D 21 VJSG Cornell University Library D 21.W56 Course of empire 3 1924 028 328 932 The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http ://www. arch i ve . o rg/detai Is/cu31 924028328932 FAMILIAR ALLUSIONS: A Handbook of Miscellaneous Information about Celebrated Statues, Palaces, Churches, Ships, etc Begun by William A. Wheeler. Completed and Edited by Charles G. Wheeler. i2mo. Price 43.00 I. — PAINTINGS AND STATUARY. La Fomarina, Last Judgment, Slave Ship, Beatrice Cenci, Old Tdm^raire, Marguerite, etc. ; Antinous, Niobe, Torso Belvedere, Venus of Milo> etc. II. — BUILDINGS. a. RUINS, etc., as Mouse Tower, Drachenfels, Stonehenge, Forum of Trajan, Maison Carrie, etc. *. ROYAL PALACES, as Holyrood, SchOnbrunn, Doge's Palace, Trianon, etc. c. MUSEUMS, etc., as Pinalcothek, Geyptothek, Uffizi, etc. d. Cathedrals, abbeys, etc., as Ara Coeli, Madeleine, Mormon Tem- ple, Westminster Abbey, Triniti de' Monti, etc. e. THEATRES, HALLS, etc., as Exeter Hall, Drury Lane, Haymarket, Trinity House, Wallack's, La Scala, etc. f. Palaces, Castles, etc., as Pitti, Farnesina, Casa Guidi, Stowe, Sun- nyside, Chatsworth, Arlington, Old Manse, etc. ff. PRISONS, etc., as New- gate, Fleet, Libby, Bastille, Spielberg, Piorabi, etc. h. Taverns, as The Tabard, Star and Garter, etc. *. SHIPS, as Bounty, Bucentaur, Alabama, Monitor, Pinta, Constitution, Dreadnaught, Trent, Mayflower, etc. III.— NATURAL CURIOSITIES, &c, a. Natural Curiosities, as Green Grotto, The Notch, Natural Bridge, Lorelei, Tarpeian Rock, etc. b. STREETS, etc., as the Corso, Prado, Prater, Chiaja, Strand, Pall Mall, Via Dolorosa, Appian Way, Five Points, Seven Dials, Toledo, Wapping, Unter den Linden, etc. c. VAKIUS, etc., as Bois de Bou- logne, Boboli Gardens, Fire la Chaise, Greenwood, Campo Santo, Fairmount, Jardin Mabille, etc a. CLUBS, etc., as Kit-Cat, Beefsteak, Athenaeum, etc. IV. — MISCELLANEOUS. As Bambino, Bnook Farm, Glastonbury Thorn, Poet's Comer, Coronation Chair, London Stone, Plains of Abraham, Salisbury Plain, Golden Horn, Bow Bells, Stone of Scone, Merry Mount, Kohinoor, Heme's Oak, Swamp Angel, Donnybrook Fair, Warwick Vase, Mora Stone, Pitt Diamond, Veronica, etc. " An invaluable supplement to gazetteers and encyclopedias." —N. Y. World. JAMES ~fh OSGOOD & CO., Boston. THE COUESE OF EMPIRE OUTLINES OF THE CHIEF POLITICAL CHANGES IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD (.AJRRANOED BY CENTUEIES'i WITH VAEIOEUM ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHARLES GARDNER WHEELER BOSTON JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY 1884 4i -2rfr+^fr^ Copyright, 1883, By James E. Osgood and Company. Jll rights reserved. AP\ TTnivebsity Pkess: John Wilson and Son, Cambeidoe. Nothing can be farther from my wishes than that the following pages should he judged according to the critical laws of historical composition. Tried in such a balance, they would be eminently defective. The limited extent of this work, compared with the subjects it embraces, as well as its partaking more of the character of political dissertation than of narrative, must necessarily preclude that circumstantial delineation of events and of characters upon which the beauty as well as usefulness of a regular history so mainly depends. — Hallam. (From Preface to " View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages.") A bright light should be thrown only on the brilliant events, the momentous changes ; whole generations and centuries of monotonous events cast into the shade, that is, slightly and rapidly passed over ; and the most sedulous care taken to classify events into periods. — Amson. Remark how, by natural tendency alone, and as it were without man's forethought, a certain fitness of selection, and this even to a high degree, becomes inevitable. "Wholly worthless the selection could not be, were there no better rule than this to guide it : that men speak permanently only of what is extant and actively aUve beside them. Thus do the things that have produced fruit, nay whose fruit still grows, turn out to be the things chosen for record and writing of ; which things alone were great, and worth recording. — Caeltle. PREFACE This book aims to present a series of progressive views of the chief political changes in the world's history, by- means of a map for each century and accompanying text upon the opposite page. It also aims to furnish a series of brief statements, with short illustrative citations, in regard to the most important national movements and the character and manners of each century. One may thus readily trace the rise and growth of the more important states and empires, — their revolutions, de- cline, and fall, — and may see at a glance the states that have been in existence at the beginning of each century. It is merely intended to show in a general way the situation and extent of the chief nations at the beginning of each century, and the principal movements in the " course of empire ; " therefore no attempt has been made to secure minute accu- racy in drawing the boundaries of the various countries. A minuteness of detail in many cases would be very diffi- cult or practically impossible to obtain, and would be en- tirely superfluous in a work of this limited character, as such details can be best found in the various elaborate historical atlases now in use. It is hoped that these Out- lines will provide the general reader with a small manual for easy and quick reference, — a hand-book to answer the every-day questions about the world's political changes, and also to provide the student of history with a compre- VI PREFACE. hensive outline-view of the whole subject, preparatory to (or in connection with) more extensive study or reading. The grouping of pertinent passages from various authors to be found in the Illustrations for each century will be at the same time much more entertaining and valuable than the compendium of a compiler, and will give the reader at one view concise and independent judgments of competent critics, which it is believed cannot elsewhere be found, except through an amount of research entirely beyond the opportunity and inclination of most persons. This volume is not offered as a substitute for the many valuable histories and historical atlases now in use, which, however indispensable to the special student of history, are oftentimes unavailable to the general reader or ordinary student, either from their cost or from their complexity, which renders them inconvenient for ordinary reference. Companion volumes upon the subjects of literature and art, arranged upon a similar scheme, are now in preparation. It is hoped this book will answer many of the questions daily occurring to the ordinary reader, except where more minute details in the form of a connected narrative are sought. CHARLES GARDNER WHEELER. Boston, 1883. OOITTEITTS. Inteoduction 3 Fifth Centurt before Christ. 11 Persian War 13 Age of Pericles 24 Peloponnesian Wax . '. 32 Intellectual State of Greece 35 Supremacy of Sparta " 37 Retreat of the Ten Thousand . . .37 Rome 38 Fourth Century before Christ 41 Eise of Macedonia 43 Conquests and Empire of Alexander the Great ... .48 Rome • 53 Third Century before Christ 57 Rome . 59 Punic Wars 59 Greece. The Achaean League 69 Alexandria 70 Second Century before Christ 73 Third Punic War 75 Greece a Roman Province . 79 Rome 82 The Maccabees 85 viii CONTENTS. FiBST Century before Christ 87 Rome 89 CsBsar Ruler of the Roman Woi'ld 93 Rome Mistress of the World . 100 Augustan Age ~- • 108 Birth of Christ 110 Parthia 114 First Century after Christ 117 Roman Empire 119 Conquest of Britain .... 128 Persecution of the Christians 128 Judsea. Destruction of Jerusalem and Dispersion of the Jews 132 Second Century 137 Roman Empire in the Age of the Autonines 139 Third Century ... 145 Roman Empire .... 147 Persia . . 152 Alexandrian School . . . . 153 Fourth Century .... . 155 Roman Empire . . 157 Persecution of the Christians . . 157 Constantine the Great. Constantinople the Seat of Empire 160 Division of the Empire ... 163 Movements of the Northern Nations 164 Fifth Century 167 Fall of Rome .... 169 Movements of the Northern Nations . . . . . 180 Middle Ages. Dark Ages 184 Sixth Century 191 Eastern Empire .... . . 193 Lombards in Italy .... . . ... 195 CONTENTS. ix Immediate Eeaults of the Migration of the Nations . . . 196 Else of Monachism 197 Seventh Century 201 Mahomet and the Saracens 203 Eastern Empire 207 Eighth Century 209 The Saracens 211 The Franks. Charlemagne 218 Ninth Century 221 Empire of Charlemagne 223 The Norsemen ... 231 Beginning of England 231 Tenth Century 237 General Tendencies 239 Saracens in Spain 239 Feudalism 241 Superstition of the Age 246 The Northmen 248 England 249 Eleventh Century 251 Norman Conquest of England 253 Growth of the Papal Power. Gregory VII 256 Normans in Sicily and Italy 259 The Crusades 260 Twelfth Century 271 Chivalry 273 Saladin 278 Thirteenth Century 281 Mogul Empire. Genghis Khan 283 Magna Charta 285 Growth of the Towns. Hanseatic League 287 X CONTENTS. Page Guelfs and Ghibellmes 289 Crusade against the Albigenses 289 Architecture , 290 End and Results of the Crusades 291 Scholastic Philosophy 295 ItaKan Cities 298 Fourteenth Centuet 305 Hundred Years' War 307 Black Death .... 308 Tamerlane's Conquests 309 Union of the Swiss Cantons 311 John Wycliffe. Beginning of EeKgious Dissent . . .311 Invention and Use of Gunpowder 312 Fifteenth Century .... ... 315 Hundred Years' War (continued) 317 Ottoman Turks take Constantinople. Fall of the Eastern Empire 320 The Renaissance. Revival of Learning 322 Invention of Printing 325 Wars of the Roses 326 Maritime Adventure 328 Discovery of America .... 330 Spain 334 The Inquisition . 336 Sixteenth Century 341 Maritime Adventure (continued) . 343 The Reformation 344 Spanish Power. Age of Charles V. — Philip II 350 Age of Elizabeth 355 Spanish Armada 360 Revolt of the Netherlands. Rise of the Dutch Republic . 364 Religious Wars in France 367 Copemican System. The Telescope 369 Order of Jesuits 369 Age of Leo X 370 Mogul Empire of Baber in India 372 CONTENTS. xi Page Seventeenth Century 375 Thirty Years' War ... 377 Union of England and Scotland 378 Commonwealth in England. Cromwell 379 Revolution of 1688 388 Age of Louis XIV. . . 389 America. European Settlements 394 Intellectual Progress 396 Eighteenth Centoey 399 War of the Spanish Succession 401 Empire of Nadir Shah 402 Greatness of Prussia. Prederick the Great 402 Seven Years' War 403 Independence of the United States . 405 Partition of Poland 411 French Kevolution 413 Russia .420 English Power in India 422 Sweden 422 Nineteenth Centoey 425 Napoleonic Wars 427 United States ... 437 Russia 439 Unification of European States 440 Material Progress of the Century 441 Index 443 LIST OF MAPS. About the Tear 500 B. c 9 End of the Fifth Century before Christ (about 400 B. c.) . . . 11 " Fourth Century before Christ (about 300 b. c.) . . 41 " Third Century before Christ (about 200 b. c.) . . . 57 " Second Century before Christ (about 100 b. c) . . 73 " First Century before Christ (about a. d. 1) . . . . 87 " First Century after Christ (about a. d. 100) .... 117 " Second Century (about A. d. 200) 137 « Third Century (about a. d. 300) 145 " Fourth Century (about a. d. 400) 155 " Fifth Century (about A. d. 500) 167 " Sixth Century (about a. d. 600) 191 " Seventh Century (about A. D. 700) 201 " Eighth Century (about a. d. 800) 209 " Ninth Century (about a. d. 900) 221 " Tenth Century (about A. D. 1000) 237 " EleventhCentury (about A. D. 1100) 251 " Twelfth Century (about a. d. 1200) 271 " Thirteenth Century (about A. D. 1300) 281 " Fourteenth Century (about A. D. 1400) 305 " Fifteenth Century (about A. d. 1500) 315 " Sixteenth Century (about a. d. 1600) 341 " SeventeenthCentury (about A. D. 1700) 375 " Eighteenth Century (about a. d. 1800) 399 For the Year 1883 425 REFERENCE LIST OF HISTORICAL AUTHORITIES. THE sources of the information used in the preparation of this work are too numerous to be fully specified here. General acknowledgment is due to numerous dictionaries, encyclopaedias, and compendiums. All statements borrowed in great part from a single author have been carefully collated with information obtained from independent sources, and have been modified according to circumstances, 'No hesitation has been felt, however, in the occasional use of a writer's exact language. The reader who wishes further information upon the subjects treated in this book is referred to the following list, which contains many of the historical works from which citations have been taken, including translations. Some anonymous translations have been inserted, and some have been made by the compiler. The wide field of general literature has also been carefully searched for illustrative citations. Alison. History of Europe. AiLEN, J. H. Hebrew Men and Times. Ammianus Mabcellinus. Eoman His- tory. Yonge's translation. AuFZBE. Histoire Komaine k Some. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Arnold. History of Kome; Lectores on Modem History. Banckoft. History of the United States. Saxteh. Life and Times. Bede. Ecclesiastical History of England. BLAifc. Histoiie de la Revolution Fran- ^aise. Boeckh. Public Economy of the Athe- nians. BossuET. DiscouTB sur THistoire Univer- sellb. Bbtce. Holy ILoman Empire. Buckle. History of Civilization. Bulfinch. Age of Chivalry; Legends of Charlemagne. Bulwee. Athens. Bubckhaudt. Renaissance. BUE.KE. Reflections on the Revolution in France. Bdenet. History of his own Time ; His- tory of the Reformation. Campbell. Lives of the Lord Chancellors. Capes. Early Empire ; Roman History. Caeltle. Frederick the Great j French Revolution; Oliver Cromwell. Chuech. Beginning of the Middle Ages. Claekndon. History of the Rebellion. CoMMiNEs (Philip de), The Memoirs of. Comte. Positive Philosophy. Martineau's translation. CoNyBEAEEANDHowsoN. Lifcof St. Paul. CouLANQES, La Cit6 antique; Histoire des Institutions Folitiques de Pancienne France, Cox. Athenian Empire ; Crusades ; Greeks and the Persians; History of Greece. Xvi REFEEENCE LIST OF HISTOfilCAL AUTHORITIES. CoxE. Honse of AuBtria. Ceeasy. Pifteea Decisive Battles; Otto- man Turks. CuKTius. History of Greece. D'AuBiGN^. History of the Refonnation. De Quincet. Historical Essays ; The CsBsaia. De Tocqueville. Democracy in America. Reeve and Bowen's translation. Dickens. Child's History of England. DoLLiNGER. First Age of Christianity, Oxenham's translation; Die Reformation. Deotsen. Geschichte des Hellenismus. DUHCKEB. History of Antiquity. Dunham. Denmark, Sweden, and Nor- way ; Middle Ages ; Poland. DuEtiT. Histoire du Moyen Age. Dyer. History of the City of Rome ; Mod- em Europe. Etttkopius. Epitome of Roman History. Watson's translation, Evelyn. Diary. EwALD. History of Israel. EAEaAB. Early Days of Christianity. Eelton. Greece, Ancient and Modern. Feegusson. History of Architecture. Ftnlay. History of Greece and of the Byzantine and Greek Empires. EiSHEE. Reformation. Elint. Philosophy of History. EEEE3IAN. Historical Essays; Historical Geography of Europe j History and Con- quest of the Saracens ; History of Federal Government; Norman Conquest; Otto- man Power in Europe. Feoissaet. Chronicles, FnoTHiNGHAM. Rise of the Republic. Feoude. Caesar; History of England; Short Studies on Great Subjects. FuLLEE. Church History. Fyffe. History of Modem Europe. G AiEDNEE. Houses of Lancaster and York. Gaedinbe. Thirty Tears* War. Gibbon. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gieselbe. Church History. Geeen. Making of England; Short His- tory of the English People. Geeooeovius. Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter. Geote. History of Greece. GuicciAEDiNi. History of Italy. GuizoT. History of Civilization, Hazlitt'a translation; Popular History of France, Black's translation. Hallam. Constitutional History of Eng- land ; Middle Ages. Haussee. Period of the Reformation. Heeeen. Historical Treatises. Hegel. Philosophy of History, Sibree's translation. Heeodotus, History of. Rawlinson's Edi- tion. HiLDEETH. History of the United States. Hoopee. Waterloo. Hume. History of England. Ihne. History of Rome. Ieving. The Alhambra ; Columbus ; Con- quest of Granada; Mahomet. Jameson (Mrs.). Legends of the Monastic Orders ; Sacred and Legendary Art. JoMiNi. Napoleon. Halleck's translation. JosEPHUS. Antiquities ; Jewish War. Juste. Histoire de Belgique. Knight. Normans in Sicily ; Popular His- tory of England. Lamaetine. History of the Girondists, Ryde's translation ; Restoration of Mon- archy iu France, Rafter's translation. Lanfeey. History of Napoleon. Lecky. History of European Morals. Lenoemant and Chevaliee. Manual of the Ancient History of the East. LiNGAED. History of England. LiVY. History of Rome. Spillim's transla- tion. Lloyd. Age of Pericles. Lodge. Short History of the English Colonies in America. Long. Decline of the Roman Republic. LiJBKE. Outlines of the History of Art. Edited by Clarence Cook. Mac^ulay. Essays; History of England. Machiavelh. History of Florence. Mahaefy. Social Life in Greece. Mahon (Lord). See Stanhope. Malcolm. Political History of India, Maetin. History of France, Booth's translation; Age of Louis XIV., Booth*a translation. May. Constitutional History of England; Democracy in Europe, REFERENCE LIST OF HISTORICAL AUTHORITIES. XVII Menzel, History of Germany. *■ Meuivale. History of the Komaus under the Empire. MicHAUD. History of the Crusades. MiCHELET. History of France, Smith's translation; Roman Republic, Hazlitt's ti'anslation. MiGNET. French Revolution. Mill. History of British India. MiLMAN. History of Christianity ; History of the Jews ; Latin Christianity. MiTFonD. History of Greece. MoMMsEK. -History of Kome. Dickson's translation. MoNTALEUBEKT. Monks of the West. Montesquieu. Grandeur and Decadence of the Bomans^ Baker's translation ; Spirit of Laws, Kugent's translation. MosHEiM. Ecclesiastical History. MoTLET. Bise of the Dutch Republic ; His- tory of the United Netherlands, MiJLLZS. Ancient Art and its Remains. Napieiu History of the War in the Penin- sula. Napoleon. Life of Csesar. Neale. History of the Puritans. Neandes. Christian Life in the Early and Middle Ages; History of the Christian Religion and Church. Nefos. Lives of the lUustrious Generals. Watson's translation. NiEBUHB. Lectures on the History of Rome. Schmitz's translation. OcEXZT. History of the Saracens; Mo- hammed and his Successors. Falgratb. History of Normandy and of England ; History of the Anglo-Saxons. Peabson. Early and Middle Ages, Pepts. Diary. Pictorial History of England. Plutasch. Parallel Lives. Dryden's translation. Revised by Clough. PoLTBius, General History of. Hampton's translation. Pbescott. Ferdinand and Isabella; Philip the Second, PKESSEH3E, History of the Early Years of Christianity. Hanvood's translation, Pkoctok. The Crusades. QuiKET, La Revolution. Ranze. History of the Popes. Foster's translation. Rawlinson. Ancient History J Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World ; Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy ; Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy ; Herodotus, Kenan. The Apostles. ROBEBTSON. Charles V.j Discovery and Settlement of America ; View of the Pro- gress of Society in Europe. RoscoE. Life of Leo X, ; Lorenzo de* Medici. RusKiN.- stones of Venice. St. John, J. A. Ancient Greece. Sallust. Watson's translation. ScHiLLEE. Revolt of the Netherlands, Morrison's translation ; Thirty Years* War, ScHLEGEL. Lectures on Modern History, Purcell and Whitelock's translation ; Philosophy of History, Robertson's translation. ScHLossEB. Eighteenth Century. Seebohm. Era of the Protestant Revolu- tion. SiSMONDi. Fall of the Roman Empire; Italian Republics. Smith. Ancient Atlas ; Ancient History of the East ; History of Greece ; History of the World. Smyth, Lectures on Modem History. Spalding. Protestant Reformation. Speunee-Menke. Historical Atlas. Stanhope (Philip Heney), Earl of. His- tory of England ; War of the Succession in Spain. Stanley. Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church. Stephen (Sib James). Lectures on the History of France ; Essays on Ecclesiasti- cal Biography. Steickland, Lives of the Queens of Eng- land. Stubbs. Constitutional History of Eng- land ; Early Plantagenets. Suetonius. Lives of the Twelve Cfieaara. Thomson and Forester's translation. Sumnee. Prophetic Voices concerning America. Stbel. See Von Sybel. Stmonss, Renaissance in Italy. Tacitus. Annals and History. Taine. Ancient Regime, Durand's trans- lation ; Art in Greece, Duraod's transla- tion ; Art in the Netlierlands, Durand's translation ; Revolution, Durand's trans- lation ; Essai sur Tite LivS. Xviii KEFEEENCE LIST OF HISTORICAL AUTHORITIES. Thieebt. Histoire dea Gauloia ; Historical Essays ; History of tke Norman Conquest; Tableau de rEmpire. THIEB.S. Consulate and Empire; Erench. Revolution. Thucysises. History of the Feloponuesian War, TuBNEB. Hist{)Ty of the Anglo-Saxons. VioLLET-LE-Duc. DiscouTscs on Architec- ture. Van Srunt's translation. VoLTAiEE. Cbai'les XII. j Mahomet. Von SysEih French Revolution, Perry's tr^islation; History and Literature of the Crusades. ■Webee. Lehrhuch der Weltgeschichte, Whewell. History of the Inductive Sci- ences. WiNCKELMANN. History of Ancient Art. Lodge's translation. THE COUESE OF EMPIRE Westward the course of empire tates its way. Bishop Berkeley. A tbousand years scarce serve to form a state ; An hour may lay it in tlie dust. Byron. The groaning earth in travail and in pain Brings forth its races, but does not restore, And the dead nations never rise again. LONGFULLOW. INTEODUCTION. THE early history of all the older nations is wrapped in impenetrable darkness. Our knowledge of the most distant periods, is confined to a few traditions which have come down to us for the most part embodied in the form of myths, and to such conclusions as may be drawn from the study of language, from ancient remains, and from the general results of civilization. Of such times we know nothing, save the broad results as they aje measured from century to century, with here and there some indestructible pebble, some law, some fragment of remarkable poetry which has resisted decomposition. — Feoude. The word myth (jivdos, fabula, story) in its original meaning sig- nified simply a statement or current narrative, without any eonnota- tive implication of truth or falsehood. Subsequently the meaning of the word (in Latin and in English, as well as in Greek) changed, and came to carry with it the idea of an old personal narrative, always uncertified, sometimes untrue or avowedly fictitious. . . . The myths were originally produced in an age which had no records, no philosophy, no criticism, no canon of belief, and scarcely any tinc- ture either of astronomy or geography, but which, on the other hand, was full of religious faith, distinguished for quick and susceptible imagination, seeing personal agents where we look only for objects and connecting laws. — Geote. History in the proper sense may be regarded as con- fined to the Caucasian ^ branch of the human family, and 1 The Caucasian race is distributed by ethnologists into three great divis- ions : 1st. The Aryan or Indo-European (from Iran, the "land of light," the 4 INTRODUCTION. does not concern itself much with the peoples of the greater part of Asia. The stationary and unprogressive character of much of Oriental society places it outside of the great current of world progress which it is the office of the general historian to describe. Only those Eastern peoples, even of the Caucasian race, which have been brought into close connection with the Western world, have much interest to us, and they principally in the degree of their connection with European civilization. Among the nations outside of the Caucasian race, the vast empire of the Chinese stands forth as having attained a considerable degree of civilization. They, and some other peoples of the East, were far advanced when Europe was a wilderness, but their arts and learning have not been progressive, and were stereotyped ages ago. While bar- barous tribes have since reached a high civilization, the Eastern mind has shown few signs of development, and the old culture of the East is still unchanged. The people of the East, with whom may be classed the Mexicans and Peruvians in regard to the stationary character of their civilization, have thus exercised but little influence on the general progress of the world. Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay, i Tenittson. old name of Persia) ; 2d. The Semitic (from Shem, in Biblical story the sou of Noah) ; 3d. The Hamitic (from Ham, another son of Noah). The Arj'an division includes the following peoples : Hindoos, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Teutons, Celts, and Slaves. The Semitic division includes the Hebrews, Phoenicians, Assyrians, and Arabs. The Hamitic division comprises the Egyptians and Chaldseans. The various peoples of Asia not included in either of the above divisions, such as the Mongols and Turks, are usually classed together under the common designation of Turanian nations (Turan, i. e. the ' ' land of darkness "). Besides the great populations of Eastern Asia, a few scattered remnants of older tribes in Europe, such as the Fins, Laps, and Basques, are also so designated. 1 In the Middle Ages the name " Cathay " was sometimes applied to the whole country of China. INTKODUCTION. 6 China and India lie, as it were, still outside the world's history, as the mere presupposition of elements whose combination must be waited for to constitute their vital progress. — Hegel. The genius of the Europeans is different from that of the Asiatics, who of all nations are the most patient of despotism. — Aristotle. Asia may be called the land of unity, in which everything has been unfolded in great masses, and iu the simplest relations ; Eiirope is the land of freedom, that is, of civilization through the antagonism of manifold individual and isolated energies. — Schlegel. The great mass of events in Oriental history is summed up in one brief and typical narrative in the Hebrew Scriptures, — " The people who followed Omri were more than the people who followed Tibni. So Tibni died and Omri reigned." From this it follows that there are large portions of Oriental history which are alike unprofitable, and well-nigh impossible, to be remembered by any but those who make Oriental history the study of their lives. . . . Not a spot, not a year, of Western history deserves entire neglect ; whole centuries and empires in the East may be safely passed over by all except professed Oriental historians. — Freeman. Slow conquests, long struggles of race against race, amalgamations, insensible growth and development of political systems, to which we are habituated in the records of the West, are unknown to the coun- tries lying eastward of the Hellespont. In every case a conqueror rapidly overruns an enormous tract of territory, inhabited by many and diverse nations, overpowers their resistance or receives their sub- mission, and imposes on them a system of government, rude and inar- tificial indeed, but sufficient ordinarily to maiutain their subjection, tiU the time comes when a fresh irruption and a fresh conqueror repeat the process, which seems to be the only renovation whereof Oriental realms are capable. The imposed system itself is, in its general fea- tures, for the most part, one and the same. The rapid conquest causes no assimilation. The nations retain their languages, habits, manners, religions, laws, and sometimes even their native princes. — Eawlinson. Jealous China, dire Japan, With bewildered eyes I scan. They are but dead seas of man. Ages in succession find Forms that change not, stagnant mind. And they leave the same behind. MONTGOMEET. 6 INTEODUCTION. Although some ancient nations, like the Egyptians, Chaldseans, and Assyrians, had, at a very remote period in the past, reached a stable form of government and a high degree of civilization, yet the beginnings of history, so far as the Couese of Empiee is concerned, may properly enough be placed in the fifth century before Christ. There are many authenticated dates and facts previous to that time, but then, through the wars of Persia with Greece, the Eastern world was first brought into close and active connection with the West, and the. great historic movements with which we are concerned originated. With the Persian Empire we first enter on continuous history. The Persians are the first historic people ; Persia was the first em- pire that passed away. While China and India remain stationary, and perpetuate a natural vegetative existence even to the present time, this land has been subject to those developments and revolu- tions which alone manifest a historical condition. — Hegel. A multij)licity of histories first met and commingled in that of Persia. The Persian Empire extended itself over the whole of Western Asia, and into Europe and Africa; it drew together Bactiia, Parthia, Media, Assyria, Syria, Palestine, Phoenicia, Asia Minor, Armenia, Thrace, Egypt, and the Cyrenaica. The voice of the Great King was law from the Indus on the east to the Mgean Sea and Syrtian Gulf on the west, from the Danube apd the Caucasus on the north to the Indian Ocean and the deserts of Arabia and Nubia on the south. — Eobeet Flint. Of European nations, the one which has the oldest written history is the Greek. But of this people, also, the early traditions are poetical and legendary. The narra- tives of the earlier time were not written till long after the events described. In the Homeric poems, the " Iliad " and the " Odyssey," we have the picture of a state of society which may, in some of its features, have existed ; but the stories in which these descriptions abound are now gen- INTRODUCTION. 7 erally regarded as mythical. Subsequent to this first period there are a few dates, like those of the First Olym- piad (776) and the legislative reform of Solon (596), which can be fixed with considerable accuracy ; but it is not until we reach the time of the Persian Wars, at the commencement of the fifth century before Christ, that authentic Greek history can be said to begin. It is with Greece, also, that the history of individual freedom, as contrasted with the despotic governments of the Oriental nations, begins, leading to an expansion of the human mind, which manifested itself in a most remarkable po- litical and intellectual development. Greece lies here, the focus of light in. history. — Hegel. In the vast regions of the East, we have found forms of civilization which, chiefly afl'ected hy the course of mighty rivers, have struck us as strange from their enduring stability and unchangeableness. The first step we take iu entering the European contiuent brings us into a new world full of activity and fresh historic life, in which we at once are sensible of a home-like feeling. The Greeks are the first to afford us the picture of personal inner development, and of a national life unfolding with free consciousness. If those Oriental nations in their narrow, limited civilization only awaken interest in historical examination, the Greeks, on the other hand, reached an absolute height of culture, presenting a model worthy of admiration for all ages, and an inexhaustible fountain-head for all higher effort. Although thoroughly national, their whole mental life was so elevated, so filled with universal human significance, that it constitutes the indestruc- tible basis for the development of all future ages, and in the ever- lasting struggle of the beautiful and the true with antagonistic principles, Greece, like an Athene Promachus, has victoriously preceded all champions of these nobler qualities. — Lubkb. About 500 B.C. Rcnoty/yr i-iVitiT,;^ C'^.J-j^^-r. 600 B. C. The relative positions of the nations of Europe and Western Asia at the year 500 B. c. are shown in a broad and genefkl way upon the accompanying map. We shall now try to trace the chief political changes and national movements from the date of this map (500 B. c.) down to the year A. D. 1883. CHRONOLOGY OF THE MORE IMPORTANT EVENT3 PRIOR TO THE FIFTH CENTURY B. C. 3000 ? Aryan migration into India. 2450? AuthentitJ history of Egypt be- gins. (Fourth Dynasty.) Pyra- mids built. 2000? The Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, invade Egypt. 1920 ? Abraham's journey into Egypt. 1320 ? Exodus of the Israelites ftom Egypt. 1250? Chaldsea absorbed in Assyi'ia. 1100 ? Dorian migration into the Pelopon- nesus. 1065, David becomes King of Israel. 1050. Tyre a flourishing state. 1015. Solomon King of Israel. 870. Phcenicia conquered by the Assyr- ians. 850? 776. 753? 719. 560. 558. 536. 625. 509. Carthage founded. Period of Ly- curgus at Sparta. First Olympiad. Rome founded. The Israelites carried into captivity by the Assyrians. Nineveh taken by the Medea. Constitution of Solon at Athens. The Jews carried into captivity to Babylon. Pisistratus tyrant of Athens. Cyrus the Great founds the Persian monarchy. Return of the Jews to Jerusalem. Egj^t subdued by Cambyses. Expulsion of the Mngs, and begin- ning of the Roman republic. PROMINENT NAMES IN GREECE PREVIOUS TO THE FIFTH CENTURY B.C. {Many of the dates are conjectural. ) Statesmen and iJii^crs. — Lycurgus (fl. 825?), Draco (fl. 621?), Solon (638?- 558?), Pisistratus (612 ?- 527). PMloaophers. —Thalea (636-546), Anaximauder (610-547), Pythagoras (fl. 540-510), Xenophanes (fl. 540-500). Poets and Artists. —Homer (fl. 962-927), Hesiod (fl. 859-824?), Archilochus (714?- 676), Terpander (fl. 700 - 650), Tyrtseus (683 - 657), Alcaeus (fl. 611), Sappho (fl. 611 - 592), iEsop(fl. 570?). AhoTit WOB.C- FITTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. (500-400.) The countries of the greatest historical interest and importance during this century are Persia and Greece. Persia, although the chief power of the world at this time, is of general interest only in connection with her unsuccessful attempt to conquer Greece, known as the Persian War. (See Illustrations, page 13.) The vast territory of the Persian Empire suffers no important change in its extent, except in the loss of Egypt, which revolts and becomes independent' in 413 B. c. Greece is involved between 492 b. c. and 479 B. c. in the famous and decisive struggle with Persia which re- sults in the defeat of the Persians, who are finally driven in disgrace wholly out of Europe. (See Illustrations.) The defeat of the Persians is followed by the wonder- fully brilliant period — the highest point of gi?eatness and splendor attained by the Greeks — commonly known as the Age of Pericles. (See Illustrations.)- Rome is merely a little settlement in the infancy of her power. (See Illustrations.) Egypt revolts from Persia and becomes independent in 413 B. c. Caethage presents no movements of interest. 500 B. C.-400 B.C. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. {The dates given for this century are more or less coTiJectural.) |£00. The Patricians and Plebeians begin their civil contests. 500-494. The Ionian War. 494. Secession of Plebeians to Mons Sacer. Creation of Tribunes. 492. The Persians, under Mardonlus, in- vade Greece. 491. Coriolanus banished from Rome. 490. Second Persian expedition against Greece. Battle of Marathon (vic- tory gained by Miltiades). 484. First Agrarian law proposed. 483. Aristides ostracized. 480. Invasion of Greece by Xerxes, King of Persia. Battles of Thermopylse (Leonidas), Artemisium, and Sa- lamis (Themistocles). 479. Battles of Platffia and Mycale. 477. Athens becomes the chief of the Greek states. Confederacy of Delos. 471. Publilian law passed. Increase of privileges of the Plebeians. 466. Battle on the Eurymedon (Cimon). 458. The Hebrew Scriptures collected by Ezra. 458. Cincinnatns chosen Dictator. Defeats the ^qui. 451. Appointment of the Decemvirs. Code of the Twelve Tables. 447. Battle of Coronea. 445. Thirty Years* Truce between Athens and Sparta. 445. Mamage between Patricians and Ple- beians. 444. Military Tribunes elected. 443. Office of Censor created. 431-404. The Peloponnesian War. 430. Plague at Athens. 421. Peace of Nicias between Athens and Sparta (truce for fifty years). 418. Battle of Mantinea. 415-413. Athenian expedition against Sicily (Syracuse). 405. Battle of iBgospotamos. The Athe- nians defeated by the Spartans (LysanderJ. 404. Athens taken by the Spartans. The Thirty Tyrants. 403. The Thirty Tyrants expelled and the Athenian Democracy restored. 401. Battle of Cunaxa. 401-400. Retreat of Xenophon with the "Ten Thousand." PROMINENT NASfES OF THE CENTURY. Greece. StatesTnen, Generals, and Orators. — Leonidas, Miltiades, Pausanias, Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, Pericles, Nicias, Alcibiades, Thrasybulus, Critias, Lysander, Xeno- phon, Gorgias, Isocrates. Poets and Drawiatiste. — Anacreon, Simonides, .^schylus, Pindar, Euripides, Sopho- cles, Aristophanes. PUlosopliers. — Heraclitus, Parmenides, Anaxagoras, Zeno (of Elea), Empedocles, Protagoras, Socrates, Democritus, Plato. historians. — Herodotus, Thucydides. Sculptors and Painters. —Fhidms, Polycletus, Polygnotus, Alcamenes, Zeuxis, Par- rhasius, ApoUodorus. Persia. Principal Sovereigns. ~~ Darius I. (Hystaspis), Xerxes I., Artaxerxes I. (Longimanus) Xerxes II., Darius II. (Nothus). Rome. General. — Coriolanus. Dictator. — Cincinnatus. JudjEA. Scribe and Meformer. — 'Ezra. Governor and Writer. — Nehemiah. Provhet — Mal- achL -^ Other Nations. Stracuse : Tyrants. — Hiero, Dionysius. China : Philosopher. — Confucius. ILLUSTRATIONS. THE PEKSIAN" WAE. That great conflict from which Europe dates its intellectual and political supremacy. — Macaulay. PEESIA was the chief power of the known world at this time, but the main interest of Persian history centres in her relations with Greece. Some Greek cities of Ionia, in Asia Minor, subject to Darius, monarch of Persia, revolted in the year 500 B. c. They received help from Athens, one of the chief cities of Greece. Darius quickly put down the revolt, but was much provoked with the Athenians for their interference, and resolved to punish them. He [Darius] treated with great contempt the revolt of the lomana, well knowing who they were, and that their revolt would soon he put down ; but he desired to know who, and what manner of men, the Athenians were. On being told, he called for his bow, and shooting an arrow into the air he exclaimed, " Suffer me, Jupiter, to be revenged on these Athenians." He afterwards directed one of his attendants to repeat to him three times every day, when he sat down to table, " Sire, remember the Athenians." — HBEODOins. This revolt brought on the Persian War, in 490 B. c. The memorable tragedy (to adopt on this occasion an apt allusion of Plutarch), which ended in the eternal disgrace of the Persian. 14 FIFTH CENTURY BEFOEE CHKIST. name, may be divided, with propriety, into three principal acts. The first contains the invasion of Greece by Darius' generals, Datis and Artaphernes, who were defeated in the battle of Marathon. The second consists in the expedition, undertaken ten years afterwards by Xerxes, the son and successor of Darius, who fied precipitately from Greece, after the ruin of his fleet near the isle of Salamis. The third and concluding act is the destruction of the Persian armies in the bloody fields of Mycale and Plataea ; events concurring on the same day, and which happened nearly two years after Xerxes' tri- umphal entry into Greece. — Gillies. The first and most important battle of the Persian War, and one of the most momentous in history, was that of Marathon. At the plain of Marathon, near Marathon. mAi-i. Athens, a small Athenian rorce of about ten thou- sand men (with the help of six hundred men from Platsea), under the famous general Miltiades, routed a Persian army of perhaps cue hundred and ten thousand, in 490 B. C This memorable battle, resulting as it did in the defeat of the power which had conquered the greater part of the known world, first taught the Qreeks their own strength ; and the evidence which it afforded them of their ability to repel the immense forces of Persia was of the great- est importance to them when considered in reference to the subsequent contests in which they were destined to engage. This was the first of all the victories of the West' oyst the East, the first battle which showed how skill and discipline can prevail over mere numbers. As such, it is perhaps the most memorable battle in the history of the world. — Freeman. At Marathon for Greece the Athenians fought ; And low the Medians' gilded power they brought. SlMONIDBS. That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gaia force upon the plain of Marathon. — Samuel Johnson. FIFTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 15 If we turn to the map of the Old World [see map for this century] to test the comparative territorial resources of the two states whose armies were now about to come into conflict, the immense prepon- derance of the material power of the Persian King over that of the Athenian republic is more striking than any similar contrast which history can supply. Nor was there any power to the westward of Greece that could have offered an effectual opposition to Persia, had she once conquered Greece and made that country a basis for future military operations. Rome was at this time in her season of utmost weakness. Had Persia beaten Athens at Marathon, she could have found no obstacle to prevent Darius from advancing his sway over all the known Western races of mankind. The infant energies of Europe would have been trodden out beneath universal conquest, and the history of the world, like the history of Asia, would have become a mere record of the rise and fall of despotic dynasties, of the incursions of barbarous hordes, and of the mental and political prostration of millions beneath the diadem, the tiara, and the sword. — Creasy. Hitherto the very name of Medes had struck terror into the hearts of the Greeks ; and the Athenians were the first to endure the sight of their armor, and to look them in the face on the field of battle. — Herodotus. Ntdla unquam tam exigua manus tantas opes prostravit. Cornelius Nepos. The most remarkable [victory] for the disproportion of the parties engaged that history has recorded. — Colonel Leake. There fell in this battle of Marathon, on the side of the barbarians, about six thousand and four hundred men ; on that of the Athenians, one hundred and ninety-two. — Herodotus. The disproportion between the two armies was far less than has generally been imagined. The Persian combatants were to the Greek as five to one, or possibly as six to one . . . and victories have , often been gained against equal or greater odds, both in ancient and modem times. — Rawlinson. Nor was the number of combatants confined to men then living in the flesh. The old heroes of the land rose to mingle in the fray ; and every night from that time forth might be heard the neighing of phantom horses and the clashing of swords and spears. Thus were prolonged the echoes of the old, mysterious battle ; and the peasants 16 FIFTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. would have it that the man who went to listen from mere motives of prying curiosity would get no good to himself, while the Daimones or presiding deities of the place bore no grudge against the wayfarer who might find himself accidentally belated in the field. — G. W. Cos. Age shakes Athena's tower, hut spares gray Marathon. The battle-field, where Persia's victim horde First hewed heneath the hrunt of Hellas' sword. As on the mom to distant gloiy dear. When Marathon became a magic word; Which uttered, to the hearer's eye appear The camp, the host, the fight, the conqueror's career. The flying Mede, his shaftless broken bow ; The fiery Greek, his red pursuing spear; Mountains above, Earth's, Ocean's plain below, Death in the front, Destruction in the rear ! Such was the scene. " ' Bteon. I could believe that under such a sky. Thus grave, thus streakt with thunderlight of yore, The small Athenian troop rushed onward, more As Bacchanals than men about to die. How weak that massive, motley enemy Seemed to those hearts, full-fed on that high lore, Which for their use, in his melodious store. Old Homer had laid up immortally. Thus Marathon was Troy, — thus here again They were at issue with the barbarous Bast, And favoring Gods spoke out, and walkt the plain; And every man was an anointed priest Of Nemesis, empowered to chastise The rampant insolence that would not be made wise. LoED Houghton. When the traveller pauses on the plains of Marathon, what are the emotions which most strongly agitate his breast? Not, I imagine, that Grecian skill and Grecian valor were here most signally dis- played ; but that Greece herself was here saved. It is because to this spot, and to the event which has rendered it immortal, he refers all the succeeding glories of the republic. It is because if that day had gone otherwise, Greece had perished. It is because he perceives that her philosophers and orators, her poets and painters, her sculptors FIFTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 17 and arcliitects, her governments and free institutions, point back- ward to Marathon, and that their future existence seems to have been suspended on the contingency, whether the Persian or the Greek banner should wave victorious in the beams of that day's setting sun. — Daniel Webster. Miltiades, thy victories Must every Persian own, And hallowed by thy prowess lies The field of Marathon. (From the Greek. ) Tr. Anon. The mountains look on Marathon, And Marathon looks on the sea; And musing there an hour alone, I dreamed that Greece might still be free ; For, standing on the Persians' grave, I could not deem myself a slave. Byeon. Xerxes, the son and successor of Darius, invaded Greece ten years after the battle of Marathon with an immense force by sea and land (2,500,000 men according to Herodo- tus). Then was fought the memorable battle ' . Thermopylae. of Thermopylae [gates of the hot springs, from hot springs situated there), in which the Spartan Leonidas with a mere handful of men held the whole Persian army at bay in the narrow pass of Thermopylae; but, a way around the pass being shown the Persians by a treacherous Greek, they were able to attack Leonidas in the rear. Part of the Greek forces retreated on learning of this move- ment of the Persians, but Leonidas with three hundred Spartans and seven hundred Thespians refused to retreat, and, advancing against the overwhelming numbers of the enemy, sold their lives as dearly as possible. This little " remnant of the Greeks, armed only with a few swords, stood a butt for the arrows, the javelins, and the stones of the enemy, which at length overwhelmed them. Wbere they fell they were afterwards buried ; their 2 18 FIFTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. tomb, as Siinonides sings, was an altar, a sanctuary in which Greece revered the memory of her second founders.'' Even Greece can boast but one Thermopylae. Btbon. Suppose the three hundred heroes at Thermopylse had paired off with three hundred Persians ; would it have been all the same to Greece, and to history? — Emebson. The exact number of the invading army cannot be determined ; but we may safely conclude from all the circumstances of the case, that it was the largest ever assembled at any period of history. — W. Smith. The Greeks fought with reckless bravery and desperation against this superior host, until at length their spears were broken, and they had no weapons left except their swords. It was at this juncture that Leonidas himself was slain, and around his body the battle became fiercer than ever. . . . They were thus surrounded, over- whelmed with missiles, and slain to a man ; not losing courage even to the last, but defending themselves with their remaining daggers, with their unarmed hands, and even with their mouths. Thus perished Leonidas with his heroic comrades, — three hundred Spar- tans and seven hundred Thespians. — Grote. Leonidas, and his three hundred companions, devoted their lives at Thermopylae ; but the education of the infant, the boy, and the man, had prepared, and almost insured, this memorable sacrifice ; and each Spartan would approve, rather than admire, an act of duty, of which himself and eight thousand of his fellow-citizens were equally capable. — Gibbon. Him, who reversed the laws great nature gave. Sailed o'er the continent, and walked the wave, Three hundred spears from Sparta's iron plain. Have stopped — oh blush, ye mountains, and thou main ! Pakmenio. Tr. Merivale. Leonidas recalling, That chief of ancient song, Who saved ye once from falling, The terrible, the strong ! Who made that bold diversion In old Thermopylse, FIFTH CENTUKY BEFORE CHRIST. 19 And warring with the Persian To keep his country free ; With his three hundred waging The tattle, long he stood, And, like a lion raging, Expired in seas of blood. Ehtgas. (Greek war-song.) Tr. Byron Upon their tomb was this inscription : — " Here once, from Pelops' sea-girt region brought, Four thousand men three hostile millions fought." This was applied to them all collectively. The Spartans were thus distiaguished : — " Go, stranger, and to list'ning Spartans tell, That here, obedient to their laws, we fell." i Herodotus. Of those who at Thermopylae were slain, Glorious the doom, and beautiful the lot ; Their tomb an altar : men from tears refrain. To honor them ; and praise, but mourn them not. Such sepulchre nor drear decay Nor all-destroying time shall waste ; this right have they. Within their grave the home-bred glory Of Greece was laid ; this witness gives Leonidas the Spartan, in whose story A wreath of famous virtue ever lives. SiMONiDES. Tr. Sterling. These, too, defenders of their country fell ; Their mighty souls to gloomy death betrayed: Immortal is their fame who, suffering well, Of Ossa's dust a glorious garment made. .fflsoHYLUS. Tr. Merivale. Greatly to die, if this be glory's height. For the fair meed we own our fortune kind; For Greece and Liberty we plunged to-night. And left a never-dying name behind. SmONlDES. Tr. R. Bland. I It is but two lines, — and all Greece, for centuries, had them by heart. She forgot them, and " Greece was living Greece no more." Christopher North. 20 FIFTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. Shout for the mighty men Who died along this shore, Who died within this mountain's glen ! For never nohler chieftain's head Was laid on valor's crimson bed. Nor ever prouder gore Sprang forth, than theirs who won the day Upon thy strand, Thermopylae ! Geobge Cbolt. Earth ! render back from out thy breast A remnant of our Spartan dead ! Of the three hundred, grant but three To make a new Thermopyte ! Bteon. Xerxes, having taken the pass of Thermopylae, moved towards Athens, whence the inhabitants had fled, taking refuge in their ships, according to their interpre- tation of a decree of the oracle that they must seek safety in their " wooden walls." The Persians burned Athens, and the fate of Greece was then decided by the naval battle of Salamis (480 b. c), which resulted in a complete victory for the Greeks. So far as numbers are concerned, be well assured tliat the barba- rians had the advantage with their ships ; for the whole number of those of the Greeks amounted to ten squadrons of thirty, and besides these there were ten of surpassing excellence. — ^schylus. Xerxes, I know, did into battle lead One thousand ships ; of more than usual speed Seven and two hundred. So it is agreed. .^SOHYLUS. A very great part of the Barbarian [Persian] fleet was torn in pieces at Salamis, principally by the Athenians and the people of Mgma.. The event could not well be otherwise. The Greeks fought in order, and preserved their ranks ; the Barbarians without either regularity or judgment. — Herodotus. And as the Persians fought in a narrow arm of the sea, and could bring but part of their fleet to fight, and feU foul of one another, the FIFTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 21 Greeks thus equalled them in strength, and fought with them till the evening, forced them back, and obtained, as says Simonides, that noble and famous victory, than which neither amongst the Greeks nor Bar- barians was ever known a more glorious exploit on the seas ; by the joiut valor, indeed, and zeal of all who fought, but by the wisdom and sagacity of Themistocles. — Plutarch. And Xerxes shrieked aloud, when he saw the depth of his calam- ities; for he had a seat that afforded a clear prospect of the whole armament, a high hill near the ocean brine ; and having rent his clothes, and uttered a shrill wail, after issuing orders quickly to the land forces, he dismisses them in disorderly flight. — jEschylus. [jEschylus, who was an eyewitness, gives an animated description of the battle of Salamis ia his tragedy of " The Persians " (Persce).'} A king sat on the rocky brow Which looks o'er sea-horn Salamis; And ships by thousands lay below, And men in nations, — all were his ! He counted them at break of day, And when the sun set, where were they ? Btron. The three great tragic poets of Athens were singularly connected together by the battle of Salamis. ^schylus, in the heroic vigor of his life, fought there ; Euripides, whose parents had fled from Athens on the approach of the Persians, was born in Salamis, probably on the day of the battle ; and Sophocles, a beautiful boy of fifteen or six- teen, danced to the choral song of Simonides, in which the victory was celebrated. — Felton. The battle of Salamis, with the battles of Plataea and Mycale, in the next year, decided the war, and the Persians were driven out of Greece forever, and ^^^^^ finally, after several years, were driven wholly the Per- out of Europe. The arbitrary rule oi an ir- responsible despot was overcome by the spirit of vol- untary obedience to law, the freedom of Greece was maintained, and the future civilization of Europe was secured. 22 FIFTH CENTURY BEFOEE CHRIST. Perhaps there is no event in the history of the world, which has been so momentous in its consequences, so vital in its effects, as the repulse of the Persian invasion of Greece by Xerxes. — Alison. In gay hostility and barbarous pride, With half mankind embattled at his side, Great Xerxes comes to seize the certain prey. And starves exhausted regions in his way ; Attendant Flattery counts his myriads o'er. Till counted myriads soothe his pride no more ; Fresh praise is tried till madness fires his mind, The waves he lashes, and enchains the wind ; New powers are claimed, new powers are still bestowed, Till rude resistance lops the spreading god ; The daring Greeks deride the martial show, And heap their valleys with the gaudy foe ; The insulted sea with humbler thoughts he gains, A single skiff to speed his flight remains ; The incumbered oar scarce leaves the dreaded coast Through purple billows and a floating host. ^ Johnson. When in the wantonness of kingly pride, Vain Xerxes spurred his war-horse through the tide. And bore his fleet o'er mountain-tops, — e'en there The Eternal bade his evil heart despair : O'er Hellespont and Athos' marble head, More than a god he came, less than a man he fled. Alamanki. Tr. De Vera. The conquest of Europe was no longer a vision which could cheat the fancy of the lord of Asia. The will and energy of Athens, aided by the rugged discipline of Sparta, had foiled the great enter- prise through which the Barbarian despot sought to repress in the deadly bonds of Persian thraldom the intellect and freedom of the world. — G.W. Cox. The effeminacy of the Persians ... was not the cause of their ruin, but the unwieldy, unorganized character of their host, when opposed to the Greek organization ; i. e., the superior principle sub- dued the inferior. ... It is easy to perceive how the small but well-disciplined Greek forces, inspired by the same spirit, and with unequalled leadership, were able to withstand the vast but disorderly Persian hosts. — Hegel. These are world-historical victories ; they were the salvation of FIFTH CENTUKY BEFORE CHRIST. 23 culture and spiritual vigor, and they rendered tie Asiatic prin- ciple powerless. ... In the case before us, the interest of the world's history hung trembling in the balance. Oriental despotism — a world united under one lord and sovereign — on the one side, and separate states — insignificant in extent and resources, but ani- mated by free individuality — on the other side, stood front to front in array of battle. Never in history has the superiority of spiritual power over material bulk — and that of no contemptible amount — been made so gloriously manifest. This war, and the subsequent development of the states which took the lead in it, is the most brilliant period of Greece. — Hegel. After the retreat of Xerxes and the fall of Mardonius, national pride rendered the separation between the Greeks and the Barba- rians complete. The conquerors considered themselves men of a superior breed, — men who, in their intercourse with the neighboring nations, were to teach, and not to learn. They looked for nothing out of themselves. — Ma caul ay. When the deluge of the Persian arms rolled back to its eastern bed, and the world was once more comparatively at rest, the conti- nent of Greece rose visibly and majestically above the rest of the civ- ilized earth. Afar in the Latian plains, the infant state of Rome was silently and obscurely struggling into strength against the neighbor- ing and petty states in which the old Etrurian civilization was rapidly passing to decay. The genius of Gaul and Germany, yet unredeemed from barbarism, lay scarce known, save where colonized by Greeks, in the gloom of its woods and wastes. The pride of Carthage had been broken by a signal defeat in Sicily. . . . The ambition of Per- sia, still the great monarchy of the world, was permanently checked and crippled ; the strength of generations had been wasted, and the immense extent of the empire only served yet more to sustain the general peace, from the exhaustion of its forces. The defeat of Xer- xes paralyzed the East. Thus Greece was left secure, and at liberty to enjoy the tranquillity it had acquired, and to direct to the arts of peace the novel and amazing energies which had been prompted by the dangers and exalted by the victories of wax. — Bulweb. 24 FIFTH CENTUEY BEFORE CHEIST. THE AGE OF PEEICLES. Pericles the Olympian lightened, thundered, roused up all Greece. — Aristophanes. He became sole master of Athens, he kept the public good in his eye, and pursued the straight path of honor. — Plutarch. During the half-century following the Persian War (480-430 B. c), Athens, mainly in consequence of the prominent part she had played in that war, maintained a supremacy over the other Greek states, and rose to a re- markable degree of power and prosperity. This period is often known as the Age of Pericles, from the great states- man of that name, then the leader at Athens. All the time that he [Pericles] stood at the head of the state, he governed it with moderation, and watched over its safety. Under him it rose to the highest pitch of greatness. The cause of his in- fluence was that he was powerful in dignity of character and wisdom; that he proved himself to be pre-eminently the most incorruptible of men ; and that he restrained the people freely, and led them, instead of being led by them. — Thuctdides. The blossoming forth of Greek genius makes this the most illustrious era in Grecian history, and one of the most brilliant in the history of the world. It should be remembered, however, that both the unsurpassed litera- ture and the unrivalled art then produced were, " to some extent, the work of a select few, who stood apart from the crowd, as they have done in other golden periods." An age hath been when Earth was proud Of lustre too intense To be sustained. Wordsworth. FIFTH CENTUEY BEFOEE CHRIST. 25 With the administration of Athenian democracy by Pericles his- tory opens its most resplendent page, — the page which should be most resplendent if the historian were competent to do justice to what records of its incidents — unhappily too scanty — have been preserved and recovered. . . . When we consider the marvellous out- burst of genius that at this time distinguished Athens, and brought arts suddenly not alone to a great advance, but in fact to absolute perfec- tion, — perfection at least never siace surpassed, — we cannot but be grateful even to this day that the passion and the power should so have united iu Pericles. — W. W. Lloyd. In brief, I may call the city the school of Greece, and the citizen of Athens is personally best fitted, by variety of talent, for the grace- ful performance of all the duties of life. — Pericles. The ideal of a Grecian education, according to Plato, Isocrates, and Aristotle, combiued bodily strength and activity, study, and elo- quence, — the qualities of the athlete, the soldier, the scholar, and the orator. And these accomplishments were brought into constant activity by the pursuits and habits of Athenian life. — Mat. Athenes, aveo son suffrage universel, n'^tait done, aprfes tout, qu'une republique aristocratique, ou. tous les nobles avaient un droit 6gal au gouvemement. — De Tocqdeville. There has never been another political society in the world, in which the average of the individual citizen stood so high as it did under the Athenian democracy in the days of its greatness. — Feeeman. Notwithstanding the defects of the social system and moral ideas of antiquity, the practice of the dicastery and the ecclesia raised the intellectual standard of an average Athenian citizen far beyond any- thing of which there is yet an example in any other mass of men, ancient or modem. — Mill. Nowhere else is to be found a state so small in its origin, and yet so great in its progress ; so contracted in its territory, and yet so gigantic in its achievements ; so limited in numbers, and yet so im- mortal in genius. Its dominions on the continent of Greece did not exceed an English county; its free inhabitants never amounted to thirty thousand citizens, and yet these inconsiderable numbers have filled the world with their renown : poetry, philosophy, architecture, 26 FIFTH CEKTUEY BEFOEE CHRIST. sculpture, tragedy, comedy, geometry, physics, history, politics, almost date their origin from Athenian genius ; and the monuments of art with which they have overspread the world still form the standard of taste in every civilized nation on earth. — Alison. There seems to be, on the contrary, every reason to believe that, in general intelligence, the Athenian populace far surpassed the lower orders of any community that has ever existed. It must be considered, that to be a citizen was to be a legislator, a soldier, a judge, — one upon whose voice might depend the fate of the wealth- iest tributary state, of the most eminent public man. The lowest offices, both of agriculture and of trade, were, in common, performed by slaves. The commonwealth supplied its meanest members with the support of life, the opportunity of leisure, and the means of amusement. Books were indeed few, but they were excellent ; and they were accurately known. Books, however, were the least part of the education of an Athenian citizen. Let us, for a moment, trans- port ourselves, in thought, to that glorious city. Let us imagine that we are entering its gates, in the time of its power and glory. A crowd is assembled round a portico. All are gazing with delight at the entablature, for Phidias is putting up the frieze. We turn into another street ; a rhapsodist is reciting there ; men, women, children, are thronging round hun ; the tears are running down their cheeks ; their eyes are fixed ; their very breath is still ; for he is telling how Priam fell at the feet of Achilles, and kissed those hands — the terrible, the murderous — which had slain so many of his sons. We enter the public place ; there is a ring of youths, all leaning forward, with sparkling eyes, and gestures of expectation. Socrates is pitted against the famous Atheist, from Ionia, and has just brought him to a contradiction in terras. But we are inter- rupted. The herald is crying, "Room for the Prytanes." The general assembly is to meet. The people are swarming in on every side. Proclamation is made, — " Who wishes to speak ? " There is a shout, and a clapping of hands, — Pericles is mounting the stand. Then for a play of Sophocles, and away to sup with Aspasia. I know of no modern -university which has so excellent a system of education. — Macaulat. If one of us were transported to Periclean Athens, provided he were a man of high culture, he would find life and manners strangely like our own, strangely modem, as he might term it. The thoughts and FIFTH CENTUKY BEFORE CHRIST. 27 feelings of modern life would be there without the appliances, and the high standard of general culture would more than counter- balance sundry wants in material comfort. For these reasons Greek social life must be far more interesting to general readers than any other phase of ancient history. ... It was an age of great hurry and prodigious development, when event after event so came crowding upon the people, that they were under the perpetual excitement of some new acquisition or some unexpected danger. ... So they became a city full of public men, if I may so say, engrossed with state service and with politics, men of httle leisure, and of small curiosity in spec- ulating upon the reasons of things, in fact no theorists, but stern men of action, full of earnestness in their lives and allowing themselves little relaxation. I am here speaking of the general tone of Peri- clean society. . . . The age of Pericles, including the whole period between the battles of Platsea and jEgospotamos, was an age of rapid political development, possibly also at Athens of literary and cer- tainly of artistic development ; but at Athens, and perhaps throughout Greece, one of social and moral stagnation. — Mahaffy. In strengthening and ornamenting Athens, in developing the fuU activity of her citizens, in providing temples, religious offerings, works of art, solemn festivals, all of surpassing attraction, — he [Peri- cles] intended to exalt her into something greater than an imperial city with numerous dependent allies. He wished to make her the centre of Grecian feeling, the stimulus of Grecian intellect, and the type of strong democratical patriotism combined with fuU liberty of individual taste and aspiration. He wished not merely to retain the adherence of the subject states, but to attract the admiration and spontaneous deference of independent neighbors, so as to procure for Athens a moral ascendency much beyond the range of her direct power. — Grotb. The freedom which gave birth to great events, political changes, and jealousy among the Greeks, planted, as it were in the very pro- duction of these effects, the germ of noble and elevated sentiments. As the sight of the boundless surface of the sea, and the dashing of its proud waves upon the rocky shore, expands our views and carries the soul away from, and above, inferior objects, so it was impossi- ble to think ignobly in the presence of deeds so great and men so distinguished. The Greeks, in their palmy days, were a thinking people. — WlNCKBLMAHN. 28 FIFTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. It would be easy to show that the ancient standard of civilization never reached the heights of many modern states. The people were ignorant, vicious, and poor, or degraded to abject slavery, — slavery itself the sum of all injustice and all vice. And even the most illus- trious characters, whose names still shine from that distant night with stellar brightness, were little more than splendid barbarians. Architecture, sculpture, painting, and vases of exquisite perfection, attested their appreciation of the beauty of form ; but they were strangers to the useful arts, as well as to the comforts and virtues of home. Abounding in what to us are luxuries of life, they had not what to us are its necessaries. — Chaeles Sumner. With the Athenians, selfishness was the rule of all their actions. They were haughty and quarrelsome with their neighbors ; they were cruel to their enemies ; they were unfair and ungenerous to their allies ; they were unjust to one another. If an oligarchy ruled, they oppressed the people ; if the democracy was in the ascendant, they pressed heavily upon the rich : they had no consideration, or sense of responsibility towards others, while they squandered the revenues of the state upon their own amusements. Such faults, indeed, were not peculiar to the Athenians — who were far more generous and liberal than their Spartan rivals — nor to the Greeks. They were the faults of human nature, unregenerated by a pure religion or a high standard of morals, and of an age in which violence and wrong were the law of nations. — Mat. If any competent judge of moral actions will contemplate their character without prejudice, and unbiassed by their high intellectual endowments, he will find that their private life was unstable and devoid of virtue ; that their public life was a tissue of restless in- trigues and evil passions ; and, what was the worst of all, that there existed to a far greater degree than in the Christian world, a want of moral principle, and a harshness and cruelty in the popular mind. — Boeckh. Athens, the stately- walled, magnificent ! Proem most beauteous for Alcmseon's race, Whereon to lay the base Of sacred song, their steeds' proud ornament I For what more eminent Country or home shall I in Greoia name, Inhabited ? PlHBAK. Tr. Gary. FIFTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 29 Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts And eloquence, native to famous wits. Or hospitable, in her sweet recess, City or suburban, studious walks and shades. Milton. This was the ruler of the land When Athens was the land of fame ; This was the light that led the band When each was like a living flame ; The centre of earth's noblest ring, — Of more than men the more than king. He perished, but his wreath was won, — He perished in his height of fame ; Then sunk the cloud on Athens' sun, Yet stiU she conquered in his name. FtUed with his soul, she could not die ; Her conquest was posterity ! George Ckolt. During this period the city was adorned with those public buildings, temples, and other works of art which were the glory of the Periclean Age, and which the world has ever since admired. With unrivalled skiU, As nicest observation furnished hints For studious fancy, did his hand bestow On fluent Operations a fixed Shape ; Metal or Stone. Wordsworth. In history, tlie great moment is when the savage is just ceasing to be a savage, with all his hairy Pelasgic strength directed on his opening sense of beauty ; — and you have Pericles and Phidias, — not yet passed over into the Corinthian civility. — Bmbeson. ,The independence of Greece is to be regarded as the most promi- nent of the causes, originating in its constitution and government, of its superiority in art. — Winckelmann. Now, we cannot direct art among a people; we can only create an atmosphere favorable to its development. It is the greatest and the imperishable glory of Greece that her civilization admirably under- stood this principle. — Viollet-le-Duc. 30 FDTH CENTUEY BEFORE CHRIST. The Greeks knew that an imaginative people must be addressed in the language of imagination ; that they must be pleased, and would not be content with the mere satisfaction of material needs. If their cities still preserve in the midst of their ruins a perfume of art, it is because art was not among them a mere superfluous decoration ; it ruled each structure, as a master, even from the laying of the corner-stone ; nay, it presided at the foundation of the city. — VIOLLET-LE-DUC. That which gave most pleasure and ornament to the city of Athens, and the greatest admiration and even astonishment to all strangers, and that which now is Greece's only evidence that the power she boasts of and her ancient wealth are no romance or idle story, was his [Pericles'] construction of the public and sacred build- ings. The materials were stone, brass, ivory, gold, ebony, cypress- wood ; and the arts or trades that wrought and fashioned them were smiths and carpenters, moulders, founders and braziers, stone-cutters, dyers, goldsmiths, ivory-workers, painters, embroiderers, turners ; those again that conveyed them to the town for use, merchants and mariners and ship-masters, by sea and by land, cartwrights, cattle-breeders, wagoners, ropemakers, flax-workers, shoemakers and leather-dressers, roadmakers, miners. Thus, to say all in a word, the occasions and services of these public works distributed plenty through every age and condition. As then the works grew up, no less stately in size than exquisite in form, the workmen striving to outvie the material and the design with the beauty of their work- manship, yet the most wonderful thing of all was the rapidity of their execution. Undertakings, any one of which singly might have required, they thought, for their completion, several successions and ages of men, were every one of them accomplished in the height and prime of one man's political service. Pericles' works are especially admired, as having been made quickly, to last long.' There is a sort of bloom of newness upon those works of his, preserving them from the touch of time, as if they had some perennial spirit and undying vitality mingled in the composition of them. — Plutarch. And for the beauty and magnificence of temples and public edifices with which he adorned his country, it must be confessed, that all the ornaments and structures of Rome, to the time of the Caesars, had nothing to compare, either in greatness of design or of expense, with the lustre of those which Pericles only erected at Athens. — Plutarch. FIFTH CENTUEY BEFORE CHRIST. 31 The miracles of that day resulted from the enthusiasm of a popu- lation yet young — full of the first ardor for the beautiful — dedi- cating to the state, as to a mistress, the trophies honorably won, or the treasures injuriously extorted, — and uniting the resources of a nation with the energy of an individual, because the toil, the cost, were borne by those who succeeded to the enjoyment and arrogated the glory. — Bulwer. The appearance of the Parthenon testifies more loudly than his- tory itseK to the greatness of this people. Pericles will never die 1 What a civilization was that which found a great man to decree, an architect to conceive, a sculptor to adorn, statuaries to execute, workmen to carve, and a people to pay for and maintain such an edifice. — Lamahtine. Earth proudly wears the Parthenon As tlie best gem upon her zone. Emebson. This same period of expanding and stimulating Athe- nian democracy which produced the marvellous works of Greek art, called forth a similar creative genius in oratory, in dramatic poetry, and in philosophical speculation. A nation in which the fine arts had attained their highest excel- lence, but in which philosophy was still in its infancy.- — Macadlat. The last half of this century is commonly known in the history of philosophy as the age of Socrates and the sophists. From the intellectual stimulus im- parted by Socrates, sprang all the great leaders of Greek speculative thought in the age immediately follow- ing, and those also of later times. The individual inilu-* ence of Socrates contributed to a permanent enlargement of the horizon of thought and an improvement in the methods of investigation in a degree which has never been eq[uaUed. Some of them were philosophical teachers of the highest worth and accomplishments ; while others, degenerate professors of wisdom, 32 FIFTH CENTUEY BEFORE CHRIST. sougM only to impart the false and gUttering craft of tickling the fancy by a show of knowledge, without real knowledge, and of cor- rupting the heart by confounding good and evil, or teaching that pleasure is good and might is right. — Felton. There were no common doctrines or principles or methods be- longing to them [the sophists] ; even the name by which they are known did not belong to them, any more than to Socrates and others ; they had nothing in common except their profession, as paid teachers, qualifying young men "to think, speak, and act" — these are the words of Isocrates, and better words it would not be easy to find — with credit to themselves as citizens. — Gbotb. He [Socrates] may be called the father of Philosophy. — CiCBEO. To sage pMlosophy next lend thine ear, From heaven descended to the low-rooft house Of Socrates ; see there his tenement, Whom well inspired the oracle pronounced Wisest of men; from whose mouth issued forth Mellifluous streams that watered all the schools , Of Academics old and new, with those Sumamed Peripatetics, and the sect Epicurean, and the Stoic severe. Milton. THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR The supremacy over the other states of Greece which Athens attained after the Persian War, and maintained during the Age of Pericles, with her constant prosperity and unparalleled growth, raised up jealousy and hatred against her, and during that brilliant period were sown the seeds of a civil warfare which was destined to destroy the power and splendor of Greece. The other leading state of Greece was Sparta, and there was a general gravitation in the different cities to these two centres of Grecian life, those in which democratic sentiments prevailed looking to FIFTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 33 Athens for leadership, the rest (those in which the aristo- cratic or oligarchical element prevailed) regarding them- selves as the natural allies of Sparta. The conflict between these two opposing principles, democracy and oligarchy, broke out in 431 b. c, and is known as the Peloponnesian War. Athens was the stronger by sea, Sparta by land. How the Greeks themselves destroyed their own national strength in this grand struggle between Athens and Sparta, between aris- tocracy and democracy, this, as portrayed by the great historians of antiquity, is even still one of the most instructive historic pic- tures. The Greek nation, as a nation, perished utterly through this mutual destruction of its two mightiest and most distinguished nations. — Schlegel. It grieves me to behold the commonwealth. Things were not thus administered of old ; Then men of sense and virtue, men whose merits Gave them consideration in the state. Held the first offices : to such we howed As to the gods, — and gods indeed they were, — For imder their wise counsels we enjoyed Security and peace. But now, alas ! We have no other guide in our elections Save chance, blind chance, and on whatever head It falls, though worst and meanest of mankind. Up starts he a great man, and is at once Installed prime Rogue and Minister of State. EnpoLis, Altered Condition of Athens. Tr. Peter. Perhaps the most important and decisive event of the war was an attack made (415 b. c.) by Athens upon Syra- cuse in Sicily, when the Spartans helped the Syracusans, and which resulted in the total failure of the expedition (413 B. c), and great damage to the power of Athens. The Athenians had sent a more powerful armament against Sicily than had ever before been turned out in the history of Greece. The consequences of the defeat of this force were felt all over Greece, the enemies of Athens were 3 34 FIFTH CENTURY BEFOEB CHEIST. stimulated to mucli greater activity, and all thought that the fate of that city was sealed. That downfall [of Athens] had one great cause, — we may almost say, one single cause, — the SiciKan expedition. — Gbote. The Romans knew not, and could not know, how deeply the greatness of their own posterity, and the fate of the whole Western world, were involved in the destruction of the fleet of Athens in the harbor of Syracuse. Had that great expedition proved victorioiis, the energies of Greece during the next eventful century would have found their field in the West no less than in the East; Greece, and not Rome, might have conquered Carthage ; Greek instead of Latin might have been at this day the principal element of the language of Spain, of France, and of Italy; and the laws of Athens, rather than of Rome, might be the foundation of the law of the civilized world. — Aenold. After the S3rracusan disaster . . . Athens is like Patroclus in the " Iliad," after Apollo has stunned him by a blow on the back and loosened" his armor. Nothing but the slackness of her enemies allowed her tiipe for a partial recovery, so as to make increased heroism a substitute for impaired force, even against doubled and tripled difficulties. And the years of struggle which she now went through are among the most glorious events in her history. — Gbote. At last, in 404 b. c, at the battle of ^Egospotamos, the defeat of the once powerful city of Athens and the demo- lition of the great fabric of the Athenian Empire was accomplished by the Spartan confederacy, with much pecuniary help from the young Persian prince, Cyrus. Thus passed away the wonderful phenomenon of that great Athenian supremacy and splendor which Themistocles had shaped, and which Pericles sought to render impreg- nable. The glories of Athens had culminated, and were henceforth destined to decline. The natural tendency of the Grecian world was towards the independence and separation of the various states, and FIFTH CENTURY BEFOEE CHRIST. 35 the rise and continuance of the Athenian Empire has been characterized as " a most extraordinary accident." The brilliant meteor of Athenian greatness disappeared from the world almost as soon as the bloody phantasmagoria of the French Revolution. In half a century after they arose, naught remained of either but the -works of genius they had produced, and the deeds of glory they had done. — Alison. The one century of Athenian greatness, from the expulsion of the tyrants to the defeat of ^gospotamos (508-405 b. c), is worth a miUennium of the life of Egypt or Assyria. — Pebeman. Ancient of days ! august Athena ! where, Where are thy men of might ? thy grand in soul ? Gone, glimmering through the dream of things that were: First in the race that led to glory's goal, They won, and passed away — is this the whole ? A school-boy's tale, the wonder of an hour ? The warrior's weapon and the sophist's stole Are sought in vain, and o'er each mouldering tower. Dim with the mist of years, gray flits the shade of power. Btkon. Gone are the glorious Greeks of old, Glorious in mien and mind ; Their bones are mingled with the mould, Their dust is on the wind; The forms they hewed from living stone Survive the waste of years, alone, And, scattered with their ashes, show What greatness perished long ago. Bryant. THE INTELLECTUAL STATE OF GREECE. Eyen the disastrous Peloponnesian War, which lasted twenty-seven years, did not destroy the impulse given to the Greek intellect during the preceding age, and literature, oratory, and philosophy flourished. 36 FIFTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. Until the dawa of the Christian era, more than four centuries later, it would not be possible to fix on any epoch more illustrative of Greek intellect or Greek refinement than precisely that youth of Plato, which united itself by immediate consecutive succession to the most brilliant section in the administration of Pericles. It was, in fact, throughout the course of the Peloponnesian War — the one sole war that divided the whole household of Greece against itself, giving motive to efforts, and dignity to personal competitions — contemporary with Xenophon and the younger Cyrus, during the manhood of Alcibiades, and the declining years of Socrates — amongst such coevals and such circumstances of war and revolutionary truce — that Plato passed his fervent youth. The bright sunset of Peri- cles still burned in the Athenian heavens ; the gorgeous tragedy and the luxmiant comedy, so recently created, were now in full possession of the Athenian stage ; the city was yet fresh from the hands of its creators, — Pericles and Phidias ; the fine arts were towering into their meridian altitude ; and about the period when Plato might be considered an adult, sui juris, that is, just four hundred and ten years before the birth of Christ, the Grecian intellect might be said to culminate in Athens. Any more favorable era for estimating the Greek character cannot, we presume, be suggested. For, although personally there might be a brighter constellation gathered about Pericles, at a date twenty-five years antecedent to this era of Plato's maturity, still, as regarded the results upon the collective populace of Athens, that must have become most conspicuous and palpable in the generation immediately succeeding. — De Quincet. jEschylus died twenty-four years before the war broke out ; but Sophocles was at the height of his splendid renown ; Euripides, a little yoimger, shared with him the mastery of the tragic stage ; Aristophanes began his brilliant dramatic career four years after the war commenced ; and other men, of genius only inferior to theirs, in tragedy and comedy, appeared annually in competition for the honors of the dramatic victory and an inscription on a monument in the Street of the Tripods. Euripides died two years, and Sophocles one, before the surrender of Athens ; but Aristophanes survived it, and continued his dramatic labors under the restored democracy. The most brilliant period of dramatic literature was therefore just in the midst of the Peloponnesian War. — Felton. FIFTH CENTURY BEFOKE CHEIST. 37 THE SUPEEMACT OF SPAETA. Spaeta was now at the head of Greece, and for thirty- four years (405 - 371 b. c.) wielded power over the Greek states. Her sway was harsh and despotic. The Lacedaemonians are now the presidents of Greece ; and even any single private Lacedaemonian can accomplish what he pleases. — Xenophon. We shall be warranted in afilrming that the first years of the Spartan Empire which followed upon the victory of jEgospotamos were years of all-pervading tyranny and multifarious intestine calamity such as Greece had never before endured. — Grote. THE EETEEAT OF THE TEK THOUSAND. After the Peloponnesian War, some of the Greeks were hired by Cyrus, the Persian prince, to help him in an attempt to wrest the Persian throne from his brother Artaxerxes. The attempt failed, and the memorable re- treat (400 B. c.) homeward of the Greeks is famous as the Eetreat of the Ten Thousand. Xenophon and his Ten Thousand were quite equal to what they attempted, and did it ; so equal, that it was not suspected to be a grand and inimitable exploit. Yet there stands that fact unrepeated, a high-water mark in military history. — Emerson. Who does not see that this is a gang of great boys, with such a code of honor and such lax discipline as great boys have ? — Emerson. This incident, lying apart from the main stream of Grecian affairs, would form an item, strictly speaking, in Persian history rather than in Grecian. But its effects on the Greek mind, and upon the future 38 FIFTH CENTUET BEFORE CHEIST. course of Grecian affairs, were numerous and important ; while as an illustration of Hellenic character and competence, measured against that of the contemporary Asiatics, it stands pre-eminent and full of instruction. — Geotb. The return to Greece of ten thousand men who had defeated the hosts of the Great King in the centre of his dominions, and fought their way back to the sea without suffering more than the common casualties of war, was an evidence of weakness which could not but become generally known, and of which all could feel the force. . . . If in late autumn and midwinter a smaE Greek army, without maps or guides, could make its way for a thousand mUes through Asia, and encounter no foe over whom it could not easily triumph, it was clear that the fabric of Persian power was rotten, and would coUapse on the first serious attack. StiQ, it wiU not be necessary to trace in detail the steps of the retreat. It was the fact of the re- turn, rather than the mode of its accomplishment, which importantly affected the subsequent history of Persia. — Eawlinson. It was the first symptom of the repulsion of the tide of conquest, which had in former times flowed from east to west, and the har- binger of those future victorious expeditions into Asia which were to be conducted by AgesUaus and Alexander the Great. — W. Smith. EOME. EoME during this century was merely a little settlement on the banks of the Tiber and in the infancy of her power. Her history at this time is obscure, and often uncertain, and fuU confidence cannot be placed in the details of events. Rome in its origin was a mere municipality, a corporation. The Roman government was nothing more than an assemblage of institu- tions suitable to a population enclosed within the walls of a city ; that is to say, they were municvpal institutions ; — this was their distinctive character. — GnizoT. FIFTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 39 She was chiefly occupied by a straggle for rights and privileges between the Patricians, " that is, the old citizens, the descendants of the first settlers," and the Plebeians, " the descendants of those who came in afterwards." As the light begins to brighten about the cradle of the Roman institutions, we discover distinct traces of the existence within their pale, not of two classes only, — the warriors and their subjects, — but of a third also, occupying a position between the others, sharing in the name, and, in an inferior degree, in the rights and privileges of the dominant class. The Patricians and Plebeians of Rome repre- sent, at this early period, two races of different origin, the former of which has admitted the other, whether on compulsion or by conces- sion, after a fruitless resistance or by spontaneous arrangement, to a certain prescribed share in the privileges of government and the rights of conquest. — Merivale. The proudest and most perfect separation which can be found in any age or country, between the nobles and the people, is perhaps that of the Patricians and the Plebeians, as it was established in the first age of the Roman republic. Wealth and honors, the offices of the state, and the ceremonies of religion were almost exclusively possessed by the former, who, preserving the purity of their blood with the most insulting jealousy, held their clients in a condition of specious vassalage. — Gibbon. The Plebeians constituted in Rome the principle of extension, con- quest, and aggregation ; the Patricians, that of exclusion, unity, and national individuality. "Without the Plebeians, Rome could not have conquered and adopted the world ; without the Patricians, she would have had no personal character, no original life, she would not have been Rome. — Michelbt. AhoutSOOB.C. K&liQ-fyp^ ^nntiTiS Co,Boitati . FOURTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 1 (400 - 300.) The ipportaat movement of the century is the rise and dissolutpn of the huge Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Gre^ ALExiNDEE's Empire. Macedonia becomes of impor- tance unler Philip, who causes her to be acknowledged as a Greek state (that country having become reduced to a conditionof general exhaustion), and then makes her the chief stale of Greece. His son Alexander (the Great) invades Hrsia (see the preceding map), conquers the whole Persian Bnpire between 334 B. c. and 330 B. c, and dies in 323 B. C, Vhaving made greater conquests than were ever made by ay European prince before or after him." The extent of Is dominion is shown upon the accompanying map by a btted line. After his death the great empire falls to pieoB, and in 301 B. c. becomes divided (as shown upon the n^) into Egypt (under Ptolemy), Macedonia (including Geece), Thrace, including part of Asia Minor (under Lysinichus), and Syria and the East (under Se- leucus). Persia is tHchief power during the first paxt of the century, but is conqueredW Alexander in 334-330 B. o. (See above, under ALBXANDEE'S Eli[RE.) Gbebcb. (Seabove, under Alexander's Empire.) Egypt becomesUject to Persia in 350 b. o., and, as a part of the Persian Empire, toVtexander in 332 b. c. (See above, under Alex- ander's Empire.) Rome. About tlWi(i(Jie of the century Rome begins a career of conquest. Carthage, thougV important state, is not of general historical interest during this C0nry. 400 B, C. - 300 B. C. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 399-594. "War of Sparta with Persia. 394. Battle of Coronea. The Spartans de- feat the Athenians, Thebans, etc. 390. The Gauls, under Brennus,take Borne. Battle of Allia. 387. Peace of Antalcidas (Sparta and Per- sia). 371. Battle of Leuctra. The Thebans (Epaminondas) defeat the Spar- tans. 366. The Llcinian laws. 362. Battle of Mantinea. The Thebans (Epaminondas) defeat the Spar- tans. 357-346. Phocian or Sacred War. 343. Beginning of wars with the Samuites, which end fifty-three years later. 338. Battle of ChseroneA. Philip of Mace- don defeats the Athenians and Thebans. 338. Latium conquered by Rone. 334r-330. Alexander's campaign Invasion and conquest of Persia. 334. Battle of Granicus. . Alffiander de- feats the Persians. 333. Battle of Issus. Alexanler defeats the Persians under Dlriua Codo- manuus. 332. Alexander conquers Tyrt and Egypt, and founds the city of Uexandria. 331. Battle of Arbela. Alexaider master of the Persian Empire. 323. Lamian War. 321. The Romans defeated inthe valley of Caudiura (Caudine Fffks). 317-307. Demetrius Phalereu governor of Athens. 301. Battle of Ipsus and di'vsion of Alex- ander's Empire. PROMINENT NAMES OF THE CENTURY. Persia, Sovereigns. — Axtazerxea II. (Mnemon), Artaxerxes IIL (Ochus), Drius III. (Codo- mannus). Macedonia. Principal Kl/ngs. — Philip II. , Alexander III. (the Great), Cassandej Getf.erals. — Parmenio, Perdiccas, Antigonus, Cassander, Lysimaius, Ptolemy I. (Soter), Demetrius Poliorcetes, Antipater. Greece. Statesmen,G6nerals,and Orators.— 'Xhr&sy'buliis, Xenophon, Lysaler, Gorgias, Pelo- pidas, Epaminondas, Agesilaus, Timoleon, Isocrates, Demosthenes -*hociou, .ffischines, Demetrius Phalereus. Poet and Dramatist — Aristophanes. Philosophers. — Socrates, Aristippus, Hippocrates, Democritus, iogenes, Plato, Aris- totle. Sculptors a/nd Painters. — Parrhasius, Scopas, Lysippus, Pra^eles, Apelles, Proto- Historia/n. — Xeuophon. Egypt. Kings. — Dynasty of the Ptolemies. Geometer. — Euclid (Greek). Rome. Statesmen and Generals. — Camillus, Manliia Capitolinus, Jilius Torquatus, Valerius Corvus, Papirius Cursor, Fabius Maximus. Syria. King, — Seleacus (beginning of the dynasty of the Seleu^®)* Epibus. King. — Pyrrhus I. ILLUSTRATIONS. THE EISE OF MACEDONIA. rpHE close of the last century left Sparta the head of -L the Greek states. She held the chief power until 371 B. c. (battle of Leuctra), when, under the two great leaders Pelopidas and Epaminondas, Thebes rose to be the leading state of Greece. This leadership Thebes held till the death of Epami- nondas, in 362 B. c. (battle of Mantinea), when, for want of any one to take his place, she also fell from her position of supremacy. These various struggles, in which Greece had been so long engaged, ended in the general weakness and exhaus- tion of the chief states. The conflicts recounted [during an interval of forty-four years, — 404-403 B.C. to 360-359 B.C.] have wrought the melancholy change of leaving Greece more disunited, and more destitute of presiding Hellenic authority, than she had been at any time since the Persian invasion. Thebes, Sparta, and Athens had all been engaged in weakening each other, in which, unhappily, each has been far more successful than in strengthening herself. The mari- time power of Athens is now indeed considerable, and may be called very great, if compared with the state of degradation to which she had been brought in 403 b. c. But it will presently be seen how unsubstantial is the foundation of her authority, and how fearfully she has fallen off from that imperial feeling and energy which 44 FOUETH CENTUKY BEFORE CHEIST. ennobled her ancestors under the advice of Pericles. It is under these circumstances, so nntowaid for defence, that the aggressor from Macedonia arises. — Geote. Macedonia, though doubtless kindred to Greece, had never been regarded as a Greek state, nor taken any Time of prominent part in history. She now, under her PhiHp. ruler, Philip, became of importance. Philip did not at first attempt to conquer Greece, but by intrigue and war caused Macedonia to be acknowledged as a Greek state, and then made her the chief state of Greece, as Athens, Sparta, and Thebes had been before h^. The plans and ambition of Philip were plainly discerned by the great Athenian orator, Demosthenes, who warned the Athenians of their impending fate, and who tried, though in vain, to excite them to vigorous action against Philip. Do you ask, What is the news 1 What could be greater news than a Macedonian making war upon the Athenians, and regulating the affairs of Greece ? — Demosthenes. The history of Greece is at one time reduced to two persons, — Philip, or the successor of Philip, on one side, and Demosthenes, a private citizen, on the other. — Emehson. The course which this King of Macedon held was not so much by great armies and invasions, though these wanted not when the case required, but by practice, by sowing of factions in states, and by obliging sundry particular persons of greatness. The state of oppo- sition against his ambitious proceedings was only the state of Athens. For Lacedsemon and Thebes were both low, and the I'est of the states of Greece were, in power and territories, far inferior. — Lord Bacon. The object which he [Demosthenes] chose for himself in the commonwealth was noble and just, — the defence of the Grecians against Philip, — and in this he behaved himself so worthily that he soon grew famous, and excited attention everywhere for his eloquence and courage in speaking. He was admired through all Greece, the King of Persia courted him, and by Philip himself he was more esteemed than all other orators. — Plutarch. FOURTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 45 The cHef importance of that able monarcli's [Philip's] reign lies in his having called forth the mighty eloq^uence of his Athenian antago- nist. It is not the armies of Macedonia nor the victory of Chseronea that gives a real significance to the life of Philip ; it is those Philippic and Olynthiac orations fulmined against him which have made the heart to throb in forty generations of men since bom. — Felton. The steps by which Athenian oratory approached to its finished excellence seem to have been almost contemporaneous with those by which the Athenian character and the Athenian Empire sunk to degradation. At the time when the little commonwealth achieved those victories which twenty-five eventful centuries have left un- equalled, eloquence was in its infancy. . . . And it was when the moral, Ijie political, the military character of the people was most utterly degraded ; it was when the viceroy of a Macedonian sov- ereign gave law to Greece, that the courts of Athens witnessed the most splendid contest of eloquence that the world has ever known. — Macaulat. Looking back on the history of Athens, thre^majestic figures stand before us : Solon, the founder of her Constitvition ; Pericles, who stands on the pinnacle of her renown ; Demosthenes, the last and greatest, who, like the sinking sun, sheds his glory upon her fall ; — the beginning, the middle, and the end of the greatest historical tragedy ever enacted on the theatre of the world. — Felton. In 338 B. c. Philip overthrew the Athenians and The- hans in the battle of Chaeronea, and Greece was now prac- tically a province of Macedonia. Certainly it became a proverb, that not Philip, but his gold, took the cities of Greece. — Plutabch. That tlishonest victory At ChaBronea, fatal to liberty, Killed with report that old man eloquent. Milton. Had they remained contented with their lot, and had not the Athenians and Lacedsemonians fallen into dissension and strife for the supremacy in Grecian affairs, foreigners would never have been masters of Hellas. — Zosmns (fifth century). 46 FOUBTH CENTUEY BEFORE CHRIST. The odds were all against Philip in his early years ; they shifted and became more and more in his favor, only because his game was played well, and that of his opponents badly. The superiority of force was at first so much on the side of Athens, that, if she had been willing to employ it, she might have made sure of keeping Philip at least within the limits of Macedonia. — Grotb. This was the most brilliant time of Grreek oratory, which reached its perfection in the contest between ^s- chines, who advocated the cause of Macedonia, uai state and Demosthenes, who opposed the designs of Philip. It was also a period of great mental activity in the region of scientific inquiry and specula- tive thought. Plato, whose birth fell in the preceding century, founded the Academic school, which took its name from the groves of Academus in the vicinity of Athens, where the philosopher was accustomed to lec- ture. Aristotle (called the Stagyrite, from his birthplace, Stagyra, in Macedonia) was the instructor of Alexander the Great, and founded, at the Lyceum in Athens, what is known as the Peripatetic school, from his habit of walking about while conversing with his disciples. Aris- totle was the first to formulate the system of d priori, or deductive, reasoning, which held almost absolute sway in Europe till it was supplanted by the Baconian system of inductive reasoning. The centre of the power and outward activity of Greece was to be found in Macedon, while Athens still remained the wpll-spring of its intellectual vigor. — Arnold. The philosophical celebrity of Greece is altogether due to Athens. It is a popular error that Greece, in the aggregate, was a learned country. — Draper. Socrates and Plato are the double star which the most powerful instruments will not entirely separate. — Emerson. FOUETH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 47 He alone [Plato] of all the Greeks reached to the vestibule of truth, and stood upon its threshold. — Eusebius. See there the olive grove of Academe, Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird Trills her thick- warbled notes the summer long; There ilowery hill Hymettus with the sound Of bees' industrious murmur oft invites To studious musing; there Ilissus rolls His whispering stream ; within the walls then view The schools of ancient sages ; his who bred Great Alexander to subdue the world, Lyceum there, and painted Stoa next. Thence to the famous orators repair, Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce democraty, Shook the arsenal, and fulmined over Greece, To Macedon, and Artaxerxes' throne. Milton. Milton. It may be doubted whether any compositions which have ever been produced in the world are equally perfect in their kind with the great Athenian orations. . . . The singular excellence to which elo- quence attained at Athens is to be mainly attributed to the iniluence which it exerted there. In turbulent times, under a constitution purely democratic, among a people educated exactly to that point at which men are most susceptible of strong and sudden impressions, acute but not sound reasoners, warm in their feelings, unfixed in their principles, and passionate admirers of fine composition, oratory received such encouragement as it has never since ob- tained. — Macaulat. Nearer and dearer to the poet's heart. Than the blue ripple belting Salamis, Or long grass waving over Marathon, Fair Academe, most holy Academe, Thou art, and hast been, and shalt ever be. Edwin Arnold. One branch of intellectual energy there was, and one alone, which continued to flourish, comparatively little impaired, under the pre- ponderance of the Macedonian sword, — the spirit of speculation and philosophy. — Geotb. 48 FOURTH CENTUKY BEFORE CHRIST. THE CONQUESTS AND EMPIEE OF AlEXANDEE THE GEEAT. As when the banded powers of Greece were tasked, To war beneath the Youth of Macedon, Scott. 'Twas at the royal feast for Peisia won By Philip's warlike son : Aloft, in awful state, The godlike hero sate On his imperial throne. His valiant peers were placed around, Their brows with roses and with myrtles tound (So should desert in arms be crowned). Detden. Having thus made Greece subject to his power in 338 B. c, Philip planned to unite all the forces of that country in an aggressive war against the great power of Persia, but was murdered in 336 b. c. This stone to Mars must grief to Athens bring. Telling the might of Macedonia's king: The deeds of Marathon are now disgraced, The victories of Salamis effaced, Before the points of Philip's spears abased. Invoke the dead, Demosthenes, in vain ! To taunt both quick and dead I here remain. Gbminus. I, Philip, who first raised the Bmathian name By warlike deeds beyond all former fame, Lie here at jEgse : if you e'er shall see One greater, — from my lineage it must be. Addceus. Philip's son and successor, Alexander the Great, one of the greatest commanders of any age, then invaded Persia with a small army of about thirty-five thousand. He de- feated the Persians in the battle of Granicus (334 B. c), FOUETH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 49 and in 333 B. c. won a great victory at Issus over an im- mense Persian army under Darius. He then reduced Tyre, Gaza, and Egypt (where he founded the seaport of Alexan- dria), and in 331 B. c. encountered Darius near Arbela, in Assyria, and obtained, with less than fifty thousand men, a complete victory over that monarch and the full force of the Persian Empire. The fatal blow was struck at Arbela ; all the rest was but the long death-agony. — Eawlinson. The Persian Empire, which once menaced all the nations of the earth with subjection, was irreparably crushed when Alexander had won his crowning victory at Arbela. — Creasy. At the age of twenty-five Alexander was thus master of the whole Persian dominion (including Egypt). He then pushed his explorations and partial conquests still farther eastward, even beyond the Indus. He planned new under- takings, which he did not live to carry out. He died at Babylon in 323 B. c. The impression made upon Asia and Africa by his conquests was lasting, and long sur- vived the dismemberment of his empire, which followed his death. During the period of Alexander's conquests, no other events of importance happened in any part of the civilized world, aa if a career so brilliant had claimed the undivided attention of man- kind. — Arnold. High on a throne with trophies charged, I viewed The youth, that all things but himself subdued ; His feet on sceptres and tiaras trod, And his homed head belied the Libyan god. Pope. And as I was considering, behold, a he-goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground : and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. And he came to the ram 4 50 FOURTH CENTURY BEFOEE CHRIST. that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns : and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. Therefore the he-goat waxed very great. . . . The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king. — Daniel vui. 5-8, 20, 21. Alexander was but twenty years old when his father was murdered, andsucceeded to a kingdom beset on all sides with great dangers and rancorous enemies. For not only the barbarous nations that bordered on Macedonia were impatient of being governed by any but their own native princes, but Philip Kkewise, though he had been victorious over the Grecians, yet, as the time had not been sufficient for him to complete his conquest and accustom them to his sway, had simply left all things in a general disorder and confusion. — Plutarch. Les conquetes d' Alexandre op^rerent une revolution dans les sci- ences comme chez les peuples. — Chateaubriand. Asia beheld with astonishment and awe the uninterrupted progress of a hero, the sweep of whose conquests was as wide and as rapid as that of her own barbaric kings ; but, far unlike the transient whirl- winds of Asiatic warfare, the advance of the Macedonian leader was no less deliberate than rapid : at every step the Greek power took root, and the language and the civilization of Greece were planted from the shores of the JEgean to the banks of the Indus, from the Caspian and the great Hyrcanian plain to the cataracts of the Nile ; to exist actually for nearly a thousand years, and in their efifects to endure forever. — Arnold. The prodigious conquests of Alexander and the fortune which was always faithful to his arms have eclipsed the glory of Philip, and daz- zled posterity has refused to assign to the father the considerable share which belongs to him in the success of the son. It was Philip who organized the Macedonian army, who disciplined and inured it. — Mebimee. FOURTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 51 Independently of the almost immeasurable extension, opened to the sphere of development by the advance of the Macedonians, their campaigns acquired a character of profound moral greatness by the incessant eflforts of the conqueror to amalgamate all races, and to establish, under the noble influence of Hellenism, a unity throughout the world. — Humboldt. If it can be averred of any conqueror of the ancient world that he had the power and the will not merely to destroy, but also to build up and found anew, — that he had original, bold, and great ideas, — it may be averred of Alexander ; and in these ideas he was passion- ately enthusiastic, not coolly calculating, like Caesar. — Schlegel. The kingdom of Persia, which extended from Egypt, inclusive, unto Bactria, and the borders of the East India; and yet, nevertheless, was overrun and conquered, in the space of seven years, by a nation not much bigger than this isle of Britain, and newly grown into name, having been utterly obscure tUl the time of Philip, the son of Amyn- tas. Neither was this effected by any rare or heroioal prowess in the conqueror, as is vulgarly conceived, for that Alexander the Great goeth now for one of the wonders of the world ; for those that have made a judgment grounded upon reason of estate do find that conceit to be merely popular, for so JAvj pronounceth of him, " Nihil aliud quam bene ausus vana contemnere." AVherein he judgeth of vastness of territory as a vanity that may astonish a weak mind, but no ways trouble a sound resolution. — Lord Bacon. Alexander conquered a part of the world with a handful of men ; but was this a mere irruption on his part, a kind of deluge 1 No, everything is profoundly planned, boldly executed, wisely conducted. Alexander shows himself at once a great warrior, a great politician, a great legislator. Unhappily, when he reaches the zenith of glory and success, his head becomes turned, or his spirit becomes corrupt. He had begun with the spirit of Trajan ; he ends with the heart of Nero, and the behavior of Heliogabalus. — Napoleon. I believe that there was in his time no nation of men, no city, nay, no single individual, with whom Alexander's name had not become a familiar word. I therefore hold that such a man, who was like no ordinary mortal, was not bom into the world without some special providence. — Aerian. 52 FOURTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. The story of Alisaunder is so comiine. That every wight that hath discreoioun Hath herd som-what or al of this fortune; Thys wyde world as in conclusioun He wan by strengthe, or for his heigh renoun, > Thay were glad for pees HQto him sende. Comparisoun yit mighte never he maked Bitwen him and noon other conquerour; For al this world for drede of him hath quaked. Chauoeb. Here the vain youth who made the world his prize, That prosperous rohber, Alexander, lies. When pitying death, at length, had freed mankind, To sacred rest his bones were here consigned : His bones, that better had been tossed and hurled, With just contempt, around the injured world. To Macedon, a corner of the earth. The vast ambitious spoiler owed his birth : There, soon, he scorned his father's humbler reign, And viewed his vanquished Athens with disdain. Driven headlong on, ,by fate's resistless force. Through Asia's realms he took his dreadful course: His ruthless sword laid human nature waste, And desolation followed where he passed. Bed Ganges blushed, and famed Euphrates' flood, With Persian this, and that with Indian blood. Nor flame, nor flood, his restless rage withstand, Nor Syrts unfaithful, nor the Libyan sand : O'er waves unknown he meditates his way, And seeks the boundless empire of the sea. E'en to the utmost west he would have gone. Where Tethys' lap receives the setting sun ; Around each pole his circuit would have made, And drunk from secret Nile's remotest head. When Nature's hand his wild ambition stayed ; With him, that power his pride had loved so well, His monstrous, universal empire, fell : No heir, no just successor left behind. Eternal wars he to his friends assigned, To tear the world and scramble for mankind. LtroAif. Tr. Eowe. Macedonian Alexander's tomb, if called on to disclose. Say that the world's two continents his monument compose. ADDCEUa. FOURTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 53 He wliioh, 'twixt a lion and a pard, Through all the world with nimble pinions fared, And to his greedy whelps his conquered kingdoms shared. PHINEAa FLETCHBE. He wept for worlds to conquer ; half the earth Knows not his name, or hut bis death and birth. Bteon. Therefore the he-goat waxed very great : and when he was strong, the great horn was broken ; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. — Daniel viii. 8, 22. KOME. So completely had Greece arrived at the season of autumn, while at Rome it was yet the early spring. — Arnold. The history of Eome now begins to be more trustworthy. About the middle of the century she began a career of conquest. The long period of her infancy was employed in a laborious struggle against the tribes of Italy, the neighbors and enemies of the rising city. — Ammiands Maecellinds. When we see this noble republic devoting three or four centuries to the solid establishment of its power in a radius of under a hundred DiUes, about the same time that Alexander was spreading out his marvellous empire in the course of a few years, it is not difficult to foresee the fate of the two empires, though the one usefully prepared the East for the succession of the other. — Comte. The main source of wealth among the Romans, and their most honorable occupation, was agriculture. The greatest generals and statesmen, after holding for a time the helm of the republic, and gaining victories and triumphs, did not scruple to return to the plough and live ia rural retirement. — Schmitz. 54 FOURTH CENTUKY BEFOEE CHRIST. About the year 390 b. c. the Gauls, under Brennus, pressed down into Central Italy, and took and destroyed Eome. Although but a passing inroad with tran- of the sient results, this invasion is noteworthy as mark- ing the first appearance of the barbaric hordes, who in later times were to change the civilization of the world. Hark ! the Gaul is at her gates ! COWPEE. The fourth century before the Christian era brought the Gauls for the first time within the observation of the civilized worlcl. They then crossed the Apennines, and overran Central and Southern Italy ; they then also broke in upon the lUyrian tribes, established them- selves between the Danube and Greece, and became known to the kings of Macedon. — Abnold. The victorious attack of Brennus, in the fourth century of her [Rome's] career, marks the era at which the tide of Gaulish conquest was at its full. About that period the name of Gauls was more ter- rible, throughout Europe and Western Asia, than that of any other conquerors. — Merivale. Then Borne was poor; and there you might tehold The palace, thatched with straw, now roofed with gold. The silver goose before the shining gate There flew, and hy her cackle saved the state ; She told the Gauls' approach : the approaching Gauls, Obscure in night, ascend, and seize the walls. ViBGiL. Tr. Drydeu. The Gaulish invasion and conquest of Eome was but the in- strument of her greater and surer advance to the dominion of Italy. — Arnold. It was at this period that the Plebeians succeeded in enforcing their claim to hold a share in the high offices „ _ . of the state. In the year 366 B. c. Lucius Sextius Patricians •' and Pie- was chosen consul, the first Plebeian who held that dignity. This event led to a gradual reconcile- ment of the two orders and to a great increase of mili- tary vigor and activity. FOURTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 55 It ia now acknowledged that the struggle at Eome between the Plebeians and Patricians was a sequel and a prolongation of the war of conquest, was an effort on the part of the aristocracy of the cities conquered by Rome to share the rights of the conquering aristocracy. — Guizot. At last the commons attain their object. They acquire an equal share in the public offices and honors, participate in the same system of law, in the same rites of religion, and in the common fruits of con- quest. The two nations coalesce into one. From this era the body politic appears to be animated with new vigor. The career of victory is no longer checked by the defection of the bulk of the people at some important crisis. — Meeivalb. The results of this great change were singularly happy and glorious. Two centuries of prosperity, harmony, and victory followed the rec- onciliation of the orders. Men who remembered Eome engaged in waging petty wars almost within sight of the Capitol lived to see her the mistress of Italy. — Macaulat. About 200 B.C. HcHot/p^Froitini^ Co.BoJj-^n THIRD CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. (300-200.) The nations of the greatest general interest and impor- tance during this century are Eome, Egypt, and Carthage. EoME obtains the mastery over the whole Italian penin- sula by the year 266 B. c. She then begins a career of foreign conquest, and adds to her territory Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, obliges Carthage to give up aU her possessions outside of Africa (including possessions in the above three islands and in Spain), and Carthage herself to become a dependent ally of Eome. (See PuNic Waes, page 59.) Towards the end of the century Eome begins the conquest of Cisalpine Gaul, and begins to interfere with the affairs of Macedonia and Greece. Egypt, under the first Ptolemy and his son Ptolemy Phila- delphus, becomes prosperous and powerful. Alexandria be- comes the seat of learning and commerce. (See page 70.) Carthage at the middle of the century is at the head of about three hundred Phoenician cities in Africa, and has possessions in Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, but by the end of the century (202 B. c.) she has given up to Eome all her possessions outside of Africa. (See Punic Wars.) Gbeeoe is hereafter greatly distracted in its affairs, but keeps up a front «f independence against Macedonia. (See AchjEAN League, page 6J.) SybI*. and the East. The kingdom of the Seleucid^ (so called from Sdeucus, see map for the last century), though powerful, is of but littl^ general interest. The kingdom of Lysimachus (Thrace and part of J^sia Minor) is added in 281 B. c. Syria is invaded from Egypt in 246 B. c. A permanent loss of territory in the East is suffered b^ the revolt of Paethia about 256 b. c The KtNGDOM of Lysimachus (Thrace and,part of Asia Minor) becomes pjrt of the dominion of the Seleucidae in 281 B. c. PabthiI revolts from the kingdom of the Seleucidee about 256 B. 0. Epieus low becomes a powerful state under Pyrrhus. \ 300B.C.-S0OB. C. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 281, 280. 280. 280. 277 275. 256. 246. Demetrius Foliorcetes master of Athens. Conquest of the Samnites and the Sabines by the Romans. Seleucus defeats Lysimachus. The Achsean and iBtolian Leagues. Pyrrhus defeats the Romans. The Gauls under Brennus invade and ravage Greece, (about). The Septuagint Version of the Bible made by order of Ptol- emy Philadelphus. Battle of Beneventum. The Romans defeat Pyrrhus. Italian peninsula subject to Rome. Fu'st Punic War, tlU 241. Naval victory of the Romans (Dui- lius) over the Carthaginians. Parthian dynasty established. Aratus first appointed general of the Achaean League. 220. War between the Achsean and the .^tolian Leagues. 218. Second Punic War, till 201. Battle of the Ticinus. Hannibal defeats the Romans. 217. Battle at Lake Thrasymene. Hanni- bal defeats the Romans. 216. Battle of Cannae. Hannibal defeats the Romans. 212. The Romans take Syracuse. 208. PhdopcEmen appointed general of the AchEean League. 207. Battle of Metaurus. The Romans defeat Hasdrubal. 206. Conquest by Rome of the Carthagin- ian possessions in Spain. 202. Battle of Zama. The Romans, under Scipio Africanus, defeat the Car- thaginians, under Hannibal. PROMINENT NAMES OF THE CENTURY. Rome. Statesmen art\d G&nerals. — Pabricius Luscinus, Manius Curius Dentatus, Duilius, Regulus, Flaminlus, Fabius Maximus (Cunctator), Marcellus, Scipio Africanus (Major). Poets a/nd Dramatists. — Livius Andronicus, Ennlus, Plautus. Historian. — Cato the Censor. Egypt. Ei/ngs. — Dynasty of the Ptolemies. Historia/n. — Manetho. Geometer. — Euclid (Greek). Macedonia. (See also under Gbeece.) Kings. — Cassander, Demetrius Poliorcetes, Pyrrhus, Lysimachus, Antigonus Gonatas. Greece. 1 Statesmen mid Generals. —Cleomenes, Aratus, Philopcemen. • PAitoso^Ttcrs. — Theophrastus, Epicurus, Zeno (Sioic). Poeis. — Menander, Theocritus (Syracusan), Lycophron, Aratus, Callimachaa (Alex- andria), Bion, Moschns, Apollonius Rhodius. Sistoria/n* — Timseus. Syria. Kings. —Dynasty of the Seleucidie. Antiochus the Great. Cabthage. Generals. — Hamilcar, Hasdrubal, Hannibal. Efikus. King. — Pyrrhus. Syracuse. (See also under Greece.) Tyrant. — Agathocles. King. ~ Hieron II. Geometer. —Archimedes (Greek). 1 Including some Greeks in other countries. See also under Egypt, Kacedokia, and Stbacuse. ILLUSTRATIONS. EOME. In the strength and ardor of youth, she sustained the storms of war, carried her victorious arms heyond the seas and the moun- tains, and hrought home triumphal laurels from every country of the globe. — Ammianus Maecellinus. EOME, continuing the career of conquest begun in the last century, became mistress of all Italy (Samnite and Latin wars ; war with Pyrrhus) by the year 266 B. c. She had grown greatly in wealth, power, and dominion, and was then prepared to begin a vigorous career of con- quest beyond the limits of the peninsula. The fifth century from the foundation of the city produced neither historian, poet,* orator, nor philosopher. Still we are, as it were, ■working our way to light ; the greatness of Borne is beginning to unfold itseK. — Aenold. THE PUNIC WAES. A lawful time of war at length will coine {Nor need your haste anticipate the doom). When Carthage shall contend the world with Rome. ViBOiL. Tr. Dryden. EoME and Carthage were at this time the great powers of the West. Eome was the stronger by land, while Car- 60 THIRD CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. thage, at the head of three hundred PhcBnician cities in Africa, and having possessions in Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and Spain, was the great naval and commercial power of the Western Mediterranean, and ruled the sea without a rival Liberty had erected against the tyranny of the Roman Empire another empire on the water, — a wandering Carthage, which no one knew where to seize, and which floated from Spain to Asia. — MiCHELET. There was an ancient city, Carthage, held By Tyrian settlers, facing from afar Italia, and the distant Tiber's mouth; Rich in resources, fierce in war's pursuits ; And this one city, Juno, it was said, Far more than every other land esteemed, Samos itself being less. Here were her arms, Her chariot here; e'en then the goddess strives With earnest hope to found a kingdom here Of universal sway, should fate permit. But of a race derived from Trojan blood She had heard, who would o'ertum the Tyrian towers One day, and that a people of wide rule. And proud in war, descended thence, would come For Libya's doom. So did the Fates decree. ViKGiL. Tr. Granoh. degenerate child of a kind, compassionate mother. That to the might of Rome addest the cunning of Tyre ! But this r\ded by her power the earth which her valor had conquered, — That instructed the world which by her prudence she won. Say, what doth history tell of thee ? She tells, thou didst ever Win like the Roman by steel, rule like the Tyrian by gold. Schiller. Tr. Merivale. I stand in Carthage ; Dido's city h^re Rose into power, and waved her wand of fear ; The seaman hailed her lofty towers afar, Each gilded palace glittering like a star ; Armies obeyed her nod, a countless host. And bee-like Commerce hummed along the coast ; Gems, gold, — all wealth within her walls was seen. And tawny Afrio bowed, and owned her queen. N. MiCHELL. THIRD CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 61 These two great powers, Eome and Carthage, soon came into conflict, the subject of dispute being possessions in the island of Sicily, which lay between them. This brought on the First Punic War. When Punic arms infested land and main, When heaven and earth were in confusion hurled For the debated empire of the world. Lucretius. Tr. Dryden. The vigorous republic is now prepared to contest the sovereignty of the West with the long-settled and deep-rooted power of Car- thage. — Merivale. When in respect of her claims in Sicily and Spain, her growing aggrandizement had brought Rome in contact with Carthage, the powers she had long been gathering together were suddenly devel- oped to an extent of greatness that amazed the contemporary world, as it has all succeeding ages. — Schlegel. The result of the First Punic War (which lasted from 264 B. c. to 241 B. c.) was that Carthage gave up her pos- sessions in Sicily to Eome. After this the Carthaginians, under Hamilcar, largely increased their dominion in Spain. The Eomans also extended and strengthened their empire. As when two hlack clouds, With heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling on Over the Caspian, then stand front to front, Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow To join their dark encounter in mid air, So froivned the mighty combatants. Milton. In 218 B. c. began the Second Punic War. Previous to the prostration of Carthage, there were, so to speak, two separate worlds. In the one the Romans and the Carthaginians contended for empire; the other was agitated by the quarrels which continued from the time of the death of Alexander the Great. The East gave no thought to what was going on in the West. — Moif- TBSqUIEU. 62 THIRD CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. Up to tlie Second Punic War, Eome had no historian. Slie was too much occupied ia making history to amuse herseK with writing it. — MiOHELET. The Carthaginian general, Hannibal, — one of the great- est generals who ever lived, — having resolved upon the invasion of Italy, performed, in 218 B. c, one of the most remarkable military achievements of antiquity, that of crossing the Alps with his army and reaching Italy by land. The bold enterprise was, however, accomplished despite barbarous nations, rapid streams, and the dangers of the Pyrenees and Alps. He is said to have lost over thirty thousand men during the passage. If it be true, as no one doubts, that the Roman people excelled aU other nations in warlike merit, it is not to be disputed that Hannibal surpassed other commanders in ability as much as the Romans sur- passed all other people in valor. — Cornelius Nbpos. Beyond the Pyrenean's lofty Iroimd, Through blackening forests shagged with pine around, The Carthaginian passed ; and, fierce, explored The Voloan champaign with his wasting sword. Then trod the threatening banks with hastening force. Where Rhone high-swelling rolls its sweeping course. From Alpine heights and steep rocks capped with snow, But no rude Alp, no terror of the scene. Moved Hannibal, undaunted and serene ; He spoke; nor they delayed: the troops he drew Up the steep hills, their promised spoil in view : Transgressed the Herculean road, and first made known Tracks yet untrodden and a path their own Where inaccessible the desert rose. He burst a passage through forbidden snows ; O'er jagged heights, and icy fragments rude. Thus climb they, midst the mountain solitude ; And from the rocky summits, h^gard, show Their half-wild visage, clotted thick with snow. Continual drizzlings of the drifting air Scar their rough cheeks, and stififen in their hair. THIRD CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 63 Now poured from craggy dens, a headlong force, The Alpine hordes hang threatening on their course; Track the known thickets, beat the mountain snow, Bound o'er the steeps, and hovering hem the foe. SiLius ITALIO0S. Tr. Elton. Hannibal ! who not in vain Swore hate to Rome, and crossed the heaving main. Climbed with his dauntless bands yon Alpine height. And southward poured, an avalanche in his might. While Rome confessed the terror of his name. Drooped her bright eye, and hung her head in shame. N. MiOHELL. Trampling the snows The war-horse reared, and the towered elephant Upturned his trunk into the murky sky. Then tumbled headlong, swallowed up and lost. He and his rider. EOGEBS. Having crossed the Alps, "Dire Hannibal, the Roman dread" (HoBACB), burst into the plain of Italy, and defeated the Eomans in four battles, the chief of which was that of Cannse. The dire African with wasteful ire Rode o'er the ravaged towns of Italy; As through the pine-trees flies the raging fire, Or Eurus o'er the vexed Sicilian sea. Horace. Tr. Lord Lyttleton. The battle of Cannse (216 b. c), one of the most memo- rable and decisive in history, resulted in the rout and almost total destruction of the Eoman army, although that force was probably much superior to the Carthaginian in point of numbers. While Waterloo with Cannse's carnage vies. Bteoit. In this battle three thousand of the Africans fell, and a great part of Hannibal's army were wounded. The Romans, however, never received so severe a blow at any period of the Punic Wars ; for the 64 THIED CENTURY BEFOKE CHEIST. consul, jEmilius Paulus, was killed; twenty officers of consular and praetorian rank, thirty senators, and three hundred others of noble descent were taken or slain, as well as forty thousand foot-soldiers, and three thousand five hundred horse. During all these calami- ties, however, not one of the Eomans deigned to speak of peace. — EUTBOPIUS. The immediate consequences of this victory were such as both sides had expected from it. ... In a word, all the neighboring peo- ple began now to turn their eyes towards the Carthaginians, who on their part were persuaded that they should take even Rome itself upon their first approach. The Eomans, on the other hand, not only renounced all hopes of being able any longer to retain the sovereignty of Italy, but were fiUed also with the greatest apprehensions with re- gard even to the safety of themselves and their own proper country, expecting that the Carthaginians instantly would arrive to finish their destruction. — Poltbids. The number of the slain is computed at forty thousand foot, and two thousand seven hundred horse. — LiVY. On the day following, as soon as light appeared, his [Haniiibal's] troops applied themselves to the collecting of the spoils, and view- ing the carnage made, which was such as shocked even enemies, so many thousand Romans, horsemen and footmen, lay promiscuously on the field, as chance had thrown them together, either in the battle or flight. Some whom their wounds, being pinched by the morning cold, had roused from their posture, were put to death by the enemy, as they were rising up, all covered with blood, from the midst of the heaps of carcasses. Some they found lying alive, with their thighs and hams cut, who, stripping their necks and throats, desired them to spill what remained of their blood. Some were found, with their heads buried in the earth, in holes which it appeared they had made for themselves, and, covering their faces with earth thrown over them, had been thus suffocated. — LivT. The lingering war That of the rings made such illustrious spoils, As Livy has recorded, who errs not. Dante, Inferno. Tr. Longfellow. Of these [the gold rings taken from the Romans] there was so great a heap that, according to some writers, on being measured, they THIRD CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 65 filled three pecks and a half ; but the more general account, and like- wise the more probable, is, that they amounted to no more than one peek. He also explained to them, in order to show the greater extent of the slaughter, that none but those of equestrian rank, and of these only the principal, wore this ornament. — Livr. After the battle of Cannte, when any other state would have suc- cumbed to its bad fortune, there was not a movement of weakness among the Roman people, nor a thought which was not devoted to the good of the republic. All orders, aU ranks, all conditions, ex- hausted themselves voluntarily. Honor consisted in retaining less, shame in reserving more. — Saint-Evremond. Hannibal made no important victory after that of Cannae, but lie remained in Italy for fifteen years (217- 202 B. c), carrying on an intermittent strife with the Eomans. At last the Eoman general, Scipio (afterwards called, from his success in Africa, Scipio Africanus) crossed to Spain and thence to Africa, and Hannibal had to go home to defend Carthage. The final battle of the war was fought at Zama, in Africa, in 202 B. c, and resulted in the defeat of ^^^^ the Carthaginians. Forced e'en dire Hannibal to yield. And won the long-disputed world at Zama's fatal field. Horace. Tr. Earl of Roscommon. Soipio's name ennobles much the place, While fiidng here his famous camp, he calls Fierce Hannibal from Rome's devoted walls. LUCAH. The valley fortunate. Which Scipio the heir of glory made. When Hannibal turned back with all his hosts. Dabte, Inferno. Tr. Longfellow. At last, not at three miles' distance, but by a close siege, he [Scipio] shook the very gates of Carthage itself. And thus he succeeded in drawing off Hannibal, when he was still clinging to and brooding over Italy. There was no more remarkable day, during the whole course of the Eoman Empire, than that on which those two generals 5 66 THIKD CENTUEY BEFORE CHEIST. — the greatest of all that ever lived, whether before or after them ; the one the conqueror of Italy and the other of Spain — drew up their forces for a close engagement. But previously a conference was held between them concerning conditions of peace. They stood motionless awhile in admiration of each other. When they could not agree on a peace, they gave the signal for battle. It is certain, from the confession of both, that no troops could have been better drawn up, and no fight more obstinately maintained. This Hannibal ac- knowledged concerjoing the army of Soipio, and Scipio concerning that of Hannibal. But Hannibal was forced to yield, and Africa became the prize of the victory, and the whole earth soon followed the fate of Africa. — Florus. In the mean time preparations were made by both generals for .a battle, such as scarce ever occurred in any age, since they were the ablest commanders that ever led forces into the field. Scipio came off victorious, having almost captured Hannibal himself, who escaped at first with several horse, then with twenty, and at last with only four. There were found in Hannibal's camp twenty thousand pounds of silver and eight hundred of gold, with plenty of stores. After this battle, peace was concluded with the Carthaginians. Scipio returned to Eome, and triumphed with the greatest glory, receiving from that period the appellation of Afrioanus. Thus the Second Punic War was brought to an end in the nineteenth year after it began. — EniROPius. Above fifteen hundred of the Eomans fell in the action. But, on the side of the Carthaginians, more than twenty thousand were killed, and almost an equal number taken prisoners. Such was the battle between Hannibal and Scipio, — the battle which gave to the Romans the sovereignty of the world. — Polybius. Produce the urn that Hannibal contains, And weigh the mighty dust thatyet remains : And is this all ! Yet this was once the hold, The aspiring chief, whom Afric conld not hold, Though stretched in breadth from where the Atlantic roars, To distant Nilns and his sunburnt shores ; In length, from Carthage to the burning zone Wliere other Moors and elephants are known. — Spain conquered, o'er the PjTenees fie bounds : Nature opposed her everlasting mounds. THIRD CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 67 Her Alps and snows ; o'er these with torrent force He pours, and rends through rocks his dreadful course. Already at his feet Italia lies ; Yet thundering on, " Think nothing done," he cries, "Till Rome, proud Rome, beneath my fury falls. And Afric's standards float along her walls I " Big words ! — but view his figure I view his face ! for some master hand the lines to trace, As through the Etrurian swamps, by floods increast, The one-eyed chief urged his Getuliau beast ! But what ensued ? Illusive Glory, say : Subdued on Zama's memorable day, He flies in exile to a petty state With headlong haste ; and at a despot's gate Sits, mighty suppliant ! of his life in doubt. Till the Bithynian's morning nap be out. Jdvenai,. Tt. Gifford. From this bright era, from this prosperous field. The Roman Glory dates her rising power ; From hence 't was given her conquering sword to wield. Raise her fallen gods, and ruined shrines restore. HOKAOE. Tr. Lord Lyttleton. As the result of the Second Punic War Carthage was obliged to give up all her possessions out of Africa, and to become a dependent aUy of Eome. She was thus wholly- degraded from the position of a powerful commercial state to that of a defenceless mercantile town. Her maritime supremacy was gone, and Eome was now the undisputed mistress of the western part of the Mediterranean. The Eomans did not, however, interfere with the internal gov- ernment of Carthage. The Second Punic War 13 so famous that all the world is acquainted with it. When we consider well the crowd of obstacles which con- fronted Hannibal, and which that extraordinary man surmounted, we have before us the finest spectacle that antiquity presents. — Montesquieu. History can produce no greater statesmen and generals than some of the members of the Carthaginian aristocracy. But the Car- 68 THIRD CENTUEY BEFORE CHRIST. thaginian people were wholly unfit to contend with the people of Rome. — AenoIiD. It was not the mere destruction of an army, but the final conquest of the only power that seemed able to combat Rome on equal terms. In the state of the ancient world, with so few nations really great and powerful, and so little of a common feeling pervading them, there was neither the disposition nor the materials for forming a gen- eral confederacy against the power of Rome. The defeat of Haimibal insured the empire of the ancient civilized world. — Arnold. It is not without reason that so universal and vivid a remembrance of the Punic Wars has dwelt in the memories of men. They formed no mere struggle to determine the lot of two cities or two empires ; but it was a strife, on the event of which depended the fate of two races of mankind, whether the dominion of the world should belong to the Indo-Germanic or to the Semitic family of nations. Bear in mind that the first of these comprises, besides the Indians and the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Germans. In the other are ranked the Jews and Arabs, the Phoenicians, and the Cartha- ginians. On the one side is the genius of heroism, of art, of legislation ; on the other is the spirit of industry, of commerce, of navigation. — Michelet. Livy opens his narrative of the Second Punic War with the remark which others had made before him, that it was the greatest and most memorable that had ever been carried on by the greatest states, and at the periods of their greatest freshness and vigor : he could say so with justice ; but after the lapse of more than two thousand years, we can- not think the same, for in the wars of the French Revolution far greater energies were called into action; even the seven-years' war, especially the campaign of 1757, has a greater accumulation of events, and as for the greatness of the generals engaged in it, it is by no means inferior to the Second Punic War. In the First Punic War there appears only one great general; in the Second we have, besides Hannibal, Scipio, Fabius, Marcellus, and many second-rate ones. We may, however, truly say that in all ancient history there is no war which equals that against Hannibal in the greatness of the events. We may also on the whole assert that there never was a general superior to Hannibal, and in antiquity there is not one whom we could even place by his side. — Niebuhr. THIED CENTUKY BEFORE CHEIST. 69 Thus ended tte Second Punic, or, as the Romans more correctly called it, the Hannibalic War, after it had devastated the lands and islands from the Hellespont to the pillars of Hercules for seventeen years. Before this war the policy of the Romans had no higher aim than to acquire command of the mainland of the Italian peninsula within its natural boundaries, and of the Italian islands and seas; and it is clearly proved by their treatment of Africa on the conclusion of peace that they terminated the war with the impression, not that they had laid the foundation of empire over the states of the Mediter- ranean, or of universal sovereignty, as it is called, but that they had rendered a dangerous rival innocuous, and had given to Italy agreeable neighbors. . . . The Romans achieved the sovereignty of Italy because they strove for it; the hegemony (and the sovereignty which grew out of it) over the territories of the Mediterranean was, to a certain extent, thrown into the hands of the Romans by the force of circumstances, without intentional effort on their part to acquire it. — Mommskn. GEEECE. THE AOH^iAN LEAGXIB. Greece was from this time greatly distracted in her affairs. Greek power, Greek energy, Greek genius, might now be found indeed anywhere rather than in Greece. — Arnold. She, however, made an independent stand against Mace- donia by means of the Achaean League, the ^tolian League, and other smaller leagues. The Achaean League was formed about 280 B. c. The first germ of a new confederacy, which existed from this time forwards tUl the total extinction of Grecian independence, and in which there was revived a faint image of the ancient glory of Greece, the pale martinmas summer of her closing year. — Arnold. 70 THIRD CENTDEY BEFOEE CHEIST. The Achsean League had united the best elements of Greece proper in a confederacy based on civilization, national spirit, and peaceful preparation for self-defence. — Mommsbn. The federal union of Aohaia was maintained, with varied fortunes, for one hundred and forty years, and assured to a large part of Greece an honorable freedom and a political independence, which cordd not have been enjoyed by a number of separate cities. At length, how- ever, it succumbed, first to the ascendency of Macedon, and at last to the in-esistible dominion of Rome. Its history, if less glorious than that of the earlier republics of Greece, is yet specially interesting, as presenting to us one of the earliest and best-contrived examples of a federal state, and the last home of Grecian liberty. This league presented an example of pure democracy, in the form of a federal union. As in Athens — the highest type of pure democracy — the sovereign power was vested in the assembly, so in the Achsean League the like power was exercised by the fed- eral assembly, in which all citizens of the confederation had equal rights. — Mat. ALEXANDRIA. The Greek or Macedonian colony which was planted in the city of Alexandria, that had been founded by the Conqueror, and called after him, lived and flourished, and Alexandria soon took its place in the front rank of cities. Here arose a singularly brilliant and unique development of religious and speculative thought, and the school of Alexandria became famous throughout the world. When Alexander the Great founded his stately capital on the Delta, it was with the political and commercial view of making it the imperial city of the world. Ptolemy, who in the fourfold division received this southern portion of his empire, sought fur- ther to make it " the metropolis of science, the asylum of letters, ahd sanctuary of Hght." Alexandria became " the great Hellenic city, centre of the commerce of three continents, the common shelter of letters and the arts," — the " crown of all cities." When Physco THIRD CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 71 passed his decree of exile, says Athenaeus, he "filled cities and islands with grammarians, philosophers, geometers, musicians, painters, teach- ers, doctors, and many other professions." From Alexandria, it was said, are all teachers among Greeks and Barbarians. Every popula- tion and every faith was free to share its ample and cosmopolitan domain. Both Grecian and Egyptian gods had heen honored with temples by its founder. Oriental mysticism and Western culture met in the equal hospitality of its schools. As the political power of Greece declined, her intellectual eminence continued undisputed here. — J. H. Allen. Had the empire of Alexander continued to stand, Greek science and art would have found a state worthy and capable of containing them. Now, when the nation had fallen to pieces, a learned cosmo- politanism grew up in it luxuriantly, and was very soon attracted by the magnet of Alexandria, where scientific appliances and collections were inexhaustible, where kings composed tragedies, and ministers wrote commentaries on them, and where pensions and academies flourished. — Mommsen. Meantime, more high Aspiring, o'er the Western main her towers The imperial city lifts, the central mart Of nations, and beneath the calm clear sky, At distance from the palmy marge, displays Her clustering columns, whitening to the morn. Damascus* fleece, Golconda's gems, are there. Murmurs the haven with one ceaseless hum ; The hurrying camel's hell, the driver's song. Along the sands resound. Tyre, art thou fallen ? A prouder city crowns the inland sea. Raised by his hand who smote thee ; as if thus His mighty mind were swayed to recompense The evil of his march through cities stormed, And regions wet with blood! and still had flowed The tide of commerce through the destined track. Traced by his mind sagacious, who surveyed The world he conquered with a sage's eye, As with a soldier's spirit. „ W. L. Bowles. AboixtlOOB.C . KcHotyp'^'Pl^^H Ca.BoAjii- SECOND CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. (200-100.) The great movement of the century is the growth of the power and glory of the Eoman dominion. EoME completes the conquest of Cisalpine Gaul about 191 B. 0. ; conquers Macedonia and Greece, the former becoming a Roman province in 168 B. c, and the latter in 146 B. c, under the name of Achaia. (See page 79.) Eome destroys Carthage in 146 B. c, and the Carthaginian territory becomes the Eoman province of Africa. (See Punic Wars, page 75.) In the latter part of the century Eome begins the conquest of Transalpine Gaul, and also begins to interfere with the affairs of Asia, and forms of the dominions of Pergamus the province of Asia in 133.- 129 B. c. Nearly aU of Spain becomes, after 133 B. c, a Eoman province. Cabthage becomes in 146 b. c. the Roman province of Africa. (See Punic Waes.) Macedonia is overpowered by Rome and becomes a Roman province in 168 b. c. Greece remains nominally independent for a short time after the subjection of Macedonia by Rome in 168 b. c, but in 146 b. c. is overcome by Rome, and becomes a Roman province under the name of Achaia. (See page 79.) Egypt continues under the Greek dynasty of the Ptolemies. JudjEA throws oflF the yoke of Syria, and becomes independent in 166 B. c, under Judas fiaccabsBus. Stria (kingdom of the SELErrciD^), Parthia, and the other countries of the East, present no movements of general interest, Peegamds. (See above, under Roue.) fSOOB.C.-lOO B.C. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 197. Battle of Cynocephale ; the Romans defeat the Macedonians. 190. Antiochus defeated by the Romans at Magnesia. 170. Jerusalem plundered by Antiochus Epiphanes, who attempts to abolish the Jewish religion. 168. Battle of Pydna ; the Romans defeat the Macedonians and reduce Mace- donia to a Roman province. 166. The Syrians expelled from Judsea by Judas MaccabECus. Beginning of the era of the Maccabees. 149. Third Punic War, till 146 e. c. 146. Destruction of Carthage by the Bo- mans. End of the Third Punic War. 146. Destruction of Corinth by Mummius. Greece made a. Roman province under the name of Achaia. 133. Spain completely subjugated. 133-129. Fergamas becomes the Boman province of Asia. 133-121. Agrarian laws of Tiberius and Caius Gracchus. 113. The Romans defeated by the Teu- tones and Cimbri. 111. War of the Romans against Jugurtha. 102. The Teutones defeated by Marius at Aquffi Sextiae ; the Cimbri defeated the following year. PBOMINENT NAMES OP THE CENTURY. BOUE!. Public Men. — Scipio Afticanus, T. Quintius Plaminius, Scipio Asiaticus, Paulus .^milius, Cato the Censor, Scipio (2d Africanus), Metellus, Mummius, the Gracchi, Marius, Sylla. Poets (md Dramatists. — Ennius, Plautus, Terence, Pacuviua. Historian. — Cato the Censor. Greece.^ Public Man. — Philopoemen. Philosophers, — Apolloniua, Eratosthenes, Cameadea, Hipparchus. Poets. — Apollonius, Biou (?), Moschus(?), Nicander. Historians and Orators. — Polybius, Apollodorus. Egypt. Kings. — Dynasty of the Ptolemies. Syria. Kings. — Dynasty of the Seleucidse. JudjEA. Priests and Patriots.— Mattathias, Judas Maccabeeus, Jonathan, Simon, J. Hyrcanus. Pebgamus. King. — Eumenes. PONTUS. King. — Mithridates (the Great). Caathaoe. General —Hannibal. 1 Including Greeks in other countries. ILLTJSTRATIOISrS. CONTHSrUING- her career of conquest, Eome com- pleted the subjugation of Cisalpine Gaul about 191 B. c, and Macedonia was conquered and became a Eoman province in 168 B. c. THE THIED PUNIC WAE. The close of the Second Punic War (treated in the preceding century) left Carthage a dependent ally of Eome, and was followed by an interval of fifty years, during which active hostilities between the two countries were suspended; but many at Eome were not satisfied with the submissive and dependent condition of Carthage, and were resolved to reduce her to a state of entire subjection. The peace with Rome lasted for upwards of fifty years, during which the Carthaginians did not give the Romans a single reason for complaint, nor do the Romans themselves mention any. We must suppose that this interval was a time of prosperity for Carthage, for after it we find the city very rich and populous. — Niebuhr. 76 SECOND CENTUEY BEFOEE CHRIST. To the later generations who survived the storms of the revolu- tion, the period after the Hannibalic War appeared the golden age of Eome, and Cato seemed the model of the Roman statesman. It was in reality the calm before the storm and an epoch of political medi- ocrities, an age like that of the government of Walpole in England ; and no Chatham was found in Rome to infuse fresh energy into the stagnant life of the nation. Wherever we cast our eyes, chinks and rents are yawning in the old building ; we see workmen, busy some- times in filling them up, sometimes in enlarging them, but we nowhere perceive any trace of preparations for thoroughly rebuild- ing or renewing it, and the question is no longer whether, but simply when, the structure will fall. During no epoch did the Roman constitution remain formally as stable as in the period from the Sicilian to the third Macedonian war, and for a generation beyond it ; but the stability of the constitution was here, as everywhere, not a sign of the health of the state, but a token of the incipient sickness and the harbinger of revolution. — Mommsen. Nay, he [Marcus Cato] never after this gave his opinion, but at the end he would be sure to come out with this sentence : " Also, Carthage, methinhs, ought utterly to le destroyed." But Publius Scipio Nasica would always declare his opinion to the contrary, in these words : " It seems requisite to me that Carthage should still stand." For, seeing his countrymen to be grown wanton and insolent, and the people made, by their prosperity, obstinate and disobedient to the senate, and drawing the whole city whither they would after them, he would have had the fear of Carthage to serve as a bit to hold in the contumacy of the multitude ; and he looked upon the Carthaginians as too weak to overcome the Romans and too great to be despised by them. On the other hand, it seemed a perilous thing to Cato, that a city which had been always great, and was now grown sober and wise by reason of its former calamities, should still lie, as it were, in wait for the follies and dangerous excesses of the over- powerful Roman people ; so that he thought it the wisest course to have all outward dangers removed, when they had so many inward ones among themselves. — Plutaech. In 149 B. C. a Third Punic War broke out, and re- sulted in the destruction of Carthage, in 146 B. c, hy the Eoman general Scipio (the younger). The city was fired SECOKD CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 77 and destroyed, and the Carthaginian territory became the Eoman province of Africa. "This great city, therefore, furnishes the most striking example in the annals of the world of a mighty power which, having long ruled over subject peoples, taught them the arts of commerce and civilization, and created for them an imperishable name, has left behind it little more than a name." Where low the ouce victorious Carthage lay. LUOAN. Who can declare The Scipios' worth, those thunderbolts of war. The double bane of Ciirthage ? ViKGiL. Tr. Dryden. And here the praise of either Scipion Abides in highest place above the best. To whom the ruined walls of Carthage vowed ; Trembling, their forces sound their praises lowd. Spenser. Then occurred that which has no parallel in history, — an entire civilization perished at one blow, vanished like a falling star. The " Periplns " of Hanno, a few coins, a score of lines in Plautus, and, lo ! all that remains of the Carthaginian world. — Michelet. A state perished in which Eome lost what could never be restored to her, — a noble rival. — Schmitz. The most shameful and fiendish perfidy of which any nation was ever the victim. — Ihnb. The ruins of Carthage have perished ; and the place might be unknown if some broken arches of an aqueduct did not guide the footsteps of the inquisitive traveller. — Gibbon. Great Carthage low in ruins cold doth lie, Her rains poor the herbs in height can pass ; So cities fall, so perish kingdoms high. Their pride and pomp lie hid in sand and grass. Tasso. Tr. Fairfax. I stand in Carthage. What ! no humble town, No village left to speak her old renown ? Not e'en a tower, a wall ? ruthless years ! To spare not these to pride and pity's tears ; 78 SECOND CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. Well was avenging Scipio's task performed, The flames announced it, and the towers he stormed; But yours hath been far better, desert land. Where scarce a palm-tree crowns the heaps of sand, Old mouldering cisterns, rude unshapen stones, — For e'en the graves are gone, and leave no bones, — A half-choked stream, amid whose sedge is heard The mournful cry of Afrio's desert bird, — These, Carthage, terror once of earth and sea. Are all dark time hath left to tell of thee. N, MiOHELL. Delenda est CaHhago I let the tear Still drop, deserted Carthage, on thy bier; Let mighty nations pause as they survey The world's great empires crumbled to decay; And, hushing every rising tone of pride. Deep in the heart this moral lesson hide, Wliich speaks with hollow voice as from the dead. Of beauty faded and of glory iled, — Ddenda est Carthago. Before the destruction of Carthage, the senate and people managed the affairs of the republic with mutual moderation and forbearance ; there were no contests among the citizens for honor or ascendency, but the dread of an enemy kept the state in order. When that fear, however, was removed from their minds, licentiousness and pride, evils which prosperity loves to foster, immediately began to prevail ; and thus peace, which they had so eagerly desired in adversity, proved, when they had obtained it, more grievous and fatal than adversity itself. The Patricians carried their authority, and the people their liberty, to excess ; every man took, snatched, and seized what he could. There was a complete division into two factions, and the re- public was torn in pieces between them. Yet the nobility still main- tained an ascendency by conspiring together; for the strength of the people, being disunited and dispersed among a multitude, was less able to exert itself. Things were accordingly directed, both at home and in the field, by the will of a small number of men, at whose dis- posal were the treasury, the provinces, offices, honors, and triumphs, while the people were oppressed with military service and with pov- erty, and the generals divided the spoils of war with a few of their fiiends. The parents and children of the soldiers, meantime, if they chanced to dwell near a powerful neighbor, were driven from their SECOND CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 79 homes. Thus avarice, leagued with power, disturbed, violated, and wasted everything, without moderation or restraint, disregarding alike reason and religion, and rushing headlong, as it were, to its own destruction. — Sallust. For when their dread of Carthage was at an end, and their rival in empire was removed, the nation, deserting the cause of virtue, went over, not graduallj', but with precipitation, to that of vice; the old rules of conduct were renounced, and new introduced; and the people turned themselves from activity to slumber, from arms to pleasure, from business to idleness. — Velleius Paterculds. GEEECE A EOMAN PROVIlSrCE. In 146 B. c, the same year in which she destroyed Car- thage, Eorae also destroyed Corinth in Greece, and Greece hecame a Eonian province under the name of Achaia. 'T is Greece, bnt living Greece no more ! Btbon. The Greeks surpass all men tUl they face the Romans, when Ro- man character prevaOs over Greek genius. — Emeeson. As far as intellect is concerned, the Greeks were in a state of com- plete decay ; at Athens schools indeed still existed, but poetry was extinct, and even the art of oratory, the last flower of the Hellenic mind, had disappeared from Greece and established itself among the Asiatic nations, which had become Hellenized without possessing the great qualities of the Greek nation. Most towns were only shadows of what they had been, and there were few which had not been destroyed several times. Corinth » was one of the fortunate ex- ceptions, and hence had become the most flourishing of aU Greek cities. — NiEBUHE. The conquerors, brave and resolute, faithful to their engagements, and strongly influenced by religious feelings, were, at the same time, ignorant, arbitrary, and cruel. With the vanquished people were deposited all the art, the science, and the literature of the Western 80 SECOND CENTUET BEFOEE CHRIST. world. In poetry, in philosophy, in painting, in axchitectnre, in sculpture, they had no rivals. Their manners were polished, their perceptions acute, their invention ready; they were tolerant, affable, humane. But of courage and sincerity they were almost utterly destitute. — Macaulat. For should a man except the achievement at Marathon, the sea-fight at Salamis, the engagements at Platsea and Thermopylae, Cimon's exploits at Eurymedon and on the coasts of Cyprus, Greece fought all her battles against, and to enslave, herself; she erected all her trophies to her own shame and misery, and was brought to ruin and desolation almost wholly by the guilt and ambition of her great men. — Plutarch. In Greece the unity of the social principle led to a development of wonderful rapidity; no other people ever ran so brilliant a career in so short a time. But Greece had hardly become glorious, before she appeared worn out; her decline, if not quite so rapid as her rise, was strangely sudden. It seems as if the principle which called Greek civilization into life was exhausted. — GuizoT. When we reflect on the fame of Thebes and Argos, of Sparta and Athens, we can scarcely persuade ourselves that so many immortal re- publics of ancient Greece were lost in a single province of the Roman Empire, which, from the superior influence of the Achsean League, was usually denominated the province of Achaia. — Gibbon. It is a just though trite observation, that victorious Eome was her- self subdued by the arts of Greece. — Gibbon. The interior, or active political history of the Greeks ceases with the subjugation of their country by Alexander, or at least by the Romans; but it is from this very point that the history of their exte- rior influence may be said almost to commence. From this period we begin to learn how important a part the little comer of Europe, which gave birth to art and science, to politics and philosophy, was really destined to play in human affairs. — Meeivalb. When conquered Greece brought in her captive arts, She triumphed o'er her savage conquerors' hearts ; Taught our rough verse its numbers to refine, And our rude style with elegance to shine. Horace. Tt. Francis. SECOND CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 81 Where are thy splendors, Dorian Corinth ? Where Thy crested turrets, thy ancestral goods. The temple of the West, the dwellings of the fair, Tlie high-born dames, the myriad multitudes ? There 's not a trace of thee, sad doomed one, left By ravening war at once of all hereft. We, the sad nereids, offspring of the surge. Alone are spared to chant the halcyon's dirge. Antipater op Sidon. Where is thy grandeur, Corinth ? Shrunk from sight Thy ancient treasures, and thy ramparts' height. Thy godlike fanes and palaces ! Oh, where Thy mighty myriads, and majestic fair ? Eelentless war has poured around thy wall, And hardly spared the traces of thy fall ! Btkon. Achaean Acrocorinth, the bright star Of Hellas, with its narrow Isthmian bound, Lucius o'ercame; in one enormous mound Piling the dead, conspicuous from afar. Thus, to the Greeks denying funeral fires. Have great .£neas' later progeny Performed high Jove's retributive decree, And well avenged the city of their sires. PoLTSTEAins. Tr. Merivale. Ay, Paul denounced, and Mummius wrapped in flame, The cup was full, the bolt of ruin came. Mirth spread its wings, the sister Graces fled, And Corinth bowed in death her beauteous head. N. MiCHELL. When riseth Lacedajmon's hardihood, When Thebes Epaminondas rears again. When Athens' children are with hearts endued, When Grecian mothers shall give birth to men, Then mayst thou be restored ; but not till then. Bteon. Fair Greece ! sad relic of departed worth ! Immortal, though no more; though fallen, great ! BrRON. Three most remarkable triumphs, therefore, were celebrated at Rome at the same time, — that of Scipio for Africa, before ■whose chariot Hasdrubal was led ; that of Metellus for Macedonia, before whose chariot walked Andriscus (also called Pseudo-Philip); and 82 SECOND CENTURY BEFOEE CHRIST. that of Mummius for Corinth, before whom brazen statues, pictures, and other ornaments of that celebrated city were carried. — Eu- TROPIUS. In the latter part of the century Eome begins the con- quest of Transalpine Gaul, and also begins to interfere with the affairs of Asia, and forms of the dominions of Pergamus the province of Asia in 133-129 B. c. Nearly all of Spain becomes after 133 B. c. a Eoman province. Eome has risen to the position of the one great power of the world. Rome had its heroic age : the Romans knew that they had such an age, and we may believe them. Polybius saw the end of it ; he saw the destruction of Carthage and the savage sack of Corinth, and the beginning of a worse time. But he has recorded his testimony that some honesty stiU remained. — Long. Prom Mummius to Augustus the Roman city stands as the living mistress of a dead world. — Freeman. The submission of Macedonia, and the fall of Corinth, Car- thage, and Numantia, brought the vmiverse to the feet of Rome. — MiCHELET. Rome was between two worlds. The Western was bare, poor, and barbarous, full of grass and verdure, a vast confusion of dispersed tribes ; the Eastern, brilliant in arts and civilization, but weak and corrupted. The latter, in its proud ignorance, thought alone to occupy the attention and forces of the great nation. — Michelet. That city [Rome] is for sale, and will soon perish if it finds a purchaser. — Salltjst. Pro pndore, pro abstinentia, pro virtute, andacia, largitio, avaritia vigebant. — Sallubt. The state was hastening towards its dissolution. No one thought of the republic being in danger, and the danger was indeed as yet far distant; but the seeds of dissolution were, nevertheless, sown, and its symptoms were abeady beginning to become visible. We hear it SECOND CENTUKY BEFOEE CHRIST. 83 generally said, that, with the victories of the Romans in Asia, luxury in all the vices which accompany avarice and rapacity, began to break in upon them. This is, indeed, true enough, but it was only the symptom of corruption, and not its cause; the latter lay much deeper. After so many yeais of destructive and cruel wars, during which the Romans had been almost uninterruptedly in arms, the whole nation was in a frightful condition: the poor were utterly impoverished, the middle class had sunk deeper and deeper, and the wealthy had amassed immense riches. The same men who had gloriously fought under Scipio, and then marched into the rich countries of Asia as hungry soldiers, now returned with exorbitant and ill-gotten riches, • — the treasures extorted from conquered nations. They had no real wants, and did not know how to use the quickly acquired riches. The Ro- mans had grown rich, but the immediate consequence was a brutal use of their riches. — Niebuhr. It is evident to every one whose observation is not superficial, that the Roman government during this whole period wished and desired nothing but the sovereignty of Italy; that they were simply desirous not to have too powerful neighbors alongside of them; and that, not out of humanity towards the vanquished, but from the very sound view that they ought not to suffer the kernel of their empire to be crushed by the shell, they earnestly opposed the introduction first of Africa, then of Greece, and lastly of Asia into the pale of the Roman protectorate, till circumstances in each case compelled, or at least suggested with irresistible force, the extension of that pale. — MOMMSEN. In the course of this century the cause of the Plebeians as against the aristocracy was taken up by the eminent and popular statesman, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, rpj^^ who sought to introduce much needed reforms. GraocM. He was violently opposed by the oligarchy, and, with about three hundred of his supporters, was killed in the year 133 B. c. Ten years later his brother Caius attempted to renew his work, but he was also murdered by the aristo- cratic faction. Who ean omit the Gracchi ? ViKGlL. Tr. Dryden. 84 SECOND CENTURY BEFOKE CHRIST. His [Tiberius Gracchus'] immediate object was, not the enrich- ment or elevation of the Plebeians, but simply the restoration of the needier citizens to a state of honorable independence. — Merivale. His [Tiberius Gracchus'] great aim was to enforce the observance of previous laws, to correct the grave abuses of the system under which the public lands were held, and to raise up a new class of small proprietors and cultivators of the soil, who would have constituted an industrious and stable middle class to stand between the haughty nobles and the hungry populace. — Mat. There never was a milder law [i. e. the Licinian, which prohibited any man from occupying more than five hundred acres of public land, and which law, with some modifications, Gracchus sought to revive] made against so much injustice and oppression. For they who de- served to have been punished for their infringement on the rights of the community were to have a consideration for giving up their groundless claims. ... In this just and glorious cause Tiberius exerted an eloquence which might have adorned a worse subject, and which nothing could resist. — Plutarch. The aristocracy were foiled by the courage and patriotism of the Gracchi, who acted with that thorough faith in the truth and jus- tice of their cause which affords the surest promise of success. The agrarian laws were carried, though their authors perished in the struggle, and these enactments proved thoroughly too intricate and impracticable to be ever executed. But, imperfectly as they were administered, their effect was still stringent and salutary. Hence the extraordinary energy which the republic displayed during the thirty years that followed. — Merivale. The history of Eome from the time of the Gracchi is the history of a state that was hurried to its ruin by the ignorance of the people and the vices of their leaders. "We now and then meet with an honest man, but the number is small. — Long. The defeat of the Teutones by the consul, Caius Marius, in a great battle near Aquse Sextise, in Gaul, in the year 102 B. c. is one of the chief events in Eoman history. It saved Eome from being overthrown, not by a civilized race, but by a people who were essentially barbarous. Marius is justly entitled to rank among the most illustrious men of Eome. SECOND CENTURY BEFOKE CHRIST. 85 THE MACCABEES. It was during this century that the Jews, under the leadership of a celebrated family surnamed the Maccabees (from the Hebrew Mahkab, a hammer), obtained a tem^ porary independence. About the year 165 B. o. Judas Maccabseus won a great victory over the Syriau King An- tiochus. This is the heroic period of Jewish history. [Judas Maccabaeus] gat his people great honor, and put on a breast- plate as a giant, and girt his warlike harness about him, and he made battles, protecting the host with his sword. In his acts he was like a lion, and like a lion's whelp roaring for his prey. — 1 Maccabees, iii. 3. So did not Maccabaeus: he indeed Retired unto the desert, but with arms; And o'er a mighty king so oft prevailed, That by strong hand his family obtained, Though priests, the crown, and David's throne usurped. With Modin and her suburbs once content. Milton. I saw athwart the Cross a splendor drawn By naming Joshua (even as he did it), Nor noted J the word before the deed; And at the name of the great Maocabee I saw another move itself revolving. And gladness was the whip unto that top. Dante, Paradiso. Tr. Longfellow. About -A.D.I ScTlst/l'' FimUr^ CcScMm PIEST CENTUKT BEFORE CHEIST. (100-1.) The prominent feature 'of the century is the great do- minion and power of KoME. EoME becomes mistress of Asia Minor in 64 B. c, and under Pompey now humbles Armenia (but without annex- ing it), makes SjTia a Eoman province, and Palestine (with Judaea) a Eoman dependency, — extending the Eoman power to the Euphrates. Julius Caesar, the great Eo- man general, in seven years subdues the whole land of Gaul. Egypt becomes a Eoman province in 30 B. o. The Eoman Empire begins in 27 B. c, with Octavius as em- peror under the title of Augustus Caesar. Various minor additions are also made to the Eoman territory, and at the Christian epoch Eome becomes mistress of all the lands round the Mediterranean. Parthia is a great power, and a formidable rival to Eome. Stria becomes a Roman province in 64 b. c. JuD^A becomes subject to Eome in 64 B. c. Gaul is reduced by Julius Csesar to a Eoman province in 51 b. o. Egypt becomes a Eoman province in 30 b. c. 100B.C.-A.D. 1. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 90-88. The Social "War. 88. Beginning of the Mlthridatic Wars and of the Civil Wars between Mariu3 and Snlla. 82. SuUa declared perpetual Dictator ; publishes his proscription. 73-71. Servile War (Spartacus). 70. Battle of Tigranocerta. 66. Mithridates defeated by Pompey, and Fontus reduced to a Boman prov- ince. 64. Syria reduced to a Eoman province by Pompey. 63. Catiline's conspiracy. 60. The First Triumvirate (Julius Csesar, Pompey, and Crassus). 58-51. Csesar'a campaigns in Gaul. 55. Csesar invades Britain. Beginning of Roman Conquest. 51. Gaul a Roman province. 49. Civil war begins between Csesar and Pompey. 48. Battle of Pharsalia. Pompey defeated. 46. Battle of Thapsus. 45. Csesar declared perpetual Dictator; regulates the Roman calendar. 45. Battle of Munda. 44. Julius Csesar assassinated. 43. The Second Triumvirate (Octavius Csesar, Marcus Autonius, and Lepi- dus). Civil war. 42. Battle of Fhilippi. Brutus and Caa- sius overthrown. 31. Battle of Actium. End of the Roman Republic. 30. Egypt reduced to a Roman province. Temple of Janus closed. 27. Octavius becomes Emperor and as- sumes the title of Augustus Csesar. 4. Birth of Jesus Christ. PROMINENT NAMES OF THE CENTURY. Rome. Public ilfeu. — Marius, Sulla, Sert,orius, LucuUus, (Pompey, Csesar, Crassus, the First Triumvirate,) Cicero, Catiline, Cato (Uticensis), (Octavius, Ijepidus, Antony, the Second Triumvirate), Brutus. Emperor. — Augustus. Poets aiuL Dramatists. — Lucretius, Catullus, Virgil, Horace, TibuUus, Propertius, Ovid. Historiatis. — Varro, Julius Csesar, Sallust, Livy, Nepos. Philosopher and Orator. — Cicero. (h'eek Geographer. — Strabo. Stria. Under the dynasty of the Seleucidse. Egypt. Under the dynasty of the Ptolemies (Cleopatra the last sovereign). King. — Herod the Great. Kiiig. — Mithridates. JUDJSIA. PONTUa. ILLUSTKATIONS. EOME. THE period of civil strife begun in the last century- continued through a large part of this century. The simple civil and moral organization of a great agricultural city had been succeeded by the social antagonisms of a capital of many nations, and by that demoralization in which the prince and the beg- gar meet; now everything had come to be on a broader, more abrupt, and fearfully grand scale. When the social war brought all the political and social elements fermenting among the citizens into collision with each other, it laid the foundation for a new revolu- tion. — MOMMSEN. After a war with Mithridates, King of Pontus, came the bloody days of the civil wars of Marius and Sulla, when one hundred and fifty thousand Eoman citizens are said to have perished. When betwixt Marius and fierce Sulla tost, The commonwealth her ancient freedom lost. LnoAN. Tr. Eowe. This only was wanting to complete the misfortunes of the Romans, that they should raise an unnatural war among themselves, and that, in the midst of the city and forum, citizens should fight with citizens, like gladiators in an amphitheatre. I should bear the calamity, how- ever, with greater patience if Plebeian leaders or contemptible nobles 90 FIEST CENTUEY BEFOEE CHKIST. had been at the head of such atrocity; but. even Marius and Sulla (oh, indignity! such men, such generals !) the grace and glory of their age, lent their eminent characters to this worst of evils. — Floeds. I pray that I may be permitted to turn away my eyes from the horrors of the wars of Marius and Sulla. Their frightful history may be found in Appian. — Montesquieu. The chief interest in the history of Eoman affairs is now connected with the disputes and ambitious struggles of the most famous men of Eome. A period of factions and strife had succeeded the more harmonious times of the republic. "I see,'' said Catiline to Cicero, — "I see in the republic a head without a body, and a body without a head; I will be this head which is wanting." This sentence admirably describes Koman society. — MiCHBLBT. But Rome itself was in the most dangerous inclination to change, on account of the unequal distribution of wealth and property, those of highest rank and greatest spirit having impoverished themselves by shows, entertainments, ambition of offices, and sumptuous build- ings, and the riches of the city having thus fallen into the hands of mean and low-born persons. So that there wanted but a slight impetus to set all in motion, it being in the power of every daring man to overturn a sickly commonwealth. — Plutaech. When wealth was once considered an honor, and glory, author- ity, and power attended on it, virtue lost her influence, poverty was thought a disgrace, and a life of innocence was regarded as a life of ill-nature. From the influence of riches, accordingly, luxury, avarice, and pride prevailed among the youth; they grew at once rapacious and prodigal; they undervalued what was their own, and coveted what was another's; they set at naught modesty and con- tinence ; they lost all distinction between sacred and profane, and threw off all consideration and self-restraint. — Sallust. The fearful anarchy into which Eome was plunged after the time of Sulla showed itself more particularly in the assemblies of the peo- ple; for there the place of the free-born Koman citizen was occupied FIRST CENTUET BEFORE CHRIST. 91 by an idle and hungry populace, which had no idea for anything higher than bread and amusements, and was ever ready to attach itself to those who had the richest rewards to offer. — Schmitz. The beginning of the decay of the Roman commonwealth may be dated from the time when the soldier began to be distinct from the citizen. The growth of this distinction was gradual. As the area of military operations extended, campaigns were more protracted, and the influence of the central government over the forces in the field became weaker and weaker. Even if a commander started out with no ambitious designs against the liberties of his country, he could not but learn, during years of supreme authority over legions and over provinces, to love the exercise of absolute power. His men, too, cut off from home communications and sympathies, were ready to foUow a leader who they knew would reward them. They forgot that they were in the service of the commonwealth, and listened only to the chief whom they had been accustomed to obey, and on whose gratitude they felt that they could rely. — H. Mann. Eome became mistress of Asia Minor in 64 B. c, and under the famous general, Pompey (the Great), then hum- bled Armenia (but without annexing it), made Syria a Eoman province, and Palestine (with Judaea) a Eoman dependency, — extending the Eoman power to the Eu- phrates. But that which seemed to be his [Pompey's] greatest glory, being one which no other Roman ever attained to, was this, that he made his third triumph over the third division of the world. For others among the Romans had the honor of triumphing thrice, but his first triumph was over Africa, fus second over Europe, and this last over Asia ; so that he seemed in these three triumphs to have led the whole world captive. — Plutaecii. In 60 B. c. Pompey, with Caesar, a rising man of Eome, and Crassus, united in a famous political partner- ^j^gt Tri- ship known as the First Triumvirate. The pur- "evirate. pose of Caesar and Pompey in this union was to get aU the power that they could into their own hands. 92 FIRST CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. Rome, thyself art cause of all these evils, Thyself thus shivered out to three men's shares ! Dire league of partners in a kingdom last not. faintly joined friends, with ambition blind, Why join you force to share the world betwixt you ? LuCAW. Tr. Marlowe. Tlie blood of the Roman and the Italian has mingled in one com- mon current; . . . the contest has ended in raising individual states- men to a position in which they can array their own private ambition against the general weal. Each great chieftain finds himself at the head of a faction whose interests centre in him alone, who are ready to fight under his banner and for his personal aggrandizement, and have ceased to invoke the watchwords of party or the principles of class. The Triumvirs are now leagued together to undermine the old form of government; by and by they will fly asunder, and challenge each other to mortal duel. Each will try to strengthen himself by an appeal to old names and prejudices, and the shadows of a populai" and a Patrician party will again face each other on the field of Pharsalia; but the real contest will be between a Csesar and a Pompeius, no longer between the commons and the nobility. — Merivalb. Cato wisely told those who charged all the calamities of Eome upon the disagreement betwixt Pompey and Caesar [see page 93], that they were in error in charging all the crime upon the last cause ; for it was not their discord and enmity, but their unanimity and friendship, that gave the first and greatest blow to the common- wealth. — Plutarch. Csesar, in a remarkable campaign of about eight years. Conquest Conquered the whole country of Gaul, which be- of Gaul, came reduced to a Eoman province in 51 B. c. Conceive the languid and bloodless figure of Gaul, just escaped from a burning fever ; remark how thin and pale she is ; how she fears even to move a limb lest she bring on a worse relapse. Liberty was the sweet, cold draught for which she burned, — which was stolen from her. — Orosius (fifth century). He took more than eight hundred cities by storm ; worsted three hundred nations, and encountered at different times three millions of enemies, of whom he slew one million in action, and made prisoners of an equal number. — Plutarch, FIRST CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 93 C^SAE EULEE OF THE EOMAN "WOELD. During Caesar's campaign in Gaul and absence from Eome, Pompey intrigued against him, and an increasing rivalry between the two men culminated in the Cesar's bitterest enmity. In 49 B. c. Ctesar rebelled, carea?"™ crossed the Eubicon, and invaded Italy. Civil war now began between him and the forces of Eome under Pompey. The decisive battle took place at Pharsalia, and ended in the entire overthrow of Pompey. Until Caesar came, Rome was a minor ; by him she attained her majority and fulfilled her destiny. — De Quincey. There mighty Caasar waits his vital hour. Impatient for the world, and grasps his promised power, ViKGiL. Tr. Dryden. Caesar's and Pompey's jarring love soon ended, 'T was peace against their wills. LuoAN. Tr. Marlowe. Pompey could hide no equal. Nor Caesar no superior : which of hoth Had justest cause, unlawful 't is to judge : Each side had great partakers. LuoAN. Tr. Marlowe. The madness of Csesar and Pompey plunged the city, Italy, the provinces, in short the whole Roman dominion, into an inflammatory disorder, bo that it is not rightly called a civil war, nor a social war, nor yet a foreign war, but rather a certain strange compound of them aU, and more than a war. — Florus. The First Triumvirate of Pompey, Csesar, and Crassus was a certain presage of the fall of the republic. Crassus, who would not have had the genius to withstand Caesar, fell in an expedition against the Par- thians; and Pompey, who had lost much of his popularity in his later years, was compelled to fly from Rome after Ca3sar had passed the Rubicon. . . . The rest is soon told. Pompey was defeated at Pharsalia, and murdered in Egypt in 48 b. c, and Csesar became master of the world. — Dyer. 94 FIRST CENTUEY BEFORE CHRIST. Never before had a greater number of Roman forces assembled in one place, or under better generals, — forces wMch would easily have subdued the whole world had they been led against barbarians. — EUTROPIUS. Of woes so great was Pharsalia the cause. Let Cannae yield, a fatal name, and Allia, long condemned in the Roman annals. Rome has marked these as occasions of lighter woes, this day she longs to ignore. — Ltjcan. When betwixt Marius and fierce Sulla tost, The commonwealth her ancient freedom lost, Some shadow yet was left, some show of power; Now e'en the name with Pompey is no more: Senate and people all at once are gone, Nor need the tyrant blush to mount the throne. LuOAN. Tr. Rowe. Age, thou art shamed: Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods. Wlien went there by an age, since the great flood, But it was famed with more than with one man ? When could they say, till now, that talked of Rome, That her wide walls encompassed but one man ? Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough. When there is in it but one only man. Shakespeabe. Caesar was now the master of the Eoman world ; but, a conspiracy having heen formed against him, he was assassinated in the senate-house, at the foot of the statue of his rival Pompey, March 5, 44 B. c.^ In his mantle mufiling up his face, Even at the base of Pompey's statue, Which all the while ran blood, great Cjesar fell. Shakespeare. Strange and startling resemblance between the fate of the founder of the kingdom of this world and of the Founder of the kingdom not of this world, for which the first was a preparation. Each was de- nounced for making himself a Idng. Each was maligned as the friend 1 In deorum numerum relatus est non ore modo deoementium sed et per- suasione vulgi. — Suetonhjs. FIKST CENTURY BEFOKE CHEIST. 95 of publicans and sinners ; each was betrayed by those whom he had loved and cared for; each was put to death ; and Csesar also was believed to have risen again and ascended into heaven and become a divine being. — Froudb. He firet the fate of Csesar did foretell. And pitied Borne, when Rome in Ciesar fell. ViKQiL, Oeorgic I. The foremost man of aU the world. Shakespeare. In the most high and palmy state of Borne, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell. Shakesfeabe. Caesar, the world's great master and his own ; Unmoved, superior still in every state, And scarce detested in his country's fate. Pope. Without Caesar, we afBrm a thousand times that there would have been no perfect Rome; and, but for Rome, there could have been no such man as Csesar. Both, then, were immortal ; each worthy of each. — De Quincet. We are now contemplating that man who, within the short space of fourteen years, subdued Gaul, thickly inhabited by warlike na- tions; twice conquered Spain; entered Germany and Britain; marched through Italy at the head of a victorious army; destroyed the power of Pompey the Great; reduced Egypt to obedience; saw and defeated Phamaces; overpowered, in AMoa, the great name of Cato and the arms of Juba; fought fifty battles, in which 1,192,000 men fell; was the greatest orator in the world, next to Cicero; set a pattern to all historians, which has never been excelled; wrote learnedly on the sciences of grammar and augury; and, falling by a premature death, left memorials of his great plans for the extension of the empire and the legislation of the world. — Mtjllee. Much has been said respecting the fortune of Csesar; but that extraordinary man possessed so many great qualities in perfection, — although he had many vices also, — that it is difBcult to conceive that he would not have been conqueror, no matter what army he had com- manded, or that he would not have governed, no matter in what republic he had been bom. — Montesquieu. That there is a bridge connecting the past glory of Hellas and Borne with the prouder fabric of modem history; that Western 7 96 FIEST CENTUEY BEFORE CHEIST. Emope is Romanic, and Germanic Europe classic ; that the names of Themistocles and Scipio have to us a very different sound from those of Asoka and Salmanassar; that Homer and Sophocles are not merely like the Vedas and Kalidasa attractive to the literary botan- ist, but bloom for us in our own garden, — all this is the work of Csesar; and while the creation of his great predecessor in the East has been almost wholly reduced to ruin by the tempests of the Mid- dle Ages, the structure of Caesar has outlasted those thousands of years which have changed religion and polity for the human race, and even shifted the centre of civilization itself, and it stands erect, for what we may term perpetuity. — Mommsen. If from the intellectual, we turn to the moral character of Caesar, the whole range of history can hardly furnish a picture of greater de- formity. Never did any man occasion so large an amount of human misery with so little provocation. In his campaigns in Gaul he is said to have destroyed 1,000,000 of men in battle, and to have made prisoners 1,000,000 more, many of whom were destined to perish as gladiators, and all were torn from their country and reduced to slav- ery. The slaughter which he occasioned in. the civil wars cannot be computed ; nor can we estimate the degree of suffering caused in every part of the empire by his spoliations and confiscations, and by the various acts of extortion and oppression which he tolerated in his followers. When we consider that the sole object of his conquests in Gaul was to enrich himself and to discipline his army, that he might be enabled the better to attack his coimtry ; and that the sole provoca- tion on which he commenced the civil war was the resolution of the senate to recall him from a command which he had already enjoyed for nine years, after having obtained it in the beginning by tumult and violence, — we may judge what credit ought to be given him for his clemency in not opening lists of proscription after his sword had already cut off his principal adversaries, and had levelled their party with the dust. — Aknold. By wisedom, manhod, and by gret labour, Fro burablehede to royal majeste Up roos he, Julius the conquerour, That wan al thocoident by land and see. By strength of bond or elles of trete. And unto Rome made hem contributarie. CHAtroER. FIEST CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 97 Great Julius, whom uow all the world admires, The more he grew in years, the more inflamed With glory, wept that he had lived so long Inglorious. MiLTOK. And thou, dread statue ! yet existent in The austerest form of naked majesty, Thou who beheldest, mid the assassins' din, At thy bathed base the bloody Csesar lie. Folding his robe in dying dignity. An offering to thine altar from the queen Of gods and men, great Nemesis ! did he die. And thou, too, perish, Pompey ? have ye been Victors of countless kings, or puppets of a scene 1 ' Btkon. Witli such vividness, with such transparent clearness, the age stands before us of Cato and Pompey, of Cicero and Julius Csesar; the more distinctly because it was an age in so many ways the counter- part of our own, the blossoming period of the old civilization, when the intellect was trained to the highest point which it could reach, and on the great subjects of human interest, on morals and politics, on poetry and art, even on religion itself and the speculative problems of life, men thought as we think, doubted where we doubt, argued as we argue, aspired and struggled after the same objects. It was an age of material progress and material civilization; an age of civil liberty and intellectual culture; an age of pamphlets and epigrams, of salons and of dinner parties, of senatorial majorities and electoral corruption. The highest offices of state were open in theory to the meanest citizen; they were confined, in fact, to those who had the longest purses, or the most ready use of the tongue on popular platforms. — Fhoude. The Roman Patriciate, trained in the conquest and government of the civilized world, in spite of the tyrannical vices which sprung from that training, were raised by the greatness of their objects to an eleva- tion of genius and character unmatched by any other aristocracy, ere the period when, after preserving their power by a long course of wise compromise with the people, they were betrayed by the army and the populace into the hands of a single tyrant of their own order, — the most accomplished of usurpers, and, if humanity and justice could for a moment be silenced, one of the most illustrious of men. There is no scene in history so memorable as that in which Csesar mastered a 98 FIRST CENTUEY BEFOEE CHRIST. nobility of which Lucullus and Hortensius, Sulpicius and Catulus, Pompey and Cicero, Brutus and Cato, were members. — Mackintosh. The death of Caesar was followed by about thirteen years of confusion. Caesar's nephew, Octavius, formed with An- Bnd of the tony, one of Caesar's generals, and Lepidus, the repubUc. ggcond Triumvirate, and waged war with the friends of the republic, who were headed by Brutus and Cassius. The latter were defeated at Philippi in 42 B. c. This was the end of the Eoman Eepublic. When Caesar, one of the greatest of men, sank under the alliance of metaphysical fanaticism with aristocratic rage, this foolish and odious murder had no other issue than raising to the leadership of the people against the senate men much less iit for the government of the world; and none of the changes which ensued ever admitted of any return, however temporary, to the genuine Eoman organization, because its existence was inseparably connected with the gradual extension of conquest. — Oomte. The battle of Philippi, in the estimation of the Eoman writers, was the most memorable conflict in their military annals. ... It was on that field that the republic perished. — Meeivalb. After expeUing her kings and shaking off Etruscan influence, Eome existed as a republic for five centuries, and during this long age of barbarism she did nothing to advance science or art. Litera- ture was almost wholly unknown within her walls, and not one monument has come down to our time, even by tradition, worthy of a city of a tenth part of her power and magnitude. There is prob- ably no instance in the history of the world of a capital city existing so long, populous and peaceful at home, prosperous and powerful abroad, and at the same time so utterly devoid of aiiy monuments or any magnificence to dignify her existence. — Fergusson. Ancient Eome produced many heroes, but no saints. Its self- sacrifice was patriotic, not religious. Its religion was neither an independent teacher nor a source of inspiration, although its rites mingled with and strengthened some of the best habits of the people. — Leckt. FIEST CENTUEY BEFORE CHEIST. 99 Eome vas to tlie entire Roman people, for many generations, as much a religion as Jehovah was to the Jews ; nay, much more, for they never fell away from their worship, as the Jews did from theirs. And the Romans, otherwise a selfish people, with no very remark- able faculties of any kind, except the purely practical, derived never- theless from this one idea a certain greatness of soul, which manifests itself in all their history, where that idea is concerned, and nowhere else, and has earned for them the large share of admiration, in other respects not at all deserved, which has been felt for them by most noble-minded persons from that time to this. — Mill. Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus now divided the Eoman world among themselves. Antony took the East, Octavius the West, and Lepidus the province of Africa ; hut the last named, being weaker than the others, soon dropped out of sight. Antony and Octavius now began to quarrel. The former stayed at Alexandria, where he fell under the influ- ence of Cleopatra, the last of the Ptoletnies, for whom he divorced his wife Octavia, sister of Octavius. Octavius then declared war, and defeated Antony and Cleopatra in a sea-fight at Actium, on the west coast of Greece, in 31 B. c. The issue of the long struggle of the nations against the all- conquering republic is indeed a momentous event in human annals. The laws and language, the manners and institutions, of Europe still bear witness to the catastrophe of Actium. The results it produced can never recur to our minds without impelling us to reflect upon the resTilts we may suppose it to have averted. — Mekivale. But Egypt knows her dream a cheat Begot of Mareotio fumes, When the devouring fire consumes. Ship after ship, her Actium fleet. When Caesar, following in her wake. Like hawk or hunter giving chase To timorous dove or hare of Thrace, Urges his crew to overtake 100 FIEST CENTUEY BEFOKE CHEIST. And load the monster-queen -with chains, She homeward steers, resolved to die, Preferring death to slavery Or exile from her old domains. Horace. Tt. Hovenden. Her tresses hound with Actium's crown of bay, Peace comes j in all the world, sweet goddess, stay ! Her altar flames, ye priests, with incense feed, Bid 'neath the axe the snow-white victim bleed! Pray willing Heaven that Caesar's house may stand. Long as the peace it gives a wearied land ! OvDD. Tr. Church. EOME MISTRESS OF THE WORLD. Egypt soon after (30 b. c.) was made a Eoman province. Eome thus became mistress of all the lands around the Mediterranean.' With the exception of the conquest of Britain, in the next century, and some temporary additions at a later period, the Eoman territory had now reached its greatest extent, and the Eoman power may be regarded as having practically spread over all the lands which could be looked on as forming part of the civilized world. Home was th' whole world, and al the world was Borne ; And if things nam'd their names doo equalize. When land and sea ye name, then name ye Eome ; And, naming Eome, ye land and sea comprize : For th' auncient plot of Eome, displayed plaiue, The map of aU the wide world doth containe. Spenser. The subject world shall Eome's dominion own. And prostrate shall adore the nation of the gown. Virgil. Tr. Dryden. The self-governing powers that had filled the Old World had bent, one after another, before the rising power of Rome, and had vanished. The earth seemed left void of independent nations. Banke. FIEST CENTUKY BEFORE CHEIST. 101 Toutes les nations civilis6es pt une partie des nations barbares 6tant r^unies sous le meme sceptre, il n'y etit plus dans I'ancienne monde qu'une seule cit^, en travail d'un monde nouveau. — Thieeby. Rome onely might to Eome compared bee, And onely Eome could make great Eome to tremble. Sfbnseb. The exultations, pomps, and cares of Eome, Whence half the breathing world received its doom. WOBDSWOETH. The Palatine, proud Eome's imperial seat, (An awful pile!) stands venerably great: Thither the kingdoms and the nations come. In supplicating crowds, to learn their doom. Claudian. Tr. Addison. When, however, Carthage was conquered and destroyed, when Greece was overrun and plundered, and Egypt, with her long- treasured art, had become a dependent province, Kome was no longer the city of the Aryan Romans, but the sole capital of the civilized world. Into her lap were poured all the artistic riches of the uni- verse ; to Eome flocked all who sought a higher distinction or a more extended field for their ambition than their own provincial capitals could then afford. She thus became the centre of all the arts and of aU the science then known ; and, so far at least as quantity is concerned, she amply redeemed her previous neglect of them. It seems an almost indisputable fact that during the three centuries of the empire more and larger buildings were erected in Rome and her dependent cities than ever were erected in a like period in any part of the world. — Fekgusson. Eome laid a belt about the Mediterranean of a thousand miles in breadth, and within that zone she comprehended not only all the great cities of the ancient world, but so perfectly did she lay the garden of the world in every climate, and for every mode of natural wealth, within her own ring-fence, that since that era no land, no part and parcel of the Eoman Empire, has ever risen into strength and opulence, except where unusual artificial industry has availed to counteract the tendencies of nature. So entirely had Eome en- grossed whatsoever was rich by the mere bounty of native endow- ment. Vast, therefore, unexampled, immeasurable, was the basis of natural power upon which the Eoman throne reposed. — Db Quincet. 102 FIRST CENTUEY BEFOEE CHRIST. And what was the case when Rome extended her boundaries 1 If we follow her history we shall lind that she conquered or founded a host of cities. It was with cities she fought, it was with cities she treated, it was into cities she sent colonies. In short, the history of the conquest of the world by Rome is the history of the conquest and foundation of a vast number of cities. It is true that in the East the extension of the Roman dominion bore somewhat of a different character ; the population was not distributed there in the same way as in the Western world ; it was under a social system, partaking more of the patriarchal form, and was consequently much less concentrated in cities. — Gnizoi. If the world, which resisted every other power, rather welcomed than withstood the Roman rule, it was owing to the new spirit of large and complete aggregation which distinguished it. — Comtb. They [the Romans] vanquished a nation, and contented themselves with weakening it. They imposed conditions upon it which insen- sibly undermined its power. If it raised itself up, they humbled it yet more, and thus it became subject without any one being able to fix the epoch of its subjugation. Thus Rome was not, properly speaking, either a republic or a monarchy, but the head of a body which was made up of all the peoples of the world. — Montesquieu. Tr. Baker. But that which is chiefly to be noted in the whole continuance of the Roman government, they were so liberal of their naturalizations as in effect they made perpetual mixtures. For the manner was to grant the same, not only to particular persons, but to families and lineages ; and not only so, but to whole cities and countries. So as in the end it came to that, that Rome was "communis pa- tria," as some of the civilians call it. . . . So, likewise, the au- thority of Nicholas Machiavel seemeth not to be contemned ; who, inquiring the causes of the growth of the Roman Empire, doth give judgment ; there was not one greater than this, that the state did so easily compound and incorporate with strangers. — Lord Bacon. All that whioli ^gypt ■whilome did devise ; All that which Greece their temples to emhrave. After th' lonioke, Attioke, Doricke guise ; Or Corinth skil'd in curious workes to grave ; FIEST CENTURY BEFOKE CHRIST. 103 All that Lysippus praotike arte could forme ; Apelles wit ; or Phidias his skill ; Was wont this aiinoient Citie to adome. And the heaven it selfe with her wide wonders SSL All that which Athens ever brought forth wise ; All that which Afrike ever brought forth strange; All that which Asie ever had of prise ; Was here to see. mervelous great change ! Rome, living, was the worlds sole ornament ; And, dead, is now the worlds sole moniment. Spenseb. Then where, o'er two bright havens, The towers of Corinth frown ; Where the gigantic King of day On his own Rhodes looks down ; Where soft Orontes murmurs Beneath the laurel shades ; Where Nile reflects the endless length Of dark-red colonnades ; Where in the still deep water, Sheltered from waves and blasts, Bristles the dusky forest Of Byrsa's thousand masts; Where Atlas flings his shadow Far o'er the Western foam. Shall be great fear on all who hear The mighty name of Borne. Macaulat. Thou art in Rome ! the city that so long Reigned absolute, the mistress of the world; The mighty vision that the prophets saw. And trembled ; that from nothing, from the least, The lowliest village (what but here and there A reed-roofed cabin by the river-side ?) Grew into everything; and, year by year, Patiently, fearlessly, working her way O'er brook and field, o'er continent and sea. Through nations numberless in battle-array, Each behind each, each, when the other fell, Up and in arms, at length subdued them all. EOQEEB. They have now subdued All nations. But where they who led them forth ; 104 FIRST CENTUEY BEFOEE CHRIST. Who, when at length released by victory (Buckler and spear hung up, but not to rust), Held poverty no evil, no reproach. Living on little "with a cheerful mind. The Decii, the Fabricii ? Where the spade And reaping-hook, among their household things Duly transmitted ? In the hands of men Made captive ; while the master and his guests. Reclining, quaff in gold, and roses swim, Summer and winter, through the circling year, On their Falernian, — in the hands of men Dragged into slavery with how many more Spared but to die, a public spectacle. In combat with each other. Rogers. What, then, had Roman society become ? At its head were ambi- tious and wealthy nobles, commanding vast means of corruption; beneath them was a wretched populace, without patriotism or virtue, and open to the most vulgar seductions of self-interest and pleasure. Their wants were appeased by a profuse distribution of grain from the provinces, below its cost price; and their amusements ministered to by the constant multiplication of games and festivals, the cost of which was defrayed by the sediles, and other elected magistrates. Who could aspire to such offices unless they were rich and liberal 1 Theatrical entertainments were provided for the people by the rediles. Wrestling and athletic sports were succeeded by the baiting of wild beasts from Africa; and these again by the revolting combats of gladi- ators. The multitude craved for new excitements, and those provided for them became more and more brutalizing. Such was the demorali- zation of the time, that even the administration of justice was tainted with corruption. — May. The gross brutality and total absence of every feeling of humanity in the population of Kome shows itself most strikingly in their pas- sionate fondness for the bloody scenes of the circus: the sight of murder, and of men in the agonies of death, was to them a source of pleasure and delight; and their cries for bread were often mixed with cries for murderous games. . . . All imaginable instruments and artifices of sensuality, voluptuousness, and debauchery were carried from the East into Italy; and the city of Rome, which became a place of resort for persons of all nations, was at the same time a pool of corruption for all. — Schmitz. FIRST CENTUKY BEFORE CHRIST, 105 When Fortune made ns lords of all, wealth flowed, And then we grew licentious and rude ; The soldiers' prey and rapine brought in riot; Men took delight in jewels, houses, plate, And scorned old sparing diet, and wore robes Too light for women ; Poverty, who hatched Home's greatest wits, was loathed, and all the world Bausacked for gold, which breeds the world decay; And then large limits had their butting lands ; The ground which Curius and Camillus tilled. Was stretched unto the fields of hinds unknown. Again, this people could not brook calm peace; Them freedom mthout war might not suffice : QuaiTcls were rife ; greedy desire, still poor, Did vile deeds ; then 'twas worth the price of blood, And deemed renown, to spoil their native town ; Force mastered right, the strongest governed all; Hence came it that the edicts were overruled. That laws were broke, tribunes with consuls strove, Sale made of offices, and people's voices Bought by themselves and sold, and every year Frauds and conniptions in the Field of Mars ; Hence interest and devouring usury sprang, Faith's breach, and hence came war, to most men welcome. LucAN. Tr. Marlowe. The age of our fathers, worse than that of our grandsires, has pro- duced us, who are yet baser, and who are doomed to give birth to a still more degraded offspring. — Horace. The memorable sea-fight, 31 b. c, at Aktion (Actium), on the west coast of Greece, between Octavius Csesar and the forces of Antony and Cleopatra, resulting in Beginning the defeat of the latter, left all power in the hands ^omln of the former, who became practically the master Empire. of the Eoman world, and who assumed the title of Augus- tus Csesar in 27 B. c. We can now regard the Eoman Eepublic as changed to a monarchy, with Augustus as the first emperor. Then Caesar from the Julian stock shall rise, Whose empire ocean, and whose fame the sides. 106 FIRST CENTUKY BEFORE CHRIST. Alone shall bound; whom, fraught with Eastern spoils, Our heaven, the just reward of human toUs, Securely shall repay with rites divine, And incense shall ascend before his sacred shrine. Then dire debate and impious war shall cease, And the stem age be softened into peace. ViEGiL. Tr. Dryden. Postquam bellatum apud Actium, atque omnem potestatem ad unum coiiferri pacis interfuit. — Taoitus. Micat inter omnes Julius sidus, velut inter ignes Luna minores. HOEACB. All nations now to Rome obedience pay ; To Rome's great emperor, whose wide domain In ample territory, wealth, and power, , Civility of manners, arts, and arms, And long renown, thou justly mayst prefer Before the Parthian ; 1 these two thrones except, The rest are barbarous, and scarce worth the sight, Shared among petty kings too far removed. Milton. The battle of Actium -was followed by the final conquest of Egypt. That conquest rounded and integrated the glorious empire; it was now circular as a shield,- — orbicular as the disk of a planet: the great Julian arch was now locked into the cohesion of granite by its last key-stone. From that day forward, for three hundred years, there was silence in the world: no muttering was heard; no eye winked beneath the wing. Winds of hostility might still rave at intervals ; but it was ou the outside of the mighty empire, it was at a dream- like distance ; and, like the storms that beat against some monumental castle, "and at the doors and windows seem to call," they rather irritated and vivified the sense of security, than at all disturbed its Inxurious lull. — De Quincet. We have beheld a nation, still full of life, stUl instinct with energy, just arrived at the culminating point of its glories in the career most appropriate to its genius; the conquered world lies prostrate at its feet, and for a moment it seems to have achieved the second and 1 See page 114. FIRST CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 107 greater triumph over its own passions. The task now lies before it of consolidating its acquisitions and imparting civilization to its subjects. — Meeivalb. A municipal corporation like Rome might be able to conquer the world, but it was a much more difficult task to govern it, to mould it into one compact body. Thus, when the work seemed done, when all the West and a great part of the East had submitted to the Roman yoke, we find an immense host of cities, of little states formed for separate existence and independence, breaking their chains, escap- ing on every side. This was one of the causes which made the estab- lishment of the empire necessary; which called for a more concentrated form of government, one better able to hold together elements which had so few points of cohesion. — Guizot. The Romans, having acquired a vast dominion, were met by the great problem which every first-class power is called upon to solve, — by what means many communities, with different languages, customs, characters, and traditions, can be retained peaceably under a single ruler. — Leckiy. With respect to the empire, the first question which presents itself is. Whence — that is, from what causes and from what era — we are to date its decline 1 Gibbon, as we all know, dates it from the reign of Commodus [a. d. 180-192], but certainly upon no sufficient, or even plausible, grounds. Our own opinion we shall state boldly : the empire itself, from the very era of its establishment, was one long decline of the Roman power. A vast monarchy had been created and consolidated by the all-conquering instincts of a republic, — cradled and nursed in wars, and essentially warlike by means of all its insti- tutions and by the habits of the people. This monarchy had been of too slow a growth, — too gradual, and too much according to the regu- lar stages of nature herself in its development, to have any chance of being other than well cemented ; the cohesion of its parts was intense ; seven centuries of growth demand one or two at least for palpable decay. . . . Hence it was — and from the prudence of Au- gustus acting through a very long reign, sustained at no very distant interval by the personal inspection and revisions of Hadrian — that for some time the Roman power seemed to be stationary. What else could be expected ? ... If the empire seemed to be stationary for some time after its establishment by Julius, and its final settlement 108 FIRST CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. by Augustus, this was through no strength of its own, or inherent in its own constitution, but through the continued action of that strength which it had inherited from the republic. In a philosophical sense, therefore, it may be affirmed that the empire of the Caesars was always in decline ; ceasing to go forward, it could not do other than retrograde. — Db Qdinobt. The later portion of the history of the republic, though deeply disheartening, yet cannot but enlist our sympathies ; it is the end of a life conducted on a certain deliberate plan, and the unavoidable issue of the events which preceded it. In the history which now follows, things are diiferent ; for the history of the empire is no longer the continuation of that which was attractive and pleasing to us in the earlier history of Rome ; and the people, who formerly awakened our greatest interest, now form a thoroughly corrupted mass. Force now decides everything ; and the history itself is con- fined to an individual, ruling over upwards of a hundred millions of men, and to the few who, next to him, are the first in the state. — NiEBTJHR. THE AUGUSTAN AGE. The reign of Augustus was a time of peace, and, in many respects, of prosperity. The literature of the Au- gustan Age is distinguished for genius and refinement. Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Livy flourished during this reign. Information in regard to the Augustan Age will also be found in the succeeding century. But next behold the youth of form divine, Caesar himself, exalted in his line, — Augustus, promised oft, and long foretold. Sent to the realm that Saturn ruled of old ; Born to restore a better age of gold. ViKQlL. Tr. Dryden. While Caesar rules, no civil jair Nor violence our ease shall mar. Nor rage, which sword for carnage whets. And feuds 'twixt hapless towns begets. Juvenal. FIEST CENTUEY BEFORE CHRIST. 109 Thou Csesar, chief where'er thy voice ordain To fix midst gods thy yet unchosen reign, — Wilt thou o'er cities fix thy guardian sway. While earth and all her realms thy nod obey ? The world's vast orb shall own thy genial power, Giver of fruits, fair sun, and favoring shower; Before thy altar grateful nations bow, And with maternal myrtle wreathe thy brow ; O'er boundless ocean shall thy power prevail. Thee her sole lord the world of waters hail, Rule where the sea remotest Thule laves. While Tethys dowers thy bride with all her waves. Virgil. Tr. Sotheby. Tour age, O Caesar, has both restored plenteous crops to the fields, and has brought back to our Jupiter the standards torn from the proud pillars of the Parthians ; and has shut up [the temple] of Janus, [founded by] Romulus, now free from war ; and has imposed a due discipline upon headstrong licentiousness, and has extirpated crimes, and recalled the ancient arts ; by which the Latin name and strength of Italy have increased, and the fame and majesty of the empire is extended from the sun's western bed to the east. While Caesar is guardian of aflfairs, neither civil rage nor violence shall disturb tran- quillity ; nor hatred, which forges swords, and sets at variance un- happy states. — Horace. Then men from war shall bide in league and ease; Peace through the world from Janus' fane shall fly. And bolt the brazen gates with bars of iron. LucAU. Tr. Marlowe. At no period was the Roman state more flourishing. — Edteopi0S. No war or battle's sound Was heard the world around ; The idle spear and shield were high up hung; The hooked chariot stood Unstained with hostile blood ; The trumpet spake not to the armed throng ; And kings sat still with awful eye, As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by. Milton. During the first years of tyranny is reaped the harvest sown during the last years of liberty. Thus the Augustan Age was rich in great 110 FIEST CENTUET BEFOEE CHEIST. minds formed in the generation of Cicero and Caesar. The fruits of the policy of Augustus were reserved for posterity. ^ Macaulat. For centuries before the establishment of the Koman Empire, progressive development and increasing population, joined to com- parative peace and security, had accumulated around the shores of the Mediterranean a mass of people enjoying material prosperity greater than had ever been known before. All this culminated in the first centuries of the Christian era. The greatness of the ancient world was then full, and a more overwhelming and gorgeous spec- tacle than the Roman Empire then displayed never dazzled the eyes of mankind. — Feegusson. THE BIRTH OF CHEIST. The last great age, foretold by sacred rhymes. Renews itsf/aished course : Satumian times Holl round again ; and mighty years, begun From their first orb in radiant circles run. The base degenerate iron offspring ends ; A golden progeny from heaven descends. ViEOXL, Pastoral IV. Tr. Dryden. The birth of Christ took place in Judsea in 4 B. c, that is, four years before the common era. About three hiin- dred years after his death, December 25 was fixed upon as his birthday, and two hundred years later still the year of his birth was guessed at, so that dates could be reck- oned from it ; but, owing to an erroneous method of com- puting time, there was a miscalculation of four years and six days, which error has, however, been allowed to remain, to avoid introducing confusion into established customs. However deeply we may sympathize with the fall of so many free states, we cannot fail to perceive that a new life sprang immediately from their ruins. With the overthrow of independence fell the bar- riers of all exclusive nationalities : the nations were conquered, they FIRST CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. Ill were overwlielmed together, but by that very act were they blended and united ; for, 'as the limita of the empire were held to comprise the whole earth, so did its subjects learn to consider themselves as one people. From this moment the human family began to acquire the cousciovisness of its universal brotherhood. It was at this period of the world's development that Jesus Christ was bom. — Rankb. When Eome had united the civilized world under her sway, the time was come for Monotheism to assume and complete the work of preparation for a new and higher social life. — Comte. Les Testes de la rdpublique p&issent aveo Brutus et Cassius. Antoine et Cesar, apres avoir ruin6 L6pid6, se tournent I'un contre I'autre. Toute la puissance romaine se met sur la mer. Cesar gagne la bataille Actiaque : les forces de I'Egypte et de I'Orient, qu' Antoine menait avec lui, sont dissip^es : tons ses amis I'ahan- donnent, etmeme sa CleopStre, pour laquelle il s'(5tait perdu. . . . Tout cede a la fortune de Cesar. Alexandrie lui ouvre ses portes ; I'Egypte devient une province romaine ; Cleoptoe, qui d^sespere de la pouvoir conserver, se tue elle-meme apres Antoine ; Eome tend les bras k Cesar, qui demeure, sous le nom d'Auguste et le titre d'empereur, seul maitre de tout I'empire. . . . Victorieux par terre et par mer, il ferme le temple de Janus. Tout I'univers vit en paix sous sa puis- sance, et J6sus-Christ vient au monde. — Bossuet. An ominous restlessness in the minds of men, such as generally precedes great changes in the history of mankind, was diffused abroad. — Neander. At the same period there arose in various quarters of the world mysterious voices, of which historians have repeated the echoes, indicating a general but undefined presentiment that an age of social or moral unity was approaching. The East was roused to a fervid anticipation of the advent of some universal conqueror, who should melt all mankind into a crude, inorganic mass. Accustomed from its infancy to a succession of monarchical dynasties, it was uneasy under the republican organization and individual development which followed upon the Roman conquest. It sighed for the coming of another Cyrus or Alexander. But these sounds found a responsive chord in the West also. The sublime vaticinations of the Virgilian Sibyl, bringing the predictions of the Hebrew prophets home to the breasts of the Italians, foreshadowed a reign of peace, equality, and 112 FIEST CENTUEY BEFOEE CHRIST. unity, whether under a political or a moral law. At last, with the birth of the monarchy, there sprang up the germ of the greatest of social revolutions, the religion of Christ. — Merivalb. According to an ancient legend, the Emperor Augustus Csesar re- paired to the sibyl Tiburtiaa, to inquire whether he should consent to allow himself to be worshipped with divine honors, which the Senate had decreed to him. The sibyl, after some days of meditation, took the emperor apart, and showed him an altar ; and above the altar, in the opening heavens, and in a glory of light, he beheld a beautiful Virgin holding an infant in her arms, and at the same time a voice was heard saying, " This is the altar of the Son of the living God ; '' whereupon Augustus caused an altar to be erected on the Capitoline Hill, with this inscription, Ara primogeniti Dei ; and on the same spot, in later times, was built the church called the Ara-Oaeli. . . . This particular prophecy of the Tiburtine sibyl to Augustus rests on some very antique traditions, pagan as well as Christian. It is supposed to have suggested the " PoUio " of Virgil, which suggested the " Messiah " of Pope. It is mentioned by writers of the third and fourth centuries, and our own divines have not wholly rejected it, for Bishop Taylor mentions the sibyl's prophecy among " the great and glorious accidents happening about the birth of Jesus.'' — Mrs. Jameson. The sibylline prophecy is supposed to have occurred a short time before the Nativity, about the same period when the decree went forth " that all the world should be taxed." Historically regarded, Jesus is uplifted on the great wave formed by the confluence of three main courses of ancient life and thought, — the Hebrew, Oriental, and Greek, — all embraced in the imperial sway of Borne. His life, as the fulfilment of Hebrew Messianic prophecy, becomes the central and pivotal fact in the annals of mankind. However it be interpreted, the doctrine of the Church remains, that in it met all the separate threads of human develop- ment ; so that, religiously regarded, it becomes the great revelation of God in human life, and, historically, the isthmus of two great continents, — the connecting link between the ancient and modern world. — J. H. Allen. But he, her fears to cease. Sent down the meek-eyed Peace; FIRST CENTURY BEFORK CHRIST. 113 She, crowned with olive-green, came softly sliding Down through the turning sphere, His ready harbinger, With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing ; And, waving wide her myrtle wand. She strikes a universal peace through sea and land. No war or battle's sound Was heard the world around : The idle spear and shield were high up hung The hooked chariot stood Unstained with hostile blood; The tmmpet spake not to the armM throng; And kings sat still with awful eye, As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by. Milton. It was the calm and silent night ! Seven hundred years and fifty-three Had Rome been growing up to might. And now was queen of land and sea. No sound was heard of clashing wars ; Peace brooded o'er the hushed domain; Apollo, Pallas, Jove, and Mars Held undisturbed their ancient reign, In the solemn midnight Centuries ago ! 'T was in the calm and silent night ! — The senator of haughty Rome Impatient urged his chariot's flight, From lordly revel rolling home. Triumphal arches gleaming swell His breast with thoughts of boundless sway; What recked the Roman what befell A paltry province far away. In the solemn midnight Centuries ago I Alfred Domett. ye vain false gods of Hellas, Ye are silent evermore ! And I dash down this old chalice. Whence libations ran of yore. See ! the wine crawls in the dust Wormlike — as your glories must ! Since Pan is dead. 8 114 FIRST OENTUKY BEFOEE CHEIST. Christ hath sent us down the angels; And the whole earth and the skies Are illumed by altar-candles Lit for blessed mysteries : And a Priest's Hand, through creation, Waveth calm and consecration — And Pan is dead.i Mes. BEOWNma. PAETHIA. Parthos Latio imminentes. HOEAOE. Pmihians, ye afflict us more than ye suppose. LuOAN. Tr. Marlowe. During this century the Eomans first came into contact with the kingdom of Parthia, one of the new kingdoms which had arisen out of the dismembered portions of the Empire of the Seleucidse, and which by continuing good for- tune had come to include all the lands from the Euphrates to the Indus and the Oxus. All these the Parthian (now some ages past, By grSat Arsaces led, who founded first That empire) under his dominion holds, From the luxurious kings of Antioch won. And just in time thou com'st to have a view Of his great power. see, though from far. His thousands, in what martial equjpage They issue forth, steel bows and shafts their arms. 1 Mrs. Browning says her poem of " The Dead Pan " was " excited by Schiller's ' Getter Griechenlands,' and partly founded on a well-known tradi- tion mentioned in a treatise of Plutarch ('De Oraculorum Defeotu'), accord- ing to which, at the hour of the Saviour's agony, a cry of 'Great Pan is dead! ' swept across the waves in the hearing of certain mariners, — and the oracles ceased." FIRST CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 115 Of equal dread in flight or in pursuit ; All horsemen, in wliich fight the most excel : See how in warlike muster they appear, In rhombs, and wedges, and half-moons, and wings. He loolied, and saw what numbers numberless The city gates outpoured, liglit-urmed troops In coats of mail and military pride ; In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong, Prancing their riders bore, the flower and choice Of many provinces from bound to bound. Milton. Speaking broadly, the position that they [the Parthians] occupied was somewhat similar to that which the Turks hold in the system of modem Europe. They had a military strength which caused them to be feared and respected, a vigor of administration which was felt to imply many sterling qualities. A certain coarseness and rudeness attached to them which they found it impossible to shake off ; and this di-awback was exaggerated by their rivals into an indication of irreclaimable barbarity. Except in respect of their military prowess, it may be doubtful if justice is done them by any classical writer. They were not merely the sole rival which dared to stand up against Eome in the interval between 65 b. c. and a. d. 226, but they were a rival falling in many respects very little below the great power whose glories have thrown them so much into the shade. They maintained from first to last a freedom unknown to later Eome ; they excelled the Romans in toleration and in liberal treatment of foreigners, they equalled them in manufactures and in material pros- perity, and they fell but little short of them in the extent and pro- ductiveness of their dominions. They were the second power in the world for nearly three centuries, and formed a counterpoise to Rome which greatly checked Roman decline, and, by forcing the empire to exert itself, prevented stagnation and corruption. It must, however, be confessed that the tendency of the Parthians was to degenerate. — Eawlinson. About AD. WO '^ Frnrtmg Co,So..£;a. Kvng. — Herod Agrippa. Ethnarch: — Archelaus. Roman Governors. — Ponims Pilate, Felix, Portius Festus. ILLUSTKATIONS. THE EOMAN EMPIRE. THE close of the last century witnessed the concentra- tion of all power in the hands of onaman, — Octavius Csesar. Though not openly declared emperor, and though many of the forms of republican government still con- tinued, yet the^Eoman Empire may be said to have had its beginning when in the year 27 B. o. the submissive senate greeted him with the title of Augustus. The period now opens when Eome entered upon her career of imperial power and greatness. See also the preceding century for the beginning of the Eoman Empire and the Augustan Age. From Mummius to Augustus the Roman city stands as the living mistress of a dead world, and from Augustus to Theodosius the mis- tress becomes as lifeless as her subjects. — Freeman. At length, verging towards old age, and sometimes conquering by the terror only of her name, she sought the blessings of ease and tranquillity. The venerable city, which had trampled on the necks of the fiercest nations, and established a system of laws, the perpetual guardians of justice and freedom, was content, like a wise and wealthy parent, to devolve on the Caesars, her favorite sons, the care of govern- ing her ample patrimony. A secure and profound peace, such as had 120 FIEST CENTURY AFTEE CHRIST. been once enjoyed in the reign of Numa, succeeded to the tumults of a republic; while Rome was still adored as the queen of the earth, and the subject nations still reverenced the name of the people and the majesty of the senate. But this native splendor is degraded and suUied by the conduct of some nobles, who, unmindful of their own dignity and of that of their country, assume an unbounded license of vice and folly. — Ammianus Marcellinus. " In war, all tolts drawn back, my portals [temple of Janus] stand, Open for hosts that seek their native land ; In peace, fast closed, they har the outward way, And still shall bar it under Caesar's sway." He spake : before, behind, his double gaze All that the world contained at once surveys. And all was peace ; for now with conquered wave. The Rhine, Germanicus, thy triumph gave. Peace and the friends of peace immortal make. Nor let the lord of earth his work forsake ! Ovn). Tr. Church. The political condition of the world was most melancholy. All power was concentrated at Eome and in the legions. The most shameful and degrading scenes were daily enacted. The Eoman aristocracy, which had conquered the world, and which alone of all the people had any voice in public business under the Caesars, had abandoned itself to a Saturnalia of the most outrageous wicked- ness the human race ever witnessed. Csesar and Augustus, in estab- lishing the imperial power, saw perfectly the necessities of the age. The world was so low in its political relations, that no other form of government was possible. — Ebnan. Augustus established peace in the world, or rather maintained it, for Csesar had conquered everything; but that peace was, as Tacitus says, only another name for slavery. He founded the orgauization of the empire, that is to say, the disorganization of Roman society, of which liberty was the life, and the disorganization caused death, as it always does. Augustus constructed with patient skill a hateful machine of tyranny, a government of suffocation and servility, in . which there was only one thing to praise; that is, that it carried in itself, by its excess of despotism, the element of its ruin. — Ampere. The character of the government is totally changed ; no traces were to be found of the spirit of ancient institutions. The system FIRST CENTUEY AFTEK CHRIST. 121 by wHcli every citizen shared in the government being thrown aside, all men regarded the orders of the prince as the only rule of conduct and obedience; nor felt they any anxiety for the present, while Au<^us- tus, yet in the vigor of life, maintained the credit of himself and house, and the peace of the state. — Tacit0S. Augustus was not of that first class of men who make revolutions; he was of that secondary class who profit by them, and who with dexterity put on the finishing touch, for which a stronger hand has prepared the foundation. — Chatbadbrianb. Still we admire the government of Augustus, because Rome en- joyed nnder him peace, luxuries, and plenty. Seneca says of him, " Clementiam non voco lassam crudelitatem." — Voltaiee. Toutes ces cmautis. La perte de nos biens et de nos libert^s, Le ravage des champs, le pillage dea villes, Et les proscriptious, et las giierres civiles, Sont les degres sanglauts dont Auguste a fait choix Pour monter sur le trdne et nous donner des lois. COKNEILLE. To resume, in a few words, the system of the imperial government, as it was instituted by Augustus, and maintained by those princes who understood their own interest and that of the people, it may be defined an absolute monarchy disguised by the forms of a common- wealth. The masters of the Roman world surrounded their throne with darkness, concealed their irresistible strength, and humbly pro- fessed themselves the accountable ministers of the senate, whose supreme decrees they dictated and obeyed. — Gibbon. The theory of the Roman Empire was that of a representative des- potism. The various offices of the republic were not annihilated, but they were gradually concentrated in a single man. The senate was stUl ostensibly the depository of supreme power, but it was made, in fact, the mere creature of the emperor, whose power was virtually uncon- trolled. Political spies and private accusers, who in the latter days of the republic had been encouraged to denounce plots against the state, began under Aiigustus to denounce plots against the empire, and the class being enormously increased under Tiberius, and stimu- lated by the promise of part of the confiscated property, they menaced every leading politician and even every wealthy man. The Patricians 122 FIRST CENTUET AFTER CHRIST. were gradually depressed, ruined, or driven by the dangers of public life into orgies of private luxury. The poor were conciliated, not by any increase of liberty, or even of permanent prosperity, but by gra- tuitous distributions of corn and by public games, while, in order to invest themselves with a sacred character, the emperors adopted the religious device of an apotheosis. — Lbcky. Even the time of Augustus is the beginning of an almost com- plete barrenness in Roman literature, which presents a great contrast to the abundance of poets belonging to the time of the dictator, Caesar. Poetry became altogether extinct; and we cannot mention a single poet who was a young man in the latter part of the reign of Augustus. NlEBtJHR. He [Augustus] bequeathed, as a valuable legacy to his successors, the advice of confining the empire within those limits which nature seemed to have placed as its permanent bulwarks and boundaries: on the west, the Atlantic Ocean; the Khine and Danube, on the north; the Euphrates, on the east ; and towards the south, the sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa. — Gibbon. The city, which was not built in a manner suitable to the grandeur of the empire, and was liable to inundations of the Tiber, as well as to fires, was so much improved under his administration, that he boasted, not without reason, that he "found it of brick, but left it of marble." — Suetonius. It is almost superfluous to enumerate the unworthy successors of Augustus. Their unparalleled vices, and the splendid theatre on which they were acted, have saved them from oblivion. The dark, unrelenting Tiberius, the fiuious Caligula, the feeble Claudius, the profligate and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius, and the timid, inhuman Domitian, are condemned to everlasting infamy. During fourscore years (excepting only the short and doubtful respite of Vespasian's reign) Rome groaned beneath an unremitting tyranny, which ex- terminated the ancient families of the republic, and was fatal to almost every virtue and every talent that arose iu that unhappy period. — Gibbon. In the eyes of civilized mankind there were in the world two great empires of very unequal force, — the eternal empire of Rome, secure as nature itself; and the Asiatic Empire of the East, at one time held by a Parthian, then by Persian dynasties, often troublesome, but never a FIRST CENTURY AFTER CHRIST. 123 real rival to Rome for the allegiance of the nations around the focus of civilization, the Mediterranean Sea. India was still wrapt in mys- tery and fable. Outside the Roman and Persian borders, northwards and northeastwards, there was a vast, dimly known chaos of number- less barbarous tongues and savage races, from which, from time to time, strange rumors reached the great Italian capital of the world, and unwelcome visitors showed themselves in the distant provinces, on the Rhine and the Danube. — R. W. Church. The number of subjects who acknowledged the laws of Rome, of citizens, of provincials, and of slaves, cannot now be fixed with such a degree of accuracy as the importance of the object would deserve. . . . The total amount of this imperfect calculation would rise to about one hundred and twenty millions of persons, — a degree of popu- lation which . . . forms the most numerous society that has ever been united under the same system of government. Domestic peace and union were the natural consequences of the moderate and compre- hensive policy embraced by the Romans. If we turn our eyes towards the monarchies of Asia, we shall behold despotism in the centre and weakness in the extremities; the collection of the revenue, or the ad- ministration of justice, enforced by the presence of an army; hostile barbarians established in the heart of the country; hereditary satraps usurping the dominion of the provinces; and subjects inclined to rebellion, though incapable of freedom. But the obedience of the Eoman world was uniform, voluntary, and permanent. The van- quished nations, blended into one great people, resigned the hope, nay, even the wish, of resuming their independence, and scarcely con- sidered their own existence as distinct from the existence of Rome. ... In this state of general security, the leisure, as well as opu- lence, both of the prince and people, were devoted to improve and to adorn the Roman Empire. — Gibbon. At this moment the globe contains three at least, if not four, em- pires, each of which exceeds in size the dominions of Rome at the period of their greatest extension, and of which one only comprises a few acres of all the regions over which Augustus held sway.^ — Merivale. 1 The Russian, the British, the American, and, if it still exist, the Cliinese. Gibraltar, Malta, and the Ionian Islands are the only fragments of the Augustan Empire included in any of these vast agglomerations of territory. — Meeivale. 124 FIKST CENTUEY APTEE OHEIST. The immense and overshadowing importance of the capital city, Eome, tended rapidly to a great influx of foreign elements and a great degradation of morals. The people were amused with games and shows, and beguiled into forgetfulness of the liberty they had lost. They make a desert and call it Peace. — Tacitus. Eome is the mistress of the world and the metropolis of the hab- itable earth, destined by the gods to unite, civilize, and govern the scattered races of men. — Flint. The city which thou seest, no other deem Than great and glorious Rome, queen of the earth So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched Of nations. Milton. It was artfully contrived by Augustus, that, in the enjoyment of plenty, the Romans should lose the memory of freedom. — Gibbon. Sseculo premimur gravi Quo soelera regnant, ssevit impietas furens. Seneca. Nona setas agitur pejoraque ssecula ferri Temporibus, quorum sceleri non invenit ipsa Nomen, et a nuUo posuit natura metallo. JirvENAi.. More crime is committed than can be remedied by restraint ; wickedness has prevailed so completely in the breast of all, that innocence is not rare, but non-existent. — Seneca. Lo ! Liberty, long wearied by our crimes. Forsakes us for some better, barb'rous climes ; Beyond the Rhine and Tanais she flies, To snowy mountains and to frozen skies ; While Eome, who long pursued that chiefest good O'er fields of slaughter and through seas of blood. In slavery her abject state shall mourn, Nor dare to hope the goddess will return. Why were we ever free ? Oh, why has Heaven A short-lived, transitory blessing given ? LuOAN. Tr. Eowe. FIEST CENTURY AFTER CHRIST. 125 One reward of this my toil will be that, for a time at aU events, I shall be enabled to forget the desolation which has come upon our na/- tion, — our nation that has now reached a pitch of iniquity at which it can bear neither its vices nor yet the remedies for them. — Tacitus. Posterity will add nothing to our immorality : our descendants can but do and desire the same crimes as ourselves. — Juvenal. When its dominion could be extended no further, this vast organ- ism, having lost its moving principle, fell into dissolution, exhibiting a moral corruption without parallel in the history of society; for nowhere else has there existed such a concentration of means, in the form of power and wealth, in the absence of any end. — Comtb. Two phrases sum up the characteristics of Roman civilization in the days of the empire, — heartless cruelty and unfathomable cor- ruption. — Fakear. Among all these evidences of material well-being, there were ominous signs to catch the watchful eye. The queen of cities had clothed herself in pomp and splendor, and stately villas, parks, and pleasure-grounds were spread over the country ; but Italy herself grew poor in men, in moral energy, and in natural products. The culture of Greece had made its way over the world ; but her cities of renown were sadly dwindled, and scanty populations lived among the ghosts of former glories. The heart of the empire was growing more feeble, though the extremities were sound. — W. W. Capes. Looking back to republican Borne, and considering the state of public morals but fifty years before the emperors, we can with diffi- culty believe that the descendants of a people so severe in their habits could thus rapidly degenerate. . . . In reality, the citizens of Rome were at this time a new race, brought together from every quarter of the world, but especially from Asia. So vast a proportion of the ancient citizens had been cut off by the sword, and partly to conceal this waste of population, but much more by way of cheaply requiting services, or of showing favor, or of acquiring influence, slaves had been emancipated in such great multitudes, and afterwards invested with all the rights of citizens, that, in a single generation, Rome became almost transmuted into a baser metal ; the progeny of those whom the last generation had purchased from the slave merchants. . . . Lucan speaks with mere historic gravity when he says, — 126 FIEST CENTUEY AFTEE CHEIST. " Vivant Galatseque Syrique Cappadoces, Gallique, extremique orbis Ibeii, Armenii, Cilices : nam post civilia bella Sic Populus Romanus erit." Probably in the time of Nero not one man in six was of pure Roman descent. And the consequences were suitable. — De Quincbt. Bome shall perish, — write that word In the blood that she has spilt ; Perish, hopeless and abhorred, Deep in ruin as in guilt. COWPEE. Never was the propensity to supernatural prodigies, and the eager- ness to credit them, more vehement than in this very enlightened age. The priestcraft of Upper Egypt ; the different branches of magic, divination, and oracles of all kinds, — the so-called occult sciences, which associated mankind with a fabulous world of spirits, and pre- tended to give them the control over the powers of nature, — were almost universally respected. Persons of aU. ranks and descriptions — great lords and ladies, statesmen, scholars, the recognized and paid professors of the Pythagorean, the Platonic, the Stoic, and even the Aristotelian school — thought on these topics exactly as did the simplest of the people. . . . Men believed everything — and noth- ing. — WiELAND. Every age in its decline has exhibited the spectacle of selfish lux- ury side by side with abject poverty, of " Wealth, a monster gorged Mid starving populations ; " but nowhere, and at no period, were these contrasts so startling as they were in Imperial Rome. There a whole population might be trem- bling lest they should be starved by the delay of an Alexandrian corn-ship, while the upper classes were squandering a fortune at a single banquet, drinking out of myrrhine and jewelled vases worth hundreds of pounds, and feasting on the brains of peacocks and the tongues of nightingales. ... At the summit of the whole decaying system — necessary, yet detested; elevated indefinitely above the very highest, yet living in dread of the very lowest; oppressing a pop- ulation which he terrified, and terrified by the population which he oppressed — was an emperor raised to the divinest pmnacle of au- FIKST CENTUET AFTER CHEIST. 127 tooraoy, yet conscious that hia life hung upon a thread, — an emperor who, in the terrible phrase of Gibbon, was at once a priest, an atheist, and a god. — Farrab. If you would witness a scene characteristic of the popular life of old, you must go to the amphitheatre of Rome, mingle with its eighty thousand spectators, and watch the eager faces of senators and people ; observe how the masters of the world spend the wealth of conquest and indulge the pride of power ; see every wild creature that God has made to dwell from the jungles of India to the moun- tains of Wales, from the forests of Germany to the deserts of Nubia, brought hither to be hunted down in artificial groves by thousands in an hour ; behold the captives of war, noble perhaps and wise in their own land, turned loose, amid yells of insult more terrible for their foreign tongue, to contend with brutal gladiators trained to make death the favorite amusement, and present the most solemn of indi- vidual realities as a wholesale public spor^ ; mark the light look with which the multitude, by uplifted finger, demands that the wounded combatant be slain before their eyes ; notice the troop of Christian martyrs awaiting, hand in hand, the leap from the tiger's den ; and when the day's spectacle is over, and the blood of two thousand victims stains the ring, follow the giddy crowd as it streams from the vomitories into the street, trace its lazy course into the forum, and hear it there scrambling for the bread of private indolence doled out by the purse of public corruption ; and see how it suns itself to sleep in the open ways, or crawls into foul dens, till morning brings the hope of games and merry blood again, — and you have an idea of the imperial people, and their passionate living for the moment, which the gospel found in occupation of the world. — Martineau. He pants to stand In its vast circns, all alive with heads And quivering arms and floating robes, — the air Thrilled by the roaring /remites of men, — The sunlit awning heaving overhead, Swollen and strained against its corded veins. And flapping out its hem with loud report, — The wild beasts roaring from the pit below, The wilder crowd responding from above With one long yell that sends the startled blood With thrill and sudden flush into the cheeks, — 128 FIKST CENTUEY AFTER CHEIST. A hundred tnimpets screaming, — the dull thump Of horses galloping across the sand, — The cla^g of scabbards, the sharp clash of steel, — Live swords, that whirl a circle of gray fire, — Brass helmets flashing 'neath their streaming hair, — A universal tumult, — then a hush Worse than the tumult, — all eyes straining down To the arena's pit, all lips set close, All muscles strained, — and then that sudden yell, Udbet I — " That 's Rome," says Lucius. So it is ! That is, 't is his Rome, 't is not yours and mine. SlOBT. THE CONQUEST OF BEITAIK The only addition to the Eoman dominion during this century was the province of Britain (except the northern part and Ireland), This year Claudius, second of the Roman kings, sought the land of Britain, and brought under his power the greater part of the island. — Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. " Far to the west, in th' ocean wide, Beyond the realm of Gtanl, a land there lies, — Sea-girt it lies, where giants dwelt of old, Now void it fits thy people; thither bend Thy course, there shalt thou find a lasting seat. Where to thy sons another Troy shall rise; And Ifings be bom of thee, whose dreaded might Shall awe the world, and conquer nations bold." These verses, originally Greek, were put in Latin, saith Virunnius, by GUdas, a British poet, and him to have lived under Claudius. — Milton. PEESECUTION OF THE CHEISTIANS. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. — Tbrtullian. The first century of the Christian era is that in which occurred the first persecution of the Christians, who until FIRST CENTURY AFTEK CHRIST. 129 the time of Nero had never been brought into collision with the imperial government. Quid Nerone pejus ? Maetiai,. He [Nero] likewise inflicted punishments on the Christians, a sort of people who held a new and impious superstition. — SuETONins. Nero was the first who raged with the sword of Caesar against this sect, which was then specially rising at Rome. — TEBTULLlAif. Prsestare Neronem Seeurum valet hsso aetas. JtrPENAI,. Nihil est nobis . . . cum insani& circi, cum impudicitia theatri, cum atrocitate arense, cum vanitate xysti. — Tektullian. The following passage from Tacitus is regarded as the earliest reference by a profane author to the name of Christ : — He [Nero] inflicted the most exquisite tortures on those men, who, under the vulgar appellation of Christians, were already branded with deserved infamy. They derived their name and origin from one Christ, who in the reign of Tiberius had suffered death by the sen- tence of the procurator, Pontius Pilate. For a while this dire super- stition was checked; but it again burst forth, and not only spread itself over Judsea, the first seat of this mischievous sect, but was even introduced into Rome, the common asylum which receives and pro- tects whatever is impure, whatever is atrocious. The confessions of those who were seized discovered a great multitude of their accom- plices, and they were all convicted, not so much for the crime of setting fire to the city as for their hatred of humankind. They died in torments, and their torments were imbittered by insult and derision. Some were nailed on crosses; others sewn up in the skins of wild beasts, and exposed to the fury of dogs; others again, smeared over with combustible materials, were used as torches to illuminate the darkness of the night. The gardens of Nero were destined for the melancholy spectacle, which was accompanied with a horse-race, and honored with the presence of the emperor, who mingled with the populace in the dress and attitude of a charioteer. The guilt of the Christians deserved, indeed, the most exemplary punishment, but 9 130 riKST CENTUEY AFTER CHRIST. the public abhorrence was changed into commiseration, from the opinion that those unhappy wretches were sacrificed, not so much to the public welfare, as to the cruelty of a jealous tyrant. — Tacitus. Those who survey with a curious eye the revolutions of mankind may observe that the gardens and circus of Nero on the Vatican, which were polluted with the blood of the first Christians, have been rendered still more famous by the triumph and by the abuse of the persecuted religion. On the same spot a temple, which far surpasses the ancient glories of the Capitol, has been since erected by the Chris- tian Pontiffs, who, deriving their claim of universal dominion from an humble fisherman of Galilee, have succeeded to the throne of the Caesars, given laws to the barbarian conquerors of Eome, and extended their spiritual jurisdiction from the coast of the Baltic to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. — Gibbon. This persecution was general throughout the whole Roman Empire; but it rather increased than diminished the spirit of Christianity. In the course of it, St. Paul and St. Peter were martyred. — John Fox, Booh of Martyrs. History has few stronger contrasts than when it shows us Paul preaching Christ under the walls of Nero's palace. Thenceforward there were but two religions in the Roman world, — the worship of the emperor, and the worship of the Saviour. The old superstitions had long been worn out; they had lost all hold on educated minds. — CONYBBARE AND HoWSON. The position of a Christian in the Roman Empire was always one of peril, and whatever legitimate precautions he might take, it was still difficult for him to escape his enemies. His very attitude and his scruples drew down persecution upon him; it was enough for him to abstain from some of the practices of pagan life to be at once recognized, and thus he became every hour his own betrayer. — Pbessenbe. As the martyr [Paul] and his executioners passed on, their way was crowded with a motley multitude of goers and comers between the metropolis and its harbor, — merchants hastening to superintend the unlading of their cargoes; sailors eager to squander the profits of their last voyage in the dissipations of the capital; officials of the government charged with the administration of the provinces or the command of the legions on the Euphrates or the Rhine; Chaldean FIRST CENTURY AFTER CHRIST. 131 astrologers; Phrygian eunuchs; dancing-girls from Syria, with their painted turbans; mendicant priests from Egypt, howling for Osiris; Greek adventurers, eager to coin their national cunning into Roman gold, — representatives of the avarice and ambition, the fraud and lust, the superstition and intelligence, of the imperial world. . . . They were marching, though they knew it not, in a procession more really triumphal than any they had ever followed, in the train of general or emperor, along the Sacred Way. — Contbeare and Howson. Imagine that awful scene once witnessed by the silent obelisk in the square before St. Peter's at Rome. Imagine it, that we may realize how vast is the change which Christianity has wrought in the feelings of mankind ! There, where the vast dome now rises, were once the gardens of Nero. TJiey were thronged with gay crowds, among whom the emperor moved in his frivolous degradation; and on every side were men dying slowly on their cross of shame. Along the paths of those gardens on the autumn nights were ghastly torches, blackening the ground beneath them with streams of sulphurous pitch, and each of those living torches was a martyr in his shirt of fire. And in the amphitheatre hard by, in sight of twenty thousand spectators, famished dogs were tearing to pieces some of the best and purest of men and women, hideously disguised in the skins of bears or wolves. Thus did Nero baptize in the blood of martyrs the city which was to be for ages the. capital of the world. — Farrak. Imagine we see the people assembling in the theatre of Vespasian; all Rome gathered to drink the blood of the martyrs; a. hundred thousand spectators, some shaded by the hems of their robes, others by umbrellas, crowding the seats ; multitudes vomited forth, as it were, by the porticos, descending and ascending the long stairs, and taking their places. Railings of gold ward ofif the senators' box from the attacks of the ferocious beasts. Ingenious machines scatter a per- fumed spray throughout the vast space, cooling the air and making it pleasant. Three thousand statues in bronze, an endless multitude of pictures, columns of jasper and porphyry, balustrades of crystal, vases of the richest workmanship, dazzle the eye and lend variety to the scene. In a canal surrounding the arena swim a hippopotamus and crocodiles. Five hundred lions, forty elephants, and tigers, panthers, and bulls, accustomed to the slaughter of human beings, rage and roar in the caverns of the amphitheatre; while here and there gladiators not less ferocious wipe their blood-stained arms. [See also pages 143, 147, 157.] — Chateaubriand. 132 FIEST CENTURY AFTER CHRIST. JUD^A. DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM AND DISPERSION OP THE JEWS. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and shall keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee ; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another. — Luke xix. 43, 44. (Compare also St. Mark xiii. 2.) JuDiEA, which became subject to Eome in the last cen- tury, was reduced to a Eoman province A. D. 6. Judsea now, and all the promised land. Reduced a province nnder Roman yoke, Obeys Tiberius; nor is always ruled With temperate sway. BtrLTON. It revolted in 66, and in 70 the Eomans under Titus destroyed Jerusalem, and the nation of the Jews became dispersed throughout the world. Prodigies had occurred, which, this nation, prone to superstition, hut hating all religious rites, did not deem it lawful to expiate hy offering and sacrifice. There had heen seen hosts joining battles in the skies, the fiery gleam of arms, the temple illuminated by a sudden radiance from the clouds. The doors of the inner shrine were sud- denly thrown open, and a voice of more than mortal tone was heard to cry that the gods were departing. At the same instant there was a mighty stir as of departure. Some few put a fearful meaning on these events, but in most there was a firm persuasion that in the ancient records of their priests was contained a prediction of how at this very time the East was to grow powerful, and rulers coming from Judffia were to acquire universal empire. These mysterious prophecies had pointed to Vespasian and Titus; but the common people, with the usual blindness of ambition, had interpreted these mighty destinies of themselves, and could not oe brought even by disasters to believe FIRST CENTURY AFTER CHRIST. 133 tlie truth. I have heard that the total number of the besieged, of every age and both sexes, amounted to six hundred thousand. — Tacitus. A firm persuasion had long prevailed through all the East, that it was fated for the empire of the world, at that time, to devolve on some one who should go forth from Judsea. This prediction referred to a Roman emperor, as the event showed ; but the Jews, applying it to themselves, broke out into rebellion. — Sdetonius. At length [October, a. d. 70] the walls were broken down, the strong towers seized or undermined, the streets filled with |;he slaughter of the populace, the temple set on fire in the blind fury of the soldiery. Jerusalem was no more. A ploughshare was passed over the foundation. The site of city and sanctuary was sown with salt. Such sacred vessels as escaped the flames were brought to Eome by Titus, where their mouldering forms still decorate his arch of triumph. A hundred thousand captives were sent to the slave- market or amphitheatre ; and for every captive more than fifteen are said to have perished in the war, — upwards of a million in Jerusalem alone. AU Palestine was set to sale by Vespasian. The two shekels of temple money paid by every Hebrew man must go to rebuild the shrine of Jupiter of the Capitol ; and no Jew might visit the sacred ruins on pain of death. — J. H. Allen. The fall of Jerusalem was the evident close of a theocracy which, up to that time, had for ages counted on a divine guarantee, and which looked forward, without doubt, to ending only in the consum- mation of a Messianic triumph. It was the apparent extinction of the visible kingdom of God on earth ; the doom pronounced by the course of events on claims and hopes which, to those who lived under them, seemed the most sure of all things. — E. W. Church. Titus. Itmusfbe — And yet it moves me, Romans ! It confounds The counsel of my firm philosophy, That Ruin's merciless ploughshare must pass o'er, And barren salt be sown on yon proud city. As on our olive-crowndd hill we stand, Where Kedron at our feet its scanty waters Distils from stone to stone with gentle motion, As through a valley sacred to sweet peace, How boldly doth it front us ! how majestically ! 134 FIEST CENTUKY AFTER CHRIST. Like a luxurious vineyard, the hillside Is hung with marble fabrics, line o'er line, Terrace o'er terrace, nearer still and nearer To the blue heavens. There bright and sumptuous palaces, With cool and verdant gardens interspersed; There towers of war, that frown in massy strength ; While over all hangs the rich purple eve, As conscious of its being her last farewell Of light and glory to that fated city. And, as our clouds of battle, dust, and smoke Are melted into air, behold the temple In undisturbed and lone serenity. Finding itself a solemn sanctuary In the profound of heaven ! It stands before us A mount of snow, fretted with golden pinnacles. The very sun, as though he worshipped there. Lingers upon the gilded cedar roofs. And down the long and branching porticos. On every flowery-sculptured capital. Glitters the homage of his parting beams. By Hercules ! the sight might almost win The offended majesty of Borne to mercy. MlLMAN. But lo ! o'er western hills that gathering cloud, Where muttering thunder peals more loud and loud, And forky lightning glitters down the sky, — 'T is the dread flash of Rome's avenging eye ! The Titan stallts, — beneath his coming tread Towns bow in dust, and Syria quakes with dread ; Where'er he moves, the oldest empires fall. And Rome, wide-conquering Rome, seems lord of all. Gihon's long hill presents a ridge of spears, And filled with bucklers Kedron's vale appears; While north and south the bristling troops advance, And bear war's engines on, and shake the lance. Girt on all sides, doomed Salem sees her grave; Her cup of woe is full, and naught can save. direst fruit of crime and hate and rage 1 bloodiest leaf in History's warning page ! 'Tis o'er, — a deadlier struggle earth ne'er knew, E'en fiends might shrink those scenes of blood to view; 'T is o'er, — a million hearts lie cold and still, And Rome's dread eagle soars on Ziou's hill. FIRST CENTUEY AFTER CHRIST. 135 Salem, the home of prophets, helpless lies. The mean one's jest, the raging heathen's prize. Fire wraps her towers> her blazing temple falls, With all its golden spires and oedared halls. Yes, that proud fane, as by an earthquake's shock, Is hurled to dust, and levelled with the rock; And o'er'its site must pass the Latian plough. N. MiOHSLL. I stood beneath the Arch of Titus long; On Hebrew forms there sculptured long I pored ; Till fancy, by a distant clarion stimg, Woke ; and methought there moved that arch toward A Roman triumph. Lance and helm and sword Glittered, white coursers tramped, and trumpets rung ; Last came, car-borne amid a captive throng. The laurelled son of Rome's imperial lord. As though by wings of unseen eagles fanned, The Conqueror's cheek, when first that arch he saw. Burned with the flush he strove in vain to quell. Titus ! a loftier arch than thine Iiath spanned Rome and the world with empery and law ; Thereof each stone was hewn from Israel. AuBEET DE Verb. From the last hiU that looks on thy once holy dome I beheld thee, Sion ! when rendered to Rome ; 'T was thy last sun went down, and the flames of thy fall Flashed back on the last glance I gave to thy wall. Btkon. Fallen is thy throne, Israel ! Silence is o'er thy plains ; Thy dwellings all lie desolate. Thy children weep in chains. Moore. Since tlie last dispersion the name of Israel is lost to human history. A scattered and long-suffering remnant, a people of zealous and indomitable faith, more tenacious than ever of traditions and rites that set them apart from all ; the traders and slave-merchants of barbaric times, outcasts- from the Feudal System, first victims of the Crusades and the Inquisition, clinging still through long centu- ries to the hope that once and again had plunged them in so deep disaster, — they have lived on, a singular and deathless monument of the Life that had its home of old in Palestine. — J. H. Allen. About AD. ZOO ffe^(j(j^?^'^"tf"(? Co^o:!t^ SECOND CENTURY. (100-200.) EoME remains, as in the last century, the great power of the world. The Emperor Trajan adds to the Eoman Empire in 106 the province of Dacia, lying north of the lower Danube. He also has contests with the Parthians, and adds the provinces of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria, thus extending the boundary of the Eoman Em- pire to the greatest limit which it ever reached, embracing the greater part of the world known at the time. This extension of the Eoman dominion is, however, of but short duration, as Trajan's conquests in the East are soon sur- rendered by his successor, Hadrian. Paethia is a powerful state, though an unec[u^ rival of Rome. A.D, 100.-A.D. SOO. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 107. Third Persecution of the Christians under Trajan. 118. Fourth Persecution of the Christians under Hadiian. 120. The Wall of Hadrian built across the island of Britain. 137. Hadrian rebuilds Jerusalem, and names it ^lia Capitolina. 196. Byzantium taken and destroyed. PROMINENT NAMES OP THE CENTURY. Emperors. — Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, M. Aurelius Antoninus, Septimius Severus. .Foet. — Juvenal, Epigrcm/matist. — Martial. Historians. —Tacitus, Suetonius, Appian (bom at Alexandria), Dion Cassius. AutTior aiui Orator. — Pliny the Tounger. Philosophers, — 'ii. Aurelius Antoninus, Epictetus (Greek Stoic). Khetorician. — Quiutilian. Greek Topographer. — Pausanias. Greek Physician and Philosoplier. — Galen. Greek AutJior and Antiquarian. — Athenseus (from Egypt). Greek Biographer and Philosopher. — Plutarch. Greek Historian. — Arriau. Greek Astronomer and Geograplier, — Ptolemy Claudius. Christian Fathers, Philosophers, Writers. — TertulUan, Polycarp (Martyr), Justin Martyri Tatian, Irenseus (Martyr), Athenagoras, Clement (of Alexandria). ILLUSTRATIONS. THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES. THIS period — often known as the Age of the Anto- nines, or the reign of the Good Emperors — is one of the most quiet and peaceful in the history of the world. There was an increasing sentiment in favor of law and order, and jurisprudence now became a study. The most eminent writer of the time is the historian Tacitus. Though tlie old freedom had been lost, there can be no question that this age was one of the happiest in the expe- rience of mankind. It is, however, marked by few events which call for mention. The History of the World is not the theatre of happiness. Periods of happiness are blank pages in it, for they are periods of harmony, — periods when the antithesis is in abeyance. — Hegel. Which age, for temporal respects, was the most happy and flourish- ing that ever the Roman Empire (which then was a model of the world) enjoyed. — Lord Bacon. If any one will consider the Roman people as if it were a man, and observe its entire course, how it began, how it grew up, how it reached a certain youthful bloom, and how it has since, as it were, been grow- ing old, he will find it to have four degrees and stages [quatuor gradus processusque]. Its first age was under the kings, and lasted nearly two hundred and fifty years, during which it struggled round its 140 SECOND CENTURY. mother against its neighbors; this was its infancy. The next ex- tended from the consulship of Brutus and CoUatinus to that of Appius Claudius and Quintus Fulvius, a period of two hundred and fifty years, during which it subdued Italy; this was a time entirely given up to war, and may be called its youth. Thence to the time of Csesar Augustus was a period of two hundred years, in which it reduced to subjection the whole world ; this may accordingly be called the manhood, and, as it were, the robust maturity of the empire. From Caesar Augustus to our own age is a period of less than two hundred years, in which, through the inactivity of the Csesars, the nation has, as it were, grown old and feeble, except that now under the sway of Trajan it raises its arms, and, contrary to the expectation of all, the old age of the empire, as if youth were restored to it, flourishes with new vigor. — Floeus. If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the wor^d during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian [a. d. 96] to the accession of Commodus [a. d. 180]. The vast extent of the Roman Empire was governed by absolute power, under the guidance of virtue and wisdom. The armies were restrained by the firm but gentle hand of four succes- sive emperors, whose characters and authority commanded involun- tary respect. The forms of the civil administration were carefully preserved by Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines, who delighted in the image of liberty, and were pleased with con- sidering themselves as the accountable ministers of the laws. . . . In the second century of the Christian Era, the Empire of Eome comprehended the fairest part of the earth and the most civilized . portion of mankind. The frontiers of that extensive monarchy were guarded by ancient renown and disciplined valor. The gentle but powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually cemented the union of the provinces. Their peaceful inhabitants enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury. The image of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence. — Gibbon. The two Antonines fix an era in the imperial history, for they were both eminent models of wise and good rulers; and some would say that they fixed a crisis, for with their successor commenced, in the popular belief,- the decUne of the empire. That at least is the SECOND CENTURY. 141 doctrine of Gibbon; but perhaps it would not be found altogether able to sustain itself against a closer and philosophic examination of the true elements involved in the idea of declension as applied to political bodies. [See, on this point, page 107.] — De Quincey. During the entire ages of Trajan and the Antonines, a succession of virtuous and philosophic emperors followed each other; the world was in peace; the laws were wise and well administered; riches seemed to increase; each succeeding generation raised palaces more splendid, monuments and public edifices more sumptuous, than the preceding; the senatorial families found their revenues increase; the treasury levied greater imposts. But it is not on the mass of wealth, it is on its distribution, that the prosperity of states depends: increas- ing opulence continued to meet the eye, but man became more miser- able; the rural population, formerly active, robust, and energetic, were succeeded by a foreign race; while the inhabitants of towns sunk in vice and idleness, or perished in want, amidst the riches they had themselves created. — Sismondi. Nerva [a. d. 32 - 98] est le premier des bons, et Trajan le premier des grands empereurs romains; aprfes lui il y en eut deux autres, les deux Antonins. Trois sur soixante-dix, tel est k Eome le bilan des gloires morales de I'empire. — AmpIirb. To our classic associations, Rome was still, under Trajan and the Antonines, the city of the Cjesars, the metropolis of pagan idolatry, — in the pages of her poets and historians we still linger among the triumphs of the Capitol, the shows of the Coliseum; or if we read of a Christian being dragged before the tribunal, or exposed to the beasts, we think of him as one of a scattered community, few in number, spiritless in action, and politically insignificant. But all this while there was living beneath the visible an invisible Rome, — a population unheeded, unreckoned, — thought of vaguely, vaguely spoken of, and with the familiarity and indifference that men feel who live on a volcano, — yet a population strong-hearted, of quick impulses, nerved alike to suffer or to die, and in number, resolution, and physical force sufficient to have hurled their oppressors from the throne of the world, had they not deemed it their duty to kiss the rod, to love their enemies, to bless those that cursed them, and to submit, for their Redeemer's sake, to the " powers that be." Here, in these '' dens and caves of the earth" [the catacombs], they lived; here they 142 SECOND CENTURY. died, — a " spectacle " in their lifetime to "men and angels," and in their death a " triumph " to mankind. — Lord Lindsay. In former times our generals tilled their fields with their own hands: the earth, we may suppose, opened graciously beneath a plough crowned with laurels and held by triumphal hands, maybe because those great men gave to tillage the same care that they gave to war, and that they sowed seed with the same attention with which they pitched a camp; or maybe, also, because everything fructifies best in honorable hands, because everything is done with the most scrupulous exactitude. . . . Nowadays these same fields are given over to slaves in chains, to malefactors who are condemned to penal servitude, and on whose brow there is a brand. Earth is not deaf to our prayers; we give her the name of mother; culture is what we call the pains we bestow on her . . . but can we be surprised if she render not to slaves the recompense she paid to generals 1 — Plint. The fabric of the empire had many advantages to account for its long duration. The provinces were conveniently situated for mutual intercourse and for mutual support; and there was an easy access from the seat of dominion to the farthest bounds of the empire. The inhabitants of the empire in general were corrected of that ferocity or reduced from that national spirit which renders subjects refractory. They were addicted to pacific arts, tractable, and easily retained within the bounds of their duty. Some of the emperors promoted this orderly and pacific disposition by the confidence which they taught the subject 'to have in the security of his person and property. The principle of law, though in some things perverted to the purposes of despotic power, was made the object of a select profession, and was studied as a rule of peace and property. The civil law received from the pleadings of advocates, the decisions of judges, and the edicts of princes con- tinual accessions of light and authority, which has rendered it the great basis of justice to all the modern nations of Europe. The wisdom of Nerva gave rise to a succession which, in the persons of Trajan and the Antonines, formed a counterpart to the race of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero; and it may be admitted that if a people could be happy by any other virtue than their o'nm, there was a period in the history of this empire during which the happiness of mankind may have been supposed complete. This, however, is but a fond and mistaken apprehension. Even the virtues of this happy SECOND CENTURY. 143 succession could do no more than discontinue for a while the former abuses of power, administrate justice, restrain the guilty, and protect the innocent. Many of the evils under which human nature was laboring still remained without a cure; and the empire, after having in the highest degree experienced the effects of wisdom and good- ness, was assailed anew with all the abuses of the opposite ex- treme. — Ferguson. In the reign of Hadrian Rome had attained its greatest pitch of architectural splendor ; and although some magnificent structures were erected after his time, we must, on the whole, date from this period the decline of the city. — Dyer. The Jews, whose capital had heen taken and destroyed in the preceding century, were still, after their dispersion, unruly and engaged in frequent revolts, which brought down upon them at last the crushing force of Eoman vengeance. During this century, also, the Christians suffered perse- cutions, and it is a fact that they fared worse under the rule of the Good Emperors, as they are styled, than under tyrants like Nero. (See, for persecution of the Christians, pages 128, 147, 157.) About AD. 300 Se^appff.Trrntmg Co^ostm THIRD CENTURY. (200-300.) EoME is still the one great power of the world ; but the borders of the Eoman territory are threatened by the war- like northern tribes, chiefly the Franks and Goths, who make many attacks, which result in constant wars upon the frontiers, yet in general the Eomans hold their own against these invaders. Dacia is, however, surrendered to the Goths in 270. The Eoman Empire is divided by Diocletian, in the last part of the century, into four parts, under two emperors and two Caesars. Diocletian himself retains the East, with a Caesar under him, and gives to his general Maximian the "West, also with a sub-ruler or Caesar. Eome is no longer the head of the empire, the rulers staying nearer the frontiers. Peesia now takes the place of PartWa upon the map, a new Persian dynasty being founded in 226, in place of the Parthian dynasty which has lasted since about 256 B. c. Parthia. See above, under Persia. Teutonic Tribes. The warlike northern tribes, which play so important a part in the history of modern Europe (chiefly the Franks and the Goths), threaten the borders of the Eoman territory. Dacia is surrendered to the Goths by Rome in 270. Palmyra, in Syria, rises to its highest power in this century, maintains a state of independence for a time, but is subjected by Eome in 271. 10 A.D. 200 - A. D. 300. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 202. Fersecation of the Ohristians (Sep- timius Severus). 226. New Persian Empire of the Sassani- dae begins. 250. Persecution of the Christians by Decius. 260 (about). The empire invaded on all sides by the barbarians. 270. Daeia given up to the Goths. 271. Siege and capture of Palmyra by Aurelian. Zenobia taken prisoner. 292 (about). The Roman Empire divided into four parts, under two emper- ors (Maximian and Diocletian) and two Csesais (Galerius and Constan- tins). PROMINENT NAMES OF THE CENTURY. Rome. E'lAperors. — Beptimius Severus, Caracalla, Heliogabalus, Alexander Severus, The Gordians, Decius, Valerian, Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian with Maximian. Historian. — Dion Cassius. Greek Philosophers. — Plotinus, Longinna. Christian Fathers a/nd Wnters. — Tertullian, Clement (of Alexandria), Origen, Cyprian, St. Hippolytus. Persia. New Persian Empire begins under the dynasty of the SassanidcB. Palmyra. Queeti. — Zenobia. ILLUSTRATIONS. THE ROMAN EMPIRK ThR cankers of a calm world and a long peace. Shakespeare. IN the course of this century the distinction between Eomans and Provincials was wholly obliterated. Some of the best of the emperors came from the provinces. It was an age of violence and lawlessness, the imperial dignity seldom passing from one ruler to another in orderly suc- cession, but being taken by force, or conferred by gift of the soldiery, or obtained by purchase. The persecutions of the Christians which prevailed in the last century con- tinued also in this, under the emperors Severus, Decius, and Aurelian. It was scarcely possible that the eyes of contemporaries should discover in the public felicity the latent causes of decay and corrup- tion. This long peace, and the uniform government of the Romans, introduced a slow and secret poison into the vitals of the empire. The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military spirit evap- orated. — Gibbon. Since Romulus, with a small band of shepherds and outlaws, for- tified himself on the hills near the Tiber, ten centuries had already elapsed. During the four first ages, the Romans, in the laborious 148 THIRD CENTUET. scliool of poverty, had acquired the virtues of war and government ; by the vigorous exertion of those virtues, and by the assistance of fortune, they had obtained, in the course of the three succeeding cen- turies, an absolute empire over many countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The last three hundred years had been consumed in appar- ent prosperity and internal decline. The nation of soldiers, magis- trates, and legislators, who composed the thirty-five tribes of the Roman people, was dissolved into the common mass of mankind, and confounded with the millions of servile provincials, who had received the name, without adopting the spirit, of Romans. A mercenary army, levied among the subjects and barbarians of the frontier, was the only order of men who preserved and abused their independence. By their tumultuary election, a Sjrrian, a Goth, or an Arab was exalted to the throne of Rome, and invested with despotic power over the conquests and over the country of the Scipios. The limits of the Roman Empire still extended from the Western Ocean to the Tigris, and from Mount Atlas to the Rhine and the Danube. To the undis- cerning eye of the vulgar, Philip appeared a monarch no less pow- erful than Hadrian or Augustus had formerly been. The form was still the same, but the animating health and vigor were fled. . . . Like the modesty aifected by Augustus, the state maintained by Diocletian was a theatrical representation ; but it must be confessed, that of the two comedies, the former was of a much more liberal and manly character than the latter. It was the aim of the one to dis- guise, and the object of the other to display, the unbounded power which the emperors possessed over the Roman world. Ostentation was the first principle of the new system instituted by Diocletian. The second was division. He divided the empire, the provinces, and every branch of the civil as well as military administration. He multiplied the wheels of the machine of government, and ren- dered its. operations less rapid, but more secure. . . . The political union of the Roman world was gradually dissolved, and a principle of division was introduced, which, in the course of a few years, occasioned the perpetual separation of the Eastern and Western Empires. — Gibbon. The founding of the kingdoms of modern Europe might have been anticipated by two hundred years, had the barbarians been bolder, or had there not arisen in Diocletian a prince active and politic enough to bind up the fragments before they had lost all cohesion, meeting THIRD CENTUEY. 149 altered conditions by new remedies. By dividing and localizing au- thority, lie confessed that the weaker heart could no longer make its pulsations felt to the body's extremities. — James Brtce. If it should unfortunately happen that the palace of the Vatican, with its thirteen thousand chambers, were to take fire, for a con- siderable space of time the fire would be retarded by the mere enor- mity of extent which it would have to traverse. But there would come at length a critical moment, at which, the maximum of the retarding effect having been attained, the bulk and volume of the flaming mass would thenceforward assist the flames in the rapidity of their progress. Such was the effect upon the declension of the Roman Empire from the vast extent of its territory. For a very long period that very extent, which finally became the overwhelming cause of its ruin, served to retard and to disguise it. A small encroachment, made at one point upon the integrity of the empire, was neither much regarded at Rome, nor perhaps in and for itself much deserved to be regarded. But a very narrow belt of encroachments, made upon almost every part of so enormous a circumference, was sufficient of itself to compose something of an antagonist force. And to these external dilapidations we must add the far more important dilapidations from within, affecting all the institutions of the state, and all the forces, whether moral or political, which had originally raised it or main- tained it. Causes which had been latent in the public arrangements ever since the time of Augustus, and had been silently preying upon its vitals, had now reached a height which would no longer brook concealment. The fire which had smouldered through generations had broken out at length into an open conflagration. Uproar and disorder, and the anarchy of a superannuated empire, strong only to punish and impotent to defend, were at this time convulsing the proviuces in every point of the compass. Rome herself had been menaced repeatedly. And a still more awful indication of the coming storm had been felt far to the south of Rome. One long wave of the great German deluge had stretched beyond the Pyrenees and the Pillars of Heracles, to the very soil of ancient Carthage. Victorious banners were abeady floating on the margin of the Great Desert, and they were not the banners of Caesar. Some vigorous hand was demanded at this moment, or else the funeral kneU of Rome was on the point of sounding. — Db QniNCET. Rome, in the latter part of the third century, had experienced one 150 THIED CENTURY. of those reactions which, mark her later history, and which alone enabled her to~ complete her predestined term of twelve centuries. Between the years 274 and 282, under Aurelian, Tacitus, Probus, and Carus, she showed herself once more very decidedly the first military power in the world, drove back the barbarians on all sides, and even ventured to indulge in an aggressive policy. — Eawlinson. A happy restoration of the empire was brought about by Aurelian, and the history of Ms reign is delightful, like that of every period in which something that was decaying is restored; he was, however, by no means an ideal character. We are far from being able to form a clear picture of that time, for the authorities we possess are much inferior even to those for the Middle Ages, and the history of the empire is far less known to us than that of the republic, — a fact which few persons seem to be aware of. — Niebdhr. He [the author of a recovered work of the third century] lived at the centre of the vast Roman world, and felt all the pulsations, and paroxysms of that mighty heart. He witnessed the ominous decline of every traditional maxim and national reverence in favor of imported superstitions and degenerate barbarities. Under Commodus he saw the ancient Mars superseded by the Grecian Hercules, and Hercules represented by an emperor who sunk into a prize-fighter, and the ad- ministration of the empire in the wanton hands of a Phrygian slave who was only less brutal than his master. In the midst of pestilence which had become chronic in Italy from the time of M. Antoninus, and of which a Christian bishop could not but know more than others, the city was still adding to its semblance of splendor and salubrity, and the magnificent baths and grounds that were opened to the public service at the Porta Capena, with the multiplied festivities and dona- tions, attested how little mere physical attention to the people can arrest the miseries of a moral degradation. If he was at home when the excellent Pertinax was murdered, and cared to know what tyrant was to have the world instead, he was perhaps in the throng that ran to the Qijirinal, and heard the Praetorians shout from their ramparts that the empire was for sale, and saw the bargain with the foolish senator below who bought it with his money and paid for it with his head. ... It would be curious to know how the Christians com- ported themselves when the Priest of the Sun became monarch of the world, and seemed intent on dethroning every divinity to enrich the THIRD CENTUEY. 151 homage to his own. The orgies of Heliogabalus were more insulting to the elder paganism of Rome than injurious to the new faith, which equally dete'sted both ; and the offended moral feeling of the city reacted, perhaps, in favor of the Christian cause, and prepared the way for that more public teaching of the religion in buildings avow- edly dedicated to the purpose, which was first permitted in the suc- ceeding reign. . . . From their fellow-believers trading with the Levant, or arriving thence, the pastors of the metropolis would learn the propitious temper of the young Csesar [Alexander Severus], and would feel no surprise, when he succeeded to the palace of his cousin, that he not only swept out the ministers of lust and luxury, but in his private oratory enshrined, among the busts of pagan benefactors, the images also of Abraham and of Christ. They could not, however, but observe how little the morals of the court and the wisdom of the government could now avail to arrest the progress of decay, and reach in detail the vices and miseries of a degenerate state. The emperor who, gazing in his chapel on the features of Christ, recognized a reli- gion human and universal, was the first under whom a visible badge was put on the slave and a distinctive servile dress adopted; the slave markets were still in consecrated spots, the temple of Castor and the Via Sacra. The commonwealth had never boasted of so many great jurists; but as the science of law was perfected, the power of law de- clined, and Alexander Severus, the justest of emperors, was unable to protect Ulpian, the greatest of civilians, from military assassination in the palace itself, or to punish the perpetrators of this outrage on popular feeling as well as public right. — James Martineau. At the close of the third century after Christ, the prospects of mankind were fearfully dreary. A system of etiquette, a^ pompously frivolous as that of the Escurial, had been established. A sovereign almost invisible; a crowd of dignitaries minutely distinguished by badges and titles ; rhetoricians who said nothing but what had been said ten thousand times; schools in which nothing was taught but what had been known for ages, — such was the machinery provided for the government and instruction of the most enlightened part of the human race. That great community was then in danger of ex- periencing a calamity far more terrible than any of the quick, inflam- matory, destroying maladies to which nations are liable, — a tottering, drivelling, paralytic longevity, the immortality of the Struldbrugs, a Chinese civilization. — Macaulay. 152 THIED CENTUET. In the latter part of this century many pretenders to the imperial dignity arose, and the empire was quite divided among rival claimants. At Palmyra, in Syria, one of these, Odenatus, was proclaimed emperor, and succeeded in estab- lishing a powerful state. He was followed by his wife, Zenobia, a remarkable woman, who bore the title of Queen of the East, but who was defeated, and the kingdom over- thrown by the Emperor Aurelian. From proud Palmyra's mouldering walls. Montgomery. Aurllian whan that the govemaunce Of Rome cam into his hondes tway, He schop him of this queen to do vengeaunce; And with his legiouns he took the way Toward Cenoby ; and schortly to say He made Mr flee, and atte last hir heut. And feterid hir, and eek hir children tweye. And wan the lond, and home to Rome he went. Chaucer. And fair Zenohia's star goes down at last. The Roman comes, — his legions file around Doomed Tadmor's walls, to deafening trumpets' sound. Aurelian hids the desert princess yield. But hark ! her answer — clashing sword and shield ! . . . But ceaseless war, and famine's tortures slow, Wear bravery out, and bring Palmyra low. N. MiOHELL. PERSIA. In 226 the Persian power again rose under the dynasty of the Sassanidse, in place of the Parthian dynasty, which had lasted since about 256 b. c. The greatness of Persia under tUs dynasty is one of the most remarkable phenomena in the history of the world. — FaEEMAN. Western Asia gained, perhaps, something, but it did not gain much, from the substitution of the Persians for the Parthians as THIED CENTURY. 153 the dominant power. . . . But it is a change, on the whole, for the better. It is accompanied by a revival of art, by improvements in architecture; it inaugurates a religious revolution which has ad- vantages. Above all, it saves the East from stagnation. It is one among many of those salutary shocks which, in the political as in the natural world, are needed from time to time to stimulate action and prevent torpor and apathy. — Eawlinson. ALEXANDEIAN SCHOOL, — NEO-PLATONISTS. The fame of Alexandria as a seat of learning has been referred to under the third century before Christ. It con- tinued till the beginning of the Christian era; but that celebrated philosophy called Neo-Platonism arose towards the end of the third century, flourished with some modifi- cations until the fifth century, and then rapidly declined. The term " Alexandrian School " is applied, in a loose sense, to the whole body of eminent men who, in all the departments of knowl- edge, conferred lustre on the capital of the Ptolemies; but, as a char- acteristic designation, it is more strictly confined to that particular section of its philosophers known as the Neo-Platonists. — Encyclo- pcedia Britannica. About AD. J^uu Hchjtyp^fm\tin^Co. FOUETH CENTURY. (300-400.) The final division of the Eoman dominion into the Eastern Empire and Western Empire (395), and the be- ginning of the migrations of the northern nations, are the national movements of the greatest importance in this century. EoME. Constantino the Great, the first Christian em- peror, unites the whole empire in 323, and makes Byzan- tium (since called Constantinople) the seat of empire in 330. Under Valentinian I. the division of the Eoman territory into the Eastern and Western Empires is first effected in 364. The Eoman dominion is reunited iinder Theodosiiis I., who is the last emperor who rules over the whole empire; and after his death the division of the empire is completed, between his sons, in 395, into the Western Empire and the Eastern Empire. NoKTHERN Nations. Important migrations of the northern tribes which have long been threatening the Eoman Empire and involving the Romans in constant wars, begin in the latter part of the century. One of these tribes, the Goths, are in the latter part of the century pushed on by the Iluns (a Turanian tribe from Asia, who in the latter part of this century begin to invade Europe), and in 376 are permitted to pass the Danube and settle within the Roman dominion. They afterwards spread westward towards Italy. Another Teutonic tribe, the Saxons, begin to attack Britain in the latter part of the century, but are repulsed by Theodosius. Huns. See above, under Northern Nations. Persia is a powerful state, though an unequal rival of Rome. A.D. 300 — A. I>. 400. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 303. Fin^ persecution of the Chri^ians by Diocletian. 305. Diocletian and Maximian resign the empire to the CBesars, Galerius and Constantius. 312. Constantiue ovei-throws Maxentius at the Milvian bridge, and takes possession of Rome. Constantine sole and undisputed em- peror. Council of Nice. The seat of Roman government trans- ferred to Constantinople. Chris- tianity formally recognized as the 323. 325. 330. 378. religion of the empire. Constan- tine divides the empire into the Eastern, Illyi-ian, Italian, and Gal- lic prefectures. Empire divided (Valentinian I.) ; Valens emperor of the East. This originates the Eastern and Western Empires. The Goths defeat the Emperor Valens in Thrace. Final division of the empire into the Eastern and "Western Empires. The Goths devastate Thessaly, Cen- tral Greece, and the Feloponuesus. PROMINENT NAMES OF TECE CENTURY. Rome. Emperors. — (Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius I.), (Galerius, Constantine the Great), Julian the Apostate. West. East, Valentinian, Gratian, Valentinian II. Valens, Theodosius (the Great). Theodosius the Great, emperor of the West and the East. Western Empiee. Eastekn Empiee, Honorius. Arcadius. Poets. — Ausonius, Claudiau. Historian. — Eutropius. Cfuu/rck Fatliers, Ecclesiastical Writers, etc. — St. Athanasius, Lactantius, Arius, Eu- sebius, Basil (the Great), Gregory Nazianzen, St Augustine, St. Ambrose, Theodoret, Martin (of Tours), Chrysostom, St. Jerome. Visigoths. King. — Alaric. ILLUSTKATIONS. THE EOMAN EMPIEE. THE fourth century of the Christian era must be re- garded as one of the most important in the history of mankind, witnessing as it did the overthrow of pagan- ism, the accession to the throne of the first Christian emperor, and the consequent establishment of Christianity as the religion of the state, the final dismemberment of the empire into two parts with separate capitals, and the be- ginning of those great movements of the northern tribes which eventually worked the destruction of Eome. It was a time of great changes leading to that condition of things which prevails in the modern world. The period was now arrived wlien Eome was to experience at one and the same time the two most important revolutions that occur in the whole course of her history. She was to cease to be the capital of the Roman Empire ; but, by the establishment of Christianity, she was ultimately to become the capital of the Christian world. — Dyer. PEESECUTION" OE THE CHEISTIANS. Early in this century the persecution of the Christians, which had been going on at intervals during the previous 158 FOURTH CENTUET. three centuries, reached its height ; the last and greatest of them all, the tenth, as usually reckoned, taking place under the Emperor Diocletian in the year 303. (See also, for persecution of the Christians, pages 128, 143, 147.) The great persecutions are generally enumerated as ten. TMs is, however, an arbitrary division, and we must be careful not to take it too literally. It has arisen in part from that desire to establish a methodical regularity and a certain supposed order of events, which often does violence to fact. It would be an error to assert that perse- cution burst forth only ten times before the Oonstantine era. In reality it never ceased; checked at one point, it only flamed forth afresh at another. The most prosperous times had their martyrs. It could not be otherwise. Christianity, until the fourth century, was an unauthorized religion, a religion proscribed and illegal. The decree of Trajan, reinforced by many others, was not for a single day ■withdrawn. Persecution was therefore always lawful, and did not need a special permission. It might become more general and more cruel, according to the disposition of the emperors; but whether they ■were well affected or otherwise towards the Christians, persecution continued to form a part of the penal legislation of the empire, and any popular tumult, or the mere caprice of the proconsul, sufficed to bring it do^wn in all its violence upon a city or a province. — The customary reckoning of ten persecutions was occasioned by the popular need of some determinate number and by allegorical predictions. A way was almost always open to those who wished to escape persecution, and for the most part only those suffered to whom life would otherwise have been little worth, or those whose death might serve as a useful warning, — slaves and officers of the Church. Do-wn to the time of Origen but few — their number can easily be estimated — had died the death of martyrs. The sweeping persecution that no longer took account of individuals but cfirried away whole masses of people, and which is said to have occurred under the reigns of Decius and Diocletian, owes its existence largely to the magnifying power of tradition. Executions took place usually in accordance with the forms of law, but occasionally, in consequence of some special imbitterment or terror, dreadful torments were in- vented. Many saved themselves by denying the name of Christ and FOURTH CENTUEY. 159 ofifering up sacrifices to the gods, or by bribery obtained from the magistrates certificates that they had thus sacrificed, or by surrender- ing the sacred books. The joy of the confessors and martyrs was so great that they often rushed to meet death in a way not approved by the more considerate leaders and teachers. The virtues of Greek and Eoman antiquity were renewed in this devotion to a super-earthly fatherland. The power of faith triumphed over natural feelings, and over all the shrinking of delicate culture and refined civiliza- tion. Even children took delight in death, and noble maidens en- dured what was worse than death. If this passion for martyrdom was promoted by the disgrace which attached to the treacherous and apostate, and by the glory and honor which the martyr received on earth from his admiring friends, and which he might e.xpect to await him in Paradise, it was none the less a genuine enthusiasm to follow in the steps of Jesus, and it gave the Church the feeling that she could never be conquered. — Karl Hase. A general sacrifice was commenced, which occasioned various mar- tyrdoms. No distinction was made of age or sex; the name of Chris- tian was so obnoxious to the pagans, that all indiscriminately fell sacrifices to their opinions. Many houses were set on fire, and whole Christian families perished in the flames ; and others had stonjs fas- tened about their necks, and being tied together were driven into the sea. The persecution became general in all the Eoman provinces, but more particularly in the East; and as it lasted ten years, it is impossible to ascertain the numbers martyred, or to enumerate the various modes of martyrdom. Exicks, scourges, swords, daggers, crosses, poison, and famine were made use of in various parts to despatch the Christians, and invention was exhausted to devise tortures against such as had no crime but thinking differently from the votaries of superstition. — John Fox. Lament ! for Diocletian's fiery sword Works busy as the lightning ; but instinct With malice ne'er to deadliest weapons linked. Which God's ethereal storehouses afford Against the Followers of the incarnate Lord It rages; some are smitten in the field — Some pierced beneath the unavailing shield Of sacred home; — with pomp are others gored And dreadful respite. WOEDSWOBTH. 160 FOURTH CENTUET. CONSTANTINE THE GEEAT. CONSTANTINOPLE THE SEAT OF EMPIEB. CONSTAITTINB THE Gebat united the whole empire in 323, and, Eome having been forsaken by the emperors as their ordinary place of abode, he made the ancient Greek city of Byzantium, on the Bosphorus, the seat of empire in 330. He called the city New Eome, but it has since been known, after him, as Constantinople, that is, the city of Constantine (Greek polis, a city). After that Constantine the eagle turned Against the course of heaven which it had follcwed Behind the ancient who Lavinia took. Two hundred years and more the bird of God In the extreme of Europe held itself, Near to the mountains .whence it issued first; And under shadow of the sacred plumes It governed there the world from hand to hand. Dante, Paradiso. Tr. Longfellow. The transfer of the empire from west to east was turning the imperial eagle against the course of heaven, which it had followed in coming from Troy to Italy with ^neas, who married Lavinia, daughter of King Latiuus, and was the founder of the Eoman. Empire. — Longfellow. The subjects of Constantine were incapable of discerning the decline of genius and manly virtue, which so far degraded them below the dignity of their ancestors ; but they could feel and lament the rage of tyranny, the relaxation of discipline,' and the increase of taxes. The impartial historian, who acknowledges the justice of their complaints, will observe some favorable circumstances which tended to alleviate the misery of their condition. The threatening tempest of barbarians, which so soon subverted the foundations of Roman greatness, was stiU repelled, or suspended, on the frontiers. The arts of luxury and litera- ture were cultivated, and the elegant pleasures of society were enjoyed, by the inhabitants of a considerable portion of the globe. The forms, the pomp, and the expense of the civil administration contributed to re- FOUETH CENTURY. 161 strain the irregular license of the soldiers; and althougli the laws were violated by power, or perverted by subtlety, the sage principles of the Roman jurisprudence preserved a sense of order and equity, unknown to the despotic governments of the East. The rights of mankind might derive some protection from religion and philosophy; and the name of freedom, which could no longer alarm, might sometimes ad- monish, the successors of Augustus that they did not reign over a na- tion of slaves or barbarians. ... It may be sufficient to observe, that whatever could adorn the dignity of a great capital, or contribute to the benefit or pleasure of its numerous inhabitants, was contained within the walls of Constantinople. A particular description, composed about a century after its foundation, enumerates a capitol or school of learn- ing, a circus, two theatres, eight public and one hundred and fifty-three private baths, fifty-two porticos, five granaries, eight aqueducts or res- ervoirs of water, four spacious halls for the meetings of the senate or courts of justice, fourteen churches, fourteen palaces, and four thousand three hundred and eighty-eight houses which for their size or beauty de- served to be distinguished from the multitude of plebeian habitations. . . . The master of the Roman world, who aspired to erect an eternal monument of the glories of his reign, could employ in the prosecution of that great work the wealth, the labor, and all that yet remained of the genius of obedient millions. . . . The buildings of the new city were executed by such artificers as the reign of Constantino could afford; but they were decorated by the hands of the most celebrated masters of the age of Pericles and Alexander. To revive the genius of Phidias and Lysippus surpassed, indeed, the power of a Roman emperor; but the immortal productions which they had bequeathed to posterity were exposed without defence to the rapacious vanity of a despot. By his commands the cities of Greece and Asia were de- spoiled of their most valuable ornaments. The trophies of memorable wars, the objects of religious veneration, the moat finished statues of the gods and heroes, of the sages and poets, of ancient times, con- tributed to the splendid triumph of Constantinople. ... In less than a century Constantinople disputed with Rome itself the pre-eminence of riches and numbers. New piles of buildings, crowded together with too little regard to health or convenience, scarcely allowed the intervals of narrow streets for the perpetual throng of men, of horses, and of carriages. The allotted space of ground was insufficient to contain the increasing people ; and the additional foundations, which 11 162 FOURTH CENTURY. on either side were advanced into the sea, might alone have composed a very considerable city. . . . The magnificence of the first CsesarB was in some measure imitated by the founder of Constantinople, . . . and the annual tribute of corn imposed upon Egypt for the bene- fit of his new capital was applied to feed a lazy and insolent popu- lace at the expense of the husbandmen of an industrious province. — Gibbon. Constantine was the first Christian emperor, and under him Christianity became established as the religion of the state in 324,^ when he became sovereign of the Eoman world. The rain of paganism in the age of Theodosius is perhaps the only example of the total extirpation of any ancient and popular supersti- tion, and may therefore deserve to be considered as a singular event in the history of the human mind. . . . The religion of Constantine achieved, in less than a century, the final conquest of the Eoman Empire ; but the victors themselves were insensibly subdued by the arts of their vanquished rivals. — Gibbon. Constantine, more clear-sighted and more fortunate than any of his predecessors, had understood his era and opened Ms eyes to the new light which was rising upon the world. Far from persecuting the Christians, as Diocletian and Galerius had done, he had given them protection, countenance, and audience, and towards him turned all their hopes. He had even, it is said, in his last battle against Maxentius, displayed the Christian banner, the cross, with this in- scription. Hoc signo vinces (with this device thou shalt conquer). There is no knowing what was at that time the state of his soul, and to what extent it was penetrated by the first rays of Christian faith ; but it is certain that he was the first amongst the masters of the Eoman world to perceive and accept its influence. With him. Paganism feU and Christianity mounted the throne. With him, the decay of Eoman society stops and the era of modem society begins. — Gdizot. 1 In 325 he convoked the First Council of Nice, at the place of that name (Nicssa), which was attended hy representatives of the whole Christian world, and in which Aiianism was condemned and a famous Catholic creed was adopted. FOUETH CENTUEY. 163 That the greatest religious change in the history of mankind should have taken place under the eyes of a brilliant galaxy of philosophers and historians who were profoundly conscious of the decomposition around them, that all of these writers should have utterly failed to predict the issue of the movement they were observ- ing, and that, during the space of three centuries, they should have treated as simply contemptible an agency which all men must now admit to have been, for good or for evil, the most powerful moral lever that has ever been applied to the affairs of man, are facts well worthy of meditation in every period of religious transition. The ex- planation is to be found in that broad separation between the spheres of morals and of positive religion we have considered. — Leckt. Constantine died in 337. After a tranquU and prosperous reign, the conqueror bequeathed to his family the inheritance of the Roman Empire ; a new capital, a new policy, and a new religion ; and the innovations which he established have been embraced and consecrated by succeeding gen- erations. — Gibbon. DIVISION OF THE EMPIEE. The last sovereign who ruled over the whole empire was Theodosius I., after whose death the dominion hecame finally divided between his two sons in 395, into the Western and Eastern Empires. The genius of Rome expired with Theodosius. — Gibbon. The division of the Roman world between the sons of Theodosius marks the final establishment of the Empire of the East, which, from the reign of Arcadius to the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, subsisted one thousand and fifty-eight years in a state of premature and perpetual decay. — Gibbon. 164 FOUKTH CENTUET. MOVEMENTS OF THE NOETHEEN NATIONS. From besides Tanais tlie Qotlis, Huns, and Getes sat down. Spenser. And gathering nations sought the faU of Rome. JnVENAL. Important migrations of the northern tribes (the Teu- tonic or Germanic nations), which had long been threatening the Eoman Empire and involving the Eomans in constant wars, began in this century. The Huns, a savage people (a Turanian race from Asia), began in the latter part of the century to invade Europe and to press upon the Teu- tonic nations in the north, and one of these Teutonic tribes, the Goths, being pushed on by the Huns, is allowed to cross the Danube and settle within the Eoman Empire in 376. They afterwards spread westward towards Italy. The Saxons begin to attack Britain in the latter part of the century, but are repulsed by Theodosius. If we consider the Roman Empire in the fourth century of the Christian era, we shall find in it Christianity, we shall find in it all the intellectual treasures of Greece, all the social and political wisdom of Rome. What was not there, was simply the German race and the peculiar qualities which characterize it. This one addition was of such power that it changed the character of the whole mass ; the pe- culiar stamp of the Middle Ages is undoubtedly German ; the change manifested in the last three centuries has been owing to the revival of the older elements with greater power, so that the German element has been less manifestly predominant. But that element still pre- serves its force, and is felt for good or for evil in almost every country of the civilized world. — Arnold. The tendencies of the later times of the Roman Empire to a com- menting literature and a second-hand philosophy have already been FOUETH CENTUKY. 165 noticed. The loss of the dignity of political freedom, the want of the cheerfulness of advancing prosperity, and the substitution of the less philosophical structure of the Latin language for the delicate intellectual mechanism of the Greek, fixed and augmented the preva- lent feebleness and barrenness of intellect. Men forgot, or feared, to consult nature, to seek for new truths, to do what the great dis- coverers of other times had done ; they were content to consult libra- ries, to study and defend old opinions, to talk of what great geniuses had said. — William Whewell. ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL,— NEO-PLATONISTS. The celebrated philosophy known as Neo-Platonism flourished during this century. (See, under the Thied Centuet, page 153.) About AD. 500 JCe^ioiypePrirttwg cOfBostori. FIFTH CENTURY. (400-500.) The migrations of the northern nations and the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire are the great movements of the fifth century. Western Roman Empire. The Western Empire begins to break up early in this century, and out of the forests of Northern Europe come the founders of new nations. The migrations of these northern nations, which began in the latter part of the preceding century, now aifect the course of history to an important extent. By the invasions of the tribes of Goths, Franks, Vandals, etc., the Western emperors lose their power outside of Italy, and the empire itself ceases to exist in 476, when it is nominally joined to the Eastern Empire, but really passes into the hands first of the Visigoth Odoacer, and later (489) into the power of the Ostrogoth Theodoric. Teutonic (Germanic) Tribes. The following are the more important movements of these nations : — Visigoths (West Goths). The Visigoths, under Alario, sack Eome in 410, and overrun all Southern Italy. The Visigothic kingdom in Spain and South- em Gaul begins in 410. The real power of what is now left of the Western Roman Emjiire passes into the hands of the Visigoth Odoacer in 476, who is, however, overthrown by the Ostrogoth Theodoric in 489. — Ostrogoths (East Goths). In 489, Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, overthrows the Visigoth Odoacer, in Italy, and rules from 493 to 526 over a strong and independent territory reaching far beyond Italy. — Vandals. The Vandals settle in Spain, and in 429 cross to Africa, where they found a kingdom. — Franks. The Franks come into power in Northern Gaul, under Clovis, who ruled from 481 to 511 BUROUMDIANS. The Burgundians found a kingdom in Southeastern Gaul. — Angles, Saxons, Jutes. These peoples cross over into Britain, which has been evacuated by the Romans about 410, and there lay the foundation of the English nation. Huns. The Huns play an important part during the fifth century. Under Attila, they threaten the whole of Europe in 451, but are defeated at Chalons by the united forces of the Romans, Gotha, and Franks. The Huns also invade the Eastern Empire. After the death of Attila, in 453, the power of the Huns declines. Eastern Roman Empire. The Eastern Empire remains nearly the sama as at the end of the last century. Persia is engaged in contests with the Eastern Empire. A. D. 400 -A. D. 500. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 410. Alaric the Goth takes Borne. The Romans abandon Britain about 410. Kingdom of the Visigoths begins in Spain and Gaul 412. The Vandals begin to establish them- selves in Spain. 418. Gaul invaded by the Franks and other northern tribes. 429. Establishment of the Vandal kingdom in Africa under Genseric. 441. Invasion of the Eastern Empire by the Huns under Attila. 449. The Jutes under Henglst and Horsa landed at Kent. Beginning of Saxon conquest of Britain. 451. Battle of Chalons. The Huns, under Attila, defeated by Aetius. 452. The Huns, under Attila, invade Italy. 455. Rome taken and sacked by the Van- dals under Genseric. 476. Odoacer,the Visigoth takes Rome and assumes the title of King of Italy, which ends the history of ancient Rome and marks the fall of the Western Empire. 493. Invasion of Italy by the Ostrogoths under Theodoric. PROMINENT NAMES OF THE CENTURY. Western Roman Empire. Evvperors. — Honorius, Romulus Augustulus. Italy. Eitigs. — Odoacer (Visigoth), Theodoric (Ostrogoth). Eastern Empire. Emperors. — Arcadius, Theodosius II., Marcian, Leo I., Zeno, Anastasius I. King. — Clovis L Fbases. King of Visigoths. - -Alaiio. Goths. King. — Genseric. Vakdals. King. — AttUa. Hmis. Poets. — Clandian, Apollinaris Sidonius. Grammarian and Writer. — Macrobius. Church Fathers, Ecclesiastical Writers, etc. — Bt Augustine, Theodoret, Chrysostom, St. Jerome, Felagius, St. Cyril (of Alexandria), St. Patrick. ILLUSTRATIONS. THE FALL OF ROME. The barbarians wlio broke up the Roman Empire did not arrive a day too soon. — Emerson. MANY signs had long indicated the coming fall of Eome. The Eoman people had become lost in the world which they had subdued. The old Eoman life was corrupted by foreign elements, and debilitated by luxury. The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of im- moderate greatnei3s. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long. — Gibbon. The meanest Roman could purchase with a small copper coin the daily enjoyment of a scene of pomp and luxury which might excite the envy of the kings of Asia. From these stately palaces [the Baths, Thermce] issued a swarm of dirty and ragged plebeians, without shoes and without a mantle ; who loitered away whole days in the street or Forum, to hear news and to hold disputes ; who dissipated in extrava- gant gaming the miserable pittance of their wives and children, and spent the hours of the night in obscure taverns and brothels, in the indulgence of gross and vulgar sensuality. But the most Uvely and 170 FIFTH CENTURY. splendid amusement of the idle multitude depended on the freiuent exhibition of public games and spectacles. The piety of Christian princes had suppressed the inhuman combats of gladiators ; but the Eoman people still considered the circus as their home, their temple, and the seat of the republic. The impatient crowd rushed at the dawn of day to secure their places, and there were many who passed a sleepless and anxious night in the adjacent porticos. From the morning to the evening, careless of the sun or of the rain, the spec- tators, who sometimes amounted to the number of four hundred thou- sand, remaiued in eager attention, their eyes fixed on the horses and charioteers, their minds agitated" with hope and fear for the success of the colors which they had espoused ; and the happiness of Kome ap- peared to hang on the event of a race. The same immoderate ardor inspired their clamors and their applause as often as they were enter- tained with the hunting of wild beasts, and the various modes of theatrical representation. . . . The decay of the city had gradually impaired the value of the public works. The circus and theatres might still excite, but they seldom gratified, the desires of the people; the temples, which had escaped the zeal of the Christians, were uo longer inhabited either by gods or men; the diminished crowds of the Romans were lost in the immense space of their baths and porti- cos ; and the stately libraries and halls of justice became useless to an indolent generation, whose repose was seldom disturbed either by study or business. The monuments of consular or imperial great- ness were no longer revered as the immortal glory of the capital ; they were only esteemed as an inexhaustible mine of materials, cheaper and more convenient than the distant quarry. — GlBBOJii. It [the Roman Empire] was in a state analogous to that of the decrepit human frame when we say it is breaking up; the vital func- tions go on for a time, but weak and intermitting, — neither potions nor physicians can do more than postpone the evil hour. The throes of the perishing Colossus were, however, fearful. A glance at the countries which composed the vast heterogeneous mass of the Roman Empire will show us rottenness and corruption at the centre, and utter disorganization towards the extremities. — Mes. Jameson. Look, too, at the state of Rome, which, when too extensive, became no better than a carcass, whereupon all the vultures and birds of prey of the world did seize and raven for many ages ; as a perpetual monu- FITTH CENTUEY. 171 ment of the essential differences between the scale of miles and the scale of forces ; and that the natural arms of each province, or the protecting arms of the principal state, may, when the territory is too extensive, be unable to counteract the two dangers incident to every government, foreign invasion and inward rebellion. — LoED Bacon. First freedom, and then glory — when tliat fails. Wealth, vice, corruption, — tartarism at last. And history, with all her volumes vast. Hath but one page, — 't is better written here, Where gorgeous tyranny had thus amassed All treasures, all delights, that eye or ear. Heart, soul, could seek, tongue ask — Away with words ! Btbon. Where outworn creeds, like Rome's gray senate, quake, Hearing afar the Vandal's trumpet hoarse. That shakes old systems with a thunder-fit. Lowell. The migrations of those northern nations, noticed in the latter part of the preceding century, now began to affect the course of history to an important extent. The Migrations Western Empire, corrupted and no longer fit to be northern free, was now destined to be overthrown by the nations. inroads of these "barbarians," fresh and vigorous from the forests of Northern Europe. The migration of the northern nations is the wall of separation that divides the ancient and the modern world. — Schlbgel. This migration of the northern nations is nothing else save the his- tory of the wars between the free Germanic races and the Boman masters of the world ; wars which terminated in the dissolution of the Roman Empire, and in the foundation and first formation of the modem states and nations. — Schlegel. The fifth century opened with an increased activity and spirit of enterprise among the barbarian tribes which had been pressing on the empire, and had even gained a footing within its bounds. Three great waves of invasion may be distinguished : foremost and nearest were the Teutonic races ; behind them came the Slaves ; behind them again, and pressing strongly on aU in front, were the Turanian 172 FIFTH CENTUKY. hordes from the centre of Asia, having in their front line the Huns. — R. W. Church. Could we suppose a philosopher to have lived at this period of the world, elevated by benevolence and enlightened by learning and re- flection, concerned for the happiness of mankind and capable of com- prehending it, we can conceive nothing more interesting than would to hiTn have appeared the situations and fortunes of the human race. The civilized world, he would have said, is sinking in the west before these endless tribes of savages from the north. The sister empire of Constantinople in the east, the last remaining refuge of civilization, must soon be overwhelmed by similar irruptions of barbarians from the northwest, from Scythia, or the remoter teast. What can be the consequence 1 Will the world be lost in the darkness of ignorance and ferocity, — sink, never to emerge ? Or will the wrecks of litera- ture and the arts, that may survive the storm, be fitted to strike the attention of these rude conquerors, or sufficiently to enrich their minds with the seeds of future improvement? Or, lastly, and on the other hand, may not this extended and dreadful convulsion of Europe be, after all, favorable to the human race 1 Some change is necessary : the civilized world is no longer to be respected ; its man- ners are corrupted; its literature has long declined; its religion is lost in controversy, or debased by superstition. There is no genius, no libertj'', no virtue. Surely the human race will be improved by the renewal which it will receive from the influx of these freebom warriors. Mankind, fresh from the hand of nature, and regenerated by this new infusion of youth and vigor, will no longer exhibit the vices and the weakness of this decrepitude of humanity ; their aspect will be erect, their step firm, their character manly. There are not wanting the means to advance them to perfection ; the Eoman law is at hand to connect them with each other ; Christianity, to unite them to their Creator ; they are already free. The world will, indeed, begin anew, but it will start to a race of happiness and glory. — W. Smyth. It is a common idea, that the migration of the northern nations was a deluge, as it were, of countless hosts of barbarians, and that, from the eastern frontiers of China down to the western coasts of Spain, a universal restless frenzy, an involuntary impulse, had suddenly seized on all savage tribes, and swept, driven, and pre- cipitated them along, till the old civilization was totally destroyed, and 'the barbarism of the Middle Age introduced. In reality, and FIFTH CENTUEY. 173 viewed in their historical connection, however, these events present a very different aspect. At first, the Germans and Romans only really took part in them. The Huns — the only people, not Germanic, and coming immediately from Asia, who exercised any influence over this migration — were so little numerous, and their influence was so insignificant, that the development of what had been long ripe for development would upon the whole have occurred, even without this people, exactly as it did. — Schlegel. A multitude like which the populous north Poiired never from her frozen loins, to pass Ehene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons Came like a deluge on the south, and spread Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands. MiLTOIf. The blue-eyed race Whose force rough-handed should renew the world, And from the dregs of Romulus express Such wine as Dante poured, or he who blew Roland's vain blast, or sang the Campeador lu verse that clanks like armor in the charge. Lowell. The barriers which had so long separated the savage and the civilized nations of the earth were now, by the movements of the various barbarian tribes, fairly „ „ , overpassed, and the actual dissolution of the West- Rome. ern Empire may be regarded as beginning early Western in the century. By the invasions of the Goths, ^"'P'"'^- Franks, Vandals, and other Teutonic tribes, the Western Eoman Emperors lost their power outside of Italy, and the empire itself ceased to exist in 476, wlieu it was nominally joined to the Eastern Empire, but really passed into the hands first of the Visigoth Odoacer and later (489) into the power of the Ostrogoth Theodoric. 476 is the date commonly assigned for the fall of Eome. At that time she fairly passed into the hands of the bar- barians, and the Western Empire came to an end. " Such was the end of this great empire, that had conquered the 174 FIFTH CENTUKY. world with its arms, and instructed mankind with its wis- dom ; that had risen by temperance, and that fell by- luxury ; that had been established by a spirit of patriot- ism, and that sunk into ruin when the empire had become so extensive that the title of a Eoman citizen was but an empty name." Still the Roman laws and names went on, and we may be sure that any man in Italy would have been much surprised if he had been told that the Eoman Empire had come to an end. — Freeman. For swifter course cometh thing that is of wight, Whan it descendeth, than done thinges light. * Chauoeb. So grew the Eomane Empire by degree, Till barbarian hands it quite did spUl. Spensee. The Niobe of nations ! there she stands. Childless and crownless, in her voiceless woe. Btbon. Two great revolutions have happened in the political state and in the manners of the European nations. The first was occasioned by the progress of the Roman power; the second, by the subversion of it. — EOBEETSON. The union of the Eoman Empire was dissolved; its genius was humbled in the dust ; and armies of unknown barbarians, issuing from the frozen regions of the North, had established their victorious reign over the fairest provinces of Europe and Africa. — Gibbon. And with the empire fell also what before in this Western world was chiefly Eoman ; learning, valor, eloquence, history, civility, and even language itself, aU these together, as it were, with equal peace, diminishing and decaying. — Milton. Before the conclusion of the fifth century, the mighty fabric of empire, which valor and policy had founded upon the seven hills of Eome, was finally overthrown, in all the west of Europe, by the bar- barous nations from the north, whose martial energy and whose num- bers were irresistible. A race of men formerly unknown or despised had not only dismembered that proud sovereignty, but permanently FIFTH OENTUKY. 175 settled themselves in its fairest provinces, and imposed their yoke upon the ancient possessors. — Hallam. Such was the end of the Empire of the West. Rome had grown great for the reason that she had only conducted wars which were successive, each nation, by an inconceivable good fortune, not attack- ing her until another had been ruined. Rome was destroyed for the reason that all nations attacked her at once, and penetrated her dominions on all sides. — Montesquieu. Not only the nation did not uphold the government in its struggle against the barbarians, but the nation did not attempt resistance. . . . The nation undergoes all the scourges of war, pillage, famine, — a complete change of condition and destiny, — without action, without speech, without a display of being. This phenomenon is not only singular, it is unexampled. — Db Mably. For while they ilourished in arms, the largeness of territory was a strength to them, and added forces, added treasures, added reputation; but when they decayed in arms, then greatness became a burden. Por their protecting forces did corrupt, supplant, and enervate the natural and proper forces of all their provinces, which relied and depended upon the succors and directions of the state above. And when that waxed impotent and slothful, then the whole state labored with her own mE^:nitude, and in the end fell with her own weight. And that, no question, was the reason of the strange inundations of people which both from the east and northwest overwhelmed the Roman Empire in one age of the world, which a man upon the sudden would attrib- ute to some constellation or fatal revolution of time, being indeed nothing else but the declination of the Roman Empire, which, having effeminated and made vile the natural strength of the provinces, and not being able to supply it by the strength imperial and sovereign, did, as a lure cast abroad, invite and entice all the nations adjacent, to make their fortunes upon her decays. — Lord Bacon. The fall of the Roman Empire was the overthrow of the greatest, the strongest, and the most firmly settled state which the world had, ever known ; the dislocation and reversal of the long-received ideas and assumptions of mankind, of their habits of thinking, of the cus- toms of life, of the conclusions of experience. — R. W. Church. Immeasurable were the consequences of this migration of nations for the whole of modem history; all that has been developed during 176 FIFTH CENTURY. the last fifteen hundred years by the noble rivalry of so many and such great national energies has thereby alone been brought about. Had this migration not taken place ; had the Germanic nations not succeeded in throwing oflf the Eoman yoke ; had, on the contrary, the rest of Northern Europe been incorporated with Rome ; had the free- dom and individuality of the nations been here too destroyed, and had they been all transformed with like uniformity into provinces, — then would that noble rivalry, that rich development of the human mind, which distinguishes modem nations, have never taken place. — SCHLEGEL. There is no denying that we owe to this confusion, this diversity, this tossing and jostling of elements, the slow progress of Europe, the storms by which she has been buffeted, the miseries to which ofttimes she has been a prey. But, however dear these have cost us, we must not regard them with unmingled regret. . . . What we might call the hard fortune of European civilization — the trouble, the toil it has undergone, the violence it has suffered in its course — has been of infinitely more service to the progress of humanity than that tran- quil, smooth simplicity, in which other civilizations have run their course. — G01ZOT. Now, what the invasion of the barbarians and the fall of the Eoman Empire more especially arrested, even destroyed, was intel- lectual movement ; what remained of science, of philosophy, of the liberty of mind in the fifth century, disappeared under their blows. But the moral movement, the practical reformation of Christianity, and the official establishment of its authority over nations, were not in any way aflfected ; perhaps even they gained instead of losing : this at least, I think, is what the history of our civilization, in pro- portion as we advance in its course, will allow us to conjecture. The invasion of the barbarians, therefore, did not in any way kill what pos- sessed life ; at bottom, intellectual activity and liberty were in decay ; everything leads us to believe that they would have stopped of them- selves ; the barbarians stopped them more rudely and sooner. — GuizoT. It was the rude barbarians of Germany who introduced the senti- ment of personal independence, the love of individual liberty, into European civilization ; it was unknown among the Romans, it was unknown in the Christian Church, it was unknown in nearly all the civilizations of antiquity. — GnizoT. FIFTH CENTUEY. 177 The Roman Empire, at its fall, was resolved into the elements of which it had been composed, and the preponderance of municipal rule and government was agaia everywhere visible. The Roman world had been formed of cities, and to cities again it returned. — GUIZOT. Perhaps no one arc or segment, detached from the total cycle of human records, promises so much beforehand — so much instruction, so much gratification to curiosity, so much splendor, so much depth of interest,, as the great period — the systole and diastole, flux and reflux — of the Western Roman Empire. Its parentage was magnifi- cent and Titanic. It was a birth out of the death-struggles of the colossal republic ; its foundations were laid by that sublime dictator, "the foremost man of all this world," who was unquestionably, for comprehensive talents, the Lucifer, the Protagonist, of all antiquity. Its range, the compass of its extent, was appalling to the imagination. Coming last amongst what are called the great monarchies of Proph- ecy, it was the only one which realized in perfection the idea of a monarchia, being (except for Parthia and the great fable of India beyond it) strictly coincident with i) olimvji.ivq, or the civilized world. Civilization and this empire were commensurate ; they were inter- changeable ideas and coextensive. Finally, the path of this great empire, through its arch of progress, synchronized with that of Chris- tianity ; the ascending orbit of each was pretty nearly the same, and traversed the same series of generations. These elements, in combi- nation, seemed to promise a succession of golden harvests. From the specular station of the Augustan Age, the eye caught glimpses by anticipation of some glorious Eldorado for human hopes. What was the practical result for our historic experience ? Answer, — a sterile Zaarrah. Prelibations, as of some heavenly vintage, were inhaled by the Virgils of the day, looking forward in the spirit of prophetic rapture ; whilst in the very sadness of truth, from that age forwards the Roman world drank from stagnant marshes. A Paradise of roses was prefigured; a wilderness of thorns was found. — De Qdincet. ' The gradual decline of the most extraordinary dominion which has ever invaded and oppressed the world; the fall of that immense empire, erected on the ruins of so many kingdoms, republics, and states, both barbarous and civilized, and forming in its turn, by its dismemberment, a multitude of states, republics, and kingdoms ; the annihilation of the religion of Greece and Rome; the birth and the 12 178 FIFTH CKNTUEY. progress of the tyro new religions wldcli have shared the most beautiful regions of the earth; the decrepitude of the ancient world, the specta- cle of its expiring glory and degenerate manners ; the infancy of the modem world, the picture of its first progress, of the new direction given to the mind and character of man, — such a subject must necessarily fix the attention and excite the interest of men, who can- not behold with indifference those memorable epochs during which, in the fine language of ComeiUe, " Un grand destin commence, un grand destin s'acheve." — • Guizot. When Eome the head of the world shall have fallen, who can doubt that the end is come of human things, aye, of the earth itself ? She, she alone, is the state by which all things are upheld even until now; wherefore let us make prayers and supplications to the God of heaven, if indeed his decrees and his purposes can be delayed, that that hateful tyrant come not sooner than we look for, — he for whom are reserved fearful deeds, who shall pluck out that eye in whose extinction the world itself shall perish. — Lactantihs. Although the Romans ceased to form a state, stiU. the history of this nation did not yet become extinct; and even their literature continued to exist partly at Eome, partly at Eavenna. We still possess a number of small poems and inscriptions on tombs and churches, many of which are elegant and beautiful. One sees that the times were not yet barbarous, and Boethius was worthy of the best ages of literature. . . . The Eoman law continued much more uninterruptedly than is commonly believed. An account of the con- tinued influence of the Eoman inteUeot would be very attractive and desirable. — Niebuhr. This Citie, ■whicli was first but shepheards shade, Uprising by degrees, grewe to such height, That Queene of land and sea her selfe she made. At last, not able to bear so great weight, Her power, dlsper.st, through all the world did vade; To shew that all in th' end to nought shall fade. Spenser. The Goth, the Christian, time, war, flood, and fire, Hare dealt upon the seven-hilled city's pride ; She saw her glories star by star expire, And up the steep barbarian monarchs ride. Where the car climbed the capitol; far and wide FIFTH CENTUKY. 179 Temple and tower went down, nor left a site : — Chaos of ruins 1 who shall trace the void, O'er the dim fragments cast a lunar light. And say, "here was, or is," where aU is doubly night ! Btbon. Amidst these scenes, pilgrim I seek'st thou Rome ? Vain is thy search, — the pomp of Rome is fled ; Her silent Aventine is glory's tomh; Her walls, her shrines, but relics of the dead. That hill, where Caesars dwelt in other days. Forsaken mourns where once it towered sublime; Each mouldering medal now far less displays The triumphs won by Latium than by Time. Tiber alone survives, — the passing wave That bathed her towers now murmurs by her grave, Wailing with plaintive sound her fallen fanes. Borne ! of thine ancient grandeur all is passed. That seemed for years eternal framed to last; Naught but the wave — a fugitive — remains. De Quevedo. Tr. Hemans. Rome, whose steps of power were necks of kings t Europe, the earth, beneath her eagle's wings. How, like a thing divine, she ruled the world ! Her finger lifted, thrones to dust were hurled : High o'er her site the goddess Victory flew, Mars waved his sword, and Fame her trumpet blew. What is she now ? — a widow with bowed head. Her empire vanished, and her heroes dead; Weeping she sits, a lone and dying thing, Beneath the yew, and years no solace bring: What is she now ? — a dream of wonder past, A tombless skeleton, dark, lone, and vast. Whose heart of fire hath long, long ceased to bum, Whose ribs of marble e'en to dust return. Her shade alone, the ghost of ancient power. Wanders in gloom o'er shrine and cmmbling tower. Points with its shadowy hand to Caesar's hall. Sighs beneath arches tottering to their fall, And glides down stately Tiber's rushing waves. That seem to wail through all their hoary caves. N. MiCHEIX. For Rome was then abandoned so of all. In her memorials was seen her fall ; 180 FIFTH CENTURY. Grand montunents in which her pride was placed Were by the Goth put to an abject use; What held her sacred ashes found abuse. Into a trough debased. Jean Eeboul. Tr. C. F.Bates. Thou wert the throne and grave of empires ; still The fount at which the panting mind assuages Her thirst of knowledge, quaffing there her fill, Flows from the eternal source of Rome's imperial hill. Bybon. OTHEE MOVEMENTS OF THE NOETHERN' NATIONS. The important movements and conquests of the barba- rians were, however, by no means confined to those imme- diately connected with the fall of the city of Eome and the surrounding Italy in 476. The Visigoths [West Goths], under Alaric, sacked Eome in 410, and overran all South- ern Italy. "At the hour of midnight the Salarian gate was silently opened, and the inhabitants were awakened by the tremendous sound of the Gothic trumpet; and eleven hundred and sixty-three years after the founding of Eome, the imperial city, which had subdued and civil- ized so considerable a portion of mankind, was delivered to the licentious fury of the tribes of Germany and Scythia." Across the everlasting Alp I poured the torrent of my powers, And feeble Caesars shrieked for help In vain within their seven-hilled towers. E. Everett. A Visigothic kingdom in Spain and Southern Gaul began in 410. In 489, Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths [East FIFTH CENTURY. 181 Goths], overthrew the Visigoth Odoacer in Italy, and ruled from 493 to 526 over a strong and independent state, reaching far beyond Italy. The Vandals settled in Spain, and in 429 crossed to Africa, where they founded a king- dom. The Franks came into power in Northern Gaul, under Clovis, who ruled from 481 to 511. The Burgun- dians founded a state in Southeastern GauL It must not be supposed that the invasions of the barbarian hordes stopped all at once, in the fifth century. Do not believe that because the Roman Empire was fallen, and kingdoms of barbarians founded upon its ruins, the movement of nations was over. — Gcizot. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes crossed over into Britain, which was evacuated by the Eomans in 410, and there laid the foundation of the English nation. Whereupon they [the Britons] suffered many years under two very savage foreign nations, the Scots from the west and the Picts from the north. We call these foreign nations, not on account of their being seated out of Britain, but because they were remote from that part of it which was possessed by the Britons. — The Ven- erable Bede. The Pictish cloud darkens tlie enervate land By Eome abandoned; vain are suppliant cries, And prayers that would undo her forced farewell, For she returns not. WOKDSWORTH. For th' Heavens have decreed to displace The Britons for their sinnes dew punishment. And to the Saxons over-give their government. Spensee. from the east hither. Angles and Saxons came to land, o'er the broad seas Britain sought, mighty war-smiths. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 182 FIFTH CENTUEY. Then (sad relief!) from the bleak coast that hears The German Ocean roar, deep-blooming, strong, And yellow-haired, the blue-eyed Saxon came. Thomson. In a short time swarms of the aforesaid nations [Saxons, Angles, and Jutes] came over into the island, and they began to increase so much that they became terrible to the natives themselves, who had invited them. — The Venerable Bede. No written record tells us how Saxon or Engle dealt with the land he had made his own; how he drove out its older inhabitants, or how he shared it among the new; how the settlers settled down in town- ship or thorpe, or how they moulded into shape, under changed con- ditions, the life they had brought with them from German shores. Even legend and tradition are silent as to their settlement. — J. E. Geben. What strikes us at once in the new England is, that it was the one purely German nation that rose upon the wreck of Rome, In other lands, in Spain or Gaul or Italy, though they were equally conquered by German peoples, religion, social life, administrative order, stiU, remained Eoman. In Britain alone, Rome died into a vague tradition of the past. — J. R. Gbeen. The Huns, who were spoken of in the last century, played an important part in the fifth century. Under Attila, they threatened the whole of Europe in 451, but were defeated at Chllons, by the combined force of the Eomans, Goths, and Franks. They also invaded the Eastern Empire. After the death of Attila, in 453 or 454, the power of the Huns declined. Justice divine upon this side is goading That Attila, who was a scourge on earth. Dante, Inferno. Tr. Longfellow. As in polished societies ease and tranquillity are courted, they delight in war and dangers. He who falls in battle is reckoned happy. They who die of old age or of disease are deemed infamous. They boast, with the utmost exultation, of the number of enemies whom they have slain, and, as the most glorious of all ornaments, FIFTH CENTURY. 183 they fasten the scalps of those who have fallen by their hands to the trappings of their horses. — Ammiands Marcellinds. The Huns were not, like Goths and Vandals, a Teutonic or even a Slave people. They belonged to that terrible race whose original seats were in the vast central table-land of Asia; who under various names — Huns, Tartars, Mongols, Turks — have made it their boast to devastate for the sake of devastation, and from whom sprung the most renowned among the destroyers of men, Attila, Genghis, Timour, the Ottomans. — R. W. Church. The victory which the Roman general, Aetius, with his Gothic allies, had then gained over the Huns, was the last victory of imperial Rome. But among the long Fasti of her triumphs, few can be found that, for their importance and ultimate benefit to mankind, are com- parable with this expiring effort of her arms Ceeast. The discomfiture [battle of Ch&lons] of the mighty attempt of Attila to found a new an ti- Christian dynasty upon the wreck of the temporal power of Rome, at the end of the term of twelve hundred years, to which its duration had been limited by the forebodings of the heathen. — Herbert. The battle of ChSlons, where Hunland met Rome, and the Earth was played for, at sword-fence, by two earth-bestriding giants, the sweep of whose swords cut kingdoms in pieces, hovers dim- in the languid remembrance of a few; while the poor police-court Treachery of a wretched Iscariot, transacted in the wretched land of Palestine, centuries earlier, for " thirty pieces of silver," lives clear in the heads, in the hearts, of all men. — Caeltie. If a man were called to fix upon the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most ca- lamitous and afliicted, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Theodosius the Great to the establishment of the Lombards in Italy. The contemporary authors, who beheld that scene of desolation, labor and are at a loss for expressions to describe the horror of it. Tlie Scourge of God, the Destroyer of Na- tions, are the dreadful epithets by which they distinguish the most noted of the barbarous leaders; and they compare the ruin which they had brought on the world to the havoc occasioned by earth- quakes, conflagr,ations, or deluges, — the most formidable and fatal ca- lamities which the imagination of man can conceive. — Robertson. THE MIDDLE AGES. THE DARK AGB3. Our clock strikes when there is a change from hour to hour ; but no hammer in the H-orologe of Time peals through the universe, when there is a change from Era to Era. — Caeltlh. Many considerable portions of time, especially before the twelfth century, may justly he deemed so barren of events worthy of re- membrance, that a single sentence or paragraph is often sufficient to give the character of entire generations, and of long dynasties of obscure Icings. — Hallam. It cost Europe a thousand years of barbarism to escape the fate of China. — Macaulat. The period intervening between the fall of the Western Eoman Empire (476) and the discovery of America by Columbus (1492), say from the fifth to the fifteenth cen- tury, is usually spoken of as the Middle Ages, or more con- cisely as the Middle Age. It is marked by many and great events, such as the institutions of feudalism and chivalry, the growth of municipalities, the crusades, the rise of the papal power, the invention of printing, the revival of learn- ing, maritime discovery, etc., all which will be referred to in the proper places. The first five centuries of this period, say from the fall of Eome to the year 1000, are often known as the Dark Ages, because European society was then to appearance in a more benighted and semi-barbarous condition than either immediately before or since that time. The name Dark Ages is sometimes applied to nearly the ■whole period 500-1500. This is, indeed, the character of the Dark Age : it was a chaos of all the elements ; the childhood of all the systems ; a universal THE MIDDLE AGES. 185 jumble, in ■which even strife itself was neither permanent nor sys- tematic. — GUIZOT. Writers innumerable have declaimed on the night of the Middle Ages, — on the deluge of barbarism which, under the Goths, flooded the world, — on the torpor of the human intellect, under the com- bined pressure of savage violence and priestly superstition ; yet this was precisely the period when the minds of men, deprived of external vent, turned inwards on themselves; and that the learned and thought- ful, shut out from any active part in society by the general prevalence of military violence, sought, in the solitude of the cloister, employment in reflecting on the mind itself, and the general causes which, under its guidance, operated upon society. The influence of this great change, in the direction of thought, at once appeared when knowledge, liberated from the monastery and the imiversity, again took its place among the affairs of men. — Alison. It is an exaggeration also to attribute to the Germanic invasions the retardation of intellectual development during the Middle Ages ; for the decline was taking place for centuries before the invasions were of any engrossing importance. — Comte. The three centuries under consideration, the Middle Ages, were, in point of fact, one of the most brutal, most ruffianly epochs in history, one of those wherein we encounter most crimes and violence, wherein the public peace was most incessantly troubled, and wherein the greatest licentiousness in morals prevailed. Nevertheless it cannot be denied that side by side with these gross and barbarous morals, this social disorder, there existed knightly morality and knightly poetry. We have moral records confronting ruiSanly deeds ; and the contrast is shocking, but real. It is exactly this contrast which makes the great and fundamental characteristic of the Middle Ages. — Gdizot. The Dark Ages, as the period of Catholic ascendency is justly called, do undoubtedly display many features of great and genuine excellence. In active benevolence, in the spirit of reverence, in loyalty, in co- operative habits, they far transcend the noblest ages of pagan antiq- uity, while in that humanity which shrinks from the infliction ot suffering, they were superior to Roman, and in their respect for chas- tity, to Greek civilization. On the other hand, they rank immeasur- ably below the best pagan civilizations in civic and patriotic virtues, 186 THE MIDDLE AGES. in the love of liberty, in the number and splendor of the great char- acters they produced, in the dignity and beauty of the type of character they formed. They had their full share of tumult, anarchy, injus- tice, and war, and they should probably be placed, in aU intellectual virtues, lower than any other period in the history of mankind. A boundless intolerance of all divergence of opinion was united with an equally boundless toleration of all falsehood and deliberate fraud that could favor received opinions. Credulity being taught as a virtue, and all conclusions dictated by authority, a deadly torpor sank upon the human mind, which for many centuries almost suspended its action, and was only broken by the scrutinizing, innovating, and free-thinking habits that accompanied the rise of the industrial re- publics in Italy. Few men who are not either priests or monks would not have preferred to live in the best days of the Athenian or of the Roman republics, in the age of Augustus or in the age of the Antonines, rather than in any period that elapsed between the triumph of Christianity and the fourteenth century. — Lecky. During the Middle Ages man had lived enveloped in a cowl. He had not seen the beauty of the world, or had seen it only to cross him- self, and turn aside and teU his beads and pray. Like St. Bernard travelling along the shores of Lake Leman, and noticing neither the azure of the waters, nor the luxuriance of the vines, nor the radiance of the mountains with their robe of sun and snow, but bending a thought-burdened forehead over the neck of his mule; even like this monk, humanity had passed, a careful pilgrim, intent on the ter- rors of sin, death, and judgment, along the highways of the world, and had not known that they were sight-worthy, or that life is a blessing. — J. A. Stmonds. All the fictions of the Middle Age explain themselves as a masked or frolic expression of that which in grave earnest the mind of that period toiled to achieve. Magic, and aU that is ascribed to it, is a deep presentiment of the powers of science. The shoes of swiftness, the sword of sharpness, the power of subduing the elements, of using the secret virtues of minerals, of understanding the voices of birds, are the obscure efforts of the mind in a right direction. The preternat- ural prowess of the hero, the gift of perpetual youth, and the lite, are alike the endeavor of the human spirit " to bend the shows of things to the desires of the mind." — Emerson. THE MIDDLE AGES. 187 In the next place, tlie great lesson ■whici the Dark Ages exhibit is also that which human life is unhappily at every moment and on every occasion exhibiting, — the abuse of power. The great characteristics of the Dark Ages are the feudal system and the papal power. But consider each ; the incidents, as they are termed, of the feudal system ; and, again, the doctrines and the decrease of the papal see. Outra- geous as many of these may seem, they were still but specimens of the abuse of power. The Dark Ages show human nature under its most ■unfavorable aspects, but it is stUl human nature. We see in them the picture of our ancestors, but it is only a more harsh and repulsive portrait of ourselves. — AV. Smyth. Literature, science, taste, were words little in use during the ages •which we axe contemplating ; or, if they occur at any time, eminence in them is ascribed to persons and productions so contemptible, that it appears their true import was little understood. Persons of the highest rank, and in the most eminent stations, could not read or write. . . . The human mind, neglected, uncultivated, depressed, con- tinued in the most profound ignorance. — Robertson. To a spectator on the spot, it is remarkable that the" events of Roman history, and of Roman life itself, appear not so distant as the Gothic ages which succeeded them. We stand in the Forum, or on the height of the Capitol, and seem to see the Roman epoch close at hand. We forget that a chasm extends between it and ourselves, in which lie all those dark, rude, unlettered centuries, around the birth- time of Christianity, as well as the age of chivalry and romance, the feu- dal system, and the infancy of a better civilization than that of Rome. Or, if we remember these mediaeval times, they look further off than the Augustan Age. The reason may be, that the old Roman litera- ture survives, and creates for us an intimacy with the classic ages, which we have no means of forming with the subseq^uent ones. — Hawthoenb. As one by one, at dread Medea's strain, The sickening stars fade off th' ethereal plain ; As Argus' eyes, by Hermes' wand opprest. Closed one by one to everlasting rest; Thus at her felt approach and secret might. Art after art goes out, and all is night. See skulking Truth to her old cavern fled, Mountains of casuistry heaped on her head ; 188 THE MIDDLE AGES. Philosophy, that reached the heavens before. Shrinks to her hidden cause, and is no more. Physio of Metaphysic begs defence, And Metaphysic calls for aid to Sense : See Mystery to Mathematics fly ! In vain ! they gaze, turn giddy, rave, and die. Pope. Instead of referring the events of the external world to space and time, to sensible connection and causation, men attempted to reduce Etich. occurrences under spiritual and supersensual relations and de- pendences ; they referred them to superior intelligences, to theologi- cal conditions, to past and future events in the moral world, to states of mind and feelings, to the creatures of an imaginary mythology or demonology. And thus their physical Science became Magic, their Astronomy became Astrology, the study of the Composition of bodies became Alchemy, Mathematics became the contemplation of the Spiritual Relations of number and figure, and Philosophy became Theosophy. — William Whewell. The Middle Ages were a period when everything was broken up, — when each people, each province, each city, and each family tended strongly to maintain its distinct individuality. ■ — De Tocqtjevillb. The manners of the Middle Ages were, in the most singular sense, compulsory. Enterprising benevolence was produced by general fierceness, gallant courtesy by ferocious rudeness, and artificial gen- tleness resisted the torrent of natural barbarism. — Mackintosh. This period, considered as to the state of society, has been esteemed dark through ignorance, and barbarous through poverty and want of refinement. And although this character is mvich less applicable to the two last centuries of the period than to those which preceded its commencement, yet we cannot expect to feel, in respect of ages at best imperfectly civilized and slowly progressive, that interest which at- tends a more perfect development of human capacities and more brill- iant advances in improvement. The first moiety,, indeed, of these ten ages is almost absolutely barren, and presents little but a catalogue of evils. The subversion of the Eoman Empire, and devastation of its provinces by barbarous nations, either immediately preceded, or were coincident with the commencement of the middle period. We begin in darkness and calamity; and though the shadows grow fainter as we THE MIDDLE AGES. 189 advance, yet we are to break off our pursuit as the moming breathes upon us, and the twilight reddens into the lustre of day. — Hallam. Whichever way we look at the organization proper to the Middle Ages, its provisional nature is evident from the fact that the develop- ments it encouraged were the first causes of its decay. — Comtb. In modern Europe, the Middle Ages were called the Dark Ages. Who dares to call them so now 1 They are seen to be the feet on which we walk, the eyes with which we see. 'T is- one of our tri- umphs to have reinstated them. Their Dante and Alfred and Wick- liffe and Abelard and Bacon; their Magna Charta, decimal numbers, mariner's compass, gunpowder, glass, paper, and clocks; chemistry, algebra, astronomy; their Gothic architecture, their painting, — are the delight and tuition of ours. — Emeeson. AboutAB. 600 Rchofy-^'^'Prmtnig Co. SIXTH CENTURY. (500-600.) Eastern Eoman Empire. A great change takes place in this century imder Justinian, who rules from 527 to 565, during whose reign the Vandals are driven from Africa in 534, the South of Spain recovered from the Visigoths, and the Ostrogoths in Italy are con- quered (535 - 553), thus winning back much of the lost dominion of the old Roman Empire. The Byzantine Empire is at the height of its glory under Justinian, and the Roman territory again reaches "from the ocean to the Euphrates, round the greater part of the Mediterranean." After Justinian's death, in 565, this great power declines again. The Lombards conquer the northern part of Italy, and the empire is threatened at the end of the century by the Sla- vonian and Turanian nations from the north and the Persians in the east. Part of the dominion in Spain is won back by the Visigoths. Franks. The Franks, under Clovis, become strongly established, their kingdom embracing parts of modern France and Germany. LOMBABDS. TJie Lombards pour down into Italy in 568, and conquer the northern portion, founding there the kingdom of Lonibardy, and leaving to the Eastern Empire part of Southern Italy, the Exarchate of Bavenna, and the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, with Venice. Italy, in the first of the century nominally a part of the Eastern Empire but really in the hands of the Ostrogoths, is conquered in the time of Justinian, and becomes actually a part of the Eastern Empire. After the death of Jus- tinian, the Lombards conquer part of Italy, forming the kingdom of Lombardy OsTBOGOTHS. The Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy is overcome by the Eastern Empire in the time of Justinian, and also by the Lombard-s, who form the king- dom of Lombardy in the northerh part of Italy. Visigoths. The Visigoths lose part of the South of Spain, which is con- quered by the Eastern Empire in the time of Justinian. A portion of this lost dominion is, however, won back by the Visigoths. The Visigoths seize the remaining territory of the Suevi, in Northwestern Spain, in 585. Vandals. The kingdom of the Vandals in Africa comes to an end in 534, becoming part of the Eastern Empire. Angles, Saxons, Jutes, continue their migrations to Britain. Britain. See Angles, Saxons, Jutes. Persia is a powerful kingdom, and a threatening rival to the Eastern Empire. , Slaves. An important branch of the Aryan stock — the Slaves — deserves notice during this century. Avars, etc. In the lands north of the Danube the kingdom of the Avars — a Turanian race — is set up, and in the territory adjacent to the Black Sea the Chazars establish a great dominion. A. D. 500- A. D. 600. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 616. Computation of time by the Christian Era introduced, 529 (about). The order of Benedictine monks founded at Monte Casino. 634. Belisarius conquers Africa (Car- thage). End of the Vandal king- dom. 537-653. Italy recovered by Belisarius and Narses. 546. The Goths, under Totila, take Rome. 553. Rome recovered by Narses. 568. Lombard kingdom founded In Italy. 597. Beginning of conversion of Britain to Christianity (St. Augustine). PROMINENT NAMES OP THE CENTURY. Eastkbn Empire. ETn^eror. — Justinian I. Generals. — Belisarius, Narses. Byzantine Historian. — Procoplus. Grareimarian. — Priscian. King (Ostrogoths'). — Theodonc. Italy. Historian. —Gregory (of Tours). Roman PhilosopJier and Sixitesman. — Boethius. Pope Gregory the Great, St. Benedict, St. Gildas, St> Columba, St. Golumban. ILLUSTRATIONS. THE EASTERN EMPIRE. THIS period is often known as the Age of Justinian from the long reign of that monarch (527-565), which covered a considerable part of the century. Justinian was one of the greatest of the emperors, and distinguished him- self by his architectural constructions in various parts of the empire, — in particular the building of the church of St. Sophia at Constantinople, one of the most remarkable edi- fices in the world, — and by the revision and codification of the Eoman laws, made under his supervision by the great lawyer Tribonian, and which has become the basis of juris- prudence in continental Europe. During the reign of Justinian the empire was enlarged by the accession of the kingdom of the Vandals in Africa, and of parts of Spain and Italy which had been conquered by his general Belisa- rius, of whom it has been said that " he was perhaps the greatest commander that ever lived, as he did the greatest things with the smallest means." These conquests, how- ever, were of short duration. The vain titles of the victories of Justinian are crumbled into dust; but the name of the legislator is inscribed on a fair and everlasting monument. Under his reign, and by his care, the civil jurisprudence was digested in the immortal works of the Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes; the public reason of the Romans has been silently or 13 194 SIXTH CENTUET. studiously transfused into the domestic institutions of Europe, and the laws of Justinian still command the respect or obedience of independent nations. — Gibbon. If the Roman laws have appeared so sacred, that their majesty still subsists, notwithstanding the ruin of the empire, it is because good sense, which controls human life, reigns throughout the whole, and that there is nowhere to be found a iiner application of the principles of natural eijuity. — Bossuet. Victory, by sea and land, attended his [Belisarius'] arms. He subdued Africa, Italy, and the adjacent islands; led away captives the successors of Genseric and Theodorio; filled Constantinople with the spoils of their palaces; and in the space of six years recovered half the provinces of the Western Empire. — Gibbon. The victories and losses of Justinian were alike pernicious to man- kind; and such was the desolation of Africa, that in many parts a stranger might wander whole days without meeting the face either of a friend or an enemy. The nation of the Vandals had disappeared. — Gibbon. The Koman Empire appears suddenly to resume her ancient maj- esty and power. The signs of a j ust, able, and vigorous administration, — internal peace, prosperity, conquest, and splendor — surrounded the master of the Roman world. The greatest generals since the days perhaps of Trajan, Belisarius and Narses, appear at the head of the Roman armies. Persia was kept at bay during several campaigns, if not continuously successful, yet honorable to the arms of Rome. The tide of barbarian conquerors rolled back. Africa, the lUyrian and Dalmatian provinces, Sicily, Italy, with the ancient capital, were again under the empire of Rome ; the Vandal kingdom, the Gothic kingdom, fell before the irresistible generals of the East. The frontiers of the empire were defended with fortifications constructed at an enormous cost. Justinian aspired to be the legislator of man- kind; avast system of jurisprudence embodied the wisdom of ancient and of imperial statutes, mingled with some of the benign influences of Christianity, of which the author might almost have been war- ranted in the presumptuous vaticination that it would exercise an unrepealed authority to the latest ages. The cities of the empire were adorned with buildings, civil as well as religious, of great mag- nificence and apparent durability, which, with the comprehensive SIXTH CENTURY. 195 legislation, might recall the peaceful days of the Antonines. The empire, at least at first, was restored to religious unity; Catholicism resumed its sway, and Arianism, so long its rival, died out in remote and neglected congregations. — Milman. The history of the Greek Empire [after the time of Justinian] — for it is thus that the Roman Empire is named for the future — is nothing hut a tissue of revolts, seditions, and perfidies. — Mon- tesquieu. If Rome had been the home of independence, Constantinople was the home of slavery; from thence issued the dogmas of passive obe- dience to the Church and throne : there was but one right, — that of the empire; but one duty, — that of obedience. — Thierry. Caesar I was, and am Justinian, Who, by the will of primal Love I feel. Took from the laws the useless and redundant; And ere unto the work I was attent, One nature to exist in Christ, not more, Believed, and with such faith was I contented. Dante, Paradiso. Tr. Longfellow. For him, with sails of red. And torches at mast-head, Piloting the great fleet, I swept the Afric coasts And scattered the Vandal hosts. Like dust in a windy street. For him I won again The Ausonian realm and reign, Rome and Parthenope; And all tlie land was mine From the summits of Apennine To the shores of either sea. Longfellow, Belisarius. THE LOMBAEDS IN ITALY. The years immediately following the death of Justinian were marked by the irruption of the Lombards into Italy, who overran the greater part of the peninsula. Eome, how- 196 SIXTH CENTUET. • ever, with several other cities, and the islands of Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia, still adhered to the empire. Amidst the arms of the Lombards, and under the despotism of the Greeks, we again inquire into the fate of Rome, which had reached, ahout the close of the sixth century, the lowest period of her depres- sion. By the removal of the seat of empire, and the successive loss of the provinces, the sources of puhlic and private opulence were exhausted ; the lofty tree, under whose shade the nations of the earth had reposed, was deprived of its leaves and branches, and the sapless trunk was left to wither on the ground. — Gibbon. IMMEDIATE EESULTS OF THE MIGEATIOISr OF THE NATIONS. The consequences, as seen in this century, of the migra- tions of the northern nations, which resulted in the fall of Eome in the last century, are thus noticed by the historian Eohertson : — In less than, a century after the barbarous nations settled in their new conquests, almost all the effects of the knowledge and civility which the Romans had spread through Europe disappeared. Not only the arts of elegance, which minister to luxury, and are sup- ported by it, but many of the useful arts, without which life can scarcely be considered as comfortable, were neglected or lost. . . . But no expressions can convey so perfect an idea of the destructive progress of the barbarians as that which must strike an attentive ob- server when he contemplates the total change which he will discover in the state of Europe, after it began to recover some degree of tran- quillity, towards the close of the sixth century. The Saxons were by that time masters of the southern and more fertile provinces of Britain; the Franks, of Gaul; the Huns, of Pannonia; the Goths, of Spain ; the Goths and Lombards, of Italy and the adjacent provinces. Very faint vestiges of the Roman policy, jurisprudence, arts, or litera- ture remained. New forms of government, new lavrs, new manners, new dresses, new languages, and new names of men and countries, were everywhere introduced. SIXTH CENTCEY. 197 THE EISE OF MONACHISM. I like a church; I like a cowl; I love a prophet of the soul; And on my heart monastic aisles Fall like sweet strains, or pensive smiles; Yet notfm- all his faith can see Would I that cotvlld churchman be. EUESSON. The monastic system had its origin in the East, and was brought into Western Europe during the early times of the Christian Church, but did not reach a stage of extended usefulness till the sixth century, under St. Benedict, who is regarded as the founder of the monastic system in the West. He founded a monastery at Monte-Casino, near Naples, about 529, and from him dates the distinguished order of the Benedictines. The rule of his order com- prised, besides religious duties, various kinds of manual labor (including especially agriculture), instruction of the young, and the copying of valuable manuscripts. The monasteries, scattered all over Europe, formed the most valuable aids of the Church, and were a sort of con- necting link during the Dark Ages between the old civili- zation and that which was to come, and to them is due the preservation of what remains to us of ancient literature. During this period, to use the words of a distinguished French author, " all those men who, if they did not aug- ment the treasure of the sciences, at least served to trans- mit it, were monks, or had been such originally. Convents were, during these stormy ages, the asylum of sciences and letters. Without these religious men, who, in the silence of their monasteries, occupied themselves in transcribing, in studying, and in imitating the works of the ancients, well or ill, those works would have perished ; perhaps not one 198 SIXTH CENTUEY. of them would have come down to us. The thread which connects us with the Greeks and Eomans would have been snapt asunder ; the precious productions of ancient litera- ture would no more exist for us, than the works, if any there were, published before the catastrophe that anni- hilated that highly scientific nation which, according to Bailly, existed in remote ages in the centre of Tartary or at the roots of the Caucasus. In the sciences we should have had all to create ; and at the moment when the human mind should have emerged from its stupor and shaken off its slumbers, we should have been no more advanced than the Greeks were after the taking of Troy." During about three centuries, and while Europe had sunk into the most extreme moral, intellectual, and political degradation, a constant stream of missionaries poured forth from the monasteries, who spread the knowledge of the Cross and the seeds of a future civilization through every land from Lombardy to Sweden. — Leckt. You are all aware it was in the East that the monks took their rise. The form in which they first appeared was very difi'erent from that which they afterwards assumed, and in which the mind is accustomed to view them. In the earlier years of Christianity a few men of more excitable imaginations than their fellows imposed upon themselves all sorts of sacrifices and of extraordinary personal austerities ; this, how- ever, was no Christian innovation, for we find it, not in a general tendency of human nature, but in the religious manners of the entire East and in several Jewish traditions. The ascetes (this was the name first given to these pious enthusiasts ; aa-nrja-ts, exercises, ascetic life) were the first form of monks. They did not segregate, in the first in- stance, from civil society ; they did not retire into the deserts ; they only condemned themselves to fasting, silence, to all sorts of austeri- ties, more especially to celibacy. Soon afterwards they retired from the world ; they went to live far from mankind, absolutely alone, amidst woods and deserts, in the depths of the Thebaid. The ascetes became hermits, anchorites; this was the second form of the monastic life. After some time, from causes which have left no traces behind them — yielding, perhaps, to the powerful attraction of some more SIXTH CENTURY. 199 peculiarly celebrated hermit, of St. Anthony for instance, or per- haps simply tired of complete isolation, the anchorites collected together, built their huts side by side, and while continuing to live each in his own abode, performed their religious exercises to- gether, and began to form a regular community. It was at this time, as it would seem, that they first received the name of monks. By and by they made a further step ; instead of remaining in separate huts, they collected in one edifice, under one roof; the association was more closely knit, the common life more complete. They be- came cenobites (cenobitae, koipo^mi, from koivos, common, and /3ior, life) ; this was the fourth form of the monastic institution, its defini- tive form, that to which all its subsequent developments were to adapt themselves. — Guizot. In general, if a district in England be surveyed, the most conve- nient, most fertile, and most peaceful spot will be found to have been the site of a Benedictine Abbey. — Milman. Eeoord we too, with just and faithful pen, That many hooded cenobites there are, Who in their private cells have yet a care Of public quiet; unambitious men, Counsellors for the world, of piercing ken; Whose fervent exhortations from afar Move princes to their duty, peace or war; And ofttimes in the most forbidding den Of solitude, with love of science strong, How patiently the yoke of thought they bear ! How subtly glide its finest threads along ! Spirits that crowd the intellectual sphere With mazy boundaries, as the astronomer With orb and cycle girds the starry throng. WOEDSWOBTH. And they who to be sure of paradise Dying put on the weeds of Dominic, Or in Franciscan think to pass disguised. Milton. About A.n. 700 KsIiappePnr^*^ Oi,Sostea , SEVENTH CENTTJRT. (600-700.) , Saracens. A new power now appears. The Saracens (Arabs), a Semitic people, with the new religion of Mahometanism, attack at once the Eastern Empire and Persia, seize the provinces of Syria and Egypt from the Eastern Roman Empire between 632 and 639, invade Africa in 647, and take Carthage in 698. Between 632 and 651 they subdue the whole of Persia, which by degrees becomes a Mahometan country. They invade India and the lands east of the Caspian Sea. They unsuccessfully besiege Constantinople in 673. Persia now becomes very powerful, and between 611 and 615 overruns bU Egypt, Syria, and Asia. In a war from 620 to 625, Persia is overcome by the Eastern Roman Emfiee, and gives up the territory which she had talcen from that empire. Between 632 and 651 the whole of Persia is conquered by the Saracens, and gradually becomes a Mahometan country. Eastern Empire. The Eastern Empire, under Heraclius, overcomes Persia and wins back, between 620 and 625, all of her dominion which had been taken by that country (see- under Persia). A few years later, the Saracens wrench away a great part of the Oriental dominion of the Eastern Empire. The Roman province in Spain again comes into the hands of the Visigoths. The territory of the empire is also encroached upon by inroads of the Slaves. Franks. The kingdom of the Franks suffers no important changes in terri- tory. Britain, so far as occupied by the Angles and Saxons, is divided into seven (or eight) little kingdoms, known as the Saxon Heptarchy. Visigoths. The Visigoths again get possession of the Roman province in Spain. Lombards. The Lombards still hold their possessions in Italy. Saxons, Angles. See above, under Britain. Slaves. The Slavic tribes in this century force their way into the portions - of the empire contiguous to the Adriatic, and give rise to several Slavonic kingdoms. A. D. 600. - A. D. 700. CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE. 609. Beginning of Mahomet's mission. 622. The Hegira. Mahomet's flight from Mecca. Heracllus defeats the Per- sians. 632-639. The Saracens conquer Syria. 632-651. The Saracens conquer Persia. 637. The Saracens (Omar) take Jerusalem. 63S. The Saracens conquer Egypt. 640. The Saracens talte Alexandria and hum the Alexandrian library. 647. The Saracens invade Africa. 661. House ot Ommiyades (Saracen). 673. The Saracens besiege Constantinople. 698. The Saracens take Carthage. PROMINENT NAMES OP THE CENTUET. Eastern Eajfise. Emperors. — Phocas, Beraclius, Justinian II. Saracens. Froph^ and Lawgiver. — Mahomet. Caliphs. — Abu Beldr, Omar, Othman, All British C7i.ro)ttcIer. — Nennius. ILLUSTRATIONS. MAHOMET AND THE SAEACENS. Who can doubt the ■potency of an individual mind, who sees the shocJc given to torpid races — torpid for ages — &y Mahomet ; a vibration propagated over Asia and Africa 1 — Emerson. Paradise is under the shadow of swords. — Mahomet. ANEW power now appeared, — the Saracens, — a Semitic race. As followers of the famous Moham- med, or Mahomet, they invaded Europe as well as Africa and Asia with a new religion, giving rise to an immense power, which was of very great importance during the Middle Ages. The prophet Mahomet was born at Mecca, in Arabia, in 569, and taught a faith which he claimed to be much better than either the Jewish or Christian reli- gions. He taught that there is but one God. His doc- trines were committed to writing, forming the book known as the Koran (the reading). He and his followers propa- gated the new religion by force, giving to all the choice of adopting the doctrines of the Koran, of paying tribute, or of being put to the sword. Mahomet died in 632, after having spread his religion over the whole peninsula of Arabia. The Saracens, under his successors (caliphs), with this new 204 SEVENTH CENTURY. religion of Mahometanism attacked at once the Eastern Empire and Persia, seized the provinces of Syria and Egypt from the Eastern Empire between 632 and 639, invaded Africa in 647, and took Carthage in 698. Between 632 and 651 they conquered the whole of Persia, which by de- grees became a Mahometan country. The Saracens also invaded India and the lands east of the Caspian Sea, and they unsuccessfully besieged Constantinople in 673. In short, the Roman and Persian Empires seemed the only settled governments in the world; beyond their limits was little but bar- barism, anarchy, and national migrations; and Rome and Persia alike, exhausted by their long conflict, seemed too weak to resist the attacks of a fresh and vigorous invader. It was, indeed, a mo- ment for Mahomet and his Saracens to change the face of the world. — Freeman. The Prophet is the centre round which everything connected with Arabia revolves. The period preceding his birth is regarded and designated as the times of ignorance. — Keightlet. Of all the revolutions which have had a permanent influence tipon the civil history of mankind, none could so little be anticipated by human prudence as that effected by the religion of Arabia. As the seeds of invisible disease grow up sometimes in silence to maturity, till they manifest themselves hopeless and irresistible, the gradual propa- gation of a new faith in a barbarous country beyond the limits of the empire was hardly known perhaps, and certainly disregarded, in the court of Constantinople. — Hallam. While Rome and Persia, engaged in deadly struggle, had no thought for anything but how most to injure each other, a power began to grow up in an adjacent country, which had for long ages been despised and thought incapable of doing any harm to its neighbors. Mahomet, half impostor, half enthusiast, enunciated a doctrine, and by degrees worked out a religion, which proved capable of uniting in one the scattered tribes of the Arabian desert, while at the same time it in- spired them with a confidence, a contempt for death, and a fanatic valor, that rendered them irresistible by the surrounding nations. — Rawlinson. SEVENTH CENTURY. 205 When the prophet Mahomet began his career at Mecca, Arabia was hardly known to the rest of the world. Fifty years after his death his followers were already ruling the land from the Indus in the east, the Caucasus in the north, to the coasts of the Atlantic in the west. The world never before saw a quicker or more complete invasion. Mahomet had succeeded in setting the ardent imaginations of his countrymen on fire with the idea of a holy war. In short, vigorous sentences, he preached to them the greatness and power of one Al- mighty God. He did not reason or explain, but he carried men away with him. He painted the rewards of Paradise and the tortures of the damned in glowing colors ; and his whole religion was contained in these words: Obedience to God and to His Prophet. — Von SrBEL. The Arabs or Saracens, who spread their conquests from India to Spain, had languished in poverty and contempt, till Mahomet breathed into those savage bodies the soul of enthusiasm. . . . Mahomet, with the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other, erected his throne on the ruins of Christianity and of Rome. The genius of the Arabian prophet, the manners of his nation, and the spirit of his religion in- volve the causes of the decline and fall of the Eastern Empire ; and our eyes are curiously intent on one of the most memorable revolu- tions, which have impressed a new and lasting character on the na- tions of the globe. . . It is not the propagation, but the permanency, of his religion that deserves our wonder ; the same pure and perfect impression which he engraved at Mecca and Medina is preserved, after the revolutions of twelve centuries, by the Indian, the African, and the Turkish proselytes of the Koran. — Gibbon. An individual had started up amidst the sands of Arabia, had per- suaded his countrymen that he was the prophet of God, had contrived to combine in his service two of the most powerful passions of the human heart, • — the love of glory here, and the desire of happiness hereafter, — and, triumphant in himself and seconded by his followers, had transmitted a faith and an empire that at length extended through Asia, Africa, Spain, and nearly through Europe itself ; and had left in history a more memorable name, and on his fellow- creatures a more wide and lasting impression, than had ever before been produced by the energies of a single mind. This individual was Mahomet. — W. Smtth. 206 SEVENTH CENTTIRT. However lie [Mahomet] betrayed the alloy of earth after he had worldly power at his command, the early aspirationa of his spirit con- tiauaUy returned, and bore him above aU earthly things. . . . His military triumphs awakened no pride nor vainglory. In the time of his greatest power he maintained the same simplicity of manners and appearance as in the days of his adversity. So far from affect- ing royal state, he was displeased if on entering a room any unusual testimonial of respect were shown him. . . . The general tenor of Mahomet's conduct up to the time of his flight from Mecca is that of an enthusiast acting under a species of mental delusion, — deeply imbued with a conviction of his being a Divine agent for religious reform ; and there is something striking and sublime in the luminous path which his enthusiastic spirit struck out for itself through the bewildering maze of adverse faiths and wild traditions, — the pure and spiritual worship of the one true God, which he sought to substitute for the blind idola- try of his childhood. . . . AU the parts of the Koran supposed to have been promulgated by him at this time — incoherently as they have come down to us, and marred as their pristine beauty must be in passing through various hands — are of a pure and beautiful char- acter, and breathe poetical, if not religious, inspiration. They show that he had drunk deep of the living waters of Ohristianity ; and if he had failed to imbibe them in their crystal purity, it might be because he had to drink from broken cisterns and streams troubled and perverted by those who should have been their guardians. — Washington Irving. The word this man spoke has been the life-guidance now of a hun- dred and eighty millions of men these twelve hundred years. . . . Are we to suppose that it was a miserable piece of spiritual leger- demain, this which so many creatures of the Almighty have lived by and died by ? — Carlyle. Utter the song, my soul I the flight and return of Mohammed, Prophet and priest, who scattered abroad both evil and blessing. Huge wasteful empires founded, and hallowed slow persecution, Soul- withering, but crushed the blasphemous rites of the pagan And idolatrous Christians. COLEBIDGE. SEVENTH CENTURY. 207 THE EASTEEN EMPIEE. From the time of Heraclius [died 641], the Byzantine theatre is contracted and darkened ; the line of empire, which had been defined by the laws of Justinian and the arms of Belisarius, recedes on all sides from our view ; the Eoman name is reduced to a narrow cor- ner of Europe, to the lonely suburbs of Constantinople ; and the fate of the Greek Empire has been compared to that of the Ehine, which loses itself in4he sands, before its waters can mingle with the ocean. — Gibbon. About A.B. McaatspePrmiing C> ■ fiiutm. EIGHTH CENTURY. (700-800.) The end of this century fmd.3 three great empires in Europe and Eastern Asia : the Saracenic Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire, and the Empire op Charlemagne. Saracens. Since the date of the last map the Saracens complete, in 709, the subjection of North Africa, cross in 710 to Spain, where they defeat the Visigoths and overrun the whole peninsula, except where the Goths still hold the Christian kingdom of the Asturias. The Saracens cross the Pyrenees and try to subdue the Franks, but are defeated (battle of Tours, 732) and driven back into Spain. In 755 the vast dominion controlled by the Saracens divides into the Caliphate of Cordova and the Caliphate of Bagdad (762). Franks. The Franks win victories over the Lombards in Italy. The territory known as the Exarchate of Ravenna is ceded to the Pope in 756. Charlemagne extends the Prankish power by conquests among the Saxons ; by victories over the Slavonians, Bavarians, Avars, and other tribes ; by aimexing the whole territory from the Adriatic to the Baltic (modern Germany and Austria); by incor- porating the greater part of Italy (774); and by taking from the Saracens the region north of the Ebro (778). On Christmas day, 800 (see next century), Charlemagne is crowned "Emperor of the "West," — a sovereignty equal in extent to that of the old Roman Empire. Eastern Empire. Though the boundaries of the Eastern Empire are subject to fluctuations from incursions of the Slavic tribes, etc., they remain substantially as at the end of the preceding century. Britain is still divided into petty kingdoms. The Northmen begin, towards the close of this century, to make their power felt by their marauding expeditions. Visigoths. See above, under Saracens. Lombards. The Lombards conquer the Exarchate of Ravenna, but the Lombard kingdom is itself overthrown by Charlemagne in 774. (See above, under Fbanks.) 14 A. D. 700. - A. B. 800. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 709. Conquest of North Africa completed by the Saracens. 710-713. Conquest of Spain by the Sara- cens. End of the Icingdom of the Visigoths. 717. Second siege of Constantinople by the Saracens. Leo the Isaurian. 732. Battle of Tours. Defeat of the Sara- cens by Charles Martel. 750. End of the Omraiads at Damascus. The Abbassides. 755. The Pope becomes a temporal prince. 755. Abd-er-Eahman founds the Ommiad Dynasty in Spain. Caliphate of Cordova. 762. Bagdad founded by the Saracens. 768. Accession of Carloman and Charle- magne. 774. Charlemagne overthrows the king- dom of the Lombards. 777. Charles the second time subdues the Saxons. 778, Battle of Eoncesvalles. 786 - 808. Beign of Haroun-al-Baschid at Bagdad. PROMINENT NAMES OF THE CENTURY, Eastern Empire. Em^ei'ors. — Leo the Isaurian, Leo the Iconoclast. Saracens. Caliph of Bagdad. — Haroun-al-Easchid. Franks. Kings of the Carlovingian Line, — Fepin, Charlemagne. Bede (the Venerable), Alcuin, Joannes Damascenus. ILLUSTRATIONS. THE SARACENS. THE Saracens continued the career of conquest which they carried on in the last century, and, having com- pleted in 709 the subjection of North Africa, they crossed from Africa to Spain, where they defeated the Visigoths under Eoderick, the " last of the Goths," at Xeres in 710, — Fatal to Goths are Xeres' sunny fields (Btron ), — and took possession of the entire peninsula, except the mountainous region in the north, where a remnant of the Goths kept up the Christian kingdom of the Asturias. If any country might have been thought safe from the Saracens, it was Spain. The Visigoths had been nearly three centuries in posses- sion of it ; during that time the independent kingdoms which were founded by the first conquerors had been formed into one great mon- archy, more extensive and more powerful than any other existing at the same time in Europe; they and the conquered were blended into one people ; their languages were intermingled, and the religion and laws of the peninsula had received that character which they retain even to the present day. The Visigoths themselves were a more formidable enemy than the Mahometans had yet encountered ; in Persia, Syria, and Egypt they had found a race always accustomed to oppression, and ready for the yoke of the strongest; among the Greeks, a vicious and eflfeminated people, a government at once feeble and 212 • EIGHTH CENTURY. tyrannical, and generals who either by their treachery or incapacity afforded them an easy conquest ; in Africa they overrun provinces which had not yet recovered from the destructive victories of Beli- sarius. But the Spanish Goths were a nation of freemen, and their strength and reputation unimpaired. Yet in two battles their mon- archy was subverted, their cities fell as fast as they were summoned, and in almost as little time as the Moors could travel over the king- dom, they became masters of the whole, except only those mountainous regions in which the language of the first Spaniards found an asylum from the Romans, and which were now destined to preserve the lib- erties and institutions of the Goths. — Southet. They come ! they come ! I see the groaning lands White with the turbans of each Arab horde ; Swart Zaarah joins her misbelieving bands, Alia and Mahomet their battle-word : The choice they yield — the Koran or the sword. See how the Christians rush to arms amain ! In yonder shout the voice of conflict roared ; The shadowy hosts are closing on the plain — Now, God and St. lago strike, for the good cause of Spain! By heaven, the Moors prevail ! the Christians yield ! Their coward leader gives for flight the sign ! And like a cloud of locusts, whom the South Wafts from the plains of wasted Africa, The Mnssulmen upon Iberia's shore Descend. A countless multitude; Syrian, Moor, Saracen, Greek renegade, Persian, and Copt, and Tartar, in one bond Of erring faith conjoined, — strong in the youth And heat of zeal, — a dreadful brotherhood. Nor were the chiefs Of victory less assured, by long success Elate, and proud of that o'erwhelming strength Which, surely they believed, as it had rolled Thus far unchecked, would roll victorious on. Till, like the Orient, the subjected West Should bow in reverence at Mohammed's name; And pilgrims from remotest Arctic shores Tread with religious feet the burning sands Of Araby and Mecca's stony soil. Southet. SOOTT. EIGHTH CENTUEY. 213 Think of that age's awful birth, When Europe echoed, terror-riven. That a new foot was on the earth. And a new name come down from Heaven; When over Calpe'a straits and steeps The Moor had bridged his royal road, And Othman's sons from Asia's deeps The conquests of the Cross o'erflowed. Lord Houghton. The victorious Saracens next crossed the Pyrenees and tried to subdue the Franks, by whom, under Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer), they were defeated in the battle of Tours (732) and driven back into Spain, thus saving the rest of Europe from the Mahometan rule. At wMcli time a dreadful plague of Saracens ravaged Fraace with miserable slaughter; but they not long after in that country received the punishment due to their wickedness. — The Venerable Bede. One of those signal deliverances [the battle of Tours] which have affected for centuries the happiness of mankind. — Arnold. The arm of Charles Martel saved and delivered the Christian nations of the West from the deadly grasp of all-destroying Islam. — SCHLEGBL. The events that rescued our ancestors of Britain and our neighbors of Gaul from the civil and religipus yoke of the Koran. — Gibbon. One of the most important epochs in the history of the world, the commencement of the eighth century, when on the one side Mahom- etanism threatened to overspread Italy and Gaul, and on the other the ancient idolatry of Saxony and Friesland once more forced its way across the Rhine. In this peril of Christian institutions, a youthful prince of the Germanic race, Karl Martel, arose as their champion, maintained them with all the energy which the necessity for self- defence calls forth, and finally extended them into new regions. — Ranke. The victory of Charles Martel has immortalized his name, and may justly be reckoned among those few battles of which a contrary event 214 EIGHTH CENTURY. would have essentially varied the drama of the world in all its subse- quent stages. — Hallam. Let me not for a moment depreciate the fame of so glorious an exploit. The iirst total defeat of the Saracen by the Christian in a great pitched battle was indeed an illustrious event ; and it may be that Charles Martel saved Gaul from the fate of Spain. But let honor be given where honor is due ; and honor is not fairly as- signed when Charles is magnified as the one savior of Christendom, while Leo the Isaurian is forgotten. [See, on this point, below.] — Freeman. Then Abderrahman [Saracen], seeing the land filled with the multi- tude of his army, pierces the mountains, marches over rough and level ground, plunders far into the land of the Franks, and smites all with the sword, insomuch that God alone knows the number of the slain. Then Abderrahman encounters the chief of the Austrasian Franks, Charles, and for nearly seven days they strive intensely, and at last they set themselves in battle array, and the nations of the North standing firm as a wall, and impenetrable as a zone of ice, utterly slay the Arabs with the edge of the sword. ■ — ■ Arabian Chroniclees. The enduring importance of the battle of Tours in the eyes of the Moslems is attested by the fact that no more serious attempts at con- quest beyond the Pyrenees were made by the Saracens. Charles Martel, and his son and grandson, were left at leisure to consolidate and extend their power. — Creasy. The Saracens, who had attacked Constantinople in the preceding century (673), renewed the assault fortj^-three years later (716), but in both cases they were re- JLll6 DiirSr- — . - cens pulsed with heavy loss. In the second siege the Constant!- Emperor Leo the Isaurian defended the city with "°^ ^' great valor, and was the means of saving Chris- tianity and European civilization from complete over- throw. Leo the Isaurian and Charles Martel may be placed side by side as the two deliverers of Christendom at its two ends. [See also above.] — Freeman. EIGHTH CENTURY. 215 In the two sieges, the deliverance of Constantinople may be chiefly ascribed to the novelty, the terrors, and the real efficacy of the Greek fire.^ — Gibbon. In 755 the vast dominion controlled by the Saracens, which till then had been under one caliph at Damascus, became divided into the Ommiad Caliphate of caiipimtes Cordova, which lasted for about two hundred and °[,a°''''°™ fifty years, and is famous for the brilliancy of its Bagdad, civilization, and the Abbassidian Caliphate of Bagdad (762), which is also noted for its civilization and for its caliph Haroun-al-Raschid (766 ?-809), who figures in the 'familiar tales of the " Arabian Nights." (For the Caliph- ate of Cordova, see also the Tenth Century.) For a century at least, the representative of Mahomet ruled over a vaster continuous empire than the world has beheld before or since. . . . The recent empire of Spain, the actual empire of Britain, may surpass the caliphate in population and extent; but these are erapires consisting of provinces scattered over distant portions of the globe. The present empire of Russia may exceed it in actual continuous ex- tent, but only by balancing barbarous or uninhabited regions against fertile provinces and splendid cities. — Freeman. There are not any names in the long line of khalifs, after the companions of Mahomet, more renowned in history than some of the earlier sovereigns who reigned in this capital: Almansor, Haroun Alrasohid, and Almamim. Their splendid palaces, their numerous guards, their treasures of gold and silver, the populousness and wealth of their cities, formed a striking contrast to the rudeness and poverty of the Western nations in the same age. — Hallam. Proportioned to the rapidity of the Arab conquests, was the speed with which the arts and sciences attained among them their high- est bloom. At first we see the conquerors destroying everything connected with art and science. Omar is said to have caused the 1 A combustible compound, supposed to have been composed of asphalt, nitre, and sulphur, which burned under water, and was blown through copper tubes upon the object to be ignited. 216 EIGHTH CENTURY. destruction of the noble Alexandrian Library. " These books," said he, " either contain what is in the Koran, or something else; in either case they are superfluous." But soon afterwards the Arabs became zealous in promoting the arts and spreading them everywhere. Their empire reached the summit of its glory under the caliphs Al-Mansor and Haroun Al-Easchid. Large cities arose in all parts of the empire, where commerce and manufactures flourished, splendid palaces were built, and schools created. The learned men of the empire assembled at the caliph's court, which not merely shone outwardly with the porap of the costliest jewels, furniture, and palaces, but was resplen- dent with the glory of poetry and all the sciences. — Hegel. We must accompany the khaleefs to their magnificent capital on the Tigris, whence emanated all that has thrown such a halo of splendor around the genius and language of Arabia. It is in this seat of empire that we must look to meet with the origin of the marvels of Arabian literature. Transplanted to a rich and fertile soil, the sons of the desert speedily abandoned their former simple mode of life ; and the court of Bagdad equalled or surpassed in magnificence anything that the East has ever witnessed. Genius, whatever its direction, was encouraged and rewarded, and the musician and the story-teller shared with the astronomer and historian the favor of the munificent khaleefs. — Keightlet. The cultivation of the Saracens was no less remarkable than their military prowess and religious conquests. The khalifs of Bagdad founded schools of mathematics, arithmetic, astronomy, medicine, surgery, and general learning; they assembled philosophers and learned men from all regions, — Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, and Jews ; they established libraries; they endeavored to collect the scattered relics of ancient philosophy and learning; they pursued their re- searches through every school of science; and they seemed to emulate the traditional renown of the Alexandrian Museum and the Egyptian Ptolemies. — Mat. The Arabians cannot claim, in science or philosophy, any really great names; they produced no men and no discoveries which have materially influenced the course and destinies of human knowledge; they tamely adopted the intellectual servitude of the nation which they conquered by their arms; they joined themselves at once to the string of slaves who were dragging the car of Aristotle and Plotinus. EIGHTH CENTURY. 217 Nor, perhaps, on a little further reflection, shall we be surprised at this want of vigor and productive power, in this period of apparent national youth. The Arabians had not heen duly prepared rightly to enjoy and use the treasures of which they became possessed. They had, like most uncivilized nations, been passionately fond of their indigenous poetry ; their imagination had been awakened, but their rational powers and speculative tendencies were still torpid. They received the Greek philosophy without having passed through those gradations of ardent curiosity and keen research, of obscurity brighten- ing into clearness, of doubt succeeded by the joy of discovery, by which the Greek mind had been enlarged and exercised. Nor had the Arabians ever enjoyed, as the Greeks had, the individual con- sciousness, the independent volition, the intellectual freedom, arising from the freedom of political institutions; ... in short, they had not had a national education, such as fitted the Greeks to be disciples of Plato and Hipparchus. Hence, their new literary wealth rather encumbered and enslaved, than enriched and strengthened them. — William Whewell. And many a sheeny summer mom, Adown the Tigris I was borne. By Bagdad's shrines of fretted gold, High-walled gardens gi'een and old; True Mussulman was I and sworn. For it was in the golden prime Of good Haroun Alraschid. Tennyson. Bomantic Bagdad ! name to childhood dear. Awakening terror's thrill and pity's tear ; For there the sorcerer gloomed, the genii dwelt, And Love and Worth to good Al Rashid knelt ; Prince of the Thousand Tales ! whose glorious reign ' So brightly shines in fancy's fair domain! Whose noble deeds still Arab minstrels sing. Who rivalled aU but Gallia's knightly king. N. MiCHELL. Such the gay splendor, the luxurious state, Of caliphs old, who on the Tigris' shore. In mighty Bagdat, populous and great, Held their bright court, where was of ladies store ; And verse, love, music, still tie garland wore. Thomson. 218 EIGHTH CENTURY. Back to the glories of the Khaleefate, Back to the faith we loved, the dress we wore, When in one age the world could well contain Haro6n Er-Rasheed and your Charlemagne ! Lord Houghton. THE FEANKS. CONQUESTS OP THE FEANKS. CHARLEMAGNE. In the land of the Franks, the first, or Merovingian, dynasty came to an end through the weakness of its kings, the real rulers being the Mayors of the Palace, one of whom was Pepin, son of the Charles Martel referred to above. Pepin seized the throne in 753, and thus founded the second, or Carlovingian, dynasty. He won victories over the Lombards, and ceded to the Pope the territory known as the Exarchate of Eavenna, thus laying the foundation of the temporal power of the papacy. Pepin's son, Charlemagne (Charles the Great, 742-814), — the greatest man of his age and one of the greatest rulers of all time, — widely extended the Prankish power by conquer- ing the Saxons; by victories over the Slavonians, Bava- rians, Avars, and other tribes ; by annexing the whole territory from the Adriatic to the Baltic (modern Germany and Austria) ; by incorporating the greater part of Italy ; and by wresting from the Saracens the region north of the ' Ebro (778). On Christmas day, 800, Charlemagne was crowned "Emperor of the West," — a sovereignty equal in extent to that of the old Roman Empire. (See the next century.) Considering attentively how many of the old institutions continued to subsist, and studying the feelings of that time, as they are faintly EIGHTH CENTURY. 219 preserved in. its scanty records, it seems hardly too much to say that in the eighth century the Eoman Empire stOl existed in the West, — existed in men's minds as a power weakened, delegated, suspended, but not destroyed. — Jambs Bryce. And when the tooth of Lombardy had bitten The Holy Church, then underneath its wiDgs Did Charlemagne victorious succor her. Dakte, Paradiso. Tr. Longfellow. Eeturning from an invasion of Spain in 778, Charlemagne suffered a reverse at Eoncesvalles, in which many Ronces- famous knights were slain. This event has been dalles. the subject of many romantic legends. for a blast of that dread horn. On Fontarabian echoes borne, That to King Charles did come, When Rowland brave, and Olivier, And every paladin and peer, On Roncevalles died ! Scott. Twelve paladins had Charles, in court, of whom The wisest and most famous was Orlando; Him traitor Gan conducted to the tomb In Eoncesvalles, as the villain planned to. While the horn rang so loud, and knelled the doom Of their sad rout, though he did all knight can do; And Dante, in his comedy, has given To him a happy seat with Charles in heaven. PuLCi, Morgante Maggiore. Tr. Byron. About AD. 900 Schoiype Trmtm^ Co,£oMin. NINTH CENTURY. (800-900.) In the early part of the century the most influential powers are the Empire of Charlemagne, the Eastern Roman Empire, and the Caliphates of the Saracens. Empire of Charlemagne. The most striking movement of the century is the breaking up of the great Empire of Charlemagne, after the death of that monarch in 814. As the result of this dismember- ment, we find the empire, in the latter part of the century, divided into the separate kingdoms of the Western Franbcs and the East- ern Franks (from which afterwards arose the kingdoms of France and Germany), Italy, Burgundy, and a border-land of undetermined boundaries, between the Eastern and Western Franks, known as LoTHARlNGlA. Those are the elements from which sprang most of the greater kingdoms of Western Europe. Eastern Empire. The Eastern Empire suffers losses from en- croachments of the Slaves in the north, and also loses to the Saracens Crete, Sardinia, and the greater part of Sicily. Saracens. The power of the Saracens declines. They acquire Sardinia, Corsica, Crete, and the greater part of Sicily. Germany. See above, under Empire of Charlemagne. Italy. See above, under Empire of Charlemagne. Franks. See above, -under Empire of Charlemagne. Englaot). The various petty kingdoms in Britain are united by Egbert early in the century, forming the kingdom of England. England is engaged in struggles with the Danes, who invade the country. ScAifDiNAViAN NATIONS. In this Century we have the kingdoms of Den- mark, Sweden, and Norway. The ravaging expeditions of the Norsemen foi-m a marked characteristic of the century. Russia begins to be of importance. Scotland is formed by the union of the PiCTS and Scots. Finnish Maqtars (Hungarians) begin to be of importance in the last part of the century. A. D. 800- A. D. 900. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 800. Empire of the West, under Charle- magne. 801 The Saxons in Germany overcome by Charlemagne. 827. Egbert unites the Saxon kingdoms. Beginning of the kingdom of Eng- land. 843. Treaty of Verdun. The Empire of Charlemagne divided. Empire of Germany established. 887. Final division of the empire into the Western Franks (Carolingia), East- em Franks (Germany), Burgundy, Italyi and Lotharingia, PROMINENT NAMES OF THE CENTURY. Sabacens. Caliphs. — Haroun-al-Raschid, Almamoun. Empire of the West. Sovereign. — Charlemagne. Western Franks (France). Under the Carolingian dynasty. Eastern Franks (Germany). Under the Carolingian dynasty. England. Somrdgns {Saxon lAm£), — Egbert, Alfred (the Great). Alcnin} Joannes Scotos (Erigena), Hincmar. ILLUSTRATIONS. THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE. THE EMPIRE OP THE WEST. THE century opens with the coronation of Charle- magne, on Christmas day, 800, as Emperor of the West ; and he may be regarded as the chief regenerator of Western Europe after the dissolution of the Eoman Empire. The possessions which had descended to him from his father were small compared with those which he had won by conquest, and at the date of his coronation he was ruler of a territory not inferior in extent to that of the old Eoman Empire, being master of all Germany and Gaul, the greater part of Italy, and a little of Spain. Under him the Prankish dominion reaches its highest point. The day of the Nativity of our Lord, the king came into the basil- ica of the Messed St. Peter, apostle, to attend the celebration of Mass. At the moment when, in his place before the altar, he was bowing down to pray. Pope Leo placed on his head a crown, and all the Eoman people shouted, " Long life and victory to Charles Augustus, crowned by God, the great and pacific Emperor of the Romans ! " After this proclamation the pontiff prostrated himself before him and paid him adoration, according to the custom established in the 224 NINTH CENTUET. days of the old emperors ; and thenceforward, Charles, giving up the title of Patrician, bore that of Emperor and Augustus. — EaiNHARD. The coronation of Charles is not only the central event of the Middle Ages, it is also one of those very few events of which, taking them singly, it may be said that if they bad not happened, the history of the world would have been different. In one sense, indeed, it has scarcely a parallel. The assassins of Julius Csesar thought that they hM saved Rome from monarchy, but monarchy came inevitably in the next generation. The conversion of Constantine changed the face of the world, but Christianity was spreading fast, and its ulti- mate triumph was only a question of time. Had Columbus never spread his sails, the secret of the Western sea would yet have been pierced by some later voyager. Had Charles V. broken his safe- conduct to Luther, the voice silenced at Wittenberg would have been taken up by echoes elsewhere. But if the Eoman Empire had not ■ been restored in the West in the person of Charles, it would never have been restored at all, and the inexhaustible train of consequences for good and for evil that followed could not have been. — James Bryce. A beautiful empire flourished under a brilliant diadem ; there was but one prince and one people; every town had judges and laws. The zeal of the priests was sustained by frequent councils ; young people repeatedly read the Holy Scriptures, and the minds of children were formed to the study of letters. Love, on the one hand, on the other, fear, everywhere kept up good order. Thus the Frankish nation shone in the eyes of the whole world. Foreign kingdoms, the Greeks, the barbarians, and the Senate of Latium sent emba'ssies to it. The race of Romvilus, Rome herself, the mother of kingdoms, was subject to this nation ; it was there that its chief, sustained by the help of Christ, received the diadem by apostolic gift. — Flords. The worldly, political, and national elements are brilliantly repre- sented in his [Charlemagne's] reign : the imperial dignity was restored and endowed with unprecedented power ; and the Pope of Rome was subservient to him, like any other bishop of his dominions. Science of every description was fostered, ancient Roman writers imitated, old German heroic legends collected. But with all this Charlemagne looked upon his imperial mission as more particularly a religious one. —Von Stbel. NINTH CENTUET. 225 Down to the sea the haughty laud is his. Castles and towers with their embattled walla Lay low before him. ... At his ease Beneath a pine, beside an eglantine, In a gi'eat arm-chair, all of solid gold. Sits Charles the King, who holds sweet France in fee. His beard is white, and snowy white his hair. So fair his features, and so proud his mien, No one need ask, " Which is the Emperor ? " Chanson de Roland. And then appeared Charles himself, that man of steel, with his head encased in a helmet of steel (iron), his hands garnished with gauntlets of steel, his heart of steel and his shoulders of marble protected by a cuirass of steel, and his left hand armed with a lance of steel which he held aloft in the air ; for as to his right hand, he kept that continually on the hilt of his invincible sword. . . . All those who went before the monarch, all those who marched at his side, all those who followed after, even the whole mass of the army, had armor of the like sort, so far as the means of each permitted. The fields and highways were covered with steel; the points of steel reflected the rays of the sun ; and this steel, so hard, was borne by a people with hearts still harder. — Old Chronicle. The emperor [Charlemagne] was of a ruddy complexion, with brown hair ; of a well-made, handsome form, but a stem visage. His height was about eight of his own feet, which were very long. He was of a strong, robust make ; his legs and thighs very stout, and his sinews firm. His face was thirteen inches long ; his beard a palm; his nose half a palm; his forehead a foot over. His lion-like eyes flashed fire Kke carbuncles ; his eyebrows were half a palm over. When he was angry, it was a terror to look upon him. He required eight spans for his girdle, besides what hung loose. He ate sparingly of bread ; but a whole quarter of lamb, two fowls, a goose, or a large portion of pork, a peacock, a crane, or a whole hare. He drank moderately of wine and water. He was so strong that he could, at a single blow, cleave asunder an armed soldier on horseback, from the head to the waist, and the horse likewise. He easily vaulted over four horses harnessed together, and could raise an armed man from the ground to his head, as he stood erect upon his hand. — Tuepin's Chronicle. Whether we regard him as a warrior or as a legislator, as a patron 15 226 NINTH CENTUET. of learning or as the civilizer of a barbarous nation, he is entitled to OUT warmest admiration. Such he is in history ; but the romancers represent him as often weak and passionate, the victim of treacherous counsellors, and at the mercy of turbulent barons, on whose prowess he depends for the maintenance of his throne. The historical repre- sentation is doubtless the true one. — Bulfinch. Depend upon it, for one thing, good reader, no age ever seemed the Age of Romance to itself. Charlemagne, let the Poets talk as they will, had his own provocations in the world : what with selling of his poultry and potherbs, what with wanton daughters carrying secreta- ries through the snow, and, for instance, that hanging of the Saxons over the Weser bridge (thirty thousand of them, they say, at one bout), it seems to me that the Great Charles had his temper ruffled at times. — Caelyle. Thou [autumn] standest, like imperial Charlemagne, Upon thy bridge of gold ; thy royal hand Outstretched with beuediotious o'er the land, Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain ! Longfellow. Above his tomb there was put up a gilded arcade with his image and this superscription : " In this tomb reposeth the body of Charles, great and orthodox emperor, who did gloriously extend the kingdom of the Franks, and did govern it happily for forty-seven years. He died at the age of seventy years, in the year of the Lord 814, in the seventh year of the Indiction, on the 5th of the Kalends of February." — Eginhabd. Was it to disenchant, and to undo, That we approached the seat of Chariemaine ? To sweep from many an old romantic strain That faith which no devotion may renew ! Why does this puny church present to view Its feehle columns ? and that scanty chair ! This sword that one of our weak times might wear. WoBDswoRTH, Aix-la-Chapelle- Amid the torch-lit gloom of Aachen's aisle A simple stone, where fitly to record A world of action hy a single word, Was graven " Carlo Magno." AUBEET DE VeEE. NINTH CENTUEY. 227 The period of Charlemagne is a great date in history ; for it ia the legal and formal termination of an antiquated state of society. It was also the introduction to another totally different from itself and from its predecessor. It was not barbarism, it was not feudalism ; but it was the bridge which united the two. — James White. In whatever point of view, indeed, we regard the reign of Charle- magne, we always find its leading characteristic to be a desire to overcome barbarism and to advance civilization. We see this con- spicuously in his foundation of schools, in his collecting of libraries, in his gathering about him the learned of all countries ; in the favor he showed towards the influence of the Church, — for everything, in a word, which seemed likely to operate beneficially upon society in general, or the individual man. — GuizoT. The great aim and glory of the life of Charlemagne had been the revival of the Empire of Rome in an intimate alliance with the Church of Rome. This was still the dominant idea of his mind at the approach, and in the contemplation, of his death. It was, indeed, an illusion to believe that the world was ripe for such a design. It was perhaps a still greater illusion to suppose that his own children were qualified to accomplish it. — Sir James Stephen. The appellation of great has been often bestowed, and sometimes deserved ; but Charlemagne is the only prince in whose favor the title has been indissolubly blended with the name. That name, with the addition of saint, is inserted in the Roman calendar ; and the saint, by a rare felicity, is crowned with the praises of the historians and philosophers of an enlightened age. His real merit is doubtless enhanced by the barbarism of the nation and the times from which he emerged. . . . The dignity of his person, the length of his reign, the prosperity of his arms, the vigor of his government, and the reverence of distant nations, distinguish him from the royal crowd ; and Europe dates a new era from his restoration of the Western Empire. That empire was not unworthy of its title ; and some of the fairest kingdoms of Europe were the patrimony or conquest of a prince who reigned at the same time in France, Spain, Italy, Ger- many, and Hungary. — Gibbon. The epoch made by Charlemagne in the history of the world, the illustrious families which prided themselves in him as their pro- 228 NINTH CENTUEY. genitor, the very legends of romance, whioli are full of Ms fabulous exploits, have cast a lustre around his head, and testify the greatness that has embodied itself in Ms name. . . . Like Alexander, he seemed born for universal innovation : in a life restlessly active, we see him reforming the coinage, and establishing the legal divisions of money ; gathering about him the learned of every country ; founding schools, and collecting libraries ; interfering, but with the tone of a king, in religious controversies; aiming, though prematurely, at the formation of a naval force ; attempting, for the sake of commerce, the magnifi- cent enterprise of uniting the Rhine and the Danube ; and meditat- ing to mould the discordant codes of Roman and barbarian laws into a uniform system. The great qualities of Charlemagne were indeed alloyed by the vices of a barbarian and a conqueror. . . . But per- haps his greatest eulogy is written in the disgraces of succeeding times, and the miseries of Europe. He stands alone, like a beacon upon a waste, or a rock in the broad ocean. His sceptre was as the bow of Ulysses, which could not be drawn by a weaker hand. In the dark ages of European history, the reign of Charlemagne affords a solitary resting-place between two long periods of turbulence and ignominy. — Hall am. If we sum up his designs and his achievements, we find an admi- rably sound idea and a vain dream, a great success and a great failure. Charlemagne took in hand the work of placing upon a solid founda- tion the Fi'ankish Christian dominion by stopping, in the north and south, the flood of barbarians and Arabs, — Paganism and Islamism. In that he succeeded ; the inundations of Asiatic populations spent their force in vain against the Gallic frontier. Western and Chris- tian Europe was placed, territorially, beyond reach of attacks from the foreigner and infidel. No sovereign, no human being, perhaps, ever rendered greater service to the civilization of the world. Char- lemagne formed another conception and made another attempt. Like more than one great barbaric warrior, he admired the Roman Empire that had fallen, its vastness all in one, and its powerful organization under the hand of a single master. He thought he could resuscitate it, durably, through the victory of a new people and a new faith, by the hand of Franks and Christians. With this view he labored to conquer, convert, and govern. He tried to be, at one and the same time, CsBsar, Augustus, and Constantine. And for a moment he appeared to have succeeded ; but the appearance passed away with NINTH CENTUEY. 229 himself. The unity of the empire and the absolute power of the emperor were buried in his grave. The Christian religion and human liberty set to work to prepare for Europe other governments and other destiaies. — Guizoi. The most striking movement of the century is the breaking up of the great empire of Charlemagne, after the death of that monarch in 814. As the result of this dismemberment we find the empire in the latter part of the century divided into the separate kingdoms of the Western Franks and the Eastern Franks, (from which afterwards arose the kingdoms of France and Germany), Italy, Burgundy, and a border-land of unde- termined boundaries between the Eastern and Western Franks, known as Lotharingia. It is from these elements that most of the greater kingdoms of Western Europe have arisen. The name and traditions of the empire were retained, however, by the Eastern Franks, or Germans. The reign of Charlemagne may be taken aa the date of the effec- tual stimulation of the elements of modem civilization. — Oomte. The corruption of death began to ferment into new forms of life. While the great body, as a whole, was torpid and passive, every sep- arate member began to feel with a sense, and to move with an energy, all its own. Just here, in the most barren and dreary tract of Euro- pean history, aU feudal privileges, all modem nobility, take their source. — Macaulat. Now fallen, this great power has lost at once its splendor and the name of empire : the kingdom, lately so well united, is divided into three parts ; there is no one who can be looked upon as emperor ; instead of a king, we see a knight ; instead of a kingdom, a piece of a kingdom. The general good is annulled ; each occupies himseK with his own interests ; they think of nothing else ; God is forgotten. The pastors of the Lord, accustomed to meet, can no longer hold their synods amidst such division. There is no longer any assembly of the people, no longer any laws. — Floeus. 230 NINTH CENTURY. The superior genius of Charlemagne, it is true, united all these disjointed and discordant members, and, forming them again into one body, restored to government that degree of activity which distin- guishes his reign, and renders the transactions of it objects not only of attention but of admiration, to more enlightened times. But this state of union and vigor, not being natural to the feudal government, was of short duration. Immediately upon his death, the spirit which animated and sustained the vast system which he had estab- lished being withdrawn, it broke into pieces. All the calamities which flow from anarchy and discord, returning with additional force afflicted the different kingdoms into which his empire was split. EOBERTSON. The empire of Charlemagne was a structure erected in so short a time that it could not be permanent. Under his immediate- suc- cessor it began to totter, and soon after fell to pieces. The crown of Germany was separated from that of France, and the descendants of Charlemagne, established two great monarchies so situated as to give rise to a perpetual rivalship and enmity between them. — Robertson. A new civilization was not to be improvised by a single mind. When did one man evet civilize a people ? In the eighth and ninth centuries there was not even a people to be civilized. The construc- tion of Charles was, of necessity, temporary. — Motley. Charlem^ne restored for a short time the Roman tradition, a universal civil empire, furthered the progress of the papal idea of a universal spiritual empire, closed the era of barbaric invasion, and secured for Christianity and Latin culture their due influence as fac- tors in the more complex civilization which began to appear. The rapid decomposition of his vast empire into small parcels of soil, each with a few inhabitants dependent on the uncontrolled will of a petty tyrant, is apt at first glance to seem a directly and exclusively retrograde movement. It was in reality, however, a necessary stage of transition to a higher unity. — Robert Flint. NINTH CENTURY. 231 THE K"OESEMEK The ravaging and piratical expeditions of the Norsemen (Northmen) from the Scandinavian peninsulas form a marked characteristic of the century. They invaded many parts of the Continent and of England. They were called Danes by the English. (See, under England, page 232. See also the next century, page 248.) What sea-worn barks are those which throw The light spray from each rushing prow ? Have they not in the North Sea's Uast Bowed to the waves the straining mast ? Tlieir frozen sails, the low, pale sun Of Thule's night has shone upon; Flapped ty the sea-wind's gusty sweep. Round icy drift, and headland steep. Wild Jutland's wives and Lochlin's daughters Have watched them fading o'er the waters. Lessening through driving mist and spray Like white-winged sea-tirda on their way ! Whittiee. THE BEGINNING OF ENGLAND. The petty kingdoms in Britain were united by Egbert early in the century, forming the kingdom of England. The year 800 made way for a great alteration in England, uniting her seven kingdoms into one, by Egbert the famous West-Saxon. — Milton, Ere, blood-cemented, Anglo-Saxon saw Egbert and peace on one united throne. Thomson. In a revolution which seemed sudden, but which was in reality the inevitable close of the growth of natural consciousness through these centuries of English history, the old severance of people from 232 NINTH CENTURY. people had at last broken down; and tlie whole English race in Britain was for the first time knit together under a single ruler. Though the legend which made Ecgberht take the title of King of England is an invention of later times, it expressed an historic truth. . . . England was made in fact, if not as yet in name. — J. E. Geben. In the' latter half of the century England was engaged in struggles with the Danes (see The Norsemen, page 231), who invaded the country. The latter part of the century is distinguished by the reign of the famous Alfred the Great, who became King of Wessex in 872. Under the Great Alfred, all the best points of the English- Saxon character were first encouraged, and in him first shown. It has been the greatest character among the nations of the earth. — Dickens. Has any country, within so short a period, produced in itself an in- tellect, amongst its sovereigns, that combined so many excellences? — Turner. Je ne sgais s'il y a jamais eu sur la terre un homme plus digne des respects de la posterity qu' Alfred le grand, qui rendit ces services k sa patrie suppose que tout ce qu'on renconte de lui soit veritable. — Voltaire. But as the greatest minds display themselves in the most turbulent storms on the call of necessity, so England has to boast, among others, her Alfred ; a pattern for kings in a time of extremity, a bright star in the history of mankind. Living a century after Char- lemagne, he was, perhaps, a greater man in a circle happily more limited. — Herder. Alfred rises superior to hia age incomparably more than Charle- magne to his ; and the comparison might terminate altogether unfa- vorably to the latter, if, instead of judging by the extent of power and the splendor of empire, we were to contemplate only the quiet greatness of the man. We should then place by the side of Charle- magne the pious king Alfred, constant and unwearied under misfor- tune, cheerful amid his sorrows ; as a minstrel visiting the camp of the foe, as a herdsman wandering unknown among his own people ; NKTTH CENTURY. 233 and wlien success and victory had crowned his courageous efforts, and he beheld his country saved, still preserving moderation in all things ; mild and humble, he who knew so much that is scarcely allowed to his times, who had founded so many wise and beneficial ittstitutions, that even still excite the admiration of mankind. — SCHLEGEL. I am really at a loss which part of this great man's character most to admire. Yet, above all, I see the grandeur, the freedom, the mildness, the domestic imity, the universal character of the Middle Ages condensed into Alfred's glorious institution of the trial by jury. I gaze upon it as the immortal symbol of that age, — an age called indeed dark, — but how could that age be considered dark, which solved the difficult problem of universal liberty, freed man from the shackles of tyranny, and subjected his actions to the decision of twelve of his fellow-countrymen. — Coleridge. Neither the wars nor the legislation of Alfred were destined to leave such lasting traces upon England as the impulse he gave to its literature. His end indeed, even in this, was practical rather than literary. What he aimed at was simply the education of his people. — J. B. Geeen. Behold a pnpU of the monkish gown, The pious Alfbed, king to Justice dear; Lord of the harp and liherating spear; Mirror of princes ! indigent Renown Might range the starry ether for a crown Equal to his deserts, who, like the year, Pours forth his bounty, like the day doth cheer. And awes like night with mercy-tempered frown. Ease from this nohle miser of his time No moment steals, pain narrows not his cares. Though small his kingdom as a spark or gem. Of Alfred hoasts remote Jerusalem, And Christian India gifts with Alfred shares. By sacred converse linked with India's clime. WORDSWOKTH. 234 NINTH CENTUKT. FEUDALISM. See the Tenth Centuey, page 241. The close of the ninth century witnesses a decided progress towards more stable forms of government and greater security of social order. We begin at this time to see the wandering life decline ; poptila- tiona became fixed ; estates and landed possessions became settled; the relations between man and man no longer varied from day to day under the influence of force or chance. The interior and moral condition of man himself began to undergo a change ; his ideas, his sentiments, began, like his life, to assume a more fixed char- acter. — GUIZOT. In the ninth century we trace the first dawnings of the restoration of science. — Gibbon. Charlemagne in France, and Alfred the Great in England, endeav- ored to dispel this darkness, and gave their subjects a short glimpse of light and knowledge. But the ignorance of the age was too powerful for their efforts and institutions. The darkness returned, and settled over Europe, more thick and heavy than before. — EOBEETSON. The ninth century shows us Europe divided into two political zones : one comprehended the countries still remaining under the ancient dominion, founded by the conq^uests of Rome ; the other contained the countries recently invaded by the Northmen, conquer- ors of the Koman subjects. The relative conditions of these men, either as masters or subjects, conquerors or conquered, differed very much in those two diff'erent regions. On one side, all the power acquired by centuries of conquest was the property of a single per- son, who dispensed it around him at his own pleasure ; on the other, that power was the regular share of all. the families sprung from the conquerors. The Saxons in Britain, the Franks in Gaul, and the NINTH CENTURY. 235 Lombards in Italy were all singly proprietors of a portion of the territory which their ancestors had invaded, all governors and sover- eign arbitrators of the men conquered by their ancestors. In Greece there was but one master, and under that master dififerent degrees of service ; in the West there were thousands of masters free, under a chief who was but the first among equals. — Thieeey. About AB. Ifch.^t/r'^TrhihTi,', :■- TENTH CENTUET. (900-1000.) Germany [Eastern Franks] becomes the greatest power in Europe, uniting to itself Upper Italy and Lotharingia. Western Franks [France]. Early in this century the northern part of the country is invaded by the Norsemen, — bold seafaring adventurers from. Denmark and other northern lands, from whom the name Normandy is derived. (See below, under Normandy.) The kingdom of France begins in 987. Italy. The northern part becomes united with the German Empire. A large part of Southern Italy is stiU subject to the Eastern Empire. Eastern Empire. The territory and power of the Eastern Empire become much extended. Saracens. The Saracen Empire is divided at the beginning of this century iato no less than seven independent caliphates, of which the most distinguished is that of the Fatimites. The Saracenic civilization in Spain is now at its height. By the end of the century the power of the Saracens in the East is of but little account politically. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are powerful kingdoms by the close of this century. (See also under Western Franks [France], and England.) England is engaged in struggles with the Danes. NoEMANDT becomes independent in 912. (See above, under Western Fbanks [France].) BuKGUiTOT lasts through the century. Leon. This Christian kingdom in Spain begins in 916, and that of Navarre is founded in 905. EussiA in this century is composed of very extensive principalities. The Magyars, or Hungarians, before the end of the century have established a strong kingdom in the southeast of Europe ; and to the north the Slavonic states of Poland and Bohemia are planted. A. D. 900 — A. D. 1000. CHBONOLOGICAL TABLE. 908. Beginning of the Fatimite dynasty in Africa. 912. The Normans, under Bollo, settle in France, and take possession of Normandy. 924. Beginning of the kingdom of Great Britain. 962. Coronation at Borne of the Emperor Otho the Greati 967. The Fatimltes in Egypt. 987. Hugh Capethecomes King of France, End of the Oarlovingian dynas- ty. A widespread belief in the approach of the end of the world and the day of iudgment prevails during the latter part of the century. PROMINENT NAMES OF THE OENTTJET, GEKMiANY. Emperors atid Kings. — Conrad, Henry (the Fowler), Otho (the Great). Feamce. ffiTij. —Hugh Capet EsaLAHD. Ki/tigs. — Alfred, Edward the Elder, Athelstan, Edward the Martyr, Dunstan, Suidas, Gerbert (Pope Sylvester II. ). ILLUSTRATIONS. GENEEAL TENDENCIES. THIS century is, for the most part, rather a period of religious and social movements and tendencies than one of accomplished results. One important movement is the establishment of the "Holy Eoman Empire," by Otho the Great, in 962, — a sort of revival of the Western Em- pire. A protracted contest between the popes and the emperors begins, which leads in the next century to a great increase in the power of the Church. Feudalism is now nearly at its highest point of development. In the beginning of the tenth century the ftimily of Charlemagne had almost disappeared ; his monarchy was broken into many hostile and independent states; the regal title was assumed by the most ambitious chiefs ; their revolt was imitated in a long subordination of anarchy and discord, and the nobles of every province disobeyed their sovereign, oppressed their vassals, and exercised perpetual hostilities against their equals and neighbors. — Gibbon. THE SAEACENS IN SPAIN. The Mahometan civilization in Spain is at the summit of its power and splendor, presenting a strong contrast to the degraded condition of the rest of Western Europe. 240 TENTH CENTURY. Laying the foundations of their power in a system of wise and equitable laws, diligently cultivating the arts and sciences, and pro- moting agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, they gradually formed an empire unrivalled for its prosperity by any of the empires of Christendom ; and, diligently drawing round them the graces and refinements which marked the Arabian empire in the East at the time of its greatest civilization, they diffused the light of Oriental knowledge through the western regions of benighted Europe. The cities of Arabian Spain became the resort of Christian artisans, to instruct themselves in the useful arts. The universities of Toledo, Cordova, Seville, and Granada were sought by the pale student from other lands to acquaint himself with the sciences of the Arabs and the treasured lore of antiquity ; the lovers of the gay science resorted to Cordova and Granada to imbibe the poetry and music of the East ; and the steel-clad warriors of the North hastened thither to accom- plish themselves in the graceful exercises and courteous usages of chivalry. . . . With all this, however, the Moslem empire in Spain was but a brilliant exotic that took no permanent root in the soil it embellished. Severed from all their neighbors in the West by impassable barriers of faith and manners, and separated by seas and deserts from their kindred of the East, the Morisco Spaniards were an isolated people. Their whole existence was a prolonged, though gallant and chivalric, struggle for a foothold in a usurped land. — Ieving. Here the Moorish khalifs of Cordova became the rivals of the Arab khalifs of Bagdad. At a time when profane learning was ignored elsewhere, they were patrons of science, learning, and the aits ; they founded schools and universities ; they encouraged every branch of scientific research ; and their court was the centre of an intellectual society. Their splendid palaces still remain as monu- ments of their magnificence and taste. Their civilization was several centuries in advance of that of Europe. — May. That in many subjects they made experiments, may easily he allowed. There never was a period of the earth's history, and least of all a period of commerce and manufactures, luxury and art, medicine and engineering, in which there were not going on in- numerable processes which may be termed experiments ; and in addition to these the Arabians adopted the pursuit of alchemy, and the love of exotic plants and animals. But so far from their being, TENTH CENTURY. 241 as has been maintained, a people whose "experimental intellect" fitted them to form sciences which the " abstract intellect " of the Greeks failed in producing, it rather appears that several of the sciences which the Greeks had founded were never even compre- hended by the Arabians. I do not know any evidence that these pupils ever attained to understand the real principles of mechanics, hydrostatics, and harmonics, which their masters had established. At any rate, when these sciences again became progressive, Europe had to start where Europe had stopped. There is no Arabian name which any one has thought of interposing between Archimedes, the ancient, and Stevinus and Galileo, the moderns. — William Whewell. But when I am told, as we sometimes are, not only that they [the Saracens] had made great comparative advances in learning and science, but that they had all the learning and science then in the world to themselves, I simply attribute it to our strange habit of entirely forgetting the existence of an Eastern as well as a Western Christendom. Whence did the Saracens obtain their knowledge? They confessedly did not bring it with them from Mecca or Medina, and it hardly sprang spontaneously from the ground either at Cordova or at Bagdad. We must again look to our poor friend, the " Greek of the Lower Empire." . . . The Arabs seem to have positively invented nothing, though what they learned from their Byzantine masters they often, with the zeal of new scholars, developed and improved. — Feeemam. FEUDALISM. The characteristic feature of medieval society is the institution known as feudalism, which reached its highest point of diffusion and power in the eleventh century. It is a form of government which was unknown in ancient times. Established by the barbarous nations of Europe, based upon a new division of property resulting from military service, and the grant of lands by kings and lords 16 242 TENTH CENTOET. to their dependants, it gradually developed, together with the manners and customs to which it gave rise, into a great system of civil administration which continued throughout the whole of the Middle Ages, and which survives even yet in some of its forms and usages. As the conc[uerors of Europe had their acquisitions to maintain, not only against such of the ancient inhabitants as they had spared, but against the more formidable inroads of new invaders, self- defence was their chief care, and seems to have been the chief object of their first institutions aud policy. Instead of those loose associa- tions which, though they had scarcely diminished their personal independence, had been sufficient for their security while they remained in their original countries, they saw the necessity of imiting in a more close confederacy, and of relinquishing some of their private rights in order to attain public safety. Every freeman, upon receiving a portion of the lands which were divided, bound himself to appear in arms against the enemies of the commu- nity. This military service was the condition upon which he re- ceived and held his lands ; and as they were exempted from every other burden, that tenure among a warlike people was deemed both easy and honorable. The king or general who led them to conquest had, of course, the largest portion allotted to him. Having thus acquired the means of rewarding past services, as well as of gaining new adherents, he parcelled out his lands with this view, binding those on whom they were bestowed to resort to his standard with a number of men in proportion to the extent of the territory which they received, and to bear arms in his defence. His chief officers imitated the example of the sovereign, and, in distributing portions of their lands among their dependants, annexed the same conditions to the grant. Thus a feudal kingdom resembled a military establish- ment rather than a civil institution. The names of a soldier and a freeman were synonymous. Every proprietor of land, girt with a sword, was ready to march at the summons of his superior, and to take field against the common enemy. But though the feudal policy seems to be so admirably calculated for defence against the assaults of any foreign power, its provisions for the interior order and tranqiiillity of society were extremely defective. The principles of disorder and ooimption are discernible in that TENTH CENTUET. 243 constitution tinder ita best and most perfect form. They soon unfolded themselves, and, spreading with rapidity through every part of the system, produced the most fatal effects. The bond of political union was extremely feeble ; the sources of anarchy were innumer- able. The powerful vassals of the crown soon extorted a confirma- tion for life of those grants of land which at first had only been bestowed during pleasure. Not satisfied with this, they prevailed to have them converted into hereditary possessions. . . . They obtained the power of supreme jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, within their own territories ; the right of coining money, together with the right of carrying on war against their private enemies. The idea of political subjection was almost entirely lost. A king- dom, considerable in name and extent, was broken into as many separate principalities as it contained powerful barons. A thousand causes of jealousy and discord gave rise to as many wars. Every country in Europe, wasted or kept in continual alarm during these endless contests, was filled with castles and places of strength erected for the security of the inhabitants, not against foreign force, but against internal hostilities. The people, the most numerous as well as the most useful part of the community, were either reduced to a state of actual servitude or treated with the same insolence and rigor as if they had been degraded into that wretched condition. The nobles, superior to almost every restraint, harassed each other with perpetual wars, oppressed their fellow-subjects, and humbled or insulted their sovereign. To crown all, time gradually fixed and rendered venerable this pernicious system which violence had es- tablished. EOBBRTSON. The single word "castle" awakes the idea of feudal society; it seems to rise up before us. Nothing can be more natural. These castles, the ruins of which are stiU scattered about, were constructed by feudalism ; their elevation was, so to speak, the declaration of its trixmiph. — GuizoT. The origin of feudalism is as difficult to trace as the source of the Niger. The relation of chief and clansman among barbarians, the oath of Eoman soldiers to the emperor, the civic responsibility of a father for his children transferred to a lord for his dependants, are all elements in the system which overspread Europe in the Middle Ages. Men in those times commonly regarded it from the practical 244 TENTH CENTUEY. point of view, as service for reward. But it came to have a higher meaning to the state. The feudal baron was the representative of kingship on his domain, — rendering justice, maintaining police, and seeing that military service was performed. As a viceroy he was accountable for the just performance of these duties to the crown ; above all, he was a link in the great chain that bound the lowest peasant and the successors of Charlemagne together. Eoman im- perialism had divided the world into master and slave. The juster theory of the Middle Ages, no doubt influenced by Christianity, regarded mankind as a great family, and sought to strengthen the bonds of union by engagements taken solemnly before man and God. The oath of homage was the most binding that could be taken ; the love of a father to his son, the duty of a wife to her husband, were regarded as of less force. — Pearson. It is the previous state of society under the grandchildren of Charlemagne which we must always keep in mind if we would appreciate the effects of the feudal system upon the welfare of man- kind. The institutions of the eleventh century must be compared with those of the ninth, not with the advanced civilization of modern times. If the view that I have taken of those dark ages is correct, the state of anarchy which we usually term feudal was the natural result of a vast and barbarous empire feebly administered, and the cause, rather than effect, of the general establishment of feudal tenures. These, by preserving the mutual relations of the whole, kept alive the feeling of a common country and common duties ; and settled, after the lapse of ages, into the free constitution of England, the firm monarchy of France, and the federal union of Germany. — Hallam. Here, then, we see the feudal system to be, in a temporal sense, the cradle of modern society. It set society forward towards the great aim of the whole European polity, — the gradual transforma- tion of the military into the industrial life. Military activity was then employed as a barrier to the spirit of invasion, which, if not so checked, would have stopped the social progress ; and the result was obtained when, at length, the peoples of the North and East were compelled, by their inability to find settlements elsewhere, to undergo at home their final transition to agricultural and stationary life, morally guaranteed by their conversion to Catholicism. Thus the TENTH CENTUEY. 245 progression which the Roman system had started was carried on by the feudal system. The Roman assimilated civilized nations ; and the feudal consolidated that union by urging barbarous peoples to civilize themselves also. — Comte. Of all the varieties of political institutes under which the na- tions of the earth have ever lived, the feudai system is perhaps the only one which, during its existence, was sustained by no popular enthusiasm, and which, after its overthrow, was followed by no popular regrets. It was a protracted reign of terror ; and, so far as I am aware, no trace exists, either in the lighter or in the more serious literature of the Middle Ages, of any sentiments having been entertained by the people at large towards the chsttelains, the barons, and the seigneurs, under whom they lived, but such as terror invariably inspires. — SiE James Stephen. The temporal decline of the Middle Age system proceeded from a cause so evident a* to require little remark. In all the three aspects of the feudal regime, its transitory character is distinctly marked. Its defensive organization was required only till the invaders should have settled down into agricultural life at home, and become con- verted to Catholicism ; and military pursuits thenceforth became more and more exceptional as industry strengthened and extended itself. The breaking up of the temporal power into partial sov- ereignties, which was the second feature of the feudal system, was no less a transient arrangement, which must give place to a new central- ization ; as we shall presently see that it did. As for the third feature, — the transformation of slavery into serfage, — it is unques- tionable that while slavery may exist a long time under suitable con- ditions, serfage can be no more than a transition state, sure to be speedily modified by the establishment of industrial communities, and serving no other special purpose than gradually leading on the laborers to entire personal freedom. — Comte. Among the causes that undermined that Gothic edifice [feudalism] a conspicuous place must be allowed to the Crusades [see page 260]. The estates of the barons were dissipated, and their race was often extinguished, in these costly and perilous expeditions. Their poverty extorted from their pride those charters of freedom which unlocked the fetters of the slave, secured the farm of the peasant and the shop of the artificer, and gradually restored a substance and a soul to the 246 TENTH CENTUET. most numerous and useful part of the community. The conflagra- tion which destroyed the tall and barren trees of the forest gave air and scope to the vegetation of the smaller and nutritive plants of the soil. — Gibbon. We see that the first sparks of European imagination, that the first attempts of poetry, of literature, tliat the first intellectual gratifications which Europe tasted in merging from barbarism, sprang up under the protection, under the wings, of feudalism. It was in the baronial haU that they were born, and cherished, and protected. It is to the feudal times that we trace back the earliest literary monuments of England, France, and Germany, the earliest intellectual enjoyments of modern Europe. — GuizoT. SIJPEESTITIOK" OF THE AGE. In this time of ignorance and superstition which pre- vailed throughout Europe (with the exception of Spain), a general belief arose that the world would come to an end in the year 1000. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old " serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled : and after that he must be loosed a little season. — Revelation xx. 2, 3. The idea of the end of the world, sad as that world was, was at once the hope and the terror of the middle age. . . . Misfortune succeeded misfortune ; ruin, ruin. Some other advent was needed ; and men expected that it would arrive. The captive expected it in the gloomy dungeon, and in the bonds of the sepulchral in pace. The serf expected it while tracing the furrow under the shadow of his lord's hated tower. The monk expected it amidst the privations of the cloister. All longed to be relieved from their sufferings, no mat- ter at what cost ! — Michblet. TENTH OENTUET. 247 Many charters begin with these words: "As the world is now drawing to its close." An army marching under the Emperor Otho was so terrified by an eclipse of the sun, which it conceived to announce this consummation, as to disperse hastily on all sides. As this notion seems to have been founded on some confused theory of the millennium, it naturally died away when the seasons proceeded in the eleventh century with their usual regularity. — Hallam. Some squandered their wealth in riotous living, others bestowed it for the good of their souls on churches and convents : weeping masses lay day and night around the altars ; some looked forward with dread, but most with secret hope, towards the burning of the earth and the falling in of heaven. Their actual condition was so miserable, that the idea of destruction was relief, spite of all its terrors. — Von Stbbl. Preachers came forth announcing that, in the visions of the night, they had received from the Saviour himself an intimation that his second coming was immediately at hand. Mysterious voices were heard to mingle with the wiads. Mailed combatants were seen to encounter in the clouds. Monstrous births intimated the dislocation of the whole system of nature. Men sought to propitiate the approaching Judge, by giving to the Church the lands which were about to perish in the general conflagration. The alarm, though of course transitory, was yet sufficiently deep and enduring to depress the spirits of more than one generation, and to enhance the gloom of that disastrous age. — SiE James Stephen. All unity, all general civilization, seemed gone ; society on all sides seemed dismembered ; a multitude of petty, obscure, isolated, inco- herent societies arose. This appeared, to those who lived and saw it, universal anarchy, — the dissolution of all things. Consult the poets and historians of the day : they all believed that the end of the world was at hand. Yet this was, in truth, a new and real social system which was forming. — Guizot. This belief was, doubtless, widespread, but it was by no means universal ; and there is abundant evidence to show that it had not prevented men, towards the close of the tenth century, from under- taking works intended for long duration. — C. E. Norton. The tenth century used to be reckoned by mediaeval historians the darkest part of this intellectual night. It was the iron age, which 248 TENTH CENTUEY. they vie with one another in describing as lost in the most consum- mate ignorance. This, however, is much rather applicable to Italy and England than to France and Germany. The former were both in a deplorable state of barbarism. And there are, doubtless, abun- dant proofs of ignorance in every part of Europe. But, compared with the seventh and eighth centuries, the tenth was an age of illu- minatiou in France. And Meiners, who judged the Middle Ages somewhat, perhaps, too severely, but with a penetrating and compre- hensive observation, of which there had been few instances, has gone so far as to say, that " in no age, perhaps, did Germany possess more learned and virtuous churchmen of the episcopal order than in the latter half of the tenth, and beginning of the eleventh century.'' — Hat.t.am . THE NORTHMEN. The piratical expeditions of the Northmen, which formed a marked characteristic of the ninth century, were continued during this century. Early in the century, under EoUo, they sailed up the Seine, and in 912, as the result of their invasions of the northern Prankish territory, they acquired the province since called, from them, Normandy. There they became Christianized. They also invaded England. (See, u.nder Entgland, page 249.) The continued draught of the best men in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, to these piratical expeditions, exhausted those countries, like a tree which bears much fruit when young ; and these have been second-rate powers ever since. The power of the race migrated, and left Norway void. — Emerson. The wolf beneath the Arctic moon Has answered to that startling rune; The Gael has heard its stormy swell, The light Frank knows its simimons well. WHrmBE. TENTH CENTURY. 249 ENGLAND. England was attacked and invaded by the Danes, and was engaged in struggles with them throughout the century. (See, under The Nokthmen, page 248.) England yielded to the Danes and Northmen in the tenth and eleventh centuries, and was the receptacle into which all the mettle of that strenuous population was poured. — Emerson. Canute o'ercame the race of Etheh-ed, and Danes wielded the dear realm of Angle-land, eight-and-twenty of winters numbered, wealth dispensed. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Ne shall the Bazons selves all peaceably Enioy the crowne, which they from Britons wonne First ill, and after ruled wickedly : For, ere two hundred yeares be full outronne. There shall a Raven, far from rising sunne, With his wide wings upon them fiercely fly. And bid his faithlesse chickens overronne The fruitfull plaines, and with fell cruelty In their avenge tread downe the victors surquedry. Sfehseb. It was, then, from the fifth to the tenth century that the work of fermentation and amalgamation of the three elements of modern civilization, namely, the Eoman element, the Christian element, and the German element, was in operation ; and it was only at the end of the tenth century that the ferment ceased, and, the amalgamation being nearly accomplished, the development of the new order and truly modem society hegan. — Guizot. About AD. noo Eehoiyp'^ Praxtmi^ Co, doifun ELEVENTH CENTUKT. (1000-1100.) Germany. The German, or Holy Eoman, Empire is the leading power in Europe. Burgundy is united to it in 1032. Eastern Empire. Early in the century the Eastern Empire is the chief of the Christian powers. Its dominion is larger than at any time since the invasion of the Saracens and Slaves. Towards the close of the century the empire falls back greatly, losing nearly all its possessions in Asia, which are wrested from it by the Seljuk Turks. See Roum, infra. Sabacens. The Caliphate of Cordova comes to an end in 1031, and Spain is invaded by the Almoravides from Africa. The Sara- cenic power in the East passes into the hands of the Seljuk Turks, a Tartar tribe from Central Asia. (See below, under Rodm.) The kingdom of the Eatimites continues in Africa. Sicily is lost to the Normans. France is becoming more and more a kingdom, with some loss of territory at the beginning, but an increase towards the close, of the century. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden reach the height of their power near the beginning of this century. England is won by the Danes in the first part of this century, and conquered by the Normans (from Normandy) in 1066. BuEGUNDT. See above, under Germany. Castd^ becomes a kingdom in 1026. See below, under Leon. Aeagon becomes a kingdom in 1035. Leon is united to Castile ia 1037. Sicily is invaded by the Normans (from Normandy) in 1062, »nd in 1130 the kingdom of Sicily is formed, comprising both the island of that name and the southern part of the Italian peninsula. EussiA, Sebvia, and Hungaky are now Christian, powers, the former somewhat weakened by a division of its territory in 1026. Poland, Bohemia, Pkcssia, and other countries still remain pagan. Bulgaria restored to the Eastern Empire, 1018. Normandy [Normaks]. See above, under England and Sicily. EouM. This kingdom is founded in Asia Minor in 1075 by the Seljuk Turks, a Tartar tribe from Central Asia, who take from the Saracens much of their power in the East, and from the Eastern Empire nearly all of its posses- sions in Asia. Jerusalem is wrested from the Saracens by the Turks (see under Roum), and from the latter by the Crusaders, — by whom the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem was founded, 1099. A.I>. 1000 — A. D. 1100. CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE. 1016. Nonnan invasion of Italy. 1017. Canute the Great, ruler of England. 1031. End of the Ommiads in Spain. 1035. Origin of the Seljulc Turks. 1042. Saxon line restored in England. 1054. Separation of the Eastern Church. 1058. The Seljuk Turks conquer Persia. 1060. Norman conquest of Sicily. 1066. Battle of Hastings. Harold de- feated by William the Conqueror. Beginning of Norman rule in Englajid. 1073-1085. The papacy of Gregory VII. (Hildebrand). 1075. The kingdom of Roum, or Iconium, founded. 1076. The Seljuk Turks take Jerusalem. 1095. Council of Clermont. Preaching of the First Crusade. 1096. First Crusade, led by Godfrey of Bouillon and others. 1099. Jerusalem, taken, and Godfrey of Bouillon elected king. PROMINENT NAMES OP THE CENTURY. Germany. KiTig. — Henry IV. England. Kings. — Canute (the Great), Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror. Pope Sylvester II., Gregory VII. (Hildebrand), Abelard, Roscelin, Anselm, Berenger (of Tours), Lanfranc, the Cid (Campeador). ILLUSTRATIONS. THE NOEMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. The woman-hearted Confessor prepares The evanescence of the Saxon line. WOEDSWORTH. EAELY in the tenth century Norsemen (Northmen) from Scandinavia had settled in that province of France which from them became known as Normandy, and its inhabitants as Normans. They there became Christian- ized. In the eleventh century William (since known as the Conqueror), Duke of the Normans, coveting the throne of England, crossed the Channel and subdued that country in 1066 (battle of Hastings). The Normans became the ruling class in England. 1066. Then was, over all England, such a token seen in the heavens, as no man ever before saw. Some men said that it was cometa the star, which some men called the haired star. . . . And king Harold gathered so great a ship-force, and also a land-force, as no king here in the land had before done ; because it was made known to him that William the bastard would come hither and win this land : all as it afterwards happened. — Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Then came William earl of Normandy into Pevensey, on the eve of St. Michael's-mass : and soon after they were on their way, they constructed a castle at Hastings-port. This then was made known to king Harold, and he then gathered a great force, and came to meet him at the estuary of Appledore ; and William came against him unawares, before his people were set in order. But the king never- 254 ELEVENTH CENTUET. theless strenuously fought against him with those meu who would follow him ; and there was great slaughter made on either hand. There . was slain king Harold . . . and many good men ; and the Frenchmen had possession of the place of carnage, all as God granted them for the people's sins. — Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Yet shall a Third both these and thine subdew : There shall a Lion from the sea-bord wood Of Neustria come roring, with a crew Of hungry whelpes, his'battailous bold brood, ' Whose clawes were newly dipt in omddy blood. That from the Daniske Tyrants head shall rend Th' usurped crowne, as if that he were wood. And the spoile of the countrey conquered Emongst his young ones shall divide with bounty hed. Spenser. It took many generations to trim, and comb, and perfume the first boatload of Norse pirates into royal highnesses and most noble Knights of the Garter ; but every sparkle of ornament dates back to the Norse boat. — Emerson. The Norman Conquest is the great turning-point in the history of the English nation. Since the first settlement of the English in Britain, the introduction of Christianity is the only event which can compare with it in importance. And there is this wide difference between the two. The introduction of Christianity was an event which could hardly fail to happen sooner or later ; in accepting the Gospel the English only followed the same law which, sooner or later, affected all the Teutonic nations. But the Norman Conquest is something which stands without a parallel in any other Teutonic land. — Freeman. The whole importance of the Norman Conquest consists in the effect which it had on an existing nation, humbled indeed, but neither wiped out nor utterly enslaved, — in the changes which it wrought on an existing constitution, which was by degrees greatly modified, but which was never either wholly abolished or wholly trampled under foot. — Freeman. L'exp6dition normande apparait comme un effet sans cause, un coup de flibustier, tente en pleine paix, centre une nation qui avait en elle toua les Elements de grandeur et toutes les vertus nationales, germe ELEVENTH CENTURY. 255 d'un bel avenir ; Guillaume, comme un aventurier de courage qui s'abat sur une belle proie et la depece ; le pape comme un ambitieux qui ne considere que lea avantages temporels que I'Eglise et son chef peuvent tiier de la conquete. — Thierry. Not a few years before the Normans came, the clergy, though in Edward the Confessor's days, had lost all good literature and religion, scarce able to read and understand their Latin service ; he was a miracle to others, who knew his grammar. The monks went clad in fine stuffs, and made no difference what they eat ; which, though in itself no fault, yet to their consciences was irreligious. The great men, given to gluttony and dissolute Life, made a prey of the com- mon people, abusing their daughters whom they had in service, then turning them off to the stews ; the meaner sort, tippling together night and day, spent all they had in drunkenness, attended with other vices which effeminate men's minds. Whence it came to pass, that, carried on with fury and rashness more than any true fortitude or slrill of war, they gave to "William their conqueror so easy a conquest. Not but that some few of all sorts were much better among them ; but such was the generality. — Milton. When as the duke of Normandy With glistening spear and shield. Had entered into fair England, And foU'd his foes in field : On Christmas-day in solemn sort Then was he crowned here, By Albert archbishop of York, With many a noble peer. Which being done, he changed quite The customs of this land. And punifiht such as daily sought His statutes to withstand. Old Ballad. The haughty Norman seized at once an isle. For which, through many a century, in rain The Eoman, Saxon, Dane, had toiled and bled. Of Gothic nations this the final burst ; And, mixed the genius of these people all, Their virtues mixed in one exalted stream. Here the rich tide of English blood grew full. Thomson. 256 ELEVENTH CENTUEY. Norman "saw on English oak. On English neck a Norman yoke ; Norman spoon in English dish, And England ruled as Normans wish ; Blithe world in England never will be more, TUl England 's rid of all the four. Old Rhyme, GROWTH OF THE PAPAL POWER. —GREGOEY VIL From land to land The ancient thrones of Christendom are stuff For occupation of a magic wandj And 't is th« Pope that melds it, — whetlier rough Or smooth his front, our world is in his hand I WOEDSWORTH. The temporal power of the popes began in the middle of the eighth century, and, in the long 4;ime of disorder from the death of Charlemagne until the middle of the tenth century, the power of the popes increased, and their authority in political and other temporal affairs was great. In 962 a revival of the Western Empire came about under the name of the " Holy Eoman Empire," the emperors of Germany being also rulers of the West. The popes and the emperors then became involved in protracted contests, which led to a great increase in the power of the Church. Suffice it to say, that in the middle of the eleventh century Europe once more looked to Rome as the pillar and the ground of the truth ; while Eome herself looked forth on a long chain of stately monas- teries, rising like distant hulwarks of her power in every land which owned her spiritual rule. — Sir Jambs Stephen. The emperors asserted that thfe election of a pope must be ratified by them, and for a time they exercised a con- trolling influence over the papal appointments. At this ELEVENTH CENTUKY. 257 time Hildebrand, one of the most remarkable men of the Middle Ages, rose from the rank of a common monk to the papal throne (1073), under the name of Gregory VII. He wished to establish the superiority of the ecclesiastical over the temporal power, and he succeeded in putting down the power of the emperors. The papacy arose from ita humiliation, and soon trampled under foot the princes of the earth. To exalt the papacy was to exalt the Church, to aggrandize religion, to insure to the spirit the victory over the flesh, and to God the conquest of the world. Such were ita maxims ; in these, ambition foimd ita advantage, and fanaticism ita excuse. The whole of this new policy is personified in one man, Hil- DBBBAKD. Hildebrand, who has been by txana indiscreetly exalted or unjustly traduced, is the .personification of the Roman pontificate in ita strength and glory. He ia one of those characters in history which iuclude in themaelvea a new order of things, resembling in this respect Charlemagne, Luther, and Napoleon, in difi'erent spheres of action. Leo IX. took notice of this monk as he was going to Cluny, and carried him with him to Rome. From that time Hilde- brand was the aoul of the papacy, till he himself became pope. He had governed the Church under difi'erent pontiffs, before he himself reigned vmder the name of Gregory VII. One grand idea occupied his comprehensive mind. He desired to establish a visible theocracy, of which the Pope, as the vicar of Christ, should be the head. The recollection of the ancient universal dominion of heathen Rome haunted his imagination and animated his zeal. He wished to restore to Papal Rome what Rome had lost under the emperors. " What Marius and Caesar," said his flatterers, " could not effect by torrents of blood, you have accomplished by a word." — D'Aubigne. Scarcely had he grasped the reins of ecclesiastical government when this carpenter's son developed such a universal genius for rul- ing as has only since been displayed in the two greatest self-made men of modem history, — Cromwell and Bonaparte. He had the knowledge, the ability, and the will to do everything. He became a reformer of the Church, a statesman, and a conqueror, a dema- gogue and a diplomatist, all with equal vigor and masterly skill. ^ Von Sybel. 17 258 ELEVENTH CENTURY. Gregory, though he had himself waited for the confirmation of the emperor before he waa consecrated, resolved to take away the right of investiture claimed by the emperors, — to take from the secular princes the right which they assumed of selling or giving.away the sees within their dominions, a practice which then prevailed throughout the Chris- tian world. He caused a decree to be passed by a council at Rome in 1074, anathematizing all persons guilty of simony, and requiring a vow of celibacy before admission to holy orders. Another council in 1075 decreed the excommunication of any king who should bestow on bishops and abbots the ring and crosier, which were the symbols of their office. The Emperor Henry IV. of Germany defied this decree, and, indignant at Gregory's assumption of power in this and other matters, assembled a diet at Worms and deposed him, whereupon the Pope in 1076 solemnly excommunicated Henry, and declared his sub- jects free from their oath of allegiance. Henry at first prepared to resist this bold act, but the power of the papal dominion had now grown to be so irresistible, together with rebellion of his own sub- jects, that he was forced to endure a most humiliating penance at the. hands of the Pope, who obliged him to stapd for three days without the castle of Canossa in the winter time, barefoot, and clad only in a coarse woollen garment. After this humiliation he was absolved. Black demons hoTering o'er his mitred head, To Caesar's successor the Pontiff spake : " Ere I absolve thee, stoop ! that on thy neck ' Levelled with earth this foot of mine may tread." Then he who to the altar had been led, He whose strong arm the Orient could not check, He who had held the Soldan at his hect, Stooped, of all glory disinherited, And even the common dignity of man ! Amazement strikes the crowd; — while many turn Their eyes away in sorrow, others hum With scorn, invoking a vindictive ban From outraged Nature ; but the sense of most In abject sympathy with power is lost. WOEDSWORTH. The humbled emperor was not finally vanquished, however, and Gregory died in exile in 1085. Gregory was without doubt one of the most remarkable men of any age. Never, as far as we know, has religious enthusiasm been ELEVENTH CENTURY. 259 united with such far-sighted policy, or spiritual fanaticism with such pronounced talents for government. — Von Sybel. The papal power continued to increase, and under the successors of Gregory received large accessions, attaining its greatest height in the next century under Innocent III. The papal hierarchy, in fact, constituted, in the Middle Ages, the main bond among the various European nations, after the decline of the Eoman sway; and in this view the Catholic influence ought to be judged, as De Maistre truly remarked, not only by the ostensible good which it produced, but yet more by the imminent evil which it silently obviated, and which, on that account, we can only inadequately appre- ciate. — COMTE. We never cease to be amazed at the wonderful luck which raised Na- poleon from the dust to the throne of the world, as if it were a romance or a fairy story. But if in the history of kings these astonishing changes are extraordinary accidents, they seem quite natural in the history of the popes ; they belong to the very essence of Christendom, which does not appeal to the person, but to the spirit ; and whOe the one history is full of ordinary men, who, without the prerogative of their crown, would have sunk into eternal oblivion, the other is rich in great men who, placed in a different sphere, would have been equally worthy of renown. — Gregorovius. Je la vols cette Bome, oh d'augustes vieillards, Hiritiers d'lin ap6tre et vainciuetirs des C^sars, Souverains sans annde et conqu^rants saus guerre, A lenr triple couronne ont asservi la terre. RAorNE. THE NOEMANS IN SICILY AND ITALY. Perhaps this is the place to inquire to what may be attributed the astonishing triumphs of the Normans, as well over victorious Saracens as over degenerate Greeks. The chroniclers may have augmented the disproportion of numbers, but, making all due allowance for such exaggerations, the achievements of the Normans still appear almost miraculous, and even their enemies testify that the charge of their 260 ELEVENTH CENTURY. cavalry was irresistible. It was partly tlie aimor in which they were encased, partly the character of their antagonists, partly local jeal- ousies : in Calabria, the enmity of the Lombards to the Greeks; in Sicily, the enmity of the Greeks to the Saracens. But the causes of their uniform success are chiefly to be found in the manly and martial exercises to which the Normans were accustomed from their earliest years; in the chivalrous and adventurous spirit of the age which excited their minds ; and, above all, in that confidence in seK which makes the soldier invincible. Each individual Norman was, in effect, a legion. — Knight. CHIVALRY. See, under the Twelfth Cbntuey, page 270. THE CRUSADES. These remarkable military expeditions (called Crusades from the French croisade, from Latin crux, cross), under- taken by Christian powers in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, for the recovery of the Holy Land from the Mahometans, are the principal movements of European history during the period in which they took place. During two centuries Europe seems to have had no object but to re- cover, or keep possession of, the Holy Land; and through that period vast armies continued to march thither. — Robertson. The Crusades, or expeditions in order to rescue the Holy Land out of the hands of infidels, seem to be the first event that roused Europe from the lethargy in which it had long been sunk, and that tended to introduce any considerable change in government or in manners. — Robertson. ELEVENTH CENTURY. 261 The Crusades must be regarded as one great portion of the struggle between the two great religions of the world, Christianity and Ma- hometanism ; a struggle which began in the seventh century, on the confines of Arabia and Syria, and embraced in quick succession all the countries round the Mediterranean, and after thousands of years and changes has disturbed our own century, as it did that of Gregory VII. The history of the human race records no contest more violent or more protracted than this. — Von Sybel. The most durable monuments of human folly. — Hume. When the Seljuk Turks, in the latter half of the cen- tury, took possession of Palestine, the Christians, who had long been wont to undertake pilgrimages from all parts of the Western world to the Holy Land, were obliged to endure the most harsh cruelties at their hands. Hence arose a passionate eagerness through all Western Europe to recover Palestine from the profanation of the Mahometans, and to check the advance of that de- tested religion. The First Crusade (1096-1099) was set in motion by Peter the Hermit, with the encouragement and help of Pope Urban II. The progress of the Christian armies led by the chivalry of Europe proved irresistible, and Syria and Palestine were wrested from the infidels. But the conquests thus made were preserved with extreme diflBculty, and always held by a most precarious tenure. The Crusades, comprising eight or nine expeditions, lasted through two centuries, the final expulsion of the Christians from Syria occurring in 1291. It was in these circumstances that a religious opinion suddenly spread through Europe, that, the place where Jesus Christ was born, and the place where he suffered, being profaned by infidels, the means of eff'acing one's sins was to take arms for their expulsion. Europe was full of men who loved war, and who had many crimes to expiate. It was proposed that they should expiate their crimes by following their dominant passion. The result was that immense multitudes took the cross and sword. — Montesquieu. 262 ELEVENTH CENTUET. The turbaned race are pouring in thickening swarms Along the West ; though driven from Aquitaine, The Crescent glitters on the towers of Spain ; And soft Italia feels renewed alarms ; The scimitar, that yields not to the charms Of ease, the narrow Bosphorus will disdain ; Nor long (that crossed) would Grecian hills detain Their tents, and check the current of their arms. Then blame not those who, by the mightiest lever Known to the moral world, imagination, Upheave (so seems it) from her natural station All Christendom ; — they sweep along (was never So huge a host !) to tear from the unbeliever The precious tomb, their haven of salvation. WOBDSWOETH. Therefore, friends. As far as to the sepulchre of Christ (Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross We are impressed and engaged to fight), Forthwith a power of English shall we levy; Whose arms were moulded in their mother's womb. To chase these pagans, in those holy fields. Over whose acres walked those blessed feet Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nailed. For our advantage, on the bitter cross. Shakespeare. From tlie moment that the incursions of the Saracens threatened Europe, the fear of their progress and the hatred of their religion armed against them from all parts those Northmen who lived idle on the territory of Gaul, Spain, and Italy. Prankish adventurers went to defeat them more than once on the coasts of Calabria and Sicily ; and when a pope, seconded by the eloquence of the monk Peter, raised up against them entire Christian Europe, this great insurrection was only the complement of those partial and obscure enterprises which had so long been preparing it. — Thibkry. Peter, commonly called the Hermit, a native of Amiens, in Picardy, had made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Being deeply affected with the dangers to which that act of piety now exposed the pilgrims, as well as with the instances of oppression under which the Eastern Christians labored, he entertained the bold and, to all appear- ance, impracticable project of leading into Asia, from the furthest ELEVENTH CENTURY. 263 extremities of the west, armies sufficient to subdue those potent and ■warlike nations which now held the holy city in subjection. He proposed his views to Martin Second, who filled the papal chair, and who, though sensible of the advantages which the head of the Chris- tian religion must reap from a religious war, and though he esteemed the blind zeal of Peter a proper means for effecting the purpose, resolved not to interpose his authority till he saw a greater proba- bility of success. He summoned a council at Placentia, which con- sisted of four thousand ecclesiastics and thirty thousand seculars, and which was so numerous that no hall could contain the multitude, and it was necessary to hold the assembly on a plain. The harangues of the Pope, and of Peter himself, representing the dismal situation of their brethren in the East, and the indignity suffered by the Christian name in allowing the holy city to remain in the hands of infidels, here found the minds of men so well prepared, that the whole multi- tude suddenly and violently declared for the war, and solemnly devoted themselves to perform this service, so meritorious, as they believed it, to God and religion. — Hume. Urban and Peter I the corpses of two millions of men lie heavy on your graves, and will fearfully summon you on the day of judg- ment. — Helleb. "And shall," the Pontiff asks, "profaneness flow From Nazareth, — source of Christian piety, — From Bethlehem, from the mounts of agony And glorified ascension ? Warriors, go ; With prayers and blessings we your path will sow ; Like Moses, hold our hands erect, till ye Have chased far off by righteous victory These sons of Amaleo, or laid them low ! " "God willeth it," the whole assembly cry; Shout which the enraptured multitude astounded. The council-roof and Clermont's towers reply : "God willeth it," from hill to hill rebounded; Sacred resolve, in cotmtries far and nigh, Through " Nature's hollow arch," that night resounded! i WOEDSWOETH. 1 The decision of this council was believed to be instantly known in remote parts of Europe. 264 ' ELEVENTH CENTUEY. Amid the throng the Hermit stood ; so wan, Careworn, and travel-soiled; with genius high Throned on his brow, shrined in his spiritvial eye. The Hermit spake, and through the council ran A tremor, not of fear ; as in the van. Chafing before embattled chivalry, A proud steed listens for the clarion's cry, So sprang they to their feet : and every man. Pontiff and prince, prelate and peer, caught up Their swords, and kissed the crosiered hilts, and swore, As though their lips the sacramental cup Had touched, Christ's sepulchre to free ! The shore Of Asia heard that sound, in thunder hurled, — " Deus id imlt," — from Clermont through the world ! AUBEET DE VbEE. The dream of such, an enterprise had long floated before the minds of keen-sighted popes and passionate enthusiasts : it was realized for the first time when, after listening to the hurning eloq^uence of Urban II. at the council of Clermont, the assembled multitude with one voice welcomed the sacred war as the will of God. If we regard this undertaking as the simple expression of popular feeling stirred to its inmost depths, we may ascribe to the struggle to which they thus committed themselves a character wholly unlike that of any earlier wars waged in Christendom, or by the powers of Christendom against enemies who lay beyond its pale. — G. W. Cox. The Crusades have been represented as a sort of accident, an unforeseen event, sprung from the recitals of pilgrims returned from Jerusalem, and the preaching of Peter the Hermit. They were nothing of the kind. The Crusades were the continuation, the height of the great struggle which had subsisted for four centuries between Christianity and Mahometanism. — GuizoT. Long had those two sisters, those two halves of humanity, Europe and Asia, the Christian religion and the Mussulman, lost sight of each other, when they were brought face to face by the Crusade, and their inquiring gaze met. That first glance was one of horror.-— MiCHBLBT. The Crusades took their rise in Religion; their visible object was, commercially speaking, worth nothing. It was the boundless, Invis- ible world that was laid bare in the imaginations of those men ; and in its burning light the visible shrunk as a scroll. Not mechanical, ELEVENTH CENTURY. 265 nor produced by meehanical means, was this Tast movement. No dining at Freemasons' Tavern, with the other long train of modern machinery ; no cunning reconciliation of " vested interests," was required here : only the passionate voice of one man, the rapt soul looking through the eyes of one man ; and rugged, steel-clad Europe trembled beneath his words and followed him whither he listed. — Caeltle. All Europe, torn up from the foundation, seemed ready to precipi- tate itself in one united body upon Asia. — Anna Comnena. An extraordinary spectacle was then presented ; the world seemed turned upside-down. Men suddenly conceived a disgust for all they had before prized, and hastened to quit their proud castles, their wives and children. There was no need of preaching ; they preached to each other. — Michelet. "When the time was fulfilled which Christ showed to his Apostles, speaking daily, and especially in the Gospels, "Whosoever will foUow me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross," then a great movement took place throughout France : " That whosoever wished to follow the Lord with his whole heart, and to carry his cross after him in faith, he should not delay quickly to begin and walk in the way of the Lord." And straightway the Pope, with his archbishops, bishops, priests, and abbots, crossed the Alps, and began to teach wisely and to preach, and spake thus : " Whosoever will save his soul alive, let him not hesitate to walk in the way of the Lord. Whosoever lacketh money, he will, by God's grace, be plentifully provided therewith." And when these words were bruited abroad, the Franks who heard them sewed red crosses on their shoulders and said they would follow with one accord the footsteps of Christ. — Gesta Franconum. The epidemic madness spread with a rapidity inconceivable except from the knowledge how fully the mind and heart of man were prepared to imbibe the infection. France, including both its Frank and Norman population, took the lead ; Germany, of colder tempera- ment, and distracted by its own civil contentions, — the Imperialist faction from hatred of the Pope, — moved more tardily and reluc- tantly ; in Italy it was chiefly the adventurous Normans who crowded to the war ; in England the Normans were too much occupied in securing their vast possessions, the Anglo-Saxon population too 266 ELEVENTH CENTUEY. much depressed, to send large numbers of soldiers. All Europe, however, including the Northern nations, except Spain, occupied with her own crusade in her own realm, sent their contingent either to the wild multitudes who swarmed forth imder Walter the Penni- less, or the more regular army under Godfrey of Boulogne. The Crusade was no national war of Italy, France, or Germany against the Egyptian empire of the Fatimites, or the Seljukian Sultan of Iconium ; it was a war of Christendom against Mahometanism. No government hired tne soldiers, unless so far as the feudal chief summoned his vassals to accompany him ; nor provided transports and the artillery and implements of war, or organized a commissariat, or nominated to the chief command. Each was a volunteer, and brought his own horse, arms, accoutrements, provisions. In the first disastroiis expeditions, under Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penniless, the leaders were designated by popular acclamation or by bold and confident self-election. — Milman. Many prepared never to return ; nearly all looked forward with beating hearts to an unknown and distant land, brilliant with all the glory of miracles and the splendor of fairy tales. Such a state of mind we, in our fast and far-travelKng days, can hardly xmder- stand ; it was much as if a large army were now to embark in balloons, in order to conquer an island between the earth and the moon, which was also expected to contain the heavenly Paradise. The lower classes were frantic with excitement. The peasants and artisans, who took no part in war and were not admitted into the regular armies, were those upon whom the sufferings of that period feR hardest, and they pressed with the wildest zeal to join in the Holy Crusade. — Von Stbel. I take God to witness that there landed in our ports barbarians from nations I wist not of : no one understood their tongue, but, placing their fingers in the form of a cross, they made a sign that they desired to proceed to the defence of the Christian faith. There were those who at first had no desire to set out, and who laughed at those who parted with their property, foretelling them a miserable voyage and more miserable return. The next day, these very mockers, by some sudden impulse, gave all they had for money, and set out with those whom they had just laughed at. Who can name the children and aged women who prepared for war ; who ELEVENTH CENTURY. 267 count the virgins, and old men trembling under the 'weight of years ? . . . You -would have smiled to see the poor shoeing their oxen like horses, dragging their slender stock of provisions and their little children in carts ; and these little ones, at each town or castle they came to, asked in their simplicity, " Is not that the Jerusalem that we are going to 1 " — Gdibeet. As for the multitude of those who advanced towards the great city, let it be enough to say that they were as the stars in the heaven, or as the sand upon the sea-shore. They were, in the words of Homer, as many as the leaves and flowers of spring. But for the names of the leaders, though they are present in my memory, I will not relate them. The numbers of these would alone deter me, even if my language furnished the means of expressing their barbarous sounds ; and for what purpose should I afflict my readers with a long enumeration of the names of these whose visible presence gave so much horror to all that beheld them 1 — Anna Comnena (1097). In the immense crowd of Crusaders, no count, no prince, deigned to receive orders from any one. The Christians presented the image of a republic under arms. This republic, in which everything appeared to be in common, recognized no other law but that of honor, no other tie but that of religion. — Michaud. Feathered their thoughts, their feet in wiugs were dight. Swiftly they marched, yet were not tired thereby, For willing minds make heaviest hnrdens light; But when the gliding sun was mounted high, Jerusalem, behold, appeared in sight, Jerusalem they view, they see, they spy; Jerusalem with merry noise they greet, With joyful shouts and acclamations sweet. Tasso. Tr. Fairfax. Salem, in ancient majesty Arise, and lift thee to the sky ! Soon on the battlements divine Shall wave the badge of Constantine. Ye barons to the sun unfold Our cross, with crimson wove and gold ! Waeton, The Crusade, The movement was facilitated by the circumstance that Europe began to adopt habits of order just at the time when Asia was thrown 268 ELEVENTH CENTUEY. into a state of anarchy by the invasions of the Seljuk Turks. — FiNLAT. The first character of the Crusades is their universality; all Europe concurred in them ; they were the first European event. Before the Crusades, Europe had never been moved by the same sentiment, or acted in a common cause ; till then, in fact, Europe did not exist. The Crusades made manifest the existence of Christian Europe. The French formed the main body of the first army of Crusaders ; but there were also Germans, Italians, Spaniards, and English. But look at the Second and Third Crusades, and we find all the nations of Chris- tendom engaged in them. The world had never before witnessed a similar combination. But this is not all. In the same manner as the Crusades were a European event, so, in each separate nation, they were a national event. In every nation all classes of society were animated with the same impression, yielded to the same idea, and abandoned themselves to the same impulse. Kings, nobles, priests, citizens, country people, all took the same interest and the same share in the Crusades. The moral unity of nations was thus made manifest ; a fact as new as the unity of Europe. . . . The Crusades were the heroic event of modern Europe, — a movement at the same time individual and general ; national, and yet not under political direc- tion. — GUIZOT. Nothing is more easy than to detect the worldly motives which impelled the ruder population of the Western world to roll in eight successive and desolating torrents towards the shores of Africa and the East. The Crusader received a plenary indulgence, that is, the remission of all the penances by which, as he believed, his sins must otherwise have been expiated, either in the present life or in purga- tory. During his absence the Church became the protector of his wife, his children, and his estate. Whoever might injure them was declared excommunicate, ipso facto, and withoiat further sentence. His debts ceased to bear interest from the day of his departure, even though he had bound himself by an oath to the payment of them. . . . But it would be a libel on our cominon nature to ascribe to such causes alone, or chiefly, a movement which during one hundred and fifty successive years agitated every state and almost every family in Christendom. — Sir James Stephen. No period of history exhibits a larger amount of cruelty, licentious- ELEVENTH CENTUET. 269 ness, and fanaticism than the Crusades; but side by side with the military enthusiasm and with the almost universal corruption, there expanded a vast movement of charity, which covered Christendom with hospitals for the relief of leprosy, and which grappled nobly, though ineffectually, with the many forms of suffering that were generated. — Lecky. None of the sovereigns of Europe took a part in the First Crusade; but many of their chief vassals, great part of the inferior nobility, and a countless multitude of the common people. The priests left their parishes, and the monks their cells ; and though the peasantry were then in general bound to the soil, we find no check given to their emigration for this cause. Numbers of women and children swelled the crowd ; it appeared a sort of sacrilege to repel any one from a work which was considered as the manifest design of Providence. But if it were lawful to interpret the will of Providence by events, few undertakings have been more branded by its disapprobation than the Crusades. So many crimes and so much misery have seldom been accumulated in so short a space as in the three years of the first expedition. — Hallam. See also, regarding the end and consequences of the Cru- sades, under the Thirteenth Century, page 291. The disorders in the feudal system, together with the corruption of taste and manners consequent upon these, which had gone on increas- ing during a long course of years, seemed to have attained their utmost point of excess towards the close of the eleventh century. From that era we may date the return of government and manners in a contrary direction, and can trace a succession of causes and events which con- tributed, some with a nearer and more conspicuous, others -with a more remote and less perceptible influence, to abolish confusion and barbar- ism, and to introduce order, regularity, and refinement. — Bobbrtson. About the latter part of the eleventh century a greater ardor for intellectual pursuits began to show, itself in Europe, which in the twelfth broke out into a flame. — Hallam. About AD. 1200 Seliotyp^ Tmitm^ Co. Boston TWELFTH CENTUTIT. (1100-1200.) Geemas Empire. The power of the Germaa Empire declines, Germany and Italy beginning to divide into varioua independent states. SicUy, however, at the end of the century is united to the empire. Italian Eepublics. The cities of Northern Italy secure their independence in the latter half of this century, and rise to great dis- tinction. The Norman dynasty in Sicily and Italy ceases, the power passing into the hands of the German emperors. The Eastern Empire loses and gains in extent of territory, but towards the end of the century recovers much territory in Europe. The Mahometan States in, Egypt and Asia are united under the rule of Saladia, who forms a new Mahometan power. Saladin takes Jerusalem in 1187. The kingdom of France in this century is hemmed in by the two great powers of Normandy and Aquitaine. England is under its Norman rulers, who also reign over Nor- mandy and Aquitaine, holding possessions in France superior to those of the French king. Ireland is conquered in 1172 by England. Denmark reaches its highest point of political power in this century. The northern part of the Spanish Peninsula is divided among the five Christian powers (Portugal, Leon, Castile, Aragon, Navarre), which are engaged in constant struggles with the Moors occupying the southern portion. Portugal becomes a kingdom in 1139. Jerusalem is taken by Saladin in 1187, and nearly aU Palestine thus wrested from the Christians by the Mahometans. SiciLT. See above, under German Empire. Most of the powers of modem Europe have by this time come into existence. A.D. 1100- A. D. 1300. CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE. 1130. Nonnan kingdom of Sicily formed. 1137. The Pandects of Eoman law discov- 1172. Conquest of Ireland. 1176. Battle of Legnano. The Germans ered. 1139. Portugal becomes an independent kingdom. 1147. The Second Crusade. 1157. The first public bank founded at Venice. defeated by the Lombard cities. 1183. Peace of Constance. Independence of the Lombard cities. 1186. Cape of Good Hope discovered by Bartholomew Diaz. 1171. The Fatimite dynasty overthrown by Saladin. 1180. The Third Crusade. 1187. Saladin takes Jerusalem. PROMINENT NAMES OF THE CENTURY. Geemaky. Emperors. — Henry IV., Frederick Barbarossa. France. King. — Philip II. (Augustus). EuaLAKB. ^iiijs. — Henry II., Richard I., John. Egypt ahd Stria. SultoM. —Saladin. Abelard, ■William of Malmesbury, St. Bernard, Thomas i Becket, Peter Lombard (Master of Sentences), Bustathius, Pope Innocent III. ILLTJSTKATIONS. CHIVALEY. To form a vivid idea of the mode of life in the Middle Age, we must above all enter into the spirit of chivalry. — Sohlegbl. The cheap defence of nations. — Buekb. Of hatail and of chivalry, Of ladys love and drewery, Aiwon I wol yow telle. Chauceb. AFTER the fall of Eome there was very little national government in the countries of Northern Europe, the power heing held by numerous chiefs, who, though some- times united for a common object, were much oftener found in conflict with one another. In such a state of things, the rights of the humbler classes of society were at the mercy of every assailant; and it is plain that, without some check upon the lawless power of the chiefs, society must have relapsed into barbarism. Such checks were found, first, in the rivalry of the chiefs themselves, whose mutual jealousy made them restraints upon one another; secondly, in the influence of the Church, which by every motive, pure or selfish, was pledged to inter- pose for the protection of the weak; and lastly, in the generosity and sense of right which, however crushed under the weight of passion and selfishness, dwell naturally in the heart of man. From this last source sprang chivalry. — Bulfinch. 18 274 TWELFTH CENTURY. Chivalry, which was a natural outgrowth of feudalism (see page 241), was based upon the great regard in which the military profession was universally held, and upon the traditional respect for the female sex so common among the Germanic tribes. By the eleventh century the institu- tion of chivalry had become firmly established, and for several centuries had a remarkable effect upon the feelings and customs of all Western Europe. Throngs of knights and barons bold, In weeds of peace high triumphs hold. With store of ladies, whose bright eyes Eain influence and judge the prize. Milton. In rough magnificence arrayed. When ancient Chivalry displayed The pomp of her heroic games. And crested chiefs and tissued dames Assembled at the clarion's call, 111 some proud castle's high-arched wall. Wabton. When in the chronicle of wasted time I see descriptions of the fairest wights. And beauty making beautiful old rhyme In praise of ladies dead and lovely knights. Shaeesfeabe. He loved the twilight that surrounds The border-land of old romance; Where glitter hauberk, helm, and lance, And banner waves, and trumpet sounds, And ladies ride with hawk on wrist, And mighty warriors sweep along. Magnified by the purple mist. And dusk of centuries and of song. Longfellow. La guerre est ma patrie, Mon hamois ma maison, Et en toute saison Combattre c'est ma vie. The virtues and endowments that were necessary to form an accomplished knight, in the flourishing times of chivalry, were such TWELFTH CENTURY. 275 as these: beauty, strength, and agility of body; great dexterity in dancing, wrestling, hunting, hawking, riding, tilting, and every other manly exercise; the virtues of piety, chastity, modesty, courtesy, loyalty, liberality, sobriety; and, above all, an inviolable attachment to truth, and an invincible courage. — Henet. In time of war the knight was, with his followers, in the camp of his sovereign, or commanding in the field, or holding some castle for him. In time of peace he was often in attendance at his sovereign's court, gracing with his presence the banquets and tournaments with which princes cheered their leisure. Or he was traversing the country in quest of adventiire, professedly bent on redressing wrongs and enforcing rights, sometimes in fulfilment of some vow of religion or of love. — Bdlfinch. The wUd exploits of those romantic knights who sallied forth in quest of adventures are well known, and have been treated with proper ridicule. The political and permanent effects of the spirit of chivalry have been less observed. Perhaps the humanity which accompanies all the operations of war, the refinements of gallantry, and the point of honor, — the three chief circumstances which dis- tinguish modern from ancient manners, — may be ascribed, in a great measure, to this whimsical institution, seemingly of little benefit to mankind. The sentiments which chivalry inspired had a wonderful influence on the manners and conduct during the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. They were so deeply rooted that they continued to operate after the vigor and reputation of the insti- tution itself began to decline. — Robertson. The love of God and the ladies was enjoined as a single duty. He who was faithful and true to his mistress was held sure of salvation in the theology of the castles. — Hallam. And it is fitting that the son of a knight, while he is a squire, should know how to take care of a horse; and it is fitting that he should serve before and be subject to his lord; for otherwise he will not know the nobleness of his lordship when he shall be a knight; and to this end every knight should put his son in the service of another knight, to the end that he may learn to carve at table and to serve, and to arm and apparel a knight in his youth. — L'Ordre de la, Chevalerie. 276 TWELFTH CENTUKY. Knights, with a long retinue of their squires, In gaudy liveries march, and quaint attires; One laced the helm, another held the lance, A third the shining huclder did advance. The courser pawed the ground with restless feet, And snorting foamed and champed the golden bit. The smiths and armorers on palfreys ride, Files in their hands and hammers at their side ; ■Xnd nails for loosened spears, and thongs for shields provide. The yeomen guard the streets in seemly hands; And clowns come crowding on, with cudgels in their hands. Palanum and Arcite. Amend your lives, ye who would fain The order of the knights attain; Devoutly watch, devoutly pray ; From pride and sin, oh, turn away! Shun all that 's base; the Church defend; Be the widow's and the orphan's friend; Be good and leal ; take naught by might; Be bold and guard the people's right ; — This is the rule for the gallant knight. Be meek of heart ; work day by day; Tread, ever tread, the knightly way; Make lawful war ; long travel dare; Tourney and joust for lady fair; To everlasting honor cling, That none the barbs of blame may fling; Be never slack in work or flght; Be ever least in self s own sight; — This is the rule for the gallant knight. EnsTAOHE Deschamps. Tr. Black. It hath been through all ages ever seen, That, with the praise of arms and chivalry, The prize of beauty still hath joined been ; And that for reason's special privity : For either doth on other much rely ; For he, me-seems, most fit the fair to serve. That can her best defend from villany; And she most fit his service doth deserve. That fairest is, and from her faith wiU never swerve. Spensee. The house of Chivalry decayed. Or rather ruined seems, her buildings laid TWELFTH CENTUEY. 277 Flat -witli the earth, that were the pride of Time; Those ohelisks and columns broke and down, That sti-ook the stars, and raised the British Crown To be a constellation. When to the structure went more noble names Than to the Ephesian Temple lost in flames. When every stone was laid by virtuous hands. Ben Jonson. He lived, the impersonation of an age That never shall return. His soul of fire Was kindled by the breath of the rude time He lived in. Now a gentler race succeeds, Shuddering at blood ; the effeminate cavalier. Turning from the reproaches of the past. And from the hopeless future, gives to ease And love and music his inglorious life. BKTAira. Where are the courtly gallantries ? Tlie deeds of love and high emprise, In battle done ? Wliere are the high-born dames, and where Their gay attire, and jewelled hair. And odors sweet ? Where are the gentle knights, that came To kneel, and breathe love's ardent flame Low at their feet ? Manbique. Tr. Longfellow. The Knight's bones are dust. And his good sword rust; His soul is vrith the saints, I trust. COLEEIDOE Whatever were the abuses attendant upon it, it is impossible to deny its eminent social utility during an interval when the central power was as yet inadequate to the direct regulation of internal order in so new a state of society. — Comtb. The best school of moral discipline which the Middle Ages af- forded was the institution of chivalry. . . . The spirit of chivalry left behind it a more valuable successor. The character of knight gradually subsided in that of gentleman ; and the one distinguishes European society in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as much as the other did in the preceding ages. A jealous sense of honor, 278 TWELFTH CENTURY. less romantic but equally elevated ; a ceremonious gallantry and politeness ; a strictness in devotional observances ; a Hgh pride, of birth, and feeling of independence upon any sovereign for the dignity it gave ; a sympathy for martial honor, though more subdued by civil habits, — are the liaeaments which prove an indisputable descent. — Hallam. Peculiar circumstances softened the barbarism of the Middle Ages to a degree which favored the admission of commerce and the growth of knowledge. These circumstances were connected with the man- ners of chivalry ; but the sentiments peculiar to that institution could only be preserved by the situation which gave them birth. They were themselves enfeebled in the progress from ferocity and turbulence, and almost obliterated by tranquillity and refinement. But the auxiliaries which the manners of chivalry had in rude ages reared, gathered strength from its weakness, and flourished in its decay. Commerce and difi'used knowledge have, in fact, so com- pletely assumed the ascendant in polished nations, that it will be difficult to discover any relics of Gothic manners but in a fantastic exterior, which has survived the generous illusions that made these manners splendid and seductive. Their direct influence has long ceased in Europe ; but their indirect influence, through the medium of those causes which would not perhaps have existed but for the mildness which chivalry created in the midst of a barbarous age, still operates with increasing vigor. — Mackintosh. SALADIN. A NEW Mahometan power took its rise in Egypt in 1171, under the famous Saladin, who deposed the Fatimite dynasty " without so much " (in the words of Abulfeda) " as two goats butting at each other." He became Sultan of Egypt and master of Southern Syria, and in 1187 cap- tured Jerusalem and took the greater part of Palestine from the Christians. He had continued contests with the Crusaders. After his death in 1193 his vast dominions were divided among his sons. TWELFTH CENTUBT. 279 The really great qualities of Saladin have sometimes been too absolutely lauded ; for as Mr. Mills has well observed, his character was but a "compound of dignity and baseness." . . . He is, perhaps, the brightest exemplar in history of an Asiatic hero ; and his virtues, like the dark traits which obscured them, exhibit the genuine linea- ments of his clime and race. — Proctoe. THE CEUSADES. See the Eleventh Century, page 260, and the Thir- teenth Century, page 291. THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. See the Thirteenth Century, page 295. THE ITALIAN EEPUBLICS. See the Thirteenth Century, page 298. The world wore a sombre aspect at the close of the twelfth century. The ancient order of things was in peril : the new had not begun. — MlCH£LET. About AD. 1300 SeZio^yy^PntTdng Co,£osbjn. thirteenth: centurt. (1200-1300.) Germany. The Emperor Frederick II. wears the three crowns of Germany, Italy, and Sicily, but is engaged in many contentions ; and after his death in 1250 the empire ceases to be the leading power of Europe. The third quarter of this century is a time of great confu- sion ia Germany. The kingdom of France increases in strength during this century at the expense of the German Empire and of the English possessions, and is rapidly becoming one of the leading powers of Europe. England loses a large part of its possessions on the Continent. Wales is imited to England. The Eastern Empire, near the beginning of this century, faUa into the hands of the Crusaders or Latin princes, but later, in 1261, the old Greek Empire is restored in a measure. Spain. The Mahometan power in Spain is reduced in this century to the single kingdom of Granada, the rest of the peninsula being held by the Christian kingdoms of Portugal, Castile and Leon, Aragon, and Navarre. The Moguls, or Tartars, break loose from their ancient seats in the obscure regions of Asia, and under Genghis Khan overrun the greater part of Europe and Asia. They establish a powerful dynasty within the dominions of Russia, which greatly checks the progress of that country. In 1258 they take Bagdad, when the Abbassidian Caliphate of Bagdad comes to an end. They also seize the kingdom of Eoum, overthrowing the power of the Seljuk Turks. In Italy the cities continue as independent republics, but with a tendency towards consolidation into larger states. In this century Florence becomes one of the chief commonwealths. Eoum is seized by the Moguls, and the power of the Seljuk Turks overthrown. See under Moguls. Seljuk Turks. See under Eoum. Russia. See above, under Moguls. Portugal. See above, under Spain. Castile. See above, under Spain. Leon. See above, under Spain. Aragon. See above, under Spain. Navarre. See above, under Spain. Caliphate op Bagdad. Ended by the capture of Bagdad by the Moguls in 1258. See above, under Moguls. Jerusalem. The Christian kingdom of Jerusalem comes to an end in 1291, passing into the hands of the Mahometans. A.D. laOO-A.D. 1300. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 1204. The Crasaders take Constantinople. Establishment of the Inquisition hj Innocent III. English loss of Anjou, Normandy, etc., which pass into the hands of Philip Augustus of France. 1209. Crusade against the Albigenses (Si- mon de Montfort). 1209. The order of Franciscans founded. 1215. Magna Charta signed by King John. The order of Dominicans founded. 1237. Origin of the Mngdom of Granada. 1240. Origin of the Ottoman Turks. 1240 (about). Hanseatic League formed. 1256. The order of Augustines founded. 1268. Bagdad taken by the Moguls. End of the Caliphate of Bagdad. 1261. The Greeks recover Constantinople. 1265. Beginning of English Parliament. 1270. The last Crusade. 1282. The Sicilian Vespers. 1299. The Ottoman Turks invade Asia Minor. Crusades. There are various Crusades (differently enumerated) during the century, the last being in 1270. PEOMINENT NAMES OF THE CENTURY. Ekance. Kim^s. — Philip II. (Augustus), St. Louis IX. ENGLA2ID. Kings. — Henry III., Edward I. Mogul (Taktab) Empiee. Khan. — Temujin (Genghis Khan). Pope Innocent III., Matthew Paris, Alexander Hales (Irreftagable Doctor), St Thomas Aquinas (Angelic Doctor), Roger Bacon, Cimabue, John Duns Scotus, Dante, Giotto. ILLUSTRATIONS. THE MOGUL EMPIEE. — GENGHIS KHAN. Their number is so great as to seem to threaten mankind with destruction. — Matthew Paris. AISTEW power, the Moguls, a Turanian people (also called Tartars), now attacked both Asia and Europe. Under the famous Genghis Khan (reigned 1206-1227) and his successors, these wandering tribes of Asiatic savages poured from the depths of Asia, and carried on their rav- ages through the greater part of Asia and Europe, destroy- ing hundreds of populous cities and several million hves. The Mogul Empire was of a temporary nature. The character of the Moguls at this time is a strange compound. Among themselves they had made considerable approaches to order and civilization. They had an established government and recog- nized laws; they had also, what no Christian or Mahometan nation then had, perfect religious toleration. . . . Yet notwithstanding all this, in war they were perfect savages; barbarians is far too gentle a word. — Freeman. The expectation of some great and terrible event prevailed all over the East. The Moguls had begun to quit the North, and were de- scending by degrees over the whole of Asia. These shepherds, drag- ging the nations along with them, and driving mankind before them 284 THIRTEENTH CENTUEY. together with their flocks, seemed bent on removing from the face of the earth every city, every building, every trace of cultivation, and on reconverting the globe into a desert, a free prairie, where one might henceforward wander without let or limit. They deliberated on treating the whole of Northern China on this fashion, and restoring that empire by the firing of some hundred cities, and the slaughter of several millions of men, to the primitive beauty of the solitudes of the early world. Where the destruction of the large cities would have been too troublesome, they indemnified themselves by the massacre of the inhabitants, — witness the pyramids of skulls which they reared in the plain of Bagdad. — Michelet. Beyond the lands of the Saracens and of the Turks, lay the unknown regions of the Moguls. In the thirteenth century came their day of greatness, celebrated by the momentary existence of an empire far ex- ceeding those of Macedonian, Eoman, or Arab, and by the infliction of miseries on the human race compared to which the cruelties of all preceding conquerors might be deemed the height of mercy. Under Genghis Khan and his immediate successors, the Moguls riiled over nearly all Asia, save India and Arabia, and over no small portion of Europe. The same armies waged war in China, in Syria, and on the frontiers of Germany. And though this enormous dominion was transitory, they founded permanent- dynasties in Persia and Russia, not to mention realms beyond our scope on the present occasion. — Freeman. It was, therefore, the greatest tragedy which our historical knowl- edge records, when the highly cultivated Eastern world was devastated and destroyed forever, a few years after Saladin's triumphs, by an overwhelming flood of barbarians. The savage Mongolian hordes swept down from their high central plains, laying waste and destroy- ing, throughout Persia, Asia Minor, Turkistan, and Russia. It was no revivifying flood, like that which enriched the Roman soil when the Germans invaded it. Genghis Khan's hordes knew no joy beyond building huge heaps of the skulls of the slain, and marching their horses over the ruins of burnt cities. Wherever they passed, there was an end to all culture, to all the joys of life, and to the future prosperity of nations ; a dreary savage barbarism pressed upon coim- tries which but a century before could have rivalled in civilization the very flower of Europe. — Von Sybel. THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 285 Erigat nos, mater, coeleste solatium, quia si proveniant ipsi, vel nos ipsos quos vocamus Tartaros ad suas Taitareas sedes, unde exierunt, retrudemus, vel ipsi nos omnes ad ccelam advehant.i — Louis IX. Down from the steppes of Tartary His countless thousands swept for years, — His long-haired horsemen with their spears. His bowmen with their arrows keen ; Such pitiless fiends were never seen Till then, and worst of all was he, Destruction's self, whose iron tread Shook kingdoms. Stoddard. MAGNA CHAETA. The English barons in 1215 extorted from King John the Magna Charta (Great Charter), which emhodied all the laws and rights which he had disregarded, with am- plifications and numerous provisions for the liberties of the people. Magna Charta is sucli a fellow that he will have no sovereign. — RUSHWORTH. It is the keystone of EngUah liberty. All that has since been ob- tained is little more than a confirmation or commentary; and if every subsequent law were swept away there would still remain the bold features that distinguish a free from a despotic monarchy. — Hallam. 'T is the oppressions of William the Norman, savage forest-laws, and crushing despotism, that made possible the inspirations of Magna Charta under John. — Emehson. Thus, after the contests of near a whole century, and those ever accompanied with violent jealousies, often with public convulsions, the Great Charter was finally established ; and the English nation 1 Their name of Tatar is said to have teen changed into that of Tartar, in consequence of this reported exclamation of Louis IX. 286 THIRTEENTH CENTUEY. have the honor of extorting, by their perseverance, this concession from the ablest, the most warlike, and the most ambitious of all their princes [John]. . . . Though arbitrary practices often prevailed, and were even able to establish themselves into settled customs, the valid- ity of the Great Charter was never afterwards formally disputed ; and that grant was still regarded as the basis of English government, and the sure rule by which the authority of every custom was to be tried and canvassed. — Hume. The Great Charter, it is hardly necessary to say, had nothing to do with the creation of our liberties. Its inexpressible value was, that it corrected, confirmed, and re-established ancient and indisputable, though continually violated, public rights ; that it abolished the worst of the abuses which had crept into existing laws ; that it gave an improved tone, by giving a definite and substantial form, to future popular desires and aspirations ; that, without attempting to frame a new code, or even to inculcate any grand or general principles of legis- lation, it did in effect accomplish both, because, in insisting upon the just discharge of special feudal relations, it afiSrmed a principle, of equity which was found generally applicable far beyond them ; that it turned into a tangible possession what before was fleeting and unde- termined ; and that, throughout the centuries which succeeded, it was violated by all our kings and appealed to by every struggling section of our countrymen. — Forster. There is no transaction in the ancient part of our English history more interesting and important than the rise and progress, the grad- ual mutation and final establishment, of the charters of liberties, emphatically styled the " Great Charter " and " Charter of the For- est ; " and yet there is none that has been transmitted down to us with less accuracy and historical precision. — Blaokstohe. THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 287 GEOWTH OF THE TOWNS. HANSEATIO LEAGUE. I gave some favored cities there to lift A nobler brow, and through tlieir swarming streets. More busy, wealthy, clieerful, and alive. In each contented face to look my soul, Thomson. A STRIKING proof of the social improvement now begin- ning to take place, a sign that the European nations were emerging from the degradation and poverty of the Dark Ages, is seen in the marked increase in the prosperity, power, and influence of the towns. Greek and Eoman life had centred in the cities, but the settlements of the Teu- tonic nations had caused the greatness and importance of these very sensibly to decrease, for the Teutons were not used to dwelling in towns; now, however, with the beginning of the revival of civilization, they began to be again of great importance. In Italy the cities had risen to distinction before this century. The confederation known as the Lom- bard League, comprising the principal towns of Lombardy, in Northern Italy, was formed in 1167. About the middle of the thirteenth century a confederation of eighty of the chief German cities (among which were Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubec), known as the Hanseatic League, was estab- lished for mutual protection. This union of the chief trading towns became very powerful. The growth of the cities was accompanied by a corresponding increase in the various industries and manufactures, and in the diffusion of trade and commerce. The Hanse League did much " to define general principles of mer- cantile law, and to enlarge the scope and ennohle the spirit of com- 288 THIRTEENTH CENTURY. mercial enterprise, by uniting many petty, narrow interests in a great common cause. It served greatly to increase the wealth of the cities themselves, and to develop in their populations taste, refinement, and genius for both the practical and the fine arts. By the stimulus which it imparted to agricultural industry it also waked a spirit of enterprise and a love of liberty in the breasts of the oppressed tillers of the soU, and thus, joined with other influences, prepared the way for the emancipation of the serfs. The League thus touched the springs of social life and activity universally, to the advantage of all classes. In its leading ideas and poUcy, though crude and only partially developed, we find the germs of that law of reciprocity and freedom which is now so generally recognized as the basis of modern commerce." In these communities we trace not the germs, but the fully devel- oped forms, of self-government at a time when, in material comforts, the towns of Western Europe differed little from the rudest mud hovels or shanties of the remotest country village in Ireland or the West of Scotland. If it be true that the English artisan stepped out of his mud hovel into a more muddy street, when the Moor at one corner of Europe [Southern Spain] and the Elorentine at the other were enjoy- ing the luxury of palaces and the civic improvements of a polished capital, equally true it is that the English mechanic was living in the enjoyment of municipal institutions and privileges which, with all the advantages of imitation and the lapse of five centuries, his predecessors in the arts have yet failed to realize. Notwithstanding, then, the many material discomforts, and the absence of all due means of clean- liness and health, requisite for preserving large masses of population, crowded into narrow streets, from degenerating into bru^lity, the town populations of England and of Europe were preserved in some measure from that moral degradation which might have been antici- pated from their social condition. — Brewer. The Hanse Towns, by their political liberty being restricted till their commerce was established, escaped all fruitless disturbances of the industrial life, which grew iip within them as prosperously as in the midst of the most powerful feudal organizations, — like those of England and France. — Comie. THIRTEENTH CENTUEY. 289 GUELFS AND GHIBELLINES. The fends between these two political parties raged in Germany and Italy for nearly three centuries during the Middle Ages. The Guelfs were the faction which sup- ported the Pope, while the opposite party of the Ghibel- lines supported the Emperor. The contentions began in the middle of the twelfth century. I believe that it was the just anger of God that permitted — it is a long time ago — almost all Tuscany and Lombardy to be divided into two parties. I do not know how they acquired those names, but one party was called Guelf and the other party GhibeUine. And these two names were so revered, and had such an effect on the folly of many minds, that, for the sake of defending the side any one had chosen for his own against the opposite party, it was not considered hard to lose property, and even life, if it were necessary. And under these names the Italian cities many times suffered serious grievances and changes ; and among the rest our city [Florence], which was some- times at the head of one party and sometimes of the other, according to the citizens in power. — Boccaccio. Tr. Mrs. Bunbury. THE CKUSADE AGAINST THE ALBIGENSES. The Albigenses were a party of reformers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, who separated from the Church of Eome, and took their name from Albi, in the south of France. A crusade was preached against them in 1207 and 1208 by Pope Innocent III., and in 1209 an army of five hundred thousand men was led against them by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. The crusade was con- tinued with greater or less energy for many years, and 19 290 THIRTEENTH CENT0EY. finally ended near the midd,le of the thirteenth century in the destruction of the Albigenses. The tribunal of the Inquisition was first opened in this crusade, about the year 1210. The effort to eradicate the heresy of the Albigenses offers the first example of the inclination of the Eoman Church to use methods of extreme violence against dissenters. ARCHITECTURE. Gothic architecture, which originated in the latter part of the previous century, flourished greatly at this time throughout all Europe. Not even the great Pharaonic era in Egypt, the age of Pericles in Greece, nor the great period of the Roman Empire, will bear compari- son with the thirteenth century in Europe, whether we look to the extent of the buildings executed, their wonderful variety and con- structive elegance, the daring imagination that conceived them, or the power of poetry and of lofty religious feelings that is expressed in every feature and in every jsart of them. — Eeegusson. Even the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which were like the coming of the spring after a long winter, making the earth to blossom, and gladdening the hearts of men, — the centuries which elsewhere in Italy, and over the rest of Europe, gave birth to the noblest mediaeval art, when every great city was adorning itself with the beautiful works of the new architecture, sculpture, and painting, — even these centuries left scarcely any token of their passage over Rome. The sun, breaking through the clouds that had long hidden it, shone everywhere but here. While Florence was building her cathedral and her campanile, and Orvieto her matchless duonio, — while Pisa was showing her piety and wealth in her cathedral, her camposanto, her baptistery, and her tower, — while Siena was beginning a church greater and more magnificent than her shifting fortune would permit her to complete, — Rome was building neither cathedral nor campa- nile, but was selling the marbles of her ancient temples and tombs to THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 291 the builders of other cities, or quarrying them for her own mean uses. — C. E. Norton. It was a great period, and its greatness seemed to pervade even the most secluded districts. . . . Let us not imagine that the architecture of the age developed itself only in cathedrals, abbeys, or churches of any kind ; all other buildings evince the same spirit. A barn of the thirteenth century shows the nobleness of the pervading style as clearly as even the cathedral itself, and what remains of their domestic archi- tecture tells the same tale. Everything was done well, in good taste, and in accordance with reasonable and practical requirements and the means at command. — Sir Gilbert Scott. THE END OF THE CEUSADES. Although the Crusades did not result in the permanent recovery of Palestine from the Mahometan powers, many real benefits were derived from them, doubtless of far greater advantage to the general interests of Europe than if their intended end had been accomplished. They exerted a favorable and very powerful effect upon literature, art, science, and commerce, and from them may be dated a great quickening and broadening of the intellect throughout Europe. In 1291 the Holy Land is lost, the age of the Crusades over. Jeru- salem is no longer the centre of the world or of human thought. Europe loses the Holy Land, but sees the earth. — Michelet. Nazareth was taken by Sultan Khalil in 1291, when he stormed the last refuge of the Crusaders in the neighboring city of Acre. From that time, not Nazareth only, but the whole of Palestine, was closed to the devotions of Europe. The Crusaders were expelled from Asia, and in Europe the spirit of the Crusades was extinct. — A. P. Stanley. Six generations had now passed away since Peter the Hermit preached the First Crusade. Men had thronged to Palestine from 292 THIRTEENTH CENTUEY. every portion of Western Europe, to wrest the holy places from the hands of unbelievers, or to defend the newly founded Christian king- dom. Thither they had gone from the pine-covered mountains of Norway, from the rooky fastnesses of Germany, from the sea-girt shores of England, and from the sunny plains of France and Italy. Many millions had left their homes to fight for their religion in another continent, or to perish of starvation and disease upon its dry and barren plains. Their blobd had been poured out like water ; their bones had covered every spot between the Bosphorus and Jeru- salem ; and there was not a royal or a noble family, from the Med- iterranean to the North Sea, which had not lost some of its brightest ornaments in these long-continued wars. Uncounted sums of money had been lavished upon the preparations, or been spent in the pur- chase of food or in profligate enjoyments after arriving in Asia. And now what had been the result of all this vast expenditure of life and treasure ? ... It is from them, and from the peculiar condition of affairs to which they gave rise, that we can first trace those vast changes in the social fabric which tended to lead men out of the superstition and semi-barbarism of the Middle Ages, into the light of our modem civilization. In the first place, the natural result of these protracted and costly wars was, in the end, to exhaust the resources and weaken the power of the feudal barons. In the next place, they constantly tended to buUd up the commercial classes ; and these two effects operating together resulted to a very large extent in the transfer of power from the baronial hall to the city and the exchange. It was at this period that many of the free cities of Italy and Germany had their origin, and that others attained their highest degree of power and magnificence. — Christian Examiner. In the great streams of history, none hopelessly sink but those who destroy themselves. It was the heat of religious excitement which called the Crusades into existence, and then irresistibly hur- ried them to perdition. We have seen how over-excitement, thirst for the miraculous, and contempt for the world rendered any regular and consecutive plan of conquest in the East impossible from the very beginning. The Crusaders despised all the earthly resources of the human mind, and thus their mystical transports led them into every other miserable passion. With the Frankish states the very existence of the Christian religion perished in the East. — Von Sybel. THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 293 The Crusades of the Christian nations, intended to dislodge the " Infidel" out of Jerusalem, though they had failed in that object, had awakened Europe to new life. East and West were brought nearer together. Knights and soldiers and pilgrims brought home from new lands new thoughts and wider notions. Commerce with the East was extended. Maritime enterprise was stimulated. There was improvement in ships. The mariner's compass was discovered, and under its guidance longer voyages could safely be made. The inven- tion of gunpowder had changed the character of war, and enlarged the scale on which it was 'waged. The recent conqiiests of the Turlis were indirectly the cause of new life to Christendom. The fall of Constantinople resulted in a great revival of learning in Europe. Driven from the East, learned Greeks and Jews came to settle in Italy. Greek and Hebrew were again studied in Europe. The lit- erature, the history, the poetry, the philosophy and arts, of old Greece and Rome were revived. And the result was, that a succession of poets, painters, sculptors, and historians sprang up in Christendom, such as had not been known for centuries. Above all, the invention of printing had come just in time to spread whatever new ideas were afloat with a rapidity never known before. — Seebohm. Worthless in themselves, and wholly useless as means for founding any permanent dominion in Palestine or elsewhere, these enterprises have affected the commonwealths of Europe in ways of which the promoters never dreamed. They left a wider gulf between the Greek and the Latin churches, between the subjects of the Eastern Empire and the nations of Western Europe ; but by the mere fact of throwing East and West together, they led gradually to that interchange of thought and that awakening of the human intel- lect to which we owe all that distinguishes our modem civilization from the religious and political systems of the Middle Ages. — G. W. Cox. The great result of the Crusades, among many which have engrossed more attention, was that they preserved the Western pro- gression, and remanded the Mussulman proselytism to the East, where its action might be really progressive. — Comte. The conflagration which destroyed the tall and barren trees of the forest gave air and scope to the vegetation of the smaller and nutri- tive plants of the soil. — Gibbon. 294 THIRTEENTH CENTURY. Nor can Imagination quit the shores Of these briglit scenes without a farewell glance Given to those dream-like issues, — that Romance Of many-colored life which Fortune pours Round the Crusaders, till on distant shores Their labors end; or they return to lie. The vow performed, in cross-legged effigy. Devoutly stretched upon their chancel floors. Am I deceived ? Or is their requiem chanted By voices never mute when Heaven unties Her inmost, softest, tenderest harmonies ; Requiem which Earth takes up with voice undaunted. When she would tell how good and hrave and wise For their high guerdon not in vain have panted ! WOEDSWOETH. High deeds achieved of knightly fame, From Palestine the champion came; The cross upon his shoulders borne. Battle and blast had dimmed and torn. Each dint upon his battered shield Was token of a foughten field ; And thus, beneath his lady's bower. He sung, as fell the twilight hour: " Joy to the fair ! — thy knight behold, Returned from yonder land of gold ; No wealth he brings, nor wealth can need, Save his good arms and battle-steed ; His spurs to dash against a foe, His lance and sword to lay him low; Such all the trophies of his toil. Such — and the hope of Tekla's smile ! " Scott. And vain the hope, and vain the loss, And vain the famine and the strife ; In vain the faith that bore the cross. The valor prodigal of life ! And vain was Richard's lion soul, And guileless Godfrey's patient mind, — Like waves on shore, they reached the goal. To die, and leave no trace behind ! L'OBD Lttton, The Last Crusader. THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 295 THE SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. Spints that crowd the intellectual sphere With Tnazy boundaries, as the astronomer With orb and cycle girds the starry throng. WOKDSWOETH. The appellation of Schoolmen is collectively given to those philosophers and divines of the Middle Ages who fol- lowed the principles of Aristotle, and, applying the art of dialectics to obscure points of theology and metaphysics, spent much time on points of nice and abstract speculation. The name was derived from their having taught in the schools founded by Charlemagne. The culmination of the Scho- lastic philosophy was reached in the thirteenth century, in the time of Thomas Aquinas (the Angelic Doctor), the most celebrated of the Schoolmen, and the famous Duns Scotus (the Subtle Doctor), celebrated for his " keenness and versatility in detecting invisible distinctions, in multiply- ing hypotheses which differed from each other only in some verbal incidents, in untwisting every thought and proposition as by an intellectual prism, in speculating upon themes above the reach of human knowledge, and in the multiplication of ingenious theories without proof to sustain them or utility to recommend them." The Scholastic philosophy may he said to have expired with the conclusion of the fourteenth century, at least as to its influence on the leading minds of the age. Four distinct periods have been observed in the course of its development ; the tirst beginning with its earliest commencement and including the names of Berengarius, Lanfranc, Anselm, and Hildebert. The second era commences with the rise of the sect of Nominalists, the founder of whom was Johannes Eoscellinus, and their most distinguished member the celebrated Peter Abelard. The third period is marked by the introduction into Europe of the writings of the Arabian philosophers, and the trans- 296 THIRTEENTH CENTUKT. lation into Latin of their versions of Aristotle's writings, with the complete ascendency of Realism, and the now undisputed supremacy of Aristotle. The greatest names in this period, which embraces nearly all the thirteenth century, are those of Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and Duns Scotus. . . . The glaring realism of Scotus roused the independent spirit of an Enghshman, William of Ockham, to a closer investigation of the internal conditions of thought, and in him led to what may be considered a transition state between the formation of the old Schoolmen and the tendency towards nature and experience which distinguishes modem specula- tions. — Brande's Dictionary of Science, Literature, and Art. We may consider the reign of mere disputation as fully established at the time of which we are now speaking. . . . Instead of acquiring distinct ideas, they multiplied abstract terms; instead of real general- izations, they had recourse to verbal distinctions. The whole course of their employments tended to make them not only ignorant of physical truth, but incapable of conceiving its nature. Having thus taken upon themselves the task of raising and discussing questions by means of abstract terms, verbal distinctions^ and logical rules alone, there was no tendency in their activity to come to an end, as there was no progress. The same questions, the same answers, the same difficulties, the same solutions, the same verbal subtleties, — sought for, admired, cavilled at, abandoned, reproduced, and again admired, — might recur without limit. . . . The same knots were tied and untied ; the same clouds were formed and dissipated. The poet's censure of " the Sons of Aristotle" is as just as happily expressed : — " They stand Locked up together, hand in hand; Every one leads as he is led, The same hare path they tread, And dance like fairies a fantastic ronnd, But neither change their motion nor their ground." It wUl therefore be unnecessary to go into any detail respecting the history of the School philosophy of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. — William Whewell. This kind of degenerate learning did chiefly reign amongst the School- men ; who, having sharp and strong wits, and abundance of leisure, and small variety of reading (but their wits being shut up in the cells THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 297 of a few autliors, chiefly Aristotle their dictator, as their persons were shut up in the cells of monasteries and colleges), and knowing little history, either of nature or time, did out of no great quantity of mat- ter, and infinite agitation of wit, spin out unto us those laborious webs of learning which are extant in their books. For the wit and mind of man, if it work upon matter, which is the contemplation of the creatures of God, worketh according to the stuff, and is limited thereby ; but if it work upon itself, as the spider worketh his web, then it is endless and brings forth indeed cobwebs of learning, ad- mirable for the fineness of thread and work, but of no substance or profit. — LoKD Bacon. Now came the great age of the Schoolmen. Latin Christianity raised np those vast monuments of theology which amaze and appaU the mind with the enormous accumulation of intellectual industry, ingenuity, and toil, but of which the sole result to posterity ia this barren amazement. The tomes of Scholastic divinity may be com- pared with the Pyramids of Egypt, which stand in that rude majesty which is commanding from the display of immense human power, yet oppressive from the sense of the waste of that power for no dis- coverable use. Whoever penetrates within finds himself bewildered and lost in a labyrinth of small, dark, intricate passages and chambers, devoid of grandeur, devoid of solemnity ; he may wander without end, and find nothing ! It was not, indeed, the enforced labor of a slave population ; it was, rather, voluntary slavery, submitting in its intellectual ambition and its religious patience to monastic disciphne : it was the work of a small intellectual oligarchy, — monks, of neces- sity, in mind and habits ; for it imperiously required absolute seclusion either in the monastery or in the university, a long life under monas- tic rule. . . It may be said of Scholasticism, as a whole, that who- ever takes delight in what may be called gymnastic exercises of the reason or reasoning powers — efforts which never had, and hardly cared to have, any bearing on the life, or even on the sentiments and opin- ions of mankind — may study these works, the crowning effort of Latin, of Sacerdotal, and Monastic Christianity, and may acquire something like respect for these forgotten athletes in the intellectual games of antiquity. — Milman. Consider the old Schoolmen, and their pilgrimage towards Truth : the faithfuUest endeavor, incessant unwearied motion, often great 298 THIETEENTH CENTURY. natural vigor ; only no progress : nothing but antic feats of one limb poised against the other ; there they balanced, somersetted, and made postures ; at best gyrated swiftly, with some pleasure, like Spinning Dervishes, and ended where they began. — Caeltlb. THE ITALIAN CITIES. Sun-girt city I thou hast been Ocean's child, and then his queen. Shelley. As the turning of the lunar heaven Covers and bares the shores without a pause, In the like manner fortune does with Florence. Therefore should not appear a marvellous thing What I shall say of the great Florentines Of whom the fame is hidden in the Past. Dante. Tr. Longfellow. Where Venice sate in state, throned on her thousand isles. Byron. A NOTABLE event of the Middle Ages is the rise and com- mercial prosperity of the Italian republics, of which Venice and Florence were the most famous. Venice owes its origin to the invasion of ISTorthern Italy by Attila the Hun, whose approach caused the inhabitants to flee to the lagoons for safety. On these islands of the Adriatic was laid the foun- dation of the rich and powerful republic which for centuries controlled the commerce of the world. Florence rose, in the thirteenth century, to be one of the chief cities of Italy. In the fifteenth century, under the splendid rule of the Medici, this democratic commonwealth (for the ruling family did not abolish the form of popular government) became a great centre of intellectual life and of commercial activity. Genoa and Pisa were also powerful republics in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 299 In the northern angle of the Adriatic is a gulf, called lagune, in which more than sixty islands of sand, marsh, and seaweed have been formed by a concurrence of natural causes. These islands have be- come the city of Venice, which has lorded it over Italy, conquered Constantinople, resisted a league of all the kings of Christendom, long carried on the commerce of the world, and bequeathed to nations the model of the most stable government ever framed by man. — Daru. It was for no idle fancy that their colonists fled to these islands ; it was no mere whim which impelled those who followed to combine with them: necessity taught them to look for security in a highly dis- advantageous situation, which afterwards became most advantageous, enduing them with talent, when the whole of the northern world was immersed in gloom. Their increase and their wealth were the necessary consequence. — Goethe. A few in fear. Flying away from him whose boast it was That the grass grew not where his horse had trod. Gave birth to Venice. Like the water-fowl, They built their nests among the ocean waves ; And where the sands were shifting, as the wind Blew from the north or south, — where they that came Had to make sure the ground they stood upon, — Rose, like an exhalation from the deep, A vast metropolis, with glistening spires. With theatres, basilicas adorned ; A scene of light and glory, a dominion, That has endured the longest among men. Rogers. The Crusades, from which the inhabitants of other countries gained nothing but relics and wounds, brought the rising commonwealths of the Adriatic and Tyrrhene seas a large increase of wealth, dominion, and knowledge. Their moral and their geographical position enabled them to profit alike by the barbarism of the West and the civilization of the East. Their ships covered every sea. Their factories rose on every shore. Their money-changers set their tables in every city. Manufactures flourished. Banks were established. The operations of the commercial machine were facilitated by many useful and beau- tiful inventions. We doubt whether any country of Europe, our own perhaps excepted, has at the present time reached so high a point 300 THIRTEENTH CENTUKT. of wealth and civilization as some parts of Italy had attained four himdred years ago. — Macaulay. While the vast feudal monarchies of Europe were buried in igno- rance and barbarism, the little states of Florence, Bologna, Eome, and Venice were far advanced in the career of arts and in the acquisition of knowledge ; and at this moment the traveller neglects the bound- less but unknown tracts of Germany and France to visit the tombs of Raphael and Michael Angelo and Tasso, to dwell in a country where every city and every landscape reminds him of the greatness of human genius, or the perfection of human taste. — Alison. With the history of Europe before us, from the tenth to the six- teenth century, who shall say that these free states, with all their grievous shortcomings, were not superior in civilization and social virtues to the coarse feudal principalities and military monarchies of the Middle Ages ? — Mat. In looking at the history of the Italian republics, from the eleventh to the fifteenth century, we are struck with two facts, seemingly con- tradictory, yet stUl indisputable. We see passing before us a won- derful display of courage, of activity, and of genius ; an amazing prosperity is the result : we see a movement and a liberty unknown to the rest of Europe. But if we ask what was the real state of the inhabitants, how they passed their lives, what was their real share of happiness, the scene changes : there is perhaps no history so sad, so gloomy, — no period, perhaps, during which the lot of man appears to have been so agitated, subject to so many deplorable chances, and which so abounds in dissensions, crimes, and misfortunes. Another fact strikes us at the same moment ; in the political life of the greater part of these republics, liberty was always growing less and less. The want of security was so great that the people were unavoidably driven to take shelter in a system less stormy, less popular, than that in which the state existed. Look at the history of Florence, Venice, Genoa, Milan, or Pisa; in all of them we find the course of events, instead of enlarging the circle of institutions, tending to repress it ; tending to concentrate power in the hands of a smaller number of individuals. In a word, we find in these republics, otherwise so energetic, so bril- liant, and so rich, two things wanting, — security of life, the first requi- site in the social state, and the progress of institutions. — Gdizot. THIKTEENTH CENTUEY. 301 The work of the Lombard was to give hardihood and system to the enervated body and enfeebled mind of Chi'istendom ; that of the Arab was to punish idolatry, and to proclaim the spirituality of wor- ship. The Lombard covered every church which he built with the sculptured representations of bodily exercises, — hunting and war. The Arab banished all imagination of creature form from his temples, and proclaimed from their minarets, " There is no god but God." Opposite in their character and mission, alike in their magnificence of energy, they came from the North, and fi'om the South, the glacier torrent and the lava stream : they met and contended over the wreck of the Roman Empire ; and the very centre of the struggle, the point of pause of both, the dead water of the opposite eddies, charged with embayed fragments of the Roman wreck, is Venice. — RUSKIN. Since the first dominion of men was asserted over the ocean, three thrones, of mark beyond all others, have been set upon its sands, — the thrones of Tyre, Venice, and England. Of the first of these great powers only the memory remains ; of the second, the ruiu; the third, which inherits their greatness, if it forget their example, may be led through prouder eminence to less pitied destruction. The exaltation, the sia, and the punishment of Tyre have been recorded for us, in perhaps the most touching words ever uttered by the Prophets of Israel against the cities of the stranger. But we read them as a lovely song, and close our ears to the sternness of their warning; for the very depth of the fall of Tyre has blinded us to its reality, and we forget, as we watch the bleaching of the rocks between the sunshine and the sea, that they were once " as an Eden, the garden of God." Her successor, like her in perfection of beauty, though less in en- durance of dominion, is still left for our beholding in the final period of her decline ; a ghost upon the sands of the sea, so weak, so quiet, so bereft of all but her loveliness, that we might well doubt, as we watched her faint reflection in the mirage of the lagoon, which was the City and which the Shadow. — Ruskin. The Italian cities, which had been foremost in political liberty, paid for the privilege by fatal mutual animosities and internal quar- rels, till their turbulent independence issued everywhere in the supremacy of a local family, — first feudal in Lombardy, and after- wards industrial in Tuscany. But Venice was saved from the fate of her neighbors. — Comte. 302 THIKTEENTH CENTUEY. Venetia stands with endless teauties crowned, And as a world within herself is found. Hail ! queen of Italy ! for years to come The mighty rival of immortal Eome ! Nations and seas are in thy states enrolled. And kings among thy citizens are told. Ausonia's brightest ornament ! by thee She sits a sovereign, uneuslaved and free; By thee, the rude barbarian chased away. The rising sun cheers with a purer ray Our western world, and doubly gilds the day. Samnazzaeo. Tr. Addison. I saw from out the wave her structures rise As from the stroke of an enchanter's wand: A thousand years their cloudy wings expand Around me, and a dying Glory smiles O'er the far times, when many a subject land Looked to the winged Lion's marble piles, Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles ! She looks a sea Cybele, fresh from ocean, Rising with her tiara of proud towers At airy distance, with majestic motion, A ruler of the waters and their powers : And such she was; — her daughters had their dowers From spoils of nations, and the exhaustless Bast Poured in her lap all gems in sparkling showers. In purple was she robed, and of her feast Monarchs partook, and deemed their dignity lucieased. In Venice Tasso's echoes are no more. And silent rows the songless gondolier ; Her palaces are cmmbling to the shore. And music meets not always now the ear : Those days are gone — but Beauty still is here. States fall, arts fade — but Nature doth not die, Nor yet forget how Venice once was dear. The pleasant place of all festivity, The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy ! Bthon. There is a glorious city in the sea: The sea is in the broad, the narrow streets. Ebbing and flowing ; and the salt sea-weed Caings to the marble of her palaces. by many a dome, Mosque-like, and many a stately portico. THIRTEENTH CENTUEY. 303 With statues ranged along an azure sky ; — By many a pile, in more than Eastern pride, ' Of old the residence of merchant kings; The fronts of some, though time had shattered them. Still glowing "with the richest hues of art. As though the wealth within them had run o'er. BOQERS. Once did she hold the gorgeous East in fee, And was the safeguard of the West : the worth Of Venice did not fall below her birth, Venice, the eldest child of Liberty. She was a maiden city, bright and free ; No guile seduced, no force coiJd violate; And when she took unto herself a mate, She must espouse the everlasting Sea. And what if she liad seen those glories fade. Those titles vanish, and that strength decay; Yet shall some tribute of regret be paid When her long life hath reached its final day: Men are we, and must grieve when even the shade Of that which once was great is passed away. Wordsworth. To this fair Queen of Adria's stormy gulf, The mart of nations ! long, obedient seas Rolled all the treasure of the radiant East. Thomson. Venice ! Venice ! when thy marble walls Are level with the waters, there shall be A cry of nations o'er thy sunken halls, A loud lament along the sweeping sea ! Byron. Florence ! with the Tuscan fields and hills. And famous Amo, fed with all their rills ; Thou brightest star of star-bright Italy ! Rich, ornate, populous, all treasures thine. Coleridge. O my own Italy ! though words are vain The mortal wounds to close, Unnumbered, that thy beauteous bosom stain, Yet it may soothe my pain To sigh for the Tiber's woes, And Amo's wrongs, as on Po's saddened shore Sorrowing I wander, and my numbers pour. Pethakch. Tr. Lady Dacre. About AD. 1^00 Ec7io-fy}3r?nnii-n8 Co,.Bostm FOURTEENTH CENTURY. (1300 - 1400.) The German Empire in this century both loses and gains terri- tory, without material change. Prance is engaged in long wars with England, which, with vary- ing success, lead finally to a great increase of the French dominion and territory. Englastd, after several great victories, meets with heavy losses on French soil, and towards the close of the century her possessions on the Continent are reduced to a few cities. The Eastern Empire loses ground rapidly under the encroach- ment of the Turks, both in Europe and Asia, and by the close of the century holds scarcely anything but Constantinople. Italy is still divided into independent commonwealths, which more and more fall under the power of princely families or tyrants. In the Spanish Peninsula there are few geographical changes in this century, but Spain is steadily consolidating into a great power. The Ottoman Turks in this century press into Europe, and take from the Eastern Empire a great part of its possessions, besides acquiring'the greater part of Asia Minor. The three kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, are united toward the close of this century. The Swiss Confederation is founded in 1308 by the union of three cantons ; increased to eight cantons in 1353. Edssia. The powerful Mogul dynasty within the dominion of Russia con- tinues. Mogul Empieb. The great Mogul power of the last century comes to an end (except in Russia), heing succeeded by the Ottoman Tueks (which see), and by the gi-eat dominion of Timoue the Tartar (Tamerlane). Taetae Dominion. See above, under Mogul Empies. TuEKS. See above, under Ottoman Tueks. 20 A, I>. 1300 - A. D. 1400. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 1307. Swiss Confederation founded. 1309. Clement V. transfers the seat of tlie popes to Avignon. 1320? Gunpowder (early known to the Chinese) said to have been in- vented by Schwartz. Cannon used for defence a httle later. 1346. Battle of Crecy. 1347. Rienzi, the " Last of the Tribunes " at Borne. 1347. Great Plague in Europe. 1356. Battle of Poitiers. 1380. WychflFe makes an English transla- tion of the Bible, regarded as the first complete English version. 1397. Union of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. PROMINENT NAMES OP THE CENTURY. Enqlanb. Kvngs. — Edward I., Edward III. Queen. — Margaret, Tamerlane. Denmark. Tartar Conqueeor. John Duns Scotus, Dante, Giotto, "William Occam (Invincible Doctor), Petrarch, Boccaccio, 'Wycliffe, Chaucer, Froissart. ILLUSTRATIONS. THE HUNDEED YEAES' WAE. IN" the first half of this century began the long struggle between England and France, known as the Hundred Years' War. Edward III. laid claim to the throne of France on the ground of heredity, and invaded that coun- try (then under Philip VI.) to vindicate his claim, begin- ning a contest between the two countries which lasted with vaiying success till the middle of the next century- During this century occurred the famous English victories of Cr^cy (1346) and Poitiers (1356). Poitiers and Cressy tell. When most their pride did swell, Under our swords they fell. Michael Dratton. Witness our too much memorable shame, When Cressy hattle fatally was struck. And all our princes oaptived, by the hand Of that black name, Edward, black prince of Wales. Shakespeaeb. Feudalism, full of pride and weakness, still survived ; resembling a gigantic armor which, hanging empty against the wall, yet threat- ens and brandishes the lance. As soon as touched, it falls to the ground, — at Cr6cy and at Poitiers. — Michelet. 308 FOUKTEENTH CENTUEY. Subsequently the greater part of Aquitaine was con- quered- by the French, and by the end of the century the English possessions in France were reduced to a few cities. No war had broken out in Europe, since the fall of the Eoman Empire, so memorable as that of Edward III. and his successors against France, whether we consider its duration, its object, or the magnitude and variety of its events. It was a struggle of one him- dred and twenty years, interrupted but once by a regular pacification, where the most ancient and extensive dominion in the civilized world was the prize, twice lost and twice recovered in the conflict, while individual courage was wrought up to that high pitch which it can seldom display since the regularity of modem tactics has chastised its enthusiasm and levelled its distinctions. There can be no occasion to dwell upon the events of this war, which are familiar to almost every reader. — Hallam. The battle of Crecy is not merely a battle, the taking of Calais is not simply the taking of a town, — these two events involve a great social revolution. The entire chivalry of the most chivalrous na- tion in the world had been exterminated by a small band of foot- soldiers. MiCHELET. See also the next century. THE BLACK DEATH. For at this time there prevailed throughout the world generally a disease called epidemy, which destroyed a third of its inhabi- tants. — Feoissaet. During this century a great pestilence (deriving its name from black spots which appeared upon the body at one stage of the disease) desolated the world. It is sup- posed to have broken out in China, and, traversing Asia, appeared in Europe in 1348, where it prevailed until 1351. No less than 25,000,000 persons are said to have perished in Europe alone. rOUKTEENTH CENTUEY. 309 Epochs of moral depression are those, too, of great mortality. — MiCHELET. We first discover it in the empire of Cathai ; thence we may trace its progress tlirough different provinces of Asia to the Delta and the banks of the Nile ; a south wind transported it into Greece and the Grecian islands, from which it swept the coasts of the Mediterranean, depopulated Italy, and crossed the barriers of the Alps into France ; . . . in November it reached London, and thence gradually proceeded to the north of the island. . . . When historians tell us that one half or one third of the human race perished, we may suspect them of exag- geration ; but it is easy to form some idea of the mortality from the fact that all the cemeteries in London were soon filled. — Lingaed. The historians of all countries speak with horror of this pestilence. It took a wider range and proved more destructive than any calamity of that nature known in the annals of mankind. — Loed Hailes. The black death, which raged in Germany in the year 1348, put a complete stop to our early literature ; and the literature of Florence was manifestly affected in the same way. After the black death, the arts were for years at a perfect stand-stiU. — Niebtjhb. Alas ! how many fine houses remained empty ! how many fortunes without heirs ! how many lovely ladies, how many amiable young persons, dined in the morning with their friends, who, when evening came, supped with their ancestors ! — Boccaccio. TAMEELANE'S CONQUESTS. Timour, — he Wliom the astonished people saw Striding o'er empires haughtily A diademed outlaw t POE. In the last half of the century the famous Tamerlane, or Timour, a descendant of Genghis Khan, conquered West- ern Asia; and not only the Ottoman Turks, but even the Eastern Empire, paid tribute to him. He invaded India, and was preparing to invade China when he died, early in 310 FOUETEENTH CENTtJEY. the next century (1405). Most of his acquisitions were soon lost by his successors. The fame of Timoixr has pervaded the East and the West, and the admiration of his subjects, who revered him almost as a deity, may be justified in some degree by the praise or confessions of his bitterest enemies. He might boast that, at his accession to the throne, Asia was the prey of anarchy and rapine, whilst, under his prosperous monarchy, a child, fearless and vmhurt, might carry a purse of gold from the east to the west. By their rapine, cruelty, and discord, the petty tyrants of Persia might aiflict their subjects, but whole nations were crushed under the footsteps of the reformer. The ground which had been occupied by flourishing cities was often marked by his abominable trophies, by columns or pjrramids of human heads. — Gibbon. He [Tamerlane] considered the happiness of every human being as a feather in the scale when weighed against the advancement of what he deemed his personal glory ; and that appears to have been measured by the number of kingdoms he laid waste and the people he destroyed. — Sir J. Malcolm. How long your trites have trembled and obeyed ! How long was Timour's iron sceptre swayed, Whose marshalled hosts, the lions of the plain. From Soythia's northern mountains to the main, Eaged o'er your plundered shrines and altars bare. With blazing torch and gory scimitar, — Stunned with the cries of death each gentle gale. And bathed in blood the verdure of the vale ! Yet could no pangs the immortal spirit tame, When Brama's children perished for his name ; The martyr smiled beneath avenging power, And braved the tyrant in his torturing hour ! Campbell. In every part proportioned like the man Should make the world subdue to Tamburlaine. Black are his colors, black pavilion. His spear, his shield, his horse, his armor, plumes, And jetty feathers, menace death and hell; Without regard of sex, degree, or age. He razeth all his foes with fire and sword. Cheistopheb Marlowe. FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 311 UNION OF THE SWISS CANTONS. Early in the century a new power gradually began by the endeavors of the little mountain districts of Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden to throw off the Austrian yoke. They formed in 1307 or 1308 the confederation of Schwyz, which afterwards gradually gave its name to the whole country. In 1315 they won the battle of Morgarten over the Austrians. Other cantons were added, and about the middle of the century the league consisted of eight cantons. They also gained the battle of Sempach (1386), and during the following century the country gained in strength. The aflfairs of Switzerland occupy a very small space in the great chart of European history. But in some respects they are more interesting than the revolutions of mighty kingdoms. Nowhere besides do we find so many titles to our sympathy, or the union of so much virtue with so complete success. — Hallam. Battles and war-tumults, which for the time din every ear, and with joy or terror intoxicate every heart, pass away like tavern- brawls ; and, except some few Marathons and Morgartens, are re- membered by accident, not by desert. — Cabltle. The mountains then, clad with eternal snow, Confessed my power. Deep as the rampant rocks. By Nature thrown insuperable round, I planted there a league of friendly states. And hade plain Freedom their amhition be. Thomson. JOHN WYCLIFFE. BEGINNING OP RELIGIOUS DISSENT. In the last half of the century John "Wycliffe (1324- 1384), the " morning star of the Eeformation," began in England to denounce openly the doctrines and corruptions 312 FOURTEENTH CENTUEY. of the Eomish Ghurch, and to advocate religious liberty. He also translated the Bible into English. He clearly anticipated the most distinguishing doctrines of the Protestants, and hia opinions on certain points present an obvious coincidence with those of Calvin. — David iBViNa. INVENTION AND USE OF GUNPOWDER. The Chinese were acquainted with this substance at a very early period. Eoger Bacon, who lived in the thir- teenth centuiy, was undoubtedly acquainted with the explosive powers of gunpowder, but it was not at that time applied to purposes of war. Its use for military pur- poses is ascribed to Berthold Schwartz, a German monk and chemist, in the first half of the fourteenth century. This is a matter of uncertainty, however. It appears to have been used by the Arabs before this time. The use of gunpowder changed the whole system of warfare, and was a powerful agent in the overthrow of feudalism. If we contrast the rapid progress of this mischievous discovery with the slow and laborious advances of reason, science, and the arts of peace, a philosopher, according to his temper, will laugh or weep at the folly of mankind. — Gibbon. USE OF THE MARINEE'S COMPASS. See the next century. If ever the human race seemed destined to be always agitated, and yet always stationary, condemned to unceasing and yet barren labors, it was from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century that this was the complexion of its condition and history. — Gdizot. FOUETEENTH CENTUEY. 313 The world, in fact, is commencing a great crusade, but of a thor- oughly new kind. Less poetic than the iirst, it does not go in quest of the Holy Land, of the Graal, or of the empire of Trebizond. If we stop a vessel at sea, we shall no longer find a younger son of France who seeks a kingdom, but rather some Genoese or Venetian, who wUl willingly sell us sugar and cinnamon. Such is the hero of the modern world, no less heroioal than the other : he will risk for the gain of a aecLuin as much as Eichard Coeur-de-Lion for St. Jean d'Acre. The crusader of commerce performs his crusade in every sense of the word, and has his Jerusalem everywhere. — Michelet. An era notable in the history of mind, more especially notable in the history of art. The seed scattered hither and thither, during the stormy and warlike period of the Crusades, now sprung up and flourished, bearing diverse fruit. A more contemplative enthusiasm, a superstition tinged with a morbid melancholy, fermented into life and form ; . . and assuredly this state of feeling, with its mental and moral requirements, must have assisted in emancipating art from the rigid formalism of the degenerate Greek school. Men's hearts, throbbing with a more feeling, more pensive life, demanded some- thing more liki life — and produced it. — Mrs. Jameson. About AD. 1500 Xellntyp^Frintrng CA^altm. FIFTEENTH CENTTJRT. (1400-1500.) The Eastern Empire comes to an end in 1453, Constantinople being taken by the Turks. The German Empire is continually growing weaker, the imperial dignity being kept up by the princes of the House of Austria (an archduchy in the southeastern part of the empire), who are exclusively chosen emperors. France in the early part of the century is invaded by the Eng- lish, and loses a large portion of its possessions ; but in the latter half of the century these are nearly all, recovered, while its power is greatly increased in the east and south by the annexation of the Duchy of Burgundy and Provence. England loses its possessions in France in the latter part of this century, with the single exception of Calais. In Spain, the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon are united in 1479, and the Mahometan rule in the Peninsula ceases with the fall of Granada ia 1492. In Italt, the republic of Florence is at the height of its splendor under the Medici. The Tdrks seize Constantiuople and put an end to the Eastern Empire. Mogul, or Tartar, Empire. The empire of Tamerlane (Timonr the Tartar) comes to an end after his death in 1405. Russia frees herself from the Mogul rule in 1477, but takes no part as yet in European politics. The Swiss Confederation becomes of importance. Poland has risen to be an important power. America is discovered by Columbus in 1492. The Cape of Good Hope is discovered in 1487, and rounded by Vasco da Gama in 1497. A. D. 1400 - A. D. 1500. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 1402. Bajazet defeated by Tamerlane at Angora. 1414-1418. Council of Constance. 1415. Battle of Agincourt. 1415 (about). Western coast of Africa ex- plored by Portuguese. 1429, Joan of Arc at Orleans. 1453. Constantinople taken by the Otto- man Turks. End of the Eastern Empire. 1455. Beginning of the "Wars of the Boses. 1462. The Vulgate Bible printed. 1474. Printing introduced into England by Caxtou. 1479. Union of Castile and Aragon (Ferdi- nand and Isabella). 1487. Bartholomew Diaz discovers the Cape of Good Hope, 1492. Discovery of America by Christo- pher Columbus. 1492. Conquest of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella. 1497. Cape of Good Hope doubled by Vasco da Gama. 1497. John Cabot reaches the mainland of North America. 1498. Columbus reaches the mainland of South Artierica. 1499. Voyage of Amerigo Vespucci. PROMINENT NAMES OP THE CENTURY. Eastern Empire. France. England. Emperor. — John PalEeologus. King — Charles VIL Kings. — Henry V., Henry VII. Spain. King and Queen. — Ferdinand and Isabella. Ottoman Ruler of Turkey. Mahomet IL Asiatic Conqueror. Tamerlane. Froissart, John Huss, Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans), Lorenzo de' Medici, Columbus, Cardinal Ximenes, Leonardo da Vinci, Maccliiavelli, Ariosto, Copernicus, Michael Angelo. ILLUSTRATIOlSrS. THE HUNDEED YEAES' WAE {continued). THIS long struggle, begun in the last century (see page 307), continued tlirough the first half of this century. In 1415 took place the English victory of Agincourt. Upon St. Crispin's day Fought was this nohle fray. Which fame did not delay To England to carry; Oh, when shall Englishmen With such acts fill a pen. Or England breed again Such a King Harry ? Michael Deatton. But, later, the Trench, inspired by Joan of Arc (the Maid of Orleans^), one of the most illustrious heroines of history, won victories over the English forces, and step by step the latter were driven from all their conquests in Erance, and in 1453 held only Calais. This was the end of the Hundred Years' War. 1 So called from her heroic defence of the city of Orleans. Having been taken captive by the English, she suffered martyrdom, being burned alive by order of the Earl of Warwick, on the 24th of May, 1431. 318 FIFTEENTH CENTUET. The only war which has profoundly aflfected English society and English government is the Hundred Years' War with France, and of that war the results were simply evil, — J. R. Gbeen. The war of wars, the battle of battles, is that between England and France ; all others are episodical. The names dear to France are those of the men who have greatly dared against England. France has only one saint, the PuceUe [Joan of Arc]. — Michelet. One of the most marvellous revolutions in history. A country girl overthrew the power of England. We cannot pretend to explain the surprising story of the Maid of Orleans ; for, however easy it may be to suppose that a heated and enthusiastic imagination produced her own visions, it is a much greater problem to account for the credit they obtained, and for the success that attended her. — Hallam. If we had nothing but the story of Joan of Arc to show the popular spirit of the time, it alone would suffice for that purpose. — Gdizot. The eyes of all Europe were turned toward this scene [Joan of Arc's victory over the English at Orleans, 1429], where it was reason- ably supposed the French were to make their last stand for maintain- ing the independence of their monarchy and the rights of their sovereign. — Hume. The savior of France could be no other than a woman. — MiCHELET. Neither French nor any other history offers a like example of a modest little soul [Joan of Arc], with a faith so pure and efficacious, resting on divine inspiration and patriotic hope. — GuizoT. Dauphin, I am by birth a shepherd's daughter, My wit untrained in any kind of art. Heaven and our Lady gracious hath it pleased To shine on my contemptible estate : Lo ! whilst I waited on my tender lambs, And to sun's parching heat displayed my cheeks, God's mother deigned to appear to mo ; And, in a vision full of majesty. Willed me to leave my base vocation, And free my country from calamity. Her aid she promised, and assured success: In complete glory she revealed herself; FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 319 And, whereas I was tlack and swart before. With those clear rays which she infused on me, That beauty am I blessed with, which you may see. Shakespeabe, King Eenry VI. Pucelle. Advance our waving colors on the walls ! Bescued is Orleans from the English : — Thus Joan la Pucelle hath performed her word. Charles, Divinest creature, Astrsea's daughter, How shall I honor thee for this success ? Thy promises are like Adonis' gardens, That one day bloomed, and fruitful were the next. — France, triumph in thy glorious prophetess ! Recovered is the town of Orleans : More blessed hap did ne'er befall our state. Reignier. Wliy ring not out the bells aloud throughout the town ? Dauphin, command the citizens make bonfires, And feast and banquet in the open streets. To celebrate the joy that God hath given us. Alengon. All France will be replete with mirth and joy. When they shall hear how we have played the men. Charles. 'Tis Joan, not we, by whom the day is won: For which I will divide my crown with herf And all the priests and friars in my realm Shall in procession sing her endless praise. A statelier pyramis to her I '11 rear Than Bhodope's or Memphis' ever was: In memory of her when she is dead, Her ashes, in an urn more precious Than the rich-jewelled coffer of Darius, Transported shall be at high festivals Before the kings and queens of France. No longer on St. Denis will we cry, But Joan la Pucelle shall be France's saint. Come in; and let us banquet royally, After this golden day of victory. Shakespeabe, King Eerwy VI. What had I to do with empires. Fate of kings and bloody fight ? Harmless I my lambs had tended On the silent mountain's height ; But thy summons sternly, tore me Prom a happy peaceful home. To the scenes of splendor bore me. There in sin's dark paths to roam ! SOHILLEB. Tr. C. T. Beooks. 320 FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. And now one gleam of joy lights every eye, One proud emotion throbs in every breast; Where late the bloody waves of strife ran high. Now all is lulled to harmony aud rest. The name of France makes Frenchmen's pulses fly; To own that name is to be richly blessed; The lustre of the old crown comes back again, And France prepares to hail her rightful sovereign's reign. SOHILLEB. " King of France ! " She cried, " at Chinon, when my gifted eye Knew thee disguised, what inwardly the spirit Prompted, I promised, with the sword of God, To drive from Orleans far the English wolves And crown thee in the rescued walls of Rheims. All is accomplished. I have here this day Fulfilled my mission, and anointed thee King over this great nation." SOUTHET. THE OTTOMAN TUEKS TAKE CONSTANTINOPLE. FALL OF THE EASTERN EMPIRE. At the period we are now considering there was but little left of the Eastern Empire which had once been so powerful. By the middle of this century its possessions had shrunk almost to the narrow territory included within the limits of Constantinople. A long succession of corrupt and imbecile rulers, and the violence and rancor of theo- logical dispute, had brought the empire to the verge of dis- solution. It only remained for a great power like that of the Ottoman Turks to complete the downfall which had been already slowly prepared through the course of many centuries. The Ottoman dynasty, founded by Othman in the thirteenth century, made wonderful progress, and FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 321 under Bajazet and others, its victorious arms were car- ried all over Asia Minor, and into the eastern parts of Europe. No nation ever increased so rapidly from such small beginnings, and no government ever constituted itself with greater sagacity than the Othoman ; but no force or prudence could have enabled this small tribe of nomads to rise with such rapidity to power, had it not been that the Emperor Michael and the Greek nation were paralyzed by political and moral corruption, and both left behind them descend- ants equally weak and worthless. — Finlat. At length the Turks appeared before the gates of Con- stantinople, and on the 29th of May, 1453, the city was taken hy storm. This was the end of the Eastern Eoman Empire. The establishment of the Othoman Turks in Europe is the last example of the conquest of a numerous Christian population by a small number of Mussulman invaders, and of the colonization of civilized countries by a race ruder than the native population. — FiNLAT. The victorious Mussulman army enter and spread in torrents throughout the conquered city; the day before, Constantinople, a deposit of the trophies and riches of the universe, presented a living image of Rome and Greece. Csesars, Augustus, Patricians, a senate, lictors, fasces, a tribune, amphitheatres, assemblies of the people, lyceums, academies, and theatres were to be seen there. In one instant the sword of Mahomet has destroyed everything, and the ruins of the ancient world have disappeared. — Thierry. The fall of Constantinople is a dark chapter in the annals of Christianity. . . . The governments of Western Europe, occupied with momentary interests, and the nations beginning to feel the impulses of new civil and political combinations in society, heeded little the destruction of an old and rotten edifice, incapable of re- ceiving either internal repairs or external support ; while on the part of the Greeks themselves no patriotic or religious enthusiasm has interwoven the struggle with the glories of their national his- tory. — FiNLAY. 21 322 FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Those lofty structures, once the Christians' hoast. Their names, their beauty, and their honors lost; Those altars hright with gold and sculpture graced. By barbarous zeal of savage foes defaced; Sophia alone her ancient name retains. Though the unbeliever now her shrine profanes ; Where holy saints have died in sacred cells. Where monarchs prayed, the frantic dervise dwells. How art thou fallen, imperial city, low ! Where are thy hopes of Eoman glory now ? Where are thy palaces by prelates raised ? Where Grecian artists all their skill displayed. Before the happy sciences decayed : So vast, that youthful kings might here reside, So splendid, to content a patriarch's pride ; Convents where emperors professed of old, The labored pillars that their triumphs told; Vain monuments of them that once were great, Sunk undistinguished by one common fate; One little spot the tenure small contains, Of Greek nobility the poor remains. Lady Maet Woetlet MoNTAau. THE EENAISSANCE. THE EBVIVAIi OF LEARNING. The term " Eevival of Learning " is popularly applied to the noteworthy intellectual revival which took place in the fifteenth century. A reviving taste for classical literature had been gradually springing up previous to the downfall of Constantinople, and this impulse was greatly strength- ened by that event, which caused the dispersion of many learned Greeks to Italy and other portions of Western Europe, who with their acquisitions of classic learning opened anew the science and literature of the older world, and exerted a powerful influence upon the intellectual life of all Europe. In art the term " Eenaissance " {literally. FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 323 the revival of what has lain extract or dormant) marks es- pecially the age of the revival of letters, and is specially- applied to that style of architecture and decoration which arose in Italy in the fifteenth century, was introduced into France early in the sixteenth century, and which gradually superseded the Gothic. It is to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that we are accustomed to assign that new birth of the human spirit — if it ought not rather to be called a renewal of its strength and quickening of its sluggish life — with which the modern time begins. And the date is well chosen, for it was then first that the transcendently powerful influ- ence of Greek literature began to work upon the world. But it must not be forgotten that for a long time previous there had been in progress a great revival of learning, and still more of zeal for learn- ing, which being caused by and directed towards the literature and institutions of Rome, might fitly be called the Roman Renaissance. The twelfth century saw this revival begin with that passionate study of the legislation of Justinian, whose influence on the doc- trines of imperial prerogative has been noticed already. The thirteenth witnessed the rapid spread of the Scholastic philosophy, a body of systems most alien, both in subject and manner to anything that had arisen among the ancients, yet one to whose development Greek metaphysics and the theology of the Latin fathers had largely contributed, and the spirit of whose reasonings was far more free than the presumed orthodoxy of its conclusions suilered to appear. In the fourteenth century there arose in Italy the first great masters of paint- ing and song; and the literature of the new languages, springing into the fulness of life in the "Divina Commedia," adorned not long after by the names of Petrarch and Chaucer, assumed at once its place as a great and ever-growing power in the affairs of men. — James Brtce. " For the first time," to itse the picturesque phrase of M. Taine, " men opened their eyes and saw." The human mind seemed to gather new energies at the sight of the vast field which opened before it. It attacked every province of knowledge, and in a few years it transformed all. Experimental science, the science of philology, the science of politics, the critical investigation of religious truth, all took their origin from this Renascence, — this " New Birth " of the world. 324 FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. Art, if it lost muoli in purity and propriety, gained in scope and in the fearlessness of its love of nature. Literature, if crushed for the mo- ment by the overpowering attraction of the great models of Greece and Rome, revived with a grandeur of form, a large spirit of human- ity, such as it had never known since their day. — J. E. Green. In considering the Renaissance, therefore, not in its details, but as a great social fact, we must regard it as a continuation of that Roman organization which had been interrupted for several centuries by the abundant ene:i^ of the powerful races of the North. — Viollet-le- Duc. The most remarkable proximate cause of the change that took place in architectural art is one that has long been obvious to every inquirer. It arose from the revival of classical literature in Western Europe about the middle of the fifteenth century. ■ — ■ Fekgusson. A keen susceptibility to pure beauty of form, with the power of expressing it, is manifested at a few periods only; the end of the fif- teenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries was one of them. How can I hope to indicate, were it but in outline, the wealth of art, whether in conception or practice, that filled those times, — the fervid devotion that gave life to every effort ? We may boldly affirm that whatever of most beautiful the later ages have produced in architec- ture, sculpture, or painting, is aU. due to this short period. The ten- dency of the time was not towards abstract reasonings, but rather towards a vivid life and active practice : in this earnest medium did men live and move. — Rankb. The drooising Muses then he westward called, From the famed city by Propontio sea, What time the Turk the enfeebled Grecian thralled ; Thence from their cloistered walks he set them free. Thomson. FIITEENTH CENTURY. 325 THE INVENTION OF FEINTING. i The art preservative of all arts.^ The art of block-printing was practised in China before the time of Christ, and is said to have been brought into Europe in the latter part of the thirteenth century by Marco Polo ; but it is with the use of movable type that the invention of printing as an important art dates its origin. The name of the inventor of printing is not posi- tively known. The invention of movable type is claimed for several persons, — Laurens J. Koster, Johann Gutenberg, Johann Mentel, Johann Faust, Peter Schoeffer, and others. Koster, of Harlem, is said, on doubtful evidence, to have printed with separate wooden type as early as 1430. Gutenberg, of Mentz, printed a few small books about the middle of the century. He entered into partnership with Faust. Cast-metal types were invented by Schoeffer. The earliest complete book known to have been printed is the "Mazarin Bible," supposed to have been issued by Gutenberg and Faust in 1455. Is there no comer safe from peeping Doubt, Since Gutenterg made thought cosmopolite, And stretched electric threads from mind to mind ? Lowell. 1 From the inscription upon the fa9ade of the house at Harlem, formerly occupied Tjy Laurent Koster, or Coster, who is charged, among others, with the invention of printing. Mention is first made of this inscription about 1628 : — Memorise sacbuu Ttpographia Ars artium omnium conservatrix. HiC PRIMUM INVENTA Circa aundm MCCCCXL. Babtlett's Fam/Uiar Quotations. 326 FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. Gutenberg, without knowing it, was the mechanist of the New World. In creating the communication of ideas, he had assured the independence of reason. Every letter of this alphabet which left his fingers contained in it more power than the armies of kings and the thunder of pontiffs. It was mind which he furnished with lan- guage. — Lamartine. When Tamerlane had finished building his pyramid of seventy thousand human skulls, and was seen " standing at the gate Damas- cus, glittering in steel, with his battle-axe on his shoulder," till his fierce hosts filed out to new victories and new carnage, the pale onlooker might have fancied that Nature was in her death-throes, for havoc and despair had taken possession of the earth, the sun of man- hood seemed setting in seas of blood. Yet it might be, on that very gala-day of Tamerlane, a little boy was playing ninepins on the streets of Mentz, whose history was more important to men than that of twenty Tamerlanes. The Tartar Khan, with his shaggy demons of the wilderness, " passed away like a whirlwind " to be forgotten forever ; and that Germain artisan has wrought a benefit which is yet immeasurably expanding itself, and will continue to expand itself through all countries and through all times. What are the con- quests and expeditions of the whole corporation of captains, from Walter the Penniless to Napoleon Bonaparte, compared with these " movable types " of Johannes Faust ? — Carlyle. WAES OF THE EOSES. These intestine wars, which raged in England from the reign of Henry VI. to that of Henry VII. (1452-1486), are so called from the badges or emblems of the parties to the strife, — that of the house of York being a white rose and that of the house of Lancaster a red rose. In spite of the brutal conduct of this civil strife, its numerous savage battles and executions, the ruin and bloodshed were con- fined to the nobles and their feudal followers, and the progress of commerce and industry was unchecked. FIFTEENTH CENTUET. 327 If the common view of England during these wars as a mere chaos of treason and bloodshed is a false one, still more false is the common view of the pettiness of their result. The Wars of the Eoses did far more than ruin one royal house or set up another on the throne. If they did not utterly destroy English freedom, they arrested its pro- gress for more than a hundred years. — J. B. Green. Thus is the storm abated by the craft Of a shrewd counsellor, eager to protect The Church, whose power hath recently been checked. Whose monstrous riches threatened. So the shaft Of victory mounts high, and blood is quaffed In fields that rival Cressy and Poictiers. But mark the dire effect in coming years ! Deep, deep as hell itself, the future draught Of civil slaughter. Yet, while Temporal power Is by these shocks exhausted, Spiritual truth Maintains the else endangered gift of life ; Proceeds from infancy to lusty youth j And, under cover of that woful strife. Gathers unblighted strength from hour to hour. WOBDSWOETH. Heard ye the din of battle bray. Lance to lance, and horse to horse ? Long years of havoc urge their destined course, And through the kindred squadrons mow their way. GEA.T. 328 FIFTEENTH CENTUET. MAEITIME ADYENTUEE. THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. WJiere lies the land to which yon ship must go ? WOBDSWOETH. Men shall descry another hcmispltere. PuLci, Morgante Maggiore. To declare my opinion herein, whatsoever hath heretofore been discovered hy the famous travayles of Saturnus and Hercules, with such other whom the antiquitie for their heroical acts hon- oured as Gods, seemeth but little and obscure, if it be compared to the victorious labours of the Spanyards. — P. Martyr. / Pkevious to this century the field of history with which we have been concerned — the region of interest to us — has been restricted to Europe, a little of Western Asia, and a small part of Northern Africa. Eude as their ships was navigation then ; No useful compass or meridian known. Dbtden. An immense enlargement of these bounds now suddenly occurs in consequence of the application of the compass to navigation. That trembling vassal of the pole, The feeling compass, navigation's soul. Btbon. The peculiar property of the magnetic needle had been long known in Asia, and for two or three centuries pre- vious to this time in Europe, but much progress in its practical application to navigation appears not to have been made till about the beginning of the fifteenth cen- tury. From this dates a period of great maritime enterprise and discoveries. FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 329 Upon his card and compas firmes Ms eye, The maysters of his long experiment, And to them does the steddy helm apply, Bidding his winged vessel fairly forward fly. Spenseb. The Portuguese took the lead in bold projects of adven- ture by sea. They extended their voyages and discoveries to the southward along the coast of Africa, and at last •began to think of reaching India by sailing around the south coast of Africa. The Cape of Good Hope was dis- covered and doubled by Bartholomew Diaz in 1487, and in 1498 the feat of reaching India by water was accom- plished by Vasco da Gama, who, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, reached Calicut in Malabar. O'er the wild waves, as southward thus we stray, Our port unknown, unknown the watery way, Each night we see, impressed with solemn awe, Our guiding stars and native skies withdraw : In the wide void we lose their cheering beams; Lower, and lower still, the pole-star gleams. While, nightly, thus the lonely seas we brave. Another pole-star rises o'er the wave: Full to the south a shining Cross appears; Oar heaving breasts the blissful omen cheers. Camoens. With such mad seas the daring Gama fought, For many a day and many a dreadful night. Incessant, laboring round the stormy Cape; By bold ambition led, and bolder thirst Of gold. For then from ancient gloom emerged The rising world of trade: the genius, then. Of Navigation, that, in hopeless sloth. Had slumbered on the vast Atlantic deep, For idle ages, starting, heard at last The Lusitanian Prince; I who, heaven-inspired, To love of useful glory roused mankind. And in unbounded commerce mixed the world. Thomson. 1 Don Henry, son of John I., King of Portugal. 330 FIFTEENTH CENTURY. The expeditions of Columbus and of Vasco da Gama were cer- tainly owing to the disposition of modem industry to explore the surface of the globe, after the school of Alexandria had proved its form, and now that the compass permitted bolder enterprises at sea, at the same time that new fields for commercial activity were wanted. — Comtb. Long lay the ocean-paths from man concealed ; Light came from heaven, — the magnet was revealed, A surer star to guide the seaman's eye Than the pale glory of the northern sky; Alike ordained to shine hy night and day. Then man no longer plied with timid oar And failing heart along the windward shore; Broad to the sky he turned his fearless sail. Defied the adverse, -wooed the favoring gale. Bared to the storm his adamantine breast. Or soft on ocean's lap lay down to rest; While, free as clouds the liquid ether sweep. His white-winged vessels coursed the unhounded deep ; From clime to clime the wanderer loved to roam. The waves his heritage, the world his home. Montgomery. THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. That sea [the Atlantic] was then navigable, and had an island fronting that mouth which you in your tongue call the Pillars of Hercules ; this island was larger than Libya and Asia put together ; and there was a passage hence for travellers of that day to the rest of the islands, as well as from those islands to the' whole opposite con- tinent that surrounds the real sea. For as to what is within the mouth now mentioned [that is, the Mediterranean], it appears to be a bay with a narrow entrance ; and that sea is a true sea, and the land that entirely surrounds it may most correctly be called a continent. Subsequently by violent earthquakes and floods, which brought deso- lation in a single day and night, the Atlantic Island was plunged beneath the sea and entirely disappeared ; whence even now that sea FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 331 is unnavigable by reason of the shoals of mud created by the subsiding island. — Plato, Timceiis, c. vi. Venient annls Sseoula sens, quibus Oceaaus Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens Pateat tellus, Typliisque novos Detegat Orbes, neo sit terris Ultima Thule. Seneca, Medea. [There shall come a time, in later ages, when ocean shall relax his chains and a vast continent appear, and a pilot shall find new worlds, and Thule shall be no more earth's bound. — Whatbly's Translation.'] His bark The daring mariner shall nrge far o'er The western wave, — a smooth and level plain, Albeit the earth is fashioned like a wheel. Man was in ancient days of grosser mould, And Hercules might blush to learn how far Beyond the limits he had vainly set, The dullest sea boat soou shall wing her way. Men shall descry another hemisphere. Since to one common centre all things tend; So earth, by curioiis mystery divine "Well balanced, hangs amid the starry spheres. At our Antipodes are cities, states. And thronged empires, ne'er divined of yore. But see, the sun speeds on his western path To glad the nations with expected light. PuLOl, Tr. Prescott. The general excitement about maritime discovery among the Portuguese suggested to Columbus the bold plan of reaching India, not by way of Africa, but by steering to the west across the Atlantic. The result of his voyage is weU known. India he did not reach, but discovered, in- stead, the island of Guanahani, or San Salvador, in 1492, the main continent being discovered a few years later (June 24, 1497) by John Caboto, or Cabot, a Venetian sailor. 332 FIFTEENTH CENTURY. . The discovery of America by, Christopher Columbus is the greatest event of secular history. — Charles Sumnek. Then first Columbus, with the mighty hand Of grasping genius, weighed the sea and land. MONTQOMEET. steer, bold mariner, on ! albeit witlings deride thee, And the steersman drop idly his hand at the helm. Ever and ever to westward ! there must the coast be discovered, If it but lie distinct, luminous lie in thy mind. Trust to the God that leads thee, and follow the sea that is silent; Did it not yet exist, now would it rise from the flood. Nature with Genius stands united in league everlasting; What is promised by one, surely the other performs. SCHILLEE. The departure from Palos, where, a few days before, he had begged a morsel of bread and a cup of water for his wayworn child, — his final farewell to the Old World at the Canaries, — his entrance upon the trade-winds, which then, for the first time, filled a European sail, — the portentous variation of the needle, never before observed, — the fearful course westward and westward, day after day, and night after night, over the unknown ocean, — the mutinous and ill-appeased crew ; — at length, when hope had turned to despair in every heart but one, the tokens of land, — the cloud-banks on the western hori- zon, — the logs of drift-wood, — the fresh shrub, floating with its leaves and berries, — the flocks of land-birds, — the shoals of fish that inhabit shallow water, — the indescribable smell of the shore, — the mysterious presentiment that seems ever to go before a great event, — and finally, on that ever-memorable night of the 12th of October, 1492, the moving light seen by the sleepless eye of the great discoverer himself, from the deck of the Santa Maria, and in the morning the real, undoubted land, swelling up from the bosom of the deep, with its plains, and hills, and forests, and rocks, and streams, and strange new races of men ; — these are incidents in which the authentic history of the discovery of our continent excels the specious wonders of romance, as much as gold excels tinsel, or the sun in the heavens outshines the flickering taper. — E. Everett. To his intellectual vision it was given to read in the signs of the times, and in the I'everies of past ages, the indications of an unknown world, as soothsayers were said to read predictions in the stars, and to FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 333 foretell events from the visions of the night. " His soul," observes a Spanish writer, " was superior to the age in which he lived. For him was reserved the great enterprise to plough a sea which had given rise to so many fables, and to decipher the mystery of his time." With all the visionary fervor of his imagination, its fondest dreams fell short of the reality. He died in ignorance of the real grandeur of his discovery. TTntil his last breath, he entertained the idea that he had merely opened a new way to the old resorts of opulent commerce, and had discovered some of the wild regions of the East. He supposed Hispaniola to be the ancient Ophir, which had been visited by the ships of Solomon, and that Cuba and Terra Firma were but remote parts of Asia. What visions of glory would have broken upon his mind, could he have known that he had indeed discovered a new con- tinent, equal to the whole of the Old World in magnitude, and separated by two vast oceans from all the earth hitherto known by civilized man ! and how would his magnanimous spirit have been consoled, amidst the chills of age and the cares of penury, the neglect of a fickle pub- lic and the injustice of an ungrateful king, could he have anticipated the splendid empires which were to spread over the beautiful world he had discovered, and the nations and tongues and languages which were to fill its lands with his renown, and to revere and bless hia name to the latest posterity 1 — Irving. One poor day 5 — Kememlier whose and not how short it Is ! It is God's day, it is Columbus's. A lavish day ! One day, with life and heart, Is more than time enough to find a world. Lowell. The white man landed; — need the rest he told ? The New World stretched its dusk hand to the Old; Each was to each a marvel, and the tie Of wonder warmed to better sympathy. Btbon. If, as is probable, hardy Scandinavian pirates really visited North America some centuries before, the fruitlessness of their enterprise proves that there was nothing fortuitous in the achievement when it did take place, and that the social value of such deeds depends on their connection with contemporary civilization. In this case the discovery of Columbus was prepared for during the fifteenth century 334 FIFTEENTH CENTUET. by Atlantic excursions of increasing boldness, gradually followed by European settlements. — Comte. For wben once Christopher Golumlus had added this fourth to the other three parts of the foreknown World ; they who sailed farther Westward, arrived but where they had been before. The Globe now failed of offering anything New to the adventurous Traveiler; or, how- ever, it could not afford another new World. — Samuel Sewall (1727). SPAIN. In the heroic days when Ferdinand And Isabella ruled the Spanish land, And Torquemada, with his subtle train. Ruled them, as Grand Inquisitor of Spain. Longfellow. The marriage of Ferdinand the Catholic, of Aragon, and the Infanta Isabella, of Castile, in 1469, was the beginning of the union of the kingdoms of the Spanish Peninsula into what became later the great power of Spain. Quse surgere regna Conjugio tali. VntGiL. During eight centuries the Christian princes of the Spanish Peninsula had been engaged in warfare ofGra- with the Mahometans, but under Ferdinand and Isabella the country was freed from that state hj the conquest (1491) of Granada, the last stronghold of the Moors. The same high spirit which teat 'back the Moor Through eight long ages of alternate gore. Btron. I fell into a course of musing upon the singular fortunes of the Arabian or Morisco Spaniards, whose whole existence is as a tale that is told, and certainly forms one of the most anomalous yet splendid riETEENTH CENTTJEY. 335 episodes in hLstory. Potent and durable as was their dominion, we scarcely know how to call them. They were a nation without a legitimate country or name. A remote wave of the great Arabian inundation, cast upon the shores of Europe, they seem to have all the impetus of the first rush of the torrent. Their career of conquest, from the rock of Gibraltar to the cliffs of the Pyrenees, was as rapid and brilliant as the Moslem victories of Syria and Egypt. . . . Re- pelled within the limits of the Pyrenees, the mixed hordes of Asia and Africa, that formed this great irruption, gave up the Moslem principle of conquest, and sought to establish in Spain a peaceful and permanent dominion. As conquerors, their heroism was only equalled by their moderation ; and in both, for a time, they excelled the nations with whom they contended. Severed from their native homes, they loved the land given them, as they supposed, by Allah, and strove to embellish it with everything that could administer to the happiness of man. — Ikving. Never was the annihilation of a people more complete than that of the Morisco-Spaniards. Where are they? Ask the shores of Barbary and its desert places. The exiled remnant of their once powerful empire disappeared among the barbarians of Africa, and ceased to be a nation. They have not even left a distinct name behind them, though for nearly eight centuries they were a distinct people. The home of their adoption, and of their occupation for ages, refuses to acknowledge them, except as invaders and usurpers. A few broken monuments are all that remain to bear witness to their power and dominion, as solitary rocks, left far in the interior, bear testimony to the extent of some vast inundation. Such is the Alhambra. A Moslem pile in the midst of a Christian land ; au Oriental palace amidst the Gothic edifices of the West; an elegant memento of a brave, intelligent, and graceful people, who conquered, ruled, flourished, and passed away. — Irving. More than six hundred years had past Since Moorish hosts could Spain o'erwhelm, Yet Boabdil was thrust at last, Lamenting, from Granada's realm. Lord Houghton. The conquest of Granada was followed by the pillage and expulsion of the Jews, who held most of the wealth 336 FIFTEENTH CENTUBT. of the country. The discovery of the N"ew World by Columbus in 1492 (see page 331), gave Spain a dominion in America. A Castilla y a Leon Nuevo Mundo dio Colon, Epitaph on Columbus. In general history Spain first obtains a place, after the union of Aragon with Castile under Ferdinand and Isabella, and the con- quest of Granada, when it became one of the great and leading powers of Europe. — Schleoel. In this reign the several states, into which the country had been broken up for ages, were brought under a common rule ; the kingdom of Naples was conquered ; America discovered and colonized ; the ancient empire of the Spanish Arabs subverted ; the dread tribunal of the Modern Inquisition established ; the Jews, who contributed so sensibly to the wealth and civilization of the country, were banished; and, in fine, such changes were introduced into the interior adminis- tration of the monarchy, as have left a permanent impression on the character and condition of the nation. — Peescott. It is indeed a singular coincidence that in the same year in which the Spanish sovereigns freed their country from the opprobrium of a foreign yoke, they should themselves have commenced a similar invasion on the natural rights of others. — W. EoscoB. THE INQUISITION. The famous ecclesiastical court for the suppression of heresy, known as the Inquisition, or the Holy Office, was es- tablished by Pope Innocent III. (crusade against the Albi- genses, 1210), at first in Southern France and afterwards in Spain. There were various local tribunals of this kind in different countries. The great court instituted to investi- gate offences against the Church and to put down heresy was founded at Seville in 1484 Its first president was FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 337 Thomas de Torquemada. It has heen estimated that up- wards of three hundred thousand persons were tried and punished by the Inquisition during the three centuries of its existence. The Spanish "Holy Office" was abolished by Napoleon I. in 1808, and though afterwards revived was finally brought to an end in 1820. Inquisition has existed from the time when reason meddled with what is holy, and from the very commencement of scepticism and innovation ; but it was in the middle of the thirteenth century, after some examples of apostasy had alarmed the hierarchy, that Innocent III. fiist erected for it a peculiar tribunal, and separated, in an un- natural manner, ecclesiastical superintendence and instruction from its judicial and primitive office. — Schiller. The Inquisition itself had its origin in the most acknowledged feelings of our nature. Its advocates and its ministers could always appeal, in its support, to the most regular conclusions of the human mind. The reasoning was then, as it would be now to the generality of mankind, perfectly intelligible and convincing. Truth, it was said, could be only on one side ; by error we may destroy our own souls and those of others. Error must therefore be prevented, and if not by gentle means, on account of the greatness of the object, by other means, by any means, by force. This is the creed of intolerance to this hour. The tribunal that appeared with all its tremendous appa- ratus of famiUarB, inquisitors, and executioners was but a consequence which, in an unenlightened period, followed of coiirse. — W. Smyth. But the Inquisition, which could not gain any footing in the king- dom of Naples, reigned triumphant in Spain ; and by racks, gibbets, stakes, and other such formidable instruments of its method of per- suading, soon terrified the people back into popery, and suppressed the vehement desire they had of changing a superstitious worship for a rational religion. — Moshbim. The period in question was also one of the most remarkable for the display of physical activity among men. It was a period of voyages, travels, enterprises, discoveries, and inventions of every kind. It was the time of the great Portuguese expedition along the coast of Africa; 22 338 FIFTEENTH CENTURY. of the discovery of the new passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, by Vasco da Gama ; of the discovery of America, by Christo- pher Columbus ; of the wonderful extension of European commerce. A thousand new inventions started up; others already known, but confined withia a narrow sphere, became popular and in general use. Gunpowder changed the system of war ; the compass changed the system of navigation. Painting in oil was invented, and filled Europe with masterpieces of art. Engraving on copper, invented in 1406, multiplied and diffused them. Paper made of linen became common. Finally, between 1436 and 1452, was invented printing, — printing, the theme of so many declamations and commonplaces, but to whose merits and effect no commonplaces or declamations will ever be able to do justice. From all this, some idea may be formed of the greatness and activity of the fifteenth century, — a greatness which, at the time, was not very apparent ; an activity of which the results did not immediately take place. Violent reforms seemed to fail ; governments acquired stability. It might have been supposed that society was now about to enjoy the benefits of better order and more rapid progress. The mighty revolutions of the sixteenth century were at hand ; the fifteenth century prepared them. — Guizot. It was in the fifteenth century that the relations of governments with each other began to be frequent, regular, and permanent. Now, for the first time, became formed those great combinations by means of alliance, for peaceful as well as warlike objects, which, at a later period, gave rise to the system of the balance of power. European diplomacy originated in the fifteenth century, — Guizot. Indeed, to whatever country of Europe we cast our eyes, whatever portion of its history we consider, whether it relates to the nations themselves or their governments, to their territories or their institu- tions, we everywhere see the old elements, the old forms of society, disappearing. Those liberties which were founded on tradition were lost ; new powers arose, more regular and concentrated than those which previously existed. — GnizoT. It is the characteristic of the fifteenth century that it constantly tended to this result, that it endeavored to create general interests and general ideas, to raise the minds of men to more enlarged views, and to create, in short, what had not, till then, existed on a great scale, — nations and governments. The actual accomplishment of FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 339 this change belongs to the sixteenth and seventeenth centimes, though it was in the fifteenth that it was prepared. — GuizoT. In comparing the fifteenth with the twelfth century, no one would deny the vast increase of navigation and manufactures, the superior refinement of manners, the greater diflfusion of literature. — Hall AM. Printing, a gross invention ; artillery, a thing that lay not far out of the way ; the needle, a thing partly known before, — what a change have these three things made in the world in these times ; the one in state of learning ; the other in state of the war ; the third in the state of treasure, commodities, and navigation ! — Lobd Bacon. It appears that while all the conditions were long preparing for these three great inventions [the compass, firearms, printing], there were no technological difiiculties about them which prevented their appearance when they were sought with a persevering intention. If it be true that they had long existed among Asiatic nations, we have only another proof that they did not originate the great social changes of which they were the instruments and the propagators; for they have produced no such effects in the East. — Comtb. These three events — the so-called Revival of Learning, the flourishing of the Fine Arts, and the discovery of America and of the passage to India by the Cape — may be compared with that blush of dMvn which after long storms first betokens the return of a bright and glorious day. — Hegel. A little before or a little after this point of time [the end of the fifteenth century], all those events happened, and all those revolu- tions began, that have produced so vast a change in the manners, customs, and interests of particular nations, and in the whole policy, ecclesiastical and civil, of these parts of the world. — Bolingbeoke. About A.D. 1600 ffc/i-l)-p-/-ir,in„fa,3i;k'T: SIXTEENTH CENTURY. (1500-1600.) Spain is the chief power at this time. Besides vast continental domin- ions in the New World, its Eui'opean possessions comprise at the period of their greatest extent the whole of the Spanish Peninsula, the Netherlands and other lands of the House of Austria, the Sicilies, Sardinia, and Milan. By the revolt of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, Spain loses a considerable portion of her territory before the end of the century. The German Empike continues, but more as a dignity than as an in- dependent power. The emperors are uniformly chosen from the princes of the House of Austria, which now by its hereditary possessions becomes one of the chief powers of Europe. In the person of the Emperor Charles V., who united the crown of Spain with the sovereignty of Austria, the impe- rial power reached its greatest extent. France is engaged in wars civil and religious and foreign, but without much change of territory, except in America, where she begins to establish colonies. England makes some attempts at colonization in America during this century, but the real settlements begin in the next. Italy, during this period, is a battle-field of contention among the rival princes of Europe. The peninsula was made up of principalities and com- monwealths, some of which were independent, but the most of which, during the greater part of this century, were under the dominant influ- ence of Austria and of Spain. Empire of Charles V. See above, under Spain and German Empire. United Provinces. The northern provinces of the Netherlands throw off the yoke of Spain, and in 1581 are united in a federal common- wealth. Austria. See above, under German Empire. Netherlands. See above, under United Provinces. The Tdbkish or Ottomak Empibe is largely extended in this century by the annexa- tion of Syria, Egypt, a great part of the northern coast of Africa, and the conquest of a large part of Hungary. The union of Dekmaek, Norway, and Sweden ceases in the early part of this cen- tury, by the independence of Sweden, which now plays an important part in European history. Poland is an important state in this century, with extensive possessions. KnssiA is increasing in power and territory. Pebsla. a new Persian dynasty begins in 1602. PoKTUGAL is, towards the close of the century, merged for a time in Spain. Mogul Empire in India. Early in this century the great Mogul Empire of Baber is founded in India Switzerland and Savot hold a position of importance at this time. A. D. 1500 - A. D. 1600. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 1500. Discovery of Brazil by Vincent Pin- 1530. Confession of Augsburg. zon. 1530 (about). The Copemican system. 1612. Florida visited by Ponce de Leon. 1531. League of Smalcald. 1513. Pacific Ocean discovered by Balboa. 1531. Conquest of Peru begun by Pizaiio. 1516. Colonies and factories established 1534. The society of Jesuits founded. by the Portuguese, in Ceylon and 1541. Mississippi River explored by Fer- on the Coromandel coast. dinand de Soto. 1617. Luther begins the Reformation in 1545. The Council of Trent. Germany. 1560. Beginning of civil wars in France. 1517-1521. Mexico discovered and con- 1565. Florida settled by the Spaniards. quered by Spaniards (Cortez). 1572. Massacre of St. Bartholomew. 1519-1522. Voyage of JMagellan. His fleet 1579. The Union of Utrecht. circumnavigates the world. 1580. Completion of the circumnavigation 1524. Verrazzani explores the coast of of the world by Sir Francis Drake. North America (?). 1680. Portugal annexed to Spain. 1526. The first edition of the New Testa- 1632. Reformation of the Calendar by ment in English (Tyudale's). Pope Gregory XIIL 1529. Diet of Spire ; the Reformers caUed 1588. The Spanish Armada. Protestants. 1598. Edict of Nantes. PROMINENT NAMES OF THE CENTUET. . Gebm [AKT. Emperor. —Charles V. (I. of Spain). Fba NCE. Kings. —Francis L, Henry IV. (Bourbon; Engl AND. mrn^s.- Henry VIL, Henry YIII., Blizal )eth. SPi IN. Kings.'— Ferdinand V. and Isabella, Char es I. (V. of Germany), Philip IL Columbus, Cardmal Ximenes, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Pope Leo X, Magellan, Perugino, Macohiavelli, Diirer, Correggio, Ariosto, Sir Thomas More, Erasmus, Holbein, | Copernicus, Luther, Rabelais, Cortez, Crann ler, Wolsey, Loyola, Mclanchthon, Michael Angelo, Calvin, Knox, Titian, Camoens, Sir Philip Sidney, Montaigne, Marlowe, Mer- cator, Tasso, Drake, Spenser, Tycho Brah , Beza, Scaliger, Shakespeare, CeiTantes, Raleigh, Bellannine, Bacon, Kepler, Lope de Vega, Ben Jonson, Galileo, Hooker. ILLUSTRATIONS. THE kingdoms of Europe had arrived at such a degree of im- provement in the internal administration of government, and princes had acquired such command of the national force which was to be exerted in foreign wars, that they were in a condition to enlarge the sphere of their operations, to multiply their claims and preten- sions, and to increase the vigor of their efforts. Accordingly the sixteenth century opened with the certain prospect of its abounding in great and interesting events. — Robertson. The infancy of the nations of Modern Europe was passed; a period of ripe age was, arrived. To a credulous simplicity, disposed to believe everything, had succeeded a spirit of curiosity, an intelligence im- patient to discover the foundations of things. — D'Aubigne. Le XVP sifecle est le sifecle des grands caractferes, comma I'fige sui- vant est celui des beaux g^nies et des belles fimes. L'histoire en general se prete peu aux formules, et nous ne pr^tendons pas qu'on puisse attacher k cette definition, qui d'ailleurs n'est pas nouvelle, un sens rigoureux. — Due d'Aumale. MARITIME ADVENTURE (continued). The discovery and passage of the Cape of Good Hope in the last century had effected a great change in the mercan- tile affairs of Europe. The trafi&c which had formerly been 344 SIXTEENTH CENTHRT. restricted to the Mediterranean now extended across the Atlantic. The wares which had been brought from India by the way of Syria and Egypt, and of which the Venetians had been the great carriers, were now taken direct to Lisbon by the Portuguese navigators and thence dispersed over Europe. Among the first to engage in this foreign trade were the Dutch. An expedition under command of the Portuguese sea-captain, Fernando Magalhaens, commonly known as Magellan, passed through the strait bearing his name about the end of October, 1520, and in the following year the vessels of the squadron reached Spain, having cir- cumnavigated the globe. A rapid growth of commerce and increase of wealth now took place. In 1520 Hernando Cortez added to the dominions of his sovereign, Charles V., the rich kingdom of Mexico, which for three centuries re- mained one of the brightest gems in the Castiliau crown. See also below, under the Age of Elizabeth. THE EEFOEMATIOK The old order changeth, giving place to new. Tennyson. This great event of the sixteenth century, when the doc- trines and customs of the Eoman Church were first success- fully called in question, resulting in the separation of a large number of the population of Europe from that church, is usually dated from the year 1517, when Martin Luther, a German monk, began to oppose the Pope, and to con- demn the practice of selling indulgences. The doctrines which Luther gradually asserted were expounded and fixed in the Confession of Augsburg by his disciple Melanchthon, and are such as are generally recognized by the term " Prot- SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 345 estant." The struggle between the Eoman Catholics and the reformers raged throughout Europe tiU the close of the Thirty Years' War (1619-1648). There was at thia time something in every class of society that presaged a Keformation. In every quarter signs were manifest, and events were pressing forward that threatened to overturn the work of ages of darkness, and to bring about " a new order of things." The light discovered in that age had communicated to all countries, with inconceivable rapidity, a multitude of new ideas. The minds of men, which had slept for so many ages, seemed resolved to redeem by their activity the time they had lost. To have left them idle and without nourishment, or to have offered them no other food than that which had long sustained their languishing existence, would have shown great ignorance of human nature. The mind of man saw clearly what was, and what was coming, and surveyed with daring eye the immense gulf that separated these two worlds. Great princes were seated upon the throne ; the ancient colossus of Rome was tottering under its own weight ; the bygone spirit of chivalry was leaving the world, and giving place to a new spirit which breathed at the same time from the sanctuaries of learning and from the dwellings of the common people. The art of printing had given wings to the written word, which carried it, like certain seeds, to the most distant regions. The discovery of the Indies enlarged the boundaries of the world. . . . The world was in expectation. Luther appeared. — D'Adbigne. The third and the most memorable struggle for spiritual freedom. The times were changed. The great remains of Athenian and Roman genius were studied by thousands. The Church had no longer a monopoly of learning. The powers of the modern languages had at length been developed. The invention of printing had given new facilities to the intercourse of mind with mind. With such auspices commenced the great Reformation. — Macaulat. The Catholic religion bears to the Protestant religion exactly the same relation that the Dark Ages bear to the sixteenth century. In the Dark Ages men were credulous and ignorant ; they therefore produced a religion which required great belief and little knowledge. In the sixteenth century their credulity and ignorance, though stiU considerable, were rapidly diminishing, and it was found necessary to organize a religion suited to their altered circumstances, — a religion 346 SIXTEENTH CENTUEY. more favorable to free inquiry ; a religioa less full of miracles, saints, legends, and idols ; a religion of which, the ceremonies were less fre- quent and less burdensome ; a religion which should discourage pen- ance, fasting, confession, celibacy, and those other mortifications which had long been universal. All this was done by the establishment of Protestantism, — a mode of worship which, being thus suited to the age, made, as is well known, speedy progress. — Buckle. Christianity and the Reformation are, indeed, the same revolution, but working at different periods and in dissimilar circumstances. They differ in secondary features ; they are alike in their first lines and leading characteristics. The one is the reappearance of the other. The former closes the old order of things ; the latter be- gins the new. Between them is the Middle Age. One is the parent of the other ; and if the daughter is, in some respects, inferior, she has, in others, characters altogether peculiar to herself. The sud- denness of its action is one of these characters of the Reformation. The great revolutions which have drawn after them the fall of a monarchy, or an entire change of political system, or launched the human mind in a new career of development, have been slowly and gradually prepared ; the power to be displaced has long been mined, and its principal supports have given way. It was even thus at the introduction of Christianity. But the Reformation, at the first glance, seems to offer a different aspect. The Church of Rome is seen, under Leo X., in all its strength and glory. A monk speaks, — and in the half of Europe this power and glory suddenly crumble into dust. — D'AuBiGNii. As he [Luther] was raised by Providence to be the author of one of the greatest and most interesting revolutions recorded in history, there is not any person, perhaps, whose character has been drawn with such opposite colors. In his own age, one party, struck with horror and inflamed with rage, when they saw with what a daring hand he over- turned everything which they held to be sacred or valued as bene- ficial, imputed to him not only the defects and vices of a man, but the qualities of a demon. The other, warmed with the admiration and gratitude which they thought he merited, as the restorer of light and liberty to the Christian Church, ascribed to him perfections above the condition of humanity, and viewed all his actions with a venera- tion bordering on that which should be paid only to those who are SIXTEENTH CENTUEY. 347 guided by tlie immediate inspiration of heaven. ... To rouse man- kind, when sunk in ignorance or superstition, and to encounter the rage of bigotry armed with power, required the utmost vehemence of zeal, as well as a temper daring to excess. . . . Having lived to be a witness of his own amazing success ; to see a great part of Europe embrace his doctrines ; and to shake the foundations of the papal throne, before which the mightiest monarchs had trembled, he dis- covered, on some occasions, symptoms of vanity and self-applause. — EOBERTSON. For every impartial and attentive observer of the rise and progress of the Reformation will acknowledge, that wisdom and prudence did not always attend the transactions of those that were concerned in this glorious cause ; that many things were done with violence, temerity, and precipitation ; and, what is stUl worse, that several of the princi- pal agents in this great revolution were actuated more by the impulse of passions, and views of interest, than by a zeal for the advancement of true religion. But, on the other hand, the wise and candid observer of things will own, as a most evident and incontestable truth, that many things which, when stripped of the circumstances and motives that attended them, appear to us at this time as real crimes, will be deprived of their enormity, and even acquire the aspect of noble deeds, if they be considered in one point of view with the times and places in which they were transacted, and with the frauds and crimes of the Eoman pontiffs and their creatures, by which they were occasioned. — MOSHEIM. For, in fact, it is the age that forms the man, not the man that forms the age. ... If Luther had been born in the tenth century, he would have effected no Reformation. If he had never been born at all, it is evident that the sixteenth century could not have elapsed without a great schism in the church. — Macadlay. I will call this Luther a true Great Man; great in intellect, in cour- age, affection, and integrity; one of our most lovable and precious men. Great, not as a hewn obelisk, but as an Alpine mountain, — as simple, honest, spontaneous, not setting up to be great at all; there for quite another purpose than being great ! . . . A right Spiritual Hero and Prophet; once more, a tnie Son of Nature and Fact, for whom these centuries, and many that are to come yet, will be thank- ful to Heaven. — Carltle. 348 SIXTEENTH CENTUEY. When Luther came to Eome, the future reformer was a young monk, obscure and fervent; he had no presentiment, when he set foot in the great Babylon, that ten years later he would burn the bull of the Pope in the public square of "Wittenberg. His heart ex- perienced nothing but pious emotions; he addressed to Eome in salu- tation the ancient hymn of the pilgrims; he cried, " I salute thee, holy Rome, Rome venerable through the blood and the tombs of the martyrs.'' But after having prostrated on the threshold, he raised himself, he entered into the temple, he did not find the God he looked for; the city of the saints and martyrs was a city of murderers and prostitutes. The arts which marked this corruption were powerless over the stolid senses, and scandalized the austere spirit of the German monk; he scarcely gave a passing glance at the ruins of pagan Rome; — and, inwardly horrified by all that he saw, he quitted Rome in a frame of mind very different from that which he brought with him ; he knelt then with the devotion of the pilgrims, now he returned in a disposition like that of iih&frondews of the Middle Ages, but more serious than theirs. This Rome, of which he had been the dupe, and concerning which he was disabused, should hear of him again; the day would come when, amid the merry toasts at his table, he would cry three times, " I would not have missed going to Rome for a thousand florins, for I should always have been uneasy lest I should have been rendering injustice to the Pope." — AMPiEE. La liberte religieuse sortit des tentatives de la Reforme, quelquefois k son insu, quelquefois malgrfi elle, mais elle en sortit invinciblement. U en fut de meme de la liberty politique. II ne depend pas de la cause d'arreter I'efifet. La Reforme a apport^ au monde la notion du droit individuel, id^e qui devait s'epurer, s'agrandir, mais qui lui appartient bien en propre, car elle ne la trouva ni dans I'autiquit^ ni dans le christianisme. Les traditions de la Reforme et celles de la Renaissance, tel est le fonds commun ou le XVIII° siecle vint puiser ses Elements de reconstruction en les combinant avec les ressources qu'il trouva dans son propre g^nie. — Lanpeet. The Reformation had an invisible, mystic, and ideal aim; the result was indeed to be embodied in external things; but its spirit, its worth, was internal, invisible, infinite. — Cabltle. Anathemas are hurled From Ijoth sides ; veteran thunders (the hrute test Of truth) are met hy fulminations new, — SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 349 Tartarean flags are caught at and unfurled, — Friends strike at friends, —the flying shall pursue, — And victory sickens, ignorant where to rest I WOBDSWORTH. From the beginning of the religious wars in Germany, to the peace of Munster [peace of Westphalia, 1648], scarcely anything great or remarkable occurred in the political world of Europe in which the Eeformation had not an important share. All the events of this period, if they did not originate in, soon became mixed up with, the question of religion, and no state was either too great or too little to feel directly or indirectly more or less of its influence. — Schilleh. The destruction of the authority of the Romish see, through- out many flourishing and many rising nations, whilst it freed the monarch from the imperious interposition of an arrogant pontiff', released the people from that oppressive and undefined obedience to a foreign power, which exhausted their wealth, impeded their enjoyments, and interfered in all their domestic concerns. The abolition of the odious and absurd institutions of monastic life, by which great numbers of persons were restored to the common pur- poses of society, infused fresh vigor into those states which embraced the opinions of the reformers ; and the restoration of the ancient and apostolic usage of the Christian Church, in allowing the priest- hood to marry, was a circumstance of the utmost advantage to the morals and manners of the age. To this may be added the destruc- tion of many barbarous, absurd, and superstitious dogmas, by which the people were induced to believe that crimes could be commuted for money, and dispensations purchased even for the premeditated commission of sins. But, perhaps, the most important advantage derived from the Reformation is to be found in the great example of freedom of inquiry, which was thus exhibited to the world, and which has produced an incalculable effect on the state and condition of man- kind. — W. RoscoB. The revival of learning, the invention of printing, and other useful arts, geographical discoveries, and, above all, the Protestant Reforma- tion, awakened the minds of men, throughout Europe, to freedom of thought in politics and religion; and an impulse was given to demo- cratic forces, which has continued, with ever-increasing power, to our own age. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, religion became 350 SIXTEENTH CENTUEY. the great moving force in European politics and in the advancement of civil liberty. — Mat. We have seen that the Protestant revolution was but one wave of the advancing tide of modern civilization. It was a great revolutionary wave, the onward swell of which, beginning with the refusal of reform at the Diet of Worms, produced the Peasants' War and the Sack of Rome, swept on through the revolt of the Netherlands, the Thirty Tears' War, the Puritan Revolution in England, under Oliver Crom- well, the formation of the great independent American republic, until it came to a head and broke in all the terrors of the French Kevolu- tion. — Seebohm. The Reformation, when considered, as it ought to be, in all these points of view, may be reasonably represented as one of the greatest events, or rather as the greatest event, in modem history. To the Reformation we owe not only the destruction of the temporal and spiritual thraldom of the Papacy, the great evil with which Europe had to struggle, but to the Reformation we may be said to owe all the improvements which afterwards took place, not only in religion, but in legislation, in science, and in our knowledge of the faculties and operations of the human mind, — in other words, all that can dis- tinguish the most enlightened from the darkest periods of human society. — W. Smyth. SPANISH POWER. AGE OF CHARLES V. — PHILIP II. Crevere vires, famaque et imperi Porrecta majestas ab Euro Solis ad Occiduvm oubile. Horace. The rise of the power of Spain began in the last cen- tury, under Ferdinand and Isabella (see Spain, page 334), and in this century Spain became the dominant European power. In 1516, on the death of Ferdinand, the Spanish sovereignty — which then included the whole peninsula SIXTEENTH CENTUKY. 351 (except Portugal), and Sardinia, the island of Sicily, Naples, and an immense territory in America — passed to Charles, the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella. Charles also in- herited from his paternal grandmother the Netherlands and the county of Burgundy. On the death of his paternal grandfather (the Emperor Maximilian), in 1519, he was elected Emperor of Germany, and is known in history as Charles the Eifth. The various dominions which he thus inherited rendered him master of a larger empire than any monarch had ruled since Charlemagne. The extent of the Spanish conquests in America during the sixteenth century forms a remarkable part of her achieve- ments, and her mastery and retention of Mexico and Central America for three centuries are evidence of her enterprise and power. During the age of Charles V. occurred the Reformation (which see). Ich heisse Der reichste Mann In der getaufen Welt ; Die Sonne geht in meineni Staat nichtunter. [I am called The richest monarch in the Christian world ; The sun in my dominioas never sets.] ScHnxER, Dcm Carlos. Both the East and West Indies being met in the crown of Spain, it is come to pass that, as one saith in a brave kind of expression, the Bun never sets in the Spanish dominions, but ever shines upon one part or other of them : which, to say truly, is a beam of glory, though I cannot say it is ^o solid a body of glory, wherein the crown of Spain surpasseth aU the former monarchies. — Lord Bacon. Spain figured little in Europe till the latter part of the fifteenth century, — till Castile and Aragon were united by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, till the total expulsion of the Moors, and till the discovery of the West Indies. After this, not only Spain took a new form, and grew into immense power, but the heir of Ferdi- nand and Isabella being heir likewise of the houses of Burgundy and 352 SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Austria, such an extent of dominion accrued to him hy all these succes- sions, and such an addition of rank and authority by his election to the empire, as no prince had been master of in Europe from the days of Charles the Great. — Lord Bolingbeoke. As Charles was the first prince of the age in rank and dignity, the part which he acted, whether we consider the greatness, the variety, or the success of his imdertakings, was the most conspicuous. — EOBEKTSON. It was during his administration that the powers of Europe were formed into one great political system, in which each took a station, wherein it has since remained with less variation than could have been expected after the shocks occasioned by so many internal revolu- tions and so many foreign wars. The great events which happened then have not hitherto spent their force. The political principles and maxims, then established, still continue to operate. The ideas con- cerning the balance of power, then introduced or rendered general, still influence the councils of nations. The age of Charles V. may therefore be considered as the period at which the political state of Europe began to assume a new form. — Robertson. Such was the state of Europe during the reign of Charles V. No prince was so much superior to the rest in power as to render his eflforts irresistible and his conquests easy. No nation had made progress in improvement so far beyond its neighbors as to have acquired a very manifest pre-eminence. Each state derived some advantage, or was subject to some inconvenience from its situation or its climate ; each was distinguished by something peculiar in the genius of its people or the constitution of its government. But the advantages possessed by one state were counterbalanced by circum- stances favorable to others ; and this prevented any from attaining such superiority as might have been fatal to all. The nations of Europe in that age, as in the present, were Kke one great family, — Robertson. But though the near resemblance and equality in improvement among the different nations of Europe prevented the reign of Charles V. from being distinguished by such sudden and extensive conquests as occur in some other periods of history, yet, during the course of his administration, all the considerable states in Europe suffered a remarkable change in their political situation, and felt SIXTEENTH CENTUKY. 353 the influence of events, which had not hitherto spent their force, but still continue to operate in a greater or in a less degree. It was during his reign, and in consequence of the perpetual efforts to which his enterprising ambition roused him, that the different kingdoms of Europe acquired internal vigor ; that they discerned the resources of which they were possessed ; that they came bpth to feel their own strength, and to know how to make it formidable to others. It was during his reign, too, that the different kingdoms of Europe, which in former times seemed frequently to act as if they had been single and disjoined, became so thoroughly acquainted and so intimately connected with each other, as to form one great political system, in which each took a station, wherein it has remained since that time with less variation than could have been expected after the events of two active centuries. — Robertson. The splendid empire of Charles V. was erected upon the grave of liberty. The ancient streams of national freedom and human pro- gress, through many of the fairest regions in the world, were emptied and lost in that enormous gulf. — Motlet. In 1555 Charles resigned his crowns and retired for the rest of his life to the monastery of Yuste, near Plasencia, in Spain. So Charles the emperor, whose mighty reign The globe itself scarce held within its bound, At Yuste, a fair abhey of our Spain, A lowly home and quiet haven found. Luis Capata. Trans. The Spaniard, when the lust of sway Had lost its quickening spell. Cast crowns for rosaries away, An empire for a cell ; A strict accountant of his heads, A subtle disputant on creeds, His dotage trifled well. Bteon. He died at Yuste in 1558. In Saint Just the silent bowers Hear a drowsy funeral lay ; Bells are humming from the towers For the monk who died to-day. Qeap von Aueespbkg. Trans. 23 354 SIXTEENTH CENTURY. The imperial (German) crown Charles gave to his brother Ferdinand, while the Spanish possessions, the great power of the century, passed to his son Philip II., who reigned tni 1598. He added Portugal in 1580. He carried on systematic efforts to repress religious liberty by the tor- ments of the Inquisition, and during his reign occurred the Eevolt of the Netherlands (which see, page 364). He also equipped for the invasion of England the famous Armada (which see, page 360)- After his death the Spanish power greatly declined. The Spaniards of the sixteenth century were indisputably the no- blest nation of Europe ; yet they had the Inquisition and Philip II. — Carltlb. The empire of Philip II. was undoubtedly one of the most power- ful and splendid that ever existed in the world. In Europe, he ruled Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands on both sides of the Rhine, Franohe Comtl, RoussUlon, the Milanese, and the Two Sicilies. Tuscany, Parma, and the other small states of Italy, were as completely de- pendent on him as the Nizam and the Eajah of Berar now are on the East India Company. In Asia, the King of Spain was master of the Philippines, and of all those rich settlements which the Portuguese had made on the coast of Malabar and Coromandel, in the Peninsula of Malacca, in the Spice Islands of the Eastern Archipelago. In America, his dominions extended on each side of the equator into the temperate zone. There is reason to believe that his annual income amounted, in the season of his greatest power, to a sum near ten times as large as that which England yielded to Elizabeth. He had a stand- ing army of fifty thousand excellent troops, at a time when England had not a single battalion in constant pay. His ordinary naval force consisted of a hundred and forty galleys. He held, what no other prince in modem times has held, the dominion both of the land and of the sea. During the greater part of his reign he was supreme on both elements. His soldiers marched up to the capital of France ; his ships menaced the shores of England. It is no exaggeration to say that, during several years, his power over Europe was greater than even that of Napoleon. ... In the sixteenth century, Italy was SIXTEENTH CENTUEY. 355 not more decidedly the land of the fine arts, Germany was not more decidedly the land of bold theological speculation, than Spain was the land of statesmen and of soldiers. — Macaulay. I have marvelled sometimes at Spain, how they clasp and contain so large dominions with so few natural Spaniards ; but sure the whole compass of Spain is a very great body of a tree, far above Rome and Sparta at the first ; and, besides, though they have not had that usage to naturalize liberally, yet they have that which is next to it ; that is, to employ, almost indifferently, all nations in their militia of ordinary soldiers ; yea, and sometimes in their highest commands. — Lord Bacon. Philip II. left his successors a ruined monarchy. He left them something worse ; he left them his example and his principles of government, founded in ambition, in pride, in ignorance, in bigotry, and aU the pedantry of state. — Loed Bolingbroke. THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. A more glorious and important era in the history of the hu- man mind than the age of Pericles, of Augustus, or of Leo. — Macaulat. Far 'tis the sunrise now of zeal, And faith and hope are in their prime, In great Eliza's golden time, WOEDSWORTH. The period covered by the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603) was a time of national prosperity and prog- ress in England, in which commerce flourished and the naval power of the kingdom was greatly increased, and England may be said to have risen in political power and commercial importance from the condition of a secondary to that of a leading state. It was an age of great un- dertakings by sea. Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe. Trade was opened with Eussia and with Guinea. 356 SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Sir Walter Ealeigh attempted a settlement in North America. I '11 have them fly to India for gold, Eansack the ocean for orient pearl, And search all corners of the new-found world For pleasant fruits and princely delicates. Marlowe, Faustus. What gave an unusual impetus to the mind of men at this period was the discovery of the New World, and the reading of voyages and travels. Green islands and golden sands seemed to arise, as by en- chantment, out of the bosom of the watery waste, and invite the cupidity or wing the imagination of the dreaming speculator. Fairy- land was realized in new and imknown worlds. " Fortunate fields, and groves, and flowery vales, thrice happy isles," were found float- ing, " like those Hesperian gardens famed of old," beyond Atlantic seas, as dropped from the zenith. The people, the soil, the clime, everything gave unlimited scope to the curiosity of the traveller and reader. Other manners might be said to enlarge the bounds of knowledge, and new mines of wealth were tumbled at our feet. — Hazlitt. It was also a period of great mental as well as material development. The enterprises and discoveries of the time stimulated all minds, and the national intellect found ex- pression in some of the noblest works of genius which have ever been produced. As for her government, I assure myself I shall not exceed if I do affirm that this part of the island never had forty-five years of better times, and yet not through the calmness of the season, but through the wisdom of her regimen. For if there be considered, of the one side, the truth of religion established ; the constant peace and secu- rity ; the good administration of justice ; the temperate use of the prerogative, not slackened nor much strained ; the flourishing state of learning, suitable to so excellent a patroness ; the convenient estate of wealth and means, both of crown and subject ; the habit of obedience, and the moderation of discontents ; and then be con- sidered, on the other side, the differences of religion, the troubles of SIXTEENTH CENTUKY. 357 neighbor countries, the ambition of Spain and opposition of Rome ; and then that she was solitary and of herself, — these things, I say, considered, I could not have chosen a more remarkable instance of the conjunction of learning in the prince with felicity in the people. — LoKD Bacon. The reign of Queen Elizabeth may be cojisidered as the opening of the modern history of England, especially in its connection with the modem system of Europe, which began about that time to assume the form that it preserved till the French Eevolution. It was a very memorable period, of which the maxims ought to be engraven on the head and heart of every Englishman. Philip II., at the head of the greatest empire then in the world, openly was aiming at universal domination. To the most extensive and opulent dominions, the most numerous and disciplined armies, the most renowned captains, the greatest revenue, he added also the most formidable power over opin- ion. Elizabeth was among the first objects of his hostility. That wise and magnanimous princess placed herself in the front of the battle for the liberties of Europe. Though she had to contend at home with his fanatical faction, which almost occupied Ireland, which divided Scotland, and was not of contemptible strength in England, she aided the oppressed inhabitants of the Netherlands in their just and glorious resistance to his tyranny ; she aided Henry the Great in suppressing the abominable rebellion which anarchical principles had excited and Spanish arms had supported in France, and after a long reign of various fortune, in which she preserved her unconquered spirit through great calamities and still greater dangers, she at length broke the strength of the enemy, and reduced his power within such limits as to be compatible with the safety of England and of all Europe. — Mackintosh. The age of Elizabeth was distinguished beyond, perhaps, any other in our history, by a number of great men, famous in different ways, and whose names have come down to lis with unblemished honors, — statesmen, warriors, divines, scholars, poets, and philosophers : Raleigh, Drake, Coke, Hooker, and higher and more sounding still, and stUl more frequent in our mouths, Shakespeare, Spenser, Sidney, Bacon, Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, — men whom fame has eter- nized in her long and lasting scroll, and who, by their words and acts, were benefactors of their country, and ornaments of human nature. 358 SIXTEENTH CENTURY. I Their attainments of different kinds bore tlie same general stamp, and it was sterling : what they did had the mark of their age and country upon it. Perhaps the genius of Great Britain (if I may so speak without offence or flattery) never shone out fuller or brighter, or looked more Uke itself, than at this period. The first cause I shaU mention, as contributing to this general effect, was the Eeformation, which had just then taken place. This event gave a mighty impulse and increased activity to thought and inquiry, and agitated the inert mass of accumulated prejudices throughout Europe. The effect of the concussion was general; but the shock was greatest in this coun- try. It toppled down full-grown intolerable abuses of centuries at a blow; heaved the ground from under the feet of bigoted faith and slavish obedience; and the roar and dashing of opinions, loosened from their accustomed hold, might be heard like the noise of an angry sea, and has never yet subsided. — Hazlitt. That reign [Elizabeth's] had been a glorious one, and is made for- evet memorable by the distinguished men who flourished in it. Apart from the great voyagers, statesmen, and scholars whom it produced, the names of Bacon, Spenser, and Shakespeare will always be re- membered with pride and veneration by the civilized world, and will always impart (though with no great reason, perhaps) some portion of their lustre to the name of Elizabeth herself. It was a great reign for the Protestant religion, and for the Reformation which made Eng- land free. The queen was very popular, and, in her progresses, or journey^ about her dominions, was everywhere received with the liveliest joy. I think the truth is, that she was not half so good as she had been made out, and not half so bad as she had been made out. She had her fine qualities ; but she was coarse, capricious, and treacherous, and had all the faults of an excessively vain young wo- man long after she was an old one. On the whole, she had a great deal too much of her father in her to please me. Many improve- ments and luxuries were introduced, in the course of these five and forty years, in the general manner of living ; but cock-fighting, bull- baiting, and bear-baiting were still the national amusements ; and a coach was so rarely seen, and was such an ugly and cumbersome affair when it was seen, that even the queen herself, on many high occasions, rode on horseback on a piUion beliind the lord chan- cellor. — D1CKEN8. SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 359 Everything concurred, in the Elizabethan era, to give a vigor and a range to genius, to which neither prior nor subsequent times have been equally propitious. An heroic age, inflamed with the discovery of new worlds, gave increased impulse to fancies enriched by access both to the recovered treasures of ancient literature, and the wild splendors of Italian fiction. A command of language equal to the great occasion was not wanting. For what is there in copiousness or force of words, or in clearness of arrangement, or in harmony or gran- deur of modulation, which Spenser at least has not given proofs that that age could produce ? — Sir Egerton Brydses. O blessed queen ! the mother of this nation, the nurse of this church, the glory of womanhood, the envy and example of foreign nations, the wonder of times, how sweet and sacred shall thy memory be to all pos- terity ! How excellent were her masculine graces of learning, valor, and wisdom, by which she might justly challenge to be the queen of men I So learned was she, that she could give present answer to ambassadors in their own tongues ; so valiant, that like Zisca's drum made the proudest Eomanist to quake ; so wise, that whatsoever fell out happily against the common adversary in France, the Netherland, or Ireland, it was by themselves ascribed to her policy. Why should I speak of her long and successful government ; of her miraculous preservations ; of her famous victories, wherein the waters, wind, file, and earth fought for us, as if they had been in pay under her ; of her excellent laws and careful execution ? Many daughters have done worthily, but thou surmountedst them all. Such was the sweet- ness of her government and such the fear of misery in her loss, that many worthy Christians desired that their eyes might be closed before hers. . . . Every one pointed to her white hairs, and said, with that peaceable Leontius, " When this snow melteth there will be a flood." — Bishop Hall, Sermon at Paul's Cross. Her silver car Meanwhile, by prudence ruled, glides slowly on ; Unhurt ty violence, from menaced taint Emerging pure, and seemingly more bright ! For, wheresoe'er she moves, the clouds anon Disperse ; or — under a Divine constraint — Reflect some portion of her glorious light I WOBDSWOETH. 360 SIXTEENTH CENTUET. Spain's rod, Rome's ruin, Netherland's relief, Heaven's gem, Earth's joy, World's wonder, Nature's chief, Britain's blessing, England's splendor, Eeligion's nurse, and Faith's defender. Monmmnt to Mlizaheth in the Church of Allhallows the Great. THE SPANISH AEMADA. During the reign of Elizabeth the Catholic powers became impa- tient at the spread of Protestantism, and regarding England as the refuge, and Elizabeth as the protectress of that faith, the' conquest of England and the subjection of the queen was determined upon, and the famous naval armament, or expedition, known as the Invincible- Armada, was collected by Philip II. of Spain, and by him sent against England in 1588. The Armada, consisting of one hundred and thirty ships, about two thousand five hundred great guns, nearly five thou- sand quintals of powder, about twenty thousand soldiers, besides volunteers, and more than eight thousand sailors, arrived in the Chan- nel on the 19th of July, and in the first engagement was defeated by the English fleet, which was commanded by Howard, Drake, Frobisher, and others. Several of the Spanish vessels were captured and others destroyed. Afterwards fire-ships were sent into the Spanish fleet, which caused so much alarm that the Armada put to sea in disorder, closely pursued by the English fleet, which attacked it so vigorously and kept up so persistent an engagement that the immense armament was fairly routed. A number of the Spanish ships were destroyed, many were injured, a large number of men were killed; and the Spanish commanders received such a fright that they did not dare return home the way they had come, but resolved to sail through the North Sea and round Scotland to avoid risking another engagement. In this passage they sufi'ered from storms and disasters ; many of the vessels were wrecked, and of the whole fleet biat fifty-three shattered vessels and a little more than one third of the army reached Spain. The attack of the Armada cost the English only one ship. Attend all ye who list to hear Our nohle England's praise I I tell of the thrice-famous deeds She wrote in ancient days. SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 361 When that great fleet invincible Against her bore in vain The richest spoils of Mexico, The stoutest hearts of Spain. MAOAnLAT, The Spanish Armada, That memorable year, when the dark cloud gathered round our coasts, when Europe stood by in fearful suspense to behold what should be the result of that great cast in the game of human politics, what the craft of Rome, the power of Philip, the genius of Farnese, could achieve against the island queen, with her Drakes and Cecils, — in that agony of the Protestant faith and English name. — Hallam. But just then began that proud and vast intention of Spain to con- quer this kingdom, by little and little to show itself. Of this the principal part was to stir up by all means a party, within the king- dom, of such as were ill-affected to the state, and desirous of innova- tion, that might adhere to the foreigner at his landing. For this they had no other hopes than the difference in religion. — Bacon. The unfortunate armament against England, on which, like a desperate gamester, he [Philip II.] had staked the whole strength of his kingdom, completed his ruin; with the Armada sank the wealth of the two Indies and the flower of Spanish chivalry. — Schilleb. For whereas she [Elizabeth] herseK was not without manifest dan- ger from an ill-affected party at home for the cause of religion, and that the strength and forces of this kingdom were in the place of a bulwark to all Europe against the then dreadful and overflowing am- bition and power of the King of Spain, she might have apprehended just cause of a war ; but as she was still ready with her counsel, so she was not behindhand with her forces. And this we are taught by an event the most memorable of any in our time, if we look upon the felicity thereof. For when as the Spanish navy (set forth with such wonderful preparation in all kinds, the terror and amazement of all Europe, carried on with almost assurance of victory) came braving upon our seas, it took not so much as one poor cock-boat of ours, nor fired any one village, nor landed one man upon English ground ; but was utterly defeated, and after a shameful flight and many ship- wrecks quite dispersed, so as the peace of this kingdom was never more firm and solid. — Lord Bacon. 362 SIXTEENTH CENTDEY. Wien all tte pride of Spain, in one dread fleet, Swelled o'er tlie laboring surge; like a whole heaven Of clouds, wide rolled before the boundless breeze. Gayly the splendid armament along Exultant ploughed, reflecting a red gleam. As sunk the sun, o'er all the flaming vast; Tall, gorgeous, and elate ; drunk with the dream Of easy conquest ; while their bloated war. Stretched out from sky to sky, the gathered force Of ages held in its capacious womb. But soon, regardless of the cumbrous pomp. My dauntless Britons came, a gloomy few, With tempests black, the goodly scene deformed. And laid their glory waste. The bolts of fate Resistless thundered through their yielding sides ; Fierce o'er their beauty blazed the lurid flame, And seized in horrid grasp, or shatter'd wide. Amid the mighty waters, deep they sunk. Then too from every promontory chill. Bank fen, and cavern where the wild wave works, I swept confederate winds, and swelled a storm. Round the glad isle, snatched by the vengeful blast. The scattered remnants drove; on the blind shelve. And pointed rock, that marks the indented shore. Relentless dashed, where loud the northern main lowls through the fractured Caledonian isles. Thomson. And it soon appeared tliat the great Armada was anything but invincible ; for, on a summer night, bold Drake sent eight blazing fire-ships right into the midst of it. In terrible consternation, the Spaniards tried to get out to sea, and so became dispersed ; the Eng- lish pursued them at a great advantage. A storm came on, and di'ove the Spaniards among rocks and shoals; and the swift end of the in^'incibIe fleet was, that it lost thirty great ships and ten thousand men, and, defeated and disgraced, sailed home again. Being afraid to go by the English Channel, it sailed all round Scotland and Ire- land ; some of the ships getting cast away on the latter coast in bad weather, the Irish, who were a kind of savages, plundered those vessels, and killed their crews. So ended this great attempt to invade and conquer England. — Dickens. SIXTEENTH CENTUET. 363 The victory over the Armada, the deliverance from Spain, the rolling away of the Catholic terror which had hung like a cloud over the hopes of the new people, was like a passing from death into life. The whole aspect of England suddenly changed. As yet the interest of Elizabeth's reign had been political and material ; the stage had been crowded with statesmen and warriors,- — with Cecils, and Walsinghams, and Drakes. Literature had hardly found a place in the glories of the time. But from the moment when the Armada drifted back broken to Ferrol, the figures of warriors and statesmen were dwarfed by the grander figures of poets and philoso- phers. — J. R. Green. The years which followed the defeat of the Armada were rich in events of profound national importance. They were years of splen- dor and triumph. The flag of England became supreme on the seas ; English commerce penetrated to the farthest corners of the Old World, and English colonies rooted themselves on the shores of the New. The national intellect, strung by the excitement of sixty years, took shape in a literature which is an eternal possession to mankind, while the incipient struggles of the two parties in the Anglican Church prepared the way for the conflicts of the coming century, and the second act of the Reformation. — Eroude. The Age of Elizabeth, particularly as a literary era, cannot be regarded as ending with the centuiy, and it must be remembered that part of the matters treated of above relate as well to the early years of the seventeenth century. 364 SIXTEENTH CENTURY. THE EEVOLT OF THE NETHEELANDS. THE RISE OP THE DUTCH REPUBLIC. The revolt of the Netherlands, and the independence they subse- qtiently achieved hy force of arms, was in its results one of the most important events of history. — Schleqel. The historical importance of the Netherlands begins in the reign of Philip II. of Spain, the son and successor of Charles V. These states had passed by inheritance to the Emperor Charles V., from whom they descended to Philip II. The people of the Netherlands were distinguished for their industry, thrift, and mechanical skill. They were daring sailors, and had pushed their commercial adventures and maritime explorations into the most distant regions. They were warmly devoted to civil liberty, and earnest converts to the doctrines and principles of the Eeformation. The people of the Netherlands, " with the Italians, were the first in Europe to attain prosperity, wealth, security, liberty, comfort, and all other benefits which seem to us the paraphernalia of modern times. In the thirteenth cen- tury, Bruges was equal to Venice ; in the sixteenth century, Antwerp was the industrial and commercial capital of the North." (Taine. Tr. Durand.) The bigotry and intolerance of the narrow-minded Philip provoked the resistance of his spirited subjects in the Low Countries. Philip sent his general, the Duke of Alva, to quell the insurrections of these Protestants, but the latter revolted against the cruelties of his adminis- tration. SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 365 It was beyond the power of man's ingenuity to add any fresh features of horror to the religious persecution under which the provinces were groaning. — Motley. There eke he placed a strong garrisone, And set a Seneschall of dreaded might, That by his powre oppressed every one. Spenser. Philip II., King of Spain, apprehending the danger to which the religion of Kome was exposed from that spirit of liberty and inde- pendence which reigned in the inhabitants of the Low Countries, took the most violent measures to dispel it. For this purpose he augmented the number of the bishops, enacted the most severe and barbarous laws against aU innovators in matters of religion, and erected that unjust and inhuman tribunal of the Inquisition, which would intimi- date and tame, as he thought, the manly spirit of an oppressed and persecuted people. But his measures, in this respect, were as unsuc- cessful as they were absurd ; his furious and intemperate zeal for the superstitions of Rome accelerated their destruction ; and the papal authority, which had only been in a critical state, was reduced to a desperate one, by the very steps that were designed to support it. — MOSHEIM. To quell these tumults, a powerful army was sent from Spain, tmder the command of the Duke of Alva, whose horrid barbarity and sanguinary proceedings kindled that long and bloody war from which the powerful republic of the United Provinces derived its origin, con- sistence, and grandeur. It was the heroic conduct of William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, seconded by the succors of England and France, that delivered this state from the Spanish yoke. And no sooner was this deliverance obtained, than the reformed religion, as it was professed in Svritzerland, was established in the United Prov- inces ; and, at the same time, an universal toleration granted to those whose religious sentiments were of a different nature, whether they retained the faith of Rome, or embraced the Reformation in another form, provided still that they made no attempts against the authority of the government or the tranquillity of the public. — Mosheim. Seven of the states (the Seven United Provinces) joined in defence of their liberties, and under William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, forming " a new state, powerful by its 366 SIXTEENTH CENTURY. waters, and its union, and despair," achieved their inde- pendence and formed a federal republic, at the head of •which they placed William of Orange (Union of Utrecht, 1579). He [WilKam of Orange] arrived, through a series of reverses, at a perfect victory. He planted a free commonwealth under the very- battery of the Inquisition, in defiance of the most powerful empire existing. — Motley. The conflict continued for some time longer, and, though in the beginning of the seventeenth century the indepen- dence of the Dutch was practically secured, it was not acknowledged by Spain until 1648 (Peace of Westphalia). During the struggle the Dutch had grown in wealth, had developed a strong naval force, and soon after their inde- pendence became the most powerful maritime power of the world. By the industry and skill of their farmers and mechanics their country became the most productive and prosperous portion of the continent of Europe.* In the seventeenth century Holland, still free, holds for a century the place which England now occupies in the world of to-day. — Taine. One of the most remarkable political events which have rendered the sixteenth century among the brightest of the world's epochs ap- pears to me to be the foundation of the freedom of the Netherlands. If the glittering exploits of ambition and the pernicious lust of power claim our admiration, how much more should an event in which op- pressed humanity struggles for its noblest rights, where with the good cause unwonted powers are united, and the resources of resolute 1 Singularly enough, this great power never had any strict geographical name. J^etJierlaTids was too large, as it took in the whole of the Low Coun- tries, and not the emancipated provinces only. Solland was too small, as being the name of one province only, thoiigh the greatest. And, hy one of the oddest cases of caprice of language, in common English usage the name of the whole Teutonic race settled down on this one small part of it, and the men of the Seven Provinces came to be exclusively spoken of as Dutch. — Freeman. SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 367 despair triumph in unequal contest over the temhle acts of tyr- anny. — Schiller. It will be ever memorable as a lofty manifestation of the energy proper to the critical doctrine, thus directing the fortunate insurrec- tion of a small nation against the most powerful monarchy in Europe. The dogma specially illustrated in this case was that of the sover- eignty of the people, and also that of national independence, — the chief need being to breat an external bond which had become intol- erably oppressive. — Comte. The rise of the Dutch Republic must ever be regarded as one of the leading events of modem times. Without the birth of this great commonwealth, the various historical phenomena of the sixteenth and following centuries must have either not existed, or have presented themselves under essential modifications. Itself an organized protest against ecclesiastical tyranny and universal empire, the Eepublic guarded with sagacity, at many critical periods in the world's his- tory, that balance of power which, among civilized states, ought always to be identical with the scales of divine justice. — • Motley. The people here presented to our notice were the most peaceful in this quarter of the globe, and less capable than their neighbors of that heroic spirit which imparts a higher character to the most insig- nificant actions. The pressure of circumstances surprised them with its peculiar power, and forced a transitory greatness upon them, which they never should have possessed, and may perhaps never possess again. It is, indeed, exactly the want of heroic greatness which makes this event peculiar and instructive ; and while others aim at showing the superiority of genius over chance, I present here a pic- ture, where necessity created genius, and accident made heroes. — Schiller. THE EELIGIOUS WAES IN FRANCE. During the last half of the century (1562-1595) France was occupied with civil wars between the Catholics and 368 SIXTEENTH CENTUEY. the Protestants (or, as they were called. Huguenots), the most remarkable event of which was THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. No example of equal barbarity is to be found in all antiquity, or in the annals of the -n'orld. — De Thou. This dreadful massacre of French Protestants, which hegan in Paris on the eve of the festival of St. Bartholo- mew, August 24, 1572, was secretly ordered by the king, Charles IX., at the instigation of his mother, the queen- dowager, Catherine de' Medici. It was attended by cir- cumstances of the most fiendish cruelty, and thirty thousand (some authorities say seventy thousand) persons are said to have been murdered. ' The massacre of St. Bartholome-w, in 1572, was the diabolical work of the queen, Catherine de' Medici, to maintain her political power. She had coquetted with the Huguenots when it served her purpose. She tried to exterminate them by the massacre of twenty thousand — some say one hundred thousand — in one fatal night. — Seebohm. The moment the bell tolled, the murderers broke forth. During all that night and the two next days they broke into the houses, fired the houses, shot and stabbed the Protestants, — men, women, and children, — and flung their bodies into the streets. They were shot at in the streets as they passed along, and their blood ran down the gut- ters. Upwards of ten thousand Protestants were killed in Paris alone ; in all France, four or five times that number. To return thanks to Heaven for these diabolical murders, the Pope and his train actu- ally went in public procession at Eome ; and, as if this were not shame enough for them, they had a medal struck to commemorate the event. — Dickens. That dismal night, When gushing, copious as a thunder-shower, The blood of Huguenots through Paris streamed. Wordsworth. SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 369 THE COPEENICAE" SYSTEM. THE TELESCOPE. In the sixteenth century the Copernican System was made public (1543), and was followed, towards the end of the century, according to some authorities, by the invention of the telescope, which is, however, referred by others to the early years of the seventeenth century. The period of the greatest discoveries in space over the surface of our planet was immediately succeeded by the revelations of the tele- scope, through which man may be said to have taken possession of a considerable portion of the heavens. — Humboldt. THE ORDER OF JESUITS. In 1534 was founded, by Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish reformer, this religious order of the Eomish Church, to promote the education of youth, the renovation of the Catholic Church, and the conversion of the infidels. The Society of Jesus became very numerous and wealthy, and wielded an immense power. Under his rule the order grew rapidly to the full measure of its gigantic powers. With what vehemence, with what policy, with what exact discipline, with what dauntless courage, with what self- denial, with what unscrupulous laxity and versatility in the choice of means, the Jesuits fought the battles of their Church, is written in every page of the annals of Europe during several generations. In the Order of Jesus was concentrated the quintessence of the Catholic spirit ; and the history of the Order of Jesus is the history of the great Catholic reaction. This order possessed itself at once of all the strong- holds which command the public mind, — of the pulpit, of the press, 24 370 SIXTEENTH CENTUEY. of tlie confessional, of the academies. . . . Nor was it less their office to plot against the thrones and lives of apostate kings, to spread evil rumors, to raise tumults, to inflame civil wars, to arm the hand of the assassin. — Maoatjlat. THE AGE OF LEO X, Caedinal Giovanni de' Medici was elected Pope in 1513, and took the name of Leo X. He was a liberal patron of literature and the arts, and his pontificate forms a memorable epoch in religion and politics, as well as in the fine arts ; and the portion of the sixteenth century which was the most flourishing in respect to learning and art 'is commonly known as the Age of Leo X. This was the time of Michael Angelo (1474-1564) and Eaphael (1483- 1520). The middle of the fifteenth century witnessed the commencement of that halcyon period of forty j'ears' tranquillity, destined to be broken by the descent of Charles VIII., in 1494, upon which Machiavelli and Guicciardini, from amid the tempests of the next half century, looked back with eyes of wonder and of envy. Constantinople fell, and the undoubted primacy of the civilized races came to the Italians. , Lorenzo de' Medici was regarded as the man who, by his political ability and firm grasp of the requisite conditions for maintaining peace in the Peninsula, had established and secured the equilibrium between mutually jealous and antagonistic states. Whether the merit of that repose, so fruitful of results in art and literature for the Italians, was really due to Lorenzo's sagacity, or whether the shifting forces of the nation had become stationary for a season by the operation of circum- stances, may fairly be questioned. Yet there is no doubt that the unprecedented prosperity of the people coincided with his adminis- tration of Florence, and ended when he ceased to guide the common- wealth. It was at any rate a singular good fortune that connected the name of this extraordinary man with the high tide of material prosperity in Italy, and with the resurrection of her national litera- ture. — J. A. Symonds. SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 371 By the example of the supreme pontiff, who well knew how to unite m^pifioence with taste, the chiefs and princes of the Roman Church emulated each other in the grandeur of their palaces, the sumptuousness of their apparel, the elegance of their entertainments, and the number and respectability of their attendants ; nor can it be denied that their wealth and influence were frequently devoted to the encouragement of the fine arts and the remxmeration of men of genius in every department of intellect. . . . The most illustrious period of the arts is that which commences with the return of Michael Angelo from Rome to Florence, about the year 1500, and terminates with the death of Leo X. in 1521. Within this period almost all the great works in painting, in sculpture, and in architecture, which have been the admiration of future times, were produced. Under the successive but uninterrupted patronage of Julius II. and Leo X., the talents of the great artists then living were united in one simultaneous effort ; and their rival productions may be considered as a joint tribute to the munificence of their patrons, and the glory of the age. — W. RoscoE. Jules II. pouisuivit toujours fermement la consolidation de la puissance papale et la d^livrance de I'ltalie du joug etranger, tandis que L^on X. pratiqua une politique 6troite et songea principalement k avantager sa propre famiUe. Jules II., administrant ses ressources avec sagesse, put assurer la continuite de ses gigantesques travaux dans le domaine des arts, tandis que Leon X., par I'exag&ation de sa magni- ficence, par ses generosites d^mesur^es, dilapida des ressources enormes, et se trouva souvent k court au milieu de n^cessites urgentes. La post^rite a si glorieusement conserve la m6moire de Leon X., parce que, bien plus que son pr^decesseur, il favorisa les savants et les poetes, qui, k leur tour, ont bien plus exalte le nom du Mi^dicis, comme protecteur des arts et des lettres, que le nom de Jules II. della Rovere. — Pabsavant. Le Vatican 6tait encombrd, sous L6on X., d'historiens, de savants, de poetes surtout. " La tourbe importune des poetes," s'ecrie Val^ri- anus, " le poursuit de porte en porte, tant6t sous les portiques, tantot k la promenade, tantSt au palais, tantot k la chambre, penetralibus in mds; elle ne respecte ni son repos, ni les graves affaires qui I'occupent aujourd'hui que I'incendie ravage le monde." ... II y avait dans ces ^loges, dans ces encouragements donnds avec entrainement, mais aveo tact, je ne sais quel souffle de vie pour I'intelligence, qui I'activait 372 SIXTEENTH CENTUEY. et qui lui faisait rendre au centuple les dons qu'elle avait regus du ciel. Eome entiere etait devenue un musee, ime academie ; partout des chants, partout la science, la poesie, les beaui-arts, una sorte de volupte dans I'etude. — Godknerie. But see ! each Muse in Leo's golden days Starts from her trance, and trims her withered bays; Rome's ancient genius, o'er its ruins spread, Shakes off the dust, and rears his reverend head. Then sculpture and her sister arts revive ; Stones leaped to form, and rocks began to live ; With sweeter notes each rising temple rung; A Raphael painted, and a Yida sung. Pope. THE MOGUL EMPIEE OF BABEE IN INDIA. Early in this century, Baber, a descendant of Tamerlane (see page 309), founded a great and magnificent Mogul empire in India, with its capital at Delhi. After a life marked by many warlike expeditions, extraordinary vicis- situdes, and wonderful exploits, he died in 1530. The empire which Baber and his Moguls reared in the sixteenth century was long one of the most extensive and splendid in the world. In no European kingdom was so large a population subject to a single prince, or so large a revenue poured into the treasury. The beauty and magnificence of the buUdings erected by the sovereigns of Hindo- stan amazed even travellers who had seen St. Peter's. The innumer- able retinues and gorgeous decorations which surrounded the throne of Delhi dazzled even eyes which were accustomed to the pomp of Versailles. — Macaulat. In the course of the sixteenth century, all the elements, all the facts, of ancient European society had merged in two essential facts, — the right of free examination, and centralization of power; one pre- vailing in religious society, the other in civil society. The emanci- pation of the human mind and absolute monarchy triumphed at the same moment over Europe in general. — Guizot. SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 373 Nor must we think it little that, ia those distant voyages and trav- els which have been frequent in our time, much has been discovered in nature which is capable of shedding new light on philosophy. Nay, it is dishonorable to men, if in our age the regions of the mate- rial world — that is, the earth, the ocean, and the heavenly bodies — are discovered and displayed to a vast extent, but the boundaries of the intellectual world are still fixed within the narrow space and knowl- edge of the ancients. Even the state of Europe at present in a poli- tical respect is not averse. England is raised, France at peace, Spain worn out, Italy and Germany in a state of inaction ; so that from the power of the greatest kings being balanced, and the conditions of the first-rate nations shaken, aifairs lean to peace, which is like clear and mild weather for the sciences. Nor is the present state of letters itself unfavorable; nay, it enjoys a certain facility, both from the art of printing, unknown to ancient times, by means of which the inven- tions and thoughts of individuals glance from side to side like light- ning; and also by reason of religious controversies, from weariness of which perchance men have been able to turn their minds more readily to the contemplation of the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of God in his works. — Lord Bacon. The sphere of human interest was widened as it had never been widened before or since by the revelation of a new heaven and a new earth. It was only in the later years of the sixteenth century that the discoveries of Copernicus were brought home to the general intelli- gence of the world by Kepler and Galileo, or that the daring of the buccaneers broke through the veil which the greed of Spain had drawn across the New World of Columbus. — J. R, Green. The sixteenth century is distinguished from all others by the num- ber of religious systems produced in its course. Even to the present day are these afi'ecting us; the various opinions taking their birth at that period have formed the medium in which we still " live, move, and have our being.'' — Ranke. About A. D. 1700 RshOiypff'Pmai'ng Co,So£ton. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. (1600-1700.) France, under Louis XIV., now becomes the leading power in Europe, and makes great accessions of territory. England also becomes one of the important states of Europe, and, besides being engaged in civil and foreign wars, is planting colonies in America and in India. Union of the crowns of England and Scotland takes place in 1603. Adstria increases her power in Italy and Hungary. The Spanish monarchy is quite broken up, and Spain sinks to an inferior position. Prussia first rises into prominence in this century under the great elector, Frederick William. The United Provinces hold a high place at this period, and are engaged in a long struggle with France. Italy has fallen to a low condition. Savoy is slowly gaining in power, and Venice is engaged in wars with the Turks. Sweden in this century is at the height of her power and posses- sions. Russia is rapidly rising, and Poland is declining. The Turks press forward into Austria, from which they are driven out, and make some important conquests in other parts ; but their power is on the decline. Portugal is freed from the Spanish yoke in 1640, but is of little account at this time. Scotland. Union of the crowns of England and Scotland takes place in 1603. In America, colonization is rapidly going on, the English and Dutch taking the lead in planting new settlements. The Spaniards hold their first conquests, but with a rapid decline of power. The French lay claim to the great territory beyond the English posses- sions, and are engaged in frequent wars with the English in the New as in the Old World. A.D. 1600- A.I>. ITOO. CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE. 1603. Union of the crowns of England and 1640. Portugal independent of Spain Scotland. 1640. The Long Parliament iu England, 1607. English settlement In America at 1640-1660. North Carolina settled. Jamestown, Va. 1642-1646. Civil war in England. 1608. 'Quebec founded by the French. 1643. Confederacy of the New England 1609. Hudson River discovered (Dutch). colonies for mutual defence. 1610. Expulsion of the Moors from Spain. 1643. Assembly of Divines at Westminster. 1612. English establishment in Hindos- 1648-1663. War of the Fronde. tan. 1648. Peace of Westphalia, or Miinster. 1614. New York founded by the Dutch. End of the Thirty Years' War. 1618. Beginning of the Thirty Years' War. 1649. Execution of Charles 1. The Com- 1619. Discovery of the circulation of the monwealth, until 1660. blood by Harvey. 1664. Cromwell declared Protector. 1620. Settlement by English Puritans at 1660. Restoration of Charles XL Plymouth, Mass. 1664. New Jersey passed to the English 1623. English settle New Hampshire. with New York. 1624. New Jersey settled by the Dutch. 1665. Great plague iu London. 1627. Delaware settled by the Swedes. 1666. Great fire in London. 1632. Battle of Lutzen. 1669. South Carolina settled (English). 1633. Settlement of Connecticut. 1682. Settlement of Pennsylvania. 1634-1685. Settlement of Maryland. 1685. Edict of Nantes revoked. 1636. Rhode Island settled. 1688. " The Glorious Revolution " in Eng- 1638. Solemn League and Covenant signed land. by the Scots. 1696. Colonization of Louisiana. PEOMINENT NAMES OF THE CENTURY. Pea NCE. Kings. — Seiay IV., Louis XIV. Engi jAND. Queen. — Elizabeth. Kin^s of Grmt Bnt ain. — James I., Charles I., The Conimon- wealth (Oliver Cromwell), Charles 11., Jame s XL, William and Mary. SWE DEK. King. — Gnstavus Adolphus, Charles XII Eus SIA. Cmr. — Peter the Great. Tycho Brahe, Beza, Scaliger, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Beaumont, Raleigh, Bellannine, Fletcher, Bacon, Kepler, Lope de Vega, Ben Jonson, Rubens, Vandyck, Galileo, Riche- lieu, Descartes, Harvey, Selden, Cromwell, Pascal, Bega, Poussin, Jeremy Taylor, Rem- brandt, Moliere, Milton, Spinoza, Tnrenne, Hobbes, Butler, Murillo, Corneille, Condi, Calderon, Bunyan, George Fox, Boyle, Baxter, Racine, La Fontaine, Dryden, Locke, | Bossuet, Bayle, Boileau, Penelon, Burnet, Leibnitz, Addison, Marlborough, Nevrton, Steele, Swift, Le Sage. ILLUSTRATIONS. THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. See under the last century, page 355. THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. This important event, in which both religion and politics were concerned, continued from about 1618 to 1648, and consisted of a series of wars between the Eoman Catholic and Protestant leagues in Germany, the house of Austria being at the head of the former party. Various powers of Europe were drawn into it to assist the Protestant princes of Germany ; at first Denmark and Sweden, and later France. It was closed by the Treaty of Westphalia, 1648. The great sufferer by the war was Germany, becoming a mere loose collection of distinct governments of minor impor- tance ; and the Holy Eoman Empire, becoming thoroughly weakened, ceased to exist, except in name. By the Treaty of Westphalia religious freedom was guaranteed to all the German states ; the independence of Switzerland was for- mally acknowledged; Spain at last recognized the inde- 378 SEVENTEENTH CENTUEY. pendence of the United ISTetherlands (see page 366) ; France obtained Alsace, Metz, Verdun, and other possessions within the empire; Sweden also obtained territories within the empire. Thus the Peace of Westphalia formed an impor- tant turning-point in European history, marking the end of a long religious strife and the decline of the Austrian and Spanish houses of Hapsburg, and being followed by a great increase in the power of France. A desolating war of thirty years, ■whioh, from the interior of Bohe- mia to the mouth of the Scheldt, and from the banks of the Po to the coasts of the Baltic, devastated whole countries, destroyed harvests, and reduced towns and villages to ashes; which opened a grave for many thousand combatants, and for half a century smothered the glimmering sparks of civilization in Germany, and threw back the improving manners of the country into their pristine barbarity and wildness. Yet out of this fearful war Europe came forth free and independent. In it she first learned to recognize herself as a community of nations; and this intercommunion of states, which originated in the Thirty Tears' War, would alone be sufElcient to reconcile the philosopher to its horrors. The hand of industry has slowly but effectually effaced the traces of its ravages, while its benefi- cent influence still survives. — Schiller. Tnsrioisr of England and Scotland. On the death of Elizabeth, in 1603, the crowns of Eng- land and Scotland were united under James VI. of Scotland, son of Mary Queen of Scots, who ascended the English throne with the title of James I., and with whom origi- nated the Stuart dynasty, which continued (with the in- terruption of the Commonwealth) during the rest of the century. The legislative union of England and Scotland took place early in the next century (1707). SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 379 For greatness, Mr. Speaker, I think a man may speak it soberly and without bravery, that this kingdom of England, having Scotland united, Ireland reduced, the sea provinces of the Low Countries con- tracted, and shipping maintained, is one of the greatest monarchies, in forces truly esteemed, that hath been in the world. — Loed Bacon. THE COMMONWEALTH IN ENGLAND. CEOMWELL. The arbitrary and despotic measures, and the tyranny and maladministration of the weak and obstinate Charles I. (1625-1649), who did his best to carry out the doctrine of the " Divine Eight of Kings," brought on long struggles between him and the Parliament, which finally resulted in the execution of Charles, and the establishment by Parlia- ment of a form of government called " the Commonwealth," which existed during the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell and his son Eichard, until the abdication of the latter in 1659. On the Eoyalist side were most of the nobility, clergy, and gentry, who adhered to the Established Church, and also the Catholics. On the side of the Parliament were the middle classes of the kingdom, the country farmers, towns- people, and the dissenters, or Puritans. The adherents of the king were called Cavaliers ; the Puritans wore the nickname of Eoundheads, from the fashion of having the hair cropped. " After long struggles in Parliament and out of it, in Church and State, continued through successive reigns, the Puritans finally triumphed; and the despised sect of Separatists, swollen in numbers, and now under the denomination of Independents, with Oliver CromweU at their head, and John Milton as his secretary, ruled England." 380 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. Our ancient Puritan reformera were, as all reformers that will ever much benefit this earth are always, inspired by a heavenly purpose. ... If you be wise, search not for the secret of heroic ages, which have done great things in this' earth, among their falsities, their greedy quackeries and imheroisms. It never lies, and never will lie, there. Knaves and quacks, — alas! we know they abounded; but the age was heroic, even because it had declared war to the death with these; and went forth, flame-crowned, as with bared sword, and called the Most High to witness that it would not endure these. — Carlyle. Modem England, the England among whose thoughts and senti- ments we actually live, began with the triumph of Naseby.i — J. K. Green. AU the sober men that I was acquainted with, who were against the Parliament, used to say, " The King had the better cause, but the Parliament had the better men." — Richard Baxter. The history of this great revolution, for it is nothing less, is the history of a single man. — J. B. Green. ■ So restless Cromwell could not cease In the inglorious arts of peace, But through adventurous war Urged his active star. Andrew Maevell. It was the first collision of the two great facts to which, in the course of the sixteenth century, all the civilization of primitive Eu- rope tended, — monarchy on the one hand, and free inquiry on the other. These two powers came to blows, if I may use the expression, for the first time in England. — Guizot. Moreover, it was neither Charles Stuart nor Oliver Cromwell who was concerned in the revolution of England ; it was the English nation and liberty. — Thierry. Methinks I see, in my mind, a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks; methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her dazzled eyes at the full mid-day beam; purging and unsealing her long-abused sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance ; while 1 The battle of Naseby (1645) was the decisive battle of the struggle between the Eoyalists and the Parliamentary army, and resulted in a complete victory for the latter. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 381 the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means, and, in their envious gabble, would prognosticate a year of sects and schisms. — Milton. The " Great English Rebellion " was not a dispute between ruler and subject upon mere matters of government. It was not simply a contest between Charles and the Parliament, in which the people took sides. Nor was it altogether an uprising of one class against another, — the oppressed against the oppressor. Graver themes even than these entered into the contest. Subjects which pertain to man's profoundest experience and to his highest aspiration were brought prominently forward. The English nation found itself engaged in a discussion of the most momentous questions, — of life, of death, of Divine decrees, of human destiny. The commonest soldier ia the ranks, and the humblest peasant, — the ablest general, and the most powerful noble, — were alike moved by the great contention. All Europe looked on in amazement at a civil war fomented by theological disputes and carried on in the name of religion. A king beheaded, an established dynasty overthrown in the shortest possible time, a com- monwealth instituted, peace secured, internal commotions pacified, external foes subdued or awed to silence and submission, a Protestant state only waiting for a general war in Europe to demolish utterly the Roman Church, — these were events of the greatest magnitude to have occurred under the direction of fanatical iconoclasts, ignorant Round- heads, austere Reformers, and psalm-singing Puritans! The civilized world has learned that there was an irresistible power beneath the surface of Puritanism, though upon that surface there might have been many objects of ridicule and scorn. — Christian Examiner. While Oliver Cromwell was entering himself of Sidney-Sussex College [April 23, 1616], William Shakespeare was taking his farewell of this world. Oliver's father saw Oliver write in the album at Cambridge ; at Stratford, Shakespeare's Ann Hathaway was weeping over his bed. The first world-great thing that remains of English history, the literature of Shakespeare, was ending ; the second world- great thing that remains of English history, the armed appeal of Puritanism to the invisible God of heaven against many very visible devils, on earth and elsewhere, was, so to speak, beginning. They have their exits and their entrances. And one people in its time plays many parts. — Caeltle. 382 SEVENTEENTH CENTUEY. The nation, which loved neither of the contending parties, tut which was forced, in its own despite, to respect the capacity and resolution of the general, looked on with patience, if not with com- placency. — Macaulay. It cannot be supposed that this elevation of Cromwell to the supreme power was viewed with satisfaction by any other class of men than his brethren in arms, who considered his greatness their own work, and expected from his gratitude their merited reward. But the nation was surfeited with revolutions. Men had suffered so severely from the ravages of war and the oppression of the mili- tary ; they had seen so many instances of punishment incurred by resistance to the actual possessors of power ; they were divided and subdivided into so many parties, jealous and hateful of each other, — that they readily acquiesced in any change which promised the return of tranquillity in the place of solitude, danger, and misery. The Protector, however, did not neglect the means of consolidating his own authority. — Lingabd. The democratic and Presbyterian revolution, superintended by the lofty genius of the most advanced statesmen that Protestantism has to boast of. It was the dogma of equality which was mainly elabo- rated under that conflict. Historically, the revolution consisted in the generous but premature effort for the political degradation of the English aristocracy, — the chief temporal element of the ancient na- tionality ; and the fall of royalty, under the protectorate of Cromwell, was only a secondary incident in comparison with the bold suppres- sion of the House of Lords. The social revolution failed politically for want of due mental preparation ; but it was the chief in the whole series of symptoms which were the known precursors of the great decisive European revolution remaining to be examined hereafter. — COMTE. Cromwell, an usurper worthy of a throne, had assumed the title of protector, not that of king ; because the English knew how far the regal prerogatives ought to extend, but were not acquainted with the limits of the protectorial authority. — Voltaire. Such as do build their faith upon The holy text of pike and gun, Decide all controversies by Infallible artillery, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 383 And prove their doctrine orthodox, By apostolic blows and knocks. BnTLEB. Some were for gospel ministers, And some for red-coat seculars, As men most fit t' hold forth the word. And wield the one and th' other sword. Butler. For there in lofty air was seen to stand The stem Protector of the conquered land ; Draw in that look with which he wept and swore. Turned out the members and made fast the door, Ridding the house of every knave and drone, Forced — though it grieved his soul — to rule alone. Cbabbe. Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud Not of war only, but detractions rude. Guided by faith and matchless fortitude. To peace and truth thy glorious way hast ploughed, And on the neck of crowuM fortune proud Hast reared God's trophies, and his work pursued, While Darwen stream with blood of Scots imbrued, And Dunbar field resounds thy praises loud, And Worcester's laureat wreath. Yet much remains To conquer still; peace hath her victories No less renowned than war : new foes arise Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains : Help us to save free conscience from the paw Of hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw. Milton. And if we would speak true. Much to the man is due, Who from his private gardens, where He lived reserved and austere. As if his highest plot To plant the bergamot, Could by industrious valor climb To ruin the great work of Time, And cast the kingdoms old Into another mould. What field of all the civil war. Where his were not the deepest soar ! And Hampton shows what part He had of wiser art ; 384 SEVENTEENTH CENTUEY. Where, twining snttile fears with hope. He wove a net of such a scope, That Charles hinaself might chase To Carishrook's narrow case ; That thence the royal actor home The tragic scaffold might adorn. While round the armed bands Did clap their bloody hands. He nothing common did or mean Upon that memorable scene, But with his keener eye The axe's edge did try; Nor called the gods, with vulgar spite. To vindicate his helpless right ; But bowed his comely head Down, as upon a bed. Maevell. See Cromwell, damned to everlasting fame ! Pope. Unknown to Cromwell as to me Was Cromwell's measure or degree. Emerson. The sagest of usurpers, Cromwell j he Too swept off senates while he hewed the throne Down to a block, — immortal rebel ! See What crimes it costs to be a moment free And famous through all ages ! but beneath His fate the moral lurks of destiny; His day of double victory and death Beheld him win two realms, and, happier, yield his breath. Btkon. The successes of Cromwell seem to me a very natural thing ! Since he was not shot in battle, they were an inevitable thing. That such a man, with the eye to see, with the heart to dare, should advance, from post to post, from victory to victory, till the Huntingdon Farmer became, by whatever name you might call him, the acknowledged Strongest Man in England, virtually the King of England, recLuires no magic to explain it ! — Carltle. Upon the whole, the character of Cromwell must ever stand high in the list of those who raised themselves to supreme power by the force of their genius ; and among such, even in respect of moral virtue, it would be found to be one of the least exceptionable, if it SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 385 had not been tainted with that most odious and degrading of all human vices, — hypocrisy. — Fox. The foreign policy of Crom-well was enterprising and magnanimous, and by his prudence and firmness he caused the government to he respected by foreign princes to a degree scarcely ever before attained by any English gov- ernment. During the time of the Parliament and of CromweU many memorable victories were achieved. We always reckon those eight years of the usurpation a time of great peace and prosperity. — Buenbt. It is just to say that the maritime glory of England may first be traced from the era of the Commonwealth in a track of continuous light. — Hallam. All Italy trembled at the name of Cromwell, and seemed under a panic as long as he lived. His fleet scoured the Mediterranean, and the Turks durst not offend him. — Burnet. There was CromweU ; and whatever else may be said of him, this, at least, will scarcely be disputed, that never was the sceptre of Eng- land wielded by a more vigorous or sagacious hand. His protectorship, compared with any preceding age, or with several ages succeeding, was an era of toleration, justice, and law. Weakened as she was by the civil wars, England rose to respect and greatness abroad ; and foreign tyrants and persecutors trembled at Cromwell's name. At one word from Cromwell the persecutions against the Waldenses ceased. The Duke of Savoy and Cardinal Mazarin gnashed their teeth with rage ; but with the whole power of France at command, they durst not raise a finger more against the Waldenses while Crom- weU Uved. — Edwin Hall. Never did our England, since she first emerged from the ocean, rise 80 high above surrounding nations. The rivalry of HoUand, the pride of Spain, the insolence of France, were thrust back by one finger each; yet those countries were then more powerful than they had ever been. The sword of Cromwell was preceded by the mace of Milton, — by that mace which, when Oliver had rendered his account, opened to our contemplation the garden-gate of Paradise. And there were some around not unworthy to enter with him. In the compass 25 386 SETENTEENTH CENTURY. of sixteen centuries, you will not number on the whole earth so many wise and admirable men as you could have found united in that sin- gle day, when England showed her true magnitude, and solved the question. Which is most, one or a million ? There were giants in those days ; but giants who feared God, and not who fought against him. — Landob. The government of Cromwell, though in form a republic, was in truth a despotism, moderated only by the wisdom, the sober-minded- ness, and the magnanimity of the despot. The country was divided into military districts ; those districts were placed under the com- mand of major-generals. . . . While he lived his power stood firm, an object of mingled aversion, admiration, and dread to his subjects. Few, indeed, loved hia government ; but those who hated it most, hated it less than they feared it. Had it been a worse government, it might perhaps have been overthrown in spite of all its strength. Had it been a weaker government, it would certainly have been over- thrown in spite of all its merits. But it had moderation enough to abstain from those oppressions which drive men mad ; and it had a force and energy which none but men driven mad by oppression would venture to encounter. — Macatjlat. With the life of the Protector almost immediately ended the gov- ernment which he had established. The great talents of this extraor- dinary person had supported, during his life, a system condemned equally by reason and by prejudice ; by reason, as wanting freedom; by prejudice, as an usurpation ; and it must be confessed to be no mean testimony to his genius, that, notwithstanding the radical defects of such a system, the splendor of his character and exploits renders the era of the Protectorship one of the most brilliant in English his- tory. — Fox. What can be more extraordinary than that a person of private birth and education, no fortune, no eminent qualities of body, which have sometimes, nor shining talents of mind, which have often, raised men to the highest dignities, should have the courage to attempt, and the abilities to execute, so great a design as the subverting one of the most ancient and best established monarchies in the world 1 That he should have the power and boldness to put his prince and master to an open and infamous death 1 Should banish that numerous and strongly allied family ? Cover all these temerities tinder a seeming obedience to a parliament, in whose service he pretended to be retained ] Trample, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 387 too, upon that parliament in their turn, and scornfully expel them as soon as they gave him ground of dissatisfaction 1 Erect in their place the dominion of the saints, and give reality to the most visionary idea which the heated imagination of any fanatic was ever able to enter- tain 1 Suppress again that monster in its infancy, and openly set up himself above all things that ever were called sovereign in England 1 Overcome first all his enemies by arms, and all his friends afterward by artifice ? Serve all parties patiently for a while, and command them victoriously at last 1 Overrun each comer of the three nations, and subdue, with equal facility, both the riches of the south and the poverty of the north ? Be feared and courted by all foreign princes, and be adopted a brother to the gods of the earth ? Call together parliaments with a word of his pen, and scatter them again with the breath of his mouth 1 Reduce to subjection a warlike and discon- tented nation by means of a mutinous army ? Command a mutinous army by means of seditious and factious officers ? Be humbly and daily petitioned, that he would be pleased, at the rate of millions a year, to be hired as master of those who had hired him before to be their servant 1 Have the estates and lives of three nations as much at his disposal as was once the little inheritance of his father, and be as noble and liberal in the spending of them 1 And lastly (for there is no end of enumerating every particular of his glory), with one word bequeath all this power and splendor to his posterity 1 Die possessed of peace at home and triumph abroad ? Be buried among kings, and with more than regal solemnity, and leave a name behind him not to be extinguished but with the whole world ; which, as it was too little for his praise, so might it have been for his conquests, if the short line of his mortal life could have stretched out to the extent of his immortal designs ? — Cowlet. The time of the Commonwealth was followed by the return of the Stuart dynasty to power, — the so-called Eestoration, — when Charles II. was proclaimed king in 1660. Who comes with rapture greeted, and caressed With frantic love, — his kingdom to regain ? Wordsworth. From 1660 to 1668, " England, by the return of the Stuarts, was reduced to a nullity." The words are Michelet's ; and, though severe, they are just. — Creasy, 388 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. It i8 universally acknowledged that no measure was ever more national, or has ever produced more testimonies of public approba- tion, than the restoration of Charles II. Nor can this be attributed to the usual fickleness of the multitude ; for the late government, whether under the Parliament or the Protector, had never obtained the sanction of popular consent, nor could have subsisted for a day without the support of the army. The king's return seemed to the people the harbinger of a real liberty, instead of that bastard com- monwealth which had insulted them with its name ; a liberty secure from enormous assessments, which, even when lawfully imposed, the English had always paid with reluctance, and from the insolent des- potism of the soldiery. The young and lively looked forward to a release from the rigors of fanaticism, and were too ready to exchange that hypocritical austerity of the late times for a licentiousness and impiety that became characteristic of the present. — Hallam. With the restoration of the king a spirit of extravagant joy spread over the nation, that brought on with it the throwing off the very professions of virtue and piety. All ended in entertainments and drunkenness, which overrun the three kingdoms to such a degree that it very much corrupted all their morals. Under the color of drinking the king's health, there were great disorders and much liot everywhere. — Bdbnet. THE "GLOEIOUS EEVOLUTION " OF 1688. Chaeles II. was succeeded by James II., who, after a short reign, during which he tried, with obstinate adher- ence to the doctrine of the divine right of Icings, to establish Catholicism as the national religion regardless of the fact that but a small proportion of his subjects were then Catholics, was forced to abdicate in 1688, when all par- ties united in placing William III. and Mary upon the throne. This change in the government is universally regarded as the great era of English liberty. As to the people in general, it is impossible for them to exaggerate the obligations which they and all of us owe to the Revolution of SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 389 1688. But let them take heed that superstition does not mingle ■with their gratitude. Let them admire that inajestic edifice of na- tional liberty, which stands alone in Europe like a beacon in the midst of the waters ; but let them not think that they owe anything to men who, in contributing to its erection, sought the gratification of their own selfishness, and the consolidation of that spiritual power which by it they fondly hoped to secure. — Buckle, The courts of law still administered law on the old precedents, and, with the exception of a change of the dynasty on the throne, the people perceived little change in the administration of govern- ment. — Ling ABD. THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. L'Etat, c'est mot. — Louis XIV. The best actor of majesty that ever filled a throne. — Bolingbroke. The government of Louis XIV. is a great fact, a powerful and hrilliant fact ; hut it was built upon sand. — GuizOT. The reign of Louis XIV. (1643-1715) is commonly con- sidered one of the most important epochs in the history of France, — a period during which that country hecame the most powerful state in Europe. It was a time of many wars, and France increased much in extent of domin- ion. Commerce, manufactures, arts, literature, etc., were liberally encouraged during his reign, in the latter part of which especially France attained her height of foreign power and internal prosperity, and the time was regarded as the Augustan age of French literature and art. It was a brilliant period in French literature, — the time of Comeille, Eacine, Molifere, Boileau, Pascal, La Fontaine, Bossuet, F^nelon, and others. The extent of his plans for the material prosperity of the country, and his encouragement of literature, science, and 390 SEVENTEENTH CENTUET. art, with the splendor and etiquette of his court, gained him the title of the Great Monarch. His government was, however, an absolute despotism ; and the age was marked by the theatrical character which affected society, man- ners, and even literature, as well as the government and the court. Sir, I have summoned you, with my ministers and my Secretaries of State, to tell you that it has pleased me hitherto to permit my affairs to he governed by the late Cardinal ; I shall in future be my own prime minister. You shall aid me with your counsels when I ask you for them. I request and order you, M. Chancellor, to seal no decree except by my orders ; and I order you, my Secretaries of State, and you, M. Superintendent of Finances, to sign nothing without my command. — Louis XIV. Quand Louis XIV. dit, " L'^tat, c'est moi," il n'y eut dans cette parole ni enflure ni vanterie, mais la simple 6nonciation d'un fait. — MiCHELET. If the people do not forget the culpable and fatal errors of Louis [XIV.], they wUl also remember that Louis has deserved to be iden- tified with the most brilliant age ever yet witnessed by modern civilization. — Martin. Spain had threatened the liberties of Europe in the end of the sixteenth century ; France had all but overthrown them in the close of the seventeenth. — Alison. As to France, this era of the entire fall of the Spanish power is likewise that from which we may reckon that France grew as for- midable, as we have seen her, to her neighbors, in power and preten- sions. — LOBD BOLINGBEOKE. The sceptre had passed away from Spain. That mighty empire, on which the sun never set, which had crushed the liberties of Italy and Germany, which had occupied Paris with its armies, and covered the British seas with its sails, was at the mercy of every spoiler ; and Europe saw with dismay the rapid growth of a new and more formi- dable power. Men looked to Spain, and saw only weakness disguised and increased by pride, — dominions of vast bulk and little strength, tempting, unwieldy, and defenceless, — an empty treasury, — a SEVENTEENTH CENTUKY. 391 haughty, sullen, and torpid nation, — a child on the throne, — factions in the council, — ministers who served only themselves, and soldiers who were terrible only to their countrymen. Men looked to France, and saw a large and compact territory, — a rich soil, — a central situation, — a bold, alert, and ingenious people, — large revenues, — numerous and disciplined troops, — an active and ambitious prince, in the flower of his age, surrounded by generals of unrivalled skill. — Macaulat. Louis XIV. had no need to make concessions, for in his reign no parliament durst remonstrate ; he drew the nation along in his train, and it glorified him with the prodigies which itself achieved in war and in the arts and sciences. The subjects and the monarch were unanimous, and their actions tended towards one and the same point. — Thiers. The two foundations of the absolute throne of Louis XIV. were, therefore, terror and admiration : the terror of a power which had subjugated the army, the church, the magistracy, the noblesse, and the municipalities ; the admiration of a power to which literature and art, arms and fortune, rendered their richest and uninterrupted tribute. King worship had never before taken so entire a possession of any Christian state. Never had the luxurious pomp of an Oriental court been so intimately and so long associated with the energies, the refined tastes, and the intellectual culture of an European sovereignty. During fifty successive years, Louis continued to be the greatest actor on the noblest stage, and in the presence of the most enthusiastic audience, of the world. At how boundless an expense of toil and treasure that representation was conducted, — how it was continued even in the midst of famine and all other national calamities, — and how the gorgeous drama of Versailles was relieved by the yet more animating spectacle of military triumphs, or darkened by gloom of military reverses, is known to all who have read even the most famil- iar accounts of the Siecle de Louis Quatorze. — Sir J. Stephen. Marvellous whole of the most elaborate and complete society that has appeared in the world since the ancients; vast and living picture, the aspect of which produced a general fascination on all that sur- rounded it ! AH peoples Euimired and imitated. The language, the fashions, the ideas of France, overran Europe. Literary forms, like forms of costume, like forms of articles of art and luxury, like habits 392 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. of life, at least in the higher classes, all followed, for a long time, the French fashion. This was not the breath of a fleeting infatuation; it was like an atmosphere which by degrees envelops all objects and beings, and in which we accustom ourselves to live. — Mabtin. The monarchy of Louis XIV. has passed away with the society formed around it and for it; the intellectual creations of the seven- teenth century will not pass away, and have almost become the entire century to posterity. — Martin. But soon by impious arms from Latium chased. Their ancient hounds the banished Muses passed; Thence arts o'er all the northern world advance. But critic learning flourished most in France; The rules a nation, bom to serve, obeys, And Boileau still in right of Horace sways. , Pope. In this age, so far distant from chivalry and the Middle Ages, was realized the chivalric ideal of manners and forms. The fStes of Louis XIV. exceeded everything of which romancers had dreamed. — Martin. The government of Louis XIV. was the first that presented itself to the eyes of Europe as a power acting upon sure grounds, — which had not to dispute its existence with inward enemies, but was at ease as to its territory and its people, and solely occupied with the task of administering government, properly so called. All the European governments had been previously thrown into incessant wars, which deprived them of all security as well as of all leisure, or so pestered by internal parties or antagonists that their time was passed in fight- ing for existence. The government of Louis XIV. was the first to appear as a busy, thriving administration of afiairs, as a power at once definitive and progressive, wliich was not afraid to innovate, be- cause it could reckon securely on the future. There have been, in fact, very few governments equally innovating. — Gdizot. The government of Louis XIV. was active in every kind of inno- vation, and favorable to the progress of letters, arts, riches, — favor- able, in a word, to civilization. These were the true causes of its preponderance in Europe — a preponderance so great, that it was, on the Continent, during the seventeenth century, not only for sover- eigns, but even for nations, the type and model of governments. It is SEVENTEENTH CENTUKY. 393 frequently asked, and it is impossible to avoid asking, how a power so splendid and well established should have fallen so quickly into a state of decay? how, after having played so great a part in Europe, it became in the following century so inconsiderable, so weak, and so little respected 1 The fact is undeniable : in the seventeenth century the French government stood at the head of European civilization. In the eighteenth century it disappeared. ... It is here that we dis- cover the incorrigible vice and infallible effect of absolute power. . . . It followed, indeed, from the single circumstance, that this govern- ment had no other than absolute power, and rested entirely on this basis, that its decay was so sudden and deserved. — GuizoT. There are still found men who hold up for admiration the age of Louis XIV. Although it is well known that in his reign every ves- tige of liberty was destroyed; that the people were weighed down by an insufferable taxation ; that their children were torn from them by tens of thousands to swell the royal armies ; that the resources of the country were squandered to an unprecedented extent ; that a despot- ism of the worst kind was firmly established ; — although all this is universally admitted, yet there are writers, even in our own day, who are so infatuated with the glories of literature, as to balance them against the most enormous crimes, and who will forgive every injury inflicted by a prince during whose life there were produced the Let- ters of Pascal, the Orations of Bossuet, the Comedies of Molifere, and the Tragedies of Racine. — Buckle. No earthly sovereign could be surrounded by greater state, or approached with deeper reverence. So brilliant a society of princes and nobles had never been collected. Nowhere had graceful man- ners, well-bred courtesy, and polished conversation been cultivated to such perfection. This favored circle formed the ideal of social ele- gance and refinement. It made France famous as the politest of nations. But it was idle, frivolous, and corrupt. Pleasure and preferment were its only aims. It had no sense of public duty or responsibility. — Mat. And the age of Louis XIV. of France, spanning so long a period of ordinary worldly magnificence, thronged by marshals bending under military laurels, enlivened by the unsurpassed comedy of Molifere, dignified by the tragic genius of Comeille, illumined by the splendors of Bossuet, is degraded by immoralities that cannot be mentioned 394 SEVENTEENTH CENTUET. ■without a blush, by a heartlessness in comparison with which the ice of Nova Zembla is warm, and by a succession of deeds of injustice not to be washed out by the tears of all the recording angels of heaven. — Chaeles Sumner. No sovereign has ever represented the majesty of a great state with more dignity and grace. ... He was not a great general; he was not a great statesman; but he was, in one sense of the words, a great king. Never was there so consummate a master of what our James I. would have called king-craft. Though his internal administration was bad, though the military triumphs of his reign were not achieved by himself, though his later years were crowded with defeats, ... he suc- ceeded in passing himself off on his people as a being above hu- manity. — Macaulat. The greater part of his reign may be considered as a spectacle with grand machinery, calculated to excite astonishment. Towards the end, we behold nothing but the wrecks of that theatrical majesty, and the illusion vanishes. — Anquetil. At the end of the seventeenth century France had reached the summit of her greatness and power which, according to the law of all human things, began from that moment to decline. This decline is the more inevitable in proportion as individual men and entire states, trusting to the appearance of greatness and to the acknowledgment of it by others, neglect that self-knowledge and activity to which they owe their greatness. — Schlosser. AMERICA. EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS. Eaely in this century important settlements were made in America. The Spaniards held their first conquests, hut with a rapid decline of power. Though nearly all of South America, with the exception of Brazil, had fallen into the possession of Spain, the French and English made good their claim to a large share of North America, where SEVENTEENTH CENTUEY. 395 colonization went rapidly on, the English and Dutch being active in planting new settlements. Acadia (now Nova Scotia) was settled by the French about 1604 ; Quebec was founded in 1608, and Montreal in 1640. New York was settled by the Dutch in 1614. The first English colony successfully planted in North America was that of Virginia (Jamestown, settled 1607). This was soon followed by the settlement of Massachusetts (Plymouth, 1620) by Puritans, who were exposed to so great hardships in England that they emigrated to the New World in search of religious liberty and peace. This kingdom [England], now first in his Majesty's times, hath gotten a lot or portion in the New World, by the plantation of Vir- ginia and the Summer Islands. And certainly it is with the kingdoms on earth as it is in the kingdom of heaven : sometimes a grain of mus- tard-seed proves a great tree. Who can tell 1 — Lord Bacon. Methinks I see it now, that one, solitary, adventurous vessel, the " Mayflower," of a forlorn hope, freighted with the prospects of a future state, and bound across the unknown sea. . . . Suns rise and set, and weeks and months pass, and winter surprises them on the deep, but brings them not the sight of the wished-for shore. ... I see them, escaped from these perils, pursuing their all but desperate undertaking and landed at last after a five months' passage on the ice-clad rocks of Plymouth, weak and weary from the voyage, poorly armed, . . . without shelter, without means, surrounded by hostile tribes. — Edward Everett. Give a thing time, — if it can succeed, it is a right thing. Look now at American Saxondom ; and at that little Fact of the sailing of the " Mayflower," two hundred years ago, from Delft Haven in Holland ! Were we of open sense as the Greeks were, we had found a Poem here ; one of Nature's own Poems, such as she writes in broad feets over great continents. — Cakltle. And the heavy night hung dark. The hills and waters o'er, — When a band of exiles moored their bark On the wild New England shore. 396 SEVENTEENTH CENTUEY. What sought they thus afar ? Bright jewels of the mine ? The wealth of seas, the spoils of war ? — They sought a faith's pure shrine. Mks. Hemans. New Hampshire and Maine were settled in 1623 ; New Jersey, about 1624; Delaware, about 1627; Connecticut, in 1633; Maryland, in 1634-35; Ehode Island, in 1636; North Carolina (permanently settled between 1640 and 1650) ; South Carolina, about 1670 ; Pennsylvania, in 1682. These settlements were made by the English (with admixtures of Germans, Irish, and Scotch), except New Jersey (which was settled by Dutch, Swedes, and English) and Delaware (settled by Swedes). The French laid claim to the great territory to the north and west of the English possessions, and were engaged in frequent wars with the English in the New as in the Old World. Where Spain was once synonymous with crime. Where Cortes' and Pizarro's banner flew, The infant world redeems her name of " New." Bteon. Meanwhile your rising glory you shall view. Wit, learning, virtue, discipline of war, Shall for protection to your world repair. And fix a long illustrious empire there. CovrLET"(1667). Look now abroad — another race has filled Those populous borders — wide the wood recedes, And towns shoot up, and fertile realms are tilled; The land is full of harvests and green meads. Betant, THE INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS OE THE AGE. I The seventeenth century is marked by decided advance in philosophical thought, in scientific discoveries, in the SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 397 material welfare of the people, and by many remarkable literary productions. The Baconian philosophy, or system of inductive rea- soning, took the place of that of Aristotle, while in France Descartes gave a wonderful impulse to philosophical inquiry, and in Holland Spinoza produced his works of speculative philosophy. The astronomical discoveries of Galileo were followed by the " laws " of Kepler and by Newton's discovery of the law of universal gravitation. The discovery of the circulation of the blood was made known by Harvey in 1628. The seventeenth century was also the time of many other discoveries and inventions. In English literature were the names of Sliakespeare, Ben Jonson, Milton, Buuyan, Dryden, and others ; and in French, Corneille, Moliere, Eacine, Fenelon, Pascal, La Fontaine, Boileau, and others. The great speculative movement, carried on when the time was ripe by a few men of genius, exhibited two modes of progression very closely connected : the scientific or positive, consisting of mathemati- cal and astronomical discoveries ; and the philosophical and usually negative, relating to the revolt of the scientific spirit against the thraldom of the old philosophy. The rallying-point of this last, in which Germany, Italy, France, and England bore a noble part, was Kepler's investigation, which, prepared for by the Copernican dis- covery, and the labors of Tycho-Brahe, constitutes the true system of celestial geometry ; whilst, giving birth to celestial mechanics, it was connected with Newton's final discovery, through Galileo's mathe- matical theory of motion, necessarily followed by the achievements of Huyghens. Between these two series, whose succession is direct, the historical method naturally interposes the great mathematical revolu- tion of Descartes, which issued, towards the end of this second phase, in the sublime analytical discovery of Leibnitz, without which New- ton's achievement could not have been, as it was, the active prin- ciple of the final development of celestial mechanics in the next phase. — CoMTB. About A.B. 1800 XcJjolyii'-nvtOng a,Bcsbm EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. (1700-1800.) FoiNCB holds about the same position till near the close of the century, when the Revolution breaks out, and the Republic makes large accessions of territory in the Austrian Netherlands, Savoy, Piedmont, and the islands of the Mediterranean. Great Britain is engaged in foreign wars, and loses a large part of her American colonies, which win their independence in 1783. Her dominion in India is greatly extended during this period. Spain rises very considerably in importance. The United Provinces become in the last years of the century a dependency of France. The Turkish dominion, though with occasional successes, is on the decline. Prussia becomes an important European state under her king, Frederick the Great. Austria is engaged in frec[uent wars, which somewhat diminish her power. The German Empire, though still in existence, is more a dignity than a power, its functions being wielded chiefly by the great king- doms of Austria and Prussia. Russia, under Peter the Great, rises to a front rank among the states of Europe and makes large gains of territory. The United States of America come into being as an independent nation in 1783. Italy makes some progress toward freedom, but her territory is still divided among foreign princes. The republic of Venice comes to an end. The kingdom of Poland is partitioned between Russia, Prussia, and Austria, and destroyed in 1795. The Northern kingdoms sink to an inferior position, but without much geographical change. Switzerland, in 1798, becomes a league of states, under the name of the Helvetic Bepublic. Pobtugal is of little account at this time. A.I>. 1700- A. I>. 1800. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 1701. Prussia recognized as a kingdom. 1702. Beginning of war of the Spanish succession between the Allies and France. 1703. St. Petersburg founded by Peter the Great. 1704. Battle of Blenheim. Defeat of the French. 1704. Capture of Gibraltar by the English. 1706. Battle of Bamillies. Defeat of the French, 1708. Battle of Oudenarde. 1709. Battle of Malplaquet. 1709. Battle of Pultowa. 1713. Treaty of Utrecht, between the Al- lies and France. 1733. Georgia settled by the English, 1739. Nadir Shah takes Delhi. 1740-1742. First Silesian war. 1743. Battle of Dettingen. 1745. The French victorious at Fontenoy. 1748. Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. 1752. New Style adopted in England. 1754. Beginning of the French and Indian War. 1755. Great earthquake in Lisbon. 1756-1763. Seven Years' "War. 1759. Capture of Quebec by the English. 1761. End of the Mogul Empire in India, 1763. Treaty of Paris, Canada given up to England by France. 1765. The Statrap Act passed. 1765. Colonial Congress at New York. 1766. The Stamp Act repealed. 1767. The spinning -jenny invented in England. 1769. Steam-engine patented by James Watt. 1772. First partition of Poland. 1774. Congress of the American colonies met at Philadelphia. 1775. Battle of Lexington. 1773. Battleof Bunker Hill. 1776. Declai-atiou of American Indepen- dence. 1777. Burgoyne's army surrenders at Sara- toga. ' 1781. Comwallis surrenders at Yorktown. 1783. England acknowledges the indepen- dence of the American colonies. 1787. The Constitution of the United States adopted. 1789. Storming of the Bastile. 1789. French Revolution ; ended 1792-93. 1791. Vermont admitted into the United States. 1792. Kentucky admitted into the United States. 1792. Second partition of Poland. 1792-1794. Reign of Terror. 1793. Louis XVI. executed. 1793. Cotton-gin invented by Eli Whitney. 1795. Third and final partition of Poland. 1796. Tennessee admitted into the United States. 1796. Vaccination successfully tried in England by Jenner. 1798. Battle of the Nile. French fleet de- feated by Nelson. ■1799. Napoleon becomes First Consul. PROMINENT NAMES OP THE CENTURY. France, Kings. — Louis XIV., Louis XV., Louis XVI., the Republic. Great Britain. Kings. ~~ William and Mary, Anne, George I., George II., George III. Prussia. King. — Frederick the Great. Czari^. — Catherine II. Presidents op the United States. George Washington, John Adams, < Russia. Dryden, Locke, Bayle, Bossnet. Boileau, Fenelon, Burnet, Leibnitz, Addison, Marl- borough, Newton, Steele, De Foe, Pope, Swift, Le Sage, Montesquieu, Jonathan Edwards, Handel, Wolfe, Gray, Swedenborg, Goldsmith, Hume, Voltaire, Rousseau, Chatham, Linnaeus, Lessing, D'Alembert, Johnson, Buffbn, Franklin, Arkwright, Wesley, Mozart, Lavoisier, Gibbon, Burns, Burke, Galvani, Marmontel, Washington, Cowper, Samuel Adams, Priestley, Kant, Nelson, Schiller, Paley, Fox, Pitt, Fisher Ames, Haydn, Wieland, Madame de Sta^l, Watt, Grattan, Canova, Beran^er, Herschel, Erskine, Rich- ter, Hamilton, Jefferson, Eli Whitney, Beethoven, Canning, Laplace, Hegel, Goethe, Scott, Cuvier, Coleridge, Thorwaldsen, John Quincy Adams, Wordsworth, Wellington, Humboldt. ILLUSTRATIOlSrS. THERE is hardly any century in history which began by opening so great a scene as the century wherein we live. — Lord Boling- BROKB, 1735. THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. See the preceding century, page 389. WAE OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSIOK The throne of Spain became vacant in the year 1700, after the death of Charles II., who left no children, but who had declared Philip, Duke of Anjou and grandson of Louis XIV., his sole heir. The Emperor Leopold of Germany also claimed the crown for his secoiid son, Charles. The nations of Europe dreaded the practical union of the crowns of France and Spain, and the consequent increase in the power of Louis XIV. which would result if the throne of Spain were held by Philip of Anjou ; and this led to the formation of a Grand Alliance, or league (1701), in which the claims of the German Emperor were supported by England, the United Provinces, and Prussia, against 402 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. Louis XIY. Various battles were fought. The Duke of Marlborough (English) and Prince Eugene (of Savoy) gained memorable victories over the French at Blenheim (1704), EamiUies (1706), Turin (1706), Oudenarde (1708), and Malplaquet (1709). England acquired Gibraltar (which she has kept ever since) in 1704. The war was finally ended by the treaties of Utrecht (1713), and in 1714 (Peace of Eadstadt) the French prince was recog- nized as King of Spain and the Indies. Louis XIV. was, however, overcome in all his other schemes, and his power was completely broken. The decisive blow struck at Blenheim resoimded through every part of Europe ; it at once destroyed the vast fabric of power which it had taken Louis XIV., aided by the talents of Turenne and the genius of Vauban, so long to construct. — Alison. THE EMPIEE OF NADIE SHAH. The sceptre of Persia was held, from 1736 to 1747, by Nadir Shah (or Koolee Khan), who gave to that country a transitory greatness. He reconquered provinces from the Turks, invaded India and entered Delhi in 1739, making immense booty, and conquered a considerable part of the Mogul empire. The reign of Nadir Shah was marked by great cruelty. His empire broke up upon his death, in 1747. THE GEEATNESS OF PEUSSIA. FREDERICK THE GREAT. A GREAT European power arose in Prussia under Fred- erick the Great. His father, Frederick William (1713- EIGHTEENTH CENTUEY. 403 1740), had collected a splendid army, which the son, Fred- erick the Great, used (1740-1786) in raising his Jiingdom of two and one-quarter million subjects to one of the first places among the states of Europe. The chief contest which marks the career of Frederick and the rise of Prus- sia is that known as the Seven Years' War. This was a remarkable struggle in which Frederick con- tended, with no ally but Great Britain, against the united forces of Russia, Saxony, Sweden, France, Austria, ^ „ ' •" ' ' The Seven Poland, and the great majority of the other Ger- Years' man States, until after various changes of fortune he was left in peaceful possession of his hereditary and acquired territory. The war arose from a desire on the part of Austria to regain territories (Silesia) which Frederick had previously taken from her, and between France and England a dis- pute ahout their colonial possessions in North America. This conflict (1756-1763) stamped Frederick as the great- est general of his age. The Seven Years' War, said to have cost a mmion of lives, made no material change in the boundaries of the contending nations ; but it raised Prussia to her place among the chief European states." After a seven years' sanguinary struggle, to which his unprincipled projects had given rise, and in which, independent of other sufferers, more than half a million of combatants had fallen in the field, everything was replaced on its ancient footing, and the only gainful result was simply this : that Frederick of Prussia had been furnished with an opportunity of proving himself a consummate commander, animated by an unconquerable spirit of military heroism, and endued with one of the coolest heads and hardest hearts in Chris- tendom." 404 EIGHTEENTH CENTUET. Napoleon did, indeed, by immense expenditure of men and gun- powder, overrun Europe for a time ; but Napoleon never, by hus- banding and wisely expending his men and gunpowder, defended a little Prussia against aU Europe, year after year for seven years long, till Europe had enough, and gave up the enterprise as one it could not manage. — Carltle. The whole Continent in arms had proved unable to tear Silesia from that iron grasp. The war was over. Frederick was safe. His glory was beyond the reach of envy. If he had not, on field of battle, enjoyed the constant success of Marlborough and Wellington, he had yet given an example unrivalled in history of what capacity and resolution can effect against the greatest superiority of power and the utmost spite of fortune. — Macaulay. The whole world sprang to arms. On the head of Frederick is all the blood which was shed in a war which raged during many years and in every quarter of the globe, — the blood of the column of Eon- tenoy, the blood of the brave mountaineers who were slaughtered at Culloden. The evils produced by this wickedness were felt in lands where the name of Prussia was unknown ; and, in order that he might rob a neighbor whom he had promised to defend, black men fought on the coast of Coromandel, and red men scalped each other by the Great Lakes of North America. — Macaulay. Frederick did much to repair the damages done to Prussia by the Seven Tears' War, and gave considerable attention to the internal improvement of his kingdom, encouraging agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, and under him the country increased greatly in population and wealth. How this man [Frederick the Great], oflScially a King withal, comported himself in the eighteenth century, and managed not to be a Liar and Charlatan as his Century was, deserves to be seen a little by men and kings, and may silently have didactic meanings in it. — Carlylb. Such have been the fruits of the administration of the rights and claims of Frederick ; and who can survey this melancholy picture without being overpowered by compassion for the people of Prussia ? EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 405 without being overcome with indignation at the writers who have dared to vaunt and hold up to admiration the system of Frederick ? Let them not profane, with their unworthy incense, the tomb of a hero, — one who was great enough to admit of our allowing him to have been deceived, without any diminution of his glory ; and who was too great not to make it necessary to unveil his faults, lest they should acquire an authority under the shadow of his great name. — MiEABEAU. THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES. Westioard the course of empire takes its way ; The four first acts already past, A fifth shall dose the drama with the day ; Titne's noblest offspring is the last. Bishop Berkeley, Ore the Prospect of planting Arts and Literature in America. That is when America shall be better civilized, new poUcied, and divided between great princes, it will come to pass that they wiU no longer suffer their treasure of gold and silver to be sent out for the luxury of Europe and other parts ; but rather employ it to their own advantages, in great exploits and undertakings, magnificent structures, wars, or expeditions of their own. . . . When America shall be so weU peopled, civilized, and divided into kingdoms, they are like to have so little regard of their originals as to acknowledge no subjection unto them ; they may also have a distinct commerce between themselves, or but independently with those of Europe, and may hostilely and piratically assault them, even as the Greek and Roman colonies after a long time dealt with their original countries. — SiE Thomas Browne. (This prophecy was first printed in 1684.) Another great event to arrive upon the round earth is this : The English have in Northern America domains great, strong, rich, well regulated. There are in New England a parliament, governors, troops, white inhabitants in abundance, riches, and mariners, which is worse. I say that some bright morning these dominations can separate from England, rise and erect themselves into an independent repub- lic. . . . Such a country in several ages will make great progress in population and in politeness. — Marquis d'Arqenson. 406 EIGHTEENTH CENTUKY. 'T is Liberty's bold note I swell ; Thy harp, Columbia, let me take. BUENS. Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise, The queen of the world, and chUd of the skies. Timothy Dwight. After a series of extraordinary successes, . . . and an uninterrupted display of political wisdom as well as firmness and moderation, they [the colonies] filnaUy threw off the yoke of the mother-country, . . . winning for themselves a new constitution upon the Federal plan, and of the republican form. This is perhaps the most important event in the history of our species. — Brousham. Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was de- bated ia America ; and a greater, perhaps, never was, nor will be, among men. — John Adams, July 3, 1776. In the reign of George III. of England (1738-1820), various signs of impending trouble between that country and her colonies in America made themselves manifest. In 1765 was passed the famous Stamp Act, an unfortunate resolution designed for the purpose of raising a revenue in America. In this act, which laid the foundation for the subsequent war, it was resolved, — " That, towards further defraying the said expenses, it may be proper to charge certain stamp-duties in the said colonies and plantations." (March, 1764.) In his Majesty's speech at the end of the same year, in 1765, almost the first words that occur are these : " Matters of importance have lately occurred in some of my colonies in America." — W. Smyth. The gentleman tells us, America is obstinate, America is almost in open rebellion. I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of people so dead to all the feeUngs of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest. — Pitt {the elder). I prophesied, on passing the Stamp Act [in 1765], what would hap- pen thereon ; and I now [in March, 1769], I now fear I can prophesy further troubles ; that, if the people are made desperate, finding no EIGHTEENTH CENTUEY. 407 remedy from Parliament, the whole continent will be in arms im- mediately, and perhaps those provinces lost to England forever. — Colonel Basre. This measure was resisted by the colonies on the ground that, as they were not represented in the British Parlia- ment, they ought not to pay a tax which they had no share in imposing. The measure was opposed in Parliament by the Earl of Chatham and others ; but though all taxes were afterwards repealed, except that of three pence a pound on tea, the government insisted on its right to tax the colo- nies. As it was the principle for which they were con- tending, the colonists refused to pay even this tax, and most of the tea-ships were sent back to England with their cargoes untouched. Some citizens of Boston went so far as to destroy the contents of three British ships (Boston Tea- Party, 1773). Parliament retaliated by closing the port of Boston. We have no news, public or private ; but there is an ostrich-egg laid in America, where the Bostonians have canted three hundred chests of tea into the ocean ; for they wUl not drink tea with our Parliament. ... I believe England will be conquered some day in New England or Bengal — Horace Walpole (to Horace Ma/rni, February, 1774). You must repeal these acts [alluding to the Boston Port Bill, etc.], and you WILL repeal them. I pledge myself for it that you will repeal them. I stake my reputation on it. I will consent to be taken for an idiot if they are not finally repealed. — Pitt, 1775. A revenue from America transmitted hither ! Do not delude your- selves ; you can never receive it. Eor all service, whether of revenue, trade, or empire, my trust is in the interest which America has in the British Constitution. My hold of the colonies is ia the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are strong as links of iron. Let the colonies always keep the idea of theii civil rights associated with your government ; they wiU 408 EIGHTEENTH CENTUET. cling and grapple to you, and no force under heaven will be of power to tear them from their allegiance. Bui let it be once understood that your government may be one thing, and their privileges another, — that these two things may exist without any mutual relation, — the cement is gone, the cohesion is loosened, and everything hastens to decay and dissolution. — Burke. We are not to hope that we shall end this controversy without the sharpest, sharpest conflicts. We are not to flatter ourselves that pop- ular resolves, popular harangues, popular acclamations, and popular vapor will vanquish our foes. Let us weigh and consider, before we advance to those measures which must bring on the most trying and terrible struggle this country ever saw. — Mk. Quincy {to the meeting assemlled at Boston in 1774). The resistance of the colonists finally brought on the War of the Revolution, heginning with the battle of Lex- ington, April 19, 1775, which showed the British that it was more than a mere sedition which they were attempting to put down. You cannot conquer America. If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms, — never, never, never I — Chatham. England may as well dam up the waters of the Nile with bulrushes as to fetter the step of Freedom, more proud and firm, in this youth- ful land, than where she treads the sequestered glens of Scotland, or couches herself among the magnificent mountains of Switzerland. — Lybia Maria Child, Supposititious Speech of James Otis. The next year the colonists, who had thus far wished for nothing more than their just rights as British subjects, were driven by the harshness of the king to go a step far- ther, and to declare their independence of the mother coun- try. With unparalleled moderation they had petitioned and memorialized the king, parliament, and the people of England. All peaceful remedies exhausted, they "appealed to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of their intentions," empowered Thomas Jefferson to draw the title- EIGHTEENTH CENTUEY. 409 deed of their liberties, and went to war to make that title good. We, therefore, the representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the "World for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly pubUsh and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be. Free and Independent States ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connexion between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that, as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have fuU power to levy war, con- clude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reli- ance on the protection of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. — Conclusion of the Declaration of Independence. The second day of July,i 1776, wiU be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be cele- brated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore. — John Adams {letter to his wife, July 3, 1776). This declaration of independence altered the whole char- acter of the struggle, by placing the colonies before the world in the character of a self-declared nation, and from this time the war was carried on with renewed earnestness, and a fixed determination on the part of the Americans to achieve the independence which they had declared. After 1 The day on which the resolution in favor of independence was passed ; the Declaration of Independence, with its several amendments, was not agreed to until the fourth, and not tUl after a vehement and continued debate. 410 EIGHTEENTH CENTUKT. many reverses and long periods of adversity, during a struggle of nearly seven years, the British general, Corn- waUis, surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown (Oct. 19, 1781), and in 1783 England acknowledged the independence of her former colonies, now the United States of America. The New World's chain lies broken here ! Whittier. • [A war] which was conceived in injustice, nurtured in folly, and whose footsteps were marked with slaughter and devastation. The nation was drained of its best blood and its vital resources, for which nothing was received in return but a series of inef5cient victories and of disgraceful defeats ; victories obtained over men fighting in the holy cause of liberty, or defeats which filled the land with mourning for the loss of dear and valuable relations, slaia in a detested and impious quarrel. — Pitt (the younger). The American war must immediately appear to you a subject of historical curiosity. By the event of that war, an independent em- pire has arisen, boundless in extent, and removed from the reach of arms, secure at least from the invasions, of Europe ; beginning its career with such advantages as our communities in tbe Old World never possessed; beginning almost from the point to which they have but arrived in the progress of nearly two thousand years. — W. Smyth. Prom the moment of the Declaration of Independence it mattered little whether England counted for less or more with the nations around her. She was no longer a mere European power, no longer a mere rival of Germany or Russia or France. She was from that hour a mother of nations. In America she had begotten a great people, and her emigrant ships were still to carry on the movement of the Teutonic race from which she herself had sprung. — J. E. Geeen. Stormy the day of her birth ; Was she not bom of the strong, She, the last ripeness of earth, Beautiful, prophesied long? EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 411 Stormy tlie days of her prime: Hers are the pulses that heat Higher for perils sublime, Making them fawn at her feet. Lowell. THE PARTITION OF POLAND. God permitted the act to show the morality/ of kings, John Muller. In the latter part of this century Poland disappears from the map of Europe, the territory being divided between Eussia, Prussia, and Austria. In 1772, Eussia, Austria, and Prussia agreed to each seize upon a certain part of Poland, which had been losing power during the century, and to keep possession of it in spite of right and in defi- ance of the law of nations. A second partition was made in 1793 between Eussia and Prussia; and in 1795 Poland, as a kingdom, ceased to exist. The wiping out of Poland was of great importance to Eussia, by bringing her nearer the heart of the Continent. Is there a single atrocity of the French, in Italy, in Switzerland, in Egypt, if you please, more unprincipled and inhuman than that of Kussia, Austria, and Prussia, in Poland ? What has there been in the conduct of the French to foreign powers ; what in the violation of solemn treaties ; what in the plunder, devastation, and dismember- ment of unoffending countries ; what in the horrors and murders perpetrated upon the subdued victims of their rage in any district which they have overrun, — worse than the conduct of those three great powers in the miserable, devoted, and trampled-on kingdom of Poland, and who have been, or are, our aUies in this war for religion and so- cial order and the rights of nations 1 — C. J. Fox. Upon Earth's lap there lay a pleasant land, With mountain, wood, and river beautified. And city-dotted. For the pleasant land The icy North and burning South did battle 412 EIGHTEENTH CENTUET. Whose it should be ; and so it lay between them Unclaimed, unowned, like the shining spoils Under crossed lances of contending chiefs ; . . . There went a whisper of their happiness Over the blue pines of the eastern woods, Up to the icy crags where Russia's eagle Sat lean and famine-withered. So he turned With the hot hunger flashing in his eye. And listened ; presently upon the rock He whet his beak and plumed his ragged feathers. And rose with terrible and savage clang Into the frightened air, — nor rose alone. But at the sound the golden beak of Prussia And the two-headed bird of Austria Came swooping up, and o'er the happy land Held bloody carnival ; for each one tore A bleeding fragment for his proper beak. As of a kid caught straying and alone. So there went up a cry from earth to heaven. And pale-eyed nations asked, " Is there a God ? " Arnold. Anon she hears the sounds of clanking arms, — The foemen come once more to spread alarms ! And while she weeps against that fortress' wall. And while fresh horrors every sense appall. To France she slowly turns her glazing eyes, And humbly seeks for succor ere she dies ! Victor Hugo. Tt. Reynolds. Oh, bloodiest picture in the book of Time, Sarmatia fell, unwept, without a crime ; Found not a generous friend, a pitying foe. Strength in her arras, nor mercy in her woe ! Dropped from her nerveless grasp the shattered spear. Closed her bright eye, and curbed her high career ; — Hope, for a season, bade the world farewell, And Freedom shrieked — as Kosciusko fell ! Campbell. EIGHTEENTH CENTUBY. 413 THE FEENCH EEVOLUTIOK Apres moi le deluge} — Louis XV., 1774. We approach a condition of crisis and the age of revolutions. EoUSSEAtJ. L'histoire de la Revolution fran^aise commence en Europe I' ire des societe's nouvelles, comme la revolution d'Angleterre a commence Vere des gouvernem^nts nouveaux. — Mignet. The long wars in whicli France had been engaged, the tyranny, profligacy, and misgovernment of the ruling classes, the great and increasing burden of the public debt, together with the spread of new ideas concerning the rights of man and the relations of the citizen to the state, and a general awakening of the mind and conscience touching the great problems of politics and religion, — these culmi- nated (with the aid of the example afforded by the struggle for independence in America), towards the close of this cen- tury, in that great social uprising known as the French Eevolution. The desperate condition of the finances made necessary in 1789 the calling together of the States General (an assembly of the clergy, the nobility, and the third es- tate, or commonalty), which had not assembled for nearly two hundred years. This was quickly transformed into a National Assembly/ which proceeded to make rapid and sweeping changes, overthrowing the old privileges of the no- bility, and mapping out France into new territorial divisions. The National Assembly was soon succeeded by the so-called Legislative Assemlly and the National Convention. By the 1 After me the deluge. 414 EIGHTEENTH CENTDEY. latter, in 1792, the abolition of the monarchy was decreed, and France was proclaimed a Eepublic. The year 1793 gave birth to a revolution, but not to a repubUo ; this latter word was adopted in hatred of royalty, and not as descriptive of existing institutions. — Dumas. Then followed the execution of the king (Louis XVI), and the period of confusion and anarchy known as the Beign of Terror} when executions were most frequent, and when all power was in the hands of a few leaders of the extreme faction. The people never revolt from fickleness, or the mere desire of change. It is the impatience of suffering which alone has this effect. — Sully's Mbmoies. To me the Eighteenth Century has nothing grand in it, except that grand universal Suicide, named French Revolution, by which it ter- minated its otherwise most worthless existence with at least one worthy act, — setting fire to its old home and self, and going up in flames and volcanic explosions in a truly memorable and important maimer. — Caelylb. The same movement in the minds of men which brought about the Tevolution in England was the cause of that of France in 1789. Both belong to the third era in the progress of social order, — the establish- ment of representative government — a point towards which the hu- mau mind is directing itself from all parts. — Madame db Stael. It [French Eevolution] was least of all a fortuitous event. It is true that it took the world by surprise ; and yet it was only the completion of travail most prolonged, the sudden and violent termination of a work on which ten generations had been laboring. — De Tocquevillb. 1 Eevolutionary periods are painted in history in colors so dark that the reader wonders how, amidst such scenes, peaceful human heings covdd continue to exist. He forgets that the historian describes only the abnormal incidents which broke the current of ordinary life, and that between the spasms of vio- lence there were long quiet intervals when the ordinary occupations of men went on as usual. — Fboude. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 415 Figure to yourself, during a whole century, the usurpers of aU the national rights quarrelling about a worn-out authority ; the parlia- ments persecuting the clergy, the clergy persecuting the parliaments ^ the latter disputing the avithority of the court ; the court, careless and calm^id this struggle, squandering the substance of the people in the most profligate debauchery ; the nation, enriched and roused, watching these disputes, arming itself with the allegations of one party against the other, deprived of all political action, dogmatizing boldly and ignorantly, because it was confined to theories ; aspiring, above all, to recover its rank in Europe, and offering in vain its treas- ure and its blood to regain a place which it had lost through the weak- ness of its rulers. Such was the eighteenth century. — Thiees. ■There is a deep-lying struggle in the whole fabric of society; a boundless, grinding collision of the New with the Old. The French Revolution, as is now visible enough, was not the parent of this mighty movement, but its offspring. Those two hostile influences, which always exist in human things, and on the constant intercom- munion of which depends their health and safety, had lain in separate masses, accumulating through generations, and France was the scene of their fiercest explosion ; but the final issue was not unfolded in that country: nay, it is not yet anywhere unfolded. — Carlylb. Their [the French] revolution of 1789 was, as is well known, brought about, or, to speak more properly, was mainly instigated, by a few great men, whose works, and afterwards whose speeches, roused the people to resistance ; but what is less known, and nevertheless is certainly true, is, that these eminent leaders learnt in England that philosophy and those principles by which, when transplanted into their own country, such fearful and yet such salutary results were effected. — Buckle. The only event of modem times which can be properly compared with the Reformation is the French Revolution ; or, to speak more accurately, that great revolution of political feeling which took place in almost every part of the civilized world during the eighteenth century, and which obtained in France its most terrible and signal triumph. Each of those memorable events may be described as a rising up of human reason against a caste. The one was a struggle of the laity against the clergy for intellectual liberty ; the other was a struggle of the people against the privileged orders for political liberty. — Macaulay. 416 EIGHTEENTH CENTUKT. The pasBion for innovation seized a great and powerful nation in Europe, illustrious in the paths of honor, grown gray in years of re- nown: the voice of religion was discarded, the lessons of experience rejected; visionary projects were entertained, chimerical anticipations indulged; the ancient institutions of the country were not amended, but destroyed: a new constitution introduced amidst the unanimous applause of the people ; the monarch placed himself at the head of the movement, the nobles joined the commons, the clergy united in the work of reform; all classes, by common consent, conspired in the demo- lition and reconstruction of the constitution. A new era was thought to have dawned on human afifairs ; the age of gold to be about to return from the regeneration of mankind. The consequence, as all the world knows, was ruin, devastation, and misery, unparalleled in modem times: the king, queen, the royal family, were beheaded, the nobles exiled or guillotined, the clergy confiscated and banished, the fundholders starved and ruined, the merchants exterminated, the landholders beggared, the people decimated. — Alison. That event was a new phenomenon in politics. Nothing that had gone before enabled any person to judge with certainty of the course which affairs might take. At first the effect was the reform of great abuses, and honest men rejoiced. Then came commotaon, proscription, confiscation, the bankruptcy, the assignats, the maximum, civil war, foreign war, revolutionary tribunals, guillotinades, noyades, fusillades. Yet a little while, and a military despotism rose out of the confusion, and threatened the independence of every state in Europe. And yet a little while again, and the old dynasty returned, followed by a train of emigrants eager to restore the old abuses. We have now, we think, the whole before us. ... It is our deliberate opinion that the French Revolution, in spite of all its crimes and foUies, was a great blessing to mankind. — Macaulay. This Eevolution not only altered the political power, but changed the entire internal character, of the nation. The forms of society which had prevailed during the Middle Age still continued; the land was divided into hostile provinces, men into rival classes. The no- bUity had lost all its power though it kept its distinctions, the people possessed no rights, royalty had no limits, and France was given up to the confusion of ministerial authority, private rule, and sectional privi- leges. For this mischievous condition the Revolution has substituted ■ an order better conformed to justice and to the spirit of the time. It EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 417 has replaced arbitrary power by law, privilege by equality, uprooted class distinctions, torn down provincial barriers, delivered the soil from the fetters of corporations and agriculture from feudal oppres- sions, and has restored everything to one state, one law, one people. MiGNET. It appears to be, if not stated in words, yet tacitly felt and under- stood everywhere, that the event of these modern ages is the French Eevolution. A huge explosion bursting through all formulas and customs ; confounding into wreck and chaos the ordered arrangements of earthly life ; blotting out, one may say, the very firmament and skyey loadstars, — though only for a season. Once in the fifteen hundred years such a thing was ordained to come. . . . And now, for us who have receded to the distance of some half-century [1837], the explosion becomes a thing visible, surveyable : we see its flame and Bulphur-smoke blend with the clear air (far under the stars) ; and hear its uproar as part of the sick noise of life, — loud indeed, yet im- bosomed too, as all noise is, in the infinite of silence. It is an event which can be looked on ; which may stUl be execrated, still be cele- brated and psalmodied ; but which it were better now to begin im- derstanding. . . . Considering the qualities of the matter, one may perhaps reasonably feel, that since the time of the Crusades, or earlier, there is no chapter of history so well worth studying. — Cablyle. The French Revolution was therefore in its essence a sublime and impassioned spirituality. It had a divine and universal ideal. This is the reason why its passion spread beyond the frontiers of France. Those who limit, mutilate it. It was the accession of three moral sovereignties : — The sovereignty of right over force ; The sovereignty of intelligence over prejudices ; The sovereignty of people over governments. Eevolution in rights, — equahty. Eevolution in ideas, — reasoning substituted for authority. Eevolution in facts, — the reign of the people. A gospel of social rights. A gospel of duties, a charter of humanity. Prance declared itself the apostle of this creed. In this war of ideas France had allies everywhere, and even on thrones themselves, — Lamabtine. 27 418 EIGHTEENTH CENTDET. « The French Eevolution saw in the citizen the man ; no longer that personage conventionally and artificially classified by the constitution of his country, but a social -being, — man in his native and inalienable rights. — F. Abnaud. Cette date de 1789 est la grande date de tons les peuples. Beau- coup d'institutions sont tomb^es k cette date ; ceUes qui ne sont pas tomb^es se sont transformees ; quelques-unes qui paraissent vivre, ne sont plus que des ombres. Dans la pratique de tous les peuples, et dans la speculation de tous les peuples, est la trace philosophique de la E6volution franjaise. — Jules Simon. Come, cliildren of your country, come, New glory dawns upon the world. Our tyrants, rushing to their doom, Their bloody standard have unfurled; Already on our plains we hear The murmurs of a savage horde; They threaten with the murderous sword Your comrades and your children dear. Then up, and form your ranks, the hireling foe withstand; March on, — his craven blood must fertilize the land. Those marshalled foreigners, — shall they Make laws to reach the Frenchman's hearth ? Shall hireling troops who fight for pay Strike down our waniors to the earth ? God ! shall we bow beneath the weight Of hands that slavish fetters wear ? Shall ruthless despots once more dare To be the masters of oiu- fate ? Then up, and form your ranks, the hireling foe withstand ; March on, — his craven blood must fertilize the land. EouGET DE Lisle, The Marseillaise. Tr. John Oxenford. Through the very enormity of the excesses of the revolu- tionary period, the form of government soon gave way to a new constitution, known as the Directory, under which Napoleon Bonaparte came to the front as the central figure in the affairs of Europe. During these last years of the century the French Eepuhlic was engaged in constant wars with the various coaKtions formed against her by the other EIGHTEENTH CENTUET. 419 powers. In the year 1799 the Directory came to an end, and the supreme control was vested in the hands of Napo- leon, who was made First Consul. And his is henceforth an established sway, Consul for life. With worship France proclaims Her approbation, and with pomps and games. WOEDSWOETH. [In 1793] there broke out by far the most alarming danger of tmiversal dominion which had ever threatened Europe. The moat military people in Europe became engaged in a war for their very existence. Invasion on the frontiers, civil war and all imaginable horrors raging within, the ordinary relations of life went to wrack, and every Frenchman became a soldier. It was a multitude numer- ous as the hosts of Persia, but animated by the courage and skill and enei^ of the old Komans. One thing alone was wanting, that which Pyrrhus said the Romans wanted to enable them to conquer the world, — a general and a ruler like himself. There was wanted a mas- ter hand to restore and maintain peace at home, and to concentrate and direct the immense military resources of France against her for- eign enemies. And such a one appeared in Napoleon. — Arnold. The French Revolution was pushed into existence before the hour . of its natural birth. The power of the aristocratic principle was too vigorous and too much identified with that of the monarchical prin- ciple to be successfully resisted by a virtuous democratic effort, much less could it be overthrown by a democracy rioting in innocent blood, and menacing destruction to political and religious establishments, the growth of centuries, somewhat decayed indeed, yet scarcely show- ing their gray hairs. The first military events of the Revolution, and the frequent and violent change of rulers whose fall none regretted, were all proofs that the French Revolution, intrinsically too feeble to sustain the physical and moral force pressing it down, was fast sink- ing, when the wonderful genius of Napoleon, baffling all reasonable calculation, raised and fixed it on the basis of victory, the only one capable of supporting the crude production. Nevertheless that great man knew the cause he upheld was not sufficiently in unison with the feelings of the age, and his first care was to disarm or neutralize monarchical and sacerdotal enmity, by restoring a church establish- ment, and by becoming a monarch himself. Once a sovereign, his 420 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. vigorous character, his pursuits, his talents, and the critical natnie of the times, inevitably rendered him a despotic one ; yet while he sacri- ficed political liberty, which to the great bulk of mankind has never been more than a pleasing sound, he cherished with the utmost care ec[uality, — a sensible good that produces increasing satisfaction as it descends in the scale of society. But this, the real principle of his goyernment and secret of his popularity, made him the people's mon- arch, not the sovereign of the aristocracy; and hence Mr. Pitt called him "the child and the champion of democracy," — a truth as evident as that Mr. Pitt and his successors were the children and the cham- pions of aristocracy : hence also the privileged classes of Europe consist- ently transferred their natural and implacable hatred of the French Eevolution to his person ; for they saw that in him innovation had found a protector, — that he alone, having given pre-eminence to a system so hateful to them, was really what he called himself, " the State." — Napiee. EUSSIA. In the early part of this century Eussia, which had before this been a powerful kingdom, was brought into important relations with the other European states by the Emperor Peter the Great. He made large acquisitions of territory, founded the new capital of St. Petersburg, gained new seaports, and improved the internal condition of the country, raising it from a half-savage condition to a high state of power and influence. His war with Charles XII. of Sweden resulted in a large addition to the empire of lands along the Baltic. This immense empire, comprehending nearly half of Europe and Asia within its dominions, inhabited by a patient and indomitable race, ever ready to exchange the luxury and adventure of the South for the hardships and monotony of the North, was daily becoming more formidable to the liberties of Europe. — Alison. He [Peter the Great] gave a polish to his people, and was himself a savage ; he taught them the art of war, of which he was himself EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 421 ignorant ; from the sight of a, small boat on the river Moskwa he cre- ated a powerful fleet; he made himself an expert and active shipwright, sailor, pilot, and commander ; he changed the manners, customs, and laws of the Russians, and lives in their memory as the " Father of his country." — Voltaire. What cannot active government perform, New-moulding man ? Wide-stretching from these shores, A people savage from remotest time, A huge neglected empire, one vast mind, By Heaven inspired, from GotMo darkness called. Immortal Peter ! first of monarchs I he His stubborn country tamed, her rooks, her fens. Her floods, her seas, her ill-submitting sons; And while the fierce barbarian he subdued. To more exalted soul he raised the man. Ye shades of ancient heroes, ye who toiled Through long successive ages to build up A laboring plan of state, behold at once The wonder done ! behold the matchless Prince 1 Who left his native throne, where reigned till then A mighty shadow of unreal power; Who greatly spumed the slothful pomp of courts; And roaming every land, in every port His sceptre laid aside, with glorious hand. Unwearied plying the mechanic tool. Gathered the seeds of trade, of useful arts. Of civil wisdom, and of martial skill. Charged with the stores of Europe home he goes; Then cities rise amid the illumined waste ; O'er joyless deserts smiles the rural reign; Far-distant flood to flood is social joined; The astonished Euxine hears the Baltic roar; Proud navies ride on seas that never foamed With daring keel before; and armies stretch Each way their dazzling files, repressing here The frantic Alexander of the North, And awing there stem Othman's shrinking sons. Sloth flies the land, and Ignorance, and Vice, Of old dishonor proud : it glows around. Taught by the Boyal hand that roused the whole, One scene of arts, of arms, of rising trade; For what his wisdom planned, and power enfotced. More potent still, his great example showed. Thomson. 422 EIGHTEENTH CENTUEY. THE ENGLISH POWER IN INDIA. In this century the English power in India, which had begun a hundred years earlier in the scattered settlements of British merchants and of the East India Company, now became firmly established by the military achievements of Clive. The French and native troops were overthrown, and one after another province of India was brought under English control. War, disguised as commerce, came; Britain, carrying sword and flame, Won au empire, — lost her name. MOHTQOMEEY. SWEDEN. During this period Sweden rose to a momentary splendor through the astonishing exploits of her king, Charles XII., who by extraordinary daring and vigor won great victories over the Eussians, and also in Poland and Saxony, but was completely routed by Peter the Great in the battle of Pul- towa (1709). The romantic career of the " madman of the North," as he was styled, ended by his death while laying siege to a castle in Norway in 1718. His fall -was destined to a barren strand, A petty fortress, and a dubious hand; He left the name at which the world grew pale. To point a moral or adorn a tale. Db. Johnson. 'T was after dread Pultowa's day, When fortune left the royal Swede, Around a slaughtered army lay, No more to combat and to bleed. EIGHTEENTH CENTUKY. 423 The power and glory of the war, Faithless as their vain votaries, men, Had passed to the triumphant Czar, And Moscow's walls were safe again. Btbon. A century which has no history, and can have little or none. — Caeltle. A spirit of free inquiry was the predominant feature, the essential fact of the eighteenth century. In the eighteenth century free in- quiry became universal in its character and objects : religion, politics pure philosophy, man and society, moral and physical science, — everything became, at once, the subject of study, doubt, and system ; the ancient sciences were overturned ; new sciences sprang up. It was a movement which proceeded in every direction, though emanat- ing from one and the same impulse. — GuizoT. I compare the eighteenth century to a company of people around a table ; it is not sufficient that the food before them be well prepared well served, within rea,ch and easy to digest ; but it is important that , it should be some choice dish, or, better still, some dainty. — Taine. Did it [the eighteenth century] pursue an Utopia ? Nay : it car- ried on the work of its forerunners, — the sixteenth, which saw the birth of the Reformation, and the seventeenth, which saw the triumph of English institutions ; it was in communion with all the stirring spirits of the past ; it marched along the great highway of the human mind, and knew this, and it was this confidence that threw over its decline an air of serene majesty. The thinkers who had shed a lustre over its course were followed by great practical men who carried their plans into execution. After Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Kousseau, rose Turgot, Franklin, Mirabeau, and Washington. The American Republic, child of experiment, irreproachable as a creation of pure reason, was on the point of rising up beyond the seas to serve as a beacon to all future societies. The future appeared so assured, and the course of events so irresistible, that even the wisest among them were not proof against a certain intoxication, and in their too scornful impatience of facts they pushed impetuously out to the very verge and final limits of the possible. Not content with proclaiming the end of religious and political despotism, they went on to predict the end of superstition, the end of misery, the end of slavery, the end of conquest, the end of war. — Lanfbet. A.B. latfj SeTioiypePrmtmg Oj^.Boitm NINETEENTH CENTUET. (1800-1883.) T Feancb, at the beginning of this century under Napoleon L, ia the chief power in Europe. At his overthrow she is left with about the same territory as at the beginning of her foreign wars ; but within the last quarter century she has been obliged to surrender the prov- inces bordering on the Bhine, which have been taken from her by Prussia. England rises to the front rank of European states, by her part in the Napoleonic wars. In the present century she has made some small acquisitions of territory in Europe, and has greatly extended her colonial empire. GERMAire, with Prussia as its leading state, has become the first military power in Europe. The old German Empire comes to an end in 1806. Adsteia is entirely separated from Germany, and is united into one state with Hungary. Ktjssia ia now one of the greatest European powers. Italy has become one kingdom, covering the whole peninsula. The United States have greatly increased by the addition of new States and Territories. Denmark has lost a considerable territory, taken from her by Prussia. The new kingdom of Belgium has been formed during this century. Spain in tbia century loses Mexico and the republics of Central America. Greece has secured its independence, and has become a kingdom. TuBKBT. The power of Turkey is steadily declining. Hungary. See above, under Austria. Mexico, which had belonged to Spain, revolts in 1820, and has become an independent republia A. D. 1800. CHRONOLOGICAIi TABLE. 1800. Battle of Marengfo. 1802. Peace of Aiuiens. 1802. Ohio admitted into the United States. 1803. L.ouisiaiia purchased from France by the United States. 1804. Napoleon declared Emperor of the French. 1805. Battles of Trafalgar and Austerlitz. 1806. Battle of Jena. 180U. End of the German Empire. Saxony and Wiirtemberg kingdoms. 1807. Steamboat Clermont on the Hudson. 1813. Louisiana admitted into the United States. 1812. War between the United States and England begun. 1812. Russia invaded by the French. 1813. Battles of Lutzen, Dresden, and Leipsic. 1814. The Allies enter Paris. Abdication of Na- poleon. 1814. Treaty of Ghent. Peace concluded between the United States and England. 181fi. Battle of Waterloo. Final defeat of Napo- leon by Wellington and Bliicher. 1815. Congress of Vienna. 1815. " Holy Alliance " of European sovereigns at St. Petersburg. 1816. Indiana admitted into the United States. 1817. Mississippi admitted into the United States. 1818. Illinois admitted into the United States. 1819. Alabama admitted into the United States. 1819. Florida ceded to the United States by Spain. 1820. Maine admitted into the United States. 1820. The Missouri Compromise. 1821. Missouri admitted mto the United States. 1821. Revolt of Greece. 1826. Independence of Mexico. 1825. Independence of BraziL 1827. Battle of Navarlno. 1829. Independence of Greece, 1830. French Revolution of July. 1830. Polish insurrection against Rusda. 1830. Independence of Belgium. 1831. The Reform Bill passed. 1836. Arkansas admitted into the United States. 1837. Michigan admitted into the United States. 1844. Electro -magnetic telegraph, Baltimore to Washington. 1845. Florida admitted into the United States. 1845. Texas annexed to the United States. 184tl. War between the United States and Mexico. 1846. Iowa admitted into the Uniced States. 1846. California and New Mexico ceded to the United States. 1846. Repeal of the Corn Laws. 1848. Second republic in France. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte chosen President. 1848. Wisconsin admitted into the United States. 1850. California admitted into the United States. 1851. Submarine telegraph from Dover to Calais. 1853. Minnesota admitted into the United States. 1854-1856. The Crimean War. 1855. Sebastopol taken by the British and French forces. 1857. Indian Mutiny. 1859. Oregon admitted into the United states. 1859. Batfles of Magenta and Solferino. 1860. South Carolina secedes from the Union. 1860. Uprising in Italy (Garibaldi). 1861. Establisnment of the new kingdom of Italy under Victor Emmanuel king. 1861. Kansas admitted into the United States. 1861-1865. Civil war (the Rebellion) in the United States. 1862. The French declare war against Mexico. 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation. 1863. West Virginia, admitted into the United States. 1863. Battle of Gettysburg. 1864. Capture of Petersburg and Richmond. 1864. Nevada admitted into the United States. 1865. Gen. Lee surrenders. End of the Rebellion. 1866. War between Prussia, Itcdy, and Austria. I86B. Battle of Sadowa. ISliG. Atlantic cable successfully laid. 1867. Nebraska admitted into the United States. 1867. Alaska purchased by the United States. 1870. The Franco-Prussian War. 1871. Establishment of the new Gennan Empire;. 1871. France a republic. PEOMINENT NAMES OF THE CENTURT. Sovereigns. England Victoria. France Bonaparte, Louis Philippe, Napoleon IIL, The Republic. Germany Emperor William I. Russia Alexander II. ITALY Victor Emmanuel. Presidents of the United States. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Madison, James Monroe, James Monroe, John Q. Adams, Andrew Jackson, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William H. Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester H. Arthur. Samuel Adams, Priestley, Paley, Kant, Hamilton, Schiller, Nelson, Pitt, Fox, Fisher Ames, Fulton, Haydn, Wieland, Mme. de Stael, Watt, Grattan, Shelley, Birenger. Herschel, Eli Whitney, Canova, Erskine, Byron, Richter, Jefferson, Canning, Laplace, Beethoven, Davy, Hegel, Scott, Cuvier, Goethe Coleridge, Mill, Channing, Southey, Campbell, Cooper, Thorwaldsen, Stephenson, Mendelssohn, Weber, John Quincy Adams, WordSworth, Turner, Calhoun, Clay, Webster, Wellington. Moore, Arago, Comte, Humboldt, Macaulay, De Quincey, Prescott, Irving, Cavour, Mrs. Browning, Thackeray' Meyerbeer, Hawthorne, Landor, Cobden, Thiers, Faraday, Rossini, Brougham, Dickens, Guizot Bryant, Agassiz, Leverrier, Morse, Landseer, Kaulbach, George Eliot, Carlyle, Emerson, Tyndall! Garibaldi, Longfellow, Darwin, Huxley, Wagner, Victor Hugo, Ruskin, Gladstone, Beaconsfield, Grant! Browning, Tennyson, Whittier, Lowell, Holmes. ILLUSTRATIONS. " A NTIQUITAS sseculi juventus mundi." These times are the .d \ . ancient times, when the world is ancient, and not those which we account ancient ordine retrogrado, by a computation backward from ourselves. — Bacon. Those whom we call ancients were really new in all things, and formed, properly speaking, the infancy of the human race ; and as we have added to their knowledge the experience of all succeeding pen- turies, it is in ourselves that may be found that antiquity which we reverence in them. — Pascal. We are ancients of the earth. And in the morning of the times. Tbnhtson. Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these ? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this. — Ecclesiastes viL 10. THE NAPOLEONIC WARS. The first fifteen years of the nineteentli century was a period of great confusion in Europe, in consequence of the wars carried on by Napoleon Bonaparte, whose wonderful talents raised France to the highest pinnacle of military fame. One after another dynasty was overthrown or set 428 NINETEENTH CENTUET. up, and the political map underwent many changes. The territory of France was greatly increased, and a large part of Western Europe came under her controL The French supremacy may be said to have reached its height in the years 1810 and 1811. Lords, lawyers, statesmen, sqtiires of low degree, Men known, and men unknown, sick, lame, and blind, Post" forward all, like creatures of one kind, Witli first-fruit ofierings crowd to bend the knee. In France, before the new-bom Majesty.! WOEDSWOETH. There were two distinct periods in the wars which began in 1792 and terminated in 1815. The first period includes the wars of the French Kevolution, which were wars for existence, as well as wars for conquest. This period ended when Bonaparte returned from Egypt [1799]. The second period began with the victory of Marengo [1800], and continued to the rout of Waterloo. This was a period during which France fought, not for existence, but for conquest. The wars of the French Revolution ended, and the wars of Napoleon began. He moulded, organized, directed the elements of force let loose by the passions of the Revolution, and with this force, developed systemati- cally, he resumed on a grander scale the policy of Louis XIV. — HOOPEK. Democratic France owes much to the Emperor Napoleon. He gave her two things of immense value : within, civil order strongly constituted ; without, national independence firmly established. — GUIZOT. Napoleon was convinced that France could only exist as a mon- archy; but, the French people being more desirous of equality than of liberty, and the very principle of the Revolution being established in the equalization of all classes, there was of necessity a complete aboli- tion of the aristocracy. . . . The ideas of Napoleon were fixed, but the aid of time and events was necessary for their realization. The organization of the consulate [Napoleon was made First Consul in 1799] presented nothing in contradiction to them; it taught unanim- ity, and that was the first step. — Napoleon, Gourgavd's Memoirs. 1 Napoleon put on the Imperial crown, May 18, 1804. NINETEENTH CENTUKY. 429 Napoleon declared it to be his destiny to unite all the European states into one nation, with Paris as the capital. I desired the empire of tlie world, and who in my situation would not 1 The world invited me to govern it ; sovereigns and subjects vied with each other in bending before my sceptre. — Napoleon (to Benjamin Constant). If I have been on the point of accomplishing the universal mon- archy, it was without any original design, and because I was led to it step by step. — Napoleon (a< St. Helena). Napoleon had annexed Eome and the southern papal provinces to France, and the French Empire now reached from the frontiers of Denmark to those of Naples, and in- cluded 42,000,000 people. Napoleon also held sway over the kingdom of Italy (including Lombardy, Venice, Mo- dena, Bologna, etc., with more than 6,000,000 people), and the IlljTian provinces (including Dalmatia, part of Croatia, etc.). He also controlled the kingdom of Naples (with about 5,000,000 inhabitants), and Westphalia. Everything must be subservient to the interest of France ; con- scription, laws, taxes, all must be in your respective states, for the advantage and support of my crown. — Napoleon {to his brother iMcien, 1811). Napoleon had also, as Protector of the Confederation of the Ehine, under his will the sovereigns of Bavaria, Saxony, and WtLrtemburg, the Grand Duke of Baden, and other German rulers. Prussia was entirely at the mercy of Napoleon, and the Helvetic Confederation was under his protection. So large a portion of Europe had not been subject to the control of one man since the fall of the Eoman Empire. More than 80^000,000 of people were at his disposal. Austria and Eussia were his allies, — the former through fear and famUy connection, the latter through self-interest 430 NINETEENTH CENTUKY. and prudence. Denmark was also his ally, and Spain was under his brother Joseph. England, however (with Sicily and Portugal under her protection), stiU defied his power. And we are left, or shall be left, alone; The last that dares to struggle vrith the Foe. WOKDSWOBTH. After this time the French power began to decline, nu- merous and powerful coalitions being formed against it. In 18.12 Napoleon invaded Eussia, but gained nothing by that campaign. He afterwards lost the great battle of Leipsic ("the Battle of the Nations," 1813). Within tlie last year all Europe marclied with us; now aU Europe is leagued against us. — Napoleon. After various struggles and vicissitudes, the long con- test between the French and the other powers of ■ Europe was finally decided by the famous battle of Waterloo, The allied armies of the Austrians, English, Germans, Prussians, and Eussians had prepared for the decisive conflict, and in 1815, at Waterloo, Napoleon was finally defeated by the English and Prussians, under Wellington and Bliicher, Stop ! for thy tread is on an empire's dust ! Bteok. The grave of France, the deadly Waterloo ! Btron. The struggle was one for mastery between the far-famed conqueror of Italy and the victorious liberator of the Peninsula ; between the triumphant vanquisher of Eastern Europe and the bold and success- ful invader of the south of France I Never was the issue of a single battle looked forward to as involving consequences of such vast importance, — of such universal influence. — Siborn. Twice in history has there been witnessed the struggle of the high- est individual genius against the resources and institutions of a great NINETEENTH CENTURY. 431 nation ; and, in both cases, the nation has been victorious. For seventeen years Hannibal strove against Rome ; for sixteen years Napoleon Bonaparte strove against England : the efforts of the first ended at Zama, those of the second at Waterloo. — Arnold. England! England! you fought not on that day single-handed with France : you had the world with you. Why arrogate to your- self aU the glory ? What means your Waterloo Bridge 1 Is there then so much to glorify yourself withal, if the mutilated remnant of a hundred battles, if the last levy of France, a beardless legion, who had scarcely left school and their mothers' tender kiss, were dashed to pieces against your mercenaiy army, spared in every' battle, and kept to be used against us like the dagger of mercy with which the soldier, when at the last gasp, assassinated his victor ? Yet I will conceal nothing. Hateful as England is, she appears grand, indeed, as she faces Europe.i — Michelbt. A battle fought for interests of the human race felt even where they are not understood ; so that the tutelary angel of man, when he trav- erses such a dreadful field, when he reads the distorted features, counts the ghastly ruins, sums the hidden anguish, and the harvests " Of horror breathing from the silent ground," nevertheless, speaking as God's messenger, " blesses it and calls it very good." — De Qdincet. In "pride of place" here last the eagle flew. Then tore with bloody talon the rent plain, Pierced by the shaft of banded nations through ; Ambition's life and labors all were vain, He wears the shattered links of the world's broken chain. Btkon. So great a soldier taught us there, What long-enduring hearts could do In that world-earthquake, Waterloo ! Tenntson, Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. Is there one heart that beats on English ground. One grateful spirit in the kingdoms round; 1 Never had England stood higher among the nation* of the Old World than after Waterloo. — J. E. Geeen. 432 NINETEENTH CENTUKT. One who had traced the progress of the foe. And does not hail the field of Waterloo ? Who o'er that field, if but in thought, has gone, Without a grateful wish for Wellington ? Cbabee. For many an age remembered long. Shall live the towers of Hougoumont, And field of Waterloo. Scott. The battle of Waterloo finally overthrew the empire of Napoleon, and brought to au end the succession of wars which had lasted with little interruption for twenty-three years. By the terms of peace agreed upon by the Allies, the conquests of France were given up, and the boundaries of the European states re-established. History exhibits numerous instances of empires which have been suddenly elevated to greatness by the genius or fortune of a single man ; but in all such cases the dominion has been as short-lived in its endurance as it was rapid in its growth. The successive empires of Alexander, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Nadir Shah, Charlemagne, and Napoleon attest this truth. — Alison. Napoleon was the contriver and the sole support of a political system that required time and victory to consolidate ; he was the connecting link between the new interests of mankind and what of the old were left in a state of vigor ; he held them together strongly, but he was no favorite with either, and consequently in danger from both ; his power, unsanctified by time, depended not less upon deli- cate management than upon vigorous exercise ; he had to fix the foundations of, as well as to defend, an empire, and he may be said to have been rather peremptory than despotic ; there were points of administration with which he durst not meddle even wisely, much less arbitrarily. Customs, prejudices, and the dregs of the revolu- tionary license, interfered to render his policy complicated and diffi- cult ; but it was not so with his inveterate adversaries. The delusion of parliamentary representation enabled the English government safely to exercise an unlimited power over the persona and the property of NINETEENTH CENTURY. 433 the nation, and through the influence of an active and coiTupt press it exercised nearly the same power over the public mind. The commerce of England, penetrating, as it were, into every house on the face of the globe, supplied a thousand sources of intelligence, — the spirit of trafiic, which seldom acknowledges the ties of country, was universally on the side of Great Britain, and those twin-curses, paper money and public credit, so truly described as " strength in the beginning, but weakness in the end," were recklessly used by statesmen whose policy regarded not the interests of posterity. Such were the adven- titious causes of England's power, and her natural, legitimate resources were many and great. — Napier. The great error of Napoleon, " if we have writ our annals true,'' was a continued obtrusion on mankind of his want of all community of feeling for or with them ; perhaps more offensive to human vanity than the active cruelty of more trembling and suspicious tyranny. — Bteon. The influence of the French conqueror never extended beyond low-water mark. The narrowest strait was to his power what it was of old believed that a running stream was to the sorceries of a witch. While his army entered every metropolis from Moscow to Lisbon, the English fleets blockaded every port from Dantzic to Trieste. — Macaulay. An Attila or a Genghis Khan may ravage half the globe, without any qualities but brutal courage and a wild barbarian energy of mind and body ; but to establish a dominion, though merely military, over an enlightened continent like Europe, is an achievement of a diiferent sort ; and supposes, in addition to the virtues of a great commander, a natural dignity and elevation of mind. — A. H. Everett. Here was an experiment, under the most favorable conditions, of the powers of intellect without conscience. Never was such a leader so endowed and so weaponed ; never leader found such aids and fol- lowers. And what was the result of this vast talent and power, of these immense armies, burned cities, squandered treasures, immolated millions of men, of this demoralized Europe ? It came to no result. All passed away like the smoke of his artillery, and left no trace. He left France smaller, poorer, feebler, than he found it ; and the whole contest for freedom was to be begun again. — Emerson. 28 434 NINETEENTH CENTUET. That Napoleon possessed greatness of action, we need not prove, and none will be hardy enough to deny. A man who raised himself from obscurity to a throne ; who changed the lace of the world ; who made himseK felt through powerful and civilized nations ; who sent the terror of his name across seas and oceans ; whose will was feared as destiny ; whose donatives were crowns ; whose antechamber was thronged by submissive princes ; who broke down the barrier of the Alps, and made them a highway; and whose fame has spread beyond the boundaries of civilization to the steppes of the Cossack and the deserts of the Arab, — a man who has left this record of himself in history has taken out of our hands the question whether he shall be called great. All must concede to him a sublime power of action, — an energy equal to great effects. — Channing. Compare the situation in which he found France with that to which he has raised her. I am no panegyrist of Bonaparte ; but I cannot shut my eyes to the superiority of his talents, to the amazing ascend- ency of his genius. Tell me not of his measures and his' policy. It is his genius, his character, that keeps the world in awe. Sir, to meet, to check, to curb, to stand up against him, we want arms of the same kind. I am far from objecting to the large mUitaiy establish- ments which are proposed to you. I vote for them with all my heart. But, for the purpose of coping with Bonaparte, one great, commanding spirit is worth them all. — Canning. It must be owned the figure of Napoleon was titanic, especially to the generation that looked on him, and that waited shuddering to be devoured by him. — Caeltlb. Although too much of a soldier among sovereigns, no one could claim with better right to be a sovereign among soldiers. — Scott. Napoleon appeared with his twofold propensity for despotism and war, — his twofold nature, popular and aristocratic. He was behind the ideas of France, but in advance of the ideas of Europe; a man of resistance as to his own people, but of progression as to others. — Dumas. I hated thee, fallen tyrant ! I did groan To think that a most unambitious slave, Like thou, shonldst dance and revel on the grave Of Liberty. Thou mightest have built thy throne Where it had stood even now: thou didst prefer A frail and bloody pomp, which time has swept NINETEENTH CENTDKY. 435 In fragments towards otlivion. Massacre, For this I prayed, would on thy sleep have crept, Treason and Slavery, Eapine, Fear, and Lust, And stifled thee, their minister. I know Too late, since thou and France are in the dust. That Virtue owns a more eternal foe , Than force or fraud : old Custom, legal Crime, And bloody Faith, the foulest birth of time. Shelley. When, looking on the present face of things, I see one man, of men the meanest too ! Baised up to sway the world, to do, undo, With mighty nations for his underlings, The great events with which old story rings Seem vain and hollow. Wordsworth. Thine only gift hath been the grave To those that worshipped thee ; Nor till thy fall could mortals guess Ambition's less than littleness I Byron. Where is Napoleon ? Where each captain Who rode in his steel-clad train but lately, Every one rare visions rapt in Of a France that loomed o'er Europe greatly. Of a Gallic Empire, strong and stately, ^ A baby-giant with war for a toy '! Where do those phantoms march sedately ? Mortimer Collins. He [Napoleon] raised that monument ! The grandest age Which e'er the historian's annals might engage Furnished the subject, and the end of time Shall boast that emblem of his course sublime, Where Rhine and Tiber rolled in crimson flood, And the tall snow-capped Alps all trembling stood ! Victor Hugo. Tr. Reynolds. After the battle of Waterloo, Napoleon lived in captivity for six years at St. Helena, where he died May 5, 1821. There sunk the greatest, nor the worst of men, Whose spirit antithetically mixt One moment of the mightiest, and again On little objects with like firmness flzt, 436 NINETEENTH CENTUKY. Extreme in all things ! hadst thou been 'betwirt, Thy throne had still been thine, or never been ; For darmg made thy rise as fall : thou seek'st Even now to reassume the imperial mien, And shalce again the world, the thuuderer of the scene ! Conqueror and captive of the earth art thou ! She trembles at thee still, and thy wild name Was ne'er more bruited in men's minds than now That thou art nothing, save the jest of fame. Who wooed thee once, thy vassal, and became The flatterer of thy fierceness, till thou wert A god unto thyself; nor less the same To the astounded kingdoms all inert, Who deemed thee for a time whate'er thou didst assert. Btbon. 'T is done — but yesterday a king ! And armed with kings to strive — And now thou art a nameless thing. So abject, — yet alive ! Is this the man of thousand thrones, Who strewed our earth with hostile bones ? And can he thus survive ? Since he, miscalled the morning star. Nor man nor fiend hath fallen so far. Bteon. Napoleon fell in 1815, and three years had hardly passed before the revolutionary fields were ripe for the harvest. The grand duchies of Baden and Bavaria laid claim to a constitution, and got it in 1818. Wiirtemburg laid claim to a constitution, and got it in 1819. Rebel- lion and constitution of Naples and Piedmont in 1820. Uprising of the Greeks against Turkey in 1821. Foundation of the Prussian states in 1823. — Dumas. NINETEENTH CENTURY. 437 THE UNITED STATES. Thou, too, sail on, Ship of State I Sail on, Union, strong and great I Humanity, with all its fears, With all tlie hopes of future years, Is hanging breatlUess on thy fate I Longfellow. The nineteenth century has heen marked by great changes in the territorial extent and political power of the United States. Twenty-two new States have been admit- ted to the Union since the year 1800. Its dominion, which at first hardly comprised more than a limited tract along the Atlantic sea-board, now spans the continent, including an area of 2,065,329 square miles. Its population, which at the beginning of the century was about 5,300,000, was estimated in 1879 to fall but little short of 50,000,000. The attempt at secession of the Southern States in 1861 proved abortive ; and the restored Union, freed from the disturbing element of slavery, is now advancing in wealth, power, and the arts of peace, at a rate of progress never equalled in its past history. I have a far otlier and far brighter vision before my gaze. It may be but a vision, but I will cherish it. I see one vast confederation stretching from the frozen North in unbroken line to the glowing South, and from the wild billows of the Atlantic westward to the calmer waters of the Pacific main, — and I see one people, and one law, and one language, and one faith, and, over all that wide continent, the home of freedom, and a refuge for the oppressed of every race and of every clime. — John Beight, Speech at Birmingham, 1862. History shows that the civilization on which we depend is subject to a general law which makes it journey by halts, in the manner of armies, in the direction of the Occident, making the sceptre pass suc- cessively into the hands of nations more worthy to hold it, more strong 438 NINETEENTH CENTUBY. and more able to employ it for the general good. So it seems that the supreme authority is about to escape from Western and Central Europe to pass to the New World. — Michel Chevalier, 1867. The Americans of the United States, whatever they do, will become one of the greatest people of the earth ; they will cover with their off- shoots almost all North America. The continent which they inhabit is their domain ; it cannot escape them. — Db Tocquevillb. America is the common asylum of us all. From whatever part of the Old World we steer, we shall not be strangers in the New; we shall there meet with our language, our feUow-oountrymen, and our brethren. — Thierry. From the deck of the " Mayflower," from the landing at Plymouth Eock to the Senate of the United States, is a mighty contrast, cover- ing whole spaces of history, — hardly less than from the woK that suckled Romulus and Bemus to that Roman Senate which, on curule chairs, swayed Italy and the world. — Charles Sumner. America is therefore the land of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the world's history shall reveal itself, — perhaps in a contest between North and South America. It is a land of desire for all those who are weary of the historical lumber-room of old Europe* Napoleon is reported to have said, " Cette vieille Eu- rope m'ennuie." It is for America to abandon the ground on which hitherto the history of the world has developed itself. — Hegel. The time will therefore come when one hundred and fifty millions of men will be living in North America, equal in condition, all be- longing to one family, owing their origin to the same cause, and pre- serving the same civilization, the same language, the same religion, the same habits, the same manners, and imbued with the same opin- ions, propagated under the same forms. The rest is uncertain, but this is certain ; and it is a fact new to the world, — a fact which the imagination strives in vain to grasp. — Db Tocquevillb. Here the free spirit of mankind, at length. Throws its last fetters off; and -who shall place A limit to the giant's unchained strength, Or curb his swiftness in the forward race ? Par, like the comet's way through infinite space. Stretches the long untravelled path of light Into the depths of ages : we may trace. NINETEENTH CENTURY. 439 Distant, the brightening glory of its flight. Till the receding rays are lost to human sight. Betant. One great clime, Whose vigorous offspring by dividing ocean Are kept apart, and nursed in the devotion Of Freedom, which their fathers fought for, and Bequeathed, — a heritage of heart and hand. And proud distinction from each other land, Whose sons must bow them at a monarch's motion, As if his senseless sceptre were a wand Full of the magic of exploded science, — Still one great clime, in full and free defiance, Yet rears her crest, unconquered and sublime. Above the far Atlantic ! Byeon. RUSSIA. This vast country, -which, from the time of Peter the Great, rose to a position of great strength and influence in the eighteenth century, is, during the present century, one of the greatest European powers. There are at the present time two great nations in the world, which started from different points, but seem to tend towards the same end. I allude to the Russians and the Americans. Both of them have grown up unnoticed ; and whilst the attention of mankind was directed elsewhere, they have suddenly placed themselves in the front rank among the nations, and the world learned their existence and their greatness at almost the same time. All other nations seem to have nearly reached their natural limits, and they have only to maintain their power ; but these are still in the act of growth. All the others have stopped, or continue to advance with extreme diflfi- culty ; these alone are proceeding with ease and celerity along a path to which no limit can be perceived. — Db Tocqueville. If the courteous reader were to turn to some old map of the world, say of two hundred years ago, and compare it with the earth as we know it to-day, perhaps the change of all others which would strike 440 NINETEENTH CENTUEY. him as most marvellous would be the enormous development of the Russian Empire. The face of Europe has been metamorphosed. Powerful states have disappeared, and others whose names two cen- turies ago were scarcely known have risen into prominent rank among the Great Powers. The vast colonial empire of Britain was then only being founded, and England had yet barely a foothold in India. The great North American Republic had yet a century to wait before its time came to step forth on the stage of history. The coast of Austra- lia had been merely sighted ; the Mississippi still rolled its waters from their source to the sea through an almost unexplored wilderness ; California was believed to be an island. But inconceivably great as have been the changes which these facts reveal, the most "portentous birth " of latter times, at least in its imposing magnitude, must be pronounced to be the Empire of the White Czar. — Geddie. UNIFICATIOlSr OF EUEOPEAN STATES. The marked feature of the political movements in Europe in the third quarter of the present century has been the tendency to consolidate the petty and weak states, into which a great part of the Continent had been broken up, into one strong central government. This tendency has shown itself specially in the confederation of the smaller German states under the leadership of Prussia, and the formation of the present German Empire. In Italy the same tendency has shown itself in the extinguishment of the petty principalities, the withdrawal of all foreign pow- ers, and the establishment of the new kingdom of Italy, with Eome for its capital. The undoubted tendency of the last three centuries has been to consolidate what were once separate states or kingdoms into one great nation. — Aenold. NINETEENTH CENTURY. 441 MATERIAL PEOGEESS OF THE CENTUET. An inventive Age Bos wrought, if not with speed of magic, yet To most strange issues. WORDSWOBTH. Under the impulse of the great discoveries and inven- tions of the eighteenth century, in particular the invention of the steam-engine and the discovery of the properties of electricity and galvanism, an immense momentum has been given to scientific investigation and to the application of new means and methods to the mechanic arts. With start- ling rapidity, one after another long-hidden secret has been wrested from nature, and fresh powers available for the use and benefit of man have been unlocked. In the number and serviceableness of its inventions and applied discov- eries, the nineteenth century bids fair to exceed all its predecessors. And like as the West Indies had never been discovered if the use of the mariner's needle had not been first discovered, though the one be vast regions and the other a small motion ; so it cannot be found strange if sciences be no farther discovered if the art itself of invention and discovery hath been passed over. — Bacon. The introduction of noble inventions seems to hold by far the most excellent place among all human actions. And this was the judg- ment of antiquity, which attributed divine honors to inventors, but conferred only heroical honors upon those who deserved well in civil affairs, — such as the founders of empires, legislators, and deliverers of their country. And whoever rightly considers it will find this a judicious custom in former ages, since the benefits of inventors may extend to all mankind, but civil benefits only to particular countries or seats of men ; and these civU benefits seldom descend to more than a few ages, whereas inventions are perpetuated through the course of 442 NINETEENTH CENTUEY. time. Besides, a state is seldom amended in its civil affairs with- out force and pertuitation, whilst inventions spread their advantage without doing injury or causing disturbance. — Lord Bacon. Soon shall thy arm, unoonquered Steam ! afar Drag the slow barge, and drive the rapid car. Daewht, Botanic Garden, 1791. Were we required to characterize this age of ours by any single epithet, we should be tempted to call it, not an Heroical, Devotional, Philosophical, or Moral Age, but, above aU others, the Mechanical Age. It is the Age of Machinery in every outward and inward sense of that word ; the age which, with its whole undivided might, forwards, teaches, and practises the great art of adapting means to ends. — Carltlb. INDEX. ABBASSIDIAN CALIPHATE. See Bagdad, Caliphate of. Abd-er-Eahman, 210. Abraham, journey into Egypt, 10. Academic sctiool, 46, 47. Acadia (Nova Scotia), settled, 395. Achceau League, 69, 70. Achaia, province of, 73, 79, 80. Actium, battle of, 99, 100, 105, 106. JSgospotamos, battle of, 34. .^schines, 46. JEschylus, 21, 36. .^tius defeats Attila, 168, 182, 183. .£tolian League^ 69. Africa, Carthaginian possessions in, 57, 60. , Eoman province of, 73, 77. , Vandal kingdom in, 167. invaded by the Saracens, 201. , North, conquered by Saracens, 209. , Fatimite dynasty in, 238. , Turkish or Ottoman Empire in, 341. Age of the Antonines. See Akto- HiNES, Age of the. Age of Augustus. See Augustan Age. Age of Charles V. See Charles V., Age of. Age of Elizabeth. See Elizabeth, Age of. Age of Justinian. See Justinian, Age op. Age of Leo X See Leo X., Age of. Age of Louis XLV. See Louis XIV., Age of. Age of Pericles. See Pekicles, Age of. AgincouTt, battle of, 317. Agrarian Laws, 12, 84. Aix-Ia-Chapelle, Treaty of, 400. Alabama, 426. Alaric, 167, 180. Alaska, 426. Albigenses, 289. Alexander the Great, his conquests and empire, 41, 48-53. Alexandria founded, 49. , seat of learning and commerce, 57, 70, 71, 153. , school of, 70, 71, 153. taken by the Saracens, 202. , Library burnt, 202, 216. Alfred the Great, 232, 233. Alhambra, the, 335. AUia, battle of, 42. Almoravides, 251. Alva, Duke of, 364, 365. America, discovery of, 328, 330-334. , Spanish dominions in, 341. , North, coast explored by Verraz- zani, 342. , South, reached by Columbus, 316. , Spanish possessions in the age of Charles V., 351. , European settlements in, 394-396. See Central America and United States. Amerigo Vespucci, 316. Amiens, Peace of, 426. Angles in Britain, 167, 181, 182, 191, 201. Antalcidas, Peace of, 42. Antonines, Age of the, 139-143. Antony, 98, 99, 105. Antwerp, 364. Aquse Sextise, battle, 84. Aquinas, Thomas, 296. Aquitaine, 271, 308. Arabs, 4. See Saracens and MooBB. Aragon, 251, 271, 281. 444 INDEX. Aragon, union with Castile, 315,334,336. Aratus, 58. Arbela, battle of, 49. Architecture, Gothic, 290. Aristides, 12. Aristophanes, 36. Aristotle and his philosiophy, 46. Arliansas, 426. Armada, the, 360-362. Armenia, 87, 137. Arsaces, 114. • ■ Artaxerxes, 37. Aryan, 3, 4. migration, 10. Asia, stationary character of civiliza- tion, 4^7. , province of, 73. Assembly. See National Assembly and Legislative Assembly. Assyria, 10, 137. Assyrians, 4. Asturias, 209. Athenian supremacy, 24-35. Athens, 10, 11-36, 41-47, 57, 58, 70, 79- 81. Attila the Hun, 167, 168, 182, 183, 298. Augsburg, Confession of, 342, 344. Augustan Age, 108-110, 119-128, 177. Augustine, St., 192. Augustines, the order founded, 282. Augustus Cffisar, 87, 98, 99, 105, 106, 108, 109, 119-121. See also, under Augustan Age. Aurelian, 145, 146, 147, 152. Austerlitz, battle of, 426. Austria, 315. united with Spain under Charles v., 341. , increase of power in Italy and Hungary, 375. , power somewhat diminished, 399. , the Seven Years' War, 403, 404. , partition of Poland, 411, 412. united with Hungary, 425. Avars, 191. Avignon, seat of the Popes, 306. BABER, Mogul Empire of, 372. Bacon, Francis, 357, 368. Bacon, Boger, 312. Baconian philosophv, 397. Bagdad, Caliphate of, 209, 215-218,281 Baiazet, 321. Balance of power, 352. Balboa discovers the Pacific, 342. Bank, the first public, 272. Bartholomew, St. See St. Barthol- Basques, 4. Belgium, new kingdoni of, 425. , insurrection of, 426. Belisarius, 193-195. Benedict, St., 197. Benedictines, order of, 197. Beneventum, battle of, 58. Bible, Septnagint version, 68. , WyclifEe's translation, 306. , the Vulgate, 316. , Tyndale's New Testament, 342. Black death, 308, 309. Blenheim, battle of, 402. Bliicher, 430. Bohemia, 237, 251. Boileau, 389. Bonaparte. See Napoleon. Bossuet, 389. Boston Tea'Party, 407. Brazil, 342, 426. Bremen, 287. Brennus (fl. 390 B. c), invasion of, 64. Brennus (fl. 280 B. c), invasion of, 68. Britain invaded by Claudius, 118. — , Boman conquest of, 117, 128. — , wall of Hadrian, 138. , the Saxons begin to attack, 155. evacuated by the Romans, 167. , settlement of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, 167, 181, 182, 191. , beginning of conversion to Chris- tianity, 192. , Saxon Heptarchy, 201. , petty kingdoms, 209. See also England. Bruges, 364. Brutus, 98. Bulgaria, 261. Bunker Hill, battle of, 400. Bunyan, 397. Buonaparte. ' See Napoleon. Burgundians, 167. Burgundy, 221, 237. united to Germany, 251. , duchy annexed to France, 315. , county of, under Charles V., 351. Byzantine Empire, 191, 207. See Eastern Empire. Byzantium, seat of empire, 138, 155, 160-162. See Constantinople. pABOT, John, 331. ^ Csesar, Augustus. See Augustus. Casaar, Julius, 91-98, 177. — J- subdues the whole of Gaul, 92. crosses the Rubii'on, 93. invades Italy, 93. , ruler of the Eoman world, 93-98. INDEX. 445 Ciesar, Julius, assassination of, 94, 95. Csesar, Octavius. See Augustus. Calais, 315, 317. Calendar, rei^ulation of, 88, 342. California, 426. Caliphate of Bagdad. See Bagdad, Caliphate of. Caliphate of Cordova. See Coudova, Caliphate of. Cambvses, 10. Caiini, battle of, 63-65. Cape of Good Hope, 329, 343, 344. Cappadocia, 118. Carlovingian dynasty, 218. Carolina. See North Carolina and South Gakolixa. Carthage founded, 10. , possessions and power, 57, 60. , naval victor^' of the "Romans (Duilius), 58. gives up possessions out of Africa to Rome, 57. , degradation of, 67, G8. , destruction of, 76-79. , territory of, becomes Roman province of Africa, 76-79. taken by the Saracens, 201. Cassius, 98. Castile, 251, 271, 281. , union with Arngon, 315, 334. Catherine de' Medici. See Medici, Catheeine de'. Catiline's conspiracy, 88. Caucasian race, 3, i. Caudium (Caudine Forks), 42. Cavaliers, 379. Caxton, 316. Celts, 4. Censor, office of, 12. Central America, under Spanish rule, 351. , republics of, 425. Chseronea, battle of, 45. Chaldiea, 10. Chaldaeans, 4. Chalons, battle of, 182, 183. Charlemagne, his conquests and em- pire, 209, 221, 223-2.30. , coronation of, 223. , Emperor of the West, 223-229. , dismemberment of his empire, 221, 229, 230. Charles I., England, 379. Charles V., Age of. 350-353. , Empire of, 341, 350-353. Charles Martel, 213, 214. Chazars, 191. China, character of civilization, 4-6. Chivalry, 273-278. Christ, the birth of, 110, 114. , crucifixion of, 118. , earlv references to the name of, 129. ■ Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire, 162, 163. Christians, persecution of the, 128-131, 138, 143, 146, 147, 157-169. Cimou, 12, Cincinnatus, 12, Cisalpine Gaul, 57, 73. Claudius, 118, 128, Cleopatra, 99, 100, 105. Clermont, Council of, 252, 263, 264, Clive, 422, Clovis, 167, 191. Code, the, 193, 194. Columbus, 331-334. , epitaph on, 336. Commerce, extension of, 343, 344. Commonwealth in England, 379-387. Compass, invention of the, 328. Confederation of tho Rhine, 429. Confession of Augsburg. See Augs- burg, Confession of. Congress of Vienna. See TiBNifA, Congress of. Connecticut settled, 396. Constance, Council of, 316. , Peace of, 272. Constantme the Great, 160-163. unites the Roman Empire, 155. divides the empire into prefec- tures, 156. makes Constantinople the seat of empire, 160-162, 195. , the first Christian emperor, 162. makes Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire, 162, 163. Constantinople, the seat of empire, 160- 162, 195. besieged hy the Saracens, 204, 214. taken by the Crusaders, 282. recovered by the Greeks, 282. taken by the Ottoman Turks, 315, 320-322. Constitution of Solon. See Solon. Constitution of the United States. See United States. Copernican system, 369. Cordova, Caliphate of, 209, 215-218, 239-241. , end of the Caliphate, 251. Corinth, destruction ot; 79, 81, 82. Coriolanus, 12. Corneille, 389. Corn Laws, repeal of, 426. Cornwallis, 410. I Coronea, battles of, 12, 42. 446 INDEX. Corsica, 57, 191. Cortez, 344. Cotton-gin, 400. Council of Clermont. See Clekmont, CODNCIL OF. Council of Constance. See Con- stance, Council of. Counci\ of Nice. See Nice, Council OF. Council of Trent. See Tkent, Coun- cil OF. Crassus, 91. Cr^cy, battle of, 307. Cressy. See CeScy. Crete, 221. Crimean War, 426. Cromwell, 379-387. , his foreign policy, 385. Crusade against the Albigenses, 289. Crusades, the, 260-269. , the first, 261. , the second, 272. , the third, 272. , the last, 282. , end and results of the, 291-294. , Crusaders take Jerusalem, 251. take Constantinople, 281, 282. Cunaxa, battle of, 12. Cynocephale, battle of, 74. Cyrus the Great, 10. Cyrus the Younger, 34, 37. DACIA, 137, 145. Danes invade England, 221, 231, 232, 249. conquer England, 251. Darius, 13. Darius Codomannus, 49. Dark Ages, 184r-189. David, 10. Decemvirs, the, 12. Decius, persecution by, 147. Declaration of Independence, 408, 409. Delaware settled, 396. Delos, Confederacy of, 12. Demetrius Phalereus, 42. Demetrius Poliorcetes, 58. Demosthenes, 44r46. Denmark, 221. , a powerful kingdom, 237. , height of power, 251, 271. , union with Norway and Sweden, 306, 341. an inferior state, 399. , loss of territory, 425. Descartes, 397. De Soto, 342. Diaz, Bartholomew, 329. Diet of Spire. See Spike, Diet of. Diocletian divides the Kouian Empire, 145, 148. resigns the empire, 156. , persecution by, J58, 159. Directory, the, 418, 419. Dominicans, order founded, 282. Dorian migration, 10. Drake, Francis, 355, 360. Dresden, battle of, 426. Dryden, 397. Duilius, 58. Duns Scotus, 295. Dutch, commerce of, 344. , rise of tlie republic, 364-367. , independence of the republic, 366. , use of the name Dutch, 366. , growth in power and prosperity, 366. settlements in America, 375. EASTERN CHURCH, separation of, 252. Eastern civilization, stationary charac- ter of, 4-7. Eastern Empire, establishment of, 155, 163. invaded by the Huns under At- tila, 168. at its height, 191. in the time of J ustinian, 193-195. , loss and recovery of territory, 201. , decline of the empire, 207, 209, 221. , extension of power, 237. loses possessions in Asia, 251. recovers territory in Europe, 271. taken by the Crusaders, 281. , encroachments of the Turks, 305. , end of, 315, 320-322. Eastern Franks, 221, 237. See under Franks. Eastern prefecture, 156. East Goths. See Ostrogoths. East India Company, 422. Edict of Nantes. See Nantes, Edict op. Edward IH., 307. Egbert, 221, 231, 232. Egypt, 10. , independence of, 11. subject to Persia, 41. , part of Alexander's Empire, 41. under the Ptolemies, 41, 57, 73. invades Svria. 57. , Cleopatra, 99, 100. , a Roman province, 87. INDEX. 447 Egypt oveirnn by Persia, 201. taken from the Eastern Empire by the Saracens, 201. , Fatimites in, 238. , Saladin, 278. annexed to Turkish or Ottoman Empire, 341. Egyptians, 4. ElectricitT, 441. Elizabeth, Age of, 355-363. Emancipation Proclamation, 426. End of the world, belief about the, 246-248. England, the beginning of, 167, 181, 182, 231, 232. , petty kingdoms united, 221. inva"ded by Danes, 221, 232, 237, 248, 249. won by the Danes, 251. conquered by Normans, 253-256. , under Norman rulers, 271. , possessions in France, 271. conquers Ireland, 271. , loss of territory on the Continent, 281, 305, 315. , beginning of Parliament, 282. , Hundred Years' War, 307, 308, 317-320. , Wars of the Roses, 326, 327. , Age of Elizabeth, 355-363. , the Armada. 360-362. , James I., 378. , union with Scotland, 378, 379. , Charles I., 379. , Stuart djTiasty begins, 378. , Cromwell, 379-387. , Cromwell's foreign policy, 385. , the Commonwealth, 379-^87. , attempts at colonization in Amer- ica, 341. , increasing importance, 375. —— , settlements in America and in India, 375, 396. , Long Parliament. 376. , James If., 388. , William III. and Mary, 388. , Revolution of 1688, 388. , War of the Spanish Succession, 401, 402. , Seven Tears' War, 403, 404. , power in India extended, 422. , independence of the United States, 405^11. , war with the United States (1812), 426. in the front rank of European states, 425. , extension of colonial empire, 425. Epaminondas, 43. Epirus, 57. Eug:ene, Prince, 402. Euripides, 21. Eurymedon, battle of the, 12. Exarchate of Havenna, See Ravenna, EXAKCHATE OF. Exodus of the Israelites, 10. FATIMITES, 237. in Africa and in Egypt, 238. in Africa, 251. dynasty deposed, 278. Faust,'Johann', 325, 326. F^nelon, 397. Ferdinand the Catholic, 334, 336. Feudalism, 241-2J6, 269. , downfall of, 307. Finnish Mag^'ars, 221. Fins, 4. Florence an important Commonweulth, 281, 298-303. , height of splendor, 315. Florida, 420. visited by Ponce de Leon, 342. settled by the Spaniards, 342. France, kingdom begins, 237. , increase of territory, 251. hemmed in by Normandy and Aquitaine, 271. , increase of power and dominion, 281, 305. conquers greater part of Aqui- taine, 308. annexes the Duchy of Burgundy and Provence, 315. , Hundred Years' War, 307, 308, 317-320. begins to establish colonies in America, 341. , religious wars, 367, 368. , Age of Louis XIV., 389-394, 401, 402. , War of the Spanish Succession, 401, 402. , Seven Years' War, 403, 404. , territory in America, 375, 396. , united provinces, a dependency of, 399. , large accessions of territory, 399. , wars with various coalitions, 418, 419. , the French Revolution, 413-420. , chief power in Europe, 428, 429. , Napoleon, 418-420, 427-436. , Napoleonic wars, 427-435. , battle of Waterloo, 430-432. , Revolution of July, 426. , invasion of Russia, 426. 448 INDEX. France, the second republic, 426. , the Franco-Prussian War, 426. declares war against Mexico, 426. surrenders provinces to Prussia, 425. , a republic, 426. Franciscans, the order founded, 282. Franco-Prussian War, 426. Franks attack the Roman borders, 145. , in Northern Gaul, 167. , kingdom of, 191, 201. , increase of territory, 2[)9. overcome the Lombards, 209. , battle of Tours, 2ia, 214. ,^astern, 221,2-37. — , Western, 221, 237. Frederick II., 281. Frederick William, 376. Frederick the Great, 402-405. French and Indian War, 400. French Republic. See Fkance. French Revolution, 413-420. French Revolution of July. See Revo- lution OF July. Fronde, War of the, 376. GALILEO, 397. Gallic prefecture, 156. Gama, Vasco da, 315. Garibaldi, 426. Gaul, Cisalpine, 57, 73. , Transalpine, 73, 82. subdued by Csesar, 87, 92. , Northern, Franks come into pow- er, 167. , Southeastern, Burgundian king- dom in, 167. - — , Southern, Visigothic kingdom in, 167. Gauls, invasion of, under Brennus (390 B. c), 54. , Brennus (280 B. c.) invades Greece, 58. Gaza, 49. Genghis Khan, 281, 283-285. Genoa, 298. Genseric, sack of Rome by Vandals under, 168. German Empire. See Germany. Germany, 221. , greatest power in Europe, 237. adds Upper Italy and Lotharin- gia, 237. (Holj' Roman Empire), leading power, 251. , Burgundy united to, 2.')1. , decline of power of the German Empire, 271. Germany, Sicily united to the German Empire, 271. , decline of, 281. , loss and gain of territory, 305. , increasing weakness of the em- pire, 315. , House of Austria one of the chief powers of Europe, 341. , Thirty Years' War, 377, 378. , the empire more a dignity than a power, 399. , War of the Spanish Succession, 401, 402. , end of the old German Empire, 425. , with Prussia, the first military power in Europe, 425. , the Seven Years' War, 403, 404. , the new German Empire, 426, 440. Gettysburg, battle of, 426. Ghibellines, 289. Gibraltar, 400. Giovanni de' Medici. See Medici, Giovanni de'. "Glorious Revolution" of 1688. See Revolution of 1688. Good Emperors, 139, 143. Good Hope. See Cape of Good Hope. Gothic architecture, 290. Goths attack the Roman borders, 145. , Dacia surrendered to, 145. settle within the Roman domin- ion, 155- defeat Valens, 156. , under Totila, take Rome, 192. See also Visigoths and Ostkogoths. Gracchi, the, 83, 84. Granada, 281, 282, 334, 336. Granicus, battle of, 48. Great fire in London, 376. Great Plague in Europe. See Plague, THE Great. Great Plague in London. See Plague, THE Great. Greece, 6, 7, 11-82. , written history, 6. , extent compared with Persia, 11, 15. , the Persian War, 13-23. , Marathon, 14-17. , Thermopvlse, 17-20. , Salamis, 20, 21. , Age of Pericles, 24-32. , Greek genius and character of civilization, 24-29. , literature and art, 24, 29-31, 35, 36. , education, life, manners, 25-28. INDEX. 449 Greece, oratorv, dramatic poetry, phi- losophv, 31,' 35, 36, 45-47, 79. , iutellectual state of, 35, 36, 46, 47. , the Peloponnesian War, 32-35. , Sicilian expedition (Syracuse), 33, 34. , Retreat of tiie Ten Tliousand, 37. , supr.emacy of Sparta, 37. , general wealiness of, 43. , rise of Macedonia, 43-46. , practically a province of Mace- donia, 45. , a part of Alexander's empire, 41. , independence against Macedonia, 57. , ravaged by the Gauls, 58. , distracted state of affairs, 09. , Achaean league, 69, 70. , Greek civilization at Alexandria, 70, 71. , nominal independence of, 73. conquered by Rome, 73. , a Roman province, 79-82. , revolt of, 426. — — , independence of, 425, 426. Greek Empire, 195, 207. , the Greeks recover Constantino- ple, 282. See Eastern Emfike. Greek fire, 215. Gregory VII., 256-258. Guanabani, 331. Guelfs, 289. Gunpowder, 312. Gutenberg, Johann, 325, 326. HADRIAN, 137, 138. Hamburg, 287. Hamilcar, 61. Hamitic, 4. Hannibal, 62, 63, 65-68. crosses the Alps, 62. 63, 67. Hanseatic League, 287, 288. Harold, 253. Haroun-al-Raschid, 215-218. Harvey, 397. Hasdrubal, 58. Hastings, battle of, 253, 254. Hebrews, 4. Hegira, the, 202. Helvetic republic, 399. Henry IV., 258. Heptarchy, the Saxon, 201. Hildebrand, 257, 258. Hindoos, 4. Hindostan, English establishment, 376. Holland, use of the name, 366. See Netheklands. Holy Alliance of European sovereigns. Holy Roman Empire, 239, 261, 256. See also under Gekmamy. Homeric poems, 6. Horace, 108. Hudson River discovered, 376. Huguenots, 368. Hundred Years' War, 307, 308, 317- 320. Hungarians, 221, 237. Hungary, 251. , large part conquered by the Turk- ish or Ottoman Empire, 341. united with Austria, 425. Huns begin to invade Europe, 155. — — , decline of their power, 167. , invasion under Attila, 167, 182, 183. iuvade the Eastern Empire, 168. invade Italy, 168. , influence o"£, 173. H^'ksos, 10. TCONIDM. See Roum. J- Iliad, 6. Illinois, 426. Illyrian prefecture, 156. Independence, Declaration of. See Declaration of Independence. India, 5, 6, 10, 123. invaded by the Saracens, 201. reached by Vasco da Gama, 329. , Mogul Empire of Baber, 372. , English settlements and domin- ion, 375. , English power tirmlv established, 422. Indian Mutiny, 426. Indiana, 426. Indo-European, 3, 4. Innocent III., 259, 289, 336. Inquisition, the, 2d0, 336, 337, 354, 365. Institutes, the, 193, 194. Invincible Armada. See Armada, THE. Ionian revolt, 13. Iowa, 426. Ipsus, battle of, 42. Ireland, 117, 271. Isabella of Castile, 334. Israel, 10. See Jews and Judjsa. Israelites, 10. Issus, battle of, 49. Italian cities. See under Italy. Italian prefecture, 156. Italian republics. See under Italy. Italy, Rome mistress of, 57. 28 450 INDEX. Italy invaded by Hannibal, 62-65. -, the Visigoths overrun, 167. cuuquered in the time of Justin- ian, 191. under the Ostrogoths, 191. , Lombard kingdom in, 191. recovered by Belisarius and Nar- ses, 192. , greater part joined to Charle- magne's Empire, 209, 221. , southern part subject to the East- ern Empire, 191, 237. , northern part united with the GeiTnan Empire, 237. , Normans in, 252, 259, 260. , end of Norman dynastv, 271. , Italian republics, 271 ,'281, 298- 303, 305, 315. , various principalities and com- monweahhs under the influence of Austria and of Spain, 341. in a low condition, 375. , territory divided among foreign princes, 399. , uprising in, 426. united into one kingdom, 425, 426, 440. JAMES I., of England, 378. James II., 388. James VI., of Scotland, 378. Jamestown settled, 395. Janus, Teinple of, closed, 109, 120. JefSerson, Thomas, 408. Jena, battle of, 426. Jenner, 400. Jerusalem, return of the Jews, 10. plundered, 74. , destruction of, 117, 132-135. taken by the Saracens, 202. taken by the Seljuk Turks, 251. taken by the Crusaders, 251. , Latin kintjdom of, 251. taken by Saladin, 278. , end of the Christian kingdom, 281. Jesuits, order of, 369, 370. Jews carried into captivity at Baby- lon, 10. return to Jerusalem, 10. , the Maccabees, 85. , dispersion of, 132-135. , revolts of, 143. , expulsion from Spain, 335, 336. Joan of Arc, 317-320. John, King of England, 285. Jonson, Ben, 397. Judsea, independence of, 73. , the Maccabees, 85. Judsca subject to Rome, 87. , the birth of Christ, 110-114. a Roman province, 132. revolts from Rome, 132. , destruction of Jerusalem, 132-3 35. Judas Maccabseus, 73. , Jugurtha, war against, 74. Julius Csesar. See Cesak, Julius. Julius IL, 371. Justinian, conquests of, 191. , Age of, 193-195. Jutes settle in Britain, 167, 168, 181, 182. continue their migrations to Brit- ain, 191. KANSAS, 426. Kentucky, 400. Kepler, 397. Koolee Khan. See Nadik Shah. Koran, the, 203, 205, 206. T A FONTAINE, 397. -*— J Lamian War, 42. Lancaster, Wars of York and, 326, 327. Laps, 4. Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, 251. Latin war, 59. League, the Achaean. See Ach^an League. League, tlie ./Etolian. See .Stolian League. League of Smalcald. See Smalcald, League of. League and Covenant signed by the Scots, 376. Learning, revival of. See Eevivai. OF Learning. Lee, surrender of, 426. Legislative Assembly, 413. Legnano, battle of, 272. Leibnitz, 397. Leipsic, battle of, 430. Leo, the Isaurian, 214. Leo X., Age of, 370-372. Leon, 237, 251, 271, 281. Leonidas, 17-19. Lepidus, 98, 99. Leuctra, battle of, 43. Lexington, battle of, 408. Licinian laws, 42, 84. Literature, preservation of ancient, 197, 198. Livy, 108. Lombard cities, independence of, 272. See Lombard League and Lom- bards. Lombard League, 287. See Lombards. INDEX. 451 Lombards, in Italy, 191, 195, 201, 209. Lombaidy, 191. "See Lumbakds. Long Parliament, 370. Lorenzo de' Medici. See Medici, Lo- REKZO IJE'. Lotharinsia, 221. Louis XiV., Age of, 389-394, 401, 402. Louis XVI., 414. Louisiana, 376, 426. Low Countries. See Netherlands. Loyola, Ignatius, 369. Lubec, 287. Luther, Martin, 344-348. Lutzen, battle of, 376, 426. Lysander, 12, 42. Lyslmachus, 41, 57, 58. TV/TACCABiEUS, Judas, 85. -L'J- Maccabees, the, 85. Macedsnia, situation of, 41. , rise of, 43-46. , supremacy of, 44. (with Greece), a division of Alex- ander's Empire, 41. conquered by Rome, 73. Madman of the North. See Chablbs XII. Magellan, voyage of, 344. Magenta, battle of, 426. Magna Charts, 285. Magyars, Finrjish, 221, 237. Mahomet, 203-206. , beginning of his mission, 202. , flight from Mecca, 202. Maid of Orleans. See Joan of Arc. Maine, 396, 426. Malplaquet, battle of, 402. Hantinea, battles of, 12, 43. Marathon, battle of, 14-17. Mardonius, 12. Marengo, battle of, 428. Maritime adventure, 328-334, 343, 344. Marius, Caius, 84. Marius and Sulla, civil wars of, 89, 90. Marlborough, Duke of, 402. Martyrs. See Pehsecution of the Chkistians. Mary. See William III. and Mart. Maryland settled, 396. Massachusetts settled, 395. Massacre of St. Bartholomew. See St. Bartholomew, Massacre of. Maximian, 145. Mayors of the Palace, 218. MeSes, 10. See Persia. Medici, the, 298. , Florence under, 315. , Catherine de', 368. Medici, Giovanni do', 370. , Lorenzo de', 370. Melanchthon, 344. Merovingian dynasty, 218. Me.sopotamia, 137. Metaurus, battle of, 58. Mexicans, 4. Mexico, discovery and conquest, 342. under Spanish control, 344, 351. , France declares war against, 426. , war with United States, 426. , independence of, 425, 426. Michael Angelo, 370, 371. Michigan, 426. Middle Ages, 184-189. Migrations of the Northern nations of Europe. See Teutonic tribes. Milan, 300, 341. Miltiades, 14, 17. Milton, 397. Minnesota, 426. Mississippi, 420. Mississippi River explored, 342. Missoun, 426. Missouri Compromise, 426. Mithridates the Great, 89. Mithridatic War, 89. Moguls oveiTun Europe and Asia, 281. take Bagdad, 281. seize Roum, 281. in Russia, 281, 315. , Empire of GenghisKhan,283-285. , end of Mogul Empire, 305. , end of Tamerlane's (Timour the Tartar's) Empire, 315. , Empire of Baber in India, 372. Mohammed. See Mahomet. Molifere, 389, 397. Monacbism, rise of, 197-199. Monastic system, rise of the, 197-199. Mongols, 4. See Moguls. Monk.s, 197-199. Montfort, Simon de, 289. Montreal founded, 395. Moors in Spain, 271. driven from Spain, 334, 335. See Saracens. Morgarten, battle of, 311. Morisco Spaniards, 334, 335. Munda, battle of, 88. Mycale, battle of, 21. Myths, 3. "NTADIR SHAH, Empire of, 402. -L^ Nantes, Edict of, 342, 376. Naples, under Charles V., 351. Napoleon Bonaparte, 418-420, 427-436. Napoleonic wars, 427-435. 452 INDEX. Napoleon III., 426. Narses, 192, 194. Naseby, battle of, 380. National Assembly, 414. National Convention, 413. Nations, Battle of the. See Leipsic, EATTI.E OF. Navarino, 426. Navarre, 237, 271, 281. Nazareth, 291. Nebraska, 426. Neo-Platonists, 153. Nero, 129-131. Nerva, 141. Netherlands, under the yoke of Spain, 341. , under Charles V.', 351. , use of the name, 366. , rise of the, 364. , revolt of, 364-367. See also United Peovikces. Nevada, 426. New England colonies, confederacy of, 376. New Hampshire settled, 396. New Jersey settled, 396. New Mexico, 426. Newton, Sir Isaac, 397. New York settled, 395. NicEea. See Nice. Nice, Council of, 162. Nicias, Peace of, 12. Nile, battle of the, 400. Nineveh, 10. Normandy, 237, 248, 251, 253, 271, 282. Normans, 251. , conquest of England, 253-256. in Italy and Sicily, 251, 252, 259, 260, 272. , end of dynasty in Italy and Sicily, 271. See NOEMANDT. Norsemen, 221, 253, 254. , ravaging expeditions of, 231. , invasions of, 237. See also Northmen. North America. See America. North Carolina settled, 396. Northern tribes. See Teutokic TEIEES. Northmen, the, marauding expeditions, 209, 221, 248, 253, 254. , ravaging expeditions of, 231. , invade England, 248. See also Norsemen. Norway, 221, 341. , a powerful kingdom, 237. , height of power, 251. Norway, union with Sweden and Den- mark, 305, 306. , an inferior state, 399. Nova Scotia settled, 395. OCTAVIUS CjESAR. See Augus- tus. Odenatus, 152. Odoacer, 167. Odyssey, the, 6. Ohio, 426. Olympiad, the first, 7. Omar, 202, 215. Ommiad Caliphate of Cordova. See Cordova, Caliphate of. Ommiads, house of, 202, 252. See CoEDOVA, Caliphate of. Ommiyades. See Ommiads. Orange, Prince of. See William of Orange. Oregon, 426. Oriental society, stationary character of, 4-7. Orleans, battle of, 317-320. Orleans, Maid of. See Joan of Arc. Ostrogoths, 167, 191. Othman, 320. Otho the Great, 239. Ottoman Turks, rise of the, 282, 320, 321. , empire lamely extended, 341. press into Europe, 305. encroach upon the Eastern Em- pire, 305. acquire the gi'eater part of Asia Minor, 305. take Constantinople, 320-322. Oudenarde, battle of, 402. Ovid, 108. PACIFIC OCEAN discovered, 342. Palestine a Roman dependency, 87. taken by Crusaders, 261. taken by Saladin, 278. finally Tost by Crusaders, 291. Palmyra, 145, 152. Pandects, the, 193, 194. Papal power, foundation of, 218. , growth of, 256-259. , height of, 259. Paris, treaty of, 400. Parliament, the English, 282, 379. , the Long, 376. Parthenon, the, 31. Parthia revolts from the kingdom of the Seleucidoe, 57. , a great power, 87, 114-117, 137. INDEX. 453 Parthia has contests with Trajan, 137. , Parthian dynasty ended, 152. Pascal, 397. Patricians, 12, 39, 54, 55, 83, 84. Peace of Amiens. See Amiens, Peace OF. Peace of Constance. See Constance, Peace of. Peace of Radstadt. See Eadstadt, Peace of. Peace of Westphalia. See Westpha- lia, Peace op. Pelopidas, 43. Peloponnesian War, 32-35. , literature, oratory, and philoso- phy during the, 36. Pennsvlvania settled, 396. Pepin," 218. Pergamus, 73, 74. Pericles, Age of, 24-32. Pericles, 45. Peripatetic school, 46. Persecution of the Christians, 128-131, 143, 147, 167-159. under Diocletian, 158, 159. Persia, 6. , monarchy founded, 10. , chief power of the world, 11. - — -, extent of, compared with Greece, 11, 15. , loss of Egypt, 11. , Persian war, 13-23. , Egypt subject to, 41. conquered by Alexander, 48, 49. , war with Sparta, 42. , dynasty of the Sassanidse, 145, 152, 153. , a powerful state, 155. , contests with the Eastern Em- pire, 167. , a threatening rival to the Eastern Empire, 191. overruns Egypt, Syria, Asia, 201. conquered by the Saracens, 204. conquered by Seljuk Turks, 252. , a new dynasty begins, 341. , Empire of Nadir Shah, 402. Persians, 4. Persian War, 13-23. Peru, conquest begun, 342. Peruvians, 4. Petersburg, (japture of, 426. Peter the Great, 420, 421. Peter the Hermit, 261-264. Pharsalia, battle of, 93, 94. Phidias, 29. Philip of Macedon, 44-46, 48, 50. Philip If. of Spain, 357, 360. , Empire of, 354, 355. Philip II., revolt of the Netherlands, 364-367. , ruin of, 361. Philip TI., 307. Philip of Anjou, 401. Philippi, battle of, 98. Philopcemen, 58. Phocian War, 42. Phoenicia, 10. Phoenicians, 4. Picts, 181, 221. Pinzon, Vincent, 342. Pisa, 298. Pizarro, 342. Plague at Athens, 12. , the Great, 306. in London, 376. Platasa, 14. , battle of, 21. Plato, 36, 46, 47. Platonists, Neo-. See Neo-Platonists. Plebeians, 12, 39, 54, 55, 83, 84. Ph-mouth settled, 395. Poitiers, battle of, 307. Poland, 237, 251. , an important power, 315, 341. declining, 375. , the Seven Years' War, 403, 404. , partition of, 411, 412. Polish insurrection, 426. Pompey (the Great), 91-93. Ponce de Leon, 342. Pontus, 89. Pope, a temporal prince. See Papal powek. Popes, power of the. See Papal POWER. Portugal, 271, 281. , maritime discoveries of the Portu- guese, 329, 330. , commerce of the Portuguese, 343, 344. -, voyage of Magellan, 344. added to SpaiUj 354. freed from Spam, 375. of little importance, 376, 399. Portuguese. See Poktugal. Prefectures, 156. Printing, invention o£ 325, 326. introduced into England, 316. Proscriptions of Marius and Sulla, 88,89. Protestant Reformation. See Bef- OKMATION, THE. Provence, 315. Prussia, 251. rises into prominence (Frederick William), 375. ■ , War of the Spanish Succession, 401, 402. I 454 INDEX. Prussia, importance of, under Frederick the Great, 402-405. , the Seven Yea.s' War, 403, 404. , partition of Poland, 411, 412. takes provinces from France, 425. , leading state of Germany, 425, 440. , the Franco-Prussian War, 426. Ptolemies, dynasty of the, 58, 88. See Egypt. Ptolemy, dominion of, 41. Ptolemy Philadelphus, 58. Publilian law, 12. Pultowa, battle of, 422. Punic Wars, 59-69, 76-79; First Punic War, 61 ; Second Punic War, 61-69; Third Punic War, 76-79. Puritans, 379, 380, 381. settle Massachusetts, 395. Pydna, battle of, 74. Pyramids built, 10. Pyrrhus, 57-59. QUEBEC, 395, 400. Queen of the East. See Zbnobia. RACINE, 389. Eadstadt, Peace of, 402. Raleigh, Sir Walter, 356. Eamillies, battle of, 402. Raphael, 370, 372. Eavenna, Exarchate of, 191, 209. Eebellion in the United State.i, 426. Eeformation, the, 344-350, 358. Reform Bill, 426. Eeign of Terror, 414. Beligious wars in France, 367, 368. Renaissance, the, 322-324. Republic in France, the second, 426. Revolt of the Netherlands. See Neth- erlands, REVOLT OK. Revolution, the French. See French Eevolution. Eevolution of July, 426. Eevolution of 1688, 388. Eevolution, War of the (United States), 408-411. Retreat of the Ten Thousand. See Ten Thousand, Eetreat of the. Eevival of Learning, 822-324. Ehine, Confederation of the. See Con- federation OP the Rhine. Rhode Island settled, 396. Richmond, capture of, 426. Roderick, 211. Rollo, 248. Roman Empire. See Rome. Roman Empire, Holy. See Holt Ro- man Empire and Germany. Rome founded, 10. , expulsion of the kings, 10. , beginning of the republic, 10. in the infancy of her power, 11, 23, 38. , beginning of career of conquest, 41, 53. taken and destroyed by the Gauls, 54. , mistress of Italy, 57-59. , beginning of foreign conquests. 57. 'adds Sicily, Sardinia, and Cor- sica, 57. takes Carthaginian possessions, 57. , conc[uest of Cisalpine Gaul, 57, 73. begins to interfere with Mace- donia and Greece, 67. , naval victory of Duilius, 58. conquers Macedonia, 73. conquers Greece, 73. ,Greece a Roman province(Achaia), 79-82. destroys Carthage, 77. , province of Africa, 77. , province of Asia, 73. begins conquest of Transalpine Gaul, 73, 82. begins to interfere with Asia, 73, 82. • , nearlv all of Spain a Roman prov- ince, 73, 82. , the one gi-eat power of the world, 82, 83. , the Gracchi, 83, 84. , defeat of the Teutones bv Marius, 84. ^ , great dominion and power of, 87. ; Mithridatic War, 89. , mistress of Asia Minor, 87. 1 humbles Armenia, 87. , Syria a Roman province, 87. , Palestine (with Judsea) a Roman dependency, 87. - — ■, power extends to the Euphrates, 87. , mistress of all the lands round the MediteiTanean, 87. , civil wars of Marius and Sulla, 89, 90. , internal strife, 89-91. , Pompey the Great, 91-93. , the First Triumvirate, 91, 92. , Crassus, 91. , Julius Cjesar, 91, 98. , conquest of Gaul, 92. , Csesar invades Italy, 93. INDEX. 455 Kome, CjBsar ruler of the Roman world, 93—98 , battle of Pharsalia, 93, 94. , assassination of Cassar, 94, 95. , end of the republic, 98. , Octavius Ca;sar, 98, 99. , Lepidus, 98, 99. , the Second Triumvirate, 98, 99. , battle of Philippi, 98. , Brutus and Cassius, 98. , Antony and Cleopatra, 98-100. , battle of Actium, 99, 100. , Egypt a Roman province, 87. , centre of arts and sciences, 101. , mistress of the world, 100-108. , corrupted state of society, 104, 105, 124-128, 169-171. , Octavius Cassar (Augustus) mas- ter of the Roman world, 105. , beginning of the empire, 105-108, 119-128. , minor additions to, 87. , beginning of decline of the em- pire, 107. , the Augustan Age, 108-110, 119- 128. , literature of the Augustan Age, 108. embraces the most important part of the then known world, 117. , Judeea a Roman province, 132. , conquest of Britain, 117, 128. , revolt of Judtea, 132. , destruction of Jerusalem, 132-135. , persecution of the Christians, 128- 131, 143, 147, 157-159. , Nero, 129, 130, 131. , the great power of the world, 137, 145. , Dacia added to the empire, 137. , Trajan has contests with the Par- thians, 137. , Armenia, Mesopotamia, and As- syria added and surrendered, 137. , Roman boundary at its greatest extent, 137. , Age of the Antonines, 139-143. , height of architectural splendor, 143. , the one great power of the world, 145. , the borders attacked by Northern tribes, 145. , Dacia surrendered to the Goths, 145. , the empire divided by Diocletian, 145. , no longer the head of the em- pire, 145. Rome, Zenobia overthrown by Aurelian (Palmyra), 152. , Constantine the Great, the Em- pire united, 160-163. , Constantinople the seat of empire, 160-1G2. , empire divided into prefectures, 156. , first division into the Eastern and Western Empires, 155. , dominion reunited under Theodo- sius I., 155. , final division into the Eastern and Western Empires, 163. , beginning of migrations of the Northern nations, 164. , the Goths cross the Danube, 155. , Christianity the religion of the empire, 162, 163. , migrations of the Nortliern na- tions, 167, 171-173, 180-182. sacked bj' Vandals under Gen- seric, 168. , fall of, 155, 169-180. , end of the Western Empire, 173- 180. , degraded intellectual condition, 164, 105. , Romans evacuate Britain, 167. sacked by Visigoths (Alaric), 167. , Visigothio and Ostrogothic mi- gi'ations and settlements, 180, 181. taken by the Goths under Totila, 192. , Roman laws, 193, 194. , period of lowest depression, 196. — — -, Charlemagne Emperor of the West, 218, 219. See also Western Empire, East- ern Empire, and Holy Roman Empire. Roncesvalles, battle of, 219. Roses, Wars of the, 326, 327. Eoum, 251, 281. Roundheads. 379. Rovalists, 379. Rul)icon, 93. Russia begins to be of importance, 221. composed of extensive principal- ities, 237. somewhat weakened, 251. , Moguls in, 281, 305. free from the Mogul rule, 315. increasing in power and territory, 341, 375. , importance of, under Peter the Great, 420, 421. , war with Charles XII., of Swe- den, 420, 422, 423. 456 INDEX. Enssia, Seven Tears' "War, 403, 404. , partition of Poland, 411, 412. one of the greatest European pow- ers, 439, 440. , Polish insurrection against, 426. inyaded by the French, 426. SABINES, the, 58. Sacred War, 42. Sadowa, battle of, 426. St. Augustine, 192. St. Bartholomew, massacre of, 368. St. Benedict, 197. St. Helena, 435. St. Petersburg, 420. St. Sophia, 193. Saladin, 278, 279. Salamis, battle of, 20, 21. Samnites, conquest of, 58. Samnite Wars, 42. San Salvador, 331. Saracens, 203-206. , House of the Ommiyadea, 202. (Omar) take Jerusalem, 202. take Alexandria, 202. conquer Korth Africa, 209. defeat the Visigoths, 209. overrun Spain, 209. • , battle of Tours, 213, 214. , division of territory, 209. besiege Constantinople, 204, 214. , Caliphate of Bagdad, 215-218. , Caliphate of Cordova, 215-218, 239-241. , height of civilization in Spain, 239-241. , end of Caliphate of Cordova, 251. , decline of their power, 221. acquire Crete, 221. take Sardinia, 221. take part of Sicily, 221. , dominion divided, 237. , decline of their power, 237. lose Jerusalem, 251. Sardinia, 57, 221, 351. Sarmatia. See Poland. SassanidsB, dvnasty of the, 152, 153. Savoy, 341, S75. Saxons begin to attack Britain, 155. settle in Britain, 167, 181, 182, 191. Saxon Heptarchj', 201. Saxony, 403, 426. Scandinavian nations. See North- men, Norsemen, Denmabk, Nor- way, and Sweden. Scholastic philosophy, 295. School of Alexandria. See Alexan- dria, School of. Schoolmen, the, 295. Schwartz, Berthold, 312. Schwyz, Confederation of, 311. See Swiss Confederation and Switz- erland. Scipio (Africanus), 65. Scipio (the Younger), 76. Scotland, 221, 378, 379. Scots, 181, 221. Seotus, Duns, 295. Scourge of God. See Attila. Sebastopol, 426. Seleucida;, the, 57, 58, 73, 88. Seleucus, dominion of, 41. Seljuk Turks, origin of the, 262. , take from the Eastern Empire possessions in Asia, 251. talce Jerusalem, 251, 261, found Roum, 251. take Saracen power in the East, 251. , end of their power, 281. Semitic, 4. Sempach, battle of, 31] . Septuagint Version, 58. Servia, 251. Servile War, 88. Severus, Alexander, 147, 151. Shakespeare, 357, 358, 381, 397. Shepherd kings, 10. Sicilian expedition, 33, 34. Sicilian Vespers, 282. Sicilies, under the yoke of Spain, 341. See SiciLT. Sicily, Athenian expedition against, 33, 34. , Carthaginian possessions in, 57. added to Rome, 57. , part taken by Saracens, 221. , Normans in, 251, 252, 259, 260. , end of Norman dynasty, 271. united to the German Empire, 271. under Charles V., 351. Silesia, 403. Silesian War, 400. Simon de Montfort, 289. Simonides, 21. Slaves, 4, 191. encroach upon the Eastern Em- pire, 221. Smalcald, League of, 342. Social War, 88. Socrates, 31, 32, 46. Solferino, battle of, 426. Solomon, 10. Solon, 46. , legislation of, 7. INDEX 457 Solon, Constitntion of, 10. Sophia, St., 193. Sophists, 31, 32. Sophocles, 21, 36. Soto, Ferdinand de. See De Soto, Feedinand. South America. See Amebica. South Carolina, 396, 426. Spain, Carthaginian possessions in, 57, 61. , greater part becomes a Roman pi'ovince, 73, 82. , Visigoths in, 167, 201, 211. , Vandal settlement in, 167. conquered bv Saracens, 209. , kingdom of Navarre founded, 237. , kingdom of Leon founded, 237. , Caliphate of Cordova, 239-241, 251. invaded by Almoravides, 251. , end of the Ommiads, 252. -, various states in, 271. , increase of dominion, 281. consolidating into a great power, 305. , anion of Castile and Aragon (Ferdinand and Isabella), 315, 334- 336. , conquest of Granada, 315, 334, 335. , expulsion of the Jews, 335, 336. .beginning of dominion in America, 336. , chief power of Europe (Charles v.), 341, 350-353. , vast dominions in the New World, 351. , decline of power in America, 375. , conquests in South America, 394. , discovery and conquest of Mex- ico, 342. , Portugal added, 341, 354. , decline of power, 354. under Philip II., 354, 355. , the Armada, 360-362. , revolt of the Netherlands, 364- 367. an inferior state, 375, 390. rises in importance, 399. , War of the Spanish Succession, 401, 402. , loss of Mexico, 425. Spanish Armada. See Abmada, the. Spani.sh Succession, War of the, 401, 402. Sparta, 32-34. , supremacy of, 37, 43. , war with Persia, 42. Spartacus, 88. Spenser, 357-359. Spinning-jenny, 400. Spinoza, 397. Spire, Diet of, 342. Stamp Act, 406, 407 States-General, 413. Steamboat Clermont, 426. Steam-engine, 400. Stuart dynasty begins, 378. Succession, War of the Spanish. See Spakisii Succession. Suevi, Visigoths seize their territory, 191. Sulla and Marius, civil wars of, 89, 90. Sweden, 221. , a powerful kingdom, 237. , height of power, 251, 376. , union with Denmark and Nor- way, 305, 306. , independence and importance of, 341. , height of power and possessions, 375. under Charles XII., 422. , battle of Pultowa, 422. , the Seven Years' War, 403, 404. an inferior state, 399. Swiss Confederation, 305. , union of the Swiss Cantons, 311. becomes of importance, 315. See also under Switzekland. Switzerland, 311. , importance of, 341. becomes the Helvetic Republic, 399. See also under Swiss Confedeua- TION. Sylla. See Sulla. Syracuse, 33, 34, 58. Syria (under Seleucus), 41 ; the Seleu- "cidae, 57, 73. invaded from Egypt, 57. , Judxa becomes mdependent of,73. , a Roman province, 87. overrun by Persia, 201. taken from the Eastern Empire by the Saracens, 201. taken by Crusaders, 261. , final expulsion of Christians, 261. annexed to Turkish or Ottoman Empire, 341. TACITUS, 139. Tamerlane, dominion of, 305. , conquests, 309. — — , end of his empire, 315. Tartars, 183. See Moguls. Telegraph, 426. 458 INDEX. Telescope, 369. Temple of Janus. See Janus, Tem- ple OF. Temporal power. See Papal powek. Tennessee, 400. Ten Thousand, Retreat of the, 37, 38. Teutones, 74, 84. Teutonic tribes threaten the Roman borders, 145. , beginning of migrations, 155, 164. , their migrations, 171-173, 180- 182. , immediate results of their migra- tions, 196. Teutons, 4. Texas, 426. Thapsus, battle of, 88. Thebes, leadership of, 43. Themistocles, 21. Theodoric, 167. Theodosius I., 163. Thermopylae, battle of, 17-20. Thirty Years' War, 377, 378. Thirty Tvrants, 12. Thirty Years' Truce (Athens and Spar- ta), 12. Thrace, 41, 57, 118. Thrasymene, battle at Lake, 58. Ticinus, battle of the, 58. Tigranocerta, battle of, 88. Tiinour the Tartar, 305, 309, 310, 315. Titus, 132. Torquemada, Thomas de, 334, 337. Totiia, 192. Tours, battle of, 213, 214. Towns, growth of, 287, 288. Trafalgar, battle of, 426. Trajan, 137, 140, 141. Transalpine Gaul, 73, 82. Treaty of Ghent. See Ghent, Treaty OF. Treaty of Paris. See Paris, Treaty OF. Treaty of Verdun. See Verddn, Treaty of. Treaty of Westphalia. See ■Westpha- lia, Treaty of. Trent, Council of, 342. Tribonian, 193. Tribunes, 12. Triumvirate, the First, 91, 92. , the Second, 98, 99. Turanian, 4. Turin, 402. Turkey, decline of power and domin- ion, 375, 399, 425. Turks, 4. See Ottoman Turks and Seljuk Turks. Twelve Tables, 12. Tyre, 10, 49, 301. UNIFICATION of European states, 440. Union of Utrecht. See Utrecht, Union of. United Provinces, 364-367. , struggle with France, 375. hold a high place, 875. , War of the Spanish Succession, 401, 402. , a dependency of France, 399. See Netherlands. United States, the Stamp Act, 406, 407. , Boston Tea Party, 407. , independence of, 405-411. , declaration of independence, 408, 409. , Yorktown. 410. , Constitution of, 400. , great increase of, 425. , War of 1812, 426. , war with Mexico, 426. ,great increase in extent and power, 437-439. , the Rebellion, 426, 437. Unterwalden, 311. Urban II., Pope, 261. Uri, 311. Utrecht, Treaty of, 402. , Union of, 366. T7-ACCINATI0N, 400. ' Valentinian I., 155. Vandals settle in Spain, 167. settle in Africa, 167. , sack of Rome by Genseric, 168. , end of their kingdom in Africa, 191, 194. Vasco da Gama. See Gama, Vasoo DA. Venice, 191, 298-303. , wars with the Turks, 375. , end of the republic of, 399. Verdun, Treaty of, 222. Vermont, 400. Verrazzani, 342. Vespers, the Sicilian. See Sicilian Vespers. Vespucci, Amerigo, 316. Victor Emmanuel, 426. Virgil, 108. Virginia, Jamestown settled, 395. See West Virginia. Visigoths, Odoacer, 167. sack Rome, 167. INDEX. 459 Visigoths overrun Southern Italy, 167. , kingdom in Spain and Southern Gaul, 1G7. overthrown in Italy hy the Ostro- goths, 167. , migrations and settlements, 180. , dominion in Spain, 191, 201, 211. , defeated by Saracens, 209. Vulgate Bible, 816. WALES, 281. Wall of Hadrian, 138. Wars of the Roses. See Roses, Waes OF THE. Washington, 410. Waterloo, battle of, 430-432. Watt, James, 400. Wellington, 430, 431. Western Empire, 167. , fall of, 173-180. See Rome. Western Franks, 221, 237. West Goths. See Visigoths. Westminster, Assembly of Divines,376. Westphalia, Peace of, 366. , Treaty of, 377, 378. West Virginia, 426. Wiclifie. See Wyclifpb. William of Orange, 365, 366. William the Conqueror, 253-255. William III., 388. Wisconsin, 426. Wiirtcmberg, 426. Wycliffe, John, 311. XENOPHON, 37. Xeres, battle of, 211, 212. Xerxes, 14, 17, 20-22. YORK and Lancaster, Wars of. See EosES, Waes of the. Yorktown, 410. Yuste, 353. yAMk, battle of, 65-67. Zenobia, 152. University Press : John Wilson and Son, Cambridge.