the Iliad and Odyssey, and the delightful story of Herodotus comes from an Ionian’s hand. But by far the greatest share of the glories of Greece belongs to the Athenians, the nearest relatives of the Ionians; and in their Attic dialect is written the most perfect prose and poetry that the ancient classical world has bequeathed us. When Greek independence was crushed under the heel of Macedon, and finally under Rome, there was a rapid fusion of the various elements making up Hellenic nationality.