Political Ideas of the Greeks

by John Linton Myres

Excerpt from Political Ideas, of the With Special Reference to Early, Notions About Law, Authority, and Natural Order in Relation to Human OrdinanceThe request of the publisher that I write a foreword to this book is a compliment which I little deserve. Doctor Myres requires no introduction to any public familiar with current studies in history and archæology. Though not a prolific author, when he writes he has much to say that deserves the attention of scholars.These lectures deal with the political ideas of the Greeks. The reader will not find in them a description of their political institutions, which have for us a deep interest as the first to embody the ideals of liberty under law that dominate our modern world. Books of that character exist and exercise a legitimate appeal; but they are at best unsatisfactory and may prove misleading, because they present of necessity a picture far from complete. Ancient Greece has been well called a laboratory for the creation and testing of political institutions; but of the many constitutions devised and tried those of Athens alone are sufficiently known in detail to permit one to assess their worth.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

436 pages, Hardcover

First published September 27, 2015

About the author

Sir John Linton Myres (1869–1954) was a British archaeologist who conducted excavations in Cyprus in 1904. He became the first Wykeham Professor of Ancient History, at the University of Oxford, in 1910, having been Gladstone Professor of Greek and Lecturer in Ancient Geography, University of Liverpool from 1907. He contributed to the British Naval Intelligence Division Geographical Handbook Series that was published during the Second World War, and to the noted 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1910–1911). He highly influenced the British-Australian archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe.