12 SEPTEMBER 1908, Page 26

A Short History of Greece. By Walter S. nett. (Methuen

and Co. 3s. 6d.)—This book, which certainly, has the merit of giving much in a small space and at a small price, may fairly claim a place among historical manuals. The account of Aegean civilisation is good : in dealing with the Homeric question Mr. Hett holds to the "one poet" theory, but puts him, we think, too late. Surely he must have lived in the Bronze Age. The theory of Marathon is probable,—one section of the Persian army, in- cluding the cavalry, was kept on board in order to co-operate with the discontented party in Athens; the numbers of the forces of Xerxes are well accounted for,—there were thirty Xpxorres, but each had ten thousand men under his command, not sixty thousand as Herodotus supposed. Of course there are many omissions,—how could it be otherwise when there is a limit of a little over three hundred pages ? Phocion, for instance, might fairly claim more space than the bare mention of the fact that he "fought a doubtful engagement at Tamynae," in Euboea. But the Short History is a distinctly successful effort to give multi= in parvo.