Of
these cities many became richer and more powerful than their mother
towns; they had a territory which was larger and more fertile, and in
consequence a greater population. Sybaris, it was said, had 300,000
men who were capable of bearing arms. Croton could place in the field
an infantry force of 120,000 men. Syracuse in Sicily, Miletus in Asia
had greater armies than even Sparta and Athens. South Italy was termed
Great Greece. In comparison with this great country fully peopled with
Greek colonies the home country was, in fact, only a little Greece.
And so it happened that the Greeks were much more numerous in the
neighboring countries than in Greece proper; and among these people of
the colonies figure a good share of the most celebrated names: Homer,
Alcaeus, Sappho, Thales, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Democritus,
Empedocles, Aristotle, Archimedes, Theocritus, and many others.
FOOTNOTES:
[46] "Balmy and clement," says Euripides, "is our atmosphere. The cold
of winter has no extremes for us, and the shafts of the sun do not
wound."
[47] Autochthones.
[48] The story of the collection of the Homeric poems by Pisistratus is
without foundation--"eine blosse Fabel.
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