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Title: History Of Ancient Civilization

Author: Charles Seignobos

Release Date: February 9, 2006 [EBook #17720]

Language: English

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 HISTORY OF
ANCIENT CIVILIZATION

BY
 CHARLES SEIGNOBOS
DOCTOR OF LETTERS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS

LONDON
T. FISHER UNWIN
ADELPHI TERRACE
MCMVII

(All rights reserved)

EDITOR'S NOTE

In preparing this volume, the Editor has used both the three-volume edition
and the two-volume edition of the "Histoire de la Civilisation." He has usually
preferred the order of topics of the two-volume edition, but has supplemented
the material therein with other matter drawn from the three-volume edition.
A few corrections to the text have been given in foot-notes. These notes are
always clearly distinguished from the elucidations of the author.
A.H.W.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PREHISTORIC TIMES. Prehistoric archæology — Prehistoric
remains; their antiquity — Prehistoric science — The
four ages.
THE ROUGH STONE AGE. Remains found in the gravels —
The cave-men.
THE POLISHED STONE AGE . Lake-villages — Megalithic
monuments.
THE BRONZE AGE . Bronze — Bronze objects.
THE IRON AGE . Iron — Iron weapons — Epochs of the
Iron Age.
Conclusions: How the four ages are to be conceived;
uncertainties; solved questions.

CHAPTER II
HISTORY AND THE DOCUMENTS. History — Legends — History
in general — Great divisions of history — Ancient
history — Modern history — The Middle Ages.
SOURCES FOR THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS. Books —
Monuments — Inscriptions — Languages — Lacunæ.
RACES AND PEOPLES. Anthropology — The races — Civilized
peoples — Aryans and Semites.

CHAPTER III
THE EGYPTIANS. Egypt — The country — The Nile —
Fertility of the soil — The accounts of Herodotus —
Champollion — Egyptologists — Discoveries.
THE EGYPTIAN EMPIRE. Antiquity of the Egyptian people —
Memphis and the pyramids — Egyptian civilization —
Thebes — The Pharaoh — The subjects —
Despotism — Isolation of the Egyptians.
RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. The gods — Osiris — Ammon-
râ — Gods with animal heads — Sacred animals — The
bull Apis — Worship of the dead — Judgment of the
soul — Mummies — Book of the Dead — The arts —
Industry — Architecture— Tombs— Temples—
Sculpture— Painting— Literature — Destinies of the
Egyptian civilization.

CHAPTER IV
THE ASSYRIANS AND BABYLONIANS. Chaldea — The land —
The people — The cities.
THE ASSYRIANS — Assyria — Origins — Ancient accounts —
Modern discoveries — Inscriptions on bricks —
Cuneiform writing — The Assyrian people — The
king — Fall of the Assyrian Empire.
THE BABYLONIANS. The second Chaldean empire —
Babylon — The Tower of Babylon.
CUSTOMS AND RELIGION. Customs — Religion — The gods —
Astrology — Sorcery — The sciences.
THE ARTS . Architecture — Palaces — Sculpture.

CHAPTER V
THE ARYANS OF INDIA. The Aryans — Aryan languages — The
 Aryan people.
PRIMITIVE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. The Aryans on the
Indus — The Vedas — The gods — Indra — Agni —
The cult — Worship of ancestors.
BRAHMANIC SOCIETY. The Hindoos on the Ganges —
Castes — The Impure — The Brahmans — The new
religion of Brahma — Transmigration of souls —
Character of this religion — The rites — Purity —
Penances — The monks.
BUDDHISM. Buddha — Nirvana — Charity — Fraternity —
Tolerance — Later history of Buddhism — Changes in
Buddhism — Buddha transformed into a god —
Mechanical prayer — Amelioration of manners.

CHAPTER VI
THE PERSIANS. The religion of Zoroaster — Iran — The
Iranians — Zoroaster — The Zend-Avesta — Ormuzd
and Ahriman — Angels and demons — Creatures of
Ormuzd and Ahriman — The cult — Morality —
Funerals — Destiny of the soul — Character of
Mazdeism.
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. The Medes — The Persians — Cyrus —
The inscription of Behistun — The Persian empire —
The satrapies — Revenues of the empire — The Great
King — Services rendered by the Persians — Susa and
Persepolis — Persian architecture.

CHAPTER VII
THE PHŒNICIANS. The Phœnician people — The land — The
cities — Phœnician ruins — Organization of the
Phœnician — Tyre — Carthage — Carthaginian
army — The Carthaginians — The Phœnician religion.
PHŒNICIAN COMMERCE. Occupations of the Phœnicians —
Caravans — Marine commerce — Commodities —
Secret kept by the Phœnicians — Colonies — Influence
of the Phœnicians — The alphabet.
 CHAPTER VIII
THE HEBREWS. Origin of the Hebrew people — The Bible —
The Hebrews — The patriarchs — The Israelites — The
call of Moses — Israel in the desert — The Promised
Land.
THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL. One God — The people of God —
The covenant — The Ten Commandments — The
Law — Religion constituted the Jewish people.
THE EMPIRE OF ISRAEL. The Judges — The Hangs —
Jerusalem — The tabernacle — The temple.
THE PROPHETS. Disasters of Israel — Sentiments of the
Israelites — The prophets — The new teaching — The
Messiah.
THE JEWISH PEOPLE. Return to Jerusalem — The Jews — The
synagogues — Destruction of the temple — The Jews
after the dispersion.

CHAPTER IX
GREECE AND THE GREEKS. The country — The sea — The
climate — Simplicity of Greek life — The people —
Origin of the Greeks — Legends — The Trojan War —
The Homeric Poems — The Greeks at the time of
Homer — The Dorians — The Ionians — The
Hellenes — The cities.
THE HELLENES BEYOND THE SEA. Colonization — Character of
the colonies — Traditions touching the colonies —
Importance of the Greek colonies.

CHAPTER X
GREEK RELIGION. The gods — Polytheism —
Anthropomorphism — Mythology — Local gods —
The great gods — Attributes of the gods — Olympus
and Zeus — Morality of the Greek mythology.
THE HEROES. Various sorts of heroes — Presence of the
 heroes — Intervention of the heroes.
WORSHIP. Principle of the cult of the gods — The great
Feasts — the sacred games — Omens — Oracles —
Amphictyonies.

CHAPTER XI
SPARTA. The People — Laconia — The Helots — The
Periœci — Condition of the Spartiates.
EDUCATION. The children — The girls — The discipline —
Laconism — Music — The dance — Heroism of the
women.
INSTITUTIONS. The kings and the council — The ephors — The
army — The hoplites — The phalanx — Gymnastics —
Athletes — Rôle of the Spartiates.

CHAPTER XII
ATHENS. Origins of the Athenian people — Attica —
Athens — The revolutions in Athens — Reforms of
Cleisthenes.
THE ATHENIAN PEOPLE. The slaves — The foreigners — The
citizens.
THE GOVERNMENT. The assembly — The courts — The
magistrates — Character of the government — The
demagogues.
PRIVATE LIFE. Children — Marriage — Women.

CHAPTER XIII
WARS. The Persian wars — Origin of these wars —
Comparison of the two adversaries — First Persian
war — Second Persian war — Reasons for the victory
of the Greeks — Results of the wars.
WARS OF THE GREEKS AMONG THEMSELVES. The Peloponnesian
war — War with Sparta — Savage character of the
wars — Effects of these wars.
 CHAPTER XIV
THE ARTS IN GREECE. Athens in the time of Pericles —
Pericles — Athens and her monuments — Importance
of Athens.
LETTERS. Orators — Sages — Sophists — Socrates and the
philosophers — The chorus — Tragedy and comedy —
Theatre.
ARTS. The Grecian temples — Characteristics of Grecian
architecture — Sculpture — Pottery — Painting.

CHAPTER XV
THE GREEKS IN THE ORIENT. Asia before Alexander —
Decadence of the Persian empire — Expedition of the
Ten Thousand — Agesilaus.
CONQUEST OF ASIA BY ALEXANDER . Macedon — Philip —
Demosthenes — The Macedonian supremacy —
Alexander — The phalanx — Departure of
Alexander — Victories of Granicus, Issus, and
Arbela — Death of Alexander — Projects of Alexander.
THE HELLENES IN THE ORIENT. Dismemberment of the empire
of Alexander — The Hellenistic kingdoms —
Alexandria — Museum — Pergamum.

CHAPTER XVI
LATER PERIOD OF GREEK HISTORY. Decadence of the cities —
Rich and poor — Strife between rich and poor —
Democracy and oligarchy — The tyrants — Exhaustion
of Greece.
THE ROMAN CONQUEST. The leagues — The allies of the
Romans — The last struggles.
THE HELLENES IN THE OCCIDENT. Influence of Greece on
Rome — Architecture — Sculpture — Literature —
Epicureans and Stoics.
 CHAPTER XVII
ANCIENT PEOPLES OF ITALY. The Etruscans — Etruria — The
Etruscan people — The Etruscan tombs — Industry and
commerce — Religion — The augurs — Influence of
the Etruscans.
THE ITALIAN PEOPLE. Umbrians and Oscans — The Sacred
Spring — The Samnites — The Greeks of Italy.
LATINS AND ROMANS. The Latins — Rome — Roma Quadrata
and the Capitol.

CHAPTER XVIII
RELIGION AND THE FAMILY. Religion — The Roman gods —
Form of the gods — Principle of the Roman religion —
Worship — Formalism — Prayer — Omens — The
priests.
WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS . The dead — Worship of the dead —
Cult of the hearth.
THE FAMILY. Religion of the family — Marriage —
Women — Children — Father of the family.

CHAPTER XIX
THE ROMAN CITY. Formation of the Roman people — The
kings — The Roman people — The plebeians — Strife
between patricians and plebeians — The tribunes of the
plebs — Triumph of the plebs.
THE ROMAN PEOPLE. Right of citizenship — The nobles —
The knights — The plebs — Freedmen.
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC. The comitia —
Magistrates — Censors — Senate — The course of
offices.

CHAPTER XX
ROMAN CONQUEST. The Roman army — Military service —
 The levy — Legions and allies — Military exercises —
Camp — Order of battle — Discipline — Colonies and
military roads.
CHARACTER OF THE CONQUESTS. War — Conquest of Italy —
Punic wars — Hannibal — Conquest of the Orient —
Conquest of barbarian lands — The triumph —
Booty — Allies of Rome — Motives of conquest.
RESULTS OF THE CONQUESTS. Empire of the Roman people —
The public domain — Agrarian laws.

CHAPTER XXI
THE CONQUERED PEOPLES. The provincials — Provinces —
The proconsuls — Tyranny and oppression of the
proconsuls — The publicans — Bankers —
Defencelessness of the provincials.
SLAVERY. Sale of slaves — Condition of slaves — Number of
slaves — Urban slaves — Rural slaves — Treatment of
slaves — Ergastulum and mill — Character of the
slaves — Revolts — Admission to citizenship.

CHAPTER XXII
TRANSFORMATION OF LIFE IN ROME. Influence of Greece and the
Orient.
CHANGES IN RELIGION. Greek gods — The Bacchanals —
Superstitions of the Orient — Sceptics.
CHANGES IN MANNERS. The old customs — Cato the Elder —
The new manners — Oriental luxury — Greek
humanity — Lucullus — The new education — New
status of women — Divorce.

CHAPTER XXIII
FALL OF THE REPUBLIC. Causes of the decadence —
Destruction of the peasant class — The city plebs —
Electoral corruption — Corruption of the Senate —
Corruption of the army.
THE REVOLUTION. Necessity of the revolution — Civil wars —
The Gracchi — Marius and Sulla — Pompey and
Cæsar — End of the Republic — Need of peace —
Power of the individual.

CHAPTER XXIV
THE EMPIRE AT ITS HEIGHT. The twelve Cæsars — The
emperor — Apotheosis — Senate and people — The
prætorians — Freedmen of the emperors — Despotism
and disorder.
THE CENTURY OF THE ANTONINES . Marcus Aurelius —
Conquests of the Antonines.
IMPERIAL INSTITUTIONS. Extent of the empire in the second
century — Permanent army — Deputies and agents of
the emperor — Municipal life — Imperial regime.
SOCIAL LIFE UNDER THE EMPIRE. The continued decadence at
Rome — The shows — Theatre — Circus —
Amphitheatre — Gladiators — The Roman peace —
Fusion of the peoples — Superstitions.

CHAPTER XXV
ARTS AND SCIENCES IN ROME. Letters — Imitation of the
Greeks — The Augustan Age — Orators and
rhetoricians — Importance of the Latin literature and
language — Arts — Sculpture and painting —
Architecture — Characteristics of Roman
architecture — Rome and its monuments.
ROMAN LAW. The Twelve Tables — Symbolic process —
Formalism — Jurisprudence — The prætor's edict —
Civil law and the law of nations — Written reason.

CHAPTER XXVI
THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. Origin of Christianity — Christ —
Charity — Equality — Poverty and humility — The
kingdom of God.
 FIRST CENTURIES OF THE CHURCH. Disciples and apostles —
The church — Sacred books — Persecutions —
Martyrs — Catacombs.
THE MONKS OF THE THIRD CENTURY. Solitaries —
Asceticism — Cenobites.

CHAPTER XXVII
THE LATER EMPIRE. The revolutions of the third century —
Military anarchy — Worship of Mithra — Taurobolia —
Confusion of religions.
REGIME OF THE LATER EMPIRE. Reforms of Diocletian and
Constantine — Constantinople — The palace — The
officials — Society of the later empire.
CHURCH AND STATE. Triumph of Christianity — Organization
of the church — Councils — Heretics — Paganism —
Theodosius.

CHAPTER IToC

THE ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION

PREHISTORIC ARCHÆOLOGY

Prehistoric Remains.—One often finds buried in the earth, weapons,

implements, human skeletons, débris of every kind left by men of whom we
have no direct knowledge. These are dug up by the thousand in all the provinces
of France, in Switzerland, in England, in all Europe; they are found even in Asia
and Africa. It is probable that they exist in all parts of the world.
These remains are called prehistoric because they are more ancient than
written history. For about fifty years men have been engaged in recovering and
studying them. Today most museums have a hall, or at least, some cases filled
with these relics. A museum at Saint-German-en-Laye, near Paris, is entirely
given up to prehistoric remains. In Denmark is a collection of more than 30,000
objects. Every day adds to the discoveries as excavations are made, houses built,
and cuts made for railroads.
These objects are not found on the surface of the ground, but ordinarily buried
deeply where the earth has not been disturbed. They are recovered from a
stratum of gravel or clay which has been deposited gradually and has fixed them
in place safe from the air, a sure proof that they have been there for a long time.
Prehistoric Science.—Scholars have examined the débris and have asked
themselves what men have left them. From their skeletons, they have tried to
construct their physical appearance; from their tools, the kind of life they led.
They have determined that these instruments resemble those used by certain
savages today. The study of all these objects constitutes a new science,
Prehistoric Archæology.[1]
The Four Ages.—Prehistoric remains come down to us from very diverse
races of men; they have been deposited in the soil at widely different epochs
since the time when the mammoth lived in western Europe, a sort of gigantic
elephant with woolly hide and curved tusks. This long lapse of time may be
divided into four periods, called Ages:
1. The Rough Stone Age.
2. The Polished Stone Age.
3. The Bronze Age.
4. The Iron Age.
The periods take their names from the materials used in the manufacture of
the tools,—stone, bronze, iron. These epochs, however, are of very unequal
length. It may be that the Rough Stone Age was ten times as long as the Age of
Iron.
 THE ROUGH STONE AGE

Gravel Débris.—The oldest remains of the Stone Age have been found in the
gravels. A French scholar found between 1841 and 1853, in the valley of the
Somme, certain sharp instruments made of flint. They were buried to a depth of
six metres in gravel under three layers of clay, gravel, and marl which had never
been broken up. In the same place they discovered bones of cattle, deer, and
elephants. For a long time people made light of this discovery. They said that the
chipping of the flints was due to chance. At last, in 1860, several scholars came
to study the remains in the valley of the Somme and recognized that the flints
had certainly been cut by men. Since then there have been found more than
5,000 similar flints in strata of the same order either in the valley of the Seine or
in England, and some of them by the side of human bones. There is no longer
any doubt that men were living at the epoch when the gravel strata were in
process of formation. If the strata that cover these remains have always been
deposited as slowly as they are today, these men whose bones and tools we
unearth must have lived more than 200,000 years ago.
The Cave Men.—Remains are also found in caverns cut in rock, often above
a river. The most noted are those on the banks of the Vézère, but they exist in
many other places. Sometimes they have been used as habitations and even as
graves for men. Skeletons, weapons, and tools are found here together. There are
axes, knives, scrapers, lance-points of flint; arrows, harpoon-points, needles of
bone like those used by certain savages to this day. The soil is strewn with the
bones of animals which these men, untidy like all savages, threw into a corner
after they had eaten the meat; they even split the bones to extract the marrow just
as savages do now. Among the animals are found not only the hare, the deer, the
ox, the horse, the salmon, but also the rhinoceros, the cave-bear, the mammoth,
the elk, the bison, the reindeer, which are all extinct or have long disappeared
from France. Some designs have been discovered engraved on the bone of a
reindeer or on the tusk of a mammoth. One of these represents a combat of
reindeer; another a mammoth with woolly hide and curved tusks. Doubtless
these men were the contemporaries of the mammoth and the reindeer. They
were, like the Esquimaux of our day, a race of hunters and fishermen, knowing
how to work in flint and to kindle fires.
 POLISHED STONE AGE

Lake Dwellings.—In 1854, Lake Zurich being very low on account of the
unusual dryness of the summer, dwellers on the shore of the lake found, in the
mud, wooden piles which had been much eaten away, also some rude utensils.
These were the remains of an ancient village built over the water. Since this time
more than 200 similar villages have been found in the lakes of Switzerland. They
have been called Lake Villages. The piles on which they rest are trunks of trees,
pointed and driven into the lake-bottom to a depth of several yards. Every village
required 30,000 to 40,000 of these.
A wooden platform was supported by the pile work and on this were built
wooden houses covered with turf. Objects found by the hundred among the piles
reveal the character of the life of the former inhabitants. They ate animals killed
in the chase—the deer, the boar, and the elk. But they were already acquainted
with such domestic animals as the ox, the goat, the sheep, and the dog. They
knew how to till the ground, to reap, and to grind their grain; for in the ruins of
their villages are to be found grains of wheat and even fragments of bread, or
rather unleavend cakes. They wore coarse cloths of hemp and sewed them into
garments with needles of bone. They made pottery but were very awkward in its
manufacture. Their vases were poorly burned, turned by hand, and adorned with
but few lines. Like the cave-men, they used knives and arrows of flint; but they
made their axes of a very hard stone which they had learned to polish. This is
why we call their epoch the Polished Stone Age. They are much later than the
cave-men, for they know neither the mammoth nor the rhinoceros, but still are
acquainted with the elk and the reindeer.[2]
Megalithic Monuments.—Megalith is the name given to a monument formed
of enormous blocks of rough stone. Sometimes the rock is bare, sometimes
covered with a mass of earth. The buried monument is called a Tumulus on
account of its resemblance to a hill. When it is opened, one finds within a
chamber of rock, sometimes paved with flag-stones. The monuments whose
stone is above ground are of various sorts. The Dolmen, or table of rock, is
formed of a long stone laid flat over other stones set in the ground. The
Cromlech, or stone-circle, consists of massive rocks arranged in a circle. The
Menhir is a block of stone standing on its end. Frequently several menhirs are
ranged in line. At Carnac in Brittany four thousand menhirs in eleven rows are
still standing. Probably there were once ten thousand of these in this locality.
Megalithic monuments appear by hundreds in western France, especially in
Brittany; almost every hill in England has them; the Orkney Islands alone
contain more than two thousand. Denmark and North Germany are studded with
them; the people of the country call the tumuli the tombs of the giants.
Megalithic monuments are encountered outside of Europe—in India, and on
the African coast. No one knows what people possessed the power to quarry
such masses and then transport and erect them. For a long time it was believed
that the people were the ancient Gauls, or Celts, whence the name Celtic
Monuments. But why are like remains found in Africa and in India?
When one of these tumuli still intact is opened, one always sees a skeleton,
often several, either sitting or reclining; these monuments, therefore, were used
as tombs. Arms, vases, and ornaments are placed at the side of the dead. In the
oldest of these tombs the weapons are axes of polished stone; the ornaments are
shells, pearls, necklaces of bone or ivory; the vases are very simple, without
handle or neck, decorated only with lines or with points. Calcined bones of
animals lie about on the ground, the relics of a funeral repast laid in the tomb by
the friends of the dead. Amidst these bones we no longer find those of the
reindeer, a fact which proves that these monuments were constructed after the
disappearance of this animal from western Europe, and therefore at a time
subsequent to that of the lake villages.

THE AGE OF BRONZE

Bronze Age.—As soon as men learned to smelt metals, they preferred these to
stone in the manufacture of weapons. The metal first to be used was copper,
easier to extract because found free, and easier to manipulate since it is
malleable without the application of heat. Pure copper, however, was not
employed, as weapons made of it were too fragile; but a little tin was mixed with
it to give it more resistance. It is this alloy of copper and tin that we call bronze.
Bronze Utensils.—Bronze was used in the manufacture of ordinary tools—
knives, hammers, saws, needles, fish-hooks; in the fabrication of ornaments—
bracelets, brooches, ear-rings; and especially in the making of arms—daggers,
lance-points, axes, and swords. These objects are found by thousands throughout
Europe in the mounds, under the more recent dolmens, in the turf-pits of
Denmark, and in rock-tombs. Near these objects of bronze, ornaments of gold
are often seen and, now and then, the remains of a woollen garment. It cannot be
due to chance that all implements of bronze are similar and all are made
according to the same alloy. Doubtless they revert to the same period of time and
are anterior to the coming of the Romans into Gaul, for they are never
discovered in the midst of débris of the Roman period. But what men used them?
What people invented bronze? Nobody knows.

THE IRON AGE

Iron.—As iron was harder to smelt and work than bronze, it was later that
men learned how to use it. As soon as it was appreciated that iron was harder
and cut better than bronze, men preferred it in the manufacture of arms. In
Homer's time iron is still a precious metal reserved for swords, bronze being
retained for other purposes. It is for this reason that many tombs contain
confused remains of utensils of bronze and weapons of iron.
Iron Weapons.—These arms are axes, swords, daggers, and bucklers. They
are ordinarily found by the side of a skeleton in a coffin of stone or wood, for
warriors had their arms buried with them. But they are found also scattered on
ancient battle-fields or lost at the bottom of a marsh which later became a turf-
pit. There were found in a turf-pit in Schleswig in one day 100 swords, 500
lances, 30 axes, 460 daggers, 80 knives, 40 stilettos—and all of iron. Not far
from there in the bed of an ancient lake was discovered a great boat 66 feet long,
fully equipped with axes, swords, lances, and knives.
It is impossible to enumerate the iron implements thus found. They have not
been so well preserved as the bronze, as iron is rapidly eaten away by rust. At
the first glance, therefore, they appear the older, but in reality are more recent.
Epoch of the Iron Age.—The inhabitants of northern Europe knew iron
before the coming of the Romans, the first century before Christ. In an old
cemetery near the salt mines of Hallstadt in Austria they have opened 980 tombs
filled with instruments of iron and bronze without finding a single piece of
Roman money. But the Iron Age continued under the Romans. Almost always
iron objects are found accompanied by ornaments of gold and silver, by Roman
pottery, funeral urns, inscriptions, and Roman coins bearing the effigy of the
emperor. The warriors whom we find lying near their sword and their buckler
lived for the most part in a period quite close to ours, many under the
Merovingians, some even at the time of Charlemagne. The Iron Age is no longer
a prehistoric age.

CONCLUSIONS

How the Four Ages are to be Conceived.—The inhabitants of one and the
same country have successively made use of rough stone, polished stone, bronze,
and iron. But all countries have not lived in the same age at the same time. Iron
was employed by the Egyptians while yet the Greeks were in their bronze age
and the barbarians of Denmark were using stone. The conclusion of the polished
stone age in America came only with the arrival of Europeans. In our own time
the savages of Australia are still in the rough stone age. In their settlements may
be found only implements of bone and stone similar to those used by the cave-
men. The four ages, therefore, do not mark periods in the life of humanity, but
only epochs in the civilization of each country.
Uncertainties.—Prehistoric archæology is yet a very young science. We have
learned something of primitive men through certain remains preserved and
discovered by chance. A recent accident, a trench, a landslip, a drought may
effect a new discovery any day. Who knows what is still under ground? The
finds are already innumerable. But these rarely tell us what we wish to know.
How long was each of the four ages? When did each begin and end in the
various parts of the world? Who planned the caverns, the lake villages, the
mounds, the dolmens? When a country passes from polished stone to bronze, is
it the same people changing implements, or is it a new people come on the
scene? When one thinks one has found the solution, a new discovery often
confounds the archæologists. It was thought that the Celts originated the
dolmens, but these have been found in sections which could never have been
traversed by Celts.
What has been determined.—Three conclusions, however, seem certain:
1.—Man has lived long on the earth, familiar as he was with the
mammoth and the cave-bear; he lived at least as early as the geological
period known as the Quaternary.
2.—Man has emerged from the savage state to civilized life; he has
gradually perfected his tools and his ornaments from the awkward axe of
flint and the necklace of bears' teeth to iron swords and jewels of gold.
 The roughest instruments are the oldest.
3.—Man has made more and more rapid progress. Each age has been
shorter than its predecessor.

FOOTNOTES:

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

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

CHAPTER IIToC

HISTORY AND THE RECORDS

HISTORY

Legends.—The most ancient records of people and their doings are

transmitted by oral tradition. They are recited long before they are written down
and are much mixed with fable. The Greeks told how their heroes of the oldest
times had exterminated monsters, fought with giants, and battled against the
gods. The Romans had Romulus nourished by a wolf and raised to heaven.
Almost all peoples relate such stories of their infancy. But no confidence is to be
placed in these legends.
History.—History has its true beginning only with authentic accounts, that is
to say, accounts written by men who were well informed. This moment is not the
same with all peoples. The history of Egypt commences more than 3,000 years
before Christ; that of the Greeks ascends scarcely to 800 years before Christ;
Germany has had a history only since the first century of our era; Russia dates
back only to the ninth century; certain savage tribes even yet have no history.
Great Divisions of History.—The history of civilization begins with the
oldest civilized people and continues to the present time. Antiquity is the most
remote period, Modern Times the era in which we live.
Ancient History.—Ancient History begins with the oldest known nations, the
Egyptians and Chaldeans (about 3,000 years before our era), and surveys the
peoples of the Orient, the Hindoos, Persians, Phœnicians, Jews, Greeks, and last
of all the Romans. It terminates about the fifth century A.D., when the Roman
empire of the west is extinguished.
Modern History.—Modern History starts with the end of the fifteenth
century, with the invention of printing, the discovery of America and of the
Indies, the Renaissance of the sciences and arts. It concerns itself especially with
peoples of the West, of Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Russia, and America.
The Middle Age.—Between Antiquity and Modern Times about ten centuries
elapse which belong neither to ancient times (for the civilization of Antiquity has
perished) nor to modern (since modern civilization does not yet exist). This
period we call the Middle Age.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION FOR THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT

PEOPLES

The Sources.—The Assyrians, Greeks, and Romans are no longer with us; all
the peoples of antiquity have passed away. To know their religion, their customs,
and arts we have to seek for instruction in the remains they have left us. These
are books, monuments, inscriptions, and languages, and these are our means for
the study of ancient civilizations. We term these sources because we draw our
knowledge from them. Ancient History flows from these sources.
 Books.—Ancient peoples have left written records behind them. Some of
these peoples had sacred books—for example, the Hindoos, the Persians, and the
Jews; the Greeks and Romans have handed down to us histories, poems,
speeches, philosophical treatises. But books are very far from furnishing all the
information that we require. We do not possess a single Assyrian or Phœnician
book. Other peoples have transmitted very few books to us. The ancients wrote
less than we, and so they had a smaller literature to leave behind them; and as it
was necessary to transcribe all of this by hand, there was but a small number of
copies of books. Further, most of these manuscripts have been destroyed or have
been lost, and those which remain to us are difficult to read. The art of
deciphering them is called Palæography.
The Monuments.—Ancient peoples, like ourselves, built monuments of
different sorts: palaces for their kings, tombs for the dead, fortresses, bridges,
aqueducts, triumphal arches. Of these monuments many have fallen into ruin,
have been razed, shattered by the enemy or by the people themselves. But some
of them survive, either because there was no desire to destroy them, or because
men could not. They still stand in ruins like the old castles, for repairs are no
longer made; but enough is preserved to enable us to comprehend their former
condition. Some of them are still above ground, like the pyramids, the temples of
Thebes and of the island of Philæ, the palace of Persepolis in Persia, the
Parthenon in Greece, the Colosseum in Rome, and the Maison Carrée and Pont
du Gard in France. Like any modern monument, these are visible to the traveller.
But the majority of these monuments have been recovered from the earth, from
sand, from river deposits, and from débris. One must disengage them from this
thick covering, and excavate the soil, often to a great depth. Assyrian palaces
may be reached only by cutting into the hills. A trench of forty feet is necessary
to penetrate to the tombs of the kings of Mycenæ. Time is not the only agency
for covering these ruins; men have aided it. When the ancients wished to build,
they did not, as we do, take the trouble to level off the space, nor to clear the site.
Instead of removing the débris, they heaped it together and built above it. The
new edifice in turn fell into ruins and its débris was added to that of more remote
time; thus there were formed several strata of remains. When Schliemann
excavated the site of Troy, he had passed through five beds of débris; these were
five ruined villages one above another, the oldest at a depth of fifty feet.
By accident one town has been preserved to us in its entirety. In 79 A.D. the
volcano of Vesuvius belched forth a torrent of liquid lava and a rain of ashes, and
two Roman cities were suddenly buried, Herculaneum by lava, and Pompeii by
ashes; the lava burnt the objects it touched, while the ashes enveloped them,
preserving them from the air and keeping them intact. As we remove the ashes,
Pompeii reappears to us just as it was eighteen centuries ago. One still sees the
wheel-ruts in the pavement, the designs traced on the walls with charcoal; in the
houses, the pictures, the utensils, the furniture, even the bread, the nuts, and
olives, and here and there the skeleton of an inhabitant surprised by the
catastrophe. Monuments teach us much about the ancient peoples. The science
of monuments is called Archæology.
Inscriptions.—By inscriptions one means all writings other than books.
Inscriptions are for the most part cut in stone, but some are on plates of bronze.
At Pompeii they have been found traced on the walls in colors or with charcoal.
Some have the character of commemorative inscriptions just as these are now
attached to our statues and edifices; thus in the monument of Ancyra the
emperor Augustus publishes the story of his life.
The greatest number of inscriptions are epitaphs graven on tombs. Certain
others fill the function of our placards, containing, as they do, a law or a
regulation that was to be made public. The science of inscriptions is called
Epigraphy.
Languages.—The languages also which ancient peoples spoke throw light on
their history. Comparing the words of two different languages, we perceive that
the two have a common origin—an evidence that the peoples who spoke them
were descended from the same stock. The science of languages is called
Linguistics.
Lacunæ.—It is not to be supposed that books, monuments, inscriptions, and
languages are sufficient to give complete knowledge of the history of antiquity.
They present many details which we could well afford to lose, but often what we
care most to know escapes us. Scholars continue to dig and to decipher; each
year new discoveries of inscriptions and monuments are made; but there remain
still many gaps in our knowledge and probably some of these will always exist.

RACES AND PEOPLES

Anthropology.—The men who people the earth do not possess exact

resemblances, some differing from others in stature, the form of the limbs and
the head, the features of the face, the color of the hair and eyes. Other
differences are found in language, intelligence, and sentiments. These variations
permit us to separate the inhabitants of the earth into several groups which we
call races. A race is the aggregate of those men who resemble one another and
are distinguished from all others. The common traits of a race—its
characteristics—constitute the type of the race. For example, the type of the
negro race is marked by black skin, frizzly hair, white teeth, flat nose, projecting
lips, and prominent jaw. That part of Anthropology which concerns itself with
races and their sub-divisions is called Ethnology.[3] This science is yet in its
early development on account of its complete novelty, and is very complex since
types of men are very numerous and often very difficult to differentiate.
The Races.—The principal races are:
 1.—The White race, which inhabits Europe, the north of Africa, and
western Asia.
2.—The Yellow race in eastern Asia to which belong the Chinese, the
Mongols, Turks, and Hungarians, who invaded Europe as conquerors.
They have yellow skin, small regular eyes, prominent cheek-bones, and
thin beard.
3.—The Black race, in central Africa. These are the Negroes, of black
skin, flat nose, woolly hair.
4.—The Red race, in America. These are the Indians, with copper-
colored skin and flat heads.
Civilized Peoples.—Almost all civilized peoples belong to the white race.
The peoples of the other races have remained savage or barbarian, like the men
of prehistoric times.[4]
It is within the limits of Asia and Africa that the first civilized peoples had
their development—the Egyptians in the Nile valley, the Chaldeans in the plain
of the Euphrates. They were peoples of sedentary and peaceful pursuits. Their
skin was dark, the hair short and thick, the lips strong. Nobody knows their
origin with exactness and scholars are not agreed on the name to give them
(some terming them Cushites, others Hamites). Later, between the twentieth and
twenty-fifth centuries B.C. came bands of martial shepherds who had spread
over all Europe and the west of Asia—the Aryans and the Semites.
The Aryans and the Semites.—There is no clearly marked external
difference between the Aryans and the Semites. Both are of the white race,
having the oval face, regular features, clear skin, abundant hair, large eyes, thin
lips, and straight nose. Both peoples were originally nomad shepherds, fond of
war. We do not know whence they came, nor is there agreement whether the
Aryans came from the mountain region in the northwest of the Himalayas or
from the plains of Russia. What distinguishes them is their spiritual bent and
especially their language, sometimes also their religion. Scholars by common
consent call those peoples Aryan who speak an Aryan language: in Asia, the
Hindoos and Persians; in Europe, the Greeks, Italians, Spaniards, Germans,
Scandinavians, Slavs (Russians, Poles, Serfs), and Celts.[5]
Similarly, we call Semites those peoples who speak a Semitic language:
Arabs, Jews and Syrians. But a people may speak an Aryan or a Semitic
language and yet not be of Aryan or Semitic race; a negro may speak English
without being of English stock. Many of the Europeans whom we classify
among the Aryans are perhaps the descendants of an ancient race conquered by
the Aryans and who have adopted their language, just as the Egyptians received
the language of the Arabs, their conquerors.
These two names (Aryan and Semite), then, signify today rather two groups of
peoples than two distinct races. But even if we use the terms in this sense, one
may say that all the greater peoples of the world have been Semites or Aryans.
The Semitic family included the Phœnicians, the people of commerce; the Jews,
the people of religion; the Arabs, the people of war. The Aryans, some finding
their homes in India, others in Europe, have produced the nations which have
been, and still are, foremost in the world—in antiquity, the Hindoos, a people of
great philosophical and religious ideas; the Greeks, creators of art and of
science; the Persians and Romans, the founders, the former in the East, the latter
in the West, of the greatest empires of antiquity; in modern times, the Italians,
French, Germans, Dutch, Russians, English and Americans.
The history of civilization begins with the Egyptians and the Chaldeans; but
from the fifteenth century before our era, history concerns itself only with the
Aryan and Semitic peoples.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] Ethnography is the study of races from the point of view of their objects
and customs.
[4] The Chinese only of the yellow race have elaborated among themselves
an industry, a regular government, a polite society. But placed at the
extremity of Asia they have had no influence on other civilized peoples.
[The Japanese should be included.—ED.]
[5] The English and French are mixtures of Celtic and German blood.
 CHAPTER IIIToC

ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST

THE EGYPTIANS

The Land of Egypt.—Egypt is only the valley of the Nile, a narrow strip of
fertile soil stretching along both banks of the stream and shut in by mountains on
either side, somewhat over 700[6] miles in length and 15 in width. Where the
hills fall away, the Delta begins, a vast plain cut by the arms of the Nile and by
canals. As Herodotus says, Egypt is wholly the gift of the Nile.
The Nile.—Every year at the summer solstice the Nile, swollen by the melted
snows of Abyssinia, overflows the parched soil of Egypt. It rises to a height of
twenty-six or twenty-seven feet, sometimes even to thirty-three feet.[7] The
whole country becomes a lake from which the villages, built on eminences,
emerge like little islands. The water recedes in September; by December it has
returned to its proper channel. Everywhere has been left a fertile, alluvial bed
which serves the purpose of fertilization. On the softened earth the peasant sows
his crop with almost no labor. The Nile, then, brings both water and soil to
Egypt; if the river should fail, Egypt would revert, like the land on either side of
it, to a desert of sterile sand where the rain never falls. The Egyptians are
conscious of their debt to their stream. A song in its honor runs as follows:
"Greeting to thee, O Nile, who hast revealed thyself throughout the land, who
comest in peace to give life to Egypt. Does it rise? The land is filled with joy,
every heart exults, every being receives its food, every mouth is full. It brings
bounties that are full of delight, it creates all good things, it makes the grass to
spring up for the beasts."
Fertility of the Country.—Egypt is truly an oasis in the midst of the desert of
Africa. It produces in abundance wheat, beans, lentils, and all leguminous foods;
palms rear themselves in forests. On the pastures irrigated by the Nile graze
herds of cattle and goats, and flocks of geese. With a territory hardly equal to
that of Belgium, Egypt still supports 5,500,000 inhabitants. No country in
Europe is so thickly populated, and Egypt in antiquity was more densely
thronged than it is today.
The Accounts of Herodotus.—Egypt was better known to the Greeks than
the rest of the Orient. Herodotus had visited it in the fifth century B.C. He
describes in his History the inundations of the Nile, the manners, costume, and
religion of the people; he recounts events of their history and tales which his
guides had told him. Diodorus and Strabo also speak of Egypt. But all had seen
the country in its decadence and had no knowledge of the ancient Egyptians.
Champollion.—The French expedition to Egypt (1798-1801) opened the
country to scholars. They made a close examination of the Pyramids and ruins of
Thebes, and collected drawings and inscriptions. But no one could decipher the
hieroglyphs, the Egyptian writing. It was an erroneous impression that every
sign in this writing must each represent a word. In 1821 a French scholar,
Champollion, experimented with another system. An official had reported that
there was an inscription at Rosetta in three forms of writing—parallel with the
hieroglyphs was a translation in Greek. The name of King Ptolemy, was
surrounded with a cartouche.[8] Champollion succeeded in finding in this name
the letters P, T, O, L, M, I, S. Comparing these with other names of kings
similarly enclosed, he found the whole alphabet. He then read the hieroglyphs
and found that they were written in a language like the Coptic, the language
spoken in Egypt at the time of the Romans, and which was already known to
scholars.
Egyptologists.—Since Champollion, many scholars have travelled over Egypt
and have ransacked it thoroughly. We call these students Egyptologists, and they
are to be found in every country of Europe. A French Egyptologist, Mariette
(1821-1881), made some excavations for the Viceroy of Egypt and created the
museum of Boulak. France has established in Cairo a school of Egyptology,
directed by Maspero.
Discoveries.—Not every country yields such rich discoveries as does Egypt.
The Egyptians constructed their tombs like houses, and laid in them objects of
every kind for the use of the dead—furniture, garments, arms, and edibles. The
whole country was filled with tombs similarly furnished. Under this
extraordinarily dry climate everything has been preserved; objects come to light
intact after a burial of 4,000 or 5,000 years. No people of antiquity have left so
many traces of themselves as the Egyptians; none is better known to us.
 THE EGYPTIAN EMPIRE

Antiquity of the Egyptian People.—An Egyptian priest said to Herodotus,

"You Greeks are only children." The Egyptians considered themselves the oldest
people of the world. Down to the Persian conquest (520[9] B.C.) there were
twenty-six dynasties of kings. The first ran back 4,000 years,[10] and during these
forty centuries Egypt had been an empire. The capital down to the tenth dynasty
(the period of the Old Empire) was at Memphis in Lower Egypt, later, in the
New Empire, at Thebes in Upper Egypt.
Memphis and the Pyramids.—Memphis, built by the first king of Egypt,
was protected by an enormous dike. The village has existed for more than five
thousand years; but since the thirteenth century the inhabitants have taken the
stones of its ruins to build the houses of Cairo; what these people left the Nile
recaptured. The Pyramids, not far from Memphis, are contemporaneous with the
old empire; they are the tombs of three kings of the fourth dynasty. The greatest
of the pyramids, 480 feet high, required the labor of 100,000 men for thirty
years.[11] To raise the stones for it they built gradually ascending platforms
which were removed when the structure was completed.
Egyptian Civilization.—The statues, paintings, and instruments which are
taken from the tombs of this epoch give evidence of an already civilized people.
When all the other eminent nations of antiquity—the Hindoos, Persians, Jews,
Greeks, Romans—were still in a savage state, 3,500 years before our era, the
Egyptians had known for a long time how to cultivate the soil, to weave cloths,
to work metals, to paint, sculpture, and to write; they had an organized religion,
a king, and an administration.
Thebes.—At the eleventh dynasty Thebes succeeds Memphis as capital. The
ruins of Thebes are still standing. They are marvellous, extending as they do on
both banks of the Nile, with a circuit of about seven miles. On the left bank there
is a series of palaces and temples which lead to vast cemeteries. On the right
bank two villages, Luxor and Karnak, distant a half-hour one from the other, are
built in the midst of the ruins. They are united by a double row of sphinxes,
which must have once included more than 1,000 of these monuments. Among
these temples in ruins the greatest was the temple of Ammon at Karnak. It was
surrounded by a wall of over one and one-third miles in length; the famous Hall
of Columns, the greatest in the world, had a length of 334 feet, a width of 174
feet,[12] and was supported by 134 columns; twelve of these are over 65 feet
high. Thebes was for 1,500 years the capital and sacred city, the residence of
kings and the dwelling-place of the priests.
The Pharaoh.—The king of Egypt, called Pharaoh, was esteemed as the son
of the Sun-god and his incarnation on earth; divinity was ascribed to him also.
We may see in a picture King Rameses II standing in adoration before the divine
Rameses who is sitting between two gods. The king as man adores himself as
god. Being god, the Pharaoh has absolute power over men; as master, he gives
his orders to his great nobles at court, to his warriors, to all his subjects. But the
priests, though adoring him, surround and watch him; their head, the high priest
of the god Ammon, at last becomes more powerful than the king; he often
governs under the name of the king and in his stead.
The Subjects of Pharaoh.—The king, the priests, the warriors, the nobles,
are proprietors of all Egypt; all the other people are simply their peasants who
cultivate the land for them. Scribes in the service of the king watch them and
collect the farm-dues, often with blows of the staff. One of these functionaries
writes as follows to a friend, "Have you ever pictured to yourself the existence of
the peasant who tills the soil. The tax-collector is on the platform busily seizing
the tithe of the harvest. He has his men with him armed with staves, his negroes
provided with strips of palm. All cry, 'Come, give us grain,' If the peasant hasn't
it, they throw him full length on the earth, bind him, draw him to the canal, and
hurl him in head foremost."
Despotism.—The Egyptian people has always been, and still is, gay, careless,
gentle, docile as an infant, always ready to submit to tyranny. In this country the
cudgel was the instrument of education and of government. "The young man,"
said the scribes, "has a back to be beaten; he hears when he is struck." "One
day," says a French traveller, "finding myself before the ruins of Thebes, I
exclaimed, 'But how did they do all this?' My guide burst out laughing, touched
me on the arm and, showing me a palm, said to me, 'Here is what they used to
accomplish all this. You know, sir, with 100,000 branches of palms split on the
backs of those who always have their shoulders bare, you can build many a
palace and some temples to boot.'"
Isolation of the Egyptians.—The Egyptians moved but little beyond their
borders. As the sea inspired them with terror, they had no commerce and did not
trade with other peoples. They were not at all a military nation. Their kings, it is
true, often went on expeditions at the head of mercenaries either against the
negroes of Ethiopia or against the tribes of Syria. They gained victories which
they had painted on the walls of their palaces, they brought back troops of
captives whom they used in building monuments; but they never made great
conquests. Foreigners came more to Egypt than Egyptians went abroad.
Religion of the Egyptians.—"The Egyptians," said Herodotus, "are the most
religious of all men." We do not know any people so devout; almost all their
paintings represent men in prayer before a god; almost all their manuscripts are
religious books.
Egyptian Gods.—The principal deity is a Sun-god, creator, beneficent, "who
knows all things, who exists from the beginning." This god has a divine wife and
son. All the Egyptians adored this trinity; but not all gave it the same name. Each
region gave a different name to these three gods. At Memphis they called the
father Phtah, the mother Sekhet, the son Imouthes; at Abydos they called them
Osiris, Isis, and Horus; at Thebes, Ammon, Mouth, and Chons. Then, too, the
people of one province adopted the gods of other provinces. Further, they made
other gods emanate from each god of the trinity. Thus the number of gods was
increased and religion was complicated.
Osiris.—These gods have their history; it is that of the sun; for the sun
appeared to the Egyptians, as to most of the primitive peoples, the mightiest of
beings, and consequently a god. Osiris, the sun, is slain by Set, god of the night;
Isis, the moon, his wife, bewails and buries him; Horus, his son, the rising sun,
avenges him by killing his murderer.
Ammon-râ.—Ammon-râ, god of Thebes, is represented as traversing heaven
each day in a bark ("the good bark of millions of years"); the shades of the dead
propel it with long oars; the god stands at the prow to strike the enemy with his
lance. The hymn which they chanted in his honor is as follows: "Homage to
thee; thou watchest favoringly, thou watchest truly, O master of the two
horizons.... Thou treadest the heavens on high, thine enemies are laid low. The
heaven is glad, the earth is joyful, the gods unite in festal cheer to render glory to
Râ when they see him rising in his bark after he has overwhelmed his enemies.
O Râ, give abounding life to Pharaoh, bestow bread for his hunger (belly), water
for his throat, perfumes for his hair."
Animal-Headed Gods.—The Egyptians often represented their gods with
human form, but more frequently under the form of a beast. Each god has his
animal: Phtah incarnates himself in the beetle, Horus in the hawk, Osiris in the
bull. The two figures often unite in a man with the head of an animal or an
animal with the head of a man. Every god may be figured in four forms: Horus,
for example, as a man, a hawk, as man with the head of a hawk, as a hawk with
the head of a man.
Sacred Animals.—What did the Egyptians wish to designate by this symbol?
One hardly knows. They, themselves, came to regard as sacred the animals
which served to represent the gods to them: the bull, the beetle, the ibis, the
hawk, the cat, the crocodile. They cared for them and protected them. A century
before the Christian era a Roman citizen killed a cat at Alexandria; the people
rose in riot, seized him, and, notwithstanding the entreaties of the king, murdered
him, although at the same time they had great fear of the Romans. There was in
each temple a sacred animal which was adored. The traveller Strabo records a
visit to a sacred crocodile of Thebes: "The beast," said he, "lay on the edge of a
pond, the priests drew near, two of them opened his mouth, a third thrust in
cakes, grilled fish, and a drink made with meal."
The Bull Apis.—Of these animal gods the most venerated was the bull Apis.
It represented at once Osiris and Phtah and lived at Memphis in a chapel served
by the priests. After its death it became an Osiris (Osar-hapi), it was embalmed,
and its mummy deposited in a vault. The sepulchres of the "Osar-hapi"
constituted a gigantic monument, the Serapeum, discovered in 1851 by Marietta.
Cult of the Dead.—The Egyptians adored also the spirits of the dead. They
seem to have believed at first that every man had a "double" (Kâ), and that when
the man was dead his double still survived. Many savage peoples believe this to
this day. The Egyptian tomb in the time of the Old Empire was termed "House of
the Double." It was a low room arranged like a chamber, where for the service of
the double there were placed all that he required, chairs, tables, beds, chests,
linen, closets, garments, toilet utensils, weapons, sometimes a war-chariot; for
the entertainment of the double, statues, paintings, books; for his sustenance,
grain and foods. And then they set there a double of the dead in the form of a
statue in wood or stone carved in his likeness. At last the opening to the vault
was sealed; the double was enclosed, but the living still provided for him. They
brought him foods or they might beseech a god that he supply them to the spirit,
as in this inscription, "An offering to Osiris that he may confer on the Kâ of the
deceased N. bread, drink, meat, geese, milk, wine, beer, clothing, perfumes—all
good things and pure on which the god (i.e. the Kâ) subsists."
Judgment of the Soul.—Later, originating with the eleventh dynasty, the
Egyptians believed that the soul flew away from the body and sought Osiris
under the earth, the realm into which the sun seemed every day to sink. There
Osiris sits on his tribunal, surrounded by forty-two judges; the soul appears
before these to give account of his past life. His actions are weighed in the
balance of truth, his "heart" is called to witness. "O heart," cries the dead, "O
heart, the issue of my mother, my heart when I was on earth, offer not thyself as
witness, charge me not before the great god." The soul found on examination to
be bad is tormented for centuries and at last annihilated. The good soul springs
up across the firmament; after many tests it rejoins the company of the gods and
is absorbed into them.
Mummies.—During this pilgrimage the soul may wish to re-enter the body to
rest there. The body must therefore be kept intact, and so the Egyptians learned
to embalm it. The corpse was filled with spices, drenched in a bath of natron,
wound with bandages and thus transformed into a mummy. The mummy encased
in a coffin of wood or plaster was laid in the tomb with every provision
necessary to its life.
Book of the Dead.—A book was deposited with the mummy, the Book of the
Dead, which explains what the soul ought to say in the other world when it
makes its defence before the tribunal of Osiris: "I have never committed fraud; ...
I have never vexed the widow; ... I have never committed any forbidden act; ... I
have never been an idler; ... I have never taken the slave from his master; ... I
never stole the bread from the temples; ... I never removed the provisions or the
bandages of the dead; I never altered the grain measure; ... I never hunted sacred
beasts; I never caught sacred fish; ... I am pure; ... I have given bread to the
hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing to the naked; I have sacrificed to the gods,
and offered funeral feasts to dead." Here we see Egyptian morality: observance
of ceremonies, respect for everything pertaining to the gods, sincerity, honesty,
and beneficence.

THE ARTS

Industry.—The Egyptians were the first to practice the arts necessary to a

civilized people. From the first dynasty, 3,000[13] years B.C., paintings on the
tomb exhibit men working, sowing, harvesting, beating and winnowing grain;
we have representations of herds of cattle, sheep, geese, swine; of persons richly
clothed, processions, feasts where the harp is played—almost the same life that
we behold 3,000 years later. As early as this time the Egyptians knew how to
manipulate gold, silver, bronze; to manufacture arms and jewels, glass, pottery,
and enamel; they wove garments of linen and wool, and cloths, transparent or
embroidered with gold.
Architecture.—They were the oldest artists of the world. They constructed
enormous monuments which appear to be eternal, for down to the present, time
has not been able to destroy them. They never built, as we do, for the living, but
for the gods and for the dead, i.e., temples and tombs. Only a slight amount of
débris is left of their houses, and even the palaces of their kings in comparison
with the tombs appear, in the language of the Greeks, to be only inns. The house
was to serve only for a lifetime, the tomb for eternity.
Tombs.—The Great Pyramid is a royal tomb. Ancient tombs ordinarily had
this form. In Lower Egypt there still remain pyramids arranged in rows or
scattered about, some larger, others smaller. These are the tombs of kings and
nobles. Later the tombs are constructed underground, some under earth, others
cut into the granite of the hills. Each generation needs new ones, and therefore
near the town of living people is built the richer and greater city of the dead
(necropolis).
Temples.—The gods also required eternal and splendid habitations. Their
temples include a magnificent sanctuary, the dwelling of the god, surrounded
with courts, gardens, chambers where the priests lodge, wardrobes for his jewels,
utensils, and vestments. This combination of edifices, the work of many
generations, is encircled with a wall. The temple of Ammon at Thebes had the
labors of the kings of all the dynasties from the twelfth to the last. Ordinarily in
front of the temple a great gate-way is erected, with inclined faces—the pylone.
On either side of the entrance is an obelisk, a needle of rock with gilded point, or
perhaps a colossus in stone representing a sitting giant. Often the approach to the
temple is by a long avenue rimmed with sphinxes.
Pyramids, pylones, colossi, sphinxes, and obelisks characterize this
architecture. Everything is massive, compact, and, above all, immense. Hence
these monuments appear clumsy but indestructible.
Sculpture.—Egyptian sculptors began with imitating nature. The oldest
statues are impressive for their life and freshness, and are doubtless portraits of
the dead. Of this sort is the famous squatting scribe of the Louvre.[14] But
beginning with the eleventh dynasty the sculptor is no longer free to represent
the human body as he sees it, but must follow conventional rules fixed by
religion. And so all the statues resemble one another—parallel legs, the feet
 joined, arms crossed on the breast, the figure motionless; the statues are often
majestic, but always stiff and monotonous. Art has ceased to reproduce nature
and is become a conventional symbol.
Painting.—The Egyptians used very solid colors; after 5,000 years they are
still fresh and bright. But they were ignorant of coloring designs; they knew
neither tints, shadows, nor perspective. Painting, like sculpture, was subject to
religious rules and was therefore monotonous. If fifty persons were to be
represented, the artist made them all alike.
Literature.—The literature of the Egyptians is found in the tombs—not only
books of medicine, of magic and of piety, but also poems, letters, accounts of
travels, and even romances.
Destiny of the Egyptian Civilization.—The Egyptians conserved their
customs, religion, and arts even after the fall of their empire. Subjects of the
Persians, then the Greeks, and at last of the Romans, they kept their old usages,
their hieroglyphics, their mummies and sacred animals. At last between the third
and second centuries A.D., Egyptian civilization was slowly extinguished.

FOOTNOTES:

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

[7] In some localities, e.g. Thebes, the flood is even higher.—ED.
[8] An enclosing case.
[9] 525 B.C.—ED.
[10] The chronology of early Egyptian history is uncertain. Civilization existed
in this land much earlier than was formerly supposed.—ED.
[11] According to Petrie ("History of Egypt," New York, 1895, i., 40) twenty
years were consumed.—ED.
[12] Perrot and Chipiez ("History of Ancient Egyptian Art," London. 1883, i.,
365) give 340 feet by 170.—ED.
[13] Probably much earlier than this.—ED.
[14] The Louvre Museum in Paris has an excellent collection of Egyptian
subjects.

CHAPTER IVToC

ASSYRIANS AND BABYLONIANS

CHALDEA

The Land.—From the high and snowy mountains of Armenia flow two deep
and rapid rivers, the Tigris to the east, the Euphrates to the west. At first in close
proximity, they separate as they reach the plain. The Tigris makes a straight
course, the Euphrates a great détour towards the sandy deserts; then they unite
before emptying into the sea. The country which they embrace is Chaldea. It is
an immense plain of extraordinarily fertile soil; rain is rare and the heat is
overwhelming. But the streams furnish water and this clayey soil when irrigated
by canals becomes the most fertile in the world. Wheat and barley produce 200-
fold; in good years the returns are 300-fold. Palms constitute the forests and
from these the people make their wine, meal and flour.[15]
The People.—For many centuries, perhaps as long as Egypt, Chaldea has
been the abode of civilized peoples. Many races from various lands have met
and mingled in these great plains. There were Turanians of the yellow race,
similar to the Chinese, who came from the north-east; Cushites, deep brown in
color, related to the Egyptians, came from the east; Semites, of the white race, of
the same stock as the Arabs, descended from the north.[16] The Chaldean people
had its origin in this mixture of races.
 The Cities.—Chaldean priests related that their kings had ruled for 150,000
years. While this is a fable, they were right in ascribing great antiquity to the
Chaldean empire. The soil of Chaldea is everywhere studded with hills and each
of these is a mass of débris, the residue of a ruined city. Many of these have been
excavated and many cities brought to view, (Our, Larsam, Bal-ilou), and some
inscriptions recovered. De Sarsec, a Frenchman, has discovered the ruins of an
entire city, overwhelmed by the invader and its palace destroyed by fire. These
ancient peoples are still little known to us; many sites remain to be excavated
when it is hoped new inscriptions will be found. Their empire was destroyed
about 2,300 B.C.; it may then have been very old.[17]

THE ASSYRIANS

Assyria.—The country back of Chaldea on the Tigris is Assyria. It also is

fertile, but cut with hills and rocks. Situated near the mountains, it experiences
snow in winter and severe storms in summer.
Origins.—Chaldea had for a long time been covered with towns while yet the
Assyrians lived an obscure life in their mountains. About the thirteenth century
B.C. their kings leading great armies began to invade the plains and founded a
mighty empire whose capital was Nineveh.
Ancient Accounts.—Until about forty years ago we knew almost nothing of
the Assyrians—only a legend recounted by the Greek Diodorus Siculus. Ninus,
according to the story, had founded Nineveh and conquered all Asia Minor; his
wife, Semiramis, daughter of a goddess, had subjected Egypt, after which she
was changed into the form of a dove. Incapable kings had succeeded this royal
pair for the space of 1,300 years; the last, Sardanapalus, besieged in his capital,
was burnt with his wives. This romance has not a word of truth in it.
Modern Discoveries.—In 1843, Botta, the French consul at Mossoul,
discovered under a hillock near the Tigris, at Khorsabad, the palace of an
Assyrian king. Here for the first time one could view the productions of Assyrian
art; the winged bulls cut in stone, placed at the gate of the palace were found
intact and removed to the Louvre Museum in Paris. The excavations of Botta
drew the attention of Europe, so that many expeditions were sent out, especially
by the English; Place and Layard investigated other mounds and discovered
other palaces. These ruins had been well preserved, protected by the dryness of
the climate and by a covering of earth. They found walls adorned with bas-
reliefs and paintings; statues and inscriptions were discovered in great number. It
was now possible to study on the ground the plan of the structures and to publish
reproductions of the monuments and inscriptions.
The palace first discovered, that of Khorsabad, had been built by King Sargon
at Nineveh, the site of the capital of the Assyrian kings. The city was built on
several eminences, and was encircled by a wall 25 to 30 miles[18] in length, in
the form of a quadrilateral. The wall was composed of bricks on the exterior and
of earth within. The dwellings of the city have disappeared leaving no traces, but
we have recovered many palaces constructed by various kings of Assyria.
Nineveh remained the residence of the kings down to the time that the Assyrian
empire was destroyed by the Medes and Chaldeans.
Inscriptions on the Bricks.—In these inscriptions every character is formed
of a combination of signs shaped like an arrow or wedge, and this is the reason
that this style of writing is termed cuneiform (Latin cuneus and forma). To trace
these signs the writer used a stylus with a triangular point; he pressed it into a
tablet of soft clay which was afterwards baked to harden it and to make the
impression permanent. In the palace of Assurbanipal a complete library of brick
tablets has been found in which brick serves the purpose of paper.
Cuneiform Writing.—For many years the cuneiform writing has occupied
the labors of many scholars impatient to decipher it. It has been exceedingly
difficult to read, for, in the first place, it served as the writing medium of five
different languages—Assyrian, Susian, Mede, Chaldean, and Armenian, without
counting the Old Persian—and there was no knowledge of these five languages.
Then, too, it is very complicated, for several reasons:
1. It is composed at the same time of symbolic signs, each of which
represents a word (sun, god, fish), and of syllabic signs, each of which
represents a syllable.
2. There are nearly two hundred syllabic signs, much alike and easy to
confuse.
3. The same sign is often the representation of a word and a syllable.
4. Often (and this is the hardest condition) the same sign is used to
represent different syllables. Thus the same sign is sometimes read
"ilou," and sometimes "an." This writing was difficult even for those
who executed it. "A good half of the cuneiform monuments which we
possess comprises guides (grammars, dictionaries, pictures), which
 enable us to decipher the other half, and which we consult just as
Assyrian scholars did 2,500 years ago."[19]
Cuneiform inscriptions have been solved in the same manner as the Egyptian
hieroglyphics—there was an inscription in three languages—Assyrian, Mede,
and Persian. The last gave the key to the other two.
The Assyrian People.—The Assyrians were a race of hunters and soldiers.
Their bas-reliefs ordinarily represent them armed with bow and lance, often on
horseback. They were good knights—alert, brave, clever in skirmish and battle;
also bombastic, deceitful, and sanguinary. For six centuries they harassed Asia,
issuing from their mountains to hurl themselves on their neighbors, and returning
with entire peoples reduced to slavery. They apparently made war for the mere
pleasure of slaying, ravaging, and pillaging. No people ever exhibited greater
ferocity.
The King.—Following Asiatic usage they regarded their king as the
representative of God on earth and gave him blind obedience. He was absolute
master of all his subjects, he led them in battle, and at their head fought against
other peoples of Asia. On his return he recorded his exploits on the walls of his
palace in a long inscription in which he told of his victories, the booty which he
had taken, the cities burned, the captives beheaded or flayed alive. We present
some passages from these stories of campaigns:
Assurnazir-hapal in 882 says, "I built a wall before the great gates of the city;
I flayed the chiefs of the revolt and with their skins I covered this wall. Some
were immured alive in the masonry, others were crucified or impaled along the
wall. I had some of them flayed in my presence and had the wall hung with their
skins. I arranged their heads like crowns and their transfixed bodies in the form
of garlands."
In 745 Tiglath-Pilezer II writes, "I shut up the king in his royal city. I raised
mountains of bodies before his gates. All his villages I destroyed, desolated,
burnt. I made the country desert, I changed it into hills and mounds of débris."
In the seventh century Sennacherib wrote: "I passed like a hurricane of
desolation. On the drenched earth the armor and arms swam in the blood of the
enemy as in a river. I heaped up the bodies of their soldiers like trophies and I
cut off their extremities. I mutilated those whom I took alive like blades of straw;
as punishment I cut off their hands." In a bas-relief which shows the town of
Susa surrendering to Assurbanipal one sees the chiefs of the conquered tortured
by the Assyrians; some have their ears cut off, the eyes of others are put out, the
beard torn out, while some are flayed alive. Evidently these kings took delight in
burnings, massacres, and tortures.
Ruin of the Assyrian Empire.—The Assyrian régime began with the capture
of Babylon (about 1270). From the ninth century the Assyrians, always at war,
subjected or ravaged Babylonia, Syria, Palestine, and even Egypt. The
conquered always revolted, and the massacres were repeated. At last the
Assyrians were exhausted. The Babylonians and Medes made an alliance and
destroyed their empire. In 625 their capital, Nineveh, "the lair of lions, the
bloody city, the city gorged with prey," as the Jewish prophets call it, was taken
and destroyed forever. "Nineveh is laid waste," says the prophet Nahum, "who
will bemoan her?"

THE BABYLONIANS

The Second Chaldean Empire.—In the place of the fallen Assyrian empire
there arose a new power—in ancient Chaldea. This has received the name
Babylonian Empire or the Second Chaldean Empire. A Jewish prophet makes
one say to Jehovah, "I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation which
shall march through the breadth of the land to possess dwelling places that are
not theirs. Their horses are swifter than leopards. Their horsemen spread
themselves; (their horsemen) shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat." They were
a people of knights, martial and victorious, like the Assyrians. They subjected
Susiana, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Jordan. But their régime was short: founded in
625, the Babylonian Empire was overthrown by the Persians in 538 B.C.
Babylon.—The mightiest of its kings, Nebuchadrezzar (or Nebuchadnezzar),
604-561, who destroyed Jerusalem and carried the Jews into captivity, built
many temples and places in Babylon, his capital. These monuments were in
crude brick as the plain of the Euphrates has no supply of stone; in the process of
decay they have left only enormous masses of earth and débris. And yet it has
been possible on the site of Babylon to recover some inscriptions and to restore
the plan of the city. The Greek Herodotus who had visited Babylon in the fifth
century B.C., describes it in detail. The city was surrounded by a square wall cut
by the Euphrates; it covered about 185 square miles, or seven times the extent of
Paris. This immense space was not filled with houses; much of it was occupied
with fields to be cultivated for the maintenance of the people in the event of a
siege. Babylon was less a city than a fortified camp. The walls equipped with
towers and pierced by a hundred gates of brass were so thick that a chariot might
be driven on them. All around the wall was a large, deep ditch full of water, with
its sides lined with brick. The houses of the city were constructed of three or four
stories. The streets intersected at right angles. The bridge and docks of the
Euphrates excited admiration; the fortified palace also, and the hanging gardens,
one of the seven wonders of the world. These gardens were terraces planted with
trees, supported by pillars and rows of arches.
Tower of Babylon.—Hard by the city Nebuchadnezzar had aimed to rebuild
the town of Babel. "For the admiration of men," he says in an inscription: "I
rebuilt and renovated the wonder of Borsippa, the temple of the seven spheres of
the world. I laid the foundations and built it according to its ancient plan." This
temple, in the form of a square, comprised seven square towers raised one above
another, each tower being dedicated to one of the seven planets and painted with
the color attributed by religion to this planet. They were, beginning with the
lowest: Saturn (black), Venus (white), Jupiter (purple), Mercury (blue), Mars
(vermilion), the moon (silver), the sun (gold). The highest tower contained a
chapel with a table of gold and magnificent couch whereon a priestess kept
watch continually.

CUSTOMS AND RELIGION

Customs.—We know almost nothing of these peoples apart from the

testimony of their monuments, and nearly all of these refer to the achievements
of their kings. The Assyrians are always represented at war, hunting, or in the
performance of ceremonies; their women never appear on the bas-reliefs; they
were confined in a harem and never went into public life. The Chaldeans on the
contrary, were a race of laborers and merchants, but of their life we know
nothing. Herodotus relates that once a year in their towns they assembled all the
girls to give them in marriage; they sold the prettiest, and the profits of the sale
of these became a dower for the marriage of the plainest. "According to my
view," he adds, "this is the wisest of all their laws."
Religion.—The religion of the Assyrians and Chaldeans was the same, for the
former had adopted that of the latter. It is very obscure to us, since it originated,
like that of the Chaldean people, in a confusion of religions very differently
mingled. The Turanians, like the present yellow race of Siberia, imagined the
world full of demons (plague, fever, phantoms, vampires), engaged in prowling
around men to do them harm; sorcerers were invoked to banish these demons by
magical formulas. The Cushites adored a pair of gods, the male deity of force
and the female of matter. The Chaldean priests, united in a powerful guild,
confused the two religions into a single one.
The Gods.—The supreme god at Babylon is Ilou; in Assyria, Assur. No
temple was raised to him. Three gods proceed from him: Anou, the "lord of
darkness," under the figure of a man with the head of a fish and the tail of an
eagle; Bel, the "sovereign of spirits," represented as a king on the throne; Nouah,
the "master of the visible world," under the form of a genius with four extended
wings. Each has a feminine counterpart who symbolizes fruitfulness. Below
these gods are the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets, for in the transparent
atmosphere of Chaldea the stars shine with a brilliancy which is strange to us;
they gleam like deities. To these the Chaldeans raised temples, veritable
observatories in which men who adored them could follow all their motions.
Astrology.—The priests believed that these stars, being powerful deities, had
determining influence on the lives of men. Every man comes into the world
under the influence of a planet and this moment decides his destiny; one may
foretell one's fortune if the star under which one is born is known. This is the
origin of the horoscope. What occurs in heaven is indicative of what will come
to pass on earth; a comet, for example, announces a revolution. By observing the
heavens the Chaldean priests believed they could predict events. This is the
origin of Astrology.
Sorcery.—The Chaldeans had also magical words; these were uttered to
banish spirits or to cause their appearance. This custom, a relic of the Turanian
religion, is the origin of sorcery. From Chaldea astrology and sorcery were
diffused over the Roman empire, and later over all Europe. In the formulas of
sorcery of the sixteenth century corrupted Assyrian words may still be detected.
[20]

Sciences.—On the other hand it is in Chaldea that we have the beginning of

astronomy. From this land have come down to us the zodiac, the week of seven
days in honor of the seven planets; the division of the year into twelve months,
of the day into twenty-four hours, of the hour into sixty minutes, of the minute
into sixty seconds. Here originated, too, the system of weights and measures
reckoned on the unit of length, a system adopted by all the ancient peoples.
 ARTS

Architecture.—We do not have direct knowledge of the art of the Chaldeans,

since their monuments have fallen to ruin. But the Assyrian artists whose works
we possess imitated those of Chaldea, and so we may form a judgment at the
same time of the two countries. The Assyrians like the Chaldeans built with
crude, sun-dried brick, but they faced the exterior of the wall with stone.
Palaces.—They constructed their palaces[21] on artificial mounds, making
these low and flat like great terraces. The crude brick was not adapted to broad
and high arches. Halls must therefore be straight and low, but in compensation
they were very long. An Assyrian palace, then, resembled a succession of
galleries; the roofs were flat terraces provided with battlements. At the gate
stood gigantic winged bulls. Within, the walls were covered now with panelling
in precious woods, now with enamelled bricks, now with plates of sculptural
alabaster. Sometimes the chambers were painted, and even richly encrusted
marbles were used.
Sculpture.—The sculpture of the Assyrian palaces is especially admirable.
Statues, truly, are rare and coarse; sculptors preferred to execute bas-reliefs
similar to pictures on great slabs of alabaster. They represented scenes which
were often very complicated—battles, chases, sieges of towns, ceremonies in
which the king appeared with a great retinue. Every detail is scrupulously done;
one sees the files of servants in charge of the feast of the king, the troops of
workmen who built his palace, the gardens, the fields, the ponds, the fish in the
water, the birds perched over their nests or flitting from tree to tree. Persons are
exhibited in profile, doubtless because the artist could not depict the face; but
they possess dignity and life. Animals often appeared, especially in hunting
scenes; they are ordinarily made with a startling fidelity. The Assyrians observed
nature and faithfully reproduced it; hence the merit of their art.
The Greeks themselves learned in this school, by imitating the Assyrian bas-
reliefs. They have excelled them, but no people, not even the Greeks, has better
known how to represent animals.
 FOOTNOTES:

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

[16] Or perhaps from the east (Arabia).—ED.
[17] Recent discoveries confirm the view of a very ancient civilization—ED.
[18] Somewhat exaggerated. See Perrot and Chipiez, "History of Art in
Assyria and Chaldea," ii., 60; and Maspero, "Passing of the Empires," p.
468.—ED.
[19] Lenormant, "Ancient History."
[20] For example, hilka, hilka, bescha, bescha (begone! begone! bad! bad!)
[21] The temples were pyramidal, of stones or terraces similar to the tower of
Borsippa.

CHAPTER VToC

THE ARYANS OF INDIA

THE ARYANS

Aryan Languages.—The races which in our day inhabit Europe—Greeks and

Italians to the south, Slavs in Russia, Teutons in Germany, Celts in Ireland—
speak very different languages. When, however, one studies these languages
closely, it is perceived that all possess a stock of common words, or at least
certain roots. The same roots occur in Sanscrit, the ancient language of the
Hindoos, and also in Zend, the ancient tongue of the Persians. Thus,
Father—père (French), pitar (Sanscrit), pater (Greek and Latin). It is the same
word pronounced in various ways. From this (and other such examples) it has
been concluded that all—Hindoos, Persians, Greeks, Latins, Celts, Germans,
Slavs—once spoke the same language, and consequently were one people.
The Aryan People.—These peoples then called themselves Aryans and lived
to the north-west of India, either in the mountains of Pamir, or in the steppes of
Turkestan or Russia; from this centre they dispersed in all directions. The
majority of the people—Greeks, Latins, Germans, Slavs—forgot their origin; but
the sacred books of the Hindoos and the Persians preserve the tradition. Effort
has been made[22] to reconstruct the life of our Aryan ancestors in their mountain
home before the dispersion. It was a race of shepherds; they did not till the soil,
but subsisted from their herds of cattle and sheep, though they already had
houses and even villages.
It was a fighting race; they knew the lance, the javelin, and shield.
Government was patriarchal; a man had but one wife; as head of the family he
was for his wife, his children, and his servants at once priest, judge, and king. In
all the countries settled by the Aryans they have followed this type of life—
patriarchal, martial, and pastoral.

PRIMITIVE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS

The Aryans on the Indus.—About 2,000 years before our era some Aryan
tribes traversed the passes of the Hindu-Kush and swarmed into India. They
found the fertile plains of the Indus inhabited by a people of dark skin, with flat
heads, industrious and wealthy; they called these aborigines Dasyous (the
enemy). They made war on them for centuries and ended by exterminating or
subjecting them; they then gradually took possession of all the Indus valley (the
region of the five rivers).[23] They then called themselves Hindoos.
The Vedas.—These people were accustomed in their ceremonies to chant
hymns (vedas) in honor of their gods. These chants constituted a vast
compilation which has been preserved to the present time. They were collected,
perhaps, about the fourteenth century B.C. when the Aryans had not yet passed
the Indus. The hymns present to us the oldest religion of the Hindoos.
 The Gods.—The Hindoo calls his gods devas (the resplendent). Everything
that shines is a divinity—the heavens, the dawn, the clouds, the stars—but
especially the sun (Indra) and fire (Agni).
Indra.—The sun, Indra, the mighty one, "king of the world and master of
creatures," bright and warm, traverses the heavens on a car drawn by azure
steeds; he it is who hurls the thunderbolt, sends the rain, and banishes the clouds.
India is a country of violent tempests; the Hindoo struck with this phenomenon
explained it in his own fashion. He conceived the black cloud as an envelope in
which were contained the waters of heaven; these beneficent waters he called the
gleaming cows of Indra. When the storm is gathering, an evil genius, Vritra, a
three-headed serpent, has driven away the cows and enclosed them in the black
cavern whence their bellowings are heard (the far-away rumblings of thunder).
Indra applies himself to the task of finding them; he strikes the cavern with his
club, the strokes of which are heard (the thunderbolt), and the forked tongue of
the serpent (the lightning) darts forth. At last the serpent is vanquished, the cave
is opened, the waters released fall on the earth, Indra the victor appears in glory.
Agni.—Fire (Agni, the tireless) is regarded as another form of the sun. The
Hindoo, who produces it by rapidly rubbing two pieces of wood together,
imagines that the fire comes from the wood and that the rain has placed it there.
He conceives it then as the fire of heaven descended to earth; in fact, when one
places it on the hearth, it springs up as if it would ascend toward heaven. Agni
dissipates darkness, warms mankind, and cooks his food; it is the benefactor and
the protector of the house. It is also "the internal fire," the soul of the world;
even the ancestor of the human race is the "son of lightning." Thus, heat and
light, sources of all life, are the deities of the Hindoo.
Worship.—To adore his gods he strives to reproduce what he sees in heaven.
He ignites a terrestrial fire by rubbing sticks, he nourishes it by depositing on the
hearth, butter, milk, and soma, a fermented drink. To delight the gods he makes
offerings to them of fruits and cakes; he even sacrifices to them cattle, rams and
horses; he then invokes them, chanting hymns to their praise. "When thou art
bidden by us to quaff the soma, come with thy sombre steeds, thou deity whose
darts are stones. Our celebrant is seated according to prescription, the sacred
green is spread, in the morning stones have been gathered together. Take thy seat
on the holy sward; taste, O hero, our offering to thee. Delight thyself in our
libations and our chants, vanquisher of Vritra, thou who art honored in these
ceremonies of ours, O Indra."
The Hindoo thinks that the gods, felicitated by his offerings and homage, will
in their turn make him happy. He says naïvely, "Give sacrifice to the gods for
their profit, and they will requite you. Just as men traffic by the discussion of
prices, let us exchange force and vigor, O Indra. Give to me and I will give to
you; bring to me and I will bring to you."
Ancestor Worship.—At the same time the Hindoo adores his ancestors who
have become gods, and perhaps this cult is the oldest of all. It is the basis of the
family. The father who has transmitted the "fire of life" to his children makes
offering every day at his hearth-fire, which must never be extinguished, the
sacrifice to gods and ancestors, and utters the prayers. Here it is seen that among
Hindoos, as among other Aryans, the father is at once a priest and a sovereign.

THE BRAHMANIC SOCIETY

The Hindoos on the Ganges.—The Hindoos passing beyond the region of the
Indus, between the fourteenth and tenth century B.C. conquered all the immense
plains of the Ganges. Once settled in this fertile country, under a burning
climate, in the midst of a people of slaves, they gradually changed customs and
religion. And so the Brahmanic society was established. Many works in Sanscrit
are preserved from this time, which, with the Vedas, form the sacred literature of
the Hindoos. The principal are the great epic poems, the Mahabarata, which has
more than 200,000 verses; the Ramayana with 50,000, and the laws of Manou,
the sacred code of India.
Caste.—In this new society there were no longer, as in the time of the Vedas,
poets who chanted hymns to the gods. The men who know the prayers and the
ceremonies are become theologians by profession; the people revere and obey
them. The following is their conception of the structure of society: the supreme
god, Brahma, has produced four kinds of men to each of whom he has assigned a
mission. From his mouth he drew the Brahmans, who are, of course, the
theologians; their mission is to study, to teach the hymns, to perform the
sacrifices. The Kchatrias have come from his arms; these are the warriors who
are charged with the protection of the people. The Vaïcyas proceed from the
thigh; they must raise cattle, till the earth, loan money at interest, and engage in
commerce. The Soudras issue from his foot; their only mission is to serve all the
others.
There were already in the Aryan people theologians, warriors, artisans, and
below them aborigines reduced to slavery. These were classes which one could
enter and from which one could withdraw. But the Brahmans determined that
every man should be attached to the condition in which he was born, he and his
descendants for all time. The son of a workman could never become a warrior,
nor the son of a warrior a theologian. Thus each is chained to his own state.
Society is divided into four hereditary and closed castes.
The Unclean.—Whoever is not included in one of the four castes is unclean,
excluded from society and religion. The Brahmans reckoned forty-four grades of
outcasts; the last and the lowest is that of the pariahs; their very name is an
insult. The outcasts may not practise any honorable trade nor approach other
men. They may possess only dogs and asses, for these are unclean beasts. "They
must have for their clothing the garments of the dead; for plates, broken pots;
ornaments of iron; they must be ceaselessly on the move from one place to
another."
The Brahmans.—In the organization of society the Brahmans were assigned
the first place. "Men are the first among intelligent beings; the Brahmans are the
first among men. They are higher than warriors, than kings, even. As between a
Brahman of ten years of age and a Kchatria of one hundred years, the Brahman
is to be regarded as the father." These are not priests as in Egypt and Chaldea,
but only men who know religion, and pass their time in reading and meditating
on the sacred books; they live from presents made to them by other men. To this
day they are the dominating class of India. As they marry only among
themselves, better than the other Hindoos they have preserved the Aryan type
and have a clearer resemblance to Europeans.
The New Religion of Brahma.—The Brahmans did not discard the ancient
gods of the Vedas, they continued to adore them. But by sheer ingenuity they
invented a new god. When prayers are addressed to the gods, the deities are
made to comply with the demands made on them, as if they thought that prayer
was more powerful than the gods. And so prayer (Brahma) has become the
highest of all deities. He is invoked with awe:[24] "O god, I behold in thy body
all the gods and the multitudes of living beings. I am powerless to regard thee in
thine entirety, for thou shinest like the fire and the sun in thine immensity. Thou
art the Invisible, thou art the supreme Intelligence, thou art the sovereign
treasure of the universe, without beginning, middle, or end; equipped with
infinite might. Thine arms are without limit, thine eyes are like the moon and the
sun, thy mouth hath the brightness of the sacred fire. With thyself alone thou
fillest all the space between heaven and earth, and thou permeatest all the
universe." Brahma is not only supreme god; he is the soul of the universe. All
beings are born from Brahma, all issue naturally from him, not as a product
comes from the hands of an artisan, but "as the tree from the seed, as the web
from the spider." Brahma is not a deity who has created the world; he is the very
substance of the world.
Transmigration of Souls.—There is, then, a soul, a part of the soul of
Brahma, in every being, in gods, in men, in animals, in the very plants and
stones. But these souls pass from one body into another; this is the
transmigration of souls. When a man dies, his soul is tested; if it is good, it
passes into the heaven of Indra there to enjoy felicity; if it is bad, it falls into one
of the twenty-eight hells, where it is devoured by ravens, compelled to swallow
burning cakes, and is tormented by demons. But souls do not remain forever in
heaven or in the hells; they part from these to begin a new life in another body.
The good soul rises, entering the body of a saint, perhaps that of a god; the evil
soul descends, taking its abode in some impure animal—in a dog, an ass, even in
a plant. In this new state it may rise or fall. And this journey from one body to
another continues until the soul by degrees comes to the highest sphere. From
lowest to highest in the scale, say the Brahmans, twenty-four millions of years
elapse. At last perfect, the soul returns to the level of Brahma from which it
descends and is absorbed into it.
Character of this Religion.—The religion of the Aryans, simple and happy,
was that of a young and vigorous people. This is complicated and barren; it takes
shape among men who are not engaged in practical life; it is enervated by the
heat and vexatious of life.
Rites.—The practice of the religion is much more complicated. Hymns and
sacrifices are still offered to the gods, but the Brahmans have gradually invented
thousands of minute customs so that one's life is completely engaged with them.
For all the ceremonies of the religious life there are prayers, offerings, vows,
libations, ablutions. Some of the religious requirements attach themselves to
dress, ornaments, etiquette, drinking, eating, mode of walking, of lying down, of
sleeping, of dressing, of undressing, of bathing. It is ordered: "That a Brahman
shall not step over a rope to which a calf is attached; that he shall not run when it
rains; that he shall not drink water in the hollow of his hand; that he shall not
scratch his head with both his hands. The man who breaks clods of earth, who
cuts grass with his nails or who bites his nails is, like the outcast, speedily
hurried to his doom." An animal must not be killed, for a human soul may
perhaps be dwelling in the body; one must not eat it on penalty of being
devoured in another life by the animals which one has eaten.
All these rites have a magical virtue; he who observes them all is a saint; he
who neglects any of them is impious and destined to pass into the body of an
animal.
Purity.—The principal duty is keeping one's self pure; for every stain is a sin
and opens one to the attack of evil spirits. But the Brahmans are very scrupulous
concerning purity: men outside of the castes, many animals, the soil, even the
utensils which one uses are so many impure things; whoever touches these is
polluted and must at once purify himself. Life is consumed in purifications.
Penances.—For every defect in the rites, a penance is necessary, often a
terrible one. He who involuntarily kills a cow must clothe himself in its skin, and
for three months, day and night, follow and tend a herd of cows. Whoever has
drunk of arrack[25] must swallow a boiling liquid which burns the internal organs
until death results.
The Monks.—To escape so many dangers and maintain purity, it is better to
leave the world. Often a Brahman when he has attained to a considerable age
withdraws to the desert, fasts, watches, refrains from speech, exposes himself
naked to the rain, holds himself erect between four fires under the burning sun.
After some years, the solitary becomes "penitent"; then his only subsistence is
from almsgiving; for whole days he lifts an arm in the air uttering not a word,
holding his breath; or perchance, he gashes himself with razor-blades; or he may
even keep his thumbs closed until the nails pierce the hands. By these
mortifications he destroys passion, releases himself from this life, and by
contemplation rises to Brahma. And yet, this way of salvation is open only to the
Brahman; and even he has the right to withdraw to the desert only in old age,
after having studied the Vedas all his life, practised all the rites, and established a
family.

BUDDHISM

Buddha.—Millions of men who were not Brahmans, suffered by this life of

minutiæ and anguish. A man then appeared who brought a doctrine of
deliverance. He was not a Brahman, but of the caste of the Kchatrias, son of a
king of the north. To the age of twenty-nine he had lived in the palace of his
father. One day he met an old man with bald head, of wrinkled features, and
trembling limbs; a second time he met an incurable invalid, covered with ulcers,
without a home; again he fell in with a decaying corpse devoured by worms.
And so, thought he, youth, health, and life are nothing for they offer no
resistance to old age, to sickness, and to death. He had compassion on men and
sought a remedy. Then he met a religious mendicant with grave and dignified
air; following his example he decided to renounce the world. These four
meetings had determined his calling.
Buddha fled to the desert, lived seven years in penitence, undergoing hunger,
thirst, and rain. These mortifications gave him no repose. He ate, became strong,
and found the truth. Then he reëntered the world to preach it; he made disciples
in crowds who called him Buddha (the scholar); and when he died after forty-
five years of preaching, Buddhism was established.
Nirvana.—To live is to be unhappy, taught Buddha. Every man suffers
because he desires the goods of this world, youth, health, life, and cannot keep
them. All life is a suffering; all suffering is born of desire. To suppress suffering,
it is necessary to root out desire; to destroy it one must cease from wishing to
live, "emancipate one's self from the thirst of being." The wise man is he who
casts aside everything that attaches to this life and makes it unhappy. One must
cease successively from feeling, wishing, thinking. Then, freed from passion,
volition, even from reflection, he no longer suffers, and can, after his death,
come to the supreme good, which consists in being delivered from all life and
from all suffering. The aim of the wise man is the annihilation of personality: the
Buddhists call it Nirvana.
Charity.—The Brahmans also considered life as a place of suffering and
annihilation as felicity. Buddha came not with a new doctrine, but with new
sentiments.
 The religion of the Brahmans was egoistic. Buddha had compassion on men,
he loved them, and preached love to his disciples. It was just this word of
sympathy of which despairing souls were in need. He bade to love even those
who do us ill. Purna, one of his disciples, went forth to preach to the barbarians.
Buddha said to him to try him, "There are cruel, passionate, furious men; if they
address angry words to you, what would you think?" "If they addressed angry
words to me," said Purna, "I should think these are good men, these are gentle
men, these men who attack me with wicked words but who strike me neither
with the hand nor with stones." "But if they strike you, what would you think?"
"I should think that those were good men who did not strike me with their staves
or with their swords." "But if they did strike you with staff and sword, what
would you think then?" "That those are good men who strike me with staff and
sword, but do not take my life." "But if they should take your life?" "I should
think them good men who delivered me with so little pain from this body filled
as it is with pollution." "Well, well, Purna! You may dwell in the country of the
barbarians. Go, proceed on the way to complete Nirvana and bring others to the
same goal."
Fraternity.—The Brahmans, proud of their caste, assert that they are purer
than the others. Buddha loves all men equally, he calls all to salvation even the
pariahs, even the barbarians—all he declares are equal. "The Brahman," said he,
"just like the pariah, is born of woman; why should he be noble and the other
vile?" He receives as disciples street-sweepers, beggars, cripples, girls who sleep
on dung-hills, even murderers and thieves; he fears no contamination in touching
them. He preaches to them in the street in language simple with parables.
Tolerance.—The Brahmans passed their lives in the practice of minute rites,
regarding as criminal whoever did not observe them. Buddha demanded neither
rites nor exertions. To secure salvation it was enough to be charitable, chaste,
and beneficent. "Benevolence," says he, "is the first of virtues. Doing a little
good avails more than the fulfilment of the most arduous religious tasks. The
perfect man is nothing unless he diffuses himself in benefits over creatures,
unless he comforts the afflicted. My doctrine is a doctrine of mercy; this is why
the fortunate in the world find it difficult."
Later History of Buddhism.—Thus was established about 500 years before
Christ a religion of an entirely new sort. It is a religion without a god and
without rites; it ordains only that one shall love his neighbor and become better;
annihilation is offered as supreme recompense. But, for the first time in the
history of the world, it preaches self-renunciation, the love of others, equality of
mankind, charity and tolerance. The Brahmans made bitter war upon it and
extirpated it in India. Missionaries carried it to the barbarians in Ceylon, in Indo-
China, Thibet, China, and Japan. It is today the religion of about 500,000,000[26]
people.
Changes in Buddhism.—During these twenty centuries Buddhism has
undergone change. Buddha had himself formed communities of monks. Those
who entered these renounced their family, took the vow of poverty and chastity;
they had to wear filthy rags and beg their living. These religious rapidly
multiplied; they founded convents in all Eastern Asia, gathered in councils to fix
the doctrine, proclaimed dogmas and rules. As they became powerful they, like
the Brahmans, came to esteem themselves as above the rest of the faithful. "The
layman," they said, "plight to support the religious and consider himself much
honored that the holy man accepts his offering. It is more commendable to feed
one religious than many thousands of laymen." In Thibet the religious, men and
women together, constitute a fifth of the entire population, and their head, the
Grand Lama, is venerated as an incarnation of God.
At the same time that they transformed themselves into masters, the Buddhist
religious constructed a complicated theology, full of fantastic figures. They say
there is an infinite number of worlds. If one surrounded with a wall a space
capable of holding 100,000 times ten millions of those worlds, if this wall were
raised to heaven, and if the whole space were filled with grains of mustard, the
number of the grains would not even then equal one-half the number of worlds
which occupy but one division of heaven. All these worlds are full of creatures,
gods, men, beasts, demons, who are born and who die. The universe itself is
annihilated and another takes its place. The duration of each universe is called
kalpa; and this is the way we obtain an impression of a kalpa: if there were a
rock twelve miles in height, breadth, and length, and if once in a century it were
only touched with a piece of the finest linen, this rock would be worn and
reduced to the size of a kernel of mango before a quarter of a kalpa had elapsed.
Buddha Transformed into a God.—It no longer satisfied the Buddhists to
honor their founder as a perfect man; they made him a god, erecting idols to him,
and offering him worship. They adored also the saints, his disciples; pyramids
and shrines were built to preserve their bones, their teeth, their cloaks. From
every quarter the faithful came to venerate the impression of the foot of Buddha.
Mechanical Prayer.—Modern Buddhists regard prayer as a magical formula
which acts of itself. They spend the day reciting prayers as they walk or eat,
often in a language which they do not understand. They have invented prayer-
 machines; these are revolving cylinders and around these are pasted papers on
which the prayer is written; every turn of the cylinder counts for the utterance of
the prayer as many times as it is written on the papers.
Amelioration of Manners.—And yet Buddhism remains a religion of peace
and charity. Wherever it reigns, kings refrain from war, and even from the chase;
they establish hospitals, caravansaries, even asylums for animals. Strangers,
even Christian missionaries, are hospitably received; they permit the women to
go out, and to walk without veiling themselves; they neither fight nor quarrel. At
Bangkok, a city of 400,000 souls, hardly more than one murder a year is known.
Buddhism has enfeebled the intelligence and sweetened the character.[27]

FOOTNOTES:

[22] The process is as follows: when a word (or rather a root) is found in
several Aryan languages at once, it is admitted that this was in use
before the dispersion occurred, and therefore the people knew the object
designated by the word.
[23] The Punjab.—ED.
[24] Prayer of the Mahabarata cited by Lenormant.
[25] A spirituous liquor made by the natives.—ED.
[26] A high estimate.—ED.
[27] India is for us the country of the Vedas, the Brahmans, and Buddha. We
know the religion of the Hindoos, but of their political history we are
ignorant.
 CHAPTER VIToC

THE PERSIANS

THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER

Iran.—Between the Tigris and the Indus, the Caspian Sea and the Persian
Gulf rises the land of Iran, five times as great as France,[28] but partly sterile. It is
composed of deserts of burning sand and of icy plateaux cut by deep and
wooded valleys. Mountains surround it preventing the escape of the rivers which
must lose themselves in the sands or in the salt lakes. The climate is harsh, very
uneven, torrid in summer, frigid in winter; in certain quarters one passes from
104° above zero to 40° below, from the cold of Siberia to the heat of Senegal.
Violent winds blow which "cut like a sword." But in the valleys along the rivers
the soil is fertile. Here the peach and cherry are indigenous; the country is a land
of fruits and pastures.
The Iranians.—Aryan tribes inhabited Iran. Like all the Aryans, they were a
race of shepherds, but well armed and warlike. The Iranians fought on
horseback, drew the bow, and, to protect themselves from the biting wind of
their country, wore garments of skin sewed on the body.
Zoroaster.—Like the ancient Aryans, they first adored the forces of nature,
especially the sun (Mithra). Between the tenth and seventh[29] centuries before
our era their religion was reformed by a sage, Zarathustra (Zoroaster). We know
nothing certainly about him except his name.
The Zend-Avesta.—No writing from the hand of Zoroaster is preserved to us;
but his doctrine, reduced to writing long after his death, is conserved in the
Zend-Avesta (law and reform), the sacred books of the Persians. It was a
compilation written in an ancient language (the Zend) which the faithful
themselves no longer understood. It was divided into twenty-one books,
inscribed on 12,000 cow skins, bound by golden cords. The Mohammedans
destroyed it when they invaded Persia. But some Persian families, faithful to the
teaching of Zoroaster, fled into India. Their posterity, whom we call Parsees,
have there maintained the old religion. An entire book of the Zend-Avesta and
fragments of two others have been found among them.
Ormuzd and Ahriman.—The Zend-Avesta is the sacred book of the religion
of Zoroaster. According to these writings Ahura Mazda (Ormuzd), "the
omniscient sovereign," created the world. He is addressed in prayer in the
following language: "I invoke and celebrate the creator, Ahura Mazda, luminous,
glorious, most intelligent and beautiful, eminent in purity, who possessest the
good knowledge, source of joy, who hast treated us, hast fashioned us, and hast
nourished us." Since he is perfect in his goodness, he can create only that which
is good. Everything bad in the world has been created by an evil deity, Angra
Manyou, (Ahriman), the "spirit of anguish."
Angels and Demons.—Over against Ormuzd, the god and the creator, is
Ahriman, wicked and destructive. Each has in his service a legion of spirits. The
soldiers of Ormuzd are the good angels (yazatas), those of Ahriman the evil
demons (devs). The angels dwell in the East in the light of the rising sun; the
demons in the West in the shadows of the darkness. The two armies wage
incessant warfare; the world is their battleground, for both troops are
omnipresent. Ormuzd and his angels seek to benefit men, to make them good
and happy; Ahriman and his demons gnaw around them to destroy them, to
make them unhappy and wicked.
Creatures of Ormuzd and Ahriman.—Everything good on the earth is the
work of Ormuzd and works for good; the sun and fire that dispel the night, the
stars, fermented drinks that seem to be liquid fire, the water that satisfies the
thirst of man, the cultivated fields that feed him, the trees that shade him,
domestic animals—especially the dog,[30] the birds (because they live in the air),
among all these the cock since he announces the day. On the other hand
everything that is baneful comes from Ahriman and tends to evil: the night,
drought, cold, the desert, poisonous plants, thorns, beasts of prey, serpents,
parasites (mosquitoes, fleas, bugs) and animals that live in dark holes—lizards,
scorpions, toads, rats, ants. Likewise in the moral world life, purity, truth, work
are good things and come from Ormuzd; death, filth, falsehood, idleness are bad,
and issue from Ahriman.
Worship.—From these notions proceed worship and morality. Man ought to
adore the good god[31] and fight for him. According to Herodotus, "The Persians
are not accustomed to erect statues, temples, or altars to their gods; they esteem
those who do this as lacking in sense for they do not believe, as the Greeks do,
that the gods have human forms."[32] Ormuzd manifests himself only under the
form of fire or the sun. This is why the Persians perform their worship in the
open air on the mountains, before a lighted fire. To worship Ormuzd they sing
hymns to his praise and sacrifice animals in his honor.
Morality.—Man fights for Ormuzd in aiding his efforts and in overcoming
Ahriman's. He wars against darkness in supplying the fire with dry wood and
perfumes; against the desert in tilling the soil and in building houses; against the
animals of Ahriman in killing serpents, lizards, parasites, and beasts of prey. He
battles against impurity in keeping himself clean, in banishing from himself
everything that is dead, especially the nails and hair, for "where hairs and clipped
nails are, demons and unclean animals assemble." He fights against falsehood by
always being truthful. "The Persians," says Herodotus,[33] "consider nothing so
shameful as lying, and after falsehood nothing so shameful as contracting debts,
for he who has debts necessarily lies." He wars against death by marrying and
having many children. "Terrible," says the Zend-Avesta, "are the houses void of
posterity."
Funerals.—As soon as a man is dead his body belongs to the evil spirit. It is
necessary, then, to remove it from the house. But it ought not to be burned, for in
this way the fire would be polluted; it should not be buried, for so is the soil
defiled; nor is it to be drowned, and thus contaminate the water. These
dispositions of the corpse would bring permanent pollution. The Persians
resorted to a different method. The body with face toward the sun was exposed
in an elevated place and left uncovered, securely fixed with stones; the bearers
then withdrew to escape the demons, for they assemble "in the places of
sepulture, where reside sickness, fever, filth, cold, and gray hairs." Dogs and
birds, pure animals, then come to purify the body by devouring it.
Destiny of the Soul.—The soul of the dead separates itself from the body. In
the third night after death it is conducted over the "Bridge of Assembling"
(Schinvat) which leads to the paradise above the gulf of inferno. There Ormuzd
questions it on its past life. If it has practised the good, the pure spirits and the
spirits of dogs support it and aid it in crossing the bridge and give it entrance into
the abode of the blest; the demons flee, for they cannot bear the odor of virtuous
spirits. The soul of the wicked, on the other hand, comes to the dread bridge, and
reeling, with no one to support it, is dragged by demons to hell, is seized by the
evil spirit and chained in the abyss of darkness.
Character of Mazdeism.—This religion originated in a country of violent
contrasts, luxuriant valleys side by side with barren steppes, cool oases with
burning deserts, cultivated fields and stretches of sand, where the forces of
nature seem engaged in an eternal warfare. This combat which the Iranian saw
around him he assumed to be the law of the universe. Thus a religion of great
purity was developed, which urged man to work and to virtue; but at the same
time issued a belief in the devil and in demons which was to propagate itself in
the west and torment all the peoples of Europe.

THE PERSIAN EMPIRE

The Medes.—Many were the tribes dwelling in Iran; two of these have
become noted in history—the Medes and the Persians. The Medes at the west,
nearer the Assyrians, destroyed Nineveh and its empire (625). But soon they
softened their manners, taking the flowing robes, the indolent life, the
superstitious religion of the degenerate Assyrians. They at last were confused
with them.
The Persians.—The Persians to the east preserved their manners, their
religion, and their vigor. "For twenty years," says Herodotus, "the Persians teach
their children but three things—to mount a horse, to draw the bow, and to tell the
truth."
Cyrus.—About 550 Cyrus, their chief, overthrew the king of the Medes,
reunited all the peoples of Iran, and then conquered Lydia, Babylon, and all Asia
Minor. Herodotus recounts in detail a legend which became attached to this
prince. Cyrus himself in an inscription says of himself, "I am Cyrus, king of the
legions, great king, mighty king, king of Babylon, king of Sumir and Akkad,
king of the four regions, son of Cambyses, great king of Susiana, grand-son of
Cyrus, king of Susiana."
The Inscription of Behistun.—The eldest son of Cyrus, Cambyses, put to
death his brother Smerdis and conquered Egypt. What occurred afterward is
known to us from an inscription. Today one may see on the frontier of Persia, in
the midst of a plain, an enormous rock, cut perpendicularly, about 1,500 feet
high, the rock of Behistun. A bas-relief carved on the rock represents a crowned
king, with left hand on a bow; he tramples on one captive while nine other
prisoners are presented before him in chains. An inscription in three languages
relates the life of the king: "Darius the king declares, This is what I did before I
became king. Cambyses, son of Cyrus, of our race, reigned here before me. This
Cambyses had a brother Smerdis, of the same father and the same mother. One
day Cambyses killed Smerdis. When Cambyses had killed Smerdis the people
were ignorant that Smerdis was dead. After this Cambyses made an expedition
to Egypt and while he was there the people became rebellious; falsehood was
then rife in the country, in Persia, in Media and the other provinces. There was at
that time a magus named Gaumata; he deceived the people by saying that he was
Smerdis, the son of Cyrus. Then the whole people rose in revolt, forsook
Cambyses and went over to the pretender. After this Cambyses died from a
wound inflicted by himself.
"After Gaumata had drawn away Persia, Media, and the other countries from
Cambyses, he followed out his purpose: he became king. The people feared him
on account of his cruelty: he would have killed the people so that no one might
learn that he was not Smerdis, the son of Cyrus. Darius the king declares there
was not a man in all Persia or in Media who dared to snatch the crown from this
Gaumata, the magus. Then I presented myself, I prayed Ormuzd. Ormuzd
accorded me his protection.... Accompanied by faithful men I killed this
Gaumata and his principal accomplices. By the will of Ormuzd I became king.
The empire which had been stolen from our race I restored to it. The altars that
Gaumata, the magus, had thrown down I rebuilt to the deliverance of the people;
I received the chants and the sacred ceremonials." Having overturned the
usurper, Darius had to make war on many of the revolting princes, "I have," said
he, "won nineteen battles and overcome nine kings."
The Persian Empire.—Darius then subjected the peoples in revolt and
reëstablished the empire of the Persians. He enlarged it also by conquering
Thrace and a province of India. This empire reunited all the peoples of the
Orient: Medes and Persians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Jews, Phœnicians, Syrians,
Lydians, Egyptians, Indians; it covered all the lands from the Danube on the
west to the Indus on the east, from the Caspian Sea on the north to the cataracts
of the Nile on the south. It was the greatest empire up to this time. One tribe of
mountaineers, the last to come, thus received the heritage of all the empires of
Asia.
The Satrapies.—Oriental kings seldom concerned themselves with their
subjects more than to draw money from them, levy soldiers, and collect presents;
they never interfered in their local affairs. Darius, like the rest, left each of the
peoples of his empire to administer itself according to its own taste, to keep its
language, its religion, its laws, often its ancient princes. But he took care to
regulate the taxes which his subjects paid him. He divided all the empire into
twenty[34] districts called satrapies. There were in the same satrapy peoples who
differed much in language, customs, and beliefs; but each satrapy was to pay a
fixed annual tribute, partly in gold and silver, partly in natural products (wheat,
horses, ivory). The satrap, or governor, had the tribute collected and sent it to the
king.
Revenues of the Empire.—The total revenue of the king amounted to sixteen
millions of dollars and this money was paid by weight. This sum was in addition
to the tributes in kind. These sixteen millions of dollars, if we estimate them by
the value of the metals at this time, would be equivalent to one hundred and
twenty millions in our day. With this sum the king supported his satraps, his
army, his domestic servants and an extravagant court; there still remained to him
every year enormous ingots of metal which accumulated in his treasuries. The
king of Persia, like all the Orientals, exercised his vanity in possessing an
immense treasure.
The Great King.—No king had ever been so powerful and rich. The Greeks
called the Persian king The Great King. Like all the monarchs of the East, the
king had absolute sway over all his subjects, over the Persians as well as over
tributary peoples. From Herodotus one can see how Cambyses treated the great
lords at his court. "What do the Persians think of me?" said he one day to
Prexaspes, whose son was his cupbearer. "Master, they load you with praises, but
they believe that you have a little too strong desire for wine." "Learn," said
Cambyses in anger, "whether the Persians speak the truth. If I strike in the
middle of the heart of your son who is standing in the vestibule, that will show
that the Persians do not know what they say." He drew his bow and struck the
son of Prexaspes. The youth fell; Cambyses had the body opened to see where
the shot had taken effect The arrow was found in the middle of the heart. The
prince, full of joy said in derision to the father of the young man, "You see that it
is the Persians who are out of their senses; tell me if you have seen anybody
strike the mark with so great accuracy." "Master," replied Prexaspes, "I do not
believe that even a god could shoot so surely."[35]
Services Rendered by the Persians.—The peoples of Asia have always paid
tribute to conquerors and given allegiance to despots. The Persians, at least,
rendered them a great service: in subjecting all these peoples to one master they
prevented them from fighting among themselves. Under their domination we do
not see a ceaseless burning of cities, devastation of fields, massacre or wholesale
enslavement of inhabitants. It was a period of peace.
Susa and Persepolis.—The kings of the Medes and Persians, following the
 example of the lords of Assyria, had palaces built for them. Those best known to
us are the palaces at Susa and Persepolis. The ruins of Susa have been excavated
by a French engineer,[36] who has discovered sculptures, capitals, and friezes in
enameled bricks which give evidence of an advanced stage of art. The palace of
Persepolis has left ruins of considerable mass. The rock of the hill had been
fashioned into an enormous platform on which the palace was built. The
approach to it was by a gently rising staircase so broad that ten horsemen could
ascend riding side by side.
Persian Architecture.—Persian architects had copied the palaces of the
Assyrians. At Persepolis and Susa, as in Assyria, are flat-roofed edifices with
terraces, gates guarded by monsters carved in stone, bas-reliefs and enameled
bricks, representing hunting-scenes and ceremonies. At three points, however,
the Persians improved on their models:
(1) They used marble instead of brick; (2) they made in the halls painted
floors of wood; (3) they erected eight columns in the form of trunks of trees, the
slenderest that we know, twelve times as high as they were thick.
Thus their architecture is more elegant and lighter than that of Assyria.
The Persians had made little progress in the arts. But they seem to have been
the most honest, the sanest, and the bravest people of the time. For two centuries
they exercised in Asia a sovereignty the least cruel and the least unjust that it had
ever known.

FOOTNOTES:

[28] That is, of about the same area as that part of the United States east of the
Mississippi, with Minnesota and Iowa. Modern Persia is not two-thirds
of this area.—ED.
[29] Most historians place Zoroaster before 1000 B.C.—ED.
[30] "I created the dog," said Ormuzd, "with a delicate scent and strong teeth,
attached to man, biting the enemy to protect the herds. Thieves and
wolves come not near the sheep-fold when the dog is on guard, strong in
 voice and defending the flocks."
[31] Certain Persian heretics of our day, on the contrary, adore only the evil
god, for, they say, the principle of the good being in itself good and
indulgent does not require appeasing. They are called Yezidis
(worshippers of the devil).
[32] Herod., i., 131.
[33] i., 138.
[34] Herodotus mentions 20, but we find as many as 31 enumerated in the
inscriptions.
[35] Herod., iii., 34, 35. Compare also iii., 78, 79; and the book of Esther.
[36] M. Dieulafoi.

CHAPTER VIIToC

THE PHŒNICIANS

THE PHŒNICIAN PEOPLE

The Land.—Phœnicia is the narrow strip of country one hundred and fifty
miles long by twenty-four to thirty wide, shut in between the sea of Syria and the
high range of Lebanon. It is a succession of narrow valleys and ravines confined
by abrupt hills which descend towards the sea; little torrents formed by the
snows or rain-storms course through these in the early spring; in summer no
water remains except in wells and cisterns. The mountains in this quarter were
always covered with trees; at the summit were the renowned cedars of Lebanon,
on the ridges, pines and cypresses; while lower yet palms grew even to the sea-
shore. In the valleys flourished the olive, the vine, the fig, and the pomegranate.
The Cities.—At intervals along the rocky coast promontories or islands
formed natural harbors. On these the Phœnicians had founded their cities; Tyre
and Arad were each built on a small island. The people housed themselves in
dwellings six to eight stories in height. Fresh water was ferried over in ships.
The other cities, Gebel, Beirut, and Sidon arose on the mainland. The soil was
inadequate to support these swarms of men, and so the Phœnicians were before
all else seamen and traders.
Phœnician Ruins.—Not a book of the Phœnicians has come down to us, not
even their sacred book. The sites of their cities have been excavated. But, in the
words of the scholar sent to do this work, "Ruins are not preserved, especially in
countries where people are not occupied with them," and the Syrians are not
much occupied with ruins. They have violated the tombs to remove the jewels of
the dead, have demolished edifices to secure stone for building purposes, and
Mussulman hatred of chiseled figures has shattered the sculptures.[37] Very little
is found beyond broken marble, cisterns, wine-presses cut in the rock and some
sarcophagi hewn in rock. All this débris gives us little information and we know
very little more of the Phœnicians than Greek writers and Jewish prophets have
taught us.
Political Organization of the Phœnicians.—The Phœnicians never built an
empire. Each city had its little independent territory, its assemblies, its king, and
its government. For general state business each city sent delegates to Tyre, which
from the thirteenth century B.C. was the principal city of Phœnicia. The
Phœnicians were not a military people, and so submitted themselves to all the
conquerors—Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians. They fulfilled all
their obligations to them in paying tribute.
Tyre.—From the thirteenth century Tyre was the most notable of the cities. Its
island becoming too small to contain it, a new city was built on the coast
opposite. Tyrian merchants had founded colonies in every part of the
Mediterranean, receiving silver from the mines of Spain and commodities from
the entire ancient world. The prophet Isaiah[38] calls these traders princes;
Ezekiel[39] describes the caravans which came to them from all quarters. It is
Hiram, a king of Tyre, from whom Solomon asked workmen to build his palace
and temple at Jerusalem.
 Carthage.—A colony of Tyre surpassed even her in power. In the ninth
century some Tyrians, exiled by a revolution, founded on the shore of Africa
near Tunis the city of Carthage. A woman led them, Elissar, whom we call Dido
(the fugitive). The inhabitants of the country, says the legend, were willing to
sell her only as much land as could be covered by a bull's hide; but she cut the
hide in strips so narrow that it enclosed a wide territory; and there she
constructed a citadel. Situated at the centre of the Mediterranean, provided with
two harbors, Carthage flourished, sent out colonies in turn, made conquests, and
at last came to reign over all the coasts of Africa, Spain, and Sardinia.
Everywhere she had agencies for her commerce and subjects who paid her
tribute.
The Carthaginian Army.—To protect her colonies from the natives, to hold
her subjects in check who were always ready to revolt, a strong army was
necessary. But the life of a Carthaginian was too valuable to risk it without
necessity. Carthage preferred to pay mercenary soldiers, recruiting them among
the barbarians of her empire and among the adventurers of all countries. Her
army was a bizarre aggregation in which all languages were spoken, all religions
practised, and in which every soldier wore different arms and costume. There
were seen Numidians clothed in lion skins which served them as couch, mounted
bareback on small fleet horses, and drawing the bow with horse at full gallop;
Libyans with black skins, armed with pikes; Iberians from Spain in white
garments adorned with red, armed with a long pointed sword; Gauls, naked to
the girdle, bearing enormous shields and a rounded sword which they held in
both hands; natives of the Balearic Islands, trained from infancy to sling with
stones or balls of lead. The generals were Carthaginians; the government
distrusted them, watched them closely, and when they were defeated, had them
crucified.
The Carthaginians.—Carthage had two kings, but the senate was the real
power, being composed of the richest merchants of the city. And so every state
question for this government became a matter of commerce. The Carthaginians
were hated by all other peoples, who found them cruel, greedy, and faithless.
And yet, since they had a good fleet, had money to purchase soldiers, and
possessed an energetic government, they succeeded in the midst of barbarous
and divided peoples in maintaining their empire over the western Mediterranean
for 300 years (from the sixth to the third century B.C.).
The Phœnician Religion.—The Phœnicians and the Carthaginians had a
religion similar to that of the Chaldeans. The male god, Baal, is a sun-god; for
the sun and the moon are in the eyes of the Phœnicians the great forces which
create and which destroy. Each of the cities of Phœnicia has therefore its divine
pair: at Sidon it is Baal Sidon (the sun) and Astoreth (the moon); at Gebel, Baal
Tammouz and Baaleth; at Carthage, Baal-Hamon, and Tanith. But the same god
changes his name according as he is conceived as creator or destroyer; thus Baal
as destroyer is worshipped at Carthage under the name of Moloch. These gods,
represented by idols, have their temples, altars, and priests. As creators they are
honored with orgies, with tumultuous feasts; as destroyers, by human victims.
Astoreth, the great goddess of Sidon, whom they represented by the crescent of
the moon and the dove, had her cult in the sacred woods. Baal Moloch is figured
at Carthage as a bronze colossus with arms extended and lowered. When they
wished to appease him they laid children in his hands who fell at once into a pit
of fire. During the siege of Carthage by Agathocles the principal men of the city
sacrificed to Moloch as many as two hundred of their children.
This sensual and sanguinary religion inspired other peoples with horror, but
they imitated it. The Jews sacrificed to Baal on the mountains; the Greeks adored
Astarte of Sidon under the name of Aphrodite, and Baal Melkhart of Tyre under
the name of Herakles.

PHŒNICIAN COMMERCE

Phœnicians Occupations.—Crowded into a small territory, the Phœnicians

gained their livelihood mainly from commerce. None of the other peoples of the
East—the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, the Assyrians, nor the barbarian tribes of
the West (Spaniards, Gauls, Italians) had a navy. The Phœnicians alone in this
time dared to navigate. They were the commission merchants of the old world;
they went to every people to buy their merchandise and sold them in exchange
the commodities of other countries. This traffic was by caravan with the East, by
sea with the West.
Caravans.—On land the Phœnicians sent caravans in three directions:
1.—Towards Arabia, from which they brought gold, agate, and onyx,
incense and myrrh, and the perfumes of Arabia; pearls, spices, ivory,
ebony, ostrich plumes and apes from India.
2.—Towards Assyria, whence came cotton and linen cloths, asphalt,
 precious stones, perfumery, and silk from China.
3.—Towards the Black Sea, where they went to receive horses, slaves,
and copper vases made by the mountaineers of the Caucasus.
Marine Commerce.—For their sea commerce they built ships from the
cedars of Lebanon to be propelled by oars and sails. In their sailing it was not
necessary to remain always in sight of the coast, for they knew how to direct
their course by the polar star. Bold mariners, they pushed in their little boats to
the mouth of the Mediterranean; they ventured even to pass through the strait of
Gibraltar or, as the ancients called it, the Pillars of Hercules, and took the ocean
course to the shores of England, and perhaps to Norway, Phœnicians in the
service of a king of Egypt started in the seventh century B.C. to circumnavigate
Africa, and returned, it is said, at the end of three years by the Red Sea. An
expedition issuing from Carthage skirted the coast of Africa to the Gulf of
Guinea; the commander Hanno wrote an account of the voyage which is still
preserved.
Commodities.—To civilized peoples the Phœnicians sold the products of
their industry. In barbarous countries they went to search for what they could not
find in the Orient. On the coast of Greece they gathered shell-fish from which
they extracted a red tint, the purple; cloths colored with purple were used among
all the peoples of ancient times for garments of kings and great lords.
From Spain and Sardinia they brought the silver which the inhabitants took
from the mines. Tin was necessary to make bronze, an alloy of copper and tin,
but the Orient did not furnish this, and so they sought it even on the coasts of
England, in the Isles of Tin (the Cassiterides). In every country they procured
slaves. Sometimes they bought them, as lately the slavers bought negroes on the
coast of Africa, for all the peoples of this time made commerce in slaves;
sometimes they swooped down on a coast, threw themselves on the women and
children and carried them off to be retained in their own cities or to be sold
abroad; for on occasion they were pirates and did not scruple to plunder
strangers.
The Secrets Kept by the Phœnicians.—The Phœnicians did not care to have
mariners of other peoples come into competition with them. On the return from
these far countries they concealed the road which they had travelled. No one in
antiquity knew where were the famous Isles of the Cassiterides from which they
got their tin. It was by chance that a Greek ship discovered Spain, with which the
Phœnicians had traded for centuries. Carthage drowned the foreign merchants
whom they found in Sardinia or on the shore of Gibraltar. Once a Carthaginian
merchantman, seeing a strange ship following it, was run aground by the pilot
that the foreigner might not see where he was going.
Colonies.—In the countries where they traded, the Phœnicians founded
factories, or branch-houses. They were fortified posts on a natural harbor. There
they landed their merchandise, ordinarily cloths, pottery, ornaments, and idols.
[40] The natives brought down their commodities and an exchange was made,
just as now European merchants do with the negroes of Africa. There were
Phœnician markets in Cyprus, in Egypt, and in all the then barbarous countries
of the Mediterranean—in Crete, Greece, Sicily, Africa, Malta, Sardinia, on the
coasts of Spain at Malaga and Cadiz, and perhaps in Gaul at Monaco. Often
around these Phœnician buildings the natives set up their cabins and the mart
became a city. The inhabitants adopted the Phœnician gods, and even after the
city had become Greek, the cult of the dove-goddess was found there (as in
Cythera), that of the god Melkhart (as at Corinth), or of the god with the bull-
face that devours human victims (as in Crete).
Influence of the Phœnicians.—It is certain that the Phœnicians in founding
their trading stations cared only for their own interest. But it came to pass that
their colonies contributed to civilization. The barbarians of the West received the
cloths, the jewels, the utensils of the peoples of the East who were more
civilized, and, receiving them, learned to imitate them. For a long time the
Greeks had only vases, jewels, and idols brought by the Phœnicians, and these
served them as models. The Phœnicians brought simultaneously from Egypt and
from Assyria industry and commodities.
The Alphabet.—At the same time they exported their alphabet. The
Phœnicians did not invent writing. The Egyptians knew how to write many
centuries before them, they even made use of letters each of which expressed its
own sound, as in our alphabet. But their alphabet was still encumbered with
ancient signs which represented, some a syllable, others an entire word.
Doubtless the Phœnicians had need of a simpler system for their books of
commerce. They rejected all the syllabic signs and ideographs, preserving only
twenty-two letters, each of which marks a sound (or rather an articulation of the
language). The other peoples imitated this alphabet of twenty-two letters. Some,
like the Jews, wrote from right to left just as the Phœnicians themselves did;
others, like the Greeks, from left to right. All have slightly changed the form of
the letters, but the Phœnician alphabet is found at the basis of all the alphabets—
Hebrew, Lycian, Greek, Italian, Etruscan, Iberian, perhaps even in the runes of
 the Norse. It is the Phœnicians that taught the world how to write.

FOOTNOTES:

[37] Renan ("Mission de Phénicio," p. 818) says, "I noticed at Tripolis a

sarcophagus serving as a public fountain and the sculptured face of it
was turned to the wall. I was told that a governor had placed it thus so as
not to provide distractions for the inhabitants."
[38] See ch. xxiii.
[39] See chs. xxvi., xxvii., xxviii.
[40] These idols, one of their principal exports, are found wherever the
Phœnicians traded.

CHAPTER VIIIToC

THE HEBREWS

ORIGIN OF THE HEBREW PEOPLE

The Bible.—The Jews united all their sacred books into a single aggregation
which we call by a Greek name the Bible, that is to say, the Book. It is the Book
par excellence. The sacred book of the Jews became also the sacred book of the
Christians. The Bible is at the same time the history of the Jewish nation, and all
that we know of the sacred people we owe to the sacred books.
The Hebrews.—When the Semites had descended from the mountains of
Armenia into the plains of the Euphrates, one of their tribes, at the time of the
first Chaldean empire, withdrew to the west, crossed the Euphrates, the desert,
and Syria and came to the country of the Jordan beyond Phœnicia. This tribe was
called the Hebrews, that is to say, the people from beyond the river. Like the
majority of the Semites they were a race of nomadic shepherds. They did not till
the soil and had no houses; they moved from place to place with their herds of
cattle, sheep, and camels, seeking pasturage and living in tents as the Arabs of
the desert do to this day. In the book of Genesis one has a glimpse of this nomad
life.
The Patriarchs.—The tribe was like a great family; it was composed of the
chief, his wives, his children, and his servants. The chief had absolute authority
over all; for the tribe he was father, priest, judge, and king. We call these tribal
chiefs patriarchs. The principal ones were Abraham and Jacob; the former the
father of the Hebrews, the latter of the Israelites. The Bible represents both of
them as designed by God to be the scions of a sacred people. Abraham made a
covenant with God that he and his descendants would obey him; God promised
to Abraham a posterity more numerous than the stars of heaven. Jacob received
from God the assurance that a great nation should issue from himself.
The Israelites.—Moved by a vision Jacob took the name of Israel (contender
with God). His tribe was called Beni-Israel (sons of Israel) or Israelites. The
Bible records that, driven by famine, Jacob abandoned the Jordan country to
settle with all his house on the eastern frontier of Egypt, to which Joseph, one of
his sons who had become minister of a Pharaoh, invited him. There the sons of
Israel abode for several centuries. Coming hither but seventy in number, they
multiplied, according to the Bible, until they became six hundred thousand men,
without counting women and children.
The Call of Moses.—The king of Egypt began to oppress them, compelling
them to make mortar and bricks for the construction of his strong cities. It was
then that one of them, Moses, received from God the mission to deliver them.
One day while he was keeping his herds on the mountain, an angel appeared to
him in the midst of a burning bush, and he heard these words: "I am the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. I have seen the affliction of my
people which is in Egypt, I have heard their cry against their oppressors, I know
their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hands of the
Egyptians and to bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place
of the Canaanites.... Come now therefore and I will send thee unto Pharaoh that
thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."[41] The
Israelites under the guidance of Moses fled from Egypt (the Exodus); they
journeyed to the foot of Mount Sinai, where they received the law of God, and
for an entire generation wandered in the deserts to the south of Syria.
Israel in the Desert.—Often the Israelites wished to turn back. "We
remember," said they, "the fish which we ate in Egypt, the cucumbers, melons,
leeks, and onions. Let us appoint a chief who will lead us back to Egypt." Moses,
however, held them to obedience. At last they reached the land promised by God
to their race.
The Promised Land.—It was called the land of Canaan or Palestine; the Jews
named it the land of Israel, later Judea. Christians have termed it the Holy Land.
It is an arid country, burning with heat in the summer, but a country of
mountains. The Bible describes it thus: "Jehovah thy God bringeth thee into a
good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of
valleys and hills, a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and
pomegranates; a land of oil olive and honey, wherein thou shalt eat bread
without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it." The Israelites according to
their estimate were then 601,700 men capable of bearing arms, divided among
twelve tribes, ten descended from Jacob, two from Joseph; this enumeration does
not include the Levites or priests to the number of 23,000. The land was
occupied by several small peoples who were called Canaanites. The Israelites
exterminated them and at last occupied their territory.

THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL

One God.—The other ancient peoples adored many gods; the Israelites
believed in but one God, immaterial, who made the world and governs it. "In the
beginning," says the book of Genesis, "God created the heavens and the earth."
He created plants and animals, he "created man in his own image." All men are
the handiwork of God.
The People of God.—But among all mankind God has chosen the children of
Israel to make of them "his people." He called Abraham and said to him, "I will
establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after me ... to be a God
unto thee and to thy seed." He appeared to Jacob: "I am God," said he to him,
"the God of thy father; fear not to go down into Egypt, for I will make of thee
there a great nation." When Moses asks his name, he replies, "Thou shalt say to
the children of Israel, The Lord, the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, the God of Jacob hath sent me unto you. This is my name forever."
The Covenant.—There is, then, a covenant between the Israelites and God.
Jehovah (the Eternal) loves and protects the Israelites, they are "a holy nation,"
"his most precious jewel among all the nations." He promises to make them
mighty and happy. In return, the Israelites swear to worship him, to serve him, to
obey him in everything as a lawgiver, a judge, and a sovereign.
The Ten Commandments.—Jehovah, lawgiver of the Israelites, dictated his
precepts to Moses on Mount Sinai amidst lightnings and thunderings. They were
inscribed on two tables, the Tables of the Law, in these terms:
"Hear, O Israel, I am Jehovah, thy God, who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, from the land of bondage." (Then follow the ten commandments to be
found in the twentieth chapter of the book of Exodus.)
The Law.—Beside the ten commandments, the Israelites are required to obey
many other divine ordinances. These are all delivered to them in the first five
books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, and constitute the Law of Israel. The Law
regulates the ceremonies of religion, establishes the feasts—including the
Sabbath every seven days, the Passover in memory of the escape from Egypt, the
week of harvest, the feast of Tabernacles during the vintage; it organizes
marriage, the family, property, government, fixes the penalty of crimes, indicates
even foods and remedies. It is a code at once religious, political, civil and penal.
God the ruler of the Israelites has the right to regulate all the details of their
lives.
Religion has made the Jewish People.—The Israelites did not receive with
docility the government of God. Moses on his death-bed could say to the Levites
in delivering to them the book of the law, "Take this book that it may be a
witness against you, Israel, for I know thy rebellion and thy stiff neck" (Deut.
xxxi. 27). "During my life you have been rebellious against the Lord, and how
much more after my death." During these centuries some of the Israelites, often
the majority of the nation, had been idolaters. They became similar to the other
Semites of Syria. Only the Israelites who remained faithful to God formed the
Jewish people. It is the religion of Jehovah which has transformed an obscure
tribe into the holy nation, a small nation, but one of the most significant in the
history of the world.

THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL

The Judges.—Once established in Palestine the Hebrews remained divided

for several centuries. "In those days," says the Bible, "there was no king in
Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Often the Israelites
forgot Jehovah and served the gods of neighboring tribes. Then "the anger of the
Lord was kindled against the Israelites, and he delivered them into the hands of
their enemies." When they had repented and had humbled themselves, "the Lord
raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them."
"But it came to pass that at the death of the judge they corrupted themselves
anew ... bowing themselves to other gods." These judges—Gideon, Jephthah,
Samson—were warriors who came in the name of Jehovah to free the people.
Then they fell at once into idolatry again and their servitude was repeated.
The Kings.—At last the Israelites were wearied and asked of Samuel, the
high-priest, that he would give them a king. Samuel unwillingly placed Saul at
their head. This king should have been the ready servant of the will of God; he
dared to disobey him, upon which the high-priest said to him, "Thou hast
rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king
over Israel." A war-chief, David, was set in his place. He defeated all the
enemies of Israel, captured from them Mount Zion, and transferred his capital
thither. This was Jerusalem.
Jerusalem.—Compared with Babylon or Thebes, Jerusalem was a poor
capital. The Hebrews were not builders; their religion prevented them from
raising temples; the houses of individuals were shaped like cubes of rock which
may be seen today on the sides of Lebanon in the midst of vines and fig-trees.
But Jerusalem was the holy city of the Hebrews. The king had his palace there—
the palace of Solomon, who astonished the Hebrews with his throne of ivory;
Jehovah had his temple there, the first Hebrew temple.
The Tabernacle.—The emblem of the covenant between God and Israel was
a great chest of cedar-wood furnished with rings of gold, which contained the
tables of the Law. This was borne before the people on high feast-days; it was
the Ark of the Covenant. To preserve this ark and necessary objects of worship,
Moses is said to have made the Tabernacle—a pavilion of wood covered with
skins and hangings. It was a portable temple which the Hebrews carried with
them until they could erect a true temple in the promised land.
The Temple.—The Temple of Jerusalem, built at last under Solomon, was
divided into three parts:
 1.—To the rear, the Holy of Holies, in which rested the ark of the
covenant; the high-priest only had the right to enter here, and that but
once a year.
2.—In the middle, the Holy Place, in which were kept the altar of
incense, the candle-stick with the seven arms, the table of shew-bread;
the priests entered to burn incense and to present the offerings.
3.—At the front, the Court open to the people, where the victims were
sacrificed on the great altar.
The Temple of Jerusalem was from the first the centre of the nation; from all
Palestine the people came to be present at the ceremonies. The high-priest who
directed the worship was a person sometimes of greater power than the king.

THE PROPHETS

Disasters of Israel.—Solomon was the last king who enjoyed great power.
After him ten tribes separated themselves and constituted the kingdom of Israel,
whose inhabitants worshipped the golden calves and the gods of the Phœnicians.
Two tribes only remained faithful to Jehovah and to the king at Jerusalem; these
formed the kingdom of Judah (977).[42] The two kingdoms exhausted their
energies in making war on each other. Then came the armies of the Eastern
conquerors; Israel was destroyed by Sargon, king of Assyria (722); Judah, by
Nabuchodonosor (Nebuchadrezzar), king of Chaldea (586).
Sentiments of the Israelites.—Faithful Israelites regarded these woes as a
chastisement: God was punishing his people for their disobedience; as before, he
delivered them from their conquerors. "The children of Israel had sinned against
Jehovah, their God, they had built them high places in every city, they imitated
the nations around them, although the Lord had forbidden them to do like them;
they made them idols of brass; they bowed themselves before all the host of
heaven [the stars], they worshipped Baal. It is for this that Jehovah rejected all
the race of Israel, he afflicted them and delivered them into the hands of those
that plundered them."
The Prophets.—Then appeared the prophets, or as they were called, the
Seers: Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel. Usually they came from the desert
where they had fasted, prayed, and given themselves to meditation. They came
in the name of Jehovah, not as warriors in judgment, but as preachers. They
called the Israelites to repent, to overthrow their idols, to return to Jehovah; they
foretold all the woes that would come upon them if they did not reconcile
themselves to him. They preached and uttered prophecies at the same time.
The New Teaching.—These men on fire with the divine spirit found the
official religion at Jerusalem mean and cold. Why should they, like the idolaters,
slaughter cattle and burn incense to the honor of God? "Hear the word of
Jehovah," says Isaiah: "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices? I am
full of the burnt offerings of rams and of the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in
the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.... Bring no more vain
oblations, your incense is an abomination to me.... When ye spread forth your
hands, I will hide mine eyes from you ... for your hands are full of blood. Wash
you, make you clean ... cease to do evil, learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve
the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.... Though your sins be
as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." In place of sacrifices, the prophets
would set justice and good works.
The Messiah.—Israel deserved its afflictions, but there would be a limit to the
chastisement. "O my people," says Isaiah in the name of Jehovah, "be not afraid
of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod ... after the manner of Egypt ... for
yet a very little while and the indignation shall cease ... and the burden shall be
taken away from off thy shoulder." The prophets taught the people to look for
the coming of Him who should deliver them; they prepared the way for the
Messiah.

THE JEWISH PEOPLE

Return to Jerusalem.—The children of Judah, removed to the plain of the

Euphrates, did not forget their country, but sang of it in their chants: "By the
rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion.
We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof, for there they that
carried us away required a song ... saying, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion.'
How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" After seventy years of
captivity, Cyrus, victor over Babylon, allowed the Israelites to return to
Palestine. They rebuilt Jerusalem, reconstructed the temple, restored the feasts,
and recovered the sacred books. As a sign that they were again the people of
Jehovah they renewed the covenant with him; it was a formal treaty, written and
signed by the chiefs of the people.
The Jews.—The little kingdom of Jerusalem maintained itself for seven
centuries, governed now by a king, now by the high-priest, but always paying
tribute to the masters of Syria—to the Persians first, later to the Macedonians
and the Syrians, and last of all to the Romans. Faithful to the end to Jehovah, the
Jews (their proper name since the return) continued to live the law of Moses, to
celebrate at Jerusalem the feasts and the sacrifices. The high-priest, assisted by a
council of the elders, preserved the law; scribes copied it and doctors expounded
it to the people. The faithful obliged themselves to observe it in the smallest
details. The Pharisees were eminent among them for their zeal in fulfilling all its
requirements.
The Synagogues.—Meanwhile the Jews for the sake of trade were pushing
beyond the borders of Judæa into Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, and even to Italy.
Some of them were to be found in all the great cities—Alexandria, Damascus,
Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth and Rome. Dispersed among the Gentiles, the Jews
were strenuous to preserve their religion. They raised no temples, for the law
prevented this; there could be but one Jewish temple, that at Jerusalem, where
they celebrated the solemn feasts. But they joined themselves together to read
and comment on the word of God. These places of assembling were called
Synagogues, from a Greek word signifying meetings.
Destruction of the Temple.—The Christ appeared at this moment. The Jews
crucified him and persecuted his disciples not only in Judæa but in every city
where they found them in any number. In the year 70 A.D. Jerusalem, in revolt
against the Romans, was taken by assault, and all the inhabitants were massacred
or sold into slavery. The Romans burnt the temple and carried away the sacred
utensils. From that time there was no longer a centre of the Jewish religion.
Fortunes of the Jews after the Dispersion.—The Jewish nation survived the
ruin of its capital. The Jews, scattered throughout the world, learned to dispense
with the temple. They preserved their sacred books in the Hebrew tongue.
Hebrew is the primitive language of Israel; the Jews since the return from
Babylon no longer spoke it, but adopted the languages of the neighboring
peoples—the Syriac, the Chaldean, and especially the Greek. The Rabbis,
however, instructed in the religion, still learned the Hebrew, explained it, and
commented on the Scripture.[43] Thus the Jewish religion was preserved, and,
thanks to it, the Jewish people. It made converts even among the Gentiles; there
 were in the empire proselytes, that is, people who practised the religion of
Jehovah without being of the Jewish race.
The Christian Church, powerful since the fourth century, commenced to
persecute the Jews. This persecution has endured to this day in all Christian
countries. Usually the Jews were tolerated on account of their wealth and
because they transacted all banking operations; but they were kept apart, not
being permitted to hold any office. In the majority of cities they were compelled
to wear a special costume, to live in a special quarter,[44] gloomy, filthy,
unhealthy, and sometimes at Easter time to send one of their number to suffer
insult. The people suspected them of poisoning fountains, of killing children, of
profaning the consecrated host; often the people rose against them, massacred
them, and pillaged their houses. Judges under the least pretext had them
imprisoned, tortured, and burned. Sometimes the church tried to convert them by
force; sometimes the government exiled them en masse from the country and
confiscated their goods. The Jews at last disappeared from France,[45] from
Spain, England, and Italy. In Portugal, Germany, and Poland, and in the
Mohammedan lands they maintained themselves. From these countries after the
cessation of persecution they returned to the rest of Europe.

FOOTNOTES:

[41] Exodus iii, 1-10.

[42] There is much uncertainty regarding the chronology of this period.—ED.
[43] The Talmud is the accumulation of these commentaries.
[44] The Jewish Quarter at Rome was called the Ghetto. This name has since
been applied to all Jewish quarters.
[45] Except at Avignon, on the domains of the Pope, and in Alsace-Lorraine.
 CHAPTER IXToC

GREECE AND THE GREEKS

The Country.—Greece is a very little country (about 20,000 square miles),

hardly larger than Switzerland; but it is a country of great variety, bristling with
mountains, indented with gulfs—a country originally constituted to influence
mightily the character of the men who inhabited it.
A central chain, the Pindus, traverses Greece through the centre and covers it
with its rocky system. Toward the isthmus of Corinth it becomes lower; but the
Peloponnesus, on the other side of the isthmus, is elevated about 2,000 feet
above the sea level, like a citadel crowned with lofty chains, abrupt and snowy,
which fall perpendicularly into the sea. The islands themselves scattered along
the coast are only submerged mountains whose summits rise above the surface
of the sea. In this diverse land there is little tillable ground, but almost
everywhere bare rock. The streams, like brooks, leave between their half-dried
channel and the sterile rock of the mountain only a narrow strip of fertile soil. In
this beautiful country are found some forests, cypresses, laurels, palms, here and
there vines scattered on the rocky hillsides; but there are no rich harvests and no
green pasturages. Such a country produces wiry mountaineers, active and sober.
The Sea.—Greece is a land of shores: smaller than Portugal, it has as great a
coast-line as Spain. The sea penetrates it to a great number of gulfs, coves, and
indentations; it is ordinarily surrounded with projecting rocks, or with
approaching islands that form a natural port. This sea is like a lake; it has not,
like the ocean, a pale and sombre color; usually it is calm, lustrous, and, as
Homer says, "of the color of violets."
No sea lends itself better to navigation with small ships. Every morning the
north wind rises to conduct the barques of Athens to Asia; in the evening the
south wind brings them back to port. From Greece to Asia Minor the islands are
placed like stepping-stones; on a clear day the mariner always has land in view.
Such a sea beckons people to cross it.
And so the Greeks have been sailors, traders, travellers, pirates, and
adventurers; like the Phœnicians, they have spread over all the ancient world,
carrying with them the merchandise and the inventions of Egypt, of Chaldea, and
of Asia.
The Climate.—The climate of Greece is mild. In Athens it freezes hardly
once in twenty years; in summer the heat is moderated by the breeze from the
sea.[46] Today the people still lie in the streets from the month of May to
September. The air is cool and transparent; for many leagues could once be seen
the crest of the statue of Pallas. The contours of distant mountains are not, as
with us, enveloped in haze, but show a clear line against the clear sky. It is a
beautiful country which urges man to take life as a feast, for everything is happy
about him. "Walking at night in the gardens, listening to the grasshoppers,
playing the lute in the clear of the moon, going to drink at the spring at the
mountain, carrying with him some wine that he may drink while he sings,
spending the days in dancing—these are Greek pleasures, the joys of a race poor,
economical, and eternally young."
Simplicity of Greek Life.—In this country men are not melted with the heat
nor stiffened with cold; they live in the open air gay and at slight expense. Food
in great quantity is not required, nor warm clothing, nor a comfortable house.
The Greek could live on a handful of olives and a sardine. His entire clothing
consisted of sandals, a tunic, a large mantle; very often he went bare-footed and
bare-headed. His house was a meagre and unsubstantial building; the air easily
entered through the walls. A couch with some coverings, a coffer, some beautiful
vases, a lamp,—this was his furniture. The walls were bare and whitened with
lime. This house was only a sleeping place.

THE PEOPLE

Origin of the Greeks.—The people who inhabited this charming little land
were an Aryan people, related to the Hindoos and the Persians, and like them
come from the mountains of Asia or the steppes beyond the Caspian Sea. The
Greeks had forgotten the long journey made by their ancestors; they said that
they, like the grasshoppers, were the children of the soil.[47] But their language
and the names of their gods leave no doubt of their origin.... Like all the Aryans,
the primitive Greeks nourished themselves with milk and with the flesh of their
herds; they moved about under arms, always ready to fight, and grouped
themselves in tribes governed by patriarchs.
The Legends.—The Greeks like all the other ancient peoples were ignorant of
their origin. They neither knew whence their ancestors had come nor when they
had established themselves in Greece, nor what they had done there. To preserve
the exact memory of things as they occur, there is need of some means of fixing
them; but the Greeks did not know how to write; they did not employ writing
until about the eighth century B.C. They had no way of calculating the number
of years. Later they adopted the usage of counting the years according to the
great feast which was celebrated every four years at Olympia; a period of four
years was called an olympiad. But the first olympiad was placed in 776 B.C.,
and the chronology of the Greeks does not rise beyond this date.
And yet they used to tell in Greece a great number of legends about this
primitive period. These were especially the exploits of ancient kings and of
heroes who were adored as demi-gods. These stories were so mingled with fable
that it is impossible to know how much truth they may contain. They said at
Athens that the first king, Cecrops, was half man and half serpent; at Thebes,
that Cadmus, founder of the city, had come from Phœnicia to seek his sister
Europa who had been stolen by a bull; that he had killed a dragon and had sowed
his teeth, from which was sprung a race of warriors, and that the noble families
of Thebes descended from these warriors. At Argos it was said that the royal
family was the issue of Pelops to whom Zeus had given a shoulder of ivory to
replace the one devoured by a goddess. Thus each country had its legends and
the Greeks continued to the end to relate them and to offer worship to their
ancient heroes—Perseus, Bellerophon, Herakles, Theseus, Minos, Castor and
Pollux, Meleager, Œdipus. The majority of the Greeks, even among the better
educated, admitted, at least in part, the truth of these traditions. They accepted as
historical facts the war between the two sons of Œdipus, king of Thebes, and the
expedition of the Argonauts, sailing forth in quest of the Golden Fleece, which
was guarded by two brazen-footed bulls vomiting flames.
The Trojan War.—Of all these legends the most fully developed and the
most celebrated was the legend of the Trojan War. It recounted that about the
twelfth century, Troy, a rich and powerful city, held sway over the coast of Asia.
Paris, a Trojan prince, having come to Greece, had abducted Helen, wife of
Menelaus, king of Sparta. Agamemnon, king of Argos, made a league of the
kings of Greece; a Greek army went in a fleet of two hundred galleys to besiege
Troy. The siege endured ten years because the supreme god, Zeus, had taken the
side of the Trojans. All the Greek chiefs participated in this adventure. Achilles,
the bravest and the most beautiful of these, killed Hector, the principal defender
of Troy, and dragged his corpse around the city; he fought clad in divine armor
which had been presented him by his mother, a goddess of the sea; in turn he
died, shot by an arrow in the heel. The Greeks, despairing of taking the city by
force, employed a trick: they pretended to depart, and left an immense horse of
wood in which were concealed the chiefs of the army. The Trojans drew this
horse into the city; during the night the chiefs came forth and opened the city to
the Greeks. Troy was burnt, the men slaughtered, the women led away as slaves.
But the chiefs of the Greeks on their return were beset by tempest. Some
perished in the sea, others were cast on foreign shores. Odysseus, the most crafty
of the chiefs, was for ten years buffeted from one land to another, losing
successively all his ships, himself the sole survivor of the disasters.
All antiquity had steadfast faith in the Trojan War. 1184 B.C. was set as the
date of the ending of the siege, and men pointed out the site of the city. In 1874
Schliemann purposed to excavate this site; it was necessary to traverse the débris
of many cities which lay over it; at last at a depth of about fifty feet he found in
the deepest bed of débris the traces of a mighty city reduced to ashes, and in the
ruins of the principal edifice a casket filled with gems of gold which he called
the Treasury of Priam. There was no inscription, and the city, the whole wall of
which we have been able to bring to light, was a very small one. A large number
of small, very rude idols have been found, which represent an owl-headed
goddess (the Greeks thus represented the goddess Pallas). Beyond this no proof
has been found that this city was called Troy.
The Homeric Poems.—It is the two poems attributed to Homer which have
made the taking of Troy renowned throughout the world—the Iliad, which
related the combats of the Greeks and the exploits of Achilles before Troy; and
the Odyssey, which recounts the adventures of Odysseus (Ulysses) after the
capture of Troy.
These two poems were handed down for centuries without being committed to
writing; the rhapsodists, wandering singers, knew long passages from them by
heart and recited them at feasts. It is not till the sixth century that Pisistratus, a
prince of Athens, had them collected and edited.[48] The two poems became
from that time and always remained the most admired works of Greek literature.
The Greeks said that the author of these poems was Homer, a Greek of Ionia,
who lived about the tenth or the ninth century B.C. They represented him as a
blind old man, poor and a wanderer. Seven towns disputed the honor of being his
birth-place. This tradition was received without hesitation. But at the end of the
eighteenth century a German scholar, Wolf, noticed certain contradictions in
these poems, and at last asserted that they were not the work of a single poet, but
a collection of fragments from several different poets. This theory has been
attacked and supported with great energy: for a half century men have flown into
a passion for or against the existence of Homer. Today we begin to think the
problem insoluble. What is certain is that these poems are very old, probably of
the ninth century. The Iliad was composed in Asia Minor and is perhaps the
result of the union of two poems—one dedicated to the combats of the Trojans,
and the other to the adventures of Achilles. The Odyssey appears to be the work
of one author; but it cannot be affirmed that it is of the same author as the Iliad.
The Greeks at the Time of Homer.—We are not able to go back very far in
the history of the Greeks; the Homeric poems are their oldest historical
document. When these were composed, about the ninth century B.C., there was
not yet any general name to designate all the inhabitants of Greece: Homer
mentions them under the names of their principal tribes. From his description it
appears that they have made some progress since their departure from Asia.
They know how to till the ground, how to construct strong cities and to organize
themselves into little peoples. They obey kings; they have a council of old men
and an assembly of the people. They are proud of their institutions, they despise
their less advanced neighbors, the Barbarians, as they call them. Odysseus, to
show how rude the Cyclops were, says, "They have no rules of justice nor places
where they deliberate; each one governs himself, his wife, and children, and has
no association with others." But these Greeks themselves are half barbarians;
they do not know how to write, to coin money, nor the art of working in iron.
They hardly dare to trust themselves on the sea and they imagine that Sicily is
peopled with monsters.
The Dorians.—Dorians was the name given to those sons of the mountaineers
who had come from the north and had expelled or subjected those dwelling in
the plains and on the shore of the Peloponnesus; the latter, crowded into too
narrow limits, sent colonies into Asia. Of these mountain bands the most
renowned came from a little canton called Doris and preserved the name
Dorians. These invaders told how certain kings of Sparta, the posterity of
Herakles, having been thrust out by their subjects, had come to seek the Dorians
in their mountains. These people of the mountains, moved by their love for
Herakles, had followed his descendants and had replaced them on their throne.
By the same stroke they dispossessed the inhabitants and took their place. They
were a martial, robust, and healthy race, accustomed to cold, to meagre food, to
a scant existence. Men and women wore a short tunic which did not reach to the
knee. They spoke a rude and primitive dialect. The Dorians were a race of
soldiers, always obliged to keep themselves under arms; they were the least
cultivated in Greece, since, situated far from the sea, they preserved the customs
of the barbarous age; they were the most Greek because, being isolated, they
could neither mingle with strangers nor imitate their manners.
The Ionians.—The peoples of Attica, the isles, and the coast of Asia were
called Ionians; no one knows the origin of the name. Unlike the Dorians, they
were a race of sailors or traders, the most cultured of Greece, gaining instruction
from contact with the most civilized peoples of the Orient; the least Greek,
because they associated with Asiatics and had in part adopted their dress. They
were peaceful and industrious, living luxuriously, speaking a smooth dialect, and
wearing long flowing garments like the Orientals.
The Hellenes.—Dorians and Ionians—these are the two opposing races, the
most remarkable of Greece, and the most powerful: Sparta is Dorian, Athens is
Ionian. But the majority of the Greeks are neither Dorians nor Ionians: they are
called Æolians, a vague name which covers very different peoples.
All the Greeks from early times take the name "Hellenes" which they have
kept to this day. What is the origin of the term? They did not know any more
than we: they said only that Dorus and Æolus were sons of Hellen, and Ion was
his grandson.
Cities.—The Hellenes were still in little peoples as at the time of Homer. The
land of Greece, cut by mountains and sea, breaks naturally into a large number
of small cantons, each isolated from its neighbor by an arm of the sea or by a
wall of rocks, so that it is easy to defend the land and difficult to communicate
with other parts. Each canton constituted a separate state which was called a city.
There were more than a hundred of these; counting the colonies, more than a
thousand. To us a Greek state seems a miniature. The whole of Attica was but
little larger than the state of Delaware, and Corinth or Megara was much smaller.
Usually the state was only a city with a strip of shore and a harbor, or some
villages scattered in the plain around a citadel. From one state one sees the
citadel, mountains, or harbor of the next state. Many of them count their citizens
only by thousands; the largest included hardly 200,000 or 300,000.
The Hellenes never formed one nation; they never ceased to fight and destroy
one another. And yet all spoke the same language, worshipped the same gods,
and lived the same sort of a life. In these respects they recognized the bonds of a
common race and distinguished themselves from all other peoples whom they
called barbarians and regarded with disdain.

THE HELLENES BEYOND SEA

Colonization.—The Hellenes did not inhabit Greece alone. Colonists from

the Greek cities had gone forth to found new cities in all the neighboring
countries. There were little states in all the islands of the Archipelago, over all
the coast of Asia Minor, in Crete and Cyprus, on the whole circumference of the
Black Sea as far as the Caucasus and the Crimea, along the shore of Turkey in
Europe (then called Thrace), on the shore of Africa, in Sicily, in south Italy, and
even on the coasts of France and Spain.
Character of These Colonies.—Greek colonies were being founded all the
time from the twelfth century to the fifth; they issued from various cities and
represented all the Greek races—Dorian, Ionian, and Æolian. They were
established in the wilderness, in an inhabited land, by conquest, or by an
agreement with the natives. Mariners, merchants, exiles, or adventurers were
their founders. But with all this diversity of time, place, race, and origin, the
colonies had common characteristics: they were established at one stroke and
according to certain fixed rules. The colonists did not arrive one by one or in
small bands; nor did they settle at random, building houses which little by little
became a city, as is the case now with European colonists in America. All the
colonists started at once under a leader, and the new city was founded in one day.
The foundation was a religious ceremony; the "founder" traced a sacred
enclosure, constructed a sacred hearth, and lighted there the holy fire.
Traditions Concerning the Colonists.—The old stories about the founding
of some of these colonies enable us to see how they differed from modern
colonies. The account of the settlement of Marseilles runs as follows: Euxenus, a
citizen of Phocæa, coming to Gaul in a merchant galley, was invited by a Gallic
chief to the marriage of his daughter; according to the custom of this people, the
young girl about the time of the feast entered bearing a cup which she was to
present to the one whom she would choose for a husband; she stopped before the
Greek and offered him the cup. This unpremeditated act appeared to have been
inspired from heaven; the Gallic chief gave his daughter to Euxenus and
permitted him and his companions to found a city on the gulf of Marseilles.
Later the Phocæans, seeing their city blockaded by the Persian army, loaded on
their ships their families, their movables, the statues and treasures of their temple
and went to sea, abandoning their city. As they started, they threw into the sea a
mass of red-hot iron and swore never to return to Phocæa until the iron should
rise to the surface of the water. Many violated this oath and returned; but the rest
continued the voyage and after many adventures came to Marseilles.
At Miletus the Ionians who founded the city had brought no wives with them;
they seized a city inhabited by the natives of Asia, slaughtered all the men, and
forcibly married the women and girls of the families of their victims. It was said
that the women, affronted in this manner, swore never to eat food with their
captors and never to call them by the name of husband; this custom was for
centuries preserved among the women of Miletus.[49]
The colony at Cyrene in Africa was founded according to the express
command of the oracle of Apollo. The inhabitants of Thera, who had received
this order, did not care to go to an unknown country. They yielded only at the
end of seven years since their island was afflicted with dearth; they believed that
Apollo had sent misfortune on them as a penalty. Nevertheless the citizens who
were sent out attempted to abandon the enterprise, but their fellow-citizens
attacked them and forced them to return. After having spent two years on an
island where no success came to them, they at last came to settle at Cyrene,
which soon became a prosperous city.[50]
Importance of the Colonies.—Wherever they settled, the colonists
constituted a new state which in no respect obeyed the mother town from which
they had come out. And so the whole Mediterranean found itself surrounded by
Greek cities independent one of the others. Of these cities many became richer
and more powerful than their mother towns; they had a territory which was
larger and more fertile, and in consequence a greater population. Sybaris, it was
said, had 300,000 men who were capable of bearing arms. Croton could place in
the field an infantry force of 120,000 men. Syracuse in Sicily, Miletus in Asia
had greater armies than even Sparta and Athens. South Italy was termed Great
Greece. In comparison with this great country fully peopled with Greek colonies
the home country was, in fact, only a little Greece. And so it happened that the
Greeks were much more numerous in the neighboring countries than in Greece
proper; and among these people of the colonies figure a good share of the most
celebrated names: Homer, Alcæus, Sappho, Thales, Pythagoras, Heraclitus,
Democritus, Empedocles, Aristotle, Archimedes, Theocritus, and many others.
 FOOTNOTES:

[46] "Balmy and clement," says Euripides, "is our atmosphere. The cold of
winter has no extremes for us, and the shafts of the sun do not wound."
[47] Autochthones.
[48] The story of the collection of the Homeric poems by Pisistratus is without
foundation—"eine blosse Fabel." Busolt, "Griechische Geschichte."
Gotha, 1893, i., 127.—ED.
[49] Probably this custom has another origin the recollection of which was
lost.—ED.
[50] Herodotus, iv., 150-158.

CHAPTER XToC

GREEK RELIGION

The Gods. Polytheism.—The Greeks, like the ancient Aryans, believed in

many gods. They had neither the sentiment of infinity nor that of eternity; they
did not conceive of God as one for whom the heavens are only a tent and the
earth a foot-stool. To the Greeks every force of nature—the air, the sun, the sea
—was divine, and as they did not conceive of all these phenomena as produced
by one cause, they assigned each to a particular god. This is the reason that they
believed in many gods. They were polytheists.
Anthropomorphism.—Each god was a force in nature and carried a distinct
name. The Greeks, having a lively imagination, figured under this name a living
being, of beautiful form and human characteristics. A god or goddess was
represented as a beautiful man or woman. When Odysseus or Telemachus met a
person peculiarly great and beautiful, they began by asking him if he were not a
god. Homer in describing the army pictured on the shield of Achilles adds, "Ares
and Athena led the army, both clad in gold, beautiful and great, as becomes the
gods, for men were smaller." Greek gods are men; they have clothing, palaces,
bodies similar to ours; if they cannot die, they can at least be wounded. Homer
relates how Ares, the god of war, struck by a warrior, fled howling with pain.
This fashion of making gods like men is what is called Anthropomorphism.
Mythology.—The gods, being men, have parents, children, property. Their
mothers were goddesses, their brothers were gods, and their children other gods
or men who were half divine. This genealogy of the gods is what is called the
Theogony. The gods have also a history; we are told the story of their birth, the
adventures of their youth, their exploits. Apollo, for example, was born on the
island of Delos to which his mother Latona had fled; he slew a monster which
was desolating the country at the foot of Parnassus. Each canton of Greece had
thus its tales of the gods. These are called myths; the sum of them is termed
Mythology, or the history of the gods.
The Local Gods.—The Greek gods, even under their human form, remained
what they were at first, phenomena of nature. They were thought of both as men
and as forces of nature. The Naiad is a young woman, but at the same time a
bubbling fountain. Homer represents the river Xanthus as a god, and yet he says,
"The Xanthus threw itself on Achilles, boiling with fury, full of tumult, foam,
and the bodies of the dead." The people itself continued to say "Zeus rains" or
"Zeus thunders." To the Greek the god was first of all rain, storm, heaven, or
sun, and not the heaven, sun, or earth in general, but that corner of the heaven
under which he lived, the land of his canton, the river which traversed it. Each
city, then, had its divinities, its sun-god, its earth-goddess, its sea-god, and these
are not to be confounded with the sun, the earth, and the sea of the neighboring
city. The Zeus of Sparta is not the same as the Zeus of Athens; in the same oath
one sometimes invokes two Athenas or two Apollos. A traveller who would
journey through Greece[51] would therefore meet thousands of local gods (they
called them Poliades, or gods of the city). No torrent, no wood, no mountain was
without its own deity,[52] although often a minor divinity, adored only by the
people of the vicinity and whose sanctuary was only a grotto in the rock.
The Great Gods.—Above the innumerable legion of local gods of each
canton the Greeks imagined certain great divinities—the heaven, the sun, the
earth, and the sea—and these everywhere had the same name, and had their
temple or sanctuary in every place. Each represented one of the principal forces
of nature. These gods common to all the Greeks were never numerous; if all are
included, we have hardly twenty.[53] We have the bad habit of calling them by
the name of a Latin god. The following are their true names: Zeus (Jupiter), Hera
(Juno), Athena (Minerva), Apollo, Artemis (Diana), Hermes (Mercury),
Hephaistos (Vulcan), Hestia (Vesta), Ares (Mars), Aphrodite (Venus), Poseidon
(Neptune), Amphitrite, Proteus, Kronos (Saturn), Rhea (Cybele), Demeter
(Ceres), Persephone (Proserpina), Hades (Pluto), Dionysos (Bacchus). It is this
little group of gods that men worshipped in all the temples, that men ordinarily
invoked in their prayers.
Attributes of the Gods.—Each of these great gods had his form, his costume,
his instruments (which we call his attributes); it is thus that the faithful imagined
him and that the sculptors represented him. Each has his character which is well
known to his worshippers. Each has his rôle in the world, performing his
determined functions, ordinarily with the aid of secondary divinities who obey
him.
Athena, virgin of clear eye, is represented standing, armed with a lance, a
helmet on the head, and gleaming armor on the breast. She is the goddess of the
clear air, of wisdom, and of invention, a goddess of dignity and majesty.
Hephaistos, the god of fire, is figured with a hammer and in the form of a
lame and ugly blacksmith. It is he who forges the thunderbolt.
Artemis, shy maiden, armed with bow and quiver, courses the forests hunting
with a troop of nymphs. She is the goddess of the woods, of the chase, and of
death.
Hermes, represented with winged sandals, is the god of the fertile showers.
But he has other offices; he is the god of streets and squares, the god of
commerce, of theft, and of eloquence. He it is who guides the souls of the dead,
the messenger of the gods, the deity presiding over the breeding of cattle.
Almost always a Greek god has several functions, quite dissimilar to our eyes,
but to the Greeks bearing some relation to one another.
Olympus and Zeus.—Each one of these gods is like a king in his own
domain. Still the Greeks had remarked that all the forces of nature do not operate
by chance and that they act in harmony; the same word served them for the idea
of order and of universe. They supposed, then, that the gods were in accord for
the administration of the world, and that they, like men, had laws and
government among them.
In the north of Greece there was a mountain to whose snowy summit no man
had ever climbed. This was Olympus. On this summit, which was hidden by
clouds from the eyes of men, it was imagined the gods assembled. Meeting
under the light of heaven, they conferred on the affairs of the world. Zeus, the
mightiest of them, presided over the gathering: he was god of the heavens and of
the light, the god "who masses the clouds," who launches the thunderbolt—an
old man of majestic mien, with long beard, sitting on a throne of gold. It is he
who commands and the other gods bow before him. Should they essay to resist,
Zeus menaces them; Homer makes him say,[54] "Bind to heaven a chain of gold,
and all of you, gods or goddesses, throw your weight upon it; all your united
efforts cannot draw Zeus, the sovereign ordainer, to the earth. On the contrary, if
I wished to draw the chain to myself, I should bring with it the earth and the very
sea. Then I would attach it to the summit of Olympus and all the universe would
be suspended. By so much am I superior to gods and men."
Morality of the Greek Mythology.—The greater part of their gods were
conceived by the Greeks as violent, sanguinary, deceitful, dissolute. They
ascribed to them scandalous adventures or dishonest acts. Hermes was notorious
for his thieving, Aphrodite for her coquetry, Ares for his ferocity. All were so
vain as to persecute those who neglected to offer sacrifices to them. Niobe had
seen all her children pierced with arrows by Apollo because she herself had
boasted of her numerous family. The gods were so jealous that they could not
endure seeing a man thoroughly happy; prosperity for the Greeks was the
greatest of dangers, for it never failed to draw the anger of the gods, and this
anger became a goddess (Nemesis) about whom were told such anecdotes as the
following: Once Polycrates of Samos, become very powerful, feared the jealousy
of the gods; and so a ring of gold which he still retained was cast into the sea that
his good fortune might not be unmixed with evil. Some time after, a fisherman
brought to Polycrates an enormous fish and in its belly was found the ring. This
was a certain presage of evil. Polycrates was besieged in his city, taken, and
crucified. The gods punished him for his good fortune.
Greek mythology was immoral in that the gods gave bad examples to men.
The Greek philosophers were already saying this and were inveighing against
the poets who had published these stories. A disciple of Pythagoras affirmed that
his master, descending to hell, had seen the soul of Homer hanging to a tree and
that of Hesiod bound to a column to punish them for calumniating the gods.
"Homer and Hesiod," Said Xenophanes, "attribute to the gods all the acts which
among men are culpable and shameful; there is but one god who neither in body
nor in soul resembles men." And he added this profound remark: "If oxen and
lions had hands and could manipulate like men, they would have made gods with
bodies similar to their own, horses would have framed gods with horses' bodies,
and cattle with cattle's.... Men think that the gods have their feelings, their voice,
and their body." Xenophanes was right; the primitive Greeks had created their
gods in their own image. As they were then sanguinary, dissolute, jealous, and
vain, their gods were the same. Later, as the people became better, their
descendants were shocked with all these vices; but the history and the character
of the gods were fixed by the ancient traditions, and later generations, without
daring to change them, had received the gross and dishonest gods of their
ancestors.

THE HEROES

The Hero.—The hero in Greece is a man who has become illustrious, and
after death a mighty spirit—not a god, but a demi-god. The heroes do not live on
Olympus in the heaven of the gods, they do not direct the life of the world. And
yet they, too, possess a power higher than that of any human, and this permits
them to aid their friends and destroy their enemies. For this reason the Greeks
rendered them worship as to the gods and implored their protection. There was
not a city, not a tribe, not a family but had its hero, a protecting spirit which it
adored.
Different Kinds of Heroes.—Of these heroes many are legendary persons
(Achilles, Odysseus, Agamemnon); some without doubt never existed (Herakles,
Œdipus); others like Hellen, Dorus, Æolus are only names. But their worshippers
regarded them as men of the olden time; and, in fact, the most of the heroes lived
at one time. Many are historical personages: generals like Leonidas, Lysander;
philosophers like Democritus and Aristotle; legislators like Lycurgus and Solon.
The people of Croton adored even one of their fellow-citizens, Philip by name,
because he had been in his time the most beautiful man in Greece. The leader
who had guided a band of colonists and founded a city became for the
inhabitants the Founder; a temple was raised to him and every year sacrifices
were offered to him. The Athenian Miltiades was thus worshipped in a city of
Thrace. The Spartiate Brasidas, killed in the defence of Amphipolis, had divine
honors paid to him in that city, for the inhabitants had come to regard him as
their Founder.
Presence of the Heroes.—The hero continued to reside in the place where his
body was interred, either in his tomb or in the neighborhood. A story told by
Herodotus (v. 67) depicts this belief in a lively way. The city of Sicyon adored
the hero Adrastus and in a public place was a chapel dedicated to his honor.
Cleisthenes, the tyrant of Sicyon, took a fancy to rid himself of this hero. He
went to the oracle at Delphi to ask if it would aid him in expelling Adrastus. The
oracle replied to his question that Adrastus was king of the Sicyonians and
Cleisthenes was a brigand. The tyrant, not daring to evict the hero, adopted a
ruse; he sent to Thebes to seek the bones of Melanippus, another hero, and
installed them with great pomp in the sanctuary of the city. "He did this," says
Herodotus, "because Melanippus during his life had been the greatest enemy of
Adrastus and had killed his brother and his son-in-law." Then he transferred to
Melanippus the festivals and the sacrifices formerly paid to the honor of
Adrastus. He was persuaded, and all the Greeks with him, that the hero would be
irritated and would flee.
Intervention of the Heroes.—The heroes have divine power; like the gods,
they can according to their whim send good or evil. The poet Stesichorus had
spoken ill of the famous Helen (that Helen who the legend states was carried
away to Troy); he suddenly became blind; when he retracted what he had said,
the heroine restored his sight.
The protecting heroes of a city kept it from plagues and famine and even
fought against its enemies. At the battle of the Marathon the Athenian soldiers
saw in the midst of them Theseus, the mythical founder of Athens, clad in
shining armor. During the battle of Salamis the heroes Ajax and Telamon, once
kings of Salamis, appeared on the highest point of the island extending their
hands to the Greek fleet. "It is not we," said Themistocles, "that have vanquished
the Persians; it is the gods and heroes." In "Œdipus at Colonus," a tragedy of
Sophocles, Œdipus at the point of death receives the visit of the king of Athens
and of the king of Thebes, both of whom as gods request him to have his body
interred in their territory, and to become a protecting hero. Œdipus at last
consents to be buried in the soil of the Athenians, and says to the king, "Dead, I
shall not be a useless inhabitant of this country, I shall be a rampart for you,
stronger than millions of warriors." In himself alone a hero was as efficient as a
whole army; his spirit was mightier than all living men.

WORSHIP

Principles of Worship of the Gods.—Gods and heroes, potent as they were,

bestowed on men all good or evil fortune according to their will. It was
dangerous to have them against you, wise to have them on your side. They were
conceived as like men, irritated if they were neglected, contented if they were
venerated. On this principle worship was based. It consisted in doing things
agreeable to the gods to obtain their favor. Plato expresses as follows[55] the
thought of the common man, "To know how to say and do those things that are
pleasing to the gods, either in prayers or in offerings, this is piety which brings
prosperity to individuals and to states. The reverse is impiety which ruins
everything." "It is natural," says Xenophon at the end of his treatise on Cavalry,
"that the gods should favor those especially who not only consult them in need,
but honor them in the day of prosperity." Religion was first of all a contract; the
Greek sought to delight the gods and in return required their services. "For a
long time," says a priest of Apollo to his god, "I have burned fat bullocks for
you; now grant my petitions and discharge your arrows against my enemies."
The Great Festivals.—Since the gods had the feelings of men they were to be
pleased in the same way as men. Wine, cakes, fruits, food were brought to them.
Palaces were built for them. Festivals were given in their honor, for they were
"joyous gods" who loved pleasure and beautiful spectacles. A festival was not, as
with us, purely an occasion of rejoicing, but a religious ceremony. On those days
free from the daily toil men were required to rejoice in public before the god.
The Greek, without doubt, delighted in these fêtes; but it is for the god and not
for himself that he celebrates them. "The Ionians," says an ancient hymn to
Apollo, "delight thee with trial of strength, the hymn, and the dance."
The Sacred Games.—From these diversions offered to the gods originated
the solemn games. Each city had them to the honor of its gods; ordinarily only
its citizens were admitted to them; but in four districts of Greece were celebrated
games at which all Greeks could be present and participate. These are called the
Four Great Games.
 The principal of these four festivals was that at Olympia. This was given
every four years in honor of Zeus and continued five or six days. The multitude
coming from all parts of Greece filled the amphitheatre. They commenced by
sacrificing victims and addressing prayers to Zeus and the other gods. Then
came the contests; they were:
The foot-race around the stadion.
The Pentathlon, so called because it comprised five exercises. The competitors
were to leap, run from one end of the stadion to the other, make a long throw of
the metal discus, hurl the javelin, and wrestle.
Boxing, in which one fought with arms bound with thongs of hide.
The chariot races, which were held in the hippodrome; the cars were light and
were drawn by four horses.
The judges of the games were clothed in purple, crowned with laurel. After
the combat a herald proclaimed before the whole assembly the name of the
victor and of his city. A crown of olive was the only reward given him; but his
fellow-citizens on his return received him as a conquering hero; sometimes they
threw down a section of the city wall to give him entrance. He arrived in a
chariot drawn by four horses, clothed in purple, escorted by all the people.
"These victories which we leave today to the athletes of the public shows
appeared then the greatest of all. Poets of greatest renown celebrated them;
Pindar, the most illustrious lyric poet of antiquity, has hardly done more than
sing of chariot races. It is related that a certain Diagoras, who had seen his two
sons crowned on the same day, was borne in triumph by them in the sight of the
spectators. The people, holding such an honor too great for a mortal, cried out,
'Perish, Diagoras, for after all you cannot become a god.' Diagoras, suffocated
with emotion, died in the arms of his sons. In his eyes and the eyes of the Greeks
the fact that his sons possessed the stoutest fists and the nimblest limbs in Greece
was the acme of earthly happiness."[56] The Greeks had their reasons for thus
admiring physical prowess: in their wars in which they fought hand to hand the
most vigorous athletes were the best soldiers.
Omens.—In return for so much homage, so many festivals and offerings, the
Greeks expected no small amount of service from their gods. The gods protected
their worshippers, gave them health, riches, victory. They preserved them from
the evils that menaced them, sending signs which men interpreted. These are
called Omens. "When a city," says Herodotus,[57] "is about to suffer some great
misfortune, this is usually anticipated by signs. The people of Chios had omens
of their defeat: of a band of one hundred youths sent to Delphi but two returned;
the others had died of the plague. About the same time the roof of a school of the
city fell on the children who were learning to read; but one escaped of the one
hundred and twenty. Such were the anticipating signs sent them by the deity."
The Greeks regarded as supernatural signs, dreams, the flight of birds in the
heavens, the entrails of animals sacrificed—in a word, everything that they saw,
from the tremblings of the earth and eclipses to a simple sneeze. In the
expedition to Sicily, Nicias, the general of the Athenians, at the moment of
embarking his army for the retreat, was arrested by an eclipse of the moon; the
gods, thought he, had sent this prodigy to warn the Athenians not to continue
their enterprise. And so Nicias waited; he waited twenty-seven days offering
sacrifices to appease the gods. During this inactivity the enemy closed the port,
destroyed the fleet, and exterminated his army. The Athenians on learning this
news found but one thing with which to reproach Nicias: he should have known
that for an army in retreat the eclipse of the moon was a favorable sign. During
the retreat of the Ten Thousand, Xenophon, the general, making an address to his
soldiers, uttered this sentiment: "With the help of the gods we have the surest
hope that we shall save ourselves with glory." At this point a soldier sneezed. At
once all adored the god who had sent this omen. "Since at the very instant when
we are deliberating concerning our safety," exclaimed Xenophon, "Zeus the
savior has sent us an omen, let us with one consent offer sacrifices to him."[58]
The Oracles.—Often the god replies to the faithful who consult him not by a
mute sign, but by the mouth of an inspired person. The faithful enter the
sanctuary of the god seeking responses and counsel. These are Oracles.
There were oracles in many places in Greece and Asia. The most noted were
at Dodona in Epirus, and at Delphi, at the foot of Mount Parnassus. At Dodona it
was Zeus who spoke by the rustling of the sacred oaks. At Delphi it was Apollo
who was consulted. Below his temple, in a grotto, a current of cool air issued
from a rift in the ground. This air the Greeks thought[59] was sent by the god, for
he threw into a frenzy those who inhaled it. A tripod was placed over the orifice,
a woman (the Pythia), prepared by a bath in the sacred spring, took her seat on
the tripod, and received the inspiration. At once, seized with a nervous frenzy,
she uttered cries and broken sentences. Priests sitting about her caught these
expressions, set them to verse, and brought them to him who sought advice of
the god.
The oracles of the Pythia were often obscure and ambiguous. When Crœsus
asked if he should make war on the Persians, the reply was, "Crœsus will destroy
 a great empire." In fact, a great empire was destroyed, but it was that of Crœsus.
The Spartans had great confidence in the Pythia, and never initiated an
expedition without consulting her. The other Greeks imitated them, and Delphi
thus became a sort of national oracle.
Amphictyonies.—To protect the sanctuary of Delphi twelve of the principal
peoples of Greece had formed an association called an Amphictyony.[60] Every
year deputies from these peoples assembled at Delphi to celebrate the festival of
Apollo and see that the temple was not threatened; for this temple contained
immense wealth, a temptation to pillage it. In the sixth century the people of
Cirrha, a neighboring city of Delphi, appropriated these treasures,[61] The
Amphictyons declared war against them for sacrilege. Cirrha was taken and
destroyed, the inhabitants sold as slaves, the territory left fallow. In the fourth
century the Amphictyons made war on the Phocidians also who had seized the
treasury of Delphi, and on the people of Amphissa who had tilled a field
dedicated to Apollo.
Still it is not necessary to believe that the assembly of the Amphictyons ever
resembled a Greek senate. It was concerned only with the temple of Apollo, not
at all with political affairs. It did not even prevent members of the Amphictyony
fighting one another. The oracle and the Amphictyony of Delphi were more
potent than the other oracles and the other amphictyonies; but they never united
the Greeks into a single nation.

FOOTNOTES:

[51] See the account of the traveller Pausanias.

[52] "There are," says Hesiod, "30,000 gods on the fruitful earth."
[53] Greek scholars formed a select society of twelve gods and goddesses, but
their choice was arbitrary, and all did not agree on the same series. The
Greeks of different countries and of different epochs often represented
the same god under different forms. Further, the majority of the gods
seem to us to have vague and undetermined attributes; this is because
they were not the same everywhere.
[54] Iliad, viii., 18.
[55] In the dialogue "Eutyphron."
[56] Taine, "Philosophy of Art."
[57] Herodotus, vi., 27
[58] Xenophon, "Anabasis," iii, 2.
[59] This idea gained currency only in the later periods of Grecian history.—
ED.
[60] There were similar amphictyonies at Delos, Calauria, and Onchestus.
[61] The special charge against Cirrha was the levying of toll on pilgrims
coming to Delphi.—ED.

CHAPTER XIToC

SPARTA

THE PEOPLE

Laconia.—When the Dorian mountaineers invaded the Peloponnesus, the

main body of them settled at Sparta in Laconia. Laconia is a narrow valley
traversed by a considerable stream (the Eurotas) flowing between two massive
mountain ranges with snowy summits. A poet describes the country as follows:
"A land rich in tillable soil, but hard to cultivate, deep set among perpendicular
mountains, rough in aspect, inaccessible to invasion." In this enclosed country
lived the Dorians of Sparta in the midst of the ancient inhabitants who had
become, some their subjects, others their serfs. There were, then, in Laconia
three classes: Helots, Periœci, Spartiates.
The Helots.—The Helots dwelt in the cottages scattered in the plain and
cultivated the soil. But the land did not belong to them—indeed, they were not
even free to leave it. They were, like the serfs of the Middle Ages, peasants
attached to the soil, from father to son. They labored for a Spartiate proprietor
who took from them the greater part of the harvest. The Spartiates instructed
them, feared them, and ill treated them. They compelled them to wear rude
garments, beat them unreasonably to remind them of their servile condition, and
sometimes made them intoxicated to disgust their children with the sight of
drunkenness. A Spartiate poet compares the Helots to "loaded asses stumbling
under their burdens and the blows inflicted."
The Periœci.—The Periœci (those who live around) inhabited a hundred
villages in the mountains or on the coast. They were sailors, they engaged in
commerce, and manufactured the objects necessary to life. They were free and
administered the business of their village, but they paid tribute to the magistrates
of Sparta and obeyed them.
Condition of the Spartiates.—Helots and Periœci despised the Spartiates,
their masters. "Whenever one speaks to them of the Spartiates," says Xenophon,
[62] "there isn't one of them who can conceal the pleasure he would feel in eating
them alive." Once an earthquake nearly destroyed Sparta: the Helots at once
rushed from all sides of the plain to massacre those of the Spartiates who had
escaped the catastrophe. At the same time the Periœci rose and refused
obedience. The Spartiates' bearing toward the Periœci was certain to exasperate
them. At the end of a war in which many of the Helots had fought in their army,
they bade them choose those who had especially distinguished themselves for
bravery, with the promise of freeing them. It was a ruse to discover the most
energetic and those most capable of revolting. Two thousand were chosen; they
were conducted about the temples with heads crowned as an evidence of their
manumission; then the Spartiates put them out of the way, but how it was done
no one ever knew.[63]
And yet the oppressed classes were ten times more, numerous than their
masters. While there were more than 200,000 Helots and 120,000 Periœci, there
were never more than 9,000 Spartiate heads of families. In a matter of life and
death, then, it was necessary that a Spartiate be as good as ten Helots. As the
form of battle was hand-to-hand, they needed agile and robust men. Sparta was
like a camp without walls; its people was an army always in readiness.

EDUCATION

The Children.—They began to make soldiers of them at birth. The newly-

born infant was brought before a council; if it was found deformed, it was
exposed on the mountain to die; for an army has use only for strong men. The
children who were permitted to grow up were taken from their parents at the age
of seven years and were trained together as members of a group. Both summer
and winter they went bare-foot and had but a single mantle. They lay on a heap
of reeds and bathed in the cold waters of the Eurotas. They ate little and that
quickly and had a rude diet. This was to teach them not to satiate the stomach.
They were grouped by hundreds, each under a chief. Often they had to contend
together with blows of feet and fists. At the feast of Artemis they were beaten
before the statue of the goddess till the blood flowed; some died under this
ordeal, but their honor required them not to weep. They were taught to fight and
suffer.
Often they were given nothing to eat; provision must be found by foraging. If
they were captured on these predatory expeditions, they were roughly beaten. A
Spartiate boy who had stolen a little fox and had hidden it under his mantle,
rather than betray himself let the animal gnaw out his vitals. They were to learn
how to escape from perplexing situations when they were in the field.
They walked with lowered glance, silent, hands under the mantle, without
turning the head and "making no more noise than statues." They were not to
speak at table and were to obey all men that they encountered. This was to
accustom them to discipline.
The Girls.—The other Greeks kept their daughters secluded in the house,
spinning flax. The Spartiates would have robust women capable of bearing
vigorous children. The girls, therefore, were trained in much the same manner as
the boys. In their gymnasia they practised running, leaping, throwing the disc
and Javelin. A poet describes a play in which Spartiate girls "like colts with
flowing manes make the dust fly about them." They were reputed the healthiest
and bravest women in Greece.
The Discipline.—The men, too, have their regular life and this a soldier's life.
The presence of many enemies requires that no one shall weaken. At seventeen
years the Spartiate becomes a soldier and this he until he is sixty. The costume,
hour of rising and retiring, meals, exercise—everything is fixed by regulations as
in barracks.
Since the Spartiate engages only in war, he is to prepare himself for that; he
exercises himself in running, leaping, and wielding his arms; he disciplines all
the members of the body—the neck, the arms, the shoulders, the legs, and that
too, every day. He has no right to engage in trade, to pursue an industry, nor to
cultivate the earth; he is a soldier and is not to allow himself to be diverted to
any other occupation. He cannot live at his pleasure with his own family; the
men eat together in squads; they cannot leave the country without permission. It
is the discipline of a regiment in the enemy's territory.
Laconism.—These warriors had a rude life, with clean-cut aims and proud
disposition. They spoke in short phrases—or as we say, laconically—the word
has still persisted. The Greeks cited many examples of these expressions. To a
garrison in danger of being surprised the government sent this message,
"Attention!" A Spartan army was summoned by the king of Persia to lay down
his arms; the general replied, "Come and take them." When Lysander captured
Athens, he wrote simply, "Athens is fallen."
Music. The Dance.—The arts of Sparta were those that pertained to an army.
The Dorian conquerors brought with them a peculiar sort of music—the Dorian
style, serious, strong, even harsh. It was military music; the Spartiates went into
battle to the sound of the flute so that the step might be regular.
Their dance was a military movement. In the "Pyrrhic" the dancers were
armed and imitated all the movements of a battle; they made the gestures of
striking, of parrying, of retreating, and of throwing the javelin.
Heroism of the Women.—The women stimulated the men to combat; their
exhibitions of courage were celebrated in Greece, so much so that collections of
stories of them were made.[64] A Spartan mother, seeing her son fleeing from
battle, killed him with her own hand, saying; "The Eurotas does not flow for
deer." Another, learning that her five sons had perished, said, "This is not what I
wish to know; does victory belong to Sparta?" "Yes." "Then let us render thanks
to the gods."
 THE INSTITUTIONS OF SPARTA

The Kings and the Council.—The Spartiates had at first, like the other
Greeks, an assembly of the people. All these institutions were preserved, but
only in form. The kings, descendants of the god Herakles, were loaded with
honors; they were given the first place at the feasts and were served with a
double portion; when they died all the inhabitants made lamentation for them.
But no power was left to them and they were closely watched.
The Senate was composed of twenty-eight old men taken from the rich and
ancient families, appointed for life; but it did not govern.
The Ephors.—The real masters of Sparta were the Ephors (the name signifies
overseers), five magistrates who were renewed every year. They decided peace
and war, and had judicial functions; when the king commanded the army, they
accompanied him, directed the operations, and sometimes made him return.
Usually they consulted the senators and took action in harmony with them. Then
they assembled the Spartiates in one place, announced to them what had been
decided and asked their approbation. The people without discussing the matter
approved the action by acclamation. No one knew whether he had the right to
refuse assent; accustomed to obey, the Spartiate never refused. It was, therefore,
an aristocracy of governing families. Sparta was not a country of equality. There
were some men who were called Equals, but only because they were equal
among themselves. The others were termed Inferiors and had no part in the
government.
 The Army.—Thanks to this régime, the Spartiates preserved the rude customs
of mountaineers; they had no sculptors, no architects, no orators, no
philosophers. They had sacrificed everything to war; they became "adepts in the
military art,"[65] and instructors of the other Greeks. They introduced two
innovations especially: a better method of combat, a better method of athletic
exercise.
The Hoplites.—Before them the Greeks marched into battle in disorder; the
chiefs, on horseback or in a light chair, rushed ahead, the men following on foot,
armed each in his own fashion, helter-skelter, incapable of acting together or of
resisting. A battle reduced itself to a series of duels and to a massacre. At Sparta
all the soldiers had the same arms; for defence, the breastplate covering the
chest, the casque which protected the head, the greaves over the legs, the buckler
held before the body. For offence the soldier had a short sword and a long lance.
The man thus armed was called a hoplite. The Spartan hoplites were drawn up in
regiments, battalions, companies, squads, almost like our armies. An officer
commanded each of these groups and transmitted to his men the orders of his
superior officer, so that the general in chief might have the same movement
executed throughout the whole army. This organization which appears so simple
to us was to the Greeks an astonishing novelty.
The Phalanx.—Come into the presence of the enemy, the soldiers arrange
themselves in line, ordinarily eight ranks deep, each man close to his neighbor,
forming a compact mass which we call a Phalanx. The king, who directs the
army, sacrifices a goat to the gods; if the entrails of the victim are propitious, he
raises a chant which all the army takes up in unison. Then they advance. With
rapid and measured step, to the sound of the flute, with lance couched and
buckler before the body, they meet the enemy in dense array, overwhelm him by
their mass and momentum, throw him into rout, and only check themselves to
avoid breaking the phalanx. So long as they remain together each is protected by
his neighbor and all form an impenetrable mass on which the enemy could
secure no hold. These were rude tactics, but sufficient to overcome a disorderly
troop. Isolated men could not resist such a body. The other Greeks understood
this, and all, as far as they were able, imitated the Spartans; everywhere men
were armed as hoplites and fought in phalanx.
Gymnastics.—To rush in orderly array on the enemy and stand the shock of
battle there was need of agile and robust men; every man had to be an athlete.
The Spartans therefore organized athletic exercises, and in this the other Greeks
imitated them; gymnastics became for all a national art, the highest esteemed of
 all the arts, the crowning feature of the great festivals.
In the most remote countries, in the midst of the barbarians of Gaul or of the
Black Sea, a Greek city was recognized by its gymnasium. There was a great
square surrounded by porticoes or walks, usually near a spring, with baths and
halls for exercise. The citizens came hither to walk and chat: it was a place of
association. All the young men entered the gymnasium; for two years or less
they came here every day; they learned to leap, to run, to throw the disc and the
javelin, to wrestle by seizing about the waist. To harden the muscles and
strengthen the skin they plunged into cold water, dispensed with oil for the body,
and rubbed the flesh with a scraper (the strigil).
Athletes.—Many continued these exercises all their lives as a point of honor
and became Athletes. Some became marvels of skill. Milo of Croton in Italy, it
was said, would carry a bull on his shoulders; he stopped a chariot in its course
by seizing it from behind. These athletes served sometimes in combats as
soldiers, or as generals. Gymnastics were the school of war.
Rôle of the Spartiates.—The Spartans taught the other Greeks to exercise
and to fight. They always remained the most vigorous wrestlers and the best
soldiers, and were recognized as such by the rest of Greece. Everywhere they
were respected. When the rest of the Greeks had to fight together against the
Persians, they unhesitatingly took the Spartans as chiefs—and with justice, said
an Athenian orator.

FOOTNOTES:

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

[63] See Thucydides, iv., 80.
[64] A collection by Plutarch is still preserved.
[65] A phrase of Xenophon.
 CHAPTER XIIToC

ATHENS

THE ATHENIAN PEOPLE

Attica.—The Athenians boasted of having always lived in the same country;

their ancestors, according to their story, originated from the soil itself. The
mountaineers who conquered the south land passed by the country without
invading it; Attica was hardly a temptation to them.
Attica is composed of a mass of rocks which in the form of a triangle
advances into the sea. These rocks, renowned for their blocks of marble and for
the honey of their bees,[66] are bare and sterile. Between them and the sea are left
three small plains with meagre soil, meanly watered (the streams are dry in
summer) and incapable of supporting a numerous population.
Athens.—In the largest of these plains, a league from the sea, rises a massive
isolated rock: Athens was built at its foot. The old city, called the Acropolis,
occupied the summit of the rock.
The inhabitants of Attica commenced, not by forming a single state, but by
founding scattered villages, each of which had its own king and its own
government. Later all these villages united under one king,[67] the king of
Athens, and established a single city. This does not mean that all the people
came to dwell in one town. They continued to have their own villages and to
cultivate their lands; but all adored one and the same protecting goddess, Athena,
divinity of Athens, and all obeyed the same king.
Athenian Revolutions.—Later still the kings were suppressed. In their place
Athens had nine chiefs (the archons) who changed every year. This whole
history is little known to us for no writing of the time is preserved. They used to
say that for centuries the Athenians had lived in discord; the nobles (Eupatrids)
who were proprietors of the soil oppressed the peasants on their estates; creditors
held their debtors as slaves. To reëstablish order the Athenians commissioned
Solon, a sage, to draft a code of laws for them (594).
Solon made three reforms:
1. He lessened the value of the money, which allowed the debtors to
release themselves more easily.
2. He made the peasants proprietors of the land that they cultivated.
From this time there were in Attica more small proprietors than in any
other part of Greece.
3. He grouped all the citizens into four classes according to their
incomes. Each had to pay taxes and to render military service according
to his wealth, the poor being exempt from taxation and military service.
After Solon the Athenians were subject to Pisistratus, one of their powerful
and clever citizens; but in 510 the dissensions revived.
Reforms of Cleisthenes.—Cleisthenes, leader of one of the parties, used the
occasion to make a thoroughgoing revolution.
There were many strangers in Athens, especially seamen and traders who
lived in Piræus near the harbor. Cleisthenes gave them the rights of citizenship
and made them equal[68] to the older inhabitants. From this time there were two
populations side by side—the people of Attica and those of Piræus. A difference
of physical features was apparent for three centuries afterward: the people of
Attica resembled the rest of the Greeks; those in Piræus resembled Asiatics. The
Athenian people thus augmented was a new people, the most active in Greece.

THE ATHENIAN PEOPLE

In the fifth century the society of Athens was definitely formed: three classes
inhabited the district of Attica—slaves, foreigners, and citizens.
The Slaves.—The slaves constituted the great majority of the population;
there was no man so poor that he did not have at least one slave; the rich owned
a multitude of them, some as many as five hundred. The larger part of the slaves
lived in the house occupied with grinding grain, kneading bread, spinning and
weaving cloth, performing the service of the kitchens, and in attendance on their
masters. Others labored in the shops as blacksmiths, as dyers, or in stone
quarries or silver mines. Their master fed them but sold at a profit everything
which they produced, giving them in return nothing but their living. All the
domestic servants, all the miners, and the greater part of the artisans were slaves.
These men lived in society but without any part in it; they had not even the
disposition of their own bodies, being wholly the property of other men. They
were thought of only as objects of property; they were often referred to as "a
body" (σωμα). There was no other law for them than the will of their master, and
he had all power over them—to make them work, to imprison them, to deprive
them of their sustenance, to beat them. When a citizen went to law, his adversary
had the right to require that the former's slaves should be put to the torture to tell
what they knew. Many Athenian orators commend this usage as an ingenious
means for obtaining true testimony. "Torture," says the orator Isæus, "is the
surest means of proof; and so when you wish to clear up a contested question,
you do not address yourselves to freemen, but, placing the slaves to the torture,
you seek to discover the truth."
Foreigners.—The name Metics was applied to people of foreign origin who
were established in Athens. To become a citizen of Athens it was not enough, as
with us, to be born in the country; one must be the son of a citizen. It might be
that some aliens had resided in Attica for several generations and yet their family
not become Athenian. The metics could take no part in the government, could
not marry a citizen, nor acquire land. But they were personally free, they had the
right of commerce by sea, of banking and of trade on condition that they take a
patron to represent them in the courts. There were in Athens more than ten
thousand families of metics, the majority of them bankers or merchants.
The Citizens.—To be a citizen of Athens it was necessary that both parents
should be citizens. The young Athenian, come to maturity at about eighteen
years of age, appeared before the popular assembly, received the arms which he
was to bear and took the following oath: "I swear never to dishonor these sacred
arms, not to quit my post, to obey the magistrates and the laws, to honor the
religion of my country." He became simultaneously citizen and soldier.
Thereafter he owed military service until he was sixty years of age. With this he
had the right to sit in the assembly and to fulfil the functions of the state.
Once in a while the Athenians consented to receive into the citizenship a man
who was not the son of a citizen, but this was rare and a sign of great favor. The
assembly had to vote the stranger into its membership, and then nine days after
six thousand citizens had to vote for him on a secret ballot. The Athenian people
was like a closed circle; no new members were admitted except those pleasing to
the old members, and they admitted few beside their sons.

THE GOVERNMENT OF ATHENS

The Assembly.—The Athenians called their government a democracy (a

government by the people). But this people was not, as with us, the mass of
inhabitants, but the body of citizens, a true aristocracy of 15,000 to 20,000 men
who governed the whole nation as masters. This body had absolute power, and
was the true sovereign of Athens. It assembled at least three times a month to
deliberate and to vote. The assembly was held in the open air on the Pnyx; the
citizens sat on stone benches arranged in an amphitheatre; the magistrates before
them on a platform opened the session with a religious ceremony and a prayer,
then a herald proclaimed in a loud voice the business which was to occupy the
assembly, and said, "Who wishes to speak?" Every citizen had the right to this
privilege; the orators mounted the tribune according to age. When all had
spoken, the president put the question; the assembly voted by a show of hands,
and then dissolved.
The Courts.—The people itself, being sovereign, passed judgment in the
courts. Every citizen of thirty years of age could participate in the judicial
assembly (the Heliæa). The heliasts sat in the great halls in sections of five
hundred; the tribunal was, then, composed of one thousand to fifteen hundred
judges. The Athenians had no prosecuting officer as we have; a citizen took
upon himself to make the accusation. The accused and the accuser appeared
before the court; each delivered a plea which was not to exceed the time marked
off by a water-clock. Then the judges voted by depositing a black or white stone.
If the accuser did not obtain a certain number of votes, he himself was
condemned.
The Magistrates.—The sovereign people needed a council to prepare the
business for discussion and magistrates to execute their decisions. The council
was composed of five hundred citizens drawn by lot for one year. The
magistrates were very numerous: ten generals to command the army, thirty
officials for financial administration, sixty police officials to superintend the
streets, the markets, weights and measures, etc.[69]
Character of This Government.—The power in Athens did not pertain to the
rich and the noble, as in Sparta. In the assembly everything was decided by a
majority of votes and all the votes were equal. All the jurors, all the members of
the council, all the magistrates except the generals were chosen by lot. The
citizens were equal not only in theory, but also in practice. Socrates said[70] to a
well-informed Athenian who did not dare to speak before the people: "Of what
are you afraid? Is it of the fullers, the shoe-makers, the masons, the artisans, or
the merchants? for the assembly is composed of all these people."
Many of these people had to ply their trade in order to make a living, and
could not serve the state gratuitously; and so a salary was instituted: every
citizen who sat in the assembly or in the courts received for every day of session
three obols (about eight cents of our money), a sum just sufficient to maintain
life at that time. From this day the poor administered the government.
The Demagogues.—Since all important affairs whether in the assembly or in
the courts were decided by discussion and discourse, the influential men were
those who knew how to speak best. The people accustomed themselves to listen
to the orators, to follow their counsels, to charge them with embassies, and even
to appoint them generals. These men were called Demagogues (leaders of the
people). The party of the rich scoffed at them: in a comedy Aristophanes
represents the people (Demos) under the form of an old man who has lost his
wits: "You are foolishly credulous, you let flatterers and intriguers pull you
around by the nose and you are enraptured when they harangue you." And the
chorus, addressing a charlatan, says to him, "You are rude, vicious; you have a
strong voice, an impudent eloquence, and violent gestures; believe me, you have
all that is necessary to govern Athens."

PRIVATE LIFE

The Athenians created so many political functions that a part of the citizens
was engaged in fulfilling them. The citizen of Athens, like the functionary or
soldier of our days, was absorbed in public affairs. Warring and governing were
the whole of his life. He spent his days in the assembly, in the courts, in the
army, at the gymnasium, or at the market. Almost always he had a wife and
children, for his religion commanded this, but he did not live at home.
The Children.—When a child came into the world, the father had the right to
reject it. In this case it was laid outside the house where it died from neglect,
unless a passer-by took it and brought it up as a slave. In this custom Athens
followed all the Greeks. It was especially the girls that were exposed to death. "A
son," says a writer of comedy, "is always raised even if the parents are in the last
stage of misery; a daughter is exposed even though the parents are rich."
If the father accepted the child, the latter entered the family. He was left at
first in the women's apartments with the mother. The girls remained there until
the day of their marriage; the boys came out when they were seven years old.
The boy was then entrusted to a preceptor (pedagogue), whose business it was to
teach him to conduct himself well and to obey. The pedagogue was often a slave,
but the father gave him the right to beat his son. This was the general usage in
antiquity.
Later the boy went to school, where he learned to read, write, cipher, recite
poetry, and to sing in the chorus or to the sound of the flute. At last came
gymnastics. This was the whole of the instruction; it made men sound in body
and calm in spirit—what the Greeks called "good and beautiful."
To the young girl, secluded with her mother, nothing of the liberal arts was
taught; it was thought sufficient if she learned to obey. Xenophon represents a
rich and well-educated Athenian speaking thus of his wife with Socrates: "She
was hardly twenty years old when I married her, and up to that time she had been
subjected to an exacting surveillance; they had no desire that she should live, and
she learned almost nothing. Was it not enough that one should find in her a
woman who could spin the flax to make garments, and who had learned how to
distribute duties to the slaves?" When her husband proposed that she become his
assistant, she replied with great surprise, "In what can I aid you? Of what am I
capable? My mother has always taught me that my business was to be prudent."
Prudence or obedience was the virtue which was required of the Greek woman.
Marriage.—At the age of fifteen the girl married. The parents had chosen the
husband; it might be a man from a neighboring family, or a man who had been a
long-time friend of the father, but always a citizen of Athens. It was rare that the
young girl knew him; she was never consulted in the case. Herodotus, speaking
of a Greek, adds: "This Callias deserves mention for his conduct toward his
daughters; for when they were of marriageable age he gave them a rich dowry,
permitted them to choose husbands from all the people, and he then married
 them to the men of their choice."
Athenian Women.—In the inner recess of the Athenian house there was a
retired apartment reserved for the women—the Gynecæum. Husband and
relatives were the only visitors; the mistress of the household remained here all
day with her slaves; she directed them, superintended the house-keeping, and
distributed to them the flax for them to spin. She herself was engaged with
weaving garments. She left the house seldom save for the religious festivals. She
never appeared in the society of men: "No one certainly would venture," says the
orator Isæus, "to dine with a married woman; married women do not go out to
dine with men or permit themselves to eat with strangers." An Athenian woman
who frequented society could not maintain a good reputation.
The wife, thus secluded and ignorant, was not an agreeable companion. The
husband had taken her not for his life-long companion, but to keep his house in
order, to be the mother of his children, and because Greek custom and religion
required that he should marry. Plato says that one does not marry because he
wants to, but "because the law constrains him." And the comic poet Menander
had found this saying: "Marriage, to tell the truth, is an evil, but a necessary
evil." And so the women in Athens, as in most of the other states of Greece,
always held but little place in society.

FOOTNOTES:

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

[67] This legendary king was called Theseus.
[68] Certain limitations, however, are referred to below, under "Metics."—ED.
[69] Not to mention the Archons, whom they had not ventured to suppress.
[70] Xenophon, "Memorabilia," iii., 7, 6.
 CHAPTER XIIIToC

WARS OF THE GREEKS

THE PERSIAN WARS

Origin of the Persian Wars.—While the Greeks were completing the

organization of their cities, the Persian king was uniting all the nations of the
East in a single empire. Greeks and Orientals at length found themselves face to
face. It is in Asia Minor that they first meet.
On the coast of Asia Minor there were rich and populous colonies of the
Greeks;[71] Cyrus, the king of Persia, desired to subject them. These cities sent
for help to the Spartans, who were reputed the bravest of the Greeks, and this
action was reported to Cyrus; he replied,[72] "I have never feared this sort of
people that has in the midst of the city a place where the people assemble to
deceive one another with false oaths." (He was thinking of the market-place.)
The Greeks of Asia were subdued and made subject to the Great King.
Thirty years later King Darius found himself in the presence of the Greeks of
Europe. But this time it was the Greeks that attacked the Great King. The
Athenians sent twenty galleys to aid the revolting Ionians; their soldiers entered
Lydia, took Sardis by surprise and burned it. Darius revenged himself by
destroying the Greek cities of Asia, but he did not forget the Greeks of Europe.
He had decreed, they say, that at every meal an officer should repeat to him:
"Master, remember the Athenians." He sent to the Greek cities to demand earth
and water, a symbol in use among the Persians to indicate submission to the
Great King. Most of the Greeks were afraid and yielded. But the Spartans cast
the envoys into a pit, bidding them take thence earth and water to carry to the
king. This was the beginning of the Median wars.
Comparison of the Two Adversaries.—The contrast between the two worlds
which now entered into conflict is well marked by Herodotus[73] in the form of a
conversation of King Xerxes with Demaratus, a Spartan exile: "'I venture to
assure you,' said Demaratus, 'that the Spartans will offer you battle even if all the
rest of the Greeks fight on your side, and if their army should not amount to
more than one thousand men.' 'What!' said Xerxes, 'one thousand men attack so
immense an army as mine! I fear your words are only boasting; for although they
be five thousand, we are more than one thousand to one. If they had a master like
us, fear would inspire them with courage; they would march under the lash
against a larger army; but being free and independent, they will have no more
courage than that with which nature has endowed them.' 'The Spartans,' replied
Demaratus, 'are not inferior to anybody in a hand-to-hand contest, and united in
a phalanx they are the bravest of all men. Yet, though free, they have an absolute
master, the Law, which they dread more than all your subjects do you; they obey
it, and this law requires them to stand fast to their post and conquer or die.'" This
is the difference between the two parties to the conflict: on the one side, a
multitude of subjects united by force under a capricious master; on the other,
little martial republics whose citizens govern themselves according to laws
which they respect.
First Persian War.—There were two Persian wars. The first was simply an
expedition against Athens; six hundred galleys sent by Darius disembarked a
Persian army on the little plain of Marathon, seven hours distant from Athens.
Religious sentiment prevented the Spartans from taking the field before the
full moon, and it was still only the first quarter; the Athenians had to fight alone.
[74] Ten thousand citizens armed as hoplites camped before the Persians. The
Athenians had ten generals, having the command on successive days; of these
Miltiades, when his turn came, drew up the army for battle. The Athenians
charged the enemy in serried ranks, but the Persians seeing them advancing
without cavalry and without archers, thought them fools. It was the first time that
the Greeks had dared to face the Persians in battle array. The Athenians began by
turning both flanks, and then engaged the centre, driving the Persians in disorder
to the sea and forcing them to reëmbark on their ships.
The victory of Marathon delivered the Athenians and made them famous in all
Greece (490).
Second Persian War.—The second war began ten years later with an
invasion. Xerxes united all the peoples of the empire, so that the land force
amounted, as some say, to 1,700,000 men.[75] There were Medes and Persians
clad in sleeved tunics, armed with cuirasses of iron, bucklers, bows and arrows;
Assyrians with cuirass of linen, armed with clubs pointed with iron; Indians clad
in cotton with bows and arrows of bamboo; savages of Ethiopia with leopard
skins for clothing; nomads armed only with lassos; Phrygians armed with short
pikes; Lydians equipped like Greeks; Thracians carrying javelins and daggers.
The enumeration of these fills twenty chapters in Herodotus.[76] These warriors
brought with them a crowd equally numerous of non-combatants, of servants,
slaves, women, together with a mass of mules, horses, camels, and baggage
wagons.
This horde crossed the Hellespont by a bridge of boats in the spring of 480.
For seven days and nights it defiled under the lash. Then traversing Thrace, it
marched on Greece, conquering the peoples whom it met.
The Persian fleet, 1,200 galleys strong, coasted the shores of Thrace, passing
through the canal at Mount Athos which Xerxes had had built for this very
purpose.
The Greeks, terrified, submitted for the most part to the Great King and joined
their armies to the Persian force. The Athenians sent to consult the oracle of
Delphi, but received only the reply; "Athens will be destroyed from base to
summit." The god being asked to give a more favorable response, replied, "Zeus
accords to Pallas [protectress of Athens] a wall of wood which alone shall not be
taken; in that shall you and your children find safety." The priests of whom they
asked the interpretation of this oracle bade the Athenians quit Attica and go to
establish themselves elsewhere. But Themistocles explained the "wall of wood"
as meaning the ships; they should retire to the fleet and fight the Persians on sea.
Athens and Sparta, having decided on resistance, endeavored to form a league
of the Greeks against the Persians. Few cities had the courage to enter it, and
these placed themselves under the command of the Spartans. Four battles in one
year settled the war. At Thermopylæ, Leonidas, king of Sparta, who tried to bar
the entrance to a defile was outflanked and overwhelmed. At Salamis, the
Persian fleet, crowded into a narrow space where the ships embarrassed one
another, was defeated by the Greek navy (480). At Platæa the rest of the Persian
army left in Greece was annihilated by the Greek hoplites; of 300,000 men but
40,000 escaped. The same day at Mycale, on the coast of Asia, an army of the
Greeks landed and routed the Persians (479). The Greeks had conquered the
Great King.
Reasons for the Greek Victory.—The Median war was not a national war
between Greeks and barbarians. All the Greeks of Asia and half the Greeks of
Europe fought on the Persian side. Many of the other Greeks gave no assistance.
In reality it was a fight of the Great King and his subjects against Sparta, Athens,
and their allies.
The conquest of this great horde by two small peoples appeared at that time as
a prodigy. The gods, said the Greeks, had fought for them. But there is less
wonder when we examine the two antagonists more closely: the Persian army
was innumerable, and Xerxes had thought that victory was a matter of numbers.
But this multitude was an embarrassment to itself. It did not know where to
secure food for itself, it advanced but slowly, and it choked itself on the day of
combat. Likewise the ships arranged in too close order drove their prows into
neighboring ships and shattered their oars. Then in this immense crowd there
were, according to Herodotus, many men but few soldiers. Only the Persians and
Medes, the flower of the army, fought with energy; the rest advanced only under
the lash, they had come under pressure to a war which had no interest for them,
ill-armed and without discipline, ready to desert as soon as no one was watching
them. At Platæa the Medes and Persians were the only ones to do any fighting;
the subjects kept aloof.
The Persian soldiers were ill-equipped; they were embarrassed by their long
robes, the head was poorly protected by a felt hat, the body ill-defended by a
shield of wicker-work. For arms they had a bow, a dagger, and a very short pike;
they could fight only at a great distance or hand-to-hand. The Spartans and their
allies, on the contrary, secure in the protection of great buckler, helmet and
greaves, marched in solid line and were irresistible; they broke the enemy with
their long pikes and at once the battle became a massacre.
Results of the Persian Wars.—Sparta had commanded the troops, but as
Herodotus says,[77] it was Athens who had delivered Greece by setting an
example of resistance and constituting the fleet of Salamis. It was Athens who
profited by the victory. All the Ionian cities of the Archipelago and of the coast
of Asia revolted and formed a league against the Persians. The Spartans, men of
the mountains, could not conduct a maritime war, and so withdrew; the
Athenians immediately became chiefs of the league. In 476[78] Aristides,
commanding the fleet, assembled the delegates of the confederate cities. They
decided to continue the war against the Great King, and engaged to provide ships
and warriors and to pay each year a contribution of 460 talents ($350,000). The
treasure was deposited at Delos in the temple of Apollo, god of the Ionians.
Athens was charged with the leadership of the military force and with collecting
the tax. To make the agreement irrevocable Aristides had a mass of hot iron cast
into the sea, and all swore to maintain the oaths until the day that the iron should
mount to the surface.
A day came, however, when the war ceased, and the Greeks, always the
victors, concluded a peace, or at least a truce,[79] with the Great King. He
surrendered his claim on the Asiatic Greeks (about 449).
What was to become of the treaty of Aristides? Were the confederate cities
still to pay their contribution now that there was no more fighting? Some refused
it even before the war was done. Athens asserted that the cities had made their
engagements in perpetuity and forced them to pay them.
The war finished, the treasury at Delos had no further use; the Athenians
transferred the money to Athens and used it in building their monuments. They
maintained that the allies paid for deliverance from the Persians; they, therefore,
had no claim against Athens so long as she defended them from the Great King.
The allies had now become the tributaries of Athens: they were now her
subjects. Athens increased the tax on them, and required their citizens to bring
their cases before the Athenian courts; she even sent colonists to seize a part of
their lands. Athens, mistress of the league, was sovereign over more than three
hundred cities spread over the islands and the coasts of the Archipelago, and the
tribute paid her amounted to six hundred talents a year.

STRIFE AMONG THE GREEK STATES

The Peloponnesian War.—After the foundation of the Athenian empire in

the Archipelago the Greeks found themselves divided between two leagues—the
maritime cities were subject to Athens; the cities of the interior remained under
the domination of Sparta. After much preliminary friction war arose between
Sparta and her continental allies on the one side and Athens and her maritime
subjects on the other. This was the Peloponnesian War. It continued twenty-
seven years (431-404), and when it ceased, it was revived under other names
down to 360.
These wars were complicated affairs. They were fought simultaneously on
land and sea, in Greece, Asia, Thrace, and Sicily, ordinarily at several points at
once. The Spartans had a better army and ravaged Attica; the Athenians had a
superior fleet and made descents on the coasts of the Peloponnesus. Then Athens
sent its army to Sicily where it perished to the last man (413); Lysander, a
Spartan general, secured a fleet from the Persians and destroyed the Athenian
fleet in Asia (405). The Athenian allies who fought only under compulsion
abandoned her. Lysander took Athens, demolished its walls, and burnt its ships.
Wars against Sparta.—Sparta was for a time mistress on both land and sea.
"In those days," says Xenophon, "all cities obeyed when a Spartan issued his
orders." But soon the allies of Sparta, wearied of her domination, formed a
league against her. The Spartans, driven at first from Asia, still maintained their
power in Greece for some years by virtue of their alliance with the king of the
Persians (387). But the Thebans, having developed a strong army under the
command of Epaminondas, fought them at Leuctra (371) and at Mantinea (362).
The allies of Sparta detached themselves from her, but the Thebans could not
secure from the rest of the Greeks the recognition of their supremacy. From this
time no Greek city was sovereign over the others.
Savage Character of These Wars.—These wars between the Greek cities
were ferocious. A few incidents suffice to show their character. At the opening of
the war the allies of Sparta threw into the sea all the merchants from cities
hostile to them. The Athenians in return put to death the ambassadors of Sparta
without allowing them to speak a word. The town of Platæa was taken by
capitulation, and the Spartans had promised that no one should be punished
without a trial; but the Spartan judges demanded of every prisoner if during the
war he had rendered any service to the Peloponnesians; when the prisoner
replied in the negative, he was condemned to death. The women were sold as
slaves. The city of Mitylene having revolted from Athens was retaken by her.
The Athenians in an assembly deliberated and decreed that all the people of
Mitylene should be put to death. It is true that the next day the Athenians revised
the decree and sent a second ship to carry a more favorable commission, but still
more than one thousand Mityleneans were executed.
After the Syracusan disaster all the Athenian army was taken captive. The
conquerors began by slaughtering all the generals and many of the soldiers. The
remainder were consigned to the quarries which served as prison. They were left
there crowded together for seventy days, exposed without protection to the
burning sun of summer, and then to the chilly nights of autumn. Many died from
sickness, from cold and hunger—for they were hardly fed at all; their corpses
remained on the ground and infected the air. At last the Syracusans drew out the
survivors sold them into slavery.
Ordinarily when an army invaded a hostile state it levelled the houses, felled
 the trees, burned the crops and killed the laborers. After battle it made short
shrift of the wounded and killed prisoners in cold blood. In a captured city
everything belonged to the captor: men, women, children were sold as slaves.
Such was at this time the right of war. Thucydides sums up the case as follows:
[80] "Business is regulated between men by the laws of justice when there is
obligation on both sides; but the stronger does whatever is in his power, and the
weaker yields. The gods rule by a necessity of their nature because they are
strongest; men do likewise."
Results of These Wars.—These wars did not result in uniting the Greeks into
one body. No city, Sparta more than Athens, was able to force the others to obey
her. They only exhausted themselves by fighting one another. It was the king of
Persia who profited by the strife. Not only did the Greek cities not unite against
him, but all in succession allied themselves with him against the other Greeks. In
the notorious Peace of Antalcidas (387) the Great King declared that all the
Greek cities of Asia belonged to him, and Sparta recognized this claim. Athens
and Thebes did as much some years later. An Athenian orator said, "It is the king
of Persia who governs Greece; he needs only to establish governors in our cities.
Is it not he who directs everything among us? Do we not summon the Great
King as if we were his slaves?" The Greeks by their strife had lost the vantage
that the Median war had gained for them.

FOOTNOTES:

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

[72] Herod., i., 153.
[73] Herod., vii., 103, 104.
[74] 1,000 Platæans came to the assistance of the Athenians.—ED.
[75] Herodotus's statements of the numbers in Xerxes' army are incredible.—
ED.
[76] Herod., vii., 61-80.
[77] vii., 139.
[78] The chronology of these events is uncertain.—ED.
[79] Called the Peace of Cimon, but it is very doubtful whether Cimon really
concluded a treaty. [With more right may it be called the Peace of
Callias, who was probably principal ambassador.—ED.]
[80] In his chapters on the Mityleneans.

CHAPTER XIVToC

THE ARTS IN GREECE

ATHENS AT THE TIME OF PERICLES

Pericles.—In the middle of the fifth century Athens found herself the most
powerful city in Greece. Pericles, descended from one of the noble families, was
then the director of the affairs of the state. He wasted neither speech nor
personality, and never sought to flatter the vanity of the people. But the
Athenians respected him and acted only in accordance with his counsels; they
had faith in his knowledge of all the details of administration, of the resources of
the state, and so they permitted him to govern. For forty years Pericles was the
soul of the politics of Athens; as Thucydides his contemporary said, "The
democracy existed in name; in reality it was the government of the first citizen."
Athens and Her Monuments.—In Athens, as in the majority of Greek cities,
the houses of individuals were small, low, packed closely together, forming
narrow streets, tortuous and ill paved. The Athenians reserved their display for
their public monuments. Ever after they levied heavy war taxes on their allies
they had large sums of money to expend, and these were employed in erecting
beautiful edifices. In the market-place they built a portico adorned with paintings
(the Poikile), in the city a theatre, a temple in honor of Theseus, and the Odeon
for the contests in music. But the most beautiful monuments rose on the rock of
the Acropolis as on a gigantic pedestal. There were two temples of which the
principal, the Parthenon, was dedicated to Athena, protecting goddess of the city;
a colossal statue of bronze which represented Athena; and a staircase of
ornamental character leading up to the Propylæa. Athens was from this time the
most beautiful of the Greek cities.[81]
Importance of Athens.—Athens became at the same time the city of artists.
Poets, orators, architects, painters, sculptors—some Athenians by birth, others
come from all corners of the Greek world—met here and produced their
masterpieces. There were without doubt many Greek artists elsewhere than at
Athens; there had been before the fifth century, and there were a long time
afterward; but never were so many assembled at one time in the same city. Most
of the Greeks had fine sensibilities in matters of art; but the Athenians more than
all others had a refined taste, a cultivated spirit and love of the beautiful. If the
Greeks have gained renown in the history of civilization, it is that they have been
a people of artists; neither their little states nor their small armies have played a
great rôle in the world. This is why the fifth century is the most beautiful
moment in the history of Greece; this is why Athens has remained renowned
above all the rest of the Greek cities.

LETTERS

The Orators.—Athens is above all the city of eloquence. Speeches in the

assembly determine war, peace, taxes, all state business of importance; speeches
before the courts condemn or acquit citizens and subjects. Power is in the hands
of the orators; the people follow their counsels and often commit to them
important public functions: Cleon is appointed general; Demosthenes directs the
war against Philip.
The orators have influence; they employ their talents in eloquence to accuse
their political enemies. Often they possess riches, for they are paid for
supporting one party or the other: Æschines is retained by the king of Macedon;
Demosthenes accepts fees from the king of Persia.
 Some of the orators, instead of delivering their own orations, wrote speeches
for others. When an Athenian citizen had a case at court, he did not desire, as we
do, that an advocate plead his case for him; the law required that each speak in
person. He therefore sought an orator and had him compose a speech which he
learned by heart and recited before the tribunal.
Other orators travelled through the cities of Greece speaking on subjects
which pleased their fancy. Sometimes they gave lectures, as we should say.
The oldest orators spoke simply, limiting themselves to an account of the facts
without oratorical flourishes; on the platform they were almost rigid without
loud speaking or gesticulation. Pericles delivered his orations with a calm air, so
quietly, indeed, that no fold of his mantle was disturbed. When he appeared at
the tribune, his head, according to custom, crowned with leaves, he might have
been taken, said the people, "for a god of Olympus." But the orators who
followed wished to move the public. They assumed an animated style, pacing the
tribune in a declamatory and agitated manner. The people became accustomed to
this form of eloquence. The first time that Demosthenes came to the tribune the
assembly shouted with laughter; the orator could not enunciate, he carried
himself ill. He disciplined himself in declamation and gesture and became the
favorite of the people. Later when he was asked what was the first quality of the
orator, he replied, "Action, and the second, action, and the third, action." Action,
that is delivery, was more to the Greeks than the sense of the discourse.
The Sages.—For some centuries there had been, especially among the Greeks
of Asia, men who observed and reflected on things. They were called by a name
which signifies at once wise men and scholars. They busied themselves with
physics, astronomy, natural history, for as yet science was not separated from
philosophy. Such were in the seventh century the celebrated Seven Sages of
Greece.
The Sophists.—About the time of Pericles there came to Athens men who
professed to teach wisdom. They gathered many pupils and charged fees for their
lessons. Ordinarily they attacked the religion, customs, and institutions of Greek
cities, showing that they were not founded on reason. They concluded that men
could not know anything with certainty (which was quite true for their time), that
men can know nothing at all, and that nothing is true or false: "Nothing exists,"
said one of them, "and if it did exist, we could not know it." These professors of
scepticism were called sophists. Some of them were at the same time orators.
Socrates and the Philosophers.—Socrates, an old man of Athens, undertook
to combat the sophists. He was a poor man, ugly, and without eloquence. He
opened no school like the sophists but contented himself with going about the
city, conversing with those he met, and leading them by the force of his
questions to discover what he himself had in mind. He sought especially the
young men and gave them instruction and counsel. Socrates made no pretensions
as a scholar: "All my knowledge," said he, "is to know that I know nothing." He
would call himself no longer a sage, like the others, but a philosopher, that is to
say, a lover of wisdom. He did not meditate on the nature of the world nor on the
sciences; man was his only interest. His motto was, "Know thyself." He was
before all a preacher of virtue.
As he always spoke of morals and religion, the Athenians took him for a
sophist.[82] In 399 he was brought before the court, accused "of not worshipping
the gods of the city, of introducing new gods, and of corrupting the youth." He
made no attempt to defend himself, and was condemned to death. He was then
seventy years old.
Xenophon, one of his disciples, wrote out his conversations and an apology
for him.[83] Another disciple, Plato, composed dialogues in which Socrates is
always the principal personage. Since this time Socrates has been regarded as the
"father of philosophy." Plato himself was the head of a school (429-348);
Aristotle (384-322), a disciple of Plato, summarized in his books all the science
of his time. The philosophers that followed attached themselves to one or the
other of these two masters: the disciples of Plato called themselves
Academicians,[84] those of Aristotle, Peripatetics.[85]
The Chorus.—It was an ancient custom of the Greeks to dance in their
religious ceremonies. Around the altar dedicated to the god a group of young
men passed and repassed, assuming noble and expressive attitudes, for the
ancients danced with the whole body. Their dance, very different from ours, was
a sort of animated procession, something like a solemn pantomime. Almost
always this religious dance was accompanied by chants in honor of the god. The
group singing and dancing at the same time was called the Chorus. All the cities
had their festival choruses in which the children of the noblest families
participated after long time of preparation. The god required the service of a
troop worthy of him.
Tragedy and Comedy.—In the level country about Athens the young men
celebrated in this manner each year religious dances in honor of Dionysos, the
god of the vintage. One of these dances was grave; it represented the actions of
the god. The leader of the chorus played Dionysos, the chorus itself the satyrs,
his companions. Little by little they came to represent also the life of the other
gods and the ancient heroes. Then some one (the Greeks call him Thespis)
conceived the idea of setting up a stage on which the actor could play while the
chorus rested. The spectacle thus perfected was transferred to the city near the
black poplar tree in the market. Thus originated Tragedy.
The other dance was comic. The masked dancers chanted the praises of
Dionysos mingled with jeers addressed to the spectators or with humorous
reflections on the events of the day. The same was done for the comic chorus as
for the tragic chorus: actors were introduced, a dialogue, all of a piece, and the
spectacle was transferred to Athens. This was the origin of Comedy. This is the
reason that from this time tragedy has been engaged with heroes, and comedy
with every-day life.
Tragedy and comedy preserved some traces of their origin. Even when they
were represented in the theatre, they continued to be played before the altar of
the god. Even after the actors mounted on the platform had become the most
important personages of the spectacle, the choir continued to dance and to chant
around the altar. In the comedies, like the masques in other days, sarcastic
remarks on the government came to be made; this was the Parabasis.
The Theatre.—That all the Athenians might be present at these spectacles
there was built on the side of the Acropolis the theatre of Dionysos which could
hold 30,000 spectators. Like all the Greek theatres, it was open to heaven and
was composed of tiers of rock ranged in a half-circle about the orchestra where
the chorus performed and before the stage where the play was given.
Plays were produced only at the time of the festivals of the god, but then they
continued for several days in succession. They began in the morning at sunrise
and occupied all the time till torch-light with the production of a series of three
tragedies (a trilogy) followed by a satirical drama. Each trilogy was the work of
one author. Other trilogies were presented on succeeding days, so that the
spectacle was a competition between poets, the public determining the victor.
The most celebrated of these competitors were Æschylus, Sophocles, and
Euripides. There were also contests in comedy, but there remain to us only the
works of one comic poet, Aristophanes.

THE ARTS
 Greek Temples.—In Greece the most beautiful edifices were constructed to
the honor of the gods, and when we speak of Greek architecture it is their
temples that we have in mind.
A Greek temple is not, like a Christian church, designed to receive the faithful
who come thither to pray. It is the palace[86] where the god lives, represented by
his idol, a palace which men feel under compulsion to make splendid. The mass
of the faithful do not enter the interior of the temple; they remain without,
surrounding the altar in the open air.
At the centre of the temple is the "chamber" of the god, a mysterious
sanctuary without windows, dimly lighted from above.[87] On the pavement rises
the idol of wood, of marble, or of ivory, clad in gold and adorned with garments
and jewels. The statue is often of colossal size; in the temple of Olympia Zeus is
represented sitting and his head almost touches the summit of the temple. "If the
god should rise," they said, "his head would shatter the roof." This sanctuary, a
sort of reliquary for the idol, is concealed on every side from the eyes. To enter,
it is necessary to pass through a porch formed by a row of columns.
Behind the "chamber" is the "rear-chamber" in which are kept the valuable
property of the god—his riches,[88] and often the gold and silver of the city. The
temple is therefore storehouse, treasury, and museum.
Rows of columns surround the building on four sides, like a second wall
protecting the god and his treasures. There are three orders of columns which
differ in base and capital, each bearing the name of the people that invented it or
most frequently used it. They are, in the order of age, the Doric, the Ionic, and
the Corinthian. The temple is named from the style of the columns supporting it.
Above the columns, around the edifice are sculptured surfaces of marble (the
metopes) which alternate with plain blocks of marble (the triglyphs). Metopes
and triglyphs constitute the frieze.
The temple is surmounted with a triangular pediment adorned with statues.
Greek temples were polychrome, that is to say, were painted in several colors,
yellow, blue, and red. For a long time the moderns refused to believe this; it was
thought that the Greeks possessed too sober taste to add color to an edifice. But
traces of painting have been discovered on several temples, which cannot leave
the matter in doubt. It has at last been concluded, on reflection, that these bright
colors were to give a clearer setting to the lines.
Characteristics of Greek Architecture.—A Greek temple appears at first a
simple, bare edifice; it is only a long box of stone set upon a rock; the façade is a
square surmounted by a triangle. At first glance one sees only straight lines and
cylinders. But on nearer inspection "it is discovered[89] that not a single one of
these lines is truly straight." The columns swell at the middle, vertical lines are
slightly inclined to the centre, and horizontal lines bulge a little at the middle.
And all this is so fine that exact measurements are necessary to detect the
artifice. Greek architects discovered that, to produce a harmonious whole, it is
necessary to avoid geometrical lines which would appear stiff, and take account
of illusions in perspective. "The aim of the architect," says a Greek writer, "is to
invent processes for deluding the sight."
Greek artists wrought conscientiously for they worked for the gods. And so
their monuments are elaborated in all their parts, even in those that are least in
view, and are constructed so solidly that they exist to this day if they have not
been violently destroyed. The Parthenon was still intact in the seventeenth
century. An explosion of gunpowder wrecked it.
The architecture of the Greeks was at once solid and elegant, simple and
scientific. Their temples have almost all disappeared; here and there are a very
few,[90] wholly useless, in ruins, with roofs fallen in, often nothing left but rows
of columns. And yet, even in this state, they enrapture those who behold them.
Sculpture.—Among the Egyptians and the Assyrians sculpture was hardly
more than an accessory ornament of their edifices; the Greeks made it the
principal art. Their most renowned artists, Phidias, Praxiteles, and Lysippus,
were sculptors.
They executed bas-reliefs to adorn the walls of a temple, its façade or its
pediment. Of this style of work is the famous frieze of the Panathenaic
procession which was carved around the Parthenon, representing young
Athenian women on the day of the great festival of the goddess.[91]
They sculptured statues for the most part, of which some represented gods and
served as idols; others represented athletes victorious in the great games, and
these were the recompense of his victory.
The most ancient statues of the Greeks are stiff and rude, quite similar to the
Assyrian sculptures. They are often colored. Little by little they become graceful
and elegant. The greatest works are those of Phidias in the fifth century and of
Praxiteles in the fourth. The statues of the following centuries are more graceful,
but less noble and less powerful.
There were thousands of statues in Greece,[92] for every city had its own, and
the sculptors produced without cessation for five centuries. Of all this multitude
there remain to us hardly fifteen complete statues. Not a single example of the
masterpieces celebrated among the Greeks has come down to us. Our most
famous Greek statues are either copies, like the Venus of Milo, or works of the
period of the decadence, like the Apollo of the Belvidere.[93] Still there remains
enough, uniting the fragments of statues and of bas-reliefs which are continually
being discovered,[94] to give us a general conception of Greek sculpture.
Greek sculptors sought above everything else to represent the most beautiful
bodies in a calm and noble attitude. They had a thousand occasions for viewing
beautiful bodies of men in beautiful poses, at the gymnasium, in the army, in the
sacred dances and choruses. They studied them and learned to reproduce them;
no one has ever better executed the human body.
Usually in a Greek statue the head is small, the face without emotion and dull.
The Greeks did not seek, as we do, the expression of the face; they strove for
beauty of line and did not sacrifice the limbs for the head. In a Greek statue it is
the whole body that is beautiful.
Pottery.—The Greeks came to make pottery a real art. They called it
Ceramics (the potter's art), and this name is still preserved. Pottery had not the
same esteem in Greece as the other arts, but for us it has the great advantage of
being better known than the others. While temples and statues fell into ruin, the
achievements of Greek potters are preserved in the tombs. This is where they are
found today. Already more than 20,000 specimens have been collected in all the
museums of Europe. They are of two sorts:
 1. Painted vases, with black or red figures, of all sizes and every form;
2. Statuettes of baked earth; hardly known twenty years ago, they
have now attained almost to celebrity since the discovery of the
charming figurines of Tanagra in Bœotia. The most of them are little
idols, but some represent children or women.
Painting.—There were illustrious painters in Greece—Zeuxis, Parrhasius, and
Apelles. We know little of them beyond some anecdotes, often doubtful, and
some descriptions of pictures. To obtain an impression of Greek painting we are
limited to the frescoes found in the houses of Pompeii, an Italian city of the first
century of our era. This amounts to the same as saying we know nothing of it.

FOOTNOTES:

[81] The moderns have called this time the Age of Pericles, because Pericles
was then governing and was the friend of many of these artists; but the
ancients never employed the phrase.
[82] See Aristophanes' "Clouds."
[83] The "Memorabilia" and "Apologia."
[84] Because Plato had lectured in the gardens of a certain Academus.
[85] Because Aristotle had given instruction while moving about. [Or rather
from a favorite walk (Peripatus) in the Lyceum.—ED.]
[86] The Greek word for temple signifies "dwelling."
[87] But not by a square opening in the roof as formerly supposed.—ED. See
Gardner, "Ancient Athens," N.Y., 1902, p. 268.
[88] The Parthenon contained vases of gold and silver, a crown of gold,
shields, helmets, swords, serpents of gold, an ivory table, eighteen
couches, and quivers of ivory.
[89] Boutmy, "Philosophie de l'Architecture en Grèce."
[90] The most noted are the Parthenon at Athens and the temple of Poseidon at
 Pæstum, in south Italy.
[91] Knights and other subjects were also shown.—ED.
[92] Even in the second century after the Romans had pillaged Greece to adorn
their palaces, there were many thousands of statues in the Greek cities.
[93] It is not certain that the Apollo Belvidere was not a Roman copy.
[94] In the ruins of Olympia has been found a statue of Hermes, the work of
Praxiteles.

CHAPTER XVToC

THE GREEKS IN THE ORIENT

ASIA BEFORE ALEXANDER

Decadence of the Persian Empire.—The Greeks, engaged in strife, ceased to

attack the Great King; they even received their orders from him. But the Persian
empire still continued to become enfeebled. The satraps no longer obeyed the
government; each had his court, his treasure, his army, made war according to
his fancy, and in short, became a little king in his province. When the Great King
desired to remove a satrap, he had scarcely any way of doing it except by
assassinating him. The Persians themselves were no longer that nation before
which all the Asiatic peoples were wont to tremble. Xenophon, a Greek captain,
who had been in their pay, describes them as follows: "They recline on tapestries
wearing gloves and furs. The nobles, for the sake of the pay, transform their
porters, their bakers, and cooks into knights—even the valets who served them at
table, dressed them or perfumed them. And so, although their armies were large,
they were of no service, as is apparent from the fact that their enemies traversed
the empire more freely than their friends. They no longer dared to fight. The
infantry as formerly was equipped with buckler, sword, and axe, but they had no
courage to use them. The drivers of chariots before facing the enemy basely
allowed themselves to be overthrown at once or leaped down from the cars, so
that these being no longer under control injured the Persians more than the
enemy. For the rest, the Persians do not disguise their military weakness, they
concede their inferiority and do not dare to take the field except there are Greeks
in their army. They have for their maxim 'never to fight Greeks without Greek
auxiliaries on their side.'"
Expedition of the Ten Thousand.—This weakness was very apparent when
in 400 Cyrus, brother of the Great King Artaxerxes, marched against him to
secure his throne. There were then some thousands of adventurers or Greek
exiles who hired themselves as mercenaries. Cyrus retained ten thousand of
them. Xenophon, one of their number, has written the story of their expedition.
This army crossed the whole of Asia even to the Euphrates without resistance
from any one.[95] They at last came to battle near Babylon. The Greeks
according to their habit broke into a run, raising the war-cry. The barbarians took
flight before the Greeks had come even within bow-shot. The Greeks followed
in pursuit urging one another to keep ranks.
When the war-chariots attacked them, they opened their ranks and let them
through. Not a Greek received the least stroke with the exception of one only
who was wounded with an arrow. Cyrus was killed; his army disbanded without
fighting, and the Greeks remained alone in the heart of a hostile country
threatened by a large army. And yet the Persians did not dare to attack them, but
treacherously killed their five generals, twenty captains, and two hundred
soldiers who had come to conclude a truce.
The friendless mercenaries elected new chiefs, burned their tents and their
chariots, and began their retreat. They broke into the rugged mountains of
Armenia, and notwithstanding famine, snow, and the arrows of the natives who
did not wish to let them pass, they came to the Black Sea and returned to Greece
after traversing the whole Persian empire. At their return (399) their number
amounted still to 8,000.
Agesilaus.—Three years after, Agesilaus, king of Sparta, with a small army
invaded the rich country of Asia Minor, Lydia, and Phrygia. He fought the
satraps and was about to invade Asia when the Spartans ordered his return to
fight the armies of Thebes and Athens. Agesilaus was the first of the Greeks to
dream of conquering Persia. He was distressed to see the Greeks fighting among
themselves. When they announced to him the victory at Corinth where but eight
Spartans had perished and 10,000 of the enemy, instead of rejoicing he sighed
and said, "Alas, unhappy Greece, to have lost enough men to have subjugated all
the barbarians!" He refused one day to destroy a Greek city. "If we exterminate
all the Greeks who fail of their duty," said he, "where shall we find the men to
vanquish the barbarians?" This feeling was rare at that time. In relating these
words of Agesilaus Xenophon, his biographer, exclaims, "Who else regarded it
as a misfortune to conquer when he was making war on peoples of his own
race?"

CONQUEST OF ASIA BY ALEXANDER

Macedon.—Sparta and Athens, exhausted by a century of wars, had

abandoned the contest against the king of Persia. A new people resumed it and
brought it to an end; these were the Macedonians. They were a very rude people,
crude, similar to the ancient Dorians, a people of shepherds and soldiers. They
lived far to the north of Greece in two great valleys that opened to the sea. The
Greeks had little regard for them, rating them as half barbarians; but since the
kings of Macedon called themselves sons of Herakles they had been permitted to
run their horses in the races of the Olympian games. This gave them standing as
Greeks.
Philip of Macedon.—These kings ruling in the interior, remote from the sea,
had had but little part in the wars of the Greeks. But in 359 B.C. Philip ascended
the throne of Macedon, a man young, active, bold, and ambitious. Philip had
three aims:
1. To develop a strong army;
2. To conquer all the ports on the coast of Macedon;
3. To force all the other Greeks to unite under his command against
the Persians.
He consumed twenty-four years in fulfilling these purposes and succeeded in
all. The Greeks let him alone, often even aided him; in every city he bribed
partisans who spoke in his favor. "No fortress is impregnable," said he, "if only
one can introduce within it a mule laden with gold." And by these means he took
one after another all the cities of northern Greece.
Demosthenes.—The most illustrious opponent of Philip was the orator
Demosthenes. The son of an armorer, he was left an orphan at the age of seven,
and his guardians had embezzled a part of his fortune. As soon as he gained his
majority he entered a case against them and compelled them to restore the
property. He studied the orations of Isæus and the history of Thucydides which
he knew by heart. But when he spoke at the public tribune he was received with
shouts of laughter; his voice was too feeble and his breath too short. For several
years he labored to discipline his voice. It is said that he shut himself up for
months with head half shaved that he might not be tempted to go out, that he
declaimed with pebbles in his mouth, and on the sea-shore, in order that his
voice might rise above the uproar of the crowd. When he reappeared on the
tribune, he was master of his voice, and, as he preserved the habit of carefully
preparing all his orations, he became the most finished and most potent orator of
Greece.
The party that then governed Athens, whose chief was Phocion, wished to
maintain the peace: Athens had neither soldiers nor money enough to withstand
the king of Macedon. "I should counsel you to make war," said Phocion, "when
you are ready for it." Demosthenes, however, misunderstood Philip, whom he
regarded as a barbarian; he placed himself at the service of the party that wished
to make war on him and employed all his eloquence to move the Athenians from
their policy of peace. For fifteen years he seized every occasion to incite them to
war; many of his speeches have no other object than an attack on Philip. He
himself called these Philippics, and there are three of them. (The name
Olynthiacs has been applied to the orations delivered with the purpose of
enlisting the Athenians in the aid of Olynthus when it was besieged by Philip.)
The first Philippic is in 352. "When, then, O Athenians, will you be about your
duty? Will you always roam about the public places asking one of another: What
is the news? Ah! How can there be anything newer than the sight of a
Macedonian conquering Athens and dominating Greece? I say, then, that you
ought to equip fifty galleys and resolve, if necessary, to man them yourselves.
Do not talk to me of an army of 10,000 or of 20,000 aliens that exists only on
paper. I would have only citizen soldiers."
In the third Philippic (341) Demosthenes calls to the minds of the Athenians
the progress made by Philip, thanks to their inaction. "When the Greeks once
abused their power to oppress others, all Greece rose to prevent this injustice;
and yet today we suffer an unworthy Macedonian, a barbarian of a hated race, to
destroy Greek cities, celebrate the Pythian games, or have them celebrated by his
slaves. And the Greeks look on without doing anything, just as one sees hail
falling while he prays that it may not touch him. You let increase his power
without taking a step to stop it, each regarding it as so much time gained when
he is destroying another, instead of planning and working for the safety of
Greece, when everybody knows that the disaster will end with the inclusion of
the most remote."
At last, when Philip had taken Elatea on the borders of Bœotia, the Athenians,
on the advice of Demosthenes, determined to make war and to send envoys to
Thebes. Demosthenes was at the head of the embassy; he met at Thebes an
envoy come from Philip; the Thebans hesitated. Demosthenes besought them to
bury the old enmities and to think only of the safety of Greece, to defend its
honor and its history. He persuaded them to an alliance with Athens and to
undertake the war. A battle was fought at Chæronea in Bœotia, Demosthenes,
then at the age of forty-eight, serving as a private hostile. But the army of the
Athenians and Thebans, levied in haste, was not equal to the veterans of Philip
and was thrown into rout.
The Macedonian Supremacy.—Philip, victorious at Chæronea, placed a
garrison in Thebes and offered peace to Athens. He then entered the
Peloponnesus and was received as a liberator among the peoples whom Sparta
had oppressed. From this time he met with no resistance. He came to Corinth
and assembled delegates from all the Greek states (337)[96] except Sparta.
Here Philip published his project of leading a Greek army to the invasion of
Persia. The delegates approved the proposition and made a general confederation
of all the Greek states. Each city was to govern itself and to live at peace with its
neighbors. A general council was initiated to prevent wars, civil dissensions,
proscriptions, and confiscations.
This confederacy made an alliance with the king of Macedon and conferred on
him the command of all the Greek troops and navies. Every Greek was
prohibited making war on Philip on pain of banishment.
Alexander.—Philip of Macedon was assassinated in 336. His son Alexander
was then twenty years old. Like all the Greeks of good family he was
accustomed to athletic exercises, a vigorous fighter, an excellent horseman (he
alone had been able to master Bucephalus, his war-horse). But at the same time
he was informed in politics, in eloquence, and in natural history, having had as
teacher from his thirteenth to his seventeenth year Aristotle, the greatest scholar
of Greece. He read the Iliad with avidity, called this the guide to the military art,
and desired to imitate its heroes. He was truly born to conquer, for he loved to
fight and was ambitious to distinguish himself. His father said to him, "Macedon
is too small to contain you."
The Phalanx.—Philip left a powerful instrument of conquest, the
Macedonian army, the best that Greece had seen. It comprised the phalanx of
infantry and a corps of cavalry.
The phalanx of Macedonians was formed of 16,000 men ranged with 1,000 in
front and 16 men deep. Each had a sarissa, a spear about twenty feet in length.
On the field of battle the Macedonians, instead of marching on the enemy facing
all in the same direction, held themselves in position and presented their pikes to
the enemy on all sides, those in the rear couching their spears above the heads of
the men of the forward ranks. The phalanx resembled "a monstrous beast
bristling with iron," against which the enemy was to throw itself. While the
phalanx guarded the field of battle, Alexander charged the enemy at the head of
his cavalry. This Macedonian cavalry was a distinguished body formed of young
nobles.
Departure of Alexander.—Alexander started in the spring of 334 with
30,000 infantry (the greater part of these Macedonians) and 4,500 knights; he
carried only seventy talents (less than eighty thousand dollars) and supplies for
forty days. He had to combat not only the crowd of ill-armed peoples such as
Xerxes had brought together, but an army of 50,000 Greeks enrolled in the
service of the Great King under a competent general, Memnon of Rhodes. These
Greeks might have withstood the invasion of Alexander, but Memnon died and
his army dispersed. Alexander, delivered from his only dangerous opponent,
conquered the Persian empire in two years.
Victories of Granicus, Issus, and Arbela.—Three victories gave the empire
to Alexander. In Asia Minor he overthrew the Persian troops stationed behind
the river Granicus (May, 333). At Issus, in the ravines of Cilicia, he routed King
Darius and his army of 600,000 men (November, 333). At Arbela, near the
Tigris, he scattered and massacred a still more numerous army (331).
This was a repetition of the Median wars. The Persian army was ill equipped
and knew nothing of manœuvring; it was embarrassed with its mass of soldiers,
valets, and baggage. The picked troops alone gave battle, the rest were scattered
and massacred. Between the battles the conquest was only a triumphal progress.
Nobody resisted (except the city of Tyre, commercial rival of the Greeks); what
cared the peoples of the empire whether they were subject to Darius or
Alexander? Each victory gave Alexander the whole of the country: the Granicus
opened Asia Minor, Issus Syria and Egypt, Arbela the rest of the empire.
Death of Alexander.—Master now of the Persian empire Alexander regarded
himself as the heir of the Great King. He assumed Persian dress, adopted the
ceremonies of the Persian court and compelled his Greek generals to prostrate
themselves before him according to Persian usage. He married a woman of the
land and united eighty of his officers to daughters of the Persian nobles. He
aimed to extend his empire to the farthest limits of the ancient kings and
advanced even to India, warring with the combative natives. After his return
with his army to Babylon (324), he died at the age of thirty-three, succumbing to
a fever of brief duration (323).
Projects of Alexander.—It is very difficult to know exactly what Alexander's
purposes were. Did he conquer for the mere pleasure of it? Or did he have a
plan? Did he wish to fuse into one all the peoples of his empire? Was he
following the example already set him by Persia? Or did he, perhaps, imitate the
Great King simply for vain-glory? And so of his intentions we know nothing.
But his acts had great results. He founded seventy cities—many Alexandrias in
Egypt, in Tartary, and even in India. He distributed to his subjects the treasures
that had been uselessly hoarded in the chests of the Great King. He stimulated
Greek scholars to study the plants, the animals, and the geography of Asia. But
what is of special importance, he prepared the peoples of the Orient to receive
the language and customs of the Greeks. This is why the title "Great" has been
assigned to Alexander.

THE HELLENES IN THE ORIENT

Dissolution of the Empire of Alexander.—Alexander had united under one

master all the ancient world from the Adriatic to the Indus, from Egypt to the
Caucasus. This vast empire endured only while he lived. Soon after his death his
generals disputed as to who should succeed him; they made war on one another
for twenty years, at first under the pretext of supporting some one of the house of
Alexander—his brother, his son, his mother, his sisters or one of his wives, later
openly in their own names.
Each had on his side a part of the Macedonian army or some of the Greek
mercenary soldiers. The Greeks were thus contending among themselves who
should possess Asia. The inhabitants were indifferent in these wars as they had
been in the strife between the Greeks and the Persians. When the war ceased,
there remained but three generals; from the empire of Alexander each of them
had carved for himself a great kingdom: Ptolemy had Egypt, Seleucus Syria,
Lysimachus Macedonia. Other smaller kingdoms were already separated or
detached themselves later: in Europe Epirus; in Asia Minor, Pontus, Bithynia,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Pergamos; in Persia, Bactriana and Parthia. Thus the
empire of Alexander was dismembered.
The Hellenistic Kingdoms.—In these new kingdoms the king was a Greek;
accustomed to speak Greek, to adore the Greek gods, and to live in Greek
fashion, he preserved his language, his religion, and his customs. His subjects
were Asiatics, that is to say, barbarians; but he sought to maintain a Greek court
about him; he recruited his army with Greek mercenaries, his administrative
officers were Greeks, he invited to his court Greek poets, scholars, and artists.
Already in the time of the Persian kings there were many Greeks in the empire
as colonists, merchants, and especially soldiers. The Greek kings attracted still
more of these. They came in such numbers that at last the natives adopted the
costume, the religion, the manners, and even the language of the Greeks. The
Orient ceased to be Asiatic, and became Hellenic. The Romans found here in the
first century B.C. only peoples like the Greeks and who spoke Greek.[97]
Alexandria.—The Greek kings of Egypt, descendants of Ptolemy,[98]
accepted the title of Pharaoh held by the ancient kings, wore the diadem, and,
like the earlier sovereigns, had themselves worshipped as children of the Sun.
But they surrounded themselves with Greeks and founded their capital on the
edge of the sea in a Greek city, Alexandria, a new city established by the order of
Alexander.
Built on a simple plan, Alexandria was more regular than other Greek cities.
The streets intersected at right angles; a great highway 100 feet broad and three
and one-half miles in length traversed the whole length of the city. It was
bordered with great monuments—the Stadium where the public games were
presented, the Gymnasium, the Museum, and the Arsineum. The harbor was
enclosed with a dike nearly a mile long which united the mainland to the island
of Pharos. At the very extremity of this island a tower of marble was erected, on
the summit of which was maintained a fire always burning to guide the mariners
who wished to enter the port. Alexandria superseded the Phœnician cities and
became the great port of the entire world.
The Museum.—The Museum was an immense edifice of marble connected
with the royal palace. The kings of Egypt purposed to make of it a great
scientific institution.
The Museum contained a great library.[99] The chief librarian had a
commission to buy all the books that he could find. Every book that entered
Egypt was brought to the library; copyists transcribed the manuscript and a copy
was rendered the owner to indemnify him. Thus they collected 400,000 volumes,
an unheard-of number before the invention of printing. Until then the
manuscripts of celebrated books were scarce, always in danger of being lost;
now it was known where to find them. In the Museum were also a botanical and
zoölogical garden, an astronomical observatory, a dissecting room established
notwithstanding the prejudices of the Egyptians, and even a chemical laboratory.
[100]

The Museum provided lodgings for scholars, mathematicians, astronomers,

physicians, and grammarians. They were supported at the expense of the state;
often to show his esteem for them the king dined with them. These scholars held
conferences and gave lectures. Auditors came from all parts of the Greek world;
it was to Alexandria that the youth were sent for instruction. In the city were
nearly 14,000 students.
The Museum was at once a library, an academy, and a school—something like
a university. This sort of institution, common enough among us, was before that
time completely unheard of. Alexandria, thanks to its Museum, became the
rendezvous for all the Orientals—Greeks, Egyptians, Jews, and Syrians; each
brought there his religion, his philosophy, his science, and all were mingled
together. Alexandria became and remained for several centuries the scientific
and philosophical capital of the world.
Pergamum.—The kingdom of Pergamum in Asia Minor was small and weak.
But Pergamum, its capital, was, like Alexandria, a city of artists and of letters.
The sculptors of Pergamum constituted a celebrated school in the third century
before our era.[101] Pergamum, like Alexandria, possessed a great library where
King Attalus had assembled all the manuscripts of the ancient authors.
It was at Pergamum that, to replace the papyrus on which down to that time
they used to write, they invented the art of preparing skins. This new paper of
 Pergamum was the parchment on which the manuscripts of antiquity have been
preserved.

FOOTNOTES:

[95] An episode told by Xenophon shows what fear the Greeks inspired. One
day, to make a display before the queen of Cilicia, Cyrus had his Greeks
drawn up in battle array. "They all had their brazen helmets, their tunics
of purple, their gleaming shields and greaves. The trumpet sounded, and
the soldiers, with arms in action, began the charge; hastening their steps
and raising the war-cry, they broke into a run. The barbarians were
terrified; the Cilician queen fled from her chariot, the merchants of the
market abandoning their goods took to flight, and the Greeks returned
with laughter to their tents."
[96] There were two assemblies in Corinth—the first in, 338, the second in
337.—ED.
[97] The Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles composed in Asia Minor were
written in Greek.
[98] They were called Lagidæ from the father of Ptolemy I.
[99] The library of the Museum was burnt during the siege of Alexandria by
Cæsar. But it had a successor in the Serapeum which contained 300,000
volumes. This is said to have been burnt in the seventh century by the
Arabs. [The tale of the destruction of the library under orders of Omar is
doubtful.—ED.]
[100] King Ptolemy Philadelphus who had great fear of death passed many
years searching for an elixir of life.
[101] There still remain to us some of the statues executed by the orders of
King Attalus to commemorate his victory over the Gauls of Asia.
 CHAPTER XVIToC

THE LAST YEARS OF GREECE

DECADENCE OF THE GREEK CITIES

Rich and Poor.—In almost all the Greek cities the domains, the shops of
trade, the merchant ships, in short, all the sources of financial profit were in the
hands of certain rich families. The other families, that is to say, the majority of
the citizens,[102] had neither lands nor money. What, then, could a poor citizen
do to gain a livelihood? Hire himself as a farmer, an artisan, or a sailor? But the
proprietors already had their estates, their workshops, their merchantmen
manned by slaves who served them much more cheaply than free laborers, for
they fed them ill and did not pay them. Could he work on his own account? But
money was very scarce; he could not borrow, since interest was at the rate of ten
per cent. Then, too, custom did not permit a citizen to become an artisan.
"Trade," said the philosophers, "injures the body, enfeebles the soul and leaves
no leisure to engage in public affairs." "And so," says Aristotle, "a well-
constituted city ought not to receive the artisan into citizenship." The citizens in
Greece constituted a noble class whose only honorable functions, like the nobles
of ancient France, were to govern and go to war; working with the hands was
degrading. Thus by the competition of slaves and their exalted situation the
greater part of the citizens were reduced to extreme misery.
Social Strife.—The poor governed the cities and had no means of living. The
idea occurred to them to despoil the rich, and the latter, to resist them, organized
associations. Then every Greek city was divided into two parties: the rich, called
the minority, and the poor, called the majority or the people. Rich and poor hated
one another and fought one another. When the poor got the upper hand, they
exiled the rich and confiscated their goods; often they even adopted these two
radical measures:
1. The abolition of debts;
2. A new partition of lands.
The rich, when they returned to power, exiled the poor. In many cities they
took this oath among themselves: "I swear always to be an enemy to the people
and to do them all the injury I can."
No means were found of reconciling the two parties: the rich could not
persuade themselves to surrender their property; the poor were unwilling to die
of hunger. According to Aristotle all revolutions have their origin in the
distribution of wealth. "Every civil war," says Polybius, "is initiated to subvert
wealth."
They fought savagely, as is always the case between neighbors. "At Miletus
the poor were at first predominant and forced the rich to flee the city. But
afterwards, regretting that they had not killed them all, they took the children of
the exiles, assembled them in barns and had them trodden under the feet of
cattle. The rich reëntered the city and became masters of it. In their turn they
seized the children of the poor, coated them with pitch, and burned them alive."
Democracy and Oligarchy.—Each of the two parties—rich and poor—had
its favorite form of government and set it in operation when the party held the
city. The party of the rich was the Oligarchy which gave the government into the
hands of a few people. That of the poor was the Democracy which gave the
power to an assembly of the people. Each of the two parties maintained an
understanding with the similar party in the other cities. Thus were formed two
leagues which divided all the Greek cities: the league of the rich, or Oligarchy,
the league of the poor, or Democracy. This régime began during the
Peloponnesian War. Athens supported the democratic party, Sparta the
oligarchic. The cities in which the poor had the sovereignty allied themselves
with Athens; the cities where the rich governed, with Sparta. Thus at Samos
when the poor gained supremacy they slew two hundred of the rich, exiled four
hundred of them, and confiscated their lands and houses. Samos then adopted a
democratic government and allied itself with Athens. The Spartan army came to
besiege Samos, bringing with it the rich exiles of Samos who wished to return to
the city by force. The city was captured, set up an oligarchy, and joined the
league of Sparta.
The Tyrants.—At length, the poor perceived that the democratic form of
government did not give them strength enough to maintain the contest. In most
of the cities they consented to receive a chief. This chief was called Tyrant. He
governed as master without obeying any law, condemning to death, and
confiscating property at will. Mercenaries defended him against his enemies.
The following anecdote represents the policy of the tyrants: "Periander, tyrant of
Corinth, sent one day to Thrasybulus, tyrant of Miletus, to ask what conduct he
ought to follow in order to govern with safety. Thrasybulus led the envoy into
the field end walked with him through the wheat, striking off with his staff all
heads that were higher than the others. He sent off the envoy without further
advice." The messenger took him for a fool, but Periander understood:
Thrasybulus was counselling him to slay the principal citizens.
Everywhere the rich were killed by the tyrant and their goods confiscated;
often the wealth was distributed among the poor. This is why the populace
always sustained the tyrant.
There were tyrants in Greece from the sixth century; some, like Pisistratus,
Polycrates, and Pittacus, were respected for their wisdom. At that time every
man was called tyrant who exercised absolute power outside the limits of the
constitution; it was not a title of reproach.
But when the tyrants made incessant warfare on the rich they became
sanguinary and so were detested. Their situation is depicted in the famous story
of Damocles. This Damocles said to Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, "You are the
happiest of men." "I will show you the delight of being a tyrant," replied
Dionysius. He had Damocles served with a sumptuous feast and ordered his
servants to show the guest the same honors as to himself. During the feast
Damocles raised his eyes and perceived a sword suspended to the ceiling held
only by a horse hair, and hanging directly over his head. The comparison was a
striking one—the tyrant's life hung only by a thread. The rich, his enemies,
watched for an opportunity to cut it, for it was regarded as praiseworthy to
assassinate a tyrant. This danger irritated him and made him suspicious and
cruel. He dared not trust anybody, believed himself secure only after the
massacre of all his enemies, and condemned the citizens to death on the slightest
suspicion. Thus the name tyrant became a synonym of injustice.
Exhaustion of Greece.—The civil wars between rich and poor continued for
nearly three centuries (430-150 B.C.). Many citizens were massacred, a greater
number exiled. These exiles wandered about in poverty. Knowing no trade but
that of a soldier, they entered as mercenaries into the armies of Sparta, Athens,
the Great King, the Persian satraps—in short, of anybody who would hire them.
There were 50,000 Greeks in the service of Darius against Alexander. It was
seldom that such men returned to their own country.
Thus the cities lost their people. At the same time families became smaller,
many men preferring not to marry or raise children, others having but one or
two. "Is not this," says Polybius, "the root of the evil, that of these two children
war or sickness removes one, then the home becomes deserted and the city
enfeebled?" A time came when there were no longer enough citizens in the
towns to resist a conqueror.

THE ROMAN CONQUEST

The Greek Leagues.—The most discerning of the Greeks commenced to see

the danger during the second war of Rome with Carthage. In an assembly held at
Naupactus in 207 B.C. a Greek orator said, "Turn your eyes to the Occident; the
Romans and Carthaginians are disputing something else than the possession of
Italy. A cloud is forming on that coast, it increases, and impends over Greece."
[103]

The Greek cities at this time grouped themselves in two leagues hostile to
each other. Two little peoples, the Ætolians and Achæans, had the direction of
them; they commanded the armies and determined on peace and war, just as
Athens and Sparta once did. Each league supported in the Greek states one of the
two political parties—the Ætolian League the democratic, the Achæan
League[104] the oligarchical.
The Roman Allies.—Neither of the two leagues was strong enough to unite
all the Greek states. The Romans then appeared. Philip, the king of Macedon
(197), and later Antiochus,[105] the king of Syria (193-169), made war on them.
Both were beaten. Rome destroyed their armies and made them surrender their
fleets.
Perseus, the new king of Macedon, was conquered, made prisoner, and his
kingdom overthrown (167).[106] The Greeks made no effort to unite for the
common defence; rich and poor persisted in their strife, and each hated the other
more than the foreigner. The democratic party allied itself with Macedon, the
oligarchical party called in the Romans.[107] While the Theban democrats were
fighting in the army of Philip, the Theban oligarchs opened the town to the
Roman general. At Rhodes all were condemned to death who had acted or
spoken against Rome. Even among the Achæans, Callicrates, a partisan of the
Romans, prepared a list of a thousand citizens whom he accused of having been
favorable to Perseus; these suspects were sent to Rome where they were held
twenty years without trial.
The Last Fight.—The Romans were not at first introduced as enemies. In 197
the consul Flamininus, after conquering the king of Macedon, betook himself to
the Isthmus of Corinth and before the Greeks assembled to celebrate the games,
proclaimed that "all the Greek peoples were free." The crowd in transports of joy
approached Flamininus to thank him; they wished to salute their liberator, see his
form, touch his hand; crowns and garlands were cast upon him. The pressure
upon him was so great that he was nearly suffocated.
The Romans seeing themselves in control soon wished to command. The rich
freely recognized their sovereignty; Rome served them by shattering the party of
the poor. This endured for forty years. At last in 147, Rome being engaged with
Carthage, the democratic party gained the mastery in Greece and declared war
on the Romans. A part of the Greeks were panic-stricken; many came before the
Roman soldiers denouncing their compatriots and themselves; others betook
themselves to a safe distance from the cities; some hurled themselves into wells
or over precipices. The leaders of the opposition confiscated the property of the
rich, abolished debts, and gave arms to the slaves. It was a desperate contest.
Once overcome, the Achæans reassembled an army and marched to the combat
with their wives and children. The general Diœus shut himself in his house with
his whole family and set fire to the building. Corinth had been the centre of the
resistance; the Romans entered it, massacred the men, and sold the women and
children as slaves. The city full of masterpieces of art was pillaged and burnt;
pictures of the great painters were thrown into the dust, Roman soldiers lying on
them and playing at dice.

THE HELLENES IN THE OCCIDENT

Influence of Greece on Rome.—The Romans at the time of their conquest of

the Greeks were still only soldiers, peasants, and merchants; they had no statues,
monuments, literature, science, or philosophy. All this was found among the
Greeks. Rome sought to imitate these, as the Assyrian conquerors imitated the
Chaldeans, as the Persians did the Assyrians. The Romans kept their costume,
tongue, and religion, and never confused these with those of the Greeks. But
thousands of Greek scholars and artists came to establish themselves in Rome
and to open schools of literature and of eloquence. Later it was the fashion for
the youth of the great Roman families to go as students to the schools of Athens
and Alexandria. Thus the arts and science of the Greeks were gradually
introduced into Rome. "Vanquished Greece overcame her savage conqueror,"
says Horace, the Roman poet; "she brought the arts to uncultured Latium."
Architecture.—The Romans had a national architecture. But they borrowed
the column from the Greeks and often imitated their buildings. Many Roman
temples resemble a Greek temple.
A wealthy Roman's house is composed ordinarily of two parts: the first, the
ancient Roman house; the other is only a Greek house added to the first.
Sculpture.—The Greeks had thousands of statues, in temples, squares of the
city, gymnasia, and in their dwellings. The Romans regarded themselves as the
owners of everything that had belonged to the vanquished people. Their
generals, therefore, removed a great number of statues, transporting them to the
temples and the porticos of Rome. In the triumph of Æmilius Paullus, victor over
the king of Macedon (Perseus), a notable spectacle was two hundred and fifty
cars full of statues and paintings.
Soon the Romans became accustomed to adorn with statues their theatres,
council-halls, and private villas; every great noble wished to have some of them
and gave commissions for them to Greek artists. Thus a Roman school of
sculpture was developed which continued to imitate ancient Greek models. And
so it was Greek sculpture, a little blunted and disfigured, which was spread over
all the world subject to the Romans.
Literature.—The oldest Latin writer was a Greek, Livius Andronicus, a
freedman, a schoolmaster, and later an actor. The first works in Latin were
translations from the Greek. Livius Andronicus had translated the Odyssey and
several tragedies. The Roman people took pleasure in Greek pieces and would
have no others. Even the Roman authors who wrote for the theatre did nothing
but translate or arrange Greek tragedies and comedies. Thus the celebrated
works of Plautus and of Terence are imitations of the comedies of Menander and
of Diphilus, now lost to us.
The Romans imitated also the Greek historians. For a long time it was the
fashion to write history, even Roman history, in Greek.
 The only great Roman poets declare themselves pupils of the Greeks.
Lucretius writes only to expound the philosophy of Epicurus; Catullus imitates
the poets of Alexander; Vergil, Theocritus and Homer; Horace translates the
odes of the Greek lyrics.
Epicureans and Stoics.—The Romans had a practical and literal spirit, very
indifferent to pure science and metaphysics. They took interest in Greek
philosophy only so far as they believed it had a bearing on morals.
Epicureans and Stoics were two sects of Greek philosophers. The Epicureans
maintained that pleasure is the supreme good, not sensual pleasure, but the calm
and reasonable pleasure of the temperate man; happiness consists in the quiet
enjoyment of a peaceful life, surrounded with friends and without concern for
imaginary goods. For the Stoics the supreme good is virtue, which consists in
conducting one's self according to reason, with a view to the good of the whole
universe. Riches, honor, health, beauty, all the goods of earth are nothing for the
wise man; even if one torture him, he remains happy in the possession of the true
good.
The Romans took sides for one or the other philosophy, usually without
thoroughly comprehending either. Those who passed for Epicureans spent their
lives in eating and drinking and even compared themselves to swine. Those
calling themselves Stoics, like Cato and Brutus, affected a rude language, a
solemn demeanor and emphasized the evils of life. Nevertheless these doctrines,
spreading gradually, aided in destroying certain prejudices of the Romans.
Epicureans and Stoics were in harmony on two points: they disdained the ancient
religion and taught that all men are equal, slaves or citizens, Greeks or
barbarians. Their Roman disciples renounced in their school certain old
superstitions, and learned to show themselves less cruel to their slaves, less
insolent toward other peoples.
The conquest of Greece by the Romans gave the arts, letters, and morals of the
Greeks currency in the west, just as the conquest of the Persian empire by the
Greeks had carried their language, customs, and religion into the Orient.

FOOTNOTES:
[102] In almost all the Greek cities there was no middle class. In this regard
Athens with its thirteen thousand small proprietors is a remarkable
exception.
[103] Polybius, v., 104.
[104] The Achæan league had illustrious leaders. In the third century, Aratus,
who for twenty-seven years (251-224) traversed Greece, expelling
tyrants, recalling the rich and returning to them their property and the
government; in the second century Philopœmen, who fought the tyrants
of Sparta and died by poison.
[105] There were two kings of Syria by the name of Antiochus, between 193
and 169.—ED.
[106] The decisive battle (Pydna) was fought in 168. Perseus walked in the
triumph of Paullus the next year.—ED.
[107] The party policies of the Greeks of this period were hardly so clearly
drawn as the above would seem to indicate. Thus the Achæan League
allied itself with Macedon against the Ætolians and against Sparta. The
Ætolians leagued with the Romans against Macedon.—ED.

CHAPTER XVIIToC

ROME

ANCIENT PEOPLES OF ITALY

 THE ETRUSCANS

Etruria.—The word Italy never signified for the ancients the same as for us:
the Po Valley (Piedmont and Lombardy) was a part of Gaul. The frontier country
at the north was Tuscany. The Etruscans who dwelt there have left it their name
(Tusci).
Etruria was a country at once warm and humid; the atmosphere hung heavily
over the inhabitants. The region on the shore of the sea where the Etruscans had
most of their cities is the famous Maremma, a wonderfully fertile area, covered
with beautiful forests, but where the water having no outlet forms marshes that
poison the air. "In the Maremma," says an Italian proverb, "one gets rich in a
year, but dies in six months."
The Etruscan People.—The Etruscans were for the ancients, and are still for
us, a mysterious people. They had no resemblance to their neighbor's, and
doubtless they came from a distance—from Germany, Asia, or from Egypt; all
these opinions have been maintained, but no one of them is demonstrated.
We are ignorant even of the language that they spoke. Their alphabet
resembles that of the Greeks, but the Etruscan inscriptions present only proper
names, and these are too short to furnish a key to the language.
The Etruscans established twelve cities in Tuscany, united in a confederation,
each with its own fortress, its king, and its government. They had colonies on
both coasts, twelve in Campania in the vicinity of Naples, and twelve more in
the valley of the Po.
Etruscan Tombs.—There remain to us from the Etruscans only city walls and
tombs.
When an Etruscan tomb is opened, one perceives a porch supported by
columns and behind this chambers with couches, and bodies laid on these.
Round about are ornaments of gold, ivory, and amber; purple cloths, utensils,
and especially large painted vases. On the walls are paintings of combats, games,
banquets, and fantastic scenes.
Industry and Commerce.—The Etruscans knew how to turn their fertile soil
to some account, but they were for the most part mariners and traders. Like the
Phœnicians they made long journeys to seek the ivory of India, amber from the
Baltic, tin, the Phœnician purple, Egyptian jewels adorned with hieroglyphics,
and even ostrich eggs. All these objects are found in their tombs. Their navies
sailed to the south as far as Sicily. The Greeks hated them and called them
"savage Tyrrhenians" or "Etruscan pirates." At this time every mariner on
occasion was a pirate, and the Etruscans were especially interested to exclude
the Greeks so that they might keep for themselves the trade of the west coast of
Italy.
The famous Etruscan vases, which have been taken from the tombs by the
thousand to enrich our museums, were imitations of Greek vases, but
manufactured by the Etruscans. They represent scenes from Greek mythology,
especially the combats about Troy; the human figures are in red on a black
ground.
Religion.—The Etruscans were a sombre people. Their gods were stern, often
malevolent. The two most exalted gods were "the veiled deities," of whom we
know nothing. Below these were the gods who hurled the lightning and these
form a council of twelve gods. Under the earth, in the abode of the dead, were
gods of evil omen. These are represented on the Etruscan vases. The king of the
lower world, Mantus, a winged genius, sits with crown on his head and torch in
his hand. Other demons armed with sword or club with serpents in their hands
receive the souls of the dead; the principal of these under the name Charun (the
Charon of the Greeks), an old man of hideous form, bears a heavy mallet to
strike his victims. The souls of the dead (the Manes) issue from the lower world
three days in the year, wandering about the earth, terrifying the living and doing
them evil. Human victims are offered to appease their lust for blood. The famous
gladiatorial combats which the Romans adopted had their origin in bloody
sacrifices in honor of the dead.
The Augurs.—The Etruscans used to say that a little evil spirit named Tages
issued one day from a furrow and revealed to the people assembled the secrets of
divination. The Etruscan priests who called themselves haruspices or augurs had
rules for predicting the future. They observed the entrails of victims, the
thunderbolt, but especially the flight of birds (whence their name "augurs"). The
augur at first with face turned to the north, holding a crooked staff in his hand,
describes a line which cuts the heavens in two sections; the part to the right is
favorable, to the left unfavorable. A second line cutting the first at right angles,
and others parallel to these form in the heavens a square which was called the
Temple. The augur regarded the birds that flew in this square: some like the
eagle have a lucky significance; others like the owl presage evil.
The Etruscans predicted the future destiny of their own people. They are the
only people of antiquity who did not expect that they were to persist forever.
Etruria, they said, was to endure ten centuries. These centuries were not of
exactly one hundred years each, but certain signs marked the end of each period.
In the year 44, the year of the death of Cæsar, a comet appeared; an Etruscan
haruspex stated to the Romans in an assembly of the people that this comet
announced the end of the ninth century and the beginning of the tenth, the last of
the Etruscan people.
Influence of the Etruscans.—The Romans, a semi-barbarous people, always
imitated their more civilized neighbors, the Etruscans. They drew from them
especially the forms of their religion: the costume of the priests and of the
magistrates, the religious rites, and the art of divining the future from birds (the
auspices). When the Romans found a city, they observe the Etruscan rites: the
founder traces a square enclosure with a plough with share of bronze, drawn by a
white bull and a white heifer. Men follow the founder and carefully cast the
clods of earth from the side of the furrow. The whole ditch left by the plough is
sacred and is not to be crossed. To allow entrance to the enclosure, it is necessary
that the founder break the ditch at certain points, and he does this by lifting the
plough and carrying it an instant; the interval made in this manner remains
profane and it becomes the gate by which one enters. Rome itself was founded
according to these rites. It was called Roma Quadrata, and it was said that the
founder had killed his brother to punish him for crossing the sacred furrow. Later
the limits of Roman colonies and of camps, and even the bounds of domains
were always traced in conformity with religious rules and with geometrical lines.
The Roman religion was half Etruscan. The Fathers of the church were right,
therefore, in calling Etruria the "Mother of Superstitions."

THE ITALIAN PEOPLE

Umbrians and Oscans.—In the rugged mountains of the Apennines, to the

east and south of the Roman plain, resided numerous tribes. These peoples did
not bear the same name and did not constitute a single nation. They were
Umbrians, Sabines, Volscians, Æquians, Hernicans, Marsians, and Samnites. But
all spoke almost the same language, worshipped the same gods, and had similar
customs. Like the Persians, Hindoos, and Greeks, they were of Aryan race;
secluded in their mountains, remote from strangers, they remained like the
Aryans of the ancient period; they lived in groups with their herds scattered in
the plains; they had no villages nor cities. Fortresses erected on the mountains
defended them in time of war. They were brave martial people, of simple and
substantial manners. They later constituted the strength of the Roman armies. A
proverb ran: "Who could vanquish the Marsians without the Marsians?"
The Sacred Spring.—In the midst of a pressing danger, the Sabines,
according to a legend, believing their gods to be angry, decided to appease their
displeasure by sacrificing to the god of war and of death everything that was
born during a certain spring. This sacrifice was called a "Sacred Spring." All the
children born in this year belonged to the god. Arrived at the age of manhood,
they left the country and journeyed abroad. These exiles formed several groups,
each taking for guide one of the sacred animals of Italy, a woodpecker, a wolf, or
a bull, and followed it as a messenger of the god. Where the animal halted the
band settled itself. Many peoples of Italy, it was said, had originated in these
colonies of emigrants and still preserved the name of the animal which had led
their ancestors. Such were, the Hirpines (people of the wolf), the Picentines
(people of the woodpecker), and the Samnites whose capital was named
Bovianum (city of the ox).
The Samnites.—The Samnites were the most powerful of all. Settled in the
Abruzzi, a paradise for brigands, they descended into the fertile plains of Naples
and of Apulia and put Etruscan and Greek towns to ransom.
The Samnites fought against the Romans for two centuries; although always
beaten because they had no central administration and no discipline they yet
reopened the war. Their last fight was heroic. An old man brought to the chiefs
of the army a sacred book written on linen. They formed in the interior of the
camp a wall of linen, raised an altar in the midst of it, and around this stood
soldiers with unsheathed swords. One by one the bravest of the warriors entered
the precinct. They swore not to flee before the enemy and to kill the fugitives.
Those who took the oath, to the number of 16,000, donned linen garments. This
was the "linen legion"; it engaged in battle, and was slaughtered to the last man.
The Greeks of Italy.—All south Italy was covered with Greek colonies,
some, like Sybaris, Croton, and Tarentum, very populous and powerful. But the
Greeks did not venture on the Roman coast for fear of the Etruscans. Except the
city of Cumæ the Greek colonies down to the third century had almost no
relations with the Romans.
The Latins.—The Latins dwelt in the country of hills and ravines to the south
of the Tiber, called today the Roman Campagna. They were a small people, their
territory comprising no more than one hundred square miles. They were of the
same race as the other Italians, similar to them in language, religion, and
manners, but slightly more advanced in civilization. They cultivated the soil and
built strong cities. They separated themselves into little independent peoples.
Each people had its little territory, its city, and its government. This miniature
state was called a city. Thirty Latin cities had formed among themselves a
religious association analogous to the Greek amphictyonies. Every year they
celebrated a common festival, when their delegates, assembled at Alba,
sacrificed a bull in honor of their common god, the Latin Jupiter.
Rome.—On the frontier of Latium, on the borders of Etruria, in the marshy
plain studded with hills that followed the Tiber, rose the city of Rome, the centre
of the Roman people scattered in the plain. The land was malarial and dreary;
but the situation was good. The Tiber served as a barrier against the enemy from
Etruria, the hills were fortresses. The sea was but six leagues away, far enough to
escape fear of pirates, and near enough to permit the transportation of
merchandise. The port of Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber was a suburb of Rome,
as Piræus was of Athens. The locality was therefore agreeable to a people of
soldiers and merchants.
Roma Quadrata and the Capitol.—Of the first centuries of Rome we know
only some legends, and the Romans knew no more than we. Rome, they said,
was a little square town, limited to the Palatine Hill. The founder whom they
called Romulus had according to the Etruscan forms traced the circuit with the
plough. Every year, on the 21st of April, the Romans celebrated the anniversary
of these ceremonies: a procession marched about the primitive enclosure and a
priest fixed a nail in a temple in commemoration of it. It was calculated that the
founding had occurred in the year 754[108] B.C.
On the other hills facing the Palatine other small cities rose. A band of Sabine
mountaineers established themselves on the Capitoline, a group of Etruscan
adventurers[109] on Mount Cœlius; perhaps there were still other peoples. All
these small settlements ended with uniting with Rome on the Palatine. A new
wall was built to include the seven hills. The Capitol was then for Rome what
the Acropolis was for Athens: here rose the temples of the three protecting
deities of the city—Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, and the citadel that contained the
treasure and the archives of the people. In laying the foundations, it was said
there was found a human head recently cleft from the body; this head was a
presage that Rome should become the head of the world.
 FOOTNOTES:

[108] Rather 753 B.C.—ED.

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

CHAPTER XVIIIToC

ROMAN RELIGION

The Roman Gods.—The Romans, like the Greeks, believed that everything
that occurs in the world was the work of a deity. But in place of a God who
directs the whole universe, they had a deity for every phenomenon which they
saw. There was a divinity to make the seed sprout, another to protect the bounds
of the fields, another to guard the fruits. Each had its name, its sex, and its
functions.
The principal gods were Jupiter, god of the heaven; Janus, the two-faced god
(the deity who opens); Mars, god of war; Mercury, god of trade; Vulcan, god of
fire; Neptune, god of the sea; Ceres, goddess of grains, the Earth, the Moon,
Juno, and Minerva.
Below these were secondary deities. Some personified a quality—for
example, Youth, Concord, Health, Peace. Others presided over a certain act in
life: when the infant came into the world there were a god to teach him to speak,
a goddess to teach him to drink, another charged with knitting his bones, two to
accompany him to school, two to take him home again. In short, there was a
veritable legion of minor special deities.
Other gods protected a city, a certain section of a mountain, a forest; every
river, every fountain, every tree had its little local divinity. It is this that makes
an old woman in a Latin romance exclaim, "Our country is so full of gods that it
is much easier to find a god than a man."
Form of the Gods.—The Romans, unlike the Greeks, did not give their gods
a precise form. For a long time there was no idol in Rome; they worshipped
Jupiter under the form of a rock, Mars under that of a sword. It was later that
they imitated the wooden statues of the Etruscans and the marbles of the Greeks.
Perhaps they did not at first conceive of the gods as having human forms.
Unlike the Greeks they did not imagine marriage and kinship among their
gods; they had no legends to tell of these relationships; they knew of no
Olympus where the gods met together. The Latin language had a very significant
word for designating the gods: they were called Manifestations. They were the
manifestations of a mysterious divine power. This is why they were formless,
without family relationship, without legends. Everything that was known of the
gods was that each controlled a natural force and could benefit or injure men.
Principles of the Roman Religion.—The Roman was no lover of these pale
and frigid abstractions; he even seemed to fear them. When he invoked them, he
covered his face, perhaps that he might not see them. But he thought that they
were potent and that they would render him service, if he knew how to please
them. "The man whom the gods favor," says Plautus, "they cause to gain
wealth."
The Roman conceives of religion as an exchange of good offices; the
worshipper brings offerings and homage; the god in return confers some
advantage.[110] If after having made a present to the god the man receives
nothing, he considers himself cheated. During the illness of Germanicus the
people offered sacrifices for his restoration. When it was announced that
Germanicus was dead, the people in their anger overturned the altars and cast the
statues of the gods into the streets, because they had not done what was expected
of them. And so in our day the Italian peasant abuses the saint who does not give
him what he asks.
Worship.—Worship, therefore, consists in doing those things that please the
gods. They are presented with fruits, milk, wine, or animal sacrifices. Sometimes
the statues of the gods are brought from their temples, laid on couches, and
served with a feast. As in Greece, magnificent homes (temples[111]) were built
for them, and diversions were arranged for them.
Formalism.—But it is not enough that one make a costly offering to the gods.
The Roman gods are punctilious as to form; they require that all the acts of
worship, the sacrifices, games, dedications, shall proceed according to the
ancient rules (the rites). When one desires to offer a victim to Jupiter, one must
select a white beast, sprinkle salted meal on its head, and strike it with an axe;
one must stand erect with hands raised to heaven, the abode of Jupiter, and
pronounce a sacred formula. If any part of the ceremonial fails, the sacrifice is of
no avail; the god, it is thought, will have no pleasure in it. A magistrate may be
celebrating games in honor of the protecting deities of Rome; "if he alters a word
in his formula, if a flute-player rests, if the actor stops short, the games do not
conform to the rites; they must be recommenced."[112]
And so the prudent man secures the assistance of two priests, one to
pronounce the formula, the other to follow the ritual accurately.
Every year the Arval Brothers, a college of priests, assemble in a temple in the
environs of Rome where they perform a sacred dance and recite a prayer; this is
written in an archaic language which no one any longer comprehends, so much
so that at the beginning of the ceremony a written formulary must be given to
each of the priests. And yet, ever since the time that they ceased to comprehend
it, they continued to chant it without change. This is because the Romans hold
before all to the letter of the law in dealing with their gods. This exactness in
performing the prescribed ritual is for them their religion. And so they regarded
themselves as "the most religious of men." "On all other points we are the
inferiors or only the equals of other peoples, but we excel all in religion, that is,
the worship we pay the gods."
Prayer.—When the Roman prays, it is not to lift his soul and feel himself in
communion with a god, but to ask of him a service. He is concerned, then, first
to find the god who can render it. "It is as important," says Varro, "to know what
god can aid us in a special case as to know where the carpenter and baker live."
Thus one must address Ceres if one wants rich harvests, Mercury to make a
fortune, Neptune to have a happy voyage. Then the suppliant dons the proper
garments, for the gods love neatness; he brings an offering, for the gods love not
that one should come with empty hands. Then, erect, the head veiled, the
worshipper invokes the god. But he does not know the exact name of the god,
for, say the Romans, "no one knows the true names of the gods." He says, then,
for example, "Jupiter, greatest and best, or whatever is the name that thou
preferrest...." Then he proposes his request, taking care to use always the clearest
expressions so that the god may make no mistake. If a libation is offered, one
says, "Receive the homage of this wine that I am pouring"; for the god might
think that one would present other wine and keep this back. The prayers, too, are
long, verbose, and full of repetitions.
 Omens.—The Romans, like the Greeks, believe in omens. The gods, they
think, know the future, and they send signs that permit men to divine them.
Before undertaking any act, the Roman consults the gods. The general about to
engage in battle examines the entrails of victims; the magistrates before holding
an assembly regards the passing birds (called "taking the auspices"). If the signs
are favorable, the gods are thought to approve the enterprise; if not, they are
against it. The gods often send a sign that had not been requested. Every
unexpected phenomenon is the presage of an event. A comet appeared before the
death of Cæsar and was thought to have announced it.
When the assembly of the people deliberates and it thunders, it is because
Jupiter does not wish that anything shall be decided on that day and the assembly
must dissolve. The most insignificant fact may be interpreted as a sign—a flash
of lightning, a word overheard, a rat crossing the road, a diviner met on the way.
And so when Marcellus had determined on an enterprise, he had himself carried
in a closed litter that he might be sure of not seeing anything which could
impose itself on him as a portent.
These were not the superstitions of the populace; the republic supported six
augurs charged with predicting the future. It carefully preserved a collection of
prophecies, the Sibylline Books. It had sacred chickens guarded by priests. No
public act—assembly, election, deliberation—could be done without the taking
of the auspices, that is to say, observation of the flight of birds. In the year 195 it
was learned that lightning had struck a temple of Jupiter and that it had hit a hair
on the head of the statue of Hercules; a governor wrote that a chicken with three
feet had been hatched; the senate assembled to discuss these portents.
The Priests.—The priest in Rome, as in Greece, is not charged with the care
of souls, he exists only for the service of the god. He guards his temple,
administers his property, and performs the ceremonies in his honor. Thus the
guild of the Salii (the leapers) watches over a shield which fell from heaven,
they said, and which was adored as an idol; every year they perform a dance in
arms, and this is their sole function.
The augurs predict the future. The pontiffs superintend the ceremonies of
worship; they regulate the calendar and fix the festivals to be celebrated on the
various days of the year.
Neither the priests, the augurs, nor the pontiffs form a separate class. They are
chosen from among the great families and continue to exercise all the functions
of state—judging, presiding over assemblies, and commanding armies. This is
the reason that the Roman priests, potent as they were, did not constitute, as in
Egypt, a sacerdotal caste. At Rome it was a state religion, but not a government
by the priests.
The Dead.—The Romans, like the Hindoos and the Greeks, believed that the
soul survived the body. If care were taken to bury the body according to the
proper rites, the soul went to the lower world and became a god; otherwise the
soul could not enter the abode of the dead, but returned to the earth terrifying the
living and tormenting them until suitable burial was performed. Pliny the
Younger[113] relates the story of a ghost which haunted a house and terrified to
death all the inhabitants of the dwelling; a philosopher who was brave enough to
follow it discovered at the place where the spectre stopped some bones which
had not been buried in the proper manner. The shade of the Emperor Caligula
wandered in the gardens of the palace; it was necessary to disinter the body and
bury it anew in regular form.
Cult of the Dead.—It was of importance, therefore, to both the living and the
dead that the rites should be observed. The family of the deceased erected a
funeral pile, burned the body on it, and placed the ashes in an urn which was
deposited in the tomb, a little chapel dedicated to the Manes,[114] i.e., the souls
that had become gods. On fixed days of the year the relatives came to the tomb
to bring food; doubtless they believed that the soul was in need of nourishment,
for wine and milk were poured on the earth, flesh of victims was burned, and
vessels of milk and cakes were left behind. These funeral ceremonies were
perpetuated for an indefinite period; a family could not abandon the souls of its
ancestors, but continued to maintain their tomb and the funeral feasts. In return,
these souls which had become gods loved and protected their posterity. Each
family, therefore, had its guardian deities which they called Lares.
Cult of the Hearth.—Each family had a hearth, also, that it adored. For the
Romans, as for the Hindoos, fire was a god and the hearth an altar. The flame
was to be maintained day and night, and offerings made on the hearth of oil, fat,
wine, and incense; the fire then became brilliant and rose higher as if nourished
by the offering.
Before beginning his meal the Roman thanked the god of the hearth, gave him
a part of the food, and poured out for him a little wine (this was the libation).
Even the sceptical Horace supped with his slaves before the hearth and offered
libation and prayer.
Every Roman family had in its house a sanctuary where were to be found the
Lares, the souls of the ancestors, and the altar of the hearth. Rome also had its
sacred hearth, called Vesta, an ancient word signifying the hearth itself. Four
virgins of the noblest families, the Vestals, were charged with keeping the hearth,
for it was necessary that the flame should never be extinguished, and the care of
it could be confided only to pure beings. If a Vestal broke her vow, she was
buried alive in a cave, for she had committed sacrilege and had endangered the
whole Roman people.

THE FAMILY

Religion of the Family.—All the members of a family render worship to the

same ancestors and unite about the same hearth. They have therefore the same
gods, and these are their peculiar possession. The sanctuary where the Lares[115]
were kept was concealed in the house and no stranger was to approach it. Thus
the Roman family was a little church; it had its religion and its worship to which
no others than its members had access. The ancient family was very different
from the modern, having its basis in the principles of religion.
Marriage.—The first rule of this religion is that one should be the issue of a
regular marriage if one is to have the right of adoring the ancestors of the family.
Roman marriage, therefore, is at the start a religious ceremony. The father of the
bride gives her away outside the house when a procession conducts her to the
house of the groom chanting an ancient sacred refrain, "Hymen, O Hymen!" The
bride is then led before the altar of the husband where water and fire are
presented, and there in the presence of the gods of the family the bride and
groom divide between them a cake of meal. Marriage at this period was called
confarreatio (communion through the cake). Later another form of marriage was
invented. A relative of the bride in the presence of witnesses sells her to the
husband who declares that he buys her for his wife. This is marriage by sale
(coemptio).
For the Romans as for the Greeks marriage is a religious duty; religion ordains
that the family should not become extinct. The Roman, therefore, declares when
he marries that he takes his wife to perpetuate the family through their children.
A noble Roman who sincerely loved his wife repudiated her because she brought
him no children.
The Roman Woman.—The Roman woman is never free. As a young girl, she
belongs to her father who chooses her husband for her; married, she comes under
the power of her husband—the jurisconsults say she is under his "manus," i.e.,
she is in the same position as his daughter. The woman always has a master who
has the right of life and death over her. And yet, she is never treated like a slave.
She is the equal in dignity of her husband; she is called the mother of the family
(materfamilias) just as her husband is called the father of the family
(paterfamilias). She is the mistress in the house, as he is the master. She gives
orders to the slaves whom she charges with all the heavy tasks—the grinding of
the grain, the making of bread, and the cooking. She sits in the seat of honor (the
atrium), spins and weaves, apportions work to the slaves, watches the children,
and directs the house. She is not excluded from association with the men, like
the Greek woman; she eats at the table with her husband, receives visitors, goes
into town to dinner, appears at the public ceremonies, at the theatre, and even at
the courts. And still she is ordinarily uncultured; the Romans do not care to
instruct their daughters; the quality which they most admire in woman is gravity,
and on her tomb they write by way of eulogy, "She kept the house and spun
linen."
The Children.—The Roman child belongs to the father like a piece of
property. The father has the right of exposing him in the street. If he accepts the
child, the latter is brought up at first in the house. Girls remain here until
marriage; they spin and weave under the supervision of their mother. The boys
walk to the fields with their father and exercise themselves in arms. The Romans
are not an artistic people; they require no more of their children than that they
know how to read, write, and reckon; neither music nor poetry is taught them.
They are brought up to be sober, silent, modest in their demeanor, and obedient.
The Father of the Family.—The master of the house was called by the
Romans the father of the family. The paterfamilias is at once the proprietor of the
domain, the priest of the cult of the ancestors, and the sovereign of the family.
He reigns as master in his house. He has the right of repudiating his wife, of
rejecting his children, of selling them, and marrying them at his pleasure. He can
take for himself all that belongs to them, everything that his wife brings to him,
and everything that his children gain; for neither the wife nor the children may
be proprietors. Finally he has over them all[116] the "right of life and death," that
is to say, he is their only judge. If they commit crime, it is not the magistrate who
punishes them, but the father of the family who condemns them. One day (186
B.C.) the Roman Senate decreed the penalty of death for all those who had
participated in the orgies of the cult of Bacchus. The men were executed, but for
all the women who were discovered among the guilty, it was necessary that the
 Senate should address itself to the fathers of families, and it was these who
condemned to death their wives or their daughters. "The husband," said the elder
Cato, "is the judge of the wife, he can do with her as he will; if she has
committed any fault, he chastises her; if she has drunk wine, he condemns her; if
she has been unfaithful to him, he kills her." When Catiline conspired against the
Senate, a senator perceived that his own son had taken part in the conspiracy; he
had him arrested, judged him, and condemned him to death.
The power of the father of the family endured as long as life; the son was
never freed from it. Even if he became consul, he remained subject to the power
of his father. When the father died, the sons became in turn fathers of families.
As for the wife, she could never attain freedom; she fell under the power of the
heir of her husband; she could, then, become subject to her own son.

FOOTNOTES:

[110] A legend represents King Numa debating with Jupiter the terms of a
contract: "You will sacrifice a head to me?" says Jupiter. "Very well,"
says Numa, "the head of an onion that I shall take in my garden." "No,"
replies Jupiter, "but I want something that pertains to a man." "We will
give you then the tip of the hair." "But it must be alive." "Then we will
add to this a little fish." Jupiter laughed and consented to this.
[111] In Rome, as in Greece, the temple was called a house.
[112] The remark is Cicero's.
[113] Pliny, Epistles, vii, 27. See another story in Plautus's Mostellaria.
[114] The letters D.M. found on Roman tombs are the initials of Dei Manes.
[115] They were called the Penates, that is to say, the gods of the interior.
[116] In the language of the Roman law the wife, children, and slaves "are not
their own masters."
 CHAPTER XIXToC

THE ROMAN CITY

FORMATION OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE

The Kings.—Tradition relates that Rome for two centuries and a half was
governed by kings. They told not only the names of these kings and the date of
their death, but the life of each.
They said there were seven kings. Romulus, the first king, came from the
Latin city of Alba, founded the hamlet on the Palatine, and killed his brother
who committed the sacrilege of leaping over the sacred furrow encircling the
settlement; he then allied himself with Tatius, a Sabine king. (A legend of later
origin added that he had founded at the foot of the hill-city a quarter surrounded
with a palisade where he received all the adventurers who wished to come to
him.)
Numa Pompilius, the second king, was a Sabine. It was he who organized the
Roman religion, taking counsel with a goddess, the nymph Egeria who dwelt in
a wood.
The third king, Tullus Hostilius, was a warrior. He made war on Alba, the
capital of the Latin confederation, took and destroyed it.
Ancus Martius, the fourth king, was the grandson of Numa and built the
wooden bridge over the Tiber and founded the port of Ostia through which
commerce passed up the river to Rome.
The last three kings were Etruscans. Tarquin the Elder enlarged the territory of
Rome and introduced religious ceremonies from Etruria. Servius Tullius
organized the Roman army, admitting all the citizens without distinction of birth
and separating them into centuries (companies) according to wealth. The last
king, Tarquinius Superbus, oppressed the great families of Rome; some of the
nobles conspired against him and succeeded in expelling him. Since this time
there were no longer any kings. The Roman state, or as they said, the
commonwealth (res publica) was governed by the consuls, two magistrates
elected each year.
It is impossible to know how much truth there is in this tradition, for it took
shape a long time after the Romans began to write their history, and it includes
so many legends that we cannot accept it in its entirety.
Attempt has been made to explain these names of kings as symbols of a race
or class. The early history of Rome has been reconstructed in a variety of ways,
but the greater the labor applied to it, the less the agreement among students with
regard to it.
The Roman People.—About the fifth century before Christ there were in
Rome two classes of people, the patricians and the plebeians. The patricians
were the descendants of the old families who had lived from remote antiquity on
the little territory in the vicinity of the city; they alone had the right to appear in
the assembly of the people, to assist in religious ceremonies, and to hold office.
Their ancestors had founded the Roman state, or as they called it, the Roman city
(Civitas), and these had bequeathed it to them. And so they were the true people
of Rome.
The Plebs.—The plebeians were descended from the foreigners[117]
established in the city, and especially from the conquered peoples of the
neighboring cities; for Rome had gradually subjected all the Latin cities and had
forcibly annexed their inhabitants. Subjects and yet aliens, they obeyed the
government of Rome, but they could have no part in it. They did not possess the
Roman religion and could not participate in its ceremonies. They had not even
the right of intermarrying with the patrician families. They were called the plebs
(the multitude) and were not considered a part of the Roman people. In the old
prayers we still find this formula: "For the welfare of the people and the plebs of
Rome."
Strife between Patricians and Plebeians.—The people and the plebs were
like two distinct peoples, one of masters, the other of subjects. And yet the
plebeians were much like the patricians. Soldiers, like them, they served in the
army at their own cost and suffered death in the service of the Roman people;
peasants like them, they lived on their domains. Many of the plebeians were rich
and of ancient family. The only difference was that they were descended from a
great family of some conquered Latin city, while the patricians were the scions
of an old family in the conquering city.
Tribunes of the Plebs.—One day, says the legend, the plebeians, finding
themselves mistreated, withdrew under arms to a mountain, determined to break
with the Roman people. The patricians in consternation sent to them Menenius
Agrippa who told them the fable of the members and the stomach. The plebs
consented to return but they made a treaty with the people. It was agreed that
their chiefs (they called them tribunes of the plebs) should have the right of
protecting the plebeians against the magistrates of the people and of prohibiting
any measure against them. All that was necessary was to pronounce the word
"Veto" (I forbid); this single word stopped everything; for religion prevented
attacks on a tribune under penalty of being devoted to the infernal gods.
Triumph of the Plebs.—The strife between the two orders beginning at the
end of the fifth century continued for two centuries (494 B.C. to about 300
B.C.).[118]
The plebeians, much more numerous and wealthy, ended by gaining the
victory. They first secured the adoption of laws common to the two orders;
afterward that marriage should be permitted between the patricians and the
plebeians. The hardest task was to obtain the high magistracies, or, as it was said,
"secure the honors." Religious scruple ordained, indeed, that before one could be
named as a magistrate, the gods must be asked for their approval of the choice.
This was determined by inspecting the flight of birds ("taking the auspices"). But
the old Roman religion allowed the auspices to be taken only on the name of a
patrician; it was not believed that the gods could accept a plebeian magistrate.
But there were great plebeian families who were bent on being the equals of the
patrician families in dignity, as they were in riches and in importance. They
gradually forced the patricians to open to them all the offices, beginning with the
consulship, and ending with the great pontifical office (Pontifex Maximus). The
first plebeian consul was named in 366 B.C., the first plebeian pontifex maximus
in 302 B.C.[119] Patricians and plebeians then coalesced and henceforth formed
but one people.

THE ROMAN PEOPLE

 The Right of Citizenship.—The people in Rome, as in Greece, is not the
whole of the inhabitants, but the body of citizens. Not every man who lives in
the territory is a citizen, but only he who has the right of citizenship. The citizen
has numerous privileges:
1. He alone is a member of the body politic; he alone has the right of
voting in the assemblies of the Roman people, of serving in the army, of
being present at the religious ceremonials at Rome, of being elected a
Roman magistrate. These are what were called public rights.
2. The citizen alone is protected by the Roman law; he only has the
right of marrying legally, of becoming the father of a family, that is to
say, of being master of his wife and his children, of making his will, of
buying or selling. These were the private rights.
Those who were not citizens were not only excluded from the army and the
assembly, but they could not marry, could not possess the absolute power of the
father, could not hold property legally, could not invoke the Roman law, nor
demand justice at a Roman tribunal. Thus the citizens constituted an aristocracy
amidst the other inhabitants of the city. But they were not equal among
themselves; there were class differences, or, as the Romans said, ranks.
The Nobles.—In the first rank are the nobles. A citizen is noble when one of
his ancestors has held a magistracy, for the magisterial office in Rome is an
honor, it ennobles the occupant and also his posterity.
When a citizen becomes ædile, prætor, or consul, he receives a purple-
bordered toga, a sort of throne (the curule chair), and the right of having an
image made of himself. These images are statuettes, at first in wax, later in
silver. They are placed in the atrium, the sanctuary of the house, near the hearth
and the gods of the family; there they stand in niches like idols, venerated by
posterity. When any one of the family dies, the images are brought forth and
carried in the funeral procession, and a relative pronounces the oration for the
dead. It is these images that ennoble a family that preserves them. The more
images there are in a family, the nobler it is. The Romans spoke of those who
were "noble by one image" and those who were "noble by many images."
The noble families of Rome were very few (they would not amount to 300),
for the magistracies which conferred nobility were usually given to men who
were already noble.
The Knights.—Below the nobles were the knights. They were the rich who
were not noble. Their fortune as inscribed on the registers of the treasury must
amount to at least 400,000[120] sesterces. They were merchants, bankers, and
contractors; they did not govern, but they grew rich. At the theatre they had
places reserved for them behind the nobles.
If a knight were elected to a magistracy, the nobles called him a "new man"
and his son became noble.
The Plebs.—Those who were neither nobles nor knights formed the mass of
the people, the plebs. The majority of them were peasants, cultivating a little plat
in Latium or in the Sabine country. They were the descendants of the Latins or
the Italians who were subjugated by the Romans. Cato the Elder in his book on
Agriculture gives us an idea of their manners: "Our ancestors, when they wished
to eulogize a man, said 'a good workman,' 'a good farmer'; this encomium
seemed the greatest of all."[121]
Hardened to work, eager for the harvest, steady and economical, these
laborers constituted the strength of the Roman armies. For a long time they
formed the assembly too, and dictated the elections. The nobles who wished to
be elected magistrates came to the parade-ground to grasp the hand of these
peasants ("prensare manus," was the common expression). A candidate, finding
the hand of a laborer callous, ventured to ask him, "Is it because you walk on
your hands?" He was a noble of great family, but he was not elected.
The Freedmen.—The last of all the citizens are the freedmen, once slaves, or
the sons of slaves. The taint of their origin remains on them; they are not
admitted to service in the Roman army and they vote after all the rest.

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC

The Comitia.—The government of Rome called itself a republic

(Respublica), that is to say, a thing of the people. The body of citizens called the
people was regarded as absolute master in the state. It is this body that elects the
magistrates, votes on peace and war, and that makes the laws. "The law," say the
jurisconsults, "is what the Roman people ordains." At Rome, as in Greece, the
people do not appoint deputies, they pass on the business itself. Even after more
than 500,000 men scattered over all Italy were admitted into the citizenship, the
citizens had to go in person to Rome to exercise their rights. The people,
therefore, meet at but one place; the assembly is called the Comitia.
 A magistrate convokes the people and presides over the body. Sometimes the
people are convoked by the blast of the trumpet and come to the parade-ground
(the Campus Martius), ranging themselves by companies under their standards.
This is the Comitia by centuries. Sometimes they assemble in the market-place
(the forum) and separate themselves into thirty-five groups, called tribes. Each
tribe in turn enters an enclosed space where it does its voting. This is the Comitia
by tribes. The magistrate who convokes the assembly indicates the business on
which the suffrages are to be taken, and when the assembly has voted, it
dissolves. The people are sovereign, but accustomed to obey their chiefs.
The Magistrates.—Every year the people elect officials to govern them and
to them they delegate absolute power. These are called magistrates (those who
are masters). Lictors march before them bearing a bundle of rods and an axe,
emblems of the magisterial powers of chastising and condemning to death. The
magistrate has at once the functions of presiding over the popular assembly and
the senate, of sitting in court, and of commanding the army; he is master
everywhere. He convokes and dissolves the assembly at will, he alone renders
judgment, he does with the soldiers as he pleases, putting them to death without
even taking counsel with his officers. In a war against the Latins Manlius, the
Roman general, had forbidden the soldiers leaving camp: his son, provoked by
one of the enemy, went forth and killed him; Manlius had him arrested and
executed him immediately.
According to the Roman expression, the magistrate has the power of a king;
but this power is brief and divided. The magistrate is elected for but one year and
he has a colleague who has the same power as himself. There are at once in
Rome two consuls who govern the people and command the armies, and several
prætors to serve as subordinate governors or commanders and to pronounce
judgment. There are other magistrates, besides—two censors, four ædiles to
supervise the public ways and the markets, ten tribunes of the plebs, and
quæstors to care for the state treasure.
The Censors.—The highest of all the magistrates are the censors. They are
charged with taking the census every five years, that is to say, the enumeration of
the Roman people. All the citizens appear before them to declare under oath
their name, the number of their children and their slaves, the amount of their
fortune; all this is inscribed on the registers. It is their duty, too, to draw up the
list of the senators, of the knights, and of the citizens, assigning to each his
proper rank in the city. They are charged as a result with making the lustrum, a
great ceremony of purification which occurs every five years.[122]
 On that day all the citizens are assembled on the Campus Martius arranged in
order of battle; thrice there are led around the assembly three expiatory victims,
a bull, a ram, and a swine; these are killed and their blood sprinkled on the
people; the city is purified and reconciled with the gods.
The censors are the masters of the registration and they rank each as they
please; they may degrade a senator by striking him from the senate-list, a knight
by not registering him among the knights, and a citizen by not placing his name
on the registers of the tribes. It is for them an easy means of punishing those
whom they regard at fault and of reaching those whom the law does not
condemn. They have been known to degrade citizens for poor tillage of the soil
and for having too costly an equipage, a senator because he possessed ten
pounds of silver, another for having repudiated his wife. It is this overweening
power that the Romans call the supervision of morals. It makes the censors the
masters of the city.
The Senate.—The Senate is composed of about 300 persons appointed by the
censor. But the censor does not appoint at random; he chooses only rich citizens
respected and of high family, the majority of them former magistrates. Almost
always he appoints those who are already members of the Senate, so that
ordinarily one remains a senator for life. The Senate is an assembly of the
principal men of Rome, hence its authority. As soon as business is presented, one
of the magistrates convokes the senators in a temple, lays the question before
them, and then asks "what they think concerning this matter." The senators reply
one by one, following the order of dignity. This is what they call "consulting the
Senate," and the judgment of the majority is a senatus consultum (decree of the
Senate). This conclusion is only advisory as the Senate has no power to make
laws; but Rome obeys this advice as if it were a law. The people have confidence
in the senators, knowing that they have more experience than themselves; the
magistrates do not dare to resist an assembly composed of nobles who are their
peers. And so the Senate regulates all public business: it declares war and
determines the number of the armies; it receives ambassadors and makes peace;
it fixes the revenues and the expenses. The people ratify these measures and the
magistrates execute them. In 200 B.C. the Senate decided on war with the king
of Macedon, but the people in terror refused to approve it: the Senate then
ordered a magistrate to convoke the comitia anew and to adopt a more
persuasive speech. This time the people voted for the war. In Rome it was the
people who reigned, just as is the case with the king in England, but it was the
Senate that governed.
 The Offices.—Being magistrate or senator in Rome is not a profession.
Magistrates or senators spend their time and their money without receiving any
salary. A magistracy in Rome is before all an honor. Entrance to it is to nobles, at
most to knights, but always to the rich; but these come to the highest
magistracies only after they have occupied all the others. The man who aims one
day to govern Rome must serve in the army during ten campaigns. Then he may
be elected quæstor and he receives the administration of the state treasury. After
this he becomes ædile, charged with the policing of the city and with the
provision of the corn supply. Later he is elected prætor and gives judgment in the
courts. Later yet, elected consul, he commands an army and presides over the
assemblies. Then only may he aspire to the censorship. This is the highest round
of the ladder and may be reached hardly before one's fiftieth year. The same man
has therefore, been financier, administrator, judge, general, and governor before
arriving at this original function of censor, the political distribution of the Roman
people. This series of offices is what is called the "order of the honors." Each of
these functions lasts but one year, and to rise to the one next higher a new
election is necessary. In the year which precedes the voting one must show one's
self continually in the streets, "circulate" as the Romans say (ambire: hence the
word "ambition"), to solicit the suffrages of the people. For all this time it is the
custom to wear a white toga, the very sense of the word "candidate" (white
garment).

FOOTNOTES:

[117] Probably some of the plebeians originated in non-noble Roman families.

—ED.
[118] We know the story of this contest only through Livy and Dionysius of
Halicarnassus; their very dramatic account has become celebrated, but it
is only a legend frequently altered by falsifiers.
[119] The pontificate was opened to the plebeians by the Ogulnian Law of 300
B.C. The first plebeian pontifex maximus was in 254 B.C. Livy,
Epitome, xviii.—ED.
[120] This qualification was set in the last century of the republic.—ED.
[121] He cites several of their old proverbs: "A bad farmer is one who buys
what his land can raise." "It is bad economy to do in the day what can be
done at night."
[122] After the completion of the census.—ED.

CHAPTER XXToC

ROMAN CONQUEST

THE ROMAN ARMY

Military Service.—To be admitted to service in the Roman army one must be

a Roman citizen. It is necessary to have enough wealth to equip one's self at
one's own expense, for the state furnishes no arms to its soldiers; down to 402
B.C. it did not even pay them. And so only those citizens are enrolled who are
provided with at least a small fortune. The poor (called the proletariat) are
exempt from service, or rather, they have no right to serve. Every citizen who is
rich enough to be admitted to the army owes the state twenty campaigns; until
these are completed the man remains at the disposition of the consul and this
from the age of seventeen to forty-six. In Rome, as in the Greek cities, every
man is at once citizen and soldier. The Romans are a people of small proprietors
disciplined in war.
The Levy.—When there was need of soldiers, the consul ordered all the
citizens qualified for service to assemble at the Capitol. There the officers
elected by the people chose as many men as were necessary to form the army.
This was the enrolment (the Romans called it the Choice); then came the
military oath. The officers first took the oath, and then the rank and file; they
swore to obey their general, to follow him wherever he led them and to remain
under the standards until he released them from their oath. One man pronounced
the formula and each in turn advanced and said, "I also." From this time the
army was bound to the general by the bonds of religion.
Legions and Allies.—The Roman army was at first called the Legion (levy).
When the people increased in number, instead of one legion, several were
formed.
The legion was a body of 4,200 to 5,000 men, all Roman citizens. The
smallest army had always at least one legion, every army commanded by a
consul had at least two. But the legions constituted hardly a half of the Roman
army. All the subject peoples in Italy were required to send troops, and these
soldiers, who were called allies, were placed under the orders of Roman officers.
In a Roman army the allies were always a little more numerous than the citizens
of the legions. Ordinarily with four legions (16,800 men) there were enrolled
20,000 archers and 40,000 horse from the allies. In the Second Punic War, in 218
B.C., 26,000 citizens and 45,000 allies were drawn for service. Thus the Roman
people, in making war, made use of its subjects as well as of its citizens.
Military Exercises.—Rome had no gymnasium; the future soldiers exercised
themselves on the parade-ground, the Campus Martius, on the other side of the
Tiber. There the young man marched, ran, leaped under the weight of his arms,
fenced with his sword, hurled the javelin, wielded the mattock, and then, covered
with dust and with perspiration, swam across the Tiber. Often the older men,
sometimes even the generals, mingled with the young men, for the Roman never
ceased to exercise. Even in the campaign the rule was not to allow the men to be
unoccupied; once a day, at least, they were required to take exercise, and when
there was neither enemy to fight nor intrenchment to erect, they were employed
in building roads, bridges, and aqueducts.
The Camp.—The Roman soldier carried a heavy burden—his arms, his
utensils, rations for seventeen days, and a stake, in all sixty Roman pounds. The
army moved more rapidly as it was not encumbered with baggage. Every time
that a Roman army halted for camp, a surveyor traced a square enclosure, and
along its lines the soldiers dug a deep ditch; the earth which was excavated,
thrown inside, formed a bank which they fortified with stakes. The camp was
thus defended by a ditch and a palisade. In this improvised fortress the soldiers
erected their tents, and in the middle was set the Prætorium, the tent of the
general. Sentinels mounted guard throughout the night, and so prevented the
army from being surprised.
The Order of Battle.—In the presence of the enemy the soldiers did not form
in a solid mass, as did the Greeks. The legion was divided into small bodies of
120 men, called maniples because they had for standards bundles of hay.[123] The
maniples were ranged in quincunx form in three lines, each separated from the
neighboring maniple in such a way as to manœuvre separately. The soldiers of
the maniples of the first line hurled their javelins, grasped their swords, and
began the battle. If they were repulsed, they withdrew to the rear through the
vacant spaces. The second line of the maniples then in turn marched to the
combat. If it was repulsed, it fell back on the third line. The third line was
composed of the best men of the legion and was equipped with lances. They
received the others into their ranks and threw themselves on the enemy. The
army was no longer a single mass incapable of manœuvring; the general could
form his lines according to the nature of the ground. At Cynoscephalæ, where
for the first time the two most renowned armies of antiquity met, the Roman
legion and the Macedonian phalanx, the ground was bristling with hills; on this
rugged ground the 16,000 Macedonion hoplites could not remain in order, their
ranks were opened, and the Roman platoons threw themselves into the gaps and
demolished the phalanx.
Discipline.—The Roman army obeyed a rude discipline. The general had the
right of life and death over all his men. The soldier who quitted his post or
deserted in battle was condemned to death; the lictors bound him to a post, beat
him with rods, and cut off his head; or the soldiers may have killed him with
blows of their staves. When an entire body of troops mutinied, the general
separated the guilty into groups of ten and drew by lot one from every group to
be executed. This was called decimation (from decimus, the tenth). The others
were placed on a diet of barley-bread and made to camp outside the lines, always
in danger of surprise from the enemy. The Romans never admitted that their
soldiers were conquered or taken prisoners: after the battle of Cannæ the 3,000
soldiers who escaped the carnage were sent by the senate to serve in Sicily
without pay and without honors until the enemy should be expelled from Italy;
the 8,000 left in the camp were taken by Hannibal who offered to return them for
a small ransom, but the senate refused to purchase them.
Colonies and Military Roads.—In the countries that were still only partially
subject, Rome established a small garrison. This body of soldiers founded a town
which served as a fortress, and around about it the lands were cut into small
domains and distributed to the soldiers. This is what they called a Colony. The
colonists continued to be Roman citizens and obeyed all commands from Rome.
Quite different from a Greek colony which emancipated itself even to the point
of making war on its mother city, the Roman colony remained a docile daughter.
It was only a Roman garrison posted in the midst of the enemy. Almost all these
military posts were in Italy, but there were others besides; Narbonne and Lyons
were once Roman colonies.
To hold these places and to send their armies to a distance the Romans built
military roads. These were causeways constructed in a straight line, of limestone,
stone, and sand. The Romans covered their empire with them. In a land like
France there is no part where one does not find traces of the Roman roads.

CHARACTER OF THE CONQUEST

War.—There was at Rome a temple consecrated to the god Janus whose gates
remained open while the Roman people continued at war. For the five hundred
years of the republic this temple was closed but once and that for only a few
years. Rome, then, lived in a state of war. As it had the strongest army of the
time, it finished by conquering all the other peoples and by overcoming the
ancient world.
Conquest of Italy.—Rome began by subjecting her neighbors, the Latins,
first, then the little peoples of the south, the Volscians, the Æquians, the
Hernicans, later the Etruscans and the Samnites, and finally the Greek cities.
This was the hardest and slowest of their conquests: beginning with the time of
the kings, it did not terminate until 266, after four centuries of strife.[124]
The Romans had to fight against peoples of the same race as themselves, as
vigorous and as brave as they. Some who were not content to obey they
exterminated. The rich plains of the Volscians became a swampy wilderness,
uninhabitable even to the present time, the gloomy region of the Pontine
marshes.
In the land of the Samnites there were still recognizable, three hundred years
after the war, the forty-five camps of Decius and the eighty-six of Fabius, less
apparent by the traces of their intrenchments than by the solitude of the
neighborhood.
The Punic Wars.—Come into Sicily, Rome antagonized Carthage. Then
began the Punic wars (that is to say, against the Phœnicians). There were three of
these wars. The first, from 264 to 241, was determined by naval battles; Rome
became mistress of Sicily. It was related that Rome had never had any war-ships,
that she took as a model a Carthaginian galley cast ashore by accident on her
coast and began by exercising her oarsmen in rowing on the land. This legend is
without foundation for the Roman navy had long endured. This is the Roman
account of this war: the Roman consul Duillius had vanquished the Carthaginian
fleet at Mylæ (260); a Roman army had disembarked in Africa under the lead of
Regulus, had been attacked and destroyed (255); Regulus was sent as a prisoner
to Rome to conclude a peace, but persuading the Senate to reject it, he returned
to Carthage where he perished by torture. The war was concentrated in Sicily
where the Carthaginian fleet, at first victorious at Drepana, was defeated at the
Ægates Islands; Hamilcar, besieged on Mount Eryx, signed the peace.
The second war (from 218 to 201) was the work of Hannibal.
The third war was a war of extermination: the Romans took Carthage by
assault, razed it, and conquered Africa.
These wars had long made Rome tremble. Carthage had the better navy, but its
warriors were armed adventurers fighting not for country but for pay, lawless,
terrible under a general like Hannibal.
Hannibal.—Hannibal, who directed the whole of the second war and almost
captured Rome, was of the powerful family of the Barcas. His father Hamilcar
had commanded a Carthaginian army in the first Punic war and had afterwards
been charged with the conquest of Spain. Hannibal was then but a child, but his
father took him with him. The departure of an army was always accompanied by
sacrifices to the gods of the country; it was said that Hamilcar after the sacrifice
made his infant son swear eternal enmity to Rome.
Hannibal, brought up in the company of the soldiers, became the best
horseman and the best archer of the army. War was his only aim in life; his only
needs, therefore, were a horse and arms. He had made himself so popular that at
the death of Hasdrubal who was in the command of the army, the soldiers elected
him general without waiting for orders from the Carthaginian senate. Thus
Hannibal found himself at the age of twenty-one at the head of an army which
was obedient only to himself. He began war, regardless of the senate at Carthage,
by advancing to the siege of Saguntum, a Greek colony allied with Rome; he
took this and destroyed it.
The glory of Hannibal was that he did not wait for the Romans, but had the
audacity to march into Italy to attack them. As he had no fleet, he resolved to
advance by land, through the Pyrenees, crossing the Rhone and the Alps. He
made sure of the alliance of the Gallic peoples and penetrated the Pyrenees with
an army of 60,000 men, African and Spanish mercenaries, and with 37 war-
elephants. A Gallic people wished to stop him at the Rhone, but he sent a
detachment to pass the river some leagues farther up the stream and to attack the
Gauls in the rear; the mass of the army crossed the river in boats, the elephants
on great rafts.
He next ascended the valley of the Isère and arrived at the Alps at the end of
October; he crossed them regardless of the snow and the attacks of the
mountaineers; many men and horses rolled down the precipices. But nine days
were consumed in attaining the summits of the Alps. The descent was very
difficult; the pass by which he had to go was covered with ice and he was
compelled to cut a road out of the rock. When he arrived in the plain, the army
was reduced to half its former number.
Hannibal met three Roman armies in succession, first at the Ticinus, next on
the banks of the Trebia, and last near Lake Trasimenus in Etruria. He routed all
of them. As he advanced, his army increased in number; the warriors of
Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy) joined him against the Romans. He took up
position beyond Rome in Apulia, and it was here that the Roman army came to
attack him. Hannibal had an army only half as large as theirs, but he had African
cavalrymen mounted on swift horses; he formed his lines in the plain of Cannæ
so that the Romans had the sun in their face and the dust driven by the wind
against them; the Roman army was surrounded and almost annihilated (216). It
was thought that Hannibal would march on Rome, but he did not consider
himself strong enough to do it. The Carthaginian senate sent him no
reënforcements. Hannibal endeavored to take Naples and to have Rome attacked
by the king of Macedon; he succeeded only in gaining some towns which Rome
besieged and destroyed. Hannibal remained nine years in south Italy; at last his
brother Hasdrubal started with the army of Spain to assist him, and made his
way almost to central Italy. The two Carthaginian armies marched to unite their
forces, each opposed by a Roman army under the command of a consul. Nero,
facing Hannibal, had the audacity to traverse central Italy and to unite with his
colleague who was intrenched against Hasdrubal. One morning Hasdrubal heard
the trumpets sounding twice in the camp of the Romans, a sign that there were
two consuls in the camp. He believed his brother was conquered and so
retreated; the Romans pursued him, he was killed and his entire army massacred.
Then Nero rejoined the army which he had left before Hannibal and threw the
head of Hasdrubal into the Carthaginian camp (207). Hannibal, reduced to his
own troops, remained in Calabria for five years longer. The descent of a Roman
army on Africa compelled him to leave Italy; he massacred the Italian soldiers
who refused to accompany him and embarked for Carthage (203). The battle of
Zama (202) terminated the war. Hannibal had counted as usual on drawing the
Romans within his lines and surrounding them; but Scipio, the Roman general,
kept his troops in order and on a second attack threw the enemy's army into rout.
Carthage was obliged to treat for peace; she relinquished everything she
possessed outside of Africa, ceding Spain to the Romans. She bound herself
further to surrender her navy and the elephants, to pay over $10,000,000 and to
agree not to make war without the permission of Rome.
Hannibal reorganized Carthage for a new war. The Romans, disturbed at this,
demanded that the Carthaginians put him to death. Hannibal fled to Antiochus,
king of Syria, and proposed to him to incite a revolt in Italy against Rome; but
Antiochus, following the counsel of his courtiers, distrusted Hannibal and
invaded Greece, where his army was captured. Hannibal withdrew to the king of
Bithynia. The Romans sent Flamininus thither to take him, but Hannibal, seeing
his house surrounded, took the poison which he always had by him (183).
Conquests of the Orient.—The Greek kings, successors of the generals of
Alexander, divided the Orient among themselves. The most powerful of these
took up war against Rome; but they were defeated—Philip, the king of
Macedon, in 197, his son Perseus in 168, Antiochus, the king of Syria, in 190.
The Romans, having from this time a free field, conquered one by one all the
lands which they found of use to them: Macedon (148), the kingdom of
Pergamum (129), the rest of Asia (from 74 to 64) after the defeat of Mithradates,
and Egypt (30).
With the exception of the Macedonians, the Orient opposed the Romans with
mercenaries only or with undisciplined barbarians who fled at the first onset. In
the great victory over Antiochus at Magnesia there were only 350 Romans
killed. At Chæronea, Sulla was victorious with the loss of but twelve men. The
other kings, now terrified, obeyed the Senate without resistance.
Antiochus the Great, king of Syria, having conquered a part of Egypt, was
bidden by Popilius acting under the command of the Senate to abandon his
conquest. Antiochus hesitated; but Popilius, taking a rod in his hand, drew a
circle about the king, and said, "Before you move from this circle, give answer
to the Senate." Antiochus submitted, and surrendered Egypt. The king of
Numidia desired of the Senate that it should regard his kingdom as the property
of the Roman people. Prusias, the king of Bithynia, with shaved head and in the
garb of a freedman, prostrated himself before the Senate. Mithradates alone, king
of Pontus, endeavored to resist; but after thirty years of war he was driven from
his states and compelled to take his life by poison.
Conquest of the Barbarian Lands.—The Romans found more difficult the
subjection of the barbarous and warlike peoples of the west. A century was
required to conquer Spain. The shepherd Viriathus made guerilla warfare on
them in the mountains of Portugal (149-139), overwhelmed five armies, and
compelled even a consul to treat for peace; the Senate got rid of him by
assassination.
Against the single town of Numantia it was necessary to send Scipio, the best
general of Rome.
The little and obscure peoples of Corsica, of Sardinia, and of the mountains of
Genoa (the Ligurians) were always reviving the war with Rome.
But the most indomitable of all were the Gauls. Occupying the whole of the
valley of the Po, they threw themselves on Italy to the south. One of their bands
had taken Rome in 390. Their big white bodies, their long red mustaches, their
blue eyes, their savage yells terrified the Roman soldiers. As soon as their
approach was learned, consternation seized Rome, and the Senate proclaimed the
levy of the whole army (they called this the "Gallic tumult"). These wars were
the bloodiest but the shortest; the first (225-222) gave to the Romans all
Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy); the second (120), the Rhone lands (Languedoc,
Provence, Dauphiné); the third (58-51), all the rest of Gaul.

ROMAN WARFARE

The Triumph.—When a general has won a great victory, the Senate permits
him as a signal honor to celebrate the triumph. This is a religious procession to
the temple of Jupiter. The magistrates and senators march at the head; then come
the chariots filled with booty, the captives chained by the feet, and, at last, on a
golden car drawn by four horses, the victorious general crowned with laurel. His
soldiers follow him singing songs with the solemn refrain "Io, Triomphe."[125]
The procession traverses the city in festal attire and ascends to the Capitol: there
the victor lays down his laurel on the knees of Jupiter and thanks him for giving
victory. After the ceremony the captives are imprisoned, or, as in the case of
Vercingetorix, beheaded, or, like Jugurtha, cast into a dungeon to die of hunger.
The triumph of Æmilius Paullus, conqueror of Macedon, lasted for three days.
The first day witnessed a procession of 250 chariots bearing pictures and statues,
the second the trophies of weapons and 25 casks of silver, the third the vases of
gold and 120 sacrificial bulls. At the rear walked King Perseus, clad in black,
surrounded by his followers in chains and his three young children who extended
their hands to the people to implore their pity.
Booty.—In the wars of antiquity the victor took possession of everything that
had belonged to the vanquished, not only of the arms and camp-baggage, but of
the treasure, the movable property, beasts of the hostile people, the men, women,
and children. At Rome the booty did not belong to the soldiers but to the people.
The prisoners were enslaved, the property was sold and the profits of the sale
turned into the public chest. And so every war was a lucrative enterprise. The
kings of Asia had accumulated enormous treasure and this the Roman generals
transported to Rome. The victor of Carthage deposited in the treasury more than
100,000 pounds of silver; the conqueror of Antiochus 140,000 pounds of silver
and 1,000 pounds of gold without counting the coined metals; the victor over
Persia remitted 120,000,000 sesterces.
The Allies of Rome.—The ancient world was divided among a great number
of kings, little peoples, and cities that hated one another. They never united for
resistance and so Rome absorbed them one by one.
Those whom she did not attack remained neutral and indifferent; often they
even united with the Romans. In the majority of her wars Rome did not fight
alone, but had the assistance of allies: against Carthage, the king of Numidia;
against the king of Macedon, the Ætolians; against the king of Syria, the
Rhodians. In the east many kings proudly assumed the title of "Ally of the
Roman People." In the countries divided into small states, some peoples called in
the Romans against their neighbors, receiving the Roman army, furnishing it
with provisions, and guiding it to the frontiers of the hostile country. And so in
Gaul it was Marseilles that introduced the Romans into the valley of the Rhone;
it was the people of Autun (the Ædui) who permitted them to establish
themselves in the heart of the land.
Motives of Conquest.—The Romans did not from the first have the purpose
to conquer the world. Even after winning Italy and Carthage they waited a
century before subjecting the Orient which really laid itself at their feet. They
conquered, it appears, without predetermined plan, and because they all had
interest in conquest. The magistrates who were leaders of the armies saw in
conquest a means of securing the honors of the triumph and the surest instrument
for making themselves popular. The most powerful statesmen in Rome, Papirius,
Fabius, the two Scipios, Cato, Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Cæsar, and Crassus, were
victorious generals. The nobles who composed the Senate gained by the increase
of Roman subjects, and with these they allied themselves as governors to receive
their homage and their presents. For the knights—that is to say, the bankers, the
merchants, and the contractors—every new conquest was a new land to exploit.
The people itself profited by the booty taken from the enemy. After the treasure
of the king of Macedon was deposited in the public chest, taxes were finally
abolished. As for the soldiers, as soon as war was carried into rich lands, they
received immense sums from their general, to say nothing of what they took
from the vanquished. The Romans conquered the world less for glory than for
the profits of war.

EFFECTS OF ROMAN CONQUEST

The Empire of the Roman People.—Rome subjected all the lands around the
Mediterranean from Spain to Asia Minor. These countries were not annexed,
their inhabitants did not become citizens of Rome, nor their territory Roman
territory. They remained aliens entering simply into the Roman empire, that is,
under the domination of the Roman people. In just the same way today the
Hindoos are not citizens but subjects of England; India is a part, not of England,
but of the British Empire.
The Public Domain.—When a conquered people asked peace, this is the
formula which its deputies were expected to pronounce: "We surrender to you
the people, the town, the fields, the waters, the gods of the boundaries, and
movable property; all things which belonged to the gods and to men we deliver
to the power of the Roman people." By this act, the Roman people became the
proprietor of everything that the vanquished possessed, even of their persons.
Sometimes it sold the inhabitants into slavery: Æmilius Paullus sold 150,000
Epeirots who surrendered to him. Ordinarily Rome left to the conquered their
liberty, but their territory was incorporated into the domain of the Roman people.
Of this land three equal parts were made:
 1. A part of their lands was returned to the people, but on condition
that they pay a tribute in money or in grain, and Rome reserved the right
of recalling the land at will.
2. The fields and pastures were farmed out to publicans.
3. Some of the uncultivated land was resigned to the first occupant,
every Roman citizen having the right of settling there and of cultivating
it.
Agrarian Laws.—The Agrarian Laws which deeply agitated Rome were
concerned with this public domain. No Roman had leave to expel the possessors,
for the boundaries of these domains were gods (Termini) and religious scruple
prevented them from being disturbed. By the Agrarian Laws the people resumed
the lands of the public domain which they distributed to citizens as property.
Legally the people had the right to do this, since all the domain belonged to
them. But for some centuries certain subjects or citizens had been permitted to
enjoy these lands; at last they regarded them as their own property; they
bequeathed them, bought and sold them. To take these from the occupants would
suddenly ruin a multitude of people. In Italy especially, if this were done, all the
people of a city would be expelled. Thus Augustus deprived the inhabitants of
Mantua of the whole of their territory; Vergil was among the victims, but, thanks
to his verse, he obtained the return of his domain, while the other proprietors
who were not poets remained in exile. These lands thus recovered were
sometimes distributed to poor citizens of Rome, but most frequently to old
soldiers. Sulla bestowed lands on 120,000 veterans at the expense of the people
of Etruria. The Agrarian Laws were a menace to all the subjects of Rome, and it
was one of the benefits conferred by the emperors that they were abolished.

FOOTNOTES:

[123] Wisps or bundle of hay were twisted around poles.—ED.

[124] Regarding all these Italian wars the Romans had only a number of
legends, most of them developed to glorify the heroism of some ancestor
of a noble family—a Valerius, a Fabius, a Decius, or a Manlius.
[125] These songs were mingled with coarse ribaldry at the expense of the
general.—ED.

CHAPTER XXIToC

THE CONQUERED PEOPLES

THE PROVINCIALS

The Provinces.—The inhabitants of conquered countries did not enter into

Roman citizenship, but remained strangers (peregrini), while yet subjects of the
Roman empire. They were to pay tribute—the tithe of their crops, a tax in silver,
a capitation tax. They must obey Romans of every order. But as the Roman
people could not itself administer the province, it sent a magistrate in its place
with the mission of governing. The country subject to a governor was called
province (which signifies mission).
At the end of the republic (in 46), there were seventeen provinces: ten in
Europe, five in Asia, two in Africa—the majority of these very large. Thus the
entire territory of Gaul constituted but four provinces, and Spain but two. "The
provinces," said Cicero, "are the domains of the Roman people"—if it made all
these peoples subjects, it was not for their advantage, but for its own. Its aim was
not to administer, but to exploit them.
The Proconsuls.—For the administration of a province the Roman people
always appointed a magistrate, consul or prætor, who was just finishing the term
of his office, and whose prerogative it prolonged.[126] The proconsul, like the
consul, had absolute power and he could exercise it to his fancy, for he was alone
in his province;[127] there were no other magistrates to dispute the power with
him, no tribunes of the people to veto his acts, no senate to watch him. He alone
commanded the troops, led them to battle, and posted them where he wished. He
sat in his tribunal (prætorium), condemning to fine, imprisonment, or death. He
promulgated decrees which had the force of law. He was the sole authority over
himself for he was in himself the incarnation of the Roman people.
Tyranny and Oppression of the Proconsuls.—This governor, whom no one
resisted, was a true despot. He made arrests, cast into prison, beat with rods, or
executed those who displeased him. The following is one of a thousand of these
caprices of the governor as a Roman orator relates it: "At last the consul came to
Termini, where his wife took a fancy to bathe in the men's bath. All the men who
were bathing there were driven out The wife of the consul complained that it had
not been done quickly enough and that the baths were not well prepared. The
consul had a post set up in a public place, brought to it one of the most eminent
men of the city, stripped him of his garments, and had him beaten with rods."
The proconsul drew from the province as much money as he wanted; thus he
regarded it as his private property. Means were not wanting to exploit it. He
plundered the treasuries of the cities, removed the statues and jewels stored in
the temples, and made requisitions on the rich inhabitants for money or grain. As
he was able to lodge troops where he pleased, the cities paid him money to be
exempt from the presence of the soldiers. As he could condemn to death at will,
individuals gave him security-money. If he demanded an object of art or even a
sum of money, who would dare to refuse him? The men of his escort imitated his
example, pillaging under his name, and even under his protection. The governor
was in haste to accumulate his wealth as it was necessary that he make his
fortune in one year. After he returned to Rome, another came who recommenced
the whole process. There was, indeed, a law that prohibited every governor from
accepting a gift, and a tribunal (since 149) expressly for the crime of extortion.
But this tribunal was composed of nobles and Roman knights who would not
condemn their compatriot, and the principal result of this system was, according
to the remark of Cicero, to compel the governor to take yet more plunder from
the province in order to purchase the judges of the tribunal.
It cannot surprise one that the term "proconsul" came to be a synonym for
despot. Of these brigands by appointment the most notorious was Verres,
proprætor of Sicily, since Cicero from political motives pronounced against him
seven orations which have made him famous. But it is probable that many others
were as bad as he.
 The Publicans.—In every province the Roman people had considerable
revenues—the customs, the mines, the imposts, the grain-lands, and the pastures.
These were farmed out to companies of contractors who were called publicans.
These men bought from the state the right of collecting the impost in a certain
place, and the provincials had to obey them as the representatives of the Roman
people. And so in every province there were many companies of publicans, each
with a crowd of clerks and collectors. These people carried themselves as
masters, extorted more than was due them, reduced the debtors to misery,
sometimes selling them as slaves. In Asia they even exiled the inhabitants
without any pretext. When Marius required the king of Bithynia to furnish him
with soldiers, the king replied that, thanks to the publicans, he had remaining as
citizens only women, children, and old people. The Romans were well informed
of these excesses. Cicero wrote to his brother, then a governor, "If you find the
means of satisfying the publicans without letting the provincials be destroyed, it
is because you have the attributes of a god." But the publicans were judged in the
tribunals and the proconsuls themselves obeyed them. Scaurus, the proconsul of
Asia, a man of rigid probity,[128] wished to prevent them from pillaging his
province; on his return to Rome they had him accused and condemned.
The publicans drove to extremities even the peaceable and submissive
inhabitants of the Orient: in a single night, at the order of Mithradates, 100,000
Romans were massacred. A century later, in the time of Christ, the word
"publican" was synonymous with thief.
The Bankers.—The Romans had heaped up at home the silver of the
conquered countries. And so silver was very abundant in Rome and scarce in the
provinces. At Rome one could borrow at four or five per cent.; in the provinces
not less than twelve per cent. was charged. The bankers borrowed money in
Rome and loaned it in the provinces, especially to kings or to cities. When the
exhausted peoples could not return the principal and the interest, the bankers
imitated the procedure of the publicans. In 84 the cities of Asia made a loan to
pay an enormous war-levy; fourteen years later, the interest alone had made the
debt amount to six times the original amount. The bankers compelled the cities
to sell even their objects of art; parents sold even their children. Some years later
one of the most highly esteemed Romans of his time, Brutus, the Stoic, loaned to
the city of Salamis in Cyprus a sum of money at forty-eight per cent. interest
(four per cent. a month). Scaptius, his business manager, demanded the sum with
interest; the city could not pay; Scaptius then went in search of the proconsul
Appius, secured a squadron of cavalry and came to Salamis to blockade the
senate in its hall of assembly; five senators died of famine.
 Defencelessness of the Provincials.—The provincials had no redress against
all these tyrants. The governor sustained the publicans, and the Roman army and
people sustained the governor. Admit that a Roman citizen could enter suit
against the plunderers of the provinces: a governor was inviolable and could not
be accused until he had given up his office; while he held his office there was
nothing to do but to watch him plunder. If he were accused on his return to
Rome, he appeared before a tribunal of nobles and of publicans who were more
interested to support him than to render justice to the provincials. If, perchance,
the tribunal condemned him, exile exempted him from all further penalty and he
betook himself to a city of Italy to enjoy his plunder. This punishment was
nothing to him and was not even a loss to him. And so the provincials preferred
to appease their governor by submission. They treated him like a king, flattered
him, sent presents, and raised statues to him. Often, indeed, in Asia they raised
altars to him,[129] built temples to him, and adored him as a god.

SLAVERY

The Sale of Slaves.—Every prisoner of war, every inhabitant of a captured

city belonged to the victor. If they were not killed, they were enslaved. Such was
the ancient custom and the Romans exercised the right to the full. Captives were
treated as a part of the booty and were therefore either sold to slave-merchants
who followed the army or, if taken to Rome, were put up at auction.[130] After
every war thousands of captives, men and women, were sold as slaves. Children
born of slave mothers would themselves be slaves. Thus it was the conquered
peoples who furnished the slave-supply for the Romans.
Condition of the Slave.—The slave belonged to a master, and so was
regarded not as a person but as a piece of property. He had, then, no rights; he
could not be a citizen or a proprietor; he could be neither husband nor father.
"Slave marriages!" says a character in a Roman comedy;[131] "A slave takes a
wife; it is contrary to the custom of every people." The master has full right over
his slave; he sends him where he pleases, makes him work according to his will,
even beyond his strength, ill feeds him, beats him, tortures him, kills him
without accounting to anybody for it. The slave must submit to all the whims of
his master; the Romans declare, even, that he is to have no conscience, his only
duty is blind obedience. If he resists, if he flees, the state assists the master to
subdue or recover him; the man who gives refuge to a fugitive slave renders
himself liable to the charge of theft, as if he had taken an ox or a horse belonging
to another.
Number of Slaves.—Slaves were far more numerous than free men. Rich
citizens owned 10,000 to 20,000 of them,[132] some having enough of them to
constitute a real army. We read of Cæcilius Claudius Isidorius who had once
been a slave and came to possess more than 4,000 slaves. Horace, who had
seven slaves, speaks of his modest patrimony. Having but three was in Rome a
mark of poverty.
Urban Slaves.—The Roman nobles, like the Orientals of our day, delighted in
surrounding themselves with a crowd of servants. In a great Roman house lived
hundreds of slaves, organized for different services. There were slaves to care for
the furniture, for the silver plate, for the objects of art; slaves of the wardrobe,
valets and chambermaids, the troop of cooks, the slaves of the bath, the master
of the house and his aids, the slaves to escort the master and mistress on the
street, the litter-carriers, coachmen and grooms, secretaries, readers, copyists,
physicians, teachers, actors, musicians, artisans of every kind, for in every great
house grain was ground, flax was spun, and garments were woven. Others,
gathered in workshops, manufactured objects which the master sold to his profit.
Others were hired out as masons or as sailors; Crassus had 500 carpenter-slaves.
These classes of slaves were called "slaves of the city."
Rural Slaves.—Every great domain was tilled by a band of slaves. They were
the laborers, the shepherds, the vine-dressers, the gardeners, the fishermen,
grouped together in squads of ten. An overseer, himself a slave, superintended
them. The proprietor made it a matter to produce everything on his lands: "He
buys nothing; everything that he consumes he raises at home," this is the
compliment paid to the rich. The Roman, therefore, kept a great number of
country-slaves, as they were called. A Roman domain had a strong resemblance
to a village; indeed it was called a "villa." The name has been preserved: what
the French call "ville" since the Middle Ages is only the old Roman domain
increased in size.
Treatment of Slaves.—The kind of treatment the slaves received depended
entirely on the character of the master. Some enlightened and humane masters
may be enumerated, such as Cicero, Seneca, and Pliny, who fed their slaves well,
talked with them, sometimes had them sit at table with them, and permitted them
to have families and small fortunes (the peculium).
 But other masters are mentioned who treated their slaves as animals, punished
them cruelly, and even had them put to death for a whim. Examples of these are
not lacking. Vedius Pollio, a freedman of Augustus, used to keep some lampreys
in his fish-pond: when one of his slaves carelessly broke a vase, he had him
thrown into the fish-pond as food for the lampreys. The philosopher Seneca
paints in the following words the violent cruelty of the masters: "If a slave
coughs or sneezes during a meal, if he pursues the flies too slowly, if he lets a
key fall noisily lo the floor, we fall into a great rage. If he replies with too much
spirit, if his countenance shows ill humor, have we any right to have him
flogged? Often we strike too hard and shatter a limb or break a tooth." The
philosopher Epictetus, who was a slave, had had his ankle fractured in this way
by his master. Women were no more humane. Ovid, in a compliment paid to a
woman, says, "Many times she had her hair dressed in my presence, but never
did she thrust her needle into the arm of the serving-woman."
Public opinion did not condemn these cruelties. Juvenal represents a woman
angry at one of her slaves. "Crucify him," says she. "By what crime has the slave
merited this punishment? Blockhead! Is a slave, then, a man? It may be that he
has done nothing. I wish it, I order it, my will is reason enough."
The law was no milder than custom. As late as the first century after Christ,
when a master was assassinated in his house, all the slaves were put to death.
When some wished to abolish this law, Thraseas, one of the philosophers of high
repute, rose to address the Senate to demand that the law be maintained.
The Ergastulum.—A subterranean prison, lighted by narrow windows so
high that they could not be reached by the hand, was called the ergastulum. The
slaves who had displeased their master spent the night there; during the day they
were sent to work loaded with heavy chains of iron. Many were branded with a
red-hot iron.
The Mill.—The ancients had no mills run by machinery; they had the grain
ground by slaves with hand-mills. It was the most difficult kind of work and was
usually inflicted as a punishment. The mill of antiquity was like a convict-prison.
"There," says Plautus, "moan the wicked slaves who are fed on polenta; there
resound the noise of whips and the clanking of chains." Three centuries later, in
the second century, Apuleius the novelist, depicts the interior of a mill as
follows: "Gods! what poor shrunken up men! with white skin striped with blows
of the whip, ... they wear only the shreds of a tunic; bent forward, head shaved,
the feet held in a chain, the body deformed by the heat of the fire, the eyelids
eaten away by the fumes, everything covered with grain-dust."
 Character of the Slaves.—Subjected to crushing labor or to enforced
idleness, always under the threat of the whip or of torture, slaves became,
according to their nature, either melancholy and savage, or lazy and subservient.
The most energetic of them committed suicide; the others led a life that was
merely mechanical. "The slave," said Cato the Elder, "ought always to work or to
sleep." The majority of them lost all sense of honor. And so they used to call a
mean act "servile," that is, like a slave.
Slave Revolts.—The slaves did not write and so we do not know from their
own accounts what they thought of their masters. But the masters felt themselves
surrounded by hate. Pliny the Younger, learning that a master was to be
assassinated at the bath by his slaves, made this reflection, "This is the peril
under which we all live." "More Romans," says another writer, "have fallen
victims to the hate of their slaves than to that of tyrants."
At different times slave revolts flamed up (the servile wars), almost always in
Sicily and south Italy where slaves were armed to guard the herds. The most
noted of these wars was the one under Spartacus. A band of seventy gladiators,
escaping from Capua, plundered a chariot loaded with arms, and set themselves
to hold the country. The slaves escaped to them in crowds to unite their fortunes
with theirs, and soon they became an army.
The slaves defeated three Roman armies sent in succession against them.
Their chief Spartacus wished to traverse the whole peninsula of Italy in order
to return to Thrace, from which country he had been brought as a prisoner of war
to serve as a gladiator. But at last these ill-disciplined bands were shattered by
the army of Crassus. The revolutionists were all put to death. Rome now
prohibited the slaves from carrying arms thereafter, and it is reported that a
shepherd was once executed for having killed a boar with a spear.
Admission to Citizenship.—Rome treated its subjects and its slaves brutally,
but it did not drive them out, as the Greek cities did.
The alien could become a Roman citizen by the will of the Roman people, and
the people often accorded this favor, sometimes they even bestowed it upon a
whole people at once. They created the Latins citizens at one stroke; in 89 it was
the turn of the Italians; in 46 the people of Cisalpine Gaul entered the body of
citizens. All the inhabitants of Italy thus became the equals of the Romans.
The slave could be manumitted by his master and soon became a citizen.
This is the reason why the Roman people, gradually exhausting themselves,
 were renewed by accessions from the subjects and the slaves. The number of the
citizens was increased at every census; it rose from 250,000 to 700,000. The
Roman city, far from emptying itself as did Sparta, replenished itself little by
little from all those whom it had conquered.

FOOTNOTES:

[126] In the smallest provinces the title of the governor was proprætor.
[127] In the oriental countries Rome left certain little kings (like King Herod in
Judæa), but they paid tribute and obeyed the governor.
[128] This estimate of the character of Scaurus is too favorable.—ED.
[129] Cicero speaks of the temples which were raised to him by the people of
Cilicia, of which county he was governor.
[130] Every important town had its market for slaves as for cattle and horses.
The slave to be sold was exhibited on a platform with a label about his
neck indicating his age, his better qualities and his defects.
[131] In the Casina of Plautus.
[132] Athenæus, who makes this statement, is probably guilty of exaggeration.
—ED.

CHAPTER XXIIToC

TRANSFORMATION OF LIFE IN ROME

 Greek and Oriental Influence.—Conquest gave the Romans a clearer view
of the Greeks and Orientals. Thousands of foreigners brought to Rome as slaves,
or coming thither to make their fortune, established themselves in the city as
physicians, professors, diviners, or actors. Generals, officers and soldiers lived in
the midst of Asia, and thus the Romans came to know the customs and the new
beliefs and gradually adopted them. This transformation had its beginning with
the first Macedonian war (about 200 B.C.), and continued until the end of the
empire.

CHANGES IN RELIGION

The Greek Gods.—The Roman gods bore but a slight resemblance to the
Greek gods, even in name; yet in the majority of the divinities of Rome the
Greeks recognized or believed they recognized their own. The Roman gods up to
that time had neither precise form nor history; this rendered confusion all the
easier. Every Roman god was represented under the form of a Greek god and a
history was made of the adventures of this god.
The Latin Jupiter was confounded with the Greek Zeus; Juno with Hera;
Minerva, the goddess of memory, with Pallas, goddess of wisdom; Diana, female
counterpart of Janus, unites with Artemis, the brilliant huntress; Hercules, the
god of the enclosure, was assimilated to Herakles, the victor over monsters. Thus
Greek mythology insinuated itself under Latin names, and the gods of Rome
found themselves transformed into Greek gods. The fusion was so complete that
we have preserved the custom of designating the Greek gods by their Latin
names; we still call Artemis Diana, and Pallas Minerva.
The Bacchanals.—The Greeks had adopted an oriental god, Bacchus, the god
of the vintage, and the Romans began to adore him also. The worshippers of
Bacchus celebrated his cult at night and in secret. Only the initiated were
admitted to the mysteries of the Bacchanals, who swore not to reveal any of the
ceremonies. A woman, however, dared to denounce to the Senate the
Bacchanalian ceremonies that occurred in Rome in 186. The Senate made an
inquiry, discovered 7,000 persons, men and women, who had participated in the
mysteries, and had them put to death.
 Oriental Superstitions.—Already in 220 there was in Rome a temple of the
Egyptian god Serapis. The Senate ordered it to be demolished. As no workman
dared to touch it, the consul himself had to come and beat down the doors with
blows of an axe.
Some years after, in 205, during the war with Hannibal, it was the Senate itself
that sent an ambassador to Asia Minor to seek the goddess Cybele. The Great
Mother (as she was called) was represented by a black stone, and this the envoys
of the Senate brought in great pomp and installed in Rome. Her priests followed
her and paced the streets to the sound of fifes and cymbals, clad in oriental
fashion, and begging from door to door.
Later, Italy was filled with Chaldean sorcerers. The mass of the people were
not the only ones to believe in these diviners. When the Cimbri menaced Rome
(104), Martha, a prophetess of Syria, came to the Senate to offer it victory over
the barbarians; the Senate drove her out, but the Roman women brought her to
the camp, and Marius, the general in chief, kept her by him and consulted her to
the end of the war. Sulla, likewise, had seen in vision the goddess of Cappadocia
and it was on her advice that he took his way to Italy.
Sceptics.—Not only priests and diviners came to Rome, but also philosophers
who scoffed at the old religion. The best known of these, Carneades, the
ambassador of the Athenians, spoke in Rome in public, and the youth of Rome
came in crowds to hear him. The Senate bade him leave the city. But the
philosophers continued to teach in the schools of Athens and Rhodes, and it was
the fashion to send the Roman youth thither for instruction. About the third
century before Christ Euhemerus, a Greek, had written a book to prove that there
were no gods; the gods, he said, were only men of ancient times who had been
deified; Jupiter himself had been a king of Crete. This book had a great success
and was translated into Latin by the poet Ennius. The nobles of Rome were
accustomed to mock at their gods, maintaining only the cult of the old religion.
The higher Roman society was for a century at once superstitious and sceptical.

CHANGES IN MANNERS

The Old Customs.—The old Romans had for centuries been diligent and rude
husbandmen, engaged in cultivating their fields, in fighting, and in fulfilling the
ceremonies of their religion. Their ideal was the grave man. Cincinnatus, they
said, was pushing his plough when the deputies of the Senate came to offer him
the dictatorship. Fabricius had of plate only a cup and a salt-cellar of silver.
Curius Dentatus, the conqueror of the Samnites, was sitting on a bench eating
some beans in a wooden bowl when the envoys of the Samnites presented
themselves before him to offer him a bribe.[133] "Go and tell the Samnites," said
he, "that Curius prefers commanding those who have gold to having it himself."
These are some of the anecdotes that they used to tell about the generals of the
olden time. True or false, these legends exhibit the ideas that were current in
Rome at a later time regarding the ancient Romans.
Cato the Elder.—At the time when manners were changing, one man made
himself notable by his attachment to the "customs of the fathers." This was Cato.
He was born in 232[134] in the little village of Tusculum and had spent his youth
in manual labor. Entering the army, according to the usage of the time, at the age
of seventeen, he fought in all the campaigns against Hannibal. He was not noble,
but he made himself popular by his energy, his probity, and his austerity. He
passed through the whole course of political honors—quæstor, ædile, prætor,
consul, and censor. He showed himself everywhere, like the old Romans, rude,
stern, and honest. As quæstor he remonstrated with the consul about his
expenses; but the consul, who was Scipio, replied to him, "I have no need of so
exact a quæstor." As prætor in Sardinia, he refused the money that was offered
him by the province for the expenses of entertainment. As consul, he spoke with
vigor for the Oppian law which prohibited Roman women from wearing costly
attire; the women put it off, and the law was abrogated. Sent to command the
army of Spain, Cato took 400 towns, securing immense treasure which he turned
into the public chest; at the moment of embarking, he sold his horse to save the
expenses of transportation. As censor, he erased from the senate-list many great
persons on the ground of their extravagance; he farmed the taxes at a very high
price and taxed at ten times their value the women's habits, jewels, and
conveyances. Having obtained the honor of a triumph, he withdrew to the army
in Macedonia as a simple officer.
All his life he fought with the nobles of the new type, extravagant and elegant.
He "barked" especially at the Scipios, accusing them of embezzling state
moneys. In turn he was forty-four times made defendant in court, but was always
acquitted.
On his farm Cato labored with his slaves, ate with them, and when he had to
correct them, beat them with his own hand. In his treatise on Agriculture, written
for his son, he has recorded all the old axioms of the Roman peasantry.[135] He
considered it to be a duty to become rich. "A widow," he said, "can lessen her
property; a man ought to increase his. He is worthy of fame and inspired of the
gods who gains more than he inherits." Finding that agriculture was not
profitable enough, he invested in merchant ships; he united with fifty associates
and all together constructed fifty ships of commerce, that each might have a part
in the risks and the profits. A good laborer, a good soldier, a foe to luxury,
greedy of gain, Cato was the type of the Roman of the old stock.
The New Manners.—Many Romans on the contrary, especially the nobles,
admired and imitated the foreigners. At their head were the generals who had
had a nearer view of Greece and the Orient—Scipio, conqueror of the king of
Syria, Flamininus and Æmilius Paullus, victors over the kings of Macedon, later
Lucullus, conqueror of the king of Armenia. They were disgusted with the mean
and gross life of their ancestors, and adopted a more luxurious and agreeable
mode of living. Little by little all the nobles, all the rich followed their example;
one hundred and fifty years later in Italy all the great were living in Greek or
oriental fashion.
Oriental Luxury.—In the East the Romans found models in the royal
successors of Alexander, possessors of enormous wealth; for all the treasure that
was not employed in paying mercenaries was squandered by the court. These
oriental kings indulged their vanity by displaying gleaming robes, precious
stones, furniture of silver, golden plate; by surrounding themselves with a
multitude of useless servants, by casting money to the people who were
assembled to admire them.[136]
The Romans, very vain and with artistic tastes but slightly developed, had a
relish for this species of luxury. They had but little regard for beauty or for
comfort, and had thought for nothing else than display. They had houses built
with immense gardens adorned with statues, sumptuous villas projecting into the
sea in the midst of enormous gardens. They surrounded themselves with troops
of slaves. They and their wives substituted for linen garments those of gauze,
silk, and gold. At their banquets they spread embroidered carpets, purple
coverings, gold and silver plate. Sulla had one hundred and fifty dishes of silver;
the plate of Marcus Drusus weighed 10,000 pounds. While the common people
continued to sit at table in accordance with old Italian custom, the rich adopted
the oriental usage of reclining on couches at their meals. At the same time was
introduced the affected and costly cookery of the East—exotic fishes, brains of
peacocks, and tongues of birds.
From the second century the extravagance was such that a consul who died in
152 could say in his will: "As true glory does not consist in vain pomp but in the
merits of the dead and of one's ancestors, I bid my children not to spend on my
funeral ceremonies more than a million as" ($10,000).
Greek Humanity.—In Greece the Romans saw the monuments, the statues,
and the pictures which had crowded their cities for centuries; they came to know
their learned people and the philosophers. Some of the Romans acquired a taste
for the beautiful and for the life of the spirit. The Scipios surrounded themselves
with cultivated Greeks. Æmilius Paullus asked from all the booty taken by him
from Macedon only the library of King Perseus; he had his children taught by
Greek preceptors. It was then the fashion in Rome to speak, and even to write in
Greek.[137] The nobles desired to appear connoisseurs in painting and in
sculpture; they imported statues by the thousand, the famous bronzes of Corinth,
and they heaped these up in their houses. Thus Verres possessed a whole gallery
of objects of art which he had stolen in Sicily. Gradually the Romans assumed a
gloss of Greek art and literature. This new culture was called "humanity," as
opposed to the "rusticity" of the old Roman peasants.
It was little else than gloss; the Romans had realized but slightly that beauty
and truth were to be sought for their own sakes; art and science always remained
objects of luxury and parade. Even in the time of Cicero the soldier, the peasant,
the politician, the man of affairs, the advocate were alone regarded as truly
occupied. Writing, composing, contributing to science, philosophy, or criticism
—all this was called "being at leisure."[138] Artists and scholars were never
regarded at Rome as the equals of the rich merchant. Lucian, a Greek writer,
said, "If you would be a Pheidias, if you would make a thousand masterpieces,
nobody will care to imitate you, for as skilful as you are, you will always pass
for an artisan, a man who lives by the work of his hands."
Lucullus.—Lucullus, the type of the new Roman, was born in 145 of a noble
and rich family; thus he entered without difficulty into the course of political
honors. From his first campaigns he was notable for his magnanimity to the
vanquished. Become consul, he was placed at the head of the army against
Mithradates. He found the inhabitants of Asia exasperated by the brigandage and
the cruelties of the publicans, and gave himself to checking these excesses; he
forbade, too, his soldiers pillaging conquered towns. In this way he drew to him
the useless affection of the Asiatics and the dangerous hate of the publicans and
the soldiers. They intrigued to have him recalled; he had then defeated
Mithradates and was pursuing him with his ally, the king of Armenia; he came
with a small army of 20,000 men to put to rout an immense multitude of
barbarians. His command was taken from him and given to Pompey, the favorite
of the publicans.
Lucullus then retired to enjoy the riches that he had accumulated in Asia. He
had in the neighborhood of Rome celebrated gardens, at Naples a villa
constructed in part in the sea, and at Tusculum a summer palace with a whole
museum of objects of art. He spent the beautiful season at Tusculum surrounded
by his friends, by scholars and men of letters, reading Greek authors, and
discussing literature and philosophy.
Many anecdotes are told of the luxury of Lucullus. One day, being alone at
dinner, he found his table simpler than ordinary and reproached the cook, who
excused himself by saying there was no guest present. "Do you not know,"
replied his master, "that Lucullus dines today with Lucullus?" Another day he
invited Cæsar and Cicero to dine, who accepted on condition that he would make
no change from his ordinary arrangements. Lucullus simply said to a slave to
have dinner prepared in the hall of Apollo. A magnificent feast was spread, the
guests were astonished. Lucullus replied he had given no order, that the expense
of his dinners was regulated by the hall where he gave them; those of the hall of
Apollo were to cost not less than $10,000. A prætor who had to present a grand
spectacle asked Lucullus if he would lend him one hundred purple robes; he
replied by tendering two hundred.
Lucullus remained the representative of the new manners, as Cato of the old
customs. For the ancients Cato was the virtuous Roman, Lucullus the degenerate
Roman. Lucullus, in effect, discarded the manners of his ancestors, and so
acquired a broader, more elevated, and more refined spirit, more humanity
toward his slaves and his subjects.
The New Education.—At the time when Polybius lived in Rome (before 150)
the old Romans taught their children nothing else than to read.[139] The new
Romans provided Greek instructors for their children. Some Greeks opened in
Rome schools of poesy, rhetoric, and music. The great families took sides
between the old and new systems. But there always remained a prejudice against
music and the dance; they were regarded as arts belonging to the stage, improper
for a man of good birth. Scipio Æmilianus, the protector of the Greeks, speaks
with indignation of a dancing-school to which children and young girls of free
birth resorted: "When it was told me, I could not conceive that nobles would
teach such things to their children. But when some one took me to the dancing-
school, I saw there more than 500 boys and girls and, among the number a
twelve-year-old child, a candidate's son, who danced to the sound of castanets."
Sallust, speaking of a Roman woman of little reputation, says, "She played on
the lyre and danced better than is proper for an honest woman."
The New Status of Women.—The Roman women gave themselves with
energy to the religions and the luxury of the East. They flocked in crowds to the
Bacchanals and the mysteries of Isis. Sumptuary laws were made against their
fine garments, their litters, and their jewels, but these laws had to be abrogated
and the women allowed to follow the example of the men. Noble women ceased
to walk or to remain in their homes; they set out with great equipages,
frequented the theatre, the circus, the baths, and the places of assembly. Idle and
exceedingly ignorant, they quickly became corrupt. In the nobility, women of
fine character became the exception. The old discipline of the family fell to the
ground. The Roman law made the husband the master of his wife; but a new
form of marriage was invented which left the woman under the authority of her
father and gave no power to her husband. To make their daughter still more
independent, her parents gave her a dower.
Divorce.—Sometimes the husband alone had the right to repudiate his wife,
but the custom was that this right should be exercised only in the gravest
circumstances. The woman gained the right of leaving her husband, and so it
became very easy to break a marriage. There was no need of a judgment, or even
of a motive. It was enough for the discontented husband or wife to say to the
other, "Take what belongs to you, and return what is mine." After the divorce
either could marry again.
In the aristocracy, marriage came to be regarded as a passing union; Sulla had
five wives, Cæsar four, Pompey five, and Antony four. The daughter of Cicero
had three husbands. Hortensius divorced his wife to give her to a friend. "There
are noble women," says Seneca, "who count their age not by the years of the
consuls, but by the husbands they have had; they divorce to marry again, they
marry to divorce again."
But this corruption affected hardly more than the nobles of Rome and the
upstarts. In the families of Italy and the provinces the more serious manners of
the old time still prevailed; but the discipline of the family gradually slackened
and the woman slowly freed herself from the despotism of her husband.
 FOOTNOTES:

[133] Another version is that he was sitting at the hearth roasting turnips.—
ED.
[134] 232 and 234 are both given as the date of Cato's birth. The latter is the
more probable.—ED.
[135] Nearly all Romans of Cato's time were husbandmen, tilling the soil with
their own hands.—ED.
[136] This taste for useless magnificence is exhibited in the stories of the
Thousand and One Nights.
[137] Cato the Elder had a horror of the Greeks. He said to his son: "I will tell
what I have seen in Athens. This race is the most perverse and
intractable. Listen to me as to an oracle: whenever this people teaches us
its arts it will corrupt everything."
[138] "Schola," from which we derive "school," signified leisure.
[139] Also to write and reckon, as previously stated.—ED.

CHAPTER XXIIIToC

FALL OF THE REPUBLIC

DECADENCE OF REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS

Destruction of the Peasantry.—The old Roman people consisted of small

proprietors who cultivated their own land. These honest and robust peasants
constituted at once the army and the assembly of the people. Though still
numerous in 221 and during the Second Punic War, in 133 there were no more of
them. Many without doubt had perished in the foreign wars; but the special
reason for their disappearance was that it had become impossible for them to
subsist.
The peasants lived by the culture of grain. When Rome received the grain of
Sicily and Africa, the grain of Italy fell to so low a price that laborers could not
raise enough to support their families and pay the military tax. They were
compelled to sell their land and this was bought by a rich neighbor. Of many
small fields he made a great domain; he laid the land down to grazing, and to
protect his herds or to cultivate it he sent shepherds and slave laborers. On the
soil of Italy at that time there were only great proprietors and troops of slaves.
"Great domains," said Pliny the Elder, "are the ruin of Italy."
It was, in fact, the great domains that drove the free peasants from the country
districts. The old proprietor who sold his land could no longer remain a farmer;
he had to yield the place to slaves, and he himself wandered forth without work.
"The majority of these heads of families," says Varro in his treatise on
agriculture, "have slipped within our walls, leaving the scythe and the plough;
they prefer clapping their hands at the circus to working in their fields and their
vineyards." Tiberius Gracchus, a tribune of the plebs, exclaimed in a moment of
indignation, "The wild beasts of Italy have at least their lairs, but the men who
offer their blood for Italy have only the light and the air that they breathe; they
wander about without shelter, without a dwelling, with their wives and their
children. Those generals do but mock them who exhort them to fight for their
tombs and their temples. Is there one of them who still possesses the sacred altar
of his house and the tomb of his ancestors? They are called the masters of the
world while they have not for themselves a single foot of earth."
The City Plebs.—While the farms were being drained, the city of Rome was
being filled with a new population. They were the descendants of the ruined
peasants whom misery had driven to the city; besides these, there were the
freedmen and their children. They came from all the corners of the world—
Greeks, Syrians, Egyptians, Asiatics, Africans, Spaniards, Gauls—torn from
their homes, and sold as slaves; later freed by their masters and made citizens,
they massed themselves in the city. It was an entirely new people that bore the
name Roman. One day Scipio, the conqueror of Carthage and of Numantia,
haranguing the people in the forum, was interrupted by the cries of the mob.
"Silence! false sons of Italy," he cried; "do as you like; those whom I brought to
Rome in chains will never frighten me even if they are no longer slaves." The
populace preserved quiet, but these "false sons of Italy," the sons of the
vanquished, had already taken the place of the old Romans.
This new plebeian order could not make a livelihood for itself, and so the state
had to provide food for it. A beginning was made in 123 with furnishing corn at
half price to all citizens, and this grain was imported from Sicily and Africa.
Since the year 63[140] corn was distributed gratuitously and oil was also
provided. There were registers and an administration expressly for these
distributions, a special service for furnishing provisions (the Annona). In 46
Cæsar found 320,000 citizens enrolled for these distributions.
Electoral Corruption.—This miserable and lazy populace filled the forum on
election days and made the laws and the magistrates. The candidates sought to
win its favors by giving shows and public feasts, and by dispensing provisions.
They even bought votes. This sale took place on a large scale and in broad day;
money was given to distributers who divided it among the voters. Once the
Senate endeavored to stop this trade; but when Piso, the consul, proposed a law
to prohibit the sale of suffrages, the distributers excited a riot and drove the
consul from the forum. In the time of Cicero no magistrate could be elected
without enormous expenditures.
Corruption of the Senate.—Poverty corrupted the populace who formed the
assemblies; luxury tainted the men of the old families who composed the Senate.
The nobles regarded the state as their property and so divided among themselves
the functions of the state and intrigued to exclude the rest of the citizens from
them. When Cicero was elected magistrate, he was for thirty years the first "new
man" to enter the succession of offices.
Accustomed to exercise power, some of the senators believed themselves to be
above the law. When Scipio was accused of embezzlement, he refused even to
exonerate himself and said at the tribune, "Romans, it was on this day that I
conquered Hannibal and the Carthaginians. Follow me to the Capitol to render
thanks to the gods and to beseech them always to provide generals like myself."
To support their pretensions at home, the majority of the nobles required a
large amount of money. Many used their power to get it for themselves: some
sent as governors plundered the subjects of Rome; others compelled foreign or
hostile kings to pay for the peace granted them, or even for letting their army be
beaten. It was in this way that Jugurtha bribed a Roman general. Cited to Rome
to answer for a murder, he escaped trial by buying up a tribune who forbade him
to speak. It was related that in leaving Rome he had said, "O city for sale, if thou
only couldst find a purchaser!"
Corruption of the Army.—The Roman army was composed of small
proprietors who, when a war was finished, returned to the cultivation of their
fields. In becoming soldiers they remained citizens and fought only for their
country. Marins began to admit to the legions poor citizens who enrolled
themselves for the purpose of making capital from their campaigns. Soon the
whole army was full of adventurers who went to war, not to perform their
service, but to enrich themselves from the vanquished. One was no longer a
soldier from a sense of duty, but as a profession.
The soldiers enrolled themselves for twenty years; their time completed, they
reëngaged themselves at higher pay and became veterans. These people knew
neither the Senate nor the laws; their obedience was only to their general. To
attach them to himself, the general distributed to them the money taken from the
vanquished. During the war against Mithradates Sulla lodged his men with the
rich inhabitants of Asia; they lived as they chose, they and their friends,
receiving each sixteen drachmas a day. These first generals, Marius and Sulla,
were still Roman magistrates. But soon rich individuals like Pompey and
Crassus drew the soldiers to their pay. In 78 at the death of Sulla there were four
armies, levied entirely and commanded by simple citizens. From that time there
was no further question of the legions of Rome, there were left only the legions
of Pompey or Cæsar.

THE REVOLUTION

Necessity of the Revolution.—The Roman people was no longer anything

but an indigent and lazy multitude, the army only an aggregation of adventurers.
Neither the assembly nor the legions obeyed the Senate, for the corrupt nobles
had lost all moral authority, so that there was left but one real power—the army;
there were no men of influence beside the generals, and the generals had no
longer any desire to obey. The government by the Senate, now no longer
practicable, gave place to the government of the general.
The Civil Wars.—The revolution was inevitable, but it did not come at one
stroke; it required more than a hundred years to accomplish it. The Senate
resisted, but too weak itself to govern, it was strong enough to prevent
domination by another power. The generals fought among themselves to see who
should remain master. For a century the Romans and their subjects lived in the
midst of riot and civil war.
The Gracchi.—The first civil discord that blazed up in Rome was the contest
of the Gracchi against the Senate. The two brothers, Tiberius and Gaius
Gracchus, were of one of the noblest families of Rome, but both endeavored to
take the government from the nobles who formed the Senate by making
themselves tribunes of the plebs. There was at that time, either in Rome or in
Italy, a crowd of citizens without means who desired a revolution; even among
the rich the majority were of the class of the knights, who complained that they
had no part in the government. Tiberius Gracchus had himself named tribune of
the plebs and sought to gain control of the government. He proposed to the
people an agrarian law. All the lands of the public domain occupied by
individuals were to be resumed by the state (with the exception of 500 acres for
each one); these lands taken by the state were to be distributed in small lots to
poor citizens. The law was voted. It caused general confusion regarding
property, for almost all of the lands of the empire constituted a part of the public
domain, but they had been occupied for a long time and the possessors were
accustomed to regard themselves as proprietors. Further, as the Romans had no
registry of the lands, it was often very difficult to ascertain whether a domain
were private or public property. To direct these operations, Tiberius had three
commissioners named on whom the people conferred absolute authority; they
were Tiberius, his brother, and his father-in-law, and it was uncertain whether
Tiberius had acted in the interest of the people, or simply to have a pretext for
having power placed in his hands. For a year he was master of Rome; but when
he wished to be elected tribune of the plebs for the succeeding year, his enemies
protested, as this was contrary to custom. A riot followed. Tiberius and his
friends seized the Capitol; the partisans of the Senate and their slaves, armed
with clubs and fragments of benches, pursued them and despatched them (133).
Ten years later Gaius, the younger of the Gracchi, elected tribune of the plebs
(123), had the agrarian law voted anew, and established distributions[141] of corn
to the poor citizens. Then, to destroy the power of the nobles, he secured a
decree that the judges should be taken from among the knights. For two years
Gaius dominated the government, but while he was absent from the city
conducting a colony of Roman citizens to Carthage the people abandoned him.
On his return he could not be reëlected. The consul armed the partisans of the
Senate and marched against Gaius and his friends who had fled to the Aventine
Hill. Gaius had himself killed by a slave; his followers were massacred or
executed in prison; their houses were razed and their property confiscated.
Marius and Sulla.—The contests of the Gracchi and the Senate had been no
more than riots in the streets of Rome, terminating in a combat between bands
hastily armed. The strife that followed was a succession of real wars between
regular armies, wars in Italy, wars in all the provinces. From this time the party
chiefs were no other than the generals.
The first to use his army to secure obedience in Rome was Marius. He was
born in Arpinum, a little town in the mountains, and was not of noble descent.
He had attained reputation as an officer in the army, and had been elected tribune
of the plebs, then prætor, with the help of the nobles. He turned against them and
was elected consul and commissioned with the war against Jugurtha, king of
Numidia, who had already fought several Roman armies. It was then that Marius
enrolled poor citizens for whom military service became a profession. With his
army Marius conquered Jugurtha and the barbarians, the Cimbri and Teutones,
who had invaded the empire. He then returned to Rome where he had himself
elected consul for the sixth time and now exercised absolute power. Two parties
now took form in Rome who called themselves the party of the people (the party
of Marius), and the party of the nobles (that of the Senate).
The partisans of Marius committed so many acts of violence that they ended
by making him unpopular. Sulla, a noble, of the great family of the Cornelii,
profited by this circumstance to dispute the power of Marius; Sulla was also a
general. When the Italians rose against Rome to secure the right of citizenship
and levied great armies which marched almost to the gates of the city, it was
Sulla who saved Rome by fighting the Italians.
He became consul and was charged with the war against Mithradates, king of
Pontus, who had invaded Asia Minor and massacred all the Romans (88). Marius
in jealousy excited a riot in the city; Sulla departed, joined his army which
awaited him in south Italy, then returned to Rome. Roman religion prohibited
soldiers entering the city under arms; the consul even before passing the gates
had to lay aside his mantle of war and assume the toga. Sulla was the first
general who dared to violate this restriction. Marius took flight.
But when Sulla had left for Asia, Marius came with an army of adventurers
and entered Rome by force (87). Then commenced the proscriptions.
The principal partisans of Sulla were outlawed, and command was given to
kill them anywhere they were met and to confiscate their goods. Marius died
some months later; but his principal partisan, Cinna, continued to govern Rome
and to put to death whomever he pleased.
During this time Sulla had conquered Mithradates and had assured the loyalty
of his soldiers by giving them the free pillage of Asia. He returned with his army
(83) to Italy. His enemies opposed him with five armies, but these were defeated
or they deserted. Sulla entered Rome, massacred his prisoners and overthrew the
partisans of Marius. After some days of slaughter he set himself to proceed
regularly: he posted three lists of those whom he wished killed. "I have posted
now all those whom I can recall; I have forgotten many, but their names will be
posted as the names occur to me." Every proscribed man—that is to say, every
man whose name was on the list, was marked for death; the murderer who
brought his head was rewarded. The property of the proscribed was confiscated.
Proscription was not the result of any trial but of the caprice of the general, and
that too without any warning. Sulla thus massacred not only his enemies but the
rich whose property he coveted. It is related that a citizen who was
unaccustomed to politics glanced in passing at the list of proscriptions and saw
his own name inscribed at the top of the list. "Alas!" he cried, "my Alban house
has been the death of me!" Sulla is said to have proscribed 1800[142] knights.
After having removed his enemies, he endeavored to organize a government
in which all power should be in the hands of the Senate. He had himself named
Dictator, an old title once given to generals in moments of danger and which
conferred absolute power. Sulla used the office to make laws which changed the
entire constitution. From that time all the judges were to be taken from the
Senate, no law could be discussed before it had been accepted by the Senate, the
right of proposing laws was taken from the tribunes of the plebs.
After these reforms Sulla abdicated his functions and retired to private life
(79). He knew he had nothing to fear, for he had established 100,000 of his
soldiers in Italy.
Pompey and Cæsar.—The Senate had recovered its power because Sulla saw
fit to give it this, but it had not the strength to retain it if a general wished again
to seize it. The government of the Senate endured, however, in appearance for
more than thirty years; this was because there were several generals and each
prevented a rival from gaining all power.
At the death of Sulla four armies took the field: two obeyed the generals who
were partisans of the Senate, Crassus and Pompey; two followed generals who
were adversaries of the Senate, Lepidus in Italy, and Sertorius in Spain. It is very
remarkable that no one of these armies was regular, no one of the generals was a
magistrate and therefore had the right to command troops; down to this time the
generals had been consuls, but now they were individuals—private persons; their
soldiers came to them not to serve the interests of the state, but to profit at the
expense of the inhabitants.
The armies of the enemies of the Senate were destroyed, and Crassus and
Pompey, left alone, joined issues to control affairs. They had themselves elected
consuls and Pompey received the conduct of two wars. He went to Asia with a
devoted army and was for several years the master of Rome; but as he was more
the possessor of offices than of power, he changed nothing in the government. It
was during this time that Cæsar, a young noble, made himself popular. Pompey,
Crassus, and Cæsar united to divide the power between themselves. Crassus
received the command of the army sent to Asia against the Parthians and was
killed (53). Pompey remained at Rome. Cæsar went to Gaul where he stayed
eight years subjecting the country and making an army for himself.
Pompey and Cæsar were now the only persons on the stage. Each wished to
be master. Pompey had the advantage of being at Rome and of dominating the
Senate; Cæsar had on his side his army, disciplined by eight years of
expeditions. Pompey secured a decree of the Senate that Cæsar should abandon
his army and return to Rome. Cæsar decided then to cross the boundary of his
province (the river Rubicon), and to march on Rome. Pompey had no army in
Italy to defend himself, and so with the majority of the senators took flight to the
other side of the Adriatic. He had several armies in Spain, in Greece, and in
Africa, Cæsar defeated them, one after another—that of Spain first (49), then
that of Greece at Pharsalus (48), at last, that of Africa (46). Pompey, vanquished
at Pharsalus, fled to Egypt where the king had him assassinated.
On his return to Rome Cæsar was appointed dictator for ten years and
exercised absolute power. The Senate paid him divine honors, and it is possible
that Cæsar desired the title of king. He was assassinated by certain of his
favorites who aimed to reëstablish the sovereignty of the Senate (44).
End of the Republic.—The people of Rome, who loved Cæsar, compelled
Brutus and Cassius, the chiefs of the assassins, to flee. They withdrew to the
East where they raised a large army. The West remained in the hand of Antony,
who with the support of the army of Cæsar, governed Rome despotically.
Cæsar in his will had adopted a young man of eighteen years, his sister's son,
[143]
Octavian, who according to Roman usage assumed the name of his adoptive
father and called himself from that time Julius Cæsar Octavianus. Octavian
rallied to his side the soldiers of Cæsar and was charged by the Senate with the
war against Antony. But after conquering him he preferred to unite with him for
a division of power; they associated Lepidus with them, and all three returned to
Rome where they secured absolute power for five years under the title of
triumvirs for organizing public affairs. They began by proscribing their
adversaries and their personal enemies. Antony secured the death of Cicero (43).
Then they left for the East to destroy the army of the conspirators. After they had
divided the empire among themselves it was impossible to preserve harmony
and war was undertaken in Italy. It was the soldiers who compelled them to
make terms of peace. A new partition was made; Antony took the East and
Octavian the West (39). For some years peace was preserved; Antony resigned
himself to the life of an oriental sovereign in company with Cleopatra, queen of
Egypt; Octavian found it necessary to fight a campaign against the sons of
Pompey. The two leaders came at last to an open breach, and then flamed up the
last of the civil wars. This was a war between the East and West. It was decided
by the naval battle of Actium; Antony, abandoned by the fleet of Cleopatra, fled
to Egypt and took his own life. Octavian, left alone, was absolute master of the
empire. The government of the Senate was at an end.
Need of Peace.—Everybody had suffered by these wars. The inhabitants of
the provinces were plundered, harassed, and massacred by the soldiers; each of
the hostile generals forced them to take sides with him, and the victor punished
them for supporting the vanquished. To reward the old soldiers the generals
promised them lands, and then expelled all the inhabitants of a city to make
room for the veterans.
Rich Romans risked their property and their life; when their party was
overthrown, they found themselves at the mercy of the victor. Sulla had set the
example for organized massacres (81). Forty years later (in 43) Octavian and
Antony again drew up lists of proscription.
The populace suffered. The grain on which they lived came no longer to
Rome with the former regularity, being intercepted either by pirates or by the
fleet of an enemy.
After a century of this régime all the Romans and provincials, rich and poor,
had but one desire—peace.
The Power of the Individual.—It was then that the heir of Cæsar, his
nephew[144] Octavian, one of the triumvirs, after having conquered his two
 colleagues presented himself to the people now wearied with civil discord. "He
drew to himself all the powers of the people, of the Senate, and of the
magistrates;" for twelve years he was emperor without having the title. No one
dreamed of resisting him; he had closed the temple of Janus and given peace to
the world, and this was what everybody wished. The government of the republic
by the Senate represented only pillage and civil war. A master was needed strong
enough to stop the wars and revolutions. Thus the Roman empire was founded.

FOOTNOTES:

[140] The Lex Clodia of 58 B.C. made these distributions legal.—ED.

[141] At a very low price.—ED.
[142] 1600, according to Mommsen, "History of Rome," Bk. IV, ch. x.—ED.
[143] Grandson.—ED.
[144] Grand-nephew.—ED.
 CHAPTER XXIVToC

THE EMPIRE AT ITS HEIGHT

THE TWELVE CÆSARS

The Emperor.—In the new régime absolute authority was lodged in a single
man; he was called the emperor (imperator—the commander). In himself alone
he exercised all those functions which the ancient magistrates distributed among
themselves: he presided over the Senate; he levied and commanded all the
armies; he drew up the lists of senators, knights, and people; he levied taxes; he
was supreme judge; he was pontifex maximus; he had the power of the tribunes.
And to indicate that this authority made him a superhuman being, it was decreed
that he should bear a religious surname: Augustus (the venerable).
The empire was not established by a radical revolution. The name of the
republic was not suppressed and for more than three centuries the standards of
the soldiers continued to bear the initials S.P.Q.R. (senate and people of Rome).
The emperor's power was granted to him for life instead of for one year, as with
the old magistrates. The emperor was the only and lifelong magistrate of the
republic. In him the Roman people was incarnate; this is why he was absolute.
Apotheosis of the Emperor.—As long as the emperor lived he was sole
master of the empire, since the Roman people had conveyed all its power to him.
But at his death the Senate in the name of the people reviewed his life and
passed judgment upon it. If he were condemned, all the acts which he had made
were nullified, his statues thrown down, and his name effaced from the
monuments.[145] If, on the contrary, his acts were ratified (which almost always
occurred), the Senate at the same time decreed that the deceased emperor should
be elevated to the rank of the gods. The majority of the emperors, therefore,
became gods after their death. Temples were raised to them and priests appointed
to render them worship. Throughout the empire there were temples dedicated to
the god Augustus and to the goddess Roma, and persons are known who
performed the functions of flamen (priest) of the divine Claudius, or of the
divine Vespasian. This practice of deifying the dead emperor was called
Apotheosis. The word is Greek; the custom probably came from the Greeks of
the Orient.
The Senate and the People.—The Roman Senate remained what it had
always been—the assembly of the richest and most eminent personages of the
empire. To be a senator was still an eagerly desired honor; in speaking of a great
family one would say, "a senatorial family." But the Senate, respected as it was,
was now powerless, because the emperor could dispense with it. It was still the
most distinguished body in the state, but it was no longer the master of the
government. The emperor often pretended to consult it, but he was not bound by
its advice.
The people had lost all its power since the assemblies (the Comitia) were
suppressed in the reign of Tiberius. The population of 2,000,000 souls crowded
into Rome was composed only of some thousands of great lords with their slaves
and a mob of paupers. Already the state had assumed the burden of feeding the
latter; the emperors continued to distribute grain to them, and supplemented this
with donations of money (the congiarium). Augustus thus donated $140 apiece
in nine different distributions, and Nero $50 in three. At the same time to amuse
this populace shows were presented. The number of days regularly appointed for
the shows under the republic had already amounted to 66 in the year; it had
increased in a century and a half, under Marcus Aurelius, to 135, and in the
fourth century to 175 (without counting supplementary days). These spectacles
continued each day from sunrise to sunset; the spectators ate their lunch in their
places. This was a means used by the emperors for the occupation of the crowd.
"It is for your advantage, Cæsar," said an actor to Augustus, "that the people
engage itself with us." It was also a means for securing popularity. The worst
emperors were among the most popular; Nero was adored for his magnificent
spectacles; the people refused to believe that he was dead, and for thirty years
they awaited his return.[146]
The multitude of Rome no longer sought to govern; it required only to be
amused and fed: in the forceful expression of Juvenal—to be provided with
bread and the games of the circus (panem et circenses).
The Prætorians.—Under the republic a general was prohibited from leading
his army into the city of Rome. The emperor, chief of all the armies, had at
Rome his military escort (prætorium), a body of about 10,000 men quartered in
the interior of the city. The prætorians, recruited among the veterans, received
high pay and frequent donatives. Relying on these soldiers, the emperor had
nothing to fear from malcontents in Rome. But the danger came from the
prætorians themselves; as they had the power they believed they had free rein,
and their chief, the prætorian prefect, was sometimes stronger than the emperor.
The Freedmen of the Emperor.—Ever since the monarchy had superseded
the republic, there was no other magistrate than the emperor. All the business of
the empire of 80,000,000 people originated with him. For this crushing task he
required assistants. He found them, not among the men of great family whom he
mistrusted, but among the slaves of whom he felt sure. The secretaries, the men
of trust, the ministers of the emperor were his freedmen, the majority of them
foreigners from Greece or the Orient, pliant people, adepts in flattery,
inventiveness, and loquacity. Often the emperor, wearied with serious matters,
gave the government into their hands, and, as occurs in absolute monarchies,
instead of aiding their master, they supplemented him. Pallas and Narcissus, the
freedmen of Claudius, distributed offices and pronounced judgments; Helius,
Nero's freedman, had knights and senators executed without even consulting his
master. Of all the freedmen Pallas was the most powerful, the richest, and the
most insolent; he gave his orders to his underlings only by signs or in writing.
Nothing so outraged the old noble families of Rome as this. "The princes," said a
Roman writer, "are the masters of citizens and the slaves of their freedmen."
Among the scandals with which the emperors were reproached, one of the
gravest was governing Roman citizens by former slaves.
Despotism and Disorder.—This régime had two great vices:
1. Despotism.—The emperor was invested for life with a power unlimited,
extravagant, and hardly conceivable; according to his fancy he disposed of
persons and their property, condemned, confiscated, and executed without
restraint. No institution, no law fettered his will. "The decree of the emperor has
the force of law," say the jurisconsults themselves. Rome recognized then the
unlimited despotism that the tyrants had exercised in the Greek cities, no longer
circumscribed within the borders of a single city, but gigantic as the empire
itself. As in Greece some honorable tyrants had presented themselves, one sees
in Rome some wise and honest monarchs (Augustus, Vespasian, Titus). But few
men had a head strong enough to resist vertigo when they saw themselves so
elevated above other men. The majority of the emperors profited by their
tremendous power only to make their names proverbial: Tiberius, Nero,
Domitian by their cruelty, Vitellius by his gluttony, Claudius by his imbecility.
One of them, Caligula, was a veritable fool; he had his horse made consul and
himself worshipped as a god. The emperors persecuted the nobles especially to
keep them from conspiring against them, and the rich to confiscate their goods.
 2. Disorder.—This overweening authority was, moreover, very ill regulated; it
resided entirely in the person of the emperor. When he was dead, everything was
in question. It was well known that the world could not continue without a
master, but no law nor usage determined who was to be this master. The Senate
alone had the right of nominating the emperor, but almost always it would elect
under pressure the one whom the preceding emperor had designated or the man
who was pleasing to the soldiers.
After the death of Caligula, some prætorians who were sacking the palace
discovered, concealed behind the tapestry, a poor man trembling with fear. This
was a relative of Caligula; the prætorians made him emperor (it was the emperor
Claudius). After the death of Nero, the Senate had elected Galba; the prætorians
did not find him liberal enough and so they massacred him to set up in his place
Otho, a favorite of Nero. In their turn the soldiers on the frontier wished to make
an emperor: the legions of the Rhine entered Italy, met the prætorians at Bedriac
near Cremona, and overthrew them in so furious a battle that it lasted all night;
then they compelled the Senate to elect Vitellius, their general, as emperor.
During this time the army of Syria had elected its chief Vespasian, who in turn
defeated Vitellius and was named in his place; thus in two years three emperors
had been created and three overthrown by the soldiers. The new emperor often
undid what his predecessor had done; imperial despotism had not even the
advantage of being stable.
The Twelve Cæsars.—This regime of oppression interrupted by violence
endured for more than a century (31 B.C. to 96 A.D.).
The twelve emperors who came to the throne during this time are called the
Twelve Cæsars, although only the first six were of the family of Augustus. It is
difficult to judge them equitably. Almost all of them persecuted the noble
families of Rome of whom they were afraid, and it is the writers of these
families that have made their reputation. But it is quite possible that in the
provinces their government was mild and just, superior to that of the senators of
the republic.

THE CENTURY OF THE ANTONINES

The Antonines.—The five emperors succeeding the twelve Cæsars, Nerva,

Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus, and Marcus Aurelius (96-180), have left a
reputation for justice and wisdom. They were called the Antonines, though this
name properly belongs only to the last two. They were not descended from the
old families of Rome; Trajan and Hadrian were Spaniards, Antoninus was born
at Nîmes in Gaul. They were not princes of imperial family, destined from their
birth to rule. Four emperors came to the throne without sons and so the empire
could not be transmitted by inheritance. On each occasion the prince chose
among his generals and his governors the man most capable of succeeding him;
he adopted him as his son and sought his confirmation by the Senate. Thus there
came to the empire only experienced men, who without confusion assumed the
throne of their adoptive fathers.
Government of the Antonines.—This century of the Antonines was the
calmest that the ancient world had ever known. Wars were relegated to the
frontier of the empire. In the interior there were still military seditions, tyranny,
and arbitrary condemnations. The Antonines held the army in check, organized a
council of state of jurisconsults, established tribunals, and replaced the freedmen
who had so long irritated the Romans under the twelve Cæsars by regular
functionaries taken from among the men of the second class—that is, the
knights. The emperor was no longer a tyrant served by the soldiers; he was truly
the first magistrate of the republic, using his authority only for the good of the
citizens. The last two Antonines especially, Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius,
honored the empire by their integrity. Both lived simply, like ordinary men,
although they were very rich, without anything that resembled a court or a
palace, never giving the impression that they were masters. Marcus Aurelius
consulted the Senate on all state business and regularly attended its sessions.
Marcus Aurelius.—Marcus Aurelius has been termed the Philosopher on the
Throne. He governed from a sense of duty, against his disposition, for he loved
solitude; and yet he spent his life in administration and the command of armies.
His private journal (his "Thoughts") exhibits the character of the Stoic—
virtuous, austere, separated from the world, and yet mild and good. "The best
form of vengeance on the wicked is not to imitate them; the gods themselves do
good to evil men; it is your privilege to act like the gods."
Conquests of the Antonines.—The emperors of the first century had
continued the course of conquest; they had subjected the Britons of England, the
Germans on the left bank of the Rhine, and in the provinces had reduced several
countries which till then had retained their kings—Mauretania, Thrace,
Cappadocia. The Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates were the limits of the
empire.
 The emperors of the second century were almost all generals; they had the
opportunity of waging numerous wars to repel the hostile peoples who sought to
invade the empire. The enemies were in two quarters especially:
1. On the Danube were the Dacians, barbarous people, who occupied
the country of mountains and forests now called Transylvania.
2. On the Euphrates was the great military monarchy of the Parthians
which had its capital at Ctesiphon, near the ruins of Babylon, and which
extended over all Persia.
Trajan made several expeditions against the Dacians, crossed the Danube, won
three great battles, and took the capital of the Dacians (101-102). He offered
them peace, but when they reopened the war he resolved to end matters with
them: he had a stone bridge built over the Danube, invaded Dacia and reduced it
to a Roman province (106). Colonies were transferred thither, cities were built,
and Dacia became a Roman province where Latin was spoken and Roman
customs were assimilated. When the Roman armies withdrew at the end of the
third century, the Latin language remained and continued throughout the Middle
Ages, notwithstanding the invasions of the barbarian Slavs. It is from
Transylvania (ancient Dacia) that the peoples came from the twelfth to the
fourteenth century who now inhabit the plains to the north of the Danube. It has
preserved the name of Rome (Roumania) and speaks a language derived from
the Latin, like the French or Spanish. Trajan made war on the Parthians also. He
crossed the Euphrates, took Ctesiphon, the capital, and advanced into Persia,
even to Susa, whence he took away the massive gold throne of the kings of
Persia. He constructed a fleet on the Tigris, descended the stream to its mouth
and sailed into the Persian Gulf; he would have delighted, like Alexander, in the
conquest of India. He took from the Parthians the country between the Euphrates
and the Tigris—Assyria and Mesopotamia—and erected there two Roman
provinces.
To commemorate his conquests Trajan erected monuments which still remain.
The Column of Trajan on the Roman Forum is a shaft whose bas-reliefs
represent the war against the Dacians. The arch of triumph of Benevento recalls
the victories over the Parthians.
Of these two conquests one alone was permanent, that of Dacia. The
provinces conquered from the Parthians revolted after the departure of the
Roman army. The emperor Hadrian retained Dacia, but returned their provinces
to the Parthians, and the Roman empire again made the Euphrates its eastern
frontier. To escape further warfare with the highlanders of Scotland, Hadrian
built a wall in the north of England (the Wall of Hadrian) extending across the
whole island. There was no need of other wars save against the revolting Jews;
these people were overthrown and expelled from Jerusalem, the name of which
was changed to obliterate the memory of the old Jewish kingdom.
Marcus Aurelius, the last of the Antonines, had to resist the invasion of
several barbarous peoples of Germany who had crossed the Danube on the ice
and had penetrated even to Aquileia, in the north of Italy. In order to enroll a
sufficient army he had to enlist slaves and barbarians (172). The Germans
retreated, but while Marcus was occupied with a general uprising in Syria, they
renewed their attacks on the empire, and the emperor died on the banks of the
Danube (180). This was the end of conquest.

IMPERIAL ADMINISTRATION

Extent of the Empire in the Second Century.—The Roman emperors were

but little bent on conquest. But to occupy their army and to secure frontiers
which might be easily defended, they continued to conquer barbarian peoples for
more than a century. When the course of conquest was finally arrested after
Trajan, the empire extended over all the south of Europe, all the north of Africa
and the west of Asia; it was limited only by natural frontiers—the ocean to the
west; the mountains of Scotland, the Rhine, the Danube, and the Caucasus to the
north; the deserts of the Euphrates and of Arabia to the east; the cataracts of the
Nile and the great desert to the south. The empire, therefore, embraced the
countries which now constitute England, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium,
Switzerland, Bavaria, Austria, Hungary, European Turkey, Morocco, Algiers,
Tunis, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Asiatic Turkey. It was more than double the
extent of the empire of Alexander.
This immense territory was subdivided into forty-eight provinces,[147] unequal
in size, but the majority of them very large. Thus Gaul from the Pyrenees to the
Rhine formed but seven provinces.
The Permanent Army.—In the provinces of the interior there was no Roman
army, for the peoples of the empire had no desire to revolt. It was on the frontier
that the empire had its enemies, foreigners always ready to invade: behind the
Rhine and the Danube the barbarian Germans; behind the sands of Africa the
nomads of the desert; behind the Euphrates the Persian army. On this frontier
which was constantly threatened it was necessary to have soldiers always in
readiness. Augustus had understood this, and so created a permanent army. The
soldiers of the empire were no longer proprietors transferred from their fields to
serve during a few campaigns, but poor men who made war a profession. They
enlisted for sixteen or twenty years and often reënlisted. There were, then, thirty
legions of citizens—that is, 180,000 legionaries, and, according to Roman usage,
a slightly larger number of auxiliaries—in all about 400,000 men. This number
was small for so large a territory.
Each frontier province had its little army, garrisoned in a permanent camp
similar to a fortress. Merchants came to establish themselves in the vicinity, and
the camp was transformed into a city; but still the soldiers, encamped in the face
of the enemy, preserved their valor and their discipline. There were for three
centuries severe wars, especially on the banks of the Rhine and of the Danube,
where Romans fought fierce barbarians in a swampy country, uncultivated,
covered with forests and bogs. The imperial army exhibited, perhaps, as much
bravery and energy in these obscure wars as the ancient Romans in the conquest
of the world.
Deputies and Agents of the Emperor.—All the provinces belonged to the
emperor[148] as the representative of the Roman people. He is there the general
of all the soldiers, master of all persons, and proprietor of all lands.[149] But as
the emperor could not be everywhere at once, he sent deputies appointed by
himself. To each province went a lieutenant (called a deputy of Augustus with
the function of prætor); this official governed the country, commanded the army,
and went on circuit through his province to judge important cases, for he, like
the emperor, had the right of life and death.
The emperor sent also a financial agent to levy the taxes and return the money
to the imperial chest. This official was called the "procurator of Augustus."
These two men represented the emperor, governing his subjects, commanding
his soldiers, and exploiting his domain. The emperor always chose them among
the two nobilities of Rome, the prætors from the senators, the procurators from
the knights. For them, as for the magistrates of old Rome, there was a succession
of offices: they passed from one province to another, from one end of the empire
to the other,[150] from Syria to Spain, from Britain to Africa. In the epitaphs of
officials of this time we always find carefully inscribed all the posts which they
have occupied; inscriptions on their tombs are sufficient to construct their
biographies.
 Municipal life.—Under these omnipotent representatives of the emperor the
smaller subject peoples continued to administer their own government. The
emperor had the right of interfering in their local affairs, but ordinarily he did not
exercise this right. He only demanded of them that they keep the peace, pay their
taxes regularly, and appear before the tribunal of the governor. There were in
every province several of these little subordinate governments; they were called,
just as at other times the Roman state was called, "cities," and sometimes
municipalities. A city in the empire was copied after the Roman city: it also had
its assembly of the people, its magistrates elected for a year and grouped into
colleges of two members, its senate called a curia, formed of the great
proprietors, people rich and of old family. There, as at Rome, the assembly of the
people was hardly more than a form; it is the senate—that is to say, the nobility,
that governs.
The centre of the provincial city was always a town, a Rome in miniature,
with its temples, its triumphal arches, its public baths, its fountains, its theatres,
and its arenas for the combats. The life led there was that of Rome on a small
scale: distributions of grain and money, public banquets, grand religious
ceremonies, and bloody spectacles. Only, in Rome, it was the money of the
provinces that paid the expenses; in the municipalities the nobility itself defrayed
the costs of government and fêtes. The tax levied for the treasury of the emperor
went entirely to the imperial chest; it was necessary, then, that the rich of the city
should at their own charges celebrate the games, heat the baths, pave the streets,
construct the bridges, aqueducts, and circuses. They did this for more than two
centuries, and did it generously; monuments scattered over the whole of the
empire and thousands of inscriptions are a witness to this.
The Imperial Régime.—After the conquest three or four hundred families of
the nobility of Rome governed and exploited the rest of the world. The emperor
deprived them of the government and subjected them to his tyranny. The Roman
writers could groan over their lost liberty. The inhabitants of the provinces had
nothing to regret; they remained subject, but in place of several hundreds of
masters, ceaselessly renewed and determined to enrich themselves, they had now
a single sovereign, the emperor, interested to spare them. Tiberius stated the
imperial policy in the following words: "A good shepherd shears his sheep, but
does not flay them." For more than two centuries the emperors contented
themselves with shearing the people of the empire; they took much of their
money, but they protected them from the enemy without, and even against their
own agents. When the provincials had grounds of complaint on account of the
violence or the robbery of their governor, they could appeal to the emperor and
secure justice. It was known that the emperor received complaints against his
subordinates; this was sufficient to frighten bad governors and reassure subjects.
Some emperors, like Marcus Aurelius, came to recognize that they had duties to
their subjects. The other emperors at least left their subjects to govern
themselves when they had no interest to prevent this.
The imperial régime was a loss for the Romans, but a deliverance for their
subjects: it abased the conquerors and raised the vanquished, reconciling them
and preparing them for assimilation in the empire.

SOCIAL LIFE UNDER THE EMPIRE

Moral Decay Continues at Rome.—Seneca in his Letters and Juvenal in his

Satires have presented portraits of the men and women of their time so striking
that the corruption of the Rome of the Cæsars has remained proverbial. They
were not only the disorders left over from the republic—the gross extravagance
of the rich, the ferocity of masters against their slaves, the unbridled frivolity of
women. The evil did not arise with the imperial régime, but resulted from the
excessive accumulation of the riches of the world in the hands of some
thousands of nobles or upstarts, under whom lived some hundreds of free men in
poverty, and slaves by millions subjected to an unrestrained oppression. Each of
these great proprietors lived in the midst of his slaves like a petty prince,
indolent and capricious. His house at Rome was like a palace; every morning the
hall of honor (the atrium) was filled with clients, citizens who came for a meagre
salary to salute the master[151] and escort him in the street. For fashion required
that a rich man should never appear in public unless surrounded by a crowd;
Horace ridicules a prætor who traversed the streets of Tibur with only five slaves
in his following. Outside Rome the great possessed magnificent villas at the sea-
shore or in the mountains; they went from one to the other, idle and bored.
These great families were rapidly extinguished. Alarmed at the diminishing
number of free men, Augustus had made laws to encourage marriage and to
punish celibacy. As one might expect, his laws did not remedy the evil. There
were so many rich men who had not married that it had become a lucrative trade
to flatter them in order to be mentioned in their will; by having no children one
could surround himself with a crowd of flatterers. "In the city," says a Roman
story-teller, "all men divide themselves into two classes, those who fish, and
those who are angled for." "Losing his children augments the influence of a
man."
The Shows.—In the life of this idle people of Rome the spectacles held a
place that we are now hardly able to conceive. They were, as in Greece, games,
that is to say, religious ceremonies. The games proceeded throughout the day and
again on the following day, and this for a week at least. The amphitheatre was, as
it were, the rendezvous of the whole free population; it was there that they
manifested themselves. Thus in 196, during the civil wars, all the spectators
cried with one voice, "Peace!" The spectacle was the passion of the time. Three
emperors appeared in public, Caligula as a driver, Nero as an actor, Commodus
as a gladiator.
The Theatre.—There were three sorts of spectacles: the theatre, the circus,
and the amphitheatre.
The theatre was organized on Greek models. The actors were masked and
presented plays imitated from the Greek. The Romans had little taste for this
recreation which was too delicate for them. They preferred the mimes, comedies
of gross character, and especially the pantomimes in which the actor without
speaking expressed by his attitudes the sentiments of the character.
The Circus.—Between the two hills of the Aventine and the Palatine
extended a field filled with race courses surrounded by arcades and tiers of seats
rising above them. This was the Circus Maximus. After Nero enlarged it it could
accommodate 250,000 spectators; in the fourth century its size was increased to
provide sittings for 385,000 people.
Here was presented the favorite spectacle of the Roman people, the four-horse
chariot race (quadrigæ); in each race the chariot made a triple circuit of the
circus and there were twenty-five races in a single day. The drivers belonged to
rival companies whose colors they wore; there were at first four of these colors,
but they were later reduced to two—the Blue and the Green, notorious in the
history of riots. At Rome there was the same passion for chariot-races that there
is now for horse-races; women and even children talked of them. Often the
emperor participated and the quarrel between the Blues and the Greens became
an affair of state.
The Amphitheatre.—At the gates of Rome the emperor Vespasian had built
the Colosseum, an enormous structure of two stories, accommodating 87,000
spectators. It was a circus surrounding an arena where hunts and combats were
represented.
 For the hunts the arena was transformed into a forest where wild beasts were
released and men armed with spears came into combat with them. Variety was
sought in this spectacle by employing the rarest animals—lions, panthers,
elephants, bears, buffaloes, rhinoceroses, giraffes, tigers, and crocodiles. In the
games presented by Pompey had already appeared seventeen elephants and five
hundred lions; some of the emperors maintained a large menagerie.
Sometimes instead of placing armed men before the beasts, it was found more
dramatic to let loose the animals on men who were naked and bound. The
custom spread into all cities of the empire of compelling those condemned to
death to furnish this form of entertainment for the people. Thousands of persons
of both sexes and of every age, and among them Christian martyrs, were thus
devoured by beasts under the eyes of the multitude.
The Gladiators.—But the national spectacle of the Romans was the fight of
gladiators (men armed with swords). Armed men descended into the arena and
fought a duel to the death. From the time of Cæsar[152] as many as 320 pairs of
gladiators were fought at once; Augustus in his whole life fought 10,000 of
them, Trajan the same number in four months. The vanquished was slain on the
field unless the people wished to show him grace.
Sometimes the condemned were compelled to fight, but more often slaves and
prisoners of war. Each victory thus brought to the amphitheatre bands of
barbarians who exterminated one another for the delight of the spectators.[153]
Gladiators were furnished by all countries—Gauls, Germans, Thracians, and
sometimes negroes. These peoples fought with various weapons, usually with
their national arms. The Romans loved to behold these battles in miniature.
There were also, among these contestants in the circus, some who fought from
their own choice, free men who from a taste for danger submitted to the terrible
discipline of the gladiator, and swore to their chief "to allow themselves to be
beaten with rods, be burned with hot iron, and even be killed." Many senators
enrolled themselves in these bands of slaves and adventurers, and even an
emperor, Commodus, descended into the arena.
These bloody games were practised not only at Rome, but in all the cities of
Italy, Gaul, and Africa. The Greeks always opposed their adoption. An
inscription on a statue raised to one of the notables in the little city of Minturnæ
runs as follows: "He presented in four days eleven pairs of gladiators who ceased
to fight only when half of them had fallen in the arena. He gave a hunt of ten
terrible bears. Treasure this in memory, noble fellow-citizens." The people,
therefore, had the passion for blood,[154] which still manifests itself in Spain in
bull-fights. The emperor, like the modern king of Spain, must be present at these
butcheries. Marcus Aurelius became unpopular in Rome because he exhibited
his weariness at the spectacles of the amphitheatre by reading, speaking, or
giving audiences instead of regarding the games. When he enlisted gladiators to
serve against the barbarians who invaded Italy, the populace was about to revolt.
"He would deprive us of our amusements," cried one, "to compel us to become
philosophers."
The Roman Peace.—But there was in the empire something else than the
populace of Rome. To be just to the empire as a whole one must consider events
in the provinces. By subjecting all peoples, the Romans had suppressed war in
the interior of their empire. Thus was established the Roman Peace which a
Greek author describes in the following language: "Every man can go where he
will; the harbors are full of ships, the mountains are safe for travellers just as the
towns for their inhabitants. Fear has everywhere ceased. The land has put off its
old armor of iron and put on festal garments. You have realized the word of
Homer, 'the earth is common to all.'" For the first time, indeed, men of the
Occident could build their houses, cultivate their fields, enjoy their property and
their leisure without fearing at every moment being robbed, massacred, or
thrown into slavery—a security which we can hardly appreciate since we have
enjoyed it from infancy, but which seemed very sweet to the men of antiquity.
The Fusion of Peoples.—In this empire now at peace travel became easy. The
Romans had built roads in every direction with stations and relays; they had also
made road-maps of the empire. Many people, artisans, traders, journeyed from
one end of the empire to the other.[155] Rhetors and philosophers penetrated all
Europe, going from one city to another giving lectures. In every province could
be found men from the most remote provinces. Inscriptions show us in Spain
professors, painters, Greek sculptors; in Gaul, goldsmiths and Asiatic workmen.
Everybody transported and mingled customs, arts, and religion. Little by little
they accustomed themselves to speak the language of the Romans. From the
third century the Latin had become the common language of the West, as the
Greek since the successors of Alexander had been the language of the Orient.
Thus, as in Alexandria, a common civilization was developed. This has been
called by the name Roman, though it was this hardly more than in name and in
language. In reality, it was the civilization of the ancient world united under the
emperor's authority.
Superstitions.—Religious beliefs were everywhere blended. As the ancients
 did not believe in a single God, it was easy for them to adopt new gods. All
peoples, each of whom had its own religion, far from rejecting the religions of
others, adopted the gods of their neighbors and fused them with their own. The
Romans set the example by raising the Pantheon, a temple to "all the gods,"
where each deity had his sanctuary.
Everywhere there was much credulity. Men believed in the divinity of the
dead emperors; it was believed that Vespasian had in Egypt healed a blind man
and a paralytic. During the war with the Dacians the Roman army was perishing
of thirst; all at once it began to rain, and the sudden storm appeared to all as a
miracle; some said that an Egyptian magician had conjured Hermes, others
believed that Jupiter had taken pity on the soldiers; and on the column of Marcus
Aurelius Jupiter was represented, thunderbolt in hand, sending the rain which the
soldiers caught in their bucklers.
When the apostles Barnabas and Paul came to the city of Lystra in Asia
Minor, the inhabitants invoked Barnabas as Jupiter and Paul as Mercury; they
were met by a procession, with priests at the head leading a bull which they were
about to sacrifice.
Cultured people were none the less credulous.[156] The Stoic philosophers
admitted omens. The emperor Augustus regarded it as a bad sign when he put on
the wrong shoe. Suetonius wrote to Pliny the Younger, begging him to transfer
his case to another day on account of a dream which he had had. Pliny the
Younger believed in ghosts.
Among peoples ready to admit everything, different religions, instead of going
to pieces, fused into a common religion. This religion, at once Greek, Roman,
Egyptian, and Asiatic, dominated the world at the second century of our era; and
so the Christians called it the religion of the nations; down to the fourth century
they gave the pagans the name of "gentiles" (men of the nations); at the same
time the common law was called the Law of Nations.

FOOTNOTES:

[145] Inscriptions have been found where the name of Domitian has thus been
 cut away.
[146] Suetonius ("Lives of the Twelve Cæsars," Nero, ch. lvii.) relates, that the
king of the Parthians, when he sent ambassadors to the Senate to renew
his alliance with the Roman people, earnestly requested that due honor
should be paid to the memory of Nero. The historian continues, "When,
twenty years afterwards, at which time I was a young man, some person
of obscure birth gave himself out for Nero, that name secured him so
favorable a reception from the Parthians that he was very zealously
supported, and it was with much difficulty that they were persuaded to
give him up."—ED.
[147] Italy was not included among the provinces.
[148] A few provinces, the less important, remained to the Senate, but the
emperor was almost always master in these as well.
[149] The jurisconsult Gaius says, "On provincial soil we can have possession
only; the emperor owns the property."
[150] "Great personages," says Epictetus, "cannot root themselves like plants;
they must be much on the move in obedience to the commands of the
emperor."
[151] A client's task was a hard one; the poet Martial, who had served thus,
groans about it. He had to rise before day, put on his toga which was an
inconvenient and cumbersome garment, and wait a long time in the ante-
room.
[152] Cæsar gave also a combat between two troops, each composed of 500
archers, 300 knights (30 knights according to Suetonius; Julius, ch. 39),
and 20 elephants.
[153] In an official discourse an orator thanks the emperor Constantine who
had given to the amphitheatre an entire army of barbarian captives, "to
bring about the destruction of these men for the amusement of the
people. What triumph," he cried, "could have been more glorious?"
[154] St. Augustine in his "Confessions" describes the irresistible attraction of
these sanguinary spectacles.
[155] A Phrygian relates in an inscription that he had made seventy-two
voyages from Asia to Italy.
[156] There were some sceptical writers, like Lucian, but they were isolated.
 CHAPTER XXVToC

THE ARTS AND SCIENCES IN ROME

LETTERS

Imitation of the Greeks.—The Romans were not artists naturally. They

became so very late and by imitating the Greeks. From Greece they took their
models of tragedy, comedy, the epic, the ode, the didactic poem, pastoral poetry,
and history. Some writers limited themselves to the free translation of a Greek
original (as Horace in his Odes). All borrowed from the Greeks at least their
ideas and their forms. But they carried into this work of adaptation their qualities
of patience and vigor, and many came to a true originality.
The Age of Augustus.—There is common agreement in regarding the fifty
years of the government of Augustus as the most brilliant period in Latin
literature. It is the time of Vergil, Horace, Ovid, Tibullus, Propertius, and Livy.
The emperor, or rather his friend Mæcenas, personally patronized some of these
poets, especially Horace and Vergil, who sang the glory of Augustus and of his
time. But this Augustan Age was preceded and followed by two centuries that
perhaps equalled it. It was in the preceding century,[157] the first before Christ,
that the most original Roman poet[158] appeared, Cæsar the most elegant prose-
writer, and Cicero the greatest orator. It was in the following age that Seneca,
Lucan, Tacitus, Pliny, and Juvenal wrote. Between Lucretius and Tacitus there
were for three centuries many great writers in Rome. One might also add another
century by recurring to the time of Plautus, the second century before Christ.
 Of these great authors a few had their origin in Roman families; but the
majority of them were Italians. Many came from the provinces, Vergil from
Mantua, Livy from Padua (in Cisalpine Gaul), while Seneca was a Spaniard.
Orators and Rhetors.—The true national art at Rome was eloquence. Like
the Italians of our day, the Romans loved to speak in public. In the forum where
they held the assemblies of the people was the rostrum, the platform for
addressing the people, so named from the prows of captured ships that
ornamented it like trophies of war. Thither the orators came in the last epoch of
the republic to declaim and to gesticulate before a tumultuous crowd.
The tribunals, often composed of a hundred judges, furnished another
occasion for eloquent advocates. The Roman law permitted the accused to have
an advocate speak in his place.
There were orators in Rome from the second century. Here, as in Athens, the
older orators, such as Cato and the Gracchi, spoke simply, too simply for the
taste of Cicero. Those who followed them in the first century learned in the
schools of the Greek rhetors the long oratorical periods and pompous style. The
greatest of all was Cicero, the only one whose works have come down to us in
anything but fragments; and yet we have his speeches as they were left by him
and not as they were delivered.[159]
With the fall of the republic the assemblies and the great political trials ceased.
Eloquence perished for the want of matter, and the Roman writers remarked this
with bitterness.[160] Then the rhetors commenced to multiply, who taught the art
of speaking well.[161] Some of these teachers had their pupils compose as
exercises pleas on imaginary rhetorical subjects. The rhetor Seneca has left us
many of these oratorical themes; they discuss stolen children, brigands, and
romantic adventures.
Then came the mania for public lectures. Pollio, a favorite of Augustus, had
set the example. For a century it was the fashion to read poems, panegyrics, even
tragedies before an audience of friends assembled to applaud them. The taste for
eloquence that had once produced great orators exhibited in the later centuries
only finished declaimers.
Importance of the Latin Literature and Language.—Latin literature
profited by the conquests of Rome; the Romans carried it with their language to
their barbarian subjects of the West. All the peoples of Italy, Gaul, Spain, Africa,
and the Danubian lands discarded their language and took the Latin. Having no
national literature, they adopted that of their masters. The empire was thus
divided between the two languages of the two great peoples of antiquity: the
Orient continued to speak Greek; almost the entire Occident acquired the Latin.
Latin was not only the official language of the state functionaries and of great
men, like the English of our day in India; the people themselves spoke it with
greater or less correctness—in fact, so well that today eighteen centuries after
the conquest five languages of Europe are derived from the Latin—the Italian,
Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Roumanian.
With the Latin language the Latin literature extended itself over all the West.
In the schools of Bordeaux and Autun in the fifth century only Latin poets and
orators were studied. After the coming of the barbarians, bishops and monks
continued to write in Latin and they carried this practice among the peoples of
England and Germany who were still speaking their native languages.
Throughout almost the whole mediæval period, acts, laws, histories, and books
of science were written in Latin. In the convents and the schools they read,
copied, and appreciated only works written in Latin; beside books of piety only
the Latin authors were known—Vergil, Horace, Cicero, and Pliny the Younger.
The renaissance of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries consisted partly in
reviving the forgotten Latin writers. More than ever it was the fashion to know
and to imitate them.
As the Romans constructed a literature in imitation of the Greeks, the moderns
have taken the Latin writers for their models. Was this good or bad? Who would
venture to say? But the fact is indisputable. Our romance languages are
daughters of the Latin, our literatures are full of the ideas and of the literary
methods of the Romans. The whole western world is impregnated with the Latin
literature.

THE ARTS

Sculpture and Painting.—Great numbers of Roman statues and bas-reliefs of

the time of the empire have come to light. Some are reproductions and almost all
are imitations of Greek works, but less elegant and less delicate than the models.
The most original productions of this form of art are the bas-reliefs and the
busts.
Bas-reliefs adorned the monuments (temples, columns, and triumphal arches),
tombs, and sarcophagi. They represent with scrupulous fidelity real scenes, such
as processions, sacrifices, combats, and funeral ceremonies and so give us
information about ancient life. The bas-reliefs which surround the columns of
Trajan and Marcus Aurelius bring us into the presence of the great scenes of
their wars. One may see the soldiers fighting against the barbarians, besieging
their fortresses, leading away the captives; the solemn sacrifices, and the
emperor haranguing the troops.
The busts are especially those of the emperors, of their wives and their
children. As they were scattered in profusion throughout the empire, so many
have been found that today all the great museums of Europe have collections of
imperial busts. They are real portraits, probably very close resemblances, for
each emperor had a well-marked physiognomy, often of a striking ugliness that
no one attempted to disguise.
In general, Roman sculpture holds itself much more close to reality than does
the Greek; it may be said that the artist is less concerned with representing things
beautifully than exactly.
Of Roman painting we know only the frescoes painted on the walls of the rich
houses of Pompeii and of the house of Livy at Rome. We do not know but these
were the work of Greek painters; they bear a close resemblance to the paintings
on Greek vases, having the same simple and elegant grace.
Architecture.—The true Roman art, because it operated to satisfy a practical
need, is architecture. In this too the Romans imitated the Greeks, borrowing the
column from them. But they had a form that the Greeks never employed—the
arch, that is to say, the art of arranging cut stones in the arc of a circle so that
they supported one another. The arch allowed them to erect buildings much
larger and more varied than those of the Greeks. The following are the principal
varieties of Roman monuments:
 1. The Temple was sometimes similar to a Greek temple with a broad
vestibule, sometimes vaster and surmounted with a dome. Of this sort is
the Pantheon built in Rome under Augustus.
2. The Basilica was a long low edifice, covered with a roof and
surrounded with porticos. There sat the judge with his assistants about
him; traders discussed the price of goods; the place was at once a bourse
and a tribunal. It was in the basilicas that the assemblies of the
Christians were later held, and for several centuries the Christian
churches preserved the name and form of basilicas.
3. The Amphitheatre and the Circus were constructed of several
stories of arcades surrounding an arena; each range of arcades supported
many rows of seats. Such were the Colosseum at Rome and the arenas at
Arles and Nîmes.
4. The Arch of Triumph was a gate of honor wide enough for the
passage of a chariot, adorned with columns and surmounted with a
group of sculpture. The Arch of Titus is an example.
5. The Sepulchral Vault was an arched edifice provided with many
rows of niches, in each of which were laid the ashes of a corpse. It was
called a Columbarium (pigeon-house) from its shape.
6. The Thermæ were composed of bathing-halls furnished with basins.
The heat was provided by a furnace placed in an underground chamber.
The Thermæ in a Roman city were what the gymnasium was in a Greek
city—a rendezvous for the idle. Much more than the gymnasium it was a
labyrinth of halls of every sort: there were a cool hall, warm apartments,
a robing-room, a hall where the body was anointed with oil, parlors,
halls for exercise, gardens, and the whole surrounded by an enormous
wall. Thus the Thermæ of Caracalla covered an immense area.
7. The Bridge and the Aqueduct were supported by a range of arches
thrown over a river or over a valley. Examples are the bridge of
Alcantara and the Pont du Gard.
8. The House of a rich Roman was a work of art. Unlike our modern
houses, the ancient house had no façade; the house was turned entirely
toward the interior; on the outside it showed only bare walls.
The rooms were small, ill furnished, and dark; they were lighted only
through the atrium. In the centre was the great hall of honor (the atrium)
 where the statues of the ancestors were erected and where visitors were
received. It was illuminated by an opening in the roof.
Behind the atrium was the peristyle, a garden surrounded by
colonnades, in which were the dining halls, richly ornamented and
provided with couches, for among the rich Romans, as among the
Asiatic Greeks, guests reclined on couches at the banquets. The
pavement was often made of mosaic.
Character of the Roman Architecture.—The Romans,[162] unlike the
Greeks, did not always build in marble. Ordinarily they used the stone that they
found in the country, binding this together with an indestructible mortar which
has resisted even dampness for eighteen hundred years. Their monuments have
not the wonderful grace of the Greek monuments, but they are large, strong, and
solid—like the Roman power. The soil of the empire is still covered with their
débris. We are astonished to find monuments almost intact as remote as the
deserts of Africa. When it was planned to furnish a water-system for the city of
Tunis, all that had to be done was to repair a Roman aqueduct.
Rome and Its Monuments.—Rome at the time of the emperors was a city of
2,000,000 inhabitants.[163] This population was herded in houses of five and six
stories, poorly built and crowded together. The populous quarters were a
labyrinth of tortuous paths, steep, and ill paved. Juvenal who frequented them
leaves us a picture of them which has little attractiveness. At Pompeii, a city of
luxury, it may be seen how narrow were the streets of a Roman city. In the midst
of hovels monuments by the hundred would be erected. The emperor Augustus
boasted of having restored more than eighty temples. "I found a city of bricks,"
said he; "I leave a city of marble." His successors all worked to embellish Rome.
It was especially about the Forum that the monuments accumulated. The Capitol
with its temple of Jupiter became almost like the Acropolis at Athens. In the
same quarter many monumental areas were constructed—the forum of Cæsar,
the forum of Augustus, the forum of Nerva, and, most brilliant of all, the forum
of Trajan. Two villas surrounded by a park were situated in the midst of the city;
the most noted was the Golden House, built for Nero.

THE LAW

The Twelve Tables.—The Romans, like all other ancient peoples, had at first
no written laws. They followed the customs of the ancestors—that is to say, each
generation did in everything just as the preceding generation did.
In 450 ten specially elected magistrates, the decemvirs, made a series of laws
that they wrote on twelve tables of stone. This was the Law of the Twelve
Tables, codified in short, rude, and trenchant sentences—a legislation severe and
rude like the semi-barbarous people for whom it was made. It punished the
sorcerer who by magical words blasted the crop of his neighbor. It pronounced
against the insolvent debtor, "If he does not pay, he shall be cited before the
court; if sickness or age deter him, a horse shall be furnished him, but no litter;
he may have thirty days' delay, but if he does not satisfy the debt in this time, the
creditor may bind him with straps or chains of fifteen pounds weight; at the end
of sixty days he may be sold beyond the Tiber; if there are many creditors, they
may cut him in parts, and if they cut more or less, there is no wrong in the act."
According to the word of Cicero, the Law of the Twelve Tables was "the source
of all the Roman law." Four centuries after it was written down the children had
to learn it in the schools.
The Symbolic Process.—In the ancient Roman law it was not enough in
buying, selling, or inheriting that this was the intention of the actor; to obtain
justice in the Roman tribunal it was not sufficient to present the case; one had to
pronounce certain words and use certain gestures. Consider, for example, the
manner of purchasing. In the presence of five citizens who represent an
assembly and of a sixth who holds a balance in his hand, the buyer places in the
balance a piece of brass which represents the price of the thing sold. If it be an
animal or a slave that is sold, the purchaser touches it with his hand saying,
"This is mine by the law of the Romans, I have bought it with this brass duly
weighed." Before the tribunal every process is a pantomime: to reclaim an object
one seizes it with the hand; to protest against a neighbor who has erected a wall,
a stone is thrown against the wall. When two men claim proprietorship in a field,
the following takes place at the tribunal: the two adversaries grasp hands and
appear to fight; then they separate and each says, "I declare this field is mine by
the law of the Romans; I cite you before the tribunal of the prætor to debate our
right at the place in question." The judge orders them to go to the place. "Before
these witnesses here present, this is your road to the place; go!" The litigants
take a few steps as if to go thither, and this is the symbol of the journey. A
witness says to them, "Return," and the journey is regarded as completed. Each
of the two presents a clod of earth, the symbol of the field. Thus the trial
commences;[164] then the judge alone hears the case. Like all primitive peoples,
the Romans comprehended well only what they actually saw; the material acts
served to represent to them the right that could not be seen.
The Formalism of Roman Law.—The Romans scrupulously respected their
ancient forms. In justice, as in religion, they obeyed the letter of the law, caring
nothing for its sense. For them every form was sacred and ought to be strictly
applied. In cases before the courts their maxim was: "What has already been
pronounced ought to be the law." If an advocate made a mistake in one word in
reciting the formula, his case was lost. A man entered a case against his neighbor
for having cut down his vines: the formula that he ought to use contained the
word "arbor," he replaced it with the word "vinea," and could not win his case.
This absolute reverence for the form allowed the Romans some strange
accommodations. The law said that if a father sold his son three times, the son
should be freed from the power of the father; when, therefore, a Roman wished
to emancipate his son, he sold him three times in succession, and this comedy of
sale sufficed to emancipate him.
The law required that before beginning war a herald should be sent to declare
it at the frontier of the enemy. When Rome wished to make war on Pyrrhus, king
of Epirus, who had his kingdom on the other side of the Adriatic, they were
much embarrassed to execute this formality. They hit on the following: a subject
of Pyrrhus, perhaps a deserter, bought a field in Rome; they then assumed that
this territory had become territory of Epirus, and the herald threw his javelin on
this land and made his solemn declaration. Like all other immature peoples, the
Romans believed that consecrated formulas had a magical virtue.
Jurisprudence.—The Law of the Twelve Tables and the laws made after
them were brief and incomplete. But many questions presented themselves that
had no law for their solution. In these embarrassing cases it was the custom at
Rome to consult certain persons who were of high reputation for their
knowledge of questions of law. These were men of eminence, often old consuls
or pontiffs; they gave their advice in writing, and their replies were called the
Responses of the Wise. Usually these responses were authoritative according to
the respect had for the sages. The emperor Augustus went further: he named
some of them whose responses should have the force of law. Thus Law began to
be a science and the men versed in law formulated new rules which became
obligatory. This was Jurisprudence.
The Prætor's Edict.—To apply the sacred rules of law a supreme magistrate
was needed at Rome. Only a consul or a prætor could direct a tribunal and,
according to the Roman expression, "say the law." The consuls engaged
especially with the army ordinarily left this care to the prætors.
There were always at Rome at least two prætors as judges: one adjudicated
matters between citizens and was called the prætor of the city (prætor urbanus);
the other judged cases between citizens and aliens and was called prætor of the
aliens (prætor peregrinus), or, more exactly, prætor between aliens and citizens.
There was need of at least two tribunals, since an alien could not be admitted to
the tribunal of the citizens. These prætors, thanks to their absolute power,
adjusted cases according to their sense of equity; the prætor of the aliens was
bound by no law, for the Roman laws were made only for Roman citizens. And
yet, since each prætor was to sit and judge for a year, on entering upon his office
he promulgated a decree in which he indicated the rules that he expected to
follow in his tribunal; this was the Prætor's Edict. At the end of the year, when
the præter left his office, his ordinance was no longer in force, and his successor
had the right to make an entirely different one. But it came to be the custom for
each prætor to preserve the edicts of his predecessors, making a few changes and
some additions. Thus accumulated for centuries the ordinances of the
magistrates. At last the emperor Hadrian in the second century had the Prætorian
Edict codified and gave it the force of law.
Civil Law and the Law of Nations.—As there were two separate tribunals,
there developed two systems of rules, two different laws. The rules applied to the
affairs of citizens by the prætor of the city formed the Civil Law—that is to say,
the law of the city. The rules followed by the prætor of aliens constituted the
Law of Nations—that is to say, of the peoples (alien to Rome). It was then
perceived that of these two laws the more human, the more sensible, the simpler
—in a word, the better, was the law of aliens. The law of citizens, derived from
the superstitious and strict rules of the old Romans, had preserved from this rude
origin troublesome formulas and barbarous regulations. The Law of Nations, on
the contrary, had for its foundation the dealings of merchants and of men
established in Rome, dealings that were free from every formula, from every
national prejudice, and were slowly developed and tried by the experience of
several centuries. And so it may be seen how contrary to reason the ancient law
was. "Strict law is the highest injustice," is a Roman proverb. The prætors of the
city set themselves to correct the ancient law and to judge according to equity or
justice. They came gradually to apply to citizens the same rules that the prætor
of the aliens followed in his tribunal. For example, the Roman law ordained that
only relatives on the male side should be heirs; the prætor summoned the
relatives on the female side also to participate in the succession.
 The old law required that a man to become a proprietor must perform a
complicated ceremony of sale; the prætor recognized that it was sufficient to
have paid the price of the sale and to be in possession of the property. Thus the
Law of Nations invaded and gradually superseded the Civil Law.
"Written Reason."—It was especially under the emperors that the new
Roman law took its form. The Antonines issued many ordinances (edicts) and
re-scripts (letters in which the emperor replied to those who consulted him).
Jurisconsults who surrounded them assisted them in their reforms. Later, at the
beginning of the third century, under the bad emperors as under the good, others
continued to state new rules and to rectify the old. Papinian, Ulpian, Modestinus,
and Paullus were the most noted of these lawyers; their works definitively fixed
the Roman law.
This law of the third century has little resemblance to the old Roman law, so
severe on the weak. The jurisconsults adopt the ideas of the Greek philosophers,
especially of the Stoics. They consider that all men have the right of liberty: "By
the law of nature all men are born free," which is to say that slavery is contrary
to nature. They also admit that a slave could claim redress even against his
master, and that the master, if he killed his slave, should be punished as a
murderer. Likewise they protect the child against the tyranny of the father.
It is this new law that was in later times called Written Reason. In fact, it is a
philosophical law such as reason can conceive for all men. And so there remains
no longer an atom of the strict and gross law of the Twelve Tables. The Roman
law which has for a long time governed all Europe, and which today is preserved
in part in the laws of several European states is not the law of the old Romans. It
is constructed, on the contrary, of the customs of all the peoples of antiquity and
the maxims of Greek philosophers fused together and codified in the course of
centuries by Roman magistrates and jurisconsults.

FOOTNOTES:

[157] Sometimes called the Age of Cicero.

[158] Lucretius.—ED.
[159] One of the most noted, the plea for Milo, was written much later. Cicero
at the time of the delivery was distracted and said almost nothing.
[160] See the "Dialogue of the Orators," attributed to Tacitus.
[161] The word "rhetor" signified in Greek simply orator; the Romans used the
word in a mistaken sense to designate the men who made a profession of
speaking.
[162] The same reserve must be maintained with regard to the arts as to the
literature. The builders of the Roman monuments were not Romans, but
provincials, often slaves; the only Roman would be the master for whom
the slaves worked.
[163] This estimate is too liberal. 1,500,00 is probably nearer the truth. See
Friedlaender, Sittengeschichte Roms, i. 25.—ED.
[164] Cicero describes this juridical comedy which was still in force in his
time.

CHAPTER XXVIToC

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY

The Christ.—He whom the Jews were expecting as their liberator and king,
the Messiah, appeared in Galilee, a small province of the North, hardly regarded
as Jewish, and in a humble family of carpenters. He was called Jesus, but his
Greek disciples called him the Christ (the anointed), that is to say, the king
consecrated by the holy oil. He was also called the Master, the Lord, and the
Saviour. The religion that he came to found is that we now possess. We all know
his life: it is the model of every Christian. We know his instructions by heart;
they form our moral law. It is sufficient, then, to indicate what new doctrines he
disseminated in the world.
Charity.—Before all, Christ commended love. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart and with all thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself.... On
these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." The first duty is to
love others and to benefit them. When God will judge men, he will set on his
right hand those who have fed the hungry, given drink to those who were thirsty,
and have clad those that were naked. To those who would follow him the Christ
said at the beginning: "Go, ... sell all that ye have and give to the poor."
For the ancients the good man was the noble, the rich, the brave. Since the
time of Christ the word has changed its sense: the good man is he who loves
others. Doing good is loving others and seeking to be of service to them. Charity
(the Latin name of love) from that time has been the cardinal virtue. Charitable
becomes synonymous with beneficent. To the old doctrine of vengeance the
Christ formally opposes his doctrine of charity. "Ye have heard that it was said,
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; but I say unto you ... whosoever shall
smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.... Ye have heard that it
hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy; but I say
unto you love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them
that persecute you, ... that ye may be the children of your Father who is in
heaven, who maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on
the just and the unjust." He himself on the cross prayed for his executioners,
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
Equality.—The Christ loved all men; he died not for one people only, but for
all humanity. He never made a difference between men; all are equal before God.
The ancient religions, even the Jewish, were religions of peoples who kept them
with jealous care, as a treasure, without wishing to communicate them to other
peoples. Christ said to his disciples, "Go, and teach all nations." And the apostle
Paul thus formulated the doctrine of Christian equality: "There is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, bond nor free." Two
centuries later Tertullian, a Christian writer, said, "The world is a republic, the
common land of the human race."
Poverty and Humility.—The ancients thought that riches ennobled a man
and they regarded pride as a worthy sentiment. "Blessed are the poor," said
Christ, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." He that would not renounce all that
he had could not be his disciple. He himself went from city to city, possessing
nothing, and when his disciples were preoccupied with the future, he said, "Be
not anxious for what ye shall eat, nor for what ye shall put on. Behold the birds
of the heaven, they sow not neither do they reap, yet your heavenly Father
feedeth them."
The Christian was to disdain riches, and more yet, worldly honors. One day
when his disciples were disputing who should have the highest rank in heaven,
he said, "He that is greatest among you shall be your servant." "Whosoever
exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."
Till our day the successor of Saint Peter calls himself "Servant of the servants of
God." Christ drew to himself by preference the poor, the sick, women, children,
—in a word, the weak and the helpless. He took all his disciples from among the
populace and bade them be "meek and lowly of heart."
The Kingdom of God.—Christ said that he had come to the earth to found
the kingdom of God. His enemies believed that he wished to be a king, and when
he was crucified, they placed this inscription on his cross, "Jesus of Nazareth,
king of the Jews." This was a gross mistake. Christ himself had declared, "My
kingdom is not of this world." He did not come to overturn governments nor to
reform society. To him who asked if he should pay the Roman tax, he replied,
"Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are
God's." And so the Christian accepted what he found established and himself
worked to perfect it, not to remodel society. To make himself pleasing to God
and worthy of his kingdom it was not necessary to offer him sacrifices or to
observe minute formulas as the pagans did: "True worshippers shall worship the
Father in spirit and truth." Their moral law is contained in this word of Christ:
"Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

THE FIRST CENTURIES OF THE CHURCH

Disciples and Apostles.—The twelve disciples who associated with Christ

received from him the mission to preach his doctrine to all peoples. From that
time they were called Apostles. The majority of them lived in Jerusalem and
preached in Judæa; the first Christians were still Jews. It was Saul, a new
convert, who carried Christianity to the other peoples of the Orient. Paul (for he
took this name) spent his life visiting the Greek cities of Asia, Greece, and
Macedonia, inviting to the new religion not only the Jews, but also and
especially the Gentiles: "You were once without Christ," said he to them,
"strangers to the covenant and to the promises; but you have been brought nigh
by the blood of Christ, for it is he who of two peoples hath made both one."
From this time it was no longer necessary to be a Jew if one would become a
Christian. The other nations, disregarded by the law of Moses, are brought near
by the law of Christ. This fusion was the work of St. Paul, also called the
Apostle to the Gentiles.
The religion of Christ spread very slowly, as he himself had announced: "The
kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard-seed ... which is the least of all
seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs ... and the birds of the
air lodge under its branches."
The Church.—In every city where Christians were found they assembled to
pray together, to sing the praises of God, and to celebrate the mystery of the
Lord's Supper. Their meeting was called Ecclesia (assembly). Usually the
Christians of the same assembly regarded themselves as brothers; they
contributed of their property to support the widows, the poor, and the sick. The
most eminent directed the community and celebrated the religious ceremonies.
These were the Priests (their name signifies "elders"). Others were charged with
the administration of the goods of the community, and were called Deacons
(servants). Besides these officers, there was in each city a supreme head—the
Bishop (overseer).
Later the functions of the church became so exacting that the body of
Christians was divided into two classes of people: the clergy, who were the
officials of the community; the rest, the faithful, who were termed the laity.
Each city had its independent church; thus they spoke of the church of
Antioch, of Corinth, of Rome; and yet they all formed but one church, the
church of Christ, in which all were united in one faith. The universal or Catholic
faith was regarded as the only correct body of belief; all conflicting opinions (the
heresies) were condemned as errors.
The Sacred Books.—The sacred scripture of the Jews, the Old Testament,
remained sacred for the Christians, but they had other sacred books which the
church had brought into one structure (the New Testament). The four Gospels
recount the life of Christ and the "good news" of salvation which he brought.
The Acts of the Apostles describes how the gospel was disseminated in the
world. The Epistles are the letters addressed by the apostles to the Christians of
the first century. The Apocalypse (Revelation) is the revelation made through St.
John to the seven churches of Asia. Many other pseudo-sacred books were
current among the Christians, but the church has rejected all of these, and has
termed them apocryphal.
The Persecutions.—The Christian religion was persecuted from its birth. Its
first enemies were the Jews, who forced the Roman governor of Judæa to crucify
Christ; who stoned St. Stephen, the first martyr, and so set themselves against St.
Paul that they almost compassed his death.
Then came the persecution by the Pagans. The Romans tolerated all the
religions of the East because the devotees of Osiris, of Mithra, and of the Good
Goddess recognized at the same time the Roman gods. But the Christians,
worshippers of the living God, scorned the petty divinities of antiquity. More
serious still in the eyes of the Romans, they refused to adore the emperor as a
god and to burn incense on the altar of the goddess Roma. Several emperors
promulgated edicts against the Christians, bidding the governors arrest them and
put them to death. A letter of Pliny the Younger, then governor in Asia, to the
emperor Trajan, shows the procedure against them. "Up to this time, regarding
the people who have been denounced as Christians, I have always operated as
follows: I asked them if they were Christians; if they confessed it, I put the
question to them a second time, and then a third time, threatening them with the
penalty of death. When they persisted, I had them put to death, convinced that,
whatever their fault that they avowed, their disobedience and their resolute
obstinacy merited punishment. Many who have been denounced in anonymous
writings have denied that they were Christians, have repeated a prayer that I
pronounced before them, have offered wine and incense to your statue, which I
had set forth for this purpose together with the statues of the gods, and have even
reviled the name of Christ. All these are things which it is not possible to compel
any true Christians to do. Others have confessed that they were Christians, but
they affirm that their crime and their error consisted only in assembling on
certain days before sunrise to adore Christ as God, to sing together in his honor,
and to bind themselves by oath to commit no crime, to perpetrate no theft,
murder, adultery, nor to violate their word. I have believed it necessary in order
to secure the truth to put to the torture two female slaves whom they called
deaconesses; but I have discovered only an absurd and exaggerated superstition."
The Roman government was a persecutor,[165] but the populace were severer
yet. They could not endure these people who worshipped another god than theirs
and contemned their deities. Whenever famine or epidemic occurred, the well-
known cry was heard, "To the lions with the Christians!" The people forced the
magistrates to hunt and persecute the Christians.
The Martyrs.—For the two centuries and a half that the Christians were
persecuted, throughout the empire there were thousands of victims, of every age,
sex, and condition. Roman citizens, like St. Paul, were beheaded; the others were
crucified, burned, most often sent to the beasts in the amphitheatre. If they were
allowed to escape with their lives, they were set at forced labor in the mines.
Sometimes torture was aggravated by every sort of invention. In the great
execution at Lyons, in 177, the Christians, after being tortured and confined in
narrow prison quarters, were brought to the arena. The beasts mutilated without
killing them. They were then seated in iron chairs heated red by fire. Blandina, a
young slave, who survived all these torments was bound with cords and exposed
to the fury of a bull. The Christians joyfully suffered these persecutions which
gave them entrance to heaven. The occasion presented an opportunity for
rendering public testimony to Christ. And so they did not call themselves
victims, but martyrs (witnesses); their torture was a testimony. They compared it
to the combat of the Olympian games; like the victor in the athletic contests,
they spoke of the palm or the crown. Even now the festal day of a martyr is the
day of his death.
Frequently a Christian who was present at the persecution would draft a
written account of the martyrdom—he related the arrest, the examination, the
tortures, and the death. These brief accounts, filled with edifying details, were
called The Acts of the Martyrs. They were circulated in the remotest
communities; from one end of the empire to the other they published the glory of
the martyrs and excited a desire to imitate them. Thousands of the faithful,
seized by a thirst for martyrdom, pressed forward to incriminate themselves and
to demand condemnation. One day a governor of Asia had decreed persecutions
against some Christians: all the Christians of the city presented themselves in his
tribunal and demanded to be persecuted. The governor, exasperated, had some of
them executed and sent away the others. "Begone, you wretches! If you are so
bent on death, you have precipices and ropes." Some of the faithful, to be surer
of torture, entered the temples and threw down the idols of the gods. It was
several times necessary for even the church to prohibit the solicitation of
martyrdom.
The Catacombs.—The ancient custom of burning the dead was repugnant to
the Christians. Like the Jews, they interred their dead wrapped with a shroud in a
sarcophagus. Cemeteries[166] were therefore required. At Rome where land was
very high in price the Christians went below ground, and in the brittle tufa on
which Rome was built may be seen long galleries and subterranean chambers.
There, in niches excavated along the passages, they laid the bodies of their dead.
As each generation excavated new galleries, there was formed at length a
subterranean city, called the Catacombs ("to the tombs"). There were similar
catacombs in several cities—Naples, Milan, Alexandria, but the most celebrated
were those in Rome. These have been investigated in our day and thousands of
Christian tombs and inscriptions recovered. The discovery of this subterranean
world gave birth to a new department of historical science—Christian Epigraphy
and Archæology.
The sepulchral halls of the catacombs do not resemble those of the Egyptians
or those of the Etruscans; they are bare and severe. The Christians knew that a
corpse had no bodily wants and so they did not adorn the tombs. The most
important halls are decorated with very simple ornaments and paintings which
almost always represent the same scenes. The most common subjects are the
faithful in prayer, and the Good Shepherd, symbolical of Christ. Some of these
halls were like chapels. In them were interred the bodies of the holy martyrs and
the faithful who wished to lie near them; every year Christians came here to
celebrate the mysteries. During the persecutions of the third century the
Christians of Rome often took refuge in these subterranean chapels to hold their
services of worship, or to escape from pursuit. The Christians could feel safe in
this bewildering labyrinth of galleries whose entrance was usually marked by a
pagan tomb.

THE MONKS OF THE THIRD CENTURY

The Solitaries.—It was an idea current among Christians, especially in the

East, that one could not become a perfect Christian by remaining in the midst of
other men. Christ himself had said, "If any man come to me and hate not his
father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters ... he cannot
be my disciple." The faithful man or woman who thus withdrew from the world
to work out his salvation the more surely, was termed an Anchorite (the man
who is set apart), or a Monk (solitary). This custom began in the East in the
middle of the third century. The first anchorites established themselves in the
deserts and the ruins of the district of Thebes in Upper Egypt, which remained
the holy land of the solitaries.
Paul (235-340), the oldest of the monks, lived to his ninetieth year in a grotto
near a spring and a palm-tree which furnished him with food and clothing. The
model of the monks was St Anthony.[167] At the age of twenty he heard read one
day the text of the gospel, "If thou wilt be perfect, sell all thy goods and give to
the poor." He was fine looking, noble, and rich, having received an inheritance
from his parents. He sold all his property, distributed it in alms and buried
himself in the desert of Egypt. He first betook himself to an empty tomb, then to
the ruins of a fortress; he was clad in a hair-shirt, had for food only the bread that
was brought to him every six months, fasted, starved himself, prayed day and
night. Often sunrise found him still in prayer. "O sun," cried he, "why hast thou
risen and prevented my contemplating the true light?" He felt himself
surrounded by demons, who, under every form, sought to distract him from his
religious thoughts. When he became old and revered by all Egypt, he returned to
Alexandria for a day to preach against the Arian heretics, but soon repaired to
the desert again. They besought him to remain: he replied, "The fishes die on
land, the monks waste away in the city; we return to our mountains like the fish
to the water."
Women also became solitaries. Alexandra, one of these, shut herself in an
empty tomb and lived there for ten years without leaving it to see anybody.
Asceticism.—These men who had withdrawn to the desert to escape the world
thought that everything that came from the world turned the soul from God and
placed it in the peril of losing salvation. The Christian ought to belong entirely to
God; he should forget everything behind him. "Do you not know," said St. Nilus
later, "that it is a trap of Satan to be too much attached to one's family?" The
monk Poemen had withdrawn to the desert with his brothers, and their mother
came to visit them. As they refused to appear, she waited a little until they were
going to the church; but on seeing her, they fled and would not consent to speak
to her unless they were concealed. She asked to see them, but they consoled her
by saying, "You will see us in the other world."
But the world is not the only danger for the monk. Every man carried about
with himself an enemy from whom he could not deliver himself as he had
delivered himself from the world—that is, his own body. The body prevented the
soul from rising to God and drew it to worldly pleasures that came from the
devil. And so the solitaries applied themselves to overcoming the body by
refusing to it everything that it loved. They subsisted only on bread and water;
many ate but twice a week, some went to the mountains to cut herbs which they
ate raw. They dwelt in grottoes, ruins, and tombs, lying on the earth or on a mat
of rushes. The most zealous of them added other tortures to mortify, or kill, the
body. St. Pachomius for fifteen years slept only in an erect position, leaning
against a wall. Macarius remained six months in a morass, the prey of
mosquitoes "whose stings would have penetrated the hide of a wild boar." The
most noted of these monks was St. Simeon, surnamed Stylites (the man of the
column). For forty years he lived in the desert of Arabia on the summit of a
column, exposed to the sun and the rain, compelling himself to stay in one
position for a whole day; the faithful flocked from afar to behold him; he gave
them audience from the top of his column, bidding creditors free their debtors,
and masters liberate their slaves; he even sent reproaches to ministers and
counsellors of the emperor. This form of life was called Asceticism (exercise).
The Cenobites.—The solitaries who lived in the same desert drew together
and adopted a common life for the practice of their austerities. About St.
Anthony were already assembled many anchorites who gave him their
obedience. St. Pachomius (272-348) in this way assembled 3,000. Their
establishment was at Tabenna, near the first cataract of the Nile. He founded
many other similar communities, either of men or women. In 256 a traveller said
he had seen in a single city of Egypt 10,000 monks and 20,000 vowed to a
religious life. There were more of them in Syria, in Palestine, in all the Orient.
The monks thus united in communities became Cenobites (people who live in
common). They chose a chief, the abbot (the word signifies in Syriac "father"),
and they implicitly obeyed him. Cassian relates that in one community in Egypt
he had seen the abbot before the whole refectory give a cenobite a violent blow
on the head to try his obedience.
The primitive monks renounced all property and family relations; the
cenobites surrendered also their will. On entering the community they engaged
to possess nothing, not to marry, and to obey. "The monks," says St. Basil, "live
a spiritual life like the angels." The first union among the cenobites was the
construction of houses in close proximity. Later each community built a
monastery, a great edifice, where each monk had his cell. A Christian compares
these cells "to a hive of bees where each has in his hands the wax of work, in his
mouth the honey of psalms and prayers." These great houses needed a written
constitution; this was the Monastic Rule. St. Pachomius was the first to prepare
one. St. Basil wrote another that was adopted by almost all the monasteries of
the Orient.
 FOOTNOTES:

[165] The church counted ten persecutions, the first under Nero, the last under
Diocletian.
[166] The word is Greek and signifies place of repose.
[167] See his biography in the "Lives of the Fathers of the Desert," by Rufinus.

CHAPTER XXVIIToC

THE LATER EMPIRE

THE REVOLUTIONS OF THE THIRD CENTURY

Military Anarchy.—After the reigns of the Antonines the civil wars

commenced. There were in the empire, beside the prætorian guard in Rome,
several great armies on the Rhine, on the Danube, in the East, and in England.
Each aimed to make its general emperor. Ordinarily the rivals fought it out until
there was but one left; this one then governed for a few years, after which he was
assassinated,[168] or if, by chance, he could transmit his power to his son, the
soldiers revolted against the son and the war recommenced. The following, for
example, is what occurred in 193. The prætorians had massacred the emperor
Pertinax, and the army conceived the notion of putting up the empire at auction;
two purchasers presented themselves, Sulpicius offering each soldier $1,000 and
Didius more than $1,200. The prætorians brought the latter to the Senate and had
him named emperor; later, when he did not pay them, they murdered him. At the
same time the great armies of Britain, Illyricum, and Syria proclaimed each its
own general as emperor and the three rivals marched on Rome. The Illyrian
legions arrived first, and their general Septimius Severus was named emperor by
the Senate. Then commenced two sanguinary wars, the one against the legions of
Syria, and the other against the legions of Britain. At the end of two years the
emperor was victorious. It is he who states his policy as follows, "My son,
content the soldiers and you may despise the rest." For a century there was no
other form of government than the will of the soldiers. They killed the emperors
who displeased them and replaced them by their favorites.
Strange emperors, therefore, occupied the throne: Elagabalus, a Syrian priest,
who garbed himself as a woman and had his mother assemble a senate of
women; Maximin, a soldier of fortune, a rough and bloodthirsty giant, who ate,
it was said, thirty pounds of food and drank twenty-one quarts of wine a day.
Once there were twenty emperors at the same time, each in a corner of the
empire (260-278). These have been called the Thirty Tyrants.
The Cult of Mithra.—This century of wars is also a century of superstitions.
The deities of the Orient, Isis, Osiris, the Great Mother, have their devotees
everywhere. But, more than all the others, Mithra, a Persian god, becomes the
universal god of the empire. Mithra is no other than the sun. The monuments in
his honor that are found in all parts of the empire represent him slaughtering a
bull, with this inscription: "To the unconquerable sun, to the god Mithra." His
cult is complicated, sometimes similar to the Christian worship; there are a
baptism, sacred feasts, an anointing, penances, and chapels. To be admitted to
this one must pass through an initiatory ceremony, through fasting and certain
fearful tests.
At the end of the third century the religion of Mithra was the official religion
of the empire. The Invincible God was the god of the emperors; he had his
chapels everywhere in the form of grottoes with altars and bas-reliefs; in Rome,
even, he had a magnificent temple erected by the emperor Aurelian.
The Taurobolia.—One of the most urgent needs of this time was
reconciliation with the deity; and so ceremonies of purification were invented.
The most striking of these was the Taurobolia. The devotee, clad in a white
robe with ornaments of gold, takes his place in the bottom of a ditch which is
covered by a platform pierced with holes. A bull is led over this platform, the
priest kills him and his blood runs through the holes of the platform upon the
garments, the face, and the hair of the worshipper. It was believed that this
"baptism of blood" purified one of all sins. He who had received it was born to a
new life; he came forth from the ditch hideous to look upon, but happy and
envied.
Confusion of Religions.—In the century that preceded the victory of
Christianity, all religions fell into confusion. The sun was adored at once under
many names (Sol, Helios, Baal, Elagabal, and Mithra). All the cults imitated one
another and sometimes copied Christian forms. Even the life of Christ was
copied. The Asiatic philosopher, Apollonius of Tyana, who lived in the first
century (3-96), became in legend a kind of prophet, son of a god, who went
about surrounded by his disciples, expelling demons, curing sicknesses, raising
the dead. He had come, it was said, to reform the doctrine of Pythagoras and
Plato. In the third century an empress had the life of Apollonius of Tyana
written, to be, as it were, a Pythagorean gospel opposed to the gospel of Christ.
The most remarkable example of this confusion in religion was given by
Alexander Severus, a devout emperor, mild and conscientious: he had in his
palace a chapel where he adored the benefactors of humanity—Abraham,
Orpheus, Jesus, and Apollonius of Tyana.

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE LATER EMPIRE

Reforms of Diocletian and Constantine.—After a century of civil wars

emperors were found who were able to stop the anarchy. They were men of the
people, rude and active, soldiers of fortune rising from one grade to another to
become generals-in-chief, and then emperors. Almost all arose in the semi-
barbarous provinces of the Danube and of Illyria; some in their infancy had been
shepherds or peasants. They had the simple manners of the old Roman generals.
When the envoys of the king of Persia asked to see the emperor Probus, they
found a bald old man clad in a linen cassock, lying on the ground, who ate peas
and bacon. It was the story of Curius Dentatus repeated after five centuries.
Severe with their soldiers, these emperors reëstablished discipline in the army,
and then order in the empire. But a change had become necessary. A single man
was no longer adequate to the government and defence of this immense territory;
and so from this time each emperor took from among his relatives or his friends
two or three collaborators, each charged with a part of the empire. Usually their
title was that of Cæsar, but sometimes there were two equal emperors, and both
had the title of Augustus. When the emperor died, one of the Cæsars succeeded
him; it was no longer possible for the army to create emperors. The provinces
were too great, and Diocletian divided them. The prætorians of Rome being
dangerous, Diocletian replaced them with two legions. The Occident was in
ruins and depopulated and hence the Orient had become the important part of the
empire; Diocletian, therefore, abandoned Rome and established his capital at
Nicomedia in Asia Minor.[169] Constantine did more and founded a new Rome in
the East—Constantinople.
Constantinople.—On a promontory where Europe is separated from Asia
only by the narrow channel of the Bosporus, in a country of vineyards and rich
harvests, under a beautiful sky, Greek colonists had founded the town of
Byzantium. The hills of the vicinity made the place easily defensible; its port,
the Golden Horn, one of the best in the world, could shelter 1,200 ships, and a
chain of 820 feet in length was all that was necessary to exclude a hostile fleet.
This was the site of Constantine's new city, Constantinople (the city of
Constantine).
Around the city were strong walls; two public squares surrounded with
porticos were constructed; a palace was erected, a circus, theatres, aqueducts,
baths, temples, and a Christian church. To ornament his city Constantine
transferred from other cities the most celebrated statues and bas-reliefs. To
furnish it with population he forced the people of the neighboring towns to
remove to it, and offered rewards and honors to the great families who would
come hither to make their home. He established, as in Rome, distributions of
grain, of wine, of oil, and provided a continuous round of shows. This was one
of those rapid transformations, almost fantastic, in which the Orient delights.
The task began the 4th of November, 326; on the 11th of May, 330, the city was
dedicated. But it was a permanent creation. For ten centuries Constantinople
resisted invasions, preserving always in the ruins of the empire its rank of
capital. Today it is still the first city of the East.
The Palace.—The emperors who dwelt in the East[170] adopted the customs of
the Orient, wearing delicate garments of silk and gold and for a head-dress a
diadem of pearls. They secluded themselves in the depths of their palace where
they sat on a throne of gold, surrounded by their ministers, separated from the
world by a crowd of courtiers, servants, functionaries and military guards. One
must prostrate one's self before them with face to the earth in token of adoration;
they were called Lord and Majesty; they were treated as gods. Everything that
touched their person was sacred, and so men spoke of the sacred palace, the
sacred bed-chamber, the sacred Council of State, even the sacred treasury.
The régime of this period has been termed that of the Later Empire as
distinguished from that of the three preceding centuries, which we call the Early
Empire.
The life of an emperor of the Early Empire (from the first to the third century)
was still that of a magistrate and a general; the palace of an emperor of the Later
Empire became similar to the court of the Persian king.
The Officials.—The officials often became very numerous. Diocletian found
the provinces too large and so made several divisions of them. In Gaul, for
example, Lugdunensis (the province about Lyons) was partitioned into four,
Aquitaine into three. In place of forty-six governors there were from this time
117.[171]
At the same time the duties of the officials were divided. Besides the
governors and the deputies in the provinces there were in the border provinces
military commanders—the dukes and the counts. The emperor had about him a
small picked force to guard the palace, body-guards, chamberlains, assistants,
domestics, a council of state, bailiffs, messengers, and a whole body of
secretaries organized in four bureaus.
All these officials did not now receive their orders directly from the emperor;
they communicated with him only through their superior officers. The governors
were subordinate to the two prætorian prefects, the officials of public works to
the two prefects of the city, the collectors of taxes to the Count of the Sacred
Largesses, the deputies to the Count of the Domains, all the officers of the palace
to the Master of the Offices, the domestics of the court to the Chamberlain.
These heads of departments had the character of ministers.
This system is not very difficult for us to comprehend. We are accustomed to
see officials, judges, generals, collectors, and engineers, organized in distinct
departments, each with his special duty, and subordinated to the commands of a
chief of the service. We even have more ministers than there were in
Constantinople; but this administrative machine which has become so familiar to
us because we have been acquainted with it from our infancy, is none the less
complicated and unnatural. It is the Later Empire that gave us the first model of
this; the Byzantine empire preserved it and since that time all absolute
governments have been forced to imitate it because it has made the work of
government easier for those who have it to do.
Society in the Later Empire.—The Later Empire is a decisive moment in the
history of civilization. The absolute power of the Roman magistrate is united to
the pompous ceremonial of the eastern kings to create a power unknown before
in history. This new imperial majesty crushes everything beneath it; the
inhabitants of the empire cease to be citizens and from the fourth century are
called in Latin "subjects" and in Greek "slaves." In reality all are slaves of the
emperor, but there are different grades of servitude. There are various degrees of
nobility which the master confers on them and which they transmit to their
posterity. The following is the series:[172]
 1. The Nobilissimi (the very noble); these are the imperial family;
2. The Illustres (the notable)—the chief ministers of departments;
3. The Spectabiles (the eminent)—the high dignitaries;
4. The Clarissimi (most renowned)—the great officials, also
sometimes called senators;
5. The Perfectissimi (very perfect).[173]
Every important man has his rank, his title, and his functions.[174] The only
men who are of consequence are the courtiers and officials; it is the régime of
titles and of etiquette. A clearer instance has never been given of the issue of
absolute power united with the mania for titles and with the purpose to regulate
everything. The Later Empire exhibits the completed type of a society reduced to
a machine and of a government absorbed by a court. It realized the ideal that is
proposed today by the partisans of absolute power; and for a long time the
friends of liberty must fight against the traditions which the Later Empire has
left to us.

THE CHURCH AND THE STATE

Triumph of Christianity.—During the first two centuries of our era the

Christians occupied but a small place in the empire. Almost all of them were of
the lower classes, workmen, freedmen, slaves, who lived obscure lives in the
multitude of the great cities. For a long time the aristocracy ignored the
Christians; even in the second century Suetonius in his "Lives of the Twelve
Cæsars" speaks of a certain Chrestus who agitated the populace of Rome. When
the religion first concerned the world of the rich and cultivated people, they were
interested simply to deride it as one only for the poor and ignorant. It was
precisely because it addressed the poor of this world in providing a
compensation in the life to come that Christianity made so many proselytes.
Persecution, far from suppressing it, gave it more force. "The blood of the
martyrs," said the faithful, "is the seed of the church." During the whole of the
third century conversions continued, not only among the poor, but among the
aristocracy as well. At the first of the fourth century all the East had become
Christian. Helena, the mother of Constantine, was a Christian and has been
canonized by the church. When Constantine marched against his rival, he took
for his ensign a standard (the labarum), which bore the cross and the monogram
of Christ. His victory was the victory of the Christians. He allowed them now to
perform their religious rites freely (by the edict of 313), and later he favored
them openly. Yet he did not break with the ancient religion: while he presided at
the great assembly of the Christian bishops, he continued to hold the title of
Pontifex Maximus; he carried in his helmet a nail of the true cross and on his
coins he still had the sun-god represented. In his city of Constantinople he had a
Christian church built, but also a temple to Victory. For a half-century it was
difficult to know what was the official religion of the empire.
Organization of the Church.—The Christians even under persecution had
never dreamed of overthrowing the empire. As soon as persecution ceased, the
bishops became the allies of the emperors. Then the Christian church was
organized definitively, and it was organized on the model of the Later Empire, in
the form that it preserves to this day. Each city had a bishop who resided in the
city proper and governed the people of the territory; this territory subject to the
bishop was termed a Diocese. In any country in the Later Empire, there were as
many bishops and dioceses as there were cities. This is why the bishops were so
numerous and dioceses so many in the East and in Italy where the country was
covered with cities. In Gaul, on the contrary, there were but 120 dioceses
between the Rhine and the Pyrenees, and the most of these, save in the south,
were of the size of a modern French department. Each province became an
ecclesiastical province; the bishop of the capital (metropolis) became the
metropolitan, or as he was later termed, the archbishop.
The Councils.—In this century began the councils, the great assemblies of the
church. There had already been some local councils at which the bishops and
priests of a single province had been present. For the first time, in 324,[175]
Constantine convoked a General Assembly of the World (an ecumenical council)
at Nicæa, in Asia Minor; 318 ecclesiastics were in attendance. They discussed
questions of theology and drew up the Nicene Creed, the Catholic confession of
faith. Then the emperor wrote to all the churches, bidding them "conform to the
will of God as expressed by the council." This was the first ecumenical council,
and there were three others[176] of these before the arrival of the barbarians made
an assembly of the whole church impossible. The decisions reached by these
councils had the force of law for all Christians: the decisions are called
Canons[177] (rules). The collection of these regulations constitutes the Canon
Law.
 The Heretics.—From the second century there were among the Christians
heretics who professed opinions contrary to those of the majority of the church.
Often the bishops of a country assembled to pronounce the new teaching as
false, to compel the author to abjure, and, if he refused, to separate him from the
communion of Christians. But frequently the author of the heresy had partisans
convinced of the truth of his teaching who would not submit and continued to
profess the condemned opinions. This was the cause of hatred and violent strife
between them and the faithful who were attached to the creed of the church (the
orthodox). As long as the Christians were weak and persecuted by the state, they
fought among themselves only with words and with books; but when all society
was Christian, the contests against the heretics turned into persecutions, and
sometimes into civil wars.
Almost all of the heresies of this time arose among the Greeks of Asia or
Egypt, peoples who were subtle, sophistical, and disputatious. The heresies were
usually attempts to explain the mysteries of the Trinity and of the Incarnation.
The most significant of these heresies was that of Arius; he taught that Christ
was created by God the Father and was not equal to him. The Council of Nicæa
condemned this view, but his doctrine, called Arianism, spread throughout the
East. From that time for two centuries Catholics and Arians fought to see who
should have the supremacy in the church; the stronger party anathematized,
exiled, imprisoned, and sometimes killed the chiefs of the opposition. For a long
time the Arians had the advantage; several emperors took sides with them; then,
too, as the barbarians entered the empire, they were converted to Arianism and
received Arian bishops. More than two centuries had passed before the Catholics
had overcome this heresy.
Paganism.—The ancient religion of the Gentiles did not disappear at a single
stroke. The Orient was quickly converted; but in the Occident there were few
Christians outside the cities, and even there many continued to worship idols.
The first Christian emperors did not wish to break with the ancient imperial
religion; they simultaneously protected the bishops of the Christians and the
priests of the gods; they presided over councils and yet remained pontifex
maximus. One of them, Julian (surnamed the Apostate), openly returned to the
ancient religion. The emperor Gratian in 384[178] was the first to refuse the
insignia of the pontifex maximus. But as intolerance was general in this century,
as soon as the Roman religion ceased to be official, men began to persecute it.
The sacred fire of Rome that had burned for eleven centuries was extinguished,
the Vestals were removed, the Olympian games were celebrated for the last time
in 394. Then the monks of Egypt issued from their deserts to destroy the altars of
the false gods and to establish relics in the temples of Anubis and Serapis.
Marcellus, a bishop of Syria, at the head of a band of soldiers and gladiators
sacked the temple of Jupiter at Aparnæa and set himself to scour the country for
the destruction of the sanctuaries; he was killed by the peasants and raised by the
church to the honor of a saint.
Soon idolatry persisted only in the rural districts where it escaped detection;
the idolaters were peasants who continued to adore sacred trees and fountains
and to assemble in proscribed sanctuaries.[179] The Christians commenced to call
"pagans" (the peasants) those whom up to this time they had called Gentiles.
And this name has still clung to them. Paganism thus led an obscure existence in
Italy, in Gaul, and in Spain down to the end of the sixth century.
Theodosius.—The incursions of the Germanic peoples into the empire
continued for two centuries until the Huns, a people of Tartar horsemen, came
from the steppes of Asia, and threw themselves on the Germans, who occupied
the country to the north of the Danube. In that country there was already a great
German kingdom, that of the Goths, who had been converted to Christianity by
Ulfilas, an Arian. To escape the Huns, a part of this people, the West Goths
(Visigoths), fled into Roman territory, defeated the Roman armies, and
overspread the country even to Greece. Valens, the emperor of the East, had
perished in the defeat of Adrianople (378); Gratian, the emperor of the West,
took as colleague a noble Spaniard, Theodosius by name, and gave him the title
of Augustus of the East (379). Theodosius was able to rehabilitate his army by
avoiding a great battle with the Visigoths and by making a war of skirmishes
against them; this decided them to conclude a treaty. They accepted service
under the empire, land was given them in the country to the south of the Danube,
and they were charged with preventing the enemies of the empire from crossing
the river.
Theodosius, having reëstablished peace in the East, came to the West where
Gratian had been killed by order of the usurper Maximus (383). This Maximus
was the commander of the Roman army of Britain; he had crossed into Gaul
with his army, abandoning the Roman provinces of Britain to the ravages of the
highland Scotch, had defeated Gratian, and invaded Italy. He was master of the
West, Theodosius of the East. The contest between them was not only one
between persons; it was a battle between two religions: Theodosius was Catholic
and had assembled a council at Constantinople to condemn the heresy of Arius
(381); Maximus was ill-disposed toward the church. The engagement occurred
on the banks of the Save; Maximus was defeated, taken, and executed.
 Theodosius established Valentinian II, the son of Gratian, in the West and then
returned to the East. But Arbogast, a barbarian Frank, the general of the troops
of Valentinian, had the latter killed, and without venturing to proclaim himself
emperor since he was not a Roman, had his Roman secretary Eugenius made
emperor. This was a religious war: Arbogast had taken the side of the pagans;
Theodosius, the victor, had Eugenius executed and himself remained the sole
emperor. His victory was that of the Catholic church.
In 391 the emperor Theodosius promulgated the Edict of Milan. It prohibited
the practice of the ancient religion; whoever offered a sacrifice, adored an idol,
or entered a temple should be condemned to death as a state criminal, and his
goods should be confiscated to the profit of the informer. All the pagan temples
were razed to the ground or converted into Christian churches. And so
Theodosius was extolled by ecclesiastical writers as the model for emperors.
Theodosius gave a rare example of submission to the church. The inhabitants
of Thessalonica had risen in riot, had killed their governor, and overthrown the
statues of the emperor. Theodosius in irritation ordered the people to be
massacred; 7,000 persons suffered death. When the emperor presented himself
some time after to enter the cathedral of Milan, Ambrose, the bishop, charged
him with his crime before all the people, and declared that he could not give
entrance to the church to a man defiled with so many murders. Theodosius
confessed his sin, accepted the public penance which the bishop imposed upon
him, and for eight months remained at the door of the church.

FOOTNOTES:

[168] Of the forty-five emperors from the first to the third century, twenty-nine
died by assassination.
[169] Other considerations also led to the change of capital—ED.
[170] There were often two emperors, one in the East, the other in the West,
but there was but one empire. The two emperors, though they may have
resided, one in Constantinople and the other in Italy, were considered as
being but one person. In addressing one of them the word "you" (in the
 plural) was used, as if both were addressed at the same time. This was
the first use of the pronoun of the second person in the plural for such a
purpose; for throughout antiquity even kings and emperors were
addressed in the singular.
[171] The number under Diocletian was 101; under Constantine (Bury's
Gibbon, ii., 170), 116.—ED.
[172] Without counting the ancient titles of consul and præter, which were still
preserved, and the new title of patrician which was given by special
favor.
[173] Of inferior rank.
[174] We know the whole system by an official almanac of about the year 419,
entitled Notitia Dignitatum, a list of all the civil and military dignities
and powers in the East and West. Each dignitary has a special section
preceded by an emblem which represents his honors.
[175] It met in 325.—ED.
[176] It is to be noted that the author is speaking of ecumenical or world
councils. The three referred to are Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431),
and Chalcedon (451).—ED.
[177] Today, even, the word "canonical" signifies "in accordance with rule."
[178] Probably 375; Gratian died in 383.—ED.
[179] Several saints, like St. Marcellus, found martyrdom at the hands of
peasants exasperated at the destruction of their idols.

APPENDIX
 REFERENCES FOR SUPPLEMENTARY READING

PREHISTORIC TIMES

Lubbock: Prehistoric Times. 1878.

Lubbock: Origin of Civilisation. 1881.
Hoernes: Primitive Man. Temple Primers. 1901.
Lyell: Antiquity of Man. London: 1863.
Keary: Dawn of History.
Tylor: Anthropology. 1881.
McLennan: Studies in Ancient History. 1886.
Ripley: Races of Europe. 1899.
Sergi: The Mediterranean Race. 1901.
Maine: Ancient Law. 1883.
Mason: Woman's Share in Primitive Culture. 1894.

GENERAL WORKS OF REFERENCE—

Ploetz: Epitome of Universal History. 1883.
Ranke: Universal History, edited by Prothero. 1885.
Andrews: Institutes of General History. 1887.
Haydn: Dictionary of Dates. 1889.
Lamed: History for Ready Reference.

ATLASES—
Spruner-Sieglin: Atlas Antiquus.
Kiepert: Atlas Antiquus. Leach.
Putzger: Historischer Schul-atlas. 1902.
Droysen: Allgemeiner Historischer Hand-atlas. Leipsic, 1885.
Freeman: Historical Geography of Europe. Edited by Bury. 1903.
Schrader: Atlas de Géographique Historique.
GENERAL HISTORIES OF THE EAST—
Sayce: Ancient Empires of the East. 1885.
Lenormant and Chevallier: Ancient History of the East. 1875.
Duncker: History of Antiquity. 1877-82
Rawlinson: Manual of Ancient History. 1871.
Clarke: Ten Great Religions. 1894.
Cunningham: Western Civilisation in Its Economic Aspects. 1898.

EGYPT

SOURCES—
Records of the Past, 1888-92. Old Series, 1875-8.
Herodotus: Book II. Rawlinson's edition. 1897.

LITERATURE—
Rawlinson: Ancient Egypt. 1887.
Flinders-Petrie: History of Egypt. 1899.
Breasted: History of Egypt. 1905.
Erman: Life in Ancient Egypt. 1894.
Maspero: Dawn of Civilisation. 1896.
Maspero: Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria. 1892.
Wilkinson: Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians.
Perrot and Chipiez: History of Art in Ancient Egypt. 1882.
Flinders-Petrie: Egyptian Decorative Art. 1895.

BABYLON AND ASSYRIA

SOURCES—
 Records of the Past.

LITERATURE—
Ragozin: Chaldea. 1886.
Ragozin: Assyria. 1887.
Sayce: Assyria: Its Princes, Priests, and People. 1890.
Sayce: Social Life among the Assyrians and Babylonians. 1893.
Sayce: Fresh Light from Ancient Monuments. 1883.
Sayce: Babylonians and Assyrians. 1889.
Goodspeed: History of the Babylonians and Assyrians. 1902.
Layard: Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon. 1875.
Maspero: Dawn of Civilisation. 1896.
Maspero: Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria. 1892.
Maspero: Struggle of the Nations. 1897.
Maspero: Passing of the Empires. 1899.
Perrot and Chipiez: History of Art in Chaldea and Assyria. 1884.

INDIA

SOURCES—
Sacred Books of the East.

LITERATURE—
Wheeler: Primer of Indian History. 1890.
Smith, V.A.: Early History of India. 1904.
Ragozin: Vedic India. 1895.
Davids: Buddhist India. 1903.
Rhys-Davids: Buddhism. 1899.
Lane-Poole: Mediæval India under Mohammedan Rule. 1903.
Monier-Williams: Buddhism, Brahmanism, and Hinduism. 1889.
Monier-Williams: Indian Wisdom. London: 1875-6.
 Frazer: Literary History of India. 1898.
Maine: Early History of Institutions. 1875.

PERSIA

SOURCES—
Records of the Past.
Herodotus.
Church: Stories of the East (from Herodotus). 1883.

LITERATURE—
Benjamin: Persia. 1887.
Markham: General Sketch of the History of Persia. 1874.
Vaux: Persia from the Monuments. 1878.
Jackson: Zoroaster, Prophet of Ancient Iran. 1899.
Perrot and Chipiez: History of Art in Persia, Phrygia, etc. 1895.

THE PHŒNICIANS

SOURCES—
The Old Testament.
Voyage of Hanno, translated by Falconer.

LITERATURE—
Rawlinson: Phœnicia. 1889.
Maspero: Struggle of the Nations. 1897.
Paton: Early History of Syria and Palestine. 1901.
 Taylor: The Alphabet. 1899.
Perrot and Chipiez: History of Art in Phœnicia and Cyprus. 1885.

THE HEBREWS

SOURCES—
The Old Testament.
The Talmud.
Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews; Wars of the Jews; Whiston's translation.
1825. New edition of Whiston by Shilleto. 1889-90

LITERATURE—
Hosmer: The Jews. 1885.
Sayce: Early History of the Hebrews. 1897.
Kent: History of the Hebrew People. 1899.
Kent: History of the Jewish People. 1899.
Milman: History of the Jews. 1870.
Stanley: History of the Jewish Church. 1884.
McCurdy: History, Prophecy, and the Monuments. 1901. 3 V.
Graetz: History of the Jews. 1891-98.
Perrot and Chipiez: History of Art in Sardinia, Judea, Syria, and Asia
Minor. 1890.
Day: Social Life of the Hebrews. 1901.
Rosenau: Jewish Ceremonial Institutions and Customs. Baltimore. 1903.
Leroy-Boileau: Israel among the Nations; translated by Hellman. 1900.
Cheyne: Jewish Religious Life after the Exile. 1898.

GREECE
GENERAL HISTORIES—
Grote: History of Greece. 1851-6.
Holm: History of Greece. 1894-8.
Duruy: History of Greece. 1890-2.
Abbott: History of Greece. 1888-99.
One volume histories of Greece are: Bury. 1903; Oman 1901; Botsford.
1899; Myers. 1895; Cox, 1883.

GREEK ANTIQUITIES —
Smith: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. 1890-1 2 v.
Gardner and Jevons: Manual of Greek Antiquities. 1895.
Schömann: The Antiquities of Greece. London, 1880. A new and improved
edition in the German.
Harpers' Classical Literature and Antiquities. 1896.

GREEK HISTORICAL SOURCES (TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH)—

Homer: Iliad. Translated by Lang, Leaf, and Myers.
Homer: Odyssey. Translated by Butcher and Lang.
Herodotus: Translated by Rawlinson.
Text of same with abridged notes. 1897.
Herodotus: Translated by Macaulay.
Thucydides: Translated by Jowett.
Xenophon: Dakyns' edition. 1890-7.
Demosthenes: Works translated by Kennedy.
Arrian: Translated in Bonn Library.
Pausanias: Description of Greece. Frazer's edition.
Polybius: Shuckburgh's edition. 1889.
Plutarch: Lives. Translated by Stewart and Long. 4 v., 1880.
Plutarch: Lives. North's translation.

PERIODS OF GREEK HISTORY—

Tsountas-Manatt: Mycenæan Age. 1896.
Ridgeway: The Early Age in Greece. 1901.
Freeman: Studies of Travel: Greece. 1893.
 Clerke: Familiar Studies in Homer. 1892.
Jebb: Introduction to Homer. 1887.
Allcroft and Mason: Early Grecian History. 1898.
Benjamin: Troy. 1880.
Allcroft and Mason: Making of Athens. 1898.
Cox: Greeks and Persians. 1876.
Grundy: The Great Persian War. 1901.
Cox: Athenian Empire. 1877.
Lloyd: Age of Pericles. 1875.
Abbott: Pericles. 1895.
Grant: Greece in the Age of Pericles. 1893.
Allcroft and Mason: Peloponnesian War. 1898.
Freeman: Sicily. 1892.
Allcroft and Mason: Sparta and Thebes. 1898.
Sankey: Spartan and Theban Supremacies. 1877.
Allcroft and Mason: Decline of Hellas. 1898.
Curteis: Rise of the Macedonian Empire. 1878.
Hogarth: Philip and Alexander. 1897.
Wheeler: Alexander the Great. 1900.
Mahaffy: Alexander's Empire. 1887.
Mahaffy: Problems in Greek History. 1892.
Bevan: House of Seleucus. 1902.
Mahaffy: Empire of Egypt under the Ptolemies. 1899.
Mahaffy: Greek Life and Thought. 1887.

GREEK POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT—

Fowler: City-State of the Greeks and Romans. 1893.
Greenidge: Greek Constitutional History. 1896.
Schömann: Antiquities of Greece. 1886.
Cox: Lives of Greek Statesmen. 1886.
Gilbert: Constitutional Antiquities of Athens and Sparta. 1895.
Botsford: Athenian Constitution. 1893
Whibley: Greek Oligarchies. 1896.
Whibley: Political Parties in Athens in the Pelopponnesian War. 1889.
Freeman: History of Federal Government. 1863.
SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS—
Blümner: Home Life of the Ancient Greeks. 1893.
Mahaffy: Social Life in Greece. 1887.
Mahaffy: A Survey of Greek Civilisation. 1899.
Guhl and Koner: Life of the Greeks and Romans. 1877.
Becker: Charicles.
Cunningham: Western Civilisation in its Economic Aspects 1898.
Davidson: Education of the Greek People. 1894.
Mahaffy: Old Greek Education. 1882.

HISTORIES OF GREEK LITERATURE—

Mahaffy: History of Classical Greek Literature. 1880.
Murray: Ancient Greek Literature. 1897.
Jevons: History of Greek Literature. 1886.
Jebb: Primer of Greek Literature. 1878.
Jebb: Classical Greek Poetry.
Symonds: The Greek Poets.
Jebb: The Attic Orators. 1876.
Pater: Greek Studies. 1895.

HISTORIES OF ART —
Reber: History of Ancient Art. 1882.
Lübke: Outlines of the History of Art. 1881.
Perrot and Chipiez: History of Art in Primitive Greece. 1895.
Tarbell: History of Greek Art. 1896.
Fergusson: History of Architecture. 1875.
Gardner: Handbook of Greek Sculpture. 1896-7.
Harrison and Verall: Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens. 1894.
Harrison: Introductory Studies in Greek Art. 1892.
Gardner: Ancient Athens. 1902.

GREEK ARCHÆOLOGY —
Collignon: Manual of Greek Archæology. 1886.
Murray: Handbook of Greek Archæology. 1892.
 Schuckardt: Schliemann's Excavations. 1891.
Diehl: Excursions in Greece. 1893.
Gardner: New Chapters in Greek History. 1892.

GREEK PHILOSOPHY—
Mayor: Sketch of Ancient Philosophy. 1881.
Marshall: Short History of Greek Philosophy. 1891.
Plato: Translated by Jowett.
Aristotle: Translated in Bohn's Library.
Zeller: Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy. 1890.

GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY—
Gayley: Classic Myths. 1893.
Guerber: Myths of Greece and Rome. 1893.

ROME

GENERAL HISTORIES—
Mommsen: History of Rome.
Ihne: History of Rome. 1871-82.
Duruy: History of Rome. 1884-5.
Long: Decline of the Roman Republic. 1864-74.
Greenidge: History of Rome during the Latin Republic. 1904.
Shuckburgh: History of Rome. 1894.
How and Leigh: History of Rome. 1896.
Pelham: Outlines of Roman History. 1893.
Botsford: History of Rome. 1903.
Merivale: History of the Romans under the Empire. 1875.
Gibbon: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Bury's edition.

SOURCES OF ROMAN HISTORY (TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH)—

 Livy: History and Epitome, translated by Spillan. 1887-90.
Polybius: Histories, translated by Shuckburgh. 1889.
Plutarch: Lives, translated by Stewart and Long. 1880.
Appian: Roman History, translated by White. 1899.
Sallust, Florus, and Velleius Paterculus, translated by Watson. 1887.
Cicero: Orations, translated by Yonge. 1851-2.
Cicero: Letters, translated by Shuckburgh. 1899.
Cæsar: Gallic War and Civil War.
Justin, Nepos, and Eutropius, translated by Watson.
Suetonius: Lives of the Twelve Cæsars, translated by Thomas Forester.
1898.
Tacitus: Annals, translated by Church and Brodribb. 1895.
Tacitus: History, translated by Church and Brodribb. 1894.
Tacitus: Germania, translated by Church and Brodribb. 1893.
Josephus: Antiquities and Wars of the Jews, translated by Whiston-Shilleto.
1889-90.
Pliny the Younger: Letters, translated by Melmoth.
Marcus Aurelius: Meditations, translated by Long.
Ammianus Marcellinus: Roman History, translated by Yonge. 1894.
Julian the Emperor: Works, translated by King. 1888.
Eusebius: Ecclesiastical History and Life of Constantine translated by
McGiffert. 1890.
Jerome: Works.
Augustine: Works.
Munro: Source Book of Roman History. 1904.
Greenidge and Clay: Sources for Roman History B.C. 133-70. 1903.
Gwatkin: Selections from Early Christian Writers. 1893.

PERIODS OF ROMAN HISTORY—

Ihne: Early Rome. 1893.
Allcroft and Mason: Struggle for Empire. 1893
Church: Carthage. 1886.
Smith: Carthage and the Carthaginians. 1890.
Smith: Rome and Carthage. 1891.
Arnold: Second Punic War. 1849.
Dodge: Life of Hannibal. 1891.
Morris: Hannibal. 1897.
How: Hannibal and the Great War between Rome and Carthage. 1899.
Allcroft and Mason: Rome under the Oligarchs. 1893.
Beesly: Gracchi, Marius, and Sulla. 1893.
Allcroft and Mason: Decline of the Oligarchy. 1893.
Oman: Seven Roman Statesmen. 1902.
Beesly: Catiline, Clodius, and Tiberius. 1898.
Strachan-Davidson: Cicero. 1894.
Forsyth: Life of Cicero. 1877.
Boissier: Cicero and His Friends. 1897.
Froude: Cæsar. 1879.
Dodge: Cæsar. 1892.
Fowler: Cæsar. 1892.
Merivale: The Roman Triumvirates. 1877.
Holmes: Cæsar's Conquest of Gaul. 1899.
Mahaffy: Greek World under Roman Sway. 1890.
Bossier: Roman Africa. 1899.
Bossier: Rome and Pompeii. 1896.
Hall: The Romans on the Riviera and the Rhone. 1898.
Bury: (Students') Roman Empire. 1893.
Capes: Early Roman Empire. 1886.
Mommsen: Provinces of the Roman Empire. 1887.
Firth: Augustus Cæsar. 1903.
Shuckburgh: Augustus. 1903.
Tarver: Tiberius the Tyrant. 1902.
Dill: Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius. 1904.
Gregorovius: The Emperor Hadrian. 1898.
Bryant: Reign of Antoninus. 1896.
Capes: Age of the Antonines. 1887.
Watson: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. 1884.
Firth: Constantine the Great. 1905.
Negri: Julian the Apostate. 1905.
Gardner: Julian. 1895.
Glover: Life and Letters in the Fourth Century. 1901.
Dill: Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire. 1899.
Kingsley: Roman and Teuton. 1889.
Hodgkin: Dynasty of Theodosius. 1889.
Villari: Barbarian Invasions of Italy. 1902.
Hodgkin: Italy and Her Invaders, 1892-9.
Sheppard: Fall of Rome. 1861.
 Bury: Later Roman Empire. 1889.
Oman: Byzantine Empire. 1892.

ROMAN ANTIQUITIES —
Ramsay-Lanciani: Manual of Roman Antiquities. 1895.
Smith: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Murray. 1890-1.
Sayffert: Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, edited by Nettleship and
Sandys. 1895.
Schreiber: Atlas of Classical Antiquities. 1895.

ROMAN POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT—

Fowler: City-State of the Greeks and Romans. 1895.
Taylor: Constitutional and Political History of Rome. 1899.
Greenidge: Roman Public Life. 1901.
Abbott: Roman Political Institutions. 1901.
Arnold: Roman Provincial Administration. 1879.
Mommsen: Provinces of the Roman Empire. 1887.
Seely: Roman Imperialism. 1871.

SOCIAL LIFE OF THE ROMANS—

Guhl and Koner: Life of the Greeks and Romans. 1889.
Church: Roman Life in the Days of Cicero. 1883.
Fowler: Roman Festivals. 1899.
Ingram: History of Slavery. 1895.
Rydberg: Roman Days. 1879.
Thomas: Roman Life under the Cæsars. 1899.
Johnston: Private Life of the Romans. 1903.
Inge: Society in Rome under the Cæsars. 1888.
Pellison: Roman Life in Pliny's Time. 1896.
Lecky: History of European Morals. 1869.

ROMAN LITERATURE—
Mackail: Latin Literature. 1898.
 Cruttwell: History of Roman Literature. 1878.
Simcox: History of Latin Literature. 1883.
Teuffel-Schwabe: History of Roman Literature. 1891.
Tyrrell: Latin Poetry. 1895.
Sellar: Roman Poets of the Republic. 1881.
Sellar: Roman Poets of the Augustan Age. 1877.

ROMAN ART —
Reber: History of Ancient Art. 1882.
Burn: Roman Literature in Relation to Roman Art. 1890.
Wickoff: Roman Art. 1900.
Falke: Greece and Rome: Their Life and Art. 1885.
See under Greece for other histories of art.

ROMAN LAW—
Hadley: Introduction to Roman Law. 1876.
Morey: Outlines of Roman Law. 1893.
Muirhead: Historical Introduction to the Private Law of Rome. 1899.
Howe: Studies in the Civil Law. 1896.

ROMAN ARCHÆOLOGY —
Lanciani: Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries. 1888.
Lanciani: Pagan and Christian Rome. 1896.
Lanciani: Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome, 1897.
Lanciani: Destruction of Ancient Rome. 1899.
Mau: Pompeii, translated by Kelsey. 1899.
Plainer: Topography and Monuments of Ancient Rome. 1904.
Lovell: Stories in Stone upon the Roman Forum. 1902.
Burton-Brown: Recent Excavations in the Roman Forum. 1905.

CHRISTIANITY—
General Church Histories:
Moeller: History of the Christian Church. 1898-1900.
 Gieseler: Church History. 1857-79.
Neander: History of the Christian Religion and Church. 1853-4.
Schaff: History of the Christian Church. 1884-92.
Alzog: Manual of Universal Church History. 1874-8.
Kurtz: Church History. 1860.
Milman: History of Christianity.
Milman: Latin Christianity. 1881.
Allen: Outline of Christian History. 1886.
Allen: Christian Institutions. 1897.
Fisher: History of the Christian Church. 1887.
The Early Church:
Pressensé: Early Years of Christianity. 1873.
Fisher: Beginnings of Christianity. 1877.
Carr: Church and the Roman Empire. 1902.
Spence: Early Christianity and Paganism. 1902.
Ramsay: Church in the Roman Empire before 170. 1893.
Gregg: Decian Persecution. 1898.
Healy: The Valerian Persecution. 1905.
Mason: Persecution of Diocletian. 1876.
Renan: Influence of the Institutions, Thought, and Culture of Rome on
Christianity. 1898.
Hardy: Studies in Roman History. 1906.
Uhlhorn: Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism. 1879.
Newman: Arians of the Fourth Century. 1888.
Gwatkin: Arian Controversy 1889.
Cutts: St. Augustine. 1881.
Stanley: Eastern Church. 1884.
Smith-Wace: Dictionary of Christian Biography. 1877-87.

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