Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/41

I history of the ancient City-State, from its birth to its death. We know something of the way in which it came into existence, something of its earlier stages. We know a great deal about its life when it had grown to its full size and strength, and we can trace its gradual decay, until it lost its true nature and became material for a wholly new political system. This is not so with the history of the modern State, which is still comparatively young. We can follow its growth up to a certain point; but there we pass into the region of conjecture, for that growth is in many cases hardly yet finished, and even in the most highly-developed States there is fortunately no sure sign that decay is as yet setting in.

Secondly, we have large portions of the history of the two most famous City-States conveyed to us in the form of priceless literature. Thucydides and Demosthenes, and in a less degree Livy and Cicero, are among the most valuable treasures the world possesses. Even if we consider Livy alone, — the one among these four about whom it is most difficult to be enthusiastic, — apart from a perfection of style which is apt perhaps to become too monotonously perfect, it is impossible not to be sincerely grateful for the preservation of every one of the thirty-five books which remain to us. Now that history has become scientific, Livy does indeed appear to us full of sad shortcomings; yet through him we possess not only a sufficient knowledge of the working of the Roman constitution in its best days, but also a wealth of information about