On the other hand, there were some with a breadth of vision that was wasted in their time. For example, Herodotus (485?-425) wrote a history of the Persian invasion and called for a united Greek effort for revenge, but it would be over one hundred years before his idea bore fruit in theexploits of Alexander. Until that time, there was no concept of a Greek policy or future because there really was no Greece. There were numerous city-states, like Athens and Sparta, etc., whose residents proudly emphasized their differences while vainly distinguishing themselves collectively as "Hellene" from all other peoples according to Herodotus's criteria of shared blood, language, religion and customs. In response to the external threat of invasion by Persia in 490 they attempted to convert this sense of "Greekness" into something like a functional, unified entity, but that attempt failed politically even if it eventually succeeded militarily.

Thus, what we today call Greek Civilization was really a collection of rather independent political states. Each was characterized by its own particular brand of religious and patriotic devotion with the intensity of this identity complex varying considerably among them. At one extreme, loyalty ran counter to the ideal of individual liberty to the point of repressing anything but pure equality. In Ephesia, for example, anyone who raised himself above the mean was treated according to the democratic philosophy: "We will have none who is best among us; if there be any such, let him be so elsewhere and among others". In an equally oppressive manner, personal liberty in Sparta was restricted to a degree found in our own century in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia. At the other extreme, freedom flourished in Athens to the point that strident aristocratic individualism and enterprise eventually destroyed liberty.

The great leader of Athens in this era was Pericles (495?-429), who was simply too good for the common man. Like an earlier-day Lincoln, he combined a canny political ability with a deep passion for lofty ideals (and an un-Lincolnesque love for beautiful things). A true leader rather than a dominator, he set loose the genius of those around him, but like many other great men, he was discordant with his times and was finally turned loose by the boorish citizens who were resentful of his righteous purity, unappreciative of the beauty he created and uncomfortable in the presence of such excellence.

Really, this battle between democracy and virtue was hardly necessary since the Golden Age of Athens was base enough to make even the most inveterate Yahoo feel at ease. Libel, slander and scandalous greed masked as patriotism were all as common then as now.

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