The interest of the great story of ancient Greece is inexhaustible.
Of all histories of which we know so much, this is the most
abounding in consequences to us who now live. The Greeks are the
most remarkable people who have yet existed. This high claim is
justly made on the grounds of the power and efforts that were
required for them to achieve what they did for themselves and for
mankind. With the exception of Christianity, they were the
originators of most of the great things of which the modern world
can boast. The period from the permanent settlements in Greece until
its final reduction to a Roman province covers about two thousand
years.
The name Greece was almost unknown by the people whom we call Greeks,
and was never used by them for their own country. It has come to us from
the Romans, being really the name of a tribe in Epirus, northwest of
Greece, the part of the country first known to them.