Life in ancient Athens Author:Thomas George Tucker Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Our period is thus the epoch of its greatest and freest literature, of its purest art, of its most original thinking, of its loftiest eloquence, and of its most ... more »energetic ambition. We shall therefore try to keep its consideration clear of all later elements, and to remain, as far as possible, true to our chosen date. X Sheffield ..:' Scale, 1:2,150.000 34 miles = linch 1 l.ltry Wilkcr sc. Fig. 1. — Comparative map. Attica and Yorkshire. The sources of our knowledge are numerous, and are constantly increasing. We are by no means compelled to gather mere hints, fragmentary views and aperqus of Athenian life and the Athenian mind. Written by Athenians themselves we possess histories, -moirs, dramas tragic and comic, character-sketches, dialogues, ohes in the assembly, speeches in the law-courts, books onethics and politics. We have countless notes on public and private life written by ancients — antiquarians, commentators, and the like — who had access to a copious literature now lost to us. We have the actual witness of material remains, the number of which is being constantly increased by excavation. We have large numbers of inscriptions. In the tombs are multitudes of vases, decorated with scenes of actual life, a pictorial comment on contemporary existence. We need not pretend that all these things, even in the completest aggregate, can make us absolutely see the people precisely as they lived and moved and had their being. There is sure to be some degree of refraction and defect of perspective in our mental picture. Nevertheless there is very much concerning which we can be fairly certain and definite, and, if we confine ourselves thereto, we shall be using our time to the best advantage. Knowledge of actual events and of actual buildings; knowledge of mann...« less