"History of the Greek Nation" by Constantinos Paparrigopoulos

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The task of reconciling Greece to Byzantium was undertaken by Constantinos Paparrigopoulos, the father of modern Greek historiography. His monumental "History of the Greek Nation" had the avowed purpose of re-establishing the unity of Greek civilization which, so he believed, formed an unbroken continuum from Homer to 19th century.

In the Middle Ages, he admitted, this Hellenism underwent a certain adulteration owing to Oriental influence and the influx of barbarians which resulted in the introduction of various regrettable institutions. Yet Hellenism never lost its primitive character and gave birth, in the eighth century, to a most remarkable reform. This reform, oddly enough, was Iconoclasm. The modern historian who has been taught to regard Iconoclasm as an Oriental movement, rather akin to Islam and championed by Syrians, Anatolians and Armenians, feels rather puzzled at this point.

Paparrigopoulos, too was aware that the Iconoclast leaders were orientals, but this only confirmed his theory, since obviously hellenism must have retained more of its original purity in the oriental Greek centres whereas it had become sadly altered at Constantinople. As seen by Paparrigopoulos, the Iconoclasts were liberal and humane; they suppressed slavery and monkishness while championing secular education and rational economic reform. In other words, they sought to establish the kind of sensible society that prevailed only in the nineteenth century. True, the Iconoclasts were in the end defeated, but the effects of their movement lived on.

By repulsing the Arabs and Hellenizing the Slavs the Empire showed all too clearly what could be accomplished by Hellenism united in a single state. There is no need to pursue any further this emended outline of medieval history, for its principles are sufficiently obvious : everything that was good in Byzantium, that is good by the standards of enlightened Victorian Europe, was Greek, everything that was bad was due to the dilution or adulteration of Hellenism.

The Histoy of Paparrigopoulos became one of the sacred texts of modern Greece and generations of Greeks have grown up on it. Whatever minor corrections subsequent scholarship might bring, this History was to remain 'apossession for ever' so wrote Pavlos Karolidis, the leading Greek historian in succession to Paparrigopoulos. Indeed it would be fair to say that the overall picture of hellenism through the ages, as drawn by Paparrigopoulos, has prevailed in Greece until now, and that most subsequent investigations, whether in pure history, folklore, literature or language, have taken it for granted.


source:[Cyril Mango, Byzantinism and Romantic Hellenism,Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 28,1965 , page 41]

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History of the Hellenic nation

Nowadays, we make almost indiscriminate use of these names which in the past were not often synonymous, nor did they always coexist, nor did they always exist. When the nation was first formed, it bore the names Argives, Danaans, Achaians. The name Hellenes first became prevalent after the great change in things brought about by the Dorians. With the passage of time, the sum of the Hellenes was named the Hellenic nation, or simply the Hellenic, according to Herodotus and Thucydides, or the race of the Hellenes according to Aristotle. As for the word 'Hellenism,' it did not come into exis*tence until Macedonian times, in order to denote the features by which the Hellenic nation as a whole was distinguished from other nations, that is to say, the one speaking the Hellenic language and living in a Hellenic way. Un*til recently, there was no word in any other language which was thus inter*preted. It was only a few years ago that the words Germanism and Slavism, having some such meaning, were heard in Eastern Europe, while words of similar form have hitherto signified only idioms in the languages of the Western nations.

Beginning in the fourth century AD., a different use was made of the words 'Hellenes' and 'Hellenism.' Hellenes referred to the pagans, and Hel*lenism to paganism. The inhabitants of the Hellenic lands were generally re*named Romans, or sometimes Greeks and Helladics," while the ancient meaning of Hellenism remained unknown. This distortion of the former meaning continued until the tenth century, when the name 'Hellenes' began to regain its traditional meaning, while that of Hellenism was totally absent. But, instead of taking root, the name 'Hellenes' was also then forgotten. Dur*ing the fifteenth century it disappeared again, being supplanted for a second lime by the name Romans. The two names did not reappear again until the present century: Hellenes very early on, and Hellenism considerably later. This intermittent phase of our national names, while the nation never ceased to exist, is not found in any other people. For this reason, I thought it useful to assist many people to understand this centuries-old history, by summariz*ing and explaining in advance its unique features.

[...] If the kingdom of Greece, from the moment it was first founded, had behaved with due foresight and dexterity towards the races which it is cur*rently opposing, things would have been much less difficult than they are today. At that time, the Bulgarians and Albanians were not yet dreaming of autonomy, and felt an affinity towards the Hellenic nation, which, having benefited from this, could have easily appropriated those living in Epirus, Macedonia and Thrace. Besides this, Europe's main concern at the time was either to salvage the Ottoman state or to render autonomous the countries which comprised it, while now different plans are being plotted. Unfortu*nately, the kingdom, for fifty whole years, forgot the traditional command to use time well; and, what was worse, the first national assembly in Athens withheld any affection towards its fellow nationals and speakers of the Hel*lenic language, perceiving them as foreigners, and not as brothers who had suffered all manner of ills in the common struggles. Amidst this inertia and lack of will, there appeared the 'Great Idea' of Ioannis Kolettis,' instead of which 'Hellenism' was soon to prevail. The word 'Hellenism' had regained its earlier status within the scholarly world, between 1833 and 1843, by vir*tue of Droysen's famous works, Geschichte Alexanders des Grossen and Geschichte des Hellenismus. But in the language of the many it did not enter until later, when, after the political crisis of 1853 onwards, it spread through*out the East, as if to protest that the Hellenic nation is not limited to the nar*row boundaries of free Greece.

Modern Hellenism is very different from ancient Hellenism. In the first place, its distinguishing features are not identical to those of its past form. The Hellenic nation today is separated from the other countries neither by its religion, nor by its institutions, nor by its way of life. Its religion is common to that of most of the Eastern peoples, while its institutions are common to most of those of the West. And such a way of life is more fitting today to the most civilized part of the human race. Of its old endowments, the nation has only preserved its language and its consciousness of national unity; but it has acquired something it did not possess in ancient times, and that is the desire for political unity. It is understood that modern Hellenism does not demand to appropriate other races and other countries. It restricts itself to saving its fellow nationals from the threat of incursions by those of other races in countries which have belonged to Hellenism for a century. But if it is stated thus, that the Hellenic state does not covet the lands of other races, why use the term Hellenism, since, as we have often said, it is not necessary except as regards its propagation to those of other races? Be*cause the Greeks are still divided into those who are free and those who are not free. Hence, in its political sense, the term Hellenic nation could be lim*ited only to the inhabitants of the free state. Because of this it was deemed necessary to express by the same term, unambiguously, the moral and spiri*tual unity of a politically split nation.

Whatever may be the trials which the Hellenic nation is destined to suf*fer, its duty is to stand ready to wage war at the necessary time; and, meanwhile, it must save the Hellenes of the enslaved countries from the machinations continually taking place against them, because experience has shown that, if they are left to their own devices, they will be in the worst danger, while, if Hellenism suffers this new mutilation, it will lose any right it has over those countries. The material prosperity towards which the na*tion is working with especial zeal is, of course, a necessary factor for po*litical greatness. But do not forget that, by virtue of the gigantic struggle which was carried out ten years ago between two of the most powerful and most civilized states on earth, the world has been given new proof that now, as in the past, the treasures of Croesus do not suffice for the salvation of nations The historian does not draft political programs, but he does use the past to infer lessons which may prove useful to the politician. And even though these findings are distressing, it is necessary for us to summarize them, because the first condition for the salvation of nations is an exact knowledge of their true state. Hellenism only stayed afloat for close to four thousand years by dis*carding at intervals part of this load in the stormy seas which threatened to sink it. It was thus reduced not only in its numbers, but also in its internal strength. Besides this, although Roman rule did not try to latinize it, and Ot*toman rule did not try to islamicize it, Hellenism today is being fought against in the enslaved Hellenic countries as never before, by numerous races and empires which may disagree among themselves, because each has its own political goal, but they are linked by one common interest to render dis*tant the ancient occupant And if that is what they are doing now, then it is obvious that in the event that they come to power, our fellow nationals will suffer the fate suffered a few decades ago by the flourishing Hellenic com*munities of Hungary, Wallachia and Moldavia. The names Hellenes, Hellenic nation and Hellenism will become limited to the southernmost end of the great peninsula. But even this tiny comer will not escape various machina*tions, because, as small as it may be, it occupies certain vital locations in the eastern Mediterranean.

The above are excerpts used from Constantinos Paparrigopoulos in Prolegomena (Athens: Ερμής, 1983)

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