independent city-state, in which alone a man could develop to the full as a citizen, is the central Greek
achievement. It was possible because the great kingdoms of the East, which were close enough to give seminal
inspiration, were not close enough to subjugate Greece: when Xerxes finally tried, it was too late.
Greek culture was competitive. Each successive historian and philosopher made a point of showing how he
improved on his predecessor; the great Panhellenic occasions, at Olympia and Delphi, centred on athletic
competitions; when tragedies or comedies were put on in Athens, it seemed natural that they should be ranged in
order by a panel of judges. It was also a culture which raised in acute form all the basic questions about human
life: Is slavery wrong ('against nature')? What is the ultimate source of law, human or divine? Should the family
be abolished? (Plato abolished it in theory, and Sparta went a long way towards abolishing it in fact.) Is civil
disobedience sometimes right? How can the rule of law be established over blood-feud and family loyalties?
What justifies a state in ruling other states? What is the ideal size for a community? What is the role of heredity
and what of education in the formation of character?
A View East Across The Eurotas Valley, near Sparta, from the Byzantine hill-town of Mistra. This is one of the
broader, fertile valleys of south Greece, some 5 km across and with easy access to the sea at the south: an easier
landscape than most in the Peloponnese but dominated by the massif of Mount Taygetus on the east.
It was marked in all its aspects by an extraordinarily strong feeling for form. That was what gave Greek art and