Class . Book COPYRtCHT DEPOSIT T li E Young Folks STORY OF TfiE WORLD J!^ CONNECTED HISTORY OF The Nations of the Earth. By LOU, V, CHAPIN, M, A, Author of -'THE ADVANCE GUARD OE CIVILIZATION, Etc., Etc ILLUSTRATED WITH -1-ORIGlNAL PEN DRAWINGS+- __ By will E, CHAPIN. /4^>^'''^f%. PUHLISHED BY ^*«« ^ »»»w_^ ,.-^ C3-EOE.C3-E IF. CE^J^lVi:, / 7/-' ' Book, Map and Atlas Publisher, 140 Willia))! Street, ^r^-^ij Denrlnvn Street. NEW YORK. '"••• CHICAGO, ILL. address the nearest officl. i8q4- Entered according to Act of Congress, in the (Office of the Librarian, at Washinsrton. 1). C. nv CEORGE K. CRAM, 1894. Ill INTRODUCTION. Perhaps, dear reader, you regard history as a mere collection of facts, dealing with battles, sieges and campaigns, which all occurred so long before your time that you have no possible concern in them. You may even look upon the recent history of your own nation as pertaining rather to the generations that are past, or as being matters upon which idle and curious individuals waste time and thought, but that have no potency in the world of to-day. i S^ Never was there a more mistaken idea. There is no "dead past" to those who comprehend aright the progress of our world. Every nation that grew into power, flourished, and passed away, is represented in you and me, and we in turn are but symbols and eponyms of the unknown future. To us, and to all of the people who are yet to be born, the past has bequeathed a deathless heritage. This priceless gift, gathered up by the past for the hope and joy of the present and future, is the great deeds and noble thoughts of nations, for they, like individuals, should have their span of life measured by these, rather than by the months or years that they existed upon the earth. This world of ours teems with knowledge, but there is nothing from which we can draw more real wisdom, than from the study of history, and no subject presented to the human mind has so many varied sides nor so absorbing an interest. Now, by history, I do not mean the tiresome details of chronology, nor the wearisome matter that may be considered as dry bones of fact. If you do not enjoy these, who can blame you? This is a refined and enlightened age, and the artistic and vital were never more appreciated than now. Truth, in its best sense has been exalted over fact, and the living, beautiful and imperishable must be created from the ashes of the past, if it is to be esteemed with anything more than the regard paid by antiquarians to that which the general public neither knows nor cares about. Fact and truth, in a historical sense, are of course nearly related, but the seed of the highest truth may lie in a legend or tradition created by the poet or a story-teller, while the most undeniable fact may have in it no spiritual truth, no impulse to quicken the mind, enlighten the soul and make men truly wise. There are millions of facts that have no real bearing upon historical truth in the story of a nation. They are trivial, even though considered so important by the old historians that all who came after them religiously copied them in writing history. IV INTRODUCTION. To be sure these records of fact should be kept as works of reference, and they will always be so preserved, but the age of twenty-volume histories has gone by, and the historian of to-day who would reach the public, and especially that portion of the public that is to become the nation-builders — the youth — must tell his story in a few words, and must have some rational excuse for telling it at all. That "the noblest study of mankind is man" is not the empty vaporing of a poet. The individuals compose the nations, and the biography of individuals is the history of the world. Their great deeds raised nations to power, their mistakes wrecked empires, and from them all we may draw lessons of incalculable value. No man can be accounted truly educated who has not a general knowledge of the world's history. No man can be truly enlightened who is not able to trace the development of his kind ever from a lower to a higher plane, and above all, no man can have that deeply reverent attitude toward the God who created our earth and all of its creatures, which is the natural relation of a soul toward its Maker, unless he is able to^ec in his own existence the outworking of the immutable laws that since the beginning of time have ruled the universe. Through all the ages one increasing purpose runs like a thread of flame, lighting up dark and bloody pages in the world's story, showing to all men, God in the humblest and highest places, manifesting Himself as unchanging, teaching men over and over the folly of trying to disarrange the rules of cause and effect, and endeavoring to stem with the puny strength of mortal hands and wills the resistless current of the Divine. The human mind, and especially that of youth, craves novelty, excitement and change. This craving is not only natural, but should be satisfied like any other healthy appetite, and if it is denied, the starved mind suffers, and the whole moral nature is viciously affected. It is this very craving that drives young men to low resorts, and young women to gossip, and the reading of salacious stories; it makes boys gloat over the impossible tales of robbers and cowboys, and girls so fascinated with the romantic adven- tures of silly heroines in the paper-back novels which are fast taking the place of true literature, and are not only evil, as everything false in conception must be, but like highly seasoned dainties, unfit the system for the digestion of truly nourishing food. These novels and so-called romances purport to be individual history, but their heroes and heroines are but "make-believe," and the reader has always present in his mind the idea that it is but a sham world and sham creations that he is contemplating. Of course there is fiction so grand, noble and true in conception, that it performs a distinct part in mental and moral education, and poems which the world could ill spare from its store of real wisdom and beauty, but to understand them aright the reader must be able to comprehend the fountain from which they flowed. INTRODUCTION. The source of all art, architecture and music is history. There the orator finds his inspiration to eloquence, the preacher his great themes, the evangelist his authority, the legislator his laws. The poet draws from the same inexhaustible well the beautiful visions that he clothes with language, and the dramatist the characters that he parades upon the stage. \ History is the foundation of all states and political systems, and if literature is — and we know it is the most imperishable of all the arts, — history is the source of all literature, and the foundation, reaching down deep into the mold of centuries, and resting upon the solid rock of Divine will, upon which the structure of society is reared. \ Unless we can read history as the story of man, tracing the narrative link within link from the remotest past, and finding a kinship and sympathy with our race, drawing from it a desire to aid in its elevation by making ourselves worthy of our inheritance of the vanished ages, we read it in vain. The thrilling of the heart when we read the deeds that have been done for freedom, the kindling of the eye, the flush upon the cheek of youth over some stirring story of the old days, index the reception by the soul of the lesson held by such recitals. There is, then, no need of explanation or commentary, no appropriateness in learned discussions of authorities. In the following pages we have made no attempt to play the schoolmaster, but rather to sit quietly down with our readers and tell the story of the past so simply that it would be a pleasure to the narrator and the audience. Link by link we have endeavored to form the chain, rejecting all not necessary to the general view, and omitting nothing which, in our opinion, would stimulate in the mind of the young a desire to delve deeper into the rich mine from which these treasures have been dug. In a work of this scope it is neither possible nor profitable to go very deeply into the details of changes in constitution, foreign or domestic difficulties, wars, cam- paigns and battles. Bloodshed and crime have been as lightly touched upon as circumstances permit, and only mentioned at all when some lesson is to be conveyed. Neither have we attempted to preach a sermon, nor uphold any theories, but from the best authorities we have gained the facts presented, clothed them with our own thought, tried to establish a confidence with the reader, and insure his interest. The text is supplemented by illustrations which form in themselves a history of man's development in the various arts and industries. These pictorial commentaries can not fail to interest, Qven were the text wholly absent, for they bring before us the men and women of all times, their manners, customs, occupation, costumes and dwellings, and show us how all the civivilization of to-day grew through the centuries, developed little by little until it became what it now is. -^^j INTRODUCTION. In claiming that never before has a work of this scope been performed in sucii a manner as to make it available to the ordinary student, we claim also that no work has ever been undertaken with a more earnest desire to popularize the subject. There have, of course, been illustrated histories published, but none which comprise in one volume the history of the world, illustrated with original drawings like those of the present book. These drawings are all taken from authentic sources, and are careful studies in detail of every kind. Their sequence is sometimes interrupted to fulfill the needs of the text, but the intelligent student will readily follow them, and by their contem- plation learn, in a way that is never forgotten, more than could be told in volumes of mere description of the subjects. It is on that account that such descriptions are omitted wherever possible, and any curiosity which the reader may have, can be more fully satisfied by a single glance at the illustrations than by pages of verbal description. Dates, too, have been omitted where their use is not absolutely necessary as a landmark to guide the student in following the line of the narrative, for in the thousands of many-volumed reference books to be found in public and private libraries there are repositories of dates — or to be a little irreverent, dried dates — upon which any one may feed who has such an unnatural appetite. We could not convince ourselves that it was necessary to include them in our story of nations, any more than it is necessary for them to be retained in the memory of the reader. In fact, carrying dates about in the memory is more often performed by people as a mental gymnastic accomplishment, than from an idea that they have any rightful place in their store of useful knowledge. Only epoch-making events should be associated in the mind with their dates, and such events are comparatively few in history. These we have appropriately mentioned, and these alone. It is with the not unreasonable hope that this volume will supply a need often - expressed by those whose school days lie far behind them, for a comprehensive repre- sentation of the world's history which will serve all ordinary uses, and that those still in training in the schools of our land preparing for that broader school of life may derive inspiration from its pages, that we send it forth. The Author. vn Table of Contents. Egypt, - - - -i6 Ethiopia, 32 Assyria, ... . -40 Media, 49 Babylonia, - - - -58 Persia, - - - - -^ 71 Asia Minor and Neighboring Kingdoms, - 88 India, - ^ 98 China and Japan, - 103 Carthage, ii- Greece, - - -1:25 Rome, 193 France, - - - 267 England, 358 'GER^L■\NY, - 447 Scotland and Ireland, 4qS Scandinavia, - - 548 Russia, - - - 574 Spain, 612 Modern European Kingdoms: Netherlands, 664 Austria, - - 682 Turkey, -...-- 690 Italy, - 699 America, 733 British America, - -- Spanish America, - ..■. Vlll List of Full Page Illustrations. Acropolis of Athens Restored m6 I )ef cat of Dari us l)y the jMacedoniaiis 'So The Gauls in Rome 21J Antony Offering the Diadem to Caesar... 241 The Roman Korum 257 \era Cruz 27c> Charl cmajine I )estroying the Sacred Oak 280 Coronation of Charlemagne - "">j I'raying for the Success of the Crusaders . -3^2 Children's Crusade - 31 3 I51ind Doge Dandola Leading the Venetian Crusade 324 A Tournament in France During the Fifteenth Century ---327 Napoleon Quelling the Mob 348 Napoleon Announcing to Josephine His Intention to Divorce Her 352 Napoleon I 350 The Retreat From Moscow _ 353 Naiiok'on Signs His Abdication .354 Bluchcr's Forced March to WaterlcMi 355 The Castle of Krak 387 Richard Coucr de I, ion in Battle 3Q0 Joan of Arc Wounded 409 The Murder of the I'rinces in the Tower 413 Henry \III 415 The Trial of Q^'i^c" Catherine 417 F^xecution of Charles I., King of F.ngland 432 H cnry I V. at Canossa 455 German \'ictory Feast After Battle 45g Death of the Last of the Hohenstaufens 465 Arnold \'on Wink dried Making Way for Liberty at Senipach 469 The First I'mof Ma Tounpiemede presiding at the Holy Iixpiisition 643 Hoabdil Surrendering Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella 649 The Saracen Fleet Destroyed by the Doge of Venice 705 Columbus and the Egg • 739 Landing of Columbus 743 Natural Forest, Hispaniola 755 Trial by Weight of a Young Girl Accused of Witchcraft 781 Commodore Perry's Victory on Lake Erie 817 Admiral Farragut 829 Tomb of General Philip H. Sheridan 840 Review of Union Armies at Washington, at the Close of the Civil War 846 Jesuit Mission -- -905 M cxican Garden 908 Havana 9"2 I )e Soto Discovering the Mississippi 9'6 La Carcei, Chi-Chen, M exico 920 Palace of the Nuns, Chi-Chen, Mexico - 922 A Mexican Floating Garden — 924 -Avenue of Palms in South America 929 Hacienda of Lauramarca 934 Rio Maniri • 939 Magellan Passing Through the Straits 944 List of Illustrations. KGYPT. Combined Crown of L'p[)(jr ;ui(l Lower ]'-Kypt 15 Reaping with Sickle - 15 Plowing 16 Shadoof - iC) Head-dress of Young Nobleman 16 Restoration of Egyptian Temi)le Facade - if> Egyptian with Hoe 17 Egyptian Chair 17 Papyrus Plant 17 Rosetta Stone 17 Head-Rest "7 Part of the Rosetta Stone from which Hieroglyjihics were first hered iH Costume of Common Man and Woman iS Costume of Priest 18 Musical Instruments --- ilS Mummy in Case with Cover Uj i5attle Standards 19 Ancient Nile Barge ii; Cleopatra as Priestess of Isis.-- ic; Sandals 20 Dahaibeyeh or Modern Nile lioat 20 Costume of King 20 Musician's I.ute 21 Costume of Queen 21 Threshing Sled 21 Dwellings 21 Transporting Stone 22 The Temple of Isis _ 22 Egyptian Brick with Cartouche of riiolhniL-s HI 22 Palm Capital 22 Plaster Mill. 23 Sedan Chair 23 Lotus Capitals 23 Water Carrier 24 Slaves at Work Constructing Public Buildmgs 2.) Head-dress and Ornaments 24 Egyptian Lady and Donkey 25 Temple of Denderah 25 Egy[)tian Dancing C,\r\ 25 Perfume Ladle 26 Arms and Armor 26 Lotus Flower and Leaf 26 Costume of Body-guard 26 Procession of Sacred Bull Apis- 27 Wine-Press 27 Toilet Articles 27 War Chariot 27 Sacred Uranus 28 Water Mill 28 Women Drawing Water 28 Steward Serving Meals 28 Wigs and Head dresses 28 Interior of Palace 29 Rameses the Great- - 21; Egyptians in Battle with luliio- pians - 29 Sowing by Hand - - 30 The Pyramid Field at Cizeh 30 Fan-bearer 30 Crinding Corn 31 Meuzzin Calling to Prayer. 31 i:tiiioima. Dwellings...'. 32 Bellow'S and Pottery 33 Three Ty]ies of Ethiopians 33 Ethiopian Queen -. 33 Musical Instruments 34 ICxecution 34 Arms and Armor 34 Warrior . -. 34 Agricultural Implements 35 Costume of Nobleman 35 Hunting Rhinoceros 35 C;iIALI>.KA. Restoration of Ancient Temple. 36 (■fathering Dates 36 Clepsydra 37 Ancient Sun-dial ^,7 Warrior 37 Chaldx'an Writing onlJricks..- 37 Bronze Arrows and Spear-Heads 38 I'lint and Stone Imi)lements 38 Woman of the Nobility- 38 liracelets and Rings. 39 Ancient Lamp and Cylinder 39 Ancient Pottery - 39 Dish-Cover Tomb 39 Jar Coffin of the Chaldxans 39 ASSYRIA. Costume of Priest 40 Assyrian Dwellmg 41 Costume of Connnon People.-- 41 Assyrian Sandal 41 Sandal 42 Palace of Asshur-Izzur-Pal 42 Plow and Seen Tatlebein 609 SPAIN. Spaniard Drinking 614 Spanish Postillion 620 Prophet Mohammed 622 Gibraltar 624 Saracenic Coal-of-Arms 626 Punishment for Capital OffenseS-62S Interior of the Alhambra 629 The Alhambra 631 Charles V. in San Juste 663 Gala Costume 638 Garden of the Alcazar 639 Seamen of the Time of Colum- bus --.641 The Escurial 644 Old Roman Bridge at Cordova. -646 Spanish Gypsies 648 The Duke of Alva Deposes the Duchess of Parma 657 3Ioi>i:kx i:i Hopi: an KiN(;i><>->is. NETHEKLNXDS. Dutch Peasants 666 Plemish Costumes 669 Swiss Peasants --673 Hessian Soldier 679 Old Dutch Candle and Snuffers. 6S0 AUSTRIA. Austrian General 684 The Battle of Warsaw 686 TUKKKY. Turkish Costume 691 Constantinople 692 Omar the Great Enters Jerusa- lem 694 Turkish Soldier 696 Turkish Woman of the Harem.. 6(;8 ITALY. Arrival of the Huns in Italy. ...700 Early Italian Costume. 702 Knight and Stiuire 704 Doge and Dogeressa 707 Street Scene in \enice 708 The City of Genoa 710 The City of Florence 712 Galileo Before the Council of Genoa 714 Savanarola 716 Dante 718 Palermo, Sicily 720 Capuchin Monk 722 The Execution of Savanarola. .72^ The Papal Keys 725 Landing of Gapbaldi in Italy. ..726 Leon Gambeita 728 Costume of XVI. Century 73c Victor Emanuel 732 AMERICA. Indian Tepee 735 Esquimaux of the Arctic Re- pions. 737 Christopher Columbus 740 Columbus on the Road to X'alo- dilid 742 The Fleet of Columbus at Sea. 744 Columbus' First Sight of Land .746 Columbus in Chains 750 Showing an Eclipse to the Indians 760 Indian Babies and Cradle 762 Indian Kindling Fire ---764 Indian Woman Using Suspended Pestle 770 Captain John Smith 771 Pocohontas 772 Plymouth Rock 774 Birch-Bark Canoe 775 William Penn 777 Cabot Leaves Labrador 779 1 )ug-out Canoe 783 Block House .785 Benjamin Franklin 787 Pequod Indian Wigwam 790 George Washington 793 Signing the Declaration of Inde- pendence 794 Washington Crossing the Dela- ware 796 The Americans Retreat into Jersey 798 The Only Coin Milled with the Likeness of Washington 803 Washington on the Banks of the Hudson 805 Long House of Irociuois Indians.. 806 Thomas Jefferson 807 Seaman of 1812 808 Fort Dearborn 809 James Madison 810 Tecumseh at the Battle of Fort Meigs -' 811 Indian Chief Arousing the War- riors 813 William Henry Harrison 8ll Say to Proctor that if He Entered the Fort it Would be Over our Bodies 815 John Bull Train 818 The Punishment for Slander by the Ducking Stool 819 Andrew Jackson 820 Burning of Washington 822 Street Scene in Mobile -823 St. Charles Street, New Orleans. --824 J. C. Fremont 825 Wintield Scott in 1865 826 A. Lincoln. 827 Johti Brown 828 Henry Clay 83 1 Jefferson Davis -833 Fort Sumter- 834 Bull Run — Stand of the Union Troops at the Henry House, 3 P- m - - 835 General Ulysses S. Grant 836 Albert Sydney Johnston 837 J. T. (Stonewall) Jackson 837 Ambrose E. Burnside 838 Joseph Hooker 838 George G. Meade 839 Robert E. Lee 839 Sheridan's Ride to Winchester. . . .841 Philip H. Sheridan 842 William T. Sherman 842 Surrender of General Lee 843 The Capture of Booth 844 George H. Thomas 845 Wdham H. Seward 845 Andrew Johnson 847 Charles Sumner 847 iames Buchanan 847 )aniel Webster 848 Admiral Farragut 848 An August Morning with Admiral Farragut 849 Horace Greeley 850 Ralph Waldo Emerson 850 Custer's Last Fight 851 William Lloyd Garrison 852 Prof. Samuel .Morse 852 The Death of Sitting Bull 853 Washington Irving 854 James A. Garfield 854 CANADA. Indian Village 857 An Indian War Dance 859 An Indian Conjurer 860 Tribal Council 862 Jesuit Priest Preaching to an Indian 868 The Death of General Wolfe 877 Retreat of the British from Con- cord and Lexington 881 SPANISH AMERICA, Hernando Cortes 885 Pueblo \'ase 886 A Pueblo Community 887 Cliff-Dweller's Village 888 Pueblo Water Jar 88<> Scene in Central America 890 In the Harbor of Havana, Moro Castle in the Distance 893 Old .Mexican Mission 894 Cortes on the Dam of Mexico 895 Aztec Totem Pole 896 Montezuma 897 Entry of French Troops into the City of Mexico 898 The Citv of Mexico 899 The Lake-Dwellers 901 The Massacre of Cholula 902 The City of \era Cruz 903 In the Harbor of \'era Cruz 906 Caraccas, Venezuela 909 Lmia, Peru 9" The City of Durango, Mexico 914 Burial of an Aztec Indian .918 Amazonian Indian Killing an Alli- gator 9-7 The Death of Maximilian 941 ■=>»^ .'?^.-- ^:pi'*3fc MEDITERRANEAN SEA. y '^-'- "'•' -rrr- t 3$^ mV!^ F YOU look upon the map of Africa you will see in the eastern part of that Grand Division the _j^^ country of Egypt, extending from the Mediter- "'*■ '""^'^M ranean Sea to the Tropic of Cancer, and from the w^^ Red Sea and Suez Canal on the east, to the Libyan Desert on the west. Clustered about Egypt on the south, '""' ^ are several small countries that are of little importance, and in fact Egypt itself has no great part in the business of the world, and no great influence upon the people of our times, but long ago it was a mighty empire, and in the Nile Valley, which is nowhere wider than thirty-five miles, and whose average width is about fifteen miles, a wonderful people lived of whom we will tell you something. Small as is the country of Egypt, there is no where in the world, in the same space, such contrasts of soil and '"^climate, and no land has played a more important part in history. ''/// The Nile river overflows its Combined Crown or bauks everyyear, and spreading far 'over its valley, covers all the land where, in that portion of the year when the river flows quietly along in the usual channel, great Tf^^^' fields of wheat, millet, rye, let- ■ '' • tuce, onions and other vegetables are planted; but these floods, instead of being a cause of an- noyance to the people, have always been the source of their wealth, for when the waters re- tire they leave behind them covering the overflowed lands, a rich, slimy mud, in which every- Reaping with sickle. thing that is planted grows with but little labor. Upper and Lower Egypt. i6 EGYPT. Plowing. In Egypt the rain never falls, but the sun shines the year round. The fields produce great crops, nevertheless, for when the waters of the Nile recede, ^^ every cistern and reservoir is full, and from these and j_:^ the river-banks, ditches are cut, carrying the water *" where it is needed. The climate is mild and warm, and with many kmds of grain and fruit growing, with little further work than merely planting them, there is not the struggle for life going en that there is in countries less favored by nature. Near to these most fertile fields of the world, barren ranges of brown sand-hills lie as a sort of advance-guard of the desert, and between them and the bleak, rugged mountains that form, as it were, a wall between the living beauty of the Nile valley 'and the dead waste that stretches across northern Africa, are strips of fair and blooming lowlands, where the date palms lift their slender stems and graceful plume-like heads into the clear air, where grapes and pomegranates ripen against the white- washed walls of the low one-story houses and naked brown chil- dren play in gardens bright with roses and poppies. Fields of golden grain wave in the sunshine and vegetables of all kinds that the people of the country use grow luxuriantly. These valleys, too, are "Gifts of the Nile," as the whole land of Egypt has been called for ages, for the river spreads to the very foot of the sand-hills as though it would invade even the desert itself. The desert! Picture to yourself a stretch of brown sand reaching so far away that the eye tires in following it to the line where the blue sky seems to arch down ,!5!^ to meet it. Not a tree, shrub or blade of grass Shadoof or swape. any wherc, but here and there a great heap of sand, or a huge fantastic brown rock, to break the sameness of the view. No living thing is seen upon this waterless ocean, but now and then, toiling slowly along, a caravan of camels, and camels have often been called the "ships of the desert." Perhaps a tawny lion may be seen, stalking majestically across it to his den in the hills, or a troop of Arabs on their swift horses galloping away to their tents in some green oasis, for there are certain green and beautiful spots that form fair islands in the desert-waste, and up- on these grass and trees grow and water gushes up from the ground. Some of these oases V ; ;^ Y^^C^are large enough to sup- rillift'-|j|..^port many people, and ''^" ^' '"^ tliere the Arab pitches his tent, and may build tri*. ^^>^ KestoraUon of Egyptian Temple Facade. EGYPT 17 even towns or cities; but most of them are small, and all are separa- ';ed from the world by the shiftinij sands that are sometimes carried by the winds in whirling columns like water-spouts, overwhelming and burying everything in their path. Thousands of years before the star over the manger in Beth- lehem led the wise men of the East to the feet of the infant Jesus, the strip of land bordering the Nile, and the fertile valleys near the edge of the desert, were the home of a great nation, who were die wisest and most highly civilized people in the world, and in those valleys are still to be seen ruins of their palaces, tombs and temples. England is larger than was ancient Egypt, but at least six mill- FOTptum wun Hoe, ions of people lived in this small country which really comprised only the Nile valley. Although the Egyptians of ancient times lived so long ago, we know what manner of people they were, how they looked, and in what employment the}' passed their time; because they recorded upon the walls of the tombs of their dead everything of importance that was contained in the history of the deceased individual, and painted upon them scenes from his daily life, which showed him at his work or pleasure, surrounded by his friends, or performing his religious ceremonies. Perhaps you may think tombs and temples strange places for recording such things, but the Egyptian tombs and temples were built to last as long as time itself, and were so strong and massive that many of them, erected probably forty centuries ago, are still standing much as they were when first built, and look as though they might stand forty centuries longer. No doubt the ancient Egyptians were anxious that the people who should come after them, as well as the people of their own times, should not forget the great deeds of their kings, and so upon the pillars of their temples, upon huge columns called monoliths or obelisks, set in public places, they carved and painted the story of their victories, for the common people could easily understand the pictures, while only the priests could read and write. This ancient Egyptian writing looks very strange, and I have seen school-boy drawings that are very much like it, but every one y of the queer birds and animals is a word, a sentence, or the seal of ^^^ a king, and the priests who wrote them knew what they all meant, although there were so many figures to be learned that it took a long time to be able to read and write, but they did learn it after close study, and painted with a brush these strange letters on temples and tombs, wrote them with a reed pen on papyrus, or engraved them with a sharp piece of wood or ivory on wax. Did you ever see any real papyrus, the great-great-grandfather of the paper that we use? It has a yellowish color and is easily broken, although rolls of it have been found in tombs thousands of years old. Papyrus is made from the fibre of a plant that grew wild in some parts of Egypt, and was carefully cultivated in fields also. It is a sort of reed whose roots are good for food, whose outer stringy bark was used for making very good, strong rope, that would not rot in the water, and whose inner stem was composed of a great many thin, nearly transparent skin-like lavers. Chair. Ig^W^l^^^ Piipyrus Plant. Head RcBi. I8 EGYPT. These laj'ers were care- fully separated with a needle made for the purpose, and laid side by side until they formed a sheet the width convenient for use. Over these another layer was placed at right angles, and J!I Coetuinc of (uuitnoti Mnn nntl Woman. '^m'S^mrWimmi.i'^^^lll'^^t^rrArd-i^i.'i^nw^^^ then thev were covered all £ri(r OEMtlDyivlt:£.^l^'i:r .^ia«?.:a^><^VS.<;-?;^l)l1r-»^ with a Kuid of paste and put under great pres- Partof the IJosetta Su»ne from which Hieroglyphics were first Deciphered. British Museum. ... , , sure, dried, and a good paper was the result. In writing a book the Egyptians attached a great many papyrus sheets to each other lengthwise, and when the book was completed these were simply rolled up and tied. For ages there was no one in the world who could read this ancient I'^gyptian picture-writing or hieroglyphics, as it is called, but nearly a hundred years ago an accident led to its being found out. Napoleon, the Emperor of the French, had invaded Egypt, and sent one of his engineers to build a fort at the Rosetta mouth of the Nile. In excavating for a foundation, the engineer found a stone about three feet long upon which several sentences were written in two kinds of hieroglyphics and in the Greek language. Of course Napoleon was curious to know what these sentences were, and set several scholars to work upon them to find out what was written on this Rosetta stone, as it was called. Knowing what the Greek sentences meant, they suspected that the hieroglyphics were the same words. After patient labor, they picked out the hieroglyphic alphabet and then were able to read what was written upon the walls of the tombs, palaces, pillars and temples, which, as I have told you, are scattered all through Egypt, and so by a lucky accident, new light was let in upon history, and we are able to know, through the labors of the great scholars of our time, the morals and religion of the Egyptians. The}' believed in the e.xistence of the soul after death, but that it lived thousands of years in the bodies of different animals, and then came back to the human body again. Of course it was necessary that the soul should find its own body ready for it, or I suppose it would wander around for other thousands of years, so the corpses of the dead were skillfully embalmed that they might never decay. This process of embalming was per- formed by the priests, who knew all that was known of med- icine ami surger)',and they accompanied it MusicaiiustrumcDts. ' iTM '& With soleiiin ceremo- EGYPT. 19 nies. It took seventy clays to complete the embalming, and when it was done the corpse was wrapped tightly in bandages wet with chemicals, as many being put on as were thought necessary. he mummy, as it is called, was then put into a case just large enough to fit it, and the embalmers covered the case all over with a net-work of porcelain beads, plastered it with a sort of stuc- co, and afterwards painted upon it figures of the gods, goddesses or sacred beasts and birds. Before the mummy was laid away in the tomo, wnether in life the person had been the king of the country or a despised swineherd, a rich man, or a strange beggar embalmed at public expense, the "Judges of the Dead" met, and any one who had a complaint of any kiml to make did so, and if he could prove that the dead had been wicked or unjust in life, and was not fit to live again, the body was not given burial, but was thrown out in some place to be broken to pieces or kept in the house of a relative. The reason for this peculiar and rather unjust custom, for of course there are usually two sides to every story of wrong, was said to be in the religion of the Egyptians, for they believed that the souls of the dead were tried by the gods, and if they were found wanting they had to spend their thousands of years of earthly life in unclean animals, such as pigs or monkeys. Many of the ancient people, especially those living in warm countries, burned the bodies of their dead, but the Egyptian priests had equally good reasons against burning and burying corpses, and therefore not only religion, but prudence as well, also suggested the embalming, which they taught the people was a religious duty. To burn dead bodies requires a large quantity of wood, and in all Egypt there was no wood except that of the fruit trees, and no other fuel except oil. If they buried the dead without embalmmg them, even though they were put deep down in caverns under the ground, their decay would cause poisonous gases to find their way into the air, and that in such a hot country, would breed disease among the living And, again, the yearly overflow of the Nile would wash the dead from their graves to cause pestilence, so the wisdom of embalming the dead and placing them in rock-hewn tombs, out of the reach of the Nile, or in the solid masonry of pyramids, may be easily seen. These priests of ancient Egypt knew many things beside literature and medicine. They were the only learned people in 'the country, and were probably the only classthat had a very clear idea about the gods, for Egypt had a god for every week, month and day in the year, with some to spare for weddings and extraordinary occasions. Perhaps the priests who made up the scheme of the Egyptian religion, or were all-powerful when the worship of the gods, that had Mummy lu Case with Cover. Battle Standards. ^^•5^^^^ Ancient Nile Barge. CleufKitra ;i.s Pr 20 EGYPT. Sandals, been added one by one, became common, thought it too great a tax on a priest to worship more than one god; at any rate, each priest had to choose a certain god to serve, and then belong to a certain temple. It would be tiresome to relate, and nearly impossible to re- member, the names of all these gods, but you can easily understand the whole idea of the Egyptian religion if you will keep in mind the fact that they believed the earth and air, fire, water, and the differ- ent forces of nature were gods. CostuiUL- I'f King, 1 ^ ^ Dahalbeyeh, or Mo*Jern Nile Boat. First of all, the many gods that were favorites with the people were Osiris and his wife Isis. Now without the Nile all of Egypt would have been a desert, and as Osiris represented water and Isis earth, it was not unnatural that the ignorant Egyptians, not understanding whj' the river should rise ?t a certain time every year, should see in it something divine, and should sing praises to the water that made the earth fruitful, offer it sacrifices and think it a god. Ilorus, another of their gods, was really the mild, moist air of Egypt, and Typhon was the fire of the summer heat, which dried up the waters of the river so that the grain could be planted. Nepthj's was the desert, and Anubis the fertility born of the Nile when joined to the desert. Nepthys was supposed to be the sister of Typhon. Phrah or Ra, the sun-god, was another of the chief EGYPT. 21 Musician witla Lute. >t gods of Egypt, anti from him the name Pharaoh, which the Egyptians gave to their rulers, was taken. Nearly all of the Eastern nations worshipped the sun, and as it is the source of light and heat and without it nothing could live or grow, it is not strange that the Egyptians should give to their kings, the religious as well as political head of the nation, the name of Pharaoh. Just when Egyptian history began nobody knows, but it was prob- ably long before hieroglyphic writing was common, or building became one of the arts practiced by the people. The Egyptians had a tradition that the gods were their first rulers, and perhaps it is true that they were ruled by men, no doubt foreigners, who were so much farther advanced in civilization than they themselves were, that they thought them gods. Learned men have compared the ancient languages, styles of buildinsr, and l?'irj^^\ customs of Egypt with those of other countries, and are convinced that Egyptian 'K0^^, civilization, like that of every other country of which anything is known, did not j^ begin in the country itself, but was brought to it by people who conquered the wild roving tribes, and taught them to till the soil, make pottery and construct buildings. The conquerors of the Nile valley are believed to be Cushites, who, it is thought, were the first nation to become civilized, but if you should ask me who were the people that were conquered, I can only say native Africans, ^vho *^"""'"''°'*^™*° are supposed to be the children of Ham, although Cush was a son of Ham, and the founder of the Cushite nation. These Cushites are thought to have had a splendid civilization in their home in Central Arabia long before Egypt be came even a kingdom, and that they sent out colonies to different countries and invaded neighboring nations. Written history in Egypt dates back 3,coo years before Christ was born, when Menes, the first native king, founded the city of Memphis near the delta A ( mouth) of the Nile river. Menes was the first of a dynasty or line of kings, eight in number, of whom little is known except their names, and that they established the worship of the gods. I have said that Menes founded the city of Mem- phis, so you see the Egyptians must have long known how to build edifices of stone for Mem- 1^^^^ phis was a great Threshing Sled. ■^*^U 22 EGYPT. Trail in.irTtn'T Ston--^ and oeautiful city, and in the old tombs near Memphis there have been found vases and jars of baked and glazed day, such as we use in these days, glass vessels, and hier- oglyphic writing, and the mummies are wrapped in linen as fine as silk. So even as long ago as the days of Menes, the Egyptians knew how to do many things as well, or even better, than we do at present. Menes began during his reign to conquer surrounding M nations, and for hundreds of years the kings who came after him followctl- his example, carrying into Egypt as slaves thousands of the inhabitants of the conquered countries. After several centuries there were so very many slaves in Egypt that the king, who now The Tempi.-, .f 1m-- considered them his rightful property, began to make use of them in building public works, digging the many canals and constructing the cele- ! pure air of Egypt has little effect upon them, and they were not painted directly upon the stone itself, but upon the stucco, with which the stone had been coated, to prevent the pigment sinking into the pores. Each king seems to have vied with those who had preceded him in the number and magnificence of the monuments he built. How many unhappy slaves must have perished in the building of these! If the old quarries, mines and rocky hillsides of Egypt could reveal their secrets they might tell sad tales, for the blood 24 EGYPT. Water Carrier. too hard to be borne. In people, with the exception of the priests and officers, were little better off than the slaves, and drudgery, blows, extortion, and every manner of wrong was heaped upon them by their rulers until their spirit was broken and the strength of the nation and tears of myriads of human beings were shed to gratify the vanity of kings whose very names are forgotten, but the work of the despised slaves remains to mock the vanished greatness of masters who imagined that their renown would echo throu"-h all time, and their glory astonish all nations. To keep hundreds of thousands of slaves at work required a large number of guards, taskmasters and overseers, and as the army was thus employed, the soldiers became lazy, idle fellows, the military spirit declined, and with it the patriotic feeling of the great masses of the people who were so heavily taxed to supply material for the kings' palaces, temples, tombs and other buildings, and food for the kings' slaves, that life seemed almost fact the whole ^tw^iM^ M Head Dress and Ornaments. Slaves at Work Cjuotracuiic; I'uSjLc l;ujiaii.„'!,. sapped. WMien Memphis began to decline Thebes, a city in southern Egypt, had grown into such power that during the reign of the twelfth dynasty of kings, it became the capital of southern Egypt. The palaces, temples, obelisks, statues and other public works of "the hundred gated Thebes" must have been wonderful in the days of her glory, for even now in their ruins tliey are considered the most marvelous of human structures. Twenty-three miles in length and seven miles in width. upon both banks of the Nile, Thebes was probably as large a city as is Chicago or New York, and carried on a commerce with the whole known world. Her priests were celebrated EGYPT. 25 for their learning, and her artists executed the most perfect speci- mens of Egyptian art. Egypt at this time was divided into five kingdoms, but the Pharaohs of Thebes outshone all the others of Egypt in the brill- iancy of their conquests and grandeur of their public works. One of the Theban kings constructed the famous labyrinth, ' a royal tomb with 3,000 rooms, the 1,500 above ground being of '* solid stone, entirely covered with sculpture, and the 1,500 below ground being the sepulchres tor the Theban kings and sacred crocodiles. The roof of this gigantic building was like the wall, of stone, and "every court was surrounded with a colonnade of white stones exquisitely fitted together.' It was when Thebes was thus glorious that northern Egypt was overrun by a horde of half-naked barbarians, called Hyskos or Shepherd Kings, who pillaged the temples, burned cities, murdered peo- ple, and finally made them- selves master of the whole Lower Nile country, ruling the inhabitants with ten-fold greater cruelty than had their own oppressive Pharaohs. Nearly three hundred years the Hyskos maintained them- selves in the sacred places of Egypt, and Thebes herself was taken and sacked and her priests enslaved. This dreadful three hundred years is a blank in Egyptian history, for no records were made during the time, and many that had been made before were destroyed. We do not even know for a cer- tainty who the Shepherd Kings were, although they were either wandering Ber- bers from the desert, or Hitti- tes from Syria. It was in the year 1600 B. C, that Amosis, Tempkotrxm. m king of Thebes, who held his crown by paying a large sum every year to the Shepherd Kings, roused the Egyptian people to throw off the yoke of the barbarians, and drive them from the country. When this was done Amosis united the five kingdoms into one, with Thebes as its capital, and began the new empire which lasted a thousand years. The spirit that had made the Egyptians a great people revived, and encouraged by their success in driving out the Shepherd Kings, they Egyptian Lady and Donkey. Dancing Girl. 26 EGYPT. Perfume Ladle. Ann^ and Arinur. gradually extended their conquests into foreign countries, and at the head of great armies their Pharaohs invaded Ethiopia, Arabia and Syria, and even planted their sacred standards beyond the Euphrates. It was in the early period of the new emp.re that horses and war chariots were first used in the Egyptian army, and mounted soldiers became as formidable to the enemies of the empire as the Egyptian bowmen had always been. No doubt the return of the victorious host to the capital after an expedition against a foe, was a splendid sight that thrilled the hearts of those who witnessed it, as all such sights do even yet, for although war is terrible, there is ■ something in the uniforms, glittering weapons and swaying '. banners that makes the pulses leap and the eyes brighten, of those who see in them the visible symbol of order and gov- ernment, the spirit that risks life at the call of the state, the courage that fears nothing. P'irst of all rode the cavalry, each horse's bridle gaily decked with gold and gems, and the riders with helmets shining and lances flashing in the sunlight, while the people shouted and cast flowers and palm branches before them, and the white-robed priests with lotus flowers in their hands, chanted praises to the gods. After the cavalry came the king in his golden chariot, drawn by snow-white horses, whose harness and trappings glittered with jewels. Surrounding the king's chariot were the flower of the army, horse and foot, and before and liehind walked the priests, carrying the sacred banners. Beside the charioteer, in his armor of mail, stood the king, his royal robes falling to his feet, his jeweled collar reaching half-way to his waist, and his helmet bearing the symbol of Ra. With his hand grasping the sceptre, and his eyes looking neither to the right or left, he was borne forward, while as he passed, the people were silent, prostrate upon their faces, to do him homage. Following the king's body-guard, came thousands upon thousands of foot soldiers, each troop armed with maces, lances and shields, while u.tu*Fioweran.iL(!ij. over them floated the banner of their especial deity, and before them driven by cords fastened about their elbows, were long lines of captives taken in battle. The priests carrying the scrolls upon which were recorded the names of those who had slain enemies in battle, marched with the several troops, for when an Egyptian soldier killed an enemy he cut off a hand or foot to carry to the priest-scribe, who credited him with it on the scroll, and set down his \name so that when the treasure was divided each soldier might be rewarded according to the number he had slain, the bloody trophies of their valor being kept in baskets and counted in the presence of the king. Next came numerous low two-wheeled war chariots, in which were two warriors, one as driver and one as fighter, and last of all the vans loaded with booty, under guard of soldiers, and the baggage, scaling ladders and stores of the army. Rameses the Great, whom the Greeks called Sessotris, was one of the most famous kings of the new empire, and by far the greatest warrior of ancient Egypt. The old historians tell us •'hat Rameses grc"' ud '^ his father's palace at Thebes, Costume c-if noilyciiaiil. EGYPT ^7 and as playmates and com- panions he had all the other boys in the kingdom who were born on the same day that he was, for his father determinetl to educate Ram- eses and these lads together so that when he grew up he would have true friends who would be bound to him by the close ties of earl}' affec- tion. These lads were all treat- ed exactly alike, and the young king fared no better than the humblest born of them all. They were early trained to bear hunger, pain and weariness patiently; to use bows, arrows and other war- like weapons; to run, leap and throw the javelin. When his father died and Rameses became the Pharaoh, he had for his officers those who had been his companions in boyhood, and who, as men, had been as dear to him and to each other as brothers, and his whole after success was no aoubt greatly due to the wisdom of his father in thus providing him with trustworthy men to aid him in his undertakings. One of Rameses' first acts after becoming Egypt's Pharaoh, was to divide his kingdom into thirty-six states, each to be governed by a trusted officer, who was to be accountable to Armais, the Pharaoh's brother for the conduct of the affairs in his particular territory, and then with six hundred thousand foot soldiers, twenty-four thous- and horse and twenty-seven thousand chariots, he set forth to conquer the world, which in that day meant southern and southwestern Asia. This vast army was not all the fighting force of Egypt, for enough had been left at home to protect the kingdom and it was probably largely made up of slaves taken in former wars. To transport these troops was no small under- taking, but Rameses succeeded in doing so, and with four hundred war vessels, which he had caused his troops to build on the shores of the Red Sea, he con- quered the coasts and islands of neighboring countries as far east as the Ganges, and as I have already related, several other countries of Africa and western Asia. After an absence of nine years Rameses returned to Egypt laden with slaves and treasures, and caused his triumphs to be recorded at Tanis and left memorials of his greatness not only in Egypt, but in Nubia and Ethiojiia. At Thebes was a grand palace that had been -^-P> Procession of Sacred Bull Apia. ■,S£^ Toilet Articles. 28 EGYPT. Sacred L'rauus. left unfinished by the father of Rameses, this the son finished, anu completed, also, a magnificent temple begun by a former king, placing huge statues of him- self before them so that none might forget that it was he, Rameses, who had brought them to perfection. On the rich land at the eastern side of the mouth of the Nile, the city of Pelusium, a great commercial port had long been builtand carried on a great trade with the countries along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. The passage from this place to Heliopolis, near the point where the Nile divides into several mouths, was often troub- led by wandering bands of Arabs. Rameses caused a high wall to be built along the route between the two cities to protect that por- tion of Egypt from plundering barbarians, and he cut a great canal from Mem his to the sea. A huntlretl and fifty years before the reign of Rameses, and about half a century before Amosis drove the Shepherd Kings from Egypt, the children of Jacob, the Hebrew patri- arch, settled in a fertile strip of land, just below the delta, called the Land of Goshen. They increased and multiplied, and tending their flocks, sowing and reaping their grain, lived happy, pros- perous, pastoral lives, refusing, how- ever, to forsake the worship of the great God of their fathers, or to honor the gods ol the Egyptians. These Hebrews were neither builders nor manufacturers, craftsmen nor artists, but simple shepherds and farmers, and the Egyptians, who loved to congregate in cities and live a commercial life weaving, carving, buying and selling the products of skilled industry hat! little sympathy with the people of Goshen, and although they treated them kindly at first, soon began to be suspicious and unjust to them, especially as they saw that they were rapidly becoming wealthy, and were likely to be a power in the '-~^':\,Hf$mff'^' W.itir Mill. sunward Scrvlug ,\f-^MK land. After several years the Pharaohs began to treat them almost as cruelly as they did the slaves taken in war. The were made to labor on the public works without receiving an}' hire, and were flogged and even killed by their cruel taskmasters if they happened to displease them. Rameses the Great.. made the Hebrews help dig his canal and build his great wall, and Manepta, his son, put such heavy tasks upon them that they rebelled, as it was strange they did not tlo long before. Moses had grown up in the palace, and was in high favor with the Pharaoh until he killed an Egyptian whom he saw mistreating a Hebrew, then he was obliged to flee for his life. When he heai-d of the rebellion of his kindred Wlg^ aiiii Head Dresses. EGYPT. 29 Interior of Palace. against the king, he returned to Egypt and begged him to let the Children of Jacob go back to their own country, which was in western Asia. The Bible tells us of the wonders that Moses per- formed before the Pharaoh, and the plagues God sent upon Egypt before the He- brews were allowed to de- part, and how, when the two million men, women and children from the Land of Goshen reached the Red Sea, pursued by Pharaoh and his army, for the king had repented his promise and was following the Hebrews to bring them back, the waters divided and the He- brews passed dry-shod through them, but Pharaoh and his army who were close behind them were drowned. The Egyptian story of the exodus of the Hebrews declares that tne people of Goshen called the Shepherd Kings again into Egypt, drove Menepta into Ethiopia, and dwelt with the Hyskos thirteen years in the sacred cities, until Menepta came back with a great army and drove them into Asia. The Bible account, however, has never been doubted by histo- rians, and to this day, upon the eastern borders of the Red Sea, is shown the "Valley of Wandering," where the Hebrews suffered for their disobedience and murmuring against God. After the death of Manepta and two other kings of his line, a new dynasty of twelve kings reigned in Egypt, only one of whom, Rameses III, the second of the line, who ascended the throne 1269 B. C, did much to maintain the power or glory of the empire. For three hundred years after the death of Rameses III the strength of Egypt steadily declined, while that of the nations in western Asia was as gradually increasing, and in 632 B.C., when Psammitichus was the reigning Pharaoh, As- syria, then the greatest r\MEsFS THr 01 E VT The oppressor of Hie Jews, from a pho- tograph of his niummy tliscovert^d E;;vt)liuus iu Battle with the Ethiopjau-. 30 EGYPT. oower in the world, conquered Egjpt and made it pay heavy tribute. Xeko, the next Pharaoh, a brave and determined man, and a good soldier, tried hard to restore the old glory of the empire, as did also his son Amasis, but it was gone forever, and in less than a hundred years after it had been compelled to accept its first foreign master, Egypt had to bow her proud neck to a still heavier yoke, that of Camby- ses the Persian, anil from that day to this it has been governed by foreigners, crushetl under the oppression of ambitious conquerors, whose policy has made the fair Nile valley a wilderness. Near the Great Pyramid of Gizeh is a colossal statue of a reclining lion, with a woman's head. The face is one of strength, dignity, calm- ness and mystery, and this Sphinx, as it is called, seems to brood over some problem too deep for the mind of man to fathom. Elsewhere in Egypt are other Sphinxes, .all with the i same sad mystery expressed on their stone faces. The g hands that carved thtMii have been dust for thousands of P -\, Sowing by Hand. Tlie Pyramid FJeid atOizi-ii, with Uic Sphyux Id the Forcprouiid. \ c-ars, as are the hands that built the mighty pyramids, the most magnificent rl of which are taller than the highest building on our contini^nt. Death seems to brood over Egypt - her Sphinxes brood over the desert. I<,T proud temples are in ruins and her palaces havebecome heaps of cruml)ling stone, the haunts of serpents and wild beasts. Here and there a pictured column or a giant statue still stand like ghosts of the past, to whom the memory of old days is so dear that they haunt the spots where they were hai)py. The hand of time and the barbarian have been .aid heavily upon the "queen of the world," the "hundred-gated Thebes," and her heaped ruins only remind the nations of her former greatness, while many of her sister cities have utterly vanished from the earth, and even their sites are no longer remembered. Sitting in the shadow of broken statues and pillars, travelers see to-day figures like those of the sculptures upon the columns above them, but in their faces is the sadness of a race whose past holds for them no inspiration, and whose earthl}' future has no promise of greatness. Even the gods are dead, for they were the gods made by the people w'ho worshipped them, and when the sun sets, from Elephantis to the EGYPT. 31 Mediterranean, from the desert to the Red Sea, where once the priests of Osiris and Ra chanted their evening hymns, and the virgin priestesses of Isis performed their mysteries, turbanned Moslems kneel with their faces to the east and mutter "Allah il Allah," "Great is God, there is no GotI but God," while Christians who have journeyed over land and sea to view the relics of a nation that died before those of Europe were born, say too, "God is Great." I shall tell you in another place how Egypt, after a long period of oppression, wars and trials, under which she sunk so low that there seemed no resurrection of her ancient glories; again arose like the enchanted prin- cess, from her hundred year's sleep and astonished the whole world. From out her bosom when in her first prime, she sent a stream of influence that watered the land of Greece, gathered into a life-giving torrent which overflowed the whole East, and finally, like a tidal wave, sinking into the peace of the wide ocean from which it came; this stream returned again to her bosom, fertilized her dead civilization and gave it a brief yet splendid period of life. This stream carried to Europe, and even to us of this day, the life germs of a grand civilization; and though Egypt is dead, her soul has hatl its transmigration to the body of other nations. Egypt's doom may be that of our own nation, but future peoples may read our history to some good purpose if they find that we fulfill our destiny as did she who left her great acquirements in science, art and literature, a deathless heritage to pos- terity, even though her gold, land and treasure became the prey of little conquerors and warring kingdoms. •■''■ 'ilMI' " Griudiug (.'itii. luL-z/iii Calliug tu Prayer. X READING the story of Egypt you noticed that Ethiopia was mentioned as one of the neighboring countries and probably thought that by Ethiopia was meant some Negro kingdom of Africa, and such a mistake is natural enough, for Negroes have long been called Ethiopians, although very few of them can rightfully claim that name. Ethiopia is mentioned in the oldest writings of the Greeks as a "divided land," and in the Bible Ethiopia means central and western Arabia, and it was "divided" by the Red Sea, for the Cushites, who had conquered Egypt, had probably founded a colony and named it for the mother country, either before or about the time they conquered Egypt. Now whether Ethiopia learned of the Egyptians how to build, weave, make pottery, write in hieroglyphics, and worship the gods, or whether Ethiopia was the teacher of Egypt we can not say, for it is not known whether the Cushites entered the Nile Valley from the Mediterranean or from the shores of the Red Sea, and the mists of the far-off past so shroud the beginnings of both nations that we shall probably never find out which was the oldest. Look again upon the map of Africa, just south of Egypt, and you will see Nubia and Abyssinia, although you can nowhere find on a modern map Ethiopia, for it has disappeared from the map of nations, but Ethiopia embraced those two countries, and several others near them. That part of the Nile which runs through Nubia con- tains several great cataracts, the first one being very near the southern boundary line of Egypt, so it was impossible for boats to navigate the stream upon that account, but nevertheless Ethiopia became in very early days a great commercial country, for that portion of the empire which bordered the Red Sea possessed several fine harbors i»»'"|"fe''- where ships from the far cast could anchor safely to discharge their cargoes of rich carpets, silks, jewelry, carvings, spices, cotton and linen cloth, and receive in return the gold-dust, ivory, dates and wax from the in- terior of Ethiopia, and the various grains raised in the river valley. Like Egypt, Ethiopia was yearly enriched by the overflow of the Nile and the fields were equally fertile, but on both the eastern and western sides of the rich valley ETHIOPIA. 33 Bf Uows anil Pott<^ry. were vast stretches of sandy desert, and the hills not being high enough to protect the low river lands from the shifting sands that year by year, and century by century, drifted nearer and nearer the Nile, the blooming valleys were little by little swallowed up by the desert, villages and towns blotted out, and even pyramids, obelisks and tombs were covered so deeply that no trace of them could be seen from the upper world. This is especially true in central and southern Ethio- pia, where many such monuments have been found deep down under the surface of the desert, but in the northern part, which is better protected by hills, monuments, rivaling those of Thebes in splendor still stand to challenge the admiration of the traveler. The greatest city of ancient Ethiopia was Meroe, and when it was in the height of its glory, even Thebes was not grander, although it was never noted for the learning of its priests, as was the former city, and left very few written records either upon papyrus, obelisks or temples. In fact all that we know of ancient Ethiopia we have learned from a few monumental obelisks and from the stories painted or carved on the walls of rock-hewn tombs and temples, but from these we are convinced that the Ethiopians worshipped the gods common in Egypt, and that they were sometimes ruled by queens as well as kings. Rameses the Great, and other Pharaohs before him, invaded Ethio- Tjpe ot Ethiopian. pia, and carried away thousands of its people as slaves, and for several centuries after we first hear of Ethiopia, it is always as a conquered nation, paying tribute to Egypt, but there was a certain Ethiopian king who conquered all of Egypt during the period known in the history of that country as the "New Empire," and who entered Asia with an army and marched to the help of the people of Jerusalem, then threatened by the Assyrians. From that time until the empire began to be torn by the quarrels of various tribes, Ethiopia .had a great reputation among the other nations, and the most extravagant stories were told of its wealth. These stories reached the ears of Cambyses when he was in the height of his victorious career in Egypt, and he determined to march against Ethiopia and make himself master of Africa, as he already was of western Asia. The prisoners he took from among the Ethiopian fishermen on the shores of the Red Sea, told him that they had heard that at Meroe gold was so plentiful that the plates and drinking vessels of the common people were made of it, that all the weapons of the soldiers were of gold, as well as the chains of the prisoners and the armor worn by the warriors in battle, and that iron was unknown. They related, too, that food was so abundant in the capital city, that every night a vast plain in the suburbs known as "The Table of the Sun," was covered with platters of boiled flesh, set there by order of the king, so that no one in his kingdom need go hungry. The country itself, according to these fishermen, was a par- adise, in which men never grew old. This latter story Tj-pe of Ethiopian. Type ot Etbloplan. Ethiopian Queeu. 34 ETHIOPIA. Musical Iustruin'"nts, them. was partly true. Men never grew old in Ethiopia because they were given no chance to do so, for when they showed signs of the feebleness of age their dutiful sons took them to some retired spot and killed them. The Persian king must have been very easily deceived, for no matter how improbable the stories related by these fishermen, he seems to have believed them all. and while he was preparing to invade the country he sent ambassadors, or agents, to the Ethio- pian king to tell him of the power of the Persians, and that he had better submit peaceably and pay tribute to I le sent also presents of gold and a cask of wine. The Ethiopian king viewed the presents with much contempt, and when upon making inquiries, he found that the Persians ate bread made of grain, drank wine, and lived to be seventy or eighty years old, he paraded his gigantic warriors before the ambassadors, and refused to treat with them at all, telling them that people who lived on the boiled and dried flesh of camels and wild game, and lived to be two hundred years old, had no cause to dread such puny people as the Persians. He told them, too, that his people were a nation of warriors, and defied any power in thie world to conquer them, so, of course, when the ambassadors returned to Cambyses and told him their experience at Meroe, he was all the more eager to advance. These ambassadors, who were probably the same fisher- men captives, may have had a good reason for trying to tempt Cambyses into Ethiopia, although if they told him anything of the difficulty of reaching the heart of the kingdom he paid no attention to it, and finally set out across the terrible desert, whose heat, storms of sand and lack of water were more powerful enemies than all the armies of the world would have been, and after untold suffering, and the loss of nearly his whole force in the desert, he was obliged to turn back and forever abandon the attempt to conquer the rich land to the south. The Ethiopian kings were diff- erently chosen from kings in most other countries. Usually when a king (lies his oldest son or some near relative is made ruler, but in Ethiopia the priests, who were all-powerful, chose the king from among themselves. When they became tired of the king, or he offended them in any way, they politely sent word to him to kill himself, and then they conferred the honor of king- ship on another priest, although he Armsnnd Armor. ETHIOPIA 35 Agricultural Iinpleineuts. must have been a brave priest indeed, who was willing to accent the crown under such circumstances. Strangely enough, every king comman- ded by their priests to commit suicide did so, for there was a law of the country which obliged every offender convicted of serious crime, to kill himself in his own house or in some quiet place, and as secretly as possible, and it is said that no one ever attempted to escape the doom, but I have no doubt that the wide desert and wandering Arab tribes became the refuge of many an Ethiopian condemned to death. This custom of getting rid of an unpopular king continued until about 300 B. C. A certain priest, Ergamenes by name, was king at that time, and having offended his brother priests, they sent him a cup and a dagger as a gentle hint to him that he had lived long enough, and that he had better either poison or stab himself. Erg- amenes was evidently unwilling to give up either his kingdom or his life, and he assembled hisarmy, drove the priests into their temples, which then became sort of fortresses, killed them all after a series of sieges, and set up a new religion. After the time of Ergamenes the kings were chosen as they are in other countries, and it was decided that if they were condemned to die it was to be by regular judges, and they were to be executed by regular executioners, although we have no record that any king was afterward thus put to death. Although Cambyses failed to conquer Ethiopia, one of the Persian kings who came after him, succeeded in doing so, and the Romans and Saracenes in their turn claimed tribute of her, but the desert conquered even the conquerors, and invaded their fields and buried those of the southland. The cities by the "sweet-watered Nile," that were Ethiopia's glory, are in ruins, the once fair valleys dead and desolate, and only her rock-hewn and sculptured tombs are left to remind us of her old grandeur, and the old worship of her gods. As a link in the chain of history is her story told, and in Egypt and Ethiopia the great civilization of the Nile Valley began and ended, although thousands of years of growth, development, glory and decay lay between their birth and death. Hunting Rhinoceros. Costume of Nobleman. mmwk /' u- LTHOUGH the great civilization of the Cushites had passed away long before the days of early Egyptian historj', the story of the different Cushite ^^ .^^ tribes or colonies that went out from the land of '*)(» '■^^^[e^'''^'^S|. Cush, in Central Arabia, forms a great part of ,<; ^,^. ancient history. Such a colony had found a home on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, in the lower part of their course, and upon the shores of the Persian Gulf, into which those rivers empty, about the time that the pyramids were being l)uilt in Egypt, of which I have told you This Cushite colony had chosen wisely the land upon which it settled, for the narrow strip of country bordering the Arabian desert and watered by the two great rivers, was fair and fruitful, and there grew up and flourisheil the first empire in southwestern Asia that is known to history. Along the Euphrates, which, like the Nile. overflowed that part of its course and fertilized the land, great groves of date-palms grew. and from them were obtained not only the luscious and nourishing fruit, but wines, sugar and syrup. The rolling plains and gentle slopes were covered with a verdant carjjct of grass, green throughout the year, except in midsummer, when the "kasmin," or hot desert-wind blew, and clusters of willows and poplars showed silvery green by the side of the palm groves and along the river's edge. Xature is said, in some regions of the world, to be like a harsh and cruel step-mother, but certainly in Chald;ea, as the Cushites along the Persian Gulf called their country, she was an over indul- gent parent. Wheat grew wild upon the river-lands, so that they who wanted bread had but to go forth and gather the grain, and when cultivated in the fields it produced such a wonderful crop that foreigners who saw it growing or stored in the overflowing granaries, were astoun- ded. The straw and leaves were so tall and thick that in cutting the KestoratUin of Ancient Temple. Gathering Dates. CHALD/EA. Z7 grain only the heads were taken. The country of Chaldsea in the early summer must have been fair to the eye. Everywhere the dwarf cypress drooped its feathery branches among the other forest trees scattered about over plains, yellow with ripening grain, bright with flowers of every color, and gay with the hum of insects and song of birds. If the daughters of Egypt, who were carried into foreign captivity died of longing for the green fields and blue skies of their native land, how sad must have been Chalda^an hearts when far from the fair valleys and verdure-clad hillsides of their home. In Egypt ra.n never falls, but in Chahkca tluring Novem- ber and December there are heavy rains, ami sometimes light frost, and this winter season is the most delightful of the year, for the frosts are never heavy enough to blight the vegetation, and the rains make it luxuriant and beautiful. As they were able, on account of favoring climate ant fertile soil, to live without much labor, the Chalda;ans earl\ grew wealthy, encouraged art, literature and science, and their priests were the most learned people of ancient times, the benefit of whose wisdom we are now enjoying in many ways, for a large part of what we know of mathe- matics, astronomy and the mechanical sciences was discovered by them. It was the Chalda'ans who divided the year into twelve months of thirty days each, and finally corrected the calendar, and devised a system of weights and measures for ordinary articles, and for gold and silver, and the characters we use to represent ounces, scruples and drams in weighing drugs are the old Chaldsean symbols. M The air of Chakk-ea was remarkably pure and clear, and upon their vast plains the moon and stars shone so brilliantly at night that they could not fail to attract the attention, at a very early period, of students, and these observ- ing that at different times in the year the sun rose and set near different groups of stars, made a map of the sky and learned to measure distances in the heavens. They observed eclipses too, and calculated when they would recur as cleverly as the most learned of our modern astronomers. The Chaldsans had traditions or stories that had long been told from father to son, when they began to write their histor}'. Of course a nation that is able to write history is civilized; otherwise it would care nothing for history. The Chakkxan historians make Nimrod, the son of Cush, of whom the Bible speaks, the founder of their first great city, Ur, and honored him as a god; naming a group of stars in the constellation Orion for him. Nimrod, we are told in Scripture, was a mighty hunter and he probably gained his power over the various Chal- dtean tribes by training a band of warriors to kill or drive out the lions and other wild beasts tliat infested the coun- try, and afterwards united the many petty tribes into an empire. Water Clock, the ir re' oriiluK time. Aueieut Suu Dial. Chalm- dred years after the city of Asshur was built and who was one of the only three Interior of Royal Palace. 44 ASSYRIA women mentioned in the cuneiform writing-. Of course the real Semiramis did not found Babylon, for that city existed a thou- sand years before she was born, and as for Nineveh it too was built long before, and had become a great city years before her husband, V^ul-lush III, became sovereign. There were no such persons as Ninus an Ninyas, and tiie kings of Assyria who followed the first king, whoever he was, were certainly neither weak nor womanish. The old historians make Semiramis more goddess than woman, and when they learned of any remarkable temple or building for which they could not account any other way, they settled the matter to their satisfaction by declaring it to be the work of Semiramis. Of late years Semiramis has been proven to have been a very ordi- nary woman, but little superior to oriental women generally, and not half so great a queen as Victoria of England, who makes, as you know, no claim to being a goddess. The real Semiramis was the wife of a king named Vul-lush III, who lived about the year 781 B. C, and her husband dying, she reigned several years over Assyria. Shalmancscr I, the builder of Calah and other cities on the east side of the Tigris was the first Assyrian conqueror. Shalmaneser brought people from Asshur and other parts of Assyria to live in his cities and to hold the land he wrested from the wild tribes, and when he died Tiglath-Nin I, his son continued his work. Tiglath-Xin made war upon Chalda;a, antl was the first Assyrian king to receive tribute from that country although the five kings who came after him had a hard time maintaining the superiority of Assyria over Chaldaja, and the wars they made to collect tribute must have cost them far more than the amount of tribute they received. Tiglath Pileser who became king, 1 130 B. C, was the first .Assyrian monarch who caused his history to be fully written upon cylinders, and according to his own story he made ten campaigns against his neighbors; deter- mined not only to extend his dominion but to force the conquered people to accept the religion of Assyria, which was, with the addition of two or three gods, the same as the religion of Chalda!a. After this king little is known of Assyria for many years. Rameses, the hero-king of Egypt, came after a long period that is a blank in Egyptian history, so after a similar blank in .Assyrian history we first hear of Asshur-izzar-pal, the general, conqueror and builder, who made Assyria, while he lived, the greatest power in Western Asia, and who in the twenty-five glorious years of his reign laid the foundations for the future greatness of Nineveh and conquered the whole Tigris Valley to the Persian Gulf. His son was worthy of his warlike father and when he died in the thirty-fifth year of his reign had Traosportlng Stone on Inflated Skin Uaft. Archer and Attendant. ASSYRIA. 45 so enlarged the Assyrian empire that it stretched westward to the Mediterranean, northward to the Taurus Mountains, excepting only Armenia, and southward into Chaldaia, which it held tributary. Painting, sculpture, glass-blowing, metal-working and weaving had by this time reached a high state of perfection in Assyria, rivaling the kindred arts of Egypt in her glory, and becoming famous in all civilized lands. It was after the reign of the son of Asshur-izzar-pal that Vul-lush III. and his queen Semiramis, governed Assyria, ami that they ruled it poorly enough we may infer from the fact that during the period when they sat upon the Assyrian throne Babylon broke away from their power and again became the capital of all hostile Chalda^a, and that the tribes conquered by former Assyrian kings regained their independence. Nineveh had by this time become a great city, and very densely populated. Its walls were a hundred feet high and fifty feet thick, and its wealth was very large. The kings in their palaces of brick covered with slabs of sculptured stone, were gluttonous, idolatrous and cruel, and God warned them that their city would be destroyed if they did not repent. Upon receiving this warning we are told that they did repent, and that they turned from their wickfedness for a time, but the military spirit had too long been steeped in idleness, drunkenness and luxury to soon revive, and it was not until Tiglath Pileser II. ascended the throne in 745 B. C, and began the attempt to re-con- s^wui quer the lost territory that the people showed any of the energy and patriotism of the old days. While Shalmaneser II., his successor, was absent from Nineveh conquering Samaria and besieging Tyre, his people at home set up a new king, Sargon, who made Asia the mistress of Africa, and under Persian, Saracen and Turk, with intervals of Greek and Roman dominion, Africa has remained to this day tributary to Asiatic kingdoms and empires. Sargon conquered nearly all of Western Asia, removing the people of whole provinces that were hostile and placing them in the midst of people that he knew to be loyal, thus preventing them from rebelling by placing them out of reach of aid, and thus by dividing his enemies made them more easy to conquer. Babylon submitted humbly to Sargon, and the Medes, then a small tribe of bold, free-spirited people, sent him tribute, for which they afterwards paid themselves a thousand-fold, as we shall learn. Sargon reigned seventeen years and after him came Sennacherib, the haughty, cruel and warlike king who has come to be regarded as a type of the ancient monarch. Egypt, Judea and Babylon, felt the weight of his sharp sword for he "slew and spared not" those who opposed him. Even the Holy City, Jerusalem itself was threatened, but God heard the prayer of Hezekiah and we are told in the Bible how one night when the army of Sennacherib lay encamped under the walls of Jerusalem, the Lord "smote in the camp of the Assyrians," and when morning came the watchers upon the walls of Zion saw 185,000 dead upon the plain, while Sennacherib and the few of his followers who were left were fleeing toward the east pursued by the Egyptian allies of the Hebrews. "The misht of the heathen unsinote by the sword, Had melted like snow 'neath the glance of the Lord." Battle Standaii! 46 ASSYRIA. AjjgJTlan King. The old historians anxious that the story should "end well" relate that Sennacherib returned to Nineveh and in a few weeks was murdered, his kingdom at his death being totally destroyed; but the Assyrian inscriptions upon the cylinders say that Sennacherib lived seventeen years after his campaign against Jerusalem, mention nothing about the destruction of his army, out do say much about his after successful campaigns. When Sennacherib was finally murdered by his two wicked sons, Adramalech and Sharezer, the people of Nineveh mourned very sin- cerel}' for him and only submitted to the new kings until Esar-I laddon, the favorite son of the murdered king, returned from Armenia with the army when they proclaimed him sovereign. After setting affairs at the capital in order, Esar-Haddon crossed the Arabian desert with a large army, took the cities and towns beyond it, and then re-crossed the desert safely. Afterward he conquered Egypt, divided it into twenty States over which he placed trusted friends as rulers, made Ethiopia a province of his empire and after a series of victories, extending over thirteen years he died, and his son Asshur- ban-i-pal, came to reign in Nineveh the queen city of the world, and to enjoy the results of his father's conquests. His capital was the envy of all peoples. His palaces of brick housed untold treasures, his granaries were the source of supply for a flourishing commerce, and his slaves taken in war labored by day and night to add to his wealth. Asshur-ban-i-pal had a genuine taste for learning and as a warrior and builder he was widely celebrated, while as a hunter the mighty Nimrod himself had no greater skill and strength, nor was he more fearless. Under Asshur-bani-pal Assyria attained its greatest glory, but under him also it experienced a great calamity that was the cause of its downfall as an empire. As you read the story of the great empires of the world you will notice that at a certain point of development they begin to decay as do the fruits and flowers that spring from the soil, but that from the seed dropped from their ripe heart new empires spring. The conquerors in turn are vanquished, perhaps by the very people whom they have again and again subdued, or from without some unexpected danger menaces and destroys the empire. You will notice, too, that when the great nations were the most confident of their security and had given themselves over to the enjoyment of riches, from the north barbarian hosts have descended and hastened the inevitable downfall, carrying back with them when they retreated the leaven of new thoughts and ideas, the germ of new empires. Thus the Hyskos descended upon Egypt, the Assyrians upon Chaldaja, the Medes, who grew strong and bold, and tiring of the Assyrian yoke fell upon Assyria, but now during the reign of Asshur-bani-pal upon the whole of Western Asia from Scythia, the first of the horde of barbarians that was in centuries after succeeded by Parthians, Mongols and Turks, swooped down upon the fair cities of the south, laying them waste and carrying off their treasures. These Scythians were huge white-bodied savages, half- AS6 riao Monutcd Soldier. covcrcd with hair like wild beasts, who wore few clothes, ASSYRIA. 47 anointed themselves with butter in place of bathing, lived in rude tents made of coarse woolen cloth, eating the flesh of horses and drinking the milk of mares. Their hoarse voices, fierce manners and wild appearance struck terror into the civilized communities upon which they descended, / who viewed with horror the drinking vessels made of human skulls, the quiver-covers of flayed human skin, and the scalps of victims floating from the briilles and saddles of their horses. Their religion was a wild and bloody mixture of human sacrifice and mysterious rites and beneath the presence of such foes it is no wonder that a blight fell upon Assyria. The people fled from the fields to the walled cities reared by the old kings and when these were finally taken and plundered by the invaders, their inhabitants were massacred, and fire and ruin blackened the whole Tigris valley. Finally the Scythians retired beyond the mountains to the steppes that were their home, but the eight years of pillage had given Assyria her death blow, and wasted by foreign war, and this scourge of barbarians, the "Queen of the East" was tottering to her fall. Media had gained power rapidly and a new ruler haa animated the courao-e of the warlike people and he had led an army against his imperial mistress. When the Scythians had gone the Medes gathered all their strength to strike for their freedom. Jealous and revengeful Chalda^a had a hatred for its Assyrian oppressor nurtured by centuries of wrong and cruelty. Asshur-ban-i-pal was dead and Saracus, his successor, had not demonstrated the possession of any warlike qualities. As the rebellious Chaldacans advanced against Nineveh from the south and the Medes came down from the north, Saracus sent his most trusted general, Nabopo- lassar against the former, and remained in Nineveh to direct its defense. Nabopolassar saw Chaldsea's opportunity and his own. He took the portion of the army entrusted him to Babylon, openly espousing the Chakki^an cause, then sent messengers to the Median monarch offering to join him against Nineveh if he would give him his daughter, to be the wife of his son, Nebuchednezzar. The agreement was made and the two armies marched against Nineveh. Saracus resisted until hope wasgone, and when the city fell he shut himself up with his wives and treasures in his palace and with his own hand applied the torch which devoted them to the flames, no doubt calling vainly upon his gods as he perished and cursing the traitor, Nabopolassar, who had delivered the city of his father up to the hated foe. Thus Assyria fell as many nations had fallen under her power.' Her golden vessels and her idols were carried to Babylon, and in Ecbatana, the Median capital, were displayed her vases, jars and bronzes, her carved ornaments, jewels and art treasures, so finely wrought that they moved to admiration all who beheld them. The Assyrians had constructed upon the Chald?can foundation of their knowledge new arts and sciences. They built aqueducts, tunnels and drains, knew 'the use of pulleys, levers and rollers, and understood underlaying and overlaying with metals. The conveniencies and luxuries of their every-day life were nearly equal to our own, Assyrian Harper, mm King's Armor-bearer. 48 ASSYRIA. although their morals on account of some shameful customs practiced in their religion, were debased and their conscience thereby blunted. Their ideas of religion and government were taken from Chalda;a and the one was a gross and debasing idol worship, while the other was exceedingly crude. Upon the ruins of the Assyrian empire two other great empires were founded, whose course we will now follow, and whose fortunes we will trace. Ferohar, the Guardlaa Spirit. — ^^i " ' ^ 1 LONG the borders of the ancient kingdom of Assyria and just beyond the Zagros Mountains there is a great highland whose outline upon the western side is a long gentle curve, and in this curve was comprised the northern, western and a part of the southern frontier of the Assyrian empire. The highland extenos to the country of the Afghans on the east, and the northern part is crossed by several nearly parallel mountain chains, while the western part too has several parallel ranges following the curve of the table-land. •■■■ v,,'"'- / ' ■ „-^ - Calneti ■ '^ ' ' •" - Geber Map OF The FffiST GREAT EMPIRES B.O. BO«0-.".l(0. CeD.F.Cram, EoKcnver aud PobllBhcr, Gbleago,UI. Scale OF MiLEa . - i""r~ \) ^ 260 300 400' ^> On your map you will see the names Kurdistan and Luristan as the two countries comprised in this region, but in ancient times it was called Zagros and was the home of several warlike mountain and plains tribes all called the Medes. On the level part of the great table-land the climate is mild and the soil in the neighborhood of the mountains to the north and wesL is fertile, but in the southeast 50 MEDIA. Money Iq Bags, there are wide stretches of desert, waterless, dreary and with but few oases. To be sure there is some snow between the months of December and March even upon the plains, but the cold is never very intense, and when the glorious spring comes, not lingering as th(5ugh loth to bless the earth with her bounty, as she does in Europe and .America, but with a sudden burst of warmth and brightness, the chill winds of winter are forgotten in the beauty of this most lovely season of the year. The snows disappear as if by magic, the roses bloom and the orchards are like great bouquets from which the droning bees gather honey from morning until night, and in the shadow of the vines, where later in the year the grapes hang in purple clusters, the nightingale sings the whole night through while rare and beautiful flowers perfume the air with their fragrance. During this happy season, even the desert wears a livery of tender green, scanty coarse grass springing u]) in the sand, and the grain in the fields by the river banks grows so rapidly that it is soon ready for the harvest. These balmy days, however, grow hot toward June, which in nearly all parts of Europe and .America is the most perfect month of the year, and before the half of May is over the hot winds from the desert begin to blow, the vegetation on the plains withers and even the air near the foot of the mountains, tempered as it is by the everlasting snows of the summits, in the middle of the day is uncomfortably warm, though tlu; nights and mornings are deliciously cool, and the atmosphere is at all times pure, dry and e.xhilirating. I he mountains themselves are wild, rugged, and, e.xcepting the low ranges, which are covered with pines and willows, are brown and barren, cleft by mighty gorges and roaring torrents, the homes of eternal snow upon the highest peaks. Winter reigns in these bleak mountains half the year, but in the long narrow valleys, between them, the fields and meadows are bright with flowers and verdure long after wintry winds are roaring and snow is falling among the neighboring peaks. These valleys, although not so fertile as those of the Tigris country, were care- fully irrigated and were planted with wheat, barley and sesame, maize, cotton, tobacco and melons, while pears and apples grew wild, and the long summers atoned for the rigor of the winter. Mountainous countries, as a rule, produce hardy independent nations, for men there struggle so constantly with the forces of nature, brave the tempests, the snows and dangers to life and limb in the chase, or wrest from the earth with such difficulty their living, that they become strong of body and bold of spirit. Where nature does so much for man that he has but to reach forth his hand and take her gifts he becomes indolent, and thus the; tropics are unfavorable to the development of great nations. Upon the other hand where the elements are so constantly in oppo- sition to man that every energy of body and mind is absorbed in providing food and shelter sufficient to maintain his life, the conditions ^: are equally unfavorable, and only in countries where the temperature varies from summer heat to winter cold as in the temperate zone does man reach his highest mental and bodily perfection. The valleys, table-lands and hill-country of Media possessed the climate of the temperate zone, and there, in the early days of Assyria, a Costume of KluR. MEDIA. 51 Tbreshing with Flail. people grew up widely differing, as was natural from their surroundings, from the people farther south. Had the Medes grown up under the same conditions that developed Assyria and Babylonia, they would still have been different in many important particulars, just as the seeds of poppies and the seeds of pansies, planted in the same pots of earth, will produce different flowers, for their origin was dif- ferent and they belonged to another branch of the human family, a branch with larger brain power, more enduring muscles, and greater moral strength. The nations whose story we have told you were all Cushites, Semites, or mingled Cushite and Semite, but the Medes were descended from Japhet, and belong to the great Aryan race, who, you will see as you read their story were the world's nation-makers. Where the Medes came from is not certainly known, but from some part of Central Asia they began a southward movement at about the same time that their brother clans of Celts, Teutons Gauls, and Slavs, went north and west. The Persians, Hindoos Tind other kindred races, passed on to find homes, leaving the tribes of Medes in the valleys of the Zagros, and there they remained for centuries, not as savages, fci' the Aryans were neither savages nor habitual wanderers, but had houses with windows and doors, cooked their food and had settled religious rites before they took their flocks and herds, their wives and little ones, and went in search of new homes. From their position, hemmed in by mountain walls and separated by gorges, torrents and desert, from surrounding nations, the Medes did not attract the atten- tion of ancient conquerors for a long time and it is not until the days of Shalmaneser II., 833 B. C, that we first hear of them in history. Even then the Medes were but few in number and possessed of little wealth. Water was scarce throughout their country and the irrigation was by underground galleries, or ditches, that prevented any loss by evaporation, which led the water of the mountain streams to wells where it was raised by hand to water the fields. The grain and fruits raised were only sufficient for the people, and although there were precious minerals and metals in the mountains, they were then unknown. Having few cities and towns, and their wealth chiefly in horses and cattle, Shal- maneser II. allowed the Medes a greater degree of independence than he usually- permitted a conquered people, and although he settled colonies of Samaritans, who had also been conquered, among them, he neither disturbed their old laws, religion nor customs, and the only tribute he compelled them to pay was a certain number of horses yearly; for the Medes bred many fine horses. The Assyrian conqueror little thought that this weak half-barbarian tribe would ever become a dangerous enemy to his empire, but conquerors are only mortal, after all, and cannot foresee the future, while few of them have even read the past aright. Like the Aryans of Europe, whose story remains to be told, the Medes treated their women with great respect and chivalry. In Chald.xa and Assyria the position of the women was degraded by religion and by law; but in time men sunk to the level upon which they had kept their mothers, wives and sisters, for women are the molders of men's ideas in childhood, and a great portion of the after life of a man, if, indeed, not all of it, takes its bent from the mother's hand. The respect for womanhood and the worship of one great unseen God, made the 52 MEDIA. Medes in very early days a simple, manly, honorable race, and it was not until after contact with the idol-worshipping Cushites, that woman among them was considered a lower creature than man. This religion of the Medes shows how much they were naturally superior to the Assyrians to the south, for although they had not the light of revelation as we have, they believed in one great and mighty God, the creator, preserver and governor of the world, from whom came all good. He w^as a God of love and they believed that he sent a tall, beautiful, swift-winged angel, Serosh, as his messenger to men, showing them the paths of happiness and blessing. They believed too, in a devil, or evil spirit, who created himself and who was always fighting against the good spirits. Like all Aryan races they believed that the soul lived in heaven after this life and their priests taught that the souls of the dead must cross a deep, wide chasm on the "bridge of the gatherer," and that the good were met by Serosh and led into paradise, while the wicked fell into the yawning gulf, and were compelled to remain forever in outer darkness. After some time the Medes came in contact with the Armenians to the west of them, and there they learned to worship fire, earth and water, and combined it with their own religion whose precepts were given them by a great teacher, Zoroaster, and was called Zoroastrianism. This religion of Armen.a was called Magism, and the Magi were their priests. Its principle object of w^orship was fire, and in the temples, a sacred flame was kept always burning. They offered sacrifices of various kinds, and even human victims, and the priests of Zoroaster were one by one turned from their old faith until at last Magism became the national religion of Media. Although the Medes had long oeen settled in Zagros, when Shal- maneser II. conquered them, they had, as I have said, few cities; neither knew nor cared anything about the art of painting, sculpture, or ornamental work of any kind, and had no written language. They were apt, however, and soon adopted the cuneiform, simplifying it to suit their. needs, and initiated the perennial habits of the y\ssyrians in many things, although they had always been neat and cleanly both in person and dress, took great pride in their abundant hair and were fond of bright colors and personal adornment. The Medes were tall, well-formed and handsome, with high foreheads, well- rounded limbs and small hands and feet. Many of the women were exceedingly beautiful and both men and women were loyal to their friends and cruel to their foes. After Shalmaneser II. died the Medes refused to pay tribute to Assyria, and Shamus-Vul, his son, invaded Media with an army and easily took their cities, none of which were walled. The Medes trusted to the barriers of mountain and desert with which nature had surrounded their country, but the plains empire to the southwest had only the mountains to cross, while Media had not enough soldiers to defend the passes, and again the Medes were obliged to purchase peace by paying tribute, although it is likely that only those tribes nearest Assyria continued to do so, the others being able to take refuge in the mountains at the approach of an enemy and successfully conceal their property and defeat their foes. Every king of Assyria from the reign of Shaiamaneser II. to that of Sargon had much trouble collecting tribute from Media. Perhaps the Medes could see no justice A LeaUicrn WaterBottlc. MEDIA. 53 Mounted Soldier. in paying to be let alone by the nation that had picked a quarrel with them, and thought it shameful for Assyria to demand tribute and a disgrace to their country to pay it. All of the ancient conquerors supported their splendor by tribute wrung from vanquished people, and money and treasure were the spur to war, and wrong was heaped upon wrong until vengeance followed, sometimes long-delayed but always sure. Sargon reduced Media to a province of the empire, made the native king accountable to the Assyrian ruler, and compelled the Medes to obey many Assyrian laws, and for three hundred years they submitted, as there was nothing else to be done. All of this time, however, the old free spirit of Media was not dead. The people saw in the Assyrians, not only the foe to their kingdom but to their religion as well and when the Scythians at the north liegan to encroach upon Media, the time was ripe for action. The king, Cyaxares, called for soldiers from the chiefs of all the Median tribes to defend their homes from the barbarian invaders, and whereas during the Assyrian expeditions into the country these chiefs were jealous and held aloof from each other, the terror which the northern savages inspired was very different from the feeling toward civilized conquerors. The chiefs united in the common cause and sent men to Cyaxares until he had in readiness a great army. He marched against the Scyths, who were really the advance guard of the host that was soon to overrun Asia, conquered them and two other small nations and having thus inspired the confidence of his people decided to defy Assyria. Mad the Assyrians at this period attempted an invasion of Media they would have been beaten back, but Cyaxares knew nothing of the manner of warfare waged by a civilized nation, since he had dealt only with barbarians. Asshur-ban-i-pal, the king of Assyria, had a large well-drilled army that con- tained thousands of men who had fought his battles against Egypt and Tyre, and who were then the most famous soldiers of the world, while Cyaxares had only a horde of undisciplined Medes, each under a chief who knew nothing of military science. The Medes advanced toward Nineveh, and Asshur-ban-i-pal with his army, met them in an open plain where his cavalry and war-chariots had plenty of room to manoeuvre, and easily defeated them. Cyaxares was not discouraged by this defeat for he had learned something by it, and although he had paid dearly for the lesson, was content with the result. Instead of having his power over his countryman weakened by this disaster, it was strengthened, for he persuaded the chiefs to allow him to take sole charge of the army, divide it into corps of horse and foot, direct all its movements and henceforth fight the Assyrians in their own manner. Convinced that only thus could they defeat the Assyrians, the chiefs submitted all of their men to Cyaxares, who soon had a large force of well-drilled horsemen, and foot-soldiers, and again marched into Assyria. Again Asshur-ban-i-pal met him with an army, and the Assyrians were confident of an easy victory. They had been victorious so often, those veterans of Asshur- ban-i-pal, that they probably thought themselves invincible, as did the people of Nineveh, and that the barbarous Medes would be woefully beaten, but they found to their surprise and consternation that they had to front a foe stronger than they 54 MEDIA. Costume of Scjthians. themselves were, better horsemen, more expert bow-men and commanded by a general whom nothing escaped; who was quick to seize a point of vantage and who was obeyed with a surprising enthusiasm. At last Cyaxares utterly routed Asshur-ban-i-pal and such of his great army as were left fled into the city of Nineveh and the Median king disposed of his forces for a siege. Just then a messenger came in hot haste from Ecbatana, the Median capital, with the news that a great horde of Scythians were spreading terror throughout Media, murdering all who opposed them, burning towns, and laying waste the country. Cyaxares made all speed to return, but the invaders had already fastened themselves so firmly in his kingdom that he was obliged to pay them tribute and submit, waiting until the rich spoils of Assyria and Chaldasa should tempt the Scyths from the comparatively poor country of Media. It was several years before the Scythians dispersed sufficiently over adjoining countries and were sufficiently weakened by indulgence in unaccustomed luxury and their numbers reduced by the many battles they had fought for Cyaxares, to attack them with any chance of success. The Medes had submitted so long to the rule of their barbarous oppressors that the latter were unsuspicious of them and when Cyaxares invited their principal chiefs to a banquet at Ecbatana, they doubtless took the invitation as an attempt of the Median king to gain their favor and all the head men of the various Scythian tribes of Media attended it. The Scythian chiefs were everyone killed in the banquet hall by the orders of Cyaxares, and then began a war, in which the Scythians, under Zarina their queen, fought with desperate bravery but were driven from Media, and finall}' from Asia. There is a story told of Zarina that will bear repeating, although I shall not vouch for its truth. Stryangaius, the son-in-law of Cyaxares, commanded the troops sent against the Scythians and in one of the many battles he captured Zarina. The queen begged so hard for her liberty that the romantic, and soft-hearted Stryanga^us, set her free and she went back to her camp at Roxance. After awhile, such are the fortunes of war, Stryanga;us himself was taken prisoner by the Scythians, and was condemned to die by Marmareus, the husband of Zarina. In vain the Scythian queen, who was madly in love with Stryanga^us, pleaded for the life of the Medc. Her husband was stern in his determination to execute him, and to save his life Zarina murdered her consort. Stryangseus was as much infatuated with the queen as she with him, for she is said to have been the most beautiful woman in the whole world. It is singular, isn't it, that nearly all of the ancient queens were the "most beautiful women in the world?" For certainly the modern queens are neither better looking nor better iluin ordinary people, and some of them have even been positively homely. But to proceed: Stryangecus returned to Ecbatana, but had no peace of mind until he again sought Zarina. told her his love, and entreated her to take jjity upon him. I think myself that it was not very consistent in Zarina to preach to Stryangieus about constancy to his early vows when she had killed her husband on his account. MEDIA. 55 but the old historians say she did so, and they seemed to think it very noble of her. She reminded him of his good and beautiful wife, Rhaitaia, and exhorted him to show his manhood by struggling against his unlawful love, whereupon Stryangaeus. cut to the heart by his mistress' repulse, retired to a room in Zarina's palace, wrote her a long letter reproaching her — I doubt that Zarina could read a word of it, for the Scythians could not read the Median cuneiform — and then killed himself, which, under the circumstances, was the proper ending for him, as well as for the story. When the Scythians were driven off, Cyaxares again turned his attention to the empire to the south. Assyria had suffered more from the Scythians than had any country in Asia, for while the barbarians were plundering the provinces, the cities, following the example of Nineveh, gave themselves uj) to pleasure, and nothing was done to check the ravages made in the country. Again he advanced toward Nineveh, and at the same time the Chaldajans approached the city from the south. You are already familiar with Nabopolassar's bargain with Cyaxares and the story of the death of Saracus, and the history of the capture of the city, although had not the Tigris, swollen by heavy rains, overflowed its banks and undermined a portion of the wall, Nineveh might have stood a long siege. Cyaxares and Nabopolassar divided the spoil of the Assyrian empire between them, the Medes taking the original kingdom of Assyria and the provinces adjoining their country, Nabopolassar taking Chaldaea, Susiana and the Euphrates valley, sharing equally with Cyaxares the northern and western conquests of Assyria. After Cyaxares had conquered the remaining nations north and west of him there was peace in all Western Asia for fifty years, broken only by brief disturbance in Egypt during the reign of Psammitticus. Cyaxares died 503 B. C, after a reign of forty years, leaving the kingdom to his son, Astyages. Cyaxares had made Media a great nation and during his reign the Medes learned from Assyria how to live luxuriously, to deck their houses with rich stuffs and furniture, and had made much advance in civilization, although they learned too, many of the vices that hastened Assyria's downfall, and had become idolaters. By all laws of descent a great father sh-ould have great sons, but you \v\\\ notice in history and experience that such is not always the case, and that too often the sons of good and great fathers are weak, lazy and vicious. Astyages was a good humored handsome king, married to a Lydian princess, but totally unlike his father. He cared nothing for conquest or government and i:)assed his days in eating, drinking and merriment, in the midst of his female slaves and dancing girls. Cyaxares had early conquered Persia and the Crown Prince Cyrus, was compelled to live in the household of the Median king, perhaps as a hostage for his father's, good behavior, although ostensibly to learn the manners and laws of the Medes. Cyrus was a bold and daring fellow and must have had a hearty contempt for the Median king, Astyages, and his manner of life, and when he was about forty years old determined to free his country; being disgusted, also, with the debasement of the old religion that was common to both Media and Persia, and urged to revolt as much by piety as patriotism. T suppose you have heard the story of Cyrus that was told by pancing Girl. 56 MEDIA. Foot SoldltT a Greek historian, and believed to oe true, until the cuneiform writing of Persia had been read and it was proven false. It relates that Astyages, after the manner of all superstitious people, had a steadfast belief in dreams, and that whenever he dreamed he caused the priests, who were as we know great liars, to interpret his visions for him. When he dreamed that from his daughter Mandane a vine grew that cov- L-red his whole empire, the priests told him that his dream meant that Mandane would have a son that would overthrow liis kingdom. In course of time Mandane was married to a Persian prince and while she was upon a visit to her father a little son was born to her. Remembering his dream, Astyages took the babe and gave it over to one of his officers, commanding him to destroy it, but instead of doing so, the officer in turn gave it to a shepherd who kept it and reared it as his own son. When the boy was ten years old he came to the notice of Astyages, who recognized him with great joy as his grand-son, lor he was a bold, handsome little fellow, who resembled his grandfather greatly. Never- theless he punished the officer who had not obeyed his command, in a very horrible manner, serving him at a feast with the boiled flesh of his, the officer's only son, a lad about the age of Cyrus. Of course the talc is not true, for it makes Cyaxares the son instead of the father of Astyages, and falsities the cuneiform record in many important particulars. Cyrus gained permission to leave Media by telling Astyages that his father was in poor health, and desired to see him, but as soon as he had gone Astyages was sorry that he had granted his request, and sent a force of horsemen to bring him back. It seems that Cyrus had thought such a course not unlikely, and hatl, with his followers, made all haste toward the Persian frontier, where a troop of soldiers were waiting to receive him, but he was overtaken by the Medes late; in the evening and ordered to return. Cyrus readily agreed to do so, but suggested since it was late, and they were all tired, it would be V)etter to camp until the next morning. They did so, and he plied the Medes with wine until they were all drunk, then he and his followers mounted their horses and rode on their way toward Persia as fast as they could. \Vh('n the Medes had slept off their drunkenness they pursued Cyrus, who had now joined the soldiers sent to meet him. fought a battle to gain possession of the prince, were flefeated, and returned with the news to Astyages. The Median king sent an army to demand Cyrus' return, but upon Persian territory the advance of the force was hotly contested. It was in the neighborhood of Pasagarda>, the Persian capital, that the hardest fighting took place. A narrow pass led to the city, and the Persians held this, bemg driven back, little by little, for five days, until it seemed certain that the Medes would at last win it, but from the sides of cliffs the brave defenders, urged on and encouraged Ijy their wives anil sisters, who knew what cruelties might be expected should the Medes gain the victory, they defeated the invaders, who fled toward Ecbatana. but were overtaken, and Astyages himself made prisoner. Thus Cyrus, who only meant to free his country, became the master of an empire, for his father had been killed in the first of the Kalloual Co&tuuie. MEDIA. 57 five days fighting before Pasagardae, and the Median empire, after seventy years of "mastery over Western Asia, was destroyed, for, after the capture of Astyages, the whole empire readily acknowledged Cyrus, who proved himself the greatest of ancient conquerors, and has for centuries been a hero of romance as well as history. Although the many remarkable stories which the old historians relate of Cyrus are purely imaginary, he was nevertheless a wonderful man, but more of a warrior than a ruler. When he had conquered his enemies, he had not the faculty of making them his friends, but was obliged again and again to subdue his unruly provinces. His whole reign was passed in warfare, and when he died he left the vast Mede-Persian empire in a sadly unsettled state. Cyrus had no genius for government, his one idea being the acquisition of territory, and the extension of the fame of Persian arms. By contact with the more civilized and wealthy nations of the south, he gained an idea of the luxury that follows wealth, and he desired for his people riches, as well as military glory. Even during the lifetime of Cyrus, there was a change for the worse in the national character of his people. What those changes were you will note in the story of Persia, and there we will follow those fortunes of Media, that have any bearing on the history of other empires and upon civilization. lOJ^tr. xU. if i<'r)'jjLijLijjJ(^! t ■ n H ?1I K K KJCKIXJK I m ]\ j\'>.^CJUL: 11. Wi: already been luKl .M)lllcli,...g about Babylon, the wonderful city of old ) i Chalda;a, and it was from that city that P;-M^l:if the new ChakL-can empire, formed by Nabopolassar took its name. The Tower of Babel which the foolish people of the plain of Chaldaja t attempted to build to the very skies, may have been within the limits of Babylon, at all events wc are told that it was, and the priests of Chaldfca were the wisest in the world. Of course these priests could no more interpret dreams, or tell the course of future events by gazinjr at the stars than you or I can, but they made the common people believe that they could, and when the might of their kings was diminished and the political pride of the nation humbled by Assyria, the priests became more powerful than ever in Babylon, and sought to make the fame of the learning and arts of their city atone for the loss of empire. When a country was brought under the rule of a foreign power in those days, as now, the burdens did not fall so heavily upon the rich, who could spare from their great wealth their share of the tribute, but it was upon the toiling i)oor who fart-d hard at best, that the ta.xes pressed most heavily, and although the climate was so mild in ChalcL'ta, and gourds, melons and cucumbers were cheap, and even pickled bats, and dried fish jiounded line and made up into cakes that were baked in the sun could be bought for a mere trifle, the poor longed for better food and shelter, and a chance to improve their condition, which they could not hope to do under the oppressive rule of Assyria. Thus it was no doubt, as is generally the case in revolutions, that it was from the very poor that the mutterings of discontent first arose and well-pleased were the rich who feasted at magnificent banquets, to hear the complaints of the masses, and amid the perfumes and the music of the palaces of the nabobs there were men who plotted to lead these discontented common people out to war against Assyria, and to free Chaldsea from the oppressor. Luxury had grown fast in Chalda;a of the contact with luxurious Babylonian Kins. Assyria, aud Splendid dresses, gold and silver plate, exquisite carpets and hangings delighted the beauty-loving Babylonians of the higher BABYLONIA. 59 class, but in spite of luxury, there was martial spirit, daring and patriotism among all classes, and all were eager to try their strength against Nineveh. After the Scythians had been driven from Asia, and Nineveh, care- less of the growing power on the north, and heedless of discontent in the south, gave itself up, as was its wont, to pleasure, Babylon made a bold movement. Hearing of Nineveh's indifference and military weakness from the merchants who thronged the streets of Babylon to purchase wares or wives, — for maidens were sold to the highest bidder at public sale in Babylon, which did not keep its women in seclusion as did other oriental cities, — a large army advanced toward the capital of Assyria and no doubt received Nabopolassar and his troops with great rejoicing, proclaimed him king and joined with the Medes in the attack upon the Assyrian capital. Nebuchadnezzar was wedded to Amyitis with great pomp soon after the fall of Nineveh, and the new empire began under very promising Costume ot voung conditions. The people in the conquered provinces had been subjected to so many rulers that they probably cared very little whether they paid tribute to Nineveh or to Babylon, for in any case they knew they should be taxed to the fullest extent. It never seemed to enter the minds of the kings ot the old empires that the provinces should receive the benefits of public improvements, but they were compelled to pay out large sums to enrich the capital or favorite cities of their ruler. The Babylonians, however, were greatly benefitted by the return of glory to their city. In former days the empire was but a small strip of country, scarcely larger than a county in one of our western states, but by the agreement between Nabopolassar and Cyaxares, Babylonia extended from Media to the Mediterranean Sea, and from Arabia and Egypt to Persia. From all these countries, now provinces of Babylonia, and from surrounding countries, merchants came to Babylon to buy and sell their goods, caravans carried carpets and tapestries across the desert to the sea, where the ships bore them to Egypt, to India, and the far East, receiving in return gold, pearls, diamonds and precious woods and perfumes, the Babylonians being as fond of ornament as they were of sweet odors, and fonder of wine than of either. Media had a barrier of mountains to protect her empire, but Babylonia lay open, on every side a vast plain. The military skill of her generals and the strong walls of her cities were her chief dependence against her foes, and both these in time failed her, as we shall see, for skill can be met with skill, and works reared by man can be destroyed by man, no matter how strong or massive they are. Perhaps Nabopolassar thought this when he sought to join the family of Cyaxares to his own by marriage. He knew that Media would be a dangerous enemy and a powerful friend, and that Cyaxares would hardly make war upon a kingdom that would in time pass to his grandsons. Nabopolassar was a shrewd states- BabyloDiau Camel Sedan Chair. 6o BABYLONIA. Babjiouiau Soldier. man, we are forced to admit, for not only did he bind Media to himself by ties of marriage, but he succeeded in making a treaty between Media and Lydia which lasted fifty years and secured the peace of all western Asia. It happened that the Medes had been five years trying to conquer Lydia, and that Nabopolassar with a Babylonian force joined Media. As they were just about to begin a battle, the sun was hidden, although the day was without a cloud, and darkness settled down upon the plain where the conflict was to have taken place. The hearts of the soldiers were filled with that awe with which even we contemplate a total eclipse of the sun, and added to that was a superstitious terror. They thought that the sun-god frowned upon them, and they would surely all perish if they braved his anger. Nabopolassar seized the opportunity to propose that the battle should be indcti- nitely postponed, that peace should be arranged, and to make sure that the war should come to an end, proposed the means that he had found so efficacious in the case of Babylon — a royal intermarriage — should take place. His proposals were accepted, and Astyages, Crown Prince of Media, wedded a Lydian princess, to bring about lasting peace, as Nebuchadnezzar had married Amyitis for the same purpose. In spite of the fact that Nebuchadnezzar married the Median princess from motives of policy, he became e.xceedingly fond of Amyitis, we are told, and gratified her every whim. She was beautiful and capricious, and cruel, as well, as Babylonian queens were apt to be, although she was a loving wife to Nebuchadnezzar and no more exacting to the large number of other women in the harem than oriental wives usually are. For some years Nebuchadnezzar remained in Babylon enjoying life, but when Neco, the Egyptian Pharaoh rebelled against Babylonia and refused to pay tribute, and invaded Syria, he rode away at the head of a great army to punish him. When he had done so and was on his way home, messengers met him with the news of his father's death, and it was as King of the great empire that he entered the Capital with the slaves and treasures taken from Egypt, and was met by the priests of Bel and solemnly crowned ruler. A few years more and Nebuchadnezzar was again marching forth from Babylon with an army, this time against Tyre, a city of Phoenicia, whose ships sailed to every part of the known world, and who was almost as rich, and was quite as proud and haughty as Babylon. This time Nebuchad- nezzar had also a body of Medes among his troops, sent by his father-in-law, Cyaxares, and with these and the veterans who had fought under him in Egypt, he thought that he would make short work of Tyre, but h(; was mistaken, for while he could surround warChariofwiih Scythes. Tyre ou the land side, one side was open to BABYLONIA. 6i Babyluiiiau MethoJ of Inflicting the Death Penalty, the sea, and the ships could bring supplies, arms and soldiers to Tyre when those within the city were no longer sufficient. Taking advantage of the siege of Tyre, the Hebrews of Jerusalem rebelled. When Neco had some years before refused tribute to Babylon, and even marched into Syria, a king of the Jews, Josiah, who had cause to be friendly toward Babylon, met him on the borders of the land with an army to oppose his entrance to Asia, but was defeated and killed. Neco then marched to Jerusalem, dethroned Josiah's son and piaced upon the throne Jehoiakim, who promised to be Egypt's friend, and to -hold Egypt's enemies as his own. Now Egypt and Babylonia had always been bitter enemies, and Neco probably promised to help Jehoiakim in a rebellion against Babylon, perhaps counting upon the army of Nebuchadnezzer being employed at Tyre. Nebuchadnezzar at once divided his force, left ..a.f of it befoi the walls of Tyre, and with the other half marched promptly to Jeru- salem, so promptly that the Egyptians had no time to reach the Jewish city. When Jehoiakim saw the Babylonian army nearing the walls of his capital he at once surrendered himself to Nebuchadnezzar and was put to death, his son being placed on the throne, but being dethroned and carried captive to Babylon three months after by Nebuchadnezzar, who suspected his faithfulness, although Jehoiachin could hardly be blamed for plotting against the king who had humbled his city and taken his father's life. Tyre still held out against Nebuchadnezzar, and eight years after he first marched to Jerusalem he was again encamped under the walls of the Jewish Capital. Zedekiah, the king he had himself placed upon the throne, thinking the time favor- able to free the Jewish nation from Babylonia, whose oppression and extortion had become unbearable. With aid promised from Egypt, he felt reasonably sure of success, and was not able to see that the Hebrew kingtlom under Egypt's protection, was doomed to bear heavier burdens than under Babylonia's rule, for Egypt was not only greedy and tyrannical but treacherous too, although in this instance the Pharaoh did actually send an army toward Jerusalem, which, when it heard of the great force Nebuchadnezzer had brought to meet them, marched back into Egypt much faster than they had marched out of it. Zedekiah was a brave king and a good general, but after the city of Jerusalem had been besieged two years, and famine and sickness had caused the Jews to lose strength and courage, he at last sent his submission to Nebuchadnezzar, opened the gates, and amid the mourning of the people the conqueror entered. He plundered the temple of Jehovah, carried off its sacred ves- sels, and not only killed Zedekiah's sons be- fore their father's eyes, but afterward forever shut all other sights from the poor father by blinding him ; with the heated blade of a sword and carried him and nearly all of the people of Jerusalem to Babylon as captives. Habyluniaii Metliod of 8pwiring Captives e>2 BABYLONIA. Thus the unhappy Jewish nation that had been in bondage in Egypt, had wandered forty years in the desert, and fought bravely to maintain the inheritance promised by Jehovah to their father Abraham, again became slaves, as all the twelve tribes, except those of Judah and Benjamin, had before been made captive by Assyria, and settled in a far-away portion of her dominions. Nebuchadnezzar was not the man to forget the injury Egypt had done to him, and after three years further besieging Tyre, and taking it after a brave resistance of thirteen years all told, he led his army into Egypt, dethroned the Pharaoh who had encouraged the rebellious Jews, placed a friend of Babylonia, Amasis, over the Egyptians and continued a career of conquest over the whole of Northern Africa. He removed colonies of Jews, Egyp- tians and Phoenicians from their own country to distant portions of Babylonia, and brought thousands of captives to Babylon. We are apt, in thinking of a great con- Musiciao with Lute. Queror, to remcmbcr only the glory of his conquests, and to forget the sorrow and desolation that followed in his track, of the lives wasted antl the miseries of those subjected. These woes are sad enough in our own times, when men lay some claim to humanity, but they must have been dreadful in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, for he was a cruel and bloody-minded tyrant, to whom the groans of conquered people were sweet music, and who sought by the horrible nature of the revenge he took upon rebels, to so terrorize his provinces thaJ they would remain faithful. As I have said before, Babylon was famed for its learning before the fall o) Nineveh, and in Nebuchadnezzar's time its magnificence was celebrated throughout the whole world, and it was called the "City of the Gate of God." The city was built upon both sides of the Euphrates, covered about 150 squart miles of land and round about it on every side, for it was nearly square, Nebuchad nezzar caused his captives taken in war to build a wall nearly a hundred feet high forty feet thick and something over fifty miles long, measuring entirely around the city. Upon this great wall of brick were towers that served as guard-houses and sentry stations, and twenty-five bronze gates on each side were opened in the morning and closed at night. 1 can not believe that the whole space witliin the walls was as closely covered with houses as in our modern cities, for it would have contained four limes as many people as there are in Paris now, and twice as many as live in London, the greatest city of the wofld. Some of the ground must have served as fields and market gardens, that in case of siege BABYLONIA. 63 Eabyloulan Rep"CBentatlon of Baal. would have supplied fresh fruit and vegetables to the citizens. It must have taken very huge moulds to cut the bronze gates of the walls, and how it was done' we do not know, but that it was done proves that the Babylonians were as skillful workers of large masses of crude metals as they were of smaller quantities of gold and silver. Crossing the Euphrates were drawbridges which in the day- time connected the two portions of the city, but at night swung open. These bridges were set upon stone-piers sunken deep in the river bed, clamped firmly together with iron and lead, and were not very different from those in use in our own times. Beside these bridges there was a tunnel under the river twelve or fifteen feet from floor to roof, and about the same width; and thus you see that the Babylonians made practical use of their knowledge of mathematics in ways hitherto unknown to the ancient world. The walls of Babylon were wonderful in their strength and thickness, and in the city itself Nebuchadnezzar caused two great palaces to be built upon opposite sides of the river, and repaired and beautified an old temple to the gOd Bel, making it the most celebrated lor its splendor in the world. This temple was surrounded by high brick walls, and was so set that the corners of its square foundation pointed exactly to the four points of the compass. It was built of eight stories, each one smaller than the one below it, and the building, when it was finished, was of the shape of a pyramid. Each of these stories was thirty-six feet high, reached by broad winding stairs, and midway up the long ascent was a platform or resting place. Each story served as the place of worship of a separate god or godess, and lead- ing from the central room of each story were arranged around the square the dwell- ings of the priests who attended upon the shrines. The Chaldaians were planet worshippers, and so they made this temple both upon the outside and inside, represent the place each planet occupied in the Zodiac. The first story was the shrine of Saturn, and as Saturn is so far from the earth that it is almost beyond the reach of light from our sun, and could be but faintly seen through the imperfect telescopes of the Chaldgeans, — for as they made such good glass, they no doubt made telescopes. The outer walls of the first story were made black by a coat of bitumen, and black was probably used as the gloomy planets appro- priate color in the decorations of the inner walls. The planet Jupiter gives a bright orange light, as you nave perhaps noticed, and the bricks of the second story, the shrine of Jupiter, were a bright orange color. The third story was sacred to the planet Mars, which was supposed to rule the lives of warriors, and hence its bright red color was imitated in bricks burned fiery red, but these three lower stories were entirely eclipsed in splendor by the fourth, the one sacred to the sun, for both its inner and outer walls were covered all over as were its floor and ceiling with plates of gold hammered to the thickness of a finger nail, and burnished as smooth and bright as summer sunlight on the yellow o-rain fields of the Chalda;an valleys. How many hungry and weary slaves as they hammered these plates must have secretly cursed in their hearts the folly that decorated thus temples to the gods of bloodshed, crime and cruelty, while thousands of their fellow human beings were 64 BABYLONIA. lacking the necessities of life on account of being compelled thus to gratify the ambition of their king, who probably cared quite as much for the envy of foreign nations as he did to please the deities, and who finally in his pride and vain glory even declared that he himself was a god before whom men trembled. \ enus was represented bj- the story above the sun, and after the walls were built of the story sacred to her shrine intense heat was applied in some way so that the bricks were of the dull blue of slag or meltetl glass. The moon's shrine was covered all over with plates of silver as the sun's was of gold, and above the seven other story's towered the shrine of Bel, a square altar of solid masonry covered all over with beaten gokl and approached by a winding stair- way leading around the outside. The gold and silver images, the precious vessels and altars where sacrifices of hundreds of victims were daily offered that were within this great temple, cost the whole wealth of many conquered people, for Nebuchadnezzar made them bear the expense as well as the labor of the great works with which he enriched Babylon. Seen from a distance this rainbow-hued tower must have been impressive, while near at hand it excited admiration and wonder which was not at all diminished by sight of the splendid offerings borne daily to the temple by the rich, and the dignity of the officiating priests who lived in a magnificence and state equalled only by the king. Xo slabs of marble or alabaster, cut and painted like those that adorned the inner walls of the great buildings of -Assyria, were used in this temple of Bel or in any of the palaces and temples of Babylon, but the bricks were stamped with figures forming pictures of hunting scenes or the triumphs of Nebuchadnezzar, and with sentences which related that they were made by Nebuchadnezzar, and these are found to this day in grass-grown mounds that are the heaped ruins of palaces and temples. This stamping of the bricks was done with metal or wooden moulds, hav- ing the subjects raised on their surface, so that when they were pressed firmly down upon the wet clay a sunken impression was left. This was the birth of the art of ])rintingto which weowe so much of our civilization, and the Babylonians became celebrated printers, although their books were only clumsy terra-cotta cj'linders or -. square bricks. They printed not only these but made beautiful printed muslins or calico, printed borders of leaves, flowers, or fantastic animals and geometric figures upon their linen robes, and even printed silks and woolens in complicated patterns as a substitute for the hand Babv.on.an Brick with stump. cmbroiderics which thev executed with such dainty skill, and these, as well as their fine carpets, were the forerunners of the present Eastern proficiency in fabrics and needle-work. Although the palaces and temples of Babylon were so fine and gaudy, built upon high mounds to be above the insects and dust, and with walls thick enough to keep out the heat, I am afraid that the houses of the common people were poor protection against the burning sun of summer, or the damp of the rainy season. The houses of the rich, although they were painted in bright colors, inside and out, and were often three or four stories high, were hardly less flimsy, for they were built of palm- wood, and the pillars that supported the arched roofs were the stems of palm-trees, twined with twisted rushes, that were then covered with stucco and painted. BABYLONIA. Bjibjiouiau Wuniun Grinding Corn. Perhaps if the Babylonians had possessed stone for building purposes, as did the Egyptians, they, too, would have become sculptors and noted builders, but they had only palm-wood, which is too tough to be readily carved, and brick for building. Their attempts at sculpture are so clumsy that they are much like the school-boy's achievements with jack-knives, although some of their seals and engraved gems have small representations of birds and animals that are fairly good. Notwith- standing their lack of artistic taste, the Babylonians were an intellectual people, that is to say they (■ excelled in literary and scientific knowledge, and in the construction of practical works like drains and bridges, and they found out many natural laws. The clock, ticking so soberly upon the mantel, and the watch in its case, are descendants of a Chalda;an time-piece called the Clepsydra. After the Chaldean astronomers had mapped out the heavens and watchetl the motion of the heavenly bodies until they could divide the day pretty well into periods, they made two kinds of sundial, which marked the day when the sun shone, from the time the sun rose until it crossed the meridian, or noon line, and from that time until it set, but they still had no means of telling the time at night, or in the cloud"- days of autumn and winter. It was inconvenient enough, even in that sunny land, to depend wholly upon the sun as a time-keeper, so after much study and experiment, — and it is astonishing how much study and experiment have gone to perfecting the many convenience of our modern daily life, — they made the Clepsydra or water-clock. This queer clock was made of a certain number of tubes filled with water, poised so the water was poured out slowly drop by drop, and they were marked in such a way that one could tell at a glance by the height of water in them what hour it was, the dropping water being received in a tube also marked. The Chalda:an priests studied the weather, too, and could foretell changes and storms nearly as well as our own signal service, and made a sort of almanac. Mixed with their real knowledge was much pretended wisdom, and as humbug has been powerful in every age of the world, they probably gained more fame from the pretended than the real wisdom. Hundreds of these priests attended upon Nebuchadnezzar in peace or war, and gravely professed to be able to tell him the meaning of signs and omens, and of course, as there are no such things as "signs and omens," they attached a meaning to the thousand little incidents of dail}^ life. Nebuchadnezzar never undertook anything without consulting the priests, so you see the priests were the real power behind the ignorant and superstitious king, and made him do as they liked. If the king dreamed, no matter how silly a mess of nonsense resulting from over-eating and undr exercising, one of the priests must be called to "interpret" the dream, and if he said it meant calamity, othes priests were called to "charm" away the evil. The people were as superstitious as the king, and like him paid professional "dreamers" to dream for them, and other priests, for only priests were supposed to be first-class "dreamers," to "interpret," so the priests grew wealthy practicing such frauds, and were a power in the land. If a stray dog got into Nebuchadnezzar's palace and crawled under ""'"'""Z^Zr ""'"'' 66 BABYLONIA. Arms anil Annor. his chair, the city was seized with consternation, and the priests were called to remove the evil influence which they said threatened the empire, and if a piece of furniture fell in the palace and was broken, it was supposed to fjortend dire disaster, which only the priests could prevent. How they managed to avoid contradicting each other I can not saj', but I suppose they wrote the ridiculous "omens" and the interpretations they had given them on their cylinders, and this was a part of the "lore of the Chaldees" which they taught to those who desired to become priests. The priests no doubt studied carefully cause and effect, and kept themselves more thoroughly posted on national affairs than any other class of people, and were thus able often to be of real use in preventing the king from foolish actions. At last Nebuchadnezzar discovered what frauds his priests were. lie dreamed a dream and forgot ail but its vague outline. \3 Reasoning rightlj' that pri"sts who could interpret dreams should be able to tell the dream itself, he called them all to the palace and bade them tell him at once his half-forgotten dream, or die. The priests were in great terror. One ventured that the king had dreamed a certain dream, but Nebuchadnezzar struck him dead because he had not told him anything near the truth. Then all were afraid to hazard any guesses, and had not the 1 lebrcw prophet Daniel, who had been told by Jehovah in a vision the details of the dream, restored Nebuchadnezzar's good humor by relating it to him with the interpretation,, the priests would all have lost their heads. As it was, Nebuchadnezzar soared their lives, although he never again tielieved in them. Nebuchadnezzar was almost as great a builder as were the old pyramid kings of Kgypt. Besides the palaces, the temple to Bel and the great wall of which 1 liave told you, he dug a great many canals, one of which was 400 miles long, for the use of merchant traffic boats; made roads; constructed wharfs along the Euphrates and break-waters on the shores of the Persian Gulf, and made a great reservoir in Babylon to hold the waters of the Euphrates for the use of the citizens. To fill this reservoir he turned the waters of the river from their course, then paved the bed of the stream with brick so none of the waters might be lost by sinking into the ground, then placed gratings that could be raised and lowered at the points where the river penetrated the city walls. When ill was completed he turned the water back again and the reservoir was filled. Another great reservoir that was 140 miles in circumference, and iSo feet cieep, he caused to b;^ dug in the Chal(l?ean plain, to hold the overflow waters of the Euphrates and Tigris, for irrigation in the hot, dry weather. Nebuchadnezzar founded two cities on the Gulf, made a levee along the Tigris to protect the fields from floods. He taxed most oppressively the provinces for these works, which were of no benefit to them at all, but useful to the city of Babylon and neighboring cities only, and making the people from whom the money was wrung hate Babylonia most heartily, and always ready to revolt at the first appearance of a foreio-n enemy. One of the most singular works of Nebuchadnezzar was an artificial mountain which he built for the pleasure of Amyitis, and which you have probably BABYLONIA. 67 heard called "The Hanging Gardens." Amyitis, having been reared in a mountain- ous country, pined for the hills of Media, and wearied of the plains of Chakkta, so Nebuchadnezzar selected the site upon the borders of his great Babylonian reservoir, and near the banks of the river, and reared the pleasure grounds of his queen upon tiers of arches and solid pillars of masonry twenty or thirty feet thick. The structure was built in five stories, each fifty feet high, and each square and a little smaller than the one below it, the projecting part in each case being a wide platform with steps leading to the platform above it, giving the mountain a pyra- midal shape. These platforms were like the rest of the masonry, made twenty feet thick, of reeds coated with bitumen, afterward covered with solid brick work, and over all a coat of lead, and each story was supported by fifteen hundred pillars. The top was quite extensive, and was covered, as were the platforms, with rich earth for several feet in which were planted groves of trees and flowers, and shrubs of every kind known in the East, and were watered from the reservoir by a sort of screw. Here the Median Amyitis sported with her maidens, bathing in the artificial rills and lying upon the grass amid the flowers in the cool morning or evening, and looked over the great city and wide plain. Here, too, when the deadly winds blew hot from the desert, and the windows and doors were shut tight in the city to keep out its blighting breath, naked slaves toiled amid the flowers and shrubs, bearing water to them that they should not wither, until they fell under the power of the desert winds and died. Then others took their places and in turn panted out their life in the stifling heat, but what were the lives of these slaves to the queen, when compared with the preservation of one of her rare shrubs! It was death to a stranger to enter these gardens unbidden by the queen, or without the signet of the king, and its groves and glades shadowed only those upon whom royal favor had fallen. Nebuchadnezzar was warned in a dream that God would remove him from his kingdom for seven years, on account of his pride and vainglory, and sure enough on the very day when he boasted that he was a god, and related how wonderful were his works, he was stricken with a very dreadful form of insanity, which learned physicians call lycanthropy. As is usual in such madness, Nebuchadnezzar imagined himself an animal, could not talk, remain in a house or eat his ordinary food, so he was kept in an inclosure in the palace garden, eating grass and herbs. Amyitis ruled in his stead until the seven years were over. With his heart humbled by his affliction, Nebuchadnezzar, when he recovered, resumed his sway and lived to be an old man of eighty, dying in the forty-fourth year of his reign and leaving his great empire to Evil Merodach, his son, who treated the captive jews with great kindness, but was dethroned and killed by his brother-in-law Nereglissar, in less than two years after Nebuchadnez war-worn and weary heart was stilled by the hand of death. Nereglissar lived but three years to enjoy the fruit of his crimes, his son, a mere boy to whom he left the empire, was put to death b\ the Babylonian nobles, who claimed that he had a bad disposition, and if he was at all like his father no doubt he had. Nabonadius, a general and noble. k'as selected as king thereafter, and he married the widow of Nereglissar, Bal)ylonian MuBician. 68 BABYLONIA. the mother of the murdered boy, who, being the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar, gave her husband a sort of legal claim upon Babylonia, although the poor creature probably was unwilling enough to marry him. Nabonadius was scarcely established upon the throne before Media fell into the hands of Cjrus, and the eastern provinces rebelled. The Lj-dians, whose friendship had been gained long before, now had a king named Crcesus, who saw with alarm the growing strength of Persia, and sent messages from Sardis, his capital, to Baby- lon, proposing that Babylonia and Lydia should unite against Cyrus. Nabonadius at once agreed and signed a treaty with Lydia, and then began to prepare for war, knowing that Cyrus would sooner or later invade Babylonia. He built a high thick wall on each side of the Euphrates, making the two parts of the city each completely walled around, and pierced these river walls with gates which were shut at night. 1 le then raised a great army, which he drilled for the tm,. c-.p:ur. „t j-.a.,yi„„ i,v c yn,.. struggle. The king of Lydia soon plunged, unaided, into war against Cyrus, and was conquered, and it was fourteen j^ears after that event before the; Persian king was sufficiently sure of his power in the north to invade Babylonia. The ancient idea of war was either to measure at once strength with strength, or to wear out by a siege the patience of the foes, and sometimes both a great battle and a long siege were necessary. As Cyrus came near to Babylon it is said that one of his sacred white horses was drowned in crossing a river between the Euphrates and Tigris, and to revenge him- ^ self upon the stream he camped tht;n and there to punish the river by cutting 360 channels to disperse its waters, and thus the whole winter passed away. I suspect BABYLONIA. 69 Cyrus only kept his soldiers busy cutting channels to keep them from growing lazy, and to give them a practice in digging that might be useful to them hereafter, and that he pitched his camp in the warm dry valley to wait until the wet season in Babylonia should be over. As soon as spring broke, Cyrus marched toward Babylonia, and was met by Nabonadius and his army. A dreadful battle was fought, in which the Babylonian king was defeated, and retired with half his army to a strong walled town south of Babylon, while the other half returned to Babylon, where Belshazzar, the son of Nabonadius, had been left in command with royal authority. If Nabonadius thought by dividing his own army to divide that of Cyrus, he was, mistaken, for the Persians ramped before Babylon, and tried every possible means of taking the city. Belshazzar, although only nineteen years old and unskilled in war, had a warrior queen for his mother, and Nitocris was the true child of her great father Nebuchadnezzar. She advised him wisely, and he took her advice, and the Persians were almost in despair when Cyrus, at the time of the feast of the god Bel, marched off up the Euphrates valley, leaving only a few thousand men before Babylon. Thinking the Persians had given up the attempt to take the city, the Baby- lonians, already reveling as usual at the Bel feast, gave themselves up to the wild mirth and feasting, but while they were carousing, Cyrus, out of view from the watch towers, had set his vast force at work with spades cutting the channel of the Euphrates to dimin- ish the water so the army could march in the bed of the stream back to the city. As soon as the water was low enough, which was not long, they were all on their way back to Babylon, and, protected by the darkness, were soon again ready to join their comrades. In Babylon drunkenness and debauchery had succeeded the feast. The gates between the two portions of the city were open, and revellers, garlanded with flowers, went singing and shout- ing through them, while many of the soldiers that should have watched on the walls half-sodden with wine, left their arms in the watch towers and joined in the general mirth. In the meantime the Persian watchers at the water-gates listened anxiously to observe whether the sinking of the water had been observed inside the town. When they heard only drunken shouts they passed in silently, protected by the dark- ness and the banks of the streams, stationed themselves at the river gates, threw open an outer gate to their friends, raised the war shout and fell upon the Baby- lonians burning, slaying, and plundering. Belshazzar hhnself was in the midst of a thousand nobles, drinking toasts to Bel out of the golden vessels taken from the temples by his grandfather, Nebuchad- nezzar, when his doom was written upon the wall in letters of fire there by the hand of Jehovah. Cyrus allowed his soldiers to plunder to their heart's content, reserving, of course, the richest spoil for himself, and after burning some or the temples and dis- mantling the walls, received the submission of Nabonadius, who yielded up all his treasure with his kingdom. King nnntiiiK Li.m. 70 BABYLONIA. Thus, proud Babylon, like Memphis, Thebes and iNineveh, bowed her neck to the conqueror, antl but 539 B. C, 88 years after Nabopalassar gained the throne, she was shorn of her diadem of glory, and while widows wailed over their dead, and the priests mourned over her desecrated altars she was fettered by foreigners, never ao-ain to know the sweetness of freedom. BaDylonlan Tttreshlng Wagon. mA '^%-^4:^^ i 'L\ "\'^'k " 'i Yk ''\ '"Jt 'I'Jh '■ '\ rnJ^J^--^ iN iN-^iNJNJNi-^^-JN-it^ M jN -jN JiN ^N - N JN ^W -jN j^^ j»" ^)m ^H ^ ^N, ^N ^N ^H ^>" -jiH ^^ ^'H ^H",^)™ .J T, V 1 ^ ij L ^ ^ >' '-^'^ "^^ ^!l' ,!^T ;?vrjMl LTHOUGH the Persian Empire did not exist until after the con- quest cf Media by Cyrus, Persia had been a prosperous kingdom for a long time before that great king was born. It was small and unimportant, a "scant country and a rugged," in many portions with dreary salt deserts and bleak, bare mountains, brown and desolate, frowning down upon the fair vales, where lovely flowers grew and bright birds sang in orch- ards filled with ripening fruits or fragrant blossoms. Across these mountains, roads were cut, winding about the edges of deep preci- pices, and crossing wild gorges, upon bridges of a single span. But nature had gifted the long narrow valleys with such rich fruitfulness, mildness of climate and wealth of verdure, that the Persians loved their land with passionate devotion, in spite of its dreary plains and arid highlands, finding in its cloud-piercing summits and roaring torrents inspiration for song and weird legend. Like the Medes, the Persians were Aryans, and their religion, customs and laws, were much the same for a century, after the fall of Nineveh, when their history is first known, and they used the same cuneiform alphabet that was common in Media. Like the Medes, too, the Persians were not a literary people, and although papyrus grew wild in Persia, and was cultivated in fields because its roots'were good for food, the only scrolls that were written were those containing the chronicles of their kings. The education of a boy in Persia in the days when Cyrus was young was not one which was calculated to encourage literary tastes, and I doubt whether he ever, in the whole course of his life, learned to read or write, for the priests did all the read- ing and writing that was done. Nevertheless, although there were neither school-books nor school-houses, boys were very carefully educated, but girls were sadly neglected, for it was not thought necessary to teach them anything, as it was supposed that their mission in life was to look pretty, dress as finely as possible, and amuse their male relatives when they felt disposed for amusement. Every Persian man married as many wives as he could afford to support, and although the women quarrelled among themselves, they were kept in rather strict order when under the eye of the favorite wife, or the chief male slave of the household. Eor the first five years of the boy's life he was taught nothing at all except per- /-' PERSIA. fersUu Woman of the Ilari'm haps the nursery rhymes and stories which all mothers, savage or civ- ilized, croon to their little ones, but when he was five years old his father began to train him. Every day in the year the little lad was obliged to leave his bed in the cold grey of the morning, just as dawn was breaking. No matter whether the weather was hot or cold, whether the rain fell, the snow whitened the ground or the dew lay in pearly drops on the grass, the boy was obliged to leave his warm, snug bed, plunge iH into a cold bath, rub himself briskl3^ dress himself, and, accom- panied by the slave who had charge of him, go out in the open air to the place where other boys of his age were assembled. There he was exercised in running, slinging stones, shooting with the bow, and throwing the javelin. 1 le received no food until mid-day, and then he must eat enough to last him twenty-four hours, for he got nothing more until the same time the next day. When he had kept up this course for two years, if he lived through it, and a great many did not, the boy was taught to ride. Now all V)oys love to ride, but this riding of the Persian boys was not merely a canter over a smooth stretch of turf, or a gallop through level lanes and plea.sant meadows, but at full s])eed he dashed up hill and down hill, jumped off and on his horse while in full career, as you have perhaps seen circus riders do. He also learned to shoot the bow or throw the javelin, and manage a long spear while in the saddle, ^-un- dertakings which a boy of seven these days would hardly think possible of achievement. As soon as the Persian boy learned to manage his horse and weapons tolerably well, he was allowed, or compelled, to go out hunting with the other boys under training, commanded by one of the king's officers. This officer led the boys into all sorts of danger to make them fearless, and caused them to march miles and miles in the burning heat of summer or the bitter cold of winter, for in some parts of Persia heat and cold were both extreme in their season. At night they slept on the bare ground with the blue sky and twinkling stars above them, and while lying under their blankets they heard the sighing wind in the tree-tops, or in the distant desert the cry of the hyena or lion. They thought nothing, these weather-toughtened lads, of plunging through an icy mountain torrent, but held their weapons high above their heads t(j keep them dry, and if they succeeded, cared little for the discomfort of wet clothing. They often had nothing to eat but the wild acorns, small bitter pears and various herbs and roots of the country through which they passed, with a substantial meal once in two days, and would have thought it a great disgrace to be accused of indo- lence, fondness for eating or fear of danger. When the boys were not absent on these hunting excursions they exercised in the morning, and in the afternoons were busied in learning to till the soil or in mak- ing nets, traps and snares, for wild animals, in fashioning bows, arrows and jave- lins. As "all work and no play" is no better for boys than all play and no work, they probably had many a rough boyish game with which they filled in the hours not given over to serious piu'suits. The only studying of set lessons was the listening to the priests tell about Ormazd and his angels, or relate legends of gods and heroes, which the listeners PERSIA. 7i ■were expected to remember, and in their turn relate. As many of those stories were dull enough, I doubt not that the boys found them the most wearisome part of their training. In one particular, at least the moral training of the Persians was admirable. They were taught that lying was the greatest of all crimes, and that upon truth all other virtues rest, as indeed they do, for a man who speaks the truth, lives true to his conscience and true to his God, needs no higher moral standard. The Persian love and practice of truth was famous among early oriental nations who were usually deceitful enough, and we are told that the Persians would neither buy or sell goods of any kind if they could avoid it, as trade is apt to make people exaggerate in explaining the virtues of their wares. Should a man make a promise, even were that man a king, he was considered forever disgraced and unworthy of respect if he broke it, no matter what disaster would result to himself or others should he keep his word, or what good would accrue from not keeping it. Indeed the Persian kings were forbidden by law to withdraw from their promises, and punishments for proven offenses were so certain that "fixed as the laws of the Medes and Persians," became a proverb When Persian youths were fifteen years old they were considered men, enrolled in the army and likely to be called upon to attend the king on for- eign expeditions. Their training for the trade of war, however, continued five years longer should there be no foreign ex- pedition callingthem to accompany their king. At twenty they were strong, hardy and muscular, accustomed to cold and hunger, afraid to face no danger, truth- ful, manly, and, we are told, noted for their personal beauty. Persian Dwiiiing With an army of such men no wonder that Cyrus conquered the world, and it was only when the youths were no longer thus trained that the empire of Persia fell, conquered as much by luxury as by the foreign foe. Every young man of twenty, in Cyrus' day, belonged to his country from that time until he was fifty. Those who were the sons of fathers of high rank became the body guard of the king, and lived at the capital, or were given employment as governors, messengers, secretaries or judges, in the provinces, while the youths of more common parentage were stationed in the garrisons in different parts of the empire. It is not at all strange that Cyrus, having been trained to manly sports and war- like exercise, should have felt deeply disgusted with the idle ease of the Median court, and have learned to despise the luxurious conquerors of his country. His youth and early manhood had been passed in Persia and, he had only been brought to the court of Cyaxares late in that monarch's reign, or early in the reign of his son, and had probably watched the decline of the martial spirit in Media closely, and bided his time to secure Persia's freedom. He knew that Western Asia could own but one master, and that either Baby- lonia or Persia must be that master. He resolved that Persia should through him, 74 PERSIA. become the dictator to surrounding nations. After he had overthrown the dominion of Astyagcs, and become the owner of the Median share of the Assyrian possession in land and slaves, gold and treasure, he turned his eyes toward Lydia, the richest empire in Western Asia. Croesus, the king, was rash enough to engage him with- out waiting for Babj'lonia'said, and he conquered himeasilj'. After putting down a revolt in Media, Cyrus subdued the Greek cities on the Ionian peninsula, turned his arms against the Eastern mountain and plains tribe that were in the habit of plundering unprotected portions of his empire, and punished them thoroughly. For fourteen years Cyrus marched forth from his capital every spring with his army, and came ever}' autumn loaded with the spoils of war. When he had thoroughly made himself master of all the petty kingdoms and wild tribes of Western Asia he turned his attention to Babylonia, and whtn by his capture of Babylon he made that empire his own, his sway was over a dominion made up of various tribes and nations occupying half as much territory as is com- prised in all modern Europe, and eight times as large as the Assyrian empire was in the days of Ashur-ban-i-pal. This conquest of Babylonia by an Ayran empire was the greatest event of anci- ent times, for it hastened the death of paganism and the growth of a civilization that paved the way for the performance of the greatest miracle of the ages, — the birth of the God-man, Jesus, and the dissemination of Christianity. Babylon was the oppressor of the Jews, and an example of wickedness in every way upon which the world looked and was tainted. Mer sins found imitators, and her paganism supported by a powerful and unscrupulous priesthood, had spread into Media and was likely to spread as the glory and fame of the city increased. Cyrus became deeply interested in the Jews when he learned that his coming and the destruction of Babylon had been foretold ages before by one of their prophets. He found in their religion much with which the creed of Zoroaster was in sympathy, and he not only gave them permission to return to Jerusalem, but encouraged them to carry their doctrine to every part of his empire. He saw in it, perhaps, a more powerful weapon against the pagan taint that Media and Persia had received than even the creed of Zoroaster. The enlightenment of the heathen world that has continued to our own times, therefore, began with the greatest achievement of the great Cyrus, the conquest of Babylonia. He died a short time after, battling against barbarians, and his body was borne to a rock-hewn tomb which he had caused to be built for him near Pasaganht. the old capital of Persia. Cyrus was a conqueror entirelj^ different from the usual type of ancient conquers, and be it said to his lasting glory, he was a warrior who was never cruel to a captured or conquered foe, a king who had none of the foolish pride of a tyrant, and a ruler who was at once a law-giver, father and model to the nation. Por centuries after his death Persia had reason to mourn for the goodness, gentleness and humanity of its first great monarch, and in all the ages of the world's history there have lived but few men who have had an equal share of military genius, resolution and courage. The good Cyrus thought that by leaving his empire to Cambyscs, his eldest son, and the government of several large provinces to Smerdis, his only other son, that he was providing justly for both, but neither was Persian Soldier. PERSIA 75 satisfied. Cambyses was a jealous and cruel man, and as soon as he was firmly established upon the throne he caused his brother Smerdis to be killed, but with such secrecy that it was never known whether poison or the dagger did the cruel work, and it was a long time before the fact of his death was disclosed. Cambyses knew that Cyrus had always meant to conquer Africa, and so he determined to carry out his father's plan, and Egypt, of course, was the first country that figured in his schemes of African conquest. Amasis was at this time Pharaoh, and knowing his proud temper, and think- ing it most unlikely that Amasis would grant his request, to pick a quarrel with him, Cambyses sent to him and asked him for his daughter, as a sort of secondary wife little better than a slave. Of course the request was insulting, but Amasis was too crafty to refuse Camby- ses outright, knowing a refusal equal to a de- claration of war, and he had no army ready to bring against the vast force of Persia. Therefore he sent to Cambyses an Egyptian woman of remarkable beauty, pretending that she was his daughter. This woman, Nitetis, perhaps thinking she would be returned to her home if she dis- closed the fraud, or it may be to revenge her- self upon Amasis, told Cambyses that she was not the Pharaoh's daughter, whereupon the Persian king, well pleased, no doubt, to have a cause of quar- rel, pretended to be furiously en rage tl against Amasis, and be- gan to get his army ready to start for Egypt. He sent rich presents to the Arab chiefs who ruled over the tribes in the desert, through which he was obliged to pass in reaching the Egyptian frontier, and made a treaty with their Sheikh. He bribed or compelled the Phoenicians to send a fleet of ships to join the fleets of Ionia, Cypress and Aeolis, which were tributary to Persia, and got together a large army. With his ships of war Cambyses knew the Nile would be open to him, and he could lay siege to the cities of Egypt both from the land and from the water. Finally after KING CYKI'S. 76 PERSIA. four years of preparation, he set out for Egypt, and when he had reached the Nile valley, desolated the whole land from east to west, and from the shores of the Medi- terranean to the Island of Elephantis, there was scarcely a house that did not mourn a son or brother dead by the sword of the Persian. At last the Persian army, having plundered all the cities and towns of Egypt. was about to be led by Cambyses against the rich republic of Carthage, in Northern Africa, one of the Barbary States which we know as Tunis, but the Phoenician fleet refused to have anything to do with the enterprise, for Carthage was a city that had been founded and peopled by Phoenicians centuries before. Unable to conquer Carthage without the aid of the fleet, Cambyses, reluctantly enough, aban- doned the idea, and sent instead fifty thousand men to conquer the oasis of Amnion, in the Libj^an -V desert. They must have perished amid its heat, I or been buried under a whirling column of sand, or in some way which will forever remain unknown met their doom, for never a man of thi-m was iieard I if more. Another and a more numerous army Cambyses jed him- I If into the desert toward Ethiopia, probably not knowing ^^"■i*^-'' that his fifty thousand would never return. After suffering unluld miseries of famine, heat and thirst, and losing half his army in the desert, the Persian king, vanquished by a foe against whom arrow and spear, fire and sword were powerless, turned back to Memphis. Discontent grew into murmuring in the Persian camp, and the Egyptians, when they heard of it, took heart. The priests declared that Tomb of cjruhut PasaKar.iiu.. one of thcir gods, Apis, had come to earth in the form of a white bull to help them, and their leaders formed a plan to rebel against the Persians. Cambyses, never a very moderate man, was sc much enraged on learning of the contemplated rebellion, that he put to death the captive, Pharaoh Psamenitis, — who had succeeded Amasis some time before the Persian invasion, — and then proceeded to show the people how powerless were the gods in whom they trusted. He stabbed the white bull, thought to be Apis, wqth his own hand, and caused every priest who had taken anj' part in caring for the animal, to be publicly whipped. Then he prohibited the worship of Apis under pain of death. Next he opened the tombs and e.xamined the mummies, which was considered great sacrilege by the Egyptians, but worst of all, he scoffed at the monstrous, ugly idols of the Egyptians, with their hawks-heads, cats-heads and bulls-heads, and took every one that he could lay hands on, broke them into small pieces with mallets, and while his army jeered and reviled them, made a public bonfire of their altars an 1 offerings, into which he threw the broken and defaced idols. When the Egyptian people saw that their outraged deities took no terrible revenge upon the Persians, they lost faith in them, and as Cambyses took no very gentle means to show them that he was their master, they bowed their necks to the Persian yoke. Cambyses had been gone from Persia quite a long time, and now thought it prudent to return, but the event proved that he had a'ready delayed too long, and in PERSIA, n - reaching his greedy hand out to grasp Egypt, he lost the great empire of Cyrus and his life. He had reached a certain point in Syria, and was resting one evening, after a day's march under a tropic sun, within his tent, when he was roused by loud shouting and the voice of a herald, proclaiming as he rode about, something that seemed to set the whole army in confusion. He listened and heard the herald say that Smerdis was king of the Persians, and that this army should no longer give allegiance to Cambyses. Of course Cambyses f knew that Smerdis was i dead, and that some im- ; postor was pretending to ^ be that prince, but when ; he heard that the man who had murdered Smer- ^ dis had declared him to ; be alive, he knew that a conspiracy had been formed against which he ^ would find it hard to con- tend. He knew, too, that his haughty and tyrannical conduct, his drunken- ness and ferocity, had made him hated, and that his unnatural mar- riage with his sister, Atossa, had shocked the whole nation. How it happened that Camby- ses fell upon his own sword and gave himself a fatal wound cannot be certainly explained, some historians saying it was (■rLmtiyses KiiiinR tuc r.mi Api-. accidental, others that he did it quite deliberately. The chances are that being a bloody-minded bully, tyrant and murderer, he was afraid to go back to Persia, and committed suicide to escape being buried alive or put to death in some bar- barous way that he richly deserved. The false Smerdis must have been a very bold villain, indeed, for he had a hard part to play. First, according to the Persian custom which provided that a king should marry the widow of his predecessor, he was obliged to marry Atossa, and as Atossa was the sister, or half-sister, it is uncertain which, of Cambyses and Smerdis, she would not only find out the cheat, but tell of it. To orevent Atossa from telling her suspicious of his identity, this false Smerdis, 78 PERSIA. who was really a Magus, or priest of the Median national religion, divided the palace in such a way that each wife was as completely isolated from all the others and from the outside world as if she had been in jail, and he made it an offense punishable with death for any one, except the slaves whose duty it was to attend the harem, to approach or address any of the w-ives of the king. The new king began to destroy the Zoroastrian temples, forbid the worship in the ancient Persian manner, and everywhere to displace the Persian priests, and put his brother Magians in their place. Me forbade the Jews to rebuild their temple, and did so many other things contrary to the plans and principles of Cyrus that the Persians became dissatisfied. Above all the false Smerdis kept himself almost as secluded as he did his wives, until the suspicions of the nobles were aroused, and it was whispered among them, in the frequent secret councils which they held, that an impostor sat upon the throne of the great Cyrus. The nobles were very cautious, and none of them liked to take the lead in a rebellion which, if unsuccessful, would cost them their lives, but at last there appeared in the capital a man to whom fear was unknown, — a man who had not been spoiled by the growing luxury of the nation, and who was destined to restore to the throne of Persia its first line of great kings, and this man was Uarius, son of Hystaspis, a blood relative of Cyrus, twenty-eight years old. Darius was twenty-eight years old, handsome, winning and brave, and had no sooner caught a glimpse of the king than he knew that he was not his cousin Smerdis. He at once put himself at the head of the conspiring nobles, denounced the impostor and called upon the Persians to support him as the rightful heir to the throne. The people flocked to his standard, and the Magus, deserted by all but a few troops, Hed into Media to a dreary fortress. )arius and his friends followed him, attacked and drove off his soldiers, md finally, it is said, Darius hacked off the head of the false Smerdis ,ith his o.wn hands, and carried it to the capital. So furious were the Persians over the fraud practiced upon th(-m by he Magus, that they killed every Magian they could find, and from sun- ise to sunset of the day of the death of the impostor king the bloody massacre continued, and ever afterward its aniversary was kept as a Persian Kiut ou Throne. solemu festlval by the Persians, during which no .Magian was allowed to leave his house between daybreak and suns(!t. When Darius first decided to act against the Magus, the heads of six noble fam- ilies who were probably relatives of Cyrus also, made an agreement with liim wiiich was binding upon all of their descendants and his. Darius promised that these families should be allowed to enter his presence unbidden, that he would choose his wives only from among their relatives, and granted them certain other privileges, which were in reality checks upon the power of the king. They promised in return to spare no effort or treasure in supporting his authority, and thus mutually bound together by solemn pledges king and nobles, and for the first time in the history of Asia, despotism was in a slight degree limited. Darius at once re-established the religion of Zoroaster, permitted the Jews PERSIA. 79 to proceed with the building of their temple, and undid most of the acts of the Magus, although for some reason the royal wives were always, from the days of false Smer- dis, kept closely secluded, and the law was preserved which made the punishment death to one who came unbidden into the presence of the king, except, of course, the six noble families already mentioned. Darius had hardly begun his reign when several provinces revolted at the . . ^ . _ , _ same time. The king dealt in the same way --"-:: ~ with every one of these rebellions — first sub- pershm war vessel. dued them, then chained to his palace door with his nose, ears and tongue cut off the person who had started the trouble, in order that all might see what rebels were to expect, then after the victim had stood thus for several days, publicly crucified him. Even Persia itself revolted under the lead of a man, who, notwithstanding the fate of the first impostor, declared hiniself to be the true Smerdis, and gathered about him an army. False Smerdis, number two, was defeated and treated like the common rebel that he was, mutilated and then crucified. When Darius finally settled all these revolts, he put into execution a plan to prevent similar uprisings. The Persian empire under Cyrus had been a collection of provinces, each only indirectly ruled by Persia, and constantly rebelling and being reconquered. Darius divided the whole empire into twenty or more satrapies or provinces, and over each of these he placed a governor to execute the laws, a secretary to keep the king informed of everything that passed, and a commander who alone had charge of the troops, so if any governor contemplated a rebellion he was discouraged by the fact that not a soldier was his and that his every movement was watched by two men, each jealous of their power. The tribute system Dlarius abolished, and in its place he imposed a fi.xed tax on land, making the burdens light upon the poor, and taxes on fishing, mining, and water for irrigating purposes, as all the rivers, seas and mines were property of the king. Darius established, too, a government messenger service, so that the reports of his secretaries might reach him swiftly. The main roads leading to the capital and their branches in the various provinces, were improved, guarded by soldiers to protect passengers from robbers, and post stations and good bridges constructed along their course. At the stations fresh horses and messengers were always kept in waiting, and when a dispatch was to be carried to the king a courier took it to the nearest post-house and gave it to a messenger, who galloped with it to the next, who gave it to another, who took it to the next, and so on by night and day until it was de- livered to the king, — not so bad a postal service in a country without railroads or telegraph. Along these roads were excellent inns, and they soon became main highways for commercial caravans, because they were safe from plundering high- waymen, of whom there were many in the empire, and towns and villages sprang up along the royal roads that in time became thriving, commercial centers. Darius was a greater statesman than any ancient king who preceded him, al- though, like Cyrus, he, too, was a warrior. 8o PERSIA. After he had arranged his empire to his satisfaction, he made an expedition to the East, explored the coast of Greece with a probable view to future European conquest, and then with nearly a million men set out to overawe the barbarous Scytiiians, who were a perpetual menace to his empire. This vast army, preceded by miles of wagons loaded with food, camp equipage and military baggage must have been a singular sight, representing as it did every portion of .the great conglomerate empire, as it marched forth along the royal road. Among the soldiers were dusky Nubians, Abyssinians and other Ethiopians, naked except for a lion or leopard skin about their loins, giants in size and strength, hideous with war paint and savage ornaments, marching to the movements of a drum, and uttering wild cries as they brandished their bludgeons of knotted wood, their javelins tipped with stone or their long spears pointed with antelope horns. In striking contrast to the Ethiopians were the slender-limbed Assyrians, armed with iron maces in their armor of quilted white linen. They carried on their arms huge but light wicker shields, which, when they were set up as a protection for the archer, rested upon a crutch something like the rest for an ordinary photograph frame. Arabs in yellow white woolen robes, Berbers in leather jerkins, East Indians in striped turbans and snowy linen garments, and Persians and Medes dressed much alike in felt caps, leather breeches, tunics and low shoes, carrying bows, quivers and pouches for stones, came in troops both horse and foot. In the middle of the marching line was a guard of a thou- sand horsemen, selected from among the Persians of rank, and following them a thousand foot-soldiers, the tallest, most beautiful and noblest born of the empire, attending the pure • hite stallions decked with gold and gems, — the sacred horses. Eight more milk white steeds drew the golden car containing the sacred -altar,, and then surrounded by ten thousand picked soldiers, horse and foot, rode the king, his purple robe, gold embroidered, and heavy with jewels extending to his feet; his collar of precious stones about his neck, and his curled and per- fumed locks surrounded by the royal cap bound with a blue and white fillet. In his hand he held his golden scepter, a long plain rod taper- ing to a point which rested against the floor of his chariot. The king sat, sloping his scepter outward, and at his side his chariot- eer with fillet bound hair, and without arms or armor, guided the single Volute cnpitai. pranciug stceds, while behind him stood the royal stool-bearer, the noble next in rank to the king himself. The Persian kings were fond of anointing their bodies with lion s fat, mixed with palm-wine, saffron and helianthus, and carried even when they went to war, the cases containing the alabaster boxes, which held unguents and perfumes for their toilet, and no doubt some chosen trusted slave, in the retinue of Darius, was master of per- fumes and sweet waters. At a distance of a quarter of a mile behind the king's "invincible" ten thou- sand were the remaining foot soldiers, cavalry and war-cliariots, the elephants, and litters containing the wives of the chief officers, and their baggage-mules bringing up the; rear. In passing through an enemy's country the baggage-wagons brought up PERSIA. 8i t^.. ■'. TSTTfJ^^jajK I -iB ■ i ■ "1 Jl.^ were lashed ,:^Tf5tr •K:^^^ the rear, while the cavalry formed the vanguard, and when at any time the long cavalcade came to a stream, rafts were made by men sent ahead for the purpose, and either the rafts or boats procured on the banks end to end to form a bridge. When forests were to be penetrated, the soldiers cleared a road with axes, and upon the entire niarch fleets laden with grain sailed as near to the army as possible. In every country through which it passed the inhabitants were forced to furnish bread for a meal for each man, and to provide a banquet for the king. imiucc ..t nanus tn,- Great. at porsepous. During the mid-day heat the army rested, and at night they encamped, always, if possible, in an open plain, and near water. If the Persians thought an enem.y was within a dozen miles of their camp when they halted at night, a ditch was hastily dug all around it, or bags filled with sand were piled up as breastworks, the soldiers, who carried shields, setting them up close together all around inside the heaped dirt of the ditch or the sandbags, and pitch- ing their tents close behind them, the other soldiers being posted in appointed places. All the tents were set so that they faced the East, the cavalry men hobbling their horses in front of theirs, and the king's or commander's tent in the center closely guarded. The Persians dreaded night attacks, and in moving through an enemy's country were so careful t^ guard against surprises that they never suffered disaster on that account. Sometimes a part of the army would be sent by water, and thus when Darius marched against the Scythians he sent iirst across the Euxine one of his generals to carry off prisoners of war from among the coast tribes, the Persians, who despised commerce, and were therefore not a martime people, securing their fleet from Phoenicia and the other coast provinces of the empire. This fleet of thirty vessels was made up mostly of triremes, which were decked boats rowed by three tiers of oarsmen, sitting on small seats arranged along the sides of the vessel, each one a little above and behind those below, and each rower having charge of but one oar, which was fastened about his wrist to prevent its slipping through the hole in the vessel, through which it was worked, into the water. These triremes had a mast and a square sail, and the rudder was two broad- bladed oars fastened together so that the helmsman could readily manage them, and their prow was a sharp iron-coated beak firmly braced with timbers which was used in battle as a sort of ram. As these vessels had a mast and square-sail, and were rowed nearly at as great a rate of speed as belongs to an ordinary steamboat, the crafts struck by the ram were almost sure to be sent to the bottom of the sea, and seldom with any damage to the attacking vessel. Upon the decks, level with the sides of the boat, was room for thirty soldiers, and these with the one hundred and eighty or two hundred rowers, who were soldiers also, made quite a formidable fighting force when driven to bay. Darius, in the pauses between his warlike expeditions, had caused to be PERSIA. built for him two great palaces, one at Susa and another at Perseopo- lis, ruins of whose platforms and of stairway's, with broad low steps up and down which twenty horsemen could ride abreast, still remain in a remarkable state of preservation, although twenty-four centuries have passed since they were built. Terraces and wide landings were placed at different points of the ascent of the lofty mounds upon which these palaces were built. a»id slender, elegant, beautifully carved stone pillars made of several blocks of stone, firmly clamped together with iron and lead, supported the wooden roof. These palaces must have been very beautiful, in the days when the Persian kings held court in their great halls, for they were adorned with magnificent carpets, tapestries and precious stuffs, and from their pillared porticoes were views of the lovely valleys and verdant hill slopes of the country. It is even thought that the Greeks, who were noted for the beautj' of their palaces and temples, got the idea of their buildings from Persia. Within these palaces that he had built, Darius rested from the fatigues of war for some years after the Scythian e.xpedition, passing his liuiihenued Capital. time whcn uot employed in cares of State playing at dice with Atossa, who had descended to him after he had killed her second husband, the first false Smerdis, and who had the unsual honor, if honor it was, of being the wife of three successive kings. The lot of a Persian I:ing was not such a pleasant one after all, for he was obliged to live in seclusion, eat his meals alone, and every dish was first tasted by his "taster" to see that it did not contain poison, — a not very cheerful occupation, it seems to me, for the man who did the tasting. Once in a great while the king gave a banquet of wine at which certain nobles were present, and politeness reqviired that they should all drink on these occasions until they were drunk. In fact the king was expected to get drunk regularly every day, and so he did in solitary state, attended by his cup-bearer, his "taster,*" and a slave called his "eye and ear," who was the official spy and tale bearer of the palace. Perhaps Darius whiled away some of the tedious hours by planing or carving wood, and no doubt being naturally energetic he often hunted the lion in company with his officers, riding far into the deserts and jungles as he had done long before when he was a boy in his father's province, of Hyrcania. In these hunts, no matter how exciting the chase, woe be to the officer who let his arrow tly at the game before the king had tried his skill, — death or banishment would surely have been the punishment for such an offense. When not thus engaged in outdoor sport or indoor amusement, a part of every day was given over to business, for a king, in spite of his high estate, his wealth antl dignities, is a hard worked individual, and would often, no doubt, gladly exchange his high estate for the humble peace and quiet content of an obscure common man. There are councils to be held, tiresome ambassadors to be received, complaints and messages to be read or heard, warrants to be signed, soldiers to be reviewed, and plans of public works to be examined and passed upon, and in an empire like that of Darius, where so much depended on the personal character and supervision of the king, there was no lack of serious work to be done. Greece, with unknown Europe PERSIA. 8: A beyond, may have figured often in Darius' dreams of future conquests, for many of the Grecian States had sent him tribute of earth and water as a token that they acknowledged him as their master, when he was upon his marcli into Scythia, and all appeared humble enough and sufficiently overawed by his power. Gieat indeed, then, must have been Darius' surprise and indignation when he was informed that the people of Ionia had rebelled. Headed by a Greek, and aided by Athens, the lonians had taken and Inirnt Sardis, the Lydian capital, that Cyrus had wrested from Croesus. Insulted Persia was not long in inflicting dire punishment upon the rebellious lonians. In the meantime, while they were being subjected, Darius employed an officer to say to him every day, "remember Athens," and when he had received the submission of Ionia he "remembered Athens," with fire and sword. At Marathon, a name ever glorious in Athenian history, his hundred and fifty thousand Asiatics were soundly beaten and dispersed by ten thousand Greeks, and the Great King's army was fain to retire as swiftly as possible to his own dominions. Egypt revolted soon after, and while Darius was pre- paring to lead an e.xpedition into Africa, the guest who enters unbidden, even the presence of kings, visited him, and bade him follow to that empire where kings and slaves alike are judged according to their deeds. In the sixty- third year of his age and the thirty-sixth of his reign, the alabaster coffin containing all that was mortal of Darius, son of Hystaspis, was deposited in the royal tomb, and under the sculptured pictures of the deeds which he had done, and the mystic symbol of Ormazd, it was laid away and its repository sealed with a block of stone. Xerxes, the son of Darius and Atossa, had not been educated as was his father and Cyrus, but had grown up in the ease * and luxury which was now common to the rich and great in Persia. His body had not been trained to warlike pursuits, nor his mind to the con- sideration of serious questions, but when he became king the great deeds of his ancestors inspired him to make the effort to hold and e.xtend the domin- ions they had bequeathed him. Unskilled as he was in war, and formidable as were both Greece and Egypt, he had been king but a year when he determined on the conquest of both. Egypt, unhappy country, the prey of conquerors, yet ever in her pride striving to break her fetters and be free, again felt the iron hand of war, and again yielded. Xerxes and his army marched back into Asia, to plunder and destroy in the city of Babylon, for, uncertain of the prowess of the young king, and taking advantage of his absence in Egypt, Babylon revolted, as it had done in the early nart of the reign of Darius, and was again subdued. As soon as he had reached his capital Xerxes commenced to prepare to move against Greece, and for four years everything that his most skillful veteran generals could devise for the success of the enterprise was done. The provinces along the coast were made to furnish twelve hundred triremes and three thousand other ves- sels, while great stores of provisions were deposited along the proposed lines of march. When Darius sent his feet to support his army in Greece, a great storm off the Tunibof DarluB. 84 PERSIA. dangerous rocks of Mount Athos wrecked it, and as vessels were constantly being lost off Athos, Xerxes, to avoid risking his fleet, J^^l cut a canal through the Isthmus which joins Mount Athos to the %i/^.)^ mainland, and sent his vessels through it. Separating Europe from Asia there is a narrow strait about fortj- miles long and from one to four miles wide, which opens on the northeast into the Sea of Marmora, and on the southwest into the yEgean Sea. On your maps this strait is called the Dardanelles, and as you probably know, Constantinople, the >^ great city of Turkey, lies at the head of the Sea of Marmora. The Strait of Dardanelles is now protected by several verj' strong fortresses. In the time of Xerxes, however, there were no fortresses upon the shores of the Dardanelles, and no great Turkish city a little farther up, but beyond the strait, which in those days was called the Hellespont, W.f; lay the rich Greek communities. Xerxes determined to build a brieople that have e.xerted a more powerful influence upon the human race than any or all of the proud pagan civilizations, whose rise and fall we have noted, or shall trace in the future, for they were chosen of God for a peculiar purpose, a people to whom he revealed his word and gave his law that it might be made known to the whole world. This country we call Palestine, although in olden times it was a Hebrew kingdom. In the Bible the history of this remarkable Semitic race is clearly and beautifully related, and the lives and characters of the early founders of the nation, Jewish 'Wirrior In DaTld'e Reign. ASIA MINOR AND NEIGHBORING KINGDOMS. 93 \ r^N- Philistine ■«-;irrl(ir. /^TT',^ their adventures and vicissitudes are told in tlie Book of Genesis. You will remember from your reading of the Old Testament, how Joseph, the best beloved son of Jacob, was sold as a slave into Egypt by his wicked brothers, whose evil deeds he had told to their father, and you will remember, too, that Joseph became cup-bearer, chief cook, and finally by interpreting a dream of the Pharaoh, prime minister of Egypt. The lucky Hebrew, who was wise and clever, married Asenath, daughter of a priest of the sun, and as the Pharaoh's dream por- tended seven years of famine after the seven years of plenty, he caused granaries to be built throughout all Egypt and tilled with grain in anticipation of the coming calamity. The famine spread not only over Egypt but into adjoining countries, and finall}^ into that portion of the land where Jacob and his sons dwelt. Joseph's brethren came down into Egypt, where all unknown to them their brother had become a great man, rising daily in the estimation of the Pharaoh on account of the hard bargains he drove with the Egyptians, to whom he sold at an exorbitant figure, thegrain which he had made them contribute to fill the Pharaoh's granaries. When his brothers came into I^gypt after grain, Joseph subjected them to a series of trials, but after- wards relented, made himself known to them, and secured from the Pharoah a tract of land just below the delta of the Nile, as a place of residence for them ami all his father's household. The children of Jacob dwelt in this Land of Goshen for more than two hundred years, and we have already related how and why they left Egypt under the guidance of Moses, passed through the Red- sea and wandered forty years in the desert. Moses died and the Hebrews passed, under the leadership of Joshua, dry-shod, through the Jordan, as they had through the \ ,f Red sea. They entered the promised land of Canaan, which they Jewish iuk-8t.iua had many hard battles to obtain, but which they thoroughly conquered, and each of the twelve tribes were provided with certain tracts of land as their portion of the inheritance. Near neighbors to all these Hebrews were various Cushite tribes with whom they were on friendly terms, and from whom they learned the idolatries from which they had been so careful to abstain in Egypt. After being severely punished by Jehovah for their faithlessness after all that had been done for them, they returned to the worship of the true God who raised up several wise and righteous men to deliver them from their enemies. These men were called "The Judges," and their lives and works are recorded in the book of "Judges" in the Bible. Saul was the hrst king of the Hebrews, and the touching story of the affection of his son Jonathan, for David the shepherd lad, who by his conquest of Goliath, had brought himself to the notice of the Hebrew king, is one of the most charming narratives in the Old Testament. David married Saul's daughter, and the king, who heard on every side praises of David, sought to take his life, being jealous of his popu- woman of Cyprus. 3; 94 ASIA MINOR AND NEIGHBORING KINGDOMS. ^: AlH-lcut Jews. Tomb will, uoiiing Stone. larity, and fearing that he would make an attempt to sieze the throne. Samuel was at this time the High Priest of the Hebrew nation, and although Saul hated 'I , him, he feared him too much to ^ practice heathen rites. As soon "^^^^ as Samuel was dead -Saul turned to evil ways. He put the priests of ;- Jehovah to death, and established ;•; the religion of the idolaters instead > of the worship of the true God. " He then set forth to make war ^ upon the Philistine king with whom David had found refuge. David had, however, collected an army and marched to meet Saul, and it was within Hebrew territory that the Philistines routed the Hebrew army, killing Saul's two sons and so severely wounding Saul himself, that he committed suicide to escape captivity. David then returned to his own country, placed himself at the head of the tribe of Judah that acknowledged him as king, and began the conquest of the other tribes. In the long anil bloody civil war that ensued there was such cruelty shown upon both sides as has seldom been equalled. It has often been noticed that when people of the same race and country fight ap-ainst each other, they are always far more cruel than when they fight against foreigners, for added to the zeal for the cause there is bitter personal feeling which finds its expression in deeds of violence. David subdued the rebellious Hebrews, and was anointed king at Hebron, B. C. 1095, about the time that the last Rameses ascended the throne of Egypt, and when Tyre was in its pride under king Hiram. This king became the friend and all>- of David, and it was from Phoenicia that the builders came who aided the Jews in after years to build the temple at Jerusalem. David was a warrior whose deeds form the favorite theme of the Hebrew historian, but it is as a poet and minstrel that he shows the noblest qualities of his great mind. His - ; , psalms are the grandest outbursts of genius, melody and poetic expression in any language, and all other poetry is dwarfed by comparison. Gr(;at as was the Hebrew David, he was not free from human weakness, and for one of his crimes the Lord punished him heavily in his latter days, by allowing the miserable contentions of his sons. David had in his army a brave officer named Uriah, who was married to a beautiful Ilittite woman named Bathsheba. Now David had several wives, but he coveted the fair Bathsheba, and to secure her for his harem caused Uriah Volumcn or Manuscript lioll mill Scrluium 111 Tl 1 orcasc jorsMK-. j.^ \^^, trcacherously murdered. It was not bath Jewish Sbepberd. ASIA MINOR AND NEIGHBORING KINGDOiMS. 9.S sheba's sons who conspired against David, nor was Absalom his best l^eloved child, who sought the king's life, causing him to flee from Jerusalem, the offspring of the lovely Hittite, but the wise Solomon who suc- ceeded David when his forty years glorious but troubled reign was over, was the son of his sin and his repentance. During the reign of Solomon the city of Jeru- salem eclipsed any city of the ancient world in its luxury, and a great temple was built to Jehovah. So celebrated was Solomon for his wisdom that the kings of all countries, and even the peoples of the islands of the Mediterranean sent ambassadors to his court, and his fame went abroad to all nations. He inherited the literary tastes of his father, and his famous "song" is a beautiful specimen of his poetic genius. His wisdom has come down to us in the book of "Proverbs," and has been incorporatetl in the literature' antl language of nearly every civilized people. In reading the early history of the Hebrew nation we notice how their kings repeated the mistakes of former rulers, taking no warning from their fate, and reaping no benefit from their misfortunes. Notwith- standing .Solomon's wisdom, he was not wise enough to remain true to the faith of Jehovah, and allowed the heathen wives that he had taken to corrupt his religion until he became an idolater. When he died his kingdom was shaken by a great revolt. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin had remained faithful to the God of their fathers, and refused to be ruled by idolaters, or hold commerce with them. Driving them out of their sacred places they crowned Rehoboam, one of the sons of Solomon, their king, while the ten other tribes, all idolaters, established themselves in another part of the kingdom, with .Shechem as their capital, and from thenceforth were i^ known as Israelites, while the .Jewisli Court Yard Scent!. Other two tribes bore the name of Jews, — a name after- ward made famous by many glorious deeds, — a people whose faith and patriotism were synonymous into their very life, and whose history is a noble yet pathetic one. Israel's kingdom lasted two centuries, in which they were forever at war with Judah. Then at the request of the king of Judah, the Assyrians, under Tiglath Pileser II., stoning to Death Among the Jews. go ASIA MINOR AXD NEIGHBORING KINGDOMS. -f :i!i'l lj-vH«'S. invaded the country of the Israelites, carried off many captives, and compelled the remainder to pay tribute. Allied with Egypt Israel threw off the Assyrian yoke after a time, but Sargon, of Assyria, reduced its capital Samaria, after a two years siege, and carried off all its people captive to Nineveh, colonizing distant parts of the dominion with them, and for centuries speculation has been rife concerning the location of the "lost ten tribes of Israel," and their final destiny. Relieved from the harassment of idolatrous Israel, after the fall of Samaria, Jerusalem rapidly increased in power. In the contact with Israel the two tribes, J udah and Benjamin, had received an idolatrous taint, but under Hezekiah they broke the idols which had been set up by former kings, puritied the temple, and returned to their old religion. I'Lncouraged by the favor of Jehovah, Hezekiah, allied with Egypt, cast off the yoke of Assyria which had long borne heavily upon the people, and it was he against whom Sennacherib led the vast army that was smitten under the walls of Jerusalem by the "might of the Lord." When Hezekiah died after a righteous reign of twenty years, his son Manasseh succeeded him, and never was there a more wicked monarch than this son of a holy God-fearing father. He brought into Jerusalem all of the old idols, persecuted and killed the worshippers of the true God. He even put to death the poet-prophet Isaiah, who ne.xt to David, more enriched the poetic literature of the Hebrews than any other writer of the Old Testament. After God had given Manasseh more than twenty years in which to change his ways, and the king still remained hard of heart, we are told in sacred history that the king of Babylon was sent against him as a punishment for his sins, and he was carried into captivity. After a sincere repentance he was returned to his kingdom over which he ruled as a father as long as he lived. It was during the reign of Manasseh that the vacant kingdom of Israel was ^ colonized by Assyrians, who are known in I loly Writ as the Samaritans, and were as bitter enemies to Judah as the Israelites had been. The remaining history of the Jewish people is bound up with that of Babylonia, Persia, Rome, and the other great empires who were at different times its masters, and under them the Jews yielded one by one their rights, privileges and terri- tory, until the Holy City Jewish Warriors and King. Wumau of Bethlehem. ASIA MINOR AND NEIGHBORING KINGDOMS. 97 alone remained to them. With the energy of despair they defended their city and temple against the Romans, and when at last it was taken, the hope of the Jewish race was crushed to the earth. The land which was given to Abraham as an everlasting inheritance to his descendants under .Saracen and Turk has become a desert, and yet no people has been able to build up in Palestine a civilization in the place of the noble one that they destroyed. They have not reckoned God's promise in making the attempt, for his "forever" means not a few puny centuries, but until time ends, and Christian and Jew alike, who believe in Jehovah, believe also that the time will come when the chosen people of God who have been despised, persecuted and reviled, the by-word of nations and the scorn of the Jewish Monicr and chiw. Gentiles, shall be gathered together upon the land which was given to their father Abraham, for him and his seed. To the jews the Christian world owes a tlebt of gratitude, and although that debt has been ill-repaid, in all the course of the centuries, the nations who have per- secuted the Jews have suffered disaster and tinaldestruction. Whether this destruc- tion was inherent in themselves, or whether God permitted them for the ends of righteousness to allow their evil to bear its fatal fruit who can say? Our Christian civilization had Judaism for its foundation, and Christ, the Saviour of the world, was of the mortal seed of David. We should therefore view with rever- ence the faith of the Jews, admire the courage which has led them through all persecution and danger to adhere to its tenets, and be proud of the unconquerable spirit of a race whom adversity cannot crush nor despotism's harshest scourge cause to recant and sympathize with them in their dream of Jerusalem restored to oower and glory. JS 1,1 >u jifc-i:»,,!%_ Jewish Dwelling and Tent. ri/r),-i.ii}> f\ i'y^i, 'f, t.i tl l.ii.iJ.^<.i r i -r 1 1-^ 1-^ T ^ -1- . -I-. -i-i -I- i -r i •!• i -'- . -1- i n- > -1- i -r ^ 'l' t n- i •^ . -Ir I 1- . -1- . -i- . -1- i -^- 1 T ] •!• . T- . ^^ i ^^;-^ HEN THE Aryans beijan their ^rcat movement from the plains of Central Asia that resulted , in the peopling of Europe, Media and Persia, a s»*'^j?-^ ' certain portion of the race went southward over X-*^^ mountains and seas, until they came to the valleys of the Ganges, Godwari and other great rivers of the Southern Peninsula of Asia, and there they rested, conquering the Cushite people they found, making them slaves, and founding a new empire. l-'ully three thousand years before Christ came to earth, this Aryan people crossed the Indus, and those three thousand years are centuries of mystery, for although this branch of the Aryans, along with their other advances in civilization had an alphabet and written books perhaps a thousand years before the time when we first hear of them, they wrote no history, and thus left no such rich heritage to posterity as did the other great peoples of antiquity. In all history the priests of the nation are the first class that come to be recog- nized as a power, for they are the outward expression, the mouthpiece, as it were, of that hope of immortality which is so deeply implanted in man's nature. They are the link which binds the seen to the unseen, the interpreters of the will of the gods. Often these priests were mere pretenders, and often they had discovered seeds of truth, and among the Aryans they were usually worshippers of one unseen god whose powers and qualities they tried hard to make the people comprehend. The priests of the Aryan tribe that peopled India, had a power which belonged to no other priesthood in the world, for as long a time as they exercised it, because they took care, in the infancy of the nation, to plan a political system which should be a religious system as well, and would perpetuate their intluence. To this end they divided the whole nation into classes or castes. All originally were incorporated in the nation except the conquered Cushites, who chose to what class they would belong, but when once the choice was made it could not be changed, and the people of one class could not associate with any of the others upon equal terms. The sons were compelled to follow the business of their father. Parecc Merchant. INDIA. 99 and no crime, not even murder, was considered so great as a failure to comply with the rules of caste, and any one who broke those rules was con- sidered an outcast whom it was sin to notice or even look upon. As the priests made this clever plan, which allowed civilization to advance to a certain >^ degree, and there remain — neither going backward nor forward — they of course made the priestly caste the ruling one, and granted them pri\ ileges that were given to none of the others. The priests could be punished for no crime, could not be taxed, and held all the offices of trust in the gift of the king, ami thus became even more powerful than the monarch himself, who could not rule without them. How the worship of the one God in India finally became the most degraded form of idol worship we can not tell, but probably at first the people could not comprehentl an unseen God, and when they found by contact with the Cushite people, whom they coiK^uered, that they worshipped images which were symbols of their gods, they, too, began to make images, and finally from worshipping God in the form of a symbol, worshipped the image itself. Rameses the Great, Darius and Alexander, each in turn invaded India, for the mild climate, fertile soil, and above ail, mines of gold, diamonds ami other precious stones, and its fisheries of pearl, famous from the earliest times, excited the greed of conquerors. So the Hindoos were subjected to many influences calculated to make them idolaters, and idolaters they became, the priests worshipping Brahma, and the other castes worshipping Vishnu, the pre.server, Siva the destroyer, and other gods representing the sun, moon and the elements of nature. Their Vedas, that oldest of sacred books, written in the ancient Sanskrit language, which was the written language of the Hindoos, taught that man had nothing to do with the past, and that his earthly existence was of no account, and onl}' his future state counted for anything. There were thus no rock-hewn sculp- tured tombs, no great buildings to make evident to posterity the skill of their builders, no historical tablets, cylinders, scrolls, or monoliths, and India gathered no wisdom from those who had lived and died in ages past, cared little for the present, and thought only of the future. It was no wonder, with such a social and religious system, that the soldier class should soon degenerate into idlers, that the mechanics and tradesmen shoukl ply their business con- tentedly, and that all should bear the burdens of the caste in which they were born without murmuring, looking for a heavenly reward, and life was a long sadness meekly endured to the majority of the nation, for when the prospect of advancement is taken away from men there is little spur to worthy labor. Women were considered as slaves by all classes, and were mere chattels or goods of their male relatives. They were neither educated nor respected. As women are the mothers of men, and so the moulders of nations, by slow degrees the nation became lowered morallv to the level of the mothers and lOO INDIA. Serpent Charmer. wives, fur thus does Nature revenge her broken laws. No doubt you have noticed that the nations of the world who exalt their women, cherish them, educate them and respect them, become the great nations, for they recognize that the dignity of manhood is in the protection of the physically weak, while the inspiration to noble deeds is the woman who stands as the ideal of domestic love, and of spiritual beauty, the unseen ])0\vcr for good behind the throne. Through nature, from the humblest flower that grows in the dark forest to the crowning master-piece of creation, every- where the male and female principle is seen, and in our own nature it is typified by the union of mind and body, soul and sense, spirit and substance, everywhere two great principles equal, and necessary to each other, making one perfect whole. This man}- of the ancient nations could not or would not recognize, and by degrading their women prepared-the way for inevitable disaster. The ancient Hindoos were a thoughtful and imaginative people, and were literary, too, in their way, for they wrote many lengthy poems and works speculating upon the future of the soul. The Vedas of which I have spoken was their sacred book, or rather ft)ur books of moral precepts in one, but it would be a hard task to explain what Braiiminism, their religion, really was, it is so complicated and mystical a belief. At all events, Brahma was the god of prayer, and of course worshipped devoutly by the priests, but the people of the other castes worshipped the various gods with self-inflicted torture, feasts, sacrifices and all the other rites of gross paganism, their idols being such ugly and misshapen creations of wood and stone that they are ludicrous enough to our eyes. Hindoo tradition relates that about twenty-five centuries ago there was born to the kingof Oude, in Northwestern India, and his beautiful wife, Maya, a son, Sid- dartha Gautamana, who was destined to free his nation from idolatry, and to estab- lish a great religion. This prince, from the time he was very young, cared nothing for the splendor of his father's court, but loved to go away into the shadowy forest and pore over the Vedas, fast, pray, and think about the mystery of life. The king was very much grieved over this tendency of his son, and, to win hin.i back to the world, surrounded him with beautiful and splendid things, gave him a lovely wife and everything likely to make him happy, but still Siddartha would retire to the forest for weeks together, and at last told iiis father that he had decided to become a wan- dering searcher after truth, a beggar, and that he wouUI never return to the palace until Ins soul had found peace. In vain the king pieaded with Siddartha; he was firm in his determination, and j^iutting on the humblest dress he went and dwelt with the Brahmins for seven years, practicing all their rarseeccmetei? or Tower of Silence. fasts and penauces SO earnestly that he became INDIA. lOi Iliudoo Picctah. noted far and wide as a holy man, and tlisciples flocked about him to imitate him. Siddartha, however, found no peace, and leaving the Brahmins went again to the forest to meditate in silence and alone. A long time he meditated, and one day when he had been sitting for twenty-four hours motionless beneath a spreading Bo tree, a reve- lation flashed through him that peace was to be found in unshaken knowledge of truth, the power of seeing the unchanging laws of the universe. The first fruits of this knowledge to Gautamana, who was henceforth called Buddha, "The knowing one," was that existence in any form was an evil, and that the only perfect state was that in which there was neither pain nor desire, and this state could be reached by meditation and prayer, antl by perfection in good deeds, preserving the worthy and destroying the evil. Love to one's kind, charity and tenderness, were the doctrines of the Buddha, and he went from place to place preaching, becoming the first missionary of history. Wherever his creed was accepted it refined and purified society and made men better. All of the great religions of the world have played a distinct part in preparing nations for the acceptance of the religion of the true God, and in the early days of the race men were spiritually like infants learning to walk. First they crept gropingly through superstition and error; finally they made feeble, faltering steps toward the light, until at last the mind of man, mellowed by ages of trial and searching, was ripe for the truth, and was able to comprehend the purpose of his own creation and his final destiny. The act of faith in itself, no matter if that faith is in an error, is ennobling, and in religion as in agriculture, building, government, law and literature, no one can read history aright who does not see the development ever from lower to higher, until at last we have reached, shall we say the highest point? Zoroaster, Buddha, Confucius, Christ, Mohammed, Luther, all were instruments of Divine will, as were, perhaps, other teachers of faith and practice whose names have long since perished from the earth. /Although no great religion spread so rapidly as did Buddhism, having no writ- ten scripture and giving man no God in whom to trust, but making the perfection of man everything, it gained no lasting holtl in any country; for who could be happy bound to a creed which makes annihilation its aim, and whose highest good is not to be. In Thibet and Ceylon Buddhism is still the national religion, although all of Eastern Asia and many of the islands near it have felt its influence in times gone by. The Buddhists, as a rule, gladly receive Christianity, which by the side of their gloomy faith is as the bright sun to a puny rush-light. I There are many stories told of Buddha, but of them all none holds a greater lesson than the one so beautifully related by an English poet who has made Eastern subjects a study. * ■n-ater-beanug ox. ■■'<■>&'■ *Sir Edwlu Arniild i!i "Thi' Light of Asia.' I02 INDIA. fr' .^Ji^ ^'i>fSS^^ y^^^y^ A young mother whose babe had died, clasped the ■^ KN dead child in her arms and in her sorrow went from :/ /^^ house to house vainly seeking some medicine to revive "^f^^^l it, unwilling to believe it was really dead. A wise man to _7^%whom the poor mother went, half-distracted, to ask for help, directed her to Buddha as one who would minister to the child, and to him she went and said: "Lord and Master, do you know any medicine good for my little one?" Buddha replied that if she would bring to him a handful of mustard seed, taken from a household that death had never entered he would restore the child, seeking thus to teach the mother that loss is common to the race and sorrow the portion of mankind. The mother went from house to house, but could tint! not one where death had never been, and returned empty-handed to Buddha, with a heart chastened and softened to learn the truth that "nothing earthly is lasting." Although during Buddha's life we are not told of any temples or elaborate cere- monials, in the centuries afterward there were many beautiful temples and shrines of Buddha in the far East, and the robes of the Buddhist priests and many of their practices so much resemble those of the Roman Catholic Church, that the earliest Jesuit missionaries in Ceylon, China and Japan could not at first believe that former missionaries had not taught them to the Buddhists, although it is now known that these same ceremonies were practiced by them long before Christ was born. Tiger Huutlug Id India. irw; m^M S34~>r:fc-:i 3 '-iife'-^.:--' llludixj DwelUug. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ x'^ O MOST of the inhabitants of the United States, the Chinese are a famiHar people, as they are engaged in commerce and industries of various kinds, and ministers from their nation to ours have for several years been sent to Washington. China is twice as large as the United States, and lies directly west of our country, being separated from it only by the broad Pacific and the Island Empire of Japan, and thus the oldest empire of the world and the first great republic are neighbors. When the pyramid kings reigned in Egypt, and Europe was a vast wilderness, China had an organized government, and had advanced sufficiently in civilization to be a commercial nation, for in the oldest Egyptian tombs Chinese bowls and vases have been found exactly like those made in China now. These were no doubt carried to Egypt by the early conquerors of the Nile valley, who had, even in those remote times, probably made voyages to China. Isolated as China is from other coun- tries, it must have taken the slow-going Chinese a long time to perfect pottery, and therefore the nation must have been old when Egypt was young. Indeed Chinese historians claim that China was settled ninety-six million years ago, but allowing for their extravagance and anxiety to prove themselves the most ancient people upon the earth, they can hardly justly lay claim to more than six thousand years' residence in China, for it was about that long ago that they left their home in Central Asia, and driving out the savage Tartars from Eastern Asia began to build cities and practice certain trades. The Chinese are a Semitic people, and in many respects differ from most of the other Semitic peoples of which we have any knowledge. They are a mixture of barbarism and civilization, ignorance and wisdom, and are probably to-day in appearance, dress and manners much as the Chinese have been for thousands of years. All the arts common in the countries of Africa and Western Asia and some of those considered an essential part of modern civilization have been practiced for ages in China. Printing, weaving, metal- Cbinese Coolie. ( Inuv-'f "^omaD (Jbiuesj lUeiCliaut. I04 CHINA AND JAPAN. working, ivory-carving and coin- ing money date back beyond their written history, and they made paper out of the bark of a certain tree boiled and mixed with rice flour paste, dug canals and artesian wells, almost as long ago. The Chinese manu- factured gunpowder and knew .Japum.seMan-8Sl,„e. ^£ j.j^^ cirCulatlon of the blood Shoe of .lapanese Woman. at least five hundred years before they were known in Europe and had printed books a thousand years ago. The first emperor of China, who we are certain was a real person, and not one of the impossible creations of the mind of the people, was Fo Hi. who reigned at least four hundred years before the first brick was laid in ancient Babylon. Fo-Hi, it is said, invented writing, instituted marriage, and divided the year into months, although it is not probable that either he or the kings who came after him invented the works that the Chinese historians say they did, for we know that writ- ing and all the other arts are developed slowly by the people themselves. It was probably during Fo-Hi's reign that the Cushites, perhaps the Phcenicians, first made a voyage to China, carrying with them their knowledge of astronomy, which gave the Chinese an idea of dividing the year. Tiie second emperor, we are told, taught his people how to till the soil, although it is not explained where he himself learned it. He taught them medicine, too, which we can more easily believe, for the Chinese science of medicine is so absurd that ^t might have been invented by a very ordinary person. It consists in so-called 'charms" in cauterizing, pricking with a needle and blood-letting, and therefore if the Chinese wlio are sick do not die of the noise of the "charmer," Ci from the other j^rocesses of the doctors, they either get well again or succumb naturally to disease. The third emperor of China was far more inventive, according to their historians, than those who preceded him, and must have been a greater genius than any living man before or since, for they tell us he invented clocks, weapons, wheeled ^^''''^^^'>>v. vehicles, ships, musical instruments, coins, weights and measures, . j\^^p^^~ although it seems scarcely fair to credit him with what must have been the life-long labors of scores of people who may or may not have lived in his reign, and achieved the works which he is saitl to have done. The fourth emperor established schools and was the first to marry more than one wife. After him his son sat upon the throne", and iiis grandson, Yu the Great, made himself High Priest of the nation, and founded the lliu dynasty, wJiich ruled with a strong hand for more than four hundred years in China, while Thebes was growing into a great city, while Memphis was declining, through the dreadful rule of the Shepherd Kings, during the decline of old Chaldcca and until about the time when the last of the Rameses was ruler of Egypt and Tiglath Pileser sat on the Assyrian throne. It was then displaced by the Yin dynasty, and during the reign of one of the later of the Yin rulers, 571 B. C, Confucius, the great Chinese moral teacher, was born. The Chinese have never 1**7 it; Japauctec Daiiclui; Cilrl. CHINA AND JAPAN. 105 Cliluesp nwi'lliug been a nation of builders, but one of tlieir archi- tectural works ranks with the Great Pyramid, and is the most stupendous work of defense ever made by human hands, and with the exception of the pyra- mids the oldest product of man's labor upon the globe. This is the Great Wall of China which was built by the emperor Ching-Wang, who reigned from 246 B. C. to 210 B. C. It was erected to protect the northern frontier of the empire from Tartars. Twenty feet high, and with an average thickness of twenty-five feet, built of brick on a stone foundation, it extends for fifteen hundred miles over mountains and rivers, is double in many places, with towers a thousand j'artis apart for guard-houses and sentry boxes. To build this wall every third man in the empire was required to labor as a slave, receiving only his food, and it required the work of millions of human beings for thirty years to complete it. Ching-Wang was the first Chinese king who took the title of Emperor, and so anxioils was he that Chinese history should date from himself, that he caused all the historical books to be burned, not sparing even the works of Confucius, only fragments of which have come down to us, and buried four hundred learned men alive, fearing that they might in some way disprove his claim to being the founder of the nation. After all the pains he took, however, he could not kill or burn facts, and those remaining, long after he himself was dust, the broken links in the chain of Chinese history were pieced together. The line of kings founded by Ching-Wang only lasted forty years, and was followed by one which reigned 400 years, and among whom there were some weak and cruel kings, and others who were warriors, who conquered surrounding tribes, and statesmen who made wise laws. Buddhism was introduced during that time, and spread rapidly. The Sung Tse, Ziang, Chin and Hang dynasties followed with varying fortunes until 1215 A. D., when the Mongol Tartars under Zenghis Khan, of whom we shall hear more in the future, overran ami conquered all China. The Chinese people, in spite of all their great inventions in the past, have not for many ages been a progressive people. They are physical cowards, hating war, fearing the dark, shrinking from any form of pain or punish- ment, and extremely superstitious, for the nation is still pagan. They are the opposite of the Caucasian race in nearly every custom. Their soldiers wear petticoats, and the men dress in baggy trousers, antl several shirts of plain or quilted material worn loosely, flapping about their limbs. They are fond of fireworks, which they set off in the tlaytime, and in kite-flying and other childish sports they take a great delight. In shaking hands the Chinaman offers his left hand instead of his right, and he places his surname ahead of his Christian name, -.-i^.^ff ;'?.■ The choicest present a Chinaman can offer to a friend is a camphor 'J;}t^^M' '0i;>r'-. wood coffin, and when he rides out on land his carriage is sometimes "• ' moved by sails, while his boat on the river is pulled by men. In spite ^^&^«e^^^ of these singularities the Chinese nation is a great one. Its love ^^!XS^^":-^^^ for literature extends from the Emperor upon the throne to his chmese prayer wheei. io6 CHINA AND JAPAN. Cbiucse Weddlug Prucesislon. '-■'^'■iriests was very great in Japan. Their monasteries were enormous stone — walled fortresses filled with weapons, and they assisted one faction or the other as policy might dictate, and at times withstood and conquered both. In 1571 the monastery of Hiyeizan, the strongest in Japan, was destroyed by a chieftain named Xobunga. a warrior who had grown up among the Buddhists. Hiyeizan was surrounded by beautiful grounds and gardens, and its domain was comprised in thirteen valleys, in which there were more than five hundred shrines, temples and priestl}' dwellings. The religion of Buddha was no longer the simple ceremonial forms of ancient times. Fhe priests wore .splendid robes, chanted a litany, and their forms of worship were so much like those of the Catholics that the early Christian missionaries to Japan could hardly believe that the Buddhist faith had not the same origin as their own. I'Vom the time of the destruction of this famous monastery dates a persecution of the Buddhists in Japan that finally destroyed their influence. When Colum- bus sailed away from the harbor of Palos on that CHINA AND JAPAN. I ir memorable voyage that resulted in the discovery of America, it was in quest of a wonderful land described by Marco Polo, a Venetian traveler who in the thirteenth century had found his way to the court of the Tartar Emperor, Kubla Khan, and had there heard of a land far to the east called Jipango, from which our modern Japan is derived. He did ""^ /, , /_ not find the country, but he inspired a Portuguese v "^"flJ mariner, Mendez Pinto, to search for the fabled islands. Mendez was the first European who landed on Japanese soil. When he returned to Portugal he told so many marvellous stories of Japan and its people, that he was nicknamed Pinto the Liar." As the coming of the Spaniards brought disaster and sorrow to the people among whom they prose- cuted with such cruelty their search for gold, so the advent of the Portuguese in Japan brought sorrow to the natives. Other adventurers followed. The natives were taught to make firearms and gun- powder. Slave traders and missionaries followed, and in 1581 there were two hundred Jesuit churches, and one hundred and fifty thousand Catholic natives in Japan. Catholicism was so nearly like Buddhism that the natives readily acceptetl it. Then began a persecution of the Christians by the heathen Mikado which lasted one hundred years, and almost resulted in their exter- mination. As late as 1829 seven persons were executed in Japan for being Christians. In 1853 Commodore Perry, on the good ship Susquehanna, sailed into Yeddo Bay, and through his influence and the naval power of the United States, the Japan- ese ports were opened to commerce. Since that time Japan has steadily progressed, and to-day, with its European manners, customs, constitutional government, its improved laws and its acceptance of the Protestant faith, is the most promising and remarkable of all the Empires of the East. LliiiiL'hf Wainurs. Sanipau or Kiver Boat. ^1 L ....■ OMKTHIXG less than nine hundred years before Christ was born, and in the days when the city of Tyre was great and powerful in Phoenicia, King Matgen of Tyre (lied, leaving his kingdom to his son and daughter, Pyg- malion and Elissar, or Dido, as she is commonly known. Dido was married to the high priest Zicharabel, who was next in rank to Pygmalion. Zacharabel was probably as clever a knave as the pagan high priests of those tlays usually were, tor he had grown enormously rich, and had chests and casks full of gold and jewels. In some way he had become unpopular in Tyre, and the people, knowing that if Dido was pcrmitteil to rule jointly with her brother, she would be under the dictation oi her husbanti, decided that one rider was quite sufficient for them, and named Pygmalion as their choice. Zicharabel was a nobleman, and as there was a chance of his coming to the throne, Pygmalion, wishing also to possess himself of the high priest's wealth, ordered him to be quietly killed, and an assassin was found who was willing to do the deed. Dido, thus robbed of her husband and her inheritance, planned with the Phtrnician nobles to dethrone her brother, antl when her jjlot X/^ failed she professed to repent of her tlesign. To throw her "y" brother off his guard, she told him to send for her to come and live with him. Thinking he would thus come into the possession of all Zicharabel's treasures, Pygmalion was very gentle with his sister, and brought her home to Tyre. When he was no longer suspicious of her. Dido and some three thousand of liia«\. r==Mr==Jr=i r==lr=^r=Sr=lr==ii==li==:ir=lr=lr==M m Y OW that we have told you the chief facts in the early story of Asia and Africa, from Egypt, the oldest founded of dead empires, to Carthage the latest, we will turn our eyes to the northward, 1 to the continent of Europe, the stage upon which the f'J great Aryan race has played the chief part in the drama of history. Look upon the map and you will see that the southern part of Europe is made up of three bodies of land, whose ragged and irregular outlines would almost lead us to think that some dreadful force within the earth had torn them from the continent of Africa, and that the sea, the blue Mediterranean, had rushed in to fill the rift thus made. Fragments of land — little islands — everywhere dot this sea, as though they too had been torn from the one continent or the other. Long, long ago, before men or animals lived upon the earth, there might have been such a convulsion, and when the earth recovered from it, the appearance of the various bodies of land and water was very different from what it had been. At all events, the three peninsulas of southern Europe were formed in some way, at some time, and the most western, Spain, the country known to the ancient world as Iberia, is a rough square. The central pen- insula, Italy, is long and narrow, shapetl something like a boot, with Sicily lying very near the toe, and separated from it only by a narrow strait. The most Eastern peninsula of the three is so strangely penetrated by the sea that its lower half is nearly an island, while islands lie clustered about it so thickly that there is hardly room upon the map to print their names. This di\ision of the Eastern Peninsula is made by a long narrow gulf sweeping so far into the land that the southern part hangs only by a slender isthmus to the northern. Upon the coast-line of this south- ern peninsula the sea has worked its will, notching its edges and cutting far into its sides, until it has given to it very much the shape of a mulberry leaf, the isthmus being the stem and the lofty mountains which cross it the veins and ribs, holding, as it were, the land together. The northern peninsula, too, is scarcely less indented, but while we might imagine the lilue sea creeping to the edge of the land and shout- ing defiance to the mountains, contesting with them tor the lovely green valleys and fertile plains of the south, the nornhern peninsula is less plowed and furrowed by mountain chains, and gradually widens to the mainland, pushing back the eager arms of the ocean that so lovingly embraces its southern neighbor and all the fair little 126 GREECE. Grecian Ht'liiiet Pandean Pipes. isles to the East. This is the land of Greece, and not only the peninsulas and the islands, but the coast of Asia beyond them, have been made famous in song and story. There lived the Greeks, a people whose character, religion, love of nature and freedom, we may better understand if we will try to remember that they were cradled between seas and mountains, and had thus ever before them two of nature's most inspiring aspects. These two penin- sulas, together with the islands, are no larger than the State of Pennsylvania, but the land of Greece, small as it is, may be compared to a great light set upon a tower on some lofty rock of mid-ocean, for it cast a reflection not only upon the lands of the Mediterranean, but to the very heart of Western Asia ami the limits of Egypt, in its own day of glorj . That light has come down to us with undiminished brightness, as rays from stars that have been quenched for ages are still traveling through space to reach the earth. Unlike the rays of those vanished stars of the astronomers, the light from the fallen star of Greece is not scattered and lost in the world's darkness, but has been gathered into our literature, art and building, inwoven in our thoughts, laws, and customs and will grow brighter and brighter as the centuries of the world's civilization pass. The Greeks were an Aryan people, and it was probably from Phrygia, in Asia Minor, where this branch of the Aryans rested, when the movement began that peopled Persia anil India, that the Greeks came, founding near the Hellespont on the "ilion plain," the city of Troy, thence crossing over into Europe. How long they remained in Asia is not known, but long enough, no doubt, to have changed by contact with the pagan nations they found there, their notion of one God, an unseen, all-wise Creator, and to gather other ideas that they afterward worked out in their civilization. I do not mean that the Greeks would ever have been like the Cushite or Semite peoples, had they always lived among them. There was something high and noble in the Greek mind, even in its early rude days, which refined and beauti- fied that which was coarse, and took de- light in nothing bru- tal or savage. It was long before the He- brews went down into Egypt that the first Achaean and Ionian tribes of Aryans peo- pled Greece, and when the two tribes of Dorians and WW lOItk Grecian Dwclline. GREECE. 127 Greciau Head-Dress. lonians, who claimed descent from Hellen and Ion, crossed the Hellespont, carrying with them their knowledge of Phoe- nician culture and arts, and perhaps some ideas, too, that they had gathered in their travels in other portions of Asia, they found some of the country alread}' occupied, perhaps by Celtic races. These people they conquered, taking their lands and either driving them out or making them slaves. The Dorians settled in the north and the lonians along the coast, while in some parts of the southern peninsula the old Achaean population lived and built cities, and early began, as did the lonians, to show what remarkable people they were. Tt is through the Greeks that we have received all that was best in the ci\ilization of Egypt, Babylonia, Assj-ria, and perhaps older empires still, and what the}' bequeathed us the}' so refined by their touch that we have been unable, in spite of all our modern cleverness, to add much that is valuable. The Greeks imitated nothing. but were able to sift out and use the best of every- Demeu=r „r ceres, oodde^ of Agncmmre. thing in the civilization that lived upon earth in their da}', and it is not God's plan that the worst shall ever be preserved. You will be able to trace, as you follow civilization from the banks of the Xile to Asia, Europe, America and Japan, where only China and Russia intervene to break the complete circuit, back to the pre- historic empire of Central Arabia, how^ "truth crushed to earth" has risen again, and how error has been sifted out and thrown aside. Every civilization that we have studied is an improvement upon the one which went before it, for men's minds grew little by little until in the Greeks a natural genius for civilization led them on to accomplish in comparatively few centuries more than all the other nations combined had done for the world in all foregone times. The Greeks called themselves Hellenes, from their ancestor Hellen, and every country in which the Greeks settled was called Hellas. They called all other people 'barbarians," even the Phoenicians, their neighbors in the early times, and later, the Remans, who were of their own blood but did not speak the language of Hellas, that being their manner of judging barbarians. Egypt, Assyria and Babylonia, are mostly level countries, with a large river for a natural highway, and no mountain barriers. On this account the people of each of those countries mixed freely together, and early became a united nation under one ruler; but Greece has not a single river that can be navigated, and is crossed by mountains lofty and almost impassable, which separate completely its different portions, therefore it was natural that Greece should have many states, all independent and often unfriendly to each other, and every Grecian i:ead-Dress. 128 GREECE. The Gliltou lis Worn by Men and Women. one holding itself strictly and proudly apart. These states were so small, with so few people and little wealth, that the king could not be surrounded with a splendid court and hold himself above the people, keeping himself secluded. Thus certain of the people consulted with him as to the best laws, and the idea of government which was maintained for the sole pleasure and benefit of the ruler, gave way after a while to the idea of government of the people — an entirely new one in the ancient world. Where there were so few people each individual was of importance, and his rights were regarded, while in Egypt, Bab}-- lonia and Assyria, where there were so many millions, the king could do about as he liked with the lives and property of hii; subjects without fear of rousing rebellion. It was not long after the Greeks established themselves in their new home in Europe that they came in contact with the Phcrnicians, who were even at t'lat early day sailing the seas to distant countries, bringing home in their ships gold, silver, dye- wood, wool, and the thousands of things they needed in their manufactures. The little Greek communities, although separated from each other by mountains, were nowhere distant from the sea, and there was but one Hellenic State that had no sea coast. Being the cleverest, keenest-witted and mose ingenious nation that ever lived, the Hellenic people soon learned all that the Phoenicians knew. They had already invented a language whose richness and eloquence were wonderful; and the alphabet which the Pho-nicians taught them enabled them to write their songs and stories, although at first they cared little for writing. They did care for ship- building, though, and built crafts modeled after those of the Phoenicians, and in time became great sailors. They may have learned of them too, how to build houses of stone, as they certainly did how to weigh and measure articles and to do other things just as useful. When the Greeks first began to sail the seas it was not for trade, but they would shelter their vessels in some snug island bay, and swoop down upon the Phoenician merchants ships, capture and plunder them, or descend upon the coast towns and villages of their neighbors, carry off the goods they found, and make slaves of the people. This pirate-life was not considered at all disgraceful, for those were the daj's when miglit was understood as right, antl those early Greeks probably thought piracy far more honorable than trade. We cannot go back to the very beginnings of the Hellenic people in Greece, because for hundreds of years nothing was written of their history, and event 1 lonur's poems, from which we learn so much about the early Greeks, were for centuries unwritten, and were merely \, related by those who had in turn received them orally from others. Who Homer was, and when he was born we do not certainly know, but as the Greek word "homer" , ,^„ means blind, he is supposed to have been a blind Greek ut>.aoith<,^^u^oi'imrlI^r^pZi,~ poet, born in some portion of Asiatic Hellas long before GREECE. I2g David, the poet-king of the Hebrews, reigned over the Jews. He is often called "the father of poetry," for he is supposed to have been the first poet who composed reallv great works. The two poems of Homer that have come down to us are the Iliad and the Odyssey, and as they tell not only of the great deeds of Greek heroes but explain also the nature of their gods, the Greeks prized them highly as sacred history somewhat as we do the Old Testament. The Iliad tells of the siege of the city of Troy, which, according to the reckonings of historians, occurred 1500 B. C., and the Odyssey describes the wanderings of Ulysses after the city was taken. Although the Trojan war occurred before Nineveh was founded, ant! but fifty years after the children of Jacob went down into Egypt and pitched their tents in the Land of Goshen, the Greeks must :e^^ have been even then a civilized people, for not only did they know 3^^-^^ how to build vessels, but to manufacture arms and armor, to build cities with walls, and to carve images of their gods. To explain to ueaiBu.stc.inomer. you how the Trojan war came to be fought I must tell you the story of the creation that the Greeks believed, and give you some idea of the gods they worshipped, for the early history of Greece is so inwoven with their religion that we cannot separate the two. Perhaps you have noticed that the higher idea people have of deity, the higher respect they have for their fellow- men, and when you understand the Greek ideas of the gods, you may be able to comprehend why the Greeks, in spite of their genius and reason- ableness, thought it no harm to lie, steal, and practice many other vices. The land in which the Greeks lived was made up of verdant valleys that in the spring were gay with violets, prim- roses and rare and beautiful flowers, and crossed by mountains whose summits seemed to touch the blue sky. The mild climate and pure air, made them not only vigorous, strong of body, and beau- tiful to look upon, but imaginative as well. Every clear stream slipping through the groves anil meadows, every fountain and forest nouk, they believed to be pre- sided over by some unseen spirit, and the fair islands l)'ing in the shining seas, upon which the sun smiled so lovingly and the moon shone with such a mellow light, they peopled with creatures of their fancy, and this same imaginative faculty they exercised in accounting for the creation of the world. In the beginning, so the i^ocaou. Rhodes, 2uo c.utury,B.c.^^to_M.- c^^^^^^^ I30 GREECE. Zri.s. tliL- Mipri Greeks believed, all was confusion, and chaos and darkness covered all the universe. After awhile the earth separated itself from the sky, and over it there was a goddess, Ga^a, while over the sky was a god Uranus, both having been born of Chaos. Uranos and Ga^a married, so runs this story of the creation, although they were so different fron: each other that they could never agree. They had many chil- dren, seven of them beautiful and some hideous, and they all lived together on a high mountain, the most unruly family I think that can be imagined who cjiiarreled and fought much like half-savage humans. One of the sons, Kronos, whom we represent as "Father Time," at the com- mand of his mother Grea killed his father, Uranus, with a sharp sickle, and became king of the gods in his stead. >iA f . Kronos married one of his beautiful sisters, Rhea, and she was the first goddess or mortal to have a mother-in-law, and Gaea was as bad a mother-in-law, according to the Greek fable, as has ever been since, for after causing Kronos to kill Uranus, she told him that he should lose his kingdom through one of his children. To prevent this, Kronos swal- lowed each child that was born to Rhea as soon as it came into the world. At last Rhea, by Gx's advice, wrapped a stone in a cloth and gave it to Kronos to swallow instead of one of her children, and so saved one of her sons, which she carried to the island of Crete, where he was cared for by a beautiful she-goat. This son was named Zeus, and when he grew up, he was so grateful to the goat that had nourished him that when she died he took one of her horns and made a magic horn of it, that yielded to its owner whatever he wished for, to eat or drink, so you see the "horn of plenty" or cornucopia which we use as a symbol of abund- ance is very ancient. Rhea, so we are told, as soon as Zeus was well grown, gave to Kronos a drink that made him sick, and he threw up the five children he: iuul swal- lowed, all now full grown, too, and these Poseidon, Pluto, Here, Demeter and Hes- tia, led by Zeus, began to war against Kronos, and the other older gods and goddesses. W hen they had chained their enemies in Tartarus, guarded by the ugly monsters who had helped them in their battles, the six young gods fi.xed their dwelling in the skies and began to reign over men, for men had in the meantime been created. Ga^a could not bear to see the young gods peaceful and happy, so she created a race of giants to fight them. These giants tore up great rocks to fling at the gods, but in spite of their efforts, for they piled Movuit Pelion upon Ossa, they could not throw far enough, and Zeus at last crushed them under those very moun- tains, where they lay groaning forever after. \ /"xri ~ 7V\ Gaea then created a dreadful monster, but when ^=--he, too, was about to be vanquished by Zeus ^^2s--.»,.o'.s^:=^ I she threw him into Tartarus, and did nothing more to annoy the gods, who had many children who were also gods. Next to Zeus were Apollo, the god of music and of the sun, Athene, goddess of wisdom, Artemis the goddess of the chase, Greek TTO-TVheeled now. ait- i i i i- i i r \ Aphrodite, the goddess of love, ami Demeter. GREECE. 131 IK-ail of HcrliK-s. llic Messcusfr . and as the gods, very wisely I think, refused to decide the question, the three goddesses called upon Paris on Mount Ida, the shepherd son of Priam, king of Troj', to judge which of the three was " the most fair." Here promised Paris power and riches if he would decide for her, Athene offered him wisdom, but Aphrodite whispered that she would give him the fairest and most loving wife in Greece if he would award the apple to her, so Paris decided for X'enus, and to get "the fairest and most loving wife in Greece," sailed at once to that countrj\ He landed in Laconia, on the southern coast, and led by \'enus, went direct to Menelaus, the king, whose wife Helen was not only the most beautiful woman in Greece, the land of beautiful women, but in the whole world. As Paris was very hantlsomc and winning he soon jiersuadcd Helen to go away with him to his father's court of Troy. Before Helen married Menelaus she had many lovers, and when she finally chose the Laconian king for her husband, these lovers vowed to be her friend until death, and to fight for her cause if need be; then like the sensible Greeks that that they were, they each and every one went about their business, fell in love with somebody else, married and " settled down." These former suitors were unwilling enough to help Menelaus bring back his fickle Helen, but when he called upon them for help, Ajax, a very giant in size, Ulysses, Diomedes, and Xestor, the oldest Grecian chief, are said to have finally placed themselves with their followers under Agamemmon, brother of Menelaus, although we can hardly believe that in those rude days of war and violence the Greeks forgot their jealousies of each other and did what they never woukl do after- ward, all unite under one leader for any purpose whatever. We are told that with their followers they sailed away to Troy and besieged the city for ten years, doing there such great deeds, that even now the valor of Achilles and Hector, as painted by the glowing strains of Homer thrills the most unwarlike reader. The gods were mixed up with this siege, some fighting upon one side and some upon the other. The Trojan hero. Hector, was killed by Achilles, and his naked body dragged at the chariot wheels of his slayer, three times around the city's walls. Achilles himself, was struck in the heel by a poisoned arrow from the bow of Paris. Ajax killed himself because the armor of Achilles was given to Ulysses rather than himself, and his blood wherever it fell, so runs the tale, caused hyacinths to spring up from the ground those beautiful fiowers bearing upon their leaves the Greek letters Ai, the first two of the name of Ajax, and meaning also " woe," as symbolizing what Ajax felt in seeing wisdom placed before bravery. Still the Greeks could not take Troy. There was within the city a statue of Athene which was said to have fallen from the skies, and as they believed that this statue prevented the capture of the city, Ulysses and Diomedes disguised themselves, passed by night into Troy and stole the statue, but were no more successful afterward in the siege than they had been before. At last the Greeks built a huge wooden horse, filled it Grecian Slioe. GREECE. '00 Greek Warrior. with soldiers, and pretending to leave it as an offering to Athene to win her from the Trojans, sailed away, not very far, however, but just out of sight, and lay with their ships behind an island. The Trojans, in spite of the warnings of Laocoon, priest of Neptune, dragged the horse into the city, and made a great feast of rejoicing over the departure of the Greeks. At night when the Trojans were asleep the Greeks who had sailed away, sailed back again, the soldiers came out of the wooden horse, opened the gates of the city, and Troy was taken, Paris and king Priam being killed and Helen given back to her husband. Ulysses wandered a long time and finally reached home safely. For centuries historians did not believe the story of the siege of Troy as told by Homer in the Iliad, and as some of it is certainly fable, thought that it all was untrue. In our own times a learned German, Dr. Schliemann, has found the ruins of an ancient city buried deep under the mold anil dust of ages, at the place where Homer describes Troy as having been, and bearing marks of having been destroyed by war, so we may really consider the Iliad as a mixture of history, fable, and mythology, and learn much of the manners and customs of the early Greeks by reading it. From Homer we learn that the Greeks in very early days had kings who were also the priests of the people, just as all nations do in their beginning, but in Greece, the kings had a number of chiefs for their counsellors. Although the kings did not always follow the advice of the chiefs, who told the common people the will of the king, their advice always had weight with him. The common people had no voice in anything that concerned the government. The southern peninsula of Greece whose outline is so much like a mulberry leaf, was called the Peloponessus. There is a legend that declares that long before the dawn of history, Pelops, son of the Phrygian king, Tantalus, brought thither the great wealth he had received when his father died, and founded a kingdom, so the southern portion of Greece, like the northern, traced the descent of its people back to Asia Minor, where so much of Hellenic history began and ended. Just south of the Peloponessus, is Crete, an island shaped much like a sickle, and it was there that Minos, a great and wise king is said to have lived and ruled before the clays of Pelops. It was not until long after his time that Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks in the Trojan war ruled in Argolis, but that the many cities of Argolis had thick walls for their defense against plunderers and pirates we know, for their massive ruins are still standing. The Peloponessus, is about as large as the State of New Hampshire, and had long been inhabited by the Achseans and lonians when the Dorians, who had grown into a hardy war-like tribe in the mountains of Northern Greece, left their homes, entered the Peloponessus, and after many years of war captured the strong castles and walled towns of Argolis. Just when they did this is not known for certain but it is supposed to have been about the time when the Trojan war ended. Leaving bands of their com- rades to hold what they had taken, the Dorians moved southward, con- quering as they went, either driving out the Achaeans and lonians or making slaves of them. To these more refined Greeks the Dorians must Grtclau Heud-Dress. 134 GREECE. have seemed rude and half barbarous, and rather than submit to them many left their homes and sailed to the islands and the coast of Asia Minor. It was then that Miletus, Eph'esus, and manj' other cities of Asia Minor that became famous and splendid were founded, and all along the shores of the Mediterranean sea Greek colonies were planted, and Greek influence began to make itself felt in the world. The Dorians, too, made foreign settlements, and when the real history of Greece begins we find them masters of the Pelopo- nessus, having little by little conquered it all except a mountainous State in the center of the peninsula called Arcadia and the State of Acha^a in the northwest, botli peopled by the tribes who had once been all powerful upon the peninsula. The Dorians had made slaves of thousands of the conquered people, but unlike the lowest caste in India who were made slaves in the same way, the conquered Acha;ans were Greek like their conquerors, and like them, had the pride and independence of the Aryan race. The poorer classes were matle Helots, and were compelled to work the land of their owners without reward, while those who had been land owners were allowed to hold their land but not to sell it, were compelled to give a certain portion of their crops to the support of their conquerors, but had no voice in the govern- ment, and like the Helots were forbidden to marry Dorians. On account of the nature of the country the invaders were obligctl. in making their conquests and settlements, to divide mto bands and as these bands increased in numbers, new States were formed and new cities sprang up. These States were small, often no larger than a county in our own country, and the citizens could all meet at some place to decide upon matters of public importance. xAlthough the people of these little States spoke the same language and worshipped the same gods, their laws and customs were very different, anil there was never a union between them, such as we find between the States of America, but they would often join each other in celebrating religious games and festivals, and would agree no matter what cause they might have of quarrel, to lay it aside during such time as the festival was being held. Worshipping together at the altars of the same gods, finally led several of the States to form a league to preserve the temples of these gods, and although these States might quarrel or even fight, they made a solemn vow, which they faithfully kept, that they would not destroy each other's towns, nor cut off the running water from each other's cities in time of siege, thus robbing war of much horror. Besides their deities the Greeks had heroes from whom the kings were descended, and these helped by the gods, performed marvellous deeds. One of these heroes, Hercules, the son of Zeus and Alcmena, a mortal, was hated by Hero from his birth, and through this hatred he was compelled to perform twelve labors, among which were the strangling of a lion, killing a monster, and doing various other difficult things. When these labors were all performed, Hercules, like Samson of old and many common men of modern times, was brought to grief by a woman. His wife was jealous of her great lord, and gave to him a shirt which she had dipped in the Tlic Comblii.Ml Clilton and CliuUugs worn by Womeu. GREECE. 135 Greek Peasants. blood of a dying- Centaur whom Hercules had killed, for she thought the shirt thus dipped would prov^e a love charm to win Hercules back to her, but instead it was deadly poison, and killed him. In the wanderings of Hercules he had been driven out of the Peloponessus, and as the leaders of the Dorians who invaded that peninsula, claimed descent from Hercules, their conquest of the Peloponessus was known in history as "The Return of the Here- clida;." The Aetolians who helped the Dorians in their conquests were given a small State in the western part of the peninsula which theycalled Elis, in which grew up several cities. Achaja had twelve cities. These cities, the Dorian city of Argos (which was very rich and owned a fertile strip of territory down the east coast,) the two Dorian cities, Corinth and Sikyon, and nine others joined in a league to protect the temple at Argos — Argos being the leading State in this league. The Delphic oracle had long been protected by such a league, and gained great fame all over the ancient world. Among the many bands of Dorians that founded cities in the Peloponessus, there was one that seized upon the wheat fields that had long been cultivated by the Acha^ans at the foot of Mount Taygetes, on the banks of the river Eurotas in the southern part of the peninsula founding the city ami State of Sparta. * Each of the Dorian bands in the Peloponessus had lieen obliged at first to live in the conquered communities as bands of soldiers, but after awhile they made friends with the conquered people, gradually took up peaceable ways and lived in their cities more like city people live in our own day, Sparta alone being always at war with the old Achaean population and neighboring Dorian colonies. The tendency of Sparta to rule the Helots harshly and to quarrel with her neighbors, compelled the Spartans to always be on their guard against dangerous uprisings, and so they lived in their city much as soldiers live in a camp, ami every man was trained for war as his chief occupation in life. The city was built without walls so the people should be compelled to rely upon their own bravery to defend their homes, and as it was so far from the sea, and was surrounded by mountains, their Achecan slaves and their neighbors were the foes they most dreaded, since there was little in Sparta to tempt a foreign conqueror. The Spartans were a remarkable people, and the laws and customs which formed their character made them different from the other Dorian tribes, and from any other nation, ancient or modern. These laws are said to have been founded by Lycurgus, one of their earliest law-makers, but when we study them, we find that they arose one by one out of the necessities of the people, surrounded as they were by enemies, and they are probably not the work of any one mail or any one period of Sparta, but grew up little by little. Lycurgus, then, while he may have been a wise and great man who did much for his country, could not have been the founder of Spartan laws and customs, any more than IMenes ' Sparta meaus the "sov/u lacds." Doric Capital. 136 GREECE. could have taught the Egyptians everything that was unknown before his time, or the Chinese Emperors could have invented all the won- derful things attributed to them; for laws like other human institutions are of slow growth, and keep pace with the development of nations. In all countries the citizen of a State is taught that he owes a certain duty to his country, but he is supposed to consider his family and his personal affairs, in time of peace, of the chief importance. In Sparta the citizen was taught that his whole life belonged to his country, and that society, business, his family or personal affairs were not to be considered before his duty to the State, and in fact, were not to be considered at all, as the State would take care of them. '■'"" "'"" Upon the sea coast the Dorians soon became rich, for they traded with the Phoenicians, and learned to manufacture articles for commerce. Riches brought luxury, and contact with Asiatic civilization in time, changed the old simple manners of the people, and the military spirit so far declined, that the Dorian rule was broken, and the old Achrean population mixed in the government and gained power. Sparta was so placed that it could keep itself free from foreign influences, and when it was seen to what a pass the Dorian rule in other parts of the Peloponessus had been brought by the growth of riches, the Spartan law-givers determined to prevent their people from engaging in trade at all. To this end they coined iron as money, a metal so heavy that one person could not carry very much of it about with him, and so common that the neighboring States would not take it in payment for anything. Thus the Spartans were themselves com- pelled to make the few articles of clothing, arms antl furniture that they used. As the Helots tilled the soil to supply them with grain, vegetables and fruits, and as wild game was plentiful upon the mountains and in the forests, the Spartans were enabled to get all the necessaries of life, their iron money being as good as any other for the little trade in the articles of daily use that they required. The Spartans, having but few household goods, built plain and simple houses. Yet the Spartans were Greeks and the Hellenic genius for the beautiful tinged their plain dwellings ami their simple furniture. Their chairs, vases, cups and utensils were of the most graceful patterns, exquisitely made, and everything served the double purpose of use and ornament. It was this appreciation of the beautiful, that kept the Spartan character from growing, under their singular laws, as cruel and unlovely as that of the Carthaginians and made them always sympathize with the noblest strains of the poets and the grandest efforts of the sculptors of Hellas. From the hour of his birth to the hour of his death, every Spartan was considered a citizen of the State, and he early learned to prize that citizenship above everything else in the wt)rld. C)n]y strong and healthy infants were allowed to live, and the puny and misshapen babes were exposed naked, to die in a deep chasm - on the mountain side. The ^ Spartans had an idea that it was a real kindness to a deformed or sickly child to take its life in that way. and thus save it from suffering, and a duty to the State to bring up only strong, hearty (From u Vase PamUng.) GREECE. 137 and well-formed children. I suppose Spartan children were loved as children are the world over, for there is no law that can govern mother-love or fatherly pride, but Spartan parents were forbidden to show affection for their chil- dren, or to pamper them in any way, for it was not desired that children, especially boys, should form an affection for DuncAi.luir.l,,.,-. <,k.bk- and Ktozc. FromthfTcinpIcof Mim.rvaatAfsni.l. their home, or parents, that might rise above their love for their country. When the Spartan boys were seven years old, they were supposed to know enough reading and writing to answer every requirement they would have for such an unwarlike accom- plishment, and they were then put in charge of a " boy-leader " and trained. The Persian training was mild compared to the Spartan, and the boys who lived through it, grew up so hardened to suffering, that they could endure hunger, cold, weariness, pain and sleeplessness with indifference, and they had been so accustomed to danger from babyhood, that they feared nothing. Their beds were made of reeds which they gathered with their own hands from the river banks, and for blankets they could gather dry grass and thistle down if they were so luxurious in their tastes as to want to sleep warmly covered. Their clothing thin and scanty, was the same both in summer and winter, and frequent bathing was discouraged as too effeminate. The Spartan lads ate their meals at public tables, fifteen boys at each mess, and their chief article of food was black broth with now and then a few figs or olives or a little meat or fish, and the portion served to each was so scanty that the boys of our day would hardly think it deserved the name of a meal. While they ate, the boys were questioned by their pedagogue and their answers were e.xpected to be sharp and ready, and they were encouraged to joke each other without giving offence, sing songs, dance and recite poetry when assembled for the public meals. Their whole time during the day was spent in gymnastic exercises, such as running, leaping, wrestling and hurling the javelin, and they were sometimes publicly flogged before the altars of the gods, until the blood flowed from each stroke, and, though they might die under the torture they uttered no complaint. The Persian boys were taught to speak the truth, but the Spartan lads were taught to lie and steal and fearfully punished if they were discovered in eilher, so they grew up few of words, bold of deed, hardy, courageous and crafty, and although they had little love for learning and no family affection, they possessed veneration for the old men of the city, and a passionate devotion to the State that had been such a hard task-master to them. When they were grown up, however, the training of the Spartan citizen con- tinued much the same. When he arrived at the proper age, twenty-five, he was obliged to marry or was compelled to do disgraceful acts of penance for beino- a bachelor. When he was married he was not allowed to live at home with his wife and little ones, but was compelled to eat at the public table, sleep in the barracks 138 GREECE. and spend his leisure time, when not drilling, in hunting, dancing at the festivals of the gods, or in some public affair, and could not idle away his days or evening hours at home. The Spartan girls were trained as much as were their brothers, except that they ate and slept at home. They grew up healthy, strong and beautiful, with a hatred for cowards and a love for brave men. The Spartan women were not kept in seclu- sion, as they were in most of the Greek States, but attended all the festivals ami public gatherings, and were present at the gymnastic contests, and they had so mucii of the patriotism and high spirit of the men, that they were far more like the women of .America and England to-day than any women of ancient times; the Spartans and Roman matrons being the most attractive of historj'. The Spartan laws were enforced by two kings, and a senate of twenty-eight old men, all beyond si.xty years of age, but in course of time they had also Ephors or Judges who per- tormed all State business, and were not called to account by anybody. Having always a large body of soldiers, the Spartans began slowly to conquer the country eastward, and soon took some of the coast territory of Argos, and made of that State a rival and enemy by driving the .Argives completely out of La- conia and making all the land between Mount Taygctus and the sea, on the east, her own. .Sparta became the leading State in the Peloponessus. Most of the Grecian States were not long in getting rid of kings, (although they only had one at a time.) and establishing the rule of either the nobles or the people, but Sparta had two kings for centuries, who acted as a check upon each other, and this is how it came about, if we are to believe the story. The chief of that Dorian band that founded Sparta, had twin sons who were mere babes when their father died. The Dorians sent to Delphi to ask the oracle which of the infants they should make their king. IiiteriMr of Itie .Jupiter TiUifte at < ;lter Statue of Pleidlas. Keslored. GREECE. 139 and the oracle, always clever and two-sided, sent back the reply that they should make them both kings but give the eldest most honor. The mother of the twin sons pretended that she did not know which was born tirst, and so the Spartans were in a dilemma. Finally theyset a watch upon her, and noticed that she washed and fed the same child first every day, so they concluded, stupidly enough I think, that this was the elder, brought him up in the palace as king, and when he was grown up, his envious brother hated him. and they quarrelled and plotted against each other as did their descendants ever after. Perhaps the Spartans thought that two kings were better than one or even none, for they were so busy hating each other and planning to limit each other's authorit}', Olympian Games. that they had no time to interfere with the liberty of the State. At anyrate it usually happened that way, and the little authority divided among two, became very small indeed. One of the honors vouchsafed the Spartan kings would not be very eagerly sought after by most kings, that was leading the advance in battle, and being the last in retreat, but to the glory of Sparta's kings be it said, they prized that honor as they did their crown. Sparta, as the leading State of the Peloponessus, put itself at the head of the eighteen cities that were united for the protection of the temple of Zeus at Olympia, in the northwestern part of the peninsula, and instituted a festival and games in honor of the gods which became famous throughout all Greece and Asia Minor. This festival was celebrated every four years and lasted from June 21 to Jul}- 21, the victors in the contests of strength and skill receiving a crown of wild olives as the I40 GREECE. victors In the Olymptan Gamc» was called) from 776 13 The games had been prize. The most powerful princes and even kings tried hard to win this prize, and every State took pride in the victory of one of its citizens, the Spartans allowing such victors to fight side by side with their kings. In time all the roads leading to Olympia were improved and the grounds whereon the festival was held were adorned with statues of the victors and of the L^ods. A magnificent temple and statue of Zeus, and :reasure houses of the different Greek States were also located on the grounds and every device of art and nature employed to make them attractive. Once in four years the Greeks felt that they were a united people, for they laitl aside all bitterness, quarrels and warfare, and mingled their prayers to the same gods in the same language, felt a like eagerness for the victory of their champions and a like joy in their success. Time came to be reckoned by Olym- piads, (as the period of four years between the games C, forty years before the Spartans took the lead, celebrated for so long a period before the first recorded Olympiad that the Greeks declare that Hercules instituted them. After the conquest of Laconia and being acknowledged the leader of the religious league, martial Sparta decided upon the conquest of the Dorian tribe that had established a State west of Sparta, which they had called Messenia. Two long and bloody wars lasting nearly forty years were fought, and though the brave Messenians struggled manfully they were at last overcome. We are told that the Messenian hero, Aristomenes, whose daring deeds inspired again and again the courage of his countrymen, entered Sparta by night and nailed hTs shield upon the walls of the temple of Athene as a token of defiance, and to show the Spartans how little his countrymen feared them. In the second war the Messenians gained victory upon victory, and the Spartans were almost in despair when the lame Athenian poet, Tyrtncus came among them. Tyrta^us was a school-master, a character not very highly esteemed in Sparta, and we are told that when the Spartans despairing of success sent to Athens for a leader in the war, the Athenians sent Tyrtseus to them, meaning thus to mock and insult them. Lame, though Tyrta^us was, however, he had the sacred fire of poesy burning within his deformed frame, and his martial songs so fired the imagination and roused the battle frenzy of the Spartan soldiers as they sang them before the tent of the king and on the march, that the decision to conquer or die, to vindicate the glory of the Spartan name or fall beneath the swords of their enemies, urged them to deeds of valor that turned the tide of war and made them victors. The wisest and most skillful Athenian general that could have been sent to Sparta in her hour of peril could not have done more for the State than did the lame school-master, for the sword strokes of the Spartans were timed to his poetry, and the victory that neither patriotism nor skill could gain, was won by song. No doubt the Messenians, who were all made slaves, hated Tyrta^us right heartily. Certainly they hated their conquerors, and with good cause. For three hundred years the GREECE. 141 Messenians were Helots, and so many and dangerous were their insurrections, that from time to time bands of Spartan youths were secretly sent out to murder the most intelligent and able bodied Helots, both Dorian and Achaean. The Spartans with all their cruelty, could not crush the spirit of liberty which dwelt with the Messenians in their slavery, for no Aryan people ever yet tamely submitted to such a fate, nor ever will. The heritage of the Aryan race is a freedom that brooks neither the tyranny of kings nor the pride of conquerors. Could the story of the Spartan Helots have been preserved to us, the deeds of Homer's heroes, who fought more for the love of battle than for a cause, would no doubt seem tame when compared with their heroic but useless struggle against their hard fate. What poets, artists, sculptors and warriors were crushed by Sparta's iron hands! What genius was forever silenced! WHiat creations of fancy stifled in the brain of the slave who toiled in the fields, that his fathers had reclaimed from the wilderness and dwelt upon a free man! In the veins of the Helots the Doric blood may have been as pure as in those of his master, or perhaps Achaean valor, and Dorian subtlety were the motive power, which, tempered by the Hellenic genius, might have evolved civilizations as glorious as as that of Athens, and might have left to the world new forms of worth and beauty, instead of that spectacle of a Spartan military despotism which conferred no blessing upon the world. Sparta, as a State, left no worthy example for the world to follow, and although its sway lasted for centuries, it made no lasting impression upon the history of the human race, and that only is the true test of greatness. The history of Sparta is not all of the story of the Dorian race in the Pelop'o- nes^us. In the northeast corner of the peninsula were two little States, Sikyon and Corinth, and Megara on the isthmus Joined the two peninsulas. In all of these States bands of Dorians lived among the old Achaean population. These various Dorian communities soon did away with kingly rule, and the nobles took the govern- ment into their own hands, and, keeping themselves apart from the common people over whom they ruled, considered themselves the State. Not only were they a law unto themselves but they worshipped the gods in a manner not allowed to the com- mon people, and would not even fight side by side with them against their enemies. After enduring these haughty and unreasonable nobles for a long while, the com- mon people of Sikyon put themselves under the leadership of Orthagoras and made him a king or tyrant, the Greek word tyrant meaning not one who is necessarily cruel, but who reigns contrary to former laws. For a hundred years the descendants of Orthagoras ruled over Sikyon, one of them being Cleisthines, the wise and gracious tyrant from whom many famous Greek poets and Statesmen were descended. At Corinth, too, kings gave way to nobles, who were as haughty and foolish as those of Sikyon and were overthrown in the same way by a certain Cypselus, whom the ever-convenient oracle was said to have declared at his birth to be the future ruler of Corinth, although it is my humble opinion that the oracle, who always favored the richest inquirers, was bribed to give the prophecy about the time Cypselus made up his mind to become tyrant of Corinth. When Cypselus, who was a wise and good ruler, died after a reign of thirty years, he left his kingdom to his son, Periander, who was a tyrant indeed, as bloody and cruel as any Asiatic despot. Periander murdered his wife, Melissa in a fit of jealousy, and then claimed that he was commanded to do so Ionic Capital. 142 GREECE. by the oracle, who was obliged to shoulder most of the sins of the Greeks, and was willing enough too, perhaps, if richlj' rewarded. His son, Lycophron, refused to have anything to do with his inhuman father and fled to Corfu where he became king. When Periander grew to be a very old man he repented of his evil deeds, a sort of repentance that counts for little I should say, for a man who has grown too feeble to do evil finds it easy enough to refrain from it and to repent. Periander then sent to Lj-cophron and asked him to come back to Corinth, so that he might inherit his kingdom, but when Lycophron steadily refused to return as long as his father was king, Periander offered to give him Corinth and in exchange receive Corfu. The Corfuans, when they heard of the proposed e.xchange of kingdoms, killed Lycophron to escape piat^toeGi5^th?^^rR^^to^ having his bloody-minded old father for their king, so Periander haviniT no son to whom he could leave Corinth, left it to Gordius, one of his relatives. Sparta saw with much uneasiness the Dorian rule broken down at Corinth, Sik- yon and elsewhere in the Peloponessus, and the seating of tyrants by the revolted Achaian and Ionian common people. Determined that they would never permit such a state of things in Laconia, they executed their laws very strictly and after tlie death of Periander decided to drive the tyrants from the Peloponessus. For this inir[)ose Sparta sent to the States of Northern Greece proposing an alliance and when these alliances were made the dauntless Spartans drove the tyrants from Sik- yon and Corinth, about the middle of the Sixth Century B. C. and became supreme in the Peloponessus, although tyrants continued to reign in the Greek cities of Asia Minor. By this time the Greek cities planted around the Mediterranean were rich and flourishing. Massalia (Marseilles) in Southern Europe, Saguntum in Spain, Syracuse and Agrigcntum in Italy, Cyrcne and Naucratis in Africa, Sinope and Trebizond on the shores of the Black Sea, and other cities upon the islands and coast of Asia Minor had risen into power. It was about this time, too, that Cambjses, the Persian king invaded Egypt, and when Samos revolted from the Persians and set up a tyrant, Sparta, dreaming of island conquest sent a Corinthian fleet against Samos. The tyrant, the famous Polycrates, patron of arts and literature, defeated the Spartans, and considerably humbled in their own estimation they returned to Laconia. Just across from Argolis is Attica, a peninsula, shaped something like a shoe, which is surrounded on three sides by water. This peninsula, mountainous, poorly watered and barren, attracted little attention from foreign conquerors. It is but fifty miles long and thirty wide, and contains only about 700 square miles all told, in which there is not more tillable soil than is comprised in one of our great Dakota wheat farms. Small and barren though it is Attica has a climate of such wonderful mildness and evenness, an atmosphere so jnire, transparent and in\ igorating, such blue skies and encircling blue seas, and such beautiful landscapes that it was just the place for the development of an artistic people. It was there surrounded by beauty, the mountains, seas and nature's most enchanting loveliness that the greatest noblest-soulcd, most reflective, deepest and yet keenest and cleverest people the world has ever seen built up a remarkable civilization. From very early times Attica had cities, and long before the Trojan war, Cecrops the Egyptian, sailed away from the Nile valley and carried to Greece the arts and GREECE. 143 civilization of his native land. This new and powerful influence quickened the artistic impulse of the people, and gave a new direction to their genius. Egypt was then in the golden afternoon of her day of glory, and her arts and building had reached their perfection, but to the Greek mind the rudeness of Egyptian sculpture was offensive and the hideous features of their gods inspired neither respect nor reverence. We can see the real greatness of the Greeks in the way in which they adopted Egyptian architecture and art and made it characteristic of the Hellenic people, by gi\'ing new form and e.xpression, grace and beauty to it. They purified and idealized the gods by giving to them instead of monstrous animal shapes the most perfect and beautiful human forms and calm, majestic countenances, endowing them at the same time with feelings and passions that brought them into sympathy with men. Cecrops then, was like the rain or sunlight that calls forth from the earth the germ that lies hidden in the rich mold. In the Greek mind lay enfolded, as the oak lies in the acorn, that which only needed the sun and rain of a quickening power to make it blossom and bear fruit', and rich fruit indeed it was, for Attica soon became the heart antl brain of Greece, the voice of Hellas. He.-.>, or jmio, tho quccd of Heav™ Tradition says that Cecrops divided the Attic people into twelve tribes- instituted marriage and the worship of the gods; did away with bloody sacrifices; founded Athens five miles from the sea and planted upon its sacred hill the altars of the gods; but all these things are so far back in the history of Attica that we do not know just when they occurred. There is a Greek myth that relates that when Zeus saw the city which Cecrops had founded in Attica he knew that it would become great and powerful, and called 'a council of the gods to give it a name. Poseidon god of the sea that embraced all the Attic land, and had given favoring winds to Cecrops, claimed that he should have the city named in his honor, while Athene, goddess of wisdom, who loved the Attic people no less than did Poseidon, wished to have the city named for her. Zeus decided that if Poseidon should be able to bring forth out of the earth a gift for man, which the assembled gods should declare was better than that which Athene could produce, the city should be called Poseidona, if not, its name should be Athens. Upon hearing- this decision of Zeus, Poseidon struck the earth with his three-pronged fork, and the hill, the Acropolis of Athens opened, and from the chasm, which closed after it, sprang the most beautiful snow-white horse that ever was seen. The horse galloped proudly over hill and valley, admired by all the gods, and Poseidon felt certain of victory. Athene stooped down and planted in the ground a little seed. The seed threw up stem, leaves, branches and grew high with dark green, clustering foliage, amid which gleamed an oval fruit. "My Gift, Oh Zeus," said Athene, "is the olive tree, which shall bring peace, plenty and happiness to mankind, and shall give health, strength and freedom, while the horse shall bring only war and strife to men." The gods with one voice decided for Athene, and the city was called Athens. We know of course that this story i,s only a myth, for horses careered over the plains of Central Asia, and olive trees grew wild in the valleys of Syria and upon the 144 GREECE. banks of the Euphrates ages before the first Greek set foot in Europe, but the Athenians believed it and to prove it pointed out an olive tree growing upon the Acropolis which they declared to be the verj^ tree Athene had brought forth before the assembled gods. From the days of Cecrops to the time of Theseus, who lived just before the Trojan war, the legends tell little about Athens. Theseus was the hero of Athenian legends, as Hercules was of the Dorian, and there are many beautiful stories told of his loves and adventures. He lived aboutthe time Minos reigned in Crete and it was he who freed Athens from the tribute of seven youths and maidens that it was obliged to send every nine years to Minos who sacrificed them to a monster, called a minotaur, as propitiation for the blood of his son who had been killed by the Athenians. From Cecrops to Theseus kings reigned in Attica, and from Theseus until the Dorians swept down from the north to find new homes in the Peloponessus other kings ruled, Codrus being king at the time of the Dorian invasion. Coldrus sent to the oracle at Delphi to ask how to protect Athens from the Dorians who were sweeping everything before them, and the i^riestly humbug who pretended to be an oracle, probably having reasons for desiring the death of the king, replied that if Codrus were slain bj' the enemj', Athens would be saved. It is not at all likely that the invaders had any idea of attacking poor and insigniiicant Athens or barren Attica for the rich plains to the south beckoned them, nevertheless Codrus e.xposed himself to the enemy and was killed, and the Athenians deciding that there was no one worthy to reign in the place of such a self-sacrificing patriot abolished the kingly office, and • jimerv»,thooodaes3of wMom. ■ ^^^^ Cedron his SOU, Archou for life. The Athenians were probably ready anyway to abolish kingly rule at this time, for they had outgrown their ancient form of government. Their king, like those of the other early nations, was their high-priest as well, ami in his double character of law-giver and the religious head of the nation had great influence and power, and a chance of accumulating much wealth from the offerings of the people at the shrines, as the nation mcreased in numbers, that would enable him to be a despot. There- fore the heads of several noble families took upon themselves, after the death of Codrus, the priestly offices and made the king simply a ruler, thus robbing him of a share of his influence and revenue and taking a step toward that kind of "government by the few" which existed at Corinth and Sikyon. From the year 753 B. C, a little before Sparta began to reach out after Messenia, the Archons at Athens held ofllce for ten years, but seventy j^ears later they were chosen for one year only. Nine such Archons from among the nobles ruled at once, each having separate offices in the nation and being judges, commanders of the army and having charge of other branches of the government. All thi.; time the common people, farmers, artisans and laborers, had + This statuette, made of PeutlicUc iimrble. Is supposed Xd be a copy of the famous Mi'^t-rvu made for the Partheuon, \^y PhtUlos, GREECE. '45 no share in the government. As there were no written laws and the judges were all chosen from among the nobles, they could neither get justice in the courts nor out. The people complained bitterly of the oppression of the nobles, and these complaints become so loud that the Archons, influenced, perhaps, by bribes from some of the common people who had grown rich by trade, appointed Draco one of the citizens from among the common people to collect and write all the laws then in force, and record also the legal punishments for all offenses. When this was done there was more dissatisfaction than before, for the laws were so unjust, so severe upon the common people and easy with the nobles, that the people were determined that the laws must be changed. At the height of this popular outcry against the nobles, a certain Cylon, himself a noble, seeing a chance to gain power declared himself for the common people, and told them that he was so grieved for their wrongs and so anxious to see them well-governed that he would sacrifice himself upon the altar of his patriotism and govern them himself. He then called upon them to drive out the Archons and Nobles, and with a few followers seized the citadel upon the Acropolis and there fortified himst^lf. The Athenians were a sensible people and saw at once that they would gain nothing by ex- changing their nine Archons and whole class of nobles, whom they could set upon each other and divide their plans of tyranny, for one tyrant who could do as he liked Therefore they refused to help Cylon and his followers, and they were so closely besieged that finally they were forced by famine to surrender. In Greece, no matter what crime a person had committed should he take refuge at the altars of the gods and plead for their protection and mercy, no one would lay hands upon him to arrest him. On the Acropolis were several altars, and Cylon escaping, his followers took refuge there. At last when they were nearly dead of hunger, Megacles, the Archon in command of the troops, solemnly promised that if they would leave the altars no harm should be done them. They yielded to his persuasion and every one of the worn out and defenceless men were killed by the soldiers, commanded to do the deed -by the treacherous Megacles. This atrocious massacre roused the common people to fury. They declared that Megacles and his whole clan, the Alcmseonidse, should be punished, and that if they were not, the curse of the gods would surely rest upon Athens. The nobles refused to bring Megacles to trial, and for several years the common people were so violent against the nobles, that the city was on the verge of civil war. Some years before (about 679 B. C.) Solon, then about forty years of age had returned from his travels and settled in Athens, his native city. He was a noble who traced his ancestry back to good king Codrus, but when he grew up was so poor that he was obliged to engage in trade. As a merchant, he traveled in Greece, Asia, Egypt and many foreign The Sacrifice to the Miuutaur. 146 GREECE. GREECE. 147 countries, and had acquired not only a fine education, but wliat was better, a know- ledge of human nature. He had learned what was calculated to raise man in the scale of civilization and what should be avoided. When he had accumulated a comfortable fortune, Solon retired from business to enjoy his wealth and the society of his friends. It was about the time that he did so that .Athens lost the island of .Salamis. So severe had been the Athenian reverses in the war with Megara on account of the island, that when it finally ended in Athenian defeat the State made a law that whoever should even hint that Athens ought to attempt to recover Salamis, should be put to death. This law Solon thought shameful, so he wrote a stirring poem which set forth how disgraceful it was for Athens to submit to Megara. Pretending to be insane, he rushed into the market place, gathered a great crowd and read his poem to such good purpose that the law was revoked and an army raised and placed under his leadership. With this army Solon retook Salamis and became the most popular man in Athens, being considered wise, brave, and patriotic by all classes of the people. It was Solon who at last persuaded the clan of Megacles to allow themselves to be tried by a council of three hundred citizens. They were found guilty and banished. It was considered that Athens was still under the displeasure of the gods, so Epimenides, a wise man from Crete, was called to the city, by the advice of the Delphic oracle, and he performed certain ceremonies that were supposed to remove the curse. By the advice of Epimenides, Solon was made Archon and given power to reform the State, which by this time so much needed reforming, that it would have soon been destroyed by the quarrels and fights between the nobles and common people had not the Ijad and unjust laws been changed for better ones. For centuries the rich had been growing richer and the poor poorer, until matters at this time seemed almost hopeless. The common people were deeply in debt to the nobles, and when they had mortgaged their farms and goods to pay these debts, were often obliged to mortgage themselves also and their wives, sons and daughters. Failing to pay, whole families were sold as slaves. This state of things made the common people hate the oppressive nobles, who had so little regard for them as to treat them as though they were mere chattels. When Solon took the government he had a hard task to perform in setting matters rio-ht. He was so well beloved that he might have made himself king, but he was too wise to do so, and not only refused to exercise such power, but so formed his laws as to educate the people in ideas of self-government. His first act was to raise the value of the money of the State so that each coin had a much larger purchasing power. His next was to declare that all mortgages were unlawful. He forbade any man to pledge himself, his wife or children for a debt, and made it a crime for anyone to receive such a pledge. All who were slaves for debt were made free, and those who had been sold out of Attica were bought at public expense and brought back. Solon saw that it was wrong for any one class to be allowed all the offices in the State and use the public money, so he divided the people into four classes, according to their wealth, taxing highest the richest, relieving the poor entirely from taxes, and allowing all who had a certain amount of property to be eligible to ofiice, the poorest classes only excluded. The poor might rise to the other classes by accumulating property. To encourage the Athenians to manufacture articles which they needed, he prohibited the export of any of the products of the country except olive oil, and Athens soon became noted for its manufactures. Solon made a wise law which com- 148 GREECE. pelled a man to take one side or the other openly on political questions, and either be for the government or against it, so there was no "fence" upon which demagogues could perch in Athenian politics. Every man, rich and poor, high and low had a vote, and was obliged to exercise it, an excellent provision against indifference to the public goo^l. Before Solon's time it was the custom in Attica as in nearly all ancient countries to look upon marriage as a sort of money bargain in which the wife was sold to her husband, or the husband paid by her relatives to take her. Solon saw what a wrong idea such a bargain was, and how it placed the wife at disadvantage, making her an article of merchandise, so he made a law forbidding both customs in Attica, making marriage more dignitied. I should like to tell you more about Solon's laws, they were so wise and good, and many of them so curious, for they regulated private life as well as religion, and the behavior of public officers, but you will be more interested, 1 think, in Solon himself. When he had seen his laws all firmly established, he left Greece, to escape the questions and criticisms of the Athenians, trust- ing that time would prove the wisdom of the constitution he had formed for them. He traveled about in Asia and Egj-pt for ten years, but when he returned he found that although his laws h^d been kept, there was much dissat- isfaction. One of the party leaders, Peisis- tratus was so crafty and clever in his dealings with the people that he would tinally be able to make himself tyrant. The pjthiBn omcii- PropiK'syiiig. Solon, now an old man, tried in vain to show the Athenians the folly of yielding to the plans of Peisistratus and endeavored to stir them up to take arms to defend their laws. They would not heed him, so he went sadly away to his own house, placed his weapons outside of his door, saying: "I have done all in my power to defend my courrtry and its laws," and never again raised his voice in public for Athens. He died in the first year of the reign of Peisistratus, who succeeded in making himself tyrant in 560 B. C., having realized nothing from his labors for Athens but anxiety, vexation and disap- pointment, but the world is indebted to Solon for many of its best institutions. Peisistratus, like the first tyrant of the other Greek States, in each case proved themselves, was a wise and vigorous ruler. He not only preserved the laws of Solon, but he made Athens the most beautiful city in all Greece, building artistic temples and public buildings which v/ere adorned by the most famous artists, erecting statues to the gods, and gathering about him learned men, poets and statesmen. It was GREECE. 149 Peisistratus who collected Homer's poems, and caused them to be preserved in writing. After a reign of thirty-two years, Peisistratus died and left his kingdom to his two sons, Hippias and Hipparchus. To one of these, Hippias, many of the disasters that afterward overtook Greece maybe traced. Hipparchus was killed by an Athenian father and son whom he had insulted, and Hippias, who had-until that time reigned jointly with his brother, became sole ruler. He was so cruel and tyrannical that he rivaled in his atrocities the deeds of Periander. All this time, the clan and descendants of Megacles were in banishment. They had asked the Delphic oracle how to atone for the killing of the followers of Cylon, and the reply given commanded them to rebuild the temple at Delphi, which had in the meantime been destroyed by fire. This they did, and not only erected a far more beautiful and costly edifice than the former, but faced it with snow-white marble, adorning it with sculpture and a splendid shrine, for they were very rich. Of course the oracle was thereafter the sworn friend of the Alkmseonid^e, and when they requested that to every question asked by Sparta, the answer should be given "Athens must be freed," the oracle willingly agreed. The Spartans sent rich offer- ings with every question, but no matter what they asked, not a word good, or bad, could they get in reply but these, " Athens must be freed." They hesitated for some time, but at length, fearing the gods would punish them if they did not obey, they marched to Athens, accompanied by the exiled clan which was headed by two chiefs, Cleisthenes and Isagoras. Hippias was at the height of his unpopularity, and the Spartans and Alkmjeonidje had little trouble in overthrow- ing his government. They seated Cleisthenes in his place B.C. 510. Hippias and his sons were banished from Athens and when the city was thus freed, the oracle was satisfied and the Spartans returned to their country. Although Cleisthenes was a noble, he was of a far different stamp from his ancestor, Megacles, and was more like the wise Solon whom he greatly admired. Convinced that Solon's laws were the best his countrymen could receive, he enforced them strictly, and so amended them that the common people were given more privi- leges and a greater share in the government. He institutecl trial by jury and the payment of private citizens as representatives and jurors, thus enabling the poor to serve in such capacity. He also formed a council of five hundred citizens of all classes to serve as a Senate and perform all public business. This council was em- powered to determine at any time, whether the State was in tlanger of falling into the hands of an ambitious individual, and the people were to decide by vote who the individual might be, and banish (or ostracise as it was called,) such for ten years, six thousand votes being required for the banishment of the dangerous person. Anyone who desired to become Archon was obliged to submit his name to the assembly which selected a number of persons who drew lots for the offices, so demagogues had no chance of success. Ten generals or strategi, each commanding the army for twenty- four hours every ten days, took the place of military archon. Athens was now tree indeed, a true democracy, the first known to history. The Spartans witnessed with alarm the reforms of Cleisthenes, regretting that they had taken the advice of the oracle, and they were as anxious to overturn the democracy as they had been to unseat tyranny in Corinth and Sikyon, for both had been an expression of the will of the common people. Sparta's common people were Achcean and Messenian slaves, and should they get the power, as they would in case democracy became so strong in Greece that it could 15° GREECE. help them, Sparta's own fate would be swift and certain. Sparta sent an army to help Isagoras, the other chief of the Alkmaeonedae, who was jealous of the popularity of Cleisthenes, to crush the new constitution. Coming suddenly upon Athens, unpre- pared to resist, the Spartans banished Cleisthenes and seven hundred citizens, and proclaimed Isagoras tyrant. .A.thens had been cowed once by a tyrant, and had submitted peacefully to the rule of his sons, but Cleisthenes had given the Athenians a taste of that larger liberty for which they thirsted, and they were done with tyrants and tyranny. They said as much to the Spartan king Cleomones, when he called upon the Council of Five Hundred to resign, and they backed up their arguments with such sturdy blows that when they had closely besieged Cleomones. his Spartans and Isagoras, in the ,'\crop()lis for three days, the invaders were glad enough to march out Th(_' Pirm-ns uf Athfus TlliK' vt IV-Iupuiu-^luu War, of Athens and return to Sparta, leaving Isagoras and his followers to be put to death as traitors. Cleisthenes and the seven hundred banished citizens returned and the new constitution, cemented by blood and the strokes of swords, stood more firmly than ever. Again, Cleomohes determined to seat a king at Athens, and this time he sent for help to the Boeotians, to Chalcidia and Thebes and several smaller States, jealous rivals of Athens. The Bccotians joined Cleomones to revenge themselves because Athens had freed Plata-a from Boeotian rule. The soldiers from some of these smaller States, when they had advanced as far as Elusis, and were told they were to march against Athens, refused to aid Sparta, and turned back. As the others were not strong enough without them, the expedition was abandoned. In Athens all classes of people forgot their quarrels and offered themselves to the State to pre- serve it from destruction. War, the stern w-ork-man, who has done so much good and evil for the w-orld, was preparing the. \thenians to receive the idea of Greece as a nation GREECE. •51 rr >f Hi'ail of Baciriius, tlu' liod ot Wiue. of Cyrene. Carthage had for years waged so that when the hour of peril for Hellas, now near at hand, should come, they could do as a city, what they now did as individuals — renounce small rivalries and join hands for the common defense. Great was the rejoicing in Athens when the failure of the Spartans to hold their allies was known, and the Athenian army promptly marched out to punish the Thebans and Chalcidians. which they did right well, and then continued their war with Aegina which had been carried on for some years. To explain how this war began, I must go back a few years in Athenian history. You will remember that Cyrus the Great conquered Croesus about 546 B. C.,and you will remember too, that he made himself master of all the beautiful cities of Ionia, in Asia Minor. These cities revolted again and again, but could never free them- selves. The Persian conquests extended to several islands lying between Greece and Asia, and Athens was naturally anxious for her own safety, all the more so after they banished Hippias, and his two sons found refuge with the Persian king. Cambyses succeeded Cyrus as a conqueror, and his first victory in Africa was over the Greek city had by this tim.e become mistress of the West, and war with Sicily, so between Persia and Carthage, Greece had cause for anxiety. When Darius crossed over into Europe to overcome the Scythians, he took with him troops from the conquered cities of Ionia, and skirting the fair islands and peninsula of Greece, dreamed perhaps, of European conquest. The losses in his Scythian expedition were so great and his empire so unsettled, that he postponed for the time, an attempt upon European Hellas. When he returned to his capital, having left trusted officers at Sardis, the Ionian cities saw an opportunity for revolt. They sent to Cleomones, king of Sparta, to ask his help, but he steadily refused to listen to their prayer. They then sent to Athens and there they had better success, for realizing that the independence of the Ionian cities would form a barrier between Persia and Greece, Athens sent a fleet and thirty- thousand men who assisted in the capture and burning of Sardis, Aegina offered to aid Darius to "remember Athens" and the Athenians, who never before would acknowledge Sparta as having the greater power, sent to the Lacadjemonian capital, representing that Aegina's treachery endangered Greece and asked Sparta to punish the islanders. The Spartans promptly marched to Aegina, made the people recall the treaty they had just signed with Persia, and carried a number of their noblest citizens to Athens as a pledge for the future good behavior of the rest. After the wrecking of the fleet sent by Darius against Greece, the people of Aegina went to war with Athens to free the hostages, and this war dragged on for several years, was laid aside during the Persian invasion and renewed afterward. Darius, far from having given up his idea of punishing Athens after the destruction of his fleet, was more determined to invade Greece and more enraged than ever against the Athenians. It was not until 490 B. C, seven years after the first expedi- tion, that he carried out his plans. Hippias had then been for fifteen years at the 152 GREECE. Persian court, and had done everything in his power to aid the designs of Persia against his country. When Darius compelled the Ionian cities for whom Athens had fought, to furnish six hundred ships and a large number of men to attack Athens, Hippias sailed with the Persian generals, Datis and Artaphernes, to witness the humiliation of the Attic capital. Darius had previously sent his heralds to all of the Grecian States, requesting earth and water as tokens that they were the property of Persia. Several of the smaller States had sent the tribute. Athens threw the herald into a deep chasm behind the city, and the Spartans cast the messenger sent them down a deep well, telling him there was earth and water, to take his fill. This still further angered Darius, and he commanded his generals to punish every State that had not sent earth and water, but to destroy Eretreria, an Athenian colony in Euboea, and to level Athens to the ground, sending the people of both cities as slaves to Persia. Eretreria was the first to feel the Persian wrath. After a heroic defense of si.\ days it was betraj'cd by one of its own traitrous citizens, and fell into the hands of the enemy, its beautiful temples were destroj^ed and its people carried into slavery. Never doubting that .Athens would fall just as easily, the Persians sailed tor Attica and landed at Marathon, on a plain twenty-two miles from the capital. When the news that the Persians were coming, was carried to Athens, a courier, Pheidippides was sent to ask Sparta for help, and traveling the 150 miles in 48 hours, he eloquently represented the danger in which Athens stood, and begged the Spartans to send immediate help. The Spartans promised to do so as soon as their feast to Apollo was over, and with this reply Pheidippides returned to Athens. The Athenians waited for five days. Then the ten generals of the army met in council and gave their commands into the hands of one of their number, Miltiades, whom they knew to be brave and skillful, and surely bravery and skill were sorely needed when Athens stood face to face with such peril. Miltiades had accompanied Darius as far as the Danube when he marched into Scythia. He and several of the Greek allies stood guard over the bridge of boats. It was Miltiades who advocated destroying the bridge, and leave the Persian king to perish in the wilderness, for he did not return at the end of sixty days, the time at which he promised to be again at the bridge. The other Greek generals would not consent. Darius returned in a few days and learning of Miltiades counsel, would have taken his life had he not escaped him and fled for safety to his native .Athens. His bravery had often been demonstrated, and upon him now hung the fate of Greece. It was he who was to lead Athens to victory or defeat, but Providence had not willed that the fair flower of Hellenic civilization was to wither beneath the heel of Persian despotism. The Persians leisurely made their preparations to besiege Athens, never dream- ing that the nine thousand troops who had posted themselves' the very day of the Persian landing, in such a position as to prevent the enemy marching upon Athens without first giving them battle, a mere handful compared to the hundred and fifty thousand Persians, would dare to hurl themselves upon the vast horde of invaders. Upon the tenth day Miltiades received a reinforcement of one thousand Plateaus, every fighting man in that plucky little city, and as the day had now come when Miltiades was lawfully in command, he gave the word for battle. The Persians, when they saw the Athenians rushing down upon their camp at a run, thought that they had gone mad and were courting death, but so impetuous was GREECE. 153 Cupriimes f)f Grecian Generals. the charge and conducted with such wonderful discipline that the Persian soldiers were thrown into hopeless con- fusion. The heavy Greek weapons, metal armor and physical 'itrength bore down rank after rank that was drawn up to oppose them, until at last, defeated and panic- stricken, the Asiatics fled to their ships, the Athenians wading into the sea to slaughter the fugitives, until not one was left alive on shore, and the fleet had put out to sea. Fifteen to one was the fearful disadvantage at which the Greeks fought, and thousands of the foe fell under their blows, while only one hundred antl ninety-two of the defenders were left dead on the field that red with blcod and heaped with corpses bore witness to the valor of Athens and Plata^a. In Athens, w^hile the men fought the women prayed, and anxious eyes turning toward Marathon saw at last an armed man running wearily as one who has come fast and far. The women rushed to the market-place where the men too old and the boys too young to fight had already assembled to hear the news of the herald, for he came from the battle-field, twenty-two miles away. "Victory is ours" gasped the herald as he sank dying from exhaustion to the ground, for he had made his way clad in his heavy armor, from Marathon to Athens in four hours, and was no doubt willing to welcome death since his had been the privilege of carrying such glorious tidings. " Victory is ours," the people shouted and wept in their joy, but at night-fall their joy was changed to anxiety, for news had been brought that the Persian fleet was approaching the Pirasus. Miltaides, had however, seen the direction the fleet had taken, and marshalling his heroes, trudged over the stony road back to Athens, beyond the city to the very shores of the Piraeus. When early the next morning, the Persians prepared to land thinking Athens would now surely fall into their hands, for they supposed the army was encamped at iMarathon, what was their confusion to see drawn up on the shore in grim array, the dauntless band that had dealt them such disaster the day before, ready again to do battle. Such courage seemed to the Persians more than human, and fearing again to meet the men whom no danger daunted, and no exertion seemed to weary, fearing too, the spears and swords of patriots whose watchword was "victory or death," they put back to sea, and humbled and beaten retired to Asia. Marathon! No wonder that its story thrills the soldier's heart, and that the echo of the blows there struck for freedom have rung down through all the ages to make music for the patriot soul, a music before which tyrants tremble. There the host that had conquered Egypt, laid Babylon low and subdued alike the proud cities of Ionia and the rude Scythians of the north was scatteretl like chaff before the wind by a brave little band to whom the liberty painfully won was so precious that rather than have lost it they would have dietl not one death but many had it been possible thus to save their beloved country. Alone and unaided Athens stood with splendid heroism and devotetl constancy to receive the shock of war, and w-hen the Spartans, a pitiful two thousand strong. 154 GREECE. and tyrannical and arrived on the evening of the day the Persians sailed away, their soldier hearts must have grieved that they too had not been there to share the glory and to help drive into the heart of the Persian monarch the bitterest disappointment and chagrin that ever vexed a despot. No need now to ask Darius to "remember Athens." The flower of his army lay dead at Marathon and he had placed the brightest laurel in the Athenian victor's crown. That twelfth of September, 4Q0 B. C, was a black day to Darius the king. Five years after Marathon we tind Darius sLraining every resource of his vast empire to again invade Greece, but death interfered and Hellas enjoyed a brief interval of rest. Miltiades, the brave Athenian general, who commanded at Marathon had been at one time ruler of the Thracian Chersonese and had commanded men nearly all his life. It was not unnatural that he should have been somewhat haughty should have had, after the victory of Marathon, a rather high opinion of himself. N'evetheless Athens, in spite of all Miltiades had done to save the city from the Persians, could not overlook what he did soon afterward that was contrary to Athenian law. Without gaining the permission of the State, he took the soldiers under his charge to the City of Paros and besieged it, because he had felt himself insulted by the ruler of that State. He was defeated and wounded but to punish him as he merited, the Athenians tried him for the offense, found him guilty and sentenced him to pay a heavy line, but he died of his wound soon after, some historians tell us, in prison. Two other Athenian generals, The- mistocles and Aristides, who fought bravely at Marathon had for several years been great favorites with the citizens, and they now became popular leaders. They had such widely different ideas upon the subject of the best way for Athens to pro- tect itself from the invasion which they had learned Darius intended and each had such a large following that the arguments and quarrels of the two parties alarmed the council and an ostracism was ordered, Aristides being banished. Themistocles was a clever far-sighted man, and knew that Athens could never hope to be safe from invasion so long as she had no fleet to defend her harbor. The war with Aegina, too, was dragging on and Athens needed ships for immediate use. It was Themistocles' idea that the proceeds of the public silver mines should be used to build two hundred trieremes and that a great wall should be built from Athens to the sea, enclosing also the Piraeus, thus enabling the city to get supplies by water should it be besieged by land. When Aristides had so bitterly opposed these two plans it was not because he was unpatriotic in his way, but because he believed that Marathon had proven that the Greeks could whip the Persians on land, no matter what odds were against them. We shall soon see how mistaken Aristides was. Again, Aristides was a noble, and was the kind of man who believed that new-fangled notions were all wrong, because they were new. He, like many others of his class, disliked the idea of having the people along the coast of Attica, become a trading sea-faring population, adventurous and fond of change, for they would soon abandon the good old Attic GREECE. 155 manners and customs if they sailed to foreign lands as did the Phcenician traders, and were constantly brought \h contact with foreign merchants. He had still another objection to the fleet, one rather unworthy of a patriot. He thought in case the fleet were built, it would be manned by poor people, and that should it succeed in winning battles at sea, the poor would naturally think that sin_ce Athens owed victories to them, it must give them more share in the government, and they already had greater share than pleased the nobles. When Aristides was ostracised and Themistocles had thus proven that he had the majority on his side, his plans were adopted. The fleet was built and the harbor deepened. He now turned his attention to making the Greeks feel that they were not a number of petty States, hanging as loosely together as beads on a string, but that they were a nation', and that they I JS , i > _. o*- ,-^ must unite for the common defense or all perish. To ""^^ ''^^"^^^^poiio';'the'^Gjrd"of musr-. gain Sparta ambassadors were sent from Athens to the Lacadaimonian capital. Their eloquence convinced Sparta and caused her to join with Athens in calling a congress of all the Greek States to meet on the Isthmus of Corinth in the autumn of 481 B. C, to agree upon some plan of defense. This congress met, and deputies came from all southern Greece e.xcept Achaea, who could not and would not join in any such congress unless all the other States of the Peloponessus would acknowledge Acha^a as leader, and of course they would not. Argos refused to have anything to do with a congress in which Sparta joined. Athens, Plataia, Thespia?, Thessaly, and Aegina took part. Thebes favored the Persians, out of hatred to Athens. So only a small part of Greece was sufificiently patriotic to answer the call to the common defense. Athens had won great glory in the last Persian war, and Sparta had done nothing. Yet, the Athenian deputies felt that the time was perilous for disputing which should be commander of the forces, and with tact and patriotism agreed that Sparta should command the allied armies by land and sea. This done, all the States represented in the congress made a solemn vow to resist the enemy to the last, if successful to devote one-tenth of the plunder to the Delphic god, and to make war on every State that had helped the Persians or yielded to Persian demands for tribute. Xerxes had now been king of Persia nine years. For five years he had been too busy putting down rebellions in Egypt and other parts of his empire, to give any attention to his father's plan of invading Greece, but for four years he had been making the most remarkable preparations. At the time of the congress on the Isthmus of Corinth, he was assembling his forces at Sardis. I have told you else- where how, in the spring of 480 B. C, the Persian host began its march to the Helles- pont, and crossed the strait on the boat-bridge. When Xerxes reached Macedonia he sent his heralds thoughout northern Greece, excepting only. Attica, and many of the States returned the tribute of earth and water. The congress had decided to protect the Pass of Thermopylae, a narrow road running between the mountains and 156 GREECE. the sea at the head of the Malian gulf, and the only place Xerxes could enter that portion of Greece south of Thessaly. This road or double road, for there were really two running side by side a half a mile apart, was bordered on the east by an impassable morass stretching to the sea, and ran in such a way that a small army could hold it against overwhelming numbers. It was in June when Xer.xes began his southward march, and throughout all Greece preparations were being made for the Olympian festival. The news from the north about the movements of the Persian army divided the interest with the games, and many of the Greeks who had been looking forward for four years to the festival, could not bring themselves to the point of giving up the e.xpected pleasure for the camp and the field. The Spartans were particularly anxious not to miss the games, and in place of a strong army sent only three hundred soldiers under their king Leonidas, to aid in defending Thermopylae, These three hundred Spartans were joined on the way by troops from Phocis, Thebes, Thespi:^e, Locris and Bceotia until fully seven thousand men were comprised in the force, hastening forward to bar the southward passage of Xerxes. At the same time the Athenian fleet with sixty thousand soldiers of the allied armies, twenty-five thousand of them from Athens, was sailing up the eastern coast to prevent the Persians from landing troops south of Thermopylae, and thus entering Greece from the sea. Xerxes' great army moved slowly southwanl through Thessaly, but when near Thermopylae it halted, for out upon the waters a fierce storm was raging that might destroy the Persian ships, as once before they had been destroyed, and without his fleet Xerxes would not attempt to conquer Greece. The little Greek army had arrived at Thermopylae some time before, and thus the Persian and Greek camps were in sight of each other, but the great host confronting the Spartans and their allies could not daunt them. They remembered Marathon and went calmly about their duties awaiting the assault with confidence. The Spartans combed their long locks, drilled, exercised, and behaved exactly as if they were at home in their own city, but the king preserved the strictest discipline among the troops watching the five hundred Thebans especially, for he doubted their faithfulness. There was a narrow pathway leading across the mountain, that gave Leonidas some uneasiness. Of course only a person who knew the country thoroughly had any idea of the path, nevertheless the Phocians, one thousand in number, were posted on the mountain in the best place to drive back the Persians should they attempt to gain it, for a traitor might be found willing to act as their guide. For four days the wild storm raged upon the ocean. The Greeks believed that Posei- don, the sea-god, was thus aiding them and showing his friendship for their cause. The Persian king no doubt wished he had spared the wine, the golden bowl and jewelled sword that he had cast into the Hellespont as an offering to the god, who, in spite of them was showing himself so unfriendly. After four hundred of the Persian ships carrying soldiers had been sunk and fifteen had fallen into the hands of the Greeks the storm passed over and Xerxes, learning that he still had three thousand vessels left, gave the order for battle. Leonidas had in the meantime sent messages to the Greek States earnestly urging them to send him more men, but no reinforcements came. Nevertheless, when the Persians advanced to the assault Leonidas was ready to meet them. Across the pass, on the Thessalian side was an old wall, and this the Greeks had repaired so that it became an effective defense. It was behind this wall and across the roads GREECE. 157 that Leonidas posted his forces. The Persians were confident of victory, for what was the handful of men before them when compared to their great army. Xerxes singled out the Medes to take the pass and commanded them to bring to him alive the Greek defenders, not knowing that he now stood face to face with foes who differed as widely from the Asiatics and Africans whom he had been accustomed to terrify into submission by a show of power and cruelty, as the day differs from the night. Proud at being chosen for the duty, and of obeying under the eye of the great king the Medes advanced to the attack but soon found that it was no easy task their king had laid upon them, and that they could neither bring to him the Greeks alive nor dead. They fought valiantly, for the Medes were renowned throughout all Asia for their courage. They fell in great numbers, their comrades pressing over their bodies to renew the attack, and thus the whole day passed, Xerxes watching the stubborn fight, marveling no doubt at the fierce courage and perfect discipline of the defenders. At last he recalled the Medes and ordered his "immortals" the ten thousand who were the fiower of the Persian army, to undertake the task. Led by Hydarnes, their commander, the "immortals" pressed forward and hurled themselves against the Greeks, but multitudes fell at the first onslaught. The rest recoiled, renewed the effort, again retreated, and again threw themselves upon the foe, reddening the road with their blood and piling it high with their corpses until Xerxes in terror for the safety of those that were left, recalled them too, and the battle for that day was lost to him. Within the pass but few lay dead, and when these were given burial, the Spartans combed again their long hair and slept upon their arms. The next day fresh Persian troops advanced to the attack, the Persian king hoping by keeping the defenders constantly fighting, to wear them out. Leonidas, however, had provided against this plan, and dividing his army into relays, a certain number fighting while the others rested and refreshed themselves, was thus being able to present always vigorous defenders, and at nightfall the Per- sians were in despair. Ephiaites, a treacherous Malian Greek, whose name is remembered onl}^ to be hated for ever, hoping for a large reward, made his way to Xerxes, told him about the secret path and offered to guide the Persians thus across the mountains, that they might fall upon the rear of the defenders and hem them in. Hydarnes and the "im- mortals" were sent under his lead to thread the narrow pathway, and all night they toiled behind their guide until at day-break they came face to face with the Phocian guards, who fou<3ht bravely, but were overwhelmed by numbers, and compelled to retire to the crest of the mountain where they waited for the Persians, ready to sell their lives dearly. The Persians, however, struck off, led by their guide, down a side- path, and thus gainetl the plain. Leonidas learned that he had been betrayed, soon after the immortals lef: their camp and began the ascent. Calling his allies together, he told them how hopeless further struggle would be, and charging them to hasten home and prepare to defend Greece elsewhere, for Thermopvki^ w-as lost, he said farewell to them and sent them away, keeping however, the Thebans as hostages, for Thebes had shown itself altogether too friendly to Persia in times past. Leonidas had declared his intention of remaining with his Spartans, to seek death at the hands of the foe, since he nor they would retreat in the face of danger, nor would care to live when Thermopylae was lost. Seven hundred brave Thespians declared that they too, would voluntarily ,58 GREECE. lay down their lives for Greece, and remain with Leonidas to share his fate, whatever it might be. Up to this time Leonidas had directed all his energies to defending the pass, and had remained within its walls but the third day, early in the morning he called his Spartans about him and gave the word to charge the Persian columns, already in motion. Did they look at the blue sky above them, the shining sea and the land they loved so well? Did they give one thought to their wives and little ones, their sweet- hearts and mothers, before they grasped their weapons more firmly, and led by their king. Spartan and Thespian side by side, uttering the same war cry, rushed down upon the foe? Or did they only think of the death that awaited them, and spring to it as a babe to its mother's arms? To the surprised barbarians, thrown into utter confusion by the wild onset of the little band, they were like avenging angels, striking for Hellas. Stalwart, fair and beautiful, they dealt such blows as the old Greek poet tells us, Achilles and Hector struck, each man a hero that would shame the bravest Trojan of Homer's song or the doughtiest Greek who fought on Ilion's plain. Desperation nerved their arms, and they struck down the barbarians, drove them into the sea, slew them without mercy. Oh, what a tight was that, and how even the glory of Marathon pales before it! Hand to hand with the foe, face to face and giving no quarter. Spears fell splintered and broken from the hands of the brave little band, stemming so nobly the whole red tide of battle, and swords were snatched from their sheaths and w-ielded swift and merciless until they too, were bent and battered, unfit for weapons, or lost beneath the trampling feet of the Asiatics who surged about the Greeks, urged by the lash to close with them and pull them down. When all weapons were torn from them, or too far spent to be of use, still they fought on, those men from Thespia; and from Sparta, their clenched fists giving blows that sent their foes to earth, where they were soon trampled to death. Leonidas fell at last, worthy of his name of Sparta's king, worthy cjf the warrior- race from which he sprang, fighting until death stilled his arm, and cheering with his last breath, his brave followers. Round his corpse the wave of battle dashed high and dreadful, the Greeks fighting for the body of their noble leader, the Persians determined to bear it to their king, but at last a little band of Greeks, all that were left of the valiant thousand, bore it in triumph back into the pass. The day had worn on, and it was now noon. Looking to the southward, the Greeks saw advancing the ten thousand immortals who had gained the plain, and looking to the northward, the great Persian host. Then they knew the last hour had come. With reverent hands they lifted the bloody body of Leonidas and bore it to a little hillock, closed up their ranks about it, and prepared to yield up their lives as brave men should. Back to back they stood, grim of countenance, stained with blood and dust, yet as undaunted of soul as ever. Showers of darts and javelins pierced them, and attacked both in front and rear, overborne by the trampling thousands, they went down fighting still, and not a man of them was left alive to tell the talc of how Leonidas and his thousand fell. Had Xerxes been a brave man, with a soldier's heart, he would have had respect for so brave a foe as Leonidas hatl shown himself, but Xerxes had not the soul of Cyrus nor of Darius, his father, but was cruel, and cowardly. He caused the dead body of the Spartan king to be beheaded, and impaling it upon a sharp stake, left it to pollute the air, and to show to all Greeks what were the fruits of resistance to GREECE. 159 Persia. The Thebans surrendered to the " immortals " without striking a blow, thus buying their dastardly lives, but Xerxes caused them to be branded as royal slaves, and surely they deserved slaver)^ Their living example was to Greece far more shameful than any indignity that could be wreaked upon the dead of glorious Thermopykc. The news of the defeat at Thermopylae was carried by the allies throughout Greece, but the disaster had within it the seed of after victory. The voluntary sacrifice of the Spartans and Thespians thrilled every loyal Grecian heart, showing to every patriot his plain duty. There have been battles without number in the history of this war-worn world, battles where every passion, good and bad have had their play, but never was there a battle where men hopeless of victory, confident of death, went more joyously tO' their doom, or were more willing sacrifices to duty and honor. Twenty-three cen- turies span the gulf of time lying between us and Thermopyla;, and over that span many a heroic soul has i)assed to the eternity where the brave are rewarded, but the heart throbs of all those brave men, bind us to Leonidas, the Spartan, with electric cords that thrill when we read of battle and glory, and Thermopylai is sacred to those who love noble deeds, and to whom patriotism is something more than an empty name. Sparta wrote u|>on a memorial column the names of the three huntlred who fell at the fatal pass, ami but one man who went forth with Leonidas returned to the city,, and he was henceforth shunned and reviled. It is related that he, Aristodemus, and another Spartan, Eurytus, were sick at Alpeni, near Thermopylae, when the news was brought that the battle had begun. Ill as he was, Eurytus rose from his couch, put on his armor, made a slave help him to the field, and plunging into the action was killed. Aristodemus remained at Alpeni until he recovered and then returned to Sparta, but everywhere reproach and scorn were heaped upon him, and he only redeemed his character from the stain of cowardice by his heroism and death at the battle of Platea, of which I will tell you something hereafter. While Leonidas was keeping the Persians at bay at Thermopylae, a few leagues away, a sea fight raged through those three memorable days, but when the fleet learned that Thermopylae was lost, it put back to Salamis. Gelon, tyrant of Syracuse, had been requested to send an army to aid Greece,, and the wisdom of his refusal was evident upon the day when Leonidas fell, for he that day defeated a Carthaginian army in Sicily, making for Greek valor another glorious record. Now Sparta, always timid in aiding Athens, left that city to its fate, and with its Peloponessian allies, began to build a wall across the isthmus, sending no land troops to co-operate with the fleet. Xerxes was marching southward, and the three hundred and sixty-six vessels of which the fleet was now composed, lay in the narrow strait between Athens and the island of Salamis whither all the women and children had been removed. Some of the commanders were uneasy antl wanted to get out into the open sea, but Themistocles knew that once out in the open sea, the fleet would scatter, each contingent of ships return to its own State, and Greece would be lost. This must be prevented, and to do so, he sent a slave to Xerxes, and this Helot pretending to desert to the Persians told them that the Greek fleet was about to escape, and would do so if not attacked. Upon the night of the da> when the Athenians saw the Persians march into their beloved city, and devote to the flames the beautiful temples and homes, the fleet had i6o GREECE. about decided to leave the strait in spite of the utmost eloquence of Theihistocles, but the next morning before it was light the banished Aristides, who had made his way with great difficulty and danger through the Persian lines to let Themistocles know that the Persian fleet had surrounded the Greeks, and would give them battle, arrived on board the vessel of his former rival. All rivalries were now forgotten. Themistocles told Aristides of his trick to force the fighting, and Aristides ap- proved it, kept the secret and announced to the commanders who were thus early in council, the news he had brought to Themistocles. At first the Greek commanders were much alarmed, but they soon rallied, decided on a plan of battle, and prepared for action. At sunrise the Persian fleet, one thousand three hundred ships and two hundred and fifty thousand men were seen drawn ujj in line of battle, while upon the shore Xerxes' army watched the com- batants, ready to aid their comrades if opportunity offered. The Greeks began the battle, but resisted every effort of the Persians to draw them out into wider space. All day long the fight raged, Artemisa, the queen of Halicarnassus being one of the Persian admirals, and doing valiant service as did many another Asiatic commander, but at night the Persians had lost two hundred ships with their crews, and sailed away obeying the command of their disheartened and discomfitted king. Xerxes now determined to return to Persia, and soon began his retreat to the Mcllespont, with sixty thousand men, leaving Mardonius and three hundred thousand soldiers to continue the war. Forty-rive days were consumed in this retreat, and as Xerxes had made no provision for defeat, his army suffered dreadful hardships. When they arrived at the Hellespont the Persians found that the bridge had been destroyed by a storm. The king was so anxious to be once more safely in Asia, thai he crossed the Hellespont in a fishing boat. Mardonius, with his three hundred thousand men wintered in Thessaly, and in the spring again marched to Athens and destroyed the city which the inhabitants had again deserted, but at Plala;a, in September of the same year, 479 B. C, the Persian army was defeated and destroyed by the allied Athenians and Spartans, Mardonious was killed, and only about fortj'-three thousand of the three hundred thousand Persians who had a year before comprised the Persian army, escaped to Asia to bear the news of Persia's disaster and Grecian victory. The sea battle of Mykale completed the Persian reverses, and Greece was at last free from the spectre that for fifty years had haunted it. Athens now put itself at the head of a great religious league, called the Con- federacy of Delos, which favored democracy. Sparta and Aegina were jealous of Athens, and while Aegina renewed the old war on account of the hostages, Sparta desired to see established at Athens the old government by the nobles. Athens did everything to pacify Sparta except relinquish her constitution, and for some time warded off war, but at length Pericles became prominent, and by his advice Athens went her own way regardless of Sparta. Themistocles had fallen into disgrace. With all his talents he loved power and wealth, and when he had seen that he might receive both by betraying Greece to Persia, and in spite of all he luul done to save his country from Xerxes, he entered into a plot to give up Greece to the Per- sians, was discovered, and fled to Asia. Pericles was of very different mould, a man whose genius and cleverness equalled those of Solon and Cleisthenes, and whose character was as noble as his mind was great. Aristides was now dead as was also Cimon, son of Miltiades, who had risen to high power after his father's unhappy GREECE. i6x death, and the forty years of whose pubHc career was the most glorious period of Athenian social and literary life, and is often called "the golden age of Pericles." Pericles was the greatest orator of his time, imaginative, poetic and of wonder- fully sound powers of reasoning, and drew about him the greatest men of the day. There was a certain famous philosopher, or reasoner, Anaxagoras, who was his intimate friend, as were also Protagoras, Zeno, and a clever and beautiful woman, Aspasia, at whose house the brilliant company of great men often met, Aspasia refusing to keep herself secluded as did niost of the women of Athens, and being as learned and amiable as she was beautiful. Aristides, when he had returned to Athens at the close of the war and become again Strategus, in spite of his former objection to the common people, made a new law by which they were allowed to hold office, but the poor could not afford to do so, as they were obliged to labor to provide themselves and their families with food and necessaries. Pericles became prominent 467 B. C, and he at once influenced the council to build beautiful temples and great public works, not alone that Athens might be made beautiful, but that the poor should be employed and receive money from the public treasury, so that they might be able after a time to hold office. Sparta was still like a country town in appearance, and the Spartan jealousy of Athens grew as that city increased in i:)(nver and beauty. In the year 464 B. C, a terrible earthquake occurred in Laconia, which nearly destroyed the capital and killed so many of the citizens and caused such terror and confusion that the Helots were not for a time watched as closely as usual. They were not slow in seizing upon the opportunity thus offered for a revolt, and rushing to arms attempted to complete the destruction of the city. The young and brave king Ai-chidamus drove them out of Sparta, but could not make them disband. They fortihed themselves at Ithome, in Messenia and defended themselves so fiercely and stubbornly that the king sent to Athens for help, but when four thousand troops were given him, and they were on the march to Ithome, the Spartans began to fear that the Athenians, who were of the same Ionic blood as the rebellious Helots, would help them instead of Sparta, and sent them home again. This proceeding so insulted Athens that it broke at once with Sparta and joined an alliance with Argos, and soon Megara too joined the new alliance. The fleet of Athens was now renowned and in 46S B. C, it had fought in Egypt, Cypress and Phoenicia aiding in revolts of those countries against Persia, and the same year gained many victories over Aegina, the old Athenian enemy. All these successes irritated the Spartans who in 460 joined Aegina, as did also Corinth in a war against Athens, Megara and Argos. This war lasted only a few months and ended by the Athenians crushing their foes and compelling them to make peace. A few years later Sparta, was so alarmed by the building of the long wall at Athens, which e.xtended from the city on each side to the Piraeus, that they tried to stop it by force, but Athens again made them acknowledge her power which was now so increased that it included all Bceotia, Phocis and Locris as well as Megara, and Argos. In the next thirty prosperous years Athens, under Pericles' influence, became the center of Hellenic culture. Poets, artists, scholars and philosophers found there an appreciation that they received in no other city. Persia in 455 B. C, was compelled to grant a peace dictated by Athens, and the Ionian cities in Asia were again free, and no Persian vessels dared appear on the Aegean Sea. Everywhere democracies patterned after that of Athens, and protected by the power of that city, were estab- i62 GREECE. lished in the States that were its allies and in 431 B. C, Sparta, having conchuUid its war with the Helots by conquering them, sought alliances to humble Athens. In all the States, and in Athens itself, there were many nobles w-ho disliked the democracy. When the Spartans saw that in some of these States the nobles were strong enough to rebel, they bided their time, knowing that it would not be long before Athens, now grown vain of her power would give Sparta a pretext for interf'-rence. Finally Samos revolted, for it had been forced against its wil ho accept democracy. The Samians were defeated and made to feel most cruelly the weight of the wrath of Athens. Then Megara was charged with giving refuge to fugitive slaves from Athens and Pericles issued a law making the punishment death for any Megarian to trade in any port of Attica, a most cruel and barbarous law, because Megara could trade no where else. Then Corinth was openly invited to war with Athens because against her solemn protest the Athenians *ook up the dispute between Corinth and one of her colonies siding of course with the colony. Corinth was joined with Sparta, but did not ask help of its ally in its quarrel with Athens until that city commanded Potidcea, another Corinthian town in the Athenian league, to demolish its walls. Then ambassador.^ were sent to Sparta for help. Potida;a refused to tear down its w-all and Athens sent troops against it whereupon Sparta seeing now the chance for which it had waited so long invaded Attica with a great army and thus was begun the Peloponnesian war, one of the bloodiest and most cruel struggles that ever harassed the world which for many a long year made the fair land of Greece the home of hatred and plunged into grief and widowhood the wives and mothers of her bravest sons. The Spartans and their allies burned the crops and ravaged the fields of Attica, the farmers and villa<>-ers fleeing into Athens and watching from its walls the destruction of their homes, the uprooting of their orchards and \ineyards and the pillage of all their possessions. But fifty years before. Lconidas had died at Thermopylai to preserve Greece from foreign invasion, and Sparta and Athens had stood side by side for Hellenic freedom. Now wasting each other by mutual warfare, they were both preparing for that fall which all the hosts of Persia had failed to effect. The Athenian fleet was not idle, for the fleet was the city's sole dependence, next to its strong walls and citadels. It swooped down upon the coast of the States allied to Sparta, burning, pillaging and murdering, Pericles himself leading the largest force ever sent out of Athens to pillage poor little Megara who, being cut off from Athens had joined Sparta, since that was her only hope. For nearly a year strange stories hatl been heanl of a mysterious disease that starting in Ethiopia, had traveled up the Nile valley, crossed the desert and desolated Asia Minor. This plague was a fever, swift, painful and deadly, and while the people were crowded into Athens and the S[)artans were con- verting the gardens of Attica into a wilderness, this dread disease broke out in the Pirajus, and soon spread to the city. The superstitious people thinking their gods were venting spite upon them, implored their priests to give such prayers and offer- ings as would again win the favor of the deities. The armed foe without the walls was forgotten in the presence of the unseen foe within, that stalked through the streets in the long days and clear starry nights laying low young and old, rich and poor alike. The blackness of despair settled down upon Athens. The dead lay thick about the fountains in the streets and at the foot of the altars of the gods, and side by side with death, crime ran riot, for seeing that no piety availed to save from GREECE. 163 From Bust lu BriUeh Museum. the dread disease, and no one was certain that he would be aHve another day, all hastened to gratify their tastes, and every law was set at naught. The Spartans, besieging the city, learned of the havoc disease was making. Brave as they were against human foes, they knew not how to war against the plague, and leaving Attica they returned to Laconia. Pericles again set out with his fleet, but this time, it bore death not to the enemy but to the Athenian garrison at Potidjea, whom it infected with the plague, and when the army returned greatly reduced by the disease, to stricken Athens, the affairs of the city were in a desperate condition. The plague had so reduced the army that the Athenians sent ambassadors to Sparta to sue for peace, but when they returned unsuccessful, there was an uprising in Athens against Pericles. He pacified the people for the time, but they soon attacked him again, and led by his enemies, brought him to trial. Unfortunate Pericles! He had done much for his country, and even his faults were those of a truly great man. He had made Athens famous and powerful, and had loved the city with his best love. His dear son and his prized friends were dead of the plague, his city in danger of falling into the hands of the enemy, and now gray-haired, weary- hearted and bowed by sorrows, his ungrateful countrymen would punish him for what was the work of fate and not the work of man. No wonder that he sank beneath the last and bitterest blow of all. His mind failed, his body was racked with pain for a long year, and then he died, his blameless patriotism, honesty and greatness, being afterward a pure guiding star to statesmen, generals and orators for all time. It was in the second year of the Peloponnesian war that Pericles died and two years later Plata:a of immortal memory, was besieged by the Spartans. True Pau- sanias had promised, fifty years before when the Persians were defeated and over- thrown at Plata^a that the battle ground should be sacred to Spartans forever. Fifty years was a long "forever," considering that Plata;a was a devoted friend to Athens. Plattea had shared the glory of Athens, had struck hard blows for Hellas and now defended by eighty Athenians and four hundred citizens it was to give a last example of its courage. A large Spartan army surrounded the city, but so well did the brave little band within the walls defend the city from the enemy, that, despairing of ever taking the place, the Spartans built a high double wall about it with the horrid purpose of starving the garrison. When the Plataians and their eighty Athenian allies had been thus shut in for a year closely besieged by the Spartans, several of thegarrison made a bold plan. There was but little food in the city, and more than enough men for the defense of the walls. Those who were not needed, took scaling ladders one dark night, climbed over the double Spartan walls, killed all who opposed them anil made their way safely to Athens. When all the food was gone the Plata^ans still held out until too weak from starvation to guard the walls. Then the Spartans entered -and with a cruelty that would shame savages put to the sword the half-starved men, levelled every building to the dust, and they would have wiped the very memory of Plata;afrom the minds of men had it been possible. Still the unnatural war went fiercely on. In every community the common people arrayed themselves against the nobles, and as each State had only a few thousand citizens the losses were severely felt. Law was defied, might i64 GREECE. reigned instead of right, and Athens and Sparta thus brought to the verge of ruin the States that it had taken centuries to up-build. In the battles fought by the two armies, captives were put to death and for ten years all Greece was at the mercy of a foreign enemy, had there been one who had the courage and ambition to assail the country. The war was finally decided by accident, as so many events are. On the south- western coast of Laconia is a bay known to us as Xavarino, but to the ancient Greeks as Pylos. An Athenian general, Demosthenes, the first illustrious man of that name, made a plan of seizing Messenia, and by rousing the Helots against Sparta compel the withdrawal of the Spartans from northern Greece. To carry out this idea, and it is strange the Athenians did not do so early in the war, a fleet was sent, which was driven by a storm into the harbor of Pylos. For three days the sea was so rough the vessels did not dare to venture out, antl the soldiers busied themselves in building a small fort on the point of land commanding the harbor. Wlicn the fort was finished, Demosthenes with five ships and a small force was left to hold it and the rest of the fleet continued on its way. When the Spartans heard that a fleet had sailed for Messenia, and that Athens had built a fortress in Laconia, their troops were at once called home. The Ephors, while awaiting their return decided that the little fort must be attacked, and it was, but Demosthenes held it until the fleet came back. Again it was attacked, and this time a dreadful battle was fought, but the Athenians came off victorious, and Sparta at once sent to Athens to ask for the very peace that Athens ten years before had so humbly begged of Sparta. Had Pericles been alive that peace would at once have been granted, but the men in power thought more of their own popularity than of the good of the State. They were not patriots, but that class of citizens who fatten their purses on the misfortunes of others, and who were anxious that the war should go on, in order that they might rob the public treasury and gain wealth and power. Cleon, a tanner's son, was the chief of these. He was a loud-mouthed, coarse, brawling fellow, something like the worst form of ward politicians of great .American cities, and it was he who caused the Athenians to refuse the peace. For three years longer, until 423 B. C, the war continued, and when it was ended Sparta found that although all Greece was weakened. Athens had lost little more than the rest of the country, and Sparta had gained virtually nothing. There was one prominent Athenian, Alcibiades who was bitterly opposed to the peace, because the Spartans had ridiculed his youth, for he was a young man, and they had chosen instead, an old general, Nicias, to confer with, in regard to the treaty. Alcibiades was considered the handsomest man in Athens, and he was known to be brave, for he had fought for his country, and been wounded in the first year of the war, although he was then hardly twenty. In several battles during the long contest he had shown his metal. In spite of all his bravery and good looks, Alci- biades was a traitor, liar, and the worst man, perhaps, in whom a nation ever trusted. Of course he had some virtues otherwise Socrates would not have been his friend, nor would he have risked his life to save Socrates once in the heat of battle, as Socrates had done two years before for him, had he not possessed some spark of goodness, it was Alcibiades who persuaded the Athenians to renew the war, for he had a clever tongue. An alliance was made with Argos for this purpose 420 B. C, and a little later Melos, a city that had stood for seven hundred years as independent as even Athens, was asked to become an ally of Athens and agree to be ruled by GREECE. 165 Attica. The Melians naturally enough refused, whereupon Athens besieged Melos, took it, killed all the men between sixteen and sixty, sold the women and children as slaves, and gave the city to the Platajans. This savage proceeding shows how wicked Athens had become, for the people of Melos were Greek, had never done them wrong and did not provoke the war, but the expedition against Syracuse shows them still worse. Alcibiades was the moving spirit in this as in the Melian expedition. Nicias was old and wise antl he opposed the expedition, but was obliged to give up to Alcibiades. Brave Syracuse had withstood Carthage and now withstood Athens to such good purpose that the expedition was a dead failure, and Alcibiades was accused of being the cause of the misfortune, as he certainly was, and called back to Athens p^rt, mof s.„r3t.s. for trial but instead of returning he went to Sparta, became a bitter enemy to his native city and went about through (ireece stirring up the cities still faithful to Athens to revolt. In Sparta he gained the confidence of many of the Ephors, but he was so tricky, hot tempered, haughty and insolent that he made enemies right and left and finally was obliged to fly from Sparta as he had been from Athens. This time he went over to the Persians, who were about to help Sparta fight her battles with Athens, for the war had been renewed since the attack on Melos. He persuaded Tissaphernes, an important satrap of Asia Minor, that it would be better to let Sparta and Athens fight their quarrel out and weaken each other so that both would fall into the hands of Persia, rather than help one grow strong at the expense of the other. As soon as he had convinced Tissaphernes that he ought not to interfere, the wily Alcibiades wrote to the generals of the Athenian army, then at Samos, solemnly promising them the help of Persia against Sparta, if they would overturn the democracy and make the nobles the rulers. The generals, who were as traitorous as Alcibiades, at once made a plan to put the nobles in office. They siezed the govern- ment, silenced by death every one who opposed them, the method so much in favor with tyranny and began to sue Sparta for peace. The soldiers, not knowing that Alcibiades had causeil all this ferment and trouble, declared for the democrac}-, and knowing the exiled traitor to be a brave man and good soldier, sent to ask him to come back and be their leader. Ready for anything that would give him power Alcibiades forsook the generals forthwith, and put himself at the head of the soldiers, marched with them to Athens, overthrew the very nobles that he had been the means of placing in office, and allowed them to be tried and punished. He then set forth to fight Sparta, and in the next two years won back nearly everything Athens had lost in the long war. In 412 B. C, Athens was still so high in influence and power that Darius Nothus, king of Persia, determined that she should not come out of the war victorious. To prevent it, he gave Sparta money to build ships, and in 405, the Spartan admiral, Lysander destroyed the Athenian fleet. After taking one city after another that had supplied food to Athens, he blockaded the Pira;us and began to starve the Athenians into submission. The people patiently endured the blockade four months, but at last surrendered. The famous long wall was destroyed and at last Sparta succeeded in what she had so long and so vainly tried to do — she overthrew the democracy and 1 66 GREECE. Alclblodes. put in power an oligarchy, or government by the few. The rulers selected by Sparta were thirty citizens who were to draw up new laws for Athens, but being thirty of the worst men of the city, they punished by death all those whom they considered deserved it, whether they had committed crime or not, banished Alcibiades and many others of the democracy, and since they were cowards begged Sparta to give them a guard to save them from the vengeance of the people. When they had killed or banished most of the prominent men in the democracy, they began to select wealthy nobles as victims, for they appropriated the property of the men they slew, but here they created disturbance among themselves, and finally the thirty tyrants after having committed the most dreadful crimes were overthrown, and the democracy re-established 403 B. C. Alas for the glorious days of Athens under Clisthenes and Pericles! They were gone for ever, and the light of Hellas was waning! Amid all the gloom and terror of those days of evil, of faithlessness, cowardice and blood, there was one fearless man whose life was a reproach to degenerate Athens, and who was greater than the best of the men who were gone, and in whose fame rests some of the brightest splendor of old Hellas. This man was Socrates, the friend of Alcibiades, the only man who dared speak openly and protest against tyranny, who stood ever for right and justice, and who had served his country well in war and peace. Socrates was of common birth, the son of a poor image maker, but like many other "common born" men of history, he had an uncommon soul, for "blue blood" as well as "common blood," nourishes many a feeble brain and a moral nature low and vulgar may dwell in the body of a king's son or the son of a swineherd, for it is something more than ancestry that makes the man. Socrates was said to be the ugliest man in Athens but his soul was beautiful, and he had such a clear and plain idea of man's duty that some spark of divine revelation must have been his, for we must believe that God reveals himself to him who dis- covers a truth whose practice will make men better. Socrates taught that it was better to suffer evil than to do evil, that the gods were better pleased with good deeds than with meaningless offerings, that man had a conscience given him divinely to be his guide. He went about dressed in rough, poor clothing, barefooted and bareheaded, asking men questions such as "What is base?" "What is wisdom?" "What is courage?" and then answering them so plainly that all could understand. He not only preached new truths but practiced them too, showing to man by example the virtue of goodness. He was eloquent, brave, honorable and faithful, yet Alcibiades the traitor to Athens had heard his doctrines and still had gone wrong and Critias, one of the worst of the thirty tyrants had sat at his feet and yet had lived wickedly afterward. Thousands had received light upon their life through him and it hatl never been charged against him that he had betrayed friend or foe, had done a single act unworthy a manly man. yet when the democracy was restored Socrates, was the first to fall under its displeasure. He was arrested, charged with impiety, although he never had spoken slightingly of the gods and reverenced his fellow men. He was declared guilty was condemned to death, his real offense being that his teachings of morality and justice were a reproach to the men who now ruled in Athens, and he was a stumbling block in their way. True he had declared that there was but one Supreme God, maker and ruler of the universe, and GREECE. 167 that this God was so great that human minds could not understand him. He had preached too that virtue is the only road to happiness here and hereafter and that injustice is a crime against God and man. It was for this that he was condemned, the first of that grand line of martyrs, for truth. When he drank the hemlock and went down to death as calmly as to a sleep his heroism was not less than that of the martyred Leonidas and in as noble a cause. We admire Solon, Pericles and Leonidas but we love the gray haired homely, good old man whose blameless life and pure teaching are like a ray of light in the dark sky of later Athens and who closed his eyes on his ungrateful city 393 B. C, in the 70th year of his age To return to the story of Sparta, which now runs along inwoven with all northern as well as southern Greece, we must go back to 404 B. C, when Athens desperate with hunger and hopeless of success, surrendered to the Spartan admiral, Lysander. This Spartan commander had been aided by Persian gold and I^ersian soldiers in his conquest of Athens, Darius having sent his son, Cyrus, to assist Sparta, and it was this very Persian help that afterward proved Sparta's ruin, as we shall see. You will recall that Athens soon ousted the thirty tyrants and restored the democracy, and although Sparta consented, Athens could not be trusted as friend or ally. Lysander was a haughty, tyrannical man, who very soon so angered Corinth and Thebes by his high-handed ways, that they refused to obey him at all, and became again independent. Darius Nothus died about this time, 404 B. C, and Artaxerxes Memnon became king of Persia. Cyrus, who had all along counted upon wearing his father's crown, beinc then Satrap of Asia Minor, determined to raise a revolution and possess himself of the throne. The Spartans were willing enough to help Cyrus, in return for the aid he had given them, and sent ten thousand of their best soldiers to join the forces he had raised in his Satrapy. After the fall of Athens Alcibiades had again fled to Asia, and was now under the protection of Pliarnabazus, Satrap of Phrygia. He saw that the resignation of Cyrus to his brother's rule was pretended, in order to throw Artaxerxes off his guard, and by persistent investigation he found out what Cyrus really intended doing. He told his suspicions to Pharnabazus, and declared that he would himself go to Arta- xerxes at Susa and tell him what he had discovered, counting, as usual, upon gaining some great advantage for himself. The Spartans were very bitter against Alcibiades for his double treachery to their cause, and now commanded Pharnabazus to put his meddlesome guest to death. Pharnabazus accordingly hired a band of ruffians to kill Alcibiades. These assassins sought the little Phrygian village where Alcibiades was living, but were afraid to enter his house, for they knew whatever faults the perfidious Greek possessed, cowardice was not one of them, and that he would sell his life dearly. After con- sulting together the murderers set fire to the house, and went off a little way. When the red flames were curling high around the dwelling, Alcibiades still majestic of figure and beautiful of face, although he was no longer young, holding in one hand a sword, and in the other a folded robe as a shield, rushed from the doorway toward the band of murderers, who ran for their lives afraid to encounter him. At a safe distance they paused, and turning showered missiles upon their infuriated pursuer. He fell pierced by darts and arrows, slain at the command of his last friend. We are told that in all his misfortunes and treachery there clung to him a woman he had loved in happier days, and it was she, Timandra, who i68 GREECE. wrapped the dead body of Alcibiades in her own garments and buried it, being the sole mourner over the grave of the man who might have been to Greece a second Clisthenes, had he willed it, for he had a great mind and was fitted by nature to be a ruler, had he not early allowed evil to master him, and made self his god. How differently died Socrates, the poor image-maker's son, discoursing with his last breath upon the great truths for which he gave his life, and humble and homel}^ though he vvas, mourned by hundreds to whom he had given hope and comfort. In the year 401 B. C, Cyrus, with his army started from Sardis, the old empire of Lydia, crossed Phrygia, Cilicia and the arid plains of Syria, to the Euphrates. Down the rich valley of this river they marched, the Greeks marvelling at the rich- ness of the soil, the mildness of the climate, and above all, that nowhere did an army oppose them, and at last they camped at Cunaxa, in old Chaldaia, and upon that fertile plain, in September, 401 B. C, Cyrus was killed in battle, and his army dis- persed, all except the ten thousand Greeks, who determined, although a thousand miles from the sea, to return to Greece. They refused the command of Xerxes to surrender, and notwithstanding the murder of their generals and that they were without maps or guides they set forth, led by Xenophon, to return. It seems almost a miracle that this little army succeeded at last, after traveling through the freezing cold of a bitter winter, in reaching their homes. They traveled up the valley of Tigris to its mouth, crossing streams and mountains, constantly fighting, and arrived in Thrace eight months after the defeat at Cunaxa. This retreat of the ten thousand, is the most remarkable retreat in history, for we must remember that it was entirely within an enemy's country, and the little army was without machines for building bridges or trained generals to direct them. How their hearts must have leaped as they saw the blue waters of the Euxine spread out before them, the sea which meant safety to them. The " ten thousand " reduced to eight thousand in the long march did not disperse to their homes when thev reached their native land, the ties of mutual danger bound them together, and they had learned to love adventure. They became a company of " Free Companions," or hired soldiers, entering the service of a Thracian prince, and afterward fighting for Sparta in the war with Persia, which followed in 398 B. C. This war Sparta began, for, fearing that Artaxcrxes would seize some of the islands under Spartan control, and being somewhat ashamed of having given up the Ionian cities to Darius Nothus long before, in return for Persia's aid in conquering Athens, Sparta now ventured to redeem itself in the eyes of Greece. The ten thousand had learned that Persia was not as powerful an empire as had been sup- posed, that the States which made up the dominion of Artaxerxes were hostile to each other in feeling, and ready to revolt from Persia upon any pretext. They had learned too, how greatly superior the Greek soldiers were to the Persians, and had a contempt for them, as opponents in battle. Sparta was now mistress of wide foreign possessions in northern Greece and the islands of the sea, but the laws of the old days were no longer enforced, and Sparta, like the rest of Greece was suffering from the disease of luxury. The war with Persia was popular in Greece, and as Sparta had rather a hard time to hold in check all the States which were counted as subject, the king Agesilaus hoped that by making war against the old enemy of Hellas to bring the hostile elements of Greece into harmony. After capturing Sardis and ravaging Phrygia, Agesilaus was planning to march into the heart of Asia when he v.'as called home by a revolution. The Persian king GREECE. i6q feared i;o meet the Spartans, even with his vast forces, and had hired trusteil agents to stir up the Greek States against Sparta. Money was freely used, and soon there was such a dan- gerous state of things that Agesilaus was obliged to set them right before continu- ^ ing war with Persia. : Lysander had been I killed in the begin- ;; ning of the trouble, | and the other Spar- t tan king, Pausanias I had been defeated 7 before Thebes, and s upon marching back ^ to Sparta, had been ^ sentenced to death, f but escaped from l prison and safely hid ^ himself away in Ar- h cadia. Ismenias, a h rich Theban had put | himself at the head s. of an army, driven s the Spartans from all ■" the States north of Boeotia, and formed an alliance of ten northern States against Laconia, so it may readily be seen that Agesilaus had enough to do at home, and although he was sorry to leave Asia, he dared not stay longer. Pursu- ing the route Xerxes had taken a hundred years before, Agesilaus marched through Thrace, Macedonia and Thessaly, crossed the pass of Thermopylae and reached the plain of Coroneia, and there meeting the Thebans and their allies, fought one of the most dreadful and bloody battles ever waged on Grecian soil. We I70 GREECE. are told that while that fight raged no war cry was raised, and no sound broke from the struggling Greeks grappling with each other but muttered curses and hoarse panting. .Agesilaus, the lame Spartan king, fought at the head of his chosen band, until he fell wounded by a Theban spear and would have been killed had he not been rescued by his bodyguard of fifty brave men. At last the Thebans cut their way through the Spartans and gaining Mount Helicon, left Agesilaus victor, though dreadfully wounded. It is related that the Spartan king had his wounds dressed and then caused himself to be carried on the shoulders of four soldiers through his camp giving orders for the comfort of the wounded, and the security of the living, and was then borne over the held of battle to assure himself that no wounded were left there without care. When Lysander captured Athens eleven years before the battle of Coroneia, one Athenian admiral, Conon, by name, escaped with twelve vessels to Cyprus. This brave Athenian penetrated into the heart of Asia to the very foot of the throne of Artaxerxes, and succeeded in interesting that monarch to furnish him ships and men to join in the war against Sparta. It was in the autumn of 393 B. C, that this now large fleet crossed over to Laconia, burned the coast towns and carried away many prisoners. Conon did more, he persuaded the Persians to rebuild with their money the Long Wall, which some years ago they had furnished Sparta with the means of destroying. Conon dreamed of again making Athens mistress of Hellas, but he was rash enough to attempt to persuade the cities of Asia Minor and those on the islands to acknowledge Athens as their leader soon after the Loiig Wall was rebuilt. The Spartans now sued humbly to Artaxerxes for peace, and, their envoy, .\ntalcidas, so influenced that treacherous monarch against brave Conon that when he arrived at the Persian court, on a mission from Athens, he was beheaded, and Persia dictated to Athens and Sparta (B. C, 387) the terms of the peace which followed, and these were so formed by Antalcidas that Sparta became mistress of all Greece, sacrificing the cities of Asia Minor to Persia. Sparta was a hard and unkintl mistress to the Grecian States, and after con- quering Mantinaia, 386 B. C, and the little republic of Phlius, turned its army against Olynthus, a powerful city which had grown great in the last century and was now at the head of a league in Southern Macedonia and Thrace. Two brothers Eudamidas and Phccbidas in 382 B. C, were placed in command of the Spartan army against Olynthus, and when Eudamidas was defeated and killed, and another general shared the same fate Polybiades was sent and after burning, pillaging, and murdering in the unprotected districts outside the city walls, at last exhausted by famine Olynthus after four years of war surrendered. It was during this four years' war, in fact at the very time Phccbidas was upon the march to Olynthus that another war was begun, a war which was to be to Sparta and to all Greece a long step down the decline to which they were all tending. Sparta and Thebes had been enemies since the second Persian invasion, and it was a Theban, Ismenas, as I have told you, who formed the league which created the revolution that was ended by the peace of Antilcidas. Thebes was a very rich city, and the democracy, under Ismenas, was in power. The nobles sent their leader Leontiades, secretly to the Spartan camp offering Phccbidas the citadel or fortress of the city if he would put them in power. When they heard that a Spartan army on its way to Olynthus was encamped near the city the bargain was made, and like most wicked bargains, bore bitter fruit. Phcebidas received the gate kej's of the fort from GREECE. 171 Leontidas, entered the city, and the nobles were placed in power, and began to exercise it in the most cruel and sickening way, killing those of the democracy who failed to escape to Athens, (and many did escape) taking to themselves property to which they had no right, banishing such people as opposed them, being supported in all this crime by the Spartan garrison in the fortress, for Leontidas himself went to Sparta and gained the permission of the Ephors to the Spartans remaining in Thebes. In Athens there was a number of Theban fugitives, among them being Pelopidas, a young and patriotic noble, who was a member of the democratic party, and his wise and virtuous friend Epaminondas, an old man who had joined the exiles but would not for a long time join in the plot they made to free Thebes, but did so finally, for he was destined to create great changes in Greece. Among the nobles in power was a certain Phyllidias, who soon became disgusted with the cruelty of his associates and entered into the plot against them. He invited the two rulers Archias and Phillipus, with the most prominent Spartan officers to a banquet at his house on a certain night in the year 378 B. C. Five of the exiled conspirators from Athens had entered the city as hunters that tlay, and, dressed in handsome female attire, were snugly hidden away in a room near where their enemies were growing stupid with wine. Under each silken robe was a sharp dagger, and when Phyllidias told the company that he would now bring in some Theban ladies, these daggers were grasped in brawny hands that were hidden in the folds of chiton or mantle and they entered all closely veiled, greeted with boisterous shouts, each choosing his man, but apparently carelessly scattering among the guests. As one of the Spartan lords reached out his hand to lift the veil of the supposed woman nearest him, a keen blade flashed and was buried in his breast, and in an instant the plotters had fallen upon their foes, among whom was the traitor Leontidas, and put them every one to death. Then flinging aside their blood-stained female gear, they rushed to the prisons, opened the doors and set free five hundred friends of liberty, and in the still midnight all Thebes heard the death of the tyrants proclaimed. Young men and old grasped their weapons, donned their armor and hastened to join the deliverers of their city, and the next day and for several dav? thereafter, so many recruits flocked to the standard of Pelopidas and his friends that the Spartan garrison marched out of the fortress and left the city. There was now a new king of Sparta in place of the son of Pausanias, and he saw that Thebes must be subdued or Sparta would have a very dangerous enemy always on the alert against it. So he led an army into Boeotia and had nearly per- suaded the Athenians into forsaking Thebes for they were no longer the brave and fearless Athenians of the old days, when the Thebans bribed a certain Spartan general to force war upon Athens by invading Attica, and thus Thebes succeeded in forming with Athens a strong alliance of seventy cities all pledged to resist haughty tyrannical Sparta. Epaminondas and Pelopidas led the Theban forces in the long war which followed, and prevented the wary and valiant old Agesilaus from gaining any important success in the next two years. In 374 B. C, the Thebans expelled the Spartans from all Bceotian cities, and in 371 B. C, Thebes after having shown itself in victory, for it was victorious both by land and sea, nearly as haughty and tyrannical as Sparta, offended Athens and the other allies and was left to carry on the war with Sparta alone. At the battle of Leuctra, 371 B. C., Epaminondas showed himself fully able to cope with any foe, for he was a genius, and not only a genius, but the i;.^ GREECE. rarest military genius Greece ever produced. The Spartans fouirht bravely, but were defeated, and that too bj' a much smaller number of Thebans and the new king Cleombrotus was killed. This was the first pitched battle in which the Spartans had ever been beaten by an enemy inferior in numbers to themselves and in Sparta the deepest humiliation was felt. Now .Sparta was driven back to the Peloponnessus, after thirty-three years sinning, fighting and plotting to remain supreme in Northern Greece, and influenced by Jason of Thessaly, Thebes and Sparta declared a truce. Jason, we are told, aspired to conquer all Greece, now e.xhausted by war, and to invade Persia, equally exhausted by lu.xury, but he was murdered 370 B. C, and the Grecian States were reserved a few years longer to quarrel and fight among themselves before being brought under the yoke of a foreign power. After the truce expired Epaminondas invaded Laconia and marched toward Sparta, but Agesilaus saved his capital bj' driving the invaders back toward the coast. After wasting Laconia with fire and sword, Epaminondas freed Messenia, which had now been three hundred years enslaved by .Sparta, called back from exile the descendants of the original owners of Messenia, and organized the Arcadian towns and those of the liberated provinces into a league which hemmed Sparta in on every side. The Athenians, strange to say, now interfered in behalf of Sparta and sent an army to help their old enemies, but Epaminondas retired to Thebes. It was about 367 H. C, that Pelopidas marched into Thessaly to compel Alex- ander of Phene, brother of Jason, who was oppressing his own subjects and threaten- ing Theban dominions to restore order, and forming an alliance with Macedon he brought home to Thebes Philip, afterward king of Macedon and father of Alexander the Great. It would be tedious to follow the fortunes of Thebes and Sparta through-' out the long war, for it is a story of violence, plotting and dissension. The cities of the Arcadian league quarreled with each other and with Thebes. Some of the Arcadian leaders robbed the shrines at Olympia. and this involved them further with Thebes. Mantinea refused to have any of the sacred treasure, and the Arcadians finally joined with Sparta and Athens against Thebes. P'our times Epaminondas invaded Laconi,a the last time penetrating to the capital, but being driven out. It was in this last invasion that Epaminondas fell at the Theban victory of Mantinea, and with him fell the glory of Thebes, as her star had risen with his entrance into public life. Pelopidas had been killed at the head of his " sacred band" of three hundred Thebans s&me time 'jefore, for after defeating his old enemy, Alexander of Phera; in a fierce battle, he rode out alone from his com- pany, and offered to fight his adversary' in single combat, when Ale.xander's body- guard slew him with their javelins. Lame Agesilaus, who had fronted so many different enemies in battle, and whose Spartan heroism equals that of any of the great kings in the old days of .Sparta's glory, died peacefully in his bed the year after Epaminondas fell at Mantinea, being at the time on his way home from Egypt, where he had placed Nectanabis upon the throne of the Pharaohs, in defiance of Persia. Forty-one years he reignetl over Sparta and made her the greatest State in Hellas, and though at the time of his death, (361 B. C.) he was eighty-four years old, his mind was as bright and his spirit as unconquerable as when he first donned his armor in his country's cause. Philip had now become king of Macedon, and his people, although not Greek, resembled in their hardy, brave spirit, the Dorians of the early days, and were war- GREECE. 17,^ like and bold. In a hundred years Macedon had made great progress, and having acted as allies of Athens and Sparta, the Macedonian soldiers had received a practical education in war. Philip too, was a military genius, and he studied the military art of the Greeks and improved upon it. When Epaminondas and Agesilaus were no more, Philip, knowing how weakened all Greece was by the long wars of the last three centuries, became ambitious to add to his own dominions the States whose quarrels threatened to destroy each other. He only wanted a pretext to enter Greece with an army. I have already spoken of Chalcidice, and of Olynthus, the head of the Olyn- thian confederacy or league in that district. Chalcidice was just east of Macedon and still east of Olynthus was Amphiopolis, a city which had once belonged to Athens, but which was lost to Attica and became independent during the Peloponnes- sian war. Philip made friends with Athens, and offered to conquer Amphiopolis and give it back to the city, but when he had subdued it, he kept it for himself, crossed over into Thrace, where there were rich gold mines, conquered the western part and founded the city of Philippi. Of course the Athenians were angry enough at the loss of Amphiopolis, but when Philip made friends with Olynthus, with its strong league and secured it as an ally he could snap his fingers at Athens. Phocis had been under the rule of Thebes after the battle of Leuctra, but being a spirited and brave race, although small in numbers the Phocians soon threw off the hard yoke of their conquerors. They cultivated after their revolt, the plain of Crisa near the temple of Delphi, and this Thebes declared to be extremely wicked as they considered the plain sacred ground. The council or league which protected the temple, took the view of Thebes and sentenced the Phocians to pay a heavy tine, whereupon the Phocians seized Delphi itself, plundered it of its rich offerings to gain the means of raising an army, and when it had gained both Athens and Sparta, who of course were against Thebes in everything, the Phocians and their allies, aided too by some of the cities of Thessaly marched against Thebes and Locris, who had allied themselves with the nobles of Thessaly and Philip. A great battle was fought in Thessaly in the spring of 352 B. C, between Philip and the Phocians, and Philip gaining the victory made himself master of all Thessaly. He would have marched straight into Phocis hatl he not found the Athenian allies strongly posted at Thermopylae. As it was he turned back. While Philip had been preparing to conquer Amphiopolis, a war broke out between Athens and her allies and nearly all of the large cities again became independent. The old military spirit was dead in Athens. There was neither patriotism nor bravery among the people, who now thought more about banquets and pleasures than their country's needs and when fighting was to be done hired soldiers to do it. The rich would neither serve the State in any way nor pay their taxes if they could avoid them, so being thus unfit to rule, Athens was ripe for its final fall. There was one man, however, who had within him the grand soul of the old patriots. He saw that Philip intended to con- quer all Greece and that the liberty of Athens would be lost forever if the Athenians were not roused. This man was Demosthenes, son of a sword-maker, who in youth was so sickly and delicate, so weak of voice and indistinct of utterance that he became the jest of his playmates. Nevertheless he had great and beautiful thoughts and he labored long and earnestly to master his defects of speech and at last did so, becoming one of the greatest orators the world has ever produced, renowned throughout Hellas ijA GREECK. and even admired in Persia for his remarkable eloquence and force. Demosthenes bent all his great powers of persuasion, all of his eloquence and ability to awaken the Athenians to their danger. When Philip was successful in Thessaly he made his first great speech against him striving to make the people act at once against the dangerous enemy, to be worthy of their great ancestors, and not to sit idly with folded arms and let the Macedonians swallow them. Athens was stirred by Demos- thenes to join Olynthus in an alliance against Philip, who now threatened the Con- federacy, yet the Athenians did next to nothing while the Macedonian king took one after another of the cities of the north. At last he conquered all the Olynthian towns and destroyed them, and sold the people as slaves, then turned upon poor brave little Phocis with his powerful army, destroyed everyone of the Phocian cities and forbade the people to rebuild them. By having the votes in the Council which the Phocians owned transferred to him, Philip gained a power to interfere whenever he pleased in Greek affairs. While these things were happening in northern Greece, in the Peloponnessus, the States were wrangling and quarrelling as usual. Philip turned these quarrels to his own advantage, and as Sparta was still the strongest State of the Peloponnessus, he tried to unite all the other States who were enemies of Sparta against her, in order that they might possibly destroy that State, and thus make Macedonian conquest of the rest easy. Demosthenes understood perfectly the plans of the wily Philip, and made a journey to the Peloponnessus, to warn the States of that portion of Greece against him, but while his eloquence was greatly admired and crowds flocked to listen, nothing resulted from it. At last the Athenians saw that Demosthenes had all along been right, and that Philip was an enemy to Greek liberty, and a strong party of citizens began to act upon the advice the orator had so often given them. The rich were compelled to pay not only their ta.\es, but a fair share toward building a fleet. The money spent so recklessly on the public festivals of the gods, was devoted to carrying on the war against Philip, whose offers of friendship had been rejected for an alliance with the city of Byzantium, which he was attacking. It is pleasing to know that Athens did actually prevent Philip from taking Byzantium 341 B. C, for the after history of the Athenian struggle with Philip, is a history of defeat. Aeschines, an Athenian, who favored Philip, succeeded in causing war to be declared against Amphissa, by the council of Delphi, and called Philip to take command. Instead of marching against Amphissa, the Macedonian monarch moved southward with a large army and seized a town commanding the entrance of Attica. At Athens there was the wildest dismay, for the dreaded Philip might be at the gates of the city at any moment. Everyone feared to speak, for they felt that Philip would revenge himself upon those who opposed him. All were silent in the assembly, and all eyes were turned upon Demosthenes. Then the real greatness of the patriot orator shone forth, and he made a ringing speech that roused the courage of the faint-hearted, and inspired them with new resolution. He advised them to ally themselves with Thebes and meet Philip boldly. This was done, and August 7, B. C, 338, the Macedonian army utterly crushed and routed the Athenian and Theban allies at Cha;ronea, in Bccotia, and Greece, after centuries of freedom and glory, bowed her neck to the yoke of a master. It was but a farce, the summoning of the congress at Corinth soon after, for the Macedonian conqueror possessed all Greece, and could take what he would, yet the congress met, and with a great show of good feeling appointed Philip commander of GREECE. 175 all the Greek forces which were now to go forth to war with Persia. Philip was murdered at his daughter's wedding feast, while making preparations to march into Asia, and his son Alexander, then a mere boy of twenty, became the king of Macedon. Philip of INIacedon had married early in life, a beautiful princess of Epirus, named Olympias, but he could no more be satisfied with one wife than with one kingdom, and while Alexander was still a boy he made other marriages. Olympias had but the one child, Alexander, and he was so beautiful and promising that it was no wonder that her heart was filled with jealous rage when a son was born to another princess whom Philip had married, and who, by her influence over the king was likely to gain for the infant the crown of Macedon. We may be sure that there were bitter quarrels in that royal house- hold before the high-spirited Olympias, fearing for her own life and Anstoti-ks. for Alexander's safety, retired from Macedon and went back to her father's court; the prince, now a young man was his mother's devoted champion and left the court with her. Alexander had been carefully trainqd in his father's realm by one of the wisest Irten of Greece, the great Aristotle, and had made friends of the Macedonian gen- erals who had fought in Philip's wars, some of them even taking sides with him and Olympias and accompanying them in their exile. Alexander had a naturally ambi- tious turn of mind which the clever Aristotle fostered, and he no doubt early made up his mind that he would be king of Macedon after Philip, no matter who might claim the throne. He knew he could count upon the support of the army, for his gallant conduct at Chteronea and elsewhere in Philip's ten months campaign in Bceotia and Phocis had made him popular with the soldiers. Olympias and Alexander had been summoned to Macedon to the fatal wedding feast where Philip lost his life and it is not unlikely that one or both of them may have had a hand in his murder for as soon as Philip was dead Alexander put every other claimant to the throne aside with a strong hand and at twenty found himself ruler of an empire that was made up of Macedon, the Grecian States and of the country inhabited by several barbarian tribes in the Danube Valley. He had, also, a splendidly trained army under Antigonus, Antipater, Ptolemy, Seleucus, Lysimachus and Parmenio, who had long been his friends and counsellors, and soon showed his subjects that though he was a mere boy in years he was nevertheless every whit a king and was not to be trifled with. Demosthenes must have been rejoiced at the death of Philip, and he too, it is said, was in the plot to murder him although it is hardly likely. His influence was powerful at Athens and there was a movement toward liberty which was taken up by the other States that might have caused Alexander some trouble had he not acted promptly; but he mounted his famous black horse Bucephalus and at the head of his army marched through the whole length of Greece receiving the submission of the cities as he went. Again the Congress met at Corinth and this time it made Alexander general of Greece, as it had before made Philip head of the forces of Hellas, and delivered many fine-sounding complimentary speeches to the young monarch, who probably took them for what they were worth. Certainly he trusted the Greek cities very little for he left garrisons of Macedonian soldiers in many of them, although he paid no attention to Sparta, who stood sullenly aloof and would 176 GREECE. have nothing to do with him. Sparta was small game for this warrior-king. Persia was to be his prey, and he only waited to punish the barbarians of the Danube X'alley, who now rebelled against Macedon, before pouncing upon Asia. He passed over the high mountains lying between Macedon antl the Northern Country, and after marching with his army through dense woods, and fording rapid streams came to the mighty Danube. When neither ford nor bridge, ferry nor boats could be found to carry his men across, nothing daunted, he caused rafts to be made and buoyed up with inflated o.\ hjdcs and upon these his army crossed the stream, defeated the barbarians, recrossed and turned their faces southward. The king with ArlRtotele pnd Tllfl Pupil, Alexander. his victorious soldiers had scarcely reached the frontiers of Macedon when news was brought that the Thebans, having heard a rumor of his death, had revolted and were besieging the Macedonian garrison in their citadel. Alexander wa.sted no time in hurrying to Thebes. Making one of those swift marches for which he was afterward famous, he arrived near the city, and stationed his army about it so as to cut off help which might be sent from Athens, before the surprised Thebans had any notion of his approach. The Thebans, as you know, were valiant in war, and they were not to be frightened at the mere sight of an army, so they shut themselves up Ix-hind their walls, and refused to surrender to Alexander. The huge battering rams of the Mace- donians were brought against the walls, and artillery that would sling stones and darts fully three hundred yards, rained missiles upon the defenders. When a great hole had been made in one side of the masonry, the Macedonians, fiercely GREECE. 177 opposed by tne Thebans, entered the city. There was frightful slaughter in proud Thebes that dreadful day, and its streets were red with the blood of women and chil- dren as well as brave men, but the doom of the living was pronounced by the Macedonian king, who com- manded every per- son that had been spared from death should be sold into slavery. Every house and temple, every hovel and palace was leveled to the dust, only the home that had once sheltered the poet Pindar, being left to mark the spot where Thebes had stood. The other Greek cities were so terrified at this stern act of vengeance, that they gave up all idea of ever resist- ing Ale.xander, but Sparta still sent no embassy to him, and the Spartans ma J' have dreamed of again making their State mistress of Greece when Alexander was safely away in Asia. They did attempt a revolt when Alex- ander was busy in Asia Minor, which might have been successful had the cities of Ionia united against the Macedonians. Parmenio and Antipater were wise old generals who knew well the uncertainty of all things earthly, and they tried to mm 178 GREECE. persuade Alexander to marry and settle quietly down to governing Macedon and Greece, for a few years, and then when he had a son to succeed him, go forth if he w^ould to fight Persia. Alexander w^ith the impatience of youth, would not listen to the w ise counsels of his two tried friends. He left Antipater to rule over Macedon and Greece, much to the disgust of Olympias who wanted to rule over the empire herself, and proved herself a vexatious obstacle in the way of loyal old Antipater. Parmenio and the other generals of whom I have told you, went with Alexander, who crossed the Hellespont in the spring of 334 B. C., to begin ten years of wandering and fighting that were so full of adventure and romance that the world still hears of them with interest. Alexander was too wise a general to strike straight for Persia, leaving enemies behind to trouble him in case of defeat, but after the hard-fought battle of Granicus, where he met and defeated the Persians satraps of Asia Minor, who had collected an army to bar his way, he turned southward. It would require volumes, and fascinating volumes they would be, to tell you all about the movements of Alexander and his adventures b}' the way, before he reached Sardis, which opened its gates to him. He then conquered I lalicarnassus, the city in which Herodotus, the first writer of history was born, some two hundred years before Alexander saw the light, and went to meet Darius in Syria. On the plain of Issus, a narrow strip of Syrian vallc)-, lying between the mountains and the sea, Darius Codomanus, with his great army, met the Macedonian invaders B. C, 333, but he was so frightened by the havoc that the skilled soldiers of Alexander made among his cowardly Asiatics, that he ran away from the field when the battle first began, and by his flight so struck terror and panic to his army, that in spite of the valiant conduct of many of the Persian nobles, the day was lost to him, and Alexander gained his second great victorj- in Asia. The wife and child of Darius, his mother and several ladies of the court had gone out with the Persian army, probably thinking that the Persians would so easily defeat the Macedonians that it would be mere sport. They fell into the hands of Alexander, together with large quantities of rich goods of the Persian king's house- hold. Among the treasures were many golden vessels which Alexander sent home to Antipater with tlirections to him to have them melted and coined into money. Now Alexander felt free to strike a blow at Phoenicia, for Tyre was still the greatest com- mercial city in western Asia. He knew that the cities he had already mastered would not attempt to free themselves when they heard of the defeat of Darius. He even proclaimed himself king of Persia by right of conquest, and then marched to Tyre. The old city of Tj're, on the mainland had been destroyed in a war with one of the Babylonian kings, and the new city that sprang up afterward was built on an island about three miles wide, a short distance out in the sea. The water all about this island formed good harbors. The city had many splendid buildings, lofty and beautiful, and there was great wealth stored in its warehouses. When the Tyrians heard that the dreaded Alexander was coming, they sent out some of their nobles to meet him and give him a golden crown as a sign that they acknowledged him as their lord. There was much complimentary talk between these noblemen and the Mace- donian king, and when the former went back into the city, it was with the request preferred by the conqueror that he be permitted with his army to enter Tyre, and sacrifice to 1 lercules, the god most honored by the Phoenicians. The Tyrians politely GREECE. I7Q replied that neither he nor his army would be allowed to enter the city, and suggested that there was a temple of Hercules among the ruins of old Tyre on the mainland. Alexander had no ships, and he could not besiege Tyre by sea without them, and as they were so far from the shore the Tyrians felt perfectly safe. Alexander soon showed what he intended doing. He set hif. soldiers to work felling cedars upon Mount Lebanon, and these were hauled to the water's edge and were driven down into the slime and mud, for the water between the island and mainland was only about eighteen feet deep. Great machines were made for driving these piles, and they formed the skeleton of an isthmus which Alexander began to build of timber, earth and stones, to connect Tyre with the shore. The Tyrians did everything possible to prevent the work. Alexander was compelled to get some ships from Sidon to protect his laboring soldiers, and there was often lively fighting between the besiegers and the besieged. At length, after seven months, this wonder- ful artificial isthmus was finished, and the Macedonian army stormed the walls of Tyre. The Tyrians fought with desperate courage, but the city was taken by the enemy, and the Macedonian soldiers, infuriated by the long siege and stubborn resis- tance of the citizens, slaughtered them without mercy. When the brutal soldiers had satisfi'ed their revenge, many of the Tyrians were still left alive. These Ale.xander himself claimed as his share of the prey, and caused hundreds of them to be thrown alive into the sea, other hundreds to be crucified along shore, and then had the others beheaded or stabbed, all of these cruelties being considered the right of a conqueror in those bloody old days of wrong and violence, a right in which Alexander exulted. He must have been blood- thirsty by nature or else being still so young a man, he would have felt some pity, and showed mercy to the people whose only crime was their patriotism. Darius Codomanus now sent a very humble letter to Alexander, asking for peace, and offering to give up to him a large part of his empire. Parmenio advised Alexander to do as Darius requested, but Alexander wrote a haughty reply to the poor worried Persian king, declaring that he would take what he wished, whether Darius were willing or not, and intimated that among other things he meant to take Darius himself, alive or dead. Alexander marched from Tyre through Judea, and passing Jerusalem, the Hebrew historians say through the city, but the Greeks do not confirm them, he stopped at Gaza, on the Mediterranean. Gaza, like Tyre, was very rich, and did not propose to let the murdering, plundering band of foreigners into the city if they could be kept out. The governor of Gaza was a Persian satrap, named Betis. He was a good general, and Alexander had a hard time taking the city, but it fell at last, and the scenes at Tyre were repeated. At length Alexander had Betis brought before him, and when the captive general refused to make any reply to the insults heaped upon him, he caused his heels to be pierced, a rope passed through the holes, and then had him fastened behind a chariot and dragged over the stony streets until he died of th(, torture, a cruelty which cannot be excused, and was worthy of the fierce Gauls of the north rather than of this Macedonian monarch who made some pretense to tlie refinement and humanity of the Greeks. War-wasted groaning Egypt, who hated Persia as heartily as in the days of Cambyses, welcomed Alexander as a Savior. The ties of a kindred religion bound the Egyptians to the Greeks, and Greek merchants had long found favor in the i8o GREECE. Defeat of Darlufi b}' the MacciluDlans. GREECE. i8i valley of the Nile. Alexander not only freed Egypt from Persia but he respected the gods of the people and sacrificed to them. While he lingered in the fertile Nile country he even had himself proclaimed son of [upiter Amnion and received worship. In the year 332 B. C, Alexander founded at the mouth of the Nile, the City of Alexandria which soon became the greatest commercial city of Egypt and for nearly twenty-two centuries of varying fortunes has remained the metropolis of the Nile Valley. Darius Codomanus was meanwhile preparing another great army and when Alexander, 331 B. C, entered the old empire of Assyria, the Persians made a stand against him at Arbela. Again Darius was defeated and again he escaped, fleeing this time into Bactria, followed by Alexander, who found him at last, it is said, Alexander at Pcrsepolis. dead of the wounds given him by his own Satrap Bessus, who had some idea of seizing the Persian throne. Susa with all its treasures of gold and jewels, and its splendid palaces, fell next before the conqueror, and he then destroyed the fair city of Persepolis, selling its people into slavery. Ship-loads of plunder were sent back to Macedon as the result of the gigantic robberies perpetrated by Alexander and his soldiers whom it now seemed that nothing would satisfy. The Macedonians up to this time had claimed that the old quarrel between Greece and Persia justified their conquests, but after they had rested and rioted in Babylon and the other cities of the conquered empire, they still pressed eastward into India, and the bounds of the world only limited Alexander's ambition. The eyes of the Macedonians viewed with wonder the civilizations unfolded before them and thou^di they carried misery and desolation to empires, they carried too the seeds i82 GREECE. of new thought receiving the same in return. Paving the way for the after centuries they fulfilled a design of Providence although they never dreamed of so doing. At last, after conquering India, Ale.xander designed to penetrate still farther east. The weary war-scarred veterans refused to advance. They had won glory and plunder enough to satisfy them and knew that as they dropped by the way the king would supply their place with soldiers from the conquered natives and they would reap no reward from their toils. Parmenio had been murdered by the jealous Alexander's orders long before, and another faithful general, he had struck down with his own hand in a drunken frenzy. He had discarded Greek manners and even Greek dress for the Persian and had practiced Persian vices until the affection of his soldiers may have wavered. At any rate they refused to go farther and suffering terribly in the deserts which border Persia they at last reached Susa on their homeward way, and after a few weeks again reposed in Babylon. Alexander was now thirty-two years old, and covered with scars, bronzed, savage of temper, given to frightful tits of drunkenness, he was no longer the Alexander of other days. Once more in Babylon he gave himself up to the excesses of which he was so fond, and after a night of shameful revel he was seized of a fever which ended his life in a few days, 324 B. C. Among all of the conquerors of history none were more courageous than Alexander and none whose personal daring was greater. As a general, too, and military genius only one man, Hannibal, has ever equaled him. His vices were serious but he was generous, frank, brave and won the love of his soldiers. His great faults were developed by his victories and were natural enough to one whose youth was passed as his had been. Alexander's body was scarcely cold in death before his generals, who had probably discussed the matter while the king lay dying, were quarreling over his empire. In far away Macedonia there lived his weak-minded half brother, Philip Arridajus and his wife Eurydice, who was as clever as her husband was silly. The foot soldiers, led by Meleager at once declared Philij) king, but Perdiccas persuaded the army to give Meleager up to the Generals to be punished. He convinced the soldiers that it would be wise to wait and see whether Roxana, the wife of Alexander should give birth to a son. In that event the Generals should rule as satraps until the prince was of age, Philip bearing the name of king in the meantime. The army made Perdiccas regent, and he divided the empire into satrapies. Antipater had ruled Greece and Macedon well, and he was left in charge there, Craterus being sent to aid him. Ptolemy was sent to Egypt, Antigonus and Leo- natus took between them Phrygia, Lycia and Pamphylia, Seleucus was placed in charge of Syria and Babylonia, Eumenes was assigned to Paphlagonia, and Cap- padocia and Lysimachus was made satrap of Thrace. When the news of Alexander's death reached Greece, Demosthenes, now an old man but as bitter as ever toward Macedon, stirred up a revolt, but Antipater put it down and Demosthenes fled from the city. When he was followed and about to be arrested, he killed himself to escape his enemies. As might have been expected, as soon as the different generals were safely in charge of their satrapies, they at once fell to plotting and planning how to cheat tiie baby son of Alexander, who had now been born. Each general set to work to make himself an independent king in his own province, and greedy Antigonus wanted for himself the whole vast empire that Alexander had conquered. Antipater alone was GREECE. 183 loyal to the little king as he had been to his father and grandfather, and knowing that his son Cassander would not protect the little lad's interest, he made a will leaving Macedon and Greece to Polysperchon, one of his old war comrades, and soon afterward died full of years and honor, for he was a good man and true. After much squabbling and quarrelling, the other generals came to, open war. Craterus and Leonatus were killed before Antipater's death, Eumenes fell in 316 B. C., three years after Polysperchon began his reign, and the same year Cassander became, with the help of Antigonus, master of Greece and Macedon. Little Alexander was now eight years old, and his grandmother Olympias loved him as devotedly as she had loved his father. His aunt Eurydice, however, would gladly have put him out of the way of her husband, the weak figure-head king of Macedon. To save him from this fate Olympias caused Philip and his wife to be murdered and took charge of Roxana and the child-king. Cassander married Thessalonica, half sister of Alexander, as soon as he became master of Macedon and when he promised Olympias his protection she surrendered to him. Prom.ises that stand in the way of a tyrant's power count but little, and Cassander was not senti- mental upon the subject of promises, so as soon as he got possession of fierce, haughty, troublesome Olympias he gave her over to her enemies who killed her. Roxana and the royal heir he shut up in Amphiopolis and there he caused them to be murdered 311 B.C. The boy was then thirteen years old, and his sad fate can not fail to excite pity. Born the heir to the great empires of the east and west, the dominion of the whole known world, he was carried about from camp to camp and from city to city, his name being the excuse for wars and murders. The joys of healthy, happy childhood were denied him, and while nations were devastated by the wars of those who were seeking to rob him of his realm, and while the hearts of millions of people were waiting and hoping that he would be able to bring order out of chaos, he was cut off in his youth and innocence. Thus the sins of Alexander and of Philip were visited on the helpless child, and the blameless victim died by the hand of the cruel tyrant who coveted his inheritance. All Asia was now like the field wherein the fable tells us dragon's teeth were sown that sprung up armed men. Lysimachus, Seleucus and Ptolemy were determined to hold their kingdoms and allied themselves against Antigonus, who was just as deter- mined to have the whole empire himself. His brilliant and brave son Demetrius was sent to Greece with a fleet 308 B. C, to relieve Athens, which Ptolemy was besieging, for Cassander, as you will remember was allied with Antigonus and had gained his kingdom by the aid of the stubborn old general. Demetrius drove Ptolemy to Cyprus, and there, off Salamis, was fought 306 B. C, one of the most dreadful sea-battles in the history of the world. Demetrius was victorious, and Ptolemy was driven back to Egypt. The Athenian people could not say or do enough to prove their gratitude to Demetrius. They set up his statue in one of their temples and worshipped him as a god, and did other things equally foolish. At this time Rhodes was a great city with a large fleet, and Demetrius was i84 GREECE. anxious to conquer it in order that his father might have its ships to fight Ptolemy, l-'or a whole year he besieged Rhodes, which Ptolemy was aiding from the sea, all the time, but was at last compelled to give it up. In the year 301 B.C., Antigonus and Demetrius met the allied generals at Ipsus. and in the battle that followed Antigonus was defeated and killed. Demetrius, with a few thousand men, fled back to Athens, where the fickle people, who had only a short time before worshipped him as a god, refused to let him in or have anything to do with him now that he was in trouble. Demetrius made friends with Seleucus, besieged and took the ungrateful city treating it with far more kindness than it deserved. Soon after this Lysimachus married Arsinoe, a daughter of Ptolemy, one of the most beautiful and wicked women of history, and all the troubles he had been through in his long life were small compared to those his handsome wife brought upon him. Her half-brother, Ptolemy Ccraunos, visited the Thracian court, and he and the queen made a plot against Agathocles, the noble and well-beloved crown prince of Thrace, and persuaded l^ysimachus to consent to his death. Ceraunos put Agathocles to death, but the relatives of the murdered prince called upon Seleucus to avenge his unhappy fate. He promptly responded, and not far from the place where the battle of Ipsus was fought, Seleucus met the Thracian king, and killed him. Lysimachus, the last of the companions of Alexander's youth, was slain at the age of eighty, 261 B. C. Ptolemy had died peacefully two years before, having appointed his son king and seen him firmly established over Egypt. Seleucus was growing old, too, and weary of campaigns and battles, he gave up his kingdom to his son Antiochus, and started back to his youthful home in Mace- donia to spend in quiet his old age. Ptolem}^ Ceraunos was now the husband of wicked Arsinoe, but because he murdered all the children born to her while she was the wife of Lysimachus, she fled from him to the protection of her full-brother, Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, who marrietl her himself, although she was then forty years old and notorious for her crimes. This marriage disgusted Ptolemy's ("ireeis; subjects, who called him ever afterward Philad^jlphus (sister lover) and as such he is known in history. Ceraunos was now master of Thrace, and meeting Seleucus somewhere upon the borders of Macedon, he murdered him, and throwing into prison Demetrius, who had become king after Ca.ssander's death, he seized the throne of Macedon and Greece 280 B. C. The country was deliveretl from the rule of the bloody-minded Ceraunos in a few months by a calamity so great that all the states of Greece were filled with terror. The dreaded Gauls, under a fierce and gallant chief named Brennus, left their homes in the north, and after killing Ceraunos in battle ravaged Macedon, destroying cities and villages, burning and murdering and giving no quarter. At Thermopylae, the allied armies of Greece met the barbarians and bravely opposed them, but over the same mountain path that Xerxes' "immortals" had been guided by a traitor, another traitor guided Brennus and his band, and the Greeks were obliged to retreat defeated. Down to the plain of Crissa the invaders swarmed, the dauntless Phocians hanging upon the rear of their army, and fighting valiantly, but they reached the neighborhood of the Delphic temple and were about to plunder it when a dreadful storm and earthquake ensued. The superstitious Gauls were thrown into a frenzy of fear by this seeming wrath of the gods, and in their panic fell upon each other like maniacs and so many of them were killed that the rest made all haste to crossover to Asia Minor, where they GREECE. 185 founded a kingdom called Gal- latia. Antigonus Gonatus, the talented and brave son of De- metrius, and grandson of Anti- gonus, became king of Greece after the death of Ceraunus, but Pyrrhus, the warrior king of Epirus, of whom I will tell you something hereafter, claimed Macedon and Greece as his own bv right of his relationship to Olympias. He dreamed of vast conquests, like those of Alexan- der, and might perhaps have made them had he not been killed by a tile thrown from a house-top by a woman as he was fighting with his soldiers in the streets of Argos, 272 B. C., leaving Antigonus Gonatus undisputed master of Greece and Macedon. During these years of war all Asia and Egypt had become Greek, and in Greece itself and in Asia Minor Epicurus and Zeno had founded two great schools of philosophy that took the place among thoughtful people of the old poetic worship of the gods, or of the earlier schools founded by Plato and Aristoteles. ''"^'"s "' Alexandria. Antigonus had much trouble with the second Ptolemy, because that king was con- stantly Stirring up Athens and other Greek cities against Macedon. Ptolemy was not a warrior like his father, for he had very weak health, but he kept Egypt free from enemies by setting them upon each other. In every court in the world he had his agents who spared neither pains nor money to carry out their master's idea. His father, Ptolemy I., had won the favor of the Egyptian people by respecting their old laws and religion, and his son followed his example. During the lifetime of Ptolemy I., Alexandria had grown into a magnificent city, and had become to Egypt what Tyre was to Phtenicia and Asia Minor before Alexander's time in its commerce, and what Athens had been to all Hellas in the days of Pericles. He had founded a library which was the center of scholarly lore, ami being himself an author and literary man, he made his court a very attractive place for learned men. Ptolemy Philadelphus carried on the work of his father, and not only built many beautiful buildings in Alexandria, and enlarged the library his father had fountled, but collected a museum and made a botanical garden in which were shown all the plants of Africa. He re-opened, too the old canal of Rameses the Great, iS6 GREECE. founded the port of Arsinoe, now Suez, on the Red Sea, and under him Egypt was restored to the glory and greatness of the old days. Its fertile fields, great commerce and freedom from war made the countrj' prosperous, and the fame of its wealth was not less than that of its art and learning. Philadelphus, in spite of all the weight of the affairs of his empire was as fond of pleasure as any easy-going Greek of his time, and his romances of love and adventure were many. He had one desire that could not be satisfied with all the wealth of his empire. He longed for the elixir of youth which would restore the failing powers of the body and keep men always young, strong and beautiful, and believed that it could be discovered. How much gold he paid to his physicians who experimented and searched after this elixir, will never be known, but he did not find it, and at sixty-three, worn out with the pleasures and labors of his wonderful life he died, leaving his kingdom to his son by his first wife, whom he divorced when he married Arsinoe, and his fame to posterity. The most remarkable of his buildings was the great lighthouse, four hundred feet high, built of white marble, on the island of Pharos, which was long counted one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Rhodes, Pergamum and Antioch were all splendid cities in those days, but none of them had the influence on the world that was wielded by Alexandria. Caravans from the far East, and ships on the Red Sea, brought to Alexandria the carved ivory, porcelain and silks of China, the spices of Ceylon and the gold and jewels of India. Ships, too, on the Mediterranean, carried to Egypt the wealth of Spain, tin from the far-away savage British Isles, and amber from the shores of the Baltic, the copper of Cyprus, the timber from Macedon and oil and works of art from Greece, while in the workshops and factories, paper, linen, glass, and other articles were made to exchange for all these foreign goods. Alexandria had two great principal streets, crossing each other at right angles, and these thoroughfares were adorned with beautiful buildings and colonnades. The other streets ran parallel with these, and in the time of Philadelphus, as in our own day, every known nation was represented among its visitors and residents. Greeks, Jews, Egyptians and Asiatics mingled in ihe busy throng, and its society was the most brilliant in the world. The greatest literary work of the reign of Philadelphus was the translation into Greek of the Hebrew Scriptures, and although that Greek was rude enough when compared to that of the Athenian poets and orators, it preserved to the world a treasure beyond price, for it prepared the way for Christianity. It was in the year 246 B. C, that Ptolemy III., called Euergetes, succeeded his father. In Asia the descendants of Seleucus had made the Syrian kingdom great, comprising by their various conquests nearly every country lying between the Indus River and the Mediterranean Sea. Antigonus Gonatus, now an old man, was king of Macedon and Greece, and was still busied in holding back the barbarians in the North, and keeping peace among the Greek States in the South. Under the 3'oke of Macedon, the Greek cities had still some share of independence and through the long years when Alexander's generals were fighting over his empire the Achaean League, which at first comprised only twelve cities, was in existence. During the forty-five years of war the Greeks had seen how valuable was such a league, and it was formed in such a way that no city had a right to dictate to the others. The poor had little power in the league, and the poor were now many in Greece, but never- theless the Achcean League became popular, and we shall see how it grew. There GREECE. 1S7 was one man, Aratus of Sicyon, who at the time of the accession of Ptolemy Euergetes to the throne of Egypt was the idol of the Achsean League. Macedon found it easier to deal with one man, in its treatment of the Greek cities than with a public assembly, and so encouraged tyrants. Sicyon had been ruled by tyrants for a long time when Aratus was born, ami his father Cleinias in some way offended the reigning tyrant when /\ratus was a young child, and was murdered. Aratus had an uncle who was the husband of the murderer's sister, but it was this good woman who hid the little lad and sent him safely away to Argos to live with some of her wealthy friends in that city. Aratus grew up in Argos a strong, athletic young fellow, renowned as a boxer and gymnast, but having little of the education then so prized in Greece. He was much admired by young men like himself, and his father's murderer having learned what sort of man he had become was a little afraid of him, and sent spies to watch him. Aratus threw them off their guard, and when the tj'rant thought himself secure, Aratus and his friends went secretly to Sicyon by night. The gates were shut but they had provided themselves with scaling ladders, and after waiting until the night watch had passed along the walls, they nimbly climbed up and over into the city, seized it, and burned the tyrant's house, although the tyrant himself escaped. Then they put the city under the Achaean League, and Aratus went over to Egypt to get money from Ptolemy Philadelphus, buying his favor with some fine pictures and statues of which he had plundered Sicj'on. He now made a night raid on Corinth, took it in nearly the same way he had captured Sicyon and placed it, too, under the league. Two kings still ruled in Sparta, which all the time had been more nearly independent of Macedon than the other States of Greece. Like these other States, Sparta had suffered from poverty, which resulted from the long wars, and because so many of its wealthy citizens, like those of other parts of Greece, had settled in Asia and Egypt, and its young men were hired as soldiers in foreign wars. It is said that only seven hundred Spartan citizens of okl Doric blood were left, and they held all the land, while one hundred houses contained all the property in the State. When Agis became king he determined to set matters right, and in the year 243 B. C, he placed before the Ephors his plan to declare all debts void, all land to belong to the State, so that it might be equally divided, the best to be given the four thousand five hundred Spartans, and the rest to the fifteen thousand Perioeki, and the old laws of Lycurgus to be restored. He was so young and full of hope, so enthusiastic and generous that he would not consider the dangers or dfificulties in the way. He was very rich, as were also his mother and grandmother, but he and his relatives and friends gave all their land and property to the State. The other king, Leonidas, was bitterly opposed to the plans of the noble Agis, as were many of the rich Ephors, and he finally caused Agis to be arrested and thrown in jail, as were also his mother and grandmother, who were willing to stand by him to the last. They were all murdered by orders of Leonidas, who exiled the brother of Agis, who of course had now a right to the crown, and remained master of the situation. Aratus, now the idol of the Achaean League, and virtual head of its affairs, was rejoiced at the sad ending of Agis, for he would have been very unwilling indeed to see Sparta regain any of her former greatness, and the old king of Macedon was equally glad, for now he had only one enemy, the League, to deal with. Some time before, Aratus with the League, had joined with Sparta to fight the Aetolian League, a combination of the cities of Elis for the purpose of plunder, but iS8 GREECE; the noble, handsome, young Spartan king won all hearts wherever he went, and so inflamed the jealousy of the prize-fighter of Sicyon that he withdrew his troops and went home, so you see there was personal as well as political jealousy at the root of his dislike for the schemes of Agis. Leonidas now compelled Cleomones, his son, to marry the widow of Agis, for fear she would marry some one who would carry out the idea of that unfortunate monarch, but the best laid plans that man can make, can be destroyed, and Leonidas had placed in the hands of the widow of Agis the very instrument to work the will of her dead husband. She won Cleomones to all his plans, and to deep pity for his unhappy fate, and he only waited for his father's death to carry out the division of property and the restoration of the old laws. Antigonus died in 23c) B. C, and his son Demetrius 11., succeeded him. Ptolemy Euergetes had in the seven years since he had become rul(;r of Egypt, made that country the greatest monarchy in the world, and brought under its sway nearly every country that had been subjected bj' Rameses the Great. His tribute from these countries made him immensely wealthy, and though he soon lost most of his con- quests, for a time it seemed that he would be a second Ale.xander. The Achaean League made him their friend, and he helped them, and the Aetolians in the war they made on Demetrius II. Demetrius fought valiantly against his Greek enemies, and when he saw that his case was desperate he let loose upon the Aetoliansand Achceans, the savage Illyrian Gauls, who not only defeated both leagues, but spread such terror through all western Greece and eastern Italy, that Rome interfered and humbled the barbarians. Demetrius was killed in battle B. C, 229, and as his son was but a babe, the usual struggle for the kingdom began. Ptolemy Euergetes had now reigned seventeen years gloriously in Egypt, and was no longer fond of war and conquest. He let the descendants of Seleucus quarrel with, and murder those who disputed with them the throne of Syria, to their hearts content, and was lukewarm in his support of Sparta against INIacedon, for he aided Sparta in spite of the fact that he was favorable to the Achaean League. Anti- gonus Doson married the widow of Demetrius soon after the death of the former, and was now king, pending the time the baby Philip was growing up, and when Cleomones succeeded to his father's throne of Sparta 227 B, C, he fomid the Macedonian power fully established in the north, and the Achaean League strong in the south. He killed the Ephors at Sparta, carried out his reforms, and then made war upon the league. So many cities revolted that he virtually, for the time, de- stroyed the league. Aratus all this time was playing a double game with Macedon and the league, and finally his craft causetl the defeat of Cleomones, w-ho sailed away to Egypt with a few friends, his wife and children. Had Ptolemy Euergetes lived a few years longer Cleomones might have again reigned over Sparta, but he died about this time, 221 B. C, and his weak and vicious son, his murderer, some historians say, became king and threw Cleomones into prison. Alexandria was in every respect a Greek city and Cleomones and his friends believed that the Alexandrians ought to shake off the tyranny of Ptolemy IV. They broke from duress after awhile and appealed to the Alexandrians to rouse themselves and become free, but they were laughed at for their pains and stood in danger of again being thrown into prison; Cleomones and twelve of his friends committed suicide together and his widow and children were murdered. Thus the last king of Sparta died an exile and a suicide and thereafter the Ephors appointed by Macedon ruled GREECE. i8q under a Boeotian officer as superintendent and a few years later Sparta joined tlie Achccan League. Antigonus Doson died soon after, and Philip V., became king of Macedon, and Greece, 221 B. C., inviting Roman hatred by his offer of help to Han- nibal. This hatred the Romans satisfied by making themselves masters of Mace- don and Greece, 197 B. C., Philip having proven so cruel and unjust that the oppressed people gladly exchanged his rule for that of Rome. It was Philip who poisoned Aratus, 213 B. C, and afterwartl sacked Greek cities, sold their people as slaves and became so formidable to Rome that it dared not undertake a war with him but frightened him into making peace. In the year, 203 B. C., Philip, allied with Antiochus III., of .Syria, attacked Egypt, which now that the king Ptolem.y V., was dead was in the hands of a regency for the young Ptolemy, a child of six, and followed up his victories with such cruelties that he made enemies of Byzantium, the Aetolian League and Bithynia. He besieged Abydos but the whole people committed suicide rather than fall into his hands, and then the Romans sent an army into Thessaly. The Achaeans joined Rome and at Cynoscephalce the Roman legions met the terrible Macedonian phalanx whose long spears did such dreadful work among the Romans that they were all but defeated. At length the Roman elephants and cavalry broke the phalanx and as they did not understand that the raising of a long pike by the Macedonians meant surrender, killed thirteen thousand Macedonians after they had offered to give themselves up. Philip, the author of so many deeds of blood and violence escaped, and was punished only by being deprived of his army, fleet and Greek possessions. Antiochus had proven traitor to Philip, and while he was busied with the Romans, had conquered several of his cities and now allied with the Aetolians was defeated by the Romans at Thermopylae, and compelled to retire to i\sia, where at Magnesia B. C., IQO, Rome subdued him and began a career of conquest and plunder in Asia. Greece was now free, but it was only a freedom to quarrel and plot State against State. Macedon, under King Perseus ijg B. C., became a Roman province. The Achajan League was tyrannical. -Sparta, fearing the two great leagues of the Pelopon- nessus, and being imposed upon by both, asked Rome to interfere 148 B. C. An army thereupon entered Greece, burned Corinth to the ground, took one thousand Achaean chiefs captive, and made Greece a Floman province under the name Achaea. Egypt under the weak and vicious kings that followed Ptolemy IIL, had declined^ and the miseries of the people were great, although the splendor of its large cities still excited the interest of the world. Civil wars distracted the country and destroj-ed its commerce, and Rome was again and again called upon to settle its foreign affair^. The last of the Ptolemaic rulers was the famous Cleopatra, who became queen B. C, 47, by Roman aid, Rome having now for a hundred years dictated in Egyptian affairs. .She married her younger brother, for the example of sister marriage furnished by Philadelphus had been followed by all the Ptolemies, poisoned him, and became queen, reigning for seventeen years under the protection of Julius Cassar, and after- ward so bewitching Mark Antony that he proved false to his honor, his country and all he held most dear. Both committed suicide when Alexandria fell into the hands of the Romans. Of this event more will be said in the history of Rome, but here ends the Greek kingdom of the Ptolemies after having stood nearly three centuries. There were several smaller kingdoms built on the ruins of Alexander's empire. Thrace was ruled by Lysimachus for twenty years, when it was absorbed into the iQO GREECE. Persian kingdom of the Seleucidre. Pergamus became a great city, famous for its art, learning and magnificence, and under the descendants of Eumenes, who was given by Perdiccas, the charge of the portion of Asia Minor in which it was located. It became a rival of Alexandria, having a magnificent library, noble buildings and great riches. It was bequeathed to Rome B. C, 133, by its last king, the wicked Altulus III. Bithynia was an old kingdom that had been conquered by the early Persian kings, and set up an independent ruler after the battle of Arbela, and success- fully withstood all the efforts of Lysimachus and other Greek generals to conquer it. At various times Bithynia is connected with the history of Greece and Macedon, and it was in Bithynia that the valiant Hannibal gave up his life. Paphlagonia has a history very similar to that of Bithynia. Alexander's generals failed to conquer it, and from 200 B. C., to 94 B. C, it was an independent kingdom, Bithynia f nduring twenty years longer and then becoming subject to Rome. Pontus was conquered by Antigonus but became independent of Macedon 318 B. C. The most interesting portion of its history and that of Armenia is inwoven with Rome, and will be I elated in its proper place, all these kingdoms as were Hil- lenized, as results, Alexander's expedition while in Greece, contact with Asia, widened men's mental horizon. Two of the Greek kingdoms founded just after Alex- ander's death, Parthia and Bactria, were not swallowed up by Rome. Bactria was for a time a part of the empire of the Seleucidai, but B. C, 255, it threw off the Syrian yoke, and for nearly a hundred years was independent, then was absorbed in Parthia. Parthia proper was a country of about the same extent as Ireland, ami is now known as the Persian province of Khorassan. It included lofty mountains arid deserts and fertile valleys, although the Parthian empire in its greatest days was one half as large as the old Medo-Persian empire, and comprised all the land between the Euphrates and the Indus, and had many great cities, Arbela, Appolonia, Babylon Borsippa, Susa, Pasargada;, and others equally famous being among them. The Parthians belonged to the Tuaranian branch of the Mongolian race, as do the modern Turks, were treacherous and rude, brave, enterprising, loving war, and like the Medes, and Scythians, famous horsemen. They were the most skillful archers in the world, shooting while at full gallop, and both on the advance and the retreat. For a century and a half Parthia remained under the Seleucida; as it had long been subject to Persia but a certain Arsaces, the chief of a body of Scythians, headed a Parthian revolt, 255 B. C, and became king. Five kings of the name~d Arsaces reigned over Parthia in the next seventy-five years, but the sixth Arsaces or Mith- ridates I., as he is also called, who ascended the throne, 196 B C., was the first Par- thian conqueror. It was he who enlarged the empire, making it include nearly one-half of Western Asia. From his day the Parthians became much like the ancient i'ersians in manners and customs, although influenced somewhat by Greek manners. Arsaces XVII., was king, B. C., 55, when Romans having conquered so much of the Western world and having just subdued Pontus invaded Parthian territory under Crassus and was cut to pieces. Three years later a Parthian army ravaged Asia Minor, destroyed a Roman army in Syria, occupied Sidon and after plundering Jerusalem placed Antigonus on the Jewish throne. For the next two hundred years the Parthians were frequently in contact with Rome, sometimes invading Roman territory in Asia and at others en^^aged in defending their own or regaining what the Romans had wrested from GREECE. iQi them. Arsaces XV. was the last emperor of Parthia. For four hundred years the Parthians had ruled the Persians with an iron hand, cruelly oppressing them and Persian hatred of their dominion had grown with each century. The Parthians being of different race, religion and customs did not mix at all with the Persians and at last a descendant of the Great Cyrus, Artaxerxes, son of Sassan, finally overthrew the Parthians and founded the new Persian empire of Sassinid^e, A. D. 226. Before turning back to Europe we wili pause to briefly outline the history of Judea, which as a part of the Persian empire, was included in Alexander's conquest, and at his death became a bone of contention between the Seleucidfe and the Ptolemys. In the vear 324 B. C, the first of the P^olemys beseiged Jerusalem and storming it upon the Sabbath day, took the city and carried one hundred thousand Jews captive to Egypt. After the battle of Ipsus, Judea became tributary to Egypt, and for nearly a hundred years the country was prosperous, then the fourth Ptolemy attempted to profane the temple, and when he was prevented, perpetrated so many cruelties upon the Alexandrian Jews that the people of Judea sought the protection of Syria, although they scarcely bettered themselves by changing masters, for the Syrian kings were cruel to the Jews. One of these kings sold the office of the High Priest- hood to a certain Jew who had taken the Greek name Menelaus, and this villian plundered the temple to pay the king for the office, and his crimes excited a revolu- tion in Jerusalem. It cannot be wondered that the Jews rejoiced when they heard that this Syrian king had been killed at Alexandria, but they rejoiced too soon, for he was not dead, and hearing of the popular joy, he set out for the holy city with an army, took it by storm, murdered forty thousand Jews in three days, and sold forty thousand more as slaves, profaned the altars and the temple, took everythingof value he could find, and then tried to force the Jews to worship the Greek gods. Those were dreadful days for Judea, aud to escape the cruelties of this wretched king, Antiochus Epiphanes, thousands of the Jews fled from their homes, and in the caves and bleak mountain fastnesses of their native land lifted up their praj^ers to Jehovah, braving death by starvation in the wilderness rather than relinquish their God-given faith. Women and young girls brought up in luxury, thus abandoned all for conscience sake, and old men and young, preferred the desolation of nature to the desolation of wickedness that was filling Jerusalem with such woe. Upon the Sabbath day these heroic people would assemble in some cavern to sacrifice to God, and more than one such little assembly was disturbed by armed men who cut the people down or carried them away to prison and torture. One Matthias with his family and friends left Jerusalem and went to his native village of Modin. Here he was followed by a Syrian officer who offered the king's favor to those who would sacrifice to Zeus. One of the villagers was about to do so when Matthias struck him dead, and with his heroic sons at his side he overturned the heathen altars, then went forth into the wilderness. Loyal Jews gathered about him in the desert, and with the army thus raised he restored the worship of Jehovah in several Jewish cities, but died B. C, 166, before he had delivered Jerusalem. It v/as his son Judas Maccabajus, who drove out the Syrians, restored the temple and then lost his life B. C, 161, in defense of his country. After him his brother Jonathan became High Priest, and under Simon, his brother, who succeeded to the office at his death, Judea became again free and IQ2 GREECE. prosperous. Simon was murdered by his snn-in-law. John Hyrcanus, and the struggle with Syria was renewed. While he was High Priest the Syrian king besieged Jerusalem for two years, destroyed the city's walls and again reduced the Jews to Syrian subjection, but this Syrian king died soon after and John Hyrcanus not only refused to obey his successor, but captured Samaria. He died io6 B. C. Civil war distracted Judea for the next forty years, and these were at last settled by the Roman Pompey, who took Jerusalem, destroyed its walls and fortresses, but spared the temple and its treasures. From this timt-, 63 B. C, Judea, too, is bound up with Rome, and the thread of Jewish history will be found inwoven in that powerful web in which nearly all the known w^orld of that day, sooner or later, became entangled, and the last great act in the tragedy of Israel was played before imperial Titus, and its story belongs elsewhere. V !>/ I / ■»j~Tvi±»fci'' -r^ ^jJj4=BMil^MMMmM^ I EN Uu- I IcHliils ( rossed over from Asia into Europe and settled in the Grecian Peninsula, they found other tribe-,. Aryan, like themselves, iving in the forests and fertile valleys of the country. We do not know when, or from what country these first Aryans came to Southern Europe. Indeed there are those who deny altogether the Asiatic origin of the human race and declare that Europe, not Asia, was the stage upon which man first appeared, while others even affirm that the Poles, now the frozen dreary regions where no men nor animals are supposed to be able to exist, were the places where men first lived on the earth. Of course every one of these theories has many arguments that may be used in their favor, but as they are all mere speculations, I hold to the longest accepted and best tested one, suppose Asia to have been the cradle of the race and trace thence the story of man. The Aryan race entered Europe so long before the Tro- jan war, that even then the memory of their first coming had been lost. Indeed the native inhabitants of Greece were called Pelasgians by the Hellenes because they supposed them to have sprung from the soil as did the flowers and trees, and thought their race as old as the earth itself. We know that when Agamemnon landed, with his allied Greeks, on the shores of the Ilion Plain, civilization in Asia and Egypt was already old, in China many emperors had reigned, and in India dynasties had flourished and decayed, but we do not know the beginning of man in Europe. Unnumbered centuries no doubt passed when no human feet trod the wilderness of Europe, and other ages saw only the cave-man living in a den like the beasts about him, after him the lake dwellers, too, came and went, and then the Aryan made his appearance from the Poles, from Central Europe, from Asia or somewhere, although, for the ends of history it is not really necessary to know whence he came, even if it were possible to find out for a certainty. You will see, if you look upon the map, that the long, boot-shaped 1Q4 ROME. peninsula of Italy is not crossed in every direction by mountain-chains, as Greece is,, but that one range runs like a seam or back-bone, down to its very extremity, being a little nearer to the eastern coast than the western, but yet almost along the middle of the entire country. This mountain-range follovN^s the line of the coast, trending to the westward a little way. then it turns abruptly to the north for about the same diftance, then cast- ward and again southward to the sea, enclosing, north of the boot-shaped strip of land a rough square containing more than half as much territory as the peninsula itself. It was in this mountain-walled country, amid the snows, forests, wild, rugged uplands and rich valleys that the various tribes of Gauls lived, when the Pelasgians found homes further to the south, although that country too was settled by Aryans whom the Pelasgians no doubt conquered. These first conquerors built walls and fortresses that outlasted all the traditions: of their founders, who in their turn passed away before other conquerors. When the Roman story begins, several tribes, some of them off-shoots perhaps of these pre-historic peoples, lived in different parts of the peninsula, most of them constantly at war with their neighbors. The Etruscans or Tuscans of western Italy, who may have been kindred to the Egyptians or some .'^siatic nation, had twelve towns joined in a league at the time of the Trojan war. The Sabines, just south of them, were more like the Greeks, and were certainly Aryan. The Italians, divid-ed into two tribes, Latins and Oscans, dwelt in central Italy, but as there were no mountain barriers separating the various people, they gradually influenced each other in language, religion and government. In southern Italy and Sicily. Hellenic tribes— driven from Greece by the Dorians or roving of their own accord to these more western lands — early founded colonies and built walled towns, and in time called the new country Magna Grajcia, or Great Greece. A legend tells us that a certain .Arcadian prince named Evander, his name means "good man and true," brought a company of colonists from his native land to build a city at the mouth of the Tiber. The old story-tellers were fond of tracing the descent of their heroes from the gods, and they made Evander the son of a god. The Etruscan king, Turnus lost no time in making the acquaintance of the Cireek strangers, and as he too claimed kinship with the gods, he treated Evander with the greatest friendliness, and when he was finally established on the Palatine hill, taught his companions many of the arts that the Etruscans had long known, but of which the Greeks were ignorant. Writing and music are said to have been among these, and perhaps building. For a long time the Arcadians and Etruscans are said to have bet-n friends and neighbors, although what became of the Greek colonists on the Palatine or of the noble Evander, we do not know. You must remember, when you read the legends that story-tellers are not historians, that fact and fancy are very different, and that a legend is often made to account for a custom, the real meaning of which is shrouded in mystery. The legend of the founding of Rome was for so many centuries believed to be true, that I will tell it to you, only calling to your notice the fact that it is a legend, and that the early Romans were a Latin people, who nevi-r thought of claiming Greek descent until they began to admire the Greek civilization and culture. We are told by the old Latin writer-^ who loved to trace Roman ancestry back to the Trojan heroes, that King Priam had, at the time of the siege of Troy, an aged ROME. 195 Etniscim (.inr-rary Urn. relative, Anchises by name, who mod- estly claimed to be a son of Zeus, the king of all the gods. Anchises had a valiant son Aeneas, whose mother was the goddess Venus. Aeneas fought bravely in the long siege of the city, ^\iCj'i and when it at last fell into the hands of the Greeks he fled from the fire _2 and slaughter, bearing upon his shoul- ^~ ders his venerable father, leading his little son Ascanius, and carrying his household gods. Thus with his hands literally full, he began those wander- ings so beautifully related by the Latin poet Virgil, and after many wonderful adventures he landed with his son Ascanius near the moutli of the Tiber, in the country of the Latins. This was not long after the days of Evander, for Turnus was still king of the Etruscans, although the Arcadians may have been driven from the Palatine by their Latin neighbors. At all events the Trojan adventurers became great favorites with the Latin king, who gave Aeneas his beautiful daughter Lavinia in marriage. Turnus had long loved Lavinia, and her father had promised that the Etruscan king should wed the fair Latin princess, and when he saw himself robbed of his bride, Turnus collected a large army, crossed over into the country of the Latins, which was on the right bank of the Tiber, to revenge himself upon Aeneas and the false Latinus, Lavinia's father. There was a battle fought between the Etruscans and Latins, in which both Turnus and Latinus were killed. Aeneas was left in peaceful possession of his bride and her father's kingdom, and founded the city of Lavinium as his capital. We are told that Aeneas ascenced the swift flowing Tiber, whose current was stayed by the gods in order that his frail craft might not be injured, when first he entered Italy, and it seems strange that he did not build his city on one of the hills which afterward were the site of Rome, rather than upon the low, unhealthy coast- land. After awhile Aeneas, some of the story-tellers say, was drowned in the brook Numicus, but others deny that the Trojan hero escaped the dangers of siege and ship-wreck to find his death at last in a petty rivulet, and declare that he fell in battle and died as befitted a warrior. After his father's death Ascanius left Lavinium, and removing some distance inland, built Alba Longa (the Long White City) and was the first of a line of kings that for three hundred years reigned there, but whose names and deeds are unknown to history. At last, so runs the tale, a certain Numitor became king. This Numitor was a gentle, amiable prince, who allowed his ambitious younger brother Amulius to win his people from him, take his throne and turn him out of his palace. Amulius seems to have been as cruel as Numitor was mikl, and was so determined to hold the throne he had unlawfully seized, that he put Numitor's only son to death and shut his daughter, Rhea Silvia, up in a temple to be a vestal virgin or priestess. The young priestess is said to have been so fair that when the god Mars saw her he wedded her, and used to visit her in secret. In course of time Rhea became the ig6 ROME. mother of beautiful twin sons. Why the god did not save the babes and their young mother from the wrath of Amulius is as hard to explain as many other of the alleged acts of the old gods, but he allowed them to be thrown into the muddy Tiber and Rhea Silvia was drowned. The river had overflowed its banks, and the cradle of the twins was caught in some brushwood and weeds in a spot where the water was shallow, and tiicre they lay safe and dry, stranded as was the infant Moses in the bulrushes. When the waters receded no beautiful princess came to the rescue of the sons of Rhea Silvia, but a she wolf carried them to her den and fed them, and a woodpecker daily took them acorns until Faustulus a shepherd, whose hut was already crowded with his own merry brood of a dozen rosy children, found the forlorn babes and took them home to his good wife Laurentia who reared them tenderly as her own, though with a secret reverence for them perhaps, on account of the mystery surrounding them. The shepherds called the twin boys Romulus and Remus, and they grew up to be handsome ami brave young men, leaders in all the simple rustic sports of their companions, just as the young Cyrus of the Persian legend was the hero of the shepherds among whom he was reared. A quarrel between the shepherds of the e.Kiled king Xumitor, who fed his flocks on the .Aventine Hill, and the shepherds of Faustulus, resulted in the appearance of the twins before their grandfather. Of course we must not inquire too closely into the story that Xumitor at once recognized them as the children of his murdcrctl daughter Rhea -Silvia, nor ask how it was possible that he could do so as he. probably had never seen them before, and so many years had gone by since Amulius had exposed them to the rage of the angry Tiber, for the legendary age was the age of miracles. Numitor, with the aid of the friends of his grandsons, put Amulius to death and took back the kingdom, although he was a very old man at the time. The twins would not forsake the friends of their youth to live with their grand- father at .\lba Longa, so he bestowed upon them a strip of land bordering- the Tiber, and gave them permission to build a city. The brothers could not agree upon a site for their capital. Romulus preferred the Palatine hill, while Remus favored the Aventine, and carrying their difference of opinion to Numitor, at his advice they agreed to decide the matter by augury. All ignorant people believe in " signs" and "omens," and even in our own days there are those who tremble at the " bad luck " invoked by the breaking of a looking glass, passing under a ladder, or making the thirteenth at table, but the ancients had a regular system of "lucky" and "unlucky" signs, and supposed that the gods signified their will through them. The Etruscans often watched the flight of birds as an omen, and this was the form of augury, Romulus and Remus agreed upon. After watching a day and a night Rem.us saw on the morning of the second day, six vultures fly over the Aven- tine and joyfully carried his omen to Numitor, but Romulus and his friends came in soon after solemnly declaring that they had seen twelve vultures fly over the Palatine, and thus decided the site of the new city to be upon that hill. The twin brothers were now filled with envy and hatred toward each other, and Remus would have nothing to do with his brother's plans. Romulus sent to Etruria to learn of the Etruscan priests what ceremonies should be performed at the founding of the city, m order that the gods might be pleased, for the founding of a city in those days was a solemn undertaking. It is supposed to have been April 21, B. C, ROME. IQ7 753, when the first ground was broken upon the Palatine hill for the new city, in the presence of the people of the Latin tribes. A great hole was dug on the summit of the hill, and into it the people threw the first fruits of the year, flowers and grain. Upon these offerings each man among the spectators cast a handful of his native soil, brought thither for the purpose, and then the pit was covered with earth and an altar built over it. upon which a fire was kindled. Then Romulus harnessed a snow-white bull and a snow-white heifer to a brazen plow and made a furrow where the walls were to be built, being careful that the earth was cast by the plow in the direction of the altar. Zeus, whom the Romans called Jupiter, thundered from one side of the heavens and sent lightning from the other, in sign of his approval, and Rome afterward mistress of the East and foster-mother of the West, was founded. Celeres had charge of building the walls, and when Remus mocked at the puny barrier and leaped over it, struck him dead with his spade, fiorrified at what he had done, Celeres escaped punishment by flight, but Rome had been baptized in blood — -a dreadful omen for its future. To be sure, learned historians tell us now that Romulus and Remus, Evander. Turnus and the other heroes of these early legends are myths, and that the name " Rome" was not taken from Romulus at all, but from an old Latin word, meaning " boundary," but it is a fact that from about 753 B. C, the building of the city went on, although for a long time but slowly, and Romulus may or may not have been the first king. According to the legend, Romulus declared that Rome was a refuge for criminals and outlaws, whom nobody should dare arrest on Roman soil, and in consequence he soon gathered about him a thousand citizens who built huts, thatched with river- grass, straw or sod. These refugees from surrounding tribes were held in such little esteem by their Latin and .Sabine neighbors, that Rome bade fair to be a community of bachelors, for those who were unmarried, and nearly all of the citizens were, could not secure wives. Romulus was clever enough to conquer this great difticulty which lay in the way of Rome's advancement. He made a great feast in honor of Poseidon whom the Latins called Neptune, and to this he invited the neighboring Sabines, their wives and daughters. The feast was held without the city walls, and as such occasions in Italy as in Greece, were always regarded as sacred, and the people engaging in them laid aside for the time all quarreling and fighting, the Sabines came unarmed to the festival, bring- ing their wives and daughters as requested. Games of strength and skill were usually celebrated at the festivals of the gods, and when the Sabines had become deeply interested in these, at a given signal the young Romans among the spectators rushed among their guests, each seized a Sabine maiden in his arms and carried her into the city, which now had walls and a fortress on the Capitoline hill. The insulted and angry Sabine warriors went home, but soon returned with their weapons, determined to give battle to the audacious Romans, but the latter would not come out of the city and the former could not get in. Having no machines to batter down the walls, the Sabines had little hope of taking the city, and the Ivomans felt perfectly safe in their stronghold. The Sabines carried great bronze shields, and wore glittering rings of metal upon their arms. Tarpeia, the daughter of the commander of the fortress saw the 198 ROME. shining ornaments upon the brawny arms of the besiegers and coveted them. Finall)' she made a bargain with the Sabines, promising to open the gates of the fortress if they would give her "what they wore on their left arms." meaning of course the golden bracelets. The besiegers agreed to her terms and she opened the gates, whereupon th'- Sabines threw not only their golden bracelets but their great shields upon Tarpeia who was crushed to death beneath their weight, thus rewarding the treachery of which they were nevertheless glad to avail themselves. A fierce battle was waged the next day in the valley between the Palatine and Capitoline Hills. The captive Sabine women, who had grown to love their Roman husbands, finally rushed between the two armies and pleaded that the fight might be stopped. It was done, and a great feast was celebrated on the anniversary of the peace for centuries afterward, and for centuries, too, when a Roman maid was married, her bridegroom pretended to carry her by force from her friends, as the Sabine women were, although the Romans were not the only people who practiced a ceremony of this kind, for many savage and half civilized nations either take their brides forcibly or pretend to do so. The Sabines and Romans united under the name of Romanii, the former dwelling on the Capitoline and the latter on the Palatine 1 lill, and meeting to transact State affairs in the valley between the two which came to be known as the Forum. Romulus and Titus Tatius, the Sabine king, reigned together over the people for five years, then the Sabine king was killed in battle and Romulus became sole ruler. Seven and thirty years Romulus lived as king of the Romans, and it was he who established the Senate and laid the foundation of the State, showing himself in war and peace so much wiser and more favored by the gods than men are wont to be, that when he suddenly disapi>carcd it was said and believed that he was carried up to heaven as we are told Elijah was, although it is more than likely that the Senators murdered him and concealed his corpse. Romulus left the people of Rome divided into two great classes, the Patricians, who were Romans, Pltruscans and Sabines, who were considered true citizens, and who had the right to vote, and the I'lebians, who were refugees and the people of con quered towns. Each of the three tribes of Patricians was divideil into ten divisions or curite, and then thirty curia; formed the countra curiata or assembly of the people, and three hundred of the Patricians were chosen for their age and wisdom to form the .Senate. Romulus organized the army into a Legion to which each tribe sent a thousand foot, and a hundretl mounted soldiers, and when he completed all of his great work vanished from the eyes of men. From the very first Rome made conquered people citizens, and it was in following that plan that the State in time became so powerful. PVom the very first too, the wisdom and patriotism of the Senate restricted the power of the king and gave the people liberties that otherwise they would not have enjoyed. After the death of Romulus. Rome was governed a year by the Senate, then the crown was offered to the wise Numa Pompilius, a Sabine who was learned in the laws and religion of the Greeks. Those who know nothing of the duties of royalty may think that it is a very fine thing to be a king, and imagine that sitting upon a golden throne, dressed in rich garments and wearing a crown, or feasting at gorgeous ban- quets, and listening to the flattery of courtiers are the chief engagements of ROME. IQ9 monarchs, but it is a question whether all the splendor with which the mightiest throne of earth is surrounded can repay a good man for the heavy cares and respon- sibilities which he would feel as the head of a nation. Numa was a good man, and one not to be tempted by wealth and what the world calls honor, and he would not consent to leave the peaceful happiness of his home, for the labor of governing a people already restless, warlike and hard to curb, until he saw that by sacrificing his own inclinations for a quiet life he might be able to perform a great work for mankind. He accepted the crown, and in his long and peaceful reign taught the Romans how to worship the gods, with prayers and feasts, did away with human sacrifices and ordained a special class of priests, separating that office from the kingly, for Romulus had been the priest as well as the king of the Romans. It was Numa who built the temple to Janus, the double-faced god who was sup- posed to preside over the beginnings of all things, and whose name has come tlown to us in January, the beginning month of the year. This temple was between the Capitoline and Palatine hills, and we are told that once when an army was advancing against Rome, the god sent a stream of water rushing from the doors of the temple which swept away and drowned the enemy. Ever thereafter in time of war the doors of the temple of Janus stood open that the god might come to the aid of Rome. although we are not told that he ever again did so, and in time of peace they were closed. Through the doors of this temple the Roman armies marched forth to war, and through them they entered the city, and only at rare intervals and for a short time were the gates of the temple closed, for Rome, like other great States was cradled and nourished in war. When the good Numa died at a ripe old age, Tullus Hostilius, a Roman who loved war as Numa had loved peace, was made king. Alba Longa had become jealous of the growing power of Rome, and when Tullus provoked a quarrel with the Albans, they advanced against Rome, dug a trench about the city and prepared to besiege it. Tullus came out with his army and offered battle, but when the two armies faced each other for the fray, the Alban leader made a speech in which he placed before the Albans and Romans the folly of weakening each other by war, so that both would be at the mercy of surrounding tribes. He set forth the fact that the Romans and the Albans were of the same blood, and should be at peace, suggesting that the quarrel now between them should be settled, not by a great battle but by a fight between champions from both armies. The Romans agreed to this, and selected the three brothers Horatii, strong and valiant warriors, to uphold the valor of Rome, while the Albans chose three equally brave and powerful champions, also brothers, the Curatii, to vindicate their cause. In the sight of the two armies the Horatii and Curatii advanced to the combat. At the first onset two of the Horatii fell, and a great shout went up from the Alban lines, when the third turned anil fled as if for his life toward the Rtjman army, that abashed and ashamed looked on what seemed defeat and disgrace. When the Curatii were widely separated in pursuit, the fleeing champion turned, slew them one by one, and stripping from the bodies their robes and taking their shields as trophies, returned to his comrades in triumph. As the victor went back into the city bearing the spoil so bravely won he was met by his sister Horatia who loved one of the Curatii and had herself embroidered 200 ROME. the robe which her brother had stripped from her lover's dead body. When she saw the trophy she shrieked and wept reproaching Horatius with the sorrow he had brought upon her. Enraged by her grief the haughty youth struck her dead with liis dagger saying "So perish any Roman woman who himents a foe," which sounds very heroic indeed, and nearly makes us forget that the "foe" in this case was a blood cousin, life-longfriend and lover and the "Roman woman" was a beautiful and innocent girl giving way to o»th of the iinraMi. a natural e.xpression of sor- row, whose brother had robbed her of her dearest possession, next to life itself, and now robbed her of that. The Senate therefore did right in condemning the mur- derer to death, but the people to whom he appealed refused to allow him to be punished. Soon afterward the Albans were suspected of being traitors and their city was destroyed, the people being given homes in Rome. Tullus was struck by lightning, the old chronicles tell us, and Ancus Marcius, grandson of Numa, was proclaimed king. He was a warrior as well as a statesman, conquering many Latin towns and bringing their people to Rome, making wise laws to add to those of Numa which he caused to be written upon a white board and set up in the Forum where the people might read them. Ancus revived the religious rites which Tullus had neglected, built the gloomy Mamertine prison under the Capitoline Hill, whose dungeons are still objects of interest in Rome, fortified the Janiculum Hill on the left bank of the Tiber and constructed a wooden bridge across the stream. For thirty years he ruled Rome, and when he died the Romans were just beginning to be a commercial people. During the reign of Tullus, Cypselus overthrew the nobles of Corinth and made himself tyrant of the renowned Greek city. Many of these nobles found it neither safe nor pleasant to remain in Corinth under the new order of things and left Greece to settle in the Nourishing Greek cities on the coast of Italy or in Sicily. One such noble, Demartus by name, a rich Corinthian merchant, accompanied by his slaves, relatives and several (ireek artists and sculptors emigrated from Corinth and found a new home in the Etruscan city of Tarquinii where he married, after a while, a noble Etruscan lady. His son Lucomo inherited his great wealth and also married an Etruscan lady, but in spite of the fact that his mother was an Etruscan and he had spent most of his life in Tarquinii, Lucomo was considered a foreigner, and could not hope to gain in Tarquinii any power, so he decided to remove to Rome where foreigners were welcomed and might rise to a high place in the State. His servants and his wealth ROME. 201 formed a considerable caravan which created quite a sens?.tion, no doubt, as Tarquin and his wife Tanaquil leisurely journeyed to Rome followed by a long train of house- hold goods, clients, friends and slaves. Tanaquil, it is said, could read the signs and omens, and these indicated that Luconio was to become great in Rome, thus when he settled himself in an elegant house, his first care was to bring himself to the notice of Ancus. It was not long before he was very popular in Rome, he changed his name to Lucius Tarquinius, and the king was his firm friend, even naming him as his successor in place of his own sons. The story of Tarquin, like other legends of Rome tloes not agree with history. For instance, the legend says that when Ancus died and Tarquin became king, about 611 B. C, that he conquered the Etruscans who sent him a golden crown, a sceptre, an ivory chair, a purple toga, an embroidered tunic and an a.\:e tied with a bundle of rods, and from that day forward, those were signs of power. History is inclined to believe that the Etruscans conquered Rome about this time, and placed the Tarquins on the throne, and that the Romans invented the story they told about Tanaquil, predicting his greatness and his being named by Ancus as his successor, because they disliked to admit that their ancestors had been conquered by the litruscans. Tarquin was a great warrior who brought many captives to the city, compelling them to labor on the public works, for he was a builder too. He drained the Forum and enclosed it with porticos, fortified the hills with stone walls, constructed a great sewer which even now is a wonder, and commenced the famous temple upon the Capitoline hill. These improvements cost a great deal of money, and it may have been to quiet the murmurs of the people that Tarquin amused them with games in the Circus Maximus, which he greatly enlarged, bringing fine horses from his native country to perform in it, and his long reign of forty years was a season of prosperity and pro- gress for Rome. There is a legend that has come down to us of the next king of Rome, which has often been repeated. It tells us that when Tarquin was in the height of his successful career, one of his servants saw a clear, bright flame playing about the head of a child, the son of a slave, who lay asleep upon the portico of the palace. The servant was about to throw water on the flame, when Tanaquil seeing in it an omen, refused to allow the little lad to be disturbed, and told to her husband the singular circum- stance, interpreting the omen that the child was destined to a great future. Tarquin thereafter took the boy, Servius Tullus, under his care, reared him as a royal prince, and gave him his daughter in marriage. When Tarquin died (killed we are told by the sons of Ancus who had nursed their wrath against him all the forty years of his reign) Servius became king, and although he may have been the son of a slave, he was as truly royal as any prince of the blood. He had always a sympathy with the Plebeians, and cared little that the proud Patricians relished his laws for the relief of the down-trodden Plebs as little, as they enjoyed being ruled by a man sprung from the common people. Servius had the first census of the people taken, and when he found that there were eighty-three thousand, all told, upon the seven hills, he made a new division of the tribes, that gave the Plebeians more power. He also divided the Plebs, outside the city into tribes, and had a careful list written of property. He made a law which provided that any Plebeian who possessed a hundred thousand Ases, about fifteen hundred dollars, might be enrolled anion"- the Patri- 202 ROiME. Soldier in Marching Order. cians and have a vote. The As was the Roman one cent, and we tret our word ace. which as you probably know is the single spot on playing cards, from the old Roman word, while the common expression " he came within an ace of doing this or that," dates back to that old law of Servius TuUus. Thus you see that a word may outlast a nation, and that language is a more lasting monument than mighty towers, palaces and temples. Servius alst) caused laws to be made which regulated the kind of arms and armor the different classes who served in the Legion, should wear. When all his reforms were finished, there was a solemn ceremony, the first of many such, celebrated on the Campus Martius, the plain above the city where all the warlike exercises of the Romans were held. The different classes, all armed according to the new law and carrying their several stantlards, passed in review before the king. They were then all purified by water, and while the priests burned a pig. an ox and a sheep on a great altar, throwing spices into the flame, the trumpets were blown, wine was poured on the ground as an offering to the gods, and all the people lifted up their prayers for the happiness and glory of Rome, and such a "lustrum," as it was called was performed every five years for many centuries. By his wisdom and services to his country Servius gained the love of his people and even the patricians were reconciled, but he had an enemy in his own household who at last showed him no mercy. It is said that Servius had two daughters \^-ho married the two sons of Tarquin. but here there must be some mistake, for if Servius was the son-in-law of Tarquin, his daughters would therefore have married their uncles which the early Romans would hardly have done. Perhaps the legend is mistaken in saying that Servius married Tarquin's daughter. .-\t any rate it is said that one daughter Tullia was ambitious and cruel, while her husbanil was gentle and virtuous, and the other daughter was amiable and good and married to the Tarquin who was as ambitious as was Tullia. After killing her husband and her sister, Tullia married Lucius Tarquinius, her brother-in-law, and began to urge him to depose her father. Heart-broken on account of these domestic tragedies, poor Servius would have given the government over to the people to save them from the tyranny of the wicked pair who aspired to the throne, but Lucius Tarquin was determined to seize upon the royal power. He appeared before the Senate and in a bitter speech he called the king "a slave and son of a slave," declared that Ser\iuswas on the point of handing the city over to the Plebs, and when he had finished, seated liimself upon the throne. News was carried to Servius of his son-in-law's action, and lie hurried to the Senate chamber. Lucius met him on the steps and grasping him about the waist hurled him upon the stone pavement. Bruised and bleeding the gray-haired king was painfully making his way homeward, when some of the followers of Lucius set upon him, killed him and left his body lying where it fell. Tullia hearing of what had happened came out in her chariot to congratulate her husband upon his success, but was sternly ordered home by Tarquin who seems to have been somewhat less brutal than his fierce wife. Returning by another ROME 20^, J'v^; Ituniim Dwrlling. street her charioteer saw the dead body of the king lying in the way. Horror stricken at the sight he checked the horses, but the cruel Tullia snatched the reins from his hands and drove over the corpse of her father, his blood spattering her robe. The Senate extolled the awful deed as patriotism, but her name has been e.xecrated to all time and the street that witnessed the death of Servius was called ever afterwartl "the wicked street." Thus Lucius Tarquinius, called Tarquin, the Proud, :^/ was made king, 534 B. C, and, continuing the legend, he was a haughty monarch indeed. Like his father, a great builder, he was so exacting with the laborers upon the public works that they often committed suicide to escape his wrath. He iiot only plundered conquered people to add to the splendors of the capital, but took to himself what suited his royal pleasure from among his subjects. It was while Tarquin was king that a prophetess or sibyl from the old Greek city of Cumea in Magna Gra-cia, came to him and offered him, for a certain sum of money, nine books in which she declared that the destinies of Rome and the world were written. Tarquin would not buy them, for the sibyl refused to let him examine them, so she took her precious books away, burned three, and coming again to the king asked the same sum for the remaining six. Again Tarquin refused, and again the sibyl took the books away and returning with the remaining three still asked the same sum. Fearing to refuse what might after all be of great value, Tarquin bought them and they were pl-aced in a vault under the Capitoline hill. In time of danger these books were solemnly opened and consulted by the priests, who read, or pre- tended they did, advice therein about the course the Senate and people should follow. Of course there was no way of finding out whether there was anything really written in the mysterious volumes, for nobody but the priests were allowed to look at them, and the cleverest witch that ever lived could not have foreseen the dangers to which the Roman State was to be exposed nor give sound advice as to the best means of averting them. Tarquin hated the Plebeians and took away from them all the privileges Servius had bestowed upon them, on which account they no doubt returned his hatred with interest. He caused all his relatives, who might give him ti^ouble about the murder of Servius to be put to death, sparing only his nephew, Lucius Junius Brutus, who seemed so dull and stupid that ho was hardly worth killing. Brutus had, in fact, pretended to be an idiot because he feared to fall a victim to the king's cruelty. Once when Tarquin offered a sacrifice upon the royal altar, a snake crawled out from under the floor of the palace and ate th( flesh that had been dedicated to the god. The guilty-minded king of course thought this an omen, and sent his two sons to Delphi with rich gifts to find out what it meant. Brutus asked to go also, and in his assumed character of an idiot, took a wooden cane to give to the priestess. The cane was however hollow, and filled with gold, and the oracle thus richly bribed secretly told Brutus the meaning of the reply she gave to Tarquin's sons. She told them that Tarquin the. Proud would lose his 704 ^OUE. kincrd.nn and the one of the questioners who should first kiss his mother should rule afte^r him This seemed to bar out Brutus, whose mother Tullia had murdered, and the three hastened back to Rome. When they entered the city Brutus pretended to fall, and secretly kissing the earth, the common mother of all, bided the fulfillment of the oracle, which was near at hand. The Roman army was encamped at Ardea when the three sons of Tarquin and their cousin. Collalinus, fell into a dispute concerning their respective wives, each man claiming that his spouse was the fairest, most sensible and virtuous of her sex. To decide the matter they made an unexpected call upon the matrons who were the subjects of the controversy, accompanied by several of their friends. The three princesses were found dressed in their best, their locks twined with garlands, feasting with gay companions, but Lucretia. the wife of Collalinus, was sit- ting with her maid-servant's spinning. Sextus, one of the sons of Tarquin was much impressed with the beauty and modesty of his cousin's wife and at the same time jealous of her fame as the most sensible of the matrons whose qualities were subjects of dispute. He soon found an excuse for going to CoUatia, where Lucretia lived, and because he was her husband's relative, Lucretia treated him as an ht)nored guest. In the still midnight when all the household was asleep, the vile Sextus stole from his apartment to that of his hostess, and did her a deadly wrong, threatening her with disgrace if she betrayed him. Then he went back to the camp at .\rdea. In an agony of shame Lucretia sent for her father, Lucretius, and her husband, Brutus and Volumnius accompanied CoUatinur, and his father-in-law to Collatia. all wondering what the urgent summons might mean. Dressed in deep mourning and almost frantic with grief Lucretia appeared before them, related what had happened and plunging a dagger into her heart fell dead at her husband's feet. Brutus was filled with horror at the sight of the tragedy antl the despair of CoUatinus. Drawing the bloody dagger from the victim's breast he held it aloft, and calling upon the gods to witness his vow, he swore a solemn oath to revenge the innocent Lucretia and to follow Tarquin, Tuliia and all their race with fire and sword. He swore also that tyranny should end in Rome and called down destruction upon any who should dare assume the title and the power of king. The bloody dagger was passed from hand to hand and the oath repeated. The f(uu- friends thus bound in solemn compact then lifted Lucretia's body, and bearing it to the Forum of Collatia laid it all bloody and ghastly where the people might see. Brutus told those who gathered to look upon the pitiful sight the story of Lucretia's wrongs. He reminded them of the cruel death of good and gentle .Servius, and denounced the blood-thirsty Tarquins to the wrath of heaven. Headed by Brutus the people of Collatia marched to Rome, and a vast multitude gathered in the Forum to learn what the excitement portended. To these listening thousands Brutus retold the tale of the dead matron with such eloquence and pathos that they were moved to the wildest excitement. When he ended by repeating his vow and calling for vengeance upon the Tarquins, a shout of approval greeted the demand. The citizens then assembled upon the Campus Martins and decreed that henceforth forever no king should rule in Rome, and declared it lawful to slay any person who proclaimed himself king, or who took upon himself royal authority. Sextus fled to a city that he had sometime before treacherously given over to the Romans, having entered it pretending to desert his country, and asking protection from his father's wrath. The people rose up and killed the false wretch, and would ROME. 205 have been equally glad to thus dispose of Tullia, Tarquin and their whole brood, but they had sought safety in Etruria. Brutus and Collatinus were made Consuls and the Republic began its career that day on the Campus Martins when kings were done away, but there were those among the patricians who were dissatisfied when the Senate, which had been reduced greatly under Tarquin, was restored to its original size of three hundred. They were even more discontented when the laws .Servius made were again put in force and secretly plotted to bring Tarquin back. The plot was made in a certain house whose owner was suspectetl of treason and constantly watched by secret spies. One such spy overheard the plan and caused the plotters to be brought before the Consuls in the Comitium. To the surprise and sorrow of Brutus, his two beloved sons were among the conspirators. The stern patriot con- Bnitus Conrleiiins Tlis Sons to Death. demned them to death with the others and they were executed before his eyes. Tarquin next induced the Etruscans to give him an army. Valerius had become Consul by the resignation of Collatinus, and he and Brutus led the Romans against the advancing foe. Tarquin met them at Arsia, and in the battle that. followed the Romans gained the victory although they lost Brutus who fell by the hand of Tar- quin's son, and was mourned a whole year by the Roman matrons. Another great Etruscan army, led by king Porsena, came against Rome, took the Janiculum Hill, and, driving the dismayed and defeated Romans across the wooden bridge built by Ancus Marcius, would have forced their way into the city had it not been for brave Horatius Codes. This valiant warrior with a stout soldier on either side of him, kept the Etrus- cans at bay while the Romans with frantic haste hewed and hacked at the supports of the bridge. When it tottered and was about to fall, his two companions rushetl across, but Horatius still fronted the enemy, beating them back until a crashing of 2o6 ■ ROME. timbers and the shouts of joy from the Romans assured him that the bridge was down, then, with a prayer to the rolHng Tiber to bear liim safely, all armored as he was, Horatius sprang into the stream. The arrows of the foe fell about him in showers but he swam steadily forward and reached the shore in safety. The Romans never forgot daring Horatius, and to this day the school boys of every civilized land love to relate the tale of "TIow well Ilonitius kept tlie bridge ] n the brave days of old." Porsena laid siege to the city, and moved by the distress of the citizens Mucins Scaevola determined to find some way of getting into the Etruscan camp and killing Porsena. Fortune favored him and he succeeded in penetrating to the very presence of the king, as he supposed, and stabbed him. Fearing some such fate Porsena had dressed his treasurer in his royal robes, and Mucins had slain him. The young Roman was seized and brought before Porsena. The king demanded the names of those who had helped Mucins to enter the Etruscan camp. Mucins refused to give them, and when the king threatened him with torture to make him confess. Mucins thrust his right arm into an altar fire that was burning near by and held it there until it was a burned and blackened stump. Porsena was amazed at the Roman's firmness and gave him his liberty. When Mucins afterward told him that three hundred Roman youths as brave as himself had sworn to accomplish his death, Porsena hastened to make peace with Rome. It was the custom in those days when a peace was made between two powers, to give as pledges some of the noblest citizens of each nation into the keeping of the other. These pledges were called hostages, and among those given by the Romans was Cloelia, a noble and beautiful maiden. Ckrlia escaped from the Etruscan camp one wild and stormy nfght, swam the Tiber and reached her home, but the Romans sent her back the next day. Porsena was filled with admiration for the courage of the maid, and gave her liberty, so runs the pretty legend. There are many stories of this Etruscan war that are full of romance, but the story the Romans loved best to hear was that of the battle of Lake Regillus. Tarquin secured the aid of a league of thirty Latin cities to restore him to the throne, and the Romans appointed for the first time a dictator, or general, who for a certain time had supreme power, and could do anything he thought best for the .State. The Romans met the allied army of the foe at Lake Regillus and offered battle. Most ancient battles began with single combats, and then the fighting became o-eneral. At Lake Regillus, Tarquin and the dictator fought a round, then the Latin dictator and Roman master of horse exchanged blows, and finally the two armies encountered. The Romans were almost discouraged when two tali and l)(!autiful strangers, mounted on snow white horses and clad in shining armor, were seen fight- in