  OUR EARLIEST TEACHERS Ancient Cities that still exist. In Ancient Times the most important peoples lived on the shores of the Mediterranean. The northern shore turns and twists around four peninsulas. The first is Spain, which separates the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean; the second, shaped like a boot, is Italy; and the third, the end of which looks like a mulberry leaf, is Greece. Beyond Greece is Asia Minor, the part of Asia which lies between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. (See the The Italians now live in Italy, but the Romans lived there in Ancient Times. The people who live in Greece are called Greeks, just as they were more than two thousand years ago. Many of the cities that the Greeks and Romans built are still standing. Alexandria was founded by the great conqueror Alexander. Constantinople used to be the Greek city of Byzantium. Another Greek city, Massilia, has become the modern French city of Marseilles. Rome had the same name in Ancient Times, except that it was spelled Roma. The Romans called Paris by the name of Lutetia, and London they called Lugdunum. Ruins which show how the Ancients lived. In many of these cities are ancient buildings or ruins of buildings, bits of carving, vases, mosaics, sometimes even wall paintings, which we may see and from which we may learn how the Greeks and Romans lived. Near Naples are the ruins of Pompeii, a Roman city suddenly destroyed during an eruption of the volcano Vesuvius. For hundreds of years the city lay buried under fifteen or twenty feet of ashes. When these were taken away, the old streets and the walls of the houses could be seen. No roofs were left and the walls in many places were only partly standing, but things which in other ancient cities had entirely disappeared were kept safe in Pompeii under the volcanic ashes. The traveler who walks to-day along the ruined streets can see how its inhabitants lived two thousand years ago. He can visit their public buildings and their private houses, can handle their dishes and can look at the paintings on their walls or the mosaics in the floors. But interesting as Pompeii is, we must not think that its ruins teach us more than the ruins of Rome or Athens or many other ancient cities. Each has something important to tell us of the people who lived long ago. Ancient Words still in Use. The ancient Greeks and Romans have left us some things more useful than the ruins of their buildings. These are the words in our language which once were theirs, and which we use with slight changes in spelling. Most of our words came in the beginning from Germany, where our English forefathers lived before they settled in England. To the words they took over from Germany they added words borrowed from other peoples, just as we do now. We have recently borrowed several words from the French, such as tonneau and limousine, words used to describe parts of an automobile, besides the name automobile itself, which is made up of a Latin and a Greek word.
In this way, for hundreds of years, words have been coming into our language from other languages. Several thousand have come from Latin, the language of the Romans; several hundred from Greek, either directly or passed on to us by the Romans or the French. The word school is Greek, and the word arithmetic was borrowed from the French, who took it from the Greeks. Geography is another word which came, through French and Latin, from the Greeks, to whom it meant that which is written about the earth. The word grammar came in the same way. The word alphabet is made by joining together the names of the first two Greek letters, alpha and beta. Many words about religion are borrowed from the Greeks, and this is not strange, for the New Testament was written in Greek. Some of these are Bible, church, bishop, choir, angel, devil, apostle, and martyr. The Greeks have handed down to us many words about government, including the word itself, which in the beginning meant "to steer." Politics meant having to do with a polis or city. Several of the words most recently made up of Greek words are telegraph, telephone, phonograph, and thermometer. Many Words borrowed from the Romans. Nearly ten times as many of our words are borrowed from the Romans as from the Greeks, and it is not strange, because at one time the Romans ruled over all the country now occupied by the Italians, the French, the Spaniards, a part of the Germans, and the English, so that these peoples naturally learned the words used by their conquerors and governors. Interesting Ancient Stories. In the poems and tales which we learn at home or at school are stories which Greek and Roman parents and teachers taught their children many hundred years ago. We learn them partly because they are interesting, and because they please or amuse us, and partly because they appear so often in our books that it is necessary to know them if we would understand our own books and language. Who has not heard of Hercules and his Labors, of the Search for the Golden Fleece, the Siege of Troy, or the Wanderings of Ulysses? We love modern fairy stories and tales of adventure, but they are not more pleasing than these ancient stories.
The Story of the Greeks. Our language and our books are full of memories of Greek and Roman deeds of courage. The story of the Greeks comes before the story of the Romans, for the Greeks were living in beautiful cities, with temples and theaters, while the Romans were still an almost unknown people dwelling on the hills that border the river Tiber. Memories of Greek Courage. Preparing for Marathon, 490 B.C. To the Athenians belong the glories of Marathon. They lived where the modern city of Athens now stands. The ruins of their temples and theaters still attract students and travelers to Greece. The plain of Marathon lay more than twenty miles to the northeast, and the roads to it led through mountain passes. When the Athenians heard that the hosts of the Great King of Persia were approaching, they sent a runner, Pheidippides by name, to ask aid of Sparta, a city one hundred and forty miles away, in the peninsula now called the Morea, where dwelt the sturdiest fighters of Greece. This runner reached Sparta on the second day, but the Spartans said it would be against their religious custom to march before the moon was full. The Athenians saw that they must meet the enemy alone--one small city against a mighty empire. They called their ten thousand men together and set out. On the way they were joined by a thousand more, the whole army of the brave little town of Plataea.
How the Athenians were Armed. Although the Persians had six times as many soldiers as the Athenians, they were not so well armed for hand to hand fighting. Their principal weapon was the bow and arrow, while the Greeks used the lance and a short sword. The Greek soldier was protected by his bronze helmet, solid across the forehead and over the nose; by his breastplate, a leathern or linen tunic covered with small metal scales, with flaps hanging below his hips; and by greaves or pieces of metal in front of his knees and shins. He was also protected by a shield, often long enough to reach from his face to his knees. According to a strange custom the Athenians were led by ten generals, each commanding one day in turn. The Battle-ground. Marathon was a plain about two miles wide, lying between the mountains and the sea. From it two roads ran toward Athens, one along the shore where the hills almost reached the sea, the other up a narrow valley and over the mountains. The Athenians were encamped in this valley, where they could attack the Persians if they tried to follow the shore road. The Persians landed from their ships and filled the plain near the shore. They wanted to fight in the open plain because they had so many more soldiers than the Athenians and because they meant to use their horsemen. For some time the Athenians watched the Persians, not knowing what it was best to do. Half the generals did not wish to risk a battle, but Miltiades was eager to fight, for he feared that delay would lead timid citizens or traitors to yield to the Persians. He finally gained his wish, and on his day of command the battle was ordered. The Battle. The Persians by this time had decided to sail around to the harbor of Athens and had taken their horsemen on board their ships. When they saw the Greeks coming they drew up their foot-soldiers in deep masses. The Athenians and their comrades--the Plataeans--soon began to move forward on the run. The Persians thought this madness, because the Greeks had no archers or horsemen. But the Greeks saw that if they moved forward slowly the Persians would have time to shoot arrows at them again and again. When the Greeks rushed upon the Persians the soldiers at the two ends of the Persian line gave way and fled towards the shore. In the center, where the best Persian soldiers stood, the Greeks were not at first successful, and were forced to retreat. But those who had been victorious came to their rescue, attacked the Persians in the rear, and finally drove them off. The Persians ran into the sea to reach the ships, and the Athenians followed them. Some of the Greeks were so eager in the fight that they seized the sides of the ships and tried to keep them from being rowed away, but the Persians cut at their hands and made them let go.
The News of the Victory. The Athenians had won a victory of which they were so proud that they meant it never should be forgotten. Their city had suddenly become great through the courage and self-sacrifice of her citizens. One hundred and ninety-two Greeks had fallen, and on the battle-field their comrades raised over their bodies a mound of earth which still marks their tomb. The victors sent the runner Pheidippides to bear the news to Athens. Over the hills he ran until he reached the market place, and there, with the message of triumph on his lips, he fell dead. Other Victories of the Greeks. Marathon was only the beginning of Greek victories over the Persians, only the first struggle in the long wars between Europe and Asia. Ten years after Marathon the Spartans won everlasting glory by their heroic stand at the Pass of Thermopylae --three hundred Greeks against the mighty army of the Persian king Xerxes. The barbarian hordes passed over their bodies, took the road to Athens, burned the city, but were soon beaten in the sea-fight which took place on the waters lying between the mainland of Athenian territory and the island of Salamis. This victory was also due to Athenian courage and leadership, for the Athenians and their leader, Themistocles, were resolved to stay and fight, although the other Greeks wanted to sail away. Why Marathon is remembered. The victories of Marathon and Salamis were great not only because small armies of Greeks put to flight the hosts of Persia, they were great because they saved the independence of Greece. If the Greeks had become the subjects and slaves of Persia, they would not have built the wonderful buildings, or carved the beautiful statues, or written the books which we study and admire. When we think of the Greeks as our first teachers we feel as proud of their victories as if they were our own victories. The Wars of the Greek Cities. The Athenians had done the most in winning the victory over the Persians, and therefore Athens was for many years the most powerful city in Greece. The Spartans were always jealous of the Athenians, and in less than a century after the victory of Marathon they conquered and humbled Athens. The worst faults of the Greeks were such jealousies and the desire to lord it over one another. Greek history is full of wars of city against city, Sparta against Athens, Corinth against Athens, and Thebes against Sparta. In these wars many heroic deeds were done, of which we like to read, but it is more important for us to understand how the Greeks lived.
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