The Historians' History of the World 04

Johann Gustav Droysen was born at Treptow, Pomerania, Prussia, July 6, 1808; died at Berlin, June 19, 1884. His history of Alexander was written before any of the really great modern histories of Greece were undertaken, and it far surpassed any preceding effort in the fullness with which it drew upon all sources of antiquity and in the critical acumen with which it analysed the material thus gathered. It had, moreover, the merit of a style of more than average lucidity, and this, added to its other qualities, gave it at once a wide popularity and an authoritative position which it has continued to hold to this day. Indeed, it is only very recently that anyone has attempted to write a history of Alexander which could be regarded as competing in the same field with that of Droysen, except such extended sketches as form part of such comprehensive Grecian histories as those of Grote, Thirlwall, and Curtius.

Droysen treats his subject from a truly sympathetic point of view. For him Alexander is a very great hero; he is thoroughly in sympathy with the monarchical idea, and he regards Alexander as a great benefactor of his kind, who, had he lived, would have put the stamp of his genius still more firmly upon the most important epoch in the history of human evolution. Even such debatable points as Alexander’s demand that divine honours should be paid him by the Greeks, after the oriental manner, are made by Droysen, as we have seen, to appear altogether favourable to his hero. It must not be supposed from this, however, that the history of Droysen is a fulsome eulogy. It is, on the other hand, the work of a candid critic of broad views and clear insight, who is by no means blind to the defects of his hero, but who believes that, in spite of these defects, the hero was not merely one of the greatest military geniuses, but one of the greatest men of any age.

Having treated the age of Alexander, it was not unnatural that Droysen should go on to the study of later Greek life. His treatment of the Hellenic age remains perhaps the most comprehensive and scholarly contribution to this difficult subject.

Droysen, H.,(in Hermann’s Lehrbuch d. griechischen Antiquitäten) Freiburg, 1889; Untersuchungen über Alexanders des Grossen Heerwesen und Kriegführung, Freiburg, 1885; Athen und der Westen vor der Sicilischen Expedition, Berlin, 1882.—Drumann, W., Verfall der Griechischen Staaten, Berlin, 1815.—Dujon

, E., Problèmes de Mythologie, Auxerre, 1887.—Du Mesnil, A., Politik des Epaminondas, Munich, 1863—Dunbar, G., in Potter’s Antiquities of Greece, Edinburgh, 1820.—Duncker

, M., Abhandlungen aus der griech. Geschichte, Leipsic, 1887; History of Greece to the End of the Persian War (trans.), London and Edinburgh, 1883.—Duruy, V., Histoire des Grecs, Paris, 1887-1889.—Dyer, L., Studies of the Gods in Greece at Certain Sanctuaries, London, 1891.

Elser, C., Die Lehre des Aristoteles über das Wirken Gottes, Münster, 1893.—Ely, T., Olympos, Tales of the Gods of Greece, London, 1891.—Eugamon, Τηλεγονία, (Telegonia).