Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/670

 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY. XIII

PART III. GENERAL STRUCTURE OF SOCIETIES CHAPTER VII. THE SOCIAL FRONTIERS (CONTINUED) SECTION V. THE GREEK WORLD

In the fifth century B. C., Persia dominated the ancient eastern states. Excepting a hiatus between north India and China, the civilization extended from the extreme continental east toward Europe, but within very narrow limits. This civilization embraced Aryans, Semites, Hamites, and Chinese. Greece had already covered the eastern Mediterranean with colonies, and contact was established between Europe and Asia. This was manifested by the war between Persia and Greece. However, Greece was then only a geographical expression.

In Asia the frontiers and empires were continually modified. In the seventh century Chaldea and Elam were included in the Assyrian empire. In the sixth century Chaldea, Media, and Lydia, together with Egypt, dominated the East, but the Greek colonization was already scattered over the whole coasts of Lydia, Cappadocia, and Sicily, over the whole southern shore of the Black Sea, and over a part of the eastern coast toward the Cau- casus. All of the civilizations had their maritime outlets: the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Black Sea, the Propontis, the ^Egean Sea, the Mediterranean, and Tyrrhenian. The struggle was made for the domination of the high plateaus of the great river-basins and the maritime outlets, and the methods were con- quest and colonization.

The Greek world, as it appeared in the fifth century, was a medley of mountains, valleys, coasts, and islands. In appearance it was an inextricable network of barriers and closed basins. However, these barriers did not prevent immigrations nor inva- sions nor expansion. They favored the differentiation of social groups, their variations, and through the latter their adaptation to

654