text:  The Grecian _race_ had a primary importance on our planet; but the Grecian name represented by Greece considered as a territory or as the original seat of the Hellenic people ceased to have much importance in the eyes of historians from the time when it became a conquered province; and it declined into absolute insignificance after the conquest of so many other provinces had degraded Hellas into an arithmetical unit standing amongst a total amount of figures so vast and so much more dazzling to the ordinary mind