Jeff Ragan’s Reviews > The Story of Civilization, Volume 2: The Life of Greece > Status Update

"Stoicism was a noble philosophy, and proved more practicable than a modern cynic would expect. It brought together all the elements of Greek thought in a final effort of the pagan mind to create a system of morals acceptable to the classes that had abandoned the ancient creed; and though it naturally won only a small minority to its standard, those few were everywhere the best" (656).

"...understanding is not only the highest virtue, it is also the highest happiness, for it avails more than any other faculty in us to avoid pain & grief. Wisdom is the only liberator: it frees us from bondage to the passions, from fear of the gods, & from dread of death; it teaches us how to bear misfortune, & how to derive a...lasting pleasure from the simple goods of life & the quiet pleasures of the mind" (648).

"The fading of frontiers & the establishment of a common language, the fluid interchange of books & ideas...& the weakening of the old theology, ...the multiplication of schools, universities...combined with wealth, industry, & royal patronage to free science from philosophy, & to encourage it in its work of enlightening, enriching & endangering the world" (627).

"No student with a mind of his own will join in any sweeping judgment about Hellenistic decay; a general conclusion to this effect serves too easily as an excuse for ending the story of Greece before the task is done. We feel in this period a slackening of creative impulse, but we are compensated by the lavish abundance of an art now completely master of its tools" (626).

"The ambition to possess old books became so widespread that men arose who specialized in dyeing and spoiling new manuscripts to sell them as antiquities to collectors of first editions...The office of librarian was one of the highest in the king's gift, and included the obligation of tutoring the crown prince. The names of these librarians have been preserved, with variations, in different manuscripts" (601).

"The lesson of Ptolemaic socialism is that even a government may exploit. Under the first two Ptolemies the system worked reasonably well; great engineering enterprises were completed, agriculture was improved, marketing was brought into order...there was a rapid deterioration in the quality of the kings; they ate & drank & mated, & allowed the administration of the system to all into the hands of rascals" (596).

"This imposition of Geek civilization upon the Near East is one of the startling phenomena of ancient history; no change so swift...had ever been seen in Asia...Never before...had a civilization achieved so wide a spread & such complex unity amid so man diverse environments. For a century western Asia belonged to Europe. The way was prepared for the Pax Romana, & the embracing synthesis of Christendom" (576-7).

"Classic Greek civilization had been built upon a patriotic devotion to the city-state, and classic morality, though rooted in folkways rather than in faith, had been powerfully reinforced by supernatural belief. But now neither faith nor patriotism survived in the educated Greek; civic frontiers had been erased by empires; and the growth of knowledge had secularized morals, marriage, parentage, and law" (566).

"When one faction won it exiled the other and confiscated its goods; when the exiles returned to power they revenged themselves in kind, and slaughtered their enemies; imagine the stability of an economic system subject to such decerebrations and disturbances. Some ancient Greek cities were so devastated by class strife that industry and men fled from them, grass grew in the streets, cattle came there to graze" (64).

"The city-state had proved incapable of solving the problems of government; it had failed to preserve order within, and defense without; despite the appeals of Gorgias, Isocrates, and Plato for some Dorian discipline to tame Ionian freedom, it had discovered no way of reconciling local autonomy with national stability and power; and its love of liberty had seldom interfered with its passion for empire" (554).