Numismata hellenica: a catalogue of Greek coins; with notes, a map ...

I
PHEFACE.
The present Volume will be the last of a series of publications, the most important, if
not the principal object of which has been that of making known to the modern Greeks
the geography of the countries which had been civilized by their ancestors, and of
giving
them some account of those numerous extant monuments of that unrivalled
people which contain no small portion of their lost history. That the information has
been useful to them the Author has received ample proof, the more satisfactory to him
as he has always been of opinion that by no other means than the promotion of Greek
education can the countries which formed the Byzantine Empire be reclaimed from
barbarism, and restored to Christianity.
When the inquiries which are now brought to a close were commenced (it
is
sixty
years since), the state and condition of the Greek people were as little known to the
civilized countries of Western Europe as the geography of Greece and the monuments
of antiquity still existing in that country were to the people who still speak the
language which forms the basis of all modern literature and polite
three and four centuries of a servitude, compared
education. Between
with which that of Hellenic and
Roman slaves was luxury and freedom, had of necessity reduced the nation to a very
low degree in the moral and intellectual scale ; their men of learning, moreover, and
all those of the educated class, who could find the means of existence abroad, having
settled in foreign countries. Still there were hopes for the Greeks. The Turkish
Government was rapidly losing its weight and influence in the European system, their
population was diminishing while that of the Greeks increased, and Greek intelligence
was becoming more and more necessary to that degenerate and enervated race of
Mahometans who had lost their energy without losing their hatred of Christianity.
When it was discovered that all classes of Greeks spoke a language not diflfering from
the Hellenic so much as Italian dififers from Latin, and which they might readily improve
by the assistance of a continued succession of printed works from the time of Thucydides