Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/268

* GKEEK LITEBATURE. 234 GREEK MUSIC. study on scientific bases; Euclid created a sys- tem of geometry; and Eratosthenes founded as- trouomjeal geography and scienlilic chronologj'. In the third centurj- B.C. ilanetho and Berosus wrote chronological histories of Egj'pt and Chal- diea respectively. (5) The Gb.^sco-Roman Period (b.c. 14G-a.d. 529). After the conquest of Greece by Konie in B.C. 14G, Rome gradually took over her intellect- ual as well as political life, although she did not become a great centre of the world until the Im- perial period. Polybius (c.205-c.l20 B.C.), the chief Greek liistorian after Herodotus and Thu- cydides. belongs to the transition period. His history, in forty books, records the course of Ro- man conquest from B.C. 204 to the fall of Car- thage (B.C. 14G). It has reached us in a mutilated form, but is the most important source of our knowledge of the period. About B.C. 40 Diodorus Siculus wrote a history of the world down to Ciesar's Gallic Wars, in forty books, of which we have complete only books 1-5 and 1 1-20. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in Augustus's reign, composed an early history of Rome, designed as an intro- duction to Polybius ; of this there is extant only the first ten books, reaching to B.C. 450, and some fragments. His rhetorical writings exhibit con- siderable critical abilitj'. Other historians are Josephus (born a.d. 37), whose two works on the Jews are of great value; Plutarch (c.46-c.l20 A.D.). author of the famous Parallel hires and Morals .■ Arrian (a.d. 95-175) ; Appian ( flour, a.d. 150) ; Dio Cassius (c.l50-c.235 a.d.) ; and Hero- dian (Hour. a.d. 230). The IJces of the Philoso- phers, by Diogenes Laertius (third century a.d.), and Philostratus's Lives of the Sophists, are valu- aljle historical sources. Geography is represented by Strabo (e. 64 B.C.-19 a.d.). The work of Pau- sanias the Periegite (c.l60 ..D. ) is of the greatest value for a loiowledge of Greek topography and works of art. In the same century Ptolemy de- veloped his system of geography and astronomy, and Galen composed his medical treatises. At the close of this second century Athena>us wrote his Deipnosophistw, a miscellany on every pos- sible subject, cast in the form of a dialogue, which is valuable for the varied information it con- tains, drawn from sources now lost to us. Sys- tematic rhetoric is represented by Hermogenes (second century) and Longinus (third century), and the new oratorv' of the later Sophists by I5io Chrysostom (first centur;s'). -•Elius Aristides (sec- ond century), and by Themistius, Himerius. and Libanius (fourth century). The writings of the Greek fathers of the Church cannot be touched on here. (See P.atristic TnEOLOGT. ) Ro- mance was cultivated by Xenoplion. Longus, Heliodorns, Achilles Tatius, and Chariton. The most important literary philosophers were the Stoics. Epictetus and ]Marcus Aurelius; the Neo- Platonists. Plotinus, Porphyry. lambliohus, and Hypatia. and the Athenian Proclus. The poets of the period are B.abrius. Oppian. Nonnus. and Quintus Smyrn.Tus. Finally must be mentioned Lucian of Samo.sata. the gre.at satirist and stylist of the second century, v.ho most resembles Aris- tophanes in his wit and humor. (6) The Byzantine Period, to the Faia. of Constantinople (1453). The latest of the writers mentioned in the preceding section might be counted in this period. For more than a thousand years after the removal of the capital from Rome, Constantinople was the metropolis of an empire whose language was Greek, and from which a vast literature has been preserved, much of which is of value. No adequate account can be given in the brief space here allowed ; only the most important fields can be named. In history no genius appeared; but a long line of historians and chroniclers, from Agathias, in the sixth century, to Georgius Phrantzes and Laonicus Chaleondyles, in the tifteenth, have preserved to us the record of the great By- zantine Empire. Rhetoric was best represented by .lohannes Doxopater, Alexis Comnenus (By- zantine Emperor, eleventh centurj'), tieorgius of Cj-prus, Jvicephorus Chumnus, and Theodorus of Hyrtace (thirteenth century), and Demetrius Cydones (fourteenth century). Philosophy was not a favorite pursuit; but Michael Psellus (1018-c.nOO) deserves mention for the enormous range of bis intellectual activities. The most famous of theologians was Johannes Damascenus (eighth century), while in the polemical strife of the fourteenth century Nicephorus Ciregoras, Gregorius Palamas, Johannes Cantacuzenus. and Cyparissiot.es took the leading parts. Naturally the study of the ancient authors occupied the learned in this period, and many commentaries have come down to us ; in most cases, unfortu- nately, these are hardly more than stupid dilu- tions and expansions of ancient commentaries still extant. The best known of the Byzantine scholiasts are: Tzetzes (twelfth centurj') ; Eusta- thius (twelfth century), famous for his great commentary on Homer : Moschopulus ( thirteenth century), who wrote on Homer. Pindar, the tra- gedians, and Theocritus; Thomas Magister (thir- teenth-fourteenth centuries), commentator on the tragedians and others ; Johannes Pediasimus, whoso scholia on Hesiod have a slight value ; and Triclinius (fourteenth century), whose writings include commentaries on Hesiod. Pindar, and the tragedians. The lexical work of the time is rep- resented chiefly by Photius. Suidas. and the sev- eral Etymologica. In poeti'y the great anthologies were collected, but little of original value was accomplisl'.ed. Profane verse was cultivateil by Theodorus Prodromus (twelfth century) and by Manuel Philes (thirteenth-fourteenth centuries), but the best poetic composition appears in Chris- tian hymns. See Romaic Literature. Bibliography. For the classical jjeriod, con- sult the histories of Greek literature in English, by Miiller and Donaldson. Mahaft'v. .Tevons. and Fowler; in French, by Croiset ; and in Gennan, by Bergk, Bemhardy, Sittl, and Christ. For the Alexandrine age. consult: Susemihl. Geschiclite der griechischen Litterotur in der Alcxandriner- zeit (Leipzig, 1891); Count, hu pofsie alexan- drine (Paris, 1882) : for the Byzantine period, ICrumbacher, (leschichte der hyzantinischen Lit- teratur (^Municli. 1897). GREEK MTUSIC. The development of music among the Greeks was never carried to that de- gree of perfection which characterized the other arts. Polyphony was uiiknoAvn to them, and consequent ly their elaborate theoretical system had reference only to melody. How extensively their theories were carried out in practice we have little chance to judge, for our knowledge of Greek music is derived almost entirely from the writings of the theorists. The mathematical and technical details are very involved, and are still the subject of discussion among scholars. The most noticeable general characteristics are,