PHILOPG@MEN AND THE FALL OF SPARTA. 8335

This state of affairs was not confined to Greece.
It existed in Italy until Rome conquered all its small
neighbor states. It existed in Asia until the great
Babylonian and Persian empires conquered all the
smaller communities. It was the first form of a
civilized nation, that of a city surrounded by enough
farming territory to supply its citizens with food,
each city ready to break into war with any other,
and each race of people viewing all beyond its bor-
ders as strangers and barbarians, to be dealt with
almost as if they were beasts of prey instead of men
and brothers,

The cities of Greece were not only thus isolated,
but each had its separate manners, customs, govern-
ment, and grade of civilization. Athens was famous
for its intellectual cultivation; Thebes had a repu-
tation for the heavy-headed dulness of its people;
Sparta was a rigid war school, and so on with others.
In short, the world has gone so far beyond the politi-
cal and social conditions of that period that it is by
no means easy for us to comprehend the Grecian
state.

Among those cities Sparta stood in one sense
alone. While the others were enclosed in strong
walls, Sparta remained open and free,—its only wall
being the valorous hearts and strong arms of its in-
habitants. While other cities were from time to
time captured and occasionally destroyed, no foeman
had set foot within Sparta’s streets. Not until the
days of Epaminondas was Laconia invaded by a
powerful foe; and even then Sparta remained free
from the foeman’s tread. Neither Philip of Macedon,

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