Introductory American History | Page 9

so that they could generally know what to think, having with them so many good and wise thoughts put in such excellent words.
GAMES AND EXERCISES FOR BOYS. It is not surprising that Greek boys knew how to play, but it is surprising that they played many of the games which boys play now, such as hide-and-seek, tug of war, ducks and drakes, and blind man's buff. They even "pitched pennies." In school the boys were taught not only to read and write, but to be skilful athletes, and to play on the lyre, accompanying this with singing. The gymnasium was often an open space near a stream into which they could plunge after their exercises were over. They were taught to box, to wrestle, to throw the discus, and to hurl the spear. Military training was important for them, since all might be called to fight for the safety of their city.
THE OLYMPIC GAMES. Boys and young men were trained as runners, wrestlers, boxers, and discus throwers, not only because they enjoyed these exercises and the Greeks thought them an important part of education, but also that they might bring back honors and prizes to their city from the great games which all the Greeks held every few years. The most famous of these games were held at Olympia. There the Greeks went from all parts of the country, carrying their tents and cooking utensils with them, because there were not enough houses in Olympia to hold so many people. Wars even were stopped for a time in order that the games might not be postponed.
THE REWARDS OF THE VICTORS. The principal contest was a dash for two hundred yards, although there were longer races and many other kinds of contests. Unfortunately the Greeks liked to see the most brutal sort of boxing, in which the boxer's hands and arms were covered with heavy strips of leather stiffened with pieces of iron or lead. For the games men trained ten months, part of the time at Olympia. The prize was a crown of wild olive, and the winner returned in triumph to his city, where poets sang his praises, a special seat at public games was reserved for him, and often artists were employed to make a bronze statue of him to be set up in Olympia or in his own city.
[Illustration: GREEK GAMES--RUNNING From an antique vase]
THE GOVERNMENT OF ATHENS. The citizen of Athens, and of other Greek cities, had more to do with his government than do most Americans with theirs. As nearly all work was done by slaves, he had plenty of time to attend meetings. All the citizens could attend the great assembly, or ecclesia, where six thousand at least must be present before anything could be decided. By this assembly foreigners might be admitted to citizenship or citizens might be expelled, or ostracized, from Athens as hurtful to its welfare.
There was a smaller council of five hundred which decided less important questions without laying them before the general assembly. This body was chosen by lot just as our juries are, but members of the council whose term had ended had a right to object to any new member as an unworthy citizen A tenth of the council ruled for a tenth of the year, and they chose their president by lot every day, so that any worthy man at Athens had a chance to be president for a day and a night.
[Illustration: A DECREE OF THE COUNCIL--ABOUT 450 B.C.]
Many citizens also served in the courts, for there were six thousand judges, and in deciding important cases as many as a thousand and one, or even fifteen hundred and one, took part. Before such large courts and assemblies it was necessary to be a good speaker to be able to win a case or persuade the citizens. Some of the greatest orators of the world were Athenians, the best known being Demosthenes.
SOCRATES. The Athenians were not always just, although so many of them acted as judges. One court, composed of five hundred and one judges, condemned to death Socrates, the wisest man of the Greeks and one of the wisest in the world. He did not make speeches, or write books, or teach in school. He went about, in the market place, at the gymnasium, and on the streets, asking men, young and old, questions about what interested him most, that is, What is the true way to live? If people did not give him an answer which seemed good, he asked more questions, until sometimes they went away angry. Many of them thought because he asked questions about everything that he did not believe in anything, not even in the religion of his city.
[Illustration: SOCRATES After the marble bust in the Vatican]
THE DEATH OF SOCRATES,