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AUTHOR: 
 
 DU PONTET, CLEMENT 
 
 TITLE: 
 
 ANCIENT WORLD, A 
 STORICAL SKETCH 
 
 PLACE: 
 
 NEW YORK; LONDON 
 
 DATE: 
 
 [1912] 
 
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 Du Pontet, Clement. ' 
 
 ThP ancient world, a historical sketch, by Clement Du 
 Po^St With map's. New York, Longmans, Green and 
 
 CO. ; London, E. Arnold [1912] ' 
 
 xi, 388 p. maps. 19"". 
 
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THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 A HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 } 
 
THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 A HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 BY 
 
 CLEMENT DU PONTET, M.A, 
 
 ASSISTANT MASTER AT HARROW SCHOOL 
 
 
 WITH MAPS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 LONDON : EDWARD ARNOLD 
 
J^H § 'IS 
 
 -1 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 This little volume does not pretend to be a general book 
 of reference. It is, as its title-page proclaims, merely a 
 sketch, is addressed primarily to schoolboys, and is 
 meant to serve as an introduction to the subject. It 
 does not deal in minute investigations and arguments, 
 or new solutions of old conundrums. Its aim is rather, 
 while avoiding excessive detail, to emphasize the main 
 outlines, and to be interesting rather than exhaustive, 
 refusing to strip the old stories of their romantic and 
 picturesque elements. If it succeeds in any measure 
 in attracting young minds and tempting them to further 
 study, it will not have been written in vain. 
 
 Experience of both learning and teaching shows that 
 it is fatally easy to lose sight of the wood for the trees. 
 In stopping to examine microscopically the details of a 
 single tree or group of trees, we may lose our bearings 
 and sense of direction. The aim of this sketch is to 
 correct this tendency, to lift the explorer above the trees, 
 and show him the Hmits and general outline of the 
 forest and what rivers and lakes, pleasant glades and 
 noble peaks it encloses. 
 
 My most grateful thanks are due to the authors, 
 publishers, or other copyright-owners, of the following 
 works, to which detailed references will be found in the 
 footnotes :— *' The Oldest Code of Laws in the World," 
 
VI 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 1 
 
 \ 
 
 by Mr. C. H. W. Johns (T. & T. Clark) ; '* The Life and 
 
 Times of Akhnaton, Pharaoh of Egypt," by Mr. A. E. P. 
 
 Weigall (W. Blackwood & Sons) ; '' Ten Years' Digging 
 
 in Egypt" (R.T.S.), " Egypt and Israel" (S.P.C.K.), and 
 
 " Egyptian Tales " (Methuen & Co.), all by Professor 
 
 W. M. Flinders Petrie ; " The Dwellers on the Nile," by 
 
 Dr. E. A. WaUis Budge (R.T.S.) ; " The Law and the 
 
 Prophets," by Professor Westphal, translated by myself 
 
 (Macmillan & Co.); "The Dawn of Civilization" and 
 
 " The Struggle of the Nations " by Professor Maspero 
 
 (S.P.C.K.) ; " New Light on the Story of the Flood," 
 
 by Rev. J. O'F. Willcocks (Proprietors of Pearson's 
 
 Magazine) ; " Records of the Past," Vol. II. (S. Bagster 
 
 & Sons) ; '^ A Book of Greek Verse," by Dr. W. Headlam 
 
 (Cambridge University Press) ; " Sophocles in EngHsh 
 
 Verse," by Professor Lewis Campbell (The World's 
 
 Classics, Frowde), by permission of Mrs. Campbell; 
 
 '' The Dramas of Aeschylus," by Miss Anna Swanwick 
 
 (George Bell & Sons) ; " The Athenian Drama," Vol. III., 
 
 by Professor Gilbert Murray (George Allen & Co.) ; 
 
 *' Agamemnon of Aeschylus," by E. FitzGerald, by per- 
 
 mission of Dr. Aldis Wright and Messrs. Macmillan & Co. ; 
 
 and "The Earthly Paradise," by William Morris 
 
 (Longmans, Green & Co.) 
 
 C. Du P. 
 
 1012. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 V. 
 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 IX. 
 
 X. 
 
 XI. 
 
 XII. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 XV. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 XX. 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Pyramids 1 
 
 The Euphrates Country 22 
 
 The Age of the Patriarchs 38 
 
 A Philosopher-King 59 
 
 Forgotten Empires . . . . . .' 73 
 
 The Ancient East : Far and Near ... 84 
 
 A New Nation 99 
 
 The Trojan War 116 
 
 The Dorians and the Dawn of Greek History 141 
 
 Westward Ho I 155 
 
 The Tyrants 171 
 
 The Lawgivers 188 
 
 The Unchanging East 202 
 
 The Persian Wars— Greece saves Europe • . 225 
 
 The Peloponnesian War 246 
 
 A Golden Age 267 
 
 Alexander 297 
 
 Hannibal 317 
 
 The World finds a Master .... 337 
 
 The Price of Empire 358 
 
 Index 379 
 
 Vll 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 LIST OF MAPS 
 
 I. The Ancient World . 
 II. Alexander's Campaigns 
 
 III. Imperium Romanum 
 
 Between pages 24 and 25 
 
 »» 
 
 i» 
 
 »» 
 
 '» 
 
 312 aud 313 
 
 344 and 345 
 
 My Dear Reader, 
 
 You have perhaps been more fortunate than I was 
 at your age, in which case I apologize for obtruding a 
 superfluous book upon you. But if not, then there have 
 been moments when, if you reflected on the matter at 
 all, you said to yourself that there were once people 
 called Greeks, and a thing called Greek History, likewise 
 Rome and Roman History ; a very long while ago, of 
 course, probably well before the Battle of Hastings ; and 
 that even earlier than either of these races, in the very 
 dim and distant past, there were Egyptians who served 
 Pharaohs and built pyramids, and Assyrians who " came 
 down like the wolf on the fold " with tightly-curled beards 
 and prominent muscles, and Babylonians who sacked 
 Jerusalem and disported themselves in "hanging 
 gardens." You have studied these histories separately 
 and most probably come to regard them as records of 
 events happening in widely distant places at widely 
 distant times, totally unconnected with one another. 
 Perhaps you have not even wondered in what 
 
 VUl 
 
 L _._ 
 
X 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 chronological order, if any, these separate and 
 unconnected units should be disposed. 
 
 And yet this world of ours, vast though it may be, 
 is all contained in one and the same planet, in which 
 there are no unbridged gaps, and from the earliest times 
 men have had deahngs with their neighbours. The 
 Greeks and the Romans were near in time and place, 
 in blood and language, and Rome and Athens lived 
 then- lives side by side for five centuries, separated by 
 a scarcely greater distance than that between London 
 and Aberdeen. The ancient Egyptians and Babylo- 
 nians were contemporaries and rivals. When Abraham 
 pitched his tent under the oak of Mamre, King Minos 
 was founding the naval empire of Crete and building 
 the great "Labyrinth" Palace of Cnossus. Chinese 
 recorded history begins at the period which saw Hector 
 and Achilles matched in mortal combat beneath the 
 battlements of Troy. Within a space of little more than 
 a century (620-500 b.c), Buddha preached in India, 
 Confucius wrote in China, Sappho "loved and sang" 
 in Lesbos, Nebuchadnezzar levelled Nineveh with the 
 desert, Cyrus the Great marched unopposed into 
 Babylon and sent home the exiled Jews, Solon uttered 
 words of wisdom to Croesus the Magnificent, the 
 Tyrants were expelled from Athens, and the last of 
 the Tarquins from Rome, and Aesop penned his im- 
 mortal fables. The world is not built in water-tight 
 compartments, nor do the events of history come at 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 XI 
 
 .'> 
 
 1^ 
 
 long intervals, like the greater comets. We are all 
 brothers, and there is no break in our pedigree since 
 " Adam delved and Eve span " in the Garden. 
 
 If this little volume helps you in any degree to 
 realize this, it will not have been written in vain. 
 
 i* 
 
M 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 ^ 
 
 My thoughts are with the dead : with them 
 
 I live in long-past years, 
 Their virtues love, their faults condemn, 
 
 Partake their hopes and fears ; 
 And from their lessons seek and find 
 Instruction with an humble mind. 
 
 SOUTHEY. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE PYRAMIDS 
 
 In the heart of the largest and busiest city in the world, 
 on the edge of the turbid Thames, within a few yards of 
 an iron bridge over which trains rattle day j^^^^ ^^^ ^^ 
 and night, and in full view of London's most E^tS/ ° 
 modern and most luxurious hotels, stands a ^^^^^^^^^ion. 
 solitary block of granite, erect and solemn. Seventy- 
 three feet high, raised on a massive pedestal, blackened 
 and blurred, it seems in the midst of the noise and bustle 
 to brood in majestic solitude on the vanished glories of a 
 forgotten past. It looks disdainfully down at the muddy 
 waves beneath, and points reproachfully up to the 
 leaden sky above. Long, long ago, it breathed a clear 
 dry air, innocent of soot and fog, and gazed from Egypt 
 across the "wine-dark deep" at the setting sun, *and 
 blushed at his farewell kiss. This famous obelisk is 
 known to Londoners who pass it by and to all the world 
 who have heard or read of it as '' Cleopatra's Needle," 
 very much as every ancient camp site in England is dubbed 
 " Caesar's camp," and with even less reason. In fact, 
 the only connexion between Cleopatra and the " Needle '' 
 is that they both belong to an age outside living memory 
 and both had their home in Egypt. But Cleopatra 
 had about as much to do with the making of that 
 granite monument as Queen Elizabeth with the planning 
 
 1 B 
 
2 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 of Stonebenge. It is most important before proceeding 
 any furtber, to form some idea of tbe antiquity of 
 Egyptian civilization. " Cleopatra's Needle," was older 
 to Queen Cleopatra tban Moses was to the last de- 
 fenders who perished in the flames of Jerusalem in 
 A.D. 70. Thirteen centuries before Christ, Moses stood 
 before Pharaoh. And yet even then that block had already 
 been standing in On (Heliopolis) for three hundred years. 
 Nor is this all. Old as it may seem, with its life-story 
 of thirty-five centuries, the " Needle " is younger by 
 twenty-seven centuries than the oldest Pyramids,* and 
 carries us back only half-way to the dawn of Egyptian 
 bistory. The Pyramids may well fill us with awe and 
 amazement, not only for their gigantic proportions but 
 still more for their stupendous age. There they have 
 stood, majestic and unmoved, for six thousand years. 
 
 Who built them ? What manner of men were they 
 who planted these imperishable memorials of their 
 imagination, skill, wealth, perseverance and power ? 
 
 Ancient Egypt was a long and narrow country 
 
 extending along both banks of the Nile due north and 
 
 south over a length of six hundred miles, 
 
 The land yj<fhi\e the width of the cultivable land never 
 
 ^^^ " exceeded eight miles on the west bank or three 
 on the eastern. In fact, the land of Egypt was simply 
 the Nile valley, narrow and tortuous in its upper course 
 and in its lower widening into the broad, flat, alluvial 
 plain of the Delta, in prehistoric times it is clear that 
 all the upper valley was the actual bed of the gigantic 
 river, whose waves washed the limestone t hills which 
 now at times recede several miles from the present 
 banks, while the Delta was a bay of the Mediterranean. 
 
 • The " Step Pyramid " of Sakkarah was built by Ata about 4300 B.C. 
 t Just above Thebes the hills are sandstone, and at the first 
 cataract there is red granite. 
 
 THE PYRAMIDS 3 
 
 Gradually, in the course of many thousands of years, 
 perhaps twenty thousand, perhaps a hundred thousand, 
 the river shrank to the middle of its bed leaving a strip 
 of rich soil on either side between it and the bills, and 
 at the same time silted up its estuary with its enormous 
 deposits of mud and formed the Delta. And then man 
 looked on the valley and saw that it was good and made 
 his dwelling there. 
 
 Flint tools have been found on the hills at Esneh, 
 several miles from the present Nile, on what must have 
 been the bank of the huge primaeval river, j,^ 
 But of those earliest inhabitants we know earliest 
 nothing. In the same way a human skeleton ^^^^^i^^^^s- 
 has recently been unearthed (1910) at Galley Hill, near 
 Northfleet on the Thames Valley, which experts say 
 must be at least 170,000 years old. But of the man who 
 once clothed those bones in warm living flesh, and ate 
 and drank and thought in those far-off days we can 
 guess nothing. Very likely there were dwellers by the 
 Nile as early, and probably even earlier. 
 
 When we take a survey of prehistoric times and the 
 first beginnings of the historic age of any part of the 
 world, we find invariably that men first 
 congregated along the banks of the great ciyUiJatio'n 
 rivers. There was every inducement to them 
 to do so. The river supplied water for drinking, or even 
 washing, fish to eat, and a ready-made high road, and 
 a convenient receptacle for rubbish. There were whirl- 
 pools and treacherous banks and rapids, and in some 
 countries an occasional hungry crocodile would levy 
 toll for the use of his domain ; but the advantages of 
 river-side life easily outweighed its drawbacks, and so it 
 was along nature's great waterways that the tree of 
 civilization first struck root. Tbe earliest human 
 settlements of which we have any knowledge are found 
 
I 
 
 4 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 to have been in the valleys of the Nile, the Euphrates 
 and Tigris, the Ganges, and the Hoang-ho and other 
 great rivers of China. 
 
 The Egyptians themselves were at one time fully 
 persuaded, so Herodotus tells us, that they were the 
 A phiio- oldest nation on the face of the earth. Un- 
 ^°E^^^^ nf foi'tnnately, one of their more intelligent 
 *'Bekos." Pharaohs, who had a weakness for ethnology 
 and statistics, dispelled the fond illusion by an experi- 
 ment totally inconclusive, but for all that exceedingly 
 ingenious and amusing. The story is well known, but 
 will bear repetition. The king caused two new-born 
 babes to be given into the care of one of the royal 
 shepherds, with strict instructions that nobody was to 
 utter a word in their presence, that they should live in 
 solitude, except for the regular ministrations of goats 
 which were to be brought in at intervals to supply them 
 with milk. After two years of this regime, the shepherd 
 was taken aback one morning, on entering the room 
 where this novel experiment was being conducted, to 
 find the children running towards him with loud cries 
 of "Bekos." The prodigy was immediately reported to 
 Pharaoh, who gave orders for a search to be made for 
 a language in which this strange word occurred. The 
 royal commissioners discovered that '* Bekos " was the 
 Phrygian for bread. From that day the Egyptians 
 renounced their proud title and allowed that the 
 Phrygians were even older than themselves ! But they 
 clung to the second place. Such was the story which 
 Herodotus heard from the priests at Memphis. 
 
 Be that as it may, the Egyptians could certainly with 
 . ^f justice lay claim to an amazing antiquity, 
 earliest There are actual remains in existence which 
 remains. ^^^ ^^qq^ on seven thousand years old. But the 
 knowledge and skill which these exhibit are convincing 
 
 THE PYRAMIDS 
 
 5 
 
 proof that even in those remote days the civilization 
 which could produce them was already of long stand- 
 ing. The authors of the tomb-sculptures of Medum 
 (4600 B.C. ?) were not tiros or pioneers. They were not 
 groping tentatively in an unexplored region of art. 
 They were advancing confidently along well-marked 
 lines. Their art had been developed and matured by 
 many centuries of experiment and experience. Hardly a 
 year passes by but some fresh discovery is brought to 
 light in the valley of the Nile. But so far no record, 
 however old, has yet shown us Egyptian science or art 
 in a state of infancy. We may guess at what an im- 
 mense distance of time those beginnings must be placed. 
 It is probably safe to assume that the Egyptians were 
 living in Egypt at least ten thousand years B.C. 
 
 Where did they come from ? Nobody knows. They 
 themselves, of course, did not know, and we are left to con- 
 jecture. They may have come from the high- origin 
 lands of Abyssinia and followed the course of of the 
 the Nile to their new home. They may have ^^^P''*"'- 
 come from the deserts of Arabia, seeking for more 
 favourable surroundings in which to develop their genius. 
 Most probably, however, they were a Caucasian race, 
 who migrated from Asia south-westwards through Syria 
 and Palestine and across the isthmus of Suez, and 
 gradually worked their way farther and farther up the 
 banks of the Nile at the expense of the Ethiopians, 
 Memphis, under the shadow of the Great Pyramid, 
 was a royal city before Thebes with its statue of 
 '* Memnon " and rock-hewn tombs of kings. The oldest 
 monuments are to be found in the northern rather than 
 the southern portions of Egypt. It is just possible that 
 the pyramids, the oldest of which (at Sakkarah and 
 Medum), were not smooth-faced but presented on 
 their four surfaces the appearance of steps, were a 
 
4 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 to have been in the valleys of the Nile, the Euphrates 
 and Tigris, the Ganges, and the Hoang-ho and other 
 great rivers of China. 
 
 The Egyptians themselves were at one time fully 
 persuaded, so Herodotus tells us, that they were the 
 A phUo- oldest nation on the face of the earth. Un- 
 logicai fortunately, one of their more intelligent 
 
 experiment . "^ ' r i i 
 
 "Bekos." Pharaohs, who had a weakness for ethnology 
 and statistics, dispelled the fond illusion by an experi- 
 ment totally inconclusive, but for all that exceedingly 
 ingenious and amusing. The story is well known, but 
 will bear repetition. The king caused two new-born 
 babes to be given into the care of one of the royal 
 shepherds, with strict instructions that nobody was to 
 utter a word in their presence, that they should live in 
 solitude, except for the regular ministrations of goats 
 which were to be brought in at intervals to supply them 
 with milk. After two years of this regime, the shepherd 
 was taken aback one morning, on entering the room 
 where this novel experiment was being conducted, to 
 find the children running towards him with loud cries 
 of " Bekos." The prodigy was immediately reported to 
 Pharaoh, who gave orders for a search to be made for 
 a language in which this strange word occurred. The 
 royal commissioners discovered that ** Bekos " was the 
 Phrygian for bread. From that day the Egyptians 
 renounced their proud title and allowed that the 
 Phrygians were even older than themselves ! But they 
 clung to the second place. Such was the story which 
 Herodotus heard from the priests at Memphis. 
 
 Be that as it may, the Egyptians could certainly with 
 Age of justice lay claim to an amazing antiquity. 
 earliest There are actual remains in existence which 
 remains. ^^^ close on seven thousand years old. Bat the 
 knowledge and skill which these exhibit are convincing 
 
 THE PYRAMIDS 
 
 6 
 
 proof that even in those remote days the civilization 
 which could produce them was already of long stand- 
 ing. The authors of the tomb-sculptures of Medum 
 (4G00 B.C. ?) w^ere not tiros or pioneers. They were not 
 groping tentatively in an unexplored region of art. 
 They were advancing confidently along well-marked 
 lines. Their art had been developed and matured by 
 many centuries of experiment and experience. Hardly a 
 year passes by but some fresh discovery is brought to 
 light in the valley of the Nile. But so far no record, 
 however old, has yet shown us Egyptian science or art 
 in a state of infancy. We may guess at what an im- 
 mense distance of time those beginnings must be placed. 
 It is probably safe to assume that the Egyptians were 
 living in Egypt at least ten thousand years b.c. 
 
 Where did they come from ? Nobody knows. They 
 themselves, of course, did not know, and we are left to con- 
 jecture. They may have come from the high- origin 
 lands of Abyssinia and followed the course of of the 
 the Nile to their new home. They may have ^^^p^^^^^- 
 come from the deserts of Arabia, seeking for more 
 favourable surroundings in which to develop their genius. 
 Most probably, however, they were a Caucasian race, 
 who migrated from Asia south-westwards through Syria 
 and Palestine and across the isthmus of Suez, and 
 gradually worked their way farther and farther up the 
 banks of the Nile at the expense of the Ethiopians. 
 Memphis, under the shadow of the Great Pyramid, 
 was a royal city before Thebes with its statue of 
 ** Memnon " and rock-hewn tombs of kings. The oldest 
 monuments are to be found in the northern rather than 
 the southern portions of Egypt. It is just possible that 
 the pyramids, the oldest of which (at Sakkarah and 
 Medum), were not smooth-faced but presented on 
 their four surfaces the appearance of steps, were a 
 
6 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 reminiscence of the temples of the Euphrates valley 
 which were huilt in the form of superimposed decreasing 
 cubes. If so, this would give a hint of the direction 
 from whence the pyramid-builders came. But this is a 
 mere conjecture. 
 
 Travellers tell us that there is an extraordinary 
 resemblance between the average type of the modern 
 Appearance Egyptian peasant and the features of the 
 of ancient ancient Egyptian statues and sculptures. 
 Much may be learnt from photographs or, 
 better, a visit to a museum. Look at the heads of the 
 Pharaohs, and especially, walk all round them and study 
 them from every side. The face is oval, with a small 
 forehead, large eyes, full lips, a firm chin and a long 
 nose, curved downwards with wide nostrils and reaching 
 close to the upper lip. Of course, there are individual 
 variations. Some faces convey a distinct suggestion of 
 a negroid element. No doubt the race was not kept pure 
 always, but intermarried with the Nubians and other 
 African races. The small wooden statue of Eameses II. 
 (" the Great," 1330-1308 b.c.) in the British Museum has 
 a particularly commanding expression. His profile is not 
 very unlike that of the great Napoleon in youth. Another 
 firm strong face is that of Amememhat III. (Twelfth 
 Dynasty, 2300 B.C., contemporary, perhaps, of Abraham). 
 The head of Thothmes III. (Eighteenth Dynasty, 1600 
 B.C.) who set up '' Cleopatra's Needle," is curious. Full 
 face it is distinctly negroid, but this look is entirely 
 absent from his profile, where the long downward-curving 
 nose is most noticeable. Speaking in a general way of 
 these early Egyptians, the colour of the skin was brown, 
 the men being darker than the women. They had 
 square shoulders, small wrists, and long feet with low 
 insteps. We may distinguish two types. One, the 
 highest, was tall and slender, with proud expression and 
 
 THE PYRAMIDS 7 
 
 imperious bearing, with long fine hands, muscular arms 
 and legs, and slightly developed hips. The head was 
 short, the face oval, the forehead retreating, the eyes 
 wide, the nose fairly prominent, straight or aquiline, the 
 mouth long, the lips full, the teeth small and even, the 
 ears set high. The hair was wavy, but never *' woolly," 
 the beard thick only on the chin. The common type was 
 of a squat and heavy build.* Kings and queens wore, as 
 is well known from their statues, elaborate wigs, while 
 the kings also wore artificial beards, which fashion lent 
 their expressions an undeniable solemnity and grandeur. 
 The dress of the Egyptians was of the simplest. 
 The men wore a short kilt, very full in front. They wore 
 also a wig or fairly long hair, and walked Dress, 
 barefoot or in sandals. The priests wore i°!tf®!' „„j 
 
 •L manners and 
 
 leopard-skins. The women wore tight skirts customs. 
 
 reaching to the ankles, fastened by shoulder-straps and 
 
 a girdle round the waist. The queens wore in addition 
 
 a full-length shirt of fine linen with wide sleeves, and a 
 
 peculiar head-dress. The men were all clean shaven ; 
 
 the women wore their hair long and were proud of it, 
 
 and painted their eyes with *' kohl." Young children 
 
 were carried by their mothers slung in shawls, wore 
 
 little or no clothing, and were kept in thorough subjection. 
 
 Polygamy was practised, but was not general. The 
 
 houses were built in two stories, generally of unbaked 
 
 bricks, with flat roofs, which were extensively used as 
 
 living or sleeping rooms. In the better houses the walls 
 
 were often decorated with painting and sculpture. The 
 
 chief business of life was agriculture and hunting : the 
 
 Egyptian's diet was varied, including many kinds of fish, 
 
 flesh, fowl and vegetables; he drank wine and a beer 
 
 made of barley, and drunkenness was not altogether 
 
 unknown in the land of the Pharaohs. 
 
 ♦ Maspero, «' The Dawn of Civilization," p. 47 (S.P.O.K.). 
 
8 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOULD 
 
 The Greek traveller and historian, Herodotus, did 
 not visit Egypt till the middle of the fifth century b.c. 
 
 Herodotus ^^^^o ^"^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ builders of the j^yramids or 
 on Egyptian even the comparatively modern ** Sesostris," 
 us oms. ^j^^ great conqueror Rameses 11. But in 
 essentials the people had not changed much, and 
 his description will serve to animate our picture of 
 this remarkable nation. He was much struck by what 
 he saw.* 
 
 ** Egypt surpasses all the countries of the earth in 
 wonders, which defy description," he says. **As their 
 climate is extraordinary, and their river 
 behaves quite dilierently from other rivers, so 
 the inhabitants have laws and customs for the most part 
 the direct opposite of other nations. The women do the 
 marketing and trading, while the men stay indoors and 
 weave ; and here again, while other people weave from 
 above downwards, the Egyptians weave from below 
 upwards. The men carry burdens on their heads, the 
 women on their shoulders. They take their meals in 
 the streets. 
 
 ** No woman ever holds priestly office for any god or 
 goddess ; the men do so in all cases. Sons need not 
 support their parents, if they are not so 
 disposed, but daughters must, whether they 
 like it or no. 
 
 ** Elsewhere priests wear their hair long, in Egypt 
 they shave. In other countries, when a death occurs, the 
 Mourainff nearest relatives shave their heads, but the 
 Egyptians, who till then shaved, let their hair 
 and beards grow. Other men live apart from their live- 
 stock, the Egyptians live in their company. Others live 
 on wheat and barley, but among the Egyptians it is a 
 disgrace to use these as food : they make loaves out of 
 
 ♦ Herodotus, Book II. 35, 3G, 37. 
 
 Priests. 
 
 THE PYRAMIDS 
 
 9 
 
 spelt, which some call *zea.' They knead dough with 
 their feet, but they take up mud or even dung 
 with their hands. The men wear two gar- 
 ments, the women one. Other men fasten the rings and 
 sheets of their sails outside, but the Egyptians inside 
 the gunwales. The Greeks write letters and 
 figures from left to right, the Egyptians from "^"^^^^• 
 right to left; and they maintain that in doing so they 
 write * right- ways,' while the Greeks write * left- ways.' 
 They employ two alphabets, one sacred, the other 
 ' demotic ' or popular." 
 
 It may be mentioned in passing that in early 
 inscriptions, both Greek and Latin, the writing often 
 proceeds from right to left, and at times from left to 
 right and right to left in alternate lines, or even in 
 columns, alternately up and down. 
 
 " They are more religious than any other nation and 
 observe the following customs. They drink out of bronze 
 cups, which they scour every day ; this custom 
 is not observed by some and neglected by observances, 
 others, but all to a man observe it. They 
 wear linen garments always fresh-washed, and are very 
 particular about this. The priests shave their whole 
 body every other day, so that neither lice nor any other 
 impurity may be on them while they serve the gods. 
 And the priests wear only Imen garments and shoes of 
 byblus : any other kind of garment or shoe is illegal. 
 They bathe with cold water twice every day and twice 
 every night, and observe one might almost say ten 
 thousand other ceremonies. But they enjoy not a few 
 advantages. For they do not use up or spend any of 
 their own property, but they have sacred food cooked for 
 them and a liberal daily supply of beef and goose and 
 wine: but they may not taste fish. The Egyptians 
 never sow beans, and those which do grow they will not 
 
10 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOKLD 
 
 THE PYRAMIDS 
 
 11 
 
 eat, either raw or boiled, while the priests canuot bear 
 even the sight of them, holding them unclean. Each 
 god has not one but several priests, one of whom is chief 
 priest. And when a priest dies, his son succeeds him.'* 
 
 The laws were stern but not excessively so; the 
 punishment for theft was flogging, probably a more effec- 
 Punish- tive and certainly a far cheaper remedy than 
 ments. ^j^^gg adopted by twentieth-century Europe. 
 
 Compared with our own present-day civilization with 
 
 its gramophones and aeroplanes, life then was simple, 
 
 but it was by no means primitive or semi- 
 
 Egyptian -n 
 
 religion. savage. For proof of this we need only look 
 at ancient Egyptian art, architecture, litera- 
 ture and religion. It would require a separate volume 
 to deal with this last at all adequately. Our first im- 
 pression is one of utter bewilderment at the number of 
 the gods and their titles, and the elaborateness of the 
 old rites and ceremonies. The Egyptians had indeed a 
 high and noble conception of one supreme and self- 
 existent god. Bat this belief was from the earliest times 
 deeply overlaid with the most extreme form of polytheism.* 
 Each district, each village almost, had its own deities, 
 arranged in groups of three, or eight or nine (Triads, 
 Ogdoads and Ennctvds). Each god, moreover, often re- 
 joiced in a multitude of names. Ra, the sun-god, with 
 his seventy-two, and Osiris were not the only pluralists in 
 titles. The gods and goddesses ate and drank and behaved 
 generally like men and women. Some of the most im- 
 portant gods, to mention only a handful, were Ptah, the 
 father of gods and men and Lord of Truth ; Amon Ra, 
 the Sun-god, the god of On (Heliopolis) ; Osiris, Son of 
 Heaven and Earth, brother and husband of Isis and 
 father of Horus ; Anubis, the god of the dead ; Thoth, 
 
 • In this and the next four paragraphs I am indebted for my infor- 
 mition to *' Dwellers on the Nile," by E. A. Wallis Budge. 
 
 the god of writing, art and science; and Horus, son 
 and avenger of Osiris. Of the goddesses it must suffice 
 to mention Isis, wife of Osiris and mother of Horus. 
 Wonderful tales were told about Osiris. One 
 was that after living happily for some years ^yth"^^* 
 with Isis, by whom he had a son, Horus, he 
 was locked in a chest and thrown into the river by a 
 brother called Set and his wife Nephthys. Isis found the 
 body and hid it. But Set one day discovered it and cut it 
 up into numberless small pieces, which he then scattered 
 over the world. The disconsolate widow, however, after 
 a weary and devoted search found them all and enclosed 
 each fragment in a separate tomb. Then, when Horus 
 grew to man's estate, he with the aid of Thoth slew his 
 wicked uncle, and his murdered father was avenged. 
 The story can be explained as a parable, Osiris being the 
 Sun, and his enemy Set, the Night, while his son Horus 
 is the new Sun appearing on the morrow. The Osiris 
 story was the popular favourite in the national theology. 
 It was spiritualized and transferred from its original 
 reference to the sun of the physical world, to the moral 
 life of man with its struggles and temptations. Osiris 
 stood for the principle of Good, and Set his enemy repre- 
 sented moral Evil, while Thoth was a name for Reason. 
 The pious Egyptian assumed the name of Osiris, no doubt 
 as a protection, when he passed iuto the other world. 
 
 The national creed included a belief in immortality, 
 and tremendous importance was attached to the burial 
 of the dead. The body must on no account 
 be allowed to decay, because the departed ^^^^' 
 soul might at any time, in the course of ages, wish to 
 re-occupy its former lodging. Moreover, it must have 
 a residence where the dead could feel at home. Hence 
 arose the practice of embalming, and the great care 
 bestowed on making the tombs secure and inviolable, 
 
 i 
 
12 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 and at the same time decorating them with scenes 
 from the dead man's earthly life. The walls of the 
 chamher where stood the statue in which the ''image " 
 of the deceased was supposed to reside, were covered 
 with such scenes; over the doorway or on a pillar 
 were inscribed pious prayers to the powers of the other 
 world ; while down below, forty feet deep, or more, lay 
 the mummy, waiting patiently for the return of its soul. 
 The mummy was tightly wrapped in its ''cartonnage '* 
 of linen and plaster; this was enclosed in a wooden 
 coffin shaped approximately to the human form, and 
 then deposited in the stone sarcophagus, which was 
 carved out of a single block of basalt, granite or diorite, 
 somewhat resembling in shape a modern bath, and was 
 closed by a ponderous lid of the same material. 
 
 The wooden coffin and the stone sarcophagus were 
 both generally covered with hieroglyphs, most commonly 
 The ''Book passages from the *'Book of the Dead." 
 of the^ This was a sacred book of ritual, supposed to 
 
 have been written by the god Thoth, and so 
 ancient that long before Abraham visited Egypt, it had 
 already to a great extent become unintelligible. It 
 was extremely long and elaborate.* Put briefly, it 
 described in minute detail the progress of the deceased 
 from the moment of death, through successive meta- 
 morphoses and ordeals, to the attainment of eternal 
 life and assimilation with Osiris, the great and good. 
 There were all kinds of difficulties to overcome and perils 
 to pass through — from malignant demons who swarmed 
 at every step and delivered malicious attacks at every 
 point. The Book prescribed the proper charm or 
 formula for every possible emergency. By its means 
 only could the traveller accomplish his journey un- 
 scathed. Last cf all came the trial in the Judgment 
 
 * There is a coloured facsimile at the British I^Iuseum. 
 
 THE PYRAMIDS 
 
 13 
 
 Hall before Osiris and a crowded bench of judges. 
 There again, the Book supplied the answer to every 
 question. The soul was weighed in the balance. This 
 ordeal safely passed, the deceased was admitted to the 
 company of the gods, and became as one of them. 
 
 Such a religion, while curious and interesting, at 
 first sight appears repulsive, buried as it is under its 
 complicated polytheism and elaborate ritual 
 as under a heap of rubbish. But under it f^b^stance 
 all there is a good foundation. No doubt of this 
 the uneducated mind took a low material " ^^^°^' 
 view of the old theology, its stories and forms ; but the 
 religious eye saw deeper and, through the mass of 
 symbols, caught glimpses of a more real and soul- 
 satisfying substance. True, in portions of the ** Book 
 of the Dead," the morality seems not to go very far. 
 For instance, in the great trial-scene, the deceased 
 makes only a negative claim, that he has not committed 
 this or that offence ; positive claim there is none. 
 
 ** I have not been idle, I have not boasted, I have 
 not stolen, I have not told falsehoods, I have not 
 blasphemed, I have not multiplied words in speaking, 
 I have not defiled the river, I have not calumniated the 
 slave to his master," etc.* 
 
 But, after all, even so the standard is not so low. 
 How many modern Christians could honestly make such 
 a declaration, complete in all its clauses ? Nor is this 
 all ; a little further we read as follows : — 
 
 **Let the Osiris {i.c, the deceased) go. Ye know he 
 is without fault, without evil, without sin, without 
 crimes. ... He lives off truth. ... He has given food 
 to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothes to the naked. 
 . . . His mouth is pure, his hands are pure." t 
 
 * Abridged from E. A. Wallis Budge, " Dwellers on the Nile," p. 176 . 
 t Ibid. p. 177. 
 
14 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 THE PYEAMIDS 
 
 15 
 
 Egyptian literature is the oldest in existence. More 
 than four thousand years before Christ, under the Third 
 Early Dynasty, the Egyi)tian is taught by a native 
 
 fiferatur^ philosopher to avoid intemperance, and 
 reminded that a cup of water is all that is 
 needed to slake thirst, and that the slave of his appetites 
 is contemptible and loathsome. A little later, under 
 the Fifth Dynasty, another sage gives excellently wise 
 advice to fathers on the subject of education. A son is 
 to be brought up in the fear of God ; virtue is to be 
 rewarded; vice, though discountenanced and abhorred, 
 does not abolish parental responsibility, and is no excuse 
 for parental neglect or hate. The same writer gives 
 valuable hints to the self-made man as to his demeanour 
 to inferiors and to the God who has been kind to him. 
 Many other writers express deep and poetical thoughts 
 on both life and death. 
 
 It would be easy to quote numberless instances. 
 We cannot look at statues, epitaphs, temple inscriptions, 
 or papyri, even of the earliest ages, without finding 
 in them abundant proofs of fihal gratitude, reverence 
 for truth and justice, neighbourly charity, and kind 
 consideration for inferiors. Clearly, ancient Egypt 
 possessed a noble religion. 
 
 But, probably, to nine out of ten of us, the most 
 striking thing about the early Egyptians was not their 
 Archi- religion or their literature or their social 
 
 tecture : the organization or their customs, but their 
 architecture. Its appeal is more direct and 
 simpler. The dullest, most unobservant and un- 
 imaginative modern, though blind to all else, cannot 
 fail to see a pyramid four hundred feet high, and to be 
 impressed by it. 
 
 The popular notion that there are three pyramids in 
 Egypt, close together, not far from Cairo, with the 
 
 Sphinx crouching on the desert sand in the foreground 
 and the sun setting in the background, is kept ahve by 
 book illustrations and advertisements of cheap tours in 
 railway stations. As a matter of fact, the name of the 
 pyramids is legion. True, the familiar Great Pyramid 
 of Gizeh is the largest, but there are others even older 
 and more interesting. The oldest are the '' Step Pyra- 
 mid *' at Sakkarah, and the so-called '' False Pyramid " 
 at Medum, and there are others of some size and import- 
 ance at Dahshur, Hawara and Illahun, while smaller 
 and inferior specimens are to be found in the neighbour- 
 hood of the larger ones and in great numbers at Abydos 
 and in the plains between Medum and Memphis. The 
 pyramids are tombs. They are found only in Middle 
 Egypt, that is, between Cairo and the southern limit of 
 the Fayum, and ceased to be erected after the Twelfth 
 Dynasty, so that none of them is later than 2000 b.c. 
 The oldest date probably from about 4300 b.c. They* 
 naturally, vary in height, but have much in common! 
 The base is always square, and the angle from 
 base to apex nearly always 50^ While the quality 
 of the niterior material varied from solid Hmestone or 
 red granite to a mixture of masonry and rubble or 
 broken chips or even mud bricks, the exterior was 
 always faced with a good solid casing of fine stone 
 well jomted and polished. In the centre, underneath 
 the mighty mass, usually hewn out of the solid rock on 
 which the pyramid stood, was the sepulchral chamber 
 containing the mummy in its sarcophagus. Access to 
 tUe chamber was by a narrow tunnel with a concealed 
 entrance in the northern face of the pyramid. The 
 tunnel was often very tortuous and complicated by false 
 passages leading nowhere, while the true passage was 
 walled up, the object apparently being to make dis- 
 covery of the body difficult. 
 
16 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 Many pages could be filled with descriptions of the 
 several pyramids, every one of which has its own peculiar 
 The Great interest, and, one might almost say, personality. 
 Pyramid. ^0 the inhabitants they were known as ** The 
 Glorious," *'Tlie Height," ''The Great," ''The Cool," 
 *' The Beautiful," " The Pyramid of Souls," " The Firm 
 Life," " The Beautiful Rising." * A single one must 
 serve as a type. The Great Pyramid of Gizeh was built 
 by Khufu (Cheops), the second king of the famous 
 Fourth Dynasty, probably somewhere about 4000 r..c. 
 The height of it is 450 feet, about 30 feet lower than 
 when it was complete, and the breadth at the base 746 
 feet, originally 764. It is 100 feet higher than our own 
 St. Paul's .Cathedral, in fact higher than any building in 
 the world except the Eiffel Tower and the spires of Ulm, 
 Cologne and Strasburg, and covers an area of 13 acres, 
 or room enough for three or four football grounds. The 
 outer casing has almost entirely disappeared, and the 
 faces now present the appearance of a series of steps. 
 The entrance is in the northern face about 50 feet from 
 the base. The tunnel which descends into the centre of 
 the pyramid at an angle of 26"^, is only 3 feet 11 inches 
 high and 3 feet 5k inches wide. About 60 feet from 
 the entrance, another tunnel, securely closed and con- 
 cealed by masonry, starts from the roof of the first and 
 ascends at a corresponding angle, widening after 109 
 feet into the Grand Passage, which is nearly 7 feet 
 wide at the base, 28 feet high and 156 feet long, and 
 leads through a horizontal passage 22 feet long to the 
 lung's Chamber, containing the royal sarcophagus. 
 This chamber is 34 feet long, 17 feet wide, and 19 feet t 
 
 * A most fascinating book on the subject is Prof. Flinders Petrie's 
 "Ten Years' Digging in Egypt," to which the present writer is much 
 indebted. 
 
 t The measurements are from !Maspero's •* Dawn of Civilization," 
 pp. 3GG-370. 
 
 1 
 
 THE PYKAMIDS 17 
 
 higb and is lined with red granite. The sarcophagus 
 IS of the same material. The blocks comprising the loof 
 we.gh over fifty tons apiece. There are also other 
 passages and other chambers. 
 
 It is of course easy to say that the early Pharaohs 
 had uuhmited labour at their command, which would 
 make it possible for them to erect these 
 stupendous piles of solid masonry. That 0^^'" 
 laet may e.xplaiu the quantity, but it leaves '""'^■ 
 untouched the quality of the work. We mav still h^ 
 ..ustly filled with amazement and admiratfon! b h t 
 the manner m which those early builders, six thou and 
 years ago, quarried, shaped, jointed and polished these 
 extreme y hard materials, and at the ^xtraoi^ na"; 
 skill and accuracy of the architects in planning and 
 carrying out works on so gigantic a scale without aJy 
 appreciable error of measurement in hne or anMe if 
 IS supposed that they employed bronze saws s^t with 
 diamonds and circular drills. In a later chapter fe 
 shall have occasion to refer to a kind of Egyptian 
 Pompeu, a town once inhabited by the workmen eliigeS 
 n the building of a pyramid at lUahun. The finds there 
 however, belong to a later period. Let us see what 
 
 St of^H^ *°'' '' "^^-^P"'^" ^^--'^ about the ci:! 
 stiuctKm of the very pyramid we have been considering. 
 
 ihey told me that Egypt was a most law-abiding 
 
 ountry to the time of Ithampsinitus, and exceS S 
 
 prosperous, but that his successor Cheoos k . 
 
 coming to the throne plunged into every Mnd -^e""' 
 
 of wickedness. For first he closed all the t'hf &' 
 
 temples and prohibited all sacrifices, and ^^"^^ 
 
 then he forced all the Egyptians to labour for him 
 
 Some were told off to drag stones from the quarriTs 
 
 tittrsto"^ V' ^"^^ ''^^^ -- -s 
 
 receive the stones when they were conveyed across 
 
18 
 
 THE ANCIENT AVORLD 
 
 the river in boats ami to dviiii, tlioiu to the Libvaii bill. 
 And they ^vorkecl in shifts of a huiulred thousand, each 
 shift for three months. Ten years the oppression of 
 the people lasted while they built the road along which 
 the ptones were dragged, a work not much less, in my 
 opinion, than the pyramid itself; for it is five-eighths 
 of a mile long, and 20 yards wide, built of smooth 
 stone and dejorated with carved figures. Ten years 
 were spent on this road and the underground vaults 
 in the hill on which the pyramids stand, which vaults 
 Cheops made as a tomb for himself in an island 
 surrounded by Nile water brought there in a canal. 
 The building of the pyramid itself occupied twenty 
 years. It is square at the base, each side 800 feet long 
 and the height the same, and is built of polished stone 
 carefully jointed : no stone is less than 30 feet long. 
 
 *' And this was the way it was built. It was first built 
 in the form of stairs, ami when this was done, they raised 
 Method of ^^^^ remaining stones with machines made of 
 lifting short pieces of w^ood, lifting them from the 
 
 stones. ground on to the first step. And as soon as 
 
 a block was on this, it was laid on another machine 
 which stood on the first tier and from this it was raised 
 on to the second step, and put on another machine. 
 For there was a machine to every step, unless they 
 had a single portable machine, which they carried up, 
 stone and all, from step to step — for I wish to give both 
 of the accounts I heard. Be that as it may, the top of 
 the pyramid was finished first, then they did the parts 
 next below, and last of all they completed the lowest 
 parts next the ground. 
 
 ** There is a hieroglyphic inscription on the pyramid 
 
 stating how much was spent on radishes and 
 
 onions and garlic for the w^orkmen, and, so 
 
 far as I can remember what the dragoman said when 
 
 THE rillAMlDS 
 
 19 
 
 explaining the inscription, the sum was one thousand 
 six hundred talents of silver. And if this is correct, how 
 much more is it not reasonable to suppose was spent 
 on iron tools for the workmen and food and clothes, con- 
 sidering that they were occupied in building all the time 
 already mentioned, besides a very long time, I think, in 
 quarrying and conveying the stone and in making the 
 underground excavations. . . ." (Herodotus, II. 124, 125.) 
 
 It will be seen that Herodotus is not quite accurate 
 in his measurements (especially as regards height !), 
 but he is probably perfectly right in his account of the 
 method of raising the stone blocks. 
 
 A few hundred foot south-west of the Great Pyramid 
 of Khufu (Cheops), stands Ivhafra's (Chephren's) which 
 is almost as large (447 feet high with a width other 
 of G'JO feet), and south-west of that again is the pyramids, 
 smaller pyramid of IMenkaura (Mycerinus) which is only 
 203 feet high by 354 feet wide. Near the three large 
 pyramids are three smaller ones. Each pyramid has 
 its temple opposite its eastern face, and about a 
 quarter of a mile east of the middle pyramid stands the 
 world-famous Sphinx. 
 
 This is a gigantic figure of a recumbent man-headed 
 lion, 188 feet long and G5 feet high, and carved out of 
 the living rock. In IGOO B.C. it was fast dis- 
 appearing under the sand, and it is on record 
 that the great Eighteenth Dynasty conqueror, Thothmes 
 III., the same Pharaoh who erected ** Cleopatra's 
 Needle," caused the mountains of sand to be removed, 
 and revealed the ancient and forgotten monument. But 
 who first created it nobody knows. It is quite possibly 
 even older than its neighbour the Great Pyramid. 
 There it has remained for unnumbered centuries and still 
 crouches, gazing impassively across the Nile and the 
 desert at the rising sun of whom it is the noble symbol. 
 
 The Sphinx. 
 
1 
 
 20 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 Such was the ancient race which lived on the banks 
 of the Nile, and such its life and some of its works. 
 ^ „. Their first recorded human king was Mena 
 
 Dynasty: (Menes), whose date is put about 4G00 b.c. 
 Mena. rjij^^ Egyptian priest Manetho (about 250 b.c.) 
 
 has preserved the names of eight kings belonging to the 
 First Dynasty. Professor Flinders Petrie has found the 
 tombs of seven of them at Abydos, while M. de Morgan 
 found the tomb of Mena, the first of the line, at Nagada. 
 Besides these tombs with their curious wooden inner 
 chambers, a survival of the prehistoric hut, were 
 found thousands of objects of all kinds. Even in those 
 remote times art and science were considerably advanced, 
 it is proved, by a beautiful crystal vase of the time of 
 Mena. There are also wonderful ivory carvings, metal 
 bowls, knives and needles ; and what is perhaps the 
 oldest example of writing in existence, a workman's 
 account scratched on a broken piece of pottery, and 
 dating from about 4600 b.c. 
 
 Of the remainder of the First Dynasty and the kings 
 of the Second and Third Dynasties very little is known, 
 except that the " Step Pyramid " of Sakkarah 
 II., III., was probably built by Ata, of the First 
 and IV. Dynasty. The Fourth Dynasty comprised the 
 builders of the great pyramids. Seueferu, the first of 
 the line, built the pyramid of Medum. Khufu (Cheops) 
 built the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, as we have already 
 seen. His son and successor, Khafra (Chephren) built 
 the second close to it, while the third was erected by 
 Menkaura (Mycerinus). 
 
 We still possess remarkable portrait-statues of both 
 Khufu and Khafra, relics of an age when the art of the 
 Relics of Egyptian statuary was in its prime, and had 
 early kings, j^q^ y^^ submitted to the trammels of conven- 
 tion. The sarcophagus, coffin and mummy of Menkaura 
 
 THE PYRAMIDS 
 
 21 
 
 were actually found complete in his pyramid, but un- 
 fortunately this priceless treasure was lost at sea on its 
 way to England, with the single exception of the 
 decorated coffin-lid, which is now in the British 
 Museum. 
 
 The Dynasties from the fifth to the eleventh are 
 little more than names to us. The next period of 
 importance in Egyptian history to engage Dynasties 
 our attention will be the Twelfth Dynasty, ^'-^^' 
 fourteen hundred years later than the age of the Great 
 Pyramid. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE EUPHRATES COUNTRY 
 
 Though the Pharaoh of HeroJotus's story had made a 
 disappointing experiment, yet the Egyptians firmly 
 The helieved that they were at least among the 
 
 Egyptians ^^Qgi; ancient, and by implication no doubt the 
 in their best, nations on the face of the earth — for to 
 antiquity, ^^iq average human mind antiquity seems 
 necessarily to carry a guarantee of worth and respect- 
 ability. But the claim to priority in age and merit is 
 not an uncommon one. Probably every self-respecting and 
 properly patriotic Chinaman to this day believes that his 
 nation existed and was civilized before the rest of the world 
 bad come into being. The more sober-minded matter-of- 
 fact Romans did not claim any remote antiquity for the 
 city of the Seven Hills. Perhaps they felt that all the 
 future was theirs, and so did not trouble themselves 
 about the past. But the Athenians, regarded by the 
 Egyptians as a mere mushroom growth, plumed them- 
 selves on having occupied Attica from the beginning of 
 time, or before ; and no doubt pious Jews claimed Adam 
 as their own particular earliest ancestor. The early 
 Egyptians might think themselves at any rate the most 
 civilized of nations. They had reason to be proud of 
 their attainments. They were first-rate embalmers, 
 artists and architects. But, apart from the making of 
 mummies, they had no monopoly of skill. There were 
 other writers, other artists, other architects. Among 
 
 22 
 
 THE EUPHRATES COUNTRY 
 
 23 
 
 their rivals we must give a very high place to the 
 
 dwellers on the Tigris and the Euphrates. 
 
 Every child has heard of the '* hanging-gardens," of 
 
 Babylon. But they hang no more. The site of Babylon 
 
 is mainly a mountain of sand. More than 
 
 ., /. ,1 . . -. m i Babylon. 
 
 2000 years ago it fell into decay. Twenty 
 centuries before that it was the capital of the great 
 conqueror and law-giver Hammurabi, the Amraphel of 
 Genesis, and the contemporary of Abraham. But its 
 history began even earlier. The city is mentioned for 
 the first time, so far as we know, in the reign of 
 S argon I. (Sargina) of Accad, probably about 3800 b.c. 
 In those very remote ages, dates are necessarily very 
 uncertain. But it is not at all unlilcjely that when the great 
 pyramids of Cheops and Chephren were slowly rising by 
 the Nile, Babylon on the banks of the Euphrates was 
 already an ancient city ! There are hints that the 
 Egyptians entered Egypt from the north-east, and that 
 the jiyramid-tomb was originally built in steps, like the 
 Tnird Dynasty pyramid of Sakkarah, and was a modifica- 
 tion of a pattern borrowed from the east. 
 
 Whether it be a little older or a little younger than 
 Egypt, the early history of the Euphrates valley is, like 
 all early histories, overlaid with legendary and miraculous 
 elements, so that it is difficult to disentangle fact from 
 fable. 
 
 The old Hebrew tradition, almost certainly borrowed 
 from the Chaldaean, brought from Ur, spoke T^e Garden 
 of the "Garden of Eden,*' as the earliest of Eden, 
 home of mankind and pictured it as an abode of bliss. 
 
 Eden stretched her line 
 From Auran eastward to the royal towers 
 Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings, 
 Or where the sons of Eden long before 
 Dwelt in Telassar : in this pleasant soil 
 His far more pleasant garden God ordained : 
 
24 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 Out of the fertile ground he caused to grow 
 All trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, tasto ; 
 And all amid them stood the tree of life, 
 High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit 
 Of vegetable gold ; and next to life. 
 Our death, the tree of knowledge, grew fast by, 
 Knowledge of good, bought dear by knowing ill. 
 Southward through Eden went a river large, 
 
 And now divided into four main streams. 
 
 Buns diverse, wandering many a famous realm 
 
 And country, whereof here needs no account ; 
 
 But rather to tell how, if art could tell 
 
 How from that sapphire fount the crisped brooks, 
 
 Boiling on orient pearl and sands of gold. 
 
 With mazy error under pendent shades 
 
 Ban nectar, visiting each plant, and fed 
 
 Flowers worthy of Paradise, which not nice art 
 
 In beds and curious knots, but nature boon 
 
 Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain, 
 
 Both where the morning sun first warmly smote 
 
 The open field, and \vhero the unpierced shade 
 
 Imbrowned the noontide bowers : thus was this place, 
 
 A happy rural seat of various view ; 
 
 Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm ; 
 
 Others whose fruit, burnished with golden rind, 
 
 Hung amiable, Hesperian fables true, 
 
 If true, here only, and of delicious taste : 
 
 Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks 
 
 Grazing the tender herb, were interposed. 
 
 Or palmy hillock ; or the flowery lap 
 
 Of some irriguous valle> spread her store. 
 
 Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose.* 
 
 The locality which at any rate was in the writer's mind 
 when he penned the opening chapters of Genesis, would 
 seem to Sir W. \Viilcocks to have been identified with 
 some degree of probability by his recent surveys in 
 Mesopotamia-t A careful examination of levels seems to 
 him to indicate that at a very remote period the 
 Euphrates a little below the modern village of Hit, due 
 
 • Milton, Paradise Lost, Bk. IV. 210-256. 
 
 t See the article " New Light on. the Story of the Flood," by Bev. 
 J, O'F, WiJlcocks, in Pearson's Magazine, April, 1911, p. 418t 
 
 f 
 
 i 
 
^ 
 
THE EUPHEATES COUNTRY 
 
 25 
 
 * 
 
 west of Bagdad, split into four rivers, answering to the 
 description in Genesis. The " Garden of Pleasantness " 
 (the meaning of *' Eden ") may then be imagined to have 
 been the country near the present village of Anah, 
 which is still one vast fruit-garden, a few miles higher 
 up, where the Euphrates issues from the hill-country 
 of Armenia. Perhaps this is a hint that the earliest 
 ancestors of the Chaldaeans came originally from the 
 upper waters of that great river; and it has been 
 suggested that ''the Sons of God" may have been the 
 self-arrogated title of some isolated and exclusive race 
 living in the highlands of that district. It must, how- 
 ever, be noted that the rich alluvial plain of Babylon in 
 the south was anciently called Edin, which is suspiciously 
 like the "Eden" of Genesis. 
 
 The Euphrates seems likewise to have furnished the 
 setting for the ancient story of the Flood as found in 
 both Hebrew and Chaldaean literature. The 
 Biblical account is too familiar to bear 
 quotation ; but the reader may be reminded in passing 
 of one or two details. Noah's ark was made, says the 
 story, of '* gopher " wood : ''goofa" to this day is the 
 local name for the round coracles of poplar wood used on 
 the Euphrates. *' AH the high mountains " which the 
 rising water was said to have covered, should read 
 " all the high deserts " : the water rose fifteen cubits, 
 scarcely sufficient to cover "mountains," but quite 
 enough to flood all the surrounding desert. Assyrio- 
 Babylonian literature was very rich in Flood stories : 
 quite recently a fragment was unearthed containing a 
 version of it at Calneh (one of Nimrod's cities), and 
 probably many more will be brought to light. In all 
 probability the historical foundation for them all was 
 an unusually great and disastrous flood of the 
 Euphrates, The survivors* story went on being repeated 
 
 The Flood. 
 
26 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOKLD 
 
 through succeeding ages and, of course, lost nothhig in 
 the telling, till at last the waters rose so high as to cover 
 all the earth and the first land to reappear was the 
 summit of AFount Ararat ! Primitive men did not know 
 how to build dams and sluices and dykes, and the story 
 of a great flood is one of the most universal traditions. 
 We find it in India, China, Persia, Egypt, and in Greece, 
 where the place of the Biblical Noah is taken by Deucalion. 
 In Chaldaean literature one account of the Flood 
 occurs in a fragment of the poem of Gilgamesh. The 
 ^^ hero there is Shamashnapishtim, who tells 
 
 Chaldaean the story, and the scene is laid in the city 
 tradition. ^^ Shurippak on the Euphrates.* ^' All was 
 destroyed among living things upon the earth; the 
 horrible flood rose up even to heaven, the brother 
 saw his brother no more, and one man no longer 
 knew another. In heaven the gods were afraid, they 
 went up to the heaven of Anu. There they remained 
 and moved not, huddled together like dogs. ... Six 
 days passed and as many nights ; as the seventh day 
 drew near, the rain of the flood abated. . . . After 
 seven days I sent forth a dove ; the dove went, turned 
 this way and that and found no place where to alight, 
 and then she returned unto me. I caused a swallow to 
 come forth and let her go ; the swallow went, turned 
 this way and that and found no place where to alight, 
 and then returned unto me. I caused a raven to come 
 forth and let him go; the raven found some carrion 
 upon the waters ; he did eat and came back no more. 
 Then I raised the altar of my burnt offering upon the 
 peak of the mount. The gods smelled the smell thereof, 
 yea, they smelled a goodly smell. The gods gathered 
 together like unto flies over above my sacrifice. . . .'* 
 
 * Westphal and Du Pontet, "The Law and the Prophets" 
 (Macmillan), p. 53 (referred to later as Westphal). 
 
 THE EUPHRATES COUNTRY 
 
 27 
 
 In another version the hero, this time called Xisu- 
 thros, is ordered to bury in the city of Sippara (the 
 Sepharvaim of the Bible, just north of Another 
 Babylon) all the books containing the sacred account, 
 sciences of old. When he disappeared, a voice from 
 heaven told his companions to dig up the books and 
 hand them down, and told them also that the country 
 where they were was Armenia. 
 
 Excavation is busily proceeding in the country of 
 the Euphrates and Tigris, and every year adds to our 
 stock of data and pushes back further into the Early 
 past the dividing line between history and remains, 
 the prehistoric age. The oldest remains hitherto dug 
 up are some graceful specimens of pottery, probably 
 ten thousand years old, if not older, in other words 
 older by fully four thousand years than the Great 
 Pyramid ! Not very much can be made at present out 
 of an isolated find here or there; but thin and 
 apparently flimsy fibres, if twisted together in sufficient 
 numbers, can make a rope which will anchor a 
 straining Leviathan. So here every particle of 
 information helps and may go to form a new link in 
 the chain of evidence. Inscriptions which are often, 
 alas, mere fragments, do however carry back history 
 with reasonable certainty to the middle of the fourth 
 millennium (about 3500) e.g. 
 
 Everybody is familiar with the name at any rate of 
 *' Ninny's tomb," where the lovers Pyramus and Thisbe 
 were to meet by moonlight. King Ninus, 
 whose mortal remains slept within, had ^''^''^' 
 been a mighty man of valour in his day. Diodorus 
 Siculus, who of course never dulled the colour or 
 lessened the romance of any story he repeated, depicts 
 him raising and successfully training an immense army 
 by catching his recruits young, and with this formidable 
 
28 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOKLD 
 
 THE EUPHRATES COUNTEY 
 
 29 
 
 engine conquering Asia, north, south, east and west. 
 In an interval of peace he indulged, like nearly all 
 conquerors, a taste for architecture on a large scale, and 
 the result was a town twenty miles long by ten broad, 
 with walls a hundred feet high and fifteen hundred 
 towers, bearing the world-famous name of Nineveh, in 
 memory of its founders. He may possibly be the 
 potentate referred to in the Bible under the more 
 familiar name of Nimrod, who *' began to be a mighty one 
 on the earth," and *'was a mighty hunter before the 
 Lord," who ruled in Babel and Erech and Accad, and 
 **went forth into Assyria and builded Nineveh."* 
 
 Scarcely less famous is that monarch's queen, 
 Semiramis. This lady had an extraordinary history. 
 Semiramis ^^ course, she was surpassingly beautiful: 
 that quality she possessed in common with 
 most heroines. But in certain other respects her destiny 
 was peculiar. Her mother, a priestess, was metamor- 
 phosed into a fish. She herself being exposed as an 
 infant on a barren hillside, was fed by doves, till she 
 was rescued by a peasant. She helj^ed King Ninus to 
 capture a Bactrian stronghold which had obstinately 
 defied all his efforts, and became bis wife. On the king's 
 death she erected over his body a gigantic sepulchre a 
 mile high, and built and adorned Babylon as a companion 
 city to Nineveh. Finally, it being obviously quite out of 
 the question for her to die as other w^omen do, when her 
 time came, she assumed the form of a dove and wint^ed 
 her way into space. 
 
 Thus Diodorus, and a pleasing tale it makes. But, 
 alas, the critics tell us that both Ninus and his super- 
 More sober human consort must be regarded as almost 
 facts. ^ certainly mythical. However, no need to 
 despair. Even as reconstructed by modern learninc^ 
 
 ♦ Genesis x. 8-J2. 
 
 and scepticism, life in those days and places was not 
 entirely devoid of interest, variety or excitement. There 
 was no central government to oppress the world with 
 a load of dull uniformity. Independent states, rival 
 capitals, were the fashion. Division meant, then as 
 always, weakness, and the land was subjected to 
 frequent invasion. Sumerians and Semites The 
 fought for the mastery in this human cockpit. Sumerians. 
 The former, who were the first in prolonged possession, 
 left an indelible mark behind them in their language 
 which survived its inventors for long ages and remained 
 the vehicle of law and religion, much as Latin has 
 survived the vanished Eoman Empire in law-books and 
 the Mass and Papal decrees. 
 
 A detailed account of the events of those early ages 
 in the Euphrates and Tigris valleys, even if it were 
 possible, would take up too much space and Early 
 in the end would only confuse the reader's ^story. 
 mind. Modern research has proceeded rather unevenly ; 
 one site has been more thoroughly explored than another,' 
 and the fuller knowledge thus acquired may tend to 
 attach to that place a disproportionate importance 
 beyond its real merits as compared with its hitherto less- 
 known neighbours. It will be sufficient to bear in mind 
 that for many centuries there was no unification. There 
 was a collection of rival states, much as in England in 
 the days before King Alfred, and, as in that case, some- 
 times one state held, or claimed, the hegemony, 
 sometimes another. At one time Lagash (modern Tello) 
 IS the capital of a dynasty founded by Ur-Nina, perhaps 
 the real character on whom the story of Ninus was built. 
 There is a famous monument now in the Louvre (unless 
 by this time it has gone the way of Monna Lisa !) which 
 bears pictorial witness to this primitive potentate. In 
 one scene slaughtered enemies are being devoured by 
 
 J 
 
I 
 
 30 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 vultures ; in another the king is striking with a heavy 
 mace a wicker cage crammed with naked prisoners. 
 How long will the fallacy of *' the good old days *' sur- 
 vive? The laudator tcmporis acti always assumes that 
 he would have been on the winning and possessing 
 side or forgets that there was another. 
 
 Ur-Nina built or re-built Nineveh. The last of his 
 race was defeated by an assailant possessing an unfair 
 advantage in the fearsome name of Lugal-Zaggisi. This 
 polysyllabic conqueror established his capital at Erech, 
 a little north of Ur of the Chaldees, and his word, or at 
 any rate his sword, was law from the Persian Gulf to the 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 Then, as now, irrepressible nations wanted their 
 " place in the sun " and were ready to fight for it. The 
 Sargon I. ^^^^^ ^^'^^ empire in those regions was founded 
 by a Semite, Sargon I. (Sargina) of Accad or 
 Agade, whose date according to the traditions would be 
 about 3800 b.c. The story says that he was concealed 
 at his birth, sent adrift in an ark of bulrushes on the 
 waters of the Euphrates, and rescued and brought up 
 by *' Akki the water-carrier." An Assyrian co^Dy of the 
 ancient inscription runs thus * : — 
 
 ** I am Sargina, the great King; the King of Agani. 
 My mother knew not my father: my family were the 
 rulers of the land. 
 
 ** My city was the city of Atzu-pirani which is on the 
 banks of the river Euphrates. 
 
 **My mother conceived me: in a secret place she 
 brought me forth : 
 
 ** She placed me in an ark of bulrushes : with bitumen 
 my door she closed up : 
 
 *' She threw me into the river, which did not enter 
 into the ark to me. 
 
 * Westpliul, p. 155. 
 
 THE EUPHRATES COUNTRY 
 
 81 
 
 i 
 
 '' The river carried me : to the dwelling of Akki the 
 water-carrier it brought me. 
 
 ''Akki the water-carrier in his goodness of heart lifted 
 me up from the river. 
 
 *' Akki the water-carrier brought me up as his own 
 son. ..." 
 
 The concealment, the ark of bulrushes, the river, the 
 water-carrier, all reminds us instantly of Moses on the 
 Nile and Romulus and Remus on the Tiber. Rivers 
 played a large part in the life of ancient nations in the 
 days when they did the work of the post office, the 
 railway, the water company, and the sanitary engineer 
 all rolled into one. 
 
 Sargina repeatedly invaded Syria and Palestine. 
 He set up statues on the shores of the Medi- sargon's 
 terranean, and came home naturally laden conquests. 
 with rich spoil, including even copper from the distant 
 mmes in the Sinai peninsula. 
 
 His son Naram-Sin, who adopted the title *' King of 
 the Four Zones " and was addressed as the '' God of 
 Agade " (Accad), anticipated by fully three 
 thousand years the business-like reforms of ^*'*°'-^^- 
 Darius the Persian; for he bound the whole empire 
 together by a network of roads and an elaborate postal 
 system. Land-surveys, probably, one suspects, for 
 taxation purposes, and astronomical observations (let 
 us hope, for more innocuous ends), were also carried 
 out and carefully recorded for the royal library. 
 
 After his death, the seat of empire was transferred 
 to Ur, afterwards the birthplace of Abraham. In the 
 reign of his son Dungi (about 2750 b.c.) urofthe 
 foreign trade seems to have flourished, for Chaldees. 
 quarried stone was imported from Lebanon, copper from 
 Arabia, gold and precious stones from the desert 
 between Palestine and Egypt, and dolerite from Sinai. 
 
32 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 This Semitic dynasty of Ur was followed bv an 
 
 Arabia dynasty which re-built Babylon J1 foLZ 
 
 Hammurabi. ^^^ ^eat of government, and the fame of 
 
 Sargon was destined to be eclipsed bv it« 
 
 great law-giver Hammurabi, also called Hrmmuran 
 
 country and drove the invaders out with heavyToss 
 
 A word of caution on the subject of chronJlo.v In 
 deahngwxth the eighth or even\he ninircetu^ ,'o 
 Chronology. ^^^ "^ Safe ground. But before that, tbe 
 
 tbe second, tS or Zt mm *' ^^"'*''"'° ^''^'"^ ''^'^ 
 extremely difficult aid IpZrbv'm '' ""'"^' 
 
 jno xr^eSbr^s^^^^^^^^ 
 
 teC^rV'T^' 1 'r;'' ^"^ consecutive" or 17 
 lemporaiy. In early Hebrew history it is ,,rpftv 
 certain that some of the so-called "Judges" ivlt^ 
 
 K'i:nth";Mrt^'''"^',?' ^'^ eitCdX 
 
 yeaS'^Hhfi^ e r4ett^Vlf r^ ^^^^^^T ''^^ 
 iiuvve\er, wHen all is said and done thp Pv«..f .in* 
 
 aaie oi bargon I. or Sarfriri'i '\M\n .. i 
 
 ated On f t.n .fi f^",^'^! ^^^^ ^-^"^ may be exagger- 
 ated. On the other band it may not. We miv fin.1 
 some day that it was understated. It is enT^^h o 
 remember that the betTinmna«nfPn.i . enough to 
 iustlv Plnim ar. ^^^^^^^^^^"P^^i'atean history can 
 J^i^% claim an immense antiquity, equal to that of 
 
 It is interesting to note resemblances between the 
 
 THE EUPHRATES COUNTHY 83 
 
 two countries in other paints besides the antiquity of 
 their civihzations. In both there is a mighty 
 river subject to recurring inundations, in both J^d ^"' 
 an almost total absence of timber and an Euphrates 
 unlimited abundance of clay suitable for ''*"'^'* 
 making bricks. Accordingly, in Egypt most of the 
 pyramids, excapt the greatest, were built of bricks in 
 millions, and pictures on the monuments and stories 
 m the Bible bear ample testimony to the laborious 
 occupation of brick-making. Similarly, the buried 
 town-sites along the banks of the Euphrates under their 
 shrouds of sand contain veritable mountains of bricks 
 Along both rivers, bricks, bricks, everywhere. Evidently 
 there were no trade-unions with cramping restrictions 
 in those days ; on the contrary, the foreman took the 
 shape of a taskmaster whose whip exacted a '' full tale " 
 for every day. 
 
 The Euphrates and Tigris valleys have been men- 
 tioned in a general way as one of the great centres of 
 the world's earliest civilizations. There is 
 perhaps no more common historical fallacv p!'/^'^ ^""^ 
 inan the confusion of Assyrians and Baby- distin- 
 lonians. Many people inaccurately use the ^''"^''^• 
 names as convertible terms. They may be reminded at 
 once of a quite famihar fact, that in the case of the 
 Hebrews the inhabitants of Samaria and the northern 
 kingdom of Israel were carried off into captivity by the 
 Assyrians (722 b.c), while those of Jerusalem and Judah 
 were transplanted by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (588 
 B.C.) Between the two events there was a distance of a 
 hundred and thirty years, and in the interval Nineveh 
 had been wiped out and Assyria had ceased pohtically 
 to exist. The two states were distinct and were rivals 
 It 18 quite true that for a long period of their history 
 they were closely associated, now the one and now the 
 
 D 
 
 V 1 
 
34 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 other being the predominant partner in the firm. But 
 they were distinct geographically and in character. The 
 Assyrians occupied the country at one time called 
 Mesopotamia, that is the tract enclosed between the 
 upper portions of the Euphrates and the Tigris as far 
 south as the point where the two great rivers draw very 
 close together a little north of Babylon. The Baby- 
 lonians inhabited the land south of that point down to 
 the Persian Gulf, a country called indifferently Chaldaea 
 or bhinar. As regards general characteristics, a broad 
 distmction may be drawn. The Babylonians were a 
 nation of traders governed by priests. Business and 
 religion were their ruling passions. The Assyrians, on 
 the other hand, were a nation of soldiers. Their capital 
 Nineveh was an armed camp, and war was the breath 
 of their nostrils. They gloried in aggression and con- 
 quest, and as a consequence made themselves highly 
 unpopular with their neighbours, who at last rooted 
 them up as an intolerable nuisance. 
 
 In architecture, sculpture, and literature, the two 
 kingdoms had much in common. Any schoolboy can tell 
 Assyrian ^^^ *' '*"<=e the obvious characteristics of their 
 Babvioni>.„ f"^- '' l"^ attitudes, heavy drapery, beards and 
 Art.^ ^a"' of "formal cut " and elaborately curled, 
 
 and enormously prominent muscles in the 
 arms and legs. A favourite decoration of palaces was 
 colossal sculptured bulls, with wings and human full- 
 bearded heads. Babylonia, being entirely devoid of stone, 
 rehed entirely upon bricks for its architecture, but 
 Assyria was more fortunate in possessing good stone on 
 the upper reaches of the great rivers in the north, and the 
 wal s of Assyrian palaces were lavishly embellished with 
 tnely sculptured slabs in low relief, a large collection of 
 which may be studied at the British Museum. In both 
 the kingdoms, as was also the case in Egypt, architecture 
 
 THE EUPHRATES COUNTRY 35 
 
 if^JZt^'tTrf'' ""^ '^'^ - beauty of finish 
 abo'ut rersize Ta 11". "."''' i^pressiveness 
 
 sufficed them. Their tastVf'" '"'^' ' ^""^ *^^t 
 better Ti,r ®' ^^^^ ^^ t^eir soul, knew no 
 
 better. They were a race who believed in ^TJ ^^ 
 power, whether commercial or military 'd ff "1 
 from a kind of " megalomania •' ^^,^' '"^^, ^'^^^'^^^ 
 ready to hand in theThaoe of J^^^T^ ^^'^^ t^e labour 
 flowed in from coX^ZlZrZ:^e Ss 
 
 ^^ate the Parthenon and £:\:^ ^^ 
 In religion we are reminded of E<TVDt TT.^. 
 
 magic. In fact, an atmosphere of demons pnri^ • 
 
 ir„"" ss's 'r'"" "^^"«'°^ cTe: 
 
 «o": lo ?r ,r" «■•' ?-•• "'t « *c- 
 
 v/yZ:Te'y ho^lTerre'v li!'- ^" T't ''T' 
 are the great wo^-ms whic'hrh^ \:,- ^^^^ '.^^^ 
 
 i 
 
86 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOKLD 
 
 ^1 
 
 They journey from house to house, for the door stoppeth 
 them not, the bar driveth them not back, but they slip 
 like a serpent under the door, they steal in like the air 
 through the cracks of the folding-doors. They tear a 
 child from a man's knees, they entice the innocent from 
 Ins fruitful house, they are the voice of threatening 
 which pursueth him from behind." 
 
 Not even the lower animals are safe, for 
 
 ** They force the raven to fly away on his wings, and 
 they oblige the swallow to flee from her nest; they put to 
 flight the bull, they put to flight the lamb, even the evil 
 devils which lie in ambush." * 
 
 The Chaldaean's superstition and apprehension made 
 him resort to all manner of incantations. He was a 
 Magic. iiiaster of magic, and was famous for it 
 
 throughout the world for many centuries. 
 
 But there was a brighter side to the picture. The 
 Chaldaean was deeply religious. He was meditative, and 
 Eeiigious in the secret depths of his soul, he yearned 
 instinct. for better things : 
 
 " Thou man yet unborn, put thy trust in Nebo, and 
 m no other god put thy confidence." f 
 
 He believed that a joyful resurrection from the dead 
 was possible for him who could drink of the living water 
 springing in the palace of Allat, Queen of the Shades. 
 The legend of Ishtar told how, for love of Dumuzi, the 
 shepherd-boy, Ishtar, Queen of Love and Life, went 
 down into hell and stole the sacred water. The poem 
 of Etana and the Eagle of Shamesh expressed the 
 longing of the Chaldaean spirit to know what lay hidden 
 ** behind the veil." The Eagle bears Etana aloft, 
 " higher still and higher," till as he looks 
 
 " The earth is now no more than a square in a garden, 
 And the wide sea is no lar ger than a splash of water.'' J 
 
 * Westphal, p. 128. VlbiI^^:T2^, J I6id., p. 134. 
 
 THE EUPHRATES COUNTRY 37 
 
 But Etana lost heart, and bade the Eagle stop, and 
 
 The Chaldaean had a' more "anxious" religion if 
 
 lattei s self-r.ghteonsness and self-confidence. He was 
 conscious of his own feebleness, and had a profound 
 reverence for the invisible powers. It was a^el.gfon 
 winch was destined to go further. Out of Chaldaea olZ 
 
CHAPTER HI 
 
 THE AOE OP TIIR PATRIARCnS — (ilOO-lTOO B.C.) 
 
 But a few years ago the Ril.Iical narrativos of the 
 ancestors of the Hebrew., standing alone an.l „„corro- 
 
 "t™h ''^'■f**"^^ ^i'""'"^'- •"•••I'i'octural, or other 
 «nd the iirchaeologieal evidence, had begun to lose 
 
 ;;fhs "" '"If." °^ "!""■ '•"'^'"y- There were not wanting 
 critics who denied the " Tatriarchs " any 
 personal existence. The ancient historian was supposed 
 to have created these national heroes, and to have 
 atiributed to them the experiences of the nation or 
 tribe Lven to those who were less extreme, and 
 accepted their historical character, yet the figures of 
 Abraham, and Jacob and his sons, still moved like 
 imsubstantial shadows across a dimlv-lit sta^e But 
 now, tlianks to modern research and discovery, liaht is 
 pouring on to the scene. The details of the background 
 are becoming more and more distinct, and the ghostly 
 shadows stand out as substantial living men, thinkiiir; 
 speaking, and acting, in a world daily becoming mor°e' 
 
 In the last chapter we took a general survey of men 
 and things in the earliest times, on the banks of the 
 ?h.5de'; ^"P^'^'f ^''^ t»'e Tigris. Excavations have 
 n^ ,^ ' *''"f"y •'^en started on the site of Ur of the 
 Chaldees the home of Abraham, and every year will 
 no doubt, bring to light fresh and valuable discoveries 
 bearing on the history of his time. Already we possess 
 an invocation to the chief local god, Nannar, Lord of Ur 
 
 88 
 
 THE AGE OP THE PATRIABCHS 39 
 
 " Lord, prince of the gods, who in heaven and on 
 
 the ends of the sky, hke a vast sea, with fear and awe. 
 . . . m ho.aven. who is supreme ? Thou, thou only art 
 upreme-Thou, whose decree is made known in 
 heaven, and the angels bow their faces- Thou, whose 
 decree IS made known upon earth, and the spirits of the 
 abyss kiss the ground-Thou, whose decree breatheth 
 above like the wind, and the stubble and the pasture 
 become crtile-Thou, whose decree is fulfilled on the 
 earth below, and the grass and all green things grow. 
 • . . Ihou whose decree hath called forth right and 
 .lustice, and the peoples have published thy statutes- 
 Ihou. whoso decree, neither in the ends of heaven, nor 
 m the hidden depths of the earth, can any man know- 
 lliy decree who can learn, who can oppose it ? . . " • 
 
 AVith this grand psalm of praise compare the 
 humble prayer — 
 
 "0 Lord, my sins are many, my misdeeds are great. 
 I have done wrong and know it not; I have committed 
 sm and know it not ; I have walked in shortcomings 
 
 and know them not I am overcome with grief I 
 
 am overpowered I can no more lift up my head toward 
 my merciful god . . . Lord, reject not thy servant, and 
 If he have thrown himself into impetuous waters, stretch 
 out a hand toward him ; the sins I have committed 
 
 have mercy on them, the misdeeds I have done, scatter 
 
 them to the winds, and my manifold faults, rend them 
 
 like a garment ! . . ." f 
 
 Evidently Abraham was born and bred in a country 
 
 which was deeply religious, and his life at Ur .^ . 
 
 had been a fit preparation for his great anr""" 
 
 destiny. But we know yet more of the ideas ^""""abi. 
 
 of his time. In 1902 French explorers under M de 
 
 * Westphal, p. 134. ^ Ibid. p. 135. 
 
40 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 Morgan made a sensational discovery— no less than the 
 very laws of Hammurabi, King of Babylon, the great 
 ruler whose empire extended from the Persian Gulf to 
 the Mediterranean, and who is represented in the Book 
 of Genesis, under the name of Amraphel, King of Shinar 
 as suffering a reverse at the hands of Abraham (Gen.' 
 XIV. 1 ff.). The monument, which was found at Susa 
 (long afterwards the Persian capital), consists of a pillar 
 of black diorite, nearly eight feet high, presenting on one 
 side a picture of King Hammurabi receiving the laws 
 from the Sun-god, Samas, and, beneath this, sixteen 
 columns containing 1114 lines of cuneiform writing and, 
 on the other side, twenty-eight columns containing over 
 2500 hues. This wonderful code of laws, the oldest 
 known in the world (date about 2285-2242 b.c), was 
 held in such respect that, two thousand years later, it 
 was still used as a text-book in the schools throughout 
 Babylonia. The following extracts are taken from the 
 translation by Mr. C. H. W. Johns.* They are 
 necessarily few and short, but they will, perhaps, suffice 
 here and there to qualify our self-conceit in the superior 
 virtue of our boasted twentieth-century civilization. 
 
 Extracts from the ''Law of Righteousness.'* 
 
 Assanlf.~l( a man has struck his father, his hands 
 one shall cut off. 
 
 If a man has caused the loss of a gentleman's eye 
 his eye one shall cause to be lost. ' 
 
 If he has shattered a gentleman's limb, one shall 
 shatter his limb. 
 
 If he has caused a poor man to lose his eye or 
 shattered a poor man's limb, he shall pay one mina of 
 silver. 
 
 T ^* ".^J"! ^^^^'^ ^^'^'^ °^ ^^"^^ ^° ^^^ World," translated by C H W 
 Johns, M. A. T.&T. Clark. Edinburgh, 1903. * 
 
 THE AGE OF THE PATRIAHCHS 41 
 
 oi, u \S^^*f^.^''^^'« s^'-^ant has struck a free-man, one 
 shall cut off his ear. 
 
 If a man has struck a man in a quarrel and has 
 caused him a wound, that man shall swear - 1 do not 
 strike him knowing," and shall answer for the doctor. 
 
 Carelessness.-U a man has hired an ox and throuoh 
 neglect or by blows has caused it to die, ox for ox to the 
 owner of the ox he shall render. 
 
 n../^/i ^'^^. ^."" ? ^'' '^'^'^^ ^'''' g^^'^d a ^an and 
 caused him to die, that case has no remedy 
 
 If the ox has pushed a man, by pushing has made 
 known his vice, and he has not blunted his horn, has not 
 shut up his ox, and that ox has gored a man of gentle 
 birth and caused him to die, he shall pay half a mina 
 01 Sliver. 
 
 Chihhrn.~l{ a man has set his face to cut off his 
 son, has said to the judge " I will cut off my son " the 
 judge shall enquire into his reasons, and if the soil has 
 not committed a heavy crime which cuts off from son- 
 ship, the father shall not cut off his son from sonship 
 
 If a man has apportioned to his son, the first in his 
 eyes, held, garden, and house, has written him a sealed 
 deed after the father has gone to his fate, when the 
 bio hers divide, the present his father gave him he 
 
 in fhV ; *°f .r? T^ ^^"""^ ^" '^^^^ ^^^'^ equally 
 in the goods of the father's house. 
 
 Contrach.-I{ a man has bought silver, gold, man- 
 servant or maidservant, ox or sheep or ass. or anything 
 whatever is name, from the hand of a man's son, or o"f 
 a man s slave, without witness and bonds, or has 
 
 ltZ7l *5',fr' °" •^'P'''"' ^^^^ '"^i tas acted the 
 thief, he shall be put to death. 
 
 If a man has taken a field to cultivate and has not 
 caused the corn to grow in the field, one shall put him 
 to account, and he shall give corn like its neighbour 
 
42 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 ii 
 
 If a builder has built a house for a man and has 
 not made strong his work, and the house he built has 
 fallen, and he has caused the death of the owner of the 
 house, that builder shall be put to death. 
 
 Ih'hta. — If a debt has seized a man, and he has 
 given his wife, his son, his daughter for the money, or 
 has handed over to work off the debt, for three years 
 they shall work in the house of their buyer or exploiter, 
 in the fourth year he shall fix their liberty. 
 
 If a man has a debt upon him and a thunderstorm 
 ravaged his field . . . in that year he shall not return 
 corn to the creditor, he shall alter his tablet and shall 
 not give interest for that year. 
 
 Doctors. — If a doctor has treated a gentleman for a 
 severe wound with a bronze lancet and has cured the 
 man, or has opened an abscess of the eye for a gentle- 
 man and has cured the eye of the gentleman, he shall 
 take ten shekels of silver. 
 
 If the patient be the son of a poor man, he shall take 
 five shekels of silver. 
 
 If he be a gentleman's servant, the master of the 
 servant shall give two shekels of silver to the doctor. 
 
 If the doctor has treated a gentleman for a severe 
 wound with a lancet of bronze and has caused the 
 gentleman to die, or has opened an abscess of the eye 
 . . . and has caused the loss of the gentleman's eye, 
 one shall cut off his hands. 
 
 If a doctor has cured the shattered limb of a gentle- 
 man, or has cured the diseased bowel, the patient shall 
 give five shekels of silver to the doctor. 
 
 If he has treated a cow or a sheep for a severe 
 wound and has caused it to die, he shall give a quarter 
 of its price to the owner of the cow or sheep. 
 
 Hiishand and wife. — If a man has been taken captive 
 and in his house there is maintenance, his wife has gone 
 
 THE AGE OF THE PATRIARCHS 43 
 
 out from her house and entered into the house of 
 another, one shall put that woman to account and 
 throw her into the waters. 
 
 If a man has left his city and fled, his wife has 
 entered the house of another, if that man shall return 
 and has seized his wife, because he hated his city and 
 fled, the wife of the truant shall not return to her 
 husband. 
 
 If a man who has brought in a present to the house 
 of his father-in-law, has given a dowry, has looked upon 
 another woman and has said to his father-in-law ** Thy 
 daughter I will not marry," the father of the daughter 
 shall take to himself all that he brought him. 
 
 If the father of the daughter has said ** My daughter 
 I will not give thee," he shall make up and return 
 everything that he brought him. 
 
 Landlord and tenant. — If a man has given his field 
 for produce to a cultivator, and has received the produce 
 of his field, and afterwards a thunderstorm has ravaged 
 the field or carried away the produce, the loss is the 
 cultivator's. 
 
 If he has not received the produce of his field, and 
 has given the field either for one half or for one third, 
 the corn that is in the field the cultivator and the owner 
 shall share according to the tenour of their contract. 
 
 If a man has given a field to a gardener to plant a 
 garden .... if the gardener has not included all the 
 field in the planting, has left a waste place, he shall 
 reckon the waste place in the share which he takes. 
 
 Slaves. — If a man has caused a slave or maid to go 
 out of the gate, he shall be put to death. 
 
 If a man has harboured in his house a fugitive 
 manservant or maidservant, and has not j)roduced 
 them at the demand of the commandant, the owner of 
 that house shall be put to death. 
 
 ft 
 
 4 
 
44 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 If a man has captured a manservant or maidservant, 
 a fugitive, in the open country and Las driven him back 
 to his master, the owner of that slave shall pay him two 
 shekels of silver. 
 
 If he confine that slave in his house, and afterwards 
 the slave has been seized in his hand, that man shall be 
 put to death. 
 
 Theft. — If a man has stolen the goods of temple or 
 palace, that man shall be killed, and he who has received 
 the stolen thing from his hand shall be put to death. 
 
 If a man has stolen ox, or sheej), or ass, or pig, or 
 ship, whether from the temple or the palace, he shall 
 pay thirtyfold. If he be a poor man, he shall render 
 tenfold. If the thief has nought to pay, he shall be put 
 to death. . . . 
 
 (A very long clause provides very sensibly that in tho 
 case of an innocent purchase of stolen property, the 
 innocent buyer shall recover the purchase-money, the 
 original owner shall recover the property, and the thief 
 shall be put to death.) 
 
 If a man has stolen the son of a free-man, he shall 
 be put to death. 
 
 If a man has broken into a house, one shall kill him 
 before the breach and bury him in it. 
 
 If a man has carried on brigandage and has been 
 captured, that man shall be put to death. 
 
 If in a man's house a fire has been kindled, and a 
 man who has come to extinguish the fire has taken the 
 property of the owner of the house, that man shall be 
 thrown into that fire. 
 
 JVitnessrs. — If a man, in a case pending judgment 
 has uttered threats against the witnesses ... if that 
 case be a capital suit, that man shall be put to death. 
 
 If he has offered corn or money to the witnesses, be 
 shall himself bear the sentence of that case, 
 
 THE AGE OF THE PATllIARCIIS 45 
 
 If a man has not his witnesses near, the judge shall 
 set him a fixed time, up to six months, and if within six 
 months he has not driven in his witnesses, that man 
 has lied, he himself shall bear the blame of that case. 
 
 And so on, and so on. Where all is so interesting 
 the difliculty is to know what to omit. If any reader 
 still flatters himself that after all he was n 
 
 , . , - , Comparison 
 
 born mto a more humane and enlightened with modern 
 age than that of good King Hammurabi, let ^^^^' 
 him remember that this code of laws was drawn up 
 2250 B.C. more than four thousand years ago. And even 
 so, what a strangely modern and up-to-date ring there is 
 in many of these enactments. The marriage laws of 
 Hammurabi are too long and elaborate to be quoted 
 here ; but under them the position of a wife, on the 
 whole, need not at all fear comparison with her position 
 to-day. How long is it since the Married Women's 
 Property Act was passed ? Hammurabi anticipated it. 
 Landlords in their relations with their tenants were 
 not more favoured then than they are now. The laws 
 of debt were more considerate then than they were just 
 before Dickens wrote "Little Dorrit " and ** Pickwick 
 Papers." Is our modern treatment of burglars so 
 very much more scientific or satisfactory than the 
 Babylonian ? The clauses relative to breach of promise 
 of marriage show a greater sense of humour and of the 
 fitness of things and a greater regard for decency than 
 the custom of modern England. Doctors might not 
 approve of Hammurabi's medical laws— they probably 
 did not then — but no doubt operations were fewer and 
 cheaper. And finally, the very existence of all those 
 wonderful ruins gradually being unearthed and yielding 
 so rich a harvest, is sufficient proof of the excellent effect 
 of the laws against jerry-builders. Did the code show 
 
46 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOBLD 
 
 undue severity to thieves ? At the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century a man stole a sheep and was con- 
 demned to death. On second thoughts, the sentence was 
 ** commuted " to deportation for life to Botany Bay, the 
 official name of the day for Hell. His wife, wishing to 
 join her husband and seeing no other way to attain her 
 object, also stole a napkin, counting on the same penalty 
 as her husband's. The law thought otherwise : it would 
 be a bad precedent : she must be hanged. And she was 
 hanged. That happened in England in 1815. 
 
 Hammurabi has at least the excuse that he drew up 
 his code forty-two centuries earlier and twenty-three 
 before the preaching of Christ. Take it all in all, the 
 laws give ample proof not only of method and legal and 
 financial ability, but of fairness, thoughtfulness and 
 consideration. The Babylonian monarch knew human 
 nature, and was one of the world's greatest law-givers. 
 
 If anything more be needed to complete our picture 
 of the life and ideas of those far-off times, it is to be 
 Hammurabi's found in a perusal of the great king's letters, 
 letters. These clay tablets, which are among the 
 oldest pieces of Babylonian writing, are fortunately 
 quite numerous, and may be seen at any time at the 
 British Museum. They are nearly all addressed to 
 high officials and relate to a variety of subjects : the 
 dispatch of tribute, the felling of trees for the use of 
 metal-smelters, the dredging of canals, the repair of the 
 Euphrates banks, the providing of crews for barges, the 
 arrest and trial of officials for negligence or corrupt 
 practices, the investigation of charges of theft, the correc- 
 tion of the calendar, the inspection of sheep and cattle, 
 the collection of taxes, the payment of rent for land, 
 the conveyance of slaves, etc.* 
 
 ♦ See at the British Museum, Babylonian and Assyrian Eoom Table- 
 case B. ' 
 
 THE AGE OF THE PATBIABCHS 47 
 
 The study of these laws and letters only increases 
 our admiration for the courage and unflinchintr faith 
 with which Abraham exiled himself from Abraham 
 his home and kindred in a country thus emigrates, 
 admirably governed, and plunged across the desert into 
 a distant and incalculable *' Far West." It is true the 
 story ni Genesis xiv. suggests that the country round 
 the Jordan was under the jurisdiction of the Babylonian 
 potentate, but, on the other hand, the same account 
 leads us to suspect that his authority was not 
 unquestioningly recognized in that region. The battle 
 of four kings against five and Lot's capture and 
 rescue are indications of stirring times in which 
 security of hfe and property was subject to a thrilling 
 uncertainty. 
 
 Even in this advanced-and scientific age, statesmen 
 have not bean able entirely to preclude the Abraham 
 possibility of famine. The government of ^^SYV^- 
 Hammurabi failed, as many others both ancient and 
 modern have failed, to solve this problem. So Abraham 
 was driven by stress of famine to extend his wanderings 
 into Egypt; and we may note in passing the ease 
 with which he journeys from one country to another. 
 Ihere was assuredly no lack of commerce and friendly 
 intercourse between Egypt and the states of western 
 Asia. 
 
 An immense time, nearly two thousand years, had 
 elapsed since the builders of the great pyramids were 
 laid to sleep in their gigantic sepulchres. To the first 
 ancestor of the Hebrews the pyramids of Gizeh were 
 already as old as the Arch of Titus or the Colosseum 
 IS to us. But, ancient as they were, they did not 
 speak of a vanished race. The builders were gone, but 
 their descendants still held the land of their fathers, 
 and the people and their laws and customs had changed 
 
48 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 but little. The great pyramid-builders belonged to the 
 Fourth Dynasty, as we have seen. The kings of the 
 followhig dynasties, from the fifth to the eleventh 
 inclusive, are little more than mere names to us. 
 
 Under the Twelfth Dynasty (2460-22G0b.c. ?), which 
 perhaps came to an end just before Abraham crossed 
 The ti^e border in quest of corn,* Egypt entered 
 
 Dynis\^ "?^" ^^® ^^ *^® notable periods of her 
 '^' history, of which numerous substantial 
 records have come down to us. The names of this 
 dynasty are alternately Amenemhat and Usertesen. 
 Many beautiful buildings were erected at Heliopolis 
 (On). Mines were worked in Nubia and the peninsula of 
 Sinai. Amenemhat III. besides building the ** Labyrinth'* 
 with its three thousand chambers, half of them under- 
 ground, carried out what was probably the most useful 
 piece of public work undertaken in Egypt down to 
 his time, the construction of the great reservoir called 
 Moeris ( '* The Great Water " ). This was south of the 
 Delta and west of the Nile, in the Fayoum district. 
 Amenemhat had realized that the prosperity, nay the 
 very existence, of Egypt depended on the regularity of 
 the Nile-flood. Should the inundation come too early or 
 too late, should it be insufficient or excessive, the result 
 in each case was ruin. The lake Moeris, which was 
 elaborately constructed with canals and dams and 
 sluices, was intended to take the surplus water of 
 excessive inundations and store it up against a possible 
 shortage. Fifteen hundred years later Darius, King of 
 Persia, carried out a somewhat similar work for 
 water distribution in the highlands of Persia. 
 
 * The point cannot he settled definitely at present. In his latest 
 estimate, Professor Flinders Petrie makes the Twelfth Dynasty come 
 to an end one thousand years before the time of Hammurabi and 
 Abraham. 
 
 THE AGE OF THE PATKIARCHS 49 
 
 Of records of this period two at least call for notice 
 One IS a wall-painting from the tomb of Chnumhetep 
 a prmce m the reign of Usertesen 11. It 
 portrays a procession of Jewish-looking men S"''"," 
 and women carrying arms and musical instru- tlvetg^' 
 ments, and loaded baggage animals. A hiero- "^"<""- 
 
 the subject of the picture as " The coming to bring eye- 
 Sf"*//'"f * -?— , people of the Amu bring'to 
 him. 11,0 features of the figures are undoubtedly 
 Semitic: one more indication of the free intereour e 
 existing between nation and nation in the earliest times 
 The arrival in Egypt of Abraham, and later on of Tcob 
 and his family, were not isolated or extraordinary eyents 
 
 aJ^^. "T'''^ '' ''' ^"^^^•'Pt'°'^ ^•el-ti'^g to 
 
 luns tl'ius:^'""''^^'"'""' °^ «>« Twelfth Dynasty. It 
 
 gentle disposition, a governor who loved his """*• 
 city. I have not afflicted the child of the poor, nor evilly 
 entreated widows nor dispossessed owners o land no^ 
 driven out shepherds. I have not taken aZ Z 
 farmer s men for my own work. In my time was noni 
 wretched, none starved, even in the yeai. of famh e for 
 I had caused all the fields of my province to be p Whed 
 
 tTereT^Non^'i'";^'^"'^^*^"''^^-*'^-^'^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 thereof, fs one suffered hunger; I gave equally to the 
 
 widow and to her that had a husband ; I preferred not 
 
 the great man to the lowly in all that I gave wTen 1 
 
 floods of the Nile were great, he that hadTown.The" me 
 
 TZZf''? T'i ' ^epj -thingfrom the p^du" 
 01 t^e field, t Truly a noble record and examnlP 
 speaking to us across a gulf of four thousand years^' 
 
 E 
 
 i 
 
50 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 But we are not left to wall-paintings or epitaphs or 
 remains of dykes and dams for our conception of the 
 Kahun, an ^ojpt of the Twelfth Dynasty. Thanks to 
 Egyptian the fortunate and remarkable discoveries of 
 Pompeu. Professor Flinders Petrie,* we need not be 
 content with broad outlines, but can fill in even the 
 details of the picture and make it, so to speak, step out 
 of its frame and live and speak. At Kahun, in the 
 Fayoum district, after exploring the unique pyramid, 
 which differs from all others in that its lower part 
 consists of natural rock cut into shape, Professor Petrie 
 unearthed a small Imt complete town of the Twelfth 
 Dynasty. It is a kind of Egyptian Pompeii. The 
 remains at the foot of Vesuvius, lately recovered from 
 the deep layer of volcanic ashes, have revealed to our 
 gaze a fashionable Roman watering-place of the first 
 century a.d. The excavations at Kahun have laid 
 bare an Egyptian town of the Twelfth Dynasty, more 
 than two thousand years older than its Roman counter- 
 part. It has slept under its covering of desert sand 
 secure against either destruction or alteration, and 
 now, quite imconscious of its long sleep, like Rip 
 van Winkle, it wakes up looking as it did when it 
 fell asleep. The town was evidently orginally built 
 for the use of the men employed in the construction 
 of the neighbouring pyramid. It was square and walled. 
 There were main and side-streets. The larger houses 
 had courtyards surrounded with pillars. The roofs 
 consisted of beams covered with mud-plaster and straw, 
 but innumerable examples were found of brick arches] 
 thus proving that the principle of the arch was known 
 and in common use before 2000 r.c. Among the count- 
 less finds were tools of all sorts, both copper and flint, 
 coffins, necklaces, ivory statuettes and other carvings,' 
 
 ♦ " Ten Years' Digging in Egypt," by Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie. 
 
 THE AGE OF THE PATRIARCHS 51 
 
 balls of thread, linen cloth, knives, copper mirrors, fishing- 
 nets. In the rubbish-heaps were papyri, pages of medical 
 and vetermary works, private letters and accounts, etc. 
 Ihere were agricultural implements of every description, 
 rakes, hoes, sickles, grain-winnowcrs, wooden fire-drills' 
 and brick-moulds. Last, but not least, many kinds of 
 games, such as whip-tops, tip-cats, draughts and dolls 
 show how little child-nature has changed since Usertesen 
 II. housed his workmen and their families by the site 
 of his pyramid. 
 
 Nor is this all. Not only have we the pyramids 
 before our eyes, and the houses of the builders of them 
 with their tools and even their children's toys, Egyptian ' 
 but we even know the kind of stories which fiction?*'' 
 were told round the family hearth in those remote ages 
 to while away the winter evenings. Professor Flinders 
 Petrie, to whom all lovers of Egypt are so deeply 
 indebted, has translated and collected, in two little 
 volumes, talcs of magic, tales of town and country life 
 of courtiers and peasants, of love and hate and thrilling' 
 adventure, which make the most delightful readin^r * 
 There are stories belonging to the Fifth, Sixth, Tenth, and 
 Twelfth Dynasties, which therefore give us an insicrht 
 into Egyptian life before and down to the time of Abra- 
 ham. Every student of history knows how much more 
 IS to be learnt from popular stories than from official 
 records of the real or imaginary exploits of kings. 
 
 Among tales of magic, Hordedef's Tale introduces us 
 to an interesting character called Dedi, who was 110 
 years old, consumed daily 500 loaves, a side 
 of beef, and a hundred draughts of beer, and '"^l^l^lns" 
 consequently, as would be exjiected of him, ^o^^th 
 possessed unusual powers, including that of ^^''^'^^• 
 restoring a severed head to its body. In another story 
 
 Egyptian Tales," two series (published by INIethuen, 1895). 
 
 i 
 
52 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 V 
 
 1r 
 
 ■il 
 
 a wax crocodile turns into a very real animal and devours 
 a faithless wife's lover, while in a third, a magician piles 
 one half of a lake on the other, thus gaining access to the 
 bottom and recovering a lost jewel belonging to a lady 
 of the court of King Seneferu. These tales are all very 
 ancient and have a historical background referring to 
 the Fourth Dynasty, that of the great pyramid- 
 builders. 
 
 Two thousand years later, belonging to the Twelfth 
 Dynasty, the age of Illahun, our Egyptian Pompeii, we 
 Twelfth have '' The Shipwrecked Sailor," and '' The 
 
 ?a^s!* •' The '^'^^'^^^^^^'^^ ^^ Sanehat." The former has 
 Shipwrecked very much the flavour of an Arabian Nights' 
 Sailor." entertainment, with its description of an 
 island tenanted by a serpent thirty cubits long, with 
 a beard of two cubits and a body overlaid with gold, 
 endowed with human speech and a mild and benevolent 
 disposition. The other story is less fantastic and more 
 *'Adven- interesting and instructive. It tells how on 
 Sanehat." *^^ ^^^^^^^ ^f the Pharaoh young Sanehat llees 
 pjieiune ^^'^^ '^^JV^ into Palestine, which he finds 
 flowing with milk and honey and well stocked 
 besides with figs, grapes, olives, barley,' wheat and cattle. 
 He makes himself useful and becomes important, 
 marries a tribal chief's eldest daughter, and is made 
 commander-in-chief of his father-in-law's army. His 
 career is the converse of Joseph's on a smaller scale. 
 His life among the friendly Canaanites is well described! 
 At one time he kills a redoubtable local bully in a duel 
 which anticipates by a thousand years and more that 
 between David and the gigantic Philistine. But, for all 
 his prosperity, the Egyptian is home-sick, and petitions 
 the new Pharaoh. In reply he is cordially invited to 
 return, is welcomed and ft'ted at the palace, granted 
 a house, slaves, and a pension, and at his death a 
 
 THE AGE OF THE PATBIARCHS 53 
 
 pyramid and a statue inlaid with gold. As Professor 
 Petrie says, the tale is most valuable as giving us a 
 simple ** picture of life in Palestine and Egypt """in the 
 period not long before the days of Abraham! 
 
 Such was the country and such the people visited by 
 the - Father of the Faithful." Abraham, as Genesis 
 informs us, was well and generously treated 
 by the reigning Pharaoh, who had been given te'n^Tto 
 to understand by the astute Hebrew that the ^^^estine. 
 handsome Sarah was his sister, and was accordingly 
 anxious to keep on good terms with her *' brother." 
 But the deception was detected, and the over-clever 
 stranger was politely escorted back to the frontier with 
 his wife, bag and baggage. He does not ^.em to have 
 repented of the trick, as we find him a little later 
 practising it again on the King of Gerar. Be that as it 
 may, he returned to Canaan enormously richer than 
 he left it. Uncle and nephew could now no longer 
 conveniently and without unpleasantness share the 
 same encampment and pastures. Lot separated from 
 Abraham and settled in the Plain of Jordan. 
 
 But in no long time he had cause to regret the 
 quarrelsomeness of his herdsmen on the uplands of Ai, 
 when one of those events occurred which Hammurabi's 
 help us to connect the Biblical records with ^^id. 
 contemporary ancient history as gradually revealed 
 through exploration and the decipherment of monuments. 
 Hammurabi, the powerful king of Babylon already 
 referred to (called in Genesis xiv. Amraphel, King of 
 Shinar), with three vassal kings and their armies, 
 suddenly appeared in south Canaan on a punitive 
 expedition against a confederacy of five rebel kings 
 includmg the ruler of Sodom, in whose territory Lot 
 was dwellmg. The rebels were routed and Lot carried 
 ott with the rest of the booty. Abraham had by this 
 
54 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 fi 
 
 time become a man of substance and power, as is 
 proved by the fact that on hearing this news he hastily 
 armed three hundred and eighteen of his own retainers, 
 pursued the retreating invaders, fell upon their camp at 
 night, and rescued his captive nephew. 
 
 The history of Egypt, with its alternation of con- 
 spicuous and obscure periods, may be hkened to a series 
 The "Dark ^^ brilliantly illuminated rooms connected 
 Ages " of by totally dark or dimly-lit corridors of vary- 
 Stor^*^ ing lengths. Through the dark porch and 
 vestibule of the prehistoric age we are 
 ushered into the brilliant hall of the pyramid-builders 
 of the Fourth Dynasty, where the daylight pours in, 
 giving life and reaUty to the pictures and statues along 
 the walls. Then follows a long corridor plunged in 
 almost total darkness, by which we grope our way 
 through the Fifth and following Dynasties to the 
 Eleventh, till we issue again into the dazzling light of 
 the Twelfth, where we made our last halt. On resuming 
 our journey of exploration, we once more find ourselves 
 threading our Wciy along a dimly-lit passage. The 
 darkness is not complete, for here and there a window 
 has been cut, through which a shaft of light darts in 
 and makes a bright patch on the wall opposite, 
 reveahng the pictures in every detail and making the 
 writing easily legible. Thus the vivid narratives in the 
 book of Genesis come as a pleasing contrast to the 
 obscurity which otherwise wraps round the period, 
 five hundred or six hundred years, from the Thirteenth 
 to the Seventeenth Dynasty, the **Dark Ages" of 
 Egyptian history. 
 
 Since Abraham's visit in search of corn much had 
 happened. Other visitors, of kindred race but not so 
 peacefully inclined as the stranger from Ur, had crossed 
 the border. Egypt had been invaded and almost 
 
 THE AGE OF THE PATRIARCHS 
 
 55 
 
 entirely subjugated by Asiatic nomads, known to history 
 as the Hyksos or Shepherd-kings. Unfor- ^^ 
 tunately, not very much is known of these Hyksos 
 conquerors. The name Hyksos, by which ^o^^^^tion. 
 they are commonly designated, is supposed to be 
 derived from Hiq-Shausu, meaning **Iungs of Robbers," 
 or ^' Kings of Shepherds." They were a Semitic race, 
 hailing either from Arabia or possibly from the sources 
 of the Halys and the Euphrates (the modern Armenia), 
 in which case they may have been related to the 
 Hittites, and entered Egypt by way of the Isthmus of 
 Suez, where they subsequently estabUshed an immense 
 fortified camp at Avaris.* They came with horses and 
 chariots, both quite unknown in Egypt before that time, 
 and with bows and arrows, and seem to have made an 
 easy conquest. But it is not certain that they ever 
 held the whole of Egypt under their sway. Lower {i.e. 
 Northern) Egypt they had completely in their power, and 
 fixed their new capital at Tanis ; Upper Egypt perhaps 
 for a time belonged to them also. But here the 
 national spirit was never crushed, and it was from 
 Thebes, the southern capital, that the resistance came 
 which made their tenure of power always precarious and 
 finally expelled them across that very isthmus which 
 they had crossed in triumph five hundred or six 
 hundred years before. 
 
 This foreign domination of half a thousand years 
 makes a sad break in the continuity of Egyptian history, 
 
 * The site has been discovered by Prof. Flinders Petrie (see his 
 " Egypt and Israel," p. 18) at Tel-el- Yehudiyeh, twenty miles north of 
 Cairo. It is a huge square enclosed by an earth bank 150-200 feet thick 
 and 45 feet high, and a quarter of a mile long each way. There is no trace 
 of stone or timber or brick in the whole construction. There is no 
 regular gate. The entrance was by a long sloping causeway, 200 feet 
 long, flanked by long projecting walls, and so easily defended by a 
 deadly cross-fire. 
 
56 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 Some facts, however, we can gather. They arrived after 
 the end of the Fourteenth Dynasty. The Fifteenth 
 Dynasty which reigned in Thehes offered a successful 
 resistance to the foreigners, and it would seem that 
 throughout the Hyksos occupation of Northern Egypt, 
 native Egyptian dynasties continued to sit on the throne 
 of the Pharaohs in Thebes. We find periods in which 
 there are records of two parallel series of Kings, Hyksos 
 and Theban. The Hyksos capital was at Tanis. The 
 invaders were worshippers of Baal, '' Lord of All " ; they 
 were brutal and only half-civilized; and they were of 
 course hated, being known as the " Plagues " or " Pests." 
 Being foreigners unfamiliar with the language and 
 customs of the land, and being too proud or too lazy to 
 learn them, they were content, like the Hanoverian 
 George I. in our own country, to leave matters very much 
 in the hands of capable ministers or viceroys. 
 
 All this tallies well with the Bible story of Joseph. 
 Old tradition says that the Israelites arrived in the reign 
 The ^^ *^^ Hyksos king Apepi. Now the Hyksos 
 
 Hebrews in invaders were Semites, and the arrival of 
 ^yP^- Joseph and later of Jacob and his family 
 
 during their rule would explain the wonderful career of 
 the famous minister and the cordial welcome extended to 
 the Israelites. Joseph, we are told, was made the second 
 ruler in the land,* and was no doubt one of those 
 viceroys of whom we hear as practically governing the 
 country under the Hyksos Lings. Again, Joseph warns 
 his father and brothers to tell the Pharaoh that they are 
 shepherds : the '' shepherd kings " would naturally have 
 a soft spot in their hearts for men of that occupation. 
 And lastly, the land of Goshen where Jacob and his 
 family were settled, was effectually commanded by the 
 great entrenched camp of Avaris, which would obviate 
 
 * Gen. xli. 40. 
 
 THE AGE OF THE PATRIARCHS 57 
 
 Joseph. 
 
 any risks arising from a grant of rich pastures to the 
 newcomers. 
 
 Joseph, a foreigner, a slave, and a convict, had by an 
 inspiration escaped from the darkness and solitude of 
 an unmerited dungeon into the full blaze of 
 a brilliant court and the favour of the " Son of 
 the Sun " himself, and by his administrative and 
 financial genius had saved a great country from the 
 brink of economic ruin. There was no honour and no 
 power which the Pharaoh thought too great a reward 
 for such services. '' ' Thou shalt be over my house,' 
 said he to Joseph, * and acording unto thy word shall all 
 my people be ruled ; only in the throne will I be greater 
 than thou.' And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, * See, I 
 have set thee over all the land of Egypt.' And 
 Pharaoh took off his signet-ring from his hand, and put 
 it upon Josei:)li's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of 
 fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck, and he 
 made him to ride in the second chariot which he had ; 
 and they cried before him, ' Bow the knee ' ; and he 
 set him over all the land of Egypt." * 
 
 The details of Joseph's administration are given us in 
 Genesis xli. 46-57 and xlvii. 13-26. By successive steps 
 he made his royal master the sole capitalist His adminis- 
 and the sole landowner in the realm with the Oration, 
 single exception of the priests. Well might the king's 
 gratitude be unbounded. And the minister on whom he 
 showered honours was a young man of thirty. Nor was 
 he a favourite at court only. The people throughout 
 the length and breadth of the land regarded him as the 
 saviour of their lives. With the powerful priestly caste 
 he had allied himself by marrying the daughter of a 
 priest of Heliopolis, and had secured their friendship by 
 exempting their estates from the wholesale purchase of 
 
 * Gen. xU. 41-43. 
 
58 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 land on behalf of the crown in the years of famine. 
 Some part of his popularity inevitably extended to his 
 father and brothers, and the Israelites' settlement in 
 Goshen was left in undisturbed possession for many 
 generations. 
 
 / 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 A PHILOSOPHER KING (14tH CENTURY B.C.) 
 
 Saints of hoary eld, 
 Who by old Nile or the Chaldaean plain, 
 Through grave lives lighted by a certain hope, 
 
 . passed to life 
 
 Dim centuries, ere yet the Lawgiver 
 Strode from the fiery Hill with face aflame, 
 Down to the listening Tribes. 
 
 — Lewis Morris, " Vision of Saints." 
 
 (( ) 
 
 Tis an ill wind that blows nobody good." The rule 
 of the Hyksos or Shepherd-kings had brought to Egypt 
 increased trade, and the use of rings of gold, The anti- 
 silver and bronze as money to facilitate inter- ^y^sos 
 
 '' movement : 
 
 national exchange.* It had established the Seventeenth 
 king as, with the exception of the priesthood, ^^^^^ty. 
 the sole landowner, which fact once accomplished was 
 maintained as a constitutional principle by subsequent 
 Egyptian Pharaohs. It had introduced the horse, 
 hitherto unknown, and afterwards found so useful by 
 great Egyptian conquerors, as their monuments testify. 
 But the fact remained that the " shepherds " were 
 foreigners, and foreigners the Egyptian could not abide. 
 Upper or southern Egypt, as we have seen, was never 
 thoroughly subdued by the Asiatic invaders, and it 
 continued throughout the foreign occupation to nurse 
 resistance more or less open. At last the native rulers 
 of Thebes, claiming to be the rightful Pharaohs, broke 
 
 * Evidences of this have been found as far apart as Crete and 
 Bagdad, 
 
 59 
 
 I 
 
60 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 A PHILOSOPHER-KING 
 
 61 
 
 m 
 
 out in open rebellion. The mummy of Sequenenre III. 
 of the 17th (Theban) dynasty, which has actually been 
 found, with its head frightfully hacked, bears visible 
 evidence of the desperate battle with the Ilyksos in 
 which he lost his life. He had refused a request of 
 Apepi 11. the Ilyksos king, for men and materials for a 
 great temple to the god Sutech. 
 
 The Seventeenth Dynasty raised the standard in this 
 national movement and started the cry of ** Egypt for 
 The the Egyptians," but it was reserved for the 
 
 Hyksos- Eighteenth Dynasty to complete the work of 
 eipfuedr emancipation. Ahmes, a prince of royal 
 Eighteenth blood, served under Sequenenre as the captain 
 of a ship called the Calf in the long 
 campaign against the Ilyksos Apepi. He won high 
 distinction in the fighting around Avaris, and it was 
 largely owing to his exploits that the Ilyksos invaders 
 were finally driven out of the country. Sequenenre being 
 killed in action, Ahmes was elected king of the country 
 he had so ably delivered, and became the founder of the 
 Eighteenth Dynasty (about 1580 b.c), the first of the 
 *'New Empire." 
 
 This dynasty, which shares with the Fourth (that of 
 the Pyramid-builders) and the Nineteenth (that of 
 Queen Bameses the Great and the Exodus) the 
 
 Hatshetsup, distinction of being the most popularly known 
 atasu). ^£ ^^^ ^^^^j houses of Egypt, contains several 
 great names. Amenhotep I. and Thothmes I. showed 
 themselves capable soldiers and made expeditions into 
 Syria and even Mesopotamia, conquering as far as the 
 Orontes and the Euphrates. Then came the joint rule 
 of Thothmes II. and his sister Hatshetsup (Hatasu), 
 quickly followed by the sole rule of the latter. This 
 remarkable woman, one of the few queens of antiquity 
 whose names have been preserved, was as resolute as 
 
 she was ambitious. She adopted every device to conceal 
 her sex. She changed the termination of her name 
 from'^ Chief of the Favourites" to '' Chief of the Nobles."* 
 She wore male attire on all public occasions. On 
 monuments she caused herself to be pictured with bare 
 shoulders, no breasts, a short loin-cloth, close-cut hair 
 and a false beard. Above all, she governed with a virile 
 firmness of hand. 
 
 She was succeeded by her younger brother, one of 
 the most famous of Egyptian kings, Thothmes III. 
 deservedly called '* the Great," under whom 
 the Empire reached its zenith. He carried in.^^hf 
 his victorious arms as far as Nineveh on the ^^®^'- 
 Tigris. Ethiopia, Syria, Pho3nicia, Cyprus, and even 
 Crete sent their yearly tribute to his court at Thebes. 
 The capital was filled with the rich spoils of triumphant 
 wars. To the average Englishman the name of 
 Thothmes III. is not as familiar as it deserves to be, as 
 that of the monarch who caused the erection, over three 
 thousand years ago, of the obelisk now standing on the 
 Thames Embankment, and popularly, and, of'' course, 
 inaccurately, known as " Cleopatra's Needle." 
 
 Amenhotep 11. was remarkable chiefly for his 
 ferocious temper. Thothmes IV.'s principal achieve- 
 ment was the restoration of the Sphinx by 
 clearing away the mountain of desert sand ul^^^ 
 which over-busy or indifferent predecessors successors, 
 had allowed to bury that prehistoric monument whose 
 age and origin are still a mystery. Amenhotep HI. up- 
 held the name of the dynasty for military prowess,' and 
 was, besides, a great sportsman. He fought success- 
 fully in Ethiopia and Mesopotamia, where he claims to 
 have killed 210 lions with his own hand. Thothmes IV., 
 who seems to have had some notion of diplomacy, had 
 
 * See INIaspcro, " The Struggle of the Nations," p. 23G. 
 
 i 
 
62 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 soiigbt to strengthen his northern frontiers by marrying 
 the daughter of the King of Mitanni, a North-Syrian 
 state. Amenhotep III. now followed his father's 
 example, and married Tiy, the daughter of a Syrian 
 royal prince, Yuaa, who had, no doubt, come in the 
 following of the Mitanni princess and was very powerful 
 at court. The King of Mitanni, for his part, found the 
 alliance profitable enough. Egypt was rich, and its 
 king generous. 
 
 The Empire was at its height. The capital, Thebes, 
 presented a marvellous picture of luxurious magnifi- 
 Amenhotep ^^^^®* "^^^^ palace built for Queen Tiy,* on 
 iv.'s boy- the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city, 
 ^°°^' with its romantic lake, its beautifully 
 
 coloured pavements and wall and ceiling decorations (of 
 which remains still exist), must have been one of the 
 loveliest and most entrancing spots on earth. Here it 
 was that Amenhotep IV. was born and spent his early 
 childhood. The circumstances surrounding his entrance 
 into life were certainly remarkable. Through his 
 mother he was half a Syrian. From his father, 
 Amenhotep III., ''the ^fagnificent," who died after a 
 reign of thirty-six years, at the early age of forty-eight, 
 he inherited a sickly constitution. His skull was mis- 
 shapen, and he was subject to epileptic fits. His father 
 on his deathbed had married him to Tadukhipa, 
 daughter of the King of ^Mitanni (probably a Hittite 
 tribe), thus renewmg and strengthening an old alliance. 
 The little princess, who was re-named Nefertiti, was 
 only nine years old, and her bridegroom not more than 
 ten or eleven ! In spite or because of his poor health, 
 young Amenhotep grew up meditative and philosophical, 
 
 * For fuller details on the life of Amenhotep IV. (Akhnaton) see 
 A. E. P. Weigall, " Life and Times of Akhnaton, Pharaoh of Egypt " 
 (Blackwood), from which the facts here set down are drawn. 
 
 A PHILOSOPHEB-KING 
 
 63 
 
 } 
 
 dreaming his own dreams, and communing ceaselessly 
 with his own soul on the mysteries of life and religion. 
 
 Egypt, as is well known, recognized an incredible 
 number of gods, some of whom individually boasted an 
 incredible number of titles. Most of these ^. 
 gods were originally local. In the whole priests of 
 immense hierarchy of deities at this time, ^"^°°- 
 there stood out two great and prominent rivals, Amon, 
 the god of Thebes, and Ba, the god of Heliopolis. Now, 
 as was only natural, the fortunes of the gods varied in 
 direct proportion to those of their worshippers, and the 
 supremacy of the Theban dynasties of Pharaohs had 
 made Amon the paramount god of Egypt, supplant- 
 ing the much older head of the gods, Ea, the supreme 
 deity of the Pyramid-builders and the ten Memphite 
 dynasties of the '' Old Empire.'* But the kings of the 
 Eighteenth Dynasty, who expelled the Hyksos and 
 restored Egypt to the Egyptians, saw that in forming 
 and welding a nation diplomacy was as important as 
 force. Accordingly, to make the Theban god Amon 
 acceptable to the rest of Egypt, and to veil the hard 
 fact of his supremacy, they identified him with the 
 older northern god, Ba, under the double name Amon- 
 Ba. For all this diplomatic tact, however, Amon, the 
 god of the ruling city, or, rather, his priesthood, was, in 
 fact, paramount. The priests of Ba at Heliopolis felt 
 this and resented it, and, being human, more or less 
 openly showed their resentment. The priests of Amon, 
 in turn, feared their discontent and were uncomfortable 
 and suspicious, and the more tenacious of their privi- 
 leges the more these were assailed. 
 
 Amenhotep IV., old for his years and much given to 
 thought, soon found the priests of Amon intolerable. 
 They were immensely wealthy and proportionately cor- 
 rupt and arrogant. Like the Church of the Middle 
 
64 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 Ages, tlioy had grown luxurious and self-indulgent, and 
 Amenhotep ^'^^' ^^^^^*^ Concerned with the affairs of a 
 determines Worldly than a heavenly kingdom. The relitrion 
 
 Beformation. ^^ ^^'^^^^^* ^^^^^ ^^^^^'^ ^^^ trustees and exponents 
 was comiilicated, conventional, and cold. 
 The hungry sheep looked up and were not fed. The 
 young king felt hoth a political and a religious motive 
 spurring him to action. Tlie worldly amhition of these 
 opulent priests must he curhed, and the longing of the 
 more enlightened classes for more freedom of thought 
 satisfied. 
 
 History taught Amenhotep that Ea w\as the more 
 ancient god and Anion a comparatively recent usurper. 
 The new As a countermove to the presumption of the 
 doctrine. priests of Amoii, who were forever scheming 
 to suhordinate Ra and his priesthood to their own god 
 and hierarchy, he set up a doctrine which seemed at 
 first sight to he a restoration with slight modifications 
 of the ancient worship of Ra. The god hore the name 
 Ra-Horakti-Aton, or more shortly, Aton. Thus the 
 change looked on the surface like a conservative reaction 
 and return to the old-estahlished order of thin^^s. J3ut 
 appearances, then as now, were often deceptive. 
 
 The religion of Aton (the Solar Disk) was not a thing 
 of surface. It went deep to the root of things. It was 
 not a restoration, hut a reformation. Young as he was 
 the dreamer-king, in his prolonged meditations, had 
 lifted a corner of the veil and had had a vision of the 
 truth, a glimpse of the Infinite, far in advance of any- 
 thing vouchsafed to any mortal hefore his time. At 
 first, his new deity was merely one among many, a new 
 elevation to an old-estahlished and venerahle house of 
 peers. But soon, for his thoughts matured rapidly, he 
 made for it the claim to he alone, the only deity and 
 ruler of the world, without any equal, or even second. 
 
 A PHILOSOrHER-KING 
 
 65 
 
 His notion of Aton hecame more spiritualized. It 
 was no longer the ])isk of the Sun, hut something 
 ahstract and intangihle, "the heat or power which 
 is in the Disk." He did not worship the sun, but 
 the great Power which is behind the sun, and behind 
 the whole universe, the great source and spring of 
 all life and energy, and of which the visible "and 
 resplendent sun is merely a convenient and appropriate 
 symbol. 
 
 The priests, as was to be expected, looked askance at 
 the innovation. The king was branded as a pinai 
 heretic. For some years he bore with them, rupture 
 hut at last, when he was seventeen, his patience iheba^n ^ 
 was at an end. He broke with them and priesthood, 
 repudiated Amon and his rites. He discarded his own 
 name of Amenhotep, and adopted that of Akhnaton, 
 *' the Glory of Aton." Further, he abandoned his capital 
 of Thebes, and built for himself the entirely new " City 
 of the Horizon of Aton," Akhetaton, on the site of the 
 present Tel-el-Amarna. At the age of nineteen, he 
 removed thither with his court and never returned to 
 Thebes. 
 
 In his new surroundings, where, if he did not meet 
 with complete sympathy, at least he was free from 
 opposition, he gave free rein to his religious insj^iration. 
 He quietly elaborated his new doctrine, which has been 
 called ^^" the most enlightened doctrine of the ancient 
 world." * The symbol of the new religion was a repre- 
 sentation of the sun's disk with descending rays, each 
 ray terminating in a human hand. 
 
 But it was merely a convenient symbol : a metaphor 
 containing a great and deep truth. God w^as the invisi- 
 ble, intangible author and motive power of all things, 
 permeating time and space. The young Pharaoh's 
 
 ♦ Weigall, op. cit.p. 115. 
 
 F 
 
60 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 thoughts were not far removed from the mind of Moore 
 when he wrote : — 
 
 Thou art, God ! the life and light 
 
 Of all this wondrous world we see ; 
 Its glow by day, its smile by night, 
 
 Are but reflections caught from Thee. 
 Where'er wo turn, Thy glories shine. 
 And all things fair and bright are Thine. 
 
 When day, with farewell beam delays, 
 
 Among the opening clouds of oven, 
 And wo can almost think wo gaze 
 
 Through golden vistas into 1 [caven ; 
 Those hues that make the sun's decline 
 So soft, so radiant, Lord ! are Thine. 
 
 When night, with wings of starry gloom, 
 
 O'ershadows all the earth and skies. 
 Like some dark beauteous bird whose plumo 
 
 Is sparkling with unnumbered eyes : — 
 That sacred gloom, those tires divine. 
 So grand, so countless, Lord ! are Thine. 
 
 When youthful Spring around us breathes, 
 
 Thy spirit warms her fragrant sigh, 
 And every flower the summer wreathes 
 
 Is born beneath that kindling eye. 
 Where'er we turn, Thy glories shine, 
 And all things fair and bright are Thine. 
 
 — T. Moore. 
 
 Like his creature the sun with his life-giving rays, 
 the Creator was continually ready to extend a helping 
 A noble hand to his faithful worshippers. The doctrine 
 religion. ^^g ^ii early and dim prototype of Christi- 
 anity. Aton was the " loving father " of all creation,* 
 the Father in heaven, the source of all joy and life. No 
 image of him was allowed to be made. The symbol was 
 not worshipped. Aton had no form or parts, but was an 
 intangible essence. He was the ''Lord of Love,"t the 
 
 • Weigall, op. cit. p. 121. f Id. op. cit. p. 121. 
 
 t 
 
 » 
 
 ( 
 
 A PHILOSOPHER-KING- 67 
 
 beneficent creator, who loved all and each of his 
 creatures. Aton also was without rivals: Akhnaton 
 never mentions any other god. He was also the Lord 
 ot 1 eace. Akhnaton was absolutely opposed to war and 
 coercion in any form. He offered sacrifices of vegetables, 
 frui s, and flowers only. He flung on the rubbish-hean 
 all the current paraphernalia of ceremonies and formulae 
 His psalms speak the genuine language of the heart, and 
 of a heart deeply religious and spiritually sensitive In 
 their ideas and language they at times even anticipate 
 the psalms of that other poet-king, David. Take these 
 words of the hymn he wrote at the age of twenty-one • * 
 "How manifold are all thy works! Thou didst 
 create the earth according to thy desire, while thou 
 wast a one, men, all cattle, large and small, all that are 
 U2)on the earth . . . 
 
 " The world is in thy hand, even as thou hast made 
 them ^;:hen thou hast risen, they live: when thou 
 settest, they die. By thee man liveth . . ." 
 
 And compare them with Psalm civ." 24-30- "0 
 Lord, how manifold are thy works ! In wisdom hast 
 thou made them all : the earth is full of thy riches . . . 
 These wai all upon thee . . . Thou openest thine hand, 
 hey are filled with good. Thou hidest thy face, they are 
 troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and 
 i^turn to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit 
 they are created : and thou renewest the face of the 
 earth. 
 
 The great Temple of Aton was characteristic of the 
 new religion It was. contrary to the current (and even 
 the modern) custom, full of light. No darkness or 
 mystery was tolerated. Akhnaton abolished human 
 sacrifice in his dominions. He believed that Aton. 
 God, was the father of all mankind, this being the first 
 
 » Weigall, op. cit. p. 155. 
 
 1 
 
GS 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOBLD 
 
 conception of a deity neither tribal nor national. ** By no 
 religion in the world is Christianity so closely approached 
 as by the faith of Akhnaton." * The whole movement 
 inaugurated by this king has been described as ** one of 
 the most curious and interesting episodes in the history 
 of the world." t 
 
 The influence of the new faith w^as seen in the new 
 art. Allowing for exaggerations due to a desire to mark 
 The new ^ protest against meaningless convention, the 
 ^^^- art is simple and unaffected. The poses 
 
 and groupings of figures are natural to a remark- 
 able degree. The cry was, " drop convention and look 
 to nature." The king himself ordered his life in 
 accordance with his principles. If we may trust the 
 monuments, he was a most affectionate father and 
 husband, and was entirely free, in public as in private 
 life, from vanity and ostentation. lie detested the 
 formalities of traditional etiquette, and his easy manners 
 and affability made him very popular with the people. 
 
 But he was, if one may say so, too good for a throne. 
 The principles which sat well on a philosopher and 
 Akhnaton I'^ligious reformer were not suitable for the 
 in advance administration of a wide empire and the 
 of his age. ^gf^nce of distant and valuable frontiers. 
 Empires may be built up on and inspired by ideals, 
 but they are not safely entrusted to the keeping of 
 idealists. In the last two years of the prophet-king's 
 reign, the Ilittites, of whom more anon, helped by the 
 simultaneous raids of Ilabiri (perhaps Hebrews ?) began 
 to give trouble. Akhnaton objected to war on principle. 
 The result was that he lost Syria bej^ond hope of 
 recovery. It is a pathetic scene preserved for us most 
 vividly in the royal archives discovered at Tel-el- 
 
 ♦ Wcigall, op. cit. p. 147. 
 
 t Budge, *' History of Kgjpt," quoted by Weigall, p. 189. 
 
 A PHILOSOPHER-KING 69 
 
 Amarna.* Traitors among his own vassals fool him, 
 easily concealing their double dealing from his guileless 
 and unsuspecting vision. His governors and generals 
 in the cities of Syria and Palestine, Megiddo, Gezer, 
 Askalon, and Jerusalem, in quick succession address 
 despairing and pathetic appeals to their sovereign, or 
 even journey to Akhetaton (Tel-el-Amarna) to lay bare 
 the gravity of the peril threatening his empire. 
 
 All in vain. The entreaties fell on deaf ears. The 
 despatches were all pigeon-holed— answered or un- 
 answered—and forgotten. The distant outposts, loyal 
 but deserted, fell one after another into the enemy's 
 hands. Nothing awoke the king from his apathy. At 
 last his health, which had never been anything but bad, 
 broke down, and the end followed quickly. Thus, amid 
 the news of wars and frequent disasters, the saintly 
 dreamer and lover of peace, the author of one of the 
 most extraordinary religious experiments in the history 
 of the world, passed away worn out at the a^e of 
 twenty-eight ! ^ 
 
 And his religion, too good and lofty for his age, died 
 with him. He was succeeded by one and then another 
 son-in-law, who, though they had married 
 his daughters, had not imbibed his fervour or the new 
 his genius. Horemheb, commander-in-chief "movement, 
 of the army, which, we may easily imagine, was 
 chahng and straining impatiently fco be let loose at the 
 audacious assailants of the Empire, put himself at the 
 head of the party of reaction. Under pressure from 
 him Iving Tutankhaton, the second son-in-law, changed 
 his name to Tutankhamen, and returned with the court 
 
 * Sec British Museum, Babylonian and Assyrian Room, table-case F 
 
 tablets'' ThT'r "^"1 interesting selection from the 320 Tel-el-Amarna 
 
 will ;. J '^ *^' *^^^'^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^ *^^ P^^fc ot Asia from 
 
 which they were despatched. « «. num 
 
70 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 I 
 
 to Thebes. Clearly Aton ^Yas dead, and Anion and 
 Thebes were once more supreme. Akhnaton's body 
 was carried back to the city he had abandoned and laid 
 in the tomb of his mother, Queen Tiy (where it was 
 found in 1907). On Tutankliamon's death soon after, 
 Horemheb ascended the throne. 
 
 Of course, there was another side to the picture : 
 E jypt was not all religious turmoil or political disaster. 
 Here again, as in a former case, we are 
 tafe^^of the greatly assisted in forming a correct idea of 
 Eighteenth the age under review by popular stories of 
 Dynasty. ^^^^ time.* It must not be supposed that 
 under Thothmes the Great everybody was intent on 
 empire-building and extension of frontiers, or that 
 under Akhnaton religious questions engrossed the 
 minds of all his subjects. Look at the varied assort- 
 ment of news which the majority of men and women 
 will hunt up and devour in their daily paper, before 
 they cast a glance, if they ever do so at all, on 
 parliamentary, military, or religious news. And human 
 nature does not change so very much in the course of 
 ages. The things usually recorded in history books 
 affect kings and courtiers, conquerors and priests, 
 ambitious men w^ho climb, and proud men who fall. 
 But the great bulk of the nation, who fall into none of 
 these categories, the ordinary life of field and market- 
 place, street and fireside, pursues its even tenor 
 year in, year out. And, fortunately, songs, ballads, 
 and tales preserve something of the commonplace 
 life which escapes the eye, or at any rate the pen, 
 of war-correspondents, court poets and fashionable 
 chroniclers. 
 
 The ** Adventures of Sanehat " gave us a pleasing 
 
 ♦ See Prof. Flinders Petrie's " Egyptian Tales," 2nd series. 
 (Methuen & Co., 1895.) 
 
 A PHILOSOPHER-KING 
 
 71 
 
 and vivid picture of ordinary life in Egypt and Palestine 
 in the Twelfth Dynasty, just before the age of ,, ^j^^ 
 Abraham, and the Eighteenth is similarly Taking of 
 illuminated for us by tales like *'The Doomed •^®PP*" 
 Prince," **The Taking of Joppa," and *' The Two 
 Brothers." The first is a simple little story of youth 
 and love and death, but is unfortunately incomplete. 
 The second describes an episode in the conquests of 
 Thothmes the Great, whose great wonder-working cane 
 is introduced into the story. By means of it the general 
 Tahuti overpowers the rebel leader. But the real point 
 of the story is the trick by which Joppa was taken, after 
 a long siege, by the crafty introduction into the city of 
 two hundred sacks, supposed to contain a friendly gift 
 of provisions, but really concealing men, weapons, and 
 chains. The reader is reminded of the wooden horse 
 and its deadly load at Troy, or of Ali Baba and the jars. 
 The story is very possibly based upon fact. At any rate 
 the Louvre contains a magnificent gold dish which was 
 presented by Thothmes III, to an officer of his called 
 Tahuti. Was it a reward for this very exploit ? 
 
 The last of the three tales is by far the longest and 
 most interesting. A description, however detailed, could 
 not give a fair notion of this masterpiece. To be «< The Two 
 appreciated it must be read. True, the second Brothers." 
 part of the tale, which is a later addition, is too full of 
 improbabilities and marvels for modern taste ; but the 
 early pages, with their description of country life and 
 the wonderfully affectionate devotion of the younger 
 brother Bata to his elder Anpu, whom he serves like a 
 slave, possess an unsurpassable charm. The elder 
 brother's wife had nothing to learn from Potiphar's, and 
 Bata is doomed to the part of Joseph, but without the 
 great Hebrew's subsequent exaltation. The tragedy 
 develops rapidly. Bata narrowly escapes murder at 
 
72 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 his brother's hands, fiees the country after convincing 
 his pursuer of the true facts, and Anpu goes home and 
 makes away with the wife who had deceived him. The 
 rest of the story is taken up with the marvellous 
 adventures and metamorphoses of Bata, highly 
 interesting to the student of mythology and folk-lore. 
 But the first portion, just briefly described, is full of 
 little touches which bring before the reader's eyes as 
 scarcely anything else could have done, the life of the 
 people of Egypt in the days of the Eighteenth Dynasty, 
 in other words, shortly before the time of Moses. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 FORGOTTKN EMPIRES — CRETE AND THE HITTITES 
 
 The Eighteenth Dynasty, which politically suffered so 
 remarkable an eclipse under the rule of its philosopher- 
 king, the ** heretic " Akhnaton, had yet "Spacious 
 enjoyed a long period of extraordinary splen- ^^^l' ^ 
 dour. Indeed it might be said that under teenth 
 Thothmes III. the Great, and Amenhotep III. Dynasty, 
 the Magnificent, the sun of Egypt had reached its 
 zenith. The victorious expeditions of Thothmes III. 
 had brought Egypt, either by actual conquest or through 
 apprehension of it, or by friendly commerce encouraged 
 by Egypt's reputation for power and opulence, into 
 contact with nations far removed from the Nile and 
 from one another. 
 
 There is abundant evidence of extensive commercial 
 intercourse between Egypt and Crete at this period ; 
 Cretan objects are found in Egypt, and crete: 
 Egyptian scarabs and other objects in Crete, three great 
 But the connexion had begun very much ^ Aegean 
 earlier, and Crete and the neighbouring civiiiza- 
 islands and coasts of the Aegean had already 
 had a long history, and were well advanced on the 
 path of civilization. In the arts Of war and peace 
 they had attained a high degree of development. This 
 civilization, which modern historians agree to call 
 ** Aegean," extended over a period of at least three 
 
 thousand years, from before 4000 b.c. to about 1000 B.C., 
 
 73 
 
0t 
 
 in 
 
 74 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 FORGOTTEN EMPIRES 
 
 75 
 
 I 
 
 divided by experts into nine stages, viz. : the Neolithic 
 Age, followed by eight periods of the Bronze Age. 
 These nine periods they have named, after the mythical 
 King of Crete, Minoan I., 1, 2, 3; Minoan II., 1, 2, 3 ; 
 and Minoan III., 1, 2, 3. But disregarding the sub- 
 divisions, it may sulHcc for ordinary purposes to divide 
 the total duration of about tliree thousand years into 
 three great periods : Early Minoan, Middle Minoan, and 
 Late Minoan. 
 
 There is no written history of the *'Aegeans." It 
 can only be reconstructed, by comparison and inference, 
 Remains ^^'^"^ allusions and remains. The remains 
 and other are found widely scattered, in Greece, the 
 Ionian Islands, the Aegean archipelago, Crete, 
 Cyprus, Sicily, Italy, Sardinia, Spain, Egypt, and the 
 western coast of x\sia Elinor, and are specially important 
 at Cnossus in Crete, Hissarlik (Troy) in Asia Minor, 
 and Mycenae and Tiryns on the mainland of Greece. 
 They consist of palaces, fortresses, tombs, decorations, 
 frescoes, jars, and other vessels, thrones, tables, coffins, 
 sculptures, paintings, weapons of stone, clay, bronze 
 and iron, brooches, razors, tweezers, clay tablets and 
 disks, gems, bridges and drains. So far internal evi- 
 dence. The external consists of allusions in Egyptian, 
 Semitic and Babylonian records, frescoes and sculptures, 
 and of legends to be found in Homer, Herodotus, Strabo 
 and Diodorus Siculus. 
 
 From a combination of every available source of 
 information it may be gathered tliat the " Aegeans " were 
 The a dark, long-headed race, coming originally 
 
 ♦'Aegeans" : perhaps from north-eastern Africa, and speak- 
 ment"re- i^^g ^ language which, while not Hellenic, 
 ligion, etc. -yvas Indo-European. They w^ere ruled by 
 kings who lived in large fortified palaces, and combined 
 pohtical with religious power, probably acting as high 
 
 priests. The religion was, of course, primitive, partly a 
 nature -cult and partly ancestor- worship. Prayers and 
 sacrifices were offered to rocks, pillars, trees, axes, and 
 all kinds of plants and animals. The houses of the 
 well-to-do were comfortable and even luxurious, with a 
 wonderfully efficient water-supply and drainage system. 
 The dead were never burnt but buried, at first in cists 
 of upright stones covered with earth, later in solidly 
 built bee-hive tombs, sometimes, as in the so-called 
 *' Treasury of Atreus" at Mycenae, of considerable size 
 and perfect workmanship. ''Aegean" art reached a 
 high degree of excellence as early as 2500 b.c, especially 
 in potter's work ; but its golden age was between 1500 
 and 1^00 B.C., during the rule of the Eighteenth Dynasty 
 in Egypt, as is proved by the capitals and columns of 
 the "Treasury of Atreus" and beautiful goldsmith's 
 work from Vaphio and Mycenae. Commerce was active 
 and had a wide range. Cretan pottery was exported to 
 the Greek mainland and to Egypt, with which country, 
 especially after IGOOb.c, there was continued close 
 intercourse. Sjme handmade va3es, considered by 
 Professor Petrie to be Cretan, were found by him at 
 Abydos in Egypt, dating before 4000 B.C., while some 
 fragmentary remains at Cnossus in Crete correspond 
 with the work of the Fourth Dynasty, which built the 
 great pyramids. Cretan pottery of the Middle Minoan 
 age has been found in the Fayoum, amongst Egyptian 
 architecture of the Twelfth Dynasty (about 2500 b.c), 
 while a diorite statuette of the Thirteenth Dynasty was 
 found in the central court of the palace of Cnossus of 
 the Middle Minoan period. Cnossus also yielded a 
 cartouche of the Hyksos king Khyan (about 1900 b.c), 
 one of the few relics of those little-known "Dark 
 Ages." The Eighteenth Dynasty (1700-1320 b.c.) corre- 
 B2)onds to the beginning of the Late Minoan epoch. 
 
76 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 FORGOTTEN EMPIRES 
 
 77 
 
 Scarabs of its kings occur at Mycenae, lalysus and 
 Vaphio. In a tomb at Thebes, there is a representation 
 of ** Keftiu " tributaries carrying *' Aegean " vases, and 
 bearing a strong resemblance to Cretan frescoes. More- 
 over, Minoan vases are found in tombs of the Eighteenth 
 Dynasty, especially in Akhnaton's new capital, Akhetaton 
 (Tel-el-Amarna) and Nilotic scenes are depicted on a 
 dagger from Mycenae, frescoes at Cnossus and a relief at 
 Phaestus. Minoan vases also have been recovered at 
 Gezer, the Philistine city, and it is interesting to note that 
 in the Bible one name of the Philistines is Cherethim, 
 which probably means Cretans. It is evident beyond 
 question that there was extensive trailicking between 
 Egypt, Syria, Crete and Greece from the very remotest 
 times. 
 
 Of Minos, the famous but, probably, legendary King 
 of Crete, it is impossible to say anything with certainty. 
 Homer, our oldest literary authority, says 
 that he was a son of Zeus (who, by the 
 way, is given a niche, openly or implicitly, in the pedi- 
 grees of most kings), reigned three generations before 
 the Trojan War, was the brother of the golden-haired 
 Rhadamanthus, and became the judge of the departed 
 in Hades. Herodotus tells us that he was one of the 
 first, if not the first, to grasp the importance of sea- 
 power and found a naval empire. His name is most 
 widely famous, perhaps, for the story of the Minotaur, 
 the bull-headed monster, which he shut up in the 
 Labyrinth and fed on human llesh. For historical 
 purposes it is safer to be content with a less uncertain, 
 if more prosaic, story. Yet even legends have their 
 uses. Scratch a legend and you find, very often, a 
 truth. Wliether Minos be the name of a historical 
 person, or a djmastic title, or mere legend, the ruler of 
 Cnossus at this epoch must have held wide sway and 
 
 King Minos. 
 
 possessed fleets which could make his will respected 
 in distant dependencies. A self-respecting Greek state 
 does not send its young men and maidens to a distant 
 island as food for monsters in a fit of absent-minded- 
 ness, or for a joke. It does it because it has to, under 
 threat of consequences if it refuses. It is clear that 
 Crete at one time exercised complete dominion over 
 Athens, and over many another city on the Aegean 
 coasts. But it is equally to be inferred from the story 
 of Theseus, the Athenian prince, with the help of 
 Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, slaying the monster 
 and abolishing the ghastly tribute, that at some time 
 Athens, with the help of treachery within the walls, 
 defeated her suzerain and regained her independence. 
 
 The history of the *' Aegean" race and empire 
 might perhaps be summarized very briefly somewhat 
 as follows : Somewhere about 2500 b.c. it An Aegean 
 established a strong monarchial state with its Empire, 
 centre at Cnossus, which reached its acme about 
 2000 B.C. Then followed a period of decline, during 
 which rival towns sprang up at Mycenae, Tiryns and 
 Troy. About IGOO b.c. a great change occurred. A 
 uniform religion, art, and system of wTiting were 
 established over the whole Aegean area. This gave a 
 great impetus to commerce, and once more Crete be- 
 came progressive, increased in wealth and recovered her 
 power. But it was a swan-song. In not more than two 
 centuries, about 1400 b.c, the great stone palace of 
 Cnossus was sacked and burnt, probably by the fore- 
 runners of the Hellenes. 
 
 The language of the *^Aegeans," which so far has 
 defied all attempts to decipher it, was apparently some- 
 what akin to that of the Hittites. Unfor- The 
 tunately this, too, is still a sealed book, or, Hittites. 
 rather, a riddle of which the key has been lost. 
 
 I 
 
ill 
 
 78 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 Here, again, we are thrown back upon allusions in the 
 records of neighbouring nations, deductions from sur- 
 viving monuments, and, in the last resort, as always, 
 conjecture. A great deal of doubt still shrouds the 
 history of this mysterious nation ; but a beginning has 
 been made, and what has been discovered is highly 
 interesting. The remains, in the shape of sculptures 
 and inscriptions, are found all over Asia Minor, except 
 along the coasts, and in northern Syria, down to 
 Hamah. The largest find was made at Boghaz Keui, 
 the ancient Pteria, in north Cappadocia; but other 
 places have also rewarded the explorer, such as 
 "Niobe" (Suratlu Tash) in the west, Kara-dagh in 
 Phrygia, Karaburna, in south Cappadocia, Marash, 
 Aleppo, Jerablus (Carchemish '?) and Samsat (Samosata) 
 in Commagene. Outside Asia Minor, dealings have 
 been found at Nineveh, and sculptures at l^abylon. The 
 Hittite fortifications have elaborate double gates, with 
 flanking towers, constituting an ingenious trap for an 
 assailant between the outer and inner gates. We may 
 remember the flanking ramparts of the entrance to the 
 Hyksos encampment at Avaris : one theory is that the 
 Hyksos were related to the Hittites. 
 
 Hittite sculpture consists mostly of rock-hewn reliefs. 
 The only fairly complete statue, so far known, is the 
 Appearance so-called ** Niobe " at Suratlu Tash ; and this 
 of the is not completely disengaged from the rock 
 
 ittites. behind. The monuments agree in giving the 
 men a squat and heavy build, but, of course, allowance 
 must be made for bad drawing. The bones and muscles 
 are prominent, as in Assyrian art. The head is short 
 with receding forehead and long nose. Sometimes the 
 nose has a long curving tip, not unlike the Kheta 
 warriors in Egyptian paintings. The lips are full, the 
 chin short and sometimes shaven, sometimes bearded. 
 
 FOEGOTTEN EMPIEES 
 
 79 
 
 the hair is long and sometimes worn in a curling pigtail. 
 Pointed caps with upturned brims, and shoes with toes 
 turned up are the prevailing fashion. 
 
 It is most unfortunate that we cannot improve our 
 knowledge of Hittite life and customs by a persual of 
 literature, official and popular, as is the case 
 with Egypt. But, even though we cannot ^^® ^^^'^P*- 
 interpret it, it is amusing and interesting to study 
 their writing, and we can learn something from 
 examining and comparing their sculptures. The script 
 resembles nothing more than rows of little pictures such 
 as a cliild of four or five might draw : there are heads, 
 eyes, hands, swords, animals, and all manner of other 
 objects, animate and inanimate, difficult to recognize. 
 Unfortunately, in this case the child-artist is not there 
 to explain, and so we are left wondering. Two things 
 at least about the script deserve notice. The same 
 symbols appear to recur facing now one way now the 
 other, which makes it appear probable that the writing 
 was read, like some ancient Greek writing, zig-zag 
 fashion, from right to left and left to right in alternate 
 lines. And secondly, in many cases the symbols are 
 sculptured in relief, which must have made the work 
 far more difficult. Clearly theirs was no age of hurry 
 and scurry. 
 
 The sculptures are certainly not beautiful, but they 
 are extremely curious and sometimes unintentionally 
 comic. The face is always shown in profile, xhe sculp- 
 but the eye most commonly full-face, and ^^^es. 
 disproportionately large at that. There is no sense 
 of perspective or proportion. The attitudes are stiff 
 and ungainly. The conception is childish and the 
 execution is usually very poor, with one or two brilliant 
 exceptions. In a certain relief, two men, one bearded, 
 the other clean-shaven, are having a meal — a frequent 
 
 k h 
 
80 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 FORGOTTEN EMPIRES 
 
 81 
 
 subject of nittitc sculpture. The figures are in profile. 
 All four feet arc shown complete, in single file, one 
 figure is (>ating with his left hand, and tlie table, with 
 only two legs, is up in the air on a level with the men's 
 eyes and resting on air. In another, a tomb-sculpturo 
 from northern Syria, two women are apparently sitting 
 at afternoon tea. Tlie feet are arrangiMl as in the other 
 relief, but on foot-stools, and the two-legged table, laid 
 with just three saucers and a single egg-cup, is balanced 
 on the good ladies' toes. They appear to be wearing 
 over their dresses long veils hanging from headgear 
 resembling very closely modern '* top-hats." The 
 chairs have very low backs, about six inches high, and 
 look uncomfortable. Another relief, found at ]5abylon, 
 shows the Jlittite God of Storms. His tall conical hat 
 is surmounted with a ball almost as large as his head, 
 and ha>^ a wide upturned brim. His tunic, which 
 reaches to a little above the knee, ends in a deep fringe, 
 and is drawn in at the waist with a wide sash support- 
 ing a heavy sword. He wears top-boots reaching nearly 
 to the knees and turned up at the toes. His nose is 
 long, and so are liis hair and his beard which is very 
 curly, or artificially curled. In his left hand he 
 brandishes three lightnings and in his right a hannner. 
 As regards architecture, very little is known. Rut 
 towns have been revealed on one or two sites. The 
 
 Architecture ^^^^^^ ^^^ several yards thick, and the gates 
 fianked by massive towers ; there are signs 
 of palaces and forts. The walls are built of rough 
 stone below and bricks above. Rut the remains are 
 little more than ground-plans in relief, about a yard 
 high. 
 
 At first sight, perhaps, the impossibility of decipher- 
 ing the Hittite script or even of detecting any atlinity 
 between it and other languages might seem to be 
 
 evidence of racial and political isolation. Rut a 
 moment's thought will correct the imiiression. The 
 complete dissimilarity between Gaelic or Erse j^. 
 and English does not prove the existence of a with 
 gulf between Highlanders or Irish and us. ^«i&^^o^«- 
 The language is a survival, a particularly hard rock not 
 yet worn away by the tide of invasion. So it may have 
 been with the Hittite language. Some day the script 
 will be deciphered, as will the Cypriote and the Cretan, 
 and then we shall wonder that we did not detect their 
 aillinities sooner. There are distinct points of re- 
 semblance between the Hittite sculptures and the 
 Assyrian; while Hebrew, Assyrian, and Egyptian 
 records show clearly what extensive dealings the 
 Ilittites had with all their neighbours. After all, the 
 world has always been very small. 
 
 A fair amount of documentary evidence occurs in the 
 Rible.* Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah, as 
 a family vault, from Ephron the Hittite, in References 
 the environs of Hebron in southern Palestine, in thT^^* 
 Esau, to his parents' grief, married two Hittite ^'^^^• 
 wives. Many years after the Israelite spies sent out by 
 Moses reported that Ilittites inhabited the southern 
 uplands. In later times still there are many allusions 
 to them. At the time of Joshua's conquest of Canaan, 
 they inhabited the country between Lebanon and the 
 Euphrates, and even after the conquest were still left 
 in considerable numbers mingling and intermarrying 
 with the Hebrews. Uriah, the husband of Rath-sheba, 
 was a Hittite. Solomon found them still in the land, 
 and made serfs of them : while both in his time and 
 much later, in the days of Elisha (about 800 b.c), there 
 
 * See Gen. xxiii. 3 ; Num. xiii. 29 ; Josh. i. 4 ; Ezek. xvi. 3 ; 
 Judges iii. 5, G ; Gon. xxvi. 34 ; 1 Kings ix. 20, 21 ; 2 Chron. viii. 7, 8 ; 
 1 Kings X. 18 ; 2 Kings vii. C. 
 
 G 
 
 
8-2 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOULD 
 
 FOEGOTTEN EMPIEES 
 
 83 
 
 were powerful Ilittite kings in the north, who purchased 
 horses and war-chariots from Egypt, and whose armies 
 still inspired terror. But we are anticipating events. 
 
 By Egyptian records they are first mentioned in the 
 conquests of the great ThothmcS III., who calls them 
 Egyptian the Kheta. Amenhotep III., *Hhe Magnifi- 
 records. cent," father of Akhnaton, married a Mitani 
 princess, who prohably was a Ilittite. Seti I., the 
 second king of the Nineteenth Dynasty (about 1300 
 B.c)., attacked them, and so did his famous son Rameses 
 II., who made an important treaty with them as equals. 
 Tlie treaty is still extant. After flattering and exag- 
 gerated protestations of mutual affection, the two 
 monarchs conclude an offensive and defensive alliance, 
 and an extradition treaty in very explicit language. The 
 document ends with a solemn curse on the breakers of 
 the peace, and blessing on all who observe it. 
 
 Assyrian records do not touch the Ilittites till 
 much later, in the reign of Tiglath-Pileser I. (about 
 
 Assyrian ^^^ ^'^■^' ^^^^ ^^'^ *^^^'^ mentioned 
 records. as settled at Carchemish. Later still, in 
 the ninth century b.c, Assur-nazir-pal mentions them 
 more than once. Shalmaneser II. {825 b.c.) raided 
 them repeatedly, and finally Sargon III. in 717 b.c, 
 captured Carchemish and its king Pisiris, and dealt the 
 Ilittite power a severe blow. 
 
 From all this it would appear that the Ilittites were 
 once scattered widely over Asia Minor and Syria 
 at a very early date, and included many 
 o?HUtUe tribes, c//., the Lakki (Lycians) who were 
 liistory. pi^-ates, and the Khilakka (Cilicians). They 
 invaded Accad in the reign of Samsuditana, about 1800 
 B.c But they first formed a really strong state in 
 Cappadocia in the sixteenth century b.c under Subbilu- 
 liuma (what manner of language must Ilittite have 
 
 been !), who was their first great king, although he 
 had at least one predecessor on the throne, by name 
 Hattusil. Feeling their strength, they advanced south 
 and conquered north Syria and Mesopotamia, came 
 into collision with Egypt which was being ruled by 
 Akhnaton (see Chapter IV.), and, under Hattusil II., 
 fought a great battle at Kadesli on equal terms against 
 the great Eameses II. They treated as equals with 
 both Egypt and Babylon, the two greatest powers of the 
 time. King Hattusil corresponded with King Katash- 
 manturgu of Babylon as a brother-sovereign, and 
 became his friend and ally. Two centuries later 
 Carchemish, on the Euphrates, became the chief Hittite 
 city, and north Syria was called the " land of the 
 Hittites." Their settlement at Carchemish, on the 
 great highway of a commercial nation, made them turn 
 their thoughts to trade and wealth and ease, and 
 undermined their old military energy. Also it brought 
 them unpleasantly near to Assyria, that armed camp, 
 which resented their proximity, and engaged in a long 
 struggle (eighth century b.c) with them which hastened 
 their downfall. The final blow, two centuries later, was 
 administered by Cyrus the Great, first King of Persia 
 (about 540 b.c). 
 
 9 
 
 I 
 
nR 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 TUB ANCIENT EAST *. FAR AND NEAR 
 
 The Eighteenth Dynasty, with an Ahmes, a Thothmes, 
 and an Akhnaton, had expelled the alien, added wide 
 Unity of provinces to the empire, and then dreamed 
 the world, iixem away again. Crete had called into 
 existence the earliest naval power of which there 
 is a record, and estahlished a well-organized control 
 over the Aegean, with its islands and surrounding 
 mainlands. The mysterious Hittites, starting from 
 the highlands of Cappadocia, had extended and con- 
 solidated a powerful empire over the greater part of 
 Asia Minor and Syria, from Phrygia to the Euphrates. 
 And meanwhile what was the rest of the world doing ? 
 For the world is not unlike a wheel. The parts are 
 distinct and hear separate names. There are the spokes 
 and the felloe and the hub. And the hub may think 
 itself immeasurably superior to the rest, and some parts 
 may pride themselves on their greater proximity to the 
 hub or centre of things. But the whole wheel moves 
 round together, and no part can stir without all the 
 rest. There is, even in these ''enlightened" days, a 
 strong temptation in every country to think itself the 
 centre of the universe, and to imagine that it alone 
 experiences real soul-stirring ** crises," and changes and 
 counter-changes which make history. No doubt, three 
 or four thousand years ago it was not far otherwise. 
 
 84 
 
 THE ANCIENT EAST: FAE AND NEAR 85 
 
 Egypt, no doubt, had its full share of arrogance and 
 self-absorption. But the world was never built in 
 water-tight compartments, and, no matter how early 
 the period, there was never a time when great neigh- 
 bour-nations had not some knowledge of and some 
 dealings with one another. 
 
 King Burnaburiash of Babylon, doubtless for prac- 
 tical no less than sentimental reasons, for the Baby- 
 lonians as a nation had a keen eye for business, Egypt and 
 asked Akhnaton, the '' heretic " Pharaoh, for Babylon, 
 the hand of one of his daughters for his son. And the 
 request was granted, testifying to friendly relations 
 between the two dynasties. 
 
 Since the days when Hammurabi promulgated his 
 great code of laws, and Abraham left Ur and travelled 
 westwards in pursuit of his ideal, a consider- ,_^„^ . . 
 
 _ J ,, Retrospect: 
 
 able amount of water had nowed under the Hammu- 
 bridges of Babylon. By his decisive victory ^^^^^'^ ®°^' 
 over Chedor-Laomer (Kudur-Lagamar), Ham- 
 murabi had rescued his country from the invader, and 
 organized it as a single monarchy with Babylon as its 
 capital. His military fame spread abroad and won him 
 respect far and wide. Babylonian troops and officers were 
 stationed all over Canaan and Syria. Colonists from 
 these outlying regions came and settled in Babylon for 
 the sake of trade. Besides the celebrated code of laws, 
 we possess a number of contract-tablets and letters 
 belonging to this epoch. In a deed of the reign of 
 Hammurabi's grandfather it is interesting to find a 
 witness signing himself Abi-ramu, that is Abram. The 
 hill country through which the Jordan flowed evidently 
 became an integral part of the Babylonian empire, for 
 the great-grandson of Hammurabi styled himself " King 
 of the land of the Amorites." 
 
 " Like father like son " is a proverb often belied, 
 
 I 
 
I 
 
 86 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 rabi's suc- 
 cessors. 
 Foreign 
 invasions. 
 
 and the genius of a great lawgiver, even when his legal 
 ingenuity is equalled by his skill with the sword, cannot 
 Hammu- ensure the permanence of his dynasty. In 
 less than two centuries the sceptre slipped 
 from its enfeebled hands, and passed to a 
 Sumerian house of eleven successive kings, 
 who occupied the throne for nearly four hundred years, 
 and no doubt held it as part of their pious creed that 
 the end of all things could not be delayed if once 
 their seat were shaken. J^ut shaken it was, and tlie 
 Babylonian world wagged on, this time under the eye, and 
 the heel, of Kassite conquerors from Elam (1780 B.C.), 
 who occupied and ruled the land for 570 years, and 
 were contemporaries of the last Hyksos kings and the 
 Eighteenth Dynasty Pharaohs in Egypt. It was one 
 of these Elaniito potentates, probably himself a fire- 
 worshippcr, who became the son-in-law of the mono- 
 theist Akhnaton, famous for his religious symbol of the 
 Solar Disk (Chapter IV.). 
 
 During this foreign occupation, Syria and Palestine 
 fell away, becoming first independent and then subjects 
 Rise of o^ KgyP*' ^nd the high priest of Assur made 
 
 Assyria. himself king of a new kingdom of Assyria, 
 which rapidly grew in power, and proved itself 
 one of the most military and aggressive states of 
 the East. Assur-yuballidb, King of Assyria, corre- 
 sponded with the Pharaoh Akhnaton, and reduced Baby- 
 lon, making King Burnaburiash receive his crown from 
 him as his vassal. The new kingdom, which had begun 
 under such auspices, grew in power, till Assur-yubal- 
 lidh's great-great-grandson, Shalmaneser I. (about 
 1300 B.C.), claimed to be supreme over-lord of Western 
 Asia. He humbled the Hittites, and founded the city of 
 Calah on the Tigris ; and the youthful Assyria, coming 
 of age, snatched the inheritance from Babylon. 
 
 f 
 
 THE ANCIENT EAST: FAR AND NEAR 87 
 
 Meanwhile, a little further east, on the other side of 
 the Euphrates valley, a race till then Httle feared or 
 even heard of, was preparing itself for its great The 
 destiny. The names ^' Persia "and *' Persian" Persians, 
 come to us, through the Latin, from the Greek UEf)(TiQ 
 and n6>(Tijc, which represented the original *' Parsa " 
 ((/. Parsee). Herodotus tells us that the ancient Medes 
 (whom the Greeks constantly associated and confused 
 with the Persians) called themselves " Arians," and we 
 fmd in fact that the Persians did call themselves Arians 
 and their country Ariana, whence ''Eran" and the 
 modern Persian " Iran." The old aristocratic families 
 of Persia long retained a weakness for names reminiscent 
 of their high antiquity, e.g, Ariobarzanes, Ariarathes, 
 Ariarannes, Ariabignes, Ariomardus. It is not an un- 
 common failing. In modern England it would not be 
 impossible to detect here and there a lurking fondness 
 for names of " Norraanesque " flavour, and anything 
 redolent, or seemingly so, of the victor of Hastings. 
 These Arians, or, as they are usually called nowadays, 
 Aryans, were closely related to the Aryans who invaded 
 India, and like them started from the steppes between 
 the Caspian Sea and Turkestan. The date of their 
 migration cannot be fixed. But it is known that the 
 Indian Aryans occupied the Punjab about IGOO b.c. In 
 the Tel-el-Amarna tablets, the correspondence of the 
 Pharaoh Akhnaton (about 1400 b.c), names of Persian 
 princes occur. Perhaps it may be assumed that the 
 Aryans settled in Persia about 1500 b.c, or a little 
 earlier. ^ 
 
 It would be interesting, if it were possible, to ascer- 
 tain the date of their great prophet Zarathustra, better 
 known as Zoroaster. Extreme dates, early Zoroaster, 
 and late, have been defended by rival critics, 
 but it seems pretty clear that he must have lived and 
 
88 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 
 preached at least before 1000 b.c. Perhaps — who 
 knows ? — he was absorbed in his rehgious speculation 
 and pouring out his soul in those grand psalms, away in 
 the uplands of Bactria, at the same time that the boy- 
 king x\khnaton was defying the pharisaic priesthood of 
 Thebes, and dreaming his own dreams of God at Tel-el- 
 Amarna. 
 
 Like Akhnaton, Zoroaster was a strict monotheist, 
 and his doctrine is expressed in the oldest part of the 
 His doc Avesta, the Gathas, or Psalms, which, what- 
 trine. q^qj. ^\^Q[y. exact date, are, with the Rig- 
 
 Veda, the oldest literature of the Aryan race. In his 
 belief, there is but one only God, who is a holy and 
 beneficent spirit, giving life and happiness to all creation. 
 Zoroaster calls him Ahura-Mazda (Ormuzd), the " Om- 
 niscient Lord." It is true, his monotheism liad yet a 
 touch of dualism in it. He conceived that Ahura-Mazda 
 was opposed by a wicked spirit of evil, whom he called 
 Angro-Mainyus (Ahriman), the origin of all things evil 
 in the world. These two rivals were engaged in an 
 unending contest for the possession of mankind. Ahura- 
 Mazda was aided by six immortal spirits, representing 
 his own attributes, Goodwill, Piety, Power, Wisdom, 
 Prosperity and Health : Angro-Mainyus was supported 
 by the Daevas, the Drug, and all the manifold spirits of 
 evil. 
 
 Zoroaster, in his sensitive soul, realizing the im- 
 minence of the peril and the tragic nature of the 
 His writ- struggle, out of pity for his fellow-men re- 
 ings. solved to devote his whole life and energy to 
 
 preaching the true religion of Ahura-Mazda among 
 them, and so bringing them by a true knowledge to a 
 true happiness. Hear him speak.* 
 
 **The works done in the noonday and those done in 
 
 ♦ Westphq,!, op. cit. pp. 438, foil, 
 
 THE ANCIENT EAST: FAR AND NEAR 89 
 
 secret, Mazda, and the great faults committed to 
 escape the chastisement of a little one, both these and 
 those, all together, thou watchest them, thou seest them 
 all with thine eyes. . . . 
 
 " The good king is he who practiseth good in his 
 thoughts, words and deeds, in obedience to the teaching 
 of the wise, and it is he, Ahura, who of all beings 
 embodieth thee the best." (Gatha Ahunavaiti, Ps. 4.) 
 
 ** Two things there are which I desire of thee, 
 
 Ahura Mazda : to see thee and to hold converse with 
 
 thee. . . . 
 
 *^ Teach me thy law. . . ." (Gatha Ahunavaiti, Ps. 6.) 
 '' If it be true that the other world existeth, Mazda, 
 
 give me a sign that I may live fully in that world, that 
 
 1 may attain to it by offering thee sacrifice and singing 
 thy glory. . . . 
 
 *' Mazda, I wish to be like thee, and to teach my 
 friends to be like thee .... 
 
 *' I have one thing to ask thee ; tell me the truth, 
 
 Ahura. 
 
 *' What is the first of things in the world of Good ? . . . 
 W^ho traced out a path for the sun and the stars ? Who 
 maketh the moon to wax and wane ? . . . Who made 
 the waters and the plants ? . . . Who is the creator of 
 Vohu-Mano (Goodwill) ? . . . What good artist made 
 the light and the darkness? . . . Who created the 
 aspiration of perfect piety ? Who planted love in the 
 father's heart? . . . Tell me, how one may perfectly 
 know in the world what is right ; and how my soul will 
 be able to go and find joy in both worlds. . . . Show me 
 Religion, which is of all things that are the most excel- 
 lent, and which by holiness will make the worlds prosper 
 that follow after it. ... I have one thing to ask thee : 
 tell me the truth, Ahura." (Gatha Ushtavaiti, Ps. 2.) 
 
 ♦' Let me know when cometb the hour of thy universal 
 
 jiM 
 
90 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 THE ANCIENT EAST: FAR AND NEAR 91 
 
 kingdom ; the hour, Mazda, wherein all my doubts shall 
 be dispelled." (Gatha Spenta ]\Iainyu, Ps. 2.) 
 
 Such was Mazdeism, pure and noble ; Zoroaster was 
 its only prophet : he had no successor. " But his religion 
 moulded a nation whose moral worth was the marvel of 
 the ancient world, whose power secured the first suc- 
 cesses of the Aryans over the Semites, and whose meeting 
 with Israel * by the waters of Babylon ' revealed so close 
 an afiinity between the religious conceptions of the two 
 nations that the Hebrew prophets did not hesitate to 
 call Cyrus * the shepherd of Jehovah,' and that Cyrus 
 himself, touched by the misfortunes of this little people 
 with beliefs so like his own, immediately broke the 
 chains of the Jewish exiles, and thus, unwittingly, saved 
 the cradle of Christianity." " 
 
 The people to whom Zoroaster addressed his 
 preaching were the brothers, or at any rate the first 
 The Aryans cousins, of those other Aryans who invaded 
 in India. and conquered India. Here again exact 
 dates fail us, but we know that the Aryan 
 conquerors occupied the Punjab, if nothing more, 
 about IGOO B.C. The Dravidians, dark-skinned abo- 
 rigines, fought the fair Aryan invaders descending from 
 the north-western passes, but were beaten and driven 
 south. The most ancient literature of India consists 
 of the Vedas, a collection originally of four, and 
 The Eig- finally of seven, great sacred books. The 
 ^^^^' oldest of these is the Rig-Veda, a collection 
 
 of 1,200 hymns and other songs, not all religious, 
 with commentaries. Another of the Vedas is the 
 TheMaha- Mahabharata, the *^ Great Bharata," or 
 bharata. a Q^eat History of the race of Bharata," in 
 eighteen books containing 214,778 lines, almost ten 
 times the length of the Iliad and Odyssey combined ! 
 
 * Westphal, op. cit. p. 142. 
 
 On the historical foundation of a quarrel between two 
 great Aryan clans in North-Western India, this great 
 epic tells the story of a struggle between the hundred 
 sons of Dhrita-rashtra and five sons of his brother Pandu, 
 all descendants of Bharata, King of the Moon. The 
 cousins do not get on very well together. When the 
 eldest of Pandu's sons, Yudhishthir, is appointed heir- 
 apparent, the feud comes to a head. Dhrita-rashtra's 
 sons plot to burn the five brothers in a house specially 
 constructed for the purpose. They escape, however, 
 into a forest country, where they get themselves wives 
 and powerful friends, return with an army and force a 
 partition of the empire, obtaining the western half of it. 
 But trouble is in store. Yudhishthir, who is an in- 
 veterate gambler, loses in a game of dice his kingdom, 
 his brothers, himself and his wife. But the doom of 
 slavery is commuted to one of banishment. Then the 
 whole family disappear once more and live in exile in 
 the forests for twelve years. At the end of that time 
 they serve a foreign king for a year in various humble 
 disguises. They have the good fortune to be of great 
 use to him in a feud with a neighbour, and having 
 revealed their true identity they are in return assisted 
 by him to regain their lost kingdoms. The climax of 
 the great struggle is reached in the duel between 
 Pandu's son Arjun and the hero Kama, who correspond 
 respectively to Achilles and Hector. Arjun is a famous 
 archer and uses celestial armour and weapons. The 
 rivals are equal, and in the last fight, which decides the 
 fate of the eighteen-day battle, Arjun triumphs through 
 a lucky accident. The hundred sons of Dhrita-rashtra 
 are all killed, their old father dies of a broken heart, 
 and the sons of Pandu come into their own and more. 
 The story is embellished with many legends and digres- 
 sions, such as the battle between gods and Titans, love 
 
 
92 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 stories of various great heroes, the pathetic devotion of 
 Savitri, the Vedic Alcestis, to her husband, and the vicis- 
 situdes of the Sun, alternately swallowed and vomited 
 forth hy the monster llaghu, who apparently adopts 
 this original method of regulating solar eclipses ! 
 
 The Ramayana, in seven books containing 4H,000 
 lines, is the history of the marvellous exploits of 
 The Rama- the hero, llama, performed in the closing 
 yana. period of the Aryan conquest of Hindustan. 
 
 The historical foundation of the poem was the 
 expedition of Rama to Southern India and Ceylon, 
 probably in the fourteenth century b.c, but over it the 
 poet's imagination has reared an elaborate super- 
 structure of legend and allegory, in which the warrior- 
 prince becomes an embodiment of the spirit of good, 
 and his enemies th(^ manifestations of evil in the world. 
 King Dasaratha, a middle-aged man of nine-thousand, 
 is reigning in Oudh, with 850 wives, and never a single 
 son to whom to bequeath the throne which advancing 
 age warns him he will one day have to quit. At last the 
 sacrifice of a horse melts the heart of the god, and he 
 becomes the happy father of four sons, one of whom is 
 Rama, who is destined to destroy the Rakshas or black- 
 skinned cannibals of Ceylon and their king, the monster 
 Ravan. Thanks to court intrigues and the charitable 
 wire-pulling of another wife of Dasaratha, who was 
 jealous of the hero's mother, Rama is banished the 
 kingdom for fourteen years. He shakes off the dust of 
 the palace and leaves only his royal sandals behind 
 to keep his place for him and remind the world of his 
 existence, and, with his devoted young wife, Sita, 
 plunges into the trackless forests, where he is lost to 
 view. At this point there enters on the scene the giant 
 Ravan, the villain of the plot, a forbidding monster 
 with ten heads and twenty arms (note his proper sense 
 
 THE ANCIENT EAST: FAR AND NEAR 93 
 
 of proportion) ! He hears the fame of the beautiful 
 Sita, lies in wait, decoys her husband and kidnaps her, 
 conveying her in that most modern and yet, in literature, 
 most ancient contrivance, an aerial car, to his city of 
 Lanka, the capital of Ceylon. There the fair captive is 
 consigned to the watchful keeping of ungainly relatives 
 of Ravan's, ogresses with too few or too many eyes, 
 and affecting curious fashions in headpieces borrowed 
 from crocodiles, leopards and wild boars. But neither 
 flattery, nor entreaty, nor threat can overcome the 
 virtuous Sita's abhorrence for her multiple and ill- 
 favoured suitor. Meanwhile, Rama the disconsolate, 
 helped by a host of marvellous semi-divine monkeys 
 and bears, gifted with articulate speech, throws a bridge 
 over the sea to Ceylon and sits down to a vigorous 
 siege of Lanka. The defence is protracted, and as full 
 of incident as its later revival at Troy. At last Rama 
 and the monster Ravan meet in single combat, a 
 struggle to the death. Rama strikes ofi' Ravan's ten 
 heads, which grow again as many as a hundred times,, 
 and the contest lasts seven days, till, by the divine 
 intervention of Brahma, Rama triumphs over his pros- 
 trate foe. Lanka falls and the fair Sita flies to the 
 arms of her long-lost lord. To cut a long story short, 
 Rama then reigns eleven thousand years (evidently a 
 true son of his father with the family failing!), is 
 gloriously transfigured and ascends to heaven, having 
 finished his allotted work, crushed the demons and 
 rescued suffering humanity. 
 
 Thus the Vedic poets on the early history of their 
 race. The Vedas are the oldest literary remains of the 
 Indian Aryans, and, indeed, of all the Indo- The Indian 
 European family of nations. They were Aryans, 
 composed probably about 1400 e.g.; at any rate, 
 they are of very respectable antiquity. Their myths 
 
 I 
 
94 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOBLD 
 
 were the source of Greek aud lloiuan and all Western 
 mythologies. Their religion, unlike the Maz deism of 
 Persia, was decidedly polytheistic. The dead were hurnt, 
 aud it was believed that the eyes of the departed 
 went to the sun, his breath to the wind, and his several 
 parts to tlie sky, earth, sea and plants, while the spark 
 of life itself was carried by the god of fire in a flame to 
 the land of the blest. The poems show us the Aryans 
 permanently settled on both banks of the Indus. Castes 
 are as yet unknown, and so is the burning of widows, 
 which was an ** improvement " introduced at a much 
 later stage. Women hold a high position, husband and 
 wife being joint-rulers of the house. Most of the 
 ordinary metals are known, and so is shipbuilding. 
 The men fight in chariots, like the heroes of the 
 Iliad and Ilittite chiefs, and like them, again, use 
 horses, not elephants, for war purposes. Wealth — as 
 so often in primitive states of society — is reckoned 
 in heads of cattle, and society is divided into four 
 grades, the Kshatriyas or nobles, the Brahmans or 
 priests, the Vaisyas or peasants, and lastly the Sutras 
 who do the menial drudgery of hewing wood and draw- 
 ing water, and are probably non-Aryans and prisoners 
 of war. 
 
 But not even India was the end of the world. The 
 glorious sun, ** rejoicing as a giant to run his course," 
 CMaa ^^^ come from far and looked with impartial 
 
 eye on the work and pleasure of many broad 
 lands before rousing the dusky Indian to another day 
 of heat and struggle against the Aryan invader. Of 
 Japan, **the land " above all others "of the liising 
 Sun," as its national emblem reminds us, we know 
 nothing belonging to this early date. But for the 
 beginnings of China we have a fair quantity of material. 
 At the epoch which we are considering, 1700-1300 b.c, 
 
 I 
 
 THE ANCIENT EAST: FAR AND NEAR 95 
 
 when the Eighteenth Dynasty was ruling in Egypt, 
 and the Cretan and Hittite empires were in their prime, 
 the Assyrian in its childhood, and the Persian in its 
 cradle, aud while the Aryans were pouring through the 
 passes into India, China was being governed by the 
 Shang Dynasty (176G-1122 b.c), and busy keeping out 
 of its frontiers the ancestors of the Huns. 
 
 But this dynasty had had many predecessors in the 
 Celestial Empire. China is called by the ancients 
 the land of the Seres—perhaps Isaiah's Sinim ^^^^ ^^^ 
 are the Chinese— and in the Middle Ages it ori^nof the 
 appears as Cathay. The present name is ^^^^^^e. 
 derived from the Tsin or Chin Dynasty which obtained 
 the throne a little before 200 b.c. The national tradi- 
 tions made the not uncommon claim that the people 
 were aborigines and had possessed the land from the 
 beginning of time. To less partial eyes the earliest 
 Chinese hieroglyphs would seem to suggest an affinity 
 with the Mongols. But the question is still suhjudlce. 
 
 According to the Chinaman's own account of his 
 national history, Pankii, the first Chinaman, and also 
 the first human being, lived millions of Prehistoric 
 years ago, and was followed by ten long dynasties, 
 lines of sovereigns, including *' Heavenly Emperors," 
 " Terrestrial Emperors," *' Human Emperors," "Nest- 
 builders," and ''the Fire-Producer," the Chinese Pro- 
 metheus who— note how much more scrupulous the 
 Chinese conscience is than the Greek !— did not steal 
 but merely borrowed fire from the stars and taught its 
 use to men. 
 
 Emerging from these aeons of long-lived mythical 
 sovereigns, we reach the first so-called The three 
 historical emperor in the person of Fu-hi, emperors: 
 whose date tradition assigns as 2852-2738 b.c. '^''"^• 
 But even here our suspicions are aroused by an unusual 
 
96 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLl 
 
 royal attribute ; his lower extremity terminated in a fish- 
 tail, which, though excusable enough in a mermaid, must 
 be highly inconvenient to the occupant of a throne. 
 Despite his physical peculiarity, Fu-hi established social 
 order in the place of chaos, abolished the matriarchate 
 and instituted matrimony. Perhaps he felt keenly the 
 drawbacks of ** laisser faire " and a want of system and 
 uniformity I He was a man of versatile genius who 
 taught his people hunting, the care of flocks, writing, 
 the manufacture of musical instruments, and even, 
 though it must have cost him a pang, the gentle art of 
 Shon-nung. fishing. His successor Sbon-nung was less 
 remarkable. He merely invented agricultural 
 implements and discovered and made known the me- 
 dicinal properties of various plants. After him came 
 Huang-ti. Huang-ti, the ''Yellow Emperor," who ex- 
 tended the empire, which originally lay on 
 the banks of the Yellow Eiver, and was the first to 
 build cities and temples and to regulate the calendar. 
 
 These three monarchs, usually known as *' The Three 
 Emperors," are, it is plain, largely mythical. The Shu- 
 
 Jhu/''^ ^^"^^' .^^ '*Book of History" compiled by 
 Confucius, does not mention them. But it 
 is loud in the praises of Yau and his successor Shun 
 (about 2250 ij.c). King Yau tried for nine years to 
 combat a great flood of the Yellow River, and in very 
 shame at his failure abdicated. Shun had a tender 
 conscience compensated by strong nerves. Outside his 
 palace gate he hung a blackboard and a large gong. 
 Any subject who was passing was free to record hfs 
 grievances on the board and call the royal attention to 
 them by beating the gong. On his demise, the kingdom 
 passed to Yu and the Hia Dynasty, which kept ft till 
 1766 B.C., when it was replaced by the Shang or Yin 
 dynasty, which remained in possession till ^1122 b.c. 
 
 THE ANCIENT EAST: EAR AND NEAR 97 
 
 The Hiung-nu, who may have been the Huns or their 
 ancestors, were troublesome at this period, and had to 
 be kept in check by the formation of military dukedoms 
 the most powerful of which eventually overthrew its 
 impenal master and founded the famous Chou Dynasty 
 (1122 B.C.) which lasted till 249 b.c. 
 
 Nor need the history of that period, however distant, 
 be a mere list of names and dates. Literary The Shu 
 fragments of the age have come down to us ^i^&- 
 in the Shu-King Collection. Says King Shun, he of the 
 blackboard and gong (about 2250 b.c.) :* 
 
 " We must deal humanely with those that come 
 from afar, mstruct those that are near, esteem and hold 
 m honour the men of talent, believe and trust men that 
 are virtuous and charitable, and have no dealings with 
 ttiose whose manners are corrupt." 
 
 "Let the children of princes and great men be 
 smcere and aflfable, indulgent, accommodating, and 
 grave : teach them to ba firm without bein. bird or 
 Ti-oud'-^'^^ "'''"' discornment, but let them not be 
 
 meal? ^""''' ''" ''"'^'''' """^ ^'°^'^ "^''^^^ ^"^^ J^s* 
 " Take not a side without careful thought " 
 " Must not the people bo loved ? Must not' the peonle 
 
 ttronc !'■'''* "" ""' "'^ °°* *^^^ ^^'- «'*'''"- 
 
 thus?"^ '^'"' ^''"'''' ^'"""'^^°''' e-^presses himself 
 
 " Virtue is the foundation of good government : and 
 this government consists firstly in providing for the 
 people the hmgs necessary for its existence and lev. 
 
 vhis.-' ""' '^" ^'^^'^^ '°^ *" -^-^^ ^'^^ people 
 
 ♦ Westphal, op. cit., p. 124. 
 
98 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 And here is an extract from the Shi-King, or Book of 
 Hongs, the earliest hymns of which helong to 
 
 The Shi-King. 
 
 the period of the Exodus : 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 O all ye wise men of the earth, 
 
 Know ye not the law of virtue ? 
 
 IaO who hateth uo man and covetcth nothing, 
 
 How should he not do what is just and good ? 
 
 Oh, how truly oxccUont is ho, 
 
 Who would not eat the bread of idleness 1 
 
 Lot us not yield ourselves up to excess ; 
 
 Let us think always of the duties of our estate. 
 
 Let us not imitate the savages in the love of pleasure ; 
 
 The good man continuoth grave and thoughtful. 
 
 Let us not yield ourselves to excess. 
 
 Let us think of the future. 
 
 A cold and hard rehgion, perhaps, and innocent of 
 the softening element of love, but, clearly, the ethics of 
 a long-etablishod civilization in an extremely high state 
 of development. 
 
 ♦ Wosti)hal, op. cit., p. 127. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 A NEW NATION 
 
 •' The Lord is a man of war : 
 
 The Lord is his name. 
 
 Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea • 
 
 And his chosen captains are sunk in the Rod Sea. 
 
 The deeps cover them ; 
 
 They went down into the depths like a stone. 
 
 
 
 Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them : 
 They sank as lead in the mighty waters." 
 
 
 
 And Miriam answered them, 
 
 "Sing yo to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously • 
 The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea." ' 
 
 —Exodus xv. 3, 4, 5, 10, 21. 
 
 The Eighteenth Dynasty in Egypt had ended in failure 
 at home and abroad. The conservatism of a privileged 
 and well-organized priesthood had proved too The 1^111^ 
 strong for premature reformation, and the t^^^th 
 dreamer^s ideal of goodwill and non-resistance ag^gSve 
 had been convicted of being unpractical in ^^^^ios, 
 the face of that ingrained human habit of setthng dis- 
 putes by an appeal to force or cunning. But the 
 accession of the commander-in-chief, Horemheb, had 
 revived the military spirit of Egypt, and paved the way 
 for a vigorous reaction. This reached its height under 
 the Nineteenth Dynasty which within a year or two was 
 founded by Eameses L, and included also the great 
 
 99 ^ 
 
100 
 
 THE ANClEiST WORLD 
 
 
 Barneses I. 
 
 Seti I. 
 
 Eamescs II., the ** Sesoslris " of the Greeks, and 
 Merenptah, both of them closely connected with the 
 history of the Jewish Exodus. There were to be no 
 half-measures now. Eameses I. proceeded at 
 once to justify his seizure of the throne by 
 engaging the country in a great struggle with the 
 Hittites, and carrying the war into the enemy's country. 
 The result was a treaty. His son, Seti I., 
 continued his aggressive policy, and warred 
 successfully against Ethiopians, Arabians, and Hittites, 
 fighting these last at Kadesli, and concluding a treaty 
 with them on equal terms. He was also a great 
 builder, and was responsible for the great Hall of 
 Columns at Karnak, which shows, by the way in which 
 it has withstood time and still more destructive man, 
 that its author did not stint expenditure in his contracts. 
 But both in the field and in architecture, Seti was 
 surpassed by his more illustrious son, Eameses II. , who 
 Eameses II. bears, perhaps, the most redoubtable and 
 ♦« sesostris." i)est popularly known name of all the long 
 line of Egyptian Pharaohs. North, south, east, and 
 w^est, he spread the terror and fame of Egyptian arms, 
 beginning in his early youth with a defeat of Sardinian 
 and Tyrrhenian invaders, while his father was yet alive. 
 Soon after his accession he conquered Ethiopia, and in 
 the fifth year of his reign began a tremendous life-and- 
 death struggle with a powerful confederacy led by the 
 Hittites, and including Mysians, Lycians, and Dardans, 
 occupying the land of Troy. This formidable alliance 
 possessed 2500 war-chariots. By personally plunging 
 into the thick of the fray, Eameses saved his army from 
 destruction in a cleverly laid ambush. On the following 
 day occurred the great and decisive battle of the cam- 
 paign, after which the Hittites and their friends retired 
 to Kadesh and agreed to peace. Eameses subsequently 
 
 A NEW NATION 
 
 101 
 
 took Shalam, probably the same as Jerusalem, Maram 
 (Merom) and Ascalon, and after fifteen years of alterna- 
 tive war and peace, finally concluded with the Hittites 
 a solemn treaty, inscribed on a temple wall at Karnak, 
 providing for an offensive and defensive alliance, extra- 
 dition, and the mutual protection of commerce.* To 
 cement the alliance Eameses married the daughter of 
 the Hittite king Khetasar, who afterwards c'^ame to 
 Egypt on a visit to his illustrious son-in-law. 
 
 Like all mighty kings, Eameses had his court poet, 
 who, if need was, could make tlattery and exaggeration 
 do duty for poetic inspiration. Thus Pentaur The Poem 
 pamts in glorious colours the great battle of Centaur. 
 ^^■i"f,"'« Hittites t:- "l^the 
 
 ''. . . Then the vile Kheta chief made an hittites. 
 advance with men and horses numerous as sand ; they 
 were three men on a car ; they had joined with 'every 
 champion of Khetaland, equipped with all war-crear, in 
 countless numbers ; they lay in ambush hidden ' to 
 north-west of the town Katesh ; then they charged the 
 brigade of Ea Harmachis in the centre, as they were 
 marching on, and were not prepared to fight. Foot 
 and horse of King Eameses gave way before them ; they 
 then took Katesh on the western bank of Hanruta • 
 this news was told to the King; then he rose as Mentu' 
 he seized his arms for battle ; he clutched his corselet 
 Ike Bar in his hour ; the great horse that bore him 
 Victory in Thebes' his name, from the stable of 
 Eameses Miamon, within the van. The Kinc. drew him- 
 self up, he pierced the line of the foe, the vile Kheta • 
 he was all alone, no other with him. When he advanced 
 to survey behind him, he found there encircled him 2500 
 chariots stopping his way out. . . . There was no chief 
 
 ♦ See Chap. V. 
 
 t Abbreviated from " Kecords of the Past," ij. p. 68, 
 
102 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 A NEW NATION 
 
 I 
 
 "with me, no marshal, no captain of archers, no officers ; 
 fled were my troops and horse. I was left alone of 
 them to fight the foe. Then said King Eameses, * What 
 art thou, my father Ammon ? What father denies his 
 son ? For have I done aught without thee ? Have 
 I not stepped or stayed looking to thee, not transgress- 
 ing the decisions of thy mouth, nor passing far astray 
 heyond thy counsels? Sovran Lord of Egypt, who 
 makest to how down the peoples that withstand thee ; 
 what are these Amu* to thy heart? Ammon hrings 
 them low who know not God. ... I am amid multitudes 
 unknown, nations gathered against me ; I am alone, no 
 other with me ; my foot and horse have left me. I 
 called aloud to them, none of them heard; I cried to 
 them. I find Ammon worth more than millions of 
 soldiers, 100,000 cavalry, 10,000 brothers and sons, 
 were they gathered all in one. No works of many men 
 avail, Ammon against them.' . . . Ra heard when I 
 called; he put his hand to me, I was glad. He called 
 to me behind : * Rameses Miamon, I am with thee. . . . 
 I am worth to thee 100,000 joined in one ; I am Sovran 
 Lord of Victory, loving valour.* ... I am as Mentu, I 
 shoot to the right ; I seize on my left, like Bar in his 
 fury against them; I find 2500 chariots, I am amidst 
 them; then were they overthrown before my steeds; 
 not one of them found his hand to fight, their hearts 
 shrank within them ; their heads all dropped, they 
 knew not how to shoot, they found no heart to grasp 
 the spear; I made them fall into the water as fall 
 crocodiles, they tumbled headlong one over another ; I 
 slew them ; my pleasure was that none of them should 
 look behind him, nor any return ; whoever falls of them 
 he must not raise himself up. . . . Each of them calls 
 to his fellow saying, * No mortal born is he whoso is 
 
 ♦ Asiatics. 
 
 103 
 
 among us, Set the mighty of strength ; Bar in bodily 
 form.' . . . Coming to the junction of roads, the King 
 pursued them as a griffin. I was slaying them, none 
 escaped me. . . ." 
 
 At this point the squire, Menna, expresses anxiety 
 for his royal master's safety, but Rameses reassures 
 him and then rounds on his army and very properly 
 abuses them for their cowardice and ingratitude to the 
 king who loaded them with benefits and honours. The 
 carnage was fearful. 
 
 '* They found all the tribes through whom I pierced 
 strewn in carnage, whelmed amid their blood, with all 
 brave fighters of Khetaland, with children and brothers 
 of their chief. Morning lighted the field of Katesh ; no 
 space was found to tread on for their multitude." 
 
 After once more upbraiding his soldiers, the king 
 renewed the conflict — 
 
 '*At dawn he joined in fray of battle; he went 
 terrible to fight, as a bull terrible with pointed horns 
 he rose against them as Mentu ordering the fray, fight- 
 ing fierce as a hawk. . . . Whoever approaches him, 
 sinks to ruin; they were brought to kiss the dust. 
 King Rameses prevailed over them, he slew them, they 
 escaped not, they were overthrown under his steeds, 
 they were strewn huddled in their gore. Then the vile 
 Kheta Prince sent to do homage to the great name of 
 King Rameses." 
 
 Rameses then called a council of war of his chief 
 officers, who advised him to accept the proffered terms, 
 which he did, and led his army back in peace to 
 Egypt. 
 
 Rameses was an organizer both political and finan- 
 cial; he may have found a training-ground for his 
 powers at home, for he had a family of a hundred and 
 eleven sons and fifty-nine daughters ! 
 
104 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOULD 
 
 A NEW NATION 
 
 Besides being a great conqueror, Barneses has claims 
 to fame as a builder. He erected great new temples 
 Barneses and embellished and enriched those already 
 a builder, existing. 
 
 I met a traveller from an antique land, 
 Who said, Two vast and trunkless legs of stone 
 Stand in the desert, near them on the sand 
 Half-sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown 
 And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command 
 Tell that the sculptor well those passions read. 
 Which yet survive, stamped on those lifeless things, 
 The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed. 
 And on the pedestal these words appear : 
 " My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, 
 Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair." 
 Nothing beside remains, round the decay 
 Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, 
 The lone and level sands stretch far away.* 
 
 Bameses reigned sixty-seven years and died at the 
 age of ninety-six. A king of this type, especially in an 
 Barneses age when a critical treatment of history is 
 stones. g|.Qj unknown, infallibly becomes the hero of 
 
 a thousand and one exploits, many of them of doubtful 
 authenticity. They collect round the great names as 
 inevitably as the steel-filings fly to the magnet and 
 cling to it. Bameses II. appears in the early historians 
 as " Sesostris," and, with the help of Manetho, 
 Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, leads a crowded and 
 glorious life. His father ordered all the boys through- 
 out his kingdom who had been born on the same day 
 as young Bameses to be collected together and to be 
 brought up with him, hoping that his son would benefit 
 by the friendly rivalry at the time and have his play- 
 mates as a body of firm friends in after life. Every 
 morning the boys had to walk five miles before they 
 were allowed to touch any breakfast. As soon as they 
 
 ♦ Shelley (Ozymandias = Rameses IT.).! 
 
 105 
 
 were old enough, they were all sent out into the eastern 
 desert bordering on the Bed Sea, to hunt and fight 
 the semi-savage natives and learn generally to endure 
 hardships. Then they were despatched in the opposite 
 direction and fought the Libyan tribes. 
 
 Some thousands of lepers and other unclean people 
 had been given the deserted Hyksos town of Avaris in the 
 eastern delta to dwell in. They had formed osarsiph 
 themselves into a regularly organized com- and the 
 munity under a priest of Heliopolis named ^®^®"' 
 Osarsiph, who had his own ends to serve. Soon they 
 began to issue from their settlement and raid the neigh- 
 bouring parts of Egypt, and at every success grew bolder 
 and went further. The king, who was very superstitious 
 and had been told that Egypt would be under the heel 
 of the Unclean for thirteen years, pusillanimously 
 retired before their onset southwards into Ethiopia, and 
 left the country at their mercy. The thirteen years 
 being over, the spiritless monarch screwed up his 
 courage and, mainly by the help of his son, Bameses, 
 expelled the interlopers. 
 
 ''Cowards die many times before their death," but 
 a time comes when they die to some purpose. Bameses 
 ascended his father's throne and the com- Accession 
 plexion of affairs changed. He had conceived and 
 a daring plan for the conquest of the world. 
 But first he must make sure of his hold on the support 
 0^ Egypt. So he made various administrative improve- 
 ments, redressed grievances and gave a general amnesty 
 to all the inmates of the public prisons. Then he 
 equipped an army of 600,000 foot, 24,000 horse, and 
 27,000 war-chariots, all under the command of his boy- 
 hood's companions, and on all these soldiers bestowed 
 allotments of the pick of the land in consideration of 
 personal service — a kind of anticipation of our Norman 
 
 reforms. 
 
106 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 feudal sjstem.* First he reduced Ethiopia and imposed 
 on it a tribute of ebony, gold and elephants' tusks. 
 
 Conquests. ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^ ^^^* ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ conquer all 
 the coasts of the Indian Ocean, while he 
 
 himself pursued his triumphant march beyond the 
 
 Ganges, subduing all the nations lying across his imth. 
 
 Then he turned and beat the Scythians by the river 
 
 Tanais (Don), founded an Egyptian colony in Colchis, 
 
 on the banks of the Phasis, at the east end of the Black 
 
 Sea, conquered Asia Minor, the Cyclades and part of 
 
 Thrace, and was only turned back by the severity of 
 
 the climate and difficulty of obtaining supplies. In 
 
 all the countries he subdued he put up pillars with 
 
 appropriate inscriptions commemorating the courage or 
 
 cowardice of his enemies. 
 
 After a nine years' absence from home, he returned 
 to Egypt, and had no sooner crossed the frontier when 
 A narrow at Daplmae he had a very narrow escape 
 escape. ^j.^^ g^ murderous plot contrived by his 
 
 brother, who had remained behind as regent. The 
 royal residence was set on fire, and the royal family 
 quickly surrounded by a ring of flame. Eameses 
 hurriedly consulted his wife, and on her advice threw two 
 of their six sons across the flames, and over this impro- 
 vised bridge made good his escape with her and the 
 remaining four. He afterwards wreaked his revenge on 
 his traitorous brother, and put up colossal statues of 
 himself, the queen, and those four sons, to commemo- 
 rate their narrow escape. 
 
 In all the great public works which he carried out he 
 boasted that he had employed only foreign captives and 
 that no Egyptain had been made to share 
 the toil. On his royal progresses, his state 
 chariot was drawn by vassal kings harnessed four 
 
 * Herod, ii. 102-110. 
 
 Foreigners. 
 
 A NEW NATION 
 
 107 
 
 abreast, who had to perform this service as part of their 
 yearly homage. 
 
 All such early accounts contain many inaccuracies 
 and exaggerations. The sculptures which Herodotus 
 saw in Asia Minor w^ere most probably not Historical 
 Egyptian at all but Hittite, and the whole ^asis. 
 story of Sesostris' world-conquering expeditions to 
 Bactria and India, which occurs in later writers, was 
 probably highly coloured by a desire on the part of the 
 Egyptian annalists to make their national hero appear 
 the equal or even the superior of Alexander. But there 
 is a sufficient foundation of sound historical fact. 
 
 Eameses II. must remain a romantic and attrac- 
 tive figure, and the interest attaching to his reign is 
 heightened by its connexion with the Biblical Biblical 
 history of the oppression of the Hebrews and i^istory. 
 their escape from Egypt. The same consideration 
 applies to his son and successor, 'Merenptah, under 
 whose weaker rule Egypt experienced foreign Decline 
 invasion and domestic trouble. A confederacy under 
 
 e nr t'L j.*i CI J'* T*u Mcrenptah. 
 
 of Mediterranean tribes, Sardinians, Libyans, 
 Sicilians, Lycians, Tyrrhenians and Achaeans raided the 
 western portion of the Delta and were with difficulty 
 repalled. The empire of Thothmcs and Eameses was 
 entering on its downward path. 
 
 It will be remembered that Joseph and the rest of 
 Jacob's family came to Egypt during the Hyksos 
 domination, and being Semites were looked The 
 on with favour by these Semitic rulers. But ^<>^^8- 
 their position suffered a rude shock. ** Now there 
 arose a new king over Egypt, which knew not 
 Joseph," is the laconic statement of the Book of 
 Exodus (Ex. i. 8). It refers doubtless to the accession 
 of the Nineteenth Dynasty, perhaps more particu- 
 larly to that of Eameses II. The Eighteenth Dynasty, 
 
108 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 A NEW NATION 
 
 109 
 
 founded by Ahines, bad indeed expelled tbe Hyksos, but 
 it had tolerated tbeir proteges, the Hebrews, perhaps 
 partly out of grateful remembrance of noble service 
 rendered by their compatriot Joseph, the great viceroy 
 who had staved off famine. But the Eighteenth 
 Dynasty had left the scene under a cloud, and the 
 Nineteenth which supplanted it doubtless attributed its 
 inglorious end partly, to its sentimentality and weak 
 policy towards the foreigners. They were the " Jingoes " 
 of ancient Egypt. 
 
 ^ As Rameses would have no half-measures in deaHng 
 with external foes, so tbe watchword of " Thorough " 
 Eameses characterized his internal reforms. And one 
 Hebrews ^! ^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^* himself was the eHmina- 
 tion of the alien. His own statement inscribed 
 on his monuments that no native Egyptian had groaned 
 under a taskmaster in the erection oi his mighty works 
 agrees well with the Biblical account of the oppression 
 of the Hebrews. They were set to make bricks under 
 increasingly hard conditions and to raise buildings for 
 the king, and in this way built the store-cities of l^tthom 
 and llameses. But Rameses did not merely wish to use 
 the Hebrews as slaves and make their life a burden out 
 of mere despotic caprice and inhumanity. He was 
 afraid of them. They had prospered and multiplied 
 tremendously and had become an element in the nation 
 to be reckoned with, and there was a danger that being 
 foreigners from Asia they might some day facilitate tbe 
 entry into Egypt of an invader from the same quarter 
 and even join tbeir considerable forces with his. So the 
 oppression was deliberate and systematic and aimed 
 at extermination. But the device failed. Then the 
 oppressor had recourse to murder, the organized de- 
 struction of all the male Hebrew children at birth. 
 But the agents were not so ruthless as the commands 
 
 laid upon them, and still the persecuted Hebrews 
 multiplied. 
 
 And then, in the hour of need, the great hero 
 appeared upon the scene. The story of Moses is too 
 familiar to require repetition. His life, in word 
 and deed, is contained in the books of Exodus, ^°^^^' 
 Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, in fuller detail 
 perhaps tban the Hfe of any other of the mighty men 
 of old, and must be read there to be understood and 
 admired. The child who was saved from murder by 
 being concealed, when no more than three months old, 
 in a cradle of bulrushes and mud among the reeds of a 
 deep and broad and crocodile-infested river, and was 
 rescued from this perilous situation by the King's 
 daughter and brought up by her in the royal pahice 
 as her own son " in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," 
 grew up into the greatest man in the history of a nation 
 rich in great men, and one of the greatest men of all 
 nations and all ages. Whether as organizer, or military 
 leader, or judge or legislator, this extraordinary genius 
 compels unqualified admiration. But perhaps the 
 dominant quality in his character was his patriotic 
 devotion and forgetfulness of self. He had every induce- 
 ment to remain where he was and let things drift. 
 Brought up as an Egyptian and as a royal prince, he 
 had the world at his feet. The highest career was open 
 to him. Riches and honour lay within easy grasp. He 
 would scarcely need to stretch out his hand to them; 
 they would drop into it as he lay in magnificent and 
 luxurious indolence. And then perhaps ^some scholar 
 deciphering hieroglyphs might have come across the 
 name of an honoured grandee wdth grandiloquent titles, 
 and given them a passing smile, no more. 
 
 But Moses was made of other stuff. When the 
 " choice of Heracles " came to his masculine soul, he 
 
110 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 A NEW NATION 
 
 111 
 
 took the steep and stony path. Nothing would have 
 been easier for liim than to disown the oppressed race 
 and enjoy life with the oppressors. He chose rather to 
 avow himself a Hebrew, to take the side of the perse- 
 cuted against the persecutor, and to fly for his life to 
 the desert. Returning thence after many years of 
 solitude and meditation away from the artificial life of 
 the court, mature and resolute, he stood up as the 
 champion of his people and defied Pharaoh to his face ; 
 and finally, after a tragic trial of strength between 
 oppressor and deliverer, led out his countrymen from 
 the "house of bondage " with a high hand and triumi3hed 
 signally over the army launched by the king in hot 
 pursuit. 
 
 Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea I 
 Jehovah has triumphed — his people are free. 
 Sing— for the pride of the tyrant is broken, 
 
 His chariots, his horsemen, all splendid and brave- 
 How vain was their boast, for the Lord hath but spoken, 
 
 And chariots and horsemen are sunk in the wave, 
 Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egj-pt's dark sea ; 
 Jehovah has triumphed — his people are free ! 
 
 — T. Moore. 
 
 It seems that somewhere in the interval since Moses* 
 birth, Rameses had gone the way of all the world, and 
 
 Date of the ^^^^ *^^ throne to his son Merenptah. There 
 Exodus : is no record of the Hebrew exodus under 
 about 1220 jyjoggg jjj ^-ijjg j.gjg^ . ^^^ g^g ^^^ tyrannical per- 
 secution of the Israelites fits in with what we 
 know from other sources of the reign of Rameses, so 
 Merenptah is the type of king in whose disordered reign 
 the rebellion of Moses might very naturally occur, and 
 who would not care to make any allusion to his 
 discomfiture. 
 
 Moses showed his good strategy and good sense in 
 avoiding the direct route from the Delta along the 
 
 sea-coast to Palestine, this being guarded by a string of 
 forts, and turning south, leading his undisciplined rabble 
 of followers by a roundabout way along the east ^^^^^ 
 coast of the Gulf of Suez. He had planned of the 
 for them a journey away from the beaten ^&^*^^®^- 
 track during which he might, by a long apprenticeship, 
 inure them to hardship, and out of a down-trodden and 
 chaotic collection of poor-spirited slaves forge a united 
 and manly nation, obedient to law and fearless in 
 battle. He met and overcame various hill-tribes, and 
 when out of reach of pursuit in a secure encampment, 
 he promulgated that remarkable ^ode of laws which was 
 to be the base and starting-point of the laws civil and 
 religious of a vigorous nation, and of the greater part of 
 the whole civilized world. 
 
 Perhaps we should ascribe to the great lawgiver 
 only those laws contained in Exodus xx.-xxiii. That is 
 a point for the Biblical critic. Much has Moses as 
 been said about the resemblances between lawgiver, 
 the laws of Moses and those of Hammurabi, King of 
 Babylon, the contemporary of Abraham, and of the 
 presumed indebtedness of the later to the earlier 
 legislator. No doubt Moses was well acquainted with 
 the old Babylonian code. It had been known for a 
 thousand years, and through the spread of Babylonian 
 influence had been the current law of Syria and Palestine 
 at the very doors of Egypt for many centuries. Indeed, 
 it continued in force as the law of Assyrian and Baby- 
 lonian governments for many centuries after Moses' 
 death. Moses, therefore, with the education of a prince 
 in **all the wisdom of the Egyptians," cannot have 
 failed to have studied the laws of the greatest con- 
 temporary power, and it would be curious if he had 
 gathered no hint from so excellent a collection of statutes. 
 The resemblances in fact are many and striking. 
 
 i 
 
112 
 
 THE xVNCIENT WORLD 
 
 A NEW NATION 
 
 Difference 
 between 
 Moses and 
 Hammurabi. 
 
 But the differences are equally remarkable. The 
 new laws are an advance on the old. In point of 
 religion, there is no comparison possible. 
 Nothing in Hammurabi's code comes within 
 measurable distance of the exalted purity and 
 simple grandeur of the Decalogue. In moral 
 and social matters Moses' precepts are distinguished by 
 an undercurrent of mercy which is absent°from the 
 more ancient code. He forbids the ill-treatment of 
 strangers, and allows them to be naturalized He 
 prohibits usury and the keeping of a debtor's coat in 
 pledge after sundown ; and gleaning in harvested fields 
 IS to be the privilege of the poor. The harvest of every 
 seventh year is likewise devoted to the indigent 
 Cruelty to animals is punishable. Runaway slaves are 
 not to be given up. Cities of refuge are provided for 
 involuntary manslayers. Besides, Hammurabi made 
 no sanitary laws, no organized law-courts and no laws 
 against CDrruption, magic, and false weights, such 
 as we find enacted by Moses. The comparison of the 
 laws IS interesting, but in judging the framers of them 
 It must be remembered that Moses lived a thousand 
 years later than his great predecessor. 
 
 The land of Canaan, which was the goal of the 
 Hebrews' march, had for a long time, at the very 
 Canaan. J^f '* *^^^^ centuries, been subject to Egypt, 
 ihothmes I. had conquered as far as the 
 i.uphrates in the sixteenth century b.c. and Thothmes 
 HI., surnamed the Great, had carried his victorious wars 
 through those regions more than a dozen times fifty years 
 ater. Under the over-mild rule of Akhnaton (Amen- 
 hotep IV.), this dependency revolted successfully, but a 
 generation later Seti I. reconquered it and Rameses II. 
 tightened his hold upon it. Lost once more by his son 
 Merenptah, and again reconquered by Rameses III it 
 
 113 
 
 now enjoyed a long period, two and a half centuries of 
 immunity from Egyptian attacks or interference, in fact 
 till Shishak's plundering raid into Judaea in Rehoboam's 
 reign. It was probably at the beginning of this period, 
 soon after the re-conquest by Rameses III., that Joshua 
 led his troops into their new home.* 
 
 After a period the duration of which is not certain, 
 but which extended over many years, during part of 
 which time they had their headquarters at ^ , 
 Kadesh-barnea, the Israelites at length won conqu^t of 
 their way to Palestine, approaching it, not as ^^^^an. 
 might have been supposed, from the south, but from the 
 east. After conquering the country east of Jordan they 
 crossed the river opposite Jericho and captured this 
 fortified town, which was the key to Palestine, com- 
 manding the principal roads into the interior. Moses 
 after leading the people to the threshold of their destined 
 home, died without crossing it himself. The work of 
 invasion and conquest was left to his successor, Joshua 
 who gave an excellent account of himself, and in three 
 main campaigns subdued the greater part of the country 
 sufficiently to enable the Israelites to settle in it and 
 occupy towns. But the original inhabitants still 
 remained in large numbers. The snake had been 
 scotched, not killed, and could still turn and use his 
 fangs and venom to good purpose. Hence the Book of 
 Judges, a great national epic, in prose and verse, a 
 kind of Ramayana of the Hebrews. In it we become 
 spectators of the protracted resistance of the original 
 occupants of Palestine and the more and more effec- 
 tive self-assertion of the invaders under an irregular 
 series of unequally gifted but enthusiastic chieftains 
 or - Judges." Thus there are unfolded in dramatic 
 
114 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 A NEW NATION 
 
 115 
 
 succession the more or less marvellous exploits of Ehud 
 the Benjamite, the women Dehorah and Jael, Gideon, 
 Jephthah and last, but not least extraordinary, 
 Samson. 
 
 This stormy period, during which the country was 
 disorganized and ill-governed, lasted about a hundred 
 Saul and and fifty years, at the end of which time the 
 David. Israelites, having become more of a nation 
 
 under the able rule of Samuel, adopted a monarchial 
 form of government. As in the case of Rome a thousand 
 years later and of many another nation, a period of war 
 and confusion ended in the sole rule of the inevitable 
 one strong man. Saul's reign, which had promised well 
 at the start, closed in failure and defeat, and was entirely 
 eclipsed by that of his rival and successor David (about 
 1010-970 B.C.). The most famous of all the Hebrew 
 kings had a remarkable career. He had been taken 
 while still a mere boy from the work of watching his 
 father's flocks on the hillsides, to be musician and 
 armour-bearer to King Saul. Winning distinction in 
 the field against the nation's enemies, he rose high in 
 favour and became the King's son-in-law. But being 
 marked out by the king-maker Samuel to occupy his 
 father-in-law's throne, he was persecuted by him with 
 relentless fury, and lived for years the life of an outlaw 
 in the uplands of Judah. Here he supported himself 
 and a small band of followers in the midst of perilous 
 exploits and adventures and privation. This training 
 he turned to good account, and when, on the death of 
 Saul, he ascended the throne, he speedily showed that 
 the lessons of his wild life had not been wasted upon 
 him. He proved himself an organizer and a soldier of 
 high capacity. In a short time he had humbled the 
 hereditary foe, the Philistines, united his northern and 
 southern provinces by wresting Jerusalem from the 
 
 
 enemy, driven back the Moabites, Ammonites and 
 Edomites, who were encroaching on the east and south, 
 and securely established a w^ell-organized kingdom with 
 well-defined and well-defended frontiers. At the same 
 time, he was the author of glowing poetry, perhaps the 
 noblest in the whole of his nation's literature. 
 
 His son Solomon, who followed him on the throne, 
 though not so great a soldier, surpassed his father in 
 royal magnificence. He enriched and beauti- g^i^^^^jj 
 fied his capital with a gorgeous temple and 
 lovely palaces, and rivalled and even surpassed the kings 
 of the surrounding states in the wealth, luxury and 
 splendour of his court. Like his father, he was also a 
 gifted author ; and his reputation for wisdom spread far 
 and wide. Despite his personal shortcomings, he knew 
 how to choose his ministers, and he kept unimpaired the 
 territory he inherited from his warrior father. 
 
 Thus Israel took its place among the nations of the 
 ancient east. A glance at its position on the map, at 
 the meeting-place of nations, at the crossing Israel's 
 of the roads from Egypt to Babylonia, and P^a^e. 
 from Syria to Arabia, gives a clear hint of the part it 
 was destined to play in the history of their collisions 
 and alliances. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE TROJAN WAR 
 
 I cannot tell what crop may clothe the hills, 
 The merry hills Troy whitened long ago — 
 
 Belike the sheaves, wherewith the reaper fills 
 His yellow wain, no whit the weaker grow 
 
 For that past harvest-tide of wrong and woo ; 
 Belike the tale, wept over otherwhere. 
 Of those old days, is clean forgotten there. 
 
 — W. Morris, " Earthly Paradise." 
 
 The Aryans of India bad had their wars and adventures 
 inspiring national epics of immense length. The 
 The national Israelites during two centuries conquering 
 epic of and settling themselves in their new home 
 
 Crreece 
 
 had furnished materials for their books of 
 '* Joshua" and ** Judges." Meanwhile the West was 
 not lagging behind. The inhabitants of the islands and 
 mainland coasts of the Aegean Sea were men of hke 
 passions with their Eastern cousins, and, no less than 
 they, had their alliances, commercial treaties, jealousies, 
 hates, ambitions and wars. It was an affair of love 
 and wounded honour which set those lands ablaze with 
 a ten-year war, which furnished a theme for the great 
 national epic of Greece, the oldest existing document 
 in the Greek language. 
 
 Troy, the Trojan War, Hector, Achilles, the Wooden 
 Horse, are all household words, spread far more widely 
 than any knowledge of Greek or of Greek history. The 
 story, or the greater portion of it, is told us in the 
 
 116 
 
 THE TROJAN WAR 
 
 117 
 
 ''Iliad." Once upon a time, long, long ago, long before 
 the dawn of history or the birth of iconoclastic critics, 
 Teucer, a colonist from Crete (there are ^ariy 
 various versions of the tale) settled in the (traditional) 
 north-west corner of Asia Minor, near the Troy 7 ^^ 
 Hellespont, and built himself a town. Dar- Teucer,Dar- 
 danus came over from Samothrace on a raft ^*^'^^' ^''®*' 
 or a bladder, became Teucer's son-in-law, and on his 
 death took over the rule of the new town, and, with 
 a modesty not uncommon in those days, called it 
 Dardania. His grandson Tros rechristened the city 
 Troy, and its inhabitants Trojans. 
 
 From him there sprang two lines of princes, the 
 elder supplying Troy with its kings, Ilus, Laomedon 
 and Priam, each renowned in his own way, ^^g 
 while the younger branch included Aeneas, Laomedon, 
 and so in after-ages supplied romance with "*°^' 
 the tale of the wicked uncle and the infant twins saved 
 from a river and suckled under a fig-tree by a com- 
 passionate she-wolf. Ilus followed the family habit, 
 built his own town, which he named Ilios, and amalga- 
 mated it with Dardania, or Troy. Laomedon is chiefly 
 famous for his repudiation of a considerable debt to the 
 builders of the town walls, and his well-deserved punish- 
 ment, while Priam distinguished himself by being the 
 father of fifty sons and twelve daughters, and is most 
 famous as the ill-fated last king of Troy. 
 
 Two of his sons became famous. Hector for his 
 bravery, sense of honour and domestic virtue, Paris for 
 the opposites of all these qualities. Paris, 
 handsome, indolent, effeminate, was the spoilt 
 child of the family, and grew up, as spoilt children will, 
 selfish, heartless and uncontrolled. Being hospitably 
 entertained by Menelaus, king of Sparta, at whose 
 palace he was paying a visit, he showed his gratitude 
 
118 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 by making love to his host's wife, Helen, and in her 
 lord's absence absconding with her over the sea to Troy. 
 Even in Aegean society and Aegean times there 
 was a limit to a host's generosity. The outrage roused 
 the fury of Menelaus, and a wave of indigna- 
 war r* ° tion swept over Greece against the shameless 
 Agamemnon foreigner. Agamemnon, ** king of men "par 
 excellence, ruler of Mycenae the golden, and 
 brother of the injured husband, summoned his faithful 
 vassals to his standard, and a goodly array of chieftains 
 and men and ships gathered at Aulib in Boeotia and 
 crossed the Aegean waves, to demand satisfaction from 
 the king and people of Troy for the offence of their 
 good-for-nothing prince, and to bring home the erring 
 wife. But the combined might of the western main- 
 land states could not humble the obstinate city, which 
 was strongly fortified and courageously defended. The 
 Boul of the defence was Hector. For ten long, weary 
 years the siege dragged on, neither side gaining the 
 advantage. At last, in the tenth year, events began to 
 move fast, and it is at this point that the " Iliad " opens 
 and plunges in medias res, 
 
 Agamemnon, king of men, has taken the daughter 
 of Chryses, the priest of Apollo, and Apollo in revenge 
 sends a plague into the Greek camp. There- 
 •• lUad" ^ upon the king reluctantly restores the priest's 
 wrath of daughter, but compensates himself by de- 
 priving Achilles of his fair captive, Bryseis.* 
 Achilles' resentment knows no bounds. In his fury he 
 swears that he will fight for Agamemnon no more, and 
 retires to his tent ordering his Myrmidons to do the 
 same. Above, on Olympus, his mother Thetis obtains 
 from Zeus a promise that the Greeks will rue the day 
 when Agamemnon wronged her son. Agamemnon, in 
 
 ♦ See later, Chapter XVI., p. 276. 
 
 THE TROJAN WAR 
 
 119 
 
 consequence of a dream, marshals his host for battle, 
 despite the opposition of the majority of his chiefs. 
 
 But a truce is made on the request of Paris to 
 allow of a single combat between him and the host he 
 has wronged, Menelaus. In this Paris is 
 worsted, but is saved from destruction by the tween Paris 
 timely interference of Aphrodite, the goddess J°^ ^qt^q- 
 who by his famous corrupt judgment had 
 won the prize of beauty and had in return helped him to 
 win Helen. The truce is broken and the armies once 
 more join battle, in which Diomede, by the help of 
 Athene, performs great deeds of valour and bloodshed. 
 Meanwhile Hector bids farewell to his wife and infant 
 son — one of the most touching scenes in the whole of 
 this glorious poem. 
 
 " How would the sons of Troy, in arms renowned,* 
 
 And Troy's proud dames, whose garments sweep the ground, 
 
 Attaint the lustre of my former name, 
 
 Should Hector basely quit the field of fame ? 
 
 My early youth was bred to martial pains. 
 
 My soul impels me to the embattled plains. 
 
 Let me be foremost to defend the throne, 
 
 And guard my father's glories, and my own 1 
 
 Yet come it will, the day decreed by fates, 
 
 (How my heart trembles, while my tongue relates I) 
 
 The day when thou, imperial Troy, must bend, 
 
 And see thy warriors fall, thy glories end. 
 
 And yet no dire presage so wounds my mind, 
 
 My mother's death, the ruin of my kind, 
 
 Not Priam's hoary hairs defiled with gore, 
 
 Not all my brothers gasping on the shore, 
 
 As thine, Andromache I Thy griefs I dread : 
 
 I see thee trembling, weeping, captive led I 
 
 In Argive looms our battles to design, 
 
 And woes, of which so large a part was thine. 
 
 To bear the victor's hard commands, or bring 
 
 The weight of waters from Hyperia's spring. 
 
 ♦ Homer, "Iliad," vi. 440, Pope's translation. 
 
 o- 
 
I 
 
 120 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 There while you groan beneath the load of life, 
 They cry, * Behold the mighty Hector's wife 1 ' 
 Some haughty Greek, who lives thy tears to see, 
 Embitters all thy woes, by naming mo. 
 The thoughts of glory past and present shame 
 A thousand griefs shall waken at the name I 
 May I lie cold before that dreadful day 
 Pressed with a load of monumental clay I 
 Thy Hector, wrapt in everlasting sleep, 
 Shall neither hear thee sigh nor see thee weep." 
 Thus having spoke, the illustrious chief of Troy 
 Stretched his fond arms to clasp the lovely boy. 
 The babe clung crying to his nurse's breast, 
 Scared at the dazzling helm and nodding crest. 
 "With secret pleasure each fond parent smiled, 
 And Hector hasted to relieve his child. 
 The glittering terrors from his brows unbound, 
 And placed the beaming helmet on the ground ; 
 Then kissed the child, and, lifting high in air, 
 Thus to the gods preferred a father's prayer : 
 " O Thou whose glory fills the ethereal throne, 
 And all ye deathless powers, protect my son 1 
 Grant him, like me, to purchase just renown, 
 To guard the Trojans, to defend the crown, 
 Against his country's foes the war to wage, 
 And rise the Hector of the future age 1 
 So when triumphant from successful toils 
 Of heroes slain he bears the reeking spoils. 
 Whole hosts mav hail him with deserved acclaim. 
 And say, • This chief transcends his father's fame ' ; 
 While pleased amidst the general shouts of Troy, 
 His mother's conscious heart o'ertlows with joy." 
 He spoke, and fondly gazing on her charms, 
 Restored the pleasing burden to her arms ; 
 Soft on her fragrant breast the babe she laid, 
 Hushed to repose, and with a smile surveyed. 
 The troubled pleasure soon chastised by fear, 
 She mingled with a smile a tender tear. 
 The toftened chief with kind compassion viewed, 
 And dried the falling drops and thus pursued : 
 •' Andromache I my soul's far better part, 
 Why with untimely sorrows heaves thy heart ? 
 No hostile hand can antedate my doom. 
 Till fate condemns me to the silent tomb. 
 
 THE TKOJAN WAR 121 
 
 Fixed is the term to all the race of earth. 
 And such the hard condition of our birth : 
 No force can then resist, no flight can save. 
 All sink alike, the fearful and the brave. 
 No more— but hasten to thy tasks at home, 
 There guide the spindle and direct the loom. 
 Mo glory summons to the martial scene. 
 The field of combat is the sphere for men. 
 Where heroes war, the foremost place I claim. 
 The first in danger, as the first in fame." 
 Thus having said, the glorious chief resumes 
 His towery helmet, black with shading plumes. 
 His princess parts with a prophetic sigh. 
 Unwilling parts, and oft reverts her eye 
 That streamed at every look ; then, moving slow, 
 Sought her own palace, and indulged her woe. 
 
 Hector fights Ajax, but the dramatic duel, the climax 
 of the poem, is not yet. The Greeks build a wall to 
 protect their ships and act on the defensive. Achillas 
 From this point the Trojans, partly through ^^^^^ ^^°°^- 
 the unfair favouritism of Zeus, who has ordered the 
 gods to abstain from helping either side and then 
 assists the besieged, begin to have a decided advantage. 
 Hector, flushed with success, and anxious to press the 
 attack home, bivouacs with his Trojans on the field of 
 battle. Agamemnon is alarmed, and sends an embassy 
 consisting of Ajax, Phoenix, and the wily and persuasive 
 Odysseus to oifer to restore Bryseis and induce Achilles 
 to fargive and forget, and return to the scene of fight- 
 ing. But Achilles contemptuously rejects their over- 
 tures, and so the Greek chieftains are thrown back on 
 their own resources. Odysseus, the cunning, and 
 Diomede, the impetuous, kill the Trojan spy Dolon and 
 the ally of Troy, the Thracian Rhesus, on the very night 
 of his arrival in the camp. But it is all in vain. 
 Many of the Greek leaders are wounded, and Hector 
 and the Trojans even burst through the wall by the 
 ships. The Greeks are saved from their plight by Hera, 
 
122 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 the Queen of the gods, who tells Zeus to sleep, while 
 Poseidon seizes the opportunity to help the Greeks, and 
 Hector is wounded. The king of gods and men, how- 
 ever, wakes up in the nick of time and puts new strength 
 into Hector, and the result is a desperate encounter 
 close to the ships, which are stoutly defended by Ajax. 
 And thus from day to day the struggle continues, now 
 one side, now the other having the advantage, according 
 to the inconsistent favour and help of the gods of 
 Olympus. 
 
 But events are moving to a climax. Patroclus, the 
 young friend of Achilles, seeing how the war goes, with 
 Hector kills niany entreaties persuades Achilles to lend 
 A*hif^^^' ^^^ ^^^ armour, and goes into the fighting 
 vows line. The personation is successful. The 
 
 revenge. Greeks are fired with new hope. The Trojans, 
 believing that the redoubtable hero himself has re- 
 turned, are frightened and driven back from the ships. 
 But Hector, undaunted as ever, stands and gives battle 
 to the champion, and slays him. His fall is the signal 
 for a determined contest between Greeks and Trojans 
 for the possession of the dead. But Hector makes 
 good his claim, and strips the corpse of its renowned 
 panoply. From that moment all is changed. Achilles, 
 hearing of the death of his friend, vows revenge. 
 Before an assembly of the Greeks he is reconciled to 
 Agamemnon; his divine mother, Thetis, brings him 
 a new and magnificent suit of armour made at her 
 request by the god Hephaestus ; and thus accoutred 
 and breathing vengeance, the resplendent and terrible 
 warrior strides forth to battle. 
 
 The silver cuishes first his thighs infold ; ♦ 
 Then o'er his breast was braced the hollow gold ; 
 
 * " Iliad," xix. 369 (Pope). 
 
 THE TEOJAN WAR 
 
 123 
 
 The brazen sword a various baldric tied, 
 That, starred with gems, hung glittering at his side ; 
 And, like the moon, the broad refulgent shield * 
 Blazed with long rays, and gleamed athwart the field. 
 
 So to night-wandering sailors, pale with fears, 
 Wide o'er the watery waste, a light appears, 
 Which on the far-seen mountain blazing high. 
 Streams from some lonely watch-tower to the sky : 
 With mournful eyes they gaze and gaze again ; 
 Loud howls the storm and drives them o'er the main. 
 
 Next, his high head the helmet graced ; behind 
 The sweepy crest hung floating in the wind : 
 Like the red star, that from his flaming hair 
 Shakes down diseases, pestilence, and war ; 
 So streamed the golden honours from his head. 
 Trembled the sparkling plumes, and the loose glories shed. 
 The chief beholds himself with wondering eyes ; 
 His arms he poises, and his motions tries ; 
 Buoyed by some inward force he seems to swim, 
 And feels a pinion lifting every limb. 
 And now he shakes his great paternal spear. 
 Ponderous and huge, which not a Greek could rear, 
 From Pelion's cloudy top an ash entire 
 Old Chiron felled and shaped it for his sire ; 
 A spear which stern Achilles only wields. 
 The death of heroes and the dread of fields. 
 
 Antomedon and Alcimus prepare 
 The immortal coursers and the radiant car ; 
 (The silver traces sweeping at their side) 
 Their fiery mouths resplendent bridles tied ; 
 The ivory-studded reins, returned behind. 
 Waved o'er their backs, and to the chariot joined. 
 The charioteer then whirled the lash around. 
 And swift ascended at one active bound. 
 All bright in heavenly arms, above his squire, 
 Achilles mounts and sets the field on fire ; 
 Not brighter Phoebus in the ethereal way 
 Flames from his chariot, and restores the day. 
 
 Once more the gods descend from Olympus to the 
 field, and several duels take place, and heroes are 
 
 * For a full description of his famous shield, too long to quote here, 
 see " Iliad," xviii. 468-608. 
 
124 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 meets 
 Hector. 
 
 saved from death by divine intervention. But the cul- 
 minating tragedy can be delayed no longer. Achilles, 
 Achilles having chased the Trojans from the field, 
 is seen sweeping over the plain towards 
 Troy. Hector has seen him, and, in spite of 
 tearful entreaties from the walls, faces round and 
 calmly waits for the onset of his terrific enemy. Here 
 once more the poet rises to the full height of the 
 occasion, and gives us of his best : — 
 
 Resolved he stands, and with a fiery glance ♦ 
 Expects the hero's terrible advance. 
 So, rolled up in his den, the swelling snake 
 Beholds the traveller approach the brake ; 
 When fed with noxious herbs his turgid veins 
 Have gathered half the poisons of the plains ; 
 He burns, he stiffens with collected ire, 
 And his red eyeballs glare with living fire. 
 Beneath a turret, on his shield reclined, 
 He stood and questioned thus his mighty mind : 
 " Where lies my way ? To enter in the wall ? 
 Honour and shame the ungenerous thought recall. 
 
 • 
 No !— if I e'er return, return I must 
 Glorious, my country's terror laid in dust : 
 Or if I perish, let her see me fall 
 In field at least, and fighting for her wall.*' 
 
 Thus pondering, like a god the Greek drew nigh ; 
 
 His dreadful plumage nodded from on high ; 
 
 The Peliau javelin, in his better hand. 
 
 Shot trembling rays that glittered o'er the land ; 
 
 And on his breast the beamy splendour shone, 
 
 Like Jove's own lightning or the rising sun. 
 
 As Hector sees, unusual terrors rise, 
 
 Struck by some god, he fears, recedes, and flies. 
 
 He leaves the gates, he leaves the wall behind : 
 
 Achilles follows like the winged wind. 
 
 Thus at the panting dove a falcon flies 
 
 (The swiftest racer of the liquid skies). 
 
 THE TROJAN WAR 125 
 
 Just when he holds, or thinks he holds his prey, 
 Obliquely wheeling through the aerial way, 
 With open beak and shrilling cries he springs, 
 And aims his claws and shoots upon his wings. 
 ••••••• 
 
 The ^ gods, as so often happens, intervene, and 
 Hector is tricked into fighting his formidable adversary. 
 Heaven decrees that he must die. 
 
 sternly they met. The silence Hector broke : 
 His dreadful plumage nodded as he spoke : 
 ** Enough, O son of Peleus ! Troy has viewed 
 Her walls thrice circled, and her chief pursued. 
 But now some god within me bids me try 
 Thine or my fate : I kill thee, or I die. 
 Yet on the verge of battle let us stay, 
 And for a moment's space suspend the day ; 
 Let Heaven's high powers be called to arbitrate 
 The just conditions of this stern debate . . . 
 To them I swear ; if, victor in the strife, 
 Jove by these hands shall shed thy noble life, 
 No vile dishonour shall thy corse pursue ; 
 Stripped of its arms alone (the conqueror's due) 
 The rest to Greece uninjured I'll restore : 
 Now plight thy mutual oath, I ask no more." 
 ♦• Talk not of oaths," the dreadful chief replies. 
 While anger flashed from his disdainful eyes, 
 " Detested as thou art, and ought to be, 
 Nor oath nor pact Achilles plights with thee ; 
 Such pacts as lambs and rabid wolves combine, 
 Such leagues as men and furious lions join. 
 To such I call the gods ! one constant state 
 Of lasting rancour and eternal hate : 
 No thought but rage and never-ceasing strife, 
 Till death extinguish rage, and thought and life. . 
 
 i> 
 
 "Iliad," xxii. 128 and foil. (Pope). 
 
 The dramatic fight with javelins and swords ends in 
 Hector's defeat — 
 
 As radiant Hesper shines with keener light. 
 Far-beaming o'er the silver host of night. 
 When all the starry train emblaze the sphere : 
 So shone the point of groat Achilles' spear. 
 
k 
 
 126 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 In his right hand ho waves the weapon round, 
 Eyes the whole man, and meditates the wound ; 
 But the rich mail Patroclus lately wore 
 Securely cased the warrior's body o'er. 
 One space at length he spies, to let in fate, 
 Where 'twixt the nock and throat the jointed plate 
 Gave entrance ; through that penetrable part 
 Furious he drove the well-directed dart : 
 Nor pierced the windpipe yet, nor took the power 
 Of speech, imhappy ! from thy dying hour. 
 Prone on the field the bleeding warrior lies, 
 While, thus triumphing, stern Achilles cries : 
 *' At last is Hector stretched upon the plain, 
 Who feared no vengeance for Patroclus slain . . , 
 Peaceful he sleeps, with all our rites adorned, 
 For ever honoured and for over mourned : 
 While, cast to all the rage of hostile power. 
 Thee birds shall mangle and the dogs devour." 
 Then Hector, fainting at the approach of death, 
 " By thy own soul ! by those who gave thee breath ! 
 By all the sacred prevalence of prayer ; 
 Ah, leave me not for Grecian dogs to tear ! 
 The common rites of sepulture bestow, 
 To soothe a father's and a mother's woo : 
 Let their large gifts procure an urn at least, 
 And Hector's ashes in his countrv rest." 
 " No, wretch accursed ! " relentless he replies 
 (Flames, as he spoke, shot flashing from his eyes) : 
 Not those who gave me breath should bid me spare. 
 Nor all the sacred prevalence of prayer, 
 Could I myself the bloody banquet join ! 
 No — to the dogs that carcase I resign. 
 Should Troy, to bribe me, bring forth all her store, 
 And giving thousands, offer thousands more ; 
 Should Dardan, Priam, and his weeping dame. 
 Drain their whole realm, to buy one funeral flame ; 
 Their Hector on the pile they should not see, 
 Nor rob the vultures of one limb of thee." 
 Then thus the chief his dying accents drew : 
 ** Thy rage, implacable ! too well I knew : 
 The Furies that relentless breast have steeled, 
 And cursed thee with a heart that cannot yield. 
 Yet think, a day will come, when fate's decree 
 And angry gods shall wreak this wrong on thee ; 
 
 THE TROJAN WAR 127 
 
 Phoebus and Paris shall avenge my fate. 
 
 And stretch thee here before the Scaean gate." 
 
 He ceased. The Fates suppressed his labouring breath, 
 
 And his eyes stiffened at the hand of death ; 
 
 To the dark realm the spirit wings its way, 
 
 (The manly body left a load of clay) 
 
 And plaintive glides along the dreary coast, 
 
 A naked, wandering, melancholy ghost. 
 
 There was no more to be done. Black night had 
 fallen on the eyes of her peerless defender, and there 
 was no new dawn for Troy. The only con- xroy 
 solation vouchsafed to broken-hearted Priam doomed, 
 was that the slayer of his son relented at his tears and 
 prayers, and gave him back the body for burial. But the 
 tomb which received the ashes of Hector closed finally 
 on the last hopes of the Trojans. 
 
 There Homer's immortal tale fittingly closes. But 
 from other sources we know the last act of the great 
 tragedy. Paris, stung at last by the sacrifice 
 of his noble brother, screwed up his courage logue^^' 
 and ventured far enough to be able to use his ^®*^.^ o^ 
 skill as an archer, and, while himself safely 
 out of reach of his formidable quarry, shot Achilles in 
 his one vulnerable spot and so ended his career. The 
 Greeks deprived in their turn of their foremost fighter, 
 and despairing of taking Troy by force of arms, now 
 resorted to cunning. On the advice of Odysseus, the 
 man of many wiles, they constructed an enormous hollow 
 horse of wood, filled it with a number of The wooden 
 picked men who volunteered for this forlorn ^°^^^* 
 hope, and left it on the plain, all the rest of the fleet 
 and army retiring a little distance behind the Island of 
 Tenedos, out of sight of the doomed city. The super- 
 stitious and infatuated Trojans, persuaded that their 
 implacable foes had sailed away at last and believing 
 the story of a captive, who had allowed himself to fall 
 
128 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 
 into their bands for this very purpose, that the gigantic 
 wooden horse was a peace-offering to an angry goddess 
 and was purposely made of that huge size to prevent its 
 removal within the city walls, determined, in spite of 
 warnings, to set to work to drag the monster into their 
 stronghold. Young and old, rich and poor, lent their 
 hands for the work, and the wooden horse with its 
 unsuspected and deadly load entered those once im- 
 pregnable walls to the accompaniment of music and 
 lusty cheers. That night, their strenuous toil ended, 
 chiefs and people gave themselves up to carousing. 
 That night the ill-starred city fell. In the twilight the 
 indefatigable besiegers, fondly believed to be tossing on 
 the blue Aegean, returned from their hiding-place and 
 crept up to the walls. At dead of night, when all the 
 revellers were locked in the arms of a leaden sleep, the 
 desperadoes in the fatal statue stole out of their lair and 
 opened the gates. The rest was pillage and massacre, 
 and the flames devoured what the sword had spared. 
 
 'Twas thus a craven trick and perjured arts, 
 Feigned tears and lies, subdued the Trojan's hearts, 
 Where fiery Diomed and Larissa's lord, 
 Implacable Achilles, vainly warred. 
 And Agamemnon's squadrons, thousand-sailed, 
 And ten long years of weary siege had failed.* 
 
 It would be impossible to follow all the several heroes 
 of this world-famous siege in their subsequent adven- 
 The sequel : tures. Agamemnon, king of men, returning 
 no^n.^Aj^i, ^op® after ten years' absence, with Cassandra"^ 
 Paris. Priam's daughter, among his share of the 
 
 war-spoil, was treacherously murdered in his palace by 
 his wife Clytaemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, who 
 had supplanted the king in his absence. Cassandra 
 shared his fate. But a family already renowned for the 
 
 * Verg., "Aencid," IT. 195. 
 
 THE TROJAN WAR 
 
 129 
 
 number and grimness of its tragedies, had not yet 
 drained the cup to the dregs. Orestes, the great king's 
 son, on arriving at man's estate, by a trick and the help 
 of his sister, entrapped and slew his mother, to avenge 
 his father. Ajax had gone mad and committed suicide 
 before the end of the siege, and Teucer his brother 
 was banished by his father Telamon from Salamis for 
 coming home without him. Paris ends his coward 
 life shot by Philoctetes with one of Heracles's poisoned 
 arrows. ^^.^^ 
 
 But of all the actors in the great drama the poet 
 singles out Odysseus and his hundred and one mar- 
 vellous adventures as the theme of another -,, 
 
 The 
 poem rivalling the '* Iliad*' in length and in- ''Odyssey." 
 
 terest. As the plot of the '' Iliad " was laid in ^^^^p'^- 
 the tenth year of the siege of Troy, so the " Odyssey " first 
 introduces the reader to the wanderings of Odysseus 
 when they have already been in progress ten years. 
 The sea-god Poseidon is his sworn enemy, and has kept 
 him storm-tossed and weary far away from his island 
 home. He is being detained by Calypso in the isle of 
 Ogygia in the Far West beyond the straits of Gibraltar, 
 an unwilling guest, sighing to be gone. Far away to the 
 east in craggy Ithaca, his faithful and much-tried wife 
 Penelope is being worried to death by impatient and 
 ungallant suitors, who devour her substance in riotous 
 living. Telemachus appeals in vain to the Ithacans for 
 protection for his mother and himself, but the goddess 
 Athene, disguised as old Mentor, helps him to start on a 
 search for his long-lost father. He is hospitably enter- 
 tained by Nestor, the aged king of Pylus, and goes on to 
 Sparta, where Menelaus and Helen show him kindness 
 and tell him of his father's whereabouts. He then sets 
 out on his return to Ithaca. ]\feanwhile the gods, 
 softened at last, send Hermes to Calypso with orders 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 to let Odysseus go, and she reluctantly obeys and even 
 facilitates Lis departure : 
 
 She then an axo of huge dimensions gave,* 
 
 On both sides bladed, steel of temper fine, 
 Into the strong clasp of Odysseus bravo, 
 
 Beautiful, helved with olive, work divine, 
 And well-carved hatchet, whose metallic shine 
 
 Lightened afar. Anon the way she led 
 To the isle's margin, where the soaring pine. 
 
 Alder, and poplar black, were thickly spread, 
 Fitted to float with ease— sapless long since and dead. 
 
 Odysseus then built himself a raft, which is described 
 in elaborate detail. At last 
 
 'Twas the fourth day, and all his task was o'er.f 
 
 Him on the fifth Calypso, nymph divine. 
 Robed in sweet raiment, culled from her own store, 
 
 And bathed, and to his good bark did consign. 
 
 Two skins, one filled with water, one with wine, 
 She gave him and a wallet stored with meat. 
 
 And in his wake along the rippling brine 
 Breathed a warm wind, exceeding soft and sweet. 
 
 Which with spread sails Odysseus did right gladly greet. 
 
 On the eighteenth day of his eastward voyage he is 
 once more wrecked, swims ashore at the mouth of 
 Nansicaa. ^. ^^^^^ ^^ *^® ^^nd of the sea-loving Phaea- 
 cians, and falls asleep among the low bushes 
 on the river bank. It so happens that Nausicaa, 
 daughter of the king Alcinous, comes down to the 
 water's edge with her handmaidens, like Pharaoh's 
 daughter of old, but with the very prosaic object of 
 washing the family linen. The washing done, a game 
 of ball is started, and the girlish laughter it excites 
 wakes the weary Odysseus. Nausicaa's generous heart 
 is touched a^ the sight of his travel-worn and woe- 
 begone appearance, and she tells him the way to the 
 
 ♦ " Odyssey," v. 234. (Translated by Worsley.) 
 t Ibid. 
 
 I 
 
 THE TKOJAN WAE 
 
 131 
 
 palace and invites him to lay his case before the king, 
 her father. The royal pair are as kind as their daughter. 
 Odysseus is most hospitably entertained, tells the story 
 of his last eventful voyage which brought him to the 
 Phaeacian land, and implores his hosts to complete 
 their kindness by giving him a ship in which to go to 
 his longed-for home. The request is granted : he shall 
 have a ship and return to his island, which is at no 
 great distance. 
 
 But meanwhile in the stranger's honour games are 
 held and a banquet given. The blind minstrel Demo- 
 docus is brought in and sings a song of Troy, and 
 Odysseus cannot conceal his emotion. He at length 
 yields to great pressure and reveals his identity, and 
 entertains his hosts with the narrative of his adventures 
 since his departure from Troy. 
 
 These are spread over the next four books (9-12) 
 which constitute the fairy tale portion of the poem, 
 the ** Arabian Nights" of Greek literature. The 
 Odysseus and his companions first touched at Cicones. 
 the coast of the Cicones and committed an apparently 
 totally unprovoked act of piracy, sacking their town and 
 stealing their wives and other property, nobody going 
 without a good share of spoil. But instead of obeying 
 their leader's advice to make good their retreat to the 
 ships, the plunderers broke into their victims' cellars. 
 '' Then was there much wine drunk," and they killed 
 and roasted oxen and sheep on the sea shore. In the 
 midst of the feasting the rightful owners of wives, 
 cattle, and wine suddenly appeared on the scene with 
 great reinforcements, numberless as the leaves in spring, 
 and, when evening fell, they had made a very proper 
 slaughter of the robbers. 
 
 Sadder, but not much wiser, as the sequel shows, 
 Odysseus and his company sailed south, but when 
 
132 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 trying to round Cape jMalea, were driven out of their 
 course nine days to the pleasant land of the Lotus- 
 The Lotus- eaters. So tempting ^yas the diet of these 
 eaters. ^arly Sybarites, that Odysseus had to drag 
 
 his companions by main force to the ships and bind 
 them securely under the rowing-benches, or they 
 would never have stirred from that Paradise or met 
 with their further adventures, and the world would have 
 been the poorer. 
 
 Their next exploit was perhaps the most famous of 
 all, the blinding of the Cyclops Polyphemus. Every 
 The boy and girl knows the story of the one-eyed 
 
 y' °P^- monster, who was *' not like a bread-eating 
 man but like unto a wooded peak of a lofty mountain, 
 towering alone above the rest." The wanderers entered 
 his cave while he was on the hills pasturing his flocks. 
 This time it was Odysseus who was responsible for 
 delay, though his companions strongly urged with their 
 piratical instinct that they should drive off their absent 
 host's kids and lambs to the ships and make good their 
 escape. Odysseus' curiosity gets the better of him ; he 
 decides to see the giant. To fill up the interval of 
 waiting, the visitors, with characteristic composure, 
 make themselves at home, light a fire, and dine off the 
 absent giant's cheeses. In the evening their unconscious 
 host comes home, and they make themselves small in 
 the furthest corner of the cave. But on lighting his 
 fire he catches sight of them, and at first asks them a 
 perfectly reasonable and civil question. '' Who are you, 
 strangers? Whence come you over the paths of the 
 sea ? Are you traffickers on business bent, or do you 
 roam over the briny deep like pirates who risk their own 
 lives and bring mischief to others '? " They inform him 
 of their origin, occupation, and destination, and, feeling 
 uneasy, urge on him the claims of religion. He quickly 
 
 I 
 
 THE TROJAN WAR 
 
 I 
 
 133 
 
 undeceives them on that score, declaring himself a 
 thorough-going atheist, and, without more ado, seizes 
 two of them, dashes out their brains against the floor of 
 the cave and eats them for supper. Next morning he 
 devours two more for breakfast, goes out and bars the 
 door behind him, leaving them to darkness and their 
 own more gloomy anticipations. With the evening he 
 returns punctually, and makes a meal of two more of 
 the poor wretches. But his doom is sealed. Having 
 laid his plans carefully, the wily Odysseus, pretending 
 friendship, makes the monster drunk with sweet strong 
 wine, to which he is all unused, and then, while he lies 
 sleeping heavily, puts out his eye with the giant's own 
 club, the end of which he has carefully sharpened. 
 Next morning Polyphemus sits in the doorway with 
 hands outstretched to count his flock as they emerge. 
 The position of the band of adventurers is still pre- 
 carious. But in a " blind man's buff,*' where the blind 
 manjs really blind, he is effectively handicapped, and 
 the miscreants all escape by concealing themselves 
 under the thick-fleeced rams of the flock. The enraged 
 Cyclops hurls rocks after their retreating ship, but the 
 missiles drop short and help the vessel forward. 
 
 This was only a beginning of adventures. The fugi- 
 tives rejoined the other ships at the desert island where 
 they had left them, and together the little 
 fleet came to the floating island of Aeolus, '^^°^'''' 
 whose gift of a bag containing all the winds save one 
 imprisoned in it was rendered useless by the meddle- 
 some curiosity of a ship's crew. Six days' and nights* 
 sailing next brought them to the Laestrygo- The laes- 
 nian cannibals. Three men were sent forward trygonians. 
 as scouts, and were directed by a harmless-looking girl 
 whom they met at a village fountain to the king's palace. 
 The queen, a stalwart lady " as tall as a mountain peak," 
 
134 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 Circe. 
 
 on seeing them called out to her hushand, Antiphafces, 
 who, without warning, seized and ate one of the hapless 
 trio. The other two spread the alarm, but too late. The 
 huge cannibals swarmed down to the shore, and Odysseus 
 and his own ship and crew were alone able to escape from 
 a general massacre of men and smashing of ships. The 
 enchantress Circe, on whose island they next 
 landed, turned twenty-two of Odysseus* men 
 into swine. Odysseus, however, fortified by Hermes 
 with a powerful antidote, not only resisted her spells, 
 but compelled her to restore his comrades to their human 
 shapes. In the land of the Cimmerians Odysseus saw 
 The ghosts. ^^^ Conversed with many ghosts of the illus- 
 trious dead, both men and women, including 
 among many others Teiresias, the blind prophet, Anti- 
 cleia, the hero's mother, Leda, the mother of Castor and 
 Pollux, Agamemnon, king of men, Achilles, the swiftest 
 and handsomest of the Greeks, and the unfortunate Ajax, 
 who, however, turned away in scornful and indignant 
 silence from his old rival. After adventures with the 
 Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, and the sacred oxen of 
 the Sun, they came to Calypso's island of Ogygia, from 
 whence Odysseus, as we learnt from the opening of the 
 poem, all alone on a kind of raft reached the land of 
 the Phaeacians. It is unpleasant work to abbreviate a 
 story so full of charm and interest, which never for a 
 moment flag. To cut a long story short, Odysseus is 
 Odysseus escorted by the Pliaeacians to his own island 
 ithaci^ of Ithaca, is disguised by the goddess Athene 
 as an old beggar, finds his swineherd Eumaeus 
 faithful, reveals himself to his son Telemachus, is recog- 
 nized by his old dog Argus, and by his old nurse 
 Eurycleia, whom he strictly charges to be silent, has 
 an interview with Penelope, who does not know him, 
 and finally, when all the plans have been well laid, 
 
 THE TROJAN WAR 
 
 135 
 
 throws off his disguise, and, with his son and two 
 trusty followers, massacres the shameless suitors, who 
 are revelling as usual in the banqueting-hall. Not one 
 escapes. Penelope, the patient and faithful, recognizes 
 her lord, who now goes into the country and reveals 
 himself to his aged father Laertes, and on his return 
 quells an insurrection of the Ithacans in favour of the 
 dead suitors, and restores order and peace in his island 
 domain. 
 
 Thus the deathless double romance of war and 
 adventure, the oldest jewel in the crown of European 
 literature, and its briUiancy still undimmed. The ©pic 
 The charm and fascination of Homer's poems inunortal. 
 can never fade. After thirty centuries they still draw 
 the reader, no matter how wide and varied his reading 
 or how deep his learning, with an ever fresh and irre- 
 sistible attraction. 
 
 Time's ashes, on my turrets shed, 
 
 Have worn their pride away : 
 I was that Ilion of whom men have read 
 
 In Homer's living lay 1 
 No more shall Argive sword and spear 
 
 My brazen bulwark shake : 
 But in the voice of nations loud and clear 
 
 My monument I make.* 
 
 And Keats has put on record how his poet's soul was 
 stirred on hearing the magic song f — 
 
 Then felt I like some watcher of the skies 
 When a new planet swims into his ken : 
 
 Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes 
 He stared at the Pacific — and all his men 
 
 Looked at each other with a wild surmise — 
 Silent, upon a peak in Darien. 
 
 ♦ Eueuus, transl. by C. Merivale in Bland's " Anthology." 
 t Keats, " Sonnet on Chapman's Homer." 
 
136 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 But to the modern mind the inevitable question 
 obtrudes itself, How far is all this true ? The answer 
 Historical <iepends on the meaning attached to ** truth." 
 basis of the There is no need to believe that all the inci- 
 stones. dents of the ** Iliad " were real events in 
 history, or that Odysseus went through all the adventures 
 that he is credited with in the " Odyssey " ! In fact, it is 
 quite obvious that many of the adventures can never 
 have really befallen him, but are merely the offspring 
 of poetic fancy. It would be beside the mark to seek to 
 identify the Cyclopes, or the Laestrygonians, or Circe, 
 or Calypso ; and it is not necessary to suppose that the 
 poems faithfully record the names of the heroes who 
 Homer. fought at Troy. The authorship, too, of the 
 poem is wrapt in mystery. There are, at 
 least, eight biographies of Homer in existence, but all 
 of them equally valueless as history. Seven cities 
 claimed the distinction of being his bu'thplace, and 
 later the number of claimants rose to twenty. One 
 story was that he was blind and came from Chios. 
 Another that he was the son of the river Meles and the 
 nymph Critheis, and was born in Smyrna. 
 
 From Colophon some deem thee sprung ; 
 From Smyrna some, and some from Chios ; 
 These noble Salamis have sung, 
 While those proclaim thee born in los ; 
 And others cry up Thessaly, 
 The mother of the Lapithae. 
 
 Thus each to Homer has assigned 
 The birthplace just which suits his mind. 
 But if I read the volume right 
 By Phoebus to his followers given, 
 I'd say they're all mistaken quite, 
 And that his real country's Heaven ; 
 While for his mother — she can be 
 No other than Calliope. 
 
 Antipater of Sidon 
 (transl. by Merivale in Bland's " Anthology "). 
 
 THE TROJAN WAR 
 
 137 
 
 Herodotus believed that he flourished about 850 b.c. 
 Be these things as they may, it is sufiQcient to bear in mind, 
 firstly that the poems existed, in practically their present 
 form, at the very beginning of Greek history, and that 
 therefore some poet or poets — the name is immaterial — 
 composed them at a very remote period ; and secondly, 
 that the stories are **true," even though they be not 
 attested chronicles of real individual events, in the 
 important sense that they give us a true picture of the 
 life of the age with which they deal, and that the non- 
 marvellous events recounted are based on historical 
 events, or are, at least, such as might have occurred 
 in that age. A glance at M. Berard's book * will show 
 how it is possible to identify, with a considerable degree 
 of probability, many of the sites of the " Odyssey." The 
 sailors of the Homeric Age seem to have ventured 
 beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, and perhaps even 
 (according to one view of the Laestrygonians) to have 
 reached semi-arctic regions (" Odyssey," Bk. x. 82). 
 
 The " Homeric Question " is a famous controversy 
 which has raged for many years and filled many a 
 learned book. But, without going into the The site of 
 details of the arguments, it may be said that ^^^'y- 
 the state of things described agrees very well with what 
 we know from other sources of the ** Late Minoan" age, 
 that closing epoch of *' Aegean " civilization, between 
 1400 and 1000 b.c. About 1400 b.c. a great com- 
 motion seems to have shaken the old Cretan world. 
 Cnossus was probably taken and burnt and its empire 
 dismembered. With this weakening of the central 
 state, outlying towns grew into prominence on both 
 sides of the Aegean, such as Mycenae, Tiryns, and 
 Troy. With the lack of cohesion of the decaying 
 empire, individual cities, nominally sisters, may well 
 
 ♦ " Les Ph6niciens et I'Ddyss^e." 
 
138 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 have vented their rivalries in war. The Troad has 
 been carefully explored, and it is not difficult to identify 
 the site of Homer's Troy. On the spurs of Mt. Ida, 
 at Bunarbashi, there is a magnificent site commanding 
 the Trojan plain, complete with beetling rock, river, 
 and springs as the poet describes them. No long 
 distance off, on the low mound of Hissarlik, there are 
 remains (among others) of a fortified city of the required 
 age and character, and which certainly, in historical 
 times, bore the name of Ilios (Troy). It might be argued 
 that the poet, on the wings of fancy, and exercising his 
 recognized privilege of creative freedom, has simply 
 combined the two sites and given us a glorified Troy in 
 an ideal situation. 
 
 But we need not even suppose this ** poetic licence." 
 Excavations * on the mound of Hissarhk, which is 
 about 100 feet high and five acres in extent, have 
 TheHis- revealed nine layers of remains of cities, 
 sariik site. The earliest settlement must date from about 
 3000 B.C. The second city, of about 2500 b.c, was found 
 to contain a number of valuable gold ornaments. This 
 was followed by three successive villages of no import- 
 ance ; but the sixth city is beyond doubt that described 
 in the *' Ihad." It seems to have been destroyed by fire 
 soon after 1200 b.c, and the traditional date of the fall 
 of Troy is 1184. It is surrounded with a double ring 
 of lofty stone walls, which would justify the poet's 
 epithet of ** beetling " ; it is *' windy," for during eight 
 months of the twelve it is pitilessly swept by a strong 
 north wind ; and it is " broad-wayed," for there are wide 
 paved ways, twenty-five to thirty feet broad, running 
 between the two lines of walls. Thus the characteristic 
 
 * For the main facts and arguments of this paragraph and the next, 
 I am indebted to a lecture given at Harrow School by Dr. W. Leaf, 
 December, 1911. 
 
 THE TROJAN WAR 
 
 139 
 
 features of Homer's Troy are present. The ground 
 around, outside the walls, is well suited for a pursuit on 
 foot. It is true the pair of springs, hot and cold, 
 cannot be identified; perhaps the poet here used his 
 privilege, or perhaps an earthquake has altered the 
 geological conditions. 
 
 Though it is usual to speak of the " Siege " of Troy, 
 there was, properly speaking, no siege. We hear of no 
 battering-rams or scaling-ladders or siege cause and 
 operations. There was not even a blockade, character 
 Agamemnon's army simply established a forti- ^^ ^^^ ^*^* 
 fied camp close to the sea, and deprived Troy of its live- 
 lihood till it deprived it of life. The situation was as 
 follows : Greece, itself a poor country with very little 
 natural produce, did a great trade with the Black Sea, 
 from which it obtained corn, and also timber and slaves. 
 Now the Hellespont, or Dardanelles, the only entrance 
 into that region, was in those days of small sailing ships 
 difficult to negotiate owing to winds and currents. Ships 
 were therefore often delayed off that coast, which Troy, 
 a powerful fortress only three miles from the sea, held 
 in its grasp through its sole control of the fresh water 
 supply. In England, or any other country which has 
 seen a feudal system, it is well known what a nuisance 
 a robber-baron in a rock-built castle could become. So 
 it proved with Troy. The impregnable city levied toll 
 on all the commerce passing to and fro under her walls. 
 It was soon felt that she practically controlled the food- 
 supply of Greece, and the grievance was intolerable. 
 Men will bear much, but they will not consent to starve 
 if they can find a remedy. In such a general feeling of 
 irritation and alarm, any unfriendly act would suffice 
 to precipitate war. Very possibly the casus belli was 
 just such an act as the abduction of a Spartan 
 princess. The great Crusade sailed, pitched its camp, 
 
140 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 and slowly but surely crushed the life out of the proud 
 city. 
 
 Thus the famous city, flown 
 With insolence, and overgrown, 
 Is humbled : all her splendour blown 
 To smoke : her glory laid in dust ; 
 Who shall say by doom unjust ? * 
 
 At thcat epoch, there was no difference between the 
 Greeks of the West and the Trojans in Asia Minor. 
 The They were all alike '' Aegeans." They spoke 
 
 Achaeans. ^j^^ ^^^^ language and used the same dress, 
 arms and armour. The war was a kind of civil war. 
 The terms Hellenes and Hellas did not yet exist as 
 names for Greeks and Greece. The- Greeks attacking 
 Troy are nearly always called Achaeans, that being the 
 name of the tribe which at that time possessed nearly 
 all Peloponnese. Athens, Corinth and Thebes are barely 
 mentioned, and were therefore no doubt of no import- 
 ance. Sparta and Argos were in the second rank of 
 towns. The leading city of the Greece of those days 
 was Mycenae, the wealthy or *' golden" city of 
 Agamemnon, king of men, who seems to have quite 
 naturally taken the chief command in the combined 
 expedition of the western states against Troy. The 
 "Achaeans " were good soldiers and possessed the spirit 
 of adventure; they had joined, as has been shown, 
 in an invasion of Egypt in the reign of the weak 
 Merenptah. But the loosely-knit empire or confedera- 
 tion was crumbling, and was doomed ere long to fall 
 before a determined invasion. 
 
 ♦ Chorus in the " Agamemnon," trausl. by E. FitzGerald. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE DORIANS AND THE DAWN OF GREEK HISTORY 
 
 The great invasion came from the north and changed 
 the face of the Greek world. About IGOO e.g. Aryans had 
 conqured the Punjab and were busy subduing _ . . 
 the rest of India. A little later their kinsmen o/Greek^^ 
 had made themselves a home in Persia. But ^^^^^^y- 
 the lands of the West must have their turn too. Sure 
 enough, about 1100 or 1000 b.c. the Aegean world was 
 convulsed by a complete and epoch-making conquest by 
 invaders from the north and east. The Dorian invasion 
 as it is called, is a landmark in Greek history. Before 
 that event, all is misty and uncertain. Inference and 
 conjecture take the place of definite records. But after 
 it w^e are on sure ground. Events drop into their places. 
 In fact, real history has begun. 
 
 It would be tedious to enter fully into all the learned 
 arguments on the subject of the Dorians. The following 
 outline may suffice as a working theory which 
 will fairly harmonize the facts as at present of"the' 
 known. To repeat a statement in a former Dorians, 
 chapter, the Aegean empire of Cnossus in Crete, the 
 language of whose records is still undeciphered, was most 
 probably non-Hellenic but probably not non-Aryan. 
 Possibly it had been founded by a race from Northern or 
 Eastern Africa. About 1500 or 1400 b.c, the empire 
 was rudely shaken and the capital sacked and burnt. 
 This may have been done by forerunners of the Aryan 
 Hellenes, a kind of advance-guard of the Dorians. New 
 
 141 
 
 Forerunners 
 
142 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 cities rose to fame and power at Mycenae, Argos, and 
 Sparta. It is difficult to say anything with certainty 
 about Homer or the age he depicts, but it is quite 
 possible that this preliminary invasion was that of the 
 race called by him Achaeans. It is worth notice that 
 about 1350 the Keftiu (Cretans) cease to appear on 
 Egyptian monuments. Their place is taken by the 
 ** People of the Sea," who by 1200 b.c. are called by 
 Barneses III. the second Pharaoh after Merenptah, the 
 Pharaoh of the Exodus, ** Akaiusha," which name seems 
 certainly to stand for the Achaeans. In the " Iliad " the 
 chief power in Greece is in the hands of the Achaeans^ 
 especially at Mycenae, and the name is frequently used 
 as a general term for the Greeks who went to the siege 
 of non-Achaean Troy. In many ways, certainly, the 
 Homeric poems seem to depict an epoch standing, in 
 customs, manners, dress, weapons, and ideas, half-way 
 between the Aegean and the Hellenic ages. 
 
 But, whether the Achaeans of Homer represent 
 the Aegeans as known to us from their many extant 
 The remains, or stand in a transitional period, the 
 
 Dorians. great event known as the Dorian invasion 
 clinched the matter and put a seal on the Hellenization 
 of the region usually called Hellas, and, by us, Greece. 
 Once more the palace of Cnossus was burnt. This time 
 it was never rebuilt. The catastrophe was final. By 
 about 1000 B.C., when King David was consolidating the 
 young Israelite kingdom in Palestine, the Aegean Empire 
 with its particular form of civilization, language, and art, 
 passed for ever away, and the Hellenic race started on 
 its glorious career. Thus in the same fateful century, 
 two equally small and not very widely separated countries 
 were providing homes for those two supremely gifted 
 nations to which the modern world, in different ways, 
 owes perhaps more than to any other. 
 
 THE DAWN OF GREEK HISTORY 143 
 
 The Dorian invasion proved the final victory of 
 iron over bronze. The superior metal would facilitate 
 the work of conquest, and the inferior dropped The 
 out of use from this date. Like the later Heracleidae. 
 Teutonic irruptions into the Roman Empire and the 
 Norman Conquest of our own country, the Dorian 
 conquest left an abiding mark on history, and made a 
 deep impression on the popular memory. It was known 
 to Greek tradition as the " Return of the Heracleidae," 
 and many of the oldest aristocratic families of Greece, 
 not excluding even Macedonia, prided themselves on 
 being descendants of the great Heracles and having 
 come in with the conquerors. So now it is not an 
 infrequent boast that an ancestor " came over with 
 the Conqueror," and human nature has changed but 
 little in thirty centuries. The accepted story of the 
 "Return of the Heracleidae," referring as it does to 
 events which did not claim any very great antiquity, may 
 be considered as only slightly mythical and containing 
 a large measure of quite trustworthy history. 
 
 For a proper understanding of the story, it may not 
 be amiss to trace its earlier antecedents. The complete 
 tale, compact of fact and fancy, history and myth, may 
 well serve as an illustration of the ancient method of 
 history-writing, or romance-weaving, among the Greeks. 
 The two processes are not always very distinct : and it 
 will be seen that not infrequently what passes for 
 history is fiction, while from apparently irresponsible 
 mythology may be distilled a great deal of sound 
 history. 
 
 The ancient story runs as follows. In the beginning 
 there reigned in solitary splendour King Uranus (Sky) 
 and his consort Ge (Earth), and at first all The family 
 was for the best in the best of possible worlds, of Uranus. 
 But the royal pair had a numerous family of gigantic 
 
144 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 sons and (laughters, and with it, as so often happens, 
 came trouble. The eldest son was Oceanus (Ocean), 
 the father of three thousand rivers, and tlie baby of the 
 family was Cronos (Creator). King Uranus hated all 
 his children — perhaps there were too many for his 
 comfort — and treated them accordingly; and the 
 sentiment was reciprocated. Relations were very 
 strained, till at last Cronos, his mother's darling, at 
 her instigation and by her help, slew his father and 
 seized his throne. By his wife Rhea (perhaps Earth ?) 
 he had several children, of whom we may mention 
 three sons, Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon. But his 
 unnatural crime found him out, and he was treated 
 by Zeus as he had treated Uranus. This time the 
 inheritance w^as divided by lot. Zeus obtained the 
 Heaven, Hades the lower world, and Poseidon the 
 sea. 
 
 The private life and adventures of Zeus would lill a 
 volume by themselves, and must be omitted here. 
 Poseidon married Libya, the great-great-granddaughter 
 The of his uncle Oceanus, and their son Belus, 
 
 Danaides. xjj^g ^f ^]jq gast, was the father of Danaus 
 and Aegyptus, the first of whom had fifty daughters (the 
 Danaides), and the other fifty sons. This remarkable 
 coincidence seemed like the finger of Providence to 
 Aegyptus, who proposed to Danaus that the fifty pairs 
 of cousins should be married. The girls, however, had 
 their own ideas on the subject, and Danaus, respecting 
 their wishes, fled with them to Argos, of which he was 
 made king. Undeterred, the fifty suitors followed, and 
 the weddings took place unfortunately, as it turned out, 
 for them. For the same night they were, by Danaus' 
 orders, murdered by their brides, all except Lynceus, 
 who was spared by his, that Hypermnaestra immortalized 
 by Horace : 
 
 THE DAWN OF GREEK HISTORY 145 
 
 Una do multis face nuptiali 
 Digna periurum fuit in parentem 
 Splendido mendax et in omne virgo 
 Nobilis aevum. * 
 
 Their grandson Acrisius, King of Argos, was the 
 father of the famous Danae (called after her great- 
 great-grandfather) who was immured by her 
 nervous parent in a tower of brass to defeat ^*''*®* 
 the importunities of possible suitors. But Zeus (who, 
 it ought to have been mentioned, was immortal and 
 unaging, and continued to interfere in the private 
 concerns of his family on frequent occasions through the 
 centuries) laughed at the brass, and, in the shape of 
 a shower of that far superior metal, gold, penetrated 
 the roof and pressed his suit successfully. Danae's son 
 was the illustrious Perseus. See how many old friends 
 we recognize as we follow the pedigree. There are 
 many more to come. 
 
 Now Perseus founded golden Mycenae, the great 
 Aegean city, once obedient to Cnossus and afterwards 
 the capital of the Achaeans who fought at 
 Troy. He also, as is well known, rescued the ^®^^®^^- 
 hapless Andromeda from an unscrupulous dragon, and 
 as was very proper, married the fair lady who owed him 
 her life and gave him her heart. Mark the sequel. 
 The plot begins to thicken and the historical element to 
 solidify. Perseus and Andromeda had among other 
 children three sons, Electryon, Alcaeus, and Sthenelus. 
 Alcaeus reigned at Troezen, and his son Amphitryon 
 became the step-father of Heracles the mighty man of 
 immortal memory and son of Alcmene and the 
 ubiquitous Zeus. Electryon reigned in golden Mycenae, 
 where, by an unfortunate accident, he had his head 
 broken by his nephew Amphitryon, and was succeeded 
 
 * Horace, Odes, III. xl. 35. 
 
146 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 by the third of the trio, Sthenehis. Now, this Sthenelus, 
 who could claim a place for Zeus in his pedigree, 
 naturally looked about him for a wife of similarly 
 distinguished descent, and married the lady Nicippe, a 
 daughter of Pelops, King of Pisa in Elis, who w^as the 
 son of Tantalus, the son (once more) of Zeus. 
 
 Although her p3digree was thus not so long as his, 
 the family of the Pelopids, as fhey were called, easily 
 The House eclipsed any in the world by the scandals and 
 of Pelops. horrors which never failed to disfigure each 
 of its generations. Nicippe had two brothers, whom 
 Sthenelus very kindly invited to Mycenae. One of these 
 was Atreus, the father of Agamemnon, king of men, 
 the same who led the Achaeans against Troy. So now 
 you know where you are. Sthenelus died and was 
 succeeded by his son Eurystheus, who, thanks to a 
 trick played by Hera upon her lord Zeus, cheated his 
 cousin Heracles of his royal inheritance and laid on 
 bim strenuous and dangerous labours, at the end of 
 which the mighty man of valour, the Samson of 
 Greek story, died by a dramatic and appalling death, 
 without recovering his rights. 
 
 He, however, left sons who gladly took on them- 
 selves the duty of avenging their father. These were 
 The the Heracleidae, who were at first led by 
 
 Heracleidae. Hyllus, the hero's eldest son, and whose 
 repeated efforts to wrest their patrimony from 
 Eurystheus and his house at last culminated in the 
 great invasion of the Peloponnese, which is for ever 
 famous as the *' Return of the Heracleidae," otherwise 
 called the *' Dorian invasion. " And so, through 
 First attack *^^ tangle of fact and fable, we set foot 
 under at last on the threshold of real historv. 
 
 ^ ' Eurystheus, going to war against Hyllus, left 
 the conduct of his kingdom of Mycenae to his uncle 
 
 
 THE DAWN OF GREEK HISTORY 147 
 
 Atreus, who, on the death of Eurystheus on the field 
 of battle, married Eurystheus' daughter and took the 
 throne for himself, bequeathing it on his death to his 
 less crime-stained and more famous son Agamemnon. 
 After this first battle, the Heracleidae, who had been 
 greatly helped by the Athenians under their famous 
 hero Theseus, entered Peloponnese, and maintained 
 themselves there for one year, but were driven out of it 
 again by a plague. This time the Heracleidae . jj. 
 sought the hospitality of the Dorians. Very with the 
 long ages before there lived a most un- ^^^^^^s. 
 exceptionable king called Hellen, so long before, in fact, 
 that some said he was the son of Deucalion, the Noah 
 of the Greeks. He reigned over the country of Phthia 
 in Thessaly, and was the father of Aeolus, Dorus, and 
 Xuthus, who was the father of Ion. No scandals 
 attached to him, such as adorned the pedigree of the 
 Pelopids and so many other blue-blooded families of old. 
 He escaped oblivion only by giving his name to the whole 
 race of Hellenes (commonly called "Greeks") whose 
 three great divisions of Aeolians, Dorians, and lonians 
 were called after his sons and grandson. Now the 
 family of Hellen, seeking for a milder climate, had 
 begun to move southward, and his son Dorus with his 
 children had settled just north of Mount Parnassus, in a 
 small and very mountainous district called by them 
 Doris. It was to their descendants that the Heracleidae 
 now came for sympathy and help. Heracles had once 
 done a service to a Dorian king, and they thought one 
 good turn deserved another. The Dorians did not 
 disappoint them. 
 
 In their subsequent attacks on the Peloponnese 
 the Heracleidae had the Dorians as power- Later 
 ful allies. Hence their triumph is called by attempts, 
 historians the ''Dorian invasion." Eirst they tried to 
 
148 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 The 
 
 invasion 
 at last 
 successful. 
 
 force an entrance by the Isthmus of Corinth, but failed, 
 losing their leader Hyllus. No further attempt was 
 made for forty years, during which interval the Trojan 
 War was fought ; but at the end of that time Hyllus' son 
 renewed hostilities, and after him his son Aristomachus. 
 But both failed and were killed. 
 
 The last and victorious invasion was then made by 
 Aristomachus' three sons, Aristodemus, Temenus, and 
 Cresphontes, at the head of a large Dorian 
 army and fleet, with, it is said, Theban and 
 even Tyrrhenian allies. They crossed the 
 Corinthian Gulf at its narrowest point from 
 Naupactus to Rhium, under the guidance of the three- 
 eyed Oxylus, and the rest of the expedition was a 
 triumphal progress round the Peloponnese. Round 
 they went in the opposite direction to that of the 
 hands of a watch or of the wine circling round the 
 dinner-table, down through Elis, the land of Olympia 
 and the Olympian games, into Messenia, the scene 
 of gallant resistances, thence over the border to 
 Laconia, the country of Sparta, up north again to the 
 Argive district with Tiryns and Argos and ** golden " 
 Mycenae. 
 
 Then they sat down and cast lots over the spoil. 
 Cresphontes won Messenia. Aristodemus obtained 
 Division of Laconia, and his twin sons, Eurysthenes and 
 the spoil. Procles, were the first joint-kings of Sparta, 
 and founders of the two parallel lines which shared that 
 throne. Temenus was given Argolis, from which his 
 descendants were expelled and migrated to Macedonia, 
 so that the great Alexander could afterwards reply to 
 uncomplimentary remarks about Macedonian barbarians 
 that he and his, at any rate, were of the true stock of 
 Heracles. 
 
 Nor does the story, for all its length, end there. 
 
 
 I 
 
 THE DAWN OF GREEK HISTORY 149 
 
 Some of the old Achaeans who had been dispossessed by 
 the invaders resolved to seek new homes 
 across the sea rather than stay in a state of colours • 
 subjection and see their old homes in the AeoiSns.* 
 hands of strangers, just as, at a much later 
 date, some of the Britons, when ousted by the Angles 
 and Saxons, crossed the sea into Ireland. They sailed 
 away from Argolis to the east, and founded settlements 
 in Lesbos and the northern portion of the west coast of 
 Asia Minor, the land near the Hellespont (Dardanelles) 
 and the site of Troy, and went by the name of Aeolians. 
 Then the lonians followed their example. 
 The Dorian invasion had cooped them up in ^°'^'*°^- 
 Attica, and they found their quarters becoming un- 
 comfortably tight. So they too sailed east, °They 
 colonized the Cyclades Islands en route, and, going on, 
 settled in Chios and Samos, and founded important 
 trading ports in Smyrna, Ephesus, and Miletus, all 
 destined to become famous, and one of them, Smyrna 
 to continue in prosperity to this day. They formed a 
 federation for mutual protection, and had a common 
 religious centre, a temple of Poseidon, for they were a 
 race of sailors, at Panionium on the cape of Mycale. 
 Lastly, the Dorians themselves were carried 
 on by their own impetus, and could not stop, ^°"*'''- 
 or else, as thieves often do, they quarrelled over the 
 plunder and found the Peloponnese too narrow for 
 them ; or else, perhaps, they realized that the fugitives 
 had found a good thing and bade fair to be better off 
 than their conquerors, and so resolved, before it was too 
 late, to ** peg out a claim " in Asia Minor. From what- 
 ever cause, they too became colonists. They occupied, 
 strangely enough, Aegina, close up to Attica, the 
 head-quarters of the lonians, but otherwise went south- 
 east, settling in the southern corner of Asia Minor, and 
 
150 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 the southernmost islands, including the two great ones 
 of Rhodes and Crete. 
 
 Thus the ancient story. There's many a true word 
 spoken in jest, and much history to he gathered from 
 myths. It is quite clear that, in spite of 
 beneath the all inconsistencies, anachronisms, and in 
 fiction. many cases ohvious inventions, there is a 
 great deal of sound information to he extracted from 
 the narrative. Even the early mythological portion 
 of it contains hints since confirmed hy discoveries on 
 more scientific lines. Poseidon, god of the sea, marries 
 Lihya, and their son Belus has two sons, Danaus and 
 Aegyptus. That is only the early Greek's poetical 
 way of saying that if he sailed across the Mediterranean 
 he would come to Lihya, that is, Africa, and that there 
 he would find countries closely connected with Bel or 
 Baal, the mythical father and god of the East, and 
 among them Egypt. Perhaps in those early days he 
 rather confused the Egyptians and the Phoenicians. 
 
 The story of Danaus coming to Argos and founding 
 a dynasty there, from which the Argives were sometimes, 
 called Danaans, suggests that there was inter- 
 course between Egypt and Greece in the early 
 days, and this has been proved true from extant 
 remains and even records, as was shown in previous 
 
 chapters. 
 
 From the details given about Heracles, Sthenelus, 
 Eurystheus, and the ** Return," it is clear that at some 
 Eurystheus time there was a split in the dynasty ruling 
 and Heracles, jq Mycenae and Argolis. The younger 
 branch (Sthenelus and Eurystheus), with the help of 
 powerful neighbours (the Pelopids), ousted the older 
 branch represented by Heracles and his descendants. 
 Possibly we have here a case somewhat similar to that 
 of our own Richard I. and his younger brother John. 
 
 Banaus. 
 
 
 THE DAWN OF GREEK HISTORY 151 
 
 Heracles was by nature and choice a knight-errant 
 "crusader," eager for wrongs to right and for perilous 
 adventures, and in his prolonged absence from home, 
 his more cunning cousin quietly usurped the government. 
 But indifference to wealth and power are not necessarily 
 passed on from father to son, and the sons of Heracles, 
 preferring home comforts to romantic " globe-trotting," 
 and perhaps fired with a filial desire to avenge their 
 father, decided, like Charles IL, that their travelling 
 days were over, and set to work to recover their 
 inheritance. 
 
 The remainder of the story lays no claim to any 
 very great antiquity, contains nothing improbable, and 
 may very well be accepted as sober history, oxyius 
 The three-eyed guide Oxyius, who was chosen ®^ ^^^^• 
 to lead the invaders into the Peloponnese, signifies that 
 the Heracleidae had been taught by former defeats to 
 use extreme caution and to reconnoitre and explore 
 carefully — an elementary duty, no doubt, but one which 
 we, for instance, occasionally neglected in South Africa. 
 We are told Oxyius lived in Aetolia, but belonged to a 
 family of Elis. This is important. The Dorians were 
 helped by Aetolians, who had friendly relations with 
 Elis opposite, and this friendship enabled them to cross 
 the Corinthian Gulf at its narrowest point and to obtain 
 a comfortable foothold on the Peloponnese. 
 
 The story of Hellen and bis sons and grandson, 
 Aeolus, Dorus, and Ion, shows, at any rate, that the 
 Greeks considered that all Hellenes belonged j^^^^j^^^ 
 to one stock and were all brothers. The all one 
 quarrels between Dorians and lonians were 
 only family quarrels ; they were all alike Hellenes and 
 far superior to the rest of the world, who were all 
 *' Barbarians." Hellen, moreover, was king in 
 Thessaly; and it is certain, as this suggests, that 
 
152 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 The 
 
 earliest 
 colonies. 
 
 Hellenic civilization did sweep over Greece from the 
 north. 
 
 The account of the migrations eastward and 
 colonizing of the isles and coasts of the Aegean is borne 
 out by well-authenticated history, with the 
 possible exception of the dates, which are, 
 perhaps, too early. In more modern times 
 men have been in the habit of sailing west in search of 
 new homes. The reason why these early Greeks at first 
 sailed east is clear. All the chief harbours of Greece 
 are on the east coast, and sailing east was in quite 
 early times made easy by the large number of islands 
 in the Aegean Sea, which made it possible for the timid 
 sailor to sail on and on without ever losing sight of 
 land. 
 
 The colonizing spirit was strong in the Greek. Its 
 effects showed themselves till a late date. Cnidus, 
 Halicarnassus, Ehodes, Crete, Lesbos, Cyrene, 
 Smyrna, are among the earliest colonies, 
 whose dates cannot be fixed with certainty, 
 though they were in some way produced by 
 the great conquest of the Greek mainland. But count- 
 less others followed later. To mention only a handful : 
 the shores of the Black Sea were colonized, and then 
 Khegium at the toe of Italy, Syracuse and Messene in 
 Sicily, Sybaris and Croton and Tarentum in Italy, all 
 in the eighth century b.c. By that time evidently the 
 east was considered to be filling up, and it would have 
 been futile to avoid overcrowding at home only to 
 reproduce the same conditions in the colonies, so that 
 Seventh the west Came in for its share of attention, 
 century. ^ g^gat many more towns were founded 
 during the seventh century, including a number in 
 Sicily and, at the entrance to the Black Sea, Chalcedon 
 and Byzantium, which a thousand years later changed 
 
 Later 
 colonies 
 eighth 
 century. 
 
 THE DAWN OF GREEK HISTORY 153 
 
 its name to Constantinople. After 600 b.c. one or two 
 isolated colonies were founded, but the great colonizing 
 impulse had spent itself, and we may safely say that 
 the great period of colonizatiou among the Greeks was 
 between 900 and GOO b.c. 
 
 The causes which sent men out to seek new homes 
 were many. In the earliest days, as we have seen, the 
 Dorian conquest of Greece was responsible causes of 
 for a considerable emigration. Later the colonization, 
 cause was sometimes overcrowding at home, a cause 
 which is still powerfully operative at the present day. 
 Sometimes there was internal discord, party struggle, 
 perhaps even civil war or revolution, and the beaten 
 side found things uncomfortable where they were and 
 preferred the perils of the sea and unknown lands and 
 nations to those they ran from the vindictiveness of 
 their own kith and kin : so deeply do politics set 
 brothers at variance. At other times there was a 
 happier cause, the desire of adventure, and love of the 
 salt sea breeze and the dancing blue waves, and 
 curiosity about other men and countries. Occasionally 
 there was yet another factor : a love of adventure was 
 not incompatible with shrewd practical sense, and a 
 man might combine pleasure with business and pay his 
 travelling expenses and make a bit besides by oversea 
 trade which would be helped by distant outposts. 
 
 However they arose, whether from one of these 
 causes or several of them combined, these colonies 
 became in time exceedingly prosperous, being 
 founded when there was plenty of room of the 
 in the Mediterranean world, and so built in ^'o^o^^®^- 
 the best positions. In no long time the lonians and 
 other Greeks on the Asiatic coast were noted for their 
 wealth, and also their luxury and indolence ; while in 
 the west the colonies on the Italian and Sicilian coasts 
 
154 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 grew so much in wealth and power and reputation that 
 they were collectively called ''Great Greece," to 
 distinguish them from the mother-country which they 
 had eclipsed. There was, unfortunately, a dark side to 
 the picture. Wealth and power, as they so often do, 
 bred jealousy and covetousness, and also idleness and 
 effeminacy. Thus in South Italy the famous quarrel 
 between the neighbours Croton and Sybaris led to the 
 complete extinction of the latter, whose memory only 
 survives in a disparaging term for a lover of ''creature 
 comforts." And this rancorous animosity was no un- 
 usual phenomenon. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 WESTWARD HO ! 
 
 ^Meanwhile the world around had not been standing 
 still. Greece as yet was only one small country 
 between the Aegean and the Ionian seas. To civilisation 
 right and left of her, men ate and drank and in the 
 loved and fought, and empires rose and fell. ^®^^* 
 The imaginative Greek, gazing into the West, might 
 wonder what lands and seas lay beyond the crimson 
 and gold of the setting sun, but, before he ventured to 
 gratify his curiosity, two cities, north and south of the 
 "wine-dark" sea, had arisen, which were one day 
 destined to grapple in a deadly struggle for the empire 
 of the Mediterranean. 
 
 The traditional date for the foundation of Rome is 
 753 B.C., and for that of Carthage about a century 
 earlier, more or less. But, especially in the Qarthage 
 latter case, it is impossible to be exact, nor and Eome 
 does it greatly matter. It is sufficient for ^°^°*®'^' 
 our purpose that they were both founded after the great 
 Dorian conquest of the Peloponnese, and before the 
 Greek world had entered on the stage of government by 
 Tyrants (700-500 b.c). Kings of the Homeric type or 
 Aristocracies were still the fashion. 
 
 Where the Greek had been content to wonder and 
 dream dreams, the Phoenician had explored. The 
 That Land of the Evening Star, which the Phoenicians, 
 poetic soul of the former had assigned to the Isles 
 
 155 
 
156 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 of the Blest, which he hoped, if he were lucky, to visit 
 some day after death, the more practical businesslike 
 spirit of the latter had turned to good account, creating 
 a tangible Eldorado, where the '' (xolden Apples" were 
 good gold pieces for the shrewd merchant on this side 
 of the grave. The Phoenicians may have come 
 originally from Soutliern Arabia or the opposite coast 
 of East Africa, but, when they first appear in history, 
 their home is on the Syrian coast, just north of 
 Palestine. All their important cities, of which the two 
 greatest were Tyre and Sidon, were comprised within a 
 strip of coast not more than thirty miles long by a mile 
 or two wide, and the extreme limits of the land under 
 their sway never exceeded a hundred miles by twelve. 
 Small as Greece and Palestine were in comparison of 
 their importance to the world, Phoenicia was im- 
 measurably smaller, and though not, perhaps, equally 
 gifted mentally and morally with the Greeks or Jews, 
 its inhabitants were certainly the most enterprising and 
 ubiquitous mariners of antiquity, and were in all likeli- 
 hood the means of spreading a written alphabet over 
 Eastern Europe. Phoenicians sailed round the Cape of 
 Good Hope two thousand years before its vaunted 
 discovery by Vasco da Gama, and Phoenicians sailed, 
 not only to Spain, but through the Straits of Gibraltar 
 out into the Atlantic, northwards to the Scilly Isles to 
 fetch tin, and into the Baltic for amber; and further 
 still, perhaps — 
 
 . . . where the Northern ocean, in vast whirls, 
 Boils round the naked melancholy isles 
 Of furthest Thule, and the Atlantic surge 
 Pours in among the stormy Hebrides.* 
 
 On looking at a map of Phoenicia, and the tracts 
 
 ♦ Thomson, " Autump." 
 
 WESTWARD HO! 
 
 157 
 
 Dido. 
 
 colonized by Phoenicians — Carthage, Sicily, Sardinia, 
 and Spain — one cannot help being reminded comparison 
 of Holland and its great possessions in the ^^^^ 
 East Indies (Java, Sumatra, etc.). In both and*^ 
 cases the mother-country is a narrow strip of ^^g^a^^. 
 land between a great empire and the deep sea, and the 
 colonies surpass it immensely in size. The proportion 
 of Holland to its possessions is about one to sixty ; in 
 the case of our own empire, the British Isles are to the 
 rest as one to ninety; but the disproportion between 
 the diminutive Phoenicia and the Empire of Carthage 
 was certainly far greater. 
 
 Carthage, as is well known, was destroyed by the 
 Romans so completely that practically nothing has 
 come down in the way of monuments or in- 
 scriptions which might enlighten us on its 
 early history. Tradition said that it was founded by 
 the widowed princess Dido, also called Elissa. Dido 
 was the daughter of Belus, King of Tyre, and was 
 married to her wealthy uncle, Acerbas. Her brother 
 Pygmalion discovered that this relative was possessed 
 of immense wealth, and, being of a jealous and un- 
 scrupulous disposition, determined to sacrifice uncle 
 and sister to his greed of gold. He did not even stick 
 at murder and sacrilege, and, discovering the foul deed, 
 the hapless Dido gathered round her a few faithful 
 friends and all the wealth she could secure and stow in 
 her ships. *' Westward ho I " was the cry. Steadily into 
 the sunset she sailed, and the fruit of that sudden 
 flight was Carthage. Vergil calls Dido's murdered 
 husband Sychaeus, and tells the story thus * — 
 
 Phoenician Dido rules the growing state ; 
 
 Who fled from Tyre, to shun her brother's hate. 
 
 ♦ Vergil, " Aenoid," i. 340-3G8 (Dryden's translation). 
 
158 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 Great were her wrongs, her story full of fate, 
 Which I will sum in short. Sychaeus, known 
 For wealth, and brother to the Punic throne, 
 Possessed fair Dido's bed ; and either heart * 
 At once was wounded with an equal dart. 
 Her father gave her, yet a spotless maid : 
 Pygmalion then the Tyrian sceptre swayed— 
 One who contemned divine and human laws ; 
 Then strife ensued, and cursed gold the cause. 
 The monarch, blinded with desire of wealth. 
 With steel invades his brother's life by stealth ; 
 Before the sacred altar made him bleed, 
 And long from her concealed the cruel deed. 
 Some tale, some new pretence, he daily coined 
 To soothe his sister and delude her mind. 
 
 At length, in dead of night, the ghost appears 
 Of her unhappy lord : the spectre stares. 
 And, with erected eyes, his bloody bosom bares. 
 The cruel altars, and his fate, he tells, 
 And the dire secret of his house reveals ; 
 Then warns the widow, with her household gods, 
 To seek a refuge in remote abodes. 
 Last, to support her in so long a way. 
 He shows her where his hidden treasures lay. 
 Admonished thus, and seized with mortal fright. 
 The queen provides companions of her flight : 
 They meet, and all combine to leave the state. 
 Who hate the tyrant, or who fear his hate. 
 They seize a fleet, which ready rigged they find ; 
 Nor is Pygmalion's treasure left behind. 
 The vessels, heavy laden, put to sea 
 With prosperous winds : a woman leads the way. 
 I know not if by stress of weather driven, 
 Or was their fatal course disposed by Heaven : 
 At last they landed, where, from far, your eyes 
 May view the turrets of new Carthage rise : 
 There bought a space of ground, which (Byrsa called 
 From the bull's hide) they first enclosed and walled. 
 
 The rest of the story is wonderfully told by the same 
 Dido P°^*' i^ that unsurpassable Fourth Book of 
 
 Aeneas ^^^^ " ^^^^^^^''^ ^^^^ ^^ beloved and sought in 
 
 marriage by larbas, a Gaetulian king; but 
 
 she has vowed eternal fideUty to her murdered husband 
 
 WESTWARD HO! 
 
 159 
 
 
 Sychaeus. and rejects all his offers. In the course of 
 his wanderings after the fall of Troy, Aeneas lands 
 close to the newly-founded city, and the queen becomes 
 desperately enamoured of him. But Aeneas is hurried 
 on to his destined home in Italy by a warning from 
 Heaven, and Dido, broken-hearted and seeing nothing 
 in store for her but capture by the despised larbas, 
 destroys herself.* 
 
 But furious Dido, with dark thoughts involved, 
 Shook at the mighty mischief she resolved. 
 With livid spots distinguished was her face ; 
 Red were her rolling eyes, and discomposed her pace ; 
 Ghastly she gazed ; with pain she drew her breath ; 
 And nature shivered at approaching death. 
 
 Dido unsheaths Aeneas' sword, and as her eye lights 
 on the Trojan garments left behind, she exclaims : 
 
 •* Dear pledges of my love, while Heaven so pleased, 
 Receive a soul, of mortal anguish cased. 
 My fatal course is finished ; and I go, 
 A glorious name, among the ghosts below. 
 A lofty city by my hands is raised, 
 Pygmalion punished and my lord appeased. 
 What could my fortune have afforded more, 
 Had the false Trojan never touched my shore ? " 
 Then kissed the couch ; and '* Must I die," she said, 
 ** And unrcvenged ? 'tis doubly to be dead 1 
 Yet e'eu this death with pleasure I receive : 
 On any terms, 'tis better than to live. 
 These flames, from far, may the false Trojan view ; 
 These boding omens his base flight pursue ! " 
 She said, and struck ; deep entered in her side 
 The piercing steel, with reeking purple dyed. 
 Her sad attendants saw the deadly stroke, 
 And with loud cries the sounding palace shook. 
 Distracted, from the fatal sight they fled, 
 And through the town the dismal rumour spread. 
 
 For the purposes of his national epic, Vergil has 
 
 * " Aeneid," iv. 642-666 (Dryden). 
 
160 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 done violence to chronology. He could not, being a 
 Ficti n ^^^*' resist the dramatic opportunities of a 
 and fact. meeting between Dido and the national hero. 
 It is agreed that Carthage was founded before 
 Rome, but it seems unlikely that it was so early as the 
 *' Aeneid " suggests. Traditions vary, but none places the 
 foundation earlier than the middle of the ninth century 
 B.C., and old traditions never err on the side of modera- 
 tion. Their dates are much more likely to be too early 
 than too late. Vergil, again, has taken the current 
 stories about Dido, Pygmalion, larbas, and Aeneas, and 
 combined them, and his poetic genius has enriched and 
 beautified them. Certainty in such a matter is out of 
 the question. We may conjecture that at one time the 
 reigning family of Tyre was disturbed by a plot, which 
 resulted in a group of exiles seeking a new home across 
 the seas; or perhaps it w^as an emigration due to 
 pressure from the growing power of Assyria. In one 
 detail, at any rate, we can be almost sure of being right 
 in correcting the tradition. The name " Byrsa,''' given 
 to the Carthaginian citadel, had probably no connexion 
 with an ox-hide, but was a corruption of the Semitic 
 **Bozra," meaning ** a fort." The corruption once 
 made, the picturesque tale was invented to explain it. 
 That the language of Carthage was Semitic and closely 
 akin to Hebrew appears in the name for the chief 
 magistrates, '* Suffetes,*' which is simply the Hebrew 
 *' Shofetim" (translated " Judges " in our Bible), and the 
 term **magalia*' (cottages), which recalls the Hebrew 
 ** magurim," " gardens or suburbs." 
 
 The Phoenicians were by nature neither soldiers, nor 
 Carthage a ^rtists, nor poets. They were content with 
 commercial a narrow strip of the Syrian coast, which 
 " ^' they never tried to enlarge, and their art and 
 
 literature have entirely vanished, and probably never 
 
 WESTWARD HO! 
 
 161 
 
 had any real existence. Their province was business. 
 They were shopkeepers in the soul. At first Carthage 
 was simply like any of their many '' branch establish- 
 ments," which were scattered round the Western 
 Mediterranean in likely spots to capture trade. For a 
 long time the city retained this character, even after it 
 had grown large and rich. But its increasing wealth 
 made it a tempting prize. Covetous eyes were watch- 
 ing. In self-defence Carthage raised naval and military 
 forces, and having them, used them. ** L'appetit vient 
 en mangeant," is a proverb which explains the growth 
 of many an empire. Bit by bit, the once peaceful and 
 purely commercial town became the splendid capital 
 of an extensive empire, which eventually gave Rome 
 a very good fight, prolonged through three great wars 
 extending with intervals over more than a century 
 (264-140 B.C.), for the sovereignty of the Mediterranean. 
 For the early history of Rome, the other great city 
 of the West, there is abundance of material. Here, of 
 course, as everywhere else, we are met first Rome: early 
 by the usual mass of legend and tradition, legends. 
 Every child knows the story of Romulus and Remus, and 
 has at least heard of the seven kings of the eternal City 
 of Seven Hills. But such an origin did not satisfy the 
 patriotic Roman. To please him, the national pedigree 
 must start very much further back. Romulus might be 
 the founder of Rome, but the family into which he was 
 born had long held sovereign sway, and was descended 
 from no less a person than Aeneas, the cousin of Hector, 
 of the royal and ancient line of renowned Troy. 
 Vergil, at the request of the Emperor Augustus, 
 composed the "Aeneid " as a great national epic, in which 
 he traced the beginnings of the world-conquering race 
 from the fall of Troy and tne landing and warlike 
 exploits of Aeneas in Latium. 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 l^ 
 
 Aeneas 
 escapes 
 
 Aeneas played only a small part in the ten-years* 
 
 siege of Troy, in which he was completely overshadowed 
 
 by his greater cousin Hector. His only 
 
 striking adventure that recurs to the memory 
 from Troy. ^^^^ j^-^ ^^^^^ ^^-^j^ ^^^ q^^^^ Diomede, who 
 
 wounded him, and from whom he was rescued in the 
 very nick of time by his mother Aphrodite. According 
 to the tradition followed by Vergil, Aeneas, at the cap- 
 ture of Troy through the stratagem of the Wooden 
 Horse, offered a determined resistance. It was, however, 
 all in vain, and he made his way out of the burning 
 ruins, carrying his aged father Anchises on his shouders, 
 and leading his little son Ascanius (or lulus) by the 
 band. His wife Creusa perished before they could 
 reach a place of safety, and Aeneas and a little band of 
 faithful exiles set sail into the West. After adventures 
 in Thrace, Epirus, and Sicily, they were driven by 
 storms to the African coast, where Dido was building 
 Carthage. The tragedy of the love and suicide of the 
 ill-fated queen forms the subject of the supreme book 
 of the whole poem (book iv.). 
 
 Leaving Dido, Aeneas at last reached Italy, the 
 ** promised land," where a new and greater Troy was to 
 Aeneas arise and some day turn the tables on the 
 
 reaohes GKultaut Achaeaus. After a thrilling episode 
 ^^^^y- at Lake Avernus, where he conversed with 
 
 the souls of the great departed, as Odysseus does in 
 Homer's poem, and also saw in a vision the illustrious 
 sons of Eome yet unborn, Aeneas reached the Tiber. At 
 the foot of the Palatine hill, afterwards the heart of the 
 Capital of the World, he found the Arcadian prince 
 Evander with his young son Pallas, who joined him and 
 fell in battle for him against the Rutulians. Aeneas 
 was Well received by Latinus, the old King of Laurentum, 
 and promised the hand of his daughter Lavinia. But 
 
 WESTWARD HO! 
 
 163 
 
 unfortunately the girl was already betrothed to Turnus, 
 the chief of the warlike Rutulians, and this Tumus the 
 flagrant breach of promise was the spark ^^tuUan. 
 which set all Central Italy in a blaze. Turnus, with 
 whom all sympathized, including Queen Amata and the 
 Princess Lavinia herself, roused his warlike clan and 
 was joined by the Etruscans under Mezentius. The 
 desperate conflict, diversified by numerous thrilling and 
 romantic episodes and *' hair-breadth 'scapes," ended in 
 a single combat to the death between the two great 
 rivals. Thus two bulls meet in deadly conflict : * 
 
 With horns adverse they meet ; the keeper flies ; 
 
 Mute stands the herd ; the heifers roll their eyes, 
 
 And wait the event .... 
 
 With rage of love the jealous rivals burn, 
 
 And push for push, and wound for wound, return ; 
 
 Their dewlaps gored, their sides are laved in blood ; 
 
 Loud cries and roaring sounds rebellow through the wood. 
 
 Such was the combat on the listed ground ; 
 
 So clash their swords, and so their shields resound. 
 
 Amid alternations of breathless suspense and frenzied 
 applause, the equal fight rages, and neither gains an 
 advantage. But Destiny is not mocked. By super- 
 natural intervention, so often invoked by Homer and 
 other epic poets, Turnus is worsted.t 
 
 Now low on earth the lofty chief is laid. 
 With eyes cast upwards, and with arms displayed, 
 And, recreant, thus to the proud victor prayed : 
 " I know my death deserved, nor hope to live : 
 Use what the gods and thy good fortune give. 
 • . t • . 
 
 Give to my friends my body void of breath I 
 The Latian chiefs have seen me beg my life ; 
 Thine is the conquest, thine the royal wife ; 
 Against a yielded man, 'tis mean ignoble strife." 
 In deep suspense the Trojan seemed to stand, 
 And, just prepared to strike, repressed his hand. 
 
 "Aeneid,"xii. 715-726. 
 
 t "Aeneid,"xii. 930-952. 
 
164 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 He rolled his oyes, and every moment felt 
 
 His manly soul with more compassion melt ; 
 
 When, casting down a casual glance, he spied 
 
 The golden belt that glittered on his side, 
 
 The fatal spoil which haughty Turnus tore 
 
 From dying Pallas, and in triumph wore. 
 
 Then, roused anew to wrath, he loudly cries 
 
 (Flames, while he spoke, came flashing from his oyes) 
 
 *' Traitor I dost thou, dost thou to grace pretend, 
 
 Clad as thou art, in trophies of my friend ? 
 
 To his sad soul a grateful offering go ! 
 
 'Tis Pallas, Pallas gives this deadly blow." 
 
 He raised his arm aloft, and, at the word, 
 
 Deep in his bosom drove the shining sword. 
 
 The streaming blood distaincd his arms around ; 
 
 And the disdainful soul came rushing through the wound. 
 
 Aeneas is left in possession, not of the reader's 
 sympathy, which all goes out to his victim, but of 
 
 Lavinium *^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ Lady Lavinia. On the 
 death of her father Latinus, Aeneas becomes 
 King of the Latins and founds a new capital, 
 called Lavinium in his wife's honour, but not long 
 after is killed in battle by the irreconcilable followers 
 of Turnus, those ** Jacobites" who resented the interloping 
 stranger. His son Ascanius, or lulus, founded Alba 
 Longa, the Long White City, and was followed on the 
 throne there by a long line of kings, till, in the fulness of 
 time, the sceptre passed to Numitor. 
 
 Now Numitor was a quiet man of retiring and con- 
 templative habits, but his younger brother, Amulius, was 
 Romulus ^^ different stuff*. He deposed Numitor, killed 
 and his sons, and made his only daughter Rhea 
 
 emus. Silvia a "Vestal Virgin," which was equiva- 
 lent to shutting her up in a nunnery under perpetual 
 vows. When Mars, the god of war, himself visited 
 her and she gave birth to twin sons, Amulius caused 
 her to be buried alive and the babies to be drowned in 
 the Tiber. But Nemesis was waiting for the crime- 
 
 and Alba 
 Longa. 
 
 WESTWARD HO! 
 
 165 
 
 stained uncle. The little boys were left high and dry 
 by the receding waters, suckled by a philanthropic she- 
 wolf, taken home and brought up by a shepherd, and in 
 due time recognized by their grandfather Numitor. A 
 plot was quickly hatched, and Amulius paid the price of 
 his villainy. Then followed the foundation of Rome, 
 Roma Quadrata (Four-square Rome), on the Palatine 
 Hill. The story of Romulus and Remus, the six 
 vultures and the twelve, the thoughtless leap over the 
 rising wall, and the repetition of the tragedy of Cain 
 and Abel, is too familiar to bear repetition. 
 
 The new city followed the prevailing fashion and 
 was ruled by kings. First came Romulus, the founder. 
 Having built the walls, he must have men to Home 
 defend them. So he built a kind of ''city of ^"oiinded. 
 refuge " on the Capitoline Hill close by, just the other 
 side of a marsh, and advertised it as a home for 
 anybody who found things uncomfortable where he 
 was. So long as the applicant had a strong and 
 willing pair of hands, no questions w^ould be asked. 
 The Capitoline became instantly and immensely popu- 
 lar, and its denizens must have included more than one 
 gentleman who did not boast about the past. Some, no 
 doubt, were in trouble through no fault of their own. 
 Then, wanting wives for his citizens, Romulus kidnapped 
 them from the Sabines. The result was a 
 war, naturally, which ended, however, in the 
 Sabines and Romans going into partnership. Together 
 they enlarged the city, and Romulus shared the govern- 
 ment with a Sabine king. Romulus was carried up 
 into Heaven and became the god Quirinus, and was 
 succeeded by Numa Pompilius, a Sabine, who was a 
 lover of peace and paid much attention to religion and 
 ceremonial. But a young city has often to fight for its 
 existence, and Rome found a pair of strong arms in 
 
 The Sabines. 
 
166 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 her third king, Tulhis Hostilius, whose reign was 
 marked by the destruction of Alba Longa, the ancient 
 The Latin metropolis and head of the Latin League, 
 League. of which Home now became the acknow- 
 ledged capital. His successor, Ancus Martins, again a 
 Sabine, further strengthened the city, and fortified the 
 Janiculum Hill the other side of the Tiber, which he 
 joined to Rome by a wooden bridge. 
 
 The fame of the city grew, and at the close of the 
 seventh century (616 b.c), while Periander was Tyrant 
 Tarquinius at Corinth and Cylon tried to be so at Athens, 
 J'^the^ attracted a Greek-Etruscan adventurer from 
 Elder"). Tarquinii, called Lucumo, the son of an exile 
 from Corinth. Like most Greeks, he was clever and 
 had a ready tongue, and, though a stranger and soldier 
 of fortune, he so completely *' got round " the old king 
 Ancus Martins, that he was appointed guardian of the 
 two young princes. But, no sooner was the king in his 
 grave, than Lucumo of Tarquinii, who had assumed the 
 more Roman- sounding name of Lucius Tarquinius, 
 persuaded the people to make him king. No doubt his 
 father and perhaps he himself had seen Periander at 
 work at Corinth and had made notes for possible use. 
 Tarquin was not very unlike the Greek *' Tyrants." 
 He was their contemporary; he got the throne, like 
 them, by usurpation; and he was, like them, a great 
 builder. But he had a council of advisers, the Senate, 
 and did not rule autocratically. 
 
 He was followed by his son-in-law, Servius Tullius 
 (578 B.c ), who made himself famous for all time by 
 Servius erecting a complete circuit of fortifications, 
 Tullius. mounds and walls and ditches, enclosing 
 the seven hills, an area which proved sufficient for 
 Rome right through to the time of the establishment 
 of the empire. He also was responsible for the Servian 
 
 WESTWARD HO! 
 
 167 
 
 Constitution, by which the whole population were divided 
 into classes, according to their wealth. It was a Timo- 
 cracy, resembling the arrangement which Solon carried 
 out at Athens only a few years before. Italy is not so 
 very far removed from Greece. Long before this time 
 Greeks had colonized Sicily and many places in Italy as 
 near Rome as Cumac and Naples. May not Servius 
 Tullius, in thinking out his re-organization of Rome, have 
 taken many a useful hint from the achievement of the 
 great Solon ? Tarquin the Elder is himself a reminder 
 of the free intercourse which existed in those remote 
 times between nations surrounding the Mediterranean. 
 His father was a Greek, his wife was an Etruscan, and 
 he became King of Rome. 
 
 The good King Servius was followed by the tyrant 
 Tarquinius Superbus, Tarquin the Proud (534 e.g.), 
 whose evil deeds were the cause of the . . 
 
 expulsion of the kings and establishment of superbus 
 a Republic in Rome. This Tarquin was a (^' ^^® , 
 fairly exact counterpart of a Greek Tyrant, 
 in the leadership of a discontented party which he 
 assumed and the violence which he employed in his 
 usurpation of power, and also resembled some of his 
 Greek confreres in the uncomfortable fact of his 
 forcible ejection from the state. He began to attract 
 attention by murdering his wife and marrying her 
 sister, Tullia, who had married his brother but had 
 murdered her husband at his instigation. A pretty 
 beginning ! Nor was this all. His wife was the king's 
 daughter, and yet this well-matched satanical pair 
 murdered the old man, Tullia even driving her chariot 
 over her father's dead body to the Senate-house to 
 congratulate her murderer-husband, who had had 
 himself proclaimed king. The proverb " Like father, 
 like son," though often untrue, justified itself on this 
 
168 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 stories 
 historical ? 
 
 occasion. It was hardly to be expected that the off- 
 spring of this pair should be saints. 
 
 Tlie reckless immorality of the royal princes lashed 
 the general indignation into fury, and the whole brood 
 The Tarquins of Tarquin left Piome somewhat hurriedly. 
 expeUed. rpj^^^ ^^^^^^ returned. Not that they did not 
 try, but the blood of Rome was up. Rome, like Athens, 
 and in the selfsame year, had shaken off her Tyrant 
 and started on a career of increasing liberty and self- 
 development. 
 
 Thus, in prose and verse, runs the ''authorized 
 text" of the early history of Rome. And a pretty 
 How far ^^o^gh story it makes. But, such is our 
 are these modern mind, we are once more left wonder- 
 ing how much of it all is what we call 
 ** historical." It must not be forgotten that 
 the earliest historians of Rome did not write their 
 histories till the third century B.C., that is to say, five 
 centuries after the accepted date of the foundation of 
 the city ; and that all the state records relating to the 
 early times were destroyed in the sack of the city by 
 the Gauls in 390 b.c. The received account, therefore, is 
 based entirely on tradition. Now nobody can say that 
 it is impossible that any Trojans sailed from Troy to 
 Italy as Aeneas is reputed to have done. But the 
 traditions themselves, like the proverbial doctors, dis- 
 agree. Most accounts had it that Aeneas stayed at 
 home and reigned over a restored remnant of Troy, a 
 shadow of its ancient self. 
 
 What, then, are we to believe ? Fortunately, the 
 study of language and modern discoveries afford us 
 Evidence surer ground. It is perfectly certain that the 
 and*S!^*^^ people who spoke Latin were closely related 
 coveries. to the Greeks: the languages prove it. 
 Greeks and Latins alike belonged to the great Aryan 
 
 WESTWARD HO! 
 
 1C)9 
 
 race, which from the steppes by the Caspian Sea 
 had migrated east and west, into India and Europe. 
 We have already seen how the Aegean world, The 
 the empire of Cnossus, was overwhelmed by Aryans. 
 a great invasion, probably Hellenic, about 1400 b.c, 
 followed about 1100 b.c. by ]he famous Dorian conquest, 
 which marked the beginning of really Hellenic history. 
 It is probable that on either the first or the second of 
 those occasions another wave of Aryans moved on further 
 west and swarmed down over the Italian peninsula. 
 Besides the general similarity of the languages and 
 institutions of Greece and Italy, there is a curiously 
 Greek ring about names like Rome, Romulus, Numa, 
 and Numitor. 
 
 To take the stories -in detail: the exposure and 
 rescue of Romulus, the founder, is interesting in its 
 resemblance to the story of Sargon I, or position of 
 Sargina, the first known King of Accad ^^^^e. 
 (Mesopotamia), and to the account in Exodus of the 
 infancy of Moses. Amulius reigns in Alba Longa. We 
 may rest assured that Rome, by whomsoever founded, 
 was indeed a colony from that earlier city. The 
 Palatine Hill, with its flat rectangular top, and its 
 steep sides protected by a river, a stream, and marshes, 
 was an eminently suitable site for a settlement. It 
 was far enough from the sea to be safe from passing 
 pirates, and not too far for vessels of moderate draught 
 to be able to sail to it, and it was placed at a point 
 where an island lay in the river like a stepping-stone, 
 making two streams easier to bridge. One or two facts 
 are quite clear from the traditional account. 
 
 The Sabines evidently joined the original founders. 
 Quirites, Quirinus, and Quirinalis, are all sabine 
 Sabine words, and point to an early compro- alliance, 
 mise and partnership between the two tribes. Also, a 
 
170 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOULD 
 
 I 
 
 n 
 
 Conclasion. 
 
 little later, there must have been penetration, either 
 forcible or peaceable, by Etruscans. "Lucumo** is an 
 The Etruscan word, probably meaning " a noble " ; 
 
 Etruscans, ^^q name ** Luceres,'* one of the three original 
 tribes of Kome, seems connected with it. Many of the 
 old religious and other customs of Rome can be traced 
 to Etruria. 
 
 We may conclude that the Aryan invaders 
 conquered Italy and broke up, through geographical 
 causes, into several distinct groups, each 
 developing along its own lines for a time in 
 customs and language. Subsequently, at some un- 
 known date, but probably, as the tradition holds, in the 
 middle of the eighth century b.c, three Italian groups 
 — Latins, Sabines, and Etruscans — combined for mutual 
 protection and commercial advantage, and planted a 
 settlement at a suitable spot on a navigable and 
 bridgeable river at the junction of the three territories, 
 to be a trading depot and central exchange. River, hill, 
 market, and bridge would soon combine to attract 
 population. The same thing happened on the banks 
 of the Tiber which later the same factors reproduced in 
 Britain. Rome was the prototype of London. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE TYRANTS 
 
 While Rome was being ruled by King and Senate, and 
 Carthage by ** Suffetes," or *' Judges " representing a 
 commercial oligarchy, how were the Greeks Lack of 
 governed ? Much as we hear of cunning and ^^ity in 
 violence and wars and brigandage, cities 
 and harbours were being built, commerce and wealth 
 were growing, poetry was flourishing, and civilization 
 generally was advancing steadily. And none of these 
 things can be, without some settled form or other, how- 
 ever faulty, of government. Now, first of all, it is 
 important for a twentieth-century Englishman, when 
 dealing with early Greek history, to rid his mind of the 
 national idea, which he of course takes for granted 
 nowadays. In the old days, and even in the so-called 
 classical period of their history, the Greeks were never 
 a nation in our sense of the term. Greece was about 
 the size of Scotland, but it was not one country with a 
 capital and central government whose orders were 
 respected north, south, east, and west. Physically, it 
 was like a honeycomb, high mountain ranges dividing 
 it into numerous small compartments ; and politically, 
 it was broken up into a large number of little inde- 
 pendent states, each with its own government, its own 
 capital, its own laws, its own dialect, its own pride, 
 its own selfish interests. Imagine our own island 
 
 171 
 
! 
 
 172 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 broken up not merely into separate kingdoms of 
 England, Scotland, and Wales, nor even into the more 
 numerous and smaller Saxon kingdoms of Mercia, 
 Wessex, Northumbria, and so on, as it once was ; but 
 picture it broken up into as many separate kingdoms as 
 there are counties, but with never a kingdom as large 
 as Yorkshire, and many not much larger than a good- 
 sized parish. There you have ancient Greece. 
 
 It is remarkable that if you want to translate 
 ''native land," ** country," or '* state" into Greek, you 
 Thepoiiticai have to use the word for a *'city"; there is 
 ^^^- no other. And so their language shows that 
 
 the peoi)le never really got beyond the idea of a single 
 city as a political unit. They did not '* think imperially " 
 as the modern phrase goes, but, we might almost say, 
 "parochially." 
 
 These early states were ruled by kings. The king 
 was the *' biggest" man in the place. Probably, in 
 Govern- Very early times, he was literally the biggest 
 ment: the man in stature, with the strongest muscles, 
 ^°^' who surpassed others in war and sport, and 
 
 could break the heads of his rivals. He was the richest 
 man, and lived in the best-built house, a fortified palace. 
 He was the leader of his subjects in battle, and fought 
 personally in the forefront. He was also their chief 
 priest, and claimed to be the authorized go-between 
 between them and the gods, offering sacrifices on their 
 behalf and informing them in turn of the will of heaven. 
 He was also their judge, and settled their disputes, 
 according, generally, to an unwritten law of which he 
 TbecouncU claimed to be the sole guardian. In the 
 of elders. administration of the state he was assisted 
 by a council of elders or wise men, like the Witenagemot 
 of our Saxon kings. This was the natural government 
 for the states to have in the early times, and we know 
 
 THE TYRANTS 
 
 173 
 
 that most, and may safely assume that all, went through 
 this phase. 
 
 But a change came with the Dorian conquest, in 
 some cases directly caused by it. We know, for 
 instance, that the King of Athens died in Disappear- 
 battle against the Dorians, and that no king ance of 
 ascended the vacant throne. Whatever the ^^^^^^y- 
 cause, before the end of the eighth century (700 b.c), 
 there were no longer any kings in Greece, except in 
 Sparta, where alone the monarchy survived throughout 
 the course of Greek history. There is a saying that 
 " familiarity breeds contempt " ; perhaps that had 
 something to do with the abolition of kings in the old 
 cities and small states. In a tiny state the king was 
 continually under the public gaze ; it was not possible 
 to keep up the aloofness and mystery which are such 
 powerful aids to reverence. Or, perhaps, it was simply 
 that the citizens, with the growth of knowledge and 
 trade and wealth, considered that they had come of age 
 and could rule themselves. Very likely the whole thing 
 was the doing of the nobles, the leading men of the 
 king's council. English history shows clearly enough 
 how, with a weak king, and before the people know their 
 strength, the nobles, that is to say, the ** known " men, 
 the great landowners, are very apt to get out of control. 
 In Stephen's time the barons, as they were called, ran 
 riot, and the country was in a state of almost complete 
 anarchy. 
 
 In Greece the period of the kings was followed by 
 one in which the states were ruled by *'' Oligarchies," 
 in other words, by a small fixed number of " on- 
 rich landholding families, which banded &archy." 
 themselves together in a close and exclusive brother- 
 hood, to keep the reins of government in their own 
 hands. The power must not go out of the charmed 
 
174 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 THE TYRANTS 
 
 175 
 
 circle. They formed a kind of ** Trust," for the 
 monopoly of the good things of the world. Their own 
 name for themselves was ** Aristocracies " ; for, said 
 they, "are we not the best people in the land? And 
 who should rule, if not the best ? " More unanswerable 
 than their logic was their possession of physical power. 
 They had the land and the retainers and the money 
 and the education. 
 
 But this state of affairs could not last, for three 
 chief reasons. Firstly, money and retainers meant 
 Causes of ^g^^i^g* and when the nobles fought, the 
 the down- people suffered. Farmhouses were burnt, 
 
 gwchiM.'" ^^^P^ ^P^^^^ ' a^^ *^e smaller and poorer the 
 man, the severer the loss. The pastime of 
 the rich spelt bankruptcy to the poor. In peace time, 
 too, the nobles must have their luxuries. Harvest or no 
 harvest, good times or bad, the rents must be paid. 
 The lord danced, and the peasant paid the piper. Result 
 —debt, ruin, and dangerous discontent. Secondly, the 
 people of Attica, unlike the dull-witted Saxon plough- 
 man the Norman barons had to deal with, were intelligent 
 and restless, and their spirit of inquiry was bringing 
 them knowledge of the world and of their own rights 
 and strength. They would not **take things lying 
 down." Thirdly, human nature was too strong even 
 for the close corporations. The nobles were all more 
 or less equal, and all jealous of each other. Jealousy 
 bred distrust, and their doom was sealed. 
 
 For this was what happened over and over and over 
 again, north, south, east, and west of the Greek world. 
 Advent of A noble arose more ambitious and restless 
 the tyrant, ^j^^^ ^lis peers, and with a genius for organi- 
 zation and party-leadership. He looked about him for 
 a weapon, grasped the discontent of the people and 
 their hatred of his fellow-aristocrats, and resolved to 
 
 use these for his own ends. He accordingly donned 
 sheep's clothing, and went into the fold. He expressed 
 liberal views far in advance of his time, sympathized 
 with discontent, and attacked monopolies and privilege. 
 And this in spite of his own blue blood. At once he 
 became a hero, a self-sacrificing patriot who put country 
 before party. The masses wanted a leader. He wanted 
 a following. Why not join forces ? And join they did, 
 and privilege was swept away, by battle, execution, or 
 banishment, in every case accompanied by confiscation ; 
 and then, heigh-ho ! the masses were their own masters. 
 
 So they thought. But, alas, it was the old story 
 over again. The horse, being jealous of the stag and 
 resenting his presence, asked man to help The horse 
 him to get rid of the nuisance. ** With and the 
 pleasure," was the reply : '* just let me get on *^*^' 
 your back a moment." And the horse eagerly complied. 
 Sure enough, the pair were invincible, and the obnoxious 
 stag ceased to give trouble. *' Much obliged,'* said the 
 horse: **let me know if I can do anything for you at 
 any time : good-bye for the present." And with that 
 he tried to shake off his rider. The man laughed : 
 ** Don't be in such a hurry, my friend. I mean to stay 
 here now for a bit." 
 
 So it was with the people and their champion. 
 Suddenly, the prophet of liberty and equality, the 
 denouncer of privilege, threw off the mask. The tyrant 
 and showed himself not indeed an aristocrat, "veaied. 
 but an autocrat. In a few cases the leader who acted 
 thus was himself one of the people. But generally, 
 with slight variations, this was the course of the pro- 
 gramme which had for its closing item the establish- 
 ment of Autocracy, and it was followed at one period in 
 practically every state of the Greek world. The name 
 for these autocrats, who had won their way to the 
 
176 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 throne and maintained themselves there by force, was 
 " tyrants '* (rvfmwot). The word has an ugly sound to 
 our ears. To the Greeks a ** tyrant" meant one who 
 ruled autocratically, in other words, without a council 
 or parliament; what is sometimes called an '^absolute," 
 as opposed to a " constitutional " ruler. 
 
 The tyrant served a useful purpose, and in some 
 cases was even extremely beneficial to the state he 
 The bright ^^^^^' He removed, by death or banishment, 
 Pktur?*"" *^^^ oppressive nobles, or, at any rate, kept 
 them in strict order. Thus he substituted 
 the rule of one master for that of manv, which was in 
 itself a gain for the country. All, both rich and poor, 
 high and low, were equally subject to him, and this 
 prepared the way for the establishment later on of 
 democracy on the basis of equal rights. Moreover, for 
 Ms own safety's sake, and to gratify his pride, 'the 
 tyrant maintained armed forces in a high state of 
 efficiency, favoured commerce, beautified his city, en- 
 couraged art, and liked his court to be talked about in 
 the world as the meeting-place of poets, philosophers, 
 artists, and every kind of great men. 
 
 Of course, there was another side to the rule of 
 a tyrant. A tyrant has temptations like other men, 
 The darker but greater in proportion to his power. He 
 was responsible to none, his rule was avowedly 
 maintained by force, and his own person often hedged 
 round by a foreign bodyguard. The meaning of our 
 word ** tyrant " and its origin show that the old Greek 
 autocrats were not made of milk and water. 
 
 Good or bad, they were strong men who left their 
 impress on Greek history, and anecdotes have gathered 
 thick about them. Take Corinth. Here, as in all the 
 great cities of the Peloponnese, the government was in 
 the hands of a Heracleid family. The Bacchiadae 
 
 THE TYRANTS 
 
 177 
 
 Cypseltts. 
 
 claimed descent from Bacchis, who " came over with 
 the Conqueror " at the Dorian invasion, and was re- 
 warded with the kingdom of Corinth. In 
 course of time the government had changed JtSi the 
 from a monarchy to a close oligarchy, but bacchiadae 
 was still kept in the circle of the same ''^ ^°'^^''^^' 
 dominant family. 
 
 One day the terrible news went round that a child 
 had been born in the clan, who, so an oracle had said, 
 would hopelessly upset the family fortunes. 
 A search was made for him with a view to 
 averting such a catastrophe, but his mother, caring 
 more for her darling than the clan, and snapping her 
 fingers at the oracle, concealed him in an ancestral 
 linen-chest, and so cheated the would-be murderers. 
 From this early adventure he was called Cypselus (from 
 Kv^PiXi] = a chest), and he lived to be the first tyrant of 
 Corinth, having led the People against the Oligarchs. 
 At first he was very cruel to the Bacchiadae, but no 
 doubt they exasperated him. He was fond of show, 
 like all tyrants, and dedicated a bronze palm-tree at 
 Delphi, and a golden statue of Zeus at Olympia. The 
 famous chest to which he owed his life was to be seen 
 at Olympia till the end of the second century, a.d. 
 
 After a reign of thirty years he was succeeded by 
 his much more famous son Periander, who reduced 
 ** tyranny" to a fine art. He had a good 
 eye for diplomacy and kept up friendly re- ^®"*^^®^- 
 lations with other tyrants abroad, and with foreign 
 kings, such as Thrasybulus of Miletus and Alyattes, 
 King of Lydia. It was Thrasybulus, according to the 
 story, who, on receiving a request from Periander for 
 advice on the best way to maintain his authority at 
 home, took the messenger through a corn-field, and 
 knocked off, as he went, the tallest ears. Periander 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 required no explanation of the dumb-show, but followed 
 out the hint very thoroughly, He kept a very powerful 
 navy and army, conquered Epidaurus, kept Coreyra in 
 subjection, planned a canal across the Isthmus of 
 Corinth, joining the two seas, and, though this was not 
 accomplished, drew trade and immense wealth to his 
 city. He, however, did not let it accumulate in a few 
 hands. He was of a suspicious temper. Great wealth 
 was a danger to its owners. He also suppressed all 
 clubs, and made laws against extravagance, ostentation, 
 
 and luxury. 
 
 He was a patron of art and literature. The famous 
 
 Arion and Anacharsis were both guests at his court. 
 
 . Anacharsis was a Scythian prince (from 
 
 Anac arsis, g^^^j^^^.^^ Russia), who travelled about Greece, 
 
 conversed with Solon at Athens, and won a great repu- 
 tation for sagacity. 
 
 Arion is best known through his frequent represen- 
 tation astride on a dolphin. After a successful tour of 
 South Italy, he was returning to Corinth. 
 The crew, recognizing the famous singer and 
 smelling booty, plotted to murder him. The wretched 
 man begged to be allowed to sing once more on the 
 quarterdeck with his harp, and in full concert-dress, and 
 having finished his song, leaped into the sea, where a 
 dolphin, attracted by the glorious music, received him 
 on his back and brought him safe and sound to shore. 
 To their surprise, the murderous sailors were arrested on 
 their arrival and confronted before Periander with Arion, 
 in full-dress, just as he was when he jumped off the ship ! 
 
 Though a strong and capable ruler, Periander's 
 character was hopelessly marred by its violence, which 
 made his private life a tragedy. He was passionately 
 devoted to his wife Melissa, and yet one day in an 
 uncontrolled rage he struck her, with a fatal result. 
 
 Arion. 
 
 THE TYRANTS 
 
 179 
 
 There were two sons. When they were grown up, their 
 mother's father, Procles, Tyrant of Epidaurus, pgriander' 
 invited them to stay with him, and, as they domestic 
 were going away, said : " Do you know, ^^®' 
 my boys, who killed your mother ? " The words made 
 no impression on the elder, but his younger brother 
 Lycoi)hron brooded over the words, and suspected the 
 truth. The result was an estrangement between him 
 and his father, which neither threats, nor entreaties, 
 nor any measures could heal. By proclamation no one 
 was allowed to receive or even speak to this recalcitrant 
 son. At last he was banished to Coreyra, the depen- 
 dency of Corinth, and Periander fought against his 
 father-in-law, and imprisoned him, to pay him out for 
 his meddlesome indiscretion. But as he grew old and 
 infirm, the remorse-stricken man wished to see his son, 
 who, in spite of all, was his favourite and destined to 
 succeed him, and to make his peace with him. Lyco- 
 phron refused to set foot in Corinth so long as his father 
 was still alive. Thereupon the old man arranged that 
 they should exchange places ; he should go to Coreyra 
 to end his days, and his young son come and occupy the 
 throne at Corinth. No doubt he hoped that by some 
 lucky intervention of Providence they might meet on the 
 way. But the Corey raeans got wind of the plan, and, 
 much as they hked the young Lycophron, they murdered 
 him sooner than that the project should be carried out. 
 How they must have feared and hated the aged tyrant ! 
 And they were not far wrong in their estimate. In his 
 fury he deported three hundred boys of the best Cor- 
 cyraean families to be slaves in Lydia. 
 
 Such domestic misery was not common even in the 
 families of tyrants ; but they were all, as Theagenes 
 would be expected, violent men, some more, ®^ Megara. 
 some less. Theagenes, Tyrant of Megara, won the hearts 
 
180 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 of the people by destroying the rich nobles' cattle in 
 their parks. 
 
 Thrasybulus, Tyrant of Miletus, is famous for his 
 Thrasybuius treatment of the tallest corn-ears, and bears 
 ofMiietuB. the bhxme for having wrought a change for 
 the worse in his friend Periander's character. 
 
 Cleisthenes, Tyrant of Sicyon, conceived such a 
 hatred of Argos that he prohibited the recitation of 
 Cleisthenes Ilomer's poems because they were complimen- 
 of Sicyon. ^ary to Argos and the Argives. He also 
 deliberately set himself to heap humiliation on the proud 
 old Dorian famihes of Sicyon. For instance, he 
 changed the historic names of their three clans to 
 appellations derived from the Sow, the Ass, and the 
 Pig. In other respects he was moderate and successful. 
 
 Phalaris, Tyrant of Agrigentum, will always be 
 remembered, rightly or wrongly, for monstrous cruelty, 
 «^ , . , and for the letters which he never wrote. But 
 
 Pnalaris or ,, ,i i in 
 
 ofAgri- perhaps, after all, the brazen bull was as 
 gentum. much an invention as the once famous 
 ** Letters " were proved to be. The spuriousness of 
 these '* Letters of Phalaris" was exposed at the close 
 of the seventeenth century by the great scholar Bentley, 
 who called them ** a fardle of common-places." The 
 **buir' was a hollow brass statue of a bull, so con- 
 structed that a man could be enclosed in it and baked 
 to death; and the story was told that Phalaris tried 
 this engine of torture for the first time on its inventor ! 
 A less inhuman and more interesting tyrant was 
 Polycrates of Samos. Though living twenty -four 
 Poiycrates centuries before Captain Mahan, he antici- 
 of Samos. pated that eminent American sailor's theories, 
 and was a shining example of the influence of sea- 
 power. He also, like the Hyksos, forestalled Edward 
 III.'s discovery of the value of archery, and trained a 
 
 THE TYRANTS 
 
 181 
 
 force of 1000 bowmen. By his invincible fleet and archers 
 he made himself master of the islands of the Aegean 
 and of many cities on the mainland, and, like all 
 tyrants, lived in great style, patronized art and 
 literature, and made foreign alliances. Like many 
 tyrants also, he was unscrupulous and i^lundered 
 indiscriminately, saying, with a laugh, that he gave a 
 friend more pleasure by restoring what he had taken 
 from him than by not taking it at all ! 
 
 Apart from his sea-power, he is perhaps best known 
 for the extraordinary good luck which seemed never to 
 desert him. It was so remarkable that his The story of 
 ally, the superstitious Pharaoh Amasis, felt tigering, 
 quite uncomfortable about it and broke off friendly 
 relations. First, however, he tried mild remonstrance. 
 *'I wish you could have some share of ill-luck," he 
 wrote, " it would be better for us both. I have never 
 yet known a man who had unbroken good luck and did 
 not eventually come to a bad end. So throw away that 
 which you value most and which it will grieve you most 
 to part with." If this prescription did not effect a cure, 
 the dose must be repeated till it did. Polycrates read 
 and pondered. Then he put out to sea and threw over- 
 board a most valuable emerald and gold signet-ring. 
 Which done, he went home and felt a fool, and wished 
 he had not taken the Egyptian's advice. But before a 
 week was out, a fisherman ajDpeared at the palace gates 
 with a huge fish, and being ushered into the presence 
 made his bow and gave it to the tyrant, saying it was 
 too good to take its chance at the Samian Billingsgate. 
 For his pains he was graciously commanded to join his 
 sovereign at dinner. The fish was taken to the kitchen, 
 and lo and behold, in it was found the tyrant's signet- 
 ring ! Evidently, his luck could not desert him. He 
 informed his friend the Pharaoh, who gave him up as 
 
182 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 a hopeless case, and the entente conUale was formally 
 broken off. Not long after the Egyptian's presentiment 
 was justified. Polycrates, the ever-lucky, fell into a 
 trap laid for him by a wily Persian, and was crucified. 
 
 But most interesting, historically, of all the tyrants 
 was Peisistratus of Athens. Cylon, the handsome 
 Peisistratus Olympic prize-winner, had been carried away 
 of Athens, ^y ^^ic praise and popularity which ever fall 
 to successful athletes, and by his marriage with the 
 daughter of Theagenes, the Tyrant of Megara, and had 
 made an attempt to establish a tyranny in Athens, 
 seizing the Acropolis. But his eoiq) was a failure. 
 He was starved into surrender and murdered. And 
 Athens was still **free," being governed by a semi- 
 democratic constitution given it by Solon, when 
 Peisistratus, his second cousin, made his successful 
 coup iVetat, This time the tyrant sprang from a family 
 which had not come over with the Dorian Conquerors, 
 but went one better, having been royal before the 
 invaders came and been dispossessed by them. 
 
 Attica was divided into three factions, the Plain, 
 consisting of the rich landowners, the Shore, comprising 
 The Attic the wealthy mercantile class, and the Moun- 
 factions ; tain, poorer, rougher and more independent, 
 and moun- ' The first was led by Lycurgus, the second by 
 ^"^ Megacles, and Peisistratus, having his own 
 
 ends to serve, assumed the leadership of the third. He 
 won popularity by his good looks and eloquence, and 
 more by throwing open his gardens to the public, and 
 taking the air accompanied by a secretary with a well- 
 filled purse, out of which he generously relieved the 
 wants of the poorer folk. 
 
 When the time seemed ripe and the ground well 
 prepared, he boldly made his bid for power. He 
 appeared in the market-place one day bleeding from 
 
 I '1 
 
 THE TYRANTS 
 
 183 
 
 self-inflicted wounds, and declaring that he. had been 
 set upon by his enemies for being too friendly to the 
 People. A roar of indignation went up, and First 
 the clever actor was immediately voted a body- ^s'lrpation. 
 guard of fifty stalwart club-bearers. In a trice our quick- 
 change artist had increased his guard tenfold, and was 
 securely entrenched in the Acropolis, and master of the 
 situation. But not for long. The Plain and the Shore 
 combined against the common foe and drove him 
 out. 
 
 The danger past, however, disunion returned. The 
 Shore approached the exile. Peisistratus married the 
 daughter of Megacles, and returned to Athens second 
 in triumph. He found a young woman of usurpation, 
 remarkable stature and beauty, whom he arrayed in 
 a complete suit of shining armour. Then he spread 
 abroad the rumour — and among Athenians how fast it 
 must have travelled ! — that their patron-goddess Athene 
 in person was coming in a chariot to conduct her 
 beloved Peisistratus into her Acropolis. So the crowd 
 stared open-mouthed, and once more he passed up 
 to the rocky citadel. But the tyrant proved a bad 
 husband, and his father-in-law once more combined 
 with the Plain and drove him into exile. 
 
 This time he absented himself for ten years. Then, 
 having carefully laid his plans and raised an army, he 
 landed at Marathon, caught his opponents at Third 
 noon while they were digesting their luncheon usurpation, 
 and not expecting him, and for the third time took 
 possession of the Acropolis. This time he vowed he 
 would go travelling no more, and accordingly took no 
 risks. 
 
 All the usual accompaniments of a tyranny made 
 their appearance ; foreign bodyguard, magnificent court, 
 alliances with foreign states, taxes, architecture, patron- 
 
184 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 THE TYRANTS 
 
 185 
 
 ! 
 
 age of art and literature. But Peisistratus was distin- 
 guished for his humanity, his practical common sense, 
 
 Peisistratus' ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ benefits he conferred on his 
 beneficent country. He would tolerate no loafers in 
 
 • Athens. Either they must go back to the 
 
 country and labour at agriculture, or else they were 
 employed in his great building operations. He erected 
 temples and created the Lyceum gardens. ** No un- 
 employed while I govern here," said he. To pay for all 
 this, he levied a tax of ten per cent, on the produce of 
 land, a composition tax for all purposes. The world 
 owes him an everlasting debt for his collection and 
 edition of an authorized text of the Homeric poems, till 
 then scattered and uncertain, and he encouraged the 
 first steps of the dramatic art in his city; two acts 
 which must for ever secure his place in the world's 
 history. He left the Solonian constitution untouched, 
 except that the highest offices were a strict preserve of 
 the tyrant's family, and insisted on the observance of 
 the law of the land, himself once appearing in the 
 courts to answer a charge of murder. The prosecutor, 
 however, was shy, and the case did not proceed. 
 
 He was succeeded by two sons of less commanding 
 character, Hippias and Hipparchus, who seem to 
 Hippias and have reigned jointly. They continued their 
 End^"*^^^^* 8^^^* father's policy, completed his buildings, 
 "tyranny" welcomed men of genius like the poets Simo- 
 in Athens, ^ides and Anacreon, and, last but not least, 
 reduced the taxes by a half. But their public was 
 better than their private life, a not infrequent phe- 
 nomenon, especially with tyrants. To avenge a private 
 outrage, Hipparchus was murdered by Harmodius 
 and Aristogeiton, and from that moment his brother 
 Hippias became a suspicious and sour despot. In- 
 trigues were renewed by the Shore, those implacable 
 
 enemies of the Peisistratids. The family of Megacles, 
 having contracted to build a temple at Delphi of ordi- 
 nary stone, built it of white marble for the same price. 
 Naturally, the priests were anxious to repay such kind- 
 ness. **Very well," was the reply; ** do this; when- 
 ever the Spartans come to consult you, no matter what 
 the question, say, * Athens must be freed.' That is all." 
 The Spartans in time wearied of this monotonous reply 
 to their inquiries, and by their help Hippias was closely 
 beleaguered in his rocky fortress on the Acropolis. By 
 good luck, the besiegers obtained possession of his 
 family who were being stealthily removed for greater 
 safety. With all his faults, Hippias was a good father, 
 and, to save them, he evacuated the citadel and left the 
 country. 
 
 I'll wreathe my sword in myrtle bough, 
 The sword that laid Hipparchus low, 
 When patriots, burning to be free, 
 To Athens gave equality. 
 
 Harmodius, hail ! though 'reft of breath, 
 Thou ne'er shalt feel the stroke of death ; 
 The heroes' happy isles shall be 
 The bright abode allotted thee. 
 
 I'll wreathe my sword in myrtle bough, 
 The sword that laid Hipparchus low, 
 When at Minerva's adverse fane 
 He knelt, and never rose again. 
 
 While Freedom's name is understood, 
 You shall delight the wise and good ; 
 You dared to set your country free, 
 And gave her laws equality.* 
 
 • Epigram ascribed to Callistratus, translated by " D " in Bland's 
 ** Collections from the Greek Anthology." 
 
186 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 THE TYRANTS 
 
 187 
 
 Not the least curious fact iu all this is that the 
 
 610 B.C. in ^^^y same year, 510 b.c, saw the with- 
 
 Athens and drawal of the last tyrant from Athens, and 
 
 °™®' the expulsion of the last of its kings from 
 
 Eorae. 
 
 In some other states tyrants continued to rule till 
 a much later date ; for instance, in Sicily. A remark- 
 able trio of brothers reigned successively in Syracuse. 
 The eldest, Gelo, who was very lenient, was on the 
 throne at the time of the Persian Wars, and offered to 
 help against Xerxes, if he were given the chief com- 
 mand ; but his terms were refused. Hiero, who suc- 
 ceeded him, is famous as the winner of chariot-races and 
 patron of the poets Pindar and Aeschylus. Thrasybulus 
 was expelled by the people in 467, and the dynasty 
 ended with his removal. 
 
 The tyrants had served an important purpose. 
 Throughout the Greek world they had "hammered 
 The tyrant's ^^^^S^ into shape " ; they had enforced respect 
 place in for law ; they had broken the backs of the 
 istory. turbulent and oppressive nobilities, and so 
 prepared them for the notion of equality before the 
 law ; they had substituted the rule of one for that of 
 many masters ; they had directed men's gaze beyond 
 the limited horizon of their own parochial interests, and 
 prepared the way for a wider conception of nationality ; 
 and, not least, they had, unintentionally but none the 
 less effectually, proved that, with all the best intentions 
 in the world, irresponsible rule was not compatible with 
 the real best interests of the state. The place of the 
 tyrants in Greek history is much the same as that of 
 Henry II. and Henry VII. in our own. The first Plan- 
 tagenet and the first Tudor were neither usurpers nor 
 demagogues. But they resembled the tyrants in essen- 
 tial features. Each succeeded and effectually closed 
 
 a period of aristocratic anarchy, and each gave en- 
 couragement to a wider conception of nationality. They 
 both, so to speak, knocked the nobles' heads together 
 and put them under the heel of one common master, 
 the Tudors being especially successful in this because 
 the internecine madness of the Wars of the Eoses had 
 so completely weakened aristocratic resistance to their 
 will. But, if the tyrants had done much, they were 
 an incentive to men to do more. Before the next step 
 could be taken, the tyrants themselves, bag and bag- 
 gage, had to be removed, just as in England the Civil 
 War and the Revolution were needed to remove the 
 Stuart heirs of the Tudors before the i^ath could be 
 clear for Constitutional freedom. 
 
CHArTEK XII 
 
 THE LAW(UVKRS 
 
 It would be a mistake to suppose that during the Age 
 of the Tyrants (about 700 500 b.c), the Greek states were 
 Tyrants entirely at the mercy of the mere whims and 
 uphold law. eaprices of those irresponsible rulers. True, 
 the Tyrants hedged themselves round with bodyguards 
 and lived in fortified citadels. But, though in most cases 
 they put themselves above the law, they did not abolish 
 the law. Many of the states had enjoyed or were still 
 enjoying the advantage of excellent codes given them 
 by patriotic and statesmanUke lawgivers, and others 
 had borrowed from them. So far from abolishing these 
 laws, one of the good points of the tyrants was that 
 they gave them the support of their " mailed lists,'* and 
 enforced respect for them on all alike. 80 Peisis- 
 tratus in Athens came down one day from his rock- 
 castle to stand his trial in the public courts, and 
 used his power to make the restless and independent 
 Athenians learn to obey and reverence the majesty of 
 the Law. And there had been lawgivers in Greece 
 even before Solon. 
 
 Now everybody knows that laws are very dull things 
 to read about, unless you happen to be a lawyer, in 
 which case the study has its solid compensations. So I 
 shall not ask you to burden your memory with a heap 
 of legal detail But some of these lawgivers cannot 
 
 188 
 
 THE LAWGIVERS 
 
 189 
 
 possibly be left altogether without mention. Laws are 
 duller than wars, but the world owes them more. 
 
 Sparta never was ruled by a tyrant. All through the 
 Age of tlie Tyrants, and long after, its constitution con- 
 tinued the same as it had been since the days Constitution 
 of the great Dorian conquest. The form of o^sparta. 
 government was practically what we find existing in the 
 times described in the Homeric poems. In other words, 
 it consisted of King, Elders and People, much the same 
 as the modern King, Lords and Commons. Only in 
 Sparta there were two local variations in the system, 
 There were two equal joint kings instead of one, and 
 there was an inner executive council of five men called 
 Ephors or Overseers, who in many respects controlled 
 even the kings and practically wielded the supreme 
 power. There again we are reminded a little of our 
 cabinet system. 
 
 Now the Spartans themselves and the rest of the 
 world ascribed the Spartan constitution and ^ 
 
 •■ Lycurgus. 
 
 all the Spartan laws on every subject to Lycur- — _ 
 
 gus. Some historians think this is an exaggeration and 
 gives too much credit to one man, while others go even 
 further and declare that the laws grew up gradually, 
 and that Lycurgus is merely a myth. But here is 
 what people in the old days said. Lycurgus lived early 
 in the ninth century B.C., about 880, and was the uncle 
 and guardian of an infant king of Sparta. Being 
 suspected of ambitious designs — regents often are am- 
 bitious — he left Sparta and travelled in Asia Minor, 
 Crete, Spain, Egypt, and even India. Meanwhile things 
 went wrong at home and when he at last returned he 
 was hailed as the one man who could save the state and 
 cure all its diseases. On his journeys he had kept his 
 eyes and ears open, and perhaps even kept a note-book, 
 and he came back brim-full of knowledge and wisdom, 
 
190 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 THE LAWGIVERS 
 
 191 
 
 ri 
 
 his own views matured from seeing both the good and 
 bad points in the Laws of the countries he had visited. 
 
 His laws would fill many pages. The important 
 thing to remember is that they one and all, directly or 
 Sparta a indirectly, aimed at one single object, military - 
 camp. efficiency. That is Spartan legislation in a 
 
 nutshell. Sparta was not a centre of commerce like 
 London, nor a home of art like Paris ; it was a camp, 
 and all the men in it were soldiers. A Spartan king 
 once boasted that Sparta had no need of walls, *' for," 
 said he, ** every man is a brick." To the end of its 
 history it remained unfortified. The city lived like an 
 army in the field, with sentinels on duty, ready for 
 any alarm. No walls, no fine buildings. The Dorians 
 had had a hard task to conquer Laconia, they had 
 treated their beaten foes very harshly, they felt them- 
 selves to be unpopular, and so regarded themselves and 
 behaved like an army of occupation in a hostile country. 
 Instead of mixing with the conquered Achaeans, they 
 held aloof. It was therefore of vital importance to keep 
 up their numbers and to keep themselves in a high state 
 /of military efficiency. Every Spartan was bound by 
 law to marry and give citizens to the state. Lycurgus 
 had no use for bachelors. The wife must be well 
 selected. A Spartan king was fined for marrying a 
 short wife whose children might be expected to be of an 
 unroyal stature. There were privileges for the father 
 of three, and still more for the father of four children. 
 Every day there were military exercises. Every moment 
 of life was permeated by military discipline. A man 
 was too busy with camp duties to be much with his wife 
 and children. Not even at meals was the father at 
 home. The whole male population was divided into 
 *' Messes," and the men sat at table in groups of fifteen. 
 Vacancies at a table were filled by co-optation, and one 
 
 I 
 
 black ball disqualified a candidate. Everything was 
 done to train the Spartans in the notion that they were 
 all brothers and children of one common mother, the 
 state. They were to be soldiers and nothing else. 
 Trade and agriculture were discountenanced. The arts 
 were totally neglected. Whereas we consider that the 
 state exists for the benefit of the individual, the Spartan 
 view was that the individual existed solely for the state. 
 
 Now without going so far as to deny the existence 
 of Lycurgus, it may be suggested that tradition claims 
 too much for him. A great many of the laws piace of 
 and customs of Sparta were common to other ^yc^rgus. 
 Dorian states, such as Crete, and were probably part of 
 an ancient prehistoric heritage of the whole conquering 
 race. The work of the legislator, whatever his name 
 and date, was more probably limited to a systematic 
 arrangement of customs and laws and adaptation of 
 them to local conditions and aims. Criticism may go 
 too far in obliterating individuals. It were almost as 
 great a pity to lose Lycurgus as to deny the Hebrews 
 their Moses. 
 
 Two centuries later (G60 b.c.) Zaleucus gave laws to 
 the Epizephyrian Locrians in southern Italy. They 
 were mostly based on the Dorian laws of _ , 
 
 • 1 1 Ai Zaleucus. 
 
 Sparta and Crete, but were said to be the 
 
 first written code possessed by a Greek city. Like all 
 
 early laws, they were severe, but another peculiarity of 
 
 these was that for the first time definite penalties were 
 
 attached to stated offences. The intending law-breaker, 
 
 therefore, knew exactly the risk he ran, just as nowadays 
 
 there are definite penalties for making a false return of 
 
 income, or for exceeding the speed limit in a motor-car. 
 
 Two anecdotes are related of Zaleucus. His son having, 
 
 owing to a certain offence, become liable to the loss of 
 
 his eyes, Zaleucus voluntarily sacrificed one of his own 
 
192 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 / 
 
 so that his son might not be totally blind. The other 
 story relates to the manner of his death. He had 
 made a law that no one might enter the senate house 
 armed, under penalty of death. In a time of riot he 
 inadvertently broke this law, and when some punctilious 
 friend pointed out the fact to him, he fell on his own 
 sword and died, exclaiming that the law must be obeyed. 
 A generation later again (G21 b.c.) Draco drew up 
 his celebrated code for Athens. It was so severe that 
 the punning criticism went about that the 
 ^'^^^' laws were those of a dragon (Greek ^puKiov) 
 
 not a man. It was also said that they were written 
 not in ink but in blood. To this day we still use the 
 term *' Draconian" in the sense of *' severe." The 
 whimsical peculiarity of this code was that there was 
 one unvarying penalty for every offence— death. On 
 being asked why this was so, Draco simply replied that 
 the smallest offences mentioned in the code deserved 
 that penalty, and that he had been unable to devise a 
 severer one for the graver faults. It is scarcely credible 
 that such laws were really in force in Athens in the 
 seventh century, though we must remember that even 
 in Christian England, so late as the nineteenth century, 
 a man was hanged for stealing a sheep. The drawback 
 of such a law is obvious. Draco's code was, of course, 
 too primitive and indiscriminating to last long, and, 
 with advancing civilization, it soon fell into disuse. 
 
 Its place was taken by the more humane and 
 elaborate enactments of Solon (594). Solon was a 
 contemporary of the Tyrants Periander and 
 ^^^^' Peisistratus, the milHonaire king Croesus, the 
 
 prophet Jeremiah, the philosopher Pythagoras, the royal 
 orcranizer of Eome Servius Tullius, and Aesop the writer 
 of\bles. During his lifetime great Nineveh fell never 
 to rise again, and Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem. 
 
 THE LAWGIVERS 
 
 193 
 
 He appeals to the popular imagination chiefly by his 
 being one of the Seven Sages, by his feigned madness 
 and rescue of the island of Salamis, and by the now 
 discredited story of his conversation with king Croesus. 
 But his importance to Athens rested on more solid 
 grounds. 
 
 As we saw when dealing with Peisistratus, Attica 
 was unsettled by the quarrels of the three rival factions 
 of the Plain, the Shore, and the Mountain. Debt and 
 What with liability to raids and general discontent, 
 insecurity and unrest, trade was bad. The poorer folk 
 suffered reverses, and lost what little they had. They 
 had to borrow. Pay-day came when the bills fell due, 
 and they could find the wherewithal nowhere ; and in 
 obedience to the harsh laws of debt then existing the 
 debtor's land and family and person successively 
 became the property of his creditors. Everywhere was 
 misery, and with it rose a spirit of rebellion which was 
 dangerous to the state. 
 
 Nothing imperils the security of a country more 
 than the existence of a large ill-treated and discontented 
 class. It vents itself in strikes and, in soion's 
 extreme cases, in revolutions. But the upper remedy, 
 and well-to-do classes, who, being alarmed at an 
 occasional escape of steam, had resolved to sit firmly 
 down on the safety-valve, with the deluded notion that 
 all that was required to check pressure from below was 
 more repression from above, began to suspect that all 
 was not well in their theory, and before it was too late, 
 asked Solon's advice. He was a poet and a patriot, a 
 member of the ruling class but beloved and respected 
 by the masses, possessing both resolution and sympa- 
 thetic imagination. He promptly dragged the governing 
 class from their perilous position, and reduced the 
 seething discontent by uncompromising measures of 
 
 o 
 
194 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 relief It is hardly likely that he altogether cancelled 
 all existing debts, ^hich step ^^ould have been very 
 unfair to creditors. But he cancelled all bonds by 
 xvhich the debtor's land or family or person became the 
 property of the creditor, and made it legaUy impossible 
 in future to enter into any such contract. The mortgage- 
 pillars disappeared from the land, where once more 
 families, which if poor were at least free and hopeful, 
 took the place of dispirited and rebellious serfs. ^ 
 
 The country breathed again. It had been given a 
 fresh start in life. No doubt, some creditors were hard 
 hit But the general advantage so far out- 
 SoWs new ^^^^^^^ ^^^ inconvenience of a few, that by 
 stitution. general consent Solon was pressed to under- 
 take a reorganization of the whole constitution. Not 
 to eo into too much detail, he re-divided the entire 
 population on a new principle. The people were dis- 
 tributed in four classes, with no regard to ^i^th or 
 occupation, but solely according to their income, ihe 
 first three classes were liable to a graduated mcome-tax, 
 the lowest class paid no direct taxes at all, but all were 
 of course subject to indirect taxes. This principle was 
 called Timocratic (Greek r^iu// = value or assessment). 
 Solon also created a Council of four hundred members, 
 elected from the larger general assembly of citizens, to 
 
 act as a committee for it. -r. • i 
 
 He laid down several beneficial rules. For instance, 
 in any time of serious national dissension, any man 
 Some new who did not make up his mind and take a 
 laws. side was to lose his property and citizen- 
 
 rights A thief when convicted was to restore double 
 th°e value stolen. Every father was bound by law to 
 teach his son a trade. If he failed in this duty, his son 
 was exempted from any legal obligation to assist him m 
 his old age. The calendar was revised and put right as 
 
 THE LAWGIVERS 
 
 195 
 
 far as the state of science at the time allowed. Finally, 
 Solon caused all his enactments to be inscribed on 
 wooden rollers and boards, and exhibited in a public 
 place so that all who cared might read. 
 
 It is easy to see what a practical business-like mind 
 was Solon's. He liked the administration of the law to 
 be straightforward and above board, so that every one 
 knew where he was and could appeal against injustice. 
 He saw that a country cannot ijrosper economically if 
 it is clogged with loafers who know no trade and can be 
 efficient at nothing, and serve only to swell the ranks of 
 the unemployed, who very soon become the unemploy- 
 ables. The same truth was realized again in the middle 
 ages, and gave rise to guilds and compulsory apprentice- 
 ship. Li politics Solon could not abide the ''mug- 
 wumps," who stand aside while others fight it out, and 
 then, whichever side wins, comi^lain that it is the 
 wrong one. He wanted to force all men to take an 
 interest in the politics of their country, and to think 
 questions out for themselves. 
 
 But Athens could not stand still. Solon's constitu- 
 tion was only transitional, and the progress must 
 continue. Once set rolling, the democratic 
 ball is not to be checked but gathers pace as ^^®^^*^®^®^- 
 it goes. Eighty-five years later (509 b.c), the year of 
 the birth of the Eepublic in Eome under the auspices 
 of Brutus, Cleisthenes added his quota of reform to the 
 constitution, and made Athens a complete democracy. 
 So soon as the Tyrant Hippias was gone, the nobles 
 were at their old tricks again. Cleisthenes, himself one 
 of them, championed the cause of the people, but 
 instead of making them suit his purj)oses he served 
 theirs. As Herodotus says, **He took the people 
 into partnership." A tyrant exploited the people 
 for the benefit of *' number one" first; but this 
 
 
19G 
 
 THE ANCIENT "WORLD 
 
 * - 
 
 6 
 
 was a profit-sharing venture with Cleisthenes as 
 
 manager. . 
 
 There is no need for much detail. The mam object 
 
 which he set himself was to break once for all the 
 
 power of the nobles. Then, as now, the 
 
 fan'downing nobles, who Were great landowners, wielded 
 
 nobility enormous influence, social and political, by 
 
 Tlffllf fill 4 1 • J. * i_ 
 
 their possession of great estates. A district, 
 even a whole tribe, would follow the lead of the local 
 territorial magnates. Cleisthenes once for all broke 
 this local influence. He abolished the four tribes of 
 Attica, which were somewhat like clans, and re-divided 
 the entire population, including new settlers, into ten 
 new tribes, which had no connexion whatever with 
 clans or any historical association. Each of these ten 
 tribes was in its turn sub-divided into ten parishes. 
 But now mark the ingenuity of the man. The ten 
 parishes of one tribe were not contiguous ; for in that 
 case, the old evil of local infiuence and leadership would 
 have raised its head again. No, the ten parishes com- 
 posing each of the new tribes were carefully scattered 
 up and down the country, so that no two were neigh- 
 bours. Each parish was thus surrounded by parishes 
 belonging to other tribes, with other interests. Thus 
 local "combination was prevented, and the influence of 
 the local magnate was undermined. 
 
 The parishes of the same tribe wishing to transact 
 business with one another were compelled to do so at 
 One capital Athens. Athens was now the only common 
 —Athens, centre. It became the real social, political, 
 rehgious, and commercial capital of the land. Besides 
 breaking up petty local patriotism it magnified the 
 importance of the common centre. The Acropolis took 
 the place of the village pump as the centre of the 
 national life 
 
 THE • LAWGIVERS 
 
 197 
 
 Many more changes were made by successive states- 
 men, as for instance, Pericles, before Athens became a 
 tborough-going out-and-out democracy. But Democracy 
 tbe parocbial ring-fences were down, and the con^piete. 
 social walls were breached ; and Athens had started on 
 its brilliant career — short-lived physically, but exercising 
 its mental and moral sway to our own day. 
 
 In the West, too, the republican stage of development 
 was reached, and by similar steps. After all, Italy is 
 not so very far removed from Greece geo- 
 graphically—there is only the Ionian sea to f^^r 
 separate them — and we have already seen develop- 
 how, when the Aryans invaded Greece, or ^^^ ' 
 soon after, another wave of the same invasion swept 
 down into Italy. The inhabitants of the two neighbour- 
 peninsulas were themselves not merely neighbours but 
 near relatives. And politically, as might have been 
 expected, the course of progress on the two sides of the 
 dividing sea, was very similar. 
 
 Rome, like Athens, tired of her kings of the primitive 
 Homeric type and shook them off, exchanging their rule 
 for a republic. But it must not be supposed 
 that the form of government was all at once succeeded 
 changed from a partially Hmited monarchy ^^ ^}j" 
 to a fully developed democracy. The ex- 
 pulsion of the kings {licgifughim) was a revolution 
 brought about, not by the people, but by the nobles, and 
 these, when once the monarch, who was exalted high 
 above all and claimed equal obedience from all alike, 
 was removed, assumed the reins of government, and 
 freely indulged the domineering instinct which had till 
 then been kept in check by the overshadowing authority 
 of the throne. It was not a democracy but an oligarchy 
 which now had the control of affairs ; the people had 
 exchanged the rule of one for that of many masters, 
 
198 
 
 THE ANCIENT AVORLD 
 
 and from the people's point of view, it was not a change 
 for the hettar. As in England, during the practical 
 abeyance of the royal authority under Stephen, and 
 during the reigns of other weak kings, the commons 
 were oppressed by the "barons," so the people of Borne 
 found that the abolition of the monarchy left them 
 exposed to the tyranny and greed of a wealthy and arro- 
 gant nobility who now recognized no master. 
 
 The result was the struggle between the Patricians 
 and the Plebeians, which continued for two centuries and 
 Patricians ^^ familiar to all readers of Roman history, 
 and To put the whole matter in a nutshell, the 
 
 e eians. l^atricians were those who had been first on 
 the spot to peg out their claims in the rising state, and 
 had got their names on the register of the new society 
 before the lists were for ever closed. They owned the 
 land, and, on the strength of this ownership, claimed 
 to own the people too, and to keep the government to 
 themselves as their undisputed monopoly. The Plebeians, 
 who were the late-comers, and whom the Patricians 
 affected to regard as supernumeraries and ** outsiders,'* 
 realizing that they outnumbered the exclusive aristo- 
 crats, and doing most of the work of the community 
 were an indispensable portion of it, claimed their fair 
 share of rights and opportunities. 
 
 By the very modern device of a general strike, 
 threatening to emigrate and found a new state of their 
 
 First steps ^^^'"' ^^^^^ obtained the appointment of officers 
 towards called ** Tribunes," who should be their own 
 eqnahty. special protectors against unjust treatment by 
 their rulers (494 b.c). This was a step in the right 
 direction, but it was merely negative and defensive. 
 Something more positive and active was needed. 
 Twenty-three years later (471 b.c.) they possessed their 
 own recognized assembly. That, too, was something. 
 
 THE LAWGIVERS 
 
 199 
 
 They were getting on. But still a further step must be 
 taken before the people could be free ; and this chapter 
 would be incomplete without some account of it, how- 
 ever brief, although it should lead us on somewhat in 
 advance of the point reached in the history of Greece 
 and the East. 
 
 As in Greece, so in Rome, the state had to pass 
 through the intermediate stage of *' Tyranny," before it 
 could complete the transition from Oligarchy The Twelve 
 to Democracy. The wished-for opportunity tables, 
 came. After strenuous agitation on the part of a tribune 
 called Arsa, the Patricians were finally forced to con- 
 sent to the popular demand that the law of the land 
 should be fixed and plainly written down for all to read 
 and know. Mark the procedure. Envoys were sent to 
 Athens, and other Greek states, both in Greece and in 
 southern Italy, to investigate and report. On their 
 return, with abundance of materials and ideas, a Com- 
 mission of Ten was appointed to consider and draw up 
 the new code. The laws (451 b.c.) were duly formulated 
 in beautifully clear and terse language and painted or 
 carved on ten tables of wood, which were erected in a 
 prominent place in the Forum. In the following year 
 (450) two more tables were added, thus completing the 
 code, which has been known ever since as the Law of 
 the Twelve Tables. Many of the statutes were simply 
 translations of the laws of Solon. The Tables were 
 short, because very much of the common law of Rome 
 was tal\en for granted and so not even mentioned. 
 They were destroyed, it appears, by the Gauls (390 b.c), 
 but immediately afterwards restored, and contained the 
 "Great Charter" of Rome and the foundation-rock of 
 all Roman Law. Without going into details, it may be 
 said that the laws were of the hard-and-fast type, 
 admitting no exceptions, and that, like all early codes, 
 
200 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 they were singularly free from any resemblance to the 
 "milk of human kindness." But, at any rate, offences 
 were defined and penalties fixed, and the law was now 
 the same for all — beyond question no small gain. 
 
 But now for the all-important event hinted at above, 
 by which the democracy was completed. While the 
 "Tyranny" Commission of Ten (called *' the Decemvirs ") 
 of Appius were sitting for the purpose of drawing up 
 Claudius. ^j^^ Great Charter, all the ordinary magi- 
 stracies and forms of government were suspended. The 
 Ten were making the law and were also administering 
 it. Now it is clear that the fixing and writing out of 
 the law was a severe blow to the privileged governing 
 class of the Patricians, who till then had interpreted 
 and administered unchecked an unwritten law to suit 
 their own advantage. Though himself a Patrician, 
 Appius Claudius, the chief of the Ten, had clearly con- 
 stituted himself a champion of the people, against the 
 more uncompromising majority of his own class.* It 
 was the story of the *' Tyrant " once more. Once firmly 
 seated, he began to abuse his power, over which there 
 was now no check of tribune or other magistrate. The 
 temptations of unlimited power had once more proved 
 too strong for human nature. 
 
 But the end came quickly. Lust and violence pre- 
 cipitated his downfall. He claimed Virginia as a sacri- 
 fice to his unlawful passion ; her father in 
 despair slew her, cutting short her life to save 
 her honour, and the people in furious indignation rose in 
 a mass, flew to arms, and drove out Appius and the rest 
 of the Ten into ignominious exile. 
 
 Then, once again, by a general strike they wrested 
 froln the Patrician council concessions which set the 
 seal on their liberty. The Tribunes were restored 
 
 * See Mommscn's " History of Home," vol, I. 
 
 Virginia. 
 
 THE LAWGIVEKS 
 
 201 
 
 and the resolutions of the people in their own assembly 
 were now to be binding on the whole com- lex Valeria 
 munity and constitute the law of the land Horatia, 
 (449 B.C. Lex Valeria Horatia). ^^^ ^•^• 
 
 Thus, while in point of time lagging a little behind 
 the Athenian democracy, and owing not a little tj its 
 teaching and example, in Eome, too, a strong and 
 resolute republic was starting on its fateful career. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE UNCHANGING EAST 
 
 1300-500 (B.C.) 
 
 It is the fashion to say that the East is ** stationary.'* 
 This chapter may perhaps serve as a commentary on 
 this fallacy. 
 
 When Inst we glanced at China, it was heing ruled 
 hy emperors of the Shang, or Yin, Dynasty, who were 
 China • ^^^^ exceedingly husy resisting the encroach- 
 
 miiitary ments of the Hiung-nu, prohahly the Huns, 
 duchies. rjijjg better to repel these intruders, military 
 duchies were estahlished along the frontier, the most 
 distinguished of which was the Duchy of Chou. A great 
 Duke of Chou, Won-wang, won fame hy daring to 
 rehuke his sovereign to his face, for which his master's 
 offended majesty cast him into prison, and by composing 
 in his cell a book (the I-King) which is reputed the 
 oldest existing piece of Chinese literature. His son, 
 Chou Wu-wang, achieved still greater success in 
 
 dynasty. g^ fj^j. j^ore comfortable way by raising him- 
 self to the imperial throne and founding the illustrious 
 Chou dynasty which ruled China uninterruptedly for 
 nearly nine hundred years, to 249 b.c. 
 
 Under his organization, China somewhat resembled 
 The.Ceies- the German Empire. The several states, each 
 tiai Empire, ruled by a noble of importance, were federated 
 under a liege-lord styled "The Sen of Heaven," and 
 
 202 
 
 THE UNCHANGING EAST 
 
 203 
 
 the whole confederation bore the name of the " Celestial 
 Empire." The laws were most rigid, and claimed to 
 regulate not only public conduct but even every detail 
 of private life. With the advent of this dynasty (1122 
 B.C.) we are on the solid ground of authentic history. 
 The line comprised in all thirty-five sovereigns. One of 
 them, Mu-wang, in the tenth century b.c, carried the 
 Celestial standards into the far West and made the 
 **Dog Barbarians," probably the Huns, feel the weight 
 of his strong arm. The good work was continued in 
 the ninth and eighth centuries. 
 
 In the reign of Yu-wang, a monarch noted for his 
 lasciviousness, occurred a solar eclipse, which was care- 
 fully recorded. The event has been fixed as Eclipse of 
 happening on August 29, 776 b.c, and is, of '^'^^ ^^' 
 course, most useful as a landmark in Chinese chronology. 
 The reader will not need to be reminded in passing that 
 776 B.C. was the first year of the first Olympiad which 
 marked the beginning of dated history in Greece. 
 
 In the course of the seventh century b.c, the Chinese 
 Emperor's authority gradually waned, till he was merely 
 the nominal head of the confederation of Disruption 
 states. The binding cement was loosened of the 
 more and more till the unwieldy empire °^p^^®* 
 became a collection of separate and rival kingdoms. 
 Five of these stood out pre-eminently above the rest, 
 and for the next few centuries took it in turns to possess 
 a temporary hegemony. China at that time was not 
 very much unlike Saxon England, broken up into 
 numerous kingdoms over which Mercia, Northumbria, 
 or Wessex, at different times exercised a more or less 
 acknowledged supremacy. 
 
 But a far more interesting event for after years than 
 these rivalries was the appearance on the scene of 
 Confucius (Kung Futze, 551-178 b.c). Confucius, the 
 
204 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 THE UNCHANGING EAST 
 
 205 
 
 / 
 
 eleventh child and second son of Shuh-liang-Heih, who 
 was over seventy at the time of the hoy*s birth, was 
 
 Confucius ^^^^ ^^ *^^^ state of Lu, a part of the modern 
 Shantung, in troublous times. He very 
 early gave signs of devotion to music and antiquarian 
 learning. As soon as he was old enough to reflect on 
 what he saw around him, he realized that the times 
 were out of joint, and that there was ** something rotten 
 in the state " of China. Everywhere was anarchy, social 
 and political. Governors smothered their consciences, 
 subjects forgot their loyalty, and children did not obey 
 their parents. Eespect for law, human or divine, was 
 fast decaying. Accordingly he vowed, and never swerved 
 from his purpose, to make it his life's work to reform 
 and save his country. He could boast of a long and 
 illustrious descent from the ancient Shang dynasty, but 
 was born and died poor. 
 
 Once or twice he held high office, but more often 
 refused it, and always sacrificed his purse to his con- 
 Hi8 prin- science. He never laid any claim to any 
 cipies. divine mission or dmne inspiration, but did 
 
 claim to have studied and thought deeply on the past, 
 and to have found the secret of good government and 
 happiness for state and individual. He had no wish to 
 sit on a throne, but to stand behind it, no wish to hold 
 a sceptre, but to hold the hand that held it. He used 
 to boast that if only he could induce a ruler to submit 
 to his direction for a year, he would achieve much, and 
 if the year were extended to three, then his highest 
 hopes for the world would be realized. But the experi- 
 ment was never tried. Most of his life was spent in 
 wanderings, in which a chosen body of disciples 
 accompanied him, in the search for a ruler who would 
 give his doctrines a chance. But it was in vain, and 
 he died unrecognized and disappointed; and yet the 
 
 extraordinary reverence paid to his memory began 
 almost immediately after his death. 
 
 If we had to summarize this remarkable character 
 very briefly, we might say that he looked back rather 
 than forward. True, he had hope; he believed His cha- 
 in the fundamental goodness of human nature. ^*cter. 
 But his hopes were pinned to the past. He was the 
 high-priest of conservatism. He believed regeneration 
 could come only by a return to the good examples of 
 bygone ages. He left practically no writings of his 
 own, though he loved literature, and made some in- 
 valuable collections of ancient writings, which he was 
 the means of preserving for after-generations. What 
 little writing there is ascribed to his pen is disappointing. 
 He had a firm belief in the potency of example and 
 constant and searching introspection, and his fame 
 must rest chiefly, if not entirely, on the story His 
 of his life and his recorded sayings. One sayings, 
 day, when in exile, he saw on a lonely hillside a poor 
 woman wailing over a grave, and inquired the cause of 
 her grief. The woman's husband, her husband's father, 
 and her son had all been killed by a tiger on that spot. 
 When asked why she did not leave the fatal spot, she 
 replied that in that district there was no oppressive 
 government. Turning to his followers, he bade them 
 remember the lesson, that oppressive government was 
 more cruel and more to be feared than a tiger. The 
 story is an instructive side-light on the character of 
 contemporary government in parts of China. He was 
 too unselfish and sympathetic to have any belief in the 
 monastic idea. It was impossible for a man, he said, 
 to withdraw from the world and keep company with 
 birds and beasts. His proper associates were suffering 
 men; his efforts should be devoted to healing the 
 world's disorders. Other sayings of the sage were : 
 
206 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 " What the superior man seeks is in himself.'* 
 
 "Learning, undigested by thought, is labour lost: 
 thought unassisted by learning, is perilous." How often 
 forgotten and how necessary a truth for the world at 
 this day ! 
 
 He was eminently practical. He thought there was 
 not much to be gained by exercising the mind and 
 spending its energy on questions too difficult to solve. 
 His concern was with the present world. The other he 
 left to take care of itself. On ancestor-worship and 
 immortality he kept his own counsel. Wisdom he 
 defined as giving oneself earnestly to the duties due 
 to men ; and argued that until we know life, we cannot 
 know anything about death. But perhaps the most 
 famous and most fruitful of his sayings was the Golden 
 Eule, ** Whatever you do not like done to yourself, do 
 not do it to others." 
 
 His doctrines constitute what we should call a 
 philosophy rather than a ** religion." But no single 
 man has exercised a greater and more lasting influence 
 on China than its honoured sage Confucius. 
 
 Coming a little nearer home, what do we find in 
 India ? The Aryan invaders on settling down in their 
 India ^^^ conquests had developed an elaborate 
 
 The division into castes. In Delhi and the 
 
 Brahmans. ^Quj^j^j-y round the Brahmans— that is, the 
 priestly caste — had grown into a compact, well-organized, 
 highly educated, and powerful body, arrogating to itself 
 the right to dictate rules of life and belief to all their 
 brother Aryans. 
 
 For centuries this kind of Papal claim passed un- 
 challenged. But at thetimewhenConfuciuswas 
 ^ ^ *■ making his protest against corrupt govern- 
 ment in China, a great religious revolt was being in- 
 augurated in India by Gautama Buddha. The two men 
 
 THE UNCHANGING EAST 
 
 207 
 
 were probably almost exact contemporaries. Besides 
 being divided into four great castes of Priests, Warriors, 
 Husbandmen, and Labourers, the Aryans of India were 
 broken up into a large number of small states, each 
 ruled by its own petty Eaja. At Kapilavastu, north of 
 Benares, there reigned one of these Rajas, His birth 
 Suddhodana, over the tribe of Sakyas. After ^^^ ^*°^®- 
 many long years of waiting and disappointment, he at 
 last became the father of a son, whom he called Sidd- 
 hartha — the name Gautama was the family name, and 
 Buddha is not a name, but an adjective meaning ** En- 
 lightened." He was married at the age of nineteen to 
 Yasodhara, and had a son Rahula. At first he enjoyed 
 the ease and luxury to which his rank and wealth 
 entitled him. But ten years later, the sights His 
 he saw in the world around of old age, misery, "^i^stry. 
 and disease, so deeply stirred his kindly feelings that 
 after a severe struggle with his own soul he resolved 
 to abandon rank, wealth, pleasure, father, wife, child, 
 home, everything, in order to go out among his fellow- 
 men and teach them the way of deliverance and happi- 
 ness. He on two great occasions at least experienced in 
 his own person the power of temptation, and though he 
 successfully resisted it and came out of the ordeal 
 strengthened and ** enlightened," he realized that there 
 were probably many who might not be so fortunate. 
 He therefore resolved to go out and instruct them. He 
 broke all the ties that bound him to earth, and for the 
 rest of his life was a penniless wandering missionary, 
 living on alms, and imposing a like rule on his disciples, 
 whom he addressed as " Beloved mendicants." 
 
 It would be impossible in these pages to enter into a 
 full description or discussion of Buddhism or of the 
 recorded life of Buddha. His own conception of his 
 mission was to establish the kingdom of righteousness 
 
208 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 Nirvana. 
 
 upon the cartli, to give light to them that sit in darkness, 
 and open the gate of immortaHty to all men. There 
 Buddhism ^^ ^ curious ring as of the New Testament 
 and Chris- in tliose Sentences. It is not uncommon to 
 tiamty. Iiqq^^ comparison made hetween Buddhism 
 and Christianity, with laying of emphasis on their 
 points of resemblance. But reflexion will reveal an 
 essential inferiority in the older creed. Pat quite 
 briefly, Buddha's doctrine was that existence is always 
 necessarily accompanied by misery — everything which 
 exists is liable to sorrow and decay ; that man is kept 
 chained down to the material world by the moral evil of 
 his own heart, evil thoughts and desires; that the only 
 road to happiness is by breaking this chain by the de- 
 struction of evil desires through Nirvana (i.e. 
 Extinction). The convert must get rid of all 
 impure desires, all revengeful feelings, all ignorance, 
 doubt and unkindliness. Salvation is to be attained not 
 by hard work and study, nor by mortification of tlie 
 body, but the mind must be purified. Be pure, was the 
 rule, and when once you arc pure, your eyes will be 
 opened and you will know all. The supreme crown of 
 perfection was a feeling of love towards all men. The 
 achievement of this ideal was the achievement of 
 Nirvana (Extinction). In the religion of Buddha, there 
 was no need of priests. Every man must work out his 
 own salvation by his own sincere efforts. And the end 
 was Extinction. There was no soul distinct from the 
 perishable parts of man, and no after-life of happiness 
 to be enjoyed. 
 
 Thus Buddha taught in the country round Benares, 
 and gradually formed a body of disciples, an order of 
 mendicants, who renounced all worldly goods. Their 
 rules were self-conquest and poverty. They must beg 
 their meals and eat only sparingly, and only between 
 
 THE UNCHANGING EAST 209 
 
 sunrise and noon. They must live away ''from the 
 madding crowd," in forests, if possible. They must be 
 clothed in the simplest orange-coloured garb, and 
 possess only one change of clothes. The only earthly 
 goods allowed were a suit of clothes, a girdle, an alms- 
 bowl, a razor, a needle, and a water-strainer. 
 
 Numberless stories are told of Buddha's ministry. 
 For forty-five years lie walked up and down and 
 preached, and died apparently of sheer exhaus- sayings of 
 tion at the age of eighty. On his deathbed Buddha, 
 he reminded his disciples that, though he himself might 
 pass away, his words remained with them to guide 
 them, and that if they wished to show respect for his 
 memory they must love one another as they loved him. 
 And on another occasion he said, in describing his 
 gospel, that Faith was the seed. Self-combat the life- 
 nurturing rain, the ties and cares of this world the 
 weeds which had to be destroyed ; Wisdom his plough, 
 guided by Modesty and drawn by Perseverance ; while 
 the field of his labour was the Law, and the harvest 
 that he reaped the never-dying nectar of Nirvana. 
 
 Nirvana! There lies at once the beauty and the 
 blemish of Buddhism. It was not an ''impelling" 
 religion. It said, " Extinguish your inferior 
 nature." But this which should have been ^''^'"'°'- 
 merely a preliminary, a clearing of the ground, was 
 Itself the be-all and the end-all of religion. But before 
 Confucius or Buddha was born, away to the west, in the 
 diminutive country of Palestine, Isaiah and Jeremiah 
 had uttered a far more touching and loftier and more 
 inspiring appeal than either of them for personal con- 
 version and for righteousness founded on loving de- 
 votion. That was a religion with a driving power: 
 Buddhism was self-centred and self-absorbed, and merely 
 negative. 
 
210 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 It would be superfluous to narrate here the events 
 which had occurred in Jewish history after the death of 
 Solomon. The complete and detailed account 
 ThelwT ill the Bible is familiar to all. The kingdom 
 rival king- of David and Solomon had been split into two, 
 ^°°''' Israel and Judah, each with its own rulers. 
 
 They both had a short and chequered career. Judah, 
 the smaller of the two, was ruled throughout its thi-ee 
 and a half centuries by one unbroken dynasty of the 
 line of David ; it had more easily defended frontiers ; it 
 had the capital with the palaces and the great Temple 
 erected by its Solomon the Magnificent. With the 
 exception of a sometimes dormant but never who ly 
 allayed rivalry with its northern partner, its troubles 
 were mainly internal and religious. Israel, on the 
 other hand, ruled by perpetually changing d3iia8ties, 
 and disquieted by recurring usurpations and civil strife, 
 had no acknowledged religious centre, no settled policy, 
 and, worse than all, no secure frontiers. It maintained 
 existence for two centuries only, and during practically 
 all that time it was exposed to invasion, first by Syria, 
 and then by the more formidable Assyria. The vain 
 and reckless Ahab (876-854 b.c), ^v'ith all his faults 
 had an eye for diplomacy. He married the daughter of 
 the King of Sidon, thus securing an ally on the north, 
 while his daughter Athaliah was married to the King of 
 Judah, which union freed him from anxiety on his 
 
 southern frontier. . 
 
 For a time, but it was short, the two kingdoms 
 presented a united front to the common enemy Syria, 
 and all went well. But the excesses of Jezebel and the 
 consequent revolution headed by Jehu made an irre- 
 parable breach between the two kingdoms. Israel was 
 left to face Syria alone, with the inevitable result, 
 incursions and losses. Jehu was conquered and made 
 
 THE UNCHANGING EAST 
 
 211 
 
 Assyria. 
 
 tributary by Shalmaneser II., as is recorded on the 
 ''Black Obelisk," once set up by him at Calah, and now 
 standing in the British Museum. Eor one brief period, 
 at the time when the first walls of Eome were rising on 
 the Palatine, Jeroboam 11. (782-740 b.c.) rolled back the 
 enemy from his doors and made his kingdom as safe 
 and prosperous as it had been in its best days. But 
 it was only a deceptive calm before the real storm. 
 By hitting Syria, Israel had unconsciously done the 
 work and paved the way for a far more redoubtable 
 foe. 
 
 As we have already seen, when Joshua led the 
 Israelites into Canaan, Shalmaneser I., King of Assyria, 
 claimed to represent the mightiest power in 
 Western Asia. He humbled the Hittites and 
 founded Calah (now called Nimriid) on the Tigris not far 
 from Nineveh ; and Assyria stepped into the place lately 
 occupied by Babylonia (c. 1300 b.c). Assyria was nothing 
 if not warlike. Tiglath-Pilessr I. (1120 b.c.) invaded 
 Armenia and Cappadocia, and was a great hunter. The 
 empire, not commercial but purely military, grew apace. 
 Shalmaneser II. (858-824), a contemporary of Ahab, 
 made his capital, Nineveh, an armed camp. Nothing 
 was given a thought except war and all that belonged 
 to it. The Assyrian nation was one great army. How 
 difi'erent from its neighbour Babylon, a nation of priests 
 and traders ! Steel proved stronger than gold, and legions 
 more effective than ledgers ; Babylon was taken and 
 plundered. Then, as appetite still grew with eating, 
 Shalmaneser II. turned his thoughts westward, defeated 
 Ben-hadad II. of Syria (853 b.c.) and his successor 
 Hazael (842 b.c). Jehu also, who slew Jezebel and 
 succeeded Ahab's sons on the throne of Israel, was 
 forced to bring tribute to the Assyrian conqueror. 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser III. (745-727 b.c), called '' Pul, King 
 
212 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOULJ) 
 
 of Assyria" in the Bible,* consolitlated and organized 
 Second *^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ enlarged Assyrian Empire (corn- 
 
 Assyrian monly called the Second Assyrian Empire), 
 °^^^^®' and in 729 b.c. was formally proclaimed in 
 Babylon as the ** Sovereign Lord of Asia," but died two 
 years later. It will be remembered how he was bribed 
 by Ahaz, King of Judah, to make a diversion in his 
 favour by attacking Eezin of Syria and Pekah of 
 Israel, and how Ahaz stripped the Temple at Jerusalem 
 and stooped to base flattery in order to mollify the 
 terrible aggressor. His son Shalmaneser IV. (727-722) 
 invaded Israel and began the siege of Samaria, which 
 End of the ^^^ taken after three years by the next king, 
 kingdom of the usurper, Sargon, who reigned from 722 to 
 705 B.C. The city was destroyed and its in- 
 habitants transplanted in a body to Gozan, in northern 
 Mesopotamia, their places being filled by a medley of 
 people from the eastern dominions of Assyria (722 b.c). 
 Sargon's son, the famous Sennacherib (705-681 b.c), 
 was both a conqueror and a builder. He conquered 
 Senna- Phoenicia and Syria, and defeated the Eg3^p- 
 chenb. tians at Altaku on the Egyptian frontier. 
 
 Then he destroyed Babylon (689 b.c), which had again, 
 as so often, rebelled against its master. Meanwhile he 
 was building himself a magnificent palace, on an un- 
 precedented scale of size and beauty, which has been 
 excavated at Koyunjik, the site of Nineveh. Nineveh 
 became the new capital of the empire, and was a fortified 
 town about three miles long by about one and a half 
 miles broad. Many sculptured panels from Sennacherib's 
 palace may now be seen at the British Museum. Among 
 them is a representation of his siege and capture of 
 Lachish in Palestine. Besides taking Lachish, Senna- 
 cherib, as is well known from the Bible, made two 
 
 * 2 Kings XV. 19 ; 1 Chron. v. 26 ; Isaiah Ixvi. 19. 
 
 THE UNCHANGING EAST 
 
 213 
 
 attempts on Jerusalem. But her time was not yet. 
 On the first occasion he was bought off. The British 
 Museum possesses a six-sided baked clay cylinder in- 
 scribed^ with Sennacherib's account of this ^^^^^ 
 expedition and his dealings with Hezekiah. attack on 
 After beating the Egyptians at Altaku, and ^'''''^^''^^ 
 taking Ekron and making an example of its chief 
 people, he besieged " Hezekiah of Judah " and took 
 forty-six strong cities, besides many smaller ones, from 
 him and made over two hundred thousand prisoners. 
 Hezekiah himself '' like a caged bird " he penned within 
 his royal city of Jerusalem, and was only induced to 
 spare him by payment of an enormous bribe of gold, 
 silver, precious stones, eye-paint, ivory, hides and all 
 manner of goods. 
 
 The second attempt to reduce Jerusalem was a dead 
 failure. 
 
 The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, 
 And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold ; 
 And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, 
 When the blue waves roll nightly on deep Galilee. 
 
 Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, 
 That host with their banners at sunset were seen ; 
 Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, 
 That host on the morrow lay withered and strown. 
 
 For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, 
 And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed ; 
 And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, 
 And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still. 
 
 And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, 
 But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride ; 
 And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, 
 And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf. 
 
 And there lay the rider distorted and pale. 
 With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail ; 
 And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, 
 The lances uplifted, the trumpet unblown. 
 
 Second 
 attack on 
 Jerusalem. 
 
214 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 And tho widows of Asliur arc loud in their wail, 
 And the idols are broke in tho temple of Baal ; 
 And the might of the Gentile, iinsmote hy the sword, 
 Ilath molted like snow in the glance of tho Lord ! * 
 
 Soiinaclieril) went home foiled, and was soon after 
 murdered by bis own sons. Probably the murder was 
 instigated by the priestly caste, for we find his son and 
 successor Esarhaddon (081-007 b.c.) eagerly restoring 
 Babylon, its temples, its images, and its priests. 
 
 He then invaded Egypt. After the Exodus of the 
 Hebrews under Moses and the end of the Nineteenth 
 Egypt : a Dynasty with its world-famous Rameses H. 
 retrospect, r^^^^i ^^^ vacillating ^[erenptah, Egypt was 
 
 ruled by eleven consecutive Pharaohs of the name of 
 Rameses, and an equally obscure twenty-first dynasty, 
 containing no great names. The great days of Egypt 
 were over. True, Shishak L, of the twenty-second 
 dynasty, gave a home to the exile Jeroboam, and made 
 a demonstration against Jerusalem to divert its atten- 
 tion from him while he was establishing his new 
 kingdom of Israel (950 b.c). But Egypt then once 
 more withdrew for a long period, over two centuries, 
 from the stage of international politics. At the end of 
 that time it returned to them. As it had helped Jero- 
 boam to found his new kingdom of Israel, so now, at 
 the close of that kingdom, it lent a hand to its last 
 king, Hoshea, and intriguing with him against Assyria, 
 attracted the attention of that formidable power. 
 Sargon had his eye on the rich prize and invaded the 
 land of the Pharaohs, defeating Shabaka (Sabaco or So) 
 and his Philistine allies at Raphia in 711 b.c. Egyptian 
 history now becomes part of the histories of Assyria 
 and Persia. 
 
 Esarhaddon, Sargon's grandson, invaded Egypt 
 
 ♦ BjTon, " Destruction of Sennacherib." 
 
 THE UNCHANGING EAST 
 
 215 
 
 (074 i^.c.) and took Memphis, and died on his way to 
 crush a revolt there. Assur-bani-pal turned Decline and 
 east and attacked Elam (Persia). But Assyria feUo^f^ 
 was doomed : the days of the great bully were ^^^"** 
 numbered. Once in the days of its strength, Sargon, who 
 took Samaria, had taken captive Deioces, the first king of 
 the Modes; but times had changed, and as the grip of 
 the Ninevite government relaxed, its subjects began to 
 r^olt. The Scythians and Medes came swarming down 
 from the north, and Babylon, so long oppressed, rose in 
 the south under its viceroy Nabo-polassar. Together 
 they drove the Assyrians in. Nineveh was taken 
 (000 B.C.) and razed to the ground, never to lift its 
 head again. Nineveh had been on the east what Sparta 
 was in the west, only more so. It was an armed camp. 
 Its citizens were all soldiers. They lived for war, which 
 they had reduced to an art, and they were never happy 
 without it. They were more aggressive than the Spartans 
 and more powerful, and had become the terror of the 
 world around. But now the vaunted Assyrian Empire 
 was at an end, and Western Asia breathed more freely. 
 It was as though the country-side had been rid of a 
 
 man-eating tiger. 
 
 The place of honour was taken by Nineveh's 
 victorious rival, Babylon, who now took a new lease 
 of life and empire, and under her greatest second 
 monarch Nebuchadnezzar (005-501), son of ^^^^^,7"^ 
 the destroyer of Nineveh, was undisputed Nebuchad- 
 mistress of Western Asia. Judah had ac- ^®"^''' 
 knowledged the suzerainty of Assyria, and now that 
 Josiah had lost his life in its defence at Megiddo and 
 that Assyria itself had been humbled by Babylon, Judah 
 without a murmur at first transferred its allegiance to 
 the new dominant power. But foolish counsels before 
 long prevailed, and, with ridiculous vanity, the tiny 
 
216 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOKLD 
 
 kingdom did not hesitate to throw down the gauntlet 
 to its gigantic neighbour. There could he hut one 
 end to such a conflict. But it did not come at once. 
 Nebuchadnezzar played with Jerusalem as a cat plays 
 with a mouse. First he let loose on it its vindictive 
 End of the neighbours, Syrians and Moabites and what 
 
 Judah°°^ °^ ^^* * *^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ himself with all the might 
 of Babylon, took Jerusalem, carried off her 
 king, and put up another in his place; and, finally, 
 when the idiotic infatuation of Zedekiah induced him 
 once more to rely on the *' bruised reed " Egypt and the 
 support of the Pharaoh Hophra (Apries) to shake off 
 the Babylonian yoke, he hurried to the scene of revolt 
 with an overwhelming force, and settled the matter 
 once for all. The kingdom of Judah ceased to exist. 
 Jerusalem after a siege of eighteen months was levelled 
 with the dust (587 b c), and the inhabitants, like those 
 of Samaria before them (722), were transported in a 
 mass, this time to the neighbourhood of Babylon. The 
 Israelites ceased to exist as a political unit in the 
 eastern world. 
 
 Once more we are forced to reflect how small and 
 closely-knit the world really was even in that remote past. 
 In those days, as in these, there were plenty of free- 
 lances ready to take service in foreign armies, because 
 they were "crossed in love," or "crazed with care," or 
 disappointed in politics, or simply fond of adventure. 
 Nebuchadnezzar, who destroyed Jerusalem and rebuilt 
 Babylon, had among his multifarious troops a brother 
 of the Greek poet Alcaeus, as we know from a fragment 
 of poetry in which he celebrates the warrior's return 
 ho^ie, the proud possessor of an ivory-hilted, gold-inlaid 
 presentation sword. Alcaeus was a contemporary and 
 friendly rival of Sappho, and like her a Lesbian. Now 
 the brothers fought, together with the famous Pittacus, 
 
 THE UNCHANGING EAST 
 
 217 
 
 against the Athenians for the possession of a colony 
 near the site of Troy, and the dispute was settled by 
 the arbitration of Periander, the tyrant of Corinth. 
 Periander, to go a step further west, was the con- 
 temporary of Tarquin the Elder, the fifth King of 
 Bome, and the son of the Corinthian Demaratus, 
 who, being one of the aristocratic Bacchiadae, had fled 
 from Corinth when C3^pselus, Periander's father, became 
 tyrant, and had gone to Etruria, with which Corinth 
 had commercial relations. Alcaeus and his brothers, 
 who were leaders of the aristocratic party in Mytilene, 
 also fought against the local tyrant. But fortune 
 frowned on them, and they fled for refuge to Egypt, 
 where they lived in safety during the reign of the Pha- 
 raoh Necho, who, it will be remembered, fought and slew 
 Josiah, King of Judah, and by whose directions some 
 Phoenician sailors circumnavigated Africa, doubling 
 the Cape of Good Hope twenty centuries before Vasco 
 da Gama ever set eyes on a ship ! 
 
 There must have been very close relations between 
 the ruling families of Corinth and Egypt at this time, 
 for the last tyrant of Corinth, Psammetichus, ^gi^ti^^g 
 who was overthrown in 581 B.C., bore the between 
 name of the Pharaoh (Psammetichus II.), who and^bree^^*' 
 immediately preceded the Hophra (AjDries), 
 who encouraged Zedekiah of Jerusalem to revolt against 
 Nebuchadnezzar. Psammetichus I., founder of the 
 twenty-sixth dynasty (670), was one of the twelve 
 kings who after the death of the usurper Setho, had 
 partitioned Egypt, forming a " Dodecarchy," and, beat- 
 ing his eleven colleagues, had made himself sole king 
 by the help of Ionian and Carian mercenaries — another 
 early link with the Greeks. And so on, from step to 
 step, we o'erleap frontiers azjd " put a girdle round the 
 world," 
 
218 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 THE UNCHANGING EAST 
 
 219 
 
 ' 
 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar, having wiped out Judah, went on 
 Glory of to punish its more important ally ; he con- 
 Babylon, quered Egypt in 567 r.c, and made it part of 
 the Babylonian Empire, which was now at the height of 
 its wealth and glory. 
 
 Babylon became the capital of the eastern world and 
 centre of its commerce and wealth. It gathered to 
 itself 
 
 the gold that flows 
 In the red waters of the furthest east ; 
 The fragrant balm that weeps from glittering trees; 
 The ivory, and the thin and snowy robes 
 Of Egypt ; and the purple merchandize 
 Of Sidon ; and the skins of beasts that far 
 In the dark forests fly the sight of man . . , 
 And slaves of every hue and every age.* 
 
 The great city had trampled all her enemies under 
 foot, and reigned without a rival — 
 
 Ammon's crested pride lay low, 
 And broke was Elam's horned bow ; 
 Damascus heard the ponderous fall 
 Of old Benhadad's palace wall ; 
 The ocean reddened with the fire 
 From the rock-built strengths of Tyre. 
 False was fierce Philistia's trust, 
 Desert !Moab mourns in dust. 
 Lo 1 in chains our Captains bring 
 Haughty Zion's eyeless king. 
 Kcdar's tents are stnick, her bands 
 Scattered o'er her burning sands, 
 And Egypt's Pharaoh quails before 
 The Assyrian Lion's conquering roar.* 
 
 But neither Nebuchadnezzar nor even *' great 
 Babylon *' that he had ** built for the house of the king- 
 The Medes : dom by the might of his power, and for the 
 Cyaxares. honour of his majesty/' could stand for ever. 
 A day of reckoning was coming. The Scythians, aided 
 
 ♦ Milman, " Belshazzar's Feast." 
 
 by the Medes (Manda) and Babylonians, had stamped 
 out Assyria, but when the Babylonians made common 
 cause with such allies they were playing with fire, a 
 proverbially dangerous game. The half-civilized in- 
 vaders from the Iranian hill-country having once tasted 
 loot wanted more. They were only biding their time. 
 Cyaxares, the Median king who had helped to plunder 
 Nineveh, was the first to bring the Medes prominently 
 forward on the stage of history. They were an Iranian 
 race, and branch of that great Aryan family of world- 
 conquerors, inhabiting the mountainous region south 
 of the Caspian Sea, and were alw^ays closely associated 
 with the Persians, who lived between them and the 
 Persian Gulf, and were at the beginning of their career 
 subject to them. 
 
 Cyaxares, after a reign of forty years, was succeeded 
 by Astyages (594) in the very year when Solon was 
 legislating for Athens, and seven years before ^^^ ^ ^^ 
 the fall of Jerusalem, and under his sus- 
 picious rule events took a turn which affected his own 
 throne and the whole of Western Asia up to the edge of 
 the Aegean. 
 
 His kingdom adjoined that of Lydia, and he had 
 married the daughter of the Lydian king Alyattes, and 
 sister, therefore, of Croesus. One night he Birth of 
 was warned in a dream — dreams play a great Cyrus, 
 part in Oriental history — that his daughter, Mandane, 
 who was married to a Persian prince, would have a son 
 who would one day overthrow him. The story of 
 Sargina, of Moses, of Eomulus, once more. As soon as 
 the child was born, his superstitious grandfather gave 
 orders for his destruction, hoping thereby to avert the 
 uncomfortable prophecy. But destiny is not so easily 
 cheated. Harpagus, who had been entrusted with the 
 murder of the infant, had an eye to the future, and, 
 
220 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 instead of doing as he was ordered, gave the chihl over 
 to one of the royal herdsmen. To cut a long story short, 
 this man and his wife kept the chikl and brought him 
 up as their own among the shepherds. 
 
 When ten years old he was playing with other boys 
 of the village, and was chosen by them to play the part 
 His boy- of king. Young Cyrus entered fully into the 
 hood. j,Ajg assigned to him. lie appointed ministers 
 
 and gave orders, as to the manner born. But one of 
 them, the son of a great person, perhaps the local 
 squire, Artembares, felt it beneafch his dignity to obey. 
 Cyrus was equal to the occasion. The recalcitrant 
 aristocrat was incontinently flogged ! Of course, the 
 matter did not end there. The ])oy went blubbering to 
 his father, who in turn comi)lained indignantly to the 
 king. Astyages sent for C'yrus and the herdsman : the 
 boy's face, bearing, speech, and age aroused his sus- 
 picions, which were confirmed by the torture-extracted 
 evidence of tlie peasant and the frank confession of the 
 courtier Ilarpagus. The old man said little : he invited 
 Harpagus to dinner, and the wretched man there ate of 
 his own son, killed and roasted by the king's orders. 
 
 Fortunately for justice, the old tyrant, besides being 
 a brute, was also a fool. He made two bad mistakes, 
 Astyages' one through vindictiveness and the other 
 folly. through superstitious weakness. Tbat dish 
 
 had made Harpagus a deadly enemy for life, and the 
 author of the crime seems never to have thought of it. 
 On the other hand, the priests who had advised him to 
 murder young Cyrus now told him — was it stupidity or 
 had Harpagus bought them ?— that the evil dream had 
 already been unwittingly fulfilled, and that there was 
 nothing more to be feared. He believed them. The 
 trusted friend he had turned into an irreconcilable 
 enemy; the destined enemy he spared, to become the 
 
 THE UNCHANGING EAST 
 
 221 
 
 cause of his downfall. Instead of keeping Cyrus near 
 him and under close though veiled supervision, the 
 king sent him away to his parents, out of his sight, in 
 the distant uplands of Persia. It was the same mistake 
 which our own Piichard II. made with Henry of Boling- 
 broke. Clearly, the gods had blinded him. 
 
 Cyrus grew up to vigorous manhood, and with the 
 connivance and even the aid of Harpagus, who was 
 tliirsting for vengeance, matured his plans for ^j j^^^^j^ 
 rebellion. When all was ready, he summoned a Persian 
 his tribesmen to meet him on a certain '^^° 
 plateau about two miles square, and thickly covered 
 with briars, each man armed with a pruning-hook. On 
 their arrival he ordered them to set to work and clear 
 the ground. This being done, he invited them next day 
 to a generous feast, and when they expressed their 
 appreciation of the contrast between their present 
 occupation and that of the day before, he addressed 
 them thus: '* Men of Persia, this is how the matter 
 stands. Follow me, and you will have these and 
 countless other good things, without any menial labour, 
 liefuse to listen to me and there are endless toils in 
 store for you like that you endured yesterday. There- 
 fore, do what I tell you, and be free men. Providence 
 has marked me out for the task ; and you are a match 
 for the Medes anywhere, including a field of battle. 
 Well, then, lose no time in revolting against Astyages ! " 
 
 The result was not doubtful. With inexplicable folly 
 Astyages gave the chief command to Harpagus, who 
 went over to Cyrus on the field. The king victory of 
 was routed and captured. The Persians were ^J^^^- 
 now the dominant partner in the firm of Medes and 
 Persians, and Cyrus had found out that he was a 
 born general and had imbibed a taste for conquest. 
 h)uch was the birth of the Persian Empire (559 b.c). 
 

 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 It might have been expected that Cyrus would now 
 fall upon his next-door neighbour, the King of Babylon, 
 Lydia: but this was not to be. His next conquest 
 
 Oyges. ^yjj^g Lydia. The known history of Lydia, 
 
 which occupies the central portion of the west of Asia 
 Minor, begins with the usurpation of Gyges, a palace 
 otHcial who murdered his royal master, Candaules, and 
 married his widow. The Delphic oracle, ah'eady famous 
 far-afield, gave him its moral support, and he repaid it 
 with magnilicent ornaments of gold and silver. 
 
 I^kch successive king of Lydia extended its borders 
 and its wealth, till Alyattes came into collision with 
 Cyaxares, the king of the Medes, already mentioned, 
 who helped Nabopolassar, father of Nebuchadnezzar, 
 to destroy Nineveh. A solar eclipse reconciled them, 
 and a diplomatic marriage made them allies. The 
 daughter of Alyattes (and sister of Croesus) married 
 Astyages, the grandfather of Cyrus. 
 
 His throne passed to his son Croesus, whose name 
 has become a by-word for enormous wealth. The 
 
 Lydian kingdom had reached its zenith. 
 
 Croesus, as was inevitable, annexed all the 
 rich Greek cities on the Asia Minor coast, and still 
 further filled his coffers. The islands he wisely let 
 alone. But his wealth was his undoing. A rich man, 
 in a fine house full of treasures, is apt to grow nervous 
 when there are burglars about. So Croesus took alarm 
 at the rise of Persia and its assimilation of his friendly 
 neighbour Media. He determined not to wait to be 
 attacked, but to take the bull by the horns. Delphi 
 told him that, if he fought, he would destroy a mighty 
 empire, and that he need have no fear for himself till 
 a mule reigned over the Persians. The infatuated 
 millionaire was as blind as those Greek oraclemongers 
 were cunning. He fought a drawn battle with Cyrus at 
 
 Croesus. 
 
 THE UNCHANGING EAST 
 
 223 
 
 Pteria, and with incredible idiocy disbanded all his 
 troops for the winter, appointing them a rendezvous in 
 five months' time. Cyrus, with Napoleonic speed, was 
 upon him, Sardis fell, and the kingdom of Lydia had 
 ceased to exist (54G b.c). 
 
 The Greek coast-towns w^ere, of course, swept in and 
 swelled the booty. Cyrus had tried in vain to make 
 them his alUes before, and now they came in The Asiatic 
 tears to beg for his friendship. He laughed, ^^eeks. 
 ** A fisherman," said he, " once piped to the fish, but 
 they refused to come to shore. So he fetched a net and 
 caught a great number. When they leapt about w^ildly, 
 he said to them, * You refused to dance before, when I 
 piped to you : cease your dancing now.' " 
 
 His armies were now fortified with experience : he 
 knew their courage : they trusted his leadership : and, 
 not least, the sinews of war were amply pro- Cyrus takes 
 vided by the rich spoil of Lydia and the B^^yio^- 
 Greek merchant-cities. With the east and the north well 
 in his grasp, Cyrus now confidently advanced upon 
 Babylon. The weakling Nabonidus was in the field, 
 and his son Belshazzar held the capital. Cyrus won 
 a battle at Opis, Sippara surrendered, Nabonidus fled. 
 The writing was on the wall. The proud imperial city 
 had been found wanting, and its days were numbered. 
 Within two days Babylon fell without a blow. Cyrus 
 had diverted the course of the Euphrates, and his 
 soldiers marched into the doomed city by the dry river- 
 bed (538 B.C.). 
 
 Among the captives Cyrus found, of course, the 
 Jewish exiles who had been brought away from Jerusalem 
 when that city was sacked by Nebuchad- Cyrus and 
 nezzar (587 B.C.). Cyrus, from whatever t^eJews. 
 motive, sent them home and helped them to rebuild 
 their city and Temple. It may have been that he 
 
224 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 death, of 
 Cyrus. 
 
 wished to show in a visible way that what the great and 
 terrible Nebuchadnezzar had done he had power to 
 undo ; or he may have done it out of sheer generosity 
 and pity, and perhaps sympathy for a race whose 
 religion was monotheistic and free from idols as his 
 own was ; or, and this is perhaps the most likely 
 hypothesis, with far-seeing prudence he may have 
 wanted to pave the way for an advance upon Egypt by 
 planting a nation at its doors under a deep obligation 
 to him. 
 
 He was destined never to carry out the conquest of 
 Egypt : that was left for his son Cambyses. He was 
 Tragic drawn north, ostensibly by the attractions of 
 
 Tomyris, the widowed queen of the Massa- 
 getae near the Caspian. She dared to reject 
 his suit, and defiantly challenged him to fight. " Insati- 
 able as you are," said she, ** I will give you blood more 
 than you want." The Persians were beaten. The head 
 of the great Cyrus, the mightiest war-lord of the East, 
 was cut from his body and thrust into a wine-skin full 
 of human blood, while the relentless Queen exulting 
 jeered : " I told you so : man of blood, take your fill ! '* 
 (529 B.C.). 
 
 Croesus was right when he reminded Cyrus that the 
 wheel of Fortune revolved unceasingly, now up, now 
 Vicissitudes down, with men, cities, and empires. It cer- 
 of Empire, tainly was very much so in the '* Unchanging 
 East " twenty-four centuries ago. The Persian Empire 
 survived its founder just two centuries. During that 
 time it was the paramount power from the Dardanelles 
 and the Nile to the Caspian and the Himalayas. But 
 it' failed in its attack on Greece, and by the Greeks 
 under Alexander in due time it was destroyed. The 
 wheel had turned once more. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE PERSIAN WARS— GREECE SAVES EUROPE 
 
 Herodotus tells us that the Persians called Cyrus 
 *' Father," because he was ever kindly and devising 
 good things for his subjects ; Cambyses, his 
 son, they called -the Slave-driver," because ^^''^^'''• 
 he was so harsh and contemptuous ; while Darius, who 
 came next, they dubbed -the Shopkeeper," because he 
 was so businesslike and made money cut of everything. 
 Cambyses was a thoroughly detestable character, with- 
 out one redeeming virtue : overbearing, licentious, and 
 ruthless. He ill-treated his sisters, rode rough-shod 
 over the religious feelings of his Egyptian subjects, shot 
 dead the young son of a loyal courtier, caused by brutal 
 violence the death of his wife, and ordered the murder 
 of his brother. Incurably hasty, he died of blood- 
 poisoning brought on by his own carelessness, and died, 
 hke Nero, lamented by none. 
 
 During his absence in Egypt there had been an 
 attempt on the part of the Medes to resume the leading 
 part in the Union, possibly to some extent The pseudo- 
 owing to the Persian king's excesses, and for Smerdis. 
 some months after the monster's demise a pretender 
 masquerading as - Smerdis, son of Cyrus," held the 
 reins of power. 
 
 But the fraud was detected, a plot was formed by 
 seven Persian nobles, "Smerdis" was murdered, and 
 
 225 Q 
 
22C THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 Darius, through luck not unassistod by cunning, 
 ascended the throne. He i-roved himself by many wise 
 measures an extremely able organizer and 
 ""'"• administrator with a genius for finance. He 
 divided the whole empire into twenty provinces, each 
 under its own governor or " satrai-,' and in place of the 
 old haphazard system of "benevolences or so-calle 
 voluntary gifts, established regular taxation on u fixea 
 scale. The empire " boomed," but unfortunately he 
 shopkeeper" did not stick to his ledger. He must 
 needs go a-conquering, and he died a bitterly dis- 
 appointed man. He crossed the Dardanelles mo what 
 is now Turkey, and came back wiser possibly, but 
 certainly sadder. But worse was still to come. 
 
 The Greek coast cities of Asia Minor were governed 
 by native rulers, " Tyrants," recognizing the Persian 
 Aristagoras king as their suzerain and bolstered up by 
 Of Miletus, liini ill return. Among these was Aristagoras, 
 the ruler of Miletus. This man conceived the in- 
 excusable project of an unprovoked assault on the rich 
 island of Naxos close by, and persuaded his neighbour, 
 the Persian satrap Artaphernes, to take shares m the 
 venture. But there was jealousy and double-dealing 
 in the matter, and it proved a bad speculation. Arta- 
 phernes was furious, and Aristagoras felt guilty and 
 apprehensive. Like the thief who sets fire to a house 
 in order to escape in the general confusion, he resolved 
 to stir up a general revolt in the Greek coast towns. 
 
 They were lured by the prospect of freedom, ine 
 despotic governors were to resign ; he himself set the 
 . Thelonio example. Most of the rest were wise m 
 revolt. time ; those who were not were murderea or 
 
 expelled. The revolt began with a revolution (500 B.C.). 
 It was the end of the Age of Tyrants among the Asiatic 
 Greeks as well as in the home states. 
 
 THE PERSIAN WARS 
 
 227 
 
 Then xiristagoras sailed to Greece on a begging-tour 
 for ships, or money, or both. He first interviewed the 
 Spartan King Cleomenes. Clearly, he was . . , 
 
 , ^ , 1 , -, , Aristagoras 
 
 born too soon; he would nowadays have and 
 made his fortune by writing prospectuses for ^^^^^^^^s. 
 rubber companies. ** You will have no trouble," he 
 said. *' Those barbarians are all cowards, and you, sir, 
 are the greatest military nation on the earth. They 
 fight with bows and short spears ; they go into battle 
 wearing loose trousers and turbans. Fighting them 
 will be mere child's play. And think of their treasures ! 
 Gold, silver, copper, embroidered stufis, beasts of burden, 
 and slaves, all yours for the asking." He then unfolded 
 a map and pointed out the way to Susa, the Persian 
 capital (the Shushan of the Book of Esther). "Here 
 are the Lydians," he said; ''made of silver; next, the 
 Phrygians, richest farming in the world; next, the 
 Cilicians, bring in five hundred talents a year. Here 
 is Susa, and the king's palace and wealth untold. 
 Whereas here at home you fight for a poor little bit of 
 country against poverty-stricken enemies from whom 
 there is nothing to squeeze." The Spartan asked him 
 to come again *' the day after to-morrow." When he 
 came, he simply asked him how far it was from the 
 Aegean to Susa. Aristagoras made the mistake of his 
 life. *' Three months' journey," he said without think- 
 ing. '*My good sir," was the prompt reply, *'you will 
 kindly leave Sparta before sunset." The Ionian was 
 checked but not mated. The Spartans were poor. His 
 purse might succeed where his tongue had failed. He 
 hinted a handsome commission ; ten, twenty, finally fifty 
 talents. But the king's little nine-year-old daughter 
 saved him. *' Father, you will give in, if you don't run 
 away ! " Cleomenes recovered himself and Aristagoras 
 could not obtain another audience. 
 
228 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 At Athens be met with more success. He was heard 
 by the general assembly and found it easier to impose 
 Athens helps on thirty thousand legislators in parliament 
 the revolt, ^j^^^j^ qj^ q^^q ^alm man in his study. They 
 
 were dazzled by the golden prospect and the glory, and 
 twenty ships were sent. Ilinc iliac lacrimal The 
 Ionian rebels took the Persian authorities off their 
 guard, marched on Sardis, the capital of the province 
 and burnt it, and the Athenian contingent helped to do 
 the mischief (499 B.C.). As will be seen, it was this 
 which brought about the Persian wars. 
 
 The revolt could have but one conclusion. The 
 Asiatic Greeks were commercial and artistic, but they 
 The revolt were never any good at fighting. Aristagoras, 
 crushed. ^j^^ prime-mover, lost heart and withdrew to 
 Thrace, where he was killed, and at Lade the Ionian s 
 showed what poor stuff they were made of and sealed 
 their own fate. Their fleet was outnumbered, but still 
 the enemy hesitated. Every day was critical. Dionysius, 
 a Phocaean captain, grasped the situation, and promised 
 them victory if they would take his advice. They agreed, 
 and for a week they submitted to strenuous drilling and 
 manoeuvres. But the week was the limit of their 
 endurance. They went on strike. *' What have we 
 done," they grumbled, " that we should sweat like galley- 
 slaves ? Who is this conceited Phocaean that we should 
 obey his orders?" They left their ships, went ashore 
 and lolled in the shade. And the result? Some in 
 disgust at such conduct resolved to desert the cause 
 and save their own skins. The battle was a tragic 
 fiasco. The revolt was over. The coast towns, and 
 this time the islands as well, were all crushed under 
 the heavy heel of Persia. What an object lesson to 
 any rich commercial nation which may take a dislike 
 to exertion, and trust its defence to chance ! That 
 
 THE PERSIAN WARS 229 
 
 siesta in the shade cost the lonians their independ- 
 
 V 11 C G . 
 
 Nor did the matter end there. Darius, in spite of 
 his disas reus march into Europe on a former occasion 
 resolved to assume the offensive and carry the 
 .>-ar into the enemy's country. He liad heard S'f 
 ot tlie Athenians' share in the revolt and **'""•=*'• 
 shooting an arrow up into the sky, prayed for' vengeance 
 on Athens, and ordered a footman to say to him three 
 times at every meal, " Sire, remember the Athenians t -' 
 Two years after the battle of Lade, the first Persian 
 expedition set out to invade Greece, under Mardonius, 
 the kings son-m-law. This attack came to nothing 
 Macedonia was overrun, but as the fleet was doubling 
 Mount Athos, it encountered a terrific storm, which 
 destroyed over three hundred ships and twenty thousand 
 men, and the land force was set upon in the night by 
 wild tribes and Mardonius himself wounded. Europe 
 evidently was a hard nut for Persia to crack (492 b c ) 
 But Darius was not easily turned from his purpose 
 He made most elaborate preparations, military and 
 diplomatic, sent an ultimatum fo the Greek second 
 states, and in 490 b.c. despatched an armada invasion, 
 under Datis, a Mede, and Artaphernes. No roundabout 
 march this time. No doubling of stormy capes. They 
 must sail straight across the Aegean the quickest way, 
 take Eretna and Athens, and bring the knaves in chains 
 into h,s presence. The king's orders were strict. On 
 board they carried, besides the chains, Hippias, the 
 exi ed Tyrant of Athens, now a very old man with loose 
 teeth, and a quantity of fine white marble with which to 
 erect a trophy on the site of their victory. With similar 
 presumption Napoleon, in 1804, when meditating bis 
 inyaaion of England, prepared a commemorative medal 
 with the inscription, " frappee a Loijdres en 1804," while 
 
230 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 still on the wrong side of the Channel. The medal was 
 never struck, thongh another was with the words 
 *' Descente en Angleterre " ! In the Graeco-rersian case 
 the invaders did at least get across the dividing sea 
 and effect a landing without opposition. 
 
 They mustered six hundred sail. Starting from 
 Cilicia, they followed the coast as far as Samos, then 
 The Armada turned west, raided Naxos, offered up costly 
 starts. sacrifices at Delos, and, landing in Euboea, 
 
 took Eretria with the help of treachery after a week's 
 siege. The temples were burnt in revenge for those of 
 Sardis burnt by the Ionian insurgents. 
 
 Then, after a few days' rest, the Persians sailed on 
 to Attica, landing, by the advice of Hippias, at the plain 
 Arrival at of Marathon. It w\as conveniently near, and 
 Marathon, offered suitable ground for cavalry, in which 
 the invaders were strong. Also, no doubt, Hippias 
 remembered that that was the lucky spot where, fifty- 
 one years before, he had landed with his father Peisistra- 
 tus, when, returning from exile at Eretria, he so easily 
 overcame Athenian opposition. History this time was 
 not to repeat itself. The plain of Marathon, on the 
 west coast of Attica, is about six miles long by one or 
 two broad, and is surrounded on three sides by high 
 hills, while there is also a piece of marshy ground at 
 the northern and southern extremities. The Eretrian 
 prisoners were deposited in a neighbouring island, the 
 ships were moored, and the army drawn up in battle 
 formation. 
 
 Though it might seem to the Persians but a short 
 ^tep to Athens (2G miles), there was a slight obstacle in 
 Sparta the way in the shape of a body of 10,000 
 
 holds aloof, jjjgjj determined to dispute every inch of the 
 road. As soon as the Athenians had heard of the 
 arrival of the Persians, they had despatched their full 
 
 THE PERSIAN WARS 231 
 
 force of 9000 heavy-armed infantry to meet them, and 
 before starting sent urgent messages to Sparta and 
 Plataea. The runner Pheidippides covered the distance 
 to bparta, 150 miles of hilly country, in two days, and 
 appealed for help before it was too late. But super- 
 stition was put before patriotism. The Spartan forces 
 could not start before the full moon. In a purely 
 military state like Sparta, whose whole existence was 
 that of the camp and the battlefield, it seems incredible 
 that such a consideration should have been allowed to 
 interfere with military exigency in a crisis, and when 
 the reader remembers how jealous Greeks were of one 
 another and how undeveloped was their sense of national 
 unity, he is tempted to suspect that the Spartan excuse 
 was a mere hollow pretext. Before the end of the 
 chapter we shall see again how not even the presence of 
 a common foe could make the Greeks sink their pettv 
 differences. "^ 
 
 ^ On the other hand, the little town of Plataea gave a 
 shining example of devotion which was never forgotten. 
 On receipt of the message, they sent every 
 available man, lOOOhoplites (heavy infantry), SL'taeans 
 to strike for freedom against the " Barbarians " J^'"' *^^ 
 They joined the Athenians after these had ^^^'°^"^'* 
 already encamped on the high ground at Marathon 
 and this was absolutely the only help that came. 
 
 The whole force numbered 10,000, and was under the 
 command of ten generals and the Polemarch or War 
 Minister. These were all equal and took sole ^ 
 command for one day in turns. This absurd question of 
 system, combined with the fact that the ten ^<*°^"aad. 
 generals were equally divided on the question of fightins 
 or waiting, might easily have led to disaster. Fortu 
 nately, the ten included Miltiades, who had once been 
 Tyrant of the Thracian Chersonese and was accustomed 
 
2B2 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORT.T) 
 
 to command, and who saved the situation. He pointed 
 out the extreme danjijer of delay, and persuaded the 
 Polemarch, Callimachus, to give his casting-vote for 
 battle. Tlie five generals who had all along been in 
 favour of fighting then gave up their turns of command 
 to him. 
 
 Thus !Miltiades, in the nick of time, became practi- 
 cally sole chief of the army in the field and free to act. 
 The tattle ^^^ tactfully waited for the day which would 
 of Mara- jn any case have been his to command, and 
 then without more ado attacked. The War 
 Minister led on the right, and the Plataeans were 
 posted on the left. These two wings were compact and 
 heavy bodies, several deep, but in order to make his 
 front as long as possible, to avoid being surrounded, 
 MiUiades had to make his centre very thin. The word 
 was given, and the whole line attacked at the double. 
 The distance to be covered was about a mile, downhill. 
 The Persians stared in amazement at the folly of 
 such an attack, without cavalry or archers, and, 
 before they could recover, their desperate assailants 
 were upon them. Their numbers, of course, told, and 
 they were not instantly swept into the sea. The battle 
 was long and hotly contested. In the centre, as was 
 to be expected, the Greek line was broken. But the 
 two wings bore down all resistance and, instead of 
 pursuing the fugitives, wheeled round and came to 
 the rescue of the centre, attacking from two sides at 
 once the Persians who were already confident of 
 victory in that part of the field. This manoeuvre 
 settled the matter. The Persians broke and tied, the 
 Greeks pursued and cut them down, yelling for fire to 
 destroy the ships. An Homeric battle ensued on the 
 beach, the Persians making a desperate stand to save 
 their means of escape. Seven ships were destroyed ; 
 
 THE PERSIAN WARS 
 
 233 
 
 but, on the Greek side, the War Minister and one of 
 the generals were killed. Cynaegeirus, brother of the 
 poet Aeschylus, had his hand chopped oiY, as he was 
 trying to prevent the escape of one of the ships. The 
 invaders lost (5400 killed, and the victors 192. 
 
 I3ut there was no time even for rest. The Persians 
 had hurriedly put to sea again and were sailing south to 
 round Cape Sunium and surprise Athens before 
 its gallant defenders could return. Treason atTenTpTto 
 was busy inside the walls, and immediately surprise 
 
 Athens 
 
 after the battle a polished shield had flashed 
 a suspicious signal from the heights above Marathon- 
 What could it be ? Miltiades could not tell, but he was 
 taking no risks. Without a moment's delay, the tired 
 troops set out for Athens. When the Persian fleet 
 arrived in the ofling, they saw waiting for them that 
 same devoted band of heroes, with the blood and the 
 dust and the glory of Marathon still fresh upon them. 
 They could not face them again. Discretion they thought 
 was at times the better part of valour; they turned 
 their shij^s' bows east and sailed away foiled (490). 
 
 Hippias' worst fears had been fulfilled. While help- 
 ing to draw up the Persians on the plain of Marathon, 
 he happened to sneeze and cough violently, Theinva- 
 and one of his teeth, many of which were sion fails, 
 loose, fell out. Failing to find it, he exclaimed despon- 
 dently, **We shall never win in this country: what 
 space my tooth occupies is as much as I shall ever get 
 of it." What a ditferent spirit was in the Norman 
 William, when he landed at Hastings and tripped on the 
 sand ! 
 
 The mystery of the flashing shield, that earliest 
 recorded heliograph message, has never been satisfac- 
 torily solved. Gossip said it was the doing of the 
 Alcmaeonidae, a powerful family at Athens. But 
 
234 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 Herodotus did not believe it. Had ihc Tersians suc- 
 ceeded, they would have restored Hippias, and the 
 Alcmaeonidae were no friends of Hippias. Perhaps the 
 Thebans, who hated Plataea and Athens, had something 
 to do with it. What is certain is that there existed 
 disloyalty within the walls, which only lacked the 
 opportunity of mischief, and that Miltiades' prompt 
 action in marching hack saved Athens and Greece. 
 
 Twenty-three centuries later the field of Marathon 
 could still stir the imagination and make a poet dream : 
 
 Tho mountains look on "Nraratbon — 
 
 And Marathon looks on the sea ; 
 And musing there an hour alone, 
 
 I dream'd that Greece might still be free ; 
 For standing on the Persians' grave, 
 I could not deem myself a slave ! ♦ 
 
 And so long as men care for liberty, they can never 
 forget what Europe owes to Miltiades and his devoted 
 ten thousand. 
 
 After the full moon, when all was over, two thousand 
 Spartans arrived at Athens, having marched from 
 Sparta in three days. Though too late to be of any 
 use, they wanted to see what Persians looked like, and 
 were taken to Marathon. They lavished compliments on 
 the Athenian patriots. How would they have been 
 feeling by that time, if the battle had gone the other 
 way ? So often is it true that help delayed is help too 
 
 late. 
 
 It would seem that the Persians had already landed 
 the cargo of white marble in readiness for their trophy. 
 At any rate, it did not go back with them, for the famous 
 A1;henian sculptor Pheidias afterwards very appropriately 
 turned it into a statue of Nemesis, or Eetribution ! 
 
 As might have been supposed, Darius was furious 
 
 * Byron, " The Isles of Greece." 
 
 THE PEKSIAN WARS 
 
 235 
 
 at the defeat of Datis and Artaphernes. Two attempts 
 on Greece had now failed. But, nothing 
 daunted, he immediately prepared for a third. 
 Orders were issued for men, ships, stores, arms, and 
 money, on an unprecedented scale. But an insurrection 
 in Egypt diverted his attention, and, before he could 
 suppress it, he unexpectedly died. His son and 
 successor Xerxes was as inferior (to him as Cambyses 
 had been to Cyrus. In both cases the father had 
 raised himself to a lofty pinnacle by hard and con- 
 tinuous work and surpassing merits, while the son, 
 " born in the purple," had grown up in all the 
 voluptuous and irresponsible luxury of an Oriental 
 court. The result in each case was a spoilt child and 
 a character disfigured by weakness, vanity, and a total 
 lack of the sense of proportion, coupled with ex- 
 travagance, callousness and an ungovernable passion. 
 Both men suffered, in popular language, from ** swollen 
 head," and both, to use another slang phrase, "made 
 a mess of things." Irresponsible caprice ended in 
 irreparable calamity. 
 
 Xerxes, after thoroughly crushing the Egyptian 
 revolt, swore to avenge his father and to punish the 
 Greeks, and his warlike preparations were He decides 
 stupendous. He was urged on by the rulers ^^ ^*^' 
 of Thessaly and the family of Hippias ; but they were 
 spurring a willing horse. As he himself said to his 
 lords, he wished to eclipse his ancestors and to punish 
 the Athenians for the burning of Sardis and the rout 
 of Marathon; besides, there was wealth to be seized 
 in Greece, and, finally, he had dreams of a universal 
 empire. Mardonius stooped to basest flattery and even 
 falsehood. The Greeks had not resisted him, how could 
 they oppose the might of Xerxes ? Besides, " nothing 
 venture, nothing have," Artabanus tried in vain to 
 
236 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 dissuade him : ** Remember how the Scythians beat 
 Darius. The bridge may be broken and retreat cut off. 
 The mightiest men may have the worst luck. Do not 
 underrate the Greeks. But if we must go, then at least 
 let the king stay at home and not risk his own life." 
 It only made Xerxes angry, and the war was decided on. 
 
 The infantry alone is said to have numbered 
 1,700,000, and there were 80,000 horse, and camels 
 The army ^^^ chariots. Even allowing for exaggera- 
 tions, which appear certain, the total must 
 have been immense. There were Persians, Medes, 
 Scythians, Egyptians, Syrians, Arabians, Assyrians, 
 Chaldaeans, Phoenicians, Caspians, Bactrians, Indians, 
 Lycians, Mysians, Ethiopians, in a word, men from 
 every country from the Dardanelles to India, and from 
 the Upper Nile to the Caspian Sea. The Persians, 
 Medes, Indians, Arabians, and a few others only, pro- 
 vided the cavalry. The flower of the whole army was 
 composed of the *' Immortals," a picked corps of 
 10,000 Persians, whose numbers were never allowed 
 to vary. The fleet mustered 1207 men-of-war, which 
 The navy ^^^^ provided by the Phoenicians, Egyptians, 
 and the people on the coasts of Asia Minor, 
 not excluding the x\siatic Greeks who were ** pressed." 
 Strangest of all, in the king's own immediate cntourar/e 
 was Demaratus, an exiled King of Sparta ! 
 
 Nothing was left to chance — so at least Xerxes 
 thought. To avoid the sudden storms of Mount Athos, 
 its peninsula was cut through by a canal a mile and a half 
 long, and, to save time, two bridges of boats were thrown 
 aci*oss the Hellespont (Dardanelles). Huge stores of 
 food were accumulated at various points along the line 
 of march. 
 
 The monotony of the journey was frequently broken. 
 At Sardis there was an eclipse of the sun, and a 
 
 THE PERSIAN WARS 
 
 287 
 
 Lydian was cut in two and the army made to march 
 past between the two halves, because his father, after 
 generously entertaining Xerxes and his army, incidents of 
 had dared to ask that this one son might the march, 
 be allowed to stay with him at home, while all the 
 others followed Xerxes to Europe ! At Abydos there 
 was a review, and Xerxes, on his white marble throne, 
 wept like a child at the thought that in a hundred years 
 not a man of that proud host would be left alive. A 
 storm destroyed the boat-bridges, and by the king's 
 orders the Hellespont was flogged and reviled: "Salt 
 and muddy stream, the king will cross you, whether 
 you like it or not!" Three hundred lashes were 
 administered, and fetters thrown into the sea. What 
 was less amusing was that the bridge-builders were 
 decapitated. Life with an Oriental potentate is seldom 
 dull! The bridges were repaired, and the army took 
 seven days and nights, without a pause, to cross. At 
 Doriscus, in Thrace, there was another grand review 
 and a census was taken. The grand total, counting 
 land and sea forces, both from Asia and from Europe, 
 and including servants and camp-followers, was said 
 to amount to 5,283,220 ! Evidently, the moral effect 
 and terror in Greece were tremendous. At various points 
 along the road extraordinary omens occurred, as usual 
 on great occasions. Last, but not least, the mere aspect 
 of the motley elements of this crusade must have afforded 
 ample amusement and delight to any one with an eye 
 for the humorous or the picturesque. 
 
 To cut a long story short, it was found impossible to 
 defend the entrance into Thessaly, and the Greek 
 council of war decided to make their first j^^ck of 
 stand at the Pass of Thermoj)ylae. The sea ^nion in 
 at this point used at that time to come within ^"^^®- 
 a few yards only of the rocky base of Mount Oeta, leaving 
 
288 
 
 THK ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 just room for a narrow road. In such a place superior 
 numbers would be of no avail. A few hundred really 
 determined men could keep thousands at bay. Accord- 
 ingly a force amounting altogether to about ten thousand, 
 including 300 Spartans, was posted here under the 
 Spartan King Leonidas. It is amazing to us to find 
 that the Greeks were within an ace of not attempting 
 to hold this marvellously strong position, and not from 
 cowardice, but from sheer selfishness and lack of union. 
 Even in the face of a common danger, their counsels 
 were divided. In 481, the year before Xerxes arrived, 
 a congress of all the states was called at Corinth, but 
 some of the states actually absented themselves, Argos 
 from jealousy of Sparta, and Thebes from envy of 
 Athens. The Peloponnesian states were more numerous 
 and important than those of the north, and so the one 
 idea of the congress was to let the north go and defend 
 the Isthmus of Corinth. That was pleasant for Athens ! 
 The Cretans pleaded an oracle as an excuse for not 
 helping ; the Corcyreans sent ships, but purposely sent 
 them too late, to see which way the tide was setting ; 
 Gelo, the otherwise high-minded Tyrant of Syracuse, 
 who commanded immense resources and could be 
 generous, refused to help because the Greeks would not 
 give him the chief command of all their forces. It is 
 a sad spectacle. 
 
 However, it was decided to hold Thermopylae. But 
 even then, with Xerxes actually within striking distance, 
 Thermo- some states hung back, pleading festivals and 
 pyiae. Olympic Games ! The truth was that the 
 
 heart of the southern states was cold. They thought 
 of themselves only. Xerxes could not believe that 
 Leonidas and his handful would really bar his way ; he 
 waited four days expecting them to surrender. At last 
 he ordered the attack. A Persian scout had seen the 
 
 THE PERSIAN WARS 
 
 239 
 
 Spartans carefully combing their hair, and the exile 
 Demaratus explained that it meant they were resolved 
 to fight to the death. The Spartans were determined 
 and cheerful. On being told that the enemy's arrows 
 would fly so thick as to hide the sun, a Spartan 
 exclaimed, " Good ! we shall fight in the shade.'* It 
 was disgraceful that there were not more Greeks at 
 Thermopylae, but those who were there had the right 
 spirit. It was good metal with the true ring. Thrice 
 Xerxes leapt from his throne in an agony of rage and 
 suspense. Attack after attack was repulsed. Even his 
 " Immortals " were rolled back in confusion. The 
 struggle went on for t\yo days. He might never have 
 passed any further, but for a piece of execrable treason. 
 A native, called Ephialtes, told him of a little-known 
 roundabout path, by which it was possible to get over 
 the hills and come down behind the Greek position. 
 ** A most toad-spotted. traitor " ! And yet, but for him, the 
 world would be much poorer. It would have lost the most 
 pathetic and magnificent of all the bright examples of 
 patriotic devotion. History could ill spare Leonidas 
 and his little band of heroes. 
 
 The position being turned, the game was up. 
 Leonidas gave permission to any of the allies who 
 wished, except the Thebans, who were there The Pass 
 unwillingly and as hostages for the loyalty ^°^*^®^* 
 of Thebes, to withdraw before the final tragedy. All 
 went save the Thespians; and, except the Thebans 
 who in their hearts were traitors to the cause, and sur- 
 rendered on the first opportunity, all who stayed died 
 where they stood. Roland at Roncesvalles ! But 
 Leonidas is a grander figm-e. Here there is no long- 
 expiring blast on the horn for help. Leonidas dies 
 grim and silent. His appeal was to the hearts of his 
 countrymen, and to the hearts of generations unborn, 
 
240 
 
 rn 
 
 THE ANCIENT A\OULL) 
 
 to the end of time. On the site of the last desperate 
 stand a stone Hon was afterwards erected. There were 
 three inscriptions : that commemorating the three 
 hundred Spartans ran thus : 
 
 •* stranger, go, tell the Spartans hero wo lie 
 Who did their bidding nor refused to die." 
 
 It was magnificent and it was war. Time had been 
 gained, and the Persian host had been withstood and 
 Effect of thus shorn of half its terrors. The door of 
 the battle. Greece had been forced open, but Xerxes' 
 eyes were opened too. He had sustained severe loss, 
 material and moral. 
 
 Meanwhile the Titanic struggle had its counterpart 
 on the sea. The Greek fleet, mostly Athenian, had 
 The rival been posted off Artemisium at the northern 
 ^®®^^' end of Euboea. There was not much fighting 
 
 till after violent storms had destroyed 600 of the Persian 
 ships. Then the Greeks plucked up courage and a 
 long and indecisive battle took place. But the news of 
 Thermopylae arrived, and the Greeks fell back with all 
 possible speed to the isthmus. 
 
 All this was but a prelude. There were no Athenians 
 at Thermopylae with Leonidas ; they were all on ship- 
 Themis- board with Themistocles. The first great 
 ^°*'^^'- battle, a defeat, had been on land; the 
 
 second, a glorious victory, was to be on the sea. The 
 Spartans had had their turn, Athens was now to have 
 hers. Xerxes sw^ept over the land like a whirlwind, or 
 rather like a prairie-fire. The sky reddened above 
 Athens. She had no defenders, save a few old men. 
 The women and children were out of harm's way, the 
 strong-armed men had left the devoted city and taken 
 to their ships. Athens was tossing on the waves. An 
 oracle had said that '*the wooden walls would be 
 
 THE PEKSIAN WAES 241 
 
 invincible," and Themistocles, the greatest man in 
 Athens, perhaps in Greece, at that time, had persuaded 
 his countrymen that the -wooden walls" were their 
 ships, and made them stake their all on their fleet 
 
 iQn^f!i^''fx/'^* numbering 378 ships of the line, 
 180 of them Athenian, was stationed off Salamis. There 
 was a panic. It was decided to fall back to 
 the Isthmus. Themistocles would have none ®^^*°^'' 
 of it. He threatened to sail right away with his 180 
 ships to Italy. The rest gave in, and the fleet remained 
 where it was ; and the decisive victory was fought in 
 the narrovv waters between Salamis and the Attic coast. 
 Ihemistocles by a daring trick forced on the battle He 
 sent a secret message to Xerxes, pretending to be his 
 friend, and telling him that the Greeks were pani ' 
 
 to cut off their retreat. Xerxes did so, by detaching 
 a squadron to the rear of Salamis. The news was 
 brought to Themistocles while the council of war was 
 sittmg. Eetreat was impossible. That settled the 
 debate. And so the battle was fought. The Greeks 
 ost forty ships, the Persians two hundred, and a 
 brother of Xerxes was killed. - 'Twas a famous victory " 
 Prose IS inadequate to describe it. Fortunately, a poet 
 was present, fighting like the rest, the Athenian Aeschy- 
 lus and he has given us a picture of the stirring 
 conflict. ° 
 
 * But when white-steeded day, bright to behold 
 Held the wide earth, from the Hellenes first, ' 
 Like joyous chant, rang out their battle-cry,' 
 And forthwith Echo, from the island rocks,' 
 Sent back responsive an inspiring shout. 
 On aU the Persians, cheated of their hopes, 
 Fell terror, for by no means as in flight 
 Their solemn paean did the Hellenes sing, 
 
 ♦ Aeschylus' " Persae," transl. by Anna Swanwick. 
 
 R 
 
242 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 But with stout courage speeding to the fray. 
 
 The trumpet's hlare fired all their ranks, and straight, 
 
 With simultaneous dip of sounding oar. 
 
 They at the signal smote the surging brine, 
 
 And instant all conspicuous were to sight. 
 
 First, the right wing, well marshalled, took the lead : 
 
 Then their whole naval force in fair array 
 
 Bore down against us. All at once was heard 
 
 A mighty shout : Sons of Hellenes, on, 
 
 Your°country free, your children free, your wives, 
 
 The temples of your fathers' deities, 
 
 Your tombs ancestral ; for your all ye fight. 
 
 And from our side clamour of Persian speech 
 
 In answer rose ; no time was there for pause, 
 
 But instant galley against galley dashed 
 
 Her armature of brass. A ship of Hellas 
 
 Led the encounter, and from Punic barque 
 
 Sheared her high crest. Thereon as fortune led, 
 
 Ship drove on ship; at first the Persian host, 
 
 A mighty flood, made head ; but soon their ships 
 
 Thronged in the strait, of mutual aid bereft, 
 
 Each against other dashed with brazen beak. 
 
 Crushing the oar-banks of their proper fleet ; 
 
 While the Hellenes' ships, not without skill, 
 
 Circling around them smote ; dead hulks of ships 
 
 Floated keel-upwards, and, with wrecks o'erstrewn 
 
 And slaughtered men, lost was the sea from sight. 
 
 Ay, shores and reefs were crowded with the dead. 
 
 In flight disordered every ship was rowed, 
 
 Poor remnant of the Persian armament. 
 
 Then as men strike at tunnies, or a haul 
 
 Of captured fishes, the Hellenes, armed 
 
 With splint of oar, or fragment from the wreck, 
 
 Battered and clave with dislocating blows. 
 
 Xerxes, quite confident of victory, had placed troops 
 on the small island of Psyttaleia to deal with ship- 
 wrecked Greeks. The destruction of his own fleet left 
 them completely at the enemy's mercy and they were 
 all massacred. 
 
 But Xerxes groaned, seeing the depth of ills ; 
 For on a lofty height, hard by the sea. 
 His seat he held, o'erlooking all the host. 
 
 THE PERSIAN WARS 
 
 243 
 
 His garments rending, a shrill cry he raised, 
 And sped in flight disordered. 
 
 The Persian fleet was shattered and with it Xerxes' 
 hopes. The Greeks were masters of the sea. From 
 that moment victory was theirs. It was only 
 a question of time. Xerxes felt it and ^^J^rgia^^' 
 could not face it. He ran away to hide his 
 head under the bedclothes at Susa, and left Mardonius 
 to '' face the music " and bear the humiHation of the 
 final catastrophe. Ignoble end ! 
 
 A king sat on the rocky brow 
 
 Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis ; 
 And ships by thousands, lay below, 
 
 And men in nations ;— all were his I 
 He counted them at break of day,— 
 And when the sun set, where were they ? ♦ 
 
 The main work was done, but it still remained to 
 apply the finishing touch. Mardouius was still in Greece 
 with 800,000 men. Athens, or what was 
 left of it, was once more occupied and sacked. ^^^**^*- 
 At last, for very shame, the Spartan King, Pausanias, 
 led a united Greek force out of Corinth northwards! 
 Mardonius retired into Boeotia, and the final land battle 
 was fought near Plataea (479). The Persian camp was 
 in the plain by the river Asopus. Pausanias posted 
 himself on the northern slope of Cithaeron, for fear of 
 the enemy's cavalry. The Spartans were on the right, 
 the Athenians on the left, the rest of the allies in "the 
 centre. Emboldened by a shght success in a skirmish, 
 the Greek army moved down into the plain where there 
 was a spring, nearer the Persian camp, still in the 
 same formation. The Persians, without risking a 
 regular battle, made things very unpleasant for them, 
 and the order was given to fall back a little during the 
 night. The alHes in the centre, either from stupidity 
 
 * Byron, " The Isles of Greece." 
 
244 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 or from cowardice, retired too quickly and too far, right 
 under the walls of Plataea. The Spartans could not 
 move because one pig-headed officer refused to ** retreat " 
 before the enemy, and the Athenians were watching 
 and waiting for the Spartans. The result was an 
 appearance of confusion and panic. The Greeks had 
 done unintentionally what the Normans purposely did 
 at Senlac. The Persians thought they were running 
 away and poured out of their camp in pursuit. But the 
 Spartans stood their ground like a rock and then charged, 
 and the Persians tied. The Athenians for their part 
 beat the Thebans who attacked them, and the allies of 
 the central corps came up when they realized the 
 situation. Together they attacked and stormed the 
 camp, and the rest was a massacre. Those Persians 
 who were not killed took to their heels and were never 
 seen again. The Persian invasion was over and gone. 
 Thebes suffered well-deserved punishment for its dis- 
 loyalty and was deprived of the headship of Bocotia. 
 Plataea, in memory of the great deliverance, was 
 declared inviolable, all the states swearing to protect 
 
 its liberty. 
 
 The victorious Greek fleet had meanwhile pursued 
 the remnant of the Persian across the Aegean, and 
 caught it and annihilated it at Mycale, near 
 Miletus. It was said that this triumph was 
 won on the same day as the great victory of Plataea 
 (479). 
 
 Thirteen years later (466) when Athens had taken 
 over' the command of the Greek fleets and was founding 
 
 , her short-lived naval empire, Cimon, son of 
 The sec[Tiel. , 
 
 Miltiades, the victor of Marathon, won a 
 
 double victory over a Persian array and fleet at the 
 mouth of the river Eurymedon. That was the death- 
 blow to Persian hopes of a conquest of Greece. Xerxes 
 
 Mycale. 
 
 
 THE PERSIAN WARS 
 
 245 
 
 had lived long enough to see his grandiose plans dashed 
 to the ground. The following year (465) he was mur- 
 dered in his bed. The seed he had sown bore fruit a 
 century and a half later, and his innocent successor, 
 Darius, ** great and good," paid the penalty of his vain- 
 glorious ambition. 
 
 When Xerxes invaded Greece from the East, a huge 
 Carthaginian army was overrunning Sicily in the West. 
 The Phoenicians supplied Xerxes with the 
 bulk of his fleet, and it is quite possible that g-n^an^ ' 
 he had communicated with Carthage, which beaten at 
 was a Phoenician colony, and that the ^^^'"*' 
 simultaneous attack on Sicily was not the result of mere 
 chance. Gelo, Tyrant of Syracuse (Tyrants, as we have 
 seen, lingered on in the West), was said to have refused 
 to help the eastern Greeks against Xerxes out of pique. 
 But if accepted dates are correct, he had a far more 
 sensible excuse : he could not be spared, nor his army, 
 from Sicily. The danger to the Greeks was pressing 
 here too. With Thero of Agrigentum, he engaged and 
 routed 300,000 Carthaginians under Hamilcar at 
 Himera. Tradition said that the battle was fought on 
 the very same day as the battle of Salamis (480). 
 
 It is interesting to remember that when the young 
 republic of Rome was in sore straits through a severe 
 famine, it was this same Gelo who, when contempo- 
 Tyrant of Gela, relieved them by despatching ^*^y events, 
 corn-ships to the Tiber (491). His brother and succes- 
 sor, Hiero, also made things easier for Rome in another 
 way by defeating the Etruscan fleet (474) and thus 
 weakening the power of that disagreeable neighbour 
 Veii and its friends. The Athenian and Roman 
 republics had been born the same year (510) and were 
 growing up to manhood side by side. 
 
 
CHAPTEPw XV 
 
 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 
 
 The Persians bad come— and gone. Vaulting ambition 
 bad o'erleapt itself, witb tbe usual result. Unlike tbe 
 level-beaded Dane, tbe Oriental potentate did 
 wars!n^ not kiiow bis limitations. Canute merely 
 Greece. laugbed at bis courtiers wben tbe sea wetted 
 bis toes, but knew bow to keep order and restore peace 
 and rule a nortbern empire (1016-1035 a.d.). Xerxes 
 tbe braggart, began at tbe wrong end. He flogged and 
 reviled tbe sea, but wben be came to tackle live men, 
 wbo stood up to bim, be ran away like a wbipped cur 
 witb bis tail between bis legs. Greece bad saved ber- 
 self and, tbougb sbe did not know it at tbe time, bad 
 saved Europe. From East and West at once Asia bad 
 attempted to overwbelm it, and at Salamis and Himera 
 botb attempts bad utterly failed. In tbe West, it is 
 true, tbe attack was renewed. Before tbe century was 
 out Vboenician Cartbage was once more stirrmg in 
 Sicily, and tbere was never lasting peace tbere till tbe 
 new cbampion of western civibzation, Rome, finally 
 wiped Cartbage off tbe map (146). But tbat belongs to 
 later bistory. For tbe moment tbe danger was over. 
 Tbe bundred and fifty years tbat followed were taken 
 up in Greece witb a struggle between tbe states for 
 tbe begemony, till a strong invader laid bis beavy band 
 on all aUke and crusbed tbe discordant elements into 
 one. It was Uke tbe conflicts in England between 
 
 216 
 
 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 
 
 247 
 
 
 Nortbumbria, Mercia, Wessex, and tbe Danes, ending 
 in tbe Norman Conquest. So in Greece, Atbens, Sparta, 
 and Tbebes, eacb bad tbeir turn of success and failure, 
 till all tbeir differences were crusbed under tbe beel of 
 Pbilip of Macedon and bis son Alexander. 
 
 Atbens came first. Her fleet bad saved Greece, but 
 witb wonderful modesty and self-control sbe bad yielded 
 tbe cbief place to Sparta, even on tbe sea. Athenian 
 But Sparta, led by Pausanias, proved un- naval 
 wortby, and tbe command of tbe fleets was ^®&eniony. 
 transferred to Atbens (476) — a most momentous step, 
 as will appear very soon. 
 
 It is sad to reflect on tbe later careers of tbe beroes 
 of tbe Persian Wars. Miltiades, tbe victor of Maratbon, 
 made tbrougb bope of private gain an inex- 
 cusable attack on tbe island of Paros, failed Pausanias, 
 dismally, came bome mortally wounded, was *^^ ^^®' 
 tried and convicted, and ended bis life almost 
 immediately under tbe shadow of disgrace and a crusbing 
 fine. Pausanias, tbe Spartan king and bero of Plataea, 
 was caugbt intriguing with Persia, the arch-enemy, 
 condemned by bis own Government, and perished of 
 starvation and exposure. Themistocles, the inspired 
 saviour of Greece at Salamis, who both created tbe 
 Athenian fleet and compelled it to win, ended bis days 
 as a pensioner of tbe Great King in a Persian province, 
 having fled thither of all places for refuge from tbe 
 heartless calumnies and intrigues of bis fellow-country- 
 men. 
 
 The accusations against Themistocles were unfounded. 
 Pausanias, however, was certainly guilty, and Sparta 
 had failed as a leader and protector. Athens, ^j^^ ^^^^ 
 taking over the command of the fleets, formed federacy 
 the confederacy of Delos, for mutual protec- ®^^«i°s- 
 tion of the Greek coasts and islands, with Delos as a 
 
248 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 centre. But it was the old story of the lonians and 
 Dionysius again. Tiie confederates were lazy. They 
 hated personal service. One by one, they commuted 
 their contribution of ships and men into a money-pay- 
 ment. They were rich, and it was, they thought, so 
 much less trouble, and after all came to the same 
 thing. But it did nothing of the kind. Athens, receiv- 
 ing the money and supplying all the ships and all the 
 men, her own ships and her own men, largely at their 
 expense, became the dominant partner in the concern. 
 There was no longer any equality possible. She sur- 
 rounded herself and joined herself to the sea with 
 impregnable walls and lodged the Treasury within them 
 "for greater safety." It was a beginning of Empire. 
 The Confederates took alarm. First one and then 
 another refused payment of their subscription. Athens 
 used force to extract it. Then the Athenian Empire was 
 an accomplished fact. 
 
 It was purely a naval empire. An attempt was 
 indeed made at extension of land frontiers, and succeeded 
 
 Athenian ^^^' ^ ^^^^'* *^^^ ^^ ^ limited scale. But all 
 naval hopes in that direction were crushed at 
 
 empire. Coroneia (447), and Athens thenceforward 
 
 confined herself to her proper element, the sea. 
 
 But her empire was short-lived. The old Greek 
 jealousy was at work. Unfriendly eyes were watching 
 Cause of the ^^^ ^^^ excuse was soon found for an attack. 
 Peiopon- Hence the famous Peloi)onnesian War, be- 
 nesian war. ^^yg^j^ Athens and her allies and Sparta and 
 hers, which after twenty-six years ended in the down- 
 fall of Athens. 
 
 It is obviously quite impossible in the course of one 
 chapter to give a full and complete account of a war 
 bristling with thrilling incidents. We have still a long 
 way to travel on our journey. Let us for convenience' sake 
 
 
 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 249 
 
 divide the war into three periods and select only the 
 most striking episodes of each, scarcely if at all indicating 
 the connexion between them. 
 
 From the Outbreak of Hostilities to the Peace of 
 
 NiciAS (431-421). 
 
 Corinth had a colony, the island of Corcyra, and 
 Corcyra in turn had a colony, Epidamnus. Like 
 all Greek cities, Epidamnus had its revolu- ^ 
 tions, and in one of these the aristocrats CorcTra! and 
 being exiled harassed the new democracy. ^Pidamnus. 
 It appealed to Corcyra for help, was met with a 
 refusal and appealed to Corinth, who was delighted 
 to give Corcyra a slap in the face, being jealous of 
 her own rather too prosperous colony. They fought, 
 and at first Corinth was worsted. Then she made 
 tremendous preparations, and Corcyra in a panic 
 shouted *'Help!" Athens came to the rescue, saved 
 Corcyra's beaten fleet from complete extinction and 
 looked like doing even more. Corinth retired muttering 
 threats, stirred up revolt in one of Athens' subject cities, 
 Potidaea, and, when Athens promptly took strong 
 measures to reduce the rebel, raised a hue and cry up and 
 down Greece, and vituperated Athens as an intolerable 
 bully. A general congress met at Corinth, long speeches 
 were made, and the outcome was war against Athens 
 under the leadership of Sparta. 
 
 Sparta had on her side all the mainland states but 
 four ; Athens had two mainland states and Corcyra and 
 most of the Aegean Sea islands. Sparta was The com- 
 entirely a military, Athens almost entirely a l>atants. 
 naval power. So long as she kept command of the sea, 
 
 I 
 
250 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 Pericles. 
 
 she was inviacible. Pericles, who was at the head 
 of affairs, knew this. This remarkable man, 
 as incorruptible as he was eloquent, was 
 especially distinguished for his commonsense and 
 " level-headedness." He said to the Athenians : ** You 
 are magnificent on the water, but, frankly, you are no 
 good on land. Let the cobbler stick to his last. Do not 
 attempt a land empire, and above all beware of distant 
 enterprises!" What he preached he practised, and, so 
 long as he was there, all went well. But, alas, in the 
 second year of the war Athens was visited by a deadly 
 plague from the east, which swept off about a fifth of the 
 population, including Pericles. The loss was irreparable. 
 No one ever took his place. 
 
 The Thebans, old and spiteful enemies, thought it a 
 very clever thing, the moment war was declared, to make 
 Thebans ^ surprise attack on Plataea. They got in 
 surprise at night, by the help of treachery, of course. 
 Plataea. j^^^ ^^^ Plataeans, when day came, realized 
 how few the euemy were and recovered their senses. By 
 breaking through walls between house and house, they 
 moved troops undetected in such a way as completely to 
 surround the market-place where the Thebans had piled 
 arms. They then delivered a furious assault from all 
 sides at once, women and slaves joining in, hurling 
 missiles from windows and roofs. The rout was complete. 
 Some of the Thebans ran into a building adjoining the 
 town-wall, mistaking its door for a town-gate, and there 
 they were caught like rats in a trap and surrendered. 
 Eeinforcements arrived from Thebes, too late, and retired 
 on the promise that the prisoners should be spared. No 
 sooner were they out of sight than the Plataeans savagely 
 killed their captives in cold blood. Athens sent an 
 urgent warning, but it arrived too late. This atrocious 
 and stupid deed set an example only too readily followed 
 
 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 
 
 251 
 
 The war was deplorable for nothing more than for 
 shameless breaches of faith and unsportsmanlike be- 
 haviour on both sides. 
 
 Plataea was the first to suffer from the fashion she 
 had set. The whole Spartan army besieged the little 
 town (420) held by 480 men and 110 women- siege of 
 cooks. After preliminary arguments savouring Plataea. 
 of those between the wolf and the lamb in th°e fable, the 
 Spartans, always bad at sieges, started work. They 
 tried to rush the place, but failed. A gigantic mound 
 was raised against the town-wall, but the Plataeans 
 rapidly increased the height of their wall to keep pace 
 with it. They also, with great ingenuity, undermined 
 the mound and removed the materials by a tunnel as 
 quickly as they were piled on the top, and also built an 
 inner town-wall in the form of a crescent, with its horns 
 resting against the outer wall on either side of the point of 
 attack, in case the outer wall should be taken. Battering- 
 rams they turned aside or broke off. And an attempt 
 to fire the town was frustrated by a rainstorm. Then the 
 Spartans quietly sat down and surrounded the town with 
 a double line of brick walls. The space between the walls 
 was roofed over, and there were high towers at intervals, 
 which, however, were open at the bottom so as to allow 
 of free circulation for the besiegers round the whole 
 circuit under cover. The walls and towers were battle- 
 mented for defence and patrolled. The position was 
 critical. On a dark and stormy night 220 men stole 
 silently out, armed and carrying ladders. A tile fell and 
 gave the alarm, and there was a thrilling struggle ; but 
 all except one got away safely. 
 
 The remainder surrendered on promise of a fair 
 trial. The Spartans were judges and execu- Fail of 
 tioners combined. The prisoners were by way Plataea. 
 of trial asked one question, whether they had helped 
 
252 
 
 TV 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 the Spartans in the war, to which, of course, they coukl 
 only answer ''No," and were there and then led out 
 and executed in cokl blood. The town which had wit- 
 nessed the final defeat of the Persian, and had been 
 declared inviolable for ever, was levelled with the dust, 
 and by Greeks (427). 
 
 And now a more pleasing picture, more attractive 
 to Nelson's countrymen. At the narrow entrance to 
 Phormio : *^^^ ^^^^ ^^ Corinth, where the two shores come 
 
 ex"oit ^^^^ ^^^^^ *^ ^^^^^ ^*^^^** *^^ Athenians held 
 
 ^^ °^ • Naupactus with a land force and a squadron 
 
 of twenty ships under Phormio. It was a Gibraltar 
 on a small scale. Forty-seven Peloponnesian men-of- 
 war, with store-ships, were sailing across to attack 
 Acarnania. Phormio marked them and advanced to 
 intercept them. To prevent the Athenians from execu- 
 ting their favourite manoeuvre of going through the 
 spaces in the enemy's line and wheeling round and 
 ramming them astern, the Peloponnesian ships huddled 
 close together, like frightened chickens under their 
 mother s wings, store-ships in the centre and men-of- 
 war forming a close ring round them with their bows 
 pointing outwards. Phormio had the true commander's 
 instinct ; he knew the conditions thoroughly, and took 
 Nature into partnership. He knew that a fresh breeze 
 would spring up at a certain hour. Accordingly he 
 made his twenty ships form single line a-head and 
 move steadily round and round and round the enemy, 
 almost shaving their bows, and looking as if they might 
 be going to ram them. The enemy backed out of his 
 way till they were tightly wedged in a compact circular 
 mass. Then the expected breeze came, the sea 
 roughened, and the Peloponnesian ships began to 
 tumble and bump against one another. Phormio gave 
 the word. Suddenly all the Athenian ships, executing 
 
 
 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 253 
 
 a half-turn, charged into the disordered mass, sinkin- 
 many ships and capturing twelve, crews and all. 
 
 The rest turned tail. But the Peloponnesians made 
 them up again to sevonty-scvcn this time, with a Spartan 
 m command, and sent them out once more, second 
 riiormio had only his same twenty ships eJ^pio't. 
 The fleets watched each other across the strait for a 
 week. Then the Peloponnesians moved along their 
 shore eastwards, in a column four ahreast, as if intend- 
 ing to swoop upon Naupactus. Phormio could not 
 clioose hut follow and keep pace with them along the 
 opposite shore. All of a sudden the van of the 
 leloponnesian column, half-turned to port, intending 
 to cut off the Athenians and drive them ashore with their 
 overwhelming numbers. They succeeded in trapping 
 nine. The hrst eleven were too quick for them and "ot 
 away. While some of the Peloponnesians were busy 
 making sure of their nine prizes, twenty of their best 
 Bhips were told off to pursue the eleven Athenians 
 which ran hard for Naupactus. And now an extra- 
 ordmary thing happened. The captain of the last 
 Athenian ship, seeing a big merchant vessel anchored 
 m the ofling, by a sudden inspiration turned at ri"ht 
 angles from his course, performed a semi-circle round 
 the merchantman, and, unexpectedly re-appearing from 
 behind It, rammed his foremost pursuer's broadside 
 before it could pull up or change its course, so rapid 
 was the whole manoeuvre. The other ten Athenians 
 thereupon plucked up their courage and returned 
 attacked their pursuers in detail and overpowered them' 
 and even rescued the nine ships lost at the beginning 
 of the engagement (430 and 429). 
 
 Phormio's victories make the pleasantest episode in 
 the whole of the war, full of sea-breeze and seamanship 
 and straight and square fighting. Many other incidents 
 
254 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 are unpleasant and even revolting. In 429 Mytilene 
 Character fell to Athens after a siege, and the Athenians 
 of the war. ^^j.^ ^yitijin ^u ace of carrying out a general 
 massacre. The order was actually given and the black 
 deed only narrowly averted by an eleventh-hour repent- 
 ance (429). At Olpae both the Athenian and the 
 Spartan commanders were guilty of very shabby under- 
 hand dealing. At Sphacteria the Athenians broke their 
 word on a trumpery pretext. Finall}-, at Corcyra a 
 revolution was carried out with every refinement of 
 cunning and cruelty. Wars, so often lauded even in 
 the pulpit, do not exhibit human nature at its best, and 
 the Peloponnesian War was no better than any other. 
 The best qualities of the Greeks were of the artistic 
 order : war only gave free play to their faults such as 
 fickleness, cunning, jealousy, suspicion and cruelty. 
 
 At Sphacteria and Pylos the Athenians scored a 
 great success. They occupied and fortified Pylos, a 
 small rocky peninsula at the northern end of 
 the Bay of Navarino, as it is now called. 
 Sphacteria is the long island lying across the mouth of 
 the bay and almost blocking it. The Spartans, by 
 land and sea, attacked the little fort and landed 420 
 hoplites, mostly Spartans of good family, on the island 
 —on an island, when they were not masters of the sea. 
 It was the mistake of Xerxes at Psyttaleia once more. 
 That blunder ruined them. An Athenian fleet arrived, 
 defeated theirs, and was in a position to dictate terms. 
 A truce was made : the defeated Spartan fleet was to 
 be handed over as a hostage till orders came from home. 
 Sparta could not accept the Athenian Government's 
 terms, and the fighting was resumed ; but the Athenians, 
 pleading an attack on their fort during the truce, 
 refused to give back the ships ! The men in the island 
 were doomed. For some time they lield out, thanks to 
 
 Sphacteria. 
 
 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 
 
 2^^^^ 
 
 &5 
 
 the daring of blockade-runners. But at last the 
 Athenians, after much hanging back, landed, drove the 
 Spartans into a corner, and had them so completely at 
 their mercy that they surrendered (425). 
 
 Sparta had sustained a severe blow to her reputa- 
 tion, and Athens was in a commanding position. But 
 the very next year (424) the advantage was neutralized 
 by a severe defeat at Delium and the loss of the city 
 Amphipolis. The battle of Amphipolis was most useful 
 by causing the deaths of the leaders of the war-parties 
 on both sides.* Also honours were now about even, 
 and both sides were heartily sick of fighting. So a 
 peace was concluded, called the Peace of Nicias (421). 
 Act the First was complete. There had been great loss 
 of blood and money, and at the end of it all both sides 
 were exactly where they were before war was declared. 
 
 II 
 
 From the Peace of Nicias to the Sicilian Disaster 
 
 (421-413). 
 
 Peace was soon broken. Neither side could trust the 
 other or itself be trusted, and, unfortunately for itself, 
 and for Greece, Athens was now being far Destruction 
 too much managed by the gay, happy-go- o^Meios. 
 lucky and conscienceless Alcibiades. The Argive league 
 and the fiasco of the battle of Mantinea (418) brought 
 him and her no credit or advantage. But Athens was 
 still infatuated, and, in 416, probably at his instigation, 
 committed another of those crimes which blacken the 
 annals of this war. An overwhelming force was sent 
 against the little island of Melos (now Milo, where the 
 
 ♦ Cleon of Athens, and Brasidas of Sparta. 
 
256 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 famous Venus of Milo was found) a Dorian colony from 
 Sparta; the island, of course, was captured, and all the 
 men massacred, and all the women and children sold 
 into slavery. It was a case of sheer undisguised 
 bullying, and tlie whole of Greece was filled with horror. 
 Athens never committed a worse mistake. She was 
 everywhere regarded as a tyrant and pest to be stamped 
 out. Her next colossal blunder, this time not a crime 
 but a case of gross folly and mismanagement, provided 
 the opportunity. 
 
 Pericles had always warned his countrymen against 
 distant enterprises. But the far-seeing statesman was 
 Sicilian dead : his mouth was stopped with dust. 
 Expedition. Atlicns idolized Alcibiades, and was following 
 that shallow adventurer to ruin. The cause of the 
 famous Sicilian Expedition (415-418), which soon be- 
 came the Sicilian Disaster, was the not unusual one, 
 a quarrel between neighbour-states. The people of 
 Egesta, in western Sicily, having a quarrel with their 
 neighbour Selinus, whose cause Syracuse took up, 
 persuaded Athens that Syracuse, which was Dorian, 
 looked very much like subduing all Sicily, and that 
 such an event would be all in favour of Sparta and 
 against Athens. A powerful expedition, one hundred 
 and thirty-four triremes, besides store-ships, and five 
 thousand hoplites, under Alcibiades, Nicias and 
 Lamachus, sailed from Peiraeus amid general excite- 
 ment and rejoicing. Quite briefly, Alcibiades was a 
 clever but conceited and unsteady adventurer; Nicias 
 was a thorough gentleman, of high principles and fair 
 abihty, but lacking in decision and initiative ; Lamachus 
 was a sound but unpretentious soldier. 
 
 On arrival in Italy they found that they had been 
 taken in and that there was no support in men or money 
 to expect in Sicily. Alcibiades who loved intrigue. 
 
 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAU 257 
 
 proposed that they should win Sicily by diplomacv and 
 bus overwhelm Syracuse ; Nicias was for mere^mL^g 
 a demonstration and returning home; La- 
 machus had the only sound plan, to make ^^ '''' 
 an immediate swoop upon Syracuse before it command, 
 was aware of their proximity. Such a move would 
 probably have succeeded. Jiut, being opposed by both 
 his colleagues, Lamachus voted with Alcibiades, sooner 
 than go home without doing anything at all. So the 
 expedition remained. Alcibiades was suddenly recalled 
 answer a charge of sacrilege at home, and Lamachus 
 bemg soon after killed in one of the earliest engte- 
 
 cTmmand""' '''" '"'^"' '' '^' *"^' ^^^^ '''' '^^^^'^ 
 
 r.ncl^T'"'" ^f'".^ ^^^ '^'^'^'^ "" ^ ^'^^^ promontory 
 and the small island of Ortygia adjoining. On the east 
 
 of the island is a small harbour and on the sie.e of 
 
 ^vest a very large one, approximately a circle Syracuse. 
 
 JZr/r i? ^^''"^f*'' '''^^ ^ ^""''^y ^^^'^'^^ ^^trance 
 ormed by the southern extremity of Ortygia and Cape 
 
 1 lemmyrium opposite. The siege operations were mis- 
 
 nianaged from start to finish. The first mistake the 
 
 Athenians made was that after sailing up and recon- 
 
 noitringand thoroughly alarming their intended victims 
 
 hey quietly sailed away and went into winter quarters a 
 
 Catana several miles to the north. When they returned 
 
 business in the spring, the Syracusans had built a 
 
 strong wall right across the neck of the promontory 
 
 W sea to sea, making it very difficult either to rush 
 
 or to blockade the town. The Athenians, however se 
 
 vi^etr T: :! ^t^^-^^^^-^ - - to sta:::' ti 
 
 In til fi . ^ * u '' ^^'^ ^^^^^ *^^^^ ^^^'ther mistakes. 
 
 thev ' ?1 ^ ?; *^'^^^ possessing a magnificent fleet, 
 
 bey made no attempt to wipe out the enemy's, but le 
 
 It alone in the smaller harbour, where it lay sheltered 
 
 s 
 
 i i 
 
 ' 
 
258 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 and grew, with fatal results later on. Secondly, through 
 some unaccountable negligence or dilatoriness they never 
 completed their enclosing walls ; on the north, they 
 collected the materials for a wall, but did not use them. 
 There was a wide gap, and the materials already to 
 hand were eventually used by the besieged to turn the 
 tables on their besiegers ! 
 
 Meanwhile the traitor Alcibiades had not been idle. 
 A trial in democratic Athens not being to his fancy, 
 
 Arrival of ^^^ ^^^^* ^^^^ *^ Sparta, and gave them two 
 GyUppus : picces of advice which' proved eventually the 
 tume^d!^^' ruin of his country. One was to fortify and 
 permanently occupy a good position in Attica, 
 and the other to send the best officer they could spare 
 to Syracuse. Gylippus was sent, landed at a distance, 
 raised troops on the way, and one night marched right 
 into Syracuse with three thousand men, through the 
 wide gap in the Athenian wall, unopposed. The position 
 was transformed at a stroke. Gylippus lost no time. 
 He fought the Athenians, rolled them back from the 
 end of their wall, and with the materials which they 
 had collected and so carelessly left lying idle, ran up 
 a wall with amazing rapidity from the town- wall at 
 right-angles to the Athenian wall, right across the 
 unfinished end of it and effectually preventing its com- 
 pletion. He then extended it in such a way as to make 
 it quite impossible for the Athenians to get round it, 
 and, indeed, confined them between these new walls, 
 their own walls and the sea. The tables were com- 
 pletely turned : the besiegers were themselves the 
 besieged. Nicias fell back and made his headquarters 
 on Cape Plemmyrium, south of the great harbour. 
 
 The Athenians had been worsted on land, and now, 
 to make matters worse, there followed a series of four 
 sea-fights which ended in the destruction of their fleet. 
 
 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 259 
 
 shin!'l^?V^' Syracusans were beaten and lost twelve 
 
 captured llemmynum and all its stores. ^ , 
 hlT" 71 ^ow cornered at the head of the fXm 
 t>ay, and both sides of the harbour entrance '^'^^'^our. 
 were in the enemy's hands. In the second battle the 
 
 The position .as desperatrS't 7^^ S^J^ 
 
 henes, the hero of Pylos and Sphacteria arrived with 
 
 einforcements, a fine fleet of seventy-three Irirem s 
 
 and five thousand hoplites, besides other troTs 
 
 Atheman hopes revived. Demosthenes, ever a X 
 
 of action made two attacks on Gylippus' wall But 
 
 he second, though within an ace of success ended L 
 
 retreat but T' r '"^ T '^°''^^''^ ^'^^ ^"' -'^-t 
 retreat but an eclipse of the moon frightened thp 
 
 suj.rst.jous Nicias. who hesitated. That^eCspd 
 
 rum. The hyracusan fleet attacked once more and 
 
 once more won, and Gylippus blocked up the ha hour 
 
 mouth wzt^i a barrier of ships. In that death-trap the 
 
 fourth and last desperate struggle took place. The 
 
 Athenians used every available ship and outnumbered 
 
 the enemy; but there was no room to man^uvre 
 
 Seamanship had no opportunity. The ships grappled" 
 
 It was really a land battle fought on the water 
 
 rhucydides has a thrilling description of this Titanic 
 
 contest. The rival fleets resembled two mighty wrestS 
 
 locked m a deadly embrace, straining every musc5 and 
 
 nerve now one now the other gaining the advantage, 
 
 but neither ever able to throw his antagonist. The 
 
 crowds lining the town walls and the shore swayed to 
 
 and fro with excitement, shouting and groaning by 
 
 turns, applauding or wringing their hands, cheering 
 
 and cursing, their eyes riveted on the tragedy on which 
 
260 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 bung the honour, and, though they knew it not, the 
 very existence of imperial Athens. 
 
 The Athenians lost. Their supreme effort had failed. 
 The rest was a complete debacle. They abandoned their 
 i'inai wrecked fleet and tried to creep away over- 
 
 defeat of land. The roads were blocked. They were 
 t enians. i^e^^jg^ qQ ii^[q ^yg^y ^nd that way. Demos- 
 thenes' division of six thousand men was caught first, 
 being driven into a walled field from which there was 
 no escape, and surrendered. Nicias held out a little 
 longer, but six days after the retreat began the last 
 Athenian had been captured. Nicias and Demosthenes 
 were put to death, while the remnant of the Athenians, 
 seven thousand men or so, perished miserably of 
 exposure and starvation in the stone- quarries of 
 Syracuse. 
 
 Athens never completely recovered from this 
 stupendous blow. Sicily had been to her what Russia 
 in 1812 was to Napoleon. Her loss was irreparable. 
 And so the curtain fell on Act the Second. 
 
 Ill 
 
 From tiir Sicilian Disaster to the Fall op 
 Athens (413-105 d.c). 
 
 To understand properly the course taken by the 
 Peloponnesian War, especially in its later stages, it is 
 Sea-power essential to bear in mind constantly that 
 vital to Athens had extremely little territory in Greece, 
 but was a naval powder, with distant and 
 scattered possessions, and dependent largely on foreign 
 supplies for the support of her population, which was 
 incomparably more sea-faring than agricultural. Hence 
 wc find that the fate of Athens was finally settled 
 
 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 261 
 
 away in the east, on the grain-supply route, in the 
 Dardane les The fleet was surprised and defeated, 
 and the food supply ceased, and Athens, in spite of her 
 impregnable walls, had no alternative but surrender 
 though not a blow was struck within sight of the 
 Acropolis. One more of history's lessons, which he who 
 runs may read. 
 
 But thou-h after Syracuse the end was sure, it did 
 not come at once. The city which had saved Greece 
 from Persia, was not beaten yet. She still The Four 
 nacl pride, ingenuity, devotion, and consider- Hundred, 
 able wealth. As usually happens, failure abroad brought 
 trouble at home. It was all the Government's fault-it 
 always is-and the Government should be made to pay. 
 And so a nice little plot was hatched to upset the 
 Democracy and put an Oligarchy, a government by a 
 select circle of Four Hundred, in its place. At the 
 bottom of It all was Alcibiades, who all through had 
 been his native city's evil genius. He wanted to come 
 home agam and be idolized once more, and thought this 
 a convenient means to that end. The resolution was 
 carried out, accompanied by a moderate reign of terror- 
 child s play compared with the Corcyraean pattern-and 
 the Four Hundred - ruled the roost " ; but only for four 
 months. Alcibiades was not recalled : the people grew 
 suspicious, and when Athens was left defenceless, and 
 a 1 eloponnesian fleet seemed on the point of attacking 
 It, and Luboea revolted, they lost all patience with the 
 ^ our Hundred and sent them packing. 
 
 The restored Democracy showed signs of extra- 
 ordinary vitality. The scene of war was shifted by the 
 Spartan fleet to the Bosphorus and Darda- Athens 
 nelles, the Athenian corn-route. Byzantium revives, 
 and Chalcedon, absolutely commanding that route 
 revolted from Athens. It was a matter of hfe and death! 
 
 s> 
 
 I 
 
262 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 
 
 263 
 
 Alcibiades, the arch-intriguer, held out hopes of Persian 
 help for Athens and was recalled and pardoned, and for 
 a time justified the confidence placed in him. The 
 Athenians in 411 and 410 B.C., carried off a series 
 of victories at Cynossema, Abydus and Cyzicus, and 
 strengthened their grip on that region (Bosphorus and 
 Dardanelles). 
 
 It seemed as if the mistress of the sea was not to be 
 deposed after all. But there now entered into the situa- 
 Poiicyof tion two new factors, the Spartan admiral 
 Lysander. Lysander and Persian gold. Their combined 
 weight turned the scale. Lysander, a self-made man, 
 was equally able as a fighter and as a diplomatist. He 
 quickly grasped the situation. Sparta must wrest from 
 Athens the command of the sea. Therefore she must 
 have a large and efficient navy. One great essential 
 towards such an end was plenty of money. Now the 
 new Satrap of Lydia was Cyrus, the Persian king's 
 younger son, who was very young and very vain and 
 very ambitious, burning to distinguish himself so as to 
 acquire popularity with a view to making a bid for the 
 throne. It was clear the two men were made for each 
 other. The Spartan fleet should be built and manned 
 and trained with Persian gold. It is a dismal spectacle : 
 Sparta, wearing the laurels of Thermopylae and Plataea, 
 making common cause with the arch-enemy Persia 
 against her sister-state Athens, the saviour of Greece on 
 the plain of Marathon and the blue waves of Salamis. 
 
 • Cyrus gave Lysander the key of his money-chest : 
 the charm worked wonders. In a 3'ear the Athenian 
 Persian fleet suffered a defeat at Notium (407), and, 
 &^i*- though Lysander's command had now expired, 
 
 in the following year another at Mytilene (400). By 
 incredible efforts Athens raised a fresh fleet, even slaves 
 and knights going on board. The total of Athenian ships 
 
 was raised to a hundred and fifty, and the Spartans were 
 soundly beaten at the Arginusae islands, losing seventy 
 ships. It was a notable triumph (406). But it was too 
 late. Athenian fleets had been beaten and could be 
 beaten again. There was no money difficulty for Sparta • 
 gold came pouring out of Cyrus's coffers. So a fresh 
 fleet was built and crews attracted by high pay, and 
 Lysander was sent out again to see the matter through. 
 With the largest fleet he could get together, he finally 
 sailed for the Dardanelles, and, to bring matters to a 
 head, took the town of Lampsacus. 
 
 The Athenians could not choose but follow him. 
 With their hundred and eighty-two ships they took up a 
 position opposite, at Aegospotami, watching Aegos- 
 him across the strait. For four days the two potami. 
 fleets stared at each other like a pair of cats waiting for 
 a spring. On the fifth, the Athenian cat blinked and the 
 Spartan sprang and had him at his mercy. Lysander, 
 who possibly— who knows?— may have used Persian 
 gold, which cost him nothing, to bribe the Athenian 
 commanders, waited till the Athenians had left their 
 ships for a comfortable meal and siesta on shore, and 
 unexpectedly pounced upon them. It could not be called 
 a battle. Conon escaped with twelve ships. All the 
 rest were captured, together with four thousand men, 
 who were all put to death (405). The game was over 
 and Lysander and Persian gold had won. Athens, a sea- 
 power, dependent on sea-borne food, was without a fleet. 
 Lysander leisurely sailed into the Peiraeus with his 
 fleet and quietly waited for the next move, while the 
 Spartan king Agis blockaded the city by land. There 
 was no need to waste energy in an attack. After futile 
 parleying, which only accentuated the pangs of hunger, 
 the city of course surrendered. The proud walls and 
 the harbours were dismantled; all men-of-war but a 
 
 i 
 
 a 
 
264 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 paltry dozen were given up ; the once imperial city 
 became the humble and obedient servant of her hated 
 sister Sparta. The cup must have been bitter. 
 
 The Athenian Empire was wrecked, and the tragedy 
 seemed complete enough. But there was an epilogue to 
 The Spartan follow. The Greek states had exulted over 
 supremacy, prostrate Athens. Her crumbling walls 
 sounded to their ears like the triumphal music of 
 Liberty. But they soon found that her fall meant 
 merely a change of masters, and a change for the 
 worse. Athens had built an empire and had insisted 
 on being mistress in her own house. But with all her 
 faults of performance she had at any rate a lofty ideal ; 
 she had notions of political freedom and progress. 
 Sparta's motto was ''Divide et impcra." She did not 
 try to build up a united nation : she broke it up. Her 
 ideal was Sparta, a great military power, on a high 
 pedestal, ruling autocratically over innumerable separate 
 cities, each exploited locally by a close council of ten 
 nobles backed by a Spartan governor and garrison. 
 The Spartan supremacy, which lasted little more than 
 thirty years, was characterized by selfishness and folly. 
 
 Sparta had espoused the cause of the pretender 
 Cyrus (402) and, on his fall, was naturally the object of 
 jjjg the Persian King's resentment. The Spartans 
 
 Corinthian wanted war against Persia, for the sake of a 
 *^* cheap parade of patriotism, and mismanaged 
 
 it. Persia, by lavish bribe:? distributed through the 
 agency of the Rhodian Timocrates, stirred up trouble 
 for Sparta at home. Thebes, Athens, Argos, and others 
 rose under the leadership of Corinth, and, thanks to the 
 exploits of the Athenian light-infantry leader Iphicrates, 
 Sparta emerged from the Corinthian War with very 
 little credit. She then concluded a shameful peace with 
 Persia, criminally abandoning the Greeks in Asia to the 
 
 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 265 
 
 tender mercies of their old Oriental oppressors, and 
 hectored the states at home into agreeing to these terms 
 {oo7). 
 
 But Sparta had reckoned without Thebes, who was 
 now raising her head as the capital of a Boeotian 
 confederacy. The Spartans would not recocr- 
 mze any such league : it was contrary To J^,2fc^ 
 tneir principle of separate cities all at ^P*™- 
 sises and sevens. By an unscrupulous stroke '""'*"• 
 they seized the Theban citadel, the Cadmeia, killed 
 or expelled the democratic leaders, and established 
 an Oligarchy supported by a Spartan garrison— their 
 regular practice (383). But four years later the 
 exiles turned the tables on them : they murdered the 
 Oligarchs, recovered the citadel and declared their 
 independence (379). Four times in three years Boeotia 
 was invaded by the Spartans, but Thebes was gaining 
 confidence, and in 371 Epaminondas, her greatest 
 general and one of the greatest in all Greek history, 
 when the Spartans invaded for the fifth time, routed 
 them hopelessly at Leuctra (371). The Thebans then 
 carried the war into the enemy's country and four times 
 invaded the Peloponnese, showing an easy mastery over 
 the Spartans. But on the fourth occasion, though they 
 won the battle of Mantinea (362), it cost them the life of 
 Epaminondas. His death was the end of the Theban 
 suj)remacy. 
 
 Thebes had given proof of better principles than 
 bparta. In her short-lived tenure of power, she had 
 exerted a unifying and not a disintegrating _ 
 influence. But the Greek character was not Sfbiy 
 to be changed. The Greek instinct was all for *'«""'«*• 
 independence and all against federation. The Greek 
 states had no notion of cohesion. The Greek was 
 patriotic for his own city, but did not look beyond. 
 
1' 
 
 I 
 
 266 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 Athens, Sparta, Thebes, all failed to teach him the idea 
 of a nation. 
 
 There was nobody left to attempt the thankless task. 
 Danger was brewing in the north ; but, what with the 
 The Mace- Social War and the Sacred War, the Greek 
 donianpeni. gfjat^s ^vvere ever at each other's throats and 
 wasting their own and each other's energies. When 
 the northern invader began to stir, and Olynthus, that 
 advanced outpost of Greece, cried for help, nobody 
 responded. Thirty-two cities of the Olynthian league 
 were wiped out, and Philip of Macedon could walk 
 straight into a disunited and defenceless Greece. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 A GOLDEN AGE 
 
 Thou art a monument without a tomb, 
 And art alive still, while thy book doth live, 
 And we have wits to read and praise to give. 
 
 —-Ben Jonson. 
 
 Whatever may be thought of the aptitude of the Greeks 
 for war or politics, and it is not above criticism, their 
 sense of beauty and their power of express- ^ 
 ing it are beyond question. In the realm n!ss!Ilhl' 
 of art, with chisel, brush, or pen, they were **"®^8- 
 supreme, and their masterpieces remain to this day un- 
 surpassed, perhaps even unequalled. It must be remem- 
 bered that what to-day thus compels our admiration 
 and homage is a mere shadow or fragment of its former 
 self. We are like the dogs eating the crumbs under 
 their master's table : what the feast was that was spread 
 before the master's children we can only imagine. The 
 temples we gaze at are mere wrecks, battered, broken, 
 and disfigured by time, the weather, neglect, and even 
 deliberate violence ; the statues which arrest and stir 
 us are, with one or two exceptions, only copies ; and 
 the plays which move our tears or laughter have 'come 
 to us robbed of the magic of music in spoken word or 
 instrumental accompaniment and stripped of colour 
 and picturesque setting, and at the best were often 
 winners only of second or third prizes. Could we be 
 transported on Prince Housain's carpet and see those 
 
 2G7 
 
2(18 
 
 TV 
 
 VUK ANCTI'.NT AVOllLD 
 
 tcnip](\s eoinpleto and brilliant under a cloudloss sky, 
 tho originals of those statues as tliey loft the sculptor's 
 hands, and watch and hear those plays which wrested 
 tlie palm from those wo know, the Queen of Sheba's 
 wonder were nothing to ours : we should confess that 
 not a tenth part had been told us. Pericles boasted that 
 Athens was the only city in the world which was greater 
 than its reputation, and Thucydides says that " if tho 
 Athenian empire were to vanish, a visitor to Athens 
 would naturally infi^r from the appearance of its ruins 
 that its power had been twice as great as it really was." 
 The (ireek '' Tyrant" included among his redeeming 
 (puilities that of taking a patriotic pride in tho city 
 ^^ under his rule, and a most laudable desire 
 
 *• Tyrant" to beautify it. Ifis critics hinted that his 
 as a patron i^otivo was mere self-glorification, a desire to 
 
 01 art. " ' 
 
 cut a good figure in the society of his fellow 
 Tyrants, or, worse still, a cunning device to keep his 
 subjects' minds and hands occupied and leave them no 
 leisure for political theorizing or discontent which 
 might question his authority or endanger his security. 
 l^c that a^ it may, the Tyrants were good patrons of 
 the AFuses. Under them architecture, sculpture and 
 literature received their earliest encouragement. 
 
 To select but one instance out of many, Toisistratus, 
 besides laying tho whole world under an everlasting 
 Peisistra- obligation by producing the first authorized 
 ^^^' text of the Homeric poems, adorned Athens 
 
 with, several noble buildings. He erected the first temple 
 of the virgin-goddess, Pallas Athene, on the Acropolis, 
 and at the foot of the rock began a temple of Olympian 
 Zeus on so magnificent a scale that it w^as not com- 
 pleted till seven centuries later by the Roman emperor 
 Hadrian ! 
 
 But it was not till the fifth century r,.{\ that Athenian 
 
 A (U)L])EN A(iH »2(;i) 
 
 architecture attained the full glory of its prime. That 
 superhuman age, the like of which was never 
 seen before or since in any country, yielded fif'tl^''"'"' 
 an ania:3nig crop of masterpieces in every ^^^ntury. 
 branch of art. The national genius was in full bearing, 
 and Athens had its full share of the fruit. Under the 
 auspices of Pericles the Magnificent she became the 
 most beautiful city in the world. His enemies were 
 jealous and growled. - Greece," said they, - feels that 
 she IS nisulted and the victim of downright t3Tanny 
 when she sees the tribute forcibly extracted from her 
 for the purposes of war diverted to gilding and bedizen- 
 ing the city like a vain woman, with a display of costly 
 stones and statues and temples costing millions to 
 erect ! " The great man retorted that so long as Athens 
 discharged her military and naval obligations properly 
 slie had a right to devote any surplus wealth to the 
 cause of art and beauty. His public works meant 
 employment and wages, and diffused prosperity ; and 
 16 was determined to make his Athens the pattern and 
 '*tlio school of Hellas." 
 
 It is inconceivable that anyone, not an utter bar- 
 barian, should be unmoved by the sight of the Parthe- 
 non. ^ At the beginning of our era, when it The 
 was ii\o centuries old, it still, according to ^^arthenon. 
 Plutarch, possessed the bloom and charm of everlast- 
 ing youth like a magic spell making it proof against 
 the assaults of time. Now, it is but a mutilated 
 skeleton, from which the living fiesh has shrunk and 
 withered. The roof, half of the sanctuary walls with 
 their frieze, and half of the surrounding columns with 
 the metopes above them, lie shattered on the ground by 
 an explosion of gunpowder, and weeds grow in the 
 joints of the stone floor where once the gold and ivory 
 statue of Athene stood. The eastern pediment is no 
 
270 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOULD 
 
 more, aiul the western lias been ruthlessly stripped of 
 its glorious sculptures. And yet that divine ruin with 
 its sightless eyes not merely moves our pity, it tills us 
 with awe. 
 
 The Parthenon was erected between 447 and 4[]4 B.C., 
 at the time when Nehemiah was rebuilding the walls of 
 Jerusalem and the Decemvirs had just finished writing 
 out the Twelve Tables of the Law in Home. It was built 
 of white PenteHc marble throughout. The idea was 
 supplied by Pericles, the funds by the imperial coffers ; 
 the architects were Callicrates and Ictinus ; and the 
 sculptor was Pheidias, who also exercised a general 
 supervision and control. Judged by our modern 
 standards, the building was small, 228 ft. long, 101 
 broad and 50 high, but what miracles of beauty, 
 symmetry and harmony were packed into that small 
 compass ! There were sixty- two large and thirty- six 
 small columns, averaging about 34 ft. high and about 
 20 ft. in circumference at the base, fifty large statues in 
 the pediments, ninety-two metopes, and a sculptured 
 frieze 524 ft. in length. The background of the pedi- 
 ments and metopes was coloured red, to set off the 
 sculptures, and some other parts of the building were 
 coloured blue. The practice of external colouring in 
 architecture, especially w^hen the material is white 
 marble, may seem strange to us, but we must remember 
 that the climate of Athens is not that of London. The 
 possibly hard effect of a rectilinear style of architecture, 
 devoid of arches either round or pointed, was mitigated 
 in an extraordinarily clever manner. The steps of the 
 platform on which the temple rose were not made 
 perfectly level, but slightly convex : the columns besides 
 tapering towards the top also showed a swelling in the 
 middle, and all the columns leaned slightly inwards. 
 
 Other buildings erected during this period were the 
 
 A GOLDEN AGE 
 
 271 
 
 Erechtheum with its famous porch of the Caryatids, the 
 diminutive temple of the Wingless Victory, other 
 that is the Victory who had come to stay, ^i^iidings. 
 and the Propylaea or Gateway, all on the Acropolis ; the 
 Theseum, still almost perfect, at the foot of it, and in 
 other parts of Greece, the temple of Apollo in Arcadia 
 and the temple of Zeus at Olympia. 
 
 The temple had to be adorned, for was it not the 
 dwelling of a godV To a Greek, existence was no 
 existence without beauty. And besides, the 
 god, who made his home in the temple, must ^'^'^P^^"* 
 have his image. And so the architect had need of the 
 sculptor, and the two arts flourished together, like two 
 fair flowers on one stalk. 
 
 Pheidias was responsible for the sculptures of the 
 Parthenon and executed most of them with his own 
 hands. A few fragments are still in situ, a 
 few more are in the British Museum ; but his fh^elhr" - 
 most famous work, the colossal gold and ivory elephantine 
 statue of the Virgin-goddess, has completely ^^^^''^' 
 disappeared. The figure was thirty-nine feet high. The 
 goddess stood, robed and armed, with shield and 
 allegorical helmet, the long robe and armour being 
 made of pure gold (to the value of about £150,000), 
 while the face and hands were of ivory. The whole 
 statue was most exquisitely finished, even the sides of 
 the sandal-soles being covered with elaborate carving. 
 
 Pheidias also made a colossal statue of Zeus for the 
 temple at Olympia, which was, perhaps, even more ad- 
 mired. It was also of a great size, about forty The Zeus of 
 feet high, though the god sat in a chair, and Olympia. 
 was made of ivory and gold. The praise of the ancients, 
 both Greek and Roman, for this masterpiece knew no 
 bounds. Men said that Zeus must have come down from 
 heaven to Pheidias's studio or else Pheidias must have 
 
272 
 
 TllK ANCUMNT WOULJ) 
 
 climbud up into boa veil to see liiiu there. But this 
 statue, like that of Athene, was too precious to escape 
 destruction. It has gone and left no trace, except a few 
 broken fragments of its pedestal. 
 
 Pheidias, the heaven-l)orn artist, died in prison of 
 neglect, at the early age of lifty-eight. He was 
 Myron convictcd of impiety because he had dared to 
 
 Poiycieitus, introduce portraits of himself and Pericles 
 copas. among the figures on the shield of his 
 Athene ! So unworthy is the world of its noblest 
 sons. But the inspiration continued to flow in a 
 steady stream. Myron, the Boeotian, created the 
 " Discobolus,'* Poiycieitus of Argos, famous for his 
 bronzes, was the author of the famous *' Doryphorus " 
 or ** Spear-bearer," universally admired and looked up 
 to by common consent as the " Canon " or *' Standard " 
 for the perfection of its harmonious proportions. A 
 little later arose a new school aiming at greater light- 
 ness, grace and elegance, its two chief exponents being 
 Scopas, a native of Paros the home of the whitest and 
 most exquisite marble, and Praxiteles, probably an 
 Athenian. The former of these helped in the sculptures 
 of the world-renowned temple of Artemis at Ephesus 
 ^^ and of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, while 
 
 " Hermes " Praxiteles will live for ever as the poet whose 
 ofPraxiteies. g^^^j conceived that miracle of beauty, the 
 
 *' Hermes " of Olympia. Like the Parthenon pediment- 
 sculptures now in the British Museum, this statue is an 
 original : we are here face to face with a work of the 
 master's own hand. No photographs or drawings can 
 afford even an approximate idea of its surpassing beauty. 
 The casts of it in our museums are almost revolting to 
 any one who has seen the glorious original. The differ- 
 ence is like that between a corpse and a body glowing 
 and throbbing with life. The marble seems to be alive. 
 
 A GOLDEN AGE 
 
 273 
 
 
 And it is : tho Hermes created by the soul and hand of 
 Iraxitelos can never die. 
 
 Tlie art had reached its zenith; "the force of 
 nature could no further go." But another name 
 claims a passmg notice. That noble master- 
 piece, the " Apoxyomenos," was the work of '''"PP""' 
 Lysippus, of Sicyon. Alexander the Great considered 
 him the best sculptor of his age, and refused to sit for 
 ns portrait to any other. Last, but not least, came 
 that glorious Aplirodite, unearthed in Melos and known 
 as the " Venus of Milo," and now the most precious 
 treasure in the Louvre, an original, like the ..yenusof 
 
 Hermes," and by some critics regarded as MUo." 
 the noblest of all ancient statues. It was made most 
 probably after the age of Alexander, but both date and 
 author are matters of conjecture. 
 
 As miglit naturally be supposed, sculpture did 
 not stand alone. The sister art of painting had its 
 votaries too. It has already been seen that the 
 Greeks of the best period employed colour 
 both in architecture and in sculpture, and ^»^""»- 
 before condemning a practice so repugnant to our 
 modern ideas of good taste, we should reflect that a 
 1 iieidias was at least as good a judge as ourselves, and 
 therefore must have had good reasons for doing as 
 he did. The tone of a Hermes of Olympia or a Venus 
 of M.lo after more than twenty centuries is a very 
 different thing from tho hard and chilling whiteness of 
 Parian marble fresh from tho sculptor's chisel. So the 
 artist sought to anticipate the mellowing touch of 
 time. 
 
 But painting had its own life to live independently 
 of sculpture. Unfortunately, to the world's everlastinrr 
 loss we have to be content here with even less than 
 in that other field. We have, it is true, a long 
 
 T 
 
274 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 catalogue of illustrious names, but the gallery, once so 
 well filled, is empty. Vases there are not a 
 fngs^o^b^st few, but— with all respect be it said, for some 
 period of them are exquisite— they represent an in- 
 
 extant. ^^^.^^ branch of the art; frescoes, too, a goodly 
 
 number and some of surpassing merit, but even they 
 were painted by inferior hands in a later and inferior 
 age for inferior patrons. Such are the frescoes dis- 
 covered at Pompeii and preserved partly in situ, partly 
 in the Naples Museum, of which more anon. But for an 
 idea of the great pictures of the great age we are left to 
 anecdotes and the recorded judgments of antiquity. Of 
 the works themselves not a shred remains. 
 
 In the glorious Fifth Century B.C. there was first 
 Polygnotus of Thasos, who invented the art of fore- 
 shortening, and was famous for the correct 
 Polygnotus. ^^.^^.i^g and nobility of his historical com- 
 positions, and earned the warm praise of Aristotle. 
 His best known pictures were the ^'Sack of Troy," 
 "Hades," and others at Delphi. His con- 
 ^^^^' temporary, the Athenian Micon, made himself 
 
 a name by his '' Battle of Marathon." Apollodorus, 
 likewise of Athens, earned the name of the 
 Apollodoms. ,, gbadower," from his striking treatment of 
 licrht and shade. Zeuxis of Heraclea attained a higher 
 "" standard of execution. His female figures 
 
 Zeuxis. breathed a peculiar charm, and his " Helen " 
 at Croton was famous the world over. As for technical 
 perfection, he is said to have painted a bunch of grapes 
 which the very birds mistook for real ones and flew in at 
 his window to peck. Parrhasius of Ephesus, his 
 Parrhasius. ^.^^j^ ^^^ j^-^^ ^^ j^jg q^^ ground and painted 
 
 a curtain so wonderfully that Zeuxis walked up to the 
 frame to draw it, thinking it concealed a picture beneath. 
 These stories sound almost incredible, but they at any rate 
 
 A GOLDEN AGE 
 
 275 
 
 show what was thought by Greeks of the technical skill 
 of their great masters. It is pleasing in these modern 
 days of hurry and superficiality to hear from Plutarch 
 that Zeuxis boasted of the time he took over his pictures. 
 Aristides of Thebes is known to have received very 
 high prices for his works, on one occasion close on 
 ^4000 for a battle scene, while two centuries later one 
 of his pictures fetched six times that amount. He 
 had become an - old master '' : how little the world of 
 fashion has changed ! 
 
 But the prince of Greek painters would seem to 
 have been Apelles of Colophon. He was the only 
 painter, as Lysippus was the only sculptor 
 to whom Alexander the Great would consent ^^'"''• 
 to sit for a portrait. One of these portraits was in 
 the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, representing 
 Alexander hurling the thunderbolts of Zeus with a 
 hand which appeared to stand right out of the picture 
 towards the spectator. But his most famous chef- 
 d ceuvre was his " Aphrodite rising from the Sea" repre- 
 sentmg the goddess stepping out of the waves half- veiled 
 in a pearly mist formed by the water she was wringing 
 from her hair. The picture was long afterwards bought 
 for a huge sum by the Emperor Augustus and placed in 
 the temple of Venus at Rome. Apelles amassed a great 
 tortune, which did not however spoil him. Finding 
 that his contemporary and friendly rival Protogenes 
 the Rhodian was not sufficiently appreciated, he offered 
 him an enormous sum for his unsold pictures, giving 
 out that he meant to sell them as his own, and thus 
 made the Rhodians realize what an artist they had 
 among them. His untiring devotion to his art was the 
 origin of the saying, ** nulla dies sine linea," and it was 
 he who after readily accepting and acting upon the 
 criticism of a cobbler on a sandal worn by one of his 
 
276 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 A GOLDEN AGE 
 
 277 
 
 figures, when the critic encouraged by the artist's 
 acquiescence proceeded next to find fault with the 
 painting of the leg, pulled him up short with '' Let the 
 cobbler stick to his last.'* 
 
 All gone to dust : not a square inch of these masters' 
 work remains. Yet, though the best is lost for ever, it is 
 still possible to form some idea at least of the 
 ^'cMUes character of ancient painting. At Pompeii a 
 andBriseis" number of frescoes of the Roman imperial 
 painting. ^^^.^^^ ^^ considerable merit have been^ by 
 marvellous good fortune rescued from destruction. 
 Perhaps the most beautiful of all is the picture of 
 "Achilles delivering Briseis to the heralds," one of 
 the most, perhaps the most, beautiful specimen of 
 ancient painting preserved to our times. 
 
 The lower part of the picture is much damaged, but 
 enough has fortunately been spared to enable us to 
 judge the quality of the composition and the execution. 
 The scene is laid in Achilles' tent. The royal heralds 
 are standing in a group on the left, while Briseis 
 approaches from the riglit, led by the hand by a 
 youthful figure, perhaps Patroclus, who looks round 
 at his charge and turns his back to the spectator. In 
 the centre sits Achilles, nude to the waist, with a lance 
 resting in his left hand, while his right is open and 
 extended in a fine gesture towards the heralds. Behind 
 their master's chair stand armed guards, the burnished 
 shield of one of whom is cleverly disposed so as to set 
 off the head of the principal figure, and reminds one 
 irresistibly of the halo of mediaeval paintings. All 
 eyes are turned towards the fair captive, who is heavily 
 draped and veiled, and advances with reluctant step 
 and averted gaze. But the spectator's attention is 
 immediately arrested by the head of Achilles, which 
 is truly magnificent. Dishevelled curly hair, straight 
 
 nose, full and strongly curved lips, finely moulded 
 chm, and well-turned neck— the whole face is aglow 
 with manly life and strength : the eyes, set wide and 
 deep, seem to dilate as we look, and are a-fire with a 
 fierce flame of concentrated longing and rage and dis- 
 apponitment. The expression once seen can never be 
 forgotten. 
 
 When we remember that this is only an imperfectly 
 preserved wall painting executed by an unknown artist 
 in an inferior age in a small Italian seaside town, our 
 imagmation will begin to realize what the world has 
 lost in the destruction of the Greek masterpieces of the 
 fifth and fourth centuries b.o. What with its temples, 
 its paintings, its statues of marble, bronze, ivory and 
 gold, adorning in endless profusion every town of any 
 importance, the Greek world in the Golden Age must 
 have resembled a well-filled museum, far more glorious 
 than any of to-day's, or even all of them put together 
 smce the pride of all of them together is but a few small 
 crumbs fallen from the superabundant Feast of Beauty, 
 which Time and Vandalism have almost swept into 
 oblivion. 
 
 ^ But the Greek had other avenues to his soul beside 
 
 his eyes, and the best is yet to tell. The chief glory 
 
 of Hellas, the '' Cullinan Diamond " of her Greek 
 
 crown, was her literature. It has been literature. 
 
 described by a modern English critic as the one truly 
 
 origmal literature of Europe. At any rate, it was the 
 
 first, all others are its debtors, and, whatever the 
 
 claims of modern commercialism, it remains immortal, 
 for — 
 
 " A thing of beauty is a joy for over." 
 
 It would be manifestly impossible to give even a 
 sketch of the birth and growth of Greek literature in 
 one short chapter. I shall not even set down a 
 
278 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 A GOLDEN AGE 
 
 279 
 
 Kpic poetry. 
 
 catalogue of authors. My hope is rather that the 
 perusal of a few selected specimens may conjure up 
 were it but the faintest glimmer of the wonder and 
 glory of that marvellous treasure-house, and impel the 
 reader to further exploration on his own account. 
 
 On the threshold we are met by the Homeric Poems, 
 Iliad and Odyssey, comj^osed, let us say, about 900 B.C., 
 from which extracts have already been quoted 
 in a previous chapter. These are followed 
 by the ** Cyclic " poems, the Trojan Cycle, the Theban 
 Cycle, and others, telling, for instance, of the ** Sack of 
 Troy" and completing the lives of the chief characters 
 in the great epic. About a century after the composi- 
 tion of the Homeric Poems, Hesiod the Boeotian wrote 
 his didactic hexameters ** Works and Days" containing 
 moral precepts, and the ** Theogony " an account of the 
 origin of the gods and the world. 
 
 Then there came a change : a new spirit breathed, 
 a more personal and passionate note was heard in 
 Lyric poetry. For about two centuries the field 
 
 poetry. ^^s in the possession of a noble army of 
 
 elegiac, iambic, and lyric poets, like Archilochus, 
 Alcaeus, Sappho and Pindar, besides many others. 
 
 Of Sappho's lyrics scarcely any remain. One or 
 two of her masterpieces, however, were so 
 exquisite they could not die ; time and 
 ignorance were ashamed to destroy them. 
 
 There is a note of sadness in 
 
 " Sweet Rose of May I Sweet Rose of May 1 
 
 Whither, ah whither fled away ? " 
 •' What's gone no time can e'er restore — 
 
 I come no more, I come no more." ♦ 
 
 ♦ J. H. Merivale in "Bland's Collections from the Greek An- 
 thology." 
 
 Sappho. 
 
 And-still more in 
 
 " Oh, my sweet Mother— 'tis in vain— 
 
 I cannot weave, as once I wove — 
 So wilder'd is my heart and brain 
 
 With thinking of that youth I love." ♦ 
 
 But was rapture ever more fervidly expressed than in 
 the fragment beginning — 
 
 Blest as th' immortal gods is he. 
 
 The youth whose eyes may look on thee, 
 
 Whose ears thy tongue's sweet melody 
 
 May still devour ! 
 Thou smilest too ?— sweet smile, whose charm 
 Has struck my soul with wild alarm, 
 And, when I see thee, bids disarm 
 
 Each vital power. + 
 
 And, lastly, here are some lines from the exquisite hymn 
 to Aphrodite : 
 
 Thou once didst leave almighty Jove 
 And all the golden roofs above ; 
 The car thy wanton sparrows drew, 
 Hovering in air they lightly flew ; 
 As to my bower they winged their way 
 I saw their quivering pinions play. 
 
 The birds dismissed (while you remain) 
 Bore back their empty car ao^ain • 
 Then you, with looks divinely mild. 
 In every heavenly feature smiled, 
 And asked what new complaints I made 
 And why I called you to my aid. 
 
 • ♦ * ♦ * 
 
 Who does thy tender heart subdue ? 
 Tell me, my Sappho, tell me, who ? 
 
 Though now he shuns thy longing arms, 
 He soon shall court thy slighted charms'; 
 Though now thy offerings he despise, 
 He soon to thee shall sacrifice ; 
 
 ♦ T. Moore, "Evenings in Greece," First Evening. 
 
 t J. H. Merivale in "Bland's Collections from the Greek Anthology." 
 
Pindar. 
 
 '2H() THE ANCIENT WOBLP 
 
 Though now ho froozo, ho soon nhall burn, 
 And bo thy victim in his turn.* 
 
 • • • • * 
 
 The poems and fragments of Sappho are scattered 
 pearls : how glorious must the complete string have 
 hoen ! Ihit we may not linger. In the case 
 of rindar we are more fortunate and possess 
 a considerable amount of his poetry. AVo have now left 
 the ** isles of Greece, where burning Sappho loved and 
 sung,*' and, as wo set foot on the mainland in the 
 glorious Fifth Century, our first look is arrested by 
 
 Tho priilo and nniphi pinion, 
 
 That tho Tlicbun oaglo bear, 
 Sailing with supremo dominion 
 
 Thro' the azuro doop of air.f 
 
 Take this passage from his Second Olympic Ode, when 
 the poet describes the Elysian fields, the Greek 
 Paradise : 
 
 There tlio soft Ocean-brcezos breathe around 
 
 The islands of the blest ; there glow tho flowers 
 
 With gold ; enlivening, some, the painted ground ; 
 
 Some deck tho graceful trees ; some drink their life 
 
 From tho still water; -from all these they fill 
 
 Their hands, and for their brows bright chaplets weave. J 
 
 Or this from tho Eighth Pythian Ode, on the transi- 
 toriness of human life : 
 
 Thus iu short space of time the joys of men 
 Expand, and thus in turn fall to tho ground 
 Like shaken fruit, when Fate has changed her mind. 
 We are but of a day. What then is man ? 
 What is ho not ? he is a shadow's dream. § 
 
 • Ambrose Philips. 
 
 t Gray, " Tlio Progress of Poesy." 
 
 I *' Translations from Pindar," by H. S. Tremenhoero, p. 11. 
 
 § Ibid., p. 89, Pyth. viii. 92. 
 
 -^^^W'^KWii^fsa: '^C^i*^ 
 
 A GOLDEN AGE 
 
 281 
 
 But it IS in the works of tho great Athenian 
 dramatists that true joy is to be found. There we 
 stand on the topmost pinnacle. Where there 
 18 so much that is so good, it is difficult to ItLian 
 select. Here are some lines from Aeschylus ^^ama. 
 the earliest of the three great tragedians, the ^'^^^y^^«- 
 patriot who fought at Marathon and Salamis, the 
 aristocrat, the champion of the ancestral religion, and 
 admirer of the national legends, which he ennobles by 
 iJis philosopliy and magnificent diction. 
 
 Prometheus, the benefactor who conferred fire and 
 other blessings on mankind, has just been fastened to 
 the rocks of his martyrdom. As the tormentors with- 
 draw, he exclaims : 
 
 ♦ Ethereal air, and yo swift-winged winds, 
 Ye rivers springing from fresh founts, yo waves. 
 That o'er tho interminable ocean wreathe 
 Your crisped smiles, thou all-producing earth, 
 And thoe,' bright sun, I call, whose flaming orb 
 Views the wide world beneath, see what, a god 
 I suffer from the gods ; with what fierce pains,' 
 JJehold, what tortures for revolving ages 
 I here must struggle ; such unseemly chains 
 This new-rais'd ruler of the gods devis'd. 
 Ah mo ! That groan bursts from my anguish'd heart, 
 
 My present woes and future to bemoan. 
 
 When shall these suff'rings find their destin'd end ? 
 
 But why that vain enquiry ? My clear sight 
 
 Looks through the future ; unforeseen no iU 
 
 Shall come on me : behoves mo then to bear 
 
 Patient iny destin'd fate, knowing how vain 
 
 To struggle with necessity's strong pow'r. 
 
 But to complain, or not complain, alike ' 
 
 Is unavailable. For favours shown 
 
 To mortal man I bear this weight of woe ; 
 
 Hid in a hollow cave tho fount of fire 
 
 I privately convey 'd, of ev'ry art 
 
 It: 
 
 ♦ Aesch., "Prometheus Bound," 88. Tr. byR. Potter. 
 
I 
 
 282 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 Productive, and the noblest gift to men, 
 And for this slight offence, woe, woe is me ! 
 I bear these chains, fix'd to this savage rock, 
 Unshelter'd from th' inclemencies of th' air. 
 
 Ye sec me bound, a wretched god, abhorr'd 
 By Jove, and ev'ry god that treads his courts, 
 For my fond love to man. Ah me ! again 
 I hear the sound of liutt'ring nigh ; the air 
 Pants to the soft beat of light-moving wings ; 
 All that approaches now is dreadful to me. 
 
 In another play, ** The Seven against Thebes," 
 Eteocles reflects how often the innocent suffer with 
 the guilty. 
 
 ♦ I mourn the destiny that blends the just 
 With these unhallow'd wretches. Nothing worse 
 In whate'or cause, than impious fellowship ; 
 Nothing of good is reap'd ; for when the field 
 Is sown with wrong, the ripen'd fruit is death. 
 If with a desperate band, whose hearts are hot 
 With villany, the pious hoists his sails. 
 The vengeance of the Gods bursts on the bark, 
 And sinks him with his heav'n-detested crew. 
 If 'midst a race inhospitably bent 
 On savage deeds, regardless of the Gods, 
 The just man fix his seat, th' impending wrath 
 Spares not, but strikes him with vindictive fury, 
 Crush'd in the general ruin. 
 
 Or listen to Cassandra, the inspired Trojan princess, 
 whom Agamemnon brings home as a captive, bewailing 
 her own and her. master's impending doom and the 
 misery of man's lot. 
 
 t This is the state of man : in prosperous fortune 
 A shadow, passing light, throws to the ground 
 
 • Aesch,, " Seven against Thebes," 697. Tr. by Potter, 
 t Aesch., •' Agamemnon," 1027. Tr. by Potter. 
 
 ^.■^dmmi^mmmilf^. 
 
 A GOLDEN AGE 283 
 
 Joy's baseless fabric : in adversity 
 
 Comes malice with a sponge moisten'd in gall. 
 
 And wipes each beauteous character away. 
 
 In another play the Furies sing as they pursue 
 Orestes, who has murdered his mother : 
 
 * He whose hands from guilt are pure 
 Stands in innocence secure ; 
 And from youth to honour'd age 
 Fears not our vindictive rage. 
 To the wretch that strives to hide 
 Ruffian hands with murder dyed, 
 Cloth'd in terrors we appear, 
 Unrelentingly severe ; 
 And, faithful to the injur'd dead. 
 Pour our vengeance on his head. 
 
 Equally religious, equally deep and lofty, but 
 mellower and kindlier, the poetry of Sophocles, if not 
 so impressive, is more satisfying. It comforts 
 and ennobles. , Sophocles. 
 
 Antigone is defending her action in giving her out- 
 lawed brother's body honourable burial in defiance of 
 Creon's edict. 
 
 t Creon : How durst thou then transgress the published law ? 
 Antigone : I heard it not from Heaven, nor came it forth 
 
 From Justice, where she reigns with Gods below. 
 
 They too have published to mankind a law. 
 
 Nor thought I thy commandment of such might 
 
 That one who is mortal thus could overbear 
 
 The infallible, unwritten laws of Heaven. 
 
 Not now or yesterday they have their being, 
 
 But everlastingly, and none can tell 
 
 The hour that saw their birth. I would not, I, 
 
 For any terror of a man's resolve, 
 
 Incur the God-inflicted penalty 
 
 Of doing them wrong. That death would come I knew 
 
 • " Eumenides," 313. Tr. by Potter. 
 
 t " Antigone," 449. Tr. by Lewis Campbell. 
 
284 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 Without thino edict ; — if before the time, 
 I count it gain. Who does not gain by death, 
 That lives, as I do, amid boundless woe ? 
 Slight is the sorrow of such doom to me. 
 But had I suffered mv own mother's child. 
 Fallen in blood, to 1)0 without a grave. 
 That were indeed a sorrow. This is none. 
 And if thou deem'st me foolish for my deed, 
 I am foolish in the judgement of a fool. 
 
 And undaunted by brutal threats the heroic maiden 
 goes to her death. In the same tragedy there occurs 
 the wonderful ** Sonf]r of Mankind " : * 
 
 There are marvellous wonders many 
 
 Where'er this world wo scan, 
 Yet among them nowhere any 
 
 So groat a marvel as Man. 
 To the white sea's uttermost verges 
 
 Afloat this miracle goes. 
 Forging through thundering surges 
 
 When the wintry southwind blows : — 
 And the Earth, Heaven's Mother, divinest-born, 
 The eternal, deathless, unoutworn. 
 Still plied with an endless to and fro 
 As the yearly ploughshares furrowing go, 
 
 By ;Man is fretted and torn. 
 
 The blithe swift careless races 
 
 On light wing flying in air 
 With speed of his wit ho chases 
 
 And takes in a woven snare : 
 All deer in the wild wood running, 
 
 The deep sea's diverse kind. 
 Are snared in toils by the cunning 
 
 Of Man's outrivalling mind. 
 Strength of the lion, lord of the hill. 
 Yields to Man's overmastering skill ; 
 With his proud mane bowing under the yoke 
 The rebellious horse is tamed and broke, 
 
 And the mountain bull to his will. 
 
 ♦ " A Book of Greek Verso," by W. Headlam, p. 113. 
 
 Bf'-i^JdsyW &'^&'*ii«g«^5S"V't»^^*i<Bl«WSgSK^i^^W*& -^ 
 
 '''>&&>.*jS«!!rSSa^^ '&f3S 
 
 A GOLDEN AGE 285 
 
 He hath found out Speech, and the giving 
 
 Of wings to his high proud Thought ; 
 And the ordered spirit of living 
 
 In Towns his mind hath taught ; 
 Shelter from arrowy shafts 
 
 Of the bleak air's frost and sleet ; 
 There is nought in store but his crafts 
 
 Shall have armed him ready to meet ; 
 He fronts with fresh devices 
 
 The future's every shape : — 
 Only, despite his cunning. 
 The Grave still mocks all shunning ; 
 Disease may root her vices. 
 
 But Art hath learned escape. 
 
 And, a little further, the Ode to Love : * 
 
 Warrior Love unquelled. 
 
 Thou Spoiler, armed for the raid. 
 Whose vigil at night is held 
 
 On the damask cheeks of a maid ; 
 Thy path goes over the flowing sea. 
 
 Thy presence dwells in the woodland field ; 
 Be it god or mortal that fain would flee. 
 
 There is none may fly thee, but all must yield 
 To the madness gotten of thee I 
 
 Nor may we forget " Oedipus at Colonus " with its 
 lovely song beginning:! 
 
 Friend, in our land of conquering steeds thou art come 
 To this Heaven-fostered haunt, Earth's fairest home, 
 Gleaming Colonos, where the nightingale 
 In cool green covert warbleth ever clear. 
 True to the clustering ivy and the dear 
 
 Divine, impenetrable shade. 
 From wildered boughs and myriad fruitage made, 
 Sunless at noon, stormless in every gale. 
 Wood-roving Bacchus there, with mazy round. 
 And his nymph nurses range the unoffended ground. 
 
 I 
 
 * Ibid, p. 121. 
 
 t " Sophocles in English Verse," by Lewis Campbell. 
 
286 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 Space is unkind, but two more pieces, before we take 
 leave of this sweet singer. In the first Ajax, humbled 
 and sobered by the disastrous results of his mad out- 
 break, is meditating on obedience to authority : * 
 
 Who rules must be obeyed. 
 Since nought so fierce and terrible but yields 
 Place to Authority. Wild Winter's snows 
 Make way for bounteous Summer's flowery tread, 
 And Night's sad orb retires for lightsome Day 
 With his white steeds to illumine the glad sky. 
 The furious storm-blast leaves the groaning sea 
 Gently to rest. Yea, the all-subdue r Sleep 
 Frees whom he binds, nor holds enchained for aye. 
 And shall not men bo taught the temperate will ? 
 
 In the second, the last we shall quote, blind Oedipus, 
 exiled by his own sons, reminds Theseus of the instability 
 of human affairs.f 
 
 Dear son of Aegeus, to the Gods alone 
 Comes never Age nor Death. All else i' the world 
 Time, the all-subduer, merges in oblivion. 
 Earth and men's bodies weaken, fail, and perish ; 
 Faith withers, breach of faith springs up and grows, 
 And neither men nor cities that are friends 
 Breathe the same spirit with continuing breath. 
 Love shall be turned to hate, and hate to love, 
 With many hereafter, as with some to-day. 
 
 Last in time, but not least — for who can be greatest 
 or w^ho least in such a trinity ? — came 
 
 Our Euripides, the human, 
 With his droppings of warm tears, 
 And his touches of things common 
 TiU they rose to touch the spheres 1 
 
 A GOLDEN AGE 
 
 287 
 
 He was called the '' most tragic " of the tragedians, and 
 was the most popular, for he brought the stage within the 
 reach of the spectators, who saw the story of 
 their own thoughts and passions reflected, as ^'"'^'^^^' 
 in a mirror, in the characters of his plays. If we may 
 compare great things with small, as the author of '* Peter 
 Pan" transforms the traditional fairies into real live 
 boys and girls, so Euripides made the legendary heroes 
 and idealized characters of the theatre step down from 
 their high pedestals and live and speak like Athenian 
 men and women of actual everyday experience. Here 
 is the dying prayer of Alcestis and the scene in the 
 death-chamber : * 
 
 O Queen, I go to the infernal shades, 
 
 Yet, ere I go, with reverence let mo breathe 
 
 My last request. Protect my orphan children, 
 
 Make my son happy with the wife he loves, 
 
 And wed njy daughter to a noble husband : 
 
 Nor let them, like their mother, to the tomb 
 
 Untimely sink, but in their native land 
 
 Be blest through lengthened life to honour'd ago. 
 
 Her children, as they hung upon her robes 
 
 Weeping, she rais'd, and clasp'd them to her breast 
 
 Each after each, as now about to die. 
 
 Each servant through the house burst into tears 
 
 In pity of their mistress ; she to each 
 
 Stretch'd her right hand ; nor was there one so mean 
 
 To whom she spoke not, and admitted him 
 
 To speak to her again .... 
 
 In another place (in the Medea) the poet reflects on 
 hasty judgments ; f 
 
 Many have I known 
 Of honourable birth, who lost respect. 
 
 * Ajax, 665. " Sophocles in English Verse," by Lewis Campbell, 
 t Oedipus at Colonus, 607. Ibid. 
 
 ♦ " Tragedies of Euripides." Tr. by R. Potter. Vol. i. p 186 
 Ale. 167. 
 
 t Ibid., p. 256. Med. 214. 
 
288 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 Some for rotiriug from the public eyo, 
 And otbors as too lavish of their prosonco : 
 And some, who lovod tlio calm of peaceful life, 
 Have boon defamed as spiritless and slotliful : 
 For 'tis not by the eyo we rightly judge 
 Of truth ; whoe'er, before he knows the heart, 
 Conceives disliiie by sight, in nothing wrong'd, 
 Does ill. 
 
 A little further in the same play, Medea, resolved to 
 murder her children, feels her purpose waver : * 
 
 In vain I nurtured you, my sons ; in vain 
 I labour'd, and consumed myself with cares ; 
 In vain I bore a mother's painful throes. 
 There was a time when I had many hopes, 
 Wretch as I am, in you ; that your fond love 
 With nursing diligence would tend my age, 
 And decently in death compose my limbs. 
 The wish of mortals : now that pleasing thought 
 la vanish'd ; and my life, deprived of you, 
 Must wear away in misery and woo. 
 Your mother never with your longing eyes 
 Shall you view more ; another state of life 
 Is yours. Alas, alas, why are your eyes. 
 My sons, fixed fondly on me ? Why that smile ? 
 'Tis your last smile. -Ah mo, what shall I do ? 
 My heart sinks in me. 
 
 Songs of exquisite beauty are scattered broadcast 
 through the plays. We cannot quote even one in its 
 entirety, but here are some lines, taken almost at random, 
 in praise of Humility.t 
 
 'Tis the life of quiet breath, 
 
 'Tis the simple and the true. 
 Storm nor earthquake shattereth, 
 
 Nor shall aught the house undo 
 Where they dwell. For, far away, 
 Hidden from the eyes of day, 
 
 
 <i 
 
 • Ibid., p. 294, Med. 117. 
 
 t Bacch. 388 foil. " The Athenian Drama," vol. iii. p. 
 Euripides," by Gilbert Murray. 
 
 9G. 
 
 A GOLDEN AGE 289 
 
 Watchers are there in the skies, • 
 
 That can see man's life, and prize 
 Deeds well done by things of clay. 
 
 liut the world's Wise are not wise, 
 Claiming more than mortal may. 
 Life is such a little thing ; 
 
 Lo, their present is departed. 
 And the dreams to which they cling 
 Come not. Mad imagining 
 
 Theirs, I ween, and empty-hearted. 
 
 Real independence was as rare then as it is now : 
 
 Faugh ! There is no man free in all this world 1 
 Slaves of possessions, slaves of fortune, hurled 
 This way and that. Or else the multitude 
 Hath hold on him ; or laws of stone and wood 
 Constrain, and will not lot him nso tho soul 
 Within him I ♦ 
 
 The poet feels the spell of domestic joys, filial 
 obedience, parental love, and knows how to give sound 
 advice to youth and age. Some of his criticisms of 
 current fashions and ideas savour of Eudyard Kipling's 
 '* flannelled fool " and ** muddied oaf " poetry. 
 
 But let it not be supposed that the Athenians were 
 always in deadly earnest. They were intensely human. 
 They could unbend and so could their poets. Aristo 
 There never was a merrier wit than Aris- phanes. 
 tophanes, and we can picture his audience, who not long 
 before had felt themselves mightily improved by a 
 lecture from Euripides, holding their sides with laughter 
 at his broad mirth. Take only one instance out of ten 
 thousand, from the ''Birds."t 
 
 Ye children of Man 1 whose life is a span, 
 Protracted with sorrow from day to day. 
 
 * " Euripides," in " The Athenian Drama," vol. iii, by Gilbert 
 Murray. Introd. p. xlviii. ' ^ ^"^en 
 
 t " Birds," 695. Tr. by George Frere. 
 
 U 
 
290 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 Naked and featherless, feeble and querulous, 
 
 Sickly calamitous creatures of clay I 
 
 Attend to the words of the Sovereign Birds, 
 
 Immortal, illustrious, lords of the air, 
 
 Who survey from on high, with a merciful eye. 
 
 Your struggles of misery, labour and care. 
 
 Before the creation of Aether and Light, 
 Chaos and Night together were plight. 
 In the dungeon of Erebus foully bedight. 
 Nor Ocean, or Air, or substance was there. 
 Or solid or rare, or figure or form. 
 But horrible Tartarus rul'd in the storm : 
 At length, in the dreary chaotical closet 
 Of Erebus old, was a privy deposit 
 By Night the primaeval in secrecy laid ; 
 A Mystical Egg, that in silence and shade 
 Was brooded and hatched ; till time came about. 
 And Love, the delightful, in glory flew out. 
 In rapture and light, exulting and bright, 
 Sparkling and florid, with stars in his forehead. 
 His forehead and hair, and a flutter and flare. 
 As he rose in the air, triumphantly furnish'd, 
 To range his dominions, on glittering pinions. 
 All golden and azure, and blooming and burnish'd : 
 
 Like him, we can ramble, and gambol and fly 
 O'er ocean and earth, and aloft to the sky : 
 And all the world over, we're friends to the lover. 
 And when other means fail, we are found to prevail, 
 When a Peacock or Pheasant is sent as a present. 
 
 All lessons of primary daily concern 
 You have learnt from the Birds, and continue to learn. 
 Your best benefactors and early instructors ; 
 We give you the warning of seasons returning. 
 
 When the Cranes are arranged and muster afloat 
 In the middle air, with a creaking note. 
 Steering away to the Lybian sands ; 
 Then careful farmers sow their lands ; 
 The crazy vessel is haul'd ashore. 
 The sail, the ropes, the rudder and oar 
 Are all unshipp'd and hous'd in store. 
 
 A GOLDEN AGE 291 
 
 The shepherd is warn'd, by the Kite reappearing. 
 To muster his flock, and be ready for shearing. 
 You quit your old cloak at the Swallow's behest, 
 In assurance of summer, and purchase a vest. 
 
 For Delphi, for Ammon, Dodona, in fine, 
 For every oracular temple and shrine. 
 The Birds are a substitute equal and fair. 
 For on us you depend, and to us you repair 
 For council and aid, when a marriage is made, 
 A purchase, a bargain, a venture in trade : 
 Unlucky or lucky, whatever has struck ye. 
 An Ox or an Ass, that may happen to pass, 
 A voice in the street, or a slave that you meet, 
 A Name or a Word by chance overheard, 
 If you deem it an Omen, you call it a " Bird " ; 
 And if birds are your omens, it clearly will follow, 
 That birds are a proper prophetic Apollo. 
 
 Then take us as gods, and you'll soon find the odds, 
 We'll serve for all uses, as Prophets and Muses ; 
 
 ♦ ♦ * • ♦ 
 
 And never bilk you of pigeon's milk 
 Or potable gpld ; you shall live to grow old. 
 In laughter and mirth, on the face of the earth, 
 Laughing, quaffing, carouzing, bouzing. 
 
 Your only distress shall be the excess 
 
 Of ease and abundance and happiness. 
 
 And now what shall we say of the prose literature of 
 Greece ? Perhaps the first point to notice is the great 
 disparity in age between the two sisters: Prose 
 Prose was not born until after Poetry had Writers, 
 reached the fullness of her stature and beauty. Heca- 
 taeus of Miletus, who flourished about 500 b.c, wrote a 
 *' Tour of the Earth," but the first real writer of literary 
 prose was Herodotus, the "Father of History" (born 
 at Halicarnassus in 484 b.c), whose theme was the 
 struggle between the East and the West, culminating in 
 the invasions of Darius and Xerxes. The style is simple 
 and natural, and the book abounds in well-told, de- 
 lightful stories. A more scientific, but no less dramatic, 
 historian was Thucydides, who wrote the history of the 
 
 i. 
 
292 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 Peloponnesian War, and whose style is more elaborate 
 and more difficult. But the reader is well repaid the 
 trouble of mastering it. Thucydides is a real artist, 
 but always subordinates picturesqueness to accuracy. 
 He looks beneath the surface and searches for the 
 causes of events, and may be regarded as the founder 
 of historical criticism. Among orators whose speeches 
 have been preserved, were Isocrates and Demosthenes, 
 while philosophy claimed Plato, the pupil of Socrates, 
 and Aristotle, the tutor of Alexander. The two extracts 
 which follow are taken from Plato's **Eepublic," in 
 which he drew a picture of his Ideal State. 
 
 I. The Go-as-you-please State, iwimJarJy ealled 
 
 Democraejj.* 
 
 *' Now what is the character of Democracy ? May 
 we not say, in the first place, that the citizens are 
 free and that the state is full of liberty and freedom 
 of speech and permission for anybody to do as he 
 pleases ? 
 
 That's what they say, he replied. 
 
 Then, said I, this form of government seems likely 
 to prove the fairest of all to contemplate ! Like a many- 
 coloured coat embroidered with all manner of flowers, it 
 will be beautiful with a pattern of all kinds of cha- 
 racters. And perhaps, as women and children admire 
 variety of colour, so many people will consider this form 
 of government the most worthy of admiration. You 
 might go to a democratically governed city as you would 
 to a constitution-fair and pick out the type that suits your 
 fancy best and set that up. 
 
 There would certainly be no lack of patterns to select 
 from, he said. 
 
 * Plato, " Republic," 557. 
 
 A GOLDEN AGE 
 
 293 
 
 And what a wonderful and delightful life, I con- 
 tinued. No necessity to govern, even if you are 
 eminently fitted to do so, nor to be governed either, 
 unless you are so disposed; nor to go to war when 
 your fellow-citizens go to war, nor to be at peace 
 when the rest are at peace, unless you like. If there 
 is a law preventing you from holding office or sitting 
 on a jury, that is no reason at all why you should 
 not do both, if you have a mind to. Is not the modesty 
 of some of our present-day convicts quite charming ? 
 Or have you never seen, under a democracy, men 
 sentenced to death or deportation calmly remaining 
 where they are and going up and down in their city quite 
 unconcerned, and swaggering about like heroes, not a 
 soul seeing or caring? Mark, too, the democracy's 
 charitableness and sublime indifference to trifles: it 
 contemptuously tramples underfoot all our high educa- 
 tional principles, and cares not a jot about a politician's 
 previous record, but accepts his bare assertion of devotion 
 to the People as a passport to its respect. These and 
 similar traits belong to a democracy, which is quite 
 delightfully full of lawlessness and inconsistency and 
 distributes equality alike to the equal and the unequal, 
 with undiscriminating impartiality. 
 
 That all this is so, said he, is notorious." 
 
 Is the picture over-coloured, or does our modern 
 Democracy recognize the likeness ? 
 
 II. The Go-as-you-please Indkidml* 
 
 ** Lying and hypocritical arguments capture the 
 fortress of the young man's soul, lock the gates and turn 
 a deaf ear to remonstrance or advice. The victory is 
 
 ♦Plato, "Republic," 561. 
 
 5|i 
 
294 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 theirs. Modesty they dub silliness, and drive it out 
 into ignominious exile ; self-control they label unmanli- 
 ness, and expel it without ceremony ; moderation and 
 reasonable expenditure they represent as want of 
 manners and education, and thrust out of sight with 
 the aid of a host of perfectly unprofitable desires. And 
 so he lives from day to day indulging the passing whim 
 of the moment: to-day he is drowsy with wine and 
 music, to-morrow he will turn teetotaller and starve 
 himself to grow thin; one day he is all for exercise, 
 another he is all laziness and apathy, and yet another 
 he buries himself in his books. And often he takes to 
 politics and jumps up and says and does whatever comes 
 into his head ; and if he makes some soldier his hero, 
 he must needs go a-soldiering, and if a business man, off 
 go his thoughts to business. There is no law or order in 
 his life ; but, calling this mode of living delightful and 
 free and happy, he never departs from it.'* 
 
 Acute and masterly character-drawing. 
 
 And so a reluctant farewell to Parnassus and the 
 great company of spirits, grave or gay, who dwell upon 
 Greek its summit for evermore with Apollo and the 
 
 uterature. Muses nine. One or two things must impress 
 themselves on all who approach the grand literature of 
 Greece. There is first its superlative excellence. If 
 you say to me that, of course, it is all good, because 
 only the good in it has survived, I reply. True, only the 
 good has survived, but not all the good nor always the 
 best. Some of the plays we have won only second or 
 third prizes, some none at all. What must those have 
 been which wrested the crown from them ! High 
 excellence belonged to the beaten, even to the third and 
 fourth rank. 
 
 Then there is the wide diffusion of Greek literature. 
 
 A GOLDEN AGE 
 
 295 
 
 It is quite a mistake to suppose that Athens enjoyed a 
 monopoly, and that by ** Greek " we mean *' Athenian" 
 literature. Athens no doubt exercised a great attrac- 
 tion : it was a home of art and learning, a centre, like 
 London or Paris. But the writers, of prose or poetry, 
 came from all parts of the Hellenic world, from the 
 rising and the setting sun. From Lesbos to Sicily the 
 tree grew and flourished, fragrant with the fairest 
 blossom and laden with fruit of exquisite and subtle 
 flavour. 
 
 The love of literature not only spread wide but sank 
 deep. At the present day how many of us care for 
 good poetry, or even good prose ? The p^ ^^^ 
 ** cultured" class is an infinitely small frac- among all 
 tion of the community. At Athens and other ^^*^^®^- 
 places all classes thronged to the theatre, not to see 
 (for the scenery was of the simplest, and the producer of 
 a play was less important in those days than its author), 
 but to hear. They went in their thousands — the theatre 
 of Athens accommodated close on thirty thousand, and 
 there were others as large at Syracuse and Epidaurus 
 and elsewhere. Nowadays, with our enormously larger 
 population, only a football match will attract such 
 numbers. 
 
 And the Greek's love of literature was genuine. It 
 was part of his nature. It was rooted in his soul and 
 bore good fruit. For jealous as he was, rest- power of 
 less, fickle, pugnacious, cunning, vindictive, voetrj. 
 he was an artist with it all, and his love of good art 
 was above all his other characteristics. Had anybody 
 ever better cause to hate the Athenians than the 
 Syracusans after that long and harassing siege ? Their 
 natural impulse, when relief at last came and the peril 
 was over, was to wreak their vengeance on those of the 
 invaders who fell into their hands, to kill and torture 
 
 1 1 
 
296 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 them. But the victors were Greeks no less than the van- 
 quished, and because they were Greeks, poetry exercised 
 over them a spell which would not be denied. Any of 
 the unhappy Athenians who could recite passages, either 
 choruses or speeches, from the plays of Euripides, were 
 immediately treated with the kindest consideration. 
 Their wounds were attended to, and, though prisoners 
 of war and slaves, they were given their liberty and 
 allowed to return home, as a reward for the delight they 
 had afforded their captors by their recitations. Many 
 such, we are told, returning to Athens, went first to 
 visit the aged poet, to thank him and his genius for the 
 blessing of life and liberty. It may be questioned how 
 many of us, after a desperate and exasperating struggle 
 for existence, would be inclined to give a free pardon to 
 any of our prisoners who could give us recitations out 
 of Shakespeare 1 
 
 Perhaps enough has been quoted to lure the reader 
 further, to suggest a faint picture of that fragrant 
 
 garden of flowers, the literature of Greece. 
 
 Translations, at the best, can never do more 
 than give a reflection of the original. Happy those 
 who look into the mirror ; they can at any rate feel 
 some of the fascination of the scene ; but happier those 
 who passing through the gate of the garden walk up 
 and down its paths of pleasantness, and drink deep the 
 fragrance streaming from its living blossoms. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 ALEXANDER (355-323 B.C.) 
 
 When that this body did contain a spirit, 
 A kingdom for it was too small a bound. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 The East led by Persia under Darius and again under 
 Xerxes had attempted the conquest of the West and 
 failed. Greece had met the enemy in the 
 gate and Europe was saved. Now the parts fouX-' 
 were to be reversed. Europe became the i^iyasion of 
 aggressor and invaded Asia, and the East lay ^"*' 
 prostrate at the feet of the West. Pheidias had taken 
 the marble the Persians brought to Marathon and 
 created a Nemesis to commemorate their defeat. But 
 this time Nemesis came and sought them out, in flesh 
 and blood and fire and steel. Alexander came as an 
 avenger. 
 
 The Peloponnesian War has unavoidably engaged a 
 great deal of our attention, but the reader of former 
 chapters does not need by this time to be Th^ world 
 reminded that, though the struggle between one. 
 Athens and Sparta might appear to those rival towns 
 the most important and vital thing on earth, there were 
 other people in the world living their lives and going 
 about their business, to them equally interesting, and 
 moreover that they were not in separate sound-proof 
 and fire-proof compartments, knowing nothing of each 
 other. There was free circulation and intercourse, 
 
 297 
 
 i -fl 
 
298 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 news did travel, and a conflagration in one place might 
 spread to another. It is sometimes difiQcult to realize 
 this fact about very early times, but that is because 
 our materials are so scanty. For the period which we 
 have now reached the data are quite abundant and 
 trustworthy, and the fact is clear. 
 
 Before the Persian Wars began, Cyrus and after him 
 Cambyses and Darius had bound together under one 
 Persia in common sway all the East from the Dardanelles 
 ^SJVt. and Egypt to the Indus. Darius cut a canal 
 
 from the Nile to the Bed Sea and was not unpopular in 
 Egypt, but the year before his death the province 
 revolted (486). Two years later the revolt was crushed 
 by Xerxes, who exchanged his father's whips for 
 scorpions. 
 
 Beturning from his disastrous expedition to Greece, 
 Xerxes found his empire in trouble. The great defeat 
 Egyptian shook his throne severely. The double victory 
 risings. of the Athenian Cimon at the Eurymedon 
 (466) dealt it a fresh blow, and in the following year he 
 was murdered by the captain of his body-guard and 
 succeeded by his youngest son Artaxerxes I., surnamed 
 "Long-hand " (465-424). Again Egypt revolted (460), 
 this time under Inaros, who asked and obtained help 
 from Athens. But the revolt was crushed like its 
 predecessor, the Athenian force was annihilated (455), 
 and the rebel chief Inaros crucified. Yet Amyrtaeus 
 (iVmon-rut) maintained his independence in the swamps 
 and made terms with Persia. 
 
 Close by and on the direct road from Persia to Egypt, 
 Jerusalem was rising again from its ashes, under the 
 Egypt and Supervision of Ezra (458) and Nehemiah (445). 
 Athens. \Ye know from the biblical account that the 
 Persian Empire was in a state of great disorder, being 
 managed, or mismanaged, by plots and counterplots. 
 
 ALEXANDER 
 
 299 
 
 The Persian Zopyrus, the son of the conqueror of Inaros, 
 actually went for refuge to Athens and served on at 
 least one Athenian expedition; and, another proof 
 of international intercourse and unity, in 445 the 
 Egyptian prince Psammetichus sent a large gift of corn 
 to Athens. 
 
 The Peloponnesian War did not fail to interest 
 Persia. Here were her worst enemies quarrelling 
 among themselves : could not something be ., ^he Ten 
 done to help them weaken each other by pro- Thousand." 
 longing their internecine conflict ? The practical answer 
 we saw in the closing years of the war, when Sparta 
 wore down her rival, thanks mainly to Persian gold. 
 When the young Cyrus, her generous paymaster, after- 
 wards became a pretender for the throne of Persia, 
 Sparta lent him the assistance of a well-trained Greek 
 army, which fo^ight manfully at Cunaxa, where Cyrus 
 fell, and whose march back to the Black Sea, under 
 circumstances of great hardship and peril, is for ever 
 famous as the " Betreat of the Ten Thousand " (401). 
 
 After the death of Artaxerxes L (424), Persia was 
 unlucky in having a succession of weak and incapable 
 rulers in Xerxes IL, Darius II. and Artaxerxes jjecay of 
 II. (Mnemon). The empire was in a state of Persia, 
 rapid decay. Caria shook itself free under Mausolus 
 (377-353), and the Pharaohs Tachos and Nectanebus of 
 the Thirtieth Dynasty asserted their independence in 
 Egypt (360). The end seemed very near, when, as 
 often happens, the empire made one great effort to 
 recover itself and stand still or even climb up again on 
 the steep slope. Artaxerxes III. for a time restored 
 order and good government and brought back the 
 frontier provinces, especially Phoenicia and Egypt (314), 
 into the fold. He taught with a rod and applied it with 
 a heavy hand. It was perhaps during this re-conquest 
 
i-.jgA^fz.,^tf^i^tf,it , 5=s»-Wi^--waB*'afehJWta9*KeTfeS*S|^ 
 
 ■nawMMii 
 
 300 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 ALEXANDER 
 
 301 
 
 that HoloiDhernes was commissioned to "pacify '* Judaea 
 and was murdered by Judith. 
 
 Whether it be true or no that Philip of Macedon 
 sent an embassy to Artaxerxes IIL, the Persian king 
 Else of '^as getting alarmed at the Macedonian 
 Macedonia, activity in the Hellespont (Dardanelles) and 
 was watching him suspiciously. But he died before the 
 battle of Chaeronea (338), and Persia's last chance was 
 gone. 
 
 As the reader knows, the incurable lack of cohesion 
 in Greece — 
 
 Wretched and foolisli jealousy, 
 
 .... that poor desire 
 
 That others should not warm them at my fire.* 
 
 had ruined in turn the Athenian, Spartan and 
 Chaeronea : Theban supremacies. Jealousy too laid 
 Philip Greece prostrate at the feet of Philip of 
 
 master of 
 
 Greece, Macedon. Firstly, he was allowed to destroy 
 
 338 B.C. the Olynthian confederacy in Thrace, which 
 might if supported have served as a bulwark against him. 
 Secondly, he was invited first by the Thebans, those old 
 mischief-makers, and later by the Amphictyonic Council 
 itself, to interfere in internal disputes, called '* Sacred 
 Wars," because they were concerned with the occupation 
 of sacred land belonging to the temple of Delphi. And 
 then, when the oft-repeated warnings of x\thens were at 
 last listened to, it was too late. Thebes joined her at 
 the last moment, but both together were completely and 
 finally crushed at Chaeronea (338). 
 
 PhiUp was master of Greece and would now fulfil his 
 Death of ^i^^'s ambition, an invasion of Persia. But, 
 Philip. in the midst of his preparations, he was 
 
 murdered (336), and his place taken by his young son 
 Alexander, then barely twenty years old. 
 
 * Ben Jonsou. 
 
 Away in the West, the Romans had not as yet done 
 any *' showy" piece of work. But the work was none 
 the less solid. Quietly and unobtrusively, Rome rises 
 they were yet training to become masters of to thehead- 
 the world. In 454, at the time when Athens '^^^^^ 
 under Pericles was making her confederacy 338 B.C. 
 into an empire, ambassadors arrived in Athens from 
 Rome to study the Athenian constitution and law and 
 report to their countrymen. The Romans thus 
 obtained a written code (451).* They went through the 
 experience of having their city captured and sacked by 
 the Gauls (390), which taught them valuable military 
 and social lessons. They learnt the value of unity, and by 
 the Licinian Laws (367),wiped out the distinction between 
 Patricians and Plebeians. They fought with success 
 against warlike neighbours, and had even a sufficient 
 claim on the respect of the powerful city of Carthage to 
 be able to make a treaty with it on equal terms (348). 
 Lastly, in the very year of the battle of Chaeronea 
 (338), when Philip IL of Macedon became master of 
 Greece, Rome crushed the last resistance of the Latins, 
 dissolved their League, and became the sole mistress of 
 Latium. 
 
 And what of Carthage ? Had her repulse at Himera 
 on the day of Salamis (480) been final? After the 
 Athenian disaster at Syracuse (413), the 
 government of that city assumed an extreme ^^fli^ii . 
 form of democracy. But the foreign peril, Dionysius * 
 in the shape of Carthaginian invasions, and ^^® ^^^^''• 
 the death of Hermocrates, the hero of the defence 
 against the Athenians, had brought about the downfall 
 of that government. In days of national danger in the 
 face of an armed foe, salvation comes not from a 
 debating society, but from the one strong man who 
 
 ♦ See Chapter XII., " The Lawgivers." 
 
302 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 li 
 
 Nl 
 
 will take the whole responsibility and act promptly. 
 Themistocles saved Greece at Salamis; Athens was beaten 
 by Sparta because she had no strong man of command- 
 ing pre-eminence, while Sparta had Lysander. And now 
 (405) Syracuse and Sicily were saved by Hermocrates' 
 son, Dionysius the Elder. Like our own Clive, he began 
 life as a clerk at a desk, and, like him, showed that his 
 fingers were more at home with a sword than a pen. 
 He was the strong man of action the times needed, and 
 at the early age of twenty-five he was appointed Sole 
 General of Syracuse, of which he quickly made himself 
 Tyrant. He was successful in all his enterprises, 
 making Syracuse almost impregnable, and annexing 
 Southern Italy, and forcing terms on the Carthaginians 
 which kept them well in check during the whole of his 
 reign of thirty-eight years (405-367). 
 
 He was succeeded by his son Dionysius the 
 Younger (3G7-343), a very different and very inferior 
 Timoieon of character, who, after withdrawing and again 
 Corinth. returning to power, finally abdicated under 
 pressure from that remarkable genius, Timoieon of 
 Corinth, who, refusing autocratic power for himself, put 
 down the last remaining Tyrants in Sicily and won an 
 astonishing victory over tremendously superior numbers 
 of Carthaginians at the river Crimissus (339). In the 
 following year they were forced to make terms, 
 accepting the river Halycus as the frontier between 
 themselves and the Sicilian Greeks (338). 
 
 Thus the same year, 338, saw Philip of Macedon 
 undisputed master of Greece on the field of Chaeronea, 
 The year Rome mistress of Latium and the dominant 
 838 B.C. power in central Italy by the dissolution of 
 the Latin League, and Carthage checked by Greeks in 
 her encroachments in Sicily, while the Persian Empire 
 had just lately been re-united and restored by a strong 
 
 "np-i 
 
 ALEXANDER 
 
 303 
 
 ruler (Artaxerxes IH.) to some likeness of its former 
 strength and prosperity. 
 
 Such was the stage and such were some of the actors 
 among whom Alexander now stepped to play out his part. 
 He was the son of Philip II. and Olympias, 
 the daughter of Neoptolemus, King of Epirus, K^er • 
 who traced his descent from the great relations 
 Achilles, while the royal house of Macedonia "^'^ ^'*^^* 
 itself claimed to be a branch of the Heracleidae.* His 
 mother's brother, Alexander of Epirus, was invited in 
 332 B.C., by the people of Tarentum in Italy to come over 
 and save them from the Lucanians and Samnites, and 
 after beatnig these in the neighbourhood of Paestum he 
 made a treaty with the Romans— another early link 
 between Rome and Greece. By that time Alexander 
 was already m the East and besieging Tyre ; otherwise, 
 had Philip been alive and he living in his father's 
 house, his restless spirit might very possibly have led 
 him to accompany his uncle to Italy, and his conquering 
 ardour been diverted from East to West and the whole 
 course of history altered. 
 
 Alexander was born in 356 b.c, the same night that 
 the lunatic Herostratus, for notoriety's sake, burnt 
 down the great temple of Artemis at Ephesus. joyhood of 
 The story was that one day Philip received Alexander, 
 three messages from widely different quarters : one was 
 that his general Parmenio had won a great victory in 
 Illyria, another that his horse had won the first prize at 
 Olympia, the - Derby " of those days, and the third 
 announced the birth of his son. Alexander soon showed 
 signs of remarkable powers, mental and physical. 
 While yet a mere boy he received in his father's absence 
 some Persian ambassadors, who were astonished at his 
 conversation, and thought Philip's celebrated shrewdness 
 
 * See Chapter IX. p. 148. 
 
 i m 
 
 1^ 
 
i 
 
 304 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 was nothing in comparison with his son's. On another 
 
 Bucephalus ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^"^S ^as asked to buy a horse, 
 but was on the point of refusing to do so, as 
 the animal on being tried seemed so unmanageable and 
 vicious, when young Alexander, who was looking on, 
 begged to be allowed to try his hand. His sharp eyes 
 had observed that the horse was frightened at his own 
 shadow. He therefore led him straight towards the sun, 
 stroking him to calm him, then lightly leapt on his back 
 and put him to a full gallop. He brought him back 
 tired and obedient, and was given the horse, who became 
 famous as his favourite charger Bucephalus. 
 
 He had for his tutor, among others, the illustrious 
 philosopher Aristotle, who seems to have instilled into 
 His love of ^^i^ 9. keen love of learning. ** For my own 
 learning. part," wrote the conqueror from Asia, ** I had 
 rather surpass the rest of mankind in learning than in 
 power." He looked upon the "Iliad" as a portable 
 treasure of military knowledge, and carried about with 
 him a copy corrected by Aristotle, which he kept in a rich 
 casket taken from the spoils of Darius. ** Darius," said 
 he, " kept ointments in this : I will turn it to worthier 
 use." While in Asia, busy conquering and organizing, he 
 wrote home for a supply of books, and was sent most of 
 the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, besides 
 other works in prose and verse. 
 
 He helped his father Philip to win the battle of 
 
 Chaeronea (338), commanding the wing opposed to the 
 
 Thebabs and being the first to break their 
 
 '* Sacred Band." Two years later his father 
 
 was dead, murdered very likely at the queen's 
 
 instigation, and his campaigning began in 
 
 His whole life from that moment was spent 
 
 in harness. The young king was surrounded by enemies 
 
 on every side. His marvellous decision and rapidity 
 
 Commander 
 in-chief of 
 all Greek 
 forces. 
 
 earnest. 
 
 p'^^?«ssew»*te-*sat«e^js^^-ti«ei!t#«-'^«^-»^^ 
 
 ALEXANDEK 305 
 
 extricated Lim from every danger. A blow here and a 
 blow there and all was submission again. At Corinth 
 he was elected commander-in-chief of all the Greeks for 
 the exijedition against Persia. 
 
 Thereupon he marched north and even crossed the 
 Danube, making a demonstration to secure his northern 
 frontiers. But news came that Thebes was „„, ,. 
 iQ revolt. Quick as thought he turned back. otrZlT 
 While the Thebans were fondly believing that he had 
 been killed by the northern savages, he suddenly 
 appeared before their walls. The city was stormed 
 and treated with exemplary severity. Only the citadel 
 and house of the poet Pindar were left standing: 
 
 The great Emathian conqueror bid spare 
 
 The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower 
 
 Went to the ground.* 
 
 All the inhabitants were sold into slavery, except 
 1 indar s descendants and persons privately connected 
 with the conqueror's family. Thus even in the midst 
 of warlike fury and resentment, the young soldier still 
 bowed to the sacredness of literature. 
 
 Greece was cowed and not likely to give further 
 trouble, and Alexander crossed for the first and last 
 time— he never saw Greece again— into Asia 
 on his great invasion of Persia (334). His fro^f " 
 army numbered not more than 30 000 foot '""' •*"»• 
 and 5000 horse. 12,000 foot only bsing Macedonians. 
 Unce more he was to prove to the world, as has so often 
 been shown both before and since, that victory does not 
 always rest with the big battalions. Xenopbon and 
 his Ten Thousand Greeks, after the disaster of Cunaxa 
 had made their way home successfully through a vast 
 unknown and hostile couatry and in defiance of over- 
 whelming odds. Alexander felt that thirty odd thousand 
 
 • Milton. 
 
 '11 
 ■ i- 
 
 1 ; 
 'I 
 
 imtmmmm 
 
30G 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 well-discipliueil Greeks woukl be more than a match for 
 ten times their number of Asiatics. 
 
 Darius ILL (Codomannus) was weak and incompetent, 
 and Memnon, the Rhodian Greek, who was his best 
 Darius and general, died in the second year of the war. 
 Memnon. Even while he lived his advice was rejected 
 — Alexander easily won the first battle on the 
 banks of the Granicus — and after his death, Persia 
 never had a chance. In this first engagement Alex- 
 ander, wearing a helmet distinguished by two white 
 plumes, was set upon furiously and was within an ace 
 of losing his life, being just saved in the very nick of 
 time by his friend Clitus. But the warning was wasted : 
 he was not the man to shirk risks. 
 
 It must not be supposed that Alexander's un- 
 deniable impetuosity and reckless courage made him 
 Alexander's incapable of Calm reflection and reasoned 
 strategy. method. His great ambition was to conquer 
 the Persian Empire, but he was a very different person 
 from the younger Cyrus. Cyrus made an impassioned 
 attack straight at the heart of the empire, and, in battle, 
 straight at the heart of the enemy's forces, by headlong 
 folly losing everything, battle, enterprise and life, at 
 one blow. But Alexander let reason attend on ambition. 
 He sat down and quietly thought out his plan of 
 campaign, and followed it out methodically in spite of 
 all temptations to take ** short-cuts." 
 
 Memnon's idea had been— and he was by far the best 
 commander on the Persian side— not to offer direct 
 opposition to Alexander by land, but to get 
 hisbaseand behind him by means of the sea-power at 
 oommuni- Persia's disposal and to strike straight at his 
 base in Macedonia, which move would compel 
 his return. As the reader knows, Memnon's plan was 
 overruled; the Persians fought at the river Granicus 
 
 fVr«-*s^s:;.;,j,_i^ ^'$-^^^^ 
 
 ' 
 
 ALEXANDER 
 
 307 
 
 and were beaten ; and soon after Memnon lost his life 
 at Mytilene. But though the man was dead, the plan 
 might yet be revived and acted upon. A man is often 
 thought more of dead than alive, as Alexander knew. 
 Accordingly, Alexander would take no risks. In order 
 to secure his base and his communications and to pre- 
 clude the possibility of a Persian fleet making a diversion 
 in Greek waters, he must deprive Persia of the sources 
 from which such a fleet could be drawn. That meant 
 the annexation of the coasts of Asia Minor, Syria 
 Phoenicia and Egypt-a roundabout way to the Persian 
 capital, no doubt, but a sure one. 
 
 This plan of campaign Alexander strictly followed 
 Advancing from the Granicus, which is in the north- 
 west corner of Asia Minor, he received the 
 submission of - Sardis, Ephesus, Tralles, ts^^'^Vnl" 
 Magnesia, Smyrna, and other Greek cities, in ^«^<^ ^^ 
 all of which he established democracies, and ^*"'''' 
 stormed Miletus and Halicarnassus. After a visit to 
 Gordium, where he cut the famous '*Gordian knot" 
 and, what was less dramatic but more practically useful, 
 received reinforcements from Greece, he went south to 
 Tarsus, marching through the pass of the Cilician Gates 
 unopposed. At Tarsus he nearly lost his life through a 
 chill contracted by plunging when heated into the cold 
 waters of the river Cydnus. But as soon as he was 
 recovered, he advanced to Issus, a town in the angle 
 formed by the coasts of Asia Minor and Syria, and 
 coutmued his march southwards. He had not gone far 
 when he heard that Darius was behind him, having 
 crossed Mount Amanus and dropped down to Issus. 
 Ihat foolish and incompetent leader, instead of barring 
 Alexander's passage in a wide plain where numbers 
 would tell, had thrown away all the advanta^re of his 
 immense army of half a million men by descending. 
 
308 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 Alex- 
 ander's 
 
 into the confiaed seaside plain of Issus in the vain hope 
 of catchiag Alexander still detained there by illness. 
 He had arrived too late, but Alexander, so far from 
 congratulating himself on having stolen a march, could 
 wish for nothing better than to meet his enemy in such 
 a position, and quickly doubled back. His victory was 
 decisive. The Persians were slaughtered like sheep, 
 losing 110,000, while the Greek loss was under one 
 thousand. Darius himself fled, leaving his wife Statira, 
 his mother, sister, and daughters in the conqueror's 
 power (333). 
 
 Alexander treated the royal ladies with the utmost 
 consideration, taking care to assure them immediately 
 after the battle that Darius had not besn 
 killed, and that they had nothing to fear 
 courtesy. ^^^^ himself as *' his dispute with Darius 
 was solely for empire." It was a Persian who told 
 Darius that Alexander was " as mild in victory as he 
 was terrible in battle." What a magnificent testi- 
 monial to a youthful conqueror ! 
 
 Instead of pursuing Darius, Alexander dismissed 
 him from his mind and adhoi-ed to his plan. 
 Fan of Damascus was captured with immense spoil, 
 Tyre and and all Phoenicia and Syria submitted except 
 Giza. rji^^g ^^^ Gaza. Tyre, after an eight months' 
 
 siege, during which Alexander by superhuman efforts 
 turned the island into a peninsula, was stormed with 
 fearful slaughter, and Gaza likewise fell after a resist- 
 ance of two months (332). At the close of the siege of 
 Tyre, the court soothsayer, presumably forgetting the 
 date, declared at a sacrifice that Tyre would fall that 
 month. The audience laughed, saying it was already 
 the last day of the month, and the soothsayer was dis- 
 concerted, but Alexander saved the situation by promptly 
 ordering that that day should b3 called the 28th, and 
 
 ALEXANDER 
 
 309 
 
 then by a terrific onslaught storming the place on 
 that very day. He sent valuable spoil home to his 
 mother and step-mother, and did not forget his old 
 tutor. 
 
 There now remained Egypt, which, having always 
 resented the Persian domination, hailed Alexander as a 
 Iriend and deliverer. The conqueror founded ^ . 
 Alexandria, which soon became the com- offeT 
 mercial capital of the East, and journeyed ^^''^'' 
 into the desert to consult the oracle of Zeus Ammon. 
 About this time Darius sent an offer of terms, includincr 
 all his dominions west of the Euphrates and the hand 
 of his daughter. " I would accept, if I were Alexander," 
 said one of his generals, Parmenio. '^ So would I if 
 I were Parmenio," replied Alexander. But he was not, 
 and the war pursued its course, 
 
 Alexander had now secured his rear and was ready 
 to advance to his real goal. He had severed the roots 
 and would now proceed to bring the tree 
 down. He marched north through Phoenicia, e^nd onhe 
 crossed theEuphrates at the fordof Thapsacus, Persian 
 passed through Mesopotamia and crossed the ^'^^^''^' 
 Tigris. Fifty miles west of Arbela he found Darius 
 waiting for him in an immense plain with an immense 
 army. Once more the smaller but better-trained and 
 better-led battalions won. The spiritless king a^ain 
 turned and fled, the Persians suffered a bloody defeat 
 and the empire was lost (331). It is interesting to note' 
 that Alexander sent some of the spoil on this occasion 
 to the city of Croton in Italy, in acknowledgment of 
 the patriotism of their countryman, the athlete Phayllus 
 who was the only Greek from Italy who helped to beat 
 the Persians at Salamis (480). 
 
 Darius fled eastwards, hoping fo reach Bactria, at 
 the foot of the Hindu Kush. Once more Alexander 
 
 If.? J 
 
Ht ,«*"B«?:>,-5«i*f ta^ ™~ ^i^^^^ ^ -v-^ : '■V«*^'iiw-i^gig^%'S^^#^fjessi'ip»^^ 
 
 810 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 refrained from pressing the pursuit to a finish. He 
 PersepoUs proceeded methodically to Babylon, thence 
 burnt. ^Q Susa, and thence to Persepolis, where he 
 
 got possession of the treasures of the Kings of Persia. 
 Either by accident, or, as some have thought, from a 
 desire on Alexander's part to avenge the burning of 
 Greek temples and the mutilation of Greek prisoners, 
 Persepolis was burnt to the ground. 
 
 Revenge, revenge ! Timotheua cries, 
 
 See the Furies arise I 
 
 See the snakes that they rear 
 
 How they hiss in their hair. 
 
 And the sparkles that flash from their eyes I 
 
 Behold a ghastly band. 
 
 Each a torch in his hand ! 
 
 Those are Grecian ghosts, that in battle were slain 
 
 And unburied remain 
 
 Inglorious on the plain : 
 
 Give the vengeance due 
 
 To the valiant crew 1 
 
 Behold how they toss their torches on high, 
 
 How they point to the Persian abodes 
 
 And glittering temples of their hostile gods. 
 
 — The princes applaud with a furious joy : 
 
 And the King seized a flambeau with zeal to destroy ; 
 
 Thais led the way 
 
 To light him to his prey, 
 
 And, like another Helen, fired another Troy ! * 
 
 More reinforcements had arrived from Greece, and 
 next year (330) Alexander set out northwards to 
 Bessus Ecbatana, where Darius was living. Darius 
 
 murders fled for his life into the mountains, accom- 
 *"^*' panied by Bessus, satrap of Bactria. 
 Alexander, hot in pursuit, was overtaking him, when 
 Bessus treacherously murdered his sovereign in cold 
 blood. The last of the '* Great Kings " lay by the road- 
 side — 
 
 ♦ Dryden, " Alexander's Feast." 
 
 ALEXANDER 311 
 
 Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen, 
 Fallen from his high estate 
 And weltering in his blood ; 
 Deserted, at his utmost need, 
 By those his former bounty fed ; 
 On the bare earth exposed he lies 
 With not a friend to close his eyes.* 
 
 The murderer then assumed the title of king in his 
 satrapy of Bactria, little knowing whom he had to deal 
 with in Alexander. At Ecbatana Alexander pardoned 
 all the Persian king's Greek mercenaries and took them 
 into his own pay— a useful reinforcement— and then set 
 out for Bactria, in pursuit of Bessus. 
 
 Further and further east he went. In the following 
 year (329) he crossed the Hindu Kush, the mountain 
 range at the sgurce of the Indus, between ^j 
 Kafiristan and Turkestan, and descended into entw^s^ ^^ 
 Bactria, the modern Bokhara, crossing the ^^^*- 
 river Oxus. Having caught Bessus, he went on north- 
 wards as far as the river Sir Daria, on the banks of 
 which he founded another Alexandria, near the site of 
 the modern Khojent, not far from Samarkand, then 
 retraced his steps across the Oxus and put Bessus to 
 death with the utmost cruelty. He remained the follow- 
 ing year at Samarkand, subjugating Turkestan. In 327 
 he^ captured the rocky fortress of Oxyartes, a Bactrian 
 chief, and married his beautiful daughter Eoxana— one 
 more romance in a career crowded with romantic 
 incident, and immediately crossed the Hindu Kush 
 southwards to invade India — 
 
 As if increase of appetite had grown 
 By what it fed on. 
 
 Meanwhile the conqueror's character had deterior- 
 ated. It seems that his unbroken success and the 
 
 * Dryden, ibid.. 
 
 I 
 
312 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 ever-busy flattery and obsequiousness of his *' entour- 
 The dark ^^^ " ^^^^ inflated his sense of his own 
 side of the importance and perfection. Constant contact 
 picture. ^^,j|.j^ Orientals led him to adopt the demeanour 
 of an Oriental potentate. His friends openly told him 
 that nothing that he did could be wrong; and he 
 actually allowed himself to be addressed and even 
 worshipped as a god. But together with these com- 
 paratively harmless weaknesses of an Asiatic despot 
 he developed more fatal vices. He gave the rein to 
 drunkenness and licentiousness, and, like all autocrats, 
 became suspicious and cruel. These faults led him. as 
 they inevitably must, into cowardly crimes. Suspicion 
 of a plot against his life made him execute his best 
 general Parmenio and his son Philotas ; in a drunken 
 fury he with his own hand murdered his closest friend 
 Clitus; and insane vanity dictated the cold-blooded 
 removal of the philosopher Callisthenes, who refused 
 to pay his young master divine honours. In the 
 solitudes of Afghanistan and Turkestan he had indeed 
 travelled far, physically and morally, from the ennobling 
 and restraining influence of his old tutor Aristotle. 
 
 But as yet his military ardour and capacity were 
 unimpaired. He crossed the Indus, not far from 
 Limit of Peshawar, and the Jelum, conquered King 
 Alexander's Porus and made him his friend, and ad- 
 advance, vanced to the Sutlej (326). He had reached 
 the limit. Further than this his men absolutely refused 
 to go. Neither tears nor threats availed. May we 
 not detect here some weakening of character through 
 his want of self-control? The soldiers *' struck," and 
 he was forced to give in. 
 
 Returning to the Jelum, he founded the two cities of 
 Nicaea and Bucephala on its banks, and then sailed 
 down it into the Indus, and so to the Indian Ocean 
 
 mmniMm. 
 
M 
 
 no 
 
 ALEXANDER'S CAMPAIGNS 
 
 Siatuie Miles 
 
 30 
 
 «o 
 
 ao 
 
 40 
 
 60 
 
 60 
 
 70 
 
 80 
 
 90 
 
' 1 '''''^*'^ z..-7'''' ^^T7 S ^^^^T^'!^^ ^^ '^^^f^i^^i^ ^ i S'\^^ f f^ ^^ l^ 
 
 ' i 
 
 III 
 
 Mi 
 
 
 ALEXANDER 
 
 313 
 
 (325). On his way he had amusing conversations with 
 some of the native sages according to the -,^^j^ . , 
 story preserved by Phitarch. These were some the native 
 of his questions and the answers they gave "s^S®^-" 
 him. " Which do you consider to be the more 
 numerous, the living or the dead? "— '* The living : for 
 the dead have ceased to exist." ^* Which is the most 
 unscrupulous of all animals ? " — '* That which so far is 
 unknown to man" {i.e. man). *' What is the best way 
 for a man to win affection?" — *'If you have great 
 power, do not inspire fear." " Which is the stronger, 
 life or death ? " — " Life, because it endures so many ills." 
 " How long is it well for a man to live ? " — ** As long as 
 he does not think death preferable to life." To the 
 ridiculous question, *' W^hich is older, the day or the 
 night?" the sage replied, ''Day, by one day." 
 Alexander expressed surprise at the answer and was 
 promptly told that '* Abstruse questions deserve abstruse 
 answers." 
 
 On another occasion a philosopher taught him king- 
 craft by a parable. He spread a shrivelled hide on the 
 ground and trod along the edges of it. As he An acted 
 trod on one part, another part immediately parable, 
 started up. Then he trod heavily on the middle, and 
 the whole lay still and flat. The king, he meant, should 
 plant himself firmly at the heart of his empire and not 
 travel to the extremities of it. 
 
 From the mouth of the Indus, Nearchus sailed with 
 the fleet to the Euphrates, while Alexander marched 
 the army through Beloochistan to Persepolis. Attempted 
 The country was barren and empty: hunger Greeks and 
 and disease made ravages in the army, so Persians, 
 that, according to Plutarch, though he entered India 
 with 120,000 foot and 15,000 horse, he brought back 
 less than a quarter of that number, On reaching Susa 
 
 I 
 
314 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOKLD 
 
 (324), he set the example, and urged his officers and 
 men to follow it, of marrying Persian wives. Also he 
 admitted large numbers of Asiatics into his army. 
 Evidently he did not mean his conquest to be a mere 
 passing raid or foraging expedition, but wished it to 
 lead to a lasting settlement and improvement by 
 amalgamation of victors and vanquished. Thus it was 
 that the English race long afterwards was progressively 
 improved and strengthened by absorption of successive 
 invaders, Komans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans. But 
 Alexander's Macedonians resented this step. They 
 believed in keeping a proper distance from the inferior 
 race and not cheapening their privileges. And so once 
 more there was mutiny, and part of the army was 
 sent home to Greece. 
 
 When Ecbatana was reached, Alexander's close 
 friend, Hephaestion, who had been brought up with 
 Death of him, died of a fever. In the midst of gay 
 Hephaestion. festivities, he was in bed on a strict diet. 
 But his doctor Glaucus having gone to the theatre, 
 he got up, ate a roasted chicken and drank a flagon 
 of iced wine; his fever grew worse and he died. 
 Alexander behaved in a puerile manner worthy of a 
 Xerxes or a Caligula. He had all the horses and mules 
 shorn and the battlements of the city pulled down in 
 sign of mourning, and crucified the unlucky doctor! 
 Then he relieved his sorrow by his favourite pastime — 
 war. 
 
 What a pity it is that he did not carry out his 
 intention of sailing round Arabia and Africa and returu- 
 Unreaiized ing to Greece by the Pillars of Hercules 
 projects. (Straits of Gibraltar) ! He would have found 
 it a rather longer voyage than he anticipated, but he 
 could afford the time, and the results might have been 
 priceless, to the world. He was dissuaded from this 
 
 ALEXANDER 
 
 315 
 
 enterprise, and was prevented by a most unexpected 
 death from carrying out other plans, which included not 
 only the conquest of Arabia, but the invasion of Italy. 
 The student may speculate with interest on the probable 
 issue of a conflict between the great Macedonian and 
 the future conquerors of the world then barely coming 
 of age and only beginning to know their strength. 
 ^ All his plans and ambitions were cut short, largely, 
 it must be confessed, owing to his intemperate habits ' 
 Having given his admiral Nearchus a Death of 
 sumptuous feast he followed it up by Alexander, 
 drinking all that night and all next day, till he was 
 stopped by a fever, which he never shook off. For the 
 first ^ four days he went on playing dice, eating and 
 bathing, and probably drinking. The illness, of course 
 grew worse. On the fifth the fever was violent ; on the 
 eighth he was speechless; on the ninth the soldiers 
 alarmed and mutinous, insisted on seeing him and 
 were allowed to defile past his bed, though he could 
 neither move nor speak. On the eleventh day in the 
 evening he died (323). He was not quite 33. 
 
 Gossip said years afterwards that he had been 
 poisoned, but it was never proved, and what will not 
 Gossip say ? The story is generally disbelieved. 
 
 It would be quite a mistake to regard Alexander's 
 conquests merely as a destructive raid like those of 
 Attila the Hun. In the short space of time 
 at his disposal, ten years, from the battle of ffhi? 
 Is3us to his death, it might seem that he <^onquests. 
 must have been, without interruption, in a hurry, and 
 fighting battles or preparing for them, with never a 
 moment to give to anything else, with the regrettable 
 exception of carousing. But, after all, the battles he 
 fought were not so excessively numerous, and, thoucrh 
 he drank more than he should, he did find time for 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 A 
 
316 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 much else besides. It is true his conquests in India did 
 not survive him. But, with this exception, wherever 
 he went, he did the work of conquest so thoroughly and 
 laid the foundations so w^ell that there rose on them 
 three great kingdoms, Macedonia, Syria (including 
 Persia and its dependencies), and Egypt, which con- 
 tinued to flourish for one and a half, two and a half, and 
 three centuries, respectively, till they fell in turn under 
 the all-embracing rule of Rome. 
 
 it 
 
 N- 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 HANNIBAL 
 
 And I will die a hundred thousand deaths, 
 Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow. ' 
 
 SUAKESPEARE. 
 
 The moment Alexander was dead, his empire was a 
 scene of the wildest confusion. Eoxana's son was not 
 yet born, and the great conqueror on his death- 
 bed had given his ring to his general Perdiecas, f/lTef" 
 probably meanu}g him to assume the lead and ^n^^'s 
 act as regent, if not as king. But the other ^"*'"- 
 generals were not disposed to accept one of themselves 
 as their master. Each thought himself at least as good 
 as any of the rest, perhaps as all the rest. They were 
 all as confident of their own surpassing virtues as they 
 were conscious of each other's shortcomings. And so 
 there was a wild scramble for power. The history of the 
 next forty years or so (323-278 b.c.) is one continuous 
 whirl leaving the reader exhausted and dizzy with a 
 confused impression of plots and counterplots, intri^rues 
 wars and murders. It was a ruthless melee, in which 
 every consideration but unmitigated self-interest was 
 remorselessly trampled underfoot. First one general 
 would make a bid for the supremacy : all the rest would 
 league against him and compass his downfall Then 
 one of the confederates would step on to the pedestal, 
 only to be m his turn pulled down and despatched by 
 his former allies. The greatest of the battles of this 
 
 317 
 
 IM 
 
 m-^^^iim^^i^^^^^^^js^i 
 
318 
 
 rn 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 internecine conllict was fought at Ipsus in 301 li.c, but 
 it was not the only one. Finally the net result of all 
 this appalling waste of blood and power was that the 
 family of Alexander was extinguished, and that his 
 empire was carved into three kingdoms, Macedonia, 
 Syria, and Egypt, under the descendants of three of his 
 generals, Antigonus, Seleucus, and Ptolemy. They mis- 
 governed, they quarrelled, they fought: what royal 
 neighbours do not? But, for all that, the East now 
 possessed some measure of unity. All those kingdoms 
 were alike ruled by Greek dynasties ; the Greek language 
 was spoken in all of them, and Eastern art, even as far 
 as the Punjab, had passed under Hellenic influence. 
 
 Wide as was the area covered by Alexander's con- 
 quests, the knowledge of the age extended even beyond 
 Intercourse ^^^^^- Aristotle, who was Alexander's tutor, 
 between speaks in his Natural History of the silk- worm, 
 Greece and ,^^^^ g^^g ^.j^^^ ^^.^^ -^ women reel off cocoons 
 
 and spin them, and that according to the 
 general belief, this art first flourished in the island of 
 Cos (or the Aegean Sea). Now, the silk- worm is a native 
 of China, and the silk industry flourished there at a very 
 remote period, over two thousand years b.c, and the 
 Greek and Latin words for ** Chinese " and " silk " were 
 derived from the Chinese name for " silk-worm." Clearly 
 there was commercial intercourse between China and 
 the West overland, through Turkestan, Persia, and Asia 
 Minor, even in those early days. 
 
 The.great Chow Dynasty (1122-249 b.c), as we know, 
 had fallen on evil days. The central authority had 
 China: weakened, and the rival components of the 
 
 Tiieciiin empire fought for the supremacy, with fatal 
 ynasty. i-esuits. This civil strife was still proceeding 
 when Alexander's generals were fighting over his in- 
 heritance. It was ended by the rise of the Tsin or Chin 
 
 HANNIBAL 
 
 319 
 
 Dynasty, which gave the empire our modern name of 
 China, about 249 b.c. The greatest name of this Hne 
 was Che-Hwang-te, who was the first "universal emperor" 
 of a Chinese emjiire practically identical in extent with 
 its modern representative. He fought successful wars 
 against wild tribes on the northern and western frontiers 
 and began (214 b.c.) the building of the famous The Great 
 Great Wall of China, running from the Gulf Waii. 
 of Pe-chi-li, a little north of Peking, westwards to the 
 Nanshan Mountains, a distance of 1800 miles. He died 
 ni 210 B.C., and his death was followed, like Alexander's, 
 by a period of plots and wars, both his son and his 
 grandson being murdered in rapid succession, till in 203 
 the Han Dynasty seized the supreme power. In the 
 course of its operations against Tatars and other invaders 
 this dynasty had relations with the inhabitants of modern 
 West Turkestan, just east of the Caspian, where the 
 Chinese must have come into contact with the Greek 
 kingdom of the Seleucids. 
 
 During his stay in India Alexander did not organize 
 any provinces. He founded two cities, Bucephala, near 
 the modern Jalalpur, in honour of his charger 
 Bucephalus, and Nicaea the present Mong, Its^inlom 
 both on the Jelum ; and he assigned lands to ^^® ^®^®^- 
 friendly rulers and left Greeks at their courts. '''^'' 
 But that was all. He never returned, and the work 
 begun was never completed. In a very short time the 
 Indian portion of Seleucus's kingdom of Syria fell away. 
 Seleucus, in return for five hundred elephants, ceded 
 them to the Indian conqueror from the Ganges, Chandra 
 Gupta, gave him his daughter in marriage, and stationed 
 a Greek ambassador, Megasthenes, at his court. Chandra 
 Gupta reigned from 316 to 292 b.c, and was known to 
 the Greeks as Sandrocottus. He was a Buddhist, and 
 bis grandson was the King Asoka (264-223 b.c), famous 
 
 f 
 
 I 
 
320 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 I 
 
 Britain. 
 
 for his patronage of Biuldhism. The relations hetween 
 Greeks and Indians continued friendly for over a century, 
 and Greek art had time to make a perceptible impression 
 on the native art of the Punjab. The connexion was 
 not severed till in the last century u.c. India was broken 
 into by Tatars and Scythians. 
 
 As regards the West, an enterprising Greek of 
 Massilia (Marseilles), called Pytheas, either during 
 Alexander's lifetime or immediately after, 
 sailed as far as Britain and a country he 
 called Thule, which may have been the Shetland s or 
 perhaps Iceland. But that was an adventurer's voyage, 
 of which there was no practical out^^ome. It is true the 
 Phoenicians before this had sailed to the Scilly Isles for 
 tin. But Britain was wild and unattractive, and no 
 attempt was made to annex or even explore it. 
 
 The Nearer West, the world just beyond the Ionian 
 Sea, was now to be the scene of a Titanic struggle. The 
 Rome and two rivals were Rome and Carthage, and the 
 Carthage. prize nothing less than the command of the 
 sea and the control of the world's trade. As might have 
 been expected, the first collision took place on that step- 
 ping-stone between the two hostile cities, Sicily. Twenty 
 years after the death of the patriot and saviour of Sicily, 
 Timoleon, and six years after that of Alexander, Syra- 
 cuse fell into the power of Agathocles (317). Born and 
 brought up as a potter in one of the Cartha- 
 ginian towns of the island, he was befriended 
 by a Syracusan noble, after whose death he married his 
 widow, thus becoming one of the wealthiest men in the 
 city. To wealth he added power, when collecting an 
 army he made himself master of Syracuse and of the 
 greater part of Sicily. He continued the everlasting war 
 of the Sicilian Greeks against the Carthaginians, but 
 improved on the methods of his predecessors by boldly 
 
 Agathocles. 
 
 HANNIBAL 321 
 
 carrying the war into the enemy's country, where he had 
 everything h.s own way till he was recalled by trouble 
 at home He ended his life in melancholy circum- 
 stances (some say he was poisoned), thanks to the 
 crimes of a good-for-nothing grandson (289). 
 
 Now Agathocles had quartered in Messana (modern 
 Messina) some Campanian mercenaries called Mamertini 
 After their master's death, they made them- ^ „ 
 selves masters of the town, and for years were Sta?""- 
 the terror of the country round through their "<"»»»«• 
 lawless brigandage. Hiero, a Syracusan noble descended 
 from the tyrant Gelon, succeeded in beating them and 
 was made King of Syracuse by the grateful citizens (270) 
 But he trouble did not end there. The Mamertini 
 appealed for help, some to Carthage and others to Rome. 
 The Carthaginians lost no time in settling themselves in 
 the citadel of Messana. It was a golden opportunity not 
 be missed. But the Eomans had their own views on 
 the subject. They could not tolerate the presence of 
 a Cartluigiman fortress so close to their own lately- 
 acquired Rhegium and commanding the entrance into 
 Sicily from the Italian side, and decided to respond to 
 the Mamertine call for help. By a trick they got the 
 Carthaginians out and established themselves firmly in 
 their pace. This collision was the beginning of the 
 Punic Wars (264). ^ 
 
 The Punic Wars (Punic is Latin for Phoenician, and 
 Carthage was a Phoenician colony) were three in number. 
 The first lasted from 264 to 241, and by it the ry, ,. 
 Eomans ultimately wrested from Carthage the P^io" 
 command of the sea, and drove her out of ^»"- 
 Sicily. The second (218-202) was occupied by Hannibal's 
 invasion of Italy, ending with his recall to Carthage and 
 defeat by the elder Scipio at Zama. The third (149-146) 
 saw the siege and capture of Carthage by the younger 
 
 I 
 
322 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOKLD 
 
 HANNIBAL 
 
 323 
 
 First Punic 
 
 War. 
 
 Borne 
 
 becomes a 
 
 Naval 
 
 Power. 
 
 Bcipio, which gave Rome the control of the western 
 [Mediterranean. 
 
 The year after the occupation of Messana, the Romans 
 obtained a priceless ally in Hiero, the King of Syracuse, 
 who remained unwaveringly loyal. The inland 
 towns were pro-Roman, but the coast towns, 
 fearing the Punic fleets, sided with Carthage, 
 and the Romans realized very soon that the 
 one essential thing was, at any cost, to secure 
 command of the sea. What followed showed the extra- 
 ordinary, almost superhuman, determination the Romans 
 were capable of when once their minds were made up. 
 It is confidently asserted by ancient historians that at the 
 outbreak of the war they did not possess a single ship ; 
 that, finding a Carthaginian warship wrecked on the 
 Bruttian coast, they used it as a model, taught them- 
 selves shipbuilding, converted a growing forest into a 
 fleet of a hundred sail in sixty days, trained raw crews of 
 land-lubbers to row on scaffolds erected on the sand, 
 while the ships were building, to save time; and then 
 sailed out and won their first engagement with the 
 leading maritime power of the age ! We need not press 
 the details. The story shows how the actual facts struck 
 the world ; and, truly, they were sufficiently astonishing. 
 The Romans did possess ships, for they had officers 
 called Commissioners of the Fleet {Daumviri navaks), and 
 they had fought with the Etruscan pirates at sea. But 
 the fact remains that they were by nature not a sea-faring 
 people and that they did win their first engagement with 
 those born seamen, the Phoenicians of Carthage. 
 Possibly (this is only a suggestion) the story about crews 
 trained on land arose from the Romans hiring sailors 
 from the west coast of Greece and the Ionian islands and 
 bringing them overland across Italy to the Tuscan sea to 
 esca[>e the vigilance of the Carthaginians. Whatever the 
 
 means, launch a fleet they did, and with it they defeated 
 the enemy at Mylae off the Sicilian coast (260) Thev 
 knew, of course, that they were no match for them in 
 seamanship, and owed their victory to DuilHus's ingenious 
 device of a spiked boarding-bridge, which being let down 
 suddenly on to th« enemy's deck enabled the Eomans to 
 grapple firmly and to board, thus converting the sea-fight 
 into a land battle, and neutralizing all the advantage the 
 Car hagimans might reasonably have expected to possess. 
 Elated by further successes they invaded Africa, but were 
 beaten by the generalship of the Spartan Xanthippus. 
 a soldier of fortune in the pay of Carthage, and lost the 
 consu Regulus and his army (255). In 247 also 
 Ilamilcar Barca. the father of Hannibal (who was born in 
 tnis very year), gained some successes against them, but 
 live years later the war was finally settled by the Roman 
 naval victory at the Aegates Islands (242). Carthage 
 was obliged to pay a huge war indemnity and to abandon 
 Sicily and the smaller islands between it and Italy 
 Hiero, the faithful ally, retained his own territorv but 
 he rest oi the island went to Rome, forming its first 
 transmarine province (241). 
 
 So far the advantage was all on the side of Rome 
 Carthage had lost a valuable province, and the control of 
 the Mediterranean traffic from east to west 
 and vice versa ; she had a powerful enemy Sge 
 planted close by, facing her across a narrow ''*""*• 
 strait ; and she had lost for ever the command of the 
 sea. It seems to us incredible that, starting with the 
 enormous naval superiority she possessed, she should 
 ever have allowed herself to lose it. She had the 
 maritime instinct and immense wealth wherewith to 
 repair any losses and wear down the enemy Yet the 
 fact IS so. The nation with the longest purse did not 
 win. And the reason? The Carthaginians did not 
 
!s»Mfii^,-^.-i:9i-siES®tjg{-Si:.,i3^^ 
 
 '"''"^^^^i^^""^^^*^^''*'**^'^^ 
 
 324 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 believe in " personal service." They stayed at home 
 making money, while paid mercenaries looked after the 
 fighting. But sea-power leads no charmed existence. 
 It is a thing which can be lost. Athens lost it ; Carthage 
 lost it ; France lost it. Woe to the nation which, after 
 staking its whole existence on it, and becoming entirely 
 dependent upon it, neglects and — loses it ! 
 
 Carthage had lost the command of the sea for ever. 
 She never recovered it and that eventually was her 
 Carthage undoing. Three years later she had to give 
 and Spain, ^p Sardinia and Corsica to Rome (238). But 
 the end was not yet. Hamilcar Barca, with a true in- 
 stinct, turned the attention of Carthage in a new 
 direction, and after eight years of strenuous w^ork 
 presented her with a new dominion in Spain, which 
 might yet prove her salvation. He died in battle, and 
 his work was continued by his son-in-law Hasdrubal, 
 who founded New Carthage (228). Seven years later, 
 Hasdrubal being murdered, the command in Spain fell 
 (221) to Hannibal, the twenty-six-year-old son of the 
 Hamilcar who had founded the Spanish colony. 
 
 The old war with Rome was revived and immediately 
 entered on its most dramatic stage. With the true 
 Second Boldier's instinct, Hannibal, who as a young 
 
 Pnnic War. boy had vowed eternal enmity to Rome, saw 
 
 fe^idesfo ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ proper way to conduct a war was 
 invade to assume the offensive and carry the fighting 
 
 Italy. -j^i.^ ^j^g enemy's country. The Romans must 
 
 be attacked in Italy itself. But how was he to get there ? 
 Carthage had lost her naval superiority and the sea was 
 closed to her : at least, she could never carry over un- 
 challenged and land in Italy a sufficient force to be of 
 any use. There remained the overland route. The 
 distance was great, the way unexplored, the people un- 
 friendly. Any general might well have quailed before 
 
 HANNIBAL 
 
 325 
 
 the prospect. Not so Hannibal. Probably, almost 
 certainly, he had heard or read of Alexander's exploits, 
 and his young ambition was fired. The fall of Tyre 
 must inevitably have re-echoed in Carthage, and Cartha- 
 ginians must have followed anxiously the fortunes of its 
 conqueror and may even have trembled when Alexander, 
 returning from India, began to turn his thoughts west- 
 wards. 
 
 Hannibal formed his project and clung to it. He pro- 
 ceeded methodically. Like Alexander and like Frederick 
 the Great, he was provided by his father with He takes 
 an army ready-made. It remained to use it. Saguntum. 
 When all was ready, he deliberately besieged, and after 
 eight months took Saguntum, a Graeco- Spanish town in 
 alliance with Rome, and won much spoil. The siege 
 served a triple purpose. By it he picked a quarrel with 
 Rome, he tested the efficiency of his troops, and he gave 
 his men a taste for booty and a craving for the wealth of 
 Italy (218). 
 
 He struck while the iron was hot. Without a 
 moment's delay he started for Rome. The year was 
 crowded with events. The Romans were not Hannibal 
 idle, but, knowing like Hannibal that the secret ^^^^^^ : 
 of defence lies in aggressive tactics, they im- fou^w- 
 mediately despatched a force under Sem- °^°^^^' 
 pronius to Sicily with orders to proceed to Africa, and 
 another under Scipio to Spain. Having command of the 
 sea they could take short cuts to their destinations. 
 What would Hannibal not have given for a fleet and a 
 clear sea ? 
 
 ^ So rapid were Hannibal's movements that, when 
 Scipio arrived at Massilia (Marseilles), on his way to 
 Spain to prevent, as he hoped, Hannibal from scipio too 
 crossing the Pyrenees, he found that the ^*^®- 
 Carthaginian army had already actually crossed the 
 
Ill 
 
 326 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 Bhone and was well on its way to the Alps ! Sending 
 his hrother on to Spain, he doubled back to Italy, in- 
 tending to give the invader a warm reception on his 
 descent into the upper valley of the Po. Sempronius 
 was at the same time recalled from Sicily. Rome was 
 really a little alarmed. 
 
 Hannil)al left New Carthage early in the summer 
 (218) with 90,000 foot, 12,000 horse, and 37 elephants, 
 The cross- ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ leave some thousands behind to 
 ing of the hold Spain and crossed the Pyrenees with not 
 ^^P'- more than 50,000 foot and 9000 horse, all 
 
 veterans. He was in a great hurry, as he must cross the 
 Alps before the summer was over. Partly buying and 
 partly fighting his way through southern Gaul, he 
 crossed the first natural obstacle, the Rhone, by a 
 stratagem, and after engaging in a tribal civil war, found 
 himself very soon at the foot of the great mountain 
 barrier dividing him from his goal. We shall probably 
 never know for certain what route he took across the Alps. 
 Neither Poly bins, though he went personally over the 
 line of march only a generation later, nor Livy, who 
 presumably collected and compared all the available 
 evidence, gives us a sufficiently clear account of this 
 famous passage to leave no room in one's mind for 
 doubt. A glance at a good scale contour or relief map 
 will suffice to show the possible passes that Hannibal 
 could choose from. They are, from north to south, the 
 Great St. Bernard, the Little St. Bernard, the Mont 
 Cenis, the Mont Genevre and the Col d'Argenti^re or 
 de Larche. 
 
 It is generally taken for granted that Hannibal's 
 route is quite established as far as the Island of AUobroges, 
 that is, the country enclosed by the confluence of the 
 Bhone and the Isere, which would cut out the southern 
 passes as well as the most northerly pass and reduce 
 
 a'*«5fj^fwW(^Js#<r*flLjy. ^ ^-^fv^j* 
 
 aigsa a ^q wap" 
 
 HANNIBAL 
 
 327 
 
 the choice to the Little St. Bernard and the Mont Cenis. 
 Some writers * go so far as to take it as proved beyond 
 doubt that the pass was the Little St. Bernard, alleging 
 as conclusive jn-oof the identification of the "White 
 Rock" mentioned in Livy's account. But such rocks 
 are not uncommon ; and there is at least something to 
 be said for the too readily rejected southern passes. In 
 a general way, they lie more in the direct line to Italy, 
 and so would commend themselves more to the impatient 
 soldiers ; and, also, they are lower and would therefore 
 remain longer free from snow. The lowest of all is the 
 Mont Genevre pass, 6110 ft. ; Mont Cenis is 6796 ft. and 
 the Little St. Bernard is 7111 ft. The Great St. Bernard 
 is out of the question, being the highest of all (8034 ft.), 
 and requiring a long roundabout journey by the north, 
 along the Lake of Geneva, which is never mentioned. 
 In favour of the Little St. Bernard is the fact that it is 
 an extremely easy pass, much used, and crossed by 
 artillery in 1815, without the making of a road, so easy 
 are its grassy slopes. The historian Mommsen selects 
 this pass. On the other hand, the Mont Cenis can be 
 reached easily from the Isere by the valley of the Arc, 
 and would land Hannibal close to Turin, which he took 
 shortly after his arrival in Italy. The Mont Genevre 
 would do this also and is easily reached from the 
 Durance which Hannibal struck at some stage of the 
 march according to Livy. Finally, the Col de I'Argentiere 
 is also reached from the Durance, and in that neighbour- 
 hood is a traditional " Camp d'Annibal " and a rock 
 called ** Table d'Annibal," which look like reminiscences 
 of his passage there. Our two ancient authorities, 
 Polybius and Livy, are quite unsatisfactory. After 
 Hannibal's arrival at the "Island" of the AUobroges, 
 Polybius mentions no names of tribes or localities, and 
 
 • E.g. R. B. Smith, " Rome and Carthage." 
 
*v >SWSliij#!SM«Mi*l»^ ift*4fli--''^*(S&-^ffi«»-'W 
 
 <^^i^»^'^s^'mm^mm^i^mmm^^^^^m^^^^m 
 
 328 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOULD 
 
 Livy's account is inconsistent and difficult to follow. 
 The problem remains still unsolved. 
 
 By this pass or that, Hannibal crossed the Alps late 
 in October and arrived in Italy, somewhere in the 
 The neighbourhood of Turin, on the 15th day from 
 
 Ticinus. ^^Yie beginning of the ascent. He had now 
 only 20,000 foot and 6,000 horse, and yet he never 
 hesitated to go through with his project ! It was 
 fortunate for Rome that Scipio had turned back the 
 quickest way from Marseilles. He was now posted at 
 Placentia, ready to check any attempt of the Gauls at a 
 rising and to confront the invader. The first collision was 
 a cavalry skirmish on the Ticinus (Ticino), a small 
 tributary of the Po, flowing into it from the north. 
 Hannibal's horsemen were completely victorious, and 
 Scipio, who was himself badly wounded and owed his life 
 to the pluck of his son, afterwards the victor of Zama, 
 retreated hastily to Placentia, sacrificing more men in 
 order to break down the bridge over the Ticinus. 
 
 Hannibal did not pursue him, but crossed the Po 
 further west and made as though he were going quietly 
 
 Th Tr b' *^ ^^^^ ^^ ^"^^ ^^^ advance on Rome. Scipio 
 therefore moved his camp to the Trebia, 
 another tributary of the Po flowing into it from the 
 Apennines, so as to bar his way. Sempronius's army, 
 recalled from Sicily, joined him here and the Romans 
 had about 40,000 men of all arms. But Hannibal's 
 success at the Trebia had won him considerable Gallic 
 reinforcements. It must be remembered that if Hannibal 
 had the audacity to march down Italy with 26,000 men, 
 it was because he reckoned on the natives of Italy, Gauls 
 and Samnites and others, flocking to his standard and 
 fighting for him as a deliverer from the oppression of 
 Rome. This was the character he assumed, and every- 
 thing depended for him on some early and striking 
 
 HANNIBAL 
 
 329 
 
 success which would enhance his reputation as it would 
 damage Rome's. The fight on the banks of the Trebia 
 was to be a pitched battle, and we may easily imagine 
 with what anxious care the invader laid his plans. And 
 exceedingly well they were laid. It was raw December 
 weather with snow in the air and the river icy cold. He 
 placed his brother Mago with 2000 men in a well-con- 
 cealed ambush. Then he ordered his men to have a 
 good breakfast and fall in, and sent the Numidian light 
 cavalry across the river, with orders to retreat and draw 
 the enemy after them. Everything went according to 
 the programme. Sempronius was eager to show his 
 superiority to the beaten and wounded Scipio. The 
 Numidians fell back, pretending to be defeated, and the 
 whole Roman army, breakfastless and cold, followed 
 them across the icy water of the Trebia. As they emerged 
 on the further bank, the Numidians vanished like smoke, 
 revealing Hannibal's army, well-fed and warm and in 
 perfect order, waiting for them. They were attacked in 
 front and flanks and finally by Mago's ambush in the 
 rear, and their rout was complete. Sempronius cut his 
 way through to Placentia, and the whole army, or rather 
 the remnant of it, fell back to Cremona. Hannibal had 
 won a decisive victory and more and more reinforce- 
 ments flocked to him. He was master of all northern 
 Italy. 
 
 ^ The Roman forces were now posted in two bodies, at 
 Ariminum (Rimini) and Arretium (Arrezzo) under 
 Servihus and Flaminius respectively : in other ^ 
 words, there was one army on either side of the forces 
 Apennines and on either side of the Tiber. nJiiibai 
 It was not known by which route Hannibal gets 
 would advance, and the fatal mistake was made *^^°^^- 
 of dividing forces. Hannibal had already shown himself 
 a consummate tactician on the field. He now showed 
 
 n 
 
 H 
 
 i'l: 
 
330 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 his mastery of strategy by taking the enemy utterly 
 by surprise and eluding both of the armies set to 
 watch him. Instead of taking the easier road by the 
 flat country to Ariminum, he crossed the Apennines 
 by a difficult pass in the most direct line between the 
 Trebia and Rome, passed through Faesulae (Fiesole), 
 crossed the Arno, and calmly marched past Arretium. 
 The Roman armies were still divided and Servilius still 
 waiting at Ariminum for Hannibal, who was now between 
 the Romans and their base ! Hannibal went on burning 
 and harrying and making for Rome, and Flaminius 
 was forced to break cover and follow him. 
 
 But the Carthaginian had a day's start, and, as 
 he reached the northern shore of Lake Trasimenus, his 
 Lake keen eye saw a magnificent opportunity for 
 
 Trasimenus. g^ death-trap. The road ran along the lake, 
 between it and a range of hills which at two points 
 draw quite close to the water, leaving only a narrow 
 passage, while between these points the range recedes in 
 a shallow curve. Hannibal concealed his best heavy 
 troops, under his own eye, at the far end of the plain, 
 closing up the exit, his light cavalry and Gauls at the 
 entrance, and his miscellaneous light troops behind the 
 crest of the heights along the arc between these two 
 points. His pursuer, carelessly marching without scouts, 
 walked straight into the trap, and the sequel may be 
 imagined. The slaughter continued for hours. Flaminius 
 and 15,000 Romans fell, 6000 were captured. Next day 
 4000 horse sent by the other consul at Ariminum were 
 also taken prisoners. The army was annihilated (217), 
 while every fresh victory meant more reinforcements to 
 Hannibal. 
 
 There were at least three good reasons why Hannibal 
 could not march straight on Rome. He had no siege- 
 engines ; he had not a large enough army for an 
 
 HANNIBAL 
 
 331 
 
 effective blockade; he knew that, if necessary, every 
 
 man in Rome could, at short notice, become a soldier, 
 
 armed and trained and fearless. Besides, to 
 
 Hannibal's disgust, not a man would join him avoids 
 
 in Etruria ; he had already as many recruits ^°^^ ^^'J 
 , , , . . '^ . , , , _ goes south, 
 
 as he could expect from the north, so he 
 
 reluctantly turned from the road to Rome and, recrossing 
 the Apennines, marched through Umbria and Picenum 
 to Apulia, to see what forces he could raise in the 
 south. 
 
 The Romans broke down the bridges, repaired the 
 walls, and made a supreme effort to raise an overwhelming 
 army with which to shake off the intruder, pabius's 
 The times w^ere critical, and Fabius Maximus waiting 
 was appointed dictator. The new com- ^*°^®' 
 mander had a fixed policy : he would risk no pitched 
 battle with Hannibal, but would dog his footsteps and 
 worry him and cut off stragglers, till his own countrymen 
 could raise fresh troops and pluck up fresh courage. 
 This strategy was unpopular, because it brought no 
 quick or brilliant results, but it saved the situation. 
 
 *' One man alone knew how to wait, 
 And by his waiting saved the state." * 
 
 By the following June (216), a huge army of over 
 80,000 men, under the two new consuls, PauUus and 
 Varro, faced the enemy's 50,000 near Cannae, 
 on the south side of the Anfidus in Apulia. 
 The senate's strict orders were to fight at once. The 
 Roman command was divided, each consul being supreme 
 on alternate days, a fatal mistake, and not in this case 
 remedied as it was at Marathon. Hannibal played with 
 the enemy. By various manoeuvres, lasting some days, 
 he induced them to cross the river and give battle where 
 his keen eye had marked a suitable spot. Across a deep 
 
 * Unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem (Ennius). 
 
 ^^^^mim^^m^f^s^ *_— , 
 
=; ■-.■.,i;..^ti'l*- '^^^■asj>fe ^^j??^ r„ j.gtf jfe^^^-^ ^ 
 
 m^mmmmsmiaamsm 
 
 382 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 loop of the river he drew up his army with its back to 
 the water, facing north-west, GaUic and Spanish infantry 
 in the centre, African infantry on the wings, with their 
 extreme left and extreme right resting on the river, 
 while in front of either wing was the cavalry. The loop 
 of the river swept in a semicircle behind him. It was 
 morning. The sun was shining in the Eomans' faces 
 and a south-east wind was blowing the dust in their eyes. 
 Hannibal had thought of everything. At the beginning 
 of the battle the centre projected somewhat in front of 
 the rest of the line. The Roman legions, delivering a 
 frontal attack, came into contact with this centre first, 
 and, by previous arrangement, it gradually gave way, the 
 line thus becoming concave instead of convex. The two 
 wings of infantry, using their extremities, which rested 
 on the river, as pivots, wheeled inwards, in time with the 
 retreating centre, till the whole army was drawn up, 
 lining the loop of the river and forming a deep bowl. 
 Into this the Roman legions poured, thinking they were 
 winning, and hoping to drive the foe into the water, and 
 apparently never suspecting that they were walking into 
 a death-trap. The Carthaginian army presented immov- 
 able walls on three sides, and then the cavalry, which 
 had driven the Roman horse off the field, returned and 
 closed in on the rear, covering the bowl, so to speak, with 
 a lid. The battle became a massacre ; 50,000 Romans 
 were left on the field. Their losses included besides 
 20,000 captured, and among the dead were the consul 
 Paullus, a pro-consul, two quaestors, sixty senators, and 
 an unknown number of knights. Hannibal lost under 
 6000 all told (216). 
 
 There was, at first, a panic in Rome ; but the Romans 
 never really lost their heads. And Hannibal knew it. 
 He has been severely criticized for not marching straight 
 on the city after Cannae. But he knew all the factors 
 
 HANNIBAL 
 
 333 
 
 m the situation better than his critics, and the fact 
 that he did not march on Rome shows that he must 
 have had good reasons for not doing so. 
 Rome was^ the one goal of all his ambition foes nJ?^ 
 and all his stupendous struggles with the ™archon 
 elements and on the field of battle. Was ^°°''' 
 he likely to forgo a chance of taking it if it was a 
 good one ? 
 
 However, the character of the war from this point 
 ^■as completely changed. Hannibal fights no more 
 pitched battles. He marches and raids much ^^^ 
 as he hkes, for none dares beard him, but he in thf *°^^ 
 is no nearer attaining his object. The war '°''^^* 
 becomes a game of chess down in the south. Positions 
 are taken and re-taken. For many years neither side 
 has the advantage (216-208). 
 
 But in 207 a dramatic incident occurs. Hannibal's 
 brother Hasdrubal has at last been able to bring him 
 reinforcements from Spain overland, to cross The 
 the Alps, and to advance some way down Italy Metaurus. 
 to meet him. An intercepted despatch, a forced march by 
 the Romans of two hundred miles, two armies united in 
 one camp at dead of night, a desperate battle on the 
 banks of the Metaurus, and his unlucky brother's head 
 pitched into Hannibal's camp— the tragedy was over 
 before Hannibal knew that his brother was in Italy! 
 The grisly spectacle told him his hopes were dead. 
 
 Still unconquerable he stood at bay; but four years 
 later (203) Scipio, the plucky youth of the Ticinus, now 
 become a leader of armies, having driven the 
 Carthaginians from Spain, was invading Africa, ^*°^** 
 and the contemptible Government, who had not moved a 
 finger to help Hannibal, now recalled him to save them. 
 He thought not of their ingratitude and incapacity, but 
 of his country's danger, and obeyed. " Seldom has an 
 
 ll 
 
^^'g^B^^a^'^^^'^i^'-^iimraii^ 
 
 334 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 exile left his native land with so sad a heart as Hannibal 
 left the country of his foes." * He met Scipio at Zama 
 (202) ; but his army was composed mostly of raw recruits, 
 and the battle was not a fair test of his powers. Scipio, 
 by a happy inspiration, left wide lanes open from front 
 to rear of his lines, down which Hannibal's elephants, 
 scared by the noise of trumpets, ran without doing the 
 enemy any harm. Hannibal's veterans died where they 
 stood, but could not save the day. Many of his new 
 troops deserted, and the battle was a complete victory 
 for Rome. Carthage was humbled in the dust. She 
 lost Spain and the remaining islands, gave up her men- 
 of-war, and paid a heavy indemnity. The bitterness of 
 it ! Her fleet was towed out of the harbour, and burnt 
 in the ofling before her eyes. She was crippled, and 
 became a third-rate power, while Rome was undisputed 
 mistress of the western Mediterranean. 
 
 Hannibal was the one man who might still have 
 retrieved his country's fortunes, but even in the hour of 
 Death of dire necessity, Carthage was torn by faction, 
 Hannibal, ^j^^ Hannibal was obliged to go into exile. 
 Nineteen years after Zama, after seeking refuge first 
 with Antiochus IH. of Syria, and then with Prusias of 
 Bithynia, the peerless patriot and soldier, being hunted 
 down, took poison to escape capture (183). 
 
 It must not be forgotten that the Second Punic War 
 was a war of one man against a nation. Hannibal 
 Cause of fought Rome single-handed. He was quite 
 Hannibal's unsupported by his Government. Carthage 
 failure. ^^^ ^ ^^^^ ^^ internal strife. The ruling 
 
 families cultivated above all the vice of jealousy. No 
 help was sent to Hannibal in Italy for fear of giving too 
 much glory and power to his clan. But this was not all. 
 By the first Punic War (264 241) Carthage had lost 
 
 ♦ Livy, XXX. 20, 6,« 
 
 HANNIBAL 
 
 335 
 
 the command of the sea. Even had she wished it she 
 would have had some difficulty in sending troops across 
 to Italy. She had since the battle of the Aegates Islands 
 made no effort to recover her naval power, and her si- 
 had found her out. 
 
 Scipio went home, the war was over, and CarthaM 
 enjoyed a respite. But she had not learnt her lesson 
 even yet. Faction continued; national de- 
 fence was neglected. And so the third and ?^, ^„ 
 last Punic War was not long delayed, nor r*" ot 
 doubtful when it came. Eome had fought ''*''^«- 
 with Philip and Perseus of Macedonia, and Antiochus 
 
 A ...^y"**' ^'"'^ ^™s mistress of Spain, Greece, and 
 Asia Minor, while Egypt was under her protectorate. 
 She had become an imperial city ; she had grown greedv 
 and proud, and would brook no rivals. Carthage de- 
 livered from fame and empire, had concentrated all' her 
 energies on the acquisition of wealth. What a tempting 
 prize how rich and how defenceless! Cato had seen 
 Carthage and coveted it. He left his Government no 
 peace with his everlasting refrain : " Carthage must be 
 wiped out." The horse was willing and gllloped. 1 
 pretext was soon found. Massinissa, on a hint from 
 Rome, no doubt attacked Carthage. Carthage resisted. 
 Rome interfered with her "mailed fist," an army of 
 80,000 men. To save her face, she offered terms to her 
 victim, but they were iniquitous and impossible. " Give 
 us three hundred hostages." They were given. " Give 
 us all your arms and war munitions and all your ships " 
 ihey also were given, even 200,000 suits of armour < 
 
 Abandon your city, and build it again ten miles from 
 Uie sea. At that the victim turned on its aggressor, 
 ihe spirit of Carthage for once was stirred to its depths 
 It performed wonders of self-sacrifice and heroism. But 
 It was too late. True, the fall of the city was put off for 
 
 I 
 
336 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 three years, but fall it did. In 149 and 148 the besiegers 
 made no progress, and the army was totally disorganized 
 and demoralized. In 147 Scipio the younger * came on 
 the scene. He quickly purged the camp of its disorders 
 and impurities, made the army efficient, and by the 
 following spring, after incredible efforts and a marvellous 
 display of ingenuity on both sides, the great commercial 
 city fell. The place was levelled with the dust, and the 
 people sold into slavery. Carthage had stood for seven 
 centuries; but she had preferred wealth and ease to 
 service and strength, and the price she paid was to be 
 blotted out of the map. 
 
 • Not by birth a Scipio ; ho was the son of Aemilius PauUus, the 
 conqueror of Macedonia, and had been adopted by the son of the victor 
 of Zama. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE WORLD FINDS A MASTER (CONQUEST OP THE 
 EAST AND THE WEST BY ROME) 
 
 Carthage was doomed at the end of the first of her wars 
 mth Rome (241). Her fate was sealed the moment she 
 acquiesced m the loss of her naval superiority. Doom of 
 It IS true the actual pulling down of her walls Cwhage 
 did not come till close on a century later, but F^ltViluo 
 though she knew it not, and perhaps even '»^«'-- 
 Rome was not fully conscious of it, throughout that 
 interval she was living on sufferance. Hannibal's darins 
 invasion of Italy was almost a private unofficial effort! 
 It did not show that Carthage was strong and capable: 
 Carthage had no hand in it. It was an astounding 
 tour de force but it was in popular phrase entirely a 
 one man show." And with one man, however super- 
 human, on one side and Rome on the other, the end was 
 foredoomed. As for the third war, there too the result 
 was never doubtful. Carthage never had the most 
 shadowy chance. It was only due to the incapacity of 
 the Roman commanders that she prolonged her resis- 
 tance as long as she did. There was no sort of equality 
 be ween the two belligerent powers. Rome was playing 
 with her victim. f ^ s 
 
 Rome then did not need to wait for the levelling of 
 Carthage to be recognized as a first-rate power, and long 
 betore the conclusion even of the second Punic War, 
 
 337 
 
 
838 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 when she was still at grips with Hannibal on Italian 
 soil, and when she might fairly have been 
 bec'^mes excused for considering her hands full, she 
 a great ^yas deliberately sending troops out of Italy, 
 ^''^^''' and asserting her claim to be a power to 
 
 be reckoned with in international poUtics. 
 
 About a century earlier, when Alexander the Great 
 was capturing Tyre, his mother's brother, Alexander 
 the Molossian, had crossed the Adriatic into 
 Ssfof Rome Italy to protect the Greek colonies against 
 L^^Tnlnd^^ a coalition of Samnites, Lucanians, and 
 thePn^idc Bruttians, and had even made an aUiance 
 Wars. ^.^^ Eome, then lately estabUshed as head of 
 
 Latium, for a joint attack on these common enemies (332). 
 Fifty years later another kinsman of the great con- 
 queror, Pyrrhus, King of Epirus and, for a few short 
 months, of Macedonia also, had likewise invaded Italy 
 at the request of Tarentum, to defend it not against 
 Samnites but against Rome herself. The result of that 
 venture we know. In both instances the East had gone 
 to seek the West. Eome was merely an Itahan state, 
 and acted entirely on the defensive. 
 
 In the interval between the first and second Punic 
 
 Wars the situation had undergone a change. Rome had 
 
 Eome after challenged and defeated the greatest naval 
 
 thTFirst^'^ power of the Western world, and had wrested 
 
 Punic War. ^^^^ Carthage the command of the sea. From 
 
 being an Italian state, she had all at once become a 
 
 Mediterranean power, with a strong navy, sea-borne 
 
 commerce, and extensive connexions with the wide 
 
 world around. Accordingly, when the Illyrian subjects 
 
 of Queen Teuta chose to indulge their piratical instincts 
 
 at the expense of Roman and Rome-bound merchantmen, 
 
 and the Queen disregarded diplomatic representations 
 
 from the injured party, and flouted convention to the 
 
 THE WORLD FINDS A MASTER 339 
 
 extent of murdering ambassadors, war was promptly 
 declai-ed and effectively carried on (230). In less than a 
 year Queen and pirates were humbled. This time the 
 West had sought out the East. 
 
 The Illyrian pirate-war was the first occasion on 
 which Rome, on her own initiative, came into contact 
 with the East. Very insignificant, you say. ^. , . 
 Perhaps, but it was the grain of mustard- fontL'wUh 
 seed, and the branches that grew from it ^^®^*st. 
 spread to the Nile and the Euphrates. By suppressing 
 the Illyrian pirates Rome had conferred as great a 
 benefit on Greece as on herself, and her action won her 
 golden opinions. Her ambassadors were feted up and 
 down Greece; Athens admitted her citizens to the 
 Eleusmian Mysteries, and Corinth to competition in 
 the Isthmian Games. Greater compliments they could 
 not pay. 
 
 But great as was the gratitude of Greece to Rome 
 and the veneration of Rome for Greece as the home of 
 art and learning, the course of their relations 
 was not to run smooth. In 219 the Illyrians SiSiip 
 found habit too strong for their better resolu- ®^ Vaca- 
 tions, and relapsed into piracy. Kome in- ^°'''*' 
 stantly taught them a sharp lesson, and this time kept 
 the two coast towns, Apollonia and Dyrrhachium, in her 
 own hands— for future use. Their rebellious leader, 
 the treacherous Demetrius of Pharos, fled for refuge to 
 lung Philip of Macedonia, and urged him to punish 
 those impudent Italians who had dared to disturb the 
 world's peace and, worse still, to dethrone his Illyrian 
 Majesty and set foot on Greek, and therefore Macedonian, 
 soil! He was spurring a wilHng horse. Philip was 
 burning to do something which would bring him fame 
 and had not rejected the overtures of Hannibal. Now 
 on the top of Demetrius's lamentations came the news 
 
840 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 of the battle of Cannae (216), and Philip hesitated no 
 longer. He threw in his lot with the triumphant Car- 
 thaginian (215 B.C.), and in the following year lost no 
 time in besieging Apollonia, one of the towns on the 
 Adriatic which Rome had taken from the lUyrian pirates. 
 Thus arose the First Macedonian War (214 b.c). 
 Rome had begun to step into Alexander's place, and was 
 First laying hands on the western fringe of his suc- 
 
 Macedonian cessor's dominions. She did not wait for 
 '^"- Philip to invade Italy. Her principle was 
 
 always to take the offensive and seek out the enemy; 
 and, though Hannibal was still a constant threat, she 
 found means to send troops into Greece to cope with the 
 fresh danger. With true diplomatic instinct she also 
 made use of the materials which lay ready to hand on 
 the enemy's side of the sea. Greece was bursting with 
 discontent, and only wanted a leader. Rome headed a 
 coalition of the Aetolian League— Athens, Sparta, and 
 Pergamus— and six years later peace was made with 
 Philip, the net result to Rome being that she was con- 
 firmed in her possession of a goodly piece of the Illyrian 
 coast. It was a firm foothold, a convenient landing-place 
 for troops — in fact, an open door into the East. Those 
 who knew imperial-thinking Rome could see that peace 
 would not last very long. 
 
 And it did not. The war had hurt Philip but little. 
 He was very friendly with Antiochus, King of Syria- 
 Second which included Mesopotamia, Babylonia, and 
 Macedonian Persia— and on the death of the King of Egypt 
 ^^^' the two kindred spirits began to hint boldly 
 at the partition of that country. This Rome, in view 
 of her treaty of alliance with Egypt made in 273, could 
 not allow; and when Philip went on to grasp at the 
 control of the Aegean and the Black Sea corn-trade 
 route, and even made an unprovoked attack on Athens, 
 
 THE WORLD FINDS A MASTER 341 
 
 she declared war. The Second Macedonian War lasted 
 from 200 to 194 b.c. Rome had on her side Egypt and 
 all the Greek commercial states which had anything to 
 fear from Philip's encroachments. Her fleets and those 
 of her allies swept the seas. The briUiant young consul 
 Flaminnis, rolled the enemy back, took Thebes, and 
 finally and decisively crushed Philip at Cynoscephalae 
 (ly? B.C.). This battle, which ended the war 
 also proved that the Macedonian "phalanx'' c%''harae- 
 had had its day. The thick column of heavy- ^^iUp 
 armed infantry, this time thirty-two deep, '''''^'^* 
 armed with twenty-four-foot lances, was thrown into dis- 
 order by the hilly and broken ground, and was completely 
 at the mercy of the lighter and quicker Romans, fighting 
 in comparatively open order. If the compact mass could 
 be loosened anywhere, or attacked in the rear, it was 
 powerless. Yet the lesson was forgotten in the Middle 
 Ages, and Leopold of Austria had to be taught it all 
 again on the field of Sempach (a.d. 1386) by Arnold von 
 Winkelried. Philip had been well beaten, and agreed to 
 a peace (196 b.c), which involved the loss of all his pos- 
 sessions in Greece, Thrace, Asia Minor, and the islands. 
 The cynics were disappointed : the Roman victory did 
 not spell merely a change of masters. To the utter 
 astonishment of all, Flaminius ofiicially declared Greece 
 free, and every Roman soldier was withdrawn. 
 
 Meanwhile Antiochus, self-styled "the Great," of 
 Syria, having deferred helping his ally till it was too 
 late, now ostentatiously rushed into the fray, . . 
 when he could be of no earthly use to Philip,' thf Gre^T 
 nor Philip to him. His interference, which ^'"^s^®^- 
 might have made things very uncomfortable for Rome 
 five years earlier, was foredoomed to failure. In 192 he 
 landed in Greece, where he had a certain number of un- 
 important allies, including the Boeotians, who seem 
 
 ff! 
 
342 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 always to have sided with invaders of Greece ; but he left 
 numerous enemies behind him, nearer home. Bithynia, 
 Pergamus, Rhodes, Egypt were all ranged on the side of 
 Rome. In Europe even his former ally, Philip, was 
 now compelled to help the enemy. In the following year 
 (191), the would-be Xerxes, attempting to play the part 
 of Leonidas, was thoroughly beaten by a Roman army at 
 Thermopylae, and retired ignominiously to Ephesus. 
 The invasion had utterly failed. The Romans followed 
 up their success and pursued the fugitive into his own 
 country. They destroyed his fleet at Myonnesus in 
 Lydia, while a moderate force, under Lucius Scipio and 
 his brother, the famous Africanus, annihilated Antiochus's 
 enormous and heterogeneous army near Magnesia, 
 under Mount Sipylus. The " Great King " fled, leavmg 
 over fifty thousand dead on the field (190 b.c), and in 
 the next'year signed a humiliating peace. 
 
 Syria* had seen its most prosperous days. Out of 
 
 part of the spoils of war Rome created a strong kingdom 
 
 of Pergamus, in Western Asia Minor, to act 
 
 Pergamus. ^^ ^ buffer-state between east and west, and, 
 
 one suspects, to be a thorn in the side of Syria.^ 
 
 The new creation proved a useful provocative, not to 
 Syria, which was too weak to move, but to Macedonia, 
 Third ^^^^^^^' ^^^^^ Philip's death (179 b.c), had been 
 
 Macedonian recovering power under his son Perseus. Act- 
 '^*'- ing on information supplied by Eumenes, 
 
 King of Pergamus, Rome declared war on Perseus 
 (171 B.C.). The first two campaigns went entirely against 
 the Romans, but Perseus in this evidently owed more to 
 luck than to ability, for in the next and following years 
 he lost, through stinginess and indolence, every oppor- 
 tunity of raising Greece against his foes, and in the cam- 
 paign against the consul PhiHppus, showed himself 
 incompetent and pusillanimous. In 168 b.c. he was 
 
 THE WORLD FINDS A MASTER 343 
 
 cornered and forced to fight at Pydna by Aemilius 
 Paullus. Once more, as at Cynoscephalae, End of the 
 the ''phalanx" was undone by rapid move- "pi^aianx." 
 ment over uneven ground. The more easily handled 
 Romans penetrated into the gaps and cut down the 
 pikemen, who were entangled in their huge, unwieldy 
 weapons. Three thousand of them died where they 
 stood. The " phalanx " had made its last appearance in 
 ancient warfare. Perseus's army was completely routed : 
 the king himself fled, was captured, adorned the consul's 
 triumph in Rome, and died in obscurity at Alba. The 
 Third Macedonian War (171-168 b.c.) was at an end, 
 and so was the kingdom of Macedonia. The country was 
 split into four republics, subject to Rome. 
 
 With Macedonia replaced by Rome, the sequel was 
 not difficult to foresee. Greece must sooner or later be 
 swept into the net. The rise of a pretender in 
 Macedonia led to the conversion of the republics deJt^oyed : 
 into a Roman province (148 b.c), and immedi- ^^^®<^® . 
 ately after, foolish ambition and civil strife in piovmce of 
 the Peloponnese brought in Rome as the " big ^^'^^'^onia. 
 policeman," who ''pacified" the country by dissolving 
 the confederacies, and razing Corinth to the ground 
 (146 B.C.). The restless and ungovernable country had, 
 thanks to Rome's forbearance and veneration for its past* 
 been given '' one more chance." But it was incorrigible! 
 Flaminius, in 196 b.c, had in most dramatic fashion 
 declared Greece free : Mummius, in 146 b.c, made it a 
 subordinate part of the province of Macedonia ! 
 
 Rome had taken a firm step eastwards. It was 
 certain she would ere long take another. The peace of 
 189 B.C., following on the futile provocation of Decay of 
 Rome by Antiochus, and his disastrous defeat, ^y"*- 
 had dealt Syria a blow from which it never recovered. 
 The king had fled, and his authority had vanished with 
 
344 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 him. Syria was the " Sick Man " of those days. The 
 history of Western Asia in the last two centuries b.c. 
 was not unhke that of the Balkan Peninsula in modern 
 times. The central government weakened, and province 
 after province fell away. Every fresh unsuccessful war 
 brought fresh loss of territory. Just as Bulgaria, Ru- 
 mania and Servia were carved out of European Turkey, 
 so Syria, which once extended from the Dardanelles to 
 the Persian Gulf and the Dead Sea, had lost all Asia Minor, 
 Armenia, Palestine, and the far eastern provinces about 
 Persia, which had fallen into the hands of the Parthians. 
 The star of the Seleucids clearly was setting. Seleucus II. 
 (246-226) had run away without a blow, and allowed 
 Egypt to overrun his territory in Syria. His son, Anti- 
 ochus " The Great," had been unsuccessful in every war 
 he undertook, against Egypt, against the Parthians, and 
 against Rome. And now, when Antiochus IV., Epi- 
 phanes, "The Illustrious," also named in punning 
 derision Epimanes, " The Madman," was on the verge 
 of conquering Egypt, Rome stepped in to save her ally, 
 and cried " Hands off ! " 
 
 Nor was this all. External failure brought in its 
 
 wake, as it always does, internal upheaval and civil 
 
 strife. Since the formation of Alexander the 
 
 Antwchus (.j.g^^,g empire, the Jews had been ruled by 
 
 presses the their High Priests, who formed a dynasty 
 ^^^^ reigning at Jerusalem, and, from their luckless 
 
 geographical position, alternately under the heel of 
 Syrian, Seleucid, and Egyptian Ptolemy. They were 
 between the upper and the nether millstone, and it is a 
 fine testimony to the national vitaUty and force of cha- 
 racter that they survived as they did. Egypt placed a 
 garrison in Jerusalem: Syria removed it. For this 
 Antiochus III., " The Great," was hailed as a deliverer. 
 But Antiochus IV., "the Madman," returning foiled 
 
I 
 
 -I 
 
 THE WORLD FINDS A MASTER 
 
 345 
 
 from Egypt, at Rome's bidding, full of bitterness, no 
 doubt, and looking about for a scapegoat on which to 
 vent his feelings, heard that Jerusalem had had the 
 audacity to rise against his own nominee in the High 
 Priesthood. No further excuse was required. If he 
 could not pillage Alexandria, at least he would sack 
 Jerusalem. The rebelliousness of the Jews was put 
 down to the account of their pernicious superstition, 
 which accordingly must be extirpated. And so "The 
 Madman " became a persecutor, bent on rooting up an 
 obnoxious religion. 
 
 But he had underestimated the difficulty of his task. 
 In all countries and ages Hodge is slower at learning 
 and therefore at changing than his Cockney The 
 cousin. The most obstinate stronghold of con- Maccabees, 
 servatism is the peasantry. It might be possible for the 
 persecutor to cajole or intimidate the Jerusalem popula- 
 tion into apostasy ; but a " stiff-necked race " indeed was 
 still bred in the villages. At Modin, in Judaea, the 
 king's emissary was cut down by the old priest Matta- 
 thiah, and his live stalwart sons became the leaders of 
 the popular discontent. They were known as the As- 
 monaeans, that is, the sons of Asmonaeus (Hebrew, 
 Ashmunai). The peasants armed and carried on a 
 highly successful guerilla warfare, for were they not 
 in a mountainous and difficult country of which they 
 knew every inch ? The eldest, Jonathan, was the diplo- 
 matist of the family, while Judas, the second, was the 
 man of action, a born leader of men, and a hard hitter, 
 who very soon earned the surname of Maccabaeus, or 
 ** The Hammer," with as good a right as Charles Martel 
 or our own Edward I., " the Hammer of the Scots." 
 
 The nationalist rising of the Asmonaeans was favoured 
 by circumstances : Syria was torn by dissension. Anti- 
 ochus's troops were defeq^ted more than once, Jerusalem 
 
346 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 was occupied, the Temple cleansed and re-dedicated 
 (1C)5 or 164 B.C.), and the new movement and its leaders 
 officially recognized by treaty. After twenty years of 
 struggle, in which his four brothers had lost their lives, 
 the last survivor, Simon, was installed as High Priest 
 and Prince of a diminished but restored nation, with 
 complete religious and considerable political liberty. 
 Simon was assassinated in 135 u.c, but the dynasty of 
 Asmonaeans continued till its feeble last representative, 
 John Hyrcanus, was deposed and executed by Augustus, 
 to make room for the Edomite Herod the Great (30 b.c). 
 Evidently the task of governing Asia was too much 
 for the degenerate house of Seleucus, and Ptome was only 
 
 Mithridates. ^^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ Opportunity to snatch the 
 ' sceptre from its nerveless grasp. The wished- 
 for opportunity was provided by the ambition of Mithri- 
 dates, King of Pontus. The '' sick man," Syria, fared no 
 better in the north than in the south ; the whole head 
 was sick, and the whole heart faint. It was hardly to 
 be expected that, while all around him in Asia Minor 
 new kingdoms had been carved out of that unresisting 
 mass called Syria, IMithridates should remain contented 
 with the diminutive piece of country known from its 
 position as " The Seaboard," or Pontus. This wonderful 
 man, one of the most remarkable figures in ancient 
 history, with his extraordinary vigour of body and mind, 
 and ambition equal to his capacity, with a memory which 
 could make him a master of twenty-five languages, and 
 a military genius which could baffle Rome's ablest 
 generals for over fifteen years, naturally felt himself 
 " cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd," in his legitimate dominions, 
 and cast a covetous eye across his frontiers. 
 
 He came to the throne in 120, and was no doubt 
 kept informed about Rome's struggle with Jugurtha and 
 the Gauls ; but he stayed his own hand till the imperial 
 
 THE WORLD FINDS A MASTER 347 
 
 city was in the throes of the Social War (91-88 r,.c.). 
 Then he struck. He expelled his neighbours, the kings 
 of Cappadocia and Bithynia, and in close j^^^^ 
 alliance with Tigranes, King of Armenia, his Mithridatic 
 son-in-law, defied Rome (91-89 b.c). It ^*^' 
 was not till nearly thirty years later, after three wars, 
 that the Western republic prevailed. In the first 
 (88-84 L.c.) he occupied the Roman province of Asia, 
 massacred 80,000 Romans and Italians, and like 
 Antiochus the Great, sent an army across into Greece, 
 where it seized and fortified Athens under Archelaus ; 
 Sulla's legions, however, took Athens, and routed the 
 invaders at Chaeronea (86 b.c), and at Orchomenus 
 (85), while Roman troops also gained successes in Asia. 
 Peace was made, but did not last long, being broken 
 by an unauthorized raid by the governor Murena, into 
 Pontus. This was, however, immediately 
 stopped, and scarcely deserves the name of andTMrd 
 Second Mithridatic War often given to it Mithridatic 
 (83 B.C.). The third war broke out in 74 b.c, 
 and lasted till 65 b.c. Tigranes of Armenia had seized 
 the decrepit kingdom of Syria. In alliance with him and 
 with Sertorius, the rebel leader in Spain, Mithridates 
 seized Bithynia, which had just been bequeathed by its 
 last king to Rome. The Roman commanders at first 
 were Lucullus and Cotta. Step by step, Mithridates was 
 driven eastwards into Pontus, till being beaten at Cabira, 
 he fled into Armenia. Three years later, after settling 
 Pontus, Lucullus started in pursuit, crossed the Euphrates, 
 took Tigranocerta with immense spoil, and plunged into 
 the mountains near Artaxata. Before he could reach his 
 goal and crown his labours, Lucullus was forced by mutiny 
 in the field and unworthy intrigues at home to retrace his 
 steps. Pompey, the popular idol of the hour, fresh from 
 his victories over Sertorius, the slaves, and the pirates, 
 
348 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 became eommauder-in-ehief of the forces in the East 
 
 SuSidate, ■*^*' "•''■^- '^^''** '^'"^ y^''' l^^'thridates, who 
 ■ was now sixty-six, surrounded on all sides by 
 treachery, fled to the Crimea, intending like Hannibal to 
 ead an army overland into Italy. But treason pursued 
 him there, and in despair he took his life tliree years 
 later. 
 
 Pompey remained some years ranging at will with 
 his armies over the East, and organizing it as a part of 
 Pompey's tbe Roman dominions. The last Seleucid 
 oTthrEaVt A"«o«h»« XIII., was deposed, and Syria 
 I'ecame a Roman province. Jerusalem was 
 taken after a three months' siege, and the last of the 
 Asmonaeans or Maccabees became a feeble puppet in 
 the liands of Rome. Bithynia, Pontus, and Crete were 
 added to the provinces, while Commagene, Cappadocia, 
 ami Lesser Armenia became vassal-kingdoms, and 
 ligranes did homage for the crown of Greater Armenia, 
 lompey even made the Parthians respect the Roman 
 definition of the Armenian frontier, but did not attempt 
 any real conquest of their country. Egypt which, under 
 the Macedonian rule of the Ptolemies had always been 
 friendly to Rome, continued in the position of a Roman 
 protectorate which it had accepted in 108 u.c. 
 
 Thus after the lapse of two and a half centuries the 
 whole of Alexander the Great's empire, with the sole 
 Borne exception of the portion beyond the Tigris 
 
 Se Eas? "^ ^'""'^ ^^'' incorporated in the Roman dominions! 
 Pompey returned home in time to form with 
 Juhus Caesar and Crassus the famous First Triumvi- 
 rate, and to play his fateful part in the great civil war 
 which transformed the Republic into an Empire. (See 
 Chapter XX.) *^ 
 
 THE WORLD FINDS A MASTER 349 
 
 XL 
 
 The story of the sulijugation of the West is shorter 
 and simpler. At the end of the first of her Punic Wars 
 Rome possessed Western Sicily, and after the ^ 
 battle of Zama, besides the whole of that KHn 
 island, she owned Spain divided into two ^J"'"- 
 provinces, while the Numidian chiefs were under her 
 protection. All these acquisitions were, of course, the 
 spoil of Carthage. But though Spain was nominally 
 two Roman provinces, it was by no means properly sub 
 jugated. Celtiberians and Lusitanians in their mountain 
 fastnesses gave endless trouble till the propraetor 
 Gracchus conciliated them by kind and politic measures 
 mt Gracchus s successors were less reasonable, and 
 uiilieeded complaints grew into the Celtiberian War 
 {loS-U3 B.C.), which lasted for twenty years. Roman 
 commanders were several times guilty of the most 
 atrocious treachery. The Spanish patriot Viriathus 
 roused the Lusitanians and other tribes, and for nine 
 years defied Rome, repeatedly defeating her legions 
 And then a Roman general was found to bribe some 
 Lusitanians, and the hero fell by the assassin's knife 
 (140 B.C.). Bad faith continued as a regular weapon in 
 Rome s armoury ; promises were broken and advantages 
 gained, but still defeats continued, coming for seven 
 years more, until Scipio Africanus the younger the 
 destroyer of Carthage, took and burnt Numantia' and 
 put an end to all resistance (133 is.c). 
 
 The Spanish provinces remained fairly cmiet for 
 fifty years, until (83 b.c.) the Roman Sertorius, the 
 friend of the revolutionary Marius, being 
 driven out of Rome, made himself master of *"■*"""'• 
 the country, where he attempted to establish a rival 
 
350 
 
 rp 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 goveniineiit to that which sat at Rome. At tlie head 
 of his Roiuanizod 8i)aniards he defied Rome for ten 
 years till he too, hke Viriathus, was removed by 
 murder (7'i n.c ). This war, hke the Mithridatic, was 
 brought to ail end by Pompey, and Spain was no 
 more heard of till the great civil war twenty-six years 
 later, when Caesar fought at Munda (40 li.c.) the hardest 
 battle of his life, to crush the last remnants of Pompey's 
 party. 
 
 The destruction of Carthage (14() u.c.) and formation 
 of its territory into the province of Africa, was followed 
 Africa. ^^ generation later by the disgraceful war with 
 
 WarwUh Jugurtha, King of Numidia (110 b.c). The 
 ^^^^ ** senatorial government, by this time utterly 
 corrupt, allowed Jugurtha*s vast wealth to cover both his 
 misdeeds and their own and to spin out the affair 
 shamelessly, until, the people growing indignant and 
 impatient, their nominee, Marius, fniished the war, and 
 the captive Jugurtha was executed in the Tullianum 
 
 (100 B.C.). 
 
 Last, but by no means least, the subjugation of Gaul 
 came as the final link to complete the chain of conquests 
 which made the ^Mediterranean a Roman lake. 
 It would be a mistake to suppose, however, 
 that Gaul only came within the horizon of Rome during the 
 closing century of the great Republic. On the contrary, 
 Gallic tribes had spread not only over the country now 
 called France but also over most of modern Switzerland, the 
 Alps, and Northern Italy as far south as the 44th degree of 
 latitude, that is along a line from Spezia to Rimini, and 
 came quite early into contact with the rising city of the 
 Tiber. 
 
 In the first trial of strength the honours remained 
 with the Gauls. In 420 b.c. their '' land-hunger " began 
 to make itself felt ; in 390 they defeated the Etruscans, 
 
 The Gauls. 
 
 THE WORLD FINDS A MASTER 
 
 351 
 
 Sentinum. 
 
 and six years later 70,000 of them under Brennus— 
 (prol)ably a title meaning " Iving ")— annihilated the 
 Romans at the river Allia (390 b.c.) and burnt Retrospect : 
 Rome, all but the Capitol, which was saved by ^*^^y ^?^*- 
 loaves and geese and Manlius. The story of Eome.^^^^ 
 lirennus's contemptuous " Vae Victis ! " is ^^® ^^^^*- 
 familiar ; no sooner were the words out of his mouth 
 than Camillus appeared on the scene, drove the invaders 
 off and cut them up. He followed up this lesson by 
 another when he routed a Gallic army at Alba in 307. 
 But defeats had little effect on their huge numbers and 
 extraordinary vitality, and they continued for another 
 century and a half to be dangerous neighbours. They 
 imperilled Rome's existence once more by joining her 
 enemies at Sentinum (295 b.c.) in the great 
 Samnite war. For a time there was j^eace 
 while some of their restless energy was diverted to Greece, 
 where another Brennus, with over two hundred thousand 
 horse and foot, forced the pass of Thermopylae (279 b.c) 
 but was repulsed at Delphi. But Rome did not feel 
 secure, and Ariminum was founded as a frontier-fortress 
 to watch the Gauls and keep them at arm's length 
 (208 B.C.). 
 
 Precautions were not superfluous. During the next 
 fifty years war was constantly breaking out afresh. At 
 one time there was even a rumour that the Gauls from 
 beyond the Alps were coming to help their brethren. 
 But in 225 b.c the Romans won a crushing victory at 
 Telamon in Etruria, forty thousand Gauls 
 being left on the field, and Cisalpine Gaul, ^'^*°'°''' 
 Gaul south of the Alps, was subdued (222 b.c). But 
 the work was only half done. When Hannibal 
 came, and won at the Ticinus and the Trebia, ^*'^'^*^' 
 the Cisalpine Gauls joined him to a man. After his fall 
 at Zama (202 b.c.) their resistance collapsed. They 
 
352 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOBLD 
 
 Gaul a 
 Roman 
 Province. 
 
 vince, ' 
 Gallia Nar 
 bonensis, 
 formed. 
 
 were given good terms, and, with the help of several 
 Cisai ine g'^^^'ison-towns and good mihtary roads, formed 
 into a strong, well-organized and loyal depen- 
 dency, which would act as a valuable protection 
 against invasion from the north (181 li.c). 
 This may be taken as the conclusion of the first stage 
 in the relations of Eome with the Gauls. 
 
 The second period (from 154 to 101 b.c.) is concerned 
 with Gaul beyond the Alps, and includes the formation 
 The "Pro- oi a province and the repulse of a threatened 
 invasion of barbarians. As so often happened, 
 a friend's difficulty was Eome's opportunity. 
 The ancient and flourishing Greek colony of 
 Massiha (Marseilles), which had an alliance with the 
 Romans, asked them for assistance against Gallic raiders. 
 The invitation was accepted with alacrity ; the raiders 
 were subdued, and Eome having her foot in the door 
 kept it open. When Spain became a Roman province 
 (133 B.C.) it was quite obvious that Gaul must follow 
 suit sooner or later, if only to provide an overland trade- 
 route, and, in fact, by slow but sure steps, the country 
 on both sides of the Rhone was subdued, colonies founded, 
 roads made, and /the land from the Pyrenees to the Alps 
 became the province of GaUia Narbonensis, or simply 
 Provincia, *' The Province," which name it still bears — 
 Provence. 
 
 But every fresh acquisition of territory was a fresh 
 invitation to covetous neighbours and addition to Rome's 
 The Cim- vulnerability. Vast bodies of Cimbrians and 
 
 brians and Teutons, with no address, were out " house- 
 Teutons. T J • » » T , 1 , . 
 
 huntmg, and the newly-created ''Province 
 seemed a decidedly desirable residence. There was un- 
 rest in the air behind the Alps : a landless nation in 
 arms was knocking at the door, a forcible reminder to 
 the Romans that there were other people in the world 
 
 THE WORLD FINDS A MASTER 853 
 
 besides them— (five centuries later they did not knock, 
 they walked in). The Roman forces suffered repeated 
 defeats culminating in the rout of Arausio (Orange) 
 wliere eighty thousand legionaries were left on the field. 
 Piome was stirred. The barbarians, flushed with victory, 
 were advancing in two gigantic columns on Italy. But 
 they met their match. Marius, fresh from the conquest 
 at Jugurtha, annihilated the one at Aquae Sextiae (Aix- 
 en-Provence) and the other at Yercellae, and the northern 
 peril ceased to exist (101 e.g.). 
 
 But the third and last act was both the most dramatic 
 and the most fruitful of results to European history. 
 Gaius Julius Caesar, afterwards the great Dicta- j^y^g 
 tor, for reasons of his own which will appear in Caesar in 
 another chapter, obtained the Governorship of ^^^^' 
 Gaul on both sides of the Alps at first for five and 
 eventually for ten years (59 b.c). What did he find 
 there ? Cisalpine Gaul had been organized as a regular 
 province, the portion of it south of the Po being actually 
 treated as part and parcel of Italy with the full Roman 
 franchise. All was quiet here. On the other side of the 
 Alps, the tribes in the interior of Gaul were exercising 
 the right of brothers to quarrel, while others were still 
 unsettled themselves and unsettling the rest of the 
 world by their search for a home, and, most serious of 
 all, the Germans were threatening to cross the Rhine. 
 Caesar cut up and drove the roving Helvetii back into 
 Switzerland, pushed the German Ariovistus back into his 
 native forests, and made the Rhine the boundary of Gaul, 
 subdued the Belgae on the north-east and the Veneti on 
 the north-west, and even found time for two short 
 expeditions to Britain (55 and 54 e.g.). He also bridged 
 the Rhine and made a military demonstration on its east 
 bank to intimidate the Germans. 
 
 But it was in his last two or three years that his 
 
 2a 
 
354 
 
 THE ANCIExNT WOULD 
 
 powers were most severely tested and the success of his 
 veroinge. coi^uest definitely assured. The Cariiutes rose 
 rn V . . .'^''^^ac'ed the Romans at Cenabum 
 ro,*! r/1' '^'^V w-^''""^ ^'■^■*^™'''" prince Vercingetorix 
 eZ fo. ^f '° '^"r' ^'' <'°""'ry'^e» to a desperate 
 
 m thiee divisions on the eastern frontier between the 
 
 visit to Italy found that all the west and centre of Gaul 
 ^^•ere in revolt, and the southern " Province " in danger 
 of an invasion, while the tribes between him and his 
 kgons could not be trusted. It was a dilemma, but hi 
 mind was (juickly made up. Hurrying through the 
 
 It in a state of defence : then unexpectedly crossin^r the 
 Cevennes m the depth of winter he took the Arverni 
 completely by surprise, and drew Vercingetorix down to 
 
 east across he Rhone into the northern extremity of the 
 
 ments, and with them marched rapidly due north to join 
 his egions, which he now concentrated in the lan^ of 
 the Lingones (Langres). 
 
 Events moved rapidly. Vercingetorix was besiegiii<r 
 Gorgobina, near the confluence of the Allier and th^ 
 Loire Caesar marched south to its relief, burning 
 Cenabum on the way to punish its massacl-e of ! 
 Roman residents, and Vercingetorix, finding himself 
 
 wS Z ""if . ^f- ^'' ^"'' determined to adopt 
 fh., • fu n^ , '^'''''- ^^'"^ self-sacrificing en- 
 
 ntoT'hoir "^'t *""' '' *""■" '^--^ -™ -""try 
 Tvaricum /r f ''"'''^ ' '"'"'''^ *°^™^ ^^^^"'^ burnt". 
 wTr/^ ^'^^^ r' '^'''"^' ^^^y had not the 
 heart to destroy it. But Caesar promptly besieged it 
 
 and after a hard struggle, which i^veal d L ingenuity 
 
 THE WORLD FINDS A MASTER 355 
 
 and devotion of which the Gauls were capable, took it 
 and massacred its forty thousand inhabitants. Caesar 
 we know, was not by nature cruel ; he hoped to strike 
 terror into the rebels and shorten the war. But Ver- 
 cingetorix was undaunted. He went south, up the Allier 
 into his own country, and took up a strong position on 
 the mil of Gergovia (near Clermont Eerrand) 
 from which all Caesar's efforts failed to dislodge °"^'"'''^- 
 hini. The moral effect of this check was tremendous 
 and immediate. Even the faithful Aedui revolted, and 
 Caesar was obliged to turn his back on Gergovia to 
 deal with this fresh danger. This drew him north- 
 east towards his original base in the country round 
 Langres. 
 
 Vercingetorix followed, and a general council was 
 held at Bibracte (Autuii) in the very centre of Gaul 
 at which he was unanimously elected com- Aiesia- the' 
 niander-in-chief. The " Province " was to Po^'ioi"- 
 be invaded. Caesar, marching south to save it, was 
 attacked by Vercingetorix, who, however, was repulsed 
 and made the mistake of his life by retiring into Aiesia 
 (Ahse-Ste.-Reine). The position, a steep hill (Mont 
 Auxois) closely bound in on two sides by the rivers 
 Ose and Oserain, was immensely strong, but so was 
 Caesar's determination. Guerilla warfare might have 
 prolonged the struggle indefinitely; but here he felt 
 that he had his enemy concentrated and cornered. The 
 struggle was tremendous. Each side felt that they 
 must win now or never. There were 80,000 Gauls 
 on the hill with food for thirty days. Caesar collected 
 all his available troops and surrounded the place com- 
 pletely with lines ten miles long, strengthened with 
 twenty-three forts. Vercingetorix sent out a desperate 
 appeal for help and a vast relieving army, 250,000 strong, 
 came to the rescue. But Caesar had surrounded his 
 
356 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 troops with exterior lines, twelve miles iii circum- 
 ference. 
 
 The besieging lines on the level ground were most 
 elaborate; modern barbed-wire entanglements are 
 fngUne^' child's-play to them. There was a twenty-foot 
 ' ditch with vertical sides, and, four hundred 
 feet behind, a twelve-foot ditch and earthwork crowned 
 with a strong stockade with towers at intervals of 
 eighty feet, and protected by strong cJicmux dc. frise • 
 while the intervening ground between the first ditch and 
 the stockaded earthwork contained two more fifteen-foot 
 trenches, one filled with water, five rows of sunk and 
 intertwmed tree trunks, with boughs cut to a point 
 eight rows of pits with concealed wooden spikes three 
 ^et apart, and innumerable rows of half-sunk iron hooks 
 This on the side facing the hill ; and, when the relieving 
 army was expected, tlie same precautions were taken on 
 the other side to protect the legions from an attack in 
 the rear. Caesar was taking no risks ! 
 
 The horrors began ; food ran short on the hill. One 
 chief i)roposed recourse to cannibalism. He was out- 
 Horrors Voted, but. Scarcely less terrible, to make the 
 blockade ^^PPlies last longer, the whole of the non- 
 combatant population were driven outside the 
 walls, and left to a slow death from exposure and famine 
 between the opposing ramparts. 
 
 Then the relieving army attacked. Simultaneously 
 the besieged made a sortie. The fighting was desperate, 
 The final especially on a certain hill on the north side, 
 s rugg e. ^Jj-^j2j ^^g ^j^g weakest point in Caesar's lines,' 
 and Caesar himself was in the thickest of it. Victory 
 remained with the Romans. Vercingetorix had played 
 and lost. Next day, to spare further bloodshed and save 
 his countrymen, he rode into Caesar's presence and sur- 
 rendered (52 b.c). In the following year Caesar had no 
 
 THE WORLD FINDS A MASTER 857 
 
 difficulty in stamping out the last embers of resistance ; 
 by the end of 51 b.c. Gaul was Rome's, and Gallia 
 Comata, as it was sometimes called, was attached to the 
 old southern *' Province " of Gallia Narbonensis. 
 
 The chain was complete. The Roman eagle spread 
 his wings from Jerusalem to Gibraltar. The world, east 
 and west, had found a master. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE PRICE OF EMPIRE 
 
 my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows I 
 O, thou wilt be a wilderness again, 
 Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants I 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 The world had found a master ; but what of the master ^ 
 Borne had conquered by the sword and now the sword 
 The effect was turned against her own heart. How was 
 
 of these fbiQ 9 
 
 conquests ^"^^ ^ 
 
 conqueror ^^""^^^ ^""'^^^ "' ""^^ ^'^^'^^' ^^^ ultimate 
 
 cause of the troubles which overtook the 
 Roman republic in the last century of its existence was 
 —security. Security from without which bred insecurity 
 within. Few things are worse for a man than bein<^ too 
 comfortable ; few things are worse for a state. Adtm's 
 sentence, commonly but quite wrongly regarded and 
 regretted as a curse, is in reality a blessing. Tilling 
 *' the ground from whence he was taken " and eating 
 bread "in the sweat of his face," man strengthens his 
 hbre, physical and moral ; his hands are kept too busy 
 to fall into mischief. He is better outside the Garden • 
 the leisure and security within are fatal to him. 
 
 The ancient Spartans were forbidden to surround 
 themselves with fortifications. They lived in a cluster of 
 of'stm""? ^^^^^ villages, disdaining walls, for every man 
 s rugg e. (3f ^^^^^ ^^^^ proudly boasted, was himself a 
 brick. And this deliberate and self-imposed exposure to 
 
 358 
 
 THE PRICE OF EMPIRE 
 
 359 
 
 attack made them strong and wakeful and patriotic to 
 the point of sacrificing every interest and convenience 
 to the safety of the community. Similarly the Romans, 
 so long as they felt not quite secure, so long as they 
 were still struggling and wrestling and pushing their 
 way through a press of strong and determined rivals, 
 developed and preserved all the finest qualities of good 
 patriots and strong men. 
 
 But success was as fatal as the heat and dust of 
 struggle had been favourable to the soundness of the 
 national character. The sense of security The feeling 
 induced by the disappearance of competition ^^ security, 
 was the beginning of demoralization. Patriotism decayed ; 
 luxury, personal and class selfishness were rife ; the poor 
 were neglected and grew poorer, the rich grew richer and 
 hardened their hearts ; arrogance ripened into oppression, 
 discontent was embittered into hate, ambition lost its last 
 remaining scruples. 
 
 And the fountain-head of all this misery was the 
 defeat of Carthage. The victim had taken a terrible 
 revenge on the victor. Here is the picture of cause and 
 this age drawn a century later by a Roman, a ®*^®*^*- 
 younger contemporary of Julius Caesar.* " When our 
 great rival Carthage had been swept from our path and the 
 whole world lay at our feet, all was mad confusion. The 
 craving for money and power was the root of untold 
 evils. For the money-grabbing spirit undermined honour 
 and honesty and all other virtues, and put in their place 
 arrogance, cruelty, irreligion and a readiness to regard 
 everything as a legitimate object of traffic. Ambition 
 taught men to be liars, to speak one thing and think 
 another, to regulate friendship by self-interest and to 
 make fair looks a mask for a black heart. At first the 
 evils grew slowly and at times even sufi'ered a set-back, 
 
 * Sallust, " Catilina," xx. 
 
aco 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 but, when the taint spread like a pestilence, political life 
 was demoralized and our government degenerated from 
 Its old standard of justice and virtue into a heartlessness 
 beyond the power of men to endure." 
 
 The ancient parable was justified. Hercules in a ra-e 
 slew Nessus with a poisoned arrow, but his own victim's 
 Jfemesis. ^'°'''' steeped in deadly power the robe which 
 >,,•= 1 ., *"'"','" ^° mercilessly to his body and caused 
 his death amidst appalling agonies. Rome had triumphed 
 
 mlT rf'' ^'"' ^^^ Nessus-shirt clung more and 
 more dosely, devouring like a flame, and the violence put 
 
 mutilated.''""''" '' ^'" *' ''"''^ °^ "'" '''"'" '°™ ''°'' 
 
 Snif!'?",'^' ^T® ^"^ ^^"^ '" *^« P««''ion of <incient 
 bpaita, feeling that her safety depended not on the 
 
 Internal absence of enemies nor on unassailable walls 
 
 but on her own stern manliness, all was well. 
 
 When other nations ceased to count and this 
 
 healthy apprehensiveness was exchanged for a 
 
 comfortable feeling of security, all went ill. 
 
 The country was not now torn by the long and bitter 
 
 quarrel between Patrician and Plebeian. That distinction 
 
 had been for ever swept away by successive enactments 
 
 ^hich made all men pohtically equal in the eye of the 
 
 law A man might still with pardonable and harmless 
 
 pnde recall that he belong to a Patrician house and bring 
 
 up his son to be proud of the family name; but though 
 
 socially an advantage, politically it conferred no privS 
 
 but'i^Lt?'^'";?-"^'"^' '^"' '°"« and'difficut 
 anl pfeleian r^K *'™"'''' and successful. Patrician 
 and 1 lei e an had become mere terms of heraldry with 
 histonca interest but no practical significance. 
 
 -But the breaking down of barriers does not make 
 men equal any more than the removal of fences wouW 
 make a country one soil with one produce. Oqe Z^e 
 
 discord. 
 Old dis- 
 tinctions 
 replaced 
 by new. 
 
 THE PEICE OF EMPIRE 361 
 
 being worn out is consigned to the rubbish-heap, but 
 another is inevitably erected in its place. The Patricians 
 politically were no more ; but the place of the The new 
 old aristocracy of birth was filled by a new aris- aristocracy, 
 tocracy of public service. The new aristocrats pubUc''' 
 might be Patricians or Plebeians ; a few might service, 
 know, but none cared, which they were. Let us dismiss 
 the distinction once for all from our minds. They were 
 men who had .served, or whose fathers had served, their 
 country at home or abroad, in the forum or on the 
 battlefield. 
 
 After holding high public office they entered the 
 benate, the Roman House of Lords, and formed a close 
 and exclusive class, perhaps more so than the 
 class they had supplanted. At first they were, ^' ^'''**'' 
 obviously, a body of picked men, who had 'won their 
 spurs— in a word, an aristocracy of merit. Being thus 
 composed, the Senate wielded immense influence, and 
 even power. Although nominally the popular assembly, 
 or Lower House, was legislatively supreme, the Senate 
 practically controlled the executive, and by virtue of its 
 composition was supreme in fact. It controlled finance ; 
 It decided on peace and war, and directed the operations 
 of both. And its remarkable ability and success— for 
 mstance, in the conduct of the war with Hannibal -raised 
 It above the rest of the community as if in an impreff- 
 nable rock-built citadel. 
 
 But power tends irresistibly to corrupt all but the 
 very noblest type of character, and the senatorial class at 
 Rome enjoyed no immunity from the insidious corruption 
 malady. They had engrossed all the duties of of the 
 leadership and incurred all its risks ; they Govern"'^ 
 reaped all its profits. No one was to share °^®^^- 
 with them their hard-won spoil. It is becoming fashion- 
 able to say nowadays that war does not pay, even the 
 
 f 
 
 I 
 
 t# 
 
302 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 victorious side ; nor does it, considering the nation as a 
 whole. By the South African war England added one 
 more patch of red to the map of the world, for which 
 amusement she paid some thousands of lives and two 
 hundred millions of money. But it paid some contractors 
 and financiers. Similarly, the wars of the Repuhlic were 
 a source of profit to the senatorial class. Although they 
 were debarred by law from engaging directly in trade, 
 there were ways not unknown to them of participating 
 indirectly and getting money's worth. Wars meant 
 commands with opportunities of distinction and spoil • 
 fresh conquests meant fresh provinces to be governed' 
 and governorships with facilities for further spoil The 
 senators who stayed at home need not complain o"f their 
 luck, for they could still secure a share of the loot by 
 sitting in judgment on the retired governor at his home- 
 coming, scowling their righteous displeasure at his mis- 
 deeds and acquitting him for a consideration. Thus the 
 wealth extorted from the provinces was distributed and 
 put into circulation in the capital. .Judge and jury were 
 all aike senators : the good things did not go out of the 
 family. And a happy family it was. The world poured 
 into Its lap conquests and triumphs, loot and lands, an 
 unlimited supply of slaves, and millions of bushels of 
 corn. 
 
 For all the happy family party knew or cared, this 
 blissful state of things was to last for ever. Everything 
 was at its best in the best of all possible 
 worids. They had power and wealth and 
 social position and leisure and pleasure. Their 
 ,-t«.if ^^i!'-^®^ P"^' *''®''' ^"Perfluous wealth rolled 
 
 exnVn J'/ '^^' ^'"'''"^ °'' ^^^P*' ^''^ '^^''essary 
 
 flood fh! decreased^ for did not every fresh conquest 
 flood the market with slaves who could be had almost for 
 the asking ? Life was kind indeed to these lords of the 
 
 THE PRICE OF EMPIRE 
 
 363 
 
 Blindness 
 of the 
 governing 
 class. 
 
 earth ; ifc would have been ungrateful to quarrel with 
 their happiness. Their hearts and eyes waxed fat, and 
 they cared for nobody and nothing but themselves. 
 
 But outside the charmed circle men were beginning 
 to growl. The " shepherds of the people " were amus- 
 ing themselves, and the ''hungry sheep" 
 were being neither fed nor cared for. Devo- dtscrnt?nt 
 tion and sacrifice went unrequited ; justifiable °^ ^^^ 
 aspirations remained unsatisfied; elementary ^°''^^''®^- 
 rights were denied; imperative wants even were un- 
 supplied. The small farmers were ruined, partly by the 
 ravages of war, partly by unfair competition. Free 
 labour was ousted by the forced toil of slave-gangs. 
 Inevitable debt was followed inexorably, sooner or later, 
 by bankruptcy; the huge estates swallowed up their 
 smaller neighbours, and grew still larger, and landless 
 and penniless men thronged the streets of Eome. The 
 provincials grumbled because they wei-e excluded from 
 the franchise, and because, though they fought Home's 
 wars and got all the " knocks," none of the " ha'pence " 
 ever came their way. The public land was not for them ; 
 it was scrambled for in the family ring of the elect. 
 The soldiers grumbled at the harsh conditions of their 
 service, with its absence of rewards and its over-stern 
 discipline. All around and below the earth was full of 
 wrongs and the air full of grumbling. But the mis- 
 governing class continued to misgovern without a qualm. 
 They held their heads high, and saw the sun shining 
 overhead in a serene sky, and they were happy. But 
 below, where they disdained to look, the flood was rising, 
 and soon its waves lapped ominously at the foot of their 
 castle-rock. 
 
 The Roman nobility had been weighed and found 
 wanting, and the writing was already on the wall. But 
 the agony was protracted. At first cfonstitutional means 
 
SGi 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 of redress were tried. As so often happens, the domi- 
 nant party were attacked in the first instance by one 
 auemptat ^^ ^^^^^^^elves. Scipio Africanus the elder, 
 reform : * ^^^^ ^^^d Conquered Hannibal at Zama (202 
 
 SacciTus ''''''^ '''''^ '^''''^ ""' '^'^'^^ ^« ^'^y ^^^ to 
 
 consolidate the position of the senatorial class, 
 had a daughter Cornelia, who married the Consul 
 Gracchus, and became by him the mother of two sons 
 Ti beruis and Gains. They were ambitious, and early 
 determnied on a political career, but they were also 
 observant and sympathetic, and had the courage of their 
 convictions. Tiberius the elder was painfully impressed 
 by the appearance of the countryside with its vast estates 
 of grazing land worked by slaves, and its scarcity of 
 smaller farms or arable land. On becoming tribune, 
 he bent all his eloquence and energy to remedying this 
 evil by an agrarian measure. The landowners, who had 
 been allowed by the Government to occupy state-lands, 
 had absorbed vast quantities of it, and had moreover 
 developed unchecked the unjustifiable and mischievous 
 theory that the land was their own private property, 
 liberius proposed to assign limits to individual holdings 
 of state-land, to resume the surplus, and to apply It 
 towards providing allotments for the rapidly dwindling 
 class of small farmers. The Bill was really a re-enact- 
 ment of the famous Licinian law passed over two 
 centuries before. But so completely was that law dis- 
 regarded, and so far had the landowning class departed 
 from Its principle, that the proposal was denounced as 
 an unheard-of and pernicious innovation, and its author 
 as an unscrupulous and dangerous revolutionary. The 
 champions of law and decorum held up their hands in 
 pious horror, and invoked the aid of— violence. The 
 noble lords issued from the Senate house, armed with 
 legs of chairs and benches, and in the riot which 
 
 THE PRICE OF EMPIRE 
 
 365 
 
 followed, the first civil bloodshed in the streets of 
 Rome, Tiberius lost his life in the cause of reform 
 (133 B.C.). 
 
 His younger brother Gaius ten years later followed 
 the same path, but went further. He had more ability, 
 eloquence, and force, and a more comprehen- 
 sive plan. His proposals affected every depart- attempt ; 
 ment of the State — economic, military, judicial, ?*^^^j^ 
 and administrative. Some of his enactments 
 remained undisturbed, and continued to influence subse- 
 quent history, for good or ill. By inaugurating the 
 system of distribution of cheap corn to poor citizens, he 
 tied a millstone round the neck of the State, which could 
 never be removed — a grave blunder for which he must 
 be censured. But by wresting the control of the law- 
 courts from the Senatorial class and giving it to the 
 ** Knights " — the rich mercantile section — he created a 
 new class with privileges of its own, which acted as a 
 powerful check on the nobles, and helped materially in 
 compassing their overthrow. His schemes for the 
 foundation of colonies, and for a partial extension of the 
 franchise, evoked violent opposition, even from some of 
 the popular party. Once more the streets of the capital 
 rang with the clash of arms, and Gaius shared his 
 brother's fate. 
 
 Ordinary constitutional and legal means had been 
 tried and had failed. The Senate had thrown down the 
 glove in haughty defiance ; with calm determi- change 
 nation the reformers took it up. Nor did the ^^ ^^® 
 opportunity keep them waiting long, and when of the 
 next they pleaded their arguments were swords, conflict, 
 short, sharp, and unanswerable. 
 
 The Senate's incapacity kept pace with their growing 
 obstinacy. They began to fail in the very qualities 
 which had made their chief strength; they could 
 
3G6 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 produce neither wise counsellors, nor uncorrupfc judges 
 nor competent generals. The lirst two defects they 
 Growing ^^^^^^ ^^^^^e survived, as others have done; 
 hei^piessness but the third was fatal. All three were revealed 
 Senate. "^ ^^^ ^^^^'^^ ^^'^^^^^ Ugliness by their infamous 
 
 and disastrous conduct of the war with 
 the African chief Jugurtha. Their policy was blind, 
 then- commissioners took bribes, their generals were 
 hopelessly outwitted, and their armies completely 
 demoralized. 
 
 The national patience was strained to breaking-point, 
 and at last, after an incident more than usually out-' 
 Marius. ^"^S^ous, the people took the matter into their 
 own hands. The nobility, in spite of protests 
 and unworthy sneers, were forced to accept as consul 
 and commander-in-chief of the forces in Africa a son of 
 the people, Gaius Marius. Marius was a rough-man- 
 nered provincial with no social pretensions, but he was a 
 born soldier. The paltry war, which had been allowed 
 to grow into a national scandal, gave him no trouble 
 (lOG B.C.). No sooner was it over than the Cimbric and 
 Teutonic peril threatened in the north. Senatorial pro- 
 consuls were defeated, whole armies were annihilated 
 Marius, fresh from the conquest of Jugurtha, was the 
 one man who could save the State. And he did so. The 
 constitution was violated that Marius might enjoy four 
 consecutive consulships to repel the foreign foe. He had 
 become indispensable. 
 
 If only the nobles had made him their friend, what a 
 tower of strength they would have possessed in him ! 
 
 Marius ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^Y was leading them to 
 joins the the precipice. The year after his return from 
 
 Kefom. *^^ "oi't^> with the splendour of Aquae Sextae 
 
 and the Raudine Plain still upon him, Marius 
 
 threw m his lot with the reformers. This time the 
 
 THE HUGE OF EMPIRE 
 
 367 
 
 government had to deal not with a young, high-minded 
 enthusiast like Tiberius or Gaius Gracchus, who, while 
 actuated by generous and democratic impulses, was yet 
 one of themselves and had scruples, but with a seasoned 
 soldier, born and brought up outside the charmed 
 circle, and, moreover, embittered by ingratitude and 
 contempt. 
 
 Saturninus and Glaucia carried their democratic 
 measures, distributing land, establishing oversea colonies 
 for Italians, and still further lowering the price 
 of corn, by the aid of Marius and his legions, moteme^ 
 The reformers had become revolutionaries, becomes a 
 But they were in too great a hurry. The ^^^° ^ ^°^* 
 times were not yet ripe. Marius, who was no politician, 
 lost his nerve, and would not follow his associates. The 
 Senate's humble appeal to him as consul to repress 
 sedition found him ready to comply. He threw over 
 his friends, and the revolution was checked. Then, 
 ashamed of his own act, he left Rome and withdrew from 
 the public gaze. 
 
 But the snake was only " scotched, not killed," and 
 was soon to close and be itself. The revolution w^as 
 gathering impetus, and nothing could now Murder of 
 stop it. At first it moved uncertainly. The ^^usus. 
 forces of reaction, encouraged by the fall of Saturninus 
 and Glaucia, showed a bold front. The question of the 
 franchise w^as shelved. Then they once more felt uneasy, 
 and, at the prompting of a section of the Senatorial party, 
 the tribune Drusus proposed reforms as ample and 
 generous as any hitherto contemplated. But they met 
 with bitter opposition, and when they were brushed aside 
 and Drusus himself was murdered, the pent-up fury of 
 Italy exploded (91 b.c). 
 
 Civil war, so long in the air, had become a grim 
 reality. Marius once more was on the side of the Senate, 
 
368 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 but his heart was not in his work, and, after two vie- 
 Civil War. *^^'^^^' ^^^ resigned his post. The rebels 
 Extension attained their object; the full franchise was 
 franchise. ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ whole of Italy up to the River 
 Po. It was a complete victory for the demo- 
 cracy (89 B.C.). 
 
 But more was to follow, and events came thick and 
 fast. The new voters were distributed among all the 
 Sulla "tribes," or electoral districts, so that their 
 
 Rome:'' ^^^^^ °^^o^^* ^^^^e their full value; bankrupts 
 Marius Were excluded from the Senate or Upper House ; 
 outlawed. j^j^j^ Yast but not least, the conduct of the war 
 with Mithridates, which had been given to the friend of 
 the Senate Sulla, was transferred by popular vote to 
 Marius. Sulla instantly marched on the capital, and for 
 the first time in history (but not the last), Rome was 
 captured by a Roman army. Marius was outlawed but 
 escaped, and Sulla, after setting things in order on a 
 conservative basis, sailed for the East. The Senate had 
 found that they too now possessed a strong partisan and 
 good soldier. 
 
 But in his absence the revolutionary spirit broke out 
 afresh, and this time the aged Marius, soured by cease- 
 Marius K^^ Opposition and frequent failure, vented 
 returns: his feelings of hate with vindictive ferocity. 
 Te^'or" °^ ^^ ^^^^ ^ ^eig" of Terror. Many of the chief 
 heads of the nobihty fell, the party was cowed, 
 and Marius was elected to his seventh consulship (86 b.c.)! 
 But the lire burnt itself out, and the grim old man died 
 before he could - wade through slaughter " any deeper. 
 Cinna, his colleague, continued consul, quits unconsti- 
 tutionally, for four years, and passed numerous uncom- 
 promising measures. 
 
 But Sulla returned in triumph from the East with 
 men and money, defeated the revolutionary forces, took 
 
 THE PRICE OF EMPIRE 369 
 
 Rome and proceeded to settle accounts with the enemy. 
 Ihis time the champions of the constitution, counter 
 the Defenders of the old Faith, enjoved revolution: 
 
 themselves. No half-measures would satiVv ^''V* . 
 Qiillo 1VT« • 11 , vvuuiu sansiy restores the 
 
 bulla. Marms had set an evil example • Sulla Senate, 
 improved upon it. Having first cleared the ground 
 by a wholesae proscription of the democratic party in- 
 cud,ng nearly tw^ oi the wealthiest class, he 
 
 busied himself, during a dictatorship lasting two years 
 With a variety of measures to curb the liberty of the 
 popular assembly and their officers, the Tribunes, and to 
 restore and fortify the position of the Senate as the one 
 supreme power in the State. It was strengthened by 
 the introduction of three hundred " safe " men from the 
 wealthy "Knights," and recovered the sole controlTf the 
 
 Perhaps Sulla had hoped 
 
 To reap the harvest of perpetual peace 
 By this one bloody trial of sharp war, 
 
 but men are not made good or bad by Act of Parliament 
 The causes of the Senate's impotence lay deep t7 c 
 down beyond the reach of Sulla's art He '^^U. 
 retired and died the following year, and his work scarcely 
 suryived him. He had painted the ship and equS 
 her till she looked yery brave, but the crew were rotS 
 
 ?iXmtJ:"^"'''^«-*^p^--^°^-^"'^-^^^^^^ 
 
 Th Jfr >"'' f '''' ''''°'''^ ^^'^^''^y ™« short-liyed. 
 The fruis of misgoyernment showed themselves in 
 trouble with rebels in Spain, with slaves and T 
 gladiators in Southern iLy.'and witJ'LaTes ^^e^'" 
 on the high seas. All three wars were mismanaged and 
 once more, through sheer dearth of ability, the domed 
 
 2b 
 
 ii 
 
370 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 Pompey. 
 
 Senate was forced to rely on one or two men, and to 
 trust them with powers which could not fail to make them 
 dangerous. It was the old story of Marius over again, 
 but with an important difference. Marius was a soldier, 
 but no statesman or even politician. His party was in 
 too great a hurry, and indulged in excessive violence, and 
 the reaction under Sulla came as its very proper punish- 
 ment. But this time the democratic leaders were both 
 strong soldiers and level-headed men of affairs. The 
 combination was too strong. In 70 B.C. it was Pompey 
 who acted; ten years later it was Caesar; we need 
 mention no others. 
 
 Pompey, born, like Cicero, in the year of the final 
 defeat of Jugurtha by Marius (106 b.c), distinguished 
 himself at the age of twenty-three by raising 
 three legions to fight for Sulla on his return 
 from the East against the party of Marius (83 b.c). Slx 
 years later, though he had never yet filled the consulship, 
 nor, indeed, any lower office, the Senate, in alarm at the 
 continued success of the rebel Sertorius, appointed him 
 proconsul with the chief command in Spain. In other 
 words, the Senate itself set at nought Sullas constitution, 
 an example which was eagerly followed, and proved their 
 undoing. Another six years passed, and Pompey, having 
 finished the Sertorian war, and helped to finish the war 
 with Spartacus, demanded the consulship and a triumph 
 and lands for his soldiers, and, on being refused all three, 
 deserted the Senatorial party, and joined the '^ Knights," 
 the class of wealth without privilege led by Crassus, and 
 the Democracy. The Senate were helpless, 
 Cr^sus *^ and the coalition got all they wanted. Pompey 
 undo Sulla's ^nd Crassus as consuls (70 b.c.) calmly undid 
 
 work 
 
 the work of Sulla; the "Knights" regained 
 partial control of the law-courts, and the Tribunes were 
 restored to their ancient legislative powers. They not 
 
 THE PRICE OF EMPIRE 371 
 
 only stripped Sulla's ship of its paint and ornaments 
 but seriously loosened its timbers in the process The' 
 next storm would infallibly sink it. 
 
 Having struck this shrewd blow, Pompey retired from 
 public life ; but before long trouble abroad drew him out 
 of his retreat. He was given unprecedented ^ «. 
 powers against the Mediterranean pirates, and Trfumf 
 almost immediately after the chief command ^'''*^^' 
 in the Far East, and returning after six years in triumph 
 loaded with spoil and with a formidable army at his 
 heels, he threw in his lot once more with the party 
 of reform, his old associate Crassus representing the 
 commercial interest, and the third member of the 
 coalition being no less a person than Gaius Julius 
 Caesar (60 b.c). 
 
 Caesar was now forty, having been born in the year 
 (100 B.C.) when Marius, for the sixth time consul, fought 
 a regular battle in the forum against the juiius 
 extreme democrats Glaucia and Saturninus. ^*®sar. 
 He belonged to one of the oldest patrician ' houses of 
 Rome, the Julii, claiming direct descent from lulus, the 
 son of Aeneas, the son of the goddess Venus ! But' the 
 length of their pedigree, though a just subject of pride 
 was not with them an excuse for stiff-necked conserva- 
 tism. The branch of the family to which the future 
 Dictator belonged kept well abreast of the movement of 
 the times, and had given proofs of their sympathy with 
 the popular cause. His father's brother was the consul 
 who, in the year 90, by a Lex Julia, had granted the 
 franchise to all the Italian states not in a state of 
 revolt, and their sister Julia had married the democrat 
 Marius. 
 
 Young Caesar himself showed his own leanings in 
 the same direction by marrying at an early age Cornelia, 
 the daughter of the revolutionary Cinna. He was tall' 
 
372 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOULD 
 
 slim, and fair, with a large, well-formed head and clear- 
 cut features, and, though delicate, was muscularly strong 
 and of boundless courage. He could grasp a situation 
 and make up his mind in a moment. By the time he 
 was twenty he had defied the omnipotent dictator, Sulla, 
 by firmly refusing to divorce his wife Cornelia, had won 
 the " civic crown," corresponding to our Victoria Cross, 
 and destroyed a nest of pirates who had captured him. 
 At the age of thirty-two he again showed his political 
 colours by displaying a bust of Marius and recounting 
 his praises in a speech at the funeral of the great man's 
 widow, his aunt Julia. He was the idol of the people, 
 and rapidly rose through a succession of offices to be 
 praetor in 62 and propraetor in Further Spain in 61, 
 where at the age of thirty-nine this prince of soldiers 
 first learnt the art of war. In the same year Pompey 
 returned from the East, and was disgusted with his 
 cool reception by the Senate, and in the next year, 
 on Caesar's return from Spain, the two became firm 
 friends, and with Crassus made common cause against 
 the government. The league was cemented by the 
 marriage of Pompey with Caesar's only daughter 
 Julia. 
 
 Naturally, against this formidable coalition the party 
 of the nobles was helpless. It was agreed that Caesar 
 should be made consul and redress the cjriev- 
 first con- ances of both his partners. Accordingly, in 
 69^?c*' ^^ ^•^•' Caesar as consul passed measures 
 granting allotments to Pompey's soldiers, and 
 ratifying his acts in the East, and granting easier terms 
 to Crassus and the other " Knights " who had contracted 
 for the taxes of Asia. For himself Caesar at the end of 
 his year of office was to have the governorship of Cis- 
 alpine Gaul and the Transalpine ** Province," with four 
 legions, for five years. 
 
 THE PRICE OP EMPIRE 373 
 
 The rout of the Senatorial party was complete. They 
 had given in to every demand, and here was the champion 
 of the Democracy in command of le^rions and rm. 
 a provnice not two hundred miles from Rome, Revolution 
 with no sea, nor even a river of any account, *"^°^P^a^^- 
 to separate them. The Revolution was triumphant. 
 With Caesar's and Pompey's connivance, the cheap corn 
 for the unemployed was now distributed gratis, all 
 religious checks on legislation were swept away, and 
 Cicero, too much the friend of the Oligarchy, was 
 banished. The Trio, generally called the " First Trium- 
 virate," were omnipotent. Caesar's command was pro- 
 longed for a further five years— his army and his plans 
 were not yet ripe— and important duties were found for 
 Pompey and Crassus, so that the three men between 
 them held all the power and controUed all the armed 
 forces of the State. 
 
 Suddenly Julia died and Crassus was killed in the 
 East, and two of the strongest links between Pompey 
 and Caesar were snapped. The mischievous 
 example of using mob-law as a legislative lever between 
 was only too eagerly imitated, and the streets ^^^^ar and 
 of Rome were constantly the scene of violent ^*^°^^®^- 
 conflicts between armed bands, not merely of political 
 enthusiasts, but of hired ruffians. In one of these 
 Clodius, for several years the arch-bully of the streets, 
 was met with his own methods and murdered. The 
 insecurity of the roads was a public scandal. The 
 government, in deep alarm, approached the one strong 
 man still left in Rome, and appealed to his vanity, and 
 Pompey became sole consul— that is. Dictator in all but 
 name. The two men, in Rome and in Gaul, stood face 
 to face, with no third partner or private tie to soften the 
 opposition. They realized that they were rivals, and the 
 gulf widened between them. 
 
374 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 THE PRICE OF EMPIRE 
 
 375 
 
 The Senate was afraid of disorder and revolution and 
 especially Caesar, who must some day come home with a 
 Pompey redoubtable army; and Pompey "letting *I 
 
 senatf ' '^^'*^ ""^^ ' ^^^^^ "P^^ * ^ ^^^^uld,' " shared their 
 fears, with an added touch of jealousy. They 
 drew together, at first unconsciously, and Caesar found 
 on the eve of his return that his former associate had 
 jomed the enemy. Ostensibly, they quarrelled on 
 technical points, the expiry of Caesar's command, the 
 disbanding of his troops, and his candidature for the 
 consulship ; but the real quarrel lay far deeper. The 
 incompetent Senate had gone from blunder to blunder 
 till it now was confronted by the strongest, ablest, and 
 most insistent of all the armed champions of the 
 Revolution, and no compromise was possible. 
 
 Once more the flames of civil war were kindled and 
 the conflagration spread over well-nigh the whole of the 
 The great ^oman world. Pompey at first was confident 
 ci^'esa™ ' ^^^ contemptuous. " I have but to stamp my 
 secures ^^o^*" ^^ boasted, ** and legions will spring out 
 
 spafn.*''^ ^\ *^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^" ^^^ ^^^ ^ad reckoned 
 without Caesar, who took his enemies com- 
 pletely by surprise by his marvellous energy and rapidity 
 of movement. Into the five years left him to live he 
 compressed the events of a well-crowded lifetime. 
 Pompey evacuated Rome and retreated into Greece to 
 gam time, and Caesar, who had crossed the Rubicon, 
 disregarding him for the present, went to Spain, crushed 
 the Senatorial armies at Ilerda, returned to Rome, was 
 proclaimed Dictator, and, among other measures, gave 
 the coveted franchise to the Gauls beyond the Po, thus 
 at last making the whole population of Italy Roman 
 citizens from the Alps to Rhegium. 
 
 Secure in the possession of Italy, Gaul, and Spain, he 
 crossed into Greece with eleven legions to seek out 
 
 Pompey's main Senatorial army, and, after a reverse 
 and retreat, annihilated it at Pharsalus (48 b.c). 
 Pompey himself fled to Egypt, where he was pharsaius, 
 treacherously murdered by the young king. Egypt, and 
 Caesar followed, regulated Egyptian affairs, ^^®^*^*- 
 allowing Ptolemy and Cleopatra to reign under Roman 
 suzerainty, very nearly lost his life in a revolt at 
 Alexandria, in which the famous library was burnt down, 
 crushed Pharnaces at Zela, and set things in order in 
 the East, and then returned to Rome, where in his 
 absence he had been appointed Dictator for an indefinite 
 period. Consul for five years, and Tribune for life 
 (47 B.C.) ! 
 
 But there was still Africa. Before the year was out, 
 Caesar, whom nothing seemed to daunt or tire, landed 
 at Adrumetum, in modern Tunisia, with only 
 three thousand men, skirmished and waited ^^^P^^^' 
 for reinforcements, and in the following April wiped 
 out the enemy's fourteen legions at Thapsus (46 b.c). 
 
 In July he was back in Rome, was made Dictator for 
 ten years, reformed the calendar and provincial The 
 government, and went once more to Spain to Calendar, 
 stamp out the last remnant of the Senatorial army which 
 was again raising its head in that country. The desperate 
 battle of Munda, where Caesar, who had " often 
 fought for victory, had to fight for very exist- 
 ence," as he himself said, put an end to all armed 
 opposition, and the victor returned to Rome undisputed 
 master of the world. He was given the Consulship for 
 ten years, the title of *' Father of his Country," a golden 
 chair, and a crown of laurel. The month of his birth was 
 called Julius (July) in his honour, his statue was placed 
 among those of the gods, he was made Dictator for life, 
 and given the title of " Imperator " for himself and his 
 heirs for ever. 
 
 Munda. 
 
876 
 
 THE ANCIENT WOELD 
 
 lu a word, the democratic champion had become an 
 Emperor with absolute powers. It might, seem that 
 
 - Em "" " ^^^^' ^^^^ mistress of the world, herself bowed 
 ""P^'^'- the neck beneath *' the proud foot of a con- 
 queror," and had paid for empire with her freedom. 
 But the mcubus of a corrupt, obstinate, and incurably 
 degenerate oligarchy had been shaken off for ever, and in 
 Its place sat justice and efficiency, and, though an autocrat 
 overshadowed and overruled all, his autocracy was not 
 only not resented but was welcomed by the great mass 
 of the nation. After all, the Autocrat was the people's 
 champion, and his undisputed power their own gift He 
 was the man they - delighted to honour," and his throne 
 was the visible proof of their triumph. In the excite- 
 ment of their liberation, the loss of their liberty passed 
 unnoticed. 
 
 Not so, however, with the vanquished party. Unlike 
 Sulla, Caesar allowed no act of spite to stain his laurels. 
 Opposition. ^^^^^'^ ^^^'^s "0 proscription ; all were pardoned 
 and trusted. But they were irreconcilable. 
 The good old days " of privilege, plunder, and mis- 
 government were gone for ever, and their occupation was 
 gone: so the oligarchs vowed revenge. They were 
 enraged at his new-created pre-eminence and their own 
 paltry insignificance, and began to throw out dark hints. 
 
 Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world,* 
 Like a Colossus ; and we petty men 
 Walk under his huge legs, and peep about 
 To find ourselves dishonourable graves. 
 Men at some time are masters of their fates ; 
 The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, 
 But in ourselves, that we are underlings. ' 
 
 ^ The murmurs ripened into conspiracy. In less than 
 SIX months from the battle of Munda, the greatest of the 
 
 ♦ Julius Caesar, act i. sc. 2. 
 
 THE PMCE OP EMPIRE 
 
 377 
 
 Bomans lay dead at the foot of Pompey's statue in 
 the Senate, foully pierced with three and twenty wounds 
 by cowards, many of whom had been favoured Caesar 
 objects of his constant generosity (44 b.c). "^^^^dered. 
 Indefatigable as ever, he was in the thick of preparations 
 for a great expedition to the East against the Parthians, 
 when he was thus ruthlessly cut off at the age of fifty- 
 six. . 
 
 Great Caesar fell ; 
 Oh what a fall was there 1 
 
 The murder once more let loose the dogs of civil war, 
 which Caesar's triumph had chained up. Seventeen years 
 later (27 b.c.) his great-nephew ascended the caesar 
 same throne with the title " Augustus," and justified 
 the sound of strife ceased. The world ^y^^^^*^- 
 acquiesced because it had at last realized that the great 
 Julius was right; the form of government he devised 
 Vfus the only form possible in that age. Only he was in 
 advance of his time, and died a martyr. He too, no less 
 than Rome, had paid the price of empire, but he had 
 paid it with his life. 
 
INDEX 
 
 i 
 
 t 
 
 
 A 
 
 Abraham, 12, 31, 37-39, 47, 49, 53 
 Accad, 28, 30, 82 
 Achaeans, 107, 140 
 
 Achilles, 116, 118, 121-127 
 " Achilles and Briseis " (picture), 
 276 
 
 Aegates islands, 323 
 
 Aegeans, 73-77, 118, 137 
 
 Aegospotami, 263 
 
 Aegyptus, 144 
 
 Aeneas, 158, 162 
 
 Aeolian colonies, 149 
 
 Aeolus, 133 
 
 Aeschylus, 233, 241, 281 
 
 Aetolian League, 340 
 
 Agamemnon, 128 
 
 Agathocles, 320 
 
 Agrarian laws, 364 
 
 Ahab, 210 
 
 Ahmes, GO 
 
 Ahriman, 88 
 
 Ahura-Mazda, 88 
 
 Ajax, 121, 128 
 
 Akhetaton, 65 
 
 Akhnaton, 86, 87, 112. See also 
 Amenhotep IV. 
 
 Akkad. See Accad. 
 
 Alba Longa, 164 
 
 Alcibiades, 256 
 
 Alesia, 355-357 
 
 Alexander, 107, 303 foil.; cha- 
 racter, 312; death, 315; effect 
 of conquests, 315 
 
 »> 
 I) 
 
 Alexandria, 309 
 
 Allat, 36 
 
 Allia, 351 
 
 Alps, crossed by Hannibal, 326 foil. 
 
 Altaku, 212 
 
 Alyattes, 219 
 
 Amasis, 181 
 
 Amenemhat III., 6, 48 
 
 Amenhotep I., 60 
 II., 61 
 III., 62 
 
 IV., 62 foil. See also 
 Akhnaton. 
 
 Ammurabi. See Hammurabi. 
 
 Amon, 63 
 
 Amon-Ra, 10 
 
 Amraphel. See Hammurabi. 
 
 Amu, 49 
 
 Anacharsis, 178 
 
 Angro-Mainyus, 88 
 
 Antigone, 283 
 
 Antiochus HI., " the Great," 340 
 „ IV., Epiphanes, 344 
 
 Antiquity of Babylon, 22, 23 
 
 „ „ Egypt, 1, 2, 5 
 
 Anpu, 71 
 Anu, 26 
 Apepi, 56, 60 
 Appius Claudius, 200 
 Ararat, 26 
 Arbela, 309 
 
 Arch, Principle of the, 50 
 Archelaus, 347 
 Arginusae, 263 
 Ariadne, 77 
 
 379 
 
380 
 
 INDEX 
 
 INDEX 
 
 381 
 
 I 
 
 Arion, 178 
 
 Ariovistus, 353 
 
 Aristagoras, 226 
 
 Aristoderaus, 148 
 
 Aristogeiton, 185 
 
 Aristomachus, 148 
 
 Aristophanes, 289 
 
 Ark (Noah's), 25 ; (Sargina's), 30 
 
 Armenia, 25, 347 
 
 Art, Greek, 268 
 
 Artaphernes, 229 
 
 Artemisiura, 240 
 
 Aryans, 169 
 
 Asia Minor, 149 
 
 Asmonaeans, 345 
 
 Asoka, 319 
 
 Assyria, 33, 34, 82, 86, 210, 211, 
 
 215 ; (Art) 34 
 Astyages, 219 
 Athens, 182, 196, 228, 247, 249, 
 
 347 
 Athens and Rome compared, 197 
 Athos, 229 
 A ton, 64 foil. 
 Atreus, 75 
 Augustus, 377 
 Avaris, 55, 56, 105 
 
 Baal, 56 
 
 Bahylon, 23, 85, 215, 218, 222 
 
 Babylonia, 33, 34, 211 
 
 Bactria, 309, 311 
 
 Bagdad, 24 
 
 Bar, 102 
 
 Bata, 71 
 
 Bath-sheba, 81 
 
 •* Bee-hive " tombs, 75 
 
 "Bekos" story, 4 
 
 B^rard, 137 
 
 Bessus, 310 
 
 Brahmans, 206 
 
 Bremius, 351 
 
 Britain, 320, 353 
 
 Buccphala, 312 
 
 Bucephalus, 304 
 
 Buddha, 206; (ministry), 207; 
 
 (sayings), 209 
 Buddhism, 208, 209 
 Burial (Egyptian), 11 
 Burnaburiash, 85 
 Byrsa, 160 
 
 
 
 Cabira, 347 
 
 Caesar, 373 foil. See Julius Caesar. 
 
 Calendar (Roman), 375 
 
 Calypso, 129 
 
 Cambyses, 225 
 
 Camillus, 351 
 
 Canaan, 112, 113. Sec also Pales- 
 tine. 
 
 Cannae, 331 
 
 Capitoline hill, 165 
 
 Captives, 106 
 
 Carchemish, 82 
 
 Carthago, 155, 157, 160, 245, 246, 
 
 801, 323, 335, 336 
 Castes, 94 
 Ceylon, 92 
 Chaeronea, 300, 304 
 Chaldaean religion, 35 
 Chandra-Gupta, 319 
 Chedorlaomor, 32, 85 
 Che-Hwang-Tc, 319 
 Cheops, 18, 19, 20 
 Chephren, 19, 20 
 Chin dynasty, 95, 318 
 China, 94-98, 202-206 
 
 „ Great Wall of, 319 
 Chnumhetep, 49 
 Chou dynasty, 202 
 Cicones, 131 
 Cilician Gates, 307 
 Cilicians, 82 
 Cimbrians, 352 
 
 Cimon, 244, 298 
 Circe, 134 
 Civil War, 368, 374 
 Cleisthenes, 195-197 
 Cleomenes, 227 
 Cleopatra, 375 
 
 Cleopatra's Needle, 1, 2, 6, 19 
 Clitus, 306 
 Cnossus, 74 
 Colonies, 149, 152, 153 
 Colour in sculpture and architec- 
 ture, 270 
 Confucius, 203; (principles), 204; 
 
 (character), 205 ; (sayings), 205 
 Conon, 263 
 Contact between Egypt and 
 
 Greece, 217 
 Contact between Greece and 
 
 China, 318 
 Contact between Greece and 
 
 Rome, 167 
 Contact between Rome and Sicily, 
 
 245 
 Contact between Rome and the 
 
 East, 339 
 Corcyra, 179, 249 
 Corinth, 179, 249, 343 
 Corinthian War, 264 
 Coroneia, 248 
 Corrupt government of the Senate, 
 
 363 
 Crassus, 348, 370 
 Cretans, 142 
 Crete, 73 foil., 142 
 Crimissus, 302 
 Croesus, 222 
 Croton, 154, 309 
 Cunaxa, 299, 305 
 Customs of Egyptians, 7, 8, 9, 
 
 10 
 Cyaxares, 218 
 Cyclops, 132 
 Cydnus, 307 
 Cylon, 182 
 Cynoscephalae, 341 
 
 Cypselus, 177 
 
 Cyrus the Great, 83, 219 foil., 
 223, 225 
 
 Dahshur, 15 
 
 Danae, 145 
 
 Danaides, 144 
 
 Danaus, 144, 150 
 
 Daphnae, 106 
 
 Darius, 48, 226, 229 
 
 „ Codomannus, 306 foil. • 
 
 " Dark Ages " of Egypt, 54 
 
 Datis, 229 
 
 David, 52, 67, 114, 142 
 
 Dead, Book of the, 12 
 
 Deborah, 114 
 
 Debt, 193, 194 
 
 Dedi, 51 
 
 Delos, Confederacy of, 247 
 
 Delphi, 351 
 
 Demes, 196 
 
 Demetrius of Pharos, 339 
 
 Democracy, 197, 292, 293 
 
 Demosthenes (the General), 259 
 „ (the Orator), 292 
 
 Dido, 157 
 
 Diodorus Siculus, 27, 104 
 
 Dionysius (the Phocaean), 228 
 „ (the Elder), 301 
 
 „ (the Younger), 302 
 
 Discontent in Rome, 363 
 
 Disunion of Greece, 171, 237, 
 265 
 
 Dodecarchy, 217 
 
 Dorian colonies, 149 
 
 Dorians, 141 foil. 
 
 Draco, 192 
 
 Drama (Athenian), 281 
 
 Drusus, 367 
 
 Dynasties (Egyptian) I., 20 
 II.-IV., 20 
 V.-XL, 21 
 
 II 
 
 II 
 
882 
 
 INDEX 
 
 INDEX 
 
 383 
 
 E 
 
 Ecbatana, 311, 314 
 
 Eden, 23 
 
 Egesta, 256 
 
 Egypt, 2, 214, 298 
 
 Egyptians, 1, 2, 5-21; customs, 
 7-10; religion, 10-13; literature, 
 14 ; architecture, 14-21 ; writing, 
 9 ; priests, 8 
 
 Egyptian Tales, 51-52, 70-72 
 
 Elam, 86 
 
 Elders, 172 
 
 Embalming, 11, 12 
 
 Epaminondas, 265 
 
 Ephialtes, 239 
 
 Epidamnus, 249 
 
 Equites, 365 
 
 Erech, 28 
 Esarhaddon, 214 
 Etana, 36 
 Ethiopia, 61, 106 
 Etruscans, 170 
 Eumenes, 342 
 Euphrates, 22, 24, 25, 33 
 Euripides, 286 
 Euryraedon, 244,298 
 Evander, 162 
 Ezra, 298 
 
 F 
 
 Fabius (Cunctator), 331 
 
 Fact and Fiction, 150, 160, 168 
 
 Factions in Attica, 182, 193 
 
 Fayoura, 15 
 
 Feudalism in Egypt^ 106. 
 
 Flood, the, 25 
 
 (Chaldaean version), 26, 27 
 Fluvial civilization, 3 
 Foreigners in Egypt, 106 
 " Four hundred, The," 261 
 Franchise, 368 
 Fuhi, 95 
 
 Fusion of Greeks and Persians, 
 313 
 
 G 
 
 Gallia Comata, 357 
 
 ,, Narbonensis, 352 
 Oauls, 350-357 
 Gaza, 308 
 Gelo, 245 
 Gergovia, 355 
 Gilgamesh, 26 
 Glaucia, 367 
 " Golden Rule," 206 
 Goshen, 56 
 
 Government, early, in Greece, 172 
 M „ in China, 205 
 
 Gracchus, Tiberius, 364 
 
 „ Gains, 365 
 Granicus, 306 
 Great Wall of China, 319 
 Greece, 171 (Roman Province), 
 
 343 
 Greeks in Asia, 223 
 
 „ and Persians, 313 
 „ , real greatness of, 267 
 „ , patriotism of, 172 
 Guerilla warfare, 354 
 Gyges, 222 
 Gylippus, 258 
 
 H 
 
 Habiri, 68 
 
 Hamilcar Barca, 323 
 Hammurabi, 32, 39, 40 foil., 53, 
 112. Laws, 40-45, 111, 112; 
 Letters, 46 ; Empire, 85 
 Hannibal, 324; crosses the Alps, 
 326-328 ; avoids Rome, 331, 333 ; 
 death, 334; causes of failure, 
 334 
 Harmodius, 185 
 Hasdrubal, 324 
 Hatasu, 60 
 Hatshetsup, 60 
 Hattusil, 83 
 Hawara, 15 
 
 Hebrews, 68 (in Egypt), 108 
 
 Hector, 116 
 
 Helen, 118 
 
 Heliopolis, 57, 63 
 
 Hellas, 140 
 
 Hellen, 151 
 
 HeUenes, 140, 151 
 
 Helvetii, 353 
 
 Hephaestion, 314 
 
 Heracleidae, 143, 148 
 
 Heracles, 145, 150 
 
 ** Hermes " of Praxiteles, 272 
 
 Hermocrates, 302 
 
 Herodotus, 4, 8, 17, 104, 225, 292 
 
 Herostratus, 303 
 
 Hesiod, 278 
 
 Hezekiah, 213 
 
 Hiero (Tyrant), 245 
 „ (King), 321, 322 
 
 Himera, 245 
 
 Hindu Rush, 309 
 
 Hipparchus , 184 
 
 Hippias, 184, 229, 233 
 
 Hissarlik, 74, 138 
 
 Hit, 24 
 
 Hittites, 55, 68, 73, 77-83 ; script, 
 79 ; sculpture, 79 ; architecture, 
 81 ; battle with Rameses II., 101 
 
 Hiung-nu, 97 
 
 Holophernes, 300 
 
 Hophra, 216 
 
 Hordedef, 51 
 
 Horemheb, 70, 99 
 
 Horus, 11 
 
 Huang-ti, 96 
 
 Huns, 97 
 
 Hyksos, 55-58, 59, 105, 107 
 
 Hyllus, 146 
 
 Ilerda, 374 
 Iliad, 117, 118 
 Illahun, 15, 17 
 
 lUyrians, 338 
 
 India, 206-209 
 
 Invasions, Persian, 229 foil. 
 
 lonians, 149 
 
 Ionic Revolt, 226 
 
 Iphicrates, 264 
 
 Ipsus, 318 
 
 Isis, 11 
 
 Israel, 115, 210 
 
 Issus, 307 
 
 Ithaca, 134 
 
 J 
 
 Jael, 114 
 Janiculum, 166 
 Jehu, 211 
 Jericho, 113 
 Jerusalem, 213, 216 
 Jews, 223, 344 
 Jezebel, 211 
 Joppa, 71 
 Joseph, 56, 107 
 Josiah, 215, 217 
 Judah, 210, 216 
 Judas Maccabaeus, 345 
 "Judges," 32, 113, 160 
 Judith, 300 
 Jugurtha, 350 
 
 Julius Caesar, 348, 353 foil., 371, 
 373, 376, 377 
 
 Kadesh, 83, 100 
 Kahun, 17, 50 
 Karnak, 100 
 Kassites, 86 
 Katesh, 101 
 Keats, 135 
 Keftiu, 76, 142 
 Khafra, 19, 20 
 Kheta, 82, 101 
 Khetasar, 101 
 
II 
 
 884 
 
 Khufu, 18, 19, 20 
 Kings, early, 172 
 Knights, 365 
 Kudur-lagamar, 32, 85 
 
 Labyrinth, 48, 76 
 
 Lachish, 212 
 
 Laestrygonians, 133, 137 
 
 Lagash, 29 
 
 Lamachus, 256 
 
 Landowners, 196 
 
 Lanka, 92 
 
 Laomedon, 117 
 
 Latin League, 166, 301 
 
 Latiniis, 162 
 
 Lavinia, 163 
 
 Laviuium, 164 
 
 Laws of Hammurabi, 41 
 
 Legends, 143 foil. 
 
 Leonidas, 238 
 
 Libyans, 107 
 
 Literature, Greek, 277, 296 
 
 Lot, 53 
 
 Lucnllus, 347 
 
 Lugal-zaggisi, 30 
 
 Lycians, 82, 107 
 
 Lycurgus, 189 foil. 
 
 Lydia, 222 
 
 Lysander, 262 
 
 Lysippus, 273 
 
 M 
 
 Maccabees, 345 
 Tklacedonia, 266, 300 
 Macedonian Wars, 340 
 Magic, 36 
 
 Magna Graecia, 154 
 Magnesia, 342 
 Mago, 329 
 Mahabharata, 90 
 Mamertini, 321 
 Manetho, 20, 104 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Marathon, 230, 232 
 Mardonius, 229, 235, 243 
 Marius, 366, 368 
 Massinissa, 335 
 Mazdeism, 88-90 
 Medea, 287 
 Medes, 215, 218 
 Medum, 5, 15 
 Megara, 179 
 Megiddo, 215 
 Melos, 255 
 Memnon, 306 
 Mena, 20 
 
 Menelaus, 117, 119 
 Mencs, 20 
 Menkaura, 19, 20 
 Mentu, 103 
 
 Merenptah, 107, 110, 140 
 Messana, 321 
 Metaurus, 333 
 Milo, 255, 273 
 Miltiades, 231, 244, 247 
 Minoan, 74, 137 
 Minos, 76 
 Minotaur, 76 
 Mitanni, 62 
 Mithridatcs, 346 foil. 
 Moeris, Lake, 48 
 Monarchy, 173, 189, 197 
 Monotheism, 65 foU. 
 Moses, 2, 72, 109-112, 169 
 !Mummy, 12 
 Munda, 375, 376 
 Mycale, 244 
 Mycenae, 74, 137 
 Mycerinus, 19, 20 
 Mylae, 323 
 Mythology, 143 foil. 
 
 INDEX 
 
 385 
 
 N 
 
 Nagada, 20 
 Nannar, 38 
 Narara-Sin, 31 
 Napoleon, 229 
 
 Naupactus, 148, 252, 253 
 
 Nausicaa,!130 
 
 Nearchus, 315 
 
 Nebo, 36 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar, 33, 215 
 
 Necho, 217 
 
 Nemesis, 234, 360 
 
 Nicaea, 312 
 
 Nicias, 256 
 
 Nile, 33 
 
 Nimrod, 25, 28 
 
 Nineveh, 28, 30, 33 
 
 Ninus, 27 
 
 Nirvana, 208 
 
 Noah, 25 
 
 
 
 Odysseus, 121, 129 foil. 
 Odyssey, 129 foil. 
 Oedipus, 285 
 Old Empire, 63 
 Oligarchy, 173, 174, 197 
 Olynthian League, 266, 300 
 On, 2, 57, 63 
 Ormuzd, 88 
 Osarsiph, 105 
 Osiris, 10, 11, 13 
 Oxylus, 148, 151 
 Ozymandias, 104 
 
 Painting (Greek), 273 
 
 Palatine, 162 
 
 Palestine, 31, 52, 69, 111, 113, 115, 
 
 210 
 Panku, 95 
 Paris, 117, 119, 128 
 Parmenio, 309 
 Parthenon, 260 
 Parthians, 377 
 Patriarchs, 38 foil. 
 Patricians, 198 
 
 Patriotism, 172 
 Patroclus, 122 
 Pausanias, 243, 247 
 Peisistratus, 182, 268 
 Peloponnesian War, 248 
 Pelops, 146 
 Pentaur, 101 
 Periander, 166, 177 
 Pericles, 250 
 Pergamus, 342 
 Perseus, 145 
 Perseus (King), 342 
 Persepolis, 310 
 Persia, 83, 87, 298, 299 
 Petrie, 50, 51, 113 
 Phalanx, 341, 343 
 Phalaris, 180 
 Pharnaces, 375 
 Pharsalus, 375 
 Pheidias, 271 
 Pheidippides, 231 
 Philip II. of Macedon, 300 
 Phoenicians, 155-157 
 Phormio, 252 
 Phrygians, 4 
 Pindar, 280, 305 
 Pirates, 132, 338 
 Pisiris, 82 
 
 Plataea, 231, 243, 250, 251 
 Plato, 292 
 Plebeians, 198 
 Polemarch, 231 
 Polycleitus, 272 
 Polycrates, 180-182 
 Polyphemus, 132 
 Pompeii (Egjrptian), 50 
 Pompey, 347, 348, 370, 373 
 Pontus, 346 
 Praxiteles, 272 
 Priam, 117 
 
 Priests of Amon, 63-65 
 Psalm of Akhnaton, 67 
 Pseudo-Smerdis, 225 
 Ptah, 10 
 Punic Wars, 321 
 
 2c 
 
I 
 
 886 
 
 Pyramids, 2, 14-21 
 Pyrrhus, 338 
 Pytheas, 320 
 
 INDEX 
 
 INDEX 
 
 387 
 
 Q 
 
 Quirinus, 165 
 
 B 
 
 Ra, 10, 63 
 Rama, 92 
 Ramayana, 92 
 Rameses I., 100 
 
 „ ir., 82, 99, 100 
 Raphia, 214 
 Red Sea, 99, 105 
 
 Reform movement iu Rome, 364 
 373 
 
 Reformation of Akhnaton, 64 
 Refuge, Cities of, 112 
 Regifugium, 186, 197 
 Rehoboam, 113 
 Religion (Chaldaean), 35 
 Remus, 164 
 
 Rhadamantiius, 76 
 
 Rhampsinitus, 17 
 
 Rig- Veda, 90 
 
 Rivers, 3 
 
 Roma Quadrata, 165 
 
 Rome, 155, 161, 197, 301, 338, 358 
 
 Roxana, 311 
 
 Rubicon, 374 
 
 S 
 
 Sabines, 165, 109 
 Sabaco, 214 
 Sacred War, 266 
 Saguntum, 325 
 Salamis, 241 
 Sallust, 359 
 Samaria, 33, 212, 216 
 Samsuditana, 82 
 Samuel, 114 
 
 Sandrocottus, 319 
 Sanehat, 52 
 Sappho, 278-280 
 Sarcophagus, 12, 15 
 Sardinians, 107 
 Sardis, 223, 228 
 Sargina, 23, 30, 32 
 Sargon I., 23, 30, 32 
 Sargon II., 212 
 Saturninus, 367 
 Saul, 114 
 
 Scipio Africanus Major, 333, 342 
 Minor, 336, 349 
 Scopas, 272 
 Sculpture (Greek), 271 
 Scythians, 100, 215, 218 
 Sea-power, 180, 260, 322, 324 
 Seloucids, 318, 344, 346 
 Seleucus, 318 
 Senate (Roman), 301 
 
 „ corruption of, 361 
 Seneferu, 20, 52 
 Sennacherib, 212 
 Sentinum, 351 
 Sepharvaim, 27 
 Sequenenre III., 00 
 Sertorius, 349 
 Ser\'ius Tullius, 166 
 Sesostris, 99, 100, 107 
 Seti, 100 
 Shabaka, 214 
 Shalmaneser I., 86, 211 
 
 II., 211 
 Shamashnapishtim, 26 
 Shamesh, 36 
 Shi-King, 98 
 
 " Shipwrecked Sailor," 52 
 Shishak, 113, 214 
 Shon-nung, 96 
 Shu-king, 97 
 Shun, 96 
 Shurippak, 26 
 Shushan, 227 
 Sicilian Expedition, 250 
 Sicilians, 107 
 
 Sidon, 156 
 
 Sinai, 31, 48 
 
 Sippara, 27 
 
 Sita, 92 
 
 Slaves, 112 
 
 Smerdis, 225 
 
 So, 214 
 
 Social War, 266 
 
 Sodom, 53 
 
 Solar Disk, 64 
 
 Solomon, 81, 115 
 
 Solon, 192-195 
 
 Sophocles, 283 
 
 Spain, 349 
 
 Sparta, 189 
 
 Spartan caution, 227, 230 
 
 Spartan supremacy, 264 
 
 Subbiluliuma, 82 
 
 Suffetes, 171 
 
 SuUa, 347, 368 
 
 Sumerians, 29 
 
 Susa, 227 
 
 Sutlej. 312 
 
 Sybaris, 154 
 
 Syracuse, 245, 257 
 
 Syria, 31, 68, 69, 111, 210, 308, 343 
 
 T 
 
 Tahuti, 73 
 
 " Taking of Joppa," 71 
 
 Tales, Egyptian, 51, 52, 70-72 
 
 Tanais, 106 
 
 Tanis, 55 
 
 Tarentum, 338 
 
 Tarquinius Priscus, 166 
 
 ,, Superbus, 167 
 
 Tarsus, 307 
 Telamon, 351 
 Tel-el-Amarna, 65, 68, 87 
 Tel-el-Yehudiyeh, 55 
 " Ten Thousand, the," 299 
 Teuta, 338 
 Teutons, 352 
 
 >» 
 
 >> 
 
 Thapsus, 375 
 
 Theagenes, 179 
 
 Thebans, 250 
 
 Theban supremacy, 265 
 
 Thebes (Greece), 305 
 n (Egypt), 59 
 
 Themistocles, 240, 247 
 
 Thermopylae, 238, 342 
 
 Thero, 245 
 
 Theseus, 77 
 
 Thothmes I., 60 
 II., 60 
 
 III., 6, 19, 61, 71 
 IV., 61 
 
 Thrasybulus, 180 
 
 " Three Emperors," 95 
 
 Thucydides, 259, 222 
 
 Thule, 320 
 
 Ticinus, 328 
 
 Tiglath-pileser I., 82, 211 
 III., 211 
 
 Tigranes, 347 
 
 Tigris, 27 
 
 Timocracy, 194 
 
 Timocrates, 264 
 
 Timoleon, 302 
 
 Tiryns, 74, 137 
 
 Tiy, 224 
 
 Tomyris, 224 
 
 Trade-routes, 115 
 
 Trasimenus, 330 
 
 Treachery, 239 
 
 Trebia, 328 
 
 Tribes, 196 
 
 Tribunes, 198, 369, 370 
 
 Triumvirate, 348, 371 
 
 Trojan War, 116 foil., 139 
 
 Troy, 74, 116, 137 
 
 Truth of old stories, 136, 137 foil., 
 
 150, 160, 168 
 Turnus, 163 
 Tutankhaton, 69 
 Twelve Tables, 199 
 •' Two Brothers," tale of, 71 
 Tyranny in Rome, 199, 200 
 
388 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Tyrants, 174-177, 184, 186, 188, 
 
 268 
 Tyre, 156, 308 
 Tyrrhenians, 107 
 
 U 
 
 Union, lack of, in Greece, 171, 237, 
 
 265 
 Unity of world, 216, 297 
 Ur, 23, 30, 31, 38 
 Uranus, 143 
 Uriah, 81 
 Ur-nina, 29, 30 
 Usertesen II., 49 
 
 Valeria-Horatia, Lex, 201 
 Vaphio, 75 
 Vedas, 90-93 
 Veneti, 353 
 ** Venus of Milo," 273 
 Vercingetorix, 354 
 Virginia, 200 
 Viriathus, 349 
 
 W 
 
 War-chariots, 105 
 War, prisoners of, 106 
 " Wooden Horse," 116, 127 
 " Wooden Walls," 241 
 
 X 
 
 Xanthippus, 323 
 Xerxes, 235-237 
 Xisuthros, 27 
 
 Yau, 96 
 
 Yu, 97 
 
 Zaleucus, 191 
 Zama, 333 
 Zarathustra, 87 
 Zela, 375 
 Zoroaster, 87 
 
 i 
 
 THE END 
 
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