(7) Sculpture and Painting. In the imitative arts of sculpture and painting, as well as in archi tecture, it need hardly be said that Athens car ried off the palm in Greece ; yet, in all these, the Asiatic colonies vied with her. Miletus took the start of her in literary composition, and, under slight conceivable changes, might have become the Athens of the world. But all details on these subjects would be here out of place.
refuge in the few fortresses they possessed, or in Athens itself, the simple countrymen became transformed into a hungry and profligate town rabble.
(6) Intellectual Culture. From the earliest times the Ionians loved the lyre and the song, and the hymns of poets formed the staple of Athenian education. The constitution of Solon admitted and demanded in the people a great knowledge of law, with a large share in its daily adminis tration. Thus the acuteness of the lawyer was grafted on the imagination of the poet. These are the two intellectual elements out of which Athenian wisdom was developed, but it was stimulated and enriched by extended political ac tion and political experience. History and phil osophy, as the words are understood in modern Europe. had their birth in Athens about the time of the Peloponnesian war. Then first, also, the oratory of the bar and of the popular assem bly was systematically cultivated, and the ele ments of mathematical science were admitted into the education of an accomplished man.
This was the period of the youth of Plato, whose philosophy was destined to leave so deep an impress on the Jewish and Christian schools (3) Loss of Civil Liberty. That Athens, after
the Peloponnesian war, never recovered the polit ical place which she previously held, can excite no surprise—that she rose so high towards it was truly wonderful. Sparta and Thebes, which suc cessively aspired to the 'leadership' of Greece, abused their power as flagrantly as Athens had done, and, at the same time, more coarsely. The never-ending cabals, the treaties made and vio lated, the coalitions and breaches, the alliances and wars, recurring every few years, destroyed all mutual confidence and all possibility of again uniting Greece in any permanent form of inde pendence, and, in consequence, the whole coon try was soon swallowed up in the kingdom of Macedonia. With the loss of civil liberty, Athens lost her genius, her manly mind, and whatever remained of her virtue ; she long continued to produce talents, which were too often made tools of iniquity, panders to power, and petty artificers of false philosophy.
(9) Christianity. A Christian church existed in Athens soon after the apostolic times, but as the city had no political importance the church never assumed any eminent position.
St. Paul visited the city on his journey from Macedonia, and remained there for some time (Acts xvii :14-34; t 'Chess. iii a ). During his stay he delivered his great address before the Areo pagus (Acts xvii :22-31). (See AtaxwAcus.)