Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/104

76 provements of Thespis, Phrynichus, and Æschylus, dating from the time of the Peisistratidæ; but it was not till after the Persian invasions that the heightened position of Athens began to attract men of letters and philosophers to her as the natural home of literature and art, while the beauty of her buildings and the wealth of ornament which glorified them roused the admiration of foreigners, and made a marked impression on the character of her own citizens. Her great period in literature and art corresponded with the growth of her material power; and though they declined with it also, she remained still the chosen home of philosophy and humanism long after the disasters which wrecked her political importance.

Meanwhile, the islands of the Ægean had been thoroughly Hellenised (B.C. 800-700), and had developed in their own way. Eubœa had in Chalcis one city at least which had risen to high importance as a commercial and colonising state; but its constant quarrels with Eretria had weakened it, and it was soon to find itself united to Athens. The Cyclades for the most part were as yet thinly inhabited and poor, though the islands nearer the Asiatic coast—as Samos, Chios, and Lesbos—were the seats of a considerable trade in wine and pottery, and were beginning to acquire importance from their naval strength. Delos was the central place of the worship of Apollo and the common assembly of Ionians, and Thera was a stepping-stone between Crete and the mainland, just as Crete itself had helped to facilitate the passage of Phoenician and Egyptian influence into Greece. But by this time Crete was no longer