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HISTORY OF

ANCIENT CIVILIZATION

BY

CHARLES SEIGNOBOS

DOCTOR OF LETTERS OF THE UNIVERSITYOF PARIS

LONDONT. FISHER UNWINADELPHI TERRACEMCMVII

(_All rights reserved_)

EDITOR'S NOTE

In preparing this volume, the Editor has used both the three-volumeedition and the two-volume edition of the "Histoire de laCivilisation. " He has usually preferred the order of topics of thetwo-volume edition, but has supplemented the material therein withother matter drawn from the three-volume edition. 

A few corrections to the text have been given in foot-notes. Thesenotes are always clearly distinguished from the elucidations of theauthor. 

 A. H. W. 

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PREHISTORIC TIMES. Prehistoric archæology--Prehistoric remains; their antiquity--Prehistoric science--The four ages. 

 THE ROUGH STONE AGE. Remains found in the gravels--The cave-men. 

 THE POLISHED STONE AGE. Lake-villages--Megalithic monuments. 

 THE BRONZE AGE. Bronze--Bronze objects. 

 THE IRON AGE. Iron--Iron weapons--Epochs of the Iron Age. 

 Conclusions: How the four ages are to be conceived; uncertainties; solved questions. 

CHAPTER II

HISTORY AND THE DOCUMENTS. History--Legends--History in general--Great divisions of history--Ancient history--Modern history--The Middle Ages. 

SOURCES FOR THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS. Books--Monuments--Inscriptions--Languages--Lacunæ. 

RACES AND PEOPLES. Anthropology--The races--Civilized peoples--Aryans and Semites. 

CHAPTER III

THE EGYPTIANS. Egypt--The country--The Nile--Fertility of the soil--The accounts of Herodotus--Champollion--Egyptologists--Discoveries. 

THE EGYPTIAN EMPIRE. Antiquity of the Egyptian people--Memphis and the pyramids--Egyptian civilization--Thebes--The Pharaoh--The subjects--Despotism--Isolation of the Egyptians. 

RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. The gods--Osiris--Ammon-râ--Gods with animal heads--Sacred animals--The bull Apis--Worship of the dead--Judgment of the soul--Mummies--Book of the Dead--The arts--Industry-- Architecture--Tombs--Temples--Sculpture--Painting--Literature-- Destinies of the Egyptian civilization. 

CHAPTER IV

THE ASSYRIANS AND BABYLONIANS. Chaldea--The land--The people--The cities. 

THE ASSYRIANS--Assyria--Origins--Ancient accounts--Modern discoveries-- Inscriptions on bricks--Cuneiform writing--The Assyrian people--The king--Fall of the Assyrian Empire. 

THE BABYLONIANS. The second Chaldean empire--Babylon--The Tower of Babylon. 

CUSTOMS AND RELIGION. Customs--Religion--The gods--Astrology-- Sorcery--The sciences. 

THE ARTS. Architecture--Palaces--Sculpture. 

CHAPTER V

THE ARYANS OF INDIA. The Aryans--Aryan languages--The Aryan people. 

PRIMITIVE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. The Aryans on the Indus--The Vedas--The gods--Indra--Agni--The cult--Worship of ancestors. 

BRAHMANIC SOCIETY. The Hindoos on the Ganges--Castes--The Impure--The Brahmans--The new religion of Brahma--Transmigration of souls-- Character of this religion--The rites--Purity--Penances--The monks. 

BUDDHISM. Buddha--Nirvana--Charity--Fraternity--Tolerance--Later history of Buddhism--Changes in Buddhism--Buddha transformed into a god--Mechanical prayer--Amelioration of manners. 

CHAPTER VI

THE PERSIANS. The religion of Zoroaster--Iran--The Iranians-- Zoroaster--The Zend-Avesta--Ormuzd and Ahriman--Angels and demons-- Creatures of Ormuzd and Ahriman--The cult--Morality--Funerals-- Destiny of the soul--Character of Mazdeism. 

THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. The Medes--The Persians--Cyrus--The inscription of Behistun--The Persian empire--The satrapies--Revenues of the empire--The Great King--Services rendered by the Persians--Susa and Persepolis--Persian architecture. 

CHAPTER VII

THE PHŒNICIANS. The Phœnician people--The land--The cities--Phœnician ruins--Organization of the Phœnician--Tyre--Carthage--Carthaginian army--The Carthaginians--The Phœnician religion. 

PHŒNICIAN COMMERCE. Occupations of the Phœnicians--Caravans--Marine commerce--Commodities--Secret kept by the Phœnicians--Colonies-- Influence of the Phœnicians--The alphabet. 

CHAPTER VIII

THE HEBREWS. Origin of the Hebrew people--The Bible--The Hebrews--The patriarchs--The Israelites--The call of Moses--Israel in the desert--The Promised Land. 

THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL. One God--The people of God--The covenant--The Ten Commandments--The Law--Religion constituted the Jewish people. 

THE EMPIRE OF ISRAEL. The Judges--The Hangs--Jerusalem--The tabernacle--The temple. 

THE PROPHETS. Disasters of Israel--Sentiments of the Israelites--The prophets--The new teaching--The Messiah. 

THE JEWISH PEOPLE. Return to Jerusalem--The Jews--The synagogues-- Destruction of the temple--The Jews after the dispersion. 

CHAPTER IX

GREECE AND THE GREEKS. The country--The sea--The climate--Simplicity of Greek life--The people--Origin of the Greeks--Legends--The Trojan War--The Homeric Poems--The Greeks at the time of Homer--The Dorians--The Ionians--The Hellenes--The cities. 

THE HELLENES BEYOND THE SEA. Colonization--Character of the colonies-- Traditions touching the colonies--Importance of the Greek colonies. 

CHAPTER X

GREEK RELIGION. The gods--Polytheism--Anthropomorphism--Mythology--Local gods--The great gods--Attributes of the gods--Olympus and Zeus--Morality of the Greek mythology. 

THE HEROES. Various sorts of heroes--Presence of the heroes-- Intervention of the heroes. 

WORSHIP. Principle of the cult of the gods--The great Feasts--the sacred games--Omens--Oracles--Amphictyonies. 

CHAPTER XI

SPARTA. The People--Laconia--The Helots--The Periœci--Condition of the Spartiates. 

EDUCATION. The children--The girls--The discipline--Laconism--Music-- The dance--Heroism of the women. 

INSTITUTIONS. The kings and the council--The ephors--The army--The hoplites--The phalanx--Gymnastics--Athletes--Rôle of the Spartiates. 

CHAPTER XII

ATHENS. Origins of the Athenian people--Attica--Athens--The revolutions in Athens--Reforms of Cleisthenes. 

THE ATHENIAN PEOPLE. The slaves--The foreigners--The citizens. 

THE GOVERNMENT. The assembly--The courts--The magistrates--Character of the government--The demagogues. 

PRIVATE LIFE. Children--Marriage--Women. 

CHAPTER XIII

WARS. The Persian wars--Origin of these wars--Comparison of the two adversaries--First Persian war--Second Persian war--Reasons for the victory of the Greeks--Results of the wars. 

WARS OF THE GREEKS AMONG THEMSELVES. The Peloponnesian war--War with Sparta--Savage character of the wars--Effects of these wars. 

CHAPTER XIV

THE ARTS IN GREECE. Athens in the time of Pericles--Pericles--Athens and her monuments--Importance of Athens. 

LETTERS. Orators--Sages--Sophists--Socrates and the philosophers--The chorus--Tragedy and comedy--Theatre. 

ARTS. The Grecian temples--Characteristics of Grecian architecture--Sculpture--Pottery--Painting. 

CHAPTER XV

THE GREEKS IN THE ORIENT. Asia before Alexander--Decadence of the Persian empire--Expedition of the Ten Thousand--Agesilaus. 

CONQUEST OF ASIA BY ALEXANDER. Macedon--Philip--Demosthenes--The Macedonian supremacy--Alexander--The phalanx--Departure of Alexander--Victories of Granicus, Issus, and Arbela--Death of Alexander--Projects of Alexander. 

THE HELLENES IN THE ORIENT. Dismemberment of the empire of Alexander-- The Hellenistic kingdoms--Alexandria--Museum--Pergamum. 

CHAPTER XVI

LATER PERIOD OF GREEK HISTORY. Decadence of the cities--Rich and poor--Strife between rich and poor--Democracy and oligarchy--The tyrants--Exhaustion of Greece. 

THE ROMAN CONQUEST. The leagues--The allies of the Romans--The last struggles. 

THE HELLENES IN THE OCCIDENT. Influence of Greece on Rome-- Architecture--Sculpture--Literature--Epicureans and Stoics. 

CHAPTER XVII

ANCIENT PEOPLES OF ITALY. The Etruscans--Etruria--The Etruscan people-- The Etruscan tombs--Industry and commerce--Religion--The augurs-- Influence of the Etruscans. 

THE ITALIAN PEOPLE. Umbrians and Oscans--The Sacred Spring--The Samnites--The Greeks of Italy. 

LATINS AND ROMANS. The Latins--Rome--Roma Quadrata and the Capitol. 

CHAPTER XVIII

RELIGION AND THE FAMILY. Religion--The Roman gods--Form of the gods--Principle of the Roman religion--Worship--Formalism-- Prayer--Omens--The priests. 

WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS. The dead--Worship of the dead--Cult of the hearth. 

THE FAMILY. Religion of the family--Marriage--Women--Children--Father of the family. 

CHAPTER XIX

THE ROMAN CITY. Formation of the Roman people--The kings--The Roman people--The plebeians--Strife between patricians and plebeians-- The tribunes of the plebs--Triumph of the plebs. 

THE ROMAN PEOPLE. Right of citizenship--The nobles--The knights--The plebs--Freedmen. 

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC. The comitia--Magistrates--Censors-- Senate--The course of offices. 

CHAPTER XX

ROMAN CONQUEST. The Roman army--Military service--The levy--Legions and allies--Military exercises--Camp--Order of battle--Discipline-- Colonies &ad military roads. 

CHARACTER OF THE CONQUESTS. War--Conquest of Italy--Punic wars--Hannibal--Conquest of the Orient--Conquest of barbarian lands--The triumph--Booty--Allies of Rome--Motives of conquest. 

RESULTS OF THE CONQUESTS. Empire of the Roman people--The public domain--Agrarian laws. 

CHAPTER XXI

THE CONQUERED PEOPLES. The provincials--Provinces--The proconsuls-- Tyranny and oppression of the proconsuls--The publicans--Bankers-- Defencelessness of the provincials. 

SLAVERY. Sale of slaves--Condition of slaves--Number of slaves--Urban slaves--Rural slaves--Treatment of slaves--Ergastulum and mill-- Character of the slaves--Revolts--Admission to citizenship. 

CHAPTER XXII

TRANSFORMATION OF LIFE IN ROME. Influence of Greece and the Orient. 

CHANGES IN RELIGION. Greek gods--The Bacchanals--Superstitions of the Orient--Sceptics. 

CHANGES IN MANNERS. The old customs--Cato the Elder--The new manners-- Oriental luxury--Greek humanity--Lucullus--The new education--New status of women--Divorce. 

CHAPTER XXIII

FALL OF THE REPUBLIC. Causes of the decadence--Destruction of the peasant class--The city plebs--Electoral corruption--Corruption of the Senate--Corruption of the army. 

THE REVOLUTION. Necessity of the revolution--Civil wars--The Gracchi-- Marius and Sulla--Pompey and Cæsar--End of the Republic--Need of peace--Power of the individual. 

CHAPTER XXIV

THE EMPIRE AT ITS HEIGHT. The twelve Cæsars--The emperor--Apotheosis-- Senate and people--The prætorians--Freedmen of the emperors-- Despotism and disorder. 

THE CENTURY OF THE ANTONINES. Marcus Aurelius--Conquests of the Antonines. 

IMPERIAL INSTITUTIONS. Extent of the empire in the second century-- Permanent army--Deputies and agents of the emperor--Municipal life--Imperial regime. 

SOCIAL LIFE UNDER THE EMPIRE. The continued decadence at Rome--The shows--Theatre--Circus--Amphitheatre--Gladiators--The Roman peace--Fusion of the peoples--Superstitions. 

CHAPTER XXV

ARTS AND SCIENCES IN ROME. Letters--Imitation of the Greeks--The Augustan Age--Orators and rhetoricians--Importance of the Latin literature and language--Arts--Sculpture and painting-- Architecture--Characteristics of Roman architecture--Rome and its monuments. 

ROMAN LAW. The Twelve Tables--Symbolic process--Formalism-- Jurisprudence--The prætor's edict--Civil law and the law of nations--Written reason. 

CHAPTER XXVI

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. Origin of Christianity--Christ--Charity-- Equality--Poverty and humility--The kingdom of God. 

FIRST CENTURIES OF THE CHURCH. Disciples and apostles--The church-- Sacred books--Persecutions--Martyrs--Catacombs. 

THE MONKS OF THE THIRD CENTURY. Solitaries--Asceticism--Cenobites. 

CHAPTER XXVII

THE LATER EMPIRE. The revolutions of the third century--Military anarchy--Worship of Mithra--Taurobolia--Confusion of religions. 

REGIME OF THE LATER EMPIRE. Reforms of Diocletian and Constantine-- Constantinople--The palace--The officials--Society of the later empire. 

CHURCH AND STATE. Triumph of Christianity--Organization of the church--Councils--Heretics--Paganism--Theodosius. 

CHAPTER I

THE ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION

PREHISTORIC ARCHÆOLOGY

=Prehistoric Remains. =--One often finds buried in the earth, weapons, implements, human skeletons, débris of every kind left by men of whomwe have no direct knowledge. These are dug up by the thousand in allthe provinces of France, in Switzerland, in England, in all Europe;they are found even in Asia and Africa. It is probable that they existin all parts of the world. 

These remains are called prehistoric because they are more ancientthan written history. For about fifty years men have been engaged inrecovering and studying them. Today most museums have a hall, or atleast, some cases filled with these relics. A museum atSaint-German-en-Laye, near Paris, is entirely given up to prehistoricremains. In Denmark is a collection of more than 30, 000 objects. Everyday adds to the discoveries as excavations are made, houses built, andcuts made for railroads. 

These objects are not found on the surface of the ground, butordinarily buried deeply where the earth has not been disturbed. Theyare recovered from a stratum of gravel or clay which has beendeposited gradually and has fixed them in place safe from the air, asure proof that they have been there for a long time. 

=Prehistoric Science. =--Scholars have examined the débris and haveasked themselves what men have left them. From their skeletons, theyhave tried to construct their physical appearance; from their tools, the kind of life they led. They have determined that these instrumentsresemble those used by certain savages today. The study of all theseobjects constitutes a new science, Prehistoric Archæology. [1]

=The Four Ages. =--Prehistoric remains come down to us from verydiverse races of men; they have been deposited in the soil at widelydifferent epochs since the time when the mammoth lived in westernEurope, a sort of gigantic elephant with woolly hide and curved tusks. This long lapse of time may be divided into four periods, called Ages:

 1. The Rough Stone Age. 

 2. The Polished Stone Age. 

 3. The Bronze Age. 

 4. The Iron Age. 

The periods take their names from the materials used in themanufacture of the tools, --stone, bronze, iron. These epochs, however, are of very unequal length. It may be that the Rough Stone Age was tentimes as long as the Age of Iron. 

THE ROUGH STONE AGE

=Gravel Débris. =--The oldest remains of the Stone Age have been foundin the gravels. A French scholar found between 1841 and 1853, in thevalley of the Somme, certain sharp instruments made of flint. Theywere buried to a depth of six metres in gravel under three layers ofclay, gravel, and marl which had never been broken up. In the sameplace they discovered bones of cattle, deer, and elephants. For a longtime people made light of this discovery. They said that the chippingof the flints was due to chance. At last, in 1860, several scholarscame to study the remains in the valley of the Somme and recognizedthat the flints had certainly been cut by men. Since then there havebeen found more than 5, 000 similar flints in strata of the same ordereither in the valley of the Seine or in England, and some of them bythe side of human bones. There is no longer any doubt that men wereliving at the epoch when the gravel strata were in process offormation. If the strata that cover these remains have always beendeposited as slowly as they are today, these men whose bones and toolswe unearth must have lived more than 200, 000 years ago. 

=The Cave Men. =--Remains are also found in caverns cut in rock, oftenabove a river. The most noted are those on the banks of the Vézère, but they exist in many other places. Sometimes they have been used ashabitations and even as graves for men. Skeletons, weapons, and toolsare found here together. There are axes, knives, scrapers, lance-points of flint; arrows, harpoon-points, needles of bone likethose used by certain savages to this day. The soil is strewn with thebones of animals which these men, untidy like all savages, threw intoa corner after they had eaten the meat; they even split the bones toextract the marrow just as savages do now. Among the animals are foundnot only the hare, the deer, the ox, the horse, the salmon, but alsothe rhinoceros, the cave-bear, the mammoth, the elk, the bison, thereindeer, which are all extinct or have long disappeared from France. Some designs have been discovered engraved on the bone of a reindeeror on the tusk of a mammoth. One of these represents a combat ofreindeer; another a mammoth with woolly hide and curved tusks. Doubtless these men were the contemporaries of the mammoth and thereindeer. They were, like the Esquimaux of our day, a race of huntersand fishermen, knowing how to work in flint and to kindle fires. 

POLISHED STONE AGE

=Lake Dwellings. =--In 1854, Lake Zurich being very low on account ofthe unusual dryness of the summer, dwellers on the shore of the lakefound, in the mud, wooden piles which had been much eaten away, alsosome rude utensils. These were the remains of an ancient village builtover the water. Since this time more than 200 similar villages havebeen found in the lakes of Switzerland. They have been called LakeVillages. The piles on which they rest are trunks of trees, pointedand driven into the lake-bottom to a depth of several yards. Everyvillage required 30, 000 to 40, 000 of these. 

A wooden platform was supported by the pile work and on this werebuilt wooden houses covered with turf. Objects found by the hundredamong the piles reveal the character of the life of the formerinhabitants. They ate animals killed in the chase--the deer, the boar, and the elk. But they were already acquainted with such domesticanimals as the ox, the goat, the sheep, and the dog. They knew how totill the ground, to reap, and to grind their grain; for in the ruinsof their villages are to be found grains of wheat and even fragmentsof bread, or rather unleavend cakes. They wore coarse cloths of hempand sewed them into garments with needles of bone. They made potterybut were very awkward in its manufacture. Their vases were poorlyburned, turned by hand, and adorned with but few lines. Like thecave-men, they used knives and arrows of flint; but they made theiraxes of a very hard stone which they had learned to polish. This iswhy we call their epoch the Polished Stone Age. They are much laterthan the cave-men, for they know neither the mammoth nor therhinoceros, but still are acquainted with the elk and the reindeer. [2]

=Megalithic Monuments. =--Megalith is the name given to a monumentformed of enormous blocks of rough stone. Sometimes the rock is bare, sometimes covered with a mass of earth. The buried monument is calleda _Tumulus_ on account of its resemblance to a hill. When it isopened, one finds within a chamber of rock, sometimes paved withflag-stones. The monuments whose stone is above ground are of varioussorts. The _Dolmen_, or table of rock, is formed of a long stone laidflat over other stones set in the ground. The _Cromlech_, orstone-circle, consists of massive rocks arranged in a circle. The_Menhir_ is a block of stone standing on its end. Frequently severalmenhirs are ranged in line. At Carnac in Brittany four thousandmenhirs in eleven rows are still standing. Probably there were onceten thousand of these in this locality. Megalithic monuments appear byhundreds in western France, especially in Brittany; almost every hillin England has them; the Orkney Islands alone contain more than twothousand. Denmark and North Germany are studded with them; the peopleof the country call the tumuli the tombs of the giants. 

Megalithic monuments are encountered outside of Europe--in India, andon the African coast. No one knows what people possessed the power toquarry such masses and then transport and erect them. For a long timeit was believed that the people were the ancient Gauls, or Celts, whence the name Celtic Monuments. But why are like remains found inAfrica and in India?

When one of these tumuli still intact is opened, one always sees askeleton, often several, either sitting or reclining; these monuments, therefore, were used as tombs. Arms, vases, and ornaments are placedat the side of the dead. In the oldest of these tombs the weapons areaxes of polished stone; the ornaments are shells, pearls, necklaces ofbone or ivory; the vases are very simple, without handle or neck, decorated only with lines or with points. Calcined bones of animalslie about on the ground, the relics of a funeral repast laid in thetomb by the friends of the dead. Amidst these bones we no longer findthose of the reindeer, a fact which proves that these monuments wereconstructed after the disappearance of this animal from westernEurope, and therefore at a time subsequent to that of the lakevillages. 

THE AGE OF BRONZE

=Bronze Age. =--As soon as men learned to smelt metals, they preferredthese to stone in the manufacture of weapons. The metal first to beused was copper, easier to extract because found free, and easier tomanipulate since it is malleable without the application of heat. Purecopper, however, was not employed, as weapons made of it were toofragile; but a little tin was mixed with it to give it moreresistance. It is this alloy of copper and tin that we call bronze. 

=Bronze Utensils. =--Bronze was used in the manufacture of ordinarytools--knives, hammers, saws, needles, fish-hooks; in the fabricationof ornaments--bracelets, brooches, ear-rings; and especially in themaking of arms--daggers, lance-points, axes, and swords. These objectsare found by thousands throughout Europe in the mounds, under the morerecent dolmens, in the turf-pits of Denmark, and in rock-tombs. Nearthese objects of bronze, ornaments of gold are often seen and, now andthen, the remains of a woollen garment. It cannot be due to chancethat all implements of bronze are similar and all are made accordingto the same alloy. Doubtless they revert to the same period of timeand are anterior to the coming of the Romans into Gaul, for they arenever discovered in the midst of débris of the Roman period. But whatmen used them? What people invented bronze? Nobody knows. 

THE IRON AGE

=Iron. =--As iron was harder to smelt and work than bronze, it waslater that men learned how to use it. As soon as it was appreciatedthat iron was harder and cut better than bronze, men preferred it inthe manufacture of arms. In Homer's time iron is still a preciousmetal reserved for swords, bronze being retained for other purposes. It is for this reason that many tombs contain confused remains ofutensils of bronze and weapons of iron. 

=Iron Weapons. =--These arms are axes, swords, daggers, and bucklers. They are ordinarily found by the side of a skeleton in a coffin ofstone or wood, for warriors had their arms buried with them. But theyare found also scattered on ancient battle-fields or lost at thebottom of a marsh which later became a turf-pit. There were found in aturf-pit in Schleswig in one day 100 swords, 500 lances, 30 axes, 460daggers, 80 knives, 40 stilettos--and all of iron. Not far from therein the bed of an ancient lake was discovered a great boat 66 feetlong, fully equipped with axes, swords, lances, and knives. 

It is impossible to enumerate the iron implements thus found. Theyhave not been so well preserved as the bronze, as iron is rapidlyeaten away by rust. At the first glance, therefore, they appear theolder, but in reality are more recent. 

=Epoch of the Iron Age. =--The inhabitants of northern Europe knew ironbefore the coming of the Romans, the first century before Christ. Inan old cemetery near the salt mines of Hallstadt in Austria they haveopened 980 tombs filled with instruments of iron and bronze withoutfinding a single piece of Roman money. But the Iron Age continuedunder the Romans. Almost always iron objects are found accompanied byornaments of gold and silver, by Roman pottery, funeral urns, inscriptions, and Roman coins bearing the effigy of the emperor. Thewarriors whom we find lying near their sword and their buckler livedfor the most part in a period quite close to ours, many under theMerovingians, some even at the time of Charlemagne. The Iron Age is nolonger a prehistoric age. 

CONCLUSIONS

=How the Four Ages are to be Conceived. =--The inhabitants of one andthe same country have successively made use of rough stone, polishedstone, bronze, and iron. But all countries have not lived in the sameage at the same time. Iron was employed by the Egyptians while yet theGreeks were in their bronze age and the barbarians of Denmark wereusing stone. The conclusion of the polished stone age in America cameonly with the arrival of Europeans. In our own time the savages ofAustralia are still in the rough stone age. In their settlements maybe found only implements of bone and stone similar to those used bythe cave-men. The four ages, therefore, do not mark periods in thelife of humanity, but only epochs in the civilization of each country. 

=Uncertainties. =--Prehistoric archæology is yet a very young science. We have learned something of primitive men through certain remainspreserved and discovered by chance. A recent accident, a trench, alandslip, a drought may effect a new discovery any day. Who knows whatis still under ground? The finds are already innumerable. But theserarely tell us what we wish to know. How long was each of the fourages? When did each begin and end in the various parts of the world?Who planned the caverns, the lake villages, the mounds, the dolmens?When a country passes from polished stone to bronze, is it the samepeople changing implements, or is it a new people come on the scene?When one thinks one has found the solution, a new discovery oftenconfounds the archæologists. It was thought that the Celts originatedthe dolmens, but these have been found in sections which could neverhave been traversed by Celts. 

=What has been determined. =--Three conclusions, however, seem certain:

 1. --Man has lived long on the earth, familiar as he was with the mammoth and the cave-bear; he lived at least as early as the geological period known as the Quaternary. 

 2. --Man has emerged from the savage state to civilized life; he has gradually perfected his tools and his ornaments from the awkward axe of flint and the necklace of bears' teeth to iron swords and jewels of gold. The roughest instruments are the oldest. 

 3. --Man has made more and more rapid progress. Each age has been shorter than its predecessor. 

FOOTNOTES:

[1] It originated especially with French, Swiss, and scholars. 

[2] According to Lubbock (Prehistoric Times, N. Y. , 1890, p. 212) thereindeer was not known to the Second Stone Age. --ED. 

CHAPTER II

HISTORY AND THE RECORDS

HISTORY

=Legends. =--The most ancient records of people and their doings aretransmitted by oral tradition. They are recited long before they arewritten down and are much mixed with fable. The Greeks told how theirheroes of the oldest times had exterminated monsters, fought withgiants, and battled against the gods. The Romans had Romulus nourishedby a wolf and raised to heaven. Almost all peoples relate such storiesof their infancy. But no confidence is to be placed in these legends. 

=History. =--History has its true beginning only with authenticaccounts, that is to say, accounts written by men who were wellinformed. This moment is not the same with all peoples. The history ofEgypt commences more than 3, 000 years before Christ; that of theGreeks ascends scarcely to 800 years before Christ; Germany has had ahistory only since the first century of our era; Russia dates backonly to the ninth century; certain savage tribes even yet have nohistory. 

=Great Divisions of History. =--The history of civilization begins withthe oldest civilized people and continues to the present time. Antiquity is the most remote period, Modern Times the era in which welive. 

=Ancient History. =--Ancient History begins with the oldest knownnations, the Egyptians and Chaldeans (about 3, 000 years before ourera), and surveys the peoples of the Orient, the Hindoos, Persians, Phœnicians, Jews, Greeks, and last of all the Romans. It terminatesabout the fifth century A. D. , when the Roman empire of the west isextinguished. 

=Modern History. =--Modern History starts with the end of the fifteenthcentury, with the invention of printing, the discovery of America andof the Indies, the Renaissance of the sciences and arts. It concernsitself especially with peoples of the West, of Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Russia, and America. 

=The Middle Age. =--Between Antiquity and Modern Times about tencenturies elapse which belong neither to ancient times (for thecivilization of Antiquity has perished) nor to modern (since moderncivilization does not yet exist). This period we call the Middle Age. 

SOURCES OF INFORMATION FOR THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT PEOPLES

=The Sources. =--The Assyrians, Greeks, and Romans are no longer withus; all the peoples of antiquity have passed away. To know theirreligion, their customs, and arts we have to seek for instruction inthe remains they have left us. These are books, monuments, inscriptions, and languages, and these are our means for the study ofancient civilizations. We term these _sources_ because we draw ourknowledge from them. Ancient History flows from these sources. 

=Books. =--Ancient peoples have left written records behind them. Someof these peoples had sacred books--for example, the Hindoos, thePersians, and the Jews; the Greeks and Romans have handed down to ushistories, poems, speeches, philosophical treatises. But books arevery far from furnishing all the information that we require. We donot possess a single Assyrian or Phœnician book. Other peoples havetransmitted very few books to us. The ancients wrote less than we, andso they had a smaller literature to leave behind them; and as it wasnecessary to transcribe all of this by hand, there was but a smallnumber of copies of books. Further, most of these manuscripts havebeen destroyed or have been lost, and those which remain to us aredifficult to read. The art of deciphering them is called Palæography. 

=The Monuments. =--Ancient peoples, like ourselves, built monuments ofdifferent sorts: palaces for their kings, tombs for the dead, fortresses, bridges, aqueducts, triumphal arches. Of these monumentsmany have fallen into ruin, have been razed, shattered by the enemy orby the people themselves. But some of them survive, either becausethere was no desire to destroy them, or because men could not. Theystill stand in ruins like the old castles, for repairs are no longermade; but enough is preserved to enable us to comprehend their formercondition. Some of them are still above ground, like the pyramids, thetemples of Thebes and of the island of Philæ, the palace of Persepolisin Persia, the Parthenon in Greece, the Colosseum in Rome, and theMaison Carrée and Pont du Gard in France. Like any modern monument, these are visible to the traveller. But the majority of thesemonuments have been recovered from the earth, from sand, from riverdeposits, and from débris. One must disengage them from this thickcovering, and excavate the soil, often to a great depth. Assyrianpalaces may be reached only by cutting into the hills. A trench offorty feet is necessary to penetrate to the tombs of the kings ofMycenæ. Time is not the only agency for covering these ruins; men haveaided it. When the ancients wished to build, they did not, as we do, take the trouble to level off the space, nor to clear the site. Instead of removing the débris, they heaped it together and builtabove it. The new edifice in turn fell into ruins and its débris wasadded to that of more remote time; thus there were formed severalstrata of remains. When Schliemann excavated the site of Troy, he hadpassed through five beds of débris; these were five ruined villagesone above another, the oldest at a depth of fifty feet. 

By accident one town has been preserved to us in its entirety. In 79A. D. The volcano of Vesuvius belched forth a torrent of liquid lavaand a rain of ashes, and two Roman cities were suddenly buried, Herculaneum by lava, and Pompeii by ashes; the lava burnt the objectsit touched, while the ashes enveloped them, preserving them from theair and keeping them intact. As we remove the ashes, Pompeii reappearsto us just as it was eighteen centuries ago. One still sees thewheel-ruts in the pavement, the designs traced on the walls withcharcoal; in the houses, the pictures, the utensils, the furniture, even the bread, the nuts, and olives, and here and there the skeletonof an inhabitant surprised by the catastrophe. Monuments teach usmuch about the ancient peoples. The science of monuments is calledArchæology. 

=Inscriptions. =--By inscriptions one means all writings other thanbooks. Inscriptions are for the most part cut in stone, but some areon plates of bronze. At Pompeii they have been found traced on thewalls in colors or with charcoal. Some have the character ofcommemorative inscriptions just as these are now attached to ourstatues and edifices; thus in the monument of Ancyra the emperorAugustus publishes the story of his life. 

The greatest number of inscriptions are epitaphs graven on tombs. Certain others fill the function of our placards, containing, as theydo, a law or a regulation that was to be made public. The science ofinscriptions is called Epigraphy. 

=Languages. =--The languages also which ancient peoples spoke throwlight on their history. Comparing the words of two differentlanguages, we perceive that the two have a common origin--an evidencethat the peoples who spoke them were descended from the same stock. The science of languages is called Linguistics. 

=Lacunæ. =--It is not to be supposed that books, monuments, inscriptions, and languages are sufficient to give complete knowledgeof the history of antiquity. They present many details which we couldwell afford to lose, but often what we care most to know escapes us. Scholars continue to dig and to decipher; each year new discoveries ofinscriptions and monuments are made; but there remain still many gapsin our knowledge and probably some of these will always exist. 

RACES AND PEOPLES

=Anthropology. =--The men who people the earth do not possess exactresemblances, some differing from others in stature, the form of thelimbs and the head, the features of the face, the color of the hair andeyes. Other differences are found in language, intelligence, andsentiments. These variations permit us to separate the inhabitants ofthe earth into several groups which we call races. A _race_ is theaggregate of those men who resemble one another and are distinguished fromall others. The common traits of a race--its characteristics--constitutethe type of the race. For example, the type of the negro race is markedby black skin, frizzly hair, white teeth, flat nose, projecting lips, andprominent jaw. That part of Anthropology which concerns itself with racesand their sub-divisions is called Ethnology. [3] This science is yet inits early development on account of its complete novelty, and is verycomplex since types of men are very numerous and often very difficult todifferentiate. 

=The Races. =--The principal races are:

 1. --The White race, which inhabits Europe, the north of Africa, and western Asia. 

 2. --The Yellow race in eastern Asia to which belong the Chinese, the Mongols, Turks, and Hungarians, who invaded Europe as conquerors. They have yellow skin, small regular eyes, prominent cheek-bones, and thin beard. 

 3. --The Black race, in central Africa. These are the Negroes, of black skin, flat nose, woolly hair. 

 4. --The Red race, in America. These are the Indians, with copper-colored skin and flat heads. 

=Civilized Peoples. =--Almost all civilized peoples belong to the whiterace. The peoples of the other races have remained savage orbarbarian, like the men of prehistoric times. [4]

It is within the limits of Asia and Africa that the first civilizedpeoples had their development--the Egyptians in the Nile valley, theChaldeans in the plain of the Euphrates. They were peoples ofsedentary and peaceful pursuits. Their skin was dark, the hair shortand thick, the lips strong. Nobody knows their origin with exactnessand scholars are not agreed on the name to give them (some termingthem Cushites, others Hamites). Later, between the twentieth andtwenty-fifth centuries B. C. Came bands of martial shepherds who hadspread over all Europe and the west of Asia--the Aryans and theSemites. 

=The Aryans and the Semites. =--There is no clearly marked externaldifference between the Aryans and the Semites. Both are of the whiterace, having the oval face, regular features, clear skin, abundanthair, large eyes, thin lips, and straight nose. Both peoples wereoriginally nomad shepherds, fond of war. We do not know whence theycame, nor is there agreement whether the Aryans came from the mountainregion in the northwest of the Himalayas or from the plains ofRussia. What distinguishes them is their spiritual bent and especiallytheir language, sometimes also their religion. Scholars by commonconsent call those peoples Aryan who speak an Aryan language: in Asia, the Hindoos and Persians; in Europe, the Greeks, Italians, Spaniards, Germans, Scandinavians, Slavs (Russians, Poles, Serfs), and Celts. [5]

Similarly, we call Semites those peoples who speak a Semitic language:Arabs, Jews and Syrians. But a people may speak an Aryan or a Semiticlanguage and yet not be of Aryan or Semitic race; a negro may speakEnglish without being of English stock. Many of the Europeans whom weclassify among the Aryans are perhaps the descendants of an ancientrace conquered by the Aryans and who have adopted their language, justas the Egyptians received the language of the Arabs, their conquerors. 

These two names (Aryan and Semite), then, signify today rather twogroups of peoples than two distinct races. But even if we use theterms in this sense, one may say that all the greater peoples of theworld have been Semites or Aryans. The Semitic family included thePhœnicians, the people of commerce; the Jews, the people of religion;the Arabs, the people of war. The Aryans, some finding their homes inIndia, others in Europe, have produced the nations which have been, and still are, foremost in the world--in antiquity, the Hindoos, apeople of great philosophical and religious ideas; the Greeks, creators of art and of science; the Persians and Romans, thefounders, the former in the East, the latter in the West, of thegreatest empires of antiquity; in modern times, the Italians, French, Germans, Dutch, Russians, English and Americans. 

The history of civilization begins with the Egyptians and theChaldeans; but from the fifteenth century before our era, historyconcerns itself only with the Aryan and Semitic peoples. 

FOOTNOTES:

[3] Ethnography is the study of races from the point of view of theirobjects and customs. 

[4] The Chinese only of the yellow race have elaborated among themselvesan industry, a regular government, a polite society. But placed at theextremity of Asia they have had no influence on other civilized peoples. [The Japanese should be included. --ED. ]

[5] The English and French are mixtures of Celtic and German blood. 

CHAPTER III

ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST

THE EGYPTIANS

=The Land of Egypt. =--Egypt is only the valley of the Nile, a narrowstrip of fertile soil stretching along both banks of the stream andshut in by mountains on either side, somewhat over 700[6] miles inlength and 15 in width. Where the hills fall away, the Delta begins, avast plain cut by the arms of the Nile and by canals. As Herodotussays, Egypt is wholly the gift of the Nile. 

=The Nile. =--Every year at the summer solstice the Nile, swollen bythe melted snows of Abyssinia, overflows the parched soil of Egypt. Itrises to a height of twenty-six or twenty-seven feet, sometimes evento thirty-three feet. [7] The whole country becomes a lake from whichthe villages, built on eminences, emerge like little islands. Thewater recedes in September; by December it has returned to its properchannel. Everywhere has been left a fertile, alluvial bed which servesthe purpose of fertilization. On the softened earth the peasant sowshis crop with almost no labor. The Nile, then, brings both water andsoil to Egypt; if the river should fail, Egypt would revert, like theland on either side of it, to a desert of sterile sand where the rainnever falls. The Egyptians are conscious of their debt to theirstream. A song in its honor runs as follows: "Greeting to thee, ONile, who hast revealed thyself throughout the land, who comest inpeace to give life to Egypt. Does it rise? The land is filled withjoy, every heart exults, every being receives its food, every mouth isfull. It brings bounties that are full of delight, it creates all goodthings, it makes the grass to spring up for the beasts. "

=Fertility of the Country. =--Egypt is truly an oasis in the midst ofthe desert of Africa. It produces in abundance wheat, beans, lentils, and all leguminous foods; palms rear themselves in forests. On thepastures irrigated by the Nile graze herds of cattle and goats, andflocks of geese. With a territory hardly equal to that of Belgium, Egypt still supports 5, 500, 000 inhabitants. No country in Europe is sothickly populated, and Egypt in antiquity was more densely throngedthan it is today. 

=The Accounts of Herodotus. =--Egypt was better known to the Greeksthan the rest of the Orient. Herodotus had visited it in the fifthcentury B. C. He describes in his History the inundations of the Nile, the manners, costume, and religion of the people; he recounts eventsof their history and tales which his guides had told him. Diodorus andStrabo also speak of Egypt. But all had seen the country in itsdecadence and had no knowledge of the ancient Egyptians. 

=Champollion. =--The French expedition to Egypt (1798-1801) opened thecountry to scholars. They made a close examination of the Pyramidsand ruins of Thebes, and collected drawings and inscriptions. But noone could decipher the hieroglyphs, the Egyptian writing. It was anerroneous impression that every sign in this writing must eachrepresent a word. In 1821 a French scholar, Champollion, experimentedwith another system. An official had reported that there was aninscription at Rosetta in three forms of writing--parallel with thehieroglyphs was a translation in Greek. The name of King Ptolemy, wassurrounded with a cartouche. [8] Champollion succeeded in finding inthis name the letters P, T, O, L, M, I, S. Comparing these with othernames of kings similarly enclosed, he found the whole alphabet. Hethen read the hieroglyphs and found that they were written in alanguage like the Coptic, the language spoken in Egypt at the time ofthe Romans, and which was already known to scholars. 

=Egyptologists. =--Since Champollion, many scholars have travelled overEgypt and have ransacked it thoroughly. We call these studentsEgyptologists, and they are to be found in every country of Europe. AFrench Egyptologist, Mariette (1821-1881), made some excavations forthe Viceroy of Egypt and created the museum of Boulak. France hasestablished in Cairo a school of Egyptology, directed by Maspero. 

=Discoveries. =--Not every country yields such rich discoveries as doesEgypt. The Egyptians constructed their tombs like houses, and laid inthem objects of every kind for the use of the dead--furniture, garments, arms, and edibles. The whole country was filled with tombssimilarly furnished. Under this extraordinarily dry climate everythinghas been preserved; objects come to light intact after a burial of4, 000 or 5, 000 years. No people of antiquity have left so many tracesof themselves as the Egyptians; none is better known to us. 

THE EGYPTIAN EMPIRE

=Antiquity of the Egyptian People. =--An Egyptian priest said toHerodotus, "You Greeks are only children. " The Egyptians consideredthemselves the oldest people of the world. Down to the Persianconquest (520[9] B. C. ) there were twenty-six dynasties of kings. Thefirst ran back 4, 000 years, [10] and during these forty centuries Egypthad been an empire. The capital down to the tenth dynasty (the periodof the Old Empire) was at Memphis in Lower Egypt, later, in the NewEmpire, at Thebes in Upper Egypt. 

=Memphis and the Pyramids. =--Memphis, built by the first king ofEgypt, was protected by an enormous dike. The village has existed formore than five thousand years; but since the thirteenth century theinhabitants have taken the stones of its ruins to build the houses ofCairo; what these people left the Nile recaptured. The Pyramids, notfar from Memphis, are contemporaneous with the old empire; they arethe tombs of three kings of the fourth dynasty. The greatest of thepyramids, 480 feet high, required the labor of 100, 000 men for thirtyyears. [11] To raise the stones for it they built gradually ascendingplatforms which were removed when the structure was completed. 

=Egyptian Civilization. =--The statues, paintings, and instrumentswhich are taken from the tombs of this epoch give evidence of analready civilized people. When all the other eminent nations ofantiquity--the Hindoos, Persians, Jews, Greeks, Romans--were still ina savage state, 3, 500 years before our era, the Egyptians had knownfor a long time how to cultivate the soil, to weave cloths, to workmetals, to paint, sculpture, and to write; they had an organizedreligion, a king, and an administration. 

=Thebes. =--At the eleventh dynasty Thebes succeeds Memphis as capital. The ruins of Thebes are still standing. They are marvellous, extendingas they do on both banks of the Nile, with a circuit of about sevenmiles. On the left bank there is a series of palaces and temples whichlead to vast cemeteries. On the right bank two villages, Luxor andKarnak, distant a half-hour one from the other, are built in the midstof the ruins. They are united by a double row of sphinxes, which musthave once included more than 1, 000 of these monuments. Among thesetemples in ruins the greatest was the temple of Ammon at Karnak. Itwas surrounded by a wall of over one and one-third miles in length;the famous Hall of Columns, the greatest in the world, had a lengthof 334 feet, a width of 174 feet, [12] and was supported by 134columns; twelve of these are over 65 feet high. Thebes was for 1, 500years the capital and sacred city, the residence of kings and thedwelling-place of the priests. 

=The Pharaoh. =--The king of Egypt, called Pharaoh, was esteemed as theson of the Sun-god and his incarnation on earth; divinity was ascribedto him also. We may see in a picture King Rameses II standing inadoration before the divine Rameses who is sitting between two gods. The king as man adores himself as god. Being god, the Pharaoh hasabsolute power over men; as master, he gives his orders to his greatnobles at court, to his warriors, to all his subjects. But thepriests, though adoring him, surround and watch him; their head, thehigh priest of the god Ammon, at last becomes more powerful than theking; he often governs under the name of the king and in his stead. 

=The Subjects of Pharaoh. =--The king, the priests, the warriors, thenobles, are proprietors of all Egypt; all the other people are simplytheir peasants who cultivate the land for them. Scribes in the serviceof the king watch them and collect the farm-dues, often with blows ofthe staff. One of these functionaries writes as follows to a friend, "Have you ever pictured to yourself the existence of the peasant whotills the soil. The tax-collector is on the platform busily seizingthe tithe of the harvest. He has his men with him armed with staves, his negroes provided with strips of palm. All cry, 'Come, give usgrain, ' If the peasant hasn't it, they throw him full length on theearth, bind him, draw him to the canal, and hurl him in headforemost. "

=Despotism. =--The Egyptian people has always been, and still is, gay, careless, gentle, docile as an infant, always ready to submit totyranny. In this country the cudgel was the instrument of educationand of government. "The young man, " said the scribes, "has a back tobe beaten; he hears when he is struck. " "One day, " says a Frenchtraveller, "finding myself before the ruins of Thebes, I exclaimed, 'But how did they do all this?' My guide burst out laughing, touchedme on the arm and, showing me a palm, said to me, 'Here is what theyused to accomplish all this. You know, sir, with 100, 000 branches ofpalms split on the backs of those who always have their shouldersbare, you can build many a palace and some temples to boot. '"

=Isolation of the Egyptians. =--The Egyptians moved but little beyondtheir borders. As the sea inspired them with terror, they had nocommerce and did not trade with other peoples. They were not at all amilitary nation. Their kings, it is true, often went on expeditions atthe head of mercenaries either against the negroes of Ethiopia oragainst the tribes of Syria. They gained victories which they hadpainted on the walls of their palaces, they brought back troops ofcaptives whom they used in building monuments; but they never madegreat conquests. Foreigners came more to Egypt than Egyptians wentabroad. 

=Religion of the Egyptians. =--"The Egyptians, " said Herodotus, "arethe most religious of all men. " We do not know any people so devout;almost all their paintings represent men in prayer before a god;almost all their manuscripts are religious books. 

=Egyptian Gods. =--The principal deity is a Sun-god, creator, beneficent, "who knows all things, who exists from the beginning. "This god has a divine wife and son. All the Egyptians adored thistrinity; but not all gave it the same name. Each region gave adifferent name to these three gods. At Memphis they called the fatherPhtah, the mother Sekhet, the son Imouthes; at Abydos they called themOsiris, Isis, and Horus; at Thebes, Ammon, Mouth, and Chons. Then, too, the people of one province adopted the gods of other provinces. Further, they made other gods emanate from each god of the trinity. Thus the number of gods was increased and religion was complicated. 

=Osiris. =--These gods have their history; it is that of the sun; forthe sun appeared to the Egyptians, as to most of the primitivepeoples, the mightiest of beings, and consequently a god. Osiris, thesun, is slain by Set, god of the night; Isis, the moon, his wife, bewails and buries him; Horus, his son, the rising sun, avenges him bykilling his murderer. 

=Ammon-râ. =--Ammon-râ, god of Thebes, is represented as traversingheaven each day in a bark ("the good bark of millions of years"); theshades of the dead propel it with long oars; the god stands at theprow to strike the enemy with his lance. The hymn which they chantedin his honor is as follows: "Homage to thee; thou watchest favoringly, thou watchest truly, O master of the two horizons.... Thou treadestthe heavens on high, thine enemies are laid low. The heaven is glad, the earth is joyful, the gods unite in festal cheer to render gloryto Râ when they see him rising in his bark after he has overwhelmedhis enemies. O Râ, give abounding life to Pharaoh, bestow bread forhis hunger (belly), water for his throat, perfumes for his hair. "

=Animal-Headed Gods. =--The Egyptians often represented their gods withhuman form, but more frequently under the form of a beast. Each godhas his animal: Phtah incarnates himself in the beetle, Horus in thehawk, Osiris in the bull. The two figures often unite in a man withthe head of an animal or an animal with the head of a man. Every godmay be figured in four forms: Horus, for example, as a man, a hawk, asman with the head of a hawk, as a hawk with the head of a man. 

=Sacred Animals. =--What did the Egyptians wish to designate by thissymbol? One hardly knows. They, themselves, came to regard as sacredthe animals which served to represent the gods to them: the bull, thebeetle, the ibis, the hawk, the cat, the crocodile. They cared forthem and protected them. A century before the Christian era a Romancitizen killed a cat at Alexandria; the people rose in riot, seizedhim, and, notwithstanding the entreaties of the king, murdered him, although at the same time they had great fear of the Romans. There wasin each temple a sacred animal which was adored. The traveller Straborecords a visit to a sacred crocodile of Thebes: "The beast, " said he, "lay on the edge of a pond, the priests drew near, two of them openedhis mouth, a third thrust in cakes, grilled fish, and a drink madewith meal. "

=The Bull Apis. =--Of these animal gods the most venerated was the bullApis. It represented at once Osiris and Phtah and lived at Memphis ina chapel served by the priests. After its death it became an Osiris(Osar-hapi), it was embalmed, and its mummy deposited in a vault. Thesepulchres of the "Osar-hapi" constituted a gigantic monument, theSerapeum, discovered in 1851 by Marietta. 

=Cult of the Dead. =--The Egyptians adored also the spirits of thedead. They seem to have believed at first that every man had a"double" (Kâ), and that when the man was dead his double stillsurvived. Many savage peoples believe this to this day. The Egyptiantomb in the time of the Old Empire was termed "House of the Double. "It was a low room arranged like a chamber, where for the service ofthe double there were placed all that he required, chairs, tables, beds, chests, linen, closets, garments, toilet utensils, weapons, sometimes a war-chariot; for the entertainment of the double, statues, paintings, books; for his sustenance, grain and foods. And then theyset there a double of the dead in the form of a statue in wood orstone carved in his likeness. At last the opening to the vault wassealed; the double was enclosed, but the living still provided forhim. They brought him foods or they might beseech a god that he supplythem to the spirit, as in this inscription, "An offering to Osiristhat he may confer on the Kâ of the deceased N. Bread, drink, meat, geese, milk, wine, beer, clothing, perfumes--all good things and pureon which the god (_i. E. _ the Kâ) subsists. "

=Judgment of the Soul. =--Later, originating with the eleventhdynasty, the Egyptians believed that the soul flew away from the bodyand sought Osiris under the earth, the realm into which the sun seemedevery day to sink. There Osiris sits on his tribunal, surrounded byforty-two judges; the soul appears before these to give account of hispast life. His actions are weighed in the balance of truth, his"heart" is called to witness. "O heart, " cries the dead, "O heart, theissue of my mother, my heart when I was on earth, offer not thyself aswitness, charge me not before the great god. " The soul found onexamination to be bad is tormented for centuries and at lastannihilated. The good soul springs up across the firmament; after manytests it rejoins the company of the gods and is absorbed into them. 

=Mummies. =--During this pilgrimage the soul may wish to re-enter thebody to rest there. The body must therefore be kept intact, and so theEgyptians learned to embalm it. The corpse was filled with spices, drenched in a bath of natron, wound with bandages and thus transformedinto a mummy. The mummy encased in a coffin of wood or plaster waslaid in the tomb with every provision necessary to its life. 

=Book of the Dead. =--A book was deposited with the mummy, the Book ofthe Dead, which explains what the soul ought to say in the other worldwhen it makes its defence before the tribunal of Osiris: "I have nevercommitted fraud; ... I have never vexed the widow; ... I have nevercommitted any forbidden act; ... I have never been an idler; ... Ihave never taken the slave from his master; ... I never stole thebread from the temples; ... I never removed the provisions or thebandages of the dead; I never altered the grain measure; ... I neverhunted sacred beasts; I never caught sacred fish; ... I am pure; ... Ihave given bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing to thenaked; I have sacrificed to the gods, and offered funeral feasts todead. " Here we see Egyptian morality: observance of ceremonies, respect for everything pertaining to the gods, sincerity, honesty, andbeneficence. 

THE ARTS

=Industry. =--The Egyptians were the first to practice the artsnecessary to a civilized people. From the first dynasty, 3, 000[13]years B. C. , paintings on the tomb exhibit men working, sowing, harvesting, beating and winnowing grain; we have representations ofherds of cattle, sheep, geese, swine; of persons richly clothed, processions, feasts where the harp is played--almost the same lifethat we behold 3, 000 years later. As early as this time the Egyptiansknew how to manipulate gold, silver, bronze; to manufacture arms andjewels, glass, pottery, and enamel; they wove garments of linen andwool, and cloths, transparent or embroidered with gold. 

=Architecture. =--They were the oldest artists of the world. Theyconstructed enormous monuments which appear to be eternal, for down tothe present, time has not been able to destroy them. They never built, as we do, for the living, but for the gods and for the dead, _i. E. _, temples and tombs. Only a slight amount of débris is left of theirhouses, and even the palaces of their kings in comparison with thetombs appear, in the language of the Greeks, to be only inns. Thehouse was to serve only for a lifetime, the tomb for eternity. 

=Tombs. =--The Great Pyramid is a royal tomb. Ancient tombs ordinarilyhad this form. In Lower Egypt there still remain pyramids arranged inrows or scattered about, some larger, others smaller. These are thetombs of kings and nobles. Later the tombs are constructedunderground, some under earth, others cut into the granite of thehills. Each generation needs new ones, and therefore near the town ofliving people is built the richer and greater city of the dead(necropolis). 

=Temples. =--The gods also required eternal and splendid habitations. Their temples include a magnificent sanctuary, the dwelling of thegod, surrounded with courts, gardens, chambers where the priestslodge, wardrobes for his jewels, utensils, and vestments. Thiscombination of edifices, the work of many generations, is encircledwith a wall. The temple of Ammon at Thebes had the labors of the kingsof all the dynasties from the twelfth to the last. Ordinarily in frontof the temple a great gate-way is erected, with inclined faces--thepylone. On either side of the entrance is an obelisk, a needle of rockwith gilded point, or perhaps a colossus in stone representing asitting giant. Often the approach to the temple is by a long avenuerimmed with sphinxes. 

Pyramids, pylones, colossi, sphinxes, and obelisks characterize thisarchitecture. Everything is massive, compact, and, above all, immense. Hence these monuments appear clumsy but indestructible. 

=Sculpture. =--Egyptian sculptors began with imitating nature. Theoldest statues are impressive for their life and freshness, and aredoubtless portraits of the dead. Of this sort is the famous squattingscribe of the Louvre. [14] But beginning with the eleventh dynasty thesculptor is no longer free to represent the human body as he sees it, but must follow conventional rules fixed by religion. And so all thestatues resemble one another--parallel legs, the feet joined, armscrossed on the breast, the figure motionless; the statues are oftenmajestic, but always stiff and monotonous. Art has ceased to reproducenature and is become a conventional symbol. 

=Painting. =--The Egyptians used very solid colors; after 5, 000 yearsthey are still fresh and bright. But they were ignorant of coloringdesigns; they knew neither tints, shadows, nor perspective. Painting, like sculpture, was subject to religious rules and was thereforemonotonous. If fifty persons were to be represented, the artist madethem all alike. 

=Literature. =--The literature of the Egyptians is found in thetombs--not only books of medicine, of magic and of piety, but alsopoems, letters, accounts of travels, and even romances. 

=Destiny of the Egyptian Civilization. =--The Egyptians conserved theircustoms, religion, and arts even after the fall of their empire. Subjects of the Persians, then the Greeks, and at last of the Romans, they kept their old usages, their hieroglyphics, their mummies andsacred animals. At last between the third and second centuries A. D. , Egyptian civilization was slowly extinguished. 

FOOTNOTES:

[6] Following the curves of the stream. --ED. 

[7] In some localities, _e. G. _ Thebes, the flood is even higher. --ED. 

[8] An enclosing case. 

[9] 525 B. C. --ED. 

[10] The chronology of early Egyptian history is uncertain. Civilizationexisted in this land much earlier than was formerly supposed. --ED. 

[11] According to Petrie ("History of Egypt, " New York, 1895, i. , 40)_twenty years_ were consumed. --ED. 

[12] Perrot and Chipiez ("History of Ancient Egyptian Art, " London. 1883, i. , 365) give 340 feet by 170. --ED. 

[13] Probably much earlier than this. --ED. 

[14] The Louvre Museum in Paris has an excellent collection of Egyptiansubjects. 

CHAPTER IV

ASSYRIANS AND BABYLONIANS

CHALDEA

=The Land. =--From the high and snowy mountains of Armenia flow twodeep and rapid rivers, the Tigris to the east, the Euphrates to thewest. At first in close proximity, they separate as they reach theplain. The Tigris makes a straight course, the Euphrates a greatdétour towards the sandy deserts; then they unite before emptying intothe sea. The country which they embrace is Chaldea. It is an immenseplain of extraordinarily fertile soil; rain is rare and the heat isoverwhelming. But the streams furnish water and this clayey soil whenirrigated by canals becomes the most fertile in the world. Wheat andbarley produce 200-fold; in good years the returns are 300-fold. Palmsconstitute the forests and from these the people make their wine, mealand flour. [15]

=The People. =--For many centuries, perhaps as long as Egypt, Chaldeahas been the abode of civilized peoples. Many races from various landshave met and mingled in these great plains. There were Turanians ofthe yellow race, similar to the Chinese, who came from the north-east;Cushites, deep brown in color, related to the Egyptians, came from theeast; Semites, of the white race, of the same stock as the Arabs, descended from the north. [16] The Chaldean people had its origin inthis mixture of races. 

=The Cities. =--Chaldean priests related that their kings had ruled for150, 000 years. While this is a fable, they were right in ascribinggreat antiquity to the Chaldean empire. The soil of Chaldea iseverywhere studded with hills and each of these is a mass of débris, the residue of a ruined city. Many of these have been excavated andmany cities brought to view, (Our, Larsam, Bal-ilou), and someinscriptions recovered. De Sarsec, a Frenchman, has discovered theruins of an entire city, overwhelmed by the invader and its palacedestroyed by fire. These ancient peoples are still little known to us;many sites remain to be excavated when it is hoped new inscriptionswill be found. Their empire was destroyed about 2, 300 B. C. ; it maythen have been very old. [17]

THE ASSYRIANS

=Assyria. =--The country back of Chaldea on the Tigris is Assyria. Italso is fertile, but cut with hills and rocks. Situated near themountains, it experiences snow in winter and severe storms in summer. 

=Origins. =--Chaldea had for a long time been covered with towns whileyet the Assyrians lived an obscure life in their mountains. About thethirteenth century B. C. Their kings leading great armies began toinvade the plains and founded a mighty empire whose capital wasNineveh. 

=Ancient Accounts. =--Until about forty years ago we knew almostnothing of the Assyrians--only a legend recounted by the GreekDiodorus Siculus. Ninus, according to the story, had founded Ninevehand conquered all Asia Minor; his wife, Semiramis, daughter of agoddess, had subjected Egypt, after which she was changed into theform of a dove. Incapable kings had succeeded this royal pair for thespace of 1, 300 years; the last, Sardanapalus, besieged in his capital, was burnt with his wives. This romance has not a word of truth in it. 

=Modern Discoveries. =--In 1843, Botta, the French consul at Mossoul, discovered under a hillock near the Tigris, at Khorsabad, the palaceof an Assyrian king. Here for the first time one could view theproductions of Assyrian art; the winged bulls cut in stone, placed atthe gate of the palace were found intact and removed to the LouvreMuseum in Paris. The excavations of Botta drew the attention ofEurope, so that many expeditions were sent out, especially by theEnglish; Place and Layard investigated other mounds and discoveredother palaces. These ruins had been well preserved, protected by thedryness of the climate and by a covering of earth. They found wallsadorned with bas-reliefs and paintings; statues and inscriptions werediscovered in great number. It was now possible to study on the groundthe plan of the structures and to publish reproductions of themonuments and inscriptions. 

The palace first discovered, that of Khorsabad, had been built by KingSargon at Nineveh, the site of the capital of the Assyrian kings. Thecity was built on several eminences, and was encircled by a wall 25to 30 miles[18] in length, in the form of a quadrilateral. The wallwas composed of bricks on the exterior and of earth within. Thedwellings of the city have disappeared leaving no traces, but we haverecovered many palaces constructed by various kings of Assyria. Nineveh remained the residence of the kings down to the time that theAssyrian empire was destroyed by the Medes and Chaldeans. 

=Inscriptions on the Bricks. =--In these inscriptions every characteris formed of a combination of signs shaped like an arrow or wedge, andthis is the reason that this style of writing is termed cuneiform(Latin _cuneus_ and _forma_). To trace these signs the writer used astylus with a triangular point; he pressed it into a tablet of softclay which was afterwards baked to harden it and to make theimpression permanent. In the palace of Assurbanipal a complete libraryof brick tablets has been found in which brick serves the purpose ofpaper. 

=Cuneiform Writing. =--For many years the cuneiform writing hasoccupied the labors of many scholars impatient to decipher it. It hasbeen exceedingly difficult to read, for, in the first place, it servedas the writing medium of five different languages--Assyrian, Susian, Mede, Chaldean, and Armenian, without counting the Old Persian--andthere was no knowledge of these five languages. Then, too, it is verycomplicated, for several reasons:

 1. It is composed at the same time of symbolic signs, each of which represents a word (sun, god, fish), and of syllabic signs, each of which represents a syllable. 

 2. There are nearly two hundred syllabic signs, much alike and easy to confuse. 

 3. The same sign is often the representation of a word and a syllable. 

 4. Often (and this is the hardest condition) the same sign is used to represent different syllables. Thus the same sign is sometimes read "ilou, " and sometimes "an. " This writing was difficult even for those who executed it. "A good half of the cuneiform monuments which we possess comprises guides (grammars, dictionaries, pictures), which enable us to decipher the other half, and which we consult just as Assyrian scholars did 2, 500 years ago. "[19]

Cuneiform inscriptions have been solved in the same manner as theEgyptian hieroglyphics--there was an inscription in threelanguages--Assyrian, Mede, and Persian. The last gave the key to theother two. 

=The Assyrian People. =--The Assyrians were a race of hunters andsoldiers. Their bas-reliefs ordinarily represent them armed with bowand lance, often on horseback. They were good knights--alert, brave, clever in skirmish and battle; also bombastic, deceitful, andsanguinary. For six centuries they harassed Asia, issuing from theirmountains to hurl themselves on their neighbors, and returning withentire peoples reduced to slavery. They apparently made war for themere pleasure of slaying, ravaging, and pillaging. No people everexhibited greater ferocity. 

=The King. =--Following Asiatic usage they regarded their king as therepresentative of God on earth and gave him blind obedience. He wasabsolute master of all his subjects, he led them in battle, and attheir head fought against other peoples of Asia. On his return herecorded his exploits on the walls of his palace in a long inscriptionin which he told of his victories, the booty which he had taken, thecities burned, the captives beheaded or flayed alive. We present somepassages from these stories of campaigns:

Assurnazir-hapal in 882 says, "I built a wall before the great gatesof the city; I flayed the chiefs of the revolt and with their skins Icovered this wall. Some were immured alive in the masonry, others werecrucified or impaled along the wall. I had some of them flayed in mypresence and had the wall hung with their skins. I arranged theirheads like crowns and their transfixed bodies in the form ofgarlands. "

In 745 Tiglath-Pilezer II writes, "I shut up the king in his royalcity. I raised mountains of bodies before his gates. All his villagesI destroyed, desolated, burnt. I made the country desert, I changed itinto hills and mounds of débris. "

In the seventh century Sennacherib wrote: "I passed like a hurricaneof desolation. On the drenched earth the armor and arms swam in theblood of the enemy as in a river. I heaped up the bodies of theirsoldiers like trophies and I cut off their extremities. I mutilatedthose whom I took alive like blades of straw; as punishment I cut offtheir hands. " In a bas-relief which shows the town of Susasurrendering to Assurbanipal one sees the chiefs of the conqueredtortured by the Assyrians; some have their ears cut off, the eyes ofothers are put out, the beard torn out, while some are flayed alive. Evidently these kings took delight in burnings, massacres, andtortures. 

=Ruin of the Assyrian Empire. =--The Assyrian régime began with thecapture of Babylon (about 1270). From the ninth century the Assyrians, always at war, subjected or ravaged Babylonia, Syria, Palestine, andeven Egypt. The conquered always revolted, and the massacres wererepeated. At last the Assyrians were exhausted. The Babylonians andMedes made an alliance and destroyed their empire. In 625 theircapital, Nineveh, "the lair of lions, the bloody city, the city gorgedwith prey, " as the Jewish prophets call it, was taken and destroyedforever. "Nineveh is laid waste, " says the prophet Nahum, "who willbemoan her?"

THE BABYLONIANS

=The Second Chaldean Empire. =--In the place of the fallen Assyrianempire there arose a new power--in ancient Chaldea. This has receivedthe name Babylonian Empire or the Second Chaldean Empire. A Jewishprophet makes one say to Jehovah, "I raise up the Chaldeans, thatbitter and hasty nation which shall march through the breadth of theland to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. Their horses areswifter than leopards. Their horsemen spread themselves; (theirhorsemen) shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. " They were apeople of knights, martial and victorious, like the Assyrians. Theysubjected Susiana, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Jordan. But their régimewas short: founded in 625, the Babylonian Empire was overthrown by thePersians in 538 B. C. 

=Babylon. =--The mightiest of its kings, Nebuchadrezzar (orNebuchadnezzar), 604-561, who destroyed Jerusalem and carried the Jewsinto captivity, built many temples and places in Babylon, his capital. These monuments were in crude brick as the plain of the Euphrates hasno supply of stone; in the process of decay they have left onlyenormous masses of earth and débris. And yet it has been possible onthe site of Babylon to recover some inscriptions and to restore theplan of the city. The Greek Herodotus who had visited Babylon in thefifth century B. C. , describes it in detail. The city was surrounded bya square wall cut by the Euphrates; it covered about 185 square miles, or seven times the extent of Paris. This immense space was not filledwith houses; much of it was occupied with fields to be cultivated forthe maintenance of the people in the event of a siege. Babylon wasless a city than a fortified camp. The walls equipped with towers andpierced by a hundred gates of brass were so thick that a chariot mightbe driven on them. All around the wall was a large, deep ditch full ofwater, with its sides lined with brick. The houses of the city wereconstructed of three or four stories. The streets intersected at rightangles. The bridge and docks of the Euphrates excited admiration; thefortified palace also, and the hanging gardens, one of the sevenwonders of the world. These gardens were terraces planted with trees, supported by pillars and rows of arches. 

=Tower of Babylon. =--Hard by the city Nebuchadnezzar had aimed torebuild the town of Babel. "For the admiration of men, " he says in aninscription: "I rebuilt and renovated the wonder of Borsippa, thetemple of the seven spheres of the world. I laid the foundations andbuilt it according to its ancient plan. " This temple, in the form of asquare, comprised seven square towers raised one above another, eachtower being dedicated to one of the seven planets and painted with thecolor attributed by religion to this planet. They were, beginning withthe lowest: Saturn (black), Venus (white), Jupiter (purple), Mercury(blue), Mars (vermilion), the moon (silver), the sun (gold). Thehighest tower contained a chapel with a table of gold and magnificentcouch whereon a priestess kept watch continually. 

CUSTOMS AND RELIGION

=Customs. =--We know almost nothing of these peoples apart from thetestimony of their monuments, and nearly all of these refer to theachievements of their kings. The Assyrians are always represented atwar, hunting, or in the performance of ceremonies; their women neverappear on the bas-reliefs; they were confined in a harem and neverwent into public life. The Chaldeans on the contrary, were a race oflaborers and merchants, but of their life we know nothing. Herodotusrelates that once a year in their towns they assembled all the girlsto give them in marriage; they sold the prettiest, and the profits ofthe sale of these became a dower for the marriage of the plainest. "According to my view, " he adds, "this is the wisest of all theirlaws. "

=Religion. =--The religion of the Assyrians and Chaldeans was the same, for the former had adopted that of the latter. It is very obscure tous, since it originated, like that of the Chaldean people, in aconfusion of religions very differently mingled. The Turanians, likethe present yellow race of Siberia, imagined the world full of demons(plague, fever, phantoms, vampires), engaged in prowling around men todo them harm; sorcerers were invoked to banish these demons by magicalformulas. The Cushites adored a pair of gods, the male deity of forceand the female of matter. The Chaldean priests, united in a powerfulguild, confused the two religions into a single one. 

=The Gods. =--The supreme god at Babylon is Ilou; in Assyria, Assur. Notemple was raised to him. Three gods proceed from him: Anou, the "lordof darkness, " under the figure of a man with the head of a fish andthe tail of an eagle; Bel, the "sovereign of spirits, " represented asa king on the throne; Nouah, the "master of the visible world, " underthe form of a genius with four extended wings. Each has a femininecounterpart who symbolizes fruitfulness. Below these gods are the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets, for in the transparent atmosphere ofChaldea the stars shine with a brilliancy which is strange to us; theygleam like deities. To these the Chaldeans raised temples, veritableobservatories in which men who adored them could follow all theirmotions. 

=Astrology. =--The priests believed that these stars, being powerfuldeities, had determining influence on the lives of men. Every mancomes into the world under the influence of a planet and this momentdecides his destiny; one may foretell one's fortune if the star underwhich one is born is known. This is the origin of the horoscope. Whatoccurs in heaven is indicative of what will come to pass on earth; acomet, for example, announces a revolution. By observing the heavensthe Chaldean priests believed they could predict events. This is theorigin of Astrology. 

=Sorcery. =--The Chaldeans had also magical words; these were utteredto banish spirits or to cause their appearance. This custom, a relicof the Turanian religion, is the origin of sorcery. From Chaldeaastrology and sorcery were diffused over the Roman empire, and laterover all Europe. In the formulas of sorcery of the sixteenth centurycorrupted Assyrian words may still be detected. [20]

=Sciences. =--On the other hand it is in Chaldea that we have thebeginning of astronomy. From this land have come down to us thezodiac, the week of seven days in honor of the seven planets; thedivision of the year into twelve months, of the day into twenty-fourhours, of the hour into sixty minutes, of the minute into sixtyseconds. Here originated, too, the system of weights and measuresreckoned on the unit of length, a system adopted by all the ancientpeoples. 

ARTS

=Architecture. =--We do not have direct knowledge of the art of theChaldeans, since their monuments have fallen to ruin. But the Assyrianartists whose works we possess imitated those of Chaldea, and so wemay form a judgment at the same time of the two countries. TheAssyrians like the Chaldeans built with crude, sun-dried brick, butthey faced the exterior of the wall with stone. 

=Palaces. =--They constructed their palaces[21] on artificial mounds, making these low and flat like great terraces. The crude brick was notadapted to broad and high arches. Halls must therefore be straight andlow, but in compensation they were very long. An Assyrian palace, then, resembled a succession of galleries; the roofs were flatterraces provided with battlements. At the gate stood gigantic wingedbulls. Within, the walls were covered now with panelling in preciouswoods, now with enamelled bricks, now with plates of sculpturalalabaster. Sometimes the chambers were painted, and even richlyencrusted marbles were used. 

=Sculpture. =--The sculpture of the Assyrian palaces is especiallyadmirable. Statues, truly, are rare and coarse; sculptors preferred toexecute bas-reliefs similar to pictures on great slabs of alabaster. They represented scenes which were often very complicated--battles, chases, sieges of towns, ceremonies in which the king appeared with agreat retinue. Every detail is scrupulously done; one sees the filesof servants in charge of the feast of the king, the troops of workmenwho built his palace, the gardens, the fields, the ponds, the fish inthe water, the birds perched over their nests or flitting from tree totree. Persons are exhibited in profile, doubtless because the artistcould not depict the face; but they possess dignity and life. Animalsoften appeared, especially in hunting scenes; they are ordinarily madewith a startling fidelity. The Assyrians observed nature andfaithfully reproduced it; hence the merit of their art. 

The Greeks themselves learned in this school, by imitating theAssyrian bas-reliefs. They have excelled them, but no people, not eventhe Greeks, has better known how to represent animals. 

FOOTNOTES:

[15] A Persian song enumerates 300 different uses of the palm. 

[16] Or perhaps from the east (Arabia). --ED. 

[17] Recent discoveries confirm the view of a very ancientcivilization--ED. 

[18] Somewhat exaggerated. See Perrot and Chipiez, "History of Art inAssyria and Chaldea, " ii. , 60; and Maspero, "Passing of the Empires, " p. 468. --ED. 

[19] Lenormant, "Ancient History. "

[20] For example, hilka, hilka, bescha, bescha (begone! begone! bad!bad!)

[21] The temples were pyramidal, of stones or terraces similar to thetower of Borsippa. 

CHAPTER V

THE ARYANS OF INDIA

THE ARYANS

=Aryan Languages. =--The races which in our day inhabit Europe--Greeksand Italians to the south, Slavs in Russia, Teutons in Germany, Celtsin Ireland--speak very different languages. When, however, one studiesthese languages closely, it is perceived that all possess a stock ofcommon words, or at least certain roots. The same roots occur inSanscrit, the ancient language of the Hindoos, and also in Zend, theancient tongue of the Persians. Thus, Father--père (French), pitar (Sanscrit), pater (Greek and Latin). Itis the same word pronounced in various ways. From this (and other suchexamples) it has been concluded that all--Hindoos, Persians, Greeks, Latins, Celts, Germans, Slavs--once spoke the same language, andconsequently were one people. 

=The Aryan People. =--These peoples then called themselves Aryans andlived to the north-west of India, either in the mountains of Pamir, orin the steppes of Turkestan or Russia; from this centre they dispersedin all directions. The majority of the people--Greeks, Latins, Germans, Slavs--forgot their origin; but the sacred books of theHindoos and the Persians preserve the tradition. Effort has beenmade[22] to reconstruct the life of our Aryan ancestors in theirmountain home before the dispersion. It was a race of shepherds; theydid not till the soil, but subsisted from their herds of cattle andsheep, though they already had houses and even villages. 

It was a fighting race; they knew the lance, the javelin, and shield. Government was patriarchal; a man had but one wife; as head of thefamily he was for his wife, his children, and his servants at oncepriest, judge, and king. In all the countries settled by the Aryansthey have followed this type of life--patriarchal, martial, andpastoral. 

PRIMITIVE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS

=The Aryans on the Indus. =--About 2, 000 years before our era someAryan tribes traversed the passes of the Hindu-Kush and swarmed intoIndia. They found the fertile plains of the Indus inhabited by apeople of dark skin, with flat heads, industrious and wealthy; theycalled these aborigines Dasyous (the enemy). They made war on them forcenturies and ended by exterminating or subjecting them; they thengradually took possession of all the Indus valley (the region of thefive rivers). [23] They then called themselves Hindoos. 

=The Vedas. =--These people were accustomed in their ceremonies tochant hymns (vedas) in honor of their gods. These chants constituteda vast compilation which has been preserved to the present time. Theywere collected, perhaps, about the fourteenth century B. C. When theAryans had not yet passed the Indus. The hymns present to us theoldest religion of the Hindoos. 

=The Gods. =--The Hindoo calls his gods devas (the resplendent). Everything that shines is a divinity--the heavens, the dawn, theclouds, the stars--but especially the sun (Indra) and fire (Agni). 

=Indra. =--The sun, Indra, the mighty one, "king of the world andmaster of creatures, " bright and warm, traverses the heavens on a cardrawn by azure steeds; he it is who hurls the thunderbolt, sends therain, and banishes the clouds. India is a country of violent tempests;the Hindoo struck with this phenomenon explained it in his ownfashion. He conceived the black cloud as an envelope in which werecontained the waters of heaven; these beneficent waters he called thegleaming cows of Indra. When the storm is gathering, an evil genius, Vritra, a three-headed serpent, has driven away the cows and enclosedthem in the black cavern whence their bellowings are heard (thefar-away rumblings of thunder). Indra applies himself to the task offinding them; he strikes the cavern with his club, the strokes ofwhich are heard (the thunderbolt), and the forked tongue of theserpent (the lightning) darts forth. At last the serpent isvanquished, the cave is opened, the waters released fall on the earth, Indra the victor appears in glory. 

=Agni. =--Fire (Agni, the tireless) is regarded as another form of thesun. The Hindoo, who produces it by rapidly rubbing two pieces ofwood together, imagines that the fire comes from the wood and that therain has placed it there. He conceives it then as the fire of heavendescended to earth; in fact, when one places it on the hearth, itsprings up as if it would ascend toward heaven. Agni dissipatesdarkness, warms mankind, and cooks his food; it is the benefactor andthe protector of the house. It is also "the internal fire, " the soulof the world; even the ancestor of the human race is the "son oflightning. " Thus, heat and light, sources of all life, are the deitiesof the Hindoo. 

=Worship. =--To adore his gods he strives to reproduce what he sees inheaven. He ignites a terrestrial fire by rubbing sticks, he nourishesit by depositing on the hearth, butter, milk, and soma, a fermenteddrink. To delight the gods he makes offerings to them of fruits andcakes; he even sacrifices to them cattle, rams and horses; he theninvokes them, chanting hymns to their praise. "When thou art bidden byus to quaff the soma, come with thy sombre steeds, thou deity whosedarts are stones. Our celebrant is seated according to prescription, the sacred green is spread, in the morning stones have been gatheredtogether. Take thy seat on the holy sward; taste, O hero, our offeringto thee. Delight thyself in our libations and our chants, vanquisherof Vritra, thou who art honored in these ceremonies of ours, O Indra. "

The Hindoo thinks that the gods, felicitated by his offerings andhomage, will in their turn make him happy. He says naïvely, "Givesacrifice to the gods for their profit, and they will requite you. Just as men traffic by the discussion of prices, let us exchangeforce and vigor, O Indra. Give to me and I will give to you; bring tome and I will bring to you. "

=Ancestor Worship. =--At the same time the Hindoo adores his ancestorswho have become gods, and perhaps this cult is the oldest of all. Itis the basis of the family. The father who has transmitted the "fireof life" to his children makes offering every day at his hearth-fire, which must never be extinguished, the sacrifice to gods and ancestors, and utters the prayers. Here it is seen that among Hindoos, as amongother Aryans, the father is at once a priest and a sovereign. 

THE BRAHMANIC SOCIETY

=The Hindoos on the Ganges. =--The Hindoos passing beyond the region ofthe Indus, between the fourteenth and tenth century B. C. Conquered allthe immense plains of the Ganges. Once settled in this fertilecountry, under a burning climate, in the midst of a people of slaves, they gradually changed customs and religion. And so the Brahmanicsociety was established. Many works in Sanscrit are preserved fromthis time, which, with the Vedas, form the sacred literature of theHindoos. The principal are the great epic poems, the Mahabarata, whichhas more than 200, 000 verses; the Ramayana with 50, 000, and the lawsof Manou, the sacred code of India. 

=Caste. =--In this new society there were no longer, as in the time ofthe Vedas, poets who chanted hymns to the gods. The men who know theprayers and the ceremonies are become theologians by profession; thepeople revere and obey them. The following is their conception of thestructure of society: the supreme god, Brahma, has produced four kindsof men to each of whom he has assigned a mission. From his mouth hedrew the Brahmans, who are, of course, the theologians; their missionis to study, to teach the hymns, to perform the sacrifices. TheKchatrias have come from his arms; these are the warriors who arecharged with the protection of the people. The Vaïcyas proceed fromthe thigh; they must raise cattle, till the earth, loan money atinterest, and engage in commerce. The Soudras issue from his foot;their only mission is to serve all the others. 

There were already in the Aryan people theologians, warriors, artisans, and below them aborigines reduced to slavery. These wereclasses which one could enter and from which one could withdraw. Butthe Brahmans determined that every man should be attached to thecondition in which he was born, he and his descendants for all time. The son of a workman could never become a warrior, nor the son of awarrior a theologian. Thus each is chained to his own state. Societyis divided into four hereditary and closed castes. 

=The Unclean. =--Whoever is not included in one of the four castes isunclean, excluded from society and religion. The Brahmans reckonedforty-four grades of outcasts; the last and the lowest is that of thepariahs; their very name is an insult. The outcasts may not practiseany honorable trade nor approach other men. They may possess only dogsand asses, for these are unclean beasts. "They must have for theirclothing the garments of the dead; for plates, broken pots; ornamentsof iron; they must be ceaselessly on the move from one place toanother. "

=The Brahmans. =--In the organization of society the Brahmans wereassigned the first place. "Men are the first among intelligent beings;the Brahmans are the first among men. They are higher than warriors, than kings, even. As between a Brahman of ten years of age and aKchatria of one hundred years, the Brahman is to be regarded as thefather. " These are not priests as in Egypt and Chaldea, but only menwho know religion, and pass their time in reading and meditating onthe sacred books; they live from presents made to them by other men. To this day they are the dominating class of India. As they marry onlyamong themselves, better than the other Hindoos they have preservedthe Aryan type and have a clearer resemblance to Europeans. 

=The New Religion of Brahma. =--The Brahmans did not discard theancient gods of the Vedas, they continued to adore them. But by sheeringenuity they invented a new god. When prayers are addressed to thegods, the deities are made to comply with the demands made on them, asif they thought that prayer was more powerful than the gods. And soprayer (Brahma) has become the highest of all deities. He is invokedwith awe:[24] "O god, I behold in thy body all the gods and themultitudes of living beings. I am powerless to regard thee in thineentirety, for thou shinest like the fire and the sun in thineimmensity. Thou art the Invisible, thou art the supreme Intelligence, thou art the sovereign treasure of the universe, without beginning, middle, or end; equipped with infinite might. Thine arms are withoutlimit, thine eyes are like the moon and the sun, thy mouth hath thebrightness of the sacred fire. With thyself alone thou fillest all thespace between heaven and earth, and thou permeatest all the universe. "Brahma is not only supreme god; he is the soul of the universe. Allbeings are born from Brahma, all issue naturally from him, not as aproduct comes from the hands of an artisan, but "as the tree from theseed, as the web from the spider. " Brahma is not a deity who hascreated the world; he is the very substance of the world. 

=Transmigration of Souls. =--There is, then, a soul, a part of the soulof Brahma, in every being, in gods, in men, in animals, in the veryplants and stones. But these souls pass from one body into another;this is the transmigration of souls. When a man dies, his soul istested; if it is good, it passes into the heaven of Indra there toenjoy felicity; if it is bad, it falls into one of the twenty-eighthells, where it is devoured by ravens, compelled to swallow burningcakes, and is tormented by demons. But souls do not remain forever inheaven or in the hells; they part from these to begin a new life inanother body. The good soul rises, entering the body of a saint, perhaps that of a god; the evil soul descends, taking its abode insome impure animal--in a dog, an ass, even in a plant. In this newstate it may rise or fall. And this journey from one body to anothercontinues until the soul by degrees comes to the highest sphere. Fromlowest to highest in the scale, say the Brahmans, twenty-four millionsof years elapse. At last perfect, the soul returns to the level ofBrahma from which it descends and is absorbed into it. 

=Character of this Religion. =--The religion of the Aryans, simple andhappy, was that of a young and vigorous people. This is complicatedand barren; it takes shape among men who are not engaged in practicallife; it is enervated by the heat and vexatious of life. 

=Rites. =--The practice of the religion is much more complicated. Hymnsand sacrifices are still offered to the gods, but the Brahmans havegradually invented thousands of minute customs so that one's life iscompletely engaged with them. For all the ceremonies of the religiouslife there are prayers, offerings, vows, libations, ablutions. Some ofthe religious requirements attach themselves to dress, ornaments, etiquette, drinking, eating, mode of walking, of lying down, ofsleeping, of dressing, of undressing, of bathing. It is ordered: "Thata Brahman shall not step over a rope to which a calf is attached; thathe shall not run when it rains; that he shall not drink water in thehollow of his hand; that he shall not scratch his head with both hishands. The man who breaks clods of earth, who cuts grass with hisnails or who bites his nails is, like the outcast, speedily hurried tohis doom. " An animal must not be killed, for a human soul may perhapsbe dwelling in the body; one must not eat it on penalty of beingdevoured in another life by the animals which one has eaten. 

All these rites have a magical virtue; he who observes them all is asaint; he who neglects any of them is impious and destined to passinto the body of an animal. 

=Purity. =--The principal duty is keeping one's self pure; for everystain is a sin and opens one to the attack of evil spirits. But theBrahmans are very scrupulous concerning purity: men outside of thecastes, many animals, the soil, even the utensils which one uses areso many impure things; whoever touches these is polluted and must atonce purify himself. Life is consumed in purifications. 

=Penances. =--For every defect in the rites, a penance is necessary, often a terrible one. He who involuntarily kills a cow must clothehimself in its skin, and for three months, day and night, follow andtend a herd of cows. Whoever has drunk of arrack[25] must swallow aboiling liquid which burns the internal organs until death results. 

=The Monks. =--To escape so many dangers and maintain purity, it isbetter to leave the world. Often a Brahman when he has attained to aconsiderable age withdraws to the desert, fasts, watches, refrainsfrom speech, exposes himself naked to the rain, holds himself erectbetween four fires under the burning sun. After some years, thesolitary becomes "penitent"; then his only subsistence is fromalmsgiving; for whole days he lifts an arm in the air uttering not aword, holding his breath; or perchance, he gashes himself withrazor-blades; or he may even keep his thumbs closed until the nailspierce the hands. By these mortifications he destroys passion, releases himself from this life, and by contemplation rises to Brahma. And yet, this way of salvation is open only to the Brahman; and evenhe has the right to withdraw to the desert only in old age, afterhaving studied the Vedas all his life, practised all the rites, andestablished a family. 

BUDDHISM

=Buddha. =--Millions of men who were not Brahmans, suffered by thislife of minutiæ and anguish. A man then appeared who brought adoctrine of deliverance. He was not a Brahman, but of the caste of theKchatrias, son of a king of the north. To the age of twenty-nine hehad lived in the palace of his father. One day he met an old man withbald head, of wrinkled features, and trembling limbs; a second time hemet an incurable invalid, covered with ulcers, without a home; againhe fell in with a decaying corpse devoured by worms. And so, thoughthe, youth, health, and life are nothing for they offer no resistanceto old age, to sickness, and to death. He had compassion on men andsought a remedy. Then he met a religious mendicant with grave anddignified air; following his example he decided to renounce the world. These four meetings had determined his calling. 

Buddha fled to the desert, lived seven years in penitence, undergoinghunger, thirst, and rain. These mortifications gave him no repose. Heate, became strong, and found the truth. Then he reëntered the worldto preach it; he made disciples in crowds who called him Buddha (thescholar); and when he died after forty-five years of preaching, Buddhism was established. 

=Nirvana. =--To live is to be unhappy, taught Buddha. Every man suffersbecause he desires the goods of this world, youth, health, life, andcannot keep them. All life is a suffering; all suffering is born ofdesire. To suppress suffering, it is necessary to root out desire; todestroy it one must cease from wishing to live, "emancipate one's selffrom the thirst of being. " The wise man is he who casts asideeverything that attaches to this life and makes it unhappy. One mustcease successively from feeling, wishing, thinking. Then, freed frompassion, volition, even from reflection, he no longer suffers, andcan, after his death, come to the supreme good, which consists inbeing delivered from all life and from all suffering. The aim of thewise man is the annihilation of personality: the Buddhists call itNirvana. 

=Charity. =--The Brahmans also considered life as a place of sufferingand annihilation as felicity. Buddha came not with a new doctrine, butwith new sentiments. 

The religion of the Brahmans was egoistic. Buddha had compassion onmen, he loved them, and preached love to his disciples. It was justthis word of sympathy of which despairing souls were in need. He badeto love even those who do us ill. Purna, one of his disciples, wentforth to preach to the barbarians. Buddha said to him to try him, "There are cruel, passionate, furious men; if they address angry wordsto you, what would you think?" "If they addressed angry words to me, "said Purna, "I should think these are good men, these are gentle men, these men who attack me with wicked words but who strike me neitherwith the hand nor with stones. " "But if they strike you, what wouldyou think?" "I should think that those were good men who did notstrike me with their staves or with their swords. " "But if they didstrike you with staff and sword, what would you think then?" "Thatthose are good men who strike me with staff and sword, but do not takemy life. " "But if they should take your life?" "I should think themgood men who delivered me with so little pain from this body filled asit is with pollution. " "Well, well, Purna! You may dwell in thecountry of the barbarians. Go, proceed on the way to complete Nirvanaand bring others to the same goal. "

=Fraternity. =--The Brahmans, proud of their caste, assert that theyare purer than the others. Buddha loves all men equally, he calls allto salvation even the pariahs, even the barbarians--all he declaresare equal. "The Brahman, " said he, "just like the pariah, is born ofwoman; why should he be noble and the other vile?" He receives asdisciples street-sweepers, beggars, cripples, girls who sleep ondung-hills, even murderers and thieves; he fears no contamination intouching them. He preaches to them in the street in language simplewith parables. 

=Tolerance. =--The Brahmans passed their lives in the practice ofminute rites, regarding as criminal whoever did not observe them. Buddha demanded neither rites nor exertions. To secure salvation itwas enough to be charitable, chaste, and beneficent. "Benevolence, "says he, "is the first of virtues. Doing a little good avails morethan the fulfilment of the most arduous religious tasks. The perfectman is nothing unless he diffuses himself in benefits over creatures, unless he comforts the afflicted. My doctrine is a doctrine of mercy;this is why the fortunate in the world find it difficult. "

=Later History of Buddhism. =--Thus was established about 500 yearsbefore Christ a religion of an entirely new sort. It is a religionwithout a god and without rites; it ordains only that one shall lovehis neighbor and become better; annihilation is offered as supremerecompense. But, for the first time in the history of the world, itpreaches self-renunciation, the love of others, equality of mankind, charity and tolerance. The Brahmans made bitter war upon it andextirpated it in India. Missionaries carried it to the barbarians inCeylon, in Indo-China, Thibet, China, and Japan. It is today thereligion of about 500, 000, 000[26] people. 

=Changes in Buddhism. =--During these twenty centuries Buddhism hasundergone change. Buddha had himself formed communities of monks. Those who entered these renounced their family, took the vow ofpoverty and chastity; they had to wear filthy rags and beg theirliving. These religious rapidly multiplied; they founded convents inall Eastern Asia, gathered in councils to fix the doctrine, proclaimeddogmas and rules. As they became powerful they, like the Brahmans, came to esteem themselves as above the rest of the faithful. "Thelayman, " they said, "plight to support the religious and considerhimself much honored that the holy man accepts his offering. It ismore commendable to feed one religious than many thousands of laymen. "In Thibet the religious, men and women together, constitute a fifth ofthe entire population, and their head, the Grand Lama, is veneratedas an incarnation of God. 

At the same time that they transformed themselves into masters, theBuddhist religious constructed a complicated theology, full offantastic figures. They say there is an infinite number of worlds. Ifone surrounded with a wall a space capable of holding 100, 000 timesten millions of those worlds, if this wall were raised to heaven, andif the whole space were filled with grains of mustard, the number ofthe grains would not even then equal one-half the number of worldswhich occupy but one division of heaven. All these worlds are full ofcreatures, gods, men, beasts, demons, who are born and who die. Theuniverse itself is annihilated and another takes its place. Theduration of each universe is called _kalpa_; and this is the way weobtain an impression of a kalpa: if there were a rock twelve miles inheight, breadth, and length, and if once in a century it were onlytouched with a piece of the finest linen, this rock would be worn andreduced to the size of a kernel of mango before a quarter of a kalpahad elapsed. 

=Buddha Transformed into a God. =--It no longer satisfied the Buddhiststo honor their founder as a perfect man; they made him a god, erectingidols to him, and offering him worship. They adored also the saints, his disciples; pyramids and shrines were built to preserve theirbones, their teeth, their cloaks. From every quarter the faithful cameto venerate the impression of the foot of Buddha. 

=Mechanical Prayer. =--Modern Buddhists regard prayer as a magicalformula which acts of itself. They spend the day reciting prayers asthey walk or eat, often in a language which they do not understand. They have invented prayer-machines; these are revolving cylinders andaround these are pasted papers on which the prayer is written; everyturn of the cylinder counts for the utterance of the prayer as manytimes as it is written on the papers. 

=Amelioration of Manners. =--And yet Buddhism remains a religion ofpeace and charity. Wherever it reigns, kings refrain from war, andeven from the chase; they establish hospitals, caravansaries, evenasylums for animals. Strangers, even Christian missionaries, arehospitably received; they permit the women to go out, and to walkwithout veiling themselves; they neither fight nor quarrel. AtBangkok, a city of 400, 000 souls, hardly more than one murder a yearis known. 

Buddhism has enfeebled the intelligence and sweetened thecharacter. [27]

FOOTNOTES:

[22] The process is as follows: when a word (or rather a root) is foundin several Aryan languages at once, it is admitted that this was in usebefore the dispersion occurred, and therefore the people knew the objectdesignated by the word. 

[23] The Punjab. --ED. 

[24] Prayer of the Mahabarata cited by Lenormant. 

[25] A spirituous liquor made by the natives. --ED. 

[26] A high estimate. --ED. 

[27] India is for us the country of the Vedas, the Brahmans, and Buddha. We know the religion of the Hindoos, but of their political history weare ignorant. 

CHAPTER VI

THE PERSIANS

THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER

=Iran. =--Between the Tigris and the Indus, the Caspian Sea and thePersian Gulf rises the land of Iran, five times as great asFrance, [28] but partly sterile. It is composed of deserts of burningsand and of icy plateaux cut by deep and wooded valleys. Mountainssurround it preventing the escape of the rivers which must losethemselves in the sands or in the salt lakes. The climate is harsh, very uneven, torrid in summer, frigid in winter; in certain quartersone passes from 104° above zero to 40° below, from the cold of Siberiato the heat of Senegal. Violent winds blow which "cut like a sword. "But in the valleys along the rivers the soil is fertile. Here thepeach and cherry are indigenous; the country is a land of fruits andpastures. 

=The Iranians. =--Aryan tribes inhabited Iran. Like all the Aryans, they were a race of shepherds, but well armed and warlike. TheIranians fought on horseback, drew the bow, and, to protect themselvesfrom the biting wind of their country, wore garments of skin sewed onthe body. 

=Zoroaster. =--Like the ancient Aryans, they first adored the forces ofnature, especially the sun (Mithra). Between the tenth and seventh[29]centuries before our era their religion was reformed by a sage, Zarathustra (Zoroaster). We know nothing certainly about him excepthis name. 

=The Zend-Avesta. =--No writing from the hand of Zoroaster is preservedto us; but his doctrine, reduced to writing long after his death, isconserved in the Zend-Avesta (law and reform), the sacred books of thePersians. It was a compilation written in an ancient language (theZend) which the faithful themselves no longer understood. It wasdivided into twenty-one books, inscribed on 12, 000 cow skins, bound bygolden cords. The Mohammedans destroyed it when they invaded Persia. But some Persian families, faithful to the teaching of Zoroaster, fledinto India. Their posterity, whom we call Parsees, have theremaintained the old religion. An entire book of the Zend-Avesta andfragments of two others have been found among them. 

=Ormuzd and Ahriman. =--The Zend-Avesta is the sacred book of thereligion of Zoroaster. According to these writings Ahura Mazda(Ormuzd), "the omniscient sovereign, " created the world. He isaddressed in prayer in the following language: "I invoke and celebratethe creator, Ahura Mazda, luminous, glorious, most intelligent andbeautiful, eminent in purity, who possessest the good knowledge, source of joy, who hast treated us, hast fashioned us, and hastnourished us. " Since he is perfect in his goodness, he can createonly that which is good. Everything bad in the world has been createdby an evil deity, Angra Manyou, (Ahriman), the "spirit of anguish. "

=Angels and Demons. =--Over against Ormuzd, the god and the creator, isAhriman, wicked and destructive. Each has in his service a legion ofspirits. The soldiers of Ormuzd are the good angels (yazatas), thoseof Ahriman the evil demons (devs). The angels dwell in the East in thelight of the rising sun; the demons in the West in the shadows of thedarkness. The two armies wage incessant warfare; the world is theirbattleground, for both troops are omnipresent. Ormuzd and his angelsseek to benefit men, to make them good and happy; Ahriman and hisdemons gnaw around them to destroy them, to make them unhappy andwicked. 

=Creatures of Ormuzd and Ahriman. =--Everything good on the earth isthe work of Ormuzd and works for good; the sun and fire that dispelthe night, the stars, fermented drinks that seem to be liquid fire, the water that satisfies the thirst of man, the cultivated fields thatfeed him, the trees that shade him, domestic animals--especially thedog, [30] the birds (because they live in the air), among all these thecock since he announces the day. On the other hand everything that isbaneful comes from Ahriman and tends to evil: the night, drought, cold, the desert, poisonous plants, thorns, beasts of prey, serpents, parasites (mosquitoes, fleas, bugs) and animals that live in darkholes--lizards, scorpions, toads, rats, ants. Likewise in the moralworld life, purity, truth, work are good things and come from Ormuzd;death, filth, falsehood, idleness are bad, and issue from Ahriman. 

=Worship. =--From these notions proceed worship and morality. Man oughtto adore the good god[31] and fight for him. According to Herodotus, "The Persians are not accustomed to erect statues, temples, or altarsto their gods; they esteem those who do this as lacking in sense forthey do not believe, as the Greeks do, that the gods have humanforms. "[32] Ormuzd manifests himself only under the form of fire orthe sun. This is why the Persians perform their worship in the openair on the mountains, before a lighted fire. To worship Ormuzd theysing hymns to his praise and sacrifice animals in his honor. 

=Morality. =--Man fights for Ormuzd in aiding his efforts and inovercoming Ahriman's. He wars against darkness in supplying the firewith dry wood and perfumes; against the desert in tilling the soil andin building houses; against the animals of Ahriman in killingserpents, lizards, parasites, and beasts of prey. He battles againstimpurity in keeping himself clean, in banishing from himselfeverything that is dead, especially the nails and hair, for "wherehairs and clipped nails are, demons and unclean animals assemble. " Hefights against falsehood by always being truthful. "The Persians, "says Herodotus, [33] "consider nothing so shameful as lying, and afterfalsehood nothing so shameful as contracting debts, for he who hasdebts necessarily lies. " He wars against death by marrying and havingmany children. "Terrible, " says the Zend-Avesta, "are the houses voidof posterity. "

=Funerals. =--As soon as a man is dead his body belongs to the evilspirit. It is necessary, then, to remove it from the house. But itought not to be burned, for in this way the fire would be polluted; itshould not be buried, for so is the soil defiled; nor is it to bedrowned, and thus contaminate the water. These dispositions of thecorpse would bring permanent pollution. The Persians resorted to adifferent method. The body with face toward the sun was exposed in anelevated place and left uncovered, securely fixed with stones; thebearers then withdrew to escape the demons, for they assemble "in theplaces of sepulture, where reside sickness, fever, filth, cold, andgray hairs. " Dogs and birds, pure animals, then come to purify thebody by devouring it. 

=Destiny of the Soul. =--The soul of the dead separates itself from thebody. In the third night after death it is conducted over the "Bridgeof Assembling" (Schinvat) which leads to the paradise above the gulfof inferno. There Ormuzd questions it on its past life. If it haspractised the good, the pure spirits and the spirits of dogs supportit and aid it in crossing the bridge and give it entrance into theabode of the blest; the demons flee, for they cannot bear the odor ofvirtuous spirits. The soul of the wicked, on the other hand, comes tothe dread bridge, and reeling, with no one to support it, is draggedby demons to hell, is seized by the evil spirit and chained in theabyss of darkness. 

=Character of Mazdeism. =--This religion originated in a country ofviolent contrasts, luxuriant valleys side by side with barren steppes, cool oases with burning deserts, cultivated fields and stretches ofsand, where the forces of nature seem engaged in an eternal warfare. This combat which the Iranian saw around him he assumed to be the lawof the universe. Thus a religion of great purity was developed, whichurged man to work and to virtue; but at the same time issued a beliefin the devil and in demons which was to propagate itself in the westand torment all the peoples of Europe. 

THE PERSIAN EMPIRE

=The Medes. =--Many were the tribes dwelling in Iran; two of these havebecome noted in history--the Medes and the Persians. The Medes at thewest, nearer the Assyrians, destroyed Nineveh and its empire (625). But soon they softened their manners, taking the flowing robes, theindolent life, the superstitious religion of the degenerate Assyrians. They at last were confused with them. 

=The Persians. =--The Persians to the east preserved their manners, their religion, and their vigor. "For twenty years, " says Herodotus, "the Persians teach their children but three things--to mount a horse, to draw the bow, and to tell the truth. "

=Cyrus. =--About 550 Cyrus, their chief, overthrew the king of theMedes, reunited all the peoples of Iran, and then conquered Lydia, Babylon, and all Asia Minor. Herodotus recounts in detail a legendwhich became attached to this prince. Cyrus himself in an inscriptionsays of himself, "I am Cyrus, king of the legions, great king, mightyking, king of Babylon, king of Sumir and Akkad, king of the fourregions, son of Cambyses, great king of Susiana, grand-son of Cyrus, king of Susiana. "

=The Inscription of Behistun. =--The eldest son of Cyrus, Cambyses, putto death his brother Smerdis and conquered Egypt. What occurredafterward is known to us from an inscription. Today one may see on thefrontier of Persia, in the midst of a plain, an enormous rock, cutperpendicularly, about 1, 500 feet high, the rock of Behistun. Abas-relief carved on the rock represents a crowned king, with lefthand on a bow; he tramples on one captive while nine other prisonersare presented before him in chains. An inscription in three languagesrelates the life of the king: "Darius the king declares, This is whatI did before I became king. Cambyses, son of Cyrus, of our race, reigned here before me. This Cambyses had a brother Smerdis, of thesame father and the same mother. One day Cambyses killed Smerdis. WhenCambyses had killed Smerdis the people were ignorant that Smerdis wasdead. After this Cambyses made an expedition to Egypt and while he wasthere the people became rebellious; falsehood was then rife in thecountry, in Persia, in Media and the other provinces. There was atthat time a magus named Gaumata; he deceived the people by saying thathe was Smerdis, the son of Cyrus. Then the whole people rose inrevolt, forsook Cambyses and went over to the pretender. After thisCambyses died from a wound inflicted by himself. 

"After Gaumata had drawn away Persia, Media, and the other countriesfrom Cambyses, he followed out his purpose: he became king. The peoplefeared him on account of his cruelty: he would have killed the peopleso that no one might learn that he was not Smerdis, the son of Cyrus. Darius the king declares there was not a man in all Persia or in Mediawho dared to snatch the crown from this Gaumata, the magus. Then Ipresented myself, I prayed Ormuzd. Ormuzd accorded me hisprotection.... Accompanied by faithful men I killed this Gaumata andhis principal accomplices. By the will of Ormuzd I became king. Theempire which had been stolen from our race I restored to it. Thealtars that Gaumata, the magus, had thrown down I rebuilt to thedeliverance of the people; I received the chants and the sacredceremonials. " Having overturned the usurper, Darius had to make war onmany of the revolting princes, "I have, " said he, "won nineteenbattles and overcome nine kings. "

=The Persian Empire. =--Darius then subjected the peoples in revolt andreëstablished the empire of the Persians. He enlarged it also byconquering Thrace and a province of India. This empire reunited allthe peoples of the Orient: Medes and Persians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Jews, Phœnicians, Syrians, Lydians, Egyptians, Indians; it coveredall the lands from the Danube on the west to the Indus on the east, from the Caspian Sea on the north to the cataracts of the Nile on thesouth. It was the greatest empire up to this time. One tribe ofmountaineers, the last to come, thus received the heritage of all theempires of Asia. 

=The Satrapies. =--Oriental kings seldom concerned themselves withtheir subjects more than to draw money from them, levy soldiers, andcollect presents; they never interfered in their local affairs. Darius, like the rest, left each of the peoples of his empire toadminister itself according to its own taste, to keep its language, its religion, its laws, often its ancient princes. But he took care toregulate the taxes which his subjects paid him. He divided all theempire into twenty[34] districts called satrapies. There were in thesame satrapy peoples who differed much in language, customs, andbeliefs; but each satrapy was to pay a fixed annual tribute, partly ingold and silver, partly in natural products (wheat, horses, ivory). The satrap, or governor, had the tribute collected and sent it to theking. 

=Revenues of the Empire. =--The total revenue of the king amounted tosixteen millions of dollars and this money was paid by weight. Thissum was in addition to the tributes in kind. These sixteen millions ofdollars, if we estimate them by the value of the metals at this time, would be equivalent to one hundred and twenty millions in our day. With this sum the king supported his satraps, his army, his domesticservants and an extravagant court; there still remained to him everyyear enormous ingots of metal which accumulated in his treasuries. The king of Persia, like all the Orientals, exercised his vanity inpossessing an immense treasure. 

=The Great King. =--No king had ever been so powerful and rich. TheGreeks called the Persian king The Great King. Like all the monarchsof the East, the king had absolute sway over all his subjects, overthe Persians as well as over tributary peoples. From Herodotus one cansee how Cambyses treated the great lords at his court. "What do thePersians think of me?" said he one day to Prexaspes, whose son was hiscupbearer. "Master, they load you with praises, but they believe thatyou have a little too strong desire for wine. " "Learn, " said Cambysesin anger, "whether the Persians speak the truth. If I strike in themiddle of the heart of your son who is standing in the vestibule, thatwill show that the Persians do not know what they say. " He drew hisbow and struck the son of Prexaspes. The youth fell; Cambyses had thebody opened to see where the shot had taken effect The arrow was foundin the middle of the heart. The prince, full of joy said in derisionto the father of the young man, "You see that it is the Persians whoare out of their senses; tell me if you have seen anybody strike themark with so great accuracy. " "Master, " replied Prexaspes, "I do notbelieve that even a god could shoot so surely. "[35]

=Services Rendered by the Persians. =--The peoples of Asia have alwayspaid tribute to conquerors and given allegiance to despots. ThePersians, at least, rendered them a great service: in subjecting allthese peoples to one master they prevented them from fighting amongthemselves. Under their domination we do not see a ceaseless burningof cities, devastation of fields, massacre or wholesale enslavement ofinhabitants. It was a period of peace. 

=Susa and Persepolis. =--The kings of the Medes and Persians, followingthe example of the lords of Assyria, had palaces built for them. Thosebest known to us are the palaces at Susa and Persepolis. The ruins ofSusa have been excavated by a French engineer, [36] who has discoveredsculptures, capitals, and friezes in enameled bricks which giveevidence of an advanced stage of art. The palace of Persepolis hasleft ruins of considerable mass. The rock of the hill had beenfashioned into an enormous platform on which the palace was built. Theapproach to it was by a gently rising staircase so broad that tenhorsemen could ascend riding side by side. 

=Persian Architecture. =--Persian architects had copied the palaces ofthe Assyrians. At Persepolis and Susa, as in Assyria, are flat-roofededifices with terraces, gates guarded by monsters carved in stone, bas-reliefs and enameled bricks, representing hunting-scenes andceremonies. At three points, however, the Persians improved on theirmodels:

(1) They used marble instead of brick; (2) they made in the hallspainted floors of wood; (3) they erected eight columns in the form oftrunks of trees, the slenderest that we know, twelve times as high asthey were thick. 

Thus their architecture is more elegant and lighter than that ofAssyria. 

The Persians had made little progress in the arts. But they seem tohave been the most honest, the sanest, and the bravest people of thetime. For two centuries they exercised in Asia a sovereignty the leastcruel and the least unjust that it had ever known. 

FOOTNOTES:

[28] That is, of about the same area as that part of the United Stateseast of the Mississippi, with Minnesota and Iowa. Modern Persia is nottwo-thirds of this area. --ED. 

[29] Most historians place Zoroaster before 1000 B. C. --ED. 

[30] "I created the dog, " said Ormuzd, "with a delicate scent and strongteeth, attached to man, biting the enemy to protect the herds. Thievesand wolves come not near the sheep-fold when the dog is on guard, strongin voice and defending the flocks. "

[31] Certain Persian heretics of our day, on the contrary, adore onlythe evil god, for, they say, the principle of the good being in itselfgood and indulgent does not require appeasing. They are called Yezidis(worshippers of the devil). 

[32] Herod. , i. , 131. 

[33] i. , 138. 

[34] Herodotus mentions 20, but we find as many as 31 enumerated in theinscriptions. 

[35] Herod. , iii. , 34, 35. Compare also iii. , 78, 79; and the book ofEsther. 

[36] M. Dieulafoi. 

CHAPTER VII

THE PHŒNICIANS

THE PHŒNICIAN PEOPLE

=The Land. =--Phœnicia is the narrow strip of country one hundred andfifty miles long by twenty-four to thirty wide, shut in between thesea of Syria and the high range of Lebanon. It is a succession ofnarrow valleys and ravines confined by abrupt hills which descendtowards the sea; little torrents formed by the snows or rain-stormscourse through these in the early spring; in summer no water remainsexcept in wells and cisterns. The mountains in this quarter werealways covered with trees; at the summit were the renowned cedars ofLebanon, on the ridges, pines and cypresses; while lower yet palmsgrew even to the sea-shore. In the valleys flourished the olive, thevine, the fig, and the pomegranate. 

=The Cities. =--At intervals along the rocky coast promontories orislands formed natural harbors. On these the Phœnicians had foundedtheir cities; Tyre and Arad were each built on a small island. Thepeople housed themselves in dwellings six to eight stories in height. Fresh water was ferried over in ships. The other cities, Gebel, Beirut, and Sidon arose on the mainland. The soil was inadequate tosupport these swarms of men, and so the Phœnicians were before allelse seamen and traders. 

=Phœnician Ruins. =--Not a book of the Phœnicians has come down to us, not even their sacred book. The sites of their cities have beenexcavated. But, in the words of the scholar sent to do this work, "Ruins are not preserved, especially in countries where people are notoccupied with them, " and the Syrians are not much occupied with ruins. They have violated the tombs to remove the jewels of the dead, havedemolished edifices to secure stone for building purposes, andMussulman hatred of chiseled figures has shattered the sculptures. [37]Very little is found beyond broken marble, cisterns, wine-presses cutin the rock and some sarcophagi hewn in rock. All this débris gives uslittle information and we know very little more of the Phœnicians thanGreek writers and Jewish prophets have taught us. 

=Political Organization of the Phœnicians. =--The Phœnicians neverbuilt an empire. Each city had its little independent territory, itsassemblies, its king, and its government. For general state businesseach city sent delegates to Tyre, which from the thirteenth centuryB. C. Was the principal city of Phœnicia. The Phœnicians were not amilitary people, and so submitted themselves to all theconquerors--Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians. Theyfulfilled all their obligations to them in paying tribute. 

=Tyre. =--From the thirteenth century Tyre was the most notable of thecities. Its island becoming too small to contain it, a new city wasbuilt on the coast opposite. Tyrian merchants had founded colonies inevery part of the Mediterranean, receiving silver from the mines ofSpain and commodities from the entire ancient world. The prophetIsaiah[38] calls these traders princes; Ezekiel[39] describes thecaravans which came to them from all quarters. It is Hiram, a king ofTyre, from whom Solomon asked workmen to build his palace and templeat Jerusalem. 

=Carthage. =--A colony of Tyre surpassed even her in power. In theninth century some Tyrians, exiled by a revolution, founded on theshore of Africa near Tunis the city of Carthage. A woman led them, Elissar, whom we call Dido (the fugitive). The inhabitants of thecountry, says the legend, were willing to sell her only as much landas could be covered by a bull's hide; but she cut the hide in stripsso narrow that it enclosed a wide territory; and there she constructeda citadel. Situated at the centre of the Mediterranean, provided withtwo harbors, Carthage flourished, sent out colonies in turn, madeconquests, and at last came to reign over all the coasts of Africa, Spain, and Sardinia. Everywhere she had agencies for her commerce andsubjects who paid her tribute. 

=The Carthaginian Army. =--To protect her colonies from the natives, tohold her subjects in check who were always ready to revolt, a strongarmy was necessary. But the life of a Carthaginian was too valuable torisk it without necessity. Carthage preferred to pay mercenarysoldiers, recruiting them among the barbarians of her empire and amongthe adventurers of all countries. Her army was a bizarre aggregationin which all languages were spoken, all religions practised, and inwhich every soldier wore different arms and costume. There were seenNumidians clothed in lion skins which served them as couch, mountedbareback on small fleet horses, and drawing the bow with horse at fullgallop; Libyans with black skins, armed with pikes; Iberians fromSpain in white garments adorned with red, armed with a long pointedsword; Gauls, naked to the girdle, bearing enormous shields and arounded sword which they held in both hands; natives of the BalearicIslands, trained from infancy to sling with stones or balls of lead. The generals were Carthaginians; the government distrusted them, watched them closely, and when they were defeated, had them crucified. 

=The Carthaginians. =--Carthage had two kings, but the senate was thereal power, being composed of the richest merchants of the city. Andso every state question for this government became a matter ofcommerce. The Carthaginians were hated by all other peoples, who foundthem cruel, greedy, and faithless. And yet, since they had a goodfleet, had money to purchase soldiers, and possessed an energeticgovernment, they succeeded in the midst of barbarous and dividedpeoples in maintaining their empire over the western Mediterranean for300 years (from the sixth to the third century B. C. ). 

=The Phœnician Religion. =--The Phœnicians and the Carthaginians had areligion similar to that of the Chaldeans. The male god, Baal, is asun-god; for the sun and the moon are in the eyes of the Phœniciansthe great forces which create and which destroy. Each of the cities ofPhœnicia has therefore its divine pair: at Sidon it is Baal Sidon (thesun) and Astoreth (the moon); at Gebel, Baal Tammouz and Baaleth; atCarthage, Baal-Hamon, and Tanith. But the same god changes his nameaccording as he is conceived as creator or destroyer; thus Baal asdestroyer is worshipped at Carthage under the name of Moloch. Thesegods, represented by idols, have their temples, altars, and priests. As creators they are honored with orgies, with tumultuous feasts; asdestroyers, by human victims. Astoreth, the great goddess of Sidon, whom they represented by the crescent of the moon and the dove, hadher cult in the sacred woods. Baal Moloch is figured at Carthage as abronze colossus with arms extended and lowered. When they wished toappease him they laid children in his hands who fell at once into apit of fire. During the siege of Carthage by Agathocles the principalmen of the city sacrificed to Moloch as many as two hundred of theirchildren. 

This sensual and sanguinary religion inspired other peoples withhorror, but they imitated it. The Jews sacrificed to Baal on themountains; the Greeks adored Astarte of Sidon under the name ofAphrodite, and Baal Melkhart of Tyre under the name of Herakles. 

PHŒNICIAN COMMERCE

=Phœnicians Occupations. =--Crowded into a small territory, thePhœnicians gained their livelihood mainly from commerce. None of theother peoples of the East--the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, theAssyrians, nor the barbarian tribes of the West (Spaniards, Gauls, Italians) had a navy. The Phœnicians alone in this time dared tonavigate. They were the commission merchants of the old world; theywent to every people to buy their merchandise and sold them inexchange the commodities of other countries. This traffic was bycaravan with the East, by sea with the West. 

=Caravans. =--On land the Phœnicians sent caravans in three directions:

 1. --Towards Arabia, from which they brought gold, agate, and onyx, incense and myrrh, and the perfumes of Arabia; pearls, spices, ivory, ebony, ostrich plumes and apes from India. 

 2. --Towards Assyria, whence came cotton and linen cloths, asphalt, precious stones, perfumery, and silk from China. 

 3. --Towards the Black Sea, where they went to receive horses, slaves, and copper vases made by the mountaineers of the Caucasus. 

=Marine Commerce. =--For their sea commerce they built ships from thecedars of Lebanon to be propelled by oars and sails. In their sailingit was not necessary to remain always in sight of the coast, for theyknew how to direct their course by the polar star. Bold mariners, theypushed in their little boats to the mouth of the Mediterranean; theyventured even to pass through the strait of Gibraltar or, as theancients called it, the Pillars of Hercules, and took the ocean courseto the shores of England, and perhaps to Norway, Phœnicians in theservice of a king of Egypt started in the seventh century B. C. Tocircumnavigate Africa, and returned, it is said, at the end of threeyears by the Red Sea. An expedition issuing from Carthage skirted thecoast of Africa to the Gulf of Guinea; the commander Hanno wrote anaccount of the voyage which is still preserved. 

=Commodities. =--To civilized peoples the Phœnicians sold the productsof their industry. In barbarous countries they went to search for whatthey could not find in the Orient. On the coast of Greece theygathered shell-fish from which they extracted a red tint, the purple;cloths colored with purple were used among all the peoples of ancienttimes for garments of kings and great lords. 

From Spain and Sardinia they brought the silver which the inhabitantstook from the mines. Tin was necessary to make bronze, an alloy ofcopper and tin, but the Orient did not furnish this, and so theysought it even on the coasts of England, in the Isles of Tin (theCassiterides). In every country they procured slaves. Sometimes theybought them, as lately the slavers bought negroes on the coast ofAfrica, for all the peoples of this time made commerce in slaves;sometimes they swooped down on a coast, threw themselves on the womenand children and carried them off to be retained in their own citiesor to be sold abroad; for on occasion they were pirates and did notscruple to plunder strangers. 

=The Secrets Kept by the Phœnicians. =--The Phœnicians did not care tohave mariners of other peoples come into competition with them. On thereturn from these far countries they concealed the road which they hadtravelled. No one in antiquity knew where were the famous Isles of theCassiterides from which they got their tin. It was by chance that aGreek ship discovered Spain, with which the Phœnicians had traded forcenturies. Carthage drowned the foreign merchants whom they found inSardinia or on the shore of Gibraltar. Once a Carthaginianmerchantman, seeing a strange ship following it, was run aground bythe pilot that the foreigner might not see where he was going. 

=Colonies. =--In the countries where they traded, the Phœniciansfounded factories, or branch-houses. They were fortified posts on anatural harbor. There they landed their merchandise, ordinarilycloths, pottery, ornaments, and idols. [40] The natives brought downtheir commodities and an exchange was made, just as now Europeanmerchants do with the negroes of Africa. There were Phœnician marketsin Cyprus, in Egypt, and in all the then barbarous countries of theMediterranean--in Crete, Greece, Sicily, Africa, Malta, Sardinia, onthe coasts of Spain at Malaga and Cadiz, and perhaps in Gaul atMonaco. Often around these Phœnician buildings the natives set uptheir cabins and the mart became a city. The inhabitants adopted thePhœnician gods, and even after the city had become Greek, the cult ofthe dove-goddess was found there (as in Cythera), that of the godMelkhart (as at Corinth), or of the god with the bull-face thatdevours human victims (as in Crete). 

=Influence of the Phœnicians. =--It is certain that the Phœnicians infounding their trading stations cared only for their own interest. Butit came to pass that their colonies contributed to civilization. Thebarbarians of the West received the cloths, the jewels, the utensilsof the peoples of the East who were more civilized, and, receivingthem, learned to imitate them. For a long time the Greeks had onlyvases, jewels, and idols brought by the Phœnicians, and these servedthem as models. The Phœnicians brought simultaneously from Egypt andfrom Assyria industry and commodities. 

=The Alphabet. =--At the same time they exported their alphabet. ThePhœnicians did not invent writing. The Egyptians knew how to write manycenturies before them, they even made use of letters each of whichexpressed its own sound, as in our alphabet. But their alphabet wasstill encumbered with ancient signs which represented, some a syllable, others an entire word. Doubtless the Phœnicians had need of a simplersystem for their books of commerce. They rejected all the syllabic signsand ideographs, preserving only twenty-two letters, each of which marksa sound (or rather an articulation of the language). The other peoplesimitated this alphabet of twenty-two letters. Some, like the Jews, wrotefrom right to left just as the Phœnicians themselves did; others, likethe Greeks, from left to right. All have slightly changed the form ofthe letters, but the Phœnician alphabet is found at the basis of allthe alphabets--Hebrew, Lycian, Greek, Italian, Etruscan, Iberian, perhaps even in the runes of the Norse. It is the Phœnicians that taughtthe world how to write. 

FOOTNOTES:

[37] Renan ("Mission de Phénicio, " p. 818) says, "I noticed at Tripolisa sarcophagus serving as a public fountain and the sculptured face of itwas turned to the wall. I was told that a governor had placed it thus soas not to provide distractions for the inhabitants. "

[38] See ch. Xxiii. 

[39] See chs. Xxvi. , xxvii. , xxviii. 

[40] These idols, one of their principal exports, are found wherever thePhœnicians traded. 

CHAPTER VIII

THE HEBREWS

ORIGIN OF THE HEBREW PEOPLE

=The Bible. =--The Jews united all their sacred books into a singleaggregation which we call by a Greek name the Bible, that is to say, the Book. It is the Book par excellence. The sacred book of the Jewsbecame also the sacred book of the Christians. The Bible is at thesame time the history of the Jewish nation, and all that we know ofthe sacred people we owe to the sacred books. 

=The Hebrews. =--When the Semites had descended from the mountains ofArmenia into the plains of the Euphrates, one of their tribes, at thetime of the first Chaldean empire, withdrew to the west, crossed theEuphrates, the desert, and Syria and came to the country of the Jordanbeyond Phœnicia. This tribe was called the Hebrews, that is to say, the people from beyond the river. Like the majority of the Semitesthey were a race of nomadic shepherds. They did not till the soil andhad no houses; they moved from place to place with their herds ofcattle, sheep, and camels, seeking pasturage and living in tents asthe Arabs of the desert do to this day. In the book of Genesis one hasa glimpse of this nomad life. 

=The Patriarchs. =--The tribe was like a great family; it was composedof the chief, his wives, his children, and his servants. The chief hadabsolute authority over all; for the tribe he was father, priest, judge, and king. We call these tribal chiefs patriarchs. The principalones were Abraham and Jacob; the former the father of the Hebrews, thelatter of the Israelites. The Bible represents both of them asdesigned by God to be the scions of a sacred people. Abraham made acovenant with God that he and his descendants would obey him; Godpromised to Abraham a posterity more numerous than the stars ofheaven. Jacob received from God the assurance that a great nationshould issue from himself. 

=The Israelites. =--Moved by a vision Jacob took the name of Israel(contender with God). His tribe was called Beni-Israel (sons ofIsrael) or Israelites. The Bible records that, driven by famine, Jacobabandoned the Jordan country to settle with all his house on theeastern frontier of Egypt, to which Joseph, one of his sons who hadbecome minister of a Pharaoh, invited him. There the sons of Israelabode for several centuries. Coming hither but seventy in number, theymultiplied, according to the Bible, until they became six hundredthousand men, without counting women and children. 

=The Call of Moses. =--The king of Egypt began to oppress them, compelling them to make mortar and bricks for the construction of hisstrong cities. It was then that one of them, Moses, received from Godthe mission to deliver them. One day while he was keeping his herds onthe mountain, an angel appeared to him in the midst of a burningbush, and he heard these words: "I am the God of Abraham, the God ofIsaac, the God of Jacob. I have seen the affliction of my people whichis in Egypt, I have heard their cry against their oppressors, I knowtheir sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hands ofthe Egyptians and to bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites.... Come now therefore and I will sendthee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people, the childrenof Israel, out of Egypt. "[41] The Israelites under the guidance ofMoses fled from Egypt (the Exodus); they journeyed to the foot ofMount Sinai, where they received the law of God, and for an entiregeneration wandered in the deserts to the south of Syria. 

=Israel in the Desert. =--Often the Israelites wished to turn back. "Weremember, " said they, "the fish which we ate in Egypt, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, and onions. Let us appoint a chief who will lead usback to Egypt. " Moses, however, held them to obedience. At last theyreached the land promised by God to their race. 

=The Promised Land. =--It was called the land of Canaan or Palestine;the Jews named it the land of Israel, later Judea. Christians havetermed it =the= Holy Land. It is an arid country, burning with heat inthe summer, but a country of mountains. The Bible describes it thus:"Jehovah thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks ofwater, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills, aland of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, andpomegranates; a land of oil olive and honey, wherein thou shalt eatbread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it. " TheIsraelites according to their estimate were then 601, 700 men capableof bearing arms, divided among twelve tribes, ten descended fromJacob, two from Joseph; this enumeration does not include the Levitesor priests to the number of 23, 000. The land was occupied by severalsmall peoples who were called Canaanites. The Israelites exterminatedthem and at last occupied their territory. 

THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL

=One God. =--The other ancient peoples adored many gods; the Israelitesbelieved in but one God, immaterial, who made the world and governsit. "In the beginning, " says the book of Genesis, "God created theheavens and the earth. " He created plants and animals, he "created manin his own image. " All men are the handiwork of God. 

=The People of God. =--But among all mankind God has chosen thechildren of Israel to make of them "his people. " He called Abraham andsaid to him, "I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thyseed after me ... To be a God unto thee and to thy seed. " He appearedto Jacob: "I am God, " said he to him, "the God of thy father; fear notto go down into Egypt, for I will make of thee there a great nation. "When Moses asks his name, he replies, "Thou shalt say to the childrenof Israel, The Lord, the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, theGod of Isaac, the God of Jacob hath sent me unto you. This is my nameforever. "

=The Covenant. =--There is, then, a covenant between the Israelites andGod. Jehovah (the Eternal) loves and protects the Israelites, they are"a holy nation, " "his most precious jewel among all the nations. " Hepromises to make them mighty and happy. In return, the Israelitesswear to worship him, to serve him, to obey him in everything as alawgiver, a judge, and a sovereign. 

=The Ten Commandments. =--Jehovah, lawgiver of the Israelites, dictatedhis precepts to Moses on Mount Sinai amidst lightnings andthunderings. They were inscribed on two tables, the Tables of the Law, in these terms:

"Hear, O Israel, I am Jehovah, thy God, who brought you out of theland of Egypt, from the land of bondage. " (Then follow the tencommandments to be found in the twentieth chapter of the book ofExodus. )

=The Law. =--Beside the ten commandments, the Israelites are requiredto obey many other divine ordinances. These are all delivered to themin the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, and constitutethe Law of Israel. The Law regulates the ceremonies of religion, establishes the feasts--including the Sabbath every seven days, thePassover in memory of the escape from Egypt, the week of harvest, thefeast of Tabernacles during the vintage; it organizes marriage, thefamily, property, government, fixes the penalty of crimes, indicateseven foods and remedies. It is a code at once religious, political, civil and penal. God the ruler of the Israelites has the right toregulate all the details of their lives. 

=Religion has made the Jewish People. =--The Israelites did not receivewith docility the government of God. Moses on his death-bed could sayto the Levites in delivering to them the book of the law, "Take thisbook that it may be a witness against you, Israel, for I know thyrebellion and thy stiff neck" (Deut. Xxxi. 27). "During my life youhave been rebellious against the Lord, and how much more after mydeath. " During these centuries some of the Israelites, often themajority of the nation, had been idolaters. They became similar to theother Semites of Syria. Only the Israelites who remained faithful toGod formed the Jewish people. It is the religion of Jehovah which hastransformed an obscure tribe into the holy nation, a small nation, butone of the most significant in the history of the world. 

THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL

=The Judges. =--Once established in Palestine the Hebrews remaineddivided for several centuries. "In those days, " says the Bible, "therewas no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his owneyes. " Often the Israelites forgot Jehovah and served the gods ofneighboring tribes. Then "the anger of the Lord was kindled againstthe Israelites, and he delivered them into the hands of theirenemies. " When they had repented and had humbled themselves, "the Lordraised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those thatspoiled them. " "But it came to pass that at the death of the judgethey corrupted themselves anew ... Bowing themselves to other gods. "These judges--Gideon, Jephthah, Samson--were warriors who came in thename of Jehovah to free the people. Then they fell at once intoidolatry again and their servitude was repeated. 

=The Kings. =--At last the Israelites were wearied and asked of Samuel, the high-priest, that he would give them a king. Samuel unwillinglyplaced Saul at their head. This king should have been the readyservant of the will of God; he dared to disobey him, upon which thehigh-priest said to him, "Thou hast rejected the word of the Lord andthe Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. " A war-chief, David, was set in his place. He defeated all the enemies of Israel, captured from them Mount Zion, and transferred his capital thither. This was Jerusalem. 

=Jerusalem. =--Compared with Babylon or Thebes, Jerusalem was a poorcapital. The Hebrews were not builders; their religion prevented themfrom raising temples; the houses of individuals were shaped like cubesof rock which may be seen today on the sides of Lebanon in the midstof vines and fig-trees. But Jerusalem was the holy city of theHebrews. The king had his palace there--the palace of Solomon, whoastonished the Hebrews with his throne of ivory; Jehovah had histemple there, the first Hebrew temple. 

=The Tabernacle. =--The emblem of the covenant between God and Israelwas a great chest of cedar-wood furnished with rings of gold, whichcontained the tables of the Law. This was borne before the people onhigh feast-days; it was the Ark of the Covenant. To preserve this arkand necessary objects of worship, Moses is said to have made theTabernacle--a pavilion of wood covered with skins and hangings. It wasa portable temple which the Hebrews carried with them until they coulderect a true temple in the promised land. 

=The Temple. =--The Temple of Jerusalem, built at last under Solomon, was divided into three parts:

 1. --To the rear, the Holy of Holies, in which rested the ark of the covenant; the high-priest only had the right to enter here, and that but once a year. 

 2. --In the middle, the Holy Place, in which were kept the altar of incense, the candle-stick with the seven arms, the table of shew-bread; the priests entered to burn incense and to present the offerings. 

 3. --At the front, the Court open to the people, where the victims were sacrificed on the great altar. 

The Temple of Jerusalem was from the first the centre of the nation;from all Palestine the people came to be present at the ceremonies. The high-priest who directed the worship was a person sometimes ofgreater power than the king. 

THE PROPHETS

=Disasters of Israel. =--Solomon was the last king who enjoyed greatpower. After him ten tribes separated themselves and constituted thekingdom of Israel, whose inhabitants worshipped the golden calves andthe gods of the Phœnicians. Two tribes only remained faithful toJehovah and to the king at Jerusalem; these formed the kingdom ofJudah (977). [42] The two kingdoms exhausted their energies in makingwar on each other. Then came the armies of the Eastern conquerors;Israel was destroyed by Sargon, king of Assyria (722); Judah, byNabuchodonosor (Nebuchadrezzar), king of Chaldea (586). 

=Sentiments of the Israelites. =--Faithful Israelites regarded thesewoes as a chastisement: God was punishing his people for theirdisobedience; as before, he delivered them from their conquerors. "Thechildren of Israel had sinned against Jehovah, their God, they hadbuilt them high places in every city, they imitated the nations aroundthem, although the Lord had forbidden them to do like them; they madethem idols of brass; they bowed themselves before all the host ofheaven [the stars], they worshipped Baal. It is for this that Jehovahrejected all the race of Israel, he afflicted them and delivered theminto the hands of those that plundered them. "

=The Prophets. =--Then appeared the prophets, or as they were called, the Seers: Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel. Usually they came fromthe desert where they had fasted, prayed, and given themselves tomeditation. They came in the name of Jehovah, not as warriors injudgment, but as preachers. They called the Israelites to repent, tooverthrow their idols, to return to Jehovah; they foretold all thewoes that would come upon them if they did not reconcile themselves tohim. They preached and uttered prophecies at the same time. 

=The New Teaching. =--These men on fire with the divine spirit foundthe official religion at Jerusalem mean and cold. Why should they, like the idolaters, slaughter cattle and burn incense to the honor ofGod? "Hear the word of Jehovah, " says Isaiah: "To what purpose is themultitude of your sacrifices? I am full of the burnt offerings of ramsand of the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood ofbullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.... Bring no more vainoblations, your incense is an abomination to me.... When ye spreadforth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you ... For your handsare full of blood. Wash you, make you clean ... Cease to do evil, learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge thefatherless, plead for the widow.... Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. " In place of sacrifices, the prophetswould set justice and good works. 

=The Messiah. =--Israel deserved its afflictions, but there would be alimit to the chastisement. "O my people, " says Isaiah in the name ofJehovah, "be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with arod ... After the manner of Egypt ... For yet a very little while andthe indignation shall cease ... And the burden shall be taken awayfrom off thy shoulder. " The prophets taught the people to look for thecoming of Him who should deliver them; they prepared the way for theMessiah. 

THE JEWISH PEOPLE

=Return to Jerusalem. =--The children of Judah, removed to the plain ofthe Euphrates, did not forget their country, but sang of it in theirchants: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we weptwhen we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in themidst thereof, for there they that carried us away required a song ... Saying, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion. ' How shall we sing theLord's song in a strange land?" After seventy years of captivity, Cyrus, victor over Babylon, allowed the Israelites to return toPalestine. They rebuilt Jerusalem, reconstructed the temple, restoredthe feasts, and recovered the sacred books. As a sign that they wereagain the people of Jehovah they renewed the covenant with him; it wasa formal treaty, written and signed by the chiefs of the people. 

=The Jews. =--The little kingdom of Jerusalem maintained itself forseven centuries, governed now by a king, now by the high-priest, butalways paying tribute to the masters of Syria--to the Persians first, later to the Macedonians and the Syrians, and last of all to theRomans. Faithful to the end to Jehovah, the Jews (their proper namesince the return) continued to live the law of Moses, to celebrate atJerusalem the feasts and the sacrifices. The high-priest, assisted bya council of the elders, preserved the law; scribes copied it anddoctors expounded it to the people. The faithful obliged themselves toobserve it in the smallest details. The Pharisees were eminent amongthem for their zeal in fulfilling all its requirements. 

=The Synagogues. =--Meanwhile the Jews for the sake of trade werepushing beyond the borders of Judæa into Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, andeven to Italy. Some of them were to be found in all the greatcities--Alexandria, Damascus, Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth and Rome. Dispersed among the Gentiles, the Jews were strenuous to preservetheir religion. They raised no temples, for the law prevented this;there could be but one Jewish temple, that at Jerusalem, where theycelebrated the solemn feasts. But they joined themselves together toread and comment on the word of God. These places of assembling werecalled Synagogues, from a Greek word signifying meetings. 

=Destruction of the Temple. =--The Christ appeared at this moment. TheJews crucified him and persecuted his disciples not only in Judæa butin every city where they found them in any number. In the year 70 A. D. Jerusalem, in revolt against the Romans, was taken by assault, and allthe inhabitants were massacred or sold into slavery. The Romans burntthe temple and carried away the sacred utensils. From that time therewas no longer a centre of the Jewish religion. 

=Fortunes of the Jews after the Dispersion. =--The Jewish nationsurvived the ruin of its capital. The Jews, scattered throughout theworld, learned to dispense with the temple. They preserved theirsacred books in the Hebrew tongue. Hebrew is the primitive language ofIsrael; the Jews since the return from Babylon no longer spoke it, butadopted the languages of the neighboring peoples--the Syriac, theChaldean, and especially the Greek. The Rabbis, however, instructed inthe religion, still learned the Hebrew, explained it, and commented onthe Scripture. [43] Thus the Jewish religion was preserved, and, thanks to it, the Jewish people. It made converts even among theGentiles; there were in the empire proselytes, that is, people whopractised the religion of Jehovah without being of the Jewish race. 

The Christian Church, powerful since the fourth century, commenced topersecute the Jews. This persecution has endured to this day in allChristian countries. Usually the Jews were tolerated on account oftheir wealth and because they transacted all banking operations; butthey were kept apart, not being permitted to hold any office. In themajority of cities they were compelled to wear a special costume, tolive in a special quarter, [44] gloomy, filthy, unhealthy, andsometimes at Easter time to send one of their number to suffer insult. The people suspected them of poisoning fountains, of killing children, of profaning the consecrated host; often the people rose against them, massacred them, and pillaged their houses. Judges under the leastpretext had them imprisoned, tortured, and burned. Sometimes thechurch tried to convert them by force; sometimes the government exiledthem _en masse_ from the country and confiscated their goods. The Jewsat last disappeared from France, [45] from Spain, England, and Italy. In Portugal, Germany, and Poland, and in the Mohammedan lands theymaintained themselves. From these countries after the cessation ofpersecution they returned to the rest of Europe. 

FOOTNOTES:

[41] Exodus iii, 1-10. 

[42] There is much uncertainty regarding the chronology of thisperiod. --ED. 

[43] The Talmud is the accumulation of these commentaries. 

[44] The Jewish Quarter at Rome was called the Ghetto. This name hassince been applied to all Jewish quarters. 

[45] Except at Avignon, on the domains of the Pope, and inAlsace-Lorraine. 

CHAPTER IX

GREECE AND THE GREEKS

=The Country. =--Greece is a very little country (about 20, 000 squaremiles), hardly larger than Switzerland; but it is a country of greatvariety, bristling with mountains, indented with gulfs--a countryoriginally constituted to influence mightily the character of the menwho inhabited it. 

A central chain, the Pindus, traverses Greece through the centre andcovers it with its rocky system. Toward the isthmus of Corinth itbecomes lower; but the Peloponnesus, on the other side of the isthmus, is elevated about 2, 000 feet above the sea level, like a citadelcrowned with lofty chains, abrupt and snowy, which fallperpendicularly into the sea. The islands themselves scattered alongthe coast are only submerged mountains whose summits rise above thesurface of the sea. In this diverse land there is little tillableground, but almost everywhere bare rock. The streams, like brooks, leave between their half-dried channel and the sterile rock of themountain only a narrow strip of fertile soil. In this beautifulcountry are found some forests, cypresses, laurels, palms, here andthere vines scattered on the rocky hillsides; but there are no richharvests and no green pasturages. Such a country produces wirymountaineers, active and sober. 

=The Sea. =--Greece is a land of shores: smaller than Portugal, it hasas great a coast-line as Spain. The sea penetrates it to a greatnumber of gulfs, coves, and indentations; it is ordinarily surroundedwith projecting rocks, or with approaching islands that form a naturalport. This sea is like a lake; it has not, like the ocean, a pale andsombre color; usually it is calm, lustrous, and, as Homer says, "ofthe color of violets. "

No sea lends itself better to navigation with small ships. Everymorning the north wind rises to conduct the barques of Athens to Asia;in the evening the south wind brings them back to port. From Greece toAsia Minor the islands are placed like stepping-stones; on a clear daythe mariner always has land in view. Such a sea beckons people tocross it. 

And so the Greeks have been sailors, traders, travellers, pirates, andadventurers; like the Phœnicians, they have spread over all theancient world, carrying with them the merchandise and the inventionsof Egypt, of Chaldea, and of Asia. 

=The Climate. =--The climate of Greece is mild. In Athens it freezeshardly once in twenty years; in summer the heat is moderated by thebreeze from the sea. [46] Today the people still lie in the streetsfrom the month of May to September. The air is cool and transparent;for many leagues could once be seen the crest of the statue of Pallas. The contours of distant mountains are not, as with us, enveloped inhaze, but show a clear line against the clear sky. It is a beautifulcountry which urges man to take life as a feast, for everything ishappy about him. "Walking at night in the gardens, listening to thegrasshoppers, playing the lute in the clear of the moon, going todrink at the spring at the mountain, carrying with him some wine thathe may drink while he sings, spending the days in dancing--these areGreek pleasures, the joys of a race poor, economical, and eternallyyoung. "

=Simplicity of Greek Life. =--In this country men are not melted withthe heat nor stiffened with cold; they live in the open air gay and atslight expense. Food in great quantity is not required, nor warmclothing, nor a comfortable house. The Greek could live on a handfulof olives and a sardine. His entire clothing consisted of sandals, atunic, a large mantle; very often he went bare-footed and bare-headed. His house was a meagre and unsubstantial building; the air easilyentered through the walls. A couch with some coverings, a coffer, somebeautiful vases, a lamp, --this was his furniture. The walls were bareand whitened with lime. This house was only a sleeping place. 

THE PEOPLE

=Origin of the Greeks. =--The people who inhabited this charming littleland were an Aryan people, related to the Hindoos and the Persians, and like them come from the mountains of Asia or the steppes beyondthe Caspian Sea. The Greeks had forgotten the long journey made bytheir ancestors; they said that they, like the grasshoppers, were thechildren of the soil. [47] But their language and the names of theirgods leave no doubt of their origin.... Like all the Aryans, theprimitive Greeks nourished themselves with milk and with the flesh oftheir herds; they moved about under arms, always ready to fight, andgrouped themselves in tribes governed by patriarchs. 

=The Legends. =--The Greeks like all the other ancient peoples wereignorant of their origin. They neither knew whence their ancestors hadcome nor when they had established themselves in Greece, nor what theyhad done there. To preserve the exact memory of things as they occur, there is need of some means of fixing them; but the Greeks did notknow how to write; they did not employ writing until about the eighthcentury B. C. They had no way of calculating the number of years. Laterthey adopted the usage of counting the years according to the greatfeast which was celebrated every four years at Olympia; a period offour years was called an olympiad. But the first olympiad was placedin 776 B. C. , and the chronology of the Greeks does not rise beyondthis date. 

And yet they used to tell in Greece a great number of legends aboutthis primitive period. These were especially the exploits of ancientkings and of heroes who were adored as demi-gods. These stories wereso mingled with fable that it is impossible to know how much truththey may contain. They said at Athens that the first king, Cecrops, was half man and half serpent; at Thebes, that Cadmus, founder of thecity, had come from Phœnicia to seek his sister Europa who had beenstolen by a bull; that he had killed a dragon and had sowed his teeth, from which was sprung a race of warriors, and that the noble familiesof Thebes descended from these warriors. At Argos it was said that theroyal family was the issue of Pelops to whom Zeus had given a shoulderof ivory to replace the one devoured by a goddess. Thus each countryhad its legends and the Greeks continued to the end to relate them andto offer worship to their ancient heroes--Perseus, Bellerophon, Herakles, Theseus, Minos, Castor and Pollux, Meleager, Œdipus. Themajority of the Greeks, even among the better educated, admitted, atleast in part, the truth of these traditions. They accepted ashistorical facts the war between the two sons of Œdipus, king ofThebes, and the expedition of the Argonauts, sailing forth in quest ofthe Golden Fleece, which was guarded by two brazen-footed bullsvomiting flames. 

=The Trojan War. =--Of all these legends the most fully developed andthe most celebrated was the legend of the Trojan War. It recountedthat about the twelfth century, Troy, a rich and powerful city, heldsway over the coast of Asia. Paris, a Trojan prince, having come toGreece, had abducted Helen, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. Agamemnon, king of Argos, made a league of the kings of Greece; aGreek army went in a fleet of two hundred galleys to besiege Troy. Thesiege endured ten years because the supreme god, Zeus, had taken theside of the Trojans. All the Greek chiefs participated in thisadventure. Achilles, the bravest and the most beautiful of these, killed Hector, the principal defender of Troy, and dragged his corpsearound the city; he fought clad in divine armor which had beenpresented him by his mother, a goddess of the sea; in turn he died, shot by an arrow in the heel. The Greeks, despairing of taking thecity by force, employed a trick: they pretended to depart, and left animmense horse of wood in which were concealed the chiefs of the army. The Trojans drew this horse into the city; during the night the chiefscame forth and opened the city to the Greeks. Troy was burnt, the menslaughtered, the women led away as slaves. But the chiefs of theGreeks on their return were beset by tempest. Some perished in thesea, others were cast on foreign shores. Odysseus, the most crafty ofthe chiefs, was for ten years buffeted from one land to another, losing successively all his ships, himself the sole survivor of thedisasters. 

All antiquity had steadfast faith in the Trojan War. 1184 B. C. Was setas the date of the ending of the siege, and men pointed out the siteof the city. In 1874 Schliemann purposed to excavate this site; it wasnecessary to traverse the débris of many cities which lay over it; atlast at a depth of about fifty feet he found in the deepest bed ofdébris the traces of a mighty city reduced to ashes, and in the ruinsof the principal edifice a casket filled with gems of gold which hecalled the Treasury of Priam. There was no inscription, and the city, the whole wall of which we have been able to bring to light, was avery small one. A large number of small, very rude idols have beenfound, which represent an owl-headed goddess (the Greeks thusrepresented the goddess Pallas). Beyond this no proof has been foundthat this city was called Troy. 

=The Homeric Poems. =--It is the two poems attributed to Homer whichhave made the taking of Troy renowned throughout the world--theIliad, which related the combats of the Greeks and the exploits ofAchilles before Troy; and the Odyssey, which recounts the adventuresof Odysseus (Ulysses) after the capture of Troy. 

These two poems were handed down for centuries without being committedto writing; the rhapsodists, wandering singers, knew long passagesfrom them by heart and recited them at feasts. It is not till thesixth century that Pisistratus, a prince of Athens, had them collectedand edited. [48] The two poems became from that time and alwaysremained the most admired works of Greek literature. 

The Greeks said that the author of these poems was Homer, a Greek ofIonia, who lived about the tenth or the ninth century B. C. Theyrepresented him as a blind old man, poor and a wanderer. Seven townsdisputed the honor of being his birth-place. This tradition wasreceived without hesitation. But at the end of the eighteenth centurya German scholar, Wolf, noticed certain contradictions in these poems, and at last asserted that they were not the work of a single poet, buta collection of fragments from several different poets. This theoryhas been attacked and supported with great energy: for a half centurymen have flown into a passion for or against the existence of Homer. Today we begin to think the problem insoluble. What is certain is thatthese poems are very old, probably of the ninth century. The Iliad wascomposed in Asia Minor and is perhaps the result of the union of twopoems--one dedicated to the combats of the Trojans, and the other tothe adventures of Achilles. The Odyssey appears to be the work of oneauthor; but it cannot be affirmed that it is of the same author as theIliad. 

=The Greeks at the Time of Homer. =--We are not able to go back veryfar in the history of the Greeks; the Homeric poems are their oldesthistorical document. When these were composed, about the ninth centuryB. C. , there was not yet any general name to designate all theinhabitants of Greece: Homer mentions them under the names of theirprincipal tribes. From his description it appears that they have madesome progress since their departure from Asia. They know how to tillthe ground, how to construct strong cities and to organize themselvesinto little peoples. They obey kings; they have a council of old menand an assembly of the people. They are proud of their institutions, they despise their less advanced neighbors, the Barbarians, as theycall them. Odysseus, to show how rude the Cyclops were, says, "Theyhave no rules of justice nor places where they deliberate; each onegoverns himself, his wife, and children, and has no association withothers. " But these Greeks themselves are half barbarians; they do notknow how to write, to coin money, nor the art of working in iron. Theyhardly dare to trust themselves on the sea and they imagine thatSicily is peopled with monsters. 

=The Dorians. =--Dorians was the name given to those sons of themountaineers who had come from the north and had expelled or subjectedthose dwelling in the plains and on the shore of the Peloponnesus;the latter, crowded into too narrow limits, sent colonies into Asia. Of these mountain bands the most renowned came from a little cantoncalled Doris and preserved the name Dorians. These invaders told howcertain kings of Sparta, the posterity of Herakles, having been thrustout by their subjects, had come to seek the Dorians in theirmountains. These people of the mountains, moved by their love forHerakles, had followed his descendants and had replaced them on theirthrone. By the same stroke they dispossessed the inhabitants and tooktheir place. They were a martial, robust, and healthy race, accustomedto cold, to meagre food, to a scant existence. Men and women wore ashort tunic which did not reach to the knee. They spoke a rude andprimitive dialect. The Dorians were a race of soldiers, always obligedto keep themselves under arms; they were the least cultivated inGreece, since, situated far from the sea, they preserved the customsof the barbarous age; they were the most Greek because, beingisolated, they could neither mingle with strangers nor imitate theirmanners. 

=The Ionians. =--The peoples of Attica, the isles, and the coast ofAsia were called Ionians; no one knows the origin of the name. Unlikethe Dorians, they were a race of sailors or traders, the most culturedof Greece, gaining instruction from contact with the most civilizedpeoples of the Orient; the least Greek, because they associated withAsiatics and had in part adopted their dress. They were peaceful andindustrious, living luxuriously, speaking a smooth dialect, andwearing long flowing garments like the Orientals. 

=The Hellenes. =--Dorians and Ionians--these are the two opposingraces, the most remarkable of Greece, and the most powerful: Sparta isDorian, Athens is Ionian. But the majority of the Greeks are neitherDorians nor Ionians: they are called Æolians, a vague name whichcovers very different peoples. 

All the Greeks from early times take the name "Hellenes" which theyhave kept to this day. What is the origin of the term? They did notknow any more than we: they said only that Dorus and Æolus were sonsof Hellen, and Ion was his grandson. 

=Cities. =--The Hellenes were still in little peoples as at the time ofHomer. The land of Greece, cut by mountains and sea, breaks naturallyinto a large number of small cantons, each isolated from its neighborby an arm of the sea or by a wall of rocks, so that it is easy todefend the land and difficult to communicate with other parts. Eachcanton constituted a separate state which was called a city. Therewere more than a hundred of these; counting the colonies, more than athousand. To us a Greek state seems a miniature. The whole of Atticawas but little larger than the state of Delaware, and Corinth orMegara was much smaller. Usually the state was only a city with astrip of shore and a harbor, or some villages scattered in the plainaround a citadel. From one state one sees the citadel, mountains, orharbor of the next state. Many of them count their citizens only bythousands; the largest included hardly 200, 000 or 300, 000. 

The Hellenes never formed one nation; they never ceased to fight anddestroy one another. And yet all spoke the same language, worshippedthe same gods, and lived the same sort of a life. In these respectsthey recognized the bonds of a common race and distinguishedthemselves from all other peoples whom they called barbarians andregarded with disdain. 

THE HELLENES BEYOND SEA

=Colonization. =--The Hellenes did not inhabit Greece alone. Colonistsfrom the Greek cities had gone forth to found new cities in all theneighboring countries. There were little states in all the islands ofthe Archipelago, over all the coast of Asia Minor, in Crete andCyprus, on the whole circumference of the Black Sea as far as theCaucasus and the Crimea, along the shore of Turkey in Europe (thencalled Thrace), on the shore of Africa, in Sicily, in south Italy, andeven on the coasts of France and Spain. 

=Character of These Colonies. =--Greek colonies were being founded allthe time from the twelfth century to the fifth; they issued fromvarious cities and represented all the Greek races--Dorian, Ionian, and Æolian. They were established in the wilderness, in an inhabitedland, by conquest, or by an agreement with the natives. Mariners, merchants, exiles, or adventurers were their founders. But with allthis diversity of time, place, race, and origin, the colonies hadcommon characteristics: they were established at one stroke andaccording to certain fixed rules. The colonists did not arrive one byone or in small bands; nor did they settle at random, building houseswhich little by little became a city, as is the case now with Europeancolonists in America. All the colonists started at once under aleader, and the new city was founded in one day. The foundation was areligious ceremony; the "founder" traced a sacred enclosure, constructed a sacred hearth, and lighted there the holy fire. 

=Traditions Concerning the Colonists. =--The old stories about thefounding of some of these colonies enable us to see how they differedfrom modern colonies. The account of the settlement of Marseilles runsas follows: Euxenus, a citizen of Phocæa, coming to Gaul in a merchantgalley, was invited by a Gallic chief to the marriage of his daughter;according to the custom of this people, the young girl about the timeof the feast entered bearing a cup which she was to present to the onewhom she would choose for a husband; she stopped before the Greek andoffered him the cup. This unpremeditated act appeared to have beeninspired from heaven; the Gallic chief gave his daughter to Euxenusand permitted him and his companions to found a city on the gulf ofMarseilles. Later the Phocæans, seeing their city blockaded by thePersian army, loaded on their ships their families, their movables, the statues and treasures of their temple and went to sea, abandoningtheir city. As they started, they threw into the sea a mass of red-hotiron and swore never to return to Phocæa until the iron should rise tothe surface of the water. Many violated this oath and returned; butthe rest continued the voyage and after many adventures came toMarseilles. 

At Miletus the Ionians who founded the city had brought no wives withthem; they seized a city inhabited by the natives of Asia, slaughteredall the men, and forcibly married the women and girls of the familiesof their victims. It was said that the women, affronted in thismanner, swore never to eat food with their captors and never to callthem by the name of husband; this custom was for centuries preservedamong the women of Miletus. [49]

The colony at Cyrene in Africa was founded according to the expresscommand of the oracle of Apollo. The inhabitants of Thera, who hadreceived this order, did not care to go to an unknown country. Theyyielded only at the end of seven years since their island wasafflicted with dearth; they believed that Apollo had sent misfortuneon them as a penalty. Nevertheless the citizens who were sent outattempted to abandon the enterprise, but their fellow-citizensattacked them and forced them to return. After having spent two yearson an island where no success came to them, they at last came tosettle at Cyrene, which soon became a prosperous city. [50]

=Importance of the Colonies. =--Wherever they settled, the colonistsconstituted a new state which in no respect obeyed the mother townfrom which they had come out. And so the whole Mediterranean founditself surrounded by Greek cities independent one of the others. Ofthese cities many became richer and more powerful than their mothertowns; they had a territory which was larger and more fertile, and inconsequence a greater population. Sybaris, it was said, had 300, 000men who were capable of bearing arms. Croton could place in the fieldan infantry force of 120, 000 men. Syracuse in Sicily, Miletus in Asiahad greater armies than even Sparta and Athens. South Italy was termedGreat Greece. In comparison with this great country fully peopled withGreek colonies the home country was, in fact, only a little Greece. And so it happened that the Greeks were much more numerous in theneighboring countries than in Greece proper; and among these people ofthe colonies figure a good share of the most celebrated names: Homer, Alcæus, Sappho, Thales, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Democritus, Empedocles, Aristotle, Archimedes, Theocritus, and many others. 

FOOTNOTES:

[46] "Balmy and clement, " says Euripides, "is our atmosphere. The coldof winter has no extremes for us, and the shafts of the sun do notwound. "

[47] Autochthones. 

[48] The story of the collection of the Homeric poems by Pisistratus iswithout foundation--"eine blosse Fabel. " Busolt, "GriechischeGeschichte. " Gotha, 1893, i. , 127. --ED. 

[49] Probably this custom has another origin the recollection of whichwas lost. --ED. 

[50] Herodotus, iv. , 150-158. 

CHAPTER X

GREEK RELIGION

=The Gods. Polytheism. =--The Greeks, like the ancient Aryans, believedin many gods. They had neither the sentiment of infinity nor that ofeternity; they did not conceive of God as one for whom the heavens areonly a tent and the earth a foot-stool. To the Greeks every force ofnature--the air, the sun, the sea--was divine, and as they did notconceive of all these phenomena as produced by one cause, theyassigned each to a particular god. This is the reason that theybelieved in many gods. They were polytheists. 

=Anthropomorphism. =--Each god was a force in nature and carried adistinct name. The Greeks, having a lively imagination, figured underthis name a living being, of beautiful form and human characteristics. A god or goddess was represented as a beautiful man or woman. WhenOdysseus or Telemachus met a person peculiarly great and beautiful, they began by asking him if he were not a god. Homer in describing thearmy pictured on the shield of Achilles adds, "Ares and Athena led thearmy, both clad in gold, beautiful and great, as becomes the gods, formen were smaller. " Greek gods are men; they have clothing, palaces, bodies similar to ours; if they cannot die, they can at least bewounded. Homer relates how Ares, the god of war, struck by a warrior, fled howling with pain. This fashion of making gods like men is whatis called _Anthropomorphism_. 

=Mythology. =--The gods, being men, have parents, children, property. Their mothers were goddesses, their brothers were gods, and theirchildren other gods or men who were half divine. This genealogy of thegods is what is called the _Theogony_. The gods have also a history;we are told the story of their birth, the adventures of their youth, their exploits. Apollo, for example, was born on the island of Delosto which his mother Latona had fled; he slew a monster which wasdesolating the country at the foot of Parnassus. Each canton of Greecehad thus its tales of the gods. These are called myths; the sum ofthem is termed _Mythology_, or the history of the gods. 

=The Local Gods. =--The Greek gods, even under their human form, remained what they were at first, phenomena of nature. They werethought of both as men and as forces of nature. The Naiad is a youngwoman, but at the same time a bubbling fountain. Homer represents theriver Xanthus as a god, and yet he says, "The Xanthus threw itself onAchilles, boiling with fury, full of tumult, foam, and the bodies ofthe dead. " The people itself continued to say "Zeus rains" or "Zeusthunders. " To the Greek the god was first of all rain, storm, heaven, or sun, and not the heaven, sun, or earth in general, but that cornerof the heaven under which he lived, the land of his canton, the riverwhich traversed it. Each city, then, had its divinities, its sun-god, its earth-goddess, its sea-god, and these are not to be confoundedwith the sun, the earth, and the sea of the neighboring city. TheZeus of Sparta is not the same as the Zeus of Athens; in the same oathone sometimes invokes two Athenas or two Apollos. A traveller whowould journey through Greece[51] would therefore meet thousands oflocal gods (they called them Poliades, or gods of the city). Notorrent, no wood, no mountain was without its own deity, [52] althoughoften a minor divinity, adored only by the people of the vicinity andwhose sanctuary was only a grotto in the rock. 

=The Great Gods. =--Above the innumerable legion of local gods of eachcanton the Greeks imagined certain great divinities--the heaven, thesun, the earth, and the sea--and these everywhere had the same name, and had their temple or sanctuary in every place. Each represented oneof the principal forces of nature. These gods common to all the Greekswere never numerous; if all are included, we have hardly twenty. [53]We have the bad habit of calling them by the name of a Latin god. Thefollowing are their true names: Zeus (Jupiter), Hera (Juno), Athena(Minerva), Apollo, Artemis (Diana), Hermes (Mercury), Hephaistos(Vulcan), Hestia (Vesta), Ares (Mars), Aphrodite (Venus), Poseidon(Neptune), Amphitrite, Proteus, Kronos (Saturn), Rhea (Cybele), Demeter (Ceres), Persephone (Proserpina), Hades (Pluto), Dionysos(Bacchus). It is this little group of gods that men worshipped in allthe temples, that men ordinarily invoked in their prayers. 

=Attributes of the Gods. =--Each of these great gods had his form, hiscostume, his instruments (which we call his attributes); it is thusthat the faithful imagined him and that the sculptors represented him. Each has his character which is well known to his worshippers. Eachhas his rôle in the world, performing his determined functions, ordinarily with the aid of secondary divinities who obey him. 

Athena, virgin of clear eye, is represented standing, armed with alance, a helmet on the head, and gleaming armor on the breast. She isthe goddess of the clear air, of wisdom, and of invention, a goddessof dignity and majesty. 

Hephaistos, the god of fire, is figured with a hammer and in the formof a lame and ugly blacksmith. It is he who forges the thunderbolt. 

Artemis, shy maiden, armed with bow and quiver, courses the forestshunting with a troop of nymphs. She is the goddess of the woods, ofthe chase, and of death. 

Hermes, represented with winged sandals, is the god of the fertileshowers. But he has other offices; he is the god of streets andsquares, the god of commerce, of theft, and of eloquence. He it is whoguides the souls of the dead, the messenger of the gods, the deitypresiding over the breeding of cattle. 

Almost always a Greek god has several functions, quite dissimilar toour eyes, but to the Greeks bearing some relation to one another. 

=Olympus and Zeus. =--Each one of these gods is like a king in his owndomain. Still the Greeks had remarked that all the forces of nature donot operate by chance and that they act in harmony; the same wordserved them for the idea of order and of universe. They supposed, then, that the gods were in accord for the administration of theworld, and that they, like men, had laws and government among them. 

In the north of Greece there was a mountain to whose snowy summit noman had ever climbed. This was Olympus. On this summit, which washidden by clouds from the eyes of men, it was imagined the godsassembled. Meeting under the light of heaven, they conferred on theaffairs of the world. Zeus, the mightiest of them, presided over thegathering: he was god of the heavens and of the light, the god "whomasses the clouds, " who launches the thunderbolt--an old man ofmajestic mien, with long beard, sitting on a throne of gold. It is hewho commands and the other gods bow before him. Should they essay toresist, Zeus menaces them; Homer makes him say, [54] "Bind to heaven achain of gold, and all of you, gods or goddesses, throw your weightupon it; all your united efforts cannot draw Zeus, the sovereignordainer, to the earth. On the contrary, if I wished to draw the chainto myself, I should bring with it the earth and the very sea. Then Iwould attach it to the summit of Olympus and all the universe would besuspended. By so much am I superior to gods and men. "

=Morality of the Greek Mythology. =--The greater part of their godswere conceived by the Greeks as violent, sanguinary, deceitful, dissolute. They ascribed to them scandalous adventures or dishonestacts. Hermes was notorious for his thieving, Aphrodite for hercoquetry, Ares for his ferocity. All were so vain as to persecutethose who neglected to offer sacrifices to them. Niobe had seen allher children pierced with arrows by Apollo because she herself hadboasted of her numerous family. The gods were so jealous that theycould not endure seeing a man thoroughly happy; prosperity for theGreeks was the greatest of dangers, for it never failed to draw theanger of the gods, and this anger became a goddess (Nemesis) aboutwhom were told such anecdotes as the following: Once Polycrates ofSamos, become very powerful, feared the jealousy of the gods; and so aring of gold which he still retained was cast into the sea that hisgood fortune might not be unmixed with evil. Some time after, afisherman brought to Polycrates an enormous fish and in its belly wasfound the ring. This was a certain presage of evil. Polycrates wasbesieged in his city, taken, and crucified. The gods punished him forhis good fortune. 

Greek mythology was immoral in that the gods gave bad examples to men. The Greek philosophers were already saying this and were inveighingagainst the poets who had published these stories. A disciple ofPythagoras affirmed that his master, descending to hell, had seen thesoul of Homer hanging to a tree and that of Hesiod bound to a columnto punish them for calumniating the gods. "Homer and Hesiod, " SaidXenophanes, "attribute to the gods all the acts which among men areculpable and shameful; there is but one god who neither in body nor insoul resembles men. " And he added this profound remark: "If oxen andlions had hands and could manipulate like men, they would have madegods with bodies similar to their own, horses would have framed godswith horses' bodies, and cattle with cattle's.... Men think that thegods have their feelings, their voice, and their body. " Xenophanes wasright; the primitive Greeks had created their gods in their own image. As they were then sanguinary, dissolute, jealous, and vain, their godswere the same. Later, as the people became better, their descendantswere shocked with all these vices; but the history and the characterof the gods were fixed by the ancient traditions, and latergenerations, without daring to change them, had received the gross anddishonest gods of their ancestors. 

THE HEROES

=The Hero. =--The hero in Greece is a man who has become illustrious, and after death a mighty spirit--not a god, but a demi-god. The heroesdo not live on Olympus in the heaven of the gods, they do not directthe life of the world. And yet they, too, possess a power higher thanthat of any human, and this permits them to aid their friends anddestroy their enemies. For this reason the Greeks rendered themworship as to the gods and implored their protection. There was not acity, not a tribe, not a family but had its hero, a protecting spiritwhich it adored. 

=Different Kinds of Heroes. =--Of these heroes many are legendarypersons (Achilles, Odysseus, Agamemnon); some without doubt neverexisted (Herakles, Œdipus); others like Hellen, Dorus, Æolus are onlynames. But their worshippers regarded them as men of the olden time;and, in fact, the most of the heroes lived at one time. Many arehistorical personages: generals like Leonidas, Lysander; philosopherslike Democritus and Aristotle; legislators like Lycurgus and Solon. The people of Croton adored even one of their fellow-citizens, Philipby name, because he had been in his time the most beautiful man inGreece. The leader who had guided a band of colonists and founded acity became for the inhabitants the Founder; a temple was raised tohim and every year sacrifices were offered to him. The AthenianMiltiades was thus worshipped in a city of Thrace. The SpartiateBrasidas, killed in the defence of Amphipolis, had divine honors paidto him in that city, for the inhabitants had come to regard him astheir Founder. 

=Presence of the Heroes. =--The hero continued to reside in the placewhere his body was interred, either in his tomb or in theneighborhood. A story told by Herodotus (v. 67) depicts this belief ina lively way. The city of Sicyon adored the hero Adrastus and in apublic place was a chapel dedicated to his honor. Cleisthenes, thetyrant of Sicyon, took a fancy to rid himself of this hero. He went tothe oracle at Delphi to ask if it would aid him in expelling Adrastus. The oracle replied to his question that Adrastus was king of theSicyonians and Cleisthenes was a brigand. The tyrant, not daring toevict the hero, adopted a ruse; he sent to Thebes to seek the bonesof Melanippus, another hero, and installed them with great pomp in thesanctuary of the city. "He did this, " says Herodotus, "becauseMelanippus during his life had been the greatest enemy of Adrastus andhad killed his brother and his son-in-law. " Then he transferred toMelanippus the festivals and the sacrifices formerly paid to the honorof Adrastus. He was persuaded, and all the Greeks with him, that thehero would be irritated and would flee. 

=Intervention of the Heroes. =--The heroes have divine power; like thegods, they can according to their whim send good or evil. The poetStesichorus had spoken ill of the famous Helen (that Helen who thelegend states was carried away to Troy); he suddenly became blind;when he retracted what he had said, the heroine restored his sight. 

The protecting heroes of a city kept it from plagues and famine andeven fought against its enemies. At the battle of the Marathon theAthenian soldiers saw in the midst of them Theseus, the mythicalfounder of Athens, clad in shining armor. During the battle of Salamisthe heroes Ajax and Telamon, once kings of Salamis, appeared on thehighest point of the island extending their hands to the Greek fleet. "It is not we, " said Themistocles, "that have vanquished the Persians;it is the gods and heroes. " In "Œdipus at Colonus, " a tragedy ofSophocles, Œdipus at the point of death receives the visit of the kingof Athens and of the king of Thebes, both of whom as gods request himto have his body interred in their territory, and to become aprotecting hero. Œdipus at last consents to be buried in the soil ofthe Athenians, and says to the king, "Dead, I shall not be a uselessinhabitant of this country, I shall be a rampart for you, strongerthan millions of warriors. " In himself alone a hero was as efficientas a whole army; his spirit was mightier than all living men. 

WORSHIP

=Principles of Worship of the Gods. =--Gods and heroes, potent as theywere, bestowed on men all good or evil fortune according to theirwill. It was dangerous to have them against you, wise to have them onyour side. They were conceived as like men, irritated if they wereneglected, contented if they were venerated. On this principle worshipwas based. It consisted in doing things agreeable to the gods toobtain their favor. Plato expresses as follows[55] the thought of thecommon man, "To know how to say and do those things that are pleasingto the gods, either in prayers or in offerings, this is piety whichbrings prosperity to individuals and to states. The reverse is impietywhich ruins everything. " "It is natural, " says Xenophon at the end ofhis treatise on Cavalry, "that the gods should favor those especiallywho not only consult them in need, but honor them in the day ofprosperity. " Religion was first of all a contract; the Greek sought todelight the gods and in return required their services. "For a longtime, " says a priest of Apollo to his god, "I have burned fatbullocks for you; now grant my petitions and discharge your arrowsagainst my enemies. "

=The Great Festivals. =--Since the gods had the feelings of men theywere to be pleased in the same way as men. Wine, cakes, fruits, foodwere brought to them. Palaces were built for them. Festivals weregiven in their honor, for they were "joyous gods" who loved pleasureand beautiful spectacles. A festival was not, as with us, purely anoccasion of rejoicing, but a religious ceremony. On those days freefrom the daily toil men were required to rejoice in public before thegod. The Greek, without doubt, delighted in these fêtes; but it is forthe god and not for himself that he celebrates them. "The Ionians, "says an ancient hymn to Apollo, "delight thee with trial of strength, the hymn, and the dance. "

=The Sacred Games. =--From these diversions offered to the godsoriginated the solemn games. Each city had them to the honor of itsgods; ordinarily only its citizens were admitted to them; but in fourdistricts of Greece were celebrated games at which all Greeks could bepresent and participate. These are called the Four Great Games. 

The principal of these four festivals was that at Olympia. This wasgiven every four years in honor of Zeus and continued five or sixdays. The multitude coming from all parts of Greece filled theamphitheatre. They commenced by sacrificing victims and addressingprayers to Zeus and the other gods. Then came the contests; they were:

The foot-race around the stadion. 

The Pentathlon, so called because it comprised five exercises. Thecompetitors were to leap, run from one end of the stadion to theother, make a long throw of the metal discus, hurl the javelin, andwrestle. 

Boxing, in which one fought with arms bound with thongs of hide. 

The chariot races, which were held in the hippodrome; the cars werelight and were drawn by four horses. 

The judges of the games were clothed in purple, crowned with laurel. After the combat a herald proclaimed before the whole assembly thename of the victor and of his city. A crown of olive was the onlyreward given him; but his fellow-citizens on his return received himas a conquering hero; sometimes they threw down a section of the citywall to give him entrance. He arrived in a chariot drawn by fourhorses, clothed in purple, escorted by all the people. "Thesevictories which we leave today to the athletes of the public showsappeared then the greatest of all. Poets of greatest renown celebratedthem; Pindar, the most illustrious lyric poet of antiquity, has hardlydone more than sing of chariot races. It is related that a certainDiagoras, who had seen his two sons crowned on the same day, was bornein triumph by them in the sight of the spectators. The people, holdingsuch an honor too great for a mortal, cried out, 'Perish, Diagoras, for after all you cannot become a god. ' Diagoras, suffocated withemotion, died in the arms of his sons. In his eyes and the eyes of theGreeks the fact that his sons possessed the stoutest fists and thenimblest limbs in Greece was the acme of earthly happiness. "[56] TheGreeks had their reasons for thus admiring physical prowess: in theirwars in which they fought hand to hand the most vigorous athletes werethe best soldiers. 

=Omens. =--In return for so much homage, so many festivals andofferings, the Greeks expected no small amount of service from theirgods. The gods protected their worshippers, gave them health, riches, victory. They preserved them from the evils that menaced them, sendingsigns which men interpreted. These are called Omens. "When a city, "says Herodotus, [57] "is about to suffer some great misfortune, this isusually anticipated by signs. The people of Chios had omens of theirdefeat: of a band of one hundred youths sent to Delphi but tworeturned; the others had died of the plague. About the same time theroof of a school of the city fell on the children who were learning toread; but one escaped of the one hundred and twenty. Such were theanticipating signs sent them by the deity. "

The Greeks regarded as supernatural signs, dreams, the flight of birdsin the heavens, the entrails of animals sacrificed--in a word, everything that they saw, from the tremblings of the earth andeclipses to a simple sneeze. In the expedition to Sicily, Nicias, thegeneral of the Athenians, at the moment of embarking his army for theretreat, was arrested by an eclipse of the moon; the gods, thought he, had sent this prodigy to warn the Athenians not to continue theirenterprise. And so Nicias waited; he waited twenty-seven days offeringsacrifices to appease the gods. During this inactivity the enemyclosed the port, destroyed the fleet, and exterminated his army. TheAthenians on learning this news found but one thing with which toreproach Nicias: he should have known that for an army in retreat theeclipse of the moon was a favorable sign. During the retreat of theTen Thousand, Xenophon, the general, making an address to hissoldiers, uttered this sentiment: "With the help of the gods we havethe surest hope that we shall save ourselves with glory. " At thispoint a soldier sneezed. At once all adored the god who had sent thisomen. "Since at the very instant when we are deliberating concerningour safety, " exclaimed Xenophon, "Zeus the savior has sent us an omen, let us with one consent offer sacrifices to him. "[58]

=The Oracles. =--Often the god replies to the faithful who consult himnot by a mute sign, but by the mouth of an inspired person. Thefaithful enter the sanctuary of the god seeking responses and counsel. These are Oracles. 

There were oracles in many places in Greece and Asia. The most notedwere at Dodona in Epirus, and at Delphi, at the foot of MountParnassus. At Dodona it was Zeus who spoke by the rustling of thesacred oaks. At Delphi it was Apollo who was consulted. Below histemple, in a grotto, a current of cool air issued from a rift in theground. This air the Greeks thought[59] was sent by the god, for hethrew into a frenzy those who inhaled it. A tripod was placed over theorifice, a woman (the Pythia), prepared by a bath in the sacredspring, took her seat on the tripod, and received the inspiration. Atonce, seized with a nervous frenzy, she uttered cries and brokensentences. Priests sitting about her caught these expressions, setthem to verse, and brought them to him who sought advice of the god. 

The oracles of the Pythia were often obscure and ambiguous. WhenCrœsus asked if he should make war on the Persians, the reply was, "Crœsus will destroy a great empire. " In fact, a great empire wasdestroyed, but it was that of Crœsus. 

The Spartans had great confidence in the Pythia, and never initiatedan expedition without consulting her. The other Greeks imitated them, and Delphi thus became a sort of national oracle. 

=Amphictyonies. =--To protect the sanctuary of Delphi twelve of theprincipal peoples of Greece had formed an association called anAmphictyony. [60] Every year deputies from these peoples assembled atDelphi to celebrate the festival of Apollo and see that the temple wasnot threatened; for this temple contained immense wealth, a temptationto pillage it. In the sixth century the people of Cirrha, aneighboring city of Delphi, appropriated these treasures. [61] TheAmphictyons declared war against them for sacrilege. Cirrha was takenand destroyed, the inhabitants sold as slaves, the territory leftfallow. In the fourth century the Amphictyons made war on thePhocidians also who had seized the treasury of Delphi, and on thepeople of Amphissa who had tilled a field dedicated to Apollo. 

Still it is not necessary to believe that the assembly of theAmphictyons ever resembled a Greek senate. It was concerned only withthe temple of Apollo, not at all with political affairs. It did noteven prevent members of the Amphictyony fighting one another. Theoracle and the Amphictyony of Delphi were more potent than the otheroracles and the other amphictyonies; but they never united the Greeksinto a single nation. 

FOOTNOTES:

[51] See the account of the traveller Pausanias. 

[52] "There are, " says Hesiod, "30, 000 gods on the fruitful earth. "

[53] Greek scholars formed a select society of twelve gods andgoddesses, but their choice was arbitrary, and all did not agree on thesame series. The Greeks of different countries and of different epochsoften represented the same god under different forms. Further, themajority of the gods seem to us to have vague and undeterminedattributes; this is because they were not the same everywhere. 

[54] Iliad, viii. , 18. 

[55] In the dialogue "Eutyphron. "

[56] Taine, "Philosophy of Art. "

[57] Herodotus, vi. , 27

[58] Xenophon, "Anabasis, " iii, 2. 

[59] This idea gained currency only in the later periods of Grecianhistory. --ED. 

[60] There were similar amphictyonies at Delos, Calauria, and Onchestus. 

[61] The special charge against Cirrha was the levying of toll onpilgrims coming to Delphi. --ED. 

CHAPTER XI

SPARTA

THE PEOPLE

=Laconia. =--When the Dorian mountaineers invaded the Peloponnesus, themain body of them settled at Sparta in Laconia. Laconia is a narrowvalley traversed by a considerable stream (the Eurotas) flowingbetween two massive mountain ranges with snowy summits. A poetdescribes the country as follows: "A land rich in tillable soil, buthard to cultivate, deep set among perpendicular mountains, rough inaspect, inaccessible to invasion. " In this enclosed country lived theDorians of Sparta in the midst of the ancient inhabitants who hadbecome, some their subjects, others their serfs. There were, then, inLaconia three classes: Helots, Periœci, Spartiates. 

=The Helots. =--The Helots dwelt in the cottages scattered in the plainand cultivated the soil. But the land did not belong to them--indeed, they were not even free to leave it. They were, like the serfs of theMiddle Ages, peasants attached to the soil, from father to son. Theylabored for a Spartiate proprietor who took from them the greater partof the harvest. The Spartiates instructed them, feared them, and illtreated them. They compelled them to wear rude garments, beat themunreasonably to remind them of their servile condition, and sometimesmade them intoxicated to disgust their children with the sight ofdrunkenness. A Spartiate poet compares the Helots to "loaded assesstumbling under their burdens and the blows inflicted. "

=The Periœci. =--The Periœci (those who live around) inhabited ahundred villages in the mountains or on the coast. They were sailors, they engaged in commerce, and manufactured the objects necessary tolife. They were free and administered the business of their village, but they paid tribute to the magistrates of Sparta and obeyed them. 

=Condition of the Spartiates. =--Helots and Periœci despised theSpartiates, their masters. "Whenever one speaks to them of theSpartiates, " says Xenophon, [62] "there isn't one of them who canconceal the pleasure he would feel in eating them alive. " Once anearthquake nearly destroyed Sparta: the Helots at once rushed from allsides of the plain to massacre those of the Spartiates who had escapedthe catastrophe. At the same time the Periœci rose and refusedobedience. The Spartiates' bearing toward the Periœci was certain toexasperate them. At the end of a war in which many of the Helots hadfought in their army, they bade them choose those who had especiallydistinguished themselves for bravery, with the promise of freeingthem. It was a ruse to discover the most energetic and those mostcapable of revolting. Two thousand were chosen; they were conductedabout the temples with heads crowned as an evidence of theirmanumission; then the Spartiates put them out of the way, but how itwas done no one ever knew. [63]

And yet the oppressed classes were ten times more, numerous than theirmasters. While there were more than 200, 000 Helots and 120, 000Periœci, there were never more than 9, 000 Spartiate heads of families. In a matter of life and death, then, it was necessary that a Spartiatebe as good as ten Helots. As the form of battle was hand-to-hand, theyneeded agile and robust men. Sparta was like a camp without walls; itspeople was an army always in readiness. 

EDUCATION

=The Children. =--They began to make soldiers of them at birth. Thenewly-born infant was brought before a council; if it was founddeformed, it was exposed on the mountain to die; for an army has useonly for strong men. The children who were permitted to grow up weretaken from their parents at the age of seven years and were trainedtogether as members of a group. Both summer and winter they wentbare-foot and had but a single mantle. They lay on a heap of reeds andbathed in the cold waters of the Eurotas. They ate little and thatquickly and had a rude diet. This was to teach them not to satiate thestomach. They were grouped by hundreds, each under a chief. Often theyhad to contend together with blows of feet and fists. At the feast ofArtemis they were beaten before the statue of the goddess till theblood flowed; some died under this ordeal, but their honor requiredthem not to weep. They were taught to fight and suffer. 

Often they were given nothing to eat; provision must be found byforaging. If they were captured on these predatory expeditions, theywere roughly beaten. A Spartiate boy who had stolen a little fox andhad hidden it under his mantle, rather than betray himself let theanimal gnaw out his vitals. They were to learn how to escape fromperplexing situations when they were in the field. 

They walked with lowered glance, silent, hands under the mantle, without turning the head and "making no more noise than statues. " Theywere not to speak at table and were to obey all men that theyencountered. This was to accustom them to discipline. 

=The Girls. =--The other Greeks kept their daughters secluded in thehouse, spinning flax. The Spartiates would have robust women capableof bearing vigorous children. The girls, therefore, were trained inmuch the same manner as the boys. In their gymnasia they practisedrunning, leaping, throwing the disc and Javelin. A poet describes aplay in which Spartiate girls "like colts with flowing manes make thedust fly about them. " They were reputed the healthiest and bravestwomen in Greece. 

=The Discipline. =--The men, too, have their regular life and this asoldier's life. The presence of many enemies requires that no oneshall weaken. At seventeen years the Spartiate becomes a soldier andthis he until he is sixty. The costume, hour of rising and retiring, meals, exercise--everything is fixed by regulations as in barracks. 

Since the Spartiate engages only in war, he is to prepare himself forthat; he exercises himself in running, leaping, and wielding his arms;he disciplines all the members of the body--the neck, the arms, theshoulders, the legs, and that too, every day. He has no right toengage in trade, to pursue an industry, nor to cultivate the earth; heis a soldier and is not to allow himself to be diverted to any otheroccupation. He cannot live at his pleasure with his own family; themen eat together in squads; they cannot leave the country withoutpermission. It is the discipline of a regiment in the enemy'sterritory. 

=Laconism. =--These warriors had a rude life, with clean-cut aims andproud disposition. They spoke in short phrases--or as we say, laconically--the word has still persisted. The Greeks cited manyexamples of these expressions. To a garrison in danger of beingsurprised the government sent this message, "Attention!" A Spartanarmy was summoned by the king of Persia to lay down his arms; thegeneral replied, "Come and take them. " When Lysander captured Athens, he wrote simply, "Athens is fallen. "

=Music. The Dance. =--The arts of Sparta were those that pertained toan army. The Dorian conquerors brought with them a peculiar sort ofmusic--the Dorian style, serious, strong, even harsh. It was militarymusic; the Spartiates went into battle to the sound of the flute sothat the step might be regular. 

Their dance was a military movement. In the "Pyrrhic" the dancers werearmed and imitated all the movements of a battle; they made thegestures of striking, of parrying, of retreating, and of throwing thejavelin. 

=Heroism of the Women. =--The women stimulated the men to combat; theirexhibitions of courage were celebrated in Greece, so much so thatcollections of stories of them were made. [64] A Spartan mother, seeingher son fleeing from battle, killed him with her own hand, saying;"The Eurotas does not flow for deer. " Another, learning that her fivesons had perished, said, "This is not what I wish to know; doesvictory belong to Sparta?" "Yes. " "Then let us render thanks to thegods. "

THE INSTITUTIONS OF SPARTA

=The Kings and the Council. =--The Spartiates had at first, like theother Greeks, an assembly of the people. All these institutions werepreserved, but only in form. The kings, descendants of the godHerakles, were loaded with honors; they were given the first place atthe feasts and were served with a double portion; when they died allthe inhabitants made lamentation for them. But no power was left tothem and they were closely watched. 

The Senate was composed of twenty-eight old men taken from the richand ancient families, appointed for life; but it did not govern. 

=The Ephors. =--The real masters of Sparta were the Ephors (the namesignifies overseers), five magistrates who were renewed every year. They decided peace and war, and had judicial functions; when the kingcommanded the army, they accompanied him, directed the operations, andsometimes made him return. Usually they consulted the senators andtook action in harmony with them. Then they assembled the Spartiatesin one place, announced to them what had been decided and asked theirapprobation. The people without discussing the matter approved theaction by acclamation. No one knew whether he had the right to refuseassent; accustomed to obey, the Spartiate never refused. It was, therefore, an aristocracy of governing families. Sparta was not acountry of equality. There were some men who were called Equals, butonly because they were equal among themselves. The others were termedInferiors and had no part in the government. 

=The Army. =--Thanks to this régime, the Spartiates preserved the rudecustoms of mountaineers; they had no sculptors, no architects, noorators, no philosophers. They had sacrificed everything to war; theybecame "adepts in the military art, "[65] and instructors of the otherGreeks. They introduced two innovations especially: a better method ofcombat, a better method of athletic exercise. 

=The Hoplites. =--Before them the Greeks marched into battle indisorder; the chiefs, on horseback or in a light chair, rushed ahead, the men following on foot, armed each in his own fashion, helter-skelter, incapable of acting together or of resisting. Abattle reduced itself to a series of duels and to a massacre. AtSparta all the soldiers had the same arms; for defence, thebreastplate covering the chest, the casque which protected the head, the greaves over the legs, the buckler held before the body. Foroffence the soldier had a short sword and a long lance. The man thusarmed was called a hoplite. The Spartan hoplites were drawn up inregiments, battalions, companies, squads, almost like our armies. Anofficer commanded each of these groups and transmitted to his men theorders of his superior officer, so that the general in chief mighthave the same movement executed throughout the whole army. Thisorganization which appears so simple to us was to the Greeks anastonishing novelty. 

=The Phalanx. =--Come into the presence of the enemy, the soldiersarrange themselves in line, ordinarily eight ranks deep, each manclose to his neighbor, forming a compact mass which we call a Phalanx. The king, who directs the army, sacrifices a goat to the gods; if theentrails of the victim are propitious, he raises a chant which all thearmy takes up in unison. Then they advance. With rapid and measuredstep, to the sound of the flute, with lance couched and buckler beforethe body, they meet the enemy in dense array, overwhelm him by theirmass and momentum, throw him into rout, and only check themselves toavoid breaking the phalanx. So long as they remain together each isprotected by his neighbor and all form an impenetrable mass on whichthe enemy could secure no hold. These were rude tactics, butsufficient to overcome a disorderly troop. Isolated men could notresist such a body. The other Greeks understood this, and all, as faras they were able, imitated the Spartans; everywhere men were armedas hoplites and fought in phalanx. 

=Gymnastics. =--To rush in orderly array on the enemy and stand theshock of battle there was need of agile and robust men; every man hadto be an athlete. The Spartans therefore organized athletic exercises, and in this the other Greeks imitated them; gymnastics became for alla national art, the highest esteemed of all the arts, the crowningfeature of the great festivals. 

In the most remote countries, in the midst of the barbarians of Gaulor of the Black Sea, a Greek city was recognized by its gymnasium. There was a great square surrounded by porticoes or walks, usuallynear a spring, with baths and halls for exercise. The citizens camehither to walk and chat: it was a place of association. All the youngmen entered the gymnasium; for two years or less they came here everyday; they learned to leap, to run, to throw the disc and the javelin, to wrestle by seizing about the waist. To harden the muscles andstrengthen the skin they plunged into cold water, dispensed with oilfor the body, and rubbed the flesh with a scraper (the strigil). 

=Athletes. =--Many continued these exercises all their lives as a pointof honor and became Athletes. Some became marvels of skill. Milo ofCroton in Italy, it was said, would carry a bull on his shoulders; hestopped a chariot in its course by seizing it from behind. Theseathletes served sometimes in combats as soldiers, or as generals. Gymnastics were the school of war. 

=Rôle of the Spartiates. =--The Spartans taught the other Greeks toexercise and to fight. They always remained the most vigorouswrestlers and the best soldiers, and were recognized as such by therest of Greece. Everywhere they were respected. When the rest of theGreeks had to fight together against the Persians, they unhesitatinglytook the Spartans as chiefs--and with justice, said an Athenianorator. 

FOOTNOTES:

[62] "Hellenica, " iii. , 3, 6. 

[63] See Thucydides, iv. , 80. 

[64] A collection by Plutarch is still preserved. 

[65] A phrase of Xenophon. 

CHAPTER XII

ATHENS

THE ATHENIAN PEOPLE

=Attica. =--The Athenians boasted of having always lived in the samecountry; their ancestors, according to their story, originated fromthe soil itself. The mountaineers who conquered the south land passedby the country without invading it; Attica was hardly a temptation tothem. 

Attica is composed of a mass of rocks which in the form of a triangleadvances into the sea. These rocks, renowned for their blocks ofmarble and for the honey of their bees, [66] are bare and sterile. Between them and the sea are left three small plains with meagre soil, meanly watered (the streams are dry in summer) and incapable ofsupporting a numerous population. 

=Athens. =--In the largest of these plains, a league from the sea, rises a massive isolated rock: Athens was built at its foot. The oldcity, called the Acropolis, occupied the summit of the rock. 

The inhabitants of Attica commenced, not by forming a single state, but by founding scattered villages, each of which had its own king andits own government. Later all these villages united under oneking, [67] the king of Athens, and established a single city. Thisdoes not mean that all the people came to dwell in one town. Theycontinued to have their own villages and to cultivate their lands; butall adored one and the same protecting goddess, Athena, divinity ofAthens, and all obeyed the same king. 

=Athenian Revolutions. =--Later still the kings were suppressed. Intheir place Athens had nine chiefs (the archons) who changed everyyear. This whole history is little known to us for no writing of thetime is preserved. They used to say that for centuries the Athenianshad lived in discord; the nobles (Eupatrids) who were proprietors ofthe soil oppressed the peasants on their estates; creditors held theirdebtors as slaves. To reëstablish order the Athenians commissionedSolon, a sage, to draft a code of laws for them (594). 

Solon made three reforms:

 1. He lessened the value of the money, which allowed the debtors to release themselves more easily. 

 2. He made the peasants proprietors of the land that they cultivated. From this time there were in Attica more small proprietors than in any other part of Greece. 

 3. He grouped all the citizens into four classes according to their incomes. Each had to pay taxes and to render military service according to his wealth, the poor being exempt from taxation and military service. 

After Solon the Athenians were subject to Pisistratus, one of theirpowerful and clever citizens; but in 510 the dissensions revived. 

=Reforms of Cleisthenes. =--Cleisthenes, leader of one of the parties, used the occasion to make a thoroughgoing revolution. 

There were many strangers in Athens, especially seamen and traders wholived in Piræus near the harbor. Cleisthenes gave them the rights ofcitizenship and made them equal[68] to the older inhabitants. Fromthis time there were two populations side by side--the people ofAttica and those of Piræus. A difference of physical features wasapparent for three centuries afterward: the people of Attica resembledthe rest of the Greeks; those in Piræus resembled Asiatics. TheAthenian people thus augmented was a new people, the most active inGreece. 

THE ATHENIAN PEOPLE

In the fifth century the society of Athens was definitely formed:three classes inhabited the district of Attica--slaves, foreigners, and citizens. 

=The Slaves. =--The slaves constituted the great majority of thepopulation; there was no man so poor that he did not have at least oneslave; the rich owned a multitude of them, some as many as fivehundred. The larger part of the slaves lived in the house occupiedwith grinding grain, kneading bread, spinning and weaving cloth, performing the service of the kitchens, and in attendance on theirmasters. Others labored in the shops as blacksmiths, as dyers, or instone quarries or silver mines. Their master fed them but sold at aprofit everything which they produced, giving them in return nothingbut their living. All the domestic servants, all the miners, and thegreater part of the artisans were slaves. These men lived in societybut without any part in it; they had not even the disposition of theirown bodies, being wholly the property of other men. They were thoughtof only as objects of property; they were often referred to as "abody" (σωμα). There was no other law for them than the will of theirmaster, and he had all power over them--to make them work, to imprisonthem, to deprive them of their sustenance, to beat them. When acitizen went to law, his adversary had the right to require that theformer's slaves should be put to the torture to tell what they knew. Many Athenian orators commend this usage as an ingenious means forobtaining true testimony. "Torture, " says the orator Isæus, "is thesurest means of proof; and so when you wish to clear up a contestedquestion, you do not address yourselves to freemen, but, placing theslaves to the torture, you seek to discover the truth. "

=Foreigners. =--The name Metics was applied to people of foreign originwho were established in Athens. To become a citizen of Athens it wasnot enough, as with us, to be born in the country; one must be the sonof a citizen. It might be that some aliens had resided in Attica forseveral generations and yet their family not become Athenian. Themetics could take no part in the government, could not marry acitizen, nor acquire land. But they were personally free, they had theright of commerce by sea, of banking and of trade on condition thatthey take a patron to represent them in the courts. There were inAthens more than ten thousand families of metics, the majority of thembankers or merchants. 

=The Citizens. =--To be a citizen of Athens it was necessary that bothparents should be citizens. The young Athenian, come to maturity atabout eighteen years of age, appeared before the popular assembly, received the arms which he was to bear and took the following oath: "Iswear never to dishonor these sacred arms, not to quit my post, toobey the magistrates and the laws, to honor the religion of mycountry. " He became simultaneously citizen and soldier. Thereafter heowed military service until he was sixty years of age. With this hehad the right to sit in the assembly and to fulfil the functions ofthe state. 

Once in a while the Athenians consented to receive into thecitizenship a man who was not the son of a citizen, but this was rareand a sign of great favor. The assembly had to vote the stranger intoits membership, and then nine days after six thousand citizens had tovote for him on a secret ballot. The Athenian people was like a closedcircle; no new members were admitted except those pleasing to the oldmembers, and they admitted few beside their sons. 

THE GOVERNMENT OF ATHENS

=The Assembly. =--The Athenians called their government a democracy (agovernment by the people). But this people was not, as with us, themass of inhabitants, but the body of citizens, a true aristocracy of15, 000 to 20, 000 men who governed the whole nation as masters. Thisbody had absolute power, and was the true sovereign of Athens. Itassembled at least three times a month to deliberate and to vote. Theassembly was held in the open air on the Pnyx; the citizens sat onstone benches arranged in an amphitheatre; the magistrates before themon a platform opened the session with a religious ceremony and aprayer, then a herald proclaimed in a loud voice the business whichwas to occupy the assembly, and said, "Who wishes to speak?" Everycitizen had the right to this privilege; the orators mounted thetribune according to age. When all had spoken, the president put thequestion; the assembly voted by a show of hands, and then dissolved. 

=The Courts. =--The people itself, being sovereign, passed judgment inthe courts. Every citizen of thirty years of age could participate inthe judicial assembly (the Heliæa). The heliasts sat in the greathalls in sections of five hundred; the tribunal was, then, composed ofone thousand to fifteen hundred judges. The Athenians had noprosecuting officer as we have; a citizen took upon himself to makethe accusation. The accused and the accuser appeared before the court;each delivered a plea which was not to exceed the time marked off by awater-clock. Then the judges voted by depositing a black or whitestone. If the accuser did not obtain a certain number of votes, hehimself was condemned. 

=The Magistrates. =--The sovereign people needed a council to preparethe business for discussion and magistrates to execute theirdecisions. The council was composed of five hundred citizens drawn bylot for one year. The magistrates were very numerous: ten generals tocommand the army, thirty officials for financial administration, sixtypolice officials to superintend the streets, the markets, weights andmeasures, etc. [69]

=Character of This Government. =--The power in Athens did not pertainto the rich and the noble, as in Sparta. In the assembly everythingwas decided by a majority of votes and all the votes were equal. Allthe jurors, all the members of the council, all the magistrates exceptthe generals were chosen by lot. The citizens were equal not only intheory, but also in practice. Socrates said[70] to a well-informedAthenian who did not dare to speak before the people: "Of what are youafraid? Is it of the fullers, the shoe-makers, the masons, theartisans, or the merchants? for the assembly is composed of all thesepeople. "

Many of these people had to ply their trade in order to make a living, and could not serve the state gratuitously; and so a salary wasinstituted: every citizen who sat in the assembly or in the courtsreceived for every day of session three obols (about eight cents ofour money), a sum just sufficient to maintain life at that time. Fromthis day the poor administered the government. 

=The Demagogues. =--Since all important affairs whether in the assemblyor in the courts were decided by discussion and discourse, theinfluential men were those who knew how to speak best. The peopleaccustomed themselves to listen to the orators, to follow theircounsels, to charge them with embassies, and even to appoint themgenerals. These men were called Demagogues (leaders of the people). The party of the rich scoffed at them: in a comedy Aristophanesrepresents the people (Demos) under the form of an old man who haslost his wits: "You are foolishly credulous, you let flatterers andintriguers pull you around by the nose and you are enraptured whenthey harangue you. " And the chorus, addressing a charlatan, says tohim, "You are rude, vicious; you have a strong voice, an impudenteloquence, and violent gestures; believe me, you have all that isnecessary to govern Athens. "

PRIVATE LIFE

The Athenians created so many political functions that a part of thecitizens was engaged in fulfilling them. The citizen of Athens, likethe functionary or soldier of our days, was absorbed in publicaffairs. Warring and governing were the whole of his life. He spenthis days in the assembly, in the courts, in the army, at thegymnasium, or at the market. Almost always he had a wife and children, for his religion commanded this, but he did not live at home. 

=The Children. =--When a child came into the world, the father had theright to reject it. In this case it was laid outside the house whereit died from neglect, unless a passer-by took it and brought it up asa slave. In this custom Athens followed all the Greeks. It wasespecially the girls that were exposed to death. "A son, " says awriter of comedy, "is always raised even if the parents are in thelast stage of misery; a daughter is exposed even though the parentsare rich. "

If the father accepted the child, the latter entered the family. Hewas left at first in the women's apartments with the mother. The girlsremained there until the day of their marriage; the boys came out whenthey were seven years old. The boy was then entrusted to a preceptor(pedagogue), whose business it was to teach him to conduct himselfwell and to obey. The pedagogue was often a slave, but the father gavehim the right to beat his son. This was the general usage inantiquity. 

Later the boy went to school, where he learned to read, write, cipher, recite poetry, and to sing in the chorus or to the sound of the flute. At last came gymnastics. This was the whole of the instruction; itmade men sound in body and calm in spirit--what the Greeks called"good and beautiful. "

To the young girl, secluded with her mother, nothing of the liberalarts was taught; it was thought sufficient if she learned to obey. Xenophon represents a rich and well-educated Athenian speaking thus ofhis wife with Socrates: "She was hardly twenty years old when Imarried her, and up to that time she had been subjected to an exactingsurveillance; they had no desire that she should live, and she learnedalmost nothing. Was it not enough that one should find in her a womanwho could spin the flax to make garments, and who had learned how todistribute duties to the slaves?" When her husband proposed that shebecome his assistant, she replied with great surprise, "In what can Iaid you? Of what am I capable? My mother has always taught me that mybusiness was to be prudent. " Prudence or obedience was the virtuewhich was required of the Greek woman. 

=Marriage. =--At the age of fifteen the girl married. The parents hadchosen the husband; it might be a man from a neighboring family, or aman who had been a long-time friend of the father, but always acitizen of Athens. It was rare that the young girl knew him; she wasnever consulted in the case. Herodotus, speaking of a Greek, adds:"This Callias deserves mention for his conduct toward his daughters;for when they were of marriageable age he gave them a rich dowry, permitted them to choose husbands from all the people, and he thenmarried them to the men of their choice. "

=Athenian Women. =--In the inner recess of the Athenian house there wasa retired apartment reserved for the women--the Gynecæum. Husband andrelatives were the only visitors; the mistress of the householdremained here all day with her slaves; she directed them, superintended the house-keeping, and distributed to them the flax forthem to spin. She herself was engaged with weaving garments. She leftthe house seldom save for the religious festivals. She never appearedin the society of men: "No one certainly would venture, " says theorator Isæus, "to dine with a married woman; married women do not goout to dine with men or permit themselves to eat with strangers. " AnAthenian woman who frequented society could not maintain a goodreputation. 

The wife, thus secluded and ignorant, was not an agreeable companion. The husband had taken her not for his life-long companion, but tokeep his house in order, to be the mother of his children, and becauseGreek custom and religion required that he should marry. Plato saysthat one does not marry because he wants to, but "because the lawconstrains him. " And the comic poet Menander had found this saying:"Marriage, to tell the truth, is an evil, but a necessary evil. " Andso the women in Athens, as in most of the other states of Greece, always held but little place in society. 

FOOTNOTES:

[66] The marble of Pentelicus and the honey of Hymettus. 

[67] This legendary king was called Theseus. 

[68] Certain limitations, however, are referred to below, under"Metics. "--ED. 

[69] Not to mention the Archons, whom they had not ventured to suppress. 

[70] Xenophon, "Memorabilia, " iii. , 7, 6. 

CHAPTER XIII

WARS OF THE GREEKS

THE PERSIAN WARS

=Origin of the Persian Wars. =--While the Greeks were completing theorganization of their cities, the Persian king was uniting all thenations of the East in a single empire. Greeks and Orientals at lengthfound themselves face to face. It is in Asia Minor that they firstmeet. 

On the coast of Asia Minor there were rich and populous colonies ofthe Greeks;[71] Cyrus, the king of Persia, desired to subject them. These cities sent for help to the Spartans, who were reputed thebravest of the Greeks, and this action was reported to Cyrus; hereplied, [72] "I have never feared this sort of people that has in themidst of the city a place where the people assemble to deceive oneanother with false oaths. " (He was thinking of the market-place. ) TheGreeks of Asia were subdued and made subject to the Great King. 

Thirty years later King Darius found himself in the presence of theGreeks of Europe. But this time it was the Greeks that attacked theGreat King. The Athenians sent twenty galleys to aid the revoltingIonians; their soldiers entered Lydia, took Sardis by surprise andburned it. Darius revenged himself by destroying the Greek cities ofAsia, but he did not forget the Greeks of Europe. He had decreed, theysay, that at every meal an officer should repeat to him: "Master, remember the Athenians. " He sent to the Greek cities to demand earthand water, a symbol in use among the Persians to indicate submissionto the Great King. Most of the Greeks were afraid and yielded. But theSpartans cast the envoys into a pit, bidding them take thence earthand water to carry to the king. This was the beginning of the Medianwars. 

=Comparison of the Two Adversaries. =--The contrast between the twoworlds which now entered into conflict is well marked by Herodotus[73]in the form of a conversation of King Xerxes with Demaratus, a Spartanexile: "'I venture to assure you, ' said Demaratus, 'that the Spartanswill offer you battle even if all the rest of the Greeks fight on yourside, and if their army should not amount to more than one thousandmen. ' 'What!' said Xerxes, 'one thousand men attack so immense an armyas mine! I fear your words are only boasting; for although they befive thousand, we are more than one thousand to one. If they had amaster like us, fear would inspire them with courage; they would marchunder the lash against a larger army; but being free and independent, they will have no more courage than that with which nature has endowedthem. ' 'The Spartans, ' replied Demaratus, 'are not inferior to anybodyin a hand-to-hand contest, and united in a phalanx they are thebravest of all men. Yet, though free, they have an absolute master, the Law, which they dread more than all your subjects do you; theyobey it, and this law requires them to stand fast to their post andconquer or die. '" This is the difference between the two parties tothe conflict: on the one side, a multitude of subjects united by forceunder a capricious master; on the other, little martial republicswhose citizens govern themselves according to laws which they respect. 

=First Persian War. =--There were two Persian wars. The first wassimply an expedition against Athens; six hundred galleys sent byDarius disembarked a Persian army on the little plain of Marathon, seven hours distant from Athens. 

Religious sentiment prevented the Spartans from taking the fieldbefore the full moon, and it was still only the first quarter; theAthenians had to fight alone. [74] Ten thousand citizens armed ashoplites camped before the Persians. The Athenians had ten generals, having the command on successive days; of these Miltiades, when histurn came, drew up the army for battle. The Athenians charged theenemy in serried ranks, but the Persians seeing them advancing withoutcavalry and without archers, thought them fools. It was the first timethat the Greeks had dared to face the Persians in battle array. TheAthenians began by turning both flanks, and then engaged the centre, driving the Persians in disorder to the sea and forcing them toreëmbark on their ships. 

The victory of Marathon delivered the Athenians and made them famousin all Greece (490). 

=Second Persian War. =--The second war began ten years later with aninvasion. Xerxes united all the peoples of the empire, so that theland force amounted, as some say, to 1, 700, 000 men. [75] There wereMedes and Persians clad in sleeved tunics, armed with cuirasses ofiron, bucklers, bows and arrows; Assyrians with cuirass of linen, armed with clubs pointed with iron; Indians clad in cotton with bowsand arrows of bamboo; savages of Ethiopia with leopard skins forclothing; nomads armed only with lassos; Phrygians armed with shortpikes; Lydians equipped like Greeks; Thracians carrying javelins anddaggers. The enumeration of these fills twenty chapters inHerodotus. [76] These warriors brought with them a crowd equallynumerous of non-combatants, of servants, slaves, women, together witha mass of mules, horses, camels, and baggage wagons. 

This horde crossed the Hellespont by a bridge of boats in the springof 480. For seven days and nights it defiled under the lash. Thentraversing Thrace, it marched on Greece, conquering the peoples whomit met. 

The Persian fleet, 1, 200 galleys strong, coasted the shores of Thrace, passing through the canal at Mount Athos which Xerxes had had builtfor this very purpose. 

The Greeks, terrified, submitted for the most part to the Great Kingand joined their armies to the Persian force. The Athenians sent toconsult the oracle of Delphi, but received only the reply; "Athenswill be destroyed from base to summit. " The god being asked to give amore favorable response, replied, "Zeus accords to Pallas [protectressof Athens] a wall of wood which alone shall not be taken; in thatshall you and your children find safety. " The priests of whom theyasked the interpretation of this oracle bade the Athenians quit Atticaand go to establish themselves elsewhere. But Themistocles explainedthe "wall of wood" as meaning the ships; they should retire to thefleet and fight the Persians on sea. 

Athens and Sparta, having decided on resistance, endeavored to form aleague of the Greeks against the Persians. Few cities had the courageto enter it, and these placed themselves under the command of theSpartans. Four battles in one year settled the war. At Thermopylæ, Leonidas, king of Sparta, who tried to bar the entrance to a defilewas outflanked and overwhelmed. At Salamis, the Persian fleet, crowdedinto a narrow space where the ships embarrassed one another, wasdefeated by the Greek navy (480). At Platæa the rest of the Persianarmy left in Greece was annihilated by the Greek hoplites; of 300, 000men but 40, 000 escaped. The same day at Mycale, on the coast of Asia, an army of the Greeks landed and routed the Persians (479). The Greekshad conquered the Great King. 

=Reasons for the Greek Victory. =--The Median war was not a nationalwar between Greeks and barbarians. All the Greeks of Asia and half theGreeks of Europe fought on the Persian side. Many of the other Greeksgave no assistance. In reality it was a fight of the Great King andhis subjects against Sparta, Athens, and their allies. 

The conquest of this great horde by two small peoples appeared at thattime as a prodigy. The gods, said the Greeks, had fought for them. Butthere is less wonder when we examine the two antagonists more closely:the Persian army was innumerable, and Xerxes had thought that victorywas a matter of numbers. But this multitude was an embarrassment toitself. It did not know where to secure food for itself, it advancedbut slowly, and it choked itself on the day of combat. Likewise theships arranged in too close order drove their prows into neighboringships and shattered their oars. Then in this immense crowd there were, according to Herodotus, many men but few soldiers. Only the Persiansand Medes, the flower of the army, fought with energy; the restadvanced only under the lash, they had come under pressure to a warwhich had no interest for them, ill-armed and without discipline, ready to desert as soon as no one was watching them. At Platæa theMedes and Persians were the only ones to do any fighting; the subjectskept aloof. 

The Persian soldiers were ill-equipped; they were embarrassed by theirlong robes, the head was poorly protected by a felt hat, the bodyill-defended by a shield of wicker-work. For arms they had a bow, adagger, and a very short pike; they could fight only at a greatdistance or hand-to-hand. The Spartans and their allies, on thecontrary, secure in the protection of great buckler, helmet andgreaves, marched in solid line and were irresistible; they broke theenemy with their long pikes and at once the battle became a massacre. 

=Results of the Persian Wars. =--Sparta had commanded the troops, butas Herodotus says, [77] it was Athens who had delivered Greece bysetting an example of resistance and constituting the fleet ofSalamis. It was Athens who profited by the victory. All the Ioniancities of the Archipelago and of the coast of Asia revolted and formeda league against the Persians. The Spartans, men of the mountains, could not conduct a maritime war, and so withdrew; the Atheniansimmediately became chiefs of the league. In 476[78] Aristides, commanding the fleet, assembled the delegates of the confederatecities. They decided to continue the war against the Great King, andengaged to provide ships and warriors and to pay each year acontribution of 460 talents ($350, 000). The treasure was deposited atDelos in the temple of Apollo, god of the Ionians. Athens was chargedwith the leadership of the military force and with collecting the tax. To make the agreement irrevocable Aristides had a mass of hot ironcast into the sea, and all swore to maintain the oaths until the daythat the iron should mount to the surface. 

A day came, however, when the war ceased, and the Greeks, always thevictors, concluded a peace, or at least a truce, [79] with the GreatKing. He surrendered his claim on the Asiatic Greeks (about 449). 

What was to become of the treaty of Aristides? Were the confederatecities still to pay their contribution now that there was no morefighting? Some refused it even before the war was done. Athensasserted that the cities had made their engagements in perpetuity andforced them to pay them. 

The war finished, the treasury at Delos had no further use; theAthenians transferred the money to Athens and used it in buildingtheir monuments. They maintained that the allies paid for deliverancefrom the Persians; they, therefore, had no claim against Athens solong as she defended them from the Great King. The allies had nowbecome the tributaries of Athens: they were now her subjects. Athensincreased the tax on them, and required their citizens to bring theircases before the Athenian courts; she even sent colonists to seize apart of their lands. Athens, mistress of the league, was sovereignover more than three hundred cities spread over the islands and thecoasts of the Archipelago, and the tribute paid her amounted to sixhundred talents a year. 

STRIFE AMONG THE GREEK STATES

=The Peloponnesian War. =--After the foundation of the Athenian empirein the Archipelago the Greeks found themselves divided between twoleagues--the maritime cities were subject to Athens; the cities of theinterior remained under the domination of Sparta. After muchpreliminary friction war arose between Sparta and her continentalallies on the one side and Athens and her maritime subjects on theother. This was the _Peloponnesian War_. It continued twenty-sevenyears (431-404), and when it ceased, it was revived under other namesdown to 360. 

These wars were complicated affairs. They were fought simultaneouslyon land and sea, in Greece, Asia, Thrace, and Sicily, ordinarily atseveral points at once. The Spartans had a better army and ravagedAttica; the Athenians had a superior fleet and made descents on thecoasts of the Peloponnesus. Then Athens sent its army to Sicily whereit perished to the last man (413); Lysander, a Spartan general, secured a fleet from the Persians and destroyed the Athenian fleet inAsia (405). The Athenian allies who fought only under compulsionabandoned her. Lysander took Athens, demolished its walls, and burntits ships. 

=Wars against Sparta. =--Sparta was for a time mistress on both landand sea. "In those days, " says Xenophon, "all cities obeyed when aSpartan issued his orders. " But soon the allies of Sparta, wearied ofher domination, formed a league against her. The Spartans, driven atfirst from Asia, still maintained their power in Greece for some yearsby virtue of their alliance with the king of the Persians (387). Butthe Thebans, having developed a strong army under the command ofEpaminondas, fought them at Leuctra (371) and at Mantinea (362). Theallies of Sparta detached themselves from her, but the Thebans couldnot secure from the rest of the Greeks the recognition of theirsupremacy. From this time no Greek city was sovereign over the others. 

=Savage Character of These Wars. =--These wars between the Greek citieswere ferocious. A few incidents suffice to show their character. Atthe opening of the war the allies of Sparta threw into the sea all themerchants from cities hostile to them. The Athenians in return put todeath the ambassadors of Sparta without allowing them to speak a word. The town of Platæa was taken by capitulation, and the Spartans hadpromised that no one should be punished without a trial; but theSpartan judges demanded of every prisoner if during the war he hadrendered any service to the Peloponnesians; when the prisoner repliedin the negative, he was condemned to death. The women were sold asslaves. The city of Mitylene having revolted from Athens was retakenby her. The Athenians in an assembly deliberated and decreed that allthe people of Mitylene should be put to death. It is true that thenext day the Athenians revised the decree and sent a second ship tocarry a more favorable commission, but still more than one thousandMityleneans were executed. 

After the Syracusan disaster all the Athenian army was taken captive. The conquerors began by slaughtering all the generals and many of thesoldiers. The remainder were consigned to the quarries which served asprison. They were left there crowded together for seventy days, exposed without protection to the burning sun of summer, and then tothe chilly nights of autumn. Many died from sickness, from cold andhunger--for they were hardly fed at all; their corpses remained on theground and infected the air. At last the Syracusans drew out thesurvivors sold them into slavery. 

Ordinarily when an army invaded a hostile state it levelled thehouses, felled the trees, burned the crops and killed the laborers. After battle it made short shrift of the wounded and killed prisonersin cold blood. In a captured city everything belonged to the captor:men, women, children were sold as slaves. Such was at this time theright of war. Thucydides sums up the case as follows:[80] "Business isregulated between men by the laws of justice when there is obligationon both sides; but the stronger does whatever is in his power, and theweaker yields. The gods rule by a necessity of their nature becausethey are strongest; men do likewise. "

=Results of These Wars. =--These wars did not result in uniting theGreeks into one body. No city, Sparta more than Athens, was able toforce the others to obey her. They only exhausted themselves byfighting one another. It was the king of Persia who profited by thestrife. Not only did the Greek cities not unite against him, but allin succession allied themselves with him against the other Greeks. Inthe notorious Peace of Antalcidas (387) the Great King declared thatall the Greek cities of Asia belonged to him, and Sparta recognizedthis claim. Athens and Thebes did as much some years later. AnAthenian orator said, "It is the king of Persia who governs Greece; heneeds only to establish governors in our cities. Is it not he whodirects everything among us? Do we not summon the Great King as if wewere his slaves?" The Greeks by their strife had lost the vantage thatthe Median war had gained for them. 

FOOTNOTES:

[71] Twelve Ionian colonies, twelve Æolian, four Dorian. 

[72] Herod. , i. , 153. 

[73] Herod. , vii. , 103, 104. 

[74] 1, 000 Platæans came to the assistance of the Athenians. --ED. 

[75] Herodotus's statements of the numbers in Xerxes' army areincredible. --ED. 

[76] Herod. , vii. , 61-80. 

[77] vii. , 139. 

[78] The chronology of these events is uncertain. --ED. 

[79] Called the Peace of Cimon, but it is very doubtful whether Cimonreally concluded a treaty. [With more right may it be called the Peaceof Callias, who was probably principal ambassador. --ED. ]

[80] In his chapters on the Mityleneans. 

CHAPTER XIV

THE ARTS IN GREECE

ATHENS AT THE TIME OF PERICLES

=Pericles. =--In the middle of the fifth century Athens found herselfthe most powerful city in Greece. Pericles, descended from one of thenoble families, was then the director of the affairs of the state. Hewasted neither speech nor personality, and never sought to flatter thevanity of the people. But the Athenians respected him and acted onlyin accordance with his counsels; they had faith in his knowledge ofall the details of administration, of the resources of the state, andso they permitted him to govern. For forty years Pericles was the soulof the politics of Athens; as Thucydides his contemporary said, "Thedemocracy existed in name; in reality it was the government of thefirst citizen. "

=Athens and Her Monuments. =--In Athens, as in the majority of Greekcities, the houses of individuals were small, low, packed closelytogether, forming narrow streets, tortuous and ill paved. TheAthenians reserved their display for their public monuments. Everafter they levied heavy war taxes on their allies they had large sumsof money to expend, and these were employed in erecting beautifuledifices. In the market-place they built a portico adorned withpaintings (the Poikile), in the city a theatre, a temple in honor ofTheseus, and the Odeon for the contests in music. But the mostbeautiful monuments rose on the rock of the Acropolis as on a giganticpedestal. There were two temples of which the principal, theParthenon, was dedicated to Athena, protecting goddess of the city; acolossal statue of bronze which represented Athena; and a staircase ofornamental character leading up to the Propylæa. Athens was from thistime the most beautiful of the Greek cities. [81]

=Importance of Athens. =--Athens became at the same time the city ofartists. Poets, orators, architects, painters, sculptors--someAthenians by birth, others come from all corners of the Greekworld--met here and produced their masterpieces. There were withoutdoubt many Greek artists elsewhere than at Athens; there had beenbefore the fifth century, and there were a long time afterward; butnever were so many assembled at one time in the same city. Most of theGreeks had fine sensibilities in matters of art; but the Atheniansmore than all others had a refined taste, a cultivated spirit and loveof the beautiful. If the Greeks have gained renown in the history ofcivilization, it is that they have been a people of artists; neithertheir little states nor their small armies have played a great rôle inthe world. This is why the fifth century is the most beautiful momentin the history of Greece; this is why Athens has remained renownedabove all the rest of the Greek cities. 

LETTERS

=The Orators. =--Athens is above all the city of eloquence. Speeches inthe assembly determine war, peace, taxes, all state business ofimportance; speeches before the courts condemn or acquit citizens andsubjects. Power is in the hands of the orators; the people followtheir counsels and often commit to them important public functions:Cleon is appointed general; Demosthenes directs the war againstPhilip. 

The orators have influence; they employ their talents in eloquence toaccuse their political enemies. Often they possess riches, for theyare paid for supporting one party or the other: Æschines is retainedby the king of Macedon; Demosthenes accepts fees from the king ofPersia. 

Some of the orators, instead of delivering their own orations, wrotespeeches for others. When an Athenian citizen had a case at court, hedid not desire, as we do, that an advocate plead his case for him; thelaw required that each speak in person. He therefore sought an oratorand had him compose a speech which he learned by heart and recitedbefore the tribunal. 

Other orators travelled through the cities of Greece speaking onsubjects which pleased their fancy. Sometimes they gave lectures, aswe should say. 

The oldest orators spoke simply, limiting themselves to an account ofthe facts without oratorical flourishes; on the platform they werealmost rigid without loud speaking or gesticulation. Periclesdelivered his orations with a calm air, so quietly, indeed, that nofold of his mantle was disturbed. When he appeared at the tribune, his head, according to custom, crowned with leaves, he might have beentaken, said the people, "for a god of Olympus. " But the orators whofollowed wished to move the public. They assumed an animated style, pacing the tribune in a declamatory and agitated manner. The peoplebecame accustomed to this form of eloquence. The first time thatDemosthenes came to the tribune the assembly shouted with laughter;the orator could not enunciate, he carried himself ill. He disciplinedhimself in declamation and gesture and became the favorite of thepeople. Later when he was asked what was the first quality of theorator, he replied, "Action, and the second, action, and the third, action. " Action, that is delivery, was more to the Greeks than thesense of the discourse. 

=The Sages. =--For some centuries there had been, especially among theGreeks of Asia, men who observed and reflected on things. They werecalled by a name which signifies at once wise men and scholars. Theybusied themselves with physics, astronomy, natural history, for as yetscience was not separated from philosophy. Such were in the seventhcentury the celebrated Seven Sages of Greece. 

=The Sophists. =--About the time of Pericles there came to Athens menwho professed to teach wisdom. They gathered many pupils and chargedfees for their lessons. Ordinarily they attacked the religion, customs, and institutions of Greek cities, showing that they were notfounded on reason. They concluded that men could not know anythingwith certainty (which was quite true for their time), that men canknow nothing at all, and that nothing is true or false: "Nothingexists, " said one of them, "and if it did exist, we could not knowit. " These professors of scepticism were called sophists. Some of themwere at the same time orators. 

=Socrates and the Philosophers. =--Socrates, an old man of Athens, undertook to combat the sophists. He was a poor man, ugly, and withouteloquence. He opened no school like the sophists but contented himselfwith going about the city, conversing with those he met, and leadingthem by the force of his questions to discover what he himself had inmind. He sought especially the young men and gave them instruction andcounsel. Socrates made no pretensions as a scholar: "All myknowledge, " said he, "is to know that I know nothing. " He would callhimself no longer a sage, like the others, but a philosopher, that isto say, a lover of wisdom. He did not meditate on the nature of theworld nor on the sciences; man was his only interest. His motto was, "Know thyself. " He was before all a preacher of virtue. 

As he always spoke of morals and religion, the Athenians took him fora sophist. [82] In 399 he was brought before the court, accused "of notworshipping the gods of the city, of introducing new gods, and ofcorrupting the youth. " He made no attempt to defend himself, and wascondemned to death. He was then seventy years old. 

Xenophon, one of his disciples, wrote out his conversations and anapology for him. [83] Another disciple, Plato, composed dialogues inwhich Socrates is always the principal personage. Since this timeSocrates has been regarded as the "father of philosophy. " Platohimself was the head of a school (429-348); Aristotle (384-322), adisciple of Plato, summarized in his books all the science of histime. The philosophers that followed attached themselves to one or theother of these two masters: the disciples of Plato called themselvesAcademicians, [84] those of Aristotle, Peripatetics. [85]

=The Chorus. =--It was an ancient custom of the Greeks to dance intheir religious ceremonies. Around the altar dedicated to the god agroup of young men passed and repassed, assuming noble and expressiveattitudes, for the ancients danced with the whole body. Their dance, very different from ours, was a sort of animated procession, somethinglike a solemn pantomime. Almost always this religious dance wasaccompanied by chants in honor of the god. The group singing anddancing at the same time was called the Chorus. All the cities hadtheir festival choruses in which the children of the noblest familiesparticipated after long time of preparation. The god required theservice of a troop worthy of him. 

=Tragedy and Comedy. =--In the level country about Athens the young mencelebrated in this manner each year religious dances in honor ofDionysos, the god of the vintage. One of these dances was grave; itrepresented the actions of the god. The leader of the chorus playedDionysos, the chorus itself the satyrs, his companions. Little bylittle they came to represent also the life of the other gods and theancient heroes. Then some one (the Greeks call him Thespis) conceivedthe idea of setting up a stage on which the actor could play while thechorus rested. The spectacle thus perfected was transferred to thecity near the black poplar tree in the market. Thus originatedTragedy. 

The other dance was comic. The masked dancers chanted the praises ofDionysos mingled with jeers addressed to the spectators or withhumorous reflections on the events of the day. The same was done forthe comic chorus as for the tragic chorus: actors were introduced, adialogue, all of a piece, and the spectacle was transferred to Athens. This was the origin of Comedy. This is the reason that from this timetragedy has been engaged with heroes, and comedy with every-day life. 

Tragedy and comedy preserved some traces of their origin. Even whenthey were represented in the theatre, they continued to be playedbefore the altar of the god. Even after the actors mounted on theplatform had become the most important personages of the spectacle, the choir continued to dance and to chant around the altar. In thecomedies, like the masques in other days, sarcastic remarks on thegovernment came to be made; this was the Parabasis. 

=The Theatre. =--That all the Athenians might be present at thesespectacles there was built on the side of the Acropolis the theatre ofDionysos which could hold 30, 000 spectators. Like all the Greektheatres, it was open to heaven and was composed of tiers of rockranged in a half-circle about the orchestra where the chorus performedand before the stage where the play was given. 

Plays were produced only at the time of the festivals of the god, butthen they continued for several days in succession. They began in themorning at sunrise and occupied all the time till torch-light with theproduction of a series of three tragedies (a trilogy) followed by asatirical drama. Each trilogy was the work of one author. Othertrilogies were presented on succeeding days, so that the spectacle wasa competition between poets, the public determining the victor. Themost celebrated of these competitors were Æschylus, Sophocles, andEuripides. There were also contests in comedy, but there remain to usonly the works of one comic poet, Aristophanes. 

THE ARTS

=Greek Temples. =--In Greece the most beautiful edifices wereconstructed to the honor of the gods, and when we speak of Greekarchitecture it is their temples that we have in mind. 

A Greek temple is not, like a Christian church, designed to receivethe faithful who come thither to pray. It is the palace[86] where thegod lives, represented by his idol, a palace which men feel undercompulsion to make splendid. The mass of the faithful do not enter theinterior of the temple; they remain without, surrounding the altar inthe open air. 

At the centre of the temple is the "chamber" of the god, a mysterioussanctuary without windows, dimly lighted from above. [87] On thepavement rises the idol of wood, of marble, or of ivory, clad in goldand adorned with garments and jewels. The statue is often of colossalsize; in the temple of Olympia Zeus is represented sitting and hishead almost touches the summit of the temple. "If the god shouldrise, " they said, "his head would shatter the roof. " This sanctuary, asort of reliquary for the idol, is concealed on every side from theeyes. To enter, it is necessary to pass through a porch formed by arow of columns. 

Behind the "chamber" is the "rear-chamber" in which are kept thevaluable property of the god--his riches, [88] and often the gold andsilver of the city. The temple is therefore storehouse, treasury, andmuseum. 

Rows of columns surround the building on four sides, like a secondwall protecting the god and his treasures. There are three orders ofcolumns which differ in base and capital, each bearing the name of thepeople that invented it or most frequently used it. They are, in theorder of age, the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian. The temple isnamed from the style of the columns supporting it. 

Above the columns, around the edifice are sculptured surfaces ofmarble (the metopes) which alternate with plain blocks of marble (thetriglyphs). Metopes and triglyphs constitute the frieze. 

The temple is surmounted with a triangular pediment adorned withstatues. 

Greek temples were polychrome, that is to say, were painted in severalcolors, yellow, blue, and red. For a long time the moderns refused tobelieve this; it was thought that the Greeks possessed too sober tasteto add color to an edifice. But traces of painting have beendiscovered on several temples, which cannot leave the matter in doubt. It has at last been concluded, on reflection, that these bright colorswere to give a clearer setting to the lines. 

=Characteristics of Greek Architecture. =--A Greek temple appears atfirst a simple, bare edifice; it is only a long box of stone set upona rock; the façade is a square surmounted by a triangle. At firstglance one sees only straight lines and cylinders. But on nearerinspection "it is discovered[89] that not a single one of these linesis truly straight. " The columns swell at the middle, vertical linesare slightly inclined to the centre, and horizontal lines bulge alittle at the middle. And all this is so fine that exact measurementsare necessary to detect the artifice. Greek architects discoveredthat, to produce a harmonious whole, it is necessary to avoidgeometrical lines which would appear stiff, and take account ofillusions in perspective. "The aim of the architect, " says a Greekwriter, "is to invent processes for deluding the sight. "

Greek artists wrought conscientiously for they worked for the gods. And so their monuments are elaborated in all their parts, even inthose that are least in view, and are constructed so solidly thatthey exist to this day if they have not been violently destroyed. TheParthenon was still intact in the seventeenth century. An explosion ofgunpowder wrecked it. 

The architecture of the Greeks was at once solid and elegant, simpleand scientific. Their temples have almost all disappeared; here andthere are a very few, [90] wholly useless, in ruins, with roofs fallenin, often nothing left but rows of columns. And yet, even in thisstate, they enrapture those who behold them. 

=Sculpture. =--Among the Egyptians and the Assyrians sculpture washardly more than an accessory ornament of their edifices; the Greeksmade it the principal art. Their most renowned artists, Phidias, Praxiteles, and Lysippus, were sculptors. 

They executed bas-reliefs to adorn the walls of a temple, its façadeor its pediment. Of this style of work is the famous frieze of thePanathenaic procession which was carved around the Parthenon, representing young Athenian women on the day of the great festival ofthe goddess. [91]

They sculptured statues for the most part, of which some representedgods and served as idols; others represented athletes victorious inthe great games, and these were the recompense of his victory. 

The most ancient statues of the Greeks are stiff and rude, quitesimilar to the Assyrian sculptures. They are often colored. Little bylittle they become graceful and elegant. The greatest works are thoseof Phidias in the fifth century and of Praxiteles in the fourth. Thestatues of the following centuries are more graceful, but less nobleand less powerful. 

There were thousands of statues in Greece, [92] for every city had itsown, and the sculptors produced without cessation for five centuries. Of all this multitude there remain to us hardly fifteen completestatues. Not a single example of the masterpieces celebrated among theGreeks has come down to us. Our most famous Greek statues are eithercopies, like the Venus of Milo, or works of the period of thedecadence, like the Apollo of the Belvidere. [93] Still there remainsenough, uniting the fragments of statues and of bas-reliefs which arecontinually being discovered, [94] to give us a general conception ofGreek sculpture. 

Greek sculptors sought above everything else to represent the mostbeautiful bodies in a calm and noble attitude. They had a thousandoccasions for viewing beautiful bodies of men in beautiful poses, atthe gymnasium, in the army, in the sacred dances and choruses. Theystudied them and learned to reproduce them; no one has ever betterexecuted the human body. 

Usually in a Greek statue the head is small, the face without emotionand dull. The Greeks did not seek, as we do, the expression of theface; they strove for beauty of line and did not sacrifice the limbsfor the head. In a Greek statue it is the whole body that isbeautiful. 

=Pottery. =--The Greeks came to make pottery a real art. They called itCeramics (the potter's art), and this name is still preserved. Potteryhad not the same esteem in Greece as the other arts, but for us it hasthe great advantage of being better known than the others. Whiletemples and statues fell into ruin, the achievements of Greek pottersare preserved in the tombs. This is where they are found today. Already more than 20, 000 specimens have been collected in all themuseums of Europe. They are of two sorts:

 1. Painted vases, with black or red figures, of all sizes and every form;

 2. Statuettes of baked earth; hardly known twenty years ago, they have now attained almost to celebrity since the discovery of the charming figurines of Tanagra in Bœotia. The most of them are little idols, but some represent children or women. 

=Painting. =--There were illustrious painters in Greece--Zeuxis, Parrhasius, and Apelles. We know little of them beyond some anecdotes, often doubtful, and some descriptions of pictures. To obtain animpression of Greek painting we are limited to the frescoes found inthe houses of Pompeii, an Italian city of the first century of ourera. This amounts to the same as saying we know nothing of it. 

FOOTNOTES:

[81] The moderns have called this time the Age of Pericles, becausePericles was then governing and was the friend of many of these artists;but the ancients never employed the phrase. 

[82] See Aristophanes' "Clouds. "

[83] The "Memorabilia" and "Apologia. "

[84] Because Plato had lectured in the gardens of a certain Academus. 

[85] Because Aristotle had given instruction while moving about. [Orrather from a favorite walk (Peripatus) in the Lyceum. --ED. ]

[86] The Greek word for temple signifies "dwelling. "

[87] But not by a square opening in the roof as formerly supposed. --ED. See Gardner, "Ancient Athens, " N. Y. , 1902, p. 268. 

[88] The Parthenon contained vases of gold and silver, a crown of gold, shields, helmets, swords, serpents of gold, an ivory table, eighteencouches, and quivers of ivory. 

[89] Boutmy, "Philosophie de l'Architecture en Grèce. "

[90] The most noted are the Parthenon at Athens and the temple ofPoseidon at Pæstum, in south Italy. 

[91] Knights and other subjects were also shown. --ED. 

[92] Even in the second century after the Romans had pillaged Greece toadorn their palaces, there were many thousands of statues in the Greekcities. 

[93] It is not certain that the Apollo Belvidere was not a Roman copy. 

[94] In the ruins of Olympia has been found a statue of Hermes, the workof Praxiteles. 

CHAPTER XV

THE GREEKS IN THE ORIENT

ASIA BEFORE ALEXANDER

=Decadence of the Persian Empire. =--The Greeks, engaged in strife, ceased to attack the Great King; they even received their orders fromhim. But the Persian empire still continued to become enfeebled. Thesatraps no longer obeyed the government; each had his court, histreasure, his army, made war according to his fancy, and in short, became a little king in his province. When the Great King desired toremove a satrap, he had scarcely any way of doing it except byassassinating him. The Persians themselves were no longer that nationbefore which all the Asiatic peoples were wont to tremble. Xenophon, aGreek captain, who had been in their pay, describes them as follows:"They recline on tapestries wearing gloves and furs. The nobles, forthe sake of the pay, transform their porters, their bakers, and cooksinto knights--even the valets who served them at table, dressed themor perfumed them. And so, although their armies were large, they wereof no service, as is apparent from the fact that their enemiestraversed the empire more freely than their friends. They no longerdared to fight. The infantry as formerly was equipped with buckler, sword, and axe, but they had no courage to use them. The drivers ofchariots before facing the enemy basely allowed themselves to beoverthrown at once or leaped down from the cars, so that these beingno longer under control injured the Persians more than the enemy. Forthe rest, the Persians do not disguise their military weakness, theyconcede their inferiority and do not dare to take the field exceptthere are Greeks in their army. They have for their maxim 'never tofight Greeks without Greek auxiliaries on their side. '"

=Expedition of the Ten Thousand. =--This weakness was very apparentwhen in 400 Cyrus, brother of the Great King Artaxerxes, marchedagainst him to secure his throne. There were then some thousands ofadventurers or Greek exiles who hired themselves as mercenaries. Cyrusretained ten thousand of them. Xenophon, one of their number, haswritten the story of their expedition. 

This army crossed the whole of Asia even to the Euphrates withoutresistance from any one. [95] They at last came to battle near Babylon. The Greeks according to their habit broke into a run, raising thewar-cry. The barbarians took flight before the Greeks had come evenwithin bow-shot. The Greeks followed in pursuit urging one another tokeep ranks. 

When the war-chariots attacked them, they opened their ranks and letthem through. Not a Greek received the least stroke with the exceptionof one only who was wounded with an arrow. Cyrus was killed; his armydisbanded without fighting, and the Greeks remained alone in the heartof a hostile country threatened by a large army. And yet the Persiansdid not dare to attack them, but treacherously killed their fivegenerals, twenty captains, and two hundred soldiers who had come toconclude a truce. 

The friendless mercenaries elected new chiefs, burned their tents andtheir chariots, and began their retreat. They broke into the ruggedmountains of Armenia, and notwithstanding famine, snow, and the arrowsof the natives who did not wish to let them pass, they came to theBlack Sea and returned to Greece after traversing the whole Persianempire. At their return (399) their number amounted still to 8, 000. 

=Agesilaus. =--Three years after, Agesilaus, king of Sparta, with asmall army invaded the rich country of Asia Minor, Lydia, and Phrygia. He fought the satraps and was about to invade Asia when the Spartansordered his return to fight the armies of Thebes and Athens. Agesilauswas the first of the Greeks to dream of conquering Persia. He wasdistressed to see the Greeks fighting among themselves. When theyannounced to him the victory at Corinth where but eight Spartans hadperished and 10, 000 of the enemy, instead of rejoicing he sighed andsaid, "Alas, unhappy Greece, to have lost enough men to havesubjugated all the barbarians!" He refused one day to destroy a Greekcity. "If we exterminate all the Greeks who fail of their duty, " saidhe, "where shall we find the men to vanquish the barbarians?" Thisfeeling was rare at that time. In relating these words of AgesilausXenophon, his biographer, exclaims, "Who else regarded it as amisfortune to conquer when he was making war on peoples of his ownrace?"

CONQUEST OF ASIA BY ALEXANDER

=Macedon. =--Sparta and Athens, exhausted by a century of wars, hadabandoned the contest against the king of Persia. A new people resumedit and brought it to an end; these were the Macedonians. They were avery rude people, crude, similar to the ancient Dorians, a people ofshepherds and soldiers. They lived far to the north of Greece in twogreat valleys that opened to the sea. The Greeks had little regard forthem, rating them as half barbarians; but since the kings of Macedoncalled themselves sons of Herakles they had been permitted to runtheir horses in the races of the Olympian games. This gave themstanding as Greeks. 

=Philip of Macedon. =--These kings ruling in the interior, remote fromthe sea, had had but little part in the wars of the Greeks. But in 359B. C. Philip ascended the throne of Macedon, a man young, active, bold, and ambitious. Philip had three aims:

 1. To develop a strong army;

 2. To conquer all the ports on the coast of Macedon;

 3. To force all the other Greeks to unite under his command against the Persians. 

He consumed twenty-four years in fulfilling these purposes andsucceeded in all. The Greeks let him alone, often even aided him; inevery city he bribed partisans who spoke in his favor. "No fortress isimpregnable, " said he, "if only one can introduce within it a muleladen with gold. " And by these means he took one after another all thecities of northern Greece. 

=Demosthenes. =--The most illustrious opponent of Philip was the oratorDemosthenes. The son of an armorer, he was left an orphan at the ageof seven, and his guardians had embezzled a part of his fortune. Assoon as he gained his majority he entered a case against them andcompelled them to restore the property. He studied the orations ofIsæus and the history of Thucydides which he knew by heart. But whenhe spoke at the public tribune he was received with shouts oflaughter; his voice was too feeble and his breath too short. Forseveral years he labored to discipline his voice. It is said that heshut himself up for months with head half shaved that he might not betempted to go out, that he declaimed with pebbles in his mouth, and onthe sea-shore, in order that his voice might rise above the uproar ofthe crowd. When he reappeared on the tribune, he was master of hisvoice, and, as he preserved the habit of carefully preparing all hisorations, he became the most finished and most potent orator ofGreece. 

The party that then governed Athens, whose chief was Phocion, wishedto maintain the peace: Athens had neither soldiers nor money enough towithstand the king of Macedon. "I should counsel you to make war, "said Phocion, "when you are ready for it. " Demosthenes, however, misunderstood Philip, whom he regarded as a barbarian; he placedhimself at the service of the party that wished to make war on him andemployed all his eloquence to move the Athenians from their policy ofpeace. For fifteen years he seized every occasion to incite them towar; many of his speeches have no other object than an attack onPhilip. He himself called these Philippics, and there are three ofthem. (The name Olynthiacs has been applied to the orations deliveredwith the purpose of enlisting the Athenians in the aid of Olynthuswhen it was besieged by Philip. ) The first Philippic is in 352. "When, then, O Athenians, will you be about your duty? Will you always roamabout the public places asking one of another: What is the news? Ah!How can there be anything newer than the sight of a Macedonianconquering Athens and dominating Greece? I say, then, that you oughtto equip fifty galleys and resolve, if necessary, to man themyourselves. Do not talk to me of an army of 10, 000 or of 20, 000 aliensthat exists only on paper. I would have only citizen soldiers. "

In the third Philippic (341) Demosthenes calls to the minds of theAthenians the progress made by Philip, thanks to their inaction. "Whenthe Greeks once abused their power to oppress others, all Greece roseto prevent this injustice; and yet today we suffer an unworthyMacedonian, a barbarian of a hated race, to destroy Greek cities, celebrate the Pythian games, or have them celebrated by his slaves. And the Greeks look on without doing anything, just as one sees hailfalling while he prays that it may not touch him. You let increase hispower without taking a step to stop it, each regarding it as so muchtime gained when he is destroying another, instead of planning andworking for the safety of Greece, when everybody knows that thedisaster will end with the inclusion of the most remote. "

At last, when Philip had taken Elatea on the borders of Bœotia, theAthenians, on the advice of Demosthenes, determined to make war and tosend envoys to Thebes. Demosthenes was at the head of the embassy; hemet at Thebes an envoy come from Philip; the Thebans hesitated. Demosthenes besought them to bury the old enmities and to think onlyof the safety of Greece, to defend its honor and its history. Hepersuaded them to an alliance with Athens and to undertake the war. Abattle was fought at Chæronea in Bœotia, Demosthenes, then at the ageof forty-eight, serving as a private hostile. But the army of theAthenians and Thebans, levied in haste, was not equal to the veteransof Philip and was thrown into rout. 

=The Macedonian Supremacy. =--Philip, victorious at Chæronea, placed agarrison in Thebes and offered peace to Athens. He then entered thePeloponnesus and was received as a liberator among the peoples whomSparta had oppressed. From this time he met with no resistance. Hecame to Corinth and assembled delegates from all the Greek states(337)[96] except Sparta. 

Here Philip published his project of leading a Greek army to theinvasion of Persia. The delegates approved the proposition and made ageneral confederation of all the Greek states. Each city was to governitself and to live at peace with its neighbors. A general council wasinitiated to prevent wars, civil dissensions, proscriptions, andconfiscations. 

This confederacy made an alliance with the king of Macedon andconferred on him the command of all the Greek troops and navies. EveryGreek was prohibited making war on Philip on pain of banishment. 

=Alexander. =--Philip of Macedon was assassinated in 336. His sonAlexander was then twenty years old. Like all the Greeks of goodfamily he was accustomed to athletic exercises, a vigorous fighter, anexcellent horseman (he alone had been able to master Bucephalus, hiswar-horse). But at the same time he was informed in politics, ineloquence, and in natural history, having had as teacher from histhirteenth to his seventeenth year Aristotle, the greatest scholar ofGreece. He read the Iliad with avidity, called this the guide to themilitary art, and desired to imitate its heroes. He was truly born toconquer, for he loved to fight and was ambitious to distinguishhimself. His father said to him, "Macedon is too small to containyou. "

=The Phalanx. =--Philip left a powerful instrument of conquest, theMacedonian army, the best that Greece had seen. It comprised thephalanx of infantry and a corps of cavalry. 

The phalanx of Macedonians was formed of 16, 000 men ranged with 1, 000in front and 16 men deep. Each had a sarissa, a spear about twentyfeet in length. On the field of battle the Macedonians, instead ofmarching on the enemy facing all in the same direction, heldthemselves in position and presented their pikes to the enemy on allsides, those in the rear couching their spears above the heads of themen of the forward ranks. The phalanx resembled "a monstrous beastbristling with iron, " against which the enemy was to throw itself. While the phalanx guarded the field of battle, Alexander charged theenemy at the head of his cavalry. This Macedonian cavalry was adistinguished body formed of young nobles. 

=Departure of Alexander. =--Alexander started in the spring of 334 with30, 000 infantry (the greater part of these Macedonians) and 4, 500knights; he carried only seventy talents (less than eighty thousanddollars) and supplies for forty days. He had to combat not only thecrowd of ill-armed peoples such as Xerxes had brought together, but anarmy of 50, 000 Greeks enrolled in the service of the Great King undera competent general, Memnon of Rhodes. These Greeks might havewithstood the invasion of Alexander, but Memnon died and his armydispersed. Alexander, delivered from his only dangerous opponent, conquered the Persian empire in two years. 

=Victories of Granicus, Issus, and Arbela. =--Three victories gave theempire to Alexander. In Asia Minor he overthrew the Persian troopsstationed behind the river Granicus (May, 333). At Issus, in theravines of Cilicia, he routed King Darius and his army of 600, 000 men(November, 333). At Arbela, near the Tigris, he scattered andmassacred a still more numerous army (331). 

This was a repetition of the Median wars. The Persian army was illequipped and knew nothing of manœuvring; it was embarrassed with itsmass of soldiers, valets, and baggage. The picked troops alone gavebattle, the rest were scattered and massacred. Between the battles theconquest was only a triumphal progress. Nobody resisted (except thecity of Tyre, commercial rival of the Greeks); what cared the peoplesof the empire whether they were subject to Darius or Alexander? Eachvictory gave Alexander the whole of the country: the Granicus openedAsia Minor, Issus Syria and Egypt, Arbela the rest of the empire. 

=Death of Alexander. =--Master now of the Persian empire Alexanderregarded himself as the heir of the Great King. He assumed Persiandress, adopted the ceremonies of the Persian court and compelled hisGreek generals to prostrate themselves before him according to Persianusage. He married a woman of the land and united eighty of hisofficers to daughters of the Persian nobles. He aimed to extend hisempire to the farthest limits of the ancient kings and advanced evento India, warring with the combative natives. After his return withhis army to Babylon (324), he died at the age of thirty-three, succumbing to a fever of brief duration (323). 

=Projects of Alexander. =--It is very difficult to know exactly whatAlexander's purposes were. Did he conquer for the mere pleasure of it?Or did he have a plan? Did he wish to fuse into one all the peoples ofhis empire? Was he following the example already set him by Persia? Ordid he, perhaps, imitate the Great King simply for vain-glory? And soof his intentions we know nothing. But his acts had great results. Hefounded seventy cities--many Alexandrias in Egypt, in Tartary, andeven in India. He distributed to his subjects the treasures that hadbeen uselessly hoarded in the chests of the Great King. He stimulatedGreek scholars to study the plants, the animals, and the geography ofAsia. But what is of special importance, he prepared the peoples ofthe Orient to receive the language and customs of the Greeks. This iswhy the title "Great" has been assigned to Alexander. 

THE HELLENES IN THE ORIENT

=Dissolution of the Empire of Alexander. =--Alexander had united underone master all the ancient world from the Adriatic to the Indus, fromEgypt to the Caucasus. This vast empire endured only while he lived. Soon after his death his generals disputed as to who should succeedhim; they made war on one another for twenty years, at first under thepretext of supporting some one of the house of Alexander--his brother, his son, his mother, his sisters or one of his wives, later openly intheir own names. 

Each had on his side a part of the Macedonian army or some of theGreek mercenary soldiers. The Greeks were thus contending amongthemselves who should possess Asia. The inhabitants were indifferentin these wars as they had been in the strife between the Greeks andthe Persians. When the war ceased, there remained but three generals;from the empire of Alexander each of them had carved for himself agreat kingdom: Ptolemy had Egypt, Seleucus Syria, LysimachusMacedonia. Other smaller kingdoms were already separated or detachedthemselves later: in Europe Epirus; in Asia Minor, Pontus, Bithynia, Galatia, Cappadocia, Pergamos; in Persia, Bactriana and Parthia. Thusthe empire of Alexander was dismembered. 

=The Hellenistic Kingdoms. =--In these new kingdoms the king was aGreek; accustomed to speak Greek, to adore the Greek gods, and to livein Greek fashion, he preserved his language, his religion, and hiscustoms. His subjects were Asiatics, that is to say, barbarians; buthe sought to maintain a Greek court about him; he recruited his armywith Greek mercenaries, his administrative officers were Greeks, heinvited to his court Greek poets, scholars, and artists. 

Already in the time of the Persian kings there were many Greeks in theempire as colonists, merchants, and especially soldiers. The Greekkings attracted still more of these. They came in such numbers that atlast the natives adopted the costume, the religion, the manners, andeven the language of the Greeks. The Orient ceased to be Asiatic, andbecame Hellenic. The Romans found here in the first century B. C. Onlypeoples like the Greeks and who spoke Greek. [97]

=Alexandria. =--The Greek kings of Egypt, descendants of Ptolemy, [98]accepted the title of Pharaoh held by the ancient kings, wore thediadem, and, like the earlier sovereigns, had themselves worshippedas children of the Sun. But they surrounded themselves with Greeksand founded their capital on the edge of the sea in a Greek city, Alexandria, a new city established by the order of Alexander. 

Built on a simple plan, Alexandria was more regular than other Greekcities. The streets intersected at right angles; a great highway 100feet broad and three and one-half miles in length traversed the wholelength of the city. It was bordered with great monuments--the Stadiumwhere the public games were presented, the Gymnasium, the Museum, andthe Arsineum. The harbor was enclosed with a dike nearly a mile longwhich united the mainland to the island of Pharos. At the veryextremity of this island a tower of marble was erected, on the summitof which was maintained a fire always burning to guide the marinerswho wished to enter the port. Alexandria superseded the Phœniciancities and became the great port of the entire world. 

=The Museum. =--The Museum was an immense edifice of marble connectedwith the royal palace. The kings of Egypt purposed to make of it agreat scientific institution. 

The Museum contained a great library. [99] The chief librarian had acommission to buy all the books that he could find. Every book thatentered Egypt was brought to the library; copyists transcribed themanuscript and a copy was rendered the owner to indemnify him. Thusthey collected 400, 000 volumes, an unheard-of number before theinvention of printing. Until then the manuscripts of celebrated bookswere scarce, always in danger of being lost; now it was known where tofind them. In the Museum were also a botanical and zoölogical garden, an astronomical observatory, a dissecting room establishednotwithstanding the prejudices of the Egyptians, and even a chemicallaboratory. [100]

The Museum provided lodgings for scholars, mathematicians, astronomers, physicians, and grammarians. They were supported at theexpense of the state; often to show his esteem for them the king dinedwith them. These scholars held conferences and gave lectures. Auditorscame from all parts of the Greek world; it was to Alexandria that theyouth were sent for instruction. In the city were nearly 14, 000students. 

The Museum was at once a library, an academy, and a school--somethinglike a university. This sort of institution, common enough among us, was before that time completely unheard of. Alexandria, thanks to itsMuseum, became the rendezvous for all the Orientals--Greeks, Egyptians, Jews, and Syrians; each brought there his religion, hisphilosophy, his science, and all were mingled together. Alexandriabecame and remained for several centuries the scientific andphilosophical capital of the world. 

=Pergamum. =--The kingdom of Pergamum in Asia Minor was small and weak. But Pergamum, its capital, was, like Alexandria, a city of artists andof letters. The sculptors of Pergamum constituted a celebrated schoolin the third century before our era. [101] Pergamum, like Alexandria, possessed a great library where King Attalus had assembled all themanuscripts of the ancient authors. 

It was at Pergamum that, to replace the papyrus on which down to thattime they used to write, they invented the art of preparing skins. This new paper of Pergamum was the parchment on which the manuscriptsof antiquity have been preserved. 

FOOTNOTES:

[95] An episode told by Xenophon shows what fear the Greeks inspired. One day, to make a display before the queen of Cilicia, Cyrus had hisGreeks drawn up in battle array. "They all had their brazen helmets, their tunics of purple, their gleaming shields and greaves. The trumpetsounded, and the soldiers, with arms in action, began the charge;hastening their steps and raising the war-cry, they broke into a run. The barbarians were terrified; the Cilician queen fled from her chariot, the merchants of the market abandoning their goods took to flight, andthe Greeks returned with laughter to their tents. "

[96] There were two assemblies in Corinth--the first in, 338, the secondin 337. --ED. 

[97] The Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles composed in Asia Minorwere written in Greek. 

[98] They were called Lagidæ from the father of Ptolemy I. 

[99] The library of the Museum was burnt during the siege of Alexandriaby Cæsar. But it had a successor in the Serapeum which contained 300, 000volumes. This is said to have been burnt in the seventh century by theArabs. [The tale of the destruction of the library under orders of Omaris doubtful. --ED. ]

[100] King Ptolemy Philadelphus who had great fear of death passed manyyears searching for an elixir of life. 

[101] There still remain to us some of the statues executed by theorders of King Attalus to commemorate his victory over the Gauls ofAsia. 

CHAPTER XVI

THE LAST YEARS OF GREECE

DECADENCE OF THE GREEK CITIES

=Rich and Poor. =--In almost all the Greek cities the domains, theshops of trade, the merchant ships, in short, all the sources offinancial profit were in the hands of certain rich families. The otherfamilies, that is to say, the majority of the citizens, [102] hadneither lands nor money. What, then, could a poor citizen do to gain alivelihood? Hire himself as a farmer, an artisan, or a sailor? But theproprietors already had their estates, their workshops, theirmerchantmen manned by slaves who served them much more cheaply thanfree laborers, for they fed them ill and did not pay them. Could hework on his own account? But money was very scarce; he could notborrow, since interest was at the rate of ten per cent. Then, too, custom did not permit a citizen to become an artisan. "Trade, " saidthe philosophers, "injures the body, enfeebles the soul and leaves noleisure to engage in public affairs. " "And so, " says Aristotle, "awell-constituted city ought not to receive the artisan intocitizenship. " The citizens in Greece constituted a noble class whoseonly honorable functions, like the nobles of ancient France, were togovern and go to war; working with the hands was degrading. Thus bythe competition of slaves and their exalted situation the greater partof the citizens were reduced to extreme misery. 

=Social Strife. =--The poor governed the cities and had no means ofliving. The idea occurred to them to despoil the rich, and the latter, to resist them, organized associations. Then every Greek city wasdivided into two parties: the rich, called the minority, and the poor, called the majority or the people. Rich and poor hated one another andfought one another. When the poor got the upper hand, they exiled therich and confiscated their goods; often they even adopted these tworadical measures:

 1. The abolition of debts;

 2. A new partition of lands. 

The rich, when they returned to power, exiled the poor. In many citiesthey took this oath among themselves: "I swear always to be an enemyto the people and to do them all the injury I can. "

No means were found of reconciling the two parties: the rich could notpersuade themselves to surrender their property; the poor wereunwilling to die of hunger. According to Aristotle all revolutionshave their origin in the distribution of wealth. "Every civil war, "says Polybius, "is initiated to subvert wealth. "

They fought savagely, as is always the case between neighbors. "AtMiletus the poor were at first predominant and forced the rich to fleethe city. But afterwards, regretting that they had not killed themall, they took the children of the exiles, assembled them in barnsand had them trodden under the feet of cattle. The rich reëntered thecity and became masters of it. In their turn they seized the childrenof the poor, coated them with pitch, and burned them alive. "

=Democracy and Oligarchy. =--Each of the two parties--rich andpoor--had its favorite form of government and set it in operation whenthe party held the city. The party of the rich was the Oligarchy whichgave the government into the hands of a few people. That of the poorwas the Democracy which gave the power to an assembly of the people. Each of the two parties maintained an understanding with the similarparty in the other cities. Thus were formed two leagues which dividedall the Greek cities: the league of the rich, or Oligarchy, the leagueof the poor, or Democracy. This régime began during the PeloponnesianWar. Athens supported the democratic party, Sparta the oligarchic. Thecities in which the poor had the sovereignty allied themselves withAthens; the cities where the rich governed, with Sparta. Thus at Samoswhen the poor gained supremacy they slew two hundred of the rich, exiled four hundred of them, and confiscated their lands and houses. Samos then adopted a democratic government and allied itself withAthens. The Spartan army came to besiege Samos, bringing with it therich exiles of Samos who wished to return to the city by force. Thecity was captured, set up an oligarchy, and joined the league ofSparta. 

=The Tyrants. =--At length, the poor perceived that the democratic formof government did not give them strength enough to maintain thecontest. In most of the cities they consented to receive a chief. Thischief was called Tyrant. He governed as master without obeying anylaw, condemning to death, and confiscating property at will. Mercenaries defended him against his enemies. The following anecdoterepresents the policy of the tyrants: "Periander, tyrant of Corinth, sent one day to Thrasybulus, tyrant of Miletus, to ask what conduct heought to follow in order to govern with safety. Thrasybulus led theenvoy into the field end walked with him through the wheat, strikingoff with his staff all heads that were higher than the others. He sentoff the envoy without further advice. " The messenger took him for afool, but Periander understood: Thrasybulus was counselling him toslay the principal citizens. 

Everywhere the rich were killed by the tyrant and their goodsconfiscated; often the wealth was distributed among the poor. This iswhy the populace always sustained the tyrant. 

There were tyrants in Greece from the sixth century; some, likePisistratus, Polycrates, and Pittacus, were respected for theirwisdom. At that time every man was called tyrant who exercisedabsolute power outside the limits of the constitution; it was not atitle of reproach. 

But when the tyrants made incessant warfare on the rich they becamesanguinary and so were detested. Their situation is depicted in thefamous story of Damocles. This Damocles said to Dionysius, tyrant ofSyracuse, "You are the happiest of men. " "I will show you the delightof being a tyrant, " replied Dionysius. He had Damocles served with asumptuous feast and ordered his servants to show the guest the samehonors as to himself. During the feast Damocles raised his eyes andperceived a sword suspended to the ceiling held only by a horse hair, and hanging directly over his head. The comparison was a strikingone--the tyrant's life hung only by a thread. The rich, his enemies, watched for an opportunity to cut it, for it was regarded aspraiseworthy to assassinate a tyrant. This danger irritated him andmade him suspicious and cruel. He dared not trust anybody, believedhimself secure only after the massacre of all his enemies, andcondemned the citizens to death on the slightest suspicion. Thus thename tyrant became a synonym of injustice. 

=Exhaustion of Greece. =--The civil wars between rich and poorcontinued for nearly three centuries (430-150 B. C. ). Many citizenswere massacred, a greater number exiled. These exiles wandered aboutin poverty. Knowing no trade but that of a soldier, they entered asmercenaries into the armies of Sparta, Athens, the Great King, thePersian satraps--in short, of anybody who would hire them. There were50, 000 Greeks in the service of Darius against Alexander. It wasseldom that such men returned to their own country. 

Thus the cities lost their people. At the same time families becamesmaller, many men preferring not to marry or raise children, othershaving but one or two. "Is not this, " says Polybius, "the root of theevil, that of these two children war or sickness removes one, then thehome becomes deserted and the city enfeebled?" A time came when therewere no longer enough citizens in the towns to resist a conqueror. 

THE ROMAN CONQUEST

=The Greek Leagues. =--The most discerning of the Greeks commenced tosee the danger during the second war of Rome with Carthage. In anassembly held at Naupactus in 207 B. C. A Greek orator said, "Turn youreyes to the Occident; the Romans and Carthaginians are disputingsomething else than the possession of Italy. A cloud is forming onthat coast, it increases, and impends over Greece. "[103]

The Greek cities at this time grouped themselves in two leagueshostile to each other. Two little peoples, the Ætolians and Achæans, had the direction of them; they commanded the armies and determined onpeace and war, just as Athens and Sparta once did. Each leaguesupported in the Greek states one of the two political parties--theÆtolian League the democratic, the Achæan League[104] theoligarchical. 

=The Roman Allies. =--Neither of the two leagues was strong enough tounite all the Greek states. The Romans then appeared. Philip, the kingof Macedon (197), and later Antiochus, [105] the king of Syria(193-169), made war on them. Both were beaten. Rome destroyed theirarmies and made them surrender their fleets. 

Perseus, the new king of Macedon, was conquered, made prisoner, andhis kingdom overthrown (167). [106] The Greeks made no effort to unitefor the common defence; rich and poor persisted in their strife, andeach hated the other more than the foreigner. The democratic partyallied itself with Macedon, the oligarchical party called in theRomans. [107] While the Theban democrats were fighting in the army ofPhilip, the Theban oligarchs opened the town to the Roman general. AtRhodes all were condemned to death who had acted or spoken againstRome. Even among the Achæans, Callicrates, a partisan of the Romans, prepared a list of a thousand citizens whom he accused of having beenfavorable to Perseus; these suspects were sent to Rome where they wereheld twenty years without trial. 

=The Last Fight. =--The Romans were not at first introduced as enemies. In 197 the consul Flamininus, after conquering the king of Macedon, betook himself to the Isthmus of Corinth and before the Greeksassembled to celebrate the games, proclaimed that "all the Greekpeoples were free. " The crowd in transports of joy approachedFlamininus to thank him; they wished to salute their liberator, seehis form, touch his hand; crowns and garlands were cast upon him. Thepressure upon him was so great that he was nearly suffocated. 

The Romans seeing themselves in control soon wished to command. Therich freely recognized their sovereignty; Rome served them byshattering the party of the poor. This endured for forty years. Atlast in 147, Rome being engaged with Carthage, the democratic partygained the mastery in Greece and declared war on the Romans. A part ofthe Greeks were panic-stricken; many came before the Roman soldiersdenouncing their compatriots and themselves; others betook themselvesto a safe distance from the cities; some hurled themselves into wellsor over precipices. The leaders of the opposition confiscated theproperty of the rich, abolished debts, and gave arms to the slaves. Itwas a desperate contest. Once overcome, the Achæans reassembled anarmy and marched to the combat with their wives and children. Thegeneral Diœus shut himself in his house with his whole family and setfire to the building. Corinth had been the centre of the resistance;the Romans entered it, massacred the men, and sold the women andchildren as slaves. The city full of masterpieces of art was pillagedand burnt; pictures of the great painters were thrown into the dust, Roman soldiers lying on them and playing at dice. 

THE HELLENES IN THE OCCIDENT

=Influence of Greece on Rome. =--The Romans at the time of theirconquest of the Greeks were still only soldiers, peasants, andmerchants; they had no statues, monuments, literature, science, orphilosophy. All this was found among the Greeks. Rome sought toimitate these, as the Assyrian conquerors imitated the Chaldeans, asthe Persians did the Assyrians. The Romans kept their costume, tongue, and religion, and never confused these with those of the Greeks. Butthousands of Greek scholars and artists came to establish themselvesin Rome and to open schools of literature and of eloquence. Later itwas the fashion for the youth of the great Roman families to go asstudents to the schools of Athens and Alexandria. Thus the arts andscience of the Greeks were gradually introduced into Rome. "VanquishedGreece overcame her savage conqueror, " says Horace, the Roman poet;"she brought the arts to uncultured Latium. "

=Architecture. =--The Romans had a national architecture. But theyborrowed the column from the Greeks and often imitated theirbuildings. Many Roman temples resemble a Greek temple. 

A wealthy Roman's house is composed ordinarily of two parts: thefirst, the ancient Roman house; the other is only a Greek house addedto the first. 

=Sculpture. =--The Greeks had thousands of statues, in temples, squaresof the city, gymnasia, and in their dwellings. The Romans regardedthemselves as the owners of everything that had belonged to thevanquished people. Their generals, therefore, removed a great numberof statues, transporting them to the temples and the porticos of Rome. In the triumph of Æmilius Paullus, victor over the king of Macedon(Perseus), a notable spectacle was two hundred and fifty cars full ofstatues and paintings. 

Soon the Romans became accustomed to adorn with statues theirtheatres, council-halls, and private villas; every great noble wishedto have some of them and gave commissions for them to Greek artists. Thus a Roman school of sculpture was developed which continued toimitate ancient Greek models. And so it was Greek sculpture, a littleblunted and disfigured, which was spread over all the world subject tothe Romans. 

=Literature. =--The oldest Latin writer was a Greek, Livius Andronicus, a freedman, a schoolmaster, and later an actor. The first works inLatin were translations from the Greek. Livius Andronicus hadtranslated the Odyssey and several tragedies. The Roman people tookpleasure in Greek pieces and would have no others. Even the Romanauthors who wrote for the theatre did nothing but translate or arrangeGreek tragedies and comedies. Thus the celebrated works of Plautus andof Terence are imitations of the comedies of Menander and of Diphilus, now lost to us. 

The Romans imitated also the Greek historians. For a long time it wasthe fashion to write history, even Roman history, in Greek. 

The only great Roman poets declare themselves pupils of the Greeks. Lucretius writes only to expound the philosophy of Epicurus; Catullusimitates the poets of Alexander; Vergil, Theocritus and Homer; Horacetranslates the odes of the Greek lyrics. 

=Epicureans and Stoics. =--The Romans had a practical and literalspirit, very indifferent to pure science and metaphysics. They tookinterest in Greek philosophy only so far as they believed it had abearing on morals. 

Epicureans and Stoics were two sects of Greek philosophers. TheEpicureans maintained that pleasure is the supreme good, not sensualpleasure, but the calm and reasonable pleasure of the temperate man;happiness consists in the quiet enjoyment of a peaceful life, surrounded with friends and without concern for imaginary goods. Forthe Stoics the supreme good is virtue, which consists in conductingone's self according to reason, with a view to the good of the wholeuniverse. Riches, honor, health, beauty, all the goods of earth arenothing for the wise man; even if one torture him, he remains happy inthe possession of the true good. 

The Romans took sides for one or the other philosophy, usually withoutthoroughly comprehending either. Those who passed for Epicureans spenttheir lives in eating and drinking and even compared themselves toswine. Those calling themselves Stoics, like Cato and Brutus, affecteda rude language, a solemn demeanor and emphasized the evils of life. Nevertheless these doctrines, spreading gradually, aided in destroyingcertain prejudices of the Romans. Epicureans and Stoics were inharmony on two points: they disdained the ancient religion and taughtthat all men are equal, slaves or citizens, Greeks or barbarians. Their Roman disciples renounced in their school certain oldsuperstitions, and learned to show themselves less cruel to theirslaves, less insolent toward other peoples. 

The conquest of Greece by the Romans gave the arts, letters, andmorals of the Greeks currency in the west, just as the conquest of thePersian empire by the Greeks had carried their language, customs, andreligion into the Orient. 

FOOTNOTES:

[102] In almost all the Greek cities there was no middle class. In thisregard Athens with its thirteen thousand small proprietors is aremarkable exception. 

[103] Polybius, v. , 104. 

[104] The Achæan league had illustrious leaders. In the third century, Aratus, who for twenty-seven years (251-224) traversed Greece, expellingtyrants, recalling the rich and returning to them their property and thegovernment; in the second century Philopœmen, who fought the tyrants ofSparta and died by poison. 

[105] There were two kings of Syria by the name of Antiochus, between193 and 169. --ED. 

[106] The decisive battle (Pydna) was fought in 168. Perseus walked inthe triumph of Paullus the next year. --ED. 

[107] The party policies of the Greeks of this period were hardly soclearly drawn as the above would seem to indicate. Thus the AchæanLeague allied itself with Macedon against the Ætolians and againstSparta. The Ætolians leagued with the Romans against Macedon. --ED. 

CHAPTER XVII

ROME

ANCIENT PEOPLES OF ITALY

THE ETRUSCANS

=Etruria. =--The word Italy never signified for the ancients the sameas for us: the Po Valley (Piedmont and Lombardy) was a part of Gaul. The frontier country at the north was Tuscany. The Etruscans who dweltthere have left it their name (Tusci). 

Etruria was a country at once warm and humid; the atmosphere hungheavily over the inhabitants. The region on the shore of the sea wherethe Etruscans had most of their cities is the famous Maremma, awonderfully fertile area, covered with beautiful forests, but wherethe water having no outlet forms marshes that poison the air. "In theMaremma, " says an Italian proverb, "one gets rich in a year, but diesin six months. "

=The Etruscan People. =--The Etruscans were for the ancients, and arestill for us, a mysterious people. They had no resemblance to theirneighbor's, and doubtless they came from a distance--from Germany, Asia, or from Egypt; all these opinions have been maintained, but noone of them is demonstrated. 

We are ignorant even of the language that they spoke. Their alphabetresembles that of the Greeks, but the Etruscan inscriptions presentonly proper names, and these are too short to furnish a key to thelanguage. 

The Etruscans established twelve cities in Tuscany, united in aconfederation, each with its own fortress, its king, and itsgovernment. They had colonies on both coasts, twelve in Campania inthe vicinity of Naples, and twelve more in the valley of the Po. 

=Etruscan Tombs. =--There remain to us from the Etruscans only citywalls and tombs. 

When an Etruscan tomb is opened, one perceives a porch supported bycolumns and behind this chambers with couches, and bodies laid onthese. Round about are ornaments of gold, ivory, and amber; purplecloths, utensils, and especially large painted vases. On the walls arepaintings of combats, games, banquets, and fantastic scenes. 

=Industry and Commerce. =--The Etruscans knew how to turn their fertilesoil to some account, but they were for the most part mariners andtraders. Like the Phœnicians they made long journeys to seek the ivoryof India, amber from the Baltic, tin, the Phœnician purple, Egyptianjewels adorned with hieroglyphics, and even ostrich eggs. All theseobjects are found in their tombs. Their navies sailed to the south asfar as Sicily. The Greeks hated them and called them "savageTyrrhenians" or "Etruscan pirates. " At this time every mariner onoccasion was a pirate, and the Etruscans were especially interested toexclude the Greeks so that they might keep for themselves the trade ofthe west coast of Italy. 

The famous Etruscan vases, which have been taken from the tombs bythe thousand to enrich our museums, were imitations of Greek vases, but manufactured by the Etruscans. They represent scenes from Greekmythology, especially the combats about Troy; the human figures are inred on a black ground. 

=Religion. =--The Etruscans were a sombre people. Their gods werestern, often malevolent. The two most exalted gods were "the veileddeities, " of whom we know nothing. Below these were the gods whohurled the lightning and these form a council of twelve gods. Underthe earth, in the abode of the dead, were gods of evil omen. These arerepresented on the Etruscan vases. The king of the lower world, Mantus, a winged genius, sits with crown on his head and torch in hishand. Other demons armed with sword or club with serpents in theirhands receive the souls of the dead; the principal of these under thename Charun (the Charon of the Greeks), an old man of hideous form, bears a heavy mallet to strike his victims. The souls of the dead (theManes) issue from the lower world three days in the year, wanderingabout the earth, terrifying the living and doing them evil. Humanvictims are offered to appease their lust for blood. The famousgladiatorial combats which the Romans adopted had their origin inbloody sacrifices in honor of the dead. 

=The Augurs. =--The Etruscans used to say that a little evil spiritnamed Tages issued one day from a furrow and revealed to the peopleassembled the secrets of divination. The Etruscan priests who calledthemselves haruspices or augurs had rules for predicting the future. They observed the entrails of victims, the thunderbolt, butespecially the flight of birds (whence their name "augurs"). The augurat first with face turned to the north, holding a crooked staff in hishand, describes a line which cuts the heavens in two sections; thepart to the right is favorable, to the left unfavorable. A second linecutting the first at right angles, and others parallel to these formin the heavens a square which was called the Temple. The augurregarded the birds that flew in this square: some like the eagle havea lucky significance; others like the owl presage evil. 

The Etruscans predicted the future destiny of their own people. Theyare the only people of antiquity who did not expect that they were topersist forever. Etruria, they said, was to endure ten centuries. These centuries were not of exactly one hundred years each, butcertain signs marked the end of each period. In the year 44, the yearof the death of Cæsar, a comet appeared; an Etruscan haruspex statedto the Romans in an assembly of the people that this comet announcedthe end of the ninth century and the beginning of the tenth, the lastof the Etruscan people. 

=Influence of the Etruscans. =--The Romans, a semi-barbarous people, always imitated their more civilized neighbors, the Etruscans. Theydrew from them especially the forms of their religion: the costume ofthe priests and of the magistrates, the religious rites, and the artof divining the future from birds (the auspices). When the Romansfound a city, they observe the Etruscan rites: the founder traces asquare enclosure with a plough with share of bronze, drawn by a whitebull and a white heifer. Men follow the founder and carefully castthe clods of earth from the side of the furrow. The whole ditch leftby the plough is sacred and is not to be crossed. To allow entrance tothe enclosure, it is necessary that the founder break the ditch atcertain points, and he does this by lifting the plough and carrying itan instant; the interval made in this manner remains profane and itbecomes the gate by which one enters. Rome itself was foundedaccording to these rites. It was called Roma Quadrata, and it was saidthat the founder had killed his brother to punish him for crossing thesacred furrow. Later the limits of Roman colonies and of camps, andeven the bounds of domains were always traced in conformity withreligious rules and with geometrical lines. 

The Roman religion was half Etruscan. The Fathers of the church wereright, therefore, in calling Etruria the "Mother of Superstitions. "

THE ITALIAN PEOPLE

=Umbrians and Oscans. =--In the rugged mountains of the Apennines, tothe east and south of the Roman plain, resided numerous tribes. Thesepeoples did not bear the same name and did not constitute a singlenation. They were Umbrians, Sabines, Volscians, Æquians, Hernicans, Marsians, and Samnites. But all spoke almost the same language, worshipped the same gods, and had similar customs. Like the Persians, Hindoos, and Greeks, they were of Aryan race; secluded in theirmountains, remote from strangers, they remained like the Aryans of theancient period; they lived in groups with their herds scattered in theplains; they had no villages nor cities. Fortresses erected on themountains defended them in time of war. They were brave martialpeople, of simple and substantial manners. They later constituted thestrength of the Roman armies. A proverb ran: "Who could vanquish theMarsians without the Marsians?"

=The Sacred Spring. =--In the midst of a pressing danger, the Sabines, according to a legend, believing their gods to be angry, decided toappease their displeasure by sacrificing to the god of war and ofdeath everything that was born during a certain spring. This sacrificewas called a "Sacred Spring. " All the children born in this yearbelonged to the god. Arrived at the age of manhood, they left thecountry and journeyed abroad. These exiles formed several groups, eachtaking for guide one of the sacred animals of Italy, a woodpecker, awolf, or a bull, and followed it as a messenger of the god. Where theanimal halted the band settled itself. Many peoples of Italy, it wassaid, had originated in these colonies of emigrants and stillpreserved the name of the animal which had led their ancestors. Suchwere, the Hirpines (people of the wolf), the Picentines (people of thewoodpecker), and the Samnites whose capital was named Bovianum (cityof the ox). 

=The Samnites. =--The Samnites were the most powerful of all. Settledin the Abruzzi, a paradise for brigands, they descended into thefertile plains of Naples and of Apulia and put Etruscan and Greektowns to ransom. 

The Samnites fought against the Romans for two centuries; althoughalways beaten because they had no central administration and nodiscipline they yet reopened the war. Their last fight was heroic. Anold man brought to the chiefs of the army a sacred book written onlinen. They formed in the interior of the camp a wall of linen, raisedan altar in the midst of it, and around this stood soldiers withunsheathed swords. One by one the bravest of the warriors entered theprecinct. They swore not to flee before the enemy and to kill thefugitives. Those who took the oath, to the number of 16, 000, donnedlinen garments. This was the "linen legion"; it engaged in battle, andwas slaughtered to the last man. 

=The Greeks of Italy. =--All south Italy was covered with Greekcolonies, some, like Sybaris, Croton, and Tarentum, very populous andpowerful. But the Greeks did not venture on the Roman coast for fearof the Etruscans. Except the city of Cumæ the Greek colonies down tothe third century had almost no relations with the Romans. 

=The Latins. =--The Latins dwelt in the country of hills and ravines tothe south of the Tiber, called today the Roman Campagna. They were asmall people, their territory comprising no more than one hundredsquare miles. They were of the same race as the other Italians, similar to them in language, religion, and manners, but slightly moreadvanced in civilization. They cultivated the soil and built strongcities. They separated themselves into little independent peoples. Each people had its little territory, its city, and its government. This miniature state was called a city. Thirty Latin cities had formedamong themselves a religious association analogous to the Greekamphictyonies. Every year they celebrated a common festival, whentheir delegates, assembled at Alba, sacrificed a bull in honor oftheir common god, the Latin Jupiter. 

=Rome. =--On the frontier of Latium, on the borders of Etruria, in themarshy plain studded with hills that followed the Tiber, rose the cityof Rome, the centre of the Roman people scattered in the plain. Theland was malarial and dreary; but the situation was good. The Tiberserved as a barrier against the enemy from Etruria, the hills werefortresses. The sea was but six leagues away, far enough to escapefear of pirates, and near enough to permit the transportation ofmerchandise. The port of Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber was a suburbof Rome, as Piræus was of Athens. The locality was therefore agreeableto a people of soldiers and merchants. 

=Roma Quadrata and the Capitol. =--Of the first centuries of Rome weknow only some legends, and the Romans knew no more than we. Rome, they said, was a little square town, limited to the Palatine Hill. Thefounder whom they called Romulus had according to the Etruscan formstraced the circuit with the plough. Every year, on the 21st of April, the Romans celebrated the anniversary of these ceremonies: aprocession marched about the primitive enclosure and a priest fixed anail in a temple in commemoration of it. It was calculated that thefounding had occurred in the year 754[108] B. C. 

On the other hills facing the Palatine other small cities rose. A bandof Sabine mountaineers established themselves on the Capitoline, agroup of Etruscan adventurers[109] on Mount Cœlius; perhaps therewere still other peoples. All these small settlements ended withuniting with Rome on the Palatine. A new wall was built to include theseven hills. The Capitol was then for Rome what the Acropolis was forAthens: here rose the temples of the three protecting deities of thecity--Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, and the citadel that contained thetreasure and the archives of the people. In laying the foundations, itwas said there was found a human head recently cleft from the body;this head was a presage that Rome should become the head of the world. 

FOOTNOTES:

[108] Rather 753 B. C. --ED. 

[109] There were three tribes in old Rome, the Ramnes on the Palatine, the Tities or Sabines on the Capitoline, and the Luceres; but whetherthe last were Etruscans or Ramnians or neither is uncertain. --ED. 

CHAPTER XVIII

ROMAN RELIGION

=The Roman Gods. =--The Romans, like the Greeks, believed thateverything that occurs in the world was the work of a deity. But inplace of a God who directs the whole universe, they had a deity forevery phenomenon which they saw. There was a divinity to make the seedsprout, another to protect the bounds of the fields, another to guardthe fruits. Each had its name, its sex, and its functions. 

The principal gods were Jupiter, god of the heaven; Janus, thetwo-faced god (the deity who opens); Mars, god of war; Mercury, god oftrade; Vulcan, god of fire; Neptune, god of the sea; Ceres, goddess ofgrains, the Earth, the Moon, Juno, and Minerva. 

Below these were secondary deities. Some personified a quality--forexample, Youth, Concord, Health, Peace. Others presided over a certainact in life: when the infant came into the world there were a god toteach him to speak, a goddess to teach him to drink, another chargedwith knitting his bones, two to accompany him to school, two to takehim home again. In short, there was a veritable legion of minorspecial deities. 

Other gods protected a city, a certain section of a mountain, aforest; every river, every fountain, every tree had its little localdivinity. It is this that makes an old woman in a Latin romanceexclaim, "Our country is so full of gods that it is much easier tofind a god than a man. "

=Form of the Gods. =--The Romans, unlike the Greeks, did not give theirgods a precise form. For a long time there was no idol in Rome; theyworshipped Jupiter under the form of a rock, Mars under that of asword. It was later that they imitated the wooden statues of theEtruscans and the marbles of the Greeks. Perhaps they did not at firstconceive of the gods as having human forms. 

Unlike the Greeks they did not imagine marriage and kinship amongtheir gods; they had no legends to tell of these relationships; theyknew of no Olympus where the gods met together. The Latin language hada very significant word for designating the gods: they were calledManifestations. They were the manifestations of a mysterious divinepower. This is why they were formless, without family relationship, without legends. Everything that was known of the gods was that eachcontrolled a natural force and could benefit or injure men. 

=Principles of the Roman Religion. =--The Roman was no lover of thesepale and frigid abstractions; he even seemed to fear them. When heinvoked them, he covered his face, perhaps that he might not see them. But he thought that they were potent and that they would render himservice, if he knew how to please them. "The man whom the gods favor, "says Plautus, "they cause to gain wealth. "

The Roman conceives of religion as an exchange of good offices; theworshipper brings offerings and homage; the god in return confers someadvantage. [110] If after having made a present to the god the manreceives nothing, he considers himself cheated. During the illness ofGermanicus the people offered sacrifices for his restoration. When itwas announced that Germanicus was dead, the people in their angeroverturned the altars and cast the statues of the gods into thestreets, because they had not done what was expected of them. And soin our day the Italian peasant abuses the saint who does not give himwhat he asks. 

=Worship. =--Worship, therefore, consists in doing those things thatplease the gods. They are presented with fruits, milk, wine, or animalsacrifices. Sometimes the statues of the gods are brought from theirtemples, laid on couches, and served with a feast. As in Greece, magnificent homes (temples[111]) were built for them, and diversionswere arranged for them. 

=Formalism. =--But it is not enough that one make a costly offering tothe gods. The Roman gods are punctilious as to form; they require thatall the acts of worship, the sacrifices, games, dedications, shallproceed according to the ancient rules (the rites). When one desiresto offer a victim to Jupiter, one must select a white beast, sprinklesalted meal on its head, and strike it with an axe; one must standerect with hands raised to heaven, the abode of Jupiter, andpronounce a sacred formula. If any part of the ceremonial fails, thesacrifice is of no avail; the god, it is thought, will have nopleasure in it. A magistrate may be celebrating games in honor of theprotecting deities of Rome; "if he alters a word in his formula, if aflute-player rests, if the actor stops short, the games do not conformto the rites; they must be recommenced. "[112]

And so the prudent man secures the assistance of two priests, one topronounce the formula, the other to follow the ritual accurately. 

Every year the Arval Brothers, a college of priests, assemble in atemple in the environs of Rome where they perform a sacred dance andrecite a prayer; this is written in an archaic language which no oneany longer comprehends, so much so that at the beginning of theceremony a written formulary must be given to each of the priests. Andyet, ever since the time that they ceased to comprehend it, theycontinued to chant it without change. This is because the Romans holdbefore all to the letter of the law in dealing with their gods. Thisexactness in performing the prescribed ritual is for them theirreligion. And so they regarded themselves as "the most religious ofmen. " "On all other points we are the inferiors or only the equals ofother peoples, but we excel all in religion, that is, the worship wepay the gods. "

=Prayer. =--When the Roman prays, it is not to lift his soul and feelhimself in communion with a god, but to ask of him a service. He isconcerned, then, first to find the god who can render it. "It is asimportant, " says Varro, "to know what god can aid us in a special caseas to know where the carpenter and baker live. " Thus one must addressCeres if one wants rich harvests, Mercury to make a fortune, Neptuneto have a happy voyage. Then the suppliant dons the proper garments, for the gods love neatness; he brings an offering, for the gods lovenot that one should come with empty hands. Then, erect, the headveiled, the worshipper invokes the god. But he does not know the exactname of the god, for, say the Romans, "no one knows the true names ofthe gods. " He says, then, for example, "Jupiter, greatest and best, orwhatever is the name that thou preferrest.... " Then he proposes hisrequest, taking care to use always the clearest expressions so thatthe god may make no mistake. If a libation is offered, one says, "Receive the homage of this wine that I am pouring"; for the god mightthink that one would present other wine and keep this back. Theprayers, too, are long, verbose, and full of repetitions. 

=Omens. =--The Romans, like the Greeks, believe in omens. The gods, they think, know the future, and they send signs that permit men todivine them. Before undertaking any act, the Roman consults the gods. The general about to engage in battle examines the entrails ofvictims; the magistrates before holding an assembly regards thepassing birds (called "taking the auspices"). If the signs arefavorable, the gods are thought to approve the enterprise; if not, they are against it. The gods often send a sign that had not beenrequested. Every unexpected phenomenon is the presage of an event. Acomet appeared before the death of Cæsar and was thought to haveannounced it. 

When the assembly of the people deliberates and it thunders, it isbecause Jupiter does not wish that anything shall be decided on thatday and the assembly must dissolve. The most insignificant fact may beinterpreted as a sign--a flash of lightning, a word overheard, a ratcrossing the road, a diviner met on the way. And so when Marcellus haddetermined on an enterprise, he had himself carried in a closed litterthat he might be sure of not seeing anything which could impose itselfon him as a portent. 

These were not the superstitions of the populace; the republicsupported six augurs charged with predicting the future. It carefullypreserved a collection of prophecies, the Sibylline Books. It hadsacred chickens guarded by priests. No public act--assembly, election, deliberation--could be done without the taking of the auspices, thatis to say, observation of the flight of birds. In the year 195 it waslearned that lightning had struck a temple of Jupiter and that it hadhit a hair on the head of the statue of Hercules; a governor wrotethat a chicken with three feet had been hatched; the senate assembledto discuss these portents. 

=The Priests. =--The priest in Rome, as in Greece, is not charged withthe care of souls, he exists only for the service of the god. Heguards his temple, administers his property, and performs theceremonies in his honor. Thus the guild of the Salii (the leapers)watches over a shield which fell from heaven, they said, and whichwas adored as an idol; every year they perform a dance in arms, andthis is their sole function. 

The augurs predict the future. The pontiffs superintend the ceremoniesof worship; they regulate the calendar and fix the festivals to becelebrated on the various days of the year. 

Neither the priests, the augurs, nor the pontiffs form a separateclass. They are chosen from among the great families and continue toexercise all the functions of state--judging, presiding overassemblies, and commanding armies. This is the reason that the Romanpriests, potent as they were, did not constitute, as in Egypt, asacerdotal caste. At Rome it was a state religion, but not agovernment by the priests. 

=The Dead. =--The Romans, like the Hindoos and the Greeks, believedthat the soul survived the body. If care were taken to bury the bodyaccording to the proper rites, the soul went to the lower world andbecame a god; otherwise the soul could not enter the abode of thedead, but returned to the earth terrifying the living and tormentingthem until suitable burial was performed. Pliny the Younger[113]relates the story of a ghost which haunted a house and terrified todeath all the inhabitants of the dwelling; a philosopher who was braveenough to follow it discovered at the place where the spectre stoppedsome bones which had not been buried in the proper manner. The shadeof the Emperor Caligula wandered in the gardens of the palace; it wasnecessary to disinter the body and bury it anew in regular form. 

=Cult of the Dead. =--It was of importance, therefore, to both theliving and the dead that the rites should be observed. The family ofthe deceased erected a funeral pile, burned the body on it, and placedthe ashes in an urn which was deposited in the tomb, a little chapeldedicated to the Manes, [114] _i. E. _, the souls that had become gods. On fixed days of the year the relatives came to the tomb to bringfood; doubtless they believed that the soul was in need ofnourishment, for wine and milk were poured on the earth, flesh ofvictims was burned, and vessels of milk and cakes were left behind. These funeral ceremonies were perpetuated for an indefinite period; afamily could not abandon the souls of its ancestors, but continued tomaintain their tomb and the funeral feasts. In return, these soulswhich had become gods loved and protected their posterity. Eachfamily, therefore, had its guardian deities which they called Lares. 

=Cult of the Hearth. =--Each family had a hearth, also, that it adored. For the Romans, as for the Hindoos, fire was a god and the hearth analtar. The flame was to be maintained day and night, and offeringsmade on the hearth of oil, fat, wine, and incense; the fire thenbecame brilliant and rose higher as if nourished by the offering. 

Before beginning his meal the Roman thanked the god of the hearth, gave him a part of the food, and poured out for him a little wine(this was the libation). Even the sceptical Horace supped with hisslaves before the hearth and offered libation and prayer. 

Every Roman family had in its house a sanctuary where were to be foundthe Lares, the souls of the ancestors, and the altar of the hearth. Rome also had its sacred hearth, called Vesta, an ancient wordsignifying the hearth itself. Four virgins of the noblest families, the Vestals, were charged with keeping the hearth, for it wasnecessary that the flame should never be extinguished, and the care ofit could be confided only to pure beings. If a Vestal broke her vow, she was buried alive in a cave, for she had committed sacrilege andhad endangered the whole Roman people. 

THE FAMILY

=Religion of the Family. =--All the members of a family render worshipto the same ancestors and unite about the same hearth. They havetherefore the same gods, and these are their peculiar possession. Thesanctuary where the Lares[115] were kept was concealed in the houseand no stranger was to approach it. Thus the Roman family was a littlechurch; it had its religion and its worship to which no others thanits members had access. The ancient family was very different from themodern, having its basis in the principles of religion. 

=Marriage. =--The first rule of this religion is that one should be theissue of a regular marriage if one is to have the right of adoring theancestors of the family. Roman marriage, therefore, is at the start areligious ceremony. The father of the bride gives her away outside thehouse when a procession conducts her to the house of the groomchanting an ancient sacred refrain, "Hymen, O Hymen!" The bride isthen led before the altar of the husband where water and fire arepresented, and there in the presence of the gods of the family thebride and groom divide between them a cake of meal. Marriage at thisperiod was called confarreatio (communion through the cake). Lateranother form of marriage was invented. A relative of the bride in thepresence of witnesses sells her to the husband who declares that hebuys her for his wife. This is marriage by sale (coemptio). 

For the Romans as for the Greeks marriage is a religious duty;religion ordains that the family should not become extinct. The Roman, therefore, declares when he marries that he takes his wife toperpetuate the family through their children. A noble Roman whosincerely loved his wife repudiated her because she brought him nochildren. 

=The Roman Woman. =--The Roman woman is never free. As a young girl, she belongs to her father who chooses her husband for her; married, she comes under the power of her husband--the jurisconsults say she isunder his "manus, " _i. E. _, she is in the same position as hisdaughter. The woman always has a master who has the right of life anddeath over her. And yet, she is never treated like a slave. She is theequal in dignity of her husband; she is called the mother of thefamily (materfamilias) just as her husband is called the father of thefamily (paterfamilias). She is the mistress in the house, as he is themaster. She gives orders to the slaves whom she charges with all theheavy tasks--the grinding of the grain, the making of bread, and thecooking. She sits in the seat of honor (the atrium), spins and weaves, apportions work to the slaves, watches the children, and directs thehouse. She is not excluded from association with the men, like theGreek woman; she eats at the table with her husband, receivesvisitors, goes into town to dinner, appears at the public ceremonies, at the theatre, and even at the courts. And still she is ordinarilyuncultured; the Romans do not care to instruct their daughters; thequality which they most admire in woman is gravity, and on her tombthey write by way of eulogy, "She kept the house and spun linen. "

=The Children. =--The Roman child belongs to the father like a piece ofproperty. The father has the right of exposing him in the street. Ifhe accepts the child, the latter is brought up at first in the house. Girls remain here until marriage; they spin and weave under thesupervision of their mother. The boys walk to the fields with theirfather and exercise themselves in arms. The Romans are not an artisticpeople; they require no more of their children than that they know howto read, write, and reckon; neither music nor poetry is taught them. They are brought up to be sober, silent, modest in their demeanor, andobedient. 

=The Father of the Family. =--The master of the house was called by theRomans the father of the family. The paterfamilias is at once theproprietor of the domain, the priest of the cult of the ancestors, andthe sovereign of the family. He reigns as master in his house. He hasthe right of repudiating his wife, of rejecting his children, ofselling them, and marrying them at his pleasure. He can take forhimself all that belongs to them, everything that his wife brings tohim, and everything that his children gain; for neither the wife northe children may be proprietors. Finally he has over them all[116] the"right of life and death, " that is to say, he is their only judge. Ifthey commit crime, it is not the magistrate who punishes them, but thefather of the family who condemns them. One day (186 B. C. ) the RomanSenate decreed the penalty of death for all those who had participatedin the orgies of the cult of Bacchus. The men were executed, but forall the women who were discovered among the guilty, it was necessarythat the Senate should address itself to the fathers of families, andit was these who condemned to death their wives or their daughters. "The husband, " said the elder Cato, "is the judge of the wife, he cando with her as he will; if she has committed any fault, he chastisesher; if she has drunk wine, he condemns her; if she has beenunfaithful to him, he kills her. " When Catiline conspired against theSenate, a senator perceived that his own son had taken part in theconspiracy; he had him arrested, judged him, and condemned him todeath. 

The power of the father of the family endured as long as life; the sonwas never freed from it. Even if he became consul, he remained subjectto the power of his father. When the father died, the sons became inturn fathers of families. As for the wife, she could never attainfreedom; she fell under the power of the heir of her husband; shecould, then, become subject to her own son. 

FOOTNOTES:

[110] A legend represents King Numa debating with Jupiter the terms of acontract: "You will sacrifice a head to me?" says Jupiter. "Very well, "says Numa, "the head of an onion that I shall take in my garden. " "No, "replies Jupiter, "but I want something that pertains to a man. " "We willgive you then the tip of the hair. " "But it must be alive. " "Then wewill add to this a little fish. " Jupiter laughed and consented to this. 

[111] In Rome, as in Greece, the temple was called a house. 

[112] The remark is Cicero's. 

[113] Pliny, Epistles, vii, 27. See another story in Plautus'sMostellaria. 

[114] The letters D. M. Found on Roman tombs are the initials of DeiManes. 

[115] They were called the Penates, that is to say, the gods of theinterior. 

[116] In the language of the Roman law the wife, children, and slaves"are not their own masters. "

CHAPTER XIX

THE ROMAN CITY

FORMATION OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE

=The Kings. =--Tradition relates that Rome for two centuries and a halfwas governed by kings. They told not only the names of these kings andthe date of their death, but the life of each. 

They said there were seven kings. Romulus, the first king, came fromthe Latin city of Alba, founded the hamlet on the Palatine, and killedhis brother who committed the sacrilege of leaping over the sacredfurrow encircling the settlement; he then allied himself with Tatius, a Sabine king. (A legend of later origin added that he had founded atthe foot of the hill-city a quarter surrounded with a palisade wherehe received all the adventurers who wished to come to him. )

Numa Pompilius, the second king, was a Sabine. It was he who organizedthe Roman religion, taking counsel with a goddess, the nymph Egeriawho dwelt in a wood. 

The third king, Tullus Hostilius, was a warrior. He made war on Alba, the capital of the Latin confederation, took and destroyed it. 

Ancus Martius, the fourth king, was the grandson of Numa and built thewooden bridge over the Tiber and founded the port of Ostia throughwhich commerce passed up the river to Rome. 

The last three kings were Etruscans. Tarquin the Elder enlarged theterritory of Rome and introduced religious ceremonies from Etruria. Servius Tullius organized the Roman army, admitting all the citizenswithout distinction of birth and separating them into centuries(companies) according to wealth. The last king, Tarquinius Superbus, oppressed the great families of Rome; some of the nobles conspiredagainst him and succeeded in expelling him. Since this time there wereno longer any kings. The Roman state, or as they said, thecommonwealth (res publica) was governed by the consuls, twomagistrates elected each year. 

It is impossible to know how much truth there is in this tradition, for it took shape a long time after the Romans began to write theirhistory, and it includes so many legends that we cannot accept it inits entirety. 

Attempt has been made to explain these names of kings as symbols of arace or class. The early history of Rome has been reconstructed in avariety of ways, but the greater the labor applied to it, the less theagreement among students with regard to it. 

=The Roman People. =--About the fifth century before Christ there werein Rome two classes of people, the patricians and the plebeians. Thepatricians were the descendants of the old families who had lived fromremote antiquity on the little territory in the vicinity of the city;they alone had the right to appear in the assembly of the people, toassist in religious ceremonies, and to hold office. Their ancestorshad founded the Roman state, or as they called it, the Roman city(Civitas), and these had bequeathed it to them. And so they were thetrue people of Rome. 

=The Plebs. =--The plebeians were descended from the foreigners[117]established in the city, and especially from the conquered peoples ofthe neighboring cities; for Rome had gradually subjected all the Latincities and had forcibly annexed their inhabitants. Subjects and yetaliens, they obeyed the government of Rome, but they could have nopart in it. They did not possess the Roman religion and could notparticipate in its ceremonies. They had not even the right ofintermarrying with the patrician families. They were called the plebs(the multitude) and were not considered a part of the Roman people. Inthe old prayers we still find this formula: "For the welfare of thepeople and the plebs of Rome. "

=Strife between Patricians and Plebeians. =--The people and the plebswere like two distinct peoples, one of masters, the other of subjects. And yet the plebeians were much like the patricians. Soldiers, likethem, they served in the army at their own cost and suffered death inthe service of the Roman people; peasants like them, they lived ontheir domains. Many of the plebeians were rich and of ancient family. The only difference was that they were descended from a great familyof some conquered Latin city, while the patricians were the scions ofan old family in the conquering city. 

=Tribunes of the Plebs. =--One day, says the legend, the plebeians, finding themselves mistreated, withdrew under arms to a mountain, determined to break with the Roman people. The patricians inconsternation sent to them Menenius Agrippa who told them the fable ofthe members and the stomach. The plebs consented to return but theymade a treaty with the people. It was agreed that their chiefs (theycalled them tribunes of the plebs) should have the right of protectingthe plebeians against the magistrates of the people and of prohibitingany measure against them. All that was necessary was to pronounce theword "Veto" (I forbid); this single word stopped everything; forreligion prevented attacks on a tribune under penalty of being devotedto the infernal gods. 

=Triumph of the Plebs. =--The strife between the two orders beginningat the end of the fifth century continued for two centuries (494 B. C. To about 300 B. C. ). [118]

The plebeians, much more numerous and wealthy, ended by gaining thevictory. They first secured the adoption of laws common to the twoorders; afterward that marriage should be permitted between thepatricians and the plebeians. The hardest task was to obtain the highmagistracies, or, as it was said, "secure the honors. " Religiousscruple ordained, indeed, that before one could be named as amagistrate, the gods must be asked for their approval of the choice. This was determined by inspecting the flight of birds ("taking theauspices"). But the old Roman religion allowed the auspices to betaken only on the name of a patrician; it was not believed that thegods could accept a plebeian magistrate. But there were great plebeianfamilies who were bent on being the equals of the patrician familiesin dignity, as they were in riches and in importance. They graduallyforced the patricians to open to them all the offices, beginning withthe consulship, and ending with the great pontifical office (PontifexMaximus). The first plebeian consul was named in 366 B. C. , the firstplebeian pontifex maximus in 302 B. C. [119] Patricians and plebeiansthen coalesced and henceforth formed but one people. 

THE ROMAN PEOPLE

=The Right of Citizenship. =--The _people_ in Rome, as in Greece, isnot the whole of the inhabitants, but the body of citizens. Not everyman who lives in the territory is a citizen, but only he who has theright of citizenship. The citizen has numerous privileges:

 1. He alone is a member of the body politic; he alone has the right of voting in the assemblies of the Roman people, of serving in the army, of being present at the religious ceremonials at Rome, of being elected a Roman magistrate. These are what were called public rights. 

 2. The citizen alone is protected by the Roman law; he only has the right of marrying legally, of becoming the father of a family, that is to say, of being master of his wife and his children, of making his will, of buying or selling. These were the private rights. 

Those who were not citizens were not only excluded from the army andthe assembly, but they could not marry, could not possess the absolutepower of the father, could not hold property legally, could not invokethe Roman law, nor demand justice at a Roman tribunal. Thus thecitizens constituted an aristocracy amidst the other inhabitants ofthe city. But they were not equal among themselves; there were classdifferences, or, as the Romans said, ranks. 

=The Nobles. =--In the first rank are the nobles. A citizen is noblewhen one of his ancestors has held a magistracy, for the magisterialoffice in Rome is an honor, it ennobles the occupant and also hisposterity. 

When a citizen becomes ædile, prætor, or consul, he receives apurple-bordered toga, a sort of throne (the curule chair), and theright of having an image made of himself. These images are statuettes, at first in wax, later in silver. They are placed in the atrium, thesanctuary of the house, near the hearth and the gods of the family;there they stand in niches like idols, venerated by posterity. Whenany one of the family dies, the images are brought forth and carriedin the funeral procession, and a relative pronounces the oration forthe dead. It is these images that ennoble a family that preservesthem. The more images there are in a family, the nobler it is. TheRomans spoke of those who were "noble by one image" and those who were"noble by many images. "

The noble families of Rome were very few (they would not amount to300), for the magistracies which conferred nobility were usually givento men who were already noble. 

=The Knights. =--Below the nobles were the knights. They were the richwho were not noble. Their fortune as inscribed on the registers of thetreasury must amount to at least 400, 000[120] sesterces. They weremerchants, bankers, and contractors; they did not govern, but theygrew rich. At the theatre they had places reserved for them behind thenobles. 

If a knight were elected to a magistracy, the nobles called him a "newman" and his son became noble. 

=The Plebs. =--Those who were neither nobles nor knights formed themass of the people, the plebs. The majority of them were peasants, cultivating a little plat in Latium or in the Sabine country. Theywere the descendants of the Latins or the Italians who were subjugatedby the Romans. Cato the Elder in his book on Agriculture gives us anidea of their manners: "Our ancestors, when they wished to eulogize aman, said 'a good workman, ' 'a good farmer'; this encomium seemed thegreatest of all. "[121]

Hardened to work, eager for the harvest, steady and economical, theselaborers constituted the strength of the Roman armies. For a long timethey formed the assembly too, and dictated the elections. The nobleswho wished to be elected magistrates came to the parade-ground tograsp the hand of these peasants ("prensare manus, " was the commonexpression). A candidate, finding the hand of a laborer callous, ventured to ask him, "Is it because you walk on your hands?" He was anoble of great family, but he was not elected. 

=The Freedmen. =--The last of all the citizens are the freedmen, onceslaves, or the sons of slaves. The taint of their origin remains onthem; they are not admitted to service in the Roman army and they voteafter all the rest. 

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC

=The Comitia. =--The government of Rome called itself a republic(Respublica), that is to say, a thing of the people. The body ofcitizens called the people was regarded as absolute master in thestate. It is this body that elects the magistrates, votes on peace andwar, and that makes the laws. "The law, " say the jurisconsults, "iswhat the Roman people ordains. " At Rome, as in Greece, the people donot appoint deputies, they pass on the business itself. Even aftermore than 500, 000 men scattered over all Italy were admitted into thecitizenship, the citizens had to go in person to Rome to exercisetheir rights. The people, therefore, meet at but one place; theassembly is called the Comitia. 

A magistrate convokes the people and presides over the body. Sometimesthe people are convoked by the blast of the trumpet and come to theparade-ground (the Campus Martius), ranging themselves by companiesunder their standards. This is the Comitia by centuries. Sometimesthey assemble in the market-place (the forum) and separate themselvesinto thirty-five groups, called tribes. Each tribe in turn enters anenclosed space where it does its voting. This is the Comitia bytribes. The magistrate who convokes the assembly indicates thebusiness on which the suffrages are to be taken, and when the assemblyhas voted, it dissolves. The people are sovereign, but accustomed toobey their chiefs. 

=The Magistrates. =--Every year the people elect officials to governthem and to them they delegate absolute power. These are calledmagistrates (those who are masters). Lictors march before them bearinga bundle of rods and an axe, emblems of the magisterial powers ofchastising and condemning to death. The magistrate has at once thefunctions of presiding over the popular assembly and the senate, ofsitting in court, and of commanding the army; he is master everywhere. He convokes and dissolves the assembly at will, he alone rendersjudgment, he does with the soldiers as he pleases, putting them todeath without even taking counsel with his officers. In a war againstthe Latins Manlius, the Roman general, had forbidden the soldiersleaving camp: his son, provoked by one of the enemy, went forth andkilled him; Manlius had him arrested and executed him immediately. 

According to the Roman expression, the magistrate has the power of aking; but this power is brief and divided. The magistrate is electedfor but one year and he has a colleague who has the same power ashimself. There are at once in Rome two consuls who govern the peopleand command the armies, and several prætors to serve as subordinategovernors or commanders and to pronounce judgment. There are othermagistrates, besides--two censors, four ædiles to supervise thepublic ways and the markets, ten tribunes of the plebs, and quæstorsto care for the state treasure. 

=The Censors. =--The highest of all the magistrates are the censors. They are charged with taking the census every five years, that is tosay, the enumeration of the Roman people. All the citizens appearbefore them to declare under oath their name, the number of theirchildren and their slaves, the amount of their fortune; all this isinscribed on the registers. It is their duty, too, to draw up the listof the senators, of the knights, and of the citizens, assigning toeach his proper rank in the city. They are charged as a result withmaking the lustrum, a great ceremony of purification which occursevery five years. [122]

On that day all the citizens are assembled on the Campus Martiusarranged in order of battle; thrice there are led around the assemblythree expiatory victims, a bull, a ram, and a swine; these are killedand their blood sprinkled on the people; the city is purified andreconciled with the gods. 

The censors are the masters of the registration and they rank each asthey please; they may degrade a senator by striking him from thesenate-list, a knight by not registering him among the knights, and acitizen by not placing his name on the registers of the tribes. It isfor them an easy means of punishing those whom they regard at faultand of reaching those whom the law does not condemn. They have beenknown to degrade citizens for poor tillage of the soil and for havingtoo costly an equipage, a senator because he possessed ten pounds ofsilver, another for having repudiated his wife. It is this overweeningpower that the Romans call the supervision of morals. It makes thecensors the masters of the city. 

=The Senate. =--The Senate is composed of about 300 persons appointedby the censor. But the censor does not appoint at random; he choosesonly rich citizens respected and of high family, the majority of themformer magistrates. Almost always he appoints those who are alreadymembers of the Senate, so that ordinarily one remains a senator forlife. The Senate is an assembly of the principal men of Rome, henceits authority. As soon as business is presented, one of themagistrates convokes the senators in a temple, lays the questionbefore them, and then asks "what they think concerning this matter. "The senators reply one by one, following the order of dignity. This iswhat they call "consulting the Senate, " and the judgment of themajority is a senatus consultum (decree of the Senate). Thisconclusion is only advisory as the Senate has no power to make laws;but Rome obeys this advice as if it were a law. The people haveconfidence in the senators, knowing that they have more experiencethan themselves; the magistrates do not dare to resist an assemblycomposed of nobles who are their peers. And so the Senate regulatesall public business: it declares war and determines the number of thearmies; it receives ambassadors and makes peace; it fixes the revenuesand the expenses. The people ratify these measures and the magistratesexecute them. In 200 B. C. The Senate decided on war with the king ofMacedon, but the people in terror refused to approve it: the Senatethen ordered a magistrate to convoke the comitia anew and to adopt amore persuasive speech. This time the people voted for the war. InRome it was the people who reigned, just as is the case with the kingin England, but it was the Senate that governed. 

=The Offices. =--Being magistrate or senator in Rome is not aprofession. Magistrates or senators spend their time and their moneywithout receiving any salary. A magistracy in Rome is before all anhonor. Entrance to it is to nobles, at most to knights, but always tothe rich; but these come to the highest magistracies only after theyhave occupied all the others. The man who aims one day to govern Romemust serve in the army during ten campaigns. Then he may be electedquæstor and he receives the administration of the state treasury. After this he becomes ædile, charged with the policing of the city andwith the provision of the corn supply. Later he is elected prætor andgives judgment in the courts. Later yet, elected consul, he commandsan army and presides over the assemblies. Then only may he aspire tothe censorship. This is the highest round of the ladder and may bereached hardly before one's fiftieth year. The same man has therefore, been financier, administrator, judge, general, and governor beforearriving at this original function of censor, the politicaldistribution of the Roman people. This series of offices is what iscalled the "order of the honors. " Each of these functions lasts butone year, and to rise to the one next higher a new election isnecessary. In the year which precedes the voting one must show one'sself continually in the streets, "circulate" as the Romans say(_ambire_: hence the word "ambition"), to solicit the suffrages of thepeople. For all this time it is the custom to wear a white toga, thevery sense of the word "candidate" (white garment). 

FOOTNOTES:

[117] Probably some of the plebeians originated in non-noble Romanfamilies. --ED. 

[118] We know the story of this contest only through Livy and Dionysiusof Halicarnassus; their very dramatic account has become celebrated, butit is only a legend frequently altered by falsifiers. 

[119] The pontificate was opened to the plebeians by the Ogulnian Law of300 B. C. The first plebeian pontifex maximus was in 254 B. C. Livy, Epitome, xviii. --ED. 

[120] This qualification was set in the last century of therepublic. --ED. 

[121] He cites several of their old proverbs: "A bad farmer is one whobuys what his land can raise. " "It is bad economy to do in the day whatcan be done at night. "

[122] After the completion of the census. --ED. 

CHAPTER XX

ROMAN CONQUEST

THE ROMAN ARMY

=Military Service. =--To be admitted to service in the Roman army onemust be a Roman citizen. It is necessary to have enough wealth toequip one's self at one's own expense, for the state furnishes no armsto its soldiers; down to 402 B. C. It did not even pay them. And soonly those citizens are enrolled who are provided with at least asmall fortune. The poor (called the proletariat) are exempt fromservice, or rather, they have no right to serve. Every citizen who isrich enough to be admitted to the army owes the state twentycampaigns; until these are completed the man remains at thedisposition of the consul and this from the age of seventeen toforty-six. In Rome, as in the Greek cities, every man is at oncecitizen and soldier. The Romans are a people of small proprietorsdisciplined in war. 

=The Levy. =--When there was need of soldiers, the consul ordered allthe citizens qualified for service to assemble at the Capitol. Therethe officers elected by the people chose as many men as were necessaryto form the army. This was the enrolment (the Romans called it theChoice); then came the military oath. The officers first took theoath, and then the rank and file; they swore to obey their general, to follow him wherever he led them and to remain under the standardsuntil he released them from their oath. One man pronounced the formulaand each in turn advanced and said, "I also. " From this time the armywas bound to the general by the bonds of religion. 

=Legions and Allies. =--The Roman army was at first called the Legion(levy). When the people increased in number, instead of one legion, several were formed. 

The legion was a body of 4, 200 to 5, 000 men, all Roman citizens. Thesmallest army had always at least one legion, every army commanded bya consul had at least two. But the legions constituted hardly a halfof the Roman army. All the subject peoples in Italy were required tosend troops, and these soldiers, who were called allies, were placedunder the orders of Roman officers. In a Roman army the allies werealways a little more numerous than the citizens of the legions. Ordinarily with four legions (16, 800 men) there were enrolled 20, 000archers and 40, 000 horse from the allies. In the Second Punic War, in218 B. C. , 26, 000 citizens and 45, 000 allies were drawn for service. Thus the Roman people, in making war, made use of its subjects as wellas of its citizens. 

=Military Exercises. =--Rome had no gymnasium; the future soldiersexercised themselves on the parade-ground, the Campus Martius, on theother side of the Tiber. There the young man marched, ran, leapedunder the weight of his arms, fenced with his sword, hurled thejavelin, wielded the mattock, and then, covered with dust and withperspiration, swam across the Tiber. Often the older men, sometimeseven the generals, mingled with the young men, for the Roman neverceased to exercise. Even in the campaign the rule was not to allow themen to be unoccupied; once a day, at least, they were required to takeexercise, and when there was neither enemy to fight nor intrenchmentto erect, they were employed in building roads, bridges, andaqueducts. 

=The Camp. =--The Roman soldier carried a heavy burden--his arms, hisutensils, rations for seventeen days, and a stake, in all sixty Romanpounds. The army moved more rapidly as it was not encumbered withbaggage. Every time that a Roman army halted for camp, a surveyortraced a square enclosure, and along its lines the soldiers dug a deepditch; the earth which was excavated, thrown inside, formed a bankwhich they fortified with stakes. The camp was thus defended by aditch and a palisade. In this improvised fortress the soldiers erectedtheir tents, and in the middle was set the Prætorium, the tent of thegeneral. Sentinels mounted guard throughout the night, and soprevented the army from being surprised. 

=The Order of Battle. =--In the presence of the enemy the soldiers didnot form in a solid mass, as did the Greeks. The legion was dividedinto small bodies of 120 men, called maniples because they had forstandards bundles of hay. [123] The maniples were ranged in quincunxform in three lines, each separated from the neighboring maniple insuch a way as to manœuvre separately. The soldiers of the maniples ofthe first line hurled their javelins, grasped their swords, and beganthe battle. If they were repulsed, they withdrew to the rear throughthe vacant spaces. The second line of the maniples then in turnmarched to the combat. If it was repulsed, it fell back on the thirdline. The third line was composed of the best men of the legion andwas equipped with lances. They received the others into their ranksand threw themselves on the enemy. The army was no longer a singlemass incapable of manœuvring; the general could form his linesaccording to the nature of the ground. At Cynoscephalæ, where for thefirst time the two most renowned armies of antiquity met, the Romanlegion and the Macedonian phalanx, the ground was bristling withhills; on this rugged ground the 16, 000 Macedonion hoplites could notremain in order, their ranks were opened, and the Roman platoons threwthemselves into the gaps and demolished the phalanx. 

=Discipline. =--The Roman army obeyed a rude discipline. The generalhad the right of life and death over all his men. The soldier whoquitted his post or deserted in battle was condemned to death; thelictors bound him to a post, beat him with rods, and cut off his head;or the soldiers may have killed him with blows of their staves. Whenan entire body of troops mutinied, the general separated the guiltyinto groups of ten and drew by lot one from every group to beexecuted. This was called decimation (from decimus, the tenth). Theothers were placed on a diet of barley-bread and made to camp outsidethe lines, always in danger of surprise from the enemy. The Romansnever admitted that their soldiers were conquered or taken prisoners:after the battle of Cannæ the 3, 000 soldiers who escaped the carnagewere sent by the senate to serve in Sicily without pay and withouthonors until the enemy should be expelled from Italy; the 8, 000 leftin the camp were taken by Hannibal who offered to return them for asmall ransom, but the senate refused to purchase them. 

=Colonies and Military Roads. =--In the countries that were still onlypartially subject, Rome established a small garrison. This body ofsoldiers founded a town which served as a fortress, and around aboutit the lands were cut into small domains and distributed to thesoldiers. This is what they called a Colony. The colonists continuedto be Roman citizens and obeyed all commands from Rome. Quitedifferent from a Greek colony which emancipated itself even to thepoint of making war on its mother city, the Roman colony remained adocile daughter. It was only a Roman garrison posted in the midst ofthe enemy. Almost all these military posts were in Italy, but therewere others besides; Narbonne and Lyons were once Roman colonies. 

To hold these places and to send their armies to a distance the Romansbuilt military roads. These were causeways constructed in a straightline, of limestone, stone, and sand. The Romans covered their empirewith them. In a land like France there is no part where one does notfind traces of the Roman roads. 

CHARACTER OF THE CONQUEST

=War. =--There was at Rome a temple consecrated to the god Janus whosegates remained open while the Roman people continued at war. For thefive hundred years of the republic this temple was closed but onceand that for only a few years. Rome, then, lived in a state of war. Asit had the strongest army of the time, it finished by conquering allthe other peoples and by overcoming the ancient world. 

=Conquest of Italy. =--Rome began by subjecting her neighbors, theLatins, first, then the little peoples of the south, the Volscians, the Æquians, the Hernicans, later the Etruscans and the Samnites, andfinally the Greek cities. This was the hardest and slowest of theirconquests: beginning with the time of the kings, it did not terminateuntil 266, after four centuries of strife. [124]

The Romans had to fight against peoples of the same race asthemselves, as vigorous and as brave as they. Some who were notcontent to obey they exterminated. The rich plains of the Volsciansbecame a swampy wilderness, uninhabitable even to the present time, the gloomy region of the Pontine marshes. 

In the land of the Samnites there were still recognizable, threehundred years after the war, the forty-five camps of Decius and theeighty-six of Fabius, less apparent by the traces of theirintrenchments than by the solitude of the neighborhood. 

=The Punic Wars. =--Come into Sicily, Rome antagonized Carthage. Thenbegan the Punic wars (that is to say, against the Phœnicians). Therewere three of these wars. The first, from 264 to 241, was determinedby naval battles; Rome became mistress of Sicily. It was related thatRome had never had any war-ships, that she took as a model aCarthaginian galley cast ashore by accident on her coast and began byexercising her oarsmen in rowing on the land. This legend is withoutfoundation for the Roman navy had long endured. This is the Romanaccount of this war: the Roman consul Duillius had vanquished theCarthaginian fleet at Mylæ (260); a Roman army had disembarked inAfrica under the lead of Regulus, had been attacked and destroyed(255); Regulus was sent as a prisoner to Rome to conclude a peace, butpersuading the Senate to reject it, he returned to Carthage where heperished by torture. The war was concentrated in Sicily where theCarthaginian fleet, at first victorious at Drepana, was defeated atthe Ægates Islands; Hamilcar, besieged on Mount Eryx, signed thepeace. 

The second war (from 218 to 201) was the work of Hannibal. 

The third war was a war of extermination: the Romans took Carthage byassault, razed it, and conquered Africa. 

These wars had long made Rome tremble. Carthage had the better navy, but its warriors were armed adventurers fighting not for country butfor pay, lawless, terrible under a general like Hannibal. 

=Hannibal. =--Hannibal, who directed the whole of the second war andalmost captured Rome, was of the powerful family of the Barcas. Hisfather Hamilcar had commanded a Carthaginian army in the first Punicwar and had afterwards been charged with the conquest of Spain. Hannibal was then but a child, but his father took him with him. Thedeparture of an army was always accompanied by sacrifices to the godsof the country; it was said that Hamilcar after the sacrifice made hisinfant son swear eternal enmity to Rome. 

Hannibal, brought up in the company of the soldiers, became the besthorseman and the best archer of the army. War was his only aim inlife; his only needs, therefore, were a horse and arms. He had madehimself so popular that at the death of Hasdrubal who was in thecommand of the army, the soldiers elected him general without waitingfor orders from the Carthaginian senate. Thus Hannibal found himselfat the age of twenty-one at the head of an army which was obedientonly to himself. He began war, regardless of the senate at Carthage, by advancing to the siege of Saguntum, a Greek colony allied withRome; he took this and destroyed it. 

The glory of Hannibal was that he did not wait for the Romans, but hadthe audacity to march into Italy to attack them. As he had no fleet, he resolved to advance by land, through the Pyrenees, crossing theRhone and the Alps. He made sure of the alliance of the Gallic peoplesand penetrated the Pyrenees with an army of 60, 000 men, African andSpanish mercenaries, and with 37 war-elephants. A Gallic people wishedto stop him at the Rhone, but he sent a detachment to pass the riversome leagues farther up the stream and to attack the Gauls in therear; the mass of the army crossed the river in boats, the elephantson great rafts. 

He next ascended the valley of the Isère and arrived at the Alps atthe end of October; he crossed them regardless of the snow and theattacks of the mountaineers; many men and horses rolled down theprecipices. But nine days were consumed in attaining the summits ofthe Alps. The descent was very difficult; the pass by which he had togo was covered with ice and he was compelled to cut a road out of therock. When he arrived in the plain, the army was reduced to half itsformer number. 

Hannibal met three Roman armies in succession, first at the Ticinus, next on the banks of the Trebia, and last near Lake Trasimenus inEtruria. He routed all of them. As he advanced, his army increased innumber; the warriors of Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy) joined himagainst the Romans. He took up position beyond Rome in Apulia, and itwas here that the Roman army came to attack him. Hannibal had an armyonly half as large as theirs, but he had African cavalrymen mounted onswift horses; he formed his lines in the plain of Cannæ so that theRomans had the sun in their face and the dust driven by the windagainst them; the Roman army was surrounded and almost annihilated(216). It was thought that Hannibal would march on Rome, but he didnot consider himself strong enough to do it. The Carthaginian senatesent him no reënforcements. Hannibal endeavored to take Naples and tohave Rome attacked by the king of Macedon; he succeeded only ingaining some towns which Rome besieged and destroyed. Hannibalremained nine years in south Italy; at last his brother Hasdrubalstarted with the army of Spain to assist him, and made his way almostto central Italy. The two Carthaginian armies marched to unite theirforces, each opposed by a Roman army under the command of a consul. Nero, facing Hannibal, had the audacity to traverse central Italy andto unite with his colleague who was intrenched against Hasdrubal. Onemorning Hasdrubal heard the trumpets sounding twice in the camp of theRomans, a sign that there were two consuls in the camp. He believedhis brother was conquered and so retreated; the Romans pursued him, hewas killed and his entire army massacred. Then Nero rejoined the armywhich he had left before Hannibal and threw the head of Hasdrubal intothe Carthaginian camp (207). Hannibal, reduced to his own troops, remained in Calabria for five years longer. The descent of a Romanarmy on Africa compelled him to leave Italy; he massacred the Italiansoldiers who refused to accompany him and embarked for Carthage (203). The battle of Zama (202) terminated the war. Hannibal had counted asusual on drawing the Romans within his lines and surrounding them; butScipio, the Roman general, kept his troops in order and on a secondattack threw the enemy's army into rout. Carthage was obliged to treatfor peace; she relinquished everything she possessed outside ofAfrica, ceding Spain to the Romans. She bound herself further tosurrender her navy and the elephants, to pay over $10, 000, 000 and toagree not to make war without the permission of Rome. 

Hannibal reorganized Carthage for a new war. The Romans, disturbed atthis, demanded that the Carthaginians put him to death. Hannibal fledto Antiochus, king of Syria, and proposed to him to incite a revoltin Italy against Rome; but Antiochus, following the counsel of hiscourtiers, distrusted Hannibal and invaded Greece, where his army wascaptured. Hannibal withdrew to the king of Bithynia. The Romans sentFlamininus thither to take him, but Hannibal, seeing his housesurrounded, took the poison which he always had by him (183). 

=Conquests of the Orient. =--The Greek kings, successors of thegenerals of Alexander, divided the Orient among themselves. The mostpowerful of these took up war against Rome; but they weredefeated--Philip, the king of Macedon, in 197, his son Perseus in 168, Antiochus, the king of Syria, in 190. The Romans, having from thistime a free field, conquered one by one all the lands which they foundof use to them: Macedon (148), the kingdom of Pergamum (129), the restof Asia (from 74 to 64) after the defeat of Mithradates, and Egypt(30). 

With the exception of the Macedonians, the Orient opposed the Romanswith mercenaries only or with undisciplined barbarians who fled at thefirst onset. In the great victory over Antiochus at Magnesia therewere only 350 Romans killed. At Chæronea, Sulla was victorious withthe loss of but twelve men. The other kings, now terrified, obeyed theSenate without resistance. 

Antiochus the Great, king of Syria, having conquered a part of Egypt, was bidden by Popilius acting under the command of the Senate toabandon his conquest. Antiochus hesitated; but Popilius, taking a rodin his hand, drew a circle about the king, and said, "Before you movefrom this circle, give answer to the Senate. " Antiochus submitted, andsurrendered Egypt. The king of Numidia desired of the Senate that itshould regard his kingdom as the property of the Roman people. Prusias, the king of Bithynia, with shaved head and in the garb of afreedman, prostrated himself before the Senate. Mithradates alone, king of Pontus, endeavored to resist; but after thirty years of war hewas driven from his states and compelled to take his life by poison. 

=Conquest of the Barbarian Lands. =--The Romans found more difficultthe subjection of the barbarous and warlike peoples of the west. Acentury was required to conquer Spain. The shepherd Viriathus madeguerilla warfare on them in the mountains of Portugal (149-139), overwhelmed five armies, and compelled even a consul to treat forpeace; the Senate got rid of him by assassination. 

Against the single town of Numantia it was necessary to send Scipio, the best general of Rome. 

The little and obscure peoples of Corsica, of Sardinia, and of themountains of Genoa (the Ligurians) were always reviving the war withRome. 

But the most indomitable of all were the Gauls. Occupying the whole ofthe valley of the Po, they threw themselves on Italy to the south. Oneof their bands had taken Rome in 390. Their big white bodies, theirlong red mustaches, their blue eyes, their savage yells terrified theRoman soldiers. As soon as their approach was learned, consternationseized Rome, and the Senate proclaimed the levy of the whole army(they called this the "Gallic tumult"). These wars were the bloodiestbut the shortest; the first (225-222) gave to the Romans all CisalpineGaul (northern Italy); the second (120), the Rhone lands (Languedoc, Provence, Dauphiné); the third (58-51), all the rest of Gaul. 

ROMAN WARFARE

=The Triumph. =--When a general has won a great victory, the Senatepermits him as a signal honor to celebrate the triumph. This is areligious procession to the temple of Jupiter. The magistrates andsenators march at the head; then come the chariots filled with booty, the captives chained by the feet, and, at last, on a golden car drawnby four horses, the victorious general crowned with laurel. Hissoldiers follow him singing songs with the solemn refrain "Io, Triomphe. "[125] The procession traverses the city in festal attire andascends to the Capitol: there the victor lays down his laurel on theknees of Jupiter and thanks him for giving victory. After the ceremonythe captives are imprisoned, or, as in the case of Vercingetorix, beheaded, or, like Jugurtha, cast into a dungeon to die of hunger. Thetriumph of Æmilius Paullus, conqueror of Macedon, lasted for threedays. The first day witnessed a procession of 250 chariots bearingpictures and statues, the second the trophies of weapons and 25 casksof silver, the third the vases of gold and 120 sacrificial bulls. Atthe rear walked King Perseus, clad in black, surrounded by hisfollowers in chains and his three young children who extended theirhands to the people to implore their pity. 

=Booty. =--In the wars of antiquity the victor took possession ofeverything that had belonged to the vanquished, not only of the armsand camp-baggage, but of the treasure, the movable property, beasts ofthe hostile people, the men, women, and children. At Rome the bootydid not belong to the soldiers but to the people. The prisoners wereenslaved, the property was sold and the profits of the sale turnedinto the public chest. And so every war was a lucrative enterprise. The kings of Asia had accumulated enormous treasure and this the Romangenerals transported to Rome. The victor of Carthage deposited in thetreasury more than 100, 000 pounds of silver; the conqueror ofAntiochus 140, 000 pounds of silver and 1, 000 pounds of gold withoutcounting the coined metals; the victor over Persia remitted120, 000, 000 sesterces. 

=The Allies of Rome. =--The ancient world was divided among a greatnumber of kings, little peoples, and cities that hated one another. They never united for resistance and so Rome absorbed them one by one. 

Those whom she did not attack remained neutral and indifferent; oftenthey even united with the Romans. In the majority of her wars Rome didnot fight alone, but had the assistance of allies: against Carthage, the king of Numidia; against the king of Macedon, the Ætolians;against the king of Syria, the Rhodians. In the east many kingsproudly assumed the title of "Ally of the Roman People. " In thecountries divided into small states, some peoples called in the Romansagainst their neighbors, receiving the Roman army, furnishing it withprovisions, and guiding it to the frontiers of the hostile country. And so in Gaul it was Marseilles that introduced the Romans into thevalley of the Rhone; it was the people of Autun (the Ædui) whopermitted them to establish themselves in the heart of the land. 

=Motives of Conquest. =--The Romans did not from the first have thepurpose to conquer the world. Even after winning Italy and Carthagethey waited a century before subjecting the Orient which really laiditself at their feet. They conquered, it appears, withoutpredetermined plan, and because they all had interest in conquest. Themagistrates who were leaders of the armies saw in conquest a means ofsecuring the honors of the triumph and the surest instrument formaking themselves popular. The most powerful statesmen in Rome, Papirius, Fabius, the two Scipios, Cato, Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Cæsar, and Crassus, were victorious generals. The nobles who composed theSenate gained by the increase of Roman subjects, and with these theyallied themselves as governors to receive their homage and theirpresents. For the knights--that is to say, the bankers, the merchants, and the contractors--every new conquest was a new land to exploit. Thepeople itself profited by the booty taken from the enemy. After thetreasure of the king of Macedon was deposited in the public chest, taxes were finally abolished. As for the soldiers, as soon as war wascarried into rich lands, they received immense sums from theirgeneral, to say nothing of what they took from the vanquished. TheRomans conquered the world less for glory than for the profits ofwar. 

EFFECTS OF ROMAN CONQUEST

=The Empire of the Roman People. =--Rome subjected all the lands aroundthe Mediterranean from Spain to Asia Minor. These countries were notannexed, their inhabitants did not become citizens of Rome, nor theirterritory Roman territory. They remained aliens entering simply intothe Roman empire, that is, under the domination of the Roman people. In just the same way today the Hindoos are not citizens but subjectsof England; India is a part, not of England, but of the BritishEmpire. 

=The Public Domain. =--When a conquered people asked peace, this is theformula which its deputies were expected to pronounce: "We surrenderto you the people, the town, the fields, the waters, the gods of theboundaries, and movable property; all things which belonged to thegods and to men we deliver to the power of the Roman people. " By thisact, the Roman people became the proprietor of everything that thevanquished possessed, even of their persons. Sometimes it sold theinhabitants into slavery: Æmilius Paullus sold 150, 000 Epeirots whosurrendered to him. Ordinarily Rome left to the conquered theirliberty, but their territory was incorporated into the _domain of theRoman people_. Of this land three equal parts were made:

 1. A part of their lands was returned to the people, but on condition that they pay a tribute in money or in grain, and Rome reserved the right of recalling the land at will. 

 2. The fields and pastures were farmed out to publicans. 

 3. Some of the uncultivated land was resigned to the first occupant, every Roman citizen having the right of settling there and of cultivating it. 

=Agrarian Laws. =--The Agrarian Laws which deeply agitated Rome wereconcerned with this public domain. No Roman had leave to expel thepossessors, for the boundaries of these domains were gods (Termini)and religious scruple prevented them from being disturbed. By theAgrarian Laws the people resumed the lands of the public domain whichthey distributed to citizens as property. Legally the people had theright to do this, since all the domain belonged to them. But for somecenturies certain subjects or citizens had been permitted to enjoythese lands; at last they regarded them as their own property; theybequeathed them, bought and sold them. To take these from theoccupants would suddenly ruin a multitude of people. In Italyespecially, if this were done, all the people of a city would beexpelled. Thus Augustus deprived the inhabitants of Mantua of thewhole of their territory; Vergil was among the victims, but, thanks tohis verse, he obtained the return of his domain, while the otherproprietors who were not poets remained in exile. These lands thusrecovered were sometimes distributed to poor citizens of Rome, butmost frequently to old soldiers. Sulla bestowed lands on 120, 000veterans at the expense of the people of Etruria. The Agrarian Lawswere a menace to all the subjects of Rome, and it was one of thebenefits conferred by the emperors that they were abolished. 

FOOTNOTES:

[123] Wisps or bundle of hay were twisted around poles. --ED. 

[124] Regarding all these Italian wars the Romans had only a number oflegends, most of them developed to glorify the heroism of some ancestorof a noble family--a Valerius, a Fabius, a Decius, or a Manlius. 

[125] These songs were mingled with coarse ribaldry at the expense ofthe general. --ED. 

CHAPTER XXI

THE CONQUERED PEOPLES

THE PROVINCIALS

=The Provinces. =--The inhabitants of conquered countries did not enterinto Roman citizenship, but remained strangers (peregrini), while yetsubjects of the Roman empire. They were to pay tribute--the tithe oftheir crops, a tax in silver, a capitation tax. They must obey Romansof every order. But as the Roman people could not itself administerthe province, it sent a magistrate in its place with the mission ofgoverning. The country subject to a governor was called _province_(which signifies mission). 

At the end of the republic (in 46), there were seventeen provinces:ten in Europe, five in Asia, two in Africa--the majority of these verylarge. Thus the entire territory of Gaul constituted but fourprovinces, and Spain but two. "The provinces, " said Cicero, "are thedomains of the Roman people"--if it made all these peoples subjects, it was not for their advantage, but for its own. Its aim was not toadminister, but to exploit them. 

=The Proconsuls. =--For the administration of a province the Romanpeople always appointed a magistrate, consul or prætor, who was justfinishing the term of his office, and whose prerogative itprolonged. [126] The proconsul, like the consul, had absolute powerand he could exercise it to his fancy, for he was alone in hisprovince;[127] there were no other magistrates to dispute the powerwith him, no tribunes of the people to veto his acts, no senate towatch him. He alone commanded the troops, led them to battle, andposted them where he wished. He sat in his tribunal (prætorium), condemning to fine, imprisonment, or death. He promulgated decreeswhich had the force of law. He was the sole authority over himself forhe was in himself the incarnation of the Roman people. 

=Tyranny and Oppression of the Proconsuls. =--This governor, whom noone resisted, was a true despot. He made arrests, cast into prison, beat with rods, or executed those who displeased him. The following isone of a thousand of these caprices of the governor as a Roman oratorrelates it: "At last the consul came to Termini, where his wife took afancy to bathe in the men's bath. All the men who were bathing therewere driven out The wife of the consul complained that it had not beendone quickly enough and that the baths were not well prepared. Theconsul had a post set up in a public place, brought to it one of themost eminent men of the city, stripped him of his garments, and hadhim beaten with rods. "

The proconsul drew from the province as much money as he wanted; thushe regarded it as his private property. Means were not wanting toexploit it. He plundered the treasuries of the cities, removed thestatues and jewels stored in the temples, and made requisitions onthe rich inhabitants for money or grain. As he was able to lodgetroops where he pleased, the cities paid him money to be exempt fromthe presence of the soldiers. As he could condemn to death at will, individuals gave him security-money. If he demanded an object of artor even a sum of money, who would dare to refuse him? The men of hisescort imitated his example, pillaging under his name, and even underhis protection. The governor was in haste to accumulate his wealth asit was necessary that he make his fortune in one year. After hereturned to Rome, another came who recommenced the whole process. There was, indeed, a law that prohibited every governor from acceptinga gift, and a tribunal (since 149) expressly for the crime ofextortion. But this tribunal was composed of nobles and Roman knightswho would not condemn their compatriot, and the principal result ofthis system was, according to the remark of Cicero, to compel thegovernor to take yet more plunder from the province in order topurchase the judges of the tribunal. 

It cannot surprise one that the term "proconsul" came to be a synonymfor despot. Of these brigands by appointment the most notorious wasVerres, proprætor of Sicily, since Cicero from political motivespronounced against him seven orations which have made him famous. Butit is probable that many others were as bad as he. 

=The Publicans. =--In every province the Roman people had considerablerevenues--the customs, the mines, the imposts, the grain-lands, andthe pastures. These were farmed out to companies of contractors whowere called publicans. These men bought from the state the right ofcollecting the impost in a certain place, and the provincials had toobey them as the representatives of the Roman people. And so in everyprovince there were many companies of publicans, each with a crowd ofclerks and collectors. These people carried themselves as masters, extorted more than was due them, reduced the debtors to misery, sometimes selling them as slaves. In Asia they even exiled theinhabitants without any pretext. When Marius required the king ofBithynia to furnish him with soldiers, the king replied that, thanksto the publicans, he had remaining as citizens only women, children, and old people. The Romans were well informed of these excesses. Cicero wrote to his brother, then a governor, "If you find the meansof satisfying the publicans without letting the provincials bedestroyed, it is because you have the attributes of a god. " But thepublicans were judged in the tribunals and the proconsuls themselvesobeyed them. Scaurus, the proconsul of Asia, a man of rigidprobity, [128] wished to prevent them from pillaging his province; onhis return to Rome they had him accused and condemned. 

The publicans drove to extremities even the peaceable and submissiveinhabitants of the Orient: in a single night, at the order ofMithradates, 100, 000 Romans were massacred. A century later, in thetime of Christ, the word "publican" was synonymous with thief. 

=The Bankers. =--The Romans had heaped up at home the silver of theconquered countries. And so silver was very abundant in Rome andscarce in the provinces. At Rome one could borrow at four or five percent. ; in the provinces not less than twelve per cent. Was charged. The bankers borrowed money in Rome and loaned it in the provinces, especially to kings or to cities. When the exhausted peoples could notreturn the principal and the interest, the bankers imitated theprocedure of the publicans. In 84 the cities of Asia made a loan topay an enormous war-levy; fourteen years later, the interest alone hadmade the debt amount to six times the original amount. The bankerscompelled the cities to sell even their objects of art; parents soldeven their children. Some years later one of the most highly esteemedRomans of his time, Brutus, the Stoic, loaned to the city of Salamisin Cyprus a sum of money at forty-eight per cent. Interest (four percent. A month). Scaptius, his business manager, demanded the sum withinterest; the city could not pay; Scaptius then went in search of theproconsul Appius, secured a squadron of cavalry and came to Salamis toblockade the senate in its hall of assembly; five senators died offamine. 

=Defencelessness of the Provincials. =--The provincials had no redressagainst all these tyrants. The governor sustained the publicans, andthe Roman army and people sustained the governor. Admit that a Romancitizen could enter suit against the plunderers of the provinces: agovernor was inviolable and could not be accused until he had given uphis office; while he held his office there was nothing to do but towatch him plunder. If he were accused on his return to Rome, heappeared before a tribunal of nobles and of publicans who were moreinterested to support him than to render justice to the provincials. If, perchance, the tribunal condemned him, exile exempted him from allfurther penalty and he betook himself to a city of Italy to enjoy hisplunder. This punishment was nothing to him and was not even a loss tohim. And so the provincials preferred to appease their governor bysubmission. They treated him like a king, flattered him, sentpresents, and raised statues to him. Often, indeed, in Asia theyraised altars to him, [129] built temples to him, and adored him as agod. 

SLAVERY

=The Sale of Slaves. =--Every prisoner of war, every inhabitant of acaptured city belonged to the victor. If they were not killed, theywere enslaved. Such was the ancient custom and the Romans exercisedthe right to the full. Captives were treated as a part of the bootyand were therefore either sold to slave-merchants who followed thearmy or, if taken to Rome, were put up at auction. [130] After everywar thousands of captives, men and women, were sold as slaves. Children born of slave mothers would themselves be slaves. Thus it wasthe conquered peoples who furnished the slave-supply for the Romans. 

=Condition of the Slave. =--The slave belonged to a master, and so wasregarded not as a person but as a piece of property. He had, then, norights; he could not be a citizen or a proprietor; he could be neitherhusband nor father. "Slave marriages!" says a character in a Romancomedy;[131] "A slave takes a wife; it is contrary to the custom ofevery people. " The master has full right over his slave; he sends himwhere he pleases, makes him work according to his will, even beyondhis strength, ill feeds him, beats him, tortures him, kills himwithout accounting to anybody for it. The slave must submit to all thewhims of his master; the Romans declare, even, that he is to have noconscience, his only duty is blind obedience. If he resists, if heflees, the state assists the master to subdue or recover him; the manwho gives refuge to a fugitive slave renders himself liable to thecharge of theft, as if he had taken an ox or a horse belonging toanother. 

=Number of Slaves. =--Slaves were far more numerous than free men. Richcitizens owned 10, 000 to 20, 000 of them, [132] some having enough ofthem to constitute a real army. We read of Cæcilius Claudius Isidoriuswho had once been a slave and came to possess more than 4, 000 slaves. Horace, who had seven slaves, speaks of his modest patrimony. Havingbut three was in Rome a mark of poverty. 

=Urban Slaves. =--The Roman nobles, like the Orientals of our day, delighted in surrounding themselves with a crowd of servants. In agreat Roman house lived hundreds of slaves, organized for differentservices. There were slaves to care for the furniture, for the silverplate, for the objects of art; slaves of the wardrobe, valets andchambermaids, the troop of cooks, the slaves of the bath, the masterof the house and his aids, the slaves to escort the master andmistress on the street, the litter-carriers, coachmen and grooms, secretaries, readers, copyists, physicians, teachers, actors, musicians, artisans of every kind, for in every great house grain wasground, flax was spun, and garments were woven. Others, gathered inworkshops, manufactured objects which the master sold to his profit. Others were hired out as masons or as sailors; Crassus had 500carpenter-slaves. These classes of slaves were called "slaves of thecity. "

=Rural Slaves. =--Every great domain was tilled by a band of slaves. They were the laborers, the shepherds, the vine-dressers, thegardeners, the fishermen, grouped together in squads of ten. Anoverseer, himself a slave, superintended them. The proprietor made ita matter to produce everything on his lands: "He buys nothing;everything that he consumes he raises at home, " this is the complimentpaid to the rich. The Roman, therefore, kept a great number ofcountry-slaves, as they were called. A Roman domain had a strongresemblance to a village; indeed it was called a "villa. " The name hasbeen preserved: what the French call "ville" since the Middle Ages isonly the old Roman domain increased in size. 

=Treatment of Slaves. =--The kind of treatment the slaves receiveddepended entirely on the character of the master. Some enlightened andhumane masters may be enumerated, such as Cicero, Seneca, and Pliny, who fed their slaves well, talked with them, sometimes had them sitat table with them, and permitted them to have families and smallfortunes (the peculium). 

But other masters are mentioned who treated their slaves as animals, punished them cruelly, and even had them put to death for a whim. Examples of these are not lacking. Vedius Pollio, a freedman ofAugustus, used to keep some lampreys in his fish-pond: when one of hisslaves carelessly broke a vase, he had him thrown into the fish-pondas food for the lampreys. The philosopher Seneca paints in thefollowing words the violent cruelty of the masters: "If a slave coughsor sneezes during a meal, if he pursues the flies too slowly, if helets a key fall noisily lo the floor, we fall into a great rage. If hereplies with too much spirit, if his countenance shows ill humor, havewe any right to have him flogged? Often we strike too hard and shattera limb or break a tooth. " The philosopher Epictetus, who was a slave, had had his ankle fractured in this way by his master. Women were nomore humane. Ovid, in a compliment paid to a woman, says, "Many timesshe had her hair dressed in my presence, but never did she thrust herneedle into the arm of the serving-woman. "

Public opinion did not condemn these cruelties. Juvenal represents awoman angry at one of her slaves. "Crucify him, " says she. "By whatcrime has the slave merited this punishment? Blockhead! Is a slave, then, a man? It may be that he has done nothing. I wish it, I orderit, my will is reason enough. "

The law was no milder than custom. As late as the first century afterChrist, when a master was assassinated in his house, all the slaveswere put to death. When some wished to abolish this law, Thraseas, one of the philosophers of high repute, rose to address the Senate todemand that the law be maintained. 

=The Ergastulum. =--A subterranean prison, lighted by narrow windows sohigh that they could not be reached by the hand, was called theergastulum. The slaves who had displeased their master spent the nightthere; during the day they were sent to work loaded with heavy chainsof iron. Many were branded with a red-hot iron. 

=The Mill. =--The ancients had no mills run by machinery; they had thegrain ground by slaves with hand-mills. It was the most difficult kindof work and was usually inflicted as a punishment. The mill ofantiquity was like a convict-prison. "There, " says Plautus, "moan thewicked slaves who are fed on polenta; there resound the noise of whipsand the clanking of chains. " Three centuries later, in the secondcentury, Apuleius the novelist, depicts the interior of a mill asfollows: "Gods! what poor shrunken up men! with white skin stripedwith blows of the whip, ... They wear only the shreds of a tunic; bentforward, head shaved, the feet held in a chain, the body deformed bythe heat of the fire, the eyelids eaten away by the fumes, everythingcovered with grain-dust. "

=Character of the Slaves. =--Subjected to crushing labor or to enforcedidleness, always under the threat of the whip or of torture, slavesbecame, according to their nature, either melancholy and savage, orlazy and subservient. The most energetic of them committed suicide;the others led a life that was merely mechanical. "The slave, " saidCato the Elder, "ought always to work or to sleep. " The majority ofthem lost all sense of honor. And so they used to call a mean act"servile, " that is, like a slave. 

=Slave Revolts. =--The slaves did not write and so we do not know fromtheir own accounts what they thought of their masters. But the mastersfelt themselves surrounded by hate. Pliny the Younger, learning that amaster was to be assassinated at the bath by his slaves, made thisreflection, "This is the peril under which we all live. " "MoreRomans, " says another writer, "have fallen victims to the hate oftheir slaves than to that of tyrants. "

At different times slave revolts flamed up (the servile wars), almostalways in Sicily and south Italy where slaves were armed to guard theherds. The most noted of these wars was the one under Spartacus. Aband of seventy gladiators, escaping from Capua, plundered a chariotloaded with arms, and set themselves to hold the country. The slavesescaped to them in crowds to unite their fortunes with theirs, andsoon they became an army. 

The slaves defeated three Roman armies sent in succession againstthem. 

Their chief Spartacus wished to traverse the whole peninsula of Italyin order to return to Thrace, from which country he had been broughtas a prisoner of war to serve as a gladiator. But at last theseill-disciplined bands were shattered by the army of Crassus. Therevolutionists were all put to death. Rome now prohibited the slavesfrom carrying arms thereafter, and it is reported that a shepherd wasonce executed for having killed a boar with a spear. 

=Admission to Citizenship. =--Rome treated its subjects and its slavesbrutally, but it did not drive them out, as the Greek cities did. 

The alien could become a Roman citizen by the will of the Romanpeople, and the people often accorded this favor, sometimes they evenbestowed it upon a whole people at once. They created the Latinscitizens at one stroke; in 89 it was the turn of the Italians; in 46the people of Cisalpine Gaul entered the body of citizens. All theinhabitants of Italy thus became the equals of the Romans. 

The slave could be manumitted by his master and soon became a citizen. 

This is the reason why the Roman people, gradually exhaustingthemselves, were renewed by accessions from the subjects and theslaves. The number of the citizens was increased at every census; itrose from 250, 000 to 700, 000. The Roman city, far from emptying itselfas did Sparta, replenished itself little by little from all those whomit had conquered. 

FOOTNOTES:

[126] In the smallest provinces the title of the governor was_proprætor_. 

[127] In the oriental countries Rome left certain little kings (likeKing Herod in Judæa), but they paid tribute and obeyed the governor. 

[128] This estimate of the character of Scaurus is too favorable. --ED. 

[129] Cicero speaks of the temples which were raised to him by thepeople of Cilicia, of which county he was governor. 

[130] Every important town had its market for slaves as for cattle andhorses. The slave to be sold was exhibited on a platform with a labelabout his neck indicating his age, his better qualities and his defects. 

[131] In the Casina of Plautus. 

[132] Athenæus, who makes this statement, is probably guilty ofexaggeration. --ED. 

CHAPTER XXII

TRANSFORMATION OF LIFE IN ROME

=Greek and Oriental Influence. =--Conquest gave the Romans a clearerview of the Greeks and Orientals. Thousands of foreigners brought toRome as slaves, or coming thither to make their fortune, establishedthemselves in the city as physicians, professors, diviners, or actors. Generals, officers and soldiers lived in the midst of Asia, and thusthe Romans came to know the customs and the new beliefs and graduallyadopted them. This transformation had its beginning with the firstMacedonian war (about 200 B. C. ), and continued until the end of theempire. 

CHANGES IN RELIGION

=The Greek Gods. =--The Roman gods bore but a slight resemblance to theGreek gods, even in name; yet in the majority of the divinities ofRome the Greeks recognized or believed they recognized their own. TheRoman gods up to that time had neither precise form nor history; thisrendered confusion all the easier. Every Roman god was representedunder the form of a Greek god and a history was made of the adventuresof this god. 

The Latin Jupiter was confounded with the Greek Zeus; Juno with Hera;Minerva, the goddess of memory, with Pallas, goddess of wisdom; Diana, female counterpart of Janus, unites with Artemis, the brillianthuntress; Hercules, the god of the enclosure, was assimilated toHerakles, the victor over monsters. Thus Greek mythology insinuateditself under Latin names, and the gods of Rome found themselvestransformed into Greek gods. The fusion was so complete that we havepreserved the custom of designating the Greek gods by their Latinnames; we still call Artemis Diana, and Pallas Minerva. 

=The Bacchanals. =--The Greeks had adopted an oriental god, Bacchus, the god of the vintage, and the Romans began to adore him also. Theworshippers of Bacchus celebrated his cult at night and in secret. Only the initiated were admitted to the mysteries of the Bacchanals, who swore not to reveal any of the ceremonies. A woman, however, daredto denounce to the Senate the Bacchanalian ceremonies that occurred inRome in 186. The Senate made an inquiry, discovered 7, 000 persons, menand women, who had participated in the mysteries, and had them put todeath. 

=Oriental Superstitions. =--Already in 220 there was in Rome a templeof the Egyptian god Serapis. The Senate ordered it to be demolished. As no workman dared to touch it, the consul himself had to come andbeat down the doors with blows of an axe. 

Some years after, in 205, during the war with Hannibal, it was theSenate itself that sent an ambassador to Asia Minor to seek thegoddess Cybele. The Great Mother (as she was called) was representedby a black stone, and this the envoys of the Senate brought in greatpomp and installed in Rome. Her priests followed her and paced thestreets to the sound of fifes and cymbals, clad in oriental fashion, and begging from door to door. 

Later, Italy was filled with Chaldean sorcerers. The mass of thepeople were not the only ones to believe in these diviners. When theCimbri menaced Rome (104), Martha, a prophetess of Syria, came to theSenate to offer it victory over the barbarians; the Senate drove herout, but the Roman women brought her to the camp, and Marius, thegeneral in chief, kept her by him and consulted her to the end of thewar. Sulla, likewise, had seen in vision the goddess of Cappadocia andit was on her advice that he took his way to Italy. 

=Sceptics. =--Not only priests and diviners came to Rome, but alsophilosophers who scoffed at the old religion. The best known of these, Carneades, the ambassador of the Athenians, spoke in Rome in public, and the youth of Rome came in crowds to hear him. The Senate bade himleave the city. But the philosophers continued to teach in the schoolsof Athens and Rhodes, and it was the fashion to send the Roman youththither for instruction. About the third century before ChristEuhemerus, a Greek, had written a book to prove that there were nogods; the gods, he said, were only men of ancient times who had beendeified; Jupiter himself had been a king of Crete. This book had agreat success and was translated into Latin by the poet Ennius. Thenobles of Rome were accustomed to mock at their gods, maintaining onlythe cult of the old religion. The higher Roman society was for acentury at once superstitious and sceptical. 

CHANGES IN MANNERS

=The Old Customs. =--The old Romans had for centuries been diligent andrude husbandmen, engaged in cultivating their fields, in fighting, andin fulfilling the ceremonies of their religion. Their ideal was the_grave_ man. Cincinnatus, they said, was pushing his plough when thedeputies of the Senate came to offer him the dictatorship. Fabriciushad of plate only a cup and a salt-cellar of silver. Curius Dentatus, the conqueror of the Samnites, was sitting on a bench eating somebeans in a wooden bowl when the envoys of the Samnites presentedthemselves before him to offer him a bribe. [133] "Go and tell theSamnites, " said he, "that Curius prefers commanding those who havegold to having it himself. " These are some of the anecdotes that theyused to tell about the generals of the olden time. True or false, these legends exhibit the ideas that were current in Rome at a latertime regarding the ancient Romans. 

=Cato the Elder. =--At the time when manners were changing, one manmade himself notable by his attachment to the "customs of thefathers. " This was Cato. He was born in 232[134] in the little villageof Tusculum and had spent his youth in manual labor. Entering thearmy, according to the usage of the time, at the age of seventeen, hefought in all the campaigns against Hannibal. He was not noble, but hemade himself popular by his energy, his probity, and his austerity. He passed through the whole course of political honors--quæstor, ædile, prætor, consul, and censor. He showed himself everywhere, likethe old Romans, rude, stern, and honest. As quæstor he remonstratedwith the consul about his expenses; but the consul, who was Scipio, replied to him, "I have no need of so exact a quæstor. " As prætor inSardinia, he refused the money that was offered him by the provincefor the expenses of entertainment. As consul, he spoke with vigor forthe Oppian law which prohibited Roman women from wearing costlyattire; the women put it off, and the law was abrogated. Sent tocommand the army of Spain, Cato took 400 towns, securing immensetreasure which he turned into the public chest; at the moment ofembarking, he sold his horse to save the expenses of transportation. As censor, he erased from the senate-list many great persons on theground of their extravagance; he farmed the taxes at a very high priceand taxed at ten times their value the women's habits, jewels, andconveyances. Having obtained the honor of a triumph, he withdrew tothe army in Macedonia as a simple officer. 

All his life he fought with the nobles of the new type, extravagantand elegant. He "barked" especially at the Scipios, accusing them ofembezzling state moneys. In turn he was forty-four times madedefendant in court, but was always acquitted. 

On his farm Cato labored with his slaves, ate with them, and when hehad to correct them, beat them with his own hand. In his treatise onAgriculture, written for his son, he has recorded all the old axiomsof the Roman peasantry. [135] He considered it to be a duty to becomerich. "A widow, " he said, "can lessen her property; a man ought toincrease his. He is worthy of fame and inspired of the gods who gainsmore than he inherits. " Finding that agriculture was not profitableenough, he invested in merchant ships; he united with fifty associatesand all together constructed fifty ships of commerce, that each mighthave a part in the risks and the profits. A good laborer, a goodsoldier, a foe to luxury, greedy of gain, Cato was the type of theRoman of the old stock. 

=The New Manners. =--Many Romans on the contrary, especially thenobles, admired and imitated the foreigners. At their head were thegenerals who had had a nearer view of Greece and the Orient--Scipio, conqueror of the king of Syria, Flamininus and Æmilius Paullus, victors over the kings of Macedon, later Lucullus, conqueror of theking of Armenia. They were disgusted with the mean and gross life oftheir ancestors, and adopted a more luxurious and agreeable mode ofliving. Little by little all the nobles, all the rich followed theirexample; one hundred and fifty years later in Italy all the great wereliving in Greek or oriental fashion. 

=Oriental Luxury. =--In the East the Romans found models in the royalsuccessors of Alexander, possessors of enormous wealth; for all thetreasure that was not employed in paying mercenaries was squandered bythe court. These oriental kings indulged their vanity by displayinggleaming robes, precious stones, furniture of silver, golden plate;by surrounding themselves with a multitude of useless servants, bycasting money to the people who were assembled to admire them. [136]

The Romans, very vain and with artistic tastes but slightly developed, had a relish for this species of luxury. They had but little regardfor beauty or for comfort, and had thought for nothing else thandisplay. They had houses built with immense gardens adorned withstatues, sumptuous villas projecting into the sea in the midst ofenormous gardens. They surrounded themselves with troops of slaves. They and their wives substituted for linen garments those of gauze, silk, and gold. At their banquets they spread embroidered carpets, purple coverings, gold and silver plate. Sulla had one hundred andfifty dishes of silver; the plate of Marcus Drusus weighed 10, 000pounds. While the common people continued to sit at table inaccordance with old Italian custom, the rich adopted the orientalusage of reclining on couches at their meals. At the same time wasintroduced the affected and costly cookery of the East--exotic fishes, brains of peacocks, and tongues of birds. 

From the second century the extravagance was such that a consul whodied in 152 could say in his will: "As true glory does not consist invain pomp but in the merits of the dead and of one's ancestors, I bidmy children not to spend on my funeral ceremonies more than a millionas" ($10, 000). 

=Greek Humanity. =--In Greece the Romans saw the monuments, thestatues, and the pictures which had crowded their cities forcenturies; they came to know their learned people and thephilosophers. Some of the Romans acquired a taste for the beautifuland for the life of the spirit. The Scipios surrounded themselves withcultivated Greeks. Æmilius Paullus asked from all the booty taken byhim from Macedon only the library of King Perseus; he had his childrentaught by Greek preceptors. It was then the fashion in Rome to speak, and even to write in Greek. [137] The nobles desired to appearconnoisseurs in painting and in sculpture; they imported statues bythe thousand, the famous bronzes of Corinth, and they heaped these upin their houses. Thus Verres possessed a whole gallery of objects ofart which he had stolen in Sicily. Gradually the Romans assumed agloss of Greek art and literature. This new culture was called"humanity, " as opposed to the "rusticity" of the old Roman peasants. 

It was little else than gloss; the Romans had realized but slightlythat beauty and truth were to be sought for their own sakes; art andscience always remained objects of luxury and parade. Even in the timeof Cicero the soldier, the peasant, the politician, the man ofaffairs, the advocate were alone regarded as truly occupied. Writing, composing, contributing to science, philosophy, or criticism--all thiswas called "being at leisure. "[138] Artists and scholars were neverregarded at Rome as the equals of the rich merchant. Lucian, a Greekwriter, said, "If you would be a Pheidias, if you would make athousand masterpieces, nobody will care to imitate you, for as skilfulas you are, you will always pass for an artisan, a man who lives bythe work of his hands. "

=Lucullus. =--Lucullus, the type of the new Roman, was born in 145 of anoble and rich family; thus he entered without difficulty into thecourse of political honors. From his first campaigns he was notablefor his magnanimity to the vanquished. Become consul, he was placed atthe head of the army against Mithradates. He found the inhabitants ofAsia exasperated by the brigandage and the cruelties of the publicans, and gave himself to checking these excesses; he forbade, too, hissoldiers pillaging conquered towns. In this way he drew to him theuseless affection of the Asiatics and the dangerous hate of thepublicans and the soldiers. They intrigued to have him recalled; hehad then defeated Mithradates and was pursuing him with his ally, theking of Armenia; he came with a small army of 20, 000 men to put torout an immense multitude of barbarians. His command was taken fromhim and given to Pompey, the favorite of the publicans. 

Lucullus then retired to enjoy the riches that he had accumulated inAsia. He had in the neighborhood of Rome celebrated gardens, at Naplesa villa constructed in part in the sea, and at Tusculum a summerpalace with a whole museum of objects of art. He spent the beautifulseason at Tusculum surrounded by his friends, by scholars and men ofletters, reading Greek authors, and discussing literature andphilosophy. 

Many anecdotes are told of the luxury of Lucullus. One day, beingalone at dinner, he found his table simpler than ordinary andreproached the cook, who excused himself by saying there was no guestpresent. "Do you not know, " replied his master, "that Lucullus dinestoday with Lucullus?" Another day he invited Cæsar and Cicero to dine, who accepted on condition that he would make no change from hisordinary arrangements. Lucullus simply said to a slave to have dinnerprepared in the hall of Apollo. A magnificent feast was spread, theguests were astonished. Lucullus replied he had given no order, thatthe expense of his dinners was regulated by the hall where he gavethem; those of the hall of Apollo were to cost not less than $10, 000. A prætor who had to present a grand spectacle asked Lucullus if hewould lend him one hundred purple robes; he replied by tendering twohundred. 

Lucullus remained the representative of the new manners, as Cato ofthe old customs. For the ancients Cato was the virtuous Roman, Lucullus the degenerate Roman. Lucullus, in effect, discarded themanners of his ancestors, and so acquired a broader, more elevated, and more refined spirit, more humanity toward his slaves and hissubjects. 

=The New Education. =--At the time when Polybius lived in Rome (before150) the old Romans taught their children nothing else than toread. [139] The new Romans provided Greek instructors for theirchildren. Some Greeks opened in Rome schools of poesy, rhetoric, andmusic. The great families took sides between the old and new systems. But there always remained a prejudice against music and the dance;they were regarded as arts belonging to the stage, improper for a manof good birth. Scipio Æmilianus, the protector of the Greeks, speakswith indignation of a dancing-school to which children and young girlsof free birth resorted: "When it was told me, I could not conceivethat nobles would teach such things to their children. But when someone took me to the dancing-school, I saw there more than 500 boys andgirls and, among the number a twelve-year-old child, a candidate'sson, who danced to the sound of castanets. " Sallust, speaking of aRoman woman of little reputation, says, "She played on the lyre anddanced better than is proper for an honest woman. "

=The New Status of Women. =--The Roman women gave themselves withenergy to the religions and the luxury of the East. They flocked incrowds to the Bacchanals and the mysteries of Isis. Sumptuary lawswere made against their fine garments, their litters, and theirjewels, but these laws had to be abrogated and the women allowed tofollow the example of the men. Noble women ceased to walk or to remainin their homes; they set out with great equipages, frequented thetheatre, the circus, the baths, and the places of assembly. Idle andexceedingly ignorant, they quickly became corrupt. In the nobility, women of fine character became the exception. The old discipline ofthe family fell to the ground. The Roman law made the husband themaster of his wife; but a new form of marriage was invented which leftthe woman under the authority of her father and gave no power to herhusband. To make their daughter still more independent, her parentsgave her a dower. 

=Divorce. =--Sometimes the husband alone had the right to repudiate hiswife, but the custom was that this right should be exercised only inthe gravest circumstances. The woman gained the right of leaving herhusband, and so it became very easy to break a marriage. There was noneed of a judgment, or even of a motive. It was enough for thediscontented husband or wife to say to the other, "Take what belongsto you, and return what is mine. " After the divorce either could marryagain. 

In the aristocracy, marriage came to be regarded as a passing union;Sulla had five wives, Cæsar four, Pompey five, and Antony four. Thedaughter of Cicero had three husbands. Hortensius divorced his wife togive her to a friend. "There are noble women, " says Seneca, "who counttheir age not by the years of the consuls, but by the husbands theyhave had; they divorce to marry again, they marry to divorce again. "

But this corruption affected hardly more than the nobles of Rome andthe upstarts. In the families of Italy and the provinces the moreserious manners of the old time still prevailed; but the discipline ofthe family gradually slackened and the woman slowly freed herself fromthe despotism of her husband. 

FOOTNOTES:

[133] Another version is that he was sitting at the hearth roastingturnips. --ED. 

[134] 232 and 234 are both given as the date of Cato's birth. The latteris the more probable. --ED. 

[135] Nearly all Romans of Cato's time were husbandmen, tilling the soilwith their own hands. --ED. 

[136] This taste for useless magnificence is exhibited in the stories ofthe Thousand and One Nights. 

[137] Cato the Elder had a horror of the Greeks. He said to his son: "Iwill tell what I have seen in Athens. This race is the most perverse andintractable. Listen to me as to an oracle: whenever this people teachesus its arts it will corrupt everything. "

[138] "Schola, " from which we derive "school, " signified leisure. 

[139] Also to write and reckon, as previously stated. --ED. 

CHAPTER XXIII

FALL OF THE REPUBLIC

DECADENCE OF REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS

=Destruction of the Peasantry. =--The old Roman people consisted ofsmall proprietors who cultivated their own land. These honest androbust peasants constituted at once the army and the assembly of thepeople. Though still numerous in 221 and during the Second Punic War, in 133 there were no more of them. Many without doubt had perished inthe foreign wars; but the special reason for their disappearance wasthat it had become impossible for them to subsist. 

The peasants lived by the culture of grain. When Rome received thegrain of Sicily and Africa, the grain of Italy fell to so low a pricethat laborers could not raise enough to support their families and paythe military tax. They were compelled to sell their land and this wasbought by a rich neighbor. Of many small fields he made a greatdomain; he laid the land down to grazing, and to protect his herds orto cultivate it he sent shepherds and slave laborers. On the soil ofItaly at that time there were only great proprietors and troops ofslaves. "Great domains, " said Pliny the Elder, "are the ruin ofItaly. "

It was, in fact, the great domains that drove the free peasants fromthe country districts. The old proprietor who sold his land could nolonger remain a farmer; he had to yield the place to slaves, and hehimself wandered forth without work. "The majority of these heads offamilies, " says Varro in his treatise on agriculture, "have slippedwithin our walls, leaving the scythe and the plough; they preferclapping their hands at the circus to working in their fields andtheir vineyards. " Tiberius Gracchus, a tribune of the plebs, exclaimedin a moment of indignation, "The wild beasts of Italy have at leasttheir lairs, but the men who offer their blood for Italy have only thelight and the air that they breathe; they wander about withoutshelter, without a dwelling, with their wives and their children. Those generals do but mock them who exhort them to fight for theirtombs and their temples. Is there one of them who still possesses thesacred altar of his house and the tomb of his ancestors? They arecalled the masters of the world while they have not for themselves asingle foot of earth. "

=The City Plebs. =--While the farms were being drained, the city ofRome was being filled with a new population. They were the descendantsof the ruined peasants whom misery had driven to the city; besidesthese, there were the freedmen and their children. They came from allthe corners of the world--Greeks, Syrians, Egyptians, Asiatics, Africans, Spaniards, Gauls--torn from their homes, and sold as slaves;later freed by their masters and made citizens, they massed themselvesin the city. It was an entirely new people that bore the name Roman. One day Scipio, the conqueror of Carthage and of Numantia, haranguingthe people in the forum, was interrupted by the cries of the mob. "Silence! false sons of Italy, " he cried; "do as you like; those whomI brought to Rome in chains will never frighten me even if they are nolonger slaves. " The populace preserved quiet, but these "false sons ofItaly, " the sons of the vanquished, had already taken the place of theold Romans. 

This new plebeian order could not make a livelihood for itself, and sothe state had to provide food for it. A beginning was made in 123 withfurnishing corn at half price to all citizens, and this grain wasimported from Sicily and Africa. Since the year 63[140] corn wasdistributed gratuitously and oil was also provided. There wereregisters and an administration expressly for these distributions, aspecial service for furnishing provisions (the Annona). In 46 Cæsarfound 320, 000 citizens enrolled for these distributions. 

=Electoral Corruption. =--This miserable and lazy populace filled theforum on election days and made the laws and the magistrates. Thecandidates sought to win its favors by giving shows and public feasts, and by dispensing provisions. They even bought votes. This sale tookplace on a large scale and in broad day; money was given todistributers who divided it among the voters. Once the Senateendeavored to stop this trade; but when Piso, the consul, proposed alaw to prohibit the sale of suffrages, the distributers excited a riotand drove the consul from the forum. In the time of Cicero nomagistrate could be elected without enormous expenditures. 

=Corruption of the Senate. =--Poverty corrupted the populace who formedthe assemblies; luxury tainted the men of the old families whocomposed the Senate. The nobles regarded the state as their propertyand so divided among themselves the functions of the state andintrigued to exclude the rest of the citizens from them. When Cicerowas elected magistrate, he was for thirty years the first "new man" toenter the succession of offices. 

Accustomed to exercise power, some of the senators believed themselvesto be above the law. When Scipio was accused of embezzlement, herefused even to exonerate himself and said at the tribune, "Romans, itwas on this day that I conquered Hannibal and the Carthaginians. Follow me to the Capitol to render thanks to the gods and to beseechthem always to provide generals like myself. "

To support their pretensions at home, the majority of the noblesrequired a large amount of money. Many used their power to get it forthemselves: some sent as governors plundered the subjects of Rome;others compelled foreign or hostile kings to pay for the peace grantedthem, or even for letting their army be beaten. It was in this waythat Jugurtha bribed a Roman general. Cited to Rome to answer for amurder, he escaped trial by buying up a tribune who forbade him tospeak. It was related that in leaving Rome he had said, "O city forsale, if thou only couldst find a purchaser!"

=Corruption of the Army. =--The Roman army was composed of smallproprietors who, when a war was finished, returned to the cultivationof their fields. In becoming soldiers they remained citizens andfought only for their country. Marius began to admit to the legionspoor citizens who enrolled themselves for the purpose of makingcapital from their campaigns. Soon the whole army was full ofadventurers who went to war, not to perform their service, but toenrich themselves from the vanquished. One was no longer a soldierfrom a sense of duty, but as a profession. 

The soldiers enrolled themselves for twenty years; their timecompleted, they reëngaged themselves at higher pay and becameveterans. These people knew neither the Senate nor the laws; theirobedience was only to their general. To attach them to himself, thegeneral distributed to them the money taken from the vanquished. During the war against Mithradates Sulla lodged his men with the richinhabitants of Asia; they lived as they chose, they and their friends, receiving each sixteen drachmas a day. These first generals, Mariusand Sulla, were still Roman magistrates. But soon rich individualslike Pompey and Crassus drew the soldiers to their pay. In 78 at thedeath of Sulla there were four armies, levied entirely and commandedby simple citizens. From that time there was no further question ofthe legions of Rome, there were left only the legions of Pompey orCæsar. 

THE REVOLUTION

=Necessity of the Revolution. =--The Roman people was no longeranything but an indigent and lazy multitude, the army only anaggregation of adventurers. Neither the assembly nor the legionsobeyed the Senate, for the corrupt nobles had lost all moralauthority, so that there was left but one real power--the army; therewere no men of influence beside the generals, and the generals had nolonger any desire to obey. The government by the Senate, now no longerpracticable, gave place to the government of the general. 

=The Civil Wars. =--The revolution was inevitable, but it did not comeat one stroke; it required more than a hundred years to accomplish it. The Senate resisted, but too weak itself to govern, it was strongenough to prevent domination by another power. The generals foughtamong themselves to see who should remain master. For a century theRomans and their subjects lived in the midst of riot and civil war. 

=The Gracchi. =--The first civil discord that blazed up in Rome was thecontest of the Gracchi against the Senate. The two brothers, Tiberiusand Gaius Gracchus, were of one of the noblest families of Rome, butboth endeavored to take the government from the nobles who formed theSenate by making themselves tribunes of the plebs. There was at thattime, either in Rome or in Italy, a crowd of citizens without meanswho desired a revolution; even among the rich the majority were of theclass of the knights, who complained that they had no part in thegovernment. Tiberius Gracchus had himself named tribune of the plebsand sought to gain control of the government. He proposed to thepeople an agrarian law. All the lands of the public domain occupied byindividuals were to be resumed by the state (with the exception of 500acres for each one); these lands taken by the state were to bedistributed in small lots to poor citizens. The law was voted. Itcaused general confusion regarding property, for almost all of thelands of the empire constituted a part of the public domain, but theyhad been occupied for a long time and the possessors were accustomedto regard themselves as proprietors. Further, as the Romans had noregistry of the lands, it was often very difficult to ascertainwhether a domain were private or public property. To direct theseoperations, Tiberius had three commissioners named on whom the peopleconferred absolute authority; they were Tiberius, his brother, and hisfather-in-law, and it was uncertain whether Tiberius had acted in theinterest of the people, or simply to have a pretext for having powerplaced in his hands. For a year he was master of Rome; but when hewished to be elected tribune of the plebs for the succeeding year, hisenemies protested, as this was contrary to custom. A riot followed. Tiberius and his friends seized the Capitol; the partisans of theSenate and their slaves, armed with clubs and fragments of benches, pursued them and despatched them (133). 

Ten years later Gaius, the younger of the Gracchi, elected tribune ofthe plebs (123), had the agrarian law voted anew, and establisheddistributions[141] of corn to the poor citizens. Then, to destroy thepower of the nobles, he secured a decree that the judges should betaken from among the knights. For two years Gaius dominated thegovernment, but while he was absent from the city conducting a colonyof Roman citizens to Carthage the people abandoned him. On his returnhe could not be reëlected. The consul armed the partisans of theSenate and marched against Gaius and his friends who had fled to theAventine Hill. Gaius had himself killed by a slave; his followers weremassacred or executed in prison; their houses were razed and theirproperty confiscated. 

=Marius and Sulla. =--The contests of the Gracchi and the Senate hadbeen no more than riots in the streets of Rome, terminating in acombat between bands hastily armed. The strife that followed was asuccession of real wars between regular armies, wars in Italy, wars inall the provinces. From this time the party chiefs were no other thanthe generals. 

The first to use his army to secure obedience in Rome was Marius. Hewas born in Arpinum, a little town in the mountains, and was not ofnoble descent. He had attained reputation as an officer in the army, and had been elected tribune of the plebs, then prætor, with the helpof the nobles. He turned against them and was elected consul andcommissioned with the war against Jugurtha, king of Numidia, who hadalready fought several Roman armies. It was then that Marius enrolledpoor citizens for whom military service became a profession. With hisarmy Marius conquered Jugurtha and the barbarians, the Cimbri andTeutones, who had invaded the empire. He then returned to Rome wherehe had himself elected consul for the sixth time and now exercisedabsolute power. Two parties now took form in Rome who calledthemselves the party of the people (the party of Marius), and theparty of the nobles (that of the Senate). 

The partisans of Marius committed so many acts of violence that theyended by making him unpopular. Sulla, a noble, of the great family ofthe Cornelii, profited by this circumstance to dispute the power ofMarius; Sulla was also a general. When the Italians rose against Rometo secure the right of citizenship and levied great armies whichmarched almost to the gates of the city, it was Sulla who saved Romeby fighting the Italians. 

He became consul and was charged with the war against Mithradates, king of Pontus, who had invaded Asia Minor and massacred all theRomans (88). Marius in jealousy excited a riot in the city; Sulladeparted, joined his army which awaited him in south Italy, thenreturned to Rome. Roman religion prohibited soldiers entering the cityunder arms; the consul even before passing the gates had to lay asidehis mantle of war and assume the toga. Sulla was the first general whodared to violate this restriction. Marius took flight. 

But when Sulla had left for Asia, Marius came with an army ofadventurers and entered Rome by force (87). Then commenced theproscriptions. 

The principal partisans of Sulla were outlawed, and command was givento kill them anywhere they were met and to confiscate their goods. Marius died some months later; but his principal partisan, Cinna, continued to govern Rome and to put to death whomever he pleased. 

During this time Sulla had conquered Mithradates and had assured theloyalty of his soldiers by giving them the free pillage of Asia. Hereturned with his army (83) to Italy. His enemies opposed him withfive armies, but these were defeated or they deserted. Sulla enteredRome, massacred his prisoners and overthrew the partisans of Marius. After some days of slaughter he set himself to proceed regularly: heposted three lists of those whom he wished killed. "I have posted nowall those whom I can recall; I have forgotten many, but their nameswill be posted as the names occur to me. " Every proscribed man--thatis to say, every man whose name was on the list, was marked for death;the murderer who brought his head was rewarded. The property of theproscribed was confiscated. Proscription was not the result of anytrial but of the caprice of the general, and that too without anywarning. Sulla thus massacred not only his enemies but the rich whoseproperty he coveted. It is related that a citizen who was unaccustomedto politics glanced in passing at the list of proscriptions and sawhis own name inscribed at the top of the list. "Alas!" he cried, "myAlban house has been the death of me!" Sulla is said to haveproscribed 1800[142] knights. 

After having removed his enemies, he endeavored to organize agovernment in which all power should be in the hands of the Senate. Hehad himself named Dictator, an old title once given to generals inmoments of danger and which conferred absolute power. Sulla used theoffice to make laws which changed the entire constitution. From thattime all the judges were to be taken from the Senate, no law could bediscussed before it had been accepted by the Senate, the right ofproposing laws was taken from the tribunes of the plebs. 

After these reforms Sulla abdicated his functions and retired toprivate life (79). He knew he had nothing to fear, for he hadestablished 100, 000 of his soldiers in Italy. 

=Pompey and Cæsar. =--The Senate had recovered its power because Sullasaw fit to give it this, but it had not the strength to retain it if ageneral wished again to seize it. The government of the Senateendured, however, in appearance for more than thirty years; this wasbecause there were several generals and each prevented a rival fromgaining all power. 

At the death of Sulla four armies took the field: two obeyed thegenerals who were partisans of the Senate, Crassus and Pompey; twofollowed generals who were adversaries of the Senate, Lepidus inItaly, and Sertorius in Spain. It is very remarkable that no one ofthese armies was regular, no one of the generals was a magistrate andtherefore had the right to command troops; down to this time thegenerals had been consuls, but now they were individuals--privatepersons; their soldiers came to them not to serve the interests of thestate, but to profit at the expense of the inhabitants. 

The armies of the enemies of the Senate were destroyed, and Crassusand Pompey, left alone, joined issues to control affairs. They hadthemselves elected consuls and Pompey received the conduct of twowars. He went to Asia with a devoted army and was for several yearsthe master of Rome; but as he was more the possessor of offices thanof power, he changed nothing in the government. It was during thistime that Cæsar, a young noble, made himself popular. Pompey, Crassus, and Cæsar united to divide the power between themselves. Crassus received the command of the army sent to Asia against theParthians and was killed (53). Pompey remained at Rome. Cæsar went toGaul where he stayed eight years subjecting the country and making anarmy for himself. 

Pompey and Cæsar were now the only persons on the stage. Each wishedto be master. Pompey had the advantage of being at Rome and ofdominating the Senate; Cæsar had on his side his army, disciplined byeight years of expeditions. Pompey secured a decree of the Senate thatCæsar should abandon his army and return to Rome. Cæsar decided thento cross the boundary of his province (the river Rubicon), and tomarch on Rome. Pompey had no army in Italy to defend himself, and sowith the majority of the senators took flight to the other side of theAdriatic. He had several armies in Spain, in Greece, and in Africa. Cæsar defeated them, one after another--that of Spain first (49), thenthat of Greece at Pharsalus (48), at last, that of Africa (46). Pompey, vanquished at Pharsalus, fled to Egypt where the king had himassassinated. 

On his return to Rome Cæsar was appointed dictator for ten years andexercised absolute power. The Senate paid him divine honors, and it ispossible that Cæsar desired the title of king. He was assassinated bycertain of his favorites who aimed to reëstablish the sovereignty ofthe Senate (44). 

=End of the Republic. =--The people of Rome, who loved Cæsar, compelledBrutus and Cassius, the chiefs of the assassins, to flee. Theywithdrew to the East where they raised a large army. The West remainedin the hand of Antony, who with the support of the army of Cæsar, governed Rome despotically. 

Cæsar in his will had adopted a young man of eighteen years, hissister's son, [143] Octavian, who according to Roman usage assumed thename of his adoptive father and called himself from that time JuliusCæsar Octavianus. Octavian rallied to his side the soldiers of Cæsarand was charged by the Senate with the war against Antony. But afterconquering him he preferred to unite with him for a division of power;they associated Lepidus with them, and all three returned to Romewhere they secured absolute power for five years under the title oftriumvirs for organizing public affairs. They began by proscribingtheir adversaries and their personal enemies. Antony secured the deathof Cicero (43). Then they left for the East to destroy the army of theconspirators. After they had divided the empire among themselves itwas impossible to preserve harmony and war was undertaken in Italy. Itwas the soldiers who compelled them to make terms of peace. A newpartition was made; Antony took the East and Octavian the West (39). For some years peace was preserved; Antony resigned himself to thelife of an oriental sovereign in company with Cleopatra, queen ofEgypt; Octavian found it necessary to fight a campaign against thesons of Pompey. The two leaders came at last to an open breach, andthen flamed up the last of the civil wars. This was a war between theEast and West. It was decided by the naval battle of Actium; Antony, abandoned by the fleet of Cleopatra, fled to Egypt and took his ownlife. Octavian, left alone, was absolute master of the empire. Thegovernment of the Senate was at an end. 

=Need of Peace. =--Everybody had suffered by these wars. Theinhabitants of the provinces were plundered, harassed, and massacredby the soldiers; each of the hostile generals forced them to takesides with him, and the victor punished them for supporting thevanquished. To reward the old soldiers the generals promised themlands, and then expelled all the inhabitants of a city to make roomfor the veterans. 

Rich Romans risked their property and their life; when their party wasoverthrown, they found themselves at the mercy of the victor. Sullahad set the example for organized massacres (81). Forty years later(in 43) Octavian and Antony again drew up lists of proscription. 

The populace suffered. The grain on which they lived came no longer toRome with the former regularity, being intercepted either by piratesor by the fleet of an enemy. 

After a century of this régime all the Romans and provincials, richand poor, had but one desire--peace. 

=The Power of the Individual. =--It was then that the heir of Cæsar, his nephew[144] Octavian, one of the triumvirs, after having conqueredhis two colleagues presented himself to the people now wearied withcivil discord. "He drew to himself all the powers of the people, ofthe Senate, and of the magistrates;" for twelve years he was emperorwithout having the title. No one dreamed of resisting him; he hadclosed the temple of Janus and given peace to the world, and this waswhat everybody wished. The government of the republic by the Senaterepresented only pillage and civil war. A master was needed strongenough to stop the wars and revolutions. Thus the Roman empire wasfounded. 

FOOTNOTES:

[140] The Lex Clodia of 58 B. C. Made these distributions legal. --ED. 

[141] At a very low price. --ED. 

[142] 1600, according to Mommsen, "History of Rome, " Bk. IV, ch. X. --ED. 

[143] Grandson. --ED. 

[144] Grand-nephew. --ED. 

CHAPTER XXIV

THE EMPIRE AT ITS HEIGHT

THE TWELVE CÆSARS

=The Emperor. =--In the new régime absolute authority was lodged in asingle man; he was called the emperor (imperator--the commander). Inhimself alone he exercised all those functions which the ancientmagistrates distributed among themselves: he presided over the Senate;he levied and commanded all the armies; he drew up the lists ofsenators, knights, and people; he levied taxes; he was supreme judge;he was pontifex maximus; he had the power of the tribunes. And toindicate that this authority made him a superhuman being, it wasdecreed that he should bear a religious surname: Augustus (thevenerable). 

The empire was not established by a radical revolution. The name ofthe republic was not suppressed and for more than three centuries thestandards of the soldiers continued to bear the initials S. P. Q. R. (senate and people of Rome). The emperor's power was granted to himfor life instead of for one year, as with the old magistrates. Theemperor was the only and lifelong magistrate of the republic. In himthe Roman people was incarnate; this is why he was absolute. 

=Apotheosis of the Emperor. =--As long as the emperor lived he was solemaster of the empire, since the Roman people had conveyed all itspower to him. But at his death the Senate in the name of the peoplereviewed his life and passed judgment upon it. If he were condemned, all the acts which he had made were nullified, his statues throwndown, and his name effaced from the monuments. [145] If, on thecontrary, his acts were ratified (which almost always occurred), theSenate at the same time decreed that the deceased emperor should beelevated to the rank of the gods. The majority of the emperors, therefore, became gods after their death. Temples were raised to themand priests appointed to render them worship. Throughout the empirethere were temples dedicated to the god Augustus and to the goddessRoma, and persons are known who performed the functions of flamen(priest) of the divine Claudius, or of the divine Vespasian. Thispractice of deifying the dead emperor was called Apotheosis. The wordis Greek; the custom probably came from the Greeks of the Orient. 

=The Senate and the People. =--The Roman Senate remained what it hadalways been--the assembly of the richest and most eminent personagesof the empire. To be a senator was still an eagerly desired honor; inspeaking of a great family one would say, "a senatorial family. " Butthe Senate, respected as it was, was now powerless, because theemperor could dispense with it. It was still the most distinguishedbody in the state, but it was no longer the master of the government. The emperor often pretended to consult it, but he was not bound by itsadvice. 

The people had lost all its power since the assemblies (the Comitia)were suppressed in the reign of Tiberius. The population of 2, 000, 000souls crowded into Rome was composed only of some thousands of greatlords with their slaves and a mob of paupers. Already the state hadassumed the burden of feeding the latter; the emperors continued todistribute grain to them, and supplemented this with donations ofmoney (the congiarium). Augustus thus donated $140 apiece in ninedifferent distributions, and Nero $50 in three. At the same time toamuse this populace shows were presented. The number of days regularlyappointed for the shows under the republic had already amounted to 66in the year; it had increased in a century and a half, under MarcusAurelius, to 135, and in the fourth century to 175 (without countingsupplementary days). These spectacles continued each day from sunriseto sunset; the spectators ate their lunch in their places. This was ameans used by the emperors for the occupation of the crowd. "It is foryour advantage, Cæsar, " said an actor to Augustus, "that the peopleengage itself with us. " It was also a means for securing popularity. The worst emperors were among the most popular; Nero was adored forhis magnificent spectacles; the people refused to believe that he wasdead, and for thirty years they awaited his return. [146]

The multitude of Rome no longer sought to govern; it required only tobe amused and fed: in the forceful expression of Juvenal--to beprovided with bread and the games of the circus (panem et circenses). 

=The Prætorians. =--Under the republic a general was prohibited fromleading his army into the city of Rome. The emperor, chief of all thearmies, had at Rome his military escort (prætorium), a body of about10, 000 men quartered in the interior of the city. The prætorians, recruited among the veterans, received high pay and frequentdonatives. Relying on these soldiers, the emperor had nothing to fearfrom malcontents in Rome. But the danger came from the prætoriansthemselves; as they had the power they believed they had free rein, and their chief, the prætorian prefect, was sometimes stronger thanthe emperor. 

=The Freedmen of the Emperor. =--Ever since the monarchy had supersededthe republic, there was no other magistrate than the emperor. All thebusiness of the empire of 80, 000, 000 people originated with him. Forthis crushing task he required assistants. He found them, not amongthe men of great family whom he mistrusted, but among the slaves ofwhom he felt sure. The secretaries, the men of trust, the ministers ofthe emperor were his freedmen, the majority of them foreigners fromGreece or the Orient, pliant people, adepts in flattery, inventiveness, and loquacity. Often the emperor, wearied with seriousmatters, gave the government into their hands, and, as occurs inabsolute monarchies, instead of aiding their master, they supplementedhim. Pallas and Narcissus, the freedmen of Claudius, distributedoffices and pronounced judgments; Helius, Nero's freedman, hadknights and senators executed without even consulting his master. Ofall the freedmen Pallas was the most powerful, the richest, and themost insolent; he gave his orders to his underlings only by signs orin writing. Nothing so outraged the old noble families of Rome asthis. "The princes, " said a Roman writer, "are the masters of citizensand the slaves of their freedmen. " Among the scandals with which theemperors were reproached, one of the gravest was governing Romancitizens by former slaves. 

=Despotism and Disorder. =--This régime had two great vices:

1. _Despotism. _--The emperor was invested for life with a powerunlimited, extravagant, and hardly conceivable; according to his fancyhe disposed of persons and their property, condemned, confiscated, andexecuted without restraint. No institution, no law fettered his will. "The decree of the emperor has the force of law, " say thejurisconsults themselves. Rome recognized then the unlimited despotismthat the tyrants had exercised in the Greek cities, no longercircumscribed within the borders of a single city, but gigantic as theempire itself. As in Greece some honorable tyrants had presentedthemselves, one sees in Rome some wise and honest monarchs (Augustus, Vespasian, Titus). But few men had a head strong enough to resistvertigo when they saw themselves so elevated above other men. Themajority of the emperors profited by their tremendous power only tomake their names proverbial: Tiberius, Nero, Domitian by theircruelty, Vitellius by his gluttony, Claudius by his imbecility. Oneof them, Caligula, was a veritable fool; he had his horse made consuland himself worshipped as a god. The emperors persecuted the noblesespecially to keep them from conspiring against them, and the rich toconfiscate their goods. 

2. _Disorder. _--This overweening authority was, moreover, very illregulated; it resided entirely in the person of the emperor. When hewas dead, everything was in question. It was well known that the worldcould not continue without a master, but no law nor usage determinedwho was to be this master. The Senate alone had the right ofnominating the emperor, but almost always it would elect underpressure the one whom the preceding emperor had designated or the manwho was pleasing to the soldiers. 

After the death of Caligula, some prætorians who were sacking thepalace discovered, concealed behind the tapestry, a poor man tremblingwith fear. This was a relative of Caligula; the prætorians made himemperor (it was the emperor Claudius). After the death of Nero, theSenate had elected Galba; the prætorians did not find him liberalenough and so they massacred him to set up in his place Otho, afavorite of Nero. In their turn the soldiers on the frontier wished tomake an emperor: the legions of the Rhine entered Italy, met theprætorians at Bedriac near Cremona, and overthrew them in so furious abattle that it lasted all night; then they compelled the Senate toelect Vitellius, their general, as emperor. During this time the armyof Syria had elected its chief Vespasian, who in turn defeatedVitellius and was named in his place; thus in two years three emperorshad been created and three overthrown by the soldiers. The newemperor often undid what his predecessor had done; imperial despotismhad not even the advantage of being stable. 

=The Twelve Cæsars. =--This regime of oppression interrupted byviolence endured for more than a century (31 B. C. To 96 A. D. ). 

The twelve emperors who came to the throne during this time are calledthe Twelve Cæsars, although only the first six were of the family ofAugustus. It is difficult to judge them equitably. Almost all of thempersecuted the noble families of Rome of whom they were afraid, and itis the writers of these families that have made their reputation. Butit is quite possible that in the provinces their government was mildand just, superior to that of the senators of the republic. 

THE CENTURY OF THE ANTONINES

=The Antonines. =--The five emperors succeeding the twelve Cæsars, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus, and Marcus Aurelius (96-180), haveleft a reputation for justice and wisdom. They were called theAntonines, though this name properly belongs only to the last two. They were not descended from the old families of Rome; Trajan andHadrian were Spaniards, Antoninus was born at Nîmes in Gaul. They werenot princes of imperial family, destined from their birth to rule. Four emperors came to the throne without sons and so the empire couldnot be transmitted by inheritance. On each occasion the prince choseamong his generals and his governors the man most capable ofsucceeding him; he adopted him as his son and sought his confirmationby the Senate. Thus there came to the empire only experienced men, whowithout confusion assumed the throne of their adoptive fathers. 

=Government of the Antonines. =--This century of the Antonines was thecalmest that the ancient world had ever known. Wars were relegated tothe frontier of the empire. In the interior there were still militaryseditions, tyranny, and arbitrary condemnations. The Antonines heldthe army in check, organized a council of state of jurisconsults, established tribunals, and replaced the freedmen who had so longirritated the Romans under the twelve Cæsars by regular functionariestaken from among the men of the second class--that is, the knights. The emperor was no longer a tyrant served by the soldiers; he wastruly the first magistrate of the republic, using his authority onlyfor the good of the citizens. The last two Antonines especially, Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius, honored the empire by their integrity. Both lived simply, like ordinary men, although they were very rich, without anything that resembled a court or a palace, never giving theimpression that they were masters. Marcus Aurelius consulted theSenate on all state business and regularly attended its sessions. 

=Marcus Aurelius. =--Marcus Aurelius has been termed the Philosopher onthe Throne. He governed from a sense of duty, against his disposition, for he loved solitude; and yet he spent his life in administration andthe command of armies. His private journal (his "Thoughts") exhibitsthe character of the Stoic--virtuous, austere, separated from theworld, and yet mild and good. "The best form of vengeance on thewicked is not to imitate them; the gods themselves do good to evilmen; it is your privilege to act like the gods. "

=Conquests of the Antonines. =--The emperors of the first century hadcontinued the course of conquest; they had subjected the Britons ofEngland, the Germans on the left bank of the Rhine, and in theprovinces had reduced several countries which till then had retainedtheir kings--Mauretania, Thrace, Cappadocia. The Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates were the limits of the empire. 

The emperors of the second century were almost all generals; they hadthe opportunity of waging numerous wars to repel the hostile peopleswho sought to invade the empire. The enemies were in two quartersespecially:

 1. On the Danube were the Dacians, barbarous people, who occupied the country of mountains and forests now called Transylvania. 

 2. On the Euphrates was the great military monarchy of the Parthians which had its capital at Ctesiphon, near the ruins of Babylon, and which extended over all Persia. 

Trajan made several expeditions against the Dacians, crossed theDanube, won three great battles, and took the capital of the Dacians(101-102). He offered them peace, but when they reopened the war heresolved to end matters with them: he had a stone bridge built overthe Danube, invaded Dacia and reduced it to a Roman province (106). Colonies were transferred thither, cities were built, and Dacia becamea Roman province where Latin was spoken and Roman customs wereassimilated. When the Roman armies withdrew at the end of the thirdcentury, the Latin language remained and continued throughout theMiddle Ages, notwithstanding the invasions of the barbarian Slavs. Itis from Transylvania (ancient Dacia) that the peoples came from thetwelfth to the fourteenth century who now inhabit the plains to thenorth of the Danube. It has preserved the name of Rome (Roumania) andspeaks a language derived from the Latin, like the French or Spanish. Trajan made war on the Parthians also. He crossed the Euphrates, tookCtesiphon, the capital, and advanced into Persia, even to Susa, whencehe took away the massive gold throne of the kings of Persia. Heconstructed a fleet on the Tigris, descended the stream to its mouthand sailed into the Persian Gulf; he would have delighted, likeAlexander, in the conquest of India. He took from the Parthians thecountry between the Euphrates and the Tigris--Assyria andMesopotamia--and erected there two Roman provinces. 

To commemorate his conquests Trajan erected monuments which stillremain. The Column of Trajan on the Roman Forum is a shaft whosebas-reliefs represent the war against the Dacians. The arch of triumphof Benevento recalls the victories over the Parthians. 

Of these two conquests one alone was permanent, that of Dacia. Theprovinces conquered from the Parthians revolted after the departure ofthe Roman army. The emperor Hadrian retained Dacia, but returned theirprovinces to the Parthians, and the Roman empire again made theEuphrates its eastern frontier. To escape further warfare with thehighlanders of Scotland, Hadrian built a wall in the north of England(the Wall of Hadrian) extending across the whole island. There was noneed of other wars save against the revolting Jews; these people wereoverthrown and expelled from Jerusalem, the name of which was changedto obliterate the memory of the old Jewish kingdom. 

Marcus Aurelius, the last of the Antonines, had to resist the invasionof several barbarous peoples of Germany who had crossed the Danube onthe ice and had penetrated even to Aquileia, in the north of Italy. Inorder to enroll a sufficient army he had to enlist slaves andbarbarians (172). The Germans retreated, but while Marcus was occupiedwith a general uprising in Syria, they renewed their attacks on theempire, and the emperor died on the banks of the Danube (180). Thiswas the end of conquest. 

IMPERIAL ADMINISTRATION

=Extent of the Empire in the Second Century. =--The Roman emperors werebut little bent on conquest. But to occupy their army and to securefrontiers which might be easily defended, they continued to conquerbarbarian peoples for more than a century. When the course of conquestwas finally arrested after Trajan, the empire extended over all thesouth of Europe, all the north of Africa and the west of Asia; it waslimited only by natural frontiers--the ocean to the west; themountains of Scotland, the Rhine, the Danube, and the Caucasus to thenorth; the deserts of the Euphrates and of Arabia to the east; thecataracts of the Nile and the great desert to the south. The empire, therefore, embraced the countries which now constitute England, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Bavaria, Austria, Hungary, European Turkey, Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, andAsiatic Turkey. It was more than double the extent of the empire ofAlexander. 

This immense territory was subdivided into forty-eight provinces, [147]unequal in size, but the majority of them very large. Thus Gaul fromthe Pyrenees to the Rhine formed but seven provinces. 

=The Permanent Army. =--In the provinces of the interior there was noRoman army, for the peoples of the empire had no desire to revolt. Itwas on the frontier that the empire had its enemies, foreigners alwaysready to invade: behind the Rhine and the Danube the barbarianGermans; behind the sands of Africa the nomads of the desert; behindthe Euphrates the Persian army. On this frontier which was constantlythreatened it was necessary to have soldiers always in readiness. Augustus had understood this, and so created a permanent army. Thesoldiers of the empire were no longer proprietors transferred fromtheir fields to serve during a few campaigns, but poor men who madewar a profession. They enlisted for sixteen or twenty years and oftenreënlisted. There were, then, thirty legions of citizens--that is, 180, 000 legionaries, and, according to Roman usage, a slightly largernumber of auxiliaries--in all about 400, 000 men. This number was smallfor so large a territory. 

Each frontier province had its little army, garrisoned in a permanentcamp similar to a fortress. Merchants came to establish themselves inthe vicinity, and the camp was transformed into a city; but still thesoldiers, encamped in the face of the enemy, preserved their valor andtheir discipline. There were for three centuries severe wars, especially on the banks of the Rhine and of the Danube, where Romansfought fierce barbarians in a swampy country, uncultivated, coveredwith forests and bogs. The imperial army exhibited, perhaps, as muchbravery and energy in these obscure wars as the ancient Romans in theconquest of the world. 

=Deputies and Agents of the Emperor. =--All the provinces belonged tothe emperor[148] as the representative of the Roman people. He isthere the general of all the soldiers, master of all persons, andproprietor of all lands. [149] But as the emperor could not beeverywhere at once, he sent deputies appointed by himself. To eachprovince went a lieutenant (called a deputy of Augustus with thefunction of prætor); this official governed the country, commanded thearmy, and went on circuit through his province to judge importantcases, for he, like the emperor, had the right of life and death. 

The emperor sent also a financial agent to levy the taxes and returnthe money to the imperial chest. This official was called the"procurator of Augustus. " These two men represented the emperor, governing his subjects, commanding his soldiers, and exploiting hisdomain. The emperor always chose them among the two nobilities ofRome, the prætors from the senators, the procurators from the knights. For them, as for the magistrates of old Rome, there was a successionof offices: they passed from one province to another, from one end ofthe empire to the other, [150] from Syria to Spain, from Britain toAfrica. In the epitaphs of officials of this time we always findcarefully inscribed all the posts which they have occupied;inscriptions on their tombs are sufficient to construct theirbiographies. 

=Municipal life. =--Under these omnipotent representatives of theemperor the smaller subject peoples continued to administer their owngovernment. The emperor had the right of interfering in their localaffairs, but ordinarily he did not exercise this right. He onlydemanded of them that they keep the peace, pay their taxes regularly, and appear before the tribunal of the governor. There were in everyprovince several of these little subordinate governments; they werecalled, just as at other times the Roman state was called, "cities, "and sometimes municipalities. A city in the empire was copied afterthe Roman city: it also had its assembly of the people, itsmagistrates elected for a year and grouped into colleges of twomembers, its senate called a curia, formed of the great proprietors, people rich and of old family. There, as at Rome, the assembly of thepeople was hardly more than a form; it is the senate--that is to say, the nobility, that governs. 

The centre of the provincial city was always a town, a Rome inminiature, with its temples, its triumphal arches, its public baths, its fountains, its theatres, and its arenas for the combats. The lifeled there was that of Rome on a small scale: distributions of grainand money, public banquets, grand religious ceremonies, and bloodyspectacles. Only, in Rome, it was the money of the provinces that paidthe expenses; in the municipalities the nobility itself defrayed thecosts of government and fêtes. The tax levied for the treasury of theemperor went entirely to the imperial chest; it was necessary, then, that the rich of the city should at their own charges celebrate thegames, heat the baths, pave the streets, construct the bridges, aqueducts, and circuses. They did this for more than two centuries, and did it generously; monuments scattered over the whole of theempire and thousands of inscriptions are a witness to this. 

=The Imperial Régime. =--After the conquest three or four hundredfamilies of the nobility of Rome governed and exploited the rest ofthe world. The emperor deprived them of the government and subjectedthem to his tyranny. The Roman writers could groan over their lostliberty. The inhabitants of the provinces had nothing to regret; theyremained subject, but in place of several hundreds of masters, ceaselessly renewed and determined to enrich themselves, they had nowa single sovereign, the emperor, interested to spare them. Tiberiusstated the imperial policy in the following words: "A good shepherdshears his sheep, but does not flay them. " For more than two centuriesthe emperors contented themselves with shearing the people of theempire; they took much of their money, but they protected them fromthe enemy without, and even against their own agents. When theprovincials had grounds of complaint on account of the violence or therobbery of their governor, they could appeal to the emperor and securejustice. It was known that the emperor received complaints against hissubordinates; this was sufficient to frighten bad governors andreassure subjects. Some emperors, like Marcus Aurelius, came torecognize that they had duties to their subjects. The other emperorsat least left their subjects to govern themselves when they had nointerest to prevent this. 

The imperial régime was a loss for the Romans, but a deliverance fortheir subjects: it abased the conquerors and raised the vanquished, reconciling them and preparing them for assimilation in the empire. 

SOCIAL LIFE UNDER THE EMPIRE

=Moral Decay Continues at Rome. =--Seneca in his Letters and Juvenal inhis Satires have presented portraits of the men and women of theirtime so striking that the corruption of the Rome of the Cæsars hasremained proverbial. They were not only the disorders left over fromthe republic--the gross extravagance of the rich, the ferocity ofmasters against their slaves, the unbridled frivolity of women. Theevil did not arise with the imperial régime, but resulted from theexcessive accumulation of the riches of the world in the hands of somethousands of nobles or upstarts, under whom lived some hundreds offree men in poverty, and slaves by millions subjected to anunrestrained oppression. Each of these great proprietors lived in themidst of his slaves like a petty prince, indolent and capricious. Hishouse at Rome was like a palace; every morning the hall of honor (theatrium) was filled with clients, citizens who came for a meagre salaryto salute the master[151] and escort him in the street. For fashionrequired that a rich man should never appear in public unlesssurrounded by a crowd; Horace ridicules a prætor who traversed thestreets of Tibur with only five slaves in his following. Outside Romethe great possessed magnificent villas at the sea-shore or in themountains; they went from one to the other, idle and bored. 

These great families were rapidly extinguished. Alarmed at thediminishing number of free men, Augustus had made laws to encouragemarriage and to punish celibacy. As one might expect, his laws did notremedy the evil. There were so many rich men who had not married thatit had become a lucrative trade to flatter them in order to bementioned in their will; by having no children one could surroundhimself with a crowd of flatterers. "In the city, " says a Romanstory-teller, "all men divide themselves into two classes, those whofish, and those who are angled for. " "Losing his children augments theinfluence of a man. "

=The Shows. =--In the life of this idle people of Rome the spectaclesheld a place that we are now hardly able to conceive. They were, asin Greece, games, that is to say, religious ceremonies. The gamesproceeded throughout the day and again on the following day, and thisfor a week at least. The amphitheatre was, as it were, the rendezvousof the whole free population; it was there that they manifestedthemselves. Thus in 196, during the civil wars, all the spectatorscried with one voice, "Peace!" The spectacle was the passion of thetime. Three emperors appeared in public, Caligula as a driver, Nero asan actor, Commodus as a gladiator. 

=The Theatre. =--There were three sorts of spectacles: the theatre, thecircus, and the amphitheatre. 

The theatre was organized on Greek models. The actors were masked andpresented plays imitated from the Greek. The Romans had little tastefor this recreation which was too delicate for them. They preferredthe mimes, comedies of gross character, and especially the pantomimesin which the actor without speaking expressed by his attitudes thesentiments of the character. 

=The Circus. =--Between the two hills of the Aventine and the Palatineextended a field filled with race courses surrounded by arcades andtiers of seats rising above them. This was the Circus Maximus. AfterNero enlarged it it could accommodate 250, 000 spectators; in thefourth century its size was increased to provide sittings for 385, 000people. 

Here was presented the favorite spectacle of the Roman people, thefour-horse chariot race (quadrigæ); in each race the chariot made atriple circuit of the circus and there were twenty-five races in asingle day. The drivers belonged to rival companies whose colors theywore; there were at first four of these colors, but they were laterreduced to two--the Blue and the Green, notorious in the history ofriots. At Rome there was the same passion for chariot-races that thereis now for horse-races; women and even children talked of them. Oftenthe emperor participated and the quarrel between the Blues and theGreens became an affair of state. 

=The Amphitheatre. =--At the gates of Rome the emperor Vespasian hadbuilt the Colosseum, an enormous structure of two stories, accommodating 87, 000 spectators. It was a circus surrounding an arenawhere hunts and combats were represented. 

For the hunts the arena was transformed into a forest where wildbeasts were released and men armed with spears came into combat withthem. Variety was sought in this spectacle by employing the rarestanimals--lions, panthers, elephants, bears, buffaloes, rhinoceroses, giraffes, tigers, and crocodiles. In the games presented by Pompey hadalready appeared seventeen elephants and five hundred lions; some ofthe emperors maintained a large menagerie. 

Sometimes instead of placing armed men before the beasts, it was foundmore dramatic to let loose the animals on men who were naked andbound. The custom spread into all cities of the empire of compellingthose condemned to death to furnish this form of entertainment for thepeople. Thousands of persons of both sexes and of every age, and amongthem Christian martyrs, were thus devoured by beasts under the eyes ofthe multitude. 

=The Gladiators. =--But the national spectacle of the Romans was thefight of gladiators (men armed with swords). Armed men descended intothe arena and fought a duel to the death. From the time of Cæsar[152]as many as 320 pairs of gladiators were fought at once; Augustus inhis whole life fought 10, 000 of them, Trajan the same number in fourmonths. The vanquished was slain on the field unless the people wishedto show him grace. 

Sometimes the condemned were compelled to fight, but more often slavesand prisoners of war. Each victory thus brought to the amphitheatrebands of barbarians who exterminated one another for the delight of thespectators. [153] Gladiators were furnished by all countries--Gauls, Germans, Thracians, and sometimes negroes. These peoples fought withvarious weapons, usually with their national arms. The Romans loved tobehold these battles in miniature. 

There were also, among these contestants in the circus, some whofought from their own choice, free men who from a taste for dangersubmitted to the terrible discipline of the gladiator, and swore totheir chief "to allow themselves to be beaten with rods, be burnedwith hot iron, and even be killed. " Many senators enrolled themselvesin these bands of slaves and adventurers, and even an emperor, Commodus, descended into the arena. 

These bloody games were practised not only at Rome, but in all thecities of Italy, Gaul, and Africa. The Greeks always opposed theiradoption. An inscription on a statue raised to one of the notables inthe little city of Minturnæ runs as follows: "He presented in fourdays eleven pairs of gladiators who ceased to fight only when half ofthem had fallen in the arena. He gave a hunt of ten terrible bears. Treasure this in memory, noble fellow-citizens. " The people, therefore, had the passion for blood, [154] which still manifestsitself in Spain in bull-fights. The emperor, like the modern king ofSpain, must be present at these butcheries. Marcus Aurelius becameunpopular in Rome because he exhibited his weariness at the spectaclesof the amphitheatre by reading, speaking, or giving audiences insteadof regarding the games. When he enlisted gladiators to serve againstthe barbarians who invaded Italy, the populace was about to revolt. "He would deprive us of our amusements, " cried one, "to compel us tobecome philosophers. "

=The Roman Peace. =--But there was in the empire something else thanthe populace of Rome. To be just to the empire as a whole one mustconsider events in the provinces. By subjecting all peoples, theRomans had suppressed war in the interior of their empire. Thus wasestablished the Roman Peace which a Greek author describes in thefollowing language: "Every man can go where he will; the harbors arefull of ships, the mountains are safe for travellers just as the townsfor their inhabitants. Fear has everywhere ceased. The land has putoff its old armor of iron and put on festal garments. You haverealized the word of Homer, 'the earth is common to all. '" For thefirst time, indeed, men of the Occident could build their houses, cultivate their fields, enjoy their property and their leisure withoutfearing at every moment being robbed, massacred, or thrown intoslavery--a security which we can hardly appreciate since we haveenjoyed it from infancy, but which seemed very sweet to the men ofantiquity. 

=The Fusion of Peoples. =--In this empire now at peace travel becameeasy. The Romans had built roads in every direction with stations andrelays; they had also made road-maps of the empire. Many people, artisans, traders, journeyed from one end of the empire to theother. [155] Rhetors and philosophers penetrated all Europe, going fromone city to another giving lectures. In every province could be foundmen from the most remote provinces. Inscriptions show us in Spainprofessors, painters, Greek sculptors; in Gaul, goldsmiths and Asiaticworkmen. Everybody transported and mingled customs, arts, andreligion. Little by little they accustomed themselves to speak thelanguage of the Romans. From the third century the Latin had becomethe common language of the West, as the Greek since the successors ofAlexander had been the language of the Orient. Thus, as in Alexandria, a common civilization was developed. This has been called by the nameRoman, though it was this hardly more than in name and in language. Inreality, it was the civilization of the ancient world united underthe emperor's authority. 

=Superstitions. =--Religious beliefs were everywhere blended. As theancients did not believe in a single God, it was easy for them toadopt new gods. All peoples, each of whom had its own religion, farfrom rejecting the religions of others, adopted the gods of theirneighbors and fused them with their own. The Romans set the example byraising the Pantheon, a temple to "all the gods, " where each deity hadhis sanctuary. 

Everywhere there was much credulity. Men believed in the divinity ofthe dead emperors; it was believed that Vespasian had in Egypt healeda blind man and a paralytic. During the war with the Dacians the Romanarmy was perishing of thirst; all at once it began to rain, and thesudden storm appeared to all as a miracle; some said that an Egyptianmagician had conjured Hermes, others believed that Jupiter had takenpity on the soldiers; and on the column of Marcus Aurelius Jupiter wasrepresented, thunderbolt in hand, sending the rain which the soldierscaught in their bucklers. 

When the apostles Barnabas and Paul came to the city of Lystra in AsiaMinor, the inhabitants invoked Barnabas as Jupiter and Paul asMercury; they were met by a procession, with priests at the headleading a bull which they were about to sacrifice. 

Cultured people were none the less credulous. [156] The Stoicphilosophers admitted omens. The emperor Augustus regarded it as abad sign when he put on the wrong shoe. Suetonius wrote to Pliny theYounger, begging him to transfer his case to another day on account ofa dream which he had had. Pliny the Younger believed in ghosts. 

Among peoples ready to admit everything, different religions, insteadof going to pieces, fused into a common religion. This religion, atonce Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Asiatic, dominated the world at thesecond century of our era; and so the Christians called it thereligion of the nations; down to the fourth century they gave thepagans the name of "gentiles" (men of the nations); at the same timethe common law was called the Law of Nations. 

FOOTNOTES:

[145] Inscriptions have been found where the name of Domitian has thusbeen cut away. 

[146] Suetonius ("Lives of the Twelve Cæsars, " Nero, ch. Lvii. ) relates, that the king of the Parthians, when he sent ambassadors to the Senateto renew his alliance with the Roman people, earnestly requested thatdue honor should be paid to the memory of Nero. The historian continues, "When, twenty years afterwards, at which time I was a young man, someperson of obscure birth gave himself out for Nero, that name secured himso favorable a reception from the Parthians that he was very zealouslysupported, and it was with much difficulty that they were persuaded togive him up. "--ED. 

[147] Italy was not included among the provinces. 

[148] A few provinces, the less important, remained to the Senate, butthe emperor was almost always master in these as well. 

[149] The jurisconsult Gaius says, "On provincial soil we can havepossession only; the emperor owns the property. "

[150] "Great personages, " says Epictetus, "cannot root themselves likeplants; they must be much on the move in obedience to the commands ofthe emperor. "

[151] A client's task was a hard one; the poet Martial, who had servedthus, groans about it. He had to rise before day, put on his toga whichwas an inconvenient and cumbersome garment, and wait a long time in theante-room. 

[152] Cæsar gave also a combat between two troops, each composed of 500archers, 300 knights (30 knights according to Suetonius; Julius, ch. 39), and 20 elephants. 

[153] In an official discourse an orator thanks the emperor Constantinewho had given to the amphitheatre an entire army of barbarian captives, "to bring about the destruction of these men for the amusement of thepeople. What triumph, " he cried, "could have been more glorious?"

[154] St. Augustine in his "Confessions" describes the irresistibleattraction of these sanguinary spectacles. 

[155] A Phrygian relates in an inscription that he had made seventy-twovoyages from Asia to Italy. 

[156] There were some sceptical writers, like Lucian, but they wereisolated. 

CHAPTER XXV

THE ARTS AND SCIENCES IN ROME

LETTERS

=Imitation of the Greeks. =--The Romans were not artists naturally. They became so very late and by imitating the Greeks. From Greece theytook their models of tragedy, comedy, the epic, the ode, the didacticpoem, pastoral poetry, and history. Some writers limited themselves tothe free translation of a Greek original (as Horace in his Odes). Allborrowed from the Greeks at least their ideas and their forms. Butthey carried into this work of adaptation their qualities of patienceand vigor, and many came to a true originality. 

=The Age of Augustus. =--There is common agreement in regarding thefifty years of the government of Augustus as the most brilliant periodin Latin literature. It is the time of Vergil, Horace, Ovid, Tibullus, Propertius, and Livy. The emperor, or rather his friend Mæcenas, personally patronized some of these poets, especially Horace andVergil, who sang the glory of Augustus and of his time. But thisAugustan Age was preceded and followed by two centuries that perhapsequalled it. It was in the preceding century, [157] the first beforeChrist, that the most original Roman poet[158] appeared, Cæsar themost elegant prose-writer, and Cicero the greatest orator. It was inthe following age that Seneca, Lucan, Tacitus, Pliny, and Juvenalwrote. Between Lucretius and Tacitus there were for three centuriesmany great writers in Rome. One might also add another century byrecurring to the time of Plautus, the second century before Christ. 

Of these great authors a few had their origin in Roman families; butthe majority of them were Italians. Many came from the provinces, Vergil from Mantua, Livy from Padua (in Cisalpine Gaul), while Senecawas a Spaniard. 

=Orators and Rhetors. =--The true national art at Rome was eloquence. Like the Italians of our day, the Romans loved to speak in public. Inthe forum where they held the assemblies of the people was therostrum, the platform for addressing the people, so named from theprows of captured ships that ornamented it like trophies of war. Thither the orators came in the last epoch of the republic to declaimand to gesticulate before a tumultuous crowd. 

The tribunals, often composed of a hundred judges, furnished anotheroccasion for eloquent advocates. The Roman law permitted the accusedto have an advocate speak in his place. 

There were orators in Rome from the second century. Here, as inAthens, the older orators, such as Cato and the Gracchi, spoke simply, too simply for the taste of Cicero. Those who followed them in thefirst century learned in the schools of the Greek rhetors the longoratorical periods and pompous style. The greatest of all was Cicero, the only one whose works have come down to us in anything butfragments; and yet we have his speeches as they were left by him andnot as they were delivered. [159]

With the fall of the republic the assemblies and the great politicaltrials ceased. Eloquence perished for the want of matter, and theRoman writers remarked this with bitterness. [160] Then the rhetorscommenced to multiply, who taught the art of speaking well. [161] Someof these teachers had their pupils compose as exercises pleas onimaginary rhetorical subjects. The rhetor Seneca has left us many ofthese oratorical themes; they discuss stolen children, brigands, andromantic adventures. 

Then came the mania for public lectures. Pollio, a favorite ofAugustus, had set the example. For a century it was the fashion toread poems, panegyrics, even tragedies before an audience of friendsassembled to applaud them. The taste for eloquence that had onceproduced great orators exhibited in the later centuries only finisheddeclaimers. 

=Importance of the Latin Literature and Language. =--Latin literatureprofited by the conquests of Rome; the Romans carried it with theirlanguage to their barbarian subjects of the West. All the peoples ofItaly, Gaul, Spain, Africa, and the Danubian lands discarded theirlanguage and took the Latin. Having no national literature, theyadopted that of their masters. The empire was thus divided between thetwo languages of the two great peoples of antiquity: the Orientcontinued to speak Greek; almost the entire Occident acquired theLatin. Latin was not only the official language of the statefunctionaries and of great men, like the English of our day in India;the people themselves spoke it with greater or less correctness--infact, so well that today eighteen centuries after the conquest fivelanguages of Europe are derived from the Latin--the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Roumanian. 

With the Latin language the Latin literature extended itself over allthe West. In the schools of Bordeaux and Autun in the fifth centuryonly Latin poets and orators were studied. After the coming of thebarbarians, bishops and monks continued to write in Latin and theycarried this practice among the peoples of England and Germany whowere still speaking their native languages. Throughout almost thewhole mediæval period, acts, laws, histories, and books of sciencewere written in Latin. In the convents and the schools they read, copied, and appreciated only works written in Latin; beside books ofpiety only the Latin authors were known--Vergil, Horace, Cicero, andPliny the Younger. The renaissance of the fifteenth and sixteenthcenturies consisted partly in reviving the forgotten Latin writers. More than ever it was the fashion to know and to imitate them. 

As the Romans constructed a literature in imitation of the Greeks, themoderns have taken the Latin writers for their models. Was this goodor bad? Who would venture to say? But the fact is indisputable. Ourromance languages are daughters of the Latin, our literatures are fullof the ideas and of the literary methods of the Romans. The wholewestern world is impregnated with the Latin literature. 

THE ARTS

=Sculpture and Painting. =--Great numbers of Roman statues andbas-reliefs of the time of the empire have come to light. Some arereproductions and almost all are imitations of Greek works, but lesselegant and less delicate than the models. The most originalproductions of this form of art are the bas-reliefs and the busts. 

Bas-reliefs adorned the monuments (temples, columns, and triumphalarches), tombs, and sarcophagi. They represent with scrupulousfidelity real scenes, such as processions, sacrifices, combats, andfuneral ceremonies and so give us information about ancient life. Thebas-reliefs which surround the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aureliusbring us into the presence of the great scenes of their wars. One maysee the soldiers fighting against the barbarians, besieging theirfortresses, leading away the captives; the solemn sacrifices, and theemperor haranguing the troops. 

The busts are especially those of the emperors, of their wives andtheir children. As they were scattered in profusion throughout theempire, so many have been found that today all the great museums ofEurope have collections of imperial busts. They are real portraits, probably very close resemblances, for each emperor had a well-markedphysiognomy, often of a striking ugliness that no one attempted todisguise. 

In general, Roman sculpture holds itself much more close to realitythan does the Greek; it may be said that the artist is less concernedwith representing things beautifully than exactly. 

Of Roman painting we know only the frescoes painted on the walls ofthe rich houses of Pompeii and of the house of Livy at Rome. We do notknow but these were the work of Greek painters; they bear a closeresemblance to the paintings on Greek vases, having the same simpleand elegant grace. 

=Architecture. =--The true Roman art, because it operated to satisfy apractical need, is architecture. In this too the Romans imitated theGreeks, borrowing the column from them. But they had a form that theGreeks never employed--the arch, that is to say, the art of arrangingcut stones in the arc of a circle so that they supported one another. The arch allowed them to erect buildings much larger and more variedthan those of the Greeks. The following are the principal varieties ofRoman monuments:

 1. The _Temple_ was sometimes similar to a Greek temple with a broad vestibule, sometimes vaster and surmounted with a dome. Of this sort is the Pantheon built in Rome under Augustus. 

 2. The _Basilica_ was a long low edifice, covered with a roof and surrounded with porticos. There sat the judge with his assistants about him; traders discussed the price of goods; the place was at once a bourse and a tribunal. It was in the basilicas that the assemblies of the Christians were later held, and for several centuries the Christian churches preserved the name and form of basilicas. 

 3. The _Amphitheatre_ and the _Circus_ were constructed of several stories of arcades surrounding an arena; each range of arcades supported many rows of seats. Such were the Colosseum at Rome and the arenas at Arles and Nîmes. 

 4. The _Arch of Triumph_ was a gate of honor wide enough for the passage of a chariot, adorned with columns and surmounted with a group of sculpture. The Arch of Titus is an example. 

 5. The _Sepulchral Vault_ was an arched edifice provided with many rows of niches, in each of which were laid the ashes of a corpse. It was called a Columbarium (pigeon-house) from its shape. 

 6. The _Thermæ_ were composed of bathing-halls furnished with basins. The heat was provided by a furnace placed in an underground chamber. The Thermæ in a Roman city were what the gymnasium was in a Greek city--a rendezvous for the idle. Much more than the gymnasium it was a labyrinth of halls of every sort: there were a cool hall, warm apartments, a robing-room, a hall where the body was anointed with oil, parlors, halls for exercise, gardens, and the whole surrounded by an enormous wall. Thus the Thermæ of Caracalla covered an immense area. 

 7. The _Bridge_ and the _Aqueduct_ were supported by a range of arches thrown over a river or over a valley. Examples are the bridge of Alcantara and the Pont du Gard. 

 8. The _House_ of a rich Roman was a work of art. Unlike our modern houses, the ancient house had no façade; the house was turned entirely toward the interior; on the outside it showed only bare walls. 

 The rooms were small, ill furnished, and dark; they were lighted only through the atrium. In the centre was the great hall of honor (the atrium) where the statues of the ancestors were erected and where visitors were received. It was illuminated by an opening in the roof. 

 Behind the atrium was the peristyle, a garden surrounded by colonnades, in which were the dining halls, richly ornamented and provided with couches, for among the rich Romans, as among the Asiatic Greeks, guests reclined on couches at the banquets. The pavement was often made of mosaic. 

=Character of the Roman Architecture. =--The Romans, [162] unlike theGreeks, did not always build in marble. Ordinarily they used the stonethat they found in the country, binding this together with anindestructible mortar which has resisted even dampness for eighteenhundred years. Their monuments have not the wonderful grace of theGreek monuments, but they are large, strong, and solid--like the Romanpower. The soil of the empire is still covered with their débris. Weare astonished to find monuments almost intact as remote as thedeserts of Africa. When it was planned to furnish a water-system forthe city of Tunis, all that had to be done was to repair a Romanaqueduct. 

=Rome and Its Monuments. =--Rome at the time of the emperors was acity of 2, 000, 000 inhabitants. [163] This population was herded inhouses of five and six stories, poorly built and crowded together. Thepopulous quarters were a labyrinth of tortuous paths, steep, and illpaved. Juvenal who frequented them leaves us a picture of them whichhas little attractiveness. At Pompeii, a city of luxury, it may beseen how narrow were the streets of a Roman city. In the midst ofhovels monuments by the hundred would be erected. The emperor Augustusboasted of having restored more than eighty temples. "I found a cityof bricks, " said he; "I leave a city of marble. " His successors allworked to embellish Rome. It was especially about the Forum that themonuments accumulated. The Capitol with its temple of Jupiter becamealmost like the Acropolis at Athens. In the same quarter manymonumental areas were constructed--the forum of Cæsar, the forum ofAugustus, the forum of Nerva, and, most brilliant of all, the forum ofTrajan. Two villas surrounded by a park were situated in the midst ofthe city; the most noted was the Golden House, built for Nero. 

THE LAW

=The Twelve Tables. =--The Romans, like all other ancient peoples, hadat first no written laws. They followed the customs of theancestors--that is to say, each generation did in everything just asthe preceding generation did. 

In 450 ten specially elected magistrates, the decemvirs, made aseries of laws that they wrote on twelve tables of stone. This was theLaw of the Twelve Tables, codified in short, rude, and trenchantsentences--a legislation severe and rude like the semi-barbarouspeople for whom it was made. It punished the sorcerer who by magicalwords blasted the crop of his neighbor. It pronounced against theinsolvent debtor, "If he does not pay, he shall be cited before thecourt; if sickness or age deter him, a horse shall be furnished him, but no litter; he may have thirty days' delay, but if he does notsatisfy the debt in this time, the creditor may bind him with strapsor chains of fifteen pounds weight; at the end of sixty days he may besold beyond the Tiber; if there are many creditors, they may cut himin parts, and if they cut more or less, there is no wrong in the act. "According to the word of Cicero, the Law of the Twelve Tables was "thesource of all the Roman law. " Four centuries after it was written downthe children had to learn it in the schools. 

=The Symbolic Process. =--In the ancient Roman law it was not enough inbuying, selling, or inheriting that this was the intention of theactor; to obtain justice in the Roman tribunal it was not sufficientto present the case; one had to pronounce certain words and usecertain gestures. Consider, for example, the manner of purchasing. Inthe presence of five citizens who represent an assembly and of a sixthwho holds a balance in his hand, the buyer places in the balance apiece of brass which represents the price of the thing sold. If it bean animal or a slave that is sold, the purchaser touches it with hishand saying, "This is mine by the law of the Romans, I have bought itwith this brass duly weighed. " Before the tribunal every process is apantomime: to reclaim an object one seizes it with the hand; toprotest against a neighbor who has erected a wall, a stone is thrownagainst the wall. When two men claim proprietorship in a field, thefollowing takes place at the tribunal: the two adversaries grasp handsand appear to fight; then they separate and each says, "I declare thisfield is mine by the law of the Romans; I cite you before the tribunalof the prætor to debate our right at the place in question. " The judgeorders them to go to the place. "Before these witnesses here present, this is your road to the place; go!" The litigants take a few steps asif to go thither, and this is the symbol of the journey. A witnesssays to them, "Return, " and the journey is regarded as completed. Eachof the two presents a clod of earth, the symbol of the field. Thus thetrial commences;[164] then the judge alone hears the case. Like allprimitive peoples, the Romans comprehended well only what theyactually saw; the material acts served to represent to them the rightthat could not be seen. 

=The Formalism of Roman Law. =--The Romans scrupulously respected theirancient forms. In justice, as in religion, they obeyed the letter ofthe law, caring nothing for its sense. For them every form was sacredand ought to be strictly applied. In cases before the courts theirmaxim was: "What has already been pronounced ought to be the law. " Ifan advocate made a mistake in one word in reciting the formula, hiscase was lost. A man entered a case against his neighbor for havingcut down his vines: the formula that he ought to use contained theword "arbor, " he replaced it with the word "vinea, " and could not winhis case. 

This absolute reverence for the form allowed the Romans some strangeaccommodations. The law said that if a father sold his son threetimes, the son should be freed from the power of the father; when, therefore, a Roman wished to emancipate his son, he sold him threetimes in succession, and this comedy of sale sufficed to emancipatehim. 

The law required that before beginning war a herald should be sent todeclare it at the frontier of the enemy. When Rome wished to make waron Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who had his kingdom on the other side ofthe Adriatic, they were much embarrassed to execute this formality. They hit on the following: a subject of Pyrrhus, perhaps a deserter, bought a field in Rome; they then assumed that this territory hadbecome territory of Epirus, and the herald threw his javelin on thisland and made his solemn declaration. Like all other immature peoples, the Romans believed that consecrated formulas had a magical virtue. 

=Jurisprudence. =--The Law of the Twelve Tables and the laws made afterthem were brief and incomplete. But many questions presentedthemselves that had no law for their solution. In these embarrassingcases it was the custom at Rome to consult certain persons who were ofhigh reputation for their knowledge of questions of law. These weremen of eminence, often old consuls or pontiffs; they gave their advicein writing, and their replies were called the Responses of the Wise. Usually these responses were authoritative according to the respecthad for the sages. The emperor Augustus went further: he named some ofthem whose responses should have the force of law. Thus Law began tobe a science and the men versed in law formulated new rules whichbecame obligatory. This was Jurisprudence. 

=The Prætor's Edict. =--To apply the sacred rules of law a suprememagistrate was needed at Rome. Only a consul or a prætor could directa tribunal and, according to the Roman expression, "say the law. " Theconsuls engaged especially with the army ordinarily left this care tothe prætors. 

There were always at Rome at least two prætors as judges: oneadjudicated matters between citizens and was called the prætor of thecity (prætor urbanus); the other judged cases between citizens andaliens and was called prætor of the aliens (prætor peregrinus), or, more exactly, prætor between aliens and citizens. There was need of atleast two tribunals, since an alien could not be admitted to thetribunal of the citizens. These prætors, thanks to their absolutepower, adjusted cases according to their sense of equity; the prætorof the aliens was bound by no law, for the Roman laws were made onlyfor Roman citizens. And yet, since each prætor was to sit and judgefor a year, on entering upon his office he promulgated a decree inwhich he indicated the rules that he expected to follow in histribunal; this was the Prætor's Edict. At the end of the year, whenthe præter left his office, his ordinance was no longer in force, andhis successor had the right to make an entirely different one. But itcame to be the custom for each prætor to preserve the edicts of hispredecessors, making a few changes and some additions. Thusaccumulated for centuries the ordinances of the magistrates. At lastthe emperor Hadrian in the second century had the Prætorian Edictcodified and gave it the force of law. 

=Civil Law and the Law of Nations. =--As there were two separatetribunals, there developed two systems of rules, two different laws. The rules applied to the affairs of citizens by the prætor of the cityformed the Civil Law--that is to say, the law of the city. The rulesfollowed by the prætor of aliens constituted the Law of Nations--thatis to say, of the peoples (alien to Rome). It was then perceived thatof these two laws the more human, the more sensible, the simpler--in aword, the better, was the law of aliens. The law of citizens, derivedfrom the superstitious and strict rules of the old Romans, hadpreserved from this rude origin troublesome formulas and barbarousregulations. The Law of Nations, on the contrary, had for itsfoundation the dealings of merchants and of men established in Rome, dealings that were free from every formula, from every nationalprejudice, and were slowly developed and tried by the experience ofseveral centuries. And so it may be seen how contrary to reason theancient law was. "Strict law is the highest injustice, " is a Romanproverb. The prætors of the city set themselves to correct the ancientlaw and to judge according to equity or justice. They came graduallyto apply to citizens the same rules that the prætor of the aliensfollowed in his tribunal. For example, the Roman law ordained thatonly relatives on the male side should be heirs; the prætor summonedthe relatives on the female side also to participate in thesuccession. 

The old law required that a man to become a proprietor must perform acomplicated ceremony of sale; the prætor recognized that it wassufficient to have paid the price of the sale and to be in possessionof the property. Thus the Law of Nations invaded and graduallysuperseded the Civil Law. 

="Written Reason. "=--It was especially under the emperors that the newRoman law took its form. The Antonines issued many ordinances (edicts)and re-scripts (letters in which the emperor replied to those whoconsulted him). Jurisconsults who surrounded them assisted them intheir reforms. Later, at the beginning of the third century, under thebad emperors as under the good, others continued to state new rulesand to rectify the old. Papinian, Ulpian, Modestinus, and Paullus werethe most noted of these lawyers; their works definitively fixed theRoman law. 

This law of the third century has little resemblance to the old Romanlaw, so severe on the weak. The jurisconsults adopt the ideas of theGreek philosophers, especially of the Stoics. They consider that allmen have the right of liberty: "By the law of nature all men are bornfree, " which is to say that slavery is contrary to nature. They alsoadmit that a slave could claim redress even against his master, andthat the master, if he killed his slave, should be punished as amurderer. Likewise they protect the child against the tyranny of thefather. 

It is this new law that was in later times called Written Reason. Infact, it is a philosophical law such as reason can conceive for allmen. And so there remains no longer an atom of the strict and grosslaw of the Twelve Tables. The Roman law which has for a long timegoverned all Europe, and which today is preserved in part in the lawsof several European states is not the law of the old Romans. It isconstructed, on the contrary, of the customs of all the peoples ofantiquity and the maxims of Greek philosophers fused together andcodified in the course of centuries by Roman magistrates andjurisconsults. 

FOOTNOTES:

[157] Sometimes called the Age of Cicero. 

[158] Lucretius. --ED. 

[159] One of the most noted, the plea for Milo, was written much later. Cicero at the time of the delivery was distracted and said almostnothing. 

[160] See the "Dialogue of the Orators, " attributed to Tacitus. 

[161] The word "rhetor" signified in Greek simply orator; the Romansused the word in a mistaken sense to designate the men who made aprofession of speaking. 

[162] The same reserve must be maintained with regard to the arts as tothe literature. The builders of the Roman monuments were not Romans, butprovincials, often slaves; the only Roman would be the master for whomthe slaves worked. 

[163] This estimate is too liberal. 1, 500, 00 is probably nearer thetruth. See Friedlaender, Sittengeschichte Roms, i. 25. --ED. 

[164] Cicero describes this juridical comedy which was still in force inhis time. 

CHAPTER XXVI

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY

=The Christ. =--He whom the Jews were expecting as their liberator andking, the Messiah, appeared in Galilee, a small province of the North, hardly regarded as Jewish, and in a humble family of carpenters. Hewas called Jesus, but his Greek disciples called him the Christ (theanointed), that is to say, the king consecrated by the holy oil. Hewas also called the Master, the Lord, and the Saviour. The religionthat he came to found is that we now possess. We all know his life: itis the model of every Christian. We know his instructions by heart;they form our moral law. It is sufficient, then, to indicate what newdoctrines he disseminated in the world. 

=Charity. =--Before all, Christ commended love. "Thou shalt love theLord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy mind and thy neighboras thyself.... On these two commandments hang all the law and theprophets. " The first duty is to love others and to benefit them. WhenGod will judge men, he will set on his right hand those who have fedthe hungry, given drink to those who were thirsty, and have clad thosethat were naked. To those who would follow him the Christ said at thebeginning: "Go, ... Sell all that ye have and give to the poor. "

For the ancients the good man was the noble, the rich, the brave. Since the time of Christ the word has changed its sense: the good manis he who loves others. Doing good is loving others and seeking to beof service to them. Charity (the Latin name of love) from that timehas been the cardinal virtue. Charitable becomes synonymous withbeneficent. To the old doctrine of vengeance the Christ formallyopposes his doctrine of charity. "Ye have heard that it was said, Aneye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; but I say unto you ... Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the otheralso.... Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thyneighbor and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute you, ... That ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, whomaketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain onthe just and the unjust. " He himself on the cross prayed for hisexecutioners, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. "

=Equality. =--The Christ loved all men; he died not for one peopleonly, but for all humanity. He never made a difference between men;all are equal before God. The ancient religions, even the Jewish, werereligions of peoples who kept them with jealous care, as a treasure, without wishing to communicate them to other peoples. Christ said tohis disciples, "Go, and teach all nations. " And the apostle Paul thusformulated the doctrine of Christian equality: "There is neither Greeknor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, bond nor free. "Two centuries later Tertullian, a Christian writer, said, "The worldis a republic, the common land of the human race. "

=Poverty and Humility. =--The ancients thought that riches ennobled aman and they regarded pride as a worthy sentiment. "Blessed are thepoor, " said Christ, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. " He thatwould not renounce all that he had could not be his disciple. Hehimself went from city to city, possessing nothing, and when hisdisciples were preoccupied with the future, he said, "Be not anxiousfor what ye shall eat, nor for what ye shall put on. Behold the birdsof the heaven, they sow not neither do they reap, yet your heavenlyFather feedeth them. "

The Christian was to disdain riches, and more yet, worldly honors. Oneday when his disciples were disputing who should have the highest rankin heaven, he said, "He that is greatest among you shall be yourservant. " "Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he thathumbleth himself shall be exalted. " Till our day the successor ofSaint Peter calls himself "Servant of the servants of God. " Christdrew to himself by preference the poor, the sick, women, children, --ina word, the weak and the helpless. He took all his disciples fromamong the populace and bade them be "meek and lowly of heart. "

=The Kingdom of God. =--Christ said that he had come to the earth tofound the kingdom of God. His enemies believed that he wished to be aking, and when he was crucified, they placed this inscription on hiscross, "Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews. " This was a grossmistake. Christ himself had declared, "My kingdom is not of thisworld. " He did not come to overturn governments nor to reformsociety. To him who asked if he should pay the Roman tax, he replied, "Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the thingsthat are God's. " And so the Christian accepted what he foundestablished and himself worked to perfect it, not to remodel society. To make himself pleasing to God and worthy of his kingdom it was notnecessary to offer him sacrifices or to observe minute formulas as thepagans did: "True worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit andtruth. " Their moral law is contained in this word of Christ: "Be yetherefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. "

THE FIRST CENTURIES OF THE CHURCH

=Disciples and Apostles. =--The twelve disciples who associated withChrist received from him the mission to preach his doctrine to allpeoples. From that time they were called Apostles. The majority ofthem lived in Jerusalem and preached in Judæa; the first Christianswere still Jews. It was Saul, a new convert, who carried Christianityto the other peoples of the Orient. Paul (for he took this name) spenthis life visiting the Greek cities of Asia, Greece, and Macedonia, inviting to the new religion not only the Jews, but also andespecially the Gentiles: "You were once without Christ, " said he tothem, "strangers to the covenant and to the promises; but you havebeen brought nigh by the blood of Christ, for it is he who of twopeoples hath made both one. " From this time it was no longer necessaryto be a Jew if one would become a Christian. The other nations, disregarded by the law of Moses, are brought near by the law ofChrist. This fusion was the work of St. Paul, also called the Apostleto the Gentiles. 

The religion of Christ spread very slowly, as he himself hadannounced: "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard-seed ... Which is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is thegreatest among herbs ... And the birds of the air lodge under itsbranches. "

=The Church. =--In every city where Christians were found theyassembled to pray together, to sing the praises of God, and tocelebrate the mystery of the Lord's Supper. Their meeting was calledEcclesia (assembly). Usually the Christians of the same assemblyregarded themselves as brothers; they contributed of their property tosupport the widows, the poor, and the sick. The most eminent directedthe community and celebrated the religious ceremonies. These were thePriests (their name signifies "elders"). Others were charged with theadministration of the goods of the community, and were called Deacons(servants). Besides these officers, there was in each city a supremehead--the Bishop (overseer). 

Later the functions of the church became so exacting that the body ofChristians was divided into two classes of people: the clergy, whowere the officials of the community; the rest, the faithful, who weretermed the laity. 

Each city had its independent church; thus they spoke of the church ofAntioch, of Corinth, of Rome; and yet they all formed but one church, the church of Christ, in which all were united in one faith. Theuniversal or Catholic faith was regarded as the only correct body ofbelief; all conflicting opinions (the heresies) were condemned aserrors. 

=The Sacred Books. =--The sacred scripture of the Jews, the OldTestament, remained sacred for the Christians, but they had othersacred books which the church had brought into one structure (the NewTestament). The four Gospels recount the life of Christ and the "goodnews" of salvation which he brought. The Acts of the Apostlesdescribes how the gospel was disseminated in the world. The Epistlesare the letters addressed by the apostles to the Christians of thefirst century. The Apocalypse (Revelation) is the revelation madethrough St. John to the seven churches of Asia. Many otherpseudo-sacred books were current among the Christians, but the churchhas rejected all of these, and has termed them apocryphal. 

=The Persecutions. =--The Christian religion was persecuted from itsbirth. Its first enemies were the Jews, who forced the Roman governorof Judæa to crucify Christ; who stoned St. Stephen, the first martyr, and so set themselves against St. Paul that they almost compassed hisdeath. 

Then came the persecution by the Pagans. The Romans tolerated all thereligions of the East because the devotees of Osiris, of Mithra, andof the Good Goddess recognized at the same time the Roman gods. Butthe Christians, worshippers of the living God, scorned the pettydivinities of antiquity. More serious still in the eyes of the Romans, they refused to adore the emperor as a god and to burn incense on thealtar of the goddess Roma. Several emperors promulgated edictsagainst the Christians, bidding the governors arrest them and put themto death. A letter of Pliny the Younger, then governor in Asia, to theemperor Trajan, shows the procedure against them. "Up to this time, regarding the people who have been denounced as Christians, I havealways operated as follows: I asked them if they were Christians; ifthey confessed it, I put the question to them a second time, and thena third time, threatening them with the penalty of death. When theypersisted, I had them put to death, convinced that, whatever theirfault that they avowed, their disobedience and their resoluteobstinacy merited punishment. Many who have been denounced inanonymous writings have denied that they were Christians, haverepeated a prayer that I pronounced before them, have offered wine andincense to your statue, which I had set forth for this purposetogether with the statues of the gods, and have even reviled the nameof Christ. All these are things which it is not possible to compel anytrue Christians to do. Others have confessed that they wereChristians, but they affirm that their crime and their error consistedonly in assembling on certain days before sunrise to adore Christ asGod, to sing together in his honor, and to bind themselves by oath tocommit no crime, to perpetrate no theft, murder, adultery, nor toviolate their word. I have believed it necessary in order to securethe truth to put to the torture two female slaves whom they calleddeaconesses; but I have discovered only an absurd and exaggeratedsuperstition. "

The Roman government was a persecutor, [165] but the populace wereseverer yet. They could not endure these people who worshipped anothergod than theirs and contemned their deities. Whenever famine orepidemic occurred, the well-known cry was heard, "To the lions withthe Christians!" The people forced the magistrates to hunt andpersecute the Christians. 

=The Martyrs. =--For the two centuries and a half that the Christianswere persecuted, throughout the empire there were thousands ofvictims, of every age, sex, and condition. Roman citizens, like St. Paul, were beheaded; the others were crucified, burned, most oftensent to the beasts in the amphitheatre. If they were allowed to escapewith their lives, they were set at forced labor in the mines. Sometimes torture was aggravated by every sort of invention. In thegreat execution at Lyons, in 177, the Christians, after being torturedand confined in narrow prison quarters, were brought to the arena. Thebeasts mutilated without killing them. They were then seated in ironchairs heated red by fire. Blandina, a young slave, who survived allthese torments was bound with cords and exposed to the fury of a bull. The Christians joyfully suffered these persecutions which gave thementrance to heaven. The occasion presented an opportunity forrendering public testimony to Christ. And so they did not callthemselves victims, but martyrs (witnesses); their torture was atestimony. They compared it to the combat of the Olympian games; likethe victor in the athletic contests, they spoke of the palm or thecrown. Even now the festal day of a martyr is the day of his death. 

Frequently a Christian who was present at the persecution would drafta written account of the martyrdom--he related the arrest, theexamination, the tortures, and the death. These brief accounts, filledwith edifying details, were called The Acts of the Martyrs. They werecirculated in the remotest communities; from one end of the empire tothe other they published the glory of the martyrs and excited a desireto imitate them. Thousands of the faithful, seized by a thirst formartyrdom, pressed forward to incriminate themselves and to demandcondemnation. One day a governor of Asia had decreed persecutionsagainst some Christians: all the Christians of the city presentedthemselves in his tribunal and demanded to be persecuted. Thegovernor, exasperated, had some of them executed and sent away theothers. "Begone, you wretches! If you are so bent on death, you haveprecipices and ropes. " Some of the faithful, to be surer of torture, entered the temples and threw down the idols of the gods. It wasseveral times necessary for even the church to prohibit thesolicitation of martyrdom. 

=The Catacombs. =--The ancient custom of burning the dead was repugnantto the Christians. Like the Jews, they interred their dead wrappedwith a shroud in a sarcophagus. Cemeteries[166] were thereforerequired. At Rome where land was very high in price the Christianswent below ground, and in the brittle tufa on which Rome was built maybe seen long galleries and subterranean chambers. There, in nichesexcavated along the passages, they laid the bodies of their dead. Aseach generation excavated new galleries, there was formed at length asubterranean city, called the Catacombs ("to the tombs"). There weresimilar catacombs in several cities--Naples, Milan, Alexandria, butthe most celebrated were those in Rome. These have been investigatedin our day and thousands of Christian tombs and inscriptionsrecovered. The discovery of this subterranean world gave birth to anew department of historical science--Christian Epigraphy andArchæology. 

The sepulchral halls of the catacombs do not resemble those of theEgyptians or those of the Etruscans; they are bare and severe. TheChristians knew that a corpse had no bodily wants and so they did notadorn the tombs. The most important halls are decorated with verysimple ornaments and paintings which almost always represent the samescenes. The most common subjects are the faithful in prayer, and theGood Shepherd, symbolical of Christ. Some of these halls were likechapels. In them were interred the bodies of the holy martyrs and thefaithful who wished to lie near them; every year Christians came hereto celebrate the mysteries. During the persecutions of the thirdcentury the Christians of Rome often took refuge in these subterraneanchapels to hold their services of worship, or to escape from pursuit. The Christians could feel safe in this bewildering labyrinth ofgalleries whose entrance was usually marked by a pagan tomb. 

THE MONKS OF THE THIRD CENTURY

=The Solitaries. =--It was an idea current among Christians, especiallyin the East, that one could not become a perfect Christian byremaining in the midst of other men. Christ himself had said, "If anyman come to me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, andchildren, and brethren, and sisters ... He cannot be my disciple. " Thefaithful man or woman who thus withdrew from the world to work out hissalvation the more surely, was termed an Anchorite (the man who is setapart), or a Monk (solitary). This custom began in the East in themiddle of the third century. The first anchorites establishedthemselves in the deserts and the ruins of the district of Thebes inUpper Egypt, which remained the holy land of the solitaries. 

Paul (235-340), the oldest of the monks, lived to his ninetieth yearin a grotto near a spring and a palm-tree which furnished him withfood and clothing. The model of the monks was St Anthony. [167] At theage of twenty he heard read one day the text of the gospel, "If thouwilt be perfect, sell all thy goods and give to the poor. " He was finelooking, noble, and rich, having received an inheritance from hisparents. He sold all his property, distributed it in alms and buriedhimself in the desert of Egypt. He first betook himself to an emptytomb, then to the ruins of a fortress; he was clad in a hair-shirt, had for food only the bread that was brought to him every six months, fasted, starved himself, prayed day and night. Often sunrise foundhim still in prayer. "O sun, " cried he, "why hast thou risen andprevented my contemplating the true light?" He felt himself surroundedby demons, who, under every form, sought to distract him from hisreligious thoughts. When he became old and revered by all Egypt, hereturned to Alexandria for a day to preach against the Arian heretics, but soon repaired to the desert again. They besought him to remain: hereplied, "The fishes die on land, the monks waste away in the city; wereturn to our mountains like the fish to the water. "

Women also became solitaries. Alexandra, one of these, shut herself inan empty tomb and lived there for ten years without leaving it to seeanybody. 

=Asceticism. =--These men who had withdrawn to the desert to escape theworld thought that everything that came from the world turned the soulfrom God and placed it in the peril of losing salvation. The Christianought to belong entirely to God; he should forget everything behindhim. "Do you not know, " said St. Nilus later, "that it is a trap ofSatan to be too much attached to one's family?" The monk Poemen hadwithdrawn to the desert with his brothers, and their mother came tovisit them. As they refused to appear, she waited a little until theywere going to the church; but on seeing her, they fled and would notconsent to speak to her unless they were concealed. She asked to seethem, but they consoled her by saying, "You will see us in the otherworld. "

But the world is not the only danger for the monk. Every man carriedabout with himself an enemy from whom he could not deliver himself ashe had delivered himself from the world--that is, his own body. Thebody prevented the soul from rising to God and drew it to worldlypleasures that came from the devil. And so the solitaries appliedthemselves to overcoming the body by refusing to it everything that itloved. They subsisted only on bread and water; many ate but twice aweek, some went to the mountains to cut herbs which they ate raw. Theydwelt in grottoes, ruins, and tombs, lying on the earth or on a mat ofrushes. The most zealous of them added other tortures to mortify, orkill, the body. St. Pachomius for fifteen years slept only in an erectposition, leaning against a wall. Macarius remained six months in amorass, the prey of mosquitoes "whose stings would have penetrated thehide of a wild boar. " The most noted of these monks was St. Simeon, surnamed Stylites (the man of the column). For forty years he lived inthe desert of Arabia on the summit of a column, exposed to the sun andthe rain, compelling himself to stay in one position for a whole day;the faithful flocked from afar to behold him; he gave them audiencefrom the top of his column, bidding creditors free their debtors, andmasters liberate their slaves; he even sent reproaches to ministersand counsellors of the emperor. This form of life was calledAsceticism (exercise). 

=The Cenobites. =--The solitaries who lived in the same desert drewtogether and adopted a common life for the practice of theirausterities. About St. Anthony were already assembled many anchoriteswho gave him their obedience. St. Pachomius (272-348) in this wayassembled 3, 000. Their establishment was at Tabenna, near the firstcataract of the Nile. He founded many other similar communities, either of men or women. In 256 a traveller said he had seen in asingle city of Egypt 10, 000 monks and 20, 000 vowed to a religiouslife. There were more of them in Syria, in Palestine, in all theOrient. The monks thus united in communities became Cenobites (peoplewho live in common). They chose a chief, the abbot (the word signifiesin Syriac "father"), and they implicitly obeyed him. Cassian relatesthat in one community in Egypt he had seen the abbot before the wholerefectory give a cenobite a violent blow on the head to try hisobedience. 

The primitive monks renounced all property and family relations; thecenobites surrendered also their will. On entering the community theyengaged to possess nothing, not to marry, and to obey. "The monks, "says St. Basil, "live a spiritual life like the angels. " The firstunion among the cenobites was the construction of houses in closeproximity. Later each community built a monastery, a great edifice, where each monk had his cell. A Christian compares these cells "to ahive of bees where each has in his hands the wax of work, in his mouththe honey of psalms and prayers. " These great houses needed a writtenconstitution; this was the Monastic Rule. St. Pachomius was the firstto prepare one. St. Basil wrote another that was adopted by almost allthe monasteries of the Orient. 

FOOTNOTES:

[165] The church counted ten persecutions, the first under Nero, thelast under Diocletian. 

[166] The word is Greek and signifies place of repose. 

[167] See his biography in the "Lives of the Fathers of the Desert, " byRufinus. 

CHAPTER XXVII

THE LATER EMPIRE

THE REVOLUTIONS OF THE THIRD CENTURY

=Military Anarchy. =--After the reigns of the Antonines the civil warscommenced. There were in the empire, beside the prætorian guard inRome, several great armies on the Rhine, on the Danube, in the East, and in England. Each aimed to make its general emperor. Ordinarily therivals fought it out until there was but one left; this one thengoverned for a few years, after which he was assassinated, [168] or if, by chance, he could transmit his power to his son, the soldiersrevolted against the son and the war recommenced. The following, forexample, is what occurred in 193. The prætorians had massacred theemperor Pertinax, and the army conceived the notion of putting up theempire at auction; two purchasers presented themselves, Sulpiciusoffering each soldier $1, 000 and Didius more than $1, 200. Theprætorians brought the latter to the Senate and had him named emperor;later, when he did not pay them, they murdered him. At the same timethe great armies of Britain, Illyricum, and Syria proclaimed each itsown general as emperor and the three rivals marched on Rome. TheIllyrian legions arrived first, and their general Septimius Severuswas named emperor by the Senate. Then commenced two sanguinary wars, the one against the legions of Syria, and the other against thelegions of Britain. At the end of two years the emperor wasvictorious. It is he who states his policy as follows, "My son, content the soldiers and you may despise the rest. " For a centurythere was no other form of government than the will of the soldiers. They killed the emperors who displeased them and replaced them bytheir favorites. 

Strange emperors, therefore, occupied the throne: Elagabalus, a Syrianpriest, who garbed himself as a woman and had his mother assemble asenate of women; Maximin, a soldier of fortune, a rough andbloodthirsty giant, who ate, it was said, thirty pounds of food anddrank twenty-one quarts of wine a day. Once there were twenty emperorsat the same time, each in a corner of the empire (260-278). These havebeen called the Thirty Tyrants. 

The Cult of Mithra. --This century of wars is also a century ofsuperstitions. The deities of the Orient, Isis, Osiris, the GreatMother, have their devotees everywhere. But, more than all the others, Mithra, a Persian god, becomes the universal god of the empire. Mithrais no other than the sun. The monuments in his honor that are found inall parts of the empire represent him slaughtering a bull, with thisinscription: "To the unconquerable sun, to the god Mithra. " His cultis complicated, sometimes similar to the Christian worship; there area baptism, sacred feasts, an anointing, penances, and chapels. To beadmitted to this one must pass through an initiatory ceremony, throughfasting and certain fearful tests. 

At the end of the third century the religion of Mithra was theofficial religion of the empire. The Invincible God was the god of theemperors; he had his chapels everywhere in the form of grottoes withaltars and bas-reliefs; in Rome, even, he had a magnificent templeerected by the emperor Aurelian. 

=The Taurobolia. =--One of the most urgent needs of this time wasreconciliation with the deity; and so ceremonies of purification wereinvented. 

The most striking of these was the Taurobolia. The devotee, clad in awhite robe with ornaments of gold, takes his place in the bottom of aditch which is covered by a platform pierced with holes. A bull is ledover this platform, the priest kills him and his blood runs throughthe holes of the platform upon the garments, the face, and the hair ofthe worshipper. It was believed that this "baptism of blood" purifiedone of all sins. He who had received it was born to a new life; hecame forth from the ditch hideous to look upon, but happy and envied. 

=Confusion of Religions. =--In the century that preceded the victory ofChristianity, all religions fell into confusion. The sun was adored atonce under many names (Sol, Helios, Baal, Elagabal, and Mithra). Allthe cults imitated one another and sometimes copied Christian forms. Even the life of Christ was copied. The Asiatic philosopher, Apollonius of Tyana, who lived in the first century (3-96), became inlegend a kind of prophet, son of a god, who went about surrounded byhis disciples, expelling demons, curing sicknesses, raising the dead. He had come, it was said, to reform the doctrine of Pythagoras andPlato. In the third century an empress had the life of Apollonius ofTyana written, to be, as it were, a Pythagorean gospel opposed to thegospel of Christ. The most remarkable example of this confusion inreligion was given by Alexander Severus, a devout emperor, mild andconscientious: he had in his palace a chapel where he adored thebenefactors of humanity--Abraham, Orpheus, Jesus, and Apollonius ofTyana. 

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE LATER EMPIRE

=Reforms of Diocletian and Constantine. =--After a century of civilwars emperors were found who were able to stop the anarchy. They weremen of the people, rude and active, soldiers of fortune rising fromone grade to another to become generals-in-chief, and then emperors. Almost all arose in the semi-barbarous provinces of the Danube and ofIllyria; some in their infancy had been shepherds or peasants. Theyhad the simple manners of the old Roman generals. When the envoys ofthe king of Persia asked to see the emperor Probus, they found a baldold man clad in a linen cassock, lying on the ground, who ate peas andbacon. It was the story of Curius Dentatus repeated after fivecenturies. 

Severe with their soldiers, these emperors reëstablished discipline inthe army, and then order in the empire. But a change had becomenecessary. A single man was no longer adequate to the government anddefence of this immense territory; and so from this time each emperortook from among his relatives or his friends two or threecollaborators, each charged with a part of the empire. Usually theirtitle was that of Cæsar, but sometimes there were two equal emperors, and both had the title of Augustus. When the emperor died, one of theCæsars succeeded him; it was no longer possible for the army to createemperors. The provinces were too great, and Diocletian divided them. The prætorians of Rome being dangerous, Diocletian replaced them withtwo legions. The Occident was in ruins and depopulated and hence theOrient had become the important part of the empire; Diocletian, therefore, abandoned Rome and established his capital at Nicomedia inAsia Minor. [169] Constantine did more and founded a new Rome in theEast--Constantinople. 

=Constantinople. =--On a promontory where Europe is separated from Asiaonly by the narrow channel of the Bosporus, in a country of vineyardsand rich harvests, under a beautiful sky, Greek colonists had foundedthe town of Byzantium. The hills of the vicinity made the place easilydefensible; its port, the Golden Horn, one of the best in the world, could shelter 1, 200 ships, and a chain of 820 feet in length was allthat was necessary to exclude a hostile fleet. This was the site ofConstantine's new city, Constantinople (the city of Constantine). 

Around the city were strong walls; two public squares surrounded withporticos were constructed; a palace was erected, a circus, theatres, aqueducts, baths, temples, and a Christian church. To ornament hiscity Constantine transferred from other cities the most celebratedstatues and bas-reliefs. To furnish it with population he forced thepeople of the neighboring towns to remove to it, and offered rewardsand honors to the great families who would come hither to make theirhome. He established, as in Rome, distributions of grain, of wine, ofoil, and provided a continuous round of shows. This was one of thoserapid transformations, almost fantastic, in which the Orient delights. The task began the 4th of November, 326; on the 11th of May, 330, thecity was dedicated. But it was a permanent creation. For ten centuriesConstantinople resisted invasions, preserving always in the ruins ofthe empire its rank of capital. Today it is still the first city ofthe East. 

=The Palace. =--The emperors who dwelt in the East[170] adopted thecustoms of the Orient, wearing delicate garments of silk and gold andfor a head-dress a diadem of pearls. They secluded themselves in thedepths of their palace where they sat on a throne of gold, surroundedby their ministers, separated from the world by a crowd of courtiers, servants, functionaries and military guards. One must prostrate one'sself before them with face to the earth in token of adoration; theywere called Lord and Majesty; they were treated as gods. Everythingthat touched their person was sacred, and so men spoke of the sacredpalace, the sacred bed-chamber, the sacred Council of State, even thesacred treasury. 

The régime of this period has been termed that of the Later Empire asdistinguished from that of the three preceding centuries, which wecall the Early Empire. 

The life of an emperor of the Early Empire (from the first to thethird century) was still that of a magistrate and a general; thepalace of an emperor of the Later Empire became similar to the courtof the Persian king. 

=The Officials. =--The officials often became very numerous. Diocletianfound the provinces too large and so made several divisions of them. In Gaul, for example, Lugdunensis (the province about Lyons) waspartitioned into four, Aquitaine into three. In place of forty-sixgovernors there were from this time 117. [171]

At the same time the duties of the officials were divided. Besides thegovernors and the deputies in the provinces there were in the borderprovinces military commanders--the dukes and the counts. The emperorhad about him a small picked force to guard the palace, body-guards, chamberlains, assistants, domestics, a council of state, bailiffs, messengers, and a whole body of secretaries organized in four bureaus. 

All these officials did not now receive their orders directly fromthe emperor; they communicated with him only through their superiorofficers. The governors were subordinate to the two prætorianprefects, the officials of public works to the two prefects of thecity, the collectors of taxes to the Count of the Sacred Largesses, the deputies to the Count of the Domains, all the officers of thepalace to the Master of the Offices, the domestics of the court to theChamberlain. These heads of departments had the character ofministers. 

This system is not very difficult for us to comprehend. We areaccustomed to see officials, judges, generals, collectors, andengineers, organized in distinct departments, each with his specialduty, and subordinated to the commands of a chief of the service. Weeven have more ministers than there were in Constantinople; but thisadministrative machine which has become so familiar to us because wehave been acquainted with it from our infancy, is none the lesscomplicated and unnatural. It is the Later Empire that gave us thefirst model of this; the Byzantine empire preserved it and since thattime all absolute governments have been forced to imitate it becauseit has made the work of government easier for those who have it to do. 

=Society in the Later Empire. =--The Later Empire is a decisive momentin the history of civilization. The absolute power of the Romanmagistrate is united to the pompous ceremonial of the eastern kings tocreate a power unknown before in history. This new imperial majestycrushes everything beneath it; the inhabitants of the empire cease tobe citizens and from the fourth century are called in Latin "subjects"and in Greek "slaves. " In reality all are slaves of the emperor, butthere are different grades of servitude. There are various degrees ofnobility which the master confers on them and which they transmit totheir posterity. The following is the series:[172]

 1. The _Nobilissimi_ (the very noble); these are the imperial family;

 2. The _Illustres_ (the notable)--the chief ministers of departments;

 3. The _Spectabiles_ (the eminent)--the high dignitaries;

 4. The _Clarissimi_ (most renowned)--the great officials, also sometimes called senators;

 5. The _Perfectissimi_ (very perfect). [173]

Every important man has his rank, his title, and his functions. [174]The only men who are of consequence are the courtiers and officials;it is the régime of titles and of etiquette. A clearer instance hasnever been given of the issue of absolute power united with the maniafor titles and with the purpose to regulate everything. The LaterEmpire exhibits the completed type of a society reduced to a machineand of a government absorbed by a court. It realized the ideal that isproposed today by the partisans of absolute power; and for a long timethe friends of liberty must fight against the traditions which theLater Empire has left to us. 

THE CHURCH AND THE STATE

=Triumph of Christianity. =--During the first two centuries of our erathe Christians occupied but a small place in the empire. Almost all ofthem were of the lower classes, workmen, freedmen, slaves, who livedobscure lives in the multitude of the great cities. For a long timethe aristocracy ignored the Christians; even in the second centurySuetonius in his "Lives of the Twelve Cæsars" speaks of a certainChrestus who agitated the populace of Rome. When the religion firstconcerned the world of the rich and cultivated people, they wereinterested simply to deride it as one only for the poor and ignorant. It was precisely because it addressed the poor of this world inproviding a compensation in the life to come that Christianity made somany proselytes. Persecution, far from suppressing it, gave it moreforce. "The blood of the martyrs, " said the faithful, "is the seed ofthe church. " During the whole of the third century conversionscontinued, not only among the poor, but among the aristocracy as well. At the first of the fourth century all the East had become Christian. Helena, the mother of Constantine, was a Christian and has beencanonized by the church. When Constantine marched against his rival, he took for his ensign a standard (the labarum), which bore the crossand the monogram of Christ. His victory was the victory of theChristians. He allowed them now to perform their religious ritesfreely (by the edict of 313), and later he favored them openly. Yethe did not break with the ancient religion: while he presided at thegreat assembly of the Christian bishops, he continued to hold thetitle of Pontifex Maximus; he carried in his helmet a nail of the truecross and on his coins he still had the sun-god represented. In hiscity of Constantinople he had a Christian church built, but also atemple to Victory. For a half-century it was difficult to know whatwas the official religion of the empire. 

=Organization of the Church. =--The Christians even under persecutionhad never dreamed of overthrowing the empire. As soon as persecutionceased, the bishops became the allies of the emperors. Then theChristian church was organized definitively, and it was organized onthe model of the Later Empire, in the form that it preserves to thisday. Each city had a bishop who resided in the city proper andgoverned the people of the territory; this territory subject to thebishop was termed a Diocese. In any country in the Later Empire, therewere as many bishops and dioceses as there were cities. This is whythe bishops were so numerous and dioceses so many in the East and inItaly where the country was covered with cities. In Gaul, on thecontrary, there were but 120 dioceses between the Rhine and thePyrenees, and the most of these, save in the south, were of the sizeof a modern French department. Each province became an ecclesiasticalprovince; the bishop of the capital (metropolis) became themetropolitan, or as he was later termed, the archbishop. 

=The Councils. =--In this century began the councils, the greatassemblies of the church. There had already been some local councilsat which the bishops and priests of a single province had beenpresent. For the first time, in 324, [175] Constantine convoked aGeneral Assembly of the World (an ecumenical council) at Nicæa, inAsia Minor; 318 ecclesiastics were in attendance. They discussedquestions of theology and drew up the Nicene Creed, the Catholicconfession of faith. Then the emperor wrote to all the churches, bidding them "conform to the will of God as expressed by the council. "This was the first ecumenical council, and there were threeothers[176] of these before the arrival of the barbarians made anassembly of the whole church impossible. The decisions reached bythese councils had the force of law for all Christians: the decisionsare called Canons[177] (rules). The collection of these regulationsconstitutes the Canon Law. 

=The Heretics. =--From the second century there were among theChristians heretics who professed opinions contrary to those of themajority of the church. Often the bishops of a country assembled topronounce the new teaching as false, to compel the author to abjure, and, if he refused, to separate him from the communion of Christians. But frequently the author of the heresy had partisans convinced of thetruth of his teaching who would not submit and continued to professthe condemned opinions. This was the cause of hatred and violentstrife between them and the faithful who were attached to the creed ofthe church (the orthodox). As long as the Christians were weak andpersecuted by the state, they fought among themselves only with wordsand with books; but when all society was Christian, the contestsagainst the heretics turned into persecutions, and sometimes intocivil wars. 

Almost all of the heresies of this time arose among the Greeks of Asiaor Egypt, peoples who were subtle, sophistical, and disputatious. Theheresies were usually attempts to explain the mysteries of the Trinityand of the Incarnation. The most significant of these heresies wasthat of Arius; he taught that Christ was created by God the Father andwas not equal to him. The Council of Nicæa condemned this view, buthis doctrine, called Arianism, spread throughout the East. From thattime for two centuries Catholics and Arians fought to see who shouldhave the supremacy in the church; the stronger party anathematized, exiled, imprisoned, and sometimes killed the chiefs of the opposition. For a long time the Arians had the advantage; several emperors tooksides with them; then, too, as the barbarians entered the empire, theywere converted to Arianism and received Arian bishops. More than twocenturies had passed before the Catholics had overcome this heresy. 

=Paganism. =--The ancient religion of the Gentiles did not disappear ata single stroke. The Orient was quickly converted; but in the Occidentthere were few Christians outside the cities, and even there manycontinued to worship idols. The first Christian emperors did not wishto break with the ancient imperial religion; they simultaneouslyprotected the bishops of the Christians and the priests of the gods;they presided over councils and yet remained pontifex maximus. One ofthem, Julian (surnamed the Apostate), openly returned to the ancientreligion. The emperor Gratian in 384[178] was the first to refuse theinsignia of the pontifex maximus. But as intolerance was general inthis century, as soon as the Roman religion ceased to be official, menbegan to persecute it. The sacred fire of Rome that had burned foreleven centuries was extinguished, the Vestals were removed, theOlympian games were celebrated for the last time in 394. Then themonks of Egypt issued from their deserts to destroy the altars of thefalse gods and to establish relics in the temples of Anubis andSerapis. Marcellus, a bishop of Syria, at the head of a band ofsoldiers and gladiators sacked the temple of Jupiter at Aparnæa andset himself to scour the country for the destruction of thesanctuaries; he was killed by the peasants and raised by the church tothe honor of a saint. 

Soon idolatry persisted only in the rural districts where it escapeddetection; the idolaters were peasants who continued to adore sacredtrees and fountains and to assemble in proscribed sanctuaries. [179]The Christians commenced to call "pagans" (the peasants) those whom upto this time they had called Gentiles. And this name has still clungto them. Paganism thus led an obscure existence in Italy, in Gaul, andin Spain down to the end of the sixth century. 

=Theodosius. =--The incursions of the Germanic peoples into the empirecontinued for two centuries until the Huns, a people of Tartarhorsemen, came from the steppes of Asia, and threw themselves on theGermans, who occupied the country to the north of the Danube. In thatcountry there was already a great German kingdom, that of the Goths, who had been converted to Christianity by Ulfilas, an Arian. To escapethe Huns, a part of this people, the West Goths (Visigoths), fled intoRoman territory, defeated the Roman armies, and overspread the countryeven to Greece. Valens, the emperor of the East, had perished in thedefeat of Adrianople (378); Gratian, the emperor of the West, took ascolleague a noble Spaniard, Theodosius by name, and gave him the titleof Augustus of the East (379). Theodosius was able to rehabilitate hisarmy by avoiding a great battle with the Visigoths and by making a warof skirmishes against them; this decided them to conclude a treaty. They accepted service under the empire, land was given them in thecountry to the south of the Danube, and they were charged withpreventing the enemies of the empire from crossing the river. 

Theodosius, having reëstablished peace in the East, came to the Westwhere Gratian had been killed by order of the usurper Maximus (383). This Maximus was the commander of the Roman army of Britain; he hadcrossed into Gaul with his army, abandoning the Roman provinces ofBritain to the ravages of the highland Scotch, had defeated Gratian, and invaded Italy. He was master of the West, Theodosius of the East. The contest between them was not only one between persons; it was abattle between two religions: Theodosius was Catholic and hadassembled a council at Constantinople to condemn the heresy of Arius(381); Maximus was ill-disposed toward the church. The engagementoccurred on the banks of the Save; Maximus was defeated, taken, andexecuted. 

Theodosius established Valentinian II, the son of Gratian, in the Westand then returned to the East. But Arbogast, a barbarian Frank, thegeneral of the troops of Valentinian, had the latter killed, andwithout venturing to proclaim himself emperor since he was not aRoman, had his Roman secretary Eugenius made emperor. This was areligious war: Arbogast had taken the side of the pagans; Theodosius, the victor, had Eugenius executed and himself remained the soleemperor. His victory was that of the Catholic church. 

In 391 the emperor Theodosius promulgated the Edict of Milan. Itprohibited the practice of the ancient religion; whoever offered asacrifice, adored an idol, or entered a temple should be condemned todeath as a state criminal, and his goods should be confiscated to theprofit of the informer. All the pagan temples were razed to the groundor converted into Christian churches. And so Theodosius was extolledby ecclesiastical writers as the model for emperors. 

Theodosius gave a rare example of submission to the church. Theinhabitants of Thessalonica had risen in riot, had killed theirgovernor, and overthrown the statues of the emperor. Theodosius inirritation ordered the people to be massacred; 7, 000 persons suffereddeath. When the emperor presented himself some time after to enter thecathedral of Milan, Ambrose, the bishop, charged him with his crimebefore all the people, and declared that he could not give entranceto the church to a man defiled with so many murders. Theodosiusconfessed his sin, accepted the public penance which the bishopimposed upon him, and for eight months remained at the door of thechurch. 

FOOTNOTES:

[168] Of the forty-five emperors from the first to the third century, twenty-nine died by assassination. 

[169] Other considerations also led to the change of capital--ED. 

[170] There were often two emperors, one in the East, the other in theWest, but there was but one empire. The two emperors, though they mayhave resided, one in Constantinople and the other in Italy, wereconsidered as being but one person. In addressing one of them the word"you" (in the plural) was used, as if both were addressed at the sametime. This was the first use of the pronoun of the second person in theplural for such a purpose; for throughout antiquity even kings andemperors were addressed in the singular. 

[171] The number under Diocletian was 101; under Constantine (Bury'sGibbon, ii. , 170), 116. --ED. 

[172] Without counting the ancient titles of consul and præter, whichwere still preserved, and the new title of patrician which was given byspecial favor. 

[173] Of inferior rank. 

[174] We know the whole system by an official almanac of about the year419, entitled Notitia Dignitatum, a list of all the civil and militarydignities and powers in the East and West. Each dignitary has a specialsection preceded by an emblem which represents his honors. 

[175] It met in 325. --ED. 

[176] It is to be noted that the author is speaking of ecumenical orworld councils. The three referred to are Constantinople (381), Ephesus(431), and Chalcedon (451). --ED. 

[177] Today, even, the word "canonical" signifies "in accordance withrule. "

[178] Probably 375; Gratian died in 383. --ED. 

[179] Several saints, like St. Marcellus, found martyrdom at the handsof peasants exasperated at the destruction of their idols. 

APPENDIX

REFERENCES FOR SUPPLEMENTARY READING

PREHISTORIC TIMES

Lubbock: Prehistoric Times. 1878. Lubbock: Origin of Civilisation. 1881. Hoernes: Primitive Man. Temple Primers. 1901. Lyell: Antiquity of Man. London: 1863. Keary: Dawn of History. Tylor: Anthropology. 1881. McLennan: Studies in Ancient History. 1886. Ripley: Races of Europe. 1899. Sergi: The Mediterranean Race. 1901. Maine: Ancient Law. 1883. Mason: Woman's Share in Primitive Culture. 1894. 

GENERAL WORKS OF REFERENCE-- Ploetz: Epitome of Universal History. 1883. Ranke: Universal History, edited by Prothero. 1885. Andrews: Institutes of General History. 1887. Haydn: Dictionary of Dates. 1889. Lamed: History for Ready Reference. 

ATLASES-- Spruner-Sieglin: Atlas Antiquus. Kiepert: Atlas Antiquus. Leach. Putzger: Historischer Schul-atlas. 1902. Droysen: Allgemeiner Historischer Hand-atlas. Leipsic, 1885. Freeman: Historical Geography of Europe. Edited by Bury. 1903. Schrader: Atlas de Géographique Historique. 

GENERAL HISTORIES OF THE EAST-- Sayce: Ancient Empires of the East. 1885. Lenormant and Chevallier: Ancient History of the East. 1875. Duncker: History of Antiquity. 1877-82 Rawlinson: Manual of Ancient History. 1871. Clarke: Ten Great Religions. 1894. Cunningham: Western Civilisation in Its Economic Aspects. 1898. 

EGYPT

SOURCES-- Records of the Past, 1888-92. Old Series, 1875-8. Herodotus: Book II. Rawlinson's edition. 1897. 

LITERATURE-- Rawlinson: Ancient Egypt. 1887. Flinders-Petrie: History of Egypt. 1899. Breasted: History of Egypt. 1905. Erman: Life in Ancient Egypt. 1894. Maspero: Dawn of Civilisation. 1896. Maspero: Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria. 1892. Wilkinson: Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians. Perrot and Chipiez: History of Art in Ancient Egypt. 1882. Flinders-Petrie: Egyptian Decorative Art. 1895. 

BABYLON AND ASSYRIA

SOURCES-- Records of the Past. 

LITERATURE-- Ragozin: Chaldea. 1886. Ragozin: Assyria. 1887. Sayce: Assyria: Its Princes, Priests, and People. 1890. Sayce: Social Life among the Assyrians and Babylonians. 1893. Sayce: Fresh Light from Ancient Monuments. 1883. Sayce: Babylonians and Assyrians. 1889. Goodspeed: History of the Babylonians and Assyrians. 1902. Layard: Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon. 1875. Maspero: Dawn of Civilisation. 1896. Maspero: Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria. 1892. Maspero: Struggle of the Nations. 1897. Maspero: Passing of the Empires. 1899. Perrot and Chipiez: History of Art in Chaldea and Assyria. 1884. 

INDIA

SOURCES-- Sacred Books of the East. 

LITERATURE-- Wheeler: Primer of Indian History. 1890. Smith, V. A. : Early History of India. 1904. Ragozin: Vedic India. 1895. Davids: Buddhist India. 1903. Rhys-Davids: Buddhism. 1899. Lane-Poole: Mediæval India under Mohammedan Rule. 1903. Monier-Williams: Buddhism, Brahmanism, and Hinduism. 1889. Monier-Williams: Indian Wisdom. London: 1875-6. Frazer: Literary History of India. 1898. Maine: Early History of Institutions. 1875. 

PERSIA

SOURCES-- Records of the Past. Herodotus. Church: Stories of the East (from Herodotus). 1883. 

LITERATURE-- Benjamin: Persia. 1887. Markham: General Sketch of the History of Persia. 1874. Vaux: Persia from the Monuments. 1878. Jackson: Zoroaster, Prophet of Ancient Iran. 1899. Perrot and Chipiez: History of Art in Persia, Phrygia, etc. 1895. 

THE PHŒNICIANS

SOURCES-- The Old Testament. Voyage of Hanno, translated by Falconer. 

LITERATURE-- Rawlinson: Phœnicia. 1889. Maspero: Struggle of the Nations. 1897. Paton: Early History of Syria and Palestine. 1901. Taylor: The Alphabet. 1899. Perrot and Chipiez: History of Art in Phœnicia and Cyprus. 1885. 

THE HEBREWS

SOURCES-- The Old Testament. The Talmud. Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews; Wars of the Jews; Whiston's translation. 1825. New edition of Whiston by Shilleto. 1889-90

LITERATURE-- Hosmer: The Jews. 1885. Sayce: Early History of the Hebrews. 1897. Kent: History of the Hebrew People. 1899. Kent: History of the Jewish People. 1899. Milman: History of the Jews. 1870. Stanley: History of the Jewish Church. 1884. McCurdy: History, Prophecy, and the Monuments. 1901. 3 V. Graetz: History of the Jews. 1891-98. Perrot and Chipiez: History of Art in Sardinia, Judea, Syria, and Asia Minor. 1890. Day: Social Life of the Hebrews. 1901. Rosenau: Jewish Ceremonial Institutions and Customs. Baltimore. 1903. Leroy-Boileau: Israel among the Nations; translated by Hellman. 1900. Cheyne: Jewish Religious Life after the Exile. 1898. 

GREECE

GENERAL HISTORIES-- Grote: History of Greece. 1851-6. Holm: History of Greece. 1894-8. Duruy: History of Greece. 1890-2. Abbott: History of Greece. 1888-99. One volume histories of Greece are: Bury. 1903; Oman 1901; Botsford. 1899; Myers. 1895; Cox, 1883. 

GREEK ANTIQUITIES-- Smith: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. 1890-1 2 v. Gardner and Jevons: Manual of Greek Antiquities. 1895. Schömann: The Antiquities of Greece. London, 1880. A new and improved edition in the German. Harpers' Classical Literature and Antiquities. 1896. 

GREEK HISTORICAL SOURCES (translated into English)-- Homer: Iliad. Translated by Lang, Leaf, and Myers. Homer: Odyssey. Translated by Butcher and Lang. Herodotus: Translated by Rawlinson. Text of same with abridged notes. 1897. Herodotus: Translated by Macaulay. Thucydides: Translated by Jowett. Xenophon: Dakyns' edition. 1890-7. Demosthenes: Works translated by Kennedy. Arrian: Translated in Bonn Library. Pausanias: Description of Greece. Frazer's edition. Polybius: Shuckburgh's edition. 1889. Plutarch: Lives. Translated by Stewart and Long. 4 v. , 1880. Plutarch: Lives. North's translation. 

PERIODS OF GREEK HISTORY-- Tsountas-Manatt: Mycenæan Age. 1896. Ridgeway: The Early Age in Greece. 1901. Freeman: Studies of Travel: Greece. 1893. Clerke: Familiar Studies in Homer. 1892. Jebb: Introduction to Homer. 1887. Allcroft and Mason: Early Grecian History. 1898. Benjamin: Troy. 1880. Allcroft and Mason: Making of Athens. 1898. Cox: Greeks and Persians. 1876. Grundy: The Great Persian War. 1901. Cox: Athenian Empire. 1877. Lloyd: Age of Pericles. 1875. Abbott: Pericles. 1895. Grant: Greece in the Age of Pericles. 1893. Allcroft and Mason: Peloponnesian War. 1898. Freeman: Sicily. 1892. Allcroft and Mason: Sparta and Thebes. 1898. Sankey: Spartan and Theban Supremacies. 1877. Allcroft and Mason: Decline of Hellas. 1898. Curteis: Rise of the Macedonian Empire. 1878. Hogarth: Philip and Alexander. 1897. Wheeler: Alexander the Great. 1900. Mahaffy: Alexander's Empire. 1887. Mahaffy: Problems in Greek History. 1892. Bevan: House of Seleucus. 1902. Mahaffy: Empire of Egypt under the Ptolemies. 1899. Mahaffy: Greek Life and Thought. 1887. 

GREEK POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT-- Fowler: City-State of the Greeks and Romans. 1893. Greenidge: Greek Constitutional History. 1896. Schömann: Antiquities of Greece. 1886. Cox: Lives of Greek Statesmen. 1886. Gilbert: Constitutional Antiquities of Athens and Sparta. 1895. Botsford: Athenian Constitution. 1893 Whibley: Greek Oligarchies. 1896. Whibley: Political Parties in Athens in the Pelopponnesian War. 1889. Freeman: History of Federal Government. 1863. 

SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS-- Blümner: Home Life of the Ancient Greeks. 1893. Mahaffy: Social Life in Greece. 1887. Mahaffy: A Survey of Greek Civilisation. 1899. Guhl and Koner: Life of the Greeks and Romans. 1877. Becker: Charicles. Cunningham: Western Civilisation in its Economic Aspects 1898. Davidson: Education of the Greek People. 1894. Mahaffy: Old Greek Education. 1882. 

HISTORIES OF GREEK LITERATURE-- Mahaffy: History of Classical Greek Literature. 1880. Murray: Ancient Greek Literature. 1897. Jevons: History of Greek Literature. 1886. Jebb: Primer of Greek Literature. 1878. Jebb: Classical Greek Poetry. Symonds: The Greek Poets. Jebb: The Attic Orators. 1876. Pater: Greek Studies. 1895. 

HISTORIES OF ART-- Reber: History of Ancient Art. 1882. Lübke: Outlines of the History of Art. 1881. Perrot and Chipiez: History of Art in Primitive Greece. 1895. Tarbell: History of Greek Art. 1896. Fergusson: History of Architecture. 1875. Gardner: Handbook of Greek Sculpture. 1896-7. Harrison and Verall: Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens. 1894. Harrison: Introductory Studies in Greek Art. 1892. Gardner: Ancient Athens. 1902. 

GREEK ARCHÆOLOGY-- Collignon: Manual of Greek Archæology. 1886. Murray: Handbook of Greek Archæology. 1892. Schuckardt: Schliemann's Excavations. 1891. Diehl: Excursions in Greece. 1893. Gardner: New Chapters in Greek History. 1892. 

GREEK PHILOSOPHY-- Mayor: Sketch of Ancient Philosophy. 1881. Marshall: Short History of Greek Philosophy. 1891. Plato: Translated by Jowett. Aristotle: Translated in Bohn's Library. Zeller: Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy. 1890. 

GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY-- Gayley: Classic Myths. 1893. Guerber: Myths of Greece and Rome. 1893. 

ROME

GENERAL HISTORIES-- Mommsen: History of Rome. Ihne: History of Rome. 1871-82. Duruy: History of Rome. 1884-5. Long: Decline of the Roman Republic. 1864-74. Greenidge: History of Rome during the Latin Republic. 1904. Shuckburgh: History of Rome. 1894. How and Leigh: History of Rome. 1896. Pelham: Outlines of Roman History. 1893. Botsford: History of Rome. 1903. Merivale: History of the Romans under the Empire. 1875. Gibbon: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Bury's edition. 

SOURCES OF ROMAN HISTORY (translated into English)-- Livy: History and Epitome, translated by Spillan. 1887-90. Polybius: Histories, translated by Shuckburgh. 1889. Plutarch: Lives, translated by Stewart and Long. 1880. Appian: Roman History, translated by White. 1899. Sallust, Florus, and Velleius Paterculus, translated by Watson. 1887. Cicero: Orations, translated by Yonge. 1851-2. Cicero: Letters, translated by Shuckburgh. 1899. Cæsar: Gallic War and Civil War. Justin, Nepos, and Eutropius, translated by Watson. Suetonius: Lives of the Twelve Cæsars, translated by Thomas Forester. 1898. Tacitus: Annals, translated by Church and Brodribb. 1895. Tacitus: History, translated by Church and Brodribb. 1894. Tacitus: Germania, translated by Church and Brodribb. 1893. Josephus: Antiquities and Wars of the Jews, translated by Whiston-Shilleto. 1889-90. Pliny the Younger: Letters, translated by Melmoth. Marcus Aurelius: Meditations, translated by Long. Ammianus Marcellinus: Roman History, translated by Yonge. 1894. Julian the Emperor: Works, translated by King. 1888. Eusebius: Ecclesiastical History and Life of Constantine translated by McGiffert. 1890. Jerome: Works. Augustine: Works. Munro: Source Book of Roman History. 1904. Greenidge and Clay: Sources for Roman History B. C. 133-70. 1903. Gwatkin: Selections from Early Christian Writers. 1893. 

PERIODS OF ROMAN HISTORY-- Ihne: Early Rome. 1893. Allcroft and Mason: Struggle for Empire. 1893 Church: Carthage. 1886. Smith: Carthage and the Carthaginians. 1890. Smith: Rome and Carthage. 1891. Arnold: Second Punic War. 1849. Dodge: Life of Hannibal. 1891. Morris: Hannibal. 1897. How: Hannibal and the Great War between Rome and Carthage. 1899. Allcroft and Mason: Rome under the Oligarchs. 1893. Beesly: Gracchi, Marius, and Sulla. 1893. Allcroft and Mason: Decline of the Oligarchy. 1893. Oman: Seven Roman Statesmen. 1902. Beesly: Catiline, Clodius, and Tiberius. 1898. Strachan-Davidson: Cicero. 1894. Forsyth: Life of Cicero. 1877. Boissier: Cicero and His Friends. 1897. Froude: Cæsar. 1879. Dodge: Cæsar. 1892. Fowler: Cæsar. 1892. Merivale: The Roman Triumvirates. 1877. Holmes: Cæsar's Conquest of Gaul. 1899. Mahaffy: Greek World under Roman Sway. 1890. Bossier: Roman Africa. 1899. Bossier: Rome and Pompeii. 1896. Hall: The Romans on the Riviera and the Rhone. 1898. Bury: (Students') Roman Empire. 1893. Capes: Early Roman Empire. 1886. Mommsen: Provinces of the Roman Empire. 1887. Firth: Augustus Cæsar. 1903. Shuckburgh: Augustus. 1903. Tarver: Tiberius the Tyrant. 1902. Dill: Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius. 1904. Gregorovius: The Emperor Hadrian. 1898. Bryant: Reign of Antoninus. 1896. Capes: Age of the Antonines. 1887. Watson: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. 1884. Firth: Constantine the Great. 1905. Negri: Julian the Apostate. 1905. Gardner: Julian. 1895. Glover: Life and Letters in the Fourth Century. 1901. Dill: Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire. 1899. Kingsley: Roman and Teuton. 1889. Hodgkin: Dynasty of Theodosius. 1889. Villari: Barbarian Invasions of Italy. 1902. Hodgkin: Italy and Her Invaders, 1892-9. Sheppard: Fall of Rome. 1861. Bury: Later Roman Empire. 1889. Oman: Byzantine Empire. 1892. 

ROMAN ANTIQUITIES-- Ramsay-Lanciani: Manual of Roman Antiquities. 1895. Smith: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Murray. 1890-1. Sayffert: Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, edited by Nettleship and Sandys. 1895. Schreiber: Atlas of Classical Antiquities. 1895. 

ROMAN POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT-- Fowler: City-State of the Greeks and Romans. 1895. Taylor: Constitutional and Political History of Rome. 1899. Greenidge: Roman Public Life. 1901. Abbott: Roman Political Institutions. 1901. Arnold: Roman Provincial Administration. 1879. Mommsen: Provinces of the Roman Empire. 1887. Seely: Roman Imperialism. 1871. 

SOCIAL LIFE OF THE ROMANS-- Guhl and Koner: Life of the Greeks and Romans. 1889. Church: Roman Life in the Days of Cicero. 1883. Fowler: Roman Festivals. 1899. Ingram: History of Slavery. 1895. Rydberg: Roman Days. 1879. Thomas: Roman Life under the Cæsars. 1899. Johnston: Private Life of the Romans. 1903. Inge: Society in Rome under the Cæsars. 1888. Pellison: Roman Life in Pliny's Time. 1896. Lecky: History of European Morals. 1869. 

ROMAN LITERATURE-- Mackail: Latin Literature. 1898. Cruttwell: History of Roman Literature. 1878. Simcox: History of Latin Literature. 1883. Teuffel-Schwabe: History of Roman Literature. 1891. Tyrrell: Latin Poetry. 1895. Sellar: Roman Poets of the Republic. 1881. Sellar: Roman Poets of the Augustan Age. 1877. 

ROMAN ART-- Reber: History of Ancient Art. 1882. Burn: Roman Literature in Relation to Roman Art. 1890. Wickoff: Roman Art. 1900. Falke: Greece and Rome: Their Life and Art. 1885. See under Greece for other histories of art. 

ROMAN LAW-- Hadley: Introduction to Roman Law. 1876. Morey: Outlines of Roman Law. 1893. Muirhead: Historical Introduction to the Private Law of Rome. 1899. Howe: Studies in the Civil Law. 1896. 

ROMAN ARCHÆOLOGY-- Lanciani: Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries. 1888. Lanciani: Pagan and Christian Rome. 1896. Lanciani: Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome, 1897. Lanciani: Destruction of Ancient Rome. 1899. Mau: Pompeii, translated by Kelsey. 1899. Plainer: Topography and Monuments of Ancient Rome. 1904. Lovell: Stories in Stone upon the Roman Forum. 1902. Burton-Brown: Recent Excavations in the Roman Forum. 1905. 

CHRISTIANITY-- General Church Histories: Moeller: History of the Christian Church. 1898-1900. Gieseler: Church History. 1857-79. Neander: History of the Christian Religion and Church. 1853-4. Schaff: History of the Christian Church. 1884-92. Alzog: Manual of Universal Church History. 1874-8. Kurtz: Church History. 1860. Milman: History of Christianity. Milman: Latin Christianity. 1881. Allen: Outline of Christian History. 1886. Allen: Christian Institutions. 1897. Fisher: History of the Christian Church. 1887. 

 The Early Church: Pressensé: Early Years of Christianity. 1873. Fisher: Beginnings of Christianity. 1877. Carr: Church and the Roman Empire. 1902. Spence: Early Christianity and Paganism. 1902. Ramsay: Church in the Roman Empire before 170. 1893. Gregg: Decian Persecution. 1898. Healy: The Valerian Persecution. 1905. Mason: Persecution of Diocletian. 1876. Renan: Influence of the Institutions, Thought, and Culture of Rome on Christianity. 1898. Hardy: Studies in Roman History. 1906. Uhlhorn: Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism. 1879. Newman: Arians of the Fourth Century. 1888. Gwatkin: Arian Controversy 1889. Cutts: St. Augustine. 1881. Stanley: Eastern Church. 1884. Smith-Wace: Dictionary of Christian Biography. 1877-87. 

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