Chapter XXIX: Section 4: ILLUSTRATED FROM GREEK HISTORY Reference: Dangers

The appositeness of this illustration arises from the fact that ancient Greece reached a very high level of material and intellectual civilisation, yet perished owing to moral and physical disasters.

(a) _Moral Catastrophe in Ancient Greece_

The evidence of the moral catastrophe is to be found in the change that occurred in the Greek character most definitely after the fourth century before Christ. Of this Mr. W.H.S. Jones has given the following account:

"Gradually the Greeks lost their brilliance, which had been as the
bright freshness of early youth. This is painfully obvious in their
literature, if not in other forms of art. Their initiative vanished;
they ceased to create and began to comment. Patriotism, with rare
exceptions, became an empty name, for few had the high spirit and
energy to translate into action man's duty to the State. Vacillation,
indecision, fitful outbursts of unhealthy activity followed by cowardly
depression, selfish cruelty, and criminal weakness are characteristic
of the public life of Greece from the struggle with Macedonia to the
final conquest by the arms of Rome. No one can fail to be struck by the
marked difference between the period from Marathon to the Peloponnesian
War and the period from Alexander to Mummius. Philosophy also suffered,
and became deeply pessimistic even in the hands of its best and noblest
exponents. 'Absence of feeling,' 'absence of care'--such were the
highest goals of human endeavour.

"How far this change was due to other causes is a complicated question.
The population may have suffered from foreign admixture during the
troubled times that followed the death of Alexander. There were,
however, many reasons against the view that these disturbances produced
any appreciable difference of race. The presence of vast numbers of
slaves, not members of households, but the gangs of toilers whom the
increase of commerce brought into the country, pandered to a foolish
pride that looked upon many kinds of honourable labour as being
shameful and unbecoming to a free man. The very institution that made
Greek civilisation possible encouraged idleness, luxury, and still
worse vices. Unnatural vice, which in some States seems to have been
positively encouraged, was prevalent among the Greeks to an almost
incredible extent. It is hard not to believe that much physical harm
was caused thereby; of the loss to moral strength and vigour there is
no need to speak. The city-state, again, however favourable to the
development of public spirit and a sense of responsibility, was doomed
to fail in a struggle against the stronger Powers of Macedon and Rome.
The growth of the scientific spirit destroyed the old religion. The
more intellectual tried to find principles of conduct in philosophy;
the ignorant or half-educated, deprived of the strong moral support
that always comes from sharing the convictions of those abler and wiser
than oneself, fell back upon degrading superstitions. In either case
there was a serious loss of that spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion
which a vigorous religious faith alone can bestow. Without such a
spirit, as history proves conclusively, no nation or people can
survive." [57]

(b) _The Physical Catastrophe induced by Selfishness_

One of the physical catastrophes that probably most accelerated the fall of Greek civilisation was malarial fever. The parasite of this disease is carried from man to man by Anopheline mosquitoes. These insects, during the stage of egg, larva, and nympha, live in water, and afterwards, as developed insects, in the air. The breeding-grounds, where the eggs are laid, are shallow pools of stagnant water. For that reason the disease is most common in marshy country, and tends to disappear when the land is properly drained. Of this we have an example in England, whence malaria disappeared as the marshes were drained.

In Homer there is a disputed reference to malaria, but it is not possible to ascertain whether the disease was present during the rise of Greek civilisation, and there are no references to this disease in the literature from 700 B.C. to 550 B.C. [58] From this date references to malaria gradually become more frequent, and Hippocrates stated that "those who live in low, moist, hot districts, and drink the stagnant water, of necessity suffer from enlarged spleen. They are stunted and ill-shaped, fleshy and dark, bilious rather than phlegmatic. Their nature is to be cowardly and adverse from hardship; but good discipline can improve their character in this respect." [59] After an exhaustive study of the literature, Mr. Jones concludes "that malaria was endemic throughout the greater part of the Greek world by 400 B.C."

Concerning the causes of a malarial epidemic, Sir Ronald Ross writes: [60] "Suppose that the Anophelines have been present from the first, but that the number of infected immigrants has been few. Then, possibly, some of these people have happened to take up their abode in places where the mosquitoes are rare; others may have recovered quickly; others may not have chanced to possess parasites in suitable stages when they have been bitten. Thus, the probability of their spreading infection would be very small. Or, supposing even that some few new infections have been caused, yet, by our rough calculations in section 12, _unless the mosquitoes are sufficiently numerous_ in the locality, the little epidemic may die out after a while--for instance, during the cool season." The italics are mine, because some writers have suggested that the decline of Greece was _due_ to malaria, whereas I submit, as the more logical interpretation of the facts, that a moral catastrophe led to the neglect of agriculture, whereby the area of marshy land became more extensive, mosquitoes more numerous, and the fever more prevalent.

In view of the foregoing facts, the following Malthusian statement, although groundless, is nevertheless an amusing example of the errors that arise from lack of a little knowledge:

"The difficulty of providing for a high birth-rate in a settled
community was appreciated by the ancient Greeks, notably by Plato and
Aristotle; but their conclusions were swept aside by the warlike spirit
of Rome, and the sentimentality of Christianity, so that only a few
isolated thinkers showed any appreciation of them." [61]

[Footnote 51: Quoted in _The Law of Births and Deaths_, by Charles Edward Pell, 1921, chap. xii.]

[Footnote 52: _The Law of Births and Deaths_, 1921.]

[Footnote 53: Ibid., p. 40.]

[Footnote 54: _The Law of Births and Deaths_, 1921, p. 41.]

[Footnote 55: Ibid., p. 40.]

[Footnote 56: Dr. John Brownlee, _The Declining Birth-rate_, p. 156.]

[Footnote 57: _Malaria and Greek History_, 1909, pp. 102 et seq.]

[Footnote 58: Ibid., p. 26.]

[Footnote 59: Ibid., p. 85.]

[Footnote 60: _Report on the Prevention of Malaria in Mauritius_, p. 51.]

[Footnote 61: C.V. Drysdale, O.B.E., D. Sc., _The Malthusian Doctrine and its Modern Aspects_, p. 3.]