DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9184#0436
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CHAPTER XV.
the successors of alexander and greek
civilization in the east.
The modern historians of Greece are much divided on
the question where a history of Hellas ought to end.
Curtius stops with the battle of Chaeroneia and the pros-
tration of Athens before the advancing power of Macedon.
Grote narrates the campaigns of Alexander, but stops
short at the conclusion of the Lamian War, when Greece
had in vain tried to shake off the supremacy of his
generals. Thirlwall brings his narrative down to the
time of Mummius, the melancholy sack of Corinth, and
the constitution of Achaia as a Roman province. Of
these divergent views we regard that of the German
historian as the most correct.
The plan of Bishop Thirlwall compels him to speak of
Hellas as the land of the Greeks for centuries after the
centre of gravity of the Hellenic world had been trans-
ferred to Syria and Egypt, to Antioch, Pergamus, and
Alexandria. It is as if a historian of the Dorians should
confine his attention to the strip of land called Doris; or
a historian of the Arabs should omit to speak of the
Mohammedan conquests in the three continents.
The limits which Mr. Grote has imposed on himself are
equally unfortunate. He details the victories of Alexan-
der, but has to pass by the results of those victories. He
shows us the Greeks breaking the narrow bounds of
their race and becoming masters of Asia and Africa, but
CHAPTER XV.
the successors of alexander and greek
civilization in the east.
The modern historians of Greece are much divided on
the question where a history of Hellas ought to end.
Curtius stops with the battle of Chaeroneia and the pros-
tration of Athens before the advancing power of Macedon.
Grote narrates the campaigns of Alexander, but stops
short at the conclusion of the Lamian War, when Greece
had in vain tried to shake off the supremacy of his
generals. Thirlwall brings his narrative down to the
time of Mummius, the melancholy sack of Corinth, and
the constitution of Achaia as a Roman province. Of
these divergent views we regard that of the German
historian as the most correct.
The plan of Bishop Thirlwall compels him to speak of
Hellas as the land of the Greeks for centuries after the
centre of gravity of the Hellenic world had been trans-
ferred to Syria and Egypt, to Antioch, Pergamus, and
Alexandria. It is as if a historian of the Dorians should
confine his attention to the strip of land called Doris; or
a historian of the Arabs should omit to speak of the
Mohammedan conquests in the three continents.
The limits which Mr. Grote has imposed on himself are
equally unfortunate. He details the victories of Alexan-
der, but has to pass by the results of those victories. He
shows us the Greeks breaking the narrow bounds of
their race and becoming masters of Asia and Africa, but