long and narrow valleys are sheltered by mountains on all sides except to seaward. Northerly air currents cannot reach them. Frosts or snows are therefore unusual.[217] The course of moisture-laden winds blowing landward from the seas that wash the three coasts of Asia Minor is arrested by the mountainous rim of the peninsula. Precipitation is almost entirely expended upon the narrow shore lands. Copious rainfall and flowing rivers thus provide this historic Anatolian fringe with patches of luxuriant vegetation and green valleys. The interior plateau, on the other hand, remains parched and barren during the summer months.
A splendid stage for Greek history was thus built during the prehuman period. Early Mediterranean oncomers discovered sheltered havens and fertile inlets along the entire development of the fancifully dissected coast. A natural festoon of outlying islands increased their security by providing them with advanced posts for the detection of hostile raids. Erosion along the parallel lines of east-west rifts had carved fair valleys in which the winding rivers of classical literature found a channel. But above all, the sea contributed commerce and cosmopolitanism, both great elements of world power. These in turn favored the growth of tolerance,—a trait which has ever marked the western mind and which, at that particular spot, was to constitute a bastion destined to remain impregnable to the opposing spirit of the east.[218]
The American Geographical Society of New York
Frontiers of Language and Nationality in Europe, 1917, Pl. VII
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PART OF ASIATIC TURKEY SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF PEOPLES
Intermediate site, low relief above sea level and genial climate combined to give the Greeks a full share of the joy of life. These are the physical elements upon which the striking cultural superiority of Hellenism is founded and without the concourse of which it has never set permanent foot anywhere. The brilliant florescence of Greek civilization in pagan time attained its apogee wherever these three geographical factors prevailed. The Byzantine Empire succumbed before eastern onslaught because it was gradually converted into an Asiatic state and thus exceeded the boundaries marked by nature for Greek humanity.
The sixth century of the pagan era was the Golden Age of Hellenism in Asia Minor. The elongated seaward valleys became the seat of flourishing and independent nations. A strong democratic spirit prevailed among their inhabitants. City states or self-governing communities were numerous. Their merchant princes drew on the vast eastern rearland for supplies which they sold to Europe. They also collected heavy tolls from freight going eastwards. A double stream of wealth thus flowed into their treasuries. The prosperity of this period has never since been paralleled in the region.
Creative art found a home upon a site so eminently favored by nature. The heart and mind of its inhabitants throbbed responsively to the stirring events which were the result of their country’s situation at the junction of the most important sea and land highways of the then known world. There the antagonism between east and west, out of which so much world history has been made, broke into violent clashes after periods of commercial interchange. Talent was spurred to high achievement under the stimulus of foreign contact, wealthy patronage and genial environment. Imposing ruins and prolific discoveries of masterpieces of art convey ample testimony of nature’s concentrated prodigality on this famous coastland.
The present Greek occupants of the Anatolian shores reflect the pleasant character of their environment in the lightness of heart which is one of their distinguishing characteristics. Their craving for gaiety, society and enjoyment is unfailing. Even the gloom of Asiatic dominion does not prevent merrymaking at every opportunity. In these respects the Greeks share to an eminent degree the feelings of the nations of the western world.
With the exception perhaps of the Circassians, the Greeks are the handsomest of the inhabitants of Asiatic Turkey. Classical forms of the head and of the general cast of countenance are met in every nook of the Anatolian seaboard. Their profiles are those of the gently curving lines of ancient Greek statues and medals. Among women graceful carriage of the head and neck adds to their charm. The men are erect and firm of gait.
Fishing and sailoring are the hereditary occupations of the coastal Greek populations of Asia Minor. Inland they become traders. The “corner” grocery or the village butcher shop is generally owned by a Greek. In recent years the Greek has learned to play the part of the promoter in the growing development of Asia Minor. He is often the middleman who brings western capital to eastern opportunity. Herein his rôle differs but slightly from that of his Lydian or Carian ancestors.
The true Greek is met only as far inland as a whiff of the salt sea air can be inhaled. Eastward, on the Anatolian table-land, Greek communities of the ancient Phrygian and Cappadocian lands differ from kindred coastal populations as widely as the fascinating greenswards of the one vary from the semi-arid steppe of the other. Once beyond the range of maritime influences, Greeks often forget their own language and adopt Turkish instead. This is frequently the case in many of the inland settlements where Turkish is now the only medium of oral expression for Christian thought.[219] Racially, too, the Greeks of the inland towns and villages betray Alpine or Armenoid origin rather than Mediterranean descent. Short stature, ample chest development and broad-headedness are conspicuous among them. The rock-hewn villages south of Mt. Argaeus afford a clue to the origin and antiquity of these mountain Greeks.[220] They are descendants of the natives who were conquered by the armies of Greek pagan states or by Byzantine troops. The conquerors brought language and culture to the upland populations but were numerically insufficient to impose a new racial stratum. Later the wave of Turkish invasion drove out Greek and forced Asiatic speech on the same mountain populations without always replacing Christianity by Mohammedanism.
Duality of language is sometimes accompanied by a strange duality of creed among Anatolian Greeks. At Jevizlik, on the road between Trebizond and Gumushchane, dwell crypto-Christian Greeks who publicly profess Mohammedanism while maintaining in secret the Greek orthodox faith.[221] The inauguration of a constitutional form of government in 1908, with its promise of religious liberty, gave the members of the community an opportunity to renounce their outward form of faith and proclaim complete adherence to the religion they had never really forsaken.
To the philologist these ancient Greek communities are veritable treasure grounds, especially when found in mountainous districts. Archaic forms of speech are in current use among their inhabitants. In many, the purity of the ancient Greek dialects of Asia Minor has been preserved with but slight contamination from later literary influences. The very names of those who speak these vernaculars show interesting connection with the classical period of Hellenism. Socrates or Pericles will cook daily for the traveler, and Themistocles supply him with tobacco. More than that, they all make themselves intelligible in the style—and the spirit, too—of inscriptional language. But the old Hellenic dialects should not be confused with the still unknown Lycian, Lydian and Carian languages found in inscriptions. There is reason to believe that these primitive speeches of the Anatolian plateau represent exceedingly early stages in the development of Indo-European forms.
Many of the Greek communities owe their survival to the proficiency of their members in a particular industry. The settlements of Greek miners scattered in the Pontic and Tauric mining districts are instances in point. The Turkish conquest of the Byzantine Empire was accomplished by Asiatic barbarians who knew how to fight but included no artisans in their ranks. They were therefore obliged to rely upon the populations of the conquered lands for the maintenance of industrial and commercial activity. This notorious incompetence of the Turk for any pursuit other than that of soldiering is, at bottom, the prime cause of the survival of Christian communities within Ottoman boundaries.