The work of Greece lies at the bottom and, in a sense, was the most
important of all the earlier contributions to our education and
civilization. These people, known as Hellenes, were the pioneers of
western civilization. Their position in the ancient world is well shown on
the map reproduced opposite. To the East lay the older political
despotisms, with their caste-type and intellectually stagnant organization
of society, and to the North and West a little-known region inhabited by
barbarian tribes. It was in such a world that our western civilization had
its birth. These Greeks, and especially the Athenian Greeks, represented
an entirely new spirit in the world. In place of the repression of all
individuality, and the stagnant conditions of society that had
characterized the civilizations before them, they developed a civilization
characterized by individual freedom and opportunity, and for the first
time in world history a premium was placed on personal and political
initiative. In time this new western spirit was challenged by the older
eastern type of civilization. Long foreseeing the danger, and in fear of
what might happen, the little Greek States had developed educational
systems in part designed to prepare their citizens for what might come.
Finally, in a series of memorable battles, the Greeks, led by Athens,
broke the dread power of the Persian name and made the future of this new
type of civilization secure. At Marathon, Salamis, and Plataea the fate of
our western civilization trembled in the balance. Now followed the great
creative period in Greek life, during which the Athenian Greeks matured
and developed a literature, philosophy, and art which were to be enjoyed
not only by themselves, but by all western peoples since their time. In
these lines of culture the world will forever remain debtor to this small
but active and creative people.

[Illustration: FIG. I. THE EARLY GREEK CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD
The World according to Hecataeus, a geographer of Miletus, Asia Minor.