DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5625#0189
164 Survey of the Ancient World
with fixed laws. The gods were thus banished from control
of the sky-world, where Zeus had once ruled (§ 236). Other
Ionian Greeks like Thales, especially Pythagoras, studied
mathematics and the physics of musical tones. They wrote
the first geographies, and one of them discovered that the earth
is a sphere. They therefore became the forerunners of natural
scientists and philosophers. They had entered what was f°r
them a new world, — the world of science and philosophy, a
■ world which the greatest minds of the early Orient had not
discovered. This step, taken by Thales and the great men °^
the Ionian cities, remains and will forever remain the greatest
11
achievement of the human intellect — an achievement to cai
forth the reverence and admiration of all time.
307. Sum- The Age of the Tyrants was therefore one of the great
ofatheaAgenof epochs of the world's histoiy, when the Greeks overtook and
the Tyrants passeci the Orient in civilization.1 Under the stimulus of the
keen struggle for leadership in business, in government, and m
society, the minds of the ablest men of the time were wonder-
fully quickened. The inner power of this vigorous new Greek
life showed itself in statesmanship, in architecture and building'
in sculpture and painting, in literature and religion, in science and
philosophy. As a group the leaders of this age, many of them
tyrants, made an impression which never entirely disappeared)
and they were called " the Seven Wise Men." They were the
earliest statesmen, and thinkers of Greece. The people loved to
quote their sayings, such as " Know thyself," a proverb which
was carved over the door of the Apollo temple ; at Delph1
(Fig. 74); or Solon's wise maxim "Overdo nothing." After
the overthrow of the sons of Pisistratus, however, the tyrants
were disappearing, and although a tyrant here and there
survived, especially in Asia Minor and Sicily, Greece thereup011
passed out of the Age of the Tyrants (about 500 B.C.).
1 A fuller account of the remarkable civilization of this age will be found
Ancient Times, §§ 479-496.
with fixed laws. The gods were thus banished from control
of the sky-world, where Zeus had once ruled (§ 236). Other
Ionian Greeks like Thales, especially Pythagoras, studied
mathematics and the physics of musical tones. They wrote
the first geographies, and one of them discovered that the earth
is a sphere. They therefore became the forerunners of natural
scientists and philosophers. They had entered what was f°r
them a new world, — the world of science and philosophy, a
■ world which the greatest minds of the early Orient had not
discovered. This step, taken by Thales and the great men °^
the Ionian cities, remains and will forever remain the greatest
11
achievement of the human intellect — an achievement to cai
forth the reverence and admiration of all time.
307. Sum- The Age of the Tyrants was therefore one of the great
ofatheaAgenof epochs of the world's histoiy, when the Greeks overtook and
the Tyrants passeci the Orient in civilization.1 Under the stimulus of the
keen struggle for leadership in business, in government, and m
society, the minds of the ablest men of the time were wonder-
fully quickened. The inner power of this vigorous new Greek
life showed itself in statesmanship, in architecture and building'
in sculpture and painting, in literature and religion, in science and
philosophy. As a group the leaders of this age, many of them
tyrants, made an impression which never entirely disappeared)
and they were called " the Seven Wise Men." They were the
earliest statesmen, and thinkers of Greece. The people loved to
quote their sayings, such as " Know thyself," a proverb which
was carved over the door of the Apollo temple ; at Delph1
(Fig. 74); or Solon's wise maxim "Overdo nothing." After
the overthrow of the sons of Pisistratus, however, the tyrants
were disappearing, and although a tyrant here and there
survived, especially in Asia Minor and Sicily, Greece thereup011
passed out of the Age of the Tyrants (about 500 B.C.).
1 A fuller account of the remarkable civilization of this age will be found
Ancient Times, §§ 479-496.