Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/30

2 Asia, and though they gave their name to the land which still retains it, there was, in fact, no one country with a capital and seat of government which we can speak of as Hellas, as we might of France or Spain. The Balkan peninsula, indeed, and the islands of the Ægean—still called Hellas—were their principal home. But they had numerous settlements on the coast of Italy, Sicily, Thrace, and Asia Minor, and some in more distant parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. These all came to be included under the general name of Hellas, and the Hellenes, wherever they lived, recognised ties of blood, religion, and common principles of conduct.

A system of small states was a characteristic mark of this Hellenism. Each city, with a narrow territory attached, aimed at complete independence. Combinations of cities to form one state, except within limited districts such as Laconia, Argolis, or Attica, were generally short-lived; and when the inhabitants of one district forcibly subjected to their rule the people of another, as the Spartans did the Messenians, the latter were always restless and discontented, watching every opportunity for breaking away. There was indeed generally one state which exercised a commanding influence among the others, and was tacitly acknowledged as holding a kind of supremacy. But this supremacy did not imply inter- ference in ordinary domestic politics. Its nature was undefined, and it only became conspicuous when combined military operations were needed. In the period before the Persian invasions Sparta occupied this position, principally because its military organi-