ALTERATION OF THE HELLENIC WORLD. 263 cian history and proceedings. First, it necessitated a degree of central action against the Persians which was foreign to Greek political instinct ; next it opened to the noblest and most enter- prising section of the Hellenic name, the Athenians, an opportunity of placing themselves at the head of this centraliz- ing tendency: while a concurrence of circumstances, foreign and domestic, imparted to them at the same time that extraordinary and many-sided impulse, combining action with organization, which gave such brilliancy to the period of Herodotus and Thu- cydides. It is thus that most of the splendid phenomena of Grecian history grew, directly or indirectly, out of the reluctant dependence in which the Asiatic Greeks were held by the inland barbaric powers, beginning with Croesus. These few observations will suffice to intimate that a new phase of Grecian history is now on the point of opening. Down to the time of Croesus, almost everything which is done or suffered by the Grecian cities bears only upon one or other of them separately : the instinct of the Greeks repudiates even the mod- ified forms of political centralization, and there are no circum- stances in operation to force it upon them. Relation of power and subjection exist, between a strong and a weak state, but no tendency to standing political coordination. From this time forward, we shall see partial causes at work, tending in this di- rection, and not without considerable influence ; though always; at war with the indestructible instinct of the nation, and fre- quently counteracted by selfishness ani misconduct on the pj? of the leading cities.
