Release date is 2026-01-16

Juhani Kärkkäinen and Tapio Riikonen

Kansojen historia 3 by Carl Gustaf Grimberg is a historical account written in the early 20th century. It surveys the Greek world after the Peloponnesian War through the Hellenistic era and the concurrent rise of Rome, weaving political history with intellectual and cultural portraits—especially of the Sophists, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle—to show how ideas and power reshaped the ancient Mediterranean.

The opening of this volume begins with a brief preface of acknowledgments, then launches into “the first great age of science” by examining the Sophists. It presents Protagoras’s fame and the civic force of rhetoric, contrasts early pedagogical aims with later verbal showmanship and logical tricks, and illustrates both through vivid scenes drawn from Plato’s dialogues. The narrative then pivots to Socrates—his austere habits, maieutic method, and ironic cross-examinations of figures like Hippias and Euthyphro; his influence on youths such as Alcibiades; and his ethical claim that to know the good is to do the good. It closes this opening stretch by setting Socrates firmly against sophistic relativism and empty oratory (as in Gorgias), foreshadowing the hostility that leads toward his trial. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Porvoo: WSOY, 1929