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GEORGE GROTE

Selected Works (Paperback - 24 Aug 2010)

 

Robert D. Morritt

 

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          These pages contain a sample of the works of George Grote born November 17, 1794.  Educated at first by his mother, then sent to Seven Oaks Grammar School (1800-1804).  His father refused to send him to University and instead sent him to work in a bank.

 

          He wrote articles on Parliamentary Reform (1831) and in 1846, the first two volumes of the History appeared. In 1856 George Grote began to prepare his works on Plato and Aristotle. “Plato and the other companions of Socrates (sic)” appeared in three volumes in 1865, for that work he was recognized as “the greatest nineteenth-century Plato scholar.” His work on Aristotle lay incomplete due to his death June 1887.

 

          His analysis of the first democratic laws to be established in early Greece. Grote describes the earlier life of despotism and members of families being used as chattels to secure credit advances.

 

          The “Life of Solon” shows the influence of Solon in creating laws that ensured fair government together with controls he created to ensure that the democratic process would be protective to the public.

 

          Grote allows us to view the Greek conquests, which include a rare description of the Pontus and of {Kolchia) Colchia (now in the modern Republic of Georgia) as outlined in his “History of Greece” “The retreat of the ten thousand Greeks”. His portrayal of Troy gives another opinion of the events that are hypothesized to have occurred there.)

 

          The most learned Classical scholar of his age, and how out of chaos were created the first democratic laws of Greece. From the construction of the first Greek Commonwealth. There were no written laws in Athens until the time of Draco 621 BPE.  Draco as archon was entrusted to frame a legal code. The main features of his legislation referred to the punishment of crime, the penalties he devised were so extreme that in later times it was declared to have been written in blood. The Draconian laws remained in force until superceded by the great system of Solon enjoyed a universal reputation for wisdom and uprightness, was called upon by the oligarchy, which again held rule, to assume what was in fact, almost absolute power.

 

          Chapters include the following items of interest: Early Greek Legislation (Solon), Transition from Oligarchy to Democracy, Pythian games at Delphi, The Life of Solon, Fall of Troy, Retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks, and Athenian Constitutional History