Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

Plutarch and the Greece of His Age
towns were in the same sad plight. Cities without
inhabitants, or only a few; cattle grazing in the de
serted streets, and even in the market-place, seem to
have been a common sight. What had become of
the inhabitants? We only know that they were gone,
most of them, doubtless, to their graves.
In Greece, Sparta excepted, slavery was of a rather
mild type, and it was unusual for a Greek to sell a
slave to a foreigner. Neither did gladiatorial com
bats flourish among the Greeks. Even Corinth, that
in later times contained a large admixture of Romans,
could not acclimate them. While it is true that the
Greeks made light of human life and took it
upon
the slightest pretext, it was rarely done by the cruel
methods of the Romans. With all their faults and
frailties they belonged to a distinctly higher type
men, and their civilization at a very early period
began to move along lines afterward followed by the
progressive nations of the world. How infinitely
better were their peaceful contests than the bloody
spectacles that were the delight of Rome!
Just as the Greeks were reluctant to admit foreign
ers to citizenship, they were also reluctant to admit
exotic gods into their pantheon. In both, their policy
was diametrically opposed to that of "Rome. Their
exclusiveness in the former regard was due to their
belief in their own superiority: in the latter, to the
conviction that their national gods were sufficient for
all human needs. Friedlaender is probably right in
his contention that the period here
148
of
under considera-