The History of Education / Educational Practice and Progress Considered as a Phase of the Development and Spread of Western Civilization

by Ellwood Patterson Cubberley

THE OLD GREEK EDUCATION

I. GREECE AND ITS PEOPLE

THE LAND. Ancient Greece, or Hellas as the Greeks called their homeland, was but a small country. The map given below shows the Aegean world superimposed on the States of the old Northwest Territory, from which it may be seen that the Greek mainland was a little less than half as large as the State of Illinois. Greece proper was about the size of the State of West Virginia, but it was a much more mountainous land. No spot in Greece was over forty miles from the sea. Attica, where a most wonderful intellectual life arose and flourished for centuries, and whose contributions to civilization were the chief glory of Greece, was smaller than two average-size Illinois counties, and about two thirds the size of the little State of Rhode Island. [1] The country was sparsely populated, except in a few of the City-States, and probably did not, at its most prosperous period, contain much more than a million and a half of people— citizens, foreigners, and slaves included.

[Illustration: FIG. 2. ANCIENT GREECE AND THE AEGEAN WORLD Superimposed on the East-North-Central Group of American States, to show relative size. Dotted lines indicate the boundaries of the American States—Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, etc. All of Greece will be seen to be a little less than half the size of the State of Illinois, the Aegean Sea about the size of the State of Indiana, and Attica not quite so large as two average-size Illinois counties.]

The land was rough and mountainous, and deeply indented by the sea. The climate and vegetation were not greatly unlike the climate and vegetation of Southern California. Pine and fir on the mountain-slopes, and figs, olives, oranges, lemons, and grapes on the hillsides and plains below, were characteristic of the land. Fishing, agriculture, and the raising of cattle and sheep were the important industries. A temperate, bracing climate, short, mild winters, and a long, dry summer gave an opportunity for the development of this wonderful civilization. Like Southern California or Florida in winter, it was essentially an out-of-doors country. The high mountains to the rear, the sun-steeped skies, and the brilliant sea in front were alike the beauty of the land and the inspiration of the people. Especially was this true of Attica, which had the seashore, the plain, the high mountains, and everywhere magnificent views through an atmosphere of remarkable clearness. A land of incomparable beauty and charm, it is little wonder that the Greek citizen, and the Athenian in particular, took pride in and loved his country, and was willing to spend much time in preparing himself to govern and defend it.

THE GOVERNMENT. Politically, Greece was composed of a number of independent City-States of small size. They had been settled by early tribes, which originally held the land in common. Attica, with its approximately seven hundred square miles of territory, was an average-size City-State. The central city, the surrounding farming and grazing lands, and the coastal regions all taken together, formed the State, the citizens of which—city-residents, farmers, herdsmen, and fishermen—controlled the government. There were in all some twenty of these City-States in mainland Greece, the most important of which were Attica, of which Athens was the central city; Laconia, of which Sparta was the central city; and Boeotia, of which Thebes was the central city. Some of the States developed democracies, of which class Athens became the most notable example, while some were governed as oligarchies. Of all the different States but few played any conspicuous part in the history of Greece. Of these few Attica stands clearly above them all as the leader in thought and art and the most progressive in government. Here, truly, was a most wonderful people, and it is with Attica that the student of the history of education is most concerned. The best of all Greece was there.

[Illustration: FIG. 3. THE CITY-STATE OF ATTICA]

The little City-States of Greece, as has just been said, were independent States, just like modern nations. While all the Greeks regarded themselves as tribes of a single family, descended from a common ancestor, Hellen, and the bonds of a common race, language, and religion tended to unite them into a sort of brotherhood, the different City-States were held apart by their tribal origins, by narrow political sympathies, and by petty laws. A citizen of one city, for example, was an alien in another, and could not hold property or marry in a city not his own. Such attitudes and laws were but natural, the time and age considered.

Sometimes, in case of great danger, as at the time of the Persian invasions (492-479 B.C.), a number of the States would combine to form a defensive league; at other times they made war on one another. The federal principle, such as we know it in the United States in our state and national governments, never came into play. At different times Athens, Sparta, and Thebes aspired to the leadership of Greece and tried to unite the little States into a Hellenic Nation, but the mutual jealousies and the extreme individualism of the people, coupled with the isolation of the States and the difficulties of intercommunication through the mountain passes, stood in the way of any permanent union. [2] What Rome later accomplished with relative ease and on a large scale, Greece was unable to do on even a small scale. A lack of capacity to unite for coöperative undertakings seemed to be a fatal weakness of the Greek character.

THE PEOPLE. The Greeks were among the first of the European peoples to attain to any high degree of civilization. Their story runs back almost to the dawn of recorded history. As early as 3500 B.C. they were in an advanced stone age, and by 2500 B.C. had reached the age of bronze. The destruction of Homer's Troy dates back to 1200 B.C., and the Homeric poems to 1100 B.C., while an earlier Troy (Schliemann's second city) goes back to 2400 B.C. This history concerns the mainland of Asia Minor. By 1000 B.C. the southern peninsula of Greece had been colonized, between 900 and 800 B.C. Attica and other portions of upper Greece had been settled, and by 650 B.C. Greek colonization had extended to many parts of the Mediterranean. [3]