"Mike Powell" wrote in message
om...
"Stuart King" wrote in message
. com...

At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution,
in
the year 1787, Alexander Tyler (a Scottish history professor at The
University of Edinborough) had this to say about "The Fall of The
Athenian
Republic" some 2,000 years prior.

Actually, the guys tame was Tytler, not Tyler. And, more importantly,
nobody can find anything like this in his writings. Then there's the
fact that some of it doesn't make sense (e.g., The average age of
greatest civilizations just 200 years??? That's clearly wrong, and
Tytler would've known it). Further, Tytler *does* write about the
fall of Athens in "Universal History..." and he makes it clear the
reasons Athens fell had nothing to do with this supposed "cycle of
democracy."

This entire quote from Tytler appears to be a recent fabrication.


Actually the quote is accurate, but the source is questionable.

I've seen attributions dating from 1765 all the way up to the 1830's. IAC,
the first part is fairly accurate, but the second part (chronology) is a
real stretch.